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.”

Use of multipurpose devices like smartphones is another driver, Wang said. “Smartphone penetration will exceed 30% of broadband households in 2009. These 20 million households will be a perfect target for carriers to market their mobile data services.”

Mobile Convergence: Platforms, Applications, and Services surveyed U.S. consumers to reveal trends and attitudes regarding mobile devices and services. For more information, visit http://www.parksassociates.com/ or contact 972-490-1113 or sales@parksassociates.com.

Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates creates research capital for companies ranging from Fortune 500 to small start-ups through market reports, primary studies, consumer research, custom research, workshops, executive conferences, and annual service subscriptions.

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.”

Barclay Friesen comes to Rivet after building a successful sales career within the telecom and manufacturing world. As Director of Sales, he is responsible for providing leadership, business development strategy and management of the sales department within several vertical industries, including mutual funds, corporate compliance, and financial reporting.

Rivet is also benefiting from the addition of Raul Varela, CFA. His technical perspective and business acumen offer unique perspective to his role as Director of Mutual Fund Compliance and Reporting. A former project manager, Raul can help customers and prospects navigate the nuances of IT implementation as well as the impact of new technology on the business user. Prior to joining Rivet, he served in various leadership roles at Oppenheimer Funds, Inc., J.D. Edwards and several software companies. He is a graduate of Colorado School of Mines and holds a MBA from the University of Colorado.

Chris Taylor is Rivet’s new Director of Professional Services. He is responsible for growing and managing Rivet’s accounting, legal and consultant client base. Chris brings more than 25 years of financial and international corporate development in consulting, software and manufacturing to Rivet. Chris previously served as a controller, director of finance, and chief financial officer for several public and private companies. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and holds a MBA, from Boise State University.

Rivet Software has spent more than 100,000 development hours creating the most comprehensive XBRL reporting solution for public and private companies seeking greater financial transparency. Built by accountants for accountants, Rivet is the only software solution deployable across the enterprise that can offer the highest level of taxonomy required by the government.

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.

Over time, the centre will expand to help clients across other areas of business. These include: energy and utilities companies, as they seek to roll out smart grids and intelligent metering; public sector organisations, as they develop smart city and transportation initiatives that reduce congestion and improve public safety; and, pharmaceuticals firms as they introduce smarter ways to improve the speed and quality of drug development.

The centre will be the focal point for a UK & Ireland analytics team which will initially number a total of 400 consultants, software specialists and mathematicians. It is anticipated that the team will double in size as demand for business analytics and optimisation services increases.

“Today’s business leaders need to move beyond intuition to insight, from gut feel to facts – it is now possible to see key patterns in vast amounts of data, to extract critical insights and move to a new level of intelligence,” said Brendon Riley, Chief Executive, IBM UK and Ireland. “London was chosen due to its status as a global financial centre and world-class skills base. Business analytics offers an opportunity for us to help clients transform the way they operate – enabling them to become smarter and improving levels of competitiveness.”

The centre will be based at IBM’s Southbank office. It will draw on a wealth of IBM expertise from IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimisation global consulting organisation as well as from technologists at Europe’s largest software development laboratory – IBM Hursley in Hampshire, UK.

“We live in a knowledge economy – services which help companies to understand and interpret complex systems, such as financial markets, are becoming increasingly important,” said Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills at the launch event. “This new initiative from IBM is an important vote of confidence in the continued strength of London’s banking and financial sector, and will help to give British firms the competitive advantage they need to thrive and grow.”

The London centre will have access to IBM’s comprehensive Information Management portfolio that includes technologies integrated following the acquisitions of Cognos, iLog and SPSS. It will also provide expertise to help organisations embed new sensor technology into their processes to gather detailed performance and management data on which to base analysis and decision-making.

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.

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.

The first pilot group is in the process of receiving special handsets from du in the next 2 weeks; facilitating the use of this unique technology at MasterCard PayPass(TM) enabled merchant locations across the UAE.

