The interesting part in GSM License renewal Fees and Charges in Bangladesh’2011:More Drama to come

In Bangladesh the license for all the mobile operators except Bharti Telecom will expire and they need to renew this license to continue their operation in Bangladesh. The interesting part in the license fee is the Revenue Sharing and The Social Obligation Fund. The operators need to share 5.5% revenue and they need to pay 1.5% of their revenue in Social Obligation by which Government will do her development activities.So,one mobile operator will have to pay 7% of its total revenue in a year.

So,the interesting part in the license renewal fee is not fixed for all operators.Cause those who have large number of subscriber have the most revenue and his total fee will get increased.Those who do not have much user and operation is limited in some regions like AXIATA they will not pay the same as Grameen Phone who has huge infrastructure.

Now Grameen is Not Ready to pay this amount of money.Airtel who is not in the list of renewal of license,they are also opposing the draft and policy.The reason is Airtel also need to pay more when the 3G license will be in auction.

Now lets see what will be the ending of the long drama!

Below are some related data on the fees and charges to provide you a basic idea about the scenario.

Which operators need to renew this  license?

1. Grameen Phone

2. Orascom Telecom

3. AXIATA Telecom

Fees and Charges of License Renewal Fees:

Following non-refundable fees and charges shall be applicable to the Licensees. Some of

the charges or a part thereof shall be in proportionate to the Licensee’s annual audited

gross revenue.

1. Application Fee Tk. 1,00,000/- (one lakh) only

2. License Renewal fee Tk. 10,00,000,00/- (ten crore) only

3. Annual License Fee Tk. 5,00,00,000/- (five crore) only

4. Revenue Sharing 5.5% (five point five percent)

5. Social Obligation Fund 1.5% (one point five percent)

SPECTRUM FEES AND CHARGES

The Licensee shall have to obtain separate license for spectrum use from the

Commission. For obtaining the License, the Licensee shall have to apply separately to the

Commission along with necessary documents. Following non-refundable fees and

charges for spectrum shall be applicable to the Licensees:

1. Application Fee for Spectrum Tk. 50,000/- only

2. Spectrum Assignment fee Tk. 150 crore only/MHz[For GSM1800MHz band]

Tk. 300 crore only/MHz [For GSM900MHz/EGSM band]

Tk. 150 crore/MHz [For CDMA]

PayPal Sues Google for stealing PayPal's Trade Secret

This time the friction is with not with Facebook.This time PayPal is blaming Google.

On the very first day Google launched its mobile payment platform service,PayPal makes a lawsuit against Google.They are telling that PayPal was talking with Google for a good number of time to make a payment platform together.For these  reason they have also shared some secrets among them to make the collaboration and also some valuable and secret things from PayPay are shared with Google but at last by hiring one employee from PayPal named Osama Bedier.Bedier was working with PayPal from 2002 and after leaving PayPal he was the Vice President of Platform, Mobile, and New Ventures.

Bedier is also carrying the same post in Google.Significantly, PayPal is claiming that Bedier transferred up-to-date versions of documents outlining its mobile payment and point of sale strategies to his non-PayPal computer just days before leaving the company for Google on Jan 24, 2011.

Google still did not react about this lawsuit.

WiMax and Its Benefits

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)) is a telecommunication protocol through which you can get fixed and mobile internet access. The internet access for which you were using broadband wired connection now you can use this WiMax.There is a modem or Gigaset to use this WiMax facility through which you can access internet. There usually two types of payment system for this kind of WiMax operators.Pre paid and Post Paid WiMax facility.Those who does not download much they can use the pre WiMax paid facility.Cause you will get high browsing speed and you can recharge any time and usually the prepaid cards are valid for one month.

Benefits of using WiMax:

• You can carry the WiMax Modem anywhere with your laptop and use internet anywhere.
• You are not dependent on your ISP.
• By ISP provided Broadband connection you may face problem cause it is wired and the wire may cut any time and you will not get any service but for WiMax you will not face this kind of problem as this is wireless.

