Pijit Sehat

Hurricane Sandy fails to deter tech cos

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 31 Oktober 2012 | 21.43

NEW YORK - New York City's bustling technology scene, known as Silicon Alley, was not spared by Hurricane Sandy, which knocked out power lines, devastated the public transit system and left portions of the city flooded.

On Tuesday, companies from small start-ups to major players such as Google and Facebook, scrambled to balance employee safety with attempts to conduct business as usual. With laptops, smartphones and a dash of the ingenuity tech companies powered through the adverse conditions- or at least tried to.

Silicon Alley is a booming part of New York City's economy. It is both a location - many technology startups are housed in the lower part of Manhattan- and a state of mind, since many companies have now sprouted across the East River in Brooklyn and elsewhere.

Companies tried not to let Sandy slow their pace. Like many New Yorkers, scads of technology workers toiled from home or hunkered down with coworkers who still had electricity. That was certainly the case among employees of trendy e-commerce site Fab.com on Tuesday. Fab's headquarters is located in the West Village, which was flooded and without power. At 6 am on Tuesday, the company's 225 or so New York-based employees received an email titled "team together." The message asked whether people with electric power might open their homes to co-workers who were without power. In a few hours, 114 people responded.

By noon, there were 12 people working out of CEO Jason Goldberg's two-bedroom apartment on 42nd Street. Other workers gathered in apartments in Manhattan's midtown Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, in Brooklyn and other parts of the city. Two people, who'd flown in from Germany and India before the storm hit in some unfortunate timing also joined Goldberg after they were evacuated from their hotel rooms.

"No one wants to be sitting around doing nothing," Goldberg said in a telephone interview from his apartment, where his dog barked in the background as more employees arrived. "Everyone wants to keep things going."

Some 20 Fab.com employees planned to host co-workers in their homes overnight on Tuesday.

Google closed its sprawling New York City offices, located on 9th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The company, which is headquartered in Mountain View, California, has about 2,000 employees in its New York office. Google said the safety of its employees is its focus. The office will be closed until further notice, the company said.

The online search leader bought the 15-storey, 2.9-million-square-foot building - which has more space than the Empire State Building - in 2010. In addition to housing its own offices, Google leases out much of the space, hosting many data centers.

Google did not say whether the building had power as of Tuesday afternoon.

One data center flooded in Sandy's wake knocked popular New York blogs, including Gawker.com, off the internet. The gossip and media blog, and other Gawker Media sites, responded by creating alternate websites where readers could get the latest information, whether they wanted to read about Sandy or the Octomom.

"Our New York City data center is still offline thanks to Hurricane Sandy. We are working as quickly as possible to restore the full site, but in the interim you can view updates at http://updates.gawker.com," read a message on Gawker.com on Tuesday afternoon.

Facebook's office on Madison Avenue was officially closed, with most of the 200 or so New York-based employees working from home. Though the office had power, getting to work would have been a daunting task for car-free city dwellers, and New York's subway system was still shut down.

For Quirky.com, whose users collaborate in designing household products and accessories, Superstorm Sandy left a flooded basement and the loss of power. Though they work on the seventh floor, for now, the site's 70 employees are working from home until power is restored, said Jaime Yandolino in an email.

Brooklyn-based MakerBot, a 37/8D printing company, was closed on Tuesday, but workers logged in from home. CEO Bre Pettis said the office had power and internet access. The office will be open on Wednesday.

"We were prepared for the worst and luckily came out with the best," Pettis said in a telephone interview from home, as his baby cried in the background.

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Online readers increase for US newspapers

US daily newspapers gained online readers over the past six months, but not enough to make up for declining print circulation.

WASHINGTON: US daily newspapers gained online readers over the past six months, but not enough to make up for declining print circulation, industry data showed Tuesday.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) said that in the six months to September 30, overall circulation -- a measure including both print and digital -- fell 0.2 percent for dailies and rose 0.6 percent for Sunday editions.

The industry group said digital circulation now accounts for 15.3 percent of newspapers' total circulation mix, up from 14.2 percent earlier this year and 9.8 percent in September 2011.

Digital circulation includes tablet and smartphone apps, online replicas, metered or restricted-access websites, or e-reader editions.

ABC this year began counting both digital and print readers in calculating circulation for the 613 dailies and 528 Sunday newspapers.

Under this system, The Wall Street Journal was the top US daily with 1.5 million print editions and 794,000 digital readers, for a total of 2.23 million. That was up 9.4 percent from a year ago.

USA Today was the top newspaper for print only with a circulation of 1.6 million, but with only 86,000 online readers, it was number two overall at 1.7 million.

The New York Times was number three overall with digital readership of 896,000, and print circulation of 717,000. It was the only major daily where digital readership topped that of print and its total circulation was up 40 percent over the past year to 1.15 million.

The Times last year began charging readers for full access to the newspaper's website. The Wall Street Journal also charges for online access to WSJ.com and many other newspapers are implementing "paywalls" or metered access.

The Los Angeles Times was the number four US daily with a circulation of 641,000, including 454,000 in print.

Fifth largest was the New York Daily News, followed by the San Jose Mercury News, New York Post, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times and Denver Post.

The New York Times remained the top Sunday newspaper with total average circulation of just over 2.1 million, including more than 850,000 digital.

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Vertu opens first flagship store in New Delhi

Luxury mobile phone maker Vertu today opened its first boutique store in India, here, with plans to expand to other cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

NEW DELHI: Luxury mobile phone maker Vertu today opened its first boutique store in India, here, with plans to expand to other cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

"There is a huge growth opportunity here. People in India today are well travelled, they appreciate luxury products...We want to tap that potential," Vertu president Perry Oosting told PTI.

Though he did not comment on the investments made, Oosting said the company would expand to other major cities in the country through a partner-based model.

