Science & Technology Today

China is targeting to have a 3g network up and running before 2008 Olympics and is soon going to award a 3G license to one carrier for deploying its own version of 3g technology ---- TD- SCDMA . In order to keep competing technologies---- CDMA -2000 and W- CDMA and their latest versions at bay, it is not going to award any other licenses for a least two years. For course this is one of the many statements China has made to announce it's arrival as a super power but this technology does deserve to see the day of light on the technological merits. The Time Division Duplexing (TDD) scheme is at the heart of TD- SCDMA standard and ‘ Synchronous” denotes that is can handle both circuit –switched and asynchronous data packet switched services. TD- SCDMA offers a smooth and seamless way of upgrading existing GSM networks for advanced 3G mobile networks and services. When TD- SCDMA base stations are installed in an existing GSM system, the radio network layout can be retained and e...

You may have Wowed on seeing the pink MOTORAZRs and blue MOTOKRZRs and appreciated the great looks but Softbank Mobile’s new mobile phones, makes them look pale. Japanese service provider Softbank Mobile has taken mobile phone looks to new heights, with the launch of Samsung 707SC with Swarovski’s crystal glasses. Great shininess is also packed with nice features. It has got high-speed HSDPA, Picsel document viewer, and an on-board dictionary to translate between English, Japanese, and Korean. Paris Hiltons of Japan will be scrambling to the Softbank Mobile’s stores , too bad for her that she will not be the first.

My recent posts on Windows Vista and digital rights management (DRM) did not mention that Vista operating system has an integrated DRM system and this is very important for anyone using Vista. This integration of DRM enables it to downgrading video and audio quality if required by the policy associated with the content being played. Beside all other issues associated with DRM, handling this 'Vista's Content Protection systems' put extra demands on the computer's CPU and will slow it down.I think Microsoft has gone too far by adopting this consumer-unfriendly technology. As mentioned in my previous post on DRM, while more and more artists and content providers are looking at new ways to implement DRM, Microsoft wants to police on behalf of content providers and use consumer money and resources to do this. Mr. Bill Gates in the past had expressed his dissatisfaction on the present implementation of DRM seems to have looked the other way when it came to Microsoft. Contrary...

Soon all of us will be talking about JOOST --- which is a new web based TV, being launched by the same guys who were behind free online telephone service Skype . After make cool $2.5 billion in 2005 by heaving off Skype , they are ready to conquer new territories. JOOST is billing itself as the first free global TV distribution platform, uniting advertisers, content owners and viewers in a piracy-free interactive service. They are trying hard to make it as TV-like with programmes, channels and adverts. You can download the Beta version at JOOST , but they are selective with the beta tester, I am still waiting for my password. The enclosed screenshot from their web site is just great. I will update you as soon as I take a peep at it myself, till then you may try to get you own JOOST .

Benefits of the AT&T and Bell South have started coming in.The new company is combining its wireless and wireline networks into an in-network calling community covering more than 100 million phone numbers.AT&T has introduced new wireless “AT&T Unity” plans. AT&T Unity will have unlimited domestic calling to and from AT&T wireline customers.The Unity calling plans are available to residential and small business customers in a 22-state region that includes the territory formerly covered by BellSouth .

A new Toughbook is hitting the market soon. I am not talking about some new hardcover publishing technique but about Panasonic Notebook PC/Tablet PC that goes by the name Toughbook . Toughbooks are rugged and can withstand Shock, Vibration, Dust, Magnesium and Spills. We have more than fifteen variants in the market to suit one’s ruggedness style. I had an opportunity to move around with a ToughBook during field testing sometime back with no problems. Of course I did not do any deliberate drop testing; knowing Pansasonic would have already done that. But it could not withstand coffee spills around my desk. So for some clumsy guys like me, they have come up with Panasonic CF-R6 a water-proof notebook . See the enclosed picture, how a glass of water goes on to a keyboard of the Panasonic CF-R6 notebook PC to during a water-proof demonstration. I am looking forward to perform coffee spill test as soon as I get hold of one of theses Toughbook . Panasonic Toughbook microid: 7fb77808...

In my earlier post on Back-up and Storage, you read about my views on the importance of optimizing storage resources. I have a similar feeling about Virtualization and it is finally getting some attention from enterprise IT. Virtualization refers to the ability within the network to consolidate computing resources or servers by allowing virtual machines (VMs) to migrate freely between servers. Virtualization has been around for a longtime but some recent developments in Virtualization software are making it a better proposition. Virtualization is implemented by running a layer of software called virtual machine monitor (VMM) directly on the server hardware which allows the “guest” operating systems a complete interface on the virtual machines (VMs). As it involves the management of the hardware resources, it requires active participation of chip manufactures like Intel and AMD. The latest development in virtual machine monitor (VMM) is advent of open source technologies. This serve...

