Tech Alerts

Aircel Launches 1paise/second plan For Tamilnadu

2009-10-29T01:10:00.000-07:00

Aircel has now launched 1ps/sec plan which they have coined as “Pay Per Second Calling Plan“.

According to the new plan, you will be charged for 1 paisa per second on Local and also STD calls (Upto 10,000 seconds) to any network across India. The full details of the plans are as follows:

For New Customer

Starter Kit (which includes Lifetime Validity SIM) = Rs 49/- With Rs zero talktime and Easy Recharge With Rs.18 And then Activate ur Account.

Voice Calls

Local Calls – 1 ps/second
STD calls – 1ps/second upto the first 10,000 seconds and after that 2 ps/second in that particular month.

SMS

First 100 SMS Free and then,
Local SMS – 60 paise/SMS
National SMS– Rs 1.20 /SMS
International – Rs 5/SMS

Aircel’s Existing customers :

Easy Recharge With Rs.18 and activate ur New Pay per plan.

For More details contact Customer Care +919842012345

Aircel Launches 1paise/second plan

2009-10-29T01:08:00.000-07:00

After Tata Docomo, Aircel has now launched 1ps/sec plan which they have coined as “Pay Per Second Calling Plan“.

According to the new plan, you will be charged for 1 paisa per second on Local and also STD calls (Upto 500 Min) to any network across India. The full details of the plans are as follows:
Starter Kit (which includes Lifetime Validity SIM) = Rs 49/- With Rs zero talktime .

Voice Calls

Local Calls – 1 ps/second
STD calls – 1ps/second upto the first 30,000 seconds (i.e.500 Minutes) and after that 2 ps/second in that particular month.

SMS

First 100 SMS Free and then,
Local SMS – 60 paise/SMS
National SMS– Rs 1.20 /SMS
International – Rs 5/SMS

Aircel’s Existing customers can activate this plan by calling the customer care at 121 (Toll Free) from their Aircel Mobile or 9738012345 from any other mobile/landline.

Simply Reliance Plan- Jaadu Pack

2009-10-27T01:41:00.000-07:00

Simply Reliance...

Now call any mobile or any landline, on any network, anytime anywhere in India for just 50 paise. What's more, there are no vouchers, no monthly charges, no conditions, Simple, isn't it?

Plan:

MRP - Rs.48
I/c Validity - Lifetime#

Special Tariff for lifetime

All Local Calls -5 0p
All STD Calls - 50p
National Roaming - 50p

SMS:
Local - 50p
Application - Rs.3
National - 50p
International - Rs.5

New Customers can avail the above mentioned tariff benefits on first recharge of Rs 51.

#Lifetime Validity – Validity up to the license period & Minimum recharge of Rs.200 in every 180 Days.

Reliance Mobile offers personalized call manger service on GSM network

2009-10-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

Reliance Mobile has introduced the call manager service on its GSM network on supporting handsets. This unique service enables Reliance mobile subscribers a wide range of call completion service. Offered through a server-less client protocol, the Call Manager service enables allows customers to respond to incoming calls with pre-recorded voice messages. The Call Manager also features SMS based chatting and voice mail on mobile.

It allows one to respond to answer phone calls without any need to talk or type, using an intuitive user interface.

The Voice Message feature enables caller to leave a message once a call is left unanswered. The recorded messages are deposited in the mobile phone's Inbox folder, and can be played, forwarded, replied to or removed. The Voice Message feature can be activated either manually by selecting it from the ringing menu. Reliance allows use to customize its greeting message or the duration after which the voicemail automatically answers a call through the application's settings.

Sometimes, when dialling a number, the call may ring without an answer. In such cases where the called party might not notice the call, or may not be able to answer at the moment, the application provides options like Call another number. This will offer you to dial the other available numbers of the same contact. This way, if someone is not available at work, you can try reaching them at home with just a click away. It also enables the caller to start chatting. The Chatting option allows user to start an instant messaging UI-like chat session and communicate conveniently using text messaging.

Reliance Mobile is offering the Call Manager service through a subscription module. It will not charge the user for downloading the application. Moreover, post the installation of the service, the customers can avail a free 7-day offer. The subscription for the service will be activated post the expiry of this free-trial period. Reliance Mobile will charge Rs 15/month as subscription fee.

About Reliance Communications :

Reliance Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002) is the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs. 64,000 crore (US$ 13.6 billion), cash flows of Rs. 13,000 crore (US$ 2.8 billion), net profit of Rs. 8,400 crore (US$ 1.8 billion).

Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The Company, with a customer base of over 90 million including over 2.5 million individual overseas retail customers, ranks among the Top 5 Telecom companies in the world by number of customers in a single country. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers.

Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, next generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

Moving from XP or Vista to Win 7

2009-10-21T02:10:00.000-07:00

Windows 7, now in RTM stage is going to be released on October 22nd. If you intend to install Windows 7 but do not want to lose your personal settings in Vista by doing a fresh installation of the OS, then you have direct in-line upgrade option to the rescue.

Vista users might recall the same upgrade functionality which was available for moving to Vista from XP. However, if you are still on XP and you plan to upgrade to Windows 7 , then there is no upgrade option for you. Microsoft advises for a clean installation for moving to Windows 7 from XP .

Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7
The upgrade option for Vista owners is from the same SKU version of Vista to the same version of Windows 7. One thing users should be aware of is that, they cannot do direct in-line upgrade from a 32-bit Vista version to a 64-bit Windows 7 version.

For doing so, they have to resort to a clean installation. So, if you are having Vista Home Premium, then you'll be able to perform direct in-line upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. In case you have bought the upgrade copy for Windows 7 Professional and you currently own Vista Home Premium, then you'll be able to perform a clean installation and not a direct in-line upgrade. Also, do read the advisory articles for Windows 7 as a reference for the hardware suitability.

After you have selected 'This is the old computer' option, the Easy Transfer tool starts saving users' files and settings of the XP system that need to be migrated to Windows 7.

To start the Easy Migration tool, navigate to support\migwiz folder of the Windows 7 DVD and double click on file migsetup.exe.

After you have selected what all user settings and data has to be migrated, you can then save the migration file in a USB drive and also allot a password to it for security.

In the next window after you get the welcome screen, you have to select external hard disk or USB drive as option to transfer medium to migrate the data and settings.

Once all the settings and files have been saved on the external location, you get a transfer complete confirmation window which states where the file has been saved.

Now after installing Windows 7, go to Start> Accessories> System Tools and click Windows Easy Transfer to initiate the process of migrating XP's user settings and files.

After entering the password on the following screen, you can select what user settings and files you want to import into Windows 7.

Once the user settings and files have been migrated, you can see the transfer report to check what all has been migrated and what not.

Select 'This is the new computer' option and then on the following screens, navigate to the location of USB drive where the migration file has been saved.

While doing network based migration from XP to Win 7, you have to pass the Windows Easy Transfer key that was generated on the XP based machine while running the tool on Win 7 machine.

BANGALORE, INDIA: Windows 7, now in RTM stage is going to be released on October 22nd. If you intend to install Windows 7 but do not want to lose your personal settings in Vista by doing a fresh installation of the OS, then you have direct in-line upgrade option to the rescue.

Vista users might recall the same upgrade functionality which was available for moving to Vista from XP. However, if you are still on XP and you plan to upgrade to Windows 7 , then there is no upgrade option for you. Microsoft advises for a clean installation for moving to Windows 7 from XP .

Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7
The upgrade option for Vista owners is from the same SKU version of Vista to the same version of Windows 7. One thing users should be aware of is that, they cannot do direct in-line upgrade from a 32-bit Vista version to a 64-bit Windows 7 version.

For doing so, they have to resort to a clean installation. So, if you are having Vista Home Premium, then you'll be able to perform direct in-line upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. In case you have bought the upgrade copy for Windows 7 Professional and you currently own Vista Home Premium, then you'll be able to perform a clean installation and not a direct in-line upgrade. Also, do read the advisory articles for Windows 7 as a reference for the hardware suitability.

After you have selected 'This is the old computer' option, the Easy Transfer tool starts saving users' files and settings of the XP system that need to be migrated to Windows 7.

To start the Easy Migration tool, navigate to support\migwiz folder of the Windows 7 DVD and double click on file migsetup.exe.

After you have selected what all user settings and data has to be migrated, you can then save the migration file in a USB drive and also allot a password to it for security.

In the next window after you get the welcome screen, you have to select external hard disk or USB drive as option to transfer medium to migrate the data and settings.

Once all the settings and files have been saved on the external location, you get a transfer complete confirmation window which states where the file has been saved.

Now after installing Windows 7, go to Start> Accessories> System Tools and click Windows Easy Transfer to initiate the process of migrating XP's user settings and files.

After entering the password on the following screen, you can select what user settings and files you want to import into Windows 7.

Once the user settings and files have been migrated, you can see the transfer report to check what all has been migrated and what not.

Select 'This is the new computer' option and then on the following screens, navigate to the location of USB drive where the migration file has been saved.

While doing network based migration from XP to Win 7, you have to pass the Windows Easy Transfer key that was generated on the XP based machine while running the tool on Win 7 machine.

For a clean installation, Windows 7 requires about 16 GB of free hard disk space, whereas for upgrade, the free hard disk requirement is of only 9GB and the installation will be done on the same partition of your Windows Vista. During the upgrade process, user's data and existing applications will automatically be migrated to the newer version of the operating system.

The old Vista files are preserved from C:\Windows folder to C:\Windows.OLD folder in the hard drive. The upgrade option does not create a dual boot for both Vista and Windows 7, and can only be created with a clean installation. Therefore, if you intend to have a dual-boot on your system, then it is advisable that you do prefer a full copy of Windows 7 over the cheaper upgrade options for Windows 7.

Migrating from XP to Windows 7

Though XP users can't upgrade to Win 7, they can still migrate all their personal settings to it, using a tool called Windows Easy Transfer. With this tool, you can can maintain settings while installing Windows 7 on a XP based machine. You can migrate the files and settings of XP to Windows 7 and later after installing Windows 7, you can reinstall the applications that you had on XP. The settings include desktop and personal document files and the user profile settings.

There are two scenarios in which you can run a Windows Easy Transfer tool. One, when you want to install Windows 7 on the same machine on which XP was installed. In this case, you can save migration settings on an external drive or a USB drive and then after installation, you can import the saved settings. Second, you have an old machine having XP installed on it. Now with time you want to upgrade to newer version, Windows 7 on an upgraded hardware machine. In that case you can migrate the settings and files over the network between the two machines.

HCL launches new range laptops

2009-10-21T02:07:00.000-07:00

HCL Infosystems Limited, a provider in hardware, services and ICT system Integration, today announced the launch of its new series of Notebooks and Netbooks under the brand name 'ME' i.e. 'Mobile Excitement'.

Under the 'ME' series, HCL has introduced world's first laptop with in-built 'One Touch' service and support that offers service and self recovery features like 'One Touch support' and 'One Touch Recovery' incorporated into the product, said a press release.

HCL's new range of laptops comes with innovative features like SPLIT ME where one can share their data without worrying about the size of the file and LOCK ME that prevents data theft from the system.

This feature ensures that the data cannot be copied on to external storage devices, USB memory sticks, CD optical disk drives, hard disk drive without getting authorization from the user, Secure ME is an effective tool which can be used to lock any application installed on the PC.

The new ME range is priced between Rs 19,000-Rs 65,000/- and is primarily targeted to Youth of today which includes collegiate and young executives, thus establishing a more youthful and vibrant image of the brand to ensure a stronger connect with NextGen consumers, the release added.

RelianceTies up With Coolpad For Smartphone

2009-10-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Reliance Webstore Limited, the retail venture of Reliance ADA Group, has signed a strategic and exclusive distribution agreement with Coolpad Communication Private Limited. Coolpad Communications is the Indian Joint Venture of the Hong-Kong listed China Wireless Technologies Limited. This agreement marks Coolpad’s formal foray into the Indian handset market. It also marks a diversification of Reliance Webstore Ltd into the open market handset retailing business through its exclusive Reliance World and Reliance Mobile stores.

Reliance Webstore Limited will be the exclusive distributor of Coolpad’s range of handsets in India. The company is planning to roll-out five models of Coolpad dual-mode handsets in India by December 2009.

Commenting on the agreement, Sarup Chowdhary, Director & CEO, Reliance Webstore Limited said, “Our agreement with Coolpad Communications follows the successful test marketing of the brand across several cities in India. The dual-mode smartphones will leverage Reliance's nationwide presence in both CDMA & GSM services. The agreement with Coolpad is strategic to our larger participation in the Indian telecom retail sector.”

China Wireless’ India Joint Venture Head and Coolpad’s Managing Director, Sami Al-Lawati said, “Coolpad’s entry into India is timed to tap India’s 3G market potential as we plan to introduce 3G-enabled dual-mode smartphones in the market soon. Our partnership with Reliance Webstore Limited will help us access end-consumers in over 700 Indian cities, enabling Coolpad to drive product development in line with specific customer needs.”

Coolpad and Reliance Webstore will roll out smartphones in the sub-8000 price-range. The Coolpad 2938 is priced at Rs. 11,000 (MRP).

Samsung Android Handset to be Called Spica

2009-10-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Samsung’s next Android handset is going to be the I5700 Spica. It looks quite like the Galaxy in terms of design. According to the reports the handset will be equipped with -

a capacitive touchscreen
3G with HSDPA, EDGE/GPRS,
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB
GPS with A-GPS support
3 megapixel camera
microSD card support

The same reports are also talking about the processor being the same as the one the company had installed in the Omnia II i.e. 800 MHz. the previous model, the Galaxy was equipped with a 528MHz processor, although we haven’t seen how fast that handset is, we should be able to expect more from the Spica.

The handset is expected to be priced at approximately Rs. 23, 900 (350 Euro) and should be out in November with no definite date provided just yet. Samsung has not yet made an official statement.

LG Annouces 'Pop', Compact Full Touchscreen Mobile

2009-10-06T16:23:00.001-07:00

LG has just unveiled the LG GD510, or more simply, Pop what they’re calling the most compact 3-inch full touchscreen phone ever made. The LG GD510 is the handset people who want a simple touchscreen phone have been waiting for. LG has designed the handset to include the key features that most users crave without the overhead of features they didn’t use.

“We gave the LG GD510 an optimized feature set which allowed us to concentrate on making the phone more compact and simpler to use,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Our high-end phones like the Black Label Series New LG Chocolate (LG BL40) may be getting all the attention but there’s a gap in the market for affordable touchscreen phones that we want to fill. The LG GD510 delivers all the essentials in communication, multimedia and entertainment and comes in a compact form factor as well.”

The handset’s feature set includes:

3-inch WQVGA touchscreen that extends almost to the edges with a narrow 4.8 mm bezel giving the illusion of an uninterrupted sheet of glass
3G ready with EDGE/GPRS
Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0 (micro)
FM radio
3 megapixel camera
8GB internal memory
The unit’s sleek design is accented by a single button on the face that functions as the menu, end and cancel keys, depending on the phone’s mode. A slim strip of light around the button shines either green or red to indicate the handset’s function. The LG GD510 is crafted from brushed aluminum which gives it that high-end sort of look. Though there's nothing officially mentioned in the press release, a couple of the press images show the handset with a solar panel battery cover. Interesting!

LG GD510 will be available beginning in mid-October in Europe, followed by other markets. Prices will vary country-to-country and will be announced at a later date so stay tuned. In the meantime check out the promo demo.

Sony Ericsson Introduces Motion Activated Headphones

2009-10-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Sony Ericsson has unveiled the world's first ever motion activated headphones that sense the user. The MH907 headphones mean users simply plug in two earphones to start listening to music and pause by removing one earbud. To start listening again simply plug it back in. Do exactly the same to answer and end calls.

Sony Ericsson's SensMe Control technology responds without a single press of a button, and with a Clear Audio experience users encounter superior sound on the move.

"With the MH907 consumers can pocket their phone but still stay connected all day, every day by simply plugging in or removing their earbuds – there is no need for a remote control or any buttons." said Jacob Sten, Senior Vice President, SEMC Accessories. "At Sony Ericsson we think it is very important to listen to what our customer needs and introducing the world's first ever motion activated headphones highlights our commitment to offer our customers a complete Communications Entertainment experience. The MH907 supports our realigned brand strategy, which aims to build a fun, playful and inclusive interaction with consumers."

It is compatible with most Sony Ericsson phones that have a fast port connector.

Availability and price hasn't been announced yet.

Also Visit www.techveer.com

Toshiba Launches Family Of PC Hard Drives

2009-09-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Toshiba launched a line of high-performance hard-disk drives for laptops and all-in-one desktops.
The MKxx56GSY series operates at 7,200 revolutions per minute and is available at up to a half-terabyte of capacity. The four-model line is an expansion of Toshiba's portfolio of 2.5-inch drives.

The new products deliver more than a 13% performance improvement over Toshiba's previous family of 7,200 RPM drives. The latest drives have a 3 Gb per second SATA interface.

The new line is designed for laptops, gaming notebooks and all-in-one desktops with combined computer and monitor in one unit. At 500 GB, the drive can store up to 142,000 digital photos, 131,000 music files or 58 hours of high-definition video.

Toshiba claims that 7,200 RPM drives will account for more than 25% of 2.5-inch HDD shipments within two years. "This new family delivers faster overall system performance, which boosts user productivity - a key differentiator that PC manufacturers can provide to commercial and consumer notebook users," Maciek Brzeski, VP of marketing at Toshiba's Storage Device Division, said in a statement.

Toshiba started shipping the new HDD family in limited quantities in the third quarter. The company plans to start volume production in the fourth quarter.

Today, hard-disk drives share the storage stage for laptops with solid-state drives, which are offered as a lighter, more reliable and higher-performing alternative. While the use of SSDs in the thinnest and lightest notebooks may make sense for frequent travelers, the drives are far more expensive the HDDs and offer far less capacity.

Windows 7 Survival Guide: From 32- To 64-Bit

2009-09-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Windows as a whole -- Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and the operating system's server editions -- has been shipping in both 32- and 64-bit editions for some time now. That's more than long enough for hardware manufacturers to get on the ball and supply 32/64-bit device drivers for everything they sell.

In fact, most every printer, scanner, video camera, or other hardware device you can buy today comes with drivers for both platforms in the box.

That's great if you're buying a whole new system. But what if you're migrating over a printer, scanner, or webcam -- individual peripheral devices from an age just slightly before the 64-bit years?

That's where things get more difficult.

While 32-bit applications generally run without issues on 64-bit Windows, 32-bit device drivers aren't as lucky. There is so far no mechanism in Windows to take a 32-bit device driver, wrap it in an emulation layer, and use it in Win64. This means that a great deal of hardware, otherwise perfectly useful and totally functional, is doomed to be useless to a whole swath of existing Windows users.

There's no reason to take this situation lying down, though. Depending on your budget, circumstances, and needs, you can go a long way -- sometimes all the way -- toward getting unsupported hardware working again in 64-bit Windows.

Scanners and printers comprise two of the largest classes of devices that have been unfairly marginalized because of the 64-bit switchover. To that end, we'll be looking at both of these (with some occasional digressions) and exploring ways to make them operable.

Why 64-bit, Anyway?
Why use 64-bit Windows in the first place? Desktop machines that ship with more than 3GB of RAM also come with 64-bit Windows installed by default. It's the best possible way to make use of all that memory efficiently.

Individual 32-bit apps may only be able to use so much of that memory at once, but those of us who run a lot of apps side-by-side get a boost from it. Also, applications that perform certain kinds of processing -- encryption, for instance -- run markedly faster as 64-bit binaries.

