Open Source Software

In an attempt to improve its cross platform offerings for mobile phones and desktop applications, cell phone giant Nokia announced its acquisition of Trolltech. The Norwegian company which manufactures software platforms and develops frameworks will now be under Nokia’s control. Nokia paid $ 153 million for this acquisition. This way Nokia has managed to hold its ground in the mobile market against Apple and Google which have been making inroads fast and at the same time possibly slowly down the Motorola juggernaut.

Nokia spokespersons said that the Qtopia software technology developed by Trolltech will help Nokia in the spread of its Ovi Web portal. They also said that the software developed by the company is used in many thousands of extremely popular applications like Skype and Google Earth. It has also been used in more than 10 million devices including mobile handsets, media players, set top boxes and video phones.

Even though Nokia has been long resisting the Linux-based market this move will put it in a strong position as and when it decides to enter it.

“Trolltech’s deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market,” said Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s executive VP of the firm’s devices unit, in a statement. He said that the move will help Nokia boost the growth of mobile devices and PCs and accelerate the rate of their integration with the internet.  Nokia plans to continue licensing Trolltech technology for commercial as well as open source usage.

This move will probably affect Motorola more than ever because it uses Qtopia software in all of its Linux based phones and as Nokia acquires control over it, Motorola will use yet another key supplier. This move could also prove a major setback to Motorola’s plans of developing Linux software in the coming year.

Yahoo has just announced its list of the best Websites in the U.K. as has been its custom for the past few years. Every year one of the world’s most popular search engines compiles a list of the best, most useful and innovative websites in the United Kingdom and separates them into eight different categories including travel and education. It has been doing so for the past five years.

The distinction of the most ethical website for ’07 went to Good Samaritan website called The Nag. This website sends its users an e-mail everyday telling them to do good deeds. Quite the electronic do-gooder.

There also happens to be an Orkut or Facebook equivalent for our canine friends. A site called Doggy Snaps lets dog owners the world over get in touch with each other. It won the best social networking site prize. Like Facebook it also allows users to put up pictures and other information about their dogs.

The category for educational site was topped by an innovative site that lets people get in touch with pen pals on the internet and learn new languages through chats.

Faces in Places won the award for the best site in the Weird and Wonderful category. This website allows users to upload and hosts pictures of faces and things in everyday life.

For people who are looking for help while moving and need some advice on how to relocate, what to do with correspondence and other such issues there was Move Me which was adjudged the most innovative site of the year.

For globe trotters and those who like taking holidays often World Reviewer provided great and absolutely accurate reviews of places all over the globe. It won the best travel site category. Check it out the next time you plan a family holiday.

Nigel’s Eco Store sells goods made from recycled material and other such eco friendly products and so Yahoo decided that it would win the best shopping website award.

Free Rice is a website that encourages you to and facilitates the donation of food aid to developing countries. It also allows you to test your vocabulary and was 2007’s best charitable site.

Facebook is in the news again. The social networking site has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the recent past.  It has apparently now released a software which intrudes into networks. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. which is based in Tel Aviv and makes software to secure networks against intrusion has issued a warning to Facebook.

Facebook’s new software called ‘Secret Crush’ is reported to be a malware threat. This software allows third party software vendors to plug applications into the site. This is a common feature of all Facebook application such as ‘Which Drink are you’, ‘Which Harry Potter character are you’ and many others. These software applications are created by a third party and then is licensed to Facebook to put up on the site. Microsoft Corp. owns a stake in Facebook and along with Google owned Orkut has left other social networking sites like MySpace and Twitter.

These applications are immensely popular among users who add them to their profiles to get an answer to the question. Check Point says that what happens is that a Facebook user gets a message that someone has a crush on them. After this they user downloads the application onto his profile which then leads to an adware application. When people open attachments they can get exposed to what are known as “phishing” scams that put harmful programs on your computer and malware on the operating systems.

There have been many issues that Facebook has faced including an application which tracked a user’s movement over the internet. Many privacy issues have also been raised. In spite of all these claims of identity theft, intrusion of privacy etc against social networking sites, their success only seems to be spiraling upwards. There is no stopping the juggernaut.

The big news that’s doing the rounds in the electronics world is that the iPhone will be launched in Japan pretty soon. Just as people all over the world are clamoring for unlocked iPhones it looks like the folks in Japan are just about to be treated to the real deal. The second largest economy in the world is all set to have iPhones of their own and reports from the Wall Street Journal suggest that Jobs and the other guys at Apple are working out some kind of a deal with NTT DoCoMo’s president Masao Nakamur for the domestic launch of the iPhone. It’s been rumoured that Apple is also in talks with telecom company Softbank and is keeping everyone guessing in true Apple fashion. However DoCoMo is still first preference for Jobs and his men. What is interesting to note is that Apple has not considered Japan’s second best telecom carrier KDDI for the job.
Japan is an important target for Apple if it wants to reach its 10 million device target by the end of 2008. It’s been reported that as usual the topic of how the revenues are to be shared is an issue of debate but Apple is apparently confident of sealing the deal. Also since DoCoMo and Softbank and competitors it is quite likely that the carriers will budge first. Looks like after conquering North America, Apple is now targeting the gadget freaks in Japan.
While there is no doubt that Apple will have its way with carriers ultimately, whether they will have to settle for second best, only time will tell. DoCoMo doesn’t have an EDGE or GSM network so maybe the 3G iPhone which rumours have been hinting at. Apple will have to bring out a phone that is compatible with UMTS or HDSPA standards.
It is also reported that Apple is in tough talks with Chinese carriers who are firm that they will not share revenue as is the Chinese rule. Now that’s a battle that will be interesting for who wins.

One topic of great interest this week is Real Networks’ move of retrenching employees. The move of laying off workers usually meets with strong disapproval and striker and unrest from labour unions and the workers. The first to lay off the labour force was Dell that cut down its employee strength by one tenth when it downsized and shut down many of its centres in India and other parts of South Asia.

Real has downsized almost 35% of all its employees with around 10% being in Europe and the remaining being in South Asia. The reasons being cited for this downsizing is the redundancy of assets due to the six mergers Real Networks has been involved in. Lack of adequate work is an acceptable reason for downsizing and while no one blames Real Networks what needs to be looked at is the sudden drop in fortunes in IT and IT Enabled Services that is prompting such severe measures and how long the affected sector will take to recover from such losses.

Recently a large number of IT companies have been forced to downsize and lay off a number of their employees and workers including Sun Microsystems and a large number of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units in South East Asia.

Now with even Real being forced to get rid of employees is worrying news for employees not just in America and Europe but almost all over the world. While some corporations are breaking new sales records, some like CompUSA are being forced out of business while others are forced to cut down their operations. The cause behind these need to be looked into so that the jobs of these people can be given back and those of the remaining employees can be saved.

Here is the concluding part of the list provided earlier, the list encompassing varied kind of news papers available through out America and the world.Finance Gates
Provides independent financial advice on personal finance: banking, funds, investing, insurance and billing.

Futures
Magazine covers fundamental and technical trading strategies, updates on technical analysis techniques, technology updates and market news that affects traders worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a number of newspapers which are solely dedicated to news items relating to business. The ups and the downs of the stock market, why the particular behavior, the soaring oil prices to anything and everything financial and relating to business can be found in these. Here is a list of news papers of international repute which are widely circulated and are upto the mark.

American Banker
Banking news and financial information about banking technology, community banking, regulatory and compliance issues, bank rankings, and other resources.

Bank Director
Magazine for directors of financial companies. Focuses on the information board members need on the hottest topics in Read the rest of this entry »