Technology News and Gadgets Updates: 03/16/11

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

HTC Unveils Desire Z in India

Cellphone maker HTC Corporation today said it has launched smartphone HTC Desire Z at Rs 25,590.

HTC Desire Z operates on Android-based mobile operating system.

"We are upbeat about the prospects of the Desire Z and believe that Indian mobile phone users will enjoy HTC's innovations in the new HTC Desire Z," HTC India Country Head Ajay Sharma said in a statement.

HTC Desire Z has a 3.7 inch touch screen that enables surfing the web with a mere touch and a dedicated QWERTY keyboard for quick texting and emails. Other features include HD video recording and a 5-megapixel camera with flash, the statement added.

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Google plans partnership with VeriFone Systems

Google is working on a potential partnership with electronic-payments company VeriFone Systems, as the search giant moves to convince shoppers to use their mobile devices to pay for goods in retail stores, according to a media report.

"Google, as part of its goal to allow shoppers to use their mobile devices, rather than physical credit cards, to pay for goods in retail stores, is working on a potential partnership with electronic-payments company VeriFone Systems Inc," The Wall Street Journal reported citing a source.

VeriFone makes what are called point-of-sale terminals that stores across the country use to process credit-card payments.

As part of the potential tie-up with Google, VeriFone's terminals would be able to accept payments from mobile devices that are embedded with technology called near-field communication, or NFC, the report added.

Google's Android mobile-phone software powers hundreds of different types of devices. The latest Android software, called Gingerbread, includes support for NFC technology while other mobile-device makers, including BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd, have said they would build smartphones embedded with the technology, the report added.

Internet is 'greatest spying machine': Assange

Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks , has warned that the internet was the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and an obstacle to free speech.

Speaking to students at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University , the former computer hacker claimed that the internet, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, gave governments greater scope for snooping.

"There was actually a Facebook revolt in Cairo three or four years ago," Assange explained.

"It was very small... After it, Facebook was used to round up all the principal participants and they were then beaten, interrogated and incarcerated.

"So while the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing... it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," he added.

New finding could lead to better memory chips

Scientists have discovered a way to improve the performance of ferroelectric materials, which have the potential to make memory devices with more storage capacity than magnetic hard drives and faster write speed and longer lifetimes than flash memory.

In ferroelectric memory the direction of molecules' electrical polarization serves as a 0 or a 1 bit. An electric field is used to flip the polarization, which is how data is stored.

With his colleagues at University of Michigan and collaborators from Cornell University, Penn State University, and University of Wisconsin, Madison, Xiaoqing Pan, a professor in the U-M Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has designed a material system that spontaneously forms small nano-size spirals of the electric polarization at controllable intervals, which could provide natural budding sites for the polarization switching and thus reduce the power needed to flip each bit.

"To change the state of a ferroelectric memory, you have to supply enough electric field to induce a small region to switch the polarization. With our material, such a nucleation process is not necessary," Pan said. "The nucleation sites are intrinsically there at the material interfaces."

Laser diodes promise new age of Internet

A new laser device could make high-speed computing faster and more reliable, opening the door to a new age of the Internet.

Professor Dennis Deppe at the University of Central Florida has created miniature laser diodes that emit more intense light than those currently used.

The light emits a single wavelength, making it ideal for use in CD players, laser pointers and optical mice for computers, in addition to high-speed data transmission.

Until now, the biggest challenge has been the failure rate of these tiny devices. They don't work very well when they face huge workload as the stress makes them crack, according to a Central Florida statement.

The smaller size and elimination of non-semiconductor materials means the new devices could potentially be used in heavy data transmission, which is critical in developing the next generation of the Internet.

Easy & free online image editing

All you need is a PC and a stable broadband internet connection ? and you can have a world of image editing tools available in an instant. Sure, they may not offer the complete advanced set of features that an expensive image editor like Adobe Photoshop offers, but for most common tasks, they do very nicely!

