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  • Cloud storage firm Dropbox selects Dublin city centre office

    Dropbox have decided to settle in over 5,0002 m spread over two floors at Hatch Street, Dublin.

    They first made public their intention to establish an international office at Dublin in 2012 and they are already making strides by recruiting more staff to increase their number from 15 to over 50 people to advance their business in Europe.

    According to Johann Butting, Dropbox country manager, Graduates and newly working people are being absorbed into the organization through the ‘DropBox Associate Programme’ which will train the associates both in Europe and San Francisco. He says that the training will help the new recruits understand and appreciate the organization’s ways of operation.

    He pointed out that Dropbox is interested in recruiting people able to analyze things, good communicators or those who just bring excitement into the business with the sales and operations skills most desired. Also, many of the new positions may require knowledge of a main European language.

    The small number of staff that Dropbox has enables it to highlight all of them on their website and the company country manager thinks it’s an important strategy in promotion of future employees.

    Since its inception in 2009, Dropbox has grown to almost 200 million users notwithstanding its small size. The fact that it is a new organization allows its staff to be more creative in their activities than they would otherwise be in an older organization.

    Mr. Butting claims that the significant number of clients that they have in Europe, which is growing fast, is their main reason for setting up office in Europe and not the assumed tax benefits that most international companies seek in Ireland.  According to him, Dropbox are interested in being close to their clients in Europe in order to make their services better.

  • Verizon’s IP VoIP Interconnection Game


    With the recent signing of IP VoIP interconnection terms by Verizon and four other new service provider, competitor have raised concerns about the non-disclosure agreement they are required to sign. This agreement gives the four service providers an opportunity to access Verizon’s IP Interconnection union which will provide a nationwide accord with other service providers that want to exchange VoIP traffic.

    Although the signing of this agreement brings out Verizon’s spirit of teamwork, many competitors are worried that as a result of the non-disclosure agreement, they will not be able to seek regulatory help in cases of unreasonable terms by the Telco. These non-disclosure agreements put the competitors at a disadvantage in instances where they are seeking interconnection.

    A similar incident occurred in Michigan between AT&T and Sprint. Later a decision that required carriers to wait for the FCC to negotiate interconnection terms was overruled by Michigan’s public Utility commission. In this case ,Sprint IP interconnections  for transmission of telephone calls was to be provided by AT&T, the same way AT&T provided for itself, its affiliates and third parties. Interestingly Verizon commented that the PUC’s decision would disrupt the progress made in the industry. In Massachusetts, the Department of Telecommunication and Cable is trying to find out if it has the authority to regulate the IP VoIP interconnection agreement between Comcast and Verizon.

    Recently a Joint Task Force has been established with the aim of finding a specification that will enable all North American service providers to establish IP communications, network to network interface arrangements that they can all support and implement. It is thus evident that large telecoms need to play fair with their competitor and that this argument is nowhere near complete.

  • 4K: Is Ultra HD the Next Big Step?


    The next advancement in the TV sector is already here and when compared to the standard HDTV, it makes it seem faint and overrated. The new technological format known as 4K was primarily designed for digital cinema projections due to its high resolutions. Compared to a 1080 HD TV, 4K offers up to four times the HD resolution. Due to this high resolution, 4K TVs are very expensive but the prices have already started rationalizing.

    According to CES 2014 show, 4K is the next big thing in the TV sector and that is why many manufacturers are trying to shift to this new product so as to attract the demand market. When used in digital cinema projections, 4K delivers up to 4096×2160 pixels of quality images. However when put in a TV, the resolution changes to 3840×2160 pixels which is 4 times more than the standard HD resolution. Since its resolution is more than that of the standard HD TV but less that 4K resolution, it is termed as the Ultra HD TV.

    With the 4K resolution and the Ultra HD resolutions being slightly different, the 4K cinema pictures will have to be scaled down or chopped off at the sides. This means that you will lose 6 percent of the image on both sides of the screen. In spite of the differences between 4K and Ultra HD, It has been noted that Ultra HD provides a certain leap from the standard TV in terms of image sharpness and detail. Switching to Ultra HD is the next step in the industry, profiting not only to the buyers but also the manufacturer.

