Olympic Games 2012: Preparing for a mobile data deluge

This year’s Olympic Games in London have been touted as the most connected in history. 

With an estimated one billion people set to watch the events and millions more expected to log on to keep track of all the action, all aspects of connectivity had to be examined in the lead-up to the event.

But the real difference with London 2012 is the mobile aspect. 

The increase in adoption of smartphones and tablets over the past four years has been enormous, and the number of devices that will be used to access Games coveragehas posed a huge challenge for the organisers.

There is little they could do about the connections of mobile networks around the world but, when it came to the Olympic venues themselves, mobile operators have been hard at work with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to make the experience as seamless as possible for visitors.

A report published today by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) gave us a behind the scenes glimpse of the planning involved.    

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Data traffic of Olympic proportions

Planning began back in 2009 when the UK mobile industry met for a BBC workshop to try to establish what the rise in mobile usage, both for normal phone, text and web activities, and media consumption, during the Olympics would be.

This included a number of areas, such as mobile web usage, visitor numbers, data traffic, new device types – namely smartphones and tablets – and the need to support those running the Games.

Operators even had to consider the queues outside the venues and how much mobile traffic there would be as people waited to enter the park.

They concluded the volume of traffic would be 10 times greater than that at similar venues in 2010.

There was also the problem of customer expectation, as even by 2009 users expected to have their mobile phone working as they saw fit, with customised apps at a low cost. Also, with the number of events going on simultaneously, people attending one event would also want to check what was going on at other events.

Enhancing 3G performance

The mobile companies considered fighting for 4G spectrum, but Ofcom had already allocated the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands to broadcasters, which left 3G to take the brunt of the traffic.

They decided the best answer was to increase the number of cells at traffic hotspots within the Olympic Park. By careful planning of the cells, ensuring there was no overlap, all the channels of 3G could be reused within each cell site, enabling more people to use the spectrum in that area.

Of course, this needed to be tested, so mobile operators chose Twickenham as their experimental ground. Deployment of equipment took place in 2010, so by the time the Six Nations rugby tournament came to the venue in 2011, the operators would be ready to test out their ideas.

To boost capacity by 10 times, the operators decided to increase the existing four cells at the stadium to 40. The capacity of Twickenham meant this equated to 2,000 spectators per cell. This was much larger than what they expected for the Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park, which has room for 17,500 spectators, but on this basis they could establish what the number of cells needed on that site would be.  

Many large deployments of such technology use obstacles, such as buildings – known as clutter – to help define the boundaries of each cell. This is difficult in an open-air stadium, so operators tried instead to use the tiered seating to split the cell areas vertically.

Each sector needed to have the signal boosted to be more dominant over interference and outside signals. Rather than having an overall large antenna, antennas needed to be brought closer to the cells to make the signal more concentrated, making the footprint smaller and reducing interference.

To preserve the dominance there also needed to be a line of sight between the antenna and the mobile device. As such, the operators decided attaching them to the roof seemed the best adoption to avoid any interference from other spectators, chairs, etc.

They discovered, however, that traditional antennas they had hoped to use weakened the definition of the cell boundaries when positioned at this level, which could have a major effect on connectivity.

Instead, the operators got to work on using an innovative antenna specially designed for use in stadia, but not previously deployed on such a major scale. These antennas were flat panels, which prevent roll-off and cover wider sectors without bleeding into others.

Testing was carried out with these antennas on one-quarter of the stadium during a rugby game in 2011, which previously would have only been covered by one cell. This worked well, but was interfered with by the old system they were still running across the rest of Twickenham.

As such, they decided to roll it out fully across the ground, leaving the previous antennas there as back-up.

The trial established that, due the odd shaping of many new stadia, with curves, arches, roofs, etc, and the effect of distance on the antennas, only 30 cells were needed, rather than 40, to give the optimum coverage.

Diving into the Games

Once this had been established and deployed, the operators were pleased with the results and were ready to look at transferring this to venues for the Olympic Games. However, although this trial was a success, it was understood that there was no-one-size-fits-all possibility, as each venue varies in size and shape.

Also the temporary nature of the infrastructure needed to be considered, because as with the seating, it will be removed after the games.

The focus the organisations decided on was the Aquatics Centre. The swimming pool itself caused some difficulty, as there was the opportunity for cells and antennas to interfere with one another due to the lack of clutter, as well as external interference as a lot of cellular infrastructure was being deployed externally.

During the planning phase, a 3D model of the centre – both a computerised version and a wire model – was created to help predict what the issues would be.

However, this enabled them to take the lessons from Twickenham and test them out, working out exactly where to deploy the new cells and antennas, and optimise the equipment for the best signal possible.

With the Olympics in full swing, and swimming one of the major focuses, it will quickly become clear whether all the careful planning has paid off.

Valuable lessons

The key learnings that the mobile operators and the Olympic Delivery Authority took away from the long planning process were to establish what amount of coverage was needed, be aware of the geometry of the building you are trying to deploy antennas and cells in, and to focus on high signal dominance through a joined-up approach with external operators to make sure coverage doesn’t clash.

Overall, the importance of a trial and everyone working together to achieve the final outcome was the most valuable of lessons.

Hackers steal personal details of 8.7 million mobile subscribers

Hackers have accessed the personal details of 8.7 million mobile phone subscribers to South Korea's second largest telecommunications company.

