Google Search through SMS

The Internet Search Giant, Google has made it possible to search the Internet on your mobile phone even if it is not web enabled. Google has introduced this service with all the major GSM and CDMA operators in India.

The usage of the service is very simple. The user just sends a normal text SMS to 9-77-33-00000. You could be searching anything like cricket scores, stock updates, Indian Railways train schedules, PNR status, horoscopes, movie show-times etc. The search engine will fetch the data and send you an SMS. The service also acts as yellow pages and runs applications like the calculator and currency converter. Local search is one of the main utilities.

“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”, a spokesperson for Google India affirms.

Here is how users can use this service:-
To receive latest cricket score, just type cri or cricket or cricket India and send it to 9773300000.
For PNR enquiries in Indian Railways, send the PNR number.
Likewise stock quotes from BSE can be received by sending “company name quote”, for example “Tata Steel stocks”.
To know horoscope just sms your Sunsign.
Similarly, weather info can be found by sending “weather city”, eg “Weather Kolkata”.
Also available are calculations and conversions. Like “65000 INR in USD”, “13 Kg in Pound”, “Population of Delhi”, “Current GDP of India”, etc.

The cost of the service will be normal SMS charges.

RBI considering Internet Payment Options

Almost two years back, TimesofMoney, a Times of India group owned company had introduced Wallet365.com. RBI is now believed to be considering the regularization of internet payment options. An approach paper on the subject is under consideration by the RBI.

As per the Payment and Settlement Systems Act all non financial institutions have to obtain a RBI clearance for operating pre paid payment instruments. The KNC (Know Your Consumer) initiative by the RBI specifies limits for financial transactions beyond which it is necessary to obtain all information regarding clients.

If the RBI gives the green signal for internet based cash cards and pre paid payment options, it will spawn a fresh competition in the financial sector. An Indian version of PayPal may soon become a reality.

Very much on the lines of PayPal, Wallet365.com allows you to make secure electronic payments easily and instantly. Signing Up with Wallet365.com is free and all that is required is a valid email id.

By signing up with Wallet365.com, one can send money to anyone, receive money from anyone, or make payments to businesses. With Wallet365.com, users can store money electronically which is much like a checking account. Wallet365.com is safe and secure for its users. It is 128 bit encrypted and is VeriSign certified.

Microsoft develops 216 Megapixel Camera

Microsoft has developed 216 megapixel camera. The UltraCamX collects 216 megapixels per trigger to produce 14,430 across track and 9,420 along track pixels, the largest image format available, with a sustained collection rate of three gigabits per second. The UltraCamX, a large Format Digital Aerial Camera, uses CCD technology, employing 7.2 micrometer pixels thus achieving an even larger image format at 14,430 x 9,420 pixels without sacrificing radiometric performance.


Vexcel Imaging GmbH, a Microsoft® company, has signed a purchase agreement with Aerodata International Surveys, a Belgian-based airborne surveying and mapping company - for an UltraCamX (UCX) large format digital aerial camera system.

“Aerodata is a long standing UltraCam customer and has significant experience operating the camera,” said Rob Agee, Microsoft Group Business Manager for the Vexcel Imaging GmbH business. “The company understands the clear benefits provided by the UltraCam technology and the added value afforded by the advancements available through the UltraCamX. We value their commitment to providing their customers high-quality aerial imagery, quickly and economically, and congratulate them on this purchase.”

Motorola to launch VE66

Motorola, the phone giant has announced the launch of another attractive 5 MegaPixel camera phone, the Motorola VE66. The phone has an appealing display and some excellent features.

The Motorola VE66 runs on the Linux operating system. It has a 2.2 inch QVGA screen with 256 colors. It comes with a powerful 500 MHz processor. The camera has digital image stabilization and red eye reduction. It will be having two versions. The first one will not support 3G. The second version will support UMTS and HSDPA. The phone also has two microphones to enhance audio quality.

Tracey Koziol, corporate vice president, Mobile Devices, Motorola said, “The MOTO VE66 delivers on consumer’s demand for more personalized listening and imaging experiences on a mobile phone. With a diverse multi-media experience, the VE66 truly enables you to make a statement and express yourself on your terms.”

The Motorola VE66 is likely to hit the stores in the fourth quarter. The other details including price of the handset are yet unknown.

