Technology News and Gadgets Updates

Wikipedia ‘a good source for political info’

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 09:19:00 +0530

Wikipedia has become a reliable source for political information, according to a new study.

Brigham Young University political scientist, who fact-checked biographical information and voting statistics, said his study validates Wikipedia as a reliable place to get a political education.

Focusing on Wikipedia entries on past and present candidates for governor across 50 states in the US, Brown confirmed biographical information on the candidates and their election statistics and found very few inaccuracies, a BYU release said Thursday.

He focused on past and present candidates for governor across 50 states in the US and found very few inaccuracies.

“My finding is optimistic for the health of our country. It doesn’t have to be hard to learn about the political process, or your political candidates,” said Brown.

He studied 230 Wikipedia articles about 246 major-party candidates who ran for governor between 1998 and 2008 and found that all of the verifiable biographical information in those articles was completely accurate.

Brown wondered whether “the free encyclopedia” would survive the heated debates and contradicting opinions of the political scene.

“The more an issue is talked about, the more people are battling over it on Wikipedia,” he said.

The study appears in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

RIM's PlayBook email-less; gets tough reviews

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 09:15:00 +0530

RIM's PlayBook tablet bombed with influential technology reviewers who called the iPad competitor a rushed job that won't even provide RIM's vaunted email service unless it's hooked up to a BlackBerry.

The poor initial response to a device the company hopes will get it onboard the tablet computing explosion overshadowed a splashy coming-out party in New York Thursday evening, where co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis drummed up the gadget's attractiveness with corporate users.

There was little mention of the stinging reviews only hours before.

" RIM has just shipped a BlackBerry product that cannot do email. It must be skating season in hell," New York Times' David Pogue wrote in a review published on Thursday.

Research In Motion built its reputation on a BlackBerry email service that it says is so secure that it can't bow to government requests to tap messages, winning high-profile customers in business, defense and politics before branching out to a wider consumer market.

But the PlayBook, which hits North American store shelves on Tuesday, offers that secure service only in tandem with a BlackBerry. RIM says secure email and other key services will come later, not at launch.

"I got the strong impression RIM is scrambling to get the product to market," Walt Mossberg, the widely followed business and consumer technology critic, wrote in a Wall Street Journal article headlined "PlayBook: a tablet with a case of codependency."

The pessimism of the reviews seemed to hit RIM's often volatile shares, which fell 1.7 per cent to $53.92 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, the lowest closing price since Oct 25. It fell a further 1.1 per cent in after-hours trading.

RIM's 7-inch WiFi-only device is priced identically to Apple's 10-inch market leader and faces tough me-too competition from a slew of devices running Google's Android software.

It is a first step in a major product overhaul intended to reinvigorate RIM's fortunes. But the lukewarm initial reception, coupled with an outburst from Lazaridis that went viral on Youtube, cast a shadow over the coming-out party.

IMPRESSED?

Most reviewers have been impressed by the PlayBook's well-documented capability to handle Flash websites and its ability to show one high-definition image -- a movie, for instance - on a connected TV, while doing something else on its own screen. Those are two things the iPad cannot do.

But reviewers paid more attention to what the PlayBook can't do.

The PlayBook needs a smartphone to access a cellular network and a BlackBerry to tap into RIM's popular BlackBerry Messenger chat platform or get secure emails.

The PlayBook's secure Bluetooth link with the BlackBerry mirrors a user's existing BlackBerry applications, negating corporate worries about leaking confidential information.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet called 'half baked' product

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 09:10:00 +0530

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has received mixed reviews before its launch April 19.

The New York Times calls the PlayBook a "half baked'' product, adding that "it seems almost silly to try to assess it, let alone buy it.''

The BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has touted the 7-inch PlayBook as a rival to Apple's 10-inch iPad 2 . Its initial only-Wi-Fi version comes in three models, featuring 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage at $499, $599 and $699 respectively.

Though reviewers have praised its all-new QNX operating system, Flash-capable web browser (which Apple doesn't offer) and smart interface, the tablet has not found much favour because of lack of apps as compared to the iPad 2.

Further, the PlayBook is only Wi-Fi and it cannot connect to mobile networks, unlike the rival tablets from Apple, Motorola and Samsung.

As a result, important apps like email, contacts and BlackBerry Messenger will be available only when the tablet is linked with your BlackBerry smart phone through BlackBerry Bridge. So if you are not a BlackBerry user, forget about using email or other important apps on the tablet.

Criticizing RIM for not putting such crucial apps on the tablet, the New York Times review says that "at the moment, BlackBerry Bridge is the only way to do e-mail, calendar, address book and BlackBerry Messenger on the PlayBook. The PlayBook does not have e-mail, calendar or address book apps of its own. You read that right. RIM has just shipped a BlackBerry product that cannot do e-mail. It must be skating season in hell. (RIM says that those missing apps will come this summer.)

"Unfortunately, there's no video chatting app, as with Android tablets and the iPad. Similarly, the tablet has GPS, but without turn-by-turn navigation software, it's not good for much other than the built-in Bing Maps app."

The review adds, "For now, the PlayBook's motto might be, 'There's no app for that.' No existing apps run on this all-new operating system, not even BlackBerry phone apps.''

RIM claims to have received about 3,000 submissions from developers to supply apps to its all-new app store for the PlayBook. But this small number of apps won't convince people to buy the PlayBook, says the review.

"Remember, the primary competition is an iPad - the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps. In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, no Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds?''

In its review, Bloomberg is also not sure whether RIM's "gamble'' to put a device without "promised features and apps'' is "going to pay off. But it (the PlayBook) has already succeeded in important way - it has made BlackBerry relevant again.''

Since RIM has promised more software apps and Android compatibility this summer, Engadget says in its review, "So, what we see at the moment is a framework with solid fundamentals but a framework that is, right now, unfinished. We have hardware that looks and feels great but isn't being fully served by the software.

"Right now, the BlackBerry PlayBook is a tablet that will come close to satisfying those users who gravitate toward the first word in its name: BlackBerry. Those who were more excited about the 'play' part would be well advised to look elsewhere, at least until Android compatibility joins the party.''

Apple to stay ahead in tablet boom, Google to trail: Reports

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:40:00 +0530

Apple's iPad will continue to dominate the surging media tablet market for years, with Google playing catch-up, research firm Gartner said on Monday.

Gartner said it expects 70 million media tablets to be sold this year and 108 million in 2012, compared with just 17.6 million in 2010.

Apple's share of the market will gradually decline to 47 per cent in 2015 from 69 per cent this year, while Google's share will rise to 39 per cent from 20 per cent now.

Google's Android has stormed the smartphone market, where it will become the No 1 platform this year, and it has emerged as the only viable solution for tablet-makers who do not own their own operating system.

Research In Motion's QNX platform, used in its soon-to-be-launched PlayBook tablet, will take the No.3 position on the market this year, with a 5.6 per cent share. Gartner sees that rising to 10 per cent in 2015.

