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Showing posts from July, 2014

What 'one Windows' really means

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What 'one Windows' really means (and doesn't) Summary:  Is Microsoft building a single version of Windows that will run on phones, tablets, PCs and gaming consoles? Nope. Here's a refresher as to what really is happening. Microsoft execs have struggled to explain for the past year or more where the company is going with Windows. Thanks to a passing comment by CEO Satya Nadella during the July 22  Microsoft's Q4 fiscal 2014 earnings call , the struggle is continuing. "We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes," Nadella told press and analysts listening to the call. Wow! One Windows OS running on phone, tablet, PC and gaming console?  Not exactly. Later in the call, Nadella attempted to clarify his remarks, but not in time to stop the breathless headlines. Here's what "one Windows" really means: 1. A single team dev

A Farewell for Orkut

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A Farewell for Orkut S ervice Summary:  One of the first social networks around, Orkut was most loved by Indians & Brazilians by statistics. Now, Google is pulling the plug on it. A kind of nut? An obscure race of extra terrestrials in one of the forgettable, recent Star Wars movies. An Eastern European small car!  Depending on where you are in the world, these may well be your guesses to the meaning of the word that suddenly proliferated news channels a few days ago, especially in India. Orkut, as you may know, is none of the above but the name of one of the world's first online social networks of significance. The reason it made headlines is because of its decision to shut shop. Or rather, a decision made by its parent, which happens to be one of the world's biggest internet companies. Google has decided to do a 'Kevorkian' on its child which admittedly has been on life support for many years now.  The company plans to pull the plug on it on Septembe

India's Chargebee takes the sting out of billing hassles...

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India's Chargebee takes the sting out of billing hassles for a competiting service Summary:  Chargebee is yet another company whose origins can be traced to indignant comments on a Hacker news post about a subscription rate hike — in this case, at billing infrastructure leader Chargify — which inspired the founders to jump-start a competing service. Name:  Chargebee Cloud Segment:  SaaS Type of App:  Billing and Subscription Management Founders/Management:  KP Saravan, S Rajaraman S and T Thiyagarajan T, S Krishnamoorthy Co-founded by former employees of Zoho, one of India’s first stars in the CRM and cloud space, Chargebee’s business model seems to have arrived at the right time in a world where almost everything seems to require a subscription, from online television to digital newspapers and magazines. Yet for companies who dole out these subscriptions, managing things like billing can be a distracting affair, especially if you cater to a fast-growing, di

Intel pushes industry to go wireless computing

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Intel pushes industry to cut the cables Summary:  WiFi is wonderful, but somehow we are still stuck with lots of cables. Now Intel and others are working to eliminate the rest and deliver true wireless computing. Intel didn’t invent WiFi — 802.11b was approved four years before Centrino came along. But the wireless platform did much to bring about a world in which we can walk into a coffee shop or hotel and expect free wireless broadband. What it did not do, however, is get rid of all the cables. Now the industry is setting its sights on the remaining ones. Two technologies, in particular, are poised to make this happen. The first, WiGig, can be used not only to stream video to TVs and monitors, but also to connect computing devices to wireless access points, docking stations and other peripherals. The second, wireless charging, could finally eliminate the need to carry a power cable everywhere. Like WiFi, these aren’t new technologies. Dell has been offering a Latitude la