Latest in Technology

Zimbra Desktop gives Yahoo Mail offline access

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Any of the 263 million Yahoo Mail users who were antsy for change now have something they can sink their teeth into.

The first real fruits of Yahoo's $350 million acquisition of Zimbra are becoming apparent with the release Thursday of the Yahoo Zimbra Desktop. The e-mail software, available as a free download, works when the user is offline, and it offers options for basic online word processing and spreadsheets, task management, and file storage.

Zimbra Desktop's e-mail interface should be familiar to users of either Outlook or Yahoo Mail. (Click for larger version.)

(Credit: CNET News)

Zimbra Desktop means that Yahoo beat out Google in the race to provide e-mail that also works offline, but it took a different approach to get there. Google looks to be adding offline access through the open-source Gears project, a plug-in that augments a Web browser's abilities.

But Zimbra Desktop, while using browser interface technology called Ajax that can give Web browsers an elaborate interface, actually runs as a standalone application. It employs Java software to store data locally, and it's a hefty download--38MB for Windows, 34MB for Mac OS X, and 44MB for Linux.

Yahoo has formed a new group focusing on cloud computing, in which services available on the Internet substitute for local applications. But until the day when a reliable, fast Internet connection is available anywhere, offline access to applications is a significant feature.

Webmail is a compelling facet of cloud computing, letting people reach their e-mail from any number of computers or mobile devices. But from a user's point of view, Zimbra Desktop's approach--a downloadable application that doesn't run in a browser--is actually more like traditional e-mail client software such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Zimbra Desktop gives access to basic word-processing abilities, with documents stored online. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: CNET News)

After many months of quiet integration, Zimbra's ascent within Yahoo has been apparent. As part of a major reorganization in June, Zimbra leader Scott Dietzen was named to run all of Yahoo's messaging and communication work.

The software can be used to connect to Yahoo Mail and also to other accounts such as AOL or Gmail that support remote access via POP (Post Office Protocol) or the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).

I had no trouble installing, configuring, and running Zimbra Desktop to send and receive e-mail. As with Yahoo's Webmail interface, it mirrors Microsoft Outlook's look and keyboard shortcuts.

However, it's not perfect. It didn't seem connected to my Yahoo address book for contacts or calendar for events.

Sun Intros Social Networking For Partners

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:49:00 +0000

Sun Microsystems wants to help partners increase collaboration with it and each other in a series of enhancements to its channel program.

The company on Wednesday added two enhancements to its Sun Partner Advantage Program, including a social networking platform and new tools to help partners demonstrate the value of their solutions to their customers.

The first, ExecConnect by Sun, is a social networking environment aimed at helping partners collaborate for new ideas and find opportunities to work with each other, said Bill Cate, the vendor's vice president of global sales.

ExecConnect came about from a meeting in January between Sun executives, including CEO and President Jonathan Schwartz and about 150 partners from 27 countries. Solution providers asked how to keep up spirit of collaboration developed at the meeting, which lead Sun to develop the program, Cate said.

ExecConnect is an invite-only forum which allows partners to communicate with each other and connect to Sun executives, including Schwartz; Peter Ryan, vice president of global sales and executive sponsor of the forum; and Anil Gadre, executive vice president and CMO.

The forum lets them start and follow discussion threads and open folders specific to certain geographies, share articles and other materials, and poll other partners on things like what applications work best in certain situation, Cate said.

Partners could use other social networks, such as FaceBook, but Sun offers a secure environment where they can communicate with their peers, Cate said.

"Social networking typically is open to anybody," he said. "You don't know who you are talking to."

Sun does not intend to use the forum to push its own agenda, Cate said. "We walk a fine line as a vendor," he said. "It's not our intention to drive business with this."

That's an important prerequisite to using such a social networking forum, said John Murphy, executive vice president at Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based Sun partner and former head of Sun's partner council.

"If it doesn't become a Sun-spewing thing, it will be of real value," Murphy said.

As a forum, ExecConnect is a good idea, Murphy said.

"As far as getting feedback from changes to programs, Sun hopes that partners will contribute," he said. "If they don't, it doesn't matter, but it is a way for them to discuss the changes. There's a lot of value in that. The bi-annual partner meetings are kind of spotty for getting such feedback."

However, Murphy said Sun cannot expect its solution partners to start working together just because they have a new social networking tool.

"I've told Sun to be realistic," he said. "We all compete with each other. Sun needs to look at ground rules about how to do this from a technology or a geographic perspective. This won't become a panacea of partnering."

Sun on Wednesday also unveiled the Sun Value Platform, a Web-based sales tool for helping solution providers show customers their expected return on investment using Sun solutions.

Cate said Sun Value Platform helps solution providers justify customers' investments by looking at Sun and competitive platforms to see how a new solution compares to existing solutions, and to model expected future costs.

The Sun Value Platform, which came out of Sun's StorageTek business, currently is available for storage solutions, but in the future is expected to be expanded to other specializations like virtualization, SOA (services-oriented architecture), high-performance computing, MySQL, ID management, and open storage, Cate said.

In theory, Sun Value Platform can be a significant tool, but only if Sun can keep the important content up-to-date, Murphy said.

"If they're going to have information on Dell (NSDQ:Dell) servers, for instance, they need to keep the data current," he said. "We don't want to see six-month-old data. There's no value if the data is not current."

Social networking sites eye India

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:03:00 +0000

India is being heavily wooed by the giants of the internet, with both YouTube and MySpace having just set up dedicated Indian sites.

MySpace has opted to launch with local bands. YouTube chose a magician.

But both sides have the same audience firmly in their sights - young, internet-savvy Indians.

Compared with the West, internet take-up in the subcontinent is not high.

Outside the main cities, relatively few homes have computers, and broadband is being rolled out at snail's pace and is pitched primarily at the corporate sector.

So why this sudden rush of interest?

More users

Both YouTube and MySpace companies are dazzled by the sheer numbers involved.

Our focus on India is not monetisation at all right now

You Tube's international manager Sakina Arsiwala

"If you look at percentages, it's low at present," says YouTube's international manager Sakina Arsiwala.

"But if you look at absolute numbers, there are more people online than there are in some countries."

MySpace's chief operating officer Amit Kapur highlights the example set by countries such as China.

"If you look at the sorts of investments that are going on in infrastructure, and how people are using the internet, you're at a critical point right now, where you're going to see internet usage take off."

Shared confidence

One phenomenon in particular is fuelling this confidence, namely the rapid spread of mobile phones, even deep into the countryside.

You're at a critical point right now, where you're going to see internet usage take off

MySpace's chief operating officer Amit Kapur

It offers the tantalising prospect that India could leapfrog the west by moving straight to a mobile internet.

What would that mean in practice?

Both firms are rather shy of putting concrete numbers to their plans.

"We see this as a very long-term opportunity," according to MySpace.

"When we look at India we look at it in terms of a range of five to 10 years out."

But they are not alone in their confidence.

YouTube has signed up a string of local media partners to put their content online - from Bollywood producers to Institutes of Technology.

Many of them hope it will raise their profile on the global stage.

"A lot of partners see that as a huge value add," says Ms Arsiwala.

"The fact that now people anywhere in the world can get access to their content, whether they use it as a promotional tool, a marketing tool, or even as a tool to give more content away for free.

"That spurs more economic value for them, in terms of ticket sales or whatever."

Golden age

What's less clear is when YouTube itself will get the numbers to add up.

Other sites can count on online advertising.

But YouTube is still grappling with ways to make the site profitable without killing off what everyone likes about it.

"Our focus on India is not monetisation at all right now," says Ms Arsiwala.

"We want to have a system where everyone who's a creator makes money.

"What would work in the video space, and how do we get there without killing the user experience? That's the challenge we're trying to solve."

"MySpace is counting on online advertising to bring in the profits - an area it believes will take off as more people get connected.

In the meantime, internet users in India may have something of a golden age to look forward to.

Companies are falling over themselves to highlight what they can do for India, not what India can do for them.

All this competition will ensure that home-grown sites keep innovating - while the deep pockets of both YouTube and MySpace will mean more choice for web-surfers.