"It will take time and significant effort for RIM to attract developers and deliver a compelling ecosystem of applications and services around QNX to position it as a viable alternative to Apple or Android," Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said.

"It will be mainly organisations that will be interested in RIM's tablets because they either already have RIM's infrastructure deployed or have stringent security requirements," she said in a statement.

DISTANT NO. 2 IN HARDWARE - SAMSUNG Apple is estimated to have sold about 1 million iPad 2 .s in the first weekend of its U.S. launch early last month. By comparison, its closest rival in hardware, Samsung Electronics

may have sold a similar number of Galaxy Tabs in the past three months and sales growth is expected to remain weak.

Slow sales of Tab, coupled with aggressive pricing plans of iPad2, is pressuring profit growth at Samsung.

Samsung, the most aggressive contender to Apple with three different sizes of tablets, is still playing catch-up and analysts expect the firm, which uses Google's Android in its tablets, to increase marketing expenses to boost sales.

"Their biggest challenge is user interface, how they are going to make their devices any different from those of Motorola

or HTC," said Milanesi. Samsung is widely known as one of the fastest followers in the fickle electronics industry. To better compete with Apple, Samsung redesigned its new 10.1-inch tablet, first introduced in February, in just weeks to make it the thinnest in the category after Apple set the trend with the slimmer iPad 2.

Samsung's follow-up models will be on the market in June at the earliest, three months after iPad 2's rollout.

"Expectations for tablets have driven Samsung shares since November, but it has so far failed to live up to that expectation. Whether Samsung's share can rise again will largely depend on how strongly its follow-up tablet models do in the market," said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.

Disclaimer: All information on this blog has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.

review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:37:00 +0530

Almost eight years ago, Nokia attempted to merge a smartphone with a gaming console with the N-Gage . More recently, Sony Ericsson attempted to merge motion-sensing gaming with telephony in the Yari.

But these never did very well, so a certain amount of cynicism was inevitable when Sony Ericsson announced the Xperia Play - a smartphone that ran Android 2.3 with a slideout gamepad featuring controls similar to those seen on Sony's legendary PlayStation consoles.

It is admittedly difficult to be impressed when you see the Xperia Play. In this era of uber-sleek , subcentimetre width devices, the Xperia Play comes across as chunky (16mm thick) with rounded, oval edges rather than sharp ones.

The front is dominated by a 4-inch touchscreen, but the real star is the slide out gamepad, complete with direction keys (the triangle-square-circle-cross control buttons that are the trademark of PlayStation controllers), a touchpad, and buttons for menu, select and start. The volume rocker of the phone is unusually in the middle of the right side of the phone, a placement necessitated by the left and right gamepad buttons. The back is plastic and you'll see a 5MP camera with a flash.

But if the looks of the Xperia Play are about ordinary, its innards are not. The phone packs in a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, graphics based on the Adreno 205 GPU, 512 MB RAM, a 8GB memory card (memory expandable to 32 GB), and every connectivity option you can think of. And all of them perform very well too. Used just as a smartphone, the Xperia Play turns in a sterling performance - the large display, although a bit on the dim side, is great for browsing the Web and the specs allow Android to flex its mail and social networking muscle.

Mind you, Sony Ericsson's Android layer is not in the same league as HTC Sense in terms of ease of use. The Timescape tool for accessing social networks, messages and calendars might look cool with updates appearing in the form of flickable cards, but can get to be a pain if you are the type that gets frequent updates (there is only so much flicking one can do). Another let-down is the camera. The less than sharp images and a tendency to forget the presence of a memory card are strange, especially in a high-end Sony Ericsson device.

Where the Play really comes into its own, appropriately, is in gaming. The slideout gamepad works very well indeed, although the touchpad takes some getting used to. The handset comes preloaded with some very decent games such as FIFA 10, Star Battalion, The Sims 3, Tetris, Bruce Lee and Crash Bandicoot. The graphics for the most part look good and the sound quality is excellent. Best of all, you do not need to touch the screen, allowing you so much more viewing space! Games pause when you get calls and let you resume from where they left off once you have finished talking.

A big disappointment was the relative lack of titles at the moment in the PlayStation Pocket (which links to supported games on the Android Market and publisher sites) and the fact that most of the games on offer also seemed targeted more at the hardcore gamer than the casual one - we downloaded Angry Birds from the Android Market but could not use the controller to play it, alas. But that should change in the coming days.

The Xperia Play will appeal to hardcore gaming fans who have a soft corner for the PlayStation, and want an Android phone too. The price, alas, will prove to be a massive deterrent for those looking to buy it as a smartphone that can also entertain . You can get a PS3, PS2 and a PSP for the same amount as a Play!

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
Price: 35,000

Features
RATING 4.0-inch , 480x854 capacitive touch screen, Android 2.3, 1Ghz processor, 512MB RAM, 5MP camera, Wi-Fi , GPS, Bluetooth, FM, 1500mAh battery, 175 grams

PROS: Android 2.3, excellent touchscreen, dedicated gaming keypad

CONS: Limited PlayStation games available, disappointing camera

GadgetMedia Review: Android Price Wars

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Wed, 6 Apr 2011 14:03:00 +0530

Everyone wants an Android smartphone , and while there are some very worthy contenders in the 12,000 plus category, the sub 8,000 bracket has very few players. Therefore the Spice Mi-310 instantly has an advantage, because it is priced low, yet has a decent-sized capacitive touchscreen, Android 2.2 with Wi-Fi tethering and built in GPS .

The phone feels fairly sturdy in the hand and has all the features you would expect from a mid-range Android phone: Wi-Fi , A-GPS , Bluetooth 2.1, FM, expandable memory and App Market access. The casing is a mix of plastic and metallic surfaces which are resistant to fingerprints . Around the back is the 2MP camera lens (no flash) and a loudspeaker grill while on top is the power/sleep button with the now commonplace 3.5mm audio port.

The screen is fairly bright and the touch is responsive. Processor details are not listed, but it is almost certainly a 528 or 600Mhz class processor. The interface is bog-standard Android (which is a good thing) and as usual, a wealth of apps is available to do anything from customize the home screen, watch DivX video, play games or view office documents. In usual Android fashion, just enter your Gmail account credentials and everything (Gmail, Gtalk) is setup automatically. If you have your contacts and calendar entries stored in Gmail, even those will get downloaded and synced to the device. The box includes a pair of in-ear headphones , a case, charger and USB cable - fairly generous for the price. A few bundled apps or a 2GB micro SD card would have sweetened the deal.

Performance is what you would expect from a mid-range Android phone. No problems with call quality and signal strength, but the battery life is just about a day (with push mail and social clients active) and the camera is nothing great.
You might question the rationale of placing a trackpad on a phone with a responsive touchscreen, and you might be right too. The trackpad works well and won't get clogged up like a trackball, but it only replicates functionality that you can do with the touchscreen (scrolling, cursor movements etc). And the placement right at the bottom of the phone means that it's inconvenient to use one handed.

