In my last post I explained the delay in activation process of Reliance Jio 4G SIM. I purchased this SIM along with LYF Flame phone on 22 August 2016 from Reliance Digital, Sector 29, Gurgaon. They said that SIM should get activated in couple of days. This SIM is yet to be activated. Its been 14 days till date. I tried everything from calling its customer care number 1800-889-9999 to visiting the store personally. They gave every kind of excuses and my SIM wasn’t activated.
Read: Reliance Jio 4G SIM activation delay explained
Today, I was going somewhere when I spotted a Reliance Digital Express Mini Store (Vasant Kunj, New Delhi) I was surprised to see that it wasn’t much crowded so I decided to visit to ask about tomorrow’s launch and e-KYC process. The store manager was there and they were preparing for tomorrow’s launch. I spoke to him about my problem and he said that there was a pile of forms which these guys are uploading daily for the new activations and since it is a manual process due to which activations are getting delayed.
 

 

He asked me “Do you have your Aadhar card with you right now? I will activate your Reliance Jio 4G SIM right away”. Fortunately, I was carrying the Aadhar Card with me. I handed over my card and he ask one of his employee to issue me a newReliance Jio 4G SIM and activate it. A couple of minute later that person gave me a new Reliance Jio 4G SIM and he scanned my finger to authenticate my Aadhar Card (part of e-KYC) through some app on his device. And after that he returned my Aadhar Card and gave me the Reliance Jio 4G SIM and told me to wait for 10 minutes. I thanked him and manager and came back. By the time I reached my home, my Reliance Jio 4G SIM was activated.
I also asked the manager about my previous SIM that is pending for activation. He told me “That SIM will also get activated soon. You may use that Reliance Jio 4G SIM or give it your family member.” He also suggested that since most of the new connections will get activated using e-KYC so the backlog is expected to get clear soon.
So, I spoke to him for almost 20 minutes and I asked some questions about the SIMs that are pending for activation and the new e-KYC system. Below are some of the questions that I asked.
Question: “Is it possible to activate the Reliance Jio 4G SIMs that are pending for activation through e-KYC process?”
Answer: “We don’t know yet, right now the e-KYC process is working for the new connections. However there might be some information available after September 5 regarding the activation of  the Reliance Jio 4G SIMs bought prior to 5th September”
Question: “I am living in Delhi and If the Aadhar card is not issued in Delhi, is it possible for me to get the new Reliance Jio 4G SIM?”
Answer: “You will get the new Reliance Jio 4G SIM but it will NOT get activated through e-KYC process because this service is launched in New Delhi and Mumbai as of now. If you are not in Delhi or Mumbai then you will have to follow the same process like filling the CAF form and giving us a passport size photo. Also, we will need the code generated by MyJio App, so phones that are not 4G compatible will not work on this network. But in a few weeks, company will take this service across other cities in India. “
Question: “What are the documents that you need to activate a new Reliance Jio 4G SIM through e-KYC process?”
Answer: “Only Aadhar Card issued in Delhi and the person whose Aadhar card is being used has to be presented to authenticate it using fingerprints”
So, That’s it. The process is looking very promising and expect a large number of customers for getting the new reliance Jio 4G SIM in the Mumbai, New Delhi and NCR region especially. Please tell us in comments how was your overall experience about getting your hands on Reliance Jio SIM and its services?
 
Watch this video which I shot after I got this trick to activate my SIM.Those who are suffering from Reliance Jio Activation Delay and living in Delhi NCR and Mumbai can activate their SIM using this trick. I have tested this method and it worked every time.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVHFdhR582Q
 

 

 

 
Mukesh Ambani among its long trail of announcements at the Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries very positively assured that Aadhaar card holders will get their Jio SIM activated in 15 minutes.
Mukesh Ambani at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) made some pretty big announcements about its Reliance Jio 4G launch in India. Even before its commercial launch, Reliance Jio had become insanely popular with its tempting Jio Preview Offer under which it offered free data, voice and SMS for a whopping 90 days. In one of the announcement made, Mukesh Ambani also announced that it will be implementing Aadhaar’s e-KYC process for getting a new Jio SIM. This will come as a big relief over customers waiting for days to get their services activated. It will transform the entire experience for its customers. He further announced implementation of e-KYC system that will allow subscribers to get their connection activated in 15 minutes.
 
