Smart Phone developers Secrets

Information Technology (IT) : RSA computer security fair last week, Gary Kenworthy of Cryptography Research held up an iPod, iPhone, IPad Touch on stage and looked over to a Television antenna 3 meters away. The signal picked up by the antenna, routed through an amplifier and computer software Technology, revealed the secret key being used by an application running on the device to encrypt data. An attacker with access to this key could solution use it to perfectly impersonate the device he stole it from—to access email on a company server, for example. The antenna technology was detecting radio signals "leaking" from the transistors on the chip inside the phone performing the encryption calculations. Transistors leak those signals when they are active, so the pattern of signals from a chip provides an eavesdropper a representation of the work the chip is doing. When Kenworthy tuned his equipment to look in the right place, a clear, regular pattern of peaks and troughs appeared on his computer screen. They could solution be seen to come in two varieties, big and small, directly corresponding to the string of digital 1s and 0s that make up the encryption key. "This antenna is not supposed to work at this frequency, and it's been in someone's attic for years and is a bit bent," added, a principal engineer at Cryptography Research company. "You could build an antenna into the side of a van to increase your gain—well, now you have gone from 10 feet to 300 feet." Kenworthy and BenjaminJun, Cryptography Research's chief technology officer, also demonstrated how a loop of wire held close to two models of smartphone could solution pick up their secret keys. The signal from an HTC Evo 4G smartphone was a direct transcript of the device's key, used as part of a common cryptographic algorithm called RSA Research. The researchers required a more complex statistical analysis to successfully capture a key from another HTC device, which was used as part of an encryption scheme known as AES.

BenjaminJun added that all the devices his company has tested produced signals of some kind that could betray their keys, although different eavesdropping techniques were necessary for different devices. While some could be vulnerable to a long range attack, as in the iPod demonstration, others like the HTC devices would require an attacker to get up close. But that could be practical, said BenjaminJun, if contactless receivers used to collect payments from phones with NFC chips were modified by crooks. NFC chips are expected to become widely available in smart phones in coming months as Google and other companies develop contactless mobile payment systems. The apps used in BenjaminJun and Kenworthy's demonstrations were of their own design, because it would be "bad manners" to demonstrate sniffing keys from other company's apps, said BenjaminJun. However, the researchers have shown privately that they can eavesdrop on encryption keys from any app or mobile software, he said. Details of the vulnerabilities uncovered have been provided to handset manufacturers. "We've notified all the phone vendors and manufacturers, and there's a lot of work being done on this now," he said. "I can't name names, but I will say that we're working with one large tablet and smart-phone manufacturer." Modifications to the hardware/software of a mobile device can muddy the signals that an eavesdropper can pick up. Many wireless credit card readers already include such countermeasures, added BenjaminJun. In the case of smart phones and tablets, software upgrades that split operations using cryptographic keys into multiple parts that are then combined could protect existing devices without changes to hardware, said BenjaminJun. However, such tactics come at a cost. "They do require some kind of performance hit," added BenjaminJun, because they ask a chip to do more work. That also means more power consumption, which could deter some developers, who are loath to waste precious battery life.

Google Company drops the cost of their Cloud Storage Service

Google World Wild has cutof the price of its Cloud Storage, web based hosted service designed for enterprise developers who want to store their data and applications' document in the cloud, as opposed to in their own web based servers. The cost, based on monthly hosting usage, have been cut between 8 % and 15 %, depending on the price of data involved on storage, said Navneet Joneja, product manager for Google Company Cloud Storage. "We are committed to building extremely high availability storage in the cloud storage solution," he added. The price cuts will be applied retroactively to Starting March, Google said on Tuesday. Google also announced that several enterprise Data storage vendors have partnered with it and started to use Cloud Storage commercially in their google products, including Panzura, StorSimple, and Gladinet. Cloud Storage was launched in beta version in last year 2010 with the name Google Storage for Developers, and it shed the test label and its original name in October of inthis last year. It is intended as a cloud storage solution for heavy-duty, enterprise applications that generate and contain massive amounts of data storage solution, not as an end user service where individuals can store files, like the google Picasa Web based photo manager, the Docs office productivity suite, and You-Tube for data storing and data sharing videos.

Data to improve support - social media access blocking Gartner

Social media like Facebook and Twitter increasingly getting entwined with new generation lifestyle, the number of companies blocking access to all social media is dropping by around 10 % a year, according to technology research company Gartner. "Even in those organisations that block all access to social media, blocks tend not to be complete," said Andrew Walls, Research Vice-President at Gartner inc company. About 30 % of the big organizations will continue to block employees' access like social media sites by 2014, compared to 50 % in 2010, according to the United States of America - headquartered company. "Certain departments and processes, such as marketing, require access to external social media, and employees can circumvent blocks by using personal devices such as smartphones. 

