News

itwire An article from Bloomberg News columnist, Matthew Lynn, suggests the “Apple iPhone
will fail in a late, defensive move”. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Lynn’s online article, which is worth reading, lists in detail three reasons why he thinks Apple’s iPhone will fail.

The first reason is that “Not everyone is sold on the idea”, meaning that not everyone thinks the iPhone is going to be successful. Apple is late to the phone party, competing phone companies will defend their turf, and there are already strong relationships between existing mobile phone vendors and mobile network operators.

The second reason is “Network Opposition”. Here Lynn says that companies like Nokia will be offering big incentives to the mobile network operators not to do a deal with Apple.

The third reason is that “the iPhone is a defensive product”. Lynn says it is to defend the iPod, because phone manufacturers are putting music players into their phones, and that “defensive products don’t usually work” because they are reheated versions of old things.

Lynn says more than this in case you are interested in reading it, but in short, how wrong can Lynn be?

itwire High risk, high cost, lack of interoperability and a lack of need have been cited as major reasons why UK schools should avoid upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007 in a new report from a respected British Government technology advisory body.

The 20 page report “Microsoft Vista and Office 2007, Interim Report with Recommendations on Adoption and Deployment” was authored by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) and released late last week. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the report recommends in no uncertain terms that schools should steer clear of both of Microsoft’s new flagship products for the time being.

For Microsoft, this is particularly bad news because by the estimation of Becta, the combined cost of deploying Vista and Office 2007 throughout UK schools, not including graphics cards for Vista’s Aero interface, would be around £327 million (US$643 million), much of which would go into the software company’s pockets. However, if the advice of Becta is heeded that won’t happen.

According to the report, while the enhancements in Vista add value, they do not justify its early deployment in UK schools. While acknowledging that Vista has key advantages over Windows XP in areas such as security and access, the report states: “A comprehensive features analysis was carried out on Vista and the results confirmed that there were no ‘must have’

marketwatch Hewlett-Packard said early Wednesday it has made a research breakthrough using nanotechnology to improve chip performance.

HP said the new process could allow an eightfold increase in the number of transistors that can be put on programmable chips, while using less energy per computation. Additionally, such chips could be built using the same sized transistors as those used in today’s FPGA, or field programmable gate array, design, meaning they could be built in current fabrication facilities with only minor modifications, H-P said.
The research, by Greg Snider and Stan Williams of HP Labs, is a featured paper in the Jan. 24 issue of Nanotechnology, a publication of the British Institute of Physics. The research was conducted using classic modeling and simulation techniques, but Williams said H-P is working on producing an actual chip using the approach, and could have a laboratory prototype completed within the year.
“As conventional chip electronics continue to shrink, Moore’s Law is on a collision course with the laws of physics,” said Williams, a senior fellow and director of quantum science research at HP Labs. “Excessive heating and defective device operation arise at the nanoscale. What we’ve been able to do is combine conventional CMOS technology with nanoscale switching devices in a hybrid circuit to increase effective transistor density, reduce power dissipation, and dramatically improve tolerance to defective devices.”

itwire Dell has been accused in a Canadian class action lawsuit of knowingly selling defective notebook computers. The lawsuit, lodged in the Ontario Superior Court, alleges that Dell Canada sold a range of Inspiron notebooks, knowing that they had defective motherboards.
According to the lawsuit, the motherboards of Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, and 5160 notebooks sold by Dell were susceptible to overheating, which caused them to fail prematurely, often not long after the standard one-year warranty expired.

Dell, like Apple, was at the center of an overheating battery crisis last year, which saw the company recall 4.1 million notebooks with defective Sony Lithium Ion batteries. In one of the most damaging incidents, a Dell notebook with a battery experiencing thermal runaway explode into flames at a conference in Japan. Pictures of the incident were circulated around the Internet.

The brunt of the battery issue was born mainly by Sony, as other notebook manufacturers experienced similar problems to Dell and were forced to issue their own recalls. However, the battery recall is not related to the current class action suit.

The issue surrounding the allegedly defective motherboards is potentially far more serious for Dell as involves a claimed in-house design fault that does not involve a third party supplier.

news.monstersandcritics Lawyers for Apple Inc. have sued a hacker who copied the screen icons from the company’s new iPhone and created a programme that installs them on other phones, according to news reports Monday

According to technology news site ZDNet, the programme, quickly dubbed iPhony, was created by Paul O’Brien, founder of MoDaCo, who posted an iPhone skin for Windows Mobile-based phones and promptly received a cease and desist letter from Apple. Apple also sued bloggers who posted to the site, the report said.

Indian Express THE Pune Municipal Corporation has recovered a total of Rs 50 lakhs from around 120 corporators for using their alloted official vehicle for private use outside the city limits. The amount rose in a few days time, as sitting corporators rushed to clear their debts before filing their nominations for the upcoming civic polls on February 1.

