Apple's iPhone 6s more water-resistant than previous models, says iFixit.

A few days ago, a video emerged that showcased Apple’s new smartphones submerged in water for a long time. While the iPhone still isn’t certified as water-resistant, turns out the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sport a combination of new technology that makes them far more resistant to liquid damage than past iPhones.

Experts at iFixit tore the iPhone 6s and discovered some ‘mystery adhesive’ around the display which is already secured with screws. Apple hasn’t simply ran a strip of glue around the existing display but instead, it appears that the iPhone’s frame has been subtly reworked to accommodate the new gasket.

There has also been a slight increase in the width of the lip running along the perimeter of the frame, which is about 0.3 mm wider than on the iPhone 6.

Additionally, in conversation with Wired, Jeff Suovanen, an engineer at iFixit, who took an iPhone 6s apart to study its water-resistant credentials stated, “Typically, if you get a phone wet, the danger comes when you have logic board contacts with a charge running through them exposed to water. They can short out, and afterwards they can start to corrode.”

Suovanen also found that rather than waterproof the case, Apple has opted to waterproof the logic board itself. “It’s basically a thin wall, it almost looks like wetsuit material. It’s not that, but it looks like that. It’s soft, spongy, you can press on it and feel it give a little bit.” he added.

Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus releasing in India on October 16.

Apple Inc. has now started pre-booking for the latest iPhones with the authorized premium sellers in the country. As per the initial reports from the Apple, the company is going to introduce the smartphones in the country by October 16. Other than that, Authorized sellers in India, including iNvent, has started pre-booking the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus with an advanced payment of 10,000 INR.

iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are one of the strongest and fastest smartphones Apple has ever released. If we look at the specifications and torture tests that have appeared online, it feels as if these smartphones are practically indestructible, and as far as the water and ten feet free fall tests are concerned, Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus made a great stand against them – with no scratch or a malfunction of the speaker, display or any other component in the device.

Talking about the specifications upgrade in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, then we have a new camera, processors, a new display featuring 3D Touch and an aluminum shell that can break your thumb if you try to bend it. Technically speaking, Apple has fixed all of the flaws of the previous generation iPhones.

TRAI taking all measures to protect customer interests.

As the Indian telecommunication subscriber base grows phenomenally, with the urban tele-density reaching 148 per cent and rural areas fast catching up, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is making efforts to improve customer satisfaction.

As part of it, TRAI has evolved a mechanism that addresses the customer concerns through Telecom Service Providers (TSP).

Speaking at a Customer Outreach Programme here on Thursday, TRAI Principal Advisor S.K. Gupta said as call-dropping was a big issue, Airtel and Idea had migrated to per-second billing instead of minute-based billing.

Issues falling in the regulatory framework of TRAI, which include not just landline and mobile phones but several other services like FM radio,

Direct-To-Home (DTH) TV, Internet Protocol on TV (IPTV), cable televisionand even community radio, were taken up with the TSPs and punitive action taken whenever customer grievances remain unresolved at the appellate level, Mr. Gupta said.

TRAI advisors Agneshwar Sen and G. Muralidhar and Senior Research Officers G.P. Vishnoi and P.S.R. Murthy spoke on the activities of TRAI.

Cable TV digitisation

According to a presentation made by TRAI officers, more than 2.20 crore Set Top Boxes (STB) have been installed so far in the four metros and 38 Tier-I cities in the first two of the four phases of the digitisation of cable TV connections.

The process is to be completed in all urban areas by the end of 2015 and throughout the country before January 1, 2017.

Reliance Communications to Partner Reliance Jio to Launch 4G Services.

Mobile telecoms operator Reliance Communications Ltd will partner conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd's telecoms unit to trade and share mobile airwaves and offer high-speed 4G services.

With this partnership, the once-feuding Ambani brothers have taken another step in working together after their father Dhirubhai Ambani's death in 2002 led to a power struggle between his two sons that split the Reliance empire.

Mukesh Ambani, the country's richest man, controls Reliance Industries, while Reliance Communications, India's fourth-biggest mobile phone carrier, is controlled by his younger brother Anil.

