Microsoft to Launch Windows Mobile 7 Next Year

Microsoft will launch the next major iteration of Windows Mobile, or Windows Mobile 7, in 2010, according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.Ballmer made his comments in a strategic update session on Tuesday, where he also disclosed that Microsoft would not ship the next version of Office until 2010, and disclosed a “netbook”-like version of Windows Server, called Foundation Edition.

Ballmer also disclosed that the company would be releasing Windows Mobile 7 next year, somewhat of a surprise given that Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5 on Feb. 13 at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

“We’ve made a nice release announcement last week of Windows Mobile 6.5,” Ballmer said, acording to a transcript of Ballmer’s remarks prepared by Microsoft. “We’ve got Windows Mobile 7 coming next year. We’re getting more and more synergy with Windows, so the browser improvements, et cetera, should be quite rapid.”

Microsoft also won’t be building its own phones, Ballmer said, taking a shot at rival Google as he did so.

“People ask me, will you build your own phone? [It's] not our strategy to build our own phone,” Ballmer said. “It’s our strategy to sell software that we can use and support across a wide range of device manufacturers to encourage choice, choice in devices, choice in the operators. We have a positive price on our software. Google does not. I don’t know how it is a sustainable thing to not have a positive price. And don’t tell me you think it’s search, because even when they win the Android business, they have to pay to have their search installed on that phone, just as we do, that’s a competitive bid that the operators mandate. So we’re going with a real price, with real investment, with a professional approach, and a positive price on software-based model.”

Ballmer also said that he was proud of the fact that Windows Mobile was the foundation for low-cost phones. Furthermore, he said, while the phone market may contract, the market for smart phones is a healthy 100 million to 200 million units per year.

“So smart phones will grow, in my opinion, even as the phone market as a whole decreases,” Ballmer said. “I do think the guys who are in the best position to benefit are the guys who actually have phones at low price points. I think that’s a distinct advantage that we have. We have manufacturers who have low price point phones compared to the iPhone, particularly, which is a very high priced phone. You may get subsidized down to lower prices, but the operators care a lot about what they get charged for the phone, and I think you’ll see very low cost, low price form factors with Windows Mobile, possibly also with Android as well.”

Google uses 1000 machines

Google uses 1000 machines to handle a single search query

Jeff Dean from Google has been giving out a few interesting pieces of information, the most notable is that 1000 machines spring into action every time a search is performed.

Jeff gave several examples of how Google has grown from 1999 to 2009. They have x1000 the number of queries now. They have x1000 the processing power (# machines * speed of the machines). They went from query latency normally under 1000ms to normally under 200ms. And, they dropped the update latency by a factor of x10000, going from months to detect a changed web page and update their search results to just minutes.

Their performance gains are also impressive, now serving pages in under 200ms. Jeff credited the vast majority of that to their switch to holding indexes completely in memory a few years back. While that now means that a thousand machines need to handle each query rather than just a couple dozen, Jeff said it is worth it to make searchers see search results nearly instantaneously.

Mobile phones aim to be a ‘doctor in your pocket’

Barcelona, Spain: Not content with offering calls, texts and Internet access, the mobile phone industry is convinced it can help save lives and offer health services to millions worldwide.

The idea of a phone serving as a “doctor in your pocket” has gained traction at the industry’s biggest trade show, the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona.

Among a slew of possible applications in poor countries, insiders stressed the potential for the mobile phone to remind people to get vaccinations, take medicine, or undergo HIV tests.

Doctors and nurses working at distance from hospitals or clinics can also use mobile connections to relay information on local patients or report disease outbreaks.

“When you consider that there are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world, 305 million computers but only 11 million hospital beds you can instantly see how mobiles can creat effective solutions to address healthcare challenges,” said Terry Kramer, strategy director at British operator Vodafone.

The Rockefeller Foundation, the UN Foundation and The Vodafone Foundation announced the Mobile Health (mHealth) alliance this week, a partnership to advance the use of mobile technology in healthcare.

The UN and Vodafone also released a study, “mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World,” detailing 51 programmes in 26 countries.

The biggest adopters are India with 11 projects and South Africa and Uganda with six each.

“Innovative technology could reduce the pressure on public healthcare systems,” Daniel Carucci, vice-president of health at the UN Foundation, told delagates here.

In Uganda, for example, a multiple choice quiz about HIV/AIDS was sent to 15,000 subscribers on the Celtel network in a rural region, inviting them to answer questions and seek tests.

