The startup provides companies with a digital health platform that integrates key aspects of healthcare – connecting patients, healthcare professionals, corporates, pharmacies, health data and insurers. Current clients include AIA, AXA and Aetna and other partners including the Health Promotion Board (HPB), Guardian Pharmacy, as well as individual general practitioner clinics and laboratories.

“We see increasing corporate and insurer demand for enterprise digital health solutions like MyDoc. This funding is a strong boost for us to meet this demand by expanding our services throughout Asia and enter new markets. Our Series A funding round reflects the confidence our investors have in MyDoc’s business model and services, as well as the potential of the industry,” said Snehal Patel, CEO and Co-Founder, MyDoc.

Redefining Corporate Healthcare Management

This Series A round will fund the development of MyDoc@Work, a digital healthcare platform which provides corporate employees a wide range of health services – video consultation with doctors, online prescriptions, online medical certificates (MyMC), on-site health screenings and a private care network. The private care network provides access to dental, physiotherapy, eye health, and fitness and other services.

Through this platform, corporations can benefit from significant cost and operational efficiencies, through reduced administrative processes to manage medical certificates, insurance claims, decreased employee absenteeism (due to ill health) and minimized upfront employee healthcare costs.

“With MyDoc@Work, we’re building a simple, validated, but powerful corporate health tool that not only promotes, but creates action towards building a healthier company. MyDoc@Work allows corporate employees to enjoy the convenience of consulting a doctor remotely – saving time on traveling to the clinic as well as queuing to see the doctor and collecting medication – and overall better health as they are more likely to follow up with necessary treatments,” added Patel.

Focus on Insurtech Solutions

A second investment priority is the continued development of health-focused insurtech solutions based on MyDoc’s proprietary technology. The startup is now shifting its focus towards improving and expanding services to benefit both policyholders and payers.

Part of the Series A funds will be used to continue development of insurance-focused solutions that enable further automation of the health insurance process. This work will include tools that allow comprehensive data analysis to enhance the delivery of personalized care.

The partnership with UST Global would allow MyDoc to tap into the company’s technological capabilities and expertise, as well as grow the business through UST Global’s distribution channels and government partnerships.

The post Singaporean healthtech startup MyDoc raises $5.2M in Series A round appeared first on TECHSEEN.

Latest news, from Techseen’s sources is that Yogi is in Central Jail, on the outskirts of Chennai, and that he is fine and his family has got to see him.

Yogi has garnered sympathy from Indian startups and entrepreneurs, but there is a section out there questioning the stand taken by the industry. Is Jigsaw, the ad agency that filed the criminal case against Yogi, subsequently leading to his arrest, not a startup? Shouldn’t the industry be sympathetic towards its CEO Aditya CS too, who is losing money? Valid questions. So why isn’t the industry sympathetic towards him?

Before Aditya, or his supporters can claim the right to earn sympathy, or see the industry take his side, there are questions that Aditya and his supporters need to answer:

• Why was a dispute between two organizations made out to be a personal case against Yogi?
• Why did Aditya’s lawyer take the “prerogative” to file a criminal case, when disputes of these nature are usually “civil cases”?
• Who pulled the strings to get the Magistrate to sign an arrest warrant at 9.45 PM, when the courts close at 6 PM?
• Why was there a delay in handing over the official copy of FIR filed by the police to Yogi’s family?
• Why the whereabouts about Yogi were kept secret for long and why his family was made to run from police station to another to track him?
• Did Aditya’s “dad” who “being a part of the press” really “wield” his “influence”? [While some reports suggest that Aditya’s father is an ex-employee of Times of India, one entrepreneur close to Yogi told Techseen that he was “probably with Outlook.” Techseen couldn’t independently verify both the “probable” connections.]

What’s the dispute about?

In one sentence that Stayzilla used services of Jigsaw Advertising and that the former still owes the agency INR 17.2 million (approx US$259,000). That’s what the agency says. Stayzilla agrees that the company owes the agency money, but it disputes the “quantum” that it owes, and it had advised the agency to take the legal route; and that’s what the law suggests; and that’s what any law abiding citizen or firm would do.

A civil case turned into a criminal case

Maheshwer Peri, former publisher of Outlook, and now an entrepreneur and Founder of edtceh portal Careers360 says in a Facebook post, “This isn’t normal. This isn’t due process of law. This isn’t about law taking its own course. This is a civil case being converted into a criminal one. This is about police abusing their powers because the agency is owned by the son of a media man.”

It’s not just Peri, who has dubbed the entire development as the “police abusing their powers.” Leading startup media, YourStory asks, “Yes vendors need to be paid, but do we need to resort to goondaism?”

Startup ecosystem will get hurt

P Narayanan, President of industry body, TiE Chennai, said: “This is bad in law and reflects badly on law and order in Tamil Nadu. The case is a civil case-non-payment to vendor.”

Indian Angel Network, which has been an initial funder in Stayzilla sent out an official statement condemning the entire episode.

“The Stayzilla episode where the founder has been summarily thrown into jail for what appears to be at best a civil matter has shocked the entire startup community. There are challenges in every business and startups have more than their fair share. It is imperative that the legal and regulatory framework supports and encourages new ventures to emerge and scale. Unlawful treatment in such situations will trigger a sense of fear in young minds and put the brakes on the Prime Minister’s Startup India dream. IAN believes that legal rights of every individual must be respected and the law must follow its proper course, unhindered and uninfluenced in any way.”

