Dish TV to offer basic channel tier for free

Dish TV, India’s top direct-to-home (DTH) company, is replicating the ‘lifetime card’ concept in the telecom sector as it looks to garner more subscribers in the ongoing push to cable TV digitisation in the country.

The company is offering a basic channel tier comprising 70 channels free of cost for life.

Subscribers will have to do a minimum recharge of its regular package twice a year to avail the facility.

The new ‘Go Digital’ with lifetime free TV, company officials said, will enable consumers to digitise with the Dish TV DTH experience and minimise the fear of approaching digitisation.

RC Venkateish, chief executive officer, Dish TV, said consumers in the four metros are apprehensive of sudden switch-off of TV viewing.

“This offering will translate into a huge competitive advantage for Dish TV as none of the other competitors both from cable as well as DTH offer this facility. Cable operators have announced a `100 monthly charge for the basic tier, which will be provided free of cost by Dish TV,” he said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended that all cable multi-system operators to provide subscribers a basic tier priced at Rs100 per month.

Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV, said television viewing is ubiquitous and one of the most affordable means of entertainment in the country.

“For subscribers ‘switch-off’ of the services or their TV going blank suddenly cuts off their information and entertainment lifeline. Dish TV is now ensuring that this lifeline never gets cut off for their valued subscribers. Our endeavour is to provide highly differentiated competitive advantage over cable and other DTH,” he said.

In August this year, Dish TV launched a new set-top-box (STB) for the standard definition (SD) subscribers in the country.

Called ‘Dish+’, it is India’s first SD box with unlimited recording facility. The STB is compatible with any USB device enabling consumers to plug-n-play an existing USB stick / HDD and build an entire genre-based library of their favourite programme.

Dish TV has on its platform 400-plus channels and services including 21 audio channels, and a growing subscriber base of 13.5 million. 

Google launches free SMS service on Gmail for India

Google has extended its free SMS chat service to India, whereby users can send text messages to mobile phones via Gmail Chat.

"You can send SMS messages to your contacts' mobile phones using Gmail Chat ... Google does not charge for using this service," according to information available with Google's website.

The SMS service is available in India and 51 other countries in Asia, Africa and North America.

The feature was activated for Indian users on October 10 and is available for regular Gmail users as well as those on Google Apps.

As per Google's website, this feature is available on all the mobile operators in the country.

The company said in order to send an SMS, users would have to add phone number to their contact list.

Responses to the SMSs would appear as replies in Gmail Chat and conversations will be stored in users' Chat history, like regular chats.

Google initially provides free SMS credit of 50 messages for each user. For every message sent, users' credit woud decrease by one. However, this credit would increase by five every time a user responds to the text message by sending a return message.

In case, the SMS credit limit slashes down to zero, one credit would increase automatically after 24 hours.

Google said users can also 'buy' SMS credit in case of shortage by sending a text message to their own phone and then by replying to that message.

The internet firm has also provided the facilities for those users do not wish to receive any messages on SMS from any Gmail user.

In order to send an SMS from Gmail, on the Gmail Chat interface type the phone number you want to send an SMS to and click Send SMS and then add the recipient's name and country, then click Save. Then write text in the chat window and press Enter.

Micromax unveils Funbook Talk tablet at Rs 7249

Zeebiz Bureau

New Delhi: Expanding its Funbook range of tablets further, Micromax has unveiled its latest budget tablet called Funbook Talk

The Android 4.0 tablet is priced at Rs 7,249.

The Funbook Talk boasts of a 7-inch capacitive TFT LCD display with 800x480 pixel resolution. The tablet is powered by a 1GHz processor with 512MB RAM.

The device also enables voice calling by lending 2G connectivity support and also has a mini HDMI port.

The tablet has a VGA front camera. It has 2800mAh battery allowing 5 hours of talk time, 4GB internal storage expandable unto 32GB via microSD card support, Wi-Fi and 3G dongle support via USB 2.0.

Sony halts Xperia tablet sales post-defect

Tokyo: Sony Corp said it has halted sales of its Xperia tablet PCs, a month after its launch, after discovering gaps between the screen and the case that make some of the machines susceptible to water damage.

The problem with the tablet, which is supposed to be water resistant, is the result of a manufacturing flaw at the Chinese plant where it is fabricated, said Sony spokeswoman Noriko Shoji. Sony has not yet decided when it will resume sales, she added.

Sony began selling its latest Android tablet on Sept. 7 in the United States followed by launches in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. So far it has shipped around 100,000 of the devices. The company said it will fix any of the tablets sold and expects the cost of the recall to have no significant impact on earnings.

