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Uber and its Indian rival Ola are racing against each other in better serving Indian customers on slower networks.

Not long ago, Uber rolled out a feature in India that lets people book a cab without downloading the app. Today, India’s largest cab-hailing service Ola announced that users on its platform can now book a cab even when there is no internet connectivity.

Dubbed 'Ola Offline', the feature comes into play when a customer doesn’t have good (or any) data connectivity. When that happens, Ola app offers users with two options: the usual, Retry; and a new 'Book via SMS'. Tapping the latter takes them to the messaging app, where they see a pre-entered text message requesting Ola to book a cab.

From there, users are able to interact with Ola through text messages. Ola sends them details of cabs available at nearby places, and users can select the driver and book a cab using SMSs. Ola says it informs the driver about the contact details with the GPS triangulated location of the user.

Ola Offline is available across all cab categories in four metro cities starting today. Other regions will get Ola Offline over the coming weeks. "We understand that while an Ola might be available around you, a working Internet connection might not always be. Ola Offline will now plug this gap," Ankit Bhati, CTO and co-founder of Ola said in a statement.

Ola Offline further underscores how serious Ola is about expanding its service to the untapped Indian market. The company also offers features like Ola WiFi, 2G optimization, and regional language support. 

In August, Uber rolled out two similar features to encourage more people to use its service. The company offered users the ability to book a cab by visiting the mobile website, and also allowed them to book a cab for their friends. Additionally, Uber announced last month that it will let people in select part of India schedule a ride.

Internet penetration continues to be a big problem in India, but companies are increasingly finding ways to serve Indians. Earlier this month, Google announced a fleet of new features for Indian on slow networks, including a new YouTube app called YouTube Go. 

Xiaomi took India by storm when it entered the country with its low-cost and durable smartphones in 2014. In the two years since, it has become one of the largest online smartphone sellers in India. But as it looks at expanding its presence in the country, the Chinese company is increasingly eyeing the good ol’ brick and mortar stores.

Over the weekend, Xiaomi launched a new smartphone called the Redmi 3S+ for the Indian market. Priced at Rs 9,499 ($148), the mid-range Redmi 3S+ is company's first smartphone to be sold exclusively through offline retailers and distributors in India. The phone is available to purchase from more than 7,500 retailers including Poorvika, Sangeetha, BIG C, and LOT mobiles, Xiaomi said.

The move marks a big deviation for the company, which has until recently relied exclusively on online stores for selling its phones in India. But if the company wants to expand its presence in the country, it cannot overlook the offline market. Seven out of 10 phones sold in India are bought at offline retail stores, Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research told Mashable India.

Xiaomi’s growing focus on offline retailers is also its retaliation against other Chinese players like Huawei and Oppo who use a mix of offline and online channels for selling their smartphones in India. Lenovo, which fights with Xiaomi for the top position among online sellers in the country, also has a deep offline presence in India, for instance.

India has always been a big market for Xiaomi, but it has become especially important with the company struggling to keep up pace in its home market. The company’s phones haven't been selling as fast in China as they used to once. During the period between April and June this year, for instance, Xiaomi sold 38 percent fewer smartphones in China than it did during the same period last year. So naturally, as the company faces new competition in its home market, it is looking at India and other nations where it operates for further growth.

Seven out of 10 smartphones are sold through offline retailers in India.

Its focus to boost its offline efforts also illustrates company’s attempt to fight for the seventy percent of the market that it previously didn’t even cater to. “They need to scale up. For the past few quarters they have been stuck at a million per quarter sales,” Pathak added. “A mix of offline vs online as a channel strategy should be beneficial for Xiaomi. It needs to invest in cities and other areas such as UP, North east, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where smartphone penetration is picking up.”

Xiaomi realizes that and it has been steadily stitching together the pieces to sell phones in India through offline chains. Over the past year, the company has tied-up with Redington, Innocomm and Just Buy Live offline big chain retailers among others. The company’s recent phones including the Redmi Note 3, Mi 5, and Redmi 3S are available in the offline market through these chains. 

