Citibank’s unveils New Paperless Payment Solution for Cardholders

Citibank’s Indian debit and credit card holders would be a happy lot! Citibank has made an announcement about launch of its paperless mobile payment solution that will help millions of Citibank customers do away with charge slips. Furthermore, this will be implemented on their worldwide global network.

According to Citibank, this is the first fully certified and secured payment solution and will help consumers to make payments using their cards on simple mobile devices across various points of purchases. Citibank has already partnered with 7 Indian brands that include Flipkart, Shoppers’ Stop, Bajaj Allianz and Bookmyshow who will be offering this paperless payment solution to their customers.

Citibank’s paperless payment solution has been launched in partnership with Ezetap, an angel prime company, that recently closed a 3.5 million round funding from US based investors.

How exactly does this New Paperless Payment solution work?

Although, Citibank has not given exact details as to how it works, here what we have gathered. Citibank’s offering is not a classic mobile payment solution where user can make payment through his / her mobile, but it is actually a point of sale card reader.

The user has to swipe his debit or credit card on a square shaped device (ezetap’s solution) and it will then get digitally signed and authenticated. Unlike traditional means, where merchant has to print the reciept  By electronically capturing the signature, Citibank’s solution will eliminate the need for paper receipts.

The new system can work through a dongle, which can be plugged into smart phones and tablets and is compliant with the global security standards developed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

How will help Merchants and Consumers?

Citibank’s solution will be especially useful to online merchants like Flipkart and others. The cost of this new device is expected is to be much lower than normal card readers – Less than Rs. 2000 as compared to over Rs. 12000 – making it possible for even a small roadside merchant to start offering Citibank’s paperless payment solution.

As per some estimates, there are 300 million debit and credit cards in India and only about 5 lakh card reading devices. With the cost of card readers coming down drastically due to solutions like these, consumers can have paperless card payment facilities at their door step.

Airtel launches Dynamic Mobile Exchange Solution for BYODs

BYOD, or “Bring Your Own Devices” is one of the biggest challenge faced by Enterprises in today’s world, especially from security point of view. While BYOD has many advantages, managing enterprise data securely on these disparate and fragmented smart devices is a nightmare.

Airtel, India’s leading Telecom operator, today announced launch of their Dynamic Mobile Exchange Solution, which resolves, atleast partially, some of the problems faced by the enterprise network administrators.

The Dynamic Mobile Exchange (DME) solution offered by Airtel allows employees to access data securely from anywhere on any device of their choice. The DME solution allows enterprise network admins to remotely manage security policies, device settings, certificates, applications and operating systems allowing them to control the flow of data to BYOD users.

Key Features of Airtel’s Dynamic Mobile Exchange (DME)

• Secure email – Email security across multiple device platforms
• Containerization – Segregatespersonal & official email, data, applications and other documents in separate containers
• Corporate App store (App Box)  – Allows any enterprise to launch its own corporate app store
• Remote Device Manager -Management, administration, remote management of users, devices and applications   of mobile fleet of any Enterprise user
• Bundled Offering – Offers mobile handheld bundled  with 2G/3G data along with mobile application and DME solution
• Turnkey deployment -  Provision, Installation & activation along with Enterprise call center. L1\ L2 and L3 onsite support handled by Airtel

One of the most appealing features of DME is compartmentalization of personal and official data. Incase of device theft or loss, admins can remotely wipe off entire data thereby protecting sensitive enterprise information.

Solutions like DME are becoming increasingly important because 7 out of 10 professionals now access official data on their personal devices and less than 20 percent of this data is currently well-managed.

Airtel has introduced DME at a very opportune time, as smartphones and tablets are now becoming a norm amongst professionals!

Among other Indian Telecom operators, Vodafone launched a hardware solution calledVodafone Secure Device Manager few months back. Other operators may soon follow suite as well!

CDMA Internet Dongles: The Future looking bleak!

In the present scenario, internet in India is in a dismal state. Especially, if we consider the condition of countries like Japan or even in Europe. Now, I do not see, in the near future conditions improving all of a sudden, but with the advent of 3G and 4G, good internet speeds are within our grasps at least. Broadband too has improved its speed along with the times.