  • Sirius: New Sony Smartphone


    Sony is coming up with a brilliant new phone named the “Sirius” or “D6503” which seems to be a better and clearer version when compared to the previous Xperia Z1. According to Xperia blog reports, the Sirius will come with android 4.4.2 KitKat and an advanced camera that will be capable of 4K video recording. The camera hardware and software will also have a “Timeshift Video” feature that has the ability to record high frame-rate videos and can also apply slow motion effects to the videos.

    The Sirius will be able to use a technology known as the “smart call handling” whereby a number of basic actions can be done without the need to touch the screen. To answer a call, one simply needs to bring the phone next to the ear and the call will be automatically answered. To reject a call, one has to simply shake the phone and the call will be rejected. Turning the device to face down will automatically set the phone to mute. This is a welcome step and many are waiting to see the practical application of these features.

    Smart backlight control, built in answering machine, new personalization options   and finally the double tap to wake the screen; these are some of the additional  fantastic features that the Sirius will have .

    The stereo speakers have also been improved. Unlike the rather unimpressive sound system in the Xperia Z1, the Sirius has speakers installed at the top and bottom of the front, with the aim of giving a better stereo experience.

  • Amazon Steps up the Pressure with More Storage Price Cuts

    In a move that has left many of their competitors stranded, Amazon has announced that it will reduce the prices for two of its most popular storage products. The announcement that was made by the public cloud leader through a blog post will take effect from February and will affect the S3 storing of files service and the Elastic Block Store that holds information from databases. These price drops might seem too little but is actually substantial.  The customers who store more than 5000 TB on S3 a month will receive a 22 percent decrease, which is a reduction in cost per gigabyte from 5.5 cents to 4.3 cents.

    Two new slices of physical servers that are able to handle computing workloads were also announced. These options are m3.large and m3.medium.They are good not only for legacy applications and databases, but they also have many other uses. The good thing about these instances is that they can be used on any applications not those that require heavy duty graphics or memory resources.

    This drop makes it the 40th price drop by the company. The lowering of prices and launching of new features is a strategy Amazon frequently uses. This is because many companies choose it, thus they are able to buy the products in bulk and later customize it to suit the customers’ needs. The reduction of price mostly helps to make the company more attractive to  the customers .Other companies like Rackspace, Microsoft and Google also try to play the price reduction card  but  Amazon always tops them by coming up with new things that pose a great challenge to the competition. With this latest reduction, Amazon has made things worse for the other companies.

  • Epik Networks Predicts the Emergence of Mobile VoIP Service Providers in 2014


    With the services of mobile VOIP providers in 2014, businesses will be able to reduce phone costs as well as come up with better communication solutions.

    Epik Networks, the VOIP provider of internet and phone services made this prediction as businesses look for ways or reducing communication charges after the year that experienced high cell phone bills resulting from long distance charges, long contracts, and high roaming fees.

    The providers of mobile VOIP service will possibly bundle services together and come up with a single, seamless solution for work provided cell phones cell phones and office landline phones. The move would lower costs. For instance, there’ll be elimination of the need for several lines and the interoffice charges.
    Cell phone expenses will be streamlined too. Specifically, small and medium businesses will find a feasible alternative to major mobility carriers in Canada as they explore communications capability in the same way that larger enterprises do.

    The regular smartphone will contain simple VOIP applications, making it a portable extension of an office’s network. The alternative will enable businesses to enjoy benefits like faster networks, speedy WIFI hotspots, easy management of business communication services and reduction in costs.

  • Hadoop’s Google Cloud Storage Connector Launched as Cloud Providers Prioritize Data Analytic


    For a long time, Google cloud storage has been running Hadoop that enables developers to perform advanced analytics on its platform. Now Google has developed a connector as it tries to simplify the process of running Hadoop on the cloud platform.

    The connector will manage the file and cluster system for the developers in order for them to concentrate on the logic of data processing instead of dealing with the complexity of setting and managing it by themselves.

    The Google file system was originally developed in 2003. The file system is now the basis for Hadoop that is managed by Apache. It is an open source computing environment that enables the storage of data on server clusters as small pieces before they are processed to perform data analytics. Companies such as Hortonworks and Cloudera have made Hadoop a diverse ecosystem.

