Getting Techie With New Gadgets In Wimbledon

In Wimbledon, they are getting more and more technically advanced by adopting gizmos to help umpires and players during matches.

In fact, tennis fans can experience the tournament, which reaches its 133rd year, on their phones.

The All England Club, which organizes the tournament's two decade long association with computing firm IBM's has taken the Wimbledon experience to new level as far as technology is concerned.

IBM's Wimbledon executive Alan Flack said that the partnership's focus is on managing and processing data.

"What we do here is an enormous data management exercise-collecting data, presenting it, visualising it in different ways for different audiences, and making it available across all sorts of media platforms," the BBC quoted Flack as saying.

Umpires update the score using PDAs, while a team of data collectors overlooking each court log every moment of the action.

They use a special keypad to log the type of shots in a rally and enter detailed information about exactly how each point is won.

This data is then sent down some 35 miles of cable to the Wimbledon Information Centre where it is processed further.

The players and their trainers have access to the stats which are also sent to other outlets such as the Wimbledon website and broadcasters.

Augmented reality applications use the handset's GPS and built-in compass to overlay a virtual layer over the real-world environment, reports The BBC.

"To make sure we're giving the best quality video that we can, we're using a combination of local wi-fi networks that are available and also boosting the 3G network using local pico masts," said Mark Sweatman, technology head at developer Ogilvy One.

"These are positioned around the ground so as people move around they can get the best bandwidth possible for their devices and see the highest quality video streams," he added.

New ANDROID Tablet PC

What better way to kick off 2010 than with yet another new Android tablet PC? This one is (possibly) called the 'Home' tablet. Cloned In China reports that this device comes from a Chinese manufacturer, its development is ongoing, and that 'Home' might not be its final name. We know this gadget will have a 7" screen, but other then that its hardware is a mystery.

In terms of form, the Home seems to be a slick, minimalist tablet. It's just a big touchscreen and a thin black body with no discernible ornamentation. This isn't the first Android tablet we've seen in the last few days, and it won't be the last. A lot of manufacturers are betting on 7"-10" tablets being the ideal size to pull the mass of customers in. We'll see. All tablet PCs share the same problem; a difficult-to-define niche. A tablet PC isn't a smartphone; it is much more powerful but much less portable. You can't stick a 7" tablet in most pockets and take it with you wherever you go. So tablets are too big to be used like a smartphone, but too weak to fully replace your laptop or desktop computer. What exactly is their purpose then? Where do these gadgets belong? If the answer to that question exists anywhere, I've got a feeling we're going to learn it this year. 2010 is the year of the tablet, for better or for worse.

The New Pocket PCs

With these talented smartphones, talking is only part of the picture. Here's how to choose the right network and platform, along with the perfect device to keep you productive and entertained on the go.

by Sascha Segan
One of the Editors' Choice–winning products in this story has a 400-MHz processor and 256MB of memory, and it runs a version of Microsoft Windows. We could very well be talking about one of the top PCs in our blockbuster issue circa 1998—full-fledged desktop computers that generally cost more than $2,000. Or we could be talking about today's multitasking smartphones. Call them pocket PCs if you like, because they've gone way beyond just making calls.

It's an exciting time to be buying a network-connected handheld computer, a pocket PC, a smartphone, or whatever we've decided to call it. Three well-established operating systems are fighting for dominance, and there are two new contenders waiting in the wings. You can choose between dozens of models, in a bevy of form factors. When we counted all the offerings from the four major carriers, Nokia's direct sales, and the two biggest independent stores—Dynamism and Expansys USA—we came up with a dizzying total of 72 options. During the first three quarters of last year, more than 12 million smartphones were sold in the U.S., according to IDC analyst Ramon Llamas, and that number is expected to rise.

Although the U.S. lags behind Europe and Asia in the number of consumers buying advanced handhelds, 2008 may be the year smartphone sales really take off Stateside, says Avi Greengart, research director for mobile devices at Current Analysis.

"I think we hit the inflection point with the $99 smartphone," Greengart says, observing that smart devices are now affordable enough to be seen as alternatives to simpler phones and that U.S. consumers are starting to demand richer experiences from their handhelds.

"The smartphone gives the handset vendor the ability to tap into different types of applications, whether that's the Web, imaging, video, or music. You can provide a better experience faster with a smartphone than you can with a feature phone," Greengart says.

In the U.S., the majority of today's handhelds come with one of five operating systems, according to IDC's Llamas. During the first three quarters of 2007, Research In Motion's BlackBerrys dominated U.S. sales with a 44.7 percent market share, followed by Windows Mobile gadgets, which owned 29.2 percent of the market pie. Palm and Apple ran neck and neck with about 11 percent each, and Symbian came in fifth with 2.8 percent. Worldwide, however, Symbian is a big player; in Europe it is actually dominant.

The Apple, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile operating systems are all getting major updates. Windows Mobile's latest iteration, 6.1, was released back in February. Blackberry promises version 4.5 of their OS is coming soon, and Apple's iPhone will soon have the ability to run third-party applications, which will make it a true handheld PC.

We've chosen to narrow our focus to the BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems here because they offer the most hardware options and have the most promising futures (at least they did when we went to press). We didn't include Palm, since the company has announced it will be abandoning the Palm OS eventually. And because Apple sells only one device, on one carrier, we left the iPhone out, too.

To pick the perfect smartphone, think about where you want to start. Each of the major players brings a particular set of features to the game. Windows Mobile started out as a PDA operating system, and it shows. Microsoft is still wondering whether or not to shake its focus on contacts, calendar, and add-in applications. Windows Mobile devices may feel the most like PCs, but they can also be a little intimidating to use. BlackBerrys started out primarily as e-mail gadgets, but now they're much, much more. These wildly popular handhelds play music and video, surf the Web, and make generally excellent-sounding calls. But speedy, bullet-proof push e-mail is still the BlackBerry's greatest selling point.

Symbian is the most phone-focused of the big three contenders. Its handsets often have high-end multimedia features like high-resolution cameras, and Symbian has a strong, thriving open-source community that creates thousands of add-on apps.

Hippiest new gadget--Bell+Howell Genie III keychain camera

The Bell+Howell Genie III, a keychain camera, first surfaced in Hong Kong last month on the local tech forums and immediately took the town by storm. Measuring 60 x 38 x 20mm and weighing just 15g, the Genie III is the size of a matchbox, features a 2-megapixel CCD and 4GB storage.

