World’s First See-Through Organic EL Display by TDK

 

TDK made an announcement on development of industry’s first see-through type Organic Electroluminescent (EL) display. The newly developed passive matrix type QVGA OEL display is mainly intended to be used as the main display panel in mobile phones as well as other mobile devices. The new see-through display has a field angle of 2.4 inches, with transmittance of 40% and brightness of 150 cd/m2. But not to worry, the display although is see through, it is constructed in such as way that display’s contents can not easily be seen from behind, in order to protect user’s privacy.
This feature could serve as a good selling factor, as compact mobile electronic devices such as mobile phones nowadays require a display that is both appealing and features a slick design.

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Which Mobile Phone Operating System?

Back in the dark days we did not worry too much about what operating system our mobile phone used. It was mostly Symbian of course apart from a few phones that used the early and somewhat temperamental and rather quirky Windows Mobile operating system.
Nowadays it is very different and there is a real operating system battle. Of course Symbian is still the front runner, and Windows has caught up considerably; in fact the latest version, Windows Phone 7, is as advanced as any though Windows operating systems account for under 3% of the total market.

Recently two new and highly advanced mobile operating systems have been introduced. These are Apple iOS on which the iPhones are based and Android, an open source operating system originally launched by Google and based on developments made by a small start-up company that Google acquired. Android is now the second most popular system after Symbian.
There is also the RIM system used in the Blackberry which has been developed considerably since its early days when it was directed mainly to businesses.
Despite there being differences between these systems, and they all do work in different ways, to a large extent their functionalities have converged and each operating system will do just about the same things as any other. For most users the most important thing is a system that works reliably and fortunately they all do. For some the special features that are offered by some systems can be important.
Typical phones that use the Android system are the HTC range and include such phones as the HTC Desire which is a much coveted handset packed with stunning features. If you want an HTC phone that runs the Windows OS then there is the HTC Trophy which has direct access to Xbox Live. For people who prefer the latest Symbian operating system, then they should look at some of the latest Nokia phones such as the Nokia N8. Of course some people prefer the Blackberry OS and the latest phone in the Blackberry range, the Blackberry Torch 9800, is certainly worth considering.  

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Angry Birds Confirmed For Windows Phone 7

Is the world sick of Angry Birds yet? It would seem not, because Rovio has announced that Angry Birds is in development for Windows Phone 7, and apparently there’s enough demand for Angry Birds on the platform for Rovio to want to put up with Microsoft throughout the development process.

merely commenting on Microsoft being known for making the process of bringing a game to one of their platforms difficult for developers. In any case, Angry Birds coming to Windows Phone 7 means that the game is on nearly every platform you can name – and with new levels being added frequently and a new Angry Birds game releasing next month, the birds show no signs of slowing down (or becoming any less angry, for that matter).
Other than announcing that the game was in development, Rovio didn’t say much else.

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Hip Hop Band Gorillaz Releases Album Made Entirely On iPad

Since its release the Apple iPad has been shown to be an innovator in quite a few fields but the Gorillaz have taken the device where few thought even it could go with the release of their new album which was created exclusively on the device.

Their album, “The Fall” is completely free to listen to and people who are active members of their digital fan club can actually download the album and play their songs wherever and whenever you want. This is of course an original creation that no other musician or group has attempted to do to this scale since the iPad was released. Not only did the group release the album they created on the iPad but they also divulged what apps they used to create the album.
In all there were over 20 different apps that were used in different and innovative ways in order to create the songs including peak It!, SoundyThingie, Mugician, Solo Synth and others.

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Alibre to Launch Next Generation 3D Design Software -- Alibre Design 2011

Alibre Inc.(www.alibre.com), the award-winning developer of the world's most affordable professional 3D design solutions, today announced a huge leap in 3D CAD design performance with the release of its latest version, Alibre Design 2011. Alibre Design 2011 now makes 3D designing easier and more robust with major enhancements, including a complete top to bottom code re-write, native 64-bit version, powerful sheet metal conversion tools, and a myriad of time saving tools and customization features. Available immediately for download at: www.alibre.com/store, the highly anticipated Alibre Design 2011 release delivers dramatic improvements in efficiency and performance.

Now Even Easier for Less Technical Users & More Robust for Higher End Users

Priced thousands less than competitors, starting at only $99 for Personal Edition (PE), $699 for Professional and $1399 for Expert, Alibre Design 2011 brings the power of 3D CAD design to everyone, from DIYers, inventors, tinkerers, entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and scientists. Alibre Design 2011's new improvements and features include a full port of the code to C#, making it the first native 64-bit version -- important for demanding users that want to create designs of enormous size and complexity.