ViVOtech technology was chosen to facilitate every step of this trial:
–  ViVOtech Issuing Servers residing at Dubai First enabling the secure
Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning of credit cards to mobile handsets
–  ViVOtech Control Servers managing the provisioning and service of
electronic wallets in the mobile handsets
–  ViVOwallet electronic wallets in the handsets.
–  And ViVOpay NFC readers at merchants throughout UAE.

“We are delighted to be the end-to-end technology provider of this first NFC mobile payment pilot in the Middle East region,” said Michael Mullagh, ViVOtech CEO. “With this initiative, du and Dubai First are laying the foundation of bringing empowerment to consumers in the UAE with the most innovative and contemporary method for business transaction via mobile-commerce.”

To date, ViVOtech has enabled more than 35 NFC phone pilots globally. ViVOtech’s NFC mobile payments, promotions, Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning infrastructure software, transaction management software, NFC smart posters and contactless terminals are part of the company’s end-to-end solutions that complement and complete mobile e-commerce networks and their ecosystems.

ViVOtech (www.vivotech.com) is the leading end-to-end enabler of next generation mobile payments, loyalty, and marketing solutions. ViVOtech provides Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payment solutions, mobile marketing and loyalty applications software, Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning infrastructure software, NFC smart posters, and contactless terminals. ViVOtech’s products are used by most prominent retailers all over the globe; the company has shipped close to 600,000 contactless and NFC payment terminals to more than 35 countries. In 2009, ViVOtech received the prestigious Frost and Sullivan North American Smart Cards Product Line Strategy of the Year Award. ViVOtech’s investors include Citi, First Data Corporation, Motorola Ventures, NCR, and Nokia Growth Partners.

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.”

Peugeot Sport is using HyperMesh, the pre-processor of the suite; OptiStruct for optimization; and HyperView for the post-processing of the data. The software suite is mainly used to design and optimize structural elements in composites, i.e., for the chassis and bodywork of Peugeot’s LMP1 car. Especially in racecar development, a flexible and fast way to evaluate the design of composite parts is essential to improve the overall car performance.

“Another important reason to choose HyperWorks is the flexible license system Altair offers,” said Galassi. “We can use the HyperWorks units we already have for any HyperWorks application needed and can also use them for Altair’s partner products of the HWEC (HyperWorks Enabled Community). Even if we haven’t done this yet, it is an option we are thinking about as it will help us to consolidate our software costs. Moreover, Altair’s customer support and the customer communication with its homepage, newsletter and events is excellent.”

“We appreciate Peugeot Sport’s selection of HyperWorks,” said Mauro Guglielminotti, managing director Altair, France. “The motorsport and the aerospace industries are the leaders in composite design, but it does get used more and more in every industry that is looking to produce lighter and better products. With the HyperWorks suite, we offer the right tools to optimize composite development processes, a solution that wins growing acceptance throughout all industries.”

Built on a foundation of design optimization, performance data management and process automation, HyperWorks is an enterprise simulation solution for rapid design exploration and decision-making. As the most comprehensive, open-architecture CAE solution in the industry, HyperWorks includes best-in-class modeling, analysis, visualization and data management solutions for linear and non-linear, structural optimization, fluid-structure interaction and multi-body dynamics applications. For more information, please visit www.altairhyperworks.com.

With its 180 persons, the Peugeot Sport team depends directly on Automobiles Peugeot. Peugeot Sport creates, develops, produces and runs cars that are dedicated to racing. In circuit and in rally, with its official program and customers program, Peugeot Sport insures Peugeot brand a dynamic, sports and victorious vision. With its 908 HDi FAP endurance racing program, Peugeot Sport has succeeded in raising the Peugeot brand colors to the highest level in the sport. The program embodies a certain idea of motor sport: a sport that evolves with its time, has meaning and incorporates real environmental efficiency, particularly with its HDi FAP technology. The 2009 race season offered plenty of success for Peugeot Sport : a 1-2-3 finish at Monte-Carlo Rally, 2nd place at 12H of Sebring, a win at 1000km of Spa, a 1-2 finish at 24H of Le Mans, a 1-2 finish at Petit Le Mans (Road Altanta). For more information about Peugeot Sport, visit www.peugeot-sport.com

Altair Engineering, Inc. empowers client innovation and decision-making through technology that optimizes the analysis, management and visualization of business and engineering information. Privately held, with more than 1,300 employees, Altair has offices throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. With a 20-year-plus track record for product design, advanced engineering software, grid computing technologies and enterprise analytics solutions, Altair consistently delivers a competitive advantage to customers in a broad range of industries. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com.

