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Google’s public Wi-Fi service now covers over 100 railway stations across India

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Just over a year ago, Google announced plans to put free, high-speed, public Wi-Fi into over 400 railway stations across India. However, that is an ongoing process that is far from over. Google wanted to expand the coverage to 100 stations by the end of 2016, and now with just a few days left in the year, it has lived up to that promise.


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India’s smartphone market is the 3rd largest in the world and it is now pretty much (over 97%) all Android

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The Indian Smartphone numbers from Strategy Analytics this evening paint a grim picture for everyone (Apple) except Google’s Android OS. In Q2, over 97% of smartphones ran the Android operating system. That’s up from ‘just’ 90% a year ago.

Apple, meanwhile, actually fell significantly in shipments from 1.2M in Q2 2015 to just 800,000 in Q2 of 2016 – a whopping 35% drop.

Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Apple iOS fell 35 percent annually and shipped 0.8 million smartphones in India in Q2 2016. Apple’s smartphone marketshare has halved from 4 percent to just 2 percent in India during the past year. Apple iOS will need to reduce iPhone pricing to cheaper levels, attract more operator subsidies and enlarge its retail presence through Apple stores or online channels if it wants to regrow significantly in the future.”


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Google wants to train two million developers in India over the next few years

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Google has today announced the Android Skilling Program for India, its initiative to provide Indian developers with access to a “world-class skilling and educational program”. India will add several million software developers over the next half decade, and Google wants to step in and help train two million of those over the next three years…


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YouTube Smart Offline allows users in India to download videos overnight to save money

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Offline video is one of the main benefits of a YouTube Red subscription. In developing countries, downloads are actually available for free as a means to work around connectivity issues. Now YouTube is rolling out a new Smart Offline feature in India that downloads videos during late night hours when carriers offer discounted data.


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Nextbit Robin hits India, will sell for just 19,999 Rupees ($295) from May 30th

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The Nextbit Robin — a cloud powered smartphone that we happen to like a lot — has made its way to India. Customers wanting to grab the Robin in India can do so exclusively from Flipkart, where it will cost 19,999 Rupees (roughly $296), that’s around $100 cheaper than it was at launch in the US.


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Google Maps traffic alerts feature expands, now available in India

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Google announced in a blog post this morning that it has expanded its the popular Google Maps traffic alerts feature to India. This means that any smartphone user based in India will get real-time notifications during navigation if traffic conditions change for the worse, and before a journey is set to begin, so that they can choose the quickest route more easily.


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Google’s Project Loon in talks with telcos in India to launch pilot

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Google is pushing forward with its Project Loon plans to bring Internet access to remote parts of India as The Economic Times today reported the company is currently in talks with local telecommunications providers.

The publication spoke with Google India chief Rajan Ananda who confirmed the talks with local providers for Loon without naming specific companies, but the report noted telco BSNL among other unnamed companies are actively included in the discussions.


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Google adds real-time flood alerts to web services in India

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Google has announced in an official blog post that it’s adding a new flood alert system to its services in India. Thanks to information provided by the Central Water Commission (CWC) users will be able to find flood alerts, including river level info, for more than 170 areas in India where the CWC has active observation stations.

Alerts are available in a number of Google’s apps and services like Google web search, Now cards in the Google app, Google Maps and the Public Alerts homepage on desktop and mobile.


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Letv expanding in to India with powerful, Quad HD Le Max phablet

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We’ve seen a huge rise in the number of affordable smartphones come to market with premium design and specifications over the past 12-18 months. It’s no coincidence that this has lead to a rise in the number of relatively unknown Chinese manufacturers push out of their national borders to sell their branded products overseas. Companies like Huawei, OnePlus and Xiaomi have all launched competitive smartphones at budget-friendly prices. Following in their trail is Letv, a company which has just announced its intention to launch a high-end smartphone in India for the first time.


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Google bringing in-app translations to India as part of major plans for the country

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the company will be rolling out its recently-launched in-app Tap to Translate feature in India in the first quarter of 2016. The feature offers a simple way to translate text from within third-party apps like chat apps and Facebook.

Our most active users in India translate between Hindi and English multiple times a day, spending lots of time copying messages from friends or colleagues, translating them, writing responses, translating their responses, and then pasting them back into an app. With Tap to Translate you can copy text anywhere on your Android phone and instantly get the translation, right then and there — without ever leaving the app. No more copy/paste, no more app switching, just instant translations.

All devices that run Marshmallow will get access to the feature …


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