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Nokia, Accenture announce plans for strategic collaboration

Editorial Team — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:22:05 +0000

As part of enhancing their operational abilities, Nokia and Accenture announced plans for a strategic collaboration. According to the pact, Nokia would outsource its Symbian software activities and transition about 3,000 employees to Accenture. Accenture, on the other hand, would provide mobility software services to Nokia for future smartphones, said a company release.

The collaboration, which is subject to final agreement, calls for Accenture to provide Symbian-based software development and support services, with the expected transition of about 3,000 Nokia employees to Accenture. Both the companies may complete the final agreement this summer. The transition of the employees is likely by the end of the calendar year 2011. Transitioning employees, located in China, Finland, India, United Kingdom and the United States, will initially work on Symbian software activities for Nokia. Over time, Accenture and Nokia will seek opportunities to retrain and redeploy transitioned employees.

This collaboration also includes plans for Accenture to provide mobility software, business and operational services around the Windows Phone platform to Nokia and other ecosystem participants. Under the proposed agreement, Accenture would become a preferred partner for Nokia’s smartphone development activities, as well as a preferred provider of services.

“Mobility is a key area for Accenture,” said Marty Cole, chief executive, Accenture Communications and High Tech group. “This collaboration with Nokia will enhance our ability to help clients across multiple industries leverage mobility to advance their business agendas. It is a real win-win for Accenture and Nokia”.

“This collaboration demonstrates our ongoing commitment to enhance our Symbian offering and serve our smartphone customers,” said Jo Harlow, executive vice president for Smart Devices, Nokia. “As we move our primary smartphone platform to Windows Phone, this transition of skilled talent to Accenture shows our commitment to provide our Symbian employees with potential new career opportunities.”

Accenture and Nokia have been working together since 1994. In October 2009, Accenture acquired Nokia’s professional services unit that provides engineering and support of the Symbian operating system to mobile device manufacturers and service providers, and which then served as a key building block in Accenture’s Mobility services portfolio.

Adobe introduces Creative Suite 5.5 product line in India

Editorial Team — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:05:42 +0000

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the introduction of new Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 product line in India, enabling designers and developers to target popular and emerging smartphone and tablet platforms. The launch marks a significant change to Adobe’s product release strategy for Creative Suite, the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow across print, video, mobile and online media. The new Creative Suite 5.5 product line will consist of: CS5.5 Design Premium Suite, CS5.5 Web Premium Suite, CS5.5 Production Premium Suite and an enhanced Photoshop Software Development Kit (SDK).

“Creative Suite 5.5 will drive the development of new digital experiences across devices, including all major smartphones and tablets,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. “As publishers, media companies, advertisers and enterprises transform the way they develop and distribute their content, Adobe will be there to support them with technology innovations in content creation, management, measurement and distribution.”

Prabhjeet Singh, country marketing manager-India, Adobe Systems said, “There is significant change in the way content is being consumed in emerging markets like India. As a leader in content authoring solutions, we want to make sure that our customers have the latest technology to keep pace with this change. With the swift market adoption of devices, design, interactivity and the ability to move content across screens has become pivotal for content creators. With Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 we are providing industry-leading tools which will allow content creators to design and deliver rich content on any screen with greater efficiency.”

Robert Berkeley, CEO of Express KCS, a leading provider of creative business process outsourcing solutions said, “We have had a great experience using Adobe Creative Suite to produce and deliver digital publishing solutions for our clients. Given the rapid proliferation of a wide variety of devices, we now look forward to even more exciting features and tools from Adobe that will enable us to create compelling content experience for multiple screens like smartphones and tablets.”

The new Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium suite is packed with innovations in HTML5 and Adobe Flash authoring tools, empowering customers to create, deliver and monetize rich content and applications for virtually any screen. This release helps enable designers and developers to deliver mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, iOS and other platforms; create rich browser-based content across screens using HTML5; and leverage Flash Player to deliver premium video content, casual games and rich Internet applications.

