Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax: Movie Review

Just in time for what would have been Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s 108th birthday, the creators of Despicable Me adapt the favorite tale of the beloved children’s author for the big screen, rendering his whimsical 2-D illustrations in shiny, computer-generated 3-D.

The moral of the story, published more than 40 years ago, couldn’t be more topical: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot [about trees specifically or the environment generally], nothing is going to get better. I

The boy featured at the start and end of The Lorax now has a name: Ted, presumably in homage to his creator. Ted (voiced by Zac Efron) is smitten with Audrey, named after Geisel’s wife, whose greatest wish in life is to see a real, live tree. You see, Ted and Audrey (Taylor Swift) live in Thneed-Ville, an entirely plastic city with inflatable bushes, mechanical flowers and battery-operated trees sealed off from the outside world.

As described in the film’s opening anthem, though, the people of Thneedville, all smooth surfaces and no sharp edges, are happy with the way things are, especially since O’Hare Air bottles and delivers fresh, clean O2 right to your door.

On advice from his whip-smart, totally underestimated Grammy Norma (Betty White), Ted ventures outside Thneed-Ville to track down the Once-ler (Ed Helms) to learn where he can find a tree for Audrey. What he discovers is a dark, depressing wasteland dotted by dead tree trunks, rotting equipment and factory ruins.

The Once-ler hides in a booby-trapped lair, ashamed and guilt-ridden about causing the devastation that surrounds him. He agrees to help Ted, but Ted has to listen to what happened to all the trees first.

Finally, we pick up with the source material, a cautionary tale about how the Once-ler’s greed and ambition to make and sell multipurpose Thneeds led to the destruction of the valley’s fanciful trees, which look like cotton candy lollipops, and the exile of its aggressively cute creatures: the Swomee-Swans, the teddy-bear Bar-ba-loots and the actually quite lovely crooning Humming-Fish. (Three species were plenty to fill the pages of Dr. Seuss’ book, but here the wildlife feels rather limited.) The magical guardian of the forest, the curmudgeonly yet cuddly Lorax (Danny DeVito), tried to intervene, but the Once-ler’s opportunism, expressed in a catchy, yet sharply critical capitalist ditty, grew nightmarish.

These flashbacks are interrupted by the present-day story: The Once-ler won’t tell Ted his tale all at once, so Ted has to go home and come back the next day. In the meantime, his foray outside the city limits has attracted the attention of Aloysius O’Hare (Rob Riggle), a squat executive with a Napoleon complex and a ridiculous bowl cut whose bottled-air business depends on a dearth of trees. As a result, viewers are no longer invested in the Lorax himself so much as they’re waiting, perhaps impatiently, to see what he has to do with Ted and Audrey.

In many ways, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is a stunning visual achievement. Hair and fur have always proved a tremendous challenge for CGI artists, but here the Lorax’s feathery mustache, the critters’ fuzzy fur, and the trees’ wispy tufts have been so finely crafted that one can practically feel how soft they are to the touch. In addition, director Chris Renaud and his team use 3-D judiciously; it’s especially effective—because it’s not overused—in a couple of theme park ride-like sequences.

Unfortunately, though, there’s something tedious about this film, partly because the Lorax himself is sort of sidelined for Ted and Audrey’s story, partly due to a pointed environmental message that ultimately overrides all the characters with an Up with People-esque soundtrack. To its detriment, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax wears its heart on its sleeve.

Director: Chris Renaud
Writers: Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio
Voices: Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate, Betty White
Release Date: Mar. 2, 2012

By Annlee Ellingson

Aravan Movie Review

The least you expect from a period film are a few fantastic sequences that will make your jaw drop for their sheer inventiveness and music. But director Vasanthabalan’s third offering Aravan, based on Su. Venkatesan's novel Kaaval Kottam is so agonisingly snail-paced, you can't be blamed for nodding off to sleep in your seat.

The director has the means, but seems to lack the imagination required to pull off what he set out to achieve. A crisper script and a lighter directorial hand is missing here. Alas, it is an action film without any of the fun and excitement that ought to go with it.

Much of the film's problem lies in its sloppy narrative. The film set in 18th century is all about a bunch of people who steals from the wealthy to provide food and shelter for their tribe. Kombodhi (Pasupathy) is the gang leader and during one of his missions he meets the brave Varupuli (Aathi).

