Satellite for convergence of cellphones, satellite phones launched

A new satellite designed to allow the convergence of cellphones and satellite phones throughout the U.S. was successfully launched Thursday, mobile communications provider TerreStar announced.

Weighing 6,910 kg, TerreStar-1 is the largest commercial satellite ever and was launched by Arianespace from Kourou, French Guiana Tuesday.


The satellite will deliver voice, data and video services to the entire US. Its 20-metre antennae are large enough to beam satellite signals to mobile phones, which TerreStar hopes to launch later this year. The satellite component will allow users to use voice, email and data communications all over the US, even when there is no cellphone coverage.

"With the successful launch of TerreStar-1, we are redefining the mobile communications landscape," said Dennis Matheson, chief technology officer of TerreStar. "We are creating a new paradigm in mobile broadband network services to enable true ubiquity and reliability - anywhere in the United States and Canada."

Agencies

Is Nokia set to cut 1,700 jobs globally?

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, plans to cut 1,700 jobs globally by scaling back sales, marketing and some technology functions to adapt to falling consumer demand.

The company, based in Espoo, Finland, will start consultations with unions regarding the cutbacks, which are part of previously announced plans to adjust to a shrinking market, Nokia said in a statement today. Of the cuts, about 700 will be in Finland, spokeswoman Eija-Riitta Huovinen said by telephone.

“Nokia continues to seek savings in operational expenses, looking at all areas and activities across the company,” Nokia said in the release.

In January, Nokia said that it would slash its dividend for the first time in seven years and forecast a 10 percent slide in industry sales as the global crisis saps consumer demand. Nokia sold 15 percent fewer phones in the fourth quarter than a year earlier and cut its industry sales forecast for a third time since November.

Agencies

New technology that will allow users to talk to web

Giving a new dimension to the internet, the Indian research arm of the US-based IT giant IBM has developed a technology that will allow users to talk to the web and create voice sites using mobile phones.

"People will talk to the web and the web will respond. The research technology is analogous to the internet. Unlike personal computers it will work on mobile phones where people can simply create their voice sites," IBM India Research Laboratory Associate Director Manish Gupta said.

For this technology, IBM has developed a new protocol -- Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol (HSTP) -- which is similar to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

"India now has over 360 million cell phone subscribers. Last month we added 15 million," he said pointing out that the research technology targets ordinary mobile phone users, all of whom may not be literate.

The spoken web is a network of voice sites or interconnected voice and the response the company got in some pilot projects in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and the kind of innovations that people came up with were just mind-boggling, Gupta said.

Agencies

Are Google SMS Search, your best friends?

Now you can get answers to all of this and more through a simple SMS at the price of your regular SMS* across India.

Cricket scores and Astro updates on SMS brought a smile to a lot of us, only until we saw the bill at the end of the month. And this was after we were also trying to remember multiple input methods. After speaking to many users about their 'sms' information woes ,we at Google ,have come up with a newer version of Google SMS Search.

The product has been reincarnated, with a new number and tons of new features. Now you can SMS your query to 9773300000 at the cost of a regular SMS and get instant answers. Launched nationally, this service is available across all operators on both GSM and CDMA mobile phones.

The list of features available on Google SMS search is given below. What we do want to add is that searching on SMS will be MUCH easier NOW. No longer do you need to remember complicated strings to put before your query, you can search as if you are searching on Google web search – we will do all the hard work to understand your query and give you the best results on SMS. Hope you will enjoy the change!

SMS Search features-
1.Cricket Scores:Simply SMS "cri" or "cricket" or "cricket India" to receive latest cricket scores.
2.Indian Railways:Send your PNR number to get latest status of your PNR (confirmed/RAC/current waitlist status). Or send "trains between mumbai to delhi" to know trains and get further details of train schedule.
3.Stock Quotes:SMS "Company name quote" to receive stock quotes from BSE. e.g. "reliance stock".
4.Horoscope:Simply send your sunsign (e.g. Virgo) to receive your day's horoscope
5.Local Business Search:Do local search on SMS (e.g. categories such as "restaurants indira nagar bangalore" or businesses such as "pizza hut koramangala"). This is available across 34 cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkatta, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Noida,Gurgaon, Faridabad, Vadodara, Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Rajkot, Ernakulam, Cochin, Gaziabad, Bhuwneshwar, Aurangabad, Lucknow, Nashik, Indore, Panaji, Bhopal, Agra, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Coimbatore.
6.News:Send "news" or "business news" to receive latest news.
7.Movie Showtimes:Send "movies delhi" or "golmaal returns delhi" and get movie rating and movie showtimes.
8. Flight status: Flight status for Jet, Kingfisher, Indigo & Spicejet. Simply send "9w502", "It 302".
9.Definitions:Send "define " e.g. "define zenith", "define inflation".
10.Weather:e.g. "weather Delhi".
11.Calculator:"1 kilo in pound".
12.Currency Conversion: "5000 inr in usd".
13.Facts:e.g. "GDP of india" or "population of bangalore".

*Normal SMS rates apply and are determined by the service package provided by the mobile operator.

Source: Agencies