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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Use Your Smartphone for Business Presentations

Although smartphones aren't as powerful as laptops or as showy as tablets, you’re certain to have one you at all times. When it comes to giving presentations on the road, your smartphone can be the ideal tool in a pinch. Here's how to make the most of it.
Portable Drive
If there's already a computer and projector where you're delivering the presentation and you just need to move your files there, use your phone as a portable disk. Before you leave your desk, transfer the file from your PC to your phone for easy access later. Or, if you're toting a Windows Phone 7 handset, you can just access your PowerPoint file on the phone via SkyDrive. Your phone can also be a lifesaver when you forget a file offsite, as long as you store your presentation in an app like Dropbox or Box. Just remember to pack an extra USB cable to connect your phone to a computer.
Remote Control
Another way your phone comes in handy, if your presentation site already has a computer and projector, is to act as a remote control. Using an iOS or Android app installed on the phone that talks to a server program on the presentation computer, you can control the presentation through gestures on your phone. Examples of this phone and PC software combination include iOS apps like i-Clickr PowerPoint Remote, or Android apps, like Bluetooth Remote PC, which work via Bluetooth, or “Remote for PowerPoint” that can also use Wi-Fi.
HDMI/MHL Out
There may be times when you want to use your phone as the presentation device itself, like when there's no computer available. In this case, some phones offer video output options so you can display your slideshow on a monitor or TV. Newer iPhones can output video with a special 30-pin-to-video cable, and Android phones such as the HTC Evo 3D even include a mini-HDMI or MHL output. It’s important to note that not all phones can output everything shown on the screen to a display or projector, and some are limited to specific media types like video, so be sure to test your setup early before you hit the road.
Presentation Software
If you can use your phone as the presentation device, you’ll need presentation software. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 includes a PowerPoint viewer, but apps like Documents to Go or Quickoffice Pro also allow both Android or iOS to display a PowerPoint presentation stored on the phone. To avoid potential issues that apps might have with fonts, version incompatibility, and limited features, consider using a remote desktop app to display the presentation running on your office PC. An app like LogMeIn for iOS or TeamViewer for Android will access your office desktop, so you can run your presentation remotely in native PowerPoint. Just be sure to have a reliable network connection.
Future Capabilities
Sharp's SH-05C projector phone debuted in Japan.Sharp's SH-05C projector phone debuted in Japan.Recently, a self-described hacker developed a system to combine a PC, a projector, and a Microsoft Kinect camera to project his phone's display onto a wall (Watch the video, below). He could control the phone by interacting with the image on the wall. The extra equipment doesn't make this solution practical on a business trip, but with companies like Texas Instruments developing pico projectors for smartphones, and the LG eXpo already having a snap-on pico projector option, it’s not hard to imagine a phone integrating these capabilities in the not-so-distant future.

Source:Internet
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5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!

Here are 5 India centric iPhone apps that will arm you will all the necessary information you need while you’re in the country. But, one thing you have to keep in mind, unlike Android Apps, most of the good apps on iPhone are paid ones, though they are mostly at cost of just couple of dollars.

Sari

sari drape 5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!
For all the women out there in India and abroad who want to drape a sari but are relying on their mothers, a distant Indian friend or a YouTube video, your very own sari assistant is here. Developed by Siddhartha Banerjee, this app was on No. 4 in the list of the Top Paid Apps of iTunes India in March 2011. As the name suggests, this app is a step by step tutorial of sari draping. The makers say that more regional and international styles of sari draping and its interpretations are going to be upgraded on this app very soon.
Buy NowUSD 1.99/-

iPooja

ipooja 5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!
Wouldn’t it be great to conduct your daily pooja or get assistance regarding preparations of a pooja from your app in the case of unavailability of your priest? This app will arm you with high quality audio recording, step by step guidance to perform religious rites and ceremonies, information regarding the history of the pooja and the ‘Aarati’ with English text amongst many other features. The in-app iPooja store also allows you to load a variety of poojas in multiple languages.
Download Now – (App is free, but poojas come at a cost)

