CNET once again presents the official awards program of CES. The awards recognize the best products at the show, including a Best of Show award and a People’s Voice award, as voted by the CNET audience.

http://www.cnet.com/ces/peoples-voice/

Eindhoven, which made ICF’s list of the Top Seven finalists for three consecutive years, was represented by a delegation led by Mayor Rob van Gijzel of the City of Eindhoven and Deputy Mayor Yvonne van Mierlo of the City of Helmond. ICF Co-founder Louis A. Zacharilla presented the award to Eindhoven, which succeeded Suwon, South Korea, the 2010 recipient. Representatives from Suwon were on hand to see the succession, as were officials from former recipients, including Stockholm, Sweden (2009), Gangnam, the high-tech district in Seoul (2008), Waterloo, Canada (2007), Taipei (2006), and Glasgow (2004).

The awards are presented by the independent think tank as part of its annual summit, Building the Broadband Economy. The annual invitation-only conference was attended by 275 thought leaders from around the world. The event is produced in association with the Institute for Technology & Enterprise at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute. The goal of the awards is to increase awareness of the role that broadband communications and information access technologies play in shaping the economic and social development of communities worldwide. Mayors, city managers, CIOs, and executives of leading technology companies from around the world, as well as academics and urban planners, are part of the Intelligent Community movement and were on hand throughout the three-day program (www.icfsummit.com).

Intelligent Community of the Year 2011:  Eindhoven, The Netherlands
The Eindhoven Region, south of Amsterdam, has long been the industrial center of Holland, with 730,000 inhabitants and a workforce of 400,000. Eindhoven generates €24 billion of GDP and €55 billion in exports, one-quarter of the Dutch total. It is a manufacturing center in a high-cost country. By focusing on producing high-value, technology-based products, it is in competition with fast-growing manufacturing centers in nations with much lower costs. At the same time, however, Eindhoven is saddled with demographics familiar to Europe and much of the West, in which a low birth rate and aging population is reducing the regional labor force. To win the battle for the talent that provides its competitive advantage, the region must make itself economically and socially attractive to knowledge workers from around the world and concentrate on innovation.

Eindhoven’s answer to these challenges is a public-private partnership called Brainport Development. Its members include employers, research institutes, the Chamber of Commerce, the SRE, leading universities and the governments of the region’s three largest cities. A small professional staff meets regularly with stakeholders to identify their strengths, needs and objectives, then looks for opportunities for them to collaborate on business, social or cultural goals. Its range of projects includes broadband deployment and applications, workforce development, digital inclusion, marketing and advocacy for the region – and especially innovation.

In healthcare – the theme of the 2011 ICF summit – the region already has nearly 825 businesses active in the sector, which employ 17,000 people. To drive further growth, Brainport created a project called Brainport Health Innovation (BHI). Its goals are to foster increased well-being for the elderly and chronically ill, to reduce healthcare costs and increase productivity, and to do so while generating economic opportunities for the region.

The total cost of regional healthcare is forecast to rise from €17bn currently to €25bn by 2020, in large part because of the need for 100,000 new healthcare workers. BHI’s goal is to improve productivity by 1 percent per year, which would reduce demand for new personnel by 25,000 and save about €750 million. Meanwhile, BHI’s work is expected to generate 150 new companies employing at least 10,000 people. This is a conscious effort to reduce employment demand in one area in order to increase it in another, thus benefitting the entire region.

BHI has involved hospitals, insurance companies, technology manufacturers local government and individual patients to design and implement realistic technology solutions that offer a profitable operating model. A Living Lab eHealth project is planned, in which aging people will test new services and products introduced by the BHI participants, including remote monitoring and diagnostics enabled by the broadband network.

