AICTE to power desi FB for tech students

AICTE to power desi FB for tech students
Himanshi Dhawan TNN

New Delhi: It’s our desi facebook. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Microsoft have collaborated to host acommunication service that offers e-mail, instant messaging, Microsoft Office web apps, and 0GB inbox for 7.5 million engineering students and 5 lakh faculty members spread over 10,000 technical institutes across the country.
Live@edu — to be up and running in the next three months — will use cloud deployment to expand students’ access to highquality technical education. This will allow students to interact and share content both for work and social networking, and even initiate collaborative research projects.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, “This is an era of collaboration and we hope to empower 7.5 million students and 5 lakh teachers. It is the first project of its kind.’’ Live@edu will be a social networking site linked to its portal, allowing engineering students to interact with each other about their projects. It will also provide a communication and collaboration platform for both institutes and students.

Source: The Times of India dated 13/04/2012

Airtel's 4G service to be launched in Bangalore in 30 days

Airtel's 4G service to be launched in Bangalore in 30 days

PTI |Apr 11, 2012, 10.51AMIST

NEWDELHI:

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it will be ready to launch 4G service in Bangalore

in the next 30 days.

"We will be ready for launching it (4G service) in Bangalore in 30 day s time. We have selected Huawei (as network equipment vendor) for Bangalore,"Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told reporters during a conference call.

The company today announced launch of fourth generation (4G) telecom service using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata. It has selected Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE for providing technology and equipments for the service.

The company has not got approval to provide voice and sms service to users on 4G network, Kapoor said.

Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Network for its launch in Maharashtra and is y et to finalise telecom equipment vendor for Punjab circle. Airtel has

selected Pune and Chandigarh to start 4G service in Maharashtra and Punjab respectively .

The company expects that consumer will get 10 times higher broadband speed compared to the speed that people get on 3G network.

"No one can tell exact speed that can be delivered on a wireless network because various factors govern it. However, we have seen data speed of around 1 .2 to 2 mbps on 3G network. The 4G data speed should be 10 times higher,"Kapoor said.

Bharti Airtel's President for Consumer Business K Srinivas said the network has potential to provide download speed of 100 megabits per second and the present speed can be upgraded based on the demand from market.

The company has announced 2 different USB dongles for accessing 4G service priced at Rs 7 ,7 50 and Rs 7 ,999 and three data plans ranging between Rs 999

and Rs 1 ,999.

The lesser priced device is meant for indoor access of the service while the higher priced dongle is for using broadband on the move.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Airtels-4G-service-to-be-launched-in-Bangalore-in-30-days/articleshow/12620049.cms

Project Glass

Google Glass revealed

By Joshua Ostrer in Sci/Tech | April 12, 2012 | Views: 116

On April 4, Google released a teaser video entitled “Project Glass: One day…” The video, which has already gained over 10 million views, showcases Google’s new product: Project Glass.

Project Glass is Google’s attempt at integrating your entire life with social media using their prototype glasses. The glasses, as shown in the video, employ the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in a transparent display in front of the user’s very eyes. Google intends to integrate Google Maps, Google+ and voice recognition technology to allow users to live their life through a Google-guide. “We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of the way when you don’t,” says the Project Glass Google+ page.

In the video, the wearer of the glasses is able to look outside and instantly check the weather and see his schedule for the day, respond to text messages he views through the glasses by voice, view step-by-step directions anywhere he wants to go and is able to take a photograph by simply commanding the headset to “take a photo of this” and instantly share it to his Google+ circles. The video concludes with the user sharing his own view with his girlfriend while overlooking a sunset. While the device has excited many users over its futuristic ability to essentially merge a smartphone with your own eyes, it has also stirred up a lot of controversy.

Google says that the glasses could be available for a late 2012 release, but others insist that the technology featured in the video is unrealistic and would not be available for another two years. “In one simple fake video, Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to,” said Director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech Blair MacIntyre.

Since the video’s release, a Google spokesperson has indicated that it is unlikely the glasses will be available by the end of 2012. However, the price of the glasses has been announced, and is expected to range from $250 to $600. Despite the technical debate of whether or not Google Glass is actually possible today, the glasses have sparked an argument about whether they are positive or negative project. Many have spoken up in opposition to a world where everyone who is wearing a computer is constantly aware of your personalized data and most likely feeding all of that information back to Google’s servers.

For more information regarding the development and release of Google Glass, go to the Google Glass Google+ page online or check out the preview through Youtube.

Source: http://www.concordy.com/article/science-and-technology/april-12-2012/google-glass-revealed/4398/