Samsung Intros Ultrathin LCD for Mobile Phones

A new, super slim LCD screen from Samsung, specially designed for mobile phones, will help consumer electronics devices shrink to ever-smaller sizes. Samsung's 0.82-mm LCD for has some wondering just how thin is too thin? The new Samsung screen, along with its i-Lens technology, will let phone makers trim 2.5 mmm off a phone's thickness.


Thin is in at Samsung. The South Korean electronics giant has announced a new LCD for mobile phones that, at 0.82 mm, is no thicker than a credit card.
Today, most mobile phones use LCDs that add two or three millimeters to a phone's design. But Samsung's new screen, along with a technology it calls i-Lens, will let phone makers trim nearly 2.5 millimeters off a phone's thickness.

What's more, the new LCD is shock-resistant to protect the phone more effectively. And, according to Samsung, it can protect your eyes, too, making outdoor reading -- even in bright sunlight -- less painful.

When Is Thin Too Thin?

As consumer electronics devices shrink to ever-smaller sizes, one might wonder just how thin is too thin. According to Avi Greengart, a handset expert and principal analyst at research firm Current Analysis, the slimmest phones invite questions about weakness.

"There has been some concern that they're too thin," he said, "and that they're not sturdy enough. You put them in your pocket, you sit down, and they snap in two."

What's more, phones that are too thin might sacrifice important functions -- like battery life -- for the sake of fashion. With that said, Greengart noted that he sees several benefits in Samsung's announcement.

"When you get thinner components that aren't the battery," he said, "you enable thinner phones with good battery life." For instance, if you can shave a millimeter off the display, you can add a millimeter to the battery, giving users more time to chat. "That's a wonderful trade-off," he noted.

Pantability Quotient

"The trend towards smaller, miniaturized components has been underway since the first transistor radio," said Greengart, noting that it won't stop now. Indeed, some phone makers vie to create the thinnest designs, knowing that a segment of the consumer market views thin phones as fashion statements.

Others care more about comfort, a concern that Greengart called the "pantability quotient."

"The definition for 'pantability' in my dictionary is the ability to slip a phone into your pocket and not feel like you've got a lump of coal in there," he said. "It's more than a fashion accessory. For many people, a cell phone is permanently welded to their bodies."

So what does the future hold? Waif-like phones, perhaps, or phones so thin they can barely be seen, produced by an industry that's in an all-out race for the smallest, sleekest, and slimmest?

"Sooner or later there will be one that's so thin," joked Greengart, "that you'll put it in your mouth and it dissolves."

Linux Patent Group Says Microsoft's Claims Are 'Baseless'

"In fact, there have been no patent suits against Linux," said the Open Invention Network's chief executive. The group includes IBM, Novell and Red Hat.


Linux patent group formed by IBM, Sony, NEC, and Phillips said Microsoft is making "baseless" claims when it says Linux users need protection from patent infringement lawsuits.

The Open Invention Network, which also counts Novell and Red Hat as members, took Microsoft to task for claiming that Linux users needed protection.

"Those claims are baseless," Jerry Rosenthal, chief executive of OIN, said in a statement. "In fact, there have been no patent suits against Linux." OIN is an intellectual patent company formed to share Linux-related patents royalty free.

In an interview, IBM weighed in separately. "We're not sure what Microsoft's intentions are here, but IBM has long asserted that we don't see the need for that coverage," Scott Handy, vice president for worldwide Linux and open source for Big Blue, said. "Patent claims should be settled between vendors, and not involve customers."

Microsoft and Novell announced a deal Nov. 2 that included patent protections, support cooperation and co-development of technology for Windows-Linux interoperability. As part of the agreement, Microsoft promised not to sue Novell for patent infringement stemming from code currently in Novell's SuSE Linux, or future technology co-developed by the companies. Microsoft got the same patent protections from Novell.

The implication that Microsoft code could be in Linux angered the open-source community, which demanded that the software maker prove its claims. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer fanned the flames further last week, when he said, "Anybody who's got Linux in their data center today sort of has an undisclosed balance sheet liability." The remarks were made to the Professional Association for SQL Server, in a discussion posted on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's site.

In its letter, Novell Chief Executive Ron Hovsepian said the company disagreed with recent statements from Microsoft, and said its deal with the company was "in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property." In response, Microsoft said the two companies "agreed to disagree."


SourcE: http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=195600038

Microsoft Gives Away Office 2007 User Interface

Microsoft hopes that the giveaway results in more applications that share the look and feel of Office 2007, and thus creates a more identifiable application ecosystem

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a royalty-free licensing program so that outside developers can apply the Office 2007 interface to their own applications.

The license, which can be applied to applications on any platform, Linux and Mac OS X included, gives developers the right to duplicate Office 2007's new interface elements, including the top-of-the-window Ribbon, the Mini Toolbar, and galleries. The license is perpetual, and no fees will be charged, Microsoft promised.

"There's no fee, you don't owe Microsoft any royalties, and the license is perpetual -- meaning that the terms won't change," wrote Jensen Harris, lead program manager for the Office user experience effort, in a blog entry Tuesday. "This should give you the confidence you need to build a business or product on top of the Office UI platform, secure in the knowledge that you've licensed the technology and research you're using in your product."

Developers must download and submit a copy of the license, after which Microsoft will provide a 120-page confidential guideline that spells out which elements of the Office interface must be included and which are optional. (Microsoft has posted an excerpt of the guidelines that shows the basic format of the requirements.)

Microsoft will deny a license only to developers who plan to craft direct competitors to the Office 2007 core applications of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. "Microsoft spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the research, design, and development of the new Office user interface," said Harris, "but we want to preserve the innovation for Microsoft's productivity applications that are already using the new UI."

The Redmond, Wash. developer hopes that the giveaway results in more applications that share the look and feel of Office 2007, and thus creates a more identifiable application ecosystem. The company is sharing the interface, it said in a downloadable FAQ, so others "have the benefit of the functionality and great design of our new UI in a way that's good for the ecosystem and good for Microsoft."

