India added 7.3 mln wireless users in June

"Indian wireless telecom operators added a record 7.34 million subscribers in June, lifting the user base to 185.13 million, the country's telecoms regulator said on Wednesday.

Wireless phone subscribers in June were 65 percent higher than a year earlier, according to TRAI report. India is the world's fastest growing market for mobile services.
Analysts forecast the wireless user base will top 500 million in 5 years, as less than 20 percent of India's 1.1 billion population own a telephone. Including fixed-line phones, total telephone subscribers grew 47 percent from a year earlier to 225.21 million, the regulator said.

During the April-June quarter, 20.02 million wireless users signed up, but fixed-line connections witnessed a decline of 0.66 million, it said. Bharti Airtel, which had a subscriber base of 42.7 million at the end of June, is India's top mobile services firm, followed by Reliance, Hutchison Essar and state-run BSNL." Report: Reuters

Nokia N-Gage gets developer support

Nokia is the most targeted platform around the world, according to a survey of mobile developers. The research, from Evans Data, a specialist in analysis of developer trends, says the situation is slightly different in the US where the focus is on Motorola.

The dominance of Nokia in Europe is no surprise, but the company's platform is now the most popular in Asia too - in fact, everywhere except the US.

The research also shows that 64 per cent of development companies are working on some form of open source application, and half of them plan to introduce location-based information into their apps - except in Latin America, for some reason.

In other Nokia news, premier mobile games developer Digital Chocolate has signed up to create content for the new N-Gage platform. ®

World map of social networks

Here is a world map of social networks. Social network was first pioneer by friendster but now it appears that they’re fighting a lost cause, retreating to south east asia only.

Next version of Ms OS Windows "7" will release within 3 years

Microsoft's Windows 7, the next client version of the operating system, will be among the steps taken by Microsoft to establish a more predictable release schedule, according to sources.

Like Vista, Windows 7 will ship in consumer and business versions, and in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The company also confirmed that it is considering a subscription model to complement Windows, but did not provide specifics or a time frame.

Next up on Microsoft's agenda is Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, which is expected before year's end. Windows 7 was previously known by the code name Vienna. A Microsoft representative confirmed that Windows 7 is the internal code name for the next client release of Windows.

Origin Of Perennial Water-ice At South Pole Of Mars

Combined with models of the Martian climate, scientists can now suggest how the orbit of Mars around the Sun affects the deposition of water ice at the Martian South Pole.

The OMEGA instrument on board ESA's Mars Express has characterised the types of ice deposits present in the South polar cap of Mars as the arrows, superimposed on an image taken by the HRSC instrument, indicate. (Credit: ESA - DLR - FU Berlin (G. Neukum)) Early during the mission, the OMEGA instrument (Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer) on board Mars Express had already found previously undetected perennial deposits of water-ice.

They are sitting on top of million-year old layered terrains and provide strong evidence for a recent glacial activity. However, only now a realistic explanation for the age of the deposits and the mechanism of their formation could finally be suggested. This was achieved thanks to the OMEGA mapping and characterisation of these ice deposits, combined with the computer-generated Martian Global Climate Models (GCMs).

The mapping and spectral analysis by OMEGA has shown that the perennial deposits on the Martian South Pole are of essentially three types: water-ice mixed with carbon dioxide (CO2) ice, tens-of-kilometres-wide patches of water-ice, and deposits covered by a thin layer of CO2 ice.

The discovery of the ice deposits of the first type confirms the long-standing hypothesis that CO2 acts as a cold-trap for water-ice. But how were the other two types of deposits, not ‘trapped’ by CO2, accumulated and preserved over time? Franck Montmessin, from the Service d'Aéronomie du CNRS/IPSL (France) and lead author of the findings, explains how the deposits of water ice at the Martian's poles 'behave'. "We believe that the deposits of water-ice are juggled between Mars’ North and South Poles over a cycle that spans 51,000 years, corresponding to the time span in which the planet's precession is inverted."

