Apple iPhones to be launched in China

China Unicom and US high-tech giant Apple have announced they had reached a multi-year deal to launch the widely popular iPhone in the world's largest mobile market later this year.

The announcement marks the iPhone's long-awaited debut on the mainland, which has about 687 million mobile phone users and is one of the last major markets where the trendy smartphone is not yet officially sold.

Unicom, one of three major state-owned carriers, would be the first Chinese phone company to formally support the iPhone, though thousands of unlocked iPhones brought in from other markets are in use in China. It is the only company in China that supports the network standard needed for the iPhone, known as WCDMA.

The initial launch is expected to be in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009. This will provide users with a brand new communication and information experience.

The iPhone, which also functions as a music player, camera and Internet browser, could help Unicom compete against giant China Mobile, which dominates the mainland's mobile market.

The company, the smaller rival of China's largest wireless operator China Mobile, started iPhone negotiations with Apple after the government issued third-generation, or 3G, mobile phone licences in January.

Chang and China Unicom president Lu Yimin said their company aimed to take more than one-third of China's 3G mobile market next year.

The iPhone is likely to be priced from 2,999 yuan (439 dollars) with a requirement that users also buy 3,000 yuan worth of pre-paid calls, the Caijing business magazine reported Thursday, citing sources close to the talks.

China Unicom, which had 140 million mobile subscribers by end-June, expects to attract high-end users with the iPhone to turn around weak performance in competition with arch rivals China Mobile and China Telecom, reports have said.

The confirmation of the deal with China Unicom means Apple has dropped China Mobile, which has been in similar talks with the US company for years. China Mobile, which had 493 million subscribers by the end of June, is developing a handset similar to the iPhone with firms including Chinese computer maker Lenovo.

Microsoft Bing coming to IPhone Apps

Microsoft is targeting the iPhone as another avenue for boosting usage of its Bing search engine.

Microsoft has released a software developer kit designed to make it easier for iPhone developers to build access to Bing into their applications. Using the SDK, a developer can build an iPhone application that searches Bing for Web information, images, videos, news and phonebook results.

Developers can only query Bing from applications built on Cocoa or Cocoa Touch, APIs for building applications on the iPhone.

Google is the default search engine in the iPhone's Safari browser, and users can decide to switch that to Yahoo. Otherwise, if iPhone users want to access Bing they have to type in the URL.

The SDK will also let developers incorporate Bing searches into applications for Macintosh computers.

While Microsoft and Apple compete in the mobile-phone market, other Microsoft services and applications are already available on the iPhone. For instance, the iPhone supports Microsoft's ActiveSync to let people access their Exchange e-mail. In addition, Microsoft's Live Labs group released an iPhone application for Seadragon, the technology that lets users browse through potentially very large images.

China Mobile and HTC to work together

China Mobile and Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC Corp have agreed to work together to develop products for the mainland's third generation mobile network.

They signed a memorandum of understanding in Taiwan to kick off the partnership, focusing on product and technology development.

"Together, we look forward to expanding the TD-SCDMA industry chain and spurring development of the cross-strait telecommunications sector. We look for this partnership to become a model of cooperation," China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said.

TD-SCDMA is the first international technology standard in China's telecommunication industry, employing Chinese-developed intellectual property rights.

"Going forward, HTC will actively develop intelligent advanced wireless broadband products based on the TD-SCDMA standard, and will work closely with China Mobile to design and make products tailored to the needs of the China market," said HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou.
China Mobile, one of the leading telecommunication service providers on the mainland, and HTC said they will also conduct research into mainland consumer trends as part of product development.

Nokia to Roll out Micro Finance for Mobile Phones

Nokia plans to roll out a micro financing program for mobile phones across 12 states in India.

The company has completed a pilot of this program across 2,500 villages in the rural areas of the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states of India. Nokia tied up for the pilot with a micro finance institution to offer mobile handsets on installments of 100 Indian rupees (US$2) a week for 25 weeks.

The company said in a statement that it expects that the benefits of mobility will reach 500 million people in the country by next year.

