SEOUL : Operating profit at Samsung Electronics hit another record high in the July-September quarter, likely driven by robust sales of its cheaper mid-range smartphones in developing countries.    The maker of Galaxy smartphones said that its third-quarter operating income rose 25% over a year earlier to 10.1 trillion won ($9.4 billion). The result was slightly better than the market expectation of $9.3 billion, according to FactSet, a financial data provider.    Third-quarter sales increased 13% to a record high of 59 trillion won ($55 billion).    Samsung did not disclose net income or other details of its financial performance. Its full results w

LONDON : The internet is fast eroding people's memories of world-changing events in history, making them more forgetful as they increasingly bank upon Google to provide the information, a new UK study has found.   The study of 2,000 adults found less than half of people surveyed could name the year when Princess Diana died, even though it happened as recently as 1997.   Many respondents did not even know the year in which the terror attacks on the World Trade Center took place while many others were clueless about when the Berlin Wall fell, the 'Metro' reported.   The important dates of world-changing events in history are fast disappearing from th

Adobe Systems said a cyberattack on its systems has exposed credit card information of 2.9 million customers.    The maker of Photoshop and other software said that the attacker accessed Adobe customer IDs and passwords on its systems. Through that, they were able to remove customer names, encrypted credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates and other information related to orders from customers worldwide. The company does not believe attackers removed credit and debit card numbers that weren't encrypted.    Adobe is notifying customers and resetting passwords. It has alerted banks processing Adobe payments to help protect customer accounts. It is also wo

NEW DELHI : Nokia India recently hosted an event to showcase the Lumia 1020, the WP8-powered smartphone with a 41MP rear camera. However, it disappointed attendees and gadget lovers by not disclosing the price of the smartphone.   The wait is over, as the company has started taking bookings for Lumia 1020 on its official website. Nokia Lumia 1020 is available for pre-orders at a price of Rs 49,999. The listing says that the phone will be released by the third week of this month, though the company has earlier said that it will hit the stores on October 11.   Online retailer Snapdeal is also taking advance bookings for Lumia 1020 at Rs 48,778. However, the phone is now sold

NEW DELHI : Samsung was in the news for having inflated benchmark scores for Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4, but if another report is to be believed, quite a few Android device makers may have been indulging in this malpractice.    According to an estimate by tech website AnandTech, Samsung is not the only one which indulges in these practices, but other manufacturers like HTC, Asus and LG too have been indulging in similar activities.    The report states all these manufacturers have similar CPU optimizations in their smartphones and devices, and have been indulging in the practice for quite some time now.    The devices that were tested by the website

MUMBAI: As US President Barack Obama's new health insurance plan takes effect this month, Indian outsourcers handling customer care for insurers there are expecting a big boost in business.    These BPOs are betting on confused customers jamming phone lines and cluttering inboxes seeking clarity on what kind of health coverage they are eligible for, what they need to do to sign up and how much it will cost them.    The landmark overhaul nicknamed Obamacare, which brings an additional 30 million Americans into the health insurance net, is already being targeted by Indian IT services companies, such as Cognizant, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro, who are vyin

NEW DELHI: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Google have partnered to map and create 360-degree virtual views of 100 monuments in India. Once the data has been collected, it will be put online, allowing web users to get a virtual tour of a monument. Almost all major monuments, including the Taj Mahal, are part of the list.   Google says that it has already photographed and mapped Qutub Minar. The virtual tour for this monument will be soon available to web users. Humayun's Tomb will be mapped next. The company says that creating 360-degree imagery of a monument takes around 7 to 10 days.   Google is using a special tool called Street View Trekker to film the

NEW DELHI: After several years of missteps, Sony is on a comeback trail in the mobile phone market. The company is aggressively going after smartphone buyers. The idea is that Sony should make use of its expertise in design, imaging and display technologies to create smartphones that other companies, which do not have camera or display manufacturing experience, cannot match.     It is an approach similar to what Samsung adopted when the Korean firm came out with Galaxy S in 2010.    Xperia Z -- launched in India in March this year -- was the first phone following this approach. When we reviewed it, we found it had the potential to be the best phone in the market

NEW YORK: Cisco Systems and Facebook said they will work with big businesses such as hotels and retailers to provide free wireless internet access to consumers who sign in using a Facebook log-in.    The companies have been testing the concept with smaller businesses for about a year but will work together to support bigger companies that want to improve customer loyalty or learn more about their customers through offering free Wi-Fi.    Rather than having to get the provider's Wi-Fi access code, a visitor to a coffee shop or a hotel, for example, could connect to the Wi-Fi system simply by logging onto Facebook and "checking in" to the business'

NEW DELHI: Calling the US government shutdown unfortunate, Som Mittal, president of Nasscom told ET Now that since Indian firms do not do much work for the Federal government; the failure of US to meet the funding deadline will not impact IT.   The shutdown may cause a delay in visa processing which will in turn have an impact on the mobility of employees to US for work, Mittal said. "However, this impact will be marginal. Travel to US will become a little for a few weeks," Mittal added.   Asked about the impact if the shutdown continues for a longer time, Mittal said that it will affect the US economic macros. "The impact on Indian It firms will be marginal

