News

ANTI-WI-FI PAINT WILL MAKE IT HARDER TO SCAM FREE INTERNET
The days of scamming free wireless Internet may soon be over. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a paint that blocks wi-fi signals. So if a room is painted with this stuff, only computers inside the room would be able to pick up a wireless signal originating there. At a projected cost of $16 a kilo, the paint would be a cheap way of keeping hackers away from using your wireless to download dodgy files. The paint is infused with an aluminum-iron oxide that blocks all radio signals at 100Ghz, the frequency at which wi-fi transmits. As ingenious as this sounds, there are a couple of downsides. First, it won't protect the user from online threats, and of more importance to travelers, it will stop people from scamming free Internet while on the go. Perhaps we should tell the nice folks at the University of Tokyo "thanks but no thanks"?

WITH A WAVE, GOOGLE AIMS TO CONQUER THE NETWORK
Google recently invited 100,000 people to become the first users of its latest internet tool which aims to rival email, Twitter and Facebook. Google Wave allows a limitless number of internet users anywhere in the world to have instant conversations and share files. The service combines aspects of email, instant messaging, social networking and web chat and is aimed at friends catching up with one another and business partners sharing documents. Among suggested uses for Google Wave are organising trips, laboratory record-keeping and journalism. Users can join a wave - a group of web users - to have a discussion or share photos or documents. Everyone in the wave can see what other users are typing and any document placed into the wave can be accessed by all the users at the same time. In what sounds like a recipe for chaos, colleagues can work on the same document at the same time, seeing every change being made to the document as it is made. Among suggested uses for Google Wave are organising trips, laboratory record-keeping and journalism. Bank sends confidential details to wrong e-mail address - so judge orders Google to suspend account It was developed by Lars and Jens Rasmussen, the brothers behind Google Maps. From 4pm yesterday Google invited 100,000 users, who had signed up to a waiting list, to try out Google Wave. It will be open to everyone in 2010.
A spokesman for Google touted the service as 'how email would look if it was invented today', adding: 'It would be collaborative and there would be no barriers between live instant messaging, email and documents and so on. 'That is what Google Wave is - email for the 21st century.

GIORGIO ARMANI EXTENDS DESIGNER TOUCH TO NEW MOBILE
Italian fashion house Giorgio Armani recently presented a new 700-euro ($1,032) mobile phone, a stylish device aimed at complementing the designer's suits. Founding designer Giorgio Armani, widely regarded as the doyen of Italian fashion, introduced the phone which also has the new Microsoft software for mobiles. Microsoft Corp introduced Windows Mobile 6.5 recently, which allows phones to play music, open Word and Excel documents and be synchronized over the Internet. The sleek phone has both a touch screen and a key pad. It also includes a video player and GPS navigation, as well as bronze detailing "which coordinates perfectly with Giorgio Armani suits," according to a statement. Armani, 75, did not speak at the presentation, only posing for photographs, but said in the statement he sought to create a phone "perfect for today's managers." Armani, who suffered a bout of hepatitis this year, announced three senior management changes in late September, signaling an easing of his workload. Armani, known for his classically elegant lines and muted colors in clothes, said last month he was reshuffling his agenda to take better care of himself after the illness. The smartphone is the third phone Armani has designed for South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, wearing a tie signed by Armani, said the phone was "a statement of style" and his company was not looking to work with other designers, adding this partnership with Samsung and Armani was "a unique thing."

