Google Inc. has announced Ardian Kristanto Poernomo from Nanyang Technology University in Singapore as the grand prizewinner of the 2006 Google India Code Jam, the company's second annual computer programming competition in India. Ardian competed against thousands of participants from around the world to bring home the Rs.122,000 grand prize. Ardian was also the winner of the Google India Code Jam 2005.
"We are honored to host some of the most talented computer programmers in the world for this competition," said Alan Eustace, vice president, Engineering and Research, Google Inc. "Google engineers love solving technical problems, and we are pleased to celebrate the fields of engineering and computer science through the Google India Code Jam."
The second through fifth place winners all received a Rs.56,000 prize. The winners included Abishek Kumarasubramanian, Shreevatsa Rajagopalan, Phuong Ngoc Nguyen and Prima Chairunnanda.
Cash prizes were awarded to all of the top 50 finalists who came from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Singapore. Finalists were flown in to compete in the championship round of the coding competition held this year in Bangalore.
This is the second year of the Google India Code Jam, produced in conjunction with TopCoder, the leader in online programming competition, skills assessment and competitive software development.
The competition, which began March 20, 2006 attracted more than 14000 participants from India and South East Asia. All entrants participated in an initial qualification round with 500 progressing to the second round. The top 50 scorers from round two were brought to Bangalore for the finals.
Singapur Student Wins Google Code Jam
RIL+F-Secure
F-Secure Corporation, Finland, a leading global provider of data security for consumers, has announced a partnership deal with Reliance Communications. The deal will provide data security services and ensure safe surfing for Reliance Communications broadband customers in India. F-Secure will provide its F-Secure Service Platform for Consumers, a solution that allows ISPs to offer their residential and small office customers a complete security solution that protects their computers against viruses, external attacks, harmful content and spam. The Service will provide direct accessibility to customers having self-subscription module as well. -->Reliance Communications is the first broadband service provider in India to partner with F-Secure and offer security as a value added service integrating the offering into monthly Internet package. Speaking about the deal, Prakash Bajpai, president broadband business, Reliance Communications Ventures, said that they are delighted to have F-Secure's security solution. With dependence on computer at an all-time high in personal and professional lives, there is a need for a fail-proof security solution that guarantees the customer peace of mind. Moreover, the reason for having an alliance with F-Secure, Bajpai revealed that they have mainly focused on security solutions in which F-Secure is the leader. It is the company whose product folio is complete and has a philosophy of giving quality service. Bajpai further pointed out that although it's not an exclusive partnership that comes with an expiry date, it is going to be there as long as both the parties mutually benefit from each other. Risto Siilasmaa, president and CEO, F-Secure, meanwhile, stated that he is delighted to acknowledge their partnership with Reliance Communications, a company that has shown great forward thinking in the manner it approaches its customers, particularly in the matter of data security provision. Siilasmaa added that Reliance's innovative approach and high ambition to become the largest broadband provider in India are values which they strongly support and by offering superior data security services to their customers they hope to underpin their continued success. F-Secure Service Platform for Consumers is available in two packages including Reliance PC Protect Basic and Family Packs. These packages include a combination of anti-virus, spyware, firewall, parental and spam control. The packages are optional and come at a price which hasn't yet been finalized. Reliance broadband packages will also be available without F-Secure services.
Wipro announced Bharat Pc
Wipro Infotech has announced the 'SuperGenius Bharat PC' in an attempt to bridge the digital divide in the country. SuperGenius Bharat PC is based on Intel's innovative PC platform that is developed exclusively to meet the needs of villages and rural communities in the country. The hardware and software features of the Wipro SuperGenius Bharat PC differentiate it from the standard desktop PCs and make it an attractive platform for the rural environment. Designed to define locally relevant computing solutions based on Intel technology, the Community PC platform is equipped to operate in a community setting, while accommodating the varying environmental conditions prevalent in the country. -->K.S. Viswanathan, chief executive - India Geography, Wipro Infotech, said that with the innovative spirit that pervades at Wipro, they are constantly conceiving newer approaches toward affordable computing. It is a step towards taking basic computing closer to the common man. In order to address the issues of weather conditions, such as heat, dust and humidity, and unreliable power sources, Wipro SuperGenius Bharat PC has been developed to be a fully functional, expandable and shared-access computing solution. It consists of a rugged chassis that is engineered to resist extreme dust and heat conditions. Additionally, unlike typical desktops, this new PC can continue to operate if AC power is unavailable without loss of any data. The Central Power System Unit (CPSU) enables the system to operate on both AC and DC (battery) power. The System Maintenance Center (SMC) software of the PC empowers the system owner with self- diagnostic and self-maintenance capabilities. It also includes system diagnosis software for detecting and removing viruses. The Battery Wizard Software enables the operator to establish system-level power management and battery power functions and provides real-time status of battery charge. Anil Jain, vice president - personal computing division, Wipro Infotech, further points out that rural India deserves a superior, customized yet, affordable PC that can operate despite environmental and infrastructural bottlenecks. Wipro SuperGenius Bharat PC is an earnest technology offering that aims to increase and facilitate PC usage in rural India.
