RM2.52b more ETP projects

KUALA LUMPUR: Fortune 500 companies IBM and Toshiba are each set to invest more heavily in Malaysia, with IBM planning to pump RM1 billion to develop a global technology services delivery centre in Cyberjaya over the next five years.

Japanese technology giant Toshiba, meanwhile, plans to invest RM268 million to   build its regional operational headquarters in Malaysia. The foreign investments are part of nine new projects worth RM2.52 billion that   fall under the   Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), which were  announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday. The IBM project was deemed the biggest in terms of investment. Najib said the country remained focused on boosting growth and competitiveness to make Malaysia  more attractive to investors.

"We will push ahead with reforms, including the Competition Act, which will come into effect on Jan 1, and the liberalisation of 17 services as announced in the 2012 Budget." He said while he remained confident the country could  fast-track a generation of growth in 10 years, the ETP was only a year old and would take time before the benefits were felt.


Chris Eng, an analyst and research head at OSK Research, said: "It's been a long time since Cyberjaya saw such a large investment like the one from IBM. It bodes well for Malaysia and is also positive for the development of Cyberjaya." The centre will help the company deliver information technology  services capabilities to  clients around the world. Najib said the centre would  help  position Malaysia as a hub  for  IT experts in this region. IBM will  employ up to 3,000  people for the centre. Patt Cronin, IBM general manager for global technology delivery and delivery excellence, said: "Our  10-storey building in Cyberjaya will have its groundbreaking ceremony in the first quarter of next year and it is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2013."

Toshiba chose Malaysia as its global supply chain hub, regional full turnkey, and research and development centre for its transmission and distribution equipment for Southeast Asia.American firm Akamai Technologies, ranked among the 100 best performing technology companies globally, plans to work with Telekom Malaysia Bhd on a project that will see Akamai's only Netstorage facilities in Southeast Asia hosted in Malaysia. Netstorage is a secure, outsourced service that reduces costs and hassle associated with content storage.
Other  ETP projects  include KPJ Healthcare Bhd's plan to build five hospitals in Malaysia,  offering  822 beds, for RM763 million over the next three years.


Shrimp exporter Pegagau Group  will set up a  processing plant in  Tawau and expand into large-scale cage farming.   These initiatives will see a RM67.7 million investment. ETP, launched a year ago, had recorded RM177.1 billion in committed investment and 389,263 potential  jobs, Najib said.



http://www.nst.com.my

Malaysia Needs to Produce Own Cyber Security Software

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs to produce its own cyber information security software as depending on foreign software may risk information leaks and intelligence breaches, said a software expert here today.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Computer Science and Information Technology Faculty dean Prof Dr Ramlan Mahmod said infiltration could happen covertly as currently there was a lack of understanding on source code logic streams used by foreign software.

"At the moment, there is no software capable of checking the source code of software to ensure the software used is confirmed safe.     

"For the realisation of this information technology, the country needs to acquire 'technical knowhow' in information security and expertise in various fields such as computer science, mathematics and engineering," he told Bernama.

He said to acquire the expertise, the nation needed to carry out the foundation work such as training more experts in information technology and by bringing in more external technologies into the country.

Dr Ramlan said information leaks could happen in two situations, that is when the data was in transmission and hacking of existing data in storage.

"To prevent hackers from attacking data in transmission or unauthorised access to data storage, the information could be encrypted or hidden.

"This is the basis of information and software development important to ensure our cyber defence," he said.

He said the government needed to play a major role to set up a strong system of cyber defence as it needed financial commitment, expertise, legislation and continuous monitoring.

"Cyber security is the same as national security involving many operational aspects such as prevention, defence, detecting, intelligence and attack.

"It also needs sophiscated technical knowledge in information security and continuous upgrading of capability considering hackers are also improving their attacks," he said.

http://www.nst.com.my

Options for switching among windows in OS X

If you extensively use your Mac, you might regularly end up with many windows and tabs open on your screen at once, and organizing your workflow around these windows can sometimes be a chore. To help in this process, Apple has included its Expose and Spaces features in OS X, and in Lion has implemented a combination of these two options called Mission Control, but these graphical approaches have limitations.