Also Read: Reliance Jio 4G SIM activation delay explained
What is e-KYC ?
The Aadhaar based e-KYC facility for SIM cards was made official by the government earlier this month in India. People can now apply, validate and activate new prepaid and postpaid connections using their Aadhaar card. The government aims to cut down the time taken for SIM activation. Having an Aadhaar card will make the verification easier and faster as the Aadhaar number and biometrics will authorize UIDAI to provide the demographic details along with the digitally-signed photograph to the mobile operator.
In which Cities this e-KYC will be available?
The e-Aadhaar facility for Jio users will first go live in Delhi and Mumbai. People who have an Aadhaar card can walk into a Reliance Digital store for a Jio connection and using e-KYC facility, their verification will take place on the spot. Reliance Digital guarantees that the customers will get an active Jio connection within 15 minutes after applying for one. But in a few weeks, company will take this service across other cities in India. Mukesh Ambani assured that Reliance Digital will have the capacity to onboard a whopping million customers daily . Reliance Jio could also start home deliveries for its SIM cards. “Instant eKYC digital activations – in the store and at home,” mentioned Ambani at the AGM. Reliance Jio’s implementation of the Aadhaar based e-KYC facility already has people talking.
 
Reliance Jio’s operations will go live on September 5. Reliance Jio’s most talked about and exciting offer would be that Jio users will have to pay only for their data usage and will never have to pay for voice calls. To top it all, even the data charges will only cause a pinch in the pocket as it will be as low as Rs 50 for 1GB. Ambani envisions transforming India from ‘high data rate market to among the lowest tariff market’. Among its announcements include student discounts, low-cost VoLTE smartphones and also a Welcome Offer. The offer valid till December 31 includes free and unlimited access to Jio’s services, including voice, data and apps.
 

 

As widely expected, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has sounded the bugle for the company’s 4G services at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday. Ambani called the company’s 4G LTE network largest in the world.The much anticipated 4G VoLTE service will offer data tariffs at never before prices and make voice calls completely free, unprecedented in the Indian market.
Under the company’s welcome offer, the entire Reliance Jio services — including voice, apps, 4G services — to be available for free to everyone starting September 5th to December 31 2016. The Reliance Jio data packs give users an access to free voice calls and Jio premium apps. Jio Premium apps include JioPlay, JioOnDemand, JioBeats, JioMags, JioXpressNews, JioDrive, JioSecurity and JioMoney. Reliance Jio data packs with access to Jio premium apps is free till December 31, 2017. Users will be charged as per these data packs after December 31.
Here are key highlights from his address to the shareholders.
Highlights:

• Makes voice calls FREE, No Jio customer will have to pay for voice calling
• Reliance Jio roaming charges will be ‘Zero‘ within India
• Jio base rate will be 1/10th of other players on data at Rs 50 per GB
• Reliance Jio data to have only 10 data plans
• Announces student discount, students to get 25% more data
• Promises peak download speed of upto 135 MBPS on Reliance Jio network
• Jio’s app booking, worth Rs 15,000 for an annual subscription, will be available free for all active Jio customers till December 31, 2017
• Jio is an entire eco-system that’ll allow Indians to live digital life to the fullest: Mukesh Ambani
• Reliance Jio offers largest 4G LTE network in the world
• Aim is to move India from data shortage to data abundance

[ September 4 2016 Update: How I get my Reliance Jio SIM activated in 10 minutes after activation delay for 2 weeks ]
[ September 1 2016 Update: Reliance Jio SIM activation in 15 minutes via e-KYC ]
While long lines of people queuing up outside Reliance Digital outlets for preview SIM cards may be good news for Jio, it has also meant long delays in activation of these cards.
At least some Reliance Digital outlets are unable to cope with the huge demand and are struggling to process and scan the documents submitted by those buying SIMs are the preview offer.
“We were doing 4 or 5 activations a day,” says an employee at a small Reliance Digital Express outlet in Kerala. “Now we’re selling 60 a day.”
With just two employees, the store has no option but to divert all manpower to simply selling the connections. While earlier, they would activate all connections on the same day, now unprocessed CAFs or customer acquisition forms are piling up.
“It could take days to clear the backlog,” says the employee when we ask them when the connection will be activated.
 


