Nokia to offer free maps app, service for rival handsets

Nokia has unveiled plans to offer a free maps app on rivals' devices.
Maps will initially be released on Apple iOS devices offering downloadable street plans for offline use, and audio-based directions for pedestrians.
Nokia is also developing a version for Mozilla's forthcoming Firefox operating system, and will release software tools to allow third parties to make use of its data on Android devices.
The move is designed to help the firm compete against Google's rival product.
Nokia already powers maps available on Windows Phone handsets, Amazon's Kindle tablets, Yahoo services including Flickr, Garmin sat-nav kits, and about four out of five cars with in-built map displays. Last month Nokia also unveiled a deal with Oracle that will see the business software firm make use of its location services in its products.
Nokia claims more than 20 years of expertise in the area thanks to its acquisition of Navteq for $8.1bn (£5.1bn) in 2007.

World's first dual screens notebook computer "Taichi"

The world's first dual screens notebook computer "Taichi" produced by Taiwan's personal computer giant ASUS is displyed in Tokyo on November 14 at (R) is reflected image on a miror. It has 11.6-inch LCD display on the both side, enabling to use as a tablet and notebook computer. The unique PC, equipped with Intel's Core i7 processor on its CPU will go on sale December 8. Photo: AFP

Egypt PM decries Gaza 'disaster'

Egypt's prime minister has condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza as a disaster during a short visit to the territory.
Hisham Qandil, who visited a hospital and talked to Palestinian politicians during his three-hour visit, said Israeli "aggression" must stop.
Israel struck at more than 130 targets overnight and militants fired 11 rockets from Gaza.
At least 18 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed since Israel began its offensive on Wednesday.
The Israeli army began an initial draft of 16,000 reservists on Friday, after the government authorised the call-up of 30,000.
The BBC's Jon Donnison in Gaza says there is not yet any sign of a ground offensive.
Ministry building wrecked
Militants and civilians, including at least five children, are among the Palestinian dead, Palestinian officials say.
Two Israeli women and a man died when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday, Israeli officials said.
Qandil visited the Council of Ministers building in Gaza, and also a hospital treating those wounded in attacks.
His Muslim Brotherhood now dominates the Egyptian government and has close ties with Hamas, which controls Gaza.
Israel had agreed to stop firing during his visit, but only if militants also stopped their rocket attacks.
Shortly after Qandil's arrival, Israeli officials said they had launched air strikes because rockets had continued to hit Israeli cities.
Israel killed a Hamas military leader on Wednesday, sparking intense violence and rumours of an invasion.
Explosions continued in Gaza throughout the night, with huge blasts rocking Gaza City as dawn broke on Friday.
Witnesses said parts of the Gaza interior ministry were destroyed in the overnight raids.
Israel said it had targeted dozens of rocket-launching facilities in the territory.
In recent days, militants say they have fired more than 350 rockets from Gaza.
Israel said 130 rockets had been intercepted by its Iron Dome missile defence system.
In Tel Aviv on Thursday, residents took cover after air-raid sirens alerted them to a missile threat for the first time since the Gulf War in 1991.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad said it had fired an Iranian-built Fajr-5 rocket, which has an estimated range of 75km (45km).
Reports said two missiles had landed near Tel Aviv: one hit an uninhabited area and another is thought to have landed in the sea.