It is capable of taking high-resolution pictures (1,600 x 1,200) or 60-second videos (8mm video at 320 x 240 with no audio). Because of its LOMO characteristics, i.e. over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring and "happy accidents", the Genie III had great success in Taiwan, Japan and Korea before making its way to Hong Kong. In the past week, ShoppeRite, the sales arm of Bell+Howell, even had to take the product off its catalog due to product shortage. The going price on Yahoo Auction had gone past the HK$450 (US$57.7) mark this week, almost double the last listed price of US$24.95 on Sho

Report: Preinstalled Viruses Infect New Tech Gadgets

The Associated Press culled together three previously reported news stories of preinstalled viruses found on new iPods, TomTom GPS navigation gear, and digital picture frames sold by major retailers and aptly points this is a disturbing trend.

I couldn't agree more. PC World ran a report in November 2007 that Seagate had inadvertently sold new hard drives infected with the Virus.Win32.AutoRun.ah password-stealing virus.

What's very interesting about the report is that the AP traces problems back to Chinese factories where it says the devices in question were made. The problem, it's stated, stems from lax quality control. The AP reports viruses get onto hardware when workers plug gear into factory-floor PCs for testing purposes. Those test PCs, through negligence (not malicious intent), are infected with viruses. Lax quality control in Chinese factories was also to blame in the Seagate case as well.

It goes without saying quality control is very important. The AP report reminds me of another incident where, perhaps, quality control comes into play. On Wednesday it was reported some iPod Nano models when charging sparked due to a faulty lithium-ion battery used in some model Nanos. As far as I can tell the faulty iPod Nano has not been traced back to China.

Granted the gadget market is a cutthroat one for businesses where margins are razor thin and competition fierce. Are companies pressed so hard to keep costs down they can't be bothered with topnotch quality control processes? I don't know. But loss of consumer confidence in your brand and products will likely cost businesses more money if they don't get their acts together. After all, look at the damage control the toy industry has had to engage in after dozens of high-profile toy recalls.

iPod Classic: The day the music died

It should all be so easy. You've just bought a shiny new iPod Classic for £159. It may not have the fancy functions of the iPod Touch, but you're thrilled to have a new, better-than-ever music player, with more storage space, better battery life and a sleeker case. So you take your new gadget home, plug it into the computer to charge the battery – and that should be all it takes to bring your new iPod to life.

But before the battery has a chance to start charging, a helpful message pings up on the computer's screen. It suggests that you might want to download a firmware update – otherwise known as a patch, a small piece of software designed to fix glitches with the way your iPod works. You decide you want the latest update, called version 1.0.2.
But what should you do if those innocuous mouse-clicks land you in the middle of an incredibly complex mess?

Ask any number of disgruntled iPod Classic owners this question, and you may wish to shield your ears from an explosive response. For most people, downloading the 1.0.2 update worked a treat. But many others found that the new software created major problems.

As it finished installing, the affected iPods would switch off – and would simply not come back on again. Instead, a whirring noise indicated that the hard disk inside each affected gadget was spinning, fast. Meanwhile, on the computer screen, iTunes didn't even register that an iPod was plugged in. As the disk kept spinning, the iPod would get hotter and hotter – and the users found that they had no prospect of playing music on it.

No one knows exactly how many people were affected by this problem, but internet user forums suggest it has been relatively widespread.

It seems to have been an unwelcome by-product of the trend for Apple (and many other companies) to issue more and more software updates over the internet. From Sat-Navs to electronic organisers, all kinds of gadgets are updated this way. Barely a week goes by, for example, without a new patch for computer operating systems such as Microsoft Windows.
In theory, updates are fine: their purpose, after all, is to improve the product. But updates for iPods have a mixed track-record when it comes to causing problems.

Earlier this year, a small number of the first batch of iPod Classics began to crash when owners tried to load the artwork from album covers by connecting to iTunes. Some also reported that browsing through menus and playlists was sluggish. So, Apple responded and released the first firmware update, 1.0.1.

Just a few weeks later, in early October, the company released the 1.0.2 update to make the menus work faster still. And that was where the recent round of problems began.

"Brilliant new Classic iPod software update – now my iPod doesn't work at all!!!" wrote Phil Jones in a post on www.ilounge.com. "Tried resetting, but just keeps switching itself on and off. iTunes doesn't recognise my iPod when connected now either." On the same forum, David B added: "I'm not touching this update."

Meanwhile, at www.engadget.com, someone registered as ScOObyDoo writes: "I've got the same problem. It also gets mighty hot when it's spinning this much."

Naturally, the first response of many users has been to call Apple for help. There, they are given the details of five steps they should take to sort the problem out. But these steps do not always work.

Even if you wanted to load the previous version of the firmware (the one that one worked, even if it wasn't perfect) the message from the website is simple: Apple does not support version 1.0.1 so, no, you can't have it.

"Always make sure iPod has the latest software from Apple, as engineers may find new ways to optimise battery performance," the website will tell now-irate users. "Put your iPod in its dock or plug it into your computer and iTunes will notify you if a new update is available."

All the firm's customer support agents can advise is that you return the now useless gadget to the shop where you bought it. If the iPod is more than a fortnight old, it'll probably have to be sent back to Apple for repair.

So what should you do? Well, Nik Rawlinson, the editor of MacUser magazine, says that it's not always a good idea to download the latest iPod updates: "It's a personal preference. Some people would do it, some people wouldn't."

But what about the idea that having the latest software or firmware upgrade will ensure that you have all the latest functions? "It's not normally the case that these upgrades bring great new functionality," says Rawlinson. "Normally, they're patches to fix specific problems."

So, before you next click to upgrade any product, it's worth checking online to see if there are problems with the upgrade. A list of good iPod websites appears in the box below.

While the iPod has sold more than 100 million units – making it hardly surprising that some customers have had a bumpy ride – the gadget does seem to have had its fair share of problems outside the field of software, too.

Since the original version launched in 2001, there have been complaints about the battery life and the fact that the batteries can't easily be replaced. Many other users complain that the iPods are somewhat fragile, and prone to breakage if knocked about.

