Amazon Triples Profits on Cloud Services

Online giant Amazon said Thursday its profits more than tripled in the third quarter, but shares fell as the rise was weaker than expected.

Amazon extended its string of positive results after years of investments that produced little or no profit, helped by its cloud computing, streaming video and new products and services.

Profit surged to $252 million (roughly Rs. 1,685 crores) from $79 million (roughly Rs. 528 crores) in the same period a year ago, while revenues jumped 29 percent to $32.7 billion (roughly Rs. 2,18,690 crores).

Amazon shares tumbled more than five percent in after-hours trade after profit fell shy of most analysts' forecasts.

Earnings per share, closely watched by Wall Street, came in at 52 cents; the consensus estimate was 78 cents.

Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos offered a cryptic comment on the financial results, referring to the company's digital personal assistant Alexa, which responds to queries on its Echo speaker and other devices using artificial intelligence.

"Alexa may be Amazon's most loved invention yet - literally - with over 250,000 marriage proposals from customers and counting," said Bezos.

"And she's just getting better. Because Alexa's brain is in the cloud, we can easily and continuously add to her capabilities and make her more useful - wait until you see some of the surprises the team is working on now."

Neil Saunders of the research firm Conlumino said Amazon "missed its earnings estimates by a wide margin and this will, inevitably overshadow the more positive news on sales."

This result "undoes some of the recent progress Amazon has made on the profit front," Saunders said in a note to clients.

He said the relatively weak profits resulted from increased costs and investments in new products and services.

"Looking ahead we see no reason for the dominance of Amazon to diminish," the analyst said.

"Indeed, we see some positive gains from services like music and we believe that, over the course of the next fiscal, devices like Echo will sell well and become a more integrated part of users lives."

The Prime strategy
Earlier Thursday, Bezos told an audience in New York that the disparate services offered by Amazon were part of a strategy to get more people on its Prime subscription service, which offers access to online video and music, free shipping on goods and other benefits.

He said investments in award-winning shows such as "Transparent" and "Mozart in the Jungle" help boost the number of Prime subscribers who will later buy more goods, such as electronics, clothing and toys.

"As you become a Prime member, you buy more from us," he said at the Economic Club of New York.

The company's earnings report showed that Amazon Web Services, its giant cloud-computing arm, pulled in $3.2 billion in revenue, a sharp jump from $2.1 billion in the same quarter last year. That produced some $861 million in operating income.

Amazon's international sales rose 28 percent to $10.6 billion and North American sales grew 25 percent to $18.9 billion.

Amazon does not provide detailed breakdowns for sales of its Kindle devices or home speakers or the number of Prime members.

But analysts at Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimate that Amazon Prime now has 65 million US members, spending on average about $1,200 per

year.

Uber Sees Flying Commuters in 10 Years

Flying commuters like George Jetson could be whizzing to work through the sky less than 10 years from now, according to ride-services provider Uber, which believes the future of transportation is literally looking up.

Uber released a white paper on Thursday envisioning a future in which commuters hop onto a small aircraft, take off vertically and within minutes arrive at their destinations. The flyers would eventually be unmanned, according to the company.

It sounds like the opening sequence to "The Jetsons", the 1962 US cartoon about a future filled with moving sidewalks, robot housekeepers and spaceflight, but Uber sees flying rides as feasible and eventually affordable.

Uber already offers helicopter rides to commuters in Brazil. The company plans to convene a global summit early next year to explore on-demand aviation, in which small electric aircraft could take off and land vertically to reduce congestion and save time for long-distance commuters, and eventually city dwellers.

Others have also envisioned such aircraft, akin to a helicopter but without the noise and emissions. Vertical take off and landing aircraft (VTOL) have been studied and developed for decades, including by aircraft makers, the military, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Uber is already exploring self-driving technology, hoping to slash costs by eliminating the need for drivers in its core business of on-demand rides. On-demand air transport marks a new frontier, set squarely in the future.

Uber's vision, detailed in a 97-page document, argues that on-demand aviation will be affordable and achievable in the next decade assuming effective collaboration between regulators, communities and manufacturers.

Ultimately, using VTOLs for transport could be less expensive than owning a car, Uber predicted.

Such on-demand VTOL aircraft would be "optionally piloted," Uber said, where autonomous technology takes over the main workload and the pilot is relied on for situational awareness. Eventually, the aircraft will likely be fully automated, Uber said.

Hurdles include battery technology. Batteries must come down in cost and charge faster, become more powerful and have longer lifecycles.

Regulatory hurdles must also be solved such as certification by aviation regulators as well as infrastructure needs, such as more takeoff and landing cites.

