ZEBRONICS UNVEILS ITS FIRST WEARABLE DEVICE

Zebronics, India’s domestic giant supplier of IT peripherals, audio/video products and surveillance products, has entered the wearables’ segment, with the launch of its latest device – ‘ZEB-Fit100’, a smart fitness band, to adopt the more intuitive way of life, that will help achieve health goals while elevating one’s fitness style quotient.

Eat, Sleep, Walk, Repeat – Integrated with advance health scanning technologies, the ZEB–Fit100, keeps a complete track of health round the clock consistently, keeping the user constantly motivated to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Commenting on the launch of its first wearable, Pradeep Doshi, the Director, Zebronics says, “We are excited to bring one more addition to our portfolio of products, the latest being Wearables, an apt choice for all fitness lovers. Wearable Technology is booming in India, and we see our product fit the bill, not only it is affordable at this price point but also has got all the latest features which one would be looking for in a fitness band.”

The fitness Band also keeps a track of the user’s sleep cycle at night helping learn how to sleep better while waking up gently with the in-built vibrating alarm function. It is built with a two-week long battery life, and the crystal clear OLED display gives information on the number of steps taken, how long you sleep and how many calories you burn everyday.

The fitness band also alerts one for the phone notifications like for call or SMS and also syncs all the notifications from the user’s phone with support for WhatsApp and other third party apps. It is also integrated with advanced safety features, its ‘Anti – Lost feature’ and ‘Find Phone’, which shall help the user locate their own phone at the time of emergency situations.

Not only it will alert the user on the band but also rings the phone repeatedly, if beyond the range of the band so that it can be located easily. The wearable device is available in vibrant shades of orange, black, blue and grey. It is also already available in leading retail and e-commerce sites across India. So, grab this sexy device quickly and grace your hand confidently with the sporting band.

RELIANCE JIO TO GIVE 72% DISCOUNT ON PURCHASING ITS WI-POD DEVICE

Reliance Jio, the new telecom operator of the Mukesh Ambani group, is offering a whopping 72% discount on its 4G dongle to the users who are upgrading from their own 3G CDMA data cards.

The 4G data dongle has an MRP of Rs. 3199, but those who are upgrading from their existing 3G CDMA card will get the new model for just Rs. 899. This is substantially below the price of Rs 1500 charged by Bharti Airtel and Rs. 2500 charged by Idea Cellular, for their 4G services.

Jio’s new 4G Wipod is available at both its physical stores as well as online. The new device comes with a 2.3 Ah battery and supports 32 users at the same time. Being on 4G, data speeds can go up to 100 Mbps depending on network conditions. While the earlier netconnect dongles could reach speeds of only about 3 Mbps for Rev A and a theoretical maximum of 14.7 Mbps for Rev B. Practical speeds on Pro 3 devices rarely went above 5 Mbps.

The discount on the data card can be availed only for those who have upgraded their connection to 4G. For new customers, the price is likely to be around Rs. 2000-2500. Even the Pro 3 Wipods were being sold at around Rs. 2500, before the introduction of 4G. In addition, with each upgrade, the customers also get free 4G data of 10 GB exclusively.

Jio is offering unlimited 4G data and voice calls for a period of 90 days to anyone buying a LYF handset. LYF handsets are priced at Rs. 5200 and above. The company is also luring users to upgrade their existing 2G or 3G SIM card to the all-new 4G SIM Card with an exclusive offer as well. Jio, however, will start selling its Mi-Fi devices from November this year.

NETGEAR UNVEILS THE SMARTEST AND FASTEST WI-FI ROUTER IN INDIA

Netgear has recently launched its new Nighthawk X4S AC2600 Smart Wi-Fi Router for consumers in India. The new Wi-Fi router is priced at Rs. 33,000 and comes with a three year warranty respectively. The Nighthawk X4S router is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core processor. The 802.11ac router provides Wi-Fi speeds up to 2.53 Gbps and supports up to four data streams in each Wi-Fi band.

