BADA – New Mobile OS from Samsung

Well, its raining Mobile OS this year. I guess it has to be the year ending effect. Well, after the Maemo, we have the BADA which would be hitting the streets by Decemeber. BADA – Which means Ocean In Korean and Big in Hindi. In case you were wondering, the name was:

“chosen to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform. It also alludes to Samsung’s commitment to a variety of open platforms in the mobile industry”.

But enough about its meaning…what is it? Well, according to the official announcement, bada will offer developers an easier way to create applications for “millions of new Samsung” phones while providing consumers with “a fun and diverse mobile experience.” Samsung says the new platform will be simple for developers to use, “particularly in the area of applications using Web services,” and will allow said developers to include more sophisticated and attractive UI” designs for their apps.

The platform is also being touted as carrier-friendly, by providing for “an easy-to-integrate platform…so that mobile operators can provide unique and differentiated services to their customers.” According to Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics, “bada will be Samsung’s landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world.”

Courtesy: Techgiraffe

Generous Nokia is ready to replace 14 million chargers

Big hearted Nokia is getting all ready to replace 14 million faulty chargers. The world’s biggest mobile phone maker said its Chinese supplier BYD would cover the costs of recalling the chargers, for which handset makers normally pay around $1. Shares in Nokia were 2.3 percent firmer at 9.04 euros by 1230 GMT and analysts said the impact on Nokia’s brand would be limited. “The plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose and separate, exposing the charger’s internal components and potentially posing an electrical shock hazard if certain internal components are touched while the charger is plugged into a live socket,” the Finnish firm said.

Three models of charger – AC-3E, AC-3U and AC-4U – made between April and October this year would be affected. Nokia urged users to seek a free replacement (chargerexchange.nokia.com/). BYD Co Ltd’s (1211.HK) battery-making arm BYD Electronic (0285.HK) said it expects no material impact on its financial and operating conditions or its business prospects.

BYD has become an increasingly important supplier to Nokia over the last few years, helped by its wide offering — from components to manufacturing services. “We are not aware of any incidents or injuries relating to these three (models of) chargers,” said Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson. The defective chargers were not sold in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Chile, China and New Zealand.

Courtest: Techgiraffe

First iPhone Virus is on the prowl

The first worm to infect the Apple iPhone is on the loose. This new program known as “ikee” changes the phone’s wallpaper to a picture of 80s singer Rick Astley with the message, keying off Astley’s song, that says “Ikee is never going to give you up.” The worm is also known as ash, ikex, ike_x, or @ikeex, TechGiraffe’s IT team reports.

It only affects “jail-broken” phones in which the user has removed Apple’s protection mechanisms to allow it to run any software. The virus, so far confined to Australia, is not harmful, unless you can’t bear the sight of singer Astley. The music video of his hit Never Gonna Give You Up often pops up unexpectedly on Internet sites in a prank known as “Rickrolling.”

The BBC says experts, however, believe that the new worm could spawn more malicious variants. Its 21-year-old creator, Ashley Towns, who lives with his family south of Sydney, tells Australia’s ABC News Online that he created the virus to raise the issue of security. “This virus pretty much exploits people’s laziness to change their password,” he says. It can be removed by changing the phone’s password and deleting some files.

Cisco unveils collaboration, e-mail and social tools for the enterprise

Cisco is placing bets on the future adoption of collaboration tools for businesses by unveiling later today a enhanced suite of offerings, including a new social networking software designed for a corporate setting and a new cloud-based e-mail hosting service, as well as video and voice integration into the collaboration platform. (Statement)

The company said that the idea behind the new collaboration platform is to be less “document-centric” and more “people-centric” by working with voice, IM and video to create business-to-business communications – and meetings – more efficient. In part, that includes the ability to bring Facebook-like tools into the mix, but secure them in a way that meets the needs of a company. The company explains its social video system, called Show and Share, like this:

“Cisco Show and Share is a social video system that helps organizations create and manage highly secure video communities to share ideas and expertise, optimize global video collaboration, and personalize the connection between customers, employees, and students with user-generated content. It allows organizations to record, edit and share video with comments, ratings, tagging and RSS feeds, ans speech-to-text transcripts can be uploaded for easy video search and viewing.”

