-----Original Message----- From: Anand Parthasarathy [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 9:21 AM Subject: Buzz: the latest IndiaTechonline Newsletter If you cannot read this newsletter, please click here: http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewNewsletter.php?id=17 <http://www.indiatechonline.com/images/new-letter-head.jpg> ANAND PARTHASARATHY'S TECH BLOG #8 Security concerns, scatty solutions Two weeks ago, while in Singapore to attend CommunicAsia, the largest 'mela' of the telecom industry in the Asia-Pacific region, I had an opportunity to experience at first hand, the technology of satellite telephony, perhaps the only truly global means of communication today. Inmarsat, a name well known in satellite based communications, particularly in the aerospace and maritime arenas, used the event to launch its first global handset, the Isatphone. It was available for immediate purchase for around $ 600 - that is about Rs 25,000 - and some 3-4 service providers were offering user packages similar to the post paid mobile services were are used to. The phone itself was cannily designed to provide the comforting familiarity of a mobile phone in the way one used it to make voice calls, send messages or data. Another satellite communications provider, Iridium, was showing of its own handset, the Iridium 9555. Both companies operated their own network of satellites and calls routed through their networks, travelled some 35,000 kms to a satellite and back avoiding all earthbound networks: cellular, landline, Internet or whatever. These satphones can contact any number, in any country, mobile or fixed line, though they cost a good bit more than your average roaming global service. Since they worked any time anywhere ,footloose wanderers exploring the Himalayas - or the Poles -- carry satphones, as do many government agencies in a disaster or emergency situation - military or otherwise. I recall all this because it is pertinent to some government decisions, reported by three different Indian business newspapers last week, to be in the pipeline. They all say the Department of Telecommunications is going to ask three international technology companies - Google, Skype and Research in Motion( makers of the Blackberry) -- to ensure that all content passing through their services is in a 'readable' format for lawful interception. Google's service is Gmail that so many of us lay users patronize. Skype enables us, to make free telephone calls from PC to PC and for a small fee, calls to a mobile or landline. And Blackberry, is optimised for those who want to receive and send emails securely from their hand-phones. Blackberry users pay monthly subscriptions, to ensure that their traffic is NOT readable by all and sundry - so I can't see RIM handing over its coding secrets on a platter to any agency. Gmail and Skype are almost mass consumer services and I guess it's no big deal for most of us if someone somewhere, wants to spend time and energy to eavesdrop on our daily quota of mundane exchanges, words of anger endearment or whatever. 'It's free anyway, and what's there to hide', is what most of us will say. Assuming for a moment, that the three players cooperate and open their codebooks to the Indian government-what will have been achieved? Employment for a small army of Big Brothers, listening to all the rubbish we generate through voice and text every single second, while trying to stumble on the rare conversation/mail/instant message which may have security implications. Meanwhile the real baddies, who can usually afford the best technology available to further their nefarious schemes, are probably hefting a satphone. This is not to give satphones a bad name : on the contrary they are fantastic devices, that in other scenarios will save lives as no other communication tool can. This is just to show the futility of setting the sights of serious national countermeasures, on the lowest common denominator of technology -- like email or Internet Protocol phone calls. This is what the aam janatha uses because it is all it can afford. Terrorists can afford the best. And the only way to fight them, is to use even better technology. Not to make your Gmail and mine , 'readable'. IT HAPPENED IN INDIA Educational BPO Transgenez reaches out to rural India: To set up knowledge hubs in rural reaches of Karnataka state http://www.indiatechonline.com/transgenez-rural-bpo-280.php March of the \'Indian\' mobile phone The annual Voice and Data 100 Indian Telecom Survey finds: Local brands Max, Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Lemon & Spice take 14% revenue share from global biggies http://www.indiatechonline.com/indian-mobile-phones-278.php Media survey, finds Indians do their own thing A survey by content service company Indiabiz News & Research Services (INRS) finds that Indians have a mind of their own when it comes to social networking; they have taken to Facebook in a big way and blog a lot - but leave trendy things like Twitter to the glitterati. http://www.indiatechonline.com/indian-social-networking-survey-276.php The Indian Public Sector Bank, Corporation Bank, has become first Indian banking entity to implement Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), for its customers. The bank has adopted the eMudhra PKI solution from 3i Infotech Consumer Services Ltd. (3i CSL) http://www.indiatechonline.com/e-mudhra-for-corporation-bank-277.php IT'S FOR YOU... IT NEWS YOU CAN USE All in one week.. Two teams led by Indian-Americans unveil some cool innovations... 1. This software lets your PC work while it sleeps Indian-American scientist at the University of California, San Diego, has led to success, a project that allows personal computers in sleep mode to still respond to applications like Internet telephony, instant messaging and peer to peer computing. http://www.indiatechonline.com/sleepserver-software-279.php 2. Soon, your mobile phone can do an eye-test! Team led by Indian-American Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has perfect NETRA - Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment... the display screen onmobile phones, has been combined with a small clip-on device costing as little as two dollars in quantity, to create a cheap instrument for doing eye tests. http://www.indiatechonline.com/mit-media-lab-netra-148.php India's largest cybercafé chain, has launched Sify mylife,arguably the country's first Consumer Cloud Services Platform. http://www.indiatechonline.com/sify-mylife-consumer-cloud-151.php Aditi offers FIFA World Cup tracker for four mobile phone families: iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Nokia http://www.indiatechonline.com/aditi-fifa-games-tracker-application-150.php Unveiled at