Soon, make 3D video calls through Skype

Instant messaging and video-calling service Skype is reportedly working on the prospects of 3D video calling and the current limitations with the 3D technologies stopped the company from launching the feature. 

Microsoft's corporate vice-president for Skype, Mark Gillett said that the lab experimentation has been done to analyse the capability of 3D screens and 3D capture. 

Gillett said that there has been a lot of progress in screens and people have started to buy televisions and computer monitors capable of delivering 3D image, but there is a lack of 3D capture devices and the company has been working on just that, BBC reports. 

According to the report, the vice-president said that Skype is working with the technology where multiple cameras need to be attached to the computer, precisely calibrate them and point them at the right angle and are now aiming at using that technology to make it work in practical with supporting devices. 

Gillet agreed with Hollywood director James Cameron who said that all forms of entertainment will eventually be 3D but warned that 3D video chats will take longer to catch on than other uses. 

He further added that the penetration of 3D technology would be more on televisions and computers before eventually reaching the smartphone market, the report added.

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US-made Moto X‘s labour cost less than Galaxy S4

Motorola's new Moto X phone doesn't cost more to make simply because it's assembled in Texas, research firm IHS. 

The Moto X is the first smartphone to carry the "Made in the USA" designation. Labor costs are higher in the US compared with Asian factories, where phones are typically made. But IHS said the Moto X is about 5 percent cheaper to make than Samsung Electronic's flagship Galaxy S4phone. The firm said the Moto X's overall production cost is just 9 percent more than that of Apple's iPhone 5. 

The findings come as little surprise, as the labor cost of a phone is just a small part of its production cost. IHS estimates that labor and other assembly costs Motorola $12 per phone for the Moto X, bringing the production cost to $226. That compares with $207 for the iPhone 5 and $237 for the Galaxy S4. IHS said Motorola is able to keep the cost of parts low by using standard components that don't break much new ground. 

By assembling the phone in Fort Worth, Texas, Motorola is able to let customers order custom designs online for delivery within four days. Standard black or white models are available immediately at retail stores. 

"With the Moto X, Motorola is reaping the public-relations and customization upsides of producing a smartphone in the United States, while maintaining competitive hardware costs," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director for cost benchmarking services at IHS. 

IHS said the estimated $12 for assembly is about $3.50 to $4 more than other leading phones. 

"Our initial estimate suggests the additional costs of onshoring the Moto X are relatively low," IHS said. 

The phone went on sale last Friday, starting with AT&T. It's coming to other carriers, including Verizon this week. The Moto X's price is about $200 with a two-year service agreement. 

The Moto X is Motorola's first phone designed from the start under its new owner, Google. The Internet search company bought Motorola Mobility for $12.4 billion last year.

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iGate appoints ex-Infosys exec Ashok Vemuri as CEO

Ashok Vemuri, the head of Infosys' North American operations and a member of its board, has defected from India's second-largest software company to join iGate as its new chief executive officer.

The departure of Vemuri, who was regarded as a potential future CEO of Infosys, is another blow to a company which has been struggling for management stability. For iGate, it brings to an end its months-long search for a leader after the US-based company fired Phaneesh Murthy as CEO in May for not disclosing a sexual relationship with a colleague.

InfosysBSE -0.52 % announced Vemuri's resignation on Wednesday. Vemuri's acceptance of the offer from iGate was confirmed to ET by two people. In June, this newspaper reported that Vemuri was among those in discussions with Russell Reynolds Associates, the headhunting firm with the mandate to help iGate find a new CEO.

NR Narayana Murthy, who made a comeback to the under-performing Infosys as its chairman in June with his son Rohan as his executive assistant, described Vemuri, 45, as an "important player" in the growth of the company. Vemuri, who has been with Infosys for a decade and a half, did not consult him before taking a decision to resign, Murthy said in an email.

"I spoke to him last night to find out if we could do anything to retain him. He said he wanted to be the CEO of a company as early as possible and that he had gotten the opportunity now even though the company is much smaller," wrote Murthy. "On the other hand, he said, the probability of his becoming the CEO at Infosys was at best 33% and at least 18 to 20 months away. Therefore, he felt that he must move on. I agreed with him and wished him the best since he has been a wonderful Infoscion."

