Category: Software

MUMBAI: Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services (Airtel B&TS) today introduced the voice chat service on Airtel fixed-lines as part of its endeavour to deliver innovative service offerings to its fixed-line customers. This facility will enable customers to chat anonymously with other Airtel mobile and fixed-line customers, across the country.

According to an official release, the key aspect of this service is that it enables customers, especially women, to search for friends from amongst total strangers without the risk of exposing their real identity. To avail the service, an Airtel fixed-line customer has to call *694 and register his profile. Once registered, the customer searches for profiles with similar interests as his to chat with and extends chat invitations to them. In a bid to offer security and anonymity, users have the option to accept or reject the invitation. All users also have the option of ‘call back‘ as well as ‘direct calling‘ on their chat IDs. This service is available at a monthly rental of Rs. 30 and a call charge of Rs. 3 per minute. The company has an introductory offer of no monthly rental till 30 June.

President of Airtel broadband and telephone services Atul Bindal, said, “This service will take the telephone beyond ordinary voice calling and will enable our customers to search in a secure and anonymous manner for like-minded friends, thereby providing a more interesting medium for the extremely popular internet chatting service.”

BANGALORE: The state-of-the-art interactive VSAT Channel of Edusat network of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum was launched by the Governor of Karnataka, His Excellency Sri.T.N.Chaturvedi, on May 28, 2007 at Raj Bhavan, Bangalore today.

121 Engineering colleges are affiliated to VTU, of these 30 were identified as batch-1 colleges to get the VSAT Channel based on the utilization of and response to the current DTH Channel by the colleges and on the location of the colleges. Outgoing VTU VC Dr. K Balaveera Reddy is confident that within the next six months, all the 121 colleges will have the interactive VSAT channel and has requested ISRO to make third channel available to VTU for e-governance and online examinations so the VTU becomes a paperless university.

Since 18 March, 2005, when VTU started their first DTH channel, they have conducted 2,121 live sessions covering 46 subjects, and answeredd 13,172 queries received from students by SMS and phone. Balaveera visualizes a future when web based learning is possible and then a student could learn from the home itself. VTU has had interesting programs‘, one of them being the CXO speaks. The CEOs, COOs, CFOs and other top industry executives talk to hundreds of students of VTU on every Saturday from VTU Studio. The objective of this initiative is to provide awareness and understanding of industry trends, requirements and critical success factors to students. VTU is making efforts to conduct a series of program with companies like Infosys, IBM and Microsoft that highlight various facets, technologies and trends relevant to the industry, more so the IT industry.

The second channel –the VSAT interactive channel is IP based with return video on MPEG4 and can be used for any additional applications like on-line examination and data transfer. This is the first time that DBBS2 technology for interactive communication. VTU proposes to dedicate the utilization of this Channel to industry so that they can offer Technology Specific Classes (TSC) and Soft Skill Classes(SSC). VTU students will benefit a great deal, for they not only will understand the industry trends and requirements but will also get trained in the appropriate technologies, there by meeting, to some extent, the requirements of industry.

The MOU that ISRO and the VTU signed with the first batch of colleges says that ISRO would provide the necessary VSAT, Hub and Teaching end support while VTU will coordinate with various engineering colleges affiliated to it and manage the VSAT network, which is part of the overall VTU-Edusat network currently being in full operation. VTU is primarily responsible for conducting various courses of undergraduate and postgraduate programs in engineering and other academic related programs. Hughes Communications India has provided the technical support.

ISRO chairman and secretary – department of space, government of India, Madhavan Nair said that he would like VU to use the Edusat facilities for 16-18 hours a day against the current 8 hours.

VTU is the first university in the country that has networked all its affiliated engineering colleges. India is the only country in the world that has launched a separate satellite – Edusat dedicated to education.

The 1950 kg Edusat was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota by ISRO‘s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). In a geo stationary orbit, the satellite is co-located with KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3C satellites at 74 deg East longitude.

