Mobile net filters block legit content too – campaign group

Posted by loadcell – May 18, 2012

Mobile operators currently provide filter systems that enable parents to stop children accessing websites deemed to contain content suitable for individuals aged 18 or over. However, the Open Rights Group (ORG) said there are “a number of serious problems” with how those systems work.

The ORG continued: “Mobile internet filtering blocks too much content, and applies to too many people, meaning it effectively adds up to a system of censorship across UK networks.

“As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, and as the internet continues to provide a potential platform for promoting both freedom of expression and economic innovation, it is critical that such problems are addressed. If they are not, then this form of censorship will continue to create unwanted restrictions on access to information for adults and young people, which will damage markets, undermine the free flow of ideas and open communication, and make it harder to promote responsible Internet governance internationally,” it said.

ORG said that its report was based on complaints it had received about “over-blocking” and also on a ‘mystery shopper’ exercise it had conducted where it “complained about incorrectly blocked sites to the mobile operators and assessed the response.”

The group said its findings show that the filters do not just prevent access to “adult sexual content” and that there were problems with the “classification” of websites on ‘blacklists’ that has led to some being wrongly blocked by filtering.

Mobile operators are also “not transparent enough about how their filtering systems work or the kind of content they block” and it is “often not clear how to report mistakes and problems.” the ORG said. Another problem the group identified was the difficulty in turning filters off.

“Getting mobile operators to turn off blocks often requires consumers to provide credit card details as a means of identification or to go to a store,” the ORG said. “For many this may not be too onerous or problematic, although some may not want to provide credit card details either over the phone or through the page returned to a user when a site is blocked.”

“A more significant concern may be finding a way for those who run website they believe have been incorrectly blocked to ‘opt-out. It is not at all clear that it is possible for sites to have themselves removed from content filters,” it said.

“The result [of these problems] is that a system ostensibly designed to help parents manage their children’s access to the Internet is effectively implementing much broader restrictions on access to information that affect a much wider group of people than intended,” it said.

“The worthwhile aspiration to help parents manage their children’s Internet access has led to filtering systems that are clumsy, inaccurate, and inefficient, based on opaque and error-ridden lists of sites considered ‘blockable’,” the group added.

The ORG said that some mobile internet providers are better than others at providing clear information about opting-out of filters, but that it was “clear that all the systems in use by the mobile operators suffer in some respects from these four issues.”

ORG said that current mobile filtering in the UK does not follow three rules recommended by the UN’s rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, over how filtering measures should operate. Last year La Rue reported that filtering of content can have a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression unless the use of filters are limited to exceptional circumstances, governed by law and a clear legal process and are necessary and the least restrictive means required to achieve the aim, the ORG said.

The campaigners said that the UK’s mobile filtering system is “overly broad, and governed by informal industry frameworks and contractual relationships with filtering service providers.”

It said some of the “consequences” of the UK’s system is that businesses are cut off from accessing their market because of over-blocking and that the system can also lead to censorship.

“There are clear problems for free access to and sharing of information when decisions about access are taken out of people’s hands, and left to opaque and informal agreements or clumsy and unresponsive technical systems,” it said. “This is especially problematic in a filtering system that is not ‘granular’ enough, leading to blanket filtering that covers far too much material, for example sites such as restaurant sites, blogs about shelves, or political discussion sites.”

“Furthermore, if online censorship is widespread and accepted with little opposition as a way to implement a broad range of public policy issues, it becomes far harder to argue for Internet freedom elsewhere,” ORG said.

Other “consequences” of problems with the current mobile filtering systems is that young people are “denied access to legitimate and age-appropriate information and resources such as sexual health information and advice”. The systems also offer a “false sense of security” and may not actually adequately protect children from online risks, because filters can be circumvented and because new encryption technology is making it “impossible for an ISP to ‘check’ the web address the user is visiting,” ORG said.

ORG said that “in the longer term” filtering systems should be “device-based” rather than at “ISP level” because, generally, “the closer to a user the filtering happens, the more control the user has over it”.

In the shorter term the campaigners said mobile operators should enable customers to choose whether to opt in to censorship measures at the point of signing-up to their service, the ORG said. The nature of the censorship tools should be referred to as ‘parental controls’ rather than ‘adult content’ because “the range of material caught stretches far beyond sexual content and the terminology should reflect this,” it said.