Along with Vemuri, Europe head B G Srinivas and India business head V Balakrishnan have been regarded as the internal candidates most likely to succeed SD Shibulal as CEO of the $7-billion (Rs 45,000 crore) company in 2015.

iGate declined to comment on what it called "speculation".

Vemuri will be replaced as head the manufacturing vertical by his deputy Sanjay Jolona. In 2011, Vemuri and Srinivas swapped roles, with the former taking on responsibility for manufacturing and the latter for financial services.

Since returning to the company he cofounded, Murthy has been ringing in several changes to transform Infosys into a "desirable" company once again. He unexpectedly raised salaries for staff in June, while at the same time warning that under-performance by employees would not be tolerated. He has said he will increase focus on winning high-volume deals for software application development and management of computer networks. To offset the expected drop in margins, he is cutting costs at expensive overseas locations.

One of the areas thought to be affected by the cost-cutting efforts is the so-called Strategic Sourcing Group for large contracts which was managed by Vemuri.

After Murthy's return, Infosys has seen its sales head Basab Pradhan resign. The North America head for financial services Sudhir Chaturvedi recently resigned to join NIIT Technologies. Before that, Shaji Farooq and Balaji Yellavalli from the financial services unit jumped to cross-town rivalWipro.

"From a market perspective, it's already factored in that from now it's going to be Murthy's show," said Sonam Udhasi, head of research at IDBI Capital.

The Infosys stock opened 1.5% lower on the New York Stock Exchange. On the National Stock Exchange, the shares closed 2.1% higher at Rs 3,121.

Any consequence of the departure of Vemuri (he will serve his notice until September 12) could be felt in the financial services vertical and North America, both key revenue-earners for the company. North America accounts for over 60% of Infosys' sales. But since iGate is much smaller - its revenue was $1 billion in 2012 - the impact will be limited. iGate is aiming for revenue of $3 billion in 2017.

Ankur Rudra of Ambit Capital, however, said that the departure would have a ripple effect in both the manufacturing and financial services verticals as well as the North American operations because of the deep relationships that Vemuri has built within the company and among clients.

"After Murthy returned there have been a few senior executive departures and it is worryingly beginning to look like a trend at Infosys."

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Smartwatches: Casio’s plan to take on Samsung, Apple

Clunky? Perhaps. Geeky? Absolutely. But for three decades Casio Computer's G-Shock line of digital watches has dominated a small, yet lucrative, market. 

The geeky-watch niche is drawing interest from some of the biggest names in technology. Appletrademarked 'iWatch' in several countries this year, which has fueled speculation that it is working on a wristwatch that would link with a smartphone. 

Samsung Electronics is expected to unveil a watch in early September that can make phone calls, play video games and send emails. Last month, Sony revamped its Smartwatch , which communicates with smartphones and lets users play games or check Facebook by tapping their wrists. 

"Suddenly, everyone's discovered the wrist," Kazuo Kashio, Casio's 84-year-old chief executive, said. "We've known for a long time it's prime real estate. We're prepared." The spike in interest in wearable computing devices is shaking up the digital watch industry, catapulting a sleepy business to the cutting edge of personal technology. 

In the process, established digital watchmakers like Casio are finding that they must contend with new competitors. But that is nothing new for Casio, a company with $3.06 billion in annual revenue that also makes compact cameras, musical instruments and calculators. 

Sales of digital watches account for 85% of Casio's operating profit of approximately $206 million. But in a report earlier this year, analysts for Credit Suisse said the advantage would increasingly tilt toward companies that focus on connectivity, apps and user interfaces. 

But in real life, success in smartwatch design has been more elusive. Citizen, Casio and other Japanese manufacturers developed calculator watches in the late 1970s, but they never took off. Casio soon emerged as a leading digital watchmaker, adding dictionaries, blood pressure sensors, a touchscreen and gesture control by the late 1980s. 

But after disappointing sales of many of those models — Kashio said the company was ahead of its time — Casio instead turned its attention to making the weatherproof, shatterproof G-Shock watches. Casio continues to aggressively market new products. Last year, it introduced a watch that uses Bluetooth to let wearers see incoming calls and messages. 