Moving forward, the company tells Mashable India it will make all its future phones available in the offline market as well. The company reaffirmed that it aims for a 70 to 30 ratio for sales through online and offline retailers respectively. "Currently, 90 per cent of our sales in India are online and the remaining is offline. In steady state, in China, it is a 70-30 (online-offline) split," Manu Kumar Jain, head of Xiaomi India had said last year. 

Few would argue Android got off to a slow start. Back in 2008, it was the eagerly anticipated Google mobile platform that was supposed to take on the barely year-old Apple iPhone and venerable RIM (BlackBerry).

The first Android phone, the HTC-built G1, was unusual and distinctive. It even had a dedicated, physical search button (so Google), but it didn’t inspire or sell very well. For a long time, Android appeared to have a failure-to-launch problem. Motorola arguably could be credited with rescuing Android from obscurity. Eventually, the Android mantle was passed from Motorola to Samsung and success built upon success until the platform owned a stunning majority of the global market.

So, yes, Android is a global brand. But that initial announcement was not a shot heard around the world. It was a small seed that grew into the towering tree that is Google’s mobile platform.

Google isn't planting a seed on Tuesday. Its fall hardware unveiling will be more, it hopes, like dropping a Star Trek II-style Genesis Effect bomb on a barren planet: terra-forming it instantly with millions of Google hardware converts. Am I exaggerating? A little. But check out this bold promise:

A memorable day means that Google has to do more than just officially launch all the hardware they introduced last summer. It has to do a hard reset, unveil mobile surprises and brand-new handsets that finally do what the G1 couldn’t do nearly a decade ago: position Google as a handset manufacturer equal to Apple.

It's the right time for Google to do something bold and, maybe, a little crazy. The search giant has, after all, only partial control of the Android narrative. When most people think of a leading Android smartphone they think about Samsung and then LG and then maybe HTC. Motorola is still in there, too, though it doesn’t hold the same position it once did. Heck, now people can include BlackBerry and Android in the same thought.

It's the right time for Google to do something bold and, maybe, a little crazy.

None of these Android partners can be trusted to run 100% stock Android, though they’ve come much closer in recent years. Carrier partners are not much more helpful, stuffing handsets with their own custom software and still delivering Android updates on their own schedules, not Google’s.

Google will, if the steady stream of leaks we’ve been fed for the last few weeks hold true, unveil at least two new smartphones on Tuesday. Which is exactly what Google did last year. It also introduced a new Pixel C tablet.

“The last two were nice phones with solid features and with direct lines to upgraded latest software, but nowhere near an iPhone 6s Plus,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy.

The Nexus 6P and 5X were very good phones, but they quickly slipped from the public consciousness, almost as fast as we forgot the Pixel C. A quarter for anyone who can deliver of photo of one of those things in the wild.

Thinking different

Google can’t expect to make waves when it's paddling with the same oars. Delivering yet another set of Nexus phones designed more to influence Android partners than to actually move the market won’t be enough.

It feels like it's time for Google to have its Microsoft Surface moment: blow away (and maybe piss off) partners by designing, building and aggressively selling its own hardware. Some see this as a way forward for Google.

“Making their own hardware is a way to help them gain back control of Android. Although it is a risky move, if they get strong carrier support and more importantly can guarantee that these products will always have the most current OS on them, then it could go a long way toward giving them a better position against Apple and other Android smartphone vendors,” said Tim Bajarin, President of Creative strategies.

Bajarin thinks Google has a big opportunity here. They’re certainly going to have the attention to do something big.

“It is a major hardware event where Google positions themselves as a major player like Microsoft has done with their Surface products,” said Bajarin. 

Google, obviously, does make and sell some of its own hardware. But they’ve been wildly inconsistent. For every Chromecast (a $35 success — relatively — from day one) there’s been a dumped-on-the-road Nexus Q.

However, up until now, Google has never married hardware and software in a way that effectively illustrates the power of their search engine, vast data stores and growing expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Google Home, the smart speaker and digital assistant, could be that product. In fact, it could be the hardware game-changer Google desperately needs. Moorhead thinks Home represents a strong opportunity.

