Idea Launch 4G services in Maharashtra & Goa circle

Idea Cellular plans to extend the 4G footprint to over 750 towns by June 2016.

Idea Cellular today announced the launch of its high speed 4G LTE services across 28 towns of Maharashtra & Goa,covering major towns such as Nagpur and Ahmednagar. With this launch, the company has delivered on its promise to launch its 4G LTE services in 10 circles within FY16.

Idea's 4G LTE services are also available in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu & Chennai, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Haryana, Orissa, and North East. Presently available in over 300 towns, Idea aims to exit FY16 with its 4G LTE services covering over 550 towns in these 10 circles, and plans to extend the 4G footprint to over 750 towns by June 2016.

Commenting on the successful rollout of services, Ambrish Jain, deputy managing director, Idea Cellular said, "Beginning Dec 23, we have rapidly expanded our 4G LTE services in these 10 markets in a record time frame of just 3 months. We have revised our capex guidance for financial year 2016 from Rs.65 billion to Rs.75 billion mainly on account of accelerated 4G capex and associated fiber rollout and are fully geared up now to grow our presence, strengthen our portfolio and make more people join the digital bandwagon.”

Idea claims to have 6.1 million 4G devices, nearly 6% of its subscriber base in 10 telecom service areas, registered on its network. In comparison, on an all India basis, Idea has nearly 48.6 million customers owning 3G devices (approx. 28% of EoP) and over 9.8 million customers with 4G devices (approx. 5% of EoP).

Microsoft’s using Minecraft to boost artificial intelligence research with Project AIX

Microsoft has quietly unveiled a new platform designed to harness the power of Minecraft to expedite artificial intelligence (AI) development.

Developed by a team led by Katja Hofmann, a researcher at Microsoft’s Machine Learning and Perception Group in the company’s Cambridge-based U.K. lab, Project AIX offers computer scientists the chance to use Minecraft to test out and improve AI research. For example, a bunch of Microsoft researchers in New York have been using AIX to try to teach a Minecraft character to climb a hill without actually being programmed to do so — involving trial-and-error, the character is given the same tools and resources as a human does when learning to do new things.

Mojang, a Sweden-based game development studio that’s best known for its work on Minecraft, was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014. Since then, Microsoft has been pushing the game in a number of interesting new directions, including a partnership with Code.org to help teach kids to code using the virtual world of Minecraft. And back in January, Microsoft announced a new version of Minecraft for schools in the wake of its acquisition of MinecraftEdu.

Using games to research artificial intelligence is nothing new, but Hofmann reckons Minecraft is ideal for such uses because of the variety of opportunities the game offers. “Minecraft is the perfect platform for this kind of research because it’s this very open world,” she said. “You can do survival mode, you can do ‘build battles’ with your friends, you can do courses, you can implement our own games. This is really exciting for artificial intelligence because it allows us to create games that stretch beyond current abilities.”

Games are not only a great way of researching AI, but also demonstrating its smarts — just last week, Google’s AlphaGo AI program defeated a human at the Go board game in what was touted as a milestone moment for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

AIX is currently being used in-house at Microsoft and it has also been opened to a small group of academics — but kicking off this summer the platform will be opened to anyone through an open-source license. By adopting an open-source approach, this means Microsoft can get hundreds or thousands of researchers working to make AIX better by contributing code.

Xiaomi to launch two more phones this year apart from Mi 5: Report

Xiaomi, which is set to launch its latest flagship - the Mi 5 - in India in April this year, will launch two more phones this year.

Bin Lin, co-founder and president at Xiaomi, in an interview given to ET said that his company will launch two more phones this year - one next quarter and another in the second half. Lin said that the phones will be priced between Rs 20,000 to Rs 27,000.

The Xiaomi Mi 5 was launched in China earlier this month in three versions - one with 3GB LPDD4 RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage at CNY 1,999 (approximately Rs 21,000); another with 3GB LPDD4 RAM and 64GB storage at CNY 2,299 (approximately Rs 24,000), while an exclusive edition with 4GB LPDD4 RAM and 128GB storage will be sold at CNY 2,999 (approximately Rs 31,500).

