MAGIC ON YOUR PHONE

MAGIC ON YOUR PHONE No Coverage: Stuck in a no-coverage zone and need to make that emergency call? Dial 112. Your cellphone will search for existing networks and establish contact. The number can be dialled even on a locked keypad. Low/No Battery: Nokia phones have reserve batteries, which you can access by dialling *3370#. The phone restarts with a 50 per cent increase in battery life! Stolen Mobile: Punch in *#06# when you buy a phone. A 15-digit number appears on screen. Note it and keep it carefully. If you lose your phone, your service provider can use this number to trace and block the handset. Even if someone changes the SIM, the phone won't work!

tech trends

tech trends Do you keep your husband/ boyfriend/kids on the edge of their sanity by bombarding their phones with calls that say “Where are you now?” Your sense of security is dependent on your level of ‘comfort information’ about people you love. There is a less painful way of doing this than burning up phone time, and you don’t need to be James Bond with cuttingedge technology at your fingertips. Think GPS and think personal trackers. For his next birthday, gift your significant other a phone with a personal tracker. Based on the US military’s GPS system, these trackers are now being made by enterprising companies in Pune and Bangalore. Google Earth maps and integrated GPS software used in the new gadgets now pin your loved one down, wherever he may be! Well, you set the ball rolling by sending an SMS with a password. And you can start tracking your target from that moment on. You can even configure your boyfriend’s phone so you can listen in on his phone conversations without him even dreaming that you could be doing so. But, as I always say, get technology to work for you, not your psychological inadequacies. Yes, there is a case for keeping track of your children, especially if your kids have a habit of wandering off or you live in a suspect neighbourhood or you’re horribly rich. Trackers are attractive but there are privacy issues that need to be addressed, both in the legal and the personal spheres. But you can avoid them altogether by keeping your insecurities in check.

This WEEks Hot Products

VALUE FOR MONEY No matter what the segment, a phone has got to pack in a lot of features. That’s what Sagem has done with its Bleu Sagem handset MY214X. It comes with a 65k, 128x128 colour display, polyphonic ringtones and one-touch FM radio with speaker phone and i-ball multimedia speakers that enable you to play loud FM music. It also has GPRS, MMS and USB connectivity. The phonebook can store 500 names and it also has built-in games like Sudoku. Price: Rs 2,999 GET CLICKED, CELEB STYLE Capture your own celeb style, razor sharp images courtesy Sony’s additions to the Handycam and Cybershot range. The Handycam range captures both videos and still images with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound capabilities. Three new Cybershot digital cameras feature a high-definition component output. All models sport Carl Zeiss optical zoom lenses with eye-level viewfinders, wrapped in sleek metal bodies. Price: Handycams—HDR-UX5, Rs 59,990; HDR-HC5, Rs 69,990; Cybershot—DSC-W200, Rs 24,990; DSC-T100, Rs 24,990; DSC-H9, Rs 29,990 COLOURFUL SURFING Despite the best download speeds and processors, you don’t truly enjoy surfing. Why? Your monitor may be a problem. Viewsonic lets you enjoy your browsing and use VOIP with its new 22” LCD monitor with 1.3 megapixel webcam and microphone. Other features are 680x1050 high-definition display, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 3.2” height adjustment and 360-degree swivel. Price: Rs 29,900

HOT DOWNLOAD: JETAUDIO 7.0.3 BASIC

jetAudio is a 22.1 MB integrated multimedia free software made up of a single compact rack. Not only does it play various music and video files, it also has features such as CD burning, recording and conversion to other file formats. You can create your own Internet broadcast by using JetCast, provided with jetAudio, and you can play all major file formats including WAV, MP3, MP3Pro, OGG, WMA, MPEG, AVI, WMV, MIDI, RM, and video and audio CD tracks. download link

