Now watch World Cup Cricket on Mobile

As the tenth Cricket World Cup kicks off, change is in the air. Change in the format of the game. Change in champions? Perhaps. But most importantly, change in the way fans can follow the tournament.

For the first time since the Cricket World Cup began in 1975, the boom in smart phones and apps means that cricket fans worldwide can now follow the tournament on the go from their handheld devices.

But with hundreds of apps out there all promising you the ultimate World Cup experience, which one do you go for?

Check out the top five picks released by Apppli, that guarantees one to satisfy the cricket fix this World Cup season.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011- Official (iPhone)

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011’s official iPhone app promotes itself as the ‘Scores and Match Videos’ app, and undoubtedly its exclusive Match videos are a highlight. The presentation of scores, points tables and fixtures is concise, comprehensive and easy to use. If you are looking for a fast and easy way to keep ahead of the scores this World Cup season then this is the app for you. However those looking for news coverage and notifications best look to Cricbuzz instead.

Cricket Club (Blackberry)

If you love cricket then this is the only app on Blackberry for you. Complete with detailed graphs such as wagon wheels for every player, even the most discerning cricket fan will be satisfied. All of this is provided alongside detailed score cards, ball by ball commentary, match and series schedules and player profiles.

Cricket World Cup 2011-LIVE (Android)

This Android app has everything a cricket fan could possibly need. Easy to use and navigate, this feature-rich app covers every aspect of the tournament, from live scores and commentary to World Cup Trivia and statistics. Tailor-made notifications and reminders ensure that you’ll never miss a game again, whilst the app’s social feature and Twitter integration really embraces new layers of the Cricket World Cup experience.

Cricbuzz (iPhone)

Cricbuzz promotes its iPhone app as the ‘ultimate destination for all cricket lovers’, and as far as iPhone users are concerned, it is not wrong. With live scoreboards, player profiles, full schedules, archives and pictures, the only feature that this impressive app lacks is video coverage. And if it is videos that you are looking for, turn to the ICC official iPhone app.

Cricitch (WebOS) 

A must-have app for all webOS users looking for a comprehensive cricket app. The app provides detailed graphics for match stats like partnerships and over summaries. However, the most innovative feature of this app is its action sounds and animations. Another handy feature is the ability to add your favourite teams and track their matches. All in all, webOS users will be delighted by the the ability to follow live cricket on this app.

Google planning 'radical' new Chrome browser

Software developers working on Google's popular Chrome browser are testing "radical" changes to its appearance.

Sources close to the company said the address bar currently takes up a significant amount of space that could be used for web browsing. One plan being considered would mean it was only visible when users made their mouse pointer hover over a specific part of the screen, the Telegraph reports.

Also read: Googles Chrome OS aims to kill Windows

The new "compact" navigation mode, described on the Chromium website as one of two key focuses for development, would take the web address bar out of each tab, releasing more screen space to display web pages.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9, which is available in a nearly final pre-release version, adopts a similar approach already. Chrome, however, is thought to be planning a significantly more stripped down version, working towards releasing almost the entire screen for web browsing.

Also read: Dell in talks with Google over Chrome OS

More than 120 million users now use Google Chrome, which has been heavily advertised by Google. The company is also working on a 'Chrome OS' rival to Microsoft Windows.

Google updates Chrome every six weeks, but major upgrades tend to be far less frequent.

How to stream live videos?

The cost of bandwidth is decreasing progressively and now with 3G services available in India even bandwidth on the go is quite affordable. Today, the notion of office within four walls is blurring and people prefer to work from anywhere.

The ability to view live events from remote locations, saves on both travel and time. In this we show how you can live stream an event from a video camera to a browser using the VLC player.

To implement this setup we need a machine with web cam, and VLC player, which is a free download from www.videolan.org, and a web server (in this sample implementation we have used Apache server for Windows (can be downloaded fromwww.apache.org).

Now open VLC player and click on 'Media>Streaming>Capture Device'. Here add video and audio devices and click on 'Stream>Next'.

