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DateLine Sunday, 6 April 2008

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Intel Corp to invest in Lanka soon

Intel Corporation is planning to invest in Sri Lanka very soon, said Managing Director, Asia Pacific Region Intel Capital, Cadol Cheung. Addressing the international media on the eve of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Shanghai, China he did not elaborate on the investment and added that it will be soon and everything will be announced at the right time.

Cheung said that they are planning for worldwide growth with an emphasis on emerging markets and enhancing knowledge based technology.

Intel Capital is interested in investing in mobile internet client technology, software solutions as well as manufacturing memory. Intel capital has invested US$ 7.5 billion in about 1000 companies and 45 countries since its inception in 1991.

Speaking of future plans, he said, that Intel Capital’s objective is to be the premier global investment company in the world by capitalising on the differentiators, building the company and naturing the entrepreneur.

The tradition of risk taking, innovation and excellence together with vast access to capital has made Intel Capital one of the best companies in the world.

Tomorrow’s mobile experience

Intel Senior Fellow , director communications Technology Lab Kevin Kahn speaking on the new mobile research effort of Intel Carry Small Live, Large (CSLL) said that Intel researchers are leading a vision of tomorrows mobile experience to be smaller and efficient mobile devices that leverage other resources around them to provide a more personalised user experience.

It will focus on achievements in small form factor and improved power efficiency, personalisation that anticipates user needs, more mobile devices that leverage and interact with technology in the environment and standardisation.

He said that Intel is researching techniques for mobile devices of the future to have a great awareness of the user’s preferences and deliver new services and capabilities to satisfy the preferences using sensors, context framework, web based services as well as privacy and security for user data protection.

They are also looking at how tomorrow’s mobile devices will easily operate beyond their own form factor or built in capabilities by leveraging the power and capabilities of nearby wireless devices including display, storage compute and user interaction.

He said at present incompatibilities are a barrier to expanding the capabilities of mobile devices and the mobile computing eco systems.

Therefore, Intel is working with standardisation bodies and various partners to develop standards that will help make the CSLL vision a reality.

Intel Vice President Corporate Technology Group and director Intel Research Andrew Chien outlined the CSLL research effort which is to have technology that is more intutive and aware of the surrounding environment.

Computer systems will have to be more aware of their users and context in everyday activities and environments with sensors and inference. Sensors can provide massive amounts of data but the challenge is to accurately interpret and understand the data to use it effectively.

Intel Mash Maker beta

He said beware of the physical and personal environment including items such as activity, mood, recognising physical items, location air current state and using that understanding to direct actions of the user or the mobile device.

He said that Intel will unveil Intel Mash Maker beta, a browser extension at the Web 2.0 conference on April 22. It includes support for Internet Explorer and FireFox with advanced widgets and visualisation capabilities. It lets users create client side mashups as they browse the web. It provides users with a new level of capabilities and intelligence to the internet experience. It delivers personalised multi content information users want the way they want it.

Intel Fellow Corporate technology Group Krishnamurthy Soumyanath speaking on the significant milestones in developing low cost digital multi radios, said that in the future this technology will allow small devices to handle a mixture of wireless radio technology standards from just one chip that consumes less power than today’s bulky analog versions.

General Manager and Vice President China Intel Corporation Ian Yang presenting the Intel China overview said that China’s PC market is growing at 50 per cent per year which is considered the fastest growth in the world in any consumer product. He said that the PC penetration in 1995 was less than one per cent but last year it was 21 per cent which shows that there is tremendous growth. It is the world’s largest emerging PC market. Intel entered the Chinese market in 1985.

The company has been concentrating on sales, marketing, research and development as well as manufacturing from the time Intel entered the market. Earlier, China was classified as a APAC country together with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka but two years ago China was established as a separate country due to the high growth it experienced.

Since Intel entered China the company has invested over US$ 4 billion and employs a staff of over 7,000.


US Cellular selects Valista’s Operator Payments Service

Valista (www.valista.com), the leading provider of digital commerce software and managed services, said that US Cellular, a leading US based provider of wireless services, has selected Valista’s Operator Payments Service to enable its off-deck premium content business.

Through Valista’s Operator Payments Service, US Cellular customers will now have greater access to mobile content and be able to fully participate in many interactive activities such as text-in media voting for popular television shows.

Valista’s Operator Payments Service supports a wide range of mobile payment options, providing consumers with greater choice in the purchasing process. In addition, the service provides support for post purchase operations such as refunds and credits and allows for end-to-end visibility of transactions.

Valista’s Operator Payments Service acts as a bridge between external aggregators, content providers and US Cellular’s internal infrastructure. It is offered as a managed service, allowing US Cellular to maintain core focus and improve the time to market of their off-deck premium content business. The service utilises Valista’s industry leading payments technology and its advanced revenue sharing and settlement solution (ValistaPlus 4).

A key feature of Valista’s Operator Payments Service is the Campaign Manager Module, which manages the lifecycle of off-deck mobile campaigns across the operator, aggregators and content providers.

It enables the submission, approval and launch of campaigns proposed by content providers or aggregators to operators such as US Cellular.

