Now think about consumer-centric applications if u deal in VAS Industry. MNP(Mobile Number Portability) is about to come.
Read more >>
It's all about Tele/Tech.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Free Web Based MS OFFICE
By Microsoft
Microsoft has fired its latest salvo at Google, announcing a free web-based version of its Office software.
Office 2010 will include lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote when it ships next year.
The new web offering will compete with Google's free online Docs suite launched three years ago.
Last week Google took aim at Windows with news of a free operating system while in June Microsoft introduced a new search engine called Bing.
"We believe the web has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity," Microsoft's group product manager for Office told the BBC.
"We have over a half a billion customers world-wide and what we hear from them is that they really want the power of the web without compromise. They want collaboration without compromise.
"And what they tell us today is that going to the web often means they sacrifice fidelity, functionality and the quality of the content they care about. We knew that if and when we were ever going to bring applications into a web environment, we needed to do the hard work first because we hold such a high bar," said Mr Bryant.
Microsoft said that 400 million customers who are Windows Live consumers will have access to the Office web applications at no cost.
At a conference for business partners in New Orleans, Microsoft announced an early release of web-apps to thousands of testers later this year.
At the end of the year the company expects to release a proper public beta for the software and ship a final version off to PC makers in the first half of 2010.
'Conversion'
Analysts have mostly given the thumbs up to Microsoft for moving some of its applications to the web, even if it might cost them dearly.
The Wall Street Journal has estimated that offering free online software could "put at risk as much at $4bn (£2.46bn) in revenue".
One analyst told the paper that despite such losses, it could be a canny move.
"Making sure people are still using Microsoft products is more important" in the short term than risking revenue, explained Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
"They need to keep people using Office," he said.
"Microsoft is finally making the conversion through the web-based world. First, we saw that through Bing. Now we are seeing that through Office, " said Jeffries & Co analyst Katherine Egbert.
"The software giant has woken up, " wrote Emil Protalinksi of online blog Arcs Technica.
"It is promising to know that such a traditional software company is responding to the 'threat of the cloud' to its core business by embracing it."
Investors appeared to like Microsoft's move and boosted shares by almost 3.8% higher to close at $23.23 (£14.33).
Rivalry
Microsoft's announcement is being seen as the latest move in a tit-for-tat rivalry between two tech giants as it and Google increasingly make efforts to encroach on one another's turf.
When Google announced its Chrome operating system last week, the blogosphere watched and waited for Microsoft to react.
Mr Bryant stuck to the company line when he spoke to BBC News.
"I haven't seen the product. I think it's not a trivial engineering investment to go and build an operating system," he said. "Of course it is interesting and there is a lot of talk but until we see the product, it's hard to say what kind of impact it will have.
"We can't afford to get wrapped up in hype or buzz or noise because really our customers depend on us every single day."
Microsoft's business software division, which includes Office, made $9.3 bn (£5.74bn) in profit from $14.3 bn(£8.82bn) in sales during the first three-quarters of its 2009 fiscal year.
SOURCE: BBC
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Medical tests raise life extension hopes: Live More
A drug discovered in the soil of a South Pacific island may help to fight the ageing process, research suggests.
When US scientists treated old mice with rapamycin it extended their expected lifespan by up to 38%.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, raise the prospect of being able to slow down the ageing process in older people.
However, a UK expert warned against using the drug to try to extend lifespan, as it can suppress immunity.
 |  We believe this is the first convincing evidence that the ageing process can be slowed and lifespan can be extended by a drug therapy starting at an advanced age.  Professor Randy Strong University of Texas |
Rapamycin was first discovered on Easter Island in the 1970s.
It is already used to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients, and in stents implanted into patients to keep their coronary arteries open. It is also being tested as a possible treatment for cancer.
Researchers at three centres in Texas, Michigan and Maine gave the drug to mice at an age equivalent to 60 in humans.
The mice were bred to mimic the genetic diversity and susceptibility to disease of humans as closely as possible.
Rapamycin extended the animals' expected lifespan by between 28% and 38%.
