Flipkart’s digitial store called Flyte when launched looked like a hopeful breakthrough in India digital market. It was being touted as the piracy killer. Today Flipkart sent out emails to users that it will be shutting down Flyte. The Flyte store will be closing down on June 17.
If you are using Flipkart’s Flyte then there are two important dates to remember. First is June 17. That is the day the Flyte store will stop allows users from purchasing MP3s and books.
The next important date is August 18 when users will not even be able to download MP3s from their digital library.
I caught some tweets lamenting Flipkart’s Flyte being a victim of India’s penchant for piracy. But there are actually deeper reasons than the anecdotal idea, that India is not a market that is ready to buy their music legally. The reasons are probably a lot more old fashioned and the name of that reason is ‘competition’.
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What killed Flipkart’s Flyte?
India is not really against buying music online. India is a country where people spend a lot of money on caller tunes. This is a form of buying digital music too. So why are people not lining up to make purchases on Flyte?
It is difficult to pin the exact answer as I am not privy to the inside workings of Flipkart. But selling music is not just about creating an online store. It is about working out deals with music companies and offering them lucrative revenues.
In India, the music industry is not exactly independent from the movie industry. This is because much of the mainstream popular music in India is from movies. In a way it means anyone selling music in India has to have tie-ups with the big movie producers and studio too.
This is where Flipkart simply might not have had the leverage that Google or Apple might have. It also might not have the deep pockets to stay invested in an immature digital market of India.
It is sad to see the demise of Flyte but it is probably not a case of pirates killing the pirate killer but the case of competition from bigger companies.
Special thanks to Varun Krish who tweeted about Flyte store closing down.
What are your thoughts on Flipkart’s Flyte store? Do drop in your comments.
Websites like TrueCaller easily allow people to lookup the name of the person to whom a phone number belongs to. It behaves mainly like a global directory. Truecaller itself has some useful apps too on Android and iPhone. The android app actually displays the name of person if the phone number that you are receiving a call from is not saved in your contacts.
But what if you do not want Truecaller to list your phone number? In the interest of privacy, Truecaller has an option to unlist your phone number.
Enter the right captcha and your phone number becomes unlisted.
I was surprised that it did not send a confirmation code or something on the phone but then it makes sense. If it does not ask permission before listing them, they do not need to unlist them either.
Though unlisting your number is useful for privacy, TrueCaller can be very useful to get notified of numbers which give you those spammy marketing calls which you wished, you had not answered.
Today, Twitter has rolled out an update that allows users to add a phone number to the account. The idea is simple. Every time a users signs-in there is added code that is asked. That code is sent to users via a text message.
So even if someone manages to guess a password, they would not be able to get the verification code from the users phone.
How to activate Twitter’s two-step authentication feature
Visit your Twitter profile on the browser and sign-in. Now on the right-hand corner you will see a gear shaped symbol.
Hover over it and it shows you the options to look up settings. Under Settings >> Account users can see a new option to titled Account Security.
We can add a phone number and also select the option to turn-on two step verification.
Here is a nice video demo by Twitter to help their users out
With this step Twitter joins Google and Dropbox in offering two-step verification for better security.
Yahoo has just capped off a very significant day for themselves. Firstly they have announced the acquisition of the blogging platform Tumblr. In the second announcement, Flickr has now rolled out 1 Terabyte free storage for all users. This is a big deal for Yahoo which has recently struggled to keep its users and more importantly find new users.
The Tumblr Acquisition
Yahoo has bought Tumblr for a estimated $1.1 Billion. That is a lot more money than say Facebook shelled out for Instagram. So what does Yahoo gain from Tumblr?
Tumblr has 300 million unique visitors on it and has over 900 posts published every second.
The Yahoo+ Tumblr deal will grow traffic by 20% and its audience will go up by 50%. This increases the advertising opportunities.
Mobile seems to be a focus for Yahoo with Tumblr’s acquisition.
Yahoo’s CEO in her own Tumblr blog announced that Tumblr will be treated as an independent entity and their CEO David Karp will remain. More importantly in her own words she assuaged the feelings of Tumblr’s community with the quote “We promise not to screw it up”.
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Flickr gets 1 TB free space
Flickr is still very popular and its not surprising Yahoo chose to make big announcements with it.
Flickr users get 1 TB storage space free. That means if you upload 6.5 Megapixel photo on Flickr, you can upload half a million of them and for free.