This process enables US Cellular to protect their customers from inappropriate content and rogue services by allowing them to accept reject or ask for a revision of proposed content and services, ensuring only content and services which meet US Cellular’s criteria can be used by US Cellular customers.

Campaign Manager also supports customer care by providing detailed information in the event of a customer inquiry, complaint, request for a refund or cancellation of a service, ensuring full customer satisfaction.

Valista’s Operator Payments Service increases the percentage of successful purchases and reduces service costs through authentication and authorisation, subscription licence and refund management and automated contract mediation.

It also provides comprehensive settlement and reconciliation services allowing automated, accurate settlement calculations with all partners and automatically reflects refunds in settlement statements.

According to Chief Operating Officer at Valista Craig McDonald, “Operators need the ability to quickly adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the global payments market.

Understanding the growth of off-deck content, Valista’s solutions have been built to manage scalable volumes of transactions and enable carriers to future proof their evolving payment strategies.”

Valista has a proven track record in providing managed services on behalf of such key customers as Cricket Communications. Valista’s Operator Payments Service is based on the award winning Valista payments and settlement platforms, which are in use by some of the world’s largest mobile operators including Vodafone UK, NTT DoCoMo, France Telecom’s w-HA and Orange.


Eurocenter DDC attains Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status

Eurocenter DDC achieved the status of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, as a result of its success in delivering Microsoft-compatible solutions to enterprise customers.


From left: Subky Hussain, Business Development, Eurocenter DDC, Mano Sekaram, CEO of Eurocenter DDC being presented the Microsoft Gold Partner Certification award by Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Alanzo Doll, Partner Account Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka.

Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are the elite Microsoft Business Partners who earn the highest customer endorsement.

They have the knowledge, skills, and commitment to help implement technology solutions that match the exact business needs.

They are the elite few who have passed the highest level of requirements from Microsoft and have demonstrated their capability to implement the most robust, efficient and scalable implementations of Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace.

“We’re very excited about our partnership with Microsoft and honoured to be selected by Microsoft as a Gold partner, we know that earning the distinction of being a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner is due to the excellent work of our staff and providing solutions that work for our customers. I want to thank our customers for providing references that helped us move into this highest partnership level.

We are determined to take full advantage of this new partnership level to provide an even better service to our customers with the benefits offered within this partnership program.

Since our customer base is predominantly in Europe, this certification has further enhanced our capabilities in delivering solutions based on Microsoft technologies.” said Chief Executive Officer of Eurocenter DDC Mano Sekaram, commenting on their achievement.

With a large resource pool of Microsoft Certified System Engineers, Eurocenter has grown rapidly in the last few years and this certification validates Eurocenter’s commitment to raise the bar on IT service delivery.

Microsoft’s recognition opens a new level of client opportunity by aligning Eurocenter’s core competencies with the most recognised and respected partner accreditations.

“Today’s customers demand to be up-to-date on the latest technology and how it works.

We need strong companies with a proven track record of using Microsoft products and technologies and illustrate a strong commitment to progressing industry standards and meeting customers’ demands. Obtaining Gold Partnership takes this to a new level of excellence.

Eurocenter is predominantly a Microsoft operation with over two-thirds of their developments on Microsoft tools and technologies for their customers across Europe.

Eurocenter DDC have demonstrated such capabilities and, while we have an excellenent engagement with them already, Microsoft Sri Lanka welcomes them warmly to the Gold Partner program, said Country Manager of Microsoft Sri Lanka, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne.


Children flock to social networks

More than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds who are online in the UK have a profile on a social network, research shows. Most sites, such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook, set a minimum age of between 13 and 14 to create a profile but none actively enforce the age limit. Ofcom’s survey of 5,000 adults and 3,000 children found 49% of those aged between eight and 17 have a profile.

Ofcom says parents need to keep an eye on what their children do online.

The Ofcom report looks into the impact of social networks on people’s lives in the UK as part of a wider media literacy campaign and surveyed 5,000 adults and more than 3,000 children. Its statistics suggest that around 19% of all UK youngsters have a presence on a social networking site.

“Social networks are clearly a very important part of people’s lives and are having an impact on how people live their lives,” said director of market research James Thickett, at Ofcom.

He said, “Children’s lives are very different from what they were 20 years ago. Social networks are a way of creating a social bond.” The Home Office has been working with social networking firms and is expected to publish a set of guidelines for the sites around best practice, security and privacy on Friday.

The report is expected to recommend that profiles created by children are set to private by default or are only viewable by friends nominated by the user.

It also suggests that social sites maintain a distinct contact page listing contact numbers, such as 999, children can use to get help.

The three leading social networks, MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, all say they remove profiles of users that are found to be too young on their sites. But at present no technology is used to actively verify the age of users.

The Home Office guidelines are set to encourage social networking sites to investigate age verification technologies and to give better signposting to users about privacy settings, and warnings about the implications of posting personal details.

One solution to this problem would be for schools to set up sites of their own that could be grouped by age.

Courtesy BBC


Computers to merge with humans

By 2020 the terms ‘interface’ and ‘user’ will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans.

It is one of the predictions in a Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology and psychology.

It predicts fundamental changes in the field of so-called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines, the report said. In turn computers will anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines.

Courtesy BBC

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