India, China to spur mobile gaming

Mobile gaming is set to register a strong growth in India even as telcos are betting big on value added services to increase revenues. While India and China are expected to bolster growth in the mobile gaming sector, revenues from this mobile entertainment in Asia-Pacific region and Japan are forecast to surpass $1.8 billion in 2007 and reach $4.6 billion in 2011, said information and technology research and advisory firm Gartner. “Even though prices for mobile games are often higher than other forms of mobile entertainment, such as music, ringtones and some adult content, mobile gaming will often be the only choice in many emerging markets because less money is needed to start mobile gaming than to buy a PC or games console.” “Analysts expect highgrowth markets such as China and India to bolster mobile gaming growth even further. Regional differences will play a significant role in adoption rates for mobile gaming,” Gartner said. “One of the factors driving mobile gaming in developed markets is availability of faster processors in mobile devices, which enable faster response times, 3-D graphics and advanced sound capabilities”, according to Nick Ingelbrecht, Research director at Gartner. “The high revenue correlates with higher data consumption in countries such as South Korea and Japan and reflects the bigger appetite for mobile gaming in this region,” Gartner added. Meanwhile, as interest grows and publishers release more content “worldwide mobile gaming end-user revenue will grow from $2.9 billion in 2006 to $9.6 billion in 2011, an increase of 49.9%,” Gartner said. “In game-hungry markets like Australia, we estimate that about 10% of mobile Internet users are regular gamers (comprising an enthusiastic subset of cellular users).” “The percentage will grow as advanced device functionality spreads through the product tiers to support a richer gaming experience,” Ingelbrecht said. “In Western Europe, mobile gaming end-user revenue is projected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2007 to $2 billion in 2011.” In Gartner’s survey among Western European consumers, published in 2006, 10% of those surveyed said they had used mobile online gaming and had downloaded games at least once a month. However, only 2% of their mobile data service spending was on gaming. There are differences in the types of games that sell well in Europe. Germans downloaded more strategy and quiz games, whereas the British were more interested in sports and puzzle games. As much as Four-fifths of people who downloaded games in Europe prefer to do so from their operator’s portal. Operators faced competition from off-portal entrants in 2002. But since 2004, more users have returned to downloading games from their own operator’s portal, Gartner said

Eyeing the iPhone? Hold on till the India launch

The much anticipated iPhone from Apple will finally be launched in the US on June 29. It will pack a phone, audio/video player, a 2 megapixel camera, internet capabilities and intelligent touch screen operation onto a single device. It will cost approximately $599 for the 8 GB version and $499 for the 4 GB sibling. While US consumers will get their hands on the iPhone this June, Europe will have to wait till the end of the year. The rumoured launch date for Asia is early next year. As for the Indian launch date, on contacting Apple India, all we received was silence. So if you plan to buy an iPhone during your next trip to the US or order it from there, there could be a problem. The phone feature might not work at all in India, as Apple plans to launch the product with specific service providers in mind. For example, it has tied up with AT&T in the US and might tie up with Vodafone in Europe, though there is no confirmation on the latter. That said, with a high price tag and touch-screenonly interface, will it be able to woo buyers? It’s all in the details: It has a 3.5-inch ‘multi-touch’ screen, that lets you operate the device with just your fingers. The software that works in the background ensures that inputs from more than one finger are understood and acted on effortlessly. How it would actually behave in a realworld scenario remains to be seen. The iPhone also features a predictive QWERTY touch keyboard, where you type by tapping at the screen with your fingers. Again, while this enables the iPhone to have a larger screen, how comfortable it will be to use remains to be seen. Power talk: The battery has enough juice for five hours of talk, video or browsing. Apple promises up to 16 hours of audio playback, which is on par with the top MP3 players. Videos will look good, thanks to the 320x480 screen resolution. Though, the constant finger tapping on the touch screen is likely to take away some of the gloss pretty soon. The device features a proximity sensor that turns the screen off when it is close to your face, say to make a call. To make a call, simply point your finger on the name in the address book. The iPhone can synch your contacts from a PC, Mac, or internet service automatically. It also supports IMAP, POP3 email and Yahoo Push email. With POP3 you can download mail and contacts from the server on to your device, while IMAP will allow you to access your email directly from the server without having to download it. Via push mail service, you will be updated about your emails as you receive them.You can even use the onscreen display to make three-way conference calls or manage calls from two different sources. To browse the web, the iPhone will make use of Safari browser. Hold on to your wallet: On the negative side, it is rumoured that the iPhone won’t support MMS messaging for pictures or videos. Plus there is one thing that has always bugged even iPod users: not being able to play say a DivX or any other video file other than what iTunes supports. The iPhone too will support content that is compatible only with iTunes. Then, for Indian users, the biggest limiting factor as of now is that the phone function will work only with the service provider Apple has tied up with. So hold on till the India launch.