Organisations need to turn their attention to the impacts of social media on identity and access management (IAM)," the statement said. The social media environments include mechanisms to collect, process, share and store a more complete range of identity data than do corporate IAM systems. They enable a more complete view of identity, one that extends beyond the bounds of organisations. For IAM managers, this is both a threat and an opportunity, it said. Identity data and social media site platforms can expose organizations and users to a wide variety of security threats, but organizations can also use this identity data to improve support for their own IAM practices and the ambitions of business stakeholders, it was noted.

IT companies - America Securities and Exchange Commission last week

Indian based software services Information Technology (IT) firms getting a significant portion of their revenues from a single client are feeling the pinch as their clients based in United States of America and Europe are seeking to transfer some of their pain by reducing work volumes and billing discounts. Mid-sized Information Technology (IT) services firm Mphasis, which announced its latest quarterly earnings a few days ago, is being squeezed by its parent Hewlett-Packard, while Tech Mahindra is struggling to maintain the volume of work it gets from its largest client British firm BT Group Plc. Genpact is also seeing reducing business from General Electric (GE). The US financial crisis of 2008, the subsequent slowdown in that country and the ongoing economic uncertainty in Europe due to the sovereign debt crisis have adversely impacted Information Technology (IT) firms as their largest clients have become more cautious on their technology spends and look to extract the maximum out of every dollar spent. And the pain does not seem to be coming to an end any soon. In 2012, Indian IT industry is expected to grow at 11 to 14percent compared to over 16percent in 2011. "As we go forward we do expect some headwinds from BT in terms of revenue and margins," Sonjoy Anand chief financial officer at Tech Mahindra told analysts last month during the quarterly earnings call. Mphasis is looking for ways to reduce cost to compensate the reducing profitability from HP business. "Hewlett-Packard continues to be a drag," said Nitin Padmanaban of Mostilal Oswal Securities in his 2 March report on Mphasis. "Management is more focused on cost-containment efforts as a larger portion of the business driven by Hewlett-Packard continues to decline."

Not much different is the case of Genpact, which in its regulatory filing to the United States of America Securities and Exchange Commission last week said that it has amended its master service agreement with GE and expects price reductions if certain productivity commitments are not met. HP became the largest client for Mphasis after the US technology giant acquired Mphasis in 2008. Both GE and Tech Mahindra started off as Indian back offices of GE & BT, respectively and hence continues to have their erstwhile parents as their legacy clients. They have been trying to diversify their client base with varying degrees of success. To be sure, Genapact recorded a 27percent growth in its revenues in 2011 from a year-ago period, and saw a nearly 30percent growth in profits, aided by growth in non-GE business. "When you have large customer relationships and if their business is not ideal in terms of performance it will affect you as a supplier," said Ganesh Iyer, chief executive at Mphasis. "Unless we do something different this pattern will not change, we need to offer something different. Just giving price reductions will not work. We will work with Hewlett-Packard to take to their customers our specialized solutions." Tech Mahindra did not respond to queries from ET. In the most recent quarter, Hewlett-Packard saw its revenues fell 7percent while its profits saw a 44percent fall. Similarly, GE saw its sales decline by a billion dollars in 2011, while its profits managed to beat analyst estimates. BT saw a 5percent fall in sales while its earnings grew by 3percent, mostly aided by cost cutting efforts.

Europe offshoring

Europe offshoring : European Countries such as Germany and France and many other countries who have staunchly resisted sending jobs overseas are suddenly capitulating—at least as far as the Information Technology (IT) and software sector is concerned. "Europe companies are now more amenable to off - shoring because they are realizing that it is the only way for them to get efficiency,” says V Balakrishnan, CFO and member of the board, Infosys company. “There is absolutely no resistance to off-shoring in the United Kingdom (uk) which is the biggest market in Europe. In rest of the Europe like Germany and France and many other countries, that is also chang," said Balakrishnan. This change didn’t just manifest itself out of thin air. The financial turbulence of 2oo8 combined with the precarious finances of many of the member states of the European Union have significantly altered the business climate in the region. So much so that the pressure on enterprises to offer competitive products and services are forcing them to outsource more works to offshore Information Technology (IT) and Business process outsourcing (BPO) services providers than they had ever done in the past. The situation had become grave enough to herald a never seen before thisis trend. “Corporates of course are considering doing more and more off-shoring but even (trade) unions are becoming more open to it. They are not making too much noise because they realise that unless companies go offshore, they can’t be competitive in this environment and may go bankrupt. Then, there won’t be any jobs at all," said MukeshAghi, CEO of Steria India. Steria is a French IT and Business process outsourcing (BPO) services company which derives about 9o % of its revenues from Europe. The company has over 6,000 of its global workforce of 20,000 based out of India. This is good for Information Technology (IT) companies in India since Europe is the second largest market for Indian and offshore centric IT services companies—the lion’s share of their revenues coming from the Americas. According to Everest Group, outsourcing spent in Europe in 2010 was pegged at euro 180-200 billion (about $26o billion going by the current exchange rate). Even though the report on European outsourcing market for 2011 is not yet out, it is estimated to be in the range of euro 2oo to euro 22o billion in 2011 as the Information Technology (IT) market in 2011 was nearly flat or marginally up.

