Trillian is back, Trillian Astra!!!

Trillian is back, one of my favorites. Its gone be what iphone is to mobile... the godmother of IM, setting new standards, changing the way you communicate on internet. Trillian Astra!!!
The best feature is Trillian Astra webpage which comes equipped with an integrated chat widget that anyone can use to engage in two-way communications. If you're not around, messages will be delivered as "offline messages" and you will receive them when you log in.

At long last, Cerulean Studios has released some more information on Trillian Astra, the long-awaited next version of its popular multi-protocol instant messaging client. Apart from a sparse few screenshots, until now we've seen very little of Astra. Now Cerulean has put up a sneak preview site that pimps some of the features we can expect in the successor to Trillian 3.1. Here's a quick summary of what's new:

Performance:
Astra improves on start-up time, redrawing time (i.e. how quickly skinned elements appear and change), and memory usage. Memory leaks have also been plugged and Cerulean is building some lightweight skins with efficient memory usage in mind.

Interoperability:
Brand new in Astra is support for MySpace IM. They've also created a separate Google Talk component (distinct from the Jabber plugin) and split the AIM and ICQ components apart. Also coming is improved file transfer compatibility, a more informative file transfer dialog, and a cool feature that zips folders on the fly for sending a bunch of files at once, and they've added support for custom MSN status messages. Under the hood, they've created an "IMCore" library that aims to make IM plugins stabler and easier to develop.

Social software:

Astra comes with some features for managing all of your different accounts and making it easier for people to get ahold of you. You can now store you contracts online, allowing you to log in on a friend's computer (assuming they have Astra) and have all of your accounts and contacts load automatically. You can also "export" your contact information to contacts, kind of like an electronic business card. For better or for worse, they're also adding widgets, which can be created in Flash 9. Lastly, they're going to publish open documentation for all of this stuff so developers of other IM clients and other software can create their own features that interoperate with Astra.

Web services:
Cerulean Studios is making a big web push with Astra. Users' status for all of their accounts will be displayed on the web (optionally, obviously), but the biggest news is that Astra users will be able to login with any web browser and send and receive IMs on any of their accounts. The aforementioned widgets will also be web-enabled.

Message window:

They've totally revamped the message window. It now features drag-and-drop (or copy-and-paste) image sharing, pen input for tablet PC folks or just people who like to draw with the mouse, and RSS-feed-reading "knowledge bar."
There's also a "buzz" feature ported from other clients which they describe as "an incredibly annoying way to quickly get [a contact's] attention." They apologize for adding the latter feature, however, and presumably it can be disabled. Finally, Astra has a "saved font styles" feature that lets you set up predefined styles e.g. "important" or "code."

Contact list:

The contact list, which I consider the most important part of any IM client, is getting a new "tile view" that shows buddy icons and names not unlike, say, the Windows desktop, a "Spotlight search" box (cue Apple lawsuit) for finding a particular contact among many, drag-and-drop avatar changing, and easy display name changing.

Skins

Astra is getting lots of skin improvements, including the ability to change skins without restarting Trillian (finally!), color schemes, alpha transparency (finally x2!), "variables and skin math," which sounds like very basic scripting, and layers.

There's no word yet on whether there will be a free version of Trillian Astra, but if you thought Trillian Pro 3.x was worth shelling out for, you may very well feel the same about Astra.

According to the official Cerulean Studios blog they're going to be opening up alpha testing much earlier than we're used to from them. No download link has appeared yet

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Liz Hurley's picky guest

Liz Hurley's plans for a traditional Indian wedding have met a stumbling block - one of her guests doesn't like spicy food.

The British actress was keen for her wedding to Indian business tycoon Arun Nayar to be as authentically Indian as possible, including the food being traditional cuisine from the region.
But one of Liz's celebrity pals is worried it will be too spicy for their delicate palate.

A source said: "She wanted the Indian leg of her wedding celebrations to involve authentic food but one big-name guest won't eat any spicy food at all."

Liz, who is set to marry Arun in March, has already told guests they must attend the wedding dressed in traditional Indian attire.

The 41-year-old star wrote to guests with strict instructions of her dress code - saris for the women and turbans and kurtas (long tunics) for men.

Liz told guests "not to panic", because she and Arun are setting up a shop to ensure all their guests buy something suitable when they arrive in India.

The couple will begin their extended wedding with a traditional British ceremony in Liz's England home of Gloucestershire, followed by two days of partying in Mumbai before finishing with an Indian ceremony.