The operators should also be more transparent about what their filters block and provide adults with “clear advice about the kind of content that may be blocked, and … with clear information on how the blocking works,” including any information on the identity of any third-party suppliers of the filtering technology, ORG said. It added that there should also be “clear and easy ways to check if a site is blocked” and that there should be an easy-to-use mechanism “to complain about wrongful blocks, including at the time when an incorrectly blocked website is found.”

ORG also recommended that mobile operators regularly review the operation of their filter systems and provide a means of redress to website operators in order that they can “challenge a refusal to remove their site from a blocking system.”

ORG said that problems with filtering of content may extend beyond those problems affecting mobile operators’ systems if new government policies on child protection filtering, or filtering content related to terrorism and extremism and for copyright enforcement, are not carefully drafted.

Surveillance state saps freedom

Posted by loadcell – May 17, 2012

The surveillance state expands. The Patriot Act allows our phones to be wiretapped. Our email and Internet transactions leave a trail for some to follow. The police can access our GPS location data through our smartphones without a warrant. Retailers record our purchasing habits with painstaking detail. Apparently, Target studies those purchases to determine when customers are pregnant — in the second trimester, no less — for specialized marketing purposes.

And now, there will be surveillance drones. Congress recently passed a bill (“The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012″) that opens the gates to widespread use of surveillance drones on U.S. soil. They will be used for law enforcement and border protection but also commercially — for real estate, entertainment and journalism, for example. One prominent drone showcased on the Web is a hummingbird drone. As the name suggests, it’s tiny, quick and highly mobile. A popular video shows the hummingbird drone entering a building and flying down a corridor, transmitting everything it sees. It’s chilling to imagine the possibilities — and the future.

The political problem with all this surveillance is obvious if we’d care to admit it. Authorities have so much more access to the details of our lives, information which, in the wrong hands, could do real harm. The only thing protecting us is the character of those in power who collect all this information — and swear they will do nothing objectionable with it.

Regarding the new National Defense Authorization Act, which sanctions the president’s power to detain indefinitely or even assassinate U.S. citizens suspected of involvement in terrorist organizations, President Barack Obama tried to allay fears by saying that this administration will use discretion and judgment in exercising this power. What about subsequent administrations? The Founding Fathers were highly concerned to design a government impervious to corruption by character flaws of individual officeholders. The “war on terror” has steadily rendered us vulnerable to just that.

Perhaps most remarkable about the growing surveillance state is how we are largely unperturbed by it. Indeed, we jump headlong into the new technologies that allow us to be watched. The ACLU cries like a voice in the wilderness about civil rights threats, but we’re too busy shopping online, sharing intimate personal details on Facebook, Tweeting our most mundane revelations.

I pressed my college students on this recently, and one student pointed out that they were 10 years old when the Patriot Act was implemented. They have also spent half their lives or more with the Internet, email and smartphones, and so have known nothing else. In short, surveillance is their norm. And they have known only benevolent (or at least innocuous) surveillance to date.

Does this mean they trust the powers that know so much about them and could do so much with this knowledge? Hardly. They have little confidence in the ruling parties — and that’s a view shared by people across the spectrum. Why do we surrender so much information, and ultimately power, to authorities we trust so little?

You might say we’re just lazy, or too enamored with the new technologies to worry about who is watching us and why. Alternately, as Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor has argued, we are a society increasingly suffering “time poverty”: We work long hours, commute long distances, ferry our kids to countless activities, and in our frenzy have come to rely on the new technologies that help us get through our frantic schedules. In general, digital media are so fully integrated into our lives, we simply can’t imagine living without them. They have gotten us accustomed to convenience such as we’ve never known before — a convenience directly proportionate to the amount of personal information we surrender.

Underlying it all, however, is something else: We’ve lost sight of the significance of privacy, and that it’s essential to freedom and democracy. We willingly give up our privacy in the belief that our freedom remains untouched. In a war on terror, privacy seems like an easy sacrifice, especially when you get the wondrous conveniences of all the new media in return. But freedom without privacy, the French philosopher Michel Foucault argued, is no freedom at all.

According to Foucault, surveillance exerts a covert pressure that can approach a kind of oppression. Under constant surveillance, he maintained, we feel less free to be eccentric or quirky, or take chances in our behavior — behavior that matters politically, that is. We are more prone to conform, less liable to ask vexing social questions that might draw attention to ourselves and upset whoever is watching. We are less inclined to develop our own ideas and opinions, work them out, test them in public venues and stick to them. Democracy, however, requires creative, independent, fearless individualism.

