Unistal launches latest version of Protegent360 for comprehensive data security solution

Unistal Systems Pvt Ltd, the premier data recovery/security company, has unleashed 2011 version of Protegent product suites--Protegent360- Complete Laptop Security, Protegent PC- Complete PC Security and Protegent Enterprise Security to provide comprehensive data security solution to users.
The new products are highly innovative and have been upgraded in view of different and contemporary requirements of the users. Unistal has pitched Protegent360 as a complete laptop security solution for laptop users.

Protegent360 Complete Laptop Security
Unistal has strongly felt the need of an end-to-end security solution for the laptop users. In view of escalating cases of laptop theft and subsequent data leakage, experts at Unistal decided to come up with a solution that covers all the needs of laptop users.

Protegent360 provides users a five-tier protection:
Laptop Tracker with Data Encryption: Laptops are mobile devices and very much vulnerable to theft and missing. This module will keep you updated about the location of laptop wherever it travels. In addition, it does not only secure your laptop but also encrypts data, saving you from what could have been massive business loss. In case of laptop theft or missing, the data encryption feature will automatically encrypt user’s data.

Antivirus Solution with Firewall: The security solution is powered by Bitdefender Total Security 2011. Bitdefender is a highly competent world’s one of the best antivirus and gives an extra edge to the Protegent360 package.

Activity Monitoring and Reporting: Parental controls are so yesterday. Kids or Users can easily bypass these controls and get access to malicious content. Activity Monitoring and Reporting module will help you monitor each and every activity done on the system.
Port Locker and Data Leakage Prevention: Forget worrying about data theft through drives and ports or even Infrared. With Port Locker and Data Leakage Prevention module, you can block/unblock single/multiple drives/ports as per your needs.

Protegent Enterprise Security
Whether it’s an old business or existing business, large organization or a small one, the security needs for most of them are very much same. Protegent Enterprise Security is a comprehensive security solution for an enterprise.
Unistal is very confident of the new products, as the initial response from the distributors and resellers has been tremendous. Unistal plans to create high awareness about the new Protegent series with a special emphasis on Protegent360.

CA Technologies lauches the new Automation Suite for Cloud Computing

CA Technologies, an IT management software and solutions company, announced a next-generation CA Automation Suite to help customers with dynamic cloud computing infrastructure. The Suite is designed to offer a comprehensive, business service-centric approach to the dynamic deployment and elastic scaling of IT infrastructure and services by automating, orchestrating, integrating and standardizing the provisioning and management of physical, virtual and cloud resources.
The CA Automation Suite features details are as follows:

Business Service Automation

•       NEW: CA Process Automation helps reduce operational expenses, increase staff productivity and increase speed in delivering IT services by documenting, automating, and orchestrating a range of processes across platforms, applications, and IT groups. Key features include a graphical designer interface, over 50 CA Technologies and third-party pre-built data connectors, and visual exception handling.
•       NEW: CA Configuration Automation is designed to enable greater standardization of IT services, reduced downtime, and increased compliance with regulatory and IT security policies. Key features include granular configuration tracking and auditing; more than 1000 out-of-the-box application, service and system templates and policies; and the flexibility of using either agent or agent-less approaches.

Infrastructure Automation

•       CA Virtual Automation provides self-service and automated virtual server provisioning using an integrated self service reservation system; built in templates and reports for chargeback; and public, private, and hybrid cloud support, including the ability to directly provision applications into Amazon EC2.
•       CA Server Automation dynamically provisions, patches, and deploys applications and services across physical and virtual systems based on standard templates and key performance metrics.
•       CA Client Automation (formerly CA IT Client Manager) integrates and automates a wide range of client device management tasks such as bare metal buildups and rebuilds, patch management, migration to Windows 7 and remote desktop support.