Microsoft, however, will not share any interface code for the time being, a decision that requires each developer to craft the Office look and feel from scratch. "Microsoft may be distributing tools in the future to help developers build a UI," the company said in that same FAQ.

Microsoft Office 2007 will launch at the end of this month, but won't make it into retail until Jan. 30. Prices for the suite will range from $149 to $679.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=TBGCPSRCPK5WAQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=195900125

Microsoft intros 2007 range of hardware devices

Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division India has unveiled its 2007 range of high-end input devices, including mice, keyboards, lifecams and headsets, designed to offer more comfort and performance to the user.


The new product range includes Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000, Microsoft Habu, LifeCam NX-6000, LifeCam VX-1000, Wireless Laser Mouse 8000, wired headsets and Wireless Laser Desktop 6000.

Mohit Anand, Country Manager, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft India said, "Our singular aim is to provide a superlative PC experience to the performance-driven PC user who wants to derive maximum value from the input devices he or she uses at work, home or on the go. We also take pride in sharing our entry into Integrated Communication Experience products like Webcams & Headsets giving our users richer communication experiences. Our new hardware line-up delivers exactly on this objective with some very great features that have been conceptualized and designed to trigger the new wave of digital computing experiences for our customers in India."


The Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 is a 4-in-one device that offers Bluetooth connectivity. Slide presenter, Laser and digital pointer, and Media remote. Microsoft Habu is a gaming mouse with slip-resistant grip feature. The LifeCam NX-6000, a webcam, offers high Definition video sensor of 2 MP and 7.6 megapixels (MPs) and still photography resolution. LifeCam VX-1000, is another webcam with brilliant video and still photography (640x480 pixels) and a built-in microphone for superior audio performance.

The Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 is a rechargeable mouse with 2.4GHz Bluetooth technology, Microsoft?s proprietary High Definition Laser Technology, brushed aluminum metal casing and smart navigation features. The Wired headsets - LX 3000 is optimized for Windows Live Messenger with USB installation feature. Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 comes with a Comfort Curve Keyboard and Wireless Laser Mouse.


The new product portfolio is priced ranging from Rs. 2,010 to Rs. 10,570 and will be available through the Microsoft strong network of 9100 resellers across 83 cities in India.

Source:

eSys, Samsung sign global distribution pact for HDD

eSys Technologies has announced the signing of a distribution deal with Samsung Electronics Ltd., to distribute its entire range of Hard Disk Drives (HDD) across North America, Canada, Latin America (except Brazil), and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) excluding Ukraine, Russia, Nordic, France, Poland, Spain and Germany. Samsung already has distribution agreement with eSys in China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Neeraj Chauhan, chief operating officer, eSys Technologies, said, "This global distribution agreement with Samsung reinforces the market credibility that eSys Technologies has come to command in key markets worldwide. We will fully utilise our expertise, vast network and market knowledge to help Samsung increase its footprint in the HDD segment around the world."


"We are glad to be associated with a leading brand such as Samsung whose hard disk drives are fast gaining ground globally thanks to its excellent performance and read speed. We look forward to working with Samsung and helping them achieve their business objectives in the most efficient way," added Chauhan


eSys is a global distributor for several major IT component manufacturers such as Intel, Sony, Pioneer, BenQ, Hynix, Alps, Kingston and many more. The company is known for its 'eSys PCs' - its brand of low cost multimedia PCs.

T J Lee, vice president, Sales & Marketing, HDD Business, Samsung Electronics said, "eSys being a global electronics distribution powerhouse was the right partner for Samsung to team up with. eSys has an excellent distribution network and a team of highly efficient and capable personnel that will help boost the sales of our hard drives in key regional and international markets. Samsung's relentless commitment to constantly improve its hard drives has seen us steadily increase our market share, and with this partnership with eSys we hope to make a greater impact."

for more information brows Techzone

Quad-Core Processors: Coming Soon from Intel

Just when you thought Dual Core was all the rage -- leading chip producer, Intel Corporation, has recently launched a new series of chips that boasts four computing engines inside a single microprocessor.


Labelled the "quad-core" processors, Intel promises that this innovative line of processors will undoubtedly be able to handle much more complex jobs at once over models that have only one or two ("dual") processing cores.

This is great news for Intel, who is currently on the losing end of an ongoing battle with smaller, but (recently) much more effective competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). Intel has been losing significant market shares to its rival company and hopes that the quad-core processors will help retrieve these losses.

Intel and AMD had equally expressed interest in the quad-core processing unit, with both promising to establish the product by mid-2007. However, Intel apparently increased production in an effect to gain this significant leverage over their competition.


Intel produced four processors for servers under the Xeon 5300 label and another processor under the Core 2 Extreme label. These much more advanced processing units will target computer gamers, hi-tech programmers and those that wish to tackle multiple computing tasks at once.

The Xeon 5300 chips contain the same amount of power as in previous models, but when utilized in a quad-core processor, the chips will be much more apt at boosting performance. Likewise, the Core 2 Extreme chips are already 80% faster than in previous models.


Representatives from AMD were unnerved by the recent announcement, relying on their cheaper and equally fast models to win the ongoing battle with Intel. The company has promised an eventual smooth transaction to quad-core chips.


It is apparent that AMD has already impacted the financial health of Intel. In an effort to save up to $3 billion annually, Intel was forced to reduce staff by 10% in September of this year.


Intel plans to produce three more quad-core processor in the first quarter of 2007. A processor called Core 2 Quad will appeal to those seeking entertainment and multimedia capabilities, while the Xeon processor will be made available to appeal to those who appreciate low-voltage use.

Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Quad-Core-Processors-Coming-Soon-from-Intel%20.asp

Vodafone, Yahoo launch ads on mobiles

BANGALORE: Vodafone and Yahoo! have formed a alliance to create an mobile advertising business that will enhance the customer experience on mobile phones while providing both companies with a new revenue stream.


