28 Nis 2009

EDMER showcases Turkey's First Virtual Classroom with Cisco, Intel, Polycom Help

EDMER showcases Turkey's First Virtual Classroom with Cisco, Intel, Polycom Help

Turkish Schoolchildren in Ankara and Beynam Experience 21st-Century Learning Environment
Turkish E-Government Research and Applications Center (EDMER) Showcases Connected Virtual Classroom and 1:1 eLearning in Collaboration with Intel and Cisco

Eighty Turkish schoolchildren aged 11 and 12 from the Turkish capital Ankara and the village of Beynam participated in Turkey's first virtual classroom, sharing a lesson on the theme "Earth, Sun and Moon" as part of their science and technology curriculum. The two schools, located 45 kilometers away from each other, were connected via broadband to harness the power of one-to-one e-learning as well as virtual collaboration. They were also able to take advantage of various communication and collaborative tools, including wireless access, Internet Protocol (IP) phones, ClassMate PCs, smart boards and video, as well as online and community-generated learning content.

The e-learning showcase was initiated to define what Turkey's 21st-century learning environment could look like and marks a significant collaboration between public, private and academic partners. Sponsored by the Ministry of National Education and under the governance of METU - EDMER, it was initiated by Intel and Cisco with the support of Sebit, Oracle, Smarttech and Polycom.

Facts / Highlights:

• The e-learning class was organized to showcase how integrating technology within a school curriculum can enable equal access to a high-quality education in urban and rural areas and can encourage collaboration between students and teachers within and beyond a class.

• The 21st-century learning environment focuses on the student. It centers on group collaboration, one-to-one e-learning, best-practice sharing, innovative local content and creative interactive methods, skills which are essential not only in education, but also in the work environment of a global knowledge economy.

• The project also shows how broadband connectivity facilitates access to information and knowledge exchange over distances and in rural areas. Communication networks and advanced information and communication technology applications serve as platforms for teacher and student collaboration, virtual lessons, and curriculum development via video and mobile devices.

• The one-to-one e-learning model was developed with the active support of the Educational Technologies Directorate of the Ministry of National Education, to establish an environment of learning anytime, anywhere. Access to computers during a lesson, teacher trainings on how to integrate technology efficiently into the classroom, and online educational content aligned with the curriculum are essential ingredients in helping educators, teachers and students enhance skills and become successful in today's knowledge economy.

• A preliminary analysis of the project revealed an increase in student-teacher motivation and productivity, the usage of content-based subjects, efficient time management and student performance. Within the framework of the analysis, 90 percent of the surveyed parents mentioned they have been pleased with the project as they have seen marked improvements in their children's communication skills, and in their eagerness to learn and to cooperate, as well as in their computer skills.
Supporting Quotes:

• Dr. Fatos Yarman, president, EDMER
"We wanted to show that ICT in schools should go beyond computer labs. It's much more about the human network of students and teachers, who can collaborate in a new type of environment. During the project, we also benefited from the wealth of expertise and solutions as a result of a public-private partnership with partners like Cisco and Intel."

• Dr. Nizami Akturk, head of MoNE Educational Technologies Directorate
"The Ministry of Education initially set as objective to have at least one computer class in every school. This is now almost completed all around Turkey, to an extent of nearly 100 percent. For the next step, we are targeting to have an Internet environment in every class with one computer and one projector, where teachers will have the chance to share content from the Internet, as well as content they have created themselves. We're working on modeling the future classes and education environment with the active collaboration of government and private sector representatives, based on what is considered as best practice internationally. We're proud and happy to realize this pilot project that started with the aim of providing computers to every student."

• Cigdem Ertem, general manager, Intel Turkey
"Intel is contributing to education with a wealth of online learning tools like Intel Teacher, Intel Student and skoool, as well as the 1:1 eLearning project. We strongly believe that education is the most effective way to take while transforming the world. As Intel, our mission is to make your dreams come true by enhancing the lives with internet, pc and technology. We are pleased that we take these aims one step further now by designing the 1:1 eLearning project."

• Erkan Akdemir, general manager, Cisco Turkey
"Education is a key engine to accelerate social and economic development and is essential for building a competitive workforce for the global knowledge economy. Acquiring the ability to collaborate and communicate now is as important as learning the factual knowledge. Cisco is pleased to contribute to this key project as part of our commitment in Turkey and help shape education systems adapted to the 21st-century global economy."

