Office 2007 Fails The OOXML Test

Microsoft emerged the victor last month when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) confirmed that the company's Office Open XML (OOXML) specification had garnered enough votes to qualify for standards certification.
However, one ironic drawback remains following Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) efforts to win the votes of ISO representatives: It's now incompatible with Microsoft Office.
According to ISO official Alex Brown, the company's Office 2007 does not correctly support OOXML, even though the formats in OOXML started out as the default file formats for Office 2007. The reason for this appears to be the myriad changes made to the spec to satisfy ISO representatives, encouraging them to change their votes to support the format.
Brown said he determined Office's incompatibility through his own tests.
"[I] thought it would be interesting to validate some real-world content against them, to get a rough idea of how non-conformant the standardization of 29500 [the standards number assigned to OOXML by the ISO] had made MS Office 2007," Brown said in a posting on his blog late last week. He used the 6,000-page specification itself as his test data.
The results? Tests run using a "strict conformance model" yielded some 122,000 errors, Brown noted. A less strict "transitional model" did much better, yielding only 84 errors.
According to Brown, concerns among some of the participating national bodies involved in the standards setting process lead to the transitional version of the specification, which is purposely much more compatible with the original OOXML spec.
"Indeed, a strong motivation for approving 29500 as an ISO standard was to discourage Microsoft from this kind of file format rug-pulling stunt in future," he added.

Get Ready India, Here Comes the iPhone

Indian Apple fans can breathe a sigh of relief as a date seems to be near for the iPhone's Indian launch. Come September, Vodafone just might be bringing the legendary handset to the country and no longer will we have to ponder over the big question – WHEN?

It seems European sales are dropping and China Mobile has already said 'no' to being a carrier. The 8GB version of the Vodafone iPhone is expected to arrive in the first week of September, and the price is estimated to be in the range of Rs 28,000 to Rs 30,000.
Although jailbroken iPhones are already available in the country, this is our chance to get a guaranteed genuine iPhone with no need for any messing around, at least to make it workable with a provider. The only difference is it’s available in the gray market for a whole lot cheaper. Stay tuned.

MTNL introduces mobile tracking service

MTNL launched mobile tracking service in a tie-up with Micro technologies which traces lost or stolen mobiles through a software.

The software is available for free download from MTNL through GPRS and is compatible for most of the handset models available in the market, claims Micro Technologies.

The software stores the IMEI as well as SIM number of the phone and asks for alternate phone number or email where information can be provided in case of loss or theft of the mobile. In case the mobile is stolen and a new SIM is being used, the software alerts the original owner of the location of the phone.

The service is available at a monthly charge of Rs.30.

Samsung Introduces its First HSUPA Handset for South Korean Market

HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) aims to offer mobile broadband for cellular phones. Conventional 3G offers upload and download speeds of around 384Kbps, whereas HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) allows upload speeds to 2Mbps.

South Korean vendor Samsung Electronics launched its first handset, SCH-M470 that is said to offer faster upload speeds using HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access) technology.

The slider-type handset promises to

--send data at up to 2M bps (bits per second) when on an HSUPA network.

--WiFi

--Bluetooth

-- 2 mega pixel camera

Chinese hackers penetrate crucial MEA network

Hackers, suspected to be from mainland China, have made deep intrusions into the secure computer systems of the ministry of external affairs, according to top government sources.
The serious breach was detected during a routine security audit by the intelligence agencies last month – the hackers had left clear trails. Alarmed, the government is sending a team of intelligence officials to audit the security standards of systems and computers in key Indian missions around the world, starting with the embassy in Beijing, sources say.
The Chinese hackers had even accessed some of the stand-alone secure computers on which senior MEA officials store secret notes on national policy and mission plans. Sources say these stand-alone computers may have been carelessly connected to the local area network and through it to the Internet giving hackers access.
After the audit at the embassy in Beijing by this month-end, the missions in Europe and the US would be next.