If you have too many windows open, sometimes you might need to preview them before closing them, and while you can use Mission Control and similar tools to browse through the windows on your screen, with many open this may be rather difficult to do. A further frustration in previewing the windows you would like to close is that as you close them their locations shift around in Mission Control, so if you select one and close it, the next time you invoke Mission Control others that were in one location will be in a different place.

In this respect, Mission Control and other graphical approaches to managing windows do have their limits, so the best option to manage them might still be to use keyboard shortcuts.

• 
  
• Command-Tab
  This key command is an age-old option that is available on most computer systems. By pressing Command-Tab you will switch among open programs on the system. In OS X the tab order is based on the last programs used, so if you have just switched from Safari to Pages, then pressing Command-Tab will take you right back to Safari. Holding the Command key and pressing Tab multiple times will select other applications.
• Command-Tilde
  While Command-Tab moves between programs, Command-tilde (the symbol key right above the Tab key) will switch between the open windows in the current program. This in combination with Command-Tab will easily allow you to locate windows within a program and quickly preview them all as they pass by, so you can get a good look at them before closing them, all without having them zoom in and out multiple times as you invoke Mission Control or Expose.
• Control-Tab
  The last option for managing windows is to switch among the various tabs in programs that support them (mainly Web browsers). In OS X you can do this by pressing Control-Tab, and if the current window contains more than one tab you will swap around among them.

Using these three options, you can instruct OS X to quickly display different windows on screen at their full view, and when you see one you no longer want, you can press Command-W to close it. These options in conjunction with Expose, Spaces, and Mission Control can greatly help you take control over your open windows and close them, especially in OS X Lion where the resume feature can result in a program constantly opening many windows whenever opened, resulting in you needing to thin them out a bit before you next quit it.

http://reviews.cnet.com, by Topher Kessler.

Would an AT&T 'toll-free' data service stifle app innovation?

BARCELONA, Spain--App developers and consumer advocates are unhappy with news this week that AT&T may be considering a plan that would allow data-heavy service providers to pay upfront for the bandwidth their customers may use.
                                                        

Earlier this week, AT&T's CTO John Donovan told The Wall Street Journal at the Mobile World Congress here that the carrier is considering a kind of toll-free calling for mobile data. The idea is that mobile app providers whose services consume a lot of data, such as video streaming, could buy             1-800-like service       from AT&T so that their users could access their service without using customer data plans. In essence, the app company providing the service would eat the cost of the data transfer instead of the consumer.

The concept is similar to 1-800 phone service that charges companies to provide free long-distance phone service to anyone calling that business. The benefit for consumers is that they don't incur the cost of the call.

"A feature that we're hoping to have out sometime next year is the equivalent of 800 numbers that would say, if you take this app, this app will come without any network usage," the Journal quoted Donovan as saying.

Donovan tried to paint the new pricing scheme as a win-win for AT&T and app companies. He said some companies are already interested because it will allow consumers, who may be nervous about trying an app, a risk-free way to check it out.

"What they're saying is, why don't we go create new revenue streams that don't exist today and find a way to split them," he told the Journal.

Bad news for app developers

While AT&T may think that recycling a concept from the old long-distance calling era is innovative, plenty of app developers and consumer advocates don't. These groups say that such a plan wold crush innovation, because it would make it more difficult for smaller startups to compete.

"It has the potential to put smaller companies, such as us, at a disadvantage," said Holger Luedorf, vice president of mobile and partnerships at FourSquare. "We're seeing such an explosion in innovation in the apps category because it's so cheap right now to develop an app and start a company. Something like this would add more cost and complexity."

Indeed, the Apple iPhone and the App Store has changed mobile applications forever. Before Apple, there was no easy way for app developers to get their services onto a wireless phone. They had to go to individual carriers and convince the carrier the app was worthy of placement on the so-called "carrier deck." And even once they convinced carriers to add their apps, they still had to go through a long testing process to get the app approved. At the same time, they had to go door-to-door to other carriers engaging in the same process.

It was a capital intensive and laborious process. And it made the development of mobile apps almost impossible for very small companies. Apple's App store and the Google Android Market that has followed have created entirely new industries. All developers have to do is develop their app and submit it to a store. Within a very short period of time, the app can be available to millions of possible customers with very little investment.