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.”

With the upgrade to HSPA 7.2 technology, AT&T continues its investments to deliver the nation’s fastest 3G network. AT&T plans to deploy HSPA 7.2 initially in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami by the end of the year. The company plans to deploy HSPA 7.2 in 25 of the nation’s 30 largest markets by the end of 2010, and to reach about 90 percent of its existing 3G network footprint with HSPA 7.2 by the end of 2011.

LG eXpo also eliminates the need for pin codes and passwords with the exclusive “Smart Sensor” fingerprint recognition from AuthenTec, which delivers a new level of added smart and personal security unlike any other mobile phone in the market. AT&T is the first to offer U.S. subscribers a smartphone that leverages the features and functions of a smart sensor. The Smart Sensor complements the touchscreen user interface of the eXpo by also providing precise cursor control for text editing, 4-way menu navigation, and AuthenTec’s unique turbo-scroll feature for rapid browsing of long emails, contact lists or websites.

The LG eXpo is loaded with Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional to help power users stay more connected with email, calendar and Microsoft Office Mobile. The phone’s projection feature allows users to display Web pages, documents, photos and videos on the go.

“LG eXpo is the perfect balance of mobile innovation and design,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Mobile Phones. “Enabling users to meet their professional and personal computing needs from the palm of their hands, LG eXpo makes on-the-go communication an effortless luxury.”

Boasting a 3.2-inch external touchscreen with 16M color, LG eXpo features a sophisticated slider design with a full size QWERTY keypad. For the dynamic multi-tasker, LG eXpo provides users with powerful functionality that supports an RSS Viewer, Podcast and aGPS. In addition to a crystal clear 5.0 megapixel camera with built-in auto flash, LG eXpo can support up to a 16GB removable microSD memory card for premium music and photo storage.

Beginning December 7, LG eXpo will be available to enterprise customers and for purchase online at www.att.com/lgexpo for $199.99 after mail-in rebate. Pay $299.99 and after mail-in rebate receive a $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two year agreement on a minimum $69.99 plan required. The LG Mobile Projector will be available in the coming weeks for $179.99.

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.

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.”

Cromoz has successfully conjugated cancer drugs such as Taxol and Gemcitabine and is currently working with Johns Hopkins Cancer Center in Maryland, USA. Early next year Cromoz will initiate a research and development (R&D) and manufacturing facility in Biotech Park in Hyderabad, India.

Cromoz Inc., is an advanced materials innovator and manufacturer focused on the development of carbon nanotechnology-enabled products primarily for the biomedical industry. These innovative products are based on two proprietary technologies, water-soluble carbon nanotubes and water-soluble fluorescent carbon quantum dots. The CNTs (Carbon Nano Tubes) are insoluble in water.

Some have used a common technique to wrap the CNT with hydrophilic molecules to make them disperse in water. Cromoz have successfully derivatized the multi-wall of CNTs and Carbon Dots to make them water-soluble. These derivatized CNTs are bio-friendly, fluorescent and hence well suited for drug delivery. For more information, log on to http://www.cromoz.com/.

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.

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.”

Carta Worldwide was founded specifically to provide new types of payment solutions to consumers, businesses, banks and governments globally – in parallel with worldwide EMV card deployments. Carta is an advanced payment solutions provider managing all aspects of prepaid branded card issuance.

Carta’s MasterCard certified, next generation platform is a vertically integrated, bank grade, multi-lingual, multi-currency, processing platform that supports seamless and secure integration of a card account through the convenience of the consumer’s mobile phone.

Brian Semkiw, CEO Carta Worldwide stated: “Jason brings over 10 years of international sales and management experience to Carta, building and managing operations from the ground up within Europe and North America I am delighted we have a strong experienced leader to continue the Carta Worldwide success story.”