He brings Varupuli to his village and a bond develops between the two. But Varupuli has a past and his real name is Chinna and its is only in the last 20 minutes of the film that the real story unfolds.

One of the main problems with the film is the fact that our protagonist isn't a particularly a likeable character. To root for the hero you have to be fond of him, you have to want him to succeed. But it is difficult to feel affection or pity for Aathi’s character. Despite the earnest efforts put in by lead actors Pasupathy, Aathi, Dhansika and others, the film fails to deliver on the whole.

Karthik’s music is average and among them Nila Nila Poguthe and Unna Kolla Poren (reminds you of Unnaividae from Virumaandi) are melodious. The special effects especially the scene where Aadhi saves Pasupathy with hundreds of bulls around is spectacular.

At best some of that sweeping cinematography by Siddharth and Vijay Murugan’s sets are breathtaking, but that aside, this is one film which is not in the same league as the director's earlier films.

Deiva Thirumagal wins two awards at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Deiva Thirumagal, directed by A L Vijay and produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Sree Rajakaliamman Media, walked away with two awards: the Grand Prix Award for Best Film and ABC Award for Best Entertainer at the Osaka Asian Film Festival held in Japan from March 9–March 18, The film inspired by the Hollywood film I am Sam has Vikram, Anushka Shetty, Amala Paul, Santhanam, Nasser and M S Bhaskar in the lead roles. UTV is currently working with the successful combination of Vikram and Vijay in Thaandavam, expected to be released in August 2012.

About Osaka Asian Film Festival

The Osaka Asian Film Festival is held yearly, for the purposes of developing Osaka’s moving image culture, presenting the city as a cultural center and facilitating exchange and human resources development. The festival offers an opportunity to watch excellent Asian films and this year, the Cineastes Organization Osaka (CO2) joined OAFF, in a commitment to nurture young filmmakers as well as build networks with international filmmakers, and to introduce Osaka-made films to overseas viewers. The Grand Prix award is given to the best film among the Competition films, as selected by the jury and the ABC Award is a sponsor award given by Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, a member of the OAFF Executive Committee, to the most entertaining film among all participating new films.

DeivaThirumagal Movie Image

Jenson Button wins Australian GP 2012

McLaren’s Jenson Button won the season—opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, beating Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull into second place.

World champion Vettel prevented the McLaren team from starting the season with a one—two as he finished between Button and the Briton’s team—mate Lewis Hamilton, who started from pole.

Button, who finished the 58 laps of 5.303 km for a race distance of 307.574km in 1 hour 34:09.565 seconds said afterwards in the press conference that all the work the team put in was well worth it.

“Every win means a lot to you, but this showed how really important winter is. The team has done an amazing job over winter and it is nice getting a win.” He won the start from his team—mate and took over first place from Hamilton by the first corner and then proceeded to put some distance between him and the chasing pack.

By the 10th lap this distance was up to three seconds.

Behind the two McLarens, Michael Schumacher was holding on to third place but was under pressure from Vettel, who had moved up from sixth at the start.

The seven—time world champion Schumacher then developed a gear problem which led him to run wide and soon afterwards had to withdraw.

Another early casualty was Romain Grosjean in a Lotus, who sensationally started from third, but was involved in a collision early on and pulled out of the race.

After the first pit stops Button managed to easily stay in front and then benefited as Hamilton and Vettel were held up by the Sauber of Sergio Perez, who started from last place after incurring a five—place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

The Mexican was one of the last to go into the pits and as a result temporarily found himself in second place.

Once Hamilton and Vettel passed him, they attempted to close the gap on Button, but failed to do so.

With 20 laps remaining, the safety car had to come out as Vitaly Petrov pulled out of the race and his Caterham had to be removed from the track.

This allowed Vettel to make a quick pit stop to change his tyres for the final time and, more importantly, allowed him back on to the track ahead of Hamilton.

Button admitted that he was slightly worried when the safety car came out. “I had a comfortable cushion when it came out and I was a little bit on edge thereafter.

“But I got a good restart and was controlling my pace until the end.” Vettel said he thought he would have managed to overtake Hamilton without the safety car. “Even though it would have been close, I think I would have had a good shot at catching him.” Hamilton looked very dejected during the victory ceremony and said he was disappointed with the result. “It was a bit of a tough day, but I have to keep my head up.” After the safety car pulled in, the three leading cars drove until the end without any change.