LYF IN THE FAST LANE
The delays are being felt mostly by those who are buying a second SIM for use in their existing 4G handset. These SIMs can only be bought from Reliance Digital and RD Express stores, which is what is causing the huge pile-up.
However, you can also get Jio SIMs with preview offers when you buy new handsets, especially LYF-branded ones. And these handsets can be bought from most smartphone retailers.
These retailers also have their own stock of Jio SIMs to be given free with new handsets. The customer acquisition forms for these handsets are not routed through Reliance Digital, but is given directly to Jio.
These forms — which are submitted are third-party retailers — are processed quicker. According to our inquiries, connections bundled with new handsets from independent retailers is being processed on the same day or the next day. This would indicate that activation at Jio’s end is happening smoothly, while some amount of bottlenecks are present at Reliance Digital outlets.

HUGE DEMAND
With competitors piling on pressure on Jio to reveal its 4G tariff, the company is racing against time to bring as many high-end users onboard its network as possible.
Jio now offers free SIMs on practically every 4G phone out there in the market. However, some Reliance Digital outlets are providing 4G SIMs only if the handset you are carrying in is included in the official list of ‘preview offer’ devices issued by Jio.
The company currently offers preview offers for handsets from Samsung, LG, Micromax, Panasonic, TCL, Yu, Karbonn, Gionee, Alcatel, XOLO and Asus. More brands are added based on the capability of Reliance Digital outlets to cope with the incoming customer traffic.
The company, meanwhile, seems to be pleasantly surprised at the enthusiastic customer response that its offer has generated. RIL’s official facebook handle has retweeted photos of long queues outside the Reliance Digital outlets.
In fact, the primary reason for restricting SIM sales to only a few brands was to prevent total chaos at Digital outlets. While the company has largely succeeded in ensuring a smooth roll-out, the real test of its strategy will come this week.
The long queues outside the outlets should also be making Jio’s rivals jittery, as it is their customers who are lining up outside these stores desperately for free data and voice calls.
Adjusted for purchasing power parity, India has one of the most expensive data tariffs in the world, and the entry of players like Jio is expected to make wireless Internet affordable for everyone.
Watch this video which I shot after I got this trick to activate my SIM.Those who are suffering from Reliance Jio Activation Delay and living in Delhi NCR and Mumbai can activate their SIM using this trick. I have tested this method and it worked every time.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVHFdhR582Q
 

 

What is Reliance Jio services and Jio 4G SIM? Why is everyone is talking about it?

There seems to be a lot of interest in the new Reliance Jio services that is offering ultra fast download speed and super cheap data rates. When I heard about the download speed (it was about 28 mbps) from my friend I could not believe it. I thought that he is lying since Reliance has not launched these services commercially and since its in preview mode so there might be some kind of  network issues with these services. But when I saw and used his Lyf Flame 6 Mobile myself I was quite surprised. The speed that I experienced was 26 mbps for downloading and 18mbps for uploading.
 

My Experience of getting the 4G SIM and Lyf Smartphone.

