Google unveils major upgrade to search algorithm By Richard Taylor North America Technology Correspondent

Amit Singhal, a senior vice president at Google,
introduces the new Hummingbird search
algorithm
Google has unveiled an upgrade to the way it
interprets users' search requests.
The new algorithm, codenamed Hummingbird, is
the first major upgrade for three years.
It has already been in use for about a month, and
affects about 90% of Google searches.
At a presentation on Thursday, the search giant
was short on specifics but said Hummingbird is
especially useful for longer and more complex
queries.
Google stressed that a new algorithm is
important as users expect more natural and
conversational interactions with a search engine -
for example, using their voice to speak requests
into mobile phones, smart watches and other
wearable technology.
Hummingbird is focused more on ranking
information based on a more intelligent
understanding of search requests, unlike its
predecessor, Caffeine, which was targeted at
better indexing of websites.
It is more capable of understanding concepts and
the relationships between them rather than
simply words, which leads to more fluid
interactions. In that sense, it is an extension of
Google's "Knowledge Graph" concept introduced
last year aimed at making interactions more
human.
In one example, shown at the presentation, a
Google executive showed off a voice search
through her mobile phone, asking for pictures of
the Eiffel Tower. After the pictures appeared, she
then asked how tall it was. After Google correctly
spoke back the correct answer, she then asked
"show me pictures of the construction" - at which
point a list of images appeared.
Big payoffs?
However, one search expert cautioned that it was
too early to determine Hummingbird's impact.
"For me this is more of a coming out party,
rather than making me think 'wow', said Danny
Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land.
"If you've been watching this space, you'd have
already seen how they've integrated it into the
[predictive search app] Google Now and
conversational search.
"To know that they've put this technology further
into their index may have some big payoffs but
we'll just have to see how it plays out," Mr
Sullivan said.
The news was announced at an intimate press
event at the Silicon Valley garage where founders
Sergei Brin and Larry Page worked on the launch
of the search engine, which is fifteen years old on
Friday.

Panasonic launches Android based P11, T21, T11 smartphones

Panasonic has unveiled three new
smart phones- P11, T21, and T11. Earlier this
year, the company introduced P51
smartphone which was very well received.
Priced between Rs. 9,790 to Rs. 16,490 these
new smart phones run on Android 4.1 (jelly
bean) and come in multiple screen sizes with
IPS and High Resolution display and Quad-
Core and Dual-Dual Core technology.
Panasonic P11 is a premium Android
Smartphone, Powder by the Qualcomm
snapdragon 200 Quad Core processor.
Panasonic P11 has a streamline Curved Edge
Design with changeable back covers in
multiple colors. It comes with a 5 inch IPS
HD resolution display. P11 is priced at Rs.
16,490.
Panasonic T21 is a premium 4.5 inch Android
Smartphone, that boasts of IPS HD screen
packed with 326 PPI thus offering Clear View
Display. Panasonic T21 serves true HD
Experience through its 1080p Video Recording
and Video Playback capabilities. Dual-Dual
Core technology of Processor and VPU helps
in superior graphics with advanced gaming
performance. T21 is to retail at Rs. 13,990.
Panasonic T11 is a premium Android
smartphone with IPS display screen.
Panasonic T11 is powered by a Qualcomm
SnapdragonT 200 Quad Core processor. T11
is going to cost Rs. 9,790.
The new phones come pre-loaded with
popular apps such as ToI & ET news
application, Hungama music application,
WeChat Instant messenger, CamCard &
CamScanner utility applications. The phones
are are available for pre-orders now.
Manish Sharma, Managing Director,
Panasonic India said "With the launch of
these devices, we are yet again raising the
bar for innovation. Panasonic is hopeful that
its consumers will yet again repose their faith
in the company."
Panasonic has partnered with Broadcom and
Qualcomm to quickly bring smartphones with
advanced features including multi-core
processor, vivid graphics and dual-SIM
capabilities."