There was, however, some drama towards the end as Williams’ Pastor Maldonado, who was lying sixth, crashed into the wall on the final lap.

Another last—minute casualty was the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who was overtaken by several drivers on the final lap after trying to overtake Perez and as a result slipped out of the points positions.

At the end, fourth place went to Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who is still waiting for his first podium place in his home race.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took fifth, while Kamui Kobayashi in a Sauber took sixth place. Returnee Kimi Raikkonen, who has returned to the sport from retirement, took his Lotus into seventh place, with Perez a good eighth.

The final two points positions went to Daniel Ricciardo in a Torro Rosso and Force India’s Paul Di Resta.

Sachin's 100th Century finaly made after 1 year + 5 days

One year and five days since he scored his 99th international century, Sachin Tendulkar reached the unprecedented landmark of 100. For over a year a legion of fans had watched in anticipation as Tendulkar strode to the crease in India, England and Australia, and at 17:07 local time, when he nudged towards square leg for a single, there was a collective release of emotions.

Tendulkar, 38, had been stuck on 99 international centuries since March 12, 2011 when he scored a century against South Africa during the World Cup. During the time he took to move from 99 to 100, so much has changed for the Indian cricket team. In the last 12 months they have won the World Cup, slipped form their No. 1 perch in the ICC’s Test rankings, been whitewashed in consecutive overseas Test tours, failed to make the finals of a tri-series, and have seen Rahul Dravid make his exit from the international scene.

In those 12 months, Tendulkar’s batting returns had also diminished. In 11 Tests he has scored 778 runs at an average of 37.04, with a best of 94. He came close to scoring that a hundred a couple other times too; at The Oval he made 91 and in Sydney he reached 80. That innings of 94 was the best chance he had of getting to three figures – Tendulkar came out on the fourth morning in Mumbai in robust mood – but an unwarranted dab to third man ended up in the slips.

Tendulkar did not play an ODI since the World Cup final on April 2, 2011 until he was named in India’s squad for the CB Series after the Test debacle in Australia. That period included four ODI contests, against West Indies and England home and away. Injury played its part, with Tendulkar being ruled out of the ODI leg in England. In 12 ODIs since that century in Nagpur Tendulkar had made 307 runs at 25.58, with his best shot at the 100th hundred being his chancy 85 against Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final. He had not crossed 48 since then, until today.

Tendulkar’s 100th century was a fluent innings, which began a brilliant cover drive for four in the second over of India’s innings in Mirpur. His cutting and driving was especially eye-catching, and the way he maneuvered the Bangladesh spinners was masterful. His half-century came up with a lofted boundary over extra, off the 63 balls, and three figures came in the 44th over, off 138 deliveries and with ten fours and one six.

Upon reaching three figures, Tendulkar closed his eyes and looked up to the skies as he has so many times before this. And yes, a big sigh of relief.

Messi scores 50th goal for Barcelona this season

Lionel Messi scored his 50th club goal of the season with a double on Sunday as Barcelona beat Racing Santander 2-0, but the Catalan club still remains 10 points off the Spanish League leader Real Madrid.

After scoring a remarkable five in the Champions League in midweek against a reeling Bayer Leverkusen, Messi found the net in both halves, the second a strike from the penalty spot.

The Argentine has 10 more goals overall than Cristiano Ronaldo, although the Portuguese star leads the way in La Liga with 32.

Barcelona has now won its last four league games.

CDMA Tab launched in India by Reliance

The first CDMA Tab is here, priced at Rs.12,999($260 or 199 euro)

The 7-inch capacitive touch screen Tab with Android 2.3 OS (operating system) from Reliance Communications comes with a 512 MB RAM and micro SD external storage. Weighing 397 gram, it has a 2 MP rear camera and a front camera.

The company, which launched 3G Tab last year, is offering a free 4 GB SD card with the CDMA version. The device supports up to 32 GB storage.

The CDMA Tab was, on Monday, launched in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

Addressing presspersons at the launch here, Rakesh Singh, Hub Head (Wireless Business), Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Reliance Communications, said these four cities were key growth drivers for Tabs in the country. Launching in these four cities would help access the market in the remaining areas of the respective States, he added.

Earlier, music director Anirudh Ravichander of ‘Kolaveri Di' fame launched the Tab.