    The new connector for Hadoop is primarily based on the Colossus, which is the latest iteration of Google’s cloud storage system. Users are now able to leverage on Google’s expertise in the processing of large data since Hadoop is able to run directly against the cloud storage using a simple connector library.

    Hadoop is now one of the leading players in the world of data-analytics. It is a significant technology for companies such as twitter that need to process their data by the petabyte. Traditional organizations are increasingly seeking to make use of Hadoop in order to process unprecedented amounts of data.

  • Verizon Signs Agreements for Four IP VoIP Interconnections despite Continuous Regulatory Issues


    Verizon has reached an agreement with four new service providers for IP VoIP program, though it has to overcome numerous regulatory challenges. The company has made agreements for IP VoIP interconnections with Comcast, Vonage as well as six other providers.

    Despite making progress on the deals, Verizon in a filing made to the FCC said that it is hoping to create an environment where service providers can deploy the services rapidly. The company holds that the commission should lead the IP transition on a natural and market driven migration of the clients to the packet-switched VoIP service from the circuit-switched TDM.

    Verizon has formulated its own agreement for IP interconnections that is hoped to provide a national structured agreement for service providers who are in need of exchanging VoIP traffic. However, the company notes that the recent regulatory decisions in Massachusetts and Michigan may interfere with the IP transition.

    The company notes that the backward looking regulations may disrupt the immense progress that has been made and is continuously being made in the industry through commercial agreements and negotiations.

    However, not everyone agrees with Verizon on the matter. The chief advocate of COMPTEL, Angie Kronenberg noted that states do not have to wait for IP interconnection issues to follow actions taken by the FCC. Kronenberg noted that states should be allowed to use their authority to address issues to do with interconnections in cases where the parties do not reach into an agreement.

  • Video View Expanded by Sony’s Wearable HDTV


    Sony has devised a virtual-reality headset that simulates a real video situation by allowing you to expand the view by moving your head side to side or up and down. The wearable HDTV that comes with a price tag of $1,000 worked as expected in a demonstration staged by Sony.

    The HMZ-T3W is able to fit on your head snugly even if you are wearing glasses, although you need some assistance to strap it on. Straps at the back of the head provides a snug fit while a big soft pad on the forehead makes it comfortable to wear.

    The device is relatively light weight, as it weighs 11.3 ounces, making it quite easy to wear it on through a full length movie. Two diagonal screens that measure 0.7 inches are featured on the hooded viewer. A high definition image with a resolution of 720p is delivered by the two screens to each eye. It also features slider knobs that are fitted under the screens to help the user focus.

    In a demo that is hosted on the international CES show, you will be placed on a motorcycle that is racing down through the English countryside. You can view the pavement by looking down or the clouds by looking up.The device also features a censor that is placed on the back straps to capture the motions during the demo. The sensor is used to measure the users head movement in order for the view on both screens to be shifted in accordance with the movements.

  • Blackphone Said To Be the First Smartphone That Is NSA-Proof


    There has been a lot of talk about privacy in the recent past as services for secure and private messaging pop up everywhere. However, most consumers may not be in a position to ascertain that these services are actually present on the smartphone. Equally, the companies themselves may also not be aware of the features that are missing.

    Blackphone is a new smartphone that has prioritized user privacy by creating an entire ecosystem around the issue. The smartphone is produced by Silent Circle, a company owned by a cryptographer Phil Zimmermann, in conjunction with Geeksphone, a Spanish startup company.

    The phone will run on PrivatOS, a modified version of Google’s Android that is built with the intention of making all the tasks secure. The Blackphone website indicates that customers are able to make secure calls, messages, video chats, private browsing as well as exchange and store files securely.

    The Blackphone handset is not locked and can operate on any GSM carrier. The company claims that the smartphone is a top performer, although many people are not sure about the technology and features found on it. However, many note that it is a positive step to focus on an ecosystem that is primarily based on privacy. It is expected that many companies will learn from the success or mistakes that will be found on the new smartphone.

    Pricing of the Blackphone has not been released, but the smartphone will be ready for pre-orders during the Mobile World Congress opening day on 24th February 2013.