Through this alliance, Yahoo! will become Vodafone’s exclusive display advertising partner in the UK. Yahoo! will use the latest technology to provide a variety of mobile advertising formats across Vodafone’s rich and varied content services.

Yahoo!’s sales force and technology team will work with Vodafone to derive benefit from mobile’s unique advertising opportunities while delivering the best possible experience for both consumers and advertisers. Vodafone and Yahoo! intend roll out the initiative in the UK in the first half of 2007.

Under the plans, customers who agree to accept carefully targeted display advertisements can expect to enjoy savings on certain Vodafone services. This proposition could extend to key Vodafone mobile assets including the Vodafone live! portal, games, television and picture messaging services.


“Since we announced our intention to develop revenue from mobile advertising as part of our mobile plus strategy unveiled in May, we have carried out extensive customer trials,” said Nick Read, chief executive of Vodafone UK. “We will now use the experience to determine with Yahoo! how best to ensure customers, who choose to receive targeted essages, get better value as well as a richer mobile experience. This will also ensure that advertisers are given a compelling proposition.”


“This partnership demonstrates Yahoo!’s continued focus on extending our leadership in graphical advertising across multiple platforms,” said Marco Boerries, senior vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!. “We are excited to work with a global leader such as Vodafone to help us define the emerging world of mobile advertising and create superior experiences hat deliver the most value to advertisers and mobile users alike.”

Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Vodafone-Yahoo-launch-ads-on-mobiles.asp

Microsoft, Novell reach agreement on Linux

Once bitter rivals, Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. have entered into an agreement to allow open-source Linux software to work with Microsoft's Windows software.

After years of trying to crush open-source rivals, Microsoft said it will provide support and technology to allow Linux to work on Windows while agreeing not to assert patent rights over technology that may be included in Suse Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell.

In its second major partnership with an open-source software company this week, Microsoft sought to assure a growing number of Linux users, especially in the computer server market, that the two technologies can work together.

"We appreciate that open-source software plays an important role in our industry and it's here to stay," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel. "This will enable a new level of cooperation between open source and proprietary software."

Unlike proprietary software, open-source software lets developers share code and add functions. Users pay for custom features, maintenance and technical support. Linux is the most popular variant of open-source software.

The Microsoft partnership gives Novell an advantage over open-source rivals and Linux leader Red Hat Inc. since corporate customers increasingly run both Windows and Linux machines.

The agreement comes two days after Microsoft struck a long-term partnership with open-source software maker Zend.

News of the Novell partnership sent Novell's shares up 16% while pushing Red Hat stock down 2%. Microsoft shares were mostly unchanged.

"Linux has grown up," said Katherine Egbert, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. who covers Red Hat and Novell. "This is a mainstream technology that major technology vendors are struggling to find a way to support."

Microsoft is not the only software giant eyeing Linux. Last week Oracle Corp. made its boldest move yet into Linux software, offering cut-price technical support in a surprise bid to wrest away Red Hat customers.

The Microsoft-Novell pact, which will run until at least 2012, is a broad set of business and technological agreements to make Novell and Microsoft products work better together, the two companies said.

The agreement focuses on three main technological areas: virtualization to allow Linux to run on Windows machines and vice versa, Web services to help customers with a mix of Linux and Windows products, and document format compatibility to allow users to share documents.

"Customers continually ask us how they can consolidate servers with multiple operating systems through virtualization," said Jeff Jaffe, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Novell.

According to industry data from Gartner, 21% of worldwide server shipments in 2005 run Linux versus 67% of servers running Windows. Linux has continued to gain market share in recent years.

More than a decade ago, Novell assembled the pieces of a full-scale Microsoft competitor by buying database software from Borland and WordPerfect, an alternative to Microsoft Word. It bought rights to a rival to Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS) and a version of Unix, a predecessor to Linux, seeking to fuse them with Novell's own operating system.

But the strategy failed amid surging demand for Windows, leading Novell to file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Two years ago Microsoft paid $536 million to Novell to settle part of those claims.

Article Source: http://www.crn-india.com/breakingnews/stories/nsl,67960.html

Microsoft Vista Doesn't Need Antivirus Software

The security in the new operating systems has improved so much that Windows co-president Jim Allchin lets his son run a PC without anti-virus software.

Windows co-president Jim Allchin has said that Windows Vista, which met its release to manufacturing milestone earlier this week, is so superior to Window XP on security that he feels safe letting his own son run a PC without anti-virus software.


A prominent security analyst countered that that attitude would be fine as long as everyone using Vista was a seven-year-old.


During the Q&A portion of a telephone briefing with reporters Wednesday, Allchin said he was proud of Windows XP SP2, another operating system effort he led. "[But] there were things that we couldn't put in that product," he said.

Don't misunderstand me, this is an escalating situation. The hackers are getting smarter, there's more at stake, and so there's just no way for us to say that some perfection has been achieved. But I can say, knowing what I know now, I feel very confident."


So confident, in fact, that his seven-year-old son's Vista PC lacks anti-virus software.

"Honestly, he doesn't have an antivirus system on his machine. His machine is locked down with parental controls, he can't download things unless it's to the places that I've said that he could do, and I'm feeling totally confident about that," Allchin said. "That is quite a statement. I couldn't say that in Windows XP SP2."


"Sure, if everyone treated their employees like seven-year-olds, and locked down their PCs 100 percent, how could a virus load?" said John Pescatore, a Gartner analyst and the research firm's resident security expert, on Friday.


But that's not going to happen. And in the real world, Windows Vista does need anti-virus software.


"As soon as you allow users to load anything, and everyone will allow that in Vista, then you need AV [anti-virus]. For two reasons, one small and one big," said Pescatore. "The small reason is the hope that it will block viruses and worms. But the big reason is so that you run an AV scan once a week and remove viruses before they can cause too much damage."


Another Vista opinion that Allchin put forward on Wednesday got better reception from Pescatore.