AVIARY.COM
Aviary's mission is to make image editing and creation software accessible to everyone. Phoenix is the name given to Aviary's image editor, and it is an expansive, intuitive image editor with many of the features that you would find in an expensive paid application like Photoshop. Aviary also offers various other tools like a colour editor (Toucan), effects editor (Peacock), vector editor (Raven), audio editor (Myna) and an image markup tool (Falcon). No registration is required to start using the tools, and the only slight catch is that Aviary retains a license to display any works you make/upload to the public or in any external publication in a way that promotes Aviary.

PIXLR.COM
Another full-featured photo editor, Pixlr is available in 23 languages and is built using Flash. The biggest advantage of Pixlr is speed: it starts up fast and images are loaded instantly. This is because images are opened locally in the browser and not uploaded to Pixlr at all. This means that the images don't leave your computer and it specifically benefits those working with larger images and those with limited or slow internet connections. Pixlr.com also offers Pixlr Express , a quick editor for those only looking to make cursory changes and Pixlr Grabber, a free Firefox and Chrome extension that makes it easier to open photos in Pixlr.

Review: Olive Nexus VR-9

As modern netizens, getting online is probably a vital part of your day. Olive's Nexus VR-9 is a portable Wi-Fi router that makes it possible to share a single connection with all your Wi-Fi enabled gadgets. All you need is a high-speed USB data card. The idea is simple: plug in a data card into the router's USB port and it instantly creates a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever you are.

At home or in office, multiple laptops can share the same data connection. You could provide wireless internet for Wi-Fi phones, iPods and tablets. On the move, your laptop and portable gadget continue to have internet access as long as your battery lasts. It comes with a wall charger to keep plugged in at home/office. On the move, the battery is good enough to power it for a respectable 3 hours and 50 minutes (at least two devices were connected throughout this time in our testing). Aside from the portability, the biggest advantage is the savings it can offer. Priced at 3,500, the Olive Nexus VR-9 could easily pay for itself over a few months.

Let's compare the costs involved: a 10GB nationwide plan from Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus costs about Rs 1,200 per month (including taxes). However, if you take individual 3G SIM cards for your phone, tablet and laptop (each with a 3GB data limit per month), it will cost you Rs 950 each (including taxes) or Rs 2,850 per month. You'll get similar speeds to 3G, better and more consistent coverage (3G still has teething issues) and a saving of Rs 1,650 per month! Another plus is that the router has surprisingly good range, despite not having an external antenna. It can easily cover a large hall (30 feet long by 40 feet wide) if there are no obstructions. But let's look at the downsides. Initial setup for the Nexus VR-9 is a pain.

For someone unfamiliar with how to set up a wireless router , setup will be very frustrating. The user manual is a PDF with a staggering 66 A4 pages of instructions. In a nutshell the process is: reset the router by pressing and holding the reset switch for 8 seconds (to clear any previous data), connect the router to a PC with an Ethernet cable, enter http://192.168.123.254 into a web browser to open the router settings and input all the necessary information (Wi-Fi network name, security protocols, Wi-Fi access passwords, dial numbers for whatever data card provider you are using?which are not provided, and your data card username and password).

Reboot the router and hopefully, it should work. If not ? repeat from step 1. Some competition is Tata Photon's WiFi device?priced at Rs 6,599, it provides internet connectivity for up to 5 devices, has a 4-hour battery life and is a lot smaller than Olive's VR-9 . Another option is Vodafone's R201 'MyFi' which costs Rs 5,500 and claims a battery life of 4 hours. Apart from the lower cost, the Olive still gives you the advantage of choosing between a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, or just taking the USB data card and plugging it directly into a laptop.

Olive Nexus VR-9

Price: Rs 3,500

Features
802.11b/g EVDO/HSPA router
USB 2.0 port, multi user connectivity
1700mAh battery, carry case included
PROS: Inexpensive, good range
CONS: Frustrating initial setup process

Also See

Vodafone R201 MyFi

Price: Rs 5,500

3G portable 802.11 b/g WiFi router
SIM card slot, Micro SDHC slot
1400mAh battery, 90 grams

Indian IT companies get ready to log out from quake-hit Japan

Four days into Japan's biggest crisis since World War II, India's top tech firms have started bringing back employees and moving work to their centres outside Japan. On Friday last week, the country was h IT by an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter Scale that unleashed a tsunami that swept parts of Japan.

