Polnews24: May 31, 2009

Science & Technology

HP to penetrate Bangladesh market

Hewlett-Packard is planning to penetrate emerging markets of Southeast Asia including Bangladesh and make their presence felt with their newly launched eye-catching and affordable range of products in the desktop as well as notebook series.

PM opens Red Telephone Exchange

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday inaugurated the new Red Telephone Exchange by talking to President Zillur Rahman over telephone.

ICT has to be freed from tax frame – BCS Chairman

Chairman of Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) Mostafa Jabbar demanded that in upcoming budget computer and computers parts to be freed from ‘minimum tax’ frame.

Young girls beware of mobile phone’s trap!

Young girls are getting deceived by mobile phone affair in capital city and its surrounding areas.

Wireless Campus

Although different educational elements have been up to standard but the most important educational element of present day, internet, has always been lagging in Dhaka University.

Banglalink and Aktel are discussing about merging

Second and third Bangladesh telecom providers Banglalink and Aktel have started discussing of merging.

BTCL alleged in a Tk.140 crore project hassle

The haste of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) in awarding the Tk 140 crore project for installing modern internet backbone to Korean KT Corporation bypassing the BTCL board's observations has raised questions.

Mobile Web, cloud to attract tech spending

The next wave of technology spending is expected to flow toward gadgets and software that help people access the Internet from any location, and interact online in more innovative ways.

The Sidekick LX 2009: smart phone or smarter netbook?

Decades from now, when our descendants' implanted heads-up displays are implanted in their heads, and their instant messages and points-of-presence (phone service? what's that?) are controlled directly by their brainwaves, they'll look back on all of us who painstakingly suffered through the smartphone era, wondering how we managed to get so worked up over hunks of silicon and plastic.

Google Chrome 2 is 20% faster than Chrome 1 in physical speed tests

We've moved our Web browser test platform from the virtual world to the real world, and Google Chrome 2 benefited most from the transition.

Huawei pardoned even after fines by BTCL

Even after failing to provide for equipments according to the agreement, Huawei Technologies was pardoned from the fine by BTCL.

BTCL to offload share soon

The government will offload 10 to 20 per cent share of Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Ltd. (BTCL) in the stock market.

BTCL to offer Tk 0.30/min flat NWD rate

Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited will offer a nationwide flat call rate of Tk 0.30 per minute to increase revenue and subscribers.

IGW, WiMAX licence after policy review: BTRC

The licence for IGW and WiMAX will be awarded after reviewing International Long Distance Telecommunication Policy, the telecoms regulator said.

VMware Pulls Trigger on VSphere 'cloud OS'

After eight months of hype VMware has finally delivered the update to its core virtualization platform, announcing Thursday that vSphere 4 is generally available worldwide.

Microsoft may unveil new search engine next week: report

Microsoft Corp is likely to show a new version of its Internet search engine publicly for the first time next week, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Cell phone industry seen facing more trouble

A recovery in cell phone demand will not happen until well into 2010, researcher Gartner said on Wednesday, while Reuters data showed the industry could suffer its worst quarter ever in April-June.

BTCL launches costly broadband internet service

Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) has launched its costly broadband internet service. BTCL offers five packages for broadband internet connection through ADSL plus 2 technology.

GP shares listing soon: CEO

The listing of the shares of Grameenphone with the country’s bourses will be finalised soon, said the leading telecom operator’s chief executive officer, Oddvar Hesjedal, on Tuesday.

Cisco reveals new initative for mobile markets

Mobile workers today still face challenges in bouncing from wired to wireless to cellular workspaces. Cisco believes it may have a solution. The networking giant on Tuesday announced a new initiative called Collaboration in Motion, designed to help workers on the go by integrating different services for the mobile market.

Protecting yourself from vishing attacks

You might have heard about online "phishing" scams designed to steal money from unsuspecting Web users, but now criminals are using another type of scam called "vishing" to commit the same crimes.

Machine-readable passport project goes to army

The government is going to entrust the army with the much-discussed machine-readable passport and visa project that would cost nearly Tk 283 crore.