Vendors are being reviewed

The entire episode has left the entire startup ecosystem scared and scarred at the same time. Ravindra Krishnappa, who was an investor and Director with Stayzilla till 2015, tells Techseen, that he has got a couple of calls from startups, if they should start reviewing their vendors and check the network association of their CEOs/Founders.

“No one is going to win in this war. It is a strategic mistake on part of Jigsaw to file a criminal case against Yogi. The entire episode will harm Jigsaw more, as startups will be careful and probably shy from getting associated with the agency. It hurts the entire ecosystem and will hurt other agencies as well,” says Krishnappa.

Need for an industry body for mediation

Krishnappa moots for an industry body for mediation and reconciliation for such cases, which is non-existent right now. “I have had discussions with Nasscom and TiE members, who agree for the industry to have a reconciliatory body for such issues. It’s not cool to drag the family into a commercial dispute,” he says.

Another point that needs mention here, which Krishnappa says, having known Yogi and Stayzilla for years is that Stayzilla still has money in the banks, and it’s not bankrupt, and it has been in the process of setting priorities who needs to be paid first and how much.

Aditya in his defense, had said in a statement to Mint, “These startups get funding, they spend carelessly, they live a hunky-dory life and keep our payments on hold, and then shut shop saying we don’t have money. People doing genuine business like us have to bear the brunt… I AM NOT SCARED of their tantrums, my case is genuine and will fight it in the courts and I trust the courts.”

Stayzilla founders understand the pain of startups

Krishnappa is not willing to accept the allegation that Stayzilla and its Founders don’t understand the pain of a startup. Stayzilla was founded in 2005. At that point it was known by the name of Inasra Technologies. It was only in 2010 that it rebranded itself to Stayzilla. It got its first seed-funding 0f $500,000 from Indian Angel Network (IAN), only in 2012. For seven years, the company was bootstrapped and has gone through the pains similar to all self-funded startups.

As an investor along with IAN, Krishnappa says that like most angel investors, he’d invested into the team primarily and not the business model or the offering. He refers to his blog post on LinkedIn, published last month after Stayzilla announced its plans to shut down and come back in a new avatar.

“Everyone in this ecosystem knows that these Excel plans do change and frequently? Why then should you get all sanctimonious and accusative when something like Stayzilla (shutting down) happens?” he asks on the post.

Investment, he says is “not a game for faint hearted investors.”

What did Jigsaw gain?

We wish, Aditya had stayed true to his words on fighting it in the courts and his trust on the courts. But, ironically, he didn’t take the court route. He chose high handedness and goondaism in the process. How much it will hurt his agency, only time will tell. For now, the industry is behind Yogendra Vasupal and Stayzilla.

The post Stayzilla saga: Jigsaw’s muscle power will shoo away startups appeared first on TECHSEEN.

What it seemed to have lacked is the presence of a video calling application just for businesses. It was speculated that Google was experimenting with Hangouts, its consumer facing video chat app, in a preview mode with expanded capabilities, but it never officially announced anything for business use per-se, until now.

Google seems to have unofficially rolled out a new video conferencing application called Meet by Google Hangouts, especially for business to conduct HD video meetings. A part of the G-Suite, while Hangouts is identified as a chat application with video calling capabilities, Meet is a pure online video calling application.

Currently, Meet is not listed among the G-Suite apps but lands on a Google Meet page on search. The landing page seems to have a clean interface with only a window that lets the user enter a meeting code to join a meeting, as well as see those meetings that have been scheduled. Unlike Hangouts that let the user place a phone call, video call or start a chat. Meet also offers dial-in numbers for users who are on the go. It shows details about upcoming calls, including time, location, subject and allows the user to attend a meeting straight from the phone.

According to several media reports, Meet seems to be a business-friendly alternative to the consumer focused Hangouts. Having said that, is Google taking a jibe at Microsoft’s Skype for Business? And interestingly, this news comes just days after Amazon announced its unified video and voice collaboration tool for corporate meetings called Chime. Is Google trying to make a its own presence felt in the enterprise video-conferencing segment?

What does Skype have to offer?

Last year, Microsoft launched Skype Meetings, a free tool to host online meetings providing small businesses with real-time audio and HD video conferencing. The tool was launched as a browser-based version of Skype, that has collaboration features like the ability to share screens and content during meetings.

Skype Meetings appeared to be a scaled-down version of Skype for Businesses. While the latter can engage up to 250 participants in a meeting at a given point, Skype Meetings is limited to up to 10 participants during the free trial period of 60 days. Post the trial period, this is further reduced to a maximum of three people.

In addition, Skype for Business is integrated with other Office 365 apps that enable the user to schedule a Skype meeting from their Outlook calendar, see their colleagues’ presence, and initiate an IM or start an audio or video conversation within apps like Outlook, Word and PowerPoint.

Amazon Chime also a newbie?

Chime was made available as an app on iOS, Android, Windows, as well as Mac, last week. The platform runs on AWS claiming to boost the user’s experience beyond VoIP calling and video messaging. It allows customers to host or join a meeting, chat, and share content and screens with a synchronized experience across desktops, iOS, and Android devices, all from the same platform.