Compared to the satellites launched in the INSAT series so far, EDUSAT has several new technologies. The spacecraft is built around a standardized spacecraft bus called I-2K. It has a multiple spot beam antenna with 1.2 m reflector to direct precisely the Ku band spot beams towards their intended regions of India, a dual core bent heat pipe for thermal control, high efficiency multi-junction solar cells and an improved thruster configuration for optimized propellant use for orbit and orientation maintenance. The satellite uses radiatively cooled Ku-band Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs) and dielectrically loaded C-band de-multiplexer for its communication payloads. Edusat carries five Ku-band transponders providing spot beams, one Ku-band transponder providing a national beam and six Extended C-band transponders with national coverage beam.

BANGALORE: The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (Isro) communication satellite Insat-4B, which became fully operational in April, will be dedicated to the nation on 8 June by president APJ Abdul Kalam in Hassan, Karnataka, says Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair.

Insat-4B was successfully launched by Ariane-5 ECA on 12 March from Kourou, French Guiana.

Additionally, Insat-4CR, the replacement for Insat-4C, which crashed into the Bay of Bengal a short while after lift-off in July 2006, is likely to be put into orbit by the second half of this year, Nair has stated. The tentative launch period for Insat-4CR is September, Madhavan says.

Madhavan also revealed that the assembly work on Chadrayan-1, ISRO‘s ambitious moon mission, had commenced and the launch was expected in 2008. An agreement for including European instruments was signed with the European Space Agency on June 25, 2005 and an MoU was signed with the NASA on inclusion of two US scientific instruments, the mini SAR and M3.

Madhavan further said that the current scheduled launches of the INSAT series was sufficient to meet with the present requirements of television companies.

Madhavan was at Raj Bhavan, Bangalore for the inauguration of VTU‘s interactive VSAT channel (VTU‘s second channel, the first one being DTH on the same satellite) by the Karnataka governor today on Isro‘s education dedicated satellite – Edusat.

Insat-4B was successfully launched by Ariane-5 ECA on 12 March from Kourou, French Guiana. The first critical orbit raising maneuver was completed on 13 March when the satellite was placed into intermediate orbit. The third and the final orbit raising was conducted on 16 March. After placing INSAT-4B in near-geosynchronous orbit, the deployment of its two solar panels and two antennas was successfully completed.

The two solar arrays of INSAT-4B together generate 5,860 W of electrical power. The two antennas are used for various transmit and receive functions. INSAT-4B drifted towards its final orbital position of 93.5 deg E. where it is co-located with INSAT-3A. The Sun group has seven Ku band transponders, while Prasar Bharati‘s FTA DD Direct Plus has five on the same satellite.

MUMBAI: Google has launched ‘Translate‘, its new cross-language search feature that allows users across the world to find and view search results on foreign language web pages in their own native language.

This means, for example, that if an Arabic speaker is searching for restaurants in New York, he can now conduct a search in Arabic, and Google will translate the results (most of which are from English language websites) and provide the most relevant search results in their native language.

This new feature is available in the following languages: English, Arabic, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Traditional), and Chinese (Simplified).

The new translation service for search results is expected to be particularly popular outside of the United States and the United Kingdom because so much of the Internet‘s content is published in English.

With this initiative, Google is angling to sell more advertising in international markets and maintain the impressive financial growth that has driven a more than fivefold increase in its stock price in less than three years.

Google‘s family of websites, including online video pioneer YouTube.com, already attracts the world‘s largest audience, according to comScore Media Metrix.

According to American Technology Research analyst Rob Sanderson, Google collected $7.6 billion, or 72 per cent, of its 2006 revenue from sources in the United States and the United Kingdom. If the company had fared as well in other key markets around the world, he estimated Google would had generated an additional $4.9 billion to $8.7 billion in revenue last year.

MUMBAI: In the latest wave of The Kelsey Group‘s User View study in the US 59 per cent of those surveyed claimed to watch online video, and more than half said they engage in some sort of response activity, such as visiting a Web site, going to a physical location or making a purchase.

The study‘s findings are highlighted in a new report by The Kelsey Group Online Video: A New Local Advertising Paradigm, which credits the popularity of YouTube with bringing online video watching to mainstream audiences.

Kelsey Group senior analyst Michael Boland says, “YouTube has largely popularized the concept of watching short videos on a computer screen and has likewise familiarised consumers with the idea of watching short video ads. A wide range of business models are coming to market in the hopes of tapping into the growing demand for video.

