Apple Music Event 2010: The Major gadgets and highlights

Finally, the big Apple Music Event 2010 took place and Steve Jobs came up with some great products and services. The music event took place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theatre in San Francisco.

Steve Jobs, the legendary CEO of Apple, did the presentation. Mr. Jobs appeared wearing a turtleneck shirt which is a bit different than usual and jeans.

Steve Jobs started his presentation talking about Apple Inc.’s recent business expansion. At present, Apple has 300 stores in ten countries: the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Australia and China. There are days when more than one million people visit our stores. Apple did 80,000 one to one classes per week and the people who are buying Macs half of them are new users.

Apple opened three new stores in Asia and Europe. It opened its second store in Shanghai China which has a 40 foot high glass cylinder and it became a landmark in glass engineering. It opened another store in Paris and its second store in London at Covent Garden.

Till date, Apple shipped 120 million iOS devices including – iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Apple activates 2,30,000 iOS devices per day (does not include updates). The Apple App Store is a major success with over 6.5 billion app downloads till date which means there are 200 download every second. Currently there are more than 2,50,000 applications of which 25,000 are iPad applications.

The first product Mr. Jobs announced was iOS 4.1 with bug fixes including proximity sensor, Bluetooth, and improved iPhone 3G performance and proximity sensor issues. User complained that the new

iOS 4.1 slows down the iPhone 3G devices. Jobs also unveiled some news features including High Dynamic Range photo capabilities which combines different photos taken quickly together to produce clearer photographs, TV show rentals, and HD video upload capability via Wi-Fi and Game Center. The new iOS 4.1 will be launched for iPhone and iPod Touch via iTunes for free.

At the show, Jobs also unveiled iOS 4.2 for iPad. It will have all the features of iOS 4.1 and more. Jobs introduced two new features- Airplay and wireless Printing. With the new iOS 4.2 the Apple iPad will finally have multi-tasking capability. Airplay, previously known as Airtunes enables user to stream music and video on their i-device via Wi-Fi. User can also print from iPad via Wi-Fi. The iOS 4.2 will be available on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch in November for free.

Jobs then unveiled the newly designed iPod Shuffle with buttons. The 3^rd-gen iPod shuffle did not have buttons which did not go well with many users. So, the new iPod shuffle brings back the buttons again with Voice Over feature. Till date, Apple shipped 275 million iPods. The 4^th gen shuffle has a similar design to that of the second gen iPod shuffle. It also has clip on its back. The new shuffle comes with 2GB memories and can go for 15 hours on a single charge. It would cost $49.

The next device which Jobs unveiled was a newly designed iPod Nano. As speculated, the 6^th gen Nano is similar to iPod Shuffle in terms of design. 46 percent lighter and 42 percent smaller compared to its predecessor, the new iPod Nano comes with a small touchscreen. The device also has a clip on its back.

There are two dedicated volume buttons. It has 24 hour battery life. Other features include FM Radio and Pedometer. The new iPod Nano supports 29 languages and comes with Nike+ kit. Available in six colors the iPod Nano comes in two memory capacity- 8GB and 16GB. The 8GB is priced at $149 and 16GB version is priced at $179.

The next big device of the event was the 4^th gen iPod Touch. According to Steve Jobs, the iPod Touch is one of the most popular portable gaming device outselling Nintendo and Sony PSP combined. It accounts for more than 50 percent of the portable gaming market share and more than a billion and a half games and entertainment items have been downloaded on the device. News reports said that the new iPod Touch would have many features of the iPhone 4 and it seems to be true. The 4^th gen iPad Touch comes with Retina Display 4x the pixels at 326 ppi, 24 bit color, LED backlit. It also has A4 chip, 3-Axis Gyro, iOS 4.1, front facing camera for FaceTime and a rear camera with HD video recording capability. The iPod Touch has 40 hours of music playback capability. The new iPod Touch is only 7.2 mm thin. It comes in three categories- 8GB priced at $229, 32 GB priced at $299 and 64GB priced at $399. The new iPod Touch will be shipped next week and pre-order starts from today

The Apple Music Event 2010 also saw the unveiling of the iTunes 10 with a new logo. The iTunes contains 11.7 million songs 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies 35 million books 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click. The iTunes 10 comes with Cover Flow UI, Genius Mixes, Playlists, and many other features.

