Mittal street world's fourth most expensive

Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela

Tuesday,5 August 2008 16:35 hrs IST
Mittal street world's fourth most expensive

London: A Mumbai lane where India's richest person Mukesh Ambani is building a billion-dollar home has joined the league of the world's 10 most expensive streets, but is outranked by over three-times costlier London's Billionaires Row where steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal owns three houses.

Altamount Road in India's financial capital Mumbai has been named as the 10th costliest in a survey of the world's top 10 most expensive streets in the world, while London's Kensington Palace Gardens has been ranked at the fourth place. While the tree-lined street in south of Mumbai is a favourite of India's "very rich," Kensington Palace Gardens area in West London is popularly known as Billionaires Row. It has been home to Late Princess Diana and NRI-billionaire Mittal owns three houses on this street.

In the survey conducted by Wealth-Bulletin, a UK-based online news and analysis provider for global wealth management industry, Avenue Princess Grace in Monaco has been named at the top with a price tag of USD 190,000 per square metre. It is followed by Hong Kong's Severn Road with a price of USD 121,000 per square metre (sq mt) at second and New York City's Fifth Avenue at third place (USD 80,000 per sq mt).

Kensington Palace Gardens has made to the fourth place with a price tag of USD 77,000 per sq mt, while the same for the last-ranked Mumbai's Altamount Road is USD 25,000 per sq mt. Noting that the Mumbai lane has always been a popular choice for homes of India's very rich, Wealth-Bulletin said that the street was "catapulted into the ranks of the world's most expensive when India's wealthiest individual Mukesh Ambani unveiled plans last year to build a residential apartment block on the street at a cost of around USD 1 billion."

Airbus superjumbo lands at New York's JFK - Yahoo! India News

Airbus superjumbo lands at New York's JFK - Yahoo! India News

Airbus superjumbo lands at New York's JFK

Enlarge Photo The Emirates Airline's Airbus A380 arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York...

Sat, Aug 2 03:00 AM

By Bill Rigby

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Airbus's A380 superjumbo touched down at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday, marking the first commercial arrival of the giant, double-decker passenger plane on U.S. soil.

The Emirates aircraft, carrying 489 passengers, landed smoothly and on time after a 12-1/2 hour flight from Dubai.

The Gulf-based carrier, owned by the government of Dubai, is the second airline to put the A380 into service, following Singapore Airlines, which started A380 flights to Sydney in October.

The plane, costing $327 million at list prices, did visit New York and Los Angeles in March last year for route-testing purposes, but Friday's flight was the first regularly scheduled arrival of an A380 in the United States.

With its huge capacity and relatively fuel-efficient engines, airlines hope the world's biggest passenger jet will be the most cost-effective way of serving high-volume routes linking big cities, especially in light of soaring oil prices.

The touchdown marks a hard-won victory for Airbus, part of aerospace group EADS, which spent $10 billion and more than a decade on Europe's largest industrial project, in the face of widespread skepticism.

Airbus now has orders for about 200 of the planes from 16 airlines, but none from U.S. carriers. The company is still struggling to iron out production problems after an 18-month delay in getting the first one out of its Toulouse, France, plant.

The delays ended up pushing Airbus into loss and toppling its management, and are still causing political aftershocks in France.

OUTSELLING BOEING

Despite problems, the plane is outselling its nearest competitor, Boeing Co's revamped, expanded 747-8 jumbo, known as the Intercontinental.

Boeing, which invented the concept of mass travel over great distances with its original 747 in the 1970s, has sold only 27 passenger 747-8s so far. The plane, which can seat 467 people in a standard layout, is set to fly first in Lufthansa colors in 2010.

While the A380's success may be bad news for Boeing, plenty of U.S. suppliers are providing parts and electronics for the superjumbo, including Honeywell International Inc, Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc, Rockwell Collins Inc and Goodrich Corp.

The engines on the Emirates A380 are also U.S.-made, produced by the Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric Co and Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Emirates, the world's number-seven airline in terms of international passengers, is the biggest buyer of A380s, with 58 on order, worth almost $190 billion at list prices. After New York, it plans to fly the planes to London from December, then Sydney and Auckland from February.

