Category: Software

All one has to do is log on to www.Indiaplaza.in and choose from an array of traditional and contemporary gifts to send across to your loved ones. The site also brings in an Online Shopping Festival for this festival season that assures a gift worth Rs 5000 for its customers.

The company notes that the industry has been witnessing a dramatic change in the gifting pattern during the festivals in the past few years. Gone are the days when you could get away with sending a mithai or firecracker hamper. Keeping in sync with the growing automation and consumerism people have changed and so have their gifting patterns. Circa 2007 and the trend this time is the shift towards gifting of electronic gadgets along with jewelry and chocolates.

As per a study by Assocham, 130 per cent growth is predicted in online sales of consumer goods like electronics gadgets and jewelry for this Diwali in India. Three million customers are expected to place order through the net during this festival season.

Indiaplaza.in COO Vaitheeswaran says, “For last Diwali over 70 per cent of the orders were for gifts which included Diwali hampers and thalis but only 5 per cent of the orders were for electronic gadgets. But this year the trend has changed, and we see that orders for gifts has decreased and constitute for only 30 per cent of the total orders whereas electronic gadgets contribute to 40 per cent of the total orders.”

All the diwali gift hampers come with offers like free shipping and money back guarantee to any part of the world. If the gifts fail to reach the customer on or before Diwali, he or she is entitled for the Money back offer while retaining the gift.

The traditional Diwali gifts include hampers like Shubh Labh diwali hamper, Silver shimmer hamper, Fab Dhamaka diwali hamper. Exclusive Fab Mithai diwali special hamper contains a beautiful box containing 750 gms of Pure Kaju Katlis, Kaju Apple and Kaju Bon Bon. This hamper comes with a set of 4 diyas, a diwali card and Silver Plated Laxmi Ganesha Coin in a pouch.

With this competition, Microsoft hopes to identify great talent and spur a dialogue between the ID field, the PC industry and their shared customers regarding what makes a great PC fit their customers‘ digital lifestyle.

This year‘s competition theme will focus on designs that help people fuel their passion, whether it‘s music, traveling or photography. This year‘s next-generation PC designs must contain scenarios and features that address ways to help people pursue their passions more easily, more powerfully and more enjoyably — and even how to help users obtain results they had never thought possible.

This is also the first year the competition will look at software and hardware as part of the PC design. Applicants will need to focus not only on exterior design, shape and color, but they must pay attention to programs that will enhance what people feel passionate about. Successful entries will clearly define and thoroughly understand the audiences that the PC is designed for as well as the culture, lifestyle, habits and practices of the user.

Entries can be submitted till 14 December and the eligible ones will be reviewed January through April 2008 by a distinguished panel of Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) -member judges from the international PC and industrial design community in addition to representatives from leading hardware manufacturers. The entries will be scored by the criterias like innovation, user experience and interaction, aesthetics, windows software and ecology.

Five winners will be selected, and up to five honorable mentions may be chosen by the judges. From 15 February 2008 to 15 March 2008 the selected finalists will be posted on the Next-Gen PC Design Competition web site, www.nextgendesigncomp.com, where the public will be invited to vote for its favorite entry to determine the Public‘s Choice Award. The winners will be announced in May 2008 and honored at the 2008 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.

With a single account, music lovers can access the Nokia Music Store via their desktop computer or directly from optimized Nokia devices beginning with the Nokia N81 and Nokia N95 8GB, which are both in the market.

Individual tracks will cost 80p per track and albums from ?8.00. The Nokia Music Store will also offer a monthly subscription for PC streaming for ?8.00.

The store‘s intuitive user-interface makes streaming full-length tracks easy, and offers options to create customised playlists and note tunes on a wish list that you can decide to buy later. Tracks purchased can also be transferred via your PC to compatible Nokia devices.

“The Nokia Music Store offers great usability along with a huge selection of music,” said Richard Nokia Music UK & Ireland regional manager Richard Stanford. ‘”By having an integrated mobile and PC download service, the Nokia Music Store is a fantastic way to build a music collection that is truly mobile.”