The researchers estimated that in human terms this would be greater than the predicted increase in extra years of life, if both cancer and heart disease were prevented and cured.
Researcher Dr Arlan Richardson, of the Barshop Institute, said: "I've been in ageing research for 35 years and there have been many so-called 'anti-ageing' interventions over those years that were never successful.
"I never thought we would find an anti-ageing pill for people in my lifetime; however, rapamycin shows a great deal of promise to do just that."
Professor Randy Strong, of the University of Texas Health Science Center, said: "We believe this is the first convincing evidence that the ageing process can be slowed and lifespan can be extended by a drug therapy starting at an advanced age."
Calorie restriction
Rapamycin appears to have a similar effect to restricting food intake, which has also been shown to boost longevity.
| In no way should anyone consider using this particular drug to try to extend their own lifespan, as rapamycin suppresses immunity Dr Lynne Cox University of Oxford |
It targets a protein in cells called mTOR, which controls many processes involved in metabolism and response to stress.
The researchers had to find a way to re-formulate the drug so that it was stable enough to make it to the mice's intestines before beginning to break down.
The original aim was to begin feeding the mice at four months of age, but the delay caused by developing the new formulation meant that feeding did not start until the animals were 20 months old.
The researchers thought the animals would be too old for the drug to have any effect - and were surprised when it did.
Professor Strong said: "This study has clearly identified a potential therapeutic target for the development of drugs aimed at preventing age-related diseases and extending healthy lifespan.
"If rapamycin, or drugs like rapamycin, works as envisioned, the potential reduction in health cost will be enormous."
'Don't try it now'
Dr Lynne Cox, an expert in ageing at the University of Oxford, described the study as "exciting".
She said: "It is especially interesting that the drug was effective even when given to older mice, as it would be much better to treat ageing in older people rather than using drugs long-term through life."
However, she added: "In no way should anyone consider using this particular drug to try to extend their own lifespan, as rapamycin suppresses immunity.
"While the lab mice were protected from infection, that's simply impossible in the human population.
"What the study does is to highlight an important molecular pathway that new, more specific drugs might be designed to work on.
"Whether it's a sensible thing to try to increase lifespan this way is another matter; perhaps increasing health span rather than overall lifespan might be a better goal."
Please Read: Traffic rockets to Twitter site
The number of people visiting Twitter increased 22-fold in the last twelve months, according to an internet monitoring company.
According to Hitwise, the site is now the fifth most viewed social networking site compared with the 84th last year.
Ninety-three per cent of Twitter's growth has happened in 2009.
Director of Research at Hitwise Robin Goad said: "If people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications were included, numbers could be higher."
Another measure of Twitter's popularity is its jump in the overall internet rankings.
Last year it was the 969th most visited site on the web. It's now the 38th most visited website.
Twitter is popular with celebrities like Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry.
"If anything, the service is even more popular than our numbers imply," said Robin Goad.
"We are only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website.
"If people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications like Twitterific or Tweetdeck were included, the numbers could be even higher.
"Media coverage of the site has escalated significantly this year and high profile celebrity endorsements likes Ashton Kutcher have come rolling in."
Micro-blogging site Twitter has also had a major impact on so-called 'citizen journalism', when members of the public use the site to break major news stories or updates such as the terror attacks in Mumbai or the recent protests in Iran.
But the social networking website still has some work to do to catch the likes of MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.
The number of people using Facebook has risen above the 20 million mark this year in the UK and 200 million around the world.
Top Hardware makers support Google OS
Google has announced which hardware firms have pledged to build machines that will run its Chrome OS.
The search giant said it was working with many firms on Chrome OS hardware including Acer, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba.
The software is designed to work with the web and Google said it was most likely to appear on smaller portable computers known as netbooks.
The browser-based operating system will be released to the public in 2010.
Web futures
In a blog post announcing the hardware partners, Google said that the code for the Chrome OS would be open sourced in late 2009. Google said that the software will be free to download and use.
The first netbooks that can run the software will be ready in late 2010. Since Asus launched the first netbook the cut-down computers have proved hugely popular.