And it is working on a host of models, including one that will let joggers post details of their runs online, Kashio said.

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A ‘floating‘ stand for your laptop

TwelveSouth's new Ghost Stand is a Houdini for your MacBook-the clear lucite computer stand looks like it has suspended your laptop in mid-air. 

Inspired by designer Philippe Starck's Ghost Chair, the $35 platform is available starting today. It works for MacBooks, MacBook Airs, and MacBook Pros. The stand levitates your MacBook six inches above your desk, to give you more room to work comfortably with a wireless mouse and a different keyboard, or maybe a second monitor.

Plus, it's nice and modern and unobtrusive, with two silicone rails that will keep your laptop securely attached to the seemingly floating stand. Magic.

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Android security apps that don‘t drain your device‘s battery

If you've been thinking about installing a mobile security tool for your Android phone or tablet but you're worried about the impact it may have on your battery, the folks at AV-Comparatives have some good news for you. They tested 16 different mobile antivirus apps, and none of them seriously drained the battery. 

AV-Comparatives tested 16 different products, including some of the most reputable names in mobile security like Lookout, ESET, Sophos, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, F-Secure, and Avast!, among others. They put each suite through its paces, testing to see if it caught all of the over 3,000 malware applications they tried to slip past it, and how much battery drain each app was responsible for. Maximum PC explains: 

Surprisingly, there wasn't a whole lot that separated one product from another. Starting with a look at battery usage, AV-Comparatives found that most of the products only had a minor impact on battery life. The worst offenders in this category were Qihoo and Webroot, the former because it uses "fancy animations" and the latter due to its real-time protection component. Though they came in last, the battery drain still only amounted to around 3%. 

When it came to testing malware protection, AhnLab and Kingsoft both detected 99.9% of the nearly 3,000 malware applications that were collected in the four weeks prior to the start of the test. Kaspersky came in a close second at 99.7%, followed by Baidu and ESET (both detected 99.6%), Bitdefender (99.4%), and Avast (99%). Several others scored in the 98 percentile, while Ikarus took last place with a 91% detection rate.
AV-Comparatives concludes that the days when the value of mobile security apps was questionable at best is long over, and the threats facing mobile devices (specifically Android users) are significant enough that "mobile security software protects the user against the great majority of threats, and should not, in our opinion, be regarded as merely optional." 

You can see how each of the products fared in the chart above. Keep in mind that many of the suites may not be available in your market because they were designed for other countries (and to catch malware threats more prevalent in other regions). Even so, if you've wondered whether Android antivirus would come into its own, it has-and if you were worried about your battery, don't. Hit the link below to read the full report.

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HP launches new EliteBook and Probook

Hewlett Packard (HP) launched new notebooks targeted at professional users. The company introduced EliteBook Revolve 810 and ProBook 430 G1 in India. While the Elitebook has a starting price of Rs 90,000, the Probook will cost at least Rs 39,000.

Both laptops are powered by Windows 8.

Elitebook Revolve 810 is sleeker and more portable of the two. It weighs just 1.36kgs and has an 11.6-inch touchscreen. The screen resolution is, however, rather low at 1366 x 768 pixels. It is a convertible laptop and its screen can be swiveled. It can also be laid flat on the keyboard, turning the laptop into a Windows 8 tablet. The device is powered by 3rd generation Core i processor and can be configured to have as much as 12GB RAM.

Elitebook Revolve also has a premium design and finish. It uses a Gorilla glass cover on the screen and has a body made of magnesium alloy.

ProBook 430 G1 is a mainstream laptop. HP said that the device is powered by 4th generation Core I processor. It has a 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Sunish Raghavan, who looks after commercial notebook division at HP India, said that this laptop will be available in several configurations. Buyers will have choice to opt from Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors. They will also be able to able to choose between a hard disk and a solid state drive and have option of getting up to 16GB RAM.

"People who want web connectivity on will have option to buy the version of ProBook 430 G1 that offers inbuilt support for 3G connection," said Raghavan.

The ProBook weighs 1.50kg. "Professionals today demand zero-compromise productivity and extreme mobility in a computer, and HP offers the best solution with Elitebook Revolve and ProBook 430," said Raghavan.