NOKIA SUES APPLE TO REGAIN MARKET SHARE
Nokia and Apple have been locking horns in the lucrative market for sophisticated smartphones for the past two years. Now they are going to slug it out in the courts as well. The patent infringement claim from the world's biggest handset maker, filed in a US Federal court, pointed to an intensification of the tactical maneuvering between the two as they fight for the upper hand in one of the tech world's most promising markets, according to analysts. It also highlighted a broader issue for the mobile and computing industries as they converge on the fast-growing smartphone market. Companies from different fields bring different levels of expertise - often protected by patents - to bear. If competitive rivalries lead the biggest players to dig in rather than seek accommodation, the overall pace of innovation could slow - to everyone's disadvantage. In its complaint, Nokia charged Apple with hitching a "free ride" on its long-running research and development investment in mobile communications technology. Apple's failure to pay what Nokia claimed are fair and reasonable royalties' means that the US company can charge less than it would otherwise have to for itsiPhone, according to the lawsuit. "This allows it to obtain market share that it would otherwise not be able to obtain were its products to bear the costs for the patented technology," the lawsuit says. The lawsuit also refers to Nokia's patented technologies based on the WLAN wireless standard, or Wi-fi. It means its dispute probably covers not just Apple's iPhone but other devices such as the iPod touch.

WII 2 SMALLER AND CHEAPER
The Nintendo Wii 2 will be smaller and cheaper. That's the word from Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Mario and Donkey Kong. He says the console will also move into "other aspects of daily life", hinting Ninty will follow Microsoft and Sony into the world of home entertainment. Miyamoto, who has plenty of knowledge of what goes down inside Nintendo HQ said, "While we don't have any concrete plans for what we'll be doing with hardware in the future… I think it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient." Miyamoto does think, though, that the Wii 2 will be more than just a "toy". "We're gradually seeing video games moving beyond simply entertainment into other aspects of everyday life," he said.

ORACLE ANNOUNCES NEW MOBILE PLATFORMS
Continuing to build and expand on its industry-defining mobile CRM and Social CRM innovations, Oracle recently announced the new releases of Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant 2.0 for BlackBerry and Oracle Social CRM Applications Release 3, which introduces the new Oracle CRM Sales Campaigns On Demand and enhancements toOracle CRM Sales Library on Demand and Oracle CRM Sales Prospector On Demand. "Before implementing Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant, our community education representatives lacked the ability to capture impressions immediately after a meeting and ran the risk of losing specific details," said Paul Akin, Director, Odyssey Healthcare, Inc. "Now they stay up to date with all accounts via their Blackberry devices, which helps us increase productivity and improve relationships with our referral sources." "Oracle has spearheaded an industry-leading movement to provide sales professionals with mobile CRM and social CRM applications that reflect the day-to-day realities of selling," said Mark Woollen, Oracle Vice President of Social CRM. "The new releases of Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant 2.0 for BlackBerry and Oracle Social CRM Applications Release 3 for Oracle CRM On Demand address the highly mobile and relationship-driven elements of working and communicating within the sales cycle, enabling sales professionals to spend more time in front of their customers selling and less time back at the office seeking, logging or creating content."

SMS TO 668 TO KNOW SIMS ISSUED AGAINST YOUR CNIC
Now you don't need to go to Customer Service Centers of all mobile companies, to get know about the details of all numbers that are registered with your CNIC whether you have purchased it or not. All you need is to type your Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) number with dashes on your mobile from any network and SMS it to 668, in return you will get a reply with number of connections issued against this CNIC for six companies i.e. Mobilink, Warid, Zong, Telenor, SCO and Ufone. The service would only provide information about the total amount of connections issued against the CNIC of an individual but not the cell numbers that are being used. The individual will have to visit the service centers of the respective mobile companies whom SIMs have been issued against his/her CNIC, to get fake SIMs blocked. The service has been introduced by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration with all the cellular companies to curb the use of illegal SIMs. The customer would be charged Rs. 2plus tax on per SMS. The PTA has advised the mobile users to make sure that no SIM is registered to his/her CNIC other than what he/she is using for himself/herself.

AMD INTRODUCES ATI RADEON HD 5700 SERIES
AMD is rolling out two more graphics cards-the HD 5770 and 5750-that are designed to put the company's ATI Radeon technology in lower cost devices. Both cards support Microsoft's DirectX 11 technology which will arrive with Windows 7. The AMD GPUs offer more than 1 TeraFLOPS of compute power, support AMD's Eyefinity multiple display technology, and target lower-cost devices. The GPUs are built on 40nm technology. The HD 5770 has 800 stream processors and GDDR5 RAM clocked at 1.2GHz. The GPU core is clocked at 850MHz. The HD 5750 has 720 stream processors and is clocked at 700MHz on the core and 1.15GHz on the memory. Both of the cards will be priced well below $200.

