Dhaval Parikh

Another phone leaks on the web and this time it’s from your favorite Nokia! Here’s what’s being called an E65, a slider form factor handset with some new buttons on the front, which are dedicated for VoIP calls — a first in the Finnish portfolio. The phone also has WiFi support, so there’s obviously a way to make VoIP calls via WiFi, without requiring an operator network.

The phone has a 2 megapixel camera and some sort of a fake leather grip on the rear (hopefully). The phone is also expected to be ultra slim at just 1.4cm. A RAZR thin slider, or should we say, a RIZR thin phone from Nokia? Wow!

Other features of the phone include a large, high-resolution 352×416 display, 70mb of internal memory, microSD/TransFlash card slot, running SymbianOS Series 60 UI. The phone is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone with support for 3G/WCDMA/UMTS. Personal connectivity is fully covered: Bluetooth, WiFI 802.11b/g, IrDA and USB 2.0, unfortunately via the proprietary pop port.The phone is expected to be out by the second or third quarter of the year with a price tag of around Rs. 20,000.

ASUS has released the P535 triband PDA phone which offers a comprehensive spread of business and lifestyle applications, WiFi functionality, GPS, and a high quality autofocus camera. Priced at around Rs 35,000, the company claims it to be India’s first PDA phone to have GPS support.

The 520MHz Intel XScale-powered P535 has a 2.8in (240 x 320pixels, 65,000 colours) TFT screen, and uses the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and has a full suite of multimedia playback software.

The hybrid device also comes with 256MB NAND Flash ROM and 64MB RAM on board, with a MiniSD card slot allowing storage capacity to be increased.
P535 tri-band PDA phone incorporates full wireless functionality, GPS and high quality auto-focus camera in a compact formfactor.

The P535 helps the business executive stay connected while on the move, offering push email, Internet access, off-site synchronization of calendar and contact information over wireless or mobile phone GPRS networks.

Originally developed for military use, Global Positioning System now has a wide range of civilian applications, for both work and play. Navigating appointment venues in a foreign land, tracking distance and speeds on road trips, treks or while jogging – the P535 offers the wonders of GPS in a compact, handy formfactor.

The P535’s integrated auto-focus 2.0 megapixel camera is not only capable of high quality pictures, it’s also a business card scanner, picking up contact details off photographed business cards in a snap – especially convenient when attending business conventions.

ASUS has packed the P535 with proprietary user-friendly software and features. Among the most useful, is the Secret Folder, through which the user can encrypt and protect sensitive personal or business information from prying eyes. Underlying the P535’s many features, is the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, the leading mobile platform with plenty of support and software available, full suite of multimedia playback functionality, and most importantly, the reliance on flash memory: data stored in the P535 remains stored, even if the P535 has lost all power.

The tentative plans are to launch this phone later this month in India along with the appointment of a new national distributor for this product.

Wi-Fi technology provides the freedom to access the Internet from virtually any location using increasingly sophisticated portable devices. The “cool” factor of e-mailing and instant messaging when you’re out and about is so compelling that protecting the device from malevolent invaders is often overlooked. Unfortunately, the same network access that makes online mobility easy for you is also convenient for computer criminals, and even a quick browse can attract damaging codes.

Securing mobile applications requires more effort up front than securing your wireless home network, for two reasons: First, desktops and laptops run on a full-featured operating system that often comes with varying levels of built-in security. Mobile devices, on the other hand, generally leave Internet security up to the user. Second, as each device comes with its own operating system, security software can take time to track down. For instance, BlackBerrys run on a proprietary operating system; Pocket PCs run on Windows Mobile; and Palm devices, like the Treo, run on the Palm operating system. Interoperability is still on our wish list, but here are three steps for protecting your BlackBerry, your Palm device, or your Windows Mobile/Pocket PC from Internet threats.

Step 1: Secure the network

Airscanner Mobile AntiVirus can defend against Trojan horses as well as viruses.It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of online security for any network. Since going online is a secondary function for most mobile device users (surfing and sending data come first), securing the connection may not seem as urgent–and that’s exactly what exploitation architects are counting on.

The good news is that mobile wireless security is a growing sector, and some solid programs exist to keep the worst network infections at bay. Owners of a Palm device or a Pocket PC can deflect wandering enemies with Trend Micro’s reliable PC-cillin Internet Security.