Famous guests will include Victoria and David Beckham, Sir Elton John and Donatella Versace.

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New Design !!!

Ok i have redesigned the template, with multiple columns, now i have more flexibility. Will work on the content soon.

Hope you guys like the new design.

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Lawsuit over iPhone name may get ugly

SAN FRANCISCO — What's a name worth?

To find out, Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. may spend millions of dollars in a high-stakes legal battle _ and the winner could walk away with the rights to the coveted name "iPhone."

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Cisco asked a judge to forbid Apple from using the name "iPhone," a Cisco trademark since 2000. The case hinges in part on whether Apple's phone _ a sleek, $499 gizmo unveiled Tuesday to much fanfare _ could confuse shoppers looking to buy Cisco's iPhones.

Attorneys specializing in intellectual property said Thursday that Cisco will likely win, if the case goes to court.

"Cisco's argument will hold water," said David Radack, chairman of the intellectual property department at Pittsburgh-based Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC. "It'd be like if I sold spark plugs, then someone else said I'm going to sell carburetors with the same name. Yeah, they're different products _ but they're both sold in auto parts stores, and someone who saw the brand name on a spark plug could reasonably think it was made by the same company."

Last spring, Cisco began selling a line of bulky but inexpensive iPhones that make free long-distance calls over the Internet, a technology known as Voice-over Internet Protocol. Amazon.com sells them for as little as $12, though they require extra software and hardware and are usually sold in kits that start around $70 and can cost $200 or more.

Apple's iPhone is a sleek cellular gadget that delivers e-mail, Web sites, music and movies over the Cingular Wireless network. Apple's iPhone will be available in June for $499 or $599 for a version with more memory.

Earlier this week, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris called the lawsuit "silly," and Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller said other companies have tried to use the name for VoIP phones _ but only Apple's iPhone is a cellular phone.

Despite that distinction, attorneys are curious about what defense Apple may offer, noting that the high-profile case could become the most closely watched naming skirmish since 1989, when Mead Data Central Inc. _ owner of the Lexis legal database _ sued Toyota Motor Corp. over its Lexus luxury brand.

Cisco's trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office describes "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks."

According to the lawsuit, Apple's iPhone is "deceptively and confusingly similar" to Cisco's _ and, as technology advances, both phones could someday operate on the same networks and assume similarities in the user interface, hardware or software.

Cisco is asking Apple to pay Cisco's legal fees and relinquish all profits eventually made on the iPhone. Cisco also demands Apple destroy all labels, signs, packaging and other promotional material that includes the word "iPhone," a product it cost Apple millions to develop.

Apple first asked Cisco in 2001 to acquire or license rights to the name. When Cisco declined, Apple embarked on a campaign of "confusion, mistake and deception" in its effort to secure the rights, the lawsuit claims.

Apple went so far as to create a phony company _ called Ocean Telecom Services LLC _ to get around Cisco's trademark, Cisco alleges.

In an application to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office in March, Ocean Telecom billed itself as a foreign company doing business in Trinidad and Tobago. The company listed its attorney as James Johnson. His contact information was an e-mail address from Google's free Web-based gmail service.

On Thursday, the Apple spokeswoman said the company would not discuss Ocean Telecom.

No one responded to an e-mail that The Associated Press sent to James Johnson's e-mail account.

Despite harsh words in the lawsuit, Cisco spokesman John Noh said Cisco's attorneys are still willing to negotiate with Apple. He emphasized that Cisco _ the most richly valued company in Silicon Valley, with a market capitalization of more than $174 billion _ never wanted Apple to pay cash for naming rights.

Rather, Noh said, Cisco executives wanted to let Apple use the word "iPhone" on the condition that both companies' phones could communicate with each other. He would not provide technical details.

"This is not about money. We were seeking to work closely with Apple to make our devices more interoperable," Noh said Thursday. "Cell phones, work phones, home phones, personal computers _ they're all converging. The value of that convergence is limitless, and the key to that is industrywide interoperability. It's a core tenets to our business."

Barry Cohen, a partner in the Philadelphia office of Thorp Reed & Armstrong, said Cisco had a strong argument. Judges usually allow products from different companies to share the same name only when they're starkly dissimilar _ Delta Airlines and Delta Faucet, for instance.

"Those are clearly two businesses that don't overlap, except for maybe the bathroom in an airplane," Cohen said.