Precession is the phenomenon by which the rotation axis of a planet wobbles. Montmessin and colleagues came to the conclusion by turning back time in their Mars climate computer model. This was done by changing the precession together with other orbital information. The scientists set the clock 21,000 years back, when the closest vicinity of the planet to the Sun corresponded to the northern summer – a situation opposite to that of today. The model has shown that water at the North Pole was in an unstable condition and was easily transported to the South Pole in the form of water vapour, to then re-condense and freeze on the surface.

Up to 1 millimetre of water ice was deposited at the South Pole every year. After Mars has spent more than 10,000 years in that climatic configuration, this accumulation led to a layer up to 6-metre thick. About 10,000 years ago the precession cycle was inverted, and started to return to its current configuration. Water-ice at the South Pole became unstable, and was forced to progressively return back to the North.

About 1000 years ago, by a not-yet-well explained trigger mechanism, the erosion of the water-ice deposits at the South pole was blocked as soon as layers of CO2 ice were deposited on the water-ice and trapped it, as OMEGA has observed them. Mars is currently experiencing 'Southern summer' – that is, water ice is more likely to accumulate at the North Pole.

The findings appear in the paper 'On the origin of perennial water ice at the South Pole of Mars: a precession-controlled mechanism?', by F. Montmessin, R. M. Haberle, F. Forget, Y. Langevin, R. T. Clancy and J.-P. Bibring, accepted for publication in the JGR Planets journal, and presented at the 7th International Conference on Mars, Pasadena, California (9-13 July 2007).

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by European Space Agency.

Lioness freed from Gaza

Sabrina, Lioness stolen 2 years from Gaza Zoo, was kidnapped by

Hasaneen family, a powerful mafia gang. They removed her claws and teeth and used her as a main attraction in a studio Gaza city.

Google Maps is ready to create a mashup

"Google Maps is launching a new feature that enables people to create customized maps with content from multiple mashup Web sites.

Users can browse the 100 or so many maplets for content to add to their maps. There aren't necessarily a lot of maplets available right now, but I'm sure the list will grow. For instance, searching for "bike" there was only bike path maplets for Boulder and New York City. But residents of Tokyo and Santiago will benefit from having access to their subway maps available.

Google has distributed more than 50,000 Google Maps API keys, said Thai Tran, a product manager for Google Maps. Creators of existing Google mashup Web sites can modify their code slightly and add it to the Google maplet gallery so that it can be combined with other mashups on anyone's personal map, he said.

Google is really pushing the mapping envelope. In April, the company introduced a feature that lets people add their own text, photos and video to customized maps, in essence enabling anyone to create a mashup. A few weeks ago, the company unveiled a feature that lets people click and drag to change the Google Maps driving directions."
report Posted by Elinor Mills in cnet

Google, Yahoo creating new social networks

"Bloggers are reporting that Google and Yahoo are working on new social networks now that their existing services (Orkut and 360, respectively) have failed to gain traction, except in Brazil in Orkut's case.

Google sponsored a project last year at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute that was designed to "rethink and reinvent online social networking," the Google Operating System blog reported. The site also has screenshots. Dubbed "Socialstream," the service would be more like a unified social network that would allow someone to have accounts on multiple services but centralized contacts in one location.

Meanwhile, Yahoo already started "ourcity" a new network in india and they have a project called "Mosh," according to TechCrunch. The posting was updated with a job description for a summer intern spot at Yahoo on a "cool new social network product." According to the post, Yahoo's looking for someone with lots of friends on MySpace and Facebook and who is "damn funny."

Representatives from Google did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment on the report. A Yahoo spokeswoman said: "We recently gave our employees the chance to test out an alpha service, which will help people benefit from the social web. We do not have any other details to share at the moment, but we will be sure to keep you apprised of our efforts."

Microsoft, for its part, has talked about a couple of strategies, including making Windows Live Messenger more social network-like as well as creating some kind of meta-social network where people could centralize multiple existing networks."
*** reports Posted by Elinor Mills in cnet

.ASIA domain will be available from October 2008

New internet registration of dot names under .asia on regionwise will issue from October 2008. For this purpose an organization already made up in the name of DotAsia Organisations Ltd. to control the registration of governments and trademark owners of asia region only.