Analyst firm Gartner predicts that 80% more netbooks will be sold in 2009 than sold in 2008. However, so far, the small computers only make up 8% of the total PC market.
The Chrome OS will be designed to work with Intel chips that appear in the vast majority of desktop PCs, laptops and netbooks as well as the Arm chips that power most of the world's mobile phones. Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, who both build devices based around Arm chips, were also unveiled as partners on the Chrome OS project.
In a blog post announcing some of the hardware partners, Google also said it was working with Adobe on the operating system. This could turn out to be significant because of the wide use of Adobe's Flash software.
Flash is used to power many multimedia websites but Adobe has been working hard to extend its capabilities via the Air technology and make it more web-centric too. Microsoft is developing its Silverlight technology to do a similar job.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Google's new OS to take on Microsoft "the open-source software, called Chrome OS, would be available in the second half of next year. "
The move sharpens the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system controls the basic functions of the vast majority of personal computers.
In a post on its company blog, Google said the operating system would initially be aimed at netbooks, the compact, low-cost computers that have turned the PC world on its head. It said the open-source software, called Chrome OS, would be available in the second half of next year.
“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” the blog post said. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds.”
Google has already developed an operating system for mobile phones, called Android. And several manufacturers of netbooks are also using that software.
Google has long promoted a vision of computing in which applications delivered over the Web play an increasingly central role, replacing software that runs on the desktop. In that world, applications
run directly inside an Internet browser, rather than atop an operating system, the traditional software that controls most of the operations of a PC.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
What makes your email hackable
Now, a new study in the US has revealed just how easy the answers of such security questions are for other people to guess -- in fact these facts make life simple for hackers, the 'New Scientist' reported.
Researchers at Microsoft have based their findings on an analysis of an experiment, involving 32 email users. Acquaintances of the email users -- people with whom they wouldn't normally share their login details -- were asked to try and guess the answers users assigned to protect their accounts.
The volunteers managed to guess correctly a fifth of the time, raising questions over how secure the commonly used system is, the study found.
However, a second study by software giant Microsoft has suggested a more secure alternative -- relying on trusted friends to vouch for you if an account becomes locked.
"Securing webmail is important because email accounts typically allow an attacker access to other accounts, for example, eBay and Amazon. If I can recover these passwords via your email account then I can spend the balance of your credit card on flat-screen TVs," Ross Anderson of Cambridge University was quoted as saying.
Under the new system proposed by Stuart Schechter and Rob Reeder at Microsoft, users select several "trustees". If a user becomes locked out of their account their trustees receive a message asking them to download a "recovery code". The user must collect codes from multiple trustees to unlock their account.
A group of 19 Hotmail users trialed the system and 17 successfully regained access to their Hotmail account. That 90-per-cent success rate compares favourably to 80-per-cent success rate of the secret question system, say Reeder.
Read more >>
Researchers at Microsoft have based their findings on an analysis of an experiment, involving 32 email users. Acquaintances of the email users -- people with whom they wouldn't normally share their login details -- were asked to try and guess the answers users assigned to protect their accounts.
The volunteers managed to guess correctly a fifth of the time, raising questions over how secure the commonly used system is, the study found.
However, a second study by software giant Microsoft has suggested a more secure alternative -- relying on trusted friends to vouch for you if an account becomes locked.
"Securing webmail is important because email accounts typically allow an attacker access to other accounts, for example, eBay and Amazon. If I can recover these passwords via your email account then I can spend the balance of your credit card on flat-screen TVs," Ross Anderson of Cambridge University was quoted as saying.
Under the new system proposed by Stuart Schechter and Rob Reeder at Microsoft, users select several "trustees". If a user becomes locked out of their account their trustees receive a message asking them to download a "recovery code". The user must collect codes from multiple trustees to unlock their account.
A group of 19 Hotmail users trialed the system and 17 successfully regained access to their Hotmail account. That 90-per-cent success rate compares favourably to 80-per-cent success rate of the secret question system, say Reeder.
'Indian telecom revenue to cross $30 bn by 2013'
"Total mobile services revenue in India is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5 per cent during 2009-2013 to exceed $30 billion," the US-based Gartner Inc said in a statement.