Some 20 airports worldwide are currently able to handle the giant A380, which needs extra-wide runways for its long wingspan and two-tiered facilities for loading and unloading passengers.

Emirates took possession of the plane in a glitzy ceremony in Hamburg on Monday, flying it to Dubai and then over to New York. The plane has 14 first-class suites, two on-board showers and a bar for first-class customers, as well as a lounge for premium passengers.

Emirates, along with regional rivals Qatar Airways, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and Bahrain's Gulf Air, are expanding their fleets and routes even as European and U.S. carriers find themselves pinched by high fuel prices and waning demand.

Oil-rich United Arab Emirates hopes the new planes will help it transform into a world business and leisure capital in the next few years, aiming to attract 15 million visitors a year by 2012.

ABC News: K-A-P-U-T: Facebook Ditches Scrabulous

ABC News: K-A-P-U-T: Facebook Ditches Scrabulous

Facebook is set to release its own version of the popular word game Scrabble.When users click, they are taken to a note posted by the game's developers, Indian brothers Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla.

"Dear Friend, Please enter your e-mail address below to receive further updates. Your e-mail will remain with us and shall not be disclosed to third parties. Thank you! Rajat & Jayant."

The decision to remove the application came from the developers, not Facebook, the social network told "In response to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice," the company said in an emailed statement.

Outrage on the Facebook group "Save Scrabulous," the largest group of its kind -- more than 45,000 members strong -- was instantaneous. Fans of the game posted messages littered with words such as "madness" and "travesty," as well as several expletives, and encouraged fans to voice their displeasure to Hasbro, either by calling the customer service line -- or the company's CEO.

"I think this is a very dumb decision by Hasbro. For me and a number of our friends, we haven't thought about playing Scrabble for a long time ... I'll say Scrabulous got my interest in Scrabble again," Dominic Hung, a 28-year-old in Vancouver, British Columbia, wrote to ABCNews.com in an e-mail.

Derek Webster, a 35-year-old graphic designer from Toronto and 8-month player of Scrabulous, said he was disappointed that Scrabulous was pulled. According to Webster, the official online version of Scrabble has too many "bells and whistles."

Webster said he will be protesting via e-mail.
scrabulous
(ABC News/AP/Getty)

"I did send an e-mail off to the American and Canadian e-mail addresses just to say thanks, but no thanks" to the official Scrabble application released earlier this month on Facebook, he said.

Jason Madhosingh, the 30-year-old New Yorker that founded the Save Scrabulous group, says that Hasbro botched a chance to connect with a new generation of would-be Scrabble players.

"I think that the big loss here is that Hasbro has realy missed an opportunity to connec with a passionate fan base," he said. "The lack of engagement ... has an impact on brand preference and how strongly consumers feel about the brand and the company that delivers that brand."

As for the new Scrabble application, Madhosingh says he won't be installing it.

"I think it's something that I think was done in a way that alienated a large group of passionate fans and I'm unwilling to support that," he said.
Related
Talk Politics on Facebook
WATCH: Shutting Down Scrabulous
WATCH: Record Breaking 830 Point Scrabble Game

Some fans complained that they had problems accessing the official version of Scrabble -- released by Hasbro and video game developer Electronic Arts -- on Facebook today.

"We're working on some tech problems and Scrabble will be ready to play as soon as possible," EA spokeswoman Trudy Miller said in an e-mailed statement. "EA is monitoring feedback from fans, and we are already in the process of making changes that will result in a variety of improvements, including faster game play, leading up to the official launch scheduled for the first half of August."

Hasbro said it was "pleased" with the developments.

"We appreciate Facebook's assistance in expediting this matter. Hasbro has consistently stated that Scrabulous is a blatant infringement of Hasbro's Scrabble intellectual property rights in the United States and Canada," Hasbro said in a statement. "Mattel, holders of the SCRABBLE IP rights outside of the United States and Canada, several months ago also filed a suit which is awaiting a decision by the Indian court."