Then there was a minor debacle in 2005, when the new iPod Nano screens showed a tendency to crack.

Over the years, all these have conspired to undermine the relationship between customer and corporation.

Even on Apple's own discussion boards some once-loyal customers are starting to revolt. One user, writing under the name CrispNClean, speaks for many iPod owners with his post: "NOTE TO APPLE/STAFF and EXECUTIVE STAFF – We, your customers, would like to enjoy products that work. We would also like some acknowledgment that you are aware of these issues and are working on them."

Apple, of course, will doubtless be trying to solve problems, presumably with another software update. When will that arrive? No one knows. The company seems unwilling to shed light on the matter. Despite a number of attempts to contact an Apple spokesperson, no one from the company was available for comment during the writing of this piece.

Fortunately, good advice on how to fix the 1.0.2 problem is available by searching the internet. An army of unofficial bloggers are marching to the rescue of those who feel at the mercy of slapdash updates. Web surfers willing to take the state of their consumer electronics into their own hands will find a slew of sites dedicated to giving them quick fixes.

The solution involves downgrading to version 1.0.1 of the firmware. The way it's done is to find the 1.0.2 file on your computer's hard drive, delete it, then select restore factory settings on your iPod. The computer has no choice but to put install 1.0.1.

But be warned, this vigilante approach will wipe your iPod, so you'll have to re-import all your music. And taking matters into your hands could leave you in a worse mess than you were to begin with. But for those who are tempted, it could mean the difference between sweet music and the sound of silence.

Pod squad: where to find help

www.engadget.com

The first site to report on the 1.0.2 spinning disk problem, Engadget is a self-styled "web magazine" that offers its readers obsessive daily updates on everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics. The exhaustive site was launched in 2004 and is the place to go to find out what's happening, good or bad, in the technosphere.

www.cnet.com

News, reviews, tips and tricks are what Cnet does best. There are also blogs galore on a range of tech topics – and the experts on this website really know their stuff. It may be packed with opinions, but Cnet is an objective source for reams of must-know info on what to buy and how to use it.

www.gabalot.co.uk

A site dedicated to helping the clueless iPod user. The people behind Gabalot have spent a serious amount of time researching the iPod and cover all aspects of it, from Live media, gadgets, changing a battery to fault-finding and so on. Also on the site are views on emerging trends or changes within the industry.

www.macgeekery.com

One for advanced Mac users only, this community-based site is "a place where more advanced users of the Macintosh hardware platform can get together and share tips, hacks and generally arcane things without fear of the user level of the recipients." Users can publish tips or post problems, but, as its name suggests, it's pretty geeky.

www.methodshop.net

As well as offering interesting snippets of technology news, Methodshop has an impressive section on iPod support. With topics ranging from "My iPod's battery won't charge" to "Erase your iPod – the super fix" and "I dropped my iPod in the toilet", there are plenty of user-friendly tips on managing your MP3 player.

discussions.apple.com

The first place to go if you're thinking about updating your Apple software or hardware – mainly because if there's a potential problem, there will be hundreds of people posting their opinions and horror stories about what went wrong. It's worth checking this forum out before trying – or buying – a new iPod.

October's coolest gadgets

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau

Japan's largest electronics show, Ceatec, kicks off October every year with all that's new and upcoming from the country's consumer electronics vendors. The 2007 show was no let down and provided visitors a chance to catch some world-first technologies, like a 3-millimeter thick TV, a laptop with super-charged graphics processing and some new high-def video recorders.

The show has grown greatly over the last few years and this year hit a milestone: attendance of over 200,000 people across its five-day run. Organizers had been looking to break the record for the last three years so it came with more than a little relief that they finally managed it. Read on for our picks from Ceatec and other new gadgets from the last month.

Sony OLED TV
Without a doubt the coolest thing at Ceatec this year was Sony Corp.'s OLED (organic light emitting diode) television. This is something we've been promised all year and the first commercial product doesn't disappoint -- except perhaps on price. The set has an 11-inch OLED panel and is 3mm thick. OLEDs offer other advantages over LCD and PDP technology, including wider viewing angles, faster response time, and better contrast and colors. However, the technology is difficult to manufacture and the OLED material degrades over time. Sony said the XEL-1 has a viewing life of 30,000 hours, which allows a user to watch eight hours of television each day for 10 years. The television goes on sale in Japan on Dec. 1, and will cost ¥200,000 (US$1,740.50). Currently, there are no plans to sell the television outside Japan, as Sony plans to manufacture just 2,000 sets each month.

Panasonic Blu-ray Disc recorders
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) kicked off Ceatec by unveiling of three new Blu-ray Disc recorders. The recorders can cram up to 18 hours of high-definition video onto a 50G-byte Blu-ray Disc -- something that hasn't been possible until now. Previous recorders took the MPEG2 digital TV stream as it was transmitted and recorded it directly to disc resulting in a recording capacity of about 4 hours on the 50G-byte discs. However the new Panasonic recorders can convert this into the more efficient MPEG4 AVC compression system and thus the greater storage capacity on each disc. They also have built-in hard-disk drives. All three recorders will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 1 with the top-of-the-range BW900 costing ¥300,000 (US$2,600). There are no immediate plans to sell them overseas but Panasonic said it is examining the possibility.

Toshiba SpursEngine laptops
One of the cool gadgets being demonstrated by Toshiba was a prototype Qosmio laptop that includes a multimedia co-processor, called SpursEngine, based on the Cell Broadband Engine processor core. It's based on the same processor core found in the PlayStation 3 and aims to provide better video-processing capabilities for computers. One laptop offered facial-recognition capabilities that find a user's face, and then allow virtual makeup and different hairstyles to be applied and viewed in three dimensions. A second demonstration used the SpursEngine to search a video, and then break the video clip into scenes based on facial expressions, allowing a user to find a particular scene more easily. Toshiba has yet to finalize plans to commercialize SpursEngine.

Omron Okao Vision
While not strictly a gadget, Omron Corp.'s Okao Vision is a software application that could certainly make other gadgets cool! A new addition to the facial-recognition family finds a face in a video image and then provides an estimation of how much a person is smiling (from 0 to 100 percent). The technology could be used, for example, in a digital camera to sense when photo subjects are smiling and ready for their picture to be taken. Sony's recently launched DSC-T200 has just such a feature -- branded Smile Shutter by Sony -- but it's not based on the Omron system. Omron hopes to find customers for the software this year.

