Facebook chief technical officer Bret Taylor quits

Facebook's chief technical officer Bret Taylor on Friday announced he is leaving the world's leading social network to start a new company with a friend.

Taylor revealed the move on his Facebook page less than a month after an initial public offering (IPO) of stock reported to have made millionaires of about a thousand of the California company's employees.

"I've really enjoyed working with Bret and getting to know him as a friend and teammate," Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

"I'm grateful for all he has done for Facebook and I'm proud of what he and his teams have built."

Taylor cited accomplishments including the "open graph" that lets outside websites or applications synch with the social network and mobile products such as Facebook Camera and integration with Apple gadgets.

"I'm sad to be leaving, but I'm excited to be starting a company with my friend Kevin Gibbs," Taylor said, not indicating what the new enterprise would be.

"While a transition like this is never easy, I'm extremely confident in the teams and leadership we have in place."

He referred to Zuckerberg not only as his boss for three years, but as among his closest friends.

It is common for startup employees made rich by the initial public offering of stock to depart companies to pursue dreams or new endeavors, according to analysts who anticipated that might happen at Facebook.

By far the Internet's dominant social network, Facebook went public on May 18 in a $16 billion share sale, the second largest IPO in the United States ever.

The run-up to the sale was marked by bubbly enthusiasm reminiscent of the dot-com era, to the extent that lead underwriter Morgan Stanley agreed to raise the offering price and increase the number of shares issued.

But the shares barely held above the $38 introductory price on the opening day and have since fallen, delivering real and paper losses in the billions of dollars to the new investors.

Facebook shares rose six percent to close at $30.01 Friday. 
Source:TOI

China puts its first woman astronaut into space

China put its first woman into orbit on Saturday, one of three astronauts to attempt a critical space docking in the latest challenge for the country's ambitious space programme.

A Long March rocket blasted off in the early evening from the remote Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwestern Gobi Desert, carrying with it the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft and the three astronauts, including 33-year-old female fighter pilot Liu Yang.

This is China's fourth manned space mission since 2003 when astronaut Yang Liwei became the country's first person in orbit, and comes as the United States has curtailed manned launches over budget concerns and changing priorities.

The launch was carried live on state television, and until moments before blast-off, a camera showed the three astronauts in the cabin occasionally waving. A red placard with the Chinese symbol for good fortune hung behind them.

Within days, the astronauts will try to dock with the orbiting Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module launched last September, part of a 13-day mission crucial to China's ambition to put a space station in orbit around 2020.

"I believe that we can achieve this goal, because we already have the basic technological capability," Zhou Jianping, the chief designer of China's manned space engineering project, told reporters before the launch.

A successful manned docking mission for China would be the latest show of the country's growing capabilities in space, to match its expanding military and diplomatic clout.

Still, Beijing is playing catch up with the United States and Russia, which, along with other countries, jointly operate the International Space Station some 240 miles (390 km) above Earth.

Rendezvous and docking techniques such as those which China is only testing now were mastered by the United States and the former Soviet Union decades ago, and the 10.5 metre-long Tiangong 1 is a trial module, not a full-fledged space station.

Linking with the unmanned module will be an important hurdle in China's efforts to acquire the technological and logistical skills needed to run a full space lab that can house astronauts for long stretches.

Fears of a space arms race with the United States and other powers mounted after China blew up one of its own weather satellites with a ground-based missile in January 2007, though China has insisted its programme is peaceful.

"China's manned space programme has never been for military purposes. It is mainly to research how mankind can go into space, use space peacefully," He Yu, the general commander of China's manned spacecraft project, said before the launch.

The United States will not test a new rocket to take people into space until 2017, and Russia has said manned missions are no longer a priority.

But NASA has begun investing in US firms to provide commercial spaceflight services and is spending about $3 billion a year on a new rocket and capsule to send astronauts to the moon, asteroids and eventually to Mars.

Chinese scientists have talked of the possibility of sending a man to the moon after 2020, the final step in a three-stage moon plan, which includes the deployment of a moon rover in 2013 and the retrieval of lunar soil and stone samples around 2017.

China's space programme has come a long way since late leader Mao Zedong, founder of communist China in 1949, lamented that the country could not even launch a potato into space. 

Source:TOI

Bharti Airtel told to pay $125 million for unpaid customs duty

 A tax tribunal has ordered top mobile phone carrier Bharti Airtel to pay more than Rs 7 billion ($125 million) for unpaid customs duty, a report said on Friday.

