Pc Quest May 2015

GB

8.5ayer DVD
Dual L

Free

Motorola
Moto Turbo
Smartphone

A Powerful Processor
With a Brilliant Screen

Xiaomi Mi
Pad Tablet

Low on cost but high
on performance

Lenovo
Yoga 3 Pro
Hybrid Laptop

A lightweight and
premium quality
convertible

`150

www.pcquest.com

Remote Desktop
Sharing with Chrome

UNDERSTAND • CHOOSE • IMPLEMENT IT

MAY 2015

Recover Data from
Encryped Hard Disk
with Ubuntu

Internet of
Things:
If your disks are missing, please ask your newsagent or email: [email protected]

The Road Ahead

Key industries that are
bullish on IoT and why,
ISVs that live on IoT,
5 innovative IoT
startups, latest trends
on IoT adoption by
businesses, and more...

t:
CoAsnhatmpeoossnaopo8l

Win capturing t
screen ensed copy of
and lic Win worth
KeY see pg 58
`44,000.details
for

Hot Trends:
The Pros and Cons of Net Neutrality
How Online-only Mobile Brands are
Redefining Retail
5 Big Data Costs You Can’t Afford to Ignore
Subscribe to PCQuest and get antivirus worth `1,800 free. For details, go to pg. 74

Developer Corner:

How to Reduce Vulnerabilities in Android Apps

Shootouts

12 Portable Bluetooth Speakers
10 Budget Smartphones under `10,000
92 pages including cover

Contents
36 COVER STORY

Internet of Things:
The Road Ahead

Moving beyond the initial euphoria, iot has steadily
progressed to impact our lives in several meaningful ways.
Going forward we expect both businesses and individuals to
make steady returns on their investments
38 5 Key industries that are Bullish on iot
42 How ‘iotfy’ Plans to Build an ecosystem for internet of things Device Makers
44 innovative iot start-Ups
46 2015: the year of Cloud & iot
48 internet of things Gains Momemtum Among Businesses
50 How iot is Going to impact our Lives
52 How indian Government can secure the smart Cities of the Future

TECh anD TREnDS
12 Formulating the Right
Enterprise Mobility Strategy
16 Mobility Empowered Services
Driving Businesses
18 The Pros and Cons of
net neutrality
20 net neutrality: Empowering
Entrepreneurs in a
Diversified World
22 Shield your network
from hackers
24 5 Big Data Costs you Simply
Can’t afford to Ignore
4

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

SPECIaL FEaTURE
26 Interesting Trends for Online
Shopping Exciting times ahead
for shoppers!

DEVELOPER
54 Who owns your android
application?

28 Giants like amazon and
alibaba are fueling the
Growth of e-Commerce
sector in India
31 how Online-only Mobile
Brands are Redefining Retail

SMB CORnER
34 Internet Penetration in India is
at a Tipping Point

hanDS On
56 5 Best Camera apps for
android Devices
57 Recovering Data from an
Encrypted hard Disk on
Ubuntu 14.04

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015
ExTRaEDGE

Fedora 22:

87 PCQuest Best IT Implementation awards of the Year 2014

• Workstation Beta
• Cloud Beta
• server Beta

3.79 GB

DVD hIGhLIGhTS

20 Essentials tools for new PCs

5 MULtiMeDiA PLAYers: • VLC Media Player
• K-Lite
• iTunes • Free Video Converter
• Freemake YouTube Downloader
4 oFFiCe tooLs: • Adobe Reader
• Apache OpenOffice • LibreOffice • Office
Compatibility Pack
7 sYsteM tUninG tooLs: • CCleaner
• Comodo Internet Security, • Hotspot Shield
• Avast Free Antivirus • AVG Free Edition,
• AdwCleaner • Panda Free
4 iMAGe eDitinG soFtWAres: • FastStone
Image • Blender • IrfanView • The Gimp

89 C-Change awards 2015

6 FREE FULL GaMES
1. Korea swat Mission,
2. Combat Machines
3. robo racing,
4. Monster’s Wheels,
5. superCow,
6. Helicopter Wars

Contest: e
r
Win softW4a,000
Worth `4

LInUx CORnER:
VIDEO TUTORIaL: Introduction to Linux and
Basic Linux Commands for Beginners
LInUx DISTRO: IPFire 2.17 Linux appliance

ShOOTOUT
62 Best Budget Smartphones
66 Buying Guide
68 12 Portable Speakers

REVIEWS
77 CapSa network Monitor

81 JBL GO | LG nP 1540W |
Gizmobaba Magic Box

SUBSCRIBE nOW!

82 Canon Maxify MB5370 |
Epson L1300 | WD Red naS
hard Drive
83 Groovez BThS800 |
antec aMP pulse |
WD My Passport Wireless
1 TB hard Drive

GaDGETS CORnER
78 Moto Turbo
79 honor 4x | Oppo mirror 3 |
hTC Desire 820S
80 xiaomi Mi Pad |
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro |
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Turn to page 74
MAY 2015

PCQuest

5

MESSAgEBOARD

reADer MAiL & troUBLesHootinG ADViCe

APRIL 2015

available in the market are: Dell 3543 Inspiron, HP Pavilion 15-P 206 TX and Asus TP300LD-C4048H. These
laptops have 1 TB storage, 2 GB graphic cards and 5th
generation Intel processors. You can easily perform multitasking as well as gaming on these machines.
— Rohit Arora, CyberMedia Labs

tHe Best BUDGet sMArtPHone UnDer 12K

KnoWinG YoUr HeADPHones Better
What is the difference between open and a sealed
headphone?
— Rohit Kumar
Simply speaking, sealed headphones are noise isolating headphones and will immune you to the outside
environment. This means that they tend to keep the
sound between the headphones and the listener and
thus are better suited for private listening. Open headphones on the other hand allow outside sound to be
heard by the headphone wearer. The downside to open
headphones is that they leak sound. This makes them
poor solutions for traveling.
— Anuj Sharma, CyberMedia Labs
I want to buy a laptop and my budget is upto Rs
50,000. Please suggest some good options.
— Vivek R
Your budget is quite substantial to get a good deal. For
this amount, you can get a machine with good storage,
decent CPU and a graphics card. The decent options

Write to the Editor
Print: Editor PCQuest
B-35, Sector 32, Gurgaon
Haryana-122001
Email: [email protected]
Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.

6

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

I am quite confused between the budget smartphones available in the market. I am looking to buy
a smartphone for around Rs 12,000 with a good
camera, display and decent battery life. Should I go
for Moto G 2nd generation or the recently launched
Mi4i? And how is the response of Honor 4X?
— Devinder Singh
We have tested Moto G second generation, Honor 4X
and have also tried Mi4i. If photography is your biggest
need, then don’t go for Moto G as its camera performance is bad, but software performance is good. Honor 4X
has a vibrant screen and its camera is better than Moto G
but when compared to Mi4i, both of them fade away. Mi4i
has the best camera under Rs 15,000. Also, its screen is
very sharp and camera is really good. We would recommend Xiaomi Mi4i.
— Rohit Arora, CyberMedia Labs

tHe Best HD iPs Monitor
I need to know the best HD IPS monitor, that works at
120Hz/min and should be compatible enough with an
NVIDIA 680 graphics card. I want to play HD games
on it and also use it for PhotoShop artwork, so both
color accuracy and speed are equally important. I
have a budget of about 20k.
— Ramesh N
Gaming is one area where having high performance
equipment matters and when it comes to PC gaming it
may not be enough to buy the first generic monitor you
find. You need a display that looks sharp, keeps you
competitive, and has the features you need to make
the most of your games. In the given price range, some
options that are available include the ASUS VG248QE
(24 inches) and AOC i2757fh (27 inches). Both monitors

DVD Queries:
[email protected]
PCQuest Forums:
forums.pcquest.com
Website:
www.pcquest.com

Follow Us on Twitter
www.twitter.com/pcquest

Like us on Facebook
http://facebook.com/pcquest

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MESSAgEBOARD

reADer

MAiL

&

troUBLesHootinG

ADViCe

have a full HD resolution and support wide screen, allowing you to make more out of games.
— Anuj Sharma, CyberMedia Labs

sensitiVitY oF PortABLe sPeAKers
What effect does sensitivity play when buying a portable speaker?
— Ronny S
It is used to determine the amount of power required
to drive a speaker. Quite simply, more the sensitivity the
better the output. However nearly all budget portable
speakers are centered around 80dB and produced good
sound signature.
— Anuj Sharma, CyberMedia Labs

tHe Best BUDGet netBooK
Please suggest some budget netbooks or convertible
laptops around Rs 15,000?
— Shivang Aggarwal
We have tested three 2-in-1s in our labs. NotionInk
Cain, Swipe Ultimate Tab and iBall Slide WQ 149. All
three are priced under 20K and offer somewhat similar performance. However, with extra features such as
bigger battery, voice calling and good overall construction, iBall Slide WQ 149 is a better option. There are two
products recently launched: one is Asus Ebook and the
other is Micromax Canvas Laptab. Both are priced at Rs
15K. You can also check these two.
— Rohit Arora, CyberMedia Labs

WorKinG WitH A neW sMArPtHone
I have recently purchased Redmi 2 from Flipkart.
However, I am not able to find the option by which I
can make the capacitive buttons light up. Moreover, I
am not able to move a collection of photos to a different folder in gallery. Please suggest.
— Deepak Rathi
Redmi 2 works on MIUI 6.0, and unlike Mi4, Xiaomi
has not provided the option to light up the capacitive
buttons on Redmi 2. And if you want to move a collection
of pictures, you need to do that from file storage as this
option is not available in Gallery. We hope a software
update from the company will address these issues.
— Rohit Arora, CyberMedia Labs

I have Google Chrome set as my default browser.
Now the problem is that when I don’t touch my
computer for about 10+ minutes, it will open
Chrome and send me to a page with a virus on it.
Obviously I don’t touch anything on the page so I
PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

reMoVinG ADWAre
How can we remove adware from my computer?
— Kamineni L
Removing the adware requires a second computer
to download the necessary tools for removing them. If
yours is highly infected, you should directly download
it on your PC. Make sure your computer and the other
computer from where you have downloaded them, have
autorun disabled. Simply follow the steps required and
should be fine.
— Ashok Pandey, CyberMedia Labs

tHe Best CAMerA For A trAVeLer
What camera do you recommend that takes both
great pictures and videos? The camera must have
the following features: an input for an external mic
(lavalier mic), 1080p video resolution, and a relatively
large sensor (1/ 1.7” or better).
— O P Trehan
Choose a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera,
small enough for travel, with large ASP-c or micro 4/3rd
sensor, and external mic input. No point buying a big
bulky DSLR if you don’t need to photograph fast paced
action, or one of those oversized mirrorless systems that
look like a DSLR.
— Ashok Pandey, CyberMedia Labs

Corrigendum

PreVentinG A PC FroM oPeninG
rAnDoM WeBsites

8

don’t get any viruses, but it’s incredibly annoying.
I’ve downloaded a page-blocking app so that I can
block the pages it sends me to, but it rarely sends
me to the same page twice. I have Norton 360 virus
protection and it says there aren’t any viruses on
my computer. Please suggest.
— Ramieri K
There is a simple solution. Just go to the “Control
Panel” and then “Programs”. Every browser supports
extensions, your browser also has some extensions
which are affecting your PC. Delete the ones you are not
sure about, then download Malwarebytes and run it. It
should pick up most browser hijackers and successfully
remove them.
— Ashok Pandey, CyberMedia Labs

The article ‘Oracle R12 Re-implementation’
on page 58 in PCQ April 2015 issue mentions
implementation partner as KPIT Technologies
Pvt Ltd. It should be KPIT Technologies Ltd. The
inconvenience caused is regretted.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

UNDERSTAND • CHOOSE • IMPLEMENT IT

CORPORaTE OFFICE

eDitoriAL
eDitor: Anil Chopra
oPerAtions eDitor: Adeesh Sharma
sr. CoPY eDitor: Preeti Gaur
sr. CorresPonDent: Rashi Varshney
ConsULtinG eDitors: Vinod Unny, Shekhar Govindarajan,
Sameer Mathur, Amaresh Patnaik
DesiGn MAnAGer: Vijay Chand & Amit Sethia

Cyber House, B-35, sec-32, Gurgaon (nCr Delhi) 122001. india
email us [email protected]
call us +91-124-482-2222, fax us +91-124-238-0694

OUR OFFICES
BEnGaLURU
address: 205-207, Sree Complex (Opp. RBANMS Ground)
# 73, St John’s Road, Bangaluru - 560 042
Tel: +91 (80) 4341 2000, Fax: +91 (80) 2350 7971

CYBerMeDiA LABs
teCH AnALYsts: Ashok Pandey, Anuj Sharma, Rohit Arora
Asstt MAnAGer (MULtiMeDiA): Raj Kumar Maurya
exeCUtiVe seo: Navneet Kumar Srivastava

ChEnnaI

sALes
sr. Vice President - sales: Rachna Garg

address: 5B, 6th Floor, Gemini Parsn Apts,
599 Mount Road. Tel: 044-28221712

nCr:
GM - sales : Harminder Singh, Vandana Chauhan
Manager - sales: Ajay Dhoundiyal, Sudhir Kumar Arora
Asst. Manager - sales: Mohammad Shoeb Khan

KOLKaTa
address: 307, 3rd Floor, Ballygunj A.C. Market,
46/31/1 Gariahat Road. Tel: 033-65250117

MUMBAi:
Asst. Vice President - sales: Ravindranath G. Nair
Asst. Manager - sales: Aparna Tawade
executive - sales: Kanchan Vipul Sonawala

MUMBaI
address: 103, Andheri Saurabh CHS, Above Andhra Bank,
Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri (East) Mumbai 400093
Tel: 022-28243964, 42085100

BenGALUrU:
Asst. Manager - sales: Pradeep Kumar
CHennAi:
Asst. Manager - sales: Arun D.
KoLKAttA:
sr. Manager - sales: Sandeep Roy Chowdhury

DELhI
address: Cyber House, B-35, Sec 32, Gurgaon,
NCR Delhi-122001. Tel: 0124-4822222, Fax: 2380694

MArKetinG
Asst. Vice President: Satish Gupta
executive: Siddharth Malhotra
Asst. Manager Admin: Shiv Kumar

SInGaPORE
address: 1, North Bridge Road, # 24-09 High Street Center
Tel: +65-63369142

internAtionAL sALes, ALLiAnCes & eVent oPs
Asst. Manager: Mihir Pandya

USa

sHAreD serViCes
GM, Print serViCes: T Srirengan
sr. MAnAGer, AUDienCe serViCe: Sarita Shridhar
MAnAGer, Mis & DAtABAse: Ravikant Kumar
sr. Press Co-orDinAtor: Harak Singh Ramola

Media Representative: Ms. Leslie Hallanan, Avani Media Inc.,
80 Liberty Ship Way, Suite 25, Sausalito, CA 94965, USA
Tel: +1-415-3312150, Fax: +1-415-3312151
Email: [email protected], Website: www.avanimedia.com

For subscription queries contact: [email protected]

Printed and published by Pradeep Gupta on behalf of CyberMedia (India) Ltd,
printed at Repro India Limited, A-50/2, ITC MIDC Mahape, Near Kamani Tower Navi
Mumbai, India, published from D-74, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi-110017.
Distribut ed in India by IBH Books & Magazines Dist. Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior
permission.

www.pcquest.com

http://linkd.in/pcquest

CirCULAtion & sUBsCriPtion
CHennAi: C Ramachandran, BenGALUrU: Raghvendra S.
MUMBAi: Raju Salve, DeLHi: Jagdeep Khanna

10

http://twitter.com/pcquest

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

http://facebook.com/pcquest

http://gplus.to/pcquest

[email protected]

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

leadingedge
it’s much more complex than
putting sensors to gather data
and take decisions

Anil Chopra, Editor
[email protected],
@anilchop on twitter

The RoI from IoT

C

onsidering all the noise
surrounding IoT, one
wonders whether it’s all just
hype or can organizations
actually reap benefits from it. Where’s
the RoI in implementing IoT based
solutions? Unless you have a clear
business case, it’s impossible to
quantify the RoI from IoT. Do you
want to use IoT to monitor industrial
assets that are spread across a wide
geography so that you save the cost
of sending service technicians on
the field? Or does your CMO want to
monitor data feeds from mobiles and
IoT devices to gain market insights?
Or do you want to monitor the
performance of your fleet of vehicles
to plan better routes, do preventive
maintenance, etc.?
When you define a clear business
case, you get a clear idea of how much
cost you can expect to save or revenue
to earn. With this in place, you can
determine how much it would cost to
deploy an IoT solution, and whether it
would make business sense or not.
So deploying IoT is not about using
devices with sensors to capture all
sorts of information, and then analyze
it to take important decisions. That’s
how everyone generalizes it, but it’s
much more complex than that.

The basic element of IoT--sensors,
can be very costly. Though their prices
are dropping, they can still cost a
bomb, especially because you have to
take into account the communication
channel they’ll use to send out the
data, whether they can be integrated
with your existing equipment, or do
you have to purchase new equipment.
Security is also a key criteria while
choosing sensors, and you can read
stories like the one about the spamming fridge if you are not convinced
about the need for sensor security.
Next comes the integration of sensor
data with your business application.
What sort of integration effort is
required to do this? What SDKs are
available for doing the integration, do
you have the necessary in-house skills
for the job? If not, how much would it
cost to outsource?
If you’re using sensors over
a wide geography, then which
communication channel would they
use to send out data? Will it be over
WiFi or a telecom network? Where
will this data be gathered? Do you
need to setup a cloud based server to
first collect this data?
Once you’ve gathered this data,
what parameters do you need to
analyze? Which analytics solution will

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

be a good fit here? Do you need a
NoSQL kind of database to gather all
sensor data and give you an output, or
can the data be directly fed into your
existing business application? If it’s
NoSQL, then you’ll have to invest in
resources who understand how to deal
with big data.
This is just the tip of the ice berg
when it comes to deploying IoT. After
reading all this, if you feel that IoT
can wait, then think again because
somebody will do it before you, and
gain a competitive edge. If you haven’t
started thinking about leveraging
IoT, then the time to do that is now.
Our cover story this time, talks about
the road ahead for IoT, the industry
verticals that are taking a lead in the
game, and much more.

scan this to write to the editor
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677 from
a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.
MAY 2015

PCQuest

11

tech&trends

Formulating the Right Enterprise
Mobility Strategy
To build, deploy, and manage mobile applications, you first need to look at enterprisewide policies around security, privacy, and user computing before finalising the
collaboration infrastructure and the end-to-end architecture
– Adeesh Sharma

I

t’s the age of mobile devices and business apps.
5-inch, affordable and reasonably decent smartphones have given the necessary thrust to ecommerce and other businesses to push either their
products or information associated with them onto
the users’ smartphones through conveniently designed
mobile apps. The latest update being that key ecommerce
vendors are even contemplating pulling down their websites in favor of mobile apps. So, now is the time to get
your enterprise mobility strategy right even if you haven’t
given it a thought. But there’s a catch, and a big one at
that. When they first set upon formulating the information security and privacy policies for today’s organizations
they visualised a tightly controlled and monitored computing model where all employees relied on organisations
12

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

to provide the basic computing capabilities and network
access. Those days, policies were simple to manage on
enterprise-owned assets such as a workstation or a PDA
with simple guidelines on how to handle consumer data.
The security was enforced using encryption software with
very strong password protection and, in many cases, twofactor mechanisms to control how employees accessed
the company’s applications and data. In a nutshell, it
was a highly standardized computing model which made
support processes simpler and testing and deployment of
applications to these devices easier.
In this age of mobility, each of these policies has
become more complex to enforce and manage. The
safeguards that worked well in the standardized environment are now inadequate to address the risk posed by

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MDM implementation Check-List for Cios
Here’s a list of key pitfalls you should stay clear off while deploying an MDM plan for your organization:
1. Ensure your MDM tool is compatible with common mobile platforms and updates itself with the update of a mobile
platform. This would not only ensure better compliance with your enterprise mobile apps but also save you from the scare
of a security lapse.
2. It should be able to function through handsets being serviced by different service providers and also over WiFi.
3. You should be able to add or remove devices from your network like you shuffle your pack of cards. This would ensure
optimum network efficiency and security.
4. Dont be over-intrusive or impose impractical controls. This is the trickiest part as there is a very thin line that separates
security and management from prying into someone else’s personal life. Most of the MDM strategy gets discussed at the
top level but ultimately has to be implemented by the local IT manager. Be very clear about the software that’s going to
be installed on the employee’s device and what’s really necessary for the organisation. Here again check if the device
has been provided by the organisation or if it is his personal device. In case it is a personal device then publicise the list
of dos and donts to all employees and ensure there is no discrepancy in their interpretation and there’s no fine print to be
misused. Ensure there’s no case of ugly scuffles in your office with an overzealous IT manager trying to impose a dozen
management/security solutions on the mobile device of an unsuspecting employee. For one, the quality of software being
deployed itself could be questionable and secondly, the solution itself might harm the working of the device.
5. You would have got the hint from my previous point but do ensure whatever solution is decided upon to be deployed, is
free from bugs and malware and should not cause any drop in efficiency of the device. In case the software are resource
hungry, do let it be known to all in advance.
6. Don’t track unnecessary employee activity. Just because an employee’s mobile is GPS enabled does not mean that his
location is under constant surveillance. Likewise if he is on Facebook or watching videos during office hours, you can
deal with him with more sober ways than recording his chain of chat messages and clippings of videos he’s watched
during that period.
7. Strive for consistency in productivity apps. While you deal with multiple devices and platforms, focus on the output/
productivity from an employee even if it means investing some money on getting an app that works seamlessly across
all platforms. This would not only ensure consistency of output across all employees but also help in easier management
across different platforms.
8. Keep an eye on the devices at work. An IT manager can never relax even if the management of IT resources has shifted
from the workstation to apps on mobile devices. Keep a look out for the various devices that are connecting to your
network, what apps they are accessing, what impact it has on your bandwidth, etc.
9. Don’t give employees a free hand over network resources. While bringing personal devices is an evolution of the IT era and
can’t be stopped, keeping a check on what employees download through the enterprise network and whether they are
exploiting it for personal gains is of paramount importance. Remember you still have to protect your network from malware
and data leakage. So make it clear to the employee as to what behavior is acceptable in office.
10. Prevent access to jailbroken and rooted devices as these can compromise information security and company data in no
ordinary way.

the use of personally owned mobile devices and anytime,
anywhere, network access. So, it becomes imperative on
organisations to address these policies first before setting
the roadmap for enabling enterprise mobility.

Look inside: Why do you need a policy in the
first place
Begin by asking yourself the basic questions. Is the device
company owned or personal? How is the data going to

be secured under both scenarios? How do respond to
privacy concerns? There is of course going to be a lot of
employee data on a personally owned or even a company
owned device.
Now when you enforce certain security policies such
as passwords or encryption, do you have the ability to enforce them on personal devices as well? If this is the case,
then how does the enterprise monitor and mitigate the
risk of the employee losing the device? Getting into the

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

13

tech&trends
nitty-gritties, you might also ask who pays for the device
and access—for example, will the employee buy it or will
the company provide a stipend and how often? How will
the company support the device when it fails or when
the user has a device that the company does not have
the skills to support? All this shall impact the operational
expenses of organizations as well as they move to this new
user computing model that provides more choice and contains a mix of company- and employee-owned devices.

setting up the mobile infrastructure
You need to establish a solid infrastructure that supports
enterprise-class mobile applications. This includes the
deployment model for mobile applications, network and
security architecture and collaboration infrastructure
for the enterprise. The deployment model for mobile
applications within an enterprise entails key decisions
around security and privacy policies. Selecting the
deployment model for mobile applications is one of the
most critical decisions of enabling enterprise mobility.
These are the three standard deployment models for
enterprise mobile applications:
1. Applications are embedded natively as part of the
mobile device software. Such an app has access to all
device resources and is only constrained by the capabilities of the device.
2. Applications are deployed into an encrypted container
on the device. This way the mobile remains secure
from malware and also has access to selected capabilities and resources from within the container on the
device.
3. Applications are deployed to the device using a thin
client. It has no access to the computing resources on
the device. These applications leverage the capabilities of the server on which they run and render the
user interface to the mobile device.

revamping the network and security architecture
Even today, the network architecture in most
organizations, including firewall rules and network
security, is designed to support web-based applications.
These architectures have been defined on perimeterbased defence structures that are solid on the outside
but vulnerable to impregnation inside. Such network
architecture is not adequate to deal with employeeowned mobile devices that can potentially access an
organization’s core network behind the corporate firewall.
While changing such a network architecture the following
should be kept in mind:
1. There could be users who would access companyowned applications and data from home or a public
access point using a personal or company-owned
mobile device.
14

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

2. There could be users who would access companyowned applications and data from within the walls
of the enterprise (intranet) with a personally owned
mobile device.
3. How does the enterprise manage and control access
to internal and external application stores?
While defining the likely avenues for collaboration
amongst employees you should focus on workplace capabilities such as email, instant messaging, microblogging,
and social networking. All these are influenced by enterprise security requirements. It also presents some unique
challenges around document retention, as enterprises
need to maintain their ability to track use of corporate
assets while respecting individuals’ privacy.

establishing the defined mobility architecture
One key implication of mobile apps has been the slow but
certain termination of monolithic solutions built around
a particular business process, loaded with features and
functions for different stakeholders. The banking website
comes to mind instantly. Such solutions are now being
replaced by multiple smaller apps designed around
the user. These new apps are built from a customer-in
perspective unlike the previous company-centric model
that drove the previous application design. This is driven
primarily by the rich user interfaces supported by today’s
mobile devices that have redefined human-computer
interaction. This next-generation user interaction model
moves from the keyboard and mouse interface that has
been a standard for the past two decades to one that
processes inputs from multiple devices such as multitouch screens, accelerometers, microphones, cameras,
GPS chips, and gyroscopes. This represents a major
shift from the event-driven application model that was
inherent to the client/server and web-based applications.
So, it’s a shift from applications that were designed to
sense and respond to individual events to one that has
to handle more complex events that enable enhanced
reality experiences. For instance, a user can simply point
his smartphone camera on a product’s barcode and check
its availability, pricing, and other relevant information in
his area. Similarly, a person in a foreign land can point
his smartphone to the street where he is standing and
get the banking app on his phone to map the nearest
ATMs and bank branches and visually highlight them on
the screen image of the street. The mobile apps need to
innovate on and adopt the new models for visualizing
data. These include taking advantage of the vivid
hardware and display capabilities such as ‘pinch’ to zoomin and zoom-out of an image to provide context-aware
experiences. Such data can be further used to enhance
Business Intelligence and Analytics solutions used by the
enterprise.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

tech&trends

Mobility
Empowered
Services Driving
Businesses
Mobility empowered services
have helped organisations
in managing customer
expectations, services and in
carrying out real time surveys to
attain business objectives
– Rajiv Kumar, CEO & Founder, StoreHippo.com

T

he impending mobile feature in enterprises
has emerged on the mainstream across every
industry vertical. Mobile sites and WAP applications have transformed the modes on which
enterprises operate. Mobility of employees and processes
has added many new features to workplaces. From being
a mere addition in IT infrastructure in its initial stages,
mobile devices now play the catalytic role in transforming enterprise operations. The prime area of impact being
operating models, the alteration is dramatic in some industries bringing in massive process optimization and better
Return on Investments.
Industries such as Supply Chain Management and
Logistics have been greatly favored by Mobility empowered
services. Apart from process improvement, movement of
goods, analysis of delivery routes and so on has led to extensive improvement of services and accuracy in tracking.
Mobility services have created new avenues for even Government services and public amenities. A good example is
Singapore, where residents are allowed to submit images
of any place or public utilities that need to be improved or
worked on by the government using applications installed
in their mobile devices. The market of enterprise mobility is
dispersed variably across regions of world. Some countries
in Asia such as Japan and Singapore have matured in the
field. Others are still on the way to utilize them adequately.