Uber plans to reach out to stakeholders within the next six months to explore the implications of urban air transport and share ideas before hosting a summit in early 2017 to explore the issues and solutions and help accelerate urban air transportation
.

Amazon's Alexa Voice Assistant Arrives on Fire Tablets

Amazon's Fire tablets are getting the Alexa voice assistant.

The previously announced feature will start rolling out to customers Wednesday. It's meant to complement what users get on other Alexa devices, such as the Echo speaker. Through voice commands, users can get the news read out to them or listen to music from services such as Amazon Music or Pandora.

The Fire tablets will go beyond Echo by offering full-screen cards with additional details. For instance, when you ask for the weather, Alexa will speak out the current temperature and offer the day's forecast, just as she does on Echo. But the visual card will also display the week's forecast. For news and music, the card offers playback control such as pausing and skipping.

For those with both Fire and Echo, making a request on Echo will trigger the Fire's screen to turn on and present the detailed cards, as long as a Voicecast feature is enabled through the Alexa app.

Amazon says Alexa will differ from Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant in being designed for tablets first, rather than phones. That means focusing on tasks typically done at home, such as entertainment, recipes and timers. For tasks on the go, such as finding nearby restaurants, Alexa performs a standard web search or directs you to the Alexa app. Apple and Google have special interfaces with restaurant ratings, price ranges and more, and both integrate that information into their chat apps, too.

Although the overall tablet market has been slumping, Amazon.com Inc. has managed to stay strong by slashing prices and encouraging people to buy more than one. Its bare-bones base model costs just $49. Last month, Amazon introduced a new 8-inch tablet for $90

, down from $150 for similar models in the past.

So far, Amazon is avoiding business-oriented tablets such as Apple's iPad Pro and Microsoft's Surface. Aaron Bromberg, a senior product manager for Fire tablets, said that while such devices work well as laptop replacements, "we also see an awful lot of people that want tablets to use around the house for entertainment."

"We see the market kind of dividing a bit," he said.

Apple Sees Drop in Profit, Revenue as iPhone Sales Slump

 

Apple's quarterly profit slumped on a widely expected drop in iPhone sales, but gains in services offered some optimism on the company's efforts to curb dependence on its smartphone.

The company said Tuesday that profit fell 19 percent to $9 billion (roughly Rs. 60,134 crores) in the fiscal quarter ending September 24. Revenue fell nine percent to $46.9 billion (roughly Rs. 3,13,655 crores) from $51.5 billion (roughly Rs. 3,44,403 crores) a year earlier.

The results were largely in line with market forecasts and showed sales of the iPhone - Apple's biggest revenue and profit driver - down five percent from a year ago to 45.5 million units.

The quarterly update only provided limited information on the reception of the newest iPhone models, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which were released in early September, and was likely to benefit from the woes of rival Samsung, suffering from a massive recall of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 phone.

Analysts were expecting declines in iPhone sales with many smartphone markets saturated, a situation that has led Apple to focus on new products like the Apple Watch and services like mobile payments, Apple TV and streaming music.

Chief executive Tim Cook welcomed what he called "our strong September quarter results," saying they "cap a very successful fiscal 2016 for Apple."

"We're thrilled with the customer response to iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2, as well as the incredible momentum of our Services business, where revenue grew 24 percent to set another all-time record," he said in a statement.

The world's largest company by market value closed out its fiscal year ending September 24 with a net profit of $45.7 billion on revenues of $215.6 billion, both figures lower than the prior year.

Apple shares fell 2.7 percent in after-hours trade following the release.

"Previously, Apple was able to rely on strong sales of phones, tablets and computers to drive up revenue and profit across all geographies. This is no longer the case," said Neil Saunders of the research firm Conlumino.

Still, Saunders noted that "Apple is being judged by its own incredibly high standards," and that "even with the dips in growth it remains a phenomenally successful business that is far from running out of steam."

More than device maker
Frank Gillett, a Forrester Research analyst, said the results show Apple is making progress in diversifying its mix of products and services as smartphone sales stagnate.

"The rise of services shows they're more than a device maker," Gillett said.

"It's indicative of the depth of engagement of their customers."

The more consumers use Apple applications and services, "the less likely they will switch to a rival," Gillett said.

Apple's results showed a six percent drop in iPad unit sales and a 14 percent decline in the number of Mac computers sold.

While iPhone sales accounted for more than half of revenues, services revenue grew to $6.3 billion as the company expanded services such as Apple Pay and its enterprise offerings.

In the key "Greater China" market, Apple said revenues were down 30 percent from a year to $8.8 billion. But the company noted a 10 percent rise in revenue from Japan and cited gains in other global markets.

Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said Apple "met most expectations but didn't have a great quarter" with sales of its main products lower.