Reliance Communications and Reliance Industries' telecoms unit, Jio, have entered into business tie-ups in the last couple of years that included sharing of mobile masts and leasing of optic fibre network.

On Wednesday, Anil Ambani told his company's shareholders that the latest partnership would allow Reliance Communications to access 4G mobile networks of Jio, which, in turn, can use the former's 2G and 3G networks when needed.

The pact will facilitate Reliance Communications' customers access to Jio's 4G networks on an "asset-light and minimal capex model", a company statement cited Anil as saying at the annual shareholders' meeting.

Jio won 4G mobile airwaves in 2010 and is expected to start nationwide commercial services by end of this year, joining leading Indian carriers Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc's India unit.

Reliance Communications will also enter into a pact with Jio for trading and sharing of 4G mobile airwaves, said Anil, whose empire includes infrastructure and financial services companies. 4G typically offer customers faster Internet browsing speed.

Mobile phone carriers in India, the world's second-biggest market by number of customers, have spent billions of dollars on buying telecom airwaves to meet surging demand for voice and data services.

An Internet-based startup boom in the country has also seen increased adaptability on smartphones, bolstering the demand for high-speed data.

Reliance Communications was also at an "advanced stage of merger talks" with the India telecom operations of Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov's conglomerate Sistema, Anil said.

The company also expects to sign and announce the sale of a stake in its mobile tower unit "within the next month or two", a transaction which would result in reduction in its debt, he said.

Shares in Reliance Communications, the most-leveraged Indian telecoms carrier with $5.8 billion (roughly Rs. 38,012 crores) in net debt as of the end of March, ended 6 percent higher on Wednesday at 67.85 rupees, while the broader Mumbai market index rose 1.4 percent.

Facebook Updates Profile Options for Mobile Users, Adds Profile Videos.

Facebook rolled out updates to mobile profile pages to enable users to better personalize their profiles and more easily control their privacy settings.

Facebook has sought to improve and ease its mobile profile experience as it makes more of its $10 billion-plus in annual ad revenue off of phones. The updates also come during New York City's 12th Advertising Week, where Facebook is courting the world's largest advertisers and companies.

Among the new features are profile videos, or a short looping video clip that users can create in place of a static profile picture. The feature is similar to Vine, a video sharing app owned by Twitter Inc.

Users can also set a temporary profile picture that reverts to their old picture at a specified time. Those who want to support a sports team or charitable cause for a specific week, for example, can choose a picture to display for a short time period.

Facebook also introduced more ways to control privacy settings so that users can curate what pieces of information are public and which are only viewable to "friends," or people that they have allowed to view profiles.

Facebook explained the move in ablog post, saying, "People visit Facebook profiles more than four billion times per day, and we're continually looking for ways to make profiles the best place for people to curate their online identities and connect with others... Today, we're unveiling some new, mobile-friendly features for Facebook profiles. There are three main improvements that will give you more opportunities to express who you are and control the content showcased on your profile."

Infosys, TCS, Other Indian IT Firms Form Consortium to Tap Chinese Market.

    In a significant initiative to break into the highly-regulated Chinese market, five top Indian IT firms have for the first time formed a consortium to work on big-ticket projects planned by China's southwest Guizhou province, which includes a major cloud-based data centre.

TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindraand NIIT have formed the consortium on an experimental basis under an initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Shanghai, which has signed an MoU with Guizhou province, located near Shanghai.

The initiative came as Guizhou government approached the NIIT and the CII to help it in its massive infrastructure development plan which included setting up a big cloud-based data centre, Prakash Menon, Shanghai-based president of the NIIT, told PTI here. Menon is also the co-chair of CII-sponsored India Business Forum (IBF).

The NIIT has signed an MoU with the provincial government for the $16 million (roughly Rs. 104 crores) project to train IT professionals. This is a first that Indian IT majors, who have struggled in the highly-regulated Chinese market despite India's push to China to open up, have joined hands for Chinese projects.

India has consistently asked China to open up its market for IT and Pharmaceuticals - two of India's most successful export ventures - as a means to address the trade deficit surpassing USD 40 billion out of a total bilateral trade volume of $70 billion (roughly Rs. 4,59,163 crores) last year.