Aircel, Micromax team up to offer bundled data, voice and content packages

Aircel and Micromax have entered into a strategic
partnership under which the operator will offer
discounted bundled voice/ data plans and free
content worth Rs. 10,000 with the new Micromax
devices including dongles, feature phones
(Internet-enabled) and smartphones. The two
companies will also share each other's Channel
and Retail Network, Sales Resources and roll out
an integrated devices sales activation programme.
With the latest partnership, Aircel and Micromax
are aiming to acquire 4-5 lakh device users per
month.
For 3G Micromax phones, Aircel offers local
calling at 1p/2 sec and STD calling at 1p/sec for
3 months, 2GB Data (2G/3G) per month for 3
months, Rs. 10,000 worth WAP content free over
3 months and Popcorn TV (internet TV)
application free for 3 months.
For 2G Micromax phones, the operator offers local
calling at 1p/2sec and STD Calling at 1p/sec for
3 months, 1GB Data (2G/3G) per month for 3
months and Rs. 10,000 worth WAP content free
over 3 months. For dongles, Aircel offers 500 MB
per month free for 3 months.
Aircel says users don't need to SMS/call or visit
Micromax showrooms to avail the benefits. The
operator will automatically identify the new
Micromax device with Aircel connection.
While addressing the media at the launch event in
Delhi, Mr. Anupam Vasudev, Aircel's Chief
Marketing Officer, highlighted the forthcoming
'data revolution' in the country. He also asserted
that the voice segment had reached a saturation
point.
“India is at the cusp of a data revolution and
device tie-ups will strengthen the telecom
ecosystem in the country, which is critical to drive
data penetration. According to a recent study, by
the year 2020, mobile internet users are set to
grow 4 - 5 times and smartphone penetration is
set to increase 5 times to 50% in India,” he
added.
“Affordability in devices will give a rise to data
proliferation which will be the main revenue
generator for both telecom operators as well as
handset manufacturers in the near future. Aircel
recognizes the importance of smartphone devices
to drive data usage. In line with that, it is our
focus to get into partnerships with leading
smartphone device manufacturers in an endeavour
to bring to our customers exciting bundled
products. In this exclusive partnership with
Micromax, we will share their robust channel and
retail network to deliver innovative and best value
for money products and services.”
LtoR: Anupam Vasudev, CMO, Aircel, Vikas Jain,
Co-founder, Micromax, Sunil Kuttam, VP-
Marketing, Aircel
Mr. Vikas Jain, co-founder, Micromax , said, “At
Micromax, we have always believed in
democratizing technologies for masses by
bringing alive affordable innovations through our
product and service offerings. We are very happy
to partner with Aircel, as this partnership will be
an excellent amalgamation of Aircel’s innovative
offerings in the market place and superior
hardware capabilities of Micromax, which will
enable millions of consumers in India to enjoy
seamless connectivity through affordable call
rates, data usage and internet TV on Micromax
devices.”