The recovery has come after Nagarik Chetana Manch, a city NGO sought action on the misuse of official vehicles.

Indian Express WHATEVER 20-year-old Laura Reed knew of India hadn’t prepared this student of International Relations from Boston for the humongous entity that would eventually confront her. “The sheer diversity of culture and environment is mind-boggling,” she says. “You’ve really got to understand every nuance before undertaking any kind of socio-development project out here.”

Backpacking across five countries for over 238 days, Reed is one of the 24 undergraduates in India courtesy the Boston-based International Honors Program, which aims at developing young minds to better appreciate and rethink the parameters of globalisation, its effect on civilisations and eco-systems, livelihoods, cultural values and conservation of biodiversity.

Their schedule in Pune has been organised by city-based environmental group Kalpavriksh.

Even as students from diverse disciplines across American universities undertake the year- long thesis through lectures, field study, interactive sessions and research, their papers will reflect their individual concerns and interests, “from the point of view offered by anthropology, conservation and ecology, international economics, social movements and environmental policies,” informs faculty member Prof Savyasachi. “To sensitise them to the multiplicity of voices, the complex interplay of technology and environment, to train them to read, research, listen and reflect, that is what we hope to do,” he expresses.

Indian Express STRANGE are the ways of the Pune Municipal Corporation, which on the one hand widens roads and constructs cement roads resulting in speedy movement of vehicles, but fails to provide even the basic amenities like zebra crossings and stop lines for pedestrians.

A survey of some of the busy chowks during the peak morning and evening hours, carried out by a team of Pune Newsline, revealed how the pedestrians— the most vulnerable lot on the roads—was running the risk of accidents due to the absence of zebra crossings at various junctions.

The Pune Newsline team visited a total of 31 junctions. Zebra crossings and stop lines were not visible at 26 out of these 31 junctions. Moreover, at almost all the chowks, violations of traffic rules like vehicular parking at chowks and signal jumping were common. The traffic policemen and traffic warden present at the chowks who were totally engrossed in streamlining the flow of traffic had little time to help pedestrians crossing the road. In fact, there were some chowks where neither traffic policemen nor traffic wardens were present.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Mahesh Ghurye admitted that traffic policemen were not being deployed at all chowks where traffic signals had been installed. “There are around 1,500 chowks in the city and the traffic branch of Pune police has a strength of only 450 people. So we normally deploy policemen only at busy chowks,” he says insisting that motorists should display self-discipline.

Indian Express WHEN President APJ Kalam visits Pune on Tuesday, one young Solapur-based student will be watching his arrival keenly.

Having drawn inspiration from the President, Pranjal Kulkarni, a standard XII student from an impoverished background, claims to have developed the prototype of a single-seater helicopter that will cost just Rs 2 lakh.

The President will be in Pune for the closing ceremony of the National Youth Games.

While the aircraft will be flown for the first time in June before Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials to evaluate its airworthiness, Kulkarni has now pinned his hopes on meeting the President to garner support for the project.

“I wanted to meet the President as he has been the inspiration behind my invention. I participated in a national innovation foundation event held in Ahmedabad three years ago and developed a missile. Ever since then, I have been inspired by President Kalam’s life and his book Wings of Fire,” says the young student.

Indian Express THE Pune police have beefed up the security for President A P J Abdul Kalam’s two-day visit to the city from Tuesday. The police have stepped up vigil at all sensitive and strategic locations in the city and have deployed special squads and Quick Response Teams (QRTs). The police had already put the city under alert after receiving information about terror threats to vital installations, especially information technology companies and Lohegaon airport. A heavy bandobast has been deployed along the entire stretch right from Lohegaon airport to Balewadi. We have formed special teams to counter terror threats. At the same time, patrolling has been intensified and tighter vigil is being maintained on the vehicles entering the city. We have also deployed armed commandos. We do not want to take any chances. The entire venue at Balewadi has been provided tight security,” assistant commissioner of police (Special Branch) S N Bhoomkar said.

Road closures
The city police traffic branch on Monday issued travel advisory to the citizens requesting them to opt for other roads instead of the following eight roads on Tuesday and Wednesday due to President APJ Abdul Kalam’s two-day visit to the city beginning Tuesday.

The road from Lohegaon Airport to Balewadi and from Balewadi to Rajbhavan will be closed between 5 pm and 9 pm on Tuesday.

The Rajbhavan to National Insurance Academy, National Insurance Academy to Deenananth Mangeshkar Hospital, Deenananth Mangeshkar Hospital to Kalshree Bungalow, Kalshree Bungalow to Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Kothrud, Bharati Vidya Bhavan to Rajbhavan, Rajbhavan toTata Research Centre, Yerwada and from Tata Research Centre to Lohegaon Airport will be closed for the VIP movements between 8 am and 6.30 pm on Wednesday.