There are some ways in which corners have been cut. For example, the four touch buttons below the screen (the standard home, menu, back and search) are not as sensitive as we would have liked - sometimes two or three presses are required to register an operation. A few design issues - the power button, volume buttons and camera shutter are mere slivers, hiding in the plastic surround of the phone - they are hard to see and hard to press. The metallic battery cover is hard to remove and the only available colour is copperbrown , which is unique, but may not be to everyone's tastes.

So, a mixed bag really. Kudos go to Spice for all these features at this price point (market price is currently 7,400), but some aspects need improvement before it can be recommended . The other budget Android phones are the Micromax Andro A60 and the Huawei Ideos, both of which are priced around 6,500 and have smaller 2.8-inch screens (Andro A60 has a resistive touchscreen, while Ideos is capacitive). If you can stretch the budget a bit, go for the LG Optimus , which is currently retailing between 9,500 and 10,000. The Optimus has the same features as the Mi-310 but has overall better build quality.

LG planning to bring 3D tablet to India in June- GadgetMedia

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Wed, 6 Apr 2011 13:59:00 +0530

LG Mobiles is planning to bring its yet-to-be-globally-launched 3D tablet to India in June, a senior executive in the company said. It will compete with Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Apple's iPad and is likely to be priced between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000.

Vishal Chopra, LG Electronics business head for mobile communications, said the tablet could be priced lower than Rs 30,000 depending on currency valuation and import duties at the time of the launch. "I will be in a better position to say (about price clarity) around last week of May," he added.

First unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, the tablet is the only one in the industry having 3D display capabilities.

The Samsung general manager for South West Asia, Ruchika Batra, did not reveal sales figures but said that the Galaxy Tab's positive growth has also encouraged it to launch more models around Diwali.

World over, media tablet spending is projected to more than triple to $29.4 billion this year and increase at an average rate of 52% each year through 2015, according to research agency Gartner.
However, Indian market may be slow to respond. "In a price sensitive market like India, current tablet prices are too high for the mass adoption. If technology providers are able to get the price below Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 with acceptable features, we will see much wider acceptance of these devices," says Gartner's principal analyst Vishal Tripathi.

This price sensitivity forced Samsung to lower the price of Galaxy Tab from Rs 38,000 to Rs 29,299 when iPad was launched for around Rs 28,000 in January. In April, the price has dropped to Rs 27,390.

Local handset makers, such as Micromax Mobiles , Lava Mobiles and Olive Telecom and Chinese manufacturers such as G'Five and HTC , are also launching their tablets at competitive prices.

Despite the imminent price wars, Optimus Pad will be one of the key product launches for LG Mobiles this year. The company feels that even sales of up to 2,000 tablets a month can yield larger revenue and better profitability. "It is also better for the brand image," Chopra added.

As it aims to garner Rs 3,000 crore revenues by the year-end up from Rs 2,000 crore in 2010, LG also plans to introduce a couple of sub- Rs 10,000 smartphones. Chopra said prices could fall to around Rs 7,000 in the future as the company begins manufacturing smartphones from its factory in Pune this month.

About 40% of LG's handset launches this calendar year will involve smartphones, a strategy that is followed by handset major Nokia. Nokia India's managing director D Shivakumar had earlier said that the company would have a very big share of the smartphone market that was doubling every year.

Cablevision’s iPad app for watching TV at home - GadgetMedia

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Wed, 6 Apr 2011 13:58:00 +0530

Cablevision Systems is launching an app for customers using its Optimum package to watch television on their iPads at home, the company said.

The service, available at no extra charge, will allow the cable operator's more than 3 million customers to watch some 300 channels , search programming by genre and enable customers to record programmes.

The system uses Cablevision's digital cable television network to deliver programming to the iPad, so customers do not need to have Internet access on their devices to use the app. The move comes weeks after Time Warner Cable launched its own iPad app in mid-March.

Swiss court- Google Street View must guarantee anonymity

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Tue, 5 Apr 2011 13:29:00 +0530

A Swiss court has ruled that Google Inc. must guarantee anonymity before publishing faces and license plates in its Street View service in Switzerland.

A ruling published today by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court affects any new ground-level pictures that the popular Internet search engine publishes.

A court statement said the ruling upholds principles of privacy of control of personal data "regardless of the actual sensitivity of the information in question."

Lawyers for Google had told the court that personal privacy was already guaranteed because of technology that automatically blurs faces and car plates, but conceded the service was not foolproof.

The ruling can be appealed to the Swiss Supreme Federal Court.

Google agreed in 2009 to temporarily stop uploading new pictures from Swiss cities after the country's data protection watchdog complained.

Symantec: Targeted cyber attacks to rise further

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Tue, 5 Apr 2011 13:20:00 +0530

Targeted cyber attacks will pose a growing threat to companies around the world this year after the Stuxnet worm hit Iran's nuclear programme in 2010, security software maker Symantec Corp said on Tuesday.

"Last year was the year of high-profile targeted attacks. We will see so many more," said Sian John, security strategist at Symantec.

So-called targeted attacks succeed as most consumers avoid clicking on suspicious links in spam emails, but open files that seem to arrive from legitimate senders.

"They are more challenging, but the return is higher," John said.

In total, the number of measured Web-based attacks rose 93 percent in 2010 from a year ago, boosted by proliferation of shortened Internet addresses, Symantec said in its annual threat review.

"Last year, attackers posted millions of these shortened links on social networking sites to trick victims into both phishing and malware attacks, dramatically increasing the rate of successful infection," Symantec said.

Social networking sites are increasingly important platform for attackers as their popularity among consumers is rising fast.

The software company said attacks on leading mobile platforms were also set to increase after a 42 percent rise in mobile vulnerabilities last year.

"The major mobile platforms are finally becoming ubiquitous enough to garner the attention of attackers," Symantec said. "Attackers are really following the consumers here."

Nokia says talks with Microsoft on schedule

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 20:21:00 +0530

Talks between Nokia, the world's largest cellphone maker by volume, and Microsoft on a software deal are on schedule and a large number of Nokia Windows phones should be sold in 2012.

"Negotiations have progressed very well. They will be concluded well on schedule," Kai Oistamo, head of corporate development at Nokia, said on Monday.

The companies signed a non-binding agreement on Feb. 11 for Nokia to start using Microsoft software as its main platform in smartphones .

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said in February it would take at least a couple of months to sign a deal.

The long negotiation process has led analysts to question whether the partnership can produce quick results. Some analysts have said talks should be concluded by end-April when Nokia plans to start talks over job cuts stemming from the agreement.

MTS rolls out first phone using Russian satnav

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 20:20:00 +0530

The first smartphone using Russian positioning technology GLONASS went on sale on Monday, operator MTS said, marking a milestone in a project creating rival to the U.S.-led Global Positioning System (GPS).