Safari for windows Users From Apple

A report published in newspaper described thier test ride with safari , here is a description of it Just when you thought that the browser wars were well and truly over, with Firefox being the techies’ choice, Internet Explorer (IE) being that of the masses, and Opera bringing up the rear; Apple has thrown its own browser into the PC arena. Safari, the highly-acclaimed internet browser that was previously available only for the Mac platform, has now been made available for Windows. The browser comes in two versions (for Windows XP and Vista) for the PC—one with QuickTime bundled with it and the other without. Both are available for free download from http://apple.com/safari he former is a handy option for those with ample bandwidth (it’s a 28 MB download) and the need for an incorporated media player (handy if you are YouTube freak and cannot live without your daily online video fix), but if it’s just a browser you are looking for, then grab the latter, which tips the scales at a more moderate 8 MB. Looks, speed, functions to kill for: Mind you, the term ‘just a browser’ is misleading. Like all Apple applications, Safari is drop-dead gorgeous. And it sure is fast! It launches in no time at all and continues in the same vein when browsing the net. Apple claims that the browser is the fastest in cyberspace when it comes to rendering HTML pages and Javascript, and judging by my brief experience, it is no idle boast. Then there are the inevitable little touches that are the hallmark of Apple design—a scrollbar is visible only when you need it; the address bar (in which you type the URL) acts as the progress bar too, filling up with blue colour to indicate how much of the site has been downloaded; and a smooth metallic look that makes FireFox and IE look downright dowdy. There are some neat touches in browsing too. The browser automatically transfers your bookmarks from other browsers the first time you start it. iPod users will find adding new bookmarks absurdly simple—the interface is almost the same as iTunes. For those who scan web pages for text, selecting the ‘Find’ option throws up a handy ‘Find’ banner in the browser toolbar. Just enter the word you are searching for on the page in the space provided, and the browser will highlight the instances where the text appears—and dim out the rest of the page! The browser also creates ‘anchor’ points (generally the search results page or the top level of a website) during your surfing to which you can go back instantly using the SnapBack feature, saving you the trouble of hammering away at the ‘Back’ button. The browser comes loaded with what has now become standard browser baggage—popup blocking, downloads manager, private browsing, RSS feeds, tabbed browsing and automatic form filling (you can fill forms with information directly from your Address Book if you wish). But it's a beta! All of which should have the net browsing community hailing the arrival of a new contender for the ‘best browser’ crown. The problem is that Safari is still in beta—a term that is used to hide a thousand vices. And the browser does have its problems. It is prone to at least one crash every three hour. Some websites also do not function completely within Safari—I could not chat in Gmail while using the browser. Finally, rumours (not confirmed, alas) are already rife about the browser’s not being quite secure. That said, the Windows version of Safari is faster and sleeker than anything in the browser bazaar today. And that should give the folks at Microsoft and Mozilla something to think about. With a bit of luck, this could trigger off another session of browser wars. Which is good news for anyone browsing the net!

Pirated ‘Sicko’ surfaces on YouTube,ancestry.com adds dna results on net

Pirated ‘Sicko’ surfaces on YouTube: Moviegoers interested in seeing Michael Moore’s US health-care expose, ‘Sicko’, could find it easily on YouTube this weekend. Two weeks before its June 29 opening, a 124-minute version of the film was available on the popular website, posted by at least two users in 14 consecutive video chunks. (The film clocked in at 113 minutes when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.) The YouTube appearance comes on the heels of a fairly high-quality pirated version available via BitTorrent file-sharing software and peerto-peer websites last week, first reported by Advertising Age on Friday. ancestry.comadding test results: For less than $200 and a cheek-swiped cotton swab, amateur historians will soon be able to add DNA results to family tree websites. The rapidly growing field of online genealogical searches is expanding to genetic testing, courtesy of a new partnership between the Internet’s largest family history website,ancestry.com and a private DNA research firm. It plans to launch the testing product by the end of summer, offering customers the possibility of finding DNA matches in the site’s 24,000 genealogical databases.