Adobe is now extending the creative process beyond the desktop by helping integrate tablet devices into creative workflows. A new scripting engine in Adobe Photoshop and an enhanced Photoshop Software Development Kit (SDK) enable developers to build tablet applications that interact with Photoshop from Android, BlackBerry and iOS devices. Adobe also announced three new iPad applications that demonstrate the creative possibilities of using tablets to drive common Photoshop workflows – Adobe Color Lava for Photoshop, Adobe Eazel for Photoshop and Adobe Nav for Photoshop.

For video and audio professionals, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium suite delivers breakthrough performance, workflow improvements, creative innovations, and powerful new audio editing capabilities that build upon the huge customer momentum Production Premium is experiencing with broadcasters, filmmakers and video professionals worldwide. In just one of the innovations, the powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, broadens its graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards, allowing users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback and work more smoothly at higher resolutions.

Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium suite includes Adobe’s recent product innovations in digital publishing, already deployed by some of the world’s leading magazine and business publishers to create stunning digital editions for tablet devices. Using InDesign CS5.5, in combination with the integrated Folio Producer toolset, designers can add new levels of interactivity to their page layouts targeted to tablet devices. Documents can include video, audio, panoramic views, 360-degree object rotation, pan and zoom of images, integration of HTML and HTML5 content and other interactive overlays. Leading to a much more robust and engaging reading experience. Creative Suite 5.5 is tightly integrated with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to support publication, sale and analysis of content on an array of tablet devices.

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers. Estimated street price for the Creative Suites is expected to be Rs 1,54,791 for CS5.5 Master Collection, Rs 1,13,141 for CS5.5 Design Premium, Rs 1,07,065 for CS5.5 Web Premium, Rs 1,01,185 for CS5.5 Production Premium and Rs 77,371 for CS5.5 Design Standard. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

Infospectrum signs $700,000 deal with Scottish software firm

Editorial Team — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 15:47:54 +0000

Factonomy Ltd, a Scottish vendor of innovative enterprise business solutions, announced that they have completed a deal with product development firm Infospectrum Pvt Ltd to partner in the development of systems for two leading US banking clients as the first part of a long term arrangement expected to be worth $700,000 in the current year.

Infospectrum is a leader in the outsourcing of product development and has operations in India, the USA and Europe.

Graeme Bryce, Chief Executive Officer for Factonomy, who signed the agreement with Infospectrum commented, “We are particularly pleased to have found an expert partner in India that understands fully the complex challenges of a global software product strategy, which requires extremely agile working and exceptionally high standards.”

Amitabh Shrivastava, Director and Head of Worldwide Customer Delivery, said the feeling at Infospectrum was one of excitement to be working with the Factonomy Framework as it is an great enabler when producing enterprise class solutions, defect free, within a timescale that was previously impossible.

The deal was agreed during a mission of Scottish companies to India for the Nasscom Leadership Forum. The visit was led by Scottish Development International – the government agency which seeks to further strengthen and grow trade and investment links between Scotland and India across key industries where expertise and knowledge can be exchanged to support both countries’ growth ambitions.

“This is a great example of the Scotland and India working together to provide global solutions. I congratulate both companies on their agreement today and their undoubted success in the future, said Mark Dolan, Country Manager India, Scottish Development International.

“This exciting development is one more example of the great strength and tradition of Scottish company innovation and development expertise and events such as the NASSCOM Leadership Forum are the ideal platform for Scottish and Indian firms to establish more mutually beneficial partnerships. We are delighted with the successful outcomes of this year’s event.”

Siemens systems to equip India’s first F1 track in Greater Noida

Editorial Team — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 05:38:26 +0000

F1 race track

Leading provider of industry and infrastructure solutions Siemens Ltd has won an order of Rs 127 crore from Jaypee Sports International Ltd (JPSI) for laying country’s first Forumala1 race track in Greater Noida near Delhi, the company informed the BSE.

