ICT is catalyst for innovation

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is an increasingly competitive nation in Asia Pacific and such development can be further accelerated through ICT (information and communications technology), said software giant Microsoft Malaysia.
"Exciting things are happening in Malaysia with the projects under the Economic Transformation Programme and ICT will be the catalyst for many of them," said Ananth Lazarus, Microsoft Malaysia managing director.
Microsoft, he said, will continue to support the country's innovative spirit through its many programmes and initiatives aimed at transforming lives, businesses, and the education sector.
To this end, the software vendor has launched various initiatives, such as organising the Imagine Cup competition to encourage students think up innovative ideas to solve the world's toughest problems.
It is also behind the BizSpark programme, which equips software startups with Microsoft development tools.
This has led to the setting up of local software companies, such as Israk Technology that is involved with online video production and Web Bytes which produces Xilnex, a cloud-based management software for the retail sector.
Microsoft has also equipped various non-governmental organisations with its software products under its Unlimited Potential programme.
This programme is targeted at narrowing the "digital divide" - the gap between the technology haves and have-nots.
Ananth was speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Microsoft Accelerating Asia Pacific Summit here. The event highlights how technology can be used to solve socio-economic problems in the region.
Parent company Microsoft Corp sees Asia Pacific as an epicentre of growth due to the region's growing number of talents and innovations.

credit: http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/12/9/it_news/20111209165339&sec=it_news

Social networking workshop for single mothers and orphans

GAMBANG: Some 311 single mothers and orphans from across the state had a taste of the wonders of social networking at the Social Website Introduction and ICT Awareness Workshop at the Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP).
The workshop, organised by UMPs Faculty of Computer System & Software Engineering and the UMP Women Association with the cooperation from Yayasan Salam Malaysia and MSC Pahang, involved participants from Bentong, Bera, Cameron Highlands, Jerantut, Kuantan, Lipis, Maran, Mentakab, Pekan, Raub, Rompin and Temerloh.
Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Maznah Mazlan said participants could improve their economic status through the use of technology by applying what they had learned.
This workshop is in line with the Government’s aspiration to help single mothers and orphans obtain information through social networking.
They must also learn the pros and cons of information technology so it will not be misused for unhealthy activities,” she said at the closing ceremony of the workshop here recently.
Maznah also advised single mothers to monitor their childrens activities on these social websites to prevent them from surfing harmful sites.
“Hackings and scams are widespread online and if we do not provide the right information on its consequences, our children will not realise they are being drawn into these negative activities,” she said.
She added that single mothers nationwide should take advantage of the various programmes prepared by the Government.
Meanwhile, UMP assistant vice-chancellor (student affairs and alumni) Professor Dr Yuserrie Zainuddin said the university as a community campus also had a social responsibility in helping the Government assist the people.
“Therefore, the university has identified socio-economic development as one of its four major efficiency fields in the implementation of the UMP Strategic Plan 2011-2015,” he said.
Participant Noraida Mohd Sulong, 43, said the workshop would definitely help her in communicating with customers and business partners online.
“I now have a Facebook account to market my beauty products and layer cake business,” said the mother of six.

credit: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/11/8/southneast/9849439

Huawei gears up for new targets

NEW DIRECTION: Huawei's booth at the recent ITU conference in Geneva, Switzerland. By realligning and restructuring its business targets, Huawei hopes to be a big player in the IT industry.

ICT solutions provider Huawei Technologies Ltd has restructured and realigned its business to meet the demands of a world increasingly embracing information and ­communications technology.

Traditionally catering to the needs of telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers, Huawei has set plans in motion to conquer the enterprise market with its brand of cloud-computing solutions, and the end user market with its brand of smartphones.

"Many of the challenges in the IT industry can no longer be addressed individually from carrier to carrier or device to device. There needs to be a solution that can stretch across all three verticals," said Ross Gan, its head of corporate communications.

He said Huawei wants to be present in these verticals - networking, cloud ­computing and devices - and hopes to gain a better advantage in the competitive IT ­industry.

Gan was speaking on the sidelines of the recently concluded International Telecommunications Union World Conference in Geneva.

Into the Cloud

Huawei may be a veteran in the network solutions arena and cloud computing is a fairly new venture for the company but it isn't daunted.