New Pre-Integrated Solutions

•       CA Automation Suite for Hybrid Clouds is designed for enterprises interested in building an internal private cloud and also potentially planning to leverage a public cloud as a part of their data center strategy.
•       CA Automation Suite for Cisco UCS is designed for enterprises scaling out a Cisco UCS solution in their data centers that needs heterogeneous configuration and provisioning support and industrial-grade scalability.
•       CA Automation Suite for Data Centers is designed for enterprises looking to maximize the benefits of managing integrated physical and virtual infrastructure and preparing to take advantage of cloud computing benefits.

Electronic Device Manufacturer to step into Mobile Handset market

Sharp Business Systems (India) Limited, announced the entry into the fast growing Indian handset market. Sharp Business Systems (India) Limited is the Indian subsidiary for Sharp Corporation, the consumer electronics leader. At the launch event, Sharp unveiled its new range of handsets in India. This launch marks yet another business milestone for Sharp as well as for the mobile devices segment in India as it brings forth a world-class range of hand held products within the reach of Indian consumers.

The new mobile devices represent a strategic move for Sharp towards becoming a leader in the ‘mobility market’ in India, by building upon its core competency of providing high quality visual technology coupled with cutting-edge form factor innovations. The devices are designed to cater to the demands of the trendy yet price-conscious handset users, and signals the company‘s ambition to break down the barrier between technology and people, and make high quality mobiles highly affordable to all.

According to the spokesperson of the company, Sharp’s new handsets are in sync with the company’s history of innovation and commitment towards bringing quality products to life. The Sharp handsets symbolize their pioneering technological advancement and continued focus on R&D, and these would prove to be revolutionary in enhancing the mobile user experience, especially with the advent of 3G Network Services in India. They bring the same degree of quality commitment to the mobile business and assure their consumers of cutting-edge technology that will delight them in all ways including the form factor and one-of-a-kind service response.

During the official launch event in Delhi, Sharp unveiled four models namely Alice, Blink, Tango and Cyborg to be released in India this year. 

Indian Green Grid Group (IG3) picks IBM for innovative Green Data Center

IBM and IG3 have entered into an agreement, in which IBM will design a Green Data Centre for IG3.  IG3 is constructing one of the largest Data Centers in the Asia Pacific Region. Located in Bangalore it represents the largest investment so far in this sector in India. The proposed size of the data centre will be approximately 8.5 lakh square feet.

As part of the deal, IBM will design IG3’s Internet Data Centre with standards that are highly efficient and reliable. The data centre will be highly resilient and have the environmental protection advantages of IBM's industry-leading data centre design characterized by energy efficiency, green technologies, scalability and the latest power and cooling technologies.

IBM and IG3 also signed a marketing alliance agreement that will focus on the development of the managed services offerings as well as joint go-to-market strategies to acquire customers for services such as IT hosting, business continuity and disaster recovery. Under this joint agreement, both parties will benefit from providing data centre solutions to potential customers while attracting clients into the data centre space.

IG3 develops and manages secure business infrastructure and hospitality infrastructure in India. The organization has an in-depth understanding of industry requirements and has brought international standards of technology, security and quality to each project and has built integrated, intelligent facilities that cater to unique customer needs. Some of the SEZ projects undertaken by them are in Chennai and Perundurai.

First Mobile Browser to support Indic languages released

Bitstream Inc. has recently announced the first complete mobile browsing solution to fully support Indic languages, specifically nine languages spoken as a first language by an estimated 1.3 billion people living in India and the surrounding regions. This first of its kind solution for handset manufacturers and mobile operators is built upon the award winning BOLT cloud computing browsing platform and includes the BOLT mobile browser with Indic language user interfaces, the capability to perfectly render Indic text on a Web page, and the ability for end users to input Indic text into the browser. In addition to English, the BOLT cloud computing browsing platform now supports Hindi, Bengali, Gurumukhi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam and Oriya.
Other mobile browsing solutions address the challenges of Indic text by either imperfectly rendering the text or by displaying a static picture of a Web page. Imperfect rendering makes reading text difficult and affects the aesthetic of a website’s design. Although displaying a picture of the Web page solves the readability issue, it effectively eliminates the ability to manipulate the text and interact with the content.
BOLT is already the most fully-featured mobile browser built for phones of all types, ranging from entry level handsets to smartphones. BOLT offers users the widest variety of streaming audio and video available in a mobile browser, supporting both Flash and HTML5 video, and also includes many advanced features and social network integration, such as Twitter and Facebook widgets, often surpassing features available on desktop browsers. Introduced last year, the free English language consumer version of BOLT is used by 3 million people in India; 14.5 million people use BOLT worldwide.
With its small package, easy to integrate cloud services carrier infrastructure including billing/IN, SMSC, CRM and MIS systems, and best-in-industry compression capabilities, BOLT is ideal for handset manufacturers and mobile network operators to offer the best possible Internet experience for users of the widest range of mobile device categories. Bitstream will be demonstrating the BOLT cloud computing browsing platform, including its new Indic language support and a preview of the forthcoming Android version, at the upcoming India Telecom exhibition and conference, being held 9 -11 December in New Delhi.