Office 2010 test version leaks onto Web

Public testing of Microsoft's Office 2010 suite wasn't supposed to start until July, but a leak on Friday of the software onto torrent sites has sped up that process.

The mobile phone sectors' unpredictable pathway

Technology is in the palms now. At the beginning we had to wait for several months before a phone line (landline) was requested from the government office. This extremely necesarry item was deemed as a 'Status Symbol' back then.

Growth of mobile phone slows down drastically

The growth of mobile phone in the country has slowed down drastically as major cellphone companies fully withdrew subsidy on SIM cards recently discouraging the people from taking new connection.

Warid plans to triple subscribers in three years

Warid Telecom has set its sight on tripling its subscribers in the next three years, the mobile-phone operators said on Sunday.

Hackers launch phishing attack on Facebook users

Hackers launched an attack on Facebook's 200 million users on Thursday, successfully gathering passwords from some of them in the latest campaign to prey on members of the popular social networking site.

ESA En Route To The Origins Of The Universe

Two of the most ambitious missions ever attempted to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the Universe got off to a successful start this afternoon with the dual launch of ESA's far infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

Frustration, distress over Google outage

Millions of people got a taste of life without Google on Thursday after its search engine, e-mail and other products slowed or became inaccessible because of a glitch.

Hands-on with Imeem Mobile for iPhone

The music discovery Web site imeem.com officially launch

k 1cr VoIP equipment seized in city

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment worth about Tk 1 crore were seized from a building in the capital's Mirbagh area early today.

BTRC was made to look like police - Zia Ahmed

The telecoms regulator was made to look like the police by the 2007-2008 military-installed emergency government, the chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday.

Space shuttle catches up to Hubble

The space shuttle Atlantis took up its position Wednesday close to the Hubble Space Telescope, nearing the end of a chase that began almost two days earlier.

BTRC’s roadshow to promote digital BD

Keeping "Digital Bangladesh" and "Vision 2021" in view, the observance of WTISD-09 and to create mass awareness of ICT a colorful Road Show organized by BTRC started today (Sunday 10 May 2009) in Chittagong.

Over 1 lakh left to rust away IT skills

The Daily Star: Data entry operators in voter list project yet to see job hopes

Mobile Number Portability in India by Sept 20

Department of Telecom has issued a notification stating that long awaited number portability will finally be available by September 20.

Software Piracy Cost $50 Billion in 2008

Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, and Zimbabwe are the countries with the highest amounts of piracy, topping 90 percent.

Microsoft confirms Windows 7 coming this year

Microsoft confirmed on Monday that it is planning to release Windows 7 this year, in time for the holiday shopping season.

Only GP making profit, others just surviving: Warid CEO

Only GrameenPhone out of the six cell-phone operators in the country is making profit, while others are just surviving, Warid Telecom chief executive officer (CEO) Muneer Farooqui said on Sunday.

Laptop festival held at Ctg

The port city enjoyed a cool breeze of digital wave in this hot summer

Huawei demonstrates 3G technologies

The Huawei Technologies Company at a roadshow on Thursday demonstrated live the latest in third generation telecoms technologies to its customers in Dhaka.

Web 2.0 and Digital Bangladesh

AROUND March 4, someone posted on Youtube a thirty to forty minute clip from a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and army officials. It showed the confrontation between angry army officials and the PM on her decision to negotiate with the mutineers rather than take military action.

GP revenue rises in Q1, ARPU falls

Grameenphone's revenue has grown 6.0 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) on a year-on-year basis but the average revenue per user (ARPU) declined, the company said Tuesday, reports bdnews24.com.

Ctg laptop fair draws crowd

A three-day laptop fair in Chittagong that ends today has drawn the attention of a good number of visitors.

Mobile sales decline globally

BBC: Mobile phone sales have plummeted by a record amount in the first quarter of 2009 as the global financial crisis sapped demand, a research firm said.

Google Flu Tracker Follows Swine Flu (AH1N1) Trends In Mexico

Google Flu Trends, which earlier this year won a coveted best digital innovations Netexplorateur Award, is being put to work to follow searches in Mexico for words or terms that are flu oriented. Though Google is calling its Flu Trends Mexico "experimental," so far, the Mexico tracker is trending true to what might be expected from the swine flu, now officially called the AH1N1 flu.