Carta Worldwide is a unique provider of professional services and technology to companies looking to improve their competitiveness, productivity and profitability by enhancing their payment transactional methodologies. Carta Worldwide is a Swiss company with key operations located in London, Toronto, Hong Kong, Miami and Barbados. www.cartaworldwide.com

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.”

The Avery Dennison RFID fabric care labels will be applied in the manufacturing process, eliminating the need for retail staff to fit and remove conventional bulky security tags in-store which can be time-consuming and costly. The Avery Dennison RFID label is automatically deactivated after the customer has paid for the goods at the checkout.

“We are excited to partner with Gerry Weber as they lead the German market in adoption of this intelligent solution,” commented Graham Diamond, vice president and general manager, Avery Dennison EMEA. “RFID technology is emerging rapidly around the world due to the significant benefits it provides retailers in helping them improve sales, profits and customer service.”

RFID allows for data capture without the need for line of sight or physical contact, so the Avery Dennison solution will enable Gerry Weber Group to significantly improve its inventory management and logistics processes, bringing faster and more accurate goods receipt, improved control and visibility of stock and simplified stock taking.

Logistics director at Gerry Weber, Dr. David Frink, says: “This technology allows us to achieve high stock accuracy and thereby an improved goods supply at the retail store. Time-consuming counting operations, for example for inventories, will no longer be necessary.”

The RFID inlay, also from Avery Dennison, is incorporated in a care label and is washable up to 140 degree Fahrenheit (60 degree Celsius) and can be dry cleaned. This makes it possible to trace garments from production to point of sale, even if they are washed or dry cleaned in the process.

Tests of the new RFID system in Gerry Weber stores have been extremely successful and Gerry Weber will roll out the solution to more than 150 of its own branches next year.

Avery Dennison is the RFID leader for the apparel industry. Today, more than 90 per cent of all RFID labels used in the textile industry are supplied by Avery Dennison.

The SDAX-listed German fashion and lifestyle company employs more than 2,300 staff worldwide. It owns 338 HOUSES OF GERRY WEBER stores and more than 1400 store areas in all parts of the world and is one of the leading international fashion businesses. The holding business heads the production of five own brands with approx. 25 million garments each year.

Avery Dennison is a recognized industry leader that develops innovative identification and decorative solutions for businesses and consumers worldwide. The Company’s products include pressure-sensitive labeling materials; graphics imaging media; retail apparel ticketing and branding systems; RFID inlays and tags; office products; specialty tapes; and a variety of specialized labels for automotive, industrial and durable goods applications. A FORTUNE 500 Company with sales of $6.7 billion in 2008, Avery Dennison is based in Pasadena, California and has employees in over 60 countries. For more information, visit http://www.averydennison.com/ .

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.”

Modern Warfare 2 picks up following the historic events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the blockbuster title that remains the top selling first person action game in history. Modern Warfare 2 is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence and Language. For additional information about the game, visit www.modernwarfare2.com.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision Publishing maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.

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.”

The imVOX network of servers is set up on Amazon’s Web Services platform, utilizing EC2 for the main servers and S3 for backup and persistent storage– a first in the consumer game voice market. This solution allows for a low cost, redundant, scalable and cost effective infrastructure that passes its benefits for reliability and price directly to the gamer.

By providing not only the servers and technology for imVOX, but also the user client, Ayalogic is able to provide a smoother experience than existing solutions at a significantly reduced price – Free.

“Our architecture and technology will allow us to bring rapid innovation around communication services to the gaming market. The time has come to bring together to merge the benefits of embedded voice and dedicated gaming voice clients into a single solution,” says Mike Rojas.

Gamers can get started by downloading the free imVOX software at http://imvox.com/.

imVOX was created by Ayalogic to revolutionize communication in gaming. Ayalogic was founded in 2002 and is backed by Draper Triangle Ventures, Early Stage Partners, and JumpStart, Inc. Ayalogic also runs the Green-Ear network, and has been providing integrated voice services to indie game developers since 2008. For more information on imVOX visit http://imvox.com/.

