UIDAI Announces Virtual ID & Limited KYC

The UIDAI has today announced that it will be introducing a way to generate Virtual IDs from their website.

The Virtual ID, which would be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency like a mobile company, limited details like name, address, and photograph, which are enough for any verification.

Officials said a user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants. The older ID gets automatically canceled once a fresh one is generated. UIDAI will start accepting these IDs from March 1, 2018.

In theory, this would work like Virtual Credit Card numbers do — use and throw. But practically, I think it’s still going to be a mess.

January 10, 2018 ✚ Permalink

On Vivek Wadhwa’s Factor Daily piece titled “Why Apple is destined to fail in India”

apple-vivek-wadhwa-factor-daily-piece-lol

Earlier today, Factor Daily published this piece titled ‘Why Apple is destined to fail in India‘ written by Vivek Wadhwa. A similarly-worded article from the author also appeared on The Washington Post and VentureBeat a day earlier. I subscribed to Factor Daily via RSS a while ago, primarily for the people behind the site who have delivered some great content in the past. I, however, was definitely not ready for this hilariously bullshit stream of content heading my way.

Now, usually when I come across a title as bold as this one about Apple, and they’re dime a dozen these days, I usually either skip it completely or read it and then skip reacting to it. But this piece by Vivek Wadhwa has such ingenious crap filled inside, I couldn’t help fire up Ulysses. Vivek’s piece essentially says that Apple is destined to fail in India because the company fails to understand the Indian market and that “it is repeating the mistakes it made in China”. However, a lot of points that Vivek raises are just not true, plain wrong, or simply laughable.

[With inputs and corrections from Rohan “RN” Naravane, who was just as baffled upon reading the piece.]

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March 17, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple Increases Pricing of Apps on the App Store in India

iOS App Store

Apple has today sent out an email to iOS developers notifying them of upcoming changes to the pricing on the App Store. According to the email, the pricing of apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) will increase in India, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Apple mentions that this price change is due to change in tax laws in the India, Romania and Russia, but it doesn’t mention why the pricing is changing in the UK. It’s likely that Apple is merely adjusting the pricing to be in line with the falling value of the Pound Sterling against the US Dollar.

If you’re in India, here’s what the pricing change means and how it’ll affect you.

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January 17, 2017 ✚ Permalink

[Updated] Apple Announces a New MacBook Pro Lineup with Touch Bar, Touch ID and USB Type-C Ports (India Pricing)

Apple MacBook Pro 2016

Apple today announced an all new MacBook Pro Lineup in an event at its campus in Cupertino. Poised as the “thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever“, the highlight of the new MacBook Pro is the new multitouch Retina Display that replaces the row of Function keys above the keyboard. Called a Touch Bar, this new interface displays app-specific buttons and options that the user can interact with — allowing app developers to offer custom features via this additional display. Apple demoed apps like the new Final Cut Pro 10.3, Adobe Photoshop, Algoriddim’s djay Pro and said that apps like Microsoft Office, Skype, Sketch, etc. will be adding support for the Touch ID very soon.

Along with the Touch Bar, Apple has also introduced a Touch ID into the new MacBook Pro. Featuring the 2nd generation sensor from the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7, the new Touch ID allows users to log into their Macs or make payments via Apple Pay with just a simple touch. Additionally, different user accounts on the Mac can be tied to users’ own fingerprints — a feature I’m personally desperately waiting for on the iPads.

The new MacBook Pro all features a stunning new display that Apple says is the “brightest and most colorful Retina display yet“. The new display boasts 500 nits of brightness making it 67 percent brighter than its predecessors and also has 67 percent more contrast. Additionally, the display also features the ability to display a wider color gamut and consumes 30% less power compared to previous generations.

The MacBook Pro lineup also features a much larger Force Touch trackpad, coming in a twice the size of its predecessors. There are four Thunderbolt 3 ports using USB Type-C connectors and each of these connectors can be used for charging, video or data transfers.

Other features added to the MacBook Pro lineup include a new keyboard with second-generation butterfly mechanism and louder speakers with improved bass and twice the dynamic range.

MacBook Pro Specifications and India Pricing:

The new MacBook Pro lineup now consists of three different models with multiple versions:

  1. 13-inch MacBook Pro
  2. 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID
  3. 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID

13-inch MacBook Pro

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is meant as a minor upgrade to the current generation 13-inch MacBook Air. Although Apple has discontinued the 11-inch MacBook Air model, the 13-inch model stays.