The big storage size means Flickr now remain relevant as a storage option especially with the rise of backup options from Google and Apple.
Pro Flickr account users will continue to get unlimited storage space and have stats show up for visits on their photos. But new users cannot signup for Pro accounts. That basically means Flickr Pro is more or less going away in time.
Flickr might have rebooted with huge storage space but it will be interesting to see how it manages to complete with the likes of say Google+ which offers to store photos from a phone directly to the cloud. This helps freeing up space on the phone without worrying about losing any photos.
What are your views on Yahoo’s big announcements today? Do drop in your comments.
WordPress users around the world will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first WordPress edition by organizing several meet-ups across the world. The anniversary falls on May 27, 2013.
The meetups will take place on 27th May in many cities. If you are interested in meeting up with local WordPress enthusiasts then look up this list of meetups being planned.
If you find none in your city, you can even plan create your own meetup for your city or town.
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Why are meetups important?
Meetups are very important for WordPress communities. Especially in India, where a lot of WordCamps have started to take place but very few small WordPress meetups are happenings. Being an open-source project no company is going to put a lot of resources in marketing events to get local developers and bloggers together Hence such meetups organized from ground up are very important.
I will be attending the meetup in Mumbai and hopefully will meet some fascinating people from the WordPress community in the city.
LG’s Nexus 4 has been awaited for a long time to come. It finally showed up a couple of days ago on Flipkart for pre-order but the launch was not officially confirmed. LG has confirmed declaring the phone is being launched in India at the price tag of Rs. 25,999. The phone will be available at select retail stores of LG and multi-brand retailers. It is already available for pre-order with online vendors.
The phone will ship with 4.7 inch screen, 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Processor, the resolution supported is 1280 X 786 pixel. The runs on stock Android 4.2.2. The phone will ship with a 8MP camera with the front-facing camera being 1.3MP HD.
So should you buy a Nexus 4 phone?
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Firstly, the phone gives its users the pure Android experience. This means the manufacturer does not put their own software on it. That is one of the biggest selling points of a Nexus phone.
Secondly, the phone is priced very reasonably. Most high-end smartphones are priced over Rs. 30,000. The Samsung Galaxys S4 (though much more powerful than Nexus 4) is priced at Rs. 41,500. So the price tag of Rs. 25,999 seems attractive.
Finally, your phone will get the latest Android updates available straight away. You will not be dependent on the manufacturer getting the updates through to your phone. For instance if tomorrow Android 4.3 is released, it will be available for your phone immediately.
The one issue I find with Nexus 4 is its glass back cover protecting the battery. This tends to make it fragile. The best way to avoid it is to buy a cover for your phone.
Google I/O 2013 started with a 3-hour long keynote address. Though many had expected a new Android version, a new Nexus device, new Google X phone to be announced, Google did none of that. Instead they announced an upgrade to a host of their services and products.
Here is a quick round-up of all the updates announced based on different products.
Android
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The numbers for Android continue to be impressive. It has 900 million Android activations and over 48 Billion app installations. Though no new Android version was announced there were plenty of new updates for Android.
Along with Google Maps API v 2.0 for Android a new Location API was announced. The new Location API allowed features like Geofencing on maps.
Google Cloud Messaging allows developers to send messages to Android app users. New update includes upstream messaging which allows messaging from users right up to developer’s server.
Google Cloud Messaging will also enable synchronizing of notifications. This means if you remove a notification from one Android device, it will be removed your other Android device too.
A new range of APIs were announced under Google Play game services. These will allow users who play games to play a particular level on one device and then continue with the next level from another device.
It will support cross-platform gaming experience which includes the web.
Android Studio: Android Studio was a new IDE for developers. The IDE supports previews for various sized screens. This should encourage better designed tablet apps.
App Translation Service will allow developers to translate their apps into different languages. Google will send strings that need to be translated to approved vendor.
Google Play Music is a new service on Android devices that launched. The service streams music based on monthly subscription fee of $9.99 in the US.
Samsung Galaxy S4 (running Vanilla Android)
Google will be selling a Galaxy S4 on their Google Play store. The phone will ship with LTE support and 16GB memory. It will run the default Android version and latest Android updates will be made available with no delays. The phone will be bootloader unlocked.
The disappointing part was probably the high price tag of $649. The phone will be available on June 26.
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Google+
Google might be slow in pushing new features on Google+ over the past year but they more than made up for it during this Google IO. They announced 41 new features specifically for Google+.