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BYOD, phablet make it to Oxford dictionary

Twerk (dancing to popular music in a provocative manner), Tweet, FOMO (fear of missing out) and flash mob (a group of people breaking into an impromptu jig) are some of the latest entries in the Oxford dictionary. FIL (father-in-law ) too is an official word and so is food baby (a big protruding stomach caused by eating street food). 
Also finding place in the latest edition of the dictionary are many abbreviations like 'BYOD' (bring your own device), 'srsly' (seriously ), srsly TL;DR (seriously too long, didn't read), LDR (long-distance relationship ) and apols (apologies) among others. 
'Phablet' (a smartphone with a screen size smaller than a tablet) also gets an official tag as technology and everyday lingo influenced the list of words added. 
Selfie — a camera phone self-portrait posted online, digital detox (time spent offline ) and digital currency (Bitcoin) have now been included in the new dictionary. 
It is estimated that annually, 1.8 billion new words are thrown in, but just around 1,000 of them actually make it to the dictionary. 
Spokeswoman of the dictionary Katherine Connor Martin said the word "twerk" has been around for 20 years but has generated enough evidence of usage to be added to its online dictionaries with American pop star Miley Cyrus hitting headlines this week for "twerking" at the MTV Video Music Awards.

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Space laser to take increased broadband beyond Earth

NASA's new mission is going to attempt to show that two-way laser communication beyond Earth is possible, which expandes the possibility of transmitting huge amounts of data.

This new ability could one day allow for 3-D High Definition video transmissions in deep space to become routine.

Don Cornwell, Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) manager, said that the goal of the (LLCD) experiment is to validate and build confidence in this technology so that future missions will consider using it.

He said that this unique ability developed by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory), hasincredible application possibilities and we are very excited to get this instrument off the ground.

LLCD is NASA's first dedicated system for two-way communication using laser instead of radio waves.

Cornwell said that LLCD is designed to send six times more data from the moon using a smaller transmitter with 25 percent less power as compared to the equivalent state-of-the-art radio (RF) system and lasers are also more secure and less susceptible to interference and jamming.

The LLCD experiment is hosted aboard NASA's LADEE: a 100-day robotic mission designed, built, integrated, tested and will be operated by Ames.

LLCD's main mission objective is to transmit hundreds of millions of bits of data per second from the moon to Earth.

NASA engineers believe this technology becomes even more advantageous for communications beyond Earth's orbit.

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TechM: Joy of a depreciating rupee is very short-term

In an interview with ET NOW, Vineet Nayyar, executive vice-chairman, Tech Mahindra, talks about business environment and strategy. Excerpts:


ET Now: The fall in rupee certainly is a blessing in disguise for you. Your stock has hit an all-time high, your profitability will only increase and markets love our stock now.

Vineet Nayyar: There are two aspects to it - one, the stock doing well; second, the issue of this fortuitous windfall in terms of the currency movement. 

For every 1% increase or decrease in dollar-rupee, there is only 0.30 or 0.25 as the final impact, which though is not insignificant, but gets priced in very quickly, because of intense competition. Most of the Indian companies are competing with each other and both have the same advantage or disadvantage. Yes, you will see an increase in profitability over one or two quarters, but then you will start seeing a dip as the markets adjust to the new reality. 

ET Now: Rupee depreciation also leads to certain problems like pricing future projects and hedging. How are you dealing with these issues? 

Vineet Nayyar: The current volatility is symptomatic of significant malaises in the economy and therefore that is far more worrisome than windfall profits or windfall losses which may arise for certain industries. Unless we don't repair the fundamentals which have gone awry, or till the fiscal deficit which is aggravating and the balance of payment deficit are rectified, the economy will continue to remain fragile. 

ET Now: Have your clients renegotiated your billing rates or they do not bother about what is happening to the currency, they are only bothered about delivery and quality of service? 

Vineet Nayyar: Delivery and quality of services is taken for granted. However, the world, be it Europe or the US, or even Asia, is facing huge economic pressures and it has already started renegotiating. Since the currency is now cheaper, the Indian industry is responding to it. Therefore, this joy of a depreciating rupee, if you can call it a joy, is very short term. 

