Archive for the ‘Indian Tech’ Category
A bit of a slow news day today. Not a lot happened but coming up is a short summary of today’s top stories. On slow news days like today, we’ll try and add a “Recommended Reading” link which will take you to an analysis/article/editorial/op-ed that while not news, makes for good reading.
The
Indian government did a U-turn on OLPCs today as it agreed to a pilot project that will give 22 students in Maharashtra an OLPC each. The government will evaluate the usefulness of the OLPC and then decide on whether to get more OLPCs. A few months ago,
the government was bragging about being able to build $10 computers which was as unlikely then as it is now. A year ago, the Indian government snubbed the OLPC but things appear to have changed now. [Via Yahoo! News]
For once, Microsoft has managed to beat Google. The company managed to clinch a 1.6% stake in popular social networking site Facebook earlier today for a whopping $240 million. This means that Facebook is now worth $15 billion in the short span of three years. The deal gives Microsoft exclusive rights to post adverts on the website outside the United States among other things. [Via REUTERS]
In news sure to please open source aficionados, Version 2.4 of the GNU Image Manipulation Program or GIMP was released to public today. While it hasn’t brought any GUI changes with it, the GIMP website has been given a much-needed makeover. Version 2.6 is expected to bring in a new interface but this is a solid release by the GIMP team. Click here to download the latest version.
In our last item for the day, we have information courtesy HardMac that copies of Leopard have already made their way into retail stores ahead of its impending release. Leopard is the new Mac OS X operating system (10.5) and ushers in several new features and enhancements over Tiger. [Via HardMac]
Recommended Reading: Why Motorola and Sony Ericsson need to “get it” from AllAboutSymbian.com
Popularity: 20% [?]
- By Vivek on Oct 25, 2007
What’s with all the Nokia news today? First it was the surprise partnership with Microsoft to push Windows Live services on its handsets, and now we hear that India has overtaken the US to become the second largest market for Nokia.
Nokia’s own plant in Chennai helped. It has produced 60 million handsets in the 18 months since it opened up with around half of them being sold in India. Others went to South Asia, Middle East, Australia, etc.
You say you want to know who their #1 is? Here’s a riddle for ya: which country has the largest population? If you guessed China, you are absolutely wrong right.
PC World
Popularity: 8% [?]
- By Vivek on Aug 23, 2007
In continuing good new for Indian IT companies, Wipro Technologies has been designated by the Wi-Fi Alliance as an authorized test laboratory. For members in India and other countries in Asia, the Bangalore center will help streamline the certification procedure and cut the time-to-market of new products. Prior to this move, Wipro was an authorized “pre-certification” facility that would prepare products for certification. From DigiTimes,
Wipro will now provide members with interoperability testing on core 802.11 radio standards, as well as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA2) for security, and Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) and WMM Power Save for quality of service.
DigiTimes
Popularity: 10% [?]
- By Vivek on Aug 22, 2007
Infosys has set up an IT services and BPO (business process outsourcing) unit in Monterrey, Mexico in an attempt to get geographically closer to some of their clients in North America. The Mexican subsidiary will be called Infosys Technologies S. De RL De CV and will employ up to 1000 people over the next three years.
With this new unit, Infosys is also looking to get into the Latin American market demand for IT services. Additionally, the center will also serve customers in Europe. Let’s see if frustrated Dell customers in Mexico will blame Indian call centers for poor tech support.
PC World
Popularity: 7% [?]
- By Vivek on Aug 21, 2007
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest GSM operator has announced that it will provide cell phone service in Sri Lanka by next February. Mobile penetration in the island nation is about 30 percent with a growth of two million subscribers per annum and Bharti views Sri Lank as an attractive market.
An investment of $200 million is on the cards, with the majority of that money coming in during the first 18 months. Bharti will be the fifth cellular operator in Sri Lanka.
It’s only fair that our southern neighbors also be constantly harassed by Airtel’s marketing phone calls and SMSes.
Yahoo! News
Popularity: 7% [?]
- By Vivek on Aug 16, 2007
Yes, Windows 7 is that mysterious operating system that will succeed Vista in 2010 (good luck with that deadline guys). And Microsoft India will be developing some portion of it according to MoneyControl.
Microsoft India has also worked on the Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP that is due sometime this year.
MoneyControl [Via ArsTechnica]
Popularity: 9% [?]
- By Vivek on Aug 6, 2007
Ok, so all you non-believes who thought all the Udan Khatola stuff was just the imagination of a cranky sage, here is some proof for you from none other than Air India!
See? Air India ran its services way back in 107 A.D.What say now, non-believers?
We’d love to meet Air India’s website designers, though.
Popularity: 6% [?]
- By Anand on Jul 25, 2007
Om Malik, one of the most respected persons on the tech scene, is reporting on his blog that Hi5, the social networking site, has raised $20 million in its latest round from Mohr Davidow Ventures.
According to GigaOM, Hi5, which was co-founded by Ramu Yalamanchi, started out as a social-network-plus matrimonial site targeting the Indian diaspora, but later morphed into a social network, and since then has gained popularity in some Latin American countries, Mongolia, Tunisia and Romania.
So, Hi5 fans! There is something to cheer about, finally. Or is there?
Popularity: 7% [?]
- By Anand on Jul 23, 2007
Cyber geeks in Mumbai are going to love this. The Indian railways has a nice little suprise for net addicts in Mumbai.
According to TechTree, RailTel, a PSU of the Ministry of Indian Railways, recently inaugurated the Indian Railways’ first — and Mumbai’s first — railway station cyber cafe at Western Railway’s Mumbai Central station.
So, geeks hanging out at Mumbai Central, worry no more!
Popularity: 6% [?]
- By Anand on Jul 19, 2007
Time for some obvious news. New research has confirmed that India will see rapid growth in the cellphone market in the coming five years. The market is expected to grow by more than 18 percent each year over the next five years.
Most of the growth is expected to come from rural areas where only 2 percent of the population has access to cellphones. Operators are aggressively pushing cellphone use by low rates and cheap handsets. As per TRAI, India added 15.5 million mobile subscribers in Q1 2007 to push the total to 165.1 million.
Finally, Gartner (the firm behind the research) estimates that 58 percent of the rural population and 95 percent of the urban population will have cellphone access by 2011. There’s obviously a long way to go before the cellphone market is saturated in India.
PC World
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
Popularity: 7% [?]
- By Vivek on Jul 18, 2007
