Thomson's Latest Set-Top Boxes Support Over-the-Top HD

Thomson unveiled its latest generation high definition set-top box, the 805 HD platform. Available with or without a hard disk for PVR functionality, it includes embedded memory to enable over-the-top services and other functionalities including time shifting. Interfaces are available for DVB-T and the newer and more efficient DVB-T2 for terrestrial television, and for DVB-S and DVB-S2 for satellite broadcasting. The PVR version can be supplied with a scalable 2.5" hard disk in accordance with operators' requirements. It incorporates an advanced power management system which switches off those parts of the circuitry not required, resulting in a "deep sleep" mode which consumes less than half a watt.


"Everyone is agreed that hybrid delivery is the way forward, with linear television broadcast as it is today and access to interactive and on-demand content from the same device on the same screen, delivered over broadband," said Georges Laplanche, Senior Vice President, Connect Division, Thomson.
http://www.thomson.net

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LG Televisions in France to Offer Orange Portal

Beginning in March 2010, Orange and LG Electronics (LGE) will offer exclusive access in France to an Orange portal for LG televisions that are Internet connected. The three-year agreement will enable LG France to offer a wide range of flat screens from March 2010 delivering a unique entertainment experience, with intuitive and simplified access to numerous multimedia services from Orange. In one click, users will have to access a portal with a vast selection of useful and fun services, from Orange Sport Info, 24/24 Actu (news service) to Liveradio and other content such as TV programs, videos, music and practical information.
http://www.orange.com

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DOCOMO Develops 8-Band Power Amplifier for Mobile Phones

NTT DOCOMO unveiled a prototype multi-band power amplifier that accommodates eight frequency bands between 700 MHz and 2.5 GHz, paving the way for lightweight, all-in-one mobile phones capable of standalone wireless communications of different standards, including LTE standard as well as existing W-CDMA and GSM.

Power amplifiers are used in mobile phones to increase signal power up to levels required for wireless communication.

Previously, as conventional multi-band phones must employ a separate single-band amplifier for each band, the sizes of these phones will increases to accommodate new frequency bands for LTE services being launched in markets worldwide, including Japan.

DOCOMO said its new amplifier, which offers gain and output power equivalent to those of conventional single-band amplifiers, paves the way for multi-standard mobile phones that are generally no larger than existing models. It enables 8-band operation by employing matching circuits whose frequency characteristics are controlled by multiple semiconductor switches according to the required frequency band.http://

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Researchers Achieve Breakthrough for Public Key Cryptography

Researchers at NTT, in collaboration with Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Bonn University, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), and Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), set a new world record for a 768-bit (232-digit decimal) composite number that far exceeds the previous record (663-bits 200-digit decimal). This was achieved through integer factorization using a technique that employed a "general number field sieve" to overcome the integer factorization problem.


Examination of the number of bits that can be factored is important to estimate more precisely the security and strength of the RSA scheme. The RSA scheme, which is widely used as a public key encryption scheme, is based on the difficulty of the integer factorization problem.


The researchers said their work paves the way for stronger and more efficient encryption technology.
http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news10e/1001/100108a.html

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BT Appoints Jeff Kelly as CEO BT Global Services

BT appointed Jeff Kelly as CEO of its Global Services division, replacing Hanif Lalani who is to leave BT after 26 years service. Kelly, a US citizen, has close to 25 years IT services experience at the Global IT services firm, EDS, where he most recently ran their $10 billion business in the Americas.
http://www.btplc.com

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Telefónica Tests Huawei's 100G

Telefónica has completed a trial of 100 Gbps transmission using Huawei Technologies' OSN 6800 WDM/OTN transport platform. The 100 Gbps trial link spanned Valladolid to Zaragoza, a total transmission distance of 1022 km, without electrical regeneration.


The field trial in Spain was based on Huawei' s OSN 6800 WDM/OTN transport platform with the transponder inserted in subracks. The fiber type used was standard G.652, and single lambda rate is up to 112Gbps. The link passed through 20 spans with the concatenation of 10 sets of ROADM, 33 EDFA amplifiers and 2 sets of MUX/DEMUX. Arbitrary mixed 10G/40G/100G transports with 50Hz channel spacing were also achieved. A smooth upgrade from 10G to 40G/100G was supported without interfering with the existing network, thereby protecting the operator' s original investment.
http://www.huawei.com/news/view.do?id=11125&cid=42

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Huawei Symantec Launches New Security and Storage Brands

Huawei Symantec Technologies introduced new security and storage brands -- Secospace and Oceanspace -- as part of the "Realize Business Value" campaign for its security business and "Converged Storage" campaign for its storage business.