And all of it for free.

Skype's mobile dreams

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:49:00 +0000

Internet-calling software provider Skype sees the mobile market as the next frontier for its service, but economic realities in the voice market--coupled with mobile operators who feel threatened by Skype--could put the kibosh on large-scale adoption for some time to come.

Skype, a peer-to-peer software application that allows people to make free phone calls to other Skype users over the Internet, has become an easy and inexpensive way for people all over the world to stay in touch.

In addition to allowing voice calling and instant messaging to other registered Skype users, the service offers premium services, such as Skypeout, which allows cheap calls from Skype to landlines or mobile phones worldwide. Another paid service, Skypeln, provides a personal and portable number that people can use to accept calls anywhere in the world.

Now the company is focusing its efforts on the mobile market.

"Our users aren't always at a computer," said Tony Saigh, business development manager for mobile at Skype. "But 96 percent of the time people have their cell phones within 1 meter of them, so it makes sense for us to extend our application to users on mobile devices. I think it also opens the market up for us to people who want the freedom of using Skype but don't want to be tied to a computer."

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Skype made several mobile-service announcements, including one touting its plans to work with chipmaker Intel to put Skype software on Intel-powered mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, and on portable PC-like devices that use Intel's low-power processors. Skype also said that it will work with Sony to put its software on the PSP 2000 portable gaming device. Skype also announced its software will be embedded on the new version of Sony's Mylo personal communicator, the Mylo COM-2, which is a small, portable, PC-like handheld device. Skype software had already been available on the original Mylo personal communicator that was launched in 2006.

While these devices will all connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or, eventually, the WiMax broadband wireless technology, Skype has also struck a deal with a major wireless carrier to embed its application on cell phones that will use the carrier's 3G cellular network. In October, the company announced the new Skype phone in collaboration with the U.K.-based mobile operator Hutchison 3 UK. The phone, which is being demonstrated at CES, is already available over 3's network in seven countries, including the U.K., Australia, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and soon Hong Kong.

There's no question Skype's downloadable software application has struck a chord with traditional broadband Internet users. The service, which was bought by eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005, has been viewed as a model of success for voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, services, with more than 246 million users worldwide as of September. Now the question is whether the application can become a hit in the mobile market.

"When you look at adoption of VoIP on the PC, it was all about cost avoidance," said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. "Skype offers some clear feature benefits, but I'm not sure that is going to be enough to entice people to download the service or even encourage carriers to partner with them."

The hurdles
On the one hand, mobile is the most natural extension for Skype's application, because phones are designed for voice communication whereas PCs are not. Skype says that its stripped-down, mobile version of its software, which has been available for Windows Mobile since 2004, has been downloaded more than 7 million times. But there are still several hurdles facing Skype that could keep its mobile application from reaching the same level of success Skype enjoys in the broadband world.

Some of the barriers are technical. For example, the 3G networks that are used to provide data services are not designed to carry voice. These networks offer far less bandwidth than wired broadband networks, which means data packets are often delayed on their way to their destination. This may not be a problem for data such as e-mail, but for voice this latency can make calls sound choppy. At this point, most experts agree that voice-call quality is far superior using the old circuit-switched voice networks rather than the 3G data network.

Is biofuel the energy of future?

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:35:00 +0000

ans to invest Rs 80 crore in a biofuel project, is to set up a facility to process about 24,000 tonnes of jatropha seeds a year to produce about 8,000 tonnes of oil.

The plant is expected to come up in January 2006 in Chengalpattu, near Chennai, according to Mr D. Aristotle, General Manager (Projects).

The company hopes to rope in farmers through contract farming to cultivate jatropha on over 5 million hectares in 5-7 years.

It has launched the project in Tamil Nadu, where it plans to cover 40,000 hectares, Andhra Pradesh 20,000 hectares and Chattisgarh 50,000 hectares. It also plans to extend the cultivation to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

The company will buy back the jatropha seeds and provide technical support. The initial cost of Rs 28,500 a hectare will be disbursed as loan by banks over the first three years.

A Central Government subsidy of 30 per cent, or Rs 6,000 a hectare, will be adjusted in the loan. The company estimates that biodiesel prices will be marginally cheaper than diesel, at about Rs 30 a litre.

The chemical reaction

BIOFUEL production is a two-stage process that starts with the raw material, oilseeds, being crushed in oil mills to physically expel the oil, leaving behind the oil cake, which can be used as manure. The second stage is a chemical process involving a reaction called transesterification. The expelled oil is treated with an alcohol, say, methanol, and a base, say, potassium hydroxide, to convert it to fuel. This reaction removes free fatty acids and also gives off by-products glycerine and a fertiliser from the base used.

In the 1940s scientists used similar reaction to produce glycerine to make explosives.

Land equation

THE estimates of land area needed for extracting jatropha oil to replace diesel.

Under irrigated condition jatropha seeds output is 3 tonnes per hectare. This yields one tonne of oil.

Current diesel consumption: 40 million tonnes a year.

For equivalent jatropha oil, 40 million hectares would have to be brought under the crop.

Forty million hectares or four lakh sq km is the combined area of Chattisgarh (1.35 lakh sq km) and Madhya Pradesh (3.08 lakh sq km).

For 20 per cent blending of diesel with jatropha oil, that is, for 8 million tonnes, eight million hectares would need to be brought under the plant, or 80,000 sq km, which is 60 per cent of Tamil Nadu's land area (1.3 lakh sq km).

India has 6 lakh sq km of wasteland.

Internet flaw could let hackers take over the Web

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Computer industry heavyweights are hustling to fix a flaw in the foundation of the Internet that would let hackers control traffic on the World Wide Web.

Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch" released on Tuesday to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses.

"It's a very fundamental issue with how the entire addressing scheme of the Internet works," Securosis analyst Rich Mogul said in a media conference call.

"You'd have the Internet, but it wouldn't be the Internet you expect. (Hackers) would control everything."

The flaw would be a boon for "phishing" cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route Internet users wherever they wanted no matter what website address is typed into a web browser.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky of IOActive stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco to collaborate on a solution.

DNS is used by every computer that links to the Internet and works similar to a telephone system routing calls to proper numbers, in this case the online numerical addresses of websites.

"People should be concerned but they should not be panicking," Kaminsky said. "We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch. Something of this scale has not happened before."

Kaminsky built a web page, http://www.doxpara.com, where people can find out whether their computers have the DNS vulnerability.

Nokia Plan touchscreen line of phones for masses : Nokia’s strategy to beat Iphone

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Its not about Nokia and Sony guys, Its about Nokia and Iphone. Iphone to be launched in 70 countries.. then what about rest ?? If Iphone 2.0 is unlockable, then does Iphone fans have to wait another year or might be more?? These were few of the many questions which many iphone fans are not ready to even think about. However, Nokia has come up with an answer. Updated S60 touch Video along with leaked picture of new nokia phones, were just a start.

Iphone may fall in its own trap !! Why locked ??

3g Iphone launch was a very high anticipated event, however, it made me a bit upset as it did not see a debut in UAE. When I searched, I figured out Iphone in UAE is not going to be lauched very soon !! Reason was very clearly mentioned in the local newspaper Gulf News. An exclusivity contract for the iPhone that etisalat ( UAE’s Network Service Provider) was seeking has been rejected by the TRA . Why, the following comments by TRA official will make it clear.

Exclusivity is considered anti-competition in the UAE. If Apple does not open the iPhone to all [operators] in the UAE, it won’t be coming here,”

“We don’t want anything to do with monopoly. Exclusivity is close to monopoly and it is prohibited in the competition law of the telecom sector,”.

Just imagine if the same stand is taken by the remaining countries, Iphone will never be able to reach masses unless unlocked. But again, seems like apple is gonna go harsh on unlocking.

Nokia’s touchscreen line of phones for masses

So when so many limitations set by Iphone, the only way mobile companies can compete is by targeting the areas where Iphone fails. Nokia’s highly anticipated s60 touch phone do have capability and a powerful name behind them. Nokia afterall now the most trusted brand in India
. So, if Nokia can target masses for whome Iphone is out of reach, with a phone which can provide a similar kind of experience, then another success story is awaiting to be written.