Mobility aids Bi
Enterprises implement mobility features with comprehen16

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

sive insight to their business, creating an environment that
encourages the features of profitability and a holistic approach to transform operation processes. Business processes
have become employee oriented so that they are comfortable to work with the new models and are ready to undertake necessary risks when the need arises. Emphases are
now at innovative ideas and creativity to handle a process in
a more effective way. To render more effect through mobility
services, enterprises have modified their existing processes
to explore better avenues for efficiency and productivity. The
new dynamism of business flexibility is unified with change
in operational processes for better outcomes.
Mobility empowered services provide competitive
advantages to organizations. It is now possible to develop
comprehensive business strategies with several prospective
taken into account. Since, mobility has made operations
flexible, facets such as customer expectations, services
and real time surveys can be employed to attain business
objectives. Agility of service and processing is one of the
greatest advantages of enterprise mobility. Business strategies customized according to localized needs of the market
became easier to implement in this new trend of technology. Swift action and lower time lags in operation has led
organizations to identify and manage risks in an intuitive
way. The new technological trait has been providing ample
opportunity to enterprises to bring out many unique factors
for process improvement.
The benefits of mobility services can be classified into
two heads. One that reduces the investment of resources

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

and other that enhances productivity. Technology such as
Business to Employee (B2E) mobility is massively impactful
in reducing investment on employee management. BYOD
emerged to become one of the most advantageous
applications of mobile devices. As employees can now
work from their own devices being anywhere: at home,
at a travel resort or at office. Thus an impetus has been
infused in the productivity levels. A study revealed that
38% of CIOs have indexed improvement in productivity to
be a reason for investment in mobile technology. Mobility
enhances communication and knowledge transfer which
in turn boost productivity bringing several facets of
operational advantages and hence profitability. Employees
have better access to information and thereby can process
a task without any delay.

Mobility a precursor to efficient customer services
An additional advantage of mobile devices is employee
satisfaction. This is an important factor to back up
productivity. This is also helpful in employee retention
and save extra investment of time and resource. Internal
processes such as quick access to reports and files,
booking a travel arrangement, raising a ticket or updating

a document have become swift and mobile. Mobility
empowered services facilitates automation of process and
enables instant operation on streamlined processes. This
is a significant addition to improve operational efficiency.
Mobility empowered services empowers extensive
customer services and interaction. These amenities help
service persons to handle queries and respond effectively.
Apart from saving cost, this increases the brand value and
market reputation of a business.
Implementation of mobility-empowered services
relates business operations to efficient customer services.
This increases sales and service volumes. For example, it is
easier to sell products through online mobile apps, as the
features and presentation of products could be made so
intriguing that customers would hardy resist buying two
items instead of one. This is a huge benefit from business
point of view. Further, mobile features are such that
they provide easier access both ways, customers to the
business and business to customers. While a mobile app
is being installed in a customer’s device, it is comparable
to having the whole shop in his pocket. These aspects
become essential game changers for any business with
implementation of mobility-enabled services.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

17

tech&trends
The Pros and Cons of Net Neutrality

The debate on whether
to have net neutrality
or not is raging
globally, and not just
in India. Here are both
sides of the coin
– Sameer Mathur, Consulting Editor, PCQuest

M

ost of the readers would now be aware of
the raging debate on Net neutrality, but
let’s anyway do a quick memory refresh.
The principle of free, unrestricted access to
any data on the Net is referred to as net neutrality. An ISP
does not control the traffic that passes through its servers.
When a user connects to a website or web service, the
user is promised exactly the same experience. There is no
discrimination on using data whether one is using YouTube
or WhatsApp or Facebook. Theoretically users can access
any legal website or web service without any interference
from an ISP. Additionally, since majority of the Telecom
Service Operators (TSP) are also Internet Service Providers
(ISP), there was no perceived discrimination on the usage
of data. From the time Internet has kicked off in the early
1980’s, there has not been any fixed rule on this.
The principle of Net Neutrality calls for equal treatment
to be accorded to all internet traffic, without discrimination
or priority for any person, entity or company. Most ISPs
follow this principle of unrestricted access because that is
how it has always been.

so what is the change now? Why all the noise and shrill
condemnation of telcos in the last few weeks?
All telcom companies, be it Bharti Airtel, Reliance,
Vodafone, Idea etc have endorsed and supported the idea
and have openly come out in favor of being Net Neutral.
The confusion started with Bharti Airtel launching a
program called Airtel Zero.
18

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

so what exactly is Airtel Zero and in what way will it
affect, if at all, the average user of the mobile internet?
Simply put and I quote a senior Airtel Executive, “Airtel
Zero is a technology platform that connects application
providers to their customers for free. The platform
allows any content or application provider to enroll on
it so that their customers can visit these sites for free.
Instead of charging customers, we charge the providers
who choose to get on to the platform. Airtel Zero as a
platform is open to all application developers, content
providers and internet sites on an equal basis. The same
rate card is offered to all these providers on a totally nondiscriminatory basis.”
Similarly Facebook has also been running an initiative called internet.org that has Reliance Communications
(RCom) as a partner in India. This initiative, launched
in February, seeks to work with technology leaders and
telecom companies to offer free internet access to the
underprivileged. Under internet.org, users of Reliance
Communications (RCom) have free access to Facebook and
some other useful websites like OLX, with Facebook paying
RCom for the data so consumed on the latter’s network.
Both Facebook and Airtel claim that their platforms do
not violate the Net Neutrality principle and they are actually aimed at expanding Internet access in India.
Apart from Airtel and RCom, most other Indian TSPs
including Idea Cellular, Uninor and Tata Teleservices also
have plans offering Facebook, WhatsApp or Wikipedia
at nominal charges, if not for free. These plans are quite

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

similar to other Zero rating plans but has not quite caught
the attention of the Netizens.

What’s happening globally on net neutrality?
“There are different practices in different jurisdictions. UK
and parts of Europe do not practice strict net-neutrality.
Even in the US, zero rating plans are permissible,” said Mr.
Khullar, Chairman of the Telecom watchdog TRAI, while
replying to a question on whether India was in a position to
align with the global net-neutrality principles.
According to the telecom industry, zero rating is just
one of the options for customers and no customer is
disenfranchised, compromised or discriminated against.
Majority of the research being published on the
concept of Net Neutrality versus Zero rating plans favor the
latter and claim neutrality will actually act as a deterrent
for the growth of internet.
To quote the Jena Economic Research Paper, on
Net Neutrality,
“In this paper, we analyze the problem of congestion
and quality loss of data transmission through the Internet
from an economic perspective. We show that due to the
congestion problem, quality sensitive services are likely to
be crowded out by high volume but less quality sensitive
applications in a strict ‘neutral’ system. This crowding out
reduces the availability of services and the development
and diffusion of innovative and high value services. Not
least, the congestion problem causes welfare loss. As we
discuss in this paper, the differentiation of data packets
according to their quality sensitivity could remedy the
congestion problem. Appropriate business models that
incorporate quality of service concepts could be very efficient in preventing the crowding out of high value quality
sensitive services without affecting other applications and
would be very convenient for Internet users at the same
time. We show that any ex-ante regulation in the sense of
strict Net neutrality could seriously harm the development
of innovative business models and discourage innovation
and investment.”
Another leading research by the University of Florida
and Notre Dame titled -The Debate on Net Neutrality: A
Policy Perspective assert the following:
The status quo of prohibiting broadband service
providers from charging websites for preferential access to
their customers - the bedrock principle of net neutrality,
is under fierce debate. We develop a game-theoretic
model to address two critical issues of net neutrality: (1)
Who are gainers and losers of abandoning net neutrality;
and (2) Will broadband service providers have greater
incentive to expand their capacity without net neutrality?
We find that if the principle of net neutrality is abolished,
the broadband service provider stands to gain from the

arrangement, as a result of extracting the preferential
access fees from content providers. We find that the
incentive to expand infrastructure capacity for the
broadband service provider and its optimal capacity choice
under net neutrality are higher than those under the no
net neutrality regime except in some specific cases.
It has also been conclusively proven by some studies
that Net Neutrality would actually hamper the growth of
the broadband business in the country. Another research
by a US university concludes that Net Neutrality would cost
US thousands of jobs and billions in cost.
Airtel strongly refutes that its product violates net
neutrality principles. “Airtel Zero provides consumers with
more choices (including one where their access is paid for
by the app developer), and provides internet companies
with marketing options that are much more efficient than
the traditional channel they have used,” the Telco said in a
statement, adding it backs a free internet.
Many observers and industry professionals feel that
the concept of Neutrality generally lacks economic viability.
With investments of billions of dollars in buying spectrum
and creating and maintaining the telecom infrastructure,
TSPs are very much within their rights to look at reasonable
return on their investments. Most of the Telcos are deeply
in debt to financial institutions. How can they be bundled
with a regulatory mechanism that restricts their model of
earning revenue?
Hemant Joshi, partner at consultancy firm Deloitte
Haskins & Sells says differential pricing is not just in
telecom alone. For example, airlines charge differently
for the space usage for first class, business and economy
class and provide priority check-in and specialized service
according to the class. The hospitality industry charges
differently for the size and quality of rooms. The amount
of the highway toll varies by vehicle type, weight or
number of axles, with freight trucks often charged higher
rates than cars.
“On this basis, telcos have a rationale to charge different applications according to the data traffic generated
and the type of connectivity parameters (high availability,
reliability, secure, etc),” says Joshi.
Industry experts also bemoan the fact that the concept
of Net Neutrality is being blatantly confused with the Zero
rating plan. We need to legally define the concept of neutrality. Lack of clear understanding is creating an unreasonable confusion in the minds of netizens.
Throughout the world only very few countries strictly
follow the concept of Net Neutrality. Most of the developed countries have a very clear definition and differentiation of both the terms.
The net neutrality debate is still being discussed and
contested worldwide, as it should be in India.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

19

tech&trends
Net Neutrality: Empowering Entrepreneurs
in a Diversified World

An open internet is central to India’s diversified populace and digital
platforms will grow to be crucial tools for citizens’ empowerment, only if
the government is in favor of an open web sphere

– Fahmida Ozair,CEO,SoftAge

I

nternet has become the source of massive information, both reliable and unreliable. The community
connected to the internet turns into the web domain
for every single updates around the world, news and
information related to health, politics, business, science and
so on. Now, imagine the source of data being controlled by
a lobby and access to information becoming a whim of a
handful of corporations. Such a situation would be bizarre
in a backdrop where internet is believed to be democratic.
However, the scenario is technically possible, internet being
a product of technology itself. Herein emerge the recent
buzz about ‘Net Neutrality’, emanating to be a burning topic
of current times.
The web domain can be accessed only via Internet
Service Providers. The structure is developed such that, the
spectrum allotted for data transactions should be bought
from authorities controlled by government of any country.
It is noteworthy that ‘Spectrum’ is natural and it is free. The
situation here can be compared to people paying for drinking water, which is abundant in nature and costless. Net
Neutrality became an issue when in late 2000s some private
entities begun to roll out strategies that went against access
to free data in internet. Comcast, in 2007, intentionally
slowed peer-to-peer communication.
The debate on Net neutrality has been going on at the
global level for a long time, but it reached India, officially,
when TRAI released a draft consultation paper seeking
views from the industry and the public on the need for
regulations for over-the-top (OTT) players. Zero rating
seems harmless at first glance, as all things “free” often do,
but will cause lasting damage to innovation, competition
and freedom. Internet giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter
and Wikipedia exist today because an open and neutral
Internet did too. Having become successful, it would be a
pity if they now decide to ally with telecom giants and seek
to change the rules of the game for everyone else, where

Violating net neutrality will reduce
entrepreneurship and local Internet innovation
by placing firms in a situation where their local
consumers are all locked in to a limited platform
under the control of a few giants.
20

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

smaller firms will be forced to commercially lobby and sign
up in order to prevent their competitors from being able to
deal in and crush them.

Why india needs net neutrality more than
anyone else
In Indian context, Net Neutrality is crucial. And, in the
recent drive of Prime Minister Modi for Digital India, the
issue is heating up across the country. The sequence of
events such as Supreme Court verdict over Section 66A
of IT act, the recent “Airtel Zero” platform and Facebook’s
internet.org have made Net Neutrality a burning issue.
Internet to become entirely global should have a link to
local and when we talk of digital inclusion, it must be
available to the underprivileged and on the margins.
The problem with internet.org is that we are replacing
“internet” by “Facebook”. Let us be very sure that these
two cannot and should not be equated.
From a democratic point of view, an open internet is
central to India’s diversified populace. Specially, in a digital
India, voices of deprived communities and groups are
essential for inclusive development. Digital platforms will
grow to be crucial tools for citizens’ empowerment, only if
the government is in favor of an open web sphere. DoT, in
the meantime have assured a reliable web infrastructure to
the nation. Internet connectively is considered a subjective
facet of development in the new formation of Indian infrastructure. With this, ensuring a neutral internet is not only
an obligation of the government but also a necessity.
A neutral internet is essential for new entrepreneurship
and growth of small enterprises. Internet has been crucial
for innovation. Violating net neutrality will reduce entrepreneurship and local Internet innovation by placing firms in a
situation where their local consumers are all locked in to a
limited platform under the control of a few giants.
The likes of Google’s and Facebook’s could have struggled to grow if the Internet had not been open. It is now a
liability of these giants to provide the same to other startups and to make the internet domain as liberal as possible.
An ongoing Net Neutrality will make internet dependable,
performing as it is now, and any glitches in the idea could
prove to be degrading to the internet community itself.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

ADVERTORIAL

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES
EDU-CLOUD TO TRANSFORM
EDUCATION IN INDIA

W

ith a commitment to expand digital inclusion,
Microsoft firmly believes that technology
can empower both educators and students
in India in this new mobile-first, cloud-first
world. In this spirit, Microsoft India recently
launched Edu-Cloud, a unique cloud computing-based offering,
to transform education with the use of technology. It supports
students, teachers and school administrators through virtual
learning platforms, easier content access, discussion boards, cloud
storage, analytics & dashboard for learning outcomes, monitoring
and improving teacher pedagogy, and creating custom learning
modules. Edu-Cloud is expected to benefit 10 lakh teachers and 60
lakh students in 1500 institutes over the next 18 months. Microsoft
Edu-Cloud enrollment details are available at https://www.microsoft.
com/india/edu-cloud/
Launching Edu-Cloud, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft
India, said, “Today’s students are digital natives. At Microsoft, we
help them imagine the future and realize it. With the help of cloud
computing they create, deliver, and manage content from any device, anywhere, anytime making learning easy and fun. We believe
technology can transform education and help build engaged, aware
and digitally empowered citizens. We want to partner with Indian
schools and colleges in their digital transformation journey.”
Highlighting the power of technology to transform education, Meetul
Patel, General Manager - Small and Midmarket Solutions, Microsoft
India, said, “Cloud Services present the next big leap in Information
Technology and are rapidly becoming a core part of the business
world. Microsoft is committed to helping educational institutions
benefit from this technology and supporting students in their need
to become familiar with what will be a prevalent platform in their
future careers and ventures. Through Edu-Cloud, we provide faculty
and students with unparalleled access to Cloud training, infrastructure, tools, and solutions.”
One of the first K-12 education networks to adopt Microsoft
India’s Edu-Cloud are Sri Chaitanya Schools. Using 14,000 Windows-

powered tablets, they will access rich, interactive and relevant
content from the Microsoft cloud, as well as access to eDvelop, a
Learning Management Solution from Mobiliya, a Microsoft partner.
Speaking about their adoption of digital learning tools, Dr. B. S
Rao, Founder, Sri Chaitanya Schools said, “The world over, teaching
and learning has been transformed by the use of new digital technology. Microsoft’s Edu-Cloud infrastructure is the best-in-class and
we are proud to have our teachers and students use it to enhance
their digital learning and teaching.”
Over the years, it has partnered with students, educators, school
leaders as well as with governments and communities to transform
education through effective technology, pedagogical innovation and
best practices. In the last decade alone, Microsoft India has invested
over INR 670 crore in education, skill development, entrepreneurship
and digital literacy programs such as YouthSpark, touching over 5
crore people in 20 different states of India. You can find more information on Microsoft India’s initiatives and impact at http://www.
microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/

tech&trends

seCUritY

Shield Your Network
from Hackers
Rising trends like BYOD have led to a sudden
increase in the number of devices on your
network, which in turn demands greater network
security and access control
– Ashok Kumar, CEO and MD - RAH Infotech

L

ast year, we witnessed a string of major data
breaches that affected many high profile organisations in almost every business sector - be it
BSFI, IT/telecom, healthcare, retail, manufacturing or government. Unfortunately, these incidents are not
going away any time soon. Hackers have become more sophisticated in their approaches and cleverer at penetrating
networks. All organizations have sensitive data that needs
to be protected - customer information, customer transactions, financial information or intellectual property - any
of it can be misused against you. That is why enterprises
are upping their ante by implementing stronger network
security solutions like network access control (NAC).
By deploying NAC, an enterprise restricts data that each
user can access. It also implements anti -threat applications
such as firewalls, antivirus software and spyware-detection
programs. NAC can regulate and restrict the malpractices
and unwanted activities that individual subscribers can indulge in on being connected. As a result, NAC has evolved
into a ‘foundational network security defence solution’ as
Frost & Sullivan puts it.

attackers taking the right measures to stay secure. Hackers
today are more persistent, and there is a dire need to
create synergistic integrations between disparate security
solutions. With NAC, enterprises can close security gaps
and strengthen their security postures with real-time
threat intelligence and the ability to auto remediate any
potential threats that are discovered.
While NAC systems have been designed to secure assets in the financial, healthcare and government sectors,
businesses across all sectors can benefit from these solutions. Apart from the BFSI segment which has always taken
the lead in adopting security solutions, large enterprises
in automobile and manufacturing sectors are also showing
keen interest in adopting these solutions.
According to the Frost & Sullivan Global Analysis of the
Network Access Control (NAC) Market report published in
December 2014, the NAC worldwide market is estimated to
grow over 38 per cent compared to the previous year. The
Indian market is also witnessing a growing demand for NAC
solutions. Enterprises which have over 1,000 users require
NAC to manage security across devices from single console.

rising Demand for nAC

the Driving Factors

It is important for organisations to stay a step ahead of

An important factor that has contributed to the growth in
demand is the increasing size of NAC deployments which
comes from inclusion of greater numbers of devices on
the networks in SMEs and large enterprise networks including the growing phenomenon of Bring Your Own
Device (BYOD).
The Frost & Sullivan report states that the size of NAC
deployments has been growing larger. Enterprise and mid
-sized networks are expanding to include more devices per
employee and bring your own device (BYOD). NAC deployments are increasing as mid -sized and enterprise networks
are expanding to allow more devices per employee and
support the BYOD trend. While virtual appliances have
been gaining traction in the enterprise space, NAC security
-as -a -service offerings are capturing the interest of companies in the small- to medium-sized business segment.

Ashok Kumar
CEO and MD - RAH Infotech

22

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

“With NAC, enterprises
can close security
gaps and strengthen
their security postures
with real-time
threat intelligence
and the ability to
auto remediate any
potential threats that
are discovered.”

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

According to Frost & Sullivan, drivers for NAC growth
will include complete endpoint visibility, integration with
other security platforms, and a contextual awareness
leading to more operational intelligence. The market is
gradually evolving to address use cases where servers will
share contextual data with firewalls and other security
components to enable fine-grained policy enforcement.

next -Gen nAC
The Frost and Sullivan study highlights that the latest
generation of NAC products is able to solve top IT
challenges and deliver tangible business value to
customers. A leading reason for renewed NAC platform
adoption is the shift in the value proposition away
from that of restrictive, device authentication -based
technology to one that enables network access and
helps organizations streamline or automate a broad
range of IT operations.
The new generation of NAC is changing the way
enterprises work by considering their evolving business
needs. It incorporates far greater functionality than the
previous generation by providing an ability to deliver
tangible business value to customers and solve some of
the major challenges which exist in IT security. Part of
this is the ability of next-gen NAC to strengthen endpoint

compliance and enable BYOD programs rather than being
restricted to device authentication.
NAC platforms are being integrated with other network defence tools. Many of the leading NAC providers
already have mechanisms which allow the network and
endpoint security information to be sent to other networks, applications and security platforms. As part of the
overall mechanism, these NAC systems can also receive
data from other platforms. The latest report from Frost
& Sullivan on global analysis of the NAC market states
that ForeScout Technologies, Cisco and juniper are the
top three fastest selling NAC solution providers for large
enterprises and small to medium sized enterprises (SME),
which represent more than 69 percent of the NAC market. Of the total 69 percent global NAC market, ForeScout
caters to 24.3 percent of the share.
The F&S report also affirms that bi-directional integration with other network and security platforms will continue to differentiate leading NAC vendors and be valued
by customers. As such, NAC vendors actively seek integration with other network defences, including: advanced
threat detection (ATD), antivirus (AV), virtual private
networks (VPN), vulnerability management (VM), security
information and event management (STEM), mobile device
management (MDM), firewalls, and Web gateways.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

23

tech&trends

5 Big Data Costs you Simply
Can’t Afford to Ignore
Everybody is talking about data. Everybody wants big data solutions, and almost
everybody overlooks the cost that comes with it. Read more to know different costs
that are associated with Big Data and how one can analyze the utility that it brings
– Vikram, CTO, Vizury

E

verybody thinks that big data is a magical pill
that you gulp, and voila, everything falls into
place. One of the most common traps is to think
of cost only at the level of online or frontend
systems. A common discussion would read something
like this - “A typical $500/month machine easily handles
two thousand Queries Per Second (QPS) and so if I need
10 thousand QPS more, I would need 2500$/month as an
infrastructure cost”. What this argument misses out is a lot
of downstream aspects which take up bulk of the cost.
We can broadly classify the entire infrastructure into
five components and then try and assess them for costs.

entry-point frontend systems
Note that these are not ‘front-end’ as in UI/UX systems,
but the main entry points of your platform for the
external world. Typical examples would be ad servers,
beacon listeners, RTB bidders, B2C websites etc. These
would invariably be core business systems that need
to run 24x7. Any downtime there not only affects your
revenue, but importantly, has a negative brand effect.
Naturally you plan as much buffer and redundancy here
as you can afford. Surprisingly, the cost-calculations here
are not hard unless your traffic fluctuates unpredictably.
24

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Its simple math like - one machine handles X QPS, let us
provision for Y QPS factoring in enough buffer. Also, with
techniques like auto-scaling on the cloud, you can be as
close to real traffic as you want, without over-provisioning
in a big way.

storage accessed by online systems
This could typically be in-memory caching systems like
memcache, redis or persistent stores like RDBMS or NoSQL.
This depends a lot on how you architect your systems and
how much caching makes sense. A typical low-latency
system like an ad server or bid server would need a lot
of cache since it cannot afford to hit disks at runtime.
But memory is generally super-expensive and so the
architecture has to be judicious in its usage.
From a cost perspective, this component costing can
be quite tricky. The thumb rule is that RAM is 10X more
expensive than SSD which is 10X more expensive than
HDD and performance-wise RAM is 1000x of SSD which
is around 100X of HDD. With such a wide variety at your
disposal, you can architect the systems creatively to have
the right latency and cost. Another typical mistake done is
when the frontend system scales, this caching/persistent
store may not scale and so it is important to have upper

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

limits for this benchmarked and provisioned for proper
redundancy. Auto-scaling this storage system is not as easy
as the stateless frontend systems.

Analytics – the meat in the sandwich
Big data in raw form is just loud noise. If you have
terabytes of raw data, it’s pretty useless for the business
unless a user can make sense of it. Typically, analytics
involves two aspects. One is the well-defined OLAP-like
reports which can be easily and quickly consumed by
clients and business-users alike. Second is the adhoc
queries that analysts can fire when they are trying to
make business decisions. This does however, complicate
the infrastructure since adhoc queries can range from
a simple “count(*)” on a small table to joining multiple
terabytes tables. Having a good analytics platform is a
long journey. While latest technologies like hadoop, hive,
spark are enabling this, none of them will be drop-in
solutions which will work out of box. You will need to
invest in them, tune them to your needs and strive for a
balance between costs and ease-of-data-access. There is
never an easy answer there!