Police have arrested two people for allegedly hacking into the network system of KT Corporation, formerly Korea Teleco, and selling the data.

The suspects are believed to have stolen the personal information of more than half of KT's 16 million subscribers since February, according to local reports.

South Korea's National Police Agency's cyber terror response team said seven others were charged with buying the leaked data for telemarketing purposes.

Police suspect the telemarketers used the data to contact customers whose contracts were close to expiration or were considered likely to change mobile phone plans.

"It took nearly seven months to develop the hacking program and (the suspects) had very sophisticated hacking skills," an official at the cyber response team is quoted as saying.

KT has apologised for the data breach, saying it has taken steps to prevent further leakage.

"In light of this incident, we will strengthen the internal security system and raise awareness of security among all employees to prevent causing inconvenience to customers," the company said.

Highlighting the reputational damage caused by data breaches, market commentators have said angry subscribers may mount a class action lawsuit against the company.

The KT data breach comes a year after a spate of hacking attacks which targeted South Korean government departments, financial firms and a social networking site and web services portal run by SK Telecom.

In the worst breach in South Korea to date, hackers accessed 35 million user accounts in the attack on SK Telecom, which has links to the state monopoly phone company, Korea Telecom.

The breach was revealed by the Korean Communications Commission, which claimed to have traced the source of the incursion back to computer IP addresses based in China.

Vodafone appoints new CEO of Cable & Wireless Worldwide

Vodafone today announced a new CEO for Cable & Wireless Worldwide (C&WW) following its acquisition of the global telecoms giant.

Nick Jeffrey, who began his career back in 1991 at C&WW, will take on the role with immediate effect, leaving his current post as the head of Vodafone’s global enterprise business.

His replacement will be the enterprise business unit director of Vodafone Germany, Jan Geldmacher, who will also begin his new job straight away.

Jeffrey will work with Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence to integrate both C&WW’s commercial and back office operations into the Vodafone group, while the acquired company’s network and technology assets will be taken over by Vodafone CTO Steve Pusey.

This will leave C&WW’s CEO, Gavin Darby, out of a job, but he will work with Jeffrey to help the transfer of power until October.

The sell-off of the firm will also see its CFO, Ian Gibson, acting CTO, Dave Broady, and acting human resources (HR) director, Jane Little, move on, to be replaced by Vodafone Turkey’s CFO Diego Galli as finance director, Vodafone network services unit director John Thompson as technology director, and Vodafone Netherlands’ HR director Francesco Bianco as C&WW’s HR director.

Mark Allison, currently head of the Vodafone global enterprise commercial team, will take on the job of integration director. Again, all these roles will begin with immediate effect.

“Nick [Jeffrey] is an excellent leader with a deep understanding of enterprise customers' needs, a track record in value creation and familiarity with C&WW's business,” said Vittorio Colao, CEO of the Vodafone group. “Similarly, with his strong background in multinational client leadership, Jan [Geldmacher] will be well-placed to succeed Nick as CEO of Vodafone Global Enterprise.”

Vodafone bought C&WW in April this year for £1.04bn. India’s Tata Communications was though to be the front runner, but it dropped out of the bid just a week before the deal was finalised.

Networking the least understood element of IT, says HPNetworking the least understood element of IT, says HP

Networking the least understood element of IT, says HP

A strong network may be the main stay of cloud computing, but its complexity has left it out in the cold when it comes to development.

This was the belief of Nick Watson, vice-president of networking in EMEA for HP, who said that, while servers and storage have transformed over recent years and adoption rates have been high, networking has remained at the back of the queue for attention during the cloud era.

“The reason is networking has always been the least understood element of IT,” he told Computer Weekly. 

“It has been an impediment for 30 years, leaving people thinking the network wasn’t significant and, in turn, making it lagging behind.”

“I absolutely believe the network should be considered the fundamental building block for cloud computing, as it cannot be just down to the datacentre. With the need for access wherever you are and the increasing trend of bringing your own device to work, the network has to be looked at as a priority.”

Watson himself has a long history in networking. Before starting at HP last May, he worked for 15 years at Cisco, in the global enterprise market and running the channel business in the UK.

watson said he moved to HP – which touts its “converged infrastructure” model, bringing together storage, servers and networking under one umbrella – because it offered exactly what his customers at Cisco had been asking for.

“I kept being asked by customers to simplify things, as it was becoming increasingly difficult with networking,” said Watson. 

“They wanted vendors building a single unit, something they were willing to stand behind, as everything at the back-end was converging. HP was a great bet.”

Cisco is going down this route, investing into its own server and storage products as part of its Unified Computing System (UCS) portfolio. However, Watson felt the company didn’t have the best range and was still fundamentally a networking company.

“HP is an IT company and has all the different elements needed for IT solutions,” Watson said. “Other silos, for want of a better word, were biased to one technology area, even if they were providing other technologies too.”

“What I was hearing from customers is they wanted to integrate their infrastructure and HP has the ingredients and the maturity to do this.”

The difficulty is Cisco is known as a networking company, whereas HP has a different reputation altogether.

“Part of the attraction was the opportunity to build up the networking business, as previously it had been relatively small, focusing on Procurve in the SMB space,” claimed Watson. 