Set VoIP free

JS body for dropping SIM card tax, fixing internet bill Tk 300 a month
A parliamentary body yesterday made some recommendations including opening up of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for increasing government's revenue earnings from the telecom sector.

Facebook plans to give 3rd-party developers more access: source

Internet social media company Facebook plans to allow outside developers access to core parts of the website so they can build new services, a person familiar with the situation said.

What Facebook Users Share: Lower Grades

Forget the widely unloved redesign. Facebook has committed a greater offense. According to a new study by doctoral candidate Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State University and her co-author Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, college students who use the 200 million–member social network have significantly lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than those who do not.

Govt plans to make computer edn compulsory for Class IX

UNB: The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, Wednesday said the government has planned to make computer a compulsory subject for the students of Class IX by 2010.

Further tax cut on ICT machinery likely

The government plans to slash the tax on ICT machinery import to take telecommunications services to people’s doorstep as part of measures for implementing its Vision 2021 through building up the dreamland called ‘Digital Bangladesh’.

AT&T raises reward in phone-outage sabotage to $250,000

Mercury News: A day after a saboteur hacked through underground fiber-optic cables leaving tens of thousands of Silicon Valley residents with no phone, cell phone or Internet service, AT&T fattened its reward Friday to $250,000 as local police and the FBI continued to hunt for the culprit.

BANGLADESH: BanglaLion pays WiMax acquisition fee

BanglaLion Communication, a WiMax licensee, said it has paid the due license acquisition fee to the telecom watchdog, ensuring the company's plan to launch the first ever-high speed broadband internet service in Bangladesh.

The pros and cons of traveling with Kindle

When the second edition of Amazon's best-selling electronic reader launched in late February, the Kindle 2 piqued new interest among travelers eager to trade a carry-on crammed with books and magazines for a single gadget that weighs less than a paperback.

Facebook Now Has 200 Million Members

Facebook reached a milestone this week as its 200 millionth user joined the social networking site. CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted the achievement in a blog post and launched an effort to put Facebook to use for greater good. A "heat map" on the site shows where the growth has occurred.

Cyber spying a threat, and everyone is in on it

AP: Ghost hackers infiltrating the computers of Tibetan exiles and the U.S. electric grid have pulled the curtain back on 21st-century espionage as nefarious as anything from the Cold War — and far more difficult to stop.

Sun May Be Left Standing Alone After IBM Ends Takeover Talks

Bloomberg: Sun Microsystems Inc. may have difficulty finding a new suitor after talks with International Business Machines Corp. broke down, analysts and investors said.

Computers for all secondary schools in Bangladesh by 2017: Official

Bangladeshi Education Minister NurulIslam Naheed has said computers would be provided to all secondary schools in Bangladesh by 2017 to build 'Digital Bangladesh' within2021, official news agency BSS reported Monday.

SIM sales drop as operators cut subsidy

New Age:The sale of the mobile phone’s SIMs has slowed down remarkably as the major operators withdrew the subsidy on the SIM tax considerably.

Last-minute Conficker survival guide

April 1 -- is D-Day for Conficker, as whatever nasty payload it's packing is currently set to activate. What happens come midnight is a mystery: Will it turn the millions of infected computers into spam-sending zombie robots?

Internet Crime Up 33 Percent, FBI Reports

Internet-based crime increased by 33 percent last year, making 2008 the biggest year ever for reported cybercrime incidents, according to an Internet Crime Complaint Center annual report.

Cabinet approves nat'l ICT policy

The cabinet has approved the National Information and Communications Technology Regulations 2009, first initiated in 1997, with an aim to establish an accountable and transparent government through expansion of ICT coverage, the prime minister's press secretary said on Monday, reports bdnews24.com.

Global 'cyber spy' network revealed

A cyber spy network based almost entirely in China has hacked into computer networks around the world, stealing classified information from governments and private organisations in more than 100 countries, a team of Canadian researchers has reported.