ICF Co-founder Louis Zacharilla congratulated the new Intelligent Community of the Year, saying, “Eindhoven is the model for a new way of thinking about collaboration and regional development. It has developed an ecosystem that links its private sector, government and its academic and creative communities in a way that looks like an economic ‘triple helix.’ What has emerged is an extremely efficient local economy that can compete with anyone, anywhere. It is focused on what I call ambient innovation. It is constantly creating and redesigning itself based on its goals. It never loses focus. I am pleased that Eindhoven has finally achieved what it has sought, recognition as one of the world’s communities we can all learn from.”

About ICF
The Intelligent Community Forum is a New York-based think tank that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community and attempts to help shape and to energize cities, regions and communities worldwide. Whether in industrial or developing nations, communities are challenged to create prosperity, stability and cultural meaning in a world where jobs, investment and progress increasingly depend on broadband communications and access technologies. The Intelligent Community Forum shares best practices with every community and provides research and insights into the success of the world’s designated Intelligent Communities. ICF develops criteria, conducts research, hosts events, publishes reports and holds an international awards program. In May 2010 ICF announced the establishment of a non-profit association of intelligent communities. It is a working group for the world’s nearly 100 intelligent communities. ICF is partnered with the Polytechnic Institute of New York University which hosts its annual summit, “Building the Broadband Economy.” The Intelligent Community Forum was founded by Robert A. Bell, John G. Jung and Louis A. Zacharilla, authors of Broadband Economies (2008).

La base de clients « assurance » de Best Buy Europe en Belgique ne fait pas partie de la transaction.
La vente est conditionnée par la validation de l’Autorité belge de la concurrence. L’accord de cession a été fait le 14 avril 2011, mais la cession finale ne sera prononcée qu’une fois que l’Autorité belge de la concurrence aura statué. Cette prise de décision pourra prendre plusieurs mois.
Pendant cette période, The Phone House Belgique restera la propriété de Best Buy Europe. Belgacom n’interviendra donc pas dans la gestion des affaires courantes.

La cession permettra à Best Buy d’investir dans ses autres filiales en Europe et de développer sa stratégie «Wireless World ».

The Phone House cède à Belgacom une équipe très bien formée et entièrement dédiée à la satisfaction clients. Son succès a été construit grâce au travail et à la passion de l’ensemble des collaborateurs The Phone House.

Vu l’importance de l’annonce pour ses collaborateurs, The Phone House donne la priorité à la communication à son personnel en interne. Le groupe mettra tout en oeuvre pour tenir ses collaborateurs informés tout au long du processus de cession.

The Phone House emploie 530 collaborateurs dans quelque 83 magasins The Phone House, 31 point de ventes pour le compte de Carrefour et 17 magasins pour le compte de Belgacom.

À l’heure actuelle, les téléphones mobiles sont utilisés comme des ordinateurs. On peut donc voler tant les données que l’appareil même. Les téléphones contiennent des informations sensibles, notamment des mots de passe et des documents personnels. En général, il est possible d’avoir accès à l’ensemble du réseau social du propriétaire de l’appareil. La perte ou le vol peut donc avoir des conséquences graves. Les chiffres exacts ne sont pas connus pour le marché belge, mais les opérateurs belges auraient bloqué plus de 50.000 cartes SIM en 2010. Et cela ne fait qu’augmenter.

Téléphones télécommandables
Mobile Security de BullGuard dispose d’un module antivol qui peut être géré par un navigateur Internet afin de pouvoir bloquer des téléphones en cas de vol ou d’effacer intégralement l’appareil et toutes les informations personnelles qui s’y trouvent. Il devient dès lors impossible d’accéder aux données personnelles et aux autres fonctions du téléphone.

Pour un utilisateur, bloquer son téléphone est une tâche fastidieuse. Il peut uniquement le faire en transmettant le numéro IMEI du téléphone à la police ou au fournisseur. Cependant, rares sont les personnes qui connaissent ce numéro ou qui pensent à le noter avant le vol ou la perte de leur téléphone. Et même lorsqu’un téléphone est bloqué, rien ne prouve que le téléphone ne sera pas utilisé à l’étranger par un autre fournisseur.