As per, Senior Vice President of Nokia Markets Anssi Vanjoki

“Currently, the market for touchscreen products is a niche market. We always aim for a situation where we can cover all the segments with all the options,” said Senior Vice President of Nokia Markets Anssi Vanjoki. He added “We will introduce products from the very low segment to the highest one featuring this type of functionality.”

Nearly a year back the story was totally different. Nokia was first caught quoting that Nokia is not interested in Touchscreen phones because they are highly limited, but, later their new license for new touch feedback technology, did show their interest in touchscreen phones and also did prove that something to be launched in 2008, and we have pictures of Nokia Tube.

I wonder whats the reason for Iphone to be locked with some provider. After all now Apple is not getting any revenue share. The only reason I can think of is that, Steve Jobs want people to either use full functionality of Iphone which can only be possible when you join in a contract with a service provider, else, dont use Iphone.

However,what ever the reason is , if Nokia plans are as tough as per the words of Vice President, I think the best possible Iphone competitor is going to be launched soon. After all I feel, the best way to beat Iphone is by being , Not another Iphone .

ISPs prepare for video revolution

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Video may have killed the radio star, but it doesn't have to kill the Internet.

That is if Internet service providers can figure out how to keep up with the video-driven bandwidth demand on their networks. Peer-to-peer technology provider BitTorrent says it can help.

Video consumes more network resources than any other media distributed on the Web. Even poor-quality video from YouTube eats up more bandwidth than e-mail, music downloading, and voice over IP services. And when you throw full-length high-definition video into the mix, you're talking about even more bandwidth. Depending on the compression used, a single HD video stream can eat up 20 megabits per second worth of bandwidth.

And as consumers subscribe to faster and faster broadband connections at home and sites like YouTube and Hulu come online offering all kinds of video choices, more people are watching video on the Web. According to ComScore Video Metrix, Americans are currently watching upward of 10 billion videos online a month. By the end of 2007, online viewers averaged more than one video a day.

This is just the beginning. ABI research forecasts the number of viewers who access video via the Web will nearly quadruple in the next few years, reaching at least 1 billion in 2013.

This summer's Olympic Games in Beijing marks the first real test of online video as NBC embarks upon the most ambitious online video project ever. NBC plans to offer 3,600 hours of live programming from Beijing, which translates to about 212 live hours for each of the 17 days of the Olympics. The majority of this viewing will be delivered online.

All this video is great for viewers, who are able to pick and choose what they watch and when. But for Internet service providers like the phone companies and the cable operators, it represents a massive challenge. Some providers, such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable, are testing out new ways to deal with "bandwidth hogs" or individual users who use an inordinate amount of bandwidth.

Last month, Comcast began testing a new system that will throttle back or slow down traffic during times of congestion for heavy bandwidth users. The new system was developed after Comcast faced stark criticism for singling out and slowing down peer-to-peer traffic.

Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable, which says it faces the same capacity headaches, also began testing a new billing system that charges customers who exceed their limit for uploading and downloading material.

P2P as a solution, rather than a problem
Eric Klinker, chief technology officer for BitTorrent, which has commercialized the peer-to-peer technology, says that what the cable operators are doing is a good start. But more can be done to help operators deal with the onslaught of video.

"I think what Comcast and Time Warner Cable are doing is a great first step. It gets ISPs out of the business of deciding which applications are important and which aren't. But there are enhancements to the peer-to-peer protocol, in particular, that can make it easier on all ISPs."

--Eric Klinker, CTO, BitTorrent,

For one, peer-to-peer protocols, such as BitTorrent, which are often cited as major headaches for network operators because of the big file transfers they enable, need to be utilized rather than singled out as a source of the problem, he said.

"I think what Comcast and Time Warner Cable are doing is a great first step," Klinker said. "It gets ISPs out of the business of deciding which applications are important and which aren't. But there are enhancements to the peer-to-peer protocol, in particular, that can make it easier on all ISPs."

Peer-to-peer technology has gotten a bad rap for years. Since the days of file-sharing networks like Napster, which allowed people to exchange songs on their computer hard drives with others on the Internet, peer-to-peer technology has been demonized in the press. But the truth is that peer-to-peer technology actually allows large files like videos to be distributed more efficiently. And as more video makes it way onto the Web, it's increasingly being used. In fact, peer-to-peer traffic accounts for about 43 percent of all traffic on the Internet, according to a recent study by the network management company Sandvine.

The way peer-to-peer works is that when a user requests a video, the peer-to-peer network queries other users in the network and takes pieces of the file from different peers and sends it to the user requesting the file. This distributed architecture means that content owners don't have to assemble large and expensive data centers. It also means that a content distributor doesn't have to pay for expensive high-speed links to serve up an entire file from a single server farm.

That said, peer-to-peer protocols in the wild can eat up lots of bandwidth because peers on the network can silently and continuously upload pieces of files from their computers all day and all night, seeding dozens or hundreds of file requests. And because upload capacities are generally much slower than downloads, it can create bottlenecks and capacity crunches on the last mile of service providers' networks. For network operators that are already capacity-constrained, this phenomenon can dramatically affect performance for all users.

The enhanced version of peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer companies, such as BitTorrent and Pando Networks, have recognized this problem and have been working with service providers, such as Verizon Communications, Comcast, and others to come up with solutions. Verizon and Pando Networks have been working on a project called P4P, which advocates ISPs share information about their network topography and use an enhanced version of peer-to-peer to locate peers in close proximity to the file request. Getting files locally can help reduce the expense associated with carrying peer-to-peer files over long distances.

BitTorrent, whose founder created one of the most popular peer-to-peer protocols used today, has also been working on a solution. The company has developed its own enhancement to the peer-to-peer protocol that tells peer-to-peer applications to stop seeding the network with content when the network is congested.

For example, if a teenager starts playing an online video game at the same time his mother makes a voice over IP phone call and his little sister is downloading music from iTunes, the protocol will tell the peer-to-peer movie application that is running in the background on their family computer to stop uploading bits of the Spider-Man movie that had been ordered from an online movie rental service and is now stored on a hard drive in their home. Instead, the network will search for the content on another peer that is on a network that is less congested.

"If there is contention in the network, my application will back off," Klinker said. "And it will automatically and seamlessly find someone else in the network to complete uploading that content. The video quality is never disrupted, and the user never knows where the content is coming from."

BitTorrent has already tested the enhancement with more than 10 million users and it's currently working with the Internet standards body, the Internet Engineering Task Force, to standardize the technology so that other peer-to-peer companies can embed it in their software client.

Klinker said that new technologies, such as the one developed by his company, as well as efforts on the P4P enhancements will help ISPs manage and control their networks so that even more video can make it to the Web without crippling the infrastructure delivering it.

And once service providers learn how to harness peer-to-peer, they will be able to develop business models that reap the benefits of the technology. For example, Comcast, Verizon, or any other TV provider could add peer-to-peer software to the set-top boxes sitting in their customers' living rooms to create a distributed peer-to-peer movie network. Instead of serving up on-demand movies from their own servers sitting in expensive-to-run data centers, these TV providers could leverage the content already stored on their customers' set-top hard drives.

"The cable and phone companies are already spending capital to put set-tops in everyone's home," Klinker said. "They could use that same hardware as part of their content distribution model. Then the user pays the electrical bill. And they pay for the bandwidth. It's just much more efficient."

Klinker said a solution, such as this one, requires a slightly different business model from BitTorrent's current business model. But he said that it's something the company is investigating.

"It's interesting enough that we're in discussions and testing some scenarios with ISPs," he said. "In general, service providers move slowly. So nothing will happen overnight. But I think we'll see some interesting changes within the next three years."

Future directions in computing

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:39:00 +0000

Silicon electronics are a staple of the computing industry, but researchers are now exploring other techniques to deliver powerful computers.

Quantum computers are able to tackle complex problems

A quantum computer is a theoretical device that would make use of the properties of quantum mechanics, the realm of physics that deals with energy and matter at atomic scales.