Republicans Kill Civil Unions in Colorado

Posted by loadcell – May 16, 2012

A last-ditch effort by Colorado’s governor to give gay couples in the state rights similar to married couples failed Monday after Republicans rejected the proposal during a special legislative session.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper had said the special session was needed to address a “fundamental question of fairness and civil rights.”

The bill’s demise was expected by Democrats, who have begun using the issue as a rallying cry to topple Republicans in the November elections. Republicans assigned the bill to House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, which was likely to reject it. The panel voted 5-4 along party lines to kill the measure.

“The gay community is being used as a political pawn,” said Republican Rep. Don Coram, whose son is gay. Coram voted against the measure.

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, the Democrats’ leader in the House and gay lawmaker co-sponsoring civil unions, sounded a note of optimism before the committee hearing, even as he braced for the bill’s rejection.

“If it fails this year, we’re going to work hard to make sure the public understands what happened, the games that were played, and next we’re going to push it again,” he said. “And as I’ve said a number of times, it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when.’ And the ‘when’ keeps getting sooner and sooner. This will happen.”

House Republicans hold a 33-32 voting advantage, but there was enough support for civil unions to pass.

Last week, Democrats tried to force Republicans who control the calendar to bring up the bill for debate. But it became clear Republicans were filibustering by unnecessarily talking at length about other bills.

Republicans then halted work for hours, killing the bill and several others that needed a vote before a key deadline.

“Transparency, accountability and the virtues of good government are compromised when the legislative clock is used to avoid consideration of important legislation,” the governor said in a letter to lawmakers before the special session started.

The regular session adjourned Wednesday, the same day an emotional Hickenlooper announced his intent to call a special session over civil unions and other bills that died because of the GOP filibuster.

More than a dozen states allow either gay marriage or civil unions, including several that moved to pass such laws this year.

The debate in Colorado is playing out at a time when President Obama became the first U.S. president to publicly endorse gay marriage. But North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bars civil unions and defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

Earlier Monday, hundreds of supporters wearing red and waving signs greeted lawmakers returning to Denver for the special session.

Many of the gay-rights activists predicted the bill’s demise. They urged Democrats to make the civil unions failure a rallying point for November.

“For too long Democrats have let the right corner the market no talking about values. Finally we’ve claimed the moral high ground, and we can talk about that,” said activist Wiley Sherer, who was selling buttons that read, “Ignorance is forgivable. Pride in ignorance never is.”

Nokia fights back as Samsung eats into India handset share

Posted by loadcell – May 15, 2012

A decade back, Nokia’s leadership position in India and globally was almost unassailable. But riding on the success of Android-based phones, South Korean handset maker Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has severely dented the Finnish company’s fortunes.

This year, not only did Samsung break Nokia’s 14-year record of being the world’s largest handset maker by overtaking it in terms of unit shipments in the January-March quarter, according to a report in April by research firm Strategy Analytics, it is also threatening to upstage Nokia in the overall Indian mobile phone market.

It has already toppled Nokia in the Indian smartphone segment. Research firm Convergence Catalyst pegs Samsung’s share in India in the January-March quarter at 45%, way above Nokia’s 25-30%. It estimates 9-9.5 million smartphones to have been sold in India in 2011.

“The year was also significant in that smartphones breached the $100 (around Rs.5,300) price point with Android devices being launched in the market in Q4 2011,”said Jayanth Kolla, co-founder and partner, Convergence Catalyst. “Although Nokia had a strong lead in the smartphone segment in the first half of the year (started 2011 with close to 60% and ended Q4 with sub-40% share), Samsung has gained significant market share in the last two quarters (June-December) and is the player to watch in 2012.”

To compound matters, according to an April report by market tracker GfK-Nielsen, Samsung India also overtook Nokia in India in overall retail revenue in March. It had a 34.2% share of mobile phone retail revenue in March 2012 as against Nokia’s 33.8%.

Samsung, however, lags behind Nokia in unit shipments (volumes) in India. In the overall mobile phone space in India, Nokia retained leadership with a 30% marketshare in the October-December 2011 quarter, with Samsung following at 14.4%, according to shipment numbers by CyberMedia Research. But the research firm also reveals that Nokia has been steadily losing marketshare in India, dropping over the years: 2008 (55%), 2009 (54%), 2010 (30%), 2011 (30%).

With Samsung at its heels, the Nokia India management is leaving nothing to chance.