Geographic distribution of infrastructure
It‘s not uncommon for infrastructure to be spread out
around the globe. While most dedicated hosting providers
make it easy, you need to be clear on the maintenance and
costs involved. The first part is the bandwidth cost which

is an often-understated component. Similar to RAM, one
needs to be judicious with bandwidth; since it is not only
expensive, but the capacities can get inconsistent. So the
more data you start propagating around the world, the
more uncertainty you are adding to the systems, since the
bandwidth speeds are not the most reliable. Again, when
data starts scaling, a good engineering team should be able
to architect a solution that will not be super-expensive and
be as predictable as possible. Another angle one needs to
pay heed to is how the geographical distance impacts the
storage accessed by online systems. Not all systems around
the world need access to data, so application and domain
knowledge, backed by good architecture, will help optimize
this spread.

storage of raw data
This is generally different from storage directly accessed
by online systems. Typically, this would be network
storage, HDFS, S3 or the like. It’s a lot of unstructured
data in raw form. While these costs are reducing by the
day (S3 is hardly 0.03$/GB-month and they keep reducing
it every now and then), note that the data collected is
also exploding every day. Therefore, one needs to strike a
balance between costs and utility of data.
The next time you consider the cost of data, please factor in the entire ecosystem – one that can bring different
disparate nodes into a unified umbrella, and yet justify the
investments.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

25

specialfeature
Interesting Trends for Online Shopping Exciting times ahead for shoppers!
2014 was a fruitful year when online sales leapfrogged; making offline retailers
feel the heat of the rising competition and urging them to expand their empires to
the online market space. The number of people shopping through smartphones is
increasing and so is the number of price comparison sites. Read more to know some
interesting trends in this arena
– Suresh Sharma, Founder and Director, iSpyPrice.com

E

fficient customer service has become the top
priority of online retailers, owing to the escalating tug-of-war between the e-tailers and
retailers and also among the e-commerce firms
themselves. It’s crucial for online stores to distinguish
themselves from other firms and establish their foothold in
the market.

increasing use of mobiles for shopping
Mobile Technology has made it essential for e-commerce
firms to optimize themselves for the ease and convenience
of the shopaholics. Now, more and more consumers are
using mobiles for online shopping instead of laptops
or desktops. As mobile technology has become more
secure and reliable, it has enabled successful shopping
experiences for consumers. This clearly specifies that the
diversification to mobiles and smart phones is no longer
going to be a mere option for e-tailers but a compelling
necessity to survive in the fiercely-competitive market.
Hence, the e-commerce companies are sure to upgrade
and augment their operating systems in conjunction with
the needs of their patrons.

social Media as an effective marketing tool
Online Shopping is poised to get convenient like never
before, owing to the escalating influence of social media.
The social media platforms have become an effective
marketing tool for the online as well as offline firms,
making the purchase transactions easier for customers
and benefitting e-tailers in pocketing more profits. Popular
social networking site, Twitter has already started the trend
with its ‘Buy’ button, to promote in-app purchases. The
trend has come in action, and other social media sites are
likely to follow suit.

speedy Delivery as a differentiator
The concept of Express Delivery and delivery within hours
has already gained momentum. If it continues successfully
and at the same pace, more and more customers are
26

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

likely to get attracted towards online shopping. When the
concept of ‘Online Shopping’ was at a rudimentary stage
and e-commerce firms were just developing, the inability
to deliver fast was one of the major obstacles to attaining
success in the industry. The scenario has undergone
massive metamorphosis since then, owing to the rising
competition and increasing awareness among customers.
E-commerce giant Amazon.com, recently announced its
plans to develop ‘Delivery Drones’ that will ensure swift
and speedy delivery, by shortening the delivery time to
around 30 minutes.

increasing role of Price Comparison sites
Besides these, the Price Comparison sites will play a vital
role in the year 2015. The elevated competition levels
and the thinning line between the brick and click models
will bring the Price comparison sites into limelight. Hence
the sites are likely to receive enormous amount of traffic
this year. Online firms are going to clamor for attention,
often confusing buyers regarding what to buy and from

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

where to buy. It is possible for e-tailers to take advantage
of this confusion and bombard consumers with offers that
imply discounts to cut the competition. In such a situation,
it’s always advised to compare the prices of products
before taking the final purchase decision. This is where
Price Comparison sites come to the fore. Providing hourly
updates for products with fast-changing prices, these sites
present buyers with the lowest prices available, enabling
them to zero in on the product with the right price.

effect of 4G rollout
A game-changing internet technology, 4G network is

confront logistics as well as connectivity hindrances in
order to serve their patrons efficiently. These issues
can be solved with 4G internet services. By providing
cutting-edge speed and connectivity, 4G is helping
online firms to tackle their problems easily.
Escalated speed and enhanced connectivity provides users with a compelling and satisfactory browsing and shopping experience. Usually it is seen that
potential buyers leave a particular site when they are
just going to finalize their purchase. The reason can
be - connectivity problem or slow internet. With 4G,
customers can quickly make purchases without having
to face any such hassles. This is thus, indirectly boosting the sales of e-commerce companies.

4G fosters instant purchase
With 4G for mobiles as well as laptops, e-commerce
companies can be unperturbed about the size of images
or videos. Even on smartphones, users can enjoy the
same experience as on a laptop or PC, due to higher
connectivity and speed offered by 4G. Another situation
will justify the sturdy role that 4G is playing in the realm
of e-commerce. Many a times, it happens that online
shopping websites hang or the speed of internet dips
while making payments or while checking out. This
leads to reduction in the confidence level of customers,
leaving them in a dilemma of whether to purchase
online or not to take the chance. This can result in
dwindling sales for e-commerce companies. With 4G
at hand, buyers are able to make instant purchase
decisions and check-out in a hassle-free way.
slowly becoming the ‘Next Big Thing’ that provides
immediate access to everything from around the
world at your fingertips. 4G rollout can influence the
e-commerce industry in a significant manner. The
fourth generation (4G) is an advanced version of
3G that facilitates its users with mobile broadband
internet access. With its WiMAX LTE technology,
4G provides path-breaking speed and impeccable
connectivity to its users. The technology provides wide
area coverage and high speed to mobile as well as
laptop users. Offering peak upload rate of 500 mbps
and peak download rate of 1gbps, 4G supports HD
streaming and 4G network ensures optimal use of HD
phones.

4G provides constraint-free shopping experience
While 4G is taking the Indian market by storm, and
the demand for smartphones is already on an upward
swing, the 4G rollout is further influencing the sphere
of e-commerce immensely. Online retail firms have to

4G further paves the way for m-commerce
In order to gain maximum advantage of the fourth
generation internet technology, the market is
witnessing various e-commerce firms going the mobileway. In short, for better results, e-commerce firms are
turning to m-commerce. With 4G on mobile, people
prefer to use their handheld devices to fulfill their day
to day needs. Hence, e-commerce firms are coming up
with ground-breaking designs and models to utilize the
lucrative mobile space efficiently, making scores of firms
turn to the m-commerce platform.
4G, the improved and enhanced version of 3G, is
metamorphosing the entire domain of e-commerce,
making transactions instant, thus delivering reliable
and constraint-free experiences.
E-commerce firms are not going to leave any stone
unturned to lure them and the players that will win the
race are those that can offer steady innovation, tactical
promotions and guarantee customer loyalty and retention in the long run.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

27

specialfeature

Giants like Amazon and
Alibaba are fueling the growth of
e-Commerce sector in India
The eCommerce sector has seen an unprecedented growth in 2014. Though access
to the internet through broadband, 3G, etc, has led to an increase in the online
consumer base, but still only 19% Indians use the internet. So there is enough
potential for growth here. Furthermore, players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal and
the huge investor interest around these companies displays immense potential of
the Indian market

e

– Compiled by Preeti Gaur

-Commerce in India has grown by 34% (CAGR)
since 2009 to touch 16.4 billion USD in 2014. The
sector is expected to be in the range of 22 billion
USD this year. eTravel is the most popular form
of eCommerce, followed by eTail which essentially means
selling of retail goods on the internet conducted by the
B2C category. Read further to know factors that can fuel
growth in this sector.

cessories and electronics are the largest selling products
through eTailing, constituting around 80% of product distribution. The increasing use of smartphones, tablets and
internet broadband and 3G has led to developing a strong
consumer base that is likely to increase further. This, combined with a larger number of homegrown eTail companies
with their innovative business models has led to a robust
eTail market in India roaring to expand at high speed.

india’s eCommerce growth

eCommerce ecosystem

25

21.30%

20
16.40%

15

online retail
Fastest growing segment, having
grown by 56% over 2009-14. Market
size pegged at 6 billion USD in 2015.

12.60%
9.50%

10
7%
5.30%

5

0

online marketplace
Platform where sellers and buyers
transact online

3.80%

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Source: IAMAI, CRISIL, Gartner analysis

Currently, eTravel comprises 70% of the total eCommerce market. eTailing, which comprises of online retail
and online marketplaces, has become the fastest-growing
segment in the larger market having grown at a CAGR of
around 56% over 2009-2014. The size of the eTail market
is pegged at 6 billion USD in 2015. Books, apparel and ac28

online travel, ticketing, etc.
Comprises 70% of total e-commerce
market.

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

online deals
Deals purchased online, redemption
may or may not happen online
online portals classified
Includes car, job, property and
matrimonial portals

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Low internet Penetration: Huge Growth Potential
A significantly low (19%) but fast-growing internet
population of 243 million in 2014 is an indicator of the
sector’s huge growth potential in India. It is evident that in
absolute terms India’s internet users are short by only 36
million as compared with 279 million in the US and higher
than that in Japan, Brazil and Russia. However, in relation
with its population, only 19% Indians use the internet.
This indicates the potential of internet use in India and as
internet penetration increases, the potential of growth for
the eCommerce industry will also increase.

Key market factors to be evaluated before
entering a new eCommerce business

internet Penetration
46%

59%

China
US
India
53%

87%

Japan
Brazil
Russia

86%

19%
Source: www.internetlivestats.com

High demographic dividends
According to Ecommerce Europe, country-wise, the US, UK
and China together account for 57% of the world’s total
B2C eCommerce sales in 2013, with China having total

To achieve their vision, eCommerce companies will need
to understand the intricate landscape of new markets in
addition to their own internal capabilities and limitations.
The following factors must be considered:
• Market size: Before moving too aggressively into a
new market, it is important to consider how sizable
the overall opportunity is.
• eCommerce readiness: It is essential to fully
understanding the payment and logistical
infrastructure, consumer behaviour, retail opportunity
and technological developments.
• scope of growth: It is also important to look at the
internet penetration, demographics of the online
buying population and understand which phase of
development each market is in.
• Barriers to entry: Players should understand the
regulatory environment and connect with solution
providers, content distribution networks, and digital
agencies.
• Competition: There is also a need to do an in-depth
assessment of what competitors are doing, their online
strategy and the nature of each offering.

Demographic Profile of indian online users
9%

16%

37%
15-24 year olds
25-34 year olds
35-44 year olds
Other

38%

Source: www.statista.com

sales of 328.4 billion USD. As against this, India had sales
of only 10.7 billion USD, 3.3% of that of China in 2013 with
fifth position in Asia- Pacific. This is despite the fact that
India enjoys high demographic dividends just like China.
India’s internet penetration with total e-households at 46
million against China’s 207 million is one of the reasons
behind India’s poor B2C sales growth.
An analysis of the demographic profile of internet users further testifies that eCommerce will rise rapidly in India in coming years. Around 75% of Indian internet users
are in the age group of 15 to 34 years. This category shops
more than the remaining population. Peer pressure, rising aspirations with career growth, fashion and trends
encourage this segment to shop more than any other category and India, therefore, clearly enjoys a demographic

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

29

specialfeature
dividend that favors the growth of eCommerce. In coming
years, as internet presence increases in rural areas, rural
India will yield more eCommerce business.

entry of Giants
The entry of eCommerce behemoths such as Amazon and
Alibaba, is going to intensify the competition further. Both
these international players come with deep pockets and
the patience to drive the Indian eCommerce market. Also,
their strong domain knowledge and best practices from
their international experience give them an additional
edge. Additionally, these companies have been part of
markets where they have seen the eCommerce market
evolve and are aware of the challenges and strategies to
address issues thereof.
Indian companies realize this, and are therefore aiming to continue their focus on expanding sellers and selection on their platforms, innovating on multiple customer
touch points, and providing seamless and rapid delivery
services in order to compete with the international entities. Competition is expected to continue, with these
eCommerce companies experimenting with different ways
to attract customers and increase online traffic.

Digital india initiaive
The Indian government’s ambitious Digital India project
and the modernization of India Post will also affect the
eCommerce sector. The Digital India project aims to offer a
one-stop shop for government services that will have the
mobile phone as the backbone of its delivery mechanism.
The programme will give a strong boost to the eCommerce
market as bringing the internet and broadband to remote
corners of the country will give rise to an increase in
trade and efficient warehousing and will also present a
potentially huge market for goods to be sold.
For India Post, the government is keen to develop its
distribution channel and other eCommerce related services as a major revenue model going ahead, especially
when India Post transacted business worth 280 crore INR
in the cash-on-delivery (CoD) segment for firms such as
Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. Both these projects will
have significant impact on increasing the reach of eCommerce players to generally non-serviceable areas, thereby
boosting growth.
India’s overall retail opportunity is substantial, and
coupled with favoured demographics (young population,
rising standards of living and upwardly mobile middle
class) and a growing internet user base, strong growth in
eCommerce is expected. From an investment perspective, the market is a primarily minority stake market, with
maximum traction in early-stage deals. Such early stage
funding will help companies develop a strong foundation
30

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

online business models

To get the maximum benefit from eCommerce business,
a large number of companies are adopting different
innovative ideas and operating models including
partnering with online marketplaces or setting up their
own online stores.
Some key operating models include the following:
• Marketplace and pick-up & drop is a model where sellers
often partner with leading marketplaces to set up a
dedicated online store on the latter’s website. Here sellers
play a key role of managing inventory and driving sales.
They leverage on high traffic on the marketplaces’ website
and access their distribution network. However, the sellers
have limited say on pricing and customer experience.
• Selfowned inventory is a model where the eCommerce
player owns the inventory. The model provides better
postpurchase customer experience and fulfillment. It
provides smoother operations due to ready information
on the inventory, location, supply chain and shipments,
effectively leading to better control over inventory. On the
flipside, however, there are risks of potential mark downs
and working capital getting tied up in inventory.
• Private label reflects a business where an eCommerce
company sets up its own brand goods, which it sells
through its own website. This model offers a wide-ranging
products and pricing to its customers and competes with
branded labels. Here, margins are typically higher than
third-party branded goods.
• White label involves the setting up of a branded online
store managed by the eCommerce player or a third party.
The brand takes the responsibility of generating website
traffic and providing services by partnering with payment
gateways. It helps build trust, customer affinity and
loyalty and provides better control of brand and product
experience.
to start from. With such strong market prospects and an
equally upbeat investor community, many more eCommerce companies from India are expected to enter the
coveted billion-dollar club.
Source: eCommerce in India by PWC

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

specialfeature

MoBiLitY

How Online-only
Mobile Brands are
Redefining Retail
Increasingly, retailers are adopting an online-only
strategy to give their products unprecedented
visibility in tier 1 and tier 2 cities right from day
one, and at much lower costs
– Suresh Sharma, Founder and Director, iSpyPrice.com

I

n the last 12 months or so, a number of mobile brands
have adopted the online-only sales strategy and
results indicate that consumers have taken a liking to
this new approach.
In India, the online-only strategy was first embraced
by Motorola with their then flagship product Moto G in
partnership with India’s largest e-commerce marketplace,
Flipkart. When Motorola first announced this approach,
few market analysts would have expected the Moto G to
sell out within 15 minutes of its first opening. While this
event has been eclipsed by rival brands such as Xiaomi and
OnePlus, in hindsight, it will forever be remembered as the
beginning of a consumer trend that nobody had previously
anticipated.
Now that this model has stood the test of time and has
been adopted by a number of brands, reasons for its success are slowly coming to the fore.

Suresh Sharma
Founder and Director,
iSpyPrice.com

32

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

“Huge brands like Apple
aren’t likely to switch
to this sales channel
full-time anytime in the
near future. Their sales
are built upon brand
value and standing in
queue to buy an Apple
iPhone is still very
much a fan thing.”

reaching target market in smaller cities
One very plausible reason why mobile brands such as
Xiaomi and OnePlus have successfully entered the market
through their online-only strategy is the reach that an
online platform like Flipkart offers their product. By
adopting an online-only strategy, these brands are able to
reach consumers in smaller cities where the retail sector
isn’t organised as well as it is in bigger cities. An online-only
strategy actually allows these brands to give their products
unprecedented visibility in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities right
from day one. Another important factor why the onlineonly approach has worked is that with time, consumers
have grown more comfortable with online buying.
Consumer awareness of products has increased manifold
compared to what it was a few years ago.

offline buying is overrated
Consumer awareness and improved online buying
experiences have also led mobile brands into believing that
offline buying is overrated. These days, when consumers
want to buy a new phone; they often resort to comparing
the prices and specifications on offer from various brands
before arriving at a decision. This process can be best
executed online with a wide variety of brands for them to
choose from when compared to the limited variety they
might find at a retail store.
Also, the process of price and spec comparison is made
all the more simpler online thanks to price comparison
websites, so consumers don’t have to visit multiple physical
retail outlets before they can finally zero in on their choice.

the ability to control prices
Perhaps the most important reason why brands like

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Xiaomi, OnePlus, and even new entrants like InFocus are
using an online-only strategy is that this allows them to
control the pricing strategy of their products.
Just like other consumer electronics goods, mobile
brands have always had to go through the cumbersome distributor-retailer cycle to make their product
accessible to the consumer. In the traditional offline
model, mobile brands either build their own distribution
network or strike a deal with one or more established
distributors. And if you are a foreign brand looking to
make inroads into a local market, this cycle gets further
complicated.
In a market that changes every few months and has
an incredible number of competitors, building one’s own
distribution network is a hassle most foreign brands would
ideally want to avoid. This is mainly because this is a time
consuming process.
The other option for these brands is to opt for a
national distributor. These national distributors will end up
making a margin on the sale of each device, pushing the
price of the device up. Then come the regional distributors,
they also need to make a margin on the sale of each
device, pushing the device’s price further up. Finally, it’s
the turn of the retailers to make a margin on the sale of
each device. By this time, the price of the device goes up
by a fair notch.
If you think Xiaomi’s current flagship the Mi4′s 16
GB version is a steal deal at Rs. 19,999 consider adding
another Rs. 3,000-5,000, or maybe more, to that price
and it doesn’t sound like a steal deal anymore, does it?
That’s what the distributor-retailer cycle can do to the
price of a device. Xiaomi and the likes can afford to give
the consumer a favorable price because the online-only
strategy allows them to do so.
This is also why you get to see different prices for
the same devices on various e-commerce marketplaces.
Mobile brands are able to pass the benefit of price saving
to the consumer. The e-commerce brands also don’t need
to save a margin from a sub-retailer. It’s a win-win situation
for all parties involved.

A high success ratio
Motorola’s online-only strategy for the various versions of
the Moto G and later the Moto E was such an incredible
success that they ended up selling more than a million of
these devices. Xiaomi followed suit and has done well with
the sale of its Mi3, Mi4, and Redmi 1s devices. This strategy
has paid rich dividends for Xiaomi as they are now among
the top 3 smartphone brands in the world, third only to
Apple and Samsung.
Earlier this year, the Micromax-owned Yu Televentures
brand launched its first flagship product- the Yureka. They

entered into a deal with e-commerce giants Amazon for the
online sale of this device.
Brands such as Lenovo and Xolo have also decided to
adopt this strategy. Lenovo has already announced its plans
to take on the likes of Xiaomi with its online-only brand
Shenqi. Brands like vivo are making a foray into the market
taking advantage of this method.
Lava International’s smartphone brand Xolo has been in
the news for building its own e-commerce platform which it
intends to use for the purpose of reaching a wider consumer
base for an online-only sub-brand it is building.

this still isn’t the right choice for everybody
While the online-only strategy may have many ups, it also
offers no immediate reasons for bigger players to join the
bandwagon. Huge brands like Apple Inc. aren’t likely to
switch to this sales channel full-time anytime in the near
future. They have no reason to do so. Apple’s sales are built
upon brand value and standing in queue to buy an Apple
iPhone is still very much a fan thing. Apple’s marketing
makes the brand and its products desirable and that is why
switching to an online-only model seems highly unlikely.
Then there is the South Korean behemoth Samsung.
Samsung currently sells a large majority of its smartphones
through the traditional model. It does offer select e-tailers
exclusive deals where they can sell a particular Samsung
mobile through their online marketplace, but by and large
Samsung is a supporter of the traditional method and
believes in this sales channel.
Some would argue that’s only two brands to take into
consideration but the fact is these two are the current flagbearers of the mobile industry, the top two smartphone
makers in the world. And as long as they, and others like
them, are convinced, the offline distributor-retailer cycle is
likely to remain healthy in the foreseeable future.

Future prospects for the online-only strategy
While a number of these brands have taken to this approach,
it is undeniable that there are other factors that have led
to the success of this sales channel. The first is the growing
Internet penetration. India’s Internet penetration has grown
to 300 million+ and is on the rise all the time. Although
e-commerce is said to account for only about 1% of total
retail sales, this 1% accounted for sales worth $5.3 billion.
It is a given that as this online-only strategy by smartphone
brands takes shape, these figures will see a surge in sales.
The growing penetration of Internet is allowing
e-commerce brands to reach a critical mass of potential
customers and there is no doubt that in time, as more and
more mobile brands opt for an online-only strategy, e-tailing
would begin to rival traditional sales channels. Perhaps not
immediately, but definitely!

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

33

tech&trends

Internet Penetration in India
is at a Tipping Point
We interacted with Rajiv Sodhi, VP and MD for GoDaddy India on the ‘Internet
opportunity’ for small businesses in India, their challenges in going online and how to
alleviate them

– Anil Chopra and RashiVarshney

How unique is the indian market in terms of
internet connectivity?
India is second largest connected country in the world. We
have just overtaken USA, which has a total population of
about 330 million. India’s internet user based is now300
million. Globally, the internet grows about 14% -15%
worldwide in terms of connections. In India, it’s growing
at about 26%. China and India are fastest growing market.
India took 10 years to hit the first 100 million, 3 years for
200 million and 1 year for 300 million. This tells how fast
it is. Even at this figure, we are at about 18% penetration
of the whole population, which means 80% of the market
is yet to come online. This assures that India is one of the
most exciting markets to work in.

What’s the break-up of the 300 million user base of
internet users?
The country has a digital divide that splits India between
the tech savvy urban population, and the rural masses.
A large part of the Internet penetration is by the urban
population, but the other side of the divide has to be
brought online now. Already, out of the 300 million
users, 100 million are rural today, and what’s even more
fascinating is that they’re growing by 49% year-on-year.

Rajiv Sodhi, VP and MD, GoDaddy India

34

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

While the overall country is rising at about 26%, a large
part of this growth is driven by rural and tier 2-tier 3 towns,
which is primarily driven by mobile devices.

Most online users in rural india would be
consumers connecting from their mobiles. How
about the small and mid-sized businesses in these
areas? What are the challenges in taking them
online?
The three major constraining factors with SMBs in smaller
cities to go online are— access, awareness, and adoption.
Our number one problem is lack of ‘awareness’. Most
people are saddled from the ‘Not-for-me’ syndrome, and
that the Internet is only meant for big brands or firms. That
is a challenge companies like us are facing.
The second issue that people have is ‘complexity’. They
think that buying a domain name, setting up a website,
moving to social media and all are very complex.
The third challenge is that people think it is
very ‘costly’.
Indians are very conscious about value and returns. So
while India is usually referred to as a price sensitive market,
the truth is that it’s not price sensitive, but value sensitive.
So people have money to spare, but they will not spend if
they are not clear about the value it will give.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Moreover, India is a ‘Do-it-for-me (DIFM)’ country unlike western countries, which are more in the Do-it-Yourself
(DIY) mode. This has huge implications on what we are
trying to do.

What are companies like Godaddy doing to alleviate
these challenges?
The first thing that companies like ours are doing is driving
massive awareness about the ease and benefit of coming
online. We actually believe that 300 million is a tipping
point, because this is the size of America that is now
sitting online in India and as this market grows, a trader
or anybody cannot ignore such a market, which is doing
transaction at a much faster pace than offline is.
So our belief is that as long as we keep reaching out
to people in a manner they understand and in a language
they understand, the challenge of generating awareness
can be tackled. So till recently, we did campaigns with
famous personalities like Mithun Chakraborty to spread
our message. Now, we will do campaigns in local languages
because we know that people who’re coming online are
not from metros and are not English speaking people.
The second challenge of affordability can be tackled by
offering products that are both affordable and relevant. So
today, for as little as Rs 99 a month, one can get a domain,
website, and professional email.
Also, since India is a DIFM market, one needs support.
For that, we ensure that we provide 24*7 free customer
care to our customers.
So we are trying to make sure that people know it’s
easy, fast and simple. We are trying to build local bundles
that bring our solutions together so the number of steps
for customers is cut down.

How do you overcome the multiple local
languages barrier?
India is a country where language changes every 200
kilometers, so it’s tough to cover it at a national level. This
is where channels play a very important part as they can
talk to customers in their language and dialect. What’s
therefore required is to use a combination of pushing the
message from channels and advertising and branding with
regional flavor.

sMB owners can (and are) doing business with
freely available e-mail ids and a lot of them are
also registered with free online trading platforms.
Why would they invest in their own website and
email id?
If you want to start out, then you can do so with any of the
free packages, and there are dime a dozen available. The
same is the case with our website creation as well. You

can build it free, but for any new feature, one has to start
paying, which is where they need the right advice so that
they don’t spend exorbitant amounts.
With listing providers, typically we have seen people
repent it later. That’s because you have huge competition there. So if you are a plumber, then there are 15,000
other plumbers also on the same list, so you have no way
of differentiating. So as people start scaling their business,
they need additional services to differentiate themselves
from others. This happens gradually after the person gets
the first few orders from internet, and realizes that it’s a
potential new channel.

there’s another barrier of investing in a website,
but not getting any returns?
This is a big challenge because most people think that
website is the face, but companies have to realize that
it’s only a start. So one of the first things is to educate
the customer on the amount of traffic they will get. Our
concern is not whether they have a website or not, but
whether they have a content strategy or not, which can
feed their website. This also requires awareness creation,
and there are many resources online that help with this.
Even we have a section on our website called ‘Garage’ that
does this.
There’s also a marked difference between new age
and old age entrepreneurs. So, typically the new breed
of emerging entrepreneurs are typically young people,
who understand the importance of being online and
take it very seriously. As a result, they’ll first book
their domain name even if they don’t build a website
immediately.
We also found that India is high on identity and need,
which can be gauged through the number of documents
an Indian has for their identity in India. We see that many
SMBs especially traditional SMBs are very particular about
their reputation, and one small next step in the online
world can improve that and that’s again is a part of our
education.