In a quantum computer data is not processed by electrons passing through transistors, as is the case in today's computers, but by caged atoms known as quantum bits or Qubits.

"It is a new paradigm for computation," said Professor Artur Ekert of the University of Oxford. "It's doing computation differently."

A bit is a simple unit of information that is represented by a "1" or a "0" in a conventional electronic computer.

A qubit can also represent a "1" or a "0" but crucially can be both at the same time - known as a superposition.

This allows a quantum computer to work through many problems and arrive at their solutions simultaneously.

"It is like massively parallel processing but in one piece of hardware," said Professor Ekert.

'Complex systems'

This has significant advantages, particularly for solving problems with a large amount of data or variables.

"With quantum computing you are able to attack some problems on the time scales of seconds, which might take an almost infinite amount of time with classical computers," Professor David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara told the BBC News website recently.

In February 2007, the Canadian company D-Wave systems claimed to have demonstrated a working quantum computer.

At the time, Herb Martin, chief executive officer of the company said that the display represented a "substantial step forward in solving commercial and scientific problems which, until now, were considered intractable."

But many in the quantum computing world have remained sceptical, primarily because the company released very little information about the machine.

The display also failed to impress.

"It was not quite what we understand as quantum computing," said Professor Ekert. "The demonstrations they showed could have been solved by conventional computers."

However, Professor Ekert believes that quantum computing will eventually come of age.

Then, he said, they will not be used in run-of-the-mill desktop applications but specialist uses such as searching vast databases, creating uncrackable ciphers or simulating the atomic structures of substances.

"The really killer application will probably be in designing new materials or complex systems," he said.

Sony shows off some of its latest HDTV technology

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:32:00 +0000

Kevin Miller, a contributing editor for CNET, was recently invited to Japan by Sony for a weeklong trip to show off some of the company's new HDTV technology. Among the highlights were Sony's new 4K by 2K projector, the SRX-R220, its new line of Bravia, and the XBR flat panel LCD HDTVs, a new proprietary wireless HDMI technology, called Bravia Wireless Link, and some updates on its new OLED displays.

Sony demonstrated its new Bravia XBR8 series televisions, due stateside this fall, adjacent to Samsung's LN-T4681F and Pioneer's PDP-4280HD from 2007. Kevin said that "the blacks on the new XBR8 series look to be the best of any LCD that I have seen to date by a good margin." Sony chalks up those deep blacks to its Triluminous technology, which utilizes LEDs that can be dimmed independently across the screen, instead of the standard fluorescent backlight that remains constantly turned on. Sony also exhibited what the company calls Motionflow Pro, a step up from its standard MotionFlow technology available on current models like the KDL-46W4100. We expect to review the XBR8 models as soon as they're available.

Coming closer to reducing the tangle of cords often associated with modern home entertainment systems, Sony also showed off its wireless HDMI technology. This will allow users to house their components in a closed cabinet, eliminating the need to run several wires through the wall to the television. The specification currently only supports 1080i though, although Sony is working on a 1080p version.

Lastly and probably the coolest item on Kevin's itinerary was all the OLED goodness. While Sony has a 11-inch model on the market, the XEL-1, priced at a whopping $2,500, it plans to invest $220 million in 2009 to further bring down the price and to develop larger screen sizes. Eventually the company wants to integrate the displays into "rolled goods, like window shades that drop down, covering your window to turn [it] into a TV."

We could see ultrathin OLED displays used in a number of applications. How about animated advertising on the side of skyscrapers, sans the low-res neon light bulbs, similar to what's seen in the movie, Bladerunner? Or what about digital, animated clothing, a built-in monitor for your office desk, or a flexible video-esque newspaper that can be folded and snugged into your pocket?

Clearly the possibilities are endless--but what do you think? Will this technology catch on (if the price comes down) and really revolutionize our lives, or is this just more hype from Sony?

Google Yahoo ad deal faces probe

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:02:00 +0000

A formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck between Yahoo and Google over search advertising is set to be launched by the US Justice Department.

The Washington Post said investigators will also demand documents from other large internet and media companies.

Together Google and Yahoo claim nearly 80% of the web search market and agreed to give antitrust authorities 100 days to look at the deal before going ahead.

Yahoo had called it an $800 million (£400m) annual revenue opportunity.

It's now thought that a formal investigation could signal that the Justice Department may have found some cause for concern with the partnership which would allow Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo.

Lawyers familiar with similar investigations told the Washington Post that the kind of legal requests being issued by the Justice department - "civil investigative demands"- are not used for routine matters.

"It doesn't mean they have drawn any conclusions," Peter Guryan told the Post. He is a partner with law firm Fried Frank and formerly an antitrust lawyer in the Justice Department. But "it is a significant step beyond a request for voluntary information"?

"It demonstrates that the DOJ clearly has questions."

There has been no comment from either Google or Yahoo.

We all suffer

There has been concern by critics that a Google and Yahoo pairing could result in a monopoly in internet advertising if the agreement is given the go ahead.

Recently a coalition of 16 American civil rights and rural advocacy bodies called on regulators to investigate any online advertising and search partnership between the two companies.

Gary Flowers of the Black Leadership Forum told the BBC at the time "We all suffer in such mega mergers."

In a letter to the Justice Department he and the rest of the coalition argued that Yahoo and Google combined would result in "a possible future in which no content could be seamlessly accessed without Google's permission."

Politicians were also wary of the pact and heads of key sub committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate reiterated their intentions to look into the arrangement.

Last month Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang visited Washington to allay fears that the partnership would impact competition within the online search advertising industry.

The Google Yahoo collaboration does not need up front approval from the US antitrust authorities as the two companies are not merging.

However, the government could challenge the deal in court if it came to the conclusion that it would restrain competition between them.

Get your grill on with some tech flair

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:11:00 +0000

As the nation hunkers down into backyard parties and along beaches and parks to watch the fireworks this weekend, some grand old American traditions will also proudly be on display: barbecuing and grilling.

Even these favorite summer activities are taking advantage of technology, although it’s not to everyone’s liking.

“Technology has both helped and hurt barbecue and grilling,” said Robert Fernandez, editor of the BBQ-obsessed blog, Get Your Grill On. He and 17 writers crank out a Fourth of July’s worth of barbecue advice year-round.

“Most of the serious competitive and backyard barbecue folks I know are purists,” he said. “We cook in simple contraptions,” whether it’s a “garbage can,” or a Weber kettle, a water smoker, an offset smoker, “or a custom-made cooker that costs thousands of dollars.

“Now in the grilling world, technology has changed everything,” he said. “Gas rules as a simple, quick and easy method to grill. But gas adds no flavor to the food. To me, this technological advance made it easier to cook, but took all the flavor and excitement out of outdoor cooking.”

Char-Broil has come out with its infrared RED grills ($599 and $899 at Home Depot), “which uses TEC technology for heat sources on their grills,” Fernandez said.

With TEC technology, a stainless-steel burner emits infrared heat, with temperatures up to 900 degrees. A layer of glass above it evenly distributes the heat. A stainless-steel cooking grate sits on top of that to create “an oxygen-free zone” that extinguishes possible flare-ups.

Char-Broil's Big Easy infrared, oil-less turkey fryer ($150) is “a great innovation in outdoor cooking,” Fernandez said. “No oil, no mess and great fried foods.”

Better gas for grilling
Gas grilling is the biggest dollar category in the grilling industry thanks to our “busy lifestyles.” said Ernie Boys, Weber’s vice-president of product development.

Boys said one direction Weber took was adding chimney starters — cylinders filled with sawdust cubes or pellets that help light the charcoal — to its line of products.

The company also developed a gas ignition system to help light charcoal — one of the biggest challenges of grilling and barbecuing. That little shortcut helps make the cooking process a little easier, while still retaining a purist's intent for taste.

How To Upload Games, Wallpapers, Ringtones in Cell phone

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:18:00 +0000

This topic is not for gizmo geeks, but useful for starters who have just bought a new mobile phone and don’t know on how to upload stuffs in their cell phone. It’s not a tough task to upload ring tones, wallpapers and mobile games in your new cell phone.