ET Now: Do you think that demand is improving substantially when it comes to regions like the US and Europe? 

Vineet Nayyar: Yes, there is an uptick in demand because those economies, especially in Europe, are readjusting their cost base and increasingly looking towards India for a solution in bringing down the cost. Secondly, they are asking us to employ on their staff so that they do not have a negative employment issues arising. Indian Industry will also have to readjust and become truly global, not only in terms of clients, but in terms of employees. Therefore, we will still bring about cost effectiveness but we will learn to work with multinational employees globally as we go forward. 

ET Now: So one should not get excited about buying into IT stocks because rupee has depreciated and you think markets are pricing in a lot of euphoria? 

Vineet Nayyar: I do not speculate on what market does. All I am telling you is that the fundamentals of economics always remain constant. If a certain cost comes down, then it is equalised over a period of time in pricing. That has happened in every industry, and will happen here also. The laws of economics do not change. 

ET Now: You have mentioned post your earnings that you are pursuing four contracts which are about $50 million-plus. Has anything materialized? When can we expect these orders to be reflected in you order book? 

Vineet Nayyar: The negotiations are on and we are cautiously optimistic. We would not have announced it to the industry if we were not in that state of mind. Does that mean something can go wrong? Yes, it can go wrong, but there are good chances that we will come through. 

ET Now: Your margins are above 21% and because of the rupee tailwind, can I safely assume that the margin trajectory is certainly headed higher? 

Vineet Nayyar: In the short term, there will be an uptick. Yes, one can enjoy the moment, but one should never lose sight of the fundamentals. 

ET Now: On a combined entity basis after the merger, are you confident that for FY14 you will be able to grow higher than what Nasscom has projected for FY14? 
Vineet Nayyar: That would be giving guidance. 

ET Now: If Nasscom is a benchmark, will you grow higher than the industry average or will you go lower than the industry average? 

Vineet Nayyar: We do not give guidance. I would not wish to speculate, but the story will unfold itself as it always does. 

ET Now: Many experts are of the view that your dependence on telecom is going to go down dramatically and that will be the big game-changing move for you. 

Vineet Nayyar: Firstly, I am not apologetic about our dependence on telecom. We are the leaders in telecom and there is not a single large RFP which comes out globally to which we are not invited to join. We are now seen on a par with the absolute top-tier global technology companies, when it comes to telecom. I would not call it dependence, just that in this vector we will continue to grow. 

Yes, on the enterprise side, which came through Satyam, we have been able to diversify the portfolio. Therefore, the vicissitudes of a particular sector will not have such a large impact. Consequently, we have a balanced output, which cushions itself against sectoral ups and downs and to that extent it is a plus. But net-net, I expect telecom to grow as rigorously as enterprise. 

ET Now: Any update on Polaris's service division acquisition? Are you still in race? 

Vineet Nayyar: I have heard the name somewhere, but at this moment I would not like to comment.

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Nokia 515 feature phone with aluminium body launched

Nokia's feature phone portfolio has got a new addition, Nokia 515. The all-new Nokia 515 has been built from a single piece of anodized, sandblasted aluminium.

The feature phone features a 2.4-inch QVGA display with 240x320 pixels and boasts a pixel density of 166ppi while also possessing the scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for protection. It measures 114x48x11mm and weighs 101.1gm for single SIM and 102.7 gm for dual-SIM variant. The phone comes with 64MB RAM and an internal memory of 256 MB which can be expanded up to 32 GB via microSD card.

Nokia 515 has a 5MP rear camera with LED flash. The phone also offers some smart features like voice-guided self-portrait for taking self-shots with the rear camera, Sequential shots and Panorama.

In terms of connectivity options, the Nokia 515 offers Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS, Micro-USB and 3G, but no WiFi. It supports Micro-SIM instead of the regular SIM. The phone supports 3.5G HSDPA internet and also comes with some pre-loaded apps like Facebook, Twitter, Nimbuzz and Mail for Exchange that allows users people to check work email and sync their calendars and contacts.

The phone is slated to be available in two versions of single and Easy Swap dual-SIM.

