Wipro conferred Helen Keller Award
IT major Wipro announced it has been conferred with the Helen Keller award for inclusive workplace practices. The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP)-Shell Hellen Keller Award was instituted 14 years ago.
Wipro, in a release, said that it had been hiring persons with disabilities and providing them with necessary support on an individual basis to help them realise their potential for many years now. The company claims it has been employing persons with disabilities in reviewing, re-designing and sustaining the company’s ‘Persons with Disabilities’ charter.
Isaac George, Vice-President and Human Resources Head, Wipro Infotech said: “It is a matter of immense pride that Wipro has won the NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Award under the category — role model companies/organizations. Wipro currently employs over 450 persons with disabilities.”
Hackathon for API developers held
API platform providers Apigee conducted a hackathon for app developers in the country. Titled ‘Apithon’, the 36-hour hackathon was held over the weekend in the city. It drew participation from some of the leading developer communities, including BangaloreJS (Bangalore Javascript Community) and Blrdroid (Bangalore Android Developer Group), a release from Apigee stated. Participants designed and shared ideas based on themes ‘3 Tier App’ (an alternative way to create a mobile stack) and Mashup APIs.
Nagaraju Kummari, a senior developer and participant, said: “App development is much more beyond building a client app.” It is about providing rich, contextually relevant experiences to your users across a wide variety of devices that they use on a daily basis.”
Gartner forecast on the ‘Internet of Things’
Market research firm Gartner predicts that the Internet of Things (IoT) will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020 representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009. The Internet of Things is a term used to refer to objects — not phones and PCs — that will be embedded with hardware to enable it to connect to a network.
According to its forecast, IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. This, according to its release, will result in $1.9 trillion in global economic value-add through sales into diverse end markets. The report also states that by 2020, component costs will have come down to the point that connectivity will become a standard feature, even for processors costing less than $1.
DATAWIND and Xolo releases
This week, two companies announced new products: tablet PC maker DATAWIND launched its PocketSurfer smartphones, and smart devices brand Xolo launched its new Xolo Play Tegra Note, a seven inch Android tablet. DATAWIND’s release claims the release will have a disruptive effect in the smartphone market owing to its pricing. The 5-inch screen smartphone is priced at just Rs. 3,499.
Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DATAWIND, said: “We’re very excited to introduce these amazing new devices at unbelievably low prices. Our primary focus is to bridge the digital divide and deliver an affordable means of accessing the Internet. We want to be form-factor agnostic.”
Xolo’s Play range of products is powered by a Tegra 4 processor with a 72-core GeForce GPU and quad-core CPU with a fifth battery-saver core, a press release stated. “With the Tegra 4 processor, Xolo brings the fastest 7-inch Android tablet ever for the technically savvy customer,” claimed Vishal Sehgal, Co-Founder and Director, LAVA International. Xolo Play Tegra Note is based on NVIDIA’s complete tablet platform, which was revealed earlier this year.