“HP found the missing ingredient when it acquired 3COM. Many in the industry agreed it had lost its way, with large companies reticent in investing. The technology was still there but it did not have the financial backing or the go-to-market strategy. 

"Now we have found the key.”

Watson admitted prospective customers had a moment of disbelief when HP approached them about its networking portfolio. But he said that, by giving them the chance to prove the concept with its kit and see evidence of its performance, it was beginning to win users over.

Watson said he knew it would be a slow process, as no-one was interested in ripping and replacing network infrastructure.

“People can’t suddenly throw a network out,” said Watson. “Everyone has to take time to migrate from what they have to what they want to have. 

"Apps, including video, we have begun to take for granted, but something like Microsoft Lync will entirely change the environment and the network has to be able to work with that. You can’t do all that in one go.”

“Most networks evolve and are not designed from the ground up,” he added. 

“When they are continually added to, they are infrequently looked at from a lifecycle management perspective. When you set up a network, legacy errors occur and as a result people are reluctant to change the network.”

Watson has his work cut out for him, not only to build up the interest and reputation of networking, but to prove HP can cut it with the big guns in the industry.

“For 10 years there was no other option and the solid bet was Cisco,” said Watson.

“Now we are running proof of concepts to go beyond the PowerPoint and prove these solutions work for them.”

 

The technology behind the BBC's Olympics coverage:

The Olympic Games on home soil will be the final instalment of the most operationally challenging period in the BBC’s history, and the broadcaster’s chief technology officer (CTO) John Linwood told Computer Weekly’s CW500 Club about the “terrifying” challenge of providing live coverage of all events at the Olympics, thinking the unthinkable and balancing this with his day job as a corporate IT chief.

The BBC has this year faced several major challenges, from broadcasting the Diamond Jubilee and the European football championships not to mention the Proms, and live music festival the Hackney Weekend, all while moving large chunks of its operation from London to Manchester, and into its newly expanded Broadcasting House location. “This year has been the biggest operational challenge we have had,” says Linwood.

For example, the corporation is running 24 live high-definition (HD) TV channels ensuring that every second of the London Olympics can be watched live or recorded from multiple devices.

While his day job of running IT at the BBC goes on with things like bring your own device schemes and upgrading Microsoft Exchange being planned, it is the fact that the London 2012 Olympics is set to be the most digital and technology enabled event in history, with all sports available for viewing from multiple devices, that keeps him awake at night.

“This is the biggest digitised event ever and has been terrifying me for years,” says Linwood. “The terrifying thing for us is the fact that everybody will be watching this during the day on lots of different devices.”

The COSMOS Supercomputer

The COSMOS Supercomputer


Stephen Hawking has launched the most powerful shared-memory supercomputer in Europe, the COSMOS supercomputer, manufactured by SGI and the first system of its kind. Hawking says will open up new windows on the universe.
"Hacking the Universe"--Stephen Hawking Launches the Cosmos Supercomputer

Stephen Hawking has launched the most powerful shared-memory supercomputer in Europe, the COSMOS supercomputer, manufactured by SGI and the first system of its kind. Hawking says will open up new windows on the universe.


During the launch, which is part of the Numerical Cosmology 2012 workshop at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Hawking said, “We have made spectacular advances in cosmology and particle physics recently.” “Cosmology is now a precision science, so we need machines like COSMOS to reach out and touch the real universe, to investigate whether our mathematical models are correct."
The COSMOS supercomputer is part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council DiRAC High Performance Computing facility, a national service for UK cosmologists, astronomers and particle physicists, as well as non-academic users.


Hawking added, “I hope that we will soon find an ultimate theory which, in principle, would enable us to predict everything in the universe.” “However, participants at this workshop will be pleased to learn that this will not end our quest for a complete understanding,” he said. “Even if we do find the ultimate theory, we will still need supercomputers to describe how something as big and complex as the universe evolves, let alone why humans behave the way they do.”


The COSMOS consortium’s current programme of research aims to advance understanding of the origin the universe, primarily through the exploitation of the cosmic microwave sky.

Siemens issues software fix to protect against Stuxnet:

German engineering firm Siemens has issued a fix for the software vulnerabilities in its programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that were exploited by Stuxnet.

The computer worm was discovered in 2010 when it caused malfunctions at industrial plants and factories using Siemens equipment and PLCs.

Iran's nuclear enrichment plants were the supposed target of Stuxnet, which was found in the control systems for several of the country's nuclear facilities, including a nuclear facility at Natanz.

The effectiveness of the Siemens security updates, issued two years later, may never be proven, however, because Stuxnet had a "kill date" of 24 June 2012.

This means the worm has now stopped spreading, said F-Secure's chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, in a blog post. “But that has little significance, as the operation had already been active for years and reached most of its targets by 2010," he wrote.  

The software update from Siemens comes as reports circulate of a fresh cyber attack on an Iranian nuclear enrichment project, according to the BBC.

F-Secure reported that it received an e-mail believed to have been sent by a scientist at Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, claiming that two of its plants had been hit by another cyber attack.

Hypponen said F-Secure had not been able to confirm any of the details in the message. However, he did confirm that the message had come from within Iran's Atomic Energy agency.             

The message said: "I am writing to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm, with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility, Fordo near Qom.

