Samsung Galaxy S IV ‘coming’ in May 2014

Seems, Samsung is again readying a big launch for the month of May. The company which unveiled its flagship smartphone Galaxy S3 in May last year, is reportedly launching its successor Samsung Galaxy S IV in May 2013.

The speculations have been fuelled by a post from Samsung Lebanon on Facebook saying that the upcoming Galaxy S IV will not launch before May 2014. Facebook user Anthony Ghattas posted a question on Samsung Lebanon's page on the social networking website, asking, "Hey, is there any news for the Samsung Galaxy S4 release?" The reply he received from the company was "The Galaxy SIV won't be released before May 2013."

The current flagship model, Galaxy S III, was launched in May 2012, giving the device a full year before it is replaced as the top-of-the-line smartphone in the company's portfolio. Before that, Galaxy S and Galaxy S II were rolled out in June 2010 and April 2011, respectively.

Sammobile, a tech blog, has also revealed leaked press shots of the Galaxy S IV. The blog noticed that "the device will use on-screen buttons as there is no home-button present on the device, the bezel around the device is much thinner and the device features a large display."

The image, which the blog claims to have got from a Samsung insider, if authentic, exhibits that the company has continued with the design style introduced in Galaxy S III in the upcoming model. The smartphone, in the image, looks like a longer version of Galaxy S III, much like Galaxy Premier.

Rumours say that the upcoming flagship will have a 4.99-inch SuperAMOLED touchscreen with 441ppi pixel density. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the display of the device will be unbreakable, while rumours also suggest that it will also be bendable. Speculations are also rife that the device will be powered by a 2GHz quad-core processor and sport a 13MP camera on the back.

Stronger rupee to ‘hurt‘ Indian IT companies

India's top IT services  exporters are expected to witness a slight dip in sales and revenue growth in the December 2012 quarter on a sequential basis due to seasonal weakness in business volumes and the possibility of sustained sluggishness in the performance of select players.

A relatively stronger rupee will also have a marginal impact on the numbers when companies report their results this quarter, starting with Infosys on January 11.

According to the estimates of ET Intelligence Group, aggregate revenues of TCS, Infosys,Wipro and HCL Technologies will increase 1.6% sequentially to Rs 40,562 crore in the December quarter, while net profit too will grow by a similar margin to Rs 8,652.4 crore. Revenues and profits of the four IT majors had increased at a faster rate of 3% and 6%, respectively, during the September 2012 quarter. One of the major reasons for the slower growth in the December quarter is lower volumes on account of holidays and seasonal weakness in demand as clients in the West decide onIT budgets for the New Year.

The rupee-dollar movement may also impact growth marginally. The rupee appreciated by around 2% against the dollar in the December 2012 quarter compared with the previous quarter. A stronger home currency adversely impacts revenue of exporters. Revenue growth for the four companies in dollar terms is expected to be between 1.5% and 3.5% for the December quarter on a sequential basis.

Wipro is likely to report a 1.5% growth in revenue at $1,564 million, just enough to meet the lower end of its guidance for the quarter. Revenue of HCL Technologies is likely to increase at a faster rate of 3.5% to $1,153 million, considering its ability to bag large multi-year deals.

For TCS, growth is expected to be moderate in the December quarter. During a recent analyst conference, the company is reported to have projected a weak operating margin for the quarter. The company is likely to report a strong order pipeline and sustained growth across verticals. With renewed focus on products and platform-based solutions, Infosys should give a positive outlook.

The company has been lagging some of its peers for the past few quarters in terms of revenue and profit growth. However, the possibility of an upward revision in the guidance for FY13 looks remote.

New Asia servers to make Google services 30% faster

Indian internet users can expectYouTube videos to load faster and Google to throw upsearch results quicker, thanks to the US-based company's data centre in Asia going operational this year.

Work on these centers - Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong - began in 2011. While the Singapore facility is expected to be completed in early 2013, the Taiwan one is scheduled to be up and running by the second half. Google, which is spending about $300 million (about Rs 1,600 crore now) on the cent res, has not yet given a clear time frame for completing the Hong Kong facility.