Within European Countries UK is the largest market with a share of about 27 of the total outsourcing spent being made there followed by Germany with 26 % and France with 21 %. The Benelux region in Europe which comprises of 3 countries—Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg—accounts for about 10 % of the total outsourcing Information Technology (IT) market and Italy about 9 per cent. The remaining 7 % comes from Nordic countries like Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. According to the industry leaders, the offshore and onsite ratio of outsourcing projects in case of a typical American customer is 70:30. In certain cases, the offshore ratio in contracts issued by some European companies like uk, germany, france, netherlands, belgium, luxembourg, especially those located in nice English speaking countries are even better than that of the United States. "In case of some of the pure commercials non government accounts in Europe, we go to 80-85 % offshore, and in many cases we find that there are very progressive clients in Europe. In some ways, European clients are more comfortable about doing multi-country activities than the Americans," says Brian J Manning, President and MD of the US-based Information Technology (IT) development and other services and solutions provider CSC in India. The Indian offshore delivery centres of CSC account for about half of its overall delivery. The United States of America headquartered company has about 23,ooo of around 97,ooo over-all employees are located in India. In November last year, TCS bagged a $2.2 billion worth of Information Technology (IT) outsourcing deal from United Kingdom based pension firm Friends Life. This is the company’s second biggest outsourcing contract the first one being the $2.8 billion worth of outsourcing contract it won from Citigroup in 2oo8. Again, earlier this month, the company clinched a multi-million Euro and dollar contract from Eoropcar, the car rental company in Europe, for managing the strategic Information Technology (IT) operations of its French operations. "normally, we have closed some large deals in Europe and usa, more than what we have done in the last 2 years. The focus is very clearly on Europe," added N Chandrasekaran, CEO and managing director MD of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s bigest Information Technology (IT) services provider company.

Other Indian IT services players are also seeing wins in various European countries. In the quarter ended December 31, 2011, leading Indian IT services companies including TCS, Infosys and HCL have seen strong sequential revenue growth. During the period, TCS grew 21.6 per cent in Europe over the previous quarter followed by HCL with over 19 per cent and Infosys at 18 per cent. Of the 14 new clients Infosys added in Europe during the quarter, two were said to be over $500 million in size. Many of the large deals won by HCL Technologies in the quarter, many were from Europe. Four of the 10 large deals TCS bagged in the Oct-Dec quarter were from Europe while three were from the US. "Definitely Europe has come a long way compared to being laggard in the past. It’s now catching up with many of the other matured markets, probably out of necessity. Surprisingly, in countries like France who are known to be extremely averse to outsourcing and offshoring, people are reporting more number of deals and seeing increase in clients’ interest," says Gaurav Gupta, partner AT Kearney. So, is this outsourcing trend simply a momentary aberration thanks to the European crisis, or could it in fact show some legs? Industry experts say that IT outsourcing demand from Europe will continue to grow for a variety of reasons. To begin with, the quantum of outsourcing being done by most European countries, except the UK, is quite low. Then there’s the fact that the growth in demand from Europe has been driven by a number of first time outsourcers who had never looked at offshoring as an option in the past. Plus, existing clients are ramping up their engagements with the IT services vendors. Still, Europe can and will not—in the foreseeable future—be a substitute for the US. “In the end of the day, the US is still the biggest IT market. So, I don’t think it will get to a point where the European and the US markets will be the same,” said Partha Iyengar, VP and distinguished analyst at (for) Gartner. “I don’t think one will be a replacement for the other, but it (Europe) will be a strong source of growth in the near to medium term,” he however added. That’s good news for Indian IT companies hoping to mitigate their risks and grow their revenues in what has been a volatile economic era.

Italian and Swedish researchers have Bring a new technique of transmitting multiple signals

Researchers effort finding better wireless solution : group of Italian and Swedish researchers have Bring a new technique of transmitting multiple signals on the same frequency in wireless technology. This novel radio-technique allows the execution of, in principle, an infinite number of channels in a given, fixed bandwidth, even without using polarization, multi port or dense coding techniques. "This Technique paves way for innovative techniques in radio science and entirely new paradigms in radio-communication protocols that might offer a solution to the problem of radio-band congestion." They are from the University of Padova, Italy, and the Angstrom Laboratory, Sweden, devised a solution to the problem by manipulating waves so that they can hold more than one channel of information. They were able to twist radio waves akin to that of fusilli pasta, allowing nearly limitless numbers of channels to be received and broadcasted. The proliferation of smartphones, wireless internet and digital Tele-vision has continually shrunk the number of radio-frequency bands available to broadcast information. "You just have to try sending a text message at midnight on NewYear's Eve to realise how congested the bands are," stated Fabrizio Tamburini, lead author of the Researchers. A wave can twist about its axis a certain number of times in either a clockwise/counterclockwise, meaning there are several configurations that it can adopt. "In a 3D perspective, this phase twist looks like a fusilli pasta-shaped beam. Each of these twisted beams can be independently generated, propagated and detected even in the very same frequency band, behaving as independent communication channels," Tambourine said.