Windows Mobile users have other options at their fingertips with F-secure Anti-Virus and Airscanner Mobile AntiVirus Pro. Symbian smart phones get an extra boost with Commander Mobile Anti-Virus. JiWire SpotLock supports AvantGo handhelds.

Step 2: Block out thievesThe physical world is another source of threats to handheld security. The most recent spate of corporate laptop thefts are a harsh reminder your sensitive data can fall into the wrong hands. Though odds are thankfully low, a thief could conceivably use your information to assume your identity or swipe your e-mail contact list to fuel a spam campaign. At the very least, you’ll want to keep out the boldest of snoops.

The most straightforward method is to enable the password lock found in your handheld’s native system settings. You’ll want to ensure you set and test a strong password that will frustrate any thief who has gotten

Step 3: Protect your data

Setting the password on your device is an important physical security layer to which software applications provide stronger support. One way to keep your data personal is to use a lockbox program that requires a password each time you access your information. eWallet Professional for Pocket PC helps you create and organize a wealth of information–including credit card, bank account, and car details– into password-protected categories. CryptMagic performs a similar service for BlackBerry users, and Palm aficionados may appreciate Secret.

As reported earlier, Mozilla has been working on v3 of its browser for almost a year now. They have now reached their first alpha and have released it as a showcase for the technologies it will be packing in. The alpha has been released, under the code-name Minefield, while project 3.0 itself is called Gran Paradiso, is expected to feature better support for a crucial graphic standard namely Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) language.

Firefox 3.0 will also support the Cairo graphics library project, which has been designed to make Web pages look the same, irrespective of the platform. Pages compiled under this new library, will look the same on both PC and mobile devices. Another new feature planned called “places”, which takes a new approach to bookmarks and page history. This feature is supposed to be similar to IE7’s favorite approach.

In terms of improvements to tabbed browsing, the new browser will include the ability to move around and reorder tabs in a single browser window and will also add a button right next to the last open tab that brings up a new tab, taking yet another few pages out of the IE7 list of features. In an update to a feature that was first shown in Firefox 2, version 3.0 will have increased session saving capabilities, including the ability to save all data logged in a single session, such as data entered into forms and posts, and the entire page viewing history.

PUNE: Wire and Wireless India Limited (WWIL), now a restructured arm of Zee Network, is getting ready to dot Indian C&S (Cable & Satellite) landscape with triple plays services through a single Set Top Box (STB) and claims to be the only company so far for a digital cable licence in India.

“Our STBs would be of three types and thus capable of offering triple play that would mean Video, Voice and Data together. These would range from plain STBs to RF & IP STBs and even RF cum IP cum VOIP ones that would take digital telephony and interactivity to bigger and more real-time levels. We have also got the first HITS (Headend In The Sky) licence for rolling out digital cable in India. The infrastructure is in place and we would roll out our services in Januray or February after clearnces are done,” Jagjeet Singh Kohli, CEO, WWIL, informed a press conference here.

The company has unveiled its digital video, data and voice broadcasting system in Pune after Mumbai and Delhi. This would entail high-speed broadband Internet, VOD (Video On Demand), PPV (Pay Per View), EPG (Electronic Programming Guide), VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol).

These offerings are touted to unleash the vast and untapped capabilities in the typical nature of cable layout in India. “In our cables RF is capable of 4GBPS (Giga Byte Per Second) while ethernet is capable of 100 MBPS (Mega Byte Per Second) thus enabling gretaer bandwidth and video downloads,” said Kohli.

Sourcing these VAS (Value Added Service) STBs is not a major concern area but components and chips are a big hurdle. While the demand of these boxes is pegged at around 9.6 million in the next five years, the company has its pipeline ready. “Till now we were sourcing STBs from TVS in Chennai and have placed significant orders for two lakh with BHEL too. The assembly will ultimately be moved out of India and Korea has already started supplying STBs.” added Kohli. For the VoiP technology, WWIL has Broadband Pacenet as a vendor.

Kohli estimates the HITS market to be worth $4 billion today and $10 billion five years hence, and hopes to corner a major chunk of the same soon. The company currently has 35 cities under its umbrella and it aims to cover 45 cities by the end of this year and 66 cities, in total, in the next three years.