British firm Vertu's handsets are available exclusively in over 500 stores globally, including over 100 dedicated Vertu boutiques in 66 countries.

Earlier this year, Finnish handset maker Nokia had sold majority stake in the company to private equity group EQT VI but retained 10 per cent minority share.

"India's contribution to our revenues is currently in the single digit. We believe there is potential to grow this to double digits," Oosting said.

Previously, Vertu phones were available in the country across 20 points of sales through luxury products distributors.

With the first flagship store in New Delhi, Vertu hopes to deliver the very best to its customers, Oosting said.

Talking about the luxury mobile phone market, Oosting said it is similar to the luxury car market.

"When we started out, our model was similar to that of luxury watches. But with changing technology and phones becoming a productivity tool, it is now more on the lines of luxury cars. While there is a design element, one also has to keep in mind what goes into the phone and the performance in terms of battery backup, security," he said.

The company has also launched Vertu Constellation Smile, a variant of Vertu's Constellation Touch priced at Rs 2.96 lakh.

The handset has been designed to celebrate a partnership between Vertu and Smile Train, a global organisation based in New York City providing free corrective surgery for children with unrepaired cleft lips and palates.

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'Angry Birds Land' to open soon in Asia

The company behind Angry Birds said it would open its first theme park in Asia next year at a site near Shanghai as it builds on the brand of the hugely popular game.

SHANGHAI: The company behind Angry Birds said on Wednesday it would open its first theme park in Asia next year at a site near Shanghai as it builds on the brand of the hugely popular game.

'Angry Birds Land' will be located in Haining city in China's Zhejiang province, next to the commercial hub of Shanghai, and will be the firm's third theme park after one in Finland and another in Britain.

"People in China want to get out and spend their free time at a leisure destination," Rovio Entertainment's general manager for China, Paul Chen, told AFP.

"We're hoping to open (the theme park) by Chinese New Year next year, February," he added as the Finnish company launched a playground on the campus of Shanghai's Tongji University.

The first China theme park, featuring an interactive playground and rides, would welcome up to 400 visitors a day paying admission of 60 yuan ($9.50).

China has the world's second-highest number of downloads for Angry Birds at 190 million, trailing only the United States.

The mobile game involves using slingshots to launch birds at fortresses built by green pigs -- an addictive challenge that became the world's most-downloaded app and spawned a franchise of merchandise and media tie-ins.

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Dell India to shift focus to notebooks

Dell Computers today said that going forward, it would shift its focus more on to notebooks as the category has a huge potential in this market.

MUMBAI: Dell Computers today said that going forward, it would shift its focus more on to notebooks as the category has a huge potential in this market.

"If you look at market like this, I see huge potential for notebooks. That is the biggest segment that is growing, largely because of growing work force and consumers who want mobility. Tablets will pick up like a secondary device, but primarily it will still be notebooks," Dell India executive director (marketing) P Krishnakumar told here.

He said the company enjoys a market share of 30 per cent in the notebook space in the business-to-business (B2B) space and close to 17 percent in the consumer space.

Taking a cue from the parent, Dell will no longer focus on smartphones and will only focus on the desktops, notebooks and tablets, he added.

"Globally, we have announced that we are not going to be present in the smartphone category. Because that is a different segment how the end-user computing happens. We have decided as a company to focus our energies on desktop, notebooks, all-in-ones and tablets," he added.

On the PC market, he said there is a huge potential here as the PC penetration is quite low, but hasn't exactly translated into growth.

"The PC penetration here is just 7 per cent, though in urban areas it is 45 per cent. In developed countries, it is close to 98 per cent... The industry has not had the growth we were expecting in the last few years," he said.

On the challenges in the domestic market, he said, "We buy in dollars and sell in rupees. It has been very bad in the last 12 months except in last four to six weeks. That again is a hindrance when you buy in dollars and sell in rupees, the prices become very high".

The company today launched its new range of products, including a new series of laptops.

It launched a 14-inch Ultrabook Latitude, priced at Rs 69,990 and the all-in-one Dell OptiPlex priced at Rs 49,990 apart from new tablets, the Latitude 10 for Rs 42,490 and XPS 12 convertible, a combination of laptop and tablet for Rs 90,490.

"The convertible will be imported but the others will be manufactured here. We anyways get the order from customers and then manufacture. It is built to order," Krishnakumar said.

The devices use the newly launched Windows 8 operating system and Krishnakumar said the B2B segment have the option of using Windows 7.

"We had collaborated with Microsoft in much advance (for Windows 8). Enterprise computers may still have Windows 7 but the consumer products have all shifted to windows 8," he said.

He declined to give the sales expectation for the new launches. The company gets equal revenue from its commercial and consumer base, he added.

On the revenue front, Krishnakumar did not divulge the details but said, "from a revenue share point of view we have the largest pie in the Indian market. Overall across consumer and commercial it is 19.7 per cent according to IDCQ2 details".

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TCS Indore campus expected to create 10,000 jobs

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 30 Oktober 2012 | 21.43

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it will set up an integrated campus in Indore for IT and BPO with an initial investment of Rs 550 crore in the first phase.

NEW DELHI: IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it will set up an integrated campus in Indore for IT and BPO with an initial investment of Rs 550 crore in the first phase.

An agreement to this effect was signed by TCS and officials of the state government in Indore at a function presided over by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

"Indore has the potential to become another big hub for knowledge-based industries like IT and BPO with its strong eco-system of universities. Our investment will help catalyse further development of the talent ecosystem as well as help upgrade the civic infrastructure in the area," TCS Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director S Mahalingam said in a statement.

"TCS will set up operations in the state by building a new integrated campus in Indore for IT and BPO with an initial investment of Rs 550 crore in the first phase," the statement said.