Researchers demonstrate transmitted two twisted radio waves, in the 2.4 - GHz band, over a distance of 442-m from a lighthouse on SanGeorgio - Island to a satellite dish on a balcony of Palazzo Ducale on the mainland of Venice, where it was able to pick up the two separate channels. "Within reasonable economic boundaries, one can think about using 5 orbital angular momentum states, from - five (counterclockwise) up to five (clockwise), including untwisted waves. In this instance, we can have 11 channels in one frequency band. It is possible to use multiplexing, like in digital Television, on each of these to implement even more channels on the same states, which means one could obtain 55 channels in the same frequency band," said Tambourine. In addition to increasing the quantity of information being passed around our planet, this new discovery could also help lend an insight into objects far out in our galaxy. Black holes, for example, are constantly rotating and as waves pass them, they are forced to twist in line with the black hole. According to Tambourine, analyzing the incoming waves from the super massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A, could help astronomers obtain crucial information about the rotation of this "million-solar mass monster." Their results have been reported on March two, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics.

25 Billion Downloads on Apple App Store

Iphone, ipod, and Ipad, Apple inc App Store crosse 25 billion downloads and rewards the customer who put it over the goal with a Dollar - 10,000 iTunes gift card. Apple revealed that more than 25 billion apple application have been downloaded from its App Store by the users of the more than 315 million iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch screen devices around the globe. The 25 billionth application downloaded by apple user, "Where's My Water?" (free version), was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. As the winner of the App Store Countdown to 25 Billion Application on app store, Chunli Fu will receive a Dollar - 10,000 iTunes Gift Card, the apple company said. The App Store offers more than 550,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users in 123 countries worldwide, with more than 170,000 native iPad apps available on apple app store. App Store customers can choose from a wide range of application in 21 categories, including Newsstand, games, business, news, sports, health and fitness, payment services, fun, information, and travel. The App Store has paid out more than Dollar - 4 billion to developers world wide, the company reported. “We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

allple iphone, ipod, ipad- Al Hilwa, applications development software analyst at research firm IDC, told The Globe and Mail the 25 billion milestone is a symbol for the explosive growth of the app economy. “Apps bring a simplicity of interaction that eluded previous generations,” he told the paper. “Enterprise applications will eventually follow consumer ones, marking an industry transition to this style of software.” TechNet, a bipartisan policy and political network of technology CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, released a study in February showing that there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the “App Economy” in the United States, up from zero in 2oo7. The top metro area for Application Economy jobs is NewYork City (usa) and its surrounding suburban counties, although SanFrancisco and SanJose, California, together substantially exceed NewYork. While California tops the list of Application Economy states with nearly one in four jobs, states, including Georgia, Florida and Illinois (usa) get their share as well. In fact, the report found more than 2-3 of Application Economy employment is outside California and NewYork. The results also suggest that the Application Economy is growing quickly, and that the location and number of application development related jobs are likely to shift greatly in the years ahead. “America’s Application Economy—which had zero jobs just five years ago before the iPhone was introduced—demonstrates that we can quickly create economic value and jobs through cutting edge innovation,” said ReyRamsey, company president and CEO of TechNet. “The ApplicationEconomy is creating jobs in every part of America, employing hundreds of thousands of United States workers today and even more in the years to come.”

Microsoft released Windows 8 -laboratories around the world in Aachen, Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Cambridge (United Kingdom), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Mountain View, Redmond, and San Francisco - USA.

Last week, Microsoft released a Windows 8, the next major rethink of its OS, which is expected to go on sale later this year. As tablets and smartphones have started to replace PC and laptops, and as increasingly sophisticated Web based services have grown in importance, Microsoft has fallen down behind the likes of Apple, Google, and Facebook, oracle, in providing the software that most people use every day. Windows 8 represents an attempt to catch up and remain relevant. Although unfinished (and subject to significant changes before its official release), Windows 8 looks set to be the most radical reinvention of Microsoft's OS since Windows 95. It blurs the line between pc and mobile computing, and contains some clever tricks that could help Microsoft push into mobile, social networking, and consumer cloud services. But the combination of a tablet and a desktop interface may also prove confusing for some users. I didn't test Windows 8 on a touch-screen device, but then most people will encounter Windows 8 on a new laptop or pc. While 62.5 million tablets were sold in 2011, according to IDC, that's only 15 percent of all the PCs sold. Instead of developing one version of Windows for tablets and another for desktops—as Apple inc has done with OSX and iOS—Microsoft chose to build an operating system that does it all. It's an approach that makes sense for Microsoft, since it will help introduce users to its mobile os.