According to Mr. Singh, the aspirations and the need of the people to access Internet wherever and whenever they want was bound to spur growth of the Tab market, which now is flooded with as many as 30 brands and 80 models.

The Indian Tab market, he added, was projected to touch 8.3 lakh pieces in 2015 from 1.6 lakh pieces this year.

With the launch, Reliance becomes the first telecom operator in the country to offer Tabs on both the 3G and CDMA networks, a release said. It is also the first CMDA Android Tablet from an Indian telecom company.

The Tab, with push e-mail capability, is bundled with ‘Documents to Go' that supports Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF formats.

Other features include Mobile TV, voice calling, GPS and video recording, the release said.

The CDMA Tab is available with post-paid plans offering discounts of upto 40 per cent on the regular rates. All the plans will come with default voice tariff plan of 50 paise per minute for all intra and inter circle calls and 50 paise for local and national SMS, the release added. Post-paid customers can avail themselves of a combo plan that will offer free data usage upto 2GB at a rental of Rs.750 a month.

Facebook reveals millions of fake users

Facebook is less popular than anyone thought. The world’s leading social network site has revealed that its previous estimate of 845 million users was inaccurate because it included millions of “fake users” whose accounts are either for false personalities or duplicates of other accounts.

A securities filing by the company revealed that Facebook estimates that between 5 to 6 per cent of its accounts fall into this category, which translates to between 42 million and 51 million accounts.

In the same filing, Facebook also revealed that it had opened new lines of credit worth 8 billion dollars. The company said it would use the funds to pay general corporate expenses, as well as to finance the tax liabilities of employees, who exercise their stock options, and to cover the potential legal costs of patent litigation with Yahoo, which has accused Facebook of violating 13 of its patents.

Facebook filed earlier this year its intention to launch an IPO (initial public offering), in which it hopes to raise 5 billion dollars at a reported company valuation between 75 billion dollars and 100 billion dollars.

Apple launches new iPad-DPA

The new iPad features a sharper screen and a faster processor. Apple says the new display will be even sharper than the high-definition television set in the living room.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled the third version of its genre-defining iPad tablet computer which will be available to consumers in the United States, Germany, France, Britain and Canada starting at 499 dollars from March 16.

“We’ve taken it to a whole new level and we are redefining the category that Apple created with the original iPad,” said Apple chief Tim Cook at a press conference in San Francisco.

“It makes amazing improvements over the most fundamental features of the design of the device while retaining everything that millions of people have grown to love about it,” he continued.

The new device, called simply the iPad, features a dual core A5X with quad-core graphics processor, a high-definition 2084x1536 Retina display which is “about 1 million more pixels than HDTV,” according to Apple, as well as a sharper 5 megapixel camera that includes special face detection technology.

Capable of accessing 4G mobile networks and creating its own mobile hotspot, the new iPad boasts download speeds that are five times faster than the current version, Mr. Cook said.

It also boasts a full complement of games, productivity and media software to take advantage of the new specs.

The unveiling of the new device had been widely expected, two years after Apple first launched the iPad, and a year after it introduced its successor the iPad 2.

Apple launches the new device from a dominant position in the tablet computer market. But Microsoft is readying its first tablet entry for later this year with the launch of the all-new Windows 8 operating system.

Apple has now sold some 55 million iPads, including 15.4 million in the last quarter, and is predicted to sell some 60 million iPads this year.

Market research firm Gartner predicts a total of 103.5 million tablet devices will be sold this year, rising to over 300 million by 2015.

Mr. Cook said that Apple has now sold over 172 million “post PC devices” which run on Apple’s mobile iOS software and which now make up 76 per cent of the company’s revenue.

The base level iPad features 16 GB of memory and wi-fi-only internet access. The cheapest version offering cellular internet access starts at 629 dollars. Apple also announced that the price of the existing iPad 32 models would be dropped by 100 dollars with the cheapest version now set at a price of 399 dollars.

At the presentation, Mr. Cook also announced the immediate availability of a new Apple TV device that is capable of streaming 1080p movies and TV shows.