Wipro Planes to Expand in Andhra Pradesh
Bangalore-based IT major – Wipro Ltd is planning to expand its operations in Andhra Pradesh. The company plans to invest around Rs 950 crore in the state and provide employment for 28,500 IT professionals.
Wipro chairman Azim Premji, who made a courtesy call on Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy during the latter's visit to Bangalore Monday, briefed him about the firm's expansion plans.
Wipro is looking at investing around Rs 750 crore in Hyderabad with employment potential for 15,000 people. The company is also looking at investing around Rs 200 crore in Visakhapatnam.
According to the company statement, it requires 300 acres in Hyderabad and 50 acres in Visakhapatnam for the proposed investment for the new facilities.
Currently, Wipro has operations on a 30-acre campus in Andhra Pradesh with an investment of Rs.200 crore and employs 2,000 people.
Sony Ericsson announced w700i
Sony Ericsson has announced the launch of their W700i cell phone with a built in MP3 player and a camera.
The Titanium Gold W700i is the 8th walkman phone from Sony Ericsson, a product to combine a Mobile Phone , a high quality digital music player, FM radio with RDS, and a 2.0-megapixel camera. The W700i comes with 256 MB memory that is enough to hold about 4 hours of music. But users can expand memory up to 2 GB using Memory Stick Pro Duo cards available in the market.
Supplied with high-quality headset that plugs into a standard connector, consumers can also connect their favorite headset to the W700i. There is also a full range of available plug-in music accessories, from small portable speakers to car systems.
Jan Wareby, corporate executive Vice President, Head of Sale and Marketing, Sony Ericsson said that the W700i builds on the legacy of the first Walkman phone, the W800i. This phone will appeal to anyone who wants a quality music player in their phone for occasional listening. Like the W800i, the W700i will have all the usual features including 1.8-inch 262 K color, 176 x 220 pixels TFT display, Bluetooth 2.0, Tri-band connectivity and dedicated music buttons. One useful feature is the ability to use the music player with the phone turned off, which is great for use in flights.
The Sony W700i's music quality is enhanced by using the integrated graphic equalizer (software) and Mega Bass. The bundled software, Disc2Phone, is sufficient to get going, ripping CDs and transferring them to the phone.
The W700i will be released globally in second quarter of 2006 and will also be available in a Smooth White colour variant in some markets. The local price of this model is not known yet.
Rils new Chota LifeTime offer
Ril offured new CHOTa Life Time offer of 10 years in 795 rs
As compared to most mobile operators who have received their license in 1994 and as such their license would be valid only till 2014, RIL's current 15-year scheme is believed to be superior. As an enhancement to this, RIL has now introduced the ten-year lifetime validity product. Under the new scheme, the recharge option of Rs 795 available with E-recharge comes pre-loaded with Rs 25 worth of talk-time. Subscribers will be able to make outgoing calls at rates of Rs 1.99 per local call, and Rs 2.99 per call within the country.
As in case of the existing recharge option of Rs 995, with the Rs 795 recharge option the subscriber will not be bound by any particular tariff plan for a lifetime. He/she will be able to choose from the company's wide range of prepaid vouchers and tariff plans, with Reliance India Mobile. Subscribers will also have the option of choosing between the existing and the new lifetime schemes.
Xeroxs new WorkCentre PE 220
Xerox India Ltd has launched its WorkCentre PE 220, a multi-functional device designed for medium and large enterprises.
Xerox WorkCentre PE 220 is ideal for today's business environment as it comes with special space and time enhancing features. Its easy to use interface makes it a product of choice for medium and large enterprises. It has a compact design with a “plug and play” set up. It offers a printing speed of up to 20 ppm and has a duty cycle up to 5,000 pages/ month. It also has a print and scan resolution of 600 dpi x 600 dpi and has a 16 MB memory.