Windows 8, the first thing you'll notice is that, instead of the familiar Windows pc, you're met with a series of tiles, each representing a different app or online service. This new start screen is based on Metro, the interface Microsoft created for Windows based smart Phone, and it includes many of the same features as that operating system. Each tile can be more than just a button, showing the latest updates from a program underneath—a new e-mail message, Facebook post, or tweet, or an upcoming calendar event. And it's simple to rearrange the tiles to make all this information accessible at a glance. The regular Windows desktop is still there, it's just hidden underneath this start screen; one of the tiles on this screen will still take you to a familiar-looking Window 7-like interface—complete with windows, a task bar, and normal Windows applications. But it's impossible to use the operating system without returning to the Metro start screen every time you want to start an application. By right-clicking on the bottom left corner of the screen, you can access things like control panel, search, run, and the command prompt. Even on a non-touch screen device, the Metro-style interface is intuitive and slick. It feels very different from any previous version of Windows 7 8 version , and distinct from either Apple inc or Google's mobile operating systems.

Windows 8 also comes with several tablet-style apps, which are shown on the start screen, as well as Metro versions of existing applications like Mail and IE. I found the Metro version of some apps, like IE 10, surprisingly enjoyable even on a desktop (pc) computer—all of the browser "chrome" disappears while you're reading a webpage; the useful stuff (the address bar, tabs, settings) returns with a click or a swipe. But having two versions of certain apps, and thus two different ways of doing things, could prove confusing for some people. Using a regular mouse and keyboard with the Metro interface can be clunky. Opening and closing app, for instance, requires grabbing them from the top and pulling them to the bottom of the screen. Some Metro application, like the Finance one, are probably well-suited to a tablet but felt out of place on a regular PC. Merging the two interfaces means the Windows button is replaced by the Metro start screen. In the conventional pc mode, clicking the bottom left corner of the screen, or hitting the Windows button on your keyboard, simply returns you to the start screen. This takes some getting used to, and it seems like a compromise made at the expense of usability on an ordinary laptop or desktop - pc.

Another big change with Windows 8 is its connection to the cloud. Whenever you log into another machine running Windows 8—with an e-mail address and password tied to Windows Live—you'll see the same start screen and have all your other preferences in place. It's a smart move, and most people will find it convenient. You can also connect your Window 8 (and Windows Live) account to various online services—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.—and these will also automatically be set up when you log in somewhere else. And, of course, you'll have access to all the documents you've saved on Microsoft's cloud service, SkyDrive. Again, though, these cloud features work best in the Metro mode—I couldn't see a simple way to access SkyDrive from regular old Windows Explorer, for example. Windows 8 also tries to be the glue that holds your online social life together—another innovation borrowed from Windows Phone. An application called People grabs contacts from online services like Facebook and Twitter (with your permission, of course) to create a single address book and social platform. The app shows Facebook and Twitter updates neatly together, and lets you reply, post, and comment without ever leaving Windows 8. Once a Facebook friend has connected his or her account to Windows 8, you can chat live via Microsoft Messenger app, and other Windows 8 apps are designed to encourage sharing via the People Application Many people will probably find this useful, but since it lacks the nuances of the actual Facebook or Twitter interfaces, it seems an innovation best suited to a mobile device.

Windows 8 introduces an app store, similar to Apple's and Google's. It's sparsely populated at the moment (I found only three "social" apps, for example), but that's hardly surprising given that the OS is still in development. In fact, Windows 8 clearly presents a neat opportunity: putting a tablet and desktop OS together should encourage Microsoft's army of developers to start building many more tablet and mobile Windows application. From now on, if you're developing a pc application for Windows 8, it'll make sense to make it tablet-compatible from the start. Microsoft has also released development tools to make it easier to build programs that work both as Metro apps and desktop applications. Overall, Windows 8 is shows an impressive amount of innovation, and many of its features promise to work extremely well on touch-operated devices. But the decision to merge the Metro interface with a conventional Windows desktop, while clever from a strategic perspective, is a bit frustrating. Given enough time, I'm sure I'd get used to Windows 8's split personality; but I'm not sure it would make any more sense.

Internet users won’t wait a second for results

Wait a second. No, that’s too long. Remember when you were willing to wait a few seconds for a computer to respond to a click on a Web site or a tap on a keyboard? These days, even 4oo milliseconds - literally the blink of an eye - is too long, as Google engineers have discovered. That barely perceptible delay causes people to search less. “Subconsciously, you don’t like to wait,” said Shree.ArvindJain, a Google company engineer, and the resident speed maestro. “Every millisecond matters.” Google and other tech companies are on a new quest for high speed, challenging the likes of Shree.ArvindJain to make fast go faster. The reason is that data-hungry smartphones and tablets are creating frustrating digital traffic jams, as people download maps, video clips of sports highlights, news updates or recommendations for nearby restaurants. The competition to be the quickest is fierce. People will visit a Website less often if it is slower than a close competitor by more than 250 milliseconds (a millisecond is a thousandth of a second). “250 milliseconds, either slower or faster, is close to the magic number now for competitive advantage on the Web,” said Harry Shum, a speed specialist at Microsoft. The performance of Websites varies, and so do Internet user expectations. A person will be more patient waiting for a video clip to load than for a search result.