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.

Hon. Minister Viswarup stated, “The organic system would be very helpful to protect many of the communities that have toxic-contaminated water supply.” The Indian government is considering the new technology to provide safe drinking water to their citizens for pennies per day and protect them from harmful water-borne diseases and toxic chemicals.

S. Wajahat Ali, President and CEO of Cnanoz Inc., stated, “The Nano Water Purification System has tremendous promise for eco-friendly preservation and purification of the world’s limited water supply, introducing an entirely new biotech production field needed for today’s economy.”

Cnanoz Inc., located at Research Triangle Park (RTP), is an advanced materials innovator and manufacturer focused on the development of carbon nanotechnology-enabled products for water purification and composite fibers. These innovative products are eco friendly and require low energy consumption. For more information log onto http://cnanoz.com/.

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.”

For the third consecutive year, Shell has been named the number one global lubricants supplier – selling more lubricants in 2008 than any other company in the world, with a 13% share of the market in volume terms (Source: Kline & Company). This is testament to a consistent strategy, strong brands and technology leadership, with a focus on delivering first-class lubricants solutions to customers, wherever they may be.

Shell is already the largest international lubricants supplier in Asia by sales volume and the No. 1 international supplier of lubricants in terms of market share in China. (Source: Kline & Company)

The term ‘Shell Lubricants’ collectively refers to Shell Group companies engaged in the lubricants business. They manufacture and blend products for use in a range of applications, from consumer motoring to mining and power generation to commercial transport. Shell’s portfolio of lubricant brands includes Pennzoil®, Quaker State®, Shell Rotella T, Shell Helix, Shell Rimula, Shell Tellus, Monarch, a portfolio of car care products and Jiffy Lube®. Shell has leading lubricants research centers around the world: in Germany, Japan, UK, and the US, plus a new presence in India.

Demand for lubricants in China is forecast to grow by around 3.5% year on year to 2013, making it the fastest growing market in the world ahead of India, with the industrial lubricants sector expected to show the strongest growth in China. Already, demand for lubricants in China was estimated at 5.5 million tons last year, making it the second largest lubricants market in the world behind the U.S.

Shell is the largest lubricants supplier of the international oil companies present in China, with a 10% market share. China is Shell’s second largest market after the United States of America. Shell currently supplies lubricants to eight out of the top 10 car manufacturers in China, as well as to 47 of the top 50 steel companies. China is the biggest market for Shell Helix motor oil.

Shell aspires to be the leading international energy company in China by developing a significant presence in the country in partnership with Chinese companies and stakeholders. Shell has more than 30 joint ventures and wholly owned affiliates with an accumulated investment of $4 billion. All Shell core businesses are operating in China including oil and gas exploration and production, petrochemicals, lubricants, bitumen, retail gas stations, clean coal as well as global solutions in technology for energy efficiency and productivity.

Guangdong has been an important market for Shell Companies in China where it has made the largest single investment in the $4.1 billion Nanhai petrochemical plant in Huizhou in partnership with CNOOC. It is also a very important market for Shell’s lubricants and fuel retail businesses. Shell is a party in the consortium supplying LNG from overseas to Shenzhen.

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.

With this award, judged over five years of performance, IT managed services provider Fifosys has shown that they are Europe’s fastest growing managed services company.

“Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is commendable in today’s highly competitive technology industry,” said David Halstead, partner in charge of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 EMEA program. “We congratulate Fifosys on being one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the region.”

Patel adds, “Mid-market and SME organisations need good quality IT support and director-level advice and guidance if they are to grow and thrive in today’s highly competitive and fast moving business world. Fifosys has found a niche within this part of the market for its range of premium-quality services and this will continue to be the reason for our success in 2010 and beyond.”

“By taking a step back, assessing and understanding the current levels of risk associated with existing IT deployments, it is possible for an organisation to truly determine its ongoing IT requirements and put in place the technology, skills and resources to reduce operational risk and transform IT from a cost centre to business enabler,” concludes Patel.

Based in London, Fifosys is a vendor-independent, IT infrastructure provider, software developer and outsourced IT managed services provider.

