Category: Software

eBerry extends the Push Mail technology through a regular GPRS enabled cell phone, according to Spice officials.

The service supports about 240 phones from major manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Windows Pocket PC. Efforts are on to enable compatibility with cell phones manufactured by other manufacturers such as Motorola, Spice officials said.

Presently, the eBerry service is available in two editions – Enterprise and Internet with tariffs starting from a monthly rental of Rs 249 in the case of prepaid customers and Base Plan I for postpaid customers to Rs 599 for the High end Plan III. Since the service is provided across a CS2 network, speeds are limited to about 22 kpbs. Spice is looking at Datacards and Edge connectivity next, with Mobile TV still a long way off, according to company sources.

Spice is present in two circles in India – Punjab and Karnataka. Spice Telecom is the brand name of Spice Communications (SCPL), the flagship company of MCorp Global. Telecom Malaysia holds a 39.2 per cent stake in SCPL.

MUMBAI: Bollywood, crowded cities and exotic cuisine all muster images of India, but what about wine, rugby and contemporary art? All of this and more are explored in a new television series, Indique – Untold Stories of Contemporary India.

The DVD will be released on 25 october 2007 by Excel Home Video. It will provide a palette of images from the subcontinent.

Still other parts of the programme explore the brilliance of the Dubbawallas’ lunch delivery system, and the lost art of the Bollywood billboard painters. One of Ahuja’s favourite segments is a walk through Jehangir Gallery with MF Hussain, the father of Indian contemporary art.

MUMBAI: Texas Instruments has announced that its DLP Cinema technology has surpassed the 5,000 screen milestone on a path to doubling that next year.

There are 5,260 DLP Cinema enabled theatres installed across the globe, an increase of 140 per cent from the same period one year ago.

The company says that the picture quality and combination of contrast, color and brightness created by DLP Cinema allowed DLP Cinema technology to quickly become the industry standard.

DLP Cinema technology is deployed throughout 99 per cent of the digital cinema market and is in every continent in the world except Antartica. DLP Cinema expects to surpass 5,500 screens by mid November 2007 and 10,000 screens by the end of 2008.

The company adds that in today‘s highly competitive commercial theatrical market, DLP Cinema, which works in the area of digital cinema projection and imaging, is making it more economical for theatres to show both 2D and 3D feature presentations using the single projector solution, as compared to other emerging and commercially unproven formats.

DLP Cinema projectors are at the heart of 3-D feature presentations and 3-D movies have grown rapidly through 2007 to become a key catalyst in the expansion of DLP Cinema systems in the U.S. 300 additional DLP Cinema projectors are expected to be fitted with 3-D capability in anticipation of the November release of Beowulf from Paramount Pictures, bringing the total 3-D equipped movie screens in the US to 1,000.

DLP Cinema Products Group business manager Nancy Fares says, “DLP Cinema continues to be the driving force behind digital cinema. As companies like Real D and Dolby continue to push 3-D developments on DLP projection technology, DLP Cinema installations are surging to deliver the world‘s most engaging movie theatre experience.”

The principles serve as a set of guidelines to help UGC services and content creators work together towards their collective goal of bringing more content to more consumers through legitimate channels. The principles acknowledge a collective respect for protecting copyrights and recognize that filtering technologies must be effective and are only a part of what is necessary to achieve this goal.

The companies supporting these principles include CBS, Dailymotion, Fox, Microsoft, MySpace, NBC Universal, Veoh Networks, Viacom and Disney.

The principles call for a broad range of constructive and cooperative efforts by copyright owners and UGC services.

They include:

Implementation of state of the art filtering technology with the goal to eliminate infringing content on UGC services, including blocking infringing uploads before they are made available to the public;
– Upgrading technology when commercially reasonable;
– Cooperating to ensure that the technology is implemented in a manner that effectively balances legitimate interests, including fair use;
– Cooperation in developing procedures for promptly addressing claims that content was blocked in error;
– Regularly using the technology to remove infringing content that was uploaded before the technology could block it;
– Identification and removal of links to sites that are clearly dedicated to, and predominantly used for, the dissemination of infringing content; and,
– Promotion of content-rich, infringement-free services by continuing to cooperatively test new technologies and by collaboratively updating these principles as appropriate to keep current with evolving developments.

