Nokia Siemens building and operating airtel 4G network in Maharashtra

Country's largest private telecom firm Bharti Airtel said it has appointed Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for building and operating its 4G network in Maharashtra.

The move will help Airtel offer high-speed data service, which is expected to commence later this year, to its customers in the circle.

However, the size of the deal is not disclosed. NSN will provide network design, integration, commissioning and optimisation services to Bharti Airtel using TD-LTE technology for rapid roll-out of the network and full set of care services including hardware, software and competence development services, Bharti Airtel said here.

"In the next five years, data will be the main thrust in India, riding on the waves of 3G or 4G technologies. LTE provides ultra high speed data access, in conjunction with 3G, this will lead the data revolution and drive fundamental changes in individual lifestyles, businesses and the society at large," Bharti Airtel CEO (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor said.

TD-LTE (time division duplex long-term evolution) is a technology platform that allows very high-speed access to data and transfer of huge amounts of data via dongles and compatible mobile phones.

With this, Bharti Airtel has become the first operator to announce launch of its commercial TD-LTE services, which will be available later this year.

As per industry estimates, mobile data traffic in the country is expected to increase nearly 100-fold by 2015 and consumers will stream nearly 600 hours of video content every second, thus paving way for the ensuing data revolution, Kapoor said.

The new technology will allow data speeds of upto 100 megabits per second (Mbps).

Bharti Airtel had bagged broadband wireless access (BWA) licence to offer the services in four Indian telecom circles including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kolkata and Punjab.

The company had paid a total of Rs 3,314.36 crore for license and spectrum fees during an auction held in June 2010.

Yahoo threatened Facebook for licence fee

Yahoo Inc has threatened action against Facebook if the the social networking giant does not pay licence fee for using technologies which the Internet search major claimed come under its intellectual property rights.

"We must insist that Facebook either enter into a licensing agreement or we will be compelled to move forward unilaterally to protect our rights," Yahoo said in a statement.

Yahoo, however, did not disclose which are the specific technologies, for which Facebook should pay.

The New York Times had earlier reported that Yahoo is forcing Facebook to license 10 to 20 patents over technologies that include advertising, personalisation of websites, social networking, and messaging.

"Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property. We have invested substantial resources into these innovations. Recognising that, other major web and technology companies have already licensed some of these technologies," Yahoo said.

Meanwhile, Facebook in a statement has reportedly said that "Yahoo contacted us at the same time they called The New York Times and so we haven't had the opportunity to fully evaluate their claims."

Yahoo owns more than 1,000 patents. Interestingly, Yahoo's revenue has been steadily falling during the past three years, while Facebook's revenue has witnessed a significant surge.

BSNL launched low cost tablet Penta IS701R

To bridge the digital divide, public sector telecom operator BSNL recently launched the extremely low cost tablet bundled with its connection. BSNL tablet, Penta IS701R, is manufactured by Noida based Pantel Technologies, is a Wifi model, and is priced at Rs 3,499.
The Mobile Indian got hold of BSNL's entry level model, Penta IS701R which comes with a bundled data plan of 5 GB for 60 days, after which consumers can recharge the same plan for Rs 750.
Here we bring the first impression of the device.


Specifications
Penta IS701R is a WiFi-only tablet with Android 2.3 operating system, a 1 GHz processor and 256 MB of RAM. Its 7 inch resistive touchscreen has 800 x 600 pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Though the review piece which The Mobile Indian got didn't had HDMI port but the company officials said that the tablet which will be available in market will have an HDMI port through which it can be connected to a TV.
The tablet has a 3000 mAh battery and 2 GB internal memory that can be expanded through a micro SD card. It has a VGA front facing camera and a micro USB port that can be used to connect data card and to charge the device.
Look and feel
As compared to other low cost tablets in the market, Penta IS701R looks somewhat better in terms of specification but the foam factor or design looks similar to other tablets available in the market. It has a plastic body and a textured finish for better grip. The tablet has four physical buttons; three on the front panel - refresh, home and menu; and one on side panel for power on and off which doubles up as a screen lock button.
Penta IS701R has a VGA camera on the front panel which can be used for video conferencing, but the quality is average. For connecting the headset it has a 3.5 mm jack and expandable memory slot which can be expanded to 32 GB.
Performance
The device which The Mobile Indian got had an average response to touch. The response to swipe was frustrating as one had to press the finger harder to get the response.
Apart from this, Penta IS701R doesn't have a physical volume rocker button that means if you are using any app and want to control the audio you have to first go to the home screen and access the volume control icon, placed at the top right corner of the tablet. Also, for the short time that we charged the tablet, its back panel (under which the battery unit is placed) heated up a lot.
BSNL Tablet supports popular file formats like .doc, .docx, .pdf, .pptx, MP3, WMA and .RM.
We didn't face any issue while accessing the internet on Wifi mode or touch keyboard. As a matter of fact touch experience with keyboard was quite nice.
Conclusion
At Rs 3,499 Penta IS701R is a decent device for customers who are plunging into the world of tablets for the first time. There is nothing amazing about the device except the HDMI port.

