Spain, Norway to build telecoms satellite

Spain said it signed a deal with Norway Tuesday to build a telecommunications satellite, to be launched in 2014 and used for both civilian and military purposes.

"The deal will involve investment of 300 million euros (380 million dollars) and allow the creation of more than 1,000 jobs," said a statement by Spain's Defence Minister Carme Chacon, who signed the agreement with her Norwegian counterpart, Grete Faremo.

Spain's government, through its satellite communications operator Hisdesat, will have a 60 percent stake, while Norway's Defence Logistic Organisation will hold the rest.

The satellite, "scheduled for launch in 2014, will provide better strategic communications coverage for the two countries, in the military as well as civilian sectors," the statement said.

Spain and Norway already cooperate in the defence sector, notably in the construction of frigates.

Pakistan Telecom Ufone Introduces New Call Pakages ; Call UK, USA & Canada for 45 Paisas Per 30 Seconds:

Pakistan Telecom Ufone Introduces New Call Pakages ; Call UK, USA & Canada for 45 Paisas Per 30 Seconds: 

Now make calls for 45 paisa per 30 seconds to the UK (landline only), USA (landline and mobile) and Canada (landline and mobile) without any daily charges.

This offer is valid on calls made 24 hours a day to the mentioned destinations.

Also with this offer make calls to the UK mobile networks O2, T-Mobile and Orange for only Rs. 4.50 per 30 seconds.

How to Activate?

To activate this offer simply dial *27#

Note: One time subscription charges will be Rs.10 exclusive of taxes

Terms and Conditions:

• The comparison of International call rates depends upon other mobile operators call rates posted on their websites 30th August, 2010
• Customers can avail this offer after the expiry of their IDD Bucket balance
• This offer is valid till 14th Sep 2010
• This offer is not valid for NTS and special numbers in UK
• Customers can benefit from this offer after finishing with their IDD Bucket
• The offer will lapse on changing your package.
• This is a limited time offer

All Rights Reserverd By Ufone Telecom..

Pakistan Telecom Mobilink Introduces International Jazz Load!

Pakistan Telecom Mobilink Introduces International Jazz Load!” in collaboration with ezetop for its valued customers, enabling its customers to recharge Jazz accounts from international destinations.

customers can top-up the JAZZ Connection of your loved ones in Pakistan, from UK, USA, Spain, UAE and Saudi Arabia. This service will soon be available in more international destinations.

How to Jazz Load from International Locations?

To send JAZZ Load to Pakistan, just go to any of the ezetop affiliated retailer/money exchange near you OR visit www.ezetop.com and recharge JAZZ balance for anyone in Pakistan by following few simple steps mentioned below:

Through Retailer/Money Exchange:

• Go to any ezetop affiliated retailer/money exchange
• Request the agent/retailer to send top-up to any JAZZ Number in Pakistan
• Inform the agent/retailer of the amount and JAZZ Number
• Pay cash to agent/retailer

Through Website:

• Visit www.ezetop.com
• Register with ezetop website
• Select Pakistan as country and JAZZ as operator
• Enter the JAZZ Number and select the amount to top-up
• Enter the credit/debit card information and complete the transaction

Customers from abroad may contact following numbers for ezetop customer support:

• UK: 02078707976
• UAE: 042146315
• Saudi Arabia: 0550412342, 059-9656650

ENJoy It.........

Laser-based missile defense for helicopters being developed

Protecting helicopters in combat from heat-seeking missiles is the goal of new laser technology created at the University of Michigan and Omni Sciences, Inc., which is a U-M spin-off company.

