7-inch phablet with 3G powered by Asus

Aiming to tap the Indian tablet and smartphone market, notebook maker Asus today launched a 7-inch phablet called Fonepad running on Android 4.1 platform with 3G connectivity and powered by an Intel processor.

Phablet are a class of smartphones with screen sizes ranging from 5-8 inches and designed to combine functions of a phone and tablet.

"By incorporating 3G mobile data connectivity with full telephony support, Asus Fonepad is the prefect combination of a tablet and phone in a single device," Asus India Regional Director South Asia and Country Manager System Business Group Peter Chang said here.

Powered by an Intel Atom processor Z2420, Fonepad comes in a sleek metallic design weighing 340 grams and has a slim 10.4 mm profile. Besides, it has 8 GB internal memory and comes with a microSD slot for up to 32 GB additional storage.

The phablet has up to nine hours of battery life, Chang claimed, adding that it has a 1.2 mega pixel front camera and a 3 mega pixel rear camera with 720p HD video recording.

Fonepad also sports ASUS SonicMaster audio technology with MaxxAudio 3 processing audio technology for clear sound quality, he said.

"Fonepad has been competitively priced at Rs 15,999 and it will be available from next week," Chang added.

Speaking at the launch, Intel South Asia Managing Director (Sales and Marketing) Debjani Ghosh said Fonepad is a great example of bringing to the market an innovative product that addresses the emerging market with a large screen size in a mobile device that runs fast with responsive applications.

"We will significantly increase the urgency to introduce a range of innovative and differentiated offerings that will shape the future of this segment. India will be 50 per cent market for phablets in the APAC (Asia Pacific) region in the coming time," she added.

Shyam Saran : India's Sea-Based Nuclear Deterrent Soon

India's nuclear deterrent is based on a credible nuclear doctrine and is sustained by a "systematic drive to operationalize" its various delivery components, including a sea-based one by 2015-16, Shyam Saran, chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, said here Wednesday.

Countering critics of India's nuclear weapons programme that it was driven by notions of prestige rather than considerations of national security, Saran, also a former foreign secetary who was closely connected with the negotiation of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, said India's nuclear doctrine is based on the current geopolitical environment, especially with Pakistan actively building up its nuclear arsenal and keeping its aggressive actions and strategies against India in mind.

Giving a talk on "Is India's nuclear deterrent credible?", at the India Habitat Centre, Saran said: "India does have a credible theory of how its nuclear weapons may be used and that is spelt out in its nuclear doctrine."

He said India's nuclear doctrine, which was formally adopted at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in Jan 4, 2003, and the regular checks that are held have strengthened the level of confidence in India's nuclear deterrent.

While further reforms would be required "to make our deterrent more robust, it is unhelpful to peddle the impression that it is dysfunctional or worse that it is non-existent", he said at the lecture, held in collaboration with the Subbu Forum and the Society for Policy Studies (SPS).

Time For Me To Score A Big One: Dilshan

Royal Challengers' batsmen Tillakaratne Dilshan, who is yet to come out with a big one, said it is high time for him to play a big inning.

"I have been getting 20s and 30s. I want to score a big one and make it easy for the middle order batsmen," Dilshan told IPLT20.com.

On Tuesday, Dilshan was a mere spectator as Chris Gayle blasted a record 175 not out from 66 deliveries. Dilshan contributed just 33 in the 167-run opening partnership with Gayle.

Dilshan was all praise for Gayle and was happy that he was part of a special innings.

"I batted with him in the last Indian Premier League (IPL) too and he scored a couple of hundreds. But this was something special. In my career this was the first time I saw someone hit the ball so cleanly. I was just standing at the other end and enjoying every bit of it," he said.

When asked had Gayle said anything before or during the knock, Dilshan said: "We don't talk much. Both of us believe in hitting the ball and that's what we look to do. We just look to enjoy every single ball."

The Sri Lankan also said that he enjoys batting with Gayle.

"I took over the hitting in the last match but today he was completely in charge and that is mostly the case. Every bowler in the world is scared to bowl to Chris; there's no doubt about that," he added.

"He doesn't take too many chances for the first couple of overs. Once when he starts seeing the ball well, he takes the charge on. Once he reaches that stage where he knows he can clear any boundary.

"I try to give him more strike in the first six overs because I know that he can clear the 30-yard circle more cleanly than I can. Not only the circle, he can clear the ground easily," he added.

Dishan feels since the most dangerous batsmen in the world - Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and himself - are in the same team, they can go a long way in the tournament.

Saina,Sindhu enters round two of India open

As expected, top seed Saina Nehwal made a winning start to her campaign at the India Open badminton but it was end of the road for World No. 7 Parupalli Kashyap at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

Saina, the London Olympics bronze medallist, took just 33 minutes to breeze past Indonesian Belaetrix Manuputi 21-12, 21-15 in the women’s singles, while fifth seed Kashyap failed to overcome former World No. 1 Taufik Hidayat, bowing out 21-13, 21-23, 18-21 in a keenly-contested men’s singles first round clash.

Saina now faces Japan’s Yui Hashimoto in next round.

The Kashyap disappointment notwithstanding, there was good news in the Indian camp with P.V.

Sindhu, Ajay Jayaram, R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt and K.Srikanth turning in gritty performances.

