Simputer Ready for November Debut
The small, affordable hand-held "Simputer," which aims to bring the Internet to rural India, will be available for purchase in November.
Reuters reported this week that the Simputer, which is short for Simple, Inexpensive and Multilingual, will retail for INR 9,436 (US $200).
The Simputer was designed by a non-profit trust called Simputer Trust. Bangalore-based Encore Software was the first company to purchase the design and license to manufacture the PC-like device. Simputer Trust designed it as part of a series of initiatives to bridge the digital divide in India, which has a growing software industry but an illiteracy rate of 35 percent.
Slightly larger than a Palm Pilot, the computer is Linux-based and has 10 times the processing speed of a PDA. It can operate in three Indian languages and English, play MP3 files, surf the Internet and send and receive e-mail. It also includes a program that reads text aloud so that nonliterate people can use it and a smart-card system that allows multiple users to use the same device.
Sprint to Bring Business DSL to 11 New Cities
In response to a U.S. Federal Communications Commission report detailing the thriving market for DSL and other high-speed Internet connections, Sprint announced Monday that it's expanding its business digital subscriber line service to 11 new cities.
The new cities will be Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta, Ga.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Detroit, Mich.; New Orleans, La.; Newport News, Norfolk and Richmond, Va.; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and St. Louis, Mo.
The FCC report said high-speed Internet access increased 63 percent in the United States in the last half of 2000 and that more than 7 million homes and businesses now have the service. The total number of DSL
connections grew by 435 percent.
Sprint's DSL service is now available in 40 U.S. metro areas.
China Gets More DSL, Too
High-speed Internet access will soon be making its way to China's Guangdong province.
The region's telecom operator, Guangdong Telecom, offers DSL service to nine major cities in the province, including the booming economic area in Shengzhen.
On Wednesday, Nokia said it will provide Guangdong Telecom with the equipment for the network expansion. The equipment maker said its deliveries to the telecom operator have already begun, and, when the project is complete, the network's capacity for subscribers and services will be enhanced.
Educational DVDs Available by Subscription
DVD owners with a liking for educational television may be interested in a new video magazine from the publishing group SubstanceTV Inc.
The product, called simply "SubstanceTV," is a multimedia DVD that takes an in-depth look at "the human condition through digital eyes," according to the company's press release.
The video magazine comes in the form of a subscription; a 10-issue subscription for 2002 plus the introductory issue is sold for US $14.95. It is compatible with home DVD players, PCs and Macs with DVD drives, as well as game consoles with DVD playback ability. The introductory issue comes out
in November.
Program Allows Wireless Travel Bookings Through Corporate Account
Mobile Office, an application from Motorola that allows users to access their corporate e-mail and address book from Internet-ready wireless devices, is being upgraded for the business traveler.
The new version of the product includes software called Travel Connector that people can use to book travel reservations from corporate travel accounts through their cell phones.
Travel Connector has been in trial by Motorola, Sabre and Galileo International for the last six weeks. The latter two companies cater to the technology needs of the travel industry. Mobile Office is not available to consumers but to companies and public institutions like universities.
New Family Filter for Broadband Service ZoomTown
ZoomTown.com, a broadband Internet service, this week launched an Internet filtering service for asynchronous digital subscriber line residential customers who have Fuse Internet Access for their ISP.
The filtering service is made possible by ZoomTown's partnership with Websense Inc., which has a database of blocked websites that is updated every eight hours. The database is broken into 25 categories including adult content, hate and gambling.
When a user tries to access a blocked site, he or she is presented with a page of links to family-friendly sites. With more than 50,000 subscribers in the Cincinnati area, ZoomTown has one of the highest geographic penetrations of broadband subscribers nationally.
The filtering service costs $3.95 a month.