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RIYADH: With the swine flu epidemic spreading and new cases being reported in the Middle East, plans are under way to install thermal cameras at all entry points to the Kingdom to monitor passengers who might be carrying the influenza virus, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The digital surveillance cameras will monitor people coming from infected areas by land, sea and air, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mirghalani said.

He said a scientific committee that was formed to prevent any possible outbreak of the flu was currently studying the recommendations made by the World Health Organization (WHO) to install thermal cameras.

“We are also following instructions given by the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control, which has been monitoring the disease from the beginning,” the spokesman said.

“All 20 health regions in the Kingdom have been alerted and quarantine officials who will operate the thermal cameras at all entry points will be alert for passengers from affected countries,” he said, adding that the ministry’s laboratories are equipped to conduct clinical examinations on a 24/7 basis.

He pointed out that the ministry had also set up a toll-free telephone line — 800 249 4444 — for the provision of relevant information and clarification to the public and also to inform citizens and residents of the services offered by the ministry.

Mirghalani said, “The Health Ministry will also launch a Kingdomwide awareness campaign concerning the disease.”

He added that a special meeting of GCC health ministers would be held in Riyadh on May 9 to discuss uniform measures.

Apple is discussing the option of developing a customized iPhone for Verizon, sources close to the negotiations said.
The device would be the first iPhone developed for a code division multiple access wireless network, which allows phones to maintain their independence while operating on the same bandwidth. The AT&T system uses a GSM (global system for mobile) system, USA Today reported Monday.

Vodafone, co-owner of Verizon Wireless, already sells iPhones for Apple to the European market, the newspaper said.

Sources said the goal was to introduce the CDMA phones into the U.S. market next year. AT&T, meanwhile, has exclusive distribution rights in the United States through 2010, but details of that agreement are not public.

."Breaking the exclusivity with AT&T is a huge thing," said Roger Entner, a telecommunications research specialist at Nielsen.

"That would send shivers into AT&T's stock and senior leadership," he said.

With 80 million customers, Verizon, however, could be a big boost to Apple. But customers would also gain, Entner said.

"They could pick the network they wanted to use: AT&T's or Verizon's," he said. "It would finally give consumers choice, and choice is a good thing." (c) UPI

Thanks to Verizon-RIM’s BOGOF promotion, Blackberry Curve has zoomed past Apple’s iPhone. The report released by NPD Group makes Curve the undisputed king in the US smartphone market for Q1 2009.

RIM managed to snag a good 15 percent of the smartphone market while Apple and Palm lost 10 percent of it.

The top five selling smartphones in US for Q1 2009 were:

RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
RIM BlackBerry Storm
RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
T-Mobile G1

Just a month away from the actual release, Amazon US is now taking up preorders for Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus accessory. It goes for $19.99 apiece which is a tad expensive if you’re buying it along with a game.

The MotionPlus accessory when attached helps Wii to get a 1:1 gaming response resulting in better accuracy of its motion sensing capability.

P835 that was officially announced in March has now reached the Indian shores. The phone also known as Galaxy packs in a vivid 3.5-inch WVGA screen with Asus’ in-house Glide UI, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 5 megapixel camera, trackball, high speed HSDPA and doubles as Wi-Fi Access Point for up to 10 devices that can share the phone’s cellular data connection over Wi-Fi.

The phone will sell for Rs. 31,900 ($647).

Specifications:

Networks: HSPA (DL: 7.2Mbps, UL: 2Mbps), UMTS 900/1900/2100, EDGE/GPRS/GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Class 12
Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Color: Black
Form factor: Bar type
Dimensions: 115mm x 59mm x 13.8mm
Weight: 148g (with battery)
Standby Time: 350hrs with 3G and 300hrs with 2G
Talk Time: 6hrs with 3G and 7hrs with 2G
Display: 3.5” TFT, 65K-color Touchscreen, WVGA (800 x 480 pixels)
Processor: Qualcomm 7201A 528MHz
Memory: 4GB Internal Storage + 288MB SDRAM + 256MB ROM
Expansion Slot: MicroSD with SDHC support
Connectivity: WLAN 802.11b+g , USB v2.0, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
WAP Browser: HTTP / WAP 1.2.1/2.0
Messaging: SMS / MMS / Email / MSN / Push Email
Battery: 1100mAh Lithium
GPS: Yes (AGPS supported)
Camera: 5 Megapixel Auto Focus
Video Record: MPEG4/H.263
Playback: MPEG4/H.264/H.263/WMV
Video Call, Audio/Video Streaming
Picture Format: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
Audio Format: MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR, AAC and AAC+
JAVA J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP2.0)

Business Applications: PIM, Word (editor), Excel (editor), PowerPoint (viewer), Adobe Reader, Windows Live, MSN, Voice Commander and Push Email (Exchange Server).
Other Features: Opera browser, Wi-Fi Access Point, YouTube, Flickr, ASUS Virtual Keyboard, Anytime Launcher, ASUS Today, EziMusic, EziPhoto, Google search and RSS Reader.

