HP launches world's fastest desktop printer

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday launched for business in India its latest range of Officejet Pro X 500 series printers that are recognised as world's fastest desktop printer by Guinness Book of Records. 

"HP's Officejet Pro X 500 series is recognised as the world's fastest desktop printer by Guinness World Records. It is powered by HP PageWide Technology and can deliver professional documents at up to 70 pages per minute,” HP Printing Systems PPS Director Nitin Hiranandani told reporters here. 

The series includes four devices and HP claims that they deliver high-quality documents at up to twice the speed and half the cost of colour lasers. 

These devices are targeted at work-teams with up to 15 users printing up to approximately 4200 pages a month. Users can also print from virtually anywhere with the latest mobile printing technologies such as HP ePrint. 

The HP Officejet Pro X Series is priced in the range of Rs 31,499-50,499. 

The company also introduced its Officejet Pro Black & White series on Wednesday, priced in the range of Rs 7,999-11,999. 

In 2012 HP sold about 3 million printers in India, which included 1.2 million inkjet printers and 1.8 million laser printers. The company controls more than half of the market for both the printers in India, Hiranandani said.

Airtel covers Africa by buy all stakes of Warid Telecom

Deal of Airtel

Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday, said it had entered into a definitive agreement with UAE-based Warid Group to acquire Warid Telecom Uganda, a move that would strengthen its footprint in the African region.

Add of Airtel Uganda

After the acquisition, existing 2.8 million Warid customers in Uganda will join Airtel’s network, which serves over 269 million customers globally, the company said in a statement.

Globe thet covers region of Airtel

Ronaldinho and Kaka are unlikely to play together at the 2014 World Cup

Kaka (up) and Ronaldinho (down) 

Former FIFA World Player of the Year winners Ronaldinho and Kaka are unlikely to play together at the 2014 World Cup, according to Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Both have been called up by Scolari for international friendly matches this year but neither has convinced the 64-year-old manager, reports Xinhua.

Ronaldinho, 33, has been named in Brazil’s squad to face Chile in Belo Horizonte on Wednesday.

“There is 90 percent chance that they won’t play together,” Scolari said on Monday. “I have given chances to both of them and I will give one more chance to Ronaldinho on Wednesday. I never had the opportunity to play them together in the recent friendlies because of the different situations both of them were in. It’s probable that I will have to choose only one.”

Brazil's national head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari

The pair is the only remaining survivors from Scolari’s team that won the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

Kaka, 31, has struggled for form since joining Real Madrid in 2009, while Ronaldinho last year resurrected his career with Atletico Mineiro by being named player of the season in Brazil’s Serie A championship.

Scolari also said he was looking to add at least one defensive midfielder to his preferred starting formation.

Among his current defensive midfield options are Ramires (Cheslea), Paulinho (Corinthians), Fernando (Gremio), Jean (Fluminense), Ralf (Corinthians) and Hernanes (Lazio).

“This idea of having goal-scoring central midfielders sounds really nice to the media, but not for the coach,” Scolari said.

“When you have full-backs like Daniel Alves and Marcelo you need to have protection.”

Gayle’s unbeaten 175 (66b, 13x4, 17x6) pushes Bangalore total 263

‘Gayle Force’ blew away the Pune Warriors as the big-bodied Jamaican struck 17 sixes and 13 fours en route to the fastest ever T20 century in only 30 balls. Of the 175 runs, 154 runs came in boundaries.

At the end of all the madness, before the applause and the TV interviews, there was a moment’s silence in the stands, almost as if those gathered had been winded by what had unfolded. As a rule, nothing he should do on a cricket ground ought to surprise anyone; but at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. Chris Gayle surpassed himself, making the highest individual score in T20 cricket and the swiftest hundred in all forms of the game, in an exhibition of ceaseless, remorseless hitting.

Chris Gayle 175 (66b, 13x4, 17x6)

Gayle’s unbeaten 175 (66b, 13x4, 17x6) — an innings that encompassed and precipitated a number of records — carried Royal Challengers Bangalore to a mammoth 130-run victory over Pune Warriors India in the IPL.