Google+ News Stream gets a new design. The design is two or three columned and allows looking through the feeds more or less like how we see it on the Google+ mobile apps.
Google+ is pushing more interactivity by displaying related hashtags.
Google+ Photos will have features like Auto Awesome that combines photos automatically to create new ones.
Multiple images can be used to create animated GIFs automatically.
Google’s unified messaging service: Hangouts
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There was speculation that Google will be released a new unified messaging service. The name of the new service is Hangouts. This will replace Google Talk.
The service syncs your chats on text, voice and video across platforms. New Hangouts service is available as Chrome extension and as apps on Android and iOS.
Search app on Chrome will allow voice based searching which will be activated by voice. This means users will not even need to touch the microphone logo on the interface.
Google Now will support reminders being set by users.
Google Now will also supporting something called hot-word detection. It will allow voice based multiple search queries to be be answered with results but remaining in context.
Google Maps
Google Maps will get updated over the next month or so. The new updates will be on Android and iPhone apps.
A new app for iPad might be released soon.
Google Maps desktop (web) version will get new features that will display images from Google Earth, Street view from one place.
The new Google Maps version will be tailored to the individual users using the same data Google Now uses.
Google Maps literally brought about eye-candy in the form of 3D environments that will compete with Apple Map’s vector based layouts.
Though there was no big announcement, Google IO showcased a host of improvements. In all fairness they did probably make a big announcement in Android Studio which should really improve app development process for tablets. Google might have also not released a new version of Android just to make sure that Android ecosystem was not fragmented too much. Currently only 25% of Android phones are on Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 & 4.2).
What are your views on Google’s announcements? Do drop in your comments.
WordPress will be turning 10 years old on 27th May, 2013. Also, our parent company rtCamp’s BuddyPress Media plugin has also crossed 50,000 downloads recently.
To celebrate these events, rtCamp is running a contest where you can write a review of our BuddyPress Media plugin and can qualify for a prize worth US $500.
How to participate?
Review BuddyPress Media and/or its addons in a blog post. Bouquets as well as brickbats are welcomed – just let it be an honest review.
Post a link of the blog post in the comments section here.
We will announce the prize winners on 28th May in celebration of WordPress turning 10 years old.
The winners will be selected on the criteria of originality, correctness, presentation and influence (more details)
Prizes
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Grand Prize
$500 worth of rtCamp store credit
1st Runner-up
$250 worth of rtCamp store credit
2nd Runner-up
$100 worth of rtCamp store credit
3 x Special prizes
$50 worth of rtCamp store credit each
The credit can be used on the rtCamp Store. The credit is transferable and winners can pass them on to friends, readers and users.
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As I mentioned earlier, the contest is run by our parent company rtCamp. So for further resources and help do visit the contest blog post as reference before you write the review.
If you like old video games from way back in the 80s or even 70s, then you might have heard of Atari’s ‘Breakout’. Today, to celebrate its 37th anniversary, Google put a Easter egg on its Google Image search results for “Atari Breakout”.
The results for “Atari Breakout” on Google Image search starts a full fledged version of the “Atari Breakout” on your browser itself.
Atari Breakout’s Interesting History
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If you have read Steve Jobs Biography, you might recollect that back in 1975 Steve Jobs was hired by Al Acorn to create a prototype of Breakout. The payment promised was for $750 but a bonus of $100 for every chip fewer than 50. Steve Jobs got in Steve Wozniak who at that time worked with HP. Steve Wozniak did produce a prototype with lesser chips used and legend has it that he was not passed on any of the bonus by Steve Jobs.
Atari did not find it feasible to use their manufacturing units to use Steve Wozniack’s prototype but they are rumored to have used his design for the actual game play.
Gmail seems to be facing downtime in India, Middle-East and South-East Asia.The service seems to be down though only for some users. I tried accessing my Gmail account but it gave me a “Error 502” message. Google has confirmed that there is a partial outage or rather a service disruption.
Initially Google apps status report did not show any disruption or outage. But it shows a service disruption update that confirms the service disruption is sporadic. In some cases a refresh of the page should work on getting Gmail up and running for users.
The latest update claims the service disruption is resolved. Though I picked up some reports on Twitter that the chat feature on Gmail seemed to not be up and running.
Picking up on a bit of Twitter chatter, there seems to be an on and off issue with Gmail’s service over the past couple of days in India. Though this might not impact the casual user but as this also affects Google Apps users who use it for work, it might cause a few inconvenient Monday mornings.