Judges also consider possible expansions of the product lines in determining whether trademark infringement occurred. Another factor is intent _ did the company not know of another with a similar name? That can't be the case with Apple, which first approached Cisco about the name nearly six years ago.

Apple may argue that the word "iPhone" is so generic and broad it should not be trademarked at all. Numerous English words have become so pervasive _ aspirin, escalator and elevator, for instance _ that they've lost trademark protection. (Apple has aggressively defended the word "iPod," sending threatening legal notices to people who use the word to mean any type of digital music player.)

"The problem with the genericness argument is that, if Apple goes that route, the next day Nokia could come out with an iPhone, and I can't imagine that would go over well with Apple," Cohen said.

If Ocean Telecom is the "alter-ego" for Apple and applied for the trademark, as Cisco suggests, that could undercut the argument that the name is not worthy of trademark protection.

It's unclear why executives couldn't settle their naming skirmish. Grace Han Stanton, a trademark expert and partner in the Seattle office of Perkins Coie LLP, said Apple executives were likely anticipating the lawsuit long before they launched the iPhone Tuesday.

"Why choose iPhone when there's a known conflict? Maybe they wanted the media frenzy," Stanton said. "This added a lot of fuel to the iPhone fire."

Peter Morici, business professor at the University of Maryland, acknowledged that both companies have ample resources for a multi-million-dollar court battle _ but why? Apple's marketing staff is among the most talented in corporate America and should be able to come up with a catchy new name.

"Apple doesn't need this lawsuit," Morici said. "A new, creative moniker would be a wise strategy."

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U.S. Forces Raid Iranian Consulate in Iraq, Detain 5

U.S. forces in Iraq raided Iran's consulate in the northern city of Arbil and detained five staff members, a state-run Iranian news service said.

The U.S. soldiers disarmed guards and broke open the consulate's gate before seizing documents and computers during the operation, which took place today at about 5 a.m. local time, the Islamic Republic News Agency said. There was no immediate information on whether any of those detained are diplomats.

The raid follows a warning yesterday to Iran and Syria from President George W. Bush in his address to the American people on a new strategy for Iraq. Bush accused Iran and Syria of aiding the movement of ``terrorists and insurgents'' in and out of Iraq and said the U.S. will ``seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies.''

Coalition forces arrested six people during ``routine security operations'' in the Arbil area, the U.S. military said in an e-mailed statement. The military didn't confirm that the consulate was raided and didn't say whether any of those detained were Iranians.

The operation was ``part of an ongoing effort by coalition forces targeting individuals involved in activities aimed at the killing of Iraqi citizens and coalition forces,'' the military said.

Arbil, about 320 kilometers north (200 miles) north of Baghdad, is the Kurdistan Regional Government's seat in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish area.

Iranian Protests

The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad sent a letter of protest to the Foreign Ministry, calling for the Iraqi government to secure the release of the detainees, IRNA said.

U.S. forces detained two Iranian diplomats in Baghdad in December. The men, suspected of weapons smuggling, were later released to Iranian officials in the capital.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Scott Stanzel said on Dec. 26 those detainees had diplomatic status, and an investigation would be completed before ``characterizing their activities.''

Bush's approach to Iran and Syria ignores a key recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group -- diplomatic engagement with Iran and Syria to help end the conflict. He announced plans yesterday to send 21,500 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Iraq.

Calls to the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran weren't answered.

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India marks first with launch of four satellites

SRIHARIKOTA, India (Reuters) - India launched four satellites on a single rocket for the first time on Wednesday, including one that will be brought back to earth to set the stage for the country to send an astronaut into space.

The successful launch was also the first after the state-run space agency's plan to put one of its heaviest satellites into space failed last July as the rocket went into a tailspin and disintegrated soon after lift-off.

On Wednesday, the PSLV-C7 rocket took off from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launchpad in Sriharikota on the southeast coast, carrying two small Indian satellites and one each from Indonesia and Argentina.

"We have done it, we have done it well, we have done it correctly," ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said after the launch. "It was a successful textbook mission and our boys have done well."

One of the Indian satellites, the 550-kg (1,200 lb) Space Capsule Recovery Equipment (SRE-1), would test ISRO's ability to recover an orbiting space capsule and technology associated with the complicated exercise.

ISRO approved India's first indigenous manned mission into space in November, aiming to put an astronaut outside the earth's atmosphere by 2014.

