Beware! Smartphone causes premature wrinkles

 Wrinkles may be a sign of approaching middle age but younger women now have a reason to worry - the smartphone squint.

Many of them are developing premature wrinkles from staring at their smartphones, says London-based anti-ageing expert Jean-Louis Sebagh.

He said peering at a small screen causes facial strain, around and between the brows.

Sebagh, who treats celebrities like Cindy Crawford, said the phenomenon "can be seen on anyone who has and regularly checks a BlackBerry or iPhone".

"It's easily rectified with the light use of Botox by an experienced doctor," said an Evening Standard report quoting the expert, according to the Daily Mail.

London beauty therapist Nichola Joss has also noticed the phenomenon among her customers.

Joss said: "I've noticed a huge difference over the past 18 months in my clients' faces - it's the constant peering intently down at that mini screen. It's the same with an iPhone."

Smartphone-related wrinkles are the latest condition that doctors attribute to overuse of technology. Others include 'BlackBerry thumb' - a form of repetitive strain injury caused by excessive texting.

Another is 'computer vision syndrome' - dry eyes caused by computer users failing to blink enough when staring at a screen for long periods.

Raja, aides in five-day CBI custody

Former communications minister A. Raja and two of his aides were sent to five-day custody by a CBI special court Thursday, a day after they werearrested in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.

DMK leader Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and personal secretary R.K. Chandolia were handed down the sentence by Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge O.P. Saini at the Patiala House Court, where they werepresented earlier.

Special CBI judge O.P. Saini said the plea for the custody of Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and personal secretary R.K. Chandolia was "justified".

While allowing the CBI plea for five-day police custody, Saini said: "The allegation against the accused are that they allotted the unified access service licences in violation of rules and procedures and caused huge loss estimated to be Rs.22,000 crore to the government."

"The allegation against the trio are very serious on the face of it and required no elaboration. Accordingly, considering the nature of the allegation, seriousness and gravity of offences, there is a consequent need of interrogation of the accused persons," he added.

"The prayer of police custody is justified and all three accused are accordingly remanded to police custody till Feb 8," Saini said.

All accused persons will be medically examined every 48 hours and their counsel and family members will be allowed to meet them for half an hour everyday at a time convenient to both the parties, Saini said.

The court, in the Patiala House court premises, also permitted Behura to be taken to the Indraprastha Apollo hospital on February 5 to meet his wife before and after her operation, if she undergoes one.

Raja quit on November 14 after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) indicted him for irregularities in the allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum to telecom companies, causing losses of between Rs.58,000 crore ($12.8 billion) and Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) to the exchequer.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK came out in support of Raja and said his arrest in the 2G spectrum allocation scam did not make him guilty.

Unitech says no wrong done during 2G allocation

INDIA: With the CBI probing the manner in which telecom licences were awarded to new entrants, one of the companies under the scanner, Unitech, Thursday said it had done nothing wrong during the licensing process.

"Unitech Ltd. has not sold any shares held by it in Uninor to the Telenor Group. It is highly incorrect to allege that any favour was shown to Unitech during the licence process," said the company in a statement.

Unitech, a real estate firm had bought telecom licence for 22 circles for Rs.1,658 crore and sold 76 percent of the equity to Telenor, a Norwegian telecom firm, for Rs.6,100 crore.

The company also said that it obtained the telecom licences through its 8 wholly-owned subsidiaries along with 8 other players after complying with the necessary formalities prescribed in the telecom guidelines at a cost determined by the government.

The company has been accused of receiving favourable treatment during the awarding of second generation (2G) spectrum licences in 2008.

Earlier former communications minister A. Raja and two of his aides were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for their suspected role in the multi-billion rupee scam over the allocation of airwaves for 2G phone services.

Raja and his allies will spend the next five days in the custody of the CBI, a special court directed Thursday.

BJP firm on JPC for 2G spectrum probe

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said it was firm on its demand for a Joint Parliament Committee probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, while non-BJP opposition parties will decide their stand on the issue on February 9.

"We are firm on the JPC," BJP's former president Rajnath Singh told reporters here.

Former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular president H.D. Deve Gowda said his party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Telugu Desam Party and five other smaller parties will meet in New Delhi on February 9 to decide on the issue.

Singh said there was no question of giving up the demand for a JPC in view of the arrest of former communications minister A. Raja.

"Our demand for JPC will continue in the budget session of Parliament also," he said.

"The onus is on the government to ensure smooth conduct of Parliament," he said referring to the wash out of parliament's winter session over the JPC deadlock.

At a separate press meet, Gowda, along with representatives of Left parties, said the decision on JPC was left to the government.

Raja, who was arrested on Wednesday, was asked to resign November 14 last year after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) indicted him in the spectrum allocation scam and for causing losses of between Rs.58,000 crore ($12.8 billion) and Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) to the exchequer.

The issue dates to 2008 when nine telecom firms were issued airwaves, a scarce resource, and licences for second generation (2G) phone services at Rs.1,658 crore (less that $350 million) for a pan-India operation. As many as 122 circle-wise licences were issued.