Nokia weighs Alcatel tie-up after Microsoft deal

Nokia, once the world's dominant handset
maker, failed to close a yawning lead opened up
by Apple Inc and Samsung Electroniocs.
Nokia is discussing internally whether to
approach French rival Alcatel-Lucent
about a tie-up, part of the Finnish
company's review of how it can grow
after the planned sale of its handset
business to Microsoft Corp, several
people close to the matter said.
No formal talks are underway with
Alcatel-Lucent, the sources said. One of
the people close to the matter said Nokia
held "on again, off again" discussions
about buying Alcatel's wireless business
as recently as late 2012 and that the two
companies could still come back to the
table.
Related: Microsoft swallows Nokia's mobile
phone business for $7.2 billion
Speculation over a combination
between Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent goes
back several years, as both have
struggled to compete with market leader
Ericsson and low-cost Asian network
equipment rivals Huawei and ZTE.
Microsoft announced on September 3
that it will buy Nokia's phone business
and license its patents for 5.44 billion
euros. Nokia has said it will evaluate
strategy for its remaining operations
before the deal closes. Those businesses
include a mapping software unit called
HERE and a portfolio of patents.
The Finnish phone maker once
dominated the global market but has
had its mobile business ravaged by
nimbler rivals Apple Inc and Samsung
Electronics.
Related: Nokia to use $2 bn from Microsoft
to pay off NSN financing over Siemens
stake
Nokia, under the leadership of interim
CEO Risto Siilasmaa, has already begun
internal discussions on future strategy,
the sources said, adding that a decision
could be months away.
All the sources asked not to be
identified because they were not
authorized to speak with the media.
Representatives for Nokia, its network
equipment unit, Nokia Solutions and
Networks, and Alcatel-Lucent declined
to comment.
Nokia is in a "period of reflection trying
to figure out what they want to do," one
of the sources said. They said there
were possibilities for Nokia such as
having "the option to buy the entire
Alcatel-Lucent, or just the wireless
business ... Nothing is imminent."
PROCEEDS FROM MICROSOFT DEAL
Any formal dialogue around a
combination would likely be held after
Nokia receives proceeds from the
Microsoft deal, which is expected to
strengthen its financial position and
boost its credit rating to investment
grade from junk status, the people close
to the matter said.
The Microsoft deal would leave Nokia
with its Nokia Solutions and Networks
(NSN) unit as the main business
generating around 90 percent of the
company's sales.
The most likely deal may be for Nokia to
buy Alcatel's wireless division, which
includes a big presence in the lucrative
U.S. market where NSN has traditionally
been weak, one of the sources said. That
would leave Alcatel-Lucent to focus its
fast-growing IP routing and optical
business, the person said.
Analysts put the value of Alcatel's
wireless business at between 1.1 billion
euros to 1.5 billion euros.
A combination with Alcatel-Lucent
would increase NSN's market share in
the global wireless infrastructure
market from 18 percent to more than 30
percent, leapfrogging Huawei and
closing in on Ericsson, according to
analyst data.
While telecommunications operators
around the world have been upgrading
their infrastructure in response to
consumer demand for faster mobile
Internet connections, equipment makers
have been under pressure to sell more
for less.
The pressure led to a round of mergers
in 2006 and 2007, out of which were
born Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens
Networks.
NSN, which was a joint venture between
Nokia and Siemens from 2007 until
Nokia bought out the German company's
stake in early July, announced in 2011
that it would focus on wireless network
infrastructure to help turn the company
around.
It has since shed more than a quarter of
its workforce, and by the end of 2012 it
was contributing to Nokia's cash flow
instead of draining it.
Alcatel-Lucent, which has been unable
to post regular profits and generate cash
since 2006, also announced a new
restructuring plan in June, under its
new chief executive Michel Combes.
Nokia is likely to be highly cautious
when considering any kind of offer for
Alcatel-Lucent.
With shares of the French company up
about 130 percent this year, the Alcatel
chief executive is currently not in any
rush to strike a deal, the sources said.
There were other issues that could stand
in the way of a deal, such as the risk of
intervention by the French government
to protect Alcatel or limit job cuts, one
of the sources familiar with Nokia's
thinking said. The French state owns
3.6 percent of Alcatel-Lucent.
Nokia also may not be the only company
interested in buying some of Alcatel's
assets. Other network equipment
makers such as Juniper Networks and
Ericsson have also recently eyed Alcatel-
Lucent or some of its assets, one of the
sources said.