"I'm suspecting there may have been availability issues on the iPhone 7 and Watch," Moorhead said.

Still, Apple "had a banner quarter in services" which is a positive sign, according to the analyst.

"It's important the investment community take a long view versus looking at short-term growth estimates as a knee-jerk Apple response would only work against the company and the stock price," Moorhead said.

On a call with analysts, Cook declined to comment on what Apple has in the pipeline but did indicate the company was investing in "products in the development phase which have not yet reached the market."

Asked to explain the sharp rise in research and development spending, Cook said, "We're confidently investing in the future."

Microsoft 'My People' Feature Pins Your Close Contacts Directly to Windows 10 Taskbar

 

There are currently so many social platforms out there that sometimes it becomes extremely cumbersome to keep track of all of them. Most people use multiple social platforms to stay in touch with each other and it is often annoying to switch between the platforms. This is where Microsoft's 'My People' feature, which was launched on Wednesday, steps in.

The 'My People' feature, which will be tagged along with company's 'Creators Update', will essentially give out message notifications to the user right from their desktop. It will further provide them with various platform options to reply from. It will further provide users with nifty little animations when emojis are sent to them by their contacts.

Users can easily share files with their contacts using My People by simply dragging and dropping the files onto the contact icon. These files will then be shared by either Skype or via mail.

These emoji animations are being referred to as 'shoulder taps' by Microsoft

. In the demonstration of this feature, Allison O'Mahoney - Principal Group Program Manager at Microsoft - showed how My People makes it easier to see the mails referred by your contacts and switch back to the conversation in a smooth and easy manner.

The entire concept behind the introduction of the My People feature is to remove the complications from conversations and provide users with messages from the people that matter the most, at the earliest. The feature works with email, SMS, and Skype. The support for Xbox Live and Skype for Business will be added later to the feature. The support for third-party applications is also expected to come later on
.

Government Mandates Indian Language Support on All Phones Sold From July 2017 Which Will Be A Great Success For India

Government has mandated support for Indian languages in all mobile phones to be sold in the country from July 1, 2017 onward.

"In exercise of the power conferred by clause 10(1) of Bureau of Indian Standard Act... the central government, hereby includes the Indian language support for mobile phone as per IS 16333 (Part-3) to the schedule of 'Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for compulsory Registration) Order, 2012", an official notification said.

As per the new mandate, all mobile phones in the country will have to provide text reading support in all Indian languages on their devices.

The new standard mandates mobile phone companies to provide message typing facility in English, Hindi and a regional language of their users choice.

"The provisions of 'Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order 2012' ....shall apply for the aforesaid inclusion by virtue of this order with effect from July 1, 2017," the notification said.

The notification mandates both smartphones and feature phones to provide language support.

"It was one of most awaited step and a landmark decision which will pave way for connecting next 1 billion people most of whom will be non-English speaking. The order is in line with Digital India vision of bridging digital divide," Indian Cellular Association National President Pankaj Mohindroo said.

He said that government and industry were on the same page on this issue.

"The support for Indian language has potential to grow e-governance transactions, e-commerce business etc multifold, once non-English speaking people are able to access mobile platform in their own language," Mohindroo said.

ZTE Axon 7 Max With 3D Viewing Display, 13-Megapixel Dual Camera Launched

  ZTE Axon 7 Max With 3D Viewing Display, 13-Megapixel Dual Camera Launched

Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE has launched a new entrant in its Axon lineup of smartphones - the ZTE Axon 7 Max. The ZTE Axon 7 Max comes with a display that is designed to support 3D viewing capabilities with naked eyes (also known as an auto-stereoscopic display), which is also the USP of the smartphone. The smartphone is available in the Chinese market at a price of CNY 2,999 (roughly Rs. 29,600) starting November, while the pre-orders are already running.

The ZTE Axon 7 Max joins the line of ZTE's previously launched ZTE Axon 7 and ZTE Axon 7 mini. The smartphone supports dual SIM (Nano+Nano) cards with 4G LTE capability. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box with ZTE's customised MiFavor 4.0 UI on top. It is powered by an octa-core 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 CPU coupled with 4GB of RAM. For graphics, the smartphone packs an Adreno 506 GPU. The ZTE Axon 7 Max sports a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920) IPS display with a resolution of 367ppi.

For the optics, the ZTE Axon 7 Max sports dual 13-megapixel cameras at the back with laser autofocus feature and a dual-LED flash module. The front-facing camera in the device is an 8-megapixel shooter for selfies. The ZTE Axon 7 Max has an inbuilt storage of 64GB that is expandable via a microSD card (up to 200GB). At the rear side of the smartphone sits the circular fingerprint scanner.