What kind of sMBs are more aggressive in
going online?
Typically if a business is export centric, it would invest for
internet presence much faster than an artesian kind of
business. Verticals like professional services, education,
etc. are more aggressive in terms of IT spending. One thing
that helps take such businesses online are templates that
are more tuned to their requirements. Verticalization of
websites therefore helps, be it for professional services,
hospitality, wedding, jewelry, etc. At the same time
however, one has to also have a horizontal approach in
order to address the market at scale.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

35

coverstory

Internet of Things: The Road Ahead
Moving beyond the initial euphoria, IoT has steadily progressed to impact our
lives in several meaningful ways. Going forward we expect both businesses and
individuals to make steady returns on their investments

T

- Adeesh Sharma

he different stakeholders in the business of
IoT products and services coined several terms
initially to promote essentially the same idea—a
completely internetworked ecosystem where all
‘intelligent devices’ could communicate with each other
seamlessly. Moving beyond ‘rigid’ networks that were
enclosed within the four walls of an organisation towards
mobile devices and networks the idea seemed a logical implication of how the mobile ecosystem was set to
evolve in future. With their task clearly cut out, they set
themselves on the path to creating devices and solutions
that would help them establish this Internet of Things. As
36

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

with all key milestones in the history of IT, here again you
need industries that were going to thrive on the IoT. Some
would present the use case for IoT while others would have
to keep innovating and build solutions to fulfill that need.
Therefore, we find certain segments of the industry that
are more bullish on using IoT than others. Sensing a big opportunity, the solution providers too are bullish about the
devices and software they have created around IoT. There
is an ISV that has created SDKs and libraries to enable a
reliable cloud backend and a secure two way messaging
channel for IoT devices. Increasingly, we keep hearing of
new startups around IoT and how they innovate with their

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

offerings to keep customers interested. In the pages that
follow you get to read details on all of this and also the key
trends in the IoT enterprise space. Here are the highlights:

industries that are more bullish on iot
The recently unveiled Research Kit is a macro IoT
information gathering application that works with Apple’s
HealthKit mobile app which turns the iPhone into a
portable mHeatlh hub.
Likewise we’ve seen a few mobile devices that can be
connected to the body to relay heart monitoring information to healthcenters through the use of mobile apps
installed on the patient’s Android phones. The adoption
of wearable devices is expected to increase, providing key
information on a person’s activities, health and fitness.
The global oil and gas industry’s hunt for hydrocarbons
in increasingly remote, extreme environments is driving the
need for Internet of Things solutions within the industry.
The number of devices with cellular or satellite connectivity deployed in oil and gas applications around the world
was 423,000 at the end of 2013 which is estimated to rise
by 21.4 percent to 1.12 million by 2018.
Also, the continued reduction in the cost of manufacturing semiconductors makes it feasible to install them
on a range of everyday devices that were previously
unconnected. In its Internet of Things (IoT) 2013 to 2020
Market Analysis report, IDC estimates that spending on IoT
technology and services will touch $8.9 trillion by 2020, or
a 7.9% CAGR.
In retail, Amazon is already using flying drones and employing droves of autonomous robots in some of its huge
warehouses. These robots are the size of a lawn mower,
with hidden wheels that can drive them in all directions
and crisscross the smooth floor of the warehouse, lifting
and shuttling shelves with different kinds of merchandise.
In the retail industry, in-store sensors such as Bluetooth
beacons can track smartphones throughout the store and
record path-to-purchase data that can later be used to
optimize store layouts.
Automotive companies are already using IoT-enabled
technology to predict faults, quickly respond to maintenance conditions and take proactive action. Also, by
integrating factory-floor operations with core business

“The IoT market is likely
to experience around 28%
year-on-year growth, rising to
5.4 billion connections across
the globe by 2020”

processes can optimize production and real-time updates
from machine data can be used to gain predictive analytics
to automate parts and consumable ordering to maximize
revenue.

Developer tools that facilitate iot
All IoT devices require a reliable cloud backend and a
secure channel for communicating information captured
by these devices to the cloud backend. IoTfy is one such
platform that provides a reliable cloud backend and a
secure two way messaging channel. By using IoTfy’s
SDKs and libraries that are available for various hardware
platforms, hardware and device manufacturers can enable
their devices to leverage the power of IoT. The REST APIs
Framework helps device manufacturers to access data
coming from their devices and also helps them to connect
with third party internet services.

How start-ups are innovating to gain traction
CarIQ is a new IoT start up that makes your car smarter
with devices that record data from your car like mileage
and speed, driving patterns, etc. It also lets you compare
these stats with your friends, people around you or people
with the same car. SenseGiz offers tiny sensor chips that
you can attach to any of your personal belongings in order
to track them. It is user friendly and can be attached to any
surface for instance, your phone, wallet or keys. TeeWe
allows you to connect all your content to the TV through
a single device that has a Wi-fi connection, be it your
smart phone or laptop. The TeeWe also turns your phone
into a smart remote control therefore making it perfectly
user friendly. LifePlot is a portable electrocardiography
diagnosis tool. It records data of basic medical diagnosis
and provides solutions.

How iot is gaining momentum amongst businesses
By connecting ‘things’ in the real world — such as cars,
buildings, and industrial equipment — IoT promises to
revolutionize how we live and work. The IoT market is likely
to experience around 28% year-on-year growth, rising to
5.4 billion connections across the globe by 2020, counting
cellular, fixed line, satellite, and short-range wireless
connections, up from 1.2 billion devices in the year 2014.
In the automotive industry, Verizon’s telematics experts
note that 14 car manufacturers account for 80 percent of
the worldwide automotive market, and all of them have
a connected car strategy. Additionally, ABI Research cites
that organizations will introduce more than 13 million
health and fitness tracking devices into the workplace by
2018. The global market for sensors is expected to increase
to $91.5 billion by 2016, showing a compound annual
growth rate of 7.8 percent.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

37

coverstory
5 Key Industries that are Bullish on IoT
With the hype around IoT settling somewhat, it is time for a reality check as to how
both businesses and consumers across key industry segments can get up to speed
implementing this technology and reaping real benefits from it
- Adeesh Sharma

W

e have been repeatedly informed by top
market research organisations and vendors
that the IoT market is expected to grow
from 13 billion Internet-connected devices
in 2013 to 50 billion in 2020. But for this to happen there
are certain industry segments that have to commence work
now to actually make it happen and for them to work there
has to be a business case for them to eventually benefit
through this work. This article dwells on some of the key
industry verticals that are aggressively pushing towards IoT
and the reasons why they are so bullish.

Healthcare
One of the key verticals where IoT can play a big role
in saving people’s lives through timely and planned
monitoring of their vital parameters. Most companies have
their standalone devices out in the market that do the job
of connecting patients to doctors or even health insurance
companies through the internet. But a better system can
be built around the growing ecosystem of medical apps
that can leverage the billion mobile phones around the
globe that can pick data through sensors placed on the
body and relay the same to health centers.
The recently unveiled Research Kit is a macro IoT
information gathering application that works with
Apple’s HealthKit mobile app which turns the iPhone
into a portable mHeatlh hub. It is already integrated

with a number of wearables; connected scales, sleep
monitoring devices and even a stationary bike. The
ResearchKit aims to take the micro focus of single patient
monitoring and expand it exponentially by allowing the
700+ million iPhones out there to act as mobile medical
research devices.
Another iPad app, LaunchPad, is used by Novartis
representatives all around the world. It allows them to
immediately access data the doctor they are speaking to
finds most relevant to his patients, whether it is efficacy
in women, safety in the elderly or potential interactions
with other drugs that they regularly prescribe. It
includes interactive graphs and patient case studies, and
is easy to navigate.
Likewise we’ve seen a few mobile devices that can
be connected to the body to relay heart monitoring
information to healthcenters through the use of mobile
apps installed on the patient’s Android phones. One key
issue here is about finding subjects for clinical trials for a
number of reasons; time, geography, etc. By having people
opt-in with their existing connected devices, medical
research centers can get a cross section of users across
different, social & environmental subsections. Also, there
are privacy issues involved with people being reluctant to
share private information via mobile apps for the fear of
pilferage of information.
The adoption of wearable devices is expected to
increase, providing key information on a person’s activities,
health and fitness. Sensors or chips will increasingly
provide patients’ vital signs in real-time to medical
providers to enhance the quality of care. This technology
is also expected to help monitor and safeguard children
on the move in public places and those suffering from
cognitive conditions, including Alzheimer’s.
However, such medical apps and devices have the
potential to seriously disrupt the medical research industry
in a way we’ve never before seen.

oil and gas industry
The global oil and gas industry’s hunt for hydrocarbons in
increasingly remote, extreme environments is driving the
need for Internet of Things solutions within the industry.
The number of devices with cellular or satellite connectivity
38

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

deployed in oil and gas applications around the world was
423,000 at the end of 2013 which is estimated to rise by
21.4 percent to 1.12 million by 2018.
The tightening of regulations in the oil and gas industry,
coupled with accidents and cyberattacks is driving the shift
towards Internet of Things solutions. Another major driver
is operational efficiency, such as maintaining uptime in
production systems and optimizing operations to cope with
pricing pressures. So, instead of flying an expert out to a
remote oil and gas site to troubleshoot a problem, video
technology can allow remote experts and onsite workers
to share data and collaborate on solving an issue. They can
easily collate the well and sensor data to manage a number
of onshore or offshore wells.
The falling costs of sensors and introduction of
simple, easy-to-use next generation sensors are allowing
companies to more easily deploy sensors. The increase in
sensors in onshore and offshore oil and gas operations can
generate one to two terabytes of data per day per well.
These sensors can be used in a number of settings, from
wells to pipelines.
IoT can also bring along benefits in unconventional
oil and gas plays, where companies are adopting a
manufacturing approach to drilling and contending with
low gas prices. They can have more visibility in operations
in challenging environments such as ultra-deepwater
drilling.

semiconductors
Semiconductors are required more and more to play a key
role in the growing interconnectedness of things due to

the advent of cloud, as very large amounts of data has
to be transmitted to and received on wired or wireless
devices. The increasing demand for cloud services
shall push demand for servers and data centers. Also,
the continued reduction in the cost of manufacturing
semiconductors makes it feasible to install them on
a range of everyday devices that were previously
unconnected. In its Internet of Things (IoT) 2013 to 2020
Market Analysis report, IDC estimates that spending
on IoT technology and services will touch $8.9 trillion
by 2020, or a 7.9% CAGR. IDC’s estimates continue to
rise, given the growing enthusiasm for IoT, which should
generate demand for billions of semiconductors.
PC market growth will be moderate at best in the
next few years but this shall be more than made up by
the growth in mobile devices. A lot of the growth in the
next few years will come from price-sensitive emerging
markets, which will continue to pressure margins of
component suppliers. The mobile devices shall continue
to evolve through better functionality and experience
as processors within them shall operate at higher
speeds and consume lesser power. Emerging product
categories like 3D printers, health and fitness devices,
smart watches, Ultra HD television displays and smart
thermostats will see the strongest growth alongwith
smartphones and tablets.
The wireless infrastructure in the communications
market shall continue to grow as transition to 3G and
4G infrastructure continues. Spending on smart grids
and intelligent metering applications is expected to see
particularly strong growth. The automotive industry
shall continue to fuel growth in semiconductor tech
because the consumption of electronic components
for safety, infotainment, navigation and fuel efficiency
continues to increase.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

39

coverstory
retail

your favorite online store for home delivery. Such smart
switches could be configured for different products and
placed around the home for automating other mundane
tasks. Connecting home automation to e-commerce sites
could be the next wave of retailing.

Manufacturing

Amazon is already using flying drones and employing
droves of autonomous robots in some of its huge
warehouses. These robots are the size of a lawn mower,
with hidden wheels that can drive them in all directions
and crisscross the smooth floor of the warehouse, lifting
and shuttling shelves with different kinds of merchandise.
Cameras located underside scan coded directions painted
on the floor while the central computer wirelessly gives
orders to the cars to deliver the goods to human packers.
When a robot receives the order for certain merchandise
it identifies the shelf containing the ware, lifts it just a
few inches off the floor and carries it to a worker, who
only has to place the item into a box on a conveyer belt
to the shipping department. Such warehouse robots
could save Amazon as much as 40 percent of the cost of
fulfilling orders.
In-store sensors such as Bluetooth beacons can track
smartphones throughout the store and record path-topurchase data that can later be used to optimize store
layouts. They can also be used to target shoppers as they
traverse the aisles, providing contextual information and
offers as they go. And this extends to checkout, where
shoppers can use their NFC-equipped contactless cards
to pay for goods. At the retailers’ end, through the use of
smart wearables such as Google Glass, store managers
could get reports on the go as they scan the store,
comparing each department’s plan versus actual sales.
They could also scan bar codes to get extended product
information as well as inventory positions.
At home you could imagine pressing a button on
the wall of the laundry room whenever you run out
of detergent so a new bag is automatically ordered at
40

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Factories and plants that are connected to the Internet
are more efficient, productive and smarter than their
non-connected counterparts. The increase of sensors and
readers across the manufacturing and distribution chain
can streamline and maximize practices, greatly enhancing
productivity. IoT can provide end-to-end visibility across
manufacturing operations. Automotive companies
are already using IoT-enabled technology to predict
faults, quickly respond to maintenance conditions and
take proactive action. Also, by integrating factory-floor
operations with core business processes can optimize
production and real-time updates from machine data can
be used to gain predictive analytics to automate parts and
consumable ordering to maximize revenue.
For instance, imagine a truck with some 50-100
sensors, but they aren’t coordinated. If connected and
with geolocation, you can see traffic jams in advance and
do rerouting. If you see a problem with a truck you can
proactively schedule maintenance. Connected logistic
capability enables managers to manage large depots
and hubs. All this improves customer service. With new
visibility into manufacturing, companies are capturing
data and using it to reduce downtime, for predictive
maintenance, building analytics and enabling business
solutions. Likewise, by installing sensors and actuators
at different points in an assembly line, managers can
instantly find out the status of production. They are able
to share that information and data with coworkers in
other departments.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

coverstory
How ‘IoTfy’ Plans to Build an Ecosystem
for IoT Device Makers
By using IoTfy’s SDKs and libraries that are available for various hardware platforms,
hardware and device manufacturers can quickly enable their devices to leverage the
power of IoTfy…
- Rashi Varshney

M

ost recently, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s ‘Zero defect,
zero effect’ slogan for high
quality manufacturing in India
without impacting the environment was in
a highlight as the country’s first Internet of
Things policy. According to a document titled
‘Draft policy on Internet of Things’, which is
published by the department of electronics
and information technology, the government
will setup projects using IoT for planning
preventive and in-time maintenance for
equipment in various manufacturing
verticals. The government will offer up
to 100% duty benefit on imports of raw
materials required for manufacturing
IoT products. Raw materials purchased
from domestic market will be entitled for
reimbursements of excise duty and CST.
For the first time, the government is giving
special preference to young companies to get
best of technology implemented for various
projects in the country. Moreover, the Centre
of Excellence for Internet of Things (CoE-IoT) will host
IoT incubation infrastructure to support start-ups, SMEs,
students and other innovators based on membership and
support from design to prototype in productizing their
ideas.
With such interest from the government, it is quite
hard for techies with innovative bend of minds to not
capitalize on it. Having said that, a bunch of tech savvy
entrepreneurs, Arpit Chhabra, Shivam Dikshit, Shashank
Saxena, Sushant Taneja and Saurabh Shandilya are building
India’s first IoT cloud platform called IoTfy. IoTfy is a cloud
platform that provides a reliable cloud infrastructure for
IoT device makers.

What iotfy does to promote iot
IoT is a network of devices that communicate among
themselves using internet without human intervention.
42

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Simply put, it’s basically connecting any device to the
Internet (and/or to each other).
Generally speaking, things, in IoT, can vary from
medical devices such as smart health monitoring
devices, automobiles with built-in sensors that captures
vital information about the automobiles, smart
thermostat systems like Nest, or home appliances such
as air conditioners, dishwashers that utilize Wi-Fi for
remote monitoring.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

All these devices require a reliable cloud backend
and a secure channel for communicating information
captured by these devices to the cloud backend. IoTfy as
a platform takes care of both these parts by providing a
reliable cloud backend and a secure two way messaging
channel. By using IoTfy’s SDKs and libraries that are
available for various hardware platforms, hardware and
device manufacturers can quickly enable their devices to
leverage the power of IoTfy.
Along with this, IoTfy’s REST APIs Framework helps
device manufacturers to access data coming from their
devices and also helps them to connect with other third
party internet services.
“We are a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for IoT.
Think of us as a Wordpress for IoT. The way we have
designed IoTfy, we believe IoTfy has potential to disrupt
the IoT space in a manner similar to how Wordpress
disrupted the web publishing space. Specific focus while
designing IoTfy has been on making it no-brainer for
hardware and device manufacturers to set-up their cloud
infrastructure within minutes.” said Arpit, who has been
a serial entrepreneur before, having built and sold two
businesses before starting with IoTfy.

How iotfy works
IoTfy is a cloud platform designed to quickly
setup cloud backend for hardware, one can
think of it as Wordpress for IoT. Apart from
utilizing the cloud backend, secure two-way
communication channel, and Representational
State Transfer (REST) APIs framework, hardware
manufacturers can also create customized user interface
to their end users. For instance, using IoTfy a GPS tracker
manufacturer can setup a custom user interface for user
of their GPS tracker, who can visit the site and track the
location of the GPS tracker.

sDKs and Libraries
IoTfy provides SDKs and Libraries for hardware platforms
such as Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone, Arduino, and custom
hardware devices for easily connecting the devices to
Iotfy’s cloud backend. By end of this year, IotFy will also
release platform for the Android, iOS, and Web SDKs to
make the offering more robust.

two-way messaging
IoTfy provides secure two-way messaging service
that allows you to send data from your server to your
devices, and also to receive messages from devices
on the same service. This service handles all aspects
of security, queueing of messages and delivery to the
target devices.

rest APis Framework
IoTfy also provides robust REST APIs framework to help a
hardware developer to connect and access data coming
from the devices and other third party internet services.
According to the founding team, IoTfy has been
developed keeping in mind requirements of the entire
ecosystem and in most of the cases, IoT platforms don’t
consider the requirements of the end user. The team’s
vision is to provide an IoT platform that does not neglect
the end users and that is the reason why they have IFTTT
like recipes and recipe store.
Founded in San Francisco, California, IFTTT is a webbased service that allows an user to create chains of simple
conditional statements, called ‘recipes’, which are triggered
based on changes to other web services such as Gmail,
Facebook, Instagram,etc. For instance, a ‘recipe’ might
consist of sending an e-mail message if the IFTTT user
tweets using a certain hashtag. Or, if the user is tagged by
someone on Instagram, then that photo will be posted to
user’s flicker account automatically. This kind of recipes
would be available at IoTfy.
On enquiring about the challenges faced in developing
the product, Sushant mentioned, “Shivam & Shashank
have been involved in developing custom IoT solutions for
enterprises for last four years and their knowledge about
the space helped us in designing IoTfy.” Shivam Dikshit,
Shashank Saxena are founders of ATRIM Electronics,
a government funded market leader in Electronic
Consultancy and Design. While Sushant Taneja is presently
involved with SnapDeal’s team.
Internet of Things (IoT, or devices connected to the
Internet), which is poised to be the biggest technological
revolution yet, and expected to create $2.7–6.2 trillion of
economic impact globally by 2025 . This impact is likely to
be created by leveraging IoT to do business through novel
forms of customer interaction, following new business
models centred on assets and information and dynamic
pricing, and by enhancing and optimizing operations
through better efficiency, quality and safety.
Because of the vast opportunities in this domain,
the startup has also garnered investor interests from
senior entrepreneurs and industry veterans in India and
is expecting to raise its first round of funding by June.“We
are already in the market and are in talks with strategic
investors. Presently we are in talks with some investors in
the US & Singapore region,” told Shivam.
The paltfrom IoTfy is running in alpha mode as of now
and presently the product is an invite only for hardware
developers. The founding team is planning to launch the
beta version of the product in July this year. On the way
forward, the team will also integrate big data analysis for
developers, which will leverage BI for device makers.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

43

coverstory

Innovative IoT Start-Ups
Here are some innovative startup companies in India that are currently paving
the way for IoT to become a reality Here are some interesting IoT innovations
- Ashwin Meshram, CEO, Sqy! Rewards

C

ountries all over the world are adopting this new approach and this will result in a number of new start ups that
will take over the market like a storm. This new era in technology shall give rise to a number of job opportunities
and entrepreneurs. Here are some interesting IoT innovations:

CarIQ is a new IoT start up that makes your car smarter with devices that record data from your car
like mileage and speed, driving patterns, etc. It also lets you compare these stats with your friends,
people around you or people with the same car.

TeeWe allows you
to connect all your
content to the TV
through a single
device that has a
Wi-fi connection, be
it your smart phone
or laptop. The TeeWe
also turns your phone
into a smart remote
control therefore
making it perfectly
user friendly.

LifePlot is a portable
electrocardiography diagnosis tool.
This product is a medical monitoring
device which records data of basic
medical diagnosis and provides
solutions. This device is connected
to the internet at all times and
provides instant diagnosis for
common medical issues.
44

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

SenseGiz offers tiny sensor chips that you can attach to
any of your personal belongings in order to track them.
This helps majorly in case you lose a lot of stuff. It is user
friendly and can be attached to any surface for instance,
your phone, wallet or keys.
IoT is going to be one of the most influential trends
in technology and will surely up the stakes for markets all
over the world. The IoT protocol shall be adopted on a
wide scale in the near future therefore, bringing on a new
era in the world saga.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

coverstory

2015: The Year of Cloud & IoT
While the IoT
may still be in its
infancy, within a
few years it will
be commonplace,
giving those looking
to take advantage
of the next big
technological
movement little
time to get up to
speed
- Santhosh D’Souza, Director Systems Engineering, NetApp

T

he last decade has witnessed tech innovation
that dominates any human development unlike
anything we have seen before. While complexities of technology continue to evolve with the
evolution of technology itself, we have been fairly successful developing mutually complementary solutions that not
only address various technological needs but also in turn
generate new opportunities.
Two such technologies that have mutually evolved and
combined synergistically are cloud and mobile. Without the
cloud many of the mobile apps we have today would not
exist. These applications rely on the biosphere of powerful
cloud-based syncing and storage technology to provide a
compelling cross-platform user experience.
But mobile is just the beginning. As processors become

“Just as the Internet
transformed businesses and
lifestyles in the last twenty
years, IoT, along with the
evolving app environment
and cloud support, will
transform how organizations
do business.”
46

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

ever smaller, cheaper, and more powerful, ‘man’ is trying
to incorporate these innovations into objects that were not
traditionally “intelligent.” There is considerable benefit to
be reaped from adding computational abilities to appliances and everyday items, and equipping them with a connection to the Internet. At a personal level, convenience
features, such as fitness monitoring, automotive safety,
better financial services offerings, or lower insurance rates
are driving adoption from consumers. From a business
perspective, the IoT is quite transformative.

Businesses stand to gain most from iot
Businesses can deliver brand new experiences to
customers, which are highly automated due to the nature
of the IoT. Customers will often pay more for smart services
because of their value-add such as seamless convenience.
Since these new services are often highly automated, the
IoT offers enticing margin for most businesses. In fact,
many industry influencers have predicted that it could
bring a significant economic value-add to the global
economy in coming years.
Gartner predicts that The Internet of Things (IoT) has
a potential transformational effect on the data center
market, its customers, technology providers, technologies,
sales and marketing models. Gartner estimates that the IoT
will include 26 billion units installed by 2020, and by that
time, IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

When reviewed individually, each aspect of the IoT is
not exactly revolutionary. What is different now is that the
underlying infrastructure and makeup of the Internet has
finally matured enough to handle these billions of devices,
thanks to recent technological advances like big data and
the cloud.
Both of these technological aspects play a large role
in IoT success, and for businesses that are looking to take
advantages of these connected devices, mastering the IoT
begins with understanding why it is so powerful.

Mature cloud ecosystem to drive iot
Just as with mobile, the Internet of Things will depend
heavily on the cloud for processing power, storage, and
interconnectedness. It provides a level of connectivity
that was previously impossible for all but the biggest of
enterprises, due to the large hardware footprint that was
once required for these types of initiatives.
With the growing presence of WiFi and 4G-LTE wireless
Internet access, the evolution toward ubiquitous information and communication networks is already evident.
However, for the Internet of Things vision to successfully
emerge, the computing criterion will need to go beyond
traditional mobile computing scenarios that use smart

phones and portables, and evolve into connecting everyday existing objects and embedding intelligence into our
environment.
The combination of cloud computing and IoT has
enabled ubiquitous apps and powerful processing of
data streams beyond the capability of individual “things”,
through mobile devices. As more devices connect to the
Internet, mobile apps are poised to evolve further with
the help of IoT, which is bringing with it new experiences
customized to a more-connected environment.
In the foreseeable future, it can be suspected that
special-purpose clouds and applications will emerge to
focus specifically on connecting devices and machines.
They’ll gather data quickly, likely streaming off devices with
very little structure, as well as performing quick analysis of
the data with the ability to instantly respond to the device.
Just as the Internet transformed businesses and lifestyles in the last twenty years, IoT, along with the evolving
app environment and cloud support, will transform how
organizations do business. While it is complex, and poses
some risks, it can help innovate new processes and initiatives to increase an organization’s business performance,
and create customer delight with new products and
services.

India’s leading IT Magazine, is available on iOS,
Android Tablets and Smartphones!
Get the hottest tech news, trends,
product reviews, comparisons,
software sneak peeks and much
more - on the go.
Subscribe to the digital issue
of PCQuest on:
Zinio: http://www.zinio/pcquest
Magzter: http://bit.ly/PCQuestMag
Readwhere: http://ld2.in/4ft

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

47

coverstory

Internet of Things Gains
Momentum Among Businesses
25% of car buyers said that connectivity made a vehicle much more desirable at the
time of purchase
- Compiled by Preeti Gaur

E

nterprise adoption of the Internet of Things is
starting to gain momentum as the IoT market is
set to rise to 5.4 billion connections by the year
2020. A Verizon report explains what is IoT, what
the organizations are doing with it, and how businesses can
get the most out of it. Read on
By connecting ‘things’ in the real world — such as
cars, buildings, and industrial equipment — IoT promises
to revolutionize how we live and work. From wearable
devices to smart cities, the benefits reported have
prompted organizations of all sizes to ask how IoT might
affect their organization and their industry, and what they
can do with it.
The report ‘State of the Market: The Internet of Things
(IoT) 2015: Discover How IoT is Transforming Business
Results’, details key factors that are driving the increase in
IoT deployments and includes guidance for business and
public sector leaders on developing an IoT strategy. The
IoT market is likely to experience around 28% year-on-year
growth, rising to 5.4 billion connections across the globe by
2020, counting cellular, fixed line, satellite, and short-range
wireless connections, up from 1.2 billion devices in the
year 2014.

number of B2B iot connections - forecast
5.4B

1.2B
2014

2020

In the automotive industry, Verizon’s telematics experts
note that 14 car manufacturers account for 80 percent of
48

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Measurable benefits from iot projects
By 2025, organizations that adopt IoT extensively will be at
least 10% more profitable than competitors that don’t.
• Transportation companies are saving millions of dollars
by reducing fuel consumption using data captured,
transmitted, and analyzed in near real-time.
• Local governments are making budgets go further with
LED smart street lighting that doesn’t need regular
maintenance, but can automatically report when it
needs to be repaired.
• Utility companies are eliminating costly and
inconvenient home visits to read meters by introducing
smart meters that report more granular usage data
without human intervention.

the worldwide automotive market, and all of them have
a connected car strategy. Additionally, ABI Research cites
that organizations will introduce more than 13 million
health and fitness tracking devices into the workplace
by 2018. Verizon experts predict that by 2025 smart
cities capabilities will become a critical consideration for
companies deciding where to invest and open facilities,
due to their impact on operating costs and talent
availability.
“When you look across the spectrum, IoT covers a
multitude of solutions, from wearable devices, to remote
monitoring of energy management devices to industrial
transportation to improve safety and efficiency. New use
cases are created every day; however, the business case for
IoT and enterprise adoption often gets overlooked,” says
Mark Bartolomeo, vice president IoT Connected Solutions
at Verizon. “Within the past year, amid an improving
economy, we’ve seen a number of new entrants starting
to use IoT as a roadmap to improve their customers’
experiences, accelerate growth and create new business
models that are driving societal innovation.”

