Filed under: Wireless

It’s not the first carrier to hop on the netbook bandwagon, but India’s Reliance Communications looks like it could be about to boost those global netbook sales numbers even further, with it announcing that it plans to offer free mobile broadband-equipped netbooks to anyone willing to sign a two-year, $30-a-month contract for its NetConnect service. What’s more, while the complete specifics are still a bit light, Reliance has apparently partnered with Intel, Acer, Asus, HCL and Lenovo for the deal, which seems to suggest that you’ll be able to get the Atom-based netbook of your choice, or at least choose from a decent enough selection.

[Via GigaOM]

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Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

A new variant of Asus’ M50Vm-A1 laptop — the M50Vm-A1WM — just showed up on Newegg and Amazon. Soulcrushingly long (mostly) alphanumeric string aside, it’s a decent 15.4” machine for its $1,399 price point, with desktop replacement specs: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 4GB of RAM, a GeForce 9600M with a satisfying 1GB of dedicated graphics memory, and even a numpad. What’s new here is onboard WiMAX, which puts Asus on the post-XOHM launch bandwagon with Toshiba, Acer and other laptop manufacturers. This is good news for some lucky early adopters, but if you’re not in one of the testing locales, you might as well continue twiddling your thumbs.

[Via ComputerMonger]

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Filed under: Wireless

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/world_news/India_cracks_down_on_open_WiFi_to_stem_terrorism_chain_lett’; Just when you thought you were doing your buddy next door a favor, turns out leaving your WiFi router open to the public is the first step in staging a terrorist bombing — who knew? The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reckons the country just isn’t ready for that kind of responsibility, seeing as how email over WiFi is all the rage for transmitting instructions to fellow terror-ees these days. The aim is now to limit WiFi net access to authorized persons only. Man, just imagine what they’ll do with WiMAX. In other news, the pencil sitting next to you could be used to poke your eye out if you’re not careful.

[Via The Economic Times]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

This is pure Philip K. Dick: in June a judge in India found a woman guilty of murdering her former fiancé and sentenced her to life in prison. The smoking gun? Test results obtained using the Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test (BEOS) developed by Indian neuroscientist Champadi Raman Mukundan. The BEOS software uses an EEG to determine whether the subject is recalling specific details of a crime as they are being read aloud. BEOS “works” because as the crime’s details are recited to a subject, their brain lights up in specific regions — the areas that (in theory) show measurable changes when experiences are relived. According to Mukundan, the system can distinguish between peoples’ memories of events they witnessed and deeds they committed. Gee, now that we have the technology to read criminal’s minds and predict crimes we’ll be expecting a crime-free society any minute now.

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Hey, hackers! Now that we’ve got the attention of millions upon millions of incredibly talented individuals, here’s your next challenge. India’s Airtel — which is offering Apple’s iPhone 3G at a near-stratospheric price — has claimed that “even the most deadly hackers on the planet won’t be able to crack the codes that support the iPhone’s Airtel applications with rival company SIMs.” Just so you know, it appears that Airtel worked with Apple to develop “operator-specific iPhone applications,” which is an interesting tidbit in and of itself. But let’s focus on the task at hand here, and that’s proving that making ridiculous claims about impenetrability always comes back to bite ya.

[Image courtesy of Zedomax, thanks Akshay]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Though we can’t definitively say this will end up being the priciest iPhone 3G this side of eBay, there’s a good chance it will be. Word has it that Vodafone will be offering up Apple’s latest 8GB handset for a mind-boggling Rs 31,000 ($712), or Rs 36,100 ($830) for the 16 gigger. Why so serious high? Because neither Vodafone nor Airtel will subsidize the phone, and to add insult to injury, there’s not even a 3G highway up and running in India. Grey market operators to capitalize in T-minus 3, 2, 1…

[Via Cellpassion]

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Filed under: Laptops

Come on, you didn’t really believe that a $10 laptop was even remotely possible, did you? Yeah, didn’t think so — and unsurprisingly, that project sponsored by the Indian government to develop a low-cost laptop actually has a price target of $100, not $10. Chalk another one up to bad transcription, we suppose, although getting the price of a reasonable machine down to $100 won’t be all that easy, either — any bets on where the final price of this thing ends up?

