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Satyam acts to address World Bank remarks /Costs will dog HK mobile TV operators
6 new features in Gmail
| The Internet search leader Google has been adding more bells and whistles to Gmail as part of its effort to gain ground on the longtime leaders, Microsoft and Yahoo in free e-mail. Latest on the list are To-do list, video chat and some other features. These features not only add Gmail's functionality, but also bring several new features right to your Gmail inbox. Here's looking into the six new features in Gmail. |
To-do list 
TwitterGadget 
| The Gmail Twitter Gadget lets users Tweet directly from Gmail, complete with a number of emoticons. The new TwitterGadget for Gmail helps users cut down on desktop and browser clutter by letting them sign into and use Twitter from within Gmail. It enables the user to toggle on/off various display elements such as user thumbnails, timestamps, and post sources. Refresh intervals can be set from 3 to 30 minutes or manual only. Additional information about a poster is available, at a glance, by hovering over their thumbnail image. To get the gadget on your Gmail, go to Gmail Labs and turn on Gadgets Tool. The Gadgets Tool will become another tab at the top of your Gmail settings. Click on that and insert http://www.twittergadget.com/gadget_gmail.xml into the text box. Click Save. Go back to Gmail, sign in, and you can use Tweet right from your inbox. |
| Google is testing a new feature for Gmail Labs that in one simple click, `Create a document', converts an email into a Google Docs document. This means no more copying and pasting the text from your email -- just open the message you wish to convert, click the `Create a document' link on the right side of the page, and you have a brand new document which can then be modified and shared! In case, you're not interested in converting any of your current messages into documents, you can easily open up a blank doc by hitting `g' and then `w' (just make sure you have keyboard shortcuts on). To turn on this feature, go to the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, select `Enable' next to `Create a document' and hit `Save Changes' at the bottom. |
Gmail Video 
| Gmail and Google App subscribers can now choose to speak with friends on a video screen and simultaneously instant message them in a Google Chat box. The video screen can be popped out of the chat box and moved around a user's computer screen. Users can also change the size of the screen and expand it to full-screen size. The condition being that both the user and his contact have computers equipped with Web cameras and microphones. Businesses that have bought an enterprise version of Gmail, found within the Google Apps software package, will also receive the feature at no extra cost. |
| Though strictly not a GMail gadget, it is a handy utility for Google desktop users that will allow them to read, search and send Gmail messages while in Google Desktop. Users can also Star messages and use keyboard shortcuts. The plug also utilises keyboard shortcuts and contact autocomplete. In a blog post, James Yum, Developer Programs Engineer, Google Desktop, said, "You can Star messages, use the same keyboard shortcuts, and we didn't forget about contact auto-complete. It doesn't take up much space in your sidebar or desktop, and you can also resize it to show as few or as many messages as you'd like." Presently, the application is Windows-only and requires Google Desktop version 5 or higher. Google Desktop was released in October 2004. The application aims to make searching a PC as easy as searching the Web. Google Desktop provides users full-text search over email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail and Web pages viewed. The application also includes other gadgets that allow users to be shown new email, weather updates, photos and personalised news. |
Biggest technology farewells of 2008
It's time to bid adieu to the year 2008, the year which witnessed the farewells of some of the biggest names in the technology world -- some of the marking the end of an era.
While most of these were ceremonious exits with some moving to take up their passions or philanthropy, others in pursuit of greener pastures. There were also some unceremonious exits, where some CEOs were made to resign penalising them for falling revenues and constant battering of their company's stocks at the bourses.
Here's looking into some of the most high-profile exits of 2008.