Now, it's the consumer who decides which apps to put on his or her phone and not the carrier. And as result, the market for mobile apps is flourishing. The model has allowed startup mobile apps, such as Foursquare, to grow from nothing to a service with more than 15 million users in a few short years.

But developers fear that by adding additional costs into the process, carriers may stifle innovation.

"The bigger more established players, such as ourselves, will be able to pay this fee," said Gustav Soderstrom, chief product officer for the streaming music service Spotify. "But those bigger players may not have the best or most innovative service. And that hurts consumers. The risk is that smaller players could be shut out, and they are the ones who are really innovating."

Guy Rosen, CEO of Onavo, a company that offers an app to compress data and help consumers track data usage on mobile devices, agrees that smaller developers may never get the chance to compete if they are burdened with additional fees.

"YouTube could afford this now," said Rosen. "But it never would have gotten off the ground if it had to pay such a charge in the early days. And what about the next video sharing app? What happens to them?"

The carrier argument

But both wireless and wireline providers say that they spend a lot of money to build their infrastructure, which other companies leverage to make profits. And for years they have complained that they should be compensated by these companies.

Instead, carriers argue that regulators have tried to institute burdensome requirements that prevent them from effectively managing their networks. Earlier this week at Mobile World Congress, Deutsche Telekom's CEO Rene Obermann complained of this very situation. He said it frustrates him when "over-the-top" providers, which are app companies delivering services over his network, make big profits while he spends billions to build and maintain his network.

App developers are somewhat sympathetic. Luedorf of Foursquare and Soderstrom of Spotify say they understand that it's not easy for carriers to keep up with demand for data on their networks. And business models need to be created to make sure that everyone is making money. But their sympathy's go only so far.

"A few years ago no one was using 3G data networks," Soderstrom said. "Back then carriers were begging for someone to drive traffic to their networks. Now they have the opposite problem."

But Soderstrom adds that fundamentally services like Spotify are still helping drive revenue for carriers because his service is driving demand for more data. And more demand means that customers have to buy larger data packages.

"We are driving demand for bigger subscriptions," he said. "And that is good for the carriers."

Indeed, wireless operators in the U.S. have already started eliminating unlimited data plans. Instead, they've created tiers of service that allow them to charge customers for how much data they use. These plans are meant to generate more revenue for operators, but it's also a way to control consumption of a limited resource. When resources, like bandwidth are unlimited, some customers are likely to consume more than if they must pay for what they use.

Of course, it hasn't been easy weening some consumers off the unlimited data plans. Reacting to the initial backlash against tiered service plans when it first announced them, AT&T promised existing smartphone customers that they could keep their unlimited data plans for life.

The carrier still offers this service, but late last year it began slowing down service for these unlimited customers who over-use the network. AT&T slows down the top 5 percent of data users. It doesn't explain how it calculates who is in the top 5 percent. But Rosen said that data his app has collected indicates that people seem to be getting slowed when their consumption reaches above 2GB. Meanwhile, AT&T now offers a 3GB data plan for the same $30 price as the unlimited plan.

AT&T has argued that the reason it is slowing down service for certain unlimited users is because network traffic is growing too quickly on its network, and it needs to manage how much data people are using. But consumer advocates say they are not buying this argument. And they say that AT&T's willingness to charge app companies a fee to deliver their streaming content shows that there is no real capacity crunch.

"This new plan is unfortunate because it shows how fraudulent the AT&T data cap is, and calls into question the whole rationale of the data caps," Harold Feld, legal director at Public Knowledge said in a statement earlier this week. "Apparently it has nothing to do with network management. It's a tool to get more revenue from developers and customers."

Feld also argues that this is the very situation it had hoped the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet rules would have prevented. The FCC adopted rules in 2010 that were supposed to protect smaller companies from carriage fees and other discriminatory network practices. But the rules that were eventually adopted, which offered some protection against this for wireline broadband customers, were watered down for wireless networks.

"This is exactly the type of market manipulation we hoped the FCC's Open Internet rules would prevent," Feld said. "If the Commission does not believe it has the authority under those rules to investigate this practice, it should do so under its general authority over wireless services."