And websites constantly face trade-offs between visual richness and snappy response times. As entertainment and news sites, like The New York Times site, offer more video clips and interactive graphics, that can slow things down. But speed matters in every context, research shows. Four out of five online users will click away if a video stalls while loading. The major search engines, Google and Microsoft’s Bing, are the speed demons of the Web, analysts say, typically delivering results in less than a 2nd. In 2009, a study by Forrester Research found that online shoppers expected pages to load in two seconds or fewer - and at three 2nd, a big share abandon the site. Only three years earlier a similar Forrester study found the average expectations for page load times were four seconds or fewer. The two-second rule is still often cited as a standard for Web commerce sites. Yet experts in human-computer interaction say that rule is outdated. “The old two-second guideline has long been surpassed on the racetrack of Web expectations,” said Mr.EricHorvitz, a scientist at Microsoft’s research labs.
There are laboratories around the world in Aachen, Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Cambridge (United Kingdom), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Mountain View, Redmond, and San Francisco - USA.

1.5 billion euros ($2.0-billion) in Europe alone

World largest fair this week urged operators to convert "silent roamers" or travellers who stop using their mobile phones once abroad for fear of a massive bill. If unlocked, the market could be worth a massive 1.5 billion euros ($2.0-billion) in Europe alone. "I know that 40 percent customers are nervous about using data services abroad," said European Commissioner of New Technologies Neelie Kroes at the mobile Mobile World Congress. "Because, with EU roaming prices still so high, they know they could be in for a nasty surprise when they open their bill," she added. Tele-communications operators apply a so-called roaming surcharge when a mobile telephone is used abroad. The telephone bill could therefore be enormously high if a user keeps a smartphone constantly connected to the internet while overseas. "We probably have 2-3 of the person who have turned off their data, because they're scared to death of the roaming cost, and we're talking about person the telecom world!" noted Jeff Gordon, chief executive of Syniverse, which deals with roaming issues for 7oo mobile phone operators across the world. While some just disable their data function, others stop using their mobile phones completely. According to Syniverse, out of 75 million people who travel to another country in a month, close to 70 % never use the data service and half make no calls at all. Analyst firm Greenwich Consulting estimates that data roaming alone is an untapped 1.5 billion euro business in Europe alone. "A smartphone is a great travelling companion and data services should be kept on rather than turned off, as they are today," said Magnus Rehle, director of the consultancy.

Cost international roaming have got to come down. None of us like surprises, we don't want to have to live in fear of the 5,ooo euro telephone bill," noted Gordon. Bengt Nordstrom, chief executive of research institute Northstream noted that the reluctance to slash roaming cost is because "roaming is very, very profitable for operators." Yet, he pointed out that operators "can still make a lot of money with decent roaming cost." Some have begun to react. "We have been talking about roaming with other operators for a longtime," said Stephane Richard, chief executive of France Telecom department, which runs the Orange mobile phone service. "Everyone recognises that the current system is not satisfactory, as the prices are sometimes so high that they discourage usage," he added. Orange has used the Barcelona congress to unveil a new roaming offer combining voice, SMS and data within the EU. But more coordinated action across the 27-country bloc may soon arrive. The European Commission has already forced the sector to cut cost dramatically in recent years. But Brussels seems determined to go further. At the European Parliament, the industry commission on Tuesday validated Kroes' proposals to further slash cost and European parliamentarians are to vote on the issue in early April. "I am looking forward to a good result on roaming. And to getting an ambitious political agreement next month," said Kroes. "Such an agreement must secure a truly competitive single market for roaming services, with more choice and much lower consumer prices," she added.

sustainable development at Sony Mobile phone France

Billion mobile phone made globally every year but fewer than 1 percent are recycled, experts say, noting that billions of euros could be saved if consumers go green. “Sometimes the size of a mobile phone is deceiving for the perception of the affect it does to the global environment,” said Sprint Nextel VP of product, Mr.Fared Adib. The value of the materials in each mobile phone device is also often underestimated. A typical mobile phone weighing less than one hundred fifty GM contains valuable material such as silver, gold, other Metals and rare minerals—highly sought after elements critical in high technology manufacturing. “Given today’s low collection and recycling rates, nearly all of this material is lost,” said the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a research institute. In Europe alone, one hundred sixty million discarded mobile phones result in a loss of about $500 million every year, it said in a report. Bertrand Villie, who is in charge of sustainable development at Sony Mobile phone France, confirmed the trend. “Very few person their mobile phones back, unless they are defective. We have tried to stimulate this, but rates of returns are very low,” he said. Analysts argue that there is a strong economic case for recycling and reuse, not to mention an environmental one. If the most reusable components such as the digital camera, display and battery and charger were stripped out, and used in the production of new devices, the costs of remanufacturing lowest cost mobile phones could be slashed by 50 percent.