The other announcement – Cisco WebEx Mail – stems from the company’s acquisition of PostPath and offers a cloud-based system that also has Outlook interoperability. Through its acquisition of Jabber, the company also said it has integrated the XMPP standard to give it a secure but widely available presence in the collaboration tools.

In some ways, Cisco – which has been competing with companies such as IBM, HP and Dell in the data center – is now adding Microsoft, which recently dropped the price of its hosted versions of Exchange, Sharepoint, and Office Communications Server, and Google to its lineup of competitors with these new services. For some time, Google has been pushing its cloud-based apps for businesses and even scored a major deal with city of Los Angeles recently to manage its email system. And now, it’s previewing Google Wave, a Web-based, real-time collaboration tool that allows users across the Web to communicate with each other in e-mail like message thread or instant chats and share documents, videos, images, charts and more.

Under the Google Wave approach, users can open the collaboration projects, or “Waves,” to anyone over the Internet, allowing collaboration with anyone via the Web. Cisco’s new offering also breaks down the walls of the traditional network, allowing users to work with customers, vendors and others who normally might have been locked out of the collaboration process

Cisco said that, upon rollout, its mail offerings – priced “somewhere south of $8 per mailbox per month” but still being finalized – will be cloud-based only while the collaboration platform will reside on-premise. Eventually, the company will offer the ability to split data between the two worlds – on-site and in the cloud – but still sees companies being more comfortable with e-mail in the cloud than they are with collaborative documents and correspondence in the cloud.

The company has been vocal about its visions for the future, notably its belief that video will be “the center of everything” in future communications. With this push into collaboration software, the company is subscribing to the idea that e-mail is losing some of its luster as a tool for conducting business. Anyone who’s ever exchanged two dozen emails with a half-dozen people just to set up a meeting knows how ineffective e-mail can be when working with teams.

Twitter and Modern Warfare

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 might have been designed by a capable team of Infinity Ward developers, but the company had some help: Twitter followers. Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling told Develop Online in a recent interview that during the development of the highly-anticipated release, the developer called on Twitter users for help.

“During development, if we are sitting in a design meeting and we are arguing about something, no matter what it is, I can just turn to what is now 60,000 people and post the same question,” Bowling told game developer news site Develop Online. “‘Do we think players will like this?’ well why don’t we ask 60,000 of them and get a good representation of what we think they may like?” But it was the next statement that might cause gamers participating in social networking to rejoice. Bowling told site that Twitter was “fantastic throughout development” and he “would recommend many, many more people adapted that into their design schedule.” Bowling also said that Infinity Ward didn’t ignore any responses to its design questions. He said that developers “listened to all” of the suggestions, but filtered out those that didn’t match the company’s “design philosophy.” Suggestions that asked for more gore, for example, ran against the company’s design philosophy, Bowling said.

Regardless of whether or not Infinity Ward incorporated every idea into Modern Warfare 2, Bowling told the publication that now more than ever, gamers are getting closer to the development process. “The average gamer is so much closer to the people who make the games than they ever were before,” he told the publication. “And as a result of that they are so much more developer-aware. No longer is it an Activision game, but an Infinity Ward game, or a Treyarch game or a Bungie game. And gamers know where to go to offer their feedback.” Oh, how things have changed. When I was younger, I sent several snail-mail letters to developers asking for design tweaks in some of my favorite franchises. I never heard back. And it seemed that my plea had fallen on deaf ears.

Today, things are different. The developers of one of the most highly anticipated games to be released in 2009 were listening to gamer suggestions on a social network? Amazing. Let’s hope for more of it.

Asus seems to have mastered the art of USB 3.0

Asus has launched an add-on card with a third-party USB 3.0 controller, as reports have begun circulating that Intel has pushed out its own integrated USB 3.0 chipset solutions by at least a year.

On Wednesday, Asus launched the ASUS U3S6 PCIe x4 add-on card for PCs, which contains both a 6-Gbit SATA bridge with two ports as well as two USB 3.0 ports. Asus also announced the P7P55D-E Premium motherboard, which also features the 6-Gbit SATA technology as well as two USB 3.0 connectors. The P7P55D-E Premium motherboard and U3S6 expansion cards will be available at ASUS authorized retailers in early November at $299 and $29 respectively, the company said.

