After Kolkata and Bengaluru Airtel 4G services rolled out in Pune

After Kolkata and Bengaluru Airtel 4G services rolled out in Pune

Buoyed by good response in Kolkata and Bengaluru, Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecom services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, on Thursday rolled out Airtel postpaid 4G services in Pune. With this it has become the first operator in Maharashtra to bring the 4G experience for its customers.

Airtel customers in Pune will now have access to cutting-edge 4G LTE technology that delivers the most advanced wireless broadband experience available across the globe today.

Airtel also announced the availability and free trial offer of its all new service innovations for Airtel 4G customers, Airtel Broadband TV and Games On-Demand. Additionally, Airtel 4G services for prepaid customers in Pune will be launched shortly.

 “With both home and office users opting for 4G services, it is heartening to see early adopters of this technology acknowledge the experience that Airtel 4G delivers, for everything from streaming videos and downloading music, to accessing business applications, email and rich multimedia content. We are optimistic about the traction that 4G will see in months to come and look forward to rolling out our services in other circles soon”, said K Srinivas, President, Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel.

Airtel said that customers can now check the availability of Airtel 4G services in their area online through the familiar Google Maps interface and buy the services online. Along with a host of payment options, Airtel 4G will also be available on monthly EMI’s and cash on delivery. The online purchasing capability will soon be rolled out for customers in Bengaluru and Kolkata as well.

Airtel Broadband TV service on Airtel 4G dongle allows customers to stream live TV content directly onto their laptop or desktop without the prerequisite of a cable or set-top box connection. Using Airtel 4G, customers can now enjoy access to close to 76 channels and on-demand videos across various genres including movies, music, entertainment and news. While the price applicable for this pack is Rs.150 and Rs 49 for monthly and weekly subscribers respectively, Airtel 4G customers can leverage its introductory trial offer and access Airtel Broadband TV free of charge.

Airtel 4G LTE will also allow a seamless gaming experience on PCs and laptops. Customers opting for 4G can now leverage Games On-Demand service on Airtel to enjoy video games like FIFA and NFS from a host of publishers including as EA, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, PopCap and Alawar. Ranging from Rs. 5 a day for 30 games, to a full-fledged Rs. 199 plan offering over 350 games for a month, as many as seven Games On-Demand plans are now available for customers to enjoy. Customers can also experience these exciting games on Airtel 4G through a limited period trial offer. Airtel Movies launched earlier in Bengaluru now provides the subscriber an updated movie library of 1250 titles consisting of recent chartbusters, classics, and lot of critically acclaimed movies across different language and genres (action, comedy, drama, romance, etc).While the monthly subscription pack is Rs.149, we now have a offer free trial offer for all our 4G customers.

In 2010, Airtel had successfully bid for BWA license spectrum in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) circles. Additionally, earlier this year, Bharti Airtel acquired 49 percent interest in Qualcomm AP’s India entities that hold BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. The company has launched its 4G LTE services in Kolkata, Bengaluru and now Pune, and is currently working towards rolling out state-of-the-art networks in remaining licence circles.

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FACEBOOK nd ZYNGA threatened by HACKERS

Facebook and Zynga threatened with shutdown by Anonymous hacktivists in retaliation for gaming giant's layoff 

• Hackers have threatened to shut down sites on November 5, which marks Guy Fawkes Day
• The threat by Anonymous comes after Zynga slashed its workforce of 3,000 employees by 5 per cent
• The gaming giant, known for FarmVille and Words With Friends, allegedly plans to outsource jobs to India
• The 'hacktivists' have targeted Zynga for its 'outrageous treatment of their employees' 
• The online activist group, known as Anonymous, has threatened to shut down Zynga and Facebook, days after the gaming giant announced it was laying off 5 per cent of its workforce.The group is targeting the San Francisco based company because of 'the outrageous treatment of their employees and their actions against many developers,' an unidentified member of the group, donning their trademark Guy Fawkes mask, announced in a YouTube video posted on Sunday.
  Slamming the tech firm for slashing its employee base while sitting on 'billion dollars cash,' the hackers threatened to release games it has stolen from Zynga's server, in addition to shutting down both Zynga and Facebook on November 5
  
  
  The looming threat to take down the social networking sites comes after Zynga unveiled a restructuring plan in the wake of its disappointing third quarter earnings report on October 24.
  Zynga CEO Mark Pincus announced last week it would lay off five per cent of its workforce, of approximately 3,000, shutting down its office in Boston and slashing the staff at the company's Austin branch.
  The company is also said to be looking at closing operations in the UK and Japan.
  

