NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Reliance Communications has increased 3G mobile internet rates by 26% and reduced benefit on internet packages by up to 60%.   The company has increased the cost of 1GB of 3G internet usage to Rs 156 from Rs 123 it charged earlier.   The Rs 123 mobile internet pack on its 3G network will now offer only 400MB of internet surfing, which is down by about 60%.   Under the high value 3G mobile internet pack of Rs 246 and Rs 492, the company has reduced usage limit from 2GB to 1.5GB and from 4GB to 3GB respectively.   No immediate comments were received from RCom in this regard.   As on September 30, 2013, RCom had 9.1 millio

Chennai/Bangalore: Crossing a major milestone in the country's space history, ISRO's Mars Orbiter mission on Sunday ventured out of Earth's sphere of influence for the first time in an attempt to reach the red planet's orbit.

The critical manoeuvre to place the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in the Mars Transfer Trajectory was successfully carried out almost an hour past midnight.

During this manoeuvre, which began at 00:49 hours, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about 22 minutes providing a velocity increment of 648 metres/second to the spacecraft.

"Following the completion of this manoeuvre, the Earth orb

LUCKNOW: With an aim to make Uttar Pradesh an information technology hub, 'e-Uttar Pradesh' organised by the Department of IT and Electronics started here today.   Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra were partner States of the two-day event, which was inaugurated by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.   Speaking on the occasion Yadav said that the main objective behind the event was to highlight the fact that UP was emerging destination for world's large and small Information Technology Companies.   The state government is focusing on development of necessary infrastructure and human capital, proactive engagement with investors and effective im

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Transport Department's ban on online booking of tickets for private buses after two ghastly accidents killed more than 50 is set to hurt ticketing companies like Redbus and Abhibus. The transport department authorities claim that under Indian law, the private players are only given permission to ply group tours between places and are not allowed to sell tickets individually.   As a result, they have banned tickets being sold online. Already, hundreds of private buses have been taken off the roads for not complying with the safety requirements. In Andhra Pradesh, nearly 800 buses went off the roads. Similarly, authorities in neighbouring Karnataka ha

DENVER: Twitter just issued its IPO but a lingering question is how the popular worldwide microblog company will turn a profit. One Colorado-based company thinks it has found one way to help Twitter, and itself, make money.    Wayin has partnered up with the Denver Broncos to project tweeted photos and tweets from fans onto the Sports Authority Field at Mile High's Thundervision 2, the stadium's marquee 40-foot high, by 220 foot wide video scoreboard.    The software allows ads to be placed next to the tweets to generate revenue. It's unclear how that could impact Twitter's bottom line. None of the companies would discuss how much money is generate

BANGALORE: Technology budgets of large American corporations are expected to increase in 2014, with the proportion of outsourcing spends set to grow even faster as the world's largest economy stabilises, companies and analysts said.    Departmental store chain Target, expects its information technology spends to increase in the coming year, while credit card company American Express said some of its key business decisions will depend on technology. Analysts who spoke with ET said that the number of large outsourcing contracts open for competition will be much higher compared to this year.    Expectations of higher spending bodes very well for the $75-billion (

LONDON: Energy provider Npower, a subsidiary of German giant RWE, announced plans to cut about 1,460 jobs in Britain and outsource customer service operations to India.   "Following its business review announced in August, Npower announced a proposed restructure of its customer service activities, focused on delivering a more efficient, flexible and improved customer experience," it said in a statement.   "Subject to consultation, the restructure would involve around 1,460 redundancies" out of a UK workforce totalling about 11,000.   Npower added: "Under these proposals, customers would continue to be served on the phone by people based in

CHENNAI: Search engine giant Google launched an exclusive Indian elections web portal on Thursday. A post on googleindia.blogspot.in says the portal will assist voters in India to understand the electoral process. It has all news related to elections and politics and detailed information on each political party in the fray.    Explaining the need for the portal, Chetan Krishnaswamy, head of public policy and government relations, Google India, wrote in the blog, "Election-related search queries on Google have shown a considerable increase and the interest in news information related to elections and politics have started to peak."    The portal collates

LONDON/BERLIN: For consumers, one of the great things about shopping online is bypassing the queue to check out. For producers of the candy, magazines and drinks often sold there, it's a problem.   In Britain, the country where e-commerce is most popular, about 13 percent of people do all or most of their grocery shopping online. Yet this only accounts for 5 percent of overall spending, suggesting consumers spend more when they visit a store.   That is because online shoppers search for what they need, usually sticking close to their shopping lists. They don't spontaneously buy magazines they opened while waiting to pay, or chocolate to eat on the go.   Eli

SAN FRANCISCO: The recent revelation that the National Security Agency was able to eavesdrop on the communications of Google and Yahoo users without breaking into the companies' data centres sounded like something from a Robert Ludlum spy thriller.    How on earth, the companies asked, did the NSA get their data without their knowing about it?    The most likely answer is a modern spin on a century-old eavesdropping tradition.    People knowledgeable about Google and Yahoo's infrastructure say they believe that government spies bypassed the big internet companies and hit them at a weak spot -- the fiber-optic cables that connect data centres