“Nokia is in transition, but on the dot as far as the markets are concerned,” said D. Shivakumar, senior vice-president, sales (India, Middle East and Africa), Nokia. “We are following the global Nokia strategy of strengthening three pillars. The first is our partnership with Microsoft Corp. for Lumia phones based on the company’s Windows operating system (OS). We have received good success here. The second pillar is about connecting the next billion to the Internet with mobile-Internet phones. And the third is about ‘future disruptions’.”

The company is attempting to get its act together by strengthening its portfolio with the introduction of the Lumia 900 and adding the Nokia 808 PureView to add to its smartphone arsenal. Both are expected to be launched by the end of this month, he said.

In the smartphone segment, the company has two models—the Lumia 710 and 800—which sold between 18,000 units and 22,000 units together per month in the January-March quarter, according to industry estimates. Nokia does not give India figures for the Lumia brands, which were introduced in December 2011.

With the PureView, which boasts a 41 megapixel (MP) camera, Nokia is expected to target users who want to benefit from augmented reality (AR) technology that will allow them to get additional data on hotels, monuments and other points of interest by simply aiming the camera at such locations. PureView, according to industry buzz, will be priced at around Rs.30,000.

On “connecting the next billion to the Internet”, Shivakumar said in the last four months, Nokia India had introduced eight products under the Asha brand, which comprises Internet-connected phones. Moreover, the company has dual-SIM phones as also around 80,000 applications or apps. “We are adding around 300 apps daily,” said Shivakumar.

Nokia this month announced partnerships with Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel to offer integrated billing solutions on the Nokia Store. Nokia Store India currently sees more than 60 million downloads a month.

It’s also strengthening its offering with features such as Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and location-based services to increase stickability. “Today, the Internet is well organized around the ‘what’ and the ‘who’ via search engines and social networks, and Nokia is committed to provide the answer to the ‘where’,” said Vipul Mehrotra, director and head (smart devices), Nokia India.

Hands on: Foxtel Catch Up TV

Posted by loadcell – May 14, 2012

Australia’s digital entertainment landscape is changing and no-one should be more aware of this than pay TV providers such as Foxtel. Every time a new digital TV channel, IPTV service or online Catch Up TV service is launched in Australia, it makes it just that little bit harder to justify paying for Foxtel each month.

Rather than bury its head in the sand, Foxtel is actually doing a fair job of coming to terms with new technology. It’s developing new services and finding new ways to reach customers beyond a traditional subscription. In the last 12 months Foxtel has introduced basic IPTV packages for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Telstra’s T-Box and now Samsung Smart TVs. They’re cheaper than a traditional Foxtel subscription, but the trade-off is you get access to less channels. The XBox 360 and Samsung Smart TV app will however have access to some of the Olympics channels later this year.

While it’s branching out onto new devices, Foxtel is also trying to give existing customers more bang for their buck. A basic Foxtel package starts at $45 per month, but you’ll probably need to pay more to see what you’re really interested in, such as live football. If you want to watch AFL games in HD you’re up for at least $60 per month depending on the deal. That’s not cheap and, like I said, every time a new entertainment option comes along it’s harder to justify paying for pay TV every month.

Back in 2009 Foxtel launched Foxtel Download, letting Foxtel subscribers download TV shows for free and watch them on their computer. One key restriction is that your choices are limited to content from the Foxtel channels you already subscribe to, so it doesn’t’ offer a workaround to access TV shows you couldn’t otherwise watch.

Then in 2010 Foxtel introduced Foxtel On Demand, letting you watch TV shows and hire movies streamed over the internet to Foxtel’s iQ2 personal video recorder (which it seems has been renamed the iQHD). Content and pricing is similar to competitors such as Apple’s iTunes store.

Now Foxtel is building on this by adding free Catch Up TV options to Foxtel On Demand, which are available via the iQ or iQHD. So basically Foxtel is building the Foxtel Download internet service into Foxtel On Demand which runs on the set-top box. If they haven’t already, Foxtel customers need to visit the website or ring the call centre to get On Demand enabled on their account. Unfortunately you’re limited to only watching programs from the channels you subscribe to.

Once activated the new free Catch Up TV options are easy to access using the On Demand button on the Foxtel remote. Previously this menu only gave you access to content available for rent, such as new release movies and TV series, but now Foxtel has mixed in the free Catch Up content. You’ve got several ways to search for programs including by channel, genre, title and recently added.