"Battlefield terrain in places like Afghanistan and Iraq can be so rough that our troops have often had to rely on helicopters, and they can be easy targets for enemies with shoulder-launched missiles," said Mohammed Islam, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
"Our lasers give off a signal that's like throwing sand in the eyes of the missile."
Using inexpensive, off-the-shelf telecommunications fiber optics, Islam is developing sturdy and portable "mid-infrared supercontinuum lasers" that could blind heat-seeking weapons from a distance of 1.8 miles away.
The technology is being commercialized through Islam's company, Omni Sciences, which has recently received $1 million in grants from the Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a second-generation prototype. The Army grant is for $730,000 and the DARPA funding is $300,000.
The lasers are promising for helicopter protection because their robust, simple design can withstand shaky helicopter flight and their mid-infrared supercontinuum mode can effectively jam missile sensors.
Most lasers emit light of just wavelength, or color. But supercontinuum lasers give off a focused beam packed with light from a much broader range of wavelengths. Visible-wavelength supercontinuum lasers, for example, discharge tight columns that appear white because they contain light from across the visible spectrum.
Islam's mid-infrared supercontinuum laser does the equivalent, but it is the first to operate in longer infrared wavelengths that humans can't see, but can feel as heat. Heat-seeking missiles are designed to home in on the infrared radiation that the helicopter engine emits.
Because this new laser emits such a broad spectrum of infrared light, it can effectively mimic the engine's electromagnetic signature and confuse any incoming weapons, Islam said.
This new light source has many military applications, Islam says, but it is especially well suited for helicopters.
"The laser-based infrared countermeasures in use now for some aircraft have 84 pieces of moving optics. They couldn't withstand the shake, rattle and roll of helicopters," Islam said. "We've used good, old-fashioned stuff from your telephone network to build a laser that has no moving parts."
Omni Sciences, Inc. has licensed Islam's technology from the University of Michigan. Islam has a financial interest in this company. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Naval Air Command have also funded this research..

Facebook's new security feature: remote logouts

Facebook is rolling out a new security feature that lets users log out of their accounts remotely from another computer.

To do this, go to "account settings" on your Facebook page and click on "change" next to "account security." There, you'll see where else your Facebook account is logged in, including the type of device and the city it's in or near. To log out of any of them, click "end activity."
Facebook is making this available over the next couple of weeks. It will be accessible on computers, but not mobile devices.
The feature is similar to what Google Inc.'s Gmail offers to its users, and Facebook says it's designed to help users keep their logins secure.

Twitter tops 145 million registered users: CEO

Twitter has over 145 million registered users and more people are using mobile devices to access the microblogging service, according to co-founder Evan Williams.

Williams, in a post on the Twitter blog late Thursday, also said that nearly 300,000 third-party applications have been developed around the service, which allows users to pepper one another with messages of 140 characters or less.
"These new services help people get the most out of Twitter, contributing to user growth and new business opportunities -- both of which are critical to the long-term viability of the ecosystem," Williams said.
The Twitter chief executive said the number of people using Twitter on mobile devices had jumped 62 percent since mid-April and 16 percent of new users start on mobile, up from five percent in April.
Forty-six percent of active Twitter users regularly use a mobile device, he said.
Twitter acquired a third-party mobile application called Tweetie in April and turned it into the official Twitter program for Apple's iPhone.
Applications also exist for using Twitter on Research in Motion's Blackberry and devices powered by Google's Android mobile operating system.
Williams also published figures on the top 10 applications people have used to access Twitter during the past 30 days.
Seventy-eight percent used the official Twitter.com website, 14 percent used Twitter's mobile website m.twitter.com, eight percent used SMS, eight percent used Twitter for iPhone and seven percent used Twitter for Blackberry.
Other applications in the top 10 were TwitPic, a program for uploading photos, TweetDeck, Echofon, Google Friend Connect and UberTwitter.
Twitter said the numbers add up to more than 100 percent because people often use more than one application to access the service.