Asus chose to use the NEC UPD720200 USB 3.0 host controller for its board, which it said was the first “true” implementation of USB 3.0. NEC claimed to have the first USB 3.0 controller in the market when it launched the UPD720200 in May of this year. At the time, NEC charged $15 apiece for sample quantities.

“The USB 3.0 controller has been connected to a PCIe 2.0 x1 lane (i.e. bandwidth of 5Gb/s) from [the] X58 chipset directly, hence its theoretical bandwidth should not be limited (considering the top speed required for USB3.0 is 5Gb/s),” an Asus spokesman said in an email. “Also, because of that, there is no need for a PLX [bridge] chip. However, the experimental result may vary depending on the equipment used.”

Intel will not get USB 3.0 till 2011

While Intel is being rumored for delaying USB 3.0 chipset supporting chipsets, Nvidia has confirmed it and dropped a bomb. Brian Burke, an Nvidia spokesperson, in an email interaction with TGDaily, stated that Intel is postponing USB 3.0 introduction plans to 2011. Besides that, Burke boasted that Nvidia’s nForce chipsets are “better” than Intel’s chipsets.

As per recent speculations, Intel was believed to have pushed USB 3.0 supporting chipsets way beyond 2010. Nvidia won’t be producing any chipsetse for Intel platform until the legal squabble between them is solved. At the moment, motherboard makers like Asus and Gigabyte are adding discrete USB 3.0 controllers for to their new Intel platform-based motherboards. Burke stated, “With no competition in chipsets, it seems Intel has decided that innovation is not needed for USB any time soon.” While Intel takes it own time to chart out plans for USB 3.0 supporting chipsets, AMD should grab opportunity and roll out USB 3.0 supporting motherboards.

Intel might be holding USB 3.0 to monopolize on Light Peak technology that was showed at the Intel Developer Forum 2009. A single optic fiber cable would serve as universal connector for the computer and other gadgets. Intel is looking forward to standardize this fiber optic technology that will replace several connectors like USB, HDMI, DVI, FireWire, DisplayPort, et al. So far, the specifications of the Light Peak technology aren’t clear and Intel is getting it standardized through USB Implementers Forum. Still, it’s unsure whether the fiber optic cable would require a computer to work just like USB does. Many more questions arise of which major is whether Intel is trying to replace all possible connection interfaces with Light Peak technology. Let’s wait and see what Intel has on its Agenda.

The MSN – Facebook connection.

Microsoft is offering a sneak peak at a redesigned version of its MSN.com home page that features a cleaner design, a more prominent Bing search box, and direct links to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The company plans to formally launch the redesign early next year.

More Microsoft / Windows Insights
Whitepapers

* Smart Work for a Smarter Planet: Empower people and embrace change
* Simplifying Windows Server® 2008 Deployment

Webcasts

* Asia-Pacific Managed Network Services
* Navigating Business in Stormy Conditions with Event Processing

Reports

* Hybrid Clouds
* E-Health: One Step Closer To All Those Stimulus Bucks

Videos

Path Intelligence installs sensors in high traffic areas. Those sensors detect cell phones and can use that data to examine traffic patterns and behavior, which can be viewed & analyzed in real time. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts provides his view on the net neutrality debate, saying that he welcomes the dialog. MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta talks about the future of MySpace, it’s current partnerships, and the company’s ability to monetize its business.
Path Intelligence installs sensors in high traffic areas. Those sensors detect cell phones and can use that data to examine traffic patterns and behavior, which can be viewed & analyzed in real time.
Microsoft said MSN’s new look was inspired by customer research that showed Web users want a simplified portal experience.

“Now is the time to clean up the mess on the Web—people need less clutter and less hassle to find what matters most to them,” said Microsoft corporate VP Erik Jorgensen, in a statement. “Microsoft is uniquely invested in search, media experiences and technical innovation. Combining these assets to deliver our new MSN home page is a tremendous win for customers and advertisers,” said Jorgensen. The new portal includes 50% fewer links than the existing MSN home page and simplified navigation tools.