The latest tablet from Sony, which like its smartphone has been branded Xperia in a bid to unify its mobile devices under one name, joins a crowded market for tablets that is still dominated by Apple Inc's iPad. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, with its rival Android machine, leads the pack of Apple challengers.

Facebook, YouTube blocked in Kashmir

The government had issued orders to Internet
service providers to restrict access to the websites.

New Delhi: Internet users in Kashmir are unable to access Facebook and YouTube. The government had issued orders to Internet service providers to restrict access to the websites. This move is believed to be in response to the protests against the anti-Islam video on YouTube.

It was previously reported that the certain URLs with offensive content had been blocked, but it now seems that access to the entire websites have been restricted. Last month the Government of Jammu & Kashmir had directed service providers to ensure that the controversial YouTube video was not accessible from the state.

The order was issued by the state Home Department, invoking the powers conferred under section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885.

"In the interest of public safety and for maintaining public order, the government directed all licensed Telecom Service Providers and Internet Service Providers to make arrangements to ensure that their subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir should not be able to download or upload the contents" with regard to the video, the order said.

The order also emphasised that if necessary entire domains could also be blocked by service providers. "If necessary, due to technical reasons, the Fully Qualified Domain Names shall be blocked viz www.youtube.com, www.facebook.com etc," the order read.

Greater Kashmir quoted executives from telecom service providers in the state who confirmed that there was indeed a block in place, but when Greater Kashmir contacted Aga Ruhullah, Jammu & Kashmir's minister for information technology, he claimed ignorance. "There is not any ban on these websites. I don't have proper information of it. I can't confirm whether there is any technical snag in it," Ruhullah said.

Meanwhile, the Government of India has asked private telecom operators in Jammu and Kashmir to provide at the earliest a mechanism for fool-proof monitoring of real-time Internet traffic in the state.

New ultrathin lens to make mobiles as thin as credit cards

The new lens is flat, distortion-free and so
small that more than 1,500 would fit across the width of
a human hair.

Washington: Scientists are developing a new ultrathin lens which could lead to smart phones as thin as a credit card.

The new lens is flat, distortion-free and so small that more than 1,500 would fit across the width of a human hair - capable in the future of replacing lenses in applications ranging from cell phones to cameras to fiber-optic communication systems.

In a study published in journal Nano Letters, Federico Capasso and colleagues explained that the lenses used to focus light in eyeglasses, microscopes and other products use the same basic technology dating to the late 1200s, when spectacle lenses were introduced in Europe.

Existing lenses are not thin or flat enough to remove distortions, such as spherical aberration, astigmatism and coma, which prevent the creation of a sharp image.

Correction of those distortions requires complex solutions, such as multiple lenses that increase weight and take up space. To overcome these challenges, the scientists sought to develop a new superthin, flat lens.

Although the new lens is ultra-thin, it has a resolving power that actually approaches the theoretical limits set by the laws of optics.

The lens surface is patterned with tiny metallic stripes which bend light differently as one moves away from the centre, causing the beam to sharply focus without distorting the images.

The current version of the lens works at a specific design wavelength, but the scientists say it can be redesigned for use with broad-band light.

BSNL launches landline phones with video call facility

NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL, in partnership with SIS Infosystems, today launched telephones with video calling facility which will primarily be used to set up public Video Call Offices by replacing many of the PCOs. 

"We will convert existing Public Call Offices (PCOs) to VCOs with these phones. People will be able to make voice calls to any phone and video calls to any other IP (internet based) phone,"BSNL Chairman and Managing Director R K Upadhyay told reporters here. 

He said that most of the revenue of BSNL comes from landline phones and this new services is one of the initiative to increase company's revenue.

BSNL will charge Rs 3 for 45 second video call made from VCO which will include 30 per cent commission for the franchise owner.

"There will be no need to use computers for making video calls for user of these video phones," Upadhyay said.

BSNL's Senior General Manager for Broadband, A K Jain said that around 770 PCOs have confirmed to shift their business to VCOs and the target is to have 10,000 VCOs set-up across the country.

The service was inaugurated by Advisor to Prime Minister Sam Pitroda who stressed on the use of video phones to reach rural masses.

"It will bridge the gap between urban and rural India. This will be a platform for growth as this network can be used for purposes like job interview, tele-medicine, tele-education and host of other services," Pitroda said.

BSNL will provide various categories of VCO franchisees based on the services that a franchisee owners wants to provide.

SIS officials said that people looking for franchisee will have to pay for VCO devices which starts from Rs 25,000 and will have to sign an agreement for the business.

An official said VCOs having medical devices attached to it for remote diagnosis of a patient will also be made available. Many other services will be launched shortly for which prices will differ.