Category: Software

MUMBAI: Micromax has announced appointments at key positions, strengthening its management team in India.

At the helm of affairs will now be Deepak Mehrotra, joining as CEO at Micromax. He was earlier with Bharti Airtel as operations director- mobility business.

The focus going forward will be to have two separate divisions, the ‘Feature Phone division‘ to be led by Khaja Muzaffarullah and smartphone division‘ to be headed by Ajay Sharma.

Micromax executive director Rahul Sharma said, “We are a brand that‘s admired for thinking different and challenging the conventional. The new team brings with them wealth of experience by virtue of their long-standing association and in-depth understanding of the overall mobility market globally.”

Mehrotra added, “These are exciting times not only for the brand but for the industry as a whole. We are witnessing technology advancements every day and that further excites us at Micromax. The Indian mobile industry is growing at a rate of 12 per cent and we would like to capture this opportunity and drive the next phase of growth for the brand. The Indian market will witness a smart phone revolution which has only just begun; we would want to script this story in the typical Micromax way.”

Muzaffarullah said, “The channels partners are a key to our business model and form the backbone of our strong presence in the country. We would be strengthening our distribution across the country and work towards creating a robust network that brings us closer to the customer.”

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has launched the services of its HD channels on cable networks including IndusInd Media Communications (Incable), Seven Star network in Mumbai and UCN in Central India.

ESS has signed the distribution contracts with the MSOs.

Till now, ESPN HD and Star Cricket HD were available only on DTH networks.

ESPN Software India VP – affiliate sales TS Panesar said, “We are extremely confident about the future prospects of our HD offerings and this is just a start. With the digitisation of the entire distribution industry in cable fraternity on the anvil, this deal with the leading MSOs is a harbinger of what is in store in the future.”

Incable CEO Nagesh Chhabria said, “Even though the number of subscribers of HD channels are currently low, we are confident that the base would grow at a very healthy pace. This is the future and as always, we wanted to be at the forefront.”

Seven Star director Nadir Ali added, “It is interesting to note how the industry is shaping up. We are ready with the back-end infrastructure to support and in fact are leading these new changes that are happening in the cable distribution sector. HD channels have huge potential.”

UCN Nagpur director Jagdish Paliya said, “We have always believed in giving maximum options to our consumers and the addition of ESPN HD and STAR Cricket HD is a step in that direction. India Australia tour should give a fillip to the HD subscriber base in the country.”

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today released a consultation paper on Allocation of Spectrum Resources for Residential and Enterprise Intra-telecommunication Requirements/ cordless telecommunications system (CTS).

Following proliferation of mobile telecommunications in all walks of life in the last 10 years, the landscape of India‘s Telecom Network has changed significantly, Trai noted.

However, similar growth has not been observed in Residential and Enterprise Intra-telecommunication/cordless telecommunications system (CTS) in the country. This has been attributed primarily to limited wireless options available in the market.

For Intra-telecommunication requirements for residential and enterprises, wireless platform is the most widely used solution which also complements wireline networking solutions. The majority of wireless based PABX solutions available in the Indian market operates in 2.4 GHz de-licensed ISM band, which is also being used for other host of data applications (Wireless LAN etc).

Written comments on the issues raised in this consultation paper are invited from the stakeholders by 31 January and counter-comments on the comments by 10 February 2012.

The consultation paper discusses the issues of current allocation of spectrum for CTS, requirement for identification of additional band of spectrum, possibility of delicensing of 1800-1900 or 1910-1920 MHz band for low power CTS applications and its coexistence issues with the existing cellular systems using adjacent band.

MUMBAI: TechZone is the official partner for Sunburn – the international music festival.

TechZone has launched Playground, which is the first of its international mobile stores for Indian mobile users where customers can download more than 200,000 international music tracks.

Sunburn, a Percept property, is Asian dance music festival held in Goa. The Sunburn WAP page allows customers to browse and download Sunburn‘s content (paid/free) through a controlled environment.

TechZone director Naveen Bhandari said, “Our Playground store is part of our effort to make entire gamete of international available to mobile consumer through a single store at an affordable price to make all types of international music access for the mobile customers. TechZone has got large international music labels companies on board including Universal Music and Sony Music.”

Sunburn WAP page with interactive interface is a guide for the festival and music lovers participating in the event can access any kind of information about sunburn through their mobile devices on the move.

MUMBAI: Samsung India has signed an agreement with online music portal iMusti.com, to provide applications for Samsung Smart TVs.

The alliance is aimed at offering customers an audiovisual entertainment experience with quality content.

The Movie on Demand/Video on Demand application is a collection of wide entertainment that will be available to the subscribers for streaming. The library will host over 5,000 titles across multiple genres and languages in digital quality. Subscribers can choose from movies to the popular contemporary, television shows, regional compilation of songs and movies from Marathi to Bengali, religious discourses, etc. iMusti.com will continue to develop 12 more applications within the next one year.

iMusti founder and CEO Samir D Khandwala said, “iMusti.com has always focused its efforts on offering a wide range of Indian music through new mediums of technology. This partnership enables us to penetrate into the popular video market and we are delighted to commence our applications for the top leading brand Samsung.”

