Service quality to be reported
Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is to begin tracking the quality of service provided by telecommunications operators in the country. The TRA said that the new measure obliges all licensed operators including fixed line, mobile and Internet providers and directory inquiry service providers to measure and report the quality of services given to customers.
Operators will be rated according to service indicators such as the number of consumer complaints about billing, faults and disconnection, the time it takes to resolve complaints and the handling of customer queries. The TRA believes the measure will empower subscribers to make informed decisions when choosing telecommunications services.
All-day power
It’s been the long awaited milestone in mobile computing — 24 hours of continuous notebook operation on a single battery charge. As measured by an industry-standard benchmark, the new HP EliteBook 6930p configured with an optional ultra-capacity battery has delivered up to 24 hours of battery runtime.
The basic HP EliteBook 6930p configuration starts at only 2.1 kg. It features a 14.1-inch diagonal widescreen display and is available with an optional, mercury-free Illumi-Lite LED display. Built for the corporate road warrior, the notebook features a shock-resistant hard drive, enhanced display panel and spill-resistant keyboard. It was designed to meet the tough MIL-STD 810F military-standard tests that measure levels of environmental reliability and operation at extreme temperatures, while withstanding vibration and high humidity. The inner magnesium shell of the notebook’s HP DuraCase is equipped with a honeycomb pattern that is thermally bonded to anodized aluminum for a solid construction.
Paper replacement for business
Most business user print files because text can be difficult to read on a computer monitor. So consider bringing the Plastic Logic Reader (www.plasticlogic.com) into the office. This electronic reader has a large form factor — the size of 8.5 x 11-inch paper. Yet it’s thinner than a pad of paper, lighter than many business periodicals and offers a high-quality reading experience — better than the alternatives of paper or other electronic readers on the market today.
The Plastic Logic Reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. It has an easy gesture-based user interface and software tools that will help business users to organize and manage their information. Users can connect to their information either wired or wirelessly and store thousands of documents on the device. The reader incorporates E Ink technology for great readability and features low power consumption and long battery life. The Plastic Logic reader is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2009.
Core to the Plastic Logic Reader is its display, which was first developed at Cambridge University. The display uses high-resolution transistor arrays on flexible plastic substrates, manufactured at a low temperature. The promise of plastic electronics is to disintermediate the traditional silicon-based semiconductor industry with components and products that are lighter, less expensive and more environmentally friendly. Plastic electronics technology has broad applicability across many markets. Current estimates value the plastic electronics industry at $30 billion by 2015.
The Plastic Logic Reader will be manufactured at a dedicated facility in Dresden, Germany which opens this week. The factory is the world’s first commercial-scale plastic electronics manufacturing facility. Final pricing for the Plastic Logic Reader will be announced when the product ships, although it is expected to be competitively priced among e-reading products.
A matter of perspective
There are many efforts that combine real world and virtual resources to create new media offerings. The latest of these, “Campus Post,” is from StandWithUs (www.standwithus.com) and the Jerusalem Post (JP). Campus Post is an English language monthly newspaper about Israel for students. The 32-page full-color monthly is being mailed as an insert to the subscribers of the international edition of the JP in the United States. It will also be distributed free at the US and Canadian universities.
The new publication claims to provide an “opportunity to expose Israel-related challenges” at colleges and universities and how students respond to them. It includes articles about pro-Israel events, such as Israel@60, and articles about life in Israel. The front cover of the debut issue showcases a report on the minds of terrorists and suicide bombers.
The hard copy of the publication is supported by a website, campuspost.org, which aims to be an open forum through which university students and faculty can express their thoughts, experiences and perspectives about Israel. Campus Post encourages all pro-Israel campus-related organizations and individuals to use the website to submit articles for publication.
