Vonage and Nortel settle patent dispute
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet-based calling company Vonage Holdings Corp said it has agreed to settle a patent dispute with Nortel Networks with no payment of damages, sending its share up more than 8 percent.
The settlement would put to rest the last of the major litigation against Vonage after it settled suits brought by AT&T , Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel Corp earlier this year.
“This is the last of them and we’re quite happy to put it behind us,” Vonage spokesman Charles Sahner said.
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£2m to develop i-Snake robot for keyhole surgery
A team of surgeons and engineers have been awarded £2.1m to develop a new generation of sophisticated surgical robots which will allow more complex operations to be carried out using keyhole surgery.
The team, which includes the experts who developed the revolutionary Da Vinci surgical robot that carried out the first robotic transplant operation in Britain, was given the award yesterday by the Wellcome Trust to develop its design, called i-Snake .
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NASA’s new probe to search for ice on Mars in May 2008
NASA’s new probe named Phoenix is all set to touch down on the unexplored north pole of Mars on May 25, 2008, in an attempt to find whether water exists on the Red Planet even today.
Launched in August 2007, Phoenix will land on Mars next year to scratch through the ground cover at the north pole and find what may be a thick layer of water ice beneath the frozen surface.
According to a report in Discovery News, the landing spot of the probe has been carefully selected and timed to coincide with the seasonal spring thaw.
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Sleep chemical eases brain disorders
Feel good while yawning as the brain chemical responsible for inducing sleep plays a key role in easing brain disorders, new findings reveal.
The study shows that adenosine, a brain chemical most widely known as the cause of drowsiness, is central to the effect of deep brain stimulation. The technique is used to treat people affected by Parkinson’s disease, severe tremor, and is also being tested in people who have severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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Gaming finally catching Indian fancy
The year 2007 surely belonged to the Indian gaming industry. Though investments made were larger than the returns, the number of people playing games certainly grew.
For instance, Zapak Digital Entertainment has, within a year of its launch, garnered 150,000 unique visitors and 270,000 total visits a day on its site. Till date, it has 4 million registered user with a total of 100 million page views.
Rohit Sharma, COO, said, “Currently one per cent of our free users are converted to paid customers for both downloadable games and cash games. This kind of percentage is a worldwide standard. However, with the launch of our Zapak Cards and the aggressive retail presence that we have across the country (over 5000 outlets), we expect the figure to rise to 30 per cent.”
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Airtel becomes First to Offer SMS2.0
Airtel, along with Affle, a leading mobile media company that currently operates out of India, Singapore, Thailand, UK, and USA, has launched SMS2.0, touted as the world’s first upgrade to SMS.
With Affle being the inventor of this technology, Airtel claims to be the first in the country to offer this innovative service to its 55 million-odd customers.
SMS2.0 enables an interactive and non-intrusive platform on mobile phones that would allow Airtel users discover a host of relevant content services with enhanced messaging features.
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Hitachi, Canon, Matsushita Form Alliance
Hitachi, Canon and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd have formed an alliance aimed at reinforcing the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel businesses and technologies. Under this alliance, the three companies will merge their strengths to accelerate the development of cutting-edge display technologies and expand their scope of application.
The companies said that Hitachi’s In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology enables outstanding colour reproducibility, wide viewing angles and other features. While Canon excels in the camera, printer and medical equipment fields, Matsushita, meanwhile, commands global leadership in the flat-panel TV field.
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Hitachi, Canon, Matsushita Form Alliance
Hitachi, Canon and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd have formed an alliance aimed at reinforcing the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel businesses and technologies. Under this alliance, the three companies will merge their strengths to accelerate the development of cutting-edge display technologies and expand their scope of application.
The companies said that Hitachi’s In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology enables outstanding colour reproducibility, wide viewing angles and other features. While Canon excels in the camera, printer and medical equipment fields, Matsushita, meanwhile, commands global leadership in the flat-panel TV field.
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Goa Getting Broadband Network
Goa’s setting a prime example of how private-public enterprise can help development at state-level.
On Friday last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the “Goa Broadband Network” (GBBN), an example of private-public partnership, amidst hope and apprehension about the future of the project.
Previously named “Goa Net”, the Broadband Network project aims at building a state, which is “enabled by IT to be efficient and accountable with a global thinking approach”.
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Pentax presents Optio Z10 MP Camera in India
Pentax presents Optio Z10 MP Camera in India
Pentax, in collaboration with India Digital Life Style Distributors, has launched its latest digital camera model – the 8 mega pixel (MP) digital camera Optio Z10 along with a wonderful 7 optical zoom lens in the Indian market.
Among other things, Optio Z10 offers features like shake reduction to prevent blurring of images, face identification with high speed detection at just 0.03 seconds and a refractions lens system that does not allow the lens to overhang while zooming.
Optio Z10 also boasts of a 2.5 inch LCD monitor that allows the user a 170-degree viewing angle from every focus, a digital wide function, data imprint function and FotoNation’s red-eye compensation function.
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