Imagine “Google Home working spectacularly with their Pixel- or Nexus-brand phone — if they’ve optimized the microphones to work perfectly and it does things that Alexa and Siri can’t do and does it a lot better,” said Moorhead.

However, that kind of integration is difficult to achieve. And Moorhead worries Google may not be able to deliver a flawless and consistent experience from the living room to the Nexus or Pixel Phone.

Who are you?

With Cardboard, Chromecast and even Google-branded Wi-Fi, there could be more than half-a dozen hardware announcements on Tuesday. Some experts, though, still don’t believe hardware is the goal.

“Google is not turning into a hardware business,” said Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst Thomas Husson. He told me Google simply wants to showcase its information access across a wide variety of connected devices. 

“Search is increasingly taking place in many more places, via many more devices and through new interfaces — with a growing number of voice and visual requests. To stay relevant for marketers in the long run, the Google Assistant is likely to be the driving force behind Google’s hardware moves.”

What’s in a name

But why would Google introduce so many different pieces of hardware? Do its Android partners really need that much guidance? There are, I think, indications that Google has bigger plans for these gadgets.

A look at the massive Google Pixel phone leak from Monday morning offers an interesting glimpse of how Google may want us all to think about their handsets (and hardware, in general) in the future. The image says “Introducing Pixel, Phone by Google.” "Introducing Pixel" is relatively small and “Phone by Google” is larger and more prominent. Does Google want us to start saying something like “I love my Google Phone?”

There would be few branding moves bigger than introducing “The Google Phone,” though, some are not convinced.

Pixel likely to be the standard bearer for “Google Phones” going forward.

“I don’t know if they want to copy Apple and put their whole company name on it,” said brand expert, CEO and Founder of The Branding Clinic Kathleen Carroll, adding, “Companies use other names to protect themselves in case it doesn’t go well [and] to keep parent’s brand equity very strong.”

Which means Pixel is still the more likely standard bearer for “Google Phones” going forward.

Google first used “Pixel” in 2013 when the company unveiled the Chromebook Pixel. Pixel was then less a brand name than an indication of the laptop’s rather remarkable screen resolution for the time (239 pixels per inch).

If Pixel does become the go-forward brand for its new line of flagship Android phones, the switch makes sense, said Carroll, especially if Google is bringing “revolutionary change.”

In fact, keeping the Nexus brand for technology that leapfrogs the competition would be, Carroll noted, a mistake. “Nexus has been out long enough and enough people are uninterested or are rejectors that [Google does] need a new name to get excitement and interest in category,” she told me.

Google hasn’t built up a lot of faith in its brand-management expertise. With the exception of Android, they still tend to introduce brands and then drop or ignore them. “Look at the Nexus brand,” said Patrick Moorhead. “It started with a certain promise and changed. Not disciplined brand management.”

When I asked Moorhead, Carroll and others about the possibilities of Google taking firmer control of “Android” as a brand name for their handsets, most thought that would be a mistake.

Calling the new phones Google Pixel, though, won’t necessarily solve all of Google’s device branding problems, but it could bring it into line with Google Home, Google Chromecast and Google Pixel C.

Google is Google

So let’s imagine that Google’s Pixel phones manage to raise the bar on photography, battery life, screen resolution and even affordability. They demonstrate a Google ecosystem of mobile and home devices that use the smartly rebranded Google Assistant as connective tissue, which follows you from the office, to the road to the home and back out again. 

It’s finally Google’s moment to prove that, as Bajarin put it to me, its hardware business “is not a hobby.”

In 90 intense and thrilling minutes, Google will finally deliver a unified vision for its software and hardware. It will feel, essentially, like an Apple event.

And more importantly, the excitement of the event will, finally, be matched by some follow-through.

This could happen.

On the other hand, Google’s event track record is terrible. In the last five years, there’s be exactly one break-out moment: When Google co-founder Sergey Brin (an arguably more dynamic figure than the brilliant but dull Google CEO Sundar Picahi) stunned a Google I/O audience by using parachute jumpers to introduced Google Glass (they actually wore the headsets while jumping out of an airplane). Ultimately, this perfectly illustrated everything that’s wrong with Google’s hardware approach. They were building cool gadgets for nerds, instead of useful, beautiful consumer electronics for everyday people. 