Sharp LCD with optical scanner
If you think the iPhone screen's two-finger touch is cool then Sharp Corp. has something for you! The company showed a prototype 3.5-inch screen integrates an optical scanner pixel alongside each LCD pixel. This means the screen can scan objects such as name cards placed on its surface and recognize fingers or other objects. Because it's determining the position of fingers from a scanner input and not a touch screen, it's possible to touch the screen in more than two places and have all fingers recognized. The panel is still a prototype but commercialization is expected in the first half of next year. Samples are already in the hands of potential customers but Sharp wouldn't name those companies. Whoever they are, you can be sure some are trying to outdo Apple's iPhone!

Samsung music phones
Away from Ceatec, Samsung unveiled a refreshed line-up of three new cell phones that are targeted at music lovers. The top-of-the-range SGH-i450 boasts an amplifier developed by high-end audio specialists Bang & Olufsen and runs the Symbian S60 smartphone software platform. It has a 2.4-inch display and a 2-megapixel camera. It works on WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) networks and supports HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) data service up to 3.6M bps (bits per second). The phone will first appear in Italy at the end of October and will follow in other European countries. It will cost about €360 (US$508) before carrier subsidies. One weak point of the handset is the amount of built-in memory, which is just 35M bytes. That's about enough for 7 to 10 songs, which is disappointing for a music phone. Memory can be expanded up to 4G bytes with a Micro SD memory card.

Sony Video Walkman with TV
Sony is adding mobile digital TV viewing and recording to the video Walkman it sells in Japan. The "OneSeg" system, as it is marketed, has proved a popular addition to many portable gadgets and can now be found on many high-end cell phones, laptop PCs, car navigation systems and even electronic dictionaries. The only difference between the three new Walkman devices with TV is their memory capacity. The NW-A916 has 4G bytes of memory, the NW-A918 has 8G bytes and the NW-A919 16G bytes. Compared to the last players the screen size has been increased to 2.4-inches from 2-inches. They'll go on sale in November in Japan only. The NW-A916 will cost about ¥30,000 (US$260), the NW-A918 ¥35,000 and the NW-A919 ¥45,000.

Gadgets showcased in New York

DigitalLife is not a trade show. Its doors are open to anyone with $15 (£7.50) to spare, who wants to see what will be on shop shelves in the coming months.

MagicJack works when plugged into your computer's USB port

A common theme this year was bringing previously high priced technology to the masses.

There is nothing revolutionary about Palm's Centro smartphone: it has a four-year-old operating system and has many of the same features as its cousin the Treo, but at half the price it is aimed at the wallet conscious consumer.

Making all kinds of telephone calls very cheap is the goal for several startups. There were internet telephony hubs on display that work with any analogue phone and you only pay for the unit itself, with the service free thereafter.

Calls and texts

Or you can get a much cheaper $40(£20) USB dongle device that also accommodates landline handsets.

Like many net phone services, the MagicJack, which comes with its own telephone number, offers the flexibility of making and receiving calls for free wherever the device is plugged in around the world.

"Let's say you have a family member in Scotland and you live in northern California," explained MagicJack's Donald Burns.

"You could buy the MagicJack, select a northern California telephone number, mail the MagicJack to your family member in Scotland and they could have a North American phone number in Scotland and use it like they were next door at home."

Among the other eyecatching gadgets on display was a dedicated wi-fi-enabled instant messaging device primarily for home use, again low cost.

It is one way to stop teenage chit chat on the home phone and for other family members to get some time on the PC. The Zipit 2 is free, although to many adults a teenager with unlimited texting opportunities might not be such a good thing.

Frank Greer of Zipit Wireless said: "If parents don't like that they have a web page they can go to which connects to our device and they can set the time of day and days of the week when the kid can use the device.

"It's got some very nice parental controls," he added.

Robotics

Robots in several dubious form factors could be found throughout the show, but thankfully a few showed some promise.

The Looj gutter cleaning robot was unveiled at DigitalLife

The most intriguing announcement came from iRobot, which launched a cleaning device for the gutter called Looj.

A powerful propeller is supposed to be able to remove almost anything from twigs, sludge or bird droppings.

"It's simple to use, it's wireless, you just put it in the gutter and off it goes. Very simple," said Colin Angle of iRobot.

The ConnectR robot is designed to sit with your kids and let you read to them from thousands of miles away. It has two cameras, wide angle and close range, with a microphone and speaker to allow for two way conversation.

Think of the possibilities - Daddy can play board games with the family and Grandma can play fetch with Fido from hundreds of miles away - at least that is what iRobot is marketing department thinks you will be doing.

The Spykee robot kit costs $299 (£150)

Nikko's Spykee has similar features but costs a lot less and is able to take snapshots of any intruders and e-mail them via wi-fi.

One small hitch - it comes in kit form and has to be built by you so a degree in computer programming could come in handy too.

"We're leaving the programming language open so we know there are going to be some techies who are really going to have fun with this," said Jim Van Den Dyssel of Nikko.

"I'm sure there'll be all sorts of add-ons and plugins available after the product goes to market."

In the video game section, consumers were able to get an early demo of the third installment of Guitar Hero.

It turns out that pressing colour coded buttons on a plastic guitar in time with the hits is a lot of fun for a lot of people, even self-declared tone deaf non-gamers.

If moving sound and vision around your home from PC to TV is a top priority then a new line of Media Center Extenders might be of interest.

Microsoft now enables DivX movies and HD content to fly through the air using the latest variance of wi-fi.

Apple’s iPhone comes with the ring of overconfidence

The much hyped new smartphone soon to arrive from America is magical but flawed, says the first journalist to use one in Britain

The world of technology is driven by hyperbole. In a crowded marketplace, a new product doesn’t stand a chance unless it’s heralded as the Next Big Thing. And nobody understands this better than Steve Jobs, boss of Apple, whose artfully choreographed product launches guarantee media coverage.

But finding a truly revolutionary product these days is difficult. Now that the transition from analogue to digital technologies is all but complete, most new gadgets are evolutions rather than revolutions.