According to ICANN the registration for DotAsia is already started through many registrars around the globe. Other dot names available are .travel etc

AMD and Intel going to cut desktop processor price

AMD cut prices of desktop processors, almost 30 per cent off what it charges for its gaming, mainstream and budget CPUs, as expected. Still, an much-anticipated move to drop single-core chips from the line-up did not take place.

From the top down, AMD cut the price of the 3GHz Athlon 64 FX-74 from $799 to $599, a drop of 25 per cent. The dual-core FX-72's price remains unchanged, at $599, but the remainder of AMD's dual-core desktop CPUs, the Athlon 64 X2 line, all became cheaper by between 29.8 per cent and 15.4 per cent.

Pruned from the list: the X2 3600+ and the X2 3800+. In their place come a 65W 4200+ and an 89W 4200+, in both Socket AM2 and Socket 939 forms.

The single-core Athlon 64 series, which some websites were last week alleging were for the chop today, all saw $10-15 knocked off their prices, making for cuts of 12.7-17.2 per cent. One of the three 3500+ that appear on AMD's previous public price list now no longer appears: the "energy efficient" version aimed at small form-factor systems.

That still leaves an energy efficient 3500+ on the list, but the energy efficient Sempron chips also offered for small form-factor systems are gone. The remaining desktop Semprons saw their prices fall from between 11.9 per cent and 23.2 per cent.

AMD's cuts come ahead of arch-rival Intel's next round of price reductions, expected to take place on 22 July - on which date the chip giant is also expected to roll out revised Core 2 Duo and other desktop processors that up the maximum frontside bus speed to 1333MHz.

World's billionaires 2007

Rank	Name	Citizenship	Age	Net Worth ( $bil.)	Residence
1	William Gates III	US	51	$ 56.0	US
2	Warren Buffett	US	76	$ 52.0	US
3	Carlos Slim Helu	Mexico	67	$ 49.0	Mexico
4	Ingvar Kamprad & family	Sweden	80	$ 33.0	Switzerland
5	Lakshmi Mittal	India	56	$ 32.0	UK
6	Sheldon Adelson	US	73	$ 26.5	US
7	Bernard Arnault	France	58	$ 26.0	France
8	Amancio Ortega	Spain	71	$ 24.0	Spain
9	Li Ka-shing	Hong Kong	78	$ 23.0	Hong Kong
10	David Thomson & family	Canada	49	$ 22.0	Canada
11	Lawrence Ellison	US	62	$ 21.5	US
12	Liliane Bettencourt	France	84	$ 20.7	France
13	Prince Alwaleed Bin T. Alsaud	Saudi Arabia	50	$ 20.3	KSA
14	Mukesh Ambani	India	49	$ 20.1	India
15	Karl Albrecht	Germany	87	$ 20.0	Germany
16	Roman Abramovich	Russia	40	$ 18.7	UK
17	Stefan Persson	Sweden	59	$ 18.4	Sweden
18	Anil Ambani	India	47	$ 18.2	India
19	Paul Allen	US	54	$ 18.0	US
20	Theo Albrecht	Germany	84	$ 17.5	Germany
21	Azim Premji	India	61	$ 17.1	India
22	Lee Shau Kee	Hong Kong	79	$ 17.0	Hong Kong
23	Jim Walton	US	59	$ 16.8	US
24	Christy Walton & family	US	52	$ 16.7	US
24	S Robson Walton	US	63	$ 16.7	US

Bill Gates loses 'World's richest' crown replaced by Carlos Slim

A Mexican telecoms tycoon has dethroned Bill Gates as the World's richest man.

According to forbes, Carlos Slim Helu ended Gates's 13-year reign thanks to a 26 per cent surge in the stock price of his company America Movil during the second quarter. Slim boosted his personal net worth to $67.8bn compared to last year’s $30bn.

Slim's fortune is equivalent to eight per cent of Mexico's gross domestic product, according to Común. For Gates to be worth eight per cent of the US economy, he'd have to increase his wealth by 17 times to $13tn.