That moment probably worked because we were truly surprised. There were no expectations (except for the sky-high ones that existed right after the Google Glass reveal). 

By contrast, less than 24 hours from what could be Google’s most important unveiling in eight years, expectations are high and rising. “[They] set the expectations that they’re going to swing everyone around the room,” said Moorhead. “I feel like Google is setting themselves up for either a colossal failure or disappointment.”

iPad sales aren't what they used to be. With the release of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, it's clear the iPad's future is for professionals.

Apple is rumored to be considering an "iPad mini Pro" with a 7.9-inch screen and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro could be replaced with a slightly larger 10.1-inch model, according to the often-reliable Japanese Apple blog Macotara.

An iPad mini Pro would have all the features that would make it a "pro" tablet, including the True Tone display introduced on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, a Smart Connector on the side for magnetically connecting to accessories like a keyboard, quad stereo speakers, an improved 12-megapixel camera with True Tone flash and a new four-array microphone setup.

The iPad mini was last updated in 2015 with the iPad mini 4. As I wrote in my review, it's basically an iPad Air 2 with a smaller screen.

An iPad mini Pro would have all the features that would make it a "pro" tablet.

A larger 10.1-inch iPad Pro would break with the 9.7-inch display that has been the standard size for the iPad since it launched in 2010. It could get the same microphone upgrade the iPad mini Pro is rumored to have.

Moving to a larger screen could also give Apple the screen estate it needs to potentially increase the resolution. Not to mention a larger screen would give people more space to work on and create things. It's unclear if Apple might ditch the 4:3 aspect ratio if the larger iPad Pro turns up.

The rumor corroborates a previous report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that claimed Apple would introduce a larger iPad Pro; his report, however, claimed the tablet might have a 10.5-inch screen.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro will also reportedly get upgraded with all of the iPad mini Pro's improvements.

Most notable of all is the new iPad Pros will reportedly keep their 3.5mm headphone jacks. Apple removed the jacks on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to make room for a larger battery, larger Taptic Engine and seal them for water-resistance.

Macotara believes the new iPad Pros will ship in 2017.

Imagine waking up in a little spaceship orbiting around the moon, spending the day hanging out there and then going back to your fancy hotel pod in space for the evening. 

Just a daydream? The subject of a sci-fi novel? 

Not according to Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Galactic, who envisions a future where private citizens can fly to space as well as professional astronauts.

In a Facebook Live interview with Branson, Mashable asked him what his ultimate dream is for humanity in space, in a hundred years' time.  

"I'd like to have really sexy Virgin hotels in space where people can go and stay in pods, head off in little spaceships around the moon, where they wake up in the morning and then they go back to their pods in the evening," he said. 

Branson, 66, also said he'd like to get everyone connected in the world "because if you're not connected you're held back massively." 

"I'd like Virgin Galactic to be involved in deep space exploration," he added. "Stephen Hawking, who's going to go to space with Virgin Galactic one day, wants us to colonise other colonies because, if a disaster happens to earth, he doesn't want to see evolution wasted."

"In 100 years' time I suspect we would've colonised somewhere like Mars," Branson added.

Hawking does have a ticket to fly to suborbital space aboard the Branson-backed Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo when it does start flying customers. (Hawking is the only customer that didn't have to pay for a SpaceShipTwo ticket, which usually costs about $250,000.)

In a book published by The Guardian, Hawking contends that humans need to venture deep into space for the sake of adventure and the survival of our species.

Virgin Galactic has started test flights of its space plane, but it's unclear when tourists will fly onboard the vehicle. 

A fatal accident during a test flight in 2014 destroyed Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo, greatly setting back the company's progress on the spaceflight system.

The new SpaceShipTwo was named Unity by Hawking, who said, "I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship," when the craft was unveiled in February 2016. 

Branson said space escalation is important because connectivity without space "just wouldn't exist."

"It's important we get many people to go to space so they can see how fragile our beautiful earth is and hopefully when they come back they can take after it," he said. 