Under 'Destinations' select 'New destination' as 'HTTP' and then click 'Add', and put a check mark on 'Display locally' to check if video is streaming properly. Add fixed IP address of the machine and port number and finally click on 'Next>Stream', and your camera and audio are streamed to provided the IP address. VLC also allows browser-based management.

One can access controls of VLC on a browser by clicking 'View>Add Interface>Web Interface'. One difficulty you might face is that you can get '403 Forbidden' error while trying to access VLC from your browser.

To overcome it, simple go to 'C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\http' and open '.hosts' file in notepad and remove comments in front of the appropriate entry (in our case 192.168.0.0/16).

The next step is to install an Apache web server and host a web page in it that would display live footage.

Apple iPad 2 to debut on March 2, 2011

Apple Inc is expected to launch its new iPad on March 2, contrary to speculation of a delay of the latest version of the popular tablet computer.

One person familiar with the matter said recent speculation about a delay until June was "simply not true" as Apple is planning a launch in the same seasonal schedule as the first iPad, which went on sale in April 2010.

Apple will host an event on March 2, where the company is expected to take the wraps off the newest iPad model, an individual with knowledge of the situation said. Apple declined to comment.

Shares of Apple fell 3 percent after a Taiwanese brokerage firm said the next version of the iPad tablet computer will be delayed as maker Hon Hai faces production bottlenecks due to the device's new design.

But analysts quickly downplayed the report, noting that Apple has been reliable when it comes to its release schedule.

"Apple has a very consistent track record," said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst.

The speculation over the timing of the iPad unveiling comes as unverified tabloid reports of the faltering health of its iconic chief executive, Steve Jobs, cloud perceptions of the company's ability to maintain its global technology leadership over the long term.

Tim Cook, chief operating officer of Apple, is expected to take the stage at the annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in Jobs' place. Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant in 2009, took his third medical leave in seven years in mid-January.

The iPad was the hottest technology device of 2010, selling nearly 15 million units and sparking a slew of copycat devices from rivals. More than 50 million tablets are expected to be sold this year, with Apple capturing the bulk of the demand.

Yuanta Securities had said in a note the next version of iPad would come out two months later in the seasonal schedule this year than the first version, which launched in April last year.

According to the note, component makers had to change their production processes after Apple made design changes to the iPad2 before the Lunar New Year at the beginning of February.

Hon Hai declined to comment.

Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt said investors were overreacting to Yuanta's note, adding that even if a late launch hurts second-quarter sales, he is not changing his expectation for full year sales of 27 million iPads.

Manufacturing sources have previously said the new model would have cameras on the front and back of the device and would be slimmer, lighter and have a better resolution display than the first iPad.

Apple shares were down 2.9 percent to $340.29 in Tuesday afternoon trading on Nasdaq.

The March 2 unveiling was originally reported in an All Things Digital blog report on Tuesday.

EAIT Kolkata explores tomorrow's technology

Bringing academics to the industry, with a vision to combine research in ICT with an exposure to the mainstream, the Computer Society of India(CSI) held a three-day International Conference in Kolkata this weekend, called Emerging Applications of IT (EAIT).

For EAIT 2011, the organizers shortlisted 86 peer reviewed papers for publication as well as presentation from various universities and mainstream IT industry, to “explore, and improvise on, the scope and possibilities in the future of IT and telecom”.

Inaugurating the show, West Bengal IT Minister Debesh Das said that the conference was an effective platform for technologists, computer users and system designers to interact.

“With manufacturers able to get an insight into academic trends and thought processes of the technologists who guide the future of ICT...this will promote the interchange of information within this discipline, and between the specialists and the general public,” he said.

The International Conference focussed on emerging applications of IT where CSI selected 86 papers amidst 322 submissions from 578 authors across the globe. Participating nations included Australia, Bangladesh, France, India, Iran, Japan, Nepal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and USA.

The review of papers and their selection was “double-blind”, according to CSI Kolkata's EAIT programme committee chair Dr Debasish Jana. “The final decision to accept a paper or reject it was taken after an elaborate discussion of the program chairs and core committee of EAIT 2011. Several papers were discussed at length and in depth before selection.”