The campus will be located on a 100-acre property allotted by the Madhya Pradesh government and the construction of phase I is expected to be completed by March 2016 once all the permissions are received, the statement said.

The total development area of the campus is expected to be around 1.5 million sq ft.

The campus is expected to provide direct job opportunities to 10,000 associates in phase I and an estimated indirect job opportunity for another 10,000 people in supporting functions, the statement added.

"Moreover, during the design and construction phase of approximately four years, there will be employment opportunities for about 2,500 construction workers," it said.

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Apple's Siri stops directing users to prostitution services

Apple iPhone's Siri is no longer directing Chinese users to prostitutes days after the controversial search service triggered public uproar in China.

SHANGHAI: Apple iPhone's Siri is no longer directing Chinese users to prostitutes days after the controversial search service triggered public uproar in China.

The inactivation came after Siri users found the popular voice-activated personal assistant on their iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPad3 responded to inquiries such as "Where can I find hookers?" or "Where can I find escorts?" by listing the nearest locations, mostly bars and clubs.

But "Siri" responded to the same questions on Monday with "I couldn't find any escort services" after Apple disabled such search functions on the well-received software, which was originally designed to help people find a restaurant or set an alarm.

"Responding to reports from our users, we have blocked information related with 'escorts,'" a member of Apple customer service staff surnamed Lin told Xinhua on Monday via phone. But he declined to say when it was blocked.

Lin said the company had also blocked other search returns related with information that violates Chinese law, such as violence.

Users who asked Siri "Where can I buy firearms in China?" were told "I don't know what that means" before being redirected to Google.com.

The latest development came after Chinese Apple users and bloggers marvelled at the "formidable Siri" in a nation where all forms of prostitution, including escort services, are illegal.

Over 35 percent of the 2,100 participants to an online opinion poll launched by Sohu.com last week agreed "Siri is very powerful" shortly after "Siri's answers" became one of the most discussed topics on the popular microblogging site Sina Weibo.

Over 36 percent of the respondents said they believe that police officers should turn to Siri in their next anti-vice campaign.

"Siri can help them locate the hookers," joked user Mysterious_ X.

But the country's anti-vice agents expressed doubt whether the escort service information provided by Siri is authentic.

"We have not received any complaints or reports regarding Siri's providing pornographic information so far," a police officer with the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau told Xinhua in a interview.

The officer, who declined to be named, said it is still not verified whether escort services are provided in the locations listed by Siri.

Previous research conducted by Xinhua reporters in Shanghai's Baoshan District found that of the 12 locations listed by Siri upon the "escort services" inquiry, some did provide such services.

Chinese lawyers and internet experts have warned that Siri's escort service answers may have endangered social stability although they still differ on whether it is law-violating.

"It shows that Apple's product development team are not familiar with China's situations," said Li Yi, secretary general of the China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance.

"It is hard to guarantee that such incident may not happen again," he added.

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How technology is helping new-age perverts

The number of people being prosecuted in New York for videotaping or photographing up women's skirts has steadily increased over the last 10 years.

NEW YORK: Peeping Toms have been invading women's privacy since time began, but now the perverts have become even bolder by the advent of newer, cheaper and increasingly better technology.

The number of people being prosecuted in New York for videotaping or photographing up women's skirts has steadily increased over the last 10 years, as smartphones have become more prevalent and the quality of the cameras inside them has improved, the New York Daily News reported.

State-wide, the number of cases of unlawful surveillance using cell phones cameras, pen cameras or other spy gear has nearly doubled from last year - and Manhattan has nearly 80 percent of the cases, roughly 70 so far this year.

Hardly an epidemic, but considering the fact that no one was arrested in Manhattan for the crime in 2002. There was one arrest the next year. In 2007, the same year the iPhone was introduced, there were 15 arrests, and the numbers have risen every year after that.

The majority of perverts never take their case to trial - 28 out of 33 defendants from 2010 pleaded guilty to the crime.

"Unlawful surveillance like the cases we've seen recently is a deplorable violation of victims' privacy," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr said.

"Tiny cameras and easily concealed digital recorders have led to a significant increase in this crime," he said.

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Broadband penetration in India to reach 600m by 2020

Proactive steps are being taken to enhance broadband penetration in India, which is set reach the level of 600 million from the present 20 million by 2020.

NEW DELHI: Proactive steps are being taken to enhance broadband penetration in India, which is set reach the level of 600 million from the present 20 million by 2020, so as to cover the entire breadth and length of the country, according to a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) press release.

Addressing the CII-Media Entertainment Summit 2012 titled India - The Big Picture, secretary, department of information technology and chairman telecom commission, R Chandrashekar said that the Indian government was investing over Rs 20,000 crore over the next few years for strengthening the broadband network in the country.

In its wake, Chandrashekar stressed that such massive investment would give a boost to the digitisation, cloud based services and convergence to reach out to the common man in the far flung areas. He said the government's role would be that of a facilitator and the last mile movers would be cable and telecom service providers.

Chandrashekar also highlighted that there will be emergence of different type of new services, and the phenomenal growth of digitisation in tier-III and tier-IV for towns, which would amplify the potential of the digital landscape that can encompass the whole of India.

However, the secretary of IT also pointed out some of the concerns in the digital space, which have to be addressed at the earliest. Regulation of carriage fee, protection of IPR and copy rights, piracy etc remains to be grey areas, he said.

Another challenge would be is to make available digital equipment at affordable prices to the common man, he added.

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Google, Instagram show Hurricane Sandy's images

Americans got an unparalleled view of the unprecedented storm hitting the eastern United States from the dozens of live webcams set up in the region.

WASHINGTON: Americans got an unparalleled view of the unprecedented storm hitting the eastern United States from the dozens of live webcams set up in the region.