The visitor pursued RCB’s 263, the tallest innings total in the history of the format, in some earnestness, but it was simply futile, the run chase long condemned to be a mere footnote to what had gone before.

As if the pain he had inflicted with the bat was not enough, Gayle returned to perform the last rites, taking two wickets — and doing the Gangnam Style jig for the crowd — in the final over.

Earlier, PWI inserted RCB in to bat after winning the toss (a cruel joke in hindsight), and almost at once — eight balls had been bowled — the rain came down. The interruption lasted close to a half-hour; Gayle re-emerged at 4:40 p.m., and ultimately walked back, with close of innings, at 6:15. In between, there was unbridled carnage.

First, Ishwar Pandey was whacked for 21 runs in his (interrupted) debut IPL over — some baptism. If Pandey had been thumped like a bowler out of college, Mitchell Marsh (28 runs in his first over) got the high-school treatment; Ali Murtaza (2-0-45-0) and the captain Aaron Finch (1-0-29-0) were flogged beyond recognition.

The Gayle that turned up on the afternoon was far from the tranquil, restrained self of Saturday; this was a man in a frightful hurry.

His hundred arrived in the ninth over, with a vicious six off Murtaza that left a dent on the edge of the roof. It had taken all of 30 balls, eclipsing the T20 (34, Andrew Symonds) and IPL records (37, Yusuf Pathan) comfortably.

In total, Gayle struck an eye-watering 17 sixes, one more than Graham Napier’s all-time T20 high.

The records sped by: a four off Bhuvneshwar Kumar (whose bowling figures of 4-0-23-0 look Herculean) took him past Brendon McCullum’s 158, hitherto the highest individual score in T20 cricket, made, coincidentally, at the same venue.

With help from Tillakaratne Dilshan — who with Gayle added 167 for the first wicket — and A.B. de Villiers, RCB rattled up a gigantic 263, eclipsing Sri Lanka’s 260 as the highest team total in the format.

He’d only had an omelette, two pancakes and one hot chocolate in the morning, Gayle said afterwards. Lunch, it seems, was to be consumed at the ground.

Google celebrates Earth Day with an interesting doodle

Popular search engine Google celebrated World Earth Day 2013 on April 22 with an interesting and interacting 3D doodle which intends creating awareness against a common enemy called “climate change”. 

Earth Day 2013 aims to raise awareness among the people on global warming and provides solutions to the people to counter climate change. 

On Monday visitors to the Google search page were greeted with the doodle which has a play button that can play-pause the sun or moon in four different images depicting the four seasons of autumn, winter, spring and summer. By clicking the play button one can see the moon in its crescent, half, full and gibbous phases. 

The animated doodle with the word Google drawn through a landscape also has animals that emerge by clicking the button and that includes a bear, a badger, fish, ants, birds and fireflies. Rain, snow and wind can also be experienced. A row of dandelions on the left is shaped like a “G”, then two caves each depicting an “o”, again a “G” in the form of a lake, a tree symbolizes the “L” and a stream from the lake shaped like an “E”. 

Once the play button is hit, the sun starts moving to the west to set and it coincides with rising of the moon. As night turns into day the seasons too change. If the clouds are clicked it starts to rain and if the clouds are clicked during winter it starts to snow. One can make the wind blow, make a bear or badger come out of the cave, see a moving colony of ants or enjoy birds in flight. 

This is the 13th Google doodle to celebrate Earth Day since it was launched forty three years ago. Each year the Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 to mark the anniversary of the birth of modern environment movement in 1970. It was the idea of the then US senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill at Santa Barbara. 

He then designed a movement to create consciousness about air and water pollution which aimed at catapulting environmental protection on the political agenda. It produced results and on April 22 the next year about 20 million Americans took to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy sustainable environment. 

In 1990 Earth Day went global mobilizing 200 million people from 191 countries and paved the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro and Mr. Nelson was honoured by the US president Bill Clinton in 1995 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US for his role as Earth Day founder.

Nadal’s winning streak continues at Monte Carlo Masters

Rafael Nadal extended his Monte Carlo Masters winning streak to 43 matches in beating Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-2 in the second round on Wednesday. 

The eight-time defending champion nearly trailed 3-0 in the second set, but he saved break points before taking control of the match. 