The parties note that the ease of uploading video content on the Internet has led to the creation of millions of original works by new creators – works that range from scripted programmes, to virtuoso musical performances and to humorous skits and social parody. It also has resulted in the proliferation of uploaded content that infringes copyrighted works.

The companies backing these principles state that they believe that they can collectively find a path that fosters creativity while respecting the rights of copyright owners. Distributors of copyright-infringing content stifle both technological innovation and artistic creation in ways that ultimately will hurt the consumer and hinder the digital economy.

These principles also reflect a strongly-held commitment to work cooperatively and constructively across industries to address the challenge of developing new modes of distribution while protecting intellectual property and, with a shared goal of promoting a rich, legitimate, and compelling environment for consumers of online content. While the supporters’ current practices may not strictly adhere to each and every principle, they are all committed to fully implementing these principles by year’s end.

The companies believe that adopting such principles is essential to achieving the enormous potential opened up by the Internet through UGC services. Widespread adoption of these principles will encourage innovation, enable new creative expression and further the goal of eliminating infringing content from UGC services.

It will allow innovative business models to develop. Most importantly, it will benefit consumers by encouraging further cooperation between the creators of content — from the largest entertainment company to the individual artist — and the companies that distribute their works.

Disney president and CEO Bob Iger says, “These principles offer a road map for unlocking the enormous potential of online video and user-generated content. Cooperation among us, aided by emerging technologies, can clear the way for further growth in the availability of online video in ways that will be good for consumers, good for copyright owners and good for uploading services.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says, “The cross-industry dialogue that resulted in these principles is an important step forward in establishing the Internet as a great platform for video content – a platform that allows services to innovate and preserves incentives for all creators, big and small, by respecting copyright. With this new, consensus-based foundation, the technology and entertainment industries are demonstrating how we can work collaboratively to build great new video experiences for our mutual customers.”

Fox president and COO Peter Chernin says, “In the end, technical innovation has always proved to be a positive driver in shaping our businesses and spurring greater and more robust distribution models. The principles unveiled today underscore that conviction by enabling a path that will reward content owners, distributors, and most importantly, consumers.”

Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman says, “We are delighted that so many leading companies have come together behind a set of principles that provide a framework for intellectual property to live in harmony with technical advances. These principles will enable innovative technology and great content to come together to spur greater innovation and, most importantly, much richer entertainment experiences for consumers.”

MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe says, “As part of one of the world’s largest media companies and with original content of our own, we’re vigilant about respecting and protecting copyrights. Internally, we’ve developed an industry-leading suite of copyright protections for content owners and we’re thrilled to align forces with the world’s top media and Internet companies to develop best practices.”

Veoh Networks CEO Steve Mitgang says, “Dailymotion strongly believes in the respecting the rights of all copyright owners. As such, our company has been involved in the drafting of these Principles since it began. We are confident that this cooperation with content owners, further aided by audio and video filtering technology that we are currently implementing, is a win-win for all involved. We are proud to continue to be at the edge of innovation in both our product and in copyright protection.”

NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker says, “This announcement marks a significant step in transforming the Internet to a popular medium that respects the rule of law. By recognizing the mutual benefits of a technology-based framework to control piracy, technology and content companies have laid the foundation for the lawful growth of video on the Internet.”

As per the partnership, ABC studios‘ shows aired on Channel 4 will be available on Channel 4‘s VoD service under the title 4oD.

Viewers can access programmes free of charge with adverts for a month. Each series will be supported by multiple adverts and sponsorship packages to cover on demand transmissions. This is the first time in Europe that Disney-ABC International Television has made its network series available on demand, free of charge to viewers, supported by advertising.

The service will kick off with the second season of Ugly Betty to be followed by subsequent seasons of Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Reaper and Dirty Sexy Money.