Meter Down

taxi meter down 5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!
If you are a Mumbaikar and have an iPhone then you simply can’t do without this app and if you are not a Mumbaikar and have an iPhone, then there’s all the more reason for you to download both these apps so that you don’t get taken for a ride with the street smart autowallahs and taxiwallahs of Mumbai. This app will keep you abreast of the fluctuating fares of autos and taxis in Mumbai so that you don’t have to rely and bargain while you’re on the move. From the maker of the Sari app, which is also featured in this list, the Meter Down apps are clear winners because of their clean interface. Simply look at the numbers in the meter and look it up on your app for the updated fare. Midnight fares are included for the nocturnal travellers.
Download Meter Down for Auto / Download Meter Down for Taxi [Free]

SwarGanga

swarganga 5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!
To satiate the music lover inside you, try out the SwarGanga iPhone app created by Adwait Joshi. Music students can now gladly forget about carrying bulky books and simply refer to this app that provides detailed information about Taals, Bandishes, Instruments, Artists, Raags, Thaats and Gharanas in addition to informative articles about North Indian Classical Music. This is a niche app which will be more useful to you than simply downloading an app through which you can stream and listen to classical music.
Buy Now [USD 2.99]

Navigon India

navigon 5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!
Though it comes at hefty price of USD 70, Navigon India has lots to offer. For those of you who are hardcore techie travelers, you can convert your iPhone into a mobile navigation system with spoken announcements, address entries, real road signs, speed assistant, pedestrian navigation, SOS help, live weather info and information about all places of interest en route amongst many other features. This app is currently available on most iPhone platforms – iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the iPad (navigation only available on the iPad WiFi +3G).
Buy Now [USD 69.99]

Soyrce:Internet
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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Solar Cells in Smartphone Screens

18 January 2012—A team at the University of Cambridge, led by IEEE Fellow Arokia Nathan, is working toward a simple goal: a mobile phone that requires charging less often. At the Materials Research Society's fall meeting in Boston, Arman Ahnood, a researcher on that team,  told scientists that eventually, we might see a phone that never needs to be plugged in.
01NWMobileEnergyf2
Illustration: Arokia Nathan
Energy Harvester: A thin-film system harvests energy from wasted light in an OLED display. Click on the image for the full illustration view.
To extend the time between charges, Nathan's group built a prototype device that converts ambient light into electricity using an array of  solar cells made of thin-film hydrogenated amorphous silicon that's designed to sit within the phone's screen. The photovoltaic (PV) cell takes advantage of the smartphone display’s large footprint. In a typical organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, only about 36 percent of the light generated is projected out of the front of the screen, says Ahnood. Much of it escapes at the edges of the OLED, where it is useless. So Nathan and his collaborators at his Canadian firm IGNIS Innovation set out to harness this wasted light by putting thin-film PV cells around the display’s edges as well.
Making the device work required sidestepping another problem: fluctuations in the voltage provided by the solar cell, which could have damaged the phone’s battery. The researchers, who were based at University College London until recently, designed a thin-film transistor circuit to smooth out voltage spikes and extract electricity more efficiently.
And instead of charging the battery directly, which would have involved adding complex circuitry, they worked with the energy group at Cambridge's Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics to integrate a thin-film supercapacitor for intermediate energy storage. This combination of photovoltaics, transistors, and supercapacitor yielded a system with an average efficiency of 11 percent and peak efficiency of 18 percent. If the PV array converts 5 percent of ambient light to electricity, the energy-harvesting system can generate as much as 165 microwatts per square centimeter under the right lighting conditions. For a typical 3.7-inch smartphone screen, that equates to a maximum power output of 5 milliwatts, "which is quite useful power," says Ahnood, though that’s only a fraction of a smartphone’s power needs.
There are existing CMOS-based switch mode voltage regulators that offer higher efficiency, says Ahnood, but they aren’t compatible with the thin-film technology used in smartphone displays. Furthermore, the team’s thin-film devices can be fabricated at temperatures below 150 °C on lightweight plastic, making them much more attractive for use in mobile phones, where every gram and every penny is a big deal.
The cellular handset prototype is just one example of such small-scale wireless energy harvesting. Another plug-free power source might be magnetic resonance coupling via an induction coil. Alternating current is run through a coil of conductive material, generating an oscillating magnetic field. That field, in turn, generates a current in a coil embedded in, say, a phone or an MP3 player.
Jun Yu, a doctoral student of Nathan's, reported preliminary work along those lines at the MRS meeting. He told scientists that the team had designed a flat thin-film coil that could be used as a receiver in a display. But the team doesn’t foresee the coil producing enough power to run an entire computer. It should, however, be possible to scale down the magnetic coupling scheme for use in mobile devices.
It will take quite a bit more research to get from prototype to consumer product. For example, the team is exploring different circuit designs and materials with the aim of increasing the energy harvesting system’s efficiency. Other energy scavenging schemes, such as MEMS-based kinetic energy harvesting, could contribute to further improvements, says Nathan.
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Self Healing SamrtPhone Case Prototype