Scrabulous co-creator Jayant Agarwalla told ABCNews.com in an e-mail that the application was pulled in response to Facebook's concerns.

"We will sincerely hope to bring to our fans brighter news in the days to come," he wrote.

The Scrabulous fracas heated up last week when Hasbro, the owner of Scrabble in the United States and Canada, sued the Agarwalla brothers over intellectual property rights to the board game and asked Facebook to remove the popular application from its site.

In a statement issued late last Thursday, Facebook said it hoped the suit wouldn't discourage other developers from creating applications for the social network.
Related
WATCH: Quixotry: 365-Point Scrabble Word
Scrabble vs. Scrabulous: Hasbro Sues
More T-R-O-U-B-L-E for Scrabulous?

"Over the past year, Facebook has tried to use its status as neutral platform provider to help the parties come to an amicable agreement," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "We're disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute; nevertheless, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response."

Scrabulous is played much the same way as Scrabble and is among the top 10 most downloaded applications on Facebook, which has more than 90 million active users. It can also be played online at the brothers' Web site, Scrabulous.com. Despite the application's removal from Facebook, the Scrabulous.com site remained active.

Last year, Hasbro struck a deal with video game maker Electronic Arts to develop digital versions of classic board games.

That deal came to fruition in the past few weeks, as Hasbro launched an online version of the official Scrabble, also downloadable on Facebook.

Hasbro had been mum on what legal action, if any, it would take -- until last week.

"In deference to the fans, we waited in pursuing legal action until EA had a legitimate and better alternative available," Hasbro said in a statement.

Hasbro isn't the first company to bring a licensed Scrabble application to Facebook. In April, RealNetworks, an Internet software provider, launched Scrabble by Mattel on the social networking site. The application allows Facebook members outside the U.S. and Canada — or those who say they live outside the two countries — to play the real Scrabble.

Last year, RealNetworks struck a deal with Mattel, which owns the copyright to Scrabble internationally, to develop online casual games based on several Mattel board games, including Scrabble.

"We've been working with Mattel for a couple of months," RealNetworks spokesman Ryan Luckin said in April. "We do have a similar deal with Hasbro with online rights for Scrabble, so we'll continue to work with them as one of our partners."

Luckin said that RealNetworks is still in talks with the Agarwalla brothers; he declined to reveal details of those discussions.

"At the end of the day no matter what game is out there with a Scrabble trademark on it, it has to be approved by Mattel and Hasbro," he said. "So no matter what happens we want to work with them ... and also make this work for the Scrabulous guys as well."

Future Trouble for Facebook?

The situation calls into question a host of potential legal landmines for Facebook, which allows programmers to develop and upload all sorts of applications to the social networking site.

"The big issue here is what this implies for Facebook," said Tom Hemnes, a Boston-based attorney who specializes in copyright and trademark law. "If I were betting on this, if the case came to litigation or settlement, [I would bet] that Facebook would lose. They are indirectly associated with the name Scrabble to attract viewers to their site, and that would be trademark infringement."

FORTUNE: Techland Cuil not a Google killer - yet «

FORTUNE: Techland Cuil not a Google killer - yet «

Cuil not a Google killer - yet

By Yi-Wyn Yen

With hours of being launched Monday, Cuil - a new search engine created by former top Google engineers - was already being touted in the blogosphere as the next Google killer. But unless Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’) can develop an ad platform to rival Google’s, Cuil will have a difficult time challenging the search giant.

The comparisons to Google (GOOG) were inevitable. Cuil was founded by several lead engineers from Google, including Anna Patterson, chief architect of the company’sTeraGoogle search index. Cuil also claims its search algorithm scans through 120 billion web pages - three times the number that Google sifts through. And Cuil’s spare start page is reminiscent of Google’s minimalist home page.

The launch of Cuil certainly raised eyebrows at Google. Though the company would not comment on Cuil’s launch, Google’s web search team stuck it to the small search startup on Monday with a blog post that begins, “We knew the web was big…We’ve known it for a long time.”