The situation has been aggravated by the three nuclear reactor explosions the country has witnessed since then.

While accounting for a meagre 1% of India's total software exports worth $60 billion, Japan has been one of the most lucrative markets for outsourcing firms with top customers such as Toshiba , Sony and Nisaan opening up offshoring to cut costs and cope with scarcity of locally-trained IT staff.

Several Indian IT players have centres in Japan with the larger ones like Infosys and Wipro employing over 400 people in the country. Infosys said it was bringing back most of its employees to India and that even the Japanese nationals among them had been given an option of shifting to India for a while and working from here. Infosys has been talking to the Indian government for this. The company will continue to support clients locally and from offshore locations till the situation stabilises.

Government can switch off your internet if necessary

The Indian government has armed itself with powers to 'switch off' or kill the internet during times of national emergencies, becoming one of the first few countries to assume such far reaching authority. Even as the US and other western nations debate the judiciousness of giving the government's complete control to shut down cyber traffic, India has moved a step ahead and incorporated a provision under the IT Act of 2008, giving the Central government, or any of its officers specially authorised by it, to block the internet if necessary.

The shutdown can happen in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, its defense, security of its states, friendly relations with foreign states or for public order. Failure to comply will result in imprisonment of up to seven years.

The implications of this move are immense as it gives the government overriding powers over a fast-growing and widely used resource, and one that is becoming increasingly crucial in conducting commerce and social interaction. The country has about 70 million internet users ? a figure growing at about 25% every year.

"Where the Central government or any of its officer specially authorised by it in this behalf is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence relating to above, it may subject to the provisions of sub-sections (2) for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order direct any agency of the government or intermediary to block access by the public or cause to be blocked for access by public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource," 69A of the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 says.

The amendment was pushed through in the weeks following the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Supporters of an internet 'kill switch' ? as it is being popularly called ? say it will enable countries to prevent the spread of rumours and false information during times of national crisis and help coordinate a coherent response without any sign of public panic. But it can also be misused by governments to shut down legitimate protests and exercise illegal power in the face of public opposition.

The governments in the North Africa and the Middle East have been resorting to this tactic during the violent protests triggered in January this year against despotic rule.

The plan has drawn predictable ire from bloggers, activists and lawyers but the government also has its supporters. "If it's in national security's interest, switching off the internet for a short period is not unwelcome," says Amrita Chaudhary, director at Cyber Cafe Association of India. "It is not a bad idea to switch off the internet for security reasons.

But we should distinguish between national security and privacy," Naresh Ajwani, secretary at Internet Service Providers of India, said. Not satisfied with this provision, India is now moving ahead to develop alternate plans in case the 'switch' does not work. The draft plan by the Cabinet Committee on Security and Ministry of Home Affairs along with Ministry of IT & Communications to 'choke' the internet at will, which ET reported last year, is also learnt to be in its final stages.

Choking refers to handicapping the servers by subjecting it to multiple requests and attacks and preventing it from functioning effectively. Some experts believe that this may be easy to implement than a complete kill as the latter will be challenged in courts. "Although it may be technically possible to block the net in India, theoretically it may be very difficult given the dynamic nature of the constitution and the judiciary," cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said. If the government decides to block the internet, it may be challenged in any Indian court and would be subject to judicial review.

YouTube buys Irish video tech co Green Parrot

Google Inc's online video service YouTube said on Tuesday it has bought video technology company Green Parrot Pictures for an undisclosed sum.

The Dublin, Ireland-based company specializes in providing intellectual licensing and high quality picture manipulation technology. Its video improvement technology has been used in Hollywood movies like "Lord of the Rings," "SpiderMan" and "King Kong," among others.

It was founded in 2004 by Chief Executive Anil Kokaram, an associate professor at Trinity College in Dublin. Kokaram and his team will be moving to California in coming months.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011