Net neutrality - guiding principle of internet

A neutral treatment of all content on the internet is an essential pre-requisite for fostering permission-less innovation which is one of the guiding principles of the internet, an IT expert said on Friday.

Satish Babu, chair, Internet Society - Trivandrum Chapter, and vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Regional At-Large Organization of ICANN, made the observation here while speaking on the topic "Recent Developments in Internet Governance".

Permission-less innovation is the principle that allows anyone to deliver a service to the global community of internet users, without the need for permission from any central authority.

Babu pointed out that well-known examples include Google, Amazon and Facebook where entrepreneurs started out with little more than a dream.

"No other medium in the history of humankind has had such potential and global reach as the internet, and it was unfortunate to see practices such as zero-rating that restricted the neutrality and unified global nature of the internet," said Babu.

He added that governing internet was a complex and challenging task given its globally distributed nature, lack of centralized authority, jurisdiction issues, diversity of stakeholders, diversity of services, and plurality of content.

"Although the multilateral model -- loosely structured on the basis of UN system -- had been proposed, it is the Multi-Stakeholder Model that is accepted today as the most appropriate," said Babu.

In the Multi-Stakeholder Governance Model, all the stakeholders in a given system, who, in the case of the internet, include businesses, governments, research institutions, NGOs and civil society, are given formal roles in the governance process.

He also pointed out that in the internet ecosystem, organisations such as ICANN, ISOC and IGF (Internet Governance Forum) follow the Multi-Stakeholder Model of Governance, which enables all stakeholders to make them heard in the policy development process.

ISOC is an international not-for-profit society set up in 1992 as a result of efforts by several internet pioneers such as Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, mandated with a mission to promote the open development, evolution and use of the internet.

It has over 55,000 individual and 130 institutional members organized through about 100 chapters around the world.

Jio impact: Telcos on a spectrum shopping spree?

Soon after the soft launch of Jio on Sunday, the Indian telecom space is abuzz with action. Vodafone is tipped to be in talks to buy the entire 4G spectrum of Tikona — airwaves in 2300 Mhz band. Though, to be fair, consolidation in the telecom space began hotting up soon after the government approved spectrum sharing between telecom companies in September this year. However, if the deal does go through, it will help Vodafone double its geographical 4G presence from the five circles it currently has. The Economic Times reports Tikona had bought 2300 MHz (4G) spectrum in the 2010 auctions in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, UP (East), UP (West) and Rajasthan for over Rs 1,058 crore. Vodafone on the other hand does not have 4G airwaves in that band. It will be deploying its high-speed broadband services over the 1800 MHz band across five circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Karnataka and Kerala. India's second-largest telecom service provider has launched 4G services across 10 towns in Kerala only. Among the major telecom companies in India, only Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have airwaves in the 2300 MHz band. Meanwhile, in a bid to further consolidate its 4G footprint, Bharti Airtel too has acquired 74 percent stake in Augere Wireless Broadband India . Augere, owned by France Telecom and private equity funds such as Harbinger Capital and New Silk Route, had won 20 MHz of 4G spectrum in the 2300 MHz band in the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh circle in the 2010 auction. Airtel has already launched 4G services across 350 towns and cities in India. Currently, Bharti Airtel has 4G spectrum in 15 circles (combination of 1800 and 2300 MHz band). Idea Cellular  too has launched 4G services across South India on 1800 MHz band. The company hopes to cover all towns and cities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana by March 2016. The company too is on a buying spree and recently acquired Videocon Telecom's spectrum in Uttar Pradesh (West) and Gujarat circles. In an earlier interview with CNBC-TV18 , the company's managing director Himanshu Kapania had said that this acquisition will take Idea's 4G footprint from 10 to 12 circles. One of the reasons behind the consolidation wave may be because Reliance owns the second-largest amount of spectrum after Bharti Airtel. It has also set up a 2.5 lakh kilometre optic fibre network route connecting 18,000 towns across India already. However, former Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor cautions that while Reliance has got its first act right — putting a lot of effort into getting its network right, the challenge for telecom players across the globe is getting a glitch-free network, which is a trial and error process and it could take at least two years to perfect it. Bharti Airtel stock price On December 31, 2015, at 11:31 hrs Bharti Airtel was quoting at Rs 334.70, up Rs 1.45, or 0.44 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 452.45 and the 52-week low was Rs 304.65. The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 25.82 per share as per the quarter ended September 2015. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 12.96. The latest book value of the company is Rs 195.80 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 1.71. 