Users who completed the quiz were given free airtime and each time they answered a question wrong they received a message informing them of the correct response.

At the end of the quiz, a final SMS was sent to motivate participants to go for voluntary testing and counseling at a local health centre.

Slightly less than one in five responded and the number of people who went for testing at the centre increased from 1,000 to 1,400 during a six-week period, the report said.

In another example given in the report, health workers in the Amazonas state of Brazil began filling in surveys last October on their mobile phones on incidences of the mosquito-borne dengue fever.

“The devices are providing us with precision (and) the information we need to develop (effective responses) in the areas where the infection levels are high,” Luzia de Melo Mustafa, an Amazonas health agent is quoted as saying.

In Mexico, a medical hotline called MedicallHome was launched in 1998 to provide for people without access to a doctor. They can ring or send an SMS to ask for advice.

“Sixty percent of the time, you can replace the doctor,” Pedro Yrigoyen, co-founder of MedicallHome told delegates here, highlighting the fact that mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in Mexico by five-to-one.

“Public healthcare is overwhelmed... people wait for hours just to see the doctor.”

Elizabeth Boehm, an analyst at research group Forrester, sees the potential for mobile phones to help in public health information campaigns, but also points out limitations.

“One of the main challenges, in mobile health, is that people who are most in need of healthcare are usually more aged, so they don’t use the mobile or they’re not comfortable with it,” she told AFP.

In the developed world, researchers are also looking for ways to harness mobile technology.

In several countries, diabetes sufferers can measure their blood sugar level with a device connected to a mobile phone which sends the data to doctors to verify.

Other applications are seen for monitoring people with heart problems or Alzheimer’s disease.

In the United States, a service called “Foodphone” enables a user to take a photo of his or her food before a meal and send it to an expert who replies with information about the nutritional value.

HP India launches business rugged HP EliteBook series

Leading commercial notebook brand HP India on Thursday announced the launch of its business rugged ‘HP Elite Noteboook PC’ series designed to withstand dust, vibration, altitude, and high temperature.

The series comprising six business notebooks -- 2530p, 2730p, 6930p, 8530p, 8730w and 8530w -- encompassing the professional (p) and mobile workstation (w) class notebook series, brings alive minimalist design and maximum durability.

“HP has incorporated the right amalgam of hardware and software features to deliver dependable business notebook that delivers enhanced security and improve ease of use in a stylish new package,” HP country manager (Business Notebooks, Personal System Group) Anurag Arora said.

The shock-resistant hard drive and spill resistant keyboards helps protect confidential data residing in the notebooks against bumps, drops and spills. Frequent travellers can take the advantage of the optional ultra slim battery accessory that offers up to 15 combined hours of battery life.

HP Duracase is a brushed anodized aluminum exterior casing, combined with magnesium alloy chassis, which ensures the notebook continues to look new.

The series incorporates Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors, solid state hard drives and the latest Qualcomm’s Gobi technology. The series is available within a price range of Rs75,000 to Rs1,00,000 plus taxes.

Nokia 3600 Contract Amazing Functionality, Favourable Rates

Nokia’s poise in the telecommunication market is second to none. Despite, so many mobile phone manufacturer, it still remains one of the most trusted names in the mobile phone industry. Its key features are innovation, durability, user friendliness and constant effort to excel. It is one of mobile phones, included in the business category. It operates on 2G GSM network technology. It is a user friendly, compact mobile phone device with a wide range of ultimate mobile phone features. The dimensions of the Nokia 3600 mobile phone are 103 by 44 by 20 mm and weigh just 97 g. the active TFT screen of the Nokia 3600 slide phone displays 65 K colours with 128 by 128 pixels resolution. With the pocket friendly contract deals, it makes mobile telephony a manageable affair. Let us get to know more about the Nokia 3600 T mobile phone device.

The Nokia 3600 slide mobile phone handset is enables with class 10 GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD and offers high speed data transfers. It comes with very many messaging options like SMS, MMS, instant messaging and Email. The VGA camera offers fine picture quality with 640 by 480 pixels resolution and can record video, as well. Apart from this, there is FM radio, MP3 and video player. It has WAP 2.0, which offers browsing capabilities to the mobile phone users. Then there is calendar, calculator, voice command JAVA and many more. Explore online sources for the most nominal rate of the Nokia 3600 mobile phone. Drawing comparisons among the various deals can help you to find the most ostensible rate of the Nokia 3600 contract mobile phone.

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