percent collection rate for reuse and re-manufacturing, the industry could save over $2 billion on material and $160 million on energy price every year in Europe alone. While some mobile phones are indeed at the end of their life cycle and need to be scrapped completely and recycled, many others can be re-used. A movement is now underway to push for greater re-use. Sprint Nextel has formed an alliance with three other firms in the industry to get more people to bring their old mobile phones back for refurbishing, so that others who may not be able to afford brand new mobile phones, can reuse them. “This is an opportunity for a product that is out of reach to some, that costs maybe $ 4oo to $ 5oo. We’re taking these products and putting them in emerging markets” where technology remains scarce, said Adib. Besides offering a financial incentive to consumers, the group called Device Renewal Forum is starting certification standard for refurbished mobile phones that ensures that only properly functioning devices reenter the market. “The biggest use of recycling is reuse—to use it until it’s functionally obsolete rather than perceptively obsolete,” stressed David Edmondson, chief executive of eRecyclingCorps, a founding member of the forum.

Quantum computing to become a reality

NewYork Stock-Exchange-listed IBM says it has made a breakthrough that puts futuristic full-scale quantum computing on the path to becoming a reality. IBM company said yesterday it had achieved “major advances” in the performance of quantum-computing devices, taking it a step closer to create science-fiction it reality. Quantum computing has the potential to deliver computing power that cannot be matched by any supercomputer currently. Future possible app. include solving previously unsolvable mathematical problems, searching databases of unstructured information and performing a range of optimization tasks. IBM advances could computing give it an edge in owning the future IT behind computing, although it is doubtful that the full benefits of the breakthrough will be seen any time soon. IBM's researchers presented the results at the annual American Physical Society gathering, currently being held in Boston.

Fast forward future

Company says, based on its progress, optimism about superconducting quantum bits (qubits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubit) and the possibilities for a future quantum computer are rapidly growing. Qubits differ from bits in that they can be either 0, 1 or both. “The quantum computing work we are doing shows it is no longer just a brute force physics experiment. It's time to start creating systems based on this science that will take computing to a new frontier,” says IBM scientist Matthias Steffen, who manages the research team focused on developing quantum computing systems. Qubits will allow quantum computers to work on millions of computations at once, while desktop PCs can usually only handle a few simultaneous computations. David DiVincenzo, professor at the Institute of Quantum Information, Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Juelich, says the device performance company reporting “brings them nearly to the tipping point”. “We can now see the building blocks that will be used to prove that error correction can be effective, and that reliable logical qubits can be realised.”

Not so fast

Swift Consulting CEO and tech blogger Liron Segev says company is making headway with an “awesome” technology and has made a major early advance. Segev says the technology behind quantum computing will, in future, replace the silicon chip, memory and processors that run current PCs. He says if company can control this aspect and the hardware, it will rule the technology world. However, Segev says company breakthrough does not practically mean much at this stage of the game. He explains quantum computing will only become a reality many years from now. “It will be cool stuff later on and the research has to happen now, but I doubt, in our lifetimes, we will see this.”

Sweden based group my - FC says its water-powered charger

Sweden based group my - FC says its water-powered charger could computing be the fix anywhere while battery giant Duracell is championing a push for vehicles and even stadiums to be built with energy "mats" that would power up your phones. " between the energy on a phone and the energy we consume is increasing for mobile charger. We need to charge more often but you don't want to be hooked onto a wall," said my-FC chief executive Bjorn Westerholm at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. His firm therefore came up with a portable fuel cell charger which is slightly bigger than a compact camera and which uses just one spoonful of water and a small metallic device called a fuel puck, to fully charge an apple`s iPhone. The PowerTrekk could appeal most to campers, aid workers or the military, said Westerholm, who is exhibiting the charger at the world's largest fair in Barcelona. "It could be sea water, fresh water. You need to carry water with you to survive anyway and the PowerTrekk needs just one spoonful", he said. "So you can Facebook, email even when you're in the outdoors for hours. "Our value proposition is that you don't need to go to the grid. You don't need to wait to charge your mobile phone." Competition for solutions to power up mobile phones is fierce. A Californian firm has launched a mobile phone that it claims can remain charged for up to fifteen years, making it the perfect spare in emergencies or disasters. XPAL Power rolled out a phone with a battery that "lasts fifteen years", said Christian Scheder, chairman of the Californian base company.