Mobile Firms Agree to Mandatory Panic Button for Women

For women in distress, police help will soon be available with just a press of finger on their
phone as Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has managed to get mobile phone companies on
 board for providing panic button in handsets by March next year that will send emergency
alerts.

Mandatory regulations in this regard will be issued by the Department of Telecommunications
soon, Gandhi said.

The plan that has been finalized with the consensus of mobile manufacturers will help
address the issues of women security as both new and existing phones will be able to
install the enhanced feature.

"It took us one year to finalize this initiative. We held several meetings with mobile companies
and they have finally agreed to provide panic buttons in mobile phones," the Women and
Child Development Minister said.

"If a woman feels she is in trouble, the only thing she has to do is press that button and it
will immediately send a message to the police," the minister explained.

Gandhi said while the new handsets will come with inbuilt buttons, the customers will be
able to upgrade their existing phones at dedicated centres.

"We have asked the companies to built at least 10,000 centres across the country to facilitate
mobile phone users in upgrading their phones and adding the button," she said.

The mobile phone companies are working on technological solution for existing as well as
future mobile phones.

Apart from this, the other measures being taken by the ministry for women safety include
launching of a National Women Helpline number that will be common throughout the country
to provide assistance to women in distress.

The operations of the helpline will be integrated with One-Stop Centres that provides police,
legal, medical and counselling assistance to women who are victims of violence.

The government has also prepared a scheme of special police volunteers in every village to involve young educated girls in community policing.

These girls will be specially trained to function as a bridge between the police and community women and will help in ensuring protection of women against violence of all kinds.

Apple's iPhone set for thinner, lighter and brighter OLED screens in 2018 as contracts with LG and Samsung revealed

LG and Samsung are to spend over $10bn to create new OLED manufacturing plants to supple screens for Apple's iPhones in 2018, it has been claimed.

The Electronic Times report, citing unnamed sources,comes after years of speculation that Apple will start using the next-generation technology in its phones.

OLED screens are thinner and offer better picture quality than the mainstay liquid crystal display screens.  

Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported last month that Apple plans to start using OLED screens for iPhones starting in 2018.

LG and Samsung Display are close to a final agreement with Apple for the screens, the Electronic Times report said, adding the two Korean firms plan a combined 15 trillion won ($12.8 billion) in capital expenditure to build up OLED production capacity over the next two to three years.

Apple will likely provide some funding to both firms to help with the investments, the paper added.

LG Display and Samsung Display declined to comment, while Apple could not be immediately reached for comment.

Samsung Display, which currently supplies OLED smartphone panels to parent Samsung Electronics and Chinese vendors, is likely getting bigger volumes from Apple than LG Display, the paper said.

Earlier this month it was revealed Apple has opened a production laboratory in northern Taiwan to develop new 'superthin' phone and watch displays.

According to Bloomberg, the facility is Longtan has at least 50 engineers.

Apple has recruited from local display maker AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., which used to own the building, the people said.

 

WHAT DOES OLED STAND FOR? 

OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode. 

Its panels are made from organic materials that emit light when electricity is applied to them. 

As a result, OLED panels don't use a backlight meaning they are thinner than LCD displays. 

OLEDs additionally have bright colours, brilliant contrasts and a wide-viewing angle.  

 

iPhones provide better parental control options than Android smartphones

Apple iPhones have better parental control options than Android phones. With prevalent 

dangers to children and adolescents from various "misleading" online forums, 

parental control in smartphones has become a necessity.

Handing over such a device to a youngster comes with certain drawbacks, 

and parenting editor of Common Sense Media, Caroline Knorr says, "You're giving 

your kid a lot of power when you hand them a smartphone and kids' digital savvy 

often outstrips their judgement."

Monitoring every device, however, does not guarantee complete protection of a child. 

Knorr claims that it is equally important for parents to use phone restrictions to start 

a dialogue with their children about what is right and wrong.