Gigabyte unveiled X58 series motherboards in India

Gigabyte has unveiled two powerful high-speed motherboards recently in India. The motherboards, GA-X58-Extreme and GA-X58-UD5, are expected to fuel India’s fast growing hardware industry, taking India few steps ahead in the PC manufacturing field. The new X58 series motherboards of Gigabyte are based on Intel’s Turbo Boost technology and compatible with Intel’s new Core i7 processors.

Integrating with the Intel X58 Express chipset, the new GA-X58 series motherboards allow 2 phase power for their North Bridge and memory. Dynamic Energy Saver (DES), Temperature Alert LEDs (TALs), OV-Alert LEDs, and OC-Alert LED form the constituent parts of these next generation motherboards. The new Gigabyte motherboards are available throughout India through Avnet, Redington, and Ingram Micro in the price range of Rs. 20,500 - Rs. 25,000.

Few important features of GA-X58-Extreme and GA-X58-UD5 motherboards include QPI interface, CrossFireX support, 3 channel DDR3 support, Ultra Durable 3 technology, and 3 Way SLI, etc. The energy efficient new Gigabyte motherboards have been designed to provide high performance in the complex computing fields, especially in the complex multimedia and graphics field. 3 PCIe x16 Gen2.0 slot, integral of the new Gigabyte X58 Series motherboards, ensures enhanced graphics configurations. Now the motherboards will be able to handle up to 6 monitors at a time using using multiple display support.

The new Gigabyte motherboards are available throughout India through Avnet, Redington, and Ingram Micro in the price range of Rs. 20,500 - Rs. 25,000.

T-Mobile unveiled Samsung Behold and Samsung Gravity in US

Samsung has again made its way in US via T-Mobile. T-Mobile has unveiled two latest mobile devices, Samsung Behold and Samsung Gravity. The Samsung Behold is the Touch screen smart phone while the Samsung Gravity is a message focused smart phone. Both the phones have customized features to woo from low to middle level consumers.

Samsung Behold is an ultra thin phone with a large touch screen display that uses the Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface. This application will allow the user to personalize and modify the phone. It features drag and drop options to shift items easily on the main screen. This will make the phone user-friendly and can get instant access to theses functions. Behold offers a compelling mobile web application experience to the owner. The phone packs in a powerful 5 mega pixel camera with LED flash and video recorder. The phone also comprises a full QWERTY on screen keyboard with haptic feedback. Behold incorporates a built-in GPS and quad band GSM support. Behold claims to offer a super fast transfer of data and superior Wi-Fi application. The internal memory of the phone is 128 MB which can be further expanded with the external microsSD card up to 8GB.

Samsung Gravity is a phone with a convenient slide out QWERTY keyboard. Samsung Gravity has a 1.3 mega pixel camera with video recording facility that will allow the user to capture their special moments whether still or moving. Gravity also supports the T-Mobile’s MyFaves service that will help the user to keep in touch with their beloved.

It is reported that T-Mobile is planning to market the new Samsung models in two years contract agreement under the price tags of $ 49.99 and $150 for Gravity and Behold respectively. In Indian currency, the corresponding prices will be approximately Rs. 2,375 and Rs. 7,125 respectively. The two outstanding mobile phones with each having its unique features are set to release in November. The Samsung Behold smart phone is available from November 10 while Samsung Gravity will be offered from November 17.

Chandrayaan-1 enters lunar orbit, sucessfully orbiting the moon

Proud moments for India!! India's first unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar orbit on Saturday after Indian Space Research Organisation scientists successfully carried out a highly complex and tricky manoeuvre crossing another historic milestone in the country's space programme.

ISRO scientists at the Mission Control Centre near Bengaluru fired the spacecraft's liquid engine at 16:51 hours for a duration of 817 seconds in a hit or miss Lunar Orbit Insertion operation in the maiden moon mission, 18 days after it was launched from Sriharikota spaceport.

"For the first time in the history of India, an Indian-made satellite is circulating the Moon ", a jubilant ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told after the home-grown satellite broke away from the Earth's gravitational field for the first time and reached the moon. India becomes the sixth country to put a satellite in lunar orbit.