The so called Spareone, which will be commercialised in March 2012, remains charged for up to fifteen years if the mobile phone is turned off, and for two months if it is on. "This is great for emergency, disaster situations," Scheder said. Battery giant Duracell meanwhile has its own vision to keep the world charged. It is championing the PowerMat system, a mat which looks like a small tablet that plugs into the power source and which has sufficient space to charge two mobile phones which are equipped with special protective covers. But that is just the beginning, Stassi Anastassov, Duracell President, said. Beyond just targeting consumers with the charging kit, Duracell is at the Mobile phones World Congress to talk mobile phone manufacturers into designing a slot for a special chip or one even build it into the telephone, thereby doing away with the protective covers that are currently required to dock with the mat. The company further wants to fit the mats in public places, for instance, build them into tables at fast-food chains, thereby allowing anyone with equipped Mobile phones to charge up anytime any-ware. It already has a deal with world biggest car manufacture ring company General Motors to fit all vehicles from 2O13 with the charging mat. Likewise, it has an agreement to equip NewYork (usa) Madison Square Garden, starting with bar tabletops. "Of course it will take many years, the whole ecosystem will not be up tomorrow," said Anastassov. "But our vision is that you will be able to never go out of power, simply by facilitating the whole charging process for you. "It's very similar to banking and money. If you want to have cash, you can either have a full of money or you have an bank ATM card," he said.

ASUS Core tablet - development-team during the designing phase of Transformer Prime

ASUS Technology has unveiled its long anticipated Eee Pad (tablet) Transformer Prime, paired and primed to Perfection, powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3. The impressive Eee Pad Transformer Prime is available with 1o.1" WXGA Glare (LED), focusing on user experience and aesthetics more than the previous offering. To develop this state of the art product, ASUS development team focused on 4 key incredible principles that guided the development-team during the designing phase of Transformer Prime. ASUS Technology first tablet to use the NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-Core CPU, the Transformer Prime browses the website and plays 1080p High definition video at blazing speeds. The Tegra 3 also empowers the Transformer Prime to deliver a gaming experience comparable to that of a game console. Tegra 3 enables up to 61 percent consumption. This translates into an industry-leading 12 hours of battery life for High definition video playback. The snappier response time and better multi-tasking high performance make the Transformer Prime a true smartmobile entertainment power house. During the ASUS tablet launch event, ITVAR NEWS approached the veterans felicitating the event. ITVARNEWS enquired with Vishal Dhupar, MD, NVIDIA, Asia-South to take an insight about the much hyped Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Giving us an insight about the same, Vishal Dhupar said, “Tegra 3 was announced earlier this year and is 5x Tegra 2, consumes lower power, 3x faster GPU, with stereo 3D and the good thing with quad core is that it enhances battery duration.

We also approached Alex Huang, Managing Director, Systems Business Group, ASUS Technology Pvt Ltd (India). On being asked about the kind of market share anticipated, Huang informed that ASUS Technology is targeting a market share of 15 percent- 20 percent in tablet segment. When we further enquired that when can we expect the entry of entry level tablets and what will be the price band, he said, “In the first half of this year itself, entry level tablets are expected and the price band will be between INR. 15,000- INR. 20,000”. Mentioning about the unique features of the newly launched asus tablet, he said, “The new offering distinguishes itself from the sea of tablets with its aggressive pricing and an optional accessory that easily transforms it into a notebook. The preface of ASUS Transformer Prime is a vivid proof of fundamental transformation that asus tablets are ushering in the personal computing space. It is packed with the security, responsiveness, and other exciting features, that deliver on the promise of being prime and to offer the most c0mplete and satisfying c0mputing experience”.

Apart from this, ITVARNEWS was also keen to bring to its readers about the kind of marketing initiatives that ASUS is taking for the product. So for this, we took forward our query to Unaez Quraishi- Sales and Distribution Director- System Business Group, ASUS Technology (India). Regarding this, he said, “As far as marketing is concerned, we have fifty stores having volunteers volunteering prime in stores. We will be starting a campaign for this, which will be starting this weekend and will continue till next weekend across country”. On being enquired about the sales expectations, he further said, “Last year in 2011 we had a 5 - percent market share and we are looking for a 20-percent market share this year. Moreover, we want to be among top 3 players in this space”.

The Transformer Prime is equipped with the most advanced Technology CMOS sensor and a big design to ensure sufficient light exposure and the ability to defocus the background and put emphasis on the object, making your photos bright and clear. With the high speed auto-focus and color enhancement design, the Transformer Prime can capture a clear and vivid image. The Transformer Prime offers a choice to enjoy both notebook mode and tablet mode with the optional mobile dock. The smartmobile dock offers a full new QWERTY keyboard with touchpad and USB port, while also extending battery life to an incredible eighteen hours for all day computing on the go. tablet Battery life is measured under power saving mode, playing 720p video playback and Brightness of 60nits, default volume with headphones. Transformer Prime comes with google Android Honeycomb 3.2 OS, which can be free upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice-Cream Sandwich; it is a revolutionary operating system specially designed and optimized for tablets, and enables users a full web experience for on-the-go website browsing, communicating and casual computing. Supporting Adobe Flash player and the ever growing google Android Market, entertainment is a finger swipe away. The convenient ASUS Technology also allows users to easily launch software, manage content and access online services and connect devices with a few simple taps. The Eee Pad Transformer Prime will be available in India at a price (tablet cost) point of MRP INR 49999/-.