The recording industry has seized the opportunity to distribute their content, mostly audio files through wireless phones carriers and Internet. Nearly all the content provided by wireless phone carriers and online music distribution services comes with embedded anti-piracy software or digital rights management ( DRM ) and with that you end up buying music specific to a particular device or carrier. This is just not right, once you have paid for a particular audio file or content you should be able to play it on any of the players, home network or devices. Wireless phone carriers like Verizon, Cingular Wireless, have all adopted for proprietary DRM solutions for there full track download services and again this is not good for the consumer. DRM has to go or change to a standard form of implementation, whereby it is consumer friendly. We are already seeing some action from artists like Jessica Simpson, Norah Jones etc., by release of DRM -free content for online distribution and I ...

A new buzz in the telecoms world is about the global migration to IP -based network popularly called next-generation networks ( NGNs ) and IMS ( IP Multimedia Subsystem) is one of the few carrier-friendly models because it looks to blend Internet applications with a converged world of wireless and wireline facilities. It uses a Voice-over- IP ( VoIP ) implementation, based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP ) standardized implementation of session control protocol (SIP) which enables it to be multi -vendor in nature and will let carriers more easily and cost-effectively add applications via new application servers, thereby reusing the horizontal IMS framework for each application and not having to set up the session control layers over and over again. As it runs over the standard Internet Protocol ( IP ) and supports existing wireline and wireless networks. Basically IMS uses three protocols; SS7 ( SS7 is fully embedded in the world’s telecom networks as a signal...

Windows Vista launch is just 20 days away and there is a lot of anticipation in the market. At first look the GUI is fantastic; the Aero visual interface provides cool effects such as translucent windows borders and a way to scroll through a 3-D stack of open windows to find what you want. Search windows integrated into every explorer window and Sidebar-which contains “gadgets” such as headlines, weather update are great. Many of these features seem to mimic Apple’s OS X Tiger operating system with some enhancements. Like myself most of the people using beta version now, seem to like these features. Just to make sure everybody knows that Windows Vista has enhanced performance over Windows XP,Microsoft has coined some new terms or features like Sleep, SuperFetch, Windows ReadyBoost™, and Ready Drive. Sleep is the new name for going into Standby or Hibernate state. Superfetch new name for the memory managements system in Windows Vista. ReadyBoost refers to the use of external Flash ...

E-book publishing world and readers have been hoping for a suitable reading device for a long time. So far we had to use Pocket PC, Palm handhelds , SmartPhones , Tablet PCs, PCs, or Laptops, basically whatever device we could get hold of and none of them was really suitable.I am sure like myself, it was burdensome experience for you as well. In September 2006 Sony launched its much awaited portable reading device PRS -500 and it's a beauty. I bet you, it makes reading e-books a great pleasure and you don't have to take those printout anymore. It's 880 by 600 pixel screen gives a resolution of approximately 170 pixels per inch, which far exceeds the standard LCD display of 90 to 120 pixels per inch and gives it the sharpness comparable to the new prints . A 64MB of internal memory can hold up to 80 electronic books and you can store hundreds more on the optional removable memory cards. Its rechargeable internal battery can power you through up to 7,500 continues page tur...

The broadband telecommunications system based on fiber-optic cables/optical devices and aimed to deliver advanced services such as of telephone, broadband Internet and television across one link (triple play), all the way to the home/business is making a strong come back . These technology named as fiber-to-the-node ( FTTN ), Fiber to the Premises ( FTTP ), Fiber to the Home ( FTTH ), or fiber to the building ( FTTB ) started with great enthusiasm around 1999-2000 but with the dot-com bubble almost everyone abandoned the idea of fiber to the home or business. However the last two year have seen renewed interest in fiber-optic networks. The two giant Verizon and AT&T are building their fiber-optic networks. Verizon has been offering FiOS Internet -- with maximum connection speeds of up to 50 Mbps or 30 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream, and FiOS TV in select markets for more than a year now. Check it out at Verizon website at FiOS for Home Last few months have seen produ...

Without the power of the search engines, World Wide Web or Internet would not have been so overwhelming that it is today. Google is the leader in this art and science right from its inception around 1998. Even with a market capitalization of 143 billion dollars and fingers in every pie of Internet business, it has not changed the feel and look of their search engine origins and rightly so. Many start-ups and established players have tried to replicate (or catch up) the success of Google but Google has stayed ahead of competition by constantly improving their search engine algorithms, resulting in fading away of most of its competitors like AltaVista ,All the web, Lycos ,Excite and so on. Only Yahoo and MSN have stayed afloat largely because of their overpowering presence in other areas of Internet business. All this has neither discouraged nor dissuaded start-ups from attempting to replicate the Google model of success, which is building their product around a powerful search engin...

User-Generated Content or UGC refers to the online content like digital video, blogging, podcasting and mobile phone photography produced by netizens (online community) like me rather than publishers and TV producers. UGC has seen a phenomenal growth in the last two years and I see this growth continuing in the coming years. UGC is also part of the phenomena called social networking, as most of the time this user generated content is meant for a particular social group and thus advancing their networking. Wikipedia which is the free encyclopedia started by Jimmy Wales in March 2000, was the first attempt to tap the huge potential of the user generated content. Today I believe it is the most widely used encyclopedia site and all its content is generated/edited by netizens . Jimmy the noble man he is, did not try to profit from this and Wikipedia remains a non-profit effort. But others who followed him like Flickr , YouTube , MySpace , Facebook , and Second Life are making big buc...