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Category: iWorld

  • Amazon Prime expands reach, available to Voda subs

    NEW DELHI: With the battle for space among telecom service providers reaching a high pitch, Vodafone India has become the first telecom operator to partner with Amazon Prime Video India enabling customers to seamlessly access their large selection of latest and exclusive Bollywood, Hollywood and regional movies, US TV shows, kids’ programming and global Amazon Originals.

    Vodafone consumers can enjoy Amazon Prime with a special consumer offer on its data strong Vodafone SuperNetTM 4G network from 22 March 2017. After subscribing to Amazon Prime via MyVodafone App or Vodafone Website for an annual introductory subscription price of only Rs 499, Vodafone customers will get Rs 250 cashback as their Amazon Pay Balance. Currently, the offer is available only for Vodafone customers using Android devices.

    Vodafone India director – commercial Sandeep Kataria said, “The entertainment consumption patterns of customers are rapidly changing. They want more freedom and flexibility in the way they consume content. This partnership with Amazon Prime Video does just that, further strengthening our content proposition and reiterating our commitment to offering the best to our customers along with unique privileges. It makes available a wide range of latest, high-quality movies and TV shows to our millions of customers, giving them exclusive access to a diverse selection of entertainment and rich content with an unparalleled streaming experience on the data strong Vodafone SuperNetTM 4G network”.

    Amazon Prime Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani said, “At Amazon Prime Video, our focus is on offering latest and exclusive movies and TV shows to customers on a reliable service, with great playback quality and low data usage. This offer further extends our promise of delivering convenient, on-demand access to our large content selection to our customers.”

    Amazon Prime already offers unlimited free One-day and Two-day delivery to over 100 cities on eligible items from India’s largest selection of products, 30 minutes early access for members on top deals and more benefits for an unparalleled shopping experience.

  • UN panel: Time for a ‘new deal’ if b’band is to reach everyone

    NEW DELHI: The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development has committed to concrete actions that will spur the roll out of broadband around the world as around five billion people are without mobile broadband access, meaning that the paths to access digital services and applications are currently blocked for much of the world’s population – holding back progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

    In its 2017 Spring Meeting in Hong Kong, SAR China yesterday, participants at the Commission discussed the need to come up with a new deal between all players, with renewed commitment to work towards concrete actions that will effectively connect the unconnected with broadband – especially to support Least Developed Countries. In particular, emphasis was placed on remote and rural areas which represent the biggest challenge and where barriers to access need to be also viewed through the prism of affordability and content, notably local and multi-lingual content.

    Broadband Commission Co-Chair, President Paul Kagame underlined that “ICT and broadband are linking everyone and everything for the betterment of economies and societies. We are motivated by wanting to have the global community connected, especially the billions of unconnected. We will succeed when we work together: government, industry and civil society leaders.”

    International Telecommunications Union Secretary General Houlin Zhao, who is co-Vice Chair of the Broadband Commission, added, “Our central conviction is that broadband and ICTs are critical if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. ICTs underpin vital achievements and modern services in many sectors, and governments and industry must increasingly work together to create the conditions so badly needed to facilitate the growth of broadband for sustainable development.”

    The 2030 Agenda provided the context for discussion. UNESCO DG Irina Bokova, co-Vice Chair of the Broadband Commission, noted, “The framework for all our work is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 new Sustainable Development Goals. We must ensure the digital revolution is a revolution for human rights, in order to promote technological breakthroughs as development breakthroughs.”

    The importance of scaling efforts on digital education and mobile learning was a matter which received full support and agreement. In advance of UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week, many Commissioners singled education out as one of the most fundamental areas for action where the Commission can fuel effective change.

    A recurrent issue under discussion was the need to strike a workable balance between investment and taxation, for the benefit of all members of society – to promote human development and sustainable growth, while spurring innovation. On top of this are issues associated with the cost of spectrum auctions, often in key markets where the digital divide is most prevalent.

    The Commission underlined the need to build an ecosystem with government, including all ministries, and private sector working together, for more efficient investment and taxation, to empower all. In this respect, it was recommended to work more closely with Ministries of Finance to better promote the development potential of broadband.

    In the run-up to the day-long meeting of the Commission there was a series of four Working Group meetings focused on a range of broadband-related issues, notably: education, outer space technologies, a new pilot initiative to index the pace of digitalisation at national level, and the digital gender divide.

    In addition, a number of broadband commission partners – the United Nations University and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and Harvard University – joined forces to launch a new data research group into the digital gender divide.