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Factors fueling iot

iot Growth supports Current trends

Various technological, political and social factors are
driving the growth of IoT:
Declining cost of sensors, increasing connectivity,
and data processing power is making the ROI equations
for IoT projects look even more appealing.
According to a BCC Research report, the global
market for sensors is expected to increase to $91.5
billion by 2016, showing a compound annual growth rate
of 7.8 percent.
Use of social media & mobile technology
transformed consumer and citizen expectations.
Improving insight has become a strategic priority for
many organizations. Use analytics and cloud-enabled
platforms are making it possible to understand and
engage with your customers better, whatever medium
they choose. IoT can help by making services personal,
better and accessible.
Changing regulatory requirements across a number
of industries is also powering IoT adoption. Organizations
are using IoT in their efforts to meet new environmental
standards and safety targets. For example, smart grid
solutions are enabling energy and utility companies to
improve efficiency and cut waste. And train companies
and automotive manufacturers are fitting vehicles with
IoT-enabled systems that can predict and help prevent
accidents.
The IoT market’s investor and consumer confidence
has grown. This is making businesses more receptive
to investing in new technologies. The ability to gather
data and turn it into insight is an important factor in
building and sustaining competitive advantage. IoT
can help businesses to increase revenue, improve
operational efficiency and bring out innovations. For
example, industrial equipment manufacturers are selling
outcomes, like machine hours, rather than just products.
M2M sensors can enable organizations to monitor
assets, from elevators to shipping containers, in near
real time. For example, food and drug manufacturers can
monitor shipping containers for changes in temperature
that could affect product quality and safety using cheap
battery-powered sensors and 4G LTE connectivity. And
farmers are using IoT to improve yields while conserving
water, a precious commodity in many places.
The ‘off-the-shelf’ IoT solutions are also starting to
materialize with greater frequency as a replacement
for highly customized solutions, which have historically
characterized many enterprise IoT implementations.
And a broader IoT landscape brings greater security
challenges. Digital certificates can help address growing
C-suite and public concerns and meet regulatory
demands around IoT and security.

IoT business witnessed 45 percent year-over-year revenue
growth in 2014, with 4GLTE activations growing by 135
percent. At present, Verizon manages more than 15 million
IoT-enabled connections for a wide range of industries.
According to the report, M2M connections on Verizon’s
network increased from 2013 to 2014 by sector:
Manufacturing 204%
Finance and Insurance 128%
Media and Entertainment 120%
Home Monitoring 89%
Retail and Hospitality 88%
Transportation and Distribution 83%
Energy and Utilities 49%
Public Sector/Smart Cities 46%
Healthcare and Pharmaceutical 40%

Barriers to Growth
Recent growth in M2M connections and a global spotlight
on IoT-enabled solutions notwithstanding, widespread
enterprise adoption is currently low. Just 10 percent of
enterprises have deployed IoT technologies extensively —
suggesting that many organizations are in a pilot phase or
are waiting for more insights from early adopters. This also
applies to widely covered categories such as the connected
car. According to Verizon’s telematics experts, more than
600 million vehicles worldwide are currently not connected
to a network.
While the core technologies powering the Internet of
Things — sensors, cloud computing, intelligent networking
— are familiar to most businesses and public sector
organizations, formulating a viable strategy and developing
IoT solutions can be highly complex. There’s still a lot more
work to be done in regard to the creation and ratification
of industry standards.
“As machine-to-machine technology adoption
continues to move downstream with millions of endpoints
connected, it will change how we see cybersecurity and
privacy,” Bartolomeo says. “Our role is to help key decision
makers tackle complexities like security head-on by
encouraging a more proactive posture in order to create
value for their organizations while reducing potential risk.”
Source: State of the Market: The Internet of Things (IoT)
2015: Discover How IoT is Transforming Business
Results, Verizon

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

49

coverstory

How IoT is
Going to Impact
Our Lives
IoT will generate enough Big
Data which has the potential to
dramatically increase productivity,
and reduce the marginal cost of
producing and delivering a full range
of goods and services across the
entire economy
- Krishnakumar Gangaatharan, Solution Architect - Global Service Providers, AppDynamics

T

oday’s engineering is making science fiction
look obsolete. Technology pioneers are creating products that seemed nearly impossible a
decade back. With the Internet of Things, (IoT)
we’re going to witness a rage of budding entrepreneurs giving meaning to everyday objects – constantly making them
smarter and improving automation.
Every household object from dishwashers to refrigerators to blankets is going to be embedded with computing
chips. As more inanimate objects get intelligent, we’re
going to have more processing power than the computer
NASA used to land astronauts in the moon.
But to take this vision to realisation, one needs to make
sense of data and be able to change lines and lines of
machine code in real-time. To sustain the IoT market, it has
to be built under the backbone of analytical data. Without
objects actually acting ‘smart,’ by understanding patterns
and preferences, this market will simply not be able to
scale for end consumers.

“The smartphone is a classic
example of how IoT tech can
be brought under one roof. The
phone acts as a simple solution
that collates disparate nodes of
data and unifies them, making
tech engaging and intuitive.”
50

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

What an iot enabled home looks like
IoT will redefine the way humans interact with their
surroundings. A wrist band will monitor your sleep, the
blanket will highlight movement, a bed will adjust itself
based on posture, an opaque smart glass on your window
will turn transparent to let sunshine stream into your
room, a toothbrush that highlights dental hygiene. Step out
of your room, into the kitchen and you will find a steaming
hot cup of coffee waiting for you. Your water heater is
ready, your music system starts humming away. The
entire building is smart and everything is automated. The
government has allocated $962 million for smart cities in
its federal budget for the year and the country is attracting
several international investments on this front. With the
proliferation of smart cities, structuring data is an absolute
must to make these cities sustainable.
These technologies are already out there in the market.
Several tech giants and scores of start-ups are working to
make IoT a reality.Because of the endless range of possibilities and the customisable nature of IoT, many smaller companies are making strides in this space. With introduction
of devices like Raspberry pi and SDK’s like Java ME the IoT
revolution is happening faster than one would imagine. The
millennials love IoT. This new age of tech savvy enthusiasts
are also breeding and educating their peers on the benefits
and use cases of IoT solutions.
Each of these devices run apps on a network, to send
receive and process data. If these devices do not seamlessly interact with each other, an IoT solution can become
a veritable nightmare. Not much can go wrong if the coffee

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

machine makes the wrong coffee or the windows remain
opaque in the mornings. But if the home security system
is a part of IoT, a wrong line of code can result in anything
ranging from a false alarm to the cops or the entire house
being burgled. Things could turn nastier if stoves and gas
burners are also on the network and happen to misbehave.
Therefore, before a marketable product is available, data
collection is vital to iron out glitches and errors.
For the mass application of IoT, technology has to be
entirely agnostic. A consumer should not be forced to
interact with a dozen chips, when the idea is to automate
processes. The smartphone is a classic example of how IoT
tech can be brought under one roof. The phone acts as a
simple solution that collates disparate nodes of data and
unifies them, making tech engaging and intuitive. But the
smartphone has a few inherent limitations that can be addressed by wearable tech, bringing you one step closer to
the concept of IoT.

Wearable technology –A mascot for the iot market
Wearable technology has been there for a while now. But
the introduction of the Apple smart watch is said to herald
mass acceptance of wearable tech across the globe. Being
the precursor to IoT, the Apple Watch also runs a host of
applications which helps the useruse less of the phone and
yet be aware of your surroundings by the flick of your wrist.
Several application developers are working on developing
easy to use apps for the Apple Watch. This might seem like
a simple task, but it involves a lot of testing and precise
coding. It is not easy to build an app for a device with such
compact hardware.The app should be smart enough to
conserve battery life and provide an unrivalled experience
to the consumer. To speed things along and monitor the
performance of applications on the watch, developers
need Application Performance Management tools to get
the best of their applications.
Our expertise helps developers analyse their code
and identify bottlenecks down to the line of code causing
errors. This allows the developer roll-out the ideal product. Once the product is marketed, insights can be driven,
making it easier for a consumer to automate redundant
processes and allowing a maker gain usage patterns to
better the product. With AppDynamics’ real-time monitoring, developers can monitor end user experience of the
app and enhance that experience by modelling suitable
runtime architecture for each app. This way the intricate
technology works in the background, making it easier for a
consumer and the maker.
By helping developers easily sift through the code and
make changes in a real-time environment, rich analytics
can be unearthed about the behaviour of applications. The
software visually represents the data for the developers

“By helping developers easily
sift through the code and
make changes in a real-time
environment, rich analytics
can be unearthed about the
behaviour of applications.”
to quickly identify the key data points which are critical to
the application. It also plots the geographic distribution of
the application users. Errors and time lags are plotted on
charts in real-time, providing the developer with useful
information and helping in improving the performance of
the application.

Data will be the kingmaker
Let’s take an example ofan app developer designing
a fitness tracking app for the Apple Watch. Using
AppDynamics’ product, the developer can identify
unnecessary code that causes the app to run slow, the
areas which increase lag and make the user experience
distorted. Even before the app is ready, the developer can
test it to ensure that it is lighter and faster.
After the app is rolled out, the maker can also get
insights into how the app is being consumed by different
users across the globe. This data is vital in understanding
pain points of the app, areas of improvement and ways to
make the application more engaging for a consumer. With
the plethora of apps in the market, developers need to get
it right the first time. This is possible only by analysing data
and constantly working on the code to market the best
available product.
Spotting patterns and automating repetitive tasks
is critical to IoT.A lot of technology is still in its infancy
and the concept is new to app developers and product
manufacturers alike. App development and support is
necessary to make IoT related technology available to a
wider audience.
As a concept IoThas the potential to shape the future.
According to Jeremy Rifkin, a social thinker, IoT will
generate enough Big Data which has the potential to “...
dramatically increase productivity, and reduce the marginal
cost of producing and delivering a full range of goods
and services to near zero across the entire economy.”
While companies are developing technology related
to IoT it is important for developers to ensure they’re
deployed successfully with minimal errors. We need
more automation; one that is user-friendly providing the
customers with an experience that is not just satisfactory,
but entirely exhilarating.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

51

coverstory

How Indian Government can secure
the smart cities of the future
PM Narendra Modi’s vision Digital India would require reducing the ability for
hackers to gain access and visibility of the IP infrastructure, for which solutions are
available in the market
- Rashi Varshney

W

ith a lot of buzz around smart cities, a lot of
people would guess Cyber Security is a top
priority for governments lately, and in the
foreseeable future. The Indian government
is looking for solutions that deliver components such as
video surveillance, engagement solutions and sensors to
enable IoT faster than it has ever been imagined. From
a more fundamental security point of view, governments
and enterprises are concerned about anyone penetrating
their corporate networks and assets, which exposes their
intellectual property and of course potential citizens and
customer information. Therefore, seeking for solutions that
reduce the ability for hackers to gain access and visibility
of their IP infrastructure and topology, tops the minds of
decision makers in the private and public sector.
We spoke to Jean Turgeon, VP & Chief Technologist,
Software Defined Architecture, Avaya to know more
about the relevance of security in the Smart City and
Internet of Things.

Vision and challenges for the indian government
India is entering into an ‘era of engagement’ which will
be the engine of value creation to the country and its

people. With this, the Government of India has come up
with innovative initiatives like the Digital India, Smart City,
and Make in India initiatives. With these initiatives, the
government is aiming to bring the changes like ‘Digital
India’ which means wide fiber optic country by 2016 and
digitization of government services. Also, ‘smart cities’
initiative implies 2500 Wi-Fi enabled cities over three years
and providing services to education, healthcare, financial,
and ‘Make in India’ initiative, which means sustainable
growth and boost in the country’s overall exports.
Turgeon said that he is pleasantly surprised with some
areas in India where some applications have been developed to provide instant location services as the person in
crisis dials for emergency. This means some systems have
already established both a voice and data channel, allowing
location to be immediately sent to a central command, as
the individual dials for emergency.
The next step is to take full advantage of the multimedia capabilities and also enable a discrete video channel
when dialing for emergencies. One benefit of the data
channel through simple functionality is SMS; this means
a video can be pushed to the person in crisis. Imagine
someone having a heart attack in a restaurant right next
to you but you are not CPR trained, what do you do?
What if the emergency services operator could instantly
forward you a video showing how to perform CPR? This
can save a life, elaborated Turgeon. This is what he calls
‘smart-safety’, which is now live in many parts across the
world and the region, but there is a wide opportunity to
progress and make it consistent across countries.

Do smart cities create security challenges?

Jean Turgeon, VP & Chief Technologist, Software Defined
Architecture, WW Sales, Avaya

52

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

First, a smart city is more than just enabling Wi-Fi
services. While Wi-Fi is certainly one of the services,
part of most smart cities initiatives are adding video
surveillance and analytics in very large scale, which
is quite difficult once again when using a legacy
infrastructure, according to Turgeon.
As governments provision all these new capabilities and
services to their smart cities, they will have to review their

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

infrastructure to be able to scale and
meet the real time analytics requirements. They would also have to
consider adding sensors technology
to address various needs contributing to making the city safer. As an
example, if the city uses natural gas,
they may want to implement sensors
to detect the flow and potential leaks
of gas throughout the city to quickly
react to a potential issue. Turgeon
summarized that, smart cities will
improve security as opposed to
augment or create security risks if
properly implemented.

iot with security
To address and enhance security as
part of a smart city initiative, many
devices such as cameras, sensors,
wearables, etc. need to be deployed
and implemented. All these require
connectivity at the edge of the
networking infrastructure. Of course,
carrier wireless will play a key role
into this, but many will require
connectivity to the city infrastructure
and even the carrier connected
devices will likely have to connect
securely back to some common
analytics infrastructure securely.
All these are referred as edge
devices which are what the IoT or
Internet of Everything (IOE) is all
about. Turgeon points out that the
challenge is how to securely connect
all these devices at the edge of a
city network, and connect securely
the ones through a carrier or third
party infrastructure? This means
we need much more agility to add
thousands of devices to a network
that, in the past, would require
multiple physical networks to scale
and not compromise security. IoT
and security as well
as scalability and reliability, all
need to be seriously evaluated.
What is the point of deploying IoT
if it cannot scale, is not secure and
reliable? That wouldn’t be too smart
would it?
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

According to Turgeon, in the
end it converges to the need for
next generation architecture to
address the next generation smart
cities needs. This can’t be achieved
with a 20 or 25 years old client /
server architecture. A due diligence
is definitely required to achieve
these objectives. The good news
is that there is a solution to this, a
next generation matrix architecture
based on Ethernet transport and
optimized for IP services regardless
of their connectivity methodology.
Avaya introduced SDN Fx for that
exact reason, to scale, enhance
security to smart cities and IoT/IoE.

How can governments make
their cities safer?
Cities have to move to a different
architecture model to support next
generation smart-x services, said
Turgeon. The legacy client-server
model has served us well, but over
25 years we have increased its
complexity and made reliability
a huge challenge due to complex
protocols required to address all of
these business needs. From security,
to scalability, to video streaming
to recovery times from failures;
the legacy model is no longer
suitable and it is time to press the
‘reset’ button and start with a new
mindset. JR added that it is all about
Ethernet and IP.
The market has to stop tolerating vendors trying to fool them
and challenge all of them to offer
something innovative and suitable
to meet the smart cities, IoT/IoE
requirements. Turgeon said that
the technology is available now, but
some vendors are lagging behind
because they have been so fixated
on the data center. Seeing this
opportunity stepping in, Avaya differentiated its offering by optimizing
its next generation architecture to
be tailored to enable IP services
over Ethernet.
MAY 2015

PCQuest

53

developer

Who Owns Your
Android Application?

In spite of the world’s most accomplished security professionals working on the
Android platform, there have been cases where a user should not have ‘trusted’
the released application. Here are some precautions how developers can take to
reduce vulnerabilities in Android applications
– Nazneen Rupawalla, Application Developer, ThoughtWorks

J

ust as with any software system, Android has its
list of security concerns. And it’s a pretty tough
competition between the Android platform developers on one side and the hackers on the other.
The flexible platform works on heavy collaborations
between applications, and dependencies can range from
simple to complex. In this scenario, the dependencies are
bound to be exploited to acquire data, passwords, and
eventually control over the application.
In this series, are listed a few security measures that
can be adopted right from the development stage, to
avoid ‘introducing’ vulnerabilities in Android applications.
Here is a typical Android application:
On studying the diagram, if one was asked to list down
the components that could cause the Android device to
leak data or capabilities, what would the most probable
answer be?

For e.g., an application requires the user’s location
for a feature. As this is a temporary purpose, a
developer could store the location obtained in a
world readable file. But then Boom! we have another
application accessing the location without requesting
the appropriate permissions. The effectiveness of the
permission model is nullified.
4. The content provider could grant access to the
database.
5. The data transmitted over the network could be in
clear text or there is the possibility of the web service
being compromised.
Most of you might believe that with the Android
permission model in place, there should not be any fear
of compromising security. And yes, it is most often easier
to write a secure app in Android than it is to write an
insecure app but only when one knows what’s safe and
what’s not safe.
Here are a few do’s and don’ts as well a few tools that
could help one develop a secure application.

Dealing with intentFilters
The Requirement:
The same service needs to be initiated for two different jobs.
The Implementation:
This code is for let’s say, Application 1.
A typical Android Application

Well, it should be every single component!
That’s right, every single component could be
exposing data if developers do not take the necessary
precautions during development.
For instance:
1. The activities could leak personal data to the log file.
2. The service could activate remote calls from other
apps that don’t have permission.
3. The settings file could be world readable or world
writable allowing access to the service.
54

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

The Issue:
Application 1 does two simple things - it uploads data
and downloads data. A malicious app when run, can
be observed to download data via Application 1. This is
because the malicious app knows the ‘action’ that will
trigger the service. Now, as the service was initiated via
an implicit intent, Application 1 allows the malicious app
to download data on its behalf.
Call Out Points:
Explicit Intents specify the component to start by name
(the fully qualified class name). You typically use an
explicit intent to start a component in your own app,

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

because you know the class name of the activity or
service you want to start. For example, start a new
activity in response to a user action or start a service to
download a file in the background.
Implicit Intents do not name a specific component,
but instead declare a general action to perform, which
allows a component from another app to handle it. For
example, if you want to show the user a location on
a map, you can use an implicit intent to request that
another capable app show a specified location on a map.
The Solution:
An Intent Filter signals the Android system to expose
components to other applications. So, it’s a good idea
to make an explicit decision of whether or not to mark a
component as exported. Android doesn’t require one to
do so but, as discussed, there are security repercussions
for not doing so.
If developers choose to set the value of ‘exported’ as
‘false’ in their intent filter definition, they can prevent
accidentally exporting internal components.
In the AndroidManifest.xml:
Before:

Androip App with the Wi-Fi manager
denies access to the Malicious App

2. Application 1 would probably be granted the
permission as it has requested for the appropriate
WiFi permission during installation.
3. If a malicious application that requests no such
permission is installed, and it asks the WiFi manager
for permission to access, it would be denied.
But what happens in the case of Application 1 exposing
a component (perhaps, through an exposed intentfilter)
that is part of the WiFi control? And the malicious
application decides to ask Application 1 for access.

After:

So breaking this down, if one does not ‘intent’ a
component to be exported in their application and down
the line, when an intent filter is added for any purpose,
there is a clear possibility of the application inadvertently
exporting that component. This is a security vulnerability,
if nothing else.
Note: If you do wish to make your components
available but only for limited use, there are permissions
you can grant in the AndroidManifest.XML.
The above solution can solve what is called the
Confused Deputy Problem.

What is a Confused Deputy Problem?
Let’s use an example to explain this further. An Android
Operating System has a WiFi manager which is inside the
system server. And Application 1 in the question has a
service that talks to the WiFi manager.
In Scenario I 1. Application 1 asks the WiFi manager, whether it’s
allowed to access WiFi.

A component of an
Application gives access
to the Malicious App

In Scenario II:
1. The malicious application asks Application 1 to access
WiFi.
2. Application 1 would ask the WiFi manager and grant
the malicious application, the permission. This is
because Application 1 has asked for the permissions
during the installation.
3. Application 1 could return some information back to
the malicious application without having the correct
permissions. This makes Application 1, the confused
deputy.
Application 1 is being ‘deputized’ by the WiFi manager
and leaks information to the other app without the
correct permissions.
This can be avoided by, explicitly mark components
as exported and granting appropriate permissions in the
manifest file.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

M A Y 2 0 1 5 PCQuest

55

handson
5 Best Camera Apps for Android Devices
Beyond the default camera app that comes loaded with your smartphones, the
ones featured below not only let you capture images but also enhances them
through nifty editing features
- Raj Kumar Maurya

Y

ou may have the best camera in your Android
Smartphone, but there are some apps which
can provide extra features and can enhance the
quality of your photos. Here, we showcase some
of the apps that let you do precisely the same…

Snapseed
Snapseed is
the simple and
useful app to
beautify your
every day
photographs.
You can make
your snaps
funny and can
enhance, transform, and share the photos with ease. It
comes with built-in Google+ capabilities which enable you
to share your images with your friends and family.

PicsArt Photo Studio
The PicsArt comes
with April Fools’
Frames package
to spice up your
April Fools’ Day
shots with 16
frames and collage
templates. You
can create several
pranks using it.
PicsArt is more
than an app, it’s a
image editing and sharing platform. It has become a social
movement of creatives, passionate to beautify the world.

Autodesk Pixlr
Pixlr (formerly
Pixlr Express)
is a fun and
powerful photo
editor that lets
you quickly crop,
rotate, and fine56

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

tune any picture, all in a completely ad-free experience.
Choose from over 2 million combinations of free effects,
overlays, and borders to further personalize your image.
Create a free Pixlr account to automatically unlock
premium content with features including Double Exposure
with blend modes and Auto Contrast.

Camera HDR Studio
Camera
HDR Studio
is a quite
simple app
that comes
with ability
to take HDR
photographs
even
without HDR
capabilities. It supports a wide variety of HDR modes,
including standard HDR, artistic or even cartoon like snaps.
You get 9 HDR modes, 12 artistic effects and 50 color
effects etc. Camera HDR Studio also allows you to shoot up
to 30 photos per second depending on your device’s speed.

Camera 360 Ultimate
Camera 360
Ultimate
is loaded
with several
features,
filters and
shot modes,
providing
users with
numerous
quick-fire tools for sprucing up their shots. The basic ‘Effect
Camera’ allows you to apply a variety of filters and special
effects, with special shooting modes such as a tilt-shift
camera, a posterizer with numerous templates, providing
users with numerous shooting options. A dedicated ‘Selfie
Camera’ mode for selfie addicts comes with numerous
preset enhancements for bringing out skin tone and visual
ambiance to give you exactly the look and feel you want for
your next self-portrait.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Recovering Data From an Encrypted Hard
Disk on Ubuntu 14.04

Learn how you can use a live Ubuntu DVD or a USB to recover an encrypted
hard disk in a failed boot device environment

Y

ou can easily retrieve data with the help of live
CDs or USB boot devices if the hard disk is not
encrypted. What if the hard disk is encrypted?
Then the situation becomes a little tricky. You
will find the solution in the following steps:
Step1: First, you need to make an Ubuntu CD/USB bootable
device. Then boot the failed device or system with the
Ubuntu bootable CD/USB device. After booting, the
following screen will show.
Choose Try Ubuntu:
Step 2: You will get the window
as shown below for the default
desktop. Open the terminal
and get into the root terminal
as follows:

- Raj Kumar Maurya

Step 5: So now you have /dev/sda5 available as encrypted
drive, and you have to mount it as follows:
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda5 unlock

Step 6: Then it will ask for the passphrase which is the
encryption password for the hard disk. In this case it is
pcquest12345

sudo -i
apt-get update
Step 3: Install cryptsetup as it is responsible for encryption/
decryption of data. By default it would be pre-installed, if
not, then install it using the following command:
apt-get install cryptsetup

Step 7: After putting the password, it will get decrypted.
Then you have to mount the drive as follows:
mount /dev/mapper/server1--vg-root /mnt
In this case there was lvm configured at /dev/mapper/
server1--vg-root, you can check yours in the directory /
dev/mapper. After successful mounting, you can see the
contents as before in the drive /mnt/root

Step 4: Now, we need to mount the internal hard disk.
First, we check which drive was encrypted. We use the
following command:

cd /mnt/root
ls
Now you can either use scp or usb copy for the data and
you have successfully recovered your data.

blkid | grep crypto

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

57

onthedvd
10 Free opens source CRM Tools for managing a company’s
current and future customers to organize, automate, and
synchronize sales and marketing. In addition get the latest
Linux distro Fedora 22 Beta complete alongwith IPfire
firewall and much more..
Enhanced productivity, entertainment experience, PC security, Imaging,
Networking and more capabilities for your PC along with some CRM tools to
manage your current and future customers
- Raj Kumar Maurya

FeDorA 22 BetA CoMPLete sUite:
Fedora 22 Cloud Beta:
Latest versions of rpm-ostree and rpm-ostree-toolbox, the latter of which can be used to generate Atomic hosts from a
custom set of packages. A Vagrant image for Fedora 22 Atomic Host is now provided.
Fedora 22 server Beta:
Now provides stable D-Bus interface to manage the deployment of server roles which is based on PostgreSQL. Updated
Cockpit web-based management application.
Fedora 22 Workstation Beta:
Comes with new GNOME 3.16 and replaces the X.org windowing system with Wayland, as the login screen now uses
Wayland. The Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) now features better notifications in this update.

Now, get twice as lucky!
PCQuest Contest
Win A LiCenseD CoPY oF AsHAMPoo snAP
8 sCreen CAPtUrinG tooL... 10 LiCenses
WortH `24,000 to Be Won

Win A LiCenseD CoPY oF KeYWin - A tAsK
AUtoMAtion UtiLitY (inr 199 eACH).......... (100
nos. WortH oF inr 19,900)

Key FeATuReS
• Simply capture everything
with accurate text recognition
• Assemble and edit multiple
screenshots
• 4k ready / made for highest
resolutions
• Capture entire web pages
• 53 one-click image effects
and more...

Key FeATuReS

•
•
•
•
•

Saves time using Hotkey and improves productivity
Hotkey to Show/Hide Desktop icons
Rapid screenshots with Auto Save
Do real Multi-tasking
Control Speaker volume with hotkey and more..

CHeCK OuT THIS MONTH’S DVD TO PARTICIPATe
Hurry!! Contest closes by May 31, 2015.