Cuil representatives did not return phone calls.

Despite the buzz - and Cuil’s PR folks deserve credit for spinning this David v. Goliath story - it would be foolish to start arguing that Cuil will be the next big threat to Google.

“It’s a new kind of technology and platform that is going to unseat a company like Google - not a company that‚s trying to beat them at their own game,” says Scott Kessler, Standard & Poor’s Internet analyst.

Both Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) have been trying for years to make a dent in Google’s search business. Yahoo (a distant second) and Microsoft (and even more distant third) have spent billions trying to figure out how to close the gap on Google in the lucrative paid search market. Google’s paid search business made up 40% of all online search dollars in 2007, according to eMarketer.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer admitted last week to investors that Google has a huge advantage over other search engines because it delivers more relevant ads and has more advertisers in its system.

Yahoo has also admitted that it can’t beat Google at its own game. In June, Yahoo struck a deal with Google to run Google’s superior search advertising technology on Yahoo’s web properties alongside its own search results.

Cuil currently offers no ads on its pages. And the company claims it won’t monitor a user’s search habits in order to target advertising the way Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft do. That’s an ambitious goal. But one of the biggest advantages of Google has over its competitors is that it can provide better search results because it has its massive advertising platform supporting it.

“Google is receiving so many searches per second and gathering incremental information from new [auction] bids and new advertisements that the search engine gets more relevant and powerful,” Kessler say. “It’s self-perpetuating.”

Cuil, which has raised $33 million, could find its niche in search - or become an attractive acquisition for Microsoft, Yahoo or Google itself. The company says it will stand out because it delivers results with images in three columns and it will scour the web more aggressively than the other big search engines. So far, the site has been sporadically down because of the high volume of searches, which often happens to startups on opening day.

Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela

Sunday,27 July 2008 15:36 hrs IST

Arctic holds 90 billion barrels of oil

Washington: The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said.

Included in the Artic bonanza is 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, the USGS said in a statement posted on its website.

The Arctic Circle is the name given to the region around the North Pole. It includes the Arctic Ocean, the northern parts of Europe, Asia, North America and the Russian Far East.

The natural resources are distributed in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum, according to the assessment, which is the first publicly available petroleum resource estimate of the entire area north of the Arctic Circle.

These resources account for about 22 percent of the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources in the world.

The Arctic itself accounts for about 13 percent of the undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20 percent of the undiscovered natural gas liquids in the world.

About 84 percent of the estimated resources are expected to occur offshore.

"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what's out there," said USGS director Mark Myers.

"With this assessment, we're providing the same information to everyone in the world so that the global community can make those difficult decisions."

Of the estimated total, more than half the undiscovered oil resources are estimated to occur in three geologic provinces -- Arctic Alaska, the Amerasia Basin, and the East Greenland Rift Basins.

On an oil-equivalency basis, undiscovered natural gas is estimated to be three times more abundant than oil in the Arctic. More than 70 percent of the undiscovered natural gas is estimated to occur in three provinces -- the West Siberian Basin, the East Barents Basins, and Arctic Alaska, the assessment shows.

Till now, exploration for petroleum has already resulted in the discovery of more than 400 oil and gas fields north of the Arctic Circle.

These fields account for approximately 40 billion barrels of oil, more than 1,100 trillion cubic feet of gas, and 8.5 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

Nano to cost Rs 1 lakh despite plant cost rise

The Statesman - Indian Newspapers in English Language from two editions.