  
  

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iphone lovers.. iphone 5 launched in india

16GB version of the iPhone 5 will be priced at Rs 45, 500

The long wait for Apple iPhone lovers in India seems over. Ending the indeed long waiting period of two months since its first launch, the all new iPhone 5 is reportedly make its way to the Indian shores on November 2.

Confirming the news in a press release, Apple’s partners, Ingram Micro, said: Ingram Micro announced today that it will offer iPhone 5 at leading modern trade stores and retail outlets across India beginning Friday, November 2. 

Redington and Ingram Micro, the distributors of iPad and iPods in the country are readying themselves for a massive sell as the Indian consumers have awaited the smartphones arrival and as the phone enters the market around the festive season of Diwali. Reportedly, the basic 16GB version of the iPhone 5 will be priced at Rs 45, 500, whereas the 32GB and 64GB will be priced at Rs 52,500 and Rs 59,500 respectively.

 

The iPhone 5 has a larger 4-inch "retina" display, a surf capacity of high-speed 4G LTE network and is 20% lighter than its predecessor.

 

While the phone's main camera iSight stays the same, a new addition is the dynamic light mode. The new addition also helps users to launch photography apps up to 2.1 times faster. Moreover Apple has added a new feature called an image signal processor, which brings spatial noise reduction and a "smart filter" that produces better low-light pictures and captures images faster.

 

In the audio front, the iPhone 5 gets an additional microphone which sums it up to total of three. While one microphone is on the bottom, one is placed on the handset's front face, and one on its rear side. Also, the speaker now has five magnets which will provide clarity in sound.

 

However, some consumers have echoed concerns over the presence of a nano-SIM in the device. However, according to media reports, some of the domestic operators have nano-SIMs ready in stock to usher in Apple iPhone 5 official entry into the Indian market.

For more information on availability details please visit www.imonline.co.in. For more information on iPhone 5, please visit www.apple.com/in/iphone.

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Win 8 launched in India

With Windows 8, launched on Friday, Microsoft wants to ensure that its new operating system runs on all form factors - desktops, notebooks and even tablets. The software giant foresees people using a common OS, seamlessly interoperating between different devices without any glitches. It also envisions hybrid gizmos that can function as a fullfledged tablet or laptop depending on the user's requirements. Of course, to create an OS that would work just as well with touchscreens as it would with the keyboard and mouse, MS has had to make some big changes to Windows.

Logging in

Windows 8 is heavily integrated with Microsoft's web services. Users are provided with the ability to log on to their PCs with a Windows Live ID (instead of a more traditional local user account) for seamless functioning between various devices. For example, if you're following certain news feeds in the Reader app on your tablet, the same content will also be available to you on your PC. Besides you are automatically logged-on to those Metro-style apps and services that use your Live ID for authentication.

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With Windows 8, launched on Friday, Microsoft wants to ensure that its new operating system runs on all form factors - desktops, notebooks and even tablets. The software giant foresees people using a common OS, seamlessly interoperating between different devices without any glitches. It also envisions hybrid gizmos that can function as a fullfledged tablet or laptop depending on the user's requirements. Of course, to create an OS that would work just as well with touchscreens as it would with the keyboard and mouse, MS has had to make some big changes to Windows.

Logging in

Windows 8 is heavily integrated with Microsoft's web services. Users are provided with the ability to log on to their PCs with a Windows Live ID (instead of a more traditional local user account) for seamless functioning between various devices. For example, if you're following certain news feeds in the Reader app on your tablet, the same content will also be available to you on your PC. Besides you are automatically logged-on to those Metro-style apps and services that use your Live ID for authentication.