 A Bharti spokesman told Reuters that the company was yet to receive a copy of the tribunal order.

 Bharti imported mobile telecom equipment by splitting the value of the equipment into hardware and software, the newspaper said, citing case documents seen by it. The case was over "undervaluation of the imported goods and non-inclusion of the value of software in the imported goods", the paper said.

 Authorities had conducted searches at Bharti's Bangalore office in 2004, it said, adding that Bharti has the option to appeal the tribunal's order at the country's Supreme Court.
Source: TOI

Skype introduces ads in free calls

Skype on Wednesday began showing callers on-screen ads while they use the globally popular free Internet telephone service.

 What Skype euphemistically referred to as "Conversation Ads" appear in calling windows of users who don't pay for subscriptions or have credits in accounts at the service.

 "We're excited to introduce Conversation Ads as an opportunity for marketers to reach our hundreds of millions of connected users," Sandhya Venkatachalam said in a post at the official Skype blog.

 "While on a 1:1 audio call, users will see content that could spark additional topics of conversation that are relevant to Skype users and highlight unique and local brand experiences."

 The silent conversation ads are available to marketers where ever Skype is available and will be shown during free Skype-to-Skype calls on computer's powered by Microsoft's Windows software, according to Venkatachalam.

 Microsoft's Skype Internet telephone service hopes to quadruple the number of users to get to one billion, division president Tony Bates said two weeks ago at a prestigious All Things Digital conference in California.

 Bates, who heads the unit that was acquired by Microsoft last year but operates autonomously, said growth will come from mobile users and from partnerships like the one Skype has with Facebook.

 He cited Facebook as a key to growth for Skype, which now has 250 million users.He said Skype can use the reach of Microsoft, the world's biggest software firm, to expand its presence, but without limiting itself to the Windows platform.

 Skype users can make low-cost or free phone calls over the Internet using their computers or smartphones. Skype bypasses the standard telephone network by channeling voice and video calls over the Web.
Source:TOI

Nokia to sell Vertu to private equity group EQT

Mobile handset firm Nokia on Thursday said it will sell its luxury mobile brand Vertu to private equity firm EQT VI for an undisclosed amount.

 The move is a part of Nokia's strategy to dispose of its non-core assets.

 "Nokia has agreed terms for EQT VI, part of the leading private equity group in Northern Europe, to acquire Vertu, the global leader in luxury mobile phones from Nokia," the company said in a statement.

 Nokia said it would retain a minority shareholding of 10 per cent in Vertu.

 However, the company has not disclosed financial details of the transaction but according to media reports the deal size could be around $250 million.

 "This is a logical next step in the evolution of Vertu as the world leader in luxury mobile products," Vertu President Perry Oosting said.

 "Since Vertu began in 1998, our business has grown every year, due to the efforts of our talented workforce and the unique products and services we offer to our customers. We believe that EQT VI will position Vertu to continue to grow and lead in our marketplace," Oosting added.

 Finnish mobile maker, which has been witnessing a tough competition from rivals Samsung and Apple Inc in the smartphone category, said the deal is expected to close during the second half of the year.EQT VI said Vertu fits well the firms investment strategy and plans to develop the brand as a standalone company.

 "With its strong brand, undisputed category leadership and attractive growth outlook, Vertu fits well with EQT VI's investment strategy.

 "EQT VI is excited about the opportunity to develop Vertu as a standalone company and plans to drive the development of the luxury mobile phone category through significant investments in retail expansion, marketing and product development," Investment Advisor to EQT VI Jan Stahlberg said.

 In a separate announcement, Nokia today announced slashing of 10,000 jobs worldwide by end of 2013. Besides, it also made changes in senior management following the resignation of three officials including Chief Marketing Officer Jerri DeVard.
Source:TOI

Indians own Rs 12,740cr in Swiss banks, Swiss National Bank says

Switzerland today said the quantum of money held by Indians in Swiss banks stood about Rs 12,740 crore at the end of 2011 — rising for the first time in the past five years.

The total funds held by Indian individuals and entities include 2.025 billion Swiss francs held directly by them and 158 million held through 'fiduciaries' or wealth managers, shows the latest data disclosed by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in its annual handbook on Swiss banks published today.