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Looks like Movie Gallery finally got something for the assortment of PBS bandwidth and spare parts remaining from the now-defunct MovieBeam service. The new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed HD and SD movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S. Since $100 million burned up by Disney and others wasn’t enough to make things work, he plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and “other overseas markets”. Variety notes The Valuable Group already delivers movies digitally to India and South Asian theaters via satellite so maybe they know something we don’t about this business model, and with plans to roll out service in three markets with “new, cutting edge features” by year end we’ll get to find out soon.

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Filed under: Gaming

According to a report in the Economic Times, Sony will be introducing a slimmer (well, “slimer” if you want the direct quote), sleeker, and “more suave” version of the PS2 in Indian and European markets come Fall. If you believe what you read, the new system will include a built-in power supply, will make its debut by Diwali (which falls on October 28th), and will keep the current sticker price of Rs 6,990 (or about $162). The article also claims that Sony will bring its PlayStation Network to India by the end of the year, which should make a lot of competition hungry gamers very happy. Sony reps say that the move is driven by the belief that, “Console gaming is in its nascent stage in India,” adding, “We have no plans to phase out PS2 anytime soon.” The PS2: you just can’t kill it!

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Transportation

Your dreams of riding in the ultimate cheapo deathbox have just gotten a little bit more real. According to a report, Tata will begin production of its diminutive, ultra-affordable Nano car this Fall. The $2500 vehicle is generally known as the cheapest car in the world, though worries over inflation suggest that its price-point may move above the intended figure. In other news, sources say that Tata plans a “greener” version of the vehicle in addition to the original model, which — if it happens — will likely be a real knockout punch for penny-pinchers with an Earth-hugging mindset. Still, you’ll probably have to ship it from India, which would burn a lot of fossil fuels, which would be bad for the environment… oh just buy an old Yugo.

[Via Autoblog Green]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Although several Indian news outlets reported last week that RIM was preparing to let the Indian government monitor the domestic Blackberry network, it appears that the outcry has prompted the company to change course and announce that it’s committed to “serving security-conscious businesses in the Indian market.” That’s a big reversal from the rumored plan, which would have allowed Indian security agencies access to the network in exchange for taking the blame for any leak of user data. Of course, not everything’s quite settled yet: the Indian government is still demanding that RIM furnish “satisfactory answers” to its security questions, and RIM told the AFP that there are some other ways for “government to take care of security concerns” without elaborating further. Based on RIM’s enterprise-heavy statements and refusal to comment on the consumer service, we’d guess that enterprise customers will probably get to keep their networks locked down, but that consumers shouldn’t expect their messages to be secure. Not the best compromise, but we’ll see how this all plays out.

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Filed under: Cellphones

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/RIM_allows_Indian_government_to_monitor_Blackberry_network’;Well, it took longer than 15 days to reach a resolution, but apparently RIM is going to back down and allow the Indian government to monitor the Blackberry network in that country. What’s worse, it appears that RIM was more interested in covering its own ass than protecting user data during the negotiations: the only concession the company received from the Indian government was a promise that it won’t be held liable if there’s a leak of users’ personal information. Yeah, that ought to provide a sparkling incentive to keep things safe. There’s no word on when monitoring might begin, but we’ve got a feeling privacy-loving Indians might suddenly be in the market for a new smartphone.

[Thanks, Rishab J.]

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Filed under: Laptops

Usually, when a product is officially announced, the veil of mystery surrounding it is lifted, but that’s not the case with Dell’s new Dell 500 laptop, which the company announced in India today in conjunction with the opening of a new factory in the country. As you may recall, we previously heard that Dell was all but set to introduce a new budget-priced 8.9-inch laptop, and it seems like this could well be it, although we don’t have so much as a screen size on this new model to confirm that possibility just yet. Still, the Rs 24,500 price tag (just over $600) is at least in the same ballpark, and the choice of Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux only would seem to suggest some Atom-level hardware. Apart from that, the only details the company seems to have deemed fit to announce are an 8-in-1 card reader, some direct media playback buttons, and a “host of wireless access options.” Leading us to suspect that it might not be the same 8.9-inch laptop, however, is the fact that this one is apparently intended specifically for emerging countries like India and China, which doesn’t exactly match up with Michael Dell’s comment that the company was readying an answer to HP’s Mini-Note, though we suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out.