I decided to buy the Lyf phone and a Reliance Jio Sim. I went to near by Reliance Digital Store and saw people are buying Lyf smartphones and Wi-Fi hubs to experience the high-speed internet. Most people were there to get the Reliance Jio 4G Sim and people were submitting their KYC documents and filling the forms. I purchased a Lyf Flame 6 to experience the service first-hand. Based on this experience, I tell you how you can buy and activate a Reliance Jio SIM.
Lyf Flame 6 costs Rs 2,890, and the SIM I got along with this was FREE. You need to submit a valid photo ID as well as new passport size photograph of yours to get the SIM. You will need to fill an application form as well as to sign the xerox copies of the IDs you have submitted. Ensure that the signatures on the form and on your IDs match.
After that I asked the sales representative about the time it will take to activate the sim, he told me that since there’s been a lot of people coming in to get the Reliance Jio 4G SIM since the company has announced that customers with Samsung or LG 4G smartphones will be able to preview their services, so it might take a week also and you can try other Store and confirm the activation time and if they tell you that it will be done in a day or 2 then you can buy from there.  Since I had already purchased the phone and SIM so I had no other option left.
So I bought this SIM on 14th August 2016, I got the SMS on my registered mobile (Airtel No.) on 22 August 2016 to tele-verify my details.


On the call you will be asked to key in your RJio number, which is available on the SIM pack. Next you will need to give the last four digits of your ID document, in our case an Adhaar card.
And the SIM was already active by the time the tele-verification was done.
Initially, Jio 4G was only available to those who bought the company’s branded Lyf phones which start from as low as Rs 2,999. But after partnering with Samsung, and offering its JioFi mobile router, there are now more people eligible for the preview offer that offers 90 days of free data and voice calls (across all network and even on roaming).

Mobiles that Comes with Jio Preview Offer

• Samsung – All 4G phones from Samsung, including the recently launched Tizen Z2
• LG – All 4G phones like the K7, K10 and going up to the LG G5
• Micromax – All existing 4G compatible phones and the new models.
• YU Televenture
• Panasonic

If you have any of the above Phones and you wanted to avail the preview offer

How to Get the Reliance Jio 4G SIM only

• Users need to download the MyJio app on your phone
• Generate the code on the app
• Take it to a nearby Reliance Digital, Xpress Digital Mini store
• Submit ID documents with one passport size photo
• Get the Jio 4G SIM
• Wait for the verification which takes up to 4 hours
• Tele-verify once your number is up and running

What About Others?

If you don’t have any of these phones, that doesn’t mean you can’t avail the Jio 4G SIM. As we found out, the Jio 4G SIM bundled with brands mentioned above are unlocked, which means they can be used on any 4G phone. But you need to ask any of your friend who has the Eligible phone to generate the code on the MyJio App for you. And take it to thenearby Reliance Digital, Xpress Digital Mini store, Submit ID documents with one passport size photo and get the SIM.

 

 
At its ‘Let Us Loop You In’ conference on Tuesday in Cupertino, California, Apple unveiled the iPhone SE. The company is calling the new offering its cheapest iPhone model to date, with s price starting at $399 (roughly Rs. 26,600) in the US. In India however, the starting price for the iPhone SE is Rs. 39,000, the company confirmed. As for availability, Apple said the iPhone SE will be available for purchase in India starting early April.
 
 

 

 
The iPhone SE sports a 4-inch display and comes in two storage variants: 16GB and 64GB. It has much the same innards as the iPhone 6s, which Apple launched last year. Apple also unveiled new accessories such as leather cases in Black and Midnight Blue, which will be available at Rs. 2,900. The Lightning Docks will be available at Rs. 3,700.
The new Apple smartphone is meant to address both the demand for a smaller screen iPhone, as well as the demand for a cheap iPhone. As we mentioned earlier, the Apple iPhone SE features innards similar to the iPhone 6s, but comes with a design and form factor that’s reminiscent of the iPhone 5s – the company’s last 4-inch iPhone.
Looking nearly identical to the iPhone 5s, the iPhone SE comes with the colour variants introduced with the iPhone 6s – including Rose Gold. It also features more rounded edges on the top and bottom panels, more like the iPhone 6 than the iPhone 5s.
For specifications, the iPhone SE features the iPhone 6s’ Apple A9 SoC and M9 motion coprocessor, 12-megapixel iSight (rear) camera with 4K video support, Bluetooth 4.2, improved Wi-Fi and LTE, new microphones, and Apple Pay support with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
It is now confirmed that Google is shutting down Picasa service starting March 2016. After the launch of Google Photos a lot of people already knew this would happen eventually in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos. For those who do not know about Picasa, Picasa is a photo-sharing and storing website that’s been in Google’s lineup since 2004.
According to Google Picasa Blog:

"After much thought and consideration, we’ve decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos. We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products."