• You have the option to choose different WiMax service provider. But for Broadband you will always choose the one which is near from your workplace though its service is not good.

Limitations:

• If you are staying over 5^th floor then the WiMax network may not be able to provide you WiMax service upto that much height.
• If you do not have any laptop then it will not be that much helpful for you when you go outside.

Cognitive Radio : Overview (The best material to learn about Cognitive Radio)

If you are trying to know about Cognitive Radio and not getting any material or book or any class lecture related to Cognitive Radio then i can bet this is the best material you have ever had !In the below Invited Paper Simon Haykin has described the very basic things of Cognitive Radio which will make your concept clear.If you want to research on Cognitive Radio then the below material on cognitive radio will also provide you the scope to do so.

Cognitive Radio: Brain-Empowered

Wireless Communications

Simon Haykin, Life Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—Cognitive radio is viewed as a novel approach for improving

the utilization of a precious natural resource: the radio

electromagnetic spectrum.

The cognitive radio, built on a software-defined radio, is defined

as an intelligent wireless communication system that is

aware of its environment and uses the methodology of understanding-

by-building to learn from the environment and adapt

to statistical variations in the input stimuli, with two primary

objectives in mind:

• highly reliable communication whenever and wherever

needed;

Google has announced its mobile wallet service

Google has finally announced about its long waited mobile wallet service which is a mobile payment platform.The announcement is been done in a show where some other merchants like Citi,MasterCard,First Data and a mobile network Sprint Nextel as present.

This mobile wallet service is already in field test and it will be compatible with Nexus S4G by Google which is available in Sprint Nextel.

The company's expectation is that on the very beginning the services like boarding passes,tickets,ID and Keys could be stored in Google mobile wallet.

At first the Google mobile wallet will support both Citi ,MasterCard and a Google Top up.Customers will be able to top up this Google Top up card by using any payment card.

Send SMS for FREE !

There are a lot of free SMS sending website in the internet through which you can send fee SMS.Now you can think that what is the benefit of the websites that provide you the opportunity to send free SMS?The answer is simple. They get benefited by the advertisements in the websites and they also use 80 characters in the SMS for advertisements.So,without paying any penny you can send free SMS.Some free SMS software are below:

1. Text4Free – You can send free text messages from this website to almost anywhere in the world.

No registration is needed for the following sites -

2. Freesms.net

3. Dynadel

4. GizmoSMS

5. 160by2 – Send Free sms from India – registration necessary

6. Tamilar – Free SMS to India – no registration required

7. CbfSms – Only for UK

8. OOSms – Worldwide Free SmS – registration needed.

9. Wadja – Worldwide coverage, need registration.

10. Way2Sms – India specific

11. Youmint – India specific again, advertising firm, so you know what to expect!

12. Peekamo – Worldwide Free SMS

13. Hai91 – Another India specific site, needs registration.

3G era for telecom industry

By Mustafa Mahmud Hossain

Original Article Published in "The Daily Sun"

Click Here to get the original article

3G or 3rd Generation technology is a current standard for mobile communication and mobile devices throughout the world. The very first pre-commercial 3G technology was launched by NTT Docomo in Japan, in the year 2001 on pre-release of WCDMA technology.

3G technology includes:

- High-speed mobile internet access

- Video calling (video conferencing)

- Video on demand

- Mobile TV

- Location based services

- Support for new and advanced mobile applications

With 3G technology, you can make use of both speech and data services simultaneously, without much compromise on data transmission rate. Also, the above mentioned features are apart from normal voice calling, SMS and MMS services found in a typical mobile handset!

Chinese Android Users Under the Most Mobile Attacks

China received about 64% of the world's mobile attacks on Android devices in the first quarter of 2011, according to a mobile security report released by NetQin Mobile.­ Ranked second on the list is the USA with 7.6%, followed by Russia, India, and Indonesia respectively with 6.1%, 3.4% and 3.2%.