In 1984, air force pilot Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to go into space, riding in a Soviet spacecraft. So far, only the United States, the former Soviet Union and China have launched humans into space on board their own rockets.

ISRO is already working on the launch of its first unmanned mission to orbit the moon in 2008, powered by a locally built rocket. Discussions have also been held about sending a person to the moon by 2020.

ISRO is planning to increase the number of its satellite launches and capture about 10 percent of the $2 billion global market in the coming years with its low launch rates.

It also hopes to build communication satellites and launch them for developing nations.

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Infosys' quarterly profit up 52.4 pct.

India's Infosys Technologies Ltd. said Thursday its net profit jumped 52.4 percent in the most recent quarter from a year ago on strong outsourcing orders.

The company, which writes and develops software for Western companies like Goldman Sachs and J.C. Penney Co., said it added 43 new clients during the quarter.

"The globalization of services continues to be strong. We do not see any reduction in global spending on IT (information technology," said Infosys Chief Executive Nandan Nilekani.

Infosys' net profit for the October-December quarter rose to US$218 million (euro168 million) from US$143 million in the same period last year, in line with what analysts expected.

Revenue for the fiscal third quarter expanded 47 percent to US$821 million (euro632 million) from US$559 million a year ago.

Nilekani said the company was negotiating several big-size deals, but refused divulge the details. The company added 3,282 new employees during the quarter, taking its total headcount to 69,432.

Infosys shares, however, fell 2 percent to 2,125 rupees (US$48) in early trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange as the company's forecasts for revenue and earnings per share appeared to have disappointed investors.

Infosys predicted sales for the fiscal year through March would rise 44 percent to US$3.09 billion (euro2.38 billion). The Nasdaq-listed company said earnings per share for the fiscal year would rise 44 percent to US$1.47 (euro1.13).

Analysts said the company has done well in maintaining its profit margins despite an appreciation of the Indian currency, which erodes revenue when overseas earnings in dollars are converted to rupees.

"The muted guidance is perhaps based on expectations of a further strengthening of the rupee," said Divya Nagarajan, analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities, a Mumbai-based brokerage firm.

The rupee appreciated about 2.5 percent during the October-December quarter, said V. Balakrishnan, chief financial officer of Infosys. The company's operating margin would have increased at least 2 percent more in rupee terms if there was no appreciation, he said.

Infosys CEO Nilekani said the company's billing rates -- which in the past came under pressure because of competition -- have become "stable with an upward bias."

He said the company was also encouraged by new opportunities in China, where a lot of companies are keen to hire Infosys.

"Apart from the rupee, all the other factors are benign," he said.

Among new clients, Infosys said it has been hired by a U.S. grocery chain to enhance its information technology system supporting warehouse operations. Another new client was a large distributor of paper products in the United States. The clients were not identified.

All the earnings figures released by the company conformed to U.S. accounting standards.

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Cisco Sues Apple over 'iPhone'

No sooner has Apple Computer unveiled its "iPhone" at the ongoing MacWorld 2007, Cisco has announced filing a lawsuit against Apple in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

The suit seeks to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco's registered 'iPhone' trademark.

The 'iPhone' trademark was obtained by Cisco in 2000, after completing acquiring Infogear, which till then owned the trademark and sold products under that name.

Since obtaining the 'iPhone' trademark, Linksys, a division of Cisco, has been shipping new iPhone products. On Dec 18, the company further added new products to its iPhone family.

Commenting on the lawsuit, Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Cisco, said, "Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name. There is no doubt that Apple's new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission."

"Today's iPhone is not tomorrow's iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone, and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand," Chandler asserted.

Cisco, with this lawsuit, is seeking an injunction to prevent Apple Computer from copying its 'iPhone' trademark.

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NYSE Group Buys into India Market

New York Stock Exchange cements its position in Asia with its purchase of a strategic stake in the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange
Even before wrapping up its purchase of Euronext to give it a big stake in Europe, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is looking toward Asia on its march toward globalization. The NYSE Group's 5% purchase on Jan. 10 of India's leading marketplace, the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange (NSE), for $115 million sets it up to take part in the explosive growth of the country's financial markets.

The investment is a long-term play that gives the NYSE the largest stake in the exchange permitted by the Indian government. Nelson Chai, the NYSE Group chief financial officer (CFO), concedes that it is not a controlling stake, nor does it give the New York bourse a chance to share directly in the earnings gains of the National exchange. But he notes that 5% is the maximum permitted now, suggesting that over time the NYSE's holdings could grow. "It is a strategic investment," Chai says.