The adoption of portable internet (if I may use the term) in India has been far greater than broadband though. CDMA dongles especially have found a lot of followers. In the era of GPRS, these gave high speed internet on the go and almost every company that provided internet was giving it, be it BSNL’s EVDO, Tata Photon Plus, Reliance Netconnect or MTS Mblaze. These are all CDMA internet services that have served India well over the past few years.

With 3G though, the fastest speed that can be provided on the go changed. While these dongles can give upto 3.1 Mbps speeds, 3G offers speeds of 3.6 Mbps and above. Also, Android added functionality called tethering (aka portable hotspot) which ensured that this 3G can be used by a person in the laptop while the phone is using 3G. I have myself used the 3G of my phone to use internet on my laptop on numerous occasions.

As the prices have fallen, 3G has become competitive enough with CDMA. For 4 GB of data for example, in airtel, I have to pay Rs.750. In Tata Photon Plus, for Rs. 850 one gets 5 GB.

I do not know about other areas but in my experience I have found that 3G services overall provide better speeds than CDMA in most of the areas I have tested. Thus, the charm of a CDMA connection fades. Even the companies have started providing 3G dongles. Also, one advantage of 3G over CDMA that I found was that because of tethering, more than one connection can be served by the 3G connection. This is in my knowledge not possible in CDMA connection. Even where possible (like making ad-hoc in Windows), it is shabby at best.

Additionally, today there are 3G routers available that can be used just by inserting the 3G sim-cards. I know of many small start-up companies who are utilizing this setup to get internet connection. It is probably the fastest way to get high-speed internet connection at your home or small office.

Recently, Airtel launched a shared data plan scheme which will ensure that families utilize the same plan which might push even the family members not using 3G jump the ships. The fear of expanding bills will after all be controlled by their more tech friendly family members.

Also, people who own tablets might use this as it will ensure that they do not have to pay twice for the two devices. These are just the uses that come to my mind. The point is that with such services coming along with better speeds, I see that soon, people will start forgetting the CDMA connections.

And now, we have 4G sniffing the air. It is nowhere near adoption but when it comes CDMA will only be a past.

Interesting Social Media Trends of 2013

The new year shall bring lot more happenings in the world of social media and otherwise. Scenarios will change, some for the better. However, what will be interesting is the transition of it all, from what has been to what it could be.

5 Social Media Trends for 2013

Ecommerce to go more social

With the number of E-commerce sites proliferating day and night and none really offering any significant differentiation, a change therein is inevitable. One area where consumers are looking for a better experience is seamless integration. As per the present scheme of things, the process of buying though happens in an integrated manner, the pre-buying process which primarily involves decision making has not been accommodated in the former setup.

Consumers after considering buying a product need to go seeking opinions & recommendations of their friends & colleagues either online or offline, before they come back to buy it. This is a gap which seeks urgent attention and can be filled with the growing clout of social commerce. Introduction of websites likeKlip.in & Amazon Pages are likely to play an important role in helping E-commerce take that leap and pretty soon.

Visual Marketing will have more takers

A picture speaks a thousand words and a moving one at that, even more. The New Year & age shall belong to the visual form of marketing. Engaging video content that not just passes on the message of the brand but is also entertaining in itself is set to be in huge demand. With many such examples like Dumb Ways to Die, & Jo tera hai wo mera hai, that not just got views but went viral, social media commercials shall be the new trend.

Content Marketing will continue to be the deadly game

Content has been undoubtedly the king, more so in the world of social media. Thus far the challenge used to be creating content that is engaging enough, however, a recently concluded social media study indicates that number one challenge for 64% marketers in the bygone year was to generate enough content.

To overcome the same, brands will be seen pushing their budgets to a level higher, formulating sharp strategies, recycling already published content and looking for suitable platforms to market it all.