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES WINDOWS 7 IN PAKISTAN
Microsoft recently held a joint business launch to introduce a range of products that included Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. The international launch, themed as "The New Efficiency,' reflect Microsoft's thought leadership at a global scale and is targeted towards companies and end users who seek to do more with less. Sherif Seddik, General Manager-Microsoft North Africa, East Mediterranean and Pakistan, commented on Microsoft's new initiatives, "In today's environment with tough economies, companies are trying to make optimum use of their resources and budgets. Keeping in mind with our goal to make our customer's lives better, the introduction of Windows 7 with the optimized desktop, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 help position IT from a cost center to a strategic value addition for companies by cutting costs, increasing productivity and enhancing innovation for progress." The launch event started with a seminar where speakers from Microsoft presented the new products to key personnel from Pakistan's IT industry and spoke about the features and benefits of Microsoft's new offerings. The event received enthusiastic response and was attended by technology decision makers, IT professionals and partners.

NINTENDO WII TO INTRODUCE EXERCISE BIKE
Love cycling but don't fancy heading into the cold outdoors? Nintendo Wii could have the answer with the Cyberbike. Due to be released in January 2010, the bike is the logical next step for virtual gaming. Gamers can already practise yoga or skiing using the Wii Balance Board. The new adjustable exercise bicycle will be compatible with Mario Kart but comes with its own unique Cycling Sports video game. As you turn the pedals the landscape on the screen begins to trundle past. Cycle faster and so will your virtual character. The peripheral was designed by BigBen Interactive - a leading maker of console accessories who created the Wii steering wheel and golf club for Nintendo. They have recently released footage showing the Cyberbike being put through its paces. The game features a total of 18 different circuits and lets you ride 'some of the most improbable vehicles ever imagined'. The cyclist fits into a submarine for ocean levels and powers a helicopter for soaring scenes in the air, as well as tackling tricky land courses and adverse weather conditions. There is no word yet on the pricing and customers will have to find somewhere to store the bike, but perhaps it might be worth it to avoid sweating in a crowded gym.

UNIVERSAL PHONE CHARGER APPROVED
A new mobile phone charger that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body. Industry body the GSMA predicts that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year. Currently most chargers are product or brand specific, so people tend to change them when they upgrade to a new phone. However, the new energy-efficient chargers can be kept for much longer. The GSMA also estimates that they will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6m tonnes. The charger has a micro-USB port at the connecting end, using similar technology to digital cameras. It is not compulsory for manufacturers to adopt the new chargers but the ITU says that some have already signed up to it. "We are planning to launch the universal charger internationally during the first half of 2010," Aldo Liguori, spokesperson for Sony Ericsson said. "We will roll it out with new products as they launch."
Tech talks – Emails from Europe

THE RACE FOR SPEED
Faster broadband that promises speeds of up to 100Mbps is on its way in the UK. British Telecom (BT) recently revealed plans to more than double the availability of its fastest fibre broadband service. The company says it aims to deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps to around 2.5 million UK homes and businesses using fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology. In the future, this has the capacity to deliver far greater speeds of up to 1Gbps.
BT is spending £1.5 billion to connect around 10 million homes with fibre by 2012. As well as FTTP technology, it will also deploy fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services - these utilise roadside cabinets which are connected with fibre. Premises can then take a feed from these cabinets to get initial broadband speeds of up to 40Mbps. Openreach - the BT division responsible for the fibre deployments - has already announced two FTTP trial sites in London and Milton Keynes. Up to 20,000 homes and businesses in each site will receive speeds of up to 100Mbps by March 2010.
Despite its ambitious plans, BT will still lag behind Virgin Media in its quest to deliver the UK's fastest broadband service. Virgin already offers consumers fibre optic-based internet, TV and telephone services at speeds of up to 20Mbps. In some parts of the UK, it has already begun a 50Mbps service and is also currently testing a 200Mbps system. France currently leads Europe way in terms of fast broadband with average download speeds of 45Mbps. But this is still slow compared to Japan where average speeds are currently around 1Gbps. www.bt.com