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DARPA Wants Robotics to Rise to the Challenge of Disasters The DARPA Robotics Challenge kicks into high gear today as the organization announces the top teams that will be competing to create robots that can prevent the compounding of human peril in manmade and natural disasters. Spurred by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in which the "Fukushima 50" ventured into a nightmare scenario to prevent a nuclear meltdown, DARPA is seeking robotic substitutes so that one individual's life is not weighed against dozens or more of others'. Dr. Gill Pratt, the program manager for the challenge, noted that the program's focus on humanitarian assistance in disaster response is aligned with one of the 10 primary missions of the U.S. Department of Defense that was laid out by the White House and the Secretary of Defense in January 2012. But Pratt called attention to another reason why DARPA chose the subject of this challenge: "[W]e believe that this is very inspirational for participants because it's a universally understood and appreciated mission." The participating teams are divided into two tracks: Track A teams will create the robots themselves as well as the software while Track B teams will be provided with the Boston Dynamics-designed Atlas robot, the descendant of Pet-Proto, and create software for it. Both teams will receive DARPA funding for their projects and they have until approximately December 2013 to complete them. DARPA has chosen seven Track A teams from Carnegie Mellon University, Drexel University, Raytheon, SCHAFT, Virginia Tech, the NASA Johnson Space Center, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The 11 Track B teams are from Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Laboratories, RE2, the University of Kansas, Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, TRAC Labs, University of Washington, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Ben-Gurion University, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and TORC Robotics. To open up the pool of talent to the challenge, which is already an international competition, DARPA has added two tracks. "The reason for doing this is to open the aperture as wide as possible, so that we can gather teams that are not in traditional robotics fields, that may not have been used to sending in proposals to DARPA, maybe from other parts of the world that aren't used to doing business with us," Pratt said. "We really want to see what talent is out there and find the best possible talent." Participants in Track C won't receive DARPA funding up front but should they perform better than the Track A and Track B teams, they might be eligible to receive one of six Atlas robots to work with and funding to progress further in the challenge. Track D is for those who do not want to take any DARPA funding at all but would like to compete anyway. Robots will be tasked with driving a vehicle (under the supervision of an operator at a distance), opening a door, climbing up a stairway, and connecting a cable or a fire hose. "We understand that where disasters matter the most, the environment generally has been engineered for use by human beings and even if the environment is degraded, it is not a random, unstructured outdoor environment," Pratt said. "In fact, it's one that has a lot of things made for people to use; for instance doors and stairways and ladders, things like that. And so the robots that we're developing, the technology that we're developing here, are strongly geared toward operating in environments that have been originally engineered for human beings." The robots will also be required to tackle one of the things that separates humans from many other species: figuring out tools. "Disasters often occur in environments that have plentiful numbers of tools that are meant for human beings," Pratt said. "And by tools, I mean things from screwdrivers to vehicles and everything in between. And often those tools are around both for construction and repair and maintenance. And, again, during the first few days after a disaster, there is no time to bring in specialized tools and, so, can we build robots that can reuse tools that were originally meant for human beings?" Of particular importance in the challenge is human-robot interaction. "Often in a disaster, the experts who know how to handle the disaster are not robotics experts," Pratt said. "And so we want to shorten the amount of time and the amount of work that needs to be done to allow those people to be able to directly use the robots in the disaster." Pratt again cited Fukushima, where robots were rapidly brought in from Japan and the United States, but the plant operators needed to spend several days in training to learn how to use them. The ultimate prize for the team that best meets DARPA's requirements is $2 million, and it will be handed out sometime near December 2014. Additionally, DARPA projects often end up extending into the consumer realm. One of the most nascent examples is the Google self-driving car, which came out of a 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge win for a team led by then head of Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Google Vice President Sebastian Thrun. Beyond the creation of a task-driven robot, the robotics challenge has higher-level goals that involve the robotics field as a whole. Pratt said DARPA is investing in an open-source simulation package to advance the state of the art in robotic simulation. "In particular, we want to have these tools outlast the program and be the foundation for catalyzing the field of robotics, particularly helping to make the design of robots move from an art to a science," he said. DARPA is also funding the Open Source Robotics Foundation to further develop a preexisting simulator that will use cloud computing for quick and easy scalability.

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Antarctic Ozone Hole Second Smallest in 20 Years, Scientists Say

The seasonal ozone hole above the Antarctic was the second smallest in 20 years as warm temperatures slowed depletion of the layer that shields the planet from ultraviolet radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average size of the ozone hole this year was 6.9 million square miles (17.9 million square kilometers) and reached a maximum of 8.2 million square miles on Sept. 22, the agency said in a statement today.
The Antarctic ozone hole first appeared in the 1980s and was one of the first signs of man-made climate change, according to the statement. International efforts to regulate chlorofluorocarbons, the chemicals blamed for the annual event, may not lead to any measurable recovery in the layer for a decade.
“It happened to be a bit warmer this year high in the atmosphere above Antarctica, and that meant we didn’t see quite as much ozone depletion as we saw last year,” Jim Butler, the director of global monitoring at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder,Colorado, said in the statement.
Last year’s gap stretched 10.1 million square miles and was the ninth largest. The biggest was in 2000 at 11.5 million square miles.

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