New Alibre Design 2011 Features Include:

New Sheet Metal Conversion Tools with Automatic Conversion - imported or natively designed solids are now able to be automatically converted into unfoldable sheet metal parts, so users can take libraries of solids generated from other applications and convert them into fully native, editable sheet metal parts. Sheet metal parts can also be designed in a normal part workspace and then converted to sheet metal later, fast tracking many common design requirements

Complete Code Rewrite and Native 64-bit Version for Larger & More Complex Models - Alibre Design 2011 has been completely rewritten in the C# programming language, in addition to being re-architected to support a native 64-bit version of the software. This enables Alibre power users to make models of incredible complexity and size, while providing tremendous performance benefits.

New Faster 2D Detailing Framework Avoids Confusing Toolbars & Dialogs - 2D detailing is now incredibly fast with the new in-place editing framework. This set of tools is hyper-context sensitive, allowing users to avoid toolbars and dialogs almost altogether. By clicking on items, available options are shown directly at the mouse, and users can make edits to almost anything in real-time, without cumbersome dialogs.

We are tremendously excited to be able to provide our customers with this release. More so than in any previous version, Alibre Design 2011 brings a wonderful complement of stability, performance, and new features that will fundamentally enable new workflows and design practices,� said J. Paul Grayson, Alibre Chairman and CEO. As usual, almost all of the enhancements were directly driven by our customers. And the feedback we've gotten from the beta program, is that people are extremely excited.�

Available at Alibre Store & 80 Resellers Worldwide

Alibre Design 2011 is available for download at the Alibre Store at: www.alibre.com/store and worldwide through Alibre's network of nearly 80 resellers in 41 countries and 13 languages. Available immediately, Alibre Design 2011 is priced at $99 for Alibre Design 2011 Personal Edition (PE), $699 for Alibre Design 2011 Professional, and $1399 for Alibre Design 2011 Expert. For a list of new features and explanations, please download the Alibre Design 2011 feature brochure at www.alibre.com/assets/2011.pdf. For more information, see www.alibre.com.

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New Mobile Mountain Rescue Service – Just in Time for the Snow

The service allows hill walkers and mountaineers, who come into trouble in Scotland, to text 999 for help, handy for when there’s not enough signal to make a phone call but sufficient coverage to send a text. The Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) says that this service could save lives.

The MCofS, which represents 10,500 climbers, mountaineers and hill walker’s is calling for anyone who is thinking of venturing into the Scottish mountains to register with the new text system. You can only use the new service if you have registered – so it’s something to consider before you set out hiking, or skiing. With snow set to arrive in the coming weeks, the less time you have to wait for help to arrive, the better, unless you fancy turning into a real life snowman!

If you do sign up, it only takes two minutes, just be aware that the text system doesn’t guarantee that the SMS will get through, especially with patchy signal, so don’t assume that help is on the way until you receive a text alert from the emergency services (unless of course, their text doesn’t get through either!)
The number of rescue operations in the Scottish highlands is at an all-time high, hitting a record number of incidents so far in 2010. This is expected to increase in the next few months.

With more and more people getting active to combat the couch potato lifestyle, we would like to hear if you’d be interested in using a service like this?

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Introduction of Free Mobile Phone Applications for Children with Special Needs by Fujitsu

Fujitsu has developed a new application that provides educational and social support for children with special needs, including the ones with learning disabilities and autism, and their parents. The new application comes with TIMER function helping with understanding time through visual graphics, PICTURE CARD, in helping with communication as well as scheduling, as well as HANDWRITING to show the correct order in which to write characters in Japanese through animation.
Furthermore, the new software modules use special phone functions which have been designed with special attention to the nature of learning disabilities, such as a color filter and the mobiles phone’s vibration function. Currently the number of children requiring special assistance due to developmental or learning disabilities is about 600,000 in regular schools and nearly 100,000 more in special needs schools and classes. In collaboration with Kagawa University’s Faculty of Education, Fujitsu conducted field tests of its software applications from May to September 0f this year.

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Artificial leaves' produce electricity

A North Carolina State University-led team has created 'artificial leaves – water-gel-based solar devices which can act like solar cells to generate electricity.
The devices show it's possible to make solar cells that more closely mimic nature, and could also be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than current silicon-based solar cells.
The flexible devices are made of a water-based gel infused with light-sensitive molecules – one version uses plant chlorophyll – combined with electrodes coated with carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes or graphite.
The light-sensitive molecules become excited by the sun’s rays to produce electricity - in a similar way to plant molecules which become excited to synthesize sugars and grow.
Lead author professor Orlin Velev of NCSU says the research team hopes to "learn how to mimic the materials by which nature harnesses solar energy". Although synthetic light-sensitive molecules can be used, Velev says naturally derived products like chlorophyll are also easy to use because of the devices' water-gel matrix.
Now that they’ve proven the concept, Velev says the researchers will work to fine-tune the devices, making them even more like real leaves.
"The next step is to mimic the self-regenerating mechanisms found in plants," Velev says. "The other challenge is to change the water-based gel and light-sensitive molecules to improve the efficiency of the solar cells."
Velev suggests that in future, roofs could be covered with soft sheets of similar electricity-generating artificial-leaf solar cells.
"We do not want to overpromise at this stage, as the devices are still of relatively low efficiency and there is a long way to go before this can become a practical technology," Velev says.
"However, we believe that the concept of biologically inspired 'soft' devices for generating electricity may in the future provide an alternative for the present-day solid-state technologies."

