Dhaval Parikh

RTX, developer of wireless communication has introduces the Dualphone 3088, which can be used as a normal telephone as well as for calling via Skype — without a PC. The new Dualphone helps people to save money on their phone bill and gives them more flexibility when using Skype.

The Dualphone 3088 is a convenient cordless phone which removes the need of a computer when making Skype calls. The phone also allows the user to decide whether to make a free call via the Internet between Skype users, or to use the regular landline connection. The Dualphone has a Skype user interface and possesses nearly all the Skype voice features. The phone base station connects easily to the broadband router and the phone line. The new Dualphone 3088 has a colour display and an operating time of more than 10 hours of talk time as well as up to 140 hours at standby.

“The former USB Cordless Dualphone was our first Skype Certified USB cordless handset,” said Manrique Brenes, director of Hardware Business Development at Skype. “It has been available for three years and has been a very successful phone. We are therefore delighted to join RTX in taking Internet calls a step further with cordless embedded phones for Skype.”

“We see the greatest opportunity in the price-conscious mass market, where ease-of-use is essential,” said Tage Rasmussen, CEO of RTX Telecom. “This is why we have developed a platform for low-cost cordless phones for both Skype Internet calls and regular phone calls, with the added benefit of being able to use a cordless handset without a PC. We will also provide the new platform and product as a design service or OEM/ODM product for global brand manufacturers.”

While the Dualphone 3088 includes a regular landline connection, Skype itself is not to be used as a replacement for your ordinary telephone service and does not support emergency calls.

The Dualphone 3088 will be available at RTX’s distribution partners and at www.dualphone.net. The product will be also be available at selected European retailers and at the Skype Online Store from December 1, 2006 at a recommended retail price of EUR 159, including VAT.

Microsoft Corp. has announced a global storage upgrade for MSN Hotmail’s active e-mail accounts – expanding the storage capacity to 1 gigabyte and extending the expiration period for inactive accounts from 30 days to 60 days for those accounts that are more than two years old.

The storage upgrade and extension of the expiration period for e-mail accounts is part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to meet the evolving needs of Hotmail users as they transition to Microsoft’s next generation email service, Windows Live Mail.

The storage upgrade, which began rolling out in Asia on November 7, will affect Hotmail users in ten markets in the region including Australia, China, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore

SemIndia, a consortium with investments from strategic partners, will roll out its first batch of chips by June 2007 from its Hyderabad facility and has already procured orders to the tune of $400 million.

The consortium is setting up the first phase of the project, an ATMP (assembly, testing, mark and packaging) plant with an estimated investment of $100 million, which would be funded through $30 million equity and $70 million debts.

Talking to CyberMedia News in Chennai, Bob Kondamoori, managing director of Sandalwood Partners, an India-specific venture fund, said that while Flextronics and Sandalwood Partners, an India specific venture fund, is taking $10 million each in equity and the promoters would fund the remaining $10 million.

“For the debt portion of 70 per cent the company had tied-up with ICICI Bank and the State Bank of India,” he informed.

“Andhra Pradesh government has already allotted 75 acres for the company,” he said adding that the building construction would be completed by March 2007.

Kondamoori said, “The major order is from AMD and we have already worked out on the technology transfer for the wafer fab to be set-up in the second phase,” he said.
“The company is awaiting the Union government’s semiconductor policy, which is likely to be announced by November, to implement the second phase,” he added.

The company plans to employ about 1000 people in the first phase, and most of them would be diploma holders.

China-based Yulong plans to launch its dual mode phones in India through a telecom partner

The long wait is over for Indian mobile subscribers who wanted two active sim-cards in a single mobile phone
China-based mobile manufacturing company, Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific Co., Limited is planning to launch its dual-mode smart phone in India within a short time. Yulong is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Wireless Technologies Limited, and the first company to introduce dual-mode smart phone in the world.

In an exclusive interaction, Ricky Xu, Overseas Sales Account Manager of Yulong, said that his company is planning to market its products in the Indian market this year.

