Chandrashekhar Poddar

Thanks to a particularly busy year, Google has now shot up to the top of the list of the 9th “Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands” published by BrandZ, pushing Apple to second place. Unlike standard top lists that just take into account a company’s financials, the BrandZ list considers a brand’s value to its customers, its contribution to its parent company’s value and financial performance. Not surprisingly, the Top 100 list is primarily comprised of tech and consumer brands. The Top 100 list is lead by Google with a brand value of almost $160 billion (40% jump from last year) followed by Apple with a brand value of almost $150 billion (drop of 20%). The top five companies also include IBM ($108 billion, 4% drop), Microsoft ($90 billion, 29% jump) and fast food giant, McDonald’s ($86 billion, 5% drop). Facebook and Yahoo have been included in the list of the brands that had the sharpest rise in value with the former seeing ...

It has been almost two years since Bharti Airtel launched 4G services in India. Launch of the fourth- generation of mobile telecommunications had come at a time when 3G was still in its nascent stage. While 3G coverage has grown significantly, 4G seems far from becoming mainstream. Though Airtel has rolled out 4G in some more circles, other telecom operators such as Aircel, Videocon Telecom and Reliance Jio are likely to launch their 4G services around year-end or starting next year. Deployment of 4G network in India is certainly not going to be easy as the telecom operators face the challenge to launch a new network along with improving the existing 2G and 3G networks in the country. Multiple frequencies One of the major challenges is the usage of multiple frequencies for rolling out LTE. While co-existence of all radios/spectrum is always possible, it also means that the mobile phone makers need to add support for more radios, which may lead to more costs...

Launching a Privacy Policy Built the Wiki Way Our Privacy Policy is changing on 6 June 2014. To learn more, click here. We are happy to announce that on April 25, 2014, the Wikimedia Foundation’s  Board of Trustees  approved a  new privacy policy . The new privacy policy explains how we collect, use and manage the information of over twenty million registered users and  490 million monthly unique visitors  to the  Wikimedia projects . But the policy wouldn’t have been possible without support from users like you. The new privacy policy is the result of a community consultation  spanning over eight months. A need for a change Early 2013, we recognized that  our privacy policy , which hadn’t been updated since 2008, did not address a number of new technologies or provide enough detail to our users about how their information was being handled. But the Wikimedia way is unique — we knew that we could not develop a privacy policy w...

We were present at Motorola's launch event, where we had the opportunity to get our hands on the Moto E. Before we publish a detailed review, here's a quick look at the new Motorola Moto E: Source You can buy online Flipkart Riding high on the success of Moto G, Motorola today launched its new Android smartphone in India – Moto E. Priced at Rs. 6,999, the new Motorola smartphone is expected to have a big impact on the budget smartphone segment in India, especially the under 10k segment. We were present at Motorola's launch event, where we had the opportunity to get our hands on the  Moto E . Before we publish a detailed review, here's a quick look at the new Motorola Moto E: The rubberized back is reminiscent of the Moto G, looks similar, feels similar and is as classy as the Moto G with a tiny Motorola logo. Notice the absence of flash, you don't get an LED flash next to the 5MP snapper. The device is well proportioned for a 4.3-inch screen,...

TRAI today released its subscriber data for all telecom categories. As per TRAI’s report, total 117.01 million customers as of Mar-14 has availed mobile number portability. Among all states, Karnataka has received highest 13.37 million requests followed by Rajasthan’s 11.79 million MNP requests. In the month of March-14 alone 2.60 million porting request has been received. Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 114.41 million subscribers at the end of February, 2014 to 117.01 million at the end of March, 2014. In the month of March, 2014 alone 2.60 million requests have been made for MNP.

Lenovo isn't the only company  with Chromebook news  today. Intel and a slew of hardware manufacturers announced a lineup of new Chrome devices today at an event in San Francisco — including devices that will feature more powerful hardware than we've seen thus far in most mainstream Chromebooks. Later this summer, both Dell and Acer will be launching Chromebooks that run on Intel's Core i3 processor — Dell will bring out a new version of its Chromebook 11 including the i3 "later this year," and Acer's C720 will be available "early in the back-to-school season" for $349.99. Unfortunately, there's no word on how much the Dell will cost, but as it was probably  the best all-around Chromebook we've seen , we'll be looking forward to seeing if the new processor measurably improves the experience. There's little doubt that the i3 will offer a faster experience, but battery life will, as always, be a key concern. Beyond the Cor...