Outrageously stupid as it may sound, the Indian Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal has asked Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like to self-censor objectionable content right when they are uploaded by the users. This order was issued after Sibal found a Facebook page filled with hate-speech for Sonia Gandhi, a member of the ruling Congress party.

Soon after the news spread, people took to Twitter and Facebook to express outrage, mostly expressing concern about free-speech in a democratic country. Kapil Sibal was already a black-sheep due to his vile behaviour during the Jan lokpal revolution a few months ago and hence this was just fuel to the fire. Besides, I think that Mr. Sibal’s demand to put human watch over the constant hose of 250 million tweets per second, 48 hours of video per minute and 70 million statuses & updates is downright idiotic. Internet is practically the only place left where people can express their deepest thoughts with least hesitation or fear.

Here are some of the strong words of the Twitterers,

Thankfully, there’s no call-to-action from Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft. Google also denied to comment on the issue. However, 6-weeks ago, three representatives from these companies had a meeting with Sibal and stated that “If there’s a law and there’s a court order, we can follow up on it”.

[Source]

Google has kicked off imagery collection on the streets in Bangalore for Google Street view. Soon, more cities of the subcontinent will be covered.

Vinay Goel, Country Head, Products, Google, said

Bangalore being the IT capital of India was the obvious choice to start with. The aim is to map India in totality which is a tough job considering two-third streets in India do not have names.

Nrityagram Dance Village in Bangalore is where the Street View imagery collection will begin. Google assures that privacy of the citizens will be respected and hence, the faces of the people and number plates of vehicles will be blurred. The images will then be stitched to form 360 degree panoramic views and will finally be uploaded to Google Maps. 

In the recent past, Google ran into legal problems due to the Street View project in European countries. Intrusion to privacy was the major concern of most of the accusing countries. No such problem has been reported by Indian authorities as of now, but considering the recent beefing up of security measures to protect digital data, it is highly likely that Google might run into some issues.

Update: Google India has reportedly acquired permission from the traffic department of the Bangalore Police for Google Street View.

I have always wondered how awesome it would be if Google Street View was available in India. But then the immediate thought was how hard it would be for Google to properly map the streets of India. Firstly, the streets and the whole road infrastructure in India is way different (and much more complex) than other developed nations. From national highways to village approach roads, the category slots are many and worse, not properly defined. This can be a major headache for the Internet giant to prioritize and include/exclude roads.

The project as a whole, is gigantic and ambitious, especially when the country in question is India.But I assume, Google will pull it off rather well. However, it will definitely take up a considerable time and effort.

Samsung is all set to launch the entry-level Star II (S5260) in India, a powerful successor to the original Samsung Star. It has better features while retaining the same old zappy youth feel of its predecessor. Star II will concentrate more on social-networking features and will come pre-loaded with Social Hub which includes Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messaging apps. A few striking features of the Samsung Star II (S5260) are mentioned below:

Features of Samsung Star II (S5260):

• 3-inch WQVGA screen
• TouchWiz UI 3.0
• 3.2MP camera
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth
• 1000mAh battery
• QuickType T9 Trace keyboard
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Social Hub (with Facebook, Twitter and IM apps)
• microSD card slot
• PRICE: Rs. 6540/- approx.

Note: This is an India-specific post.

Finally.

It is here. Mobile Number Portability – which essentially means you can switch your mobile service provider without changing your number. MNP is operational from today (20 Jan, 2011) and is available to both post-paid and pre-paid customers of GSM as well as CDMA services. As much as the MNP brought delight among the masses, many are confused about how to go about it. Here are some basic details about the MNP:

• You can change your mobile service provider without changing your number only within your current service area. i.e. If your old number is registered in Mumbai, you can’t change your provider in Delhi. You have to make a switch to the new service provider in Mumbai only.
• Switching to the new service provider costs 19.
• After you file an application, the process can take up to a week (up to 15 days if you’re in J&K, Assam or in North Eastern service areas)
• Once you are switched to the new service provider, you have to remain with the new provider for at least 3 months.

Telecom providers in India are already offering very competitive tariffs and MNP is going to fuel it more. Eventually the end customer is going to breathe free. People who make frequent calls to a small group can switch to a same service provider to avail attractive offers, thanks to MNP.

MNP helpline numbers:

• Vodafone – 18001234567
• IDEA -18002700000
• MTNL Mumbai -1800221503
• Airtel -18001031111
• TataDocomo – 18002660000

Times are changing fast and with every passing day, technology is penetrating our lives deeper and deeper. Although India is still considered to be a third world, reports indicate enormous growth in the number of Indians getting connected with the world through Internet. Youth in India is now aware of latest technologies and gadgets and are embracing latest trends just like their counterparts in the developed nations.

Owing to the ever increasing demand of digital music, in the era of iTunes, iPhones and iPads, one of the best Indian musicians, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy launched their own iPhone app to increase their reach among fans. For those unaware, Shankar has worked tremendously with the musical maestro A R Rahman in his early years and the trio has given their best in films like ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’, Dil Chahta Hai’  and ‘My Name is Khan’.