Channel 4 director of acquisitions and Film4 Jeff Ford said, “We want Channel 4 viewers to be able to see our shows in a format, time and platform to suit them and to make the process as simple as possible. This deal means that viewers can now catch up on some of their favourite US shows, alongside home grown product, free of charge at a time convenient to them which can only be good news.”

Disney-ABC International Television senior vice president sales Jim Brehm said, “We‘re committed to working with partners who have strong brands in the digital space, like Channel 4, to enhance consumers‘ viewing experience of our content, and expand its distribution. Building on this partnership, we‘re pleased to bring these series to UK viewers in a free, ad-supported model for the first time, allowing them to enjoy these much talked-about shows whenever, wherever and however they wish.”

Starhub Singapore already utilizes the VSNL Wi-Fi network across India for its customers.

According to an official release, VSNL has one of the largest Wi-Fi deployment among domestic ISPs with over 350 hotspots. It plans to further enhance the footprint to over 1000 hotspots – bringing high-speed broadband internet much more closer to the large Indian traveling population.

VSNL‘s hotspots include the major domestic and international airports, leading premium Star hotels, educational institutions, sports stadia, hospitals, chain of restaurants and coffee shops.

Its partners include companies like Taj Group of Hotels, Le Meridien, Café Coffee Day, Barista, Manipal University, Wockhardt, amongst others. It has also been creating hotspots at non-traditional locations like mobile stores, IT stores, railway stations.

VSNL is also member of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), a leading global consortium of Wi-Fi service providers.

Operator members of WBA own and operate over 60,000 Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide and the membership in WBA enables VSNL to leverage the same.

“Over the next six months, VSNL intends to open up its extensive Wi-Fi network to millions of customers of international telecom operators, thereby enabling for travelers to India, access to high speed wireless broadband zones in key locations in the top 10 cities in the country. ” said VSNL retail broadband business VP planning Prateek Pashine.

The new channels, along with the flagship Starz HD channels, will be available at no extra cost to DirecTV‘s Starz Super Pack subscribers with DirecTV‘s new generation of advanced HD set-top boxes and HD DVRs.

The three new channels are high definition East Coast feeds of the Starz Comedy, Starz Edge, and Starz Kids and Family. They join the flagship Starz HD channels, which are available in East and West Coast feeds.

Movies currently airing exclusively on the Starz HD channels and services include: Disney and Pixar‘s Cars, Scary Movie 4, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest, Gridiron Gang, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Top HD titles coming soon include: Ghost Rider and The Pursuit of Happyness.

“We are delighted to be at the forefront of offering multiple HD channels to our affiliates and consumers,” said Starz Entertainment COO and president Bill Myers. “We commend DirecTV for being first to market in carrying all five of the Starz HD channels and meeting the growing consumer demand for quality HD programming.

Myers continued, “Leichtman Research Group research shows that 55 per cent of people who have (or are interested in getting) HDTV are likewise interested in receiving premium networks in HD. Starz is meeting this growing demand in the HD marketplace with exclusive subscription movie programming. HD is a key part of the Starz business strategy and product mix — both for linear channels and on-demand — and we look forward to additional opportunities to bring even more movies to market in the future.”

Starz Entertainment is the exclusive subscription television and broadband provider of first-run films from Hollywood studios including Walt Disney Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Overture Films, Revolution Studios, Miramax Films, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Pixar, TriStar, Screen Gems, Sony Classics and Warren Miller Films. Select first-run theatrical films from The Weinstein Company, IFC and Yari Film Group are also available for subscription television and broadband exclusively on Starz Entertainment services.

These include new high definition (HD) networks and Filipino, South Asian and Vietnamese programming options.

TV Asia and SET Asia, which feature programming for the South Asian community, are available a la carte for $15 each a month.

From 15 October, U-verse TV will add History Channel HD and Lifetime Movie Network HD to its HD lineup. With these networks, U-verse TV subscribers with the HD service option have access to a lineup of more than 30 HD channels.