Unlike most free-to-air Catch Up TV offerings, Foxtel is offering some free movies as well as TV shows. They’re generally made available from midnight on the day of broadcast. When you call up the details of a program you’re told how much data it will chew through and you should allow roughly 600 MB to 800 MB per hour depending on the picture quality. For example an old 4:3 episode Just Shoot me is 200 MB for 20 minutes while a widescreen episode of Doctor Who is 600MB for 43 minutes. It’s not just the widescreen aspect ratio that contributes to the larger file size, the picture quality is also better. Keep in mind if Telstra’s Bigpond is your ISP then these downloads are “unmetered”, which means they don’t count towards your monthly limit.

Once you’ve clicked download the program shows up in your planner just like any other program you’ve recorded. Thankfully you can start watching almost straight away, rather than waiting for it to finish downloading. You’ll need to wait a minute or so for it to download the first few minutes. You can watch the show as many times as you want for the next 28 days, after which it’s automatically deleted.

The picture quality is extremely good, perhaps even better than the Catch Up TV offerings available on Sony gear via the Bravia Internet Video IPTV service. To be honest you’d struggle to distinguish a Foxtel download from something you recorded earlier. You can even pause, fast forward and rewind shows like any other recording. Even better, there doesn’t seem to be any advertisements embedded in the Catch Up TV programming (although that might come with time).

Right now I’d say the biggest disappointment with the new Catch Up TV service is the limited amount of available content. For example Catch Up TV offerings for the Sci-Fi channel are limited to two episodes of Early Edition, two episodes of Ripley’s Believe it or Not and a lone episode of Lost Girl. That’s pretty dismal when you consider how many great shows are on the Sci-Fi channel. Your options improve when you turn to channels such as Showcase where you’ll find Catch Up offerings such as Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and Sons of Anarchy. You’ll also find AFL matches on there and the picture quality isn’t bad, but it’s only standard-def and perhaps not quite as smooth as a live broadcast. You’ll be underwhelmed if you’re used to watching the AFL live on Foxtel in high-def.

Outlander packed with neat ideas

Posted by loadcell – May 11, 2012

In a marketplace teeming with compact and mid-size SUVs and Crossovers, the Mitsubishi Outlander stands out from the rest with its bold styling, ample power, unique 4WD system and a number of clever ideas and convenience features that aren’t available from the competition or are costly options. In addition, the Outlander covers all the bases with a choice of two engines, two transmissions, FWD, 4WD and optional, stow-in-the-floor, third row seating: very neat.

The ES 4WD uses the same engine but shifts with a conventional six-speed automatic Sportronic with manual mode. The LS 4WD and XLS S-AWC add more muscle with the 230 horsepower, 3.0-litre SOHC V6 and also come with a conventional six-speed automatic Sportronic transmission with manual mode . Another neat idea is the ‘idle neutral logic’ that automatically shifts the transmission into neutral when you come to a complete stop.

The tranny re-engages Drive as soon as you take your foot off the brake; another neat idea that reduces fuel consumption by almost 10%.

Our tester was the seven-seater, Outlander XLS S-AWC finished in Quartz Brown Metallic with Black Leather seating. The Outlander offers a commanding presence on or off-road, sporting the distinctive Mitsubishi ‘Jet Fighter’ nose with its honeycomb grille, deep, lower air intake flanked by stylish fog lamp pods and bold sculpted fenders. Inside, the deeply contoured – and heated – front seats are covered in rich, soft black leather with handsome, double stitched seams.

The use of dark grey matte surfaces and brushed metallic trim give the cabin a sporty, high-tech feel and, unlike the hard plastic surfaces found on many competitors, the Outlander uses new ‘soft-touch’ leather-like padding on armrests, upper window sills and dashboard. The leather wrapped tilt steering wheel with fingertip controls for cruise, audio, and hands-free Bluetooth interface (with voice recognition) works in conjunction with the eight-way, power adjustable driver’s seat to help you tailor the perfect position.

And with the paddle shifters on the steering column, you never have to take your hands off the steering wheel to make manual shifts; another neat idea. Whiteon-black LED illuminated gauges for tachometer and speedometer flank a colour LCD readout for average and instant fuel economy, range, ambient temperature, gear selection and two trip odometers. An ECO Mode light on the dash automatically signals when engine revs and road speed are in the economy ‘sweet spot,’ letting you know you’re saving fuel.