Price: Rs. 18,500/-
TRAIs pushback to LifeTime operators
With subscribers having had a string of lifetime offers thrown at them recently by service providers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rightfully stepped-in and issued much-needed regulations on this slew of schemes.
TRAI has given an order that bars telecom operators from charging tariff on lifetime prepaid offers as long as they remain in business. TRAI's directive is intended to protect the interests of subscribers who make an upfront payment in lieu of certain promised features including validity, as also to bring more clarity to the concept of lifetime validity.
Issuing the order, TRAI has further pointed out that in case of tariff plans offered or marketed as having lifetime or unlimited validity in lieu of an upfront payment, subscribers of such plans will continue to get service as long as the service provider is permitted to provide such telecom service under the existing or renewed license.
Service providers are required to inform subscribers of the month and year of the expiry of the current license.
TRAI has prohibited operators from hiking tariffs for any service specified in the lifetime tariff plans, during the entire lifelong validity period.
Furthermore in case of tariff plans other than plans with lifetime validity that have a component of upfront payment, the service providers are not allowed to hike tariffs during the promised validity period of such plans.
Like in the case of lifetime validity plans, subscribers of other tariff plans will continue to get service during the entire promised validity period.
Meanwhile operators have conveyed that if regulatory or policy changes do not make the lifetime plan viable, they retain the freedom to withdraw it at any point of time.
Logitech Launched Bluetooth Headset
Logitech, $1.5 billion Swiss digital lifestyle peripherals company, has launched a new compact Bluetooth mobile phone headsets, the Logitech Mobile Traveller Headset.
The headset features a very small form factor and uses advanced Bluetooth 1.2 technology, which includes Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) technology to reduce interference. The Mobile Traveller headset includes the WindStop technology, which ensures clear conversations even in windy conditions.
“As the market for Bluetooth mobile phone headsets continues its dramatic growth, headsets must continue to deliver safety and convenience benefits while also including stylish designs and additional features to appeal to the tastes of mainstream customers,” said Moninder Jain, director, South Asia, Logitech.
“Logitech's new Mobile Traveller headset not only frees people from the hassle of wires, but offer more distinct advantages. Those seeking a sophisticated design and advanced technology, like WindStop, will appreciate the Mobile Traveller headset,” he added.
The Mobile Traveller Headset, which weighs 0.6 ounces, features an over-ear design with a cushioned ear pad that rests on the outer ear instead of inside it, and an over-ear soft rubber earpiece, which wraps around the ear.
This headset also includes Logitech's WindStop technology, an innovation that surrounds the microphone with an acoustical barrier to filter the disruptive effects of wind noise, enabling clear conversations in adverse conditions.
The Mobile Traveller headset offers seven hours of continuous talk time besides 280 hours of standby time. The product includes a call/answer button located directly on the headset. The Logitech Mobile Traveller Headset also supports several features built into many mobile phones, such as voice dialing, three-way calling and mute.
The Logitech Mobile Traveller Headset is available all over India at a suggested MRP of Rs 4995 and comes with a two-years warranty.
Google Top Once again
Lagging behind Google are Yahoo that managed 22.5 per cent of online searches, while MSN took-up 10.7 percent of the total online search share. AOL and My Way Search rounded out the top five search providers with 6.6 and 2.7 percent of searches, respectively.
Google has beaten arch rivals to once again notch top slot in the search engines' category.
As per the Nielsen/NetRatings report Google has been voted the world s most popular search engine, with 48.5 percent of all searches conducted in the US in February 2006 having been carried out on Google.
Search share among these five providers has remained relatively flat since January 2006, with all providers gaining or losing less than one percentage point only.
Meanwhile rival comScore Media Matrix has reported that Google's share of the search market increased by 6 percent this year, to reach 42.3 percent of total search in February 2006. Yahoo's share according to Media Matrix fell to 27.6 percent from the 31.1 percent a year ago, while MSN dropped down to 13.5 percent from the earlier 16.3 percent.
Michael Lanz, vice president - search industry solutions, Nielsen/NetRatings, said that the numbers of people searching had stayed the same, although they seemed to be searching more and more.
The total number of searches were found to have increased by 38 per cent, from 3.8 billion in February 2005 to 5.3 billion in February 2006.
Lanz sees search usage intensity increasing, not only in the number of searches done per person for general web content, but also for searches initiated specifically for photos and graphics, as well as for comparison of shopping information.
According to Web Analytics, this growth is due in large part to an increased number of searches per person, particularly in the image search and shopping search categories.
