Through the introduction of BlackBerry Connect in India, Airtel will extend BlackBerry wireless services to the Nokia 9500 Communicator, Nokia 9300 smartphone and Sony Ericsson P910i

Announcing this, Manoj Kohli, President Mobility, of the company, “Email continues to be a key communication medium and research indicates that the first application most mobile users like to see integrated into their mobile phones is their email. Emails also have one of the greatest impacts on productivity.

BlackBerry on Airtel was not only the first mobile email product in India but is still the only commercial solution available to enterprise. Other operators like Hutch or Tata Tele are still at the announcement or pilot stage.

11:37:57 AM    comment   

A study by TRAI says that congestion on Indian mobile networks has reached an all time high with no scope of improvement. The study said in cities the congestion level was 20 times more than the stipulated norms. Trai blamed network congestion to the inefficient interconnect system between private operators and state owned operator BSNL, the country[base ']Äôs third largest operator that has not kept pace with subscribers[base ']Äô growth.

[base ']ÄúWith the exponential increase in the number of subscribers in the last two years and the number of operators in each service area, the issues of efficient and adequate interconnect between operators has become very important. The benchmark for the internetwork congestion level for an acceptable quality of service is less than 0.5 percent. In a number of major and minor cities, the level of congestion between the networks of private operators and the BSNL network is far more than this benchmark and the number of such places are increasing,[base ']Äù the Trai said.

11:27:09 AM    comment   

Zimbra’s Ajax-based email is worth a look. It is one of the many dozens of companies that have popped up, and one reason to take them seriously - well they are backed by Eric Hahn, the man behind Lookout Software, which was a “search” application for Microsoft Outlook, something so good that Microsoft bought it for a few million bucks. Seems like Microsoft’s money being used develop an Outlook-rival: not that there is anything wrong with it. ((Don’t be impressed with buzzword heavy press release, that is seriously trying so hard, that you want to simply do what distinguished Japanese warriors used to do in ancient times.) There is the usual crew of VC investors, but from my perspective, Hahn knows email.

Its like Outlook except in a browser, and I am told the Mac-happy version is on cards. Oh course you could get an invite for Yahoo’s (oddpost) enhanced beta, and enjoy the goodness. I am still waiting for Satish to ping me when that happens. I still want an “outlook-like main” on Mac, because now the iCal and Address Book are showing their limitations. Oh by the way, I am going to be mad busy at the office and Web 2.0 conference, so apologies for slow posting. via Silicon Beat

11:24:52 AM    comment   

Rumors that Samsung and Bang & Olufsen were canoodling surfaced a few weeks ago, and details about the phone they created have now emerged. The Samsung SGH-E910/Serene is inspired by a powder-box, has a trapezium shape that is shorter than the RAZR, and a little over 2.5-inches thick. That's a navigation wheel inside the circle of numbers (how iPod of them). There is a VGA camera on the side, it's Bluetooth-enabled and comes with a funky-looking charger. Two versions of this glamour phone are coming to market at the end of November—One is DECT-friendly, which is weirder than I can even explain—and the price (converted from Euros) will be in the $1,000 range.

Review GSM phone Samsung SGH-E910/Serene or a joint product with Bang&Olufsen [Mobile-Review]

11:19:19 AM    comment   

Even more good news for PSP owners: Sony's CEO Howard Stringer announced at CEATEC that the PSP will soon be able to support Location-Free TV with DVR capabilities. Using PSP's built-in WiFi, you could potentially watch your favorite TV shows from anywhere in the world. There'll also be higher capacity Memory Sticks that can be synchronized with a DVR. We know there's already that cool TiVo To Go trick you can use with the PSP, but it's nice to know there'll be an "official" way to do it too.

PSP Location-Free TV and DVR Capabilities Coming Soon [eHomeUpgrade]

11:16:43 AM    comment