TORONTO: College students and graduates know getting an internship can be the gateway to a job but landing one can often be difficult.    However, a new mobile app from Nokia is aiming to change that by showing them job opportunities nearby. By aiming a smartphone at a nearby building that houses companies users will be able to see available internships there.    The app is from Internship Lens, which was created by Finnish communications corporation Nokia for its Lumia Windows-based smartphones.    "You're able to point your phone at a building and see the jobs available at companies there, and also the people you know at that company,"

MUMBAI: In what is touted to be the first international placement in the 82-year history of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, an M-Tech student has received an offer of $100,000 (Rs 62.7 lakh) from Google. "This is also the highest salary offered to any of our students till date," says Pradipta Bandyopadhyay, dean of students, ISI.   The student who received the offer is a 24-year-old fresher pursuing his Master of Technology in Computer Science. Although the college was reluctant to disclose company's name, a placement team member said it was Google.   The offer is a milestone for the institute. "We were known for our academic programmes in the inte

NEW DELHI: India's colleges churn out hundreds of thousands of computer engineers every year, but the nascent software products industry in the country still finds it difficult to recruit the right kind of talent.    As the $100-billion (Rs 6.2 lakh crore) Information Technology industry seeks to chart a new course by fostering software product companies, there is growing realization that the talent available - though competent for the services segment - is not really suitable for product companies.    "The problem is very real. While we have large quantity of engineers, there is a serious shortage of quality engineers," said Sharad Sharma of industr

SAN FRANCISCO: Business software and hardware systems major Oracle has launched 10 new cloud services, as well as a cloud marketplace, in a push towards offering cloud based services and solutions.    On the third day of the ongoing Oracle Open World in San Francisco, Thomas Kurian, executive vice-president for product development at Oracle said the new cloud solutions will "change the way customers consume Oracle software".    Oracle has added 10 services to the cloud, including database as a service, Java in the cloud, and business intelligence (BI) in the cloud. With the proliferation of cloud, mobile, and social technologies, organizations want easy

IBM has agreed to pay $44,400 in civil penalties to settle allegations that certain of its online job postings preferred foreign workers with temporary work visas over US citizens, the US Department of Justice said.   IBM had placed certain online job postings for application and software developers that contained citizenship status preferences for F-1 and H-1B temporary visa holders, the Justice Department said in a notification posted on its website late on Friday.   F-1 visas are issued to overseas students studying in the United States, while H-1B visas are provided to foreign nationals with technical expertise in specialized fields.   The Justice Department sa

Facebook has said that it is expanding the capabilities of its Graph Search function to help users navigate and find information within postings on the world's biggest social network.   "Starting today, Graph Search will include posts and status updates. Now you will be able to search for status updates, photo captions, check-ins and comments to find things shared with you," the company said in a statement.   "Search for the topics you're interested in and see what your friends are saying, like 'Dancing with the Stars' or 'Posts about Dancing with the Stars by my friends.'"   Facebook launched the service in January in an

MUMBAI: There is growing interest among leading global outsourcing players to grow by buying or being bought as information technology services providers see profits falling in the near term due to commoditisation of basic services.   Experts said a perfect storm is brewing as emerging technologies like cloud computing disrupts traditional business models. That, along with reducing technology budgets of large corporations and stiff competition among existing players, could push the industry to consider big-bang acquisitions.   ISG, the world's largest outsourcing advisory, told ET it was hearing increased chatter about mergers as service providers seek new ways to grow.

NEW DELHI: South Korean manufacturer LG has launched its G2 smartphone in India, bringing its latest handset to the country in the first phase of global rollout. The 16 and 32GB variants of G2 have been priced at Rs 41,500 and Rs 44,500.   Featuring a rather unconventional design, LG G2 comes with a host of new software features and a 13MP camera with optical image stabilization.   LG G2 will take on the likes of Samsung Galaxy S4, Apple iPhone 5, Sony Xperia Z1, HTC One and Nokia Lumia 925. The Indian market saw the launch of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Sony Xperia Z1 this month, making G2 the third major smartphone to hit the country in September. Nokia will launch its Lumi

MUNICH: Siemens is to shed 15,000 jobs over the next year, a third of them in Germany, as part of a 6 billion euro ($8.1 billion) cost cutting programme, a spokesman said.    The announcement comes two months after the ouster of chief executive Peter Loescher who drew up the savings plan late last year.    Europe's biggest engineering firm, whose products range from hearing aids to gas turbines, is anxious to close the gap with more profitable rivals such as US-based General Electric Co and Switzerland's ABB.    Siemens and its unions have reached an agreement over about half of the job cuts and a deal on the other half will follow, the spoke

1. What is the difference between AIDS and HIV?   HIV and AIDS are two different things. To put it simply, HIV is the virus that causes the disease AIDS. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and as the name suggests, it is a group of illnesses acquired when the immune system weakens and is unable to defend the body against infections. Being tested positive for HIV does not mean that the person has AIDS right away. However, if left untreated, the HIV infection could damage a person’s immune system and lead to AIDS.   It’s also important to remember that in the early stages, a person infected with HIV looks and feels perfectly all right. It’s