Ofcom pushes for extensive investment in fibre networks

Telecoms regulator Ofcom is looking for feasible and practical ways of replacing the existing copper networks. In fact, fibre optic cables could be laid through the sewer ducts in order to speed up the rollout of super-fast broadband to homes as well as businesses throughout the UK.

The speed offered by fibre optic cable is up to 100Mb. It is much faster than the speeds of existing copper networks, and is also able to handle multiple high-definition video streams as well as near-instant music downloads. Fibre networks are currently being fitted at three estates in the UK.

Ofcom feels that the new regulatory proposals will promote extensive investment in fibre networks. It intends to do this by ensuring competition between various service providers.

Ofcom also said that the regulations will ensure security measures for homes in the form of continuous battery back-up that will guarantee access to emergency calls in case of a power failure. Once the measures get implemented, connectivity will be greatly enhanced. 

Microsoft invites amateur developers

Microsoft is trying to promote more interest in embedded software. It is encouraging amateur developers to experiment with programmable components in various devices starting from toasters to televisions. The “Spark Your Imagination” developer programme for amateur as well as academics was announced at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, California. In a joint agreement between Microsoft and hardware makers, the company said that it is interested in enhancing popularity of non-commercial software developments around Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 and Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition.

Frank Prengel, a Microsoft Windows Embedded developer evangelist, said that they were aiming to remove the barriers that amateur as well as academics have faced in the past. It intends to permit them to use the best software and hardware. They can be developed into smart, connected and service-oriented devices like home-control systems that gather and share data between sensors, home appliances and media devices.

Under the banner of its Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance, Microsoft is known to provide some software for students in the embedded technology and design fields. With the help of the new programme, it intends to include additional offerings that will include a full version of Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 and Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition.

Jaxtr offers free texting

Jaxtr members can simply use a text form to send a text message to a mobile phone in any of the supported countries. Jaxtr, is a Silicon Valley startup that allow users to bypass a carrier’s international phone charges through the Web. It is offering mobile phone text messages free of cost between 38 countries like United States, Brazil, Slovenia, Britain, Kenya and Ukraine.

The recipient can reply directly with their mobile devices. The other way is they can click on a link, sign up to Jaxtr and then send a free reply with the help of their Web browser of their mobile phone. Until now Jaxtr was a member service but with the messaging system, it has been opened to every one. Jaxtr is one of the few companies, to come forward in recent years, that prefer using Web technology as a substitute for more expensive proprietary network services that telecom carriers offer to their customers.

Skype competes directly with telecom carriers as its users can circumvent traditional phone lines. But in case of Jaxtr the users require to a phone in order to receive calls and text messages. Text messages will have a small ads that will be a source of revenue for Jaxtr. This service is also meant to attract users so that they come back to Jaxtr’s website more often which will again help in generating more and more revenue.

Corus gets into £26m IT deal with Capgemini

Steel manufacturer Corus has extended its IT outsourcing deal to administer its mainframe computers with Capgemini through a number of contracts the rotal amount being £26m. The new five-year outsourcing contracts will be valid till to 2013. Some of the IT work is being off shored to Capgemini’s operations in India as well as Poland. This is all in tandem with the plans to drastically lower mainframe running costs.

The overall service management will be managed by Capgemini in the UK. The operational management will be done from its command centre in Krakow, Poland.  Additional technical support will be provided from a Capgemini centre in Mumbai, India.

As per the terms of the new contracts, Capgemini will maintain accountability for managing the mainframe computers that support core steel production, supply chain, sales ordering, purchasing, stockholding and invoicing at Corus’ chief UK manufacturing sites. Existing IBM and Fujitsu mainframe services will also undergo transition all across from Corus sites to Capgemini’s data centres in Bristol and Rotherham. Bruno Laquet, who is the CIO at Corus, said that the quality and competence of their mainframe systems is of utmost importance to the customers and employees in ensuring that they manufacture as well as deliver the right products at the right time.

Tech Profit Warnings On A Rise

Profit  warnings among software and IT services companies are on the rise as the condition of market forces customers to tighten their belts. A research by Ernst & Young show that profit warnings in the software as well computer services sector of the FTSE share index increase by almost 44 per cent in the first quarter of 2008.

There were 13 companies belonging to the sector that issued profit warnings in the first quarter of the year. All these companies had a revenue stream that was less than £200m. Also all their citing sales were short of forecast. Last year there were almost 17 profit warnings in the software and services sector. But by the end of the year, the number had reduced to 9. The technology hardware and equipment sector had 7 profit warnings in the first quarter of 2008 as compared to 3 last year.

Across all the sectors of the FTSE index, around 114 profit warnings were issued by UK quoted companies. Now this is the highest first quarter figure since 2001.