This new 13-inch MacBook Pro features the all-new design and sports a 2GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz), 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage.

India Pricing: ₹1,29,900

13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID

This all new 13-inch MacBook Pro sports a 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz), 8GB RAM and 256GB or 512GB of flash Storage. You also get Apple’s breakthrough new interface in the form of the Touch Bar, the all new Touch ID and four Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB Type-C connectors.

India Pricing: ₹1,55,900 (256GB model) and ₹1,72,900 (512GB model)

Exact pricing for the 512GB model will be available closer to availability.

15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro comes in two models for India — a base model with 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz), 16GB of RAM and 256GB of flash Storage and a higher model with 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz), 16GB of RAM and 512GB of flash storage.

The Base model features Radeon Pro 450 Graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 memory while the higher model features Radeon Pro 455 Graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Both models feature automatic switching between the GPU and onboard Intel HD Graphics 530.

India Pricing: ₹2,05,900 (256GB model) and ₹2,41,900 (512GB model)

Exact pricing for the 512GB model will be available closer to availability.

The new lineup is up for pre-order today in the US and start shipping in 2-3 weeks. The availability in India will probably be somewhere in January 2017.

Update – October 28th, 2016, 12:11PM: Apple India has just sent out another email to media outlets, changing the availability to “Coming Soon” instead of the previously mentioned availability of 2-3 weeks. I suspect the new lineup will be available in India starting not before January 2017.

October 28, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple in Talks to Lease Over 40,000 sq ft Office Space in Bengaluru

Sobia Khan, reporting for ETtech:

Apple is in talks to lease over 40,000 square feet of office space in Bengaluru where it intends to set up a development centre, three people familiar with the development said.

“The company has signed the letter of intent with Galleria, a mixed use project in Yelahanka in Bengaluru,” one of these people said. Galleria is 3 lakh sq ft office space that belongs to Standard Brick Tile Company.

I’m sure loving these India-focused developments coming out of Cook’s visit to India this week.

May 20, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple Likely to Announce Accelerator Program for Indian Startups

Chandra R Srikanth, reporting for ET Now:

The sources, who declined to be quoted, said while Tim Cook’s key push with Indian government officials will be the sale of refurbished Apple phones here, its initiatives for startups and digital India will also be part of the agenda.

One of the persons ET NOW spoke to said Cook will cover Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad as part of his visit. While he is expected to meet RIL executives in Mumbai, he will be in Hyderabad to firm up plans for its development centre.

Bengaluru, which is where Apple India’s HQ is located, is not on the cards for Tim Cook.

May 16, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Tim Cook to Visit India this Week

Himank Sharma and Rupam Jain, reporting for Reuters:

Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook will visit India this week and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the second leg of his Asian tour, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the company seeks to revive sluggish iPhone sales.

and

Apart from meeting Modi, Cook will also hold meetings with employees and partners, the source said, adding he would fly to India on Tuesday.

Apple has been inching closer towards opening its own retail store in India and the timing of Cook’s visit around recent developments reaffirms that.

On the other hand, Foxconn — the Taiwanese electronics giant and Apple’s supplier was poised to make a $5 Billion investment and setup a manufacturing factory in Maharashtra under Modi’s Make in India program.

May 16, 2016 ✚ Permalink

OLA: Clearing the Air

Yesterday, a report was published by DNA that quoted “sources” claiming that Uber was looking to buy a controlling stake in rival OLA by buying out all of its stake holders, including promoters Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, except for SoftBank.

“Uber is buying a controlling stake in Ola, where all the shareholders, except SoftBank, is being bought out. The enterprise valuation is being estimated at $4billion,” said the source.

OLA rebuffed this report as baseless and today, has clarified on the official blog:

We would like to state that the article, attributed to an ‘unnamed source’ is completely false, misleading, malicious and planted in the said newspaper with the intent of causing harm to the Ola brand and creating confusion among our stakeholders.

We are shocked and dismayed at the lack of journalistic ethics in carrying the story, despite our repeated denial to the reporter and the publication’s editorial representatives. We also had received a verbal confirmation that the report shall not be carried given the company’s denial.

We will initiate appropriate legal action and seek redressal and compensation for the damage caused to us by this irresponsible reporting from DNA.

Yikes!

April 16, 2016 ✚ Permalink