WatchGuard advances messaging security with New WatchGuard XCS 770R

WatchGuard Technologies has added a new kin to its family of high performance messaging and content security appliances, the WatchGuard XCS 770R.  Built specifically for mid-market and enterprise environments that require unparalleled inbound and outbound messaging security and comprehensive web content control for unified network, application and data protection, the WatchGuard XCS 770R offers hardware RAID, which gives customers fully redundant messaging security at an affordable price.

With WatchGuard XCS 770R, enterprises gain a fail-safe, defense-in-depth solution that provides always-on unified and holistic messaging and content security that protects against next-generation threats, as well as provides an easy to use yet extremely powerful foundation for bi-directional message and web content management and control.

Designed and optimized for networks with 1,000 to 5,000 or more users, WatchGuard XCS 770R appliances offer unparalleled performance, efficacy and reliability.  Leveraging an advanced anti-spam engine that examines sender information and content, including images, attachments and embedded URLs, these appliances can conduct contextual analysis of message traffic for a categorized and weighted score, which results in highly intelligent and accurate protection.

Addressing the ever growing threat of blended threats and malware, the WatchGuard XCS 770R appliances provide zero-hour threat outbreak response as well as advanced content filtering and malware protection, which scans inbound as well as outbound e-mails for malicious content.

Like all other WatchGuard XCS appliances the XCS 770R can also take advantage of WatchGuard’s innovative in-the-cloud security technology, Reputation Enabled Defense.

The WatchGuard XCS 770R is available now from WatchGuard channel partners. The WatchGuard XCS 770R starts at Rs. 8,35,200/- no per user license fees apply.

Juniper locks Apple iPad for Mobile Enterprises

Juniper Networks announced the Junos Pulse App for the iPad, which enables anytime, anywhere secure remote access and connectivity to all enterprise resources, is now available for free download on iOS 4.2 from the Apple iTunes App Store. With more than 65 per cent of Fortune 500 companies deploying or piloting the iPad and 7.5 million iPad’s sold worldwide1, securing the device while enabling productivity for the enterprises has become paramount.

The Junos Pulse App for the iPad is part of Juniper’s broader Junos Pulse platform. It builds on Juniper’s market-leading SA Series SSL VPN solution that already enables more than 25 million end users to remotely and securely connect their devices, including laptops and smartphones, to corporate networks.  The Junos Pulse App has been built for ease of use and seamless deployment so enterprises can enable the mobile workforce of iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to be productive and secure.

Providing a secure environment enables enterprise IT departments to empower theirmobile workforce and enhance userexperience.For example, an iPad-enabled enterprise sales force cansecurely and easily generate quotes, submit expense reports, access CRM systems, and all on-the-go from their iPad regardless of whether they are on the corporate network, a local Wi-Fi hotspot or the latest 3G/4G network.

“It is a corporate requirement for us to provide the highest form of secure remote access to our employees whouse a variety of mobile productivity devices, including iPad’s,” said RuyNeto, Technology Manager at Terra.

Juniper customers currently using Juniper’s SSL VPN solution can begin deploying it immediately to their global workforce.  In addition to providing secure connectivity for the iPad and Apple iOS, Junos Pulse also offers security for Android, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems.