Both Skype and Chime are similar in their approach, apart from the features mentioned above, like Skype, Chime offers mobile and desktop apps, and keeps meetings and chats synchronized across devices, so users can join meetings from anywhere via their remote devices.

Amazon has also been quietly rolling out its workspace-focused tools on cloud like Microsoft and G-Suite. Amazon’s WorkSpaces, a virtual desktop computing service, WorkDocs, a file storage and sharing service, and WorkMail for secure email and calendaring. Is it possible that all three will eventually go toe-to-toe when it comes to online business video collaboration and conferencing?

Will Meet make a mark?

However, Google has not officially announced Meet, neither has it launched the mobile app globally. Currently the app is only available on the iTunes App Store in US, and has a minimalistic website with no information. According to a news report by TechCrunch, the tech giant discontinued its Google+ Hangouts API two months back in a bid to focus more on the enterprise side of things.

Once Meet app is launched, what will make enterprise customers go for it? Will it be the pricing, the features, the quality of video conferencing or the ability to collaborate and share? Or will it be the time and experience of the company that enhances the user experience? It seems difficult to comment as of now, since all three will be offering similar tools. Having said that, the business user will definitely be spoiled by choice going forward.

The post Is Meet by Google Hangouts taking a jibe at Skype & Chime? appeared first on TECHSEEN.

A significant of the people in the startup ecosystem, if not a majority, have been expecting Snapdeal to either shut shop or get acquired at a very low valuation. Yesterday, the media broke with the news of Freecharge CEO, Govind Rajan on his way out. Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015, for a whopping $400 million (at least by Indian standards). More gloom spread when news of Snapdeal laying off 600 people came in.

So has the Indian e-commerce bubble finally burst? The question is too early to be answered. India is a huge market with huge potential; and there is a huge startup ecosystem out there. Many of them still want to launch e-commerce websites, and focus on niches. Probably to be acquired some day? Nothing wrong in that thought process.

But I can say one thing for sure is that failure of Snapdeal will dent the Indian startup ecosystem. It is an important cog in the Indian startup wheel and one of the prominent e-commerce category creators in India. Although it started as a deals site, it moved on quickly to be a full-fledged online marketplace. Snapdeal and Flipkart both not only disrupted retail in India and spoiled the consumer for choice but helped flourish ancillary services — read distribution, fintech, jobs, etc.

If nothing else, what startups can learn from Snapdeal, and of course Flipkart is — How not to be a startup?

The letter yesterday from Founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal to their team was profound enough, brutal, emotional and most importantly honest.

“…a large amount of capital with ambition can be a potent mix that drives a company to defocus from its core. We feel that happened to us. We started doing too many things, and all of us starting with myself and Rohit, are to blame for it,” the founders said in the mail.

They sure have learned their lessons and these lessons will be taken up by the industry; and Management institutes will publish reams of papers on case studies. What is worrying though is that lessons come at a cost. Around 600 people will be losing their jobs. That is an unconfirmed number though. Real figures can be far bigger than that. As the company goes lean, it could have a domino affect on the ancillary services as well and rub on to other e-commerce players too.

Of course — both Bahl and Bansal are taking a 100% cut in their salaries. But am sure with the voyeuristic figure of salaries they and the other top executives were getting, they would’ve saved enough to sail them through for another year without a salary. That’s debatable though, because, the e-commerce culture only taught one thing to consumers — spending. A discount here, but still spend; and culture starts at home.

My heart goes out to people who’ve lost their jobs. Probably these are people who didn’t get these ridiculous salaries. If they did, hope they saved enough to sail them through till they find some other job, which probably would be at a far lesser salary.

Snapdeal founders are positive and have their foreign competition — Amazon — on their benchmarks’ list.

“… there is almost no successful company on the planet, which hasn’t gone through this phase in their lifetime – Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Tesla, Lego, Spicejet, you name it! Each one of them had painted themselves into a corner many times over before they became as wildly successful as they are today. A quick look at their stock prices over the last 15 years will show you what we’re talking about. The formula to revive the company is uncannily similar for almost all of them – focus on only your core, stop all non-core activities, reduce costs drastically, turn profitable as soon as you can, and use those profits to spur further growth and new projects. We must do the same…”

I hope the course correction taken by Snapdeal does bring it back to its glorious days. Its failure not only dents the consumer trust and faith, but the Indian startup ecosystem sentiment as well. We can expect slowdown in investments in the e-commerce sector in India. Last week, Urban Ladder, an online furniture store, got a funding $15 million, which should uplift the sinking startup sentiments. Seems investor confidence is not entirely lost. However, Urban Ladder will be investing much of this money in brick and mortar stores.

“These are tough times, no doubt. But, I am supremely confident, that like we have done before as a team, we will prevail. The greatest companies in the world got built in many interesting patterns – we just can’t tell the pattern while are in the midst of it. For now, we need to keep our heads down, focus all our energy on execution that delivers on our two focus areas – best customer and seller experience, and profitable growth. This will mean tough choices and a conscious departure from a me-too race to the edge of the cliff. Let’s remember – GMV is vanity, Profit is sanity,” the founders further wrote in their mail.

