Mobile Internet and E-mail Services Jump in Popularity Among U.S. Consumers

Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Forty-four percent pay for non-text mobile data services, reinforcing current business models for mobile carriers

Adoption of non-text mobile data services has exceeded 40% of the more than 70 million U.S. broadband households with a mobile phone service, according to Parks Associates’ new consumer study Mobile Convergence: Platforms, Applications, and Services.

Over one-fourth of mobile service users have adopted mobile Internet and e-mail services, eclipsing other mobile data ARPU drivers like mobile TV and music, indicating that carriers will have to win subscribers through more “practical” services first. The fast adoption of mobile social networking and navigation services, which have both exceeded 10%, also indicates carriers can be successful in deploying popular Web activities as revenue-generating data services on the mobile platform.

“Non-text mobile data services are central to wireless carriers’ long-term plans for revenue growth,” said Harry Wang, Director of Health and Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates, “The strong growth in usage of mobile Internet, e-mail, social networking, and navigation during the past two years shows consumers are eager for mobile applications that offer convenience and rich features.”

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Tags: email services, mobile internet, parks associates | Category Internet, Research, Web

Rivet Software Hires Three Key Executives

Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Barclay Friesen, Chris Taylor and Raul Varela Join Rapidly Growing Financial Reporting Software Company

In an effort to sustain and support rapid growth, Rivet Software brings in three new directors.

Over the next 18 months, the Securities Exchange Commission, under Regulation S-T, has mandated that all publicly traded companies provide electronic tags on all financial disclosure filed with the organization. In order to remain in compliance and efficiently make their EDGAR filings more discoverable, organizations will need to adopt solutions that automatically apply detailed tags. As such, Rivet Software, a leading developer of financial reporting, XBRL based software is poised for exponential growth.

“Anticipation of the market need means that we must scale our staff and quickly,” said Patrick Quinlan, president of Rivet Software. “As the company that literally wrote the book on XBRL, we insisted on having the highest level of people available to help spur growth and support our growing client base.”

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Tags: rivet software | Category Appointments, Software

IBM Launches London Analytics Solution Centre

Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Local Expertise to be Enhanced with Recruitment of 400 Analytics Specialists

IBM announced the launch of its London-based IBM London Analytics Solution Centre, the latest addition to its global network of analytics centres.

As part of a global multi-million pound investment initiative, this newly-created centre will help IBM apply its advanced analytics expertise to the complex business challenges facing its UK-based clients.

Leveraging its London location and IBM’s deep industry expertise, the centre’s initial mission will be to focus on the UK financial services sector. It will help IBM’s financial sector clients to develop systems that provide improved visibility and tracking of risk positions across markets and asset classes, as well as to drive information management to support improved client satisfaction and cost efficiencies.

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| Category IT Services

Nokia has plans for only one Linux phone next year

Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Nokia plans to install Linux software on just one new smartphone next year, a source said, dampening prospects of a quick makeover of the Finnish group’s struggling product line-up.

The Finnish firm has started to invest more in Internet services in recent years, seeking to counter falling handset prices and increased competition in smartphones from the likes of Apple and Blackberry-maker RIM.

The Linux Maemo operating system is seen as key for Nokia in its rivalry with Apple Inc’s iPhone, and many analysts and industry players have been expecting the firm to roll out numerous Linux models already next year.

“This is not necessarily worrying, but they need a hit product. It has to be a winning one and Nokia needs to continue to work on Symbian in the meantime,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Nokia started to sell its first Linux phone, the top-of-the-range N900 model, this month.

“The potential of Linux computer operating system is in the high-end, and we have not yet fully harnessed that,” Ari Jaaksi, head of Maemo at Nokia, said.

Full story at indiatimes.com.