Marketers will have to make a choice

The social media marketing plans of companies have seen extension all this while. Any new platform that comes in gets an admission into the plan of communication. However, with the number of platforms on the rise & users getting choosy about which one to be active on, to portray a particular kind of an image, rather than being on all, marketers will have to make a choice too.

You just can’t be luring consumers on every platform & diluting your brand’s identity. Hence, equal importance to both the message & the platform will now be detrimental, more than ever before.

Social Media will see more industries and better spends

Many industries like General Insurance, banking & finance, that were nearly absent on the social media are likely to gradually step into the blue waters, with a few of them already taking a lead.

However, interesting it will be to check out the kind of content that they bring to the table and make engagement happen. Moreover, for brands that were already in the midst of a basic presence over social media will now aim for higher and better.

Entry Level Windows Mobiles Vs Cheaper Android phones: Which is Better?

One dilemma that most new Smartphone buyers have in mind is whether to go for a cheap Android phone or a entry level Windows Phone Like Lumia 510 would be a better choice?

We can safely say that last 2-3 years have seen a war of mobile eco-systems. Currently, there are 3 major mobile platforms in the market; Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

As opposed to Windows Phone, which is just 2-3 years old, Android and iOS have an added advantage of being mature. But we pretty much know that cheaper iPhone is only in the rumours and won’t be a reality very soon. Even if they come up with a cheaper iPhone, it won’t be in the price range of sub INR 10K, so what’s in the store for those who can’t afford such high prices?

We are left with only 2 valid smartphone platforms who offer devices below the INR 10K price point; Android and Windows Phone (with new entrant – Nokia Lumia 510).

Here, we are trying to compare how they perform in this low end price point. Let’s take the battle one-by-one of each important factor.

Applications & Games

Although Microsoft says that they have 46 of the top 50 applications, many useful applications and famous games are still missing from the Windows Phone Store. Take for example the applications such as Instagram, Pocket, Flipboard, Google Drive and YouTube.

Yes, there are applications similar to them from third party developers such as Lomogram (Instagram alternative), MetroPaper (Pocket Client) and MetroTube (YouTube Client) but they are not half as good as the applications from other platforms and they offer just the most basic functionalities in comparison.

It’s even bad when it comes to collection of games that is available for the Windows Phone devices like Lumia 510, there are no popular games except Angry Birds. There is no Temple Run and even the likes of Fruit Ninja are very poorly optimized for the platform. Let alone the games such as Nova and Modern Combat.

No matter how stringent Microsoft gets with the OEM on limiting the upper and lower boundaries to keep its platform safe from the fragmentation issue, it has already started to creep in.

Take the example of Nokia Lumia 510 and Nokia Lumia 610, both of them can’t run the Skype application properly due to low hardware configuration, so it has been barred from being installed on devices which have less than 512 MB of RAM.

On the other hand, the platform full of fragmentation, Android has more and better applications and games compared to the new kid Windows Phone. ONE UP – Android!

Camera & Multimedia

When it comes to multimedia performance, there is a problem in comparison. There are two kinds of cheaper Android smartphones; the ones from internationally well-known brands and the ones from local Indian brands which are in turn re-labeled Chinese branded devices.

When you compare with the ones from well-known brands, the Windows Phone devices offer better multimedia experience with better screen and streamlined interface. When you compare them with the Android devices from local brands, take for example the Micromax A110, you get better video recording and images with higher resolutions but the results may not necessarily be better.

In terms of multimedia playback however, a user can always install the third party players such as DoubleTwist and MX Player and get better results. Such third party players are not available on the Windows Phone platform just yet. It’s a TIE here!

Operating System Updates & Usage Flexibility

Smartphones and their features are not without their operating system updates and upgrades. Let alone entry-level Android smartphones, even some of the best-seller devices in mid-price segment fail to get proper software and OS upgrades. By the time they get the updates, the newer version of OS is already released.

Microsoft on the other hand promises faster and better upgrade processes with Windows Phone. Windows Phone is the WINNER here!

Flexibility is the second name for Android, we have seems Android doing numerous unbelievable stuff. Android is a lot more flexible when compared to Windows Phone. You can have dual SIM Android smartphones, you can have QWERTY and pretty much every possible form factor you can think of!