"According to the e-mail our cyber experts sent to our teams, they believe a hacker tool Metasploit was used. The hackers had access to our VPN. The automation network and Siemens hardware were attacked and shut down. I only know very little about these cyber issues as I am scientist, not a computer expert."

On 23 July, Iran issued a statement saying it had successfully "confronted" sophisticated malware and thwarted all the cyber attacks against the nation's infrastructure.

In June, security researchers reported that there was evidence that the creators of the Flame and Stuxnet malware cooperated at least once during the early stages of development.

Juniper and Riverbed enter technology partnership:

Juniper Networks and Riverbed Technologies are partnering to utilise their network and application capabilities.  

The two firms announced the tie-up claiming the application and the network were converging. They said there was a need for next-generation systems capable of giving the performance, scale and security that both layers require.

“This multi-faceted partnership will allow us to expand our addressable markets by providing customers with integrated solutions that increase the efficiency of their IT infrastructure,” said Eric Wolford, executive vice-president and general manager of the products group at Riverbed.

“We'll work closely with Juniper to bring solutions to market that impact the performance of the entire enterprise and close the gap between data and the geographically dispersed people accessing that data from all around the world on various platforms.”

The first part of the deal will see Juniper pay $75m to licence Riverbed's application delivery controller (ADC), enabling it to build it into its existing network products and create new solutions using the technology.

Next, the two companies will work together on integrating Riverbed's Steelhead technology into the Juniper Networks' Junos Pulse client software.

Riverbed's Steelhead software gives employees access to corporate files and apps through mobile devices. Juniper Networks, Junos Pulse client software manages networks through mobile devices to deliver a single system on mobiles or tablets.

Finally the firms will develop wide area network (WAN) optimisation and application acceleration products in the hope its two teams will create superior solutions to the individual ones on the market.

"We are excited to partner with Riverbed to bring innovative, ground-breaking technologies to our enterprise customers,” added Bob Muglia, executive vice-president of software solutions at Juniper.

“Riverbed's application acceleration and WAN optimisation solutions will complement our strategic focus on delivering high-performance networking infrastructure and further enhance our position in both datacentre and consumer and business device domains. Our joint efforts with Riverbed will enable us to push the future of application networking." 

The partnership was announced on the same day as Juniper’s second quarter results for 2012, which showed the company needed new ways of making money. Revenue was down 4% year-on-year to $1.04bn and net income per share dropped dramatically by 39% to $0.19.

Juniper claimed customers were keen on its products, but the current economic climate meant they were cautious about investment priorities and the timing of their project deployments.

Security issues hit Apple as new OS X released

Researchers have confirmed the existence of new Mac malware just hours before the release of Mountain Lion, the latest version of Apple's OS X operating system.

Within hours, researchers at security company Sophos also confirmed an iOS app in Apple's App Store was found to contain malicious Windows executable files.

The iOS malware was initially found by a user of the Apple Support Communities discussion board who downloaded an app called "Instaquotes – Quotes Cards For Instagram" from iTunes, but his antivirus software alerted him that it contained a worm, identified as Win32/VB.CB by Microsoft.

"Initially thought to be a false positive, it turned out that there was Windows malware embedded inside the app," wrote researcher Joshua Long in a Sophos blog post.

He said it was likely the infection was caused accidentally by an infected developer's computer. Because the malware cannot run on a Windows PC without first being extracted from the iOS application package, it is unlikely to have caused any damage to users' systems. Apple withdrew the app from the Apple App store. 

"Perhaps what's most disappointing about the discovery of Windows malware inside an iOS app is that Apple doesn't seem to have conducted a simple virus scan as part of its app vetting process," Long wrote.

"Just extracting all files from the package, and scanning them with anti-virus software, would have prevented the Windows malware from getting into the iOS App Store in the first place."

Earlier, Sophos researchers announced that the Morcut Mac OS X malware, also known as "Crisis", had been distributed as part of a multi-platform attack, designed to hit  Windows and Mac users.

After analysing a sample of the Morcut malware, researches said it was embedded in an archive file that appeared to be Adobe Flash Player.

According to Sophos, the threat, which has not yet been seen in the wild, is complex.

When run on an OS X system, it drops multiple components, reconfigures system settings and installs a backdoor and rootkit combination that connects to a remote server and waits for instructions from malicious hackers.

When run on Windows systems, a version of the Swizzor malware is installed instead.

"Analysis of this malware is ongoing, but Mac users are protected right now if they are running a good, up-to-date antivirus," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

"The good news is that this threat has not been seen in the wild so far, but we are seeing increasing evidence of cyber criminals exploiting the fact that many Mac users have still not got the message that they need to protect their computers.

"There is much less malware for Macs than there is for Windows, but that doesn't mean it's non-existent. If Mac users are too laid back about security and leave their bellies exposed, they're asking for trouble," said Cluley.

SophosLabs experts are continuing to analyse the Morcut malware and warn that, even if the threat does not break into the wild, the techniques it uses could be deployed by other malicious hackers in the future.

Facebook on the hunt for London-based engineering team

Facebook on the hunt for London-based engineering team

Facebook is on the hunt for 22 new recruits to make up its new London-based engineering team. 

Based in Covent Garden, the Facebook team is to focus on key areas such as mobile and platform.

