DAILY TECH- 6 January 2013

DAILY TECH- 6 JANUARY 2013

Today’s Latest News

Will Apple bring out ‘iPhone Mini’ to battle Samsung?

Indians prefer 7-inch Android-based tablets

Indians prefer buying a 7-inch, Android-based tablets which are priced below Rs 10,000, according to a report from Cyber Media Research (CMR).

Samsung Galaxy S IV ‘coming’ in May 2014, pic leaked

Google maps New Year's resolutions around the world

Google is letting people peg their New Year's resolutions to an online map and see what promises others around the world have set out to keep in 2013.

CES show to see changing of guard in tech sector

The inexorable push for mobility in gadgets has reshaped the electronics industry, a shift that reflects a changing of the guard at the world's biggest consumer technology show.

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Red Hat Linux 5.0 Step By Step Installation.

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Will Apple bring out ‘iPhone Mini’ to battle Samsung?

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to widen its lead over Apple Inc in global smartphone sales this year with 35 percent growth, helped by a broad product lineup, market researcher Strategy Analytics told Reuters on Friday.

Apple, returning the offensive, could roll out a smaller, cheaper “iPhone Mini” next year to grab market share by targeting demand from users of lower-end smartphones, Strategy Analytics said.

“We expect Samsung to slightly extend its lead over Apple this year because of its larger multitier product portfolio,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in an e-mail interview with Reuters.

Global smartphone shipments will jump 27 percent to 875 million shipments this year, slowing from last year’s torrid 41 percent pace as growth is easing in many key markets such as North America, China, the developed economies of Asia, and Western Europe, Mawston said.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is forecast to sell 290 million smartphones this year, up from a projected 215 million in 2012, the research firm said. Apple’s smartphone sales are projected to reach 180 million this year, up 33 percent from last year, slightly trailing Samsung’s 35 percent increase.

This will give Samsung a 33 percent share of the 2013 smartphone market, up from last year’s estimated 31 percent, while Apple will hold 21 percent, versus last year’s 20 percent.

Featured Technology Talk

DoT might allow telcos to continue services after Jan 18

The telecom operators whose licences will expire on January 18 due to the Supreme Court order in February last year might get a breather. The department of telecommunications (DoT) is working on several options to allow telcos to continue operations after January 18.

“If people’s licences are expiring, then who moves the supreme court... those are all issues that can be certainly decided. Butm naturally, their business cannot be set at naught... something will have to be done,” said an official.

The DoT has to explore alternative options for these telcos as it would not be able to conduct an auction before January 18, and companies such as Telenor have expressed interest to continue operations in the Mumbai telecom zone.

However, the official did not clarify if the DoT would approach the supreme court to seek extension of the licences till the next auction, to be conducted by March. The matter would be decided at the ministerial level, the official said.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which lost 21 licences, informed its 16 million customers on December 28 that it intended to continue operations beyond January 18. The operator of MTS brand also said it was taking further steps to continue services in India.

Indians prefer 7-inch Android-based tablets

Indians prefer buying a 7-inch, Android-based tablets which are priced below Rs 10,000, according to a report from Cyber Media Research (CMR).

Nearly 91 per cent of the tablets sold in the third quarter of 2012 (July-Sept) were running on Android operating system and 78 per cent of the tablets had 7-inch screens, the report said.

The overall India tablets market recorded sales of 1.1 million units in the July-September period. Samsung led with a 23.9 per cent share, followed by Micromax with 15.3 per cent share and Datawind with a 12.3 per cent share.

The report said the average sales value of tablets in India was approximately Rs 13,200, but 63.5 per cent of all sales were below the Rs 10,000-mark.

Tarun Pathak, analyst, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice, said, “During fourth quarter 2012 and through 2013, we expect to see a change in the rankings, with global leaders like Apple and Google coming into their own, especially after the launch of the Apple Mini and Google Nexus range of media tablets, respectively.”

The tablet PC market is increasingly becoming one of the most dynamic consumer electronics product categories in India. For the year 2013, CMR expects that Windows 8-based tablets will be the main highlight in the market. Further, the market is expected to increase by at least 100 per cent in 2013 from 3 million units sold in 2012 to 6 million.

The key drivers for this are a large number of launches by manufacturers eyeing the India consumer market for mobile computing and data communication products, as well as the demand expected to be generated via enterprise adoption of tablets. In case, large deals are announced by vendors for supplies to the Central / State Governments for distribution to students, the forecast number of tablet sales for 2013 could easily exceed 6 million units.

Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice said, “To my mind, two key developments are going to change the India media tablets market significantly – one is the availability of Windows 8-based devices and the adoption of tablets by enterprises for serious and real business applications.”

“Tablets will most likely then come to be considered a mainstream device and be seen as much more than a novelty or for restricted use in the education, entertainment and infotainment segments. This will signal the arrival of the tablet as a mainstream business device,” he added.

Samsung Galaxy S IV ‘coming’ in May 2014, pic leaked

Seems, Samsung is again readying a big launch for the month of May. The company which unveiled its flagship smartphone Galaxy S3 in May last year, is reportedly launching its successor Samsung Galaxy S IV in May 2013.

The speculations have been fuelled by a post from Samsung Lebanon on Facebook saying that the upcoming Galaxy S IV will not launch before May 2013. Facebook user Anthony Ghattas posted a question on Samsung Lebanon's page on the social networking website, asking, "Hey, is there any news for the Samsung Galaxy S4 release?" The reply he received from the company was "The Galaxy SIV won't be released before May 2013."

The current flagship model, Galaxy S III, was launched in May 2012, giving the device a full year before it is replaced as the top-of-the-line smartphone in the company's portfolio. Before that, Galaxy S and Galaxy S II were rolled out in June 2010 and April 2011, respectively.

Sammobile, a tech blog, has also revealed leaked press shots of the Galaxy S IV. The blog noticed that "the device will use on-screen buttons as there is no home-button present on the device, the bezel around the device is much thinner and the device features a large display."

The image, which the blog claims to have got from a Samsung insider, if authentic, exhibits that the company has continued with the design style introduced in Galaxy S III in the upcoming model. The smartphone, in the image, looks like a longer version of Galaxy S III, much like Galaxy Premier.

TECHNOLOGY

"Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams."

Acer’s low cost budget tablet Iconia B1 to hit stores this month

The reports of low cost budget tablet by Acer have created quite a of buzz in the Indian market.

As per news report, Acer is planning to release the $99 Iconia B1 in as early as end of January 2013.

The tablet will be priced at an attractive Rs. 7,999 and will reportedly run on the latest Jelly Bean.

Speculations have also started to do the rounds that the Acer Iconia will sport a 7-inch screen with a screen resolution of 1024x600.

It will be powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB internal storage—expandable via microSD slot, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0.

Famous Scientist

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (About this sound listen (help·info) September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859) was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.

Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time in a manner generally considered to be a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular).

Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. Humboldt supported and worked with other scientists, including Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, Matthew Fontaine Maury and, most notably, Aimé Bonpland, with whom he conducted much of his scientific exploration.

Humboldt was born in Berlin in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. His father, Alexander Georg von Humboldt, belonged to a prominent Pomeranian family; a major in the Prussian Army, he was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years' War with the post of Royal Chamberlain. He married the daughter of the Prussian general adjutant, von Schweder. In 1766, he married Maria Elizabeth Colomb, the widow of Baron von Hollwede, and they had two sons. The money of Baron von Holwede, left to his former wife, was instrumental in funding Alexander's explorations, contributing more than 70% of Alexander's income

On the postponement of Captain Nicolas Baudin's proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been officially invited to accompany, Humboldt left Paris for Marseille with Aimé Bonpland, the designated botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt. Means of transport, however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found their way to Madrid, where the unexpected patronage of the minister Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo convinced them to make Spanish America the scene of their explorations.

Google maps New Year's resolutions around the world

Google is letting people peg their New Year's resolutions to an online map and see what promises others around the world have set out to keep in 2013.

By yesterday, a resolutions section at the California Internet giant's 2012 Zeitgeist website had logged half a million entries, more than a third of which involved desires to love or be loved.

Vows to improve personal health were rife in the United States, while Russia was at the head of the class when it came to education-focused resolutions, according to Google.

Pledges mapped at google.com/zeitgeist/2012/resolutions were divided into categories that included love, health, finance, career, education and family.

CES show to see changing of guard in tech sector

The inexorable push for mobility in gadgets has reshaped the electronics industry, a shift that reflects a changing of the guard at the world's biggest consumer technology show.

Gone from the 2013 International CES, to be held January 8-11 in Las Vegas, are giants such as Microsoft, and longtime tech stalwarts such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard are taking a back seat to firms focused on more portable, or even wearable, devices.

There will of course be big, dazzling displays of televisions that are smarter and bolder. However, a key focus is likely to be on devices that are mobile but can remain connected via the Internet cloud, from tablets to wrist watches, to Wi-Fi ski goggles.

