India to have 400 mn 3G connection by 2015

The number of third generation (3G) subscribers in India will reach 400 million by 2015 as the telecom operators ramp-up rollout of the high-end mobile telephony service, said a Wireless Intelligence study.

"India's 3G connections are set to grow three-fold between 2011 and 2015 as operators ramp-up rollout of new 3G networks," said the study titled "India 3G rollout".

According to the report, the telecom operators are likely to invest $2.5 billion in building the new networks and rolling out 3G services in 2011.

"Indian operators spent a combined $15 billion in acquiring Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) 3G spectrum at auction last year and are forecast to jointly invest a further $2.5 billion in building the new networks and rolling out 3G services in 2011," it added.

The study notes that over 80 percent of 3G connections will be based on WCDMA in five years, with the remaining 20 percent on CDMA-based 3G networks.

However, 2011 has already seen a succession of rival launches, including Bharti (in January), Aircel (February) and Vodafone (March) and it forecasts that all new WCDMA-based operators will have launched services by June 2011.

Soon, sensors that can track heart-attack damage

In what could revolutionise the treatment of heart patients, scientists have developed tiny implantable magnetic sensors which they say can accurately indicate the severity of a cardiac attack.

Developed by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the sensors can even read the severity of a heart attack days after the damage happened.

These sensors, the researchers said, could soon be used to monitor people at high risk of having a heart attack, the NewScientist reported.

According to scientists, following a heart attack, some biomarkers, unique proteins released by heart cells as they die, remain in the blood.

Some hang around for a day, while others remain for a week. So a blood sample drawn days after a suspected heart attack contains only a partial collection of these proteins, complicating diagnosis.

To examine this theory, the MIT researchers used three disc-shaped magnetic sensors implanted under the skin of a mouse and tracked the total amount of biomarkers released over a 72-hour period following an induced heart attack.

Soon, camera that makes seeing the 'invisible' possible

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology are developing a camera based on the science similar to the type used in airport body scanners to detect everything from defects in aerospace vehicles or concrete bridges to skin cancer.

The research team, led by Reza Zoughi, of the Missouri S and T, has developed a patented handheld camera that uses millimeter and microwave signals to non-intrusively peek inside materials and structures in real time.

“In the not-so-distant future, the technology may be customized to address many critical inspection needs, including detecting defects in thermal insulating materials that are found in spacecraft heat insulating foam and tiles, space habitat structures, aircraft radomes and composite-strengthened concrete bridge members,” said Zoughi.

The technology could help medical professionals detect and monitor a variety of skin conditions in humans, including cancer and burns. It also has the potential to help Homeland Security personnel detect concealed contraband (such as weapons) or reduce the number of passenger pat downs at airports.

Facebook to launch Samaritans suicide risk alert system

Social networking site Facebook is set to launch a new system that would allow users to report friends who they think may be contemplating suicide.

The feature is being run in collaboration with Samaritans, which said several people had used it during a test phase.

Anyone worried about a friend can fill out a form, detailing their concerns, which is passed to the site''s moderators. It follows reports of several cases where Facebook users announced their intention to commit suicide online.

The reporting page asks for the address (URL) of the Facebook page where the messages are posted, the full name of the user and details of any networks they are members of.

Suicide-related alerts will be escalated to the highest level, for attention by Facebook''s user operations team.

"When a report is made, they then assess whether they need to call the police immediately or forward it on to us," the BBC quoted Samaritans'' Nicola Peckett, as saying.

For the last three months, the system had been operating in a trial mode without publicity, during which it received several genuine reports and no hoaxes, said Samaritans.

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 to launch E7 smartphone for Rs 35,000 in Indian markets

Mobile phone major Nokia today set it is all set to launch its all-in-one smartphone Nokia E7 in the Indian market soon.

"The company has commenced pre-booking for E7 smartphone today. The E7 smartphone will be available for Rs 35,000 per handset across India," Nokia India Vice-President & Managing Director D Shivakumar told reporters here.

Consumers will have the opportunity to experience the Nokia E7 live at Nokia priority stores in select cities and towns across the country from today, Shivakumar said.

Nokia E7 has large 4 inch screen, with a 4 line QWERTY keypad. It offers multimedia performance and a host of productivity applications including live stock prices.

"We are confident that with the Nokia E7 we will expand the smartphone market in India," Shivakumar said.

Shivakumar rang the closing bell at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to signify the opening of the pre-booking for Nokia E7 here.

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

Android tops BlackBerry in US: comScore

Google's Android has surged past Blackberry maker Research in Motion to become the leading smartphone platform in the United States, market tracking firm comScore said Monday.

Google's Android operating system captured the top spot in the United States for the first time with a 31.2 percent smartphone market share for the three months ending in January, comScore said.

RIM was next with a 30.4 percent market share, followed by Apple with 24.7 percent, Microsoft with 8.0 percent and Palm with 3.2 percent.

According to comScore, 234 million Americans owned mobile devices at the end of January and 65.8 million owned smartphones.

Samsung was the top handset manufacturer overall with a 24.9-percent share of the US market, comScore said, followed by LG with 20.8 percent, Motorola with 16.5 percent, RIM with 8.6 percent and Apple with 7.0 percent.

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

iPad to push out navigation charts from cockpits

Apple .s iPad won approval from US regulators to display navigational charts for some charter pilots, a step that may speed the end of the decades-old tradition of paper maps in the cockpit.

