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indianexpress: For the upper class voters, disillusionment with candidates is not the only deterrent. On Friday, when the educated, largely upper class voters of the city turned up to exercise their right, they appeared ignorant about voting procedure.

While some educated voters say they simply did not know they needed to produce a photo identification to vote, the more common problems included failure to receive voter cards, duplicate names and addresses, and confusion of wards. Many citizens could not find their names despite having registered.

“I have been staying in Pune for so many years, I never knew you needed to show an identity proof. Since I did not bring one, I am not going to vote now,” said a senior citizen as she stormed out of a polling booth on Tilak Road.

In Deccan Gymkhana area, the stalls put up by representatives of the candidates saw a flurry of activity, as citizens flocked to find their name in the voters’ lists. “I did not find my name at two centres, and finally after some hunting, I realised that my centre was at Deccan Gymkhana,” said Prabhat Road resident Vinay Ghanekar.

indianexpress:  In the congested, garbage strewn bylanes of Budhwar Peth - the largest brothel area of the city - the priority is always for their profession and civic concern is generally restricted to the occasional visit by health department to distribute condoms.

So, when Mala Kumbhar made her way to the polling station early on Thursday morning, it was not just to assert her right to vote but also to savour the feel of being treated as an equal citizen for once.

She had fought for long for the right to vote. Part of an epic battle of 250 prostitutes from the area with the election commission in 2004 to register their names, Mala was one of the lucky 30 who finally got on to the voters list from Budhwar Peth. While she voted in the 2004 Assembly polls, Mala found the going not so easy today.

She, like many other prostitutes, could not locate her name on the voters list despite making the rounds of several polling booths. “Mera naam hi nahi hai kisi mai. Dekha tha ja kar lekin nahi hai,” she confides to her colleagues, sitting in a dingy room barely 100 metres from a polling booth.

indianexpress: Polling for the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations was peaceful barring a few minor brawls and some isolated incidents of bogus voting, said Police Commissioner D N Jadhav.

Among the people arrested in the poll-related crimes were Congress candidate Sadanand Shetty from the Juna Bazar ward and Nationalist Congress Party worker Azim Babumiya Shaikh after the two indulged in a brawl at a polling station at Ravindranath Tagore School. Both were granted bail later in the day.

A non-cognisable case was filed against former mayor and Congress candidate from Dr Kotnis Hospital ward Vatsala Andekar after an NCP worker, Mangal Anil Nagul, lodged a complaint at Khadak police station alleging that Andekar threatened the NCP workers of dire consequences if they failed to remove their polling booth at Panghanti Chowk in Guruwar peth.

Passions ran high at the Mamasaheb Mohol School polling station on Paud Road when Congress candidate from Shankarrao More Vidyalaya ward Dipak Mankar and his supporters indulged in a heated argument with a police team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Bharati Kurade after the police asked them not to stand in the 200 metre vicinity of the polling station

TechTree: Seagate has announced the Digital Audio Video Experience (DAVE) technology that enables delivery of 10-20GB pocket-sized portable storage devices.

The DAVE enabled design is about the size of a centimeter-thick credit card, with dimensions of 3.5 x 4.7 x .47 inches (61 x 89 x 12 mm), and weighing only 2.5 ounces (70 grams).

Previously code-named as “Crickett”, DAVE technology is designed to store, play, and share digital files on mobile phones, PCs, and other wireless-enabled devices. According to the company, it provides substantial storage capacity, without having an impact on the design or cost of mobile handsets.

Using Bluetooth or WiFi connections, the 1-inch hard drive can trade files with other platforms that are up to 30 feet away.

Patrick King, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Business Unit, Seagate, believes that mobile telephony is undergoing a multimedia revolution, and that the DAVE mobile content platform will provide even more fuel for the growth of new music and video services over mobile networks.

King said, “Mobile carriers can use this technology for creating value from their investments in high-bandwidth networks, and mobile handset manufacturers will have another tool for turning the multimedia phone into a center of the mobile consumer’s digital life.”

According to Seagate, products based on DAVE will enable consumers to store mobile media on one device, and combine audio and video files downloaded through mobile networks with entertainment and also content loaded from PCs or other devices.

itwire: It might fall short of the flash memory implants ubernerds are dreaming of, but Seagate’s 20GB wireless storage device sounds the next best thing if you want your data anywhere, anytime.

Seagate has formally announced its Digital Audio Video Experience (D.A.V.E) technology – the project previously code-named “Crickett” – at the DEMO 07 Conference in Palm Desert, California. The DAVE platform offers 10-20 GB of wireless storage in an accessory smaller than many common slim-line mobile phones. It is designed to store, play and share digital files on mobile phones, PCs and other wireless-enabled devices.

Using Bluetooth or WiFi wireless connections with a nine metre range, DAVE is the size of a centimetre-thick credit card and weighs in at 70gm. It is designed to live in your shirt pocket, backpack, or purse. Utilising Seagate’s Storage Management Module power-saving technology unveiled at CES, the rechargeable lithium ion battery delivers up to 10 hours of media-streaming and up to 14 days of standby power.

The mobile storage platform is open source, enabling third party software developers to create new applications for the mobile phone utilising the hard drive. It is built on a set of open API platform accessible to developers using current development tools. A DAVE Software Developers Kit will be available in March 2007.