84th Oscar Nominations and Winners List

Best Picture

"The Artist" Thomas Langmann, Producer

"The Descendants" Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" Scott Rudin, Producer

"The Help" Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers

"Hugo" Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers

"Midnight in Paris" Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers

"Moneyball" Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers

"The Tree of Life" Nominees to be determined

"War Horse" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

---

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in "A Better Life"

George Clooney in "The Descendants"

Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"

Gary Oldman in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"

Brad Pitt in "Moneyball"

---

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in "My Week with Marilyn"

Jonah Hill in "Moneyball"

Nick Nolte in "Warrior"

Christopher Plummer in "Beginners"

Max von Sydow in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

---

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs"

Viola Davis in "The Help"

Rooney Mara in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady"

Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

---

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist"

Jessica Chastain in "The Help"

Melissa McCarthy in "Bridesmaids"

Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs"

Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

---

Animated Feature Film

"A Cat in Paris" Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli

"Chico & Rita" Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

"Kung Fu Panda 2" Jennifer Yuh Nelson

"Puss in Boots" Chris Miller

"Rango" Gore Verbinski

---

Art Direction

"The Artist" Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan

"Hugo" Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

"Midnight in Paris" Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil

"War Horse" Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

---

Cinematography

"The Artist" Guillaume Schiffman

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Jeff Cronenweth

"Hugo" Robert Richardson

"The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki

"War Horse" Janusz Kaminski

---

Costume Design

"Anonymous" Lisy Christl

"The Artist" Mark Bridges

"Hugo" Sandy Powell

"Jane Eyre" Michael O'Connor

"W.E." Arianne Phillips

---

Directing

"The Artist" Michel Hazanavicius

"The Descendants" Alexander Payne

"Hugo" Martin Scorsese

"Midnight in Paris" Woody Allen

"The Tree of Life" Terrence Malick

---

Documentary (Feature)

"Hell and Back Again" Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner

"If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman

"Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

"Pina" Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel

"Undefeated" TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

---

Documentary (Short Subject)

"The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement" Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin

"God Is the Bigger Elvis" Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson

"Incident in New Baghdad"James Spione

"Saving Face" Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

"The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

---

Film Editing

"The Artist" Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius

"The Descendants" Kevin Tent

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

"Hugo" Thelma Schoonmaker

"Moneyball" Christopher Tellefsen

Chinese customer downloads 25 billionth app from Apple's App Store

A Chinese customer downloaded the 25 billionth app from Apple’s App Store, pushing the mobile software store to a new milestone, Apple announced on Monday. More than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from App Store by the users of more than 315 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide, said Apple in a statement.

The 25 billionth app, a free version of Disney’s popular mobile video game “Where’s my Water?” was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. Fu will receive a 10,000-U.S.-dollar iTunes gift card as the winner of the App Store Countdown to 25 billion apps. “We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Apple in its press release. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.” it added.

Downloads from Apple’s App Store have been accelerating steadily since it was launched in mid-2008. In April 2009, app downloads hit one billion. Last January, the number topped 10 billion. And the company celebrated the 15 billionth download in last July.

Bhupathi-Bopanna claim Budai Open double menstitle

Mahesh Bhuapthi and Rohan Bopanna won their first title together after pipping the Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the summit clash of the ATP Dubai Open, here on Saturday.

Bhupathi and Bopanna, seeded fourth, secured a 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 win after facing a stiff resistance from their rivals in the final of the $1,700,475 hard court event.

It is the fourth Dubai title for Bhupathi, having lifted the trophy in 1998 with Leander Paes, in 2004 with Fabrice Santoro and in 2008 with Mark Knowles. For Bopanna, it is the sixth ATP title of his career.

NASA plans Mars landing in August

NASA will attempt to lower a probe onto the surface of Mars for the first time as it continues its search for signs of life on the red planet, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

The new approach to landing a rover on the planet, to be attempted in August, will involve winching it slowly to the surface using nylon ropes attached to a spacecraft overhead.

Once the probe, named Curiosity, has safely reached the ground the 25 feet-long cords will be cut and the parent ship will use rockets to fire itself well away from the probe for a crash landing.

But NASA experts admitted the project, which will come to a head during the attempted landing on August 6, is a gamble which could prove to be a 1.7 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) disaster.

ICANN plans second round of domain name expansion

The first round, initiated in January, is in progress now

The second round of expansion of the Internet top-level domain name regime is on the anvil. The domain name is the concluding part of the web address that follows the dot, like .com or .org. The first round, initiated in January, is in progress now.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decided to go in for the second round recently. Meanwhile, it has started receiving applications for the first round from January 12, and the process will continue till April 12. March 29 is the last date for registration. The ICANN Board, however, did not set a date for launching the second round. That was because the Corporation would know the number of applications to be processed in the first round only after the application window ended. Thereafter, the initial evaluation process itself will be completed only towards the year-end.

