google – Tech Raman

HDFC bank launches Humanoid Robot Assistant IRA 2.0 and Virtual Banking Assistants EVA

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 02 May 2018 04:16:03 +0000

IRA 2.0 Humanoid Robot IRA is the first of its kind implementation in the banking industry in India, introducing a humanoid for customer service. The technology has been developed by HDFC Bank in collaboration with its technology partners Invento Makerspaces and Senseforth Technologies. The first version of the IRA was launched in January 2017 at the Bank’s Kamala mills branch in Mumbai and is now currently stationed at the Palarivattom branch in Kochi. HDFC bank is actively pursuing to better the Humanoid experience and the IRA 2.0 is the next progression level with few more advance skills added to it. By mapping the branch layout, customers can not only ask certain banking queries to the humanoid but IRA 2.0 can also walk them to the designated counters. The future road map for IRA includes communicating in-depth the banking products, suggestions, give information about bank accounts, handle service requests and provide the status of applications or requests.

HDFC EVA – Virtual Assistant

Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa enabled devices are slowly finding into the homes of Indian households and Google Assistant is practically in almost all the Android phones in our hands. Taking leverage of these two powerful assistants, HDFC has integrated their virtual assistant EVA to work with both. HDFC is the first bank to offer voice banking experience on Alexa. Since its launch, EVA which stands for To offer the simplicity and convenience of a voice conversation to banking transactions, HDFC Bank’s virtual assistant ‘EVA’ has been successfully integrated with Amazon Alexa, making it the first bank to offer voice banking experience on Alexa. Since its launch, EVA, which stands for ‘Electronic Virtual Assistant’ has addressed over 65 lakh queries on voice and chat-based channels with over 85 per cent accuracy. With this integration, HDFC Bank customers can now chat with EVA using voice from the comfort of their homes, without having to pick up a phone, tablet or laptop.

EVA Skill on Alexa

So what can customers can ask EVA on Alexa? In the first phase which has been implemented now, an user after integrating the EVA skill on Alexa can ask about

bank’s product features,
fees and charges,
interest rates,
credit card reward points / payment date / expiry date
branches (address, IFSC).
Customers can also enquire about how to block/unblock card, what to do if one forgets pin, and update personal information.

In the first phase, customers can ask EVA on Alexa about bank’s product features, fees and charges, interest rates, credit card reward points / payment date / expiry date, and branches (address, IFSC).Customers can also enquire about how to block / unblock card, what to do if one forgets pin, and updating personal information. In future, EVA on Alexa will support banking transaction and deliver hyper-personalized service using voice. Going forward, EVA on Alexa will support banking transactions and deliver hyper-personalized services using voice. HDFC Bank collaborated with Senseforth and Amazon to build India’s first Banking skill on Alexa.

EVA on Google Assistant

While Alexa is still not at every home, Google Assistant is in almost every Android phone and Android phones have the lion’s share in the mobile segment. By integrating EVA to the Google Assistant, HDFC bank has taken the voice-based banking to the masses. With the launch of the Google home in India, EVA can be accessed on those devices too. Instead of typing, users can simply say “Ok Google, talk to HDFC Bank” to their Google Assistant to interact with Eva. By voice users can make queries on banking products and features like in Alexa skill. IRA 2.0 and EVA are definitely a milestone in the digital banking momentum taking place in the banking industry in India and HDFC bank is taking the lead in the space. Voice based technology interaction is where the future is heading to and HDFC has made a jump start and now provides a simple and intuitive voice interactions through their Smartphones, Alexa Echo and Google home products so that users can conveniently access information anywhere, anytime. Who said banking is a boring affair? Not anymore. ]]>

What is YouTube Go? | 5 Key Features of YouTube Go

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 12:39:01 +0000

Google has release the beta version of YouTube Go and is now available for download in Play store. Google has today announced the roll out the beta version of YouTube Go in India. The beta version is now available for download on the Google Play Store. Tailored to the Indian consumers and taking note of the bandwidth availability and usage pattern of majority of online Indians, last year during the Google for India event, the company had announced the YouTube Go for the Indian market and now has made it available.

Here are the five key features of the YouTube Go app:

You can preview videos snippets before you decide to watch or save the video. The preview gives you an idea of what to expect out of the video before you decide upon it. The preview can be accessed when you tap on a thumbnail.
You get to choose the resolution when saving or streaming videos. It gives a basic quality and a standard quality and also gives the file size of each quality, so you can decide which one to opt for depending on your data plan.
The home screen of the app features trending and popular videos in your region to discover videos that might interests you.
There is a share videos with friends nearby option. The best part is doesn’t use any data. You can send and receive videos instantly and offline with others using YouTube Go app.
If you don’t like a video showing in the home page, you can remove it from your screen.

The app is in the beta release and Google would like user’s feedback to improve the app. If someone like to find out when YouTube Go is fully ready, you can sign up at youtubego.com/signup.]]>

Google Nexus 5X made by LG comes to India; Price starts at Rs 31,990

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 13:30:00 +0000

Google Nexus 5X Specifications

Chipset: 1.8 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808
Operating System: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Display: 5.2-inch Full HD IPS (1920 x 1080 / 423ppi)
Memory: 2GB LPDDR3 RAM / 16 or 32GB eMMC ROM
Rear camera: Up to 12.3MP with F2.0 Aperture
Front camera: 5MP with F2.0 Aperture
Battery: 2,700mAh (embedded)
Size: 147 x 72.6 x 7.9mm
Weight: 136g
Network: LTE-A Cat 6
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.2 / NFC / Type-C USB
Colors: Carbon / Quartz / Ice
Other: 4K Video / Dual Flash / IR Laser Auto-Focus / Fingerprint Sensor