The team will be led by software engineer Philip Su and has so far advertised for 22 jobs including positions in sales, monetisation, developer relations, software engineering, datacentre design and operations, platform product marketing, recruitment and growth, engagement and mobile.

Philip Su, who recently relocated to London, made the job hunt announcement via a note on Facebook’s engineering page. 

Explaining why Facebook had chosen London as its first engineering centre outside the US Su said: “London is a perfect fit for Facebook engineering — it’s a global hub, and it has a vibrant local startup community with lots of great technical talent. 

"Our team in London will start small, focusing on building a core of great engineers, and then grow over time and eventually focus on building products in key areas like mobile and platform."

"We are a culture of builders, and the environment we plan to create in London will reflect that. Despite the size of our service — 900 million users and growing — we still push new code to the site every day. 

"We eliminate unnecessary process and give all our engineers the opportunity to work on the things that matter most. 

"Our engineers in London — like those in Menlo Park, New York, and Seattle — will be able to pursue great ideas and ship products quickly.”

The social networking giant’s international expansion comes at a time when its member growth in the US has slowed to 0.86% compared to nearly 66% for Japan, 54% for Brazil and 20% for India, according to a report from site monitor Pingdom.

Facebook’s London Team, which "builds awesome stuff fast" according to their Facebook page, receive perks such as paid leave for new parents, free meals and snack and gym membership.

Facebook is set to present its first results as a public company this week.

Cisco loses 1,300 jobs in another round of cost-cutting

Cisco Systems is to cut around 1,300 jobs or 2% of its workforce in continued efforts to cut costs and streamline decision making.

The company said in a statement: "We routinely review our business to determine where we need to align investment based on growth opportunities.

"Additionally, we continue to evaluate our organisational structure as part of our plan to drive simplicity, speed of decisions and agility across Cisco."

This is the second round of job cuts by the networking firm in as many years. In 2011,Cisco cut around 6,500 jobs or 9% of its workforce to help trim $1bn in annual costs and boost profit.  

Earlier in 2011, Cisco announced plans for a company shake-up to refocus on its core markets in routers and switching, collaboration, datacentre virtualisation and video.

Shortly after, the company closed down its Flip video camera business, confirming that its consumer division was a top target in the planned company revamp.

The company has been under pressure for several years, owing to the worldwide economic slowdown and pricing pressure on networking gear, according to the New York Times.

However, Cisco remains a large company, with both technical capabilities and a highly aggressive sales force, the paper said.

In April, Cisco announced it was financing, with $100m, its own networking start-up, called Inseimi.

Industry commentators said the investment was aimed at giving more relevance to Cisco gear in the world of virtualised networks.

Samsung Galaxy S III: 10 Million Sold

Samsung Galaxy S III: 10 Million Sold


Samsung reached its 10 million unit sales goal for the Galaxy S III smartphone more than a week early, an executive says.

Samsung predicted that it would sell 10 million Galaxy S III smartphones by the end of July, and it appears that it has already met this goal. Speaking to the Yonhap News Agency, Samsung's mobile chief J.K. Shin said, "It appears that (accumulated sales) has exceeded 10 million units."


What's not clear is if Shin meant sales to end users or shipments to retailers.


The Galaxy S III went on sale across Europe in late May. It reached some U.S. carriers in late June and others in early July. None of the individual carriers has offered any information about sales of the device. In the United States, some wireless network operators are prone to making grandiose 


announcements when devices have a particularly strong opening weekend. So far, there have been no such announcements.


Though the distinction between devices shipped versus devices sold is an important one, even if Samsung has only shipped 10 million devices, it won't be long before they are sold. In 2010, Samsung sold 20 million Galaxy S smartphones, and in 2011, it sold 30 million Galaxy S II smartphones. 


Surely the Galaxy S III will surpass both phones by a significant margin.

The Galaxy S III is one of the strongest devices to reach the market this year. Not only does it boast one of the most impressive spec sheets, its performance is unrivaled when compared to other Android smartphone the market.

In the U.S., the device is available from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless. The GS3 comes in white, blue, and red (AT&T exclusive), and costs $199 for the 16-GB version and $249 for the 32-GB version.

The GS3's main competition, the Apple iPhone 4S, is nearly 10 months old. It is also sold for $199 for the 16-GB model, but the 32-GB iPhone 4S costs $299, giving Samsung a bit of a price advantage for the higher capacity version.

Beyond the pricing, the GS3's 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display is significantly larger than the iPhone 4S's 3.5-inch display. Apple is expected to increase the size of the iPhone's display with the next-generation model, but reports point to a modest increase, to just 4 inches across the diagonal.

However, the GS3 will have about a four-month lead on the iPhone 5 by the time it reaches the market. Apple is due to report its second-quarter earnings this week, and expectations for the iPhone are dampened as analysts see slackening demand ahead of the iPhone 5's arrival.

Amazon to open London development centre

Amazon to open London development centre

Amazon today announced a new hub in central London to focus on the development of digital media products.

The eight-floor workplace in Glasshouse Yard, near Barbican and close to Silicon Roundabout, will house the design and development teams from LoveFilm and Pushbutton –both owned by Amazon – along with software development engineers, graphic designers and user interface (UI) professionals.

Although specific projects have not been named by Amazon, the company revealed the areas it would be working on, which include creating interactive digital services for TVs, games consoles, smartphones and PCs, further development for digital media on its website, and surrounding that with services and application programming interfaces (APIs) for the new inventions.