    Comprising leaders from government, industry, international organizations and academia, the Broadband Commission was established in 2010 as a top-level advocacy body promoting broadband as an accelerator of global development. The Commission is chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helú. In September 2015 it was re-named the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development with the specific purpose of working to help achieve, through the power of broadband connectivity, the Sustainable Development Goals.

    The Commission’s Spring Meeting 2017 was hosted by Huawei Technologies which also included a visit to Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen on 17 March 2017.

  • Need to examine legalising sports betting, says Law Commission chairman

    NEW DELHI: Gaming 360, All India Gaming Federation’s one-stop portal for gaming related news and activities across India and around the globe, was launched here today to bringing the industry together and providing it with a platform where the stakeholders can make their voices heard.

    This was stated by AIGF CEO Roland Landers at the India Gaming Conclave here. He said, “We appreciate the presence of such dignitaries at the inaugural event and are hopeful that in the coming years it will witness more such powerful presence to help us make a difference.”

    Landers said India Gaming Conclave would now be an annual event for the stakeholders to converge and discuss on working towards a legalized and regulated gaming industry in India. The event aimed at educating and creating awareness on all aspects of gaming.

    Law Commission of India chairman Justice Dr. Balbir Singh Chauhan underlined the need to examine legalising sports betting by studying the social, economic and moral implications of any such move specifically under a liberalised regime. The myths and negative opinions on these issues have to be cleared, he emphasised.

    Delivering the keynote address at the Conclave (IGC) organized by FICCI jointly with All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), Justice Chauhan said individual freedom was the basic right “which we all look up to but the vulnerable sections of the society need protection at the same time”. While those in favour of legalising betting believe in the need to protect individual autonomy and minimum state interference, those disfavouring it believe that preserving societal order and morality was also important. Therefore, there was a need for reforms that aim at flexibility while ensuring freedom of choice for the consumers. Hence, there was a need to strike a balance between freedom and choice.

    He said that any attempt at legalising gambling and betting has to be made in the backdrop of this socio-economic reality. There was a grave risk that legalising this activity might adversely affect the social fabric of India. There were chances that people in a bid to earn quick money through gambling might resort to unlawful means. A comprehensive analysis of the socio-economic circumstances in light of the constitutional guidelines was thereby essential before framing an umbrella legislation that legalises gambling.

    There were certainly several adverse effects of gambling. The first problem with gambling was when a person becomes addicted and loses control over his/her gambling activities, resulting in financial losses that have an adverse impact on his/her personal, economic and social life. The second problem relates to the social repercussions that are a direct consequence of gambling. One fallout could be increased crime, loan sharking (taking loans at exorbitant rates for gambling), worsening of the living standards of the poor and lower middle class and changes in behavioural norms and social ethics.

    Justice Chauhan said that it must be kept in mind that these adverse effects arise not from gambling per se, but are a result of excessive gambling which results in addiction. Harm resulting from excess is not something which is limited to gambling alone, as an excess of anything may negate its benefits. A common analogy would be alcohol, which when taken in moderation causes no great harm to the individual or society and may help people to socialise and relax. However, if a person develops a habit or addiction to drunkenness, it will cause health problems for him, as well as adverse consequences for the society at large, such as increased crime, violence. The response of the state in such a situation should be to regulate the activity, not seek to stop it completely. Legalisation would give the government the opportunity to bring gambling out from the dark corners of the society, impose some controls and extract some revenue. Perhaps as importantly, if betting were legal then a huge chunk of money that, at the moment circulates only round the black market, would quickly become available.

    FICCI Director Rahul Chakravarty said sport and gaming were one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy with a lot of money flowing in the sector. Gambling regulation was not new to India with lotteries already being regulated business under state control.

    FICCI launched the debate on regulating online sports betting and lottery in India in 2012. This regulation was not just to restrict the illegal activities but could create a scope of revenue for the government to invest in social sectors apart from sports.

    He said that FICCI and AIGF will take forward the feedback on safety and security pertaining to gaming as well as other relevant issues. He added FICCI believes that this conclave will not only help in exchanging ideas and information but will initiate further policy work.

  • Bharat Net first phase nears completion, provides b’band to village admin

    NEW DELHI: E-commerce services, including e governance, education and even reaching television services to far flung areas will get a fillip with the completion of the first phase of Bharat Net and BSNL’s target of providing 100,000 gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines by the end of this month.