While Sindhu showed Chinese Xue Yao the door with a 17-21, 21-18, 21-14 victory, World No. 30 Jayaram saw off Vladimir Malkov 21-17, 21-17. Guru Sai Dutt won by a 21-16, 21-17 margin against Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto. Anand Pawar too advanced with a 11-21, 21-13, 21-19 win over Japan’s Takuma Ueda.

But the highlight of the day was promising youngster Srikanth’s upset win over fourth seeded Dane Jan O Jorgensen 21-7, 18-21, 21-12.

“It is one of the biggest wins of my career. I lost to him (Jorgensen) in the Swiss Open so it was a sweet victory for me,” said Srikanth.

Having made early exits in the previous editions of the event, Saina began on a strong note as she led throughout the first game.

Relying on smashes and cross court tosses, the World No. 2 opened up 4-1, before quickly moving to 143.

Though the Indonesian capitalised on a few unforced errors, the Indian took away the game with a winner.

In contrast, the second game was keenly contested as Balaetrix came up with a strong counter to Saina’s attacks and caught up with the Indian on several occasions. Trailing 2-5, the Indonesian made it 5-5 before making it 9-8. But Saina came back to level with the opponent at 10-10 before leading 17-14 and then went on to win from there.

Hyderabad Woman Ends Life After Tiff Over TV Remote

In a shocking incident, a young woman here ended her life by taking a lethal injection after a quarrel with her brother over the TV remote.

The incident took place Tuesday at their house in Machabollaram at Alwal here Tuesday, police said.

Twenty-year-old Madhu Priya, working as a nurse in a private hospital, had a fight with her brother over the TV remote. He was reportedly watching a cricket match while she wanted to watch some other programme. When he refused to give the remote, she went inside a room and administered herself a poisonous injection.

She was taken to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead.

In a similar incident in December last year in the old city of Hyderabad, an 18-year-old girl had committed suicide by hanging herself after a fight with her sister over the TV remote.

Sugary drinks can raise diabetes risk by 22 percent

Drinking just one can of sugar-laced soda drink a day increases the risk of developing diabetes by more than a fifth, according to a large European study published on Wednesday.

Using data from 350,000 people in eight European countries, researchers found that every extra 12 fluid ounce (340 ml) serving of sugar-sweetened drink raises the risk of diabetes by 22 percent compared with drinking just one can a month or less.

"Given the increase in sweet beverage consumption in Europe, clear messages on the unhealthy effect of these drinks should be given to the population," said Dora Romaguera, who led with study with a team at Imperial College London.

A 12-fluid-ounce serving is about equivalent to a normal-sized can of Coca-Cola, Pepsi or other soft drink.

The findings echo similar conclusions from research in the United States, where several studies have shown that intake of sugar-sweetened drinks is strongly linked with higher body weight and conditions like type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is a long-term condition characterized by insulin resistance that affects around 2.9 million people in Britain and, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 310 million people worldwide.

Romaguera's team wanted to establish whether a link between sugary drinks and diabetes risk also existed in Europe.

For their study, they used data from 350,000 people from Britain, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France, Italy, Netherlands who were questioned about their diet, including how many sugary and artificially sweetened soft drinks and juices they drank each day.

Writing in the journal Diabetologia, the researchers said their study "corroborates the association between increased incidence of Type-2 diabetes and high consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks in European adults".

Fruit juice consumption was not linked to diabetes incidence.

Patrick Wolfe, a statistics expert from University College London who was not involved in the research, said the message from its results was clear.

"The bottom line is that sugary soft drinks are not good for you - they have no nutritional value and there is evidence that drinking them every day can increase your relative risk for type 2 diabetes," he said in an emailed comment.

Beware of internet virus that steals bankaccount and password

NEW DELHI: A new virus has been found to be "spreading widely" in the Indian cyberspace which cleverly steals bank account details and passwords of the user once it is clicked. 

Country's cyber security sleuths have alerted Internet users in the country about the new and suspected variant of malware family called 'Win32/Ramnit'. 

"Ramnit worm spreads by infecting or modifying files existing on target systems such as (EXE, dll or html) and creating a new section so as to modify the entry point to that section," an advisory issued by country's premier cyber security agency -- Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) -- said. 

The malware, the advisory states, "steals credentials like file transfer protocol passwords, bank account logins, infects removable media, changes browser settings and downloads and executes arbitrary files". 

The virus is so deadly and potent, cyber sleuths say, that it has ability to hide itself from anti-virus solutions and acquires various aliases to attack a genuine system or Internet-based connection which works to play emails and other user services. 

The virus is such lethal in its operations that it "infects the removable media by copying itself to its recycle bin and creates an autorun.inf file," the advisory said. 

Once the system is infected, the malware injects its code into windows executables, html files or dlls to communicate with its command and control server, thereby compromising the security of the online system. 

The agency has also advised some counter measures in this regard. 

The combat steps against this virus stipulate that users should not download and open attachments in emails received from untrusted users or unexpectedly received from trusted users, one should exercise caution while visiting links to web pages and users should not visit untrusted websites. 

"Enable firewall at desktop and gateway level and disable ports that are not required, avoid downloading pirated software, keep up-to-date patches and fixes on the operating system and application softwares and keep up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware signatures at desktop and gateway level," the advisory stated.