According to NetQin, about 2.53 million Android users were infected with mobile viruses or malware in the first quarter of 2011, with most of them occurring in China, which is partly due to the easy availability of "white box" phones (open phones that are not tied to particular carriers) and a general lack of mobile security awareness among mobile phone users.

"White box" phones often run outdated versions of mobile software and are not provided with security support from legal carriers. The lack of mobile security awareness further adds fuel to the flames, as users often ignore protective measures when engaged in mobile activities, such as using mobile payment channels, web browsing or clicking on URLs from unknown sources, thus allowing more mobile viruses and malware to intrude their mobile devices.

In the consumer pool sampled by NetQin, the reported results of these mobile threats mainly include: malicious fee deduction (up to more than 45%), privacy theft (about 30%), Backdoor (about 12%), fee consumption (about 7%), rogueware (about 5%) and malware that disrupts normal operation of systems (about 1%).

NetQin reports that Android Market is the main source of mobile threats, and is responsible for 57% of them. Other sources include unbranded devices and downloading from WAP and WWW websites.

Most of the infected phones are running Froyo, the Android OS V2.2, accounting for 45% of the total, followed by Eclair (Android OS V2.1) and Gingerbread (Android OS V2.3) respectively with 34% and 16%. The popularity of Froyo devices is probably to blame for its becoming the main target of mobile attacks.

The report also addresses the vulnerability of the Android OS, such as acquisition of root access, weak scrutiny of apps before their entry in to Android Market and the embedding of malware. DroidDream had Google remove more than 50 offending apps from Android Market earlier this year and is a good illustration of the problem.

NetQin purports that future mobile security would rely more on "cloud computing", especially the "Cloud + End" model, which is capable of responding promptly to mobile threats, from data collection and risk ranking to the provision of a final solution.

Nokia Shows Off Gold-Plated Smartphone

Nokia has shown off a gold plated smartphone, the Nokia Oro which it says it will sell in a few selected markets. The Symbian based phone incorporates 18-carat gold plating, a sapphire crystal and Scottish leather on the back.

The design and pricing - at EUR800 - puts it in the middle point between a standard Nokia phone and Nokia's premium brand, Vertu.

Functionality wise, it is a 3G phone with Wi-Fi and a 3.5-inch AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel camera with 720p video recording and all the rest.

Nokia said that the Oro is a device that's clearly intended for someone who doesn't want their mobile device to look the same as other peoples. The main markets for this sort of device are the Middle East and Russia, where they have been best-sellers for some time.

Materials Designer Robert Lihou noted: "Our aim was to use the best materials for the purpose. It's coated with 18-carat gold which has been made scratch-resistant. The leather is from premium Scottish stock. That's a real sapphire crystal in the home key, which makes it eight times sturdier than glass."

Nokia Oro will start selling in selected countries across the Europe, Eastern Europe, China and the Middle East from July.

Foxconn Explosion to Delay 400,000 iPad Shipments

The explosion at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu is expected to disrupt production of 350,000~400,000 units of Apple's iPad, according to analysis by Displaybank.

Shenzhen and Chengdu are mainly producing iPad2 and Chengdu plant is producing about 32%. Due to this explosion, about 3~5% of total production disruption is expected.

Chengdu plant, in charge of parts and assembling of iPad2, is in operation for total of 24 production lines. A05 plant, where explosion occurred, produces iPad2 back cover, and there are 4 back cover production plant located in Chengdu, including A05, and daily production is approximately 50,000~60,000 units.

Due to the explosion, A05 stopped the production, and other 3 back cover-producing plants also stopped the production for safety check. A05 plant is expected to be reactivated in the mid-June, and inspection period of other 3 plants will be 4~7days, so they will be reactivated within this week.

Ricky Park, senior analyst at Displaybank noted "Given existing back cover production capacity, the total production disruption will be approximately 550,000~700,000 units, but since current inventory is about 200,000~300,000 units, actual production disruption will be about 350,000~400,000 units. However, through procurement from Shenzhen plant, damage will be minimized."