A team of cardiovascular scientists has announced it will be able to 3D print a whole heart from the recipients' own cells within a decade. "America put a man on the Moon in less than a decade. I said a full decade to provide some wiggle room," Stuart K Williams told Wired.co.uk.   Williams is heading up the hugely ambitious project as executive and scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute at the University of Louisville. Throughout his prestigious career spanning four decades he has focused on researching surgical devices and bioengineering, and the idea for printing the heart whole from scratch was inspired by the work of one of the pioneers in

BANGALORE: Next month, India's tech capital will demonstrate the country is no bit player when it comes to virtual currency Bitcoins. On December 14 and 15, Bangalore will host India's first and Asia's second global Bitcoin conference, demonstrating the steady rise in popularity of money minted in cyberspace.    According to enthusiasts who follow every twist and turn in the fast-evolving Bitcoin story, there is a 50,000-strong Bitcoin community in the country, with at least 30,000 of them owning the virtual currency and having an online digital wallet for storing it.    "We want to be recognized and make it easier for people to accept Bitcoins in

NEW YORK: Global technology major Apple is the world's most valuable brand followed by Microsoft, Coca-Cola, IBM and Google, according to Forbes. Apple has topped the 'World's Most Valuable List' compiled by 'Forbes' magazine with a brand value of $104.3 billion, nearly double than the other technology major Microsoft which has a brand value of $56.7 billion.   "... the Apple name is as strong as ever. Apple is the most valuable brand in the world for a third straight time at USD 104.3 billion, up 20 per cent over last year. It is worth nearly twice as much as any other brand on the planet by our count," Forbes said.   Meanwhile, Microsoft&

KOLKATA: Want to experience the grandiosity of the Victoria Memorial Hall from the confines of your home or office? Thanks to Google Art Project, millions across the globe will be able to virtually discover and explore the artworks housed in the iconic monument from January next year.   The project, a collaboration between Google and some of the world's finest and acclaimed art institutions, includes collections of the White House in Washington DC, Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the National Gallery in London among others.   Now, the sprawling 92-year-old Victoria Memorial Hall - a tribute to Queen Victoria conceived by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India - will beco

HYDERABAD: India's leading software firm Tata Consultancy Services is likely to open its largest delivery centre at Adibatla here by early next fiscal.   Executive vice president and Global Head-HR Ajoyendra Mukherjee said the centre will accommodate 26,000 employees. He refused, however, to divulge the investment that is going into the setting up of the centre.   TCS expects 23,000 new employees to join the firm by the end of the current fiscal, he said.   "Today we have over 24,000 people working here spread across multiple delivery locations in Hyderabad. We are building a new complex in Adibatla which is on 79 acres and which will have 26,000 seats. It

NEW DELHI: Mobile phones based on the latest 4G technology may be available at a price of as low as $100 (around Rs 6,200) in next 18 months, says mobile chipset maker Broadcom.   "Operators in the US are looking to buy 4G mobile phones for $ 100. They are not there yet but they are heading in that direction ... 18 months time should be reasonable to achieve it," Broadcom Mobile Senior Director (Mobile Platform Solutions) Michael Civiello told PTI.   The 4G technology is nearly five-times faster than its predecessor 3G but handsets that work on this ultra fast service are costly.   The lowest priced 4G phone is available at around Rs 18,000 in India. Howe

NEW DELHI: Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has launched e-wallet, a user-friendly scheme aimed at making purchase of e-tickets easier.   The e-wallet is a rolling deposit scheme wherein the customers will have an account with the IRCTC and deposit money to be used in future for booking e-tickets from its website (irctc.co.in), said a senior IRCTC official involved with the project.   Currently, one has to make the payment for the fare of the ticket, while booking e-ticket, through credit card, debit card or net banking. The process is a bit longer as the customer is transferred to the bank's server, from IRCTC's server, for making the payment and the

India's most revered athlete, Sachin Tendulkar, swung his final cricket bat on November 15 ahead of one of the most watched and talked-about retirements from athletics in India - or for that matter, anywhere.    Now, he is trading his cricket uniform for a red turban and a fake mustache and a career in ads by an online travel agency.    Musafir.com, the online travel agency based in the United Arab Emirates, last month announced its arrival to Indians by hiring Tendulkar, one of the most recognizable faces on the subcontinent, as its "brand ambassador." The company would not say how much it is paying Tendulkar, 40, to plug the website, though it says

NEW DELHI: Taiwan hardware maker HTC is all set to launch its One Max phablet in the country. One Max will reportedly sport a price tag of whopping Rs 56,500, making it the most expensive Android smartphone in the country, ahead of Samsung Galaxy Golden and HTC Butterfly S.   HTC India's country head Faisal Siddiqui recently told a media publication that the One Max will hit the market in the coming week. Priced at Rs 52,428, HTC's Butterfly S too was the most expensive Android phone at the time of its launch in the country.   The report also says that HTC will launch two accessories with the One Max, namely the Mini+ remote control at Rs 5,000 and Fetch (a keychain

It doesn't take much looking to dog out examples of cases where bad boys found themselves hooked up with girls who seemed way above their league.   Pamela Lee Anderson was once involved in a physically abusive relationship with ex-Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. The singer with the nightingale-like voice, the late Whitney Houston too had a rough time with the ill-tempered rapper Bobby Brown. Yes, the boys are bad, yet the public continues to remember and even love them. It makes you wonder: what really is it about bad boys that the world loves? Is it because their bad temper is not borne out of malice but is simply superficial? Is it sympathy for the underdog?   Psychiat