"Cloud computing is very new and everyone is still finding their feet. Many companies have formed alliances and joint ventures in order to compete in this space," Gan added.

Ron Raffensperger, Huawei's director of cloud computing marketing, said cloud ­computing represents a small percentage of the company's revenue but as the ­technology gains popularity, it wants to increase its R&D investment in that space and have 4,000 engineers working on cloud computing ­solutions.

The company's cloud strategy is to offer organisations the components to build their own Cloud in a single solution - Huawei's Single Cloud.

"This is a solution that can work across a broad environment," Raffensperger said.

Huawei's cloud solution includes its own brand of servers, storage, network, security and software solutions all developed internally or with the help of partners through the joint venture agreements it formed to enrich its own suite of cloud-computing solutions.

"In order to work with our partners better, we have created a set of open interfaces that will help enrich our suite of IT solutions," he said.

One of the partners it is working with is storage and security solutions company Symantec Corp.

Raffensperger said the security solution born out of this joint venture will make it easier for organisations to encrypt their data before it is stored in the Cloud. It is also working to develop storage solutions with Symantec.

Huawei also wants to push its own brand of servers to a larger group of customers. Raffensperger said Huawei makes its own servers and it is a little known fact that it has been in the server business for five years.

"Last year, we hit about US$25mil (RM75mil) in server sales mainly to major ISPs (Internet service providers) in China," he said.

It is also working to develop its own ­virtualisation software that will allow ­organisations to run multiple virtual ­computers on a single server.

Huawei plans to use its expertise in ­networking to create a high performance data network that can be used in datacentres.

Huawei has also set its sights in ­growing its cloud computing customer base. Raffensperger said the company hopes to have at least 60% of its customers come from outside China. Currently, only 25% are from outside that country.

Devices, too

To capture the end user market, Huawei is intensifying its device division and hopes to launch its brand of smartphones.

Gan said the phones will run on Google's Android operating system and it already has a strong relationship with the search-engine giant.

"As we enter the mobile devices market, we'll be engaging with end users and we're working to put more resources in this ­venture so consumers will get to know Huawei ­better," he said.

The device market is not entirely new to Huawei which has created devices to go with its network, as well as USB dongles ­usually used to connect mobile devices to the Internet.

New ventures always have their ­challenges and Huawei sees its main challenge in ­obtaining talent, especially those able to bring the Huawei name beyond carrier circles.

"The enterprise and devices market require different skill sets because selling to them is nothing like selling to the carriers," Gan said.

He explained that the relationship with carriers is deeper and more personal while the enterprise and device markets are more dispersed and Huawei must have the ability to connect with different channel partners in order to win these new markets.

"We're quickly putting these pieces into place," he said.

And with the right pieces in place, Huawei hopes to make US$100bil (RM300bil) in revenue in the next 10 years, with each of its sectors contributing about a balanced amount.

"We will be building up the brand as we target new kinds of audiences.

"We're pretty much well known in the ­carrier space and maintain a low profile in others, but that's going to change," Gan said.

Private sector vital to ICT-literate generation by 2020, says assemblyman

KUCHING: The private sector plays an important role when it comes to training trainers in the field of information-communication technology (ICT).

Demak Laut assemblyman Dr Hazland Abang Hipni said since there were only eight years to 2020 when Malaysia becomes a developed nation, the private sector would help expedite training and enable trainers to create an ICT-proficient generation.
“We are fast approaching 2020 and it is clear that if we want an ICT literate society, we need to have teachers who are well-trained and equipped to pass on their knowledge.

ICT savvy: Dr Hazland (fourth left), Eduspec Holdings Berhad chief executive officer Lim Een Hong (left), Prof Mohd Fadzil (sixth left) and some of the winners of the 19th Dynabook National ICT Competition.