Nokia Tube: an iPhone killer being developed

Apple’s iPhone should be consider to be the most revolutionary device ever, not only because many tech savvies loved it but also because many mobile phone makers started developing iPhone-like devices after its launch.
During the speech at Evans Data developer conference in the US, Vice President of Forum Nokia, Tom Libretto has confirmed the development of the Nokia Tube, an iPhone challenger.
Though Libretto did not reveal much information about the device, he stated that the Tube is the first touchscreen device from Nokia.
Nokia’s Tube is expected to have Wi-Fi or HSDPA connectivity.
Furthermore rumors are spreading all over the internet about Nokia Tube being actually named as Nokia 5800 Tube.
As per speculations the upcoming Nokia 5800 Tube will be equipped with 3.2 inch touchscreen display, 3.2 MP camera with auto-focus and GPS.
Rumors also say that the phone will feature connectivity options such as 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The phone is also expected to have a 3.5mm headphone jack and TV-output port.
As of now there is no word regarding its launch date and availability.

Nokia:India would have 500 million mobile phone users by 2010

Mobile phone maker Nokia has said that as per their estimates the Indian market would have as many as 500 million mobile phone users by the end of this decade.
Nokia is the world’s and India’s dominating mobile phone maker with leading market share.
The company added in its report that out of this, around 60 million users would have the capacity to record videos on their mobile phones.
100 million mobile users would have the ability to listen to music on these devices.
Nokia said that the market would be divided into three categories. The top end market segment would be limited to 50 million customers. The middle end phone range would have 150 million customers while the rest would be using low end devices.

Google hopes to house Web software on App Engine

Google plans to launch a service called App Engine Monday evening that the company hopes will attract programmers and eventually companies needing an expandable foundation for online applications.
App Engine, free to the first 10,000 people who sign up, offers a combination of several online Google services for those who want a place to host software, said Pete Koomen, a product manager on the Google developer team. Those include the BigTable service for data storage and processing--as expected--along with authentication to let people sign on to services and e-mail to let the system handle communications, he said.

The company is pitching App Engine as an easy way for programmers to build software without having to worry about rebuilding it once it gets too big for its original hardware or software britches.

It looks like the move could put some competitive pressure on other online services such as Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Salesforce.com's AppExchange.

Google's App Engine initially will have limits of 500MB of storage, 10GB of daily data transfer bandwidth, and 200 million daily cycles of processor use. That should be enough to power a Web site with about 5 million page views per month, Koomen said.

After the preview period ends, all comers will be able to use that amount of capacity for free, and using more will cost pay-as-you-go fees that Google isn't yet announcing.

Google expects to generate some revenue from the service and from AdSense if developers incorporate that service into their Web applications, said Tom Stocky, another Google product manager. But the real payback from the service is indirect, Koomen said.

"The primary motivation is to enable the Web as a platform and move it forward," Koomen said. "If it's easier for developers to build Web applications, (that) means more applications. That attracts more users to the Web and helps Google as well."

HP pavillion dv3000 and HP pavilion dv6800 launched

HP pavillion dv3000 and HP pavilion dv6800 entertainment notebook PCs’ are launched in India. It has been especially designed for mobile professionals; the design with blazing PC performance and features will surely delight your senses.

LABELLED ‘THE ONE’ HP pavillion dv3000, features 13.3 inch wide screen display based on the Brightview technology, along with a full sized keyboard and a inbuilt web cam. Its HP 3D driveguard protects the hard drive while on the go. It is priced at Rs 53,990.

Also the HP pavilion dv6800 entertainment notebook PC was launched, with a 15.4 inch, Bright view wide screen display with desktop features and HD entertainment. As well as the 14-inch HP Pavilion dv2800 Artist Edition Notebook PC features Intel Centrino Duo processor technology.

Nokia launches Replacement phones for emerging markets

In its move to pace up the sluggish market growth in Europe and North America, mobile phone giant Nokia has introduced four new handsets that have been specially designed to let customers in developing markets bid adieu to their old phones and replace them with the newly launched ones.

