Author: Uma Shankar

One of the biggest rivals of Uber in Southeast Asia, Grab has now launched mobile payment services through it’s Mobile Wallet GrabPay. The users can now use GrabPay mobile wallet to pay for goods and services. The services are currently available in Singapore and will soon be rolled out across all countries in South East Asia by early 2018 once Grab gets the regulatory approvals from respective governments. The ride-hailing company said that there has been more than 63 million downloads of the GrabPay App. Grab has partnered with 25 food stalls and restaurants currently in Singapore to accept mobile payments…

Amazon Echo has officially become the first smart speaker to be available in India. Powered by Alexa, the Intelligent AI based voice assistant from Amazon, the Echo line of speakers are available at 30% discount in India which makes it cheaper compared to the prices in US and other international locations. These devices are currently available exclusively through invites, but soon will be available to everyone. Apart from the discounted price, users will also get a 1 year free membership of Amazon Prime which is a really attractive offer. Speakers at 30% Discounted Rates The line of smart speakers include the…

Microsoft owns  and operates its web search engine Bing which was launched at the All Things Digital conference held in May 2009 in San Diego, California. This search engine is a successor it’s previous search engines such as Windows Live Search and MSN search and is designed using their proprietary ASP .NET technology. Though Bing is used extensively by people across the globe, Google dominates the search engine market and holds the indisputable No.1 position.  In a bid to take on Google and other search engines, Microsoft announced about it’s plans to develop a smarter search engine through it’s research along with…

Security researchers  have uncovered a new breed of Android ransomware named DoubleLocker which has been spreading recently. This ransomware can not only encrypt all your device data but will also lock your phone and change the PIN required to unlock the target device. Since the device gets locked, it is almost impossible for users to recover their data without paying the ransom demanded by the hackers. This new Ransomware is getting distributed through a fake Adobe Flash Player Apps which are circulated through certain compromised websites. Users who are not aware of this might install the ransomware which will ask for…

Uber App has launched a new feature ahead of the festive season that supports multiple stops in a single trip. This new feature allows users to add up to three stops in a single trip and helps them pick up all their friends while they going to a Halloween party or any festive event. Previously the ride haling app allows users to request for a ride only from point A to point B and does not allow any stops in between. Therefore users will not have an option to pick up their friends on the way to a destination in…

Considered as digital gold, Bitcoin has been through lot of changes in order to minimize the scaling problems and to facilitate faster transactions with lower transaction costs.  The digital currency has seen more than 400% growth in 2017 alone and traded at all-time-high of $6100 as of October 20th 2017. The total trading volume of Bitcoin exceeded $100 billion which is way higher than the market-cap of big financial institutions like Goldman Sachs. There were two different proposals from various Bitcoin development communities and Start-ups regarding the improvement of Bitcoin transaction speed and to address the scaling issues. One major proposal was…

Delphi , UK based global automotive supplier has acquired the Boston-based startup NuTonomy which is currently running its Autonomous Taxi service in Singapore. The British automotive parts supplier has agreed to pay upfront $400 million in cash for the acquisition along with $50 million in earn-outs. Delphi is not very popular in the self-driving vehicles sector like other competitors such as Tesla, Waymo and Uber. A spin-off  from General Motors, Delphi is the largest automotive parts suppliers and is very strong in connected and smart cars. They are working towards improving their market share in autonomous technology for last 3 years especially…

Facebook Messenger users can now do peer-to-peer payments within the App using their PayPal accounts. This facility is currently available only for PayPal users in the United States but will soon be available in other locations as well. This announcement came today after the two companies teamed up to integrate PayPal payment services with the Messenger’s platform. This new announcement expands the partnership between the two companies into peer-to-peer payments.This also includes the first customer service bot of PayPal that can handle customer queries online and requests for any assistance. Facebook Messenger initially introduced the payment service option inside the…

Wi-Fi security protocol WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) is vulnerable to Key re-installation attacks as per Security researcher Mathy Vanhoef who has made a public announcement regarding this WPA2 vulnerability. This serious exploit in the WPA2 standard protocol has been code named KRACK which uses the key re-installation technique that allows attackers to eavesdrop on the information exchanged between the wireless access points and clients. A flaw in WPA2’s 4-way handshake authentication process can be exploited by hackers to steal data which would be encrypted otherwise, based on the research carried out by Mathy Vanhoef of KU Leuven in Belgium. Hence,…

The Technology giant IBM is one of the fore-runners in implementing their  own Blockchain which is a distributed ledger that can hold all the financial transaction details in the form of blocks that are linked together and secured through cryptography.  The company has announced a customized solution for banks to make cross-border payments faster using their  IBM Blockchain technology. They have partnered with the payment company KlickEx and Blockchain startup Stellar for developing this solution which can reduce the settlement time and transaction cost for global payments. Cheaper and faster Cross-Border Payments At present, it takes anywhere from few days…

India’s largest eCommerce retailer, Flipkart Ltd has been having initial talks with the ticketing platform “BookmyShow” with an aim to purchase a large minority stake.  They have initiated this deal with an intention to provide the transaction offerings and services against existing competitors like PayTM. Flipkart’s major share holder Tiger Global has shown interest in the ticketing platform BookMyShow and hence would go ahead with purchase of a minority stake of the latter. Customer  Retention is the Goal The online retailer wishes to buy shares from existing investors of BookMyShow which is owned by Bigtree Entertainment Private ltd. apart from…

Tata Teleservices (TTSL), the telecom unit of Tata Sons is on the verge of shut down which will impact most of its 5000+ employees. They have prepared a detailed exit plan which includes 3-6 months’ notice for its employee and severance package for people who wish to leave the company before the notice period. They also have a VRS (Voluntary retirement scheme) for elders and plan to transfer a small set of their employees to other positions within the Tata group of companies. Tata Teleservices The debt-laden Telecom Company has been going through a tough phase recently and owes more…