1) Mobile to Mobile Transfer : If you have a friend/relative who has a cell phone with bluetooth or infrared, and your mobile supports bluetooth/infrared, then you can transfer the content between each other. Just select bluetooth while sending a file. You can also share each other’s mobile data card to transfer the content - from memory card to phone memory.

2) Computer to Mobile Transfer : Other option is to download ringtones, games and wallpapers first on your computer from various internet sites or CDs. Then you can transfer this content from your computer into your mobile using
- Inbuilt bluetooth (usually comes in a laptop nowadays) or Bluetooth dongle
- Infrared - not much famous now
- Data cable (remember, you have a supported data cable, every cell phone requires specific data cable depending on the model. But nowadays, most of the phone supports mini-USB cable )
- Data Card - If you have a removable memory card, then insert your card in a data card reader and transfer the content. Similar to writing on a floppy disk. Data card reader is available in the market, many latest laptops have inbuilt card reader.

3) Mobile Internet : One more option is via mobile GPRS services. If you have GPRS services activated on your mobile phone, you can download content from mobile sites (usually beginning with http://wap. ). Some sites are chargeable while some are free - so take care here.

DXG Launch affordable HD Camcorder

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:29:00 +0000

DXG USA, one of the fastest growing digital camera manufacturers in the US has launched the new DXG-567V high definition Camcorder. It also support direct uploading capabilities for sites such as Youtube. It resembles a mobile phone and is available in 4 colors which are black, red, pink and sky blue.

The DXG-567V offers 5 MP and it is perfect for anybody who is looking for an affordable, easy to use and pocket sized camcorder to capture high definition video and post it online. It comes with required cables including S-video for connecting the camcorder directly to a TV as well as composite video and rechargeable AA batteries, making it the ultimate multi-function video camera for the entire family. It comes with Rapid Blog Manager software which allows users to upload and share videos on the Internet. To do this, all you have to do is simply connect the DXG-567V’s retractable USB connector to a computer to automatically launch its menu and instantly upload videos from the camera to YouTube or any other site.

It can capture video up to 1280 x 720 at 30 frames-per-second. Users can easily connect it to any plasma TV with the included cables to see the videos they’ve shot in high definition. It is available at a price of $179 and is certainly a must have tool for those who love to capture the moments.

Court fines eBay over fake goods

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:28:00 +0000

A French court has ordered eBay to pay 40m euros (£31.6m; $63m) to luxury goods group LVMH for allowing online auctions of fake copies of its goods.

LVMH said eBay's French site had not done enough to stop the sale of counterfeit bags and perfumes.

The brands affected include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy.

An eBay statement said LVMH was trying to "protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice" and added that it would appeal.

'Illicit'

The case against eBay in a commercial court in Paris was brought jointly by six brands belonging to the LVMH group.

Louis Vuitton Malletier, the group's handbag and luggage section, and clothing brand Christian Dior Couture accused eBay of "negligence" in allowing illegal copies of their goods to be sold in online auctions.

Four perfume brands - Dior, Guerlain, Kenzo and Givenchy - sued for what they called "illicit sales" of their products.

They alleged that even auctions involving their legitimate perfumes were illegal, because only specialist dealers were permitted to sell them.

The court barred eBay from selling the four perfumes in future.

LVMH spokesman Pierre Godet welcomed the decision, telling French news agency AFP that it "protected brands by considering them an important part of French heritage".

'Uncompetitive'

But Vanessa Canzini, an eBay spokeswoman, said: "If counterfeits appear on our sites, we take them down swiftly, but today’s ruling is not about our fight against counterfeit.

"Today’s ruling is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers everyday.

"We will fight this ruling on their behalf; we will be seeking leave to appeal.”

According to the judgement, eBay must pay 19.28m euros in damages to Luis Vuitton Malletier, 17.3m to Christian Dior Couture and 3.25m to the perfume brands.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says the ruling is seen as a landmark, because it could oblige eBay to rethink its business model.

Until now, this has been built around the simple notion of bringing together buyers and sellers, with minimal supervision from the company.

The penalty is the second in a month imposed on eBay by French courts.

On 4 June, a court in the eastern French city of Troyes found the auction site directly responsible for the sale of fake Hermes bags.

It imposed a penalty of 20,000 euros jointly on eBay and the woman who offered the bags for sale.

Intel stays behind the curve … again

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:41:00 +0000

The Inquirer is making a big fuss over Intel’s decision to continue using Windows XP instead of migrating to Windows Vista. A stunning rebuke, obviously, leading to a rousing chorus of “I told you so.”

Except that there’s nothing new here. The same thing happened in 2002, when Windows XP was shiny and new. What, you don’t remember? Why, I read it in the Inquirer, on January 10, 2002:

Windows XP might be the “best OS Microsoft ever produced” but it’s [sic] long time partner Intel thinks that ain’t necessarily so.

The corporation, which has around 80,000 employees, is rolling out Windows 2K rather than the latest greatest OS from Microsoft.

The decision was taken last year and Intel will spend much of this year standardising on W2K in every site and country in the world.

By the end of 2002, Windows 2000 was three years old, and Intel was just completing its OS rollout, skipping the then-current version. Sound familiar?

Steve Lohr of The New York Times piles on with this observation:

Large companies routinely hold off a year or so after a new version of Windows is introduced before adopting it, waiting for initial bugs to be eliminated and for applications to be written. “But by 18 months, you’d expect to see a significant uptake, and we haven’t seen that,” said David Smith, a Gartner analyst. “There’s not much excitement.”

I don’t know what they’re putting in the brownies at Gartner these days, but by 18 months, most large organizations are just beginning to complete their evaluations of how their internal applications run on a new operating system family. Only a tiny percentage of enterprises do “forklift upgrades,” where every corporate PC is upgraded to a new OS in a short time. Not much excitement? Corporations don’t look for excitement in their IT investments. They look for stability and compatibility and, especially in the current economy, low costs.

I wrote about all this about six months ago (“Windows adoption rates: a history lesson”), and nothing has changed since then. Back in 2001, when Microsoft released Windows XP, Gartner correctly predicted that large businesses would shun both Windows 2000 and XP, with 75 percent sticking with Windows 95, 98, and NT4 at the end of 2002. What was XP’s market share one year after its release? Try “less than 10 percent.” How long was it before XP hit the 50% mark in terms of market share? The correct answer is “four years.”

Meanwhile, the real problem with any comparison between adoption rates of Windows XP and Windows Vista is the decision that Microsoft made in 2004 to ship Service Pack 2 as a free update rather than a new OS version. If Jim Allchin had made a different call and released XP SP2 as a separate product, Windows XP might have gone into the record books as a miserable failure, plagued by security problems and shunned by customers. Instead, it got a new lease on life and an unprecedented seven-year release cycle.

It’s unquestionably true that large businesses have resisted Vista. That’s not surprising, given the problems in the initial release and the relentlessly negative press coverage. But an equally important reason for the continued sluggishness in Vista uptake rates is the economy, which has slowed to a crawl. In trying economic times, one way for big corporations like Intel to save money is to stretch the useful life of hardware and software investments. Intel’s decision makers no doubt have a pretty good idea what’s in Windows 7 and when it’s likely to be released. Their decision to skip Vista tells me that the next version of Windows is further along than most outsiders think.

Energy storage coming to a power grid near you

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:14:00 +0000

Someday, the electricity grid will operate with the equivalent of a giant hard drive. But in the short term, grid storage will look more like a PC's cache or RAM, able to serve up small bursts of power to keep things from crashing.

A panel of experts, organized by the New England Clean Energy Council, earlier this week said that the utility storage field has enormous potential. But rapid deployment of storage devices is held back by concerns over technology risk and financial complexity.

Technology optimists say that wide-scale energy storage will change the face of the transmission grid and make wind and solar power more compelling economically.

In this scenario, utilities store electricity made from renewable sources or produced during off-peak times. Then, when demand for electricity peaks in the middle of the day, they could draw from the stored-up charge.

