Nokia Symbian Belle To Be Released Early Next Year

Nokia Symbian Belle update will arrive for Symbian Anna devices in the first quarter of 2012.The much anticipated Symbian Belle update for Nokia smartphones can be expected in early 2012, the Finnish handset manufacturer told The Mobile Indian.Nokia has promised that several significant features will be rolled out for Symbian devices with this update. We will have to wait till early 2012 to see what features the next major Symbian update has to offer.

The Nokia India spokesperson said to The Mobile Indian that the update will be rolled out for existing Symbian Anna running smartphones - N8, E7, X7, C6-01, C7, Oro, and E6, in the first quarter of 2012.Back in October, D Sivakumar, Nokia India vice president and managing director had informed The Mobile India that Symbian Belle can be expected by the end of this year — about now. Apparently, that is not going to happen.

Nokia users in the US and Europe might be the first lucky ones to get Symbian Belle. Following that, the update will arrive in India.At this moment, Nokia Symbian Belle is already available on three new handsets — 701, 700 and 603, all of which are focused on Near Field Communication technology.

They Found The "God Particle" ? Did They ?

Scientists had found no conclusive proof of the existence of the particle which, according to prevailing theories of physics, gives everything in the universe its mass. Scientists at the CERN physics research centre said on Tuesday they had found signs of - although not yet conclusively discovered -- the Higgs boson, an elementary particle which is the missing link in the Standard Model of Physics.Meanwhile, a BBC report says the most coveted prize in particle physics may have been glimpsed, quoting researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva.

"Both experiments have the signals pointing in essentially the same direction," said Oliver Buchmueller, senior physicist on CMS. "It seems that both Atlas and us have found the signals are at the same mass level. That is obviously very important." Fabiola Gianotti, the scientist in charge of the ATLAS experiment, said ALTAS had narrowed the search to a signal centred at around 126 GeV (Giga electron volts), which would be compatible with the expected strength of a Standard Model Higgs.












The Higgs boson is, in theory, the particle that gives mass to all other fundamental particles. While its discovery would cement current knowledge about particles such as electrons and photons, results of work at CERN could also prove it does not exist, which would force physicists to rethink the Standard Model. "If the first inklings of the Higgs boson are confirmed, then this is just the start of the adventure to unlock the secrets of the fundamental constituents of the Universe," said Stephen Haywood, Head of the Atlas Group at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The ATLAS results were followed by explanation of the second experiment, CMS. "We are homing in on the Higgs," said Claire Shepherd-Themistocleus, Head of the CMS Group at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. "We have had hints today of what its mass might be and the excitement of scientists is palpable. Whether this is ultimately confirmed or we finally rule out a low mass Higgs boson, we are on the verge of a major change in our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter."

XBOX TV Takes Microsoft To The Next Level

Microsoft laid out a grand plan to turn your Xbox 360 into an even stronger hub for everthing from television shows and movies to music at E3 this year. That dashboard update launches tomorrow, bringing with it the ability to use your Kinect to search for content across every service you have connected to your system, as well as Microsoft's digital storefronts on Xbox Live and live television.Unfortunately, not all of Microsoft's content partners will be ready for the service's launch tomorrow. HBO Go won't be available until early 2012, nor will Comcast's Xfinity on-demand library.

I’m no gamer. I fall well outside the target audience for an Xbox 360 – or a PS3, or, despite what Nintendo might hope to convince me about “casual” gaming, a Wii – at least until today. And yet, Microsoft’s comprehensive roadmap of content partners (notable for not limiting itself to merely the US audience, too) has me reconsidering. The straightforward Kinect-based control holds no small amount of appeal, too, since anything I buy for home entertainment purposes has to satisfy that all-important spousal-approval factor.

Microsoft isn’t alone in that, mind. Apple’s television intentions are well-rumored, with the latest batch describing a Siri-powered trio of HDTV sets that use the virtual personal assistant technology to streamline navigation through cable, free-to-air, on-demand and recorded content. Google TV, meanwhile, has had the advantage of being on the market, but that’s about the only positive thing you can say so far. Its complex first-gen interface could well have been all the inspiration Microsoft required to push ahead with Kinect-powered speech and gesture control.