Tags: linux, nokia, smartphones | Category Mobile, Telecommunications

ViVOtech’s NFC Technology Enables du and Dubai First to Continue Roll-Out First Mobile Payment Pilot in MENA Region

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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ViVOtech provides end-to-end NFC Payment Infrastructure including Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning, Electronic Wallet and NFC Readers at Merchant Locations

Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech, the leader in Near Field Communication (NFC) and contactless payment systems, announced that its NFC mobile payment wallet, Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning and NFC payment readers are being successfully used by Dubai First, a Dubai Group company and du, the UAE’s integrated telecom services provider, in the first NFC mobile payment pilot in the Middle East scheduled to continue till the second quarter of 2010.

During the trial phase, identified Dubai First Platinum MasterCard customers will be able to download their credit card functionality securely to specially equipped mobile handsets over du’s mobile network. Once the handset has been personalized, customers could conduct transactions using their du mobile connections at multiple MasterCard PayPass(TM) enabled merchant locations in the United Arab Emirates.

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Tags: du, dubai first, mobile payments, vivotech | Category Mobile, Telecommunications

Peugeot Sport Selects HyperWorks Suite to Streamline Development Processes

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Altair’s CAE product family enables faster and more flexible design of composite structures

Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of simulation technology and engineering services that empower client innovation and decision-making, announced that Peugeot Sport, the racing department of the Peugeot brand, has chosen the HyperWorks Suite to optimize composite development processes.

“A major reason to choose the HyperWorks Suite is the user friendliness of HyperMesh, especially for the creation of composites models,” said Livio Galassi, composite design engineer and structure analyst at Peugeot Sport. “The interface is very intuitive and easy to learn. Furthermore, I see many great improvements in the area of composite model creation and optimization in the recent version of the software suite. This new approach allows us a faster and more efficient design of composite parts.”

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Tags: hyperworks, peugeot, simulation technology | Category Road, Technology, Transportation

AT&T and LG Mobile Phones Announce the First 1 GHz Smartphone in the US

Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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7.2 HSPA-capable Smartphone from AT&T and LG Mobile Phones Packs a Powerful Punch, Features Optional Mobile Projector

AT&T and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc., announced the LG eXpo will be available online beginning December 7. Featuring the first 1 GHz processor in the United States, the LG eXpo allows business professionals to meet their demanding data sharing needs while on the go. Available exclusively for AT&T customers, the handset will be compatible with AT&T’s High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides a considerable speed boost to the nation’s fastest 3G network.

The LG eXpo is the first device in North America to support an optional integrated pico projector. The LG Mobile Projector snaps onto the back of the device and allows users to share presentations, slideshows and even online videos straight from their mobile phone. Weighing only 1.8 ounces and small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, the LG mobile projector provides users with powerful new technology in a compact design, featuring a projection distance as far as eight feet

“LG eXpo adds to our growing portfolio of smartphones that operate on the latest upgrade to our 3G network and offer customers a great choice,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “As we move to HSPA 7.2 technology, it is crucial to provide our customers innovative and future-proof smartphones.”

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Tags: at&t, lg, mobile phones, windows mobile | Category Mobile, Telecommunications

Review: Acer Aspire 1810TZ 11.6in CULV notebook

Posted on November 29th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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So you want a small notebook, but you’re put off by the average netbook’s puny graphics, relatively low res screen and limited-horsepower Atom processor. What do you do?

We think you could do a lot worse than Acer’s Aspire 1810TZ. Sony’s skinny and compact Vaio X is nice, but it’s not cheap. Acer’s alternative is a wee bit more bulky, but since it’s on sale for around £450, it’s considerably less expensive.

The 1810TZ is part of Acer’s Timeline series of long-endurance laptops, so it’s also a good long runner.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The 1810TZ is a kind of netbook-plus. Its size suggests a netbook – its 285mm width is set more by the large keyboard than by the 11.6in widescreen, LED-backlit display – but it has a dual-core Pentium SU4100 processor clocked at 1.3GHz and 3GB of 800MHz DDR 2 memory.

Full review at theregister.co.uk.