There were ironic cheers from the crowd when Matosevic won his first point after losing the first seven points, and the tall Australian threw both arms up in the air twice to milk the applause when he won his first game to pull back to 4-1. 

The third-seeded Nadal dropped his serve at the start of the second set and Matosevic held for a surprising 2-0 lead, and he even had a chance to go further ahead, but Nadal saved the first break point with a forehand winner down the line and Matosevic dumped the next opportunity into the net with a sloppy backhand. 

Nadal cut out the wild shots after that and played with a more clinical edge, eventually wrapping up victory on his first match point with a pass down the line. 

Nadal will face Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the third round.

Oracle fixes 42 holes in Java to revive security confidence

Oracle Corp released a major security update on Tuesday for the version of Java programming language that runs inside Web browsers to make it a less popular target for hackers. The patch fixes 42 vulnerabilities within Java, including "the vast majority" of those that have been rated as the most critical, said Oracle Executive Vice President Hasan Rizvi. 

A series of big security flaws in the Java plug-in for browsers have been uncovered in the past year by researchers and hackers, and some have been used by criminal groups before previous patches were issued. One widespread hacking campaign disclosed this year infected computers using Microsoft Corp's Windows and Apple software inside hundreds of companies, including Facebook, Apple Inc and Twitter. 

The situation grew so bad earlier this year that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommended that computer users disable Java in the browser. But many large companies use internal software that relies on Java and have been pressing Oracle to make the language safer. 

Perhaps the most significant change will be that, in the default setting, sites will not be able to force the small programs known as Java applets to run in the browser unless they have been digitally signed. Users can override that only if they click to acknowledge the risk, Rizvi said. 

Not all known problems are being fixed with the current patch, but there are no unpatched problems that are being actively exploited, Rizvi said. Primarily a database software and applications company, Oracle inherited Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010. It is the company's greatest exposure to the mass market, as versions of Java run on desktops, in telephones and other devices and on servers. 

The browser version, however, has been especially prone to security problems. Last year, Java surpassed Adobe Systems Inc's Reader software as the most frequently attacked piece of software, according to security software maker Kaspersky Lab.

Fernando Alonso wins in Chinese Grand Prix 2013

Fernando Alonso wins in Chinese Grand Prix 2013

After retiring early last time out in Malaysia three weeks ago, the Ferrari star drove a flawless race to win the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.

It was Alonso's 31st victory of his career, drawing him level with Nigel Mansell on the sport's all-time win list, leaving only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna ahead of him.

Alonso finished a comfortable 10 seconds clear of Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus, with pole-sitter Hamilton having to settle for third for the second consecutive race.

The 28 year-old Briton had to fight off Vettel over the closing lap, finishing just 0.2secs ahead of the three-times champion in his Red Bull.

From the outset as soon as qualifying had ended it was always going to be an intriguing battle between the team's technical boffins as to who had made the right strategy call.

The first seven drivers on the grid had used the highly-degradable soft Pirelli rubber in Q3, giving them an early advantage in the race, but knowing they would be forced into pitting early.

For the six drivers behind - Button, Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg in his Sauber, Force India duo Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil, along with McLaren's Sergio Perez - they all started on the medium compound.

That would give them early durability, but aware they would have to switch to the soft tyre very late on, ensuring it would all be about position come the closing stages.

Starting from his maiden pole for Mercedes, and the 27th overall of his Formula One career, Hamilton at least made a sterling getaway.

But with his car being particularly hard on the soft tyre, Hamilton was hit by a double Ferrari whammy at the start of lap five as he was passed by both Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa.

In many respects, such an early move, was also the most defining of the race because Hamilton never once had an opportunity to try and regain the lead, never mind hold on to it.

As the race unfolded, and as has become the way so far this season, it all became about making the tyres last, pitting at the right time and knowing when to attack and when to try and ease a little.

Ferrari and Alonso mastered that, and whilst Raikkonen had a brush with McLaren's Sergio Perez at one point, the Finn managed to jump Hamilton in the third round of stops to claim the runner-up spot.