BBC pay out 185,000 pounds over false abuse claim

The BBC agreed to pay 185,000 pounds on Thursday to a former treasurer of Britain's Conservative Party wrongly accused of child sex abuse as a result of one of its reports.
The settlement came as media reports said one of the BBC's former stars had been arrested as part of an ongoing police investigation into sex crimes centred on the publicly funded broadcaster.
Lord Alistair McAlpine, an ally of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was widely named on the internet as being the unidentified senior politician accused in a report by the BBC's flagship Newsnight programme of abusing boys in social care.
The flawed film sparked one of the worst crises in the broadcaster's 90-year history and claimed the scalp of Director General George Entwistle, after the abuse victim central to the BBC investigation said McAlpine was not one of his attackers.
"I am delighted to have reached a quick and early settlement with the BBC," McAlpine said in a statement.
"I have been conscious that any settlement will be paid by the licence fee payers, and have taken that into account in reaching agreement with the BBC."
His lawyer warned others who had sullied his client's reputation to get in touch before they too faced litigation, a threat which could ensnare hundreds of Twitter users and bloggers who wrongly named McAlpine.
"We will now be continuing to seek settlements from other organisations that have published defamatory remarks and individuals who have used Twitter to defame me," McAlpine said.
TWITTER USERS IN THE FRAME
One of the first who could face action is Sally Bercow, the flamboyant wife of Britain's parliamentary speaker who keeps lawmakers in order during debates.
She had tweeted: "Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*" as speculation mounted after the Newsnight report. On Thursday, she wrote: "I'm getting legal advice. Shocked that I'm first person Lord McAlpine coming after though."
The controversy convulsed the national broadcaster just as it was trying to grapple with revelations that a former star presenter, Jimmy Savile, who died last year aged 84, was one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.
Police investigating claims against Savile, said on Thursday they had arrested a fourth man, aged in his 60s, on suspicion of sexual offences and added the number of victims who had come forward with allegations had now risen to 450.
The BBC and other media named the arrested man as radio presenter Dave Lee Travis, who once appeared on the same TV show and radio station as Savile and whose radio show Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said had provided her with comfort during her many years in captivity.
A Reuters photographer reported there were a number of police officers outside the home of Travis, 67, a short distance north of London. Travis publicly denied any allegations of impropriety when claims first surfaced last month.
"HORRENDOUS SHOCK"
The BBC's much-criticised handling of the Savile allegations and the mistaken child abuse report on Newsnight prompted BBC Trust Chairman Chris Patten to warn that the world's biggest broadcaster was doomed unless it reformed.
Patten, a former Conservative minister who is best known for handing back Hong Kong to China in 1997, was due to meet the 11 other BBC trustees on Thursday to try to plot a way out of the crisis and find a successor to Entwistle, who quit on Saturday.
McAlpine, who is 70 and in poor health, said in a BBC interview it had been a "horrendous shock" to find out that he was being linked to a claims of a high-level paedophile ring.
He said the BBC should have called him about the allegations before airing the report.
"They could have saved themselves a lot of agonising and money, actually, if they'd just made that telephone call," McAlpine said. "I would have told them exactly what they learnt later on ... That it was complete rubbish."
At the height of the frenzy following the Newsnight show on November 2, a presenter on a chat show on the ITV channel brandished a list of alleged abusers during an interview with Prime Minister David Cameron.
Britain's media regulator said it was investigating both the Newsnight report and ITV, which said it too had received a letter from McAlpine's legal team.
Peter Fincham, ITV's Director of Television, said what his channel's show had done was "wrong" and "misguided", and that "appropriate" disciplinary action had been taken.
The regulator, Ofcom, could theoretically fine ITV a maximum of up to 5 percent of annual turnover while the maximum fine for the BBC, not an Ofcom licensee, would be 250,000 pounds.
Other penalties open to Ofcom are directing the broadcasters not to repeat the allegation, or to issue a correction.

Japan PM set for general election

BBC Online
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has dissolved parliament ahead of a general election.
Noda, in power since August 2011, will face newly-elected opposition leader Shinzo Abe in the polls.
Abe's party is expected to win the most seats but the election is seen as unlikely to deliver a clear winner.
Noda has lost support over his sales tax rise and handling of the Fukushima aftermath, while Abe is an ex-PM who struggled to connect with the public.
Support ratings for both the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are low.
A number of other smaller parties draw some support - controversial former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has formed one, so too former DPJ stalwart Ichiro Ozawa. Toru Hashimoto, the Osaka governor, is also forming a political party.
Polls show almost half of all voters are undecided, indicating that the next government will likely be a coalition.
Media reports say the polls will be on 16 December. Noda will hold a news conference later today, NHK reported.
"I want to seek a mandate from the people," he told journalists early on Friday.
Revolving door
Noda, who has been under pressure to call elections for months, agreed on Wednesday to do so after the opposition said it would back him on electoral reform and a deficit-financing bill.
He had lost public support over the move to double sales tax, although many analysts say it was necessary to tackle the country's massive debt.
The debate over nuclear energy, restarting suspended reactors and his perceived flip-flopping on the issue has also affected his popularity.
His main election rival will be Shinzo Abe, the man chosen to lead the once-dominant LDP despite a short term as prime minister in 2006-7 that saw his poll figures plummet.
Abe is seen as a hawk - last month he visited the Yasukuni Shrine, angering China and South Korea who see the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. The shrine honours Japan's war dead, including those convicted of war crimes.
The LDP enjoyed more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule but lost power to the DPJ in 2009.
The DPJ promised more welfare spending and a better social safety net, but has struggled to deliver amid the economic downturn and 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
It has also seen multiple leadership changes - Noda is the third DPJ prime minister since 2009.
Reports suggest the Tokyo and Osaka governors, Shintaro Ishihara and Toru Hashimoto, are in talks over a potential link-up in the polls.