Over one million join Apple's music social network Ping

Steve Jobs (C), chief executive officer of Apple Inc., speaks to reporters after announcing the release of new upgrades for the iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, and iTunes in San Francisco, California, on September 1. More than one million users joined Apple's new music-focused social network Ping in the 48 hours.
More than one million users joined Apple's new music-focused social network Ping in the 48 hours following its launch, the company said.
Apple said one-third of the people who downloaded iTunes 10, the latest version of its online entertainment store, signed up for Ping, which was unveiled by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in San Francisco on Wednesday.
"As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing," Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet services, said in a statement late Friday.
Ping, available as a free download at itunes.com, allows users to view photos and videos of their favorite musicians and receive information about concert dates.
Ping users can also connect with friends online to discuss albums and songs and make musical recommendations.
"It's sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," Apple's Jobs said.


If You Want To Join Ping Music Social Network Click Here.

IPhone 4 sales & Available in South Korea From this week

South Korean telecom operator KT Corp said on Sunday it planned to begin selling Apple's iPhone 4 this week amid growing competition to expand in the potentially lucrative smartphone market.



KT, the country's sole distributor for the gadget, plans to start sending out the gadgets on September 10 to around 270,000 customers who placed pre-orders, a company spokesman said.
"Our branches will also start selling the phones after the pre-ordered items are shipped off," he said.
KT, South Korea's second-largest wireless operator, has sold about 890,000 iPhones since the market debut of earlier models last November.
And tens of thousands of people jammed the company's website on August 18 as it started accepting online orders for the latest model of the popular smartphone.
Local competitors such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have been striving to compete by introducing new smartphones, including the Galaxy S and Optimus series.
Samsung said Wednesday it has sold more than one million units of Galaxy S since the firm's signature smartphone model hit the market in June.
South Korea's mobile phone market is one of the world's most vigorous, with 45 million users in a population of 49 million. Smartphones, however, have a relatively small share, suggesting huge growth potential.
Samsung Electronics estimated about five million smartphones will be sold in the country by the end of 2010, up from fewer than one million in 2009.

China to have 200 million vehicles by 2020

Traffic backs up in the central business district in Beijing in August 2010. The number of vehicles on China's roads will more than double to at least 200 million by 2020, a top official was quoted Monday as saying, further straining the nation's environment and energy supply.


The number of vehicles on China's roads will more than double to at least 200 million by 2020, a top official was quoted Monday as saying, further straining the nation's environment and energy supply.

China must make it a top priority to develop fuel-efficient and alternative energy cars, the China Securities Journal said, citing Wang Fuchang, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China's auto sales hit 13.64 million units last year, overtaking the United States as the world's top car market, while sales this year are forecast to hit 15 million units.

As of the end of 2009, there were 76.2 million vehicles in the country, according to government figures.

China's auto sales have slowed in recent months, partially due to seasonal factors, but August saw a surprising 55.7 percent year on year jump, boosted by Beijing's new subsidies for energy-saving vehicles.

The surging car use has brought mounting concerns over pollution, soaring energy demand, and traffic gridlock.

A top official with the country's environment minister, Liu Ziquan, was quoted Monday as saying vehicle exhausts had overtaken other major sources as the top cause of air pollution in cities.

Road congestion has also worsened, highlighted by a recurring traffic jam dozens of kilometres (miles) long on a major highway leading into Beijing from the northwest.

Supercomputing on a cell phone waoooIts Nice...

New software that runs on a smart phone can approximate in seconds computations that would take a supercomputer hours. The software works for problems whose form is know but whose particulars aren't; slider bars allow users to set the values for which they want the problems solved. Image courtesy of David Knezevic and Dinh Bao Phuong Huynh.

Many engineering disciplines rely on supercomputers to simulate complicated physical phenomena — how cracks form in building materials, for instance, or fluids flow through irregular channels. Now, researchers in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed software that can perform such simulations on an ordinary smart phone. Although the current version of the software is for demonstration purposes, the work could lead to applications that let engineers perform complicated calculations in the field, and even to better control systems for vehicles or robotic systems.