Both Bahl and Bansal cannot leave it to others — read acquisition, that probably is the easiest route out — to do the dirty work of cleaning up the culture within. They have been the poster boys of the Indian e-commerce industry, and the Indian startup ecosystem as well. They will have to lead from the front to show how to clean up the mess. It starts from the point of acceptability of having done mistakes, which Snapdeal has done. Hopefully, we will see Snapdeal sooner or later amidst profits. Over to you Flipkart. We are watching when you take the plunge into course correction.

Note: This is an Opinion piece

The post Snapdeal an important cog in Indian startup wheel; don’t RIP yet appeared first on TECHSEEN.

Apart from these, one of the most interesting update is the launch of the Facebook video app for TV. Currently being rolled out to Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV, users of these brands can watch Facebook videos on a larger screen. Last year the company had had launched the ability to stream videos from Facebook on TVs. According to the company, the latest announcement is an expansion to that capability.

Liking & sharing on the bigger screen

Facebook states that the app will allow members to watch videos shared by friends or Pages they follow, live videos, and recommended videos based on their interests. Users also will have the ability to watch saved videos and access a history of videos watched, shared and uploaded. The app will not support the 360 degree videos as of now.

For users who are well versed with watching Facebook videos, know that it comes as a consolation with everything else. There are pictures, text, updates, events, news that are encountered by an average user when he/ she scrolls down on the newsfeed, and videos, take a considerable amount of screen space while doing so.

Mostly videos are posted directly to Facebook or through other media platforms such as Snapchat, YouTube or Vimeo to name a few. Since a lot of videos come from different platforms, a user can chose whether to watch the video on Facebook as a part of the newsfeed or pop it open in the browser or corresponding app. Which brings us to the question, can Facebook video app for TV be taken as a serious contender in the video app realm?

Can it play ball with heavyweights?

Maybe, since the social media network has been experimenting and also succeeding with various video experiences; one can watch 360 degree video, do live ‘vodcasts’ (video-podcasts), pull video content uploaded by Facebook users and even stream videos using AirPlay on Apple TV or Chromecast, and now the company has announced the video app for TV. But does it have enough to go head to head with a player like YouTube in the TV video app space?

Google-owned YouTube claims that the YouTube on TV experience is an optimized version of YouTube that makes it easy to find and watch high-quality YouTube videos on the television. The application and its different versions have been specifically customized for smart TVs, media streaming devices, Google TV, Android TV, and some Apple TVs.

Upping its game

A news article in TechCrunch stated that the app could place Facebook in direct competition with YouTube as it too would be building a video community. But before that it would have to devise monetization methods and ramp up its content game. It also mentioned that the social media giant was looking to license music labels for upping the number of videos shared and viewed.

Another article in recode last year stated that Facebook had hired Ricky Van Veen, the Co-Founder of CollegeHumor, a comedy website and CEO of Notional, a television production company, for creating new kind of video content on the social media site.

Though Facebook does have video engagement analytics and engagement stats as a part of its metrics, last year a WSJ article pointed out that the company made a major faux-pas, as it miscalculated the average time users spent on Facebook videos for two years. Which tells us that it also needs to get its backend tech-game right, if it wants to go toe-to-toe with YouTube, an old hat in this field.

Seeing is believing

Another media report furnished that the social media giant had about 8 billion video views per day from 500 million users last year, but more than 80% of its 30 second videos were being watched without sound. Well Facebook has fixed that aspect with the new updates, that we mentioned in the beginning. However, Facebook has somehow been able to create an ecosystem where publishers post short videos which are more informative in terms of visuals than audio. Hence, its not necessary for users to turn on the volume. But will that audience appreciate the fact that they can access all those on a larger screen?

On the other hand being a dedicated video only platform YouTube has more than 1.3 billion users and according to an industry statistics website, over 4.9 billion videos are viewed every day, with 300 hours of video content being added every minute and scoring an average of 1 billion mobile views every day. Will Facebook be able to come up with that kind of content?

Dan Rose, VP Partnerships Facebook in a Re/code Code Media Conference said that the app will make it easier for users to watch the video they encounter in their News Feeds. “We want people to be able to consume content wherever they are — whether it’s on their phone, whether it’s on their computer — and TV is just another screen for that. But we’re a mobile-first company, so the products we build will always be oriented around the experience you have on a mobile device when you’re watching video.”

Talking about India, there are apps on TV like Hotstar — which provides TV shows, movies and live cricket matches — Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spuul, Voot, BIGFlix, Sony LIV, Ogle, Hungama, DittoTV, HOOQ — which are all video, movies and TV show streaming apps — and YouTube, which is the go-to app for all kinds of genres. Considering the above, will customers use the Facebook video TV app for watching non-original content? Only time will tell.

The post Can Facebook’s video app for TV make YouTube uncomfortable? appeared first on TECHSEEN.

Here, we have listed 10 YouTube channels from India that are making technology easy for the masses. We have listed them on the basis of their popularity. However, we do have rated them on the basis of our review.

1. Technical Guruji

Language: Hindi

Host: Gaurav Chaudhary

Based out of Dubai, Gaurav Chaudhary, the host of Technical Guruji claims that the rational behind creating the channel was to make easy to understand tech videos in Hindi for the masses of India. Chaudhary claims that he wants each and every individual whoever is interested in technology to be able to understand it in the easiest possible way.

Topics Covered: The YouTube channel posts videos daily that pertain to gadget reviews, technology news, tips and tutorials about devices and covers a wide rage of gadgets starting from mobile phones, to smart watches, to televisions, ISPs and even crypto currencies.

