NASA'S DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR TO DISCUSS FUTURE OF COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHT WITH INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES

WASHINGTON -- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will participate in a teleconference on Thursday, May 17, at 2 p.m. EDT with representatives of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation to brief journalists on the future of human commercial spaceflight.

Former NASA astronaut and president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation Michael Lopez-Alegria will lead the conference call, along with Jeff Greason, president of XCOR Aerospace and an executive committee member for the federation.

NASA expects to reach several milestones this year in its ongoing support of industry's innovative work to transport crew and cargo to low Earth orbit and enhance our nation's use of the International Space Station to improve life on Earth and prepare for the missions of the future.

Ref: NASA

Nokia loses top handset maker position to Samsung

Korean electronics giant Samsung has dethroned Finnish major Nokia as the top mobile handset maker with sales of 86.6 million units in 2011, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

Samsung, with a sales growth of 25.9 per cent, had a market share of 20.7 per cent in January-March 2012 quarter, while Nokia (with 83.2 million units sold) had a share of 19.8 per cent in the same period, Gartner said in a statement.

Nokia's mobile handset sales decreased 22.7 per cent from the first quarter of 2011.

Worldwide sales of mobile phones dipped two per cent to 419.1 million units in first quarter of 2012, the first time since second quarter of 2009 when the market exhibited a decline.

"Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region. Q1, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia, driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year," Gartner Principal Research Analyst Anshul Gupta said.

The arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America.

"However, as we are starting to update our market forecast, we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable," he said.

Sales of smartphones drove the mobile phone market, reaching 144.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, up 44.7 per cent year-over-year.

Samsung took back the world's No 1 smartphone position from Apple, selling 38 million smartphones worldwide in the reported quarter.

Its Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2012 represented more than 40 per cent of the Android-based smartphone sales worldwide, while no other vendors achieved more than a 10 per cent share of the market, Gartner said.

The combined market share of Apple and Samsung increased to 49.3 per cent, up from 29.3 per cent in Q1 2011, widening their lead over Nokia, which saw its smartphone market share drop to 9.2 per cent.

"Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level. For example, smartphone volumes contributed to approximately 43.9 per cent of overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 per cent for Nokia," Gupta said.

RIM sold 9.9 million mobile handsets in Q1 2012, with its global share declining to 2.4 per cent as competition increased in its international market strongholds.

In the smartphone OS market, Android accounted for more than half of all smartphone sales (56.1 per cent) in Q1 2012.

iOS (Apple's operating system) had a 22.9 per cent market share, while Symbian, RIM and Bada had a share of 8.6 per cent, 6.9 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.

Microsoft had a share of 1.9 per cent in Q1 2012.
Ref: India today

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nokia-loses-top-handset-maker-position-to-samsung-gartner/1/189091.html

100 million internet users in india

After mobile phones, India is set to see another revolution in the technology space. According to the latest report of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the number of internet users in India crossed the 100-million mark in September. This is a 13 per cent increase over last year, when the number of internet users stood at 87 million.
The total number of ‘claimed’ internet users now stands at 112 million. Claimed users are those who say they have accessed the internet to get some specific information (checking results online, for example).
The study, conducted in association with research company IMRB, says, with the affordability of internet-friendly devices increasing, the number is expected to reach 121 million by the end of December.


A 100 million internet users is considered a critical landmark for the country. With this, internet use in India is expected to enter a critical period of growth, with the possibility of the country becoming the largest internet user in the world in this decade

TOP 5 IN NET USAGE (IN 2011)
Rank	Country	Users (in million)
1	China	485.0
2	USA	245.0
3	India	100.0
4	Japan	99.2
5	Brazil	75.9
As on June 2011      Source: Internet World stats

Common access points like cyber cafes continue to be important, though there has been a fall in access from these centres. According to the study, around 37 per cent of users access the internet from home, 23 per cent from cyber cafes, 22 per cent from office, nine per cent from mobile devices and rest from schools and other centres.

Google to launch it's next Android OS, Jelly Bean

Close on the heels of Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt announcing the arrival of the upcoming version of Android OS termed Ice Cream Sandwich in October or November, speculations have started on the next version of Android.

Named according to Google's tradition of naming Android builds after sweet treats, it will now be Jelly Bean which will have certain features termed as "game-changing stuff" instead of Ice Cream Sandwich as was previously rumoured. Probably the amalgamation of the best tablet and mobile phone OS features is the "game-changing stuff" being talked about. We will not have to wait for long because Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich handset, Nexus Prime is slated for a release soon, therefore making an announcement imminent.

Next Android OS, Jelly Bean

Facebook buys digital book firm Push Pop Press

Facebook has bought Push Pop Press, the digital book company formed by former Apple staff. 

 

 

In a statement on its website, Push Pop Press said: “We’re taking our publishing technology and everything we’ve learned and are setting off to help design the world’s largest book, Facebook.”

Push Pop Press drew attention earlier this year with the release of Our Choice, an iPad version of a book by Al Gore. The app took the text of Gore’s book, which was first published in 2009, and added interactive graphics, animation and more than an hour of video.

At the time Push Pop Press said the app would “change the way we read books”. In its statement on the Facebook acquisition the company said “Facebook isn’t planning to start publishing digital books”.

It is thought that Facebook has bought Push Pop Press for its design expertise. The company was founded by two former Apple engineers, Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas. Tsinteris worked on mapping and location services for Apple, while Matas is a user interface specialist.

Matas is credited with designing at least four of Apple’s default iPhone apps, including the Photos app. He also designed Photo Booth for the Mac.