A Supreme Court ruling may change the landscape of genetic research forever. The US Supreme Court ruled that human genes cannot be patented, in a landmark hearing giving a huge victory to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) while disheartening Myriad Genetics. The issue was the BRCA genes, the mutations on which are believed to be responsible for increasing the susceptibility to breast cancer.

The Contention

Myriad Genetics had claimed patent over this gene, claiming to have ‘invented’ this gene, which meant that all treatments and even detection of the BRCA gene would entail a royalty to Myriad. This would’ve raised the costs of detection, costs and treatment of breast cancer significantly. In a beautiful moment when calm commonsense prevailed, the Supreme Court struck down the ‘invention’ claim by saying:

Myriad did not create anything. To be sure, it found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention… Myriad found the location of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, but that discovery, by itself, does not render the BRCA genes … patent eligible.

Courtesy: medscape.com

The Consequences

This, of course, means huge losses for the pharmaceutical industries, but it’s the cancer patients who stand to benefit in the long run. The costs of detection tests and their subsequent treatment would come down, as no one company would have the monopoly on the technology and research. As it should be!

Myriad’s defence even involved a ludicrous ‘baseball’ argument, in which they argued that the “baseball bat doesn’t exist until it is isolated from a tree. But that’s still the product of human invention to decide where to begin the bat and where to end the bat”. This analogy fails on many levels and the court noted that merely deciding the start and end points of a gene sequence doesn’t deserve a patent. Official ruling said:

The baseball bat is quite different. You don’t look at a tree and say, well, I’ve cut a branch here and cut it here and all of a sudden I’ve got a baseball bat. You have to invent it.

However, Myriad did get part of the pie, when the court ruled that the Myriad can have its patent on the invention of the cDNA – complementary DNA – which is actually a synthetic form of DNA.

“The lab technician unquestionably creates something new when cDNA is made,” said the court.

The ruling here: http://www.aclu.org/free-speech-technology-and-liberty-womens-rights/association-molecular-pathology-v-myriad-genetics-0

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Samsung finally announced the much-awaited Galaxy S4 Zoom. Similar to the previously launched Galaxy Camera, this device combines the features of a smartphone with an advanced 16 megapixel CMOS sensor, OIS and Xenon flash. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is the first smartphone to offer 10x optical zoom. This handset comes with voice calling facility and it runs on the latest Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) Operating System. The In-Call Photo Share feature on this device allows you to share pictures via MMS to the person you are talking to.

JK Shin, Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics, said,
“The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom represents yet another step forward in the way Samsung is working to enhance the lives of our customers around the world. The Galaxy S4 Zoom combines the industry leading functionality and connectivity of the Galaxy S4 with the high quality photographic experience you’d expect from a compact camera. The result is truly the best of both worlds, without compromise.”

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom features a 4.3 inch qHD TFT display, sporting a resolution of 960 × 540 pixels, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) OS, TouchWiz 5.0 user interface, 16 megapixel rear-facing camera with 10x optical zoom and enhanced SMART Modes, OIS 24-240mm, F3.1-F6.3, 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, 8 GB internal memory, microSD card slot, 64 GB expandable memory and much more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, Stereo FM Radio with RDS, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 3G/4G Connectivity, Samsung Media Hub, Samsung Social Hub, Samsung Kies Air, Google Play Store, S Translator, Samsung ChatOn, DLNA, HDMI out, Bluetooth 4.0 with EDR, 1.5 GB RAM, Wi-Fi Direct, USB 2.0 and a 2330 mAh battery. This device measures 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm and weighs 208 grams.

Samsung has not yet announced the price and release date of this handset. The Galaxy S4 Zoom is expected to go on sale from Q3 of 2013. Stay tuned!

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FreshDesk, one of the best known startup success stories to emerge from India, has published a State of Customer Support report based on the data gleaned from the 250,000 users of its customer support software.

The key takeaways are not very surprising. Customers hate being put on hold, and are the happiest when their queries are resolved within a reasonable amount of time following which satisfaction ratings plummet. In most cases, customers expect their queries to be resolved within a day. However, resolution time isn’t the sole parameter that determines customer satisfaction. Transparent and effective communication is also of paramount importance.

While email continues to be the biggest source of support queries, its prominence decreased by 7% in 2012-13 compared to 2011-12. Phone support, which is the second most dominant medium, also lost ground. Unsurprisingly, it’s support through social media that registered the strongest growth. Support requests through forums more than tripled, while complaints registered through Facebook increased by about 150%. Twitter, which has been very publicly adopted by various organizations for reaching out to customers, is surprisingly lagging behind Facebook and Forums, but gained by more than 50% to overtake support through chats. Unlike phone and mail, social media allows customers to very publicly air their grievances, which often prods the companies into reacting faster. However, a worrying trend is that on Facebook, firms are often quick to respond but fail to seriously follow through. Conversely it also appears that in the hurry to offer faster resolution on social platforms, accuracy and accountability suffers. Email support is the leader in terms of accuracy with least amount of reopened or reassigned tickets.