CommunicAsia - 1 Indian brains create a novel device to provide access to your files -- anywhere iTwin, a novel device that provides access to one's files - anywhere in the world http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=149 Unveiled at CommunicAsia--2 M-Insurance app from Wipro wows delegates at Singapore show http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=152 AVAILABLE IN INDIA: PRODUCT REVIEW Nokia N900: phone that thinks it is a computer Is it a phone? Is it a computer? Nokia has erased the difference. http://www.indiatechonline.com/nokia-n900--india-launch-48.php Sony Vaio E series laptops...Vivid HD http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=148 INDIA IT... THE NUMBERS THIS WEEK Cloud Computing in India: \'The Perfect Storm\' The total market of cloud computing in India stands at US$ 110 million today and is expected to reach a figure of about US$ 1,084 million by 2015, finds a study by globalization consulting firm Zinnov Management Consulting http://www.indiatechonline.com/zinnov-india-cloud-computing-study-55.php TeIecom will ignite semicon: SA-Frost& Sullivan study 2010 The India semiconductor market grew 15.6% in 2009 in contrast to the global market that shrunk by 11% from 2008.Wireless handsets, 3G networks, WiMax, notebooks, set-top-boxes and smart cards are poised to primarily drive the semiconductor market in India. http://www.indiatechonline.com/isa--frost-&-sullivan-indian-semiconductor-market-report-2009-11-54.php And all the others numbers in our exclusive industry snapshot... http://www.indiatechonline.com/snapshot.php EVENT WATCH VAS Asia 2010 New Delhi July 9, Le Meridien 8th International Conference and exhibition focussing on mobile value added services www.bharatexhibitions.com ESC Embedded Systems Conference Bangalore July 21-23 India's Largest Conference and Expo on Embedded Systems In-depth Innovative content http://esc-india.com
mBillionth South Asia Congress & Awards 2010 New Delhi, July 23, Digital Empowerment Foundation and Dept of IT, Govt of India Celebrating South Asia's best in mobile content, services http://mbillionth.in LTE Asia 2010 Hong Kong September 7 - 8, 2010, Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel, LTE Asia 2010 will be the 5th annual event for the region focusing specifically on LTE . All the major and regional operators will be in attendance along with analysts, press and other media http://asia.lteconference.com/ World Computer Congress Australia Sep 20-23, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, ( with) South East Asia Regional Computer Federation Computer Conference ( SEARCC) www.wcc2010.com <http://goog_304848450> <http://goog_304848450> [email protected] Mobile Value Added Services World Summit Developing Strategic Partnership & Best Business Model In Offering Innovative VAS to Optimize Profit and Reduce Churn Singapore, September 29-30 , Swissotel Merchant Court http://www.symphonyglobal.com/index.php/event/page/mobile_value_added_services CAT-iq developers conference Eindhoven The Netherlands October 19-20 CAT-iq is the IP Broadband successor of DECT (DECT 6.0). Next to telephony (with HD-Voice) CAT-iq will be used for home automation/connected home, smart grid and in ultra low power use. All these topics, and more (like the use of Android, Linux, Symbian in CAT-iq products) will be covered during the conference, www.catiqconference.com <http://goog_304848456> . 4th Annual Connecting Rural Communities Asia 2010 Forum Jaipur, India November 16-18 Le Meridien Organized by Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO). The theme for the conference is Broadband Access for Rural Communities. http://www.events.cto.int/CRCAsia2010 Are you organising an upcoming conference or trade show in the Middle East/Asia/Pac region that will interest the Indian infotech community? Send us the details in a mail to [email protected] with Event Watch in the subject line and we will be happy to feature it in this section. TECHIES TIMEPASS "International Cricket 2010" for XBox and PS3: A visual sixer for cricket fans Its global release sandwiched between FIFA football and Wimbledon tennis, might seem like bad timing to launch this year's first major cricket simulation game; but "International Cricket 2010" has at least three neat visual and graphic enhancements that lift it above anything hitherto available to fans of the genre . This will likely ensure that it will be snapped up by owners of XBox 360 and PlayStation3, its two current platforms. Produced by Codemasters and developed by Trickster Games - the Anglo-Australian combo behind last year's "Ashes Cricket 2009" as well as the popular Brian Lara series - IC 2010 can be tweaked to play any standard format from test cricket to Twenty20. The biggest technical leap is the new 'Action Cam', a new point of view which allows the game player to sit on the shoulder of the batsman or the bowler, so to speak, providing a highly immersive experience. Another innovation is 'Power stick', which allows full 360 degree control over the way the bat moves and lets you 'live' the batsman's experience. Add to that the new realism of the stumps as they fly apart to a fast ball - and IC2010 goes where few cricket simulation games have gone before. Since the game is officially licensed by the cricket boards of Australia and England, players from these teams sport their real names. But copyright problems probably forced the creators to invest Indian players with names like Sumit Ten Hukkar and Ravul Drabu. The good news is you can change these names if you so choose, as well as the appearance and attributes of all players... you can even put yourself into the game, if batting alongside Tendulkar is your dream. Games can be played between any of the 16 international teams and in any of 21 actual stadia. Commentary is provided among others by Shane Warne and David "Bumble" Lloyd -- which is unlikely to get too many Indian users too excited. International Cricket 2010 has been brought to India by Zapak and while it is just getting into the retail shops, can also be ordered online at http://shop.zapak.com/ at a small discount over the Rs 1999 MRP in India. POSTED 2010-07-04 Buzz comes to you from www.indiatechonline.com Your guide to information technology in India Please do not reply to this e-mail as it is unmonitored. However we do value your feedback. To send us your feedback, email us here [email protected] To stop receiving this newsletter, you may unsubscribe now [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> . Email secured by TPML Electronics = Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with disability bill at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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