Nortel to sponsor 'One Laptop per Child'

Nortel announced Wednesday that it has become a corporate member of the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) initiative.

OLPC, a non-profit organization, was formed earlier this year by Nicholas Negroponte and other faculty members from the MIT Media Lab. As a corporate member, high-tech networking company Nortel will provide an annual fee for purposes of funding OLPC initiatives.

The objective of OLPC is to develop a fully functioning, connected laptop to give the largest number of the world's children -- especially those in developing nations -- an educational tool.

According to OLPC, the laptop, currently in the early stages of development, is designed to be the size of a standard school notebook and will use wireless networking capabilities to allow children to interact with each other and access the Internet. It is expected to leverage built-in wireless capabilities that support WiFi and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and be used as a conventional computer, electronic book, handheld game console and function as a TV.

"Nortel has a firm belief in the power of communications technology to enhance the lives of people around the world. Our sponsorship of initiatives such as the OLPC can help address some of the greatest challenges in emerging markets," said Martha Bejar, president, Caribbean and Latin America and Emerging Markets Solutions, Nortel.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

Discover More Music With Twitter And Ping

If you are on Twitter and enjoys music, well, you can now share the songs you bought or came across with your friends more easily, especially withmusic previews and links to purchase the songs.

Apple'siTunes social music site, Ping, has collaborated with Twitter to make it easier for users on social network to discover more music. If you are already on Ping, just link to your Twitter account to findPing users among the people you already follow on Twitter. Once it's linked, when you purchase a song or do a post or review, the post will be tweeted to your followers.The post will also contain the playable song previews and links to purchase and download music from iTunes store.

Twitter has also included a few recommendations for you to follow like @Amazonmp3 whereby there are tweets ondaily deals on digital downloads, and @AllSongs, @Stereogum and @Pitchforkmediaif you wantto follownews about new bands.

Source: Twitter Blog

Details of BlackBerry Monaco Touch leaked

A BlackBerry touchscreen phone has been recently exposed, which boasts a stylish and modern design. Compared to its predecessor, the BlackBerry Monaco Touch comes with a powerful 1.2GHz processor and 768MB memory, which meets the minimum hardware specifications for current breed of smartphones on the market.

The Monaco Touch runs the latest BlackBerry OS 6.0 and has 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 800x480 pixel resolution. Other features include 5-megapixel camera, 720p high definition video support, Bluetooth 2.1, NFC and built-in GPS. No news as to whether the BlackBerry Monaco Touch will be retailing in the first half this year, but let's wait and see.

Source: imobile.com.cn

Canaan le premier MMORPG en flash de gPotato

L'éditeur Gala Networks annonce aujourd'hui l'arrivée, début 2010 sur le portail gPotato, d'un nouveau MMORPG nommé Canaan. Entre Rappelz, Fly for Fun ou encore Dragonica, le portail était déjà bien fourni en la matière. Mais Canaan a une particularité : c'est un jeu en flash, jouable depuis n'importe quel navigateur web sans téléchargement ni installation d'aucun client. Développé par le studio chinois XPEC, le jeu a été élu "meilleur MMO sur navigateur 2008" en Chine.

Canaan prend place dans un univers fantastique d'inspiration manga. Ses habitants, fuyant leur monde ravagé par la guerre, se retrouvent sur une terre sauvage où ils se battent pour reconstruire leur civilisation. Canaan possède un système de combats au tour par tour. Parmi ses fonctionnalités, vous retrouverez donjons, PvP et guerres de guildes, familiers à apprivoiser, système d'artisanat et housing (maisons personnelles).

Quelques visuels accompagnent l'annonce de Gala Networks, mais il faudra attendre pour bénéficier d'images du jeu lui-même.

Canaan Web

Display Taiwan 2011

Although Chimei and AUO were absent from the show this year, Taiwans third panel maker CPT or Chunghwa Picture Tubes was at the show and had a fair few things on display. First up the company was demoing a 10.1-inch USB 3.0 powered display and although it featured standard netbooks resolution of 1024x600 it was low power enough to be able to be powered by a single USB 3.0 port. On top of that CPT had added support for two point touch and theres even a USB 3.0 pass-through port, as the display wouldnt use up all the available bandwidth.

CPT was also showing off larger 18.5 and 21.5-inch USB 3.0 powered displays, although both of these models required two USB 3.0 ports to get enough power, something of a failure in terms of usability with most notebooks. On the upside were looking at resolutions of 1366x768 and 1920x1080 which is vastly better than that of the 10.1-inch model. The brightness level on both of these displays was also close to that of regular desktop displays, something many USB displays have a problem with.

Next we have CPTs transparent 15.6-inch display which has a fairly impressive resolution of 1600x900 and this is a truly transparent display, not semi-transparent as most other larger transparent displays are. Have a look at the video below for an idea of how well it works. The demo consisted of a couple of small figurines behind the panel and various moving elements that reveal or hid the objects behind the panel.

CPT was also demoing a 2.18mm thin 3.5-inch phone display with qHD or 960x540 resolution and the company claims that this is one of the thinnest screens of this kind in the world. Its really quite hard to see how thin it is on the picture, but this is the kind if display that will help make smartphones even thinner than they are today.

The final model were going to cover here is CPTs joint venture with Pixel Qi which was announced at Computex, but which we sadly missed then. The new screen is a 10.1-inch model with 1280x800 resolution and its targeting Android tablets. The advantage of the Pixel Qi technology is that the backlight can be switched off while the screen remains readable, although colours suffer quite badly from it. The advantage is that you can extend the battery life of your device by a pretty good margin and it also makes it much easier to read the screen as it looks more like an eBook reader than a tablet, which in our opinion is a good thing when reading text.

AMD To Remain Low Until K8L In Q3

Motherboard makers in Taiwan say AMD may not regain its competitive edge until the launch of the Socket AM2+ platform and K8L architecture based CPUs in the third quarter 2007. The motherboard makers noted that according to AMD's planning, no major 64-bit dual-core processors will be unveiled in the first half of 2007. Processors based on AMD's new K8L architecture, which are currently known by the codenames Agena FX (quad-core), Agena (high-end dual-core), and Kuma (mid-range dual-core), will not hit the market until the third quarter 2007. AMD will have to accelerate its migration to the 65nm node so as to cut costs and increase output, or it may plunge further down if Intel resorts to even fiercer pricing campaigns, the makers added.

Apple Wins Samsung Galaxy Nexus Injunction

The Galaxy Nexus smart phone by Samsung and Google has been barred from the US market - the worlds largest just ahead of China – due to the probality that it is engaging in patent infringements against competitor Apple Inc.

Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court for the Northern District of California found the Galaxy Nexus probably infringes four patents belonging to Apple Inc and agreed to grant an injunction to Apple while the court considers Apples claim that the South Korean company has infringed its patents.

"Apple has clearly shown that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunctive relief," Judge Lucy Koh stated.

The four patents that Samsung has likely breached are: Slide-to-lock/unlock, Data tapping, Auto correct and Siris unified search function.

Judge Koh then ordered Apple to post a $96 million bond — the sum being an estimation of the damage suffered by Samsung from the temporary ban on its sales —should the iPhone maker lose to Samsung in later proceedings, scheduled for 2014. The sales ban in the United States will be effective immediately when Apple posts the bond.

With the Galaxy SIII already the subject of preliminary legal proceedings by Apple, there is little doubt that either a settlement or further legal proceedings lie ahead for the Samsung Google partnership.

This case has ramifications for future patent disputes relating to fair and reasonable, non-discriminatory licensing.