NEWS--Airtel launches mobile education service, mEducation

Bharti Airtel has launched a new education service meant for mobile phones and tablets, called mEducation. The new service enables Airtel  customers across the country to access a host of education services, including courses for language skills, entrance exam preparation and career counselling with just a few clicks on their mobile phones.  Based on both voice (IVR) and SMS format, the courses offer interactive courses in multiple languages. Regular assessment tests also help customers to evaluate their progress. Customers can now also easily access the details of campuses and the scholarships on their fingertips.    Here's a quick look at some of the Airtel mEducation products -  English Guru: It helps users learn English in their native language, English Guru is available in a IVRS format and costs Rs 30 for 30 days. To subscribe to English Guru, subscribers will have to dial 55066.  Office Vocab: The product lets users learn corporate lingo to improve their vocabulary. Office Vocab is available in SMS format for Rs 1.5 per day. To subscribe, users will have dial 55077 or *321*550#.  Exam Prep: This helps subscribers preparing for entrance and competitive exams, like UPSC, MBA, CLAT, Bank PO, RRB, Staff services and GRE, with questionnaire-based preparatory material. Exam Prep is available in WAP format and costs Rs 99 for 12 mock tests or Rs 49 for 5 mock tests. To subscribe to Exam Prep, users will have SMS MOCK to 5432105. Ask an expert: Helps subscribers with education and career related queries by offering advice from the experts. Ask an expert is available in SMS format and costs Rs 10 per week (10 questions free). To subscribe to Ask an expert, users will have to dial 55077.  Career Counselling: Helps subscribers with career related queries by letting them talk to the best of professors from top institutes and leading industry experts and professionals. Career Counselling is available in IVRS format for Rs 2 per day + event charges. To subscribe, users will have to dial 55077.  MBA Fastrack Pack: Lets subscribers learn the tricks to crack CAT by the CAT Guru, Arun Sharma. MBA Fastrack Pack is available on WAP format for Rs 10 per day (30 days) or Rs 199 (One time). To subscribe, users will have log on to - http://m.crackcat.in.  Personality Development: Helps subscribers develop their soft skills and enhance their personality. Personality Development is available in IVRS format and costs Rs 15 for a week. To subscribe, users will have to dial 53222345.  Campus Search: Lets subscribers search any campus, school or college in their city and town. Campus Search is available in SMS format for Rs 1.5 per day. To subscribe, users will have to dial *321*660#.  Scholarship Alert: Helps subscribers by offering alerts on their mobile. Scholarship Alert is available in SMS format and costs Rs 1.5 per day. To subscribe, users will have to dial 55077.

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Posted in: mobile education,NEWS

APPS-Facebook testing free calls, voice messaging in Messenger App

Facebook is currently testing VoIP and voice messaging features for its Messenger app in select parts of the world. The social networking giant recently revealed that its Messenger app can now be used to make voice calls in Canada for free. Using a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection, Facebook users can now make free calls using the messenger service on iOS.

The VoIP service is currently rolling out only to Canadian iPhone users, but if the tests go well, this feature could roll out on Facebook Messenger for Android for users globally as well. To make a call using this feature, users need to hit the ‘i’ button and then choose ‘Free Call.’ To try this out, users will only need to update their app and use a Wi-Fi connection or their existing data plans.

Make calls and send voice messages using Messenger now

While Facebook users in Canada will be able to actually hold a real-time, phone-like conversation, users across the world will have a new feature in the Messenger app wherein they will be able to record short voice messages to send to their friends.  To send a voice message, users need to click on the ‘i’ button and hit record.

While the voice mail-like feature seems to be a nice way to say hello to friends in your own voice, the bigger question is, why Facebook is adding such features so late in the day when they are so freely available with VoIP apps like Skype.

Facebook is testing the VoIP feature with a small test group and might open up voice calls to the rest of the world too. Recently, Facebook  tweaked its Messenger for Android to embrace users that weren't a part of the social networking site. Armed with only a phone number and a name, anyone can use Facebook Messenger to contact friends both on and off Facebook using the Messenger App. Once the Facebook Call over VoIP function is expanded to Android, the number of users taking advantage of the free call function will be immensely larger.