Self-Healing Smartphone Case of the Day
Self-Healing Smartphone Case of the Day: Auto-maker Nissan has developed a prototype “self-healing” smartphone case that repairs its own scratches using the same technology the company applies to its cars.
It’s made of ABS plastic, with a polyrotaxane paint with a chemical makeup that causes it to react to changes and fill in small scratches overnight. The “Scratch Shield” paint is already at work on Nissan’s Murano 370Z and X-Trail vehicles.
A trial of the smartphone cases is underway, but there’s no word on when they’ll be available to buy.
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P&G technology will let store scanners read coupons from your smartphone

Snipping coupons from the Sunday paper, stuffing them into a wad and producing them at checkout is a weekly ritual for millions of shoppers.
But that’s changing – and quicker than you can clip a dollar-off coupon for Tide.
Procter & Gamble, one of the nation’s biggest purveyors of coupons, has just agreed to work with a Silicon Valley start-up to pioneer a way to scan coupons on your smart phone.
It’s considered the Holy Grail of high-tech couponing: Redeeming money-saving offers on a smart phone simply by pointing the device at a standard-issue grocery store scanner. As unlikely as it seems in this wired and wireless world, a coupon’s barcode on a mobile phone cannot be read by most red-laser scanners, the kind used by retailers across the country.
“The inability for a red-laser scanner to read information displayed on a smart phone is not a small problem,” said Nick Holland, an analyst with Yankee Group, a Boston-based consultancy.
Solving that problem could speed the acceptance of mobile- phone coupons in the marketplace, possibly changing the way America shops. Manufacturers like P&G potentially could save millions in print ads. Retailers could target their most loyal customers. Shoppers could collect coupons electronically and speed through the checkout aisles.
To make that possible, P&G is throwing its considerable weight behind technology created by a San Francisco-based firm called Mobeam, and the two plan to test it sometime this year.
“This is pretty much our first step into it,” said P&G spokesman Dave McCracken.
Developers envision a simple process:
Consumers would download coupons from websites such as pgesaver.com directly to their phones. The coupon and barcode would appear on the phone’s screen and could be scanned at the checkout.
Stores would not need to install new hardware, and product companies like P&G could capture purchase information, allowing them to analyze how well promotions are working.
Many major retailers, including Kroger, Target, Walgreens and CVS, have their own systems that can scan coupons on smart phones – but only coupons issued by the store.
As a product manufacturer that supplies many retailers, P&G needs a system that can be used anywhere so shoppers can cash in on P&G coupons wherever they shop.
“Being able to use it with all retailers, that’s the critical thing,” McCracken said.
Couponing has become a way of life for shoppers, especially in the wake of the recession, when consumers are still closely watching what they spend.
In 2010, U.S. shoppers cashed in 3.3 billion coupons. That’s 27 percent more than redeemed in 2008, when the financial crisis plunged the country into a deep recession, reports the consulting and software firm Inmar Inc. Before that, coupon use actually had been declining in the go-go years of the late ’90s.
U.S. shoppers saved $3.7 billion with coupons in 2010, as product makers like P&G, General Mills and Kraft stepped up discounting to keep the value-conscious shopper coming back to their brands.
The number of consumers who say they regularly use coupons has increased from 64 percent in pre-recession 2007 to 78 percent in 2010, found coupon-tracker NCH Marketing Services.
The Sunday paper is still the king of the coupon – more than 87 percent of coupons distributed in 2010 were through newspaper inserts.
But that’s changing and so is the coupon consumer.
By 2016, shoppers worldwide are expected to redeem $43 billion in mobile coupons, predicts consulting firm Juniper Research. That would be an eightfold increase from $5.4 billion redeemed worldwide last year.
“Mobile coupons are going mainstream,” said the report’s author, David Snow.
Coupon queen and Enquirer blogger Andrea Deckard uses a program from Kroger on her smart phone that’s linked to her Kroger Plus card, the grocer’s loyalty program. Her phone displays Kroger’s weekly deals, and with a few clicks, she can download offers into her Kroger Plus card while she’s in the store.
When the cashier scans her card, the appropriate offers are recognized and redeemed.
“You can literally be in the store and realize you forgot a coupon and load the coupon right to your phone and get it instantly,” said Deckard, who runs the website savingslifestyle.com.
Coupons linked to a loyalty program like Kroger’s are working well now, says Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner. But you must be a member of the the retail loyalty program to use them, and the offers must be from that particular retailer, he points out. The retailer also gets to harvest a trove of information about shoppers – what they’ve bought, how often and where.
P&G and other manufacturers are banking on projections that 50 percent of the population will own a smart phone by 2015. Thirty percent currently own the phones, creating a demand for systems allowing them to easily cash in their coupons anywhere.
The current technology is not easy to use, Baker says. The shopper must present the phone to the cashier, who then must key in a number, as shoppers waiting in line grow impatient.
“The opportunity is growing, but it’s a long way from being a mainstream technology used by a large segment of the population,” he says.
That’s what P&G and Mobeam are hoping to fix.
“If couponing can be easier, faster and less costly for shoppers and retailers, we want to help bring it to life,” said Jeff Weedman, vice president of global business development at P&G.
In October, Mobeam closed a deal to receive $4.9 million in funding from several venture capital firms, including Yet2ventures, a company that was founded in part by P&G.
The two hope to get a pilot program started this year with a smart phone manufacturer to test the idea, McCracken said.
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Solar Smartphone Display Could Lead to Endless Battery Life