27 Nis 2009

Vopium wins the Frost Sullivan 2009 European Mobile VoIP Technology Innovation Award

Vopium wins the Frost Sullivan 2009 European Mobile VoIP Technology Innovation Award

Vopium, the company that drives down the cost of international mobile phone calls has today been honoured with the 2009 European Mobile VoIP Technology Innovation Award by Frost & Sullivan. The award recognises Vopium’s dedication to innovation, its commitment to bringing new products to market and its excellence in technology-leveraged and customer-focused services.

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation is presented to the company that has demonstrated technological superiority within its industry. This award is testament to Vopium’s ability to successfully develop and introduce new technology, formulate a well-designed product family, and make significant product performance contributions to the industry.

Commenting on the award, Vopium CEO Tanveer Sharif said: “We are very proud that Frost & Sullivan has recognised our persistent efforts to develop and deliver the very best mobile VoIP technology to the market. Vopium is dedicated to helping friends and families communicate, regardless of where they are in the world and our rapid expansion reflects our desire to be the leading provider of global communication.”

“By offering such a cost-effective service, Vopium enhances customer loyalty and confidence its applications, thereby enabling the firm to create a sustainable competitive advantage over other mobile VoIP providers,” explains Frost & Sullivan Programme Manager Luke Thomas. “Considering that Wi-Fi is not as ubiquitous as cellular networks today, Vopium has also made provisions for users to automatically connect to a 3G network when Wi-Fi is not available within a particular location.”

Vopium has rapidly expanded in the last six months launching its unique free software programme using mobile VoIP and Wi-Fi technology to reduce the cost of international phone calls in 16 countries including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain. Vopium also recently celebrated being the world’s first mobile VoIP provider to offer mobile backup - a free service which allows Vopium customers to store their address book contacts and calendar securely online. Integrated with the Vopium application, Vopium Sync automatically backs up a user’s contacts and calendar direct to their online account. With several other product launches in the pipeline Vopium’s wave of development looks set to continue.

With Three deal, is Skype killing voice revenues for carriers? Not yet

With Three deal, is Skype killing voice revenues for carriers? Not yet

by Ingrid Lunden and Matt Marshall

Late last week, the Internet phone service Skype announced that the UK carrier Three UK had become the first 3G carrier to embrace Skype and offer it freely without restriction.

You may ask: Who in their right mind will continue to use their regular carrier voice service when they can make free Skype-to-Skype calls, or free IM via Skype?

Good question. This is a big development because the Ebay-owned Skype has so far been shunned by most other carriers — for example, it has been restricted by AT&T, and banned by T-Mobile. The Three UK has naturally begs the question whether this is a watershed moment, the beginning of the end for carriers’ ability to make money from voice services.

Well, not really.

Three UK — which is actually a distant fourth operator in the country with around 3 million customers — clearly hopes the offer will drive more users to its network. However, the deal may end up losing Three more revenue in the longer term, says Steven Hartley, a senior analyst with Ovum in London.

Starting in May, the service will run on either a Three network phone, or for that matter, any unlocked 3G device. Three says the “bulk” of these phone models will be supported. It will offer a pre-paid Three SIM card for £1.99. Once the SIM card is installed in the phone, the user will get a free text offering a download for the Skype client appropriate for the device.

“Three is caught in something of no-win situation in the UK,” Hartley writes in a research note. “If this gambit succeeds, then Three will have disrupted the market, but only in as far as forcing the other operators to respond. As [the other operators] are far larger and have far deeper pockets, the likelihood is that Three will come off worst in the long-term. And if it fails, Three can only try something even more desperate to attract customers.”
Keep in mind that the number of calls that are valid in this free scheme is pretty limited. If you want to make video calls or Skype-out domestic or international calls, you have to pay.

Because there is nothing in the way of details on the financial deal between Skype, Three and other partners in the ecosystem — such as iSkoot, which is apparently is helping provide the service — it’s unclear how much of a hit Three and Skype are willing to take by offering free Skype-to-Skype calls for the sake of growing their user bases.