"It's my opinion that the severity of the [security] bulletins will be less [in Vista than in XP], as well as the number will be less," predicted Allchin. "That's to be proven, so we'll see about that. Vista will have issues in security because the bar is being raised over time, [but Vista] is the most secure system that's available, and it's certainly the most secure system that we've shipped. So I feel very confident that customers are far better off by using Windows Vista than they are with anything that we've released before."


Pescatore agreed. "Since Windows Server 2003 came out, it has had many fewer vulnerabilities than Windows 2000 Server," he said. "It was their first server OS since they began to take security seriously. Vista is their first desktop OS.


"We expect that Vista will be to Windows XP as Windows Server 2003 was to Windows 2000 Server."


Allchin, who has been with Microsoft since 1990, will retire at the end of January, after Vista ships. Earlier this year, 17-year veteran Steve Sinofsky was appointed to succeed Allchin as the head of the company's Windows division.


Windows Vista will reach corporate volume license customers this month, and consumers on Jan. 30, 2007.

Article Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Microsoft-vista-doesnot-need-antivirus-software.asp

Corel Bundles Firefox With $79 WordPerfect Home Suite

The deal adds Firefox to a software suite that includes home versions of the WordPerfect word processor, Quattro Pro spreadsheet, Corel SnapFire photo editor and organizer, WordPerfect Mail e-mail client, and other tools.

Corel Corp. on Thursday launched a $79 edition of its WordPerfect productivity suite, and announced a deal with Mozilla Corp. to bundle the Firefox browser with the software collection.


The "Corel WordPerfect Office X3 -- Home Edition 2007" suite includes home versions of the WordPerfect word processor, Quattro Pro spreadsheet, Corel SnapFire photo editor and organizer, WordPerfect Mail e-mail client, and other tools

Corel's bundle agreement with Mozilla adds the open-source Firefox browser to the mix. It is not the first such arrangement by Mozilla. The company has struck deals with others, including Google and RealNetworks, to add Firefox to ad hoc collections, and the browser is bundled with Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite.


"We're pleased to work with partners like Corel to introduce our free, open source Firefox Web browser to even more people worldwide," said Christopher Beard, Mozilla's VP of products, in a statement.


Corel's WordPerfect, which owns only a fraction of the suite market share, took a shot at rival Microsoft as it rolled out Home Edition 2007. "Most software makers focus on developing products for the enterprise market, forcing consumers' needs to take a back seat," said Jason Larock, the suite's product manager, in a separate statement. "Corel's focus on developing a product suited to the needs of the home PC makes WordPerfect Home Edition 2007 unique."


Home Edition 2007 is available immediately for $79 after a $20 mail-in rebate direct from Corel. Home Edition users can upgrade to WordPerfect Office X3 -- Standard Edition for $159. Microsoft's Office 2007 suite, which will hit retail on Jan. 30, 2007, includes a version targeting home users; Office Home and Student 2007 will sell for $149. Corel's share price, which has struggled since the Canadian company went public in April, stayed static Friday at $15.50, still under the $16 offering price nearly seven months ago.

Article Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Corel-Bundles-Firefox-With-WordPerfect-Home-Suite.asp

Windows Media Player 11 Debuts for Windows XP

Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP offers great new ways to store and enjoy all your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV. Play it, view it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go or even share with devices around your home—all from one place.


Simplicity in Design

When designing Windows Media Player 11, we looked at the needs of a wide range of users—from people who are just getting started with digital media to discriminating audiophiles with very large collections on their PCs. By incorporating this feedback into the design process, we made some significant changes to the Player to deliver a simpler, more visual way to navigate music, video, and other digital media and further improve the overall experience.



More of the Music You Love

Windows Media Player 11 is loaded with smart, fun features that breathe new life into your music collection and create a much more personal entertainment experience. The new design lets you get the most out of your digital library and enjoy simple solutions for managing it all.



All Your Entertainment in One Place


Windows Media Player 11 offers great new ways to store and enjoy digital media beyond music. It's easier than ever to access all of your video, pictures, and recorded TV on your computer. Play it, view it, organize it, sync it to a portable device for viewing on the go, or share with devices around your home—all from one place.



Enjoy Everywhere

Storing your entire digital media collection in Windows Media Player 11 has many great benefits, but what about options for enjoying your digital media library away from your computer? New PlaysForSure devices like the iriver clix and the Creative Zen Vision:M offer a great experience when teamed with Windows Media Player 11 and URGE, helping you stay connected with your music, video, and pictures no matter where you are. Check out more great devices.

Click to download : Windows Medial Player 11

Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Windows-Media-Player-11-Debuts-for-Windows%20XP%20.asp

Nokia gets $400 mn contract from Bharti Airtel

MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel Limited has awarded Nokia an estimated $ 400 million contract to expand its managed GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks in eight Airtel circles and deploy a pan-Indian WAP solution across its networks.

As per the three-year contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Airtel networks to cover all towns and cities in the eight telecom circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Kolkata, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh (including Chattisgarh). The network monitoring operations will be carried out from Nokia’s Global Network Services Center in Chennai.

Nokia will also deploy its WAP solution across Airtel’s national network to enhance the operator’s mobile packet core network capabilities. The WAP gateway will enable easy usage of data services, thereby increasing the consumption of content on the Airtel network. Nokia will provide consulting services and integrate the WAP gateway into a multi-vendor environment.

Nokia will deploy the latest radio and core network equipment including Nokia MSC Server System (MSS) mobile softswitch, Nokia Flexi WCDMA and Ultrasite base stations, and provide services based on Bharti's capacity requirements, delivering a cost-efficient rollout of on-demand capacity. The contract also has stringent service level agreements and performance metrics for both parties, which are designed to provide consistently high-quality services to subscribers and continuously enhance the user experience.

Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel said: “Our network leadership across India is a critical driver in the Bharti Airtel success story. Our partnership with Nokia reinforces our commitment to this cause and Nokia will provide us the latest technology and expertise to drive growth in the latent market in Eastern India and rapidly expand our coverage in Western parts of India.”