Vodafone accuses Egypt govt of co-opting network

Mobile operator Vodafone accused the Egyptian authorities on Thursday of using its network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers, as telecom firms became further embroiled in the crisis.

Another mobile boss, the chief executive of Orascom Telecom, protested against President Hosni Mubarak's rule in the main Cairo square on Thursday and said any damage to his company arising the unrest was a price worth paying.

Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile operator by revenue, was told by the government last week to switch off its network in Egypt after the anti-Mubarak protests broke out.

Other operators were also forced to cut their service and rights groups have heavily criticised the development.

Vodafone said at the time that it had no choice and on Thursday it stepped up its attack, saying it was being forced to send text messages without making clear the attribution.

"The current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable," it said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for a halt to interference with the Internet and mobile phones, and for an end to the harassment of journalists..

"The abuse of Internet and mobile networks and, in particular, today's increased intimidation and harassment of journalists are unacceptable and disturbing," he said in a statement.

Vodafone said the Egyptian authorities had told the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt and had been doing so since the protests broke out against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

One text message sent on Feb. 2 and seen by Reuters announced the location and timing for a mass demonstration to support Mubarak.

Network down

Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao told reporters on Thursday that voice calls had been switched off for 24 hours last Friday, that data services which allow access to the Internet had been down for five days, and that text messages were still down for subscribers.

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters the authorities had ordered Vodafone to switch the network back on, for just long enough to send the messages.

Etisalat was not available to comment and emails and phone calls to Mobinil executives were not returned. Mobinil is jointly owned by Orascom and France Telecom.

"These messages are not scripted by any of the mobile network operators," Vodafone said.

Khaled Bichara, the chief executive of another major telecom firm Orascom, was seen by a Reuters reporter in the main Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, protesting against Mubarak's rule.

Asked on BBC TV if his firm was suffering from the protests, Bichara said: "Of course, but sometimes that's the price to pay." He later told Reuters by telephone that if the authorities objected to his conduct they could call on his boss to sack him.

"I am there on a personal capacity," he said. "I am the CEO of Orascom Telecom. I have no licenses in the company I work for. The licenses are for the company, not the person, so if they are not happy they can call my boss and he can fire me and that's about it."

Naguib Sawiris, a well known businessman whose holding company owns more than half of Cairo-based Orascom, called on Thursday for the formation of a national unity government composed of technocrats and independent politicians.

In an interview with the BBC, he said Mubarak should be offered a dignified way out.

"Our president is a military man who fought for this country," he said. "Many of us, including myself, do not agree to have him humiliated."

RCom launches 'job search on voice' service

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Thursday launched "job search on voice" service that would enable its customers to connect to the recruiters directly on phone line at a subscription of Rs.30 per month.

Customers can avail these services by dialling 58010. The service has auto renewal facility with fallback options of Rs.20 for 20 days and Rs.10 for 10 days. No browsingcharges are involved while the renewal grace period is three days.

"The service is a real-time connection between the recruiter and the candidates and is initiated by playing the phone number of the employer which enables the job seeker to listen to the job announcements and the recruiter can listen to profiles of hundreds of candidates that matches his requirement," the company said in a statement.

Job seekers can submit their profiles and browse through hundreds of matching jobs. The service will provide details of the selected job through SMS.

"The new mobile platform fulfills the desire of thousands of eager candidates to be able to submit the resumes to recruiters from anywhere, even when they do not have access to Internet connected computers and listen to job profiles and offers," said Anil Pande, Reliance Communications head for value added services.

Internet addresses depletion reflects wired world

Thirty years after the first Internet addresses were created, the supply of addresses officially ran dry on Thursday.

But don't panic. The transition to a new version of addresses is already well under way and, for most people, should occur without even being noticed.

At a special ceremony in Miami on Thursday, the organization that oversees the global allocation of Internet addresses distributed the last batch of so-called IPv4 addresses, underscoring the extent to which the Web has become an integral and pervasive part of modern life.

Every computer, smartphone and back-end Web server requires an IP address - a unique string of numbers identifying a particular device -in order to be connected to the Internet. The explosion of Web-connected gadgets, and the popularity of websites from Google Inc to Facebook, means that the world has now bumped up against the limit of roughly 4 billion IP addresses that are possible with the IPv4 standard introduced in 1981.

The solution is IPv6, a new standard for Internet addresses that should provide a lot more room for growth: There are 340 undecillion IPv6 addresses available. That's 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses.

"If all the space of IPv4 were to be sized and compared to a golf ball, a similar-sized comparison for IPv6 would be the size of the sun," said John Curan, the CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, one of five nonprofit organizations that manage Internet addresses for particular regions of the world.

Just in case you're worried, Curan added that "we don't ever intend to see another transition."

For companies with websites, the transition to IPv6 means configuring their computer equipment to support the new standard rather than upgrading hardware, Curan said. Those that don't could see the performance of their sites slowed down, and potentially cut off to some users in the future.

Laptops, smartphones and other Web-connected gadgets, as well as Web browsers, already support IPv6, though Curan notes that according to some estimates less than 1 percent of Internet users may not have their equipment configured properly and will need to adjust their settings in the months ahead, as websites increasingly adopt the new standard.