Samsung's Galaxy S Overtakes the Apple's iPhone in Japan

News source

Galaxy S smartphones from Samsung outsold Apple iPhones in Japan during Q1 2011, which places Samsung in the ranks of the top four handset vendors of Japan for the first time, according to Strategy Analytics.

Android smartphones are also outselling iOS smartphones in Japan.

Tom Kang, Director of the Handset Country Share Tracker service at Strategy Analytics, said, "The Japanese market had always been tough to crack for foreign vendors as all previous attempts had failed. With smartphones, things are changing rapidly. First, Apple shook up the market with the iPhone, and now, for the first time, Samsung, is shipping more handsets than most local vendors, such as NEC, Casio and Kyocera."

Neil Mawston, Director, Strategy Analytics, added, "Strategy Analytics believes that the healthy demand for the Android-powered Galaxy S at NTT DoCoMo drove Samsung growth in Japan. Samsung is the main player behind surging Android smartphone sales, followed by Sharp. Japan had always had a unique competitive landscape, but is now looking more and more like any other advanced smartphone market in the world as Android has flown by iOS in just three quarters."

"Japan was not the only market affected by changes in the handset vendor rankings," said Linda Sui, Analyst at Strategy Analytics. "In China, Huawei surpassed most foreign brands, such as LG and Motorola. Huawei even leaped ahead of local rivals like Lenovo and ZTE, entering the top-5 vendor list for the first time. The growth from smartphones and 3G devices is a serious disruptive force in Asia right now."

Breaking news !!! Sony Ericsson Website Hacked !

Idahca, a Lebanese hacking group claims to have successfully broken into the Sony Ericsson website in Canada and extracted private data from more than 2,000 accounts set up via its online store.

Records including names, email addresses and encrypted passwords were taken by an outside party, the company said in a statement.

The company confirmed that no credit card details were taken, although the hackers have claimed that the were able, but decided not to take those details as well.

Sony Ericsson has shut-down the retail website, which it says was a 3rd-party platform and had no connectivity to its main websites, pending an investigation.

On the web: Sony Ericsson eShop

Barnes abd Noble Shows Off New E-Book Reader

Source Here

USA based book retailer, Barnes & Noble has shown off a new version of its Nook e-book reader, which it says is 35% lighter than its first-generation model.

The battery has also been upgraded to enable users to read for up to 2 months on a single charge with Wi-Fi off - that's twice as long as the other leading eReader available.

"We set out to design the easiest-to-use, most optimized, dedicated reading device ever created and accomplished it with the All-New NOOK," said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. "Touch makes it simple to use, and the beautifully compact design makes it the most portable eReader in its class. Add to that an unmatched battery life, the most advanced paper-like touch display on the market and wireless access to the world's largest digital bookstore, and we believe that for readers of all ages, the All-New Nook is the best eReader on the market,"

The All-New NOOK can be pre-ordered for $139 today and is expected to begin shipping on or about 10th June.

Sony Ericsson Hires Nokia Exec to Head its Operations

Press Release : Sony Ericsson

 Sony Ericsson today announced that Tommi Laine-
Ylijoki has joined the company as Corporate Vice President and Head of
Operations, reporting to President and CEO Bert Nordberg.   Tommi Laine-Ylijoki
joins Sony Ericsson from Nokia Oyj where he was Vice President, Materials
Management.

Tommi Laine-Ylijoki has more than 17 years of experience working at Nokia in
Finland. Over the years he has worked in the areas of research in
microelectronics, operations capacity management, direct sourcing and supply
chain. In his last position at Nokia, as Vice President, Materials Management,
he was responsible for all operational inbound supply-related activities for the
company, working in both the Operations and Sourcing organisations.