Nokia 5000, 2680, 1680 Classic and 7070 Prism are the latest phones from the Finnish company. Priced between 50 euros and 90 euros, the devices include basic features such as FM radio receivers and recorders, cameras, and music players, to encourage consumers to upgrade.
Nokia 5000 is the company’s very first sub-EUR100 megapixel camera-equipped phone and incorporates key functions like FM radio with recording capabilities, E-mail, and General Packet Radio Service, or GPRS, connectivity. Priced at EUR90, Nokia 5000 will ship in the second quarter of this year.
Nokia 2680 is Nokia’s first slide model targeted at developing markets and is a camera phone with FM radio with recording functionality. Retailing at EUR75, Nokia 2680 will ship in the third quarter.
Nokia 1680 Classic comes with a VGA camera, E-mail, and phone sharing functionality. It will ship in the second quarter for EUR50.
Nokia 7070 Prism is a flip phone that boasts a voice recorder, handsfree speaker, plans to ship in Q3 of 2008 for EUR50.

Microsoft wins ISO nod for Office OXML

After nearly 14 months of discussion, debate and controversies surrounding them, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has finally declared that Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format has received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC international standard.

There has, perhaps, never been a more intense global industry debate over standards since OOXML is backed by Apple, Novell, and closer home by Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and Nasscom.

The rival Open Document Format or ODF is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, and in India, by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad.

ISO approval means government business for Microsoft since governments worldwide, including India, prefer standards that are ratified from bodies such as the ISO.

States such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF file formats which are open and free (excluding maintenance and support).

“With 86 per cent of voting national bodies supporting ratification, there is overwhelming support for Open XML. This outcome is a clear win for the customers, technology providers and governments that want to choose the format that best meets their needs and have a voice in the evolution of this widely adopted standard,” said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft, in a press statement.

Transcend JetFlash V85 is Now Available

One more Transcend USB flash drive has been introduced -- the 16GB JetFlash V85. With a sleek zinc-alloy body, the JetFlash V85 measures 49.5mm by 15.8mm by 7.4mm, and can easily slide into small pockets or tightly-stacked USB ports. It stores personal and office documents, music, images, videos, movies, and more.

The V85 too bundles Transcend's JetFlash Elite software that includes seven tools to help manage mobile data. These include: Website auto-login, PC-Lock, favorites, secret-zip, e-mail, data backup, and online update.

The new JetFlash supports Windows 98SE/2000/Me/XP/Vista, Mac, and Linux, and is available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities. It is fully hi-speed USB 2.0-compliant and compatible with USB 1.0/1.1, and comes with easy plug and play operation. The JetFlash V85 16GB is priced at Rs 4,250, and enjoys a three-years warranty.

Google starts letting users edit documents offline

Google Inc said on Monday it is taking the next step to make its Web-based software useful in the real world of spotty Internet access by allowing users to edit word processing documents offline.

The world's top Internet company said it will begin over the next several weeks to allow users of its Google Docs word processing application to edit documents without an active Web connection, on planes, trains and other disconnected spots.

The offline feature of Google Docs temporarily stores documents changes on a user's local computer. Once reconnected to the Internet, any changes the user made will automatically be synchronized and stored on Google-hosted computers.

"This is still early days. We're working to make more Web applications and functions work where connections are unavailable," Google said in a statement.

These include the ability to edit spreadsheets and viewing or editing presentations, among other applications Google now offers online, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said.

Offline editing is a free feature using a technology known as Google Gears that the company introduced around 15 months ago to application developers to build offline features into their own programs.

The technology already works within Google's news feed reader, Google Reader, and applications from independent Web developers such as task-management service "Remember the Milk," from an Australian-based company of the same name.

Indiatimes 58888 launches Mobile Voice service

Times Internet aka Indiatimes claim they've launched the country's first 'Mobile Voice' service. What the service really implies is that for the first time, both SMS- and voice- services will be offered on the same short code ie 58888.

Indiatimes 58888 introduces Mobile Voice value-added service (VAS), which enables a user to start listening to the gossips, news, astro tips and music.

The service is live across all major telecom operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata, MTNL and BPL, and will be backed by a 360-degree campaign across media vehicles.
Indiatimes 58888 claims of a user base of 30 million subscribers and being accessible to the entire mobile base of 250 million mobile users across the country.

Available currently in English and Hindi, it will soon introduce its service in Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil, said an official release.

Times Internet Ltd CEO and MD Dinesh Wadhawan said, “This is the first and only pan-operator pan-India single number service which is common to voice, SMS and Wap. With this launch, we are going to change the way consumers use their phones. We will not only fill the current voids in the mobile VAS segment but also constantly deliver new and relevant products."