Not every computing device is bound to go 64-bit. Netbooks, for instance, or low-end PCs that top out at 2-3GB RAM don't bother going 64. But at this point it's safe to say that most any desktop computer (and notebook) from the midrange on up will be 64-bit. As a result, the number of users who encounter legacy device incompatibilities will increase.

At least for the time being. Wait long enough and all of the incompatible hardware ought to fall out of use and be replaced with newer devices. But that's no strategy for those of us who have hardware to be used now.

Windows 7 device experience.

2009-09-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

The device experience has been drastically altered in Windows 7 to make it easier for users to work with devices in the new Microsoft operating system. The Windows 7 Devices & Media Team has identified two key areas of improvement and has build a new device experience in Windows 7 build on that premise:

1.User experience features that define how people discover and use devices that are connected to their PC.

Connecting new devices to a previous Windows operating system was not always an easy task. While most could be used after connecting the device and installing the device drivers some required the installation to be the other way round to work properly in the operating system. Other problems that were identified included the presentation of devices in the operating system and access to configuration settings.We wanted to enhance the installation and configuration process by improving enumeration and display of device capabilities, presentation of devices, and access to configuration settings. We also wanted to create a discoverable and enjoyable way of accessing applications and services specific to a device.

From a design perspective, we determined the user experience should support finding and recognizing devices, discovering device capabilities and common tasks, and accessing support services and accessories. Also, the user experience should be natural and have a consistent work flow with little to no learning curve.

2.System and platform features that define how device makers present their devices and related services in Windows.

The value for device makers would come from simplified installation and deployment, clear brand association, prominent placement in the experience, and extensibility and customizability of the experience.

Two of the key features of the new device experience in Windows 7 are Devices and Printers and the Windows 7 Device Stage.

Devices and Printers let users see all connected devices from an option in the Windows 7 Start Menu. Microsoft got rid of modules and components that offer no value to the user and streamlined the experience to only display devices that the user can see (like printers, scanners, modems, routers and so on). Multifunction devices like Multifunction printers show up as a single device in Devices and Printers and not as separate devices like in previous Windows operating systems.
Device Stage is the second new key element in the device experience. It is here that users can interact with connected devices. Device Stage is accessed by double-clicking on a device in Devices and Printers.

Microsoft has created several guiding principals for the Device Stage in Windows 7:
Use your device in seconds: Plug in your device to your PC and use it right away.
Everything you need for your device in one place: Windows 7 makes the device the center of your experience.

Different devices have different usage patterns: A single interaction model doesn’t work for all devices.

It’s our partner’s device experience: Windows device experiences are the embodiment of our partner’s brand & unique device capabilities.

Use your device in seconds: Plug in your device to your PC and use it right away.
If you have ever connected a digital camera to Windows XP and to Windows 7 you may have noticed a difference. The digital camera is usually shown with its own drive letter in Windows XP. Windows 7 on the other hand will recognize the digital camera and offer to import photos automatically. Windows XP users who want that functionality usually have to install drivers provided by the hardware developer to create a similar experience.

What we did: The first thing we did was work to improve the reliability of the experience. To qualify for a fully branded Device Stage experience, devices must be certified to meet our minimum requirements. This usually means devices need to earn the Compatible with Windows Logo certification and that their drivers ship in box with Windows or are available from Windows Update. This quality check makes sure that the device is compatible with Windows and that it will have a good experience when connecting to Windows. In the document device case, an in box driver distribution program for printers, scanners, and multifunction printers provides a similar quality check, so it’s also a basis for certification.

The next step was to provide a device experience on connect. To do this, we added a “baseline” feature to Device Stage. When connected for the first time, a device that has opted to use the baseline feature has immediate support in Device Stage. The baseline device experience provides quick access to the core features of the device.
Finally, we needed to support an upgrade mechanism from the baseline to the custom device experience. As users work with the baseline experience, Windows 7 also checks online to see if the device maker has provided a custom device experience for the device. If available, Windows 7 downloads and installs it, and then offers the user the opportunity to upgrade. The result is an effortless first-connect experience-you plug in your device, and moments later you are interacting with a fully branded experience designed explicitly for you device.

Everything you need for your device in one place: Windows 7 makes the device the center of your experience.

The focus of the device experience in previous Windows operating systems was applications, not the device itself. Users needed to know which applications to use with their devices and there was only limited help available in the process.
What we did: In Windows 7, we flipped the device experience model on its head. Instead of making applications the focus of the device experience, we chose to make the device the center of attention. To improve discoverability, we created Devices and Printers within which every device connected to a PC appears. We also enabled device makers to provide photorealistic icons of their device to help customers recognize their device in Windows. If the device maker has opted-in to Device Stage, double-clicking on the device icon navigates to the device’s Device Stage window.
Improving device discoverability was just the first step. We still needed to provide an easy way to access the applications, content, and services for a device. This requirement led us to the model for making device tasks available from within the shell, along with partner customized services and links in a single Window.
Different devices have different usage patterns: A single interaction model doesn’t work for all devices.

Devices have different use patterns. Printers, routers or scanners for example are usually always connected to the computer system while mobile device are not. Mobile devices like digital cameras, mp3 players or USB flash drives are on the other hand heavily utilized when they are connected.

What we did: One example of a device-specific behavior is the behavior of Windows when a portable device connects to and disconnects from a PC. When you connect a portable device to the PC, you’ll notice that its icon automatically appears in the taskbar. Since the device is likely the focus of the user’s attention, this provides quick access to the device while it’s connected. Hovering over the device taskbar icon will show you its status, and right-clicking will display a jump list of its frequently-used tasks.

Placing the device icon on the taskbar helps discoverability and access to tasks while the device is connected – but what happens when it disconnects? Because portable devices come and go, we also wanted to make sure it was easy to remove a device from Windows. Disconnecting a portable device removes it from the taskbar and automatically closes all Device Stage windows, ensuring that the desktop remains clean and uncluttered.

It’s our partner’s device experience: Windows device experiences are the embodiment of our partner’s brand & unique device capabilities.

What we did: We provided a platform to enable the look and feel as well as the contents of the experience to be almost entirely up to the device maker. Device makers can develop custom tasks so that device experiences are specifically tailored to particular devices. Custom tasks could include links to product manuals, shopping sites for compatible accessories, and sites for getting technical support, or even online services that interact directly with the connected device.

Devices and Printers and the new Device Stage will have a huge impact on user perception and workflow. The new device experience makes it easier and more natural for users to work with devices in the operating system.

How is your experience with the new device experience in Windows 7 so far?

windows 7 Boots in 11 seconds

2009-09-07T04:04:00.000-07:00

Microsoft and Intel have been going on the charm offensive this week, talking up Windows 7. According to the BBC, both firms said they collaborated more closely then ever to deliver a product they are proud of. At the same joint press event, wintel put on demonstrations of Windows 7’s improved battery life and quicker boot times.
The improvements in Windows 7 battery life are well documented, but not the improvements in Windows 7 boot times. At the event, wintel showed a windows 7 system that booted up in 11 seconds. The system in use was pretty impressive (quad-core i7 CPU + SSD drive), but I’m still a bit amazed by an 11 second boot time. The amazing Windows 7 boot time was achieved by the boot process running across all four cores and all eight threads of the i7 processor:
“It’s an Intel reference design,” Microsoft’s Panabaker said. “But with high-performance hardware, this shows what system manufacturers can do.”
I was pretty impressed with my non-SSD Windows 7 system that boots up in under a minute, but I now might have to dip into the bank account and buy a SSD drive! I’m holding off doing an upgrade just yet, as I think I’m going to build a whole new Windows 7 power rig next year and give my current machine to my wife.

Get Approved for Google Adsense

2009-08-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

You get money from adsense only if you have a decent traffic. There’s no point in applying for it immediately after you setup your website as you are most likely to end up with your account being rejected if you apply immediately after setting up your website without any content.

Google’s AdSense Program Policies and the Terms and Conditions are probably two of the most informative articles that you must read before applying for adsense.
How long should i have to wait before applying for adsense?
There’s nothing like you must wait for 30 days or 90 says before you can apply for adsense, the only thing is you should have decent content on your blog/website and have some decent traffic. Once approved into adsesne you can use the same publisher ID to display ads on multiple websites. So if you have a aged blog with some traffic on blogger or any other network apply with that url.

Tip: Blogger blogs are easily approved.
If you are previously banned from adsense for click fraud
Google takes click fraud very seriously, if you are previously banned from adsense for click fraud, then apply with a different name, email address and residence address. It’s always tempting for new bloggers and webmasters to click their own ads and asking friends to click on their own ads, don’t ever do that. You will be banned for life time for doing so.
Adsense is like a duck laying golden eggs, handle it with care.

Content
Make sure that your content is in compliance with adsense program policies. You may apply with a site that is in compliance with adsense and later use that account to publish ads on all your other sites.
Note: Google verifies all the sites on which your ad code is displayed manually and may ban your account or domain from adsense if they are not in compliance with their program policies.

Age
You must be 18 years or older to apply for adsense. If you are not above 18 years you can apply with your elder bro or dads name.
Get a adsense account without having a website
If you haven’t created an Adsense account before, then apply through HubPages.

Google will approve your account before you even need to write or publish any content.
That’s right, no need to create content before applying to Google Adsense when you’re applying through HubPages.

Read the Hubpages FAQ
Sign up for Hubpages

Once you’ve registered a Hubpages Author account go to Affiliate Settings (it’s in your My Account page, under Affiliate Settings).
On the “Affiliate Settings” page you’ll see next to where it says “Adsense” a link to “Sign Up”. It will then ask “Do you already have a Google AdSense account?”. If you say yes, it’ll ask for your Publisher ID and then in a few simple steps you will have linked and activated your Adsense Publisher ID to your Hubpage account. However you’re here to start an account, so select No.Tick the box for “I have read and understand Google’s terms of service” and click the button “Signup for AdSense” and away you go!

Vertu Announces Ascent Neon, Funky and Expensive

2009-08-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

In July we heard that Vertu had announced a Carbon Fiber handset as part of their Ascent Ti range and now latest reports are talking about yet another handset, a little funkier than any of the previous models, the Vertu Ascent Ti Neon. The name should say it all.

The difference between this and the previous Ascent Ti models is that the Neon comes with a rubber top in the rear in place of the original leather backing. According to the color the in-screen menu is designed to be a matching set.

According to reports, the Neon is also slimmer than the previous models but comes with the same specs that would include –

3G, EDGE/GPRS capabilities
4GB of internal memory
a 3 megapixel camera
And of course access to Vertu Fortress for ultra secure data syncing and backup
Scheduled to hit shelves sometime in October of this year, the Neon will be available in four colors: green, orange, white and pink. It’s priced at approximately Rs. 4,83,218. WOW!!!

Zibika.com launches chat-based stock search service

2009-08-27T02:48:00.000-07:00

Insurance and personal finance comparison portal Zibika.com has launched Zibika Stockbot, a chat-based stock search service that allows users to check the current Sensex (Sensitive Index at Bombay Stock Exchange) and Nifty (National Stock Exchange Fifty) levels as well as various stock prices on BSE and NSE through Google Talk.

To use the service, one first needs to add market.zibika@gmail.com as a friend in GTalk and type ‘Sensex’ or ‘Nifty’ as a chat message. Individual stock prices of companies on BSE and NSE can be fetched by typing BSE or NSE followed by the company name.

“For many retail traders, it is a painful task to keep visiting a website and refresh a page multiple times to check for stock prices. The Zibika Stockbot is a first-of-its-kind tool that allows users to check for stock prices on BSE and NSE through their Google Talk messenger,” Kaushik Mukherjee, director, Zibika Infotech, has told AlooTechie.

Zibika.com has partnered with Switzerland-based VIG (India) Insurance Brokers to close insurance sales through the portal. “Apart from this, we have also tied up with some of the leading brands such as ICICI Lombard, ICICI Prudential, Future Generali and Reliance Life through which interested buyers can get the product of their choice,” informed Mukherjee.

According to Mukherjee, the common pain-points in applying for insurance, loans and cards is the many pages of fine print that is almost always impossible to make sense of. Zibika makes it easy for users to understand the pros and cons of every insurance policy, loan product or credit card. “At present, the portal hosts information of over 600 insurance policies and loans products. Apart from this, the portal also contains rich data on over 300 cards and 2,000 banking products,” he added.

Zibika.com yet doesn’t allow users to buy insurance online. “Interested buyers are encouraged to leave their lead on our system and the process is closed offline. Shortly, we will introduce systems by which a user will be able to generate an e-policy by directly paying for it on our portal,” said Mukherjee.

Mumbai-based Zibika.com was launched in April 2009 and currently is a 10-member team. The company also has a branch office in Hyderabad. Zibika earns its revenues through a share of the broking commission from closed sales and marketing commissions for successful referrals to the alliances.

Zibika raised about $250,000 in angel funding prior to its launch and is presently in discussions to raise additional funding to scale up its operations and product features. Zibika.com claims that the portal crossed 100,000 page views in August 2009 and the number of its daily visits has grown by over 200 per cent in the last two months.

Bloggging via emails with Joomla

2009-08-27T02:46:00.000-07:00

Many people today access their blogsites from their mobile phones/laptop using GPRS. However, when it comes to posting pictures or video onto a blog, it becomes difficult. This Joomla extension helps you post picture or even video on your blog easily and efficiently.

You can blog from an email client simply by sending email through your mobile phone and the content will be automatically updated on your blog. For example, you have a travel site in Joomla which you update regularly. So, even when you're on a sightseeing trip you can send the pics or videos immediately to your site via an email. The requirement for MMS Blog is Joomla 1.5 and support for 'iconv' which is used for translating messages to UTF-8 for appropriate display. The installation and configuration of this extension is easy.

Download mms_blog extension from Joomla extension directory. To install this, go to tools > install & click on 'Browse'. Locate the extension and click on 'Ok'. Next click on 'Upload file & install'. Once installation is done, navigate to component > MMS Blog. Here you can configure, view content, add users and add email accounts to the MMS Blog.

Go to 'Category' and create a new one that will be displayed on the site. Provide the title, access level, etc and click on 'Save'. Next, create an account. This will hold the information about the email ID from which mails will be fetched. Provide the protocol, incoming/outgoing server, password and options.

Nimbuzz launches Android application

2009-08-18T02:35:00.000-07:00

Nimbuzz has announced the launch of an Android application for it’s mobile social messaging service. The free app for Android comes after the updated iPhone 3.0 release in mid-July.

What does Nimbuzz do?

It’s a mobile messaging hub, combining a lot of different services in one application. Nimbuzz mainly focuses on Instant Messaging, geo-presence, and VoIP . Through the Nimbuzz “buddy list”, you can see if your friends are available to talk, what service they are available over, and where they are. It acts as a hub for quite a few existing services, including Skype, Google Talk, AIM, Facebook and MySpace.

[nimbuzz-on-android-g2]

Whats unique about Android app?

Unique to the Android app is a “local social network” feature. What it means is that Nimbuzz users in non-English speaking countries will have access to their most popular national networks. The examples given were Hyves in the Netherlands, StudiVZ from Germany, Gadu-Gadu from Poland, and Giovani from Italy. The Nimbuzz blog also claims that Skype IM is a unique feature to the Android version, with other versions only using the VoIP part of Skype .

Dell developing mobile devices for China Mobile

2009-08-18T02:34:00.000-07:00

Dell will reportedly launch a handset in China called the Mini3i that will offer a full complement of music, games and other downloadable content

NEW YORK, USA: Dell Inc is developing mobile devices for China Mobile Ltd, according to spokesmen for the computer maker, which has long been rumored to have ambitions in the smartphone market.

According to reports, Dell will launch a handset in China called the Mini3i that will offer a full complement of music, games and other downloadable content.

Dell said only that it is developing mobile products for China Mobile's network, but declined comment on the type of devices or the timing.

Spokesman Matthew Parretta said Dell did show off a proof-of-concept mobile device prototype at a Monday event for China Mobile's applications store.

Rumors have been circulating for months that Dell planned to launch a smartphone, as global sales of the devices continue to sizzle. The smartphone market grew 27 percent in the second quarter, according to research house Gartner.

Dell, the world's No. 2 maker of PCs, would be just the latest computer maker to embrace smartphones, which tend to carry higher margins than PCs.

Taiwanese rivals Acer Inc and ASUSTeK Computer Inc are also entering the market, which is dominated at the high end by Apple Inc's iPhone and the BlackBerry from Research in Motion Ltd.

CL King analyst Lawrence Harris said the Dell smartphone is reported to be a 2G device that runs on Google's Android platform. He said a 2G smartphone can work in China, where a 3G network is still being rolled out.

"It makes sense for a company like Dell to enter the smartphone market, but what they need to do is find something that sets themselves apart."

Sony Ericsson Jalou Announced as a Fashion Phone

2009-08-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

A little while ago we had got reports of an apparent Sony Ericsson handset that was called the Jalou that was supposed to be a touchscreen handset featuring a Symbian S60 5th edition OS. However just today Sony Ericsson has dispersed with that with the announcement of a new fashion flip/clamshell handset called the Jalou. The image showcased may have been wrong but at least we know that the handset exists and Sony Ericsson's latest style statement is only 73mm long.

“Structured forms, intricate corners, hidden depths and jewel accents are set to be some of the hottest fashion trends in 2010. You can also expect to see deep and natural jewel colors on the runway next year. Jalou reflects these trends with its delicate facet-cut diamond shape design, clean and expressive lines and variety of different shine and matt finishes, that give depth to the handset,” comments Charles Hunt, Jalou head designer at Sony Ericsson. “The design team wanted the handset to reflect beauty found in nature. They looked at structure, strength and form in various crystalline jewels, which resulted in the unique shape.”

The clamshell Jalou handset features -

a 2 inch TFT LCD with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution with an external display monochrome display
EDGE/GPRS
Bluetooth with A2DP, PlayNow and TrackID
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
3.2 megapixel camera with geotagging and Photo Fix
Stereo FM radio
Mirror Key
Google apps with Search, Maps, Email
A YouTube application, 3D games, Motion Gaming
MicroSD card support
“The new Jalou phone is all about looking great and sharing the good life,” said Linda Schori, Marketing Business Manager at Sony Ericsson. “We wanted to create a beautiful handset without compromising on style or content. It’s perfect for anyone who is sociable, loves fashion and wants to stay one step ahead of trends, because it has a fashion forward design you will want to show off. And, for such a compact handset, it has an immense amount of detail both inside and out.”

Dolce & Gabbana has also got a special limited edition version of the handset that comes with exclusive packaging and accessories that include three silky rose satin bags to either protect the phone, store the charger, or to even carry jewellery and a special Dolce & Gabbana branded headset with gold accents to keep you connected in style.

The handset also has an exclusive fashion interface which automatically updates with zodiac signs and special events throughout the year. Jalou will be available by Sony Ericsson, in Q4 of 2009 in a variety of gem inspired colors including: Deep Amethyst, Aquamarine Blue and Onyx Black.

Microsoft Ordered to Stop Selling Word in US

2009-08-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

A US judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word document creation application in the country in 60 days after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party.

Microsoft Office, which includes Word, accounted for more than $3 billion in worldwide sales in Microsoft's most recent fiscal year and is used by literally millions of businesses and consumers for everyday tasks like word processing and making spreadsheets and presentations.

I4i, a Toronto-based software maker, has been battling Microsoft over an obscure patent related to XML or Extensible Markup Language. XML is a key software component of many websites as well as Word and other programs.