L’installation d’un module antivol sur les téléphones offre une solution à ces problèmes. Vous gagnez ainsi en indépendance : plus besoin d’avoir le numéro IMEI à portée de main. Et disparu, le souci de savoir que l’appareil sera utilisé à l’étranger avec un autre fournisseur !

La police peut retrouver les téléphones
La traçabilité des téléphones est une caractéristique du Security Suite de BullGuard. De cette manière, l’on peut retrouver rapidement le téléphone en cas de perte ou de vol. Si vous pensez que le téléphone a été volé, il faut contacter la polic

It seems that the OS has been optimised to enable applications to run faster, use less memory, and deliver improved scrolling. It will also improve device battery life. The report also says that the code has been optimised without requiring developers to change their apps.

The company also provided an “early glimpse of app concepts” for the next version of Windows Phone OS, “with new experiences from Skype, Spotify, Layar, Qantas, Amazon Shopping and Kik Messenger.”

Joe Belfiore, corporate VP for Windows Phone Program Management at Microsoft, said: “The next release of Windows Phone represents the evolution of our strategy for ensuring that developers are at the forefront of ‘what’s next’ by investing in even richer customer experiences, a powerful application platform and a thriving ecosystem. We will soon deliver a new set of Windows Phone Developer Tools that will enable developers to create a new generation of apps that are even faster, more capable and better integrated with Windows Phone.”

Marketplace update
Microsoft is also readying some updates to the Windows phone Marketplace. It said that more countries will be supported for the “creation and commerce” of apps, with the total increasing to 35 from 16 – with China the most notable of the new additions. It also trumpeted “expanded reach,” with a dedicated games Marketplace, parental controls, and a new beta distribution service.

The company is also targeting improved discoverability, with “exposure through Bing Search ‘extras,’ expanded search functionality and new merchandising opportunities.” Additional monetisation opportunities will be provided through extended operator billing support and expanded country support for the advertising SDK, and the Marketplace procedures have also been “streamlined,” including App Hub application submission, update, management and reporting capabilities.

The number of apps available through the Windows Phone Marketplace has passed 13,000.

Après l’euphorie de la victoire vient le temps de l’analyse. Et les données recueillies par le GPS Edge 500 de Garmin, avec lequel Johan Van Summeren court et s’entraîne, sont une source inestimable d’informations.

Des données mises en cartes et graphiques sur la communauté en ligne Garmin Connect, qui permettent aussi de revivre la course exceptionnelle du champion, mètre par mètre, seconde par seconde et de suivre par exemple l’évolution de sa vitesse par rapport aux dénivelées ou  sa consommation de calories.

Avec un temps de course de plus de 6 h à une vitesse moyenne de 35,7 km /h, pas étonnant que Johan ait brûlé près de 10 000 calories !

Adobe CS 5.5 is now offering out-of-the-box, file system-based tablet publishing functionality. WoodWing’s Tablet Publishing Solution is offering additional Smart Magazine panels in InDesign to increase the workflow efficiency, especially for periodical tablet publications. Furthermore, the tight integration of WoodWing’s tablet tools with the Enterprise database provides unique workgroup usage. WoodWing also brings the interactivity to the next level by allowing nested interactivities, like links in scrollable areas, scrollable areas on hotspots and nested hotspots.

WoodWing’s Tablet Publishing Solution enables publishers to create tablet publications for multiple platforms, such as iOS, Android, HP webOS, and Blackberry Tablet OS as well as HTML5. Another big advantage is the fact that all different tablet versions can be created based on just one InDesign file, using WoodWing’s innovative multi-screen functionality. WoodWing has paved the way to standardization in the field of multi-platform tablet publishing by the recent release of the Open Format for Interactive Publications (ofip).