58

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

10 oPen soUrCe CrM soFtWAre For orGAniZAtions
1. sugarCrM
The application is written in PHP and works
with the MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server
databases. Recent improvements to the user
interface, mobile support, knowledgebase,
self service portal, upgraded analytics and
dashboards, and several sales-oriented
aspects of the Enterprise edition improves its
performance. Sugar’s functionality includes
sales-force automation, marketing campaigns,
customer support, collaboration, Mobile CRM,
Social CRM and reporting.

2. vtiger
It is a LAMP/WAMP-based product, which
comes with Sales Force Automation (SFA),
marketing automation, customer service,
inventory management, calendaring and email
integration out of the virtual box, with add-ons
available for Microsoft Outlook and Office,
Thunderbird, a customer self-service portal and
web forms.

3. splendidCrM
It is built on the Microsoft platform (SQL
Server, Windows Server, IIS, .NET C# and ASP.
NET) and is targeted to an indirect channel of
consultants, value added resellers (VARs) and
system integrators. A new Report Designer
adds greater flexibility to reports that can
be created with the SplendidCRM. The new
Report Designer looks and feels similar to the
Microsoft Report Builder query designer to
minimize the learning curve.

4. xtuple
It includes modules for accounting, sales
and project management, inventory tracking
and many more. It features complete
internationalization, so as to bypass
geographical locations, currency and tax
related limitations. It enables managers to keep
track of their important contacts and accounts,
implementing a solid corporate relationship
management system to organize tasks and
schedule appointments, organize projects and
delegate employees to perform operations,
manage project orders and customer requests.

5. Concoursesuite
The four major modules in ConcourseSuite are
CRM, Web, Content and Team (which deals
with collaboration), and they can be deployed
individually or as an integrated suite in either
Software as a Service (SaaS) or on-premise
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

versions. The enterprise software is developed
with Java/J2EE and Concursive’s developer
community. It helps you with Leads & Pipeline,
Marketing, Customer Service and Enterprise
Content Management.

6. Compiere
Compiere ERP+CRM is the leading open
source ERP solution for Distribution, Retail,
Manufacturing and Service industries.
Compiere automates accounting, supply chain,
inventory and sales orders. Compiere ERP is
distributed under GPL V2 by Compiere, Inc.

7. opentaps
Opentaps is built on Apache Open for
Business. The CRM application provides basic
functionality for sales, marketing and service.
It also offers built-in business intelligence
tools and mobility integration, including
synchronization with Microsoft Outlook, Google
Calendar, and mobile phones.

8. Zurmo
It’s a mobile, social, and gamified open source
CRM application that is written in PHP utilizing
jQuery, Yii Framework, and RedBeanPHP. It
uses a test-driven methodology for building
every part of the application. This means you
can create and maintain a custom-built Open
Source CRM system with the assurance that
future updates are not going to break your
installation.

9. xrMs
XRMS includes CRM, HR management and SFA
functionality, with some additional aspects of
business intelligence and computer telephony
integration (CTI). The application is developed
in PHP and is compatible with an assortment
of databases, including ADOdg, Microsoft SQL
Server and MySQL.

10 CiviCrM
This CRM integrates with the Drupal and
Joomla content management systems. CiviCRM
is designed to manage information about
an organization’s donors, members, event
registrants, subscribers, grant application
seekers and funders, and case contacts.
Volunteers, activists, voters as well as more
general sorts of business contacts such as
employees, clients, or vendors can be managed
using CiviCRM.
MAY 2015

PCQuest

59

onthedvd
20 essentials tools for new PCs
5 Multimedia tools

1. VLC Media Player: VLC Media Player is the most
popular and robust multi format, free media player.
2. K-Lite: The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of
DirectShow filters, VFW/ACM codecs and tools.
3. itunes: Tunes is a free application for Mac and
PC. It plays all your digital music and videos. It syncs
content to your iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.
4. Free Video Converter: Convert video free to AVI,
MP4, WMV, MKV, 3GP, DVD, MP3, iPad, iPhone, PSP,
Xbox, Android phones.
5. Freemake Youtube Downloader: It lets you
download online from YouTube, Vimeo, Vevo,
Facebook, Dailymotion and over 10,000 other sites.

4 office tools

1. Adobe reader: Program for viewing, creating,
managing and manipulating PDF (Portable Document
Format) files.
2. Apache openoffice: Open-source office
software suite for word processing, spreadsheets,
presentations, graphics and databases.
3. Libreoffice: Productivity suite for Windows,
Macintosh and Linux, that gives you six feature-rich
applications for all your document production and
data processing needs.
4. office Compatibility Pack: Add-on for Microsoft
Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003 to open, edit
and save Microsoft’s newer office formats.

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

6 system tuning tools

1. CCleaner: CCleaner is a quick and easy to use
program which makes your computer faster, more
secure and more reliable.
6 Security- Firewalls and Antivirus
2. Comodo internet security: Comodo has put
firewall through all kinds of sophisticated tests to
ensure its powerful enough to ward off these attacks
with default settings.
3. Hotspot shield: It is a versatile internet security
and privacy solution that protects your privacy and
enables you to access any blocked website and
content.
4. Avast Free Antivirus: It comes with easy UI,
optimized scanning options and continuously updated
database of virus definition.
5. AVG Free edition: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
is trusted antivirus and antispyware including
LinkScanner Active Surf-Shield that checks web
pages for threats.
6. AdwCleaner: AdwCleaner is an application that
searches for and deletes Adware, Toolbars, Potentially

Unwanted Programs (PUP) and browser Hijackers.
7. Panda Free: It is a lightweight application that only
works where necessary. The application is easy to
use with a simple design and UI.

4 image editing software

Faststone image: FastStone Image Viewer is a fast,
stable and user-friendly image browser, converter
and editor.

Blender: Blender is an integrated application
that enables the creation of a broad range of 2D
and 3D content.
irfanView: It is a very fast, small, compact
and innovative graphic viewer and editor for
Windows.
the Gimp: It is suitable for a variety of image
manipulation tasks, including photo retouching,
image composition, and image construction.

Linux Corner:
Video tutorial:

Introduction to Linux and Basic Linux Commands for Beginners

Latest Versions of Linux Distro’s

iPFire 2.17: A hardened Linux appliance distribution designed for use as a firewall.
60

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

6 Games

1

KoreA: sWAt Mission
The SWAT mission has begun. Your goal is
to complete all of your missions, eliminating
various enemies in North Korea.

2

4

Monsters’ WHeeLs
Welcome to racing with monster trucks,
boost them up to crazy speed, perform
stunts, earn money and upgrade your cars.

5

CoMBAt MACHines
You are a Combat Machine commander
ambushed in an enemy territory. Your task is
simple - seek and destroy.

sUPerCoW
The evil professor Duriarti escaped from
prison and took all of Sunny Valley’s
inhabitants hostage to conduct hideous
experiments.

3

roBo rACinG
Robo Racing is the unique mix of racing and
fighting. Beat your enemies on the track or
defeat them on the ring

6

HeLiCoPter WArs
Awesome helicopter arcade game. Shoot
‘Em Up with plenty of adventures and
adrenaline

WINNeRS OF PCQueST APRIL CReATIVITy CONTeST
Congratulations to all the winners!
smartsHoW 3D
slideshow software

WINNeRS

steganos
Privacy suite 16

9.

rajendra Kumar Jangid,
Jaipur

1.

navnit r Patel, surat

2.

Prakash Dutta, new Delhi

3.

Anoop Prajapati, Kanpur

10. Dsp Vijay, Pune

4.

sachit Anand Pathak,
south West Delhi

11. roshan Kumar, Bengaluru

3. Bharath Gupta Paluri, rajahmundry

5.

shilpa sharma, new Delhi

13. Prasenjit Dey, Kolkata

4. Aditi sindwani, new Delhi

6.

sayandeep Banerjee, Kolkata

5. Prakash, Jabalpur

7.

satyendra Prasad, new Delhi

14. srinivasan ramamoorthy,
Bengaluru

8.

Gaurav Bharadwaj, new Delhi

15. Praveen nagpal, new Delhi

1. Ashok Kannan, Chennai
2. sumegh, Mumbai

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

12. Chanpreet Bedi, Delhi

MAY 2015

PCQuest

61

shootout

Best 10 smartphones under 10k
Indian smartphone market has witnessed some real action in last few months and
the focus has been shifted from feature phones to budget smartphones
– Rohit Arora

S

martphone manufacturers have started developing handsets which despite being affordable don’t
compromise on performance.
Having said that, here’s what you can expect
from a smartphone under 10,000.
HD display: In the age of touch screen devices, the
first and foremost aspect to consider before buying a
smartphone is the display. There are various smartphones
under 10,000, which feature an HD screen but the pixel
per inch, which actually translates into the crispness of
the content differs according to their size.
2 GB RAM: We would not have thought of a smartphone with 2 GB RAM in this budget a year back, however
the competition has now made it possible. So if you are
a power user, you can opt for a smartphone with 2 GB
RAM.
Quad-core processors and GPU units for gaming:
Gone are the days when budget smartphones were

backed by low end first generation dual-core CPUs.
Smartphones these days are equipped with Quad-core
processors and powerful GPU units to deliver decent
gaming experience.
3G and 4G connectivity: The chipsets empowering
the smartphones these days are equipped with 3G and
4G antennas, which let you consume internet at faster
speeds.
Decent cameras: Smartphones in budget category
also don’t compromise on camera technology. Manufacturers integrate their products with sensors that can take
some really good shots and can even shoot in HD quality.
You can easily get a smartphone with 8 to 13 MP rear
and 2 to 5 MP front camera sensors under 10k.
Besides all these smartphones these days have large
battery units that can last a day or long even with a
heavy usage. You can expect a battery unit of 2500 to
3000 mAh in smartphones under 10k.

1) Micromax Yureka
Price: `8,999

Yureka is one of the best smartphones that we have tested
in sub 10K category. This is the first device with Cyanogen
OS, which makes it perfect for those who like to experience
the full power of Android OS. Moreover, it also gives a
tough competition in terms of performance to all other
contenders in its price bracket and even some best mid-range
smartphones.
Key Specs

• 5.5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (267ppi)
• 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset, 2 GB RAM
• 13 MP rear with LED Flash & 5 MP front camera
• Android 4.4.4 Kitkat OS, Cyanogen OS 12
• 16GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 32 GB
• 2500mAh
The best value for money smartphone, nice design, 4G
enabled, Cyanogen OS with its customization abilities, loud and
clear output speakers, snappy performance
Display has a bluish tone and pixel count is not the best
(267ppi), available online only

62

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

PRICE 9/10

fEATURES 9/10

PERfORMANCE 8/10

OVERALL 9/10

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

2) redmi 2
Price: `6,999

Xiaomi has the credit to change the budget smartphone landscape and its latest
device Redmi 2 is one solid contender. The smartphone has an amazing camera,
decent screen and delivers good multitasking experience. Moreover, it offers 4G
connectivity on both the SIM cards.
Key Specs:

• 4.7 “ IPS LCD capacitive HD display (312 ppi)
• 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 CPU, 1 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear with LED flash & 2MP front camera
• Android 4.4 with MIUI 6
• 8GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 32GB
• 2200 mAh battery
One of the best camera at this price, sleek design, good battery back-up, smooth
computing performance, 4G enabled

PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 8/10

PERfORMANCE 8/10

OVERALL 8/10

MIUI 6 lags occasionally, plastic built

3) Moto e 3G and 4G
Price: `6,999 and `7,999 respectively

One of the best selling budget smartphones from the house of Motorola
gets noticeable updates such as 3G and 4G connectivity, front camera and
expandable memory. Though it’s not the best in terms of performance in this
price bracket, but it surely has a trusted brand name, which works quite a lot in
a market like India.
Key Specs:

• 4.5” IPS LCD capacitive display 540x960 pixels (245 ppi)
• 1.2 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 CPU, 1 GB RAM (Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 CPU in 4G model)
• 5 MP autofocus rear & VGA front camera
• Android 5.0 Lollipop
• 8GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 32GB
• 2380 mAh battery unit
PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 7/10

PERfORMANCE 7/10

OVERALL 7/10

Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, sturdy design, Motorola branding
Poor camera performance, no flash, computing performance not as good as
Redmi 2 or Lenovo A7000

4) Lenovo A6000 Plus
Price: `7,499

Lenovo A6000 marked the impressive entry of Lenovo in budget smartphone
category. The smartphone is quite capable to deliver a smooth multitasking
experience without compromising on performance. And you also get 4G connectivity
which makes it one of the few budget smartphones in this price bracket.
Key Specs:

• 5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (294 ppi)
• 1.2 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 CPU, 2 GB RAM
• 16 MP rear with LED flash & 2 MP front camera
• Android 4.4.4 Kitkat OS
• 8GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 32GB
• 2300 mAh battery unit
Good battery back-up, 64-bit processor offers good performance, 4G enabled
Average camera performance, no screen protection
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

PRICE 7/10

fEATURES 7/10

PERfORMANCE 8/10

OVERALL 7/10

MAY 2015

PCQuest

63

shootout
5) Lenovo A7000
Price: `8,999

Lenovo A7000 is surely an upgraded version of the A6000. The smartphone
has a large 5.5 inch sharp HD display, a snappier Octa-core processor
coupled with a decent GPU and is also the first smartphone to pack Dolby
Atmos surround sound at this price point.
Key Specs:

• 5.5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (~267ppi)
• 1.5 GHZ Octa-core MediaTek CPU, 2 GB RAM
• 8MP rear with LED flash & 5 MP front camera with wide angle lens
• Android 5.0 Lollipop
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 128 GB
• 2900 mAh battery
Good design, lag free multitasking, decent screen, good audio performance,
4G enabled
Tough to use with one hand

PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 8/10

PERfORMANCE 9/10

OVERALL 8/10

6) Lumia 535
Price: `7,695

The budget attempt from Microsoft offers a good overall performance. Its
large screen works well for consumption of multimedia content, the rear
and front cameras are capable of taking good shots and it also delivers a
good level of multitasking. Moreover, it comes with various additions from
Windows OS that increases day to day smartphone experience.
Key Specs:

• 5” IPS LCD capacitive display 540x960 pixels (~220 ppi pixel density)
• 1.2 GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 CPU, 1 GB RAM
• 5 MP rear with LED flash & 5 MP front camera with wide angle lens
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 OS
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 128 GB
• 1905 mAh battery
PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 7/10

PERfORMANCE 7/10

OVERALL 7/10

Good camera performance, good battery back-up, support for up-to 128 GB
via microSD card
Plastic built, not so sharp display

7) Lumia 640
Price: `9,999

The smartphone is launched recently and offers a solid design, decent display and
will also receive an update to Windows 10. It is integrated with Lumia camera
which is the best camera UI we have tested.
Key Specs:

• 5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (294ppi)
• 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU, 1 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear with LED flash & 1 MP front camera
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 128 GB
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 with Lumia Denim
• 2500 mAh battery

64

Amazing camera performance, good battery back-up, vibrant display

PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 7/10

Plastic construction makes it slippery and does not offer a premium feel

PERfORMANCE 8/10

OVERALL 8/10

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

8) Asus Zenfone 5 - A501CG
Price: `8,499

Asus entered Indian market with the Zenfone 5 and since then the
smartphone is doing quite well in the budget category. The smartphone
has got a price cut recently, which makes it a good value for money
product.
Key Specs:

• 5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (294ppi)
• 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Atom CPU, 2 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear with LED flash & 2 MP front camera
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 64 GB
• Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS
• 2110 mAh battery
Feature-rich camera, refreshing UI, smooth multitasking performance

PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 8/10

Signs of heat when used aggressively, average battery back-up

PERfORMANCE 7/10

OVERALL 8/10

9) redmi note 4G
Price: `9,999

The Chinese smartphone maker has produced the best phablet in the
sub 10K range. Redmi Note 4G comes with a sharp and mammoth
5.5” HD display, snappy processor, good camera hardware and 4G
connectivity. It is perfect for those who wish to do everything without
spending a fortune.
Key Specs:
• 5.5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (267ppi)
• 1.6 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU, 2GB RAM
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 64GB
• 13 MP rear with LED flash & 5 MP front camera
• Android 4.4.2 with MIUI 5.0
• 3100 mAh battery

PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 9/10

PERfORMANCE 9/10

OVERALL 9/10

Smooth performance, good rear and front cameras, good battery
back-up, expandability up-to 64GB, 4G enabled, large screen works well
for watching videos
Bulky design and plastic construction, MIUI crashes occasionally,
only 4.98 GB available out of 8 GB storage

10) Huawei Honor Holly
Price: `6,999

The budget smartphone from Huawei packed a lot of punch when it was
launched and it still has the potential to meet up the demands of smartphone
experience at an affordable price.
Key Specs

• 5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (294ppi)
• 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek CPU, 1 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear with LED flash & 2 MP front camera
• 16 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 32 GB
• Android 4.4.2 Kitkat OS
• 2000 mAh battery
Good display, smooth performance, good battery back up

Plastic built, average camera performance
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

PRICE 8/10

fEATURES 7/10

PERfORMANCE 6/10

OVERALL 7/10

MAY 2015

PCQuest

65

shootout

How to Choose a Portable
Wireless Speaker
Do you want to get rid of the
headphones and still enjoy music
from your smartphone? Read more
to know which shape, design,
housing and build quality of wireless
speakers is suitable for your
priceless music collection

M

P3 players are a thing of past, thanks to the
smartphones, which let you carry your music wherever
you go. But if you don’t feel like using headphones to
listen to music, then you won’t enjoy the experience
on your smartphone’s speakers. That’s where portable wireless
speakers come in. They let you enjoy great music without physically
connecting an audio player with a cord. All you need is Bluetooth
or some other wireless connectivity, which is pretty much available
on all smartphones, tablets and even laptops. There are quite a
few portable wireless speakers that are easily available. Here’s a
checklist of what to look for in portable speakers.

Wireless Tech Supported
There are quite a few personal wireless technologies apart from
the Bluetooth, so check what all does a portable speaker support.
Here’s a quick overview of these wireless technologies.
• Bluetooth:
This of course doesn’t require any introduction as it’s the most
popular wireless technology for device connectivity. The latest
version is Bluetooth 4.1, which offers higher throughput and
greater battery efficiency.
• NFC:
This is another type of wireless technology for short distance
communication and you will get to hear about it in some of the
higher end products. The range is limited and you need to have
both devices in close proximity. In portable wireless speakers,
NFC simplifies device pairing over Bluetooth. All you need to do
is tap the device to the speaker to complete the pairing. This
technology is not compatible with iPhones.
• AirPlay:
This is a proprietary wireless protocol developed by Apple that
66

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

- Anuj Sharma
allows wireless streaming of audio and video between devices
over a Wi-Fi network. Many wireless speakers now feature this
technology and if you have an iPhone, iPad etc, then you can
easily stream music with it. The main downside is that it only
works with Apple devices and is available in high end models.

• DLNA:
This is a protocol used for sharing media between devices and
works over Wi-Fi. Though it is found in many speakers, it’s a
little tricky to connect and share with DLNA as first it requires
creating a media server. Only then you can access and stream
media. Bluetooth remains a much better choice over this.

Importance of connectivity like WiFi, Airplay, Bluetooth and playback
controls on the speaker
Bluetooth has become a defacto in the portable speaker category.
The range of Airplay is significantly better than Bluetooth, so people
with iOS devices would prefer that, but it comes at an extra cost.
A feature like Wi-Fi or WPS becomes critical if you want to
setup a multi-room home audio system.
However, keeping in mind the portable nature of the product,
Bluetooth is sufficient enough to serve most of the purposes.
Controls for volume, mute and track advance help you control your
media playback and also to answer/end calls with a built-in speaker
phone.

Reading and Understanding Technical
Specifications
Specifications like frequency response, impedance and sensitivity
vary from category to category. While buying a portable speaker,
the range of frequency response is the most important factor to
consider, apart from the sheer output. Usually all portable speakers have their max frequency response level set at 20kHz. So, you

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

should consider the minimum level if you are looking for a thumpy
sound. Lesser the minimum response rate, better the sound. Here
are the specs to check out and what to look for in them.
• Sensitivity: This is expressed in decibels per milliWatt
(dB/mW) and signifies the level of sound produced by
headphones in response to a 1mW signal. In simpler terms,
it is used to determine the amount of power required to
drive a speaker. Quite simply, more the sensitivity, better the
output.
• Frequency Response: FR is usually represented in a
‘range’. Human listening range is between 20Hz to 20kHz. A
20Hz of frequency would mean very heavy bass and 20kHz
would mean a very high pitch sound (treble).
The FR range of an audio device depicts the output of
a speaker. For eg: If a speaker’s frequency response is
between 20Hz to 200Hz – it would mean that this is a
sub-woofer with a heavy bass. If a speaker has a frequency
range of 19kHz to 20kHz, then in all probability it will have
a very high pitch sound. A speaker with a very high range
would mean that the speaker has the capacity to throw all
three: bass, treble and vocals very clearly.
• Impedance: Technically, this does not play a big role in
considering the sound quality of a speaker. This has more
to do with the compatibility and power required to drive
the speakers. For instance, how far your speakers can
be stretched before they are over-driven. Products like
headphones usually have higher impedance value (32ohms)
and products like home theatre speakers and portable
speakers have low impedance value (2, 4, 8 ohms).

Importance of Shape, Design and
Housing in speakers
Design is more for an aesthetic feel, so preferences differ.
However, the shape and housing of the speakers play a major
role in sound quality. The correct positioning of the speakers
(placed acoustically) needs to be factored in. Sometimes,
despite having best of the specs, incorrect placement ruins the
output quality.
Wooden Housing: Since wood absorbs vibrations, headphones with wooden frames give good clarity and reverberation.
Plus, they have more controlled sound pressure.
Metal Housing: Portable speakers with metal frames
provide rigidity and great look & feel. Mostly, aluminum housing
is used as it is lightweight and easy to work with. Moreover, it
provides sharper audio signature than the plastic housing.
Metal casting for portable products could be a dampener
as it hampers the sound quality. However, correct positioning
of metal in overall plastic casing should provide an adequate
sound experience.

Do you need a sub-woofer?
Usually portable speakers do not have sub-woofers. Good subs

require adequate power. Consumers need to look for bass radiators
or bass ports while reading the specs.

Extra Features
Extra features in portable speakers do matter while making a
buying decision these days. Base ports or base radiators are key
things to look at. Remote control is not a selling point since they are
already portable devices. Other key features like speaker phone and
power banks definitely come in handy if you want to carry a good
portable speaker while travelling on a business or leisure trip.

Durability and Build Quality
Portability is not enough. You also need durability so that the speakers don’t get damaged when you’re on the move. Portable speakers
have different levels of durability, so look for features that meet
your needs. If you spend time enjoying outdoor sports and activities,
then look for speakers with dust-proof and shock proof design. Also,
speakers with a metal frame or casing are generally better than
those with a plastic body. Another thing to check is the weight of
the speakers. Some speakers tend to slip when kept on a smooth
surface and are playing bass heavy tracks.
The best is wood for its durability, build quality and sound
experience.

Sound quality
This is the most important thing to check in portable speakers.
Look for speakers that have a good balance of low frequency for a
strong bass and balanced middle, high frequency for a rich sound
signature. If you are a bass enthusiast, then spend a few minutes
listening to bass heavy music. The sound shouldn’t crack at high
volumes. In some cheap speakers, we’ve heard noise creeping in
after playing for a couple of minutes.

Built-in Charger
A Bluetooth speaker with a built-in charger can be just the thing
you need for that long plane flight or overnight camping trip. These
types of speakers feature a USB charging port that can even provide
extra power to your smartphone or tablet.

Speakerphone
Some Bluetooth speakers are equipped with a microphone for
hands-free conversation. When a call comes in on your paired
smartphone, it automatically routes to the speaker, which gives you
the option of accepting the call or continuing to listen to your music.

Battery
Battery life is another significant aspect of wireless speakers, so do
look for the charging time and battery life delivered on full charge.
Portable speakers make you enjoy your favorite tunes on
the go. Whether you are in an outdoor party, sharing audio with
friends, watching movies or out on camping trips, they serve as a
perfect companion.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

67

shootout
Intex Banjo

A pocket friendly speaker to enjoy music on the go
-All shootout reviews by Anuj Sharma

iBall UFo03

A travel-friendly speaker with great sound, attractive
design and a host of connectivity options

SCORE
Price: `2,299

SCORE
Price: `1,890

Price: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 7/10

Overall:

T

7/10

he BT Banjo is in continuation of the previous X series of
speakers by Intex. It is a budget friendly micro Bluetooth
speaker that has recently hit the market. Many speakers in the same price range come in funky designs, but this
one features a relatively flat design in the form of a rectangle.
This is good in a way, because it allows you to easily slip the
speakers in a carry bag. The build quality and looks of the
speakers are average.
We tested the speaker with various sound tracks and despite
the small size, it has done justice to most of the tracks. There’s
slight distortion at high volumes, but apart from that, these
speakers sound fuller and perform really well across light music,
hip-hop, jazz, etc. Vocals sound clear even at low volume levels.
Don’t expect good output if your music library is full of music
with heavy bass, as these speakers are too tiny for that.
The speakers give their best
output at 70-80% volume levels,
especially with less complex
KEy SpECS:
music wherein all instruments are
3W*2 speakers, frequency response:
20Hz-20KHz, SNR>80dB, 600 mAH
playing together in a sound track.
battery, Aux In, Impedance: 4 Ohms
The speakers work fine within
10m range. The speakers have a
pRoS:
built-in, 600 mAH battery, which
Compact
can last through 4 hours of music
ConS:
playback.
Distortion at max volumes
Bottomline: The slim portable
form factor makes this speaker an
WRITE To:
ideal companion for your travel.
intex
They produce good output for
Ph: +91 11 41610224
Email: [email protected]
their size.
68

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Price: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 7/10

Overall:

8/10

A

s the name suggests, this speaker is in the form of a UFO so
it’s bound to catch your attention. It is small enough to work
either with a smartphone or tablet, and really gives life to
your music. The speaker has controls for pairing, volume up/down
housed on the lower semi-circle of its body. The volume controls
double up as track navigation controls if you hold them down
instead of tapping them. This can be a minor annoyance at times
when you want increase the volume, but the speaker jumps to the
next track. Besides Bluetooth, the UFO03 can also connect over USB
and even has an FM Radio to listen to your favorite stations.
Going by size alone, the speaker doesn’t appear as if it would
provide high fidelity audio, but it actually sounds very well. On our
intense bass track at maximum volume, it played with a significant
amount of power and the sense of bass is fairly decent. We felt
a slight distortion on some of tracks though the kick drum beats
sounded crisp. On tracks with sub-intense bass content, it delivered
a laudable level of bass despite having such a compact size.
At moderate-to-high volumes, the bass response brings out
the lower register instruments a
bit more, making the track sound
KEy SpECS:
fuller and bright. It’s not of course
2” Drivers, Frequency Response: 100Hzmeant for fans of deep bass music.
20kHz, Sensitivity: 80dB, Impedance:
The vocals get a decent level of
4 Ohms, Aux-in, Dimensions: 13.8 cm
(Diameter) x 6.2 cm (Height), Weight:
high-mid treble edge to keep the
472g
sound through the UFO03 rich and
pRoS:
bright. The speaker sounded best at
Connectivity, great sound quality
70-80% volume levels for just about
all genres of music. Classical tracks
ConS:
Slight Distortion at max volumes
sound bright and maintain a forceful
presence throughout.
WRITE To:
Bottomline: A portable speaker
Best it World (india) Pvt. Ltd.
Ph: 022 - 67745100
that delivers decent sound at an
Email: [email protected]
affordable price.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

anteC SP Zero

Apart from Bluetooth you can add more speakers and
power up your music with Daisy Chain Capability

loGIteCH x100

Try these funky and sturdy speakers for music on your
travels that fit your pockets too

SCORE
SCORE

Price: `2,995

Price: 7/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 7/10

Price: `2,499

A

Overall:

7/10

ntec is better known as a PC company, but it’s now entering
the portable Bluetooth speakers segment with Antec SP
Zero and SP1 speakers.
The SP Zero doesn’t give an impression of being a wireless
portable speaker due to its cowbell shaped design. Measuring
86(H) x 57(W) x 94(D) mm, it is tiny, lightweight and can be placed
on your palm. Like JBL Micro Wireless, the SP Zero also features
Daisy Chain function for expanding its acoustic capability which
allows users to connect multiple SP Zeros or other speakers via an
auxiliary port. The speaker is housed in plastic with a rubbery layer
that runs all around it and two small handles on the top.
A total of three buttons including two volume rockers and
one for power and pairing are found on top of the speaker. The
charging port, Aux-In and Aux-out jacks are housed on its right side.
Bluetooth pairing with the speaker is tricky as there is no external
button for it. Instead you have to hold down the power button for
about 15 seconds to connect it to a source.
When we fed the speaker with various genres of music, despite
the small size, it delivered a fair
sound output. On our intense and
sub-intense bass tracks, the bass it
KEy SpECS:
40mm Driver, Frequency Response :
delivered was decent, but it lacked
20Hz – 20KHz, Bluetooth, Aux-in,
depth. Even if you raise the volume
Weight: 218g, Dimensions: 86(H) x 57(W)
to maximum, it does not distort
x 94(D) mm 472g
unlike many other speakers in same
price range, but rather it throws
pRoS:
Design
clear and crisp sound.
The speakers battery lasts 4
ConS:
hours on full charge.
Shallow bass
Bottomline: Overall, the SP Zero
is an attractively designed speaker
WRITE To:
that is host to both functionality and
Broadcast Media Vision
Email: [email protected]
good sound quality.

