, software that turns iPod into a phone

Sun, Dec 7 03:15 PM

London, Dec 7 (ANI): With a freeware application for the iPod Touch, your swanky music player can be turned into a virtual mobile phone, say the software’s creators.

‘Truphone’ uses wi-fi technology in an iPod Touch and enables phone users to make calls to other iPod Touch owners and Google Talk’s messaging service users.

The software is a spin-off from technology Truphone developed for smartphones and iPhones.

With the creation, the developers plan to have the ability to make calls to and from landlines in place very soon. ruphone is the latest firm to offer voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), alongside Unlicensed Mobile Access and proprietary protocols such as Skype.

Geraldine Wilson, the CEO of Truphone, said the firm had ambitions to become a global Internet player.

"There are a slew of new features we’re rolling out for the iPod Touch that will let users call landlines, Skype users or send instant messages. We’re talking weeks, not months, before these go live," BBC quoted Wilson, as saying

Truphone founder – James Tagg – said that the technology also worked on other mobile devices, albeit in a slightly different way.

He said: "If you were using Truphone on a Blackberry, it will use cellular technology to log into the Truphone’s website. From here you can make an international call, call a user on VoIP, or send an instant message.

"Because the first leg of the call – from the user to our server – is charged at local rate, you’re talking a bill of pennies, rather than pounds, to call, say the United States." (ANI)

Doctors warn of rash from mobile phone use

LONDON (Reuters) – Doctors baffled by an unexplained rash on people’s ears or cheeks should be on alert for a skin allergy caused by too much mobile phone use, the British Association of Dermatologists said on Thursday.

Citing published studies, the group said a red or itchy rash, known as "mobile phone dermatitis", affects people who develop an allergic reaction to the nickel surface on mobile phones after spending long periods of time on the devices.

"It is worth doctors bearing this condition in mind if they see a patient with a rash on the cheek or ear that cannot otherwise be explained," it said.

The British group said many doctors were unaware mobile phones could cause the condition.

Safety concerns over mobile phones has grown as more people rely on them for everyday communication, although the evidence to date has given the technology a clean bill of health when it comes to serious conditions like brain cancer.

"In mobile phone dermatitis, the rash would typically occur on the cheek or ear, depending on where the metal part of the phone comes into contact with the skin," the group said in a statement.

"In theory it could even occur on the fingers if you spend a lot of time texting on metal menu buttons."

Nickel is a metal found in products, ranging from mobile phones to jewellery to belt buckles and is one of the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis, according to the Mayo Clinic in the United States.

Earlier this year Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and colleagues tested 22 popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and found nickel in 10 of the devices.

Logitech has made its one-billionth computer mouse

London, December 5 (ANI): Swiss company Logitech has revealed that its factory in Suzhou, western China, has produced its one-billionth computer mouse.

The company has made this revelation at a time when analysts claim that the mouse will not exist for longer.

"It’s rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company," the BBC quoted Logitech’s general manager Rory Dooley as saying.

"Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone," he added.

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice, though believes that "the mouse will no longer be mainstream in three to five years", agreed that the manufacture of the one billionth mouse was a "tremendous achievement".

"It speaks volumes to the success of the mouse that they (Logitech) have produced a billion and good luck," he said.

He also said that the other technologies that would replace the mouse would involve facial and movement recognition for the mainstream market.

Dooley, however, was believed the new technologies would have a place alongside the computer mouse.

"The fundamental functionality of the mouse has not changed for 40 years and that is one of the keys to its success. We do not envisage unlearning all those years of learning but that doesn’t mean to say there will not be a place for touch interfaces. Touch will augment the things you can do today with the mouse and keyboard interface," he added.

He even put talk of the death of the mouse down to hyperbole.

"The reality is it’s always easy for people to drum up interest in a story by making an extreme statement. And in the story of the ‘mouse is dead’ campaign by Bill Gates a few months ago, that was started to drum up interest in Windows 7, the next version of the operating system," he said.

"The challenge with these new technologies is going to be will you touch a screen that is two feet away from you a thousand times a day? Is touch accurate enough to let you get into the cell of a spreadsheet?

"Those are just some simple questions we believe will not necessarily be answered by the touch interface of tomorrow," he added.

Logitech’s one-billionth mouse rolled off the production line in the middle of November. The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40. (ANI)

In the spotlight, child actors enjoy their moment of fame

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) Spending more than eight hours on a set, learning tough dialogues and attaining overnight recognition in a glamorous industry – one might wonder if child actors are missing out on their childhood. But far from complaining, they seem to be enjoying every bit of it.

Darsheel Safary, Purab Bhandare, Shriya Sharma, Swini Khare and Zain Khan are some of the dynamic and confident child actors who are ruling the roost at present. They work almost as hard as their older counterparts, but they are not complaining. They say that they thoroughly enjoy the kind of life they are leading.

‘I don’t miss anything at all while leading the life of a child actor. In fact, I feel I live a better life. My friends play among themselves, but I play with stars. I play with my co-actors,’ Avika Gor, who plays Anandi in popular TV soap ‘Balika Vadhu’, told IANS.

However, 10-year-old Swini Khare has a different take.

‘I don’t miss being on the other side of the table because I still feel like a normal person. I do everything that I used to do earlier. I play, go out, and study,’ she said.

Swini has done various movies and more than 50 advertisements, but her claim to fame was her role in Amitabh Bachchan-starrer ‘Cheeni Kum’.

