Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Samsung, Apple to end Nokia's smartphone reign

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will become the world's largest smartphone maker this quarter, overtaking struggling Nokia Oyj which has lead the market since 1996, Nomura said on Monday.

In the next quarter Nomura sees Apple Inc also overtaking Nokia, pushing the Finnish company to No. 3 in the rankings.

"Nokia looks set to relinquish its smartphone crown to Samsung and Apple," Nomura analysts said in a research note. "Further emphasizing the shift in power to Asia is our forecast for HTC to almost match Nokia during 2012."

Research firms Gartner and Canalys both said they saw Nokia -- which created the smartphone market with its 1996 launch of the Communicator model -- losing smartphone volume leadership later this year.

"If Nokia's new phones are not well received in the third quarter and with the Galaxy S2 ramping up, Samsung might overtake them and become the smartphone leader in Q3," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

On Monday Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's survey showed Nokia's share of the British smartphone market -- seen as a key indicator for trends in Europe -- had dropped to 10.6 percent in 12-weeks to mid-May from 31 percent in the same period a year earlier.

Nokia has lost initiative in the smartphone market to Apple's iPhone and Google Inc's Android devices, and at the lower end to more nimble Asian rivals.

"There is certainly a very close three-way battle going on for top spot in global smartphone volumes between Nokia, Apple and Samsung during the second quarter," said Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics.

"With Symbian demand crashing, there is growing opportunity for Samsung or Apple to grab the lead," said Mawston, but said he still expects Nokia to stay ahead in the ongoing quarter.

Overall, Nokia still makes more cellphones than Samsung due to its strong position in basic cellphones and its wider distribution network in emerging countries.

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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Titanic II sinks in harbor on maiden voyage from UK

LONDON (AFP) — Most people would think twice before buying a boat named Titanic II. And sure enough, when Briton Mark Wilkinson took the 16-foot (4.8-meter) cabin cruiser out for its maiden voyage, it promptly sank.

"If it wasn't for the harbormaster I would have gone down with the Titanic," Wilkinson, who had to be fished out of the sea at West Bay harbor in Dorset, told local media.

"It's all a bit embarrassing and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg."

Wilkinson, in his 40s, had only recently bought the boat and brought it by road from his home in Birmingham for its first outing.

After a successful fishing trip, things started to go wrong when he entered the harbor and the boat began taking on water. Wilkinson was forced to abandon ship and pictures showed him clinging to a rail before he was rescued.

One eyewitness said:- "It wasn't a very big boat — I think an ice cube could have sunk it!"

Source : http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/321794/titanic-ii-sinks-harbor-maiden-voyage-uk


Sunday, June 5, 2011

India to Test Agni V to counter China Threat

With the growing threat of China on our eastern border and its activities on our western border growing day by day.This has made India uncomfortable. With Pakistan being armed by china for future conflict with India and act like a satellite state of China , it has become imperative for India to look for weapons which can strike Chinese cities. Thus DRDO has decided to test AGNI-V by the end of 2011 most probably in December.

One of the greatest advantage China has is its strategic depth due to its size which is much greater than that of India. At present most of the Northern regions of china are beyond the range of Indian missiles. On the other hand Chinese missiles can hit any Indian territory even when launched from deep within China like the Dong-Feng series of missiles.

Indian Army has already started inducting missiles with the range of 3,500km called AGNI-III, AGNI-I(700km+) and AGNI-II(2,000km +). AGNI-I is a medium, range Ballistic Missile while AGNI-II and AGNI-III are intermediate range ballistic missile. But the policy makers clearly realize that this is not enough we must have the option of nuclear strikes deep within Chinese territory specially targeting their shore based industrial complexes. To achieve that particular goal India is looking to fast-track Agni-V project. It may be remembered that few years back under pressure form China and the west this particular project was shelved by the Indian government.

Agni V unlike its predecessors is a canister launched missile which can be mobilized quickly by road. It will give India the much needed Nuclear strike capability. (It must be noted that Agni-V is still not intercontinental ballistic missile, thus it is called near ICBM). With high road mobility, fast-reaction ability and a strike range over 5,000 km, Agni-V would even bring China’s northernmost regions within its nuclear strike envelope if it is ever required.

India’s Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) has made its forthcoming Agni-5 missile highly road-mobile, or easily transportable by road, which would bring Harbin, China’s northernmost city within striking range if the Agni-5 is moved to northeast India,” the People’s Daily reported. Harbin is the capital of China’s Heilongjiang Province

The paper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, noted that the Agni-5 which has a range of 5,000 km is similar to the Dongfeng-31A showcased during China’s National Day Military Parade on October 1 in Beijing. India is going to test-fire the missile in early 2011, the report claimed.

Agni-V would also carry MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) payloads being concurrently developed. A single MIRVed missile can deliver multiple warheads at different targets even if they are separated by long distances.

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First man ‘functionally cured’ of HIV

Since HIV was discovered 30 years ago this week, 30 million people have died from the disease, and it continues to spread at the rate of 7,000 people per day globally, the UN says.

There's not much good news when it comes to this devastating virus. But that is perhaps why the story of the man scientists call the "Berlin patient" is so remarkable and has generated so much excitement among the HIV advocacy community.

Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago. This Wired story says it was more likely passed down from people who became immune to a smallpox-like disease.)

What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.

"He has no replicating virus and he isn't taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV," his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. "It makes me very happy," he says of the incredible cure.

Although Brown's story is remarkable, scientists were quick to point out that bone marrow transplants can be fatal, and there's no way Brown's treatment could be applied to the 33.3 million people around the world living with HIV. The discovery does encourage "cure research," according to Dr. Jay Levy, who co-discovered HIV thirty years ago, something that many people did not even think was possible years ago.

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