“Nokia is proud to collaborate with Bharti on its initiative to take mobile services to millions of unconnected Indians and enhance the mobile data experience of its existing customers,” said Ashish Chowdhary, Country Director, Networks, Nokia India.

In the past two years, Nokia has signed two contracts collectively worth $400 million with Bharti for the supply of equipment and managed services.

Nokia is a major player in the Managed Services business with close to 60 managed services contracts globally. Nokia provides managed services in 27 telecom circles in India.

Nokia's operations in India include networks and terminals sales divisions, three Research and Development facilities, Global Networks Solutions Center and a manufacturing facility in Chennai that produces both terminals and GSM infrastructure equipment.


Source: http://www.ciol.com/Ciol-Techportal/Content/Mobility/News/2006/2061106907.asp?nl=2_194442_Nov6

Download, Oracle SQL Developer

Oracle SQL Developer is a new, free graphical tool for database development. With SQL Developer, you can browse database objects, run SQL statements and SQL scripts, and edit and debug PL/SQL statements. You can also run any number of provided reports, as well as create and save your own. SQL Developer enhances productivity and simplifies your database development tasks.

SQL Developer can connect to any Oracle Database version 9.2.0.1 and later and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

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Source: www.oracle.com

Sony PRS 500, e book

This year Sony tested the patience of e-book fans like me by twice delaying the release of its new PRS-500 reading device, originally promised for the spring. The company finally started taking orders over the Web in September, and the gadget can now be purchased at electronics stores and select Borders bookstores. Was it worth the wait? That depends on the size of your wallet.


The Sony Reader's main selling point is its black-and-white "electronic paper" screen, which is not, of course, made from trees. It has been advertised as a far better imitation of real ink on paper than the LCDs found in laptops, cell phones, and earlier generations of e-book reading devices. After curling up for a couple of weeks with a unit loaned to me by Sony, I'm happy to report that the device lives up to its billing. It isn't a replacement for paper--but it's enough of an improvement on older generations of e-book readers to impress this veteran student of the technology.

In fact, I'd say the Sony Reader is the first e-book device that's good enough to appeal to a large swath of readers, even given its hefty $350 price tag. The only major drawback of the system--and, in fairness, it's one that has marred almost
every attempt at making electronic books into a mass-market product--is that content for the device, which must be downloaded from Sony's Connect eBooks retail site, is overpriced.

But early adopters, at least, aren't daunted by high book prices: so far, Sony hasn't been able to ship enough devices to keep up with demand. Personally, I'd been waiting for Sony to release an English-language e-book reader since 2004, when the company introduced its first e-book device, the Librié, in Japan. My interest in electronic-paper technology dated back to 1999-2001, when I served as managing editor for a technology news site called eBookNet. (The site was owned by a now-defunct startup called NuvoMedia, which manufactured the Rocket eBook, an elegant little device that captured my fancy when I first reviewed it--for Technology Review, in fact--in 1998.)


Even back then, I was already aware of an electronic-paper technology being developed by E Ink, a Cambridge, MA, startup founded in 1996 by researchers at MIT's Media Lab. The scientists' clever idea: sandwich millions of tiny, liquid-filled microcapsules between two layers of electrodes, the top one transparent. Floating inside each microcapsule are thousands of positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles. A negative charge applied at a given electrode on the lower layer pulls the white particles to the bottom of nearby microcapsules and pushes the black particles to the top, creating a black mark at that spot (the equivalent of a pixel in an LCD screen). The technology held out the promise of both higher resolution (since the colored particles are smaller than conventional pixels) and longer battery life (since the particles stay in place, without any further expenditure of electricity, until the user calls up the next page).


I'd long wanted to see E Ink's technology, which Sony licensed for the Librié and the new Sony Reader PRS-500, in action. And as it turns out, the Reader's six-inch-diagonal display is a beauty to look at. It's 800 pixels high and 600 pixels wide, giving it a resolution of roughly 170 pixels per inch. That trounces a standard LCD's 90 to 120 pixels per inch, which means the edges of printed characters appear sharper and less jagged than on other displays. In fact, the text is even sharper than newsprint, which has a resolution of 85 to 150 dots per inch. And the contrast ratio of the Reader's screen--the brightness of the whites, measured against the deepness of the blacks--is a respectable 8:1, which puts it on par with newsprint. The Reader's screen doesn't quite achieve the crispness of black text on the thick, bleached pages of a hardcover book, but then again, neither does the print on the pages of paperbacks.



Sony was also careful to make the 0.25-kilogram device comfortable to hold and easy to operate. It has only two important buttons: Page Forward and Page Back. Pressing them with the left thumb requires even less effort than turning the pages of a printed book. And you can press those buttons up to 7,500 times before the Reader runs out of power, according to Sony. I believe it. I charged the device only once, used it for more than 20 hours, and never came close to depleting its battery.



One particularly lovely feature--which does, however, run down the battery faster--is the user's ability to listen to music with the device's built-in player while he or she is reading. The Sony Reader may not be the first device that can display e-books and play songs, but to my knowledge it's the first that can do both at the same time.



In sum, the Sony Reader is so well engineered that it's no longer reasonable to dismiss e-book devices solely on the grounds that they aren't as simple, readable, or enjoyable to use as printed books. Sony's system has only two flaws worth noting. One is that the screen often shows a faint ghost image of the previously viewed page, due to the fact that a few black particles remain near the top of the microcapsules after some of the page's black pixels change to white. To "erase" more particles, Sony programmed the entire screen to flash black between pages, rather as if one were shaking an Etch-a-Sketch. But this results in an annoying flicker.