Nokia launches Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixel camera

The price of the Nokia Lumia 1020 will be
disclosed on October 10. Reuters
Targetting camera aficionados, Nokia
India today unveiled its much-
anticipated 41 megapixel camera phone
Lumia 1020 , which will hit shelves on
October 11.
The price of the device will be disclosed
on October 10 but as per estimates, it
will be available in the range of Rs
47,000-Rs 48,000. It is currently selling
in other markets for $800.
Nokia Lumia 1020: Smart-cam-phone, but
not necessarily a 'buy'
"We have received extremely
encouraging response for our Lumia
range and believe that Nokia 1020 will
further strengthen our leadership in
imaging, which plays a important role
in the lives of consumers today," Nokia
India Managing Director P Balaji told
reporters here.
Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41-megapixel
camera unveiled in New York
The dual-capture feature of the phone
allows to take a high resolution 38
megapixel image and also creates a 5
megapixel picture that can be shared on
social networking sites.
The device has an application called
Nokia Pro Camera, which makes it easy
for anybody to take professional quality
images.
The application allows users to click
pictures first and then zoom later to get
their desired shot.
"It is our premium smartphone and our
target market is people who value great
imaging experience. There are 50 per
cent people who click pictures with their
smartphones and a fraction of those are
camera lovers, who are our target
audience for this phone," Nokia India,
Middle East and Africa Director
(smartphone devices) Vipul Mehrotra
said.
He said when it comes to volumes, there
is this pyramid structure. Lumia 520
will be the lower end of the pyramid
and 1020 will be the top end.
Mehrotra said Lumia 520 has received
an amazing response from the people
and it is one of the largest selling
devices on the e-commerce sites.
"Lumia 520 is a favourite with the
younger audience, its a high end
smartphone at a very affordable price,"
he added.
The company now has 13 devices in the
Lumia portfolio in India.
Lumia 1020 runs on Windows 8 and has
32 GB on board storage. The company
has also tied up with Vodafone wherein
the customers will get free 2GB of 3G
data usage for two months. Customers
will also get an application voucher
worth Rs 1,000 with the phone.