The funds, described by SNB as 'liabilities' of Swiss banks towards their clients from India, are the official figures disclosed by the Swiss authorities and do not indicate towards the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians in the safe havens of Switzerland.

Also, SNB's official figures do not include the money that Indians or other nationals might have in Swiss banks in the names of others. While there is no official estimate for such unaccounted funds, but some estimates put it as high as 20-25 billion dollars.

As per the data from SNB, Switzerland's central bank, the quantum of funds held by Indians in Swiss banks had last increased in 2006 by about one billion Swiss francs to 6.5 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 40,000 crore), but fell to less than one-third by the end of 2010. It rose by about Rs 3,500 crore in 2011.

 In a White Paper on black money tabled in Parliament last month, the Indian government had also mentioned that the total liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indians have been coming down since 2006 and fell by more than Rs 14,000 crore during the 2006-2010 period.

The liabilities stood at Rs 9,295 crore at the end of 2010, compared to Rs 23,373 crore in 2006.
Source:TOI

Facebook camera app vs Instagram

 Facebook's new camera app makes sharing photos on the social media site a breeze. It's an improvement on posting photos using its main mobile app. 

But other camera apps such as Instagram and Hipstamatic still reign supreme. Facebook Camera doesn't have the same level of addictiveness or the range of tools for sprucing up images. 

Many people were perplexed when Facebook released its own camera app late last month, just weeks after snapping up the popular Instagram photo-sharing app for $1 billion. 

The two apps, both free, have some similar features. Both have a scrollable feed of photos posted by your friends and other people you choose to follow. They also have a set of tools, or filters, which let you adjust contrast, color and other attributes. 

But they are different enough that Facebook's camera app is more of a complement to the main Facebook app than a challenge to Instagram. Facebook's camera app is only available for Apple devices, while Instagram recently came out with a version that works on Android phones and tablet computers. 

The app is easy to use with intuitive taps and swipes. 

When you open it, you see a scroll of your friend's photos - the ones you would see if you clicked the photo tab in the Facebook app or on Facebook's website for regular computers. Tap on a photo to see a larger version, optimized on your phone. Above that is a bar that shows you the most recent pictures in your device's camera library - all the photos you have stored on the iPhone or iPad. You can swipe down the feed of your friends' Facebook photos to see more of your own pictures, which you can then choose to post on Facebook. 

You can comment, tag and 'like' photos, just as you can with the main app or website. You simply tap icons that hover over the photos. Change your mind? Just swipe away the comment box, and it disappears.

It is kind of a shock to suddenly see your whole photo library within a Facebook app. Before I got comfortable with the navigation, I was slightly paranoid I would accidently post a photo on Facebook without meaning to. But once I got used to the easy navigation within the app, that was less of a worry.

Once you select a photo from your library (or take one within the app by tapping the camera icon), Facebook Camera gives you much better editing options than the main site or app. You can crop the photo to any dimension, or straighten it slightly - something I almost always need to do. You can tweak images with 14 filters that have such names as "Cool" "Light" and "Rouge."

For people used to the dramatic filters of Instagram and the wacky lenses and film-like options of Hipstamatic, the filters on the Facebook Camera are underwhelming. They didn't make a dramatic difference on photos I used them on, and I doubt I would use them before using Facebook Camera to post a photo.

For those who like a lot of editing control, Facebook Camera lacks the full-featured photo-adjustment capabilities available in PhotoToaster or Snapseed (which is usually $4.99 in the app store but is free until Friday, so snap it up!).

But I was pleased with the ease with which I could post photos to Facebook with its camera app. I will probably use it whenever I post a photo to the site now. Unlike the regular app, Facebook Camera makes posting multiple photos easy as well, although there's no ability to create albums on Facebook without going to the main site.

Still, it's not going to replace Instagram for me. I follow an assortment of people on Instagram based solely on the quality of their photos, ranging from gorgeous landscapes to gritty street scenes. I'm always excited to check out new pics.

I friend people on Facebook for different reasons - and it's not because of the quality of their photos. As a result, the stream on the Facebook Camera app has a random feel.

It also has a bit of a dilutive quality when I check the main Facebook app at work (ahem, not that I ever do that) or at home. Since I've already seen most of the photos, the main Facebook news stream feels less "new."

So think of Facebook Camera less as competition for other camera apps, and more of a complement - like Facebook's other standalone apps, for messaging and for managing business brand pages - to the main Facebook site.

Source:TOI