The other flaw, as already mentioned, is the price of e-books at Sony's Connect eBooks site. The site offers a decent range of titles, including many current bestsellers. Most of the publishers working with Sony charge less for electronic editions than for print hardcovers, and Sony further discounts these prices. Walter Mosley's Fortunate Son, for example, lists at $32.95 in hardcover, while the electronic edition is discounted to $17.95, and Sony Connect sells it for $14.36. But I just can't see average readers paying that much for e-books, which, after all, have about as much physical substance as the digital signals that flit through your PC. A $5.95 paperback may have onion-skin-thin paper and almost invisibly small type, but at least it's a concrete thing you can hold and put on your shelf. E-books may not be seen as a viable alternative to print books until they're so cheap that their ephemerality doesn't matter. Until publishers and hardware makers can turn e-books into a sensible economic proposition, the way Apple's iTunes Store has done with $0.99 downloadable songs and $1.99 TV shows, I fear the technology will languish.



The prospect of a $1.99 bestselling novel is unthinkable within today's publishing culture--yet every author and publisher knows in his or her heart that e-books will, at some point in this century, begin to outsell print books. What may be most significant about the Sony Reader, then, is that by bringing the technology of e-reading up to snuff, it is clearing the way for inevitable changes in the economics of publishing. Whether those changes come about soon enough to keep Sony's device on store shelves is doubtful. But I believe they will happen, just as surely as iTunes and the iPod have upended the music business.






Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Sony-PRS-500-Reading-Device.asp

Block and Remove / Uninstall Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) has been released as of November 1, 2006. If you're not ready for it yet, there are a few options to prevent its installation through Automatic Updates.



Reports say that IE7 is more secure and has more functionality than Internet Explorer 6 (some improvements include tabbed browsing and a built-in RSS reader) -- but user should prefer to wait until they get a few more bugs worked out and some patches for the flaws that still exist before you install it on to your PC.

Many users have automatic updates enabled on their systems. Microsoft is distributing Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update through Automatic updates and the Microsoft update sites. Internet Explorer 7 will be available for users of genuine Windows XP SP2, Windows XP 64-bit Edition, and Windows Server 2003 SP1. See the Microsoft Updates IE7 announcement for more details.


Installing IE7: Through Automatic Updates

If you use automatic updates, a notification will appear and you can choose whether or not to install IE7. (Note that the update will only be available if you run your system with administrator privileges).



Once you click on the automatic updates notification balloon, you will be presented with 3 options: Install, Don't install, and Ask me later.



* If you select Install, follow the prompts to install it.

* If you select Don't install, you can install it at a later time from the Windows update site.

* If you select Ask me later, it will not install it and you will be prompted to install it at a later time.



Uninstalling IE7


If you install IE7 it will replace IE6. If you want to uninstall IE7 at a later time, you should be able to remove it through the Add / Remove applet in the control panel. If you do install it and uninstall it later, the automatic updates will inevitably ask you if you want to install it again.


In that case, just select the Don't install option. Important: If you do want to remove IE7 after installation, make sure you uninstall it correctly through the Add/Remove applet in the control panel or with another uninstall utility. Do not delete it manually as that will cause more problems. Note that installation of IE7 will not override your default browser.


Other Options to Uninstall / Remove IE7


As previously mentioned, there are other options to prevent the automatic delivery of IE7. You can download a toolkit to disable the automatic delivery (available to users running genuine Microsoft Windows). Toolkits to prevent the installation of some updates from Microsoft have had expiration dates in the past. According to Microsoft, the toolkit to block IE7 does not have an expiration date.


IT Administrators can use Update Management solutions for Windows Server Systems and SM Servers from Microsoft for better solutions to block the installation of IE7, respectively.


Disabling Automatic Updates


To control whether or not you receive automatic updates, you use the automatic updates applet in the control panel. To do so: Click Start, then click on control panel. Once the control panel applet opens (in classic view), double click on the automatic updates applet to open it). You will be presented with 4 options: Automatic (recommended), Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them, Notify me but don't automatically download or install them and Turn off Automatic Updates and click the apply button. More information regarding Automatic Updates can be found at the Technet2 Microsoft site.


Downloading Updates Manually


If you do turn off the Automatic Updates option, make sure you check the Microsoft Windows Update site on a regular basis. The second
Tuesday of every month Microsoft releases updates.


http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/


Occasionally, Microsoft releases updates at other times when they need a patch to fix a patch. It's important to keep your Windows and other programs updated for security and safety reasons. Microsoft encourages you to keep Automatic Updates turned on, but as long as you take the necessary security measures and update your computer regularly, you should be fine turning them off.


Source: http://techzone.izine.in/articles/Block-and-remove-uninstall-IE7.asp

Hexaware on expansion mode

CHENNAI: Hexaware Technologies is on an expansion mode by setting-up three facilities across India.

Talking to CyberMedia News here on the sidelines of Hexaware’s Tech Summit, Atul Nishar, founder and executive chairman of Hexaware Technologies said that the company would be establishing three facilities on campus-model.

“The campuses will be in Chennai, Mumbai and Pune, and we would be investing close to Rs 200 crores in each of them,” he said adding that the facilities would be completed in the next two years.

“As for Chennai, we would be having a green campus at Siruseri, along the IT highway, for which we have procured 27 acres of land. The Chennai campus will have a total of 1 mln sq ft built-up area,” he informed.

Nishar said that in Chennai alone, Hexaware would be creating 9,000 additional jobs in the next five years.

“Similarly, the company has acquired 25 acres in Hinjewadi IT Park in Pune and 14 acres in Airoli area of Navi Mumbai,” he said indicating that all the three campuses would be on the line of Special Economic Zones

Nishar also revealed Hexaware’s plans to go global by setting-up centres in Mexico, China and East Europe. “The Mexico centre would be set up in a short time, while the East European centre would come up in mid-2007 and the China centre in 18 months,” he added

Source: http://www.ciol.com/content/news/Investment/2006/106110706.asp?nl=7_204540_Nov7

''Wireless is a growing market in India''

Bob Friday is the worldwide director of engineering for wireless at Cisco Systems. In an interview with Pragati Simlote of CyberMedia News he gave an idea of direction to the Wireless initiatives in the market outlining the advantages of the Cisco go to market model for wireless.

