web cables cut

Middle East, India and Bangladesh are experiencing disruption after undersea broadband cables were damaged between Egypt and Italy. India is home to an $11b outsourcing industry, which depends on it.India's banks and stock exchange also experienced problems on Thursday.Up to 60% of India's 50 million internet users, both individuals and companies, were affected.India's IT industry employs 700,000, who work for companies that provide a range of services - from answering customer queries to analysing equity markets - to global clients.

email security

Google is adding more email security and storage products for businesses, sharpening its aim on a Microsoft stronghold while the competition between the two rivals also heats up in internet search and advertising.Google’s push into business software, launched in 2006, looms as a threat to Microsoft, which derives much of its profit from the sale of its more expensive Office suite of software applications as well as its email programs.

Next Windows version in 3 years

Microsoft Corp has indicated that its next Windows operating system (OS) should be ready for 2010.A projected release of 2010, if met, would see Microsoft easing the concerns of corporate and enterprise customers who, according to a recent Forrester Research report, are displaying signs of becoming wary regarding Microsoft Software Assurance renewal.According to media reports, Microsoft seems to be trying hard to reassure customers about its development cycle after a recent Forrester study that criticised its business-oriented subscription programme (Software Assurance). The study raised questions about the financial benefits of Software Assurance programme.

search tool for mobile content

Google Inc. is developing a new search tool for cell phones that will allow users to find and purchase mobile content, including ring tones and games, according to a published report.Google has been working for months with content providers such as "large entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media aggregators" to make their material available through a mobile search, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter.According to the Journal, mobile users would go to Google to search for content, such as a particular ring tone and would be provided with links to providers where the ring tone could be purchased.

Yahoo launches Search Suggest

Kevin Lee announced on the Yahoo Search blog the launch of a new feature to the Yahoo website. Users of the Yahoo’s tool bar might already recognize the feature as it has been in use for a while on that application.The goal is to offer some conveniences to users searching on the portal. With a dropdown list of suggestions depending on the keyword, the time spent searching is expected to drop offering users the ability to get the information they want faster. Another goal the announcement states was a resolution to the “brain dead” moments where you simple forget what it was you were attempting to find.

Yahoo.com is Asia’s favourite website

Yahoo! Inc, owner of the most-visited web site in the US, is also the most popular in Asia, according to a survey of 10 markets in the region by research company ComScore Inc.The company had the most popular web sites in Japan, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.Microsoft Corp and Google Inc have the region’s second- and third-most popular sites, Reston, Virginia- based ComScore said on its web site.Asia has drawn increased investment from US web companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Google as they look to win users in the region’s fast growing economies such as China and India.Ten percent of the population in the Asian markets surveyed uses the Internet at home or work, lagging behind the worldwide rate of 16%, ComScore said. South Korea has the highest rate of Internet usage at 65% of its population, followed by Australia with 62%, New Zealand with 60%, and Hong Kong’s 59%.India and China are at the bottom of the list with rates of 3% and 9%, respectively, according to ComScore.

Yahoo! brings your city up close and personal

Urban skylines are changing in India - in cyberspace too. Global Internet services company Yahoo! Inc - headquartered in Sunnyvale, California - has launched a new series of networks covering urban Indian areas in cyberspace.Called Our City, this three-month-old network is 'a dynamic representation of content created by you and everyone else'.Yahoo!'s new venture in India collects online content on the city from various sources and presents it in a dynamic manner. Our City (http://in.ourcity.yahoo.com) is in the experimental Beta version so far and Yahoo! says that it plans to continue to add more features and city versions.India is playing a significant role in this new venture from the cyber-giant firm known for its web portal, search engine, the Yahoo! directory, Yahoo! mail, news and posting.

Cyber criminals rely on mind games

McAfee has announced the results of a groundbreaking study that details the psychological games and other tactics cyber criminals use in social engineering scams propagated through junk email.In the study titled "Mind Games", the primary author, Dr James Blascovich, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, offers analyses of multiple common scam emails and provides surprising insights into how cyber criminals use fear, greed and lust to methodically steal personal and proprietary financial information.The same psychological practices used by cyber criminals were also investigated in a European report, commissioned by McAfee in association with leading forensic psychologist, Professor Clive Hollin, based at University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

Blog`, `wiki` top list of hated Internet words

"Blog", "netiquette", "cookie" and "wiki" have been voted among the most irritating words spawned by the Internet, according to the results of a poll published.Topping the list of words most likely to make web users "wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard" was folksonomy, a term for a web classification system."Blogosphere", the collective name for blogs or online journals, was second; "blog" itself was third; "netiquette", or Internet etiquette, came fourth and "blook", a book based on a blog, was fifth."Cookie", a file sent to a user's computer after they visit a website, came in ninth, while "wiki", a collaborative website edited by its readers, was tenth.British pollsters YouGov questioned 2,091 adults earlier this month for the poll commissioned by the Lulu Blooker Prize, a literary award for books"Blog", "netiquette", "cookie" and "wiki" have been voted among the most irritating words spawned by the Internet, according to the results of a poll published.Topping the list of words most likely to make web users "wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard" was folksonomy, a term for a web classification system."Blogosphere", the collective name for blogs or online journals, was second; "blog" itself was third; "netiquette", or Internet etiquette, came fourth and "blook", a book based on a blog, was fifth."Cookie", a file sent to a user's computer after they visit a website, came in ninth, while "wiki", a collaborative website edited by its readers, was tenth.British pollsters YouGov questioned 2,091 adults earlier this month for the poll commissioned by the Lulu Blooker Prize, a literary award for books.