All music on the Nokia Music Store can be purchased through a variety of payment options, including credit cards and pre-paid vouchers.

Rock Band includes 58 tracks and spans every genre of rock ranging from alternative and classic rock to heavy metal and punk.

With multiple instruments and a vast selection of online and offline game modes to choose from to play as a band or individually, Rock Band offers an infinite number of ways to play each song and live out their ultimate rock and roll fantasies.

“Our goal with Rock Band was to give players the chance to experience an amazing cross section of music from the last four decades, and our final list of tracks includes everything from emerging bands to iconic artists,” stated MTV‘s SVP of home entertainment, music and games Paul DeGooyer.

“The overwhelmingly positive response from artists, music publishers and record labels made the final selection process challenging, but extremely exciting. As a result, 51 out of 58 of the final selections are based on original masters, giving fans an unprecedented way to get closer to the music they love,” he added.

In addition to the 45 tracks, it will also feature
13 songs ranging from a variety of established bands to up-and-coming independent artists that can be unlocked as the game is played.

Rock Band is slated for release on Xbox 360 video game and
entertainment system from Microsoft and Playstation 3 computer entertainment system on 20 November.

MSN has teamed up with some of the leading media and environmental sources, MSNBC, Hearst Magazines (The Daily Green), Conservation International, Environmental Defense, Grist.org, TreeHugger.com and StopGlobalWarming.org, to offer the new channel, located at green.msn.com.

MSN Green will provide consumers with environmental information, including articles developed by popular online publications and web sites, along with multimedia, interactive features and other content compiled from MSN Lifestyle, MSN Money, MSN Autos, MSN Travel, and the network‘s other information and entertainment channels.

Categories will also include articles – MSNBC, Conservation International, Environmental Defense, as well as other popular consumer publications, will be among those providing articles on global warming, energy, health, biodiversity, social responsibility and other environmental topics.

Interactive tools featured on the channel will also help
people to take a stand on the environment.

For example, MSN Green visitors can determine the amount of carbon dioxide their lifestyle produces (the carbon calculator), measure how green they are (the Green-o-meter), gauge their awareness of eco-issues (the Eco-Footprint quiz), and add their name to an online petition to freeze and reduce carbon dioxide emissions (Stop Global Warming Virtual March).

Galleries of photos culled from around the Web will show, rather than tell, the effects of climate change. Other recurring pictorials will spotlight eco-friendly places to live; how to live a greener lifestyle; and celebrities, politicians and others who are leading the green charge.

Amateur and professional video clips from MSN Video and partner web sites will spotlight the environment, climate change and other green topics.

The distribution partnership will empower millions of musicians and bands on MySpace to sell unlimited music merchandise to the MySpace community instantly.

Musicians and bands on MySpace will be able to create
products and sell merchandise by putting the Zazzle Merch Booth widget on their MySpace profile. With Zazzle‘s new ‘Model Realview‘ technology, these artists can display their very own branded merchandise three dimensionally, on real models in their profile.

The Zazzle Merch Booth widget will also enable placement of the artist‘s merchandise in a Zazzle gallery, their own websites, fan sites, blogs and more. MySpace users can also use Zazzle to create their own custom items for their favorite musicians and bands.

“MySpace will continue to evolve its industry leading music platform by developing new revenue models, partner integrations, and features that bring bands and fans together,” said MySpace VP business development Amit Kapur. “Zazzle‘s on demand platform will enable music artists on MySpace to share merchandise with fans like never before.”

Musicians and bands on MySpace will be able to sell their merchandise direct from their own online Zazzle Merch Booth, and have it produced and shipped from Zazzle in one day. No upfront costs, fees or contracts are involved, stated an official press release.

“The landscape of the music industry continues to change at a rapid pace; merchandise and ticket sales are the one constant revenue source for artists on any level,” said Jim Heckman, chief strategy officer, Zazzle. “We are thrilled to be working with MySpace to provide an accessible solution to bands large and small for their merchandise needs.”