The MTS Glonass 945 smartphone is manufactured by China's ZTE Corp, uses Google Inc's Android software and also supports the rival GPS technology.

Russia hopes the project will spark a domestic technology revolution and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has personally spearheaded the project acting as a salesman for the system on international visits.

"Successfully bringing a product to market is a significant step forward for the GLONASS project," said Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd on Monday.

"Other handset vendors will be particularly eager to see how Russian consumers respond, to understand whether GLONASS support is a matter of appealing to national pride or whether it genuinely encourages greater location-oriented usage," he said.

Russia has been developing Glonass -- its answer to the U.S.-Air Force operated GPS -- since 1976. Having spent $2 billion in the last 10 years, it is expected to provide a comparable service to GPS next year.

Russia plans to introduce duties of around 25 percent by 2012 on the import of mobile phones without the GLONASS navigation system, as part of efforts to encourage worldwide adoption of the technology.

In August, the head of the state GLONASS operator said companies such as Nokia Oyj, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and Qualcomm Inc were in talks with Russian chip manufacturers about the mass production of handheld devices enabled with both GLONASS and GPS.

Google profile in China shrinking

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 12:42:00 +0530

A year after a public spat with Beijing over censorship, Google Inc. says its business with Chinese advertisers is growing even as the Internet giant's share of online searches in China plunges.

A major Chinese portal announced last week it would no longer use Google for search, compounding its rapid loss of market share since March last year when it closed its local search engine. The future of a Google map service that is a key part of its remaining appeal in China is in doubt.

Google's main presence in China has become its advertising sales offices, an unusual situation for a company that dominates the Internet elsewhere.

Google risked being completely shut out of China after it angered Beijing by announcing last January it no longer wanted to comply with Web censorship. It dodged that fate but without a flagship local online presence, analysts say Google will fall further behind Baidu Inc. as a search provider, while the controversy makes it hard to line up Chinese partners for other ventures.

"Chinese companies will think twice before they can have any kind of relationship with Google," said Edward Yu, president of Analysys International, a research firm in Beijing.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, says it sees its biggest opportunities in China in selling advertising on behalf of local websites or to companies that want to reach customers abroad through its global sites.
Google was allowed to keep advertising sales offices in China. Beijing had an incentive to let those stay, because they benefit local websites and advertisers.

"Google's revenue in China has grown year-on-year," said a company spokeswoman, Jessica Powell, in an e-mail. "Our business in China is doing well. We have hundreds of partners — large and small — who we continue to work with."

Yet its public relationship with Beijing is chilly. After Chinese authorities stepped up Web censorship following pro-democracy protests in the Middle East, Google said last month the government was obstructing access to its Gmail e-mail service and trying to make the blockage look like a technical problem. The government denied the accusation.

This week, the government newspaper Economic Daily said three Google units that deal with research and development, customer support and advertising were under investigation for possible tax offenses. State media played up the report and one newspaper called the company "Brother Trouble," a play on its Chinese name. Google said in a statement, "We believe we are, and always have been, in full compliance with Chinese tax law."

Mainland users can reach Google's Chinese-language site in Hong Kong, a self-governing Chinese territory without Web censorship. That comes with a big drawback: Beijing's filters can make access sluggish, reducing the site's appeal in China, which has more than 450 million people online.

Google does not break out sales by country, but Analysys estimated its 2010 China revenue at 2.6 billion yuan ($409 million) — or less than 1.5 percent of Google's global revenues of $29.3 billion.

Last year's dispute testified to the complex Internet landscape in China, which promotes Web use for business and education but has strict controls on content and blocks social media sites including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Google's China site still offers music downloads, business services and other features that are not subject to censorship. Users can click a link to reach the Hong Kong site.

Google's share of China's search traffic fell to 19.6 percent in the final quarter of 2010 from 30.9 percent in the first quarter, according to Analysys. It said Baidu's share rose to 75 percent.

Citigroup analyst Alicia Yap said data from other researchers show an even sharper plunge in Google's traffic share to 11 percent in the fourth quarter while Baidu rose to 84 percent.

Google still is China's second-most-popular search service based on use of the Hong Kong site and others abroad. It leads rivals such as Sogou, Tencent Soso and Zhongsou, which have market shares at or below 1 percent.

But the lack of a local presence will hurt as competition for new users spreads to mobile phones and the countryside, where users speak little English and will want a Chinese search engine, Yu said.

"Baidu is in a very good position to grab more market share," he said.

In a new blow to its public visibility, a leading a Chinese portal, Sina.com, said this week it would no longer use Google. The search giant has ended a series of such partnerships as it stopped providing censored results.

Baidu has expanded aggressively, rolling out new services in the past year in an effort to differentiate a company long seen as a Google imitator.

New competitors including state media also are jumping into the market with search and social media products. The government's Xinhua News Agency launched a search engine last year in a partnership with state-owned China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone carrier by subscribers.

Google faces another challenge from new regulations that tighten control over online map services. On Thursday, the deadline to apply for licenses, Google said it was "in discussions with the government about how we could offer a maps product in China."

"Google maps is one of the services that people still like a lot," said Yap. "If they can't provide the service in the future, people will use Google less and less."

Yu said Google's situation might change if a planned handover of power next year from President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders to a younger generation leads to a shift in official attitudes.

"New officials will be in place," he said, "so things could change at that time."

Review: Sony Alpha SLT-A33L

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 12:17:00 +0530

Camera technology is changing for the better these days. While the digital SLR or DSLR is normally the weapon of choice for the serious or professional photographer, a spate of new cameras has been challenging this notion. The Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens cameras started it. Micro Four Thirds cameras usually have CMOS sensors, but vitally, the sensor size is smaller than even an entry-level DSLR. Even Sony's own NEX series is another example: a camera that uses a DLSR-size CMOS image sensor in a mirror-less, compact and lightweight body.

Each of these technologies has certain advantages - typically a smaller size and lesser weight as compared to a DSLR. But the Alpha SLT-A33L (and its big brother, A55L) takes things to a new level. The A33 is not much smaller or lighter than the average DSLR, but what it does do, is open up a super-fast continuous shooting mode (with continuous auto focus for each shot) in a price bracket that 'proper' DSLRs can't dream of matching.

A number of ground-breaking technologies enable this. For starters, the translucent mirror. In a conventional DSLR, the mirror stays down at a 45-degree angle to divert light upwards into the viewfinder and to the fast, phase-detection auto focus system. When the shutter button is pressed, the mirror flips up, allowing the light to pass through to the image sensor. This is why the viewfinder in a conventional DSLR goes blank while shooting. Also, the mechanical movement of the mirror is a comparatively slow movement when compared to the actual recording of light, which contributes to the slower frame rate of entry-level DSLRs. In Sony's system, the mirror just stays in place: most of the light passes through to the image sensor, while a portion of the light is diverted upwards towards the autofocus system and to generate an image for the electronic viewfinder (EVF).