Upholding a a May 20 jury decision Tuesday, Leonard Davis, a federal district court judge in Tyler, Texas, banned the world's largest software from selling Word 2003 , Word 2007 and future versions of the software that use i4i's technology without a licence.

The judge also ordered Microsoft to pay several hefty fines to i4i, including $200 million in damages and $40 million in "enhanced damages".

"We feel vindicated with this result," said Michael Vulpe, who co-founded i4i in 1993.

"It is not a question of fear or pride or anything else," said Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i. "We're very respectful of Microsoft, but when you're in the right you have to persevere."

Microsoft plans to appeal.

"We are disappointed by the court's ruling," spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a written statement. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."

The suit involves a patent i4i's founders obtained in 1998 that is the basis for a "customised XML" tool the company supplies to drug and defence companies and other large corporations, said Owen.

XML is a specialised alphabet that can capture any kind of computer file as a regular text. It's designed to make computer data human-readable - and make it easier for one programme to load and process data created by another programme.

Judge Davis found that Microsoft was aware of i4i's patent and that there was enough evidence of Microsoft "wilfully infringing" on the patent to issue the injunction, pending continuation of the case.

Investors shrugged off the news - perhaps in anticipation of a higher court overturning the ruling, which arose from the plaintiff-friendly Eastern Texas federal jurisdiction, Information Week reported.

Brazil Takes The Lead in Using Twitter

2009-08-03T21:53:00.001-07:00

The Twitter social-networking craze has taken hold in Brazil, where the number of users is growing faster than in the US, Britain, Spain, Japan and other developed countries.

Brazilian politicians, athletes and celebrities of all kinds have succumbed to "Twittermania," a phenomenon that has become a true source of first-hand information and threatens take over terrain from the country's press services.

Among the most active users of this microblog tool on the Internet are soccer managers like Vanderlei Luxemburgo, auto racer Rubens Barrichello, Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra and TV host Luciano Huck, who tweet on Twitter to keep their "followers" up to date on their doings.

Twitter's immediacy and pace have spurred Twitter's progress in Brazil against blogs and other more traditional media.

A study carried out by the private statistics firm Ibope Nielsen in 10 countries shows that, in the month of June, Brazil took the lead in Twitter's worldwide penetration.

According to the study, 15 percent of Brazilian internet users visited the Twitter Web site in June either from home or their workplace, and the number of visits increased by 71 percent over the previous month.

The figures surpass even rich countries like the US, where users of the service amount to 10.7 percent of all internet users, and in Britain, 9.4 percent.

Next comes Australia, where Twitter's penetration rate is 5.4 percent, then Germany at 4 percent, Spain at 3.5 percent, and Japan with 1.4 percent.

Brazilian users visited Twitter pages in June for an average of 36 minutes, followed by Americans (31.1 minutes), British (25.3 minutes) and Germans (11.1 minutes), according to the Ibope Nielsen survey.

Twitter's growth can be explained by Brazilians' tendency to get on the Internet to find out what's happening around them since, according to another Ibope study, 36 percent of the country's internet users go online for news and 19 percent for entertainment.

Nonetheless, this immediacy can sometimes go against users and cause them real headaches, as in the case of the former coach of Real Madrid, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, who lost his job because of Twitter.

Last June, just two days after opening his account, Luxemburgo was fired by the Brazilian club Palmeiras for criticizing on Twitter the way striker Keirrison handled negotiations that resulted in his being signed by Spanish team Barcelona.

Naturally, the trainer used the microblog to tell in his own words the news of his firing as soon as it happened.

Strangely enough, the president of Palmeiras also got on Twitter days later to inform the team's fans about negotiations to find a substitute for Luxemburgo.

Others like auto racer Rubens Barrichello prefer a more constructive use for microblogs - after compatriot Felipe Massa's accident last weekend during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, he kept followers posted on Massa's medical condition.

Aside from the sports world, politics has also become Twitter territory in Brazil, following in the footsteps of US President Barack Obama, one of its most famous users on the planet.

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, and the governor of Sao Paulo state, Jose Serra, are two of the more active users of the service.

The case of Serra, who has almost 50,000 followers on Twitter, is perhaps the most significant because according to all the polls, he is poised to win next year's presidential elections.

That's why, besides his personal account, it is possible to find another on the Internet which, under the name Serra2010, is paving the way for the governor to a possible presidential candidacy.

Also visit http:www.uvetri.wordpress.com

Pocket your camcorder

2009-08-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Creative is no newcomer in the consumer electronics market — they have been making audio and video products for ages — but it still doesn’t take an expert eye to conclude that Creative’s Vado, a pocket-size camcorder, is strikingly similar to the popular Flip camcorder from Pure Digital.

Creative Vado is admittedly more stylish than the Flip Video Ultra. The 3.9x2.2x0.6-inch Vado is thinner and lighter than the Flip. It is also easy to slide into your pocket and be there without causing a bulge. In fact, the 4.1x2.2x1.2-inch Flip can no longer claim to be the world’s simplest or the smallest camcorder. Next to the Vado, the Flip Ultra actually feels overgrown.

A tiny 2-inch LCD screen is a viewfinder and also the playback screen for this pocket camcorder. The Vado includes not only the expected composite video port for connecting the camera to a TV, but also an HDMI port, a feature that is distinctive to the Vado.

Just like other pocket camcorders, the Vado HD too lacks an image stabiliser and an optical zoom (it does have a 2x digital zoom) and offers no control over white or colour balance. Keeping the controls simple, Vado comes with a single record button and a four-position switch for zooming, adjusting volume and navigating from one saved clip to another. The first time you plug the Vado HD into your computer, it installs Vado Central, a simple video-viewing application. From within Vado Central, you can instantly upload your clips to Youtube, Photobucket or Box.

During our review, Vado’s audio output was impressive. For instance, in outdoor recordings, the camcorder picked up all the noises brilliantly. As far as recording in low light goes, it still won’t be a replacement for a camera with night vision, but it gives a decent recording quality indoors. Creative Vado HD is available at Rs 19,999.

PROs

•Very compact and sleek design

•High definition recording

•HDMI cable supplied

CONs
•Lacks a memory card slot

•Digital zoom is inadequate

•Battery needs frequent recharging

Kodak Zi6
Price: Rs 7,200

After Sony, Pure Digital and Creative launched their pocket camcorders, Kodak too carted out the Zi6, a diminutive camcorder, in the market. The Zi6 does mobile phone video one better and adds HD capability. It is easy to use, feels good in the hand and ships with good software for uploading to video sharing sites like YouTube. Buttons on the Zi6 are minimal, but they allow toggling between close-up and normal shooting modes. It also comes with a SD/SDHC card slot, snap-out USB plug and output jacks for SD and HD video.

The front of the camera hosts the 2.4-inch LCD screen, which has a passable frame rate and resolution. The Zi6 shoots video at VGA resolution or 720p high definition video at 30 or 60 fps. Kodak offers both the options because the 30-fps video takes less space, but the 60-fps one is a lot smoother. The good news is that the SD/SDHC slot on the Zi6 can take cards as large as 32GB, and because it has just 128 MB of internal memory, you will require an SD card in any case.

There’s not really much to the camera as far as options go. You can’t set the shutter speed, you can’t control the light sensitivity, and you can’t change the white balance. You basically hit record and go. And, even though it has no in-built image stabiliser feature, the camera does carry a plastic tripod mount at the bottom, should you need to hold it rock-steady.

The Zi6 has all its software onboard like every other pocket camcorder. The software allows direct uploading to YouTube, although the user cannot select privacy settings beforehand, as one can with Pure Digital’s Flip.

With its minimal feature set, it’s really cheap for a video camera. But then at (approximately) Rs 7,200, you can’t really ask for more.

PROs
•Lightweight and easy to use

•Supports SD/SDHC cards

•Takes AA rechargeable batteries (included)

CONs
•Flimsy USB jack

•Insufficient in-built memory

•Poor quality recording in low light

iPhone Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks

2009-08-01T02:57:00.000-07:00

Security experts have uncovered flaws in Apple Inc's iPhone that they said hackers can exploit to take control of the popular device, using the tactic for identity theft and other crimes. Users need to be warned that their iPhones are not entirely secure and Apple should try to repair the vulnerability as soon as possible, they said at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, one of the world's top forums for exchanging information on computer security threats.

"It's scary. I don't want people taking over my iPhone," Charlie Miller, a security analyst with consulting firm Independent Security Evaluators, said in an interview. Miller and Collin Mulliner, a Ph.D. student at the Technical University of Berlin, also discovered a method that allow hackers to easily knock a victim's iPhone off a carrier's network. It prevents users from making calls, accessing the Internet and exchanging text messages, they added.

They said the information they presented at Black Hat will give criminals enough information to develop software to break into iPhones within about two weeks. They said they warned Apple of the flaw in the middle of July, but that the company has yet to fix it. "Apple's credibility and reputation could get hurt if they don't respond. Positive buzz is good; negative buzz is much more harmful," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research.

About 4,000 security professionals were in attendance, including some who are really hackers. While experts ferret out software flaws to fix them and protect users, hackers use the same information to devise pranks or commit crimes. The researchers showed the audience how to break into iPhones by sending computer code via the phone's SMS system. Mobile phones use SMS to send and receive text messages along with software upgrades. They said that the phone's users cannot detect that it is receiving the malicious code.

It is not illegal to disclose ways to hack into computer systems, though it is against the law to use it to break into them. When asked why they would hand over such information to criminals, security experts said they felt it was necessary to alert the public that iPhones were just as vulnerable to attack as personal computers. "If we don't talk about it, somebody is going to do it silently. The bad guys are going to do it no matter what," Mulliner said. They have successfully tested the hacks on iPhones running on networks of four carriers in Germany along with AT&T Inc in the United States. They said they believed the methods will work with iPhone carriers around the world.

The two said they used a similar method to break into phones running on Google Inc's Android operating system. Google patched the flaw after they notified the company of the vulnerability. Apple officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

India Adds 12.05 Million Mobile Users in June

2009-08-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

India's mobile operators added 12.05 million users in June, the government said in a statement on Thursday. The statement did not give a total number of mobile users at the end of June.

Data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India showed India had 415.25 million mobile users in May.

Nokia Morph a new technology

2009-07-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Twitter homepage redesigned for search

2009-07-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Whoever thought and said that search is not the game of twitter needs to look at the new twitter homepage. Do go and have a look if you haven’t already. new twitter homepage The homepage has had a major overhauling; and for the non-logged-in user, and for people coming to the site for the first time, are presented with a search box. It also lists out the hot topics as of this instant, day and week. The twitter blog post states Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer and presents the service more consistently with how it has evolved. And quite rightly so. What’s your take? » Do check out Indian Startup Directory | Indian VC Directory and Active Startup Discussion Forum »

Lets catch up on Twitter Topic for this fortnight (ending August 2nd): Social Entrepreneurship Advertise @ pluGGd.in Twitter homepage redesigned for search Related Posts Twitter Cast of Knee Surgery by an Indian Doc – Twitter surely has gone mainstream in India LinkedIn Revamps Homepage, grabs Bill Gates too Flickr goes for homepage redesign – less cluttered now “What is Twitter” is the rising query for twitter! Is Friendfeed more compelling for Brand Advertisers

WD Launches 2 Portable USB Hard Drives

2009-07-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Western Digital has introduced its new 1 TB and 750 GB My Passport Essential SE Portable USB Drives in a titanium silver finish.

The drives are light and compact to carry and are USB-powered so they do not need an external power adapter. Equipped with sync and encryption software (Windows-compatible only), this small drive makes it easy to securely carry data around.

WD Sync software allows consumers to take desktop content with them by simplifying the synchronization of essential personal files and Microsoft Outlook data on a PC.

"The enormous capacity of these new My Passport Essential SE drives makes them the perfect travel-friendly storage device to hold all the rich media content generated by higher resolution photos and HD videos and music," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "Carrying digital files close at hand continues to be a growing consumer interest and this new drive offers a sleek and stylish solution with plenty of storage capacity for people on the move."

WD's My Passport Essential SE portable drives are available from WD's online store (www.shopwd.com) at an MSRP of $299.99 USD for the 1 TB model and $199.99 USD for the 750 GB model.

Apple working on digital albums, tablet PC

2009-07-27T22:57:00.001-07:00

The major music labels are planning a new digital album format that will debut with a tablet-like personal computer from Apple Inc in September, people familiar with the plans said.

The labels are attempting to revive the multi-track album format with new software that packages songs, traditional album liner notes, music videos, and other interactive extras as part of a premium-priced package.

The music industry first proposed the idea of an enhanced album format to Apple in 2007, according to two people who said the labels have been separately working on a project code-named 'CMX'.

The labels, including EMI Group, Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi's Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group had planned to roll out the new album format to all digital retailers this November.

But Apple decided to design its own version of an interactive album, which is expected to be launched with its new unnamed tablet-like device this fall, the sources said.

The Apple album project has been code-named 'Cocktail' and the format is expected to work with other Apple devices like the iPhone and iPod.

Industry sources said chief executive Steve Jobs would likely unveil the new device at an Apple event in September.

Apple declined to comment, saying the company does not respond to rumors and speculation. News of Apple and the label's plan was first reported by the Financial Times.

The partnership between Apple and the music labels is tinged with irony as it was the technology company that effectively marked the end of the multitrack album format in 2003, when it opened up its iTunes Music Store.

In early negotiations, Jobs made the labels agree to allow customers to buy any individual track they wanted from an album, in a bid to simplify the purchase process.

But record companies are desperate to breathe new life into the album format, which was responsible for the vast majority of profits when sales were primarily in compact discs.

All music companies have seen their revenues plummet as fans who buy music online choose the 99 cent-priced track they want rather than invest in an album which is typically priced around $8 to $10.

The new interactive format, which could feature extras like interviews with the artist while making the album, would be sold at a higher price than digital albums now. Insiders said there is early evidence from current bundling experiments than fans are prepared to spend more for high quality content.

"Almost every time we've sold product with extras at a premium price it outsells the normal priced product," said one label executive who asked not to be named while the companies are still in talks.

Online video ad campaign leads to 11000 downloads of Microsoft IE 8 browser

2009-07-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

US-based online video advertising company Jivox claims that an online video ad campaign launched to create awareness for Microsofts new Internet Explorer 8 browser led to 11000 users downloading the browser from Jivox video ad player. Jivox also claims that 617 users shared the video ad on Facebook and close to 600 users shared the ad through email.

â€œThis kind of engagement goes beyond CTRs (click through rates), clicks, leads and provides vital clues to advertisers in the form of data sampling, market research etc. and help them make informed decisions in carrying out a much larger marketing activity and choosing the right media vehicles to do the same,â€ Kshitiz Randhir Shori, director, sales, APAC, Jivox, told AlooTechie.

Shori further informed that Jivox has so far done over 100 online video campaigns in India in a span of six to seven months of launching its operations in the country. According to him, the campaigns were carried across 50 partner websites in India.

â€œWe are currently working with almost all the major brands across industry categories like FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), auto, travel, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), telecom, IT and education and the good part is that almost 70 per cent of our business is recurring in nature, Shori said.

According to Kshitiz Randhir Shori, video ads attract somewhere between 5-10 per cent of the Rs 550 crore total online ad market in India, which is quite huge considering the fact that video ads in India is less than two years old. â€œLooking at the pace of our growth, in the next 2-3 years, the video ad market will contribute perhaps 15 to 20 per cent of the overall online ad market, and we expect to further consolidate our dominant position in this market, he said.

Identifying the challenge of online video advertising in India, Shori said that there are hardly any pure branding campaigns left in the industry though they sound nice in media briefs and media plans. â€œEventually, all are aligned to certain engagement with the brand and are measured very closely by the advertisers and agencies and hence simply rerunning TV ads online will not work on the internet,he concluded.

Bill Gates promises healthcare assistance to Bihar

2009-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates assured Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar that his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would assist Bihar in health-related issues and the programmes being run by the state government.

"In a video conference, Mr Gates has volunteered to assist the state government in health issue, with focus on immunization," informed a representative from the Chief Minister's office. "He will send his delegates to the State. The State government will then prepare a roadmap in which way both the State government and Bill Gates Foundation can work."

Gates touched upon the vaccination and immunization programmes being run by the Bihar Government.

Samsung Announces World's Slimmest Watch Phone

2009-07-23T22:50:00.001-07:00

Samsung has just announced their mobile phone wrist watch, the S9110. The device is supposed to be the world's thinnest wristwatch mobile phone at 11.98mm. Definitely thinner than LG’s contribution to wrist technology, then again, Samsung does have a knack for slimming things down.

The S9110 also features -

a 1.76-inch touchscreen, scratch resistant (obviously) display (176 x 220 pixel resolution)
speech recognition technology
Bluetooth with A2DP
Music player
Outlook Syncing
Stainless steel metal body with a leather strap
From the looks of it the S9110 is a classy piece of technology. There’s no mention of internal memory or if it has external memory support. What does seem a bit surprising is that that there’s also no mention of 3G connectivity like LG’s GD910.

The handset is going to be priced at about Rs. 31,000 (450 Euro) and is heading for Europe first. Dick Tracy must be smiling his head off somewhere!

Google Launches Voice-powered Search

2009-07-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

Bullish on the mobile segment, global search engine major Google is strengthening its applications portfolio with the introduction of services like voice-based search and map solutions.

"Mobiles (more than 400 million) outnumber the personal computers (PCs - slightly over 30 million) concentration in India. A big part of the population accessing Internet going ahead would do so on a mobile handset and so we need to offer enriching experience to these users," Google India Head of products Vinay Goel said.

Google has recently launched a free voice-based mobile Internet search application for BlackBerry users. The application has been built by the Internet search giant's India engineering team.

"This feature has been developed by the India team and takes into account the Indian accent. Currently the facility is available only to Blackberry cellphone users in India but we hope to extend this to other handsets by the end of the year," Goel said.

A user can open the Google search page, and ask for a particular location like a pizza joint or taxi stand and the search would show the top results.

With the availability of low-cost GPRS handsets and cheaper data plans, Google expects value-added services like social networking and voice-based Internet search to do well.

Orkut to Launch Face Detection Technology to speed up Face Tagging

2009-07-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

Taking a leaf (or the entire tree?) from Facebook, Orkut is planning to launch face tagging – though the big differentiator is face detection technique that Orkut is working on. To speed up the tagging process, we’re launching a face detection feature on all new photos uploaded to orkut. With it, orkut is now able to automatically detect when faces appear in photos (by recognizing features like eyes, noses, mouths, etc.), but without actually identifying specific individuals. The algorithm is not perfect, however, so things like eyeglasses, difficult lighting, poses, etc. may ‘fool’ our system from time to time. If that ever happens, rest assured that you can always tag photos as you normally would, and of course change or remove any tags that you’re unhappy with. – blog So many companies have tried and failed at Face detection – do you think Orkut can make it work? » Do check out Indian Startup Directory | Indian VC Directory and Active Startup Discussion Forum » Lets catch up on Twitter Topic for this fortnight (ending July 26th): Social Entrepreneurship Advertise @ pluGGd.in %%Orkut to Launch Face Detection Technology to speed up Face Tagging

Volvo Car India: Here is the safety belt

2009-07-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

Volvo Car India, which released a television commercial (TVC) for its S80 luxury sedan in April, did not talk about the safety features of the car in the ad. It is now using the digital medium to convey, demonstrate and create awareness about the safety aspects, apart from the technology, luxury and Scandinavian design possessed by its cars.