Shankar said,

It’s time to be knowledgeable about the trends and see a little bit of the future. We are always in awe of iPhone and iPad applications, so we thought why not we have our own applications? It’s a first of its kind in our country and I am sure once people will start downloading the application, they will love it.

The iPhone App will include news, videos, making of music footage and also some new compositions to get feedback from fans. Shankar added, "The application will contain exclusive materials, but not necessarily film music." The app will be available soon. [Y! News]

Last month, India’s IT Minister, Kapil Sibal demonstrated the country’s very own Android based tablet ‘Shakshat’ priced at a mere $35 (1600 approx.). Recent news is coming in that HCL Technologies have been given the contract by the Indian Government to manufacture 100,000 units of these low-cost tablets to be readied before January 10, 2011, the official launch date decided by the government.

Although HCL Technologies have earned their fame in the sub-continent for the most part, the quality of devices has not yet impressed major user base. But looking at the sole purpose of the Indian government to uplift the rural academical institutions by providing latest technologies at low cost, little quality was bound to be compromised.

But then again, it is a 30 crore project and the tablet looks decent enough in the hands-on demo by Kapil Sibal (video below). Now some basic tech-specs of Sakshat:

• It will be available in 3 versions (5 inch, 7 inch and 9 inch) with only the 7 inch version available in the first phase.
• Android OS
• 2 GB RAM
• Wi-Fi
• Camera
• USB port
• 2 Watt power system (for efficient performance in areas with poor electricity supply).
• Pre-installed apps like media player, internet browser, PDF reader, etc.

Hands-on video demo of the $35 Android tablet – ‘Sakshat’

India is the fastest growing mobile market in the world and it continues to reign when it comes to number of mobile handsets sold annually in the recent years. But as with all good things, there’s much baggage involved in the form of mobile spam. Even the ‘National Do not call’ initiative didn’t work too well and there’s hardly anyone can do anything about the voice and SMS spam forced down their throat.

A Pune based start-up, Optinno developed a mobile application, smsBlocker to control SMS spam on mobile phones. The application has some sort of definitions file that checks over 6000 SMS spam variations and silently blocks them. It can further be customized and filters can be set as per user’s preferences.

The app currently supports Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung phones and costs as low as $2.00 (Rs. 99/-) only. However, you can get it for free till July 5th, 2010. Get the app and give your views about it.

Download smsBlocker

After releasing the brew-based Smart and HTC Legend (with Android 2.1), HTC released the HD Mini for the Indian ‘junta’. HTC HD Mini is, as the name suggests, a subset of the big brother HD2 which was launched by Tata DoCoMo back in Dec. 2009.

Full Specifications:

• Sense UI
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.5.3
• Display: 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen
• Camera: 5 megapixels autofocus
• 384MB RAM
• 512MB ROM
• Processor: Qualcomm 7227 600 MHz
• microSD support
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Stereo FM with RDS
• Facebook and Twitter integration

Price: Rs. 23,490/- (~ $519). Kind of expensive for a phone that will never be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.

[India] Bollywood movie ‘Housefull’ is releasing worldwide this friday and the director, Sajid Khan wants to make sure you watch it in theatres only. The producer-director team has set up an anti-piracy software called ‘Republique’ to prevent any illegal downloads of the film.

Sajid said,

If anyone tries downloading it, not only will the files get corrupted but their IP address too will pop up and they will be prosecuted with all charges against them as per the anti-piracy law. We even have a call centre in Mumbai with 35 people on board monitoring the illegal downloading of the film. We’ve tested the process too and it worked wonders in five seconds.

Sajid Khan is one funny man and anyone fairly acquainted with Bollywood knows that. But I don’t think you’d want to mess with the advocates of anti-piracy just to save a hundred buck. [via]

Since years, Google has been bearing privacy related blows from every nook and corner of the world. This time we talk about ‘blows’ that are data requests and removal requests. Till today Google has kept everything under wraps but now it has decided to expose those countries which continually send them such requests.

Google released a new ‘Government Requests’ tool that shows the number of data requests and removal requests done by each country. Surprisingly, India is among the top 3 for annoying Google with removal requests and takes a close position 4 for data requests. The tool shows that India sent 142 removal requests between July 2009 and December 2009, out of which, 22.5% were simply not acceptable to Google.

Google calls it being transparent; to let a common user know what the world’s governments are up to. On it’s official blog, Google states that,

We already try to be as transparent as legally possible with respect to requests. Whenever we can, we notify users about requests that may affect them personally. If we remove content in search results, we display a message to users. The numbers we are sharing today take this transparency a step further and reflect the total number of requests we have received broken down by jurisdiction.

Seeing Google’s obsession to transparency on web, we might as well see the list of government bodies restricting Google’s services too.