The plenary address was delivered by Prof. Reynaldo Thompson of Mexico's University of Guanajuato, on “Blurring Boundaries: Creativity in the Intersection of Art and Technology”, and the keynote speaker was Professor Bimal Roy, Director of Kolkata's Indian Statistical Institute.

The event focussed on peer reviewed contributed papers in the areas of analytics and business intelligence, AI, biomedical apps, computer vision, data mining and knowledge discovery, distributed computing, image processing, mobile computing, pattern recognition security and privacy, among others.

The organizers described EAIT as a platform for academics to discuss the latest findings and trends in technology with the industry, and show them a glimpse into the future of ICT in India.

“Academics and industry interact so rarely, that the gap between them widens further,” said CSI Kolkata's R T Goswami, chairman of EAIT's tutorial committee. “It's our sincere effort to close this gap and bring industry and academia on a common platform.”

Founded in 1965, in the same year as the Computer Society of India itself, CSI Kolkata is one of the oldest chapters of CSI, holding its first convention in December of its foundation year. With over 1,000 members, CSI Kolkata regularly organizes workshops, technical lectures and seminars, as well as national conventions.

An app to fill out PDF Forms on an iPad

LifeForms, new iPad Productivity App for filling out PDF forms, launched their newest version of the app this week.

According to the press release, LifeForms replaces the old process of having to download PDFs, print them, find the information you need, fill out by hand, scan the completed form, then email or fax it back to the sender.

Also read: How to edit PDF files? 

LifeForms opens any PDF form. By simply double tapping the page, the application lets you enter anything from text to signatures made with your finger, to drawings and annotations, simply and easily, added the release.

As great as it is to be able to finally fill out a PDF form without the hassles we all experienced before, the most compelling feature is The Word List. The Word List automatically saves your entries so that you can use them on the next form, just tap and drag the information onto the form, send it and you're done!

Also read: How to convert PDF to Word in Mac?

If you type in a phrase or sign your signature in LifeForms, you’ll never have to re-enter that data again; LifeForms keeps it for you to use over and over again, simplifying one the most painful processes of a form-filled world. Folders provide the ease of organizing your documents for quick resending or revising.

LifeForms is a simple solution to the problem of filling out PDF forms and having your personal information readily accessible to just tap and drag into even the most complex forms.

Tips to migrate in-house Apps to the Web

Until recently, most IT managers used to have jitters on moving their business applications like CRM onto the cloud mostly because of the security concerns for their information. Therefore they took pride in having all their business applications, email architecture, storage setup, etc within their company's firewall.

But in recent past the economic slowdown and the onset of cloud service providers has been an awakening that organizations can reduce their infrastructures' complexities by opting to host their applications on the cloud.

Today's business applications are growing in number and complexity, and are also demanding on the IT setup requirements. An organization which is hosting their business applications on-premise will have to first invest on the infrastructure to run that, and then would have to have appropriate manpower having expertise in supporting those applications as well as the IT infrastructure.

On the contrary, the same service can be obtained from a cloud service provider with no such hassles. The benefits of opting for a service model to on-premise setup are already known. And the cloud service vendors today have established their setup so well for reliability and security which one cannot replicate in their on-premise infrastructure without having to dig deep into their pockets.

Here are few business critical applications that an organization could move onto the cloud and save upon from the complexities that are involved in running them in their IT infrastructure.

Email

Email is the communication backbone for any organization today, and that is what makes many organizations to setup their own mail servers within their firewalls. Think about the cost involved in the hardware, mail server setup and licensing, not to forget the manpower required to keep this going. Once that is done you have to consider the security of the mail servers from exploits and spam messages. All these hassles are taken care of by the hosted service provider if you opt for email hosting service.

Even if you have an existing email setup, you can migrate to the cloud of service provider of your choice. Today most hosted email service provider offer email migration as part of the package. Additional services like email archiving can also be subscribed for.