At an age when other children are just concerned about their studies, these child actors are juggling school and shooting schedules. They say that balancing the two is not as difficult as it seems.

‘I don’t have any difficulty in handling school and shooting together. I know how to strike a balance. I take my books to the sets and study in between shots,’ said Avinash Mukherjee of ‘Balika Vadhu’ fame.

Added Zain Khan, who was seen in ‘Hari Puttar’: ‘I won’t say that it is extremely hard to cope with studies and shooting schedules. It’s just that you don’t have time to while away and I’m perfectly fine with that.

‘It’s in your hands not letting your studies get affected.’

Child actors get recognition and fame at a very young age and it can have a negative impact on the impressionable minds, say experts.

Samir Parikh, chief of the Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Max Healthcare, said parents play the most important role in ensuring and providing guidance to children so that they are not harmed by the kind of exposure they get.

‘By ensuring that basic life is not affected, not being extra special in behaviour, no comparisons and more so by making sure that normal life, schooling, friends are maintained, parents can prevent any kind of harm to their child,’ Parikh told IANS.

Child actors feel that even though they have to multi-task, they enjoy the special attention they get from people around them.

While Avinash feels proud that he is often called as a judge for programmes in his own school, Swini is amused at how her classmates fight to sit next to her.

While these kids have no qualms living life in the fast lane and enjoying every bit of their newly achieved stardom, it is essential for their parents to understand how far they should be allowed to go in the quest of achieving success.

SRK becomes ‘Datuk’ Shah Rukh Khan

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan became the first Indian movie star to be conferred on a prestigious Malaysian title. Wearing a traditional black and gold Malay outfit (Baju Melayu and samping) and headgear, Khan received the title of "Datuk" (equivalent to British Knighthood) from the governor of Malaysia’s southern Malacca state.

Baju Melayu is similar to a kurta pajama, while ‘Samping’ is a piece of cloth men tie around the waist and which falls to the length of the long shirt.

The 43-year-old actor, who has a large fan base among the Malays, held the estimated 1,000 guests at the investiture spellbound as he received the Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka (DMSM), conferred on him and 76 others.

The actor kept waving to his fans as he was escorted into the hall. The Bollywood icon was the focus of attention as media and fans clicked away using cameras from their seats.

The actor will be referred to as Datuk Shahrukh Khan in Malaysia and will be addressed as Datuk. Each Malaysian state chooses its own list of people to honour with "Datukship". A majority of the awardees are local Malaysians who would have excelled in some area or are in the government.

Malacca authorities said Khan was given the title because some of his movies had been shot in the the historical state boosting tourism.

Khan shot a song for the movie ‘one two ka four’ in Malacca which was named as one of the heritage cities by UNESCO a few months ago.

However, the decision to award Khan with the Datukship received a fair share of criticism across the country with local artists and public noting that the award could have been given to a local actor or artist.

Terrorists distort Islam, Quran: Shah Rukh Khan

Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has launched a scathing attack on Islamic clerics who preach terrorism, accusing them of distorting the Quran and said these forces must be ‘shunned and isolated’.

"Jihad was supposed to be propagated by the Prophet himself. But unfortunately, now two versions of Islam exist. There is an Islam from Allah and very unfortunately, there is an Islam from the Mullahs," Khan told a TV channel in an interview.

Appealing for providing youngsters with the ‘right reading’ of the Quran, the 43-year-old superstar said political parties should not be allowed to pursue communal agenda and there should be a law which will not allow any party to ‘misread’ any of the holy books.

"I think for hardliners, both of Hindus and Muslims, there should be a law against them that no party’s agenda can be communal. There should be a hardliner treatment for the hardliners," he said.

Khan, who is a favourite in Pakistan, did not favour bombing Pakistan to flush out terrorists holed up there responsible for terror attacks in the country. "No, absolutely not. This is a passionate reaction," he said.

When asked whether he fancied himself in a public role, he said, "I am not scared. But I am not selfless enough to be a politician. I wish five years down the line, I could do something for this country."

Khan was of the view that there could be some ‘positive’ outcomes to the tragedy.

"I think for the first time, we all have come to realise that unity has got strengthened. That is the biggest positive outcome. They have now given us the biggest weapon against them," he added.

Hello? Hello…

So Barack Obama finally did have a telephonic chat with Manmohan Singh. What the conversation was about is of absolutely no consequence.

What is of absolute consequence is the fact that our media exposed their complete slavishness to the idea of one phone call – or the lack of it – deciding whether the fact that we don’t wear nappies anymore on the world stage was noticed by America’s next President. Sure, the President-Elect of the US is a powerful man and his call signifies that he has Manmohan Singh’s phone number in his directory.

But surely a country that should have known its non-alignment from its non-shamefacedness wouldn’t have created a din about a call that wasn’t coming. The end, of course, was an anti-climax.

Prime Minister Singh explained that he was travelling and Obama, not being being in the same chair as George Bush yet, didn’t have his mobile number. In Russia, the media would have spun things differently.

Vladimir Putin told the most powerful man-to-be in the world, ‘Don’t call me, I’ll call you.’ Here, the PM down to the satraps of the satraps were giving explanations that eerily sounded like those that you give to your boss when you were missing in a meeting (and were actually at the closest TGIF).

The phone exchange did happen in the end and, perhaps, there were fireworks across the country. ‘Barack Obama has called Manmohan Singh! See!’ grandfathers told their grandsons, lawyers told their clients, players told their coaches.

The media told themselves: ‘See, told you. India’s not an unimportant country, after all.