    Bharat Net is supposed to provide broadband in urban areas but has extended its work to reach out to rural India as well. The project is a Centre-State collaborative project, with the States contributing free rights of way for establishing the OFC.

    Congratulating the Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) founder and chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said: “As creators of digital villages, we assure the government that we stand by the government’s vision of Digital India and are committed to helping connectivity reach rural and remote locations through initiatives such as BharatNet through indigenously developed and manufactured, sustainable wireless access technology.”

    BharatNet is a project to establish a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis to provide on demand affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, in partnership with States and the private sector.

    The entire project is being funded by Universal Sservice Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country. The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.

    The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 grampanchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media. It is to be completed by December 2018. For success in phase-2, which will also involve laying of OFC over electricity poles, the participation of States will be important. This is a new element of the BharatNet strategy as the mode of connectivity by aerial OFC has several advantages, including lower cost, speedier implementation, easy maintenance and utilization of existing power line infrastructure. The last mile connectivity to citizens was proposed to be provided creating Wi-Fi hotspots in grampanchayats or village administration.

    In the third phase from 2018 to 2023, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fibre between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created.

    Earlier in September last year, the government completed roll out of a telecom network in areas worst affected by left-wing extremism across 10 States in record time as part of a major initiative to boost development in areas dominated by Left-wing extremists.

    Working with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) , Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) set up the lion’s share of the world’s largest solar-powered green mobile network in Left-wing extremist affected regions using indigenously designed and manufactured technology in a record time of less than 18 months and is now operating and managing it for a period of five years.

    Around 100 districts across 10 states—Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh—are considered to be Left-wing extremists-infested areas where school buildings, roads, railways, bridges, health infrastructure and communication facilities in these areas are disrupted or sought to be disrupted.

  • ‘American Playboy’ to launch globally on Amazon Prime on 7 April

    MUMBAI: The Amazon Original series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories on 7 April.

    The series tells the story of Playboy magazine’s charismatic founder, Hugh Hefner, who set out to disrupt the status quo and created one of the most recognizable brands in history. The docuseries combines archival footage, pulling from thousands of hours from Hefner’s personal archives; interviews with notable figures including Jesse Jackson, Gene Simmons and Bill Maher; and cinematic reenactments.

    Amazon Prime Video members will be able to stream all 10 episodes of the docuseries and can also download the series to mobile devices for offline viewing.

    “At a time when civil rights are more in the news than ever, Prime members will be delighted to learn more about the Playboy brand and its contributions in that area,” said Amazon Originals head of unscripted Conrad Riggs. “This series will offer the unprecedented, behind-the-scenes story of Hefner’s life and his fight to protect and advance essential American rights, including free speech.”

    American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story is produced by the Emmy award-winning Stephen David Entertainment, a Banijay Group company, and Playboy Enterprises’ production company Alta Loma Entertainment, and executive produced by Stephen David, Peter Jaysen and longtime Playboy executive Dick Rosenzweig with co-executive producers Shirley Escott and Tim Kelly.

    It begins in post-war America and takes us through the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953 and the next six decades of Hefner’s life and career. As he built his empire, Hefner became both a social justice advocate and a target of the conservative movement while becoming an outspoken defender of civil rights, freedom of speech, gay rights and, of course, sexual freedom.

    The series is the result of unprecedented access to thousands of hours of never-before-seen footage from both Hefner’s and the Playboy archives and Hefner’s personal scrapbooks, which number more than 2,900 and constitute a Guinness World Record. The 90-year-old Hefner has been deeply involved in the development and production of American Playboy, imbuing the series with rich first-person accounts and never-before-told stories.

  • YuppTV Originals’ initial focus on regional content, to start feature film production

    MUMBAI: YuppTV has forayed into original content production. YuppTV Originals is set to bring forth unconventional story telling in collaboration with the top talent from the movie industry. This new content will be available in episodic format for the digital audience, exclusively on YuppTV’splatform.

    YuppTV founder and CEO Uday Reddy along with YuppTV’s Brand Ambassador Mahesh Babu has launched YuppTV Originals.

    Reddy said, “With YuppTVOriginals, we aim to disrupt the content space, following the needs of our evolving audience, and our vision of providing high-quality engaging content. Besides, YuppTV Originals will empower the content creators by providing direct access to the audience and thereby streamlining distribution. I’d further extend heartiest welcome to our associates from the film fraternity, ensuring optimum growth for the content ecosystem.”