The 60/40-split second row offers plenty of space for three adults and provides reclining seatbacks for additional comfort. Furthermore, they tilt and tumble forward – with a touch – and can move fore and aft more than 80 mm (3.15 inches) to allow easy access to the occasional third row. These slim-profile seats for two are hidden in the floor. A simple tug on two straps pops them up for use – no heavy lifting required; very neat. When stowed and the second row is folded forward, the Outlander provides a generous 2,056 litres (72.6 cu-ft) of flat cargo space.

Another unique touch is the two-piece ‘flap-fold’ tailgate. While the main tailgate rises on powered struts, you can fold down the lower section to eliminate the usual ‘lift-over’ problem, making loading much easier. It also makes a great seat at your tailgate party. That’s neat too.

Our tester included the optional Navigation and Multi-Communication System featuring a 40-gigabyte hard drive and seveninch, colour touch screen mounted on top of the centre console.

Federated Collaboration – the new world order

Posted by loadcell – May 10, 2012

Business agility demands real-time collaboration and communication between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers – in a global context. It also demands collaboration between and beyond heterogeneous networks and services. As enterprises deploy unified communications applications for services such as voice, video, presence, instant messaging, conferencing, calendaring, directory, identity, and address book, the enablement of real-time collaboration across enterprises and domains demands solutions that are high-performance, interoperable, policy-regulated, and secure.

Interdomain Federation is secure, policy-regulated collaboration between multiple enterprises or public domains that enables the exchange of messaging and presence information between users. Federation is achieved by mediating between services or across a large number of proprietary or standards-based protocols. These domains may be in separate enterprises or represent subdomains within the same enterprise.

Aricent’s Unified Communications (UC) Federation allows enterprises to federate their disparate UC platforms with other enterprises to create a new collaborative environment. This paper discusses the new enterprise experience, in which inter-domain federation is established between multiple UC Platforms across enterprises.

Unified Communications is becoming the solution of choice for not only high-flying enterprises with shrinking travel budgets, but for small and medium businesses as well. Adoption of UC in enterprises is accelerating as more and more enterprises embrace the need for software-powered communications beyond their network boundaries to facilitate communication and collaboration anytime, anywhere among colleagues, vendors, and customers around the globe. Forward-looking enterprises are deploying enterprise UC solutions to improve communications, increase collaboration, and improve worker productivity. A further step would be to collaborate seamlessly internally and across corporate boundaries.

The need to integrate information across IT, telephony, and mobile devices has led more and more enterprises to implement UC. Enterprises require user presence information to be reflected across fixed, mobile, and IP networks so that users are contacted at appropriate times. Presence federation becomes challenging when service providers try to integrate proprietary vendor solutions across multiple devices. The availability of diverse enterprise systems (OCS, IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Cisco, and Jabber) and public systems (GTalk, Yahoo) poses a challenge for information exchange between systems and creates the need for an integrated environment.

Because UC platforms support voice and video calls, users should be able to escalate their chat sessions to voice or video through the click of a button. Peer-to-peer and multi-party voice and video calls, and ad hoc conferences across enterprise boundaries, will add a new dimension to communication across diverse and disparate UC platforms.

In addition to presence, enterprises are looking for exchange of data between multiple UC vendor platforms, both public and enterprise. Users should be able to easily exchange documents, images, and videos across platforms subject to security and data model preferences. Also, enterprises need interoperable platforms that can seamlessly integrate with their current and future IT infrastructure, thereby minimizing the risk of platform dependency. Currently, many enterprise UC solutions use proprietary protocols, which makes the UC system very rigid. Enterprises are demanding protocol convergence across different proprietary standards. Service providers will need to start selling systems based on open standards like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) to serve a wide range of buyers.

The E-invoicing Portal: Every FD’s Crystal Ball

Posted by loadcell – May 9, 2012

Probably the first thing that comes to mind is getting rid of paper and the tedium associated with manual invoicing. This is true of course, but e-invoicing can be so much more than just saving time and resources.

What if we were to say that, for accounts receivable professionals,  e-invoicing (or e-billing) can both significantly improve relationships with your customers, reduce customer churn and improve cashflow. Would you be surprised? E-invoicing has many hidden benefits, and it is these benefits that reach out far beyond the day-to-day working of a finance department that we are interested in for the purpose of this article.

Firstly, in terms of accounts receivables what exactly is e-invoicing? E-invoicing is an online service that automates the outbound invoicing process.

E-invoicing goes further than e-presentment, which simply presents an image of an invoice electronically with no customer interaction. E-invoices can be delivered in a variety of different methods to the customer, who can then process them online. Most e-invoicing solutions are outsourced to specialist vendors who run scalable services that are fully vat compliant and integrate easily with existing ERP systems, whilst at the same time enhancing what these legacy systems can provide.