TCS China president Sujit Chatterjee said it is a new beginning as it's the first time a Chinese province has sought Indian IT sector's help for its infrastructure development. Despite being leaders, Indian IT firms have struggled over the years in China as businesses are mainly garnered by global companies such as IBM, in association with local firms.

"Our footprints will never match IBM and others. Key to success here is to collectively stand together as a front. If that happens no body can fathom the kind of capability Indian IT has," Chatterjee said.

He, however, cautioned that this was a regional initiative confined to Guizhou province. But "if this is successful it can be replicated across industries including pharmaceuticals and sister-city initiatives and energy projects," he said. "This group needs to stick together but the moment someone bypasses it, it will collapse."

Asked how the five would split the business in a fiercely competitive sphere, Chatterjee, whose company has made a much bigger mark in China compared to other Indian IT firms, said the consortium is formed with an understanding that project allocation will be based on strength and past record of firms. "All of us have references, proof of presence, which is very important. No single company has all of it and different companies have done different things," he said.

Chatterjee along with Menon and Madhav Sharma, CII China's Chief Representative, met Indian Ambassador Ashok K Kantha and briefed him on the initiative. Kantha will travel to Guizhou in the second week of October over the project.

Twitter Will Reportedly Name Jack Dorsey As CEO, Bringing Back The Founder’s Instincts

The decisive leadership of a founder could be what’s necessary to bring Twitter’s value to the masses. And apparently that’s what it’s going to get, as Re/Code reports Twitter has made the decision to bring its co-founder and Square chief Jack Dorsey back as CEO. He’d been serving as Twitter’s interim CEO for four months since Dick Costolo chose to step down.

The announcement could be made as soon as tomorrow, and head of revenue Adam Bain reportedly refused the CEO job as long as Dorsey wanted it. After months of confusion at Twitter among prevalent feelings its product must change to embrace mainstream usage, Dorsey could rally morale with the mandate only available to someone who started the company.

Founders are simply afforded a special trust from employees. Dorsey is widely credited with the spark to create a public microblogging service. The belief that his ideas got Twitter this far could bolster confidence in Dorsey making drastic product updates. While Twitter has become immensely popular and important to a user base of 316 million, it may take changes that anger its early adopters in order to bring Twitter’s value to the masses.

A CEO installed from outside or who joined later in the company’s history could be accused of meddling with the fundamental identity of Twitter. But since Dorsey built that identity, he might have the authority to modify it.

Whether that’s altering the reverse chronological timeline, what’s counted in a tweet’s 140 characters, or how live events are followed, Twitter needs to make itself a daily staple for more than news junkies and Internet people. Its advertising model depends on it. For many, Twitter still feels like an unharnessable river of information or shouting into a black hole. It’s hard to know who to follow. It’s even harder to know who to unfollow. And unless you have some soapbox or level of IRL celebrity, tweeting to a tiny audience can seem like a waste of time.

This is all hurting Twitter’s growth. New users are scared, and older users got burned and churned. In the first six months of this year, Twitter only grew 28 million users from 288 million to 316 million. Meanwhile, in the nine months since December, Instagram has grown from 300 million to 400 million users. As advertisers seek massive scale, Wall Street has soured on Twitter’s inability to grow faster. The report of Dorsey’s return has already boosted Twitter’s share price over 3 percent.

The Twitter board’s indecision about who would become CEO may also have hurt Twitter’s ability to attract and retain talent. As a public company, Twitter doesn’t have the same potential to multiply its valuation as younger startups. Without the lure of that massive upside, employees need to believe they’re building something important with a team that gets stuff done to be satisfied. That’s tough to come by with no permanent CEO, an ailing share price, and a sense of product paralysis.

But with Dorsey at the helm, even if he’s reportedly staying as CEO of Square, the kind of radically progressive changes necessary could finally get pushed through. Twitter’s product has remained stagnant due to seemingly endless back and forth testing of minor updates. Captain Dorsey could say “make it so,” and the blue bird could fly in a new direction.