Commenting on today's announcement, Bert Nordberg, President and CEO, Sony
Ericsson said, "Tommi Laine-Ylijoki's track record in the area of operations and
supply chain management in our industry is second to none, and he joins Sony
Ericsson at a very important time. As we shift more and more of our product
portfolio to Xperia smartphones based on the Android platform, we continue to
look for ways to achieve a cost efficient operational framework on which to
build future growth."

Tommi Laine-Ylijoki said, "I am thrilled to have joined Sony Ericsson during
this exciting time for both the company and our industry. I very much look
forward to applying the experience I have gained over the past several years,
and working with my new colleagues to realise our strategic ambitions and fuel
the company's next phase of growth."

Tommi Laine-Ylijoki is based in Lund, Sweden.  A native of Finland, Tommi Laine-
Ylijoki has a Master's Degree from Helsinki University of Technology.

Mobile Consumers Likely to Click on Retail, Weather, Dining and Sports Ads

Source Here

A small study of mobile users found that mobile ads relating to retail stores, weather, dining and sports resonated well with users.

In general, the study by mobile ad agency, Mojiva - of just 100 people though - showed that more than 60% of users click on mobile ads at least one a week. When seeing an ad, half of users indicated that they would play a game, download an application, or visit a Web site after seeing an ad -- but only 22% said they would make a purchase, and only 40% would download a coupon.

• Graphic ads were sufficient in capturing attention. Exactly 85% of users deemed 'normal banner ads,' 'video ads,' 'ads that let me interact with them,' or 'animated banner ads' as the forms of marketing they would likely pay attention to
• Text ads still perform modestly with 13% of users most likely to pay attention; however, only 2% pay attention to expanding screen takeover ads
• Marketing offers related to magazines, social/dating, airlines, traffic and banking had the least effective performance.

Also of note, Mojiva released their April unique user count, which is sitting just over the 100 million mark in the United States and 471.4 million globally.

Microsoft Shows Off Windows Phone OS Upgrades

Microsoft has shown off a preview of the so-called Mango release for its Windows Phone 7 smartphone OS. As expected, the OS is aiming to deliver over 500 improvements to the existing OS, most negligible and a few sizeable upgrades.

Windows Phone will also add support for additional languages, expand access to apps by launching Windows Phone Marketplace in new countries, and partner with new OEMs to enable expansion to new markets.

"Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more," said Andy Lees, president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. "With 'Mango,' Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort."

Availability

The "Mango" release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this autumn.

Microsoft also announced handset deals with Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

Beyond Smart Phones: Sensor Network to Make 'Smart Cities' Envisioned

 

Car-to-car communications could help to prevent traffic jams. (Credit: Copyright Thomas Ott)

Source here

Thanks to numerous sensors, Smartphones make it easy for their owners to organize certain parts of their lives. However, that is just the beginning. Darmstadt researchers envision entire "smart" cities, where all devices present within municipal areas are intelligently linked to one another.

Computer scientists, electrical and computer engineers, and mathemati­cians at the TU Darmstadt and the University of Kassel have joined forces and are working on implementing that vision under their "Cocoon" project. The backbone of a "smart" city is a communications network consisting of sen­sors that receive streams of data, or signals, analyze them, and trans­mit them onward. Such sensors thus act as both receivers and trans­mit­ters, i.e., represent trans­ceivers. The networked communications involved oper­ates wire­lessly via radio links, and yields added values to all partici­pants by analyzing the input data involved. For example, the "Smart Home" control system already on the market allows networking all sorts of devices and automatically regulating them to suit demands, thereby alleg­edly yielding energy savings of as much as fifteen percent.

Human Brain's Most Ubiquitous Cell Cultivated in Lab Dish

Pity the lowly astrocyte, the most common cell in the human nervous system. Long considered to be little more than putty in the brain and spinal cord, the star-shaped astrocyte has found new respect among neuroscientists who have begun to recognize its many functions in the brain, not to mention its role in a range of disorders of the central nervous system.