The penetration of mobile phones in rural India is still very low at 13 percent, and much of the growth in mobile telephony will be in non-urban markets, the company said.

Its objective is to lower access barriers as well as total cost of ownership in these markets, it added.

Nokia did not name its micro finance partner.

The mobile phone giant is also launching Nokia Life Tools commercially in the country this year, which includes a range of agriculture information and education services targeted at non-urban consumers. The service was tested in Maharashtra state.

India added 12 million mobile subscribers in June, the latest month for which data is available, taking the total number of subscribers to 427 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Mobile service operators and handset makers are targeting India's rural market as the next big opportunity. The rural market is however low margin and geographically dispersed.

Data from TRAI for the first quarter of this year showed declining ARPU (average revenue per user) and utilization of mobile phones by consumers, across service providers, reflecting the economic slowdown and expansion of services in rural markets.

Study Reveals: More Kids Are Using Cell Phones

A survey by the Pew Internet & Life Project has concluded that more and more teens are using cell phones.

In 2004, the study found, less than half of U.S. teens aged 12 to 17 owned a cell phone, compared to 65 percent of adults. By 2008, teens owning cell phones had increased to 71 percent, versus 77 percent of adults.

The sample size of the study, however, was just 914 people in 2004, versus 2,134 respondents in 2008.

However, the cell phone wasn't the most prevalent electronic device teens owned, at least in 2008. The most popular gadget was a game console, owned by 78 percent of the respondents. Next was an iPod or other MP3 player, which just edged out the mobile phone with 74 percent. Only 60 percent of teens said they owned a PC, whether it be a desktop or notebook.

Cell-phone ownership tends to increase with age, according to the Pew report, with only 52 percent of 12- to 13-year-olds owning one. By age 17, about 82 percent of the survey's respondents owned one. But the cell phone isn't the most frequently- used communications device; that's still the landline, Pew found, with 88 percent using it versus 66 percent for cell phones.

Not surprisingly, families with more money tended to own mobile phones: 62 percent of respondents in households owning less than $30,000 owned a phone, 63 percent owned one within households earning $30,000 to $50,000, and 79 percent owned a phone within families earning more than $75,000, a statistically significant difference, Pew reported.

The most popular activity for the connected teen is sending texts; 38 percent of all teens do this on a daily basis, Pew reported. Twenty-six percent send messages daily via social networks like Facebook, while 24 percent use instant messaging on a daily basis. Twenty-nine percent, by contrast, spend time with their friends in person.

Again, however, the frequency by which teens perform these activities varies by age; more than 70 percent of 17-year-olds talk with their friends via cell phone on a daily basis, versus 28 percent of 12-year-olds. That also holds true for texting, as 51 percent of teens aged 15 to 17 text daily, versus a quarter of teens aged 12 to 14.

Interestingly, girls are the more frequent texters, 42 percent to 34 percent for boys, the study found.

Microsoft Nokia alliance to rival RIM

Microsoft Corp and Nokia announced an alliance to bring business software to smartphones and counter the dominance of Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry.

The alliance between the world's largest software company and cell phone maker means the latest versions of Microsoft's Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and messaging, will be available on a range of Nokia cell phones, which make up 45 percent of the global smartphone market.

The two companies, at one time fierce rivals in the mobile telecommunications business, expect to offer Nokia phones running Office sometime next year.

"This is giving some of our competitors - let's spell it out, RIM - a run for their money," said Nokia Executive Vice President Robert Andersson, in a telephone interview. "I don't think BlackBerry has seen the kind of competition we can provide them now."

Research in Motion's BlackBerry created the market for mobile e-mail, and its dominant position in the corporate sector, especially in North America, has protected it from Nokia's attempts to crack the market in recent years.

"RIM should be reasonably safe in the near-term because Nokia's presence in the U.S. is relatively small. Partnering more closely with Microsoft will help to raise Nokia's profile in the U.S." said Neil Mawston from research firm Strategy Analytics.

The alliance also aims to counter Google Inc's recent move into free online software, targeted at Microsoft's business customers, and the growing popularity of Apple Inc's iPhone device.

