iPhone can’t act pricey

It’s cool and trendy. But can iPhone, the cult device from Steve Jobs Apple that turned one year old on Sunday, take on India’s hot market when it launches in the cold of the coming winter?

The jury is out but Apple needs to watch out. The touchscreen device must cope with a price conscious market – and a bunch of affordable look-alikes from big brands including Korea’s LG and Samsung.

“India is a big market where about a 100 million handsets were sold last year and this year about 120 million devices are estimated to be sell,” said Anshul Gupta, Senior Research Analyst, Gartner.

Experts say even if Apple gets a one per cent share, a million iPhones will be sold.

The iPhone 3G model which is bundled with services now costs about $199 and $299 (Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000) for the 8GB and 16GB versions respectively in the US while unsubsidised models in Europe are expected to sell for about $771 and $880.

In India, iPhone will have to cope with a handset-only pricing regime because operators are not going to sell it with services for now.

"If Apple can bring down the price it can take the Nokia’s N-Series of multimedia devices head on, we can expect some shift in market share between the two companies," Gupta said.

Nokia’s much-hyped N95 that has some cool features that compete with iPhone retails at around Rs 28,000.

Handset manufacturers like Taiwan’s Hi-Tech Corp and Korea’s LG and Samsung have already introduced their iPhone look-alikes in India priced between Rs 11,000 and Rs 30,000.

More such devices are on the cards for India while market leader Nokia is also expected to introduce its own touchscreen device by the year-end.

Apple has sold about six million iPhone so far, and expects to sell about 10 million by the end of 2008. According to Gartner, about 1.7 million units of iPhone were sold during the January-March period this year, of the total 32 million "smartphones" sold during the period.

Smartphones, which are like hand-held computers, carry many features that enable Internet surfers perform many functions on the go. With the download of sound and video and activities like online trading becoming popular, high-end mobile handsets will increasingly compete with the smartphones that are already in the market.

World's biggest tech myths

What's common between the Lochness monster, Yeti and radiation from PC monitor causing cancer? Well, they all are myths!

One of the long timer in the list of tech-related myths is that switching off power without shutting down damages the PC.

Also, many believe that as their email account is password-proof it can never be hacked.

Well, with little grounding there are many such myths that haunt the tech world.

Here we bring you some of the most common technology myths.

No magnets near my PC
This would have been true in the case of a floppy drive, however, hard drives and laptops are immune to magnetic radiation as they are free from magnetic composition.

And like this, thumbdrives, memory cards and CDs too are, so don't get hyper and go crazy with those fridge magnets.

Most of the storage devices, like SD cards are immune to magnetic fields.

PC monitor radiation causes cancer

No! It won't. Radiation from your cell phone might give you a brain tumour, but a monitor is harmless.

The radiation from your monitor is too weak and also at a different frequency, so rest assure you are totally safe.

In fact, according to several studies the amount of ultra violet radiation produced by a computer monitor is only a small fraction of that produced by florescent lighting.

Cookies track every move

Cookies do track your activities on a website. But they are simple things which will make sure that your next visit to the site is simple and hassle free.

Cookies are basically small text files that help the browser remember specific information like your ID and password, preferences, shopping cart information etc. Plus, they are usually deleted when you shut down your browser.

To delete cookies in IE, go to Tools, click Internet Options, click the Privacy tab, and click Advanced to override automatic cookie handling.

Stop' a USB device before unplugging

This applies only in a few cases. This is said to ensure that the USB device is not unplugged while data is being read from or written to it

. Doing so would corrupt the file being transferred or maybe damage the USB drive. However, when the USB is in an idle mode it can be unplugged without going through the entire process of 'Safely Remove hardware’.

For devices like keyboard, mouse, printers and scanners, you can just unplug them when not in use.

Never switch off before Shut Down

Many believe that turning power off without shutting down PC physically damages its hard drive. However, this is an age-old myth and has no grounding.

However, users do lose their data if they were working and have not saved before switching off the power.

Also, many users believe that one should shut down PC every couple of hour so that it can rest. The thought may be nice, but shutting down your PC every few hours may actually be harmful to your PC.

Components in the PC are most stressed when they have to either boot or shut down. Doing that every few hours will keep it under constant stress. However, this doesn't mean you must keep your computer on forever. Operating systems do need a shut down once in a while, because even the best operating systems crash if not given a rest.

Clearing recycle bin deletes data forever

Well many may relax when they delete their trash files.

However, this is no reason to cheer. In fact, Windows just marks the area of the disk occupied by such files as empty, but does not delete the data.

There are many file recovery software available such as TOKIWA DataRecovery that enables you to undelete files, even if they have been removed from the recycle bin. Such programmes can track the deleted files in the hard disk.

Recovery of the deleted files is possible as long as the disk area is not overwritten by any new disk.

Anti-viruses are foolproof

Though an anti-virus is a must-must, but one cannot just relax especially in a 24X7 connected world.

No single antivirus programme can completely safeguard you against virus, trojan, malware and spyware attack.

There may be chances that the anti-virus programme loaded in your PC may not be effective against spyware or other kinds of malware not classified as viruses.

Also, in case of a bigger attack, the security vendor may take long time to issue a security update.

Hence, users should make sure that their PCs are loaded with anti-spyware programme. Also, keep regularly updating your anti-virus software.

Courtesy: Indiatimes News Network

Slowdown a boom for BPOs

Unperturbed by the economic slowdown in the United States, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector is growing and cashing in on the opportunity of more business.

For the BPO sector, the US slowdown is the melting in the pot to look for more business in terms of opportunity.