The Xiaomi Mi 5, which is the second smartphone in the world to come with the Snapdragon 820 processor, comes with dual SIM, a Fingerprint scanner and Android Marshmallow operating system. It has a 5.15 inch display that has full HD resolution. The phone has a 16 megapixel rear camera that has Sony IMX298 sensor, 6P lens, phase detection auto focus feature, LED flash light support, optical image stabilisation and sapphire glass protection for lens. The rear camera can record 4K videos. For selfies, the Mi 5 offers a 4 megapixel front camera.

The Xiaomi Mi 5, which measures 144.5x69.2x7.25mm and weighs 129 grams, has a 3000 mAh battery and it comes with Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 technology. It has a USB Type C port too. Other than that the Mi 5 offers WiFi (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC.

Isro to Launch Sixth Navigational Satellite on Thursday

India is slated to put into orbit its sixth navigation satellite on Thursday evening, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) announced in Chennai on Monday.

The 1,425-kg IRNSS-1F - Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1F - would hurtle into space on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on March 10, the Isro said.

The rocket will blast off around 4pm from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80km from Chennai.

This will be already the second rocket launch for India in 2016. The first one was on January 20 when a PSLV rocket put into orbit the IRNSS-1E satellite in text-book style.

Till date India has launched five regional navigational satellites (IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, ID and 1E) as part of a constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate position information service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of 1,500km.

Though the full system comprises nine satellites -- seven in orbit and two on the ground as stand-by - the navigation services could be made operational with four satellites, Isro officials had said earlier.

Each satellite costs about Rs. 150 crores and the PSLV-XL version rocket costs about Rs. 130 crores. The seven rockets would entail an outlay of about Rs. 910 crores.

The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed in 2016 itself.

The first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013, the second IRNSS-1B in April 2014, the third on October 2014, the fourth in March 2015, and the fifth in January this year.

The seventh satellite IRNSS-1G is expected to be launched in the second half of 2016.

Once the regional navigation system is in place, India need not be dependent on other platforms.

Freedom 251 Maker Says Pre-Booking Money to Be Refunded This Week

Noida-based Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd, makers of the controversial world's cheapest smartphone which has promised to return money to 30,000 customers who pre-booked the Rs. 251 (less that $4) device on the first day of the sale, said on Monday that the refund will reach their accounts any time this week.

According to Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha, the money - safe and being kept in an escrow account with a bank - will positively reach the respective accounts this week.

"To refund the money that was facilitated by payment gateways CCAvenue and PayU Biz, we had given a letter to the respective bank later last week. Now, the only hiccup is what we call procedural delay and I hope that people will get back their money this week," Chadha told IANS.

Ringing Bells had received 30,000 orders on the first day and the rest of the customers for first 2.5 million handsets were to be selected on first-come-first-served basis as the company received a mammoth over 70 million registrations before the payment gateway crashed.

Mohit Goel, managing director of Ringing Bells, has also reiterated that money of all 30,000 customers is safe and is being refunded and the company will now accept cash on delivery (COD) only.

According to Chadha, Freedom 251 customers will be required to make payment only when the smartphone is delivered to them.

"The company has decided that we will, henceforth, offer 'cash on delivery' mode of payments for those who have placed an order for the Freedom 251 smartphone. This will ensure further transparency and clear any misgivings," Chadha told IANS.

On its future course of action, Chadha said the company will soon interact with the people and various stakeholders.

The company plans to give 2.5 million handsets in the first phase before June 30.

"Our humble beginning to provide a high-tech gadget that will benefit all in the hinterlands and bridge the huge gap that clearly exists between the metros and semi-urban/rural areas is in keeping with the government's initiatives," Chadha added.

Taking the world by surprise, Ringing Bells launched "Freedom 251" smartphone that, it said, has been developed "with immense support" from the government.

A top government official clarified last week that the government has nothing to do with the Freedom 251 smartphone.

"This is not a government project. 'Make in India' team has nothing to do with this," wrote Amitabh Kant, secretary of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), in a Twitter post.

Congress MP Pramod Tiwari also said the scheme of giving smartphones at Rs. 251 was the "biggest scam of the millennium" during the BJP regime.