CS 5.5-compatible versions of WoodWing’s solutions close to beta
WoodWing is close to the beta stage of CS 5.5 versions of its Digital Magazine plug-ins for InDesign and its Enterprise publishing system. Content Station, the content management application built on top of Enterprise, already supports the upcoming CS 5.5 version. WoodWing’s renowned productivity plug-ins, such as Smart Styles and Smart Layout, are also expected to enter the beta stage shortly.

Representatives of the power and ICT industries came together to address the challenges they face in standardising Smart Grid technology.

Understanding the challenge of Smart Grid standardisation was the key theme at ETSI’s first Smart Grid standardisation workshop. The Smart Grid is a prime example of where Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be applied to other industry sectors, enabling new solutions and leading to more efficient delivery of services.

Developing and deploying the Smart Grid requires close collaboration between the power industry and the ICT industry, using the best experience from both. Smart Grid will contain a mix of legacy and new technologies integrated into a common architecture, enabling new services and applications such as integration of renewable energy sources, widespread adoption of electric vehicles and better energy consumption management. In fact many of the challenges Smart Grid operators will face in deploying, managing and evolving Smart Grids will be familiar to ETSI’s members.

The European Commission has recognised the importance of Smart Grid development to Europe’s economic future, establishing a Smart Grids Task Force and issuing a mandate to the three European Standards Organizations (ETSI, CEN and CENELEC) to develop standards for Smart Grid. The three standards bodies are responding by working in partnership to co-ordinate their activities and take account of all industry needs.

Partnership at a global level will also be required in order to develop Smart Grid technologies. This was clearly demonstrated by the strong international presence at this workshop, with representation from standards bodies, research institutes and industry from China, Japan, Korea and North America.
The two-day workshop provided an update on the status of Smart Grid standardisation in the industry standards bodies, including ETSI. It considered proposals for architectures, communication technologies, data and information management, privacy and security, integration of the Smart Grid into homes, and collected feedback from a number of pilot projects.

et s’élève aujourd’hui à 5 millions par jour, une augmentation attribuable aux derniers mobiles Symbian, les Nokia N8, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 et Nokia E7, qui représentent environ 15 % des téléchargements quotidiens.

Jusqu’à 5 millions de téléchargements par jour
Plus de 40 000 applications, soit une croissance quasiment multipliée par huit en un an
158 développeurs enregistrent 1 million de téléchargements chacun

Pour répondre à la demande d’applications supplémentaires des 200 millions d’utilisateurs Symbian, le catalogue d’Ovi Store a été enrichi et compte désormais plus de 40 000 applications, avec environ un ajout de 1 000 nouveautés par semaine. Cette évolution a permis à 158 développeurs d’applications de 41 pays de franchir la barre du million de téléchargements chacun.

Le Nokia X7 est un smartphone multimédia pour le  divertissement doté d’un grand écran de 4 pouces idéal pour le jeu, et d’un appareil photo 8 mégapixels pour la prise de photos et de vidéos de qualité HD. Conçu de façon originale, le Nokia X7 est composé d’acier inoxydable sans soudure et de verre, offrant ainsi une bonne prise en main. Il est préchargé avec deux jeux HD populaires, Galaxy on Fire et Asphalt 5.

Ces nouveaux smartphones Nokia E6 et Nokia X7 sont également les premiers à intégrer la mise à jour complète du système d’exploitation Symbian: appelée Symbian Anna. Cette mise à jour inclut de nombreuses améliorations, dont de nouvelles icônes, une saisie de texte améliorée, un navigateur Web plus rapide et une nouvelle version de l’application Ovi Cartes qui inclut une fonction de recherche améliorée et les lignes de transports en commun. Cette nouvelle version de Symbian comprend également de nouvelles fonctionnalités destinées aux professionnels notamment, dont un cryptage matériel accéléré et de nouvelles fonctionnalités de messagerie électronique telles que la prise en charge des demandes de réunion. Dans les mois prochains les propriétaires de Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7 et Nokia C6-01 pourront mettre à jour leur smartphone, avec cette version Symbian Anna, par téléchargement.