Benefits more important than a direct profit and loss effect could flow to the NYSE even before any expansion of the holdings. For one, Chai says the NYSE has its eye on listing more Indian companies and the National exchange could be helpful in directing such business toward New York. Currently, the New York exchange lists 10 companies from India whose total global market capitalization is approximately $76 billion.

Examining the Motivation
The deal also gives New York an entrée into the growing Indian derivatives business, where the National exchange has 99% of the business in the Indian market. In stocks, the exchange controls about 67% of Indian trading.

The NYSE is keenly interested in expanding into derivatives, a big part of its motivation for taking on Euronext. Similarly, the Chicago-based futures exchanges, especially the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, have been looking at Asia for expansion. This deal puts the Merc on the sidelines in the growing Indian market. Ironically, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Merc, NYSE board member James J. McNulty, was on hand in Delhi to take part in the signing ceremony.

The NYSE Group is buying the shares of NSE for cash from a consortium of selling shareholders, including ICICI Bank Limited, Industrial Finance Corporation of India Limited, IL&FS Trust Company Limited, Punjab National Bank, and General Insurance Corporation of India. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

"Our investment in India's National Stock Exchange complements our global growth strategy," said John A. Thain, CEO of the NYSE Group. "The National Stock Exchange shares our global vision."

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Apple Waves Its Wand at the Phone

By DAVID POGUE
Remember the fairy godmother in “Cinderella”? She’d wave her wand and turn some homely and utilitarian object, like a pumpkin or a mouse, into something glamorous and amazing, like a carriage or fully accessorized coachman.

Evidently, she lives in some back room at Apple.

Every time Steve Jobs spies some hopelessly ugly, complex machine that cries out for the Apple touch — computers, say, or music players — he lets her out.

At the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Mr. Jobs demonstrated the latest result of godmother wand-waving. He granted the wishes of millions of Apple followers and rumormongers by turning the ordinary cellphone into ... the iPhone.

At the moment, the iPhone is in an advanced prototype stage, which I was allowed to play with for only an hour; the finished product won’t be available in the United States until June, or in Europe until the fourth quarter. So this column is a preview, not a review.


Already, though, one thing is clear: the name iPhone may be doing Apple a disservice. This machine is so packed with possibilities that the cellphone may actually be the least interesting part.

As Mr. Jobs pointed out in his keynote presentation, the iPhone is at least three products merged into one: a phone, a wide-screen iPod and a wireless, touch-screen Internet communicator. That helps to explain its price: $499 or $599 (with four or eight gigabytes of storage).

As you’d expect of Apple, the iPhone is gorgeous. Its face is shiny black, rimmed by mirror-finish stainless steel. The back is textured aluminum, interrupted only by the lens of a two-megapixel camera and a mirrored Apple logo. The phone is slightly taller and wider than a Palm Treo, but much thinner (4.5 by 2.4 by 0.46 inches).

You won’t complain about too many buttons on this phone; it comes very close to having none at all. The front is dominated by a touch screen (320 by 480 pixels) operated by finger alone. The only physical buttons, in fact, are volume up/down, ringer on/off (hurrah!), sleep/wake and, beneath the screen, a Home button.

The iPhone’s beauty alone would be enough to prompt certain members of the iPod cult to dig for their credit cards. But its Mac OS X-based software makes it not so much a smartphone as something out of “Minority Report.”

Take the iPod features, for example. As on any iPod, scrolling through lists of songs and albums is a blast — but there’s no scroll wheel. Instead, you flick your finger on the glass to send the list scrolling freely, according to the speed of your flick. The scrolling spins slowly to a stop, as though by its own inertia. The effect is both spectacular and practical, because as the scrolling slows, you can see where you are before flicking again if necessary.

The same flicking lets you flip through photos or album covers as though they’re on a 3-D rack. All of this — photos, music collection, address book, podcasts, videos and so on — are synched to the iPhone from Apple’s iTunes software running on a Mac or Windows PC, courtesy of the charging/synching dock that is included.

Movies are especially satisfying on this iPod. That’s partly because of the wide-screen orientation, and partly because the screen is so much bigger (3.5 inches) and sharper (160 pixels per inch) than those on other iPods.

The iPhone can get onto the Internet in two ways: using Wi-Fi, at least when you’re in the presence of a wireless hot spot, or using Cingular’s disappointingly slow Edge network.