Astrocytes are star-shaped cells that are the most common cell in the human brain and have now been grown from embryonic and induced stem cells in the laboratory of UW-Madison neuroscientist Su-Chun Zhang. Once considered mere putty or glue in the brain, astrocytes are of growing interest to biomedical research as they appear to play key roles in many of the brain's basic functions, as well as neurological disorders ranging from headaches to dementia. In this picture astrocyte progenitors and immature astrocytes cluster to form an "astrosphere." The work was conducted at UW-Madison's Waisman Center. (Credit: Robert Krencik/ UW-Madison)

Now, writing in the May 22 issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, a group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher Su-Chun Zhang reports it has been able to direct embryonic and induced human stem cells to become astrocytes in the lab dish.

The ability to make large, uniform batches of astrocytes, explains Zhang, opens a new avenue to more fully understanding the functional roles of the brain's most commonplace cell, as well as its involvement in a host of central nervous system disorders ranging from headaches to dementia. What's more, the ability to culture the cells gives researchers a powerful tool to devise new therapies and drugs for neurological disorders.

Ants give new evidence for interaction networks

Be it through the Internet, Facebook, the local grapevine or the spread of disease, interaction networks influence nearly every part of our lives.

Scientists previously assumed that interaction networks without central control, known as self-directed networks, have universal properties that make them efficient at spreading information. Just think of the local grapevine: Let something slip, and it seems like no time at all before nearly everyone knows.

By observing interactions in ant colonies, University of Arizona researcher Anna Dornhaus and doctoral candidate Benjamin Blonder have uncovered new evidence that challenges the assumption that all interaction networks have the same properties that maximize their efficiency. The National Science Foundation-funded study was published in the Public Library of Science on May 20.

"Many people who have studied interaction networks in the past have found them to be very efficient at transferring resources," said Blonder. "The dominant paradigm has been that most self-organized networks tend to have this universal structure and that one should look for this structure and make predictions based on this structure. Our study challenges that and demonstrates that there are some interaction networks that don't have these properties yet are still clearly functional."

Scientists Set World Record For Calculating Radar Profile Of Aircraft

Scientists at the Center for Computational Electromagnetics at the University of Illinois recently set a world record by calculating the radar cross-section of an aircraft -- a measure of how visible the aircraft is to radar -- at a microwave frequency of two gigahertz.

The numerical simulation -- which involved solving for nearly 2 million unknowns -- was performed using newly developed software called the Fast Illinois Solver Code. The program was run on the Silicon Graphics CRAY Origin2000 computer at the U. of I.'s National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

"The radar cross-section of an aircraft can be used for target detection and identification purposes," said Weng Chew, a U. of I. professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the computational electromagnetics center. "The calculation of the radar cross-section of an aircraft above one GHz -- the old record -- has been viewed as the Holy Grail in computational electromagnetics."

To calculate the scattering solution, Chew and colleagues Jiming Song and Caicheng Lu (visiting professors of electrical and computer engineering) developed a sophisticated algorithm based on the fast multipole method first proposed by Vladimir Rokhlin of Yale University. Chew's group helped pioneer the method and became the first group to successfully use it for complex three-dimensional electromagnetic scattering problems.

Qualcomm Adds Support for Russian GPS Service to Snapdragon Chipset

Qualcomm has added support for the Russian version of the USA's GPS network, the GLONASS satellite system, along with the unique capability to utilize both the GPS and GLONASS networks simultaneously for greater location performance.

The first Glonass capable phone is the MTS 945 from ZTE, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset.

Support for both satellite networks is currently integrated into Qualcomm's Snapdragon MSM7x30 chipset and software solution and will be supported moving forward on select Snapdragon and feature phone chipsets with Qualcomm's latest GPS engine.

"ZTE is first to market with a smartphone that supports both the Gps and GLONASS satellite systems, taking full advantage of the functionality which has been integrated into our Snapdragon MSM7x30 chipset and software," said Raj Talluri, vice president of product management for Qualcomm.

