News

punetimes: With around 22,000 acres of land set to be released in the real estate market, as a result of the scrapping of the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) Act, builders and government officials here are predicting a fall in property rates in suburban as well as fringe areas of the city.

They, however, claim that property rates in the heart of the city, which have skyrocketed from Rs 2,000 per sq. ft. to Rs 3,500 per sq. ft. in the last two years,will not fall, though they may stabilise.

“Most of the land that will be released is in the fringe and suburban areas of Pune and not in the main city,” K.S. Shinagare, additional collector and head of Pune’s ULC office, told TOI.

“There will be huge land stock under the ULC in the fringe villages, but the exact figures will be known only after land owners file their returns,” Shinagare said.

However, sources in his office told TOI that the land will measure around 22,000 acres. And 95 per cent of it is in fringe villages, around Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

(See box) The ULC Act imposes a ceiling on the maximum holding of land by an individual in Pune at 1,000 sq. mt., that is, around 10,000 sq. ft.

The ceiling limit in Mumbai is 500 sq. mt. and the same varies from city to city. In view of the Act being scrapped, land owners who are holding more than 1,000 sq. mt. will be able to sell their land for development

techtree: Taiwan-base Genius has made an addition to its G-shot camera series with the launch of G-Shot D5123.

The G-Shot D5123 is a 5.0 mega pixel 4-in-1 CMOS digital camera with a maximum 12.0 mega pixel resolution. It has a slim Black look with slide cover and a light weight body.

A 4-in-1 solution, the G-Shot D5123 can be used as digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and mass storage driver. So, it can be used for taking pictures and video, having a real-time conversation with friends and business associates, and transferring files to PCs with ease.

The G-Shot D5123 features a 2-inch color TFT LCD display and 4x digital zoom. It comes with an internal memory of 32MB, and supports up to 1GB memory for increased storage.

In addition, the camera enables high quality images up to 12 mega pixel by interpolation to be taken sharply in large size pictures of 12-inch x 18-inch. The built-in microphone provides voice for video in 640 x 480 (VGA) and 320 x 240 (QVGA). Besides, the two “AAA” batteries let the user take up to nearly 102 shots.
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techtree: Taiwan-based Genius has made an addition to its G-shot camera series with the launch of G-Shot D5123.

The G-Shot D5123 is a 5.0 mega pixel 4-in-1 CMOS digital camera with a maximum 12.0 mega pixel resolution. It has a slim Black look with slide cover and a light weight body.

A 4-in-1 solution, the G-Shot D5123 can be used as digital camera, digital video camera, web camera, and mass storage driver. So, it can be used for taking pictures and video, having a real-time conversation with friends and business associates, and transferring files to PCs with ease.

The G-Shot D5123 features a 2-inch color TFT LCD display and 4x digital zoom. It comes with an internal memory of 32MB, and supports up to 1GB memory for increased storage.

In addition, the camera enables high quality images up to 12 mega pixel by interpolation to be taken sharply in large size pictures of 12-inch x 18-inch. The built-in microphone provides voice for video in 640 x 480 (VGA) and 320 x 240 (QVGA). Besides, the two “AAA” batteries let the user take up to nearly 102 shots.

techtree: An Indian by the name Sainul Abideen has reportedly discovered a method to represent data in the form of color combinations instead of the existing binary format that uses zeroes and ones. Abideen’s discovery forms part of his postgraduate research.

Abideen calls the new technology ‘rainbow format,’ which uses color patterns to hold any kind of file, whether text, MP3, or film. He says storage density can be hugely increased by using the new technology.

For instance, a conventional pen drive can hold up to 64GB of data. But by using rainbow format, it is possible to store terabytes of data, Abideen says. Conversely, if very little data needs to be stored, CDs/floppy drives are not required to be used.

According to Abideen, the new technology could allow safer and longer term data storage. It is possible the technology might even help reduce data storage costs.

Sainul sees endless possibilities for the new technology: one being likely use in visiting cards. In this case, small dots on the cards would hold all personal details of visitors, which can then be read using a ‘rainbow’ card reader attached to any device.

Sainul plans to set up his own company in Kerala in future, though for now he is content with pursuing his research.

techtree: Adobe has reportedly announced the “Adobe Media Player” at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show.

The Adobe Media Player promises to deliver more engaging video experiences to viewers, with the option to discover high-quality content both online and offline.

This new desktop application is a lightweight download that enables higher quality Flash format playback. It offers users the ability to download and view videos offline, ways to discover interesting new shows, full screen playback, one-click viewer ratings, and a powerful Favorites feature that automatically downloads new episodes of favorite TV shows or video podcasts.

According to Adobe, the player is cross-platform, based on open standards, including RSS and SMIL, and brings viewers the highly desired ability to play the Web’s most popular video formats outside of their browser.

Adobe Media Player is perceived as a key part of Adobe’s emerging ecosystem for creation and delivery of next generation Internet video.

Adobe Media Player, built using Adobe’s Apollo platform, complements and leverages other Adobe components, including Flash Player; the newly announced Flash CS3 Professional; Flash Media Server 2, server software for streaming media applications; Flash Lite mobile video playback technology; Creative Suite 3 Production Premium for video, audio, and motion graphics production; and Media Encoder for compression and live streaming.

pcworld: Being the capacity monger I am, it didn’t take much for Toshiba Storage pique my interest beyond telling me it was announcing a 200GB external hard drive. The company was first to market last year with a two-platter, 2.5-inch 200GB hard drive for notebook computers. Now, it is taking that same drive and putting the drive into its custom-designed external enclosure to bring the first 200GB external portable hard drive to market. Currently, the industry max is 160GB.

The $229 200GB Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive drive joins Toshiba’s line of external hard drives introduced in January at CES. Those drives–ranging in capacity from 100GB to 160GB–shipped at the end of March. If you’re in a hurry for the additional capacity, you won’t have to wait long: According to Toshiba’s Maciek Brzeski, the 200GB drive will ship at retail and at online sellers (such as Buy.com and Amazon) by the end of this month.

As with the other drives in Toshiba’s line, the 200GB drive is housed in a black aluminum chassis. The aluminum helps dissipate heat, as do the ventilation slots at the rear of the drive. The drive itself is mounted inside the chassis using Toshiba’s patent-pending six-point suspension system that’s designed to dampen an impact, says Brzeski.

The drive is rated to withstand a drop from a desk-height surface. However, it lacks the g-force sensors found in many notebook PCs. “We are currently looking into adding this feature into subsequent products,” says Brzeski. “The trick with G-sensors is attuning it for use in external drive, as opposed to inside a notebook.”