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Warning: A Starcraft 2 Malware Virus is on the loose

It is said that you can never be too famous. The following warning will prove the contrary. It seems that Starcraft 2 was given so much attention, that hackers considered it as a valuable option. They developed a virus, actually a malware virus, which uses Starcraft 2 as an infection portal. If you get infected, there is a high change to lose all of your passwords and bank account information. So yes, it’s a nasty one. Let me explain how it works.
First, the Starcraft 2 malware was discovered by Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center. The virus name is actually Harning, a virus discovered since 2006, which has infected well over 140 thousand files just in August 2010. The most infected areas with this virus are: US, UK, Brazil and Netherlands.

Starcraft 2 Malware Virus

How it works? Well, Harning uses the same icon like Starcraft 2, and it is most known within circles that have illegally downloaded Starcraft 2. So, if you stay legal, you stay protected. Don’t fall into the temptation to download Starcraft 2 from torrents or other illegal websites, as you may end up with the Harning malware. Once the file is executed, your antivirus may detect two files: TrojanDownloader:Win32/Harnig.gen!P and the other will be the Starcraft 2 executable.
What it steals? All personal information stored in your PC. That includes game passwords, email accounts, bank account information and many others. Once gathered, they will be sent to a Chinese website, where all your info will be stored.
Take note, as the Harning malware is not the only one who uses Starcraft 2. Another virus is PWS:Win32/PWSteal.M. This one gathers Steam information, and other ones from your browser. Once he collects, it will email them back to the attacker

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Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Brings Innovative Financial Services to Life

abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Brings Innovative Financial Services to Life, Enhances Customer Service With TIBCO Software Industry Leading Bank Builds Customer Relationship Management Platform to Achieve 360-Degree View of Customers, Streamline Customer Service Requests and Reduce Operating Costs

TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ:TIBX) today announced Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has selected TIBCO solutions to architect a real-time infrastructure that will enable the company to deliver enhanced banking products and services to its private and corporate account holders, as well as speed the time in which tailored offerings are supplied to its customers.

ADCB has routinely experienced more than 100 percent year-over-year growth and established itself as one of the top tier banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To sustain its position as a leading financial provider, ADCB embarked on a journey to elevate the innovativeness of its products and offer stronger levels of customer service.

ADCB has leveraged its newly centralized system and real-time, service-oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure to roll out new innovative products and services to the market including:

--  SALIK Payments: Customers can recharge their Salik accounts (road toll
    collection in Dubai) through an alternate channel, giving them the
    flexibility to use the facility either by debiting a credit card or
    bank account.
--  Fly Dubai Service: Fund online ticket payments via any channel, as
    well as receive payment status updates.
--  Du Telecom Payments: Facilitate online recharges and payment options.
--  Overseas Funds Transfers (SOFT): For migrants from India residing in
    the UAE, customers no longer have to use the original paper-based
    transfer -- they can seamlessly do this via online banking to transfer
    funds in real-time to their banks in India.
--  CRM: With this robust customer relationship management (CRM) system,
    information is now instantly available in one place about customer
    accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, deposits and other
    financial information.

To achieve all of this, ADCB integrated around 20 back-end systems to achieve a 360-degree view of its customers.

From Mission to Reality The company started by transforming how information was being connected and distributed throughout the organization. ADCB bridged all systems together and completely transposed its legacy infrastructure to create a modernized SOA. As a result, the unified backbone quickly released the company from the time and costs associated with its previous point-to-point integration approach. The platform also empowered the business to reuse existing services and applications, reducing the time and costs previously required to develop individual applications.

Armed with a centralized system that delivers information in real-time on the back-end to its departments and geographical locations, ADCB then optimized processes by streamlining how information was delivered to its branches and employees. Traditionally, information about a customer required a lengthy retrieval process of logging into multiple applications and gathering information. To reduce the process time and provide instant access to accurate data, ADCB constructed a one-time log-in user interface that displays a comprehensive 360-degree profile of a customer.

