Category: Software

MUMBAI: IDEA Cellular Ltd an Aditya Birla Group cellular company, has announced the launch of simple to use push based e-mail service called Easy Mail.

This personalised email solution targets all customers who have GPRS enabled handsets. Its a clientless service with which any individual or enterprise subscriber can access emails as an MMS on their handset anytime anywhere, asserts an official release.

With Easy Mail, any IDEA GPRS subscriber can access his personal emails with all features like reply, forward with free POP3 access and no hassles on infringement of security. The service can be customised to receive emails from select recipients only.

Commenting on innovation Idea Cellular Ltd chief marketing officer Pradeep Shrivastava said, “Easy mail is an exciting product for those of us who wish to remain accessible on the move. The product does indeed redefine email access and provides an easy to use interface for every IDEA GPRS user. I am certain that Easy Mail will prove beneficial especially to our small and medium enterprise customers.”

Easy Mail has been priced at Rs 3 for all outgoing emails and Rs 1 for incoming emails. To get started, all a customer needs to do is to type an MMS ‘GET’ and send it to 2222. All MMS’s sent and received from 2222 will be toll free.

Easy Mail‘s helpful features include several simple to use commands:

– HELP: Provides help on commands and their use.

– STOP: Temporarily stops all e-mail from being pushed to the mobile phone

– START: Resumes e-mail push

– ALIAS: Creates a personalised e-mail address for your mobile number

– FROM: Sets the name and address that appear on your outgoing mails.

– SET: Generates a WAP push to view and configure your settings

Idea also offers other push based e-mail services like Idea Mail, targeting business users using any range of the Symbian and Windows enabled mobile devices with GPRS connectivity. This service offers true push technology with real-time synchronisation of mail on mobile devices with the corporate email server, adds the release

MUMBAI: VH1 Mobile has launched Mobile Junk 20, a new mobile application that lets users capture and upload mobile video for potential inclusion in episodes of the weekly series, web junk 20.

Sprint is the first carrier to offer the application, which is available via the Sprint Vision and Power Vision networks, asserts an official release.

The application adds to VH1 Mobile‘s current Web Junk 20 offering, which includes a dedicated channel for weekly and archived video clips from the show.

In addition to offering users the functionality to capture and upload user-generated video and photos, the application gives users the ability to watch, rate, and share videos and photos submitted by others.

VH1 executive vice president and general manager Tom Calderone said, “The launch of ‘Mobile Junk 20‘ further extends the ways viewers can interact with our popular ‘Web Junk 20‘ franchise and VH1. Mobile Junk rounds out the experience by giving fans a way to submit and exchange the creative content they shoot with their mobile phones.”

Mobile Junk 20 is available exclusively on Sprint through January for $3.99 per month on select multimedia phones. Sprint customers can download the application via their phones, at http://www.sprint.com/digitallounge or by texting junk to 2323.

The application was envisioned, created and designed by VH1 Mobile and developed and powered by Nellymoser, the mobile media platform company, the release adds

DELHI/MUMBAI: Anil Ambani is betting big on online gaming. He plans to invest $100 million (Rs 4.5 billion) in Zapak.com over the next three years. On the agenda: to expand the offerings and presence across the country.

“We are planning to invest over the next three years around $100 million to expand our gaming portfolio and also to increase our presence in the country,” Reliance Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney said.

In the first phase, the company will set up exclusive gaming stores in 15 cities and also have franchisees. “Our plan is to create 1,00,000 gaming seats across the country with 50-60 million registered users over a two-year period,” Sawhney said.

The company has launched a full-feature online multiplayer cricket game with Kapil Dev and former cricketer-turned politician Nvjyot Singh Siddhu playing online at a glitzy press conference here.

“Online gaming is a nascent concept in India. We are today offering games across various genres to suit the requirements of all age groups. We capitalised on Bollywood with Salman Khan Zone. And now given the fact that cricket is not just a passion but a religion in India it presented us with a huge opportunity,” said Sawhney.

Within 15 days of the launch, the play-free portal has 10 lakh participants, with 20,000 adding every day. “The potential is huge, but the market is nil… We are creating the market, because this is the first interactive gaming portal from India,” adds Sawhney.

Zapak.com already has 150 games on its portal and within the next fortnight it would have 500, including golf, carom and chess.

The online gaming market worldwide in 2008 will be $55 billion, according to Sawhney. This is the first of the three revenue models, Sawhney told indiantelevision.com after the press meet. This is the Casual Games part, where “we are not really targeting revenue as the primary issue. We have a huge market to rope in and for that what we are no concentrating is creating the right kind of ecosystem”.

He revealed that in the near future, sometimes early next year, the second revenue model would be unfolded with the introduction of the MMOG segment. During this, they would have payment gateways and people can pay through credit cards, cash or prepaid cards made by the company.