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Huawei made Google Nexus 6P launched in India; Price starts at Rs. 39,999

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 10:31:57 +0000

Huawei Nexus 6P Special offers Flipkart is offering special offers for those pre-booking Huawei Nexus 6P in their Big billion days sale and the benefits include 10% bank discount on select banks, a chromecast and few other goodies. If you are planning to buy it offline, few early buyers can get a free premium Bluetooth Logitech speaker worth Rs.2450. Airtel users can also avail 4G/3G double data offer for 6 months. Plus, Huawei has also partnered with Yatra for offers worth Rs 28,000. ]]>

Lenovo picks Motorola from Google for $2.91 billion

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 06:01:30 +0000

The new 2013 Nexus 7 now available on Google Play Store in India starting at Rs 20,999

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 05:42:23 +0000

The 2013 edition Nexus 7 is a commendable sequel to the last year’s Nexus 7 and is thinner, lighter, more powerful. It also features a 7 inch LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. It is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz and paired with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The camera specs include a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2 megapixel front camera and the device also features dual stereo speakers and packs in a 3,950mAh non-removable battery which Google claims would deliver 9 hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of web browsing. The advantage of Nexus devices is getting priority over the new releases of Android updates and not surprisingly new Nexus 7 gets the taste of the latest release of Android KitKat version. Check out the new Nexus 7 on Google Play HERE]]>

Moto G launched for $179; coming to India in January

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 19:50:56 +0000

Moto G will be available in 8GB and 16GB variants but there is no options for expandable external memory slot. In US the handset will be available through the company’s website and the price of the no-contract, SIM unlocked 8GB is fixed at $179 while the 16GB variant can be picked for $199. Motorola Moto G will be available in Brazil starting this week, and the smartphone will be released in Latin America, Europe, Canada and parts of Asia over the next few weeks. The company planning to make a comeback in India plans to out the Moto G in early-January.]]>

Google announces Nexus 5; the first device to have a Android 4.4 kitkat inside

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 19:27:25 +0000

The almost 5-inch display strengthened by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 has a 1080p fullHD resolution amassing a super healthy 441 ppi. The device is powered by 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM. A 8 megapixel camera on the rear with optical image stabilization (OIS) and a 1.3 megapixel front facing shooter makes up for the camera department but Google claims that its new lens captures more light and offers better low-light pictures. At 130g it is slightly lighter than the Nexus 4 and nests a 2300mAh non-removable battery. Unlike its predecessor, Nexus 5 supports LTE as well as ultra fast WiFi. Google touts the Nexus 5 as ‘the slimmest and fastest Nexus phone ever made’ and the 16GB variant is priced at $349 and the 32GB at $399. Beginning today it is available at Google Play store in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Korea. Google says it is ‘coming soon’ in India and more countries to follow. Let’s see how soon it would hit Indian shores as Nexus series has always made a late entry into Indian market.]]>

Wonder what the next Android version be called? It's Android Kitkat!

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 04:59:22 +0000

Just when everyone expected the next version of Android would be Android 5.0 and named Key Lime Pie. Google sprang a surprise break by announcing that the next Android version would be Android 4.4 and would be called Android KitKat. Yes, you read it right. It’s the same trademark chocolate bar name from Nestle. With the new name the company’s sticks with the long tradition of naming the Android versions after desserts. Looks like the chocolate bar is a favorite of the Android coders in Google campus and the company states it’s “not a money-changing-hands kind of deal,” with Nestle. So next time you wrap the covers of KitKat, don’t be surprised to see an Android shaped KitKat choco bar inside! To engage the consumers, Nestle also announced there would be specially-marked KitKat packages giving a chance to win either a free Nexus 7 or a Google Play credit.

History of Android version names

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New Nexus 7 vs old Nexus 7 – Know the differences

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 06:02:52 +0000

Google has announced the new Nexus 7 made by Asus, an upgrade to the last year’s successful and critically lauded 7-inch Nexus 7 Android tablet. So what is new in the new Nexus 7 ? Let’s find out.

Display

While both the devices has a 7-inch IPS display, Google has upped the game on resolution scale. Featuring a very impressive and stunning full HD display with a 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution replacing the 1,280 x 800 resolution of the last years model, the new device crunches 323 PPI outsmarting the 216 PPI of the earlier model.

OS

What makes Nexus brand of devices interesting is the fact that they are the first ones to get the latest Android updates. The new Nexus 7 is baked with the very latest Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) OS. Though we can expect the latest android update to the older device also which currently has Android 4.2.2.

Processor

New Nexus 7 sees a boosted processing power with a 1.5GHz, quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset replacing the 1.2GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 of the last year’s model.

Memory

Not just the processors, new Nexus 7 sees an increased RAM power with a 2GB packed in replacing the 1GB of RAM in the earlier model.

Camera

A rear camera finds its place in the new Nexus 7. While a 1.2-megapixel front camera is common in both the devices, a 5MP rear camera is newest addition to this year’s model.

Connectivity

An LTE (optional) can be availed in the new Nexus 7. Bluetooth is also upgraded to the Bluetooth 4.0 version replacing the version 3.0 of the previous model. Both the models include NFC, WiFi, GPS / GLONASS etc.

Thickness and weight

The new Nexus 7 is lighter and thinner. It sheds around 50 grams weighing 317.5g now while the last year’s model was slightly heavier at 340gms. At 8.65mm thickness the new device is also slimmer compared to the 10.45 mm of the earlier Nexus 7 device. ]]>