With the Federal Aviation Administration endorsing iPads in a test project at Executive Jet Management, a unit of Warren Buffett’s NetJets, the way is open for pilots at airlines and other commercial carriers to seek authorisation for the devices, said Les Dorr, an agency spokesman.

IPad use by professional pilots would support Apple’s goal of winning more business buyers. The company’s total corporate sales may rise 51% to $11.3 billion in 2011, said Brian Marshall, a Gleacher & Co analyst in San Francisco. Revenue was $76.3 billion last year. “This is mission-critical computing,” said Marshall, who has a “buy” rating on Cupertino, California-based Apple.

“For them to win this type of approval speaks volumes about the level of sophistication of what can be accomplished with the iPad.”

Charts showing data such as airports and radio frequencies for a state or region have been staples of US flying since the 1930s, when they replaced the road maps used by early aviators. With private pilots already able to use electronic navigation devices, the practice of following a pencil-on-paper route has been fading in recent years.

Opera opens mobile software store with Appia

Opera Software unveiled on Monday a deal with privately held Appia Inc to run a mobile software store for more than 100 million users of mobile browsers of the Norwegian firm.

Opera said in its testing state, the store had more than 15 million users in February, achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day, and establishing it among the top 10 mobile application stores globally.

Since Apple Inc's App Store opened in 2008 and created the market for mobile software sales, dozens of companies have opened their own stores. The revenue-sharing deal between Opera and Appia, which changed its name from PocketGear last month, lasts three years. The deal doubles Appia's 100 million subscriber base.

Opera is the world's most used mobile browser ahead of Apple, Nokia and Google Inc's Android, controlling 21.2 percent of the market in February, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

The iPhone, Nokia and Android browsers all have 15 to 18 percent market shares.

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

Google Maps now helps users beat traffic jams

Google upgraded its popular Google Maps on Monday to suggest faster routes to drivers based on real-time traffic conditions.

Google Maps Navigation, released in beta, or test mode, shows various routes along with estimated travel times and uses red, green and yellow color-coding to show how traffic is moving at any given time.

"Before today, Navigation would choose whichever route was fastest, without taking current traffic conditions into account," Roy Williams, a software engineer with the Google Maps team, said in a blog post.

"It would also generate additional alternate directions, such as the shortest route or one that uses highways instead of side roads."

But from now on, "our routing algorithms will also apply our knowledge of current and historical traffic to select the fastest route from those alternates," he said. "Navigation will automatically guide you along the best route given the current traffic conditions."

The new feature can be used in North America and Europe where both Google Maps Navigation and real-time traffic data are available, Google said.

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

New Internet protocol creates challenges

The internet, which exhausted four billion-odd website addresses in its present form last month, will now have to move to a new format. The new one will allow greater number of addresses and as it does, organisations will face challenges adapting to the new system. Lack of awareness coupled with new vulnerabilities are likely to create security problems, experts say.

When we type a website address, the computer breaks it up into a mix of unique 32 zeros and ones. This binary code identifies and locates the computer on which the website resides. Techies call it internet protocol (IP) and the one that got exhausted is version four, also known as IPv4. The new system, IPv6, will have a mix of 128 zeros and ones. It will offer practically unending number of web addresses. To boot, IPv5 was an experimental system that never went public.

The security issues surface since IPv4 and IPv6 are weighed the same for security threats, right now. “The real issue is lack of awareness among network professionals, security architects and staff. They are not well-versed with the security nuances of IPv6 and lack expertise to handle the new protocol. This would remain a real danger for several months till everyone is trained. Security devise support in handling IPv6 traffic will also play a major role,” says Vishak Raman, regional director - India and Saarc, Fortinet.

Although some blocks of IPv4 addresses are still with domain name registrars of countries including India, the price of such addresses is expected to spiral. So, it might become cheaper to get IPv6 addresses, pushing firms and other organisations to buy new protocol-linked addresses.

Chinese supercomputers to use homemade microchips

China-made supercomputers will stop using foreign microchips in 2011 and start using their own core components by the end of this year, one of the country's leading scientists has said.

Hu Weiwu, chief developer of the Loongson series of microchips at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said the "Dawning 6000" supercomputer, jointly developed by the Institute of Computing Technology of the CAS and the Dawning Information Industry Company (DIIC), will adopt homemade microchips for the first time as its core component.

The new supercomputer will have a computing speed of more than 1,000 trillion operations a second, China Daily reported. It will be available as early as this summer.

Making supercomputers with China-made microchips is one of the nation's major science and technology projects.

Three organisations - the Institute of Computing Technology of the CAS, Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology and the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) - have their own supercomputer projects.

Google purges tainted apps from Android phones

Google has remotely purged Android smartphones of applications tainted with malicious code that could take control of the handsets and steal information.

Mobile phone security firm LookOut said the purpose of the "DroidDream" code was to "download additional applications and install them silently as system applications on the device. "DroidDream could be considered a powerful zombie agent that can install any applications silently and execute code with root privileges at will," it said.

Google was patching the vulnerability that cyber crooks could exploit and adding measures to prevent applications containing the "malware" from getting into the Android Market of programs for mobile devices.

Google yanked the contaminated applications from the Android Market and then took the unusual step of hitting a "kill switch" that remotely removed from smartphones any of the more than 50 applications containing the dangerous code.