Airtel Lanched India’s fastest DSL broadband Services

Airtel announced the India’s fastest DSL broadband.
The availability of 16Mbps broadband, which now claims to be fastest DSL broadband in India

The broadband internet speeds are all set to rise for the Indian net surfer. Airtel has announced that Airtel’s Carrier Ethernet Network, will be initially available in the cities of Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore with phased roll-out to additional cities of Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Airtel is offering 2 plans with 16 Mbps broadband:

  • Speed Combo 2999:16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 20 GB for Rs. 2999 per month
  • Speed Combo 4999: 16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 50 GB for Rs. 4999 per month

Airtel delivers its broadband service through a fibre backbone of Carrier Ethernet Network with last mile delivery on copper using ADSL2+ technology, enabling ultra high-speed broadband.

Yahoo-new music service

The new version of Yahoo Music, unveiled on Monday, aggregates paid and free music services available on the Internet, allowing Yahoo users to access and interact with the services directly from the Yahoo site.

Yahoo Inc is partnering with other online music providers as the Internet giant tries a fresh approach to getting an edge in the evolving digital music business.

The move comes a little over a year after Yahoo announced it was shuttering its own paid-music service, and is in keeping with the company’s latest efforts to make Yahoo a more open service by integrating products and services developed by other companies.

Visitors to the Yahoo Music site will be able to select from a variety modules representing the Web’s disparate music sites, including free, radio-like streaming audio services such as Pandora and last.fm, music videos from Google Inc’s, YouTube, and paid music downloads from iTunes and Amazon.com.

Yahoo Music was the No. 2 online music site in December, with 19.6 million unique visitors, according to research company ComScore. Time Warner Inc’s AOL Music was the top site with 24.6 million visitors, while News Corp’s MySpace Music ranked third with 17.2 million visitors. The new Yahoo Music-a major strategic shift for Yahoo.

Yahoo Music General Manager Michael Spiegelman said that We really want to focus on providing the service that’s most valuable to users, and then partner with third parties to provide the entire set of music services.

Wipro Infotech-India’s number one Green Brand

Wipro’s ranking has moved up largely due to its continued commitment to energy efficiency and structured programme for effective e-waste management for customers.

Wipro Infotech on Tuesday said it has been rated India’s number one Green Brand and is named among the top five brands in the world, in environmental organisation Greenpeace’s ‘Guide to Greener Electronics‘.

With this, Wipro has not only reasserted its top position among Indian IT brands, but has also marked a place in the league of top-five global green brands.

HCL Technologies bags five-year IT services contract with Microsoft Corpration worth $170 million

A spokesman for the Indian software firm confirmed the deal HCL Technologies Ltd has bagged a five-year IT services contract worth close to $170 million from software giant Microsoft Corp but declined to provide further details. Economic Times business daily reported on Monday.

HCL’s has made third outsourcing deal in four weeks, following a six-year $100-million deal from Xerox that was announced on Sunday and a $350-million seven-year contract from Reader’s Digest Association secured last month.

HCL is likely to deploy 600 employees on the Microsoft contract, with about 250 of them already working on the project.


Under the transaction, HCL will provide technology services for Microsoft’s online service business, the report said citing a person familiar with the negotiations.

IBM- To Enter cloud computing Software Market

Cloud computingone of the latest buzz words in Silicon Valley — refers to a variety of ways in which technology companies offer computing services over the Web from remote data centers, seemingly from the cloud of the Internet.

IBM will sell a suite of Web-based collaboration software for businesses, including contact management, instant messaging and file sharing programs, the computing giant’s biggest effort to date to sell software as a service.

IBM will charge companies $10 to $45 per user per month for its software suite, which it will host at its own data centers and deliver via the Web, a company executive said in an interview on Tuesday. The suit will be available April 7.

IBM Vice President Sean Poulley said “What you are seeing are the beginnings of the whole IBM company moving toward cloud computing,”

From April 1 Free cash withdrawals from all ATMs

There were 32,342 ATMs in the country at the end of December 2007 and various banks have entered into bilateral and multi-lateral arrangements with other banks to have inter-bank ATM networks.
At present, banks charge Rs 20 per transaction when a customer uses the cash machine of any bank.

However, banks can still charge extra for services like cash withdrawal with the use of credit cards and at ATMs located outside India.

Last year on March 10, the RBI had come out with guidelines limiting the fee charged by banks for using their ATMs by clients of other lenders to Rs 20. It had also allowed the use of ATM for purposes like balance enquiry free of any charge.