Early indications are showing that the iPad is a revolutionary device that will enable a level of mobile productivity we haven’t seen before. However, IT administrators have been resistant to embracing these new mobile devices due to valid security concerns. Juniper’s Junos Pulse App addresses these concerns, providing the necessary protection to enable these new mobile devices to be fully deployed in the enterprise.

Stellar unfolds Speed-Up Mac version1.0

Stellar Information Systems Ltd has announced the launch of Stellar Speed-Up Mac version1.0 software for Mac OS. Speed-Up Mac is a tool that efficiently gets rid of all the unwanted files and applications that eat up space on Mac drive and thereby optimizing the Macintosh hard drive performance. The software works not only as a cleanser but as an uninstaller.

The application wipes out all unnecessary files from the main hard drive and the volumes of secondary drives. Large, duplicated, temporary, cache files/items eats up space on drive; Speed up Mac erases such files from main hard drive, enabling more working space on drive. The unused applications, widgets and plug-ins that exist in the system can be removed with the help of Uninstaller; making Speed-Up a complete booster for a Mac User. There are five clean up options available in Speed-Up Mac- Large files, Duplicate files, and Universal Binaries, Cache/Temporary, and Language files.

The price range starts at Rs. 1700/- and the company is selling directly from its core office.    

Seagate's GoFlex to enhance Mac external drives

Seagate has introduced a new collection of GoFlex for Mac external drives addressing the personal needs of the Mac community, these are external drives designed to make it easy for those who use MAC OS X and Time Machine to backup, shuttle, or share their digital content.

These new portable and desktop solutions are HFS+ formatted out-of-the-box, making them fully compatible with Apple Time Machine® backup software, while maintaining the ability to work across both Microsoft® Windows® and Mac OS X computers. A truly unique feature, GoFlex for Mac drives can also be used with computers running Windows by simply downloading an HFS+ driver for Windows from Seagate.com.

Each GoFlex for Mac product comes bundled with FireWire® 800 and USB 2.0 adapters and cables – the most popular interfaces for Apple. In addition, each GoFlex for Mac drive can be used with other devices in the GoFlex. These solutions provide the flexibility to enjoy content on a TV or a mobile device, such as an iPad or smart phone.

Each drive in the family also comes backed by a Seagate three-year warranty. With over 10 billion songs downloaded from the iTunes® store and Apple’s market share continuing to grow year-over-year, the growing audience for Mac OS X will need external storage to backup all their digital content. Today’s product introduction addresses these current market trends and underscores Seagate’s commitment to delivering flexible, easy-to-use solutions that meet varying customer needs.

Plustek unveils OpticSlim 2600 flat-bed scanner, supports all file and image formats

Plustek, the leader in image solutions, has tossed in the Plustek OpticSlim 2600 flat-bed scanner. Suitable for home and small business users, OpticSlim 2600 offers compact design and high performance.

It is so ultra-slim that the business travellers can pack it alongside their laptops and carry it around. Even in the mid of travel, they can scan documents and send the digital files back to the head office or corporate office or even to their clients. Only they should ensure enough power back up in their laptops or notebooks. The OpticSlim 2600 is capable of scanning A4-size document at an optical resolution 1200 dpi and is power cord free. Via USB interface, the scanner receives the power and communicates with the computer.

Even the home & Soho users, fashion designer, freelancers, etc. who take project works and always work on the deadlines, can take advantage of this scanner. They can carry the scanner back to home after office hours and complete scanning jobs of their photographs, designs and creatives, and send those digitalized files to the clients at the last moment. It is also a great help for the small time lawyers who can move around with this scanner and scan documents of the client for their record purpose.    

The OpticSlim 2600 comes with 5 one-touch action buttons including Copy, OCR, E-Mail, Custom and PDF to integrate with powerful bundled software. It makes the work of the users very easy and enhances productivity. The biggest feature of OpticSlim 2600 is that its lid comes with special designed hinges, a feature which is ideal for thicker books and 3D object scanning.

