Yu Yureka goes out of stock in 5 seconds, next sale on February 19

Yu Yureka had its fifth flash sale on Amazon India, where the company made available 25,000 units  of the handset to registered users. The sale began at 2.00PM, and the company announced that it was over in 5 seconds.

This is the first time Yu made available 25,000 units, the most so far. Its previous sales saw 10,000 to 15,000 units up for grabs. So far, the company has managed to sell 50,000 units since its launch in India. The last four sales saw the Yureka going out of stock in 4, 3 , 3 and 4 seconds respectively.’

The next sale will be conducted on February 19 at 2.00PM, for which registrations will begin at 5.00PM today. For the lucky users who managed to get the Yureka in their carts today, will get 15 minutes to make the purchase. Users who did not get lucky for the first time, are recommended to join the Waitlist. The Waitlist members then get a chance to grab the device, if the first-time lucky users fail to purchase it in 15 minutes.

The Yu Yureka is popular thanks to the set of specifications and LTE connectivity it offers at Rs 8,999. To recap, it sports a 5.5-inch HD IPS display, and is powered by a Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with 64-bit capability and paired with 2GB of RAM. The smartphone also features 16GB internal storage that can be further expanded using a microSD card.

Furthermore, the smartphone also features a 13-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 2,500mAh battery. On the software front, it runs on CyanogenMod OS 11 based on Android KitKat.

Read More

Watch Tech CEOs Take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

By now, we've probably all seen at least one of our Facebook friends voluntarily submit to having a bucket of ice water dumped on their head. Or perhaps you've noticed #IceBucketChallenge trending on Twitter. But why?

The challenge is intended to raise money for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. You dump a bucket of ice water on your head and challenge someone (or several people) to do the same within 24 hours or donate $100 to the cause.

In many cases, people do both. In fact, The ALS Association reported today that it has raised $9.5 million since July 29, compared to $1.6 million during the same time period last year. While it might seem silly, there's no denying that the challenge has raised awareness - and funds - for ALS research.

Not surprisingly, a number of tech heavyweights have accepted the challenge, and challenged their high-tech counterparts to do the same. Check out some of Silicon Valley's brightest being doused by cold water below; we'll update as more people accept.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg was challenged by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who worked with the Facebook CEO on funding for Newark schools. Zuckerberg accepted and challenged Bill Gates, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, and Netflix chief Reed Hastings.

Bill Gates
Microsoft founder Bill Gates accepted Zuckerberg's challenge (after watching the video on a Surface Pro 3, natch) in a cute video that finds him engineering the perfect water dump. Gates, in turn, challenges Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Ryan Seacrest, and Chris Anderson of TED.

Satya Nadella
Back at the company Gates founded, new CEO Satya Nadella took one for the team, and nominated Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Google's Larry Page to step up.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Bezos accepted the challenge during a company-wide meeting, standing in a small plastic pool. He challenged William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, and George Takei.

Apple CEO Tim Cook
Cook was nominated by Apple's senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, and he accepted during an outdoor gathering at Apple headquarters. Cook nominated new Apple employee Dr. Dre, Disney CEO and Apple board member Bob Iger, and musician Michael Franti, who was playing at the town hall and accepted the challenge immediately.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo
Twitter chief Dick Costolo used one of his company's products - Vine - to complete the challenge in six seconds. He nominated Carl Quintanilla of CNBC.



T-Mobile CEO John Legere
Quintanilla accepted Costolo's challenge and in turn nominated John Legere. The head of the un-carrier narrowly avoided having his company acquired by Sprint, but he couldn't avoid the ice bucket challenge. Legere accepted, and nominated the CEOs of rival telecom firms - Lowell McAdam from Verizon, Randall Stephenson of AT&T, and Marcelo Claure of Sprint.



AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega 
At AT&T, it was AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega who accepted the challenge - in a suit. He challenged his own team to do the same.

Read More