Meanwhile, the communications industry believes that the way to innovate is to create new revenue streams by using the investments already made in the carrier infrastructure. During a keynote panel here at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen said that carriers should have the right to charge a premium for special guaranteed service, much like the airlines charge for first class.

"This market must develop in such a way that consumers are given choice on quality," he said. "Without it, this industry can't do what we must do. I have several options to get from here to Madrid. And no one stops me from buying a first-class ticket, if I want to buy one. Why should we not give wireless consumers the same choice?"

http://reviews.cnet.com, by Marguerite Reardon.

Google puts Android on parade--literally

BARCELONA--Love Android or hate it, there's no denying it's been a hit with device makers and carriers.

Exhibit A was on display at Google's booth at the Mobile World Congress show here in Barcelona, Spain. Dozens and dozens of Android phones and tablets slid by on a curving track that looped them continuously.

The collection featured some notable models such as the first to come to market, the T-Mobile G1 from October 2008. But then there were members of that vastly larger collection of forgettable models--useful to customers, perhaps, but probably nothing deserving even a footnote in the history of mobile computing or generating much in the way of passion.

Android chief Andy Rubin said Monday at the show that 300 million Android phones have been activated, a number currently increasing by about 280,000 per day. There are 450,000 apps in the Android Market, indicating that a big crowd of programmers is willing to put up with the difficulties of spanning all those devices.

Google hopes the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android -- version 4.0 -- will ease some of the pains and unify the market. But it's not easy to get it onto Android phones, judging by the fact that Google released the ICS source code in November and plenty of new phones at Mobile World Congress still are saddled with the older version 2.3, aka Gingerbread.

Apple's iPhone gets a lot more credit for shifting the mobile industry, deserves the "iconic" label more than any Android phone I can think of, and has sold phenomenally well. But there's something to be said for the power of Android's numbers, too, and it was impressive to see the reach of Android's manufacturing partnerships. That represents a tremendous investment in design, engineering, and marketing that will pay dividends for years.

http://reviews.cnet.com, by Stephen Shankland.

Apple to Refresh MacBook Pro, Air lines in April

Hot on the heels of Apple actually announcing a real, tangible special event that is expected to bring the next iPad, the company is now rumored to be refreshing its notebooks as soon as April.

Citing supplier sources, Taiwanese component news site DigiTimes--which has a not-so-great track record of Apple murmurings--says updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models will hit store shelves in April.

The outlet does not go into specifics about what upgrades are in store, short of pointing to the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros receiving upgrades. Curiously, DigiTimes also mentions the units benefiting from Apple's Mountain Lion OS X update, for which a release date has not been set beyond "this summer."

A separate report from the outlet does offer one peculiar tidbit, however. Once again citing supplier sources, DigiTimes says that Apple is "considering" a 14-inch model of the MacBook Air designed specifically for the Asia market, where that screen size is more prevalent among PCs. That would differ from the 13.3-inch model, which is where the line currently tops out.

Apple typically does not offer completely separate versions of its products for particular markets. It changes things like keyboards and packaging, but rarely makes a new device outright. That said, the company has made changes to its devices in the Asian market, including offering a Wi-Fi-free iPhone to comply with local Chinese government standards, and selling a camera-free version of the handset in Singapore. Neither report makes mention of a separate rumor that Apple is working on a 15-inch model of the MacBook Air. DigiTimes itself claimed such a device was on the way as far back as November, saying Apple would be releasing it in the first quarter of 2012. A report from Apple Insider earlier this month suggested Apple might move its entire Pro line to a similar, if not identical, form factor to the Air, removing things like the hard disk and optical drives in favor of flash memory.

Apple's last refresh of the MacBook Pro was in October, with a speedier processor, more storage, and upgraded graphics capabilities. It's been a bit longer for the MacBook Airs, which were refreshed in late July to coincide with the release of Apple's Lion OS X software update.

While an April release may not jibe with the company's plan to roll out Mountain Lion, which will no doubt be a paid upgrade, it's close to Intel's plans to launch its next generation of processors, dubbed Ivy Bridge. Earlier this month, Intel told CNET that the chips would arrive a "few weeks" after the company's original target of April. Nonetheless, Apple has a history of being the first to get Intel's latest. That includes the MacBook Pro refresh around this time last year, which brought Intel's mobile Sandy Bridge chips to the whole line, as well as Thunderbolt, the speedy I/O that was a collaboration between the two companies.