Branson is not the only billionaire with that vision.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said that he wants to make sure the human race is safe from an extinction-level event (like an asteroid strike) on Earth by establishing a city on Mars. He recently presented his vision for a future society on Mars to the world during a speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. 

At last, there's another place to sell items to strangers on the internet.

Facebook debuted a new "Marketplace" for its iOS and Android apps Monday, allowing users to buy and sell items via a new tab at the bottom of their News Feed. Marketplace will let you make offers for items, but no money is directly exchanged on Facebook's platform, product manager Mary Ku told Mashable in an interview about the feature. 

"We're facilitating the connection between buyer and seller, and then they can figure out how to do the transaction themselves," Ku said. 

This is Facebook's take on Craigslist, in other words. You'll see items from people in your area, offer them money and figure out the details later. That's a clear distinction from sites like Etsy or eBay, which are glutted with businesses and directly facilitate transactions via credit card or PayPal — if all goes well, you never have to talk to a person to get your item. Not so with Facebook's Marketplace. 

How it works

It's pretty straightforward: Hit the new Marketplace tab at the bottom of your screen and you'll be taken to a page with listings in your area. You can search according to keywords or categories, and you can also broaden your query to include different cities. Once you've found something you want, you can message the seller directly or tap into their public profile — the same one they use to interact with friends — to make sure they seem legit. 

You'll have to come to reach an agreement with the seller about how you complete the transaction. Maybe you pop over to their apartment, pick up the basket of Beanie Babies and Venmo them a few bucks. Or perhaps you settle on a cash-for-cat-toys situation. Facebook doesn't care how you pay, which makes a lot of sense: In order for people to use Marketplace over an established service, it needs to be easy — no fussing over shipping fees, taxes, linked credit cards and so on.

Selling an item is simple, too: Just hit the "Sell" button, snap a picture and fill out some details.

Ku told Mashable that Marketplace will only work for people ages 18 and up, and it's only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand for now. 

Not automated — yet

While Facebook made headlines earlier this year with the introduction of chat bots — automated assistants that can help you order food and flowers via Messenger — Ku characterized Marketplace as by humans, for humans.

Businesses will not be able to target individuals based on how they use the feature

"We've seen a lot of people organically discover products on Facebook," she said. "We're building on top of that."

There are no ads within Marketplace, a representative for Facebook told Mashable, and businesses will not be able to target individuals based on how they use the feature. People will be able to report items that violate Facebook's terms (no guns allowed) and listings will be monitored by Facebook staff — though the company wouldn't say if there's an automated process in place to catch forbidden goods.

A new take on an old concept

Facebook started testing this iteration of Marketplace earlier this year, but the feature actually made its debut in 2007. At the time, users could use Facebook's desktop version to create their own classified ads. You might recall seeing your friends try to unload their used textbooks at the end of each semester. 

Facebook also claims that 450 million people already buy and sell items each month via its online groups.

The social network just wants "to make this easy and accessible," Ku said.

If you were hoping to hear more about the next version of Android Wear at Google's big hardware event next week, you might not want to get your hopes up just yet.

Google has now pushed back the date for the official release of the update to "early 2017."

The company didn't provide a reason for the change, which was buried at the bottom of a post on its Android Developers blog. 

But the delay isn't terribly surprising to those who have been following closely. Earlier this month, CNET reported that many of Google's biggest Android Wear partners, including LG, Lenovo and Huawei, wouldn't be releasing new watches before the end of the year. 

Given that it wouldn't have any new watches from many of its biggest partners, it makes sense that Google would want to delay the launch to coincide with new hardware. (We have seen a few new Android Wear devices from smaller partners, like Michael Kors and Asus.) 

The update, originally slated for release this fall, adds standalone app functionality, new text input options and other features. Google also launched the third version of its developer preview Thursday, which adds a watch-specific version of Google's Play Store. This will allow you to download apps to your watch independently of your smartphone.

Delays aren't the only problems Google is facing with Android Wear. Many smartwatches are apparently not working with Apple's iPhone 7, according to a report in 9to5Mac. The source of the issue is unclear but Google has reportedly made Apple aware of the issue.