Fifosys specialises in providing the level and detail of support that large scale enterprises expect but delivered for the SME and mid-market business. Using an ITIL and Prince 2-based best practice approach to IT support, London-based Fifosys (http://www.fifosys.com/) has built a reputation as a trusted partner with its customers, providing both first-class IT support services and the highest levels of advice, guidance and reporting.

Established in 2001, Fifosys is a professional technology infrastructure specialist, which delivers a broad portfolio of high quality technical and strategic IT management services. Fifosys provides its own skilled staff to selectively outsource the IT services which most SMEs struggle to provide themselves. Fifosys acts as a single point of contact and accountability for all IT matters from service desk support to problem resolution, procurement management to IT director-level reporting and advice as well as the management of all third party suppliers.

Working closely with its customers to understand unique business requirements, Fifosys’ approach offers; reduced complexity & risk, excellent account management and assistance, with state-of-the-art technology coupled with clear service level agreements, selective outsourcing and 24/7 IT support. Services include the end-to-end designing, developing, implementing and supporting of the technology infrastructure to ensure a trouble free and secure IT environment; improving services, reducing costs and increasing productivity.

This approach allows Fifosys to offer its customers the opportunity to turn IT into a strategic business asset for competitive advantage, allowing the customer to focus on its core business functions, whilst Fifosys concentrates on getting the IT to support and drive the business forward. Fifosys is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Microsoft Small Business Specialist, Google Enterprise Partner, Dell Partner, part of the Citrix Partner Network, Zen Internet Platinum Partner, Juniper Service Specialist and a McAfee Security Alliance Certified Partner.

“Deloitte” is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management and tax services to selected clients. These firms are members of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Swiss Verein (”DTT”). Each member firm provides services in a particular geographic area and is subject to the laws and professional regulations of the particular country or countries in which it operates. DTT helps coordinate the activities of the member firms but does not itself provide services to clients. DTT and the member firms are separate and distinct legal entities, which cannot obligate the other entities. DTT and each DTT member firm are only liable for their own acts or omissions, and not those of each other. Each DTT Member Firm is structured differently in accordance with national laws, regulations, customary practice and other factors, and may secure the provision of professional services in their territories through subsidiaries, affiliates and/or other entities.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Swiss Verein, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and its Member Firms.

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.

Yet again, gift cards are topping the shopping charts across the nation, with the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii and DVD box sets following closely behind. This year the American people’s top gift choices are closely mirrored by the fraudsters shopping cart, where the top four products are gift cards, the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and the new Xbox game, “Call of Duty. On average fraudsters attempt to spend $248 per transaction online, a staggering 23% more than the average genuine customer.

ReD’s data also shows there is an uneven rate of recovery across the nation in the wake of the credit crunch. For example, online retail growth has been stronger in California, compared to New York, since the beginning of November. Last year Californians were making 10% more purchases online than New Yorkers, and this has now increased to 26%.

“The 23% rise in online sales since November 1 shows green shoots in the US economy for the first time since the catastrophic spending freeze during the same period last year.” says Carl Clump, ReD’s Chief Executive Officer. “However this season’s optimism will be dampened by fraudsters attempting to exploit retailers whilst they are coping with increased demand. We envisage a 38% rise in online fraud attempts on Black Friday compared to the same period last year.”

What’s Hot Online

1) Virtual gift cards and gift cards
2) DVD box sets
- Star trek XI
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- Night at the Museum
- Angels & Demons
- Terminator
3) Nintendo Wii
4) Xbox 360

What’s Hot with Fraudsters

1) Virtual gift cards and gift cards
2) Xbox 360
3) Nintendo Wii
4) The “Call of Duty” Xbox game

Retail Decisions (ReD) is a payment card issuer and world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing. A specialist supplier to the payments industry worldwide, ReD has over 20 years experience in the fraud prevention market. Its blue-chip international clients come from the global telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, banking and the broader e-commerce sectors. They include Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Sears, Texaco, Shell, Boots, John Lewis, China Airlines, The Carphone Warehouse, Comet, Travelocity, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

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.

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.