The Nokia 515 would be rolling out globally in September into markets like Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Poland. It will have a suggested retail price of $149 before taxes and subsidies.

In India, the dual version of the phone is expected to hit the market as it has been listed on the company's India website. There is, however, no confirmation of the phone's price and availability.

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Scientist controls another man's brain via internet

Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have conducted the world's first non-invasive human-to-human brain interface in which one person was able to control the motions of another person via internet. 

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao, a University of Washington professor, sent a brain signal to his colleague Andrea Stocco, causing Stocco's finger to move on a keyboard. 

While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing. 

"The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains. We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain," Stocco, a research assistant professor in psychology at the UW's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, said. 

Rao sat in his lab wearing a cap with electrodes hooked up to an electroencephalography machine, which reads electrical activity in the brain. 

Stocco was in his lab across campus wearing a purple swim cap marked with the stimulation site for the transcranial magnetic stimulation coil that was placed directly over his left motor cortex, which controls hand movement. 

The team had a Skype connection set up so the two labs could coordinate, though neither Rao nor Stocco could see the Skype screens. 

Rao looked at a computer screen and played a simple video game with his mind. When he was supposed to fire a cannon at a target, he imagined moving his right hand (being careful not to actually move his hand), causing a cursor to hit the "fire" button, researchers said. 

Almost instantaneously, Stocco, who wore noise-cancelling earbuds and wasn't looking at a computer screen, involuntarily moved his right index finger to push the space bar on the keyboard in front of him, as if firing the cannon. 

Stocco compared the feeling of his hand moving involuntarily to that of a nervous tic. 

"It was both exciting and eerie to watch an imagined action from my brain get translated into actual action by another brain," Rao said. 

"This was basically a one-way flow of information from my brain to his. The next step is having a more equitable two-way conversation directly between the two brains," said Rao. 

Rao cautioned this technology only reads certain kinds of simple brain signals, not a person's thoughts. And it doesn't give anyone the ability to control your actions against your will.

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Samsung to launch Galaxy Tab 3 Kids

Samsung has announced Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids, a tabletspecifically designed for children. Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Kids will come preloaded with educational and fun apps for kids and an all new Kid's Store. 

The tablet has a 7-inch screen with 1024x600 pixel resolution and runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It has GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage expandable up to 32 GB. The tablet has a dual camera, 3.2 MP at the back and a 1.3MP camera in the front. Tab 3 Kids runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and has a 4,000mAh. 

Galaxy Tab 3 Kids includes a Time Management feature that will allow parents to set specific time period for use, once the set period is up, a password protected lock screen will appear, requiring a parent or an adult to enter the password to unlock the device. This tool is aimed at restricting the time children spend on the device. 

The tablet also packs a kids case featuring a child-friendly grip and multiple stand options. The case also comes equipped with an easy-to-grip C Pen. 

Samsung plans to launch the tablet in South Korea early next month. Other global markets are expected to get the tablet later this year. 

Samsung has not disclosed the device's pricing so far. 

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Nokia Asha 502 and 503 specs ‘appear‘ online

Internet is abuzz with details of Nokia's next in line Asha series phones. The details come courtesy eveleaks and a blog titled 'This is Nokia'. According to eveleaks, which has a fair record of leaking gadget information,Nokia Asha 503, codenamed Lanai, will be similar to Asha 501 in appearance.

However, Nokia Asha 503 will have have its entire front covered by a curved glass. The phone is expected to come in a dual-SIM version and spot 5MP rear camera with a LED flash.

Eveleaks has not revealed much details about Asha 502, codenamed Pegasus.

However, another blog titled 'This is Nokia' has also leaked specs of the two phones.

According to the blog, which quotes an anonymous tipster, Nokia Asha 502 will have a Polycarbonate body with scratch resistant display. The RAM is expected to vary between 128-512MB. Camera is reported to be 5MP.

On Asha 503, the blog says that the phone will have polycarbonate body design (similar to eveleaks). It is reported to be powered by a by a 1-1.5GHz processor.



The dual-SIM device will support 3G and come with new camera apps. The blog further states that both the phones will have Nokia SLAM Bluetooth transfer for faster sharing of files, pictures and videos.