The last phase would be the introduction of the gaming cafes, and that too would happen this year. “We shall have 10 signature gaming cafes in 10 top cities, to start with.”

Sawhney expects the Indian market to touch 10 million players in the next three years and 50 million by the next five. “And this is not something for kids, anyone young at heart and willing to learn new things and enjoy life is our potential customer.”

Local content would be added later on and local language conversions as well, Sawhney said.

Answering a question on whether they had sought the experiences of cricket experts for designing this game, Sawhney said, “Our animators told us that they had watched 1,000 days of actual cricket before designing it.

One can just log on to Zapak.com and play this game for free against anyone in the world immediately.

Beginning with the toss and weather conditions the game goes on to give the liberty to try all possible strokes and bowling styles by the book. At the same time it allows to try out innovative shots, choose the field settings, face a no ball, derive the benefit of overthrows and even get run out.

Kapil Dev said, “Today the youngsters are no longer content with usual ways of playing, they want to explore more effective and efficient ways to play, to utilise time. This multiplayer online cricket game from Zapak has all the features that make cricket exciting and we will see this is as big a hit as the original game itself

MUMBAI: Rediff.com India Ltd. has acquired a minority stake in Tachyon Technologies, a Bangalore-based software company for an undisclosed sum.

This is part of Rediff‘s strategy to invest in start-up companies with innovative technologies.

Says Rediff.com chief executive officer and founder Ajit Balakrishnan, “we aspire to encourage promising start-ups to develop innovative world class products that support our business. As a part of such efforts, we are delighted to have an opportunity to invest in a promising start-up company, such as Tachyon Technologies.”

Adds Rediff.com chief technology officer Venki Nishtala added “The predictive text input technology developed by Tachyon is based on sophisticated machine learning techniques and is an improvement on simple phonetic maps and specialized language keyboards, thus enabling millions of Indians to benefit from the internet.”

Tachyon Technologies has built a product named Quillpad, which enables users to type in English alphabets to input words in other languages (in the respective scripts) with ease on the basis of phonetics, allowing them to communicate in their language of choice. Rediff.com has adopted this technology in its Rediffmail email and Rediff Bol messenger service.

Commenting on the Rediff‘s investment in Tachyon, Tachyon Technologies CEO Ram Prakash has this to say:”Rediff.com‘s investment in Tachyon Technologies should provide us with the capital we need to enhance our development infrastructure. Hopefully, this will help us to realise our ultimate goal of developing great products.”

MUMBAI: Matrix Partners India (MPI) has invested in a mode startup Four Interactive.

MPI claims to be India‘s first consumer services risk capital fund and focuses on early to growth stage businesses in the Internet, mobile, financial services, media and entertainment, food and beverage, hospitality, healthcare, travel and leisure sectors.

MPI co-founded by Avnish Bajaj and Rishi Navani with Matrix Partners US, strives to be the trusted partner providing risk capital to build market consumer services companies. With this investment, Rishi Navani has joined the Board of Directors of Four Interactive, informs an official release. Four interactive founded by Kiran Konduri and Shriram Adukoorie.

Navani said, “We are excited to partner with Kiran and Shriram, who bring a diverse set of experiences and complementary skills that form a strong foundation for the company.”

Konduri said, “In Matrix we found a partner with common values and beliefs. Our partnership is focused on building easy to use services that are at the intersection of mobile,content and the web.”

Adukoorie said, “Internet adoption is at the cusp of an inflection point in India. At Four Interactive we have set ourselves a simple goal of making the net more useful, relevant and inclusive for Indians.”

Kiran Konduri was previously at Microsoft and has founded two companies‘ including Zephyr Software, which was acquired by Infospace. Shriram Adukoorie has been with Microsoft for the last decade and was previously country head for MSN India and South Asia. Most recently he managed Microsoft‘s portal in the Asia region

MUMBAI: Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division has announced the launch of Gears of Wars (GoW) and Viva Pinata for their next generation gaming console Xbox 360.

The launch was complimented by the announcement of some of the forthcoming gaming titles Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, Lost Planet, Superman Returns, Call of Duty 3 on Xbox 360.

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division country manager Mohit Anand said, “We are delighted to bring to our Indian gaming enthusiast‘s the two biggest and most anticipated games Gears of War and an unusual game about habitat, Viva Pinata from Xbox 360. GoW is one of the best games visually available on Xbox 360 and one of the finest games available on any platform today. Viva Pinata, on the other hand is more of a family game where gamers have to turn a misused plot of land into a beautiful garden overcoming various challenges. Xbox 360 today has over 35 titles of different genres available and will additionally be releasing more innovative and enthralling games for the gaming enthusiasts in times to come.”