Web users are wary of giving out personal details, reveals a new survey

Almost 60 per cent of web users are wary of giving out personal details and losing their privacy. A new survey involving 2513 people in the US, who were questioned in a Harris Interactive poll, confessed that they were not too comfortable giving out personal information on the web. They revealed their apprehension regarding web sites sharing their personal online activity details in order to customise advertisements or other content. This feedback may get the web giants thinking, and may even prompt them to offer online users some tangible benefits like giving promotional codes for a discount on movies / electronics items and similar such incentives in exchange of their personal information.

As of now, the worry over losing privacy has not affected users to a great extent. But this scenario may change pretty fast once they understand the implications and extent of damage in terms of loss of privacy that can be caused through targeted advertisements. The survey also reveals that younger users are more comfortable with the customised web content as compared to their older counterparts. The comfort level of the users was enhanced only a little when they were asked to consider probable safeguards like enhanced web privacy policies and procedures.

Phone Home Computers Guide Police

Computers that ‘phone home’ after they have been stolen are guiding the police to the doorsteps of thieves worldwide. Exceptional Tracking technology has helped police track thousands of stolen machines. The police have tracked UK computers as far away as Macedonia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. West Midlands Police have recently used the technology to recover more than 30 laptops.

Alan McInnes, general manager with the Association of Chief Police Officers crime prevention initiatives believes that the more widely the technology is used, the more the thieves will be discouraged from stealing the computer. This tracking technology was used to recover large numbers of cars. It had proved to be highly successful and he hopes for the same success rates in computer thefts. 

The most useful kind of tracking software is buried within the BIOS of a PCs motherboard during its manufacture. This makes it opposing to hard disc wiping or elimination. When any stolen machine is connected to the web, it will make contact with a monitoring centre to report its Internet Protocol address. This helps the police to trace its location with the help of the internet service provider. Absolute Software claims that its tracking software solution, ComputraceOne, has helped recover almost 5,000 stolen computers all across the world.

Changes In The Retail Sector

Retailers are planning either to altogether close stores or change the existing store formats in order to bring the in-store experience to keep up with the self service customer experience provided by online shopping. According to a report from Visa Europe, almost around a quarter of 300 retailers in France, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and the UK expect a drop in the number of store numbers over the coming seven years.

Around 70 per cent of the retailers expect to introduce novel formats that may integrate some form of self checking out along with digital information services between 2012 and 2015. Almost half of the people surveyed expects that they will be using their loyalty card information to send customers targeted promotions either through email or through sms.

More than a third of the retailers plan to set up RFID tags in that timeframe so that they can make better use of product inventory management and also offer customer promotions. Around 22 per cent intend to introduce automated self-scanning technology.

As per Visa Europe, the change in the attitude of the current sector is driven by the popularity of internet shopping. Customers are now expecting a greater amount of self-service. They expect access to the inventory no matter where they shop.

Mobile browser market is booming

The mobile browser market is booming. Highly developed web browsing software is likely to get installed on nearly 1.5 billion handsets by 2013, according to mobile market analysts. ABI Research has pointed out that a large number of smart phones now integrate browsers that efficiently support the most up-to-date capabilities like Ajax and RSS. The analyst firm expects this market to account for the huge majority of development over the next five years or so.

According to ABI estimates, the mobile open-internet browser segment will grow from mere 76 million browsers delivered in 2007 to almost 700 million in 2013. Mobile browser developers are keen on taking advantage of the latest Web standards along with developing solutions customised to the exclusive experience of using a browser on a mobile phone.

The most recent commercial solutions from Openwave, Opera and Access as well as those who insist on using open source solutions like Webkit allow consumers to access content on the web without restrictions that exist largely owing to browser constraints. Eventually, the growing inclination and demand for web-based applications will mean that the Web browsers along with the services become increasingly significant components in the mobile environment.

Windows XP SP3 In Its Final Phase

The final service pack for Windows XP will be available to users by the end of April, if we are to believe a leaked Microsoft schedule. The assumed schedule for the release of XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) claims that manufacturers and volume licence customers will be able to access the upgrade on 21 April. Other XP users will get their hands on the pack on 28 April via Microsoft Update, Windows Update and the Download Center website. Anyone who fails to install the service pack will be required to do so on 10 June through automatic update.

XP SP3 is an improvement on the updates and fixes that was released by Microsoft since SP2 came out in 2004. Windows XP has been launched in 2001. It was later replaced at the end of 2006 by Windows Vista. But Vista received very poor acceptance by many users. A number of petitions are at present circulating the internet, requesting Microsoft to allow retail sales of XP even after its stated cut-off date of mid-2008.

Microsoft will permit XP to be sold on some computers but only low-cost sub-notebooks like the Asus Eee, that do not have the required processing power to deal with Vista’s requirements.

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