Intel Talks Up Our Wire-Free, Robot-Ruled Future

Wires have no place in Intel's vision of the future. The company on Thursday showed off developments in wire-free power transmission using a Wireless Resonant Energy Link -- technology that transmits power without cords. It also shared its vision of coming decades full of robots, rapidly accelerating technology, and morphing gadgets that are whatever you want them to be.


Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) More about Intel outlined an ambitious vision of future technologies Thursday at this year's Intel Developer Forum held in San Francisco. In his keynote address Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, spoke about and demonstrated several technologies he said would be part of an evolution that closes the gap between humans and machines by 2050.

Key concepts demoed during Rattner's talk included a wireless power source for recharging devices, shape-shifting devices made with so-called programmable matter, and personal robot prototypes that could one day lead to more human-like versions of the machines.

"The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago. There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason, in the not-so-distant future," Rattner said.

Honda launches Civic Sport - Price: Rs 12.36 lakh

Honda Siel, the Indian division has launched the new model for the Civic to keep up with the demand of the ‘Young Indian’. The car is a spin off variant of the Honda Civic and is a limited edition sports car.

The Special edition was launched just as Honda reached the 3 lakh mark in auto car sales in India.

The Honda Civic Sport will come with a 1.8Litre i-Vtec engine and will come with manual transmission. Automatic transmission will not be provided from the company itself. The car was also the highlight of the Auto Expo in Delhi which took place early this year.

“This launch will help broaden our customer base and appeal to the young at heart target audience.” said Mr Masahiro Takedagawa, President & CEO of Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.

Rel Com - MTN Deal

There has been huge debate going on in the Reliance group about this deal. Be it the Reliance ADAG group or Mukesh Ambani's RIL. The Reliance Communications - MTN deal is not a very simple one anyways. It involves MTN to first buy a minority stake in Rel Com, and then Rel com buying a majority stake in MTN to have a hold over the combined entity.

The problem comes when Mukesh Ambani stepped into the debate stating that according to the agreement of January 12, 2006 which was splitting agreement of the two brothers RIL has first right to refusal on sale of ADAG companies. Reliance Communications, Owner - Anil Ambani has come out in anger saying that RIL is not really interested in the company and these talks are just to spoil the MTN deal from happening.

It is now believed that top MTN officials are in Mumbai to meet up with the big bosses at Rel Comm to strike the deal.

Google launches web browser - Chrome

Google has launched a new web browser ahead of the Internet Explorer 8 launch. We had earlier expected that the Google browser would be launched just before IE8 somewhere in the start of 2009, but this early release by Google has come as a surprise for all.

Google Chrome as it is called looks an appealing browser and according to tests by major software giants on the Acid3 and other tests it comes up better than IE and Firefox both.

The Acid3 test rates Chrome at 78 out of 100 ahead of Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. Although the browser doesn't meet the lofty standards of the Opera browser that scores as high as 83 on this test routine.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson has named this phone as the - 'Made in India' - 'Made for India' mobile phone. One of the major reasons is the phone comes in-built with easy use of AM and FM on it. It uses a new technology to provide the user with better sound clarity and noise removal.

The SE India team was very enthusiastic on the launch of the phone. “We are witnessing unprecedented growth in smaller towns and cities and plan to increase our geographic presence in such places with launch of the Radio phone R300. The growing popularity of the radio in the tier two and tier three cities has created a tremendous opportunity for penetrating such markets and we are confident that our new offering will be well received by our consumers.” said the GM of Sony Ericsson India.

The R300 Sony ericsson mobile phone battery can be used up to 9 hours of talk time, up to 400 hours of standby time. The phone is GPRS enabled with other very minimalistic features.

The mobile phone will come in two colors, copper and black. The Sony Ericsson R300 Radio mobile phone will not cost more than Rs. 4000 or maybe a little more. For our foreign readers that's about a hudred USD.

Industry Today

Wealth creation in the 1990s has led to even greater demand for money management services today.In the U.S. alone,2.8 million Families have reached millionaire status.Mutual fund demand has continued to increase,as of 2002,there were 8000 different funds in the market ,up from just 3000 in 1990.In fact nearly 50 million house holds invest in mutual funds,with a total worth of $8.5 trillion,up from only $340 billion in 1984 and $1 trillion as recently as 1990.


As the industry has matured,total assets under management(AUMs) in the United States have grown to $20 trillion.Consolidation and Globalization have created a diverse list of leading industry players the range from well-capitalized divisions of investment banks,global insurance companies and multinational commercial banks to independent behemonths,such as Fidelity and Capital Group.

Technical Analysis vs Fundamental Analysis

Technical Analysis involves looking at charts and patterns associated with a stock's historical price movements to try to profit from predictable patterns,regardless of fundamentals such as revenue growth or expense trends.Fundamental analysis of a stock involves using financial analysis to analyze the company's underlying business,such as sales growth,its balance sheet,etc., to decide whether and when to buy and sell.The most common forms of fundamental analysis involve the traditional valuation techniques (DCF,multiples analysis)as well as the various accounting and financial statement analysis.