Slim paved the way for overtaking Gates last year by expanding his stake in wireless operator America Movil after selling his holdings in MCI and Altria. This deal that netted more than $6bn and earned Slim the title Latin America's richest man.

In April this year Slim overtook the World's second richest person Warren Buffett, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and philanthropist who has dedicated himself to giving away most of his fortune through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ®

Wireless gadget maker to offer on-the-move internet for free

"Canadian mobile internet gadget maker DataWind is coming to Europe this month on the back of the second generation of its Pocket Surfer wireless web browser, Register reported. And it's promising "the internet anywhere... for free".

The Pocket Surfer 2's specifications aren't known, but the first version of the device, currently available to buy in Canada and the US, is a clamshell gadget with a 640 x 240 colour display and a QWERTY keypad and cursor control built into the screen cover. The device measures 13.8 x 6.9 x 1.5cm and weighs 96.4g. DataWind pitches the price of the hardware low - just $200 for the device - but it also requires a $10 monthly fee for the company's internet connectivity service. You can skip the regular payment with a one-off device purchase of $300.

DataWind's USP as an ISP is its server-side data compression, which it claims significantly reduces the amount of data it sends out to the handheld. It claims that "a customer can easily save over 200MB in bandwidth with the DataWind solution, in 20 hours of usage over a month - which could result in $20-80 in carrier data charges". Pocket Surfer has no cellular connectivity of its own, relying instead on a Bluetooth link to your phone.

Apple launched its iPhone

Apple's hugely anticipated iPhone is finally a reality. As expected, it makes calls and supports a digital-music player that syncs with iTunes. The thin design is dominated by a vivid touch screen that showcases videos and photos beautifully. You'll also note a lack of buttons and controls as all menu navigation and data entry from typing messages to dialing phone numbers is done on the touch screen. Other features include quad-band world phone support, a 2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, a speakerphone, e-mail and a Safari Web browser. Memory caps out at 8MB and there's no 3G support or wireless downloads, but the iPhone will garner interest simply because it exists. It's available June 29, exclusively from AT n T, for $499 or $599 depending on the memory size.

Despite some important missing features, a slow data network, and call quality that doesn't always deliver, the Apple iPhone sets a new benchmark for an integrated cell phone and MP3 player. Remember, the iPhone functions as an iPod as well as a phone.

Specs: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband), Up to 480 min, With digital camera/digital player, 2.4 in x 0.7 in x 4.5 in, 4.8 oz

Google's new version of online Docs, Spreadsheets, Folders

"It's only a matter of time before Google unveils a full-fledged online operating system" according to Cade Metz in register.uk. Google rolled out a new version of Docs & Spreadsheets - its online answer to MS Word & Excel - adding Windows-like folders, an improved search engine, and an all-around interface.

Previously, Docs & Spreadsheets organised files using a tagging method reminiscent of Gmail, Google's web-based email client. With the addition of folders, the service feels much more like a classic desktop GUI. You can even move documents from folder to folder via drag and drop.

"Almost from the day we launched people have been clamoring for folders," wrote technical lead Ron Schneider, on the official Google Docs & Spreadsheets blog. In other words, they weren't into the tags thing. One user summed it up quite nicely on the Google discussion forum. "Folders is a great move," he said. "Everyone knows what folders are, but tags/labels still don't make sense to my Dad and others."

If you're already using the service, your old document tags are automatically converted into folders. But there's one aspect of the old paradigm that's still around. In much the same way you could attach the same file to multiple tags under the original interface, you can now store the same file in multiple folders. You'll also find specialized folders that give you quick access to all the documents you've created (as opposed to those created by someone else) and to the documents you've shared with others. The new search engine suggests possible matches as you type - much like the Google Suggest beta that ties into the company's main web search engine. Docs & Spreadsheets new look-and-feel - including revamped icons and organisational controls - is also an improvement, but some users still have complaints.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said the company will eventually add a PowerPoint-like presentation builder to its online office suite. Over the past two weeks, the company added a PowerPoint viewer to Gmail and announced the acquisition of Zenter, a startup with an existing online presentation tool."