invented nice logo about OLED technologyImage via WikipediaAlthough smartphone technology has advanced rapidly over the last few years with the advent of multicore mobile processors, high fidelity displays and a wider breadth of multimedia applications, power consumption remains a persistent issue. Many models require recharging before reaching a full day's worth of use, but with a new OLED display technology that can actually recharge itself as it is being used, the days of keeping a charger close at hand may be numbered.
Researcher Arman Ahnood has developed a method to capture light otherwise wasted by OLED displays and convert it into energy that can be used to recharge a device's central battery unit. According to Ahnood, only 36-percent of the light produced by OLED displays is projected outward, while the rest is pointed toward the sides and rear. He claims that a thin layer of film containing photovoltaic cells can be applied to displays to gather the wasted energy, as well as capture ambient light from both manmade sources and the sun.
As of right now, however, Ahnood's findings offer a small amount of supplemental energy, but with further research it could reach higher efficiency levels.
In short, this concept could eventually lead to smartphones that recharge during use, potentially resulting in a virtually limitless energy supply.
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Project / Product Manager (Telecom Domain),Delhi_NCR,India

An opportunity which is with one of  esteemed IT/Telecom domain client based out of Delhi/NCR location

Years of Experience: 8 to 11 years
Position: Technical Manager

Desired Skills:

* Strong Project/Product Management experience.
* Excellent experience in telecom domain and developing telecom products.
* Experience in managing complete lifecycle of multiple projects and product lines, with major focus on managerial processes
* Ability to Elicit customer requirements, project planning and design products.
* Good understanding of the product platforms and able to do pre sales activities
* Good understanding of telecom business and ability to create product roadmap
* Exposure on VAS products will be an advantage.

