The New Nation - Internet Edition

HP’s Eid sales with gifts

World leading printer and IT equipment manufacturer Hewlett-Packard is offering attractive gifts for their valued customers in this EID. HP customers can win DVD Player, Mobile Phone Set, FM Radio, Polo-T Shirt, T-shirt, Digital Clock, Pen-Calculator, Spence Ball, waterproof backpack and more gifts with the purchase of HP Inkjet printers, HP All-in-ones, HP ScanJets, HP Laser Jet Printers, HP Color LaserJet Printers or original HP Print Cartridges.

This promotion is offered thru all HP authorized resellers country-wide. Customers can collect the gifts instantly from the HP Redemption Centers located at BCS Computer City, Elephant Road IT Market or HP authorized resellers country-wide. The promotion will start from the first day of Ramadan.

A lively Reseller get-together was held at at a local Restaurant to brief the HP Resellers about this promotion. Shabbir Shafiullah, Country Business Development Manager (IPG-Bangladesh) of Hewlett-Packard, A.K. Azad, Retail Channel Development Manager, Sarower Chowdhury, Corporate Channel Development Manager, Ashaduzzaman, Supplies Channel Development of Hewlett-Packard Bangladesh were present at the occasion along with the four HP Premium Partners and over 80 Resellers. In the launching occasion, Shabbir highlighted that HP recently announced breakthroughs in toner, ink, and media technologies that allow customers unprecedented color printing capabilities to produce documents and marketing materials in-house that are impressive, eye-catching and equivalent to offset printing quality.

The new printing supplies portfolio includes HP's newly formulated HP ColorSphere Toner that will deliver 117% higher gloss, and 39% wider color gamut, previously unseen in HP Color LaserJet printing. This allows users to greatly improve print quality for documents, produce outstanding images and realistic photos.

New Enhanced 'Low Melt' Monochrome Toner Formulation allows fast high volume, high quality printing, while enabling consumers to achieve a 10% to 15% improvement in their print system energy consumption per page. To ensure that customers are getting the original HP print-cartridges, HP has placed uniquely designed, counterfeit-proof "Anti-Tampering" label on all original HP print-cartridge boxes. The anti-tampering label has a "HP Number" and a unique secret "Password" printed on them.

After purchasing an original HP print-cartridge, the customer can scratch-off the grey area of the HP Anti-tampering label to reveal the password. Next, they can log into www.checkgenuine.com and key-in the HP Number and Password they found on the Label. Instantly they will be notified if they have purchased an original print-cartridge. HP has also deployed a field team to assist customers to verify their purchases in the www.checkgenuine.com website.

For verification assistance, customers can contact with HP hot line: 01713044824. In this briefing session Mr. Sarower updated the resellers about HPs newly launched laserjet family which consists LaserJet P4515, LaserJet P4015, LaserJet All-in-one M1120. The first two laserjets are specifically designed to meet the high volume printing demand of corporate customers and comes with 3 years HP Standard Warranty to offer the best value for money and to ensure highest level of Total Customer Experience.

HP is ranked as number #1 in InkJet Printers, All-in-ones, Mono and Color Laser printers, Scanners, Large Format Printers, Ink and Laser Supplies. HP has supplied over 380 million inkjet printers and over 120 million LaserJet printers world-wide. HP is among the world's largest IT companies, with revenue totaling more than US$100 billion in the last four quarters.

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers - from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com .

Tel Cos told to cut network costs

bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Regulatory chiefs have told telecom operators to cut infrastructure costs by sharing network with other companies, according to a new guideline unveiled Monday.

"Every operator must share the network infrastructure such as base stations. It will minimise the operating cost and protect the environment," BTRC chief Manzurul Alam told bdnews24.com.

"The companies will thus be able to reduce the tariff and pass on the savings to other areas," the retired major general said.

The BTRC chairman said network infrastructure is one of costliest components in the business.

The new guideline aims to "protect the environment by reducing land use, as well as infrastructure and facility installations, thereby not changing the aesthetics of the country's landscape."

It is also targeted "to optimise operators' capital expenditure on supporting infrastructure."

Says BTRC: "These guidelines are applicable for sharing of passive infrastructures; optical fibre/wired access and backbone transmission network amongst all existing and future telecommunication operators having license from the Commission,"

"Operators shall jointly develop, build, maintain and operate new passive infrastructure for providing telecommunication services to the subscribers. However, an individual operator may build passive infrastructures with the permission of the Commission. "Licensees (except the Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network's Licensee) will not be permitted to build optical/wired backbone transmission network if such networks of other operators are already available for sharing..

The guideline also applies to "optical/wired backbone transmission network if such networks are not existing/not available for sharing from the existing infrastructures in a particular zone/area."

The BTRC, however, can make an exception to this rule.

"Tariff and charges for Infrastructure Sharing shall be mutually agreed basing on the directives issued or to be issued by the Commission.

"In case of any dispute regarding the tariff and charges the decision of the Commission shall be final and binding upon the parties.

"Any agreements to be executed shall be submitted to the Commission within 15 days from the date of agreement."

According to the guideline, the operators shall provide capacity on its infrastructure to other operators on a non-discriminatory "first come, first serve" basis.

"Infrastructure Providers shall reserve the right to refuse an application for infrastructure sharing on grounds of insufficient capacity.

"Infrastructure Providers have the right to reserve not more than 25% of spare capacity.

"The Infrastructure Seekers may sub lease/rent out the shared infrastructures subject to the provision of agreement.

"Sharing Infrastructure is an approach to minimise the cost of network deployment and to protect the environment by reducing the proliferation of towers and facilities installation said in the guideline.