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Samsung has officially announced the outdoor-friendly Galaxy S4 Active. This device is essentially a more rugged version of the company’s standard Galaxy S4 that is both water and dust-resistant. This makes the phone ideal for people who often find themselves in the outdoors in harsh conditions. The smartphone can withstand being submerged in one-meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Because of this, the Galaxy S4 Active complies with the standard IP67 certification.

Compared to the standard Galaxy S4, the S4 Active is only 1mm thicker and a mere 20g heavier. This isn’t much considering how rugged the phone is. Internally, the phone sports a 1.9GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of advertised memory. The device offers an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. On the front of the device, you’re greeted with a vivid 5-inch HD TFT LCD display with a pixel density of 443 ppi. Finally, the device is powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with all of the standard Samsung features layered on top.

If you’re planning on purchasing a Galaxy S4 Active for yourself, the device is stated for release in Sweden and the United States over the summer. You’ll be able to purchase the device in one of three colors: Orange Flare, Urban Gray, or Dive Blue.

Source: Samsung Tomorrow via Android Guys

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Google has pushed an update to Google Glass users that upgrades the camera functionality on the device. This update brings HDR capabilities to the device as well as the ability to automatically sense and brighten low-light shots. This update also allows Google Glass to more easily capture photos that have lots of movement.

Aside from improvements to the camera itself, Google has also brought the ability to add captions to photos taken with Google Glass. These captions can be added to photos by a simple voice command.

Glass is a new piece of wearable technology developed by Google. The device is worn like a standard pair of glasses and pairs with the user’s iOS or Android smartphone to connect to the web. You can use the device to send messages and update social feeds with a simple voice command. Glass also has a built-in camera and can run third-party apps that go under the name Glassware.

As of now, Google Glass is only being used by a small number of testers who paid over $1500 to be in the Explorer Program. The device went into the hands of these users in early 2013, though the device was originally announced at Google IO 2012.

Source: AndroidPit
Image Source: Giuseppe Costantino

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After years of speculation, it has finally happened. Amazon India is now open for business. More than a year after launching Junglee, a price comparison engine, the ecommerce giant has launched its own full-fledged marketplace.

“Our vision, at Amazon, is to be Earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online. With Amazon.in, we endeavor to build that same destination in India by giving customers more of what they want – vast selection, low prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President of International Expansion at Amazon.com. “We’re excited to get started in India and we will relentlessly focus on raising the bar for customer experience in India.”

India is Amazon’s tenth marketplace, after countries like USA, UK, Canada, China, and Japan. The Seattle based online retailer is starting off with its strong suite – books. Amazon India claims that it currently has more than 7 million books in its catalog. The Indian store also has nearly ten thousand movies and a little over one thousand TV shows for sale. Other categories including Mobiles and Camera are expected to be launched soon.

The Amazon India launch was months in the making. However, the biggest stumbling block was the Indian government. Restrictions on foreign investment on multi-brand retailers prevented Amazon from setting shop in India. However, it appears that Amazon has found a way around the regulations. Unlike in the US and many other countries, Amazon won’t be maintaining its own inventory. Instead it will be operating purely in a marketplace based model. Times of India is reporting that Amazon has signed up 100 vendors across the country, and has setup a 1.5 lakh sqft fulfillment center near Mumbai to service online orders. Amazon is also inviting other retailers to sign up and list their products in the Amazon marketplace. It is providing two options for vendors – Selling on Amazon and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). The former allows the seller to list their products on Amazon.in, while retaining control over inventory, shipping, and customer service. The latter allows the seller to leverage Amazon’s expertise by offloading logistics, shipping and customer service also to Amazon.

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Back in April, Samsung announced the 7 inch Galaxy Tab 3. Now, the South Korean tech giant introduced two new members in the Galaxy Tab 3 series – the 8 inch and 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab 3. These devices runs on the Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) Operating System. The 8-inch Galaxy Tab 3 is the company’s second 8 inch tablet, while the 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab 3 is the successor of the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. This device is little slimmer and lighter than its predecessor.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch features a 7 inch WXGA TFT touchscreen display, sporting a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) Operating System, Samsung TouchWiz UI, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, Full HD (1080p) video playback, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for video calls, 3G/4G Connectivity, Wi-Fi 801.11 a/b/g/n and much more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi Direct, Samsung Hub, Samsung Kies Air, Samsung ChatON, Google Play Store, A-GPS, 16/32 GB internal memory, MicroSD card slot, 64 GB expandable memory, 1.5 GB RAM, A-GPS ＋ GLONASS and a 4450 mAh battery. This device measures 209.8 x 123.8 x 7.4 mm and weighs 314 grams.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch features a 10.1 inch WXGA TFT touchscreen display, sporting a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 1.6 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) Operating System, Samsung TouchWiz UI, 3 megapixel rear-facing camera, Full HD (1080p) video playback, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for video calls, 16/32 GB internal memory, MicroSD card slot, 64 GB expandable memory and so on.