The new software works in cases where the general form of a problem is known in advance, but not the particulars. For instance, says Phuong Huynh, a postdoc who worked on the project, a computer simulation of fluid flowaround an obstacle in a pipe could depend on a single parameter: the radius of the obstacle. But for a given value of the parameter, calculating the fluid flow could take an hour on a supercomputer with 500 processing units. The researchers’ new software can provide a very good approximation of the same calculation in a matter of seconds.

“This is a very relevant situation,” says David Knezevic, another postdoc in the department who helped lead the project. “Often in engineering contexts, you know a priori that your problem is parameterized, but you don’t know until you get into the field what parameters you’re interested in.”

Each new problem the researchers’ software is called upon to solve requires its own mathematical model. The models, however, take up very little space in memory: A cell phone could hold thousands of them. The software, which is available for download, comes preloaded with models for nine problems, including heat propagation in objects of several different shapes, fluid flow around a spherical obstacle, and the effects of forces applied to a cracked pillar. As the researchers develop models for new classes of problems, they post them on a server, from which they can be downloaded.

Advance work

But while the models are small, creating them is a complicated process that does in fact require a supercomputer. “We’re not trying to replace a supercomputer,” Knezevic says. “This is a model of computation that works in conjunction with supercomputing. And the supercomputer is indispensable.”

Knezevic, his fellow postdoc Phuong Huynh, Ford Professor of Engineering Anthony T. Patera, and John Peterson of the Texas Advanced Computer Center describe their approach in a forthcoming issue of the journalComputers and Fluids. Once they have identified a parameterized problem, they use a supercomputer to solve it for somewhere between 10 and 50 different sets of values. Those values, however, are carefully chosen to map out a large space of possible solutions to the problem. The model downloaded to a smart phone finds an approximate solution for a new set of parameters by reference to the precomputed solutions. 

The key to the system, Knezevic says, is the ability to quantify the degree of error in an approximation of a supercomputing calculation, a subject that Patera has been researching for almost a decade. As the researchers build a problem model, they select parameters that will successively minimize error, according to analytic techniques Patera helped developed. The calculation of error bounds is also a feature of the phone application itself. For each approximate solution of a parameterized problem, the app also displays the margin of error. The user can opt to trade speed of computation for a higher margin of error, but the app can generally get the error under 1 percent in less than a second.

Turning the tables

While the researchers’ software can calculate the behavior of a physical system on the basis of its parameters, it could prove even more useful by doing the opposite: calculating the parameters of a physical system on the basis of its behavior. Instead of, say, calculating fluid flow around an obstacle based on the obstacle’s size, the software could calculate the size of the obstacle based on measurements of the fluid flow at the end of a pipe. Ordinarily, that would require several different computations on a supercomputer, trying out several different sets of parameters. But if testing, say, 30 options on a supercomputer would take 30 hours, it might take 30 seconds on a phone. Indeed, the researchers have already developed a second application that calculates such “inverse problems.”

In the same way that a simulation of a physical system describes its behavior on the basis of parametric measurements, control systems, of the type that govern, say, automotive brake systems or autonomous robots, determine devices’ behavior on the basis of sensor measurements. Control-systems researchers spend a great deal of energy trying to come up with practical approximations of complex physics in order to make their systems responsive enough to work in real time. But Knezevic, Huynh and Patera’s approach could make those approximations both more accurate and easier to calculate.

Max Gunzberger, Frances Eppes Eminent Professor of Scientific Computing at Florida State University says that the MIT researchers’ work has a “cuteness aspect” that has already won it some attention. But “once you get over the cuteness factor,” he says, “if you talk about serious science or serious engineering, there’s a potential there.” Gunzberger points out that while the researchers’ demo concentrates on fluid mechanics, “there’s lots of other problems that their approach can be applied to. They built the structure that they themselves or others can start using to solve problems in different application areas.” 