The ZTE Axon 7 Max boasts of a 4100mAh battery that supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 for faster charging. For connectivity, ZTE Axon 7 Max has got Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB Type-C port. Apart from the above specifications, the ZTE Axon 7 max also packs dual Hi-Fi AK4962 audio chips for better audio output.

As we mentioned, the company says that the Axon 7 Max supports 3D viewing and to add to that delight, ZTE is offering 3D content of worth CNY 360 for free with every purchase
.

ZTE Axon 7 Max

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display

6.00-inch

Processor

2 GHz octa-core

Front Camera

8-megapixel

Resolution

1080x1920 pixels

RAM

4GB

OS

Android 6.0

Storage

64GB

Rear Camera

13-megapixel

Battery Capacity

4100mAh

iPhone 8 Tipped to Come in 3 Sizes

The iPhone 7 is just a month old, and rumours of what Apple is planning for its ten-year iPhone anniversary next year is already cropping up. A fresh report hints that the iPhone 8 will sport an all-glass back, and come in three variants instead of two. Furthermore, there is another report claims the three-variant rumour is untrue.

A report from Nikkei Asian Review citing anonymous people familiar with the matter claims that the Apple iPhone next year will ditch the metal casing to sport an all-glass casing instead. Furthermore, there will be another size variant added to the mix, and the iPhone 8 will be made available in 4.7-inch, 5-inch, and 5.5-inch sizes.

"Apple has tentatively decided that all the 5.5-inch, 5-inch and 4.7-inch models will have glass backs, departing from metal casings adopted by current iPhones, and Biel and Lens are likely to be providing all the glass backs for the new iPhones next year," the source told the publication.

The report adds that one of the variants will sport an-edge-to-edge OLED display with little to no bezel on the top and bottom. The other two sizes will continue to sport LCD displays.

In the meanwhile, a separate source with an accurate Apple leak record has told

 Apple Insider that the company has no plans to launch a third 5-inch variant. The company will stick to tradition with respect to size, and only the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch will launch next year.

The glass back rumour has cropped online earlier as well, and this latest report further cements its arrival. Apparently, the next year's iPhone will see major changes, and apart from the above mentioned rumours, it is also expected to get rid of the Home button completely, integrating it with the display
.

Galaxy S8 to Sport Slick Design, Improved Camera, and Enhanced AI Service

Samsung has already taken a major hit with the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco that has caused the company a 30 percent profit plunge and also adversely affected its reputation globally. The South Korean company however is very positive about its upcoming Galaxy flagship, believed to be dubbed Galaxy S8.

According to Lee Kyeong-tae, Samsung's Vice President for Mobile Communications, the upcoming Galaxy high-end smartphone will feature "slick design" while also sport "an improved camera." One of the biggest hints that Lee dropped while speaking to WSJ was the upcoming smartphone will come with "an enhanced artificial-intelligence service." Unfortunately, Lee didn't detail any specifics.

Samsung is widely expected to leverage its Viv Labs acquisition which is a US-based artificial-intelligence software company. The developers at Viv previously founded Siri which is now Apple's digital voice-assistant on mobile devices. To recall, Samsung acquired Viv Labs earlier this month.

Based on preliminary leaks, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to feature a 5.5-inch 4K (2160x3840 pixels) Super Amoled display and will boast of an impressive pixel density of 806ppi. It is expected to feature the company's in-house Exynos 8895 SoC while sports 6GB of RAM. The Galaxy S8 is also rumoured to come with 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel dual-rear camera setup. A recent report also suggested that Samsung may not embed the fingerprint scanner in the home button, and will instead have it under the rumoured 4K screen. If this comes out to be true, then the Samsung Galaxy S8 may be the company's first smartphone to sport an optical fingerprint technology.

Some reports have pointed that work on the Galaxy S8 has been delayed as all focus is on finding the fault in the Galaxy Note 7.

OnePlus 3T Tipped to Sport the Brand Of New Sony IMX398 Sensor

OnePlus is expected to launch the OnePlus 3T variant sometime in December, and the smartphone is pegged to sport an upgraded processor and run on Android 7.0 Nougat. Now, the latest leak hints that the OnePlus 3T will also sport the brand new Sony IMX398 rear sensor.

According to TechUpdate3, the upcoming OnePlus 3T will come with a 16-megapixel Sony IMX398 sensor, instead of the 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor seen on the OnePlus 3. Just to recall, the OnePlus 3 sports a 16-megapixel rear camera with PDAF, OIS, EIS, f/2.0 aperture, 4k video recording, and RAW image support.

For those unaware, the Sony IMX398 sensor is the latest from the company released first on the Oppo R9s. The OnePlus 3T is set to be the next smartphone to sport this sensor.