Kindly forward me your updated profile as soon as possible along with the following details:

* Total years of Experience:
* Relevant years of experience in Project / Product Management:
* Relevant years of experience in Telecom Industry:
* Relevant years of experience in Pre-sales:
* Current Organization:
* Current Designation:
* Current CTC:
* Expected CTC:
* Notice Period:
* Date of Birth:
* Willing to relocate to Delhi/NCR:

Thanks and Regards,
Priyanka Trivedi


mail latest cv at : priyankag@e-lixirweb.com
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Thursday, January 19, 2012

"No" is the New "Yes": Four Practices to Reprioritize Your Life

I was sitting with the CEO and senior team of a well-respected organization. One at a time, they told me they spend their long days either in back-to-back meetings, responding to email, or putting out fires. They also readily acknowledged this way of working wasn't serving them well — personally or professionally.
It's a conundrum they couldn't seem to solve. It's also a theme on which I hear variations every day. Think of it as a madness loop — a vicious cycle. We react to what's in front of us, whether it truly matters or not. More than ever, we're prisoners of the urgent.
Prioritizing requires reflection, reflection takes time, and many of the executives I meet are so busy racing just to keep up they don't believe they have time to stop and think about much of anything.
Too often — and masochistically — they default to "yes." Saying yes to requests feels safer, avoids conflict and takes less time than pausing to decide whether or not the request is truly important.
Truth be told, there's also an adrenaline rush in saying yes. Many of us have become addicted, unwittingly, to the speed of our lives — the adrenalin high of constant busyness. We mistake activity for productivity, more for better, and we ask ourselves "What's next?" far more often than we do "Why this?" But as Gandhi put it, "A 'no' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."
Saying no, thoughtfully, may be the most undervalued capacity of our times. In a world of relentless demands and infinite options, it behooves us to prioritize the tasks that add the most value. That also means deciding what to do less of, or to stop doing altogether.
Making these choices requires that we regularly step back from the madding crowd. It's only when we pause — when we say no to the next urgent demand or seductive source of instant gratification — that we give ourselves the space to reflect on, metabolize, assess, and make sense of what we've just experienced.
Taking time also allows us to collect ourselves, refuel and renew, and make conscious course corrections that ultimately save us time when we plunge back into the fray.
What follows are four simple practices that serve a better prioritized and more intentional life:
1. Schedule in your calendar anything that feels important but not urgent — to borrow Steven Covey's phrase. If it feels urgent, you're likely going to get it done. If it's something you can put off, you likely will — especially if it's challenging.
The key to success is building rituals — highly specific practices that you commit to doing at precise times, so that over time they become automatic, and no longer require much conscious intention or energy. One example is scheduling regular time in your calendar for brainstorming, or for more strategic and longer term thinking.
The most recent ritual I added to my life is getting entirely offline after dinner each evening, and on the weekends. I'm only two weeks into the practice, but I know it's already created space in my mind to think and imagine.
2. As your final activity before leaving work in the evening, set aside sufficient time — at least 15 to 20 minutes — to take stock of what's happened that day. and to decide the most important tasks you want to accomplish the next day.
Clarifying and defining your priorities — what the researcher Peter Gollwitzer calls "implementation intentions" — will help you to stay focused on your priorities in the face of all the distractions you'll inevitably face the following day.
3. Do the most important thing on your list first when you get to work in the morning, for up to 90 minutes. If possible, keep your door closed, your email turned off and your phone on silent. The more singularly absorbed your focus, the more you'll get accomplished, and the higher the quality of the work is likely to be. When you finish, take a break to renew and refuel.
Most of us have the highest level of energy and the fewest distractions in the morning. If you can't begin the day that way, schedule the most important activity as early as possible. If you're one of the rare people who feels more energy later in the day, designate that time instead to do your most important activity.
4. Take at least one scheduled break in the morning, one in the afternoon, and leave your desk for lunch. These are each important opportunities to renew yourself so that your energy doesn't run down as the day wears on. They're also opportunities to briefly take stock.
Here are two questions you may want to ask yourself during these breaks:
1. Did I get done what I intended to get done since my last break and if not, why not?
2. What do I want to accomplish between now and my next break, and what do I have to say "no" to, in order to make that possible?

Source:Internet
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