TechyTrends

Toshiba pulled the plug on its HD-DVDs last year, conceding defeat to the Blu-ray camp, led by proponents Sony Corp (6758.T) and Panasonic Corp (6752.T).

Toshiba, whose digital products segment reported a nearly 65 percent tumble in profit in the year that ended in March, is trying to raise market share and cut costs as it fights increasing price competition in PCs and TVs.

David Owens, Sprint's director of customer acquisition, said on Thursday that the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider would sell high-end phones with displays based on Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode, an emerging technology Samsung is pushing for cellphones.

While the vast majority of cellphones still have displays based on Liquid Crystal Display, Samsung has been touting the advantages of AM-OLED, which shows colors much more clearly and conserves power as screens do not need a screen backlight.

Because AM-OLED is relatively new manufacturing costs are higher. As a result Sprint plans to introduce the technology in its phone line-up starting with more expensive phones that are suited for viewing media such as video.

"That's typically more in a high-end phone ... It won't be across the portfolio," said Owens, who sees such phones becoming available for Sprint customers next year.

"The vibrancy of the screen is world class," said Owens who sees some phone customers paying extra for a better screen as they are increasingly buying advanced phones for features like Web surfing and video downloads.

"Consumers are willing to pay more as long as they're getting value," Owens said.

Casey Ryan, a product manager for Samsung confirmed that his company would sell a phone with an AM-OLED to Sprint.

Currently Samsung Impression, sold by No. 2 U.S. mobile operator AT&T Inc is the only AM-OLED Samsung phone available in the U.S. market.

The executives were speaking at Sprint's New York launch of another phone the Samsung Reclaim, which includes bioplastic materials and uses a charger that beeps when the phone is recharged so the user can plug it out to avoid wasting power.

Ryan said Samsung's goal was to have energy efficient chargers with these alerts for all its phones no later than 2011. "Over the next couple of years we'll start to streamline our manufacturing," for more eco-friendly phones, he said.

In another year, T-Mobile's myTouch 3G and Verizon Wireless's BlackBerry Tour 9630 might have counted as breakthroughs. But after such products as Palm's Pre, Apple's iPhone 3GS and (more important) its iPhone OS 3.0 software and Google's Android 1.5 software, the two new devices seem unremarkable.

They don't represent a step back, but they don't count as a major advance, either. At best, they suggest better things to come if manufacturers and wireless carriers drop some bad habits first.

The myTouch -- notwithstanding its comically awful moniker -- offers more cause for hope. Like its predecessor, last year's T-Mobile G1, it combines decent hardware with Google's smart, elegant Android operating system. But this time around, the myTouch ($199.99, with voice and Web service starting at $54.98) employs an on-screen keyboard instead of the G1's external keyboard.

T-Mobile advertises better battery life with the myTouch. In one test, a myTouch stayed on the line for an extraordinary 7 1/2 hours of calling -- but for much of that time, the phone couldn't pick up T-Mobile's broadband service and had to fall back to a slower connection that didn't drain the battery as quickly.

As with the G1, the real reason to buy the myTouch isn't hardware but software. Android, like the iPhone and the Pre's operating systems, combines an outstanding Web browser, touch-screen controls and blissfully simple management of add-on programs.

The selection of third-party software for Android has grown immensely since the G1's debut -- Google says its Android Market now stocks 6,300 applications. The iPhone's App Store carries more titles (over 67,000 by one count), but Google has not engaged in the kind of control-freakery that has led Apple to reject seemingly harmless iPhone applications.

The myTouch doesn't include software to synchronize its calendar and address book with those on your computer. Instead, you're expected to use Google's free online applications, which sync over the air.

So if the myTouch's hardware is decent and its software is great, what's not to like? Its carrier. T-Mobile offers low voice and data rates, but this Bellevue, Wash.-based firm offers the worst mobile-broadband coverage out of all the big, nationwide carriers. Android deserves better.

Verizon's BlackBerry Tour doesn't have that problem -- whatever else you say about Verizon, it's hard to fault its coverage. But the Tour itself -- $199.99 to new and renewing subscribers, $489.99 to those in the middle of a contract, with voice and Web plans for $69.98 and up -- does little to distinguish itself.

The Tour's software continues a pattern of disappointing releases from BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion. Although its fonts and icons look prettier than before, it continues to rely too much on lengthy menus cluttered with irrelevant commands.

As an Internet device, the Tour actually represents a step back from the Storm. Sites that looked correct on that older device -- including one formatted specifically for mobile use -- showed up partially jumbled on the Tour.

Verizon ships the Tour with RIM's BlackBerry App World, its belated attempt to compete with the App Store and the Android Market, but did not think to put a shortcut to it on the Tour's home screen.

The software RIM provides to synchronize your contacts, calendars, to-do lists and memos is as bad as ever. The Windows version is a bolted-together assemblage of third-party components, while the Mac release is so out of date the company is now advertising the September arrival of a different Mac application.