She believes that by helping children earn the privilege to different features, once they understand the dangers and vulnerabilities of having an online presence, parents can 

better ensure the security of their children. A study published in 2014 supports Knorr's 

theories. It states that around 22% of seventh graders admitted to "sexting".

To determine how best to provide appropriate methods of protecting a child, an 

New York Times report outlines the difference between parental control options

 in iPhones and Android smartphones.

According to the report, iPhones have detailed parental control restrictions. While 

it may prove to be more time consuming to set up the feature, it ensures prevention of

 adult online content, monitors vault apps, blocks expensive in-app purchases and 

prevents data plan abuse.

Android phones, on the other hand are reportedly not as thorough. It only ensures that

children are restricted from downloading apps and purchasing in-app content. The latter

is only partly restricted, as a password can be used to download in-app content. 

The NYT report suggests that Android phones provide "incomplete solutions for a 

small number of restrictions".

The difference in parental control features between the two smartphone systems 

exists mainly due to the fact that Androids are independently installed onto 

devices by smartphone manufacturers. This restricts the system from providing an 

advanced level of protection. On the other hand, iPhone systems are installed by the manufacturer, thus allowing for more advanced parental control options.

China's dark matter probe results expected in six months

Beijing, Dec 27 (IANS) Chinese scientists have announced the initial results of the country's dark matter probe will be published within six months, the media reported on Sunday.

Chang Jin, chief scientist of China's Dark Matter Satellite Programme, said because the space environment of high-energy particles is complicated, a sufficient amount of high-energy particles has to be collected, the People's Daily reported.

"Therefore, we can find some information about dark matter by analysing these particles. According to our observation plan, we will take around two months to do the detective calibration. Within six months, we will publish the initial scientific results."

China launched its first dark matter satellite 'Wukong' on December 17, and it started sending back its first set of observation data on Thursday.

Wu Ji of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the satellite is operating as expected.

"The satellite is working well, and the actual payload is normal as well. Actually, the satellite from now on enters a two-month in-orbit testing phase."

The satellite has already circled the Earth more than 100 times.

It is designed to undertake a three-year space mission, but scientists hope it can be extended to five years.

'Wukong' will scan space nonstop in all directions in the first two years and then focus on areas where dark matter is most likely to be observed afterward.

Scientists develp new human-like social robot 'Nadine' developed

SINGAPORE: Scientists have developed a human-like social robot with soft skin and flowing brunette hair, which is capable of autonomously expressing emotions and gestures like shaking hands and conversing.

Nadine is a friendly robot which smiles while greeting you, looks at you in the eye when talking, and will remember your name and your previous conversation the next time you meet her, researchers said.

Scientists from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have developed two social robots - Nadine and a tele-presence robot EDGAR that can be controlled remotely, allowing you to interact at a conference without physically being there.

Nadine looks almost like a human being, with soft skin and flowing brunette hair. Unlike conventional robots, Nadine has her own personality, mood and emotions. She can be happy or sad, depending on the conversation.

She also has a good memory, and can recognize the people she has met, and remembers what the person had said before.

Nadine is powered by intelligent software similar to Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana.

The humanoid can be a personal assistant in offices and homes in future. She can be used as a social companion for the young and the elderly, the researchers said.

"Robotics technologies have advanced significantly over the past few decades and are already being used in manufacturing and logistics," said Nadia Thalmann, the director of the Institute for Media Innovation at NTU who led the development of Nadine.

"As countries worldwide face challenges of an ageing population, social robots can be one solution to address the shrinking workforce, become personal companions for children and the elderly at home, and even serve as a platform for health-care services in future," said Thalmann.

Nadine's robot-in-arms, EDGAR, is a tele-presence robot optimized to project the gestures of its human user, complete with a rear-projection screen for its face and two highly articulated arms.

By standing in front of a specialized webcam, a user can control EDGAR remotely from anywhere in the world. The user's face and expressions will be displayed on the robot's face in real time, while the robot mimics the person's upper body movements.

EDGAR can also deliver speeches by autonomously acting out a script. With an integrated webcam, he automatically tracks the people he meets to engage them in conversation, giving them informative and witty replies to their questions.

"Telepresence provides an additional dimension to mobility. The user may project his or her physical presence at one or more locations simultaneously, meaning that geography is no longer an obstacle," said Gerald Seet from NTU.