Google partners MyGov to build PMO mobile app Online search giant Google will help MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the government of India, to launch a nationwide contest to build a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), a company statement said here on Monday. ―Google will partner MyGov in this contest to build the PMO mobile app. The contest will launch tomorrow at 5 p.m. on MyGov.in,‖ the statement said.This contest will be held across the country at different institutions and colleges and will invite participation from people throughout India. Speaking at a NASSCOM event on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was planning to invite ideas from the public for developing a mobile app for his office. ―We are very excited to be a part of the Prime Minister’s vision and would urge every Indian to come forward and participate in the app development contest and become a cohesive part of governance and decision making in the country,‖ said Rajan Anandan, vice president and managing director, Google India & South-East Asia. ―To realise the Government’s Digital India vision, we are collaborating with MyGov to develop a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) through a contest. With this we wish to support the Government’s agenda and provide every citizen access to the PM’s office through a mobile device,‖ Chetan Krishnaswamy, country head – public policy at Google India said. ―Through the PMO app contest we wish to use technology effectively to encourage innovation, aspiration and enhance connectivity. We want to provide every citizen access to the PMO through a mobile device,‖ Gaurav Dwivedi, chief executive officer, MyGov said. ―And since this is an app for the people, we are inviting people to submit ideas on the features they would like to see in their PMO’s mobile app,‖ he added. HTC partners up with Valve and makes virtual reality headset HTC Re Vive The HTC One M9 managed to keep one thing a secret: It partnered up with Valve to create a virtual reality headset called the HTC Re Vive. Including a gyroscope, the device will have many sensors, accelerometer and a laser position sensor, and it will track the wearer’s entire surrounding environment and not just head movements. This means they will be able to interact with objects, explore their virtual environment and inspect them from all sides. Re Vive will show a 1,200 x 1,080 screen in front of each eye from a technical perspective and with refresh rates of 90 frames per second. An audio jack is supplied for connecting the headphones and it will come with ergonomic VR game controllers for each hand. HTC has set forth an ambitious timeline for the Re Vive : The developer edition will become available in spring 2015, and HTC says the consumerready variant should be available in time for 2015’s holiday season. Google confirms plans to launch mobile service soon Washington: On Tuesday, senior Vice President at Google Sundar Pichai said Search engine Giant Google has confirmed plans that the company is launching its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) with existing partners. senior Vice President at Google S Pichai said in a statement at Mobile World Congress that the company is working towards creating its own MVNO but did not disclose the names of the partners. If rumours are to be believed, the existing partners of Google on the project are Sprint and T-Mobile networks. Sundar said that Google does not intend to be a ―carrier at scale‖. He added, Google is aiming at breaking down the barriers of how connectivity works. Huawei announces first Android Wear smartwatch Chinese technology major Huawei has unveiled its maiden smartwatch as it looks to compete with global giants like Samsung, Apple and Motorola in the nascent, but growing wearables market. ’Huawei Watch’ has been launched in classic, business and sporty versions powered by Google’s Android Wear operating system.Featuring the lead of Motorola, Huawei has also chosen to go with the round-face look, which has received favourable reviews from fashion-conscious youth over square-faced smartwatches. ―Wearable devices will remain one of the most significant trends in the industry, and by leveraging Huawei’s technology and innovation, Huawei Consumer BG aims to be a leader in the wearable space,‖ Huawei CEO Consumer B.G. Richard Yu said. The Huawei Watch features a 1.4 inch AMOLED, scratch & waterproof display, that can be paired with a smartphone running Android 4.3 or higher.The device comes packed with health tracking functions and has a built-in advanced heart rate monitor sensor and built-in microphone. According to research firm Gartner, the global wearable electronic devices for fitness shipments are forecast to reach 91.3 million units in 2016 from 73.01 million units in 2013.Huawei has also launched other wearables, including TalkBand B2 and TalkBand N1. The second generation of Huawei’s TalkBand products showcases a more business-like professional design with smarter fitness tracking functionality, while the Huawei TalkBand N1 is a stereo and Bluetooth headset featuring 4 GB of local MP3 storage.The TalkBand B2 will retail at 169 euros (about Rs. 11,700) onwards, while TalkBand N1 will be available for 119 euros (about Rs. 8,200). Huawei has also unveiled its MediaPad X2, which it claims is the world’s first ultra-octa 64 bit 4G phablet. Featuring a 7-inch HD IPS screen, it has a 2GHz ultra-octa chipset, 5,000 mAh battery and 13MP rear and 5MP front-facing camera.The Huawei MediaPad X2 will come in two versions — standard version of 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM and a premium 3 GB RAM and 32 GB memory. The devices are dual-SIM and offer 4G network support.