Microsoft is apparently circulating invitations to a mysterious event in San Francisco next week. Engadget has an image of the invite itself, which came in a tube-like contraption and features the vaguely ominous tagline, "It's Time to Share."

Paul Thurrott, over at Windows Phone Secrets, predicts, "This is the Pink phone announcement. I have not been invited to this specifically, but they are gearing up to launch this new side business, basically a texting/social networking phone platform for teenagers ('Pink'). It is not Courier."

For those of you tuning in midway through the program, Project Pink is the Loch Ness Monster of vaporware: a long-rumored branded-smartphone project, sighted occasionally in leaked documents but never officially confirmed by Microsoft. In September 2009, the rumors focused on the possibility of two smartphones, code-named Turtle and Pure, which were being developed in conjunction with Danger, a company that Microsoft acquired in 2009 and integrated into its PMX (Premium Mobile Experiences) team, a division of its MCB (Mobile Communications Business).

If the April 12 announcement in San Francisco does turn out to be Pink-related, it would follow the groundswell of scuttlebutt from early March, including a Reuters report that stated Verizon and Microsoft would team up to launch a pair of smartphones in either late spring or early summer that were geared toward social networking. At the same time, Gizmodo posted images of what it said was the Pure phone.

In a possible Pink phone's favor is the fact that, in October 2009, a hardware issue on servers being run by Danger resulted in the personal data being wiped from nearly 800,000 Sidekick users' phones. Following that, T-Mobile temporarily pulled the Sidekick, even as Microsoft engineers scrambled to restore user data. I remember at the time that T-Mobile's message boards filled with irate customers threatening to jump ship; if Project Pink rolls out, appealing to the same demographic as the Sidekick, then it could claim a percentage of that market.

In any case, the fact that these phones are being apparently targeted to teenagers makes it a sideshow, in many ways, to the larger Microsoft initiative of Windows Phone 7, due for release on a variety of devices later in 2010. Note that I wrote "Windows Phone 7": Microsoft has decided to drop the "Series" from the upcoming smartphone OS' name and thus make it less clunky. Which may or may not help its fortunes, but it certainly is making my fingers marginally less exhausted.

Source : Microsoft Watch

Microsoft rolled out a demo of Project Natal at this year's D8 conference in California. The device, which sits atop an Xbox 360, allows for game control via the user's own movements: Throw a punch, and the move is mirrored by your onscreen avatar. Microsoft plans on unveiling compatible games for Natal at the upcoming E3 trade show in June, along with a brand-new name for the device that I won't keep misreading as "Navel."



Natal, ready to mock your lack of coordination skills. Image courtesy of Engadget.

Will Natal be a success? It's a little too soon to tell. Nintendo's Wii managed to capture the hearts of casual gamers with its innovative controllers, which respond to users' arm motions. But hardware is only as exciting as the software that comes with it, and it remains to be seen what sorts of games Microsoft and its partners have up their collective sleeve. In any case, Microsoft plans to launch Natal in time for the holiday shopping season, although it's declined so far to name a price point; competition will come not only from the Wii, but also from the Move, a competing hands-free controller from Sony due on store shelves sometime in the latter half of 2010.

What's interesting about Natal, to me at least, is the possibility that its no-hands interface could eventually be integrated outside the game context. Sure, everyone and their mother seem obsessed with touch screens at the moment, whether on the Apple iPad or the new smartphones that enter the market at roughly a rate of two per day. At some point, though, the inevitable next stage in user interfaces needs to be considered.

Along those lines, I bet--and this is purest, airiest conjecture--that the technology behind Natal could eventually find its way into more productivity-centric uses (think of the motion-sensitive interface from the movie "Minority Report," as an example). Such a reality would be years away, of course, but a hands-free controller could have at least one tangible benefit: You wouldn't have to worry anymore about dirtying a screen or keyboard with less-than-clean fingertips.

Source : Microsoft watch

Apple expected to unveil an updated iPhone rumored to offer video calling.
Think talking on a cellphone in public is anti-social?

Just wait. Soon, folks might be staring at their phones as well as mumbling into them.

Video chat on mobile phones has arrived.