The online process is simple; a supplier dispatches his invoices from an existing ERP or legacy system/s, which are then validated and turned into compliant documents by the e-invoicing vendor and securely sent to the customer in the most appropriate way given their profile e.g. EDI, custom data, or via email. The customer can then login to a secure self service website, or e-invoicing/e-billing Portal, which is a 24/7 supplier branded environment where customers can view, query and access additional data formats, investigate supporting documents, approve invoices, make electronic payments and review their account status.

Research by independent e-invoicing research company Billentis suggests that an organisation can achieve 1-2% of its turnover by replacing paper invoices and automating the processes. However, achieving more in the longer term is a very real possibility and entirely measurable. So, here are the 4 long-term “hidden” benefits of receivables e-invoicing that every FD should recognise.

According to Billentis, the full cost of processing a paper invoice including all the time consuming tasks such as query resolution and credit control, is at least €11.10 per invoice. A major contributor to this high cost is the lack of a central repository for all AR data. There is no way to quickly find out if an invoice has be received, queried or paid. Finance directors often find themselves in a position of making blind decisions with little information about the bigger picture. This doesn’t happen with e-invoicing. The customer e-invoicing Portal, can be accessed by authorised users from anywhere with Internet access 24/7. So whether you are in London or Sydney, at home or away on business, you can gain real-time access to the status of your account receivable documents, all in one place.

Using the portal you can search for an invoice, view it and see if it has been queried or paid. if it has been queried you can resolve issues quickly by using the online query management tool. Supporting documents can also be attached, such as statements, customs and duty notes, timesheets and delivery notes, which make query resolution even quicker. Workflow tools can also be put in place to ensure that notifications e.g. for queries, are emailed to the correct person, or system, so that they can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Billentis states that the end-to-end e-invoicing process costs a mere €4.70 per invoice, which represents a massive saving of 57%.

Uprising…A Return to a Twisted World of Greek Mythology

Posted by loadcell – May 8, 2012

Uprising is an action/adventure shooter featuring the return of Pit after over 20 years on Nintendo’s shelf. The game includes over 20 massive stages to complete in single player, a deep weapon customization feature, and two great multiplayer modes. The game also features Nintendo’s AR cards (over 400 of which are currently available to be collected, including the 6 that come with the game) which can be used to have 3D battles on your desktop, and also for collection purposes.

The single player campaign is the real meat of the game. Over the 20+ stages you’ll be flying in a rail shooter for about a quarter to half of the stage (some stages have more, some have less), followed up by on foot exploration of the vast levels. Each level can be played on different difficulty settings, ranging from 0 (Effortless) to 9 (Nothing Harder!), with your rewards increasing for each level of difficulty you go up. However, there’s a penalty to be had to increase the difficulty, in the form of paying with Hearts (the in game currency). As you increase the difficulty, you sacrifice more & more hearts…and if you get killed, you lose a portion of the hearts you sacrificed, and get dropped one difficulty level. The risk is worth it though, since enemies will drop more hearts and you’ll find better weapons as you increase your difficulty. There’s also doors scattered through the levels that can only be opened if you’re at the difficulty level printed on them (including a couple of lv. 9 doors which are brutally hard to access). Those doors often hold chests with the best weapons and skills in the game.

Speaking of weapons, once you’ve collected a few you can enter the Arms Altar in single player mode to initiate weapon fusion. This will take a pair of your weapons and combine them into a single new weapon, which will often be much better than you had to begin with. However, as with everything in the game there’s a risk to be taken…if you find a weapon you particularly like, you need to be very careful about fusing it. You also need to pay close attention to the attributes on each weapon you’re fusing, since the better attributes (things like speed boosts, status ailments, health boosts, and combat modifiers) can often end up being lost on the new weapon. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve made a better weapon than you had, only to realize your Speed +4 just got deleted in favor of a slight combo boost.

Within the weapons, there are different categories as well. Your basic weapon is a Blade, which is basically like the old Final Fantasy Gunsword. You can also find Bows, Claws (my personal favorite), Staffs (the game’s sniper rifle analog), Palms (sort of a lethal ranged tattoo which makes Pit do massive damage with bare hands), Clubs, Cannons (useful in tight spaces, since the shots will bounce around corners…think grenade launchers), Orbitars (little flying drones that fire multiple shots for ranged attacks), and Arms (big melee boosters that also sometimes have very good ranged attacks). Unfortunately, you’re only allowed one weapon to be equipped at a time (too bad, since Orbitars almost seem like they should be able to be equipped along with another weapon type since they’re floating free from Pit), so your choices in that regard are vital.