This "peak shaving" practice avoids the need to build new power plants to meet growing demand. Utilities could also idle dirty and expensive "peaking plants," which are only turned on during times of high demand, such as very hot summer days when air conditioners max out the load.

But moving megawatts' worth of electricity around the grid like files on a computer is more theory than practice these days.

"Buying power at night and then selling it during the day--something like that will happen maybe in 30 or 40 years when storage technologies are one-tenth the costs they are today," said Ric Fulop, co-founder and vice president of business development at lithium-ion battery company A123 Systems.

But as utilities try out new technologies for different uses, Fulop and others predicted that storage will start to take hold in a variety of ways.

"I think we will see a lot of deployments in the next few years that will change how the grid works," Fulop said. "Then we'll see utilities jump on the bandwagon."

Two markets for energy storage
A123 Systems, which makes batteries for plug-in hybrids and power tools among other devices, is actively pushing into utility storage with more than 100 people dedicated to the market, said Fulop.

It's targeting what's called grid stabilization, or grid support, where warehouse-size installations of lead-acid batteries are the incumbent technology. That alone is a multimillion dollar market and will pave the way for different grid storage applications, he said.

With grid stabilization, kilowatts' or a couple of megawatts' worth of electricity are pumped onto the grid for a short amount of time, from a few seconds to under an hour. It's used to match grid demand and supply to make generators run more efficiently or to ensure a steady frequency.

Earlier this year, grid operators in Texas had to shut down power to its customers because the wind died down momentarily, effectively cutting off supply from its wind farms, noted Lawrence Gelbien, vice president of technology at utility NStar.

"If you could take the wind power, store it in batteries, and discharge when the wind starts again, then that's a fine application of storage," he said.

Gelbien said that storage units could be deployed in place of installing more "wires and poles" in a place that isn't served with enough electricity to meet demand for only a few days of the year. Because storage devices are movable, they could be redeployed in other places after a few years as the need arises.

Grid support is relatively mature at about $2.4 billion and growing at 3.3 percent per year, said Lux Research President Matthew Nordan.

Batteries with different chemistries as well as ultra-capacitors, such as the ones being developed by secretive start-up EEStor, serve this end of energy storage, Nordan said.

Flywheels are also a viable alternative. Flywheel maker Beacon Power earlier this month said it expects to have a megawatt-size machine, able to store 15 minutes of power, on the grid by the end of this year.

Dizzying array of technologies
At the opposite extreme are companies pursuing the "bulk storage" market where power is delivered for more than an hour.

This part of the market, where companies are developing a range of technologies, from so-called flow batteries to compressed air storage, represents the biggest business opportunity in grid storage.

The end game is to allow utilities to provide baseload power--meaning electricity during the middle of the day when demand is highest--with stored energy.

If only 10 percent of the installed wind power plants adopted large-scale energy storage, the market would hit $50 billion, according to Lux Research. That's because electricity costs more for utilities to purchase and deliver during peak times.

But utilities are risk-averse, and power plants take 5 to 10 years to construct. As a result, Lux Research pegs the market at $600 million in 2012, growing at about 25 percent per year.

One company tackling bulk storage head-on is General Compression, which is developing a wind turbine with an integrated air compressor.

Air is compressed and pumped underground into geological features like depleted gas wells or limestone caverns. There are currently two compressed air energy storage (CAES) plants in operation with a few others in development. But some utilities are seriously considering CAES.

"There is an increasing gap between the growing demand for electricity and the availability of options," said Julianne Zimmerman, chief marketing officer for General Compression. "With increasing shareholder resistance to new fossil fuel and nuclear plants, there's a shrinking set of options."

Different types of batteries are competing for bulk storage as well.

So-called flow batteries, where liquid chemicals move between huge storage tanks to deliver a charge, are also being tested on the grid.

Start-up Deeya Energy says it is developing a flow battery for grid backup power or to integrate wind and solar power that will be far cheaper than lead-acid, lithium-ion, or nickel-metal hydride batteries and cheaper than fuel cells. Its products will be able to delivery between 2 kilowatts and 2 megawatts of electricity for 2 hours or up to 24 hours, it says.

Another flow battery maker, VRB Power, is currently testing systems, including a 5-kilowatt, four-hour prototype in Florida.

Pumped hydro, where water is pumped up a mountain and released as needed in a hydro plant, is also used, but its use is limited by the number of available sites.

The latest generation of concentrating solar power plants are being developed with integrated storage, in the form of hot water or even molten salt to deliver electricity after the sun goes down.

Challenges
But for all the promise of making the grid operate more like a hybrid car, there are serious challenges, panelists said.

Many of these technologies don't have a 15-year track record that utilities like to see, which makes them skeptical. Large-scale battery projects requires systems integration that involves batteries, electronics, software, and thermal management systems, said A123 Systems' Fulop.

They are also very capital intensive. To get around that problem, Beacon Power doesn't sell its flywheel. Instead, it bids on power generation contracts and sells the electricity to utilities.

Regulations for utilities are written around power generation units, but not energy storage, said Matt Lazarewicz, vice president and chief technology officer of Beacon Power.

"The market rules have to change to allow nongeneration assets to connect to the grid and get paid for it," he said. "And to make the grid look more like a Prius, utilities need to change their mindset to make more efficient use of the generation system."

Rising fossil fuel prices are an incentive to explore energy storage, as well as the rising costs of constructing new plants.

Ideally, a utility would be able to get money from a storage unit in multiple ways. One rural co-op installed a four-hour, 300-kilowatt storage system to offset peak electricity rates and to provide backup power to a nearby industrial company, said Matthew Johnson, director of business development at Gaia Power Technologies.

Utilities are showing interest in more options, but storage is still very much an emerging technology.

"There's a lot of technology development and new work. But one of the reasons we don't see more of it today is because the economics of this are actually quite complex," said Bruce Phillips, director at Northbridge Group.

Smartphone wars and hype heat up

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:49:00 +0000

The smartphone wars — and hype — appear to be in full heat. Two weeks before the second-generation iPhone goes on sale, the Samsung Instinct, dubbed a potential iPhone “killer,” looks like it’s appealing to buyers’ instincts.

The phone, sold by Sprint, the nation’s third largest wireless carrier, went on sale June 19 to existing customers and June 20 to new customers. The company said Thursday that the Instinct is “breaking records for the initial launch of any Sprint product.”

While Sprint did not release sales figures, it said the popularity of the phone “has led to temporary shortages” at some Sprint stores, and that the company and Samsung “are diligently working around the clock” to get more phones out.

John Garcia, Sprint’s wireless division president, said in a statement that in the “first few days of availability, many Instinct devices were purchased by existing customers” wanting to upgrade their phones.

“They won’t comment on specific numbers … on the other hand, I have no doubt that it has been selling very well,” said Avi Greengart, Current Analysis’ research director for mobile devices.

“The Sprint rep I talked to was visibly exhausted. She said that her team has been working like mad all week moving inventory around to try to keep stores in high-demand areas from selling out completely.”

For weeks before the Instinct’s release, Sprint heavily promoted the phone at its Web site, at one point with a side-by-side iPhone comparison called “See Instinct defeat iPhone.” That wording has since changed to “Instinct vs. iPhone.”

And, in an effort appropriately called “Sell out!” Sprint is offering to pay customers $20 if they prominently feature their Instinct in a video placed on YouTube. Sprint dubs it “Hollywood-style product placement for the small screen.”

The company said on its Web site it is also going to offer a $10,000 “grand prize” contest tied to home videos made using the Instinct.

Price war
Sprint upped the smartphone ante last week when it announced the Instinct’s price at $129.99, lower than that of Apple's new iPhone, which is carried exclusively by AT&T Wireless.

The new iPhone, which goes on sale July 11, is available in two versions, an 8-gigabyte model for $199, and a 16-GB phone for $299, a $200 price cut from the current iPhones.

Both the new iPhone and Instinct are 3G, or third-generation, wireless devices, to allow for faster e-mail access and Web surfing.

Initially, Sprint planned to price the Instinct around $300. After the new iPhone and its lower pricing were announced June 9, Sprint said the Instinct would retail for around the same price as the iPhone.