This space in information technology even though US centric is looking formidable in facing the slowdown.

The sector is also looking at other economies and non-US geographies to fill more space.

Talking to a nes agency in an interview, Partha Sarkar, the CEO of HTMT Global Solutions, one of the most reputed BPO companies, said, "The US economic slowdown is an opportunity for BPO

Sarkar finds this trend is temporary and will stabilize soon.

Back office outsourcing has become a common practice among various BPO's which are primarily focused on providing a full spectrum of services, including customer support, accounting, administration, inventory management, data entry services, research, CAD design support, insurance and risk analysis for medium sized enterprises is profitable business ventures which has swept India and the Indian middle class.

Deepak Kumar, Sr Benefit Management Analyst, HTMT said, "Working in the BPO company is very valuable. It allows us to know the different cultures across the globe."

For Vandana Singh, Sr Claim Processing executive, at HTMT, working in BPOs is something different.

State Information Technology Secretary, Ashok Kumar C Manoli, said: "It is an opportunity. The State Government will provide support to BPO companies in the state."

In the current scenario, outsourcing is a boon for everyone. Outsourcing is all about giving some part of your business work or the entire services to the other companies.

Even though the US economic slowdown is a silent killer, the BPO segment is facing this under current in cashing in on opportunities.

IIT blames Internet for suicides

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has blamed enormous Internet surfing and constant use of mobile phones by the students for increasing number of suicides on the campus, officials said.

In a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed June 2 by the institute's alumni association, the premier institute said that as students are in regular touch with their family members, friends and relatives, several thoughts occupy them.

This in turn, at times, disturbs the students, who do not get peaceful time to study. And later, they take the extreme step for not performing well in the exams.

Earlier, when the mobile phones were not so popular, the students were not able to stay in touch with their families and hence got time to study, officials said.

Also, Internet surfing exposes the students to several sites having information that can cause a negative impact on the minds, leading students to suicides, officials added.

In another reply about the number of suicides, IIT-K said that till date six students of the institute have committed suicide.

Omendra Bharat, an IIT alumni, filed the RTI application to seek information on 14 issues, including the academic norms fixed for preparing the semester result of the students.

The RTI application was filed following the suicide by a student, Ritika Toya Chatterjee.

She killed herself May 30 after she failed in two of her final semester exams, despite having offers to join any of the six Indian Institutes of Management.

"Information regarding the semester grading of students and Ritika's grading is still to be provided along with the reply of twelve other questions we filed through RTI," said Bharat.

No Windows XP sales from today

REDMOND: Microsoft Corp is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers today, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.

Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally "downgrade" to XP.

Microsoft will still allow smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC.

A group of vocal computer users who rallied around a "Save XP" petition posted on the industry news site InfoWorld had been clamoring for Microsoft to keep selling XP until its next operating system, Windows 7, is available. The software maker has said it expects to release Windows 7 sometime in 2009.

Last week, Microsoft said it would provide full technical support for six-year-old Windows XP through 2009, and limited support through 2014.

India looks to 'foreign' help to save nuke deal

Having left the nuclear deal almost until the eleventh hour, India and its international allies are trying to scrounge for ways to save the nuclear deal — and looking for ways to "telescope" the next few stages.

Left to itself, the next stages of the IAEA ratification and the NSG approval could take months that would go beyond the timeline of both the UPA government and the Bush administration. But the better part of the nuclear world like the UK, US, Russia and France are all openly backing the India-US nuclear deal at this moment.

Diplomatic sources said India would be able to count on many more helping hands, because nobody really wants to see India lose this opportunity.

At the IAEA stage, Indian officials haven't yet been given the green signal from the government to go ahead to the next step. But (if and) when they do, they will initial the finalized draft, which then becomes a finalized text. While this text will be sent to the board of governors by the IAEA secretariat, there is a possibility that NSG leaders like UK, US, Russia and France could circulate the finalized text at the NSG.

The hope is that it may be possible to work on the NSG exemption and the IAEA governors' approval almost simultaneously. This would be unusual, said sources, but not impossible, because most of the IAEA governors are NSG members.

The NSG deliberations will take a minimum of two months before any exemption can be forthcoming. At this stage, it will already be September-October, which would include forcing many Europeans to forego their vacation in August.

If this tight timetable can be followed, US President George Bush could be writing out a presidential determination on the deal by October. The determination is to the US Congress to approve the package — 123 agreement, IAEA safeguards (which should have been approved by the governors by then) and the NSG waiver.

If the Congress receives the determination before it breaks for elections in November, it could take it up during the lame duck session before January 2009. This would involve its own "telescoping" but that would be the US' responsibility, not India's.

All of this is terribly ambitious depending on virtually precision timing and coordinated efforts by many countries apart from India and US to get this deal done. It's a kind of racing the clock that, in many ways, has characterized the deal so far — with its numerous near-death experiences.

The government seems determined, said sources. On Monday, minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma said in Dubai, "The nuclear deal with the US will help in ending nearly four decades of nuclear apartheid for India during which there were no transfer of technology. In the coming years, India will need a lot of energy, especially nuclear energy, to fuel its growth which has nearly touched 10%," he said.

Time running out on nuclear deal: US

The United States has said it is becoming increasingly unlikely that there will be enough time to push through the Indo-US civil nuclear deal once heralded as the cornerstone of a new strategic relationship.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that it is becoming increasingly difficult "to assume that we could be able to get an agreement through the US Congress".

US officials have said that India needs to complete its end of the pact before the US Congress starts its summer break in July because many lawmakers will be busy campaigning for crucial November elections.