Since the mirror is always down, the slow mechanical mirror flip movement is cut out of the equation and the recording of each image can be much faster. In high-speed mode, the A33 can take 7 frames per second at full resolution. Since the mirror stays down, the autofocus engine is always active. Rather unbelievably, the camera can focus each frame while shooting in high-speed mode, i.e., 7 times per second. This kind of frame rate and autofocus speed can only be matched by high-end professional DSLRs that cost thrice as much as the A33.

Crucially, the video recording features are also enhanced by the mirror. Since the AF system is always active, the A33 can continue to focus while shooting video: something which conventional DSLRs cannot do - the mirror has to stays up while shooting video to let light through to the image sensor. Stangely, the A33's video is limited to 1080i rather than 1080p full HD for some reason.
It also has an amazing panorama and 3D panorama mode, in which you just have to sweep the camera from left to right while the camera fires off some quick shots and instantly stitches them together into one image.

Finally, in the A33, the image stabilization system is inside the camera, not in the lens (sensor-shift image stabilization, rather than lens-shift). This means that the image stabilization stays active, no matter what lens you use with it. The A33 ticks all the right boxes then: it has great battery life, all the advantages of a DSLR, a flip out screen and superlative image quality.

However, The biggest gripe that any DSLR user will have when switching to the A33 (or A55) is the lack of an optical viewfinder. Even though the EVF is sharp, has 100% frame coverage and has loads of extra information neatly displayed, it doesn't have the charm of an optical viewfinder.

The A33 is a fantastic achievement, but it will stay confined to the hands of the amateur photographer rather than the professional.

Acer to take on Apple, HTC after CEO exit

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 12:15:00 +0530

Gianfranco Lanci tried to make Acer the world's largest laptop maker by outselling Hewlett-Packard. The board says he should have set his sights on Apple and HTC Corp instead.

The rift led to Lanci quitting as chief executive officer of the Taiwanese computer maker, Chief Financial Officer Tu Che-min said in an interview on Friday. The company plans to name a new president this month and Acer is seeking to be a leading player in smartphones and tablets, he said.

As Acer reels from its worst weekly stock plunge in almost a decade, the board faces the challenge of finding a leader able to reinvent the company into a developer of products that can challenge Apple and HTC from being a volume-driven maker of commoditised computers. The shift in strategy means spending on research and development will increase, Tu said.

"For Acer, and other PC makers in general, the way to create value is to innovate and find new markets and opportunities, and that's a big challenge," said Simon Ye, an analyst at research company Gartner in Shanghai. "Acer's problem is that it is commonly perceived as a brand that competes on price, and that doesn't help profitability."

The shares fell 4.8% to close at NT$57.10 in Taipei trading, capping a 22% rout since the company on March 25 slashed its first-quarter sales forecast. Brokerages from CLSA to Goldman Sachs Group cut their ratings on the stock to sell in the past week.
Tablets
As conventional laptops lose their appeal to new-generation devices such as handheld computers with touch screens, companies such as Acer may need to focus more on developing tablet computers to boost profits, analysts said. "There is a concern at Acer about profit margins," said Dean Lim, who rates Acer shares "reduce" at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong. "If they can increase sales of tablets, that will help improve the profit margins."

Chairman JT Wang will temporarily take over the chief executive officer's role from Lanci, the company said. Walter Deppeler, president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, and procurement head Jim Wong are frontrunners to succeed Lanci, according to Macquarie Group . Acer's Tu declined to identify any candidates.

The Taiwanese PC maker is realigning its business to focus on profitability, instead of sales volumes, spokesman Henry Wang said today. Lanci quit after a slump in Acer's stock this year, the most in the MSCI AC Asia Pacific excluding Japan Information Technology Index, as a focus on low-cost laptops eroded profit margins.

Profit Margin
Apple, maker of the iPad tablet, iPhone and iMac computer had a 21.5% profit margin in its last fiscal year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Acer had 2.3%. "There is good consensus among the board members that the tablet is the way to go," CFO Tu said by phone. Previously, the company's goal was to boost shipments of notebook computers to increase market share, he said.

The board and Lanci "placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation," Acer said in a statement. Calls to Lanci's Taipei office weren't answered and e-mails to his Acer account bounced back.

Rising Costs
Acer in January reported fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts' estimates after revenue fell 11%. The company last month started sales of its Iconia tablet, more than a year after the unveiling of the Apple iPad. "We think Acer inevitably will see rising research and development expenses," Nomura Holdings analyst Eve Jung wrote in a report. "Acer plans to focus more on product innovation to face growing competition from Apple's iPad 2."

Acer overtook Dell as the world's second-largest maker of PCs in 2009 as the company boosted overseas sales through the acquisitions of Gateway and Packard Bell. Lanci, who had been president of the company since 2005, also oversaw Acer as it capitalized on the boom in demand for sub-$500 laptops, known as netbooks, after the worst global financial crisis since World War II prompted consumers to buy cheaper computers.

Apple's iPad starts at $499 in the US. The focus on netbooks cost Acer last year as Apple' iPad gave consumers an alternative product to a low-end laptop. Acer's market share of the PC market fell to 12.7% in the fourth quarter, down from 13.3% a year earlier, according to estimates by research firm Gartner.

Acer to take on Apple, HTC after CEO exit

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 12:09:00 +0530

Gianfranco Lanci tried to make Acer the world's largest laptop maker by outselling Hewlett-Packard. The board says he should have set his sights on Apple and HTC Corp instead.

The rift led to Lanci quitting as chief executive officer of the Taiwanese computer maker, Chief Financial Officer Tu Che-min said in an interview on Friday. The company plans to name a new president this month and Acer is seeking to be a leading player in smartphones and tablets, he said.

As Acer reels from its worst weekly stock plunge in almost a decade, the board faces the challenge of finding a leader able to reinvent the company into a developer of products that can challenge Apple and HTC from being a volume-driven maker of commoditised computers. The shift in strategy means spending on research and development will increase, Tu said.

"For Acer, and other PC makers in general, the way to create value is to innovate and find new markets and opportunities, and that's a big challenge," said Simon Ye, an analyst at research company Gartner in Shanghai. "Acer's problem is that it is commonly perceived as a brand that competes on price, and that doesn't help profitability."

The shares fell 4.8% to close at NT$57.10 in Taipei trading, capping a 22% rout since the company on March 25 slashed its first-quarter sales forecast. Brokerages from CLSA to Goldman Sachs Group cut their ratings on the stock to sell in the past week.

Tablets
As conventional laptops lose their appeal to new-generation devices such as handheld computers with touch screens, companies such as Acer may need to focus more on developing tablet computers to boost profits, analysts said. "There is a concern at Acer about profit margins," said Dean Lim, who rates Acer shares "reduce" at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong. "If they can increase sales of tablets, that will help improve the profit margins."