So far, there has been no official statement from Nokia about the pricing or the availability of the phones.

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New York Times, Twitter hacked by Syrian group

Media companies including the New York Times,   Twitter and the Huffington Post lost control of some of their websites Tuesday after hackers supporting the Syrian government breached the Australian Internet company that manages many major site addresses.


The Syrian Electronic Army, a hacker group that has previously attacked media organizations that it considers hostile to the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit for the Twitter and Huffington Post hacks in a series of Twitter messages. 

Security experts said electronic records showed that NYTimes.com, the only site with an hours-long outage, redirected visitors to a server controlled by the Syrian group before it went dark. 

New York Times Co NYT.N spokeswoman Eileen Murphy tweeted the "issue is most likely the result of a malicious external attack", based on an initial assessment. 

The Huffington Post attack was limited to the blogging platform's UK web address. Twitter said the hack led to availability issues for an hour and a half but that no user information was compromised. 

The attacks came as the Obama administration considers taking action against the Syrian government, which has been locked for more than two years in an increasingly bloody struggle against rebels. 

In August, hackers promoting the Syrian Electronic Army simultaneously targeted websites belonging to CNN, Time and the Washington Post by breaching a third party service used by those sites. 

The Syrian Electronic Army, or SEA, managed to gain control of the sites by penetrating MelbourneIT, an Australian Internet service provider that sells and manages domain names including Twitter.com and NYTimes. 

Officials at The New York Times, which identified MelbourneIT as its domain name registrar and the primary hacking victim, warned its employees to stop sending sensitive e-mails from their corporate accounts. 

MebourneIT spokesman Tony Smith said that login credentials from one of its resellers had been used improperly. 

Once MelbourneIT was notified, he said, the company restored the correct domain name settings, changed the password on the compromised account, and locked the records to prevent further alterations. 

"We are currently reviewing our logs to see if we can obtain information on the identity of the party that has used the reseller credentials, and we will share this information with the reseller and any relevant law enforcement bodies," Smith said. "We will also review additional layers of security that we can add to our reseller accounts." 

Twitter did not respond to requests for comment. In a blog post, the company said "it appears DNS (domain name system) records for various organizations were modified, including one of Twitter's domains used for image serving, Twimg.com. Viewing of images and photos was sporadically impacted." 

Hackers limited targets, say experts 

Jaeson Schultz, a Cisco Systems researcher, said that in the authoritative records known as WHOIS the Syrian Electronic Army listed itself as the contact for all of Twitter.com, which would have given it the power to take the site offline or place its own content there. 

"It seems that their message is redirecting people back to their own website for news about the SEA or about Syria," Schultz said. "They don't seem to be interested in infecting end users, which is a good thing." 

Hackers who successfully break into MelbourneIT's systems could potentially redirect and intercept emails sent to addresses under certain domains, researchers said. And users of sites that don't begin with "https" could have been fooled into entering passwords that could have been captured, said Jaime Blasco, a researcher with security firm AlienVault. 

Because MelbourneIT serves as the registrar for some of the best known domain names on the Internet, including Microsoft.com and Microsoft.com, Tuesday's breach could have had potentially catastrophic consequences. 

"This could've been one of the biggest attacks we've ever seen, if they were more subtle and more efficient about it," said HD Moore, the chief research officer at Rapid7, a cyber security firm. "They changed just a few sites, but if they had actually gone all out, they could've had most of the Internet watching them run the show." 

Media companies, which were largely ignored by hackers until 2011, have been targeted since then by pranksters and suspected Chinese agents, as well as partisans in the Middle East. 

"As long as media organizations play a critical role as influencers and critics, they will continue to be targets of cyber attacks," said Michael Fey, chief technology officer at Intel Corp's McAfee security division.

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Microsoft‘s new CEO: Guessing game begins

As Steve Ballmer bows out of Microsoft, the guessing game over who will replace him has started with a British bookmaker putting Nokia's Stephen Elop as the favourite. 

Ballmer, 57, unexpectedly announced his retirement after more than three decades at the world's largest software company, including 13 years as chief executive. 

With no heir apparent, Ladbrokes opened up betting on successors for Ballmer who will depart within the next year, with Elop, 49, topping a list of 26 candidates with odds of 5/1. 