“We aim to develop our video applications and offer engaging options to consumers worldwide and Samsung‘s unrivaled scale and remarkable global customer base will help us achieve the same,” he added.

Samsung India VP-AV business Raj Kumar Rishi said, “We are happy to partner with iMusti.com to provide Samsung Smart TV buyers with more entertainment and richer content. Content for Smart TV buyers is increasingly becoming a strong trigger for purchase and our tie up with iMusti.com is fulfilling that customer need.”

The application suite integrates the web with the TV experience. To provide high-end quality and fast delivery content, iMusti has partnered with Level 3 as their Content Delivery Partner (CDP). As part of the usage, the subscribers can view a large collection of video titles for a nominal monthly fee and also access several other titles using Pay-Per-View option.

Although the internet video segment is still at a nascent stage in India, it is expected to grow at a rapid pace. According to a forecast by Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), Internet video to TV will be over 16 percent of consumer Internet video traffic by 2015. The forecast also states that the high-definition Video-on-Demand will surpass standard definition by the end of 2011.

iMusti.com offers 24 different genres of Indian music which is licensed and brings complete range of audio and video content on all technology platforms for worldwide customers. Currently it supports all Android and iOS based devices developed by Samsung, Apple, HTC and Motorola.

MUMBAI: Samsung Electronics and Sony Corporation have signed an agreement transferring Sony‘s share to Samsung in S-LCD Corporation. The two companies have entered into a new strategic agreement for the supply and purchase of LCD panels.

Under the agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony‘s shares in the joint venture giving the entire control Samsung. The transfer will involve an estimated $939.6 million (KRW 1.08 trillion) to be paid to Sony by Samsung.

The agreement also allows Samsung and Sony to continue co-operative engineering efforts focused on LCD panel technology.

Established in April 2004, S-LCD has delivered cost-competitive LCD panels to both of its parent companies. In order to respond to the challenging conditions in the market and to strengthen their respective market competitiveness, the two companies have agreed to shift to a new LCD panel business alliance.

For Sony, this transaction will enable it to monetise its shares in S-LCD and aims to secure a flexible and steady supply of LCD panels from Samsung, based on market prices and without the responsibility and costs of operating a manufacturing facility. With whole ownership of S-LCD, Samsung anticipates heightened flexibility, speed and efficiency in both panel production and business operations.

The share transfer and payment are targeted to close by the end of January 2012, subject to necessary approvals from regulatory authorities.

NEW DELHI: Pakistan‘s Interior Ministry has formed a committee to prepare the draft bill to end the misuse of email, MMS and SMS services in anti-state activities.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave orders for establishing the committee during a meeting with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Mohammed Yaseen along with the Secretaries of Interior and Information Technology departments, besides the Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary Law were also present.

This committee will work under the chairmanship of Interior Secretary and it will keep monitoring the misuse of electronic facilities in all anti-state activities, according to apnatime.com.

Recently, several journalists, families and businessmen had received threatening messages through Email, SMS and MMS services. The Interior Minister held a meeting to deal with the problem. During meeting it was noted that several unauthorized SIMs were still being used in crimes like bank robberies, target killings and kidnappings for ransom.

Malik had ordered Yaseen to hold a meeting with all telecom operators to convey the concerns of government regarding the misuse of telecommunication services in anti-state and anti-social activities.

Earlier in September, Malik had referred to the issue of cyber crimes in Pakistan and he said government agencies had learnt that social networking sites like Facebook are being used for threatening and harassment purposes. The web sites with free SMS services are also being used with similar intentions. The government decided to contact Interpol so that the people behind the misuse of social networks could be tracked down and apprehended.

Additionally, the owners of web sites with free SMS services have been asked to stop their web sites and such services. He had said that the number of unregistered blocked mobile phone SIMs has reached 20.1 million.

MUMBAI: Top Notch Infotronix, which supplies products and accessories for Computers, Consumer Electronics and Communication under the brand ‘Zebronics‘ has launched its latest 2.1 multimedia speaker set, the ZEB-SW3500RUCF with digital display.

The new model features a bass reflex subwoofer with full functional remote control, adding to Zebronics‘s extensive lineup of speakers, one of the widest range in the industry.

This speaker system volume control and power buttons, indicated by a LED. It is suitable for iPOD‘s and PC‘s with a stereo line cable and 3.5mm stereo adaptor. The ZEB-SW3500RUCF offers a user interface coupled with a fully functional remote control for ease of operation. The bass/treble and volume controls add to the clarity and crispness of the music produced.

One feature is the SD/USB input facility which enables direct playback of music from memory cards and data storage devices, so users can just plug in a pen-drive or an SD card and enjoy their preferred music. The speaker system is lightweight that makes it an ideal sound solution while on holiday or travelling when users like to carry their favourite audio collection in portable and mobile devices.