Apple's MacBook Pro line has not seen a massive external overhaul since the company switched to its unibody design in 2008. A now year-old iLounge rumor suggested that Apple planned to give that line a big face-lift sometime in the beginning of this year.

http://news.cnet.com, by Josh Lowensohn.

Facebook launches Timeline for Pages

Companies with a Facebook profile can now update their page to use the new Timeline feature.

Doled out to individual FB users last year, the Timeline presents information in a more visual two-column format. The design allows friends and followers to view a company's products and scroll down to see a history of its Facebook posts from the past.

Organizations with pages can jump to the Timeline starting today, but the new look and layout will become mandatory on March 30. The Timeline feature applies to anyone or anything with a public page, including local businesses, national companies, products, brands, public figures, causes, and communities.

Facebook has created a help page explaining the Timeline feature for businesses and answering common questions and concerns.

The Timeline was initially rolled out to individuals as an option but became mandatory earlier this month. But like most changes unveiled by Facebook, this one has garnered a thumbs down from some users.

A whopping 70 percent of those polled earlier this month by opinion site SodaHead said they didn't like the Timeline. Only 20 said they dig the new feature, while the rest don't use Facebook.

An earlier poll of CNET users found that 37 percent use the Timeline only because they're forced to, while 19 percent claimed they're dumping Facebook for Google+. Only 21 percent said they like the feature, while 12 percent said it's not too bad once you get used to it. One potential gotcha is that the Timeline delves into your past, revealing posts and pictures that you may not want people to find so easily.

But the very features that turn off individual users may prove valuable to organizations.

Using the Timeline, a company can draw in followers by displaying a large image, logo, and description of itself at the top of the page. Photos, Likes, and Events are easily accessible from the top, providing a quick overview of the business and its various products or services.

Companies can change the post that appears near the top of the page to highlight recent or important items. They can also more easily see and respond to recent activity, messages, and other highlights at the top.

And though individual users may want to hide certain embarrassing aspects of their past, organizations can use the Timeline to take users on an historical tour. The New York Times Timeline, for example, travels all the way back to 1851, displaying an image of the very first copy of the paper to be published.

http://news.cnet.com, by Lance Whitney.

Kulim Areas Get TM's Streamyx High Speed Broadband Service

KULIM, May 26 (Bernama) - The Kulim High Technology Park and its surrounding areas here have now been equipped with TM's high speed Streamyx broadband service which will enable consumers to surf the Internet at the speed of up to four megabits per second (Mbps).

Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) launched the service here Monday, making Kulim the first place in Kedah to receive the service.

General Manager of TM Kedah/Perlis, Pauziah Taib said that the high speed Internet service will also further boost investors' confidence in KHTP and economic growth in Kedah. The service is also an essential supportive facility for industries here, especially the multinational companies, she said.

The high speed Streamyx service is already available in Penang and the Klang Valley.

Pauziah said users within 30 sq km from the areas surrounding KHTP, Lunas and Padang Serai will be able to enjoy the high speed broadband service through two packages, namely the two Mbps and four Mbps services with Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

Speaking to reporters after the launch of the service and TM Broadband Kulim Fiesta here today, she said consumers will be able to subscribe the service at a rate of RM99 per month.

The event here Monday was officiated by the Chairman of the Kedah State Committee for Education, Information Technology and Communications, Abdullah Jusoh.

Pauziah said TM has spent more than RM30 million to develop the telecommunication infrastructure in the area.

"With this facility, we hope KHTP will be able to pull in more investors and drive further economic growth in Kulim in the future," she said.

As of April this year, the number of customers for Streamyx broadband Internet service in Kedah has gone up to 45,000 people.

"Todate, the rate of broadband penetration among the people in Kedah is 6.25 per cent," Pauziah said.

This is expected to go up with TM recording an impressive growth rate of 3,000 new users for its Streamyx service every month, she said, adding that TM will continue to promote the service through various interesting packages in Perlis and Kedah.