The titles will be priced at Rs. 2,510 each and will be available to gamers through Microsoft‘s network of resellers across major cities in the country.

An official release issued by the company stated that Gears of War sold about 1 million copies worldwide within two weeks of its launch and has been the fastest selling game on Xbox 360 in 2006 and ever on Xbox 360 platform. It is a third-person tactical action/horror game and is the first game developed by Epic Games exclusively for Microsoft Game Studios and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system.

GOW thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind‘s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet and utilizes the breathtaking new Unreal Engine 3 to create cinematic, beautifully rendered interactive environments with high-definition visuals for a gaming experience that truly ushers in the next-generation.

Viva Pi?ata is created by video game developer Rare Ltd. and Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system.Viva Pi?ata invites game-players to escape to Pi?ata Island, where wild-roaming, living pi?ata animals are looking for a home. Viva Pi?ata from Rare and Microsoft Game Studios is rated “E” for Everyone and is available exclusively on Xbox 360.

MUMBAI: US firm Chyron which provides graphics software for the world’s television broadcasters and an emerging player in the field of mobile TV graphics has partnered with Madison Road Entertainment which works in the field of branded entertainment.

Together, the companies will launch a new advertiser-supported mobile TV software suite and web-based out of home (OoH) network services platform in 2007.

Under the partnership, the companies have agreed to develop and market a series of software application tools that will connect advertisers more efficiently with viewers through various devices and networking protocols including cell phones, OoH networks and the Internet.

The partnership was formed to address the accelerating demand for multiple media content delivery systems, as the large, traditional audiences, which mainstream advertisers covet, spend more of their time out of home and connected to new forms of content delivery – much of it portable.

Chyron president and CEO, Michael Wellesley-Wesley says, “Chyron has been developing its capabilities in this area for several years now.

“Recognising that the future requirements of advertisers will include a truly immersive experience that extends beyond TV – to include cell phones, OoH networks and the Internet – we identified Madison Road, its advertising, branding, entertainment programming expertise and connections as the perfect partner and choice to integrate Chyron into these new areas of content creation.

“Madison Road’s experience with social networking trends and viral marketing models, as well as their positioning at the crossroads of advertising and mainstream entertainment, fits well with Chyron’s competence in developing software-based solutions for content creation and content management in the digital video space.”

In 2005, Chyron launched its ChyTV business unit to develop technology solutions for middle-service providers, addressing the newly-emerging retail digital signage and OoH networks space. Based on its initial development of proprietary content creation and scheduling software, as well as low-cost playout devices, ChyTV is now poised to offer a turnkey, web-based services solution to these high-growth, emerging markets.

MUMBAI: Zee Network has tied up with Media Overseas, subsidiary of Canal+ Group, for the launch on their multi channel satellite pay-television platform, for three of its channels Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee Muzic.

The service will be available on three Media Overseas platforms including, Canal Sat Reunion in Reunion Island, Canal Sat Maurice in Mauritius and Canal Sat Horizons in more than 20 countries in Africa such as Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, Mauritiana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, informs an official release.

The service was launched commercially on 14 December for Indian Ocean Islands including Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mayotte and Camoros and shall be available from 15 January 2007 onwards for French speaking countries in rest of Africa. The cinema and TV channels shall be available with sub titles in French.

The Zee channels will be uplinked on NSS7 and Eutelsat W2 from the playout centre of Canal in France.

In continuation of offering services bringing closer to viewer through specific feeds for each region and sub title or dubbing in local language, this is yet another expansion of Zee‘s reach in International market. Zee has in the past one year launched its sub titled or dubbed services in Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Middle East and announced plans for entry into China, adds the release.

MUMBAI: China has signed an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Business Software Alliance, Association of American Publishers and Britain‘s Publishers Association to fight against online piracy of intellectual property.

The National Copyright Administration (NCA) of China has signed the deal, reports state. These groups have agreed to provide the NCA with a list of items that they wish to see protected, such as movies, video and audio, software, and published works.

The NCA media reports state has, in return, agreed to investigate reported cases of piracy and keep in regular communication with the trade groups regarding copyright issues.

Reports add that piracy was a focus of two days of talks recently between US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Chinese government.

MUMBAI: The world‘s most valuable media firm Google is competing with rival Baidu.com to find China’s answer to global online video social site YouTube.

Both the companies are looking to develop online video services in China.

Media reports indicate that the two firms have independently had early discussions with some local video Web sites for potential business cooperation or possible acquisitions.

However, neither Internet giant has secured a specific target yet.

Google has two options. It could just translate its YouTube site into Chinese or build up a brand new ‘YouTube China‘, possibly through the acquisition of a local video-sharing Web site.