    YuppTV Original’s initial focus is on regional content in episodic format, while also making endeavors for feature film production. To produce their first few series, it has associated with prominent production houses such as I-candy creation, Early Morning Tales – a division of Vijayanthi Movies, TrendLoud –digital arm of Vision Times, Madhura Entertainment and Tamada Media.

    Babu added, “I am confident that ‘YuppTVOriginals’ will have a wide reach, and recommend artists and visionaries from the industry to make use of this opportunity to showcase their creative pursuits and connect instantly with the internet audience.”

    Tollywood director Deva Katta said, “Originals provide immense creative freedom for the evolving talent in the industry. As YuppTV provides a direct reach to the audience it will also help us pool in fresh talent and bring their creativity to the spotlight. Myself, my partner Krishna Vijay and our company iCandy Creations is delighted to be part of Originals and look forward to a prolonged partnership in producing engaging new-age content.”

    YuppTV Originals’ first mini-series, Endukila, presented by Katta’ iCandy Creations, written and directed by Laxman Karya will be launched during Ugadi, followed by another exciting series produced by Swapna Dutt’s Early Morning Tales and director supervision by Nandini Reddy.

    Catering to global audience, YuppTV is overcoming the language barrier by including subtitles and will be dubbed in other languages.

  • Amazon’s Amit Agarwal promoted as SVP in parent company

    MUMBAI: Amazon.com has promoted its India country head Amit Agarwal to the level of senior vice-president. Agarwal, who will continue to remain the India head for now, was the vice president at Amazon earlier. The company confirmed the news in an emailed statement.

    “This indicates how excited Amazon is about the progress the company is making in India, and the opportunity Amazon sees ahead,” it added.

    Amazon CEO and president Jeff Bezos recently included Agarwal in a senior leadership team that reports directly to him.

    Amazon entered India in June 2013, years after Flipkart (2007) and Snapdeal (2010) started. It has made more than $3 billion investments in the country and has $2 billion in its plan.

    Competition is further heating up as the Chinese e-tailer Alibaba gears up for a stronger play in India through Paytm.

  • Netflix originals may get mobile-specific cuts

    MUMBAI: Video streaming service Netflix plans to explore streaming mobile-specific cuts of its original movies and TV shows. With this plan, the platform’s chief product officer Neil Hunt wants to satisfy the growing audience of mobile Netflix watchers.

    “It’s not inconceivable that you could take a master [version] and make a different cut for mobile. To date, Netflix hasn’t been delivering different cuts for different viewing platforms, but it’s something we will explore over the next few years,” said Hunt.

    With small screens getting even smaller, the idea is to create versions that offer alternate shots, scenes and framing in order to make the most of the device the content is being streamed on.

    Hunt made the remarks as part of a two-day event at Dolby Laboratories and Netflix’s own headquarters, as the two companies gear up for the launch of Iron Fist, which launches this weekend.

    Netflix is now available globally, with the exception of a few markets, including China, and since then it has seen mobile usage soar. In established markets like the US and Canada, most Netflix watching still happens on TVs. Hunt added that Netflix’s expansion to over 190 countries across the globe now means that mobile screens are the majority consumption device.

  • Microsoft enables video calling on Android with Office 365 in 19 languages

    MUMBAI: Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced the general availability of Microsoft Teams, the company’s new chat-based workspace in Office 365. The new tool for team collaboration is now available to Office 365 business customers in 181 markets and 19 languages.

    Customers worldwide are choosing Microsoft Teams to enable collaboration within their organizations. Since announcing the preview in November, more than 50,000 organizations have started using Microsoft Teams, including Alaska Airlines, ConocoPhillips, Deloitte, Expedia, J.B. Hunt, J. Walter Thompson, Hendrick Motorsports, Sage, Trek Bicycle and Three UK.

    “In a world where information is abundant and human time and attention remain scarce, we aspire to help people and groups of people be more productive, wherever they are,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Office 365 is the broadest platform and universal toolkit for creation, collaboration and communication. Today we are adding a new tool to Office 365 with Microsoft Teams, a chat-based workspace designed to empower the art of teams.”

    Office 365 is designed to meet the unique workstyle of every group with purpose-built, integrated applications: Outlook for enterprise-grade email; SharePoint for intelligent content management; Yammer for networking across the organization; Skype for Business as the backbone for enterprise voice and video; and now, Microsoft Teams.