The new international networks will be available on U-verse TV from 23 October. In addition to these subscription options, AT&T U-verse TV offers the Japanese-language network, TV Japan, for $25 a month and Paquete Espa?ol, a package of Spanish-language channels, for $10 a month.

The U-verse TV linear channel lineup has expanded as well with the addition of several new networks and digital music channels. On 15 October, depending on their package subscription, U-verse TV customers will gain access to BYU Television, Chiller, Fox Business Network, Ion Life, and MTV Network’s Urge digital music service featuring a variety of music genres.

AT&T Entertainment Services head of content and programming Dan York says, “Our U-verse TV channel lineup keeps growing, and we are thrilled to add these quality networks to our service, providing more choice for customers.

“With our increasing number of HD channels and international programming, we want all of our customers to know they can get the content they want from AT&T U-verse TV.”

It features a slide-out Qwerty keypad design, a 3-megapixel camera, 3G data speeds from AT&T’s UMTS/HSDPA-based BroadbandConnect network and complete global connectivity.

Designed by HTC the AT&T Tilt features a 2.8-inch colour screen that slides back to reveal a full Qwerty keyboard, then tilts up to position the screen perfectly for reading and creating e-mail, browsing online, using applications or just playing videos and games.

The AT&T Tilt supports Bluetooth 2.0, which allows for up to six Bluetooth devices to be wirelessly connected simultaneously to the device and also supports Bluetooth Stereo.

AT&T VP business voice/data and mobility products Michael Woodward says, “The AT&T Tilt is the most comprehensive wireless device on the market today. In addition to its innovative design, there is no device on the market that packs the number of features that are available on the Tilt.”

The product features the latest version of TeleNav GPS NavigatorTM which provides GPS-enabled turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving or walking directions, 3D moving maps and traffic delay alerts with one-click rerouting.

New features debuting with AT&T on the Tilt include address sharing, which allows users to share their current locations or the location of their favourite businesses with other mobile users.

The new version also includes reviews and ratings for nearby restaurants and allows customers to rate them directly from their AT&T mobile phone. Business users also can use TeleNav Track, a mobile workforce management solution that includes GPS-enabled tracking, timesheets, wireless forms, navigation, job dispatching and bar code scanning.

Inside the AT&T Tilt, users will have a wireless device at their disposal. With 3G broadband speed connectivity across the globe and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA capabilities that allow the Tilt to operate in Japan and Korea, customers have access to the more than 135 countries in which AT&T offers UMTS, Edge or GPRS international data roaming. Customers also can use AT&T’s industry-leading international wireless roaming coverage to make or receive a phone call in more than 190 countries.

At home, the AT&T Tilt provides access to AT&T‘s BroadbandConnect network in more than 170 major metropolitan areas across the US and coverage outside of 3G service areas is available via AT&T’s nationwide Edge network, the largest national high-speed wireless data network in the US.

AT&T’s Edge network is available in more than 13,000 cities and towns, and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. Users can also connect for an additional charge to wi-fi hotspots throughout the US— including any of the more than 10,000 AT&T-owned or branded hotspot locations in the U.S. and tens of thousands more abroad — through the built-in Wi-Fi functionality, supporting the 802.11b and g frequencies. They also can use the AT&T Tilt to link to corporate wireless local area networks or home Wi-Fi networks.

Users will also find the highest-resolution camera available on any AT&T mobile phone, with 3-megapixel resolution and auto-focus. The device also accommodates 4GB MicroSD flash memory cards and is capable of supporting up to 32GB MicroSD cards to expand storage for pictures, video, music and more.

The revamped website will carry Bollywood news, gossip, celebrities, and events. It is designed to cater to the global demand for Indian entertainment, glamour and lifestyle content from India.

The website will also offer video library, celebrity interviews, industry news, movie reviews and more. The design of the website is in sync with the visual appearance of the channel.

Zoom has also been running its official channel on Youtube.com/ZoomDekho.

The portal will allow its users to connect with each other via the Zoom Club and offer a range of value added services. Zoom is already available on mobile via IdeaTV.

The channel is currently preparing to roll out its mobile content services and further scale its web offerings to reach its audience.