What the heck is this? If crazy App Store approval process was not enough, Apple is listing now QuickPWN on their website. The description however reads “for fun games, iPhone and iPod touch news, and important site updates”, which turns out to be the description of an unofficial QuickPWN site. Even though the site is not official, it still publishes content related to jailbreak which Apple is promoting on its own turf.

Mobile-review’s Eldar Murtazin has leaked some info of what seems to be another win for Nokia in the smartphone category. E71, which is already doing well in the market, will supposedly have an upgrade soon. The upgrade known as E71i will feature an upped camera sensor to 5 megapixel and Series 60 OS with FP2. Nokia will also give it a color makeover with a brown color so as to distinguish it with the currently available E71 and E71x in US.

Samsung’s previously announced S5230 and S5600 have got an easy to remember name. S5230 also known as Tocco Lite in the UK will go as Star in rest of the markets while S5600 has been christened as Preston.

Star as we know, has a 3-inch WQVGA screen, TouchWiz UI, EDGE, 3.2MP camera, DNSe, accelerometer, Gesture Lock and microSD slot supporting up to 8GB.

Samsung Star will be available in Pink, White and Black colors and will sell across Europe, Africa and Asia.

Preston on the other hand, has a tad smaller touchscreen measuring 2.8-inches supporting QVGA resolution, TouchWiz UI, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3.2MP camera, Gesture Lock, Multi-codec support like H.263, MPEG4, WMV and microSD card slot up to 8GB.

Users from Europe and Asia can pick Preston from this month in colors of Sweet Pink, Snow White and Charcoal Grey.

Nokia has added another phone to its portfolio to woo the business users. E52 is strikingly similar to E55 but ditches the compact QWERTY keyboard for an alphanumeric one. Battery is the USP over here which promises to give an 8 hour of talk time and 23 days of standby time. It runs on S60 3rd Ed FP2 and features a 2.4-inch display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, A-GPS, noise cancellation, integrated VPN, storage expansion slot via microSD and support for Nokia Messaging.

The phone will be bundled with a 1GB microSD card and 60 days trial of Ovi File. Expected to ship after June at an estimated retail price of 245 Euros ($326).

Specifications:

Network: GSM 1800/1900/850/900, WCDMA 2100/850/900
Dimensions: 116 x 49 x 9.9 mm
Weight: 98 grams
CPU: Single ARM 11 CPU, clock speed at 600MHz
OS: S60 3rd Edition FP2
Display: 2.4-inch QVGA resolution (240×320 pixels)
Camera: 3.2 megapixel with video recording
GPS: A-GPS
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, Nokia AV 3.5mm, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi
Memory: Internal - 256MB with 60MB for user, External - up to 16GB via microSD card
Battery: 1500mAh
Talk time: GSM - 8 hours, WCDMA - 6 hours
Standby time: GSM - 23 days, WCDMa - 28 days
Music playback time: up to 40 hours

Other features:
Accelerometer
Compass
PictBridge
Stereo FM RDS Radio
Over-the-air firmware updates

Victor Li from the University of Michigan along with his Japanese peer, Yingzi Yang have created a concrete that can bend as well as heal by itself. Unlike normal concrete which is brittle and could break easily on strain, these concrete composites bend and in worse cases, develop hairline cracks that can be healed within a few days.

The auto healing is the result of a dry material being exposed and then reacting to the rainwater and CO2 in the air. The reaction helps to produce calcium carbonate and thus rectifies the damage.

Li reckons that even though the bendable concrete is expensive than the traditional ones, it is cheaper in the long run considering its low maintenance cost as well as help to reduce property damage during earthquakes or other natural calamities.

Asus has added yet another netbook to its ever expanding Eee PC line. The Eee PC 1002HAE is just another netbook when it comes to specs but adds something when it comes to aesthetics. The 1.2kg netbook comes with an all aluminum body sporting a brushed aluminum finish.

The specification includes a 10.1-inch screen with 1024×600 pixel resolution, Intel Atom N280 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Windows XP Home, LAN, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 1.3MP webcam, card reader, VGA and 3 USB ports.

It has an estimated battery life of up to 4 hours.

Coming to Japan on May 16 at a price tag of 49,800 Yen ($505) with three color selections – Red, Black and Blue.

