Microsoft to sell Kinect controller for $150
July 28, 2010
Source: ET AGENCIES

NEW YORK: Microsoft says its Kinect motion-sensing game controller will cost $150 when it goes on sale on November 4.

The Kinect system recognizes users' gestures and voices, so you can control on-screen characters in racing, action and sports games simply by speaking or moving your body. It will come packaged with a game, ``Kinect Adventures.''

Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it will also start selling an entry-level Xbox 360 game console in August. The $200 unit will have a four-gigabyte hard drive. It's $100 less than the Xbox with much more storage, 250 gigabytes.

The entry-level console, plus Kinect and the game, will also be available as a bundle for $300.

iPhone apps to die for
July 28, 2010
Source: NYT News Service

The original 2007 iPhone had only one screenful of software icons, believe it or not. You couldn’t install any new ones of your own.

It took a whole year before Apple opened the iPhone app store, making it possible for the masses to download and install new apps (programmes) and, in the process, creating a whole new gadget category.

The app store changed everything. Why just make calls, when you could auto-tune your singing voice, play virtual Ping-Pong or summon bodily sounds on command? There are 225,000 apps on the iPhone store and 60,000 on Google’s Android store, and that’s just the beginning. Those statistics will be out of date by the end of this week, or even the end of this sentence. You may find it hard to comprehend a selection that vast, let alone to navigate it in search of the good stuff.

But it could be worse: you could be the aspiring app programmer who has to come up with a fresh idea. (Maybe you’re inspired, for example, by the release of Google’s new, free App Inventor software.) There are already apps that reproduce mooing sounds (Hello Cow), apps that dial someone from your address book randomly (iDrunkTxt), games where you score points by licking the screen (iLickit). What could possibly be left? This week, I challenged my Twitter followers (I’m @pogue) to invent iPhone or Android apps that don’t exist but should.

I’ll spare you the jokey wishful-thinking responses: “An app that puts my kids to bed at night,” “An app that gives my wife the ‘right answer,’ “ “An app that teleports me to a spot with a good cell signal.” OK, everyone’s a comedian. In general, I’ll also omit the great app ideas that do, in fact, exist.

Funds approved for phase two of UID project
July 28, 2010
SOURCE: IANS

NEW DELHI: The authority set up to collect data for the issue of tamper-proof biometric identity cards to each of India's 1.17 billion citizens has been granted Rs.3,023 crore for the second phase of its implementation.

"The estimated cost includes project components for issue of 100 million unique identity numbers by March 2011 and recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase of five years ending March 2014," an official statement said Thursday.

The additional funds were approved during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, belying some reports that the government was proposing to curtail its funding.

Aadhar is the brand name for the 12 digit unique identity number.

The project was established last year to primarily ensure inclusive growth by providing a form of tamper-proof identity to people above 15 years of age so that the delivery of government programmes can be directed better, ensuring effective governance.

The project, after implementing the first phase by March 2011, intends to issue some 600 million more numbers over the next three years using the services of both the government departments and agencies, as also banks, insurance companies and oil marketing firms.

Under phase one, the plan is for setting up necessary infrastructure, creating testing facilities for pilots projects, setting up standards, establishing a project management unit for monitoring and hiring of consultants for project reports.

Among these, the authority has established its headquarters at New Delhi and set up six out of the eight proposed Regional Offices. It has also set up a technology centre and a test data centre in Bangalore.