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Filed under: Cellphones

The last we’d heard, the Indian government had ruled out the threat of a Blackberry ban if RIM didn’t allow it to snoop on messages, but it looks like some overzealous bureaucrat is getting his way after all: the Department of Telecom has issued a 15-day deadline for RIM to either open up for the G-men or get shut down. RIM says it won’t comment on regulatory issues as a matter of policy, but it looks like the Indian government is playing hardball, with Telecom Minister A Raja saying that national security will not be sacrificed at any cost. Hmm, hear that? That’s the sound of over 400,000 Indian Blackberry users desperately grabbing at their devices to get another quick fix — something tells us this isn’t going to end well.

[Via Cellpassion]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Remember the Indian government’s threat to shutdown RIM’s in-country network if they didn’t open it up for snooping? Ain’t gonna happen. Today the Indian government ruled out banning the BlackBerry service. Instead, the government will continue working with the Telecom Commission on security matters (whatever that means) with a promise to resolve the matter soon. Look India, if the notoriously controlling Chinese allow the data to run encrypted, what’s your beef chicken?

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Filed under: Cellphones

Uh-oh, Indian Blackberry users — better get ready for some major disconnection anxiety. Apparently the Indian government is demanding that RIM either allow it to snoop on its encrypted email service (or worse, drop down to 40-bit encryption), or shut down the entire Indian Blackberry network at the end of the month. That’ll cut off an estimated 400,000 subscribers, so the carriers, RIM, and government officials are due to meet and try and hammer out a solution on the 14th, but the issue probably won’t be easy to solve — ISPs are now concerned that if RIM complies, all encrypted wireless data will be open to spying, which would make things like ecommerce virtually impossible. Furthermore, since Blackberry traffic gets routed to Canadian NOCs first, there are some thorny international issues at play as well — just to put things in perspective, RIM doesn’t even allow the Chinese government to snoop in this way, although we’re certain there’s another backdoor in place. Honestly, though, we’d suffer through a little CrackBerry withdrawal if it kept the G-men out of our hair — let’s hope RIM’s got some fight in ‘em.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Sintex Industries’ aptly-dubbed biogas digester is most certainly not the first of its kind, but it is somewhat commendable that its maker is making no bones about this thing’s purpose. Destined to “solve India’s energy and sanitation problems in one stroke,” this concoction can convert “human [waste], cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity.” Reportedly, a one-cubic-meter digester would sell for around $425, but could pay for itself in energy savings in under 24 months. Excrement to energy — now there’s a concept.

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Filed under: Wireless

Even as Sprint tentatively rolls out the XOHM network here in the States, the largest Indian telecom company is planning to build a mobile WiMax network covering three states on the subcontinent capable of serving 250 million people. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is leaning on Soma Networks to build the broadband-speed network in response to government requirement that 20 million broadband lines be in service by 2010. The WiMax rollout will first hit the largest and most-connected states, but BSNL is planning on extending the network if things go well. Soma says it’s shipping thousands of base stations to get the network operational at full speed, and that when it’s done, 400 Indian cities will be covered, with downstream speeds of 1.5 megabits per seconds. No word on when that might be, but the race is officially on, Sprint.

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Filed under: Laptops

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Filed under: Transportation

Remember that uber-cheap, almost entirely plastic car that India’s Tata Motors was working up? Turns out, the still codenamed 1-Lakh automobile is expected to launch in mid-2008 and get around 15 miles-per-liter, which should give the Maruti 800 some serious competition in the budget car arena. According to R. A. Mashelkar, a nonexecutive director on Tata Motors’ board, it should provide ample room in “both the front and rear” for a six-foot individual, and he also noted that a “new kind of welding” would be used instead of bolts in a variety of locations on the motorcar. Still, there’s just something about the idea of riding in a brand new $2,500 vehicle that doesn’t sit well with us — probably something to do with the dearth of safety features, but who knows.

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