Samsung launches Galaxy S Duos

Samsung has launched dual SIM
handset Galaxy S Duos, in the local market.
Powered by Android Ice
Cream Sandwich, the device has
1 GHz processor and optimised Touchwiz UX all to deliver
a faster and smooth
navigation and superb browsing experience.
The phone has 4-inch large display, 5MP rear camera with LED and front facing camera as well.
The S Duos has 3GB internal memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB. It also features Bluetooth
3.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, A GPS, 3.5 mm earjack, push email and native SNS links and 1500 mAH battery.
The Samsung Galaxy S Duos is available in the market at Tk 27,900 in 2 colours -black and white.

Asus brings new gaming laptop

Asus has launched its
new gaming laptop
ROG G55VW in the
local market.
The 15.6-inch notebook has the latest 3rd generation Intel core i7-3610QM processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M graphics card and Asus SonicMaster audio technology.
The notebook comes with 1TB hard disk, 8GB RAM, DVD writer, HD webcam, Thunderbolt port, HDMI, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and eight-cell battery.
The laptop has a price tag of Tk 1, 46,500.

Friday, November 9, 2012

StarTech

Four more years: Obama declares victory on Twitter

Photo: AFPAfp, Washington

Barack Obama brought his sophisticated social media campaign to an emotional climax, proclaiming his victory on Twitter and Facebook
just as TV networks were breaking the news.
Obama overcame the burden of a slow economic recovery and high unemployment to beat Republican foe Mitt Romney after a relentless get-out-the-vote push on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other platforms.
"This happened because of you. Thank you," he tweeted to his 22 million followers just minutes after the first US network called his victory, in an indication of the importance he attached to social networks in his campaign.
"Four more years," he said straight afterwards, posting a photo of himself hugging First Lady Michelle Obama as other TV networks followed suit and, one-by-one, announced his re-election as 44th President of the United States.
The post was his most re-tweeted -- 472,000 shares in three hours -- according to Twitter's politics account @gov. It was also the most popular ever, topping a message from singer Justin Bieber, website BuzzFeed said.
The same picture of a happy, serene-looking Obama hugging his wife appeared on the president's Facebook account -- and was shared tens of thousands of times by some of his 32 million fans.
"We did it, we voted for you, now please dear president Obama do what you said you will do, make us proud: Education, Health Care, Green Energy for USA!," Angela De Jesus said under the photo, one of 80,700 comments.
Social networks have emerged as key tools in the months-long US presidential campaign, with both Obama and Romney staging major pushes on these popular platforms to draw in supporters and get them to go out and vote.
But while Romney has increased his presence hugely on social media compared to 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Obama is seen as having retained the upper hand from his successful online campaign four years ago.
Already in January, Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina had hinted at a huge social media campaign in an interview with Newsweek.
"Our efforts on the ground and on technology will make 2008 look prehistoric," he was quoted as saying.
And even as election day drew to a nail-biting close late Tuesday afternoon, Obama made a surprise appearance on social news website Reddit, where he made a last-ditch plea for more votes.
"I'm checking in because polls will start closing in this election in just a few hours, and I need you to vote," he said on the popular site, which allows users to rank posted information according to whether they like it or not.
As the evening progressed, the Democratic incumbent continued to push voters to the polls on social media, even as polls shut in one state after the other.
His campaign team fired messages to those Twitter followers located in states that were still voting, reminding them to stay in line even if polling stations had officially closed.
Romney, by comparison, sent a general tweet out early evening to his 1.8 million followers asking them to vote, but stayed silent thereafter.
"With your help, we will turn our country around and get America back on the path to prosperity. Please vote today," it read.
According to Twitter, the election has become the most tweeted about event in US political history, with some 31 million poll-related posts fired out throughout day.
When networks called the victory, Twitter went into manic overdrive, with election-related tweets rising to an average of 327,452 a minute.
Netizens flocked to social networks to congratulate the re-elected President, as did British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Warm congratulations to my friend @BarackObama. Look forward to continuing to work together,"
he tweeted, during a visit to the Middle East.