Subscribers: 870,116*

Techseen Rating: 3.5/5

The most simplistic Youtube channel, who breaks down technology for the layman and often is seen debunking myths and rumors going around about various technological things going around the net. Production value is average, but then he is not popular because of that. He’s popular for his ability to connect with the masses, which he does by giving examples and analogies from real life. In our rating, we have deducted another half a point simply for his going overboard at times and playing the game of hyping things, and building up suspense, very much like the Indian Hindi TV news channel guys. Youtube, as a media platform requires things to be quick and to the point, as there is a cost to bandwidth.

2. Geekyranjit

Language: English

Host: Ranjit Kumar

Ranjit Kumar, the host of YouTube channel Geekyranjit claims to have been working with computers for over 25 years. Based out of Hyderabad, India, Kumar also runs a gadget review website called Tech2Buzz.com, and he quit his job as an IT consultant to start his YouTube channel.

Topics covered: Though the channel Geekyranjit is in English, Kumar also hosts another page in Hindi language – Geekyranjit in Hindi, which had 49,931 subscribers at the time of writing this story. His channel features gadget reviews, and ‘expert’ opinion on tech spanning from unboxing to tips and tutorials about mobile phones, WiFi routers, chipsets, cameras among other devices.

Subscribers: 657,986*

Techseen Rating: 3/5

Geekyranjit as the channel name suggests will appeal more to people who have somewhat knowledge about technology. The language barrier too may not get Ranjit as much subscribers as Gaurav of Technical Guruji gets. Even though, he has a Hindi channel, but that will take some time to catch up; and yes, his Hindi is improving by the day. Despite the fact that Ranjit started his channel way back in 2011, Technical Guruji, which started only in October 2015, has manged to overthrow his supremacy. Production value is simplistic; no fancy stuff. Only straight talk.

3. C4ETech

Language: English

Host: Ashish (a.k.a Ash)

The Chennai based Ash, explains that he had worked for various BPOs and bought a Samsung Galaxy Note, tried to explain the specifications to his peers and all he got was whether they could play ‘Angry Birds’ on the same. This, became his inspiration for starting his YouTube channel.

Topics Covered: Revolving around smartphones and Android only — reviews, comparisons and gadget tests to applications and game recommendations to mods, tutorials and Giveaways, C4ETech hosted by Ashish a.k.a Ash, claimed to be one of the most followed channel back in 2014. Shooting about 20-30 videos a month, Ash has also narrated the rationale behind the name C4ETech; he states that due to various ups and downs in his life he thought he was ‘Cursed 4 Eva’ and started doing what he loved to, i.e. technology reviews.

Subscribers: 649,623*

Techseen Rating: 3/5

Ash knows his stuff. But again English restricts his appeal. What also goes against him is the fact that a majority of his videos are mobile centric.

4. iGyaan

Language: English

Host: Bharat Nagpal

Before launching iGyaan, Nagpal was a Disk Jockey with the alias DJ Krimp. According to wiki, he trained at Ministry of Sound London and also has a private house music album named Krimpnation to his name. He’s also invested in a company that is experimenting with holographic technology.

Topics covered: The YouTube channel is the vlog version of tech-blog — igyaan.com — that offers reviews on cameras, mobile phones, Tablets, Headphones, games as well as tech-happenings in India. iGyaan started in 2010 and is claimed to be an influence to an influx of online blogging and YouTube video Production.

Subscribers: 415,752*

Techseen Rating: 4/5

iGyaan rates high on its production value. Most of his videos have been shot in 4K resolution. As a host, Bharat doesn’t hide behind a desk or keeps himself static. Is often seen outdoors and doesn’t shy from exploring new ideas, e.g. Nike Air Force One shoes or Snapchat spectacles, LED bulbs, besides others. He is often seen outdoors as well. Over the period, he has stopped showing himself less and focuses more on the gadgets. We have deducted one point for the language. Hope, he can do shows in Hindi, which will get him mass appeal.

5. Gadgets to Use

Language: Hindi

Host: Abhishek Bhatnagar

Bhatnagar, is a Professional Blogger and an Independent Web Consultant. Prior to his YouTube venture, he used to be a software engineer and has worked for various IT companies. Bhatnagar quit his job to open a technology media publication called Technixmedia which has several blogs, websites and web services.

Topics Covered: Gadgets To Use provides news and reviews of latest technology and devices in India. It claims that every review that is posted on YouTube undergoes a series of benchmark tests that has been designed by the Gadgets to Use team.

Subscribers: 400,923*

Techseen Rating: 3/5

Besides reviewing gadgets, Abhishek has covered launch events as well. Simplistic and to the point. HAs been on Youtube since 2011. Despite the fact that the channel is in Hindi, he falls short of making a direct connect with the audience.

6. Sharmaji Technical

Language: Hindi

Host: Praval Sharma

As an engineer Sharma spent his life before becoming a YouTube personality in the IT sector. He’s held positions as a technical engineer at Ericsson and as an Application Specialist at ABB ISDC. According to a report in News18, Sharma was trolled on Reddit last year because he forgot to clear his search history (which was NSFW) while reviewing a Samsung Galaxy J Max 7.

