You have got mail, paid mail

The free humorous forwards that you used to receive in your inbox at the expense of your's friends organisation bandwidth will soon disappear. Not because your friend's organisation will stop the internet access, but the free email service providers are now thinking to charge a small postage fee for your email.

Leading free email providers Yahoo! and Microsoft (Hotmail) are giving serious thought to charging email senders a small fee.

Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, talked about it last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. consider This is the best weapon to fight the rising tide of spam, or junk email, they think so.

And Yahoo!, according to reports, is evaluating an email payment system developed by Goodmail, a Silicon Valley start-up. The idea of electronic stamp goes down well with major Indian ISPs too.

"A number of approaches are being examined to prevent spam, but the most effective method would be paid email," says V V Kannan, president_interactive services, Satyam Infoway.

According to Brightmail, a company that filters emails for large ISPs like EarthLink, the volume of spam has increased to 60% of emails, from 58% in December. But the user community is highly critical about the monetary approach.

They see it as a trick by ISPs to open up a new revenue stream. Gates tried to allay this fear by talking about a system that would allow users to waive charges for friends and relatives.

The Goodmail system too proposes that only high-volume mailers pay postage at first, at a rate of a penny a message. In fact, fixing the e-stamp rate can prove a tricky issue for the ISPs.

Easier said than done. Some experts expect the e-postage charges to rapidly escalate after starting out small. They point out that the system will affect the non-commercial users like those who run mailing list on technology, science, literature, social issues, human rights etc.

And they worry that big spammers will indeed pay the postage. It's the spammers who are with the big pockets, they say. In fact, the Goodmail system ensures that a 'stamped' email reaches the receiver without having to go through spam filters.

And with the email postage proposed to go to the email recipient's internet provider, it is feared that the ISPs will only promote e-ads. ISPs themselves may become the spammers with full-fledged advertisement divisions, say critics.

They argue that e-postage will not do a single thing to hinder would-be-advertisers. Advertisers pay the post office to deliver their mail, and they'll pay ISPs to do the same. Not convinced? Go out and check your mail box. Congratulations! You've been pre-approved!


Edited by Me. (source:economictimes.com)

E-time Cinema

e-Cinema - or digital distribution and exhibition of movies -- has just taken a step forward in India by satellite delivery of movies directly into theatres

Bobby Deol-starrer Kismet, slated for release later this month, could well become the first Bollywood movie to be digitally transmitted through a satellite to theatres in and around Delhi and several theatres in Uttar Pradesh.

The trial-run at Wave Multiplex theatre at Ghaziabad, near Delhi last week with a 40-minute screening of Tere Naam, heralded country’s first satellite delivery of digital content to an electronic cinema theatre. The film was downloaded as an electronic file – delivered through a satellite – to a server at the theatre, and then screened using a digital projector.

Satellite delivery of movies to theatre means doing away with a film reel that cost anywhere between Rs 60,000 and Rs 70,000 each. In comparison, making of a digital print and its transfer to a server at theatre’s end through a satellite comes to anywhere between Rs 8,000 and 10,000 per print. Physical transport of film reels - in aluminium cans - across the country through rail, road or air, may soon become a thing of the past.

Through the satellite mode, it takes around 6-8 hours to download a three-hour movie into the server at theatre’s end. It is then programmed by each theatre as per its screening schedule. Compare this to two to four weeks it now takes for film reels to travel to smaller towns and cities after doing the rounds in metros and Class A centres. Apart from delayed cash flow for producers and distributors, piracy and leakages in the system eats into box office collections.

With satellite distribution, a movie can now be simultaneously released in a large number of theatres across the country – a mofussil township like Kairna in Uttar Pradesh, Akluj in Maharastra, or metros such as Delhi or Mumbai alike. This means box office collections from smaller towns and centres are likely to go up several-fold. “Apart from catching the movie in the first week, there is sizable enhancement of movie viewing experience for the audience,” points out Rajeev Gupta of Wave Multimedia. Moreover, the print quality does not deteriorate with more shows.

Theatres have to invest in a digital projector, servers and Ku-band receivers to join the e-cinema bandwagon – a package that costs somewhere in the region of Rs 8 lakh and 10 lakh per screen. Digital distribution of films made a beginning in the country early last year through physical movement of hard disks across the digital cinema halls in the country that currently number around two hundred – all in the B and C class centres.

In the last one year over thirty Bollywood films that includes the likes of The Hero, Bhoot, Andaaz, Chalte Chalte, Koi Mil Gaya, and LoC, have been released in the digital format. This year’s biggest release, multi-starrer Khakee was screened with over 100 digital prints.

According to Pranay Panda of Hong Kong-based GDC Technology, the technology service provider for digital cinema, the country is like to boost of 1,000-digital cinema screens by end-2005. “The technology allows the distributor or producer to track not only the screenings but also ticket sales,” says Panda. GDC Tech plans to launch teleport facility in the country to give a further push to satellite-based delivery of digital movies in the country.

Mumbai-based Adlabs, one of the partners in the e-cinema project, now plans to convert some classic Hindi films into digital format and also showcase digitally treated dubbed regional films in smaller centers. Release of a Bollywood movie only in digital format in e-cinema theatres in the country may not be far off.

source:Timesofindia.com

Kabhi Mobile:Kabhi Walkie-Talkie

Thanks to “Push-to-talk” technology, one can talk to one person or one-to-many simultaneously at the push of a button. All that is required is: Go to your buddylist. Select the person or people you would like to chat with. Push the PTT button on your cell, and talk instantly. Release the PTT button to hear the response. Based on two-way walkie-talkie technology, while one person talks, other(s) listen. Turns to speak are on a first-come-first-serve basis by pressing the push-to-talk key.

For the cell user, Push-To-talk can mean instant contact, time saving and relatively lesser charges compared to usual air time charges. The cost to arrange a quick meeting through push-to-talk is cheaper and faster than a regular cellphone call, say executives of Tata Infocomm which is planning to launch this service on its network over the next couple of months.

PTT-enabled mobile handsets from Motorola, Kyocera and Nokia are set to enter the Indian market in the coming months.

The Push-To-Talk service – introduced early last year – is already a hit in the United States market with over 13 million users. Not surprisingly, Push-To-Talk was ranked the second most desirable feature by cell users, next to embedded digital cameras, in a recent survey.

One of the appeals of Push-To-Talk over making a telephone call is being able to talk to a group instantly, without waiting for someone to answer. So, let’s check out how Push-To-Talk looks like at Nextel, the first US-based network to introduce the service.

Nextel allows one to connect up to 25 people at once with the push of a button. One can create up to 200 such groups ranging from three to 25 members each. To initiate a group talk within a talkgroup, push the PTT button and begin talking after you hear a chirping sound. While on a group call, wait for the current speaker to finish speaking. Press the PTT button and begin speaking after you hear the chirping sound.

For unlimited group call, Nextel charges a flat rate of $25 per month per phone, and $10 per month for 250 group connect minutes. To calculate how many minutes one would be billed for in a group call one initiates, multiply the number of people on the call by the length of the call. For example, if six people participate in a two-minute group call, the call initiator will be billed for 12 minutes.

So, next time you need to share with your friends how you finally stood up to your boss’s bullies, or your wife wants you to pick up a loaf of bread while you are on your way back from office, its just a matter of pushing a button on the mobile.

Just as a sales manager can keep track of his sales team, parents too would not complain as they can keep a closer tab on their kids. However, for the traffic cop eyeing errant drivers yammering on the cell phones, their job is going to get tougher.

source:Timesofindia.com