He also shed light on Cisco’s wireless plans in the service provider, government and defense verticals especially in the area of outdoor wireless.

What kind of wireless initiatives is Cisco undertaking?

We want to participate in the wireless revolution that is about to happen in India. We are trying to look at how we can participate in working with the government and other agencies, and bring in the value of networks as not point products but as end-to-end solutions.

From that standpoint one of the key components of the solutions approach is obviously wireless both from a standpoint of connectivity, which is required in cities - point to multipoint connectivity - or connectivity for some of the large projects that are happening in the government. These projects may vary around setting up of hotspots, rural broadband infrastructure for village connectivity as well as setting up of citywide municipal wireless solutions.

There are several technologies that we work on and there are many options that are available right from Wi-Fi, which is one of the most widely prevalent techs to Wi-Fi Mesh and which is a new technology and Wi-Max, for which there is lot of involvement in the market in this.

What is your go to market strategy in India?

There are several areas that we are targeting in India. Predominantly wireless started off with enterprise connectivity. For the next at least two-three years, our focus would be on outdoor connectivity. From this standpoint, if we look at various business verticals where we can see application of wireless connectivity, we have several. The biggest is the government space, the second is service provider space for providing wireless solutions and the third is connectivity for managing disasters and providing connectivity in areas where wired connectivity cannot be provided.

The SP space is where we expect wide spread deployment to happen. The SPs are looking at unlicensed band and evolve business models around that. We are talking to Indian SPs and the experience that we have gained in working with SPs in more mature economies like US and Europe, we want to implement that over here.

Campus connectivity in universities is also one space that can be targeted, as it becomes a productivity tool. Then there is the server market, providing connectivity in residence, hospitality industry, hotspots, public transport system, etc. We have also started getting queries about how wireless can to be implemented in say metro rail.

What kind of wireless adoption do you see in India?

Wireless is a growing market in India. From a price-performance standpoint, Wi-Fi has got a lot of advantage. With the advent of new standards like 802.11g and the upcoming standard of 802.11n, we will be increasing the sort of reach and bandwidth available. In addition, the other thing happening is that it is getting integrated with IP-based systems, which basically allows you to handle more complex tasks like quality of service (QoS), security, etc. They start getting integrated in the wireless domain itself. This provides a lot of maturity to Wi-Fi than some of the emerging technologies that may be there.

We can look at the adoption in three parts Adoption in enterprise space, adoption in rural space – this is an area to watch out for in the next 18-24 months and adoption from a service provider (SP) standpoint – providing carpet coverage, hot spot coverage and SOHO connectivity.

In the consumer and enterprise space, Wi-Fi is very well adopted now. In the SP space, tier 1 players are still looking at the market and figuring out how business models work in unlicensed spectrum. Large tier 1 SPs are slowly looking at it, but there are tier 2 challengers who are quickly building up networks or hot spot businesses or point to multipoint businesses to start connecting out villages.

You are also targeting the defense sector in India. What are the opportunities in this space for Cisco?

Typically, defense applications are more point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links in licensed spectrum. They tend to avoid any use of the unlicensed spectrum. So most often the queries we get is more oriented around having an early set up because these networks are easy to build and easily deployable especially in areas where you have to set up a network on the fly. So it is in those areas where the wireless networks are being addressed.

We are also talking to them about several other networks, which basically combine the licensed and unlicensed bands. Licensed bands are being used for connectivity from say a battalion headquarter to a unit but the local area mobility for providing connectivity for network centric warfare is being provided over maybe Wi-Fi. But these are just trials that are going on as typically defense does not deploy unlicensed spectrum at all. And they would want to continue that way for the foreseeable future.

Source: http://www.ciol.com/content/developer/CommunicationTech/2006/106110701.asp?nl=7_204540_Nov7

Look before you leap

NEW DELHI: There is nothing like free lunch. Businesses usually fail to include both direct and indirect costs throughout the lifecycle of the IT asset while calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO).

The TCO evaluation should go beyond the initial purchase cost of a hardware or software to include pre-implementation soft costs and post-implementation operation, support, maintenance, downtime and training costs.

According to Frost & Sullivan, hardware is the largest component of TCO of Indian enterprises, while software cost is just about 15 per cent of the capital expense and just 6.8 per cent of TCO. Soft costs (costs related to planning, configuration and project management of server environment) are about 17 per cent of TCO, while maintenance and downtime costs constitute about nine per cent each of TCO in Indian enterprises.

The F&S report on TCO, which is audited by Cap Gemini and commissioned by Microsoft, compares the TCO of Windows based applications ecosystem vis-à-vis Linux based applications ecosystem. The report also points out that Windows 2003 offers a 15.9 per cent lower TCO as compared with the Linux environment. The initial costs (capex) for the Linux operating system might be low but the operating expenses (opex) could be significantly higher as compared to the Windows 2003 operating system.

According to the report, on an aggregate level, Windows Server 2003 has 59 per cent lower training costs, 35 per cent lower upgrade costs, 25 per cent lower downtime costs, 667 per cent lower cost of Installation, 62 per cent lower maintenance costs and 30 per cent lower soft costs. For the five-workloads compared, Microsoft Windows 2003 has a clear TCO advantage over Linux for Application, Networking and Mail servers.

Linux Servers’ higher costs can be attributed to relatively low availability of IT professionals trained on Linux servers and tools. Installation costs are 667 per cent higher in the Linux environment reflecting the gaps in maturity to work in an enterprise environment. According to the report, Windows 2003 also gains by higher supply of qualified IT professionals thus decreasing acquisition costs and easier problem solving and trouble shooting because of better documentation and support.

Windows has a clear cost advantage over Linux in application servers. The TCO of Linux is 22.4 per cent higher than that of Windows 2003. Linux application server despite having low capital expenditures, cost significantly higher in operational expenses.