Google was found to be holding a comfortable lead in image search as well. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, 71.9 percent of image search was conducted through Google. However in terms of market share, Google lost 4.4 percent if compared to February 2005.
Yahoo was able to raise its image search share from 13.9 percent to 19.1 percent. Ask.com climbed from 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent, and AOL gained 1.0 percent to 1.4 percent. MSN's image search was listed unchanged at 2.3 percent.
The increase in image searches is attributed to the growing number of broadband households, and the rising popularity of social-networking sites.
Sun anounced mobile.java
According to Sun, the new mobile Web site is a companion site to Sun's
Sun Microsystems has announced the launch of mobile.java.com, a site that offers mobile Java technology-based applications for purchase and download, along with information for consumers about Java technology and the Java brand.
Subscribers on more than 250 wireless carriers world-wide can access the new site via a web browser on any Java-powered mobile device (cell phone, PDA, etc).
java.com, the popular consumer entertainment site for Java-powered games, productivity tools, etc, and the global home to "Get Java Free" for the desktop.
Upon its debut, mobile.java.com will already contain a range of Java-powered mobile applications including: Action game Cannon Fodder,
racing game Lotus Challenge, timed puzzle game Sudoku Solver, a winter
wonderland-themed game called Snow Doku, and NetChess that enables
interactive games with live Chess-masters around the world.
K P Unnikrishnan, marketing director, Sun Microsystems India, said,
"Sun's java.com, the popular consumer entertainment site for Java-powered games, productivity tools, etc, has met with huge success from developers and users alike. Java.com has seen unprecedented growth with more than one million new visitors added per month from more than 210 countries."
"The decision to start mobile.java.com was to complement this site, and to also leverage the strength of the Java brand and readily deliver the content consumers are looking for in their mobile handsets. World-wide, there are over 3 billion handsets that are Java-enabled, and this number is expected to further grow over the next three years. This site will help us address this huge audience. It will also help address the developer community, by providing them with a platform to showcase their applications that have been developed on Java," Unnikrishnan said.
On mobile.java.com, Java developers can sell and deliver their games,
ringtones, videos and other applications directly to users world-wide on any network, and use Bango - the mobile content enabler, to bill consumers anywhere in the world for their content. Powered by Bango's "browse and buy" technology, developers retain total flexibility and control over product offerings and pricing. This "direct-to-consumer" approach operates in conjunction with mobile carriers' content portals, and offers consumers a range of ways to pay depending on the network that they are on.
SMS to Send your RESUME
Picture this. Your environ restricts you from applying for a job that comes with an ASAP tag. You're stuck at your workplace and can't send your resume from the office computer.
Also imagine the similar situation with a tinge difference. You can't afford an Internet connection at home and there's no café nearby. How about sending your Curriculum Vitae through an SMS?
Yes you've read it right! The above-mentioned tricky situations can be a thing of the past, thanks to a new website smsresume.com.
All one needs to do is register with the Hyderabad-based website and create an ID. Once a registered user you can send resumes using the cell phone. To apply for jobs one needs to compose resume, user's mail id, recruiter's mail id, subject and send it to the number, 3030.
The smsresume.com server collects the data and sends it to the desired mail ID along with the covering letter the user posts on his account. The mail that goes to the recruiter looks as if it has been send from the applicant mailbox and not through an SMS.
What's more satisfying is that the user receives a confirmation immediately after the resume delivery. In a nutshell the process is an amalgamation of the mobile and the Internet technology.
“These days even villagers possess cell phones. Even if one doesn't have a cell phone, it can be borrowed easily from friends. But how many have access to the Internet? It's simple and easy. By sending an SMS, one can send his/her resume to the desired organization. It's spontaneous and real time,” explains HR consultant Sreenivas Rao Chennamaneni of smsresume.com.
One thing that comes to the mind is that covering letter saved may not apply to all the jobs. “For this one can save a general covering letter that can be used for all the jobs,” prescribes Sreenivas.
The recently launched website now has more than 500 registered users. So far about 150 users have made us of the service provided by it.
To enhance the website, plans are afoot to introduce job alerts and work force management sections. “We are working to include job alerts and workforce management. The workforce management will work in a similar fashion. Anyone who needs workers can send an SMS and we'll send the information to the persons cell phone inbox,” says Sreenivas.
The website, run by indianhr.com, is in talks with companies in Kuwait and Malaysia for partnership. “In future we would like to sell certain tools to some companies. For that we will customize the service for those companies,” informs Sreenivas.