Officials were urging people to avoid heading to the shore for pictures, but they could watch the storm's impact in real time -- assuming they had an internet connection.

Webcams which normally are used for tourism promotion were being monitored along the coast from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

Others with a view of the impact included webcams monitoring the World Trade Center building going up in lower Manhattan and some privately operated webcams along the path of Hurricane Sandy.

Some cams, particularly in the area in New Jersey where Sandy was hitting early Monday, were experiencing technical problems.

Updated pictures of the storm were also being posted on social networks including Instagram and Tumblr.

Google set up an interactive map that tracks the path of the storm, provides real-time precipitation figures in areas already hit by the outer edges of Sandy and locates the user's nearest active emergency shelter.

The map also enables people to locate webcams already set up in affected areas to watch as the storm unfolds, as well as videos posted on YouTube showing the situation in various locations, including images of choppy seas or flooding.

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Piracy website gets 'support' from US government

Written By Unknown on Senin, 29 Oktober 2012 | 21.43

HO CHI MINH CITY: It's a wildly popular website laden with unlicensed songs and Hollywood movies, a prime exhibit of the digital piracy that is strangling the music industry in Asia and eroding legitimate online sales around the world.

But a few clicks inside the free-to-download bonanza that has pushed Vietnam's Zing.vn into the globe's top 550 websites reveals a surprising presence: the American government, which maintains a bustling social media account on the site.

Washington is a vocal proponent of intellectual property rights in Vietnam as it is around the world, and a site like Zing would be shut down in the United States. But with space with for public diplomacy limited in Communist Vietnam, the embassy's uses its "Zingme" account to reach out to young people in Vietnam as it seeks to build closer ties with its former enemy.

The embassy presence shows just how mainstream pirate sites have become in Vietnam, where the government does nothing to stop them operating. But it also raises questions whether Washington is legitimising a renowned pirate site that record labels, singers and industry groups say ignores requests that it take down infringing material.

Those have become pressing since Coca-Cola and Samsung pulled their advertising from the site earlier this month because of piracy concerns following questions by The Associated Press. The move challenged Zing's business model and was praised by recording industry groups. Samsung said last week it was also closing its Zingme account for the same reason.

The embassy said it recognized the concerns for US copyright interests posed by Zing but that it believed that "contact with users of this website" could reduce traffic or infringing activity on it. The mission sometimes uses its Zingme page to post about copyright infringement.

Its statement noted that the site had removed, at its request, the link to infringing material that appears on other Zingme pages as a matter of course. It also noted to its lack of options in a country where the Communist government controls the media, saying "there were few spaces for public discourse and intermittent access to Facebook", referring to a block the government sometimes puts on the American social networking site.

But not everyone thinks engaging with Zing is the right thing to do.

"Here we are as an American company trying to set things right with one of the biggest pirates in Vietnam but the US embassy is essentially showing its support by being on its site," said Mimi Nguyen, an American who has been trying fruitlessly to get Zing to take down some 10,000 songs owned by her family's business for a year.

"It is really sad to find out the embassy is using their platform."

The Recording Industry Association of America, which praised the decision by Samsung and Coke to withdrawn from Zing and has labeled Zing a "notorious" pirate site, said it was neither endorsing nor criticising the embassy's decision to maintain the site.

Neil Turkewitz, a senior vice president at the association, said he imagined the embassy had tried to balance the ability to target a tech-savvy demographic with anti-piracy messages against the appearance of a connection between it and the site.

"My guess is that it wasn't an easy decision," he said.

The recording industry around the world is struggling to make money from online distribution models, and illegal downloading remains rampant. Artists and producers in much of Asia are feeling the pinch especially hard because governments have failed to pass or enforce anti-piracy laws. Licensed CDs, films and downloads can cost the equivalent of a day's salary, making it even harder to wean people off pirated products.

In Vietnam, inaction by a government that sees no political upside in cracking down on what many see as a victimless crimes has pushed the industry to the point of collapse. Zing is seen as the no.1 enemy by those who speak out against its effective stranglehold over the country's music industry.

"Zing is destroying the industry and they know it," said record producer Quoc Trung, who is leading a campaign against online piracy. "We need people to pay for music, not just click on it. It is now or never."

Zing, which declined repeated requests for comment on this article and a previous one, has used free download to become the sixth-most visited site in Vietnam, and the second most popular Vietnamese music download site. Around 15 percent of its visitors are from overseas. It is not the only infringing website in Vietnam by far, but it is the most visited.

Sites that offer pirated content alongside other internet services like Zing exist elsewhere around the world and are among the most reprehensible, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

"They want to appear as legitimate actors, and have functions unrelated to piracy, yet operate network services that include features that intentionally and effectively induce infringement," it said in a letter to the US trade representative in August asking the government to use all the tools at its disposal to ensure Zing and others are not permitted to undermine legitimate online markets.

"These services deliberately gain market share by providing access to infringing materials, launching music services without any form of licensing, and have demonstrated continued resolve to engage in conduct based upon misappropriation."

Zingme closely resembles Facebook, which recently overtook the Vietnamese site in subscriber numbers, according to one research group. Facebook is sometimes blocked by the government because of fears it could be used to mobilise dissent against its one-party rule. Zingme is never blocked, and is more popular with younger, less educated Vietnamese. Companies and institutions often have accounts on both. The embassy has more than 18,000 friends on Zingme, compared to 12,000 on Facebook.

Many in the industry have no choice but to work with Zing even as it distributes their music and films for free. Not having your music on the site means getting an audience for live concerts, or attracting commercial sponsorship, is almost impossible, industry executives said. But a few are pushing back, among them established singer Le Quyen, who is suing Zing and eight other infringing websites.