“You can stream your favorite 4K HD video to one device and play an intense multi-user online video game on a different device, with greater clarity and less buffering, throughout your home,” said Netgear CEO Patrick C.S Lo.

“Four high performance external antennas with powerful amplifiers combine with Beamforming+ to ensure the best Wi-Fi coverage and reliability throughout large homes and even backyards, by focusing Wi-Fi directly at connected devices,” added Lo.

Features and Benefits:-

The router also supports MU-MIMO technology for simultaneous streaming to multiple devices seamlessly. It also boasts of four external antennas with powerful amplifiers combined with Beamforming, which ensures the best Wi-Fi coverage and its reliability is found and measured throughout.

Another advantage is that as far as connectivity is concerned, the router also offers five Gigabit Ethernet ports with 4 LAN and 1 WAN port each for ensuring multiple fast wired connections. The Netgear router also boasts of two USB 3.0 ports and 1 eSATA port for storage ready access, thus making the device more flexible. The new Wave 2 Wi-Fi feature also helps to improve the Wi-Fi range for mobile devices, particularly.

Another hot feature of the router is that it supports application-aware and device-aware dynamic QoS technology, for optimising the connection speed. This helps to reduce slow internet lag and buffering. It also has the provision to support both 4G as well as 4.5G technologies, along with the current 3G and 3.5G technologies.

Furthermore, it also includes numerous other features such as VPN support for secure remote access, guest network access and customised free URL for FTP server. The router offers options for smart parental controls and can be set up easily with the help of the new Netgear Genie App that has been released alongside.

Finally, the other software feature includes ReadyShare Vault, which backs up the current Windows PC that you use on your network automatically to a USB hard drive connected to the router.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab this new smart router and enjoy your Internet surfing blazingly as well as doing multi-tasking jobs as well, before the stocks goes out completely sooner or later.

HOME DECOR HOUSSUP LAUNCHES OWN INSTANT MESSENGER

Houssup, a cost-effective interior décor solutions platform, has recently launched its official interactive messenger app, the Houssup Messenger for people who are interested in setting up their homes with new interior and exterior decors and also other services. The company already has an operational website and customer care number to encourage customers to select and buy a design and also addressing the customer’s grievances.

Making premium interior decoration solutions more accessible than ever before, the interactive application helps its consumers discover design ideas on-the-go based on their taste and preferences, and provides them easy design implementation and premium features such as mood-board creation and project tracking.

“At Houssup, our endeavor is to make interior decor projects hassle-free with the use of technology. The mobile application and Houssup messenger are a step ahead for us in providing the most seamless customer experience. We cater to a technologically-advanced and mobile-first demographic and the launch of our apps are a natural next step in our evolution as a brand,” said co-founder of Houssup and chief strategy officer, Hemant Singh.

Features and Benefits:-

The users can chat with the designers of their choice in real time by video conferencing or simply by contacting him/her in person. They will also discuss ideas and home decor solutions with the Houssup community, a dedicated community that is having a good experience in home décor solutions.

It also offers expert consultation, designer discovery, project visualisation, design implementation, and budget estimation, which can be easily viewed and tracked by the users in both the website and the new app.

It also examines the customer’s needs and preferences, according to the picture selection and a questionnaire prepared on the spot. After that, the messenger in turn allots five selected designers to provide each customer with a wide range of brand new décor and design solutions.

This allows the users to select the desired design and inform the designer by communicating via the new application. However, the user has to confirm the allotted design to the designer within 24 hours, else the order would get cancelled.

Hence, you have to apply for it once more. It is also proposed that the new app will also have project tracking and modes of payment features in the next developing version, possibly after six months.

LINKEDIN LAUNCHES ‘LITE’ VERSION FOR INDIAN CUSTOMERS

LinkedIn, the operator of the world’s largest online business networking service, has recently launched in India a ‘Lite’ version of its website for mobile browsing.

The company, which was recently acquired by Microsoft Corp in June this year for a whopping $37 billion, said that the version was aimed at helping users browse its website faster on their smartphones in areas with slow or poor internet connectivity.