You can play with the files, ROMs and install applications from outside of the applications store. Microsoft, on the other hand, has put a lot of limitations on the OEMs so they can’t experiment much with the hardware and software. Even in entry level price range, you can get pretty much the kind of Android device according to your needs but not the same with Windows Phone devices. ONE UP – Android!

Battery Life

As Windows Phone operating system doesn’t allow true multitasking and just suspends applications in the background, it needs less processing, providing better battery life than others. You can expect much better battery life when compared to cheaper Android smartphones which if not used properly, can end up being terrible in the battery life. ONE UP – Windows Phones!

Conclusion

It comes down to the same conclusion once again, there is no clear winner as of yet. There is still a year worth of time when app developers start developing applications and games for the Windows Phone platform. Then people will start taking cheap Windows Phone smartphones more seriously.

On top of that, Nokia needs more devices like the Lumia 620 at nearly the price of the Lumia 510, only then can they even expect to compete with Android phones in the lower and mid-price range because mass market consumers just go by the specifications list when buying a phone.

50+ Awesome Tips to Make a Great Presentations!

I just came out of a day long conference, where I sat through over 10 presentations. 90 percent presentations were boring. Mind you, I am not saying that these presentations did not have great content to offer, but the way they were presented were very dull and boring. I am sure most of the other audience felt the same as well.

In the past 15 years or so, I have sat through most presentations and more or less the statistics turn out to be the same. 9 out of 10 presentations made are extremely boring and that too accompanied by run-of-the-mill bullets points. Yes, bullet points are boring, and more often than not they actually harm the presentation.

Here is an example of that: Lets say you are an entrepreneur and are trying to present your startup to a random group of people. See how you present it with bullet points. In second scenario, try to present your startup without the bullet-point presentation deck. In most cases, the latter would be more engaging. Yes, you may miss out on some points, but the listener would remember it more.

The reason being; when you present without bullet points, you generally give examples or come up with a parallel scenarios so that audience understands.

That in no way means that PowerPoint presentations are dead. Infact, they are great tool to enhance your presentations and make a lasting impact. Bullet-points though work the opposite!

So, how do you make a great presentation?

The first cardinal rule of making a great presentation deck is to remember that – A presentation is a story not a sequence of slides!

I came across this really excellent presentation on slideshare that I think everyone should bookmark and refer to whenever they are creating and making a presentation. It offers over 50 tips on how to make great presentations

A good presentation is one that should make audience relate to you and the characters in your presentation. Understand who the audience is, and remove the parts from yourpresentation story that will bore them. However, great your content might be, if it is not interesting and relevant to the audience, they will get bored.

Also, one thing you should always always remember – The PowerPoint slides are only a visual support for your oral presentation!

IIT-B launches Aakash App Development Contest for Android & Linux Developers

IIT Bombay has recently launched an app development competition in a bid to create a developer community around Aakash Tablets. This developer contest aims at developing useful Open Source applications and content on Android / Linux for use by students on Aakash.

To push interest in the developer community, IIT-B has announced cash prizes of Rs. 50,000 for winner followed by Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 10,000 for 2^nd and 3^rd places.

How to enter the Aakash Developer Contest

1. Visit Aakash Labs website at http://aakashlabs.org and read more details on the contest.
2. IIT-B has created a Github instance where Android and Linux developers can upload their developed applications.
3. All applications developed need to be based on Open Source License
4. The applications developed should be broadly come under educational category and should help students for furthering their education

Already there have been quiet a few applications that have been developed on Aakash. Scilab, the open-source version of Matlab has already been ported to Android, which is currently part of Aakash. Here are some of the other apps developed for Aakash Tablet.

Applications developed for Aakash Tablet

I think this is a great move by IIT Bombay to create a community around Aakash, however, I do not completely agree with contest prizes. I am sure IIT-B could have done better with the prizes to make it more attractive for the developers to dove in, especially because it is for Aakash, one of the most talked about government projects in recent times.