Go and get your hands on Plustek OpticSlim 2600 to experience quality scanning

Kobian declares 3-Year warranty on Mercury Memory Modules

To gain more dependability and trustworthiness Mercury, the house of the widest range of PC components has announced a 3-Year warranty for their Mercury Memory Modules effective 1st Jan, 2011. This step has been appreciated and welcomed by the partners who have been associated with Mercury.

Mercury Memory modules use carefully selected and tested memory chips to provide a stable working on all computer applications. They are designed to deliver excellent performance on current and future Intel and AMD platform boards. Mercury Modules have a low 1.5V voltage for maximum compatibility and for energy efficient operation.

The range available in India is DDR2 & DDR3 in capacity of 1GB, 2GB upto 16GB.Mercury Modules are available in attractive retail packaging making it easy for the dealers and integrators to store and use.

Mercury Memory Modules are available in selected cities through Kobian’s authorized partners & Kobian plans to appoint new partners to cover the entire country.

ASUS graces Indian market with P8P67 and P8H67 Series motherboards

The growth of technology is pressurizing manufacturers to bring superior quality products for users. In a bid to deliver the best, ASUS has announced a range of motherboards featuring full support for Intel’s ‘Sandy Bridge’ second generation Intel Core processors, all improved through ASUS innovation.
The new P8P67 and P8H67 Series motherboards are based on the new Intel P67 and H67 chipsets. The class leading P67 based motherboards incorporate the future of motherboard technology today with the introduction of DIGI+ VRM. This exclusive ASUS design offers revolutionary digital CPU voltage regulation for improved reliability, stability and performance not available with yesterday’s analog technology.

The new motherboards will also delight consumers with Dual Intelligent Processors 2 technology, which consists of twin embedded co-processors that ensure optimized energy consumption and enhanced performance controls not available in other motherboards.

In addition to the P8P67 Series, ASUS has developed a complete array of new motherboards based on the P67 chipset that include the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Maximus IV Extreme and the heavy-duty TUF Series SABERTOOTH P67 motherboard.

Consisting of the Energy Processing Unit (EPU) and TurboV Processing Unit (TPU), this unique technology delivers a potent combination of streamlined system-wide energy consumption and enhanced PC performance. Second-generation Dual Intelligent Processors 2 technology adds the innovative DIGI+ VRM design to set a new standard in digital power management.
DIGI+ VRM replaces analog voltage regulator module (VRM) controllers with a digital programmable microprocessor that fully integrates Intel’s VRD 12 CPU power delivery system to eliminate digital-analog conversion. Since it works at such a fundamental level, DIGI+ VRM improves PC performance from the ground up, improving overclocking capabilities while increasing power efficiency, system stability and reliability.

Truly innovative from the ground up, the new ASUS P67 series of motherboards is the first and only choice for performance, stability and reliability.

Panasonic charms Indian households in association with Modicare

Panasonic has announced a strategic alliance with Modicare, one of India’s leading Direct Selling Companies. The agreement, signed between Mr. Daizo Ito, President, Panasonic and Mr. Amrish Roy Anand, CEO, Modicare will further strengthen Panasonic distribution network and reach in India.

As part of the agreement, initially, select Panasonic personal care products will be sold through the vast Modicare network of 40 centres spread across 2700 cities. The current tie-up will have a few products from the beauty care and home appliances range.

Sources reported that this association will further augment quality of Indian families’ life. Modicare is the first Indian company to provide an alternate source of income to many. Modicare Ltd is extremely positive on the growth of the Modicare multi level marketing, with a complete makeover to the brand. The unique range of products with a blend of ‘Nature and Science’ is there to satisfy everyday needs of each household.These products are very competitively priced.

GIGABYTE improves entry-level motherboards with rich features

Continuing with its strategy of giving best quality motherboards to the consumers, GIGABYTE Technology has launched three models in the Indian market, namely, GA-G41MT-S2P, GA-M68MT-S2P and GA-H55M-S2V.Although the new models have a number of more features, and offer a much higher performance than their predecessors, they will cost only Rs. 200 to Rs. 250 more. GA-G41MT-S2P, GA-M68MT-S2P and GA-H55M-S2V are available at approximate respective street prices of Rs. 2,900, Rs. 2,700 and Rs. 3,900.