Now in April 1 and you need not have to sweat it out looking for an ATM of your own bank as you can use ATMs of your choice without shelling out any extra money- Thanks to an RBI directive

Microsoft To unveils partners for applications store

Microsoft Corporation has signed up multiple software partners for its upcoming cell phone software marketplace, including Web music service Pandora, game publisher Electronic Arts Inc and social site Facebook.


On Tuesday Microsoft Corporation has plans to discuss those partnerships and conduct demonstrations of the software store  set to launch later this year.


In February, Microsoft revealed plans to open Windows Marketplace for Mobile in the second half of this year, but had not announced software partners. Along with a list of initial partners, the company said it expects many of its existing 20,000 mobile phone software partners to offer software.

Tata Motors launched the Rs 1 lakh Car in Mumbai:Nano

Tata Motors today formally launched the Rs 1 lakh Car in Mumbai.
Speaking at the launch late on Monday evening, Tata Motors unveiled the Nano.


Ravi Kant, Managing Director of Tata Motors, said the base version of the car would priced at Rs 1 lakh (ex-factory) while the AC version would be priced between Rs 1.39 and Rs 1.42 lakh (ex-Delhi). The deluxe version of the Nano, he added, would cost Rs 1.7 lakh (ex-Delhi).

Tata Nano: The big small dream

Today is another day in the journey of the Nano,Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, said at a press conference, outlining the six-year journey of the ultra low-cost small car. It is not just a cheap car but a car that will give the people of India an opportunity to drive.

In the next few days, the Nano will be available in various Tata Motors showroom,Tata said, adding that the sale of Nano booking forms will start from April 9-25 and one lakh applicants will be selected randomly and the cost of the booking forms will be Rs 300.

Specifications of the Nano:

 Length: 3 metres
Top speed: 105 km per hour
Meets all Indian safety regulations
Comes with an 18-month warranty or 24,000 km (whichever is earlier)
Will be offered in three versions: Base variant, CX version (with heating and air condition) and LX version (front power windows, fog lamps).

Booking features:

– Booking starts at Rs 3,000
– Along with the booking form, customers will also get gift vouchers
– State Bank of India is exclusive partner, booking in 850 cities with SBIs 1300 branches
– Westside and Croma stores will sell forms and accept booking forms
– First 1 lakh Nano allotments will be randomly selected, Rs 1 lakh price tag will be protected
– Financing for Tata Nano available at 8.5% per annum for first year

Pros & Cons of Latest 3rd Generation IPod shuffle

Pros & Cons of Latest 3rd Generation IPod shuffle

Pros
* Supports multiple playlists
* Can navigate thanks to Voiceover controls
* Supports Apple Lossless files
* Higher-capacity
* Good sound and volume.

Cons

* No controls on iPod
* Navigation more difficult than in the past
* Battery charge poorer than in the past
* Tiny switch on top of iPod difficult to manage with adult fingers
* Must pay for adapter or compatible headphones if unhappy   with included headphones.
* Lack of controls on the iPod—is more difficult to use
* Controversial control makes the ipod shuffle more clumsy.   Pressing to traipse through multiple items in a playlist is clumsy. Not only is it likely some users will forget which combination of presses transports them from place to place. I suspect a lot of 3G iPod shuffle owners will forgo all this button pushing.

BSNL launches 3G mobile service In India

BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) has rolled out the third generation mobile services in Chennai. The nation-wide launch of 3G mobile service in Chennai that permits various upgraded services, comprising rich voice, data and video services, to the subscribers

The state-run telecom Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is all set to roll its 3G operations in 700 cities across north and east India by June and in the south by July.

The company plan to cover over 700 cities in the next three months and the net outflow towards launching this service will be around Rs 2,700-crore.
Presently, BSNL has 42-million mobile subscribers, which it wants to increase to about 60-million in the country by March 2010.
Mr. M. Karunanidhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, launched the service with an inaugural call to the Union Minister for Communication and IT, Mr A. Raja.
Apart from this, the company had also come up a new tariff plan named as India-Golden 50′ through which a subscriber would be able to make long distance calls for 50 paise per minute from next month.
Mr. Goyal also said that BSNL is looking at migrating about 5% of its client base of more than 5-crore to 3G around the middle of this year. Infrastructure and handsets would be ready for commercial launch by mid-April
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and Reliance are still waiting for spectrum allocation process to roll out 3G services in india.