Topics covered: Sharmaji Technical was a tech vlog started by Praval Sharma sometime in May 2015. Sharma wanted to provide tech reviews in Hindi language and reach out to the masses who wanted to learn and understand technology in Hindi. Apart from Technical Guruji, hosted by Gaurav Chaudhary, Sharmaji Technical is one of the tech-vloggers who also has an Android app that features written as well as video reviews of different gadgets.

Subscribers: 310,029*

Techseen Rating: 2.5

Sharmaji has been on Youtube since 2008. He is an old hat, and newer channels have surpassed him by far numbers in terms of subscribers. We think, Praval, being a veteran deserves better. He can increase his production value; and probably move more outside the studio like iGyaan, and may be show himself less.

7. Intellect Digest

Language: English

Host: Rohit Khurana

The Founder and host of the channel, Khurana, is also the editor for its online textual counterpart which goes by the same name. Apart from spending about 4 years in the telecom software industry, Khurana has been authoring computer troubleshooting blog – Trouble Fixers since 2007. He is also the founder of the automobile blog and YouTube channel Car Blog India.

Topics covered: Intellect Digest, hosted by Rohit Khurana provides updates on technology, gadgets, smart phones, tablets, computing, mobile computing and communication devices as well as the latest happenings and launches in the technology sphere of India. Intellect Digest states to put up its content everyday from Monday to Friday with some special sessions on weekends, which do not have a fixed frequency.

Subscribers: 218,632*

Techseen Rating: 3/5

On Youtube since 2012, Intellect Digest has a lot more potential. Besides covering mobiles and mobile centric gadgets, Rohit could pick up newer topics like IoT and smart homes too. Considering that his channel is in English, his audience may connect with fresher topics quickly. Production value is decent.

8. Beebom

Language: English

Hosts: Devinder Maheshwari, Kapil Jindal, Rupesh Sinha, Akshay Gangwar and Pratik Tyagi

Beebom was conceptualized by Kapil Jindal and Devinder Maheshwari to become a content website that would collate and produce technology resources written by ‘geeks’ from around the world. After facing a rough patch in their business plan, the duo thought of hiring more tech-professionals, who are now a part of the core team.

Topics Covered: The YouTube channel is unique in its own way as it does not have a single host. Together Devinder Maheshwari, Kapil Jindal, Rupesh Sinha, Akshay Gangwar and Pratik Tyagi host various video sessions related to tech and gadget reviews, DIY tricks and tips as well as technology resources.

Subscribers: 162,309*

Techseen Rating: 3.5/5

The folks at Beebom are late entrants on the scene, who joined Youtube in February, last year. They’ve moved up pretty fast. They don’t shy from going beyond mobile phones and have covered topics like Augmented Reality, Google Home vs Amazon Echo, DSLR cameras, Gmail tricks, Chrome tricks, besides others. restricting to English may not get them very high subscribers, but then that allows them to reach out to non-Hindi speaking states too.

9. Techno Ruhez

Language: Hindi

Host: Ruhez Amrelia

Amrelia, 28, states that his goal is to provide simple tips ad tutorials for tech-beginners on how to use their latest device and competent users to get untapped knowledge about a gadget.

Topics covered: Apart from the generic technology reviews and news, the channel also posts tips and tricks for gadgets that the ‘common-man has not tried before’.

Subscribers: 156,071*

Techseen Rating: 3/5

Ruhez needs to slow down a bit, just a bit, while speaking. Has a pleasing personality. Can get more subscribers, if he can find analogies from real life and cover more topics outside mobile.

10. Technical Sagar

Language: Hindi

Host: Abhishek Sagar

Sagar, claims to be a self taught white hat hacker and a commerce graduate from India. With Internet and Ethical Hacking being his passion.

Topics Covered: Sagar’s channel posts videos about cybersecurity, computer processors, tech news and happenings, tech and internet myths as well as reviews of mobile phones and video games.

Subscribers: 133,110*

Techseen Rating: 4/5

Sagar gets some extra points from us for the fact that he is one of the few who hasn’t shied from going beyond mobile. He simplifies topics like hacking, XML, DNS, Benchmarking, Botnet, Noise Cancellation, Web Spiders, 3D printing, and that too in a layman’s language, which is Hindi here. He periodically does videos under the “Mysterious Nights” title, where he has covered topics like vampires, spirits and reincarnation. However, he loses on production value.

Other Mentions

Apart from these individual 10 Indian tech video-bloggers, there are a host of other tech YouTube channels of Indian origin. Gadgets 360 by NDTV group, 91 mobiles by the ecommerce website 91 mobiles, Tech Guru Awaaz by CNBC Awaaz are a few, which have a huge subscriber base. Talking about the 10 that we have listed; though most have reviews of other devices, the majority is only focused on smartphones. Maybe because there is no dearth of brands in the market today and each brand has a large portfolio of mobile phones. This would probably be the reason behind daily content by these tech-YouTubers. However, considering that their channels have cross a couple of million views and subscribers combined, there seems to be a huge audience that is really interested in nothing but smartphones.

* At the time of writing the story

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The Android Things will provide Android APIs and Google services as well as familiar tools: Android Studio, Android SDK, Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform.

“The Internet of Things will bring computing to a whole new range of devices,” wrote Wayne Piekarski, developer advocate for IoT, in a blog post. “This is just the beginning of the IoT ecosystem we want to build with you.”