GA-G41MT-S2P, boasting Intel G41 + ICH7 chipset is enhanced with utilities that include 4-phase power design, Ultra Durable 2 technology, GIGABYTE patented DualBIOS™, 3TB+ HDD Support, Audio upgrade, and Solid Capacitors for CPU VRM.

GA-M68MT-S2P, an NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a motherboard, replaces GA-M68MT-S2. It comes with a host of new features, such as GIGABYTE's unique 3x USB Power design, GIGABYTE’s Core Boost technology (that provides users with an easy way for unlocking the CPU’s hidden cores), W / FTP port, DualBIOS™, 3TB+ HDD Support, 4-phase power design, and Ultra Durable 2 technology.

GA-H55M-S2V that features the Intel H55 Express chipset, is the replacement for GA-H55M-S2, and will have several new features, including RGB+DVI port on rear I/O, 4-phase power design, and the Ultra Durable 2 technology.

With these high-end features Gigabyte has redefined its series of motherboards that offers high quality and better reliability.

EMC announces storage system for SMBs

NEW YOK, USA: Storage services provider EMC Corporation introduced multiple newstorage systems and software features – more than 40 new technologies and products in all, including a new family of unified storage systems for SMBs, EMC VNXe (for entry) series.

The VNXe (for entry) series, whose pricing starts at $10,000, is designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses, department level storage solutions for enterprise, and remote or branch offices.

The new storage solutions consolidate the features and functionality of EMC CLARiiON and EMC Celerra into a single family of unified storage arrays that scale from entry-level to data centre-class systems.

Its capabilities include the ability to: 
Provision storage in for hundreds of Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes, or a 1TB VMware data store, in less-than two minutes.
  
Automatically double storage capacity utilization using advanced data reduction technologies.

Provide automated diagnosis, service, and technical support information in a single click.

Mobile phones, gadgets may cause plane crash

LONDON, UK: The growing presence of mobile phones and other gadgets on board could create electronic interference that could send an aircraft crashing down.

Most personal devices transmit a signal and all of them emit electromagnetic waves which could interfere with the plane's electronics. Besides, older planes might not have the best protection against the latest generation of devices, the Daily Mail reported.

"The technical advancements for wireless devices and portable electronic equipment is so rapid, it changes every week," said Doug Hughes, an electrical engineer and air safety investigator in Britain was quoted as saying. "The advances in airplanes take 20 years."

There is no recent survey on how often passengers ignore restrictions on use of their gadgets.

But seven years ago Bill Strauss, then doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, in the US, monitored the signals emitted from phones during flights and discovered that they were frequently being left on.

So, Strauss said, the deterioration of planes and advance or decline of electronic devices over time was the immeasurable factor that was never taken into account by passengers.

"It would be a perfect storm that would combine to create an aviation accident," he said.

One crash in which mobile phone interference with a plane's navigation was cited as a possible factor involved a 2003 flight in Christchurch, New Zealand. Eight people died when the plane flew into the ground short of the runway.

The pilot had phoned home and the call remained connected for the last three minutes of the flight.

Since 2000, there have been at least 10 voluntary reports filed by pilots in the US with the aviation safety reporting system, administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In 2007, one pilot recounted an instance when the navigational equipment on his Boeing 737 had failed after takeoff.

A flight attendant told a passenger to turn off a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) device and the problem on the flight deck got sorted.

Nokia pulls plug on free music in most markets

HELSINKI, FINLAND: The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia, is ending its bundling of free music downloads with cellphones in 27 countries, where it has gained little traction since its 2008 launch.

Nokia will continue to sell phones with 12-month subscription to free music downloads in China, India and Indonesia and with 6-month subscriptions in Brazil, Turkey and South Africa.

All four major labels -- Vivendi's Universal Music, EMI, Warner Music Group and the music arm of Sony -- signed up for the service, which was seen at the start as a major challenger for Apple's iTunes.