“We are looking for a partner in India who can market our product. As no mobile manufacturer offer this dual-mode phone in India. We are aggressively looking for a partner who has good knowledge about the Indian telecom market,” Xu said.

The special feature of the handset is that a subscriber can simultaneously operate two active sim cards in the same phone. He said that the handset screen would display two connections and network of both the sim cards.

“It would be like two phones in a single handset. One can have all the features while using two separate handsets for two connections,” Xu said.

The handset range comes both with dual mode GSM+GSM and CDMA+GSM. He said that the handsets launched last year in China received enthusiastic response from the subscribers.

Denying any interference while having both GSM and CDMA connections in a single phone, Xu said that there are two chips installed in the phone, which helps both the signals to be carried out without interference.
The handset model CoolPAD 728 (CDMA+GSM) is priced at USD 500 and CoolPAD 288 (CDMA+GSM) is USD 240. However, there is also another model CoolPAD 728G2 (GSM+GSM). Both these models have mega pixel cameras and business applications.

Xu said that they have already sold 1,80,000 units of CoolPAD 728 and 50,000 units of CoolPAD 288 since its launch.

Speaking about bundling with mobile service providers in India, Xu said that they are planning for this business strategy but is not hopeful with this strategy, as no two service providers would come together in a single platform to offer their service through a single handset.

BANGALORE: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd today previewed the next generation of software to drive greater business performance, the 2007 Office System.

A Microsoft statement said that this advanced productivity tool will empower information workers to deliver significant capabilities in four key areas: simplified communication and collaboration; better content protection and management: improved business insight through easier access to information and reduced security risks and deployment costs.

Additionally, the results oriented and intuitive user interface will redefine desktop user experience allowing information workers to get better results, faster and easier, the statement said.

Microsoft will showcase some of these enterprise applications in Bangalore on Oct 10, 2006. The applications include product development life cycle solution (PDLC) from Sonata , financial reporting system from Tata Consultancy Services and DITL claims management specialist (CMS) from Wipro.

Speaking at the preview, Chris Capossela, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Division Product Management Group, said, “Multiple workplace trends like one world of business, transparent organization and always on, always connected, work environment is transforming the global business landscape giving rise to the ‘New world of work’.”

The 2007 Office System is a comprehensive and integrated system, which includes programs, servers, services and solutions designed to work together to help address a broad array of business problems. By redefining the desktop experience and delivering a single platform for business intelligence, collaboration, enterprise content management (ECM), enterprise project management (EPM) and enterprise search capabilities, the 2007 Office system opens new possibilities for people productivity and partner marketplace growth.

Among the path breaking features of the 2007 system are the all new user interface; SmartArt Graphics; New quick file formatting capabilities, Office XML formats; Live preview capabilities all set to help individuals work faster and better.

The 2007 Office System is currently in Beta 2 version and Microsoft wants to make it available to businesses towards end-2006, with broad general availability in early 2007.

Mobile users will no longer have to wait for the 3G spectrum to watch live television on their handsets. The use of high compression technology will allow telecom operators to stream live video by year-end.

If you are always on the move and never find time to catch your favourite TV show or keep up with the news, there’s reason to cheer. Bharti Telesoft, a subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, has tied up with the UK based media distribution solution provider Vimio, to enable live TV to be streamed on mobile phones in India.

Vimio’s technology enables live TV to be streamed to mobile phones over GPRS, EDGE and 3G technologies. The partners have started implementing the necessary infrastructure. This technology is on trial on the Airtel network and will be ready commercial launch in 4-6 months. Bharti Telesoft is even open to tie-ups with other operators.

“What we are looking at is allowing live video broadcasts on the current network of GPRS and Edge on the current bandwidth of 2.75 G network,” says CEO, Bharti Telesoft, Sanjiv Mittal.

But the service will not come cheap. Currently, for every rupee a customer spends on viewing downloaded television clips on a mobile phone, 30% goes to the channel and 70% to the telecom operator. Bharti Telesoft expects the customer base for this niche service to touch 50,000 to 100,00 in the first year of operation.