Huawei Symantec claims to have achieved an 80% annual growth, with annual sales in 2009 reaching $300 million.


In 2010, the company is launching a UTM product line and bolstering its storage product portfolio by launching proprietary high-to-low-end network storage products.


"Huawei Symantec has achieved major breakthroughs in key markets, technologies and products in the last two years," said Mr. Zhang Ping'an, Huawei Symantec COO. "To address the greater challenges in 2010, the Company has updated its strategies in marketing, branding and R&D. Secospace and Oceanspace are more than brand names as they reflect the Company's understanding of market trends, customer demands, as well as security and storage technologies. The announcement is a new start for Huawei Symantec's global strategy."http://www.huaweisymantec.com/en/

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Nokia: 4.6 Billion Mobile Subscriptions, 6.8 Billion People

There are now about 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions among the planet's 6.8 billion people, and "for the majority of the world's people, their first and only access to the Internet will be through a mobile device - not a PC," stated Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in a keynote address at the International ConsumerElectronics Show in Las Vegas.


Thanks in part due to the spread of mobile communications, the world's developing economies are places of increasing opportunity and upward mobility. To help amplify the effect of mobile communications in developing economies, Nokia is launching a US$1 million Nokia Growth Economy Venture Challenge to encourage innovators and developers to come up with innovate ways to help people and promote upward mobility.


In addition, Kallasvuo announced that Ovi Mail, Nokia's mobile email service that is designed for users whose first email access is via a mobile device, signed up more than 5 million accounts in its first year, exceeding the first-year user totals for Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.
http://www.nokia.com

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Carbonite Raises $20 million for its Online Backup Service

Carbonite, a start-up based in Boston ,closed a mezzanine round of funding that provides approximately $20 million of new capital for its Online Backup service, which was originally launched in May 2006.


In the last year, Carbonite expanded its product offering to include a Macintosh solution and Remote File Access, which enables any Carbonite user to access backed up files from any web browser. Additionally, the company has forged distribution agreements with Seagate and Sun Microsystems.


Crosslink Capital of San Francisco led this round with participation from all existing investors, including Menlo Ventures, Performance Equity, and Common Angels Fund. Gary Hromadko, venture partner at Crosslink, will join the Carbonite board of directors.


This brings the total financing raised by the Boston-based company to approximately $67 million.
http://www.carbonite.com

• Since 2006, Carbonite has backed up more than 39 billion files and has restored more than 3.2 billion lost files for its customers. Carbonite backs up more than 100 million files every day to high-redundancy storage servers in its Boston and Somerville, Mass. data centers.

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Qualcomm and TSMC Set Sights on 28nm Process Technology

Qualcomm and its foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company are focusing on 28 nanometer (nm) process technology as a means to enable more features to be integrated into smaller chips with a high level of cost efficiency. Small form factor and low power consumption are important features of Qualcomm's next generation of system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, including the Snapdragon chipset platform. The two companies are capitalizing on their long-term relationship as Qualcomm works on migrating directly from the 45nm to the 28nm node.


The new 28 nm technology offers up to twice the density of previous manufacturing nodes, Qualcomm and TSMC are working on both high-k metal gate (HKMG) 28HP and silicon oxynitride (SiON) 28LP technologies. Qualcomm expects to tape out its first commercial 28nm products in mid-2010.


Previously, Qualcomm and TSMC worked closely on 65nm and 45nm technologies. They are continuing their relationship into low-power, low-leakage 28nm designs for high-volume manufacturing. http://www.qualcomm.com

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Sprint's 3G Delivers Content for Skiff's Electronic Paper Display

At CES, Skiff unveiled its e-paper display based on a rugged and flexible metal-foil technology. The start-up company is building an integrated digital content and commerce platform to offer a wide selection of newspapers, magazines, books and blogs -- all optimized for wireless delivery to dedicated e-readers as well as other devices, such as smartphones and netbooks.



The first Skiff e-reader unit features a full touch-screen, monochrome display measuring 11.5 inches diagonally (292.1 mm) based on silicon thin-film-transistors (TFT) on a flexible stainless-steel substrate. The Skiff display is flexible and shatter-proof. It uses a Marvell CPU and a rechargeable lithium ion battery that delivers one week of average life (thousands of page turns with periodic wireless use) before needing recharging.


Sprint will provide content delivery to Skiff using its nationwide 3G network.


Skiff has offices in NYC and Palo Alto, California.
http://www.skiff.com
http://www.sprint.com

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