“These teachers need to have global mindsets and skilful too so that we are assured that we have a generation well-versed in ICT.
“These teachers are mostly in the private sector, which is why this sector is vital to our ICT development,” he said when closing the 19th Dynabook National ICT Competition at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) .
He was representing Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah.
Dr Hazland said it was not too late for Malaysia to achieve its goal towards having an ICT proficient society if the government had the support of the private sector.
As such, he said, the government always gave additional allocation for ICT education.
“We shouldn’t be easily satisfied. We need to constantly raise the bar because the world is getting more and more competitive. If we want to keep up, we need the keep on improving ourselves,” he said.
Earlier on, Unimas Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Mohd Fadzil Abdul Rahman said competition like this should be held frequently since not only does it promote ICT, it would even unearth talented individuals.
“Who knows, we might find the next Steve Jobs (Apple co-founder). After all the late Steve Jobs started in his backyard and so did Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder). If these two great minds can make it, I don’t see why our children can’t do so too,” he said.
The event had 650 students from 61 primary schools nationwide participating and the competition encompasses computer drawing at the junior and senior levels, general knowledge and typing skill.
The winners are namely Lee Jia Yu from SJK (C) Yuk Kwan, Perak (general knowledge), Ching Jia Sing from Kong Min Pusat, Penang (junior drawing), Nigel Leong Zheng Hao from SJK (C) Chung Hwa, Sabah (senior drawing) and Oh Coyun from SJK (C) Chong Hwa Setapak KL (typing).
The event was held by Dynabook, a subsidiary of Eduspec Holdings Berhad, Unimas and the Federation of Kuching and the Youth Section of Samarahan Division Chinese Associations.
The 20th Dynabook National ICT Competition will be held in Malacca.

credit: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/5/sarawak/10033171&sec=sarawak

Invisible computing comes to Asia tech expo

NICE

A robotic cook, a colouring book that comes to virtual life and movies that read your mind are some of the innovations on show at a cutting-edge computer technology exhibition in Hong Kong this week.
The first Asian edition of the SIGGRAPH expo of computer graphics, interactive technology and digital media brings together developers, distributors and resellers from around the world.
But while most of the conference is about business, some of the most interesting - and just plain bizarre - gadgets are not for sale.
The "emerging technologies" hall is where the real boffins from universities and research laboratories strut their stuff with prototypes fresh off the drawing board, in the name of science rather than profit.
Going invisible
Mark Billinghurst, director of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, said the research was breaking down the physical and mental barriers between humans and computers.
"What the emerging technologies show is how the technology can be used in different playful and artistic ways," he told AFP as the three-day expo in Hong Kong's convention centre opened on Dec 13.
"We're entering an era now of, I guess you would call it invisible computing, where I can interact with the real world like I normally would and the computer monitors what I'm doing and reacts automatically.
"No longer do we have this separation between the user and the computer like we had 20 or 30 years ago."
His colleagues' contribution to the exhibition includes a system that instantly turns pages from a child's colouring book into three-dimensional computer animation.
"That's really fun for children because they can easily colour and then they can see their colouring image come to life," Billinghurst said.
Similar "augmented reality" technology is already common in everyday life, from Nintendo's Wii game console to fighter pilots' heads-up displays.
Unlike virtual reality, which aims to replace the real world with a digital one, augmented reality seeks to enhance reality by seamlessly mixing it with computer-generated information and technology.
One of the simplest new prototypes on display at SIGGRAPH is a vibrating phone that allows users to tickle each other through the touchscreen.
"That's really fun because normally when you play with your friends at a remote distance you can't touch them or feel them, but with this you can have that physical contact," Billinghurst said.
Thought-controlled movies
Another highlight is a thought-controlled movie program that can respond to brain impulses. Depending on the electrical currents on the scalp, it can show more or less violence, for example.
"The movie adapts to your behaviour and shows you more of that content, so that's one way you can have a movie that responds to you," Billinghurst said.
Other innovations include polychrome paper that changes colour in response to the warmth of touch, a dress that turns transparent when the wearer's heartbeat increases, and three-dimensional, interactive wall-art.
"This is the type of thing that you might see in a Terminator movie," said Billinghurst, referring to a "telepresence" robot that sends tactile feedback about its surroundings via a vibrating belt worn around the controller's waist.
Its developers at Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan have given it the not-so-catchy name of NAVIgoid: Robot Navigation with Haptic Vision.
Co-developer Dzmitry Tsetserukou - a towering, bespectacled man from Belarus - wobbles backwards and forwards as he manoeuvres the robot with his body.
Wraparound dark glasses allow him to see images transmitted from the robot's "eyes", while the belt delivers sensory information about obstacles.
"Our body is the joystick and gives us feedback. It's very intuitive," he said.
Robots galore
The NAVIgoid is not the only device using a "human joystick" at the exhibition. Another is the Joyman, developed by French-based research centres to enhance navigation in virtual worlds by making it a full-body experience.
Other robots include Cooky, developed by Japan's Keio University and the University of Tokyo, which can cook dinner while the user takes a shower or watches TV - although they still have to chop the ingredients.
"This is just a simple robot so we still need to prepare the ingredients, but in the future everything will be done by a robot," said researcher Daisuke Sakamoto, who specialises in the interplay between humans and robots.
"Human-robot interaction technology is currently very poor. Our robot is showing that the concept behind this kind of interface is very important," he said. -