Apart from this, OnePlus 3T is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 821 processor and run on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat-based Oxygen OS out-of-the-box. It will sport the same build design as the OnePlus 3, and will also embed Dash Charge support. There's also a rumoured shift to LCD panel instead of the Optic OLED display, and the price is expected to increase by $80. The shift to LCD panel rumour could just be false, as CEO Carl Pei had recently confirmed that the company would continue to use Optic OLED panels in the anticipated future.

OnePlus is expected to offer all of these upgrades (and maybe more) for an increased price of $479(roughly Rs. 32,100). Even with this price bump, the smartphone is still reasonable when compared to the other flagships in the market. Both Apple and Google flagships are priced way higher than the OnePlus 3 and the rumoured OnePlus 3T.

Zen Cinemax 2+ With SOS Calling Launched at Rs. 3,777

 

Indian mobile manufacturer Zen Mobile has launched the Cinemax 2+ to add to its portfolio of Cinemax smartphones. The Zen Cinemax 2+ supports SOS calling, a feature that allows users to send location details of the user to 5 contacts as preferred by the user while an emergency. It is available at a price of Rs. 3,777 exclusively on the e-commerce website ShopClues.

The dual-SIM Zen Cinemax 2+ smartphone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box. It packs a 5.5-inch FWVGA (480x854) IPS display. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM inside.

In the camera department, the Zen Cinemax 2+ houses a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus feature and flash module. For selfie lovers, the smartphone has a 3.2-megapixel front-facing camera. The Zen Cinemax 2+ has an inbuilt storage of 8GB that is expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

The Zen Cinemax 2+ gets its power from a 2900mAh battery. For connectivity, Zen Cinemax 2+ has got 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, FM radio, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB port. There are proximity sensor and an accelerometer on board on the smartphone.

Commenting on the launch of the Zen Cinemax 2+, Sanjay Kalirona, CEO of Zen Mobiles said, "Our objective is to expand our reach for Zen Mobile and cater to as many customers as. The tie up with ShopClues! is another way of reaching out to our consumers and considering the service delivery, wide reach, and the it's experience in exclusive product offerings. Based on our prior experiences with ShopClues, we are completely confident about the success of Cinemax 2+ smartphone."

Zen Cinemax 2+

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display

5.50-inch

Processor

1.3 GHz quad-core

Front Camera

3.2-megapixel

Resolution

480x854 pixels

RAM

1GB

OS

Android 5.1

Storage

8GB

Rear Camera

5-megapixel

Battery Capacity

2900mAh

OnePlus 3T Price Is Expected to Be More Expensive Than the OnePlus 3

OnePlus is rumoured to launch an upgraded OnePlus 3 variant sometime in December this year. The upgraded variant will sport a new processor and run on the latest version of Android. Now, a fresh leak reveals the expected price of the smartphone as well.

According to noted tipster Evan Blass (aka @evleaks), the OnePlus 3T will be priced $80 (roughly Rs. 5,400) more than the current OnePlus 3. The tipster claims that the upgraded smartphone will be priced at $479 (roughly Rs. 32,100). Even with this price bump, the smartphone is still reasonable when compared to the other flagships in the market. Both Apple and Google flagships are priced way higher than the OnePlus 3 and the rumoured OnePlus 3T.

The OnePlus 3T is rumoured to be powered by a Snapdragon 821 processor instead of the Snapdragon 820 seen on the OnePlus 3. It is also expected to run on Android 7.0 Nougat-based OxygenOS out-of-the-box. The OnePlus 3T is said to sport the same design and build as the current flagship, and even support Dash Charge functionality.

Furthermore, the OnePlus is now reportedly ditching Optic OLED display that was seen on the OnePlus 3 and instead use an LCD panel on the OnePlus 3T. However, CEO Carl Pei had recently said that the company would continue to use the Optic OLED display in foreseeable future. On its own, is the OnePlus 3T worth the price increase with its current upgrade offerings is another debate altogether.

All of this is just mere speculation, and OnePlus could add more meat in the OnePlus 3T to make it worth the price tag. Until then, we recommend you to take all the information with a pinch of salt.

Amazon Kindle (2016) Review

 

Amazon's iron grip on the ebook reader market is not going to loosen anytime soon. Products such as the Kindle Oasis ensure that the company caters to the premium niche, while the Kindle Paperwhite serves most other customers just fine. Even then, few people can justify spending above Rs. 10,000 on an ebook reader. If you are one of them, you're probably looking at the Amazon Kindle.