” We are in a ‘wild west‘ phase of experimentation on all fronts — content generation, licensing, search and monetisation.”

According to the report, production companies such as Spot Runner and TurnHere offer to produce and distribute video ads for small businesses at price points that are significantly lower than those of traditional advertising, bringing video advertising within the grasp of many small businesses for the first time.

The report reasons that the value of video may be easier to comprehend for many small businesses compared with some forms of online performance-based marketing. Pay-per-click, for example, may be abstract and less attractive to certain small businesses that are more interested in leads, foot traffic or phone calls.

As a result, video has the potential to be an easier integration to a cross-platform product bundle. The vanity factor that has driven significant revenues for Yellow Pages publishers is also clearly present in video.

Additional conclusions offered in The Kelsey Group‘s online video report include:

— Small-business video advertising can combine the traditional strengths of pull-based directional marketing, the Internet‘s targetting capabilities, and the emotional and dramatic power of television.

Given the demographics of broadband users, the online audience reached by these ads would also be well-educated, affluent and more likely to engage in pull-based content retrieval.

— The opportunity is greatest for Internet Yellow Pages publishers, given sales assets, existing SME relationships and the growing demand for video advertising in the small-business marketplace. Add to this the presence of high-margin, low ad elasticity vertical categories, such as professional services, and the potential becomes clear.

MUMBAI: Gameloft, a US firm which develops and publishes mobile games, has announced a domestic and international licensing agreement with DreamWorks Animation.

This is for the animated feature film Shrek the Third.

The mobile game which is based on the film closely follows the storyline of the film with appearances from all the main characters.

Shrek the Third, the mobile game, has been released across 170 operators in over 75 countries, in conjunction with the movie.

Gameloft ptressident Michel Guillemot says, “We are thrilled to partner with DreamWorks Animation to bring the imaginative world of Shrek the Third to mobile gamers worldwide.

“We look forward to collaborating with DreamWorks to capture the trademark humor and originality featured in the Shrek series in our products.”

DreamWorks Consumer Products head of US Licensing Rick Rekedal says, “Gameloft‘s history of producing award-winning mobile games speaks for itself. We are confident this license will deliver a truly enjoyable mobile game experience for Shrek fans and gamers alike.”

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate CBS‘ division CBS Interactive is partnering with community-building websites and social application providers to add greater user functionality to the online CBS Audience Network.

The announcement includes deals with new companies as well as expanded relationships with existing CBS Audience Network partners.

Through these online properties and social application providers, users can easily incorporate CBS clips into their profiles, websites, blogs, widgets, wikis, and community pages. This enables them to discover and personalise CBS content and to use it to communicate with others. At the same time, CBS gains promotional value online while learning about its audience.

The online partners that currently make up the syndication side of the CBS Audience Network, as announced last month, include AOL, Microsoft, CNet Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh. CBS also has distribution deals with Amazon, Apple and Yahoo, among others.

New online partners adding increased functionality to CBS Audience Network include:

— Automattic – Automattic‘s flagship product is WordPress, the blogging software used by millions of bloggers and media publishers. Automattic also operates Akismet, the leading anti-spam service for blogs, social networks, forums and wikis.

— Clearspring – It provides cross-platform widget services. They make it easy to use content and services from across the Internet to weave personalized experiences. With their flagship service, digital content and service providers can easily package, distribute, and analyze the performance of widgets via a single platform.

— Dave Networks – This is the first provider of an integrated video distribution and social community platform designed to ignite brands. Boasting a robust set of software features, Dave empowers brands to build digital ecosystems through interactive video social community portals that function as a public hub where customers, fans, and users can develop dynamic personalised profiles, upload and share content, blog/video blog, comment on message boards.

— Goowy Media – Goowy develops innovative online products and services including yourminis, a widget platform that simplifies widget development, syndication and measurement for content owners and 3rd party developers. In addition, yourminis.com offers a destination gallery that allows consumers to discover Widgets for one‘s Blog, website, personalized startpage, or desktop.

— Meebo – This is a website for instant messaging that lets one IM from any computer and access all of one‘s friends in one place. meebo recently announced ‘meebo rooms,‘ places where users can chat and view media live with their friends.