"It's clear that Nokia and Microsoft are both facing competitive challenges, most notably from Google. It makes sense for these two companies to work together to see if they can pool their competitive strengths to try and counter some of this pressure", said John Jackson, an analyst at wireless research firm CCS Insight.

The alliance means Microsoft's new Office suite of applications could be available to a much wider audience than the users of Windows Mobile phones, which make up 9 percent of the smartphone market.

"We see this as a great opportunity to deliver Office Mobile to 200 million Nokia smartphone customers," said Takeshi Numoto, an executive at Microsoft's Office business.

Analysts said Microsoft is clearly looking at the largest possible audience with the Nokia deal.

IBM Scientists Build DNA Computer Chips

Scientists at IBM are experimenting with using DNA molecules as a way to create tiny circuits that could form the basis of smaller, more powerful computer chips.

The company is researching ways in which DNA can arrange itself into patterns on the surface of a chip, and then act as a kind of scaffolding on to which millions of tiny carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles are deposited. That network of nanotubes and nanoparticles could act as the wires and transistors on future computer chips, the IBM scientists said.

For decades chip makers have been etching smaller and smaller patterns onto the surface of chips to speed performance and reduce power consumption. The fastest PC chips today are manufactured using a 45 nanometer process, but as the process dips below 22 nanometers in a few years, the assembly and fabrication of chips becomes far more difficult and expensive, said Bob Allen senior manager of chemistry and materials at IBM Research.

The new technique builds on work done several years ago by Paul Rothmund, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology, who figured out that DNA molecules can be made to "self-assemble" into tiny forms such as triangles, squares and stars. The approach takes advantage of DNA's natural ability to incorporate large amounts of complex information that can be applied to different types of activities.

To make a chip, the scientists first create lithographic templates - the patterns from which circuits are made - using traditional chip making techniques. After, they pour a DNA solution over the surface of the silicon and the tiny triangles and squares - what the scientists call DNA origami - line themselves up to the patterns etched out using lithography.

The IBM scientists, working with Rothmund, then figured out how to layer millions of nanotubes or nanoparticles over the DNA scaffold, where they adhere to form tiny integrated circuits.
The ability for the DNA structures to self-assemble is a key element needed for achieving greater precision in the design and manufacture of chips, said Greg Wallraff, an IBM research scientist and co-author of a paper about their achievements.

"The degree of difficulty of nanofabrication is going up rapidly," Wallraff said.

While the technology shows promise, it is years away from practical use, the scientists warned. "It's too early to say whether this will be a game changer," Allen said. "But we're pretty enthusiastic about the potential of this technique."

If it works as planned, it could lead to a new way of fabricating features on the surface of chips that allows semiconductors to be made even smaller, faster and more power-efficient than they are today.

Its time to say Hello From Earth

An Australian website is giving texting an intergalactic touch and allowing users to send short mobile phone-type messages into space.

From Wednesday and until August 24, people hankering for an out-of-this-world experience can visit http://www.hellofromearth.net to post messages no longer than 160 characters that will be transmitted to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet outside the solar system likely to support life.

However, the expected delivery time is some 20 years, the website said. And there's no guarantee of a response.
"It's like a “message in a bottle” cast out into the stars. What's interesting is not just whether there's anyone listening, but what the public will say to intelligent life on another planet," said project spokesperson Wilson da Silva.

"Hello From Earth is our way of showing that science can make the impossible possible. We have been to the moon and now, we can speak to the stars," he said in a statement.
The messages, to be transmitted from the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, with the close cooperation of U.S. space agency NASA, is part of Australia's National Science Week which celebrates the country's scientific achievements and creates awareness of the importance of science.

"Hello from Australia on the planet we call Earth. These messages express our people's dreams for the future. We want to share those dreams with you,"- this was the very first message entered by Science Minister Kim Carr, in order to launch the project.

"As a child I, like many Australians, stared up at the stars and wondered what was out there. Now science has allowed me to send a personal message that may answer that question," Carr said.