Adding a call and voice message function is one of the many changes Facebook seems to be incorporating in their apps since the past few months. Besides opening up Android Messenger to all, Facebook has also launched Poke, a self-destructing message app that's similar to Snapchat.

Using Poke, Facebook users can send messages and images to their friends and set a time after which the message will automatically be destroyed. Only open to iOS users yet, Poke can send out messages to multiple users at the same time.

Facebook has also been in talks with network carrier Orange to introduce a group calling feature using VoIP called ‘Party Call.’ The feature, touted to be similar to Orange’s own Libon App, will route calls directly through Orange’s voice network to make group calls without needing phone numbers.

In an announcement made in November, Orange had announced that the ‘Party Call’ feature will be available on the mobile and desktop versions of the social networking website, and users will be able to call each other and make group calls using ties on Facebook.

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Posted in: APPS

GADGETS - TABLETS-Aakash 3 to come with faster processor, advanced memory

Rumours surrounding the Aakash 3 tablet have already begun doing the rounds. The tablet will reportedly come with a faster processor, support both Linux and Android operating systems and will have advanced memory, Deepak B Phatak, committee member and a professor in IIT Bombay's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, told The Times of India. The report states that the global tender for the tablet will be floated in February, and as many as 50 lakh units of Aakash 3 tablet will be rolled out in the next phase.  What's eye-grabbing here is that researchers and professors at IIT Bombay are working towards packing more apps and more open source software on the tablet. Phatak also hinted towards a SIM card slot on the tablet, allowing users to use it as a 'communication device'. He was quoted as saying, "Our aim is to imbibe the usage of tablets in the education system and create an ecosystem for this. We have distributed Aakash tablets to 250 colleges across the country and asked them to come up with newer ways to use the device." Initial Aakash 2 units not for students Phatak, together with Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras, will be making the new tablet accompanied by hundreds of students and partners. Interestingly, students working on the Aakash 3 aim to develop an app that can tell the pulse rate. The third iteration of the 'poor man's tablet' is expected to have a larger distribution and servicing system to enable users to get their tablets repaired locally.   Interestingly, Phatak suggested two models for the upcoming tablet: one for schools and the one for colleges. He added that the option for students could be made available at Rs 2,236, while the one for college students would be higher.  The second version of the low-cost Aakash tablet was only recently launched in the country. It was recently revealed that students will not receive the initial 1 lakh units of the Aakash 2. Instead, the initial lot will be used for testing, and empowering teachers. What's more, there is currently no proposal to provide any of the initial units to students. In a written statement to the Lok Sabha, Union Human Resource Development Minister, MM Pallam Raju, earlier this month stated that there is currently no proposal to offer the initial units of the Aakash 2 to students. “Presently, there is no proposal in this regard... In the first phase one lakh tablets are for the purpose of testing and teacher empowerment. They would not be distributed to students in the first phase,” he said. Raju was asked whether the government planned to offer Aakash 2 tablets to students, especially those from poor backgrounds and rural areas for free.  The development is expected to raise quite a few eyebrows, as it was widely believed the Aakash 2 would come to students first, just like its predecessor, the Aakash, aimed to. The Permanent Mission of India to United Nations, New York hosted a special event to unveil and launch the Aakash 2 at the United Nations in late November. Secretary General of the United Nations, H.E. Ban Ki-moon was the Chief Guest at the event, which was attended by over 500 invitees, including 65 Ambassadors/PRs, media delegates, NGOs and select members of the Indian community.

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Posted in: GADGETS - TABLETS

How to: Install Windows 8 on a pen drive

This How to will demonstrate how you can install and run Windows 8 from a USB drive without disturbing your existing operating system on your PC.