Development on the GLONASS began in 1976, with a goal of global coverage by 1991. Beginning on 12 October 1982, numerous rocket launches added satellites to the system until the constellation was completed in 1995. Following completion, the system rapidly fell into disrepair with the collapse of the Russian economy. Beginning in 2001, Russia committed to restoring the system and by April 2010 it is practically restored (21 of 24 satellites are operational).

The GLONASS system currently covers 100% of Russian territory.

The Russian parliament has previously threatened to block imports of mobile phones that do not support the GLONASS system.

Ericsson to Take Over Management of Clearwire WiMAX Network

Soruce here

It has been announced that Ericsson has won a seven-year contract to manage Clearwire's WiMAX network in the USA. As part of the deal, approximately 700 Clearwire employees will transfer to Ericsson within the next couple of months.

Ericsson alread­y has a Managed Services contract in the Usa with Sprint Nextel - who happen to be the majority shareholder in Clearwire. Ericsson's mobile phone subsidiary, Sony Ericsson has also just dropped a trademark lawsuit against the Clearwire over their respective logos.

Under the terms of the contract, Ericsson will be responsible for network engineering, operations and maintenance, including field services, 24X7 network monitoring, end-to-end engineering, provisioning and routine maintenance.

Clearwire is retaining ownership of all network assets and full responsibility for future technology and strategy decisions.

"The responsibility for network engineering, operations and maintenance of one of the leading mobile broadband networks in North America is one that Ericsson takes very seriously," said Angel Ruiz, head of Ericsson's North American operations. "We look forward to welcoming the Clearwire employees to Ericsson and appreciate the unique skills and expertise they bring to our company."

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Apple's iPhone 5 will Come with a Curved Glass Screen

Apple is reported to have been forced into buying glass cutting machines to encourage its suppliers to produce a specially curved screen for its forthcoming iPhone 5 smartphone.

Citing industry sources, the Taiwan based DigiTimes publication said that Apple wanted a curved screen, but the cover glass manufacturers were unwilling to buy the expensive glass cutting machines needed - just to supply one customer.

As a result, Apple reportedly went out and purchased 200-300 glass cutting machines to be used by glass makers, said the sources.

The glass slicing machines are currently being stored at associated assembly plants and will be brought online once yield rates for the production of curved glass reaches a satisfactory level, the sources revealed.

On the web: DigiTimes

Huawei Seeking to Raise $1.5 Billion from Banks

Huawei is reportedly looking to raise US$1.5 billion in new financing, with approximately 10 banks competing to participate.

Citing multiple, unnamed industry sources, Marbridge Consulting reported the news but was unable to add any further background at this time.

When a journalist called a Huawei representative inquiring why the company was raising money or if it was planning an IPO, the representative declined to comment at this time.

Back in 2008, the company cancelled the sale of its handset division due to the ongoing economic crisis at the time. The sale was expected to have raised upwards of US$2 billion for the company at the time.

On the web: Marbridge Consulting

Verizon Tops Chicago Cell Phone Performance Tests

Source here

A survey of the cell phone service in Chicago, USA found that thanks to the strong results on Verizon's LTE network, it received the highest combined score of 89.4 out of a possible 100. Sprint (49.5) and AT&T (45.3) had a statistical tie for second place.

The survey was carried out by RootMetrics which installs an application into smartphones of participating users to measure network performance.

To evaluate the Chicago market (defined as the Chicago Urbanized area according to the U.S. Census Bureau), RootMetrics performed thousands of call, data and text tests during a seven day period, covering all hours of the day and night, in April 2011. The tests centered on activities that consumers perform most often: making phone calls, uploading and downloading files from the Internet, and sending and receiving texts. It's important to note that during the testing period, Verizon's LTE network experienced an outage on April 27. As network outages impact consumer experience, RootMetrics included results of the outage in its findings.