Accordingly, Siemens will supply, install, design, engineer and commission special electronics package, which is an important part of the F1 race tracks. Siemens is likely to complete the race track project in a span of ten months.

Siemens will also provide the complete IT support (VOIP & Data Network), information displays and media distribution system for media centre for this project.

Siemens Race Control Management system, part of the special electronic package, forms the most crucial part of racing. This system controls camera, signaling, digital video recording, time keeping, SMATV and the like and this will enable the FIA staff to control the race centrally. The track video surveillance system consists of dedicated closed circuit television (CCTV) that will be set up along the track. The screens provide images from every part of the circuit and the race controller can keep watch on the participants in real time.

The integration of complex engineering and data management processes set up by Siemens will for a part of the crucial infrastructure which will ensure successful operation of the Noida F1 Race Circuit, which has a length of 5.14 km. Siemens also partnered and executed similar F1 projects in Baharin, Abu Dhabi, Istambul and Malaysia.

TCS opens BPO centre in Philippines

Editorial Team — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:28:59 +0000

Leading IT services, business solutions and outsouring firm Tata Consultany Services (TCS) has announced the launch of its new business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in the Pilippines. This is the first BPO centre of TCS in the Southeast Asia and the latest addition to the company’s global network delivery model (GNDM), informed the company.

The new BPO centre is located in Manila and it will give TCS a presence in the Philippines, capitalising on the large pool of skilled BPO talent available in the country. TCS, however, did not divulge details about the investment and headcount at the new BPO centre in the Philippines.

“Our new BPO centre in the Philippines strengthens our global network delivery model and allows us to enhance our delivery capability to our clients across Asia Pacific and the rest of the world. We are very excited about the talent pool available in the philippines for our new BPO centre and look forward to leveraging our best practices and technology excellence from around the world to furter develop talen in this region,” said Vish Iyer, had, Asia Pacific, TCS.

HCL launches Kids Educational Computers

Editorial Team — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 10:44:54 +0000

HCL ME Topper D1-48 Kids Education Computer

HCL Infosystems announced its entry into the kids educational computing market, aiming to reach out to the children of age-group between 3 to 12 years with special education content designed for learning through fun for kids. The company unveiled its range of kids educational computers meant exclusively for children with four models of HCL ME Topper and Junior Topper series. This interactive experience has been designed to enable affordable computing for kids, backed with interactive content to sharpen the intelligence quotient of the developing mind of kids.

HCL ME kids educational computers will be available at an affordable prices ranging from Rs. 1090/- to Rs. 1690/-. HCL ME Kids Education Kids Computers will be available with various education activities, games, music, comparatively large screens, and many more. This new HCL ME computer range will include HCL ME L1-30 and L2-36 under the Junior Topper series and HCL ME L1-88 and D1-48, which is also India’s first wireless desktop for kids, under the Topper series. The kids educational computers for kids will be available at various retailers, toys shop and HCL ME Exclusive stores. All HCL ME kids educational computers are built on green technology and the products are recyclable with ROHS and CE compliance.

The kids will also be provided with a surprise gift by the company with every purchase of the HCL range of kids educational computers.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. George Paul, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems Ltd said “Technology brings new ways to aid education and with the rapidly transforming environment it is imperative that newer interactive ways through latest technology are devised to reach out to the next generation early. With computing becoming the future mode of education, we believe learning devices backed with rich education content will engage kids to develop their intelligence and thinking ability that quickens their learning curve”

TCS to set up new 10,000-seat learning campus in Kerala

admin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 05:42:28 +0000

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm of the country, has announced that the company is setting up a new learning and development campus in the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram.

The new campus will house up to 10,000 professionals when fully completed and will offer TCS’ leading edge learning curriculum to those who join the company from colleges, TCS informed the Bombay Stock Exchamge in a statement. Set over an area of 82 acre at the Technopark in Kerala’s capital, TCS will invest Rs 1000 crore on the project, which will become the company’s training centre once completed.