Furthering the commitment to delivering rich content across the three screens at the center of customers’ lives — the TV, PC and wireless devices — US telecom major AT&T has announced the launch of four video series focussed on today’s pop culture.

From indie rock performances to an in-depth look at the video gaming industry, the four original series from High Definition (HD) content provider ON Networks, offer viewers a diverse array of shows that they can watch on any device. Today, this also includes AT&T television (AT&T U-verseSM TV and AT&T HomezoneSM); wireless (MobiTV); and broadband (AT&T blue room, AT&T U-verseSM OnTheGo and AT&T Broadband TV) services.

AT&T head of content and programming Dan York says, “Today’s consumer wants more variety than ever before — both in the types of programs they watch as well as how they get their programming.

“With programming from ON Networks, we are delivering new, original content that our customers desire and giving them the convenience to access it when and where they most want to watch”

AT&T video service customers, qualifying AT&T wireless customers and online visitors to AT&T blue room (www.attblueroom.com) will be able to watch episodes from the four video series that are on the cusp of today’s pop culture. New episodes will be rolling out periodically through the end of the year. They include:

*Dinner with the Band – This is a series in which two of life’s passions – food and music — share a virtual stage. Viewers will join New York City chef Sam Mason as he shares an intimate evening of cooking, conversation and live performances with a rotating roster of some of the music industry’s best up-and-comers.

Play Value – Hipster Gen X’ers will chronicle the high and low points of the video gaming industry and explore the many ways that video games have impacted the lives of consumers today.

Backpack Picnic – Influenced by absurdist sketch comedy icons such as “Monty Python” and “Kids in the Hall” this series will combine one-off skits and recurring character pieces that offer intelligently crafted stupidity and push the button on weird.

Bif Bam Pow Wow – Whether it’s movies, games, Internet babes, action figures or comic books, Tom Seymour has his finger on the pulse of geek culture and will dole out his unique, unsolicited opinions throughout this series.

AT&T Entertainment Services is a division of the company focused on delivering innovative and unique content across the three screens. The group offers customers a wide variety of content through a portfolio of advanced video, broadband and wireless services that bring customers more of the entertainment they enjoy.

As AT&T continues to develop its cross-platform approach, the company will also offer advertisers and marketers the benefits of the company’s Internet Protocol (IP)-based network, enabling advertisers to send the right messages to reach the right consumer at the right time while delivering greater relevance.

Series and specials are currently available on maxdome from The History Channel, including Modern Marvels, Deep Sea Detectives, Investigating History and The Samurai. BIO programs will be added in the coming months, and will include Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Inked and Biography episodes on celebrities, including Anna Nicole Smith, Mick Jagger and Steffi Graf.

The Nielsen data is intended to provide advertisers with better demographic data on viewer audiences. It will record the data Google collects through the set-top boxes from its cable and satellite partners.

Google TV Ads, which was launched on trial basis in April, offers a way to better target television commercials. The system offers an auction system to determine prices at certain time slots.

However, TV Ads may not be the only platform on which Google and Nielsen partner up. The two companies said that they would “explore a number of other opportunities ” on which to collaborate.

Google has already been expanding its AdWords program, launching programs for radio and print media, along with the TV service.

Google TV Ads is similar to its AdSense program for online advertisements, which charges only for clickable ads.

Advertisers purchase time by bidding on specific time slots within programs. The charges are then determined by the number of television sets that actually display the advertisement.

Kerala based Indiavision Satellite Communications, which runs the news channel Indiavision TV, will be using WASP3D solution for news tickers, lower thirds and full frame news graphics applications for its Malayalam news channel.

Indiavision CEO Ram Mohan says, “It was very important for us to select a graphic solution that supports Malayalam script, is easy-to-use and well equipped with all the features that a broadcaster needs. Wasp3D was indeed the best fit for us.”

Newslive CEO Caushiq Kashyap Bejboruah says, “Wasp3D had good reference cases from several channels in Eastern part of the country; It is only after rigorous evaluation and product comparisons that we zeroed on Wasp”.