The recent price cut to $129.99 puts the Instinct in a more affordable range, especially for first-time buyers of smartphones, which also can handle video, music and other programs.

The lower-end of the price range for such phones is $100, after rebates and signing a two-year contract with a service provider.

J.D. Power and Associates said recently that $208 is the average reported price for smartphones, which are increasing in popularity as the devices and data plans decrease in cost.

Combined data and voice plans for both the iPhone and the Instinct start at about $70 a month.

In 2006, smartphones accounted for 5.1 percent of all mobile phones shipped in the U.S., and last year that number more than doubled, according to IDC Research.

Other contenders in the fray
Still to come this summer from Research In Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphones, is the BlackBerry Bold 9000, which will be RIM’s first 3G phone.

There are also several other smartphones out, or due out in months ahead that resemble the iPhone. Among them: LG’s Voyager and Vu, the HTC Touch Diamond, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and Samsung’s Glyde.

The Instinct is a touchscreen phone, as is the iPhone. Neither has a physical keyboard, something that may be a deciding factor for some buyers.

Group considers relaxing Internet naming rules

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:09:00 +0000

The group controlling Internet domain names may soon decide whether to relax naming rules and potentially open up a virtual domain name gold rush.

Paul Twomey is president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

On Thursday, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will vote on two key proposals.

The first would allow domains that do not use Latin characters, meaning domain names using Chinese, Arabic or Cyrillic letters. The other proposal would allow domains to use nearly any letter or number combination, up to 64 characters.

If ICANN approves the proposals, the world of .com and .org and country names like .jp or .fr would be opened to a much wider choice, such as .hotel or .sex.

Just the thought of .sex has bloggers predicting an auction frenzy, as almost any word in any language could become a domain name extension.

"You can almost guarantee the most highly sought-after one will, unfortunately, probably be dot-sex," said Bryan Glick of Computing Magazine.

"All the meaningful words and meaningful names in the English language have been bought up already," Glick said

"This is why you see new companies being formed with made-up, strangely sounding names ... in order to get a unique Web domain for it."

ICANN has turned down requests for .xxx, which would be used by adult sites, over fear of seeming to give approval of pornography sites.

Analysts say .xxx and nearly everything else would be possible if the rules are relaxed.

Among the exceptions would be trademarked domains, such as .cnn or .microsoft not being on general sale.

But the more generic .hotel or .flight could set off a bidding war similar to when .tv was put up for sale by the Pacific island of Tuvalu.

Tata Takes Bigger Stake in South Africa's Neotel

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:59:00 +0000

Tata Communications is acquiring a 30 percent stake from electricity provider Eskom and transport and logistics company Transnet, both government-owned firms. The deal will bring the total ownership of Tata Communications and Tata Africa Holdings in Neotel to 56 percent. VSNL, which is now part of Tata Communications, was an original shareholder in the consortium that acquired South Africa’s second fixed-line telecom license.

Tata Communications recently extended its services in South Africa with a new point of presence in Johannesburg that integrates Neotel’s IP/MPLS infrastructure with its global network.

Formed in 2006 to bring down the cost of wholesale telecom services, Neotel launched its corporate high-speed Internet, VPN, network management, and hosting services last year and consumer services last month.

South African carriers are hot property right now -- Telkom SA and mobile operator Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) are both in talks to be acquired.

United Arab Emirates-based Oger Telecom , which has been rebuffed by Telkom before, is reportedly trying to get in on Mvelaphanda Holdings Ltd.’s negotiations with the carrier. Oger is keen to merge its South African mobile operator, Cell C , with Telkom's fixed-line operations to create a fixed/mobile convergence offering.

Tata Communications is actively extending its network in emerging markets to offer data connectivity and managed services to multinational corporations along with domestic enterprises. It has set aside $1 billion for network expansion over the next three years.

Last week it signed a joint venture deal with telecom and IT services provider China Enterprise Communications Ltd. Tata will acquire a 50 percent stake in CEC, which was recently awarded a nationwide IP-VPN service license by the Chinese government.

In February, Tata signed network-to-network interface (NNI) agreement with China Enterprise Netcom Corp. Ltd. (China Entercom), another telecom and IT provider. In May, it signed an agreement with Etisalat to offer Ethernet and other connectivity services to enterprises in the United Arab Emirates.

Google Phone face delays

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:21:00 +0000

Google Inc.'s entry into the wireless market is facing delays, with cellphones based on its operating system unlikely to be released until the end of the year, a media report says.

The company was originally scheduled to have phones based on its open-source Android software for sale during the third quarter, but that has now slipped to the fourth quarter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Google has become bogged down with launching Android phones through T-Mobile USA, pushing back launches with Sprint Nextel in the United States and China Mobile, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Sprint won't be able to launch any Android phones this year, while China Mobile, the world's largest cellphone carrier with 400 million customers, also will be delayed until late this year or early next.

The newspaper said Android has yet to win broad support from third-party software developers, who say it is difficult to program for an operating system that is not yet finished. China Mobile is also said to be having difficulty translating Android from Roman characters into Chinese, as well merging its own branded data services into the operating system.

Earlier this month, Google denied a delay but told the Wall Street Journal that giving its cellphone partners the ability to lobby for new features was taking time.

"This is where the pain happens," said Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms for the company. "We are very, very close."

Threat to big carriers

Google announced the operating system in November amid much fanfare that it will change the way people use cellphones. The company criticized the industry for having too tight a grip on what sort of software customers could put on their phones and touted the open-source Android as a solution.

The Android phones are seen as a threat to big cellphone carriers, who derive large portions of their revenue from selling customers their own branded services, such as music download stores or GPS applications.

Google wants to make the mobile internet experience more like web surfing on a desktop computer, where it dominates the search and advertising businesses.

Android-based phones are being built for carriers by LG Electronics, Samsung, HTC and Motorola. The new devices should start hitting the market around the same time as new Canadian carriers begin setting up shop following the conclusion of the government's auction of wireless airwaves, currently in its late stages.

Quebecor, Shaw, Eastlink and Globalive are all positioned to win enough spectrum in the auction to set up cellphone networks and could thus potentially bring Android phones to Canada in order to compete with incumbents Rogers, Bell and Telus. None of the incumbents has yet to announce plans to sell Android phones.

The New IT Hot Topic: Energy Costs

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:03:00 +0000

t's not enough to deal with widespread security threats from every angle, new technology around every bend, and internal user expectations and perceptions, now IT executives need to put "energy manager" in their job description.

A recent Information Week article "CIOs Uncensored," explores the question of where the buck stops in the enterprise when it comes to blame for high energy costs. The article shares this:

"The survey, by a U.K. firm called 1E, which sells software and services for managing Windows-based PCs and servers, and conducted by Harris Corp., found that 154 executives in the United States identify C-level executives as those responsible for their companies' energy usage.
Across the board, the greatest proportion of the executives, who were interviewed last March and April, point to the CEO as the energy (32 percent) czar. The CIO comes in second, with 15 percent of the vote.
However, things get more interesting when companies are broken out by size.
"In larger companies, the greatest proportion of executives (21 percent) report the CIO as most responsible for managing power consumption," according to a statement on the survey from 1E. At those companies the CEO was identified as the energy maven by 18 percent of the surveyed executives."

It is an article worth catching your eye. As the cost of everything spikes with the runaway cost of fuel, every good or service that relies on fuel for production, delivery, or use (and what doesn't?) rises also. This means that the fixed costs associated with keeping the lights on and the servers humming and properly cooled keep rising exponentially as well. In a cost-sensitive, recession-minded business environment at present, it is a big deal. And, who better to blame than the CIO or IT managers that are responsible for technology that requires a great deal in the way of energy to do its thing.

Lowering energy costs can be good not only for the bottom line but also for the environment. What company wouldn't want to be able to reduce its carbon footprint and then let people know about it? Less energy used means a win-win for all. What can you do to maximize energy efficiency when it comes to your IT infrastructure? Consider some of the following areas.

Data Center Design

Whether you are building a new data center or revamping the one you already have, consider the balancing act of storage demands versus cooling. A great deal of energy cost goes into keeping these powerful machines cool so they operate optimally particularly in times of extreme weather. Imagine what it takes to cool rack after rack of hardware on these not too uncommon 100+ degree summer days.