“LinkedIn Lite loads four times faster and provides a better experience to users in urban and rural areas with patchy networks”, Akshay Kothari, the company’s country manager and head of product for India, said at an event in Bangalore. The version will be available in the next few weeks for all the other mobile versions, barring the Android users.

Last year, LinkedIn revamped its mobile app after facing heavy criticism for poor design and user experience. To expand their user base, social networking giants such as Facebook and Twitter have also launched “lite” versions of their services in emerging markets like India and China, which consume less data and mobile battery.

LinkedIn also launched two more services  – ‘LinkedIn Placements’, which is aimed at students looking for jobs while ‘LinkedIn Starter Pack’ will connect startups and small and mid-sized businesses with job seekers. The company has more than 37 million users in India, making the country its second biggest market for the social networking company.

KSRTC LAUNCHES INDIA’S FIRST BIODIESEL BUS

In a bid to cut down pollution and expenditure, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC)  launched the first 100% bio-diesel bus in the country.

A biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl like methyl, ethyl, or propyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids (vegetable oil, soybean oil or animal fat) with an alcohol producing fatty acid esters.

Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel in any proportions.Biodiesel blends can also be used as a heating oil. Biodiesel can be used in pure form (B100) or may be blended with petroleum diesel at any concentration in most injection pump diesel engines.

Speaking to reporters after the inaugurating the bus, that will ply between Bangalore and Chennai, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said – ” Around 1700 KSRTC buses will soon run by using 20% bio-diesel. Currently, KSRTC is operating around 8,300 buses, which, if replaced with biodiesel, will help save Rs. 5 a litre. KSRTC has been successfully using biodiesel for some of its buses, resulting in significant reduction of emission.”

Rajender Kumar Kataria, the managing director, KSRTC, said, “Technical performance, fuel efficiency, engine performance and fuel emission will be monitored and evaluated by expert groups from R V College of Engineering, JSS College of Technology and IISc Bangalore. We will extend the technology to remaining fleet depending on the final result. We have also appointed an evaluation team to monitor the performance of biodiesel buses on a daily basis,” he said.

KSRTC alone consumes 2,11,320 KL of fuel per year or around 590 KL per day. The move would also save money for the corporation as it gets a rebate of Rs. 5 per litre of biofuel. The corporation has decided to run 1,700 buses from 15 depots across the state on biofuel. Each biobus will be run with 20% biodiesel and 80% diesel. The letter of intent to procure 41.34 lakh litres biodiesel.

The corporation has plans to run its entire 8,400 fleet of buses on biodiesel in the future. Buses from the other three corporations, NEKRTC (North-East Karnataka), NWKRTC (North-West Karnataka) and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will also be run on biofuel if all goes as per the plan. If this becomes a reality, then Rs. 60-70 crore will be saved annually on diesel.

========================================================================

In the earlier pilot, 107 buses switched over to a 20% blend of biodiesel (B20), which was found to have had a significant effect on emissions. “The use of biodiesel reduced pollution by as much as 50%. There are several benefits of biodiesel and this led us to change over to the environment-friendly fuel,” said Kataria.

========================================================================

The corporation also announced the launch of a pilot project of running a 100% biodiesel bus, which was retrofitted by Scania and provided to KSRTC for a trial run. This will be the first time such a trial is being run in the country by a state-owned transport corporation. Initially, the bus will be operated within the state. Once documentation is complete and the performance has been analysed, the corporation will look out for out-of-state routes.

Working in tandem with KSRTC is the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which plans to run 150 buses on B20 biodiesel. “The initial results with a few buses have been encouraging. We want to expand this project, but it will remain a pilot, as we need to examine the quality and performance of biodiesel,” said Ekroop Caur, the Managing Director, BMTC.

Joint tenders have been issued for sourcing bio-diesel, which is cheaper than diesel. The corporations are in talks with suppliers for entering into long-term contracts with buy-back agreements to encourage the production of biodiesel.