When Google launched Google Photos in May 2015, backed by deep neural network-driven image recognition (used to automate photo organization without user-applied tags) and free unlimited storage for high-def photos and video, Google Photos looked and sounded great. And icing on the cake is its availability to users of both Android and iOS.

"Google Photos gives you a single, private place to keep a lifetime of memories, and access them from any device. They’re automatically backed up and synced, so you can have peace of mind that your photos are safe, available across all your devices.
And when we say a lifetime of memories, we really mean it. With Google Photos, you can now back up and store unlimited, high-quality photos and videos, for free. We maintain the original resolution up to 16 MP for photos, and 1080p high-definition for videos, and store compressed versions of the photos and videos in beautiful, print-quality resolution."

So now, Google Picasa is gone, one obvious question to ask is whether there will be an API for Google Photos. After all, there’s one for Google Picasa. The company has not confirmed it yet, According to a company spokeswoman “No current plans for an API, but this is just v1 of the Photos app. There is definitely more to come.”
So what are Picasa users to do now that their photo service is getting shut down? Google is unsurprisingly telling folks to move over to Google Photos, the company’s new-and-improved photo service. According to Google:

Beginning May 1st, 2016, we’ll start rolling out changes to the Picasa Web Albums Data API and no longer support the following functionality:
 - Flash support
 - Community search
 - Mutation operations other than uploads
 - All support for tags, comments, and contacts
The API will still support other functions, including reading photos, reading albums, reading photos in albums, and uploading new photos. Although these operations will continue to be supported and the protocol will remain the same, the content included in the responses and the operation behavior may change.

So, It is now making perfect sense that there will be an API soon for developers to work with the Google Photos, as with no API (yet), why might Google’s Photos announcement be relevant to developers now? And it is worth mentioning here that developers have always been the key to ecosystem dominance.
We can sense the heat between Google and Apple and Google has dramatically turned it up by offering free unlimited storage of high-def images and video. And Google is playing this game very patiently. Google is saying, “You are free to choose between Android and iOS. It does not matter whether you take pictures or shoot videos on iOS, just store them with us for FREE”. By doing so Google is increasing the chances of adoption by Apple users.
Google will do its best to deliver a seamless experience on both platforms, but the chances are that it will be a better experience on Android. Google’s sphere of influence will expand and, as a result, more developers will be drawn to it like moths to light. Even if developers start by building iOS apps that work with the Google Photos API. It’s not available yet. But it will be, and when it is, that’ll be just another foot in the door. Eventually, some users of Google Photos on iOS will be compelled to move.
 

 

Xiaomi has announced the launch of the Mi Band 1S — also dubbed as Mi Band Pulse — the company’s second generation wearable fitness tracker. On Monday, the Chinese conglomerate also unveiled a 20000mAh Mi Power Bank. Both the products are currently exclusively available in China with no word on their international launch time frame.
The Mi Band first debuted in China last year. The company has refreshed the fitness tracker with the launch of the Mi Band 1S, adding several substantial improvements such as the addition of an optical heart-rate sensor and aesthetic changes while maintaining a dirt-cheap price tag. A display, however, is still missing.
The Mi Band 1S measures 37×13.6×9.9mm (so a tad larger than the Mi Band) and also weighs half a gram more than the Mi Band. It is also IP67 certified, so the band should be able to withstand dust and water to an extent.
The company has retained the same 45mAh battery as its predecessor and promises 30-day battery life on a single charge. Considering the band now also comes equipped with a heart-rate sensor, that’s an interesting feat if it manages to deliver it. It will go on sale in China at a price point of CNY 99 (roughly Rs. 1,030, or $16). The company also announced that it will continue to sell the original Mi Band.
As per IDC’s recent figures, Xiaomi sold around 3.1 million Mi Band trackers in Q2 2015. The company was only behind Apple, which sold 3.6 million Apple Watch models, and 4.4 million trackers sold by Fitbit.

