Nokia and Adobe Launch $10 Million Open Screen Project Fund

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia and Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the creation of the $10 million Open Screen Project fund, which is designed to help developers create applications and services for mobile, desktop, and consumer electronics devices using the Adobe Flash platform.

The Open Screen Project is a collaboration of more than 20 companies (including Nokia and Adobe) with one clear vision: to enable consumers to access, utilise, and share rich content seamlessly — regardless of the devices, operating systems, browsers, or networks they use. The new fund is a result of this initiative. Additional Open Screen Project partners are expected to join the fund in the future.

Applications that incorporate Adobe Flash Lite will be considered for funding, and initial areas of focus include: entertainment, social networking, productivity, gaming, and news and information. Those projects with broad appeal — and that make the most of Nokia's platform capabilities — are likely to catch the interest of the combined panel of multi-screen application and services experts from Nokia and Adobe, which will review all of the funding requests that are submitted. Developers retain all rights to their applications, while Adobe and Nokia have the right to evaluate, test, and promote the content.

'The Open Screen Project fund encourages the use of Adobe tools and existing developer skills to create exciting and unique Flash applications for millions of Nokia devices', said Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president (EVP), Nokia Services. 'With more than 300-million Flash-enabled Nokia devices in market, we will support these developers through the Forum Nokia developer community, while providing a more targeted distribution channel to consumers with Nokia's Ovi Store.'

Nokia delivers devices on a truly global scale and offers developers dependable platforms that are well integrated with the Flash runtime.

Both Nokia and Adobe plan to bring successful applications to multiple distribution channels, such as on device, aggregators, and others. In turn, these distribution channels will bring rich Flash applications and experiences to market segments around the world, creating new business opportunities for developers.

'We are excited about the Open Screen Project fund and the possibilities it offers to designers and developers worldwide', said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. 'With more than one billion Flash-enabled mobile phones and devices shipped across multiple platforms, the fund will enable more developers to bring their rich content and services to a large number of mobile users.'

Greenhouses On The Moon

Greenhouses On The Moon

Astronauts' meals have come a long way from the freeze-dried powders and semi-liquid pastes of decades ago: now US scientists want to grow vegetables in mini-greenhouses on the Moon.

Although space fare has steadily improved over time, a team of scientists says the best is yet to come.

They look forward to when residents of future lunar or even Martian outposts can dine on luxuries such as fresh vegetables.

Paragon Space Development Corporation has unveiled what it called the first step toward growing flowers -- and eventually food -- on the Moon.

Paragon, an Arizona company that has partnered with NASA in previous experiments on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, calls it a "Lunar Oasis".

This is a sealed greenhouse that looks like a bell jar encased in a 1.5 foot (46-centimetre) tall triangular aluminum frame.

It is designed to safely land a laboratory plant on the lunar surface, and protect it while it grows.

The miniature greenhouse is to be launched into space by Odyssey Moon Ltd, a participant in the Google Lunar X Prize. This competition offers 20 million dollars to any entrant who can launch, land and operate a rover on the lunar surface.

Paragon officials say future testing of the "Lunar Oasis" will be driven by Odyssey's flight schedule, which will not happen until 2012 at the earliest.

When it does lift off the greenhouse will contain the seeds of Brassica, a hardy plant related to Brussels sprouts and cabbage and used in the production of cooking oil and livestock feed.

Because Brassica goes from seed to flower in just 14 days, it can complete its life cycle in a single lunar night.

"Colonizing the Moon or Mars seems so far away, but it is important that we do this research now," Paragon president Jane Poynter told AFP.

"It takes a long time to get a lot of research, and to get integrated, reliable efficient systems" before colonists move in, she said.

NASA, which will retire its Space Shuttle fleet at the end of 2010, has committed to two new goals: returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020, and a manned mission to Mars by 2030.

"I was pleased to see this (project) put together by Paragon," said Gene A. Giacomelli, a professor at the University of Arizona Department of Plant Sciences.

"NASA has pulled back on funding for bio-regenerative life support systems, and most of the centers in the US that had been doing that research had stopped."

Giacomelli and students at the university's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) are working on their own as-yet-unfunded lunar greenhouse.

RIM (Research in Motion ) opens software store for BlackBerry

Research In Motion has launched an online store selling entertainment, games, news, and travel applications to its BlackBerry users.

RIM said on Wednesday its online store was immediately available to BlackBerry owners in Britain, Canada, and the United States.