Chairman JT Wang will temporarily take over the chief executive officer's role from Lanci, the company said. Walter Deppeler, president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, and procurement head Jim Wong are frontrunners to succeed Lanci, according to Macquarie Group . Acer's Tu declined to identify any candidates.

The Taiwanese PC maker is realigning its business to focus on profitability, instead of sales volumes, spokesman Henry Wang said today. Lanci quit after a slump in Acer's stock this year, the most in the MSCI AC Asia Pacific excluding Japan Information Technology Index, as a focus on low-cost laptops eroded profit margins.

Profit Margin
Apple, maker of the iPad tablet, iPhone and iMac computer had a 21.5% profit margin in its last fiscal year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Acer had 2.3%. "There is good consensus among the board members that the tablet is the way to go," CFO Tu said by phone. Previously, the company's goal was to boost shipments of notebook computers to increase market share, he said.

The board and Lanci "placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation," Acer said in a statement. Calls to Lanci's Taipei office weren't answered and e-mails to his Acer account bounced back.

Rising Costs
Acer in January reported fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts' estimates after revenue fell 11%. The company last month started sales of its Iconia tablet, more than a year after the unveiling of the Apple iPad. "We think Acer inevitably will see rising research and development expenses," Nomura Holdings analyst Eve Jung wrote in a report. "Acer plans to focus more on product innovation to face growing competition from Apple's iPad 2."

Acer overtook Dell as the world's second-largest maker of PCs in 2009 as the company boosted overseas sales through the acquisitions of Gateway and Packard Bell. Lanci, who had been president of the company since 2005, also oversaw Acer as it capitalized on the boom in demand for sub-$500 laptops, known as netbooks, after the worst global financial crisis since World War II prompted consumers to buy cheaper computers.

Apple's iPad starts at $499 in the US. The focus on netbooks cost Acer last year as Apple' iPad gave consumers an alternative product to a low-end laptop. Acer's market share of the PC market fell to 12.7% in the fourth quarter, down from 13.3% a year earlier, according to estimates by research firm Gartner.

Cablevision launches iPad app to watch TV at home

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 21:08:00 +0530

Cablevision Systems Corp is launching an app for customers using its Optimum package to watch television on their iPads at home, the company said on Saturday.

The service, available at no extra charge, will allow the cable operator's more than 3 million customers to watch some 300 channels, search programming by genre and enable customers to record programs.

The system uses Cablevision's digital cable television network to deliver programming to the iPad, so customers do not need to have Internet access on their devices to use the app.

"This application allows the iPad to function as a television, delivering the full richness and diversity of our cable television service to a display device in the home," Tom Rutledge, Cablevision chief operating officer, said in a statement.

The move by New York-based Cablevision comes weeks after Time Warner Cable launched its own iPad app in mid-March.

The Time Warner version allows users to watch live programming from 32 networks so long as they are at home using their Wi-Fi network.

But Time Warner's app sparked controversy.

A few days ago, after getting several "cease and desist" notices, the No. 2 U.S. cable company said it would no longer carry networks owned by News Corp's Fox, Viacom and Discovery Communications.

The media companies believe the cable company needs to pay for new licenses in order for customers to use the iPad app.

Twitter abuzz with congratulations on India's win

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 16:48:00 +0530

There was an eruption of "yayyyyy" and "we won" on Twitter, as India became the world one-day cricket champions.

Throughout the day, "indivssl" was trending among the top Twitter trends worldwide. And when India won the match, "Congratulations India" became among the top trend, along with the phrase "world champions" on the microblogging site.

"The World belongs to India today !!! This one is for Sachin and every Indian who beleived ! The Boys in Blue really brought it home," posted Malayalam film star, Mammootty on his twitter account.

"Glorious victory! Our boys make us so proud! Privilege to be at Wankhede today! Sri Lanka was graceful too in their post match comments," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao posted.

Even, the Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs Ajay Maken used his twitter account to say congratulations, minutes after Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni blasted a six to win the World Cup. "Great stuff Dhoni and team! A well deserved victory!," he said.

BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj also tweeted, "Vande Matram Heartiest Congratulations to all Indians. Our team has done us proud. Vande Matram."

For most Indian twitterers, following the match ball-by-ball was equivalent of watching it in a virtual stadium, with thousands of other cricket lovers.

Earlier in the second inning, they kept on urging Indians to keep the faith, when Sri Lanka took early wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

"You said this was religion, this was war. And when the time came to fight and believe, you ran away? Me, I'll die proud in loss too," said 'B50', a popular Mumbai-based twitterer.

As India seems to be going towards a win, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, "If it carries on like this no foreign leader will ever accept an Indian invitation to watch a cricket match :-D" He was referring to the fact that the leaders of two neighbouring countries - Pakistan and Sri Lanka - were in the stadium when their team lost to the Indians.

There was a lot of humour too, often at model Poonam Pandey who had promised to strip if the Indian team won the World Cup. "Did Poonam Pandey just play a cruel April Fools Day joke on us??" asked Mukundh B.

Twitter was also the place where sleep-deprived Indians in other parts of the world also felt part of the action. "What finally brought my tears out - Kohli saying "For 21 yrs Sachin carried the nation's burden, now it's our turn to carry him." *sniff*," said US-based marketing academic Gaurav Sabni.

There was also a lot of congratulations from across the border."Congratulations to India," tweet Awab Alvi, a Karachi-based dentist.

Similar grace was shown by the Sri Lankans too. "respect to India. They are truly an excellent and hard working team," tweeted Indi Samarajiva, Colomb-based blogger.

"Massive party in the UK tonight!! Indians ALL over the world celebrating!!Everyone goin maaaddd!! I'm out for a few hours! Catch u tweeps l8r (later)," tweeted Rameez Raja from Great Britain.

'Bionic eye' implant offers hope to the blind

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 16:45:00 +0530

For a man whose view of the world has slowly faded to black over 30 years, a device that allows him to see flashes of light has kindled his hope of one day gazing upon his grandson's face.

A career electrician who grew up in Greece and came to the United States as a young man, Elias Konstantopoulos first noticed his vision getting poorer when at age 43 he absentmindedly tried on a relative's eyeglasses and found he could see more clearly with them than without.

Soon after, he visited a doctor who tested his sight and discovered he was no longer able to see his outstretched arms from the corners of his eyes. His peripheral vision was deteriorating.

He was diagnosed with an incurable condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, which affects about 100,000 people, or one in 3,000, in the United States.

A leading form of hereditary blindness, the disease gradually eats away at the retina's rods and cones, which are photoreceptors that help people see light and identify color and detail.

About 10 years later, he could no longer see well enough to keep working.

"You lose your sight, you pretty much lose everything," said Konstantopoulos, who is now 72 and lost his final bit of vision about five years ago.

When his doctor asked in 2009 if he would like to join a three-year trial of a futuristic technology involving an electrode array in his eye and a wireless camera mounted on a pair of glasses, Konstantopoulos was eager to take part.