 
On Monday, the company announced a new large Mi Power Bank with a capacity 20000mAh. Priced at an equivalent of $24 (roughly Rs. 1,600), the 20000mAh Mi Power Bank comes with a plastic body – which is different from the metal body other power banks from the company come with. This makes it possible for the unit to weigh less than other Mi Power Bank models and better withstand scratches. The company says that the battery inside the device is made by LG or Panasonic and promises up to 93 percent conversion rate. It offers 5.1V and 3.6A output.
via : NDTV Gadgets360

Big changes to Facebook profiles are just around the corner. Facebook profiles are extremely popular part of the social network — the company says that they are viewed a cumulative more than 4 billion times a day.
“We’re making it easier for you to see what others can view by introducing a new customizable space at the top of your profile. You can curate this space— and convey what you want people to know about you— by changing the visibility of the fields that show up here,” Facebook said. Facebook is introducing five big changes to user profiles
Facebook Video Profile: The ability to use a 7-second looping video as your profile pic is the biggest change that is going to happen. Soon you’ll be able to click on your profile pic to upload a new profile video. You tap the record button and can shoot for up to 7 seconds with sound. The looping video will auto-play without sound (unless clicked) on your profile and the feed story about you uploading it.

 
 
Featured Photos: The option to pin Featured Photos to the top of the profile Temporary profile pics is the next biggest feature. You will have an option to select up to five Featured Photos that will appear pinned to a section at the top of your profile. This is designed to let you give people considering your friend request or who just met you a better clue to your identity.

 
 
Temporary Profile Pics: This feature lets you select a profile pic, but have yours revert to your old pic after a set number of hours, days, or weeks. It’s useful for promoting a cause, like the the millions of people who set their profile pic in Tri-color tint to support Digital India campaign.

Easier visibility controls and Bio: The new profile asks you to write a short bio of yourself (“Mom, wife, growth hacker. Coffee addict!”), and supports the use of emoji. Next comes the “About” field, which tells people where you live, work, go to school, and so on.
A Mobile-Centric Design: Rather than just port the more left-aligned web profile to mobile, Facebook has built a mobile-first design. It makes the profile pic/video bigger and puts it in the center of the screen. Below, rather than small panels that open to reveal details on friends and photos, Facebook is giving both their own big sections pinned below the profile pic and above the timeline.
Availability: The features begin rolling out and testing today for some users on iOS in California and the United Kingdom before introducing the changes more broadly.
 

 
 
The new Apple TV is here, just unveiled at today’s Apple’s September Event. As we all know that Apple’s plans for the living room have circled for years, but I think this is going to represent the biggest charge as of now. Today exec Eddy Cue appropriately called it “a big day for the big screen.” Tim Cook called it “the future of television,” Its a new operating system called tvOS.
That remote appears to have a touchscreen, mic and Wii-like motion controls built in, necessary for Siri to search across “multiple content options (Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Showtime, with more to come) on a single screen. It’s feature already offered by competitors like Roku, Samsung, Amazon and Xbox that makes it easy to find a show or movie without having to know which service or app it’s in first, and now it’s on Apple TV too.
This will definitely interest iOS Developer community as developing apps will take advantage of some common technologies with iOS, like Metal, and developers will use the same tools like Xcode. Developers can even build universal apps that let you buy one app that works across your iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV.

During the event Apple showed off some new gaming experiences, including Rayman Adventures, Disney Infinity 3.0, Shadowmatic, Crossy Road and the new Guitar Hero. Crossy Road is also getting a multiplayer mode on Apple TV, where players can join in with an iPhone or iPod Touch as a controller.