TECHNOLOGY ADDICTION DISRUPTS TEENAGE LEARNING
Technology addiction amongst teenagers is having a disruptive effect on their learning, according to new research published by the UK's Cranfield School of Management. Over a third of the 11-18 year olds it surveyed at a local secondary school admitted that text shortcuts damaged the quality of their written English, particularly in terms of spelling.
Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of International Management Development at Cranfield, says: "Our research shows that technology obsession hinders spelling skills, implicitly encourages plagiarism, and disrupts classroom learning. Despite school policies restricting mobile phone usage, students use the phone frequently, with the majority making calls from the toilets. The mobile phone continues to be a prime channel of social communication during the school day."
The study also examined how different technologies were used in an education context. Kakabadse says that a "shockingly" high proportion of teenagers (59.2%) admitted to inserting information straight from the internet into their schoolwork, without actually reading or changing it. "Almost a third (28.5%) deemed this as acceptable practice despite recognising that such behaviour is considered plagiarism," he says.
According to the survey, children's access to technologies occurs at an early age. It found that access to a computer began before the age of eight, use of the internet between the ages of five and ten, use of a mobile phone between the ages of eight and ten, and access to a social network between the ages of eleven and thirteen. www.sigelpress.com

NO NEED FOR GPS OR WI-FI TO MAKE MOBILES LOCATION AWARE
Finland's GloPos has unveiled software which it claims will make all mobile phones location aware whether they're outdoors, indoors, or even underground. The developer says that by using its software, a mobile device does not require any additional hardware like GPS or WLAN for achieving accurate positioning. All that is needed is a cellular network, it says.
GloPos' patent-pending, self-learning algorithms have bee designed to calculate an accurate position fix to within 1-40 metres even in places where no WLAN access points are available, or no GPS can be used (examples include shopping malls, subways, underground parking, airports, sports arenas, and exhibition centres). It adds that unlike GPS or WLAN, the technology does not consume any extra battery life while operating as cell information is already being used to stay connected. http://glopos.com

DEAF PC USERS CAN NOW TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INTERNET CHAT
Deaf and hard of hearing people can now take advantage of free internet phone calls using applications such as Skype or Truphone. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software allows users to make free calls to each other. But deaf and hard of hearing people often struggle to hear the person on the other end of the line due to the lower sound quality and scarcity of specialist equipment. Geemarc Telecom has now adapted its CLA3 headset to make it compatible with hearing aids which help amplify the sound. The company says the headset means that people with hearing aids can hear calls more clearly and can now make better use of VoIP and similar chat services. www.geemarc.com

PROTECTING DATA USING BLUETOOTH ALARM
British mobile innovator TenBu has launched a gadget that is designed to secure mobile data devices by creating a personal alarm system powered by Bluetooth. Called 'Nio' (after the Japanese Guardian Kings), the lightweight gadget consists of a Bluetooth tag with a software link that downloads directly onto the user's mobile phone, creating a personalised security zone of up to 25 metres. The security zone protects both the mobile phone and the Bluetooth tag, which may be attached to another valuable item, such as a set of keys or a laptop. When the security zone is breached, both the tagged item and the mobile phone emit an audible alarm. A flashing blue light on the tag is also triggered.
TenBu says that the software can control multiple Nio tags simultaneously, and each one can be given a unique identifying name and image on the mobile phone. The company adds that in extremely high-risk environments, users can activate a Motion Sensor to alert them if anyone moves their tagged item. A 'locate' tone helps users find misplaced tagged items, and a calendar feature also allows them to preset specific times for the tag to go active - this is described as "ideal for the commute to work".
Nio comes equipped with a fully rechargeable battery that TenBu says can keep it on standby for several weeks. www.bluenio.com