Zune MP3 to tag FM radio

On Sept. 16, Microsoft will begin offering a feature that will let users "tag" and download music they hear on its Zune MP3 player's built-in FM radio, the company said Monday. A giant 120-Gbyte offering, as well as a 16-Gbyte model, have also been added to the Zune family.

Microsoft will also clear out its old Zune inventory with special pricing, the company said. The new blue 120 Gbyte model will cost $249.99, while the new 16-Gbyte model will be priced at $199. Both the 80-Gbyte and the 4-Gbyte model are priced to move, at $229.99 and $129.99 apiece. The 16-Gbyte model remains unchanged, at $199.

The best news? Unlike Unlike the $10 Apple charged for an update to its iPod touch, all of the Microsoft updates are free.

Microsoft's timing, on the eve of the Apple "Rock On" launch on Tuesday, is a good indication that Apple indeed plans to revamp its iPod line. For all of the corporate muscle that Microsoft wields, the Zune has played a distant second fiddle to the iPod. Wi-Fi and an FM radio are two features that the iPod currently lacks, however, and Microsoft has tried to exploit them. Beginning on Sept. 16, a new feature called Buy from FM will allow users to, as the name suggests, tag a song being played on the radio for purchase. The service uses the Radio Data System and RT+ systems of digital song ID used by the U.K. and the U.S., respectively, to identify the song to the player. If the Zune is in the presence of a Wi-Fi hotpsot, the new Zune software will instantly connect it to the Zune Marketplace online store. A song tagged for purchase will also instantly be downloaded to the Zune. Better still, private and public hotspots can be accessed via the Zune.

On the PC, Wi-Fi allows a connection to both the Internet at large as well as to friends, and the Zune's sharing model is no exception. The Zune has always allowed users to trial the tracks their friends are playing. users have previously been able to see what their friends are listening to via the Zune Card, essentially a playlist. With the additional update, these Zune Cards can be updated on the fly. Zune software can be downloaded for free from the Zune Web site.

Finally, there is the subscription: $14.99 per month allows an unlimited number of downloads or streaming, either to the Zune itself or to a PC. Some pundits predict Apple will also launch subscription service in its Tuesday launch. There was no mention of an exclusive video store, however, as some had predicted.

Other tidbits include a pair of games: "Hexic" and "Texas Hold 'Em," as well as audiobook support, support for Audible.com, and even OverDrive.com, with over 7,500 searchable libraries.

Intel ships green xeon machines

Damon Poeter

Mon. Sep. 08, 2008 Intel (NSDQ:INTC) on Monday began shipping three new Xeon server chips, including one 5400 series quad-core processor that tops out at 3.4GHz and another that reduces the power draw to just 50 watts, or 12.5 watts per core.

The three available 5400 series quad-core processors and one 5200 series dual-core processor that Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel will begin shipping later are the first in the Xeon line to debut as entirely halogen-free, according to Intel.

The chip giant further announced that previously launched Xeon 5400 and 5200 series devices will now be made halogen-free as well.

New Xeon quad-cores from Intel include the 50W, 2.66GHz Xeon L5430, priced at $562; the 120W, 3.33GHz Xeon X5470, priced at $1,386; and the 150W, 3.4GHz Xeon X5492, priced at $1493. A dual-core server/workstation chip, the 80W, 3.5GHz Xeon X5270, will be made available later in the fall for $1,172, according to Intel.

The new Xeon processors can be dropped into existing Intel dual processor platforms, the chip maker said.

Intel eliminated lead from its processors beginning with last year's launch of its 45nm class of products commonly known as Penryn, the culmination of more than five years of work to develop lead-free processors.

The company built its first lead-free flash memory products in 2002 and by 2004 was able to produce microprocessors that were 95 percent lead-free.

Eliminating the last bits of lead required the development of a completely new transistor metal gate structure based on Hafnium, which culminated in Penryn.

The elimination of halogen marked "another step in Intel's march toward minimizing the environmental footprint of its products," the chip giant said in a statement.

Agito offers 'Dual Persona'

Rick Whiting

Agito Networks has released the next generation of its RoamAnywhere mobility router system, expanding the number of supported mobile platforms and offering a new "dual persona" capability for using one mobile phone for personal and business calls.

RoamAnywhere is a fixed-mobile convergence system that combines Wi-Fi, cellular, IP telephony and location-awareness technology. Tying those together allows for seamless handover from one system to another while reducing telecommunications expenses, the company said. A mobile phone user calling from within his office, for example, can route the call through the company's PBX rather than a more expensive cellular network.

The new RoamAnywhere Version 2.0 supports more than 30 types of handsets running the Symbian S60 Series and Windows Mobile 6 standard and professional operating systems. That's up from about 10 handsets in the original release. The new release also supports native line-side support for Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft, Nortel and Asterisk IP-PBXs. Support for BlackBerry devices and the Apple iPhone are in the works.

Support for Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform is a key item for INX Inc., a Houston-based mobility and unified communications solution provider, said Tim Forehand, INX mobility solutions manager. While INX has worked with RoamAnywhere since early this year, the limited handset support offered by the earlier version hindered how broadly INX could sell the product. "I see this a true application that we can really push," he said of the new release. "I'm very excited about this." INX will work the Agito system into its voice over wireless LAN solution. The product's other major advance, the dual persona feature, allows a mobile phone to accept calls to both a business phone number and a personal number, according to Pej Roshan, Agito co-founder and marketing VP. Forehand at INX said the system's ability to switch between business- and personal-mode automatically is a plus: "These solutions need to be seamless to the end-user to be successful," he said.