A Siri-powered TV isn’t here yet. Google TV v2.0 is yet to convince that it can deliver not only on usability with its pared-down but still technically-focused UI, but on content and access deals with providers that have proved to be wary of the Google-powered free-for-all. An Xbox 360 costs $299.99 with a Kinect thrown in the box, and you can buy one today.

Here are the services that will be available tomorrow, along with which market they will be active:

• EPIX. United States
• ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
• Hulu. Japan
• Hulu Plus. United States
• LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
• Netflix. Canada, United States
• Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
• Sky Go (SkyDE). Austria, Germany
• Telefónica España - Movistar Imagenio. Spain
• TODAY (MSNBC). United States

The search functionality that allows you to look for content across a variety of outlets and apps is fascinating, as is the ability to control the service by waving your arms if you own a Microsoft Kinect, but the real power of these deals is the emphasis they place on Microsoft's hardware. By bundling all our digital subscriptions and content through the Xbox 360, Microsoft wants to make sure your gaming console is at the heart of your entertainment center. Xbox Live subscribers and subscribers of these digital services won't have access to much in the way of new content, but it will all be centralized in one location.

This is different than the Apple TV's strategy of offering content such as television shows and movies as discrete items and selling or renting them directly to consumers as well as streaming your existing content. Microsoft wants to be the box you turn on when you want to watch anything, whether it's live or streaming, no matter what content delivery service you're going to be enjoying.

Apple Being Questioned About Its Carrier IQ

"We read in the press about the privacy concerns the software may pose and decided to ask Apple about the details," said Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian agency. "If Apple decided to cease the use, all the better."

European privacy regulators are asking mobile-phone carriers and makers including Apple Inc to answer questions about privacy issues regarding Carrier IQ Inc's mobile phone usage-tracking software. Germany's Bavarian State Authority for Data Protection contacted Apple today as regulators in the UK, France, Ireland and Italy review whether Carrier IQ is in use in their jurisdictions. Apple said yesterday it will stop supporting the software.

Privacy watchdogs were alerted to the issue after Trevor Eckhart, a Connecticut-based programmer, posted a 17-minute video three days ago on his YouTube.com channel, showing how the data-collecting software logs what people are doing on their phones without their knowledge. Carrier IQ faces allegations that the software logs sensitive phone-user information. US Senator Al Franken yesterday urged the Mountain View, California-based developer to share more information about what the product does and whether it transmits data to other parties.

Carrier IQ's "mobile service intelligence" platform receives data sent from phones for analysis to track "customer behavior and usage patterns," according to the company's website. The company's products allow clients to track both "broad trend data" and "diagnostic data from individual devices," the site says.






Anonymous, encrypted

"We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update," Natalie Harrison, a spokeswoman for Apple, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. "With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information." Georg Albrecht, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple in Germany, declined to comment on the Bavarian agency's letter.

Carrier IQ applications "give wireless carriers and handset manufacturers unprecedented insight into their customers' mobile experience," according to the company website. Over 141 million handsets have the software, according to data on its website. The Carrier IQ software doesn't record keystrokes or provide tracking tools, the company said in a November 16 statement.

'Direct from source'

The software works "by automatically providing accurate, real-time data direct from the source - your customers' handsets," according to the website. The data is gathered with "no visible impact" on customers. European privacy regulators said today they are checking with mobile phone operators in their regions to see if Carrier IQ software tracks usage on handsets there.

Italy's Protection of Personal Data Guarantor opened an investigation into how Carrier IQ works and is checking Italian mobile phones to verify where the software is in use, according to a statement by Francesco Pizzetti, president of the Italian watchdog. The UK Information Commissioner's Office "will be contacting mobile phone operators to establish if the Carrier IQ or similar software is on UK customers' handsets and, if so, what steps are being taken to ensure there are no privacy implications," the data protection watchdog said in an e-mailed statement.




Defending use

French privacy regulator CNIL has also begun reviewing Carrier IQ, Elsa Trochet-Mace, a spokeswoman for the regulator, said in an e-mail. Initial finding show the software is not in use in France, she said. Ireland's data-protection agency will contact mobile phone operators as well to see if and how Carrier IQ is used there.

AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp yesterday defended the use of Carrier IQ software. The Carrier IQ software is a so-called rootkit installed at the carriers' request on mobile phones. The application runs in the background and logs user activity. The software data is used to improve service performance, according to statements from AT&T and Sprint, the second- and third-largest US wireless providers.