Nano to cost Rs 1 lakh despite plant cost rise

KOLKATA, July 17: Tata Motors is expected to price its Nano at around one lakh despite cost escalation at their Singur plant but the one time tax you would pay during registration of your newly acquired Nano would go up by Rs 2,000 once the state Legislative Assembly gives its approval to the West Bengal Additional Tax and One Time Tax on Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill. The bill would be placed in the House tomorrow.
The one time tax, payable every five years would go up between Rs 2,000 and 10,000 once the existing Motor Vehicles Act is amended. Battery operated two wheelers and vehicles which enjoyed tax holiday so long would also be brought under tax net for the first time.
Tax on new vehicles with engine capacity of 900 cc owned by individuals or societies would be increased from Rs 8550 to Rs 10550. The Nano would have an engine capacity of 623 cc. The tax on motor cars up to 1490 cc would go up to Rs 13,900 and the special tax for air conditioned cars in this category would be another Rs 7,500.
Again for vehicles upto 2000 cc capacity engine the tax would be Rs 21,800 and the special tax would be nearly Rs 10,000. For vehicles with engine capacity of 2500 cc the tax payable would be Rs 25,000.
State finance minister Mr Asim Dasgupta had announced about the increase in tax during his Budget speech while claiming that this would bring in additional revenue of Rs 15 crore. n SNS

The Five Stupidest iPhone 3G Accessories (So Far) | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

The Five Stupidest iPhone 3G Accessories (So Far) | Gadget Lab from Wired.com


The Five Stupidest iPhone 3G Accessories (So Far)
By Danny Dumas EmailJuly 16, 2008 | 7:19:24 PMCategories: Avoid At All Costs, iPhone, Reviews

Another iPhone launch, another generation of multicolored condoms, holsters and other miscellaneous polycarbonate crap designed to waste your time and drain your money. As the accessory market for the first-gen iPhone aptly demonstrated, there seems to be no limit to the gimmicky, over-the-top and flat-out useless accessories companies can conjure up for the device. And while it's still early in the 3G game, here's our short list of products whose very existence angers us. We have a strange feeling this list will grow exponentially in the coming months. —Bryan Gardiner

[Editor's note: We've assigned each accessory an A-F grade with "A" being excellent and "F " being your standard epic fail.]

Vshell_iphone3gaction 1. The DLO VideoShell

Part see-through protective case, part iPhone 3G kickstand, the VideoShell saves you the trouble of actually holding your new iPhone, all 4.7 ounces of it. DLO says the stand/case will work on any flat surface. It

Grade: Lazy, transparent and useless. Fail.

$20, dlo.com

Iphone_home_cherry 2. The iWood

If the $200 or $300 you just shelled out for the iPhone, plus the minimum $1,680 you'll be paying over the lifetime of your AT&T contract didn't put enough of a hurting on your checking account, try Minot's iWood case. This ligneous shell costs nearly as much as the 8GB iPhone -- and rumor has it, it's fashioned from Ents! Optional wood dock sold separately. Seriously we're not making this up.

Grade: Chop down a tree to make an iPhone case? Great, I've got a car that runs on baby-seal blood and bald eagles you might like. Fail.

$125, miniot.com

Picture_8 3. Macally Privacy Screen Protective Overlay

You're an important person with an important phone…doing important things. Needless to say, you'll want some privacy while updating your Facebook profile. The Macally privacy screen overlay is just the ticket. Nosey onlookers out of the 60-degree viewing angle won't see a thing on your iPhone, including how horrible you are at Super Monkey Ball.

Grade: You suck at Super Monkey Ball, and by extension, at life. Fail.

$20, macally.com



Another vanity/utility hybrid gem of an accessory from Macally; this screen protector doubles as reflective mirror when your iPhone 3G screen is turned off. Are you more beautiful than your new iPhone? Buy one and find out.

Grade: Perfect for conceited douchebags who need to signal low-flying aircraft. Fail.

$10, macally.com

Speck 5. ClipPod Car Visor and Belt Clip

OK, this one is really an accessory for an iPhone accessory. So meta! Fifteen dollars will buy you a protective pouch for (…wait for it) your Bluetooth headset. Clip it to your belt or car visor and let everyone know how easy it is for you to throw money away.

Grade: An accessory for an accessory. What, are you trying to be ironic? No, you're being an idiot. Fail.

$15, speck.com

And because we're not a bunch of jaded, chain smoking bitter cynics, here's a list of the Top 5 iPhone 3G accessories we absolutely love.