Speaking to afaqs!, Sudeep Narayan, marketing and public relations manager, Volvo Car India, says, "A 30-second TVC is not enough to showcase the various safety features present in Volvo cars, so we have used the TVC for building an imagery of a safe, luxurious brand.

"However, we will leverage the interactive and engaging capabilities of the digital media to let the consumers understand and experience the safety features present in Volvo cars."

Interestingly, the Indian version of the Volvo Car website, available at VolvoCars.in, has a special section called Experience Volvo, where the company has hosted a few interactive flash presentations on safety and child safety, apart from presentations on luxury, quality and environment related features.

Even its mobile Internet site, currently hosted through Yahoo! Mobile, has dedicated links directing consumers to experience the safety features of its cars.

In future, the company plans to utilise social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook to share videos which will educate consumers about the safety aspects of cars.

Other than pushing its brand values and features through VolvoCars.in and the mobile site, the company is in the process of formulating an online marketing campaign. Narayan reveals that Volvo will spend nearly 15 per cent of its total advertising budget on digital marketing.

He says, "Volvo will employ digital marketing to talk about its core brand values - safety, environment, luxury and quality; and also use it to generate leads for various car models and boost the traffic on VolvoCars.in."

All the digital marketing activities of Volvo Car India will be handled by the digital agency Ideaz Inc., based in New Delhi.

The online marketing plan will include rich media banner ads, search and social media marketing. E-mail marketing will also be included to communicate with the existing customers.

"Volvo banner ad campaign will be visible only on niche sites such as financial portals and on sites which have a subscription-based model," says Gurpreet Singh, chief executive officer, Ideaz Inc.

The company plans to develop a Volvo application and widgets, which will be made available on Facebook and its mobile site in the near future. Volvo Car India has a Twitter account as well at Twitter.com/VolvoCarIndia.

Logitech intros Cooling Pad N100

2009-07-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Logitech, a provider in computer peripherals, today announced that it has introduced the Logitech Cooling Pad N100, the latest addition to the company's wide range of notebook essentials.

The convenience and portability offered by notebooks have made them the hot favourite in the home computing category. However the portability factor brings along excessive heating of the notebooks due to the densely packed components, said a press release.

A recent consumer survey also revealed that more than 50 per cent of consumers are concerned about notebook heat and 43 per cent believe that excessive notebook heat can slow, or damage, their computer. The notebook heat can also be extremely discomforting to the body during prolonged hours of computing with the notebook placed on the lap.

"People often complaint about the overheated laptop and discomfort caused by it. Logitech has introduced this new Cooling Pad to cater to the needs of all these notebook users," said Subrotah Biswas, country manager, India and SAARC, Logitech.

He added that Logitech Cooling Pad N100 with slotted surface and virtually silent airflow protects from the difficulties and discomforts caused by the over heated notebook.

The new product includes a low power-consumption USB cable that connects to your computer with minimal impact on your notebook's battery - while still delivering enough power to improve airflow around the laptop,said the release.

Logitech Cooling Pad N100 is priced at INR 1995.

HTC Launched Portal For Sharing Ideas - TalktoHT.com

2009-07-20T22:14:00.003-07:00

HT has given it the shape of a complete portal. Recently, HT (Hindustan Times) has launched a portal talktoHT.com for direct interaction between HT team and HT readers. Now, companies are directly being connected to its users and are launching portals for interaction between company and its users. As of now, it has 6 moderators and 40+ ideas. This portal is run by Purple Lattice. Surprisingly, there is no link on HindustanTimes homepage for this portal. Main highlights of the portals Put your ideas/ suggestions Discuss thoughts with others Vote to other people’s ideas Idea Status update – HT Team will update you the status of our idea – pending, under review, implemented, so on Some Interesting Posts are: Recycle old newspaper to reduce global warming Chat with celebs News on Kargil War Appreciated HT new look Its a new B2B2C concept and nice implementation of Web 2.0 but HT has to continuously work on this portal and listen and implement its readers idea else this will become a flop-idea. Its a decent business model. Hopefully, competitors will also like this initiative by HT and steal some ideas & implement before HT which may increase their readers base. Lattice Purple is providing this as a SaaS platform and pricing varies from $19/month for the Basic edition to $599/month for the enterprise edition. Check Yousuggest.us. Get Satisfaction is working on same platform and offering SaaS to brands to develop direct connection with its customers

BSNL Music Portal

2009-07-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

BSNL has announced public launch of its music portal with Hungama.com facilitating legal music access at lowest cost. The service would provide unlimited music and videos for Rs 149/month and unlimited game downloads at Rs 49/month. WATBlog earlier reported the service introduction in March this year. The service has finally been launched on full-scale after a soft trial running for several months till now. The portal would allow users to sample, select and download videos and music tracks and play online games. The service is for BSNL telecom and broadband subscribers only and is available at bsnl.hungama.com ( powered by Hungama). How to register for it? Users have two options for registration: They can register through their BSNL broaband user ID and password or through their BSNL landline number. Although there is not enough clarity whether users will be able to download songs without any DRM protections. Their FAQ section coveys this: The music tracks, music videos and game files that are rented out under the Rental Subscription plan have been DRM protected. You can download your DRM-protected rental music tracks, music videos and game files onto your PC. You can enjoy this content on your local media players. At the end of each month, your subscription is automatically renewed so that you can enjoy your music, videos and games uninterrupted. The site has around 50,000+ songs in different genres and languages. Currently, the entertainment store offers some 200 plus games to its BSNL subscribers The tie-up between Major ISPâs and Online portals is common looking at the potential of VAS in such services. BSNL may accrue significant benefit as it is a pan-India telecom player with major presence in broadband and Mobile services. The service may also be criticized as non-core activity for BSNL but serves a major audience through music and games availability at lower prices. The service would also foresee similar initiatives by other ISP and telecom players as VAS is a very high growth opportunity for telecom players. The service also signifies the bridging of difference between content owners and Telco’s

Yahoo board member Icahn wants Microsoft deal

2009-07-19T22:52:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Activist investor Carl Icahn spoke out in favor of a search deal between Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp, as talks between the two companies appeared to regain momentum.

Icahn declined to comment on the state of any negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft. He had tried to broker a partnership between the two companies last year, when talks on Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo fell apart.

"I've been a strong advocate of getting a search deal done with Microsoft," Icahn, who owns about 5 percent of Yahoo and is a director on its board, told Reuters on Friday.

"It would enhance value if a deal got done, because of the synergies involved," he said in a phone interview.

Microsoft and Yahoo are close to a long-discussed search and online advertising deal, which could be announced in the next week, according to another source familiar with the matter who is not associated with Icahn.

The news was first reported by the AllThingsDigital blog, which said a deal would involve Microsoft paying Yahoo several billion dollars upfront to take over its search advertising business and guarantee certain payments back to Yahoo.

The two companies have talked about cooperating for months, after Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo was rebuffed last year and Yahoo's attempt to seal a search advertising deal with Google Inc fell apart under regulatory scrutiny.

Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz said in May that any deal to spin off or combine its search assets will require a partner with "boatloads of money." She said at the time that Yahoo was talking "a little bit" with Microsoft, but gave no details.

Bartz is currently out of the office for two weeks, following knee replacement surgery, according to an email that she sent to her employees earlier this month.

Icahn, whose firm had a 5.4 percent stake in Yahoo as of March 31, said he remains a "strong supporter" of Bartz, who took the reins in January from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.

Bartz has made a number of changes since joining Yahoo, including shutting down underperforming websites and laying off 5 percent of the Sunnyvale, California company's staff.

But many investors continue to see a deal with Microsoft as Yahoo's best option, saying it will cut costs and create an online entity big enough to better compete with Google, the top search company in the United States.

The latest discussions involve a partnership in which Microsoft would handle search capabilities for Yahoo, while Yahoo could potentially handle online advertising for the two online sites.

According to Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of AllThingsDigital, a group of high-powered Microsoft online executives flew to Silicon Valley on Thursday to iron out remaining issues related to technology deployment. They included Senior Vice President of Online Audience Business Group Yusuf Mehdi, search head Satya Nadella, top digital executive Qi Lu.

Representatives for Microsoft and Yahoo declined to comment. Yahoo is scheduled to report quarterly results next Tuesday, and Microsoft on Thursday.

Microsoft withdrew its $47.5 billion offer to buy Yahoo in May 2008 after Yahoo's board said the price was too low. The software giant then offered to buy Yahoo's search advertising assets for $1 billion upfront, and guarantee $2.3 billion in annual revenue for five years, in a proposal backed by Icahn.

Google is the dominant player in the search market, with a 65 percent market share in June, according to comScore. Yahoo was second with 19.6 percent, while Microsoft was third with 8.4 percent. While Microsoft's share remains small, its new search engine Bing has won positive early reviews.

On Nasdaq, Yahoo finished Friday's regular trading session up 4 percent at $16.84 while Microsoft closed 0.6 percent lower at $24.29.

Vizioncore launches SMB Data Protection Pack

2009-07-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

Vizioncore Inc., a provider in software solutions, recently announced the launch of its SMB Data Protection Pack, which provides SMB customers with data protection, high availability and offsite replication that complements the entry-level, all-in-one VMware vSphere Essentials.

The new pack is specifically targeted at smaller deployments and includes licenses for six CPUs. The Vizioncore SMB Data Protection Pack is available in two bundles.

The primary bundle includes Vizioncore vRanger Pro for data protection and Vizioncore vControl -- capabilities not currently offered in the entry-level VMware vSphere Essentials.

The comprehensive edition, Vizioncore SMB Data Protection Pack with Replication, offers vRanger Pro and vControl, but also adds the additional protection and security of Vizioncore vReplicator for offsite disaster recovery replications, the release added.

HP acquires storage software firm IBRIX

2009-07-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

Hewlett Packard Co is buying privately held storage software maker IBRIX as it looks to catch up with IBM and EMC Corp in the $20 billion market for corporate data storage equipment. HP did not disclose terms of the transaction, which was announced on Friday.

The move gives HP control of a technology that companies use to quickly access large quantities of data for important business applications. IBRIX has about 175 customers, including Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios, Caterpillar Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The small acquisition -- IBRIX has 53 employees -- comes as merger activity heats up in the storage industry, which analysts expect to grow faster than the rest of the tech industry.

EMC won a bidding war against NetApp Inc for specialty storage equipment maker Data Domain Inc this month. Broadcom Corp offered to buy storage networking equipment maker Emulex Corp but was rejected.

IBRIX's biggest resellers include EMC and Dell Inc. An HP spokesman declined to say how HP would handle these relationships after the close of the acquisition.

HP is the third-largest provider of external disk storage equipment after market leader EMC and No. 2 player IBM. Dell is fourth.

HP hired former EMC executive David Donatelli in May to spearhead efforts to expand its storage business. That plan hit a snag after EMC persuaded judges in Massachusetts and California to temporarily bar him from managing HP's storage division, citing a non-compete clause in his contract.

Its 'Live Music' on Facebook

2009-07-19T01:16:00.000-07:00

The scene: a shop selling musical instruments, Characters: An electric guitar called Riff; Vanessa, a classical violin; a drum kit called Sticks and keyboards, Keys, The storyline: Riff falls in love with Vanessa, the "violin of his dreams" in a rock version of Romeo and Juliet.

Interesting isn't it?.....its all from Facebook, the most popular social networking site

The five-minute animated film Live Music has been created by a team of 51 people from around the world who responded to an invitation through the Facebook.

It represents the most ambitious attempt yet to apply the interactive model of Wikipedia, otherwise known as "crowd-sourcing" to the animated film world.

More than 50,000 people from 101 countries signed up for the project to create the five-minute film called Live Music. They voted for their favourite drawings, whittling the pool of artists down to the successful 51 who each won $500 (£304).

Live Music was the brainchild of Yair Landau, who as a former head of Sony's digital pictures division steered into being such mainstream films as Surf's Up and Monster House.

He came up with the idea to see if he could apply the 'crowd-sourcing' model used by Wikipedia to animation and then invited people to join his Facebook page, called Mass Animation, to collaborate on the project.

Guardian quoted, Yair Landau, former head of Sony's digital pictures as saying, " A clearly less professional product than you would get from animators who have been in the industry for years. But it's a start and an indication of what can be done, "

He said the participants had enriched the story. For instance, an animator from the UK added her own touch of having two cymbals kiss each other in mockery of the guitar and violin's love.

Live Music would be released in November to run in cinemas as a short film before Sony's animated feature film Planet 51.

TV remote can double up as phone

2009-07-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

Your children could soon be using the TV remote to make line-of-sight phone calls if MyWay, the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) company, manages to get it right.

"We are working on developing a Bluetooth-enabled remote, with a headphone and mike on either end that can be used for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls routed through the Set Top Box," said Kapil Dev Kumar, CEO, My Way.

In some months, MyWay consumers will be able to talk to one another and to anyone with an Internet-enabled device through VoIP services on the lines of Skype.

The 2-in-1 gadget is just one of the attractions that the IPTV service provider has lined up. It also plans to offer remote storage of 200 hours of television programmes for a one time charge of Rs 2,000-3,000 soon.

E-commerce potential

The platform which allows the viewer to send back messages has the potential for e-commerce through TV. At the launch of its IPTV service in January, Airtel had spoken of booking movie tickets and ordering pizzas.

MyWay's advertisement calls for pensioning off competing TV delivery platform and Direct to Home, but IPTV faces its own challenges.

Industry experts say global IPTV numbers are unimpressive. The cost of extending the fibre-optic network to homes becomes viable only in highly dense cities such as Singapore and Hongkong. In India, an independent network operator has to guard his line from the cable operator whose terrain he steps into.

MyWay has the advantage of partnering PSU Internet service providers BSNL and MTNL (for the latter it has access only to the Delhi market) with whom it shares revenue. With an investment of Rs 150 crore planned for the year, it hopes to add 3,000 customers monthly soon to reach 2.5-3 million subscribers over the next few years.

According to the latest TRAI figures, IPTV services earned only Rs 1.14 crore in the last financial year. Compared to 13 million DTH subscribers as of March 2009, broadband had only 6.2 million. "But that is growing at two million a month. And we are working out the financials of offering the service to the non-broadband, wireline subscribers of our ISP partners too," said Dev.

MyWay will be available in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Pune soon. "Despite the fact that we still don't have Sun Network's channels, the pick-up in the southern cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore has been very good," said Dev.

Toshiba unveils Satellite M500 notebook

2009-07-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Toshiba India Pvt. Ltd announced the launch of its latest Premier Series Satellite M500 notebook, designed to meet the performance requirements of entertainment enthusiasts.

Featuring in a premier black colour chassis with Champagne Gold Patterns, the LCD cover of the Satellite M500 comes with a Toshiba Fusion Finish based on IMR (In-Mould Rolling) technology with a Sonic Boom AERO design.

The Satellite M500 offers an edge-to-edge display (Flush Screen) with a glass mask, while rims and hinges are made of chrome further improving the elegant looks. The keyboard with flat keys in matt black finish transforms the Satellite M500 into an elegant multimedia powerhouse. Powered by Intel Core2 Duo Processors and 3GB system memory and also comes with HD web camera that records videos in wide format.

With this new offering, consumers can truly enjoy casual gaming, and watch movies at home or while on the go. The multimedia machine features a 14" high definition LED backlight display with Clear SuperView Technology, and a true widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio that offers a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and a luminance of 260 NITs.

The notebook comes at Rs.53,490

Nokia 'Comes with Music' to India

2009-07-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

Handset maker Nokia, recently announced its plans to launch a music services in India by the end of this year. As per media reports Nokia has begun testing the services in the country.

When launched, Nokia 'Comes with Music' service would offer consumers unlimited music downloads for a year from the Nokia Music Store - which is expected to be formally launched soon.

With the Nokia Music Store, users would be able to browse, download, and sync music to their computer or directly on to the mobile device.

The music content would be offered in form of vouchers to customers purchasing Nokia products. Users would also have the option to download content over Internet subsequently.

Currently, Nokia is testing the service, which was announced a few months back, in a closed group; they plan to make the service live for the Indian masses in the second half of 2009.

Nokia said on its India music store site that its service uses Microsoft DRM (digital rights management) technology.

Microsoft Released Silverlight 3

2009-07-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

Microsoft rolled out the next version of its competitor to Adobe Flash, Silverlight 3, today. The latest version of Silverlight comes with many features and improvements including clear type for both Windows and Mac, integration with a browser’s forward and back button, ability to work offline and hardware acceleration.

Silverlight 3 helps rich Internet application (RIA) developers work faster with new graphics, animation and 3-D features, and more than 60 controls.

Finally, Silverlight 3 enables developers to create lightweight Web application experiences that can exist outside the browser. This enables Web sites to deliver more persistent relationships with their customers.

It can be recalled that Microsoft had released the first version of Silverlight technology back in 2007 and later upgraded to the version 2 in 2008.

The Microsoft Silverlight 3 software development kit that provides libraries and tools for developing Silverlight applications is also available to download.

Download Silverlight Player

Download Silverlight 3 SDK

RCom to deliver books via SMS

2009-07-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

Reliance Communications (RCom) will next month launch a mobile phone-based novel, Deaf Heaven, authored by award-winning writer Pinki Virani. The book will be packed in a set of 90 SMS messages priced at Rs 30 and made available through an specially-created SMS subscription pack.

“Subscribers will receive the entire novel over a series of SMSes spaced over a period of 30 days. Every day, the subscriber will get to read the novel through three SMSes,” said Krishna Durbha, head (VAS), Reliance Communications.

Reliance also plans to convert the book into an adult audio mobile book. The audio book would be available on a multimodal number which was under development, said Durbha. “The adult audio mobile book will be offered at a flat subscription price of Rs 30. Users will be charged Re 1 per minute to hear the audio book.” The audio book, which will be made available in English, constitutes almost 60 minutes of audio content. The digital rights of the literary content will be owned by the author. RCom refused to share the details of the revenue-share arrangement.

Value-added services, or VAS, which on an average comprise up to 7 per cent of the total telecom revenue for Indian operators, is a growing segment. Operators dominate the revenue sharing arrangement in India. Of the amount paid by the users, 70 per cent is kept by the operator, the aggregator gets 25 per cent while the content owner gets the rest.

The handset-based novel is part of RCom’s strategy to further drive its VAS revenues in the metros and Section A and B cities. It says it is targetting 20 per cent revenue from VAS and data services. The company is gearing to launch F1 Racing live on its portal, R-World, and is reportedly in talks with publishers and authors to further VAS based on literary content.

“We want to grow the VAS market beyond Bollywood and are looking to launch poetic works like shayari through audio books,” said Durbha.

RCom had earlier announced its intention to overhaul its pricing model to offer services such as caller tunes, news alerts and internet surfing for as low as Re 1 a day.

Lenovo rolls out 7 new PC products in India

2009-07-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Lenovo today announced clear intentions of leading the transformation in the Indian consumer PC market by launching seven new products across multiple segments. The ambitious product line-up caters to a broad segment of consumers – from Lenovo C300, the ultra-sleek, affordable, All-in-One PC, to the trendy, thin and light Lenovo IdeaPad U350, Y450 and Y550 notebooks that are loaded with cutting-edge features that defy size, to the aggressively priced Lenovo G Series notebooks for value conscious consumers, and the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 netbook – the new range has it all!