The engine was fired when the spacecraft passed at a distance of about 500 km from the moon to reduce its velocity to enable lunar gravity to capture it into an intended orbit around the moon.

The spacecraft is now orbiting the moon in an elliptical orbit that passes over the polar regions of the moon. The nearest point of this orbit (perilune) lies at a distance of about 504 kms from the moon's surface, while the farthest point (apolune) lies at about 7,502 km.

A relieved Nair said today's operation was the "most crucial moment" in the mission."We have done it," he declared. "For the last 20 minutes, almost all our hearts were at a standstill," Nair said immediately after the the challenging manoeuvre was carried out.

"Nobody else in the world perhaps would have got such a precise lunar orbit as India did in the first attempt," Nair said.

Spice Mobile to launch Finger Swipe Touch Screen S930 Phone

Spice Mobile has recently announced to launch its sophisticated mobile handset S930. This handset is targeted at fashion conscious Indian customers. And the best thing about the set is- it comes at a very affordable cost. Available at Rs. 7999 only, it is a unique mobile handset that blends with innovative technologies. Coupled with Finger Swipe Touch Screen (FSTS), the Spice phone S930 will be highly capable to accommodate vibrant spirits of the youths who love to play with technologies of future.

Spice S930 supports 1 GB memory stick amidst 2 GB Expandable memory and a virtual keypad to assist you enjoy true beauty of a high capacity mobile phone. A 2 mega pixel camera with Webcam forms integral part of the phone. Technological innovation coupled with trendy business needs makes the phone S930 just irresistible. By way of just a finger swipe, the S930 will swing into action making you extremely delighted.

Irrespective of a sleek metallic finish exterior, Spice S-930 has various incredible internal features as well, namely: 2 Mega Pixel Camera with Webcam facility, 2 GB Expandable memory, Complimentary 1 GB Memory Card, Video and MP3 player, FM Record and Play, and something new that steps in is the most awaited: The Finger Swipe Touch Screen Facility. Not to forget VAS’s new Opera Mini Browser and Thomson Reuters, for speedy browsing and keeping up abreast with the various worldly events.

Govt of India to provide Internet Connection to Gram Panchayats

In a major initiative to increase India’s Internet density, Govt. of India is funding a project, namely Rural Broadband Project, to provide fast broadband Internet connection to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) by 2012, said A. Raja, Union IT and Communications Minister. The project is also to include all Govt. Higher Secondary Schools and Public Health Centers for providing such connection to empower rural e-Governance.

Explaining scope of the project, the minister said, “The Universal Service Organisation (USO) funds is being extensively deployed on a large scale to increase the broadband connectivity in rural area. We are making continuous efforts and committed to extend communication facilities with broadband connectivity at each block and village level. Once these facilities are in place, the broadband connectivity will be available on demand”. He even has indicated of offering PCs as part of bundled scheme along with Internet broadband connection. “The government is planning to launch bundled schemes of broadband along with customer premise equipment, including PCs with the subsidy support from USO fund,” he said. The minister was delivering a lecture on ‘Telecom Sector in Education Development’ at the National Round Table Conference held recently at New Delhi.

The round table conference was jointly organized by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the Communication and Manufacturing Association of India (CMAI). Besides, several university-heads and premier telecom companies had attended the conference to devise a strategy for enhancing distance learning system through optimum utilization of telecom infrastructures and IT facilities.

“It is heartening to note that efforts have already been initiated in this direction. We need to make available free tools and fonts to the public for all the major Indian languages. Then only, the domain of knowledge can be easily extended to our common man”, said the minister.

ISRO to launch Bhuvan to take on Google Earth

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is in a new avatar. ISRO’s entry into the software development field has added a new dimension in the world IT segment. This time, it is Bhuvan - an Indian version of “Google Earth”, with which they want to take India to a new height.

Bhuvan, a new eye of ISRO and a satellite mapping tool, is at the final stages of development and is based on the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) technology. The portal, which is likely to be made operational by mid 2009, will provide powerful and effective images similar to ‘Google Earth’ or Wikimapia. Following Bhuvan, ISRO has also plan to unwrap “Bhu Sampada”, another satellite based Desi IRS information portal.