There will also be room to extend on existing products, such as LoveFilm streaming services.

The announcement was welcomed by London mayor Boris Johnson, who called it a “splendid feather in our cap” for London’s growing technology sector.

“We know we have the talent, the space and infrastructure to make the most of the digital economy,” he added. “Amazon's investment propels us well up the league table of global tech cities and we thank it for its vote of confidence.”  

The centre will open in the coming months, and the new managing director, Paula Byrne, claimed London was an obvious location choice.

“London is a hotbed of tech talent, and testament to that fact is Amazon choosing the capital as the location for its new global digital media development centre,” she said.

“Innovation is part of the Amazon DNA, and we are creating a British centre of excellence to design and develop the next generation of TV and film services for a wide range of digital devices,” added Byrne.

Amazon's UK headquarters will remain in Slough, with an additional London office on Newman Street in the West End.

Nokia considers exclusive partnerships with European operators

Nokia is planning to offer its Windows Phone 8 handsets through exclusive partnerships with European operators, according to reports.

The Financial Times cited a person familiar with the negotiations claiming the Finnish firm was in conversations with major operators, including France Telecom – parent company of UK operator Orange – to organise exclusive deals similar to the Apple iPhone launch back in 2007.

Then, Apple chose O2 as its exclusive partner in the UK, meaning customers could only get their hands on the device from that mobile operator.   

If it does the deal with France Telecom, the source also suggested it could work its way over to the UK as part of Everything Everywhere, the joint venture with T-Mobile.

Nokia has avoided such arrangements in the past, favouring a wider market strategy to offer its handsets through as many channels as possible. However, when it tried the tactic in the US, tying up with the operator AT&T, it seemed to pay off with better sales and interest from the market.

With another round of disappointing results last week, showing drops in smartphones sales of 38% to 10.2 million, it would be understandable if Nokia was keen to try this marketing technique to bolster its profits in Europe.

We contacted Nokia for confirmation on the discussions, but it had not returned our request at the time of publication.

The manufacturer is pinning a lot of its hopes on the upcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system from Microsoft, hoping to ride the wave of advertising and hype created when the software giants launches all of its Windows 8 products in October.

However, Microsoft will be making the mobile operating system available to other manufacturers and, despite Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop touting the close relationship the two firms have, it will be looking to make as much money from Windows Phone 8 from as many firms as possible without having a focus purely on Nokia.

The handsets are expected to launch shortly after the Windows 8 release date of 26 October 2012. 

Google results: $774m spent on IT, with more to come

Google has reported  a 10% increase in net income in the second quarter of 2012, reaching $2.79bn, compared to $2.51bn in the same period last year.

Revenue from the UK was  $1.18bn, representing 11% of Google sales. Total revenue was $12.21bn, up 35% year on year, including recent acquisitions. Advertising and other revenues grew 21% to $10.96bn. 

During the quarter the company spent $774m on IT infrastructure investments, including datacentres, servers, and networking equipment.

The company also completed the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, launched Google Drive and Google Maps Coordinate, as well as the ability to edit Google Apps documents off-line.

“Google standalone had a strong quarter with 21% year-on-year revenue growth, and we launched a bunch of exciting new products – in particular the Nexus 7 tablet, which has received rave reviews,” said CEO Larry Page.

The operating loss for Motorola was $233m - made up from $192m for the mobile segment and $41m for the home segment - equivalent to 19% of Motorola revenues in the second quarter of 2012.

CFO Patrick Pichette noted, “We can expect Motorola to continue to show some accounting variability, as is typical with the closing of such large transactions.”

In a transcript of the earnings call, Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president, advertising at Google, said the company was also improving its voice search capability: “Now with the Jelly Bean release [of the Android smartphone operating system], we have the ability not only to ask a question, but also to have the answers given back to you.”

Outsourcing in the UK slows down in early 2012

Outsourcing in the UK has slowed considerably in the first three months of 2012 with the total value of contracts signed falling well below both the same period last year and the average for the last five years.

The latest figures from Information Services Group’s (ISG) TPI index revealed that the total value of outsourcing contracts in the UK was €2.5bn, compared to €3.5bn for the same period last year and an average of €3bn over five years.

A total of 29 outsourcing contracts worth more than €20m were signed in the UK during the quarter, compared to 38 in the previous quarter and 42 in the same period last year.

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region as a whole, total contract value dropped 32% in the quarter compared to a year ago to €6.9bn. A total of 79 contracts were awarded in the first quarter which was a decline of 37% on last year.

ISG said a similar slowdown was seen in early 2006 and early 2010.  “In EMEA, this ‘hangover effect’ during the first quarter of 2012 was compounded by the uncertainty caused by ongoing Eurozone financial concerns," said Duncan Aitchison, president of ISG North Europe.

Microsoft reports first loss since 1986

Microsoft reports first loss since 1986

Microsoft reported its first operating loss since the company went public, during its results call last night.

The software giant made some revenue gains in the fourth quarter of 2012, rising 4% year-on-year to $18.06bn, but it also reported an operating loss of $492m, equivalent to $0.06 per share.