Tags: acer, notebook | Category Computers, Laptops

Cromoz Launches Carbon Nanotechnology for Target Drug Delivery System in Cancer Treatment

Posted on November 29th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Cromoz Inc., located in Research Triangle Park, will initiate a water-soluble carbon nanotube-based cancer drug delivery system in Hyderabad, India. The water-soluble carbon nanotubes, which have functional groups on the walls that allows for conjugation with cancer drugs, was developed in partnership with the Indian Institute of Kanpur (ITT). The conjugated carbon nanotubes serves as a drug delivery vehicle with the ability to target the cancer site which has the potential to increase the drug efficacy.

The target drug delivery reduces the amount of chemotherapeutic drugs used in cancer treatment and minimizes the side effects. The reduced dosage without compromising the drug efficacy will make the cancer treatment more potent and targeted to killing the cancer and more affordable and available to a larger community.

“Certain percentage of these carbon nanotubes are composed of smaller Quantum Carbon Dots,” stated Iffat Allam, President & CEO of Cromoz Inc. “The nontoxic carbon quantum dots can be used as Fluorescent Probes for imaging living biological processes and to monitor cancer growth. These quantum dots are of assorted sizes, they absorb and emit light at different wavelengths. This results in multi-colored images which will be very useful to diagnose a specific organ and its function and the effect of drug delivery to specific cancer sites.”
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Tags: cancer treatment, carbon nanotubes, cromoz, nanotechnology | Category Health, Technology

Wikipedia denies mass exodus of editors

Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Wikipedia has disputed claims that it has lost a huge number of editors that help maintain the online encyclopaedia.

On 26 November it was reported that ten times more editors had left Wikipedia in early 2009 than during the same period in 2008. The group overseeing the reference work said the claims on losses were not accurate, blaming a difference in what counts as an “editor”. By contrast, it said, the numbers of people editing Wikipedia were stable.

In a blog post the Wikimedia Foundation responded to the publication of a report by researcher Dr Felipe Ortega which said that 49,000 editors had departed Wikipedia in the first three months of 2009. Dr Ortega’s comparisons suggest that only about 4,900 left the site in the first few months of 2008.

Full story at bbc.co.uk.

Tags: wikipedia | Category Internet, Web

Carta Worldwide announces the appointment of Jason Currill as UK MD and GM EMEA

Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Carta Worldwide, headquartered in Ontario Canada, announced that Mr. Jason Currill former Vice President, North American Sales will now take up a new position as UK Managing Director and GM EMEA.

Based in London, United Kingdom, Mr. Currill will consolidate and lead the continued growth Carta Worldwide is experiencing within the EMEA region.

Previous to joining Carta Worldwide Mr. Currill held senior sales and leadership positions with Cisco Systems, Seagate Technology, Business Objects and Dyadem International with strong international experience working within the EMEA and NA theatres. Prior to working in software Mr. Currill spent just under 10 years working as a trader on the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) for SG Warburg, Nomura and Baring Brothers.

Jason Currill, UK MD and GM EMEA “I am delighted to be leading the growth and expansion of Carta Worldwide within the EMEA region. Carta has strong momentum and demand from European customers and partners. I look forward to working driving success with our partners, customers and stakeholders to continue growing the business and our EMEA presence.”
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Tags: carta worldwide, jason currill | Category Appointments

Global Fashion Group Gerry Weber Chooses Avery Dennison RFID Solution to Reduce Theft

Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Gerry Weber, a leading fashion and lifestyle company with 338 HOUSES OF GERRY WEBER stores and 1,400 shop-in-shop areas throughout the world, will become the first German retail company to roll out RFID technology combining inventory management and loss prevention.

Gerry Weber will be using an Avery Dennison RFID solution in over 25 million garments a year through an RFID chip imbedded in a care label. This solution will optimise Gerry Weber logistics and retail processes, reduce theft and ensure stores are well stocked with popular items.

