News

Indianexpress: The Pune police have issued a terror alert in the wake of the Bangalore police arresting a suspected terrorist Imran Jalal from Hospet on Friday. Jalal had been arrested by the Bangalore police while he was surveying the airport and the facilities of IT majors like Infosys and Wipro.

The arms and ammunition seized from Jalal were part of a consignment he had allegedly received from a man named Rajesh in Pune in November 2006.

“We do not want to take any chance and have issued a terror alert as a precautionary measure. Pune, too, has a number of strategic and vital locations and is a major IT hub. Night patrolling has been intensified with nakabandi exercises being carried throughout the city,” police commissioner D N Jadhav told Pune Newsline on Sunday.

Jadhav denied that there were any specific inputs pertaining to Pune. However, the police have beefed up security at the airport and other installations in the city.

Indianexpress: In a bid to promote adventure sports among cadets and the general public, the National Defence Academy (NDA) has for the first time invited people from all walks of life to participate in some of its treks, camps and other adventure activities. The academy is also looking forward to have students, experts and enthusiasts take part in some of the activities, as cadets will benefit from the ensuing interaction and exchange of skills and ideas.

The trekking and rock-climbing club at the academy with over 80 members regularly goes on treks, climbing expeditions, night hikes and forest marches around the city. Officers say that the academy can make provisions to include 10-15 civilian participants in the activities. “Usually at least 30 members take part in the activity and we can provide administration support and equipment for 15 more to come along. It will be good for the cadets,” an NDA officer said.

The club has organised various expeditions recently including ones to Torna and Purandar forts and wants to keep the cadets interested in the activities by changing routes and getting outsiders to participate. “We are looking for people who want to go for treks so that we can tie up,” the officer said.

The academy is also procuring a climbing wall to encourage cadets to take up rock climbing as a hobby. The climbing wall, to cost upwards of Rs 40 lakh, will be the only one of its kind in the region. Designed to international standards, the 12 mt high wall can also be used to host competitions. It is expected to be installed at the academy within six months.

Indianexpress: When 45-year-old Subhalaxmi N Pillai, a Central Government employee, was admitted to Lokmanya Hospital, Nigdi, she had only one request to make to the doctors. ‘‘Please do something… I want to start working again with my hands,’’ she kept pleading to the doctors attending on her.

Last week, after a “day care surgery,” Subhalaxmi left home. Happy and cheerful, she cried, “I have nobody to thank but the doctors. They have set my hands right.” A resident of Dehu Road, Subhalaxmi’s joy stems from the fact that for a good six months she had suffered from constant and severe tingling numbness and pain in both wrists joints and hands. “I could not hold any utensils in my hand. I never knew when they dropped out of my hand. Making food for my family had become difficult,” says Subhalaxmi, with moist eyes.

Subhalaxmi suffered from what doctors at the hospital described as bilateral carpel tunnel syndrome. “This syndrome is common among the working population and mostly affects women. The condition is usually operated by conventional surgical techniques which requires hospitalisation for about three to four days and the patient can start normal hand activities after 15 to 20 days only,” says Dr Prashanth S, who operated upon the woman using a different technique.

Indianexpress: Manohar Dnyanoba Kamble (30), a resident of Vashi, Turbhe, Navi Mumbai lodged a complaint with the Faraskhana police alleging that Balu Sopan Bavde (25), an autorickshaw driver allegedly manhandled him and robbed him of Rs 1,450. Kamble said he was travelling in Bavde’s autorickshaw and going from Kasba Peth to Shanimandir on Thursday night. No arrests have been made so far.

TechTree: F-Secure has said its “Internet Security 2007″ will provide consumers with advanced protection against new and unknown threats.

The company said the new product features remarkable new features to help further strengthen its leadership in the data security market.

Speaking about the new product, Ari Alakiuttu, Vice President of Product Marketing, F-Secure, said, “Consumers have a right to data security products that offer them protection at every possible level of interaction with the online world. We believe at F-Secure that the latest version of F-Secure ‘Internet Security 2007′ incorporates world class features, and will set the standard for all other data security products serving the home and small office segment.”

“Internet Security 2007″ has the new F-Secure DeepGuard technology, which will not only analyze new programs once they enter the system, but will also persistently monitor the behavior of software in real-time mode, scanning for suspicious program behavior, and stopping activities that might pose a risk.

And unlike most competing proactive detection technologies, F-Secure DeepGuard uses advanced real-time heuristics, and works quietly in the background.

It is also learnt that F-Secure has improved its detection rates and removal capabilities by adding another spyware engine solution to F-Secure “Internet Security 2007″. The integration has been enhanced to include target scanning, in addition to real-time scanning, and manual system scans.

Furthermore, F-Secure “Internet Security 2007″ has three different Parental Control Profiles, including Child (White listed sites only), Teenager (Content Based Filtering), and Parent (Full Access). Anything falling outside of the parameters set by these profiles is automatically blocked. And as before, parents can also exercise their discretion over the time used by their children on the Internet using the Time Lock feature.

TechTree: Amazon.com has announced the beta launch of a separate Web site, Endless.com, which is completely dedicated to shoe and handbag shopping.

According to Amazon, Endless.com is a direct result of it’s obsession with customer satisfaction. By offering this rich and unique destination, customers will have an easy and flexible, fun shoe and handbag shopping experience that they will not find online anywhere else.