Lenovo's new products for the consumer segment emphasize thoughtful designs and new form factors. The products launched today include:

The new, affordable All-In-One, Lenovo C300: Attractive, ultra-sleek, single-unit desktop PC that does not have a separate CPU. It has a 20" slim monitor and an in-built TV-tuner too! Small in space, BIG on features!
Lenovo IdeaPad U350: Fashionable, ultra-thin and ultra-light 13" notebook with rich performance and stunning entertainment features. Small in size, BIG on performance!
Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 and Y550: Multimedia-ready 14" and 15" notebooks with 16:9 glossy, widescreen panels and NVIDIA GFX graphics for gaming and smooth HD video playback. Small in size, BIG on entertainment!
Lenovo G430 and G550: Thinner, lighter and affordable entry-level 14" and 15" notebooks with DVD burner and optional HDMI ports. Small on the wallet, BIG on value!
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2: Feature-packed 10" netbook with larger touchpad, and additional ports for better connectivity. Small in size, BIG on connectivity!

"With trendsetting design, exceptional engineering, cutting-edge capabilities and great price range in our new product line-up, Lenovo takes a giant step in the Indian consumer PC market today. We're proud to be the leaders in All-in-One PCs, a brand new category we created with the launch of the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 and consolidating that lead with today's launch of the Lenovo C300. Besides the All-in-One, the new range has something for everyone combined with the trusted and reliable Lenovo service and support tag, making it an irresistible buy," said Amar Babu, MD, Lenovo India.

On Lenovo's India focus, Babu added: "A significant part of our business focus will be on growing consumers in critical markets such as India. Our priority is to streamline operations to drive down cost, improve time-to-market, and offer consumers innovative and affordable PCs across a full range portfolio from value to mainstream and premium."

Commenting on the announcement, Rajan Anandan, MD, Microsoft India said, "Microsoft's Windows strategy focuses on enhancing the user experience through productivity, ease and optimization. Lenovo, with its brand equity, partner community and product range is a key partner in delivering this promise to the Indian customer. We are delighted to partner with Lenovo to support the expansion of their product line up. Now, a vast range of customers across segments will be able to experience the combined value of Lenovo's brand promise with Microsoft's software prowess."

According to Prakash Bagri, Director – Marketing, Intel South Asia, "When we introduced Intel Centrino six years ago, Intel changed the computing landscape with our mobile innovations. Now, simply said, we have improved virtually all aspects of Intel-based notebooks, making it the most popular and fastest growing computing market segment in the world. The various new notebooks and desktops from Lenovo, based on Intel platforms, span virtually every category of mobile computing, offering consumers a greater choice than even before."

At today's multi-product launch, Lenovo also indicated collective strategic actions it will implement to enable further growth in India. Backed by a new global structure that focuses on both emerging markets and mature markets to serve its customers better, Lenovo India's go-to-market strategy has also been streamlined to extend its reach into tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 cities, leverage its retail network more effectively in major cities and empower its business partners.

Mozilla intros Open Web Tools Directory

2009-07-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

BANGALORE, INDIA: Mozilla on Wednesday announced that it has launched an Open Web Tools Directory, a new directory full of web apps and tools for developers.

Through this launch the company aims to provide developers with central indexing for the broader range of tools available.

A blog posted by Ben Galbraith, at the Mozilla labs website said, " We've come to the opinion that in addition to creating new tools, one of the best things we could do is help developers understand the broad universe of tools that already exist and expose some of the fantastic and amazing work that's being done."

Currently they have only a small number of tools listed, but the company has created a data entry form for developers to submit their applications.

However it agrees that the entries won't go live immediately, but they would review them on a regular basis and get them added.

The company here notes that the directory would only work on modern browsers like Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox and would support both for browsers without canvas support and for screen reader support.
The blog further said that in the coming days the directory would add more features like ranking, commenting on the tools, better searching tools, etc.

"We're looking forward to evolving the directory and working with the web community to make it a vibrant resource for discovering and tracking the web's amazing tools universe," it added.

BSNL to provide bandwidth for SWAN

2009-07-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar July 10, 2009, 0:45 IST

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) would provide bandwidth services for the implementation of the Orissa State Wide Area Network (OSWAN) project in the state.

Facebook expects 'billions' worth revenue in 5 yrs

2009-07-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Facebook will likely be posting billions of dollars in revenue in five years, up from about $500 million this year, according to Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Andreessen who sits on Facebook's board.

Andreessen told Reuters that the world's most popular online social network could pile up $1 billion in revenue this year if it pushed harder on selling advertising.

But he added that it was more important at this stage for social sites like Facebook and Twitter to retain and grow their user base and capture market share, rather than worry too much about making lots of money right away.

"This calendar year they'll do over $500 million," Andreessen said in an interview, noting that Facebook has more than 225 million users, so revenue per user is still small.

"If they pushed the throttle forward on monetization they would be doing more than a billion this year," said Andreessen, who made the cover of Time Magazine as founder of the world's first Web browser company, Netscape.

Privately held Facebook - which counts venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Accel Partners, Microsoft Corp and Russian Internet investment firm Digital Sky Technologies among its investors - has never disclosed its revenue except to say it expects 70 per cent growth this year.

"There's every reason to expect in my view that the thing can be doing billions in revenue five years from now," Andreessen said.

Andreessen, who is starting his own venture capital fund with Netscape executive Ben Horowitz, regrets not investing in Facebook. "I probably could have if I had tried hard but I didn't," he said, recalling that he has known the founders of Facebook from the beginning.

Andreessen has invested in Twitter, the fast-growing micro-blogging site that lets users share 140-character messages known as tweets.

Twitter famously makes no money, and Horowitz and Andreessen think that that is OK for now because the site needs to focus on increasing its number of users and improve the features it offers so that no rival can swoop in.

"They have to take the market," said Horowitz. "There is no investor in Twitter who will tell you: 'Boy, those guys are screwing up, there's no revenue yet.'"

Horowitz and Andreessen point to the once-leading social network MySpace, which has fallen behind since it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

MySpace focused too much on selling advertisements - to contribute to News Corp's bottom line - and not enough on developing the platform, leaving room for Facebook to come in and take market share, they said.

"If the revenue degraded the user experience then that was a very dangerous thing to do," Horowitz said.

Andreessen said it will be difficult, but not impossible, for MySpace to rebound now that Facebook has such a big following. Both he and Horowitz say they do not expect Twitter to make the same kinds of mistakes that MySpace did.

Twitter was a high profile Web start-up even before it shot into the headlines during the Iran election crisis, when the U.S. State Department called on it to reschedule planned maintenance because it considered Twitter a vital communications channel for protesters.

As for Facebook, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told Reuters in May that an initial public offering was not in the cards for at least a few years. Instead, the company is allowing some shareholders to sell their shares to Digital Sky.

"Generally speaking, people who are selling their stock in Facebook now are making a mistake," Andreessen said.

TATA DoCoMo Free Mp3 Ringtone for download

2009-07-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends, Download Free TATA DOCOMO Mp3 Ringtone

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YouTube mobile uploads grow 400% following launch of iPhone 3G

2009-06-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

User-generated video aggregator service YouTube announced its mobile uploads have increased 400 percent a day in the week since Apple released its iPhone 3G S, the first version of the iconic smartphone to offer video capture capabilities. Writing on The YouTube Blog, YouTube product manager Dwipai Desai and community manager Mia Quagliarello note that in the last six months, the firm has seen uploads from all mobile devices increase 1,700 percent. “This growth represents three things coming together: new video-enabled phones on the market, improvements to the upload flow when you post a video to YouTube from your phone, and a new feature on YouTube that allows your videos to be quickly and effortlessly shared through your social networks

Tata DoCoMo starts GSM service in Chennai, Tamil Nadu circles

2009-06-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) Tata DoCoMo, the joint venture between telecom majors Tata Teleservices and NTT DoCoMo of Japan, commercially launched GSM telephony operations in Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles Wednesday.
Tata DoCoMo’s pan-India service rollout will be completed this year, with entire south Indian circles going “live” in a fortnight, it said in a statement.

The company, which intends investing $2 billion (Rs.10,000 crore), has received a licence to operate GSM telecom services in 19 telecom circles and been allotted spectrum in 18.

“This launch is truly a moment of triumph for the consumer. The launch of pay-per-use, per-second concept offered by Tata DoCoMo will create a paradigm shift in the overall telecom experience for the customer,” Tata group chairman Ratan Tata was quoted as saying.

Tata DoCoMo products will be available in nearly 20,000 outlets across the country.

Google Announces Adsense For Mobile Apps

2009-06-25T02:08:00.000-07:00

We want to contribute to the growth of these mobile applications, which is why we’re happy to announce our beta launch of AdSense for Mobile Applications. And so saying Adsense has sort of opened gates for a mini revolution of sorts in the mobile applications field. It’s a revolution for not many reasons and it is mini for a whole lot more, nevertheless it is an important step. The Adsense for Mobile Apps was rolled out into Beta (another one gone into never ending beta) last night. It is currently accepting applications for Beta testing from app developers though it hasn’t quite opened up for marketers. If you are an app developer you can head over to http://www.google.com/ads/mobileapps/ and apply for the Beta program. Wait. Not so fast. The Adsense for Mobile Apps unfortunately is only for high end phones, which means only app developers for Android and IPhone can make any use of it. Also, Google predominantly plans to accept applications for Apps which have a predominantly North American use. Though in exceptional cases they do accept apps from other countries. How ads are displayedThere also a couple of questions which sort of remain unanswered as of now. The first being if these apps can deliver ads only on Internet enabled apps? And if so where does that leave mobile apps that are downloaded and don’t quite need the web, how can Google display ads dynamically on them every time the app is refreshed or used? The flaws if any are alright The program all said and done is just launched in Beta. And it holds a lot of promise. The biggest being that apps can now be free, and there there is the advertising model app developers can pursue without worrying about a revenue model for some while. It also brings mainstream advertisers (the big ones are anyway advertising on Google) on to mobiles opening up avenues of mobile advertising like no other platform can. It is surely going to change the VAS play once Google opens up for other platforms. App developers can also cross sell and upsell ads using this channel if they can’t purely bank on advertising for money. It also helps them depend a lot less on Carriers and service providers and their sometimes unfair revenue shares. The fact that Adsense is keeping referrals open unlike the traditional Adsense tool for which they have discontinued refrerall income is also a good move. On the whole this is a very good news

Unlocked Google Android Phone in India - HTC Magic

2009-06-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

HTC has launched the first Google Android phone in India â€“ HTC Magic. HTC has tied up exclusively with Airtel to sell the unlocked HTC Magic Android phone – the exclusive deal spans six months, i.e. you still need to buy the phone from Airtel. HTC Magic - G2 Android Phone in India HTC Specification Processor : QualcommÂ® MSM7200Aâ„¢, 528 MHz OSÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â : Android MemoryÂ Â Â Â Â : 512 MB along with 288MB RAM CameraÂ Â Â Â Â : 3.2 MP BatteryÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â :Â Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. Talk time: Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 450 minutes for GSM, Standby time: Up to 660 hours for WCDMA, Up to 420 hours for GSM Dimension: 13 x 55.56 x 13.65 mm ( 4.45 x 2.19 x 0.54 inches), Weighs 116 gms with battery. The phone costs Rs. 30K (the unlocked version, which was available for developers was available for $649) and is a sleeker version of G1 (without a keyboard). Features Supported - All Google applications, - Smart Dialer, an on-screen keyboard that lets you call people in whatever way you think, by either dialling their phone number or by dialing the first few letters of their name. - Multiple mailbox support and MicrosoftÂ® Exchange Server synchronization for email, calendar and contacts Also see: Unlocked iPhone in India â€“ Officially from Airtel Nokia N97 Launch and Price Specification in India Mobile Phone Market â€“ Nokia Dominates GSM Market, LG Leads CDMA Are you game for HTC Magic? » Do check out Indian Startup Directory | Indian VC Directory and Active Startup Discussion Forum » Lets catch up on Twitter (we conduct a quiz everyday @ 2PM!!) Advertise @ pluGGd.in Unlocked Google Android Phone in India – HTC Magic Related Posts Unlocked Google Android Phone for Indian Developers ($399) Unlocked iPhone in India – Officially from Airtel Telecom Roundup – Tata Tele’s GSM Service, HTC to Launch Android Phone in India..and more Google Phone, G1’s India launch in December or early January 2009 Only 4,000 3G iPhone Sold in India?

Airtel Launches HTC G2 - First Google Phone In India

2009-06-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

Airtel Launches HTC G2 - First Google Phone In India »
Around a week back we blogged that HTC will soon launch Google Android based phones in India and here they are, HTC is launching G2 (HTC magic) in India today in strategic partnership with Airtel. G2 is priced between 26,000 and 28,000 and will not be locked to any operator unlike Apple Iphone thus making it a go-go for users with any operator. The phone may be bundled with talk time, data plans, micro sd card etc making it more lucrative for the customer. HTC G2 have a huge list of features making it a compelling buy for the users opting for a smart phones, giving stiff competition to Nokia N97, Blackberry and Iphones. All Google services like Gmail, Google Search, Street view etc comes inbuilt with G2. Smart Dialer with on screen touch keyboard making it easy to type. Microsoft exchange server integration making it lucrative even for business users. Wifi Connectivity so that one can use WiFi connection while in office,home. G2 also provides easy network switching capability, so that users can switch from Operator provided network to office/home WIFI in a click of a button giving them better speed and saving some pennies . Though the price tag may look little bit on the heavier side but it may be able to pick up cashing on the Googlemania . Users will be happier with their Gmail,Calendar,contacts all syncing up regularly. Will it be trigger real smart phone usage?

Most of the smartphones in India are used without actually harnessing their capabilities to the fullest and most of they just become one more jazzy device in user pocket mostly because of absence of lucrative data plans by the providers.How many users will be ready to pay more than Rs 2500 for using 3G services ? Hope Airtel and other providers put some deep thoughts into this and provide some good plans that can leverage the real use of smart phones making smartphones really useful to the users and not just a jazzy device to flaunt. Its up to the operators how they push the smartphone use in India and how much they can forsee the future. Once the users get addicted to smartphones and advanced applications they will push operators bottom lines generating more Average Revenue Per User(ARPU ) which is currently one of the prime concerns of the operators in India. Related Posts Will Google Phone Charm India? UPDATE:(Airtel Issues a Clarification) BOKU Launches Mobile Payment Solution - Airtel is the Exclusive Carrier in India Bharti-MTN Merger-beneficial in the long run SatNav Ties Up With HTC - Bundling Deal Airtel Crosses 100 Million Subscribers

eSobi is now compatible with Windows 7

2009-06-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: esobi Inc., an innovative Internet information navigator has announced that its integrated Internet tool eSobi is now "Compatible with the Windows 7," the successor of the Windows Vista operating system (OS).

Users of eSobi can easily upgrade their eSobi for free to enjoy the enhanced personal Internet experience on Windows 7 when it arrives later this year.

Windows 7 is an old technology says Apple

By passing the Microsoft-designed tests to meet all of the technical requirements to be compatible with Windows 7, eSobi is ensured to be free of malware, install easily, and run reliably with the minimal number of hangs, crashes, or restarts with Windows 7 including the 64 bit edition.

For eSobi's support for OPML file format to group multiple RSS feeds into a single portable file, users can easily share their subscribed news channels between different PCs in order to stay updated with their favorite news sources across multiple computers without extra effort.

"eSobi has earned its global reputation on making it more efficient and personal to utilize Internet resources in daily life," said Wen Lee, chairman of esobi Inc.

"By working with Microsoft and as the very first company in our category to receive the Compatible with Windows 7 logo, eSobi customers can have confidence of the compatibility, reliability, security, and performance of eSobi on their Windows 7-based computers," added Lee.

eSobi is a web 2.0 software program offering a highly customizable news reader and search tool to help deliver web content that best meets users' interests. A document library for central, integrated Internet data management is also included.

eSobi is now the software partner of Acer, Transcend and MSI worldwide and supports 15 global languages. Currently eSobi already supports Windows 7 RC. Users of eSobi and eSobi News Center on all Acer PCs will receive free upgrade to the latest compatible version of eSobi in the future when Windows 7 is released.

Android OS to power T-Mobile

2009-06-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, US: T-Mobile USA will begin selling a new smartphone using Google Inc's Android operating software in August, facing off against high-end devices such as Apple's latest iPhone and the Palm Pre.

T-Mobile, an arm of Deutsche Telekom and the No. 4 U.S. mobile service, said the myTouch 3G phone is a slimmer and more advanced version of the G1, which was also made by Taiwan's HTC Corp and based on Android technology.

The new phone will cost $199, the same as the 16-gigabyte model of Apple Inc's iPhone 3GS and Palm Inc's Pre after a rebate for a two-year service contract.

MyTouch's advantage is that the phone can be personalized, such as with custom home screens and widgets, T-Mobile said. The Android platform can also learn user preferences and offer recommendations.

"The story is personalization," said Andrew Sherrard, vice president of product innovation at T-Mobile. The iPhone had a "beautiful aesthetic, but you can't change it," he said.

Cupertino, California-based Apple introduced the iPhone two years ago, and it quickly became a consumer phenomenon and upped the game for other phone makers, including the more business-oriented BlackBerry from Research in Motion Ltd (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) (RIMM.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

Apple's latest iPhone, 3GS, hit stores last Friday with new features and faster speeds, intensifying competition in the high-end mobile device market. Apple and its U.S. carrier partner, AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), also cut the price of an older iPhone model.

With more and more models on the market, there are questions what the market can support.

An outlook by RIM on Thursday that fell short of some investors' expectations stoked concerns about consumer spending and fears that the smartphone market has become more cluttered with alternatives.

T-Mobile's Sherrard acknowledged the economy has been weak, but said consumers will continue to seek feature-rich phones.

"We're still living in a recessionary environment," he said. "But people have hung onto their wireless devices. It's become the way they communicate."

The myTouch features a touch-screen display, and a 3.2-megapixel camera, a music player, and video capabilities to make it easier for users to share pictures and videos on sites like YouTube and Picasa.

The phone is also more lightweight in design compared to the G1, and will have longer battery life, T-Mobile said. It will come in white, black and wine red.

Customers already using T-Mobile can pre-order myTouch from July 8 onwards, and begin receiving the new gadget from July 29, the company said, adding that the price for upgraded users has not yet been finalized. T-Mobile expects more than half of the new phone's buyers to be existing customers.

DreamNex to launch erotic webcam on mobiles

2009-06-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

PARIS, FRANCE: France's adult entertainment company DreamNex said on Friday that it would launch an erotic webcam service this year, and expects 2009 sales and net income to remain at the same levels in as the previous year.

The group said that the economic crisis had impacted its sex toy sales but that its dating services were holding up well.

DreamNex launched its SexyAvenue.com website in 2000 in France and now has a market capitalisation of 97 million euros ($135 million).

DreamNex, whose products include solar-rechargeable sex toys, later this year will launch an erotic webcam service on such smartphones as the iPhone as the third-generation mobile phones have made it easier to stream videos from the Internet.

"We are preparing a webcam service that is a real technological challenge," Chairman and Chief Executive Patrice Macar told Reuters in an interview. "I feel the moment is now. It's this year."

"Mobile phones are more suitable for the adult content market. There is more intimacy than with the family's PC in the middle of the living room. I think that in the long term, a big share of the market will be done there," Macar said.

Dating ServiceBoom

DreamNex said it expected to maintain its sales and net income to 2008 levels this year, after reporting a 10 percent fall in first-quarter revenue this year. It makes 55 of its revenue in France, 30 percent in the Netherlands, and about 5 percent each in Britain, Italy and Spain.

"The trend of the first quarter will be confirmed or may be improved in the second quarter," Macar said.