While Windows 2003 starts with a distinct disadvantage by way of higher software and hardware costs, overall costs are more than mitigated owing to the mature ecosystem created around windows environment. The windows advantage includes 59 per cent lower training costs, 35 per cent lower upgrade costs, 25 per cent lower downtime costs, 667 per cent lower cost of Installation, 62 per cent lower maintenance costs and 30 per cent lower soft costs.

F&S ICT practice director – consulting Dr. TR Madan Mohan recommended that there is nothing like a free lunch and a lot of things we assume as free are not free and there are a lot of hidden cost of installation, not enough trained people and integration cost associated with it.

He added, “There is lot of other costs associated with server deployment and these include training, upgrade and maintenance cost. If we consider all this, we will find that Windows 2003 performs extremely better on multiple workloads in application, networking and mail server. The performance difference on the other servers like web and file/print servers is not very high. Eighty per cent of deployment today is on the first three servers where TCO advantage of Windows 2003 is higher.”

Dr. Mohan also recommended that from a CIO’s perspective when you are making new deployments, it makes strategic sense to deploy Windows 2003 because several other associated costs are lower thereby lowering the total TCO.

He added, “Thirdly, your opex is almost same as your capex cost. Please look at the overall cost and realize that there are lot more advantage of implementing Windows 2003 than open source platforms.”

Giving the rationale behind commissioning this study, Microsoft India competitive strategy director Radhesh Balakrishnan said, “From a development model perspective we have learnt a lot from open source. But 95 per cent of all open source software is commercialized and then the cost of acquisition comes into play. Although companies do not pay for licensing, they do pay for support, training, etc and this is where TCO comes into play. We commissioned this study because Indian customers want India specific data as labor market is different in India, need for computing can be different.”

He added, “Microsoft Windows server share of shipment over the last four – six quarter has been in the 65 per cent -68 per cent range and has stayed the same. In the server market, either Linux or Windows is replacing Unix. So the net gain is between the two. Going forward, while targeting customers, this study would be a good proof point that customers have been asking for.”

The research was conducted on 54 organizations (both high end and mid tier) across BFSI, manufacturing, public sector and government, ITeS, BPO and telecom verticals. The target respondents consisted of senior IT professionals (consisting of CIO, CTO, Head of Information Technology, general manager - Information Technology, Senior IT managers, Senior System Analysts) of large and mid-sized enterprises (500 and more employees).

Source: http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2006/106110703.asp?nl=7_204540_Nov7

Torry Harris sets up R&D cell for SOA

BANGALORE: Torry Harris Business Solutions (THBS), an IT services provider with focus on middleware technologies, today announced the formation of an in-house R&D cell for Service Oriented Architecture implementation solutions.

Anurab Ghosh, CTO of the company, will head the R&D cell.

The total headcount of THBS is 1000 and the company plans to double the headcount next year. Headquartered in Bangalore, the new R&D center consists of 30 per cent of the total workforce, aimed at enabling the company to offer cost effective alternatives /solutions to their clients by combining SOA and Open Source.

The new R&D cell is focused to cater to the next generation needs of global clients. The team will study on the latest technologies in SOA space and conducts training programs and hands-on workshops to disseminate information on SOA to THBS personnel across the company, said Shuba Sridhar, regional technical manager (Europe), Torry Harris.

It has already implemented some international projects usingSOA approach for government agencies in the Middle East and credit insurance major in the Netherlands. It has also bagged an SOA assignment with a wall street major in US, said Sridhar.

New Jersey-based Torry Harris, has development centers in Bangalore and Shenzhen (China) and sales and operations offices in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions. It provides IT services aimed at creating and maintaining mission critical IT systems to industries like Telecommunications, BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), e-governance and Healthcare.

Source: http://www.ciol.com/content/developer/web_services/2006/106110701.asp?nl=7_204540_Nov7

Open environments invite hackers

BANGALORE: Open and collaborative working environments help enterprises to scale up their operations and improve upon their productivity but also expose the enterprise networks to external world of hackers and crackers.

This was the stated by J. Pazhamalai general Manager, Information Risk Management and Policy Compliance, Wipro Technolgies. J. Pazhamalai was speaking at the Frost & Sullivan conference on advancements in technology behind Web security. The conference aimed to address the concerns of Indian CIOs towards threats emanating from the web.

“It has become mandatory for IT managers to provide an all pervasive networking environment for their employees. But that comes with an inherent risk of making company’s network vulnerable to disruptive elements, which can result in financial losses and legal liabilities for the enterprises” said Pazhamalai..

Pazhamalai added that the existing network security measures were very inadequate to take such risks, which also explained the spurt in web-based attacks.

“Antivirus solutions are reactive, not preventive; they are effective only against very specific threats, and they provide even this limited protection only after an attack has already occurred,” said Pazhamalai.

“ The way we are responding to the challenge is incorrect. Rather than taking reactive measures like putting high-end security solutions everywhere in the network, organizations should be filter the web content that employees were accessing,” he added.

Shedding light on the enormity of web-based threats, Surendra Singh, head, South East Asia and India, Websense, said the next-generation web-based threats were designed to invisibly capture both personal and company confidential information.

“As web-based attacks become more sophisticated in nature, companies need to protect themselves through automating their web security,” said Singh.

He added that with the motivation for attacks being financial, the lead organizations need to ensure they are aware of the security gaps that are to be plugged.

Alok Shende, director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, in his presentation, said organizations are responding to this challenge by deploying a combination of security products and services from different vendors.

“With increasing internet penetration and use of online transactions, there is a growing need to filter the web content, which employees are accessing for malicious codes and also objectionable content. However, web access control is still not seen as a critical issue in enterprise security management,” said Shende.

“The antivirus protection, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems, are generally excellent within their intended sphere, but they do not always provide sufficient protection from advanced blended threats. The problem gets complicated when employees are working remotely where they are not protected or managed by the organization’s perimeter security,” added Shende.


Source: http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2006/106110706.asp?nl=7_204540_Nov7