Nokia has recently announced Nokia X3-02 Touch

Nokia has recently announced Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type Mobile phone with 2.4 inch QVGA touch screen. Dual input selection by touch screen and keypad has added extra ordinary value to handset with power of touchscreen and keypad in a sleek phone with multifunctional entertainment like games, applications, instant access to music and lots more.

Design and Display:

Its Dimensions are 106.2 x 48.4 x 9.6 mm (Volume 45.2cc) in weight of 78g with battery. It is ready with is 2.4 inches resistive touchscreen supporting 256k colors in 240×320 QVGA TFT resolution.

Memory Details:

• Internal memory: 50 MB
• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 16 GB

Connectivity & Location Based details:

It supports:

• GPRS/EDGE/3G (Depends on mobile operators data support)
• Capability to serve as data modem
• WLAN 802.11 b,g,n
• Bluetooth Version 2.1 with A2DP
• Micro USB 2.0
• 3.5mm av connector

Multimedia:

It is capable of standard multimedia functions like:

• 5 Mega pixel camera (2592 x 1944 pixels)with Zoom up to 4x (digital), Full focus,Full screen viewfinder, Noise reduction, Image rotation (in the image editing mode or by changing the mode from portrait to landscape), Self-timer: picture is captured after 3, 5 or 10 seconds, White balance and colour tone effect settings, Still image formats: JPEG and RAW10, Upload photos through the web browser or Bluetooth.
• Its video camera is capable of capturing Video capture in QVGA at up to 20 fps with Settings for white balance and colour tone effect and Zoom up to 4x digital.
• Stereo FM Radio.
• It can play MPEG-4, 3GPP: H.263 and H.264 codecs and audio mp3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA.
• Equalizer
• Support for .nfl (FlashLite content) videoDRM support WMDRM10, OMA DRM 2.0
• It supports ringtones formats in : eAAC, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, MP3, OGG

Applications:

• Series 40 6th edition
• Firmware update over the air (FOTA)
• Converter
• Size converter
• World clock
• Web Search
• Ovi Store
• Opera mini browser
• Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging.
• Flash Messaging
• Adobe Flashlight 3.0 support
• Java MIDP 2.1 support
• Social Network Integration
• My Nokia
• Guitar Hero 5
• Hip Hop Tournament.
• Home screen Widgets support.
• Instant Messaging Support.

INPUT Method:

• Call and end keys
• Dedicated messaging key
• Dedicated music key

Colors Availability:

• Petrol blue
• White silver
• Pink
• Dark metal
• Lilac

Noticeable Features:

• 5 Megapixel Camera
• Dual input select, like keypad and touch screen.

Nutshell:

Overall this phone seems more attractive with dual input selection with keypad and touchscreen. Multimedia functions seem pretty good for music lovers with dedicated music key and Ovi Music store support.

Whereas, Sensors would have added more value to the handset if they would be available like accelerometer for UI auto rotate and proximity sensors.

BlackBerry has recently launched BlackBerry Torch

BlackBerry has recently launched BlackBerry Torch touch screen smartphone powered with BlackBerry OS 6.

BlackBerry has significantly improved the touch sensitivity navigation with BlackBerry Torch that includes different home screen options such as Swipe Up – Swipe Down, Swipe left and Swipe Right.

Phenomenal improvement in UI and web kit browser is seen as well in BlackBerry Torch. All finger navigation on home screen popup with something useful on the screen.

BlackBerry OS 6 has changed a lot of traditional actions that previously existed in BlackBerry operating systems. One of the cool features is universal search function for searching contacts, tweets, messages, internet, files and more.

Two more important features that have been introduced with BlackBerry Torch are notification bar for accessing messages, emails and recent tweets for quick access, while another is easy access of Wi-Fi connections and Bluetooth activations.

Display:

Its display is geared with TFT touchscreen 3.2″ HVGA+ 480×360 pixel color display 3.18” measured diagonally with light sensing and proximity sensing screen. It is also ready with feature of user selectable font size.