That’s right: the iPhone’s exclusive carrier will be Cingular. (Nor is the phone “unlocked”; you can’t use it with any other carrier.) At least it’s a quad-band G.S.M. phone, so it will work overseas.

You can also conduct text-message conversations that appear as a continuous chat thread. And like any smartphone, the iPhone can download e-mail from standard accounts at regular intervals. In fact, Yahoo will offer free “push” e-mail — that is, messages will arrive on the iPhone in real time, just as on a corporate BlackBerry.

The iPhone is not, however, a BlackBerry killer. The absence of a physical keyboard makes it versatile, but also makes typing tedious.

Instead of raised alphabet keys, you get virtual keys on the screen. They’re fairly small, and of course you can’t feel them. So typing is slow going, especially for the fat of finger.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be especially precise. Even if you hit the wrong “keys” accidentally, the super-smart software considers adjacent keys — and corrects your typos automatically. If what you actually managed to type is “wrclme,” the software proposes “welcome.” You tap the Space bar to accept the fix. It works beautifully.

The real magic, however, awaits when you browse the Web. You get to see the entire Web page on the iPhone’s screen, although with tiny type. To enlarge it, you can double-tap any spot; then you drag your finger to scroll in any direction.

Alternatively, you can use a brand-new feature that Apple calls multitouch: you slide your thumb and forefinger together (like pinching) or apart on the glass. As you do so, the Web page before you grows or shrinks in real time, as though it’s printed on a sheet of latex. It works with photos, too, and it’s wicked cool.

All of this is cooked up with Apple’s traditional secret sauce of simplicity, intelligence and whimsy. It’s these ingredients, not the features themselves, that inspire such technolust in Applephiles.

For example, voice mail messages appear in a list, like an e-mail in-box; you can listen to them in any order. A proximity sensor turns off the touch screen when the phone is up to your ear, saving power and avoiding accidental touches. The screen image rotates when you turn the phone to see, for example, a landscape-orientation photo. A light sensor brightens the screen in bright light. Finger smudges and streaks are inevitable, but are visible only when the screen is turned off. (They disappear with a wipe on your sleeve.)

The speaker is on the bottom edge, rather than the back, where it would be muffled when the phone is set down. The optional tiny Bluetooth wireless earpiece has its own little charging hole in the iPhone’s charging/synching dock — and it snaps in magnetically for convenience. Apple says that this earpiece “pairs” with the iPhone automatically, sparing you the usual ritual of pressing buttons in a baffling sequence.

Nonetheless, the iPhone won’t be the smartphone for everybody. You may well consider the Cingular exclusivity or the price a deal-breaker. You may also be disappointed that the iPhone can’t open Microsoft Office documents, as the Treo can (although Apple says it can open PDF documents), or wonder why it’s not a 3G cellphone that can exploit higher-speed, next-generation cellular towers as they arrive in the coming years. And you may worry about putting all your digital eggs into one losable, droppable, glass-front basket.

Note, too, that the software is still unfinished, and many questions are still unanswered. Will you be able to turn your own songs into ring tones? Will there be a voice recorder? Will the camera record video? Can you use Skype to make free Internet calls? Will the battery really last for five hours of talking, video and Web browsing (or 16 hours of audio playback)? Will you someday be able to buy songs and videos from the iTunes Store right on the phone?

At this point, Apple doesn’t yet have the answers, or isn’t revealing them.

What it does have, however, is a real shot at redefining the cellphone. How many millions of people are, at this moment, carrying around both an iPod and a cellphone? How many would love to carry a single combo device that imposes no feature or design penalties? Considering that the cellphone is many people’s most personal gadget, how many would leap at the chance to replace their current awkward models with something with the class, the looks and the effortlessness of an iPod?

Apple has done its part: it has packed more features into less space, and with more elegance, than anyone before it. The rest is up to the godmother.


E-mail: Pogue@nytimes.com

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iPhone by Apple

Today's coverage obviously was dominated by that little touch screen phone from señor Jobs and company. Now check out Ryan's crystal clear video of Apple's highly anticipated entry into the cellphone game

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First IT-ITeS SEZ operational in Pune

Pune's Kharadi MIDC Knowledge Park became the country's first notified IT- ITeS special economic zone (SEZ) in the country with operations starting at Pachsheel's four million square feet project, Eon Free Zone.

