Apple Reportedly Discontinues The iPhone 4 In India After Recent Relaunch [Update]

Update: Our sources have told us that Apple did not in fact relaunch the iPhone 4 in February – it was simply a natural stock out before a fresh production run. There are also still iPhone 4 units in channels in India, our sources say, though the remaining inventory likely won’t be refreshed again before the next device cycle.

Apple has decided to stop selling the iPhone 4 in India, the Times of India reports today. Apple’s retail channel partners in the country have reported that stock of the device has stopped coming in, and that Apple is saying it won’t be taking new orders for the iPhone 4 going forward. The company had only just started selling the iPhone 4 again, giving it a low-cost option in the extremely price sensitive Indian market.

The iPhone 4 was Apple’s only device being sold in India for under RS 20,000 (around $333). It was Apple’s lowest cost device, but it also meant that the company was likely seeing relatively low average selling price (ASP) on these devices, which was reflected in its recent quarterly earnings, and the Times suggests that Apple’s decision to discontinue sales is engineered to raise that value going forward. Cupertino has also recently launched a buyback program to defray the cost of the iPhone 4S, which has helped that newer hardware become the top-selling Apple handset in India, according to one of the country’s top gadget retailers.

It’s also advantageous for Apple to ditch the iPhone 4 because of software support. The smartphone is now four years old, and while it does technically support iOS 7, it doesn’t offer a number of the new operating system’s features, like turn-by-turn navigation, panorama mode, AirPlay mirroring or Siri to name just a few. Users also have complained about performance on the iPhone 4 with Apple’s latest OS update, so getting it out of the new device sales chain has advantages in terms of improving overall customer satisfaction, too.

Apple CEO Tim Cook suggested that the iPhone 4 had relatively little effect on their ASP last quarter during the earnings conference call, but dropping it can only help that metric. The company still has a lot of room to grow in terms of smartphone market penetration in India, however, and Cook reported iPhones sales in the country were up 55 percent over the past year, so it should continue to offer pricing advantages in this market, given its growing importance to Apple’s balance sheet.

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Grand Theft Auto V coming to PC, Xbox One and PS4 this fall

After much anticipation over the past year, Rockstar Games has confirmed at E3 2014 that Grand Theft Auto V will be coming to PC and 'next-generation' consoles this fall.

GTA V launched on September 13 last year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, shortly before the launches of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. At the time, many gamers were wondering why Rockstar didn't wait to launch on 'next-gen' consoles as well, or if they'd ever see the critically acclaimed game on the much more powerful systems.

An even larger portion of gamers were devastated when the PC wasn't announced as a launch platform for the hugely popular title. A petition to bringGTA V to PC gathered over close to 730,000 signatures, so the impending launch of the game should satisfy a lot of people.

There's no exact launch date for Grand Theft Auto V on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 at this stage, aside from the 'Fall 2014' timeframe given in the trailer below. Graphically the game looks excellent, with the footage in the trailer being captured on a PlayStation 4 at 1080p; it should look even better on a suitably powerful gaming PC.

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Sequoia Invests $15M In Indian Mobile Multiplayer Games Maker, Octro

Sequoia Capital has invested $15 million in Series A funding in Indian mobile multiplayer gaming company Octro, which makes digital versions of popular local classics, such as card game Indian Rummy or the bingo-style Tambola.

Octro’s apparently winning formula for gaming is not to invent new IPs but to capitalize on the popularity of traditional offline multiplayer games in its local market and expand their reach to smartphones, which continue to be a fast-growing device category in the country.

Anyone who’s witnessed the enduring popularity of Patience on desktop PCs, tablets and smartphones will attest to a strategy of digitally leveraging tried and testing gaming formulas — rather than trying the hit and miss option of building something entirely new.

Octro was founded in 2006, and initially focused on productivity apps, building a mobile VoIP app called OctroTalk, before shifting focus to mobilizing locally popular games. Its other titles include Teen Patti, Sweep Card Game and Multiplayer Hearts. Octro’s titles are among the top 5 games in multiple categories on Google Play in India.

Commenting on the funding round in a statement, Mohit Bhatnagar, MD at Sequoia Capita, said: “Indian games like Tambola, Teen Patti and Rummy have been a part of people’s lives for years. Octro has made these culturally relevant games come to life on the mobile. We look forward to working closely with the team and leveraging our network to help the company scale greater heights.”