Smartphone ‘projects’ a tech future

In beautiful Barcelona, a warning shot has been fired at television makers. After giving hell to camera makers, mobile phone manufacturers are set to unleash another game-changer.
Samsung, the marauding mobile phone giant, unveiled the Galaxy Beam phone at the Mobile World Congress, which has a projector that can show whatever is on the phone screen — videos or photos — on any flat surface at the press of a button.
The projection is equivalent to 50 inches diagonal screen size, or as much as a mega LCD television screen. The clarity isn’t LED class yet, but it’s a very, very decent picture. Samsung claims the ‘ultra-bright’ 15-lumens projector is good even outdoors.
Experts expect future iterations of the technology to beam clearer images. Combine that with streaming 3G technology that’s already here, and 4G on the way, and television makers have much to sweat about.
Today, top digital cameras sport such projector technology but Beam is the first smartphone to have it.
Such ‘pico’ projectors have till now been considered too big to be enclosed inside mobile phones. The Beam, which is 12.55mm thick, is bulkier than peers and kin that hover around 8-9mm in width, but it’s not a bulky brick by any stretch. Many phones available today are of similar dimensions.
The Beam also features a 5 megapixel camera, and runs Google's Android 2.3 or Gingerbread software on a 1.0GHz dual-core processor.
That, along with 8 GB of internal memory and 768 MB of RAM, powered by a large 2000mAh battery is enough juice for three hours of viewing.

Google doodles leap year

Google has dished out a doodle to celebrate the day which comes only after a long wait of three years. In its first of a kind two-in-one doodle, Google also pays homage to Italian composer Gioachino Rossini on his 220th birth anniversary. Inspired by Rossini's famous 1816 comic opera The Barber of Seville. When it premiered in 1860, it was seen as a failure, it was only after the second performance that the play started acquiring the cult status, which has made it one of the most popular Italian operas.

The frogs in the scenes tell a story - the leaping frog, to celebrate the leap year,  is a soprano, another frog is playing the piano. The other two frogs are Figaro, the barber frog who is shaving a frog who is Count Almaviva.

This is Google's third doodle to welcome the leap year, the previous two doodles were created in 2004 and 2008.

Apple to launch iPad 3 on March

Apple Inc, the world's most valuable company, will hold a product event on March 7 in San Francisco, where it's said to be releasing the third generation of its best-selling iPad tablet computer. 

"We have something you really have to see. And touch," Apple said today in an invitation, which features a picture of an iPad screen. The new device will sport a high-definition display, run a faster processor and work with speedier wireless networks, people familiar with the product said last month. 

After pioneering the tablet market two years ago, Apple is counting on the new model to beat back competition from newer devices running Google Inc's Android software. The company has sold more than 55 million iPads, generating at least $34.5 billion in revenue. Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire, which uses Android, emerged as the iPad's biggest rival over the holiday shopping season last year. 

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment beyond the information in the event invitation. 

Apple's manufacturing partners in Asia started ramping up production of the iPad 3 in January, said one of the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details aren't public. The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users jump more quickly between applications, the people said. 

LTE networks
The company has been working to make the iPad compatible with a wireless standard called long-term evolution, or LTE, one of the people said last month. Carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc are rolling out LTE networks to give users faster access to data. 

Smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and Nokia Oyj, have already introduced smartphones that work on the faster networks. Apple is bringing LTE to the iPad before the iPhone because the tablet has a bigger battery and can better support the power requirements of the newer technology, one of the people said. 

The new Retina display is capable of greater resolution than the current iPad, with more pixels on its screen than some high-definition televisions, the person said. The pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material, according to the person. Videos begin playing almost instantly because of the additional graphics processing, the person said. 

New high
Apple shares were trading at $532.98 at 2:47 pm New York time, up 1.4 per cent, after earlier reaching a record high. The stock has climbed 31 per cent this year. 

The introduction of the new iPad will be Apple's first major hardware release since the death of co-founderSteve Jobs in October. With new features, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook aims to give customers more reasons to stick with the iPad, even as rivals undercut it on price. While Apple's tablet starts at $499, the Kindle Fire costs $199. 

Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, surpassed Samsung as the No 2 seller of tablet computers last quarter, shipping 3.89 million units, according to research firm IHS Inc Apple, meanwhile, maintained its lead in the market, accounting for more than half of shipments. 

The company also may use the March event to unveil an updated Apple TV set-top box, which could stream higher- resolution video to consumers' televisions, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos in Minneapolis. Apple is planning to release a full television set as early as the December quarter, Munster said today in a report, reiterating an earlier prediction. 

The new iPad is being assembled by Apple's main manufacturing partner, Foxconn Technology Group. That company, which also builds the iPhone and other Apple products, gets about 22 per cent of its sales from Apple, according to supply- chain data compiled by Bloomberg.