Windows Live, Facebook and Twitter users can establish direct links to their social networking accounts that allow content sharing and feed aggregation between MSN and those sites. It also pulls content from several Microsoft partners, including Fox Sports, Hulu, and Hearst. “Customers told us they want the latest information from their favorite sources, their friends and the breadth of the Web—and the new MSN home page delivers via a fresh new look and features,” said Jorgensen.

Microsoft is also hoping the new look will draw more users to its Bing search engine. Despite the new features, and a partnership with Yahoo that will see Microsoft add Bing to Yahoo’s Web pages, Microsoft isn’t having much luck catching Google in the search market. The most recent numbers from market watcher comScore show Google with 64.6% of the sector, with Microsoft holding 9.4%. Microsoft shares were up .87%, to $27.77, in early trading Wednesday.

Firefox 3.6 – Coming Soon

Mozilla may have released the first beta of Firefox 3.6 nearly two months late, but the organization believes the final version still will arrive on schedule before the end of the year. The Mozilla wiki page on version 3.6, code-named Namoroka, listed early September for the scheduled release of the first beta, but it actually arrived October 30. Despite that, Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering, said Mozilla wants to release the browser before the holidays and is sticking by the overall schedule for the open-source Web browser. “We’re still looking at a release candidate in November and (final) release in December at this point,” Shaver said in a Tuesday interview.

That means Mozilla has a compressed schedule for producing the final version, but Shaver said coders are working hard. “We’re not going to coast into it,” he said. “We’re going to continue shipping beta updates aggressively”. Those involved in open-source projects, with different motivations and pressures than those in the traditional proprietary software industry, sometimes have an attitude of “we’ll ship it when it’s done.” Mozilla, though, recognizes that time matters even for an open-source project. “We’ve always been more quality-driven than time-driven,” Shaver said. “But we understand timing in the market matters to our users and our competitiveness.”

How to take a Good phone and make it better

If you liked the Nokia E71 but have not gotten around to buying one, then your little delay (or wait) has paid off, Nokia is bringing out the E72 is an excellent smart phone that brings all the great things about the E71 but with a few extra features and a redesign of the external hardware that makes the device much easier to use.
The Nokia E72 is definitely one of the better mid-tier 3G smart phones out on the market and there is no other Mobile Phones in this range that we can recommend better. The draw of the E72 lies in its simplistic form yet heavily functional system. Even the old Symbian operating system truly shines here with its direct approach to feature access and navigation (and thanks to the optical track pad, this got even easier –more on that later).
The bottom line is that you get a really good deal with the E72. Owners of the E71 are not hard pressed to upgrade since the hardware is practically the same, and the E71 is already a good phone in its own right. The only comment I can give is that this device feels more like an E71.5 than a full E72. It’s a great upgrade, but not exactly a new model.

Changes from the Original E71

As said, the hardware of the E72 and E71 are practically the same with the E72 getting some pretty nice upgrades. The most significant change is the 5 mega pixel camera. Now this may not matter much to those of you who rarely need high resolution images, but for the hard core mobile phone crowd, this is a significant bonus, allowing for higher resolution images and videos. The nicest addition is without a doubt, the optical track pad.
It works so smoothly, you would want all mobile phones to have this. So far, the only other device with an optical track pad I have used is the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Anyway, for devices that do not have touch screens, the optical track pad is the next best thing. In some cases, it even works better than a touch screen.

More Features and Capabilities

The Nokia E72 is a fully dedicated smart phone, it has a document editor, a fully functional Multiplayer (it supports a lot of file formats), Bluetooth compatibility, a micro USB, and practically everything else you would expect from a modern 3G device. The screen might feel a little small at first, but you will appreciate all 2.36 inches of it once you see how nice the 320 x 240 pixels of resolution appears over a physical keyboard. Browsing the net is available through EDGE, GPRS and HSDPA networks; it also has WiFi support as well.

Battery and GPS
Of course, let us not forget the heavy duty 1500 mAh lithium ion battery, boasting up to 12 hours of continuous talk time, there are very few devices out there that can come close to this. You also get A-GPS with support from Nokia Maps, a digital compass and various GPS application.