New mobile can check pulse, send ambulance

You probably have a good reason to worry if you get a call on your mobile phone with the following message: "Sir, an ambulance is on the way."

That's the worst call you can receive if you buy a newEPI Life mobile phone, which comes complete with mini electrocardiogram.

It's a new phone developed in Singapore that takes your pulse when you press your fingers on a receptor, and sends the results to a 24-hour medical call centre.

"We think it's a revolution. It has clinical significance," EPI medical chief Dr Chow U-Jin said at the mobile industry's annual conference in Barcelona.

"Anywhere in the world you can use it as a phone but you are also able to transfer an ECG and get a reply," Chow said.

"If you get a normal reply it will just be an SMS," he added.

"If it's severe, you get a call: 'Sir, an ambulance is on the way'."

EPI Life has three hospitals in Singapore, all of which carry the phone users' history. EPI Life costs USD 700, the price of a top range smartphone, and 2,000 of them have been on the market since 2010.

"The most obvious targets are people with heart disease," Chow said. Depending on your health or nervous disposition you can choose from three packages offering 10, 30 or 100 tests a month.

There is now a mini USD 99 version with a smaller receptor that links via Bluetooth connection to your smartphone, which is due for launch soon in Spain and France.

The EPI Life is one of a series of mobile health initiatives unveiled in Barcelona. Many of the services rely on SMS or MMS messages that even older mobiles can receive.

Health Company, which covers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, sends medical information about sexuality, obesity, children's health etc to about 430,000 customers in Arab and English.

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Facebook adds civil unions to profiles

Facebook on Thursday began letting its more than 600 million members indicate whether they are in civil unions or domestic partnerships in what was seen as a victory for same-sex couples .

Facebook added "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership" to the list of relationship options in profiles.

The list has long included single, married, divorced, open relationship, and "it's complicated."

Facebook said the additions were "highly requested" by users and that the California-based online social networking star wanted to let people "genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships" in the virtual community.

Facebook members can chose whether to make gender and relationship status part of profile information made public in the online community.

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

Nokia CEO says final Microsoft deal in couple of months

Nokia and Microsoft will sign a final software deal in a couple months time, chief executive of the Finnish firm said on Friday.

The deal would be signed "in a couple of months (or) it might take a bit longer," Chief Executive Stephen Elop said in a meeting with Finnish journalists.

Nokia will adopt Windows Phone software across its smartphones, replacing its home-grown platform, the firms said last week.

Nokia shares dropped more than 20 percent after the strategy turnaround, but industry executives have lauded the new alliance as good for competition and innovation.

Elop said he had sold all his Microsoft shares on Feb. 17 and bought 150,000 shares in Nokia.

Elop started at the helm of Nokia last September and the Canadian is the first non-Finn to head the firm.

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

Destructive cyber attack inevitable: NSA chief

The US National Security Agency chief urged top computer security specialists to harden the nation's critical infrastructure against inevitable destructive cyber attacks.

"This is an important time," NSA and Cyber Command director Gen. Keith Alexander said during a presentation at a premier RSA Conference in San Francisco.

"Most of the destructive tools being developed haven't been used; we need to use this window of opportunity to develop defenses."

Two days earlier, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn gave a similar warning, saying the capability clearly exists for malicious software to cause real-world damage at power plants, water supplies and other vital points.

"Few weapons in the history of warfare, once created, have gone unused," Lynn said during a speech at RSA.

"It is possible to imagine attacks on military networks or critical infrastructure-like our transportation system and energy sector-that cause severe economic damage, physical destruction, or even loss of life."

Last month, Russia called on NATO to track down the culprits behind a Stuxnet computer worm that targeted a Russian-built Iranian nuclear power plant, saying the incident could have triggered a new Chernobyl.

Secure military networks will matter little if power grid cuts or other government systems are disabled by cyber attacks, according to Lynn.

He called for extending military computer defenses toprivately held parts of the infrastructure key to the nation functioning.

"During a natural disaster, like a hurricane, military troops and helicopters are often used by FEMA to help deliver relief," Lynn said.

"In a similar vein, the military's cyber capabilities will be available to civilian leaders to help protect the networks that support government operations and critical infrastructure."

Private operations that the government wants to guard include companies that supply defense department equipment, according to Alexander.

He argued that the military network's "secure zone" needed to be extended to all critical resources in partnerships with the private sector.

Alexander maintained that national security agents and the computer wizards running company networks could work together without infringing on people's rights.
Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Phones that stand out from the crowd

It is the modern phone maker's dilemma: In the touch-screen era, how do you stand out from the crowd when most phones are near-identical glassy rectangles?

To get some attention, hardware makers are being forced to find new ways to appeal to buyers who are less interested in particulars like processor speeds than in what applications the devices can run, and how easily they can access their e-mail and Facebook on it.

"At the end of the day, there's only so much you can do with a piece of glass," said Chris Jones , an analyst with the research firm Canalys . "Software can make or break a phone."

At the Mobile World Congress here this week, some phone makers are responding by introducing devices with a twist, hoping that they can grab a buyer's eye with a unique feature like 3-D capabilities. Others, like HTC, are buying or investing in gaming and entertainment companies whose services they can pipe into their mobile devices.

When it comes to applications, the iPhone still has the biggest selection. But phone makers seeking a strong rival to Apple's healthy app economy have turned to Android, the mobile operating system created by Google that is the core software for devices from dozens of manufacturers.

Andy Rubin , one of the chief architects and engineers behind Android at Google, said Android provided the "basic tools" to allow phone makers to create new models faster, since they did not have to worry about the phone's software.