Even with the network outage factored in, Verizon's LTE network delivered the fastest data speeds in the area. RootMetrics recorded download speeds on average nearly 3 times faster than the second-fastest download network (Sprint) and 4 times faster than the second-fastest upload network (T-Mobile). During data collection, RootMetrics found that AT&T's network was the most reliable, successfully connecting to the data network nearly 97 percent of the time. Chicagoans on T-Mobile's network may experience more trouble, as RootMetrics measured a data success rate of only 76 percent.

During the measurement, RootMetrics experienced failed calls on T-Mobile's network eight percent of the time, over four percent of the time with AT&T, just over one percent of the time on Verizon and less than 0.5 percent of the time on Sprint. Compared to other markets measured (Seattle, Dallas, Miami, Washington, D.C.), dropped calls rates in Chicago were relatively low. No carrier measured dropped calls more than two percent of the time.

Average text delivery times amongst the four carriers ranged from 13.5 seconds (T-Mobile) up to 25.3 seconds (Sprint). T-Mobile's network delivered texts to customers within its own network between two times to eight times faster than other carriers.

World Record In High-Speed Data Transmission

This is Professor Jürg Leuthold of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have succeeded in encoding data at a rate of 26 terabits per second on a single laser beam, transmitting them over a distance of 50 km, and decoding them successfully. This is the largest data volume ever transported on a laser beam.

The process developed by KIT allows to transmit the contents of 700 DVDs in just one second.

With this experiment, the KIT scientists in the team of Professor Jürg Leuthold beat their own record in high-speed data transmission of 2010, when they exceeded the magic limit of 10 terabits per second.

This success of the group is due to a new data decoding process. The opto-electric decoding method is based on initially purely optical calculation at highest data rates in order to break down the high data rate to smaller bit rates that can then be processed electrically. The initially optical reduction of the bit rates is required, as no electronic processing methods are available for a data rate of 26 terabits per second.

Printed newspapers have higher memory recall than same story on iPAD

According to a study of iPad users, people who read news stories in paper form are more likely to recall details of the story than those who read the same article on a tablet device.

The study, by French company, Miratech found that readers are more likely to skim over articles on an iPad than in a newspaper.

The study asked a representative sample of participants to read similar information from a printed newspaper first, and then from its iPad version. Participants in the study were already iPad users, so we avoided any bias associated with learning how to use the iPad (discovering the functions, playing with the zoom, etc.).

They were allowed to freely manipulate both the paper and iPad versions, and we monitored their behavior as they read. Miratech used eye tracking technology to follow their gaze path. After reading, they measured how well the user had remembered the articles and adverts.

Although no there was no significant difference in reading time, for concentration and retention, paper was found to be the clear winner.

This increased concentration results in a better retention of printed articles. After reading, only 70% of participants recall an article read on an iPad, compared with 90% for paper.

Telemarketers Call Banned In Indiana !

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The USA State of Indiana has extended its existing "Do Not Call" law barring telemarketing companies from phoning people who opt-out of the facility to include cell phones. Previously the register only barred calls to land-line numbers.

The new change clarifies current state law by extending the protections of Indiana's telephone privacy laws to include cell phone numbers, prepaid wireless calling and internet-enabled VOIP services.

"I want to thank the General Assembly for taking action to update the state's telephone privacy laws and the Governor for signing the bill," Zoeller said. "Extending the protections of the Do Not Call list for cell phones and VOIP phones will shield more Hoosiers from intrusive solicitors and potential scams."

Currently more than 1.8 million phone numbers are registered on the Do Not Call list, which is updated four times a year.

Out of state area codes can also now be registered as long as the billing address is located in Indiana, which Zoeller emphasized is particularly relevant for out-of-state college students studying in Indiana.

"Thousands of students come to Indiana to attend college every year and only have a cell phone. As long as their bills come to an Indiana mailing address, they can add their number to the list. This will reduce the number of unwanted marketing calls as well as text-based solicitations."

Indiana law also forbids the use of auto-dialers to deliver pre-recorded messages without a live operator obtaining consent to deliver the message. These calls are often referred to as "Robo Calls."