Category: Software

Mumbai: Professional networking site LinkedIn has launched the upgraded version of its mobile applications.

The upgraded LinkedIn mobile app is available on all operating systems – iOS, Android, Symbian.

It aims to provide “simple” and “dynamic” solutions to professionals, helping them to be more productive and successful.

With this upgrade, the mobile applications will now have enhanced features like Jobs, Jobs You May be Interested In (JYMBII), Notifications and Company Pages. These new features will arm LinkedIn members with important professional intelligence on the go, the company said.

LinkedIn India country manager Hari V.Krishnan said, “Being the fastest-growing consumer service on LinkedIn, mobile is an extremely important part of our offerings for professionals. Keeping in mind that today‘s workforce is constantly on the move, enhancing our mobile platform is a conscious step towards making our members more productive and successful. Our team of world class engineers is focused on developing tools that our members see value in.”

Additionally, LinkedIn also announced the launch of the iPad application in several international languages like French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Korean.

The upgraded LinkedIn mobile App is free and available immediately for members to download on their mobile devices.

MUMBAI: DisneyUTV Digital, the digital business of DisneyUTV, has associated with Gameloft, a leading international publisher and developer of games, to distribute their mobile games in India via operator channels and UTV Indiagames‘ destination sites.

Gamers in India will now have access to global games like Asphalt 6: Adrenaline – from the blockbuster Asphalt franchise, Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands – an epic adventure game from the Prince of Persia saga series, along with some latest releases like The Dark Knight Rises – an action game inspired by the movie trilogy‘s final chapter.

The tie up will also bring the Indian audiences Marvel titles like Ironman, The Avengers and Amazing-Spiderman – the official web-slinging adventure game.

These games will be available on Java phones with select titles available on Android as well. Gamers can download the titles in the price range of Rs 30/50/99.

“This is one of the most strategic alliances that we have made especially in light of some of the MARVEL franchises that we will be able to engage Indian audiences with, in addition to the world class repertoire of Gameloft IPs. The gamer base in India is expanding rapidly and at this critical juncture we believe the right content offering will catalyze growth further.”, said DisneyUTV MD-Digital Samir Bangara.

Gameloft India country manager Sarabjeet Singh said, “Gameloft has been distributing its games for over 5 years in India, and we are thankful to our Indian fans for the strong interest and appreciation they have shown over these years. We are now pleased to partner with the digital team of DisneyUTV who will be distributing our mobile games via the various operator channels in India. We are confident of their rich experience and local expertise in the market and will be working closely with them to bring our Indian users an even better gaming experience.”

NEW DELHI: Delhi-based Home Cable is readying to move the Delhi High Court to appeal against the cancellation by the government of its MSO registration late last month.

Viklki Chaudhry who owns the MSO said he will now approach the Delhi High Court to appeal against this “arbitray order issued with mala fide intentions by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry” and will also raise the issues that “we have pointed out numerous times but which have been conveniently ignored for reasons best known to the ministry officials”.

He said Home Cable had sent information regarding digital access system information as required and the punitive action was therefore “completely arbitrary after the Ministry failed to respond to our queries”.

Alleging that I&B Minister Ambika Soni was being misguided by the Secretary, he said the Ministry had overlooked the interests of the consumers in its hurry to implement the DAS Regulation.

The statement points out that the MSO has repeatedly pointed out during the entire digitisation consultation process that:

1. Domestic manufacturing of the set-top boxes (STBs) should be encouraged so that there is no dependence on the Chinese import, as there is requirement of billions of these STBs to be supplied/ installed at every consumer home in the country depending on the number of TV sets owned by a household.

2. What the consumer will pay in order to obtain the digital STB is still unclear and no details are available about warranty and after sales service of imported boxes.

3. The fee to be paid by the consumer to the pay channels/service cost per month was still unclear. He said the former Trai chairman had deliberately kept this issue under forbearance and did not fix any tariff / rates for the pay TV channels as he was to retire within 15 days from the day he had to issue the tariff notification of forbearance for the pay TV channels. This may result in consumers end up paying three to four times more for the cable TV subscription each month.

4. The LCO/ LMO s are not being brought under the ambit of this DAS regulation. Though they are the people who are solely responsible for convincing the subscribers, install STB, collection of subscription and servicing 24×7 with some QoS at the consumer homes. At least they should also be asked to get registered for longer duration and some norms for providing Quality of Service (Q0S) to the consumers be defined for them. Otherwise, we will see the consumers being put to exploitation and undue hardship.