Interestingly, the site features the unusual business practice of free overnight shipping i.e. next business day on all items, as well as free return shipping, a 110 percent price guarantee, and an innovative navigation and search experience.

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said, “Endless.com is unusual in that we are offering free overnight shipping on everything. Plus, return shipping is always free, and we offer a 110 percent price guarantee on items customers find cheaper somewhere else.”

The top page of Endless.com has a countdown clock that gives consumer the details and timelines on free overnight shipping, and lets them know what their order deadlines and delivery dates will be.

In addition, the site gives consumers complete details of the product that include in-depth product description, customer reviews, and product images, as well as a zoom feature that allows customers to have a closer look at the product. Customers have an option of selecting products by price, style, brand, size, and color all at the same time or separately.

Currently, Endless.com offers over 250 brands, including Adidas, Aerosols, Anne Klein New York, Clarks, Dezario, Helle Comfort, Reebok, Rhino Red, Rochester, Rogue, and Sam Edelman just to name a few. It has a collection of 15,000 styles and colors for men, women, and kids, and the company promises to expand the selection further

BetaNews: Hitachi introduced the first commercially available one-terabyte hard drive on Friday, delivering on a promise made nearly two years ago. The drive uses perpendicular recording technology in order to store data.

The Deskstar 7K1000 is slated to beginning shipping in the first quarter of this year at a retail price of $399 USD, or about 40 cents per gigabyte. In addition, Hitachi will also release a version of the 1TB drive, called the CinemaStar, aimed at the burgeoning DVR market.

Putting the size into perspective: 500 full-length standard definition movies would fit, or 250 hours of HD programming, or even 250,000 hours of digital music.

The milestone also comes at the 50-year anniversary of the hard drive itself, and comes some 15 years after the industry was able to break the 1-gigabyte barrier.

“In the 51st year, Hitachi is leading a new era for hard drives — not only providing large amounts of affordable storage, but also customizing and optimizing hard drives to deliver products that are smarter, more durable and more useful to the consumer,” chief marketing officer Shinjiro Iwata said.

Hitachi beats Seagate, who is also developing a similar drive, to the 1TB level by several months. Seagate said late Thursday that it planned to have its own drive available within the first half of 2007, also based on perpendicular recording technology.

Seagate had previously held the record for the largest commercially available hard drive, a 750-gigabyte unit released in April of this year. However, the drive came at a hefty $559 USD price tag.

techNewsworld: iPods aren’t just for music playback anymore. Apple and a host of other companies and developers are constantly adding to the iPod’s long list of accessories and abilities. iLounge.com’s Jeremy Horwitz explains where to go for iPod games, a larger screen, recording abilities and more

Don’t blink an eye, or you’ll miss the latest iPod news.

Whether you’ve owned an iPod for years or you just got one for Christmas, staying abreast of this constantly evolving gadget and its myriad accessories is a task.

So, we’re helping out by asking an expert in the iPod universe some questions that will help veterans and newbies.

Answering our iPod inquiry is Jeremy Horwitz, editor in chief of the Irvine, Calif.-based iLounge, an independent provider of information about iPods.

TechNewsworld: Storing computer files through an online service means never having to buy or manage backup disks. You can have access to your files from any computer anywhere. Above all, your files are safe, even if disaster should befall your office. However, privacy and data longevity remain concerns.

If there is one New Year’s resolution even more likely to fail than “I vow to lose weight,” it’s “I vow to start backing up my computer.”

After all, setting up and remembering to use a backup system is a huge hassle. The odds are good that you don’t have an up-to-date backup at this very moment. Fortunately, 2007 may turn out to be “The Year of the Backup.” Both Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)  and Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL)  have built automated backup software into the latest versions of their operating systems; both make their debuts this year.

At the same time, an option that was once complex, limited and expensive is suddenly becoming effortless, capacious and even free: online backups, where your files are shuttled off to the Internet  for safekeeping.

Online backup means never having to buy or manage backup disks. You can have access to your files from any computer anywhere. Above all, your files are safe even if disaster should befall your office — whether it’s fire, flood, burglary or marauding children.

BBCNews: The first DVD player to play both rival high definition DVD formats has been announced by South Korean firm LG.
The dual-format player will be able to play the Sony-backed Blu-ray discs and the Toshiba-led HD DVD discs.

The introduction of two next-generation formats has split both the electronics industry and Hollywood film studios.

The player will be launched at the same time as a hybrid double-sided Blu-ray HD DVD disc, developed by Warner Bros.

The Total HD discs and the LG player will both go on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas that starts on 8 January.

Battle lines

Players and discs for both HD DVD and Blu-ray went on sale last year. The two technologies are incompatible but offer similar features.

Both are able to store much more high-quality data, important for high definition images and high fidelity audio, and both use a blue laser to read information.

Used in games consoles, the two formats offer detailed graphics and stunning sound on one disc.

However, the launch of the rival technologies has split the industries they serve.

Toshiba, with NEC, Sanyo and others, is pushing HD DVD; while backers of Sony’s Blu-ray discs include Samsung, Dell and Apple.

In Hollywood, companies like Disney and 20th Century Fox have sided with Sony, while the supporters of HD DVD include Universal. Warner Bros, the company behind the hybrid discs, has said it will support both