personal search

Google is to cut the length of time it holds users' personal search data.The European advisory body, called Article 29, said Google's current data retention practices could be breaking European privacy laws.The search giant has said it will now keep personally identifiable search data for 18 months rather than the previous period of 18 to 24 months.

personal computer

The personal computer (PC) market in India witnessed 20% growth in unit shipments in fiscal 2006-07, according to IDC. With this, the total installed base of PCs in India grew to more than 22 million, which means a PC for every 50 Indians.
At the year-end, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 21.2%, followed by HCL at 13.5% and Lenovo at 9.5%, in terms of unit shipments of both desktops and notebooks. In commercial desktop PC shipments, HCL led the market, followed by HP and Lenovo, whereas in consumer desktop PC shipments, HP was the leader, followed by HCL and Zenith.In terms of total desktop PC shipments also HP led the market, with HCL and Lenovo coming at second and third spots, respectively. In the notebook PC market, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 39.6%. Lenovo came in at the second spot with 17.6% market share and Toshiba climbed up to take the third spot replacing Dell.Overall client the installed base of PCs registered a CAGR of 32.3% up from 9.5 million in 2003 to cross 22 million in 2006, thereby more than doubling in a three-year time frame.
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ancient Rome

Computer experts unveiled a digital reproduction of ancient Rome that simulates the ancient city over a span of several centuries.The simulation allows visitors to crawl through the bowels of the Colosseum, lined with lion cages, and fly up to circle the bas-reliefs and inscriptions on top of its arches at a time when the building was untouched by time.It cost more than $2 million US and took 10 years to create the digital model, said Bernard Frischer of the University of Virginia, who led the project.

Mobile TV

The handset - Nokia N92 - is the world's first DVB-H enabled device that would support LIVE Broadcast Mobile TV, Nokia said in a statement here.The public broadcaster Doordarshan had recently launched Mobile TV services in Delhi. The service currently comprises eight Free-to-Air Doordarshan channels including DD National, DD News and DD Sports supported on DVB-H compliant handsets, it said. According to industry figures, mobile content is likely to contribute to about 30 per cent of the revenues for the broadcasters. The mobile phone market in the country is also expected to touch 348 million by 2010.

Yahoo search most "risky"

In research published on Monday by McAfee SiteAdvisor, 5.4 percent of Yahoo searches returned links to "risky" Internet sites. AOL was found to be the safest of the top five, with 2.9 percent of sites.According to McAfee, overall, on Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com, Google, and AOL, sponsored searches returned more risky results than "organic" searches. Of sponsored searches, 6.9 percent returned risky content, compared with 2.9 percent of organic searches.

TCS

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's largest computer-services provider, plans to hire 5,000 workers in Mexico in the next five years as labour costs climb in its home market because of a rising rupee. Tata Consultancy last week opened a software-development centre in Guadalajara, Northern Mexico and that facility will start with about 300 employees doing tasks currently completed in India, said Gabriel Rozman, head of company's operations in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The rupee gained 9.2 percent against the dollar this year, eroding Tata Consultancy's earnings from the US, its biggest market, and increasing Indian costs relative to other nations. Tata Consultancy gets about half of its sales from North America. The Mexican peso was little changed this year against the dollar.

IT sector

IT sector would require nearly five lakh professionals in the next five years to cater to the growing needs of this booming industry, NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said.Currently, the industry required three lakh professionals, however the number was expected to nearly double with the sector being poised for huge growth, he said during the inauguration of the country's first IT finishing school.Though the institutes churned out a huge number of engineering graduates, the industry was left with less than three lakh professionals to hire from, since many of them turned entrepreneurs, some sought jobs overseas while others opted for higher studies, Karnik said.

surface computer

Microsoft Surface machines are built into tabletops and have 30-inch screens that can recognise objects placed on them and are controlled by touch instead of keyboard strokes or mouse movements, said the Redmond, Washington state-based company. Unlike standard touch-screen computers, Microsoft Surface allows more than one person at a time to drag icons or give commands to allow collaborative efforts "just like in the real world.The surface computer is the brainchild of Microsoft's hardware and research teams.In a move unusual for Microsoft, which traditionally licenses its technology to partners, the company is contracting to have the computers made. Microsoft is initially targeting stores, hotels and casinos with the technology. Surface computers will be available in some Las Vegas casinos, Starwood hotels and T Mobile stores by the end of the year, according to Ballmer.

Fortza 2

Microsoft Game Studios launched the upgraded version of its motor sports game, Fortza Motorsport 2, in India priced at Rs 1,895.The launch of Fortza 2 marks a new price point that Microsoft has introduced in the Indian market. company had spent nearly 40 million dollars and two years in upgrading the title for gamers globally. Microsoft is also planning to bring a top-end variant of its high-definition gaming console, X-Box Elite, in the Indian market by August.

search requests

A feature listing the day's 100 fastest-rising search requests has been unveiled by Google. The chart, part of the search system's trends service, will be refreshed several times a day using data from millions of searches.Google says a large number of searches are made on the eve of college entrance examinations which appear to come from high school students doing last-minute preparations

INTERNET

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended that IPTV and IP-VPN would not come under the definition of internet, and suggested that ISPs shall not be permitted to have PSTN/ PLMN connectivity and shall not allocate E.164 numbering.It also wants to remove restrictions on the use of devices/protocol employed to make internet telephony calls to facilitate use of affordable and user-friendly devices/adapters conforming to international organisations specification like ITU/ IETF.General consumer awareness to use authorised internet telephony services only needs to be developed. Print and electronic media will be effective in promoting such awareness.