Toshiba is planning to launch players and laptops with support for Blu-ray Disc later this year, it said Monday. The company was the primary backer of the HD DVD optical-disc format that had been battling Blu-ray Disc until last year.

In a brief statement Toshiba said it had applied for membership for the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the standards setting and licensing body behind the format and would launch products before the end of 2009.

Evidence gathered thus far from Twitter and other sites targeted by the DDoS attacks seems to suggest that the attack is actually a politically motivated attack aimed at silencing a Georgian activist. The victim, known by the online handle Cyxymu, uses blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to express views related to the tensions between Russia and Georgia. In a blog post, Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer of Internet security firm F-Secure, said "Launching DDoS attacks against services like Facebook is the equivalent of bombing a TV station because you don't like one of the newscasters.

To defend itself against the ongoing DDoS attack, Twitter has implemented various defensive actions, some of which are blocking third-party Twitter applications from being able to connect with Twitter API's. The mitigating steps are also affecting the ability of many users to post to their Twitter accounts via SMS (short message service) text messages.

Twitter is working diligently for a more permanent solution that doesn't impact third-party applications or SMS messaging. In the meantime though, Twitter has stated that as long as the attacks continue they can't guarantee that things will get better or provide any assurances that they won't get worse. The best they can do is to promise to do everything they can as fast as they can to ensure the site remains available.

Other steps that can be taken involve identifying and isolating sources of attack traffic and simply dropping all incoming packets from those sources. That can have some affect, but when an attack leverages a botnet and the attack traffic is literally coming from hundreds of thousands of sources simultaneously it quickly becomes cumbersome and impractical to try and filter the traffic in this way. Another temporary solution could be to filter all traffic intended for the suspected victim, Cyxymu, and block that so that it does not hog the network bandwidth or server processing horsepower.

When the dust settles, Twitter should look at ways they can build scalability and redundancy into their network to better withstand similar attacks in the future. Stuart McClure, VP of Operations and Strategy for McAfee's Risk and Compliance Unit and co-author of Hacking Exposed 6, says "Many of these newly emerging social engineering sites weren't built with security or high performance scalability in mind. They need to look at their current and desired states and make tough decisions that migrate them from homegrown applications to highly available cornerstones of commerce."

Tony Bradley is an information security and unified communications expert with more than a decade of enterprise IT experience. He provides tips, advice and reviews on information security and unified communications technologies on his site at tonybradley.com.

Sprint Nextel will sell Samsung’s handsets sporting the sophisticated AM-OLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) display technology, an upcoming technology that the company is pushing for mobile handsets, to bring out better battery life and advanced video and photo images, said the company executives.

To begin with, Sprint will incorporate the technology in its more expensive phones that have video capabilities as the costs of manufacturing the technology is quite high, said David Owens.

“That'''s typically more in a high-end phone ... It won't be across the portfolio,” said Owens.

According to a Samsung executive, the company will start rolling out AM-OLED device in the fourth quarter.

As of now, the Samsung Impression, sold by AT&T Inc, is the only AM-OLED Samsung phone available in the US market.

Now, users can easily store and memorize their beautiful moments with clear, crisp images captured from extraordinary 8 MP camera. The intelligent shot mode examines scenes and adjusts camera settings according to the user preference and suitability, granting him/her to capture best shots and share them with friends, family and relatives.

Some other unique features of the phone include new 3D S-class user interface, onscreen camera mode selector dial, Power LED flash facility, 1600 ISO sensitivity, Mobile communications and lots more. Embellished with a brushed metal finishing, the phone appeals very classy, durable and tough. This feature can be really helpful for the individuals who are engaged in photographing the exotic world. As per Business group marketing head of Mobile communications.

LG Electronics, Anil Arora, “Viewty Smart is a real digital camera in a really stylish phone. Perfect for those dedicated to fashion and who like to be one step ahead of the technology crowd, LG GC 900 allows you to take your best shot and share your photos with friends and family quickly and simply. The Viewty Smart has a gorgeous display and best-of-class user interface. It has the potential of becoming a bestseller as it takes the pleasure of taking pictures to newer horizons”. He also added, “LG Viewty Smart changes are a treasure trove, giving you pictures that look exactly like what you see. It is the best 8 megapixel camera phone on the market not only because of its specs, but because of the unparalleled user experience it delivers”.

According to IIM-A website, CAT will be held during November 28, 2009 to December 7, 2009. A candidate can choose the test date, session (morning/afternoon), and venue across thirty centres (cities) all over India, subject to availability.

IIM's till now have been conducting CAT in paper and pencil format for the last 33 years.

According to IIM-A website, a prospective candidate has to buy a scratch-voucher from the deisgnated bank branches, and later register online for CAT 2009.

Spot prices of both DRAM and NAND flash enjoyed a big sequential jump this week (July 27-31) upon news that Samsung Electronics raised its DDR2 prices and Toshiba suffered from a power outage at its NAND flash fab, according to inSpectrum.

inSpectrum stated that the spot price of 1Gb DDR grew by about 6-7% this week, with the price of branded chips pegged at US$1.26 as of the noon session of July 31. The rise of DDR3 prices also continued this week with most 1Gb DDR3 chips settling at above US$1.90.