The base model in Amazon's ebook reader lineup is priced at Rs. 5,999, which is bound to appeal to many more people. To lower the price, there have to be some compromises. Has Amazon cut one corner too many or has it managed to strike a perfect balance between price and quality? We used the Amazon Kindle for a couple of weeks to find out.

The Amazon Kindle is about the same size as the Paperwhite. It's no match for the light and small Oasis, but it doesn't cost Rs. 24,000 either so we will happily live with its size and weight. The new Amazon Kindle is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, so that is a big plus.

The moment you hold it, you will notice one of the compromises. The body is plasticky and lacks a premium feel. The bigger problem is that the Kindle's back is made of a slippery plastic material. This made us grip it a lot tighter than we're used to with the Paperwhite, leading to some discomfort. Cynics might wonder whether this is a way to drive up sales of Amazon's covers for the Kindle, which cost a whopping Rs. 2,000 each. We kept it in a bag with another Kindle, a smartphone, and a notebook when we weren't using the ebook reader and we noticed two small scratches on its bezel. If cosmetic damage bothers you, a cover is a must. The Kindle does feel sturdy overall, but we'd feel better having it in a protective cover.

The display on the basic Amazon Kindle is another area where Amazon has made a compromise. It's a low-resolution screen - 167ppi vs 300ppi on every other Kindle. Fortunately this won't bother most people while reading. We were quite impressed with the screen. Fonts are crisp and legible, and you won't notice the low resolution unless you really stare at the text. If you're moving to this from a Paperwhite, the transition will not be easy. But if this is your first Kindle, the screen won't bother you.

However, the lack of a front light could be a dealbreaker. If you often read in dark places, you will sorely miss the front light. We felt this the most while reading during train rides to and from our office. Some trains are poorly lit and lights go off for around 15-20 seconds in certain parts of the journey. This is where a Kindle Paperwhite allows you to continue reading. With the Amazon Kindle, there was no choice but to break the flow of reading and wait for better lighting conditions. In poorly lit trains, the reading experience was so bad that we had to stop reading altogether. You could of course buy a clip-on light, but that's not an elegant solution.

The battery life of the Amazon Kindle is pretty good. If you use the device in airplane mode, it should easily last over two weeks on a single charge. This is no surprise as long battery life is one of the hallmarks of the Kindle range.

We read three novels during the review period and the slightly slower page refresh and longer loading times for various options bothered us. Once again, for those trying a Kindle for the first time, these things won't be that big a deal so we're willing to overlook these shortcomings. In bright light, the reading experience is very good, and that is what matters.

Overall we were fairly pleased with what Amazon offers at this price point. At Rs. 5,999 the Amazon Kindle

 is a solid ebook reader for most people who've never used such a device before. We've seen the price drop to as low as Rs. 4,899 during sales so keep an eye out for discounts if you want to buy this.

Pros

• Price
• Decent display
• Battery life

Cons

• Slippery plastic body
• No front light
• A little laggy

Rating (out of 5): 3.
5

Microsoft Profit Top Estimates as Cloud Demand Soars

 

Microsoft Corp.'s first-quarter sales and earnings topped analysts' estimates, buoyed by growing demand for cloud-based software and services.

Profit excluding certain items was 76 cents a share on adjusted sales of $22.3 billion (roughly Rs. 1,49,209 crores), the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts on average estimated profit in the period ended September 30 would be 68 cents on revenue of $21.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares surged to a record in extended trading.

Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has been investing in data centers and striking partnerships to bolster sales of Microsoft's main corporate cloud products, Azure and Office 365 - internet-based versions of the popular productivity apps, e-mail and collaboration tools. Revenue from Azure cloud services more than doubled, helping Microsoft outperform even as demand for PCs remained in the doldrums and its mobile-phone efforts collapsed.

"Cloud is growing significantly and Azure represents incremental new revenue," said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., who rates the shares outperform. "Commercial cloud is driving revenue growth, which is somewhat hidden by the fact that Nokia is going to zero."

Microsoft shares jumped as much as 6.2 percent in extended trading following the report, after losing less than 1 percent to $57.25 at the close in New York. If the gains hold when US trading opens tomorrow, the stock will top its all-time high - reached in 1999.

"This transition to the cloud represents the single largest addressable market opportunity we've all seen in many, many years," Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said after the report. "There is such an opportunity to grow our overall revenue and do it profitably."

Hood said half of the earnings-per-share estimate beat was because of strong sales, and half was related to a lower-than-expected tax rate and other income. Net income in the recent period declined to $4.69 billion (roughly Rs. 31,380 crores), or 60 cents a share.