In India Sequoia managed funds of close to $2 billion, investing across venture, growth, and late stage opportunities.

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Here's how you can watch or stream all World Cup 2014 games for free

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is set to kick off today and for the next month everyone’s attention will be on what happens on the field across 64 games taking place in 12 Brazilian cities. Okay, so it may not be that big of a deal in the US, but for most of planet earth it’s the pinnacle of sporting events.

Some 2.2 to 3.2 billion people watched the last World Cup in 2010, according to FIFA estimates, and that number is sure to grow this year with more viewing options -- including, of course, streaming. So, how can you watch online?

In the US the World Cup will largely air on cable and online streaming requires a subscription with one of 14 cable companies carrying ESPN, which will air 43 matches; ESPN2 which will air 10; and ABC which has another 10. You do have one option in Univision if you don’t mind Spanish-speaking narrators. 

Meanwhile on the other side of the pond, European networks will have open over-the-air broadcasts and free online streaming counterparts.

For instance, those in the UK can enjoy free streaming on the BBC and ITV, Germans will get the whole thing on ARD and ZDF, while Canadians, French and Dutch will get some games on CBC, TF1 and NPO.nl. Unfortunately, as usual, streaming will be restricted to people in those specific regions.

Accesing region-locked streams, for free

Now, it’s possible to access region-locked online content from anywhere using VPN, proxy or SmartDNS solutions but usually that requires a paid subscription if you’re expecting to enjoy decent speeds. Luckily, UnoTelly is on a giving spirit, and will offer a 40-day free trial during the World Cup. 

Signup is pretty straightforward and there’s no tricky business involved -- as in, they don’t ask for a credit card to charge you after the free period is over once forget to cancel. Just provide your sign in credentials and you’re good to go. Similarly, setting your devices up is as easy as changing the default DNS.

The service has specific instructions for every supported platform and the company has laid out a helpful game schedule with links to every live stream. The inauguration event is due in just a few minutes and will be followed by the first match between Brazil and Croatia at 3.30pm ET.

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Crossing the goal line: New tech tracks football in 3-D space

Referees may soon have a new way of determining whether a football team has scored a touchdown or gotten a first down. Researchers from North Carolina State University and Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with Disney Research, have developed a system that can track a football in three-dimensional space using low-frequency magnetic fields.

The technology could be particularly useful for situations when the ball is blocked from view, such as goal-line rushing attempts when the ball carrier is often buried at the bottom of a pile of players. The technology could also be useful for tracking the forward progress of the ball, or for helping viewers follow the ball during games with low visibility -- such as games played during heavy snow.

Previous attempts to design technology that tracks the position of a football have used high frequency radio waves. But these high frequency waves are absorbed by players and can be thwarted by the complex physical environment of a football stadium. Because the technology would be most useful in pile-ups, when the ball is obscured by players, these high-frequency approaches aren't practical -- the absorbed radio waves would result in incorrect or incomplete data on where the ball is located.

"But low frequency magnetic fields don't interact very strongly with the human body, so they are not affected by the players on the field or the stadium environment," says Dr. David Ricketts, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper describing the research. "This is part of what makes our new approach effective.

The researchers designed and built a low frequency transmitter that is integrated into a football, and is within the standard deviation of accepted professional football weights. In other words, the football that has the built-in transmitter could be used in a National Football League game. Antennas, placed around the football field, receive signals from the transmitter and track its location.

But the researchers also had to address another complicating factor.

When low frequency magnetic fields come into contact with the earth -- such as the playing surface -- the ground essentially absorbs the magnetic field and re-emits it. This secondary field interacts with the original field and confuses the antennas, which can throw off the tracking system's accuracy.

"We realized that we could use a technique developed in the 1960s called complex image theory," says Dr. Darmindra Arumugam, lead author of the paper and a former Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon now at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Complex image theory allows us to account for the secondary fields generated by the earth and compensate for them in our model."

"We're still fine-tuning the system, but our goal is to get the precision down to half the length of a football, which is the estimated margin of error for establishing the placement of the football using eyesight alone," Ricketts says.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by North Carolina State University.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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