Pressmart says it turned down Google overtures

Hyderabad based Pressmart Media Ltd, a company that generates and maintains e-papers for global and Indian newspapers and magazines, says it has turned down an acquisition bid by Internet search engine firm Google Inc.

Last week, Pressmart raised $6 million (Rs 27.8 crore today) in private equity funding from US-based venture capital companies Draper Fisher Jurvetson and NEA-Indo US Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to open marketing offices in the US, the UK, Singapore and Dubai to expand its international client base.

Pressmart chief executive Sanjiv Gupta said Google executives approached the company in early March, expressing an interest in Pressmart and its licensed technology.

The Hyderabad company owns patented technology for digitizing newspapers and making them searchable on the Internet while preserving the same-as-in-print feel.

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Wildlife smugglers hunt on Orkut

Even stringent laws and a recently constituted bureau dedicated to check wildlife crime, it seems, cannot deter country’s wildlife smugglers from trading.

In a first of its kind case for Indian authorities, two men have been arrested who had hit upon a rather clever way to smuggle endangered species through social networking website Orkut.

Registering country’s first case of wildlife smuggling through internet, authorities now are busy trying to find out how this trading was being operated. Though there have been cases of wildlife smuggling through internet in countries like US and UK, for Indian authorities its first such case. Authorities maintain that the duo were well connected to customers worldwide through internet.

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Philadelphia revives citywide Wi-Fi project

Philadelphia revived an effort on Tuesday to provide free citywide wireless Internet access in a project to be run by a new group of investors.

The city aims to provide free-of-charge outdoor Web access throughout its 135 square miles, which would be the largest area covered by public Wi-fi of any U.S. city.

The project, initially launched in 2005, came close to failure when EarthLink, the company that installed wireless transmitters on light poles, abandoned the effort in May amid complaints about signal weakness.

In a city of 1.4 million, about 6,000 people signed up for the EarthLink service.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the city -- which is providing no public money for the Wi-fi project -- believed it was important to revive the project because of the economic opportunities that can flow from increased Internet access.

"We now have the potential to reach more people with this network than in any other city in America," he said.

The network, which is about 80 percent complete, will now be taken over by Network Acquisition Company LLC, a new company of local investors that will assess the infrastructure and plans to complete the wireless coverage. Service for current users should be uninterrupted, officials said.

EarthLink had difficulty beaming the signal into homes, which City Councilman Bill Green cited as a reason the EarthLink model failed. But he also praised EarthLink for helping to save the network.

Under the new system, people can buy a $200 device called a repeater to bring the signal inside buildings.

The new owners plan to underwrite the cost of public Wi-fi by persuading businesses to buy technology allowing employees to access corporate networks from remote locations.

Revenue from corporate customers would pay for infrastructure to distribute a wireless signal to outdoor areas throughout the city, notably to low-income areas where many residents don't have the Internet access that could improve their ability to find jobs or access public services.

Officials from the new company declined to say how much they had paid for the EarthLink asset, how much they plan to invest or when the network would be complete. Co-founder Mark Rupp said it would take "months" to assess what work needs to be done to complete the network.

Bad Experience With The Service Of Tata Indicom BroadBand

Hello,

This is Amit Gugale from Nigdi, Pune. I am a customer of the broadband service of Tata Indicom Broadband Limited (which is a sub company in the group Tata Telecommunications).My login id is newtown@eth.net. From around 1 and half months I face a lot of problem with my connection and the company seems to be ignorant in solving the problems.

The details go as below:

An occasional failure in connection was not new to me, I used to put complaint with the customer care of the company (the call center) and it used to get resolve soon. But it happened on 24th of April when I found my connection and immediately registered a complaint no 5550944 with the call center (02060607070). I was assured that the problem will be resolved within 24 hours. So I checked the same on 25th, 26th but found that the connection was not working still. On 27 I got connectivity. From that day the connection was working fine during the day till late in the night. But if I put some stuff for downloading in the night the connection used to get lost late in the night. I observed the same for 4-6 nights, the connection was getting lost at different times in the night varying from 12 am to 2 am and my computer being ON that used to be wastage of power if the connection lost. The connection used to get resume at 9 am. On 8th of May I again registered a technical complaint for this night time connectivity (Complaint no 5676250). And also I registered request for downtime credit for the period when connection was down (Ref 5676362). For the downtime credit an executive Mr. Yogesh from the billing department of Tata Indicom called me up and told that I would be given downtime credit for 3 days 24-25-26 April which would be around Rs. 70 and he had put the same for approval. I argued over this that even the connection was working in day time there was no connectivity late in the night and partial downtime credit must be given for the same. Mr.Yogesh answered "even if 1 MB of usage is found on any particular day then the downtime credit is not given for the day". While this makes no sense because a broad band customer goes for broad band connection because he uses the internet frequently and for longer duration also downloads/uploads large volume of data. 1 Mb of usage per day doesn’t mean that the connection is all fine. I tried to explain him my point of view but Mr. Yogesh kept on repeating "I follow the policy, I cant do anything" etc. Lastly he suggested me to re-escalate the complaint (or request for downtime credit) with the customer care. So did I on the same day i.e. 08 May.