“The 10,000-seat campus will set the global benchmark for corporate learning institutions in terms of the physical infrastructure available as well as holistic professional and personal development programmes that will be available,” said N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy Services. “We are delighted to expand our presence significantyly in this city, where current primary training centre has been located since 1997.”

The campus infrastructure will include classrooms, auditoriums, computer laboratories, a library, cafeterias, accommodation facilities as well as recreational and shopping areas. Construction will commence in 2011-12 and is expected to be completed in 36 months from the date of commencement.

Transcend launches high performance flash cards

Editorial Team — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:06:35 +0000

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, will expand its flash card product line with the introduction of the standard Class 4 Series and the new 32GB “Ultimate” series Class 10 SDHC card, which can store up to 13,104 pictures. The Class 4 SDHC cards are aimed at entry-level users, while the Class 10 SDHC cards are designed for the professionals to enjoy high-speed consecutive shooting and smooth HD video recording, stated a release.

Transcend’s Class 4 standard level SDHC cards are a great alternative for beginners and amateur photographers who do not need ultra fast memory cards. Although SDHC Class 4 cards are less expensive, users can still take extremely high quality photos with their point-to-shoot camera. Featuring acceptable transfer speeds up to 13MB/s and large capacities up to 32GB at an affordable price, the new Class 4 SDHC cards strike an ideal balance between performance and cost.

Transcend also announced the addition of the 32GB Class 10 SDHC card, which offers massive storage capacity and enhanced transfer speeds of up to 20MB/s. This unique combination of speed and capacity not only helps record clear and smooth 1920 x 1080p Full HD videos, but also enables high-speed consecutive shooting — especially important at sporting or other fast-motion events.

According to Gordon Wu, Regional Head – South Asia, Transcend, “The new 32GB SDHC card can store up to 13,104 pictures (based on 5 megapixel JPEG compression format), over 176 hours of standard quality video (MPEG-4 video at 384 Kbps), or 480 minutes of HD video (AVCHD at 9 Mbps), providing photography enthusiasts with sufficient space for their high-resolution digital masterpieces.”

All SDHC cards are fully tested for compatibility and reliability, and carry Transcend’s renowned lifetime warranty. The Class 4 SDHC cards are now available in 4GB at Rs 1,050, 8GB (Rs 1,610), 16GB (Rs 3,160) and 32GB (6,970), while the Ultimate Class 10 cards are offered in 4GB (Rs 1,190), 8GB (Rs 1,980), 16GB (Rs 4,120) and 32GB (Rs 9,000) capacities.

MTNL, Novatium introduces high-speed internet, MTNL Nova Navigator

Editorial Team — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:52:48 +0000

Novatium Solutions Private Limited, a company that provides relevant, simple and affordable ‘computing for the next billion’, in association with public sector telco MTNL launched MTNL Nova Navigator Service for the MTNL broadband subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai. MTNL armed with its high speed broadband will revolutionize the concept of computing as a service.

MTNL Nova Navigator can be used for both Internet access and computing applications. The services include comprehensive computing experience with special emphasis on Internet, gaming, digital entertainment, online education, telephony and business productivity. It supports Linux and Windows operating systems. MTNL Nova Navigator delivers computing experience which is superior in performance, simpler to use, with substantial savings on investment. MTNL Nova Navigator is an ‘obsolescence-proof computing service’, with all manageability carried out centrally through the server, where the subscriber would automatically get ‘on air’ upgrades totally free of cost from anywhere across the world.

MTNL Nova Navigator is a ‘zero maintenance’ access device and is easy to plug & play with the comfort anywhere. Nova Navigator offers enhanced features such as 3G support, plug and play printer support, faster browsing and multimedia amongst others. It has the technical superiority to match up with all software advancements and yet it has the simplicity of an appliance. Coupled with its affordability, MTNL Nova Navigator is a one-stop computing solution for almost everyone.