“The decision for the RFID roll out is a true milestone for our company,” says Gerry Weber International AG Chairman Gerhard Weber. “We invite all textile apparel suppliers to embrace the introduction of RFID to achieve significant cost savings, improved efficiency and greater transparency in retail.”
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Tags: avery dennison, gerry weber, rfid | Category Technology

Call of Duty Franchise Surpasses $3 Billion in Retail Sales Worldwide

Posted on November 27th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Activision Blizzard, Inc. announced that the Call of Duty franchise has surpassed $3 billion in retail sales worldwide, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack, GfK and internal Activision estimates.

Since its first release, the award-winning Call of Duty franchise has sold in excess of 55 million units worldwide. The latest title in the franchise, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, recently shattered box office and video game records with a worldwide estimated five-day sale through of approximately $550 million, establishing the game as the biggest entertainment launch in history.

“Call Of Duty has become one of the greatest entertainment franchises of all time,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, Inc. “If you consider the number of hours our audiences are engaged in playing Call of Duty games, it is likely to be one of the most viewed of all entertainment experiences in modern history.”
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Tags: activision blizzard, call of duty: modern warfare 2 | Category Entertainment, Games

imVOX Brings Cloud Hosted Free Voice Chat to Gamers

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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imVOX service connects up to 30 gamers for free; paid service allows users to connect to up to 250 gamers

Ayalogic announced the public beta availability of imVOX, a new voice communication service designed to broaden the use of voice in games. The free imVOX service allows up to 30 gamers to join a voice chat for free. imVOX runs in the background while a user plays a multiplayer game like Modern Warfare 2 or World of Warcraft to provide users with better communication with teammates. Premium services are available for $24.99 USD per year, and provide users with the ability to connect up to 250 users to a single server and expanded in-client features such as text-to-voice and a customizable client.

The imVOX software is currently available on Microsoft’s Windows XP, Vista and 7 and runs directly on your computer. Support for OS X is in the works. Additionally, social networking features and integration are currently in development, with login via Facebook Connect and Twitter integration available soon.

Ayalogic’s CEO Mike Rojas says, “We want to make it easier to enable gamers to connect with voice. There will be no more begging a friend to leverage their voice server to have a little extra fun in whatever game you want to play.”
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Tags: ayalogic, imvox, modern warfare 2, world of warcraft | Category Entertainment, Games, Telecommunications

US-based Cnanoz Unveils NanoPure to Government in India

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Research Triangle Park-based Cnanoz Inc. unveiled the first energy-efficient, single-treatment water purification system NanoPure developed from carbon nanotubes to Andhra Pradesh, Minister of Rural Water Supply, Hon. Minister Viswarup and other leaders in Hyderabad, India today. Initial tests, performed at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, confirmed that the majority of the drinking water available in India contains toxins that can be extremely hazardous to human health.

The technology developed in collaboration with IIT Kanpur and North Carolina-based Cnanoz can remove harmful pathogens and toxic ingredients, such as Arsenic, Fluoride, Lead, Cadmium, DDT, hydrocarbon wastes and nitrates in an eco-friendly and economical way. Drinking water contaminated with toxic chemicals over an extended period of time can promote harmful gene mutations that can cause neurological disorders, mental and physical disabilities. The preventive aspect of the filtration system can have a significant positive impact to improve public health survival and reduce health care costs.
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Tags: carbon nanotubes, cnanoz, nanopure, nanotechnology | Category Technology

Shell Opens State-of-the-Art Lubricants Blending Plant in China

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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New On-Site Technology Facility to Provide R&D Support to Auto Manufacturers

Shell Lubricants announced the start-up of its newest lubricants complex in Asia to meet growing demand in China. With a production capacity of 50 million gallons a year, and the potential for a phased development to 100 million gallons a year, the complex could become one of Shell’s top three lubricants blending plants worldwide in volume terms.

In a further development, Shell also announced new investment in a technical facility at the complex. This will offer a range of technical services, including a quality control laboratory to provide key customers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automotive industry with technical research, marketing and training services related to their lubricants applications.

Located in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, the blending plant will be Shell’s sixth in China and will produce consumer, transport, industrial and marine lubricants, targeted at the Chinese market.