Three claims that Skype pre-pay users give the operator 20 percent higher margins than ordinary pre-pay users; and that it is driving user uptake, with 79 percent of all of Three’s Skype users new to the network. (The higher margins may well come down to the ue of iSkoot, which routes Skype on to the voice circuit-switch rather than the more expensive data network. This, argues the company, makes the service less of a data cannibalizer than operators traditionally fear VoIP to be.)
Three projects it will carry a billion Skype voice minutes in 2009 — or only 1 percent of Skype’s traffic currently.

Skype says that its iPhone/iPod Touch app was downloaded 2.5 million times in the first 14 days it was available. That meant that in less than a month it was downloaded enough times to penetrate into 10 percent of the entire iPhone/iPod market.

Telefonica to launch Message Talk service

Telefonica to launch Message Talk service

Telefonica plans to commercially launch its Message Talk service this year. The service is developed in partnership with South Korean mobile operator KT Freetel (KTF) and the GSM Association (GSMA). The service groups text messages by sender as if it were a usual conversation, so the experience for the customer is close to instant messaging, reports Cinco Dias, citing sources within Telefonica. The Spanish operator has already introduced this feature on some of the mobile handsets it currently sells, and plans to roll out a strong ad and marketing campaign throughout this year to expand the use of its message talk service.

An unusual VoIP provider

An unusual VoIP provider

With some stand-alone VoIP services like Vonage stagnant and others like Verizon's VoiceWing and AT&T's CallVantage dead or dying, we decided to check in on a company called magicJack, an unusual VoIP provider. We were surprised with what we found out when we talked with Dan Borislow, the inventor of the technology and co-founder of the company. The biggest surprise? MagicJack has over 3 million customers and is adding 250,000 new customers a month, according to Borislow.

Our second surprise was that magicJack owns its VoIP network that includes servers, gateways, softswitches, and session border controllers. Because of growing demands, the company has had to increase its network capacity 400% in the last 30 days. Like other VoIP providers, magicJack uses the Internet to provide access to its private IP network.

MagicJack is also a registered Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in all 50 states. As a CLEC, the company owns phone numbers and has the right to connect as a peer to the PSTN, helping the company keep costs down and also allowing it to control call quality since doesn’t rely on a third-party wholesale IP provider for network management. Although considered a VoIP service from a regulatory perspective, magicJack does offer E-911 support using both user registration and (as a back-up) a GSM radio that can use cellular phone networks to pinpoint user locations.

The magicJack price is no surprise to anyone who watched late night television - the advertised price is $39.95 plus shipping and handling for the USB drive that enables the VoIP service. Users plug the USB drive into their broadband attached computer and a phone connection into the USB drive; the pre-installed computer software and USB provide power and a gateway for the user’s phone. The initial magicJack fee also pays for the first year of unlimited domestic calls; subsequent years of service are $19.95. By contrast, Skype offers unlimited outbound domestic calling within the U. S. and Canada for €1.95 a month and an inbound service and €50 for a full year. (Using a current promotional rate, inbound Skype subscribers can get up to 50% off with the purchase of a monthly subscription.)

MagicJack has kept its costs down by using its own hardware and software developers, by using a pre-paid service with no monthly billing, and by offering only online customer service. When we asked about reports of support problems when the company launched, Borislow noted that the customer service has improved dramatically since its introduction a year ago. He also said that the USB device is on its third iteration of chipset technology, which has eliminated some of the technical glitches discovered at launch and enabled other features that will be added soon.

Samsung & Vodafone to launch Android smartphone in June (Germany)

Samsung & Vodafone to launch Android smartphone in June (Germany)

According to the German media report, Samsung will introduce its very own Android mobile device dubbed as the i7500 smartphone, in Germany with Vodafone in June for €300. The handset features a touchscreen-only design will operate on a version 1.5 of Android, also known as Cupcake with Google Mobile Services as part of the package.

Running at 528Mhz via a Qualcomm MEM7200A processor, the handset will feature a high quality, HVGA, AMOLED screen that is famed for offering more intense and contrasting colours (ie: blacks are very black instead of a washed out grey) spanning 3.2in. A built-in camera will also be included, running at 5-megapixels. Other features will include WiFi, 8GB of internal memory although a microSD slot will be included for expansion, plus GPS and Bluetooth.