Its dating service, with about 18,000 subscribers, was up 60 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the last quarter of 2008.

"Our clients are not going to cancel their subscriptions if they are happy with it. On the contrary, we can see a rather rapid increase," Macar said.

DreamNex wants to expand into Germany and is on the lookout for acquisitions. Macar said it is looking for the right target and would probably purchase something next year.

The DreamNex CEO said moving into the U.S. market was also on the agenda but it was focusing on organic growth there rather than expanding through acquisitions.

"Clearly, we will be in the U.S. in 2010," Macar said.

The group said it had a "comfortable" financial situation, with cash of 18 million euros at the end of 2008 and sales of 70.3 million euros. In 2008, its net profit rose 115 percent to 10.1 million euros.

Unlike many other websites, the group has not been impacted by the slump in the advertising market as DreamNex carries no advertising on its site.

Dreamnex shares were unchanged at 34.20 euros in early afternoon trade. The stock has gained 14 percent so far this year, having fallen 18 percent last year.

Google captures images from nook and corner

2009-06-22T01:59:00.000-07:00

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Search engine giant, Google is bent upon trying newer and innovative ways to keep the pace up in the competitive environment.

One such initiative is the rolling of a tricycle mounted camera around the campus of University of Pennsylvania. According to a report by AP, A tricycle mounted with an 8-foot (2 1/2-meter) high camera has been moving around the University of Pennsylvania campus to collect panoramic images of the campus for Google Maps' Street View feature.

The company till now has been using car-mounted cameras to prowl streets in the U.S. and around the world. Through this, Google would be able to provide detailed street level images that are unaccessible by cars, giving a good feeling to the campus and a guide map for the students.

Ibibo is the next Google

2009-06-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

The good news is that ibibo and Komli have a score of 77 and 83 respectively and have even beaten startups like Xobni, Kosmix and Admob! (if your score is 90+, you could be an IPO candidate!)

Way to go BW for the well researched list!.

Well, atleast for the BS (bull..)!

Huawei unveils world's first packet-based MSTP

2009-06-19T03:02:00.001-07:00

Huawei Technologies, a provider of next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, launched the world's first packet-based multi-service transport platform (MSTP).

It would enable operators, for the first-time, to move seamlessly from time-division multiplexing (TDM) services to packet-based services without the usual cost burden that is associated with such a network upgrade.

The company claims that the solution would also enhance operators' network services and substantially improve the efficiency of mobile transport networks. The new solution is backward compatible and future-oriented to support enhanced 3G and LTE technologies.

Christian Chua, president, Huawei Transport Network Product Line, said: "The new and future-proofed packet-based MSTP solution presents significant opportunities for operators who are currently using TDM-based mobile transport networks and are now looking to upgrade to the exciting next-generation packet services of the future."

This latest packet-based MSTP platform enables mutual conversion and seamless operation among 'pure TDM transport', 'hybrid TDM and packet transport' and 'pure packet transport' networks. The solution also supports unified end-to-end management, protects existing operator assets and investments, and substantially minimizes the costs for upgrading an MSTP network.

IBM launches BladeCenter Express Bus

2009-06-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

IBM announced the launch of the IBM Blade Center Express Bus with the goal to reach out effectively to its existing and potential customers. The BladeCenter Express Bus is equipped with the latest BladeCenter S Chassis, a "datacenter in a box" - integrating servers, storage and networking all into one box as well as the new HS22 Blade Server.

The BladeCenter "datacenter in a box" is easy to deploy and runs on standard office power making it ideal for small and medium busienss (SMB) customers looking for a one-stop IT Infra solution and for Enterprise customers looking to deploy IT for remote branches.

Migrating from older rack and blade servers to the new HS22 blade servers can result in up to 93 per cent saving on energy costs. Also, the HS22 Blade server's enhanced memory footprint makes it ideal for customers wanting to run virtualized workloads and SAP workloads. The Blade Center Express Bus will showcase via a live demonstration, the benefits of the BladeCenter family and the advantages of the IBM BladeCenter Portfolio and its management features.

IBM Blade Center Express Bus will be in Delhi for the entire month of June where in it will travel to customer locations for demonstrations. IBM will effectively leverage its robust Business Partner Network to take this innovative concept to its clients. IBM's family of BladeCenter offerings is the best way to optimise IT and build an IT Infrastructure that is open and green. IBM BladeCenter as a whole (blades and chassis combined) is purposefully designed to maximize the efficiency of power and cooling.

The IBM BladeCenter supports blade servers with Intel, AMD, Power and Cell processors with a potential cost savings in management costs of up to 44 percent. The Blade Center Express team will also demonstrate How the BladeCenter S can be configured easily in a very short time.

Commenting on this launch, Ajay Mittal, country manager, System x, IBM India/ South Asia said: "The Blade Center Express Bus is our attempt to be closer to our customers and partners and educate them on the benefits of our BladeCenter platform. This is a first of its kind initiative where we will work closely with our business partners to demonstrate the value that IBM brings especially in times where budgets are tight and customers are looking at greater return on their investments".

IBM Blade Center Express Bus is also scheduled to travel to NCR, Chandigarh and neighboring towns in the coming months. Mahesh Tomar, Head Infrastructure Solutions, Team Computers, said: "This is a great initiative by IBM to illustrate the benefits of its BladeCenter platform for us and our customers. This Initiative enables us to take a live demonstration right to the customer location and helps to bring the benefits of IBM BladeCenter to a wider set of customers. This helps our customers understand appreciate the true benefits that IBM BladCenter brings to their IT infrastructure."

IBM to invest $100 mn in mobile research

2009-06-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

IT major IBM anounced on Wednesday that it plans to shift US$100 million investment over the next five years into a major research effort that aims to advance mobile services and capabilities for businesses and consumers worldwide.

Through this effort IBM is aiming to drive new intelligence into the underpinnings of the mobile web to create new efficiencies in business operations and people's daily lives, said a press release.

The three focus areas for IBM's research investment are: emerging market mobility, mobile enterprise enablement, and enterprise end-user mobile experiences.

"In today's interconnected world, mobile device are gradually becoming ubiquitous and helping us transcend many boundaries – geographical, economic, and social, among others," says Dr. Guruduth Banavar, director of IBM Research - India and global leader of the IBM Research mobile communication initiative.

He added that with high penetration simple user interface, and significant cost advantage for end users, mobile telephony holds the future of communication and exchange of information for the enterprise.

In a such project, IBM Research – India has established a pilot program that allows people, including farmers, repairmen, small business owners, and consumers, to post, retrieve or exchange timely information via voice on cellphones.

According to IBM's Institute for Business Value, the number of mobile users will have grown by 191 per cent from 2006 to 2011 to reach approximately one billion users.

"Mobility and the associated analytics will change virtually every enterprise business process," said Paul Bloom, chief technology officer, IBM Telecom Research. "It will change the relationship between enterprises and their customers, their employees and their partners."

IBM Research comprises approximately 3,000 scientists in eight major laboratories around the globe. IBM also has more than 20,000 software developers in 75 development labs in 18 countries. IBM has earned the most U.S. patents for 16 consecutive years, and five of its researchers have been the recipients of the Nobel Prize, the release added.

Huawei unveils 400G-platform router

2009-06-17T02:11:00.001-07:00

SINGAPORE: Huawei Technologies, a provider of telecommunications network solutions, launched its new NetEngine V6 400G-platform universal service router at CommunicAsia in Singapore.

The router has a capacity of 400Gbps per slot and is fully compatible with all existing NE40E router linecards. Dubbed "NE40E USR", is the enhanced 400G-platform universal service router.

Zha Jun, president, router and network security product line, Huawei, said: "Huawei understands the importance of providing innovative solutions in time for the operators in network transformation. The launch of the cutting edge NE40E USR router demonstrates our commitment to provide customer-centric innovation that will help the operators keep their leading position and achieve commercial success in HD video and mobile broadband era."
©CIOL Bureau

LG to launch record 50 handsets in India

2009-06-17T02:07:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE: Eyeing to double its market share to 11 per cent in the fast growing GSM mobile telephony, world's third largest mobile phone maker LG Electronics today said it will launch 50 handsets by the end of 2009 in the Indian market.

"The number of product line-up has doubled as compared to 2008. We plan to launch 50 handsets by the end of December and aim to keep our market share over 11 per cent there (India)," Bo H Choi, Head (Asia Pacific Region), Mobile Communication Company of LG Electronics told PTI.

At present, the South Korean firm has a 5.25 per cent in GSM segment while the company enjoys nearly 50 per cent market share in the CDMA space. Choi was speaking after LG's launch of three new smart phones — Crystal, GM 730 and Viewty Smart — at telecommunications conference CommunicAsia 2009, here.

He pointed out the company would be eyeing India as one of the important investment destinations since the demand from developed economies are witnessing a saturation.

In terms of global sales, LG is the third-largest behind Nokia and Samsung. The South Korean entity is ahead of Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

India’s total mobile subscriber base reaches 306.4 million in May

2009-06-16T02:05:00.001-07:00

The GSM-based mobile operators in India added 8.3 million subscribers in May taking the total subscriber base to 306.4 million.

As per the data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the total number of GSM subscriptions in India reached 306.4 million in May compared to a subscriber base of 298.1 million in April.

Bharti Airtel maintained its leadership position in the GSM-space with a market share of 32.48 per cent.

Airtel hit the landmark of reaching 100 (99.5) million subscriber mark with the addition of 2.8 million subscribers in May.

By adding 2.5 million new GSM subscribers, Vodafone Essar took its subscriber base to a total of 74 million. In April, Vodafone had added 2.7 million subscribers.

Idea Cellular with 14.84 per cent market share has added 1.3 million subscribers taking its subscriber base to 45.4 million.

Among the public sector players, BSNL’s total subscriber base touched 48.1 million subscribers as it added 4.5 lakh users in the month of May.

The subscriber addition in May dropped drastically for BSNL as in April the firm had added 1 million new users.

BSNL has a market share of 15.72 per cent. MTNL has managed to add 38,036 users taking its subscriber base to 4.2 million.

In April, MTNL had added 45,553 subscribers.

LG expects to sell 110 mn mobile phones in 2009

2009-06-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

South Korea's LG Electronics Inc sees mobile phone sales at around 110 million units this year, rising to 200 million a year by 2012, an executive said on Tuesday.

Ma Chang, vice president for marketing strategy for LG's mobile phone arm, said the global mobile market will hold up better than expected, with continued growth in Asia.

"I think Asia will grow in high single digits this year," Ma told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a regional technology conference in Singapore.

Win A Free Copy of Windows 7 Ultimate and A Windows 7 T-Shirt

2009-06-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a great offer from TechNet blog. You can now grab a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate and an awesome Windows 7 T-shirt for free! Are you ready? Read on to know more.

All you have to do is, fill out a small survey here. Note that this great offer closes early next week, so hurry up to the survey page. Windows 7 is will be released on October 22, and you will get a copy (if you win) only after the release date.

Microsoft To Release Free Antivirus “Morro” Soon

2009-06-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is all set to release a free antivirus substitute, codenamed "Morro", for its discontinued Live OneCare. The Microsoft Corporation has not revealed much information on its free antivirus Morro, but it’s believed that the Morro will clinch enough market shares from Symantec and McAfee.

Live OneCare was a paid computer security and enhancement tool for Windows. Live OneCare was released back in 2006 and discontinued in 2008.

The “Morro” is expected to come with only basic level protection. It will not have features like firewall, encryption and parental control.

Google India - Mobile App for Blackberry

2009-06-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

The official Google India blog announced availability of Google Mobile App for BlackBerry in India with My Location and voice search. Google App for Blackberry extends local business suggestions, (My Location must be enabled) even before clicking the search button.
For instance if you are looking to have caffeine, just type “coffee” in Google Mobile App search box which gives you results for closest cafe near by you.

If you like to search for ICC World Twenty20 current cricket match score in Google Mobile App for BlackBerry just speak “Cricket Score” in your Blackberry, which gives scores for current cricket match.

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry also gives suggestions to find out exact spelling for what you are going to search. For instance if you speak “Meira Kumar” in your BlackBerry which gives you search results for Lok Sabha speaker. If you said “Meera bai” in your BlackBerry Google Mobile App gives you search results for alternative word, even “Meira” and “Meera” have same pronunciations.

Visit m.google.co.in for installing Google Mobile App in your BlackBerry.

RCom offers BlackBerry for Rs 299/month

2009-06-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom) said that it will offer BlackBerry services to its subscribers at Rs 299 a month.

RCom and Research In Motion (RIM) have introduced the 'Reliance E-Lite' plan for BlackBerry smart phone users in India, where users can have unlimited access to email and instant messaging (IM) on their phones for Rs 299 a month, RCom said in a statement.

The service plan would be available on BlackBerry smartphones available from Reliance Mobile, such as BlackBerry 8703e, BlackBerry 8830, BlackBerry Curve 8300, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Pearl 8110 and BlackBerry Pearl 8130.

Vrajesh Shelat, Head (Wireless Data Business), Reliance Communications, said, said: "Through 'Reliance E-Lite', we will extend our reach to a wider market by providing an affordable and high quality of service to consumers."

Google Making The Internet More Indian - Translating World Information To Indian Languages

2009-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Google has launched Google Translator Toolkit that enables users to convert content from other languages to their native language like Hindi etc . As per Google since most of the Indian users want to go through the offline content in regional languages, it will be great it they can access the online content also in their regional languages. Google Translate has been providing the service of translation for long but sometimes translation need human interaction which can be achieved with the help of Google Translator Toolkit. The toolkit will comprise of an inbuilt Editor, multilingual dictionary that will help people in creating high quality professional content in their native language. Google Translator toolkit comes to great use if you are searching for some document that is already been converted by somebody else. It will show them as suggestions and one can use the document already converted by another person thus saving time, manpower and processing power.
The image above shows the typical life-cycle of document conversion process. The translation system also have some intelligence and it learns from users correction and suggestions thus helping user next time when they encounter same text. How will it benefit people: Users which are incapable to understand languages like English,Chinese can easily translate the document into their regional languages like hindi etc. It will open a huge information base which is normally not accessible to user due to language constraints for eg there is huge information on Feng Shui which is not available to world as most of it is in Chinese , Using Google Translator and little bit of manual intervention , the information can be made available in various languages. It will also help people in document conversion buisness to easily convert from one language to another. Users can also use the documents already converted by other users thus saving time. What Google has in it for them: Google will be able to target much more regional audiences, thus preparing themselves for the next 50 million users in India. Google may be able to provide better search results to the users searching in regional languages thus increasing their loyal consumer base. Google will also be able to establish its monopoly in the regional content market. It seems that many players like Google and Rediff are banking heavily on the regional markets and want to encash every single opportunity available. Related Posts IIITians Working on Open Source Language Translation Tools Google, Facebook, and The Language Revolution Google Launches Hindi Translation Tool

Kaspersky Internet Security 2009

2009-06-09T01:57:00.000-07:00

Not having an antivirus program is like living in a house without doors or windows. Besides the antivirus, a firewall is also necessary aspect of PC security since it keeps your PC invisible from the virtual world and thwarts network attacks. This is where a product like Kaspersky Internet Security comes into play.

Once you’ve finished the installation, the application allows you to choose between two protection modes — automatic and interactive. The automatic mode is recommended as this puts Kaspersky in charge of making the right decisions when (if) threats are encountered. The interactive is more for the advanced or paranoid user since it will insist on keeping you in the loop for just about every action it takes.

Features
The main interface shows all the modules that are enabled or disabled. If any of the modules is disabled other than the Banner Ad Blocker and Parental Control, the green orb turns yellow. Red on the other hand indicates that either file and memory protection has been turned off or your signatures are out of date. The suite is built around four main protection layers which include Anti-Malware, System Security, Online Security and Content Filtering modules.

The Anti-Malware module is the core of the application. It monitors file accesses in real-time. You can adjust the settings, but remember that altering the protection level will directly impact system performance. You also have email and IM protection that basically scan all incoming and outgoing traffic. Furthermore, email attachments can be renamed or even deleted depending on the filters selected. There is also a web traffic module that prevents dangerous scripts from executing on the computer.

System Security has three subcategories — Application Filtering, Firewall and Proactive Defense. Application filtering labels all installed software as trusted, low restricted, high restricted or not trusted. Programs are then given access rights according to rules which can be altered by the user.

The firewall ensures that your machine stays protected on the local network and the Internet. Here again programs are placed under predefined rules, minimizing user intervention. Online Security protects your computer from network attacks and phishing web sites. A virtual keyboard helps prevent keyloggers from capturing keystrokes. You can also check Internet Explorer for vulnerabilities by clicking on 'Browser configuration'.

Finally, Content Filtering allows you to block unwanted sites that your child might stumble upon. You can either define the sites that need to be blocked or simply allow KIS to analyze all web pages. You can also limit surfing time by specifying slots when access is allowed.

Performance
On the performance front, KIS performed rather well consuming only 50 MB of memory. Even when running a manual scan memory consumption was balanced at an average of 75 MB. There weren’t any significant system slowdowns during scans.

We ran a few simple tests to check the effectiveness of the scanner. The site ‘eicar.org’ allows you to test if your antivirus scanner is capable of detecting viruses before they get downloaded onto the machine. The test is simply a text file containing 68 random characters renamed with a COM extension. We tried downloading both, the zipped as well as the COM file. The page was immediately blocked, with an error message telling us it was infected.

You need to enable ‘Scan Encrypted Connections’ via the settings menu for HTTPS pages. You can also revert to the default settings in case you mess up. All in all, KIS worked like a charm.

Conclusion
All things considered, at its price of Rs. 1,795; the Kaspersky Internet Security is an effective suite that will keep your system well protected and won’t bring it to a crawl.

Nokia N97 unveiled in India

2009-06-05T22:31:00.001-07:00

Nokia has unveiled N97 in India. It will be launched nationwide within two weeks.

Priced at around Rs. 34,000, some of its features are:
•It pairs a 3.5 inch touchscreen with a full 3-row QWERTY keyboard.It transforms from a touch slate to a landscape QWERTY device.
•It has a 32GB memory with microSD for adding 16GB more.
•It has a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash.
•It is the first Nokia phone to come pre loaded with Ovi Store.
•It also supports N-Gage gaming system and handwriting recognition.

Intel to Bridge Digital Divide in India with Project Blue

2009-06-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

Intel announced yesterday at Computex Taipei, one of the world’s largest technology trade shows, it’s one of the most ambitious effort called Project Blue. In Project Blue Intel India is reportedly working on affordable internet devices (not MID’s) which will be the first computer for hundreds of millions of people across the developing countries including India. This device popularly called as Nettop is basically a mini-dekstop or small form factor computers designed for performing basic computation tasks such as document processing, paudio/video playback, accessing internet etc. The solution developed in Project Blue will also have an integrated WiMAX which will enable the user to access the internet easily. Intel is hoping to release these nettops in India through HCL Infosystems among other OEM’s in the second half of this year. HCL Infosystems’ chairman Ajai Choudhary, said: “We are pleased to work with Intel to bring these solutions to the Indian market. The WiMax–enabled nettops from HCL Infosystems, based on the Intel Atom processor will provide the next billion users in India with their first experience of computing and the Internet and we look forward to supporting all efforts in bridging the digital divide.” as quoted on pcsemicon. If Project blue is rightly implemented and Intel could come out with a really affordable Internet desktop, it could strike a goldpot with it’s Atom platform and will possibly alleviate the “Information Poverty” in all the developing countries.