Now, every morning he puts on the glasses, straps a wireless device to his waist and stands by the window or out in the yard waiting to hear the sound of a car approaching. When it passes, he says he can see a block of light go by.

He can also distinguish light-colored objects against dark backgrounds, and he can orient himself in a room by being able to see where there is an open window or door letting the sun in from outside.

The device, known as the Argus II, is made by a California company called Second Sight. It was recently approved for use in Europe, and in the United States it has given a handful of test patients like Konstantopoulos cause for optimism. "Without the system, I can't see anything. With the system, it's some kind of hope. Something is there," he said.

"Later on, who knows with technology what it can do? Everything comes little by little."

The device is similar to the cochlear implants that have allowed hundreds of thousands of deaf people to hear again, and is part of a growing field known as neuromodulation, or the science that helps people regain lost abilities such as sight, hearing and movement by stimulating the brain, spinal cord or nerves.

Ear implants work by picking up sound through a tiny microphone, then converting those signals into electrical impulses and sending them to an electrode array implanted in the patient. The electrodes gather the impulses and ship them to the auditory nerve, which hears them as sounds.

The retinal prosthesis follows a similar process. A tiny video camera on the glasses captures images and converts them into electrical signals that are fed to an electrode array that is surgically implanted in the patient's eye.

The visual signals are sent to the optic nerve and then to the brain, and the patient sees them as flashes of light and blurry shapes.

"It is still a very crude level of vision but it is the beginning of an improvement," said Gislin Dagnelie, an ophthalmologist who is working with Konstantopoulos and other blind patients at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "We have to learn how to talk to the retina, basically."

The implant is unnoticeable. The surgery took about three hours and caused hardly any pain, said Konstantopoulos.

According to Second Sight vice president Brian Mech, the latest generation of the technology has 60 electrodes, compared to an earlier version that had 16.

"Surgery is much shorter and requires only one specialist (Argus I required 3)," Mech said.

In all, 14 devices are being used in the United States and 16 in Europe. The Argus II costs about 100,000 dollars.

The company plans to apply soon for a humanitarian device exemption with the Food and Drug Administration, and hopes for approval in 2012.

In the meantime, Konstantopoulos practises with the device one day a week in the lab with Dagnelie. At each session, Konstantopoulos traces objects he sees on a computer screen. Sometimes they walk arm in arm around the medical complex trying to spot certain objects.

He is gradually improving in his ability to interpret the light flashes and identify them as lines and shapes, the doctor said.

But among other patients, the response "varies quite a bit."

"People who have been blind for a long time probably don't have as much benefit," Dagnelie said.

As time goes on, doctors hope that the device could extend to people who suffer from macular degeneration, the primary cause of vision loss among people over 60.

"We hope that 10-15 years from now we'll have something that is quite useful, clinically," said the Dutch-born doctor.

Konstantopoulos still manages to do plenty of work around the house. He recently retiled the bathroom floor and showed visitors how he can still operate his table saw in the garage, pausing a few times to ask if his 18-month-old grandson, Anthony, was underfoot.

"He does everything. He is such a proud man," said his wife, Dina.

Back in the living room, Konstantopoulos sat in his recliner and scooped up the chubby-cheeked little boy who calls him "Papou."

"That has been my biggest complaint. I have never seen his face," he said, cradling the boy on his lap.

"I cannot see his face. Yet."

Wipro says to buy SAIC's energy technology business for $150 million

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 16:43:00 +0530

Wipro Ltd , India's No. 3 software services exporter, on Friday said it would acquire SAIC's global oil and gas technology services business for $150 million.

SAIC's Global Oil and Gas Information Technology practice provides consulting, system integration and outsourcing services to global oil majors, Wipro said in a statement.

Wipro will add about 1,450 employees across North America, Europe, India and the Middle East following the deal, it added.

Top Indian software companies are looking for acquisitions in key business segments and geographies in an effort to ride a recovering global demand for IT services.

Windows phone Nokia spell a challenge for Apple

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 16:41:00 +0530

iPhones and Android phones seem to be everywhere I look in Silicon Valley. The future is obvious, isn't it? IPhone, Android and no one else. They will form an exclusive duo in smartphones, just as Windows and Mac have in personal computers.

Make way, however, for Windows Phone. Yes, Windows Phone. Despite Microsoft's multiple, abject failures with mobile phones since 2002, many software developers and industry watchers expect Microsoft to become the second-largest smartphone player worldwide.

The evidence isn't visible today, nor will it appear anytime soon. Even at year's end, Android will have a 39.5 per cent share of smartphones worldwide, according to projections from IDC, the research firm. Symbian - used by Nokia, though it is not a major presence in the United States - would be second, at 20.9 per cent, while Apple's iOS, the software that powers the iPhone, would be third, at 15.7. Windows Phone 7 and its predecessor, Windows Mobile, would be far behind, at 5.5 per cent.

These rankings are likely to change thanks to one player, Nokia, which has seen its market share shrink in the United States. It has formed an alliance with Microsoft and will switch from Symbian to Windows Phone software on its smartphones.

As a result, according to IDC predictions for 2015, Windows Phone 7 will occupy second place, at 20.9 per cent of the market, ahead of iOS, which is projected to stay near 15 per cent. BlackBerry, then as now, would be No. 4.

(In the United States alone, IDC expects Windows Phone 7 to jump to third place by 2015, at 15.6 per cent, behind Android, at 48.9 per cent, and iOS, at 16.8.)

Despite its recent worries, Nokia remains the largest phone manufacturer in the world, and it has no equal in building handsets inexpensively. Last year, it sold more than 452 million phones, including 100 million smartphones.

"The average price paid for smartphones is going to go down, and the total number of smartphones is going to go up," says Andrew Lees, president of Microsoft's mobile communications business.

Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7, a major overhaul, last fall. By year's end, Microsoft had 5,000 apps in its store, a milestone reached three times as fast as Google's Android, says Al Hilwa, an IDC analyst.

Lees says there are now more than 11,500 apps. It's not close to the more than 350,000 apps that Apple boasts for iOS. But the difference may not be significant.

"What is often missed is the diminishing returns after 1,000 applications," says Thomas R. Eisenmann, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "If a platform attracts the thousand-most-popular

apps, then it provides almost anything a reasonable person would want to do with a smartphone."

I sought out iPhone software developers who have done well with iPhone apps to see what they make of Windows Phone. I was surprised that many are already adding titles for Windows Phone, despite the tiny market share.

"Microsoft has a perception problem. Everyone thinks of them as a distant third, but they've got a good product," says David Roberts, chief executive of PopCap, a games developer whose Plants vs. Zombies game is among the iPhone's top-grossing apps. The company just introduced its first Windows Phone game, Bejeweled Live.

Halfbrick, based in Brisbane, Australia , is another successful iPhone software developer. Last week, its Fruit Ninja game was No. 5 in the App Store's list of top paid apps. It, too, has introduced its first title for Windows Phone.