Processor &Memory:

• 624 MHz Processor.
• 512 MB RAM
• 512MB onboard memory (ROM).
• 4GB eMMC (internal)
• microSD 4GB Media Card Included (Optional)

Connectivity & Location Based details:

It is ready with today’s connectivity needs as listed below:

• GPRS/EDGE/3G
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, • 802.11 b/g/n , WPA / WPA2 Personal and Enterprise , Cisco CCX certified , Wi-Fi® access to BlackBerry® Enterprise Server , Wi-Fi access to BlackBerry® Internet Bundle , Support for Unlicensed mobile access (carrier-dependent)
• Bluetooth® v2.1 +EDR Micro USB, Mono/stereo headset, Hands-free operation, Messaging access profile, Serial port profile, SIM access profile, Stereo audio (A2DP/AVCRP), Dial-up networking (DUN).
• A-GPS
• BlackBerry Maps

Multimedia:

It is capable of standard multimedia functions like:

• 5 MP camera , 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash and it is ready with features like Geo-tagging, continuous auto-focus, image stabilization and Multiple picture-taking modes
• Video recording in VGA mode.
• It is ready to play – Audio formats: MP3, AMR-NB, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WMV, Flac, OggVorbis and Video formats: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV3.
• Ringtones : Polyphonic/MIDI ringtones, MP3 ringtones, Vibrate mode ,On-screen, LED indicator
• Speaker Phone.
• 3.5 mm Stereo Jack

Applications:

• BlackBerry OS 6
• New User Interface with improved transition effects.
• Document Editor
• Instant messaging
• BlackBerry Maps
• Web Kit Browser (pinch to zoom)
• Podcasts
• Media Player
• Video Player
• Social networking applications.
• Application management
• Online Media Streaming (Browser Access)

Input Selections:

• Hardware slide out Qwerty Keyboard
• Software QWERTY Keyboard.
• Track pad
• ESC key to right of track pad
• Menu key to left of track pad

Colors Availability:

• Black

Bonus Features:

• UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access)
• Enhanced built-in memory and RAM.

Nutshell:

BlackBerry has come up with much better device in touch screen arena especially with better finger swipe navigation controls and sensitivity.

Overall, BlackBerry Torch has enhanced features as compared to its previous models in terms of LCD size, Pixel size, camera and finger touch navigation with traditional QWERTY style hard keypad.

Whereas, BlackBerry Torch’s battery capacity has decreased to 1300mAH as compared to BlackBerry Bold 9700′s 1500mAH.

We can hope that, Blackberry Torch may surface in Pakistan officially by some mobile operator soon, though BlackBerry Bold 9700 was not in hot list of cellular operators.

Pakistan Telecom Ufone Giving Postpaid Offers @ Rs. 3 Per Hour

Ufone is now offering its postpaid customers to call at Rs. 3 plus tax per hour from 12 AM to 5 PM to 5 FNF numbers.

This is long awaited treat for postpaid customers, who are usually neglected for incentives and offerings.

This is also first of its kind offer that allows hourly calling for postpaid segment. Though postpaid market is usually considered as corporate and business class, who may not afford calling for hours (in terms of time), still we will have to see how will audience respond to this promotion.

Note: This offer is available for all Ufone postpaid packages, however, a monthly rental of Rs. 50 plus taxes will be added in your current monthly rental.

Tariff:

How to Subscribe:

You can subscribe to FnF service by sending any 5 Ufone or PTCL numbers separated by commas to short code 363. Example: 03331511000, 03331220000, 0511651547.

Note:

• This offer will be available on U49, U249, U549, U999, U 1499, U1999, U3999, U50, U250, U550, U1000, U1600, U5000 packages
• Once you subscribe to this offer, it will become part of your subscription unless you unsubscribe it
• For complete details on Ufone Postpaid click here