“Now any Android developer can quickly build a smart device using Android APIs and Google services, while staying highly secure with updates direct from Google.” added Wayne.

And in the coming months, the company plans to update the preview with regular OS patches, security features, and built-in Weave connectivity. Developers can use turnkey solutions such as Intel Edison, NXP Pico and Raspberry Pi 3 to start developing with Android things.

The Weave platform is being updated to connect a new range of devices to the cloud and Google services.

“Weave provides all the cloud infrastructure so that developers can focus on building their products without investing in cloud services,” Piekarski wrote.

In addition, the Weave Device SDK allows developers to build solutions for light bulbs, smart plugs, switches and thermostats. Going forward, the company plans to add more support for additional devices, a mobile app API for Android and iOS, and merging Weave and Nest Weave for more security.

Device makers like Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings already use Weave, and several others like Belkin WeMo, LiFX, Honeywell, Wink, TP-Link, and First Alert are implementing it.

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NetSuite is a cloud based ERP system for mid-sized companies. Oracle sells 100s of on-premise software applications to Fortune 100 enterprise companies. The two business models are entirely different.

ERP lifecycles are usually exorbitant and customers often express unhappiness over incremental costs that come with implementation and maintenance.

Top to bottom overhaul required

To change a $37B company from an on-premise model to a cloud-base model would require a top to bottom overhaul of the business model. New executives will need to be hired to develop strategies and make redundant those that cannot adopt. Expensive field representatives will need to be replaced with inside sales teams. Account management teams will need to be replaced with retention teams. High cost implementation teams will need to be replaced with configuration teams. Marketing will need to engage in a re-branding exercise.

During this transition, mid-sized customers probably will get injured. Field based sales representatives will call mid-sized corporate CEOs to buy any of their 100s of on-premise enterprise products. Inside sales will call those same CEOs to buy add-on cloud technologies. Account management will try to assure that same CEO that they own the account and will provide better offerings. Professional services will try to charge outrageous prices for their configuration capabilities. Marketing will provide content that might make the situation worst.

Is there room for confusion?

Mid-sized companies can neither afford products like Oracle nor get distracted by the confusion with the merger. These companies should look for integrated business applications like Deskera’s fully integrated Cloud ERP Suite that include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacture Resource Planning (MRP), Project Management (PM) and Human Capital Management (HCM). The application is a complete business suite that has all the features a mid-sized company will ever need to run their business.

Mid-sized companies should also seek a solution that will get them live in days and not months. The solution should be easy enough to use that implementation becomes more of a setup and training issue.
Mid-sized companies should stay away from the Oracle-NetSuite merger and seek alternatives today.

The views expressed are of the author and Techseen may not necessarily subscribe to them.

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World’s worst traffic

Traffic app Waze released their Global Driver Satisfaction Index in 2015, and it cited the Philippines’ capital region as having the world’s worst traffic. The report, which is based on Waze’s data, factored in average commute times, distances, traffic, driver services, and road quality. Save for driver services, which pertains to the availability of gasoline stations and parking, Manila ranked poorly across the board.

Many believe this to be a culmination of factors which include poor driver discipline combined with a dismal enforcement of traffic laws, lack of mass transportation options, poor road quality, and a swelling population.

Metro Manila as an economic center has a daytime population of 15 million people. The metro’s aging train system is already pushed way passed capacity. The MRT line tries to accommodate 500,000 riders with only a capacity of 350,000. A Japanese study in 2012 estimated that the nation is losing PHP 2 billion (US$ 42.8M) daily because of traffic. Officials now estimate that it has ballooned to PHP 3 billion (US$ 64.2M) today.

Tech solutions are available …

Those with smartphones and mobile data can use apps like Waze to help navigate through traffic jams. The app tracks GPS data from its users to provide real-time information on the speed of traffic flow along a user’s route. Users can also report things like potholes, accidents, road blocks, and police visibility to inform others of road conditions.

Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Grab also give commuters alternatives to available public transportation. Filipinos can ride jeepneys, buses, cabs, and light rail, none of which are really linked or coordinated. Uber and Grab users believe that ride-shares are safer and more convenient than riding cramped public transports. These also help improve utilization of an otherwise under-performing resource–meaning several users sharing a car can theoretically reduce the number of cars plying the streets, as with the case of UberPool.

Government agencies have also pushed for the installation CCTV cameras along major thoroughfares in order to monitor traffic flow and record erring motorists, in lieu of apprehending traffic violators on the spot, which can further worsen the traffic flow. There are also calls for making dashboard cameras mandatory on all vehicles and GPS trackers on public utility vehicles, in order to help promote driver discipline through surveillance and monitoring.

But not enough

These technology solutions do provide a bit of respite for drivers and commuters who can afford access. Waze aims to help drivers but, if even side streets are packed, the app’s alternative routes may not be as helpful as they were intended to be. Uber and Grab provide rider comfort, but critics also blame the proliferation of brand new vehicles acquired just for the purpose of ride-sharing as unnecessary additions to the volume of vehicles on the road.

Surveillance techniques seem to tap paranoia as a factor for drivers to be more disciplined on the road. Facebook pages have already been devoted to dashboard camera feeds aimed to shame violators. This culture of shaming, however, can be ethically debatable. Options such as driver education and appeals to shared responsibility are more ideal ways to inspire courtesy.