The ZEB-SW3500RUCF is also a PC multimedia speaker system with easy-to-use connectors, extra input and output ports and a fully functional remote control.

MUMBAI: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won the award for game of the year while the award for studio of the year went to Bethesda Game Studios at US broadcaster Spike TV‘s ninth annual Video Game Awards (VGA).

Internationally, the VGAs were seen in over 100 countries and territories around the world. A host of members of the gaming industry, as well as stars from the worlds of sports, television, music and movies gathered for the event. ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim‘ also won Best RPG, and garnered Studio of the Year honors for Bethesda Game Studios.

Other multiple award winners included ‘Portal 2‘ which won in five prominent categories, including Best PC Game and Best Multiplayer, and ‘Batman: Arkham City‘, which won four Vector Monkeys, including awards for Character of the Year for the Joker, Best Xbox 360 Game and Best Action Adventure Game.

‘The Legend of Zelda‘ creator Shigeru Miyamoto made an appearance to accept the first ever Video Game Hall of Fame Award on the groundbreaking franchise‘s behalf. “We always push ourselves,” said Miyamoto, “and we‘re grateful you notice.”

Additional honors included the second ever Gamer God Award, which was bestowed upon Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of the ‘”World of Warcraft‘, ‘Starcraft‘ and ‘Diablo‘ series. Original founders Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce were all on hand to accept the prestigious award.

The VGAs debuted never-before-seen world premieres of the most anticipated games of 2012 and beyond, including Naughty Dog‘s ‘The Last of Us‘, the surprise reveals of ‘Command and Conquer: Generals 2‘, ‘Alan Wake American Nightmare‘, ‘Epic Games‘ ‘Fortnite‘, ‘Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance‘, ‘Tom Clancy‘s Rainbow 6 Patriots‘, ‘Transformers: Fall of Cybertron‘, ‘BioShock Infinite‘ and the winner for Most Anticipated Game ‘Mass Effect 3‘.

This year‘s show included presenters and appearances by the likes of Charlie Sheen, Brooklyn Decker, Seth Green, Jason Biggs, Tony Hawk, will.i.am, Hulk Hogan and Stacy Keibler. The show also featured a performance by rock duo The Black Keys, and dance music innovator deadmau5, who helped transform the show with his visual representation of sound into a real life video game experience. Additionally, NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice was on hand to announce the results of the vote for Digital Cover Athlete of the forthcoming “NFL Blitz” from EA Sports, with Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens selected by fans who cast their ballot at vga.spike.com during the show.

MUMBAI: ComScore, which measures the digital world, has released inaugural data on worldwide online video viewing from the comScore Video Metrix service.

The report found that nearly 1.2 billion people of age 15 and older watched 201.4 billion videos online globally during October 2011. Google Sites, driven by YouTube.com, ranked as the top video destination with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property worldwide during the month.

comScore product manager for video Dan Piech said, “As global broadband connectivity continues to rise, online video viewing has taken off in a big way and has become a fully integrated component of the digital content experience. With the introduction of comScore‘s global measurement of online video viewing, multinational media brands and advertisers can now gain a more comprehensive understanding of how online video reaches audiences around the world.”
 
YouTube delivers two of every five videos viewed worldwide:

In October 2011, 201.4 billion videos were viewed online from a home or work location, with the global viewing audience reaching 1.2 billion unique viewers age 15 and older. Google Sites led as the top global video property with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property during the month, accounting for 43.8 percent of all videos viewed globally. YouTube.com was the key driver of video viewing on Google Sites, accounting for more than 99 per cent of videos viewed on the property.

China-based Youku was the second largest video property globally with 4.6 billion videos viewed in October (2.3 percent global share), followed by Vevo which accounted for nearly 3.7 billion videos (1.8 percent share). YouTube is an important channel for Vevo, with over 97 per cent of Vevo videos viewed on the company‘s YouTube channel.

Canadians Watch Most Videos, While Turkey has Highest Video Penetration : An analysis of selected online video markets by engagement revealed that viewers in Canada and the U.S. averaged the highest number of videos per viewer in October, at 304 videos and 286 videos, respectively. Viewers in the UK averaged nearly 269 videos per viewer during the month, while viewers in Turkey and Germany both watched an average of 251 videos.
 
An analysis of selected markets with the highest penetration of online video viewing revealed that 93.6 per cent of internet users in Turkey watched at least one video online during the month, followed by Canada with 90.9 per cent of web users consuming video. Other European markets that ranked within the top 10 were Spain and France with nearly 89 and 87 per cent reach of online video amongst their internet population.

YouTube Delivers Most Videos Across European Markets:

An analysis of the top video properties for the European markets currently reported in Video Metrix reveals Google Sites, buoyed by YouTube, to be the top property for each of these countries. Google Sites accounted for at least 34 percent of all videos viewed in the month for each country and more than half (55.9 per cent share) of all videos viewed in Italy. Google Sites also exhibited high rates of viewer engagement in each of the European markets, with viewers spending at least four hours on the property in October.