The ICANN declared its commitment to the second round “in response to continued calls from the community.” There had been opposition from some quarters to the first round of expansion, however.

Thus, on the cards in the coming months is a sustained expansion of the generic top-level domain name regime (gTLD), which is now restricted to a handful of gTLDs like .com or .org, and many country code domains like .in for India or .uk for the United Kingdom. It will take place in at least two phases, one of which has already been triggered.

The new top-level domains can be made up of virtually any word, name or combination of letters, and for the first time, non-Latin language scripts can be used.

The announcement of the second round under the new gTLD program has eased pressure on firms which are not ready to apply in the ongoing first round, says Ram Mohan, security and stability committee liaison officer to the ICANN Board, and executive vice-president of Afilias, a domain name registry services company.

However, he opines that corporates wanting to leverage their brand presence online by applying for a TLD should do so now rather than wait for the subsequent round. The effectiveness of the mechanisms proposed for handling objections and resolving disputes — as in the case of trademarks or geographical names or other words that denote a particular profession or community — could prove crucial to the success of the new expansion regime that the ICANN has launched after years of preparation.

Though the ICANN stated, preparatory to the first round, that the application process had been designed to protect the interests of trademark owners and consumers through such mechanisms, it has had to respond to public apprehensions that ‘defensive' or pre-emptive applications may be required to ensure adequate protection. Besides seeking public comment, the ICANN has said it will take up studies to address concerns raised by its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) over trademark protection, among other things. The GAC offers the ICANN policy advice on issues of public policy, especially in the context of national laws or international agreements.

Version 2.0 in VLC media Player makes most Download in India

In 2011, India emerged as top downloader of VLC player - slicker, faster, format-and operating system-independent and, of course, free.

It's the newest kid on the block, and code-named ‘TwoFlower.' In its freshest avatar, the popular media player, VLC, offers you a slice of the VideoLan way of life — slicker, faster, format-and operating system-independent and, of course, free.

In a world where format incompatibilities, caught in proprietary tangles, have made user experiences tiresome, this third-party standalone software has been a testament to miracles that a Free and Open environment can work. Over the years, as companies looked inwards and got caught in digital rights management and related tangles, this community project has, indeed, become a rage among users.

Yes, for the user, the magic lies in the fuss-free way, in which the software (with pre-installed codecs) plays just about any format thrown at it. And for the geek, VLC represents the best of the world of Free Software, where cutting-edge software is created and owned by communities — not corporations — and is released under the GNU public licence.

Indeed, VLC had its humble beginnings in an academic project started by students of École Centrale Paris in the late 1990s. Today, with a coder base of around 160 volunteers worldwide, working part-time on this project — including hackers, doctors, aerospace engineers and students — VLC has been downloaded by 485 million users before it hit version 2.0 last month. Incidentally, in 2011, India climbed atop the list of maximum downloads, surpassing the United States, France and Germany, the VLC team informed The Hindu in an email interaction.

However, contributions from here still leave a lot to be desired, both in terms of code and translators, to increase support for Indian languages.

So what's TwoFlower all about? The new release keeps the simple, minimalist VLC interface intact, except for the Mac OS Version, which presents a complete overhaul in the lay-out of features.

However, the more significant changes are all under the hood: starting with the ability to open a plethora of new video formats (notably, professional ones such as Apple's ProRes422 and 4444 and Panasonic's AVC/Intra) to new features that allow it to open many more picture formats.

VLC now provides experimental support to Blu-Ray discs, though menus for these are not fully active yet. There has also been a major upgrade in its ability to handle 10-bit codecs. Technically, a notable advancement here is TwoFlower's ability to perform faster, multi-threaded decoding in multi-core systems. This is critical today, given the increased pervasiveness of high-definition media.

What's next?

Even as reports of an unofficial release of a version for the Android platform (for mobiles) did the rounds on Saturday, the VLC team says an official Beta release for Android is “just a few weeks away.”

In an email interaction, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, chairman of the VideoLan board, said that besides mobile portability, the VideoLan team was focussing on improving video and audio quality and user interface.