British and Irish bookmakers offer a wide range of bets as a niche sideline to more lucrative wagers on sports. Online gambling is far more restrictive in the United States. 

Elop, a Canadian, led Microsoft's business division before becoming chief executive of the Finnish firm Nokia in 2010 with a brief to revive the once-undisputed leader in mobile phones. 

Senior Nokia employees say he has forced them to make faster decisions. But Nokia's ability to compete in the global smartphone market is increasingly questioned; its market share stands at around three percent, far behind Samsung and Apple which control around 50 percent between them. 

Internal Microsoft candidate Kevin Turner, chief operating officer, is second favourite with odds of 6/1 to replace Ballmer, according to Ladbrokes. In third is former Microsoft executive Steve Sinofsky, who left the company last November. 

The top female candidate in the stakes is internal head of devices and studios, Julie Larson-Green, in fourth place. 

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is ranked as a 50/1 shot to return to fill the void but he is considered more likely than rank 100/1 outsider Tim Cook, CEO at Apple. 

Ladbrokes' spokesman Alex Donohue said the market was a "who's who of high fliers" in the technology world. "With a year to go we anticipate that this market will smash all previous records for technology betting," Donohue said in a statement. 

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Sprint to cut 800 customer-service jobs

Sprint is eliminating about 800 customer service jobs because fewer people are calling its centres, the company said. With growth in other parts of the business, however, Sprint said it expects the company's work force to remain at about 40,000. 

Sprint said most of the affected workers were notified last Thursday. Others will be told next month after Sprint figures out which additional positions will be cut. The company said the cuts are at various locations across the country. 

Sprint's headquarters are in Overland Park. Last month, Japanese investment firm SoftBank completed a $21.6 billion investment in Sprint, giving it a 78% stake in the third-largest US wireless carrier. 

Sprint said its efforts to increase customer satisfaction helped to reduce the number of calls for customer service. According to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, Sprint had a 71 rating out of 100. That was unchanged from last year, but an improvement from its low of 56 in 2008. Verizon Wireless was at 73, AT&T at 70 and T-Mobile at 68 this year. 

"As customer satisfaction improves and in turn calls to customer care decrease, our staffing needs in this area decrease," Sprint said in a statement. "This organizational action keeps our costs in line with these efficiencies." 

Growth areas include positions at its retail stores, Sprint said. 

Sprint's stock fell 18 cents, or 2.6%, to $6.73 in afternoon trading Tuesday.

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IBM: India remains a big focus

IBM India managing director Vanitha Narayanan said here on Tuesday that the country's attractiveness as a market had not changed at all for the company. She was responding to a question on whether all the negative news about the Indian economy in recent times had impacted the US company's perception of the country.


"It's still a growth market for us, it's still very positive. India is the second largest consumption driven economy, after the US. Indian companies are going global, entrepreneurs have not stopped investing," she said in her first interaction with the media since taking over as the MD in January.

The $106-billion IBM has been among MNCs that have been extremely bullish about India over the past decade. It has grown its India headcount rapidly, to an estimated 1.3 lakh, which is over a third of its global employee strength. On this measure, it's almost on par withInfosys and Wipro. Every dimension of IBM's global business is represented in India, including hardware, software, services, global delivery and R&D.

The company also has the highest share of the India IT services market, estimated by research firm IDC at 12.6% for the second half of 2012. It has been particularly successful in the telecom sector, having won massive IT outsourcing deals from Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

Narayanan said she still saw opportunity in telecom. "The last decade was about subscriber growth, rural penetration, and hyper-competition that brought prices to amongst the lowest in the world. In the coming years it will be about leveraging 3G and 4G, creating value, new capabilities and offerings, and raising average revenue per user," she said.

Narayanan, who has been with IBM for over 25 years in multiple roles around the world, said that for many segments of Indian industry, the next decade would be about transformational growth. "Banks are going beyond core banking to client engagement, risk management, retail, portfolio expansions. Manufacturing and natural resources is going beyond ERP to supply chain management, making product development best-in-class, dealer management, marketing. There are big opportunities in organized retail, in monetizing content, in security," she said.

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