Another interesting feature of the iTunes 10 is Ping. It is a social networking music service that will be available only on iPod Touch and iPhone. Using Ping, people can easily find out latest news and songs of their favorite artists, what his or her friends are listening and share songs with their friends. They can also get customized top ten charts of downloaded songs. The new iTunes 10 is available for download today in 23 countries.

The last device to unveil at the event was the newly designed Apple TV. No, it is not renamed iTV but the device went through a major change in design. The new Apple TV is one fourth the size of the current Apple TV. Launched in 2006, the Apple TV did not become so popular but the new Apple TV comes with some great features which the buyers cannot resist. The new Apple TV has got HDMI, USB, optical audio and Ethernet. It also comes with a remote control.

The new Apple TV has no downloads but all rental. People can rent HD TV shows for $0.99 and it will be commercial free. Apple signed a deal with ABC and Fox. They can also rent “First run HD-movie” for $5. The new Apple TV works with Mac, iPad and iPod Touch and television. For PC, no synching is necessary. Users can also access Netflix, Flickr, Mobileme and Youtube on Internet. The new Apple TV also has AirPlay features which allows the user control the device through other mobile devices. The new Apple TV is priced at $99 and it would be available in store within next four weeks. Pre-order starts from today.

Apple finished the show with some music. Coldplay vocal Christ Martin came and sang “Yellow” and “Viva La Vida.”

Wimax Internet in Bangladesh: Facilities, Problems and Potentials

Compared to most countries even in South Asia, Bangladesh had late entrance in World wide information super high way  through submarine cable. Internet in Bangladesh was opened in 1996 but until 2006, the country carried out its internet activities mainly through VSAT. Still, most people in the country do not have access to high-speed internet. In 2009, there was Wimax and for the first time, Bangladeshi consumers had taste of better high-speed internet. Right now, two companies are providing Wimax facilities for consumers. They are Banglalion and Augere and the product name of Augere is Qubee and in this article we will from now on refer to the serviced as just Qubee.

Life Before Wimax:

I first got taste of using internet in 1997 in British Council, Dhaka. At that time, it was very expensive and there was hardly any cyber café. Things did not move that much until the end of 2001 when cyber café business became very popular in Dhaka. I remember that in 2002, in every part of Dhaka city, there were several cyber cafes. From 2003, people could take internet connections at home from these cyber cafes in their local areas. Big Internet Service Providers (ISP) were not interested to give connections to the ordinary people. The ISPs were and perhaps still are more concerned about the corporate or business clients.

The connections from cyber cafes were not that bad but there was one very big problem. It was not reliable. When it rained or there was an electricity problem in the cyber café, the consumers were forced to suffer. Second problem was that the cyber cafes were very small players and they could not ensure good customer service. For the ordinary users, Grameenphone made a big impact on at the end of 2006 by providing internet service through mobile phone. Later Citycell also joined the market and rapid expansion of internet happened.

Both Grameenphone and Citycell were reliable but their speed was always a big factor. That is why, when I got the taste of Qubee in October 2008, at last I felt that my prayers for a reliable and fast internet was at last answered. I have not used Banglalion’s service, but whatever I have heard from the users is good. Because of good speed and wireless connectivity, both Qubee and Banglalion are becoming popular.

Qubee Wimax:

Now, I like to say some few words about the two players. Qubee started its operation on October 21, 2009 and I wrote about its inaugural ceremony here. At that time, there were mainly two packages and it was rather expensive. For example, I can see that Qubee 512 had 512 Kbps speed and download capacity was limited to 6GB and the price was 3400 taka. Anyway, right now, Qubee offers three packages and I am giving the list here:

	Monthly Usage Allowance*
Speed	5GB	10GB	Sky **
256 Kbps	BDT 850	BDT 950	BDT 1,250
512 Kbps	BDT 1,250	BDT 1,450	BDT 2,250
1Mbps	BDT 2,250	BDT 2,750	BDT 5,250

 **Fair Usage Policy is applicable for Sky packages.

The initial expense for Qubee is Taka 3,000 for the modem and if you just call them they will come and install the modem at free of any additional cost.