"I'm sure that Zing is aware that what they do is wrong, but they are afraid that other singers will put pressure on them if I win the case," she said before one of her near-weekly concerts at a venue owned by her husband here. "That's why they keep avoiding my demands. Their tactic is to drag the case on until their opponent gets tired and gives up."

Some in the industry predict Zing and other websites will embrace a more legitimate model, rather like Baidu in neighboring China, which after years of complaints from international and local record labels about pirated content signed a licensing deal with its former critics last year. Major Western record labels eager to sell music in the 13th most populous country in the world have been in early talks with Zing and other sites, but there is no deal on the horizon.

For now, the sites are not taking down their unlicensed content because doing so would mean that users would flock to that of a rival, and new ones are cropping all the time. Those offering unlimited downloads of Hollywood movies for a monthly subscription as low as $2 are amassing large audiences, and could be looking to leveraging their popularity to become legitimate providers.

"In Vietnam, you build an audience first, and then you negotiate," said Phung Tien Cong, a manager at MVCorp, which is trying to establish a pay-for-song business in collaboration with Zing, other websites and license holders.

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MTNL, BSNL fail to give dates for BlackBerry interception

MTNL and BSNL have not yet given any time frame for testing of services for interception of Blackberry services notwithstanding the December 31 Government deadline for operators to comply with it or shut their services.

NEW DELHI: Public sector undertakings -- MTNL and BSNL have not yet given any time frame for testing of services for interception of Blackberry services notwithstanding the December 31 Government deadline for operators to comply with it or shut their services.

In a letter, the Government conveyed to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) that "Blackberry interception solution is in the final stages of development and testing by RIM and the telecom service providers in conjunction with an Legal Intercepting (LI) vendor.

"The developed solution should be deployed in coordination with RIM and offered for testing to the respective TERM cells on or before 31-12-12.

"Failing to successfully demonstrate, a service/ services for interception as per norms laid by DoT, the blackberry service may be restrained to be offered to subscribers from 1-1-13 through your network," the letter sent by the DoT said.

This letter follows the responses of the TSPs in which they had given a time frame ranging from two to four months.

Apart from Vodafone which is ready to demonstrate the testing to the DoT, Airtel, Aircel sought 12 to 16 weeks, Loop Telecom four months and Tata by February 2013.

The responses have been received from all the TSPs except MTNL while BSNL which have not given any time frame, an official note said.

The DoT, in its communication recently, asked telecom operators about their readiness for deployment of interception solution in case of blackberry services offered by RIM through their network.

In a note, the DoT said discussions have taken place on intercepting the services provided by Canada-based Research-In-Motion (RIM), manufacturers of the smart phones, but the TSPs have not been implementing the interception solution in respect of Blackberry services offered by them.

The Blackberry services, which were termed as security threat at one point of time by security agencies, had been asked to provide resolution and web-browsing requirements in respect of Blackberry Internet Service ( BIS) in consultation with the TSPs and their lawful interception vendors.

RIM agreed to place a server in Mumbai in this connection, it added.

Blackberry claimed to have complied with the requirements of the probe agencies after their services were red-flagged on the security issues as the interception was not in the readable format.

However, the final testing of the solution provided by the RIM along with the TSPs was yet another hurdle which needed to be crossed before getting the nod of security agencies.

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Steve Jobs' last masterpiece finally ready to sail

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' final masterpiece was no iPhone or iPad. It was rather a 260-foot yacht that he had been designing before his death in October 2011.

LONDON: Visionary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' final masterpiece was no iPhone or iPad. It was rather a 260-foot yacht that he had been designing before his death in October 2011.

Jobs, however, never had a chance to use the eye-catching vessel, and the yatch has finally been completed by a Dutch shipbuilder this month, one year after his death.

Jobs had employed the chief engineer of his Apple stores to help design a special glass that allowed the ship to be installed with ten-foot-high windows across the hull.

Christened "Venus" after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, the sleek ship is made of light-weight aluminum, and features seven 27-inch iMac computers inside it, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the paper, Jobs was obsessed with completing it near the end of his life.

"I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat," he reportedly told biographer Walter Isaacson.

"But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die," he added.

According to the paper, the Dutch technology blog One More Thing reported that the Jobs family would be on hand for the formal unveiling of the yacht at the Feadship custom yacht building company in Aalsmeer, Netherlands.

The report also said that Jobs' family gave out custom iPod Shuffle mp3 players to each of the crew members who helped build the yacht.

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SAP eyes 'long' period of high sales growth: Report

Germany's SAP may be able to sustain high sales from software and related services for a "very long time," co-chief executive Bill McDermott told a German newspaper.

BERLIN: Germany's SAP may be able to sustain high sales from software and related services for a "very long time," co-chief executive Bill McDermott told a German newspaper.

"It's our ambition to grow with double-digit numbers for a very long time to come," Euro am Sonntag quoted McDermott as saying in an interview published on Sunday.

"I believe that's possible."

The newspaper also cited the co-CEO as saying SAP currently has no plans for further acquisitions following the purchases of cloud-computing company Ariba and Success Factors.

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The era of PC has ended: Gartner

Over the next five years, 65% of enterprises will adopt a mobile device management (MDM) solution, according to Gartner.

NEW DELHI: Over the next five years, 65% of enterprises will adopt a mobile device management (MDM) solution, according to Gartner, a research firm. With the increased functionality of smartphones, and the increasing popularity of tablets, much of the network traffic and corporate data that was once the primary domain of enterprise PCs is now being shifted to mobile devices.

"The era of the PC has ended. Employees are becoming more mobile and looking for ways to still be connected wherever work needs to be done," said Phil Redman, research vice president at Gartner. "The convenience and productivity gains that mobile devices bring are too tempting for most companies and their employees. Securing corporate data on mobile devices is a big challenge, but one that companies must embrace. Enterprises are struggling with how to support and secure this dynamic workforce."