Arun Sarin, Vodafone 
| One of the most successful CEOs of British telecom giant Vodafone, Arun Sarin, quit the company in the July 2008 to don a new challenge. During his five year tenure at the world's largest mobile firm, Sarin is credited for acquiring a controlling stake in one of India's biggest mobile phone companies, Hutchison Essar. Under him Vodafone posted group revenue of 35.5 billion pounds for the year ending March 31, an increase of 14.1 per cent, and organic growth of 4.2 per cent. This came in marginally higher than market consensus, provided by the company, of 35.2 billion to 35.4 billion pounds. Under Sarin, Vodafone expanded aggressively into emerging markets, including Romania, the Czech Republic and Turkey. Sarin visited India before his exit along with his successor to participate in Vodafone-Essar board meeting, triggering speculation that he may join Tatas, but officials of the Indian conglomerate debunked any such report. Post-exit Sarin planned a trekking trip to Himalayas before settling in California. Recently, Sarin, 53, who quit Vodafone at the pinnacle of his career, was speculated to be the most sought-after contender for the position of Yahoo CEO, after the Jerry Yang's exit. Sarin, however, said he was not keen on the position. Sarin is looking at alternative roles at other US public companies as well as at a private equity firm, the Financial Times wrote recently. The India-born US citizen is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and has an MBA degree from University of California, Berkley. |
| This was surely the biggest farewell of 2008. The exit of Bill Gates marked an end of era. Gates retired from Microsoft, the company he co-founded with college-friend Paul Allen in 1975. In June, Gates quit as full-time chairman and software architect of the world's largest software company to work full-time at his charitable organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates will remain the company's non-executive chairman. A Harvard College drop out, Gates has been a permanent fixture in the Forbes Richest people list, holding the numero uno slot for 15 years in a row between 1993 and 2007. In 2008, Gates was topped by investor Warren Buffett and Mexico's telecom tycoon Carlos Slim in the world's wealthiest list. Bill Gates' key creation is Microsoft, a company with sales of $51 billion as of June 2007 with 78,000 employees across 105 countries. Almost 90 per cent of the estimated 1 billion computers (desktop and laptop) in the world run on Microsoft's Windows and Office. The company has products across the layers network, operating system, database, middleware, application software. Gates departure comes at a time when Microsoft is engaged in an escalating rivalry with Google and other competitors who are using the internet to chip away at its software dominance. During his recent visit to India, Gates launched a major initiative for India’s public healthcare with a special focus on eradicating polio. |
| After a rocky tenure at Yahoo, co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as chief executive this November. Among the Silicon Valley dotcom billionaires, Yang was named CEO in June 2007 after Terry Semel exit. As CEO, Yang struggled to turn around the company's dwindling fortunes. The rejection of Microsoft offer and a failed advertising deal with Google marred his brief tenure. Earlier this year, Yang rejected a $33 per share offer by Microsoft for Yahoo worth a total of more than $47 billion. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer later withdrew the offer after Yang sought $37 per share. The negotiating breakdown triggered a shareholder revolt led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who called for Yang's ouster in July. Since then Yahoo has been trading at between $10-12 a share. With a fortune estimated at $2.23 billion, some shareholders accused Yang of putting his personal affection for the company he created over the interests of its shareholders. After squandering the opportunity to sell to Microsoft, Yang tried to boost Yahoo's profit by forging an advertising partnership with Google. But this backup plan too fell when Google walked away from the deal to avoid a court battle with the US Justice Department, which concluded that the partnership may throttle competition in the online advertising market. |
| Indian engineering whizkid Sanjay Jha left Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) group as COO and president this year to join beleaguered US telecom major Motorola as CEO of Mobile Devices. At Motorola, Jha holds a key task to pull the American cellphone pioneer which slipped to the fourth position in global handset sales and the downslide has been quite sharp. What top's Jha's priorities is reversing the fortunes of the company’s loss-making handset business -- comprising over one third of Motorola’s total business worth $36.6 billion. Forty five-year-old Jha started as a senior engineer at Qualcomm VLSI (very large scale integration) group in 1994 and was promoted as senior vice-president of engineering in 1998. He was elevated as the president of QCT in 2003 when the chipset and software division was started at Qualcomm. For the past five years, this division of Qualcomm has been ranked among the world's largest fabless semiconductor producers, and was rated as being ahead of the leader Texas Instruments last year. Qualcomm had sold its own CDMA cell phone business to Kyocera in February 2000. |