World wide woes: Heavy traffic threatens collapse of Internet

World wide woes: Heavy traffic threatens collapse of Internet Some software experts seem to have the opinion that the Internet would crumble as a system due to over use and heavy online traffic. But that’s what they said last year. Back in the early 90s, those of us that were online were just sending text e-mails of a few bytes each, traffic across the main US data lines was estimated at a few terabytes a month, doubling every year. But the mid-90s saw the arrival of picture-rich websites, and the invention of the MP3. Suddenly each net user wanted megabytes of pictures and music, and the monthly traffic figure exploded. For the next few years we saw more steady growth with traffic again roughly doubling every year. But since 2003, we have seen another change in the way we use the Net. The YouTube generation want to stream video, and download gigabytes of data in one go. “In one day, YouTube sends data equivalent to 75 billion emails; so it’s clearly very different,” said Phil Smith, head of technology and corporate marketing at Cisco Systems. “The network is growing up, is starting to get more capacity than it ever had, but it is a challenge. Video is real-time, it needs to not have mistakes or errors. E-mail can be a little slow. You wouldn’t notice if it was 11 seconds rather than 10, but you would notice that on a video.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, every year someone says the Internet is going to collapse under the weight of the traffic. Looking at the figures, that seems a reasonable prediction. “Back in the days of the dotcom boom in the late 90s, billions of dollars were invested around the world in laying cables,” said net expert Bill Thompson. “Then there was the crash of 2000 and since then we’ve been spending that inheritance, using that capacity, growing services to fill the space that was left over by all those companies that went out of business.” Much more high-speed optic fibre has been laid than we currently need, and scientists are confident that each strand can be pushed to carry almost limitless amounts of data in the form of light. But long before a backbone wire itself gets overloaded, the strain may begin to show on the devices at either end — the routers. “If we take a backbone link across the Atlantic, there’re billions of bits of data arriving every second and it’s all got to go to different destinations,” explained Thompson. “The router sits at the end of that very high speed link and decides where each small piece of data has to go. That’s not a difficult computational task, but it has to make millions of decisions a second.” The maker of most routers is Cisco. When I pushed them on the subject of router overload, they were confident as usual. “We have enough capacity to do that and drive a billion phone calls from those same people who are playing a video game at the same time they’re having a text chat.” AGENCIES

New chip helps managers turn on crashed PC, remotely

New chip helps managers turn on crashed PC, remotely San Jose, (California): Your work computer just suffered a major meltdown. Maybe the operating system failed, or a virus crashed the hard drive. Either way, your employer can now tunnel into your crippled machine remotely by communicating directly with the chips inside it, allowing authorised managers to power up and repair turnedoff PCs within the corporate network at virtually any time. The technology — which Intel Corp. introduced last year to rave reviews from computer professionals — represents a fundamental change in the way work PCs are repaired, updated and administered. Now the world’s largest chip maker is studying how to bring the same technology to the consumer market. Santa Clara-based Intel envisions consumers one day signing up for a service that allows their Internet providers to automatically install security upgrades and patches, whether the PC is turned on or not. Once they return to their computers, users would then get an alert with a detailed record of the fixes. In some ways it’s the computer-industry equivalent of General Motors Corp.’s OnStar service, which allows an operator in a call center to open your car doors if you’ve locked the keys inside. Intel is hoping consumers will decide that the convenience of having a round-the-clock watchdog outweighs the obvious privacy and security concerns raised by opening a new remote access channel into the PC. Digital-privacy experts aren’t worried about the use of such technology in the workplace, where employers may peek into any worker’s machine at any time. But advocates said the same technology might raise questions about the level of control consumers are willing to cede to keep their machines running smoothly. “It’s a lot of power to give over to someone — people are storing a large portion of their lives in their computers,” said Seth Schoen, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “My main concern would be to make sure consumers knew who they were giving access to, and what kind of access they’re giving.” Intel’s Active Management Technology only allows technicians to see a small amount of mundane but critical information, mostly configuration and inventory data. AP Is it end of road for hard disk drive? Frankfurt: This might well be the beginning of the end for the hard disk drive. In mid-May, Dell became the first manufacturer to market a laptop using flash memory instead of a hard drive. Other manufacturers will be joining the company before the year’s end with Solid State Disk (SSD) technology of their own. For users, this is all good news. Hard drives (HDD) use “ferromagnetic” storage media: to record data. The surface of special metal plates is magnetised. SSD, by contrast, works purely digitally. The fundamental difference between SSD and its other flash storage brethren and HDD lies in the fact that flash technology has no moving parts, explained Dell’s Christoph Kaub. SSD is already in use in MP3 players and cell phones, and like other flash storage media is not sensitive to jolts, notes Joerg Wirtgen from the Hanover-based magazine C’T. AGENCIES