Price: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 7/10

Overall:

P

8/10

ortable speakers, petit in nature are in high demand from busy
consumers and with the X100, Logitech offers a near perfect
sturdy audio emitting device for long usage. It has a 3.3 inch
round shape with Logitech branding marked on its back. The X100
is built for users with an appetite to travel and prefer listening to
their music library in the open instead of using earplugs.
With a rubberized body finishing all-round, the X100 comes out
unscathed in most of the situations that can happen while travelling
and weighs around 161 grams that adds to its portability. The
speaker are availalbe in four colours—Orange, Yellow, Dark Grey
and Green and are compatible with both Android and iOS devices.
The top houses the power, volume and Bluetooth buttons, while
the microUSB port (for charging) and 3.5 mm port is placed slightly
below the buttons.
With easy connectivity on X100, you get to cherish music of
all kinds without much distortion (if kept at mid-levels) and voice
clarity that suits pretty much any genre. On our intense and subintense bass tracks, it sounded good pushing fair amount of bass,
but if you are looking for booming bass, the X100 will not cut it.
The speaker performs well with simpler tunes and less complicated
music. While driving, you can make calls, talk via the in-built
microphone and even conduct video conferences. But what’s
striking about the X100 is its battery
life. The company claims 5 hours of
KEy SpECS:
playback at high levels and we seem
10W Power Output, Frequency Response:
to agree with them. With normal
150Hz-20KHz, Sensitivity: ≥86, Weight:
usage, we managed to garner over
161 grams, Bluetooth support, 3.5 mm
port, microUSB port
8 to 9 hours of music playback with
these speakers.
pRoS:
Bottomline: You want music
Battery life, compact
with calling enabled and with long
battery life, then the Logitech X100
ConS:
Distortion at higher volumes
will fit both your budget and your
need. For travellers, this is a sturdy
WRITE To:
piece of audio equipment for music
Logitech electronic india
on-the-go.
Ph: 022 33416111

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

69

shootout
GrooveZ SMC970

An affordable Bluetooth speaker that performs well in
small closed environments

Intex Bt roCk

A retro style 2.0 channel speaker with LED Display

Price: `3,100

SCORE
Price: `2,995

Price: 6/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 6/10

Overall:

G

6/10

roovez is a tiny portable speaker that’s suitable to use
with a mobile phone or any other device with Bluetooth.
It also allows two devices to be paired at the same time
and fosters easy switchover between music on each phone. The
built-in microphone allows the speaker to be used for making
and receiving calls at the press of a button.
In terms of performance, the speaker delivers fair sound, despite
its small size. It works best within 60-75% of its volume range,
but beyond that, it looses the clarity. The audio quality lacks depth
and is capable of servicing a small indoor and closed environment.
It cannot handle bass tracks and works well with vocals. The
JBL Micro-Wireless speaker, which costs just a few more bucks
performed better than this.
The speaker can be paired with
2 Bluetooth enabled devices at a
time and you can easily connect and
KEy SpECS:
Frequency Response: 2.4G - 2.480GHZ,
toggle playback across them. Once
SNR: 75 dB, Range: 10m, Speaker
charged, the battery lasts for about
Output: 3W, Lithium-ion battery, 150g,
4 hours, which is almost the same
Dimensions: 75mm x 58mm
as JBL Micro-wireless. Also, voice
on calling/receiving calls is clear
pRoS:
Compact
and works well within the range of
10-12 meters.
ConS:
Bottomline: A small and compact
Poor bass
speaker that delivering average
sound, so if you can spend a few
WRITE To:
extra bucks, then the JBL microUnited telelinks, Bengaluru
wireless will be a better choice.
Tel: 080-40894888
70

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

7/10

T

he BT Rock is a member of Intex X series range of bluetooth
speakers. Intex tried to give the speaker a retro look but it’s
not very impressive. Keeping up with the features of a modern day speaker, it can be easily connected via bluetooth, USB,
AUX-in and also has digital FM to tune into your favorite stations.
The 2.0 channel speakers are housed in a metallic grill and all
the controls - volume, source, FM are on the rubber strip running
across the handle of speaker. Power on/off, USB port, charging
port and Aux-in are housed at the back of speaker. When the
battery charges, the front LED indicator lights in yellow and once
it is fully charged the indicator turns off.
We tested the speaker with various tracks for its sound
capability. On our intense and sub-intense bass content tracks, it
sounded decent but lacked depth. The speaker sounded best with
uncomplicated tracks at 60-70% volume levels. At fuller volumes,
it didn’t get loud but there was no distortion. Vocals sounded
bright and clear at almost all
volume levels accompanied by rich
mids and crisp highs.
KEy SpECS:
The speaker automatically goes
6W output, Frequency Response:
20Hz-20kHz, SNR:80dB,
into standby mode after 15 minutes
1000mAH battery, dimension:
if there is no play mode selection.
340mmx100mmx180mm
You need to press the source button
pRoS:
to resume the function operation.
Connectivity, decent sound
The in-built 1000mAH battery took
4-5 hours to charge and delivers 6
ConS:
hours of music playback.
Shallow bass, expensive
Bottomline: A portable speaker
WRITE To:
that you can use almost anywhere
intex
but it’s not for bass lovers, and is
Ph: +91 11 41610224
expensive.
Email: [email protected]

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

PortronICS PUre SoUnd Pro Bt 2 Boat PItCHer
A rectangular shaped speaker with a host of connectivity
options

A pitcher shaped Bluetooth stereo speaker with
Dynamic bass

SCORE
Price: 8/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 9/10

Overall:

T

8/10

SCORE
Price: `3,199

he Pure Sound Pro BT 2 is a souped up version of Pure
Sound BT Bluetooth speaker that now features 10W drivers
bundled with two passive radiators to provide full spectrum
sound. The speaker boasts elegant looks with a metal grill that
dominates the front, sculpted with Portronics in the center. The
speaker comes with a remote control making it easy to operate
from wherever you wish to.
It also supports voice prompts that notify the mode it is in,
when powered on or paired over Bluetooth. The volume, mode
and playback controls are housed at top of the speaker and other
connectivity options such as micro SD card, USB and 3.5 mm audio
jack are housed at the back. An inbuilt FM tuner lets you enjoy
music when you don’t have any device to pair with the speaker or
when you want to break free from your playlist.
We tested the speaker across various tracks to check its
performance and it performed well in almost all genres of music. On
our intense and sub-intense bass track, it pumped decent bass. At
higher volumes the sound is clear, free of distortion and can set you
in party mode. If your music library contains classical piano tracks,
Pro BT 2 is capable of playing them
with perfect clarity. It delivered 6
KEy SpECS:
hour 15 minutes of music playtime
Output 5W*2, Impedance: 4Ω, 3.5mm
with its in-built 2000 mAh Li-ion
Audio Jack, Weight: 850g, Dimension:
456*58.5*64 mm
battery. The speaker provides a
comfortable long play session when
pRoS:
fully charged and can be your trip
Design, sound quality
companion. Though, you will need a
ConS:
larger backpack to carry it with you.
None
Bottomline: Just like its
predecessor,
Pro BT 2 offers a
WRITE To:
rugged
design
and strong audio
Portronics Digital Pvt. Ltd. (india)
Ph: +91-9971833777
performance for a portable Bluetooth
Email: [email protected]
speaker.

Price: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

7/10

Price: `3,990

B

OAT is a brand high on fashion and technology, and very
much a part of the new lifestyle, which is on the go.
Pitcher is its first Bluetooth speaker in India. Measuring
110*110*113mm, placed on a flat surface the speaker it looks
like a pitcher or jug. It boasts of a metal grill on top with Boat’s
logo framed in thhe center and a plastic casing all around.
On/Off button, charging port and 3.5mm Jack are housed at
the bottom while volume controls, speaker phone, call answer
are located at the handle. It has interactive prompts that make it
easy to connect. The designer and vibrant Bluetooth speaker has
speakerphone with mic and is available in blue, black and mint
colors.
Pairing the speaker is simple and a breeze with either an Android
Phone or iPhone. When we played various genres of music, it
sounded fair. On our track with Intense bass content, it delivered
fairly though it struggled with deep bass and lacked depth at top
volumes. On sub-bass tracks, it sounded punchy but does not offer
much of improvement in low end.
The speaker sounded best and
impressive with less complicated
KEy SpECS:
tracks and is capable of delivering
Frequency Response: 60Hz-18kHz,
fullness and warmth. Tracks that are
Bluetooth, Speakerphone, Dimensions:
110*110*113mm, SNR:80dB, Aux-in
more focused on vocals and less on
heavy instruments are better served
pRoS:
by Pitcher. It delivered 10 hours of
Design
battery backup when we looped
ConS:
various tracks at 50% volume, so
Shallow bass
the speaker will play all day long
without the need to recharge.
WRITE To:
Bottomline: Pitcher is powerful
Micromax House
Ph: +91-124-4811000
for its size but struggles with bass
Email: [email protected]
content.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

71

shootout
jBl MICro WIreleSS

The small portable speakers for those who want to enjoy
music on the go

nUde aUdIo Move M

You can stream audio through these speakers using any
bluetooth device for up to 8 hours

SCORE
SCORE
Price: `3,999

Price: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 7/10

Overall:

T

7/10

he JBL Micro Wireless is an ultra-portable speaker set
featuring a Li-ion rechargeable battery, built-in bass port
and a wireless Bluetooth connection for media playback.
The speakers can be easily paired with any Bluetooth-compatible
device, including an iPhone, Android phone, BlackBerry or a
tablet. The wireless speaker also includes a built-in audio cable
to connect to any device with a standard 3.5 mm jack. The
colorful, circular speakers are small enough to fit on the palm of
your hand.
Keeping the specifications in mind, we were not surprised by the
audio quality of JBL Micro but it delivered enough audio to keep
you entertained. The speaker delivered decent audio at almost
all volume levels no matter what genre of music we played. Bass
output is not enough, so if you enjoy music with heavy bass, then
these are not for you. Vocals sounded clear and for most music, the
max usable volume on JBL Micro should be around 80% before
clarity gets defeated.
The speakers sound best at mid volumes, plus you can also use
them as small speakers for watching
movies on laptops. Battery life
KEy SpECS:
lasted about 4 hours as compared
2.7W Amplifying Power, SNR:>80dB,
40mm Driver, Frequency
to 5 hours claimed by JBL. The
Response: 150Hz- 20kHZ,
bluetooth range is pretty good and
Dimension:83mm*39mm, Bluetooth,
audio playback quality is appreciable
Li-ion Battery
without any connectivity issues
pRoS:
whatsoever. Also with the daisy
Loud and clear audio, Daisy Chain
chain you can connect JBL Micro
ConS:
Wireless portable speaker to other
No microphone
JBL Micro Wireless speakers.
Bottomline: A good companion
WRITE To:
JBL info
for regular travelers with appreciable
Tel: 80 43306300
sound quality.
Email: [email protected]
72

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Price: 6/10
Performance: 6/10
features: 6/10

Overall:

6/10

Price: `4,099

T

he Nude Audio recently launched Move S, Move M and Move
L portable Bluetooth speakers. The Nude Audio Move M
has good build quality with minimalist design and features
silicon rubber casing all around that would be protective if you
accidentally drop the device. On one side, there is an on/off
button, a separate Bluetooth pairing button and volume up/down,
but no track skip buttons. On the other side, there is 3.5mm
aux-in jack for non-Bluetooth devices and Micro USB charging
port. In addition, the device can function as a speakerphone. At
just 200 grams, the speaker is portable and easy to carry around.
Among the variants Move M, L, S only Move M features a built-in
speakerphone.
When we fed the speaker with various mix of tracks including
bass, soft music etc, it sounded well but not exceptional. The
orchestral tracks sounded rich and balanced. The device is light
on bass and tends to distort at higher volumes. Lower bass, metal
tracks sound decent but on tracks with heavy bass the speaker
produced a hissing sound.
Vocals pumped out by the
speaker were smooth and pleasant
and be heard at lower volumes
KEy SpECS:
4W Power Output, 81.2mm Driver Size,
clearly. The speaker gives a backup
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz,
of around 8 hours which is quite
Sensitivity: ≥81dB, Microphone,
impressive making it a travelling
Dimension: 12.7 x 6.1 x 12.7 cm, Aux-in,
Li-ion Rechargeable battery
companion for long journeys. The inbuilt speaker phone also works well
pRoS:
though sometimes we experienced a
Clear Audio, Light weight
fumble in hearing other end.
Bottomline: The Move M
ConS:
Distortion at max volumes
Bluetooth speaker is not very loud
and produces just enough volume to
WRITE To:
keep us entertained both outdoors
Brandeyes Distributors Pvt Ltd
and around the house.
Ph: 0120-4176300

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

PortronICS GlItZ

A portable speaker that gives visual treat to your music

anteC SP1 SPeaker

Feel your media come to life whether its watching movies,
listening music at a tap of button

SCORE
Price: 8/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 9/10

Overall:

9/10
SCORE
Price: `4,999

Price: 6/10
Performance: 6/10
features: 6/10

Overall:
Price: `4,999

T

he Glitz features a funky shaped design, has an integrated
light system and its own built-in LED light that grooves to
the tunes it plays. The grooving LED is a delight to watch,
making it the USP of this device. It works as a hands free speaker
phone with iPhone and Android Smartphones. Switching between
your phone conversations and music playback is smooth and
easy with just a single touch control. You can also connect it using NFC on smartphones with just a simple tap. The 7W speaker
is housed at the back of the device and the audio controls for
volume and track selection (when using the 3.5mm audio cable)
are available on the device itself.
We tested the speaker on various tracks and found that its
audio quality is pretty impressive and won’t disappoint you until
mid-range. On our bass and sub-intense bass tracks, it performed
well and pushed a significant amount of bass. When the volume
is raised, it gets pretty loud with no amount of distortion produced
even at max volumes. Vocals sound rich and clearly audible at lower
volume levels. The battery takes
approx 3 hours to charge to deliver
KEy SpECS:
backup of 6-7 hours. There are 5
7W power output, Frequency Response:
different light show modes that
20Hz-20kHz, Sensitivity : ≥83, NFC,
3.5mm audio jack, Weight: 432 grams
you can switch to, at the touch of a
single button. It can glow an almost
pRoS:
green, red, weak orange, blue or
Connectivity options, Impressive LED
lights
purple but generally mixes these
colors to create a variety of spectral
ConS:
light effects.
None
Bottomline: The speaker is
WRITE To:
capable of filling a small room with
Portronics Digital Pvt. Ltd. (india)
booming and balanced sound with
Ph: +91-9971833777
vibrant lights.
Email: [email protected]

6/10

S

P1 speaker is a predecessor of SP Zero and where many
manufacturers are experimenting and pushing new design
patterns in a compact form factor, SP1 sticks to the same
rectangular design like a mini sound bar. It features grills on
both front and back and a rubbery layer all around the speaker
that houses buttons for volume up/down, pairing on top and
power on/off, 3.5mm jack and charging port along the right side
of speaker.
Pairing the speaker is easier than Antec SP Zero as it has a
dedicated button for power on/off and bluetooth pairing. Before
diving further into sonic performance it is important to remember
that there are limitations to the sound produced by a speaker
coming in such sizes. When we fed the speaker with intense bass
content it tries to push bass but sounded flat.
On sub-intense bass content tracks, it sounded good and
delivered balanced sound signature along with soft bass. When it
comes to vocals, it delivers very good sound and the vocals sound
good even at low volume levels. There is no distortion when raising
the volume to max levels. The speaker can act as a replacement
for your smartphone and laptop
speakers while watching movies or
KEy SpECS:
playing games.
2*40mm Driver, 6W Power Output,
It also sounded best when
Frequency Resonse:2.4-2.48 GHz,
Sensitivity: 83dB, Impedance:4 ohms,
listening in close proximity. The
Weight: 380g, Dimension: 40(H) x 23(W)
built-in microphone delivers clear
x 15(D) mm
sound over a phone call and voice
pRoS:
does not crack or fumble. On full
Battery
charge, it deliveres battery life of 9
hours which is impressive.
ConS:
Design, Bass not powerful
Bottomline: Though the SP1
lacks in design but delivers overall
WRITE To:
fair sound signature with less
Antec india, Mumbai
complicated tracks.
Email: antecindia.co.in

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

73

ON THE DVD

• Workstation Beta
• Cloud Beta
• server Beta

10 Open Source CRM
Software

3.79 GB

Fedora 22:

Fedora 22 Cloud Beta: Latest versions of rpm-ostree and rpm-ostree-toolbox, the
latter of which can be used to generate Atomic hosts from a custom set of packages.
A Vagrant image for Fedora 22 Atomic Host is now provided.
Fedora 22 Server Beta: Now provides stable D-Bus interface to manage the
deployment of server roles which is based on PostgreSQL. Updated Cockpit webbased management application.
Fedora 22 Workstation Beta: Comes with new GNOME 3.16 and replaces
the X.org windowing system with Wayland, as the login screen
now uses Wayland. The Automatic Bug Reporting Tool
(ABRT) now features better notifications in this update.

1. SugarCRM, 2. vTiger,
3. SplendidCRM, 4. Xtuple,
5. ConcourseSuite, 6. Compiere,
7. Opentaps, 8. Zurmo, 9. XRMS and
10 CiviCRM

LInUx CORnER:
VIDEO TUTORIaL:
Introduction to
Linux and Basic
Linux Commands
for Beginners
IPFire 2.17: a
hardened Linux
appliance distribution
designed for use as a
firewall.

Contest: e
r
Win softW4a,000
Worth `4

6 Games

20 Essentials tools for New PCs
5 Multimedia: • VLC Media Player • K-Lite • iTunes
• Free Video Converter • Freemake YouTube Downloader
4 Office Tools: • Adobe Reader • Apache OpenOffice
• LibreOffice • Office Compatibility Pack
7 System Tuning: • CCleaner• Comodo Internet Security
• Hotspot Shield • Avast Free Antivirus • AVG Free Edition
• AdwCleaner • Panda Free
4 Photos and Images: • FastStone Image • Blender

• IrfanView • The Gimp

KOREA: SWAT MISSION: The SWAT mission has begun.
Your goal is to complete all of your missions, eliminating
various enemies in North Korea.
COMBAT MACHINES: You are a Combat Machine
commander ambushed in an enemy territory. Your task is
simple - seek and destroy.
ROBO RACING: Robo Racing is the unique mix of racing
and fighting. Beat your enemies on the track or defeat
them on the ring
MONSTERS’ WHEELS: Welcome to racing with monster
trucks, boost them up to crazy speed, perform stunts,
earn money and upgrade your cars.
SUPERCOW: The evil professor Duriarti escaped from
prison and took all of Sunny Valley’s inhabitants hostage
to conduct hideous experiments.
HELICOPTER WARS: Awesome helicopter arcade game.
Shoot ‘Em Up with plenty of adventures and adrenaline

review

scan this code for more info.
To download a barcode app, SMS <f2k> to 56677
from a mobile phone with Internet access and camera.

NeTWORK MONITORING TOOL

Colasoft Capsa 7 enterprise
Capture network traffic from wired or wireless networks and use pre-defined filters to analyze it quickly and easily to optimize
network performance and security
— Anil Chopra

I

f you’re a network specialist, app developer or administrator
who’s looking for a network analyzer that could help you
troubleshoot problems on your network, enhance its security
and improve network performance, then Capsa is worth
checking out.
As compared to some of the free network analyzers out there,
the learning curve for Capsa isn’t very steep. You’ll get used to
it in no time, and the plethora of online video tutorials on their
website definitely help. They’re quick snappy, and to the point.
The software’s GUI is very well-structured and easy to
understand. We reviewed the enterprise edition of the software,
but there’s also a free edition available, which analyzes traffic
only for IP addresses of the first 50 nodes it captures. So if you
are a small business owner with less than 50 nodes on your
network, then you can use this tool free of cost to troubleshoot
your network.
Capsa lets you capture traffic from both wired and wireless
networks. For a wired network, you need to connect it at a mirror/
scan port on your network. Likewise, for wireless networks, it
automatically identifies your wireless network adapter and displays
the wireless access points it found. Choose the one you want to
monitor, specify its password and start capturing. The software
switches your wireless adapter into monitoring mode, but strangely
at the same time, it disconnects your wireless connection while the
capturing is in progress. You can’t use your wireless adapter for
anything else during this time.
The good thing about Capsa is that apart from full scan, you can
also choose from eight pre-configured analysis profiles. So whether
you want to find out which websites are your users visiting or you
want to hunt down security issues on your network, or even capture
all email or IP telephony conversations, Capsa provides specific
profiles for a variety of tasks to quickly get you started.
Once traffic has been captured, you can start analyzing it
for the protocols used, active physical endpoints by MAC or IP
address, physical or IP conversations between various nodes,
the ports being used, or even drill into every network packet
configuration. Moreover, if you feel that a specific node is
generating too much traffic and is attempting to connect to too
many nodes on the network (which typically happens during a
virus or worm attack), then there’s a matrix view that gives a
graphical view of which node is connecting to which one. Another
convenience feature is that you can isolate the traffic by a specific
node at the click of a button.
What’s more, Capsa also provides for download on their
website lots of capture filter samples for a wide variety of network
anomalies. For instance, you can detect all PCs on your network
running BitTorrent, or detect the machines infected with the Codered
virus, and so on. Another neat feature offered by Capsa is that you
can replay network packets saved using other network monitoring
tools, like Wireshark.

The matrix mode in Capsa displays all connections being made
by each node on your network, which can help quickly identify
nodes that might be infected with a virus or worm.

SCORE
Price: UsD $995
(single seat perpetual
license with 1 year
maintenance)

Price: 6/10
Performance: 9/10
features: 9/10

Overall:

8/10

KEy SpECS: Real-time and post-event application performance
monitoring, identify and analyze over 300 network protocols, monitor
network bandwidth, view real time stats, monitor internet, mail, web
browsing, VoIP conversations, file sharing, etc.
pRoS: Extremely easy to use; Excellent drill down capabilities to
pin-point problems quickly; Powerful dashboard with intuitive graphs
and charts
ConS: Wireless adapter stops working sometimes when in monitoring
mode; a little expensive
WRITE To: Colasoft LLC.
Web: colasoft.com/company/contact.php, Email: [email protected]

Bottomline: Overall, the beauty of this software is the ease
with which you can capture and analyze your network traffic, and
the plethora of video tutorials and capture filter samples that the
company provides. The enterprise edition is a tad expensive, but
if you’re monitoring a large network, and don’t have time to figure
out how to use freely available tools, then this is definitely worth
checking out because of its ease of use and rich functionality.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

77

gadgets corner
SmaRtphone

motorola moto turbo
Moto Turbo is backed by a powerful
processor, brilliant screen, latest
Android OS and a battery that lasts
longer than its competitors. However, it
is not a sleek device like other flagship
smartphones and is a victim of average
camera performance.

Sample photo

Price: `41,999

The Quad-HD resolution
across the 5.2 inch screen
size results in the amazing
pixel density of 565ppi,
which makes texts, icons
and images super crisp. The
display also has amazing
viewing angles and you can
consume multimedia content
in outdoor conditions without
any issues.

Moto Turbo is the first
smartphone to feature the tough
yet light ballistic nylon, which
is used to make biker jackets,
briefcases and military artifacts.
The criss-cross texture at the back
offers a good grip and gives a
tough look to the smartphone.
Moto Turbo offers 53 GB free
space out of 64 gigabytes
in-built memory. But there is no
option for micro SD card if you
want to add some extra storage.

Moto Turbo is the best
Android smartphone we have
tested in our labs in terms of
computing performance. The
powerful 2.7 GHz quad-core
Qualcomm Snapdragon
805 CPU lets you perform
anything and everything
without any hiccups. It
beats every other Android
smartphone in Antutu
benchmark with an amazing
score of 52,128.0

Turbo is backed by a
3,900 mAh battery unit. The
smartphone easily lasts for a
day with heavy usage, that
includes videos playback, music,
browsing, calling, gaming and
social networking applications.

Key SpecS

• 5.2” Super AMOLED Quad-HD
display (565ppi)
• 2.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon
805 CPU, 3 GB RAM
• Android 5.0 Lollipop
• 20.7 MP rear and 5 MP front camera
• 64 GB internal memory, non-expandable
• 3900 mAh battery

Bottom line

Moto turbo sets new standards and exudes
the true power of smartphone computing.
The one area it loses the edge is the camera
performance, otherwise it is a perfect combination of hardware and software that delivers
a power packed performance at a fair price.