As for Vettel, his charge on the softs at the close ensured he fell just short of a podium place, resulting in his championship lead being cut to three points to Raikkonen, nine over Alonso and 12 to Hamilton.

There were casualties along the way, notably Sutil who was rammed into from behind by Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez, forcing both to retire after five laps.

As for Mark Webber, it was simply one of those weekends to forget.

After Red Bull failed to fuel his car correctly during qualifying due to a fault with the bowser, Webber started from the pit lane rather than the back of the grid.

That at least was the right call as it allowed the team to alter the car's set-up, and after a pit stop at the end of lap one to get rid of the soft tyre, Webber was running eighth come lap 15.

That was when further disaster struck as he ran into the side of the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne, sending the Frenchman into a spin as bits of bodywork flew.

Webber immediately pitted for a new front wing, but he swiftly ran into further trouble as he began to cruise, with salt rubbed into his wounds when his right-rear wheel worked loose at the turn 14 hairpin.

There was no luck either for Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes as the German pulled into his garage after 23 laps with a technical fault.

Behind Vettel, Button finished a creditable fifth given the still ongoing limitations of his McLaren.
Button was followed by Ferrari's Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo in his Toro Rosso, Di Resta, Lotus' Romain Grosjean and Hulkenberg in 10th, with Marsussia's Max Chilton 17th.

Discovered: Saturn’s rings are raining water

Astronomers have discovered that the rings of Saturn produce their own rain that falls onto the planet, having a major impact on its atmosphere

 

Cosmic rain! Astronomers have discovered that the rings of Saturn produce their own rain that falls onto the planet, having a major impact on its atmosphere.

A new study tracked the “rain” of charged water particles into the atmosphere of Saturn and found there is more of it and it falls across larger areas of the planet than previously thought.

The study, whose observations were funded by NASA and whose analysis was led by the University of Leicester, England, reveals that the rain influences the composition and temperature structure of parts of Saturn’s upper atmosphere.

“Saturn is the first planet to show significant interaction between its atmosphere and ring system,” said James O’Donoghue, lead author of the study.

“The main effect of ring rain is that it acts to ‘quench’ the ionosphere of Saturn. In other words, this rain severely reduces the electron densities in regions in which it falls,” he said in a NASA statement.

O’Donoghue noted the ring’s effect on electron densities is important because it explains why, for many decades, observations have shown those densities to be unusually low at certain latitudes on Saturn.

The study, published in the journal Nature, also helps scientists better understand the origin and evolution of Saturn’s ring system and changes in the planet’s atmosphere.

“It turns out that a major driver of Saturn’s ionospheric environment and climate across vast reaches of the planet are ring particles located some 60,000 kilometres overhead,” said Kevin Baines, a co-author of the study.

“The ring particles affect both what species of particles are in this part of the atmosphere and where it is warm or cool,” Baines said.

In the early 1980s, images from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft showed two to three dark bands on Saturn, and scientists theorised that water could have been showering down into those bands from the rings.

Those bands were not seen again until this team observed the planet in near-infrared wavelengths with the W M Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii.

The ring rain’s effect occurs in Saturn’s ionosphere, where charged particles are produced when the otherwise neutral atmosphere is exposed to a flow of energetic particles or solar radiation.

Both Earth and Jupiter have an equatorial region that glows very uniformly. Scientists expected this pattern at Saturn, too, but they instead saw dramatic differences at different latitudes.

“Where Jupiter is glowing evenly across its equatorial regions, Saturn has dark bands where the water is falling in, darkening the ionosphere,” said Tom Stallard, co-author of the study.

EU nations take action against Google privacy policy

Led by France, organizations in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy agreed on Tuesday on the joint action. 

Regulators in Google’s largest European markets are taking joint action to try to force the company to overhaul its privacy policy.

Led by France, organizations in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy agreed on Tuesday on the joint action.

The regulators claim Google has failed to make concrete changes to its privacy policy, leaving customers in the dark about the information the company has about them and how long it is kept. Last year the company merged 60 separate privacy policies into one universal procedure.

Officials from Google Inc. have said the policy was a necessary and legal streamlining.

Privacy experts say Google’s ability to gather and combine user data is key for the company, 

whose search engine has about 95 percent market penetration in Europe.