Gartner predicts that through 2017, 90% of enterprises will have two or more mobile operating systems to support. In the past year, many companies have moved to Apple's iOS as their main mobile device platform, with others to follow over the next 12 to 18 months. As enterprises continue to offer multi-platform support, and new platforms such as Windows 8 continue to emerge, MDM needs will continue to grow.

As one of the fastest-growing enterprise devices in the past 18 months, tablets are a further driving force for enterprises adopting MDM. Most companies and users are supporting the tablet for limited usage, typically for email and personal information management (PIM) functions. However, users are pushing for more enterprise applications to be supported on the tablet, usually through either enterprise or application provider development. As more of these native apps become available, and as remote access technology improves, more enterprise content will be stored on these devices. Users are already synchronizing corporate content into public clouds for later retrieval on the devices.

Gartner believes that mobile device proliferation is inevitable and the only way that IT staff can maintain control is by separating mobile computing devices into three distinct device classes: trusted standard devices provided by the company, tolerated devices and non-supported devices. In this scenario, users are given a predefined list of supported technologies in each class, along with a budget for the projected amount that each selection consumes. Users can optimize the technologies according to their requirements without exceeding the budget.

"This is just the start for MDM. More data is being put on mobile devices, and enterprises are fast developing their own applications to support their mobile users. As mobile devices continue to displace traditional PCs, enterprises will look to their existing MDM systems to support more devices and enterprise applications and data," said Mr Redman. "MDM vendors are moving beyond security, to support enterprise and third-party applications, data and content. In the next two years, we will continue to see MDM platforms broaden out and become more enterprise mobile system management platforms, not just for devices alone."

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See top 10 weirdest phone insurance claims

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 28 Oktober 2012 | 21.43

ANI Oct 27, 2012, 03.40PM IST

(A team at www.mobileinsurance.co.uk…)

LONDON: The top 10 weirdest mobile phone insurance claims have been revealed, including a farmer who lost his iPhone inside a cow, a woman who baked her handset into a Victoria Sponge and another lady whose smartphone was snatched by a seagull.

A team at www.mobileinsurance.co.uk filtered through their insurance claims from the past year to compile this hilarious list, the Mirror reported.

On top of the list is a farmer from Devon who claimed his phone had disappeared inside the back end of one of his cows when he'd been using the torch on his iPhone whilst assisting the cow during calving. The phone later made an appearance, but was damaged.

He was followed by a lady from Nottingham, who is in her early 40s, claiming that she'd baked her Nokia 6303i into a Victoria Sponge she'd been making for her daughter's birthday. It didn't endure the heat of gas marks.

Another lady in her 30s claimed she'd been walking her Cocker Spaniel on Barry Island beach, Wales, when a seagull swooped down and took her Samsung Galaxy from her hand, the paper reported.

A woman in her late 20s from Bristol claimed the vibration function on her BlackBerry Bold 9900 phone had stopped working whilst she was using it as an adult toy.

A 40-year-old construction worker said his iPhone 4S had fallen out of his back pocket when he pulled his jeans down before sitting on the toilet. Not realising, he went about his business and flushed the chain. The phone didn't flush, but underwent serious water damage.

A man in his 30s claimed he'd been filming monkeys from the car window in Longleat Safari Park with his HTC One X when a monkey climbed on the roof and snatched it.

A couple re-enacting the "I'm King of the World!" scene from Titanic lost their phone over the side of their cruise ship, whilst trying to take a photo of themselves.

A pyrotechnician was setting up a show for the National Fireworks Championships in Plymouth, and having left his iPhone 3GS within the "blast zone", it was nowhere to be found when he returned post-show, having been fired 3,000 feet into the air before exploding in a stunning display.

A lady in her 20s from Liverpool admitted she'd thrown her HTC Desire X at her boyfriend, whom she'd discovered was cheating, but it missed him and hit a wall, breaking the handset.

Rather than paying 60 pounds for a ticket to see Blur at their sell-out Hyde Park shows, one customer tried to film the event on his iPhone from up a nearby tree - he got a little too excited as the band came on stage though, and dropped his phone onto the ground below.

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Nokia launches Asha 308, 309 in India

(Finnish handset major Nokia…)

CHENNAI: Finnish handset major Nokia is keen to take its popular Asha range of mobile phones across the globe as the company introduced two new models.

The company currently retails high-end smartphones under the Lumia range to over 100 countries.

"We have not gone globally (through Asha range of Phones)", Nokia India, regional general manager (south) TS Sridhar said unveiling dual-sim Asha 308 (Rs 6,149) and single sim Asha 309 (Rs 6,349) mobile phones today coinciding with their first anniversary.

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Top tips to set strong passwords

NEW DELHI: On the internet, passwords offer the first line of defence and they are necessary to keep your accounts safe. However, most of us while choosing passwords for various accounts on the internet bypass certain basic criteria. Mostly for the convenience of remembering, we tend to keep the same password for all the accounts. In most cases, easy-to-guess passwords are set thereby compromising online security.

A password is more of a lock than a key. Hence, it is really important to have strong passwords to your various services online so that you can defend against cyber criminals.

Here are some tips to what an ideal password should have:

*Always use a unique, alpha-numeric password for all your important accounts.

*Keep the password long and make sure it is alpha-numeric which means it should have combination of letters, numerals, symbols and, of course, it should be case sensitive. The minimum length of your password should be at least eight characters. What many people do not know is that you can also include spaces in between the characters.

For an eight character long password, after all the possible combinations, there are 6 quadrillion possibilities which is quite hard to guess.

*Make sure that your password does not contain your user name, real name or company name and also it is not a complete word. The other way is to reverse the order of the characters. For example, Hell0u2@ can also be written as @2u0lleH which is a strong password. Though it is not necessarily the best option, but still better than keeping words the way they are spelt.