Online trends during hartals and holidays

A research by G&R, a local online ad network and digital expert, shows that internet consumption in Bangladesh differs during hartals and different type of holidays.
For this research, G&R team analysed internet usage throughout 2012 and focused on hartals, Bangla New Year, Durga Puja and Eid holidays.
The research was done by constantly looking at the data G&R generates through its digital ad network.
In the research they found that during hartals, a massive 33% more people were online. This indicates that with the limitations in commuting, more individuals actually access the web. This, however, did not impact the amount of time each person spent online as they tended to visit a similar array of websites they would do at other times.
When looking into user behaviour on April 14th (Bangla New Year), they found that unique users accessing the web declined by 40%. In stark contrast to hartal days though, those were online on average spent 15% more time browsing the web.
The decline in unique users is clearly correlated to the outdoor festivities for Bangla New Year but the data leads to believe that those were online are the heavy internet users. While this may not seem meaningful at first, it is often agreed that heavy internet users are major influencers in day-to-day society so this more select audience during such holidays could represent an interesting opportunity for local business and organisations looking to generate buzz online.
Focusing now on the recent Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Azha holidays, again there was major impact on internet consumption. With trends more in line with the April holiday, we saw that unique internet users started dropping on October 24th, by around 25%, with the Puja holiday but it was actually the Eid day where users declined considerably even more pronounced than seen during April 14th. For the 2 days, Eid Day (October 27) and October 28, internet users were down by 73%, similar to Bangla New Year, time spent online by those individuals was greater. By Monday October 29th, internet activity was back up to normal patterns.
The data presented in this article should help businesses and marketers in particular as they plan on how to engage online audiences during the upcoming holidays in December, February and March and in the event of any political unrest.
All data, analysis in this report is from G&R Ad Network internal sources. Data points consist of Bangladesh local unique web users and average. pageviews for 22-23,29-30 April (hartals), April 14 (Bangla New Year) and various days in October (Durga Puja, Eid-ul-Azha).

Daniel Rahman is CEO, G&R Technologies, email: daniel@gandr.com.bd
Rezaur Rahman is CTO, G&R Technologies,
email: jitu@gandr.com.bd

Iran fired on US drone over Gulf: Pentagon

Reuters, Washington
Iranian warplanes fired at an unarmed US drone in international airspace last week but did not hit the aircraft, the Pentagon said on Thursday, disclosing details of an unprecedented incident that triggered a formal warning to Tehran through diplomatic channels.
The November 1 intercept was the first time Tehran had fired at an unmanned American aircraft, in a stark reminder of how tensions between the United States and Iran could escalate quickly into violence.
If Iran had hit the drone, as the Pentagon believes it was trying to do, it could have forced American retaliation - with the potential consequences that entails.
According to the timeline provided by the Pentagon, two Iranian SU-25 "Frogfoot" aircraft intercepted the American drone at about 4:50am EST (0850 GMT) as it conducted a routine, but classified, surveillance mission over Gulf waters about 16 nautical miles off the Iranian coast.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said the aircraft fired multiple rounds at the Predator drone and followed it for at least several miles as it moved farther away from Iranian airspace.
"We believe that they fired at least twice and made at least two passes," he said.
International airspace begins after 12 nautical miles and Little said the drone at no point entered Iranian airspace. Last year, a crashed CIA drone was recovered inside Iran.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was quickly notified of the incident, as were members of Congress and the White House, Little added. The United States also sent Iran a warning through diplomatic channels, saying it would defend its military assets and would keep sending aircraft on such surveillance operations.
"There is absolutely no precedence for this," Little said. "This is the first time that a (drone) has been fired upon to our knowledge by Iranian aircraft."
Many questions about the incident remain, including why Iranian warplanes could not manage - if they wanted - to shoot down an unarmed drone, which lacks advanced capabilities to outmaneuver them.
Asked whether the Iranian aircraft were simply firing warning shots, Little said: "Our working assumption is that they fired to take it down. You'll have to ask the Iranians why they engaged in this action."
There was no immediate comment by Iranian officials.
SANCTIONS TIGHTENED
President Barack Obama has resisted calls from inside the United States and Israel for military action against Iran, focusing instead on crushing rounds of sanctions, which were tightened again on Thursday.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran's communications minister and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for jamming international satellite broadcasts to Iran and censoring and closing newspapers and detaining journalists.
The sanctions are part of broader efforts to isolate Tehran, which denies US accusations that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian atomic program.
In an effort to drive Iran to compromise, the United States and the European Union have gone for the jugular - Iran's oil exports - over the past year.
The United States and Israel, which regards a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence, have also hinted at the possibility of military strikes on Iran as a last resort.
Obama has said the United States will "do what we must" to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and has repeatedly said that all options are on the table - code for the possibility of using force.