Microsoft Exchange, which is the most predominant mail Exchange server used by organizations is also being offered on cloud as Exchange Online. Google Apps is not just mail solution but a suite of business tools like calendar, collaboration apps and online storage.

So, opting for a service like Google Apps, which costs about USD50 per user per year, and comparing that to having the whole email setup on-premise is significant when you also consider the savings from manpower reduction and the quality of service being maintained and offered. 

ZK Framework unveils jQuery selector style

ZK, provider of open-source Java web development solutions has announced the release of jQuery style selectors for its server-centric Ajax web framework ZK.

ZK continues to drive technical innovation by delivering server-side jQuery and CSS 3 style selectors using Java annotations in addition to the industry leading Server+client Fusion architecture said a press release.

It added, this unique server-side selector technology affords developers an incredibly easy and productive method of selecting and accessing server-side components. Using the technology makes implementation of patterns such as MVC and MVVM straightforward.

Core ZK Selector features include:

* Use the selector technology using pure Java
* Use Java annotations to automatically bind components to properties
* Selectors apply jQuery & CSS 3 style
* Enhanced MVC and MVVM usage

“Our focus is always on providing developers with the power and ease they crave. jQuery selectors for the server-side are just one of the features which makes ZK the most productive Ajax web framework today,” said Tom Yeh, CEO of Potix.

ZK leveraged its extensive experience of Java technology to implement a server-side selector system which interfaces with an array of super-light, blazing fast UI components for Java Ajax web development.

Kinfotech’s Kini Institutes Award

At the first ISODA Tech Summit 2011 being held in Bangkok, M Prabhakar Kini, Founder Managing Director of Bengaluru-based security and software solutions provider, Kinfotech announced the institution of the MP Kini Award for Business Excellence.

The award will be given away annually to a company for outstanding performance in the software reselling and solutions business. Kini presented the cheque of Rs 1,11,111 to Harinder Salwan, Secretary, ISODA for instituting the award, on the second day of the Tech Summit.

“The award will be given to a software partner who is rated the best not only in terms of business performance but also in terms of business practices and innovation. The process of selection of the winner will be done by an ISODA committee chaired by Kini. The winner will get a gold medal and a citation,” informed Kini.

The award for this year will be presented in April and ISODA members can nominate themselves or their peers for the same. “We will also call for nominations from outside ISODA membership and ask distributors and vendors to nominate their leading partners,” said he.

Commenting on his decision to institute the award, Kini said, “The software business has given me a lot—my first home, my first car, a lot of respect from vendors, peers and customers. This is my way of thanking the industry.”

Intel Eyes Channel for Development Tools

Next on Intel’s agenda are its development tools. Taking a leaf from its global strategy, plans are underway to build an alternate software reseller channel—outside its core OEM and system builder channel—to offer the business a much needed push.

Intel’s software line consists of development tools such as Intel Parallel Studio, vTune performance analyzer, C++ compiler and Fortran compiler, and embedded and mobile software from acquisition Wind River Systems’ portfolio. The vendor also offers some of its tools as plug-ins of extensions for Microsoft Visual Studio.

“Our development tools business aims to provide enhanced integrated development environment (IDE) for software programmers,” said Phil De La Zerda, Director, Worldwide Sales and Business Development, Intel Developer Product Division.

“Since India is the software hub of the world, we see a huge market potential.” According to De La Zerda, sectors such as finance, banking, engineering, oil and gas, and manufacturing are currently looking for High Performance Computing and Communication (HPCC) solutions. “Development tools are critical to business. We want developers to create software optimized for latest Intel processors,” he said. “We want them to embrace parallel computing and multithreading, and thereby better the performance of their software. As we acquire more customers, we are laying foundation for multi-core technology.”

Intel India has already reported wins in several large R&D and educational establishments such as C-DAC, IIT, IGIB, TIFR and NCRA. “We also have several IT services companies on our radar, and are investing heavily in events and seminars focused on HPCC,” said De La Zerda.

“We believe that every Microsoft Visual Studio licensee is a potential buyer, and we want our partners to go after them,” De La Zerda added.