Windows 8, the latest edition to Microsoft's OS evolution is making big waves in the PC arena. We are sure that many of you are eagerly waiting to try out the new Windows 8 Preview on your PCs, to have a first look and glimpse of what Microsoft has in store for you with the new operating system. Installing Windows 8 on your PC, which already has Windows 7 or Windows XP installed can be quite a task—backing up data, clearing space for the new OS, reinstalling, and so on. However, before that, the pain of burning the downloaded ISO file on a DVD or on a USB pen drive to get the installation ready also makes it a killing task. We shall show you how you can relax and enjoy the complete features of Windows 8 on your existing PC without going through any of the above cumbersome exercises and run the new operating system in less than half the time. This How to will reveal the installation of Windows 8 on any USB storage and then running the operating system directly from the USB drive, itself. You will not have to go through any of the painful set-up procedures that the set-up installer asks, while installing Windows 8 on your PC. All you need to do is download a simple utility, a 16GB or higher USB storage drive, the Windows 8 ISO file, WinRAR archiver and your existing PC. Before we begin, we would like you to know that using a USB pen drive will suffice, but since the speed of a regular USB pen drive is very sluggish, we recommend using an external USB storage drive.  Step 1 To begin with, assuming you have a PC that already has Windows 7 running and WinRAR installed, extract the file ‘install.wim’ from the Windows 8 ISO file using WinRAR. This file will be located under the folder ‘Sources’ and is around 2GB in size. Extract it to the desktop. Now go ahead and download a tiny 500 KB utility, called ‘GimageX’ from the ‘http://tinyurl.com/gimagexv2’ and extract the file to a folder on your desktop. This folder will have both the 32-bit and 64-bit utility. Choose the appropriate one depending on the operating system that you are already running on your PC. Now, before we use the utility, we have to prepare the USB drive for installing Windows 8. Make sure you have all your data backed up from the drive, as we would need to clean out the drive completely. Proceed ahead when ready. Step 2 Plug-in the USB drive, wait for a while, if the drivers are not yet installed and let the system recognize the new drive. Now start the Windows command prompt and type the following commands one after the other as given below: Diskpart (This built-in utility will help repartition and format the new drive) List disk (This command will list all the drives present on your system. Note down the drive number of your USB drive) Select disk # (Replace the # with the drive number that represents your USB drive in the list) Clean (This command will wipe the entire partition table of the USB drive) Create partition primary (This command will create a primary partition on the USB drive) Select partition 1 (This command will select the primary partition for the rest of the process) Format fs=ntfs quick (This command will quick format the primary partition in NTFS file format)  Assign (This command will assign a drive letter to the new partition for Windows to work on) Active (This command will make the partition active to enable booting) Exit (Closes the DISKPART utility) Now that the drive is ready for installation of the new operating system, start the GimageX utility and click on the tab ‘apply’. In the source field, specify the ‘INSTALL.WIM’ file, which you earlier extracted from the Windows ISO file. In the destination field, select the USB drive letter that you just got ready. Let all the settings in the remaining fields be untouched and hit the ‘Apply’ button. GimageX will not extract the contents of the Install.wim file, which contains the necessary Windows 8 folders and system files on the USB drive. Note: This procedure should take a few minutes and will depend on the speed of your USB drive. If you are using a regular pendrive, then the time taken will be longer than on any 2.5-inch external USB storage drive. Once done, GimageX will display that the process is complete. Exit the GimageX utility and start the command prompt again. We now need to make the USB drive bootable in order to run Windows 8 from the USB drive. For this, we will have to specify a command from the command prompt window. Run the following command as below. Step 3 In the command above, F: is the drive letter of the USB drive where the Windows 8 files have been extracted to earlier by the GimageX utility. Remember to replace the drive letter of your USB drive, accordingly. This command will take a few seconds to transfer the necessary booting files to the USB drive. Once done, you can quit from the command prompt. Step 4 That’s it! Shut down your PC, get into the BIOS, enable booting from the USB drive and restart the PC. Your PC will now boot from the USB drive directly into Windows 8. All that is needed in the next step is to specify the serial key and give details, such as username and password. Windows will be up and running in no time and install the necessary drivers in the background. You can now go ahead and configure Windows 8, as you wish and install all your software and applications, as you would on a new PC. All software and applications will be installed on the USB drive by default, unless specified with a different path. Step 5 - Simply replace the drive name ''h" with "F" Make sure you have an Internet connection set-up for your PC, if you are using your Microsoft Live (Hotmail) account to be linked with your Windows 8 installation. Once done, you can simply shut down, disconnect your USB drive and get back to your older operating system without any trace of having Windows 8 installed on your PC. You can plug-in this USB drive on any other PC and have Windows 8 running on that PC.  You can also use this trick to install Windows 8 on an internal hard drive and have Windows 8 installed without having to go through the entire process of installing the OS using a DVD ROM.

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Posted in: HOW-TO