— Ning – This platform allows anyone to create their own social network about anything. The free service allows anyone with an idea for a social network to choose a combination of features (videos, blogs, photos, forums, etc.) from an ever-growing list of options and customize their social network in any way they want to.

— RockYou! – RockYou! is the leading provider of widgets on the web. The company serves over 150M widgets viewed per day to over 200 countries on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and Bebo.

RockYou! widgets include photo slideshows, glitter text and voicemail accessories that are simple to use and enable people to frequently refresh their online style. RockYou!‘s widgets enable advertisers to connect to an established online community that embraces viral user generated content and is one of the first sites to offer revenue sharing opportunities for partners.

CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith says, “Today, we are taking the CBS Audience Network directly to the user. In launching the CBS Audience Network we solidified our position as the most widely distributed professional content provider on the Web thanks to our great video distribution partners.

“We now want to empower our audience to be creative and deepen their experience with our content by allowing them to share and embed CBS-provided clips to their blogs, wikis, widgets, community sites and whatever else gets thrown our way. We are delighted to have so many quality partners — established and start ups — helping to bring CBS content to the online community.”

MUMBAI: Japan‘s Advantest has announced its new T6373 LCD driver test system for LCD source, gate and one-chip controller driver ICs. Available from July it comes equipped with up to 3072 channels and offers parallel test for up to 32 devices.

Advantest is an automatic test equipment supplier to the semiconductor industry, and also produces electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. Spurred by next year‘s Beijing Olympics and by the rapid transitioning of television broadcast technology from analogue to digital, there is a growing worldwide demand for large, high-definition LCD panels, destined for use mainly for flat-panel digital televisions.

Such demand is expected to result in an expansion in the market for LCD driver ICs, a key component of LCD panels. Forecasts suggest that by 2010, shipments of these ICs will increase by around 45 per cent, but that this will represent a monetary increase of just seven per cent. This will lead to mounting pricing pressure for producers.

At the same time, test time and test costs are spiraling upward, as the introduction of higher definition and larger LCD panels necessitates faster driver ICs with increasingly high bit resolution and pin count. Such circumstances have led mass producers of driver ICs to press for a cost-effective test
solution.

The firm says that the new T6373 contributes greatly to reducing test costs. It has up to 512 channels for digital test of image signal inputs and 3072 channels for LCD test of outputs, doubling that of the previous model on both counts, and it provides parallel testing of up to 32 units.

It also has twice the capacity of its predecessor for parallel testing of 684-pin and 720-pin driver ICs commonly used in large LCD televisions, with the result that four such devices can now be tested simultaneously.

The T6373 has a high-accuracy digitiser unit for each of its LCD channels, enabling testing of higher bit resolution and pin count ICs at a throughput 1.5 times greater than that of its predecessor. It offers lower cost high- precision testing for a wide range of devices, from mass-produced items such as 8-bit (512 grayscale) and 10-bit (1024 grayscale) driver ICs for digital consumer electronics, to new and next-generation items like the 12-bit (4096 grayscale) driver ICs.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has directed Zee to provide signals to the Kolkata multi-system operator (MSO) Sristi Cable Network from 29 May.

This was after Zee said it was satisfied with the Enigma system on which Sristi is running its SMS, barring two minor modifications which Sristi has agreed to carry out.

However, the SET Discovery, also a party to the case, has still raised some technical issues. Sristi Senior Counsel Prabhat Kumar said if Zee had given the green signal on all technical parameters, what more could be questioned?

The court has said that SET would have the premises of Sristi inspected and will file an affidavit about the deficiency, if any, in the system installed at the premises of the petitioner.

The SET Vs Sristi case has been listed for 22 July.

Kumar told indiantelevision.com that the order was true to all principles of natural justice and revealed that even ESPN has sent a letter to Sristi regarding sending their signals.

Neither Zee nor ESPN had been wanting to give their signals earlier.

Sristi had filed the petition with the TDSAT in Delhi asking for signals from Sony and Zee, but the latter had held that Sristi does not have the required equipment, which Sristi has denied.

Kumar said, “Zee still wants two specific but minor software changes. We have said we shall put everything in place by the time given to us by the court.”