"Internet connectivity speed in India is not very high. These data centers will be crucial to this market due to its proximity,"

The proximity of the data centres could result in Google services becoming 30% faster, according to Raj Gopal AS, managing director at Bangalore-based NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Services. Google, which began to scout for suitable locations in Asia in 2007, considered sites in Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, India and Vietnam. Outside Asia, Google has seven data centres in the US, and one each in Finland, Belgium and Ireland.

Katragadda blamed the country's hot weather for not choosing India as a location. Google, which until recently has been extremely secretive about its data centre locations, has now become more open to discussing details.

Typically, countries located close to data centres enjoy faster access to data on the internet. According to a report from web-based content delivery firm Akamai Technologies, India is ranked 112th globally in internet speed.

Google's Katragadda acknowledged that some Google services such as its video sharing website YouTube and social networking service Google Hangout cannot be accessed at optimal speeds now. With the new centres, time taken to access these services will reduce dramatically. He hoped this will result in increased adoption of Google services.

India is one of the largest markets for Google, with over 100 million users. Google enjoys a share of over 95% of India's internet search market, according to research firm StatCounter. Over the next three years, Google expects 500 million internet users from emerging markets to come online as against just about 15 million from the United States.

According to web analytics firm ComScore, an average Indian user spends about 2.5 hours every day on Google websites, including Gmail, Google+, YouTube etc. YouTube, which has 35 million users in India, accounted for the highest share of time spent on any Google property in 2011. YouTube videos account for close to 50% of all online videos watched in India.

"More people from India are coming online every day and this is an important market as Google looks to bring the next one billion online," Katragadda added. "We plan to invest disproportionately in India in the coming months and years."

iOS 6 Jailbreak: 2012 Ends with Hope, but no iPhone 5 Jailbreak

 iOS 6 Jailbreak: 2012 Ends with Hope, but no iPhone 5 Jailbreak is a post by Josh Smith from Gotta Be Mobile.

After more than 3 months the iOS 6 jailbreak is still missing, leaving iPhone 4S owners stuck on iOS 5.1 and no iPhone 5 jailbreak for the millions of new iPhone owners. We’ve seen progress on the iOS 6 jailbreak over the past few months, with small successes in the hands of the experienced jailbreak hackers and several high-profile fakes, but no official release. As we close out 2012, here’s a quick look back at the iOS 6 Jailbreak progress and news so far.

While there is no iPhone 5 jailbreak release date in site, there is hope for 2012. After the iPhone 5 release in september we saw the first proof of an iOS 6 jailbreak from chpwn, who showed Cydia running on a jailbroken iPhone 5. The next major update came in October when @planetbeing announced progress on a tethered iOS 6 jailbreak, claiming a full tethered jailbreak was close, but required a developer account. Upgraded the #failbreak with a kernel exploit so tweaks actually work on iPhone 5.

Almost a full tethered JB, though need dev account. — planetbeing (@planetbeing) October 18, 2012 In November we heard more from @planetbing, who said that the iPhone 5 jailbreak was closer, but, “Missing critical pieces.” In this update, the iOS 6 jailbreak was stable, but the team still needed exploits to make a pubic release possible. @planetbeing showed IntelliscreenX running on a jailbroken iPhone 5.

What followed was a case of multiple fake jailbreaks, including the fake Untethered iOS 6 Jailbreak, promised for a December 22nd release date. This turned out to be an elaborate hoax designed to teach a,  ”lesson to the public.”, to only trust the known developers. Hope for an iOS 6 jailbreak came late in the year in an interview with famed iOS hacker pod2g, known as Cyril. In a lengthy interview, Cyril expressed hope that the iOS 6 jailbreak will happen. Speaking to i Cyril shared that he is, Very confident about the next 6 months. Showing faith in the talented hackers and resourceful community, Cyril said, I honestly believe that iOS 6 will be jailbroken and that developers will keep coming up with more quality apps.

There’s also hope that Cyril will return to the jailbreak scene to work on the iOS 6 jailbreak. He stated, There is a big chance I change my mind. I actually spent a few hours on it since WWJC, but I still don’t have enough time to work on it. Working with @planetbeing motivates me a lot. He’s always very resourceful and he raises the bar. Speaking of popular jailbreak apps the beautiful Auxo App Switcher originally coming as an iOS 6 jailbreak app is in Cydia with iOS 5.1 support for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.