| British Telecom Group, one of the largest telecommunications companies in Europe, saw the departure of its CEO Ben Verwaayen in the month of April. Having served BT for almost six years, Verwaayen headed back to the US to take up a position with a venture capital firm. Verwaayen joined BT in January 2002 after quitting his job from US equipment vendor Lucent. During his tenure at BT, Verwaayen initiated a complete broadband overhaul of BT's aging infrastructure. He mended fences with Ofcom, the UK's version of the FCC. Fifty-six year old Dutch national was also awarded an honorary knighthood for services to the communications industry. Verwaayen helped BT buy a slew of US-based companies including Infonet, Radianz, Counterpane and INS pushing the telecom giant into a number of emerging markets. Ian Livingston, who was chief executive of BT Retail, succeeded Verwaayen. | |
| In one of the most sensational and controversial exits of the year, Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, resigned following an indictment on tax evasion charges after a counsel investigation. Known to be the most powerful Korean tycoon, Lee was charged with $133m tax evasion and breach of trust during his 20-year tenure at Samsung. Lee was also charged with damaging the interest of other shareholders. He was accused of forcing Samsung subsidiaries to sell shares to his son at unfairly low prices. However, the company was cleared of the most serious allegation that it raised money to bribe influential citizens and ministers in its native South Korea. Joining Lee in stepping down were Vice Chairman Lee Hak-soo and Lee Jae-yong, the chairman's son and heir apparent to the Samsung throne. Nine other senior executives also left Samsung following the charges. Sixty six-year old Lee is credited of having built $160-billion Samsung Group which is Korea Inc's pride, accounting for roughly 21 per cent of the country's total exports. |
Satyam asks World Bank to apologise
BANGALORE: Satyam Computer Services said it has asked the World Bank to withdraw "inappropriate" statements about the Indian outsourcer and to issue an apology for harm done to the company.
The World Bank said Satyam had been declared ineligible for direct contracts with the bank for eight years, effective from last September.
New York-listed Satyam said it had asked the World Bank to issue a new statement apologising to Satyam and provide it with an explanation of the circumstances relating to its statements.
"Satyam further advised the Bank that Satyam would evaluate all possible options in view of both the Bank's inappropriate public statements and its response to Satyam's requests," it said in a statement.
The World Bank said by it stood by its earlier statement. "The Bank stands by the statement issued on its India website on 23rd December," said Carl Hanlon, a World Bank spokesman in Washington.
The Bank said that, "Satyam was declared ineligible for contracts for providing improper benefits to Bank staff and for failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors."
Shares in Satyam, India's No 4 software services outsourcer, fell after the Bank said it had barred it from business.
The stock was already under pressure after the firm said last week it would pay $1.6 billion for two infrastructure firms in which its management held stakes.
It dropped the plan within hours after investors reacted angrily but its shares have since plunged 40 per cent.
Pinkslips coming at Microsoft?
NEW DELHI: Internet is abuzz with reports that software giant Microsoft may be readying pink slips. Some speculations suggest that layoffs could be as high as 10 percent of Microsoft's over 90,000 full-time employees.
According to site newsoxy.com, "Insiders who work for the company say that things are looking grim while a few managers have leaked information about substantial workforce reductions on January 15, 2009."
Blogger Mini-Microsoft writes, “Come 22 Jan., 2009 Microsoft will be asked by the analysts what it is doing to contain costs.” He continues, "And I believe Microsoft will have an answer. I think this is one solution that you don’t want to be a part of. I’m all for cutting back, but it should have been done long ago, responsibly, vs. forced upon us.” He speculates that the axe will fall on January 15, 2009, and will take 10 percent of the company’s workforce when it does.
However, here’s a caveat: Mini-Microsoft is not an official company blog, and it is written by an anonymous author.
Incidentally, responding to speculations of possible layoffs, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Brad Reback wrote in a report this week that layoffs at Microsoft would be "well-received" by Wall Street and "signal that profitability is more important than revenue growth during this very difficult time."
Microsoft has said that the company's hiring plans are under review. The company has sharply cut back on hiring, reportedly adding only 380 employees to its work force last month, down from 1,000 in October.
Asian banks not in 'hibernate' mode
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100 things you needed to know in 2008
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Asian SMBs still lack green IT awareness /India's logistics sector to up IT spend
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IT Dojo: Bloopers 2008
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openSUSE 11.1
Repair the cracked glass face of an Apple iPhone 3G
Photos: GreenBuild comes to BostonCluster configuration recovery tools in Server 2008
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