The main culprit for the loss was online advertising service aQuantive. Microsoft bought the firm back in 2007 for $6.3bn in an attempt to compete against Google’s massive advertising revenues, but the acquisition never paid off and the company suffered a write-down of almost $6.2bn for the impairment of goodwill – touting the business as more profitable than it was.

On top of this, Microsoft also had to defer $540m of revenue related to an upgrade offer on its Windows operating system (OS), again leaving it out of pocket.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, did not want to dwell on the figures showing the first loss for the company in 26 years, but wanted to reassure investors the launch of Windows 8 in October would put the firm back on track.

“We’re fast approaching the most exciting launch season in Microsoft history,” he said. “Over the coming year, we’ll release the next versions of Windows, Office, Windows Server, Windows Phone, and many other products and services that will drive our business forward and provide unprecedented opportunity to our customers and partners.”

Peter Klein, chief financial officer (CFO) at Microsoft, added: “We are focusing our resources in strategic areas that will deliver shareholder value and long-term growth opportunities.”

Although the Windows and Windows Live divisions suffered, other areas within Microsoft shone during the quarter. The server and tools business grew by 13%, due to more sales of its SQL Server and System Center products.

“Our enterprise business is firing on all cylinders and we couldn’t be more excited about the wave of innovation and new releases that position us well for the coming years,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer (COO) at Microsoft.

Google Android OS Trojan virus hits 100K devices in China

Trojan malware has hit 100,000 devices using the Google Android operating system (OS) in China, say security researchers.

The Trojan, dubbed MMarketPay.A, is designed to purchase apps and content without the consent of the device user, running up high mobile bills.

Researchers from security firm TrustGo said 10 China-based Android marketplaces have so far been infected with the Trojan, which can be hidden in applications which appear legitimate.

Code analysis reveals the MMarketPay.A Trojan can bypass SMS and CAPTCHA-based verification techniques used by some Android app market places.

The main source of Android-specific malware is the cloning, repackaging and modification of popular apps with intentionally malicious code, the TrustGo researchers said.

“The ease and speed that malicious apps can be developed and distributed to unsuspecting users is one of the fastest growing security concerns,” said Xuyang Li, CEO of TrustGo.

The security firm advises uses of Android devices to download and install a mobile security app with real-time scanning capability before downloading or updating popular apps.

According to TrustGo, most mobile malware is currently found in applications that originate from and attack third-party markets in China and Russia.

However, security industry representatives say there has been a marked increase in Android malware around the world as the Google OS has grown in popularity.

As recently as last week, researchers reported evidence that Google Android OS smartphones are being hijacked by a botnet that sends spam to contacts stolen from targeted mobile devices.

"Android is where the action is," said Cesare Garlati, vice-president of mobile security at security firm Trend Micro.

Android will be the most exploited mobile platform in 2012, he told attendees of a regional interest group meeting of the European association for e-identity and security in Slough.

Although the latest version of Android has introduced improved security, such as enabling encryption, there is still no firewall capability and 90% Google Play downloads are to devices running earlier, less secure versions of Android, Cesare Garlati said.

Tech firm iCity wins datacentre bid for Olympics media centre

IT company iCity has been selected as preferred bidder to turn the Olympics media centre into a datacentre.

The company had been tipped to win the bid to transform the £350m Olympics media centre into a datacentre after the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Under the bid it will host a datacentre, media studios, university facilities, a digital academy and a new business incubator. ICity claims a total of 6,600 jobs will be indirectly created as a result of the deal.

The 31,000m2 building already has 1,300 internet ports and 600km of fibre optic and copper cabling. ICity said it will double the government’s existing infrastructure investment.

Gavin Poole, CEO of iCity, said the win would help support the UK’s tech start-ups.

“ICity will provide a sustainable legacy for the local community through the creation of thousands of jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities," said Poole. 

"The incredible track record of start-ups and entrepreneurs in East London is growing at an impressive rate, and this is a chance to provide additional connectivity, capacity, investment and highly advanced infrastructure.

Rogue Apple server corrupts Angry Birds Space and other apps

Apple has blamed a rogue App Store server for making more than 100 apps unusable, including Angry Birds Space, after iPhone and iPad users updated them.

According to Apple, the server wrongly included a digital rights management (DRM) code, which made it impossible to open them. But the company said the problem had been fixed.

Apple normally uses DRM to ensure that apps work only for users who have paid for them or are authorised to use them, according to the Telegraph.

The problem was discovered by Marco Arment, who developed Instapaper, an app for aggregating and displaying online articles.

He compiled a list of more than 100 other apps affected by the server problem, including Angry Birds Space, Word Lens and Yahoo! Search.

Arment led calls on Apple by app developers to acknowledge and fix the problem as soon as possible.

Apple said if any newly downloaded apps had been affected, users should download them again from the App Store.

Microsoft confirms Windows 8 OS release in October

Microsoft has confirmed its Windows 8 operating system (OS) will launch in October.

The announcement was made at the company’s worldwide partner conference by Windows CFO Tami RellerReller also confirmed the RTM version of the OS would be ready for August.

For those looking to buy a PC or laptop running the current Windows 7 OS, Reller confirmed they would be able to update to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said the OS was a key part of what he called the most important year for Microsoft, beating even the founding of the company or the launch of the PC.

“This year is really unparalleled,” Ballmer said. “The core of Microsoft is reinventing itself for the modern era. It will be the best year ever.”