It also comes with the usual 3.5 mm headset jack, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi Direct, Samsung Hub, Samsung Kies Air, Samsung ChatON, Google Play Store, A-GPS, 3G/4G Connectivity, Wi-Fi 801.11 a/b/g/n, 1 GB RAM, Readers Hub, Music Hub, Game Hub, A-GPS ＋ GLONASS and a 6800 mAh battery. This device measures 243.1 x 176.1 x 7.95 mm and weighs 510 grams.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch and 10.1 inch is expected go on sale from Q3 of 2013. The price and release date of this devices will be announced in the coming weeks.

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Andrey Kormiltsev, the country manager at HTC Russia, has tweeted that the offical OTA rollout of Android 4.2.2 for HTC One users will begin in mid-June. This update has been requested by HTC One users for quite sometime as the release was made available by Google in early February of 2013. This update should bring Sense 5.0 tweaks to the device as well as some of the updates that Google implemented with Android 4.2.2. This includes updated notifications and the introduction of lock screen widgets.

If you’d rather not wait until mid-June to update your HTC One, a leaked ROM for Android 4.2.2 has been available to HTC One users for quite some time now. Installing this update will take a bit more time and skill than the official OTA update will, but it’s worth a shot if you know what you’re doing. The leaked update can be downloaded via the XDA-Developers website.

Source: Android Pit
Image Source: Kārlis Dambrāns

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HTC has today released its revenue numbers for the month of May 2013. May has been a good month for HTC as it released better than expected numbers. As far as unaudited revenues go, we saw the bring in NT$29B, which is equal to roughly $969M USD. This is a 48% increase from April where we saw the company report unaudited revenues of NT$19.6B, or $655M USD.

The past few years haven’t been the best for HTC, a Taiwanese consumer electronics company.  During the company’s previous quarter, HTC reported just NT$42.8BB ($1.43B USD) in revenues. So the fact that they’ve already reported $1.624B USD in revenue this early in the current fiscal quarter shows that HTC is on the road to recovery. If sales continue to be strong throughout the month of June, we should see HTC meet or beat its projected revenues of NT$70B ($2.3B USD).

These improved revenues show that the newly released HTC One smartphone is helping the company’s sales drastically. This smartphone was released in March of 2013 and features an all-metal design. The phone sports a quick 1.7GHz quad-core Krait 300 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and is powered by Android 4.1.2. HTC has also released other new devices this year including the HTC First with Facebook Home.

Source: TalkAndroid

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BT.com is getting a major makeover, and an even bigger part of this makeover is its decision to dump Yahoo! Mail for its six million customers. BT is one of the largest and the oldest telecommunication companies in the world. It has a decade old deal with Yahoo! Mail for providing mail accounts to new subscribers. However, recently, a large number of these subscribers started complaining about hacking attempts, which led to this decision. This decision by BT will have an adverse effect on Yahoo! mail service and give its CEO Marissa Mayer a bad day at work.

BT has used Yahoo! as the default mail provider for its customers for over a decade now, but starting February this year, a number of users accounts were hacked and used to send spam mails. Although an investigation was launched into the matter in March, users continued complaining on the BT online forum.

The decision to ditch Yahoo mail is part of a bigger plan, which includes many changes and improvements in BT’s consumer offerings. BT’s Consumer Division Director, Nick Wong, has said,

The new BT.com will feature breaking and exclusive news and features from a dedicated team of journalists at the Press Association covering areas such as news, entertainment and lifestyle. With BTSport.com also launching in the summer, we’ll bring customers exclusive live sports action as well. The new BT Mail will include the features and functions such as in-built anti-virus and anti-spam applications.

Along with a super-massive email deal, Yahoo will also lose a substantial amount of traffic to its homepage, which was set to Yahoo.com for all BT subscribers by default. Now, BT will promote its own news service on their homepages. In other news, British Sky Broadcasting recently struck a deal with Yahoo! for providing email accounts to its users.

This decision by BT will force Yahoo to rethink the features it is (not) providing to its users, and how close these features are to the ones that users really want and need.

Read more at their official announcement.

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