Nokia unveiled the service in late 2008 in Britain -- seen as a test market for new mobile services in Europe -- but has lacked operator support and failed to attract many customers.

Reasons behind the lacklustre performance include use of older supporting handsets for the product at its launch, digital rights management (DRM) software that tied downloaded music to the device and a difficult to understand product offering.

"The markets clearly want a DRM-free music service," said a spokesman for Nokia, adding the firm continues to offer DRM-free tracks through its music store in 38 countries.

DRM software limits sharing of songs between different devices.

Consumers with the free music bundle in the 27 countries where the sale of the service have stopped will continue to have access until their subscriptions run out.

Rackspace launches cloud infrastructure in Europe

LONDON, UK: Hosting services provider Rackspace Hosting announced the launch of its cloud infrastructure in Europe.

Lanham Napier, president and CEO, Rackspace, said: “Our US-based Rackspace cloud has already been hugely successful, with over 100,000 customers globally now taking advantage of our hosted cloud services. Due to storage regulations set out under European law, many UK companies are restricted from using cloud. Our UK offering allows companies to avoid offshore data issues and weighty upfront capital investments which helps them become more strategically agile from a business perspective."

The new UK cloud offerings include Rackspace Cloud Files, running on OpenStack Object Storage, and Cloud Servers, based on the Xen hypervisor. The new cloud platform joins the dedicated hosting platform already offered in EMEA.

Rackspace says that its Cloud Files provides instantly scalable cloud-based storage, which is ideal for electronically storing items like back-ups, video files, or static user content.
Rackspace opened its source code for Cloud Files to the public through the OpenStack project, an open source cloud computing project founded by Rackspace in July 2010. The OpenStack project was initiated to drive open cloud standards, so customers would not be locked into proprietary cloud software.

Clearwire spectrum auction interest dwindles

NEW YORK, USA: Clearwire Corp's auction to sell wireless airwaves appears to have lost momentum, with big suitors bowing out except for T-Mobile USA, sources familiar with the matter said.

"You are down to a point where something is going to happen or not, with the logical party that is left," said one of the sources referring to T-Mobile USA.

T-Mobile USA has said previously that it is looking at multiple options for expanding the amount of wireless airwaves it can use, including a potential deal with Clearwire. The company declined further comment on Wednesday.

Clearwire, which is 54 percent owned by Sprint Nextel, is looking to raise billions of dollars in new funding to finish a high-speed wireless network it is building through either a sale of unneeded spectrum or an equity investment.

The company said in December that it had hoped to snag another round of funding by year-end or early 2011 with the potential for a spectrum sale of as much as $2 billion.

Negotiations between T-Mobile USA and Clearwire are ongoing over the spectrum purchase, among a number of other investment options, said one of the sources. Other remaining parties are only considering buying smaller amounts of the spectrum in regional areas, for a few hundred million dollars, said the source.

Some analysts had said they hoped T-Mobile USA would be ready to make an announcement about Clearwire at an analyst meeting scheduled for Jan 20. But T-Mobile USA's new chief executive, Philipp Humm, is not expected to provide much detail about the situation at the meeting, said the sources.

One reason for the hold up is that T-Mobile USA is also weighing a deal with Harbinger-backed startup LightSquared for use of its spectrum for fourth generation (4G) high-speed wireless services.

"(Clearwire) is in active discussions. T-Mobile needs to get something done more broadly on their 4G strategy, and they are giving themselves until the end of the first quarter to have something basically done," said one of the sources. "That could be Clearwire, or maybe LightSquared. But it looks more like Clearwire."

The sources were not authorized to speak to the press.

A representative for T-Mobile USA declined to discuss the contents of Humm's planned presentation. Clearwire and Sprint both declined comment for the story.

Clearwire raised about $1.3 billion in debt late last year, giving it enough money to maintain operations for up to a year, according to one of the sources. But it needs more money for a network expansion to keep it competitive with bigger rivals.