5. Why has DTH also not been brought under the DAS regulation when it is the same content/product that is being provided to the consumers, Chaudhary wants to know. “Are the present Government and the Ministry officials bent upon making the business of already bleeding DTH companies by making the cable TV services costlier for the consumers so that these companies increase their subscriptions to consumers , providing an opportunity for these ventures to be commercially viable? Today DTH has to meet up with the prevailing cable TV rates in the country when offering their packages. Cable operators cannot increase the rates to keep them affordable by the masses.”

Home Cable will now be evoking the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court to appeal against this arbitrary order issued with mala fide intentions by the I&B Ministry and will also raise the issues that “we have pointed out numerous times but they have been conveniently ignoring for reasons best known to the Ministry officials”, the statement stated.

MUMBAI: Conax, a solutions provider for protecting multi-device content distribution, has launched integrated CI+ CAM (Conditional Access Module) which along with a smart card can be bundled into one single, integrated and pre-paired solution.

CI + CAM is a result of partnership with leading conditional access modules developer SMIT Corporation. The new solution, according to manufacturers, is ideal for a secondary TV in the consumer home, is ready to use in any CI or CI+ IDTV.

Conax CEO Morten Solbakken said, “Conax has teamed up with a strategic partner to deliver a world class solution – the industry‘s first integrated CI+ Module. This new Conax partner solution will provide operators with significant benefits in terms of reduced logistics and savings on customer care, while maintaining the high level of security they have come to expect from Conax.”

“The introduction of the integrated CI+ Module represents another strategic deployment and innovative breakthrough in CAM products. We are excited to be chosen as Conax‘ partner on such an important new product that can help proliferate digital pay TV subscription through simplicity and affordability. SMIT has been supplying millions of CAM products to Conax‘ customers in the past seven years and looks forward to maintaining our close relationship,” said SMIT president Hongyu Shuai.

NEW DELHI: The government has allotted Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum for 4G services to six different service providers through auction apart from BSNL and MTNL.
 
Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Milind Deora informed the Lok Sabha today that BSNL has provided 50077 connections through 4G/WiMAX and Bharti Airtel 3180 subscribers through 4G network.
 
In August 2011 Trai released a consultation paper “IMT Advances Mobile Wireless Broadband Services”. Comments have been received from 23 stakeholders. The comments received are being examined by the sector regulator.

NEW DELHI: Stung by the cancellation of 2G licences by the Supreme Court earlier this year, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) today announced that it will not participate in the 2G auction in November.

This follows the publication by the Communications and Information Technology Ministry of the Information Memorandum for the planned Auction of Spectrum in 1800MHz and 800MHz Bands.
 
Etisalat – whose headquarters are in Abu Dhabi, UAE – said in a terse statement that it believed that the Indian telecommunications industry has significant potential and it has high regard for the Indian Government, its judiciary, and its regulatory bodies and “wishes a positive outcome for the forthcoming auction”.
 
Earlier this year, Etisalat DB, the joint venture between Etisalat and India‘s DB Group, had announced closure of its services in India following the Supreme Court canceling 122 spectrum licences. These included 15 of Etisalat, which had over 1.6 million subscribers.

Etisalat has already written off its investments worth $827 million in Etisalat DB.

MUMBAI: BBC has launched mobile downloads for its iPlayer. This enables users to download BBC‘s TV programmes directly to the smartphone or tablet for free, and keep them to enjoy for up to 30 days.

For the first time, programmes on BBC iPlayer’s app are available wherever the user wants to watch them, without having Wi-Fi or 3G signal. Users can use this underground, on planes, or any location where internet access is beyond reach. Programmes downloaded from the UK can also be viewed abroad for up to 30 days. Once the user has pressed play, he/she can keep watching for seven more days.
 
BBC iPlayer has helped pioneer TV on demand by offering audiences the opportunity to watch selected TV programmes for up to seven days after broadcast. The new mobile downloads feature is initially available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices and will come to Android devices soon.

This launch builds on BBC iPlayer’s strategy to move beyond the PC and make more quality BBC content available across mobile, tablet and internet connected TVs, delivering increased value to audiences. 
 