As the billing cycle is 11th of a month to 10th of the next month. A new bill got generated on 11th May 08. The bill showed the full amount of Rs 786 (Rs 700 as the charges + Rs 86 service tax). This is the regular bill amount for my plan infinity 128. And no downtime credit was given at all, even the credit which Mr. Bhaskar was agreed upon (Rs. 70) was not reflected in the bill. However I decided to wait for few days as I had already re-escalated the complaint. After waiting till 17th I found that still no downtime credit was given I once again put complaint to the customer care (complaint no 5772938).

The official site of Tata Indicom displays the email Ids and phone numbers of the nodal officer and customer care. I then mailed to customer care and the nodal officer on 18 May, I supplied them all the details and requested for the downtime credit. I received no reply for the same. Then I sent a follow-up mail on 23-May as I had to pay my bill before 26th and so wished that if this could be settled before that. I received reply on 25 May that the billing team is working on the same and the downtime credit would be given soon. Meantime I paid the full bill amount to avoid any late charges etc.

I was hopeful that the downtime credit would reflect in next bill. Meantime on 05- Jun the connection again went down hence I registered a complaint with customer care again. The connection is still down (on 16-Jun).

On 11 Jun the new bill was generated and once again no down time credit reflected at all. This was shocking for me and I immediately sent a mail (from some other place as at home I am still disconnected from internet) to customer care and nodal officers. The same evening Mr Yogesh called me and assured that downtime credit would reflect in my account within 2 days. The customer care in turn replied me the next day (12 Jun) and assured that the downtime credit would reflect soon. But still no downtime credit is reflecting in my account. I have sent a follow-up mail on 14-Jun but no reply. Also the connection is not working. Also I tried to call the nodal officers on the land line and mobile numbers mentioned on the site but no one answers these numbers.

This whole thing caused me a great trouble. Three years back I chosen to go for 'Tata Indicom broadband' and after that I found few relatively cheaper broadband internet service providers but I always trusted in the Tata brand for their quality and service. The higher level officials of the company need to look into the matter and see if the complaints are resolved properly and within time and the service is not spoiling the company's image in people.

E-books read well, but readers prefer paper

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - The number of people subscribing to newspapers may be shrinking as they flock to the Internet, but electronic book readers won't shred the market for ink, paper, glue and binding anytime soon.

After years of promises and false starts, booksellers and technology companies are diving into the world of digital books. Sony Corp is selling the Reader Digital Book for $299, while giant online shopping company Amazon.com offers the Kindle for $399.

New readers are lighter than the average hardback fiction bestseller, easy on the eyes and let readers carry around as many as 200 titles in hardware that weighs less than a pound.

But to some people, there's something missing.

"It's, I guess, the feel of holding a book that someone really put a lot of effort into writing, and you kind of lose that a little bit with a digital product," said Katy Farina, 21, of Montgomery, New Jersey.

Farina, a student at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, was browsing at the Borders bookstore near Madison Square Garden. As shoppers lined up at closing time, the subtle, comforting aroma of books permeated the store.

"It feels real, whereas (the reader) kind of separates you a little bit from the story," Farina said.

Harry Howe, who had picked up "Surrender Is Not an Option" by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, said he might use an e-book reader for blog or Web site material that he wanted to read while away from home, but not for reading a novel.

"It's just not a physical experience that I'm yet comfortable with," said Howe, 55, who teaches accounting at the State University of New York's Geneseo campus and lives in Rochester. "On the other hand, I didn't grow up reading things on various Web sites."

Farina said she would like a reader for traveling because she would not have to transport so many books. This is something that HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide Chief Executive Jane Friedman said is a prime advantage.

"To put 10 books on your Sony reader or on your Kindle is a lot better than carrying 10 books," she said.

Guess Who's Seeing Web Traffic Soar

Yes, you read that right. Staid old supermarket staples, once scoffed at as laggards in digital media, are charging online at an unprecedented pace -- and their efforts are being rewarded: Traffic to industry websites in the past year has grown twice as fast as the U.S. internet population.
Unique visitors to package-goods brand websites soared 10% compared with a year ago in the third quarter to 66.4 million, according to data shared exclusively with Ad Age by ComScore. The tally is double the 5% rise in the U.S. internet users to 181.9 million.

The traffic increase, according to ComScore, appears to come primarily from a surge in online display advertising from package-goods players, who, while relatively late to embrace the medium, are now coming on strong.

Mars' Uncle Ben's site, for example, which cracked the industry's top 10 last quarter, according to ComScore, did so primarily by using targeted banner ads on Oprah.com and FoodNetwork.com. They generated nearly 2 million of the 3.6 million visits the site received in the third quarter. UncleBens.com traffic surged more than 1,700% from a year ago.

Courtesy:- Ad age

Google notebook access from anywhere

Inveterate note takers cum net browsers can now make use of a new product available online Google notebook.

It accompanies you unobtrusively when you browse the Net and is at hand when you want to note down, clip or paste anything.

You can do it without leaving the site you are browsing.

The notebook may prove to be useful for students, researchers and those diligent types who like to scribble. The content can be organised in terms of subjects. It all looks very neat and tidy.

You can also decide to share it online with your friends or publish it as a webpage after a while.

And there is no need to worry about losing the notebook, since it is kept secure in a Google server.