Banglalion Wimax:

On the other hand, Banglalion has seven packages. Three of the packages have unlimited usage facility whether four others have restrictions or limited download. I am giving the full list of package and pricing here of Banglalion:

 Banglalion Packages & Pricing:

NO	PACKAGE	SPEEDS	MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION (TK)	MONTHLY USAGE
		Lion infinity*
1	Lion Starter	128 Kbps	600	Unlimited
2	Lion Value	256 Kbps	1000	Unlimited
3	Lion Value Plus	512 Kbps	2150	Unlimited
		Lion Regular
4	Lion Gold	1 Mbps	4750	20 GB
5	Lion Mega	2 Mbps	7000	25 GB
6	Lion Jumbo	5 Mbps	15000	30 GB
		Lion student
7	Lion Student	256 Kbps	800	5 GB

* Fair Usage Policy Applicable

Banglalion has USB dongle, indoor unit and out-door unit type of connection devices and they have different prices.

Facilities of Wimax

After Wimax has come, it is providing some great facilities for internet users in Bangladesh. First of all, for the first time we at home have really high speed internet which is consistent. I do not know about others but I really have hardly any complain against Qubee and one of my students is using Banglalion in another part of the city. He is also totally satisfied with Banglalion.

We are the kind of people who use internet all the time because both of us are professional Bloggers and web-based professionals. So, we need to do a lot of browsing and internet speed is really important for us. Before the arrival of Qubee, I could hardly dream of watching a video in YouTube, but now I can really enjoy YouTube videos and it is not only for entertainment. For example, just yesterday we were writing about the upcoming Apple music event 2010 and we found that we needed to watch a number of videos in Youtube.

It was in fact, in yesterday Mehdi (another blogger of this blog) and I watched at least 20 videos in Youtube. It was simplly impossible before the coming of Wimax at least in my home. Wimax is also quite reliable. Except the submarine cable problems, I hardly faced any outage in the last ten months from Qubee. I am not one of those persons who are crazy for downloading 2GB or 3GB movies for whole night and that is why I hardly face any problem with Qubee. However, if you are one of those persons who are crazy for downloading movies and videos all the time then perhaps Wimax is not a very good option for you as when I bought it they clearly mentioned that Wimax is not for continuous download of videos and movies for large files.

I agree to their idea because as far as I am concerned, internet is still a very important facility in our country and it should be used more for our business and professional activities rather than entertainment and enjoyment.

Problems:

I earn money with internet as a professional blogger and that is why I do not mind the Wimax charge. However, I have to admit that the price is still some expensive for ordinary people. For example, I want to take a connection of Qubee 1mbps unlimited or sky package, but the price is around 6000 taka (including VAT) per month and it out of my ability. If I could get that package it would have been very good. If that package had a charge of taka 3,000 then I happily would take it.

So, price is still an issue and the two Wimax companies should try to cut back at least 20 percent on the existing charge as soon as possible. However, you have to understand that the decrease in Wimax charge is more or less dependent on the bandwidth charge by the government. I really wish that the government decreases bandwidth charge substantially and brings it to 10,000 taka per Mbps. Another problem is that Wimax facility is not available in most areas of the country. In fact, except Dhaka, Wimax is available only in two or three cities. This has to change as soon as possible.

Potentials:

Wimax has enormous potential in Bangladesh. Dhaka is a very small city with more than 10 million population. Thus, it can become a lucrative market for Wimax companies if they can make the best use of it. On the other hand, Bangladeshi students and young people are now trying their luck in the field of freelance outsourcing. Sooner or later, there will be a huge demand for Wimax. I really believe that Wimax companies should help freelancing professionals who are trying to make their mark and they should arrange or sponsor events especially targeted for the online freelance workers.

Wimax also has potential for people living outside of Dhaka. Most ISPs are not interested to take internet there as it is not economically feasible. However, since Wimax uses wireless technology, small cities and rural areas can be covered quite easily.