According to Gartner, the telecom subscriber base is expected to cross 770 million connections by 2013, growing at a CAGR of 14.3 per cent from 452 million in 2009.
"The Indian mobile industry has now moved out of its hyper growth mode, but it will continue to grow at double-digit rates for next three years as operators focus on rural parts of the country," said Madhusudan Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner.
"Growth will also be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets," Gupta added.
Mobile market penetration is projected to increase from 38.7 per cent in 2009 to 63.5 per cent in 2013, Gartner said, and attributed it to three factors: increased focus on the rural market, entry of consumer durable and electronic companies into the mobile handset segment, and cheaper handsets.
The number of people with prepaid connections, who accounted for 93 per cent of the subscriber base in 2008, will continue to swell to exceed 96 per cent by 2013, surpassing 740 million. The postpaid subscriber base will exceed 29 million subscribers by 2013, growing 2.5 per cent from 2008, Gartner said.
It also predicted the churn rate - the rate at which a subscriber switches from one operator to another - to cross 59 per cent in 2013 from 53 per cent currently.
A new version of the Internet browser Firefox has been released, offering users more speed and privacy and greater compliance with new Internet video
Firefox 3.5 includes the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which Mozilla says makes it deliver unprecedented performance with today's complex Web applications. Firefox 3.5 is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2, claims the Mozilla group.
With a new management function in place, Firefox keeps memory usage under control. The XPCOM cycle collector continuously cleans up unused memory.
Read more >>
With a new management function in place, Firefox keeps memory usage under control. The XPCOM cycle collector continuously cleans up unused memory.
With Firefox 3.5, users can enjoy video and audio content from within their browser, without the need for any plug-ins. Web developers can embed audio and video into Web pages in open format Ogg Theora, courtesy a new feature of HTML 5. Mozilla claims that it's the first to integrate this feature directly into the browser.
Web developers can use these technologies to design pages that interact with video content in different ways, offering richer interactive experience beyond controlling playback and volume.
Web developers can use these technologies to design pages that interact with video content in different ways, offering richer interactive experience beyond controlling playback and volume.
Firefox 3.5 includes features designed to protect users' privacy online and provide greater control over their personal data. With Firefox 3.5 users can have their browser history never record visits to a particular site (say Savesavitabhabi.com). To use the feature in Firefox 3.5, a user just needs to open the History panel, right-click any Savesavitabhabi.com reference, and choose 'Forget This Site.'
The Forget this Site feature can remove every trace of a site from the user’s browser. To remove all private data or activity of the past few hours, a user needs to click on Clear Recent History, another Firefox-only feature that gives him full control over what stays and what goes.
The Forget this Site feature can remove every trace of a site from the user’s browser. To remove all private data or activity of the past few hours, a user needs to click on Clear Recent History, another Firefox-only feature that gives him full control over what stays and what goes.
Location Aware Browsing aims to save users time by allowing websites to know where they are located. If a user chooses to share his location with a website, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of the area. It is an optional feature.
Also, Firefox assures that it doesn’t share users' location without their permission.
Also, Firefox assures that it doesn’t share users' location without their permission.
Users can view a wider variety of fonts on web sites while surfing. Site designers and developers can create custom fonts that will be displayed and rendered properly even if they don’t have the font installed on their computers.
This feature aims to get users site in order. Users can simply arrange the order of their tabs by dragging them in one swift move of their mouse. Or, if their browser window is getting cluttered with too many tabs, they just requite to drag a tab out of its existing spot and it will automatically open up in a new window.
Users can read feeds using an online Web service, a client-side feed reader or by creating a Firefox Live Bookmark. So there’s no need to comb the Web for the latest news and updates.
Users can read feeds using an online Web service, a client-side feed reader or by creating a Firefox Live Bookmark. So there’s no need to comb the Web for the latest news and updates.
Mozilla's a growing library offers over 6,000 Firefox add-ons, the little extras that a user chooses to download and install for his browser to make it works his way. For example, manage online auctions, upload digital photos, see the weather forecast in a glance and listen to music all from the convenience of his browser.