Despite news about Samsung's strong stance for DDR2 pricing helped drive up spot pricing this week, inSpectrum expects the large supply of DDR2 chips in the channel will make the price increase difficult to maintain.

As for the strong price of DDR3, inSpectrum stressed that availability of DDR3 in the channel is still very limited, meaning the recent price surge is supported by sentiment rather than solid demand from end users.

In fact, once chip prices of 1Gb DDR3 are quoted above US$2, many brokers/traders in the spot market would be hesitant to buy as the translated average selling price (ASP) of a 2GB DDR3 module would have grown to over US$30, inSpectrum predicted.

For the NAND flash market, anticipation of a price recovery of low-density memory cards amid the speculated Toshiba fab power outage spurred prices of low-density 16Gb NAND flash chip to increase by more than 8% this week to US$4.40 as of the noon session of July 31.

inSpectrum attributes the solid price growth of low-density NAND flash to improving demand for 1GB and 2GB microSD cards from handset and camera vendors, which find their sales have improved a lot during the summer holidays. The price of 1GB and 2GB microSD card has grown by 9% and 10%, respectively, this week, the firm stated. inSpectrum estimates that over 60% of global demand for NAND flash will be come from the handset and camera segments in the third quarter of 2009.

Source: inSpectrum, compiled by Digitimes, July 2009

By working with SMS GupShup, Facebook is enabling its service on SMS, the most popular messaging platform in India. Facebook users can now update their status updates and message friends using SMS. They can also receive status updates, messages and wall posts instantly in their SMS inbox.

SMS GupShup will provide the underlying messaging infrastructure to rapidly and reliably deliver the high volume of incoming and outgoing messages between users and Facebook.

“We are very excited to work with SMS GupShup, given their experience with both mobile messaging and social media in India”, said Henri Moissinac, Director of Mobile, Facebook.

It requires just a mobile phone to speed up the verification process and save cost.

Named Odyssey Epic, the product is typically loaded into a mobile phone that has a GPRS connection, a camera and a Windows operating system, to create a paperless verification and enrolment system.

It obviates the need to collect paper documents and photographs in physical format. Instead, it facilitates acquisition of the information directly from any client in a digital format through the use of a mobile phone loaded with Odyssey Epic software by a visiting agent of the organisation enrolling the client. While it takes nearly seven days for a bank to process the physically obtained papers/documents and put them into a digital format, it is done real time using Odyssey Epic.

According to Robert Raja, Chairman and Managing Director of Odyssey Technology, the verification process costs nearly Rs.100 a customer(the filing processes include photo-copying of document, taking the photograph of the customer and the like).The verification could be done at a practically low cost if done through the use of Odyssey Epic, he said. The Reserve Bank of India, too, accepted the digital form of documents that could be sent using the mobile phones, he pointed out. Usually, the digitization of documents was done at the enrolling organisation-end. However, in this instance, Odyssey Epic could do it at the beginning stage itself, he pointed out.

The verification process using Odyssey Epic typically works thus. A visiting agent of an enrolling organisation captures the data relating to the client in his Odyssey Epic-loaded mobile phone using the in-built camera. He takes the picture of the person who is enrolled and also the `verification' document (say, a driving licence).

The software application (Odyssey Epic) converts the textual inputs and images into a single PDF document. The agent then digitally signs it, using the smart card in the phone and a digital certificate that is previously issued to the agent. This ensures the `authenticity and integrity' of the collected data, facilitating the enrolling organisation to store them directly.

The security features were encrypted in an external mobile security card, Mr. Raja said. Odyssey would provide the software (in the mobile and at the backend of the client) to customers for Rs.5,000 to Rs.7,000 per agent.

A month after the images of Nikon Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras D300S and D3000 were leaked, the company has made the cameras official.

What's New?

The D300S is the revived version of the popular D300 which was launched about two years ago. Featuring a 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor and 51-point autofocus system, the D300S offers full 720p HD video recording, a 7 fps continuous shooting and Dual CF and SD card slots

Other Features

The D300S now features a new Quiet drive mode and a dedicated Live View and Info button as well. The D3000 offers a New Guide mode which provides a simple interface meant to help first-time users to select shooting modes. There's also in-camera photo editing and Nikon's Integrated Dust Reduction System in the camera.

Both cameras come with an Active D-Lighting function which claims to vastly improve shadows and highlights of high-contrast scenes.



Is this for you?

The D300 is still a popular choice for professionals and serious enthusiasts, so the entry of D300S with its given improvements should make new buyers happy. The D3000 is an entry-level DSLR hence, is intended for beginners and those ready for the compact digital camera to DSLR transition.

Both cameras will be available in the international markets August 2009 onwards, the D300S for $1799 (Rs. 86,335 approx.) and D3000 for $599.95 (Rs. 28,786 approx.). India availability of the cameras is not known yet.


Nikon D3000