Asked about competition, Mr. Kempf said: “I think the competition is behind us...because they focus on some niche. VLC plays everything, is simple and answers everyone's needs.” He conceded that DRM issues were a “huge problem” for a community initiative like VLC. “DRM is a huge problem. Playback of Blu-Ray in VLC is still very hard because of that. We will try to improve, but this is complex, technically and legally. There is not one DRM that has not been broken, and therefore DRM ares only hurting nice and legal people.”

Federer beats Murray to win Dubai Open

Roger Federer beat Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4 Saturday to win his fifth Dubai Championships title.

The second-seeded Federer didn’t drop a set all week and was rarely threatened by the third-seeded Murray, who was coming off his semifinal win against top-ranked Novak Djokovic. The win was Federer’s fifth title in seven tournaments and his 72nd overall. He also won two weeks ago in Rotterdam.

“This is perfect. This is great. Any title is a good one, I’ll tell you that,” Federer said. “I have a losing record against Murray, I do believe, and not against Novak ... I don’t want to say (beating Murray) means more to me but it’s a beautiful victory.”

The 16-time Grand Slam champion kept Murray off balance much of the match, outplaying the 24-year-old from Scotland with a mix of powerful groundstrokes, drop shots and the occasional serve-and-volley.

Federer saved two break points when down 3-2 in the first set at the Aviation Club. He saved the first when Murray hit a forehand long and won the second with a backhand volley.

Federer broke Murray to go up 6-5 and took the first set when Murray hit a forehand wide.

The two players traded breaks early in the second set before Federer broke decisively to make it 5-4. Murray saved one match point before the Swiss star hit a forehand winner into the corner.

“The match was close I think in both sets, I just gave myself more opportunities than Andy did overall,” said Federer, who used the fast surface to his advantage.

Murray struggled much of the night with his backhand and his serve also let him down. He won 85 percent of his first service points against Djokovic, but only 48 percent against Federer.

“For sure I made a few too many mistakes in the second, and he was playing a lot more aggressive than in the first set,” Murray said. “Sets can come down to just a couple (of) points. You get a lucky shot here or one great shot and you can break the set wide open.”

Murray insisted his win over Djokovic was not on his mind as he took the court against Federer.

“It was a good win yesterday, good win the day before, tough match today,” Murray said. “So I’m just happy with the week, because at this stage last year I was in a very different position, different frame of mind.”

Despite losing, Murray said his performance this week will help him at upcoming tournaments in the United States.

“I was happy I managed to adjust to the court,” Murray said. “The conditions over in Indian Wells (and) Miami are going to be very, very different to here. Much slower court, which hopefully will suit my game a little bit better.”

The 30-year-old Federer now heads to New York, where he will play an exhibition match Monday at Madison Square Garden against Andy Roddick.

“There is no substitute to confidence,” Federer said. “I’ve played great.”

Huge penguin once roamed New Zealand

Fossilised remains of one of the largest penguins ever, an ‘elegant' giant standing 1.3 metres (52 inches) tall, have been found in New Zealand, scientists said recently.

The penguin lived 27-24 million years ago, when New Zealand was mostly underwater and consisted of isolated, rocky outcrops that offered protection from predators and plentiful food supplies, researchers said. The first traces of the penguin, dubbed Kairuku — Maori for diver who returns with food — was found embedded in a cliff at Waimate in the South Island by University of Otago paleontologist professor Ewen Fordyce in 1977.

Over the years, Fordyce discovered more complete remains and invited University of North Carolina specialist Dan Ksepka to help reconstruct the lost giant in 2009.

They determined the bird was much larger than the biggest modern penguin, the Emperor, which grows up to 1.0-metres, and weighed in at 60 kilograms (132 pounds), twice as much as the Emperor.

Fordyce said the bird's large size was an adaption that allowed it to swim further and dive deeper than its modern-day counterparts.

Microsoft India dropped out of suit against social websites

A court here on Thursday removed Microsoft India from the array of 21 websites made party in a civil suit and rejected the plaint alleging that the website was hosting objectionable content, after the plaintiff Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi failed to produce any downloaded document from Microsoft that he found objectionable.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs.5,000 on Mr. Qasmi for dragging Microsoft into the suit and burdening the company with legal expenses.

“Not a networking site”

Holding that Microsoft India “is an odd man out” among the parties arrayed in the suit as it was not a social networking website, Administrative Civil Judge Parveen Singh said: “…neither in the form of any specific cause of action against the defendant, nor by way of documents annexed with the plaint, has the plaintiff brought before the court any specific cause of action against the defendant.”