Network18 raises $25mn, Northgate to sell BharatStudent, BSNL IPO..and more

2009-06-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

Network18 raises $25mn from SAIF Partners Network18 has raised $25mn from SAIF Partners. The company has issued upto 92,02,650 equity shares (or an equity linked convertible instrument) at a price of Rs 130 per equity share on a preferential basis to SAIF Partners. Network18 will convene an EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) of the shareholders of the company on July 02, 2009 to approve the preferential issue. Northgate to sell BharatStudent? Northgate Technologies Ltd (Northgate) has informed BSE that the company has over recent months received a number of approaches from interested parties in relation to the leading Indian student Social Media Portal - “Bharatstudent.com” and video/images/audio/document sharing portal- “Ziddu.com”. Northgate is exploring the possibility of a trade sale of BharatStudent.com. TRAI plans online consumer grievance redress mechanism TRAI is working on an online consumer grievance redress platform that will enable subscribers to lodge their complaints against any service provider through the Internet or an SMS. The platform will automatically direct the grievance to the particular service provider after which the regulator will set a time for resolution of the problem. - more BSNL IPO? The employees union of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd said that it was prepared to discuss the company’s proposal for an Initial Public Offering. While the union maintained that it was still opposed to the idea of listing BSNL’s shares on stock exchanges through an IPO, its officials said that they were prepared to hear what the management and the Communications Ministry had to offer. - More@ India News » Do check out Indian Startup Directory | Indian VC Directory and Active Startup Discussion Forum » Lets catch up on Twitter (we conduct a quiz everyday @ 2PM!!) Advertise @ pluGGd.in News Roundup: Network18 raises $25mn, Northgate to sell BharatStudent, BSNL IPO..and more Related Posts Indian Travel Industry roundup: TravelGuru to acquire Desiya, MakeMyTrip raises $15mn, Yatra plans IPO Telecom Roundup: BSNL’s $10Bn IPO, Airtel Live on Nokia..and More India Business Roundup: Loop Telecom Ownership? Vodafone:OnMobile Partnership, BSNL: Nokia for 3G..and more Telecom Roundup: Bharti might lose DTH License, BSNL to invest more in Rural Infra…and More Telco Roundup: iPhone on BSNL, 3G Auction Date Tussle

Acer's entry-level PC at Rs. 9999

2009-06-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Acer has revised the price of its entry-level desktop, the EL-1600. The PC will now be available for Rs. 9,999 (excluding monitor) across the country with immediate effect. Based on Intel single-core processor Atom processor 230, the Nettop when compared to the conventional desktop computers is smaller, lighter and immensely affordable, all this while consuming just one-third the power of a conventional desktop.

"The EL 1600 heralds the arrival of a much-needed computing solution that appeals to the larger audience with an astute combination of pricing and specs," said S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India. "We are confident that with the revision of prices, the EL 1600 will make a significant dent on the Indian PC market. Consumers can now for the first time get a no compromise MNC standard and quality tested desktop for under Rs 10,000 in the Indian market."

"Today our country has a PC penetration rate of just over three percent. We believe that this offering will significantly help grow the overall market for PCs in India by offering the entry level PC user a no compromise, full fledged performance machine at a previously unimaginable price," he added.

The EL1600 includes Intel Atom 230 CPU, SATA Serial Hard disk of up to 160 gigabytes, 1024 MB RAM Memory installed, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 and up to eight USB ports.

TwitGuru – Human Powered Ad Network for Twitter

2009-06-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

Twitter has caught the fancy of social media enthusiasts as well as marketing/advertising firms and it’s quite natural to see services that will help marketeers reach out to the community. Hexolabs, Chennai based startup has launched an interesting service aimed at twitter users – a human powered ad network, TwitGuru. How does TwitGuru works? Twitguru uses the wisdom of the crowd to spread your words. User evaluates and endorses the product to his fellow tweeple (twitter users). Advertiser can create a campaign at TwitGuru and offers free gift to users. User plays the game and tweets his guesses/answers for the product/campaign. There are couple of similar products in this space – but the bigger question is whether marketing firms are willing to try out twitter? In India, numbers just do not excite (read: Twitter India Audience Profile – Numbers you should Know) – but things are surely different for the US market. What’s your take? Also see: Create Twitter Groups (Public/Private) using TweetKnot Twitter Registers 74% Jump in India Traffic » Do check out Indian Startup Directory | Indian VC Directory and Active Startup Discussion Forum » Lets catch up on Twitter (we conduct a quiz everyday @ 2PM!!) Advertise @ pluGGd.in TwitGuru – Human Powered Ad Network for Twitter Related Posts “What is Twitter” is the rising query for twitter! Twitter Friends on T-Shirt/Mug? Calling Design startups Kwippy = Twitter + IM status logger + Social Network..but.… Antya : Human powered search engine (India’s Mahalo?) Content Seeding: Few Great Lessons from Twitter and FriendFeed

Google Audio Ads for Radio to Stage a Comeback

2009-05-31T01:25:00.000-07:00

Google introduced an Audio ads service that allowed advertisers to run campaigns on AM/FM radio stations using the familiar AdWords interface. Google’s foray into traditional radio advertising was not very successful and therefore, in February 2009, Google decided to shut down their radio ads service. We have decided to exit the broadcast radio business and focus our efforts on exploring internet-based solutions that will deliver relevant online streaming audio ads. These plans include discontinuing the Audio Ads platform within AdWords and selling our Automation business [dMarc], which is the system we built to integrate with broadcast radio stations. The last batch of Google Ads on radio stations will run on May 31, 2009 but just as we though that Radio Ads on Google are gone forever, Google has posted a new job requirement for their online Audio Ads business and surprisingly, the requirements lay special emphasis on "Radio". As an Account Executive for Online Audio Advertising, your goal is to drive revenue by selling Online Audio Ads solutions to top-tier advertisers. This is a high-adrenaline, client-facing sales role requiring deep Radio and Internet expertise, proven sales ability with a particular penchant for closing deals, and a broad base of industry contacts. The minimum requirement for applying to this job is "at least six years of progressive work experience, including Online Radio, in advertising sales, marketing or consulting, with at least five years working with or at agencies." Looks like Google is all set to try audio ads on radio again but this time, the focus has shifted from "traditional radio stations" to "Internet based radio stations". Google Online Audio Ads, if extended outside radio, could be great news for podcast producers as well as most of them still haven’t found any decent solution to monetize their podcast shows.

Google gets back Googblog.com domain (from a Gujju)

2009-05-31T01:23:00.000-07:00

Google has won back the Googblog.com domain name from an Indian national, Herit Shah. Google filed a case few months back and WIPO has instructed Herit Shah (who registered the domain, googblog from GoDaddy in Sep 2008) to return back the domain to Google. More Details Googleâ€™s claim: The Complainant has used the name â€œGOOGâ€ as a NASDAQ financial stock ticker since 2004. The Respondent registered the disputed domain name on September 25, 2008. Pre-Complaint correspondence between the parties failed to resolve the dispute. The Complainant petitions the Panel to issue a decision that the disputed domain name be transferred from the Respondent to the Complainant. Herit Shahâ€™s reply: â€œI was in a bad faith that i can legally keep the domain googblog.com but when i kept myself in the place of google i understood i really did very unfair to google. since two weeks i have been trying to delete the domain googblog.com, but i am unable to because godaddy has put my domain on hold, on your consent godaddy may delete the domain or unhold it. I sincerely apologise to Google for infringement, misuse of their intellectual property (GOOGBLOG.COM).

Tata Comm To Focus On WiMAX

2009-05-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Tata Communications’ net profit has risen to Rs. 3,158 million from last year’s net profit of Rs. 103 million after it sold its shares in sister firm Tata Teleservices. Net sales have risen by 20.6% to Rs. 99,631.7 million, up from Rs. 82,629.8 million in FY 08 and consolidated EBITDA rose by 53.4% to Rs. 13,500 million. Earnings per share are also up from Rs. 0.36 to Rs. 11.8. Standalone operating income has dropped by 10.4% to Rs. 8,869.3 million from Q3, and by 4.3% from Q4 08 to Rs. Expenses have halved to Rs. 3,623.3 million this quarter. Net profit rose by 2.7% from Q3 to Rs. 3,023.7 million. Its global voice segment revenues rose 9% to Rs. 13,850 million from Q4 08 while data segment saw a 25% rise from Rs. 8290 million to Rs. 10,370 million. Details: Release | Consolidated Financials | Quarterly Financials Tata Communications sold a total of 36,542,378 shares in sister company Tata Teleservices Ltd to NTT DoCoMo for Rs. 4,242.2 million at a profit of Rs.3,466.5 million. The board has agreed to a dividend of Rs 4.50 per equity share. Going forward, it has set a goal of 15% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in organic sales till FY 2012 and expects to keep a 20% EBITDA margin. It will also focus on emerging markets - India, Asia and China, South Africa Data & Voice Segments Voice, which contributes to 58% of gross revenue but 28% of net revenues for the company, experienced a drop of 7.8% compared to Q4 08, registering revenues of Rs. 4,087.1 million in the quarter. For the fiscal, it grew by 2.7% to Rs. 17,405.9 million from FY 08. The company in a presentation claims its wholesale international long distance voice traffic forms 44% of the market share in India and its national long distance traffic 53%. It has recorded over 24 billion minutes of international voice traffic and over 10 billion minutes of Indian NLD traffic. It serves 1500 carriers, mobile operators and ISPs worldwide. Data business - Ethernet connectivity and managed services -grew by 4.9% to Rs. 3,298 million. From FY 08, the segment registered a 18.3% growth to Rs. 14,504.6 million. The segment contributes to 40% of the company’s gross revenues and 69% to net revenues. The company largely deals with service providers, who form 81% of the clientele compared to enterprises and retail who form the rest 19%. According to the company, it owns 23% of the market share in enterprise data services in India. WiMAX, Ethernet Services & Live Broadcast
Prateek Pashine, COO of the company’s retail broadband unit, has joined the WiMAX forum as a director and will step up efforts to promote India as a market for WiMAX. The company will encourage development of low cost WiMAX products, it has said to the BSE. It is betting on WiMAX even as 3G is being rolled out in the country. It completed setting up its intra-Asia submarine cables which link up Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Japan. It partnered with UAE telco Etisalat to offer enterprise network services and dedicated Ethernet links between India and the Gulf. The acquisition of South African operator Neotel and their ongoing deployments of Telepresence in association with Cisco and CII are also mentioned. Last year, it launched a content delivery network service called Live Broadcast, which recently bagged a contract with French television channel TV5MONDE to broadcast over the Internet. WiFi Back in February 2008, Tata Indicom had 350 hotspots in India and covered 20 cities. Now Tata Indicom Broadband has coverage in 500 Wi-Fi hotspots in India and offers roaming access to broadband or dial up users in 300 cities/ towns. The company has hired ad agency PDM to conduct demos and promotional campaigns in Cafe Coffee Day outlets all over India. PDM will be setting up kiosks in 121 outlets across the country to promote Tata Indicom’s Photon+ broadband, reports Medianewsline. Read more about Photon+ on Medianama. iPass Tata Comm launched a single billing service and offered internet connectivity ‘on roaming’ to 160 countries. Last year, Tata Indicom had tied up with iPass, an international third party aggregator of internet connections, for Wi-Fi connectivity in India - and is now leveraging the sharing agreement to offer its own customers global roaming connectivity through iPass’ network. Using the iPass client, Tata Indicom users can now latch onto connections in 433 airports, 100,000 partner Wi-Fi hotspots and 22,000 hotels and conference venues in 70 countries. Investments Tata Comm could soon own 50% of a Chinese VAS firm called CEC, subject to closing. It also has a 26.6% stake in Nepal telco UTL which is a CDMA operator. It established a data centre at Singapore in February.

Google Wave for Dummies: A Complete Review

2009-05-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Google promised that they will be introducing something extraordinary at the recently concluded Google’s I/O conference 2009 and oh boy, did they keep the promise! The original creator of Google Maps, Lars and Jens Rasmussen took the stage to present their latest creation called Google Waves. Their 5 person team has been building a prototype at the Sydney office for the last two years and after continuous expansion of the team, idea and technology they have finally given developers an early preview of Google Wave. It’s a wonder how new Google Products make such huge headlines, as within hours of the preview the blogosphere is raving about how this new service is going to change the way we communicate and collaborate. The brothers took the inspiration from the fact that two of the most commonly used digital communications are based upon traditional analog methods – email as snail mail and IM as phone calls. Google Waves proposes to bridge the divide between these modes of communications by a single smooth model. The winning formula for Wave here is that all the communication flow happens in real time. Wave looks as the final answer to Google satisfying the demands for real time – yet organized – internet communication. You can say that’s it’s a coherent combination of a little bit of Friendfeed, a little bit of Twitter and a little bit of Facebook, all at the same time using real time channels. Now, if you don’t want to get lost in the hundreds of articles already on this service we have put together a small summary for you. Let’s go! Is it a particle or a wave? It’s both. By erasing the distinction between email and IM, Wave lets you see each character as its typed (this feature can be disabled from the settings) and is bringing the online world closer and closer to real world experiences. As the Rasmussens say, “A wave is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” In lesser words, Wave is the complete real time communication platform. Some of its innovative features include: The ultimate real time machine: You can see what others are typing, character-by-character! Embeddable: You can embed the waves in your own blogs or websites etc. Playback option: If you have been added to the wave (conversation) that has been going for a long time, then you can be added at any relevant point, not just the end! And, the best thing, you can playback the entire evolution of the conversation. Editing like a wiki: If you want to edit a message (by you or by someone else) then the original author is notified and everyone can replay and view the changes. These features lead to a very interesting overview that now, conversations will become shared documents, rich in embedded and relevant media. And if you think that the wave is becoming too huge to handle, you can export part of it and start afresh from there! It looks as if Wave makers have thought of everything that a user might do while talking and brought it in. Open Source implies extensions and applications: Wave has been made completely open and extensible, which invites developers to add all kinds of customized stuff before the final public launch. File sharing: You don’t need attachments; you can just drag and drop files inside the Wave and everyone can download it. Spelling correction: Server based models use natural language tools and provide very accurate contextual suggestions. Google Wave as a platform The official blog post up at Google Blog says that Wave is more than a product, “The Google Wave product (available as a developer preview) is the web application people will use to access and edit waves. It’s an HTML 5 app, built on Google Web Toolkit. It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop (which, for example, lets you drag a set of photos right into a wave). Google Wave can also be considered a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services, and to build new extensions that work inside waves.” It is heartening to see that the team didn’t bombard the core product with loads of features, but instead added new features via the Wave APIs, which is encouraging for third party developers. Apart from the thousands of the existing thousands of iGoogle or OpenSocial gadgets can run within Google Wave, some of the useful extensions that have been built in Google Wave are listed below (if you find out some more, do let us know below in the comments). Polly: This one lets you embed polls into a wave, like the one shown below (image via venturebeat). Here, participants are being asked about whether they will attend a party. Responses appear real time in the poll for everyone to see, how cool is that? No pressing the refresh button anymore! Bloggy: Is a blog client and lets you make a blog post as a wave. When people comment, they join the conversation. Spelly: Is a spell-checker providing a more comprehensive database of the web from its dictionary. Linky: Is a link-recognition engine which learns whether the link you just put into the Wave is from YouTube or Flickr or any other media sharing site and gives you the option to embed it right into the wave in rich format! Buggy: Is a bug-reporting tool which should be really useful in the early development phases of the product. Maps: Allows for collaboration on a Google map to plan events Bidder: This one turns your wave into an auction! Twave: Twitter + Wave It is a Google Wave robot based extension, which means it can be an automated presence in the wave. The Google robot called “Tweety” puts in a full stream of a Twitter feeds within your Google Waves platform. So, you don’t just get to see the Twitter timeline, but also reply, archive and also use the awesome playback feature! Interactive Games Live online games and quizzes etc. with active participation from all users can now be built, similar to Facebook or MySpace apps. For example, here’s a real-time interactive chess game in Wave: For a more technical explanation, be sure to check out Google’s Wave Gadgets Tutorial. Terminology You have to understand the Google Wave slang first if you want to understand this new communication platform. Let’s have a look. Wave: The whole service is based on a collection of waves, and a wave serves as a threaded conversation. It can have one user, a group of users or even robots! (Not the real ones, silly) Wavelet: Is a part of the wave, a small part of a larger history and conversation. Blip: Is like a cell in the human body, it’s the structural unit of the system. It is a single individual message. Robots: They are automated participant within a wave, which can used to provide information from outside sources and do certain automated and pre-coded actions like telling you about the weather at a place when you mention a city or type a certain command. So, did this get you excited? Sadly, you will have to wait a bit as Google Wave will not be available for the general public until late in 2009. But, if you want to keep in touch with the latest updates, sign up for it here. If you want to put waves in your site and build extensions, you can get the Wave API from here and it also uses an open protocol, so you build your own wave system!

29 Warning Signs of Twitter Addiction

2009-05-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Warning signs of Twitter Addiction
You are warned that you are addicted to Twitter when
You…

1.Get excited when some one follows you on Twitter.
2.Feel the end of the world when twitter gets an outage.
3.Send @ and RT in messages to your friends in emails.
4.Beg your blog readers to follow you on twitter, then beg your Twitter followers to Retweet the tweet.
5.Post more tweets than blog posts, and turn from full time blogger to full time tweeter.
6.Spend all day on twitter giving yourself the excuse that you are doing great service to your followers, and bunk going to office.
7.Tweet on Twitter more than doing office work.
8.Feel over the Moon and on top of the world when some one retweets your tweet
9.Keep searching for your twitter name and your tweets in real time twitter search.
10.Keep refreshing the twitter page every second for new tweets.
11.Include your twitter profile in your Gmail signature instead of your blog
12.Print your twitter id on business cards.
13.Set Twitter as your browser home page.
14.Add notice in front of office door - “I am on Twitter, Don’t disturb”.
15.Use more than 5 twitter clients.
16.Add your twitter name to Google alerts to know what others are speaking about you.
17.Blog more about twitter applications.
18.Add your status message as “Follow me on twitter” to Gtalk and yahoo messenger
19.Use Twoogle to search in Google and Twitter.
20.Keep urging your family members to get a twitter account.
21.Follow lot of people on #FollowFriday
22.Introduce yourself to new persons more as a tweeter than as a businessman.
23.Go crazy about twitter and advertise on news papers, TV and distribute pamphlets to follow you on twitter.
24.Ask your bosses wife to follow you on twitter!
25.Add your twitter id to the nameplate of your house.
26.Keep sending SMS to all your friends to follow you on twitter.
27.Ask questions about Twitter rather than job related queries during interviews.
28.Threaten your wife to get a twitter account and follow you, or warn her of divorce
29.Only wear dresses with twitter logos.

Researchers Create DVDs With Massive Storage

2009-05-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

"Five-dimensional" discs with a capacity 10,000 times greater than current DVDs could be on the market within 10 years, researchers reported on Wednesday.

A team from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said that by harnessing nanoparticles and a "polarisation" dimension to existing technology, storage can be massively boosted without changing the size of a current disc. The researchers, who have signed a deal with Samsung Electronics, said the technique had allowed them to store 1.6 terabytes of data on a disc with the potential to one day store upto 10 terabytes. One terabyte would be enough to hold 300 feature length films or 250,000 songs. "We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc," Min Gu, who worked on the research, said in a statement. "These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs."