This Weeks Tech Update

MUSIC MUSIC EVERYWHERE Sennheiser’s new ‘Sport’ headphones can match the action on any court, any arena. The neck-clippable MX 70 VC Sport has a magnetic surface; MXL 70 VC Sport has a chords with volume control; MX 75 Sport’s innovative twist system allows an optimum fit. The ultra-light LX 70 and PMX70 come in comfortable neckbands. Price: Rs 2,290–3,190 HAVE FUN IN STYLE It’s raining entertainment phones, and Motorola’s L9 is the latest entrant. The phone has an integrated music player and FM radio and comes with a 512 MB card expandable up to 2 GB to store all the fun. The New CrystalTalk technology automatically cuts out background noise and adjusts the audio to match ambient volume. Click pictures with a 2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, or capture video with 4x zoom and full screen landscape playback. The talk time? Up to 400 minutes! Price: Rs 9,499 COOL THINKPAD Will you buy a notebook that is strong, cool, quiet? Lenovo wants you to do just that with its two new offerings: T61 and R61. Both ThinkPads have 14.1” LCD screens and feature top cover roll cages for durability. Their improved cooling systems reduce surface temperature by 10 per cent and lower noise levels by three decibels over earlier notebooks. Other features are enhanced wireless connectivity with Ultra Connect II and longer battery life through the Battery Stretch control option. Prices: T61, Rs 85,000; R61, Rs 60,000 WHAT A PLAYER Do more with your MP3 player courtesy ZEN V Plus from Creative Technology. The gadget is a photo and video player. It lets you play music, watch short videos, view full-colour photos and listen to FM radio. It features a 1.5” OLED display with a rotating screen, adjustable to suit your preference. You can drag and drop files between player and computer since it doesn’t require driver installation. The joystick provides easy access to the menu. It comes with a 5V/2.4A power adapter with a region-specific interchangeable plug and a USB connector. Price: Rs 6,999

Apple launches browser for Windows

an Francisco: Apple is introducing a version of its Safari Internet browser for Windows, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Monday, taking on Microsoft in its key stronghold of Web access software. The move by Apple, which has expanded beyond its Macintosh computer core with iPod media players and the upcoming iPhone, could let the company control how large numbers of people use the Web at a time when services and programs are increasingly Internet-based. Jobs also said Apple would let outside developers create applications for the iPhone by tapping Safari, softening the company’s previous position that the device would not support other software due to security concerns. But investors were disappointed that Jobs — known for his surprise announcements — did not have bigger news to unveil — and Apple shares sank nearly 3.5%, their biggest one-day fall in about four months. Speaking at Apple’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco, Jobs put Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer browser squarely in his sights, saying that test versions of the new Safari 3 were twice as fast at loading Web pages. “We would love for Safari's market share to grow substantially,” Jobs said. Safari has 5% of the browser market compared to 78% for Internet Explorer. A free test version of Safari 3 is available to the public now as a download and the final version will be available as a free download to users of both Mac OS X and Windows in October, the company said. The focus on Safari sets the stage for a new browser war nearly a decade after Microsoft knocked off pioneering rival Netscape by including Internet Explorer for free in Windows. Analysts said Apple clearly hopes to replicate its success in making a Windows version of its iTunes media program, a move that helped drive sales of its iPod media players as well as Mac computers. Soleil Equity Research analyst Shannon Cross said the availability of Safari on Windows would boost popularity of the software and encourage Web site creators to make their sites compatible with the browser. “It should also help increase Apple’s exposure to the Windows community and potentially attract a larger audience of switchers,” Cross wrote in a research note. REUTERS

One in every 50 Indians owns a PC

One in every 50 Indians owns a PC Mumbai: One in every 50 Indians now owns a PC, says a recent report by IDC. The five million PC units that were sold last year alone took the total install count of PC’s in India to a whopping 22 million, according to IDC’s India Quarterly PC Tracker for the first quarter of 2007-08. More people chose to buy the laptop this year, thanks to a drop of about 12.2% in their selling price. With a growth rate of 85.6%, laptops now make up about 20% of the entire client PC market in India as opposed to a meager 12.7% in 2006. “The performance was contributed to a large measure by buoyant commercial notebook shipments that grew on account of robust demand from the large enterprise, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and education segments,” said Piyush Pushkal, manager (PC research), IDC India. The desktop PC market, on the other hand showed a 11% increase and their average selling price rose by 3.6% this year, as opposed to 2006. As far as the brands are concerned HP lead the pack in terms of units shipped for the laptop segment with a market share of 39.6% in FY 07. Lenovo came in a distant second with 17.6% market share, while Toshiba climbed up to take the third spot to replace Dell from last year’s ranking. The overall Client PC (Notebooks and Desktops combined) market the rankings remained unchanged. With HP on the top with 21.2% share of the market, followed by HCL at 13.5%, and Lenovo at 9.5%, in terms of unit shipments during FY 07. “The country has one PC for every 50 Indians today. This represents a watershed era in the history of the Indian PC market. However, we still have miles to go as a country to evolve an ecosystem that would help to take this trend to the next level, so that the benefits of computerisation reach to the masses,” Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India, said.

Password Exporter - FireFox Extension

Password Exporter extension allows you to export and import your saved passwords and rejected sites between computers. Your passwords will be exported to an XML or CSV file and can be encrypted. The Password Exporter is also great for anyone who's moving their saved Firefox passwords to a new password manager, like KeePass. The Password Exporter extension is a free download, and it works everywhere Firefox does (and in Thunderbird, too!).