Japan might soon get its first Android phone. A Japanese blog has caught HTC’s Magic in NTT DoCoMo’s garb. The known things for now – it will be called as HT-03A and will run on Android 1.5 Cupcake software.

HTC Magic is the second Android phone in the market and features a 3.2-inch QVGA touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, trackball etc.

Whatever you say it – Apple’s sudden change of mind or to clear out the inventory in wake of a newer model, this is some good news for iPhone users. Apple is now offering a replacement to users who have damaged their devices because of some liquid. The program applies for out of warranty customers who can exchange the damaged phone with a refurbished one for $199.

PhoneArena has posted few live pictures of new devices headed for Verizon. First up is Motorola’s Rival a445. Rival, as you can see, has a horizontal QWERTY keypad and Verizon is said to target youths by offering a bunch of color options. No word on other details but the phone will mostly have a 1.3 or 2MP camera.

Another phone is Alias 2 or U750 that features e-ink powered keypad. The phone according to their source performs well and the transformation of keys is smooth and flawless.

Apple hates netbooks? No problem. Entangled in a legal battle with Apple? No problem. This is the attitude of gutsy Psystar who vaguely confirms about a Mac OS X netbook that won’t be pencil drawn.

In an interview, Psystar’s CEO hinted that they will be launching a notebook “on the lines of a netbook” which I think says it all.

Apple’s recent comments indicate that they could launch a larger sized iPod Touch or iTablet but the want for a physical keyboard might compel a user to go for Psystar even if it’s against Apple’s policies.

For now, there are hackint0sh netbooks.

Is yesterday’s announcement the reason Rogers is rushing to give its own piece of good news? Well, if they did, I am sure Canadians won’t mind. They have announced to bring HTC Dream and Magic next month to Canada. While we can expect Magic to sell later in the month, Roger’s Revolution page suggest that Dream will make its way 25 days from now which is June 2nd.

Thank FCC because without them we wouldn’t know what handset manufacturers have in store for us. Nokia’s 6750 codenamed Mural has been leaked by them which is expected to arrive on AT&T soon. There is not much to tell right now but analyzing the picture, the glossy clamshell looks to be pocket friendly phone and features a camera, dedicated music keys and possibly an expansion slot. An external screen might also be present behind the glossy surface.

Boy Genius Report has got something to share about the optical trackball boasting Blackberry 8520 aka Gemini. Lauding the optical trackball like the guys over at Crackberry, they reveal the possible release for the phone. Q4 2009 is the expectant release period and will land in USA first via T-Mobile.

The phone’s price is not known but it won’t burn a hole in the pocket since its being pitched as a low cost Blackberry.

8520 features EDGE, Quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, 2MP camera and Bluetooth.

You’ve seen dual hinged phone from Samsung and now its time for a dual slider, similar to Pantech’s Matrix Pro. The seemingly press pictures of Exclaim M550 have made its way on the web and is rumored to take place of Rant on Sprint from next month (June 7 to be exact).

The phone’s dual sliding mechanism helps Samsung to integrate a larger screen, which measures a decent 2.6-inch now. Other features include one touch access to social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, 2MP camera, A-GPS, Bluetooth, EVDO Rev. 0 and microSD expansion slot up to 32GB.

Dell may have held their Android netbook development closely to their chest but it’s an ancillary company that has leaked their intentions. Bsquare Corp. issued a press release about their recent order which involved them to port Adobe Flash Lite on Dell’s Android netbook.

On the other hand, unconfirmed tip comes to Tmonews about HTC’s development. Apparently, it will arrive on T-Mobile supporting 3G connectivity.

MSI will show its Android netbook at the Computex this year while Skytone is preparing to sell its Android netbook soon.

Yet another Blackberry device has been found in the wild. This time its Onyx, which is said to be on the lines of Blackberry 8900 and will support GSM bands. On the other hand, a CDMA based variant will also make it to the market on T-Mobile, known as Driftwood and is slated for a September release.

The rumored specs of the phone are a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, 3G, optical trackpad (prototype shows a trackball) and the battery cover clad with a similar material to Carbon fiber.

BGR reckons this device will fall under the Blackberry 96XX Series and will have an optical trackball at launch.

As we all knew, Verizon is now selling Samsung’s Alias 2 (U750) phone. If Magic keypad powered by E-Ink technology excites you, the phone goes for $80 with a 2 year contract and an online discount.

Amongst other things, it has a 2 megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth with A2DP, V Cast Music and Videos, GPS, up to 16GB microSD card slot, EVDO and a 2.6-inch QVGA main display.