Outside of single player mode, there’s the multiplayer, known as Together. This mode has two options…Far Away and Nearby. Far Away uses the 3DS wifi connection to play with people around the world , while Nearby only allows you to play against people in the same room as you. Either way you go, once you’re in you have two options. Free For All is the classic deathmatch mode, pitting up to 6 players into a massive melee. Dark vs. Light splits the players into a 3v3 match, with each team of 3 working as either dark or light players. This mode has two health bars showing…one for yourself, and one for your team. As each player on your team gets killed, the team bar goes down by a percentage depending on how powerful a weapon that player was using, and the player who’s death ends the health bar is then transformed into either Pit or Dark Pit (with a random weapon equipped). Once that happens, things degenerate rapidly since the defeat of one of the Pits ends the match instantly.

The Together mode can also be used when you’re unable to connect online, by using the Nearby mode. You can set up to 5 AI players as opponents, and you can also adjust the difficulty on the same range as the Solo mode. Personally, I use that strategy to practice together combat by setting the AI to 9 (which is actually a bit harder than playing against your average human players) and the numbers to 6, then going into Free For All. When you can win against AI of that caliber on a consistent basis, you’ll find that the online matches become much more fun.

Other features in the game include a pair of collection boards which give boosts as you clear them . The boosts range from weapons to Idols, powers, and other assorted boosts. Speaking of the Idols, these are 3D representations of weapons, enemies, and characters from the game. They can be earned during levels, as level rewards, as rewards in multiplayer matches, and from the AR cards. You can also gain them from the Idol Toss feature in Solo mode, which lets you use the play coins you gain from walking with the 3DS in sleep mode. Finally, the game utilizes Streetpass, which allows you to swap weapons that have been encased in gems with other players. You also will get one per day from Palutena, although cracking the gem open to get the weapon inside can be brutally expensive in Hearts .

Sensory Voice Technology Heralds Truly Hands-Free Mobile Device Operation

Posted by loadcell – May 4, 2012

Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices may soon be operated truly hands-free with the announcement of a new voice verification technology from speech technology firm Sensory.

The technology, which Sensory has just revealed to be already available, adds another layer of security to your device since it creates a unique voice print for users.

This means that a device equipped with such technology will only wake up if the speaker is the owner of the device.

The technology is simple: the owner of the mobile device will set a voice password called a voice wake up word which unlocks the device after the technology verifies the identity of the speaker.

Voice control is prevalent in smartphones nowadays, with the most popular being Apple’s Siri which debuted in the iPhone 4S.

However, Android has also had voice control software for a long time and so has Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile operating system.

In fact, Google has been reported to be making a software or feature for Android called Majel which is aimed to challenge Siri and take advantage of Android’s already well-established voice system.

On the other hand, Microsoft is also said to be developing Ask Ziggy to compete with Siri, even as the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has already claimed that Siri-like functionality has long been in Windows Phone.

However, even before you get to the voice control features of iOS, Android or Windows Phone, you still need to unlock your phone using your hands either by pressing a button, swiping on the home screen, typing in a password, drawing a pattern, making a gesture or a combination the actions mentioned.

The technology Sensory is proposing can eliminate this prelude to controlling your device with your voice since the unlocking will also be done by voice.

This will make devices truly hands-free, so to speak. In fact, that seems to be the goal of the firm as they own a trademark on “TrulyHandsfree”.

“Mobile devices still require tactile interactions before users can enable voice recognition and voice control functions,” Sensory CEO Todd Mozer said in a statement provided to Social Barrel.

“Combining voice activation and speaker verification enables mobile devices to be easier, more secure, safer, and more convenient to use and access information,” he added.

Just how secure is this technology? For those who are wary that someone might just tape their voice to unlock their mobile device with at a later time, Sensory says that its verification solution is a sophisticated technology that uses voice biometrics and analysis to authenticate a specific individual.

“Using a unique phrase both for user authentication and as a wake-up word makes a lot of sense from the wireless subscriber’s perspective,” Opus Research Senior Analyst Dan Miller said.

“Rapid, effortless authentication should be a boon to secure mobile search, shopping, banking and protection of personal data on mobile devices,” he explained further.