credit:http://www.techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/12/15/it_news/20111215095844&sec=IT_News

its black to my berry..blackberry

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Faster loading, faster scrolling, faster zooming. It's the fastest BlackBerry experience to date. The premium BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 smartphones feature the most powerful engine ever in a BlackBerry smartphone.

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BlackBerry® 7 is the next generation BlackBerry OS, packed with powerful new features and innovative apps. Augmented reality introduces exciting new ways to interact with the world around you, and with Near Field Communication1 (NFC) built-in, you can connect with other NFC-enabled devices and smart tags.

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When you're done with work, turn your attention to the weekend - your BlackBerry Bold smartphone switches gears right with you. With BlackBerry® Balance™ technology, your work life and private life never mix—letting you use your BlackBerry smartphone for whatever life throws at you.

 

the new generation has begin

Apple has announced the iPhone 4S, more of an iPhone 4 with lots of hardware improment. The new smartphone will run the latest iOS 5 with over 200 new features, expected to be released for existing iPhone users on October 12, 2011.

All the details, specification, features of the iPhone 4S below:

Design: The iPhone 4S looks exactly the same as iPhone 4.
Storage/Colours: The iPhone 4S comes with 16, 32 and 64GB of storage in black and white color versions.
Processor/Speed- The Apple iPhone 4S comes with an A5 chipset which combines a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. Apple claims this hardware combination makes the iPhone 4S seven times as fast as the iPhone 4 on games, and two times as fast on normal tasks.
Display: LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 640 x 960 pixels, 3.5 inches
Connectivity- The iPhone 4S comes with 2 antenna and supports both GSM/3G and CDMA networks, HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps. There’s also Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth(v4.0 with A2DP).

• GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• CDMA 800 / 1900
• CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
• HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

The iPhone 4S can switch intelligently between two antennas to improve call quality.


Camera: The 5 megapixel shooter of its predecessor has been replaced by a faster 8 megapixel unit(3264×2448 pixels) and the video recording has been upgraded from 720p to 1080p with real-time image stabilization and temporal noise reduction. The CMOS backside illuminated sensor gets you 73% more light than the iPhone 4 sensor. Apple has also modified the lens system, with five lens elements.
Siri: Apple is including Siri in the iPhone 4S, which will only run in this model. The reason is the need for a faster A5 processor.

Siri, a voice-activated virtual assistant. Siri responds to spoken queries by serving up information from the iPhone’s built-in apps, and it can read incoming messages in a computerized female voice. Users can also dictate text messages and email messages to Siri.
Battery Life: Apple claims the new processor doesn’t impact the life of the battery.

• Stand-by time: Up to 200 hours (2G) / Up to 200 hours (3G)
• Talk time: Up to 14 hours (2G) / Up to 8 hours (3G)
• Music play: Up to 40 hours
• Browsing: Up to 6 hours (3G) / Up to 9 hours (WiFi)
• Video Playback: Up to 10 hours

Pricing: iPhone 4S will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the new 64GB model.
Availability: Pre-order of the iPhone 4GS starts October 7 and will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK on October 14, 2011.
The iPhone 4S will also be available at 22 more countries by the end of October 2011 including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Malaysia is expected to get the iPhone 4GS as well, expected within 4-8 weeks.

heart for you..

assalamualaikum..firstly,i wanna tell a little bit about myself..first of all..my name is MUHAMMAD AZRI BIN AZIZ and u can call me AYIE..this is my first time experience doing a blog for my subject and i think this subject are quiet interesting..a special thanks for TUAN SYED MAZLAN our lecturer for MGT300...ok thx!!:)

test test test

assalamualaikum..this is first time i'm doing blog for my assignment for subject MGT300..