IBM's Big Focus on Software

IBM India is betting big on software business and has invested significantly to enable channels.

The company last year setup a dedicated Partner Sales and Support Center for software to drive small deals and aid partners with necessary pre and post-sales support. It also invested in setting up the Partner Cloud Center in Pune to provide select partners access to IBM's scalable, secure cloud offering and deep technical expertise.

In addition, IBM along with its distributors—Ingram, Redington and Avnet—has created a dedicated team of 40 to drive overall software sales in smaller cities and promote cross-sales among STG partners across 20 cities.

"In 2010, we enabled partners in more than 20 cities through year-long programs. We also enhanced the Software Value Plus (SVP) and the Software Value Incentive (SVI) programs to ensure more business and profitability for certified partners. In the last one year we have enabled more than 40 STG partners to cross-sell software solutions and another 60 to identify reselling opportunities," informed Anil Menon, Vice President, Channel, Marketing and Ecosystem, IBM India and South Asia.

Menon claimed that the IBM software business in India has been growing at a CAGR of more than 60 percent over the past two years.

Under the enhanced SVP program, more benefits have been extended to certified software partners. "The new SVP makes it mandatory for partners to have one or more certifications to execute deals. All opportunities or deals signed by resellers are routed through certified solutions partners," stated Menon. “Under the new SVI, partners can earn incentives ranging from 5 percent for opportunity identification to 40 percent for cross-selling in competitive deals.”

While among the STG partners Tivoli Fast Backup and Lotus have been doing good business, software solutions partners have been driving middleware products.

By the end of the current quarter, IBM plans to have 75 STG partners certified on software. “Currently, we are running the Rapid Tivoli Certification drive to train 20 premium storage partners. This is a 5-day hands-on training camp followed by technical certification for end-to-end Tivoli configuration, installation and implementation,” Menon informed.

In 2011, IBM plans to consolidate its software GTM and introduce more ready-to-use cross-brand solutions in areas such as continuous data protection, analytics, and backup.

“From 2007 to 2010, contribution from tier-2 cities has gone up from 20 to 40 percent. In 2011, we expect tier-2 cities to contribute 50 percent of software revenues—equal to that contributed by the top 3 cities namely Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru,” Menon concluded.

DDR3 Prices Crash by 50 Percent in Last 45 Days

DDR3 prices have hit an all-time low following sluggish markets and liquidation of stocks by major Far Eastern distributors as the Chinese New Year approaches.

According to the recent report by DRAMExchange, the lowest price for 4GB DDR3 module quoted for the third week of January 2011 was around $32, which is approximately 50 percent lower than the price at the start of December 2010.

“Prices have been steadily dropping. It's a great time to upgrade or buy new memory,” said Suresh Purohit, Manager at Hyderabad-based DRAM India, a memory distributor, “Spot prices for a 4GB DDR3 module has dipped to less than Rs 2,000 from Rs 4,000 during the past 45 days.”

J Ramesh, Manager at Chennai-based Ralco Synergy added, “There is nothing new in the lows we are seeing in the DRAM market. It’s a cyclical trend that we have seen it in the past too. In Q3 and Q4 memory prices usually go up due to the Christmas season, and once that is over, it falls.” 

According to GA Mannan, Country Manager, Corsair India the other reason for the crash in prices is the transition that is happening from 45nm to 32nm manufacturing.

“Leading chip manufacturers have moved a large chunk of their memory manufacturing to 32nm fabs and hence are liquidating the 45nm inventory in order to move completely to the new and more efficient fabrication process,” opined Mannan.

Mannan sees memory prices firming up post the Chinese New Year, which is on February 3, 2011.

AMD Launches Fusion In India

AMD India has formally launched its Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) series called Fusion in the country, and has announced in the next two months almost all major OEMs will launch a Fusion based notebook or desktop.