Fairfax says it won't abandon BlackBerry bid

Fairfax Financial
Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa speaks at the
company's annual general meeting in Toronto.
Watsa on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013 said he has
every intention of completing the acquisition of
BlackBerry, despite doubts that the $4.7 billion
deal for the troubled smartphone maker will go
through. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank
Gunn)
The head of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. said
Wednesday he has every intention of completing
the acquisition of BlackBerry, despite doubts that
the $4.7 billion deal for the troubled smartphone
maker will go through.
BlackBerry announced earlier this week that
Fairfax signed a letter of intent that
"contemplates" buying BlackBerry for $9 a share.
Fairfax, BlackBerry's largest shareholder , is
trying to attract other investors.
BlackBerry shares on Wednesday lost 6 percent,
closing a dollar below Fairfax's bid on fears the
deal won't happen.
There is no breakup fee should Fairfax walk
away, but Fairfax Chief Executive Prem Watsa
told The Associated Press his firm is not in the
business of making an offer and then walking
away or redoing the deal.
"We've got a track record of 28 years of
completing what we've done. We've never re-
negotiated," Watsa said. "We thought long and
hard before we offered $9 dollars a share and
we're not in the business of offering a number
and at the last minute changing the figure. Over
28 years our reputation is stellar on that front.
We just don't do that."
Watsa noted the deal is subject to six weeks of
due diligence but stressed Fairfax won't abandon
it.
Watsa stepped down as a board member last
month because of potential conflicts when
BlackBerry announced it was considering a sale.
If the proposed deal goes through, BlackBerry
would go private and no longer be traded
publicly.
Watsa said Fairfax won't be contributing more
to the bid than the 10 percent it already owns.
"The 10 percent is like $500 million. It's a
significant amount of money," he said. "We're
going to bring equity partners and we think the
company will be very well capitalized."
He declined to name the other investors he is
trying to bring in.
Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu said the lack of
details make the chances of the deal going
through appear grim. Ferragu noted that Fairfax
is not committing any more equity and said
other investors are unlikely to join a bid "that
sounds like a last chance rescue attempt for
Fairfax's stake."
Fairfax's average cost per share in acquiring
BlackBerry shares is $17. The Canadian
insurance and investment firm has lost hundreds
of millions on BlackBerry.
Analysts say that although BlackBerry's
hardware business is not worth anything, the
company still owns valuable patents. BlackBerry
is also strong in having total cash and
investments of about $2.6 billion, with no debt,
though it's burning through that stockpile. In
just the past few months, it's spent about half a
billion dollars.
Watsa said Fairfax is not buying BlackBerry to
break it apart.
"Rest assured when we do this it won't be done
to split the company," Watsa said. "I mean one
of the reasons I went on the board, and I said it
publicly, was to keep the company in Canada
and to make sure it survives and exists in
Canada. It is one of Canada's most successful
companies. Companies do fall on hard times and
they come back again and we expect this
company to do the same."
Watsa said BlackBerry needs to get out of the
media glare that comes with being public and
work on a long term turnaround in private.
The billionaire founder of Toronto-based Fairfax
Financial Holdings Ltd. is one of Canada's best-
known value investors and has taken over
troubled companies before. He compared his
BlackBerry interest to his stake in the troubled
Bank of Ireland. Watsa said his Bank of Ireland
stake is now worth double what he paid for it a
few years ago at the height of the European
crisis.
The tentative BlackBerry deal comes just days
after the Canadian company announced plans to
lay off 40 percent of its global workforce.
The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, was once the
dominant smartphone for on-the-go business
people and other consumers. But then came a
new generation of competing smartphones,
starting with Apple's iPhone in 2007. The
BlackBerry suddenly looked ancient. Although
BlackBerry was once Canada's most valuable
company with a market value of $83 billion in
June 2008, the stock has plummeted to $8 from
over $140 a share, giving it a market value of
$4.2 billion, short of Fairfax's offer.
"This is a company that's had a tremendous
amount of success. It's got a brand name,
BlackBerry, that's recognized all over the world,"
Watsa said. "It's got subscriber base in the 60
or 70 million area, it's got very smart people. In
the enterprise market it's got a very significant
market advantage so we think that by focusing it
on the enterprise market, it's not going to be as
big as it used to be, but it will be profitable
again."
Watsa said Blackberry can focus on business
users and its smartphone service business where
it manages the security of BlackBerry and
competing smartphones on its network. He said
all possibilities are open including getting out of
the hardware business and changing the CEO. He
said he's a fan of CEO Thorsten Heins and
thinks he's done a very good job, but said he
was handed a tough job when he took over in
early 2012. "We have to in this due diligence look
at all of these things," Watsa said.

Nokia World confirmed for October 22, 6- inch Lumia 1520 expected

New Delhi: The long-rumoured Nokia event,
which was reportedly originally scheduled for late
September, has been pushed by several weeks
and will now take place on October 22 in Abu
Dhabi. The company is speculated to launch the
much-anticipated "large-screen" phablet device,
dubbed Lumia 1520, at the event. Nokia has
confirmed the date and venue of the event in the
teaser posters attached with its tweets.
The tweets made by Nokia read: "At #Nokia, we
believe in technology that grows in leaps and
bounds. Discover more on October 22
#innovationreinvented"
The rumoured Windows Phone 8 phablet is likely
to come with a 6-inch 1080 p display, 2GB of
RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor,
32GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. We
have seen the device in various leaked images
and if the images are believed to be true, the
device will have a slight hump at the rear of the
device. Reportedly, the Lumia 1520 will be able
to snap images at 5 megapixel and 16 megapixel
resolution. The device will have a polycarbonate
body, and is expected to be thin and lightweight.
Nokia has also confirmed the Oct 22 launch
event in a blog post on Nokia conversations.
"Nokia World is coming and the Nokia
Conversations team will be in Abu Dhabi on
October 22 to bring you the news as it unfolds,"
said Nokia in the blog post.