Solid build quality, Very sharp and crystal clear
display, good battery life, excellent multitasking performance.
Bulky design, sluggish camera, colors have a
warmer tone to them.

78

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

The 21 MP rear shooter is
able to capture sharp and
vibrant images, but it needs
a noticeable time to focus a
subject and to capture the shot.
The pictures in low light show
noise and the long exposure
shots mostly come out to be
blurry. However, the two flash
lights on the either sides of
the camera unit are brilliantly
bright and work well to capture
images in absence of light. You
can shoot 4k videos at 24fps,
1080p videos at 30fps and slow
motion 720p videos at 15fps.

ScoRe
Price: 8/10
Performance: 10/10
Features: 8/10

Overall:

8/10

For detailed reviews, visit www.pcquest.com

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

gadgets corner
Honor 4X

SCORE

Price: `10,499

Price: 8/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 8/10

Key SpecS
• 5.5” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (267ppi)
• 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 CPU, 2 GB RAM
• Android 4.4.4 Kitkat
• 13 MP rear with LED Flash & 5 MP front camera
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 32 GB
• 3000 mAh battery

Overall:

8/10

Sharp HD display, good battery back-up, decent camera
Tad bulky, plasticy build

An excellent value for money smartphone that is a better
performer than others in this price bracket, like the Moto
G 2nd Gen. You can expect great battery life, great display
quality, and good camera performance from this phone.

OPPO mirror 3
Price: `16,990
Key SpecS
• 4.7” IPS LCD capacitive HD display (312ppi)
• 1.2 GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 CPU, 1 GB RAM
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• 8 MP rear with LED Flash & 5 MP front camera
• 8 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 128 GB
• 2000 mAh battery

Premium design, perfect for one hand usage, Color UI from OPPO looks
amazing, sharp screen

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

7/10

Average battery back-up, poor multitasking performance, average camera
performance

A decent mid-range smartphone that becomes a victim of poor
multitasking because of the meager 1 GB RAM.

HTC Desire 820S
Price: `25,500

SCORE

Key SpecS
• 5.5” LCD Capacitive HD display (267ppi)
• 1.7 GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6752 CPU, 2 GB RAM
• Android 4.4.4 KitKat
• 13 MP rear with LED flash & 8 MP front camera
• 16 GB internal memory, expandable up to 32 GB
• 2600 mAh battery

Price: 6/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 6/10

Overall:

6/10

Large screen serves well for multimedia tasks, slim and attractive design, stable UI,
good audio quality by BoomSound speakers, solid call quality
Poor resolution display, slippery construction, can only be expanded up-to 32 GB,
poor battery back-up, average cameras, heats up while gaming and video playback

This mid-range smartphone is an upgrade to HTC’s 820 and 820Q series.
Though it has a large screen and great specs, the phone leaves a lot to be
desired. Display quality is average, battery lasts less than a day, and storage is
expandable to only 32 GB, while its older siblings supported up to 128 GB.
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

For detailed reviews, visit www.pcquest.com
MAY 2015

PCQuest

79

gadgets corner
Xiaomi Mi Pad
Price: `12,999
Key SpecS
• 7.9 “IPS LCD capacitive display 1536x2048 pixels (~324 ppi)
• 2.2 GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra k1 CPU, 2GB RAM
• 8 MP rear camera & 5 MP front camera
• Android 4.4 KitKat with MIUI 6
• 16 GB in-built storage, expandable up-to 128GB
• 6700 mAh battery
Amazing performance, sharp display, good rear and
front cameras, better battery life than its competitors,
expandable up-to 128GB, sturdy built quality, a value
for money product

SCORE
Price: 9/10
Performance: 9/10
features: 7/10

Slippery & plasticky construction, no SIM card
support, no MIUI Theme Engine for customization

Mi Pad is a low cost high performance tablet that delivers amazing
multimedia performance – better than its competitors. However, it
lacks SIM card connectivity which can be a deal breaker.

Overall:

9/10

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro
Price: `1,14,990
Key SpecS
• 13.3 QHD+ IPS multi-touch display,
• Intel Core M-5Y71 processor, 8GB DDR3L RAM
• 512 GB SSD
• Windows 8.1
• 4 cell 44.8WH battery

Dual window, motion controls, thin and lightweight, fanless design,
high-res display, new 180-degree option for multimode uses
Not very impressive performance, shallow keyboard, average battery life of 4-5 hours

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

7/10

It’s a lightweight and attractive premium quality convertible-hybrid
laptop that bends back effectively into four different modes and runs
smoothly. However, it has an average battery life.

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro
Price: `49,490
Key SpecS
• 13.3-inch IPS display, 220ppi
• 1.3 GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor
• Intel gen 7 GPU, 2 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear and 1.6 MP front camera
• Android KitKat 4.4
• 32 GB in-built storage, 128 GB expandable
• 9600 mAh battery

SCORE

Built quality, QHD display, stunning body, built-in projector,
four mode onboard kickstand, booming audio, long battery life
Bulky design makes it tough to use in tablet mode (948 g)
This is a solid device that’s great for productivity or entertainment. Its bulky design
gives the feel of holding a laptop, but with its plethora of brilliant features like
QHD display, JBL speakers, a handy onboard kickstand and a built-in projector, the
device can actually become a perfect companion.
80

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

Price: 7/10
Performance:7/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

8/10

For detailed reviews, visit www.pcquest.com

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

JBL GO
Price: `1,999
Key SpecS
• 3W Power Output
• Frequency Response : 180Hz-20kHz
• SNR: ≥80 dB
• Weight: 130g

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 7/10

Mid range sound, Compact
Low on bass

Overall:

Designed for enjoying music in a closed environment,
the tiny bluetooth speaker is inexpensive and delivers
decent sound for its size and price. A built-in strap-hook
and optional carrying strap allow you to take your
music everywhere and fosters easy portability.

7/10

LG NP1540W
Price: `3,590
Key SpecS
• 2.8W Power Output
• Frequency Response : 20Hz-20kHz
• SNR: ≥80 dB
• Weight: 370g

Powerful sound for its size
Slight distortion at higher volumes

SCORE
Price: 6/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 6/10

Overall:

6/10

Being small in size the portable speaker handles music
admirably. It delivers significant amount of power with
reasonable bass. It has dual speaker pairing capability
wherein additional 2nd speaker can be connected to create
a stereo sound.

Gizmobaba Magic Box Speaker
Price: `2,000
Key SpecS
• 4W Power Output
• In-built amplifier
• SNR: ≥80 dB
• Weight: 140g
Induction Technology, decent sound output
None

This speaker lets you play music without Bluetooth
or any other wired connectivity from Android or iPhones.
Simply play some music on your mobile device and place it
on top of this box. It will use induction technology to read
the music waves from your phone or other device, and
automatically amplify it. Now that’s what we call magic!

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

8/10

For detailed reviews, visit www.pcquest.com
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

81

gadgets corner
Canon Maxify MB5370 Color Inkjet MFP
Price: `23,995 (Warranty: 1 year)
Key SpecS
• Print Resolution : 1200*600 dpi
• 2*250 Sheet Input Tray, 75 Pages Output Tray, ADF
• Wi-Fi, LAN
• Dimension : 463 x 394 x 351 mm
• Print Speed 15 ppm Color and 23 ppm B/W

Consumables
PGI-2700XL (Black) - `2,449
PGI-2700XL (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) - `1,680

SCORE

Print Quality, Duty Cycle, ADF

Price: 6/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 7/10

USB Print

Keeping in mind the needs of SMBs, the MAXIFY range caters
to high volume printing requirements with a duty cycle of
upto 30,000 prints per month. MAXIFY Printing Solutions
(MPS) app is compatible with iOS and Android OS. IT allows
printing of PDF, images and other office formats from mobile
devices.
The print quality is excellent and the text looks sharp.

Overall:

7/10

Epson L1300 Color Inkjet A3 Printer
Price: `26,999 (Warranty: 1 year)
Key SpecS
• Print Resolution : 5760*1440dpi
• 100 Sheet Input Tray
• 50 Sheet Output Tray
• Dimension : 705*322*215 mm
• Print Speed 15 ppm B/W and 5 ppm Color

Consumables
Yellow(664) : `441
Cyan(664): `441
Magenta(664): `441
Black (664) : `441

Sharp text prints; decent graphics quality.
Slow print speeds (2 ppm color, 4 ppm black)

SCORE
Price: 8/10
Performance: 6/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

A compact, 4-colour, A3+ printer with a high-capacity ink tank that can
deliver up to 7,100 pages without a refill. With excellent print quality,
the printer can be great for printing ad material, CAD drawings, graphics
and reports. since it only has USB connectivity, it would be ideal for small
offices. Re-filling ink is easy with its fast ink-top technology.

7/10

WD Red 6 TB NAS Hard Drive
Price: `19,800
Key SpecS
• 6 TB SATA Drive, 64 MB cache
• NASWare 3.0
• Average power requirements (W) Read/Write-5.3. Idle-3.4,

SCORE

Standby/Sleep-0.4
• Supports Windows 7, Vista, 8 or higher, requires

Price: 8/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 7/10

reformatting for Mac OS X
Low power consumption, performance,
RAID configuration, 3 years warranty

Overall:

Slower random access performance
This drive is optimized for use in NAS boxes with 1 to 8 bays. Its firmware,
NASware is pre-configured for RAID, which helps configure the drive
in any RAID level faster than regular drives. The HDD delivers excellent
performance, and clocked 244 MBps read and 155 MBps write speeds.
82

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

8/10

For detailed reviews, visit www.pcquest.com

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Groovez BTHS800 Headphone
Price: `3,990
Key SpecS
• Driver size: 3.5mm
• Frequency Response: 2.4-2.480GHz
• Sensitivity: 88dB
• Dimensions: 155mm
• Weight: 250grams

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 8/10

Solid Bass

Overall:

Ear cups are hard and can cause little discomfort
over prolonged use

8/10

At the first impression the headphones look beautiful and are housed in hard
plastic casing. Additionally, with BTHS800, you don’t even need your phone to
control your tunes, the handy Volume Up and Down, Fast forward and Rewind
buttons are all conveniently placed on the outside of the earpiece. Play and Stop
buttons sit on the opposite earpiece. Overall, it is a well-constructed, comfortable
pair of headphones that sound impressive, with excellent clarity and tight bass.

Antec AMP pulse Headphone
Price: `6,999
Key SpecS
• Driver Size: 40mm
• Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz
• Sensitivity: 80dB
• Weight: 180 grams
• Dimension: 180*170

Good bass
Noise cancellation is good but not great

SCORE
Price: 6/10
Performance: 7/10
features: 7/10

Overall:

7/10

It’s a headphone pair that delivers an accurate, crisp sound signature
with good bass without exaggerating it. Its pulse has good noise
isolation, but it leaks sound when played at full volumes. The
headphones fold flat in a little space for easy portability.

WD My Passport Wireless 1 TB External Drive
Price: `13,000
Key SpecS
• Wi-Fi, SD card slot
• USB 3.0
• 1 TB Capacity
• Pre-formatted with ExFAT file system, so accessible

from both Windows and Mac systems.
Decent transfer rates; Good value for money
Transfer rate over WiFi is a little slow
A compact and portable drive that can be accessed simultaneously
by eight mobile devices (Android and iOS based) and Windows desktops.
Interestingly, the drive has a built-in SD card reader, which let’s you directly transfer
photos and videos from a digicam to the drive over WiFi. The drive doesn’t heat much,
which adds to its reliability. Performance is decent, with up to 211 MBps read and
105 MBps write speeds while transferring 10 GB of assorted data to/from a laptop
over USB. It took 3 min to transfer 1 GB data from SD card to drive.
pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

SCORE
Price: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
features: 8/10

Overall:

8/10

For detailed reviews, visit www.pcquest.com
MAY 2015

PCQuest

83

extraedge

PCQuest Best IT Implementation
Awards of the year 2014
The XIth IT Implementation Awards this time, not only recognized IT projects
that had high impact, but also recognized deployments in specific technology
areas. Presented here are the hall of famers for this edition of the awards.
– Anil Chopra

Ravikiran Mankikar (right), Chief GM-IT, Shamrao Vithal Co-Operative
Bank receiving the Most Promising Project award for Enterprise Storage
Deployment from Sivakumar N, VP-Sales and Marketing, Toshiba India

Abhinav Yajurvedi (left), AVP Engg, Myntra.com receiving the Technology
Transformation award in Cloud Computing for their Hybrid Cloud
Implementation from Dr. Anil M Paingankar, Principal Lead ArchitectureGMT Practice, Wipro Ltd.

V Ananthanarayanan (right), VP-Business Insights, HDFC Standard Life
Insurance, receiving the Maximum Business Impact award from V.S.
Parthasarathy, Group CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra for the project Qlik Insights
@ HDFC Life

Saurabh Chandra (right), CIO, OneAssist Consumer Solutions receiving the
Best Emerging Enterprise Award from Dr. Kapil Dev Singh, Founder Coeus
Age for PCI DSS Certification project.

Satishwar Balakrishnan (right), Head-IT, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, receiving
the Technology Transformation award for the Enterprise Mobility project-Straight Through Processing- OTC issuance of Policy in 5 Minutes

84

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

S.K.Jadhav (left), Joint Secy (IT), Govt. of Maharashtra receiving the Most
Innovative Project award on behalf of Ajoy Mehta, Principal Secretary
(IT), Govt. of Maharashtra from Hoshie Ghaswalla, CEO, Cyber Media for
Accessible Places Mobile App

Jitendra Sangharajka D (left), Associate Vice President, Infosys Ltd. receiving
the award for project with the Maximum Scale for the project Digital
Business Engine from C.N.Ram, Co-Founder and Director, Rural Shores

Harvinder Singh Banga (right), VP-IT, Flywheel Logistics Pvt. Ltd receiving the
Best Emerging Enterprise Award from Dr. Kapil Dev Singh, Founder Coeus
Age for the project Pre-Pickup Tracking

S.K.Jadhav, Joint Secy (IT) receiving the Best eGov award on behalf of
Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee, IAS Commissioner, Maharashtra State Excise
Department, Govt of Maharashtra from Pradeep Gupta, MD, Cyber Media for
the project MahaExcise

Pranav Khanna (left), Manager, Business Services, AISECT receiving
the Maximum Social Impact award from V.S. Parthasarathy, Group CIO,
Mahindra & Mahindra

Sujata Saunik (left), Principal Secretary, Public Health Department, Govt of
Maharashtra receiving the Best eGov award for project E-Aushadhi from
Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia

Rajesh Saboo (left), Head-IT, Future Group receiving the Data Center
Transformation Award for project Manthan from Dr. Anil M Paingankar,
Principal Lead Architecture-GMT Practice, Wipro Ltd.

Avinash Mittal (Center), CIO, Uninor receiving the award for the project with
Highest Technical Complexity for project Customer Information Management
System from C.N. Ram (left), Co-Founder and Director, Rural Shores

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

85

extraedge

C-Change Awards 2015
The C-Change Enterprise awards have been recognizing large enterprise CIOs
for their IT projects for over a decade. This time’s awards went beyond that
and also identified and recognized CIOs for their leadership and influence
capabilities.
– Anil Chopra

Dr. JS Sodhi (right), AVP & Director, Amity Education Group & CCFIS
receiving the Tech Innovator award from Sanjiv Mehta, Tech Evangelist
& Sales Lead- HP

M Sivasubramania (right), Head - IT, L&T IDPL receiving the Tech Innovator
award from Sanjiv Mehta, Tech Evangelist & Sales Lead- HP

Radhakrishna Pillai (right), CIO, SRL Limited receiving the Business Innovator
award from Jayesh George, Marketing Manager-India & SAARC, Riverbed
Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

Manoranjan Kumar (middle), CIO, Shree Cement Limited receiving the
Business Innovator award from Jayesh George, Marketing Manager-India &
SAARC, Riverbed Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

Anil Veer, VP-Global IT-Tata Communications Limited (right) on behalf of
Rupinder Goel, Senior VP-IT receiving the CIO Leadership award from Anil
Chopra, Group Editor, CIOL and PCQuest

86

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

Niranjan Bal, GM – IT Compliances (CISO) and PMO, Hindalco Industries
Ltd. (right) on behalf of Bhushan Akerker, CIO, receiving the CIO Leadership
award from Anil Chopra, Group Editor, CIOL and PCQuest

Prasenjit Mukherjee (right), GM-IT, BSES Power Ltd. receiving the Industry
Influencer award from Sujata Saunik, Principal Secretary, Public Health
Dept., Govt. of Maharashtra

Jagdish Belwal (left), CIO, Tata Motors Ltd. receiving the Industry Influencer
award from Sujata Saunik, Principal Secretary, Public Health Dept., Govt. of
Maharashtra

Raja Ukil (right), CIO, Wipro Ltd. receiving the CIO of the Year award from Dr.
N Vijayaditya, Former DG, NIC and Controller of Certifying Authority

Anthony Thomas, Vodafone India Ltd. (middle) receiving the Digital Crusader
award from Dr. N Vijayaditya, Former DG, NIC and Controller of Certifying
Authority and Pradeep Gupta, CMD Cybermedia India Ltd. (right)

Rajesh Agarwal, Joint Secretary (Financial Services) GOI (middle) receiving
the Digital Crusader award from Dr. N Vijayaditya, Former DG, NIC and
Controller of Certifying Authority and Pradeep Gupta, CMD Cybermedia India
Ltd.(right)

C.N.Ram, Co-Founder & Director, Rural Shores Business Services Ltd.
(middle) receiving the Lifetime Achievement award from Dr. N Vijayaditya,
Former DG, NIC and Controller of Certifying Authority and Pradeep Gupta,
CMD Cybermedia India Ltd. (right)

V.S. Parthasarathy, Group CIO and CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra Group (middle)
receiving the Lifetime Achievement award from Dr. N Vijayaditya, Former
DG, NIC and Controller of Certifying Authority and Pradeep Gupta, CMD
Cybermedia India Ltd.(right)

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

87

newsmakers
enterPrise it
Amazon’s Special Ecommerce Platform for
SMEs to be Launched Soon

This platform will allow
registered members at the
website to buy a variety
of products viz., office,
kitchen and home supplies,
health and personal care
products along with food and
beverages. With a minimum
order value of Rs 1,000.
Amazon will negotiate wholesale rates directly with manufacturers
and sell to its members. Since amazon is launching a members-only
website, it means initially small and medium businesses have to be
invited by the company to trade online. The website is expected
to go live in the second half of May and will be will mostly be
modelled on AmazonSupply. Anyone with a valid business licencekirana stores, hospitals, schools and home entrepreneurs will be
taken onboard online.

Flipkart Signs MoU with FISME and
NCDPD to Promote SMEs

Online marketplace Flipkart has signed amemorandum
of understanding with Federation of Indian Micro and
Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) and National
Centre for Design and Product Development (NCDPD).The
objective of the MoU is to provide a platform for small
domestic manufacturers and artisans to reach out to
buyers. Following this MoU, the portal will host products
from about 50,000 SMEs. This partnership with FISME
and NCDPD would enable 50,000 small and medium
enterprises and artisans to become self-reliant, improve
their living standards and scale their business manifold,
he added. Flipkart will provide MSMEs infrastructural
support in data analytics, marketing and customer
acquisition. The partners believe this will benefit a lot of
businesses, including first-time entrepreneurs as well as a
large number of women entrepreneurs.

Seagate Introduces Kinetic Storage Solution

Seagate Technology unveiled new object-based storage drive— the Seagate Kinetic HDD.
Based on the Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform, Kinetic HDD reduces total cost of
ownership (TCO) by combining an open source object storage protocol with Ethernet
connectivity to eliminate multiple layers of legacy software and hardware infrastructure
thus simplifying cloud storage architecture. The Kinetic Open Storage platform improves
drive and rack level performance by eliminating the need for legacy file systems and
shifting HDD storage media space management to the drive itself. It delivers a streamlined
architecture allowing storage applications to talk directly to Kinetic object storage HDDs.
Performance is further enhanced by eliminating storage server bottlenecks via direct
IP addressing of each drive, thereby improving system level throughput. The platform
enables servers and storage to be scaled independently and developed more rapidly.
Cloud data centers can add servers and storage at entirely different rates, matching each
precisely to their needs.

MoBiLitY
Facebook Rolls Out New Caller ID App for
Android Users called Hello

Christened “Hello”, the app gives people more information about
who is calling them. Being merged with Facebook, Hello users
can see information about their callers’ identity even if they don’t
have them stored as a contact. Hello, is currently available Android
Google Play store as a free download, replaces the Android interface
dialer with a more Facebook-centric user interface. The main
features are: it uses Facebook to recognize callers so you know
who’s calling,; it will allow you to avoid unwanted callers by blocking
them from calling you ; and also houses a effective search feature
that helps you for finding the numbers of local businesses. The Hello
app features free calling over Wi-Fi using VoIP, the feature, which
has long been a part of Facebook Messenger. The app also gives you
the option of replying using Messenger if you have missed a call.
88

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

WhatsApp Voice Calling Feature Lands to iOS

WhatsApp, a popular cross platform messaging app that killed text
messages long time ago is now ready to kill Phone app in the iOS. iPhone
users can now make voice calling on WhatsApp as well. The feature had
already been running successfully to Android smart phones. The latest
iOS version of WhatsApp 2.12.1 brings voice-calling to the app. The app
will use your internet connection to make these calls and data charges
may apply. Also even if you update the app today, you might not have
access to the voice calling feature just yet as WhatsApp says it will roll
out the update slowly over the next few weeks. The story is not over yet
as the new 2.12.1 update now also includes share extension for sharing
photos, videos or links using sharing button in other apps. You can also
take videos directly from WhatsApp quick access button to camera. You
can also send multiple videos at once.

Microsoft Released Latest Update for Windows 8.1
While the standout feature remains the improvements done to Cortana, the
voice assistant, other improvements are the introduction of folders on the
Start screen, the ability to combine and send multiple text messages, the Drive
Mode, accessory app notifications, and more. Now you can organise your Start
screen the way you want. Simply push one tile on top of another one to create
a folder much like the way they do it in iOS and Android. In the Drive Mode
choose what calls or notifications you’d like your attention to be diverted to
while driving. You can set the names of contacts whose calls you want to take
while driving. Likewise you can shut off unnecessary notifications and messages
from bothering you.

Zoho Launches Apps for Apple
Watch for Business Travel
The three Zoho Business Apps for Apple Watch
include: Zoho Expense allows users to track and
record their trip mileage right from their watch.
With Zoho Books time spent on a task within a
project can be tracked and recorded right from
the wrist. Once recorded, an invoice can be sent
from Zoho Books app on the web or mobile.
Taskz – This app provides reminder notifications
for tasks created in Zoho Mail. Pending tasks for
the day along with due dates will also be listed.

ALL AroUnD tHe GADGets
Xiaomi’s Mi 4i and Mi Band launched
at `12,999 and `999 respectively
Mi4i features a single polycarbonate body
and boasts of a 5- inch 1080p display with
a pixel density of 441PPI. Under the hood is
the Snapdragon 615 second-gen 64-bit 8 core
processor with a clock speed of 1.7 GHz coupled
with 2 GB of RAM. The front is equipped with
a 5 MP camera with 80-degree wide angle lens
and various modes. Moreover the smartphone
is the first MIUI 6 device based on Android L and
features 4G dual SIM slots.

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

MAY 2015

PCQuest

89

newsmakers
Honor 6 Plus and Honor 4X Launched in India @
Rs.26,499 and Rs 10,499 Respectively

Honor 6 Plus features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1920x1080p) in-cell display which
looked quite crisp. The images, icons, texts and pictures were very sharp and
clear. The smartphone is powered by a 1.8 GHz Kirin 925 octa-core processor
with 3 GB of RAM for multitasking. There is Mali-T628 GPU to handle graphical
intensive tasks. You get 32GB internal storage which is expandable up-to 128 GB
via microSD card. The budget smartphone, Honor 4X sports a 5.5-inch IPS HD
(720x1280p) display which is also of decent quality. It is not very sharp as the
large 5.5″ panel with just 720p resolution which showed signs of pixelation at a
closer looks. It is backed up by a 64-bit 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quadcore processor and Adreno 306 GPU. There is 2GB RAM for multitasking and 8GB
internal storage which can be expanded up-to 32 GB via microSD card.

Get Ready for Three new Advanced iPhones this Year

If rumors are to be believed, the Cupertino giant will introduce three new
smartphones; iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone 6C in the later 2015. The
screens will feature a new type of glass, codenamed “Project Phire,” from the
house of Corning. It will offer the durability of Gorilla Glass 4 and supreme scratch
resistance ability of Sapphire. iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will be powered by the
latest Apple A9 chip, rumored to be manufacture by Samsung-one of its biggest
rivals, whereas the iPhone 6C is expected to be launched with the A8 chip. The
processor will be accompanied by the improved M9 co-processor for handling tasks
related to sensors such as barometer, touch ID, etc. Moreover, a significant bump in
RAM is expected, doubling the current 1GB RAM (in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus) to 2 for the
new iPhones.

Next iPhone to Feature New Camera Technology to
Capture Richer Colors

The new camera technology in next iPhone will use light-splitting cube to provide
enhanced image quality. This new technology could potentially be incorporated in
Apple’s next iPhone. The new camera will feature three separate imaging sensors
and each of them would be designed in such a way to capture a single primary color
component. The camera then interpolates these single-colour outputs into a full
colour image,delivering greater color reproduction which will be three times more
rich than the results by standard single-sensor systems. The sensor will also employ a
movable zoom lens element and an adjustable mirror in a periscope-like arrangement
designed to deliver optical image stabilisation.

LG Launches First 105 5K TV at LG Tech Show 2015

Designed to ensure overwhelming cinematic experience, the LG 105 5K TV with its
105 (266 cm) Gigantic Screen and 5K IPS panel sets a standard in TV technology in
the world. The amazing 105 5K TV comes with its CinemaScope 21:9 aspect ratio
and mammoth 4K-beating 5120 x 2160 resolution. It also comes integrated with 7.2
channel 150 W speakers designed by Harmon/Kardon along with intuitive WebOS
smart interface. The 105 5K TV comes installed with the smartness of LG Smart + TV
WebOS that lets you enjoy your favorite shows/movies with convenience and ease.
The smart world of WebOS lets you can simply jump over to any apps and services
easily. The 105 5K TVs with cinematic experience and smart features are available at
the price of Rs. 59,99,900.
90

PCQuest M A Y 2 0 1 5

pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected]

RNI No. 45949/87 DPR No. DL(S)17/3319/2014-16
(Published on 1st of every month)
Posting Date: 3&4 every month. Posted at Lodhi Road HPO