Mr. Singh also faulted the plaintiff for not verifying whether Microsoft India was “engaged in the activity of providing a social networking site or a platform to the general public, where certain views can be posted, and which could be obnoxious.”

On imposing costs, he said: “As the plaintiff has not acted responsibly in making the defendant a party and put the defendant to expenses by virtue of his act of impleading the defendant without disclosing any cause of action…the plaintiff needs to compensate the defendant for the cost incurred.”

After counsel for Microsoft put forward its submissions, counsel for Yahoo India pointed to the judge that even “the basic allegations necessary to sustain the plaint were missing.” Alleging an agenda on the part of the plaintiff, counsel alleged that Mr. Qasmi had “randomly picked up some websites without applying his mind.”

Mr. Singh will pass his order on Yahoo India's submission for deletion from the array of parties on March 5.

Low-cost mini-PC Raspberry Pi gets heavily booked

Raspberry Pi, a low-cost mini-PC that costs lesser than a digital music player — at approximately the equivalent of Rs. 1,700 — that went on sale in the United Kingdom on Wednesday (February 29) has been heavily booked.

The device has already been touted by technology blogs and twitterati as one with the potential to re-ignite the interest in basic computer science education among school students.

Developed by U.K.-based charity Raspberry Pi Foundation, the first batch of the mini-PCs that went for pre-orders through the website of two British companies which were licensed by the Foundation was booked within an hour.

The bare bones PC is fabricated on a circuit board no bigger than a credit card. The $35 dollar model (Model B) features a 700 MHz ARM processor, a GPU capable of delivering HD quality video, 256 MB RAM, an SD card running Linux operating system, Ethernet port, HDMI port, a 3.5 mm audio jack and two USB ports.

It can be plugged into a television and with a USB keyboard attached serve as a fully-functional PC that can be carried around by students in their pockets.

Model A that costs $25 will be introduced later this year in the Foundation's “educational launch” of the product. It won't feature the ethernet port and will have just one USB port.

Raspberry Pi Foundation, founded by Cambridge engineer Eben Upton, plans to reach out to schools across the globe. Low cost PCs have been recognised as a tool to bridge the digital divide. One of the more prominent projects has been the ‘OLPC' (one-laptop-per-child) project, the non-profit mission run by Nicholas Negroponte. Unlike the OLPC laptop, which is a complete product, the Raspberry Pi mini-PC is more basic and lays emphasis on coding and programming skills.

On its website, www.raspberrypi.org, the Foundation said: “Six years after the project's inception, we're nearly at the end of our first run of development — although it's just the beginning of the Raspberry Pi story..”

Microsoft launches Windows 8 consumer preview

Microsoft has launched a beta version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system (OS) for consumers to install and try out.

The OS has generated considerable buzz in technology forum as it is seen as the technology giant's foray into creating a unified OS experience across platforms — desktop, tablets and mobile.

The look and the feel of the Windows 8 operating system have been making the rounds on online technology forums for some months now. The ‘tiles' start-up screen, which has already been seen on Windows Mobile 7.5 OS phones and has won kudos, returns on the Windows 8.0. Apart from that, other improvements in design border on the minimalistic trend that has become the industry watchword for interface design over the past decade.

With the beta release, consumers will be able to download the ‘pre-release' OS onto their systems. On their blog, www.windowsteamblog.com, he Microsoft team urges only advanced users to try out the beta as there are bound to be some bugs and glitches. Kent Walter of the Windows team writes: “If you're used to running pre-release (beta) software, you're OK with a little troubleshooting. If you don't mind doing a few technical tasks here and there, then you'll probably be OK giving the Windows 8 Consumer Preview a spin.”

The basic system requirements to run Windows 8 consumer preview are: 1 GHz or faster processor, 1 GB RAM (for the 32 bit version)/ 2 GB RAM (64 bit), 16 GB hard-disk space (32 bit) or 20 GB (64 bit), DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1 or higher driver and a minimum screen resolution of 1024 X 768 pixels.

The operating system will feature a new Apps (application) store featuring winners of the Windows 8 First App Contest that Microsoft ran for developers. All the Apps featured in consumer preview will be available for free. Paid apps are expected to be made available once the finished OS is released for retail.

The OS also features the Xbox Live Connect service.

The preview can be downloaded at http://preview.windows.com.