The launch date also revealed when the first Microsoft Surface tablet will hit the shelves, as the ARM-based model is set to be released at the same time Windows 8 goes to market.

However, Ballmer didn’t make any huge predictions for tablet sales, claiming that, of the 375 million PCs he expected to ship with the latest OS, only “a few million” copies would be running on the portable devices.

Focus has now turned to the Office announcement due tonight, which is likely to be an updated version of the productivity suite.

Will Microsoft turn things around for Nokia?

A 19% drop in sales, a 39% fall in smartphone shipments and just four million Lumia devices shipped – compare with Apple, which sold 35 million iPhones in its last quarter – left the company’s CFO admitting the performance was “not acceptable.But CEO Stephen Elop has taken a forward-looking approach to the figures, still hopeful his former employer, Microsoft, will be the answer to Nokia’s woes.

“We established a preferred position with Microsoft right from the beginning… and we have a very close and very communicative relationship,” he said.

As a follow up to Nokia’s commitment to Windows Phone 7 (WP7), ditching its Symbian platform last year in favour of Microsoft’s software, Elop now believes the release of the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system, and the accompanying Windows 8 tablet and PC versions, will be the ticket to big sales and a resurgence of popularity for the Finnish manufacturer.

The idea is that as customers get excited by the Windows 8 launch, due in October, they will want to spread that experience across all their devices, be it the Xbox or laptop at home, to their smartphone on the move.

“Windows Phone 8 will become familiar to people because of Microsoft's huge advertising campaign,” said Elop. “It will have a halo effect for Nokia.”

Carolina Milanese, research vice president at analyst firm Gartner, agreed it could have the desired effect.

“The roll out of Windows 8 on tablets and PCs will certainly help raise awareness of Metro [the user interface used by Windows Phone and Windows 8] among consumers and the marketing push on Windows 8 will rub off on Windows Phone 8, both in awareness with consumers and appeal to developers,” she said.

“Right now Nokia has to be focused. Working with Microsoft gives them financial support on platform evolution and marketing.”

But Nokia has misplaced its faith in Microsoft before. The dedication to WP7 hasn’t yet led to the third ecosystem both companies were planning on in the mobile market, to take on the might of Apple and Android. Instead it has been a costly investment that has far from paid off, with relatively limited interest from consumers.  

When Elop took charge of Nokia in 2010, the company sold 28 million smartphones and was the largest phone manufacturer in the world, based on device shipments. But smartphone sales have fallen by almost two-thirds since the commitment to Windows Phone and Samsung is now topping the table as the highest-selling phone maker.

As Milanesi said, the added marketing dollars and focus that Microsoft will bring the company will be a massive boost while it tries to make savings internally – including 10,000 job cuts and the closure of both an R&D centre and a factory in Finland. But Microsoft will be thinking about number one, and with the launch of Surface, its own hardware for the tablet version of Windows 8, and the desire to get the operating system on as many laptops and PCs as possible, Nokia will not be its top priority.

Also, Nokia won’t be the only manufacturer creating handsets running Windows Phone software. Even with its special relationship with Microsoft, the likes of HTC and other manufacturers will be just as important in making sales and spreading the word of Windows 8 as Nokia, as well as receiving the boost from Microsoft’s marketing.

One of the few glimmers in Nokia’s results was its steady feature-phone business, which grew 2% year on year and shipped 73.52 million devices and, while having much lower margins than high-end smartphones, still keeps the high shipment volumes Nokia will need to keep its head above water.

As smartphone prices come down and emerging markets look to bigger, brighter handsets, feature phones may start to dwindle. But, while the market is still there, should this not be something to invest heavily in, rather than throwing money at high-end iPhone competitors that rarely win the battle? Or maybe the focus should be on Nokia's low-end smartphones and making them a competitive alternative to feature phones?

Elop should beware of putting all his eggs in the Microsoft basket. It may pay off in the end but it is a risk Nokia might not be capable of taking if they want to see many more second quarters.

Garmin S3 GPS Watch

Garmin S3 GPS Watch..!!

New Touchscreen GPS Golf Watch..
The Garmin Approach S3 is the first touchscreen Golf GPS that takes on the characteristics of a watch. It offers a new high-resolution touchscreen display that is glove-friendly. The S3 has over 27,000 worldwide golf courses preloaded on it, no extra fees or subscriptions needed for updates.
The S3 is no larger than the average sports watch and is loaded with all the features you could want. You can wear it as an everyday watch and use its odometer to see how far you walk each day or on the course. Other features include distance measure, to let you know just how far you hit that drive.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INTEL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INTEL...!!

Intel was founded in Mountain View, California on july 18, 1968 by Gordon E. Moore ( a chemist and physicist), Robert Noyce (a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit), and Arthur Rock (investor and venture capitalist).

Moore and Noyce came from Fairchild Semiconductor and were Intel's first two employees.

The total initial investment in Intel was $2.5 million
convertible debentures and $10,000
from Rock.

Moore and Noyce initially wanted to
name the company "Moore Noyce". The name, however, was a partial homophone for "more noise" – an ill- suited name for an electronic company.

Instead they used the name NM Electronics for almost a year, before deciding to call their company Integrated Electronics or "Intel" for short.

Intel was the first company to come up with a microprocessor chip:the famous Intel 4004.