So when, in January, Jobs claimed Apple had “reinvented the phone” with a fanfare that was grandiose even by Apple’s own standards, I set about trying to find the truth behind the hype. Was the iPhone really “five years ahead of the competition”, as Jobs claimed?

Days after the US launch in June, I took a trip to California to buy a £200 iPhone with a plan to test it in advance of the planned UK launch (the iPhone is due to go on sale here in early November). Apple was one step ahead of me; its American phones are locked to a US network and won’t work with a British Sim card.

Luckily, there are geeks out there who can unlock anything and after trawling the web I found the advice I was looking for to link my new iPhone to the Vodafone network. It’s a tricky procedure and not one I’d recommend to nongeeks, but it gave me the head start I needed to assess the iPhone’s capabilities – and deficiencies.

First, the trifling matters: yes, the iPhone’s screen gets smudged but it’s easy to wipe clean and the glass front is remarkably scratch resistant. Yes, the virtual keyboard takes some getting used to, but it’s fine once you learn to trust the built-in error correction. And, yes, the headphone socket is annoyingly recessed – but a £5 adapter will allow you to use the headphones of your choice, rather than the flimsy ones provided by Apple.

More disturbing are the low-res camera and slow data connection. They may have seemed cutting edge when Apple began work on an iPod phone in 2004. But by the time the iPhone finally launched, many rival handsets had cameras with twice the resolution, and a 3.5G connection capable of browsing the web at 10 times the speed of the iPhone.

As a phone, the device works well (even if you are uncertain at first where to hold it to your face) and call quality is on a par with most good handsets. Reception, though, can be patchy.
Fortunately for Apple, you won’t immediately notice these technological shortcomings when you first pick up the iPhone. Instead, you’ll be captivated by mouthwatering, candy-coloured icons, which cry out to be pressed. Not poked with a stylus, but squashed with your finger.

And once you press, the response will take your breath away: unlike every other smartphone on the market, the iPhone does what you ask without pausing to think – and does it beautifully. Click on the “photo” icon and your photo album zooms at you from the centre of the brilliant 3.5in display, pushing all the homepage icons off the side of the screen.

Choose a picture to look at and it nudges the album screen out of view. Stroke your finger across the screen and the photo makes way for another, travelling at the exact speed of your finger. Switch the iPhone to landscape mode and the picture that you’re looking at smoothly rotates with you.

This glorious user interface is the iPhone’s most powerful weapon, and the one thing that truly is years ahead of the competition. It won’t just wow the gadget addicts – it’ll have techno-sceptics drooling, too.

But satisfying that technolust won’t be cheap. The basic iPhone handset will cost £269 but UK buyers will then have to sign up to an 18-month contract with O2, Apple’s service provider, for £35-£55 per month, which puts the true cost at £899-£1,259.

Jobs has blamed Vat and the fact that “it is a little bit more expensive to do business over here” for the price of the handset in the UK. He also claims: “Sometimes you get what you pay for.” But after the initial glow wears off, will British iPhone users agree?

Undoubtedly the biggest frustration for iPhone users will be the lack of a high-speed 3G connection to a mobile network. It has been sacrificed for the sake of battery life, according to Apple. (In my experience the battery required charging only every other day, even with heavy usage.)

So, despite the fact that O2 paid billions for its 3G network, the iPhone can’t use it. Instead, O2 is having to upgrade its old 2G network to enable an iPhone-friendly system called Edge. But even Edge runs at speeds that rarely reach 100kbps (a quarter of the speed of a 3G connection).
Not only that, but O2 will have only 30% coverage at launch so most iPhone users will have to put up with the tediously slow GPRS connection – similar to the bad old days of dial-up home connections – unless they’re in a wi-fi hotspot. This is a shame because the iPhone’s web browser is better than anything on the mobile market, thanks to the touchscreen software and the clever way it displays websites.

Fortunately, the iPhone is good at sniffing out free hotspots and will choose wi-fi over a phone connection where possible. And in the UK, O2 has built a subscription to 7,500 wi-fi hotpots operated by the Cloud company into its monthly iPhone charge. There are more plans afoot, too; a deal with Starbucks will allow American iPhone users to access the iTunes music store free when they’re near a wi-fi enabled Starbucks – and even buy the music playing in the shop.
It’s not hard to see Apple striking deals with other high-street chains to offer deals to iPhone users who happen to be passing. And if critical mass is achieved, the iPhone’s wi-fi connections could allow music swapping and social networking – just as Microsoft tried (and failed) with its Zune.

But will the iPhone reach critical mass? Apple has sold 1m handsets in just over two months in America, but only after an unexpected – some might say desperate – $200 (£100) price cut. With a target of 10m iPhones worldwide by the end of 2008, Apple is chasing a significant chunk of the smartphone market.

There are, however, distinct differences between the UK and US markets. The UK has more developed 3G networks and there is a wider choice of appealing handsets here than American consumers can buy.

Jobs points to the success of the company’s previous revolutionary products – the Macintosh, which popularised the mouse, and the iPod, which is reshaping the music industry. But personal computing was in its infancy when the Mac was launched in 1984, and few people knew what an MP3 was when the iPod appeared in 2001. By wrapping new technologies in appealing, easy-to-use packages, Apple scored two easy wins. Can it do the same in the mature – and intensely competitive – mobile phone market?

Nine months after first playing with the iPhone, I’m still entirely smitten. I’m willing to forgive its failings and I’m not alone – Apple claims the iPhone customer satisfaction rating is higher than with any previous product.

But there is a serious threat, and it doesn’t come from Nokia, Samsung or Sony Ericsson – it’s from Apple itself. By launching the iPod Touch MP3 player with wi-fi, which although not a mobile does feature the same magical user interface and web browsing functions as the iPhone and does not require you to switch to a hefty phone contract, Apple may have unwittingly cannibalised its own market.

Apple iPhone Storage 8GB fl ash drive Display 3.5in 480x320 pixels Data connections Wi-fi , Edge/GPRS, Bluetooth 2.0 Camera 2 megapixels Price £269, with contract

New gadgets from Microsoft

Microsoft announced five new additions to its line of computer peripherals today: three notebook mice and two Web cams (all available next month):

1. Mobile Memory Mouse 8000. $99.95. The specs on this rechargeable wireless mouse include 1GB of flash memory in its transceiver; 2.4 GHz wireless technology and high-definition laser technology.

2. Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. $49.95. Specs include HD laser technology and three months of battery life.

3. Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 7000. $49.95. 2.4 GHz wireless; HD laser tech and five customizable buttons.

4. The LifeCam VX-7000. $99.95. High-definition video and photos; unidirectional microphone with acoustic noise cancellation; a 71-degree wide-angle lens; automatic adjustments for low lighting.

5. LifeCam NX-3000. $59.95. HD resolution; automatic audio controls; swivel lens; video effects to personalize video calls.

Sony shows new Blu-ray disc recorders for Japan

TOKYO: Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will start selling four new Blu-ray disc recorders in Japan, stepping up the battle in next-generation video formats.

Sony's Blu-ray is competing against HD DVD, backed by Toshiba Corp. The battle has kept confused global consumers from rushing to buy new gadgets until they determine which format will emerge the winner.

Sony's models, shown Wednesday, will hit Japanese stores Nov. 8, priced between 140,000 yen (US$1,229; €889) and 200,000 yen (US$1,756; €1,270). Sony plans to initially produce 40,000 recorders a month for Japan, the Tokyo-based company said.

Sony already sells Blu-ray disc players in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. But there are no overseas sales plans for Blu-ray disc recorders so far, according to the manufacturer of Walkman players and PlayStation 3 game consoles.

Next-generation DVDs store large amounts of data for high-definition images and video.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and Sharp Corp. support the Blu-ray disc standard.

The group pushing HD DVD includes Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Both sides are claiming victory.

Earlier this year, the Blu-ray group was dealt a blow when Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc. said they will exclusively use the HD DVD format. They had previously released works in both formats.

Kiyoshi Shikano, a corporate senior vice president at Sony, played down possible damage from the switch.

"With all the support Blu-ray enjoys among Hollywood, PC makers and consumer electronic makers, Paramount's decision won't really affect Blu-ray," he said.

Blu-ray discs can hold more data — 50 gigabytes compared with HD DVD's 30 GB — but the technology requires new manufacturing techniques and factories, which mean higher costs.

Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Co. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are releasing films only in Blu-ray. Universal, owned by General Electric Co., backs HD DVD exclusively.

Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. remains the only major studio releasing movies in both formats.

Vehicle gadgets thwart drunks

The electronification of social responsibility proceeds apace. Pressure grows for increased use of ignition interlocks to keep people from driving drunk.

The interlock, not a new idea, consists of a tube into which a driver must blow before starting the car, the tube being connected to an alcohol sensor and a computer that will not let the car start if the alcohol reading is too high. Right now the cutoff used by police is a blood-alcohol content of 0.08.

The idea is that people convicted of DUI would have to use interlocks and therefore would not be hazards to the public. The principle is similar to that of the electronic ankle bracelets that notify police when a nonviolent offender goes somewhere he shouldn't.

In the past, critics said interlocks wouldn't work because drunks could find a way to outwit them. For example, a drunk could have someone else blow into the tube, or go sober to a bar and leave the car idling while he drank.

Well, maybe, but interlocks have gotten a lot smarter than they were. One manufacturer of the devices today is LifeSafer Inc (lifesafer.com). A lot of thought has gone into the device. Its model FC100 has a fuel-cell based sensor that responds only to alcohol and incorporates a long list of techniques to keep a drunk from fooling it.

The user can be required to hum (many of these features are programmable) while blowing into the device. This, says LifeSafer, "deters techniques utilized to mimic human breath or to absorb alcohol." The device can require random retests while the car is in operation. "Breath test refusal or failure is recorded and sanctions are imposed, including honking of the car's horn, [which deter] drinking after completing a sober start and [leaving the] vehicle idling at bars." Furthermore, it can be set not to let the car start at all between certain hours. This is useful if the court decides that the offender can drive to work and back, with an hour added for shopping, but otherwise must stay off the road.

For people with a history of drunken driving, the idea makes sense. That is, it is reasonable to suspect that if chronic drunks blow .08, they will continue drinking until incapacitated. However, in today's surveillance-prone society, there is the problem of the slippery slope. For example, New Mexico in 2004 defeated a bill that would have required all new cars to be equipped with interlocks. Everyone, not just known drunks, would have had to blow into the tube to start the car.

Had this passed, it would have caused technological punishment of potential, not real, misbehavior. Note that alcohol affects different people differently.

Nokia unveils new gadgets,services

By Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press

HELSINKI, Finland — Nokia unveiled new Internet services and gadgets Wednesday to help customers download music and play games on mobile handsets — in a strong push to challenge rivals, including Apple's iTunes and iPod.

The latest move by the world's largest mobile phone maker, which has a strong position in emerging markets with basic handsets, is further recognition that high-end markets require multitask handsets with photo, music and video capabilities and quick access to the Internet.

Nokia said it will focus its Web services in a new site known as "Ovi" — Finnish for "door" — that will include an online music store that allows users to browse for music "with millions of tracks from major labels" and buy downloads onto their devices, including one that holds up to 6,000 songs.

Enlarge	Courtesy: Nokia
One of the products unveiled is the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, which has up to 18 hours of music playback and memory for up to 3,000 songs, offering up a rival to Apple's iPhone.

The new services will also enable the transfer of music from PCs to compatible Nokia devices, and give customers the chance to play and download N-Gage games on "tens of millions" of Nokia devices sold worldwide, the Finnish company said.

The high-power launch of the new services, announced in London, sent Nokia stock to its highest level this year in Helsinki, closing up 4.6% at euro23.31 ($31.77).

Boxers adjust to the new scoring system

By Samson Ateka

The national boxing team for the All Africa Games has began scoring exercises using International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba) approved computer.

Coach George Gichuki has since invited Aiba class referee, Mwangi "Don King" Muthoga, to the training camp to assist in the drill. Muthoga, who lives in Nakuru, is the only Kenyan referee to officiate at the Algeria Games.

"He is well versed with the system and it is encouraging to see the interest among team members," Muthoga said.

Computer scoring punches count only when they hit the target with force, but three of the judges must press the scoring gadgets at the same time. Computer scoring has been Kenya’s biggest undoing at international level.