The project will be developed in four clusters of one million square feet each with clients in phase I getting possession by March and going live with operations in June.



"We are adding another 500 seats of incubation facility, thus offering a total of 1,000 seats under incubation," said Atul Chordia, managing director of Panchsheel Reality claiming that the Eon Free Zone was the first IT-ITeS notified SEZ in the country.

Currently, VSNL International and Eaton have started operations in the incubation facility with 140 and 400 people, respectively.

John Hayduk, CTO and senior vice-president operations and engineering of VSNL International, said: "We are looking at consolidation of our global delivery centre here and plan to up our head count from the current 150 to 400 in the next four months."

VSNL will be offering customer contact, network engineering and design, 24/7 surveillance and other such services that form a major component of the back office operations. "Our plan is to improve efficiencies besides cost as we move more and more complex operations offshore, moving towards remote network management," Hayduk added.

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Interesting facts about Pune

1. Pune has the impeccable record of highest growth in a span of 20 yrs.

2. Pune has highest number of pubs in Asia.

3. Pune has highest number of cigarette smokers in India.

4. Pune has the highest number of software companies in India-212, followed

by Bangalore - 208, Hydrabad - 97. Hence called the Silicon Valley of
Maharashtra

5. Pune has 21 engineering colleges, which is highest in the world in a
given city. Pune University has 57 Engineering colleges affiliated to it,
which is again highest in the world.

6. Pune is the only city in the world to have commercial and defence Airport operating from the same strip.

7. Pune has highest number of public sectors and government Organizations in India.

8. Pune university has highest number of students going abroad for higher
studies taking the first place from IIT- Kanpur.

9. Pune has only 38% of local population (i.e.Marathi). Hence a true
cosmopolitan with around 20% North Indians, 10% Tamilians, 14% Telugites,
10%Keralites, 8% Europeans (Koregaon Park), 5% Africans, 2%Bangalis and 6% a mixture of all races.

10. Pune Police has the reputation of being second best in India after
Bombay.

11. Pune has the highest density of traffic in India.

12. Pune has the highest number of 2-wheelers in the world.

13. Pune is considered the Fashion capital of the East comparable to Paris

15. Pune has produced the maximum international sportsmen in India for all
sports next to Mumbai & Delhi.

16. Pune has produced the maximum number of scientists considered for many
high profile Prize nominations.

17. Pune has produced the highest number of professionals in USA almost 60%
of the Indian population abroad is from Pune (except Gulf

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Guruji.com Launches city search in Pune

Guruji.com, backed by Sequoia Capital India, has announced city search in Pune

BANGALORE, INDIA, January 06, 2007 - Guruji.com, backed by Sequoia Capital India, has announced city search for Pune. This will help Pune users to get acurate search results and thus improving the user experience.Guruji.com is focused on providing better search results to Indian consumers, by leveraging proprietary algorithms and data in the Indian context. The company has assembled a farm of servers to index the entire universe of Indian websites and is using propriety algorithms to go deep into the Indian internet domain and fetch locally relevant results to search queries of Indian consumers.

According to a study done by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), there are about 65 million people who use search engines in India and the current size of market for search engine advertising is $50 million. This market is expected to grow significantly over the next five years.

Anurag Dod, Co-Founder & CEO, Guruji.com said "What sets us apart is our focus on the Indian market and the Indian consumer. When an Indian consumer types in a search key word like "newspaper" the results should show him websites of the top Indian newspapers rather than other news sites which are not relevant to him. We have worked very hard to build the best local search product in the market." he added.

Gaurav Mishra, Co-Founder & COO, Guruji.com explains "90% of internet search queries are local in nature, and Guruji.com will deliver better search results than any other search engine in these instances. For example if a user types a search "Pizza in Pune " or "Chinese restaurant Juhu, Mumbai" the user will be able to see local business listings as well as articles, reviews, blogs, or any other web references."

About Guruji.com

Guruji.com is India's first internet search engine. Founded by two IIT Delhi graduates, the company focuses on developing search products for enhancing the Indian user experience. Crawl Technology, used by guruji.com, is a complex computing system that crawls the web identifying Indian content using sophisticated algorithms. The technology is built on a distributed architecture that can scale with the growing needs of the users. It crawls the web, indexes the data that it gathers and provides the user with a simple keyword based interface to get to the data quickly and efficiently. Guruji.com aims to have the most comprehensive search for Indian content on the web. To learn more about Guruji.com visit www.guruji.com.

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