Shainiel Deo, Halfbrick's CEO, says that while games were not a major attraction on past Microsoft phones, games will be a differentiator that will favor Microsoft this time. For example, the Marketplace store of Windows Phone employs the same user accounts used for Xbox Live.

Deo says he, too, is susceptible to iPhone-centrism. "In Australia, almost everyone I see has an iPhone," he said. But "the next phone for a lot of the Xbox gamers will probably be a Windows Phone," he remarked. "And there are 30 million Xbox Live subscribers."

Jeffrey R. Williams, a professor of business strategy at Carnegie Mellon, predicts that Microsoft will become a major player in mobile devices for one overriding reason: "They're willing to spend billions of dollars, just as they did with Xbox," he says. "And this is even more strategic."

There is also little need to focus on tight integration with Microsoft Office, a keystone of the company's marketing campaigns for its earlier phones. The Office integration pitch was aimed at corporate IT departments, which also made the purchasing decisions that shaped the personal computer industry.

The world has changed since then, Eisenmann points out. "In PCs, it was business leading consumers." he said. "This is a different game: consumers leading business."

Smartphones are a different case for another reason. In the industry's formative period, Windows and Macs didn't mix well on the same network, but different brands of smartphones share the same voice and data networks just fine. "I don't think the network effects in smartphones are as strong," Williams says.

Nokia is in Microsoft's camp. Good reviews of the software are coming in. Some leading iPhone developers are taking it seriously, and the company has plenty of capital to help it form alliances. Unexpectedly, Microsoft is well positioned to leap into the top ranks of smartphone players. A story to hearten latecomers everywhere.

Software to transfer files by just touching screens

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 12:06:00 +0530

Transferring files from one computer to another is a major pain.

Now, you can just pick up stuff from one machine and put in the other - thanks to a programme developed by an Indian-origin scientist of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Pranav Mistry has developed a programme, called 'Sparsh', that lets you transfer files from one device to another by simply touching the screen.

"The user touches a data item they wish to copy from a device, conceptually saving it in the user's body," New Scientist quoted him as saying.

"Next, the user touches the other device to which they want to paste the saved content," he added.

The first touch copies the item to a temporary file in either a Dropbox or an FTP account. The second touch retrieves the data.

This requires both devices to be running the software and for a user to be signed into their Dropbox or FTP account.

The programme works for any type of data, be it a photo, an address or a link to a YouTube clip.

Currently, 'Sparsh' runs as an application on smartphones, tablets and other computers.

Mistry said the ideal home for 'Sparsh' is to be built into an OS so that it can provide the copy-paste feature across all applications.

Malicious attack hits a million Web pages

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 12:03:00 +0530

More than one million website pages have been hit by a sophisticated hacking attack that injects code into sites that redirect users to a fraudulent software sales operation.

The so-called "mass-injection" attack, which experts say is the largest of its kind ever seen, has managed to insert malicious code into websites by gaining access to the servers running the databases behind the Internet, according to the technology security company that discovered it.

Websense, which first found evidence of the attack earlier this week, has called it 'LizaMoon,' after the site to which the malicious code first directed its researchers.

Users can see that they are being redirected when they attempt to visit an infected address, and can close the window with no ill effects, said Patrik Runald , a senior manager of security research at Websense.

The attack has largely affected small websites so far, he said, with no evidence that popular corporate or government websites have been compromised.

If users do not close the window after typing an infected address, or clicking an infected link, they are redirected to a page showing a warning from 'Windows Stability Center' -- posing as a Microsoft Corp security product -- that there are problems with their computer and they are urged to pay for software to fix it.

Websense said the site appeared to be set up by sophisticated fraudsters out to make money, but it was not clear whether the site also planted malicious software on users' computers if they made a purchase on the site, or if the operation was linked to an identity theft scam.

The presentation of the bogus website, as shown by Websense, is high quality but clearly fraudulent. Microsoft has no product called 'Windows Stability Center". The company did not immediately have a comment on the attack.

Websense said some third-party Web addresses containing information about podcasts available on Apple Inc's iTunes service had been compromised, but said Apple appeared to have prevented the malicious links from working. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

The attack may take some time to be tamed, warned Runald, as researchers first have to identify the software being compromised, and then website operators have to install updated software.

"Attacks like this tend to stay for a very long time," he said. "Once they are onto something, it tends to stay with us. This LizaMoon event won't disappear over a day."

Google foe won't take 'no' on Buzz cash

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 12:01:00 +0530

An internet privacy group that prodded US regulators to scrutinize Google Inc is miffed about getting cut out of a class action settlement over the search behemoth's Buzz social network.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) objected to the settlement in a court filing this week, claiming Google and others decided to fund groups already benefiting from the company's largesse.

EPIC, led by prominent privacy advocate Marc Rotenberg , filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission last year, saying Buzz threatened the privacy of Gmail users. Google settled with the FTC on Wednesday and agreed to independent privacy audits.

Google also agreed last year to resolve a separate class action lawsuit brought by a Gmail user. Part of that deal provided for more than $6 million to be distributed to groups advocating for internet privacy issues.

EPIC requested $1.75 million and while Google and plaintiff lawyers doled out money to groups like the American Civil Liberties Union , the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Brookings Institution , EPIC did not get a cent. A federal judge will have to sign off on the disbursement plan.

EPIC and a handful of other groups objected in a court filing Wednesday, saying the majority of funds would be allocated to groups that "receive support from Google for lobbying, consulting, or similar services."

However, EPIC did not specify which of the groups provided lobbying services. Rotenberg declined to comment.

A Google representative also declined to comment, while plaintiff lawyers could not be reached.

The court should reject a deal "that encourages organizations to stand by quietly while others do the actual work of safeguarding internet privacy," EPIC said in its filing.

The case in US District Court, Northern District of California is In Re Google Buzz User Privacy Litigation, 10-672.

Govt plans energy efficiency labels for mobile phone chargers

mca.bharat.raiya@gmail.com (Bharat Raiya) — Sun, 3 Apr 2011 11:58:00 +0530

Soon, you will be able to know how energy efficient your mobile phone charger is.

The Power Ministry is preparing to introduce energy labelling system for mobile phone chargers, as part of its efforts to promote energy conservation.

"We are working on introducing star (energy) labelling system for mobile phone chargers. It will be voluntary (for the makers of chargers) in the beginning and later, we plan to make it mandatory," a senior Power Ministry official said.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under the Power Ministry, implements the Standards & Labelling programme. The energy efficiency labelling is aimed to reduce energy consumption of appliances.

A top BEE official said that energy efficiency labelling for mobile phone charges would be introduced "relatively soon".

BEE is currently looking at various factors, including the large secondary market for mobile phone chargers, to decide on the labelling system, he added.

At present, the energy efficiency labelling covers many appliances, including refrigerators, room air conditioners, distribution transformers, induction motors, ceiling fans, washing machines and laptops, among others.

These labels help consumers make decisions on purchase of appliances based on their energy efficiency.