Urban planning and social engineering are still crucial

Technology solutions provide some relief, but this is like treating the symptoms of a disease. Solving traffic problems in a big metropolis like Metro Manila will require widespread reforms.

A great part of the problem is the sheer number of people in the metro. Decongesting Metro Manila–and other crowded cities–not only means widening the roads. The region houses the key business districts and these draw workers from the nearby provinces. Developing other places into economic hubs would encourage more people to stay put rather than go to just one city for work. However, this means developing infrastructure and stimulating entrepreneurship and investment even across the countryside.

The volume of vehicles plying the roads also need to be lessened. A growing economy also has its drawbacks, as more people are now empowered to purchase their own vehicles. Vehicle sales grew 23% in 2015. Many of these buyers are inspired by the idea that owning and driving your own vehicle is safer and more convenient than public transport. To combat this thinking, the government should eye a better public transport system of buses and trains and orderly pick-up and drop-off points. In addition, public works can aim to make roads more friendly to cyclists and pedestrians.

To address driver discipline, campaigns should be made to tighten the process of acquiring a license. Many drivers are still able to get licenses despite not really knowing defensive driving measures, road etiquette, and traffic laws. Campaigns to inspire sharing of the road and self-imposed discipline should also encourage the public to be better road users.

The takeaway

Developments in infrastructure are medium to longer-term solutions. Meanwhile, for the short-term, the conveniences provided by technology are very much welcome. In the end, real solutions are really systemic, and it is key for citizens to develop a shared sense of responsibility in order for nations to truly gain progress.

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The game was recently making headlines after hackers knocked gaming servers offline, but major privacy concerns have been on a rise since then. And this gives Nintendo something more to worry about other than its tumbling share value due to an evasive statement.

SimilarWeb’s report about the mobile game outpacing Tinder and Twitter as the “most-downloaded app since July 6, 2016” validates the popularity of the game. But guess who’s not playing it: cyber security experts. And there’s a reason to that!

“Full access” debate

When a player downloads Pokémon GO, his phone is “fully accessible” by the app. So this means that the player’s email address, IP address, the web page used before logging into Pokémon GO, username, and the current location are openly susceptible towards misuse by anyone who has access to Niantic’s servers.

Adam Reeve, the principal architect of cyber security company RedOwl unveiled his concerns about the game in a blogpost. He noted, “Normally you’d see a little message saying what data the app is going to be able to access – something like “This app will be able to view your email address and name”. For some reason that’s not shown in this case.”

“What’s more, given the use of email as an authentication mechanism (think “Forgot password” links) they now have a pretty good chance of gaining access to your accounts on other sites too,” Reeve added.

According to Google’s help page, “When you grant full account access, the application can see and modify nearly all information in your Google Account”

This ‘Full account access’ privilege should only be granted to applications you fully trust, and which are installed on your personal computer, phone, or tablet.

Niantic is already threatened with a lawsuit in Germany, where consumer advocates are demanding more “privacy-friendly” mobile app’s terms. According to them, the game breaks German consumer and privacy laws.

Heiko Dünkel, Policy Officer at The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) reportedly told Fortune:

We think is there is not a high enough level of consent in the use of data—these extended rights of giving users’ data away to third parties in circumstances, which are not sufficiently described.

The company later clarified that the request was a mistake and has reportedly changed the access requirement in updates to the game.

Later, it was revealed that Niantic was using an outdated version of Google’s shared sign-on service, which conveniently allowed it to skip the step that asks for permission to access a person’s account. And hence came the warning– the app had ‘full access’ to player accounts.

So for those who are yet to venture the ‘Pokémon land’ with this new game, we would say that using your personal Gmail account is a complete “no-no”. Instead, you can use a burner Google account. For this, create an all new Google account, with no significant data, and use this account to sign into Pokémon GO as well as other apps that you may find doubtful.

Businesses…BEWARE!

The International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM) is warning businesses against downloading the game in “bring your own device” (BYOD) phones/tablets with direct access to sensitive corporate information and accounts.

Quoting fake apps and data breaches as major crooks, Dr. Barbara Rembiesa, CEO, IAITAM said, “Frankly, the truth is that Pokémon Go is a nightmare for companies that want to keep their email and cloud-based information secure. Even with the enormous popularity of this gaming app, there are just too many questions and too many risks involved for responsible corporations to allow the game to be used on corporate-owned or BYOD devices.”

“We already have real security concerns and expect them to become much more severe in the coming weeks. The only safe course of action here is to bar Pokémon Go from corporate-owned phones and tablets, as well as employee-owned devices that are used to connect to sensitive corporate information.”

And if this was not jolting enough, cyber security experts at Zscaler’s ThreatlabZ spotted an Android SMS Trojan disguised as the Pokémon GO app in their threat feeds. The malware installs itself with the legit Pokémon GO application icon so that the users are not suspicious, routing unsuspecting gamers to another URL which downloads a fake version of the game.

The rogue app, according to the experts, is capable of “scamming gamers financially by sending SMS messages to premium numbers.”

“Unlike common android malware, this malware performs malicious activity from a HTML page residing in the asset folder of the malware package,” explained the blogpost.

At a time when DDoS attacks have soared by 149% in the past year, one has to be cautious and minimize vulnerability to cyber threats. In the end, Pokémon GO is just a digital world overlapping the real world with “REAL RISKS.”

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