Bhuvan, which means Earth, will be more efficient and user-friendly than the Google Earth, said ISRO. Space Applications Center (SAC) of ISRO is now seriously engaged in designing and enhancing features of Bhuvan, which will be upgraded annually in place of Google Earth’s four-year upgrade schedule. Bhuvan, the Desi Google Earth, will be able to give you details up to 10 metres, whereas Google’s and Wikimapia’s efficiencies are up to 200 metres and 50 metres respectively.

Disclosing first about the projects, Dr G Madhavan Nair, chairman, ISRO said on Tuesday last at the Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) International Congress in Gandhinagar, “Bhuvan will use the data recorded by the Indian satellites only. The prototype of Bhuvan will be ready by the end of November and ISRO is hoping to officially launch the service by March next”. The portal will be dedicated to the Indian sub-continent only, and “With Bhuvan we will be able to produce very local information which will be specific to only to our own country. This information available from this mapping system will be useful in addressing very local problems like floods, famines, infrastructure development, education and much more,” Nair said.

While delivering a lecture on the “Benefits of Space to the Society”, Mr. Nair said, “The information on Bhuvan will be layer wise and the options of viewing filtered information will be available. Inputs from a lot of local players, like farmers, fishermen and likes who know the local area in and out, will also being integrated in Bhuvan. This is for the primary reason to make it of more use to the general public”.

Chandrayaan-1 to reach final orbit on Nov 15

India’s first unmanned moon mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 is performing well within all scientific parameters till date since its launch. Now the scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are expecting the lunar probe to enter into it’s last orbit on Nov 15. Creating a history of leaving Earth’s gravity by any Indian made spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 enters into the celestial space towards the moon at 4.56 am on Tuesday last! It was a great achievement for India, and particularly for ISRO.

In place of planned five minutes firing, the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board of Chandrayaan-1 was fired for only about two-and-a-half minutes to make the spacecraft positioned along the moon’s highway taking it away from the Earth’s gravity effect. So smooth switch over and fine maneuvering of the lunar spacecraft has made Indian scientists jubilant at home. At the time of transition, apogee (farthest point to earth) of Chandrayaan-1 was 3,84,000 km and it was only 500 km away from the lunar surface.

About the lunar transfer trajectory, Mylaswamy Annadurai, Chandrayaan-1 project director said, “I was at ISRO’s telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) at Bangalore since early morning and we were going step by step very carefully. As soon as we received a signal that Chandrayaan had successfully entered the main highway to the moon, there was a jubilation in the mission control room”.

Next critical stage of the mission is lunar orbit insertion (LOI); but scientists are at no pressure to face LOI on Saturday between 5 pm and 6 pm. “I am hoping that the manoeuvre will go off smoothly on Saturday too,” Annadurai said.

LOI is a complex stage for any moon mission, as about 30% of moon missions of US and erstwhile Soviet Union have failed during this stage. ISRO is now gearing up for the ‘D’ day. After successfully establishing at the lunar orbit, Chandrayaan-1 will send images of the lunar surface with the help of Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) available on board of the spacecraft. The camera is kept switched on, which has already sent black & white pictures of Earth back home.

With google crome you don’t need to worry about privacy leak

Google is in limelight now for its controversial Chrome release. Chrome, an advanced browser application has been released by Google to give a tough competition to Microsoft. Powerful Chrome knows too much about you. And that’s the issue.

With advanced technology and increasing customization, Google has become so sensitive and responsive to your needs and demands that it can anticipate your searching needs following few of your keywords. Even before you press Enter, it collects data from the search query box and stores them into its server, thereby causing concerns for the groups of privacy advocates.

In order to make Indian googling a seamless experience for all, Google has plan to use advanced algorithms in its powerful search engine. While doing so, you may be asked to compromise with your privacy! Exponential growth of Google and thereby empowering itself with excessive private data has longer ramification.

Privacy concerns may not be so serious, said a market analyst. He explained, speculation about Google’s rising power to dominate Internet search and advertisement spheres might have fuelled in raising eyebrows for personal data security at the hands of Google. Extending business to accommodate Yahoo needs has just added firewood to the speculation.

Denying any risk of privacy leaking at the hands of Google, the company said, people are misinformed about the issue; it collects and stores private data only to improve its customized services. Releasing of Chrome is only an effort from Google to lead future web browsing through a new platform.