"There is a changing of the guard," said Danielle Levitas, a consumer tech analyst at the research firm IDC. "The shift we've seen over the past years has been on the mobile aspects of technology versus home entertainment. This continues to accelerate."

Emblematic of the shift is the choice of the main keynoteBSE -3.44 % speaker -- Qualcomm chief executive Paul Jacobs. "Most people have never heard of Qualcomm. People might know they have a stadium with that name somewhere," said Roger Kay, a technology analyst and consultant with Endpoint Technologies.

Semiconductor firm Qualcomm quietly overtook Intel in market value in 2012, a sign of the growing importance of mobile chips that reduce battery drag and are popular on smartphones and tablets, mostly using ARM technology licensed by British-based ARM Holdings.

"Qualcomm is the opposite of Intel," said Kay, who points out Qualcomm's reluctance to follow its rival's strategy of branding devices with "Intel Inside." "It has been shy of the limelight and wants its partners to get all that credit. They are a reluctant hero. So important, and yet so unknown."

With mobile devices gaining ground, "folks are interested in the services that are attached to consumer electronics at the show," said Kevin Spain of Emergence Capital Partners, among the venture capital firms attending.

Spain said delivery of video over mobile devices is just starting, opening up possibilities for new ventures. "Everything that is cloud is obviously white-hot in the venture community," Spain said.

"People are interested in sharing content across a variety of devices and the cloud plays an integral role in that. Consumers expect to have a variety of content be available on demand: video, music, anytime, anywhere."

Another focus at CES will be improving batteries and charging for all those mobile devices, according to Stu Lipoff, fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

"One of the major limitations of portable devices is they are getting smaller and asked to do more, so people are finding innovative and creative ways of charging," he said.

CES will feature a range of power pads on which a device can be placed for charging, Lipoff said, but other firms are eyeing technologies "where you can put a transmitter in the room and it will charge the device" from several feet away.

James McQuivey at Forrester Research said CES has evolved from a show in which manufacturers would sell their wares to a branding event.

"It is shifting to a more abstract or long-term vision of technology," he said. "It's about branding, demonstrating you are innovating for the future."

Tips to make your browser secure

MUNICH: Web browsers are the key to the internet. Without them the internet is an impenetrable black box.

Browsers may be among the most commonly used applications, but they also offer the greatest number of attack options for dangerous content on the net.To keep viruses, worms and other malware away from your computer when surfing,it's crucial to configure your browser for security.

The firewall on a DSL router is a good first step for protecting the computer during surfing, says Marco Rinne from the computer portal chip.de. But that doesn't hold true if your browser is out of date: “Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 no longer satisfy current security standards,” he says. For optimal protection, he therefore urgesusers to keep theirbrowsers updated.

There are numeroussecurity tools already present in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The pop-up blocker,for example, prevents more than justannoying ads. It alsothrottles other windows that can be used to sneak malicious software onto PCs. Phishing filters protect personal dataagainst theft.

Firefox offers additional configurationoptions underthe Settings item in the Security tab of the Options dialog box: thisincludes the ability to block risky or forgedwebsites.It's also a good idea to prohibit websites from installing add-ons on their own. Similar settings are possible under Internet Explorer in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box, accessible from the Tools menu.

Computer owners should also activate all options for warning against attacks, advises Markus Linnemann, managing director of the Institute for Internet Security (ifis) at the Polytechnic University of Gelsenkirchen in Germany. This applies in particular to warnings about suspicious content to be displayed using ActiveX, Flash, or JavaScript.

Yet the warning mechanism on most browsers alone isn't usually enough, Linnemann says. Those who wish to be especially careful can, for example, use the Firefox add-on 'No Script,' which blocks all active content of a website by default and allows the user to decide which should be permitted. The problem is that most users are unable to determine which content represents a threat to their computer, Rinne msays.

New Zealands first hospital was opened in 1843

Cartoon of Technology

Behind Google's Antitrust Escape

After early hopes for a sweeping antitrust case against Google Inc., it became clear to the Federal Trade Commission last fall that no such lawsuit was in the offing.

A clinching moment came in November when FTC staff, who had exhaustively investigated the Internet search giant for 18 months, told the five FTC commissioners that they shouldn't bring a broad antitrust case, rebutting the theory that Google abused its dominant market position in Internet search to favor its own products and services at rivals' expense.

Instead, in a series of packed meetings at room 432 of FTC headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., they recommended pursuing a series of smaller issues. That culminated Thursday in an announcement by the FTC that it wouldn't bring sweeping charges against Google.

“You learn something every day if you pay attention."