    According to Trek Bicycle vice president of global customer service Laurie Koch, “Microsoft Teams is already streamlining the company’s work by providing assets and tasks in context: “Across Trek’s global teams, the integrated collection of Office 365 apps serves up a common toolset to collaboratively drive the business forward. We see Microsoft Teams as the project hub of Office 365 where everybody knows where to find the latest documents, notes and tasks, all in line with team conversations for complete context. Teams is quickly becoming a key part of Trek’s get-things-done-fast culture.”

    Microsoft has introduced more than 100 new features to Teams since November, including: an enhanced meeting experience, with scheduling capabilities; mobile audio calling, with video calling on Android now and coming soon to iOS and Windows Phone; email integration; and new security and compliance capabilities. The company has also delivered new features to make Microsoft Teams accessible, such as support for screen readers, high contrast and keyboard-only navigation. Guest access capabilities and deeper integration with Outlook, and a richer developer platform are targeted for June of this year.

    Microsoft Teams brings together people, conversations and content, along with the tools that teams need. It’s integrated with familiar Office applications and is built from the ground up on Office 365 and Microsoft’s global, secured cloud. Microsoft Teams is built on four core promises:

    · Chat for today’s teams. Microsoft Teams provides a modern conversations experience, with threaded, persistent chat to keep everyone engaged. Team conversations can be either private or visible to the entire team, and users can access multiple teams, making it easy to switch between projects.

    · A hub for teamwork. The Office applications and services that teams use every day — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote and PowerBI— are all built-in, so people have the information and tools they need.

    ·Customization for every team. Microsoft Teams offers the ability to customize work spaces with tabs, connectors and bots from third-party partners as well as familiar Microsoft tools like Microsoft Planner and Visual Studio Team Services. Today, more than 150 integrations are available or coming soon, with companies like SAP, Trello, Hipmunk, Growbot and ModuleQ building on the platform.

    · Security teams trust. Microsoft Teams is built on the hyper-scale, enterprise-grade Office 365 cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities our customers expect. Teams supports global standards including SOC 1, SOC 2, EU Model Clauses, ISO27001 and HIPAA.

  • Sky & Cisco launch OnPrime TV, offers south Asian channels too

    MUMBAI: Consumers in the UK, Italy and Germany can now access popular foreign language film, television and news channels in one place via OnPrime TV, a new innovative app-based streaming service developed by Cisco in collaboration with Sky, and supported by Encompass Digital Media.

    Powered by the Cisco Infinite Video Platform, OnPrime TV offers viewers access to high-quality foreign-language linear content. The service includes Sky South Asian, Sky Arabic and Sky Russian channel packs, downlinked and encoded by Encompass.

    The OnPrime TV app can be downloaded via the app store on Apple TV4, or by searching for OnPrime TV on Apple TV3. All channel packs offer a 30-day free trial, and range in price from £8.99 to £17.99 a month. Cisco plans to expand the service to more devices and additional European countries during 2017.

    “OnPrime TV fills the gap in the market for high-quality foreign entertainment available to non- European expatriate communities living in Europe,” said Cisco vice president – strategy and product management, SP applications and platforms Rajeev Raman.

    “Sky has worked closely with Cisco for years, and we’re pleased to be partnering with them on this innovative new service,” said Sky group director – business development and strategic partnerships Emma Lloyd. “Cisco’s technological expertise and Encompass’ long-standing history of delivering reliable broadcast solutions, combined with Sky’s strong track record on curating content and streaming to millions of customers, has created an exciting new service.”

    OnPrime TV Channel Packs include:

    Sky Russian pack: THT, Bestseller, Moolt, Planeta HD, 1+1 International, CTC International, Domashniy, Peretz, TV1000 Russian Kino. In the UK and Italy, the pack also includes Channel One Russia, Carousel, Vremya, Dom Kino, Muzika Pervogo.

    Sky Arabic pack: Rotana Aflam, Rotana Cinema, LBC, Rotana Clip, Rotana Mousica, Rotana Classic, Rotana Khalijia.

    Sky South Asian pack: Sony Entertainment TV Asia, Sony Max, Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Punjabi, B4U
    In Germany and Italy, pack also includes Star Plus, Star Life Ok, and Star Gold. Star TV pack is also available separately in UK with Star Plus, Star Life Ok, Star Gold.

    Cisco is building the simplified, automated and virtualised network platform of the future based on industry-leading software, systems, silicon and services. This enables service providers, media and web companies worldwide to reduce costs, speed time-to-market, secure their networks and sustain profitable growth.