Partnering with Novatium Solutions Private Limited will give MTNL a unique opportunity to expand high speed broadband market with the unique computing services in India through Nova Navigator. Kuldeep Singh, CMD, MTNL said, “MTNL has been constantly innovating to champion the adoption of broadband usage in the country. MTNL Nova Navigator powered by Novatium’s patented technology has added the strategy of true utility computing for MTNL’s fixed line customers who have so far stayed away from computing due to the cost and complexities involved. We will truly democratize access to information, and with our huge connectivity and infrastructure, MTNL hopes to give a new wind to the computing and broadband revolution in the country.”

Alok Singh, chief executive officer, Novatium Solutions Pvt. Ltd. said, “India is on the verge of witnessing a computing revolution and we hope to be its engine. Nova Navigator coupled with MTNL Broadband has the potential to revolutionize the entire computing market in Delhi and Mumbai. We are getting encouraging responses from subscribers and expect tremendous growth in the current fiscal. We are looking at attaining a subscriber base of 2 lakhs by the end of the financial year 2010-11. The vision of Novatium is to provide simple and affordable computing for the next billion.”

Novatium provides this powerful, zero maintenance computing service at affordable price starting from Rs 4999 that comprises of Nova Navigator Console, USB keyboard and USB mouse with Nova computing charges starting from Rs 249 excluding broadband charges for MTNL subscribers and Delhi and Mumbai. Nova Navigator has an option of storing data files either internally or externally or at the server end (remote storage option). Nova Navigator is also available with 160GB hard disk space for the user to load OS, store applications and software apart from user data files in Internal Storage at a price of Rs 7,099.

Users can save data files either in USB storage devices like pen drive or external hard disk. Data files can also be saved in the server for an additional charge of Rs 50 per month (+ tax) for 10 GB and Rs 150 per month (+ tax) for 50 GB. The files saved on the server can also be accessed by existing users from anywhere outside by just logging into the customer portal, nGene.

Apple unveils all new Mac Mini

Editorial Team — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:07:10 +0000

Apple Mac Mini

Apple launched a completely redesigned Mac mini, with up to twice the graphics performance, a new HDMI port and a new SD card slot. Mac mini is the world’s most energy efficient desktop and starting at $699, is the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS® X, iLife or Mac OS X Snow Leopard® Server.

Created with the unibody construction, a process pioneered by Apple, the new Mac mini features a compact aluminum enclosure of 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches thin. A new integrated power supply eliminates the need for an external power adapter, reducing overall system volume by 20 percent and keeping cable clutter to a minimum. A removable panel underneath provides quick access for memory expansion. Mac mini is incredibly versatile, effortlessly connecting to existing peripherals such as mice, keyboards and digital displays, while the new HDMI output connects Mac mini to an HDTV and the new SD card slot enables easy transfer of photos and videos from a digital camera.

Inside its sleek, compact enclosure, the new Mac mini includes the fastest integrated graphics processor on the market today. With 48 processing cores, the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor delivers up to twice the graphics performance of its predecessor, making Mac mini ideal for graphics intensive applications or visually rich games.

Mac mini comes standard with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320GB hard and 2GB of RAM for $699.

Mac mini comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iLife, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for managing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. iLife features iPhoto, to easily organize and manage photos; iMovie with powerful easy-to-use new features such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and advanced drag and drop; and GarageBand which introduces a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar.

Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server fulfills all the server needs of a workgroup or small business including email, calendar, file serving, Time Machine backup, Wiki Server, Podcast Producer and more. Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server uses less than 11W of power at idle, a fraction of the power consumed in comparison to typical entry-level tower servers. Mac mini with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server is faster than before with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two 500GB hard drives now running at 7200 rpm, 4GB of RAM and supports unlimited clients for $999.