Discs currently have three spatial dimensions but using nanoparticles the researchers said they were able to introduce a spectral - or color - dimension as well as a polarisation dimension. The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature, created the color dimension by inserting gold nanorods - which form so-called surface plasmons when hit by light - onto a disc's surface. Because nanoparticles react to light according to their shape, this allowed the researchers to record information in a range of different color wavelengths on the same place on the disc. Current DVDs are recorded in a single colour wavelength using a laser, the researchers said.

The researchers also created an extra dimension using polarisation, a technique in which they projected light waves onto the disc, to record different layers of information at different angles. "The polarisation can be rotated 360 degrees," another member of the research team James Chon, said in a statement. "So for example, we were able to record at zero degree polarisation. Then on top of that we were able to record another layer of information at 90 degrees polarisation, without them interfering with each other." Some issues, such as the speed at which the discs can be written on, need further work but the scientists said their research could have immediate applications in a range of fields. For instance, they could help store extremely large medical files such as MRIs as well as financial, military and security areas by offering higher data densities needed for encryption, they added.

Airtel Enters Cloud Computing Space

2009-05-22T09:29:00.001-07:00

Bharti Airtel has announced its entry into the cloud computing space with the launch of Airtel Net PC – a low-cost online computer for its broadband customers.

The Airtel Net PC is a ready-to-use computer - inclusive of a 15-inch LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse and Nivio companion – priced at Rs. 7999 exclusively for Airtel broadband customers in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.

K. Srinivas, Joint President -Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel said, "Airtel’s entry into the space of cloud computing, with the launch of the Net PC, is part of our strategic intent to remain focused on enhancing the broadband experience for our customers by offering innovative and collaborative products. This comes close on the heels of our other innovations that include the recent launch of Airtel Online Desktop and the pioneering of 16 Mbps high-speed broadband in the country."

"With the Airtel Net PC, we bring a computing product for our broadband customers that is low-cost, secure and on-demand – a timely offer that will help them control costs and increase productivity," he added.

The Airtel Net PC – powered by Nivio and Microsoft provides -

- Windows-based Online Desktop

- 10 GB space to store documents, photos, presentations at a central location

- 100% data security assures no loss of data or computer crash

- Regular original software upgrades resolves the fear of obsoletism and escalating cost

Airtel broadband customers can purchase the Airtel Net PC by choosing from 3 entry packs –

Home Pack – which at Rs. 699 per month gives an Airtel broadband connection at 256 Kbps speed with 3 GB Data Transfer, an Online Desktop service with 10 GB storage and MS Office standard

Professional Pack – which at Rs. 899 per month gives an Airtel broadband connection at 256 Kbps speed with 3 GB Data Transfer, an Online Desktop service with 10 GB storage and MS Office standard with Admin rights

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Gigabyte Gsmart MS820 Mobile Phone

2009-05-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Unveiling what seems to be their most powerful phone launched in the country – The Gsmart MS820 - Gigabyte the famous gaming motherboard makers, who have been in the phone making business for some time now, hope to thrill audiences with its many features. We used the handset for a period of 8 days and here's what we can tell you.

Form Factor :
It’s not a bad looking handset. In fact it’s slim and quite sleek with a 2.8-inch TFT resistive touchscreen display that sports a 480 x 640 pixel resolution and 65k colors with an accelerometer (G-Sensor). It has a round five way nav-pad and two buttons on either side for call take and end. On one side of this 14.1mm handset is a dedicated camera key for the 5MP AF camera (at the rear), zoom/volume keys and an open (not a good idea) micro USB hot swap slot. On the other side is nothing but a 2.5mm handsfree socket. A mini USB all-in-one port is located at the bottom and a Power/screen lock button is on the top. The Stylus is wedged in quite tightly and it was quite a pain most of the time to get out. It’ll take some getting used to. A secondary VGA camera is placed right near the earpiece above the display.

The MS820 may be slim and sleek but it’s quite weighted and we found it a little wide. It makes it a little uncomfortable in your pocket. Other than that it’s in no way an eyesore. Gigabyte has also included all the necessary accessories with the handset – a carry pouch, socket adapters for the charger, a spate car charging kit, USB cable and even an extra stylus. What would have been better than a car charger though is a Memory card as the handset doesn’t come with too much built in memory.

Features and Performance
Interface
Running on a Windows Mobile 6.1 platform with a Marvell PXA270 520MHz processor, we presumed the handset would have been quite the speed demon. We were wrong. The UI was a little too sluggish for comfort and hence made it difficult to do too much too quickly. Although rich with features, it took too long to activate most of them. It even took about 2 seconds after hitting the ‘Answer; button for the connection to be made for incoming calls and even longer before it actually disconnected. The default Windows UI required the use of the stylus almost all of the time; this is why we preferred the secondary touch sensitive interface, which not only looked good but was well designed and quite funky. The problem is, we figured you’d be able to use just your fingers to access and use most of the features and this UI was designed directly on top of Windows to facilitate just that, but that was not the case.

The interface is ‘finger friendly’ with a smooth gliding feel to it, a little similar to TouchFLO. By sliding your finger from the bottom upwards a rolodex type of 'Contacts' screen opens up. By sliding side ways multiple options become available. But all short cuts led back to the normal Windows UI so out came the stylus. If only it did as quickly as it was to say that. There were no on screen keypad that were designed to be used without the stylus so you’re stuck with the default Windows mobile, tiny buttoned options, even in landscape and the regular handwriting function as well.

Speaking of Landscape, the handset’s accelerometer comes to mind. Aside from the fact that it takes about 3-4 seconds to actually turn the screen around (all screens except the secondary UI's) because of the inane and unnecessary animation (which we couldn’t seem to shut off), it was way too erratic. To be more precise - out of control is the term that comes to mind. The slightest turn in any direction your wrist takes and you’ve got to wait till the screen turns one way and then flip it again to go back to normal. It was quite frustrating. Recommendation – switch it off and stick to manual, you won’t miss anything.

Intel Vows to Fight EC Antitrust Ruling, $1.4B Fine

2009-05-20T23:02:00.001-07:00

Intel CEO Paul Otellini claims the EC ignored evidence favorable to the company's case in determining that it harmed customers through anticompetitive practices. Intel will appeal the ruling, but it may have to fork over the $1.4 billion fine the commission imposed, pending the outcome. Another worry for Intel: The Obama administration has signaled it will take a hard line on antitrust issues.

The European Commission fined dominant CPU maker Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) US$1.4 billion on Wednesday after finding the company violated anticompetition laws.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini blasted the decision in a conference call with reporters, saying EU regulators had ignored crucial evidence that will, on appeal, prove the company innocent of charges that it harmed consumers by using discounts freighted with conditions designed to limit rival chipmaker AMD's (NYSE: AMD) market share.

"It's hard to imagine how consumers were harmed in an industry that's lowered the cost of computing by a factor of 100 during this case," he said.

Discounts at Issue :
The 542-page decision, the full version of which has not yet been made public, dates back to a 2000 complaint from AMD.
The EC's decision concludes Intel gave "wholly or partially hidden" rebates to computer makers who agreed to give most or all of their business to Intel, according to a summary posted on its Web site.

Further, the company paid a major electronics retailer to stock only Intel-based computers, according to the summary.

"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Fine Must Be Paid :
The order requires Intel to pay the fine within 90 days and stop the use of conditional payments.
However, Otellini insisted the company does not offer conditional rebates, but rather bids aggressively for business, just as its rival does.

"This is competition, which I think we all want to see, versus something nefarious," he said.

Otellini: Evidence Disregarded
European regulators ignored or excluded evidence, charged Otellini.
Among the disregarded items, he said, were sealed statements from computer makers -- generated as part of a lawsuit AMD filed against Intel in a U.S. District Court in Delaware -- that prove Intel doesn't misuse its status as the top CPU-maker to muscle out its rival.

Other Cases :
The decision marks the third time in recent years that international jurisdictions have found fault, to one degree or another, with Intel's practices. Japan objected to Intel's activities but issued no fine. Last year, Korea imposed a $23 million fine for practices similar to those at the center of the EU case. That finding is under appeal.
Intel will also appeal the European ruling, but may have to pay the fine anyway, at least temporarily.

Commission rules require the fine, which represents 4.15 percent of Intel's global sales last year, to be placed in escrow pending the outcome of the appeal.

In addition to the AMD lawsuit, Intel is facing antitrust investigations by New York's Office of the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission . Otellini said the company is cooperating with both investigations.

AMD Reaction :
AMD President and CEO Dirk Meyer praised the European Commission's decision as an "important step toward establishing a truly competitive market" in a statement Wednesday.
"We are looking forward to the move from a world in which Intel ruled, to one which is ruled by customers," Meyer added.

Possible US Action :
There are distinct differences of opinion as to whether the "market share rebates" Intel is accused of using are good or bad for consumers, said Herb Hovenkamp, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and coauthor of a widely used textbook on antitrust law.
"There's a feeling these discounts really amount to lower prices and, as a result, they really should be encouraged -- certainly not condemned," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Another group says these discounts make it so hard to get into the market, it limits what the other guy can do."

This week's announcement from the Department of Justice arguing for more vigorous antitrust enforcement may signal additional troubles ahead for Intel, Hovenkamp said.

"I could have told you with a high degree of confidence a year ago that the Bush administration would not have brought an action against Intel," he commented. "That's not at all clear to me now."

It's quite likely that the Obama administration will follow the EU's lead on antitrust matters, Cord Blomquist, senior communications director and technology policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the E-Commerce Times.

"Christine Varney, the Obama Administration's chief antitrust cop, has already announced policy changes that would make companies like Intel a prime target for action by the Department of Justice or the FTC," he noted.

Consumer-Harm Test :
"Thankfully, U.S. antitrust decisions are subject to a consumer-harm test," said Blomquist.
"In the case of Intel, it's very hard to show how consumers were harmed by Intel offering deep discounts to manufacturers. Chips have continued to increase in quality, increase in speed, and prices have continued to fall," he explained.

"This shows that no antitrust law can outdo Moore's Law," Blomquist observed. "Intel's own Gordon Moore originally stated that chips will double in speed every two years -- hence Moore's Law -- a figure which has since been revised to roughly every 18 months. The speed of technological progress has been increasing, not slowing down, while Intel has been cutting deals with manufacturers. What harm is there in that?"

Dell Offers Bright-Hued Netbook Geared for the Crayon Set

2009-05-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

Dell has launched the Latitude 2100, a netbook designed for the classroom with both students' and teachers' needs in mind. It comes with a germ-killing keyboard, a case that can take some rough handling, and a signal light that lets the teacher see when a student is online.

Dell's (Nasdaq: DELL) new education-themed netbook may look like it's aimed at kids, but it's really educators the Texas-based computer manufacturer is hoping to lure with the Latitude 2100.

The 10.1-inch netbook is designed specifically for school environments, with rubbery non-slip surfaces, an optional antimicrobial keyboard and a telltale network activity light along the top edge of the clamshell to alert teachers when little minds might be straying from their studies. It also lacks vents on the computer's bottom, a design feature meant to keep spilled liquids out of the case.

The computer can come with a touchscreen, which the company said is a first for an education netbook.

Classroom Visits Shaped the Feature Set :

Dell engineers began designing the machine after classroom visits showed technology wasn't making significant inroads into the classroom experience, Dell education strategist Mark Weston told TechNewsWorld on Tuesday, the day the netbook was launched.

Most schools Atlanta-based Weston visited still have just a handful of computers in the back of the classroom, he said.

"We have a connected generation that has to disconnect when they come to the classroom," he remarked.

Barriers to Adoption :
Weston and other Dell researchers asked why and found that concerns over cost, complexity and the ability of students to successfully use computers in the classroom slowed adoption.
"So, we went to the drawing board, and the product we released today is a direct response to what we heard from our customers," Weston said.

The netbook is powered by an Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Atom processor; it comes either with a solid state drive or a traditional hard drive, and a card reader. An optional webcam is available. It ships with Windows XP Home, Vista Home Basic or Ubuntu Linux.

Dell also plans to sell a "mobile computing station," essentially a rolling storage and charging cart that can hold up to 24 laptops. IT administrators can manage stored netbooks by connecting them through the cart's Ethernet cable, according to Dell.

Colorful for a Reason :
One of the most obvious school-themed features of the netbook is color. It comes in Chalkboard Black, School Bus Gold, Schoolhouse Red, Blue Ribbon and Ballfield Green.
Teachers specifically asked for colorful options to help distinguish their classes' netbooks from those in other classrooms, Weston said.

Interestingly, Lenovo's education netbook comes in just one color -- neutral gray -- because teachers didn't want kids to tussle over favored colors, according to Maria Katime, a spokesperson for Lenovo.

Other Options :
Schools can equip the computers with quick-connect handles and shoulder straps.
The desktop experience on the computers is fairly standard, Weston said, adding that he's not sure which OS schools would prefer.

However, it is clear that netbook purchasers view price more consciously than other computer users, he noted.

Some school districts may choose to mesh the netbooks with a local cloud-computing service, storing apps on the network to keep hardware problems to a minimum, Weston suggested.

Dell has a partnership with Stoneware, a cloud-computing service provider.

The Latitude 2100 sells for US$369 and up.

Microsoft May Unveil New Search Engine Next Week

2009-05-20T06:15:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Corp is likely to show a new version of its Internet search engine publicly for the first time next week, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The software giant has been testing a new version of the service internally under the name of Kumo.com and it may become part of the firm's attempt to catch up with Internet search leaders Google Inc and Yahoo Inc. Microsoft has hired JWT, a unit of WPP Plc, to develop an advertising campaign for the product, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter. The search engine is expected to be unveiled at the "D: All Things Digital" conference. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

Gmail Adds Translation to its Features

2009-05-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

Google has integrated its automatic translation technology directly into Gmail.

So to now read a mail one receives in a another language, uers have to only enable "Message Translation" from the Labs tab under Settings, and on receiving an email in a language other than their own, Gmail will help translate it into a language they can understand.

If all participating parties are using Gmail, they can have entire conversations in multiple languages with each participant reading the messages in whatever language is most comfortable for them.

Click here to read more about Gmail's updates.

Switch from Yahoo Mail to Gmail

2009-05-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

If you like to abandon your Yahoo Mail account in favor of Gmail, here’s some good news. You can now move copy all your old contacts and email messages from the Yahoo! inbox to your new Gmail address without having to worry about complex IMAP or POP3 configuration.

How to Move from Yahoo Mail to Gmail

Gmail now offers a new import mails option under Settings -> Accounts and Import. Enter the username and password of Yahoo Mail account and all the messages will be copied to your Gmail account in the next few hours. Once the migration is over, any incoming email on your old Yahoo address will be auto-forward to your Gmail account for another month.
The reason why I stressed Yahoo! Mail here is because it was the only web email service that required users to upgrade to Mail! Plus for them to move their data out to another email provider. That however changed with today’s announcement on the Gmail blog.
The Import function is currently available in new Gmail accounts only (not Google Apps) but it will soon be available for all so if you are in a hurry, just set up another Gmail account and use Mail Fetcher to copy Yahoo mails from this new address to your old Gmail account.

Find Out Information about IP Address

2009-05-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

There are lot online tools to find out information about an IP. But if you are programmer its easy to build your own IP information application using free Geo IP database about IP and the countries. Nirsoft provides a free software utility to find out complete IP information offline.

IPinfooffline utility provides information about country, organization, country, starting IP range to ending IP range and assigned date. Using this utility you can save the list of information in text or html or xml or csv file. Download IPInfoOffline via Nirsoft and IPInfoOffline is also available in other languages, to change the language of IPInfoOffline you need to download language utility from Nirsoft.

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Intel Hit With Record 1 Billion Euro Fine

2009-05-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

The European Commission imposed a record 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) fine on chipmaker Intel Corp on Wednesday and ordered it halt illegal rebates and other practices to squeeze out rival AMD.

"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. The EU executive said Intel paid computer makers to postpone or cancel plans to launch products that used AMD chips, paid illegal, secret rebates so computer makers would use mostly or entirely Intel chips, and paid a major retailer to stock only computers with its chips. It ordered Intel "cease the illegal practices immediately to the extent that they are still ongoing." Intel may continue to offer rebates, so long as they are legal, the Commission said.

The EU antitrust fine is the biggest imposed on an individual company, exceeding an 896-million euro penalty last year against glass maker Saint-Gobain for price fixing, and a 497-million euro fine in 2004 on Microsoft for abuse of dominance. The Commission investigated practices dating back to 2002, and said Europe accounted for 30 percent of Intel's current worldwide 22 billion euro market. The Commission said Intel must pay the fine, which represents 4.15 percent of the company's 2008 turnover, within three months of the date of the notification of the decision.

Intel, whose microprocessors power eight out of every 10 PCs in the world, posted first quarter sales of $7.1 billion. Analysts estimated the company enjoys a sizeable cash balance, generating close to $10 billion in cash last year.

The Commission, tasked with ensuring companies do not abuse any market dominance or make deals that restrict competition in the 27-country European Union, started its investigation into Intel in 2001 after a complaint by Advanced Micro Devices. AMD has also filed a U.S. lawsuit against Intel, which is set to be heard in court in 2010. The Commission characterised its investigation as one of several, citing rulings against Intel by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and the Korean Fair Trade Commission. It also referred to investigations by the U.S. Trade Commission and the State of New York.

The decision comes against the background of a renewed determination by the United States to pursue dominant companies that use their power to crush rivals. The U.S. Justice Department's antitrust chief, Christine Varney, announced this week she "will be aggressively pursuing" such abuse.

Keyboard Tweaker for Windows

2009-05-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Keyboard Tweaker is a small software utility for windows operating system which helps you tweak your keyboard shortcuts. This software is a simple program which runs in the background of windows operating system.

To get product key for this keyboard tweaker a little bit difficult because the website asks to wait for particular time and asks to register. After registering select keyboard tweaker product select get product code. The product code will be getting to your email.

Keyboard tweaker allows to add shortcuts for URL, Applications , Email even for any file. Keyboard combinations that are offered by keyboard tweaker are to combine Alt, Control and Shift with a key on the computer keyboard. Aftter adding shortcuts just click apply button.

Register and download Keyboard Tweaker

Microsoft to Buy BigPark for Undisclosed Sum

2009-05-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it has agreed to buy the privately held online gaming company BigPark Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

BigPark's team of game developers will be brought into Microsoft gaming division to work on an exclusive Xbox 360 game, the company said. BigPark, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has already been working with Microsoft on the game for the past year.

BigPark Chief Executive and co-founder Hanno Lemke will report to Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios.

The company did not disclose any financial details of the agreement.

Gmail Suffers Yet Another Outage

2009-05-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

Gmail users were greeted with a "Temporary Error (500)" message today, making the service temporarily unavailable.

Calling the outage another Gfail, Twitter buzzed with complaints from all over the world, with some complaining that Google Apps too was down.

The Google Apps page confirmed with a red cross against Google Mail, that there was downtime on Friday.

The service is back up as of now.

In February Gmail suffered an outage big enough for Google to pay for it with a 15-day credit.

Microsoft Pink is a Touch Screen Mobile Phone

2009-05-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

The mystery behind the "Pink" Microsoft project is somewhat solved.

WSJ.com says that Microsoft is working on a new touch-screen mobile phone to compete with the iPhone and the internal name of this project is "Pink".

Microsoft’s "Pink" project is aiming to produce a phone that extends the tech giant’s Windows Mobile cellphone operating system, adding new software capabilities. It would also likely include Microsoft’s new Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a mobile application store along the lines of Apple’s, these people say.

While Microsoft will handle the software and hardware design of "Pink" on their own, the handset will be manufactured by a third party just as HTC is making Android powered cell phones for Google.