There’s no need to open a new window or a tab for each task. If a user is not sure where to begin, he can try Fashion Your Firefox which is a handy Web application that recommends add-ons based on his interests.
Also, restart the browser without losing your place after you install an add-on or software update. And, if Firefox or your computer unexpectedly closes, you don’t have to spend time recovering data or retracing your steps through the Web. If you’re in the middle of typing an email, you’ll pick up where you left off, even down to the last word you typed.
There’s no need to open a new window or a tab for each task. If a user is not sure where to begin, he can try Fashion Your Firefox which is a handy Web application that recommends add-ons based on his interests.
Also, restart the browser without losing your place after you install an add-on or software update. And, if Firefox or your computer unexpectedly closes, you don’t have to spend time recovering data or retracing your steps through the Web. If you’re in the middle of typing an email, you’ll pick up where you left off, even down to the last word you typed.
Firefox 3.5 has added support for more Indian languages than its last major release. The browser, which supports all three major operating systems Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, is now available in eight Indian languages, up one from Firefox 3.
The new addition is Assamese. Firefox 3.0 supports Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu. Other Indian languages that are likely to be included in future upgrades of the browser are Malayalam, Oriya and Tamil.
Firefox has fully localised versions in 63 languages with an additional 11 language versions still in beta.
The new addition is Assamese. Firefox 3.0 supports Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu. Other Indian languages that are likely to be included in future upgrades of the browser are Malayalam, Oriya and Tamil.
Firefox has fully localised versions in 63 languages with an additional 11 language versions still in beta.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Is Universal mobile charger is reliable for Europe
  Industry players in Europe agreed upon to work towards developing a pan-Europe standard mobile phone charger. The initiative has a Green touch to it as the European Commission feels that the move will lead to significant reduction in e-waste caused by redundant mobile phone chargers. The new charger will have a USB port as an interface and the Commission expects that it will take about three years time for most of the mobile phones in the region to adopt the new standard. Companies participating in the initiative include names such as Apple, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Texas Instruments. These companies between themselves cover 90 % of the market. "We are assuming that this new European standard will have a knock on effect globally and that manufacturers won't be just doing this on the European market, but will be doing this on other markets with Europe," said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. The Commission plans to extend the concept to products such as computers and cameras as well in future. |
"VAS ASIA 2009" 10 JULY 2009 Conference Outline
Conference Outline
| 0900 - 0945 hrs | Registration |
| 0945 - 1000 hrs | Speed Networking Know your peers & industry colleagues before the start of the conference |
| 1000 - 1100 hrs | Inaugural Session The Road Ahead - Future of Mobile VAS in India & Asian Service Provider's Perspective |
| 1100 - 1130 hrs | Refreshments & Networking Break |
| 1130 - 1330 hrs | Session I New Services & Drivers of Growth for Mobile Value Added Services in India |
| 1330 - 1430 hrs | Networking Lunch and Exhibition Visit |
| 1430 - 1600 hrs | Session II Successful strategies to face the future challenges of various stakeholders in Mobile Value Added Services in India |
| 1600 - 1630 hrs | Refreshments, Networking and Exhibition Visit |
| 1630 - 1800 hrs | Session III Understanding the future MVAS Ecosystem & Network operators perspective on it |
| 1800 hrs Onwards | Networking - Industry Nite Reception |
Partners: - All leading VAS company & Technological Company
IBM
DONJIN
One97
Onmobile
etc.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Now you can enjoy Pocket Web Gadget soon....
Engineers at Dell Inc. have been developing a pocket-sized device for tapping into the Internet, said people familiar with the company's plans.
The gadget would run on Google Inc.'s Android software, these people said. Two people who saw early prototypes described the device as slightly larger than Apple Inc.'s iPod Touch, which is similar to the iPhone but does not have cellphone capabilities.
Another person who was briefed on the company's plans said Dell may begin selling the device later this year, though this person said the plan could be delayed or scrapped entirely.
The development effort is one of the first experiments by a big-name PC maker in a nascent category of products known as mobile Internet devices, or MIDs,which are designed to fill a perceived gap between mobile phones and laptop computers.
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