The government has an important role to play in this regard. Outside of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet, the private sector has not flourished enough. Government is still the biggest player in the economic activities in most other cities and towns. So, the government should encourage spread of Wimax in small cities specially can arrange Wimax connections to government colleges and schools.

Going back to Basics for South Asia Blog

I guess that it is the third time that I am changing the track of this blog. I started South Asia Blog in 5/6 January 2010 with the goal of making it a quality blog about business and economy. Mehdi Hassan and Biplob Kishore started working with me and in the first 3-4 months, we really put some quality content.

Then, it became a very successful blog and in the fourth month, it received more than 100,000 page views by simply writing about Google Trends Topics and Sports and Entertainment. Its success became the cause of its problem and shared hosting simply killed the blog. At that time, it was in WordPress and then I had to go for Google Blogger Custom domain hosting. I had to delete all the content and then manually post the entries one by one.

Then I became sick and again from this March, we started writing about business, technology, hot topics in Google Trends and from March, traffic simply sky rocketed. Well, the blog has received nearly 2 million page views in the last months. It has surely brought some decent revenue but it has destroyed my satisfaction about the quality of the blog.

When I started it then I had the dream that it will be my signature blog. In other terms, it will be the blog that I would proudly show off to others and be the most important part of my profile. From today, I am going back to the same mission.

We will post only entries related to business and economy. I want to make it a useful and thought provoking blog about South Asia. From time to time, we will post entries on global economy like entries about US economy or Europe or China or Japanese economy etc. However, the main focus will be on South Asia.  

Thus, in short, we will not update the blog frequently like past but will try to post quality entries. I hope that all of you will enjoy reading the blog from now. I know that I will enjoy. 

Bhutan government is working towards establishing ICT and e-governance

Bhutan government is now working hard to adopt ICT and e-governance. In its 10^th Five Year Plan, the government allocated a budget of Nu 500 million for the development of e-Governance and another Nu 950 million for developing a state-of-the-art National Broadband core network that would connect all the the 205 Gewogs (Group of villages) through Internet.

The government also approved a Nu 220 million project to establish 205 community centers in the Gewogs in order to provide public services to rural people via Internet.

Jigme Tenzing, senior ICT officer at the department of information technology and telecom (DIT&T), Ministry of Information and Communications, said, “The e-governance project will focus primarily on providing public services online in addition to other priority electronic government systems.”

In order to meet the growing demands, the department of Information technology and telecom also increased its personnel from 20 to 50 and number of ICT officers in the ministries and dzongkhags has been increased to 2003.

Government also undertook another ambitious project of Nu 2.05 billion called the “Chiphen RigPyel” project, under this project various training programs will be conducted where government officials, rural people and young people would be trained on Internet.

Fujitsu launched LifeBook AH530 GFX in India

Fujitsu recently launched Fujitsu recently launched LifeBook AH530 GFX in India. Compared to the original LifeBook AH530, the GFX is ideal for those people who work with video and high quality graphics. The laptop comes in glossy black and blue. The laptop would cost Rs.43,990.

The laptop comes with Core i3, i5 or i7 processor options and 8GB RAM. AH530 GFX packs 15.6 inch on-glare HD LCD with 16:9 aspect ratio. It sports ATI mobility Radeon HD 550v graphic with 1GB video memory supporting DirectX 10.1.

The laptop comes with an external graphics card with 1GB memory. Buyers can chose between Blu-Ray or DVD drive. There is 2.5-inch 500GB SATA hard disk.

The laptop comes with pre-installed Windows 7 professional edition.

It has WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1. I/O ports include three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output plus gigabit Ethernet onboard.

Other features include 1.3 megapixel camera, and spill resistant keyboard with num pad on it.

Fujitsu is now going for an aggressive business acquisition in order to increase its global present. During an interview in New York, Masami Yamamoto said, “Targets will be companies that have technologies that Fujitsu doesn’t have or that have customers that Fujitsu has never been able to reach so far,……We would like to get engaged very actively in M&A activities.”

Mr. Yamamoto, further said that his company is looking forward to acquire business in cloud-computing and middleware.