Unlike the iPhone application store of rival Apple Inc, which offers 70 per cent of revenue from each piece of software to the developer, RIM plans to offer 80 per cent.

The rest of the revenue will be shared between RIM and wireless carriers, co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said in an interview. "We think that's a fair distribution of the economics," he said.

The company's media-rich BlackBerry smartphones, such as the Pearl, Curve, Storm and Bold models, compete with Apple's iPhone for retail customers.

Ontario-based RIM has pushed aggressively to diversify its user base beyond executives, lawyers, politicians and other professionals who use BlackBerrys to send wireless e-mail.

"I think we've firmly cut over to the broader consumer marketplace," Balsillie said.

Offering a slate of interesting and diverse smartphone software, from the practical to the entertaining, can sometimes mean the difference between keeping and losing a user -- someone who has spent money on such software may be reluctant to switch to a different device and have to pay all over again.

RIM first announced its plan to enter the increasingly crowded market for mobile software supermarkets last year.

IBM Power 520 Express

• For distributed UNIX®, IBM i (formerly known as i5/OS®) and Linux® ERP/CRM application servers
• For small database servers
• For small scale consolidation servers for UNIX, IBM i and Linux workloads
• For a complete business system with an integrated database and application server

As a distributed application server, the IBM Power™ 520 Express provides near-continuous application availability at a compelling low price. This allows more work to be processed with less operational disruption for branch office and in-store applications.

As a small database server, the Power 520 Express offers the outstanding performance of the IBM POWER6™ processor—the world's fastest chip. This leadership performance makes it possible for applications to run faster and be more responsive which can result in significant advantages for your business.

As a small scale consolidation server, the 520 Express provides the flexibility to use leading-edge AIX®, IBM i, Linux for Power and x86 Linux applications all on the same system. IBM PowerVM™ Editions offer comprehensive virtualization technologies designed to aggregate and manage resources while helping to simplify and optimize your IT infrastructure and reduce server sprawl.

For a complete integrated business system, the Power 520 Express allows the small or mid-sized company seeking simplicity to avoid increased spending and staffing requirements while becoming more responsive to their customers, improving their productivity and keeping their data secure. The Power 520 Express—i Edition integrates features to simplify your IT environment and delivers a complete, cost-effective business system that can grow with a business.

The IBM Power 520 Express is a 1-, 2- or 4-core 4.2 GHz POWER6 processor-based entry server designed to deliver outstanding business value to smaller and mid-sized businesses while meeting the needs of many mission-critical applications. It offers outstanding price/performance in a commercial IT environment; a breadth of available applications; superior reliability, availability, serviceability (RAS) characteristics architected to avoid, detect and recover from errors to achieve near-continuous availability; EnergyScale™ technologies and software tools to measure energy use and direct policies toward the energy-efficient operation of the server; and outstanding PowerVM virtualization to help achieve increased system utilization. This highly flexible, available and easy to manage server enables companies to spend more time running their business utilizing a proven solution from thousands of ISVs that support the AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems.

Dell bring new servers, storage for tight budgets

Dell Inc is introducing new server and storage products aimed at cost-conscious companies, betting that its emphasis on value can help win market share as competition intensifies.

The announcement on Tuesday comes as the corporate server market heated up considerably over the past week, with the much-anticipated entry of network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc, and widely-reported merger talks between market leader IBM and high-end server maker Sun Microsystems Inc.

Seeking to distinguish itself from competitors offering more expensive products developed on proprietary technology, Dell said its portfolio of 14 new products is designed to save companies time and money though improved efficiency, adoption of open standard infrastructure and virtualization technology.

"We think simplifying IT, driving efficiency in the data center, helping our customers consolidate and virtualize to save costs is actually the strategy that will ultimately win in the industry," Steve Schuckenbrock, president of large enterprise for Dell, said in an interview last week.

The new products include PowerEdge servers and workstations based on Intel Corp's next-generation Nehalem processor, EqualLogic storage arrays and software designed to help simplify IT management in a single console. The servers will begin shipping on Monday, when Intel is expected to formally announce Nehalem.

Industry analysts, who were briefed on the new products by Dell, spoke positively on Monday about the products and the strategy.

"What Dell's focusing on is trying to show customers a way to save money...so they [customers] can free up resources to invest in new applications and I think that is a good overall story and strategy for 2009," said IDC analyst Matt Eastwood.