On Friday, the HTC Evo 4G — the first U.S. phone able to access the speed-enhanced 4G cell network — went on sale, with Sprint Nextel as its exclusive carrier.
Tapping the 4G network enables the Evo to do faster Web browsing and downloads, in addition to higher-quality video streams and the aforementioned video chat. Sprint is the first cell provider in the U.S. to roll out 4G service.

But the honor of having the sole, mainstream video-chat phone could be short-lived. On Monday, Apple Inc. is expected to unveil an updated iPhone that is rumored to also offer video calling (although some rumors about new products from the super-secretive company always turn out to be false).

Just how good can video chat be on a cellphone screen?

Surprisingly terrific, judging from a test of the Evo. That is, after a lot of fussing.

A couple of days before the phone went on sale, I did a video chat with Scott Steinmetz, Sprint's project manager for the product, who was in his Overland Park, Kan., office.

It took much finagling to get the call to work, only partly because the system was not quite fully activated.

To make a call work, both participants have to have a Google Gmail account, which is no surprise because the Evo's operating system is Google's own Android 2.1. Then you have to configure the Qik video app, which took some time to get up and working.

Finally, after numerous attempts, Scott appeared on the screen of the Evo I was testing. His face was slightly elongated due to the lens on the phone's camera. But the image was so clear that I could comment on the Southwest-themed painting on his wall and antique slot machine in the background.

Meanwhile, he could see the less interesting, blank wall behind me in my living room (I'm painting the interior).

Most important, we could easily see each other's expressions, providing a reminder of how nice video chat can be. The small screen was not a major barrier.

But there are three major caveats, two of which might be temporary.

At this point, you can use video chat only with people who also have Evo phones. For a while, that probably won't be a lot of folks — the Evo is not cheap to buy or own. It costs $200 if bought with a two-year Sprint agreement. The data plan, which is unlimited, is $70 a month. And finally, it costs $10 extra a month to use the 4G network (more on that in a bit).

Second caveat: Video chat works only at 4G speeds on cell networks, and Sprint has not rolled that out to all cities yet. One of the spots that does not have 4G is a little place called Los Angeles. It won't be here until later this year — the company would not specify just when.

The Evo can also use Wi-Fi for calls, which is how I did them from home and the office.

Finally, just how badly do we want video chat? It's handy on computers for business meetings, or for talking to loved ones far away. But in general, video calling has never much caught on. After the famed Picturephone was demonstrated at the 1964 World's Fair, futurists — as we now call people who make wild guesses — predicted that it would one day be part of daily life.

It turns out that for most real-world calls, voice is just fine.

Enjoy your status, Evo, as the leader in mobile video chat. The iPhone could be striving to take that away from you soon.

Source :The Los Angeles Times

Major improvements have been made in aviation sector: Patel. Mangalore: The Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, has said that the country will be in the top-five civil aviation markets in the world in the next five years.

Inaugurating the new integrated terminal building of Mangalore airport here on Saturday, he said that the country’s civil aviation sector was not recognised in the world until a few years ago. Today, India is the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world.

“Within the next five years, India will be in the top-five civil aviation markets all across the world. That, I think, is a great achievement in the remarkably short period of time,” he said. Stating that substantial improvements have been made in the civil aviation sector in the country, he said today flying is no more a luxury for the common man.

Mr Patel said that country’s infrastructure is undergoing a sea change under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

For the first time there is a Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure headed by the Prime Minister. That is why projects were being monitored and implemented on time, he said.

Runway extension

Later in an informal chat with presspersons, Mr Patel said that the runway of Mangalore airport will be extended by another 1,000 ft, from the existing 8,000 ft.

Asked when the airport will get international status, he said that one of the requirements for declaring Mangalore as an international airport is the 9,000 ft runway. That is why it has been decided to extend the runway by another 1,000 ft. The work for this will be awarded soon, he said.

The extension of runway is essential for handling larger aircraft to international destinations in West Asia and beyond that. The extension will help bring larger cargo aircraft for import and export out of Mangalore, he said.The Union Government will take a decision on declaring Mangalore as an international airport at the earliest, he added.

 Source: The Hindu Business Line