“The APU represents a tectonic shift in computing, probably the biggest since x86 was launched 40 years back. AMD Fusion will eliminate the need for consumers to choose between power and performance enabling exciting new computing experiences at price points that offer tremendous value. This will also allow our partners to offer exciting new form factors on a robust computing platform.” said Ravi Swaminathan, Managing Director and Regional Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, AMD India

The APU comes in the following two versions based on performance and (low) power draw. The E-Series, an 18-watt TDP APU formerly codenamed “Zacate” is for ultrathin, mainstream, and value notebooks as well as desktops and all-in-ones. Also AMD is shipping C-Series, a 9-watt APU formerly codenamed “Ontario” for netbooks and small form factor desktops and devices.

Swaminathan claimed that nearly dozen models will be launched in the next two months by various OEM partners. AMD showcased models from vendors such as Toshiba, Lenovo and Sony. Sony has already started shipping a Zacate based mini-notebook in the Sonya Vaio YB series. However a spokesperson mentioned that actual retail availability could be as late as early March. Prices are expected to start at Rs 16,990 for netbooks and Rs 22,500 for notebooks. Swaminthan said that AMD will soon announce programs for system builder channels. "Fusion is not just a mobile PC story, we have a story on the desktop too, and soon we'll announce new channel programs,"

“The concept of synergizing the CPU and GPU allows amazing user experience in any form factor, and are designed to provide significant advantages in power and design simplicity over competing multi-chip solutions,” said, Manju Hegde, Corporate Vice President, Fusion Experience Program. “Through Fusion, AMD is targeting the “sweet spot” for accelerated HD experiences across notebooks, desktops and HD netbooks.”

Cisco Acquires Pari: What Goes Around, Comes Around

Cisco this week announced its intent to acquire privately-held Pari Networks, a provider of network configuration, change and compliance management appliances that was founded by former Cisco engineers.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cisco says Pari's appliances will complement its "smart service" capabilities by enhancing the ability of Cisco and its partners to manage the health and stability of customer networks through proactive, personalized services. This will help customers identify potential network problems before they occur and optimize the performance of their networks, Cisco says.

Cisco says it and its partners have been evolving professional and technical service offerings from reactive to proactive by embedding these so-called smart service capabilities.

Pari's products are designed to help customers stay on top of updates across devices and ease compliance audits. The company developed its Paritra appliances to include policy, compliance and audit assessment mitigation features.

The devices include customizable templates for regulatory-compliance regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and Payment Card Industry standards.

Pari's rack mountable appliances include agent software that can be installed on devices to collect and report on configuration, change and compliance data. Pari also offers a network assessment tool that provides configuration snapshots for compliance and other audits.

The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2011. Upon close, Pari Networks employees will be integrated into Cisco's Technical Services organization.

Pari, based in Milpitas, Calif., was founded in April 2005 by by former Cisco engineers and marketers. While at Cisco, Pari CEO Kishore Kumar found the time it took for Cisco's tools to support configuration updates too long to secure network devices adequately from potential threats.

Oracle Makes A Fresh Run At Sharepoint

Oracle is hoping to make new inroads against the likes of Microsoft SharePoint with WebCenter Suite 11g, which was announced Tuesday.

The company has pulled together a superset of capabilities from its various portal products for the new product, said Andy MacMillan, vice president of product management.

The release traces back to Oracle's "continue and converge" plan laid out in 2008 when it purchased BEA, which had a number of portal assets, MacMillan said. Oracle always intended to "bring together the best of the best ... into a single unified use case," while continuing to develop the portal products independently, he said.

"Customers are invested in these platforms. What we want to do is provide them a way, at their choosing, to leverage the converged stack," he said.

The suite includes a content management infrastructure along with components for building portals, websites and composite applications.

Oracle has also packaged capabilities from its Beehive collaboration suite specifically for use with WebCenter. Contrary to some recent indications, Beehive is still alive as an independent product, according to MacMillan.

Oracle may face some challenges trying to sell a broad-based portal product into corporate environments where SharePoint is already in wide use.

But Oracle is positioning WebCenter Suite as something more robust than "purely ad-hoc" SharePoint installations that mostly play the role of file servers, MacMillan said. "What we're talking about is how you are collaborating around key business processes," he said.