Monday, March 11, 2002		Latest in IT world

TechSpan Inc, a leading eBusiness integration company delivering end-to-end Web enablement solutions, has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Fujitsu Software Corporation to co-market and deploy Fujitsu Software's Interstage e-Business Platform, including the Interstage Application Server and the i-Flow Business Process Management engine. Under the agreement, TechSpan will join Fujitsu Software Corporation's centre stage partner program, which provides value added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators (SIs) preferred access to Fujitsu's technology, training, support services, and qualifies them for joint marketing and sales opportunities. TechSpan will also build a program to deploy Fujitsu Software's Interstage e-Business Platform across multiple practices, including Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Application Integration and B-to-B Integration and will co-market the platform with its system integration services.

A low-cost handheld computer developed by seven Indian engineers to take the Internet to rural masses will start rolling out in May, the head of a firm pioneering the project said, according to Reuters. The "Simputer," short for simple, inexpensive, multilingual, is championed by its followers as a friend of the poor, but some of its supporters add that its features match cool and trendy handheld like those built by Palm. Originally expected to cost $200, it would now cost $50 more, Vinay Deshpande, chief executive of Bangalore-based Encore Software, said on Wednesday. The colour screen version is priced at $300. Built by the non-profit Simputer Trust, the device is slightly larger than a regular handheld PC, and uses the free-to-use Linux operating system. Its software is expected to aid farmers seeking to know commodity prices and beat middlemen and also provide speech recognition in regional languages to help illiterate rural folk.

Online ads, which have become increasingly likely to pop up or pop under Web pages in an attempt to grab consumers' attention, are also getting bigger, as per a news item that appeared in Hindustan Times. Large-format ads like the giant squares in the middle of Web pages and long and skinny "skyscrapers" have become more widespread, according to new research from Jupiter Media Metrix. The super-sized ads' page impressions have grown 185 per cent since new standards were introduced a year ago, from 2 billion to 5.7 billion. The study, which did not look at the dynamic "rich-media" ads that look like miniature TV commercials, or the "pop-up" ads that annoy many readers, found that large format ads, while growing, are still in the minority. Traditional banner ads still hold about a 50 per cent market share, according to the study.

Sony Ericsson unveiled its new generation mobile phones last week and said it was confident of emerging as the number one player in mobile telephony within five years, Khaleej Times says. The products launched included three new handsets - T68i, P8000, and Z700 - targeted at the GSM market and accessories such as CommuniCam MCA-20 digital camera accessory. Mats Paulson, general manager, Sony Ericsson Middle East & Africa, said with the replacement market growing at a steady pace, Sony Ericsson was ideally positioned to emerge as the market leader within five years. With the camera snapped on to the phone, it is easy to take pictures and send them as an MMS-message to another phone, e-mail them to a PC, or store them in the phone's extensive photo album. The shipment of the T68i, priced at $450-$500, and CommuniCam MCA2O will start immediately while the P800, a multimedia smartphone with inbuilt camera, will be introduced later this year. The Z700, is a mobile gaming phone with colour screen.