EVENTUAL DEAL?
Clearwire, whose investors also include cable operators Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable, was set up in its current form through a 2008 transaction. Along with Sprint the cable companies rent space on Clearwire's network to sell high-speed services. Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service depends on Clearwire for its high-speed wireless strategy.

Relations between Clearwire and Sprint Nextel Corp have hit some rocky ground recently over issues such as Clearwire's pursuit of a direct retail strategy and the amount it charges Sprint.

Facebook beats Orkut on mobile phones too

NEW DELHI, INDIA:  The new Opera State of Mobile Web Report on Thursday confirms the surging popularity of Facebook among the mobile Internet users in India. According to the report, Facebook finally overtook Orkut and is placed at #2 in the most visited domains since October 2010.

According to the Opera report YouTube and Vuclip also scaled up in ranking, implying increased usage of video content on mobile.

Snapshot of India Trends:

• The top 10 sites continued to be similar to 2009; Google and Orkut continue to lead this list
• Domains which deserve special mention in 2010 are:

o   Facebook finally overtook Orkut and is placed at #2 in the most visited domains since October 2010

o   YouTube and Vuclip also scaled up in ranking, implying increased usage of video content on mobile

o   Twitter which was not in the top 50 list at the end of 2009, is now standing tall at #16

o   Amazon, GSM Arena, FoneArena, Hungama and mp3hungama showed high growth in 2010

Top handsets for December 2010

·         Nokia 5130 XpressMusic

·         Nokia 2690

·         Nokia 2700c

·         Nokia 2730c

·         Nokia 3110c

·         Nokia 5233

·         Nokia 7210c

·         Nokia N70

·         Nokia 6300

·         Nokia X2

Top 10 sites in India (unique users) for December 2010

·         google.com

·         facebook.com

·         youtube.com (up from 4)

·         orkut.com (down from 3)

·         getjar.com

·         zedge.net

·         yahoo.com

·         wikipedia.org (up from 9)

·         songs.pk (down from 8)

·         vuclip.com

Global Trends:

2010: Mobile shopping on the rise

With all the world’s e-commerce in their hands, mobile shoppers truly know how to use it from their phones.

Our stats show a clear increase in the number of visits to Amazon.com  towards the end of the year, compared to earlier in 2010. Mobile shoppers focusing on getting the best deals increased their level of activity throughout the year, peaking at the traditional holidays.

The countries showing the clearest trend among the Opera Mini users were United States and Germany. Shoppers in these countries doubled their number of page views to Amazon.com towards the end of the year, as compared to the start of 2010. This Christmas was truly the season of the mobile shopper.

In India, Amazon.com stands tall at #17 in the most visited domains of 2010. It was not present in the top 50 most visited domains from India list in 2009. In the past one year, traffic towards Amazon.com by Indian Opera Mini users has increased by 150 per cent.

The sharp increase of shopping over the last year increased even more at the end of the year, towards the traditional holiday shopping frenzy. This is especially visible in the daily number of visits to Amazon.com during the U.S. shopping weekend starting with “Black Friday” and ending with “Cyber Monday”. In both monthly and daily numbers, the increase is significant and shows the willingness to shop and browse online stores even on the go.

What we say: “It is not hard to imagine the benefits of the full Web right at your fingertips when shopping in a crowded store,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software “'Is this TV on sale really a good offer, or can I get a better deal online? What are people saying on the Web about the advantages of this computer model compared to the more expensive one?' Full access to the Web via Opera Mini--even under difficult conditions such as crowded cellular networks--puts power back in the hands of the consumers.”

Opera Mini Global Statistics:

In December 2010, Opera Mini had over 85.5 million users, a 6.8 per cent increase from November 2010. Since December 2009, the number of unique users has increased 84.7 per cent.

Opera Mini users viewed over 46.7 billion pages in December 2010. Since November, page views have gone up 4.6 per cent.

Since December 2009, page views have increased 125.5 per cent. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 6.5 petabytes of data in December.

Shoppers are returning to the mobile Web after a long decline. In March 2010, Opera Mini users reversed the downward trend shopping sites have seen in the later years, and usage spikes are easily seen on the big shopping days of the year.