Interestingly, the Amateur Boxing Association of Kenya has only one set of the gadgets donated to them at the Johannesburg Games in1999 by Aiba. Since then, they have relied mostly on borrowed ones.

"We are working hand in hand with Muthoga to ensure the boxers are trained well for the games," Gichuki said.

Suleiman Bilali, captain of the boxing team, has experience in computer scoring system compared to the other six boxers. Gichuki said Bilali would share his knowledge with the rest of the boxers.

Bilali, the Africa light-flyweight champion, said at the Kasarani camp that he was eyeing an Olympic gold in Beijing if he successfully defends his title in Algeria.

"The computer scoring drill is also a major boost to the team," the 29-year old boxer said.
Bilali has won eight Kenya Open titles since joining the national team in 1997. He was ranked fifth by Aiba after being eliminated 10-10 in the quarter-finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics by the gold winner Lozano Munoz.

Other veteran boxers in Gichuki’s team include two Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Joshua Ndere (llight-heavy) of Armed Forces Amateur Boxing Association and Kenya Police’s James Menya. Rayton Okwiri, 20, who was first capped during the recent Great Lakes Championship in Mwanza, Tanzania, last month is the youngest. David Munyasia and Kenya Prisons’ Bernard Ngumba, who had a long layoff since playing semi-pro boxing in Qatar in 2004, are back to serious business.

Munyasia is Kenya’s flag bearer in the featherweight class while Ngumba is in the flyweight. Okwiri said he was ready and at pains to make his presence felt at the continental games. Okwiri won a gold medal at last December’s Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa A Zone 5 junior championships in Nairobi.

Brave New Phone

ET phone home.

Now if he did, he would probably use the iPhone.

Is there anything this new iPhone cannot do? It is a phone, oh yes, but much more. With the release of the iPhone, it seems as if our gadgets and our mindset have finally been pushed over the edge into the abyss of the inescapable high-tech black hole.

In case your name is not already on the waiting list for this must-have, allow me to tell you why it should be. The iPhone functions as a computer, a web browser, a personal movie theater, a music library, a photo management sharer, not to mention it is all hands on - literally.

It has a much-adored touch-screen, so you have a plethora of information at your fingertips. I have got the whole world in my hands ... well, at least World Wide Web.

iPhone.

The iPhone’s resumé is quite impressive, and it makes its owners’ lives very easy - almost too easy. Currently we have already become so dependent on technology to connect us to the rest of the world that the iPhone may escalate our physical isolation from our 3-D world to cyber space.

I am all for technology because without it, we would not be as efficient as we are today. Nevertheless, some people say that computers and electronic gadgets have made us less productive by occupying so much of our time and our imagination.

Either way, we need to remember how to function on our own in case one of these machines malfunctions!

While the iPhone is a truly extraordinary product, we need to retain some independence, value person-to-person relationships and not become too attached and too dependent on devices.

Technology is supposed to uncomplicate our lives, not consume us. These days we send e-mails instead of personal handwritten letters, tap out instant messages instead of placing phone calls, and spend hours alone, in front of a computer screen instead of visiting with friends.

With Apple hoping to sell an estimated 10 million iPhones in the first year, that is a lot of “I’s” who have the ability to form one “us.” All of this techno stuff is fun and convenient but let us not lose touch with our fellow living creatures for these impersonal electronic devices. The iPhone can dial, but you make the call.

New Zegna Jacket Charges Your Gadgets

Posted Jul 26th 2007 2:02PM by Deidre Woollard
Filed under: Apparel, Gadgets

Where high fashion meets pure geekery you have this little number by Ermenegildo Zegna, a jacket that provides power for your gadgets. This jacket has solar modules around the neoprene collar so that it can charge your iPod or cellphone. The coat will be in stores this November and five hours of sunshine can recharge just about any device. It comes in a bomber jacket or a longer style and will sell for $750.

Better gadgets through nanotechnology

A new arrival at the University of Southampton will work on making smaller, more powerful computers and mobile phones a reality when the new Mountbatten Building opens next year.

Professor Hiroshi Mizuta, who has joined the University’s School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS), believes that the state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary research complex facilities planned for the new £55 million building, due to open in mid-2008, will allow him to carry out extensive research into nanotechnology.

"The new clean room under construction in the building, the high level of expertise available to me and the possibility of collaboration with other strong groups such as the Optoelectronics Research Centre, and academics in engineering science, physics and chemistry, will allow me to develop more hybrid devices and systems," he said.

Professor Mizuta made a major contribution to the field when he and his colleagues developed a high-speed single-electron memory and a new memory device called PLEDM TM (Phase-state Low Electron-number Drive Memory).

This is a single chip which enables instant recording and accessing of a massive amount of information while consuming very little power, developed when he was a laboratory manager for Hitachi in Cambridge.

Top-down approach to nanoelectronics

At ECS, Professor Mizuta plans to combine the conventional top-down approach to silicon nanoelectronics with a bottom-up approach which will enable him to introduce atomically-controlled nanoscale building blocks such as nanodots, nanowires and nanotubes to make his unique nanodevices.

"We now need a paradigm shift from conventional ‘More Moore’ technology to ‘More than Moore’ and ‘Beyond CMOS’ technologies," he explained.

"I believe that if we adopt unique properties of well-controlled nanostructures and co-integration with other emerging technologies such as NEMS [nanoelectromechanical systems], nanophotonics [manipulation and emission of light using nanomaterials] and nanospintronics [devices that use the electron spin instead of the electron charge for electronics], we can develop extremely functional information processing devices, faster than anything we could ever have imagined with just conventional ‘More Moore’ technologies."

More Moore is a 36-month project started early 2004 and funded by the European Commission that aims to resolve technical problems with Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography (EUVL) technology, which was chosen by the electronics industry to manufacture integrated circuits in 2010 and beyond.

It is named after Moore's Law, a principle determining that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles every 18 months.

However, this growth in microprocessing power, which has been constant for over 40 years, cannot continue indefinitely, and alternatives are being pursued to address this issue.

Sony Presents Its New Home Theater Receivers

Sony is releasing three new audio/video receivers for Home Theaters in its “Elevated Standard” (ES) line. They were designed to be an interface for all of our gadgets in the living room. The models STR-DA5300ES, STR-DA4300ES and STR-DA3300ES can receive audio or video from different sources and reproduce them with maximum quality.