Earlier this month, on a swing through Europe, Nadella said the company has spent $3 billion - $1 billion in the past year alone - on data centers on the Continent to expand cloud services. He promised continued investments there, including new sites in France next year. Hood said in July that gross margins for commercial cloud would "materially improve" in the current year. That's because previous years of investment are starting to pay off as those data centers support more customers. Commercial cloud gross margin in the recent period was 49 percent, 7 points wider than in the prior quarter.

Microsoft has pledged to reach annualised revenue of $20 billion (roughly 1,33,840 crores) in its corporate cloud business by the fiscal year that ends in June 2018. That metric stood at more than $13 billion at the end of the fiscal first quarter. The company has been adding customers and workloads for its Azure services, which let clients run and store applications in Microsoft's data centers.

Elsewhere in the cloud business, paid users for the company's rival, called Dynamics CRM Online, grew more than 2.5 times. Overall, Dynamics product revenue rose 11 percent. The two companies' rivalry has intensified in recent months after Microsoft beat out Salesforce in bidding for LinkedIn Corp. Since then, Salesforce has asked European regulators to scrutinize the $26.2 billion deal. Hood reiterated on Thursday that Microsoft expects the acquisition to close in the December quarter.

PC market
Worldwide PC shipments in the September quarter were a smidgen better than expected - a decline of 3.9 percent, compared with a 4.1 percent drop in the prior period, researcher IDC said. Still, chipmaker Intel Corp. saw its shares plummet by the most in nine months after a disappointing fourth-quarter sales forecast signaled lackluster demand for PCs heading into the holiday shopping season.

Microsoft in July admitted it won't meet its goal of getting the Windows 10 operating system on 1 billion devices within two to three years of the 2015 release of the software. The company blamed the shortfall on the decision to all but exit the phone hardware business and insisted this year would be a good one for corporate adoption of the system. Analysts are waiting to see evidence.

"I'm not yet ready to call success, but we are seeing enough people doing enough prep work for it that it's quite possible we could see a jump in adoption on the corporate side," Moerdler said.

Windows, Gaming
Sales in the company's More Personal Computing business, including Windows and Xbox, slipped 1.8 percent from a year ago to $9.29 billion. That compares with the $8.88 billion average estimate of five analysts polled by Bloomberg. Microsoft also reported a new metric for gaming revenue for Xbox and PC, saying it was $1.9 billion last quarter.

In the Intelligent Cloud unit, comprised of Azure and server software deployed in customers' own data centers, sales rose 8.3 percent to $6.38 billion, compared with the $6.26 billion average analyst estimate. Productivity revenue climbed 5.6 percent $6.66 billion. Analysts had estimated $6.55 billion.

For the fiscal second quarter, the company said Productivity revenue will be as much as $7.1 billion, while Intelligent Cloud sales will be $6.55 billion to $6.75 billion. More Personal Computing, the unit most impacted by holiday sales of computers and video games, will be $11.2 billion to $11.6 billion, Hood said on a conference call.

Lenovo Yoga 900 Review

 

Hybrid laptops or 2-in-1s can be incredibly fun and versatile devices, if done right. Lenovo has had its fair share of success with the Yoga series, mostly due to the fact that it has a device for most price brackets, not just the high-end segment.

Today, we’ll be testing its flagship bendable laptop, called the Yoga 900. This 13-inch model competes with other Ultrabooks such as the HP Spectre 13 and Acer Aspire S13. Priced between these two competitors and armed with the same core specifications, let’s see if the Yoga 900 can make a compelling case for itself
.

Lenovo Yoga 900 design and build
It’s evident from the moment you pick it up that this is a premium laptop. Most of the chassis is built of plastic, which has a nice rubberised texture to it, but then you get champagne-coloured metal plates for the lid and the bottom, which give the device rigidity. The branding is tastefully done too, which adds to the premium look and feel.

Even in the latest refresh, the Yoga 900 sticks with its trademark articulating hinge, which has very good torsion, thus eliminating most of the screen wobble, no matter the angle. The device feels a bit heavy, even though it weighs only 1.3kg, and it’s quite slim at 14.9mm.

The stereo speakers are placed on the bottom towards the front, one on each side, and there are four rubber feet which help keep the laptop stable on flat surfaces. The rubberised lining of the chassis protrudes slightly outwards along the edges of the display and the base in order to provide grip when you use the Yoga 900 in different positions.

Peripheral connectivity is taken care by two full-sized USB 3.0 ports and a Type-C USB 3.0 port that supports native DisplayPort 1.2 video output as well as VGA and HDMI via adapters. You also get an SD card slot, headphones socket, a button to lock the screen rotation, and a power button along the edges. We think a volume rocker also would have come in handy, especially when the device is in tablet mode.