Samsung is planning to launch a new phone in Korea that will enable a clear, well-lit video calls when the users initiates it in a dark environment. The exact functioning is still a mystery but the infrared rays are said to play the important role in the darkness.

The slider phone will come on SK Telecom and features a 2.8-inch AMOLED screen, DMB, 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, music player, e-dictionary, PictBridge and flashlight.

No details on the price and availability.

Motorola has unwrapped a new phone that for a change, is not inspired with its totally outdated RAZRs. It’s a slider phone dubbed as W7 Active and comes with an app to make fitness enthusiasts happy. It has a Personal Trainer that creates personalized workout profiles and review summary reports.

However, the integrated accelerometer is the deal clincher here as it does a lot more then changing the screen orientation or working as a pedometer. Thanks to the accelerometer, the phone supports various commands like flipping the phone (screen side on surface) turns the phone silent, snooze the alarm or pause the music. It also responds to shakes, which doing it twice launches a preset favorite application and flicking the phone to left or right changes the image or songs.

Other things include support for 3G, 2.2-inch QVGA screen, Stereo Bluetooth, 2 megapixel main camera with VGA cam on the front, and up to 8GB expandable memory via microSD slot.

The phone will be released in this quarter in Asian and Latin American countries with two color options - Licorice and Alpine White.

Full Specifications:

Network: UMTS 2100, GSM 900/1800/1900; UMTS 850/1900, GSM 850/1800/1900; UMTS 850/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS Class 12, EDGE class 12
Display: 2.2” 320 x 240 (QVGA) 262k TFT
Weight: 105g
Dimensions: 49(x) x 99(y) x 15(z) (mm)
Battery: 910 mAh
Connectivity: Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)2, USB 2.0 FS, PC Sync
Messaging: SMS, MMS, WAP 2.0, Java games1
Audio: AMR, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3 , WMA v9, WAV, XMF, SP-MIDI, MIDI
Video: 15 fps QCIF, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, Windows Media v9, .3GP playback, MPEG-4,
H.263 recording (.3gp file format)
Camera: 2 megapixel with second VGA camera
Memory: Up to 30MB user available memory; 8GB MicroSD optional external memory
Talk and Standby Time - GSM: up to 480 mins/300 hrs; WCDMA: up to 210 mins/300 hrs

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has finally put all the rumors to rest regarding Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The MNP service is slated to start on September 20 in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Kolkata, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Rest of the country will get it by March 20, 2010.

Another piece of good news is that DoT hasn’t left the MNP transaction fee for the operators to decide but TRAI will do it. The rumored fee is below Rs. 300 and will take around 2 days to change the operator.

You seldom see a company leaking its own product but apparently this happened with Sony recently on its Russian site. The site leaked three new DSLRs briefly – Alpha 230, 330 and 380 before taking it down.

Those few minutes were actually enough for some as they managed to note the intrinsic details of the cameras. The price of the cameras is unknown but A230 will be a part of the entry level market, A330 sitting in between while A380 will take the top-end slot.

The DSLRs will feature HDMI-out for easy and quick viewing on HDTVs but sadly, won’t do any HD resolution recording. Other features the cameras will boast are APS-C sensor, Bionz imaging processor, dual-dust reduction system and a teleconverter to magnify images by 1.4x to 2.0x on camera’s LCD. One of the cameras will also have two types of storage card.

Samsung has announced the shipment of its 32GB moviNAND embedded memory card that uses the 30nm process technology. Each 32GB moviNAND card integrates eight 32Gb NAND chips, MMC controller and a firmware which helps to improve the performance of devices while processing and storing large amounts of data.

The 30nm-based moviNAND will also come in capacities of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB.

This post has been republished from Samsung Hub. For more Samsung news, head over to Samsung Hub.

Lenovo will be officially introducing the S10-2 netbook today. The S10-2 is an upgrade over the original S10 which is thinner by 4mm and 0.2kg lighter than S10. It also brings in 3G in some models, larger touchpad and 89% keyboard with ‘enlarged right-shift key’. Other hardware specs are rather usual with 1.6GHz N270 Atom handling the processing duties and 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD filling the remaining areas.

The new texture patterned IdeaPad S10-2 will start from $349 with a 6-cell battery and will come in four colors – black, grey, pink and white.

This year hasn’t been so good for Samsung as far as keeping products under wraps is concerned. Unfortunately for them, here’s another one showing couple of more Android devices, dubbed as BigFoot and Spica. While Spica looks to be the newest entrant in the leakomania, we have seen BigFoot before in the leaked T-Mobile roadmap.

Both the phones are expected to arrive in Q3 2009 and will have Android OS’ latest 2.0 update also known as Donut. Despite the radical design differences, BigFoot and Spica have identical specs.