They include integration with iPod, streaming files from your computer via Wi-Fi, reception from Bluetooth devices and connectivity with other Sony Network Walkman products, using the Digital Media Port feature sold separately.
The receivers also come with the Corteza Advanced controller featuring a technology that upscales all video sources to 1080p via HDMI.

The STR-DA5300ES (US$1,700) features a 120-watt amplifier, and the STR-DA4300ES (US$1,300) and STR-DA3300ES (US$1,000) models offers a 100-watt power amplifier.

Popping Off: A few gadgets to make life even easier

By MARK PATINKIN
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

Parade Magazine recently asked readers to come up with inventions we all could use.

One reader proposed brake lights on the front of cars.

Another suggested PIN numbers for credit cards to thwart thieves.

Still another thought up one-way tire shredders for highway exit ramps.

It got me thinking about what else is needed.

It's not easy, since stores such as The Sharper Image offer every conceivable convenience, such as motorized grill-cleaning brushes and air purifiers you wear around the neck.

But I'll try.

My first proposed invention: a remote control that mutes annoying music coming from nearby cars.

If Parade is interested, here are some others:

A beach blanket with raised borders -- like the top of a shoe box -- to keep sand out.

I hate biting into stale cereal or crackers, so I'm picturing a device like the thermometer you stick into a roast to tell you if it's done. Why not a device that tells you if your Frosted Flakes are stale?

Along those lines, I've tried those desktop coffee-cup warmers but after a while, either the cord gets in the way or they just don't do the job with most mugs. That's why someone needs to invent a battery-powered heat spoon.

I could use belts with Velcro underneath so the end doesn't wave in the breeze if it's too short to reach your first loop.

Law of life: When you can't find your cell phone, the odds are it's off, and can't be called. Someone's got to be smart enough to put in a chip that turns the phone back on if you dial a special number.

I would definitely buy a button you could step on under your desk to make the phone ring when you need an excuse to stop talking to someone.

You ever seen Heelys? Those are the kids' shoes with wheels in them. I'd love to see a line of adult shoes that have a "grabber" in the sole so, instead of bending over, you could use your foot to pick up a dropped napkin, set of car keys, or ice cube.

People with teenage sons are familiar with packs of boys stripping the house of food. This is fine, since teenage boys are supposed to be locusts. But I predict a big market if someone offered refrigerators with a locked compartment that needs a password, so the father of the house (the mother would be too noble to do this) could hide a stash of sodas, ice cream or other essentials.

I'll bet you'd soon have enough revenue to be listed on the NYSE if you began marketing plastic separators between the front and back seats of cars -- like those in cabs -- so parents can play James Taylor while the children listen to Ludacris.

You know the "Cone of Silence" in the old TV show "Get Smart"? They need a line of those you could install over office cubicles to be lowered whenever your neighbors are being too loud.

If they can put teeth whitener in gum, why not coffee?

All semi-colorblind people like me would love a scanner telling us whether two socks -- dark blue and black for example -- match.

I'd love to see sensors at four-way stop signs with little green lights telling each car, based on moment of arrival, when it's their turn to go.

Not that I'm admitting I'm distracted enough to need this, but it would be nice to have a pot that starts beeping if you haven't stirred the pasta and its beginning to adhere to the bottom.

But I am admitting I need this one: plates with built-in weighing scales that sound an alarm once the total poundage of food you've eaten passes your threshold of indigestion.

As always, I'm open to further suggestions.

But I'm off now to work on a new dishwasher that warns your cell phone when the latest load is clean but still in there, so you can steer clear of the kitchen until everything is put away.

Intel chips to get into your daily life

Fakir Balaji , Indo-Asian News Service

Jaipur, July 22, 2007

Global chipmaker Intel Corporation is developing a new generation of silicon wafers to make your everyday life simpler.

Looking beyond the world of enterprises and businesses, Intel geeks are working on novel architectures that will make processors with billions of transistors to handle your daily chores, be it personal or professional.

"The next generation of our embedded chips will have a gamut of applications that will take care of our day-to-day activities at home, office or while travelling. Their functions will be richer than what modern multi-gadgets and consumer durables are doing for us at the individual or collective level," Intel South Asia Managing Director Ramamurthy Sivakumar said on "the next wave of silicon technology" at an industry-media conclave in Jaipur.

Highlighting the benefits of convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) and their multifarious applications in a flat world, Sivakumar said each individual would be a potential customer for the trillion-dollar global ICT industry, as enterprises and businesses have been over the decades.

"We are already witnessing how the mobile revolution is impacting even a commoner and how the power of computing is creating new communities through the worldwide web (WWW) and wireless devices.

For instance, the phenomenal growth of YouTube hosting over 100 million videos a day, Yahoo getting about three billion page views a day and billions logging on to the Internet daily for information, search, chat, mail, games and entertainment indicate how individuals are becoming customers for the ICT industry in a globalised economy," Sivakumar pointed out.

With technology, business proposition and user value as the new mantras, the $39 billion Intel's research and development (R&D) labs worldwide are designing new platforms on which software mounted chips will be able to undertake perfect vision correction, provide instant translation of voice, text and data from one to other or many languages and enable speech recognition.

"As innovation has to touch every aspect of life, it cannot be limited to technology, but should have business value with universal benefit to end-users. Apple's iPod and iPhone are examples of the new mantra.

On the personal front, the next generation chips will be able to take over the activities of daily life such as house-keeping, cooking, washing, shopping and even driving advanced autopilot cars, akin to flying modern aircraft with fly-by-wire and remote-control systems," he said.

"In line with the Moore's law, which has held us in good stead even three decades after it was laid down by our co-founder, we see the power of computing doubling every 18-24 months for another two-three decades, as the next wave of silicon transistors will become part of our existence, implanted in the body or head to monitor health, dietary habits and behaviour," Sivakumar hinted.

Underlining the significance of accessibility and affordability of technology, Sivakumar said while competition and volume growth would make products cheaper, the challenge for all stakeholders would be to bring down operational and maintenance costs to ensure higher performance with lesser power consumption.

"The emergence of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Max along with mobile Internet devices (MIDs) will make access to products and services not only easier but also affordable, as ICT becomes an integral part of life from individual to enterprise level on a global scale," Sivakumar said.