Speaking of modes, you can use the Yoga 900 as a regular laptop or rotate the screen all the way till it's flat against the back of the lower half to make it a tablet. ‘Tent’ and ‘Stand’ modes are both useful when you want to want to interact with the device through the touchscreen but keep it on a flat surface.

The real show-stopper, however, is the Yoga 900’s fantastic display. The 1800x3200-pixel resolution on a 13.3-inch IPS panel serves up a density of 276ppi, which has quite a few other Ultrabooks in this segment beat. Coupled with high brightness levels and good viewing angles, colours are vivid and saturated, and text is crisp. The glossy panel is prone to reflections but when images and video look this good, we can live with this little niggle.

Lenovo laptops have always had good keyboards and this one is no exception. The chiclet keys have very good tactile feedback with no flex, and the backlighting is even across the board. We would have liked a longer right ‘Shift’ key as it’s easy to mistake the arrow key for it. The trackpad is decently sized and works well. There’s a single button for left and right mouse clicks. Overall, we really like the Yoga 900 for its design, interesting choice of materials for the chassis, and very good display.

Lenovo Yoga 900 specifications and features
According to Lenovo India’s website, the model we’re testing is the only SKU that’s currently available in the country. With this, you get an Intel Core i7-6500U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. There’s also Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, an HD webcam and JBL speakers. The specifications are similar to those of the other Ultrabooks we’ve recently tested, so you should expect similar performance too.

The Yoga 900 ships with Windows 10 Home 64-bit along with pre-installed software from Lenovo. Unlike some OEM software that isn't very useful, the Lenovo Companion is a well-designed app that gives lets you keep tabs on the health of the system, update drivers, get support information, and perform regular maintenance tasks – all from a single window. There’s also OneKey Recovery, which can be activated with the dedicated button on the side; Photo Master for organising your pictures; and SHAREit and REACHit, which let you transfer files to other devices and access multiple cloud storage services, in one place.

Lenovo Yoga 900 performance
With these beefy specifications, general Windows performance is very good. The Yoga 900 boots quickly and is able to handle most demanding apps. You can even get away with a bit of gaming. During all this, the bottom rear gets slightly warm but that's about it. Thankfully, the palm rest area stays cool throughout so productivity is rarely interrupted. The exhaust vent is neatly camouflaged in the hinge, giving the laptop a clean look.

Benchmark scores are good, although some CPU scores were tad lower than those posted by other Ultrabooks with the same specifications. The Samsung SSD delivers very good read and write speeds with the average sequential read bandwidth topping out at 477MB/s while the write speed topped out at 409MB/s. PCMark 8 returned scores of 2551, 3384, and 2550 for the Home, Creative, and Work test suites respectively.

What we love about this laptop the most is that there’s rarely an uncomfortable position to use it in. It can adapt to nearly any sitting posture you might fancy and there’s always tablet mode when all else fails. The Yoga 900 is a bit too heavy to be used as a tablet for long stretches, but the ‘Tent’ and ‘Stand’ modes are good when you need the touchscreen. The 10-finger touch panel has good sensitivity too.

Just like the Acer Aspire S13 and HP EliteBook Folio G1, the Yoga 900 has an excellent set of speakers, which sound best in laptop mode. However, the overall volume and sound stage diminish noticeably when you switch to the ‘Tent’ or ‘Stand’ modes, and is the worst in tablet mode. The speakers need a surface to reflect sound off. There's also a Dolby Audio optimisation app for tweaking the sound.

The 66WHr battery ran for 5 hours and 3 minutes in PCMark 8’s battery test, which simulates real-world usage patterns. During actual usage, we were able to stretch it up to 7-8 hours, but this was without doing anything too graphically intensive. As long as you stick to medium or light workloads, the laptop should last you an entire work day.

Verdict
The Lenovo Yoga 900 is priced at Rs. 1,23,690 which is not too bad. With this money, you get top-of-the-line Ultrabook specifications along with an excellent high-resolution display, a good keyboard, and decent battery life. Let’s not forget its ability to transform into a tablet too, if the occasion calls for it.

If we could change a few things, we would like an HDMI port built into the laptop. Lenovo could have at least thrown in some adapters for the Type-C port. We also hope the next version is lighter for better tablet usage.

Overall, the Yoga 900 is a very good hybrid laptop that balances portability and usability better than most other solutions in the market.

Pros

• Excellent display and build 
• Good overall performance 
• Very good keyboard and trackpad
• Decent battery life
• Speakers sound good in laptop mode

Cons

• No bundled adaptors for video output
• A bit heavy 
• Glossy display might not suit everyone

Ratings (Out of 5)

• Design: 4
• Display: 4.5
• Performance: 4
• Software: 4
• Value for Money: 3.5
• Overall: 4.5