Don't leave data center design to the facility folks (as tradition has dictated) as they typically do not truly understand the needs and challenges of the equipment. Participate actively in design and investigate the latest and greatest in green and low-energy solutions. Design your layout in a way that is most conducive to cooling efficiency.

Key ocean mission goes into orbit

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:37:00 +0000

A space mission that will be critical to our understanding of climate change has launched from California.

The Jason-2 satellite will become the primary means of measuring the shape of the world's oceans, taking readings with an accuracy of better than 4cm.

Its data will track not only sea level rise but reveal how the great mass of waters are moving around the globe.

This information will be fundamental in helping weather and climate agencies make better forecasts.

The satellite left Earth at 0746 GMT atop a Delta-2 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space, represents the joint efforts of the US and French space agencies (Nasa and CNES), and the US and European organisations dedicated to studying weather and climate from orbit (Noaa and Eumetsat).

Down below

Jason-2 will provide a topographic map of 95% of the Earth's ice-free oceans every 10 days. Although we think of our seas as being flat, they are actually marked by "hills" and "valleys", where the highs and lows may be as much as two metres apart.

How Jason-2 will probe the oceans

Elevation is a key parameter for oceanographers. Just as surface air pressure reveals what the atmosphere is doing above, so ocean height will betray details about the behaviour of water down below.

The data gives clues to temperature and salinity. When combined with gravity information, it will also indicate current direction and speed.

The oceans store vast amounts of heat from the Sun; and how they move that energy around the globe and interact with the atmosphere are what drive our climate system.

"The ocean constitutes the long-term memory of the climate system; the time-scales over which the ocean is changing are the climatic timescales," explained Mikael Rattenborg, the director of operations at Eumetsat.

"In order to understand climate, in order to be able to predict the evolution of the atmosphere over months, years, and decades even, you need to understand the ocean."

Number one

Jason-2 is a continuation of a programme that started in 1992 with the Topex/Poseidon mission and is currently maintained by the Jason-1 satellite launched in 2001.

JASON-2 SPACECRAFT

1. Advance Microwave Radiometer - measures signal delay caused by water vapour

2. GPS antennas - ensures knowledge of precise orbit path

3. Poseidon-3 altimeter- measures sea level

4. Doris antenna - tracking and positioning control

5. Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) - tracks and calibrates measurements

Satellite mass: 525kg (1,155lb) Power generation: 511 watts

Satellite height: 3m (9ft 8in) Orbit: 1,338km (831 miles)

(Source: Eumetsat, Cnes, Nasa)

The project provides the global reference data for satellite-measured ocean height.

Although other spacecraft in service today can acquire similar data sets, none can match the precision achieved by Jason-1; and Jason-2, when in service, will be the benchmark against which all other spacecraft will be judged and calibrated.

At the heart of the latest mission is the Poseidon 3 solid-state altimeter. The instrument constantly bounces microwave pulses off the sea surface. By timing how long the signal takes to make the return trip, it can determine sea surface height.

Additionally, the signal can indicate the height of waves and wind speed.

"It is not a revolution between Jason-1 and Jason-2; it is an evolution, because the main objective is to ensure continuity," explains Francois Parisot, the Jason-2 project chief at Eumetsat.

"Nevertheless, there are some improvements in the instruments. We hope to make better measurements closer to the coast [and over inland waters and rivers]; and also, we will deliver near-realtime products - products that will be available within three hours of the measurements."

Whale watching

The latter will be particularly useful in storm prediction. Jason will see the surface waters rise as warm eddies fuel hurricanes. The data will tell meteorologists how a storm is likely to intensify and allow them to issue better, more timely warnings.

Jason-2 data will have many other uses that may not be immediately obvious. Industry will take the information to make decisions about when conditions are most suitable for undersea drilling or cable laying.

Jason can help identify where wreckage or pollution will drift; and the satellite will assist marine biologists as they track whales by pinpointing waters with the potential to be prime feeding and breeding grounds.

One very important use will be in maritime navigation.

"Now that the fuel price is going up, saving fuel for the companies that run ships has become very sensitive; and knowing the currents, you can select your route so that you go faster and save fuel," said Philippe Escudier, a space oceanography at CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites), Toulouse, France.

"You can save up to 5% on fuel consumption by making best use of the currents."

Formation flying

Jason-2 will spend its first few months flying a "tandem mission" with Jason-1.

The two spacecraft will be positioned so that they sweep around the Earth, one following the other, with a separation of just 60 seconds.

This will enable, essentially, the two satellites to measure the same patch of ocean surface at very nearly the same time.

Changes in ocean height can be a key indicator of climate cycles

More details

Scientists will use this opportunity to cross-calibrate the instruments so that when Jason-1 is retired (or fails), the future data collected by its successor will be directly comparable with past records.

This continuity of information will be critical in recognising long-term trends in ocean behaviour. It is the data which underpins the observation that global sea level is rising by about three millimetres per year.

Once the tandem phase is completed, Jason-1 will be moved to the side, doubling the return of data. The importance of the Jason programme means both spacecraft will almost certainly be run for as long as they are serviceable.

Discussions are already in progress on a Jason-3 satellite. Given Europe's role in the project, there is a compelling case for the next mission to be included in the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme. This would attract significant EU money.

Eumetsat's Francois Parisot describes how the spacecraft works

Smarter, Faster Nano Sensor

noreply@blogger.com (THE GANDHIS) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:15:00 +0000

Small sensor: A close-up shows carbon nanotubes (bottom) spanning the space between interlocking gold electrodes in a new type of gas sensor. The nanotubes are coated with an amine through which gases adsorb on the nanotube surface and detach after a few milliseconds. Change in conductivity of the carbon nanotubes specifies which gas was adsorbed.

A tiny detector can quickly sniff out dangerous gases.

A tiny carbon-nanotube-based chemical sensor can detect low parts-per-billion concentrations of gases. It can also go from detecting one gas to another within half a minute. Typically, carbon-nanotube- or -nanowire-based sensors, which can be extremely sensitive in detecting gases, take hours to recover and be reused.

The researchers coat the carbon nanotubes with chemicals that allow the nanotubes to rapidly switch their response. A network of the sensors could be used to monitor the spread of toxic gases or the movement of various pollutants over a large area. "Instead of detecting whether a pollutant's there or not, you can detect its motion," says Michael Strano, a chemical-engineering professor at MIT, who led the work, which was presented in Angewandte Chemie. "Where is the wind moving it? Where is it most toxic?"

The new device is made of two main parts. The first is an ultrasmall gas chromatograph, an instrument commonly used in chemical analysis to separate mixtures of gases. To make a micro version of the instrument, the researchers etch a zigzagging, 35-centimeter-long channel on a silicon chip that is 800 micrometers on each side. As in conventional gas chromatography, different chemicals pass through the column at different rates, depending on their physical and chemical properties, so they exit the column at different times.

The output of the chromatograph feeds into the nanotube sensor. The sensor contains carbon nanotubes spanning the space between tiny gold electrodes. When various gases adsorb on the carbon nanotubes, the nanotubes' electrical conductivity changes by a different amount. By measuring the change in conductivity after the gas binds to the nanotubes, the researchers can identify the gas.

"The idea of incorporating a micro gas chromatograph with a carbon-nanotube sensor is probably the [best] way to go from a practical point of view," says Pulickel Ajayan, a mechanical-engineering and materials-science professor at Rice University. In a real-world setting, there would be a mixture of gases--air pollutants, say--which would need to be separated before the individual gases can be detected.

Otherwise, even with an extremely sensitive detector, "you can get very high sensitivity to chemicals, but usually you don't know what chemical it is," says Ray Baughman, director of the NanoTech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas. "By coupling the micro gas chromatograph with the sensor, [researchers] . . . have a reasonable expectation of what the chemical is."

The researchers test the sensor with a chemical that mimics the nerve toxin sarin. They are able to detect a billion molecules of the gas, corresponding to a concentration of 150 parts per billion.