Microsoft's 23-year growth streak ends

Microsoft's 23-year growth streak ends

All good things come to an end: A lot has changed since Microsoft's IPO on March 14, 1986, but since that time there has been one constant truth: Microsoft would grow revenue in year-to-year comparisons.

After weathering the IT bubble in 2001, Microsoft's 23-year growth streak was finally ended in 1Q09 by the worst recession in recent history. Perhaps fittingly, the revenue decline was driven by the same business that gave Microsoft its start, Windows. Microsoft's product portfolio and revenue sources have increased dramatically over the past 23 years, but the Windows operating system business remains central to Microsoft's business and strategy in the software market.
Factors such as premium mix and netbooks may have played a role in the Client division's 15.4 percent year-to-year revenue decline, but widespread weakness in PC shipments was the primary driver. Microsoft's own success in growing the Windows business effectively ended its growth streak in 1Q09, as the vast scale of the business made dodging an estimated 7 percent to 9 percent decline in PC shipments impossible.

Windows 7 won't change cut-rate purchasing habits: With Windows 7 being released to public beta and ramping up for general release, there is some speculation that performance in Microsoft's core Windows business could turn around in short order. TBR believes the cautious spending and preference for lower-priced PCs are fundamental shifts in the marketplace that will not dissipate once the economy improves. As seen with Vista, Microsoft was running Windows under the "bigger is better" strategy, and the current recession is driving customer behavior in the opposite direction. Windows 7 capitalizes on this trend, delivering a more stable, lightweight, and intuitive interface, rather than continuing with the direction of Vista.
The end result may be that Microsoft sells more versions of Windows 7 at lower price points, but if Microsoft did not meet this emerging customer demand, Apple and Linux would. Windows 7 appears to be a truly customer-driven product design, which comes at a critical time when Microsoft needs to prove itself again to customers and partners.

Although 1Q09's revenue decline may have marred Microsoft's flawless growth record, the company remains supremely positioned to weather the recession. Microsoft implemented the first corporate-wide headcount reduction in its history during 4Q08, the company proved old dogs can learn new tricks, and reported its cost saving efforts were already ahead of plan. Microsoft is reducing costs in a number of ways, including top-down headcount reductions, travel curtailment, and reducing SG&A expenses, but one area the company is not willing to sacrifice is research and development. The company current has a number of critical products under development, including Windows 7, Office 2010, and Windows Server 2008 r2, and remains committed to meeting existing product road maps. TBR believes the decision is not simply a commitment to the status quo, but in reality a solid business decision. Microsoft retains an extremely stable financial position, with nearly $25 billion in liquid assets, and these products represents a huge stream of future cash flows for the company. Every dollar spent on developing these products on schedule will likely be returned at least ten fold over the next five years.
The recession also highlights Microsoft's ongoing failure in the Online Services Business. Revenue in the Online Services Group declined 14.5 percent during 1Q09, while operating losses widened to $575 million. In the last four quarters alone, Microsoft's operating losses in OSG were $2 billion. Although OSG losses represent a small portion of Microsoft's revenue and profit, the company's time and effort could certainly be better spent elsewhere.

Google is dominating both the traffic and monetization streams in the online search and advertising market, with no viable challengers in sight. TBR believes Microsoft has a ripe area of investment in the enterprise software market that presents lower barriers to entry and a much higher probability of success. Microsoft already built its Server & Tools business into a growing, highly profitable segment, and some strategic investments could yield large returns. Unlike the online advertising market, enterprise software is a distributed market, with thousands of companies operating profitable business models. By purchasing Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Intuit, or a number of other mid-sized software companies, TBR believes Microsoft could further scale its enterprise middleware and applications business.
www.tbri.com

BTK, Turkcell'i uyardı (SuperTarife ve BizbizeKampus )

BTK Turkcell’i uyardı

Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurulu, Turkcell’in bazı tariflerinin ortalama arabağlantı ücretlerinin altında kaldığı için uygun seviyeye çıkarması yönünde uyardı.

Aynı zamanda, operatörlerin yaptığı kampanyaların çokluğundan dolayı abonelerin kolayca karşılaştırma yapamadıkları ve oluşan bu şeffaflık sorunu nedeniyle 3 operatörün de katılacağı bir çalışma grubu oluşturulması yönünde karar aldı.