Samsung is logically placing Spica as a mass market Android device and will differentiate from I7500 by its TouchWiz user interface. I7500 looks similar to Spica but has the stock Android UI.

Microsoft continues its price assault on Apple and its not the laptops they are targeting now. The new ad shows Wes Moss, a Certified Financial Planner comparing the price of songs bought on iTunes and Zune Pass, Microsoft’s subscription based service. He claims a 120GB iPod takes $30,000 to fill up to its capicity while a user with a Zune Pass will take as low as $15 a month and also allow 10 songs to keep in a month.

The ad is debatable when it comes to filling up the device but Zune Pass sounds to be a fair deal. The fact that it allows to keep 10 songs in a month and considering each song price of $1, a user will effectively pay $5 for downloading in addition to listening to unlimited number of tracks, which is not possible in iTunes.

Dell is now selling Inspiron Mini 10’s cheaper sibling, the Mini 10v. The base model is priced at $299 and comes with N270 processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, integrated webcam, different I/O ports, Wi-Fi and a 3-cell battery. The screen size measures the same at 10.1-inches with the resolution is stuck at 1024×576 pixels, so there’s no way you can upgrade it like Mini 10.

The optional features you can integrate are a N280 processor, 8 or 16GB SSD or 160GB HDD, Bluetooth and Windows XP or Ubuntu 8.04.

After maintaining a 2010 release for Windows 7, Microsoft’s Senior VP, Bill Veghte has confirmed that Windows 7 will be released this year. It will be out before the holiday season kicks in, which according to the previous rumor should be in October.

“We are tracking well to a Windows 7 holiday,” said Veghte and plans to reiterate at the TechEd event that starts from the coming Monday.

Microsoft recently released the release candidate of the OS and is available for download up to July 2009.

Sure, they are late by a few days but here it is. The 10.5.7 version is available now from the Software Update and brings in lots of fixes and other improvements.

Changelog:

General
- Includes latest security fixes.
- Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
- Improves performance of video playback and cursor movements for recent Macs with NVIDIA graphics.
- Resolves an issue with Dvorak keyboard layout in Mac OS X 10.5.6.
- Improves the reliability and accuracy of Unit Converter, Stocks, Weather and Movies Dashboard widgets.
- Addresses a situation that may cause issues when logging into Gmail.
- Improves reliability when syncing contacts with Yahoo!.
- Expansion Slot Utility for Mac Pro now reports the correct PCIe slot configuration.
- Improves network performance when connected to certain Ethernet switches that have Flow Control enabled.
- Improves stability for network home directories hosted by Mac OS X Server v10.4.
- Improves Finder search results for network volumes that may not support Spotlight searching, such as Mac OS X Server v10.4, Time Capsule, and third-party AFP servers.
- Includes several improvements to Directory Service and Client Management, which are described in the About Mac OS X Server 10.5.7 Update article.

iCal
- Improves overall reliability with CalDav.
- Improves reliability when automatically syncing with MobileMe.

Mail
- Addresses reliability and sync issues with Notes.
- Addresses an issue that may cause the BCC field to populate incorrectly when redirecting a message from the Sent mailbox.

Parental Controls
- Improves consistency with Parental Controls and application restrictions.
- Addresses an issue in which time limits may not work properly with full-screen games and Fast User Switching.

Printing
- Resolves an issue that may cause certain third-party printers to print to the incorrect paper tray.
- Non-admin user accounts can now be allowed to add and remove printers by enabling Parental Controls and selecting “Can administer printers”.
- Includes other printing reliability and stability improvements.

The previous Zune phone was a big fat lie but the recently leaked specs of Microsoft’s Pink phone by ZDNet has renewed our hopes. Mary-Jo Foley acquired the meaty details from a trustworthy source and is rumored to be the specifications of a Windows Mobile 7 powered Chassis 1 device. The Chassis 1 is also said to be the “heart of Microsoft Pink phone”.

According to the list, the device based on Chassis 1 has to fulfill the core requirements like a 3.5-inch or greater WVGA (800×480)/FWVGA (854×480) screen, multi-touch capability, 256MB+ RAM, more than a gig of flash memory and processor based on ARM v6+, Open GL ES 2.0 like Qualcomm’s 8xxx Series, Nvidia Tegra or TI 3430.

Other bells and whistles referred to as peripherals required are a 3MP+ camera sensor with or without flash, aGPS, Light Sensor, Compass, Accelerometer, high speed USB (mostly USB 3.0), Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, micro USB and 3.5mm audio jack.

Will we see an iPhone competitor in its true sense? Time will tell but I really hope it comes soon.