David Pirret, Executive Vice President for Shell Lubricants, said: “The investment in a lubricants blending plant in Zhuhai is part of Shell’s strategy of selective Downstream growth and allows us to support demand from local and international customers based in China, which is the world’s fastest growing lubricants market. Once the technical facility at Zhuhai is completed, our customers in China will have the opportunity to experience our leading lubricants technology capability firsthand.”

Lim Haw-Kuang, Executive Chairman of Shell Companies in China, said: “This is another milestone in Shell’s business development in China and the latest evidence of our commitment to China and Guangdong. We will continue to look for key growth opportunities to contribute to China’s fast growing economy by providing high quality energy products and solutions.”

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Tags: china, shell lubricants | Category Technology

IT Managed Services Provider Fifosys Honoured at Chelsea FC in 2010 Deloitte Fast Awards

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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At an awards dinner held at Chelsea Football Club last night, London-based IT managed services provider (http://www.fifosys.com/) Fifosys http://www.fifosys.com/ was awarded membership of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (http://www.fifosys.com/fasttrack.php) for the EMEA region as part of a celebration attended by more than 500 people.

Mitesh Patel, managing director of IT managed services provider Fifosys said, “The tremendous growth in our business is derived from helping to save our clients significant sums of money on their IT spend, while consistently adding value and delivering peace of mind from reliable infrastructure and systems.”

Previous winners of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 include Google, TomTom and eBay.

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Tags: chelsea football club, deloitte, emea region, fifosys | Category IT Services

2009 Will be a Bumper Thanksgiving for Online Retailers, says report

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Retail Decisions (ReD) predicts that 2009 will be a lucrative Thanksgiving for retailers as online retail sales could hit $51 billion over the holiday season, up 23% on last year’s $41.4 billion. ReD, a world leader in card fraud prevention, payment processing and a card issuer, screens some sixteen billion card transactions annually for fraud, and has seen actual online retail sales surpass 2008 by 23% since November 1 2009.

ReD also predicts on the November 27, popularly known as Black Friday, the busiest shopping hour of the year will be between 13:00 to 14:00 when $140 million worth of goods will be purchased online. The peak shopping minute will be at 13:16 when between $2.6 million and $3 million of sales are expected.

On November 30, known as Cyber Monday, the online spending spree looks set to continue. ReD forecasts between 11.2 million and 12.8million online transactions will take place, making Cyber Monday the second busiest online trading day of the year.

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Tags: online shopping, retail decisions | Category Internet, Web

Google backs away from racist search results

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Search outfit Google is sticking up adverts linked to words which could be used by racists saying that it has nothing to do with supporting that sort of thing.

People have been more than a little miffed that their nice searches on things like Judaism have been spoilt by the appearance of racist and anti-Semitic material in search results.

The latest outcry has been about a picture which depicts US First Lady Michelle Obama as a monkey.

The advert signed by the Google Team warns that sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even for seemingly innocuous queries.

“We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google,” it said.

Meanwhile, the much-talked about offensive picture of Michelle Obama is still on the internet. A quick search located it on several sites, such as yesbuthowever.com.

Full story at theinquirer.net.

Tags: google, offensive image of michelle obama, racist advertising | Category Internet, Web

Germany does not like Google Analytics

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by Kat Lorbissy

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Not very happy with Google at the best of times, certain German authorities want the search engine’s analytics product banned.

Google Analytics is a free software service that allows website editors and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behaviour of their visitors.

However according to Zeit Online German officials claim that Google Analytics breaks German data protection laws.

They are thinking of fining outfits that use the service to gather detailed statistics based on their website visitors’ usage patterns without the explicit consent of those visitors.

The authorities could be onto a money spinner as 13 per cent of German website publishers use Google Analytics, including several websites of leading media organisations, political parties and pharmaceutical companies.

Full story at theinquirer.net.

Tags: google, google analytics | Category Internet, Web