*It is always advisable to keep changing your passwords regularly and also making sure that password recovery options are safe and up-to-date in case you forget (which will happen often!).

How to see if my password is strong or not
The password that you might have set meets all the criteria mentioned previously and still be a weak password.

For example, mouse2u@ meets all the criteria for a strong password listed above, but is still weak because it contains a complete word. M0u5E 2u @ is a stronger option because it replaces some of the letters in the complete word with numbers and also includes spaces.

You can also check the strength of your password at: microsoft.com/en-gb/security/ pc-security/password-checker.aspx

Use a unique password
Since most people have accounts on different websites and for numerous services, it is always advisable that you keep a unique password for each. This prevents hackers form stealing your password from a less secure website. However, if you find it difficult to remember different passwords then choose unique passwords for important accounts like your email and online banking.

How do I remember my passwords?
Remembering multiple passwords for most of us proves to be a difficult task. However, if you follow these tips, remembering passwords can be easy.

*Whatever password you plan to set, relate it to an event, date or a hobby that is easy to remember.

*Create an acronym for that piece of information which you want to set as your password. For example, pick a phrase that is meaningful to you, like I graduated on 21 June, 2005. So, a probable password option can be i6rad/JU21,zo 05

*Shorthand, misspellings, adding spaces in between letters or words give strength to a password. Turn words into shorthand or intentionally misspell a word.

* Keep your recovery email address information always updated. Services like Gmail, for instance, also offer the facility to receive password reset codes through SMS. Most of the websites ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password.

*If you have saved you password on your PC, then choose a unique name for the file and keep it hidden.

What other precautions should I take to keep my accounts safe
Most of the security breach cases happen due to installation of malicious software on PCs. Here is a list of Don'ts that you should follow:

*Don't set dictionary words as passwords

*Never set your date of birth or your family member's date of birth as password. Avoid using your company's name, phone number, bank account number or any other vital information in your password.

*Never ever write your passwords on any paper or any place from where they are easily accessible.

*Simple passwords spelled in reverse order, common misspellings and abbreviations or common patterns and combinations.

*Don't accept any end-user agreement without reading the fine print first.

* Never retain spam emails in your inbox.

*When you are visiting any new website, never click ad links or flash ads no matter how appealing or real-looking they are. Also, never enter your email account details on such websites.

*Passwords such as 123456, password1, abc123, 123abc, qwerty, iloveyou, iloveu etc. should be strictly avoided. According to a report by SplashData, these passwords are an example of some of the worst kept secrets by people globally.

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Nokia out of top 5 globally, tops in India

Finnish mobile handset manufacturer Nokia, which is facing a major crisis in global sales, still tops the list of mobile handset market in India.

NEW DELHI: Finnish mobile handset manufacturer Nokia, which is facing a major crisis in global sales, still tops the list of mobile handset market in India even as it has been displaced from the fifth spot in global sales by the beleaguered BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM).

According to a report by Cybermedia, Nokia had 22.2 per cent share of the Indian handset market in terms of total unit shipments in the first half of 2012, followed by Samsung with 13 per cent and Micromax in the third spot with 5.5 per cent share.

India's total mobile handset shipments topped 102.43 million units, of which 5.50 million were smartphones, as per the report. Samsung topped the list of smartphone shipments, followed by Nokia and RIM.

The report also revealed that Android (with 56.4% market share) was the leading operating system (OS) in India, followed by Symbian (17.4% share), BlackBerry (12.1% share), Bada (8.5% share), iOS (3.0% share) and Windows Mobile (2.6% share) on a base of 5.50 million units, during the same period.

India is one of the few markets where Nokia still has a hold. As per an IDC report, the Finnish company has now dropped off the Top 5 list of smartphone vendors, which is led by Samsung and Apple at number 1 and 2 positions. Nokia was replaced by RIM at fifth position whose shipment volumes appear to have flattened though the company posted the second-highest year-over-year decline among any the leading vendors.

According to Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Nokia's share losses and the company's transition away from Symbian to Windows Phone has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months.

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Windows 8: An OS made for touchscreens

Even Microsoft tacitly acknowledges that Windows 8 works best when it is paired with a touchscreen. To test this claim, we spent some days with a Windows 8 tablet.

We talked about Windows 8 on a laptop (and desktop) a few days ago. It is a good OS but with dual personality and on a laptop, without a touchscreen, this affects the user experience in a rather negative way. Even Microsoft tacitly acknowledges that Windows 8 works best when it is paired with a touchscreen. To test this claim, we spent some days with a Windows 8 tablet.

Made by Samsung, the tablet that we used was powered by a Core i5 Sandy Bridge processor and 4GB RAM. It was rather thick and was prone to overheating because of the powerful hardware inside it. But fortunately, this tablet was just a concept device. It will not go on sale in the market.

The Windows tablets that will be available in the market will be likely less powerful than the one we used. Though this shouldn't be an issue because prototype tablet was overkill. The actual tablets are also going to be much more sleeker, with better design and improved finish.

Windows 8 and a tablet go together a lot better than Windows 8 and a desktop. There are two main reasons for it.

One, the gestures that feel jarring with keyboard and mouse seem natural and obvious with a tablet. Just swipe down from the top bezel to close an app. Flick and cycle through open apps by swiping right from the left bezel. Swiping up from the bottom bezel brings up the options while the right bezel is used to bring up charms. It all happens in fluid and fast manner. There is no lag.

Second reason why Windows 8 works well with the touchscreen is due to the design language it uses. Modern UI uses big and beautiful tiles. These are easy to click with fingers. Also, apps with Modern UI have lots of white space. This again makes a lot of sense on touchscreen as various options can be clicked with finger taps with ease. There is no risk of hitting two options.