In addition to capturing information about the customer's core accounts and banking activities, the unified view of the customer also receives real-time updates when the customer responds to marketing campaigns. Alerting ADCB to the customer's interests better enables the bank to deliver products and services with greater relevancy.

Collectively, the SOA infrastructure and new user interface enables ADCB to quickly build and distribute new services to its customers, deliver products with greater relevancy and timeliness, and alleviate the frustration a customer experiences with lengthy service times.

Supporting Quotes

"Stemming from our mission to build lifelong relationships with our customers, we wanted to build a platform that would provide them with enhanced services and tools to help make their lives easier. With TIBCO, we have achieved this," said Kashif Qasim, Project Manager ITD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. "The unified platform not only strengthens our ability to better serve our customers with stronger levels of service, it also extends our service capabilities beyond traditional banking and opens the door to delivering more creative lifestyle solutions."

"With TIBCO, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has launched itself to the forefront of customer service in the UAEfinancial banking market," said Lee North, Head of Information Technology, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. "By unifying its backend systems, ADCB has the opportunity to leverage its newly found competitive advantage to drive dynamic solutions that significantly impact the lives of its customers."

About TIBCO TIBCO's technology digitized Wall Street in the '80s with its event-driven "Information Bus" software, which helped make real-time business a strategic differentiator in the '90s. Today, TIBCO's infrastructure software gives customers the ability to constantly innovate by connecting applications and data in a service-oriented architecture, streamlining activities through business process management, and giving people the information and intelligence tools they need to make faster and smarter decisions, what we call The Power of Now. TIBCO serves more than 3,000 customers around the world with offices in more than 20 countries and an ecosystem of over 200 partners. Learn more at www.tibco.com.

TIBCO, The Power of Now, and TIBCO Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for

SOURCE: TIBCO Software Inc.

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GigaSpaces Continues to Successfully SaaS-Enable and Reduce TCO for Independent Software Vendors

GigaSpaces Technologiescontinues to attract independent software vendors (ISVs), such as Pagosonline.net S.A., a leading financial services Software-as-a-Service provider in Bogota, Colombia. Pagosonline recently integrated GigaSpaces eXtreme Application Platform(XAP) 7.1.1 into its web-based payment processing and aggregation platform.

XAP is an enterprise-grade, end-to-end in-memory application server for deploying and dynamically scaling distributed applications. Software vendorsand organizations can now more quickly and cost-effectively develop, manage, and scale their business-critical Java and .NET applications, whether they are being used within the data center or as web- or cloud-based SaaS offerings.

“As a growing company, we project that our processing needs over the next five years will grow to at least five times current transaction rates,” says José Fernando Vélez, General Manager of Pagosonline. “We chose XAP as the most cost-effective solution to ensure our infrastructure costs won't increase accordingly."

XAP allows Pagosonline to linearly and dynamically scale its system without any diminishing returns. Meanwhile, XAP’s concurrent transaction management and multi-tenancy features maximize Pagosonline's use of its existing hardware infrastructure.

“Pagosonline evaluated XAP through our free trial program,” says Amnon Raviv, head of ISV sales at GigaSpaces. “They were quickly up and running, requiring only minimal support from GigaSpaces. We've noticed this pattern recurring with our customers, as they utilize XAP’s open, rich APIs and support for standard frameworks.”

By embedding XAP in its payments service platform, Pagosonline will be able to leverage XAP’s fully transactional, best-in-class, in-memory data grid, its parallel processing engine, and a reliable, high-performance messaging infrastructure. This ensures that the Pagosonline development team can focus on improved functionality without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, speeding time to market. In the future, if Pagosonline decides its needs are better served with part of the application infrastructure on the cloud, thanks to XAP, it can transition from the data center to the cloud without a single code change.

“Thanks to the flexibility of GigaSpaces technology, ISVs benefit from the same features and cost-efficiencies our large data-center-focused customers have long enjoyed,” says John Giubileo, GigaSpaces Inc. Executive Vice President and General Manager. “GigaSpaces technology and consultancy services provide software vendors with a long-term solution that supports both their data center and cloud-based application offerings. With XAP ISVs can take their existing applications and offer them as a service online with minimal to zero code change,” he added.

About GigaSpaces GigaSpaces Technologies is a leading provider of a new generation of application platforms for Java and .Net environments that offers an alternative to traditional application servers. Its flagship product, XAP, is an enterprise-grade application server for deploying and dynamically scaling distributed applications under any requirement. GigaSpaces customers depending on our reliability and millisecond latency include dozens of Global Fortune 100/500 companies, including Société Générale and British American Tobacco; six of the world's top 10 investment banks and financial services companies like Dow Jones; leading telecommunications carriers and eCommerce companies like eBay; and five of the world's top online gaming companies and Internet media organizations. GigaSpaces was founded in 2000 and has offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. 

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