BBC GM, programmes, on-demand Daniel Danker said, “With mobile downloads for BBC iPlayer, you can now load up your mobile phone or tablet with hours and hours of BBC television programmes, then watch them on the road, on the tube, on a plane, without worrying about having an internet connection or running up a mobile data bill. Viewers have up to 30 days to begin watching a downloaded programme, so you can even fill up your device and take the BBC with you on holiday.”

The BBC iPlayer app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store. Audiences who already have the BBC iPlayer app installed will be prompted to update their app via the iTunes App Store.

MUMBAI: Nebula, the cloud systems company, has closed $25 million Series B financing round led by Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast and NBCUniversal, with significant participation from Highland Capital Partners and included Kleiner Perkins, Innovation Endeavors and industry luminaries Andy Bechtolsheim, David Cheriton and Ram Shriram.

Investors that participated include Harris Barton, William Hearst III, Scott McNealy and Maynard Webb additionally Silicon Valley Bank is providing additional debt and credit facilities to the company.

“We‘re delighted to have the support of investors who have such remarkable track records of success as we continue on our path to make on-premise private cloud computing a reality for all businesses,” said Nebula CEO and co-founder Chris C. Kemp.
 
Nebula is now powering next-generation cloud infrastructures in market-leading biotech, financial services and media companies in a private beta program that began in March. This investment will allow Nebula to expand the number of companies that will be able to participate in the beta, continue to expand its product and engineering teams, build a petascale test system, and accelerate development and testing of its product.

“We invest in companies that innovate with open source projects and teams that are focused on creating game-changing disruption. After spending several years looking at this market, we are confident that Nebula is the company that will bring private cloud infrastructure to the enterprise,” said Comcast Ventures MD Louis Toth.
 
 
Nebula, co-founded by former NASA CTO and OpenStack co-founder Chris C. Kemp, has assembled a team of more than 50 engineers inspired by the opportunity to pioneer a new era of enterprise computing.

In addition to Dave Withers, former Dell Executive and Senior Vice President of Field Operations, and Jon Mittelhauser, Netscape co-founder and VP of Engineering, Nebula now employs four OpenStack project technical leads, and the engineers responsible for a large percentage of the code in OpenStack.

“We are very excited to have an opportunity to make a significant investment in this round. We believe that Nebula and OpenStack is at the nexus of a historical shift in enterprise computing,” said Highland Capital Partners General Partner Peter Bell.

MUMBAI: Den Networks, Hathway Cable & Datacom, Incablenet, Digicable WWIL (Siti cable), has earmarked Rs 50 million to promote its subsidised set-top box (STB) offering in Mumbai and Delhi.

The MSO body had recently launched a promotional offer for consumers in Mumbai and Delhi to avail the STBs at a subsidised price of Rs 799.

MSO Alliance has already spent close to Rs 15 million on print ads in leading publications like Times of India, Hindustan Times, DNA, Economic Times, Navbharat Times and Maharashtra Times.
 
“We (MSO Alliance) will spend close to Rs 50 million to promote the offer. We have already spent Rs 15 million out of it. We have issued ads in several publications in Mumbai and Delhi,” Den Networks CEO and MSO Alliance secretary SN Sharma said.

The MSOs will revise the price of the STBs after 30 September in Mumbai and Delhi. MSO Alliance will also offer subsidised STBs in Kolkata in within 20 days.

“We are not launching the offer in Chennai since none of the MSO Alliance MSOs are present in the city,” Sharma added.
 
The MSO Alliance is also carrying out below-the-line activities like street plays. It is engaging Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) to do live demos to educate customers about the benefits of digitisation.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting revised the deadline for full digitisation of the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to 31 October from the earlier deadline of 30 June to allow platforms and consumers more time to convert to digital.

MUMBAI: Direct-to-home service provider Videocon d2h has added two new High Definition channels Zee Cinema HD and Zee Studio HD on its platform, expanding its HD offering to 22 channels.

The two channels are available on the Videocon d2h platform from 31 August onwards under HD packs.

Videocon d2h Director Saurabh Dhoot said, “Videocon d2h intends to continue introducing new channels and services by recognizing the needs of the consumers.

There is a special focus on High Definition channels; the addition of these HD channels is a definite step towards that aim which provides us a definite edge. We want to be able to surpass customer expectations and bring highest quality entertainment to their doorstep.”

The Videocon d2h provides 400+ channels and services on its platform.