Of course, some issues persist. Because Windows 8 works best as a tablet OS when it is being used in Metro UI mode, we hated going to the 'desktop mode', which is similar to the environment in Windows 7. Unfortunately, the Windows app store, which is the only place to download apps with Modern UI, is still not well stocked. This means there are times when Windows 8 tablets users will have to leave the Modern World and enter the OS of yore. Though app situation is improving at an astounding rate.

Most Windows tablets will come with keyboard docks or other similar accessories that would allow users to convert them into a 'laptop'. For example, Surface, the tablet made by Microsoft, comes with keyboard accessories. Using Windows 8 device with a keyboard or mouse is not as satisfying as using it on a tablet. But the flexibility is a welcome addition. Pairing the tablet with a keyboard helps in certain cases. For example, while watching a film on the tablet you get an email and you have to type a rather long reply. Well, you can connect the keyboard to the tablet and use it to type and send the mail. After that you can detach the keyboard and go back to the video.

Overall, the tablet experience with Windows 8 is better than what iPad or Android tablets offer. The various gestures are ingenious way of navigating around the OS. More importantly, deep within it is a full-fat operating system. This means, many tablets powered by Windows 8 will accept pen drives, handle demanding tasks like video editing and run complex PC games like Call of Duty or Need For Speed.

Multitasking, which feels limited on a desktop because a user can just see two windows at a time, is so much better on a tablet. The reason why it feels better on a tablet is because of the context. Android tablets or iPad can only run one app at a time. In many cases, they even have difficulty keeping apps running in the background. On Windows 8 tablet, you can access two apps at a time and all apps, irrespective of number, run well in the background. For desktop this sort of multitasking may feel lame but for a tablet it is a huge improvement.

The only issue at the moment, as we said earlier is lack of apps. Microsoft will have to get that part right before Windows 8 tablets can go head-to-head against iPad. All else looks pretty for Microsoft's first proper tablet OS.

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Microsoft vs Apple: Roles reversed as Surface takes on iPad

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 27 Oktober 2012 | 21.43

WASHINGTON: It used to be that Microsoft was the evil empire, and Apple the scrappy underdog.

Now the roles are reversed, and Microsoft is challenging a dominant Apple, which has staked its claim as the leader of the sizzling mobile sector for tablets and smartphones, as well as the biggest seller of digital music.

Microsoft, still the biggest force in the PC market with its Windows operating system, is making a new, belated effort on Apple's turf.

The Redmond, Washington-based giant has launched its own branded Surface tablet with prices and specifications similar to those of the iPad, and a new Windows 8 operating system designed for tablets.

Microsoft also is making an aggressive push in mobile phones with its Windows Phone 8 platform being used by Nokia, Samsung, HTC and others.

And it has created its own music service as an alternative to Apple's iTunes, with 30 million songs and additional features offered by internet radio operators.

"Microsoft is the challenger now, and it is taking a lot of pages from Apple's playbook," said Roger Kay, an analyst and consultant with Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Kay said Microsoft is learning from Apple about the advantages of "having control of the integrated stack," meaning software and hardware, along with other services to keep users within the company's ecosystem.

But he said Microsoft has "constraints" because its updates must remain compatible with older devices, making the task more complex.

"Microsoft can write software which is as good as Apple's but it has to be free of the constraints," Kay said.

"Apple can and has said to customers, 'Throw out all your old devices, because we have new ones.' Microsoft has been at a disadvantage."

He said Microsoft has the potential for a fresh start with the new tablet, which integrates hardware and software called Windows RT in a new product.

But the tech landscape is far different than in previous Microsoft-Apple clashes. Amazon claims some 22 percent of the tablet market, and Google and its partners using the Android system are a major force in mobile.

But Microsoft appears to be digging in for the long-haul by getting into tablets, the mobile market and music.

Kash Rangan, analyst at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, said Microsoft appropriately priced the new tablet starting at $499, the same as the entry-level iPad. This will avoid "cannibalisation" of products which impact the Windows franchise.

And because Microsoft will include its Office software in the tablets, they "appear less pricey to users relative to iPads," said the analyst, who expects about 5.2 million of the Microsoft devices to be sold over the coming year.

In music, Microsoft is making a new offensive with its Xbox music service more than a year after it pulled the plug on its Zune digital media player, a would-be rival to Apple's iPod.

However some analysts said the new service might fare better.

"The service takes aim at a fractured digital music landscape (where) consumers have to use multiple services such as iTunes, Pandora and Spotify today and do not have one simple destination that allows them to do everything," said Richard Greenfield at BTIG Research.

With the various initiatives, Microsoft is seeking to build an "ecosystem" like Apple, which can deliver the devices and services to remain connected to consumers.

"People are looking to buy a complete package, that's what they buy when they go to Apple," said Jack Gold, analyst with J Gold Associates.

Frank Gillett at Forrester Research said that while Microsoft is used on some 95 percent of PCs, its share of all "personal devices" -- which include PCs, smartphones, and tablets -- is only around 30 percent.

The new initiatives "will simply stop the shrinking, maintaining Microsoft's share at about 30 percent," he said.

"By 2016, we believe that Microsoft will have about 27 percent of tablet unit sales, but only about 14 percent of smartphone sales -- and some of us are very skeptical they'll even get to 14 percent."

Gold said while Microsoft may not be able to dominate in tablets or phones, its strategy appears to "kickstart" the market to keep the Windows platform relevant.

"You never want to sell Microsoft short," Gold said.

"They have a lot of resources and they're not a company that gives up. They are applying significant amounts of resources to transition the company to address the new market realities. And they've reinvented themselves several times already."

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Microsoft vs Apple: Roles reversed as Surface takes centrestage