Apple, the makers of iPhone, has unveiled the much awaited cloud based storage and syncing service for its devices. With this, Apple comes in direct competition with other cloud service providers that have recently joined this league such as the Google and Amazon and not to forget the countless other third party service providers as well.

Contrary to earlier expectations that it will provide 2GB of storage space to its users over the cloud as being offered by the Amazon, Apple has offered 5GB of storage space to each user. Of course this storage space will be shared across all Apple devices, such as iPhones and iMacs, owned by a single user.

What makes this service commendable is the idea for which many other competitors might just say that Apple is going crazy. The users of this service can save all their purchased songs, applications, eBooks and even the photo-stream and surprisingly enough saving these on your cloud space will not cost any space deductions from the 5GB limit. The 5GB space will be used to save user generated content like documents, calendars, schedules and application setting files. All this and apple has decided to keep this completely free.

The iCloud service provides excellent backup for the files of a user while reducing their expenses on portable devices. With the iCloud, the same application would be allowed to be installed on multiple devices and that too for unlimited number of times. Once purchased, the content is automatically saved on the cloud which is then automatically pushed to all the other devices connected to it automatically.

Apple has given very detailed thoughts about the future of this service as well. It is not just limited to purchased copyrighted content but users can also make use of the iTunes Match feature which allows the users to save their own music from their music libraries that can be ripped from audio CD’s or taken from friends ion to the apple cloud by paying a nominal fee of 25 US dollars for year of storage.

Research In Motion has announced yet another update for its BlackBerry Playbook devices, named as V1.05.

Aimed at adding more functionality to the devices apart from fixing some bugs, the update comes as a welcome summer gift for the BlackBerry Playbook users. With this update, the Playbook also takes a giant step towards social networking. The Facebook app, for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, has been updated to include video uploading, message deletion, Search enhancements and more.

Along with the social media, the PlayBook also gets ‘in App purchases’ facility, making it easier for users to do transactions from within the apps. Also, RIM had announced the in-App purchase, software development kit for the developers allowing them to make newer applications with this feature.

The update aims to bring almost Browser like functionality to the application as well. Smaller tweaks, including the Wi-Fi hotspot detection feature and addition of language support, have also been added to the PlayBook with this update.

By just touching the battery icon, user will now be able to turn off, restart and shut done the device and even control the screens brightness.

The Playbook V1.05 update also brings the charger detection feature that prompts the users when a wrong charger or the BlackBerry Smart phone’s charger is plugged in to the PlayBook.

Users upgrading the device are advised to connect to a Wi-Fi network while upgrading.

During the recent ‘All Things D’ conference in California, the Nokia chief executive officer, Stephen Elop was on the stage talking about the future of Nokia. He had said then that Symbian was a “slow moving platform” and that to keep up with iOS and Android, Nokia chose to go with Windows Phone 7.

Nokia had, in fact, earlier planned to go with MeeGo but it soon figured out that Windows Phone 7 would be more change friendly. Another important announcement was they would not do anything on Windows Phone 7 that other WP7 users wouldn’t be able to get. The hardware business will continue with Nokia.

Apart from the global level fire fighting, the company is making sure to fight back well on the Indian turf as well, where it has lost significant market share to some Chinese and Indian companies. In a bid to wrestle back its lost markets share, Nokia has recently launched two dual SIM phones, which constitutes about 40 per cent of the Indian market.

The new Nokia C2-00 has some innovative features such as booting in 30 seconds, option to insert the second SIM without switching off the phone, and 32GB expandable memory &#151 all this, priced at less than Rs 3,000.

Nokia’s attempt to rebuild itself has solid reasons, the company used to virtually own the Indian market only some time ago. The problem, however, is not just the lack of multi SIM phones in their portfolio. Entry level users are asking for all the features at reduced prices, and they are easily getting it from Chinese and Indian handset providers as well.

Besides, the Finnish handset maker is also coming up with varied services, such as the recently launched Nokia Money service, to gain customers loyalty back.

The service will allow users to make payments through their Nokia phones. The e-wallet services from Nokia is available in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Chandigarh, Nasik and Pune and the other cities where operations will soon begin include Lucknow, Kanpur, Surat, Baroda, Rajkot, Kochi and Kozhikode.

On the back of World Health Organisation cautioning that radiation from mobile phones could cause cancer in humans, an Inter Ministerial Group, set up by the Department of Telecommunications, has recommended reduction in the radiation levels of mobiles in the country.

The committee was set up in August 2010 to evaluate the evidence, revisit radiation guidelines for mobile towers and adopt guidelines for radiation emission by cell phones.
This group had experts from Department of Telecom, Ministry of Health, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Environment & Forests and Indian Council of Medical Research.

Currently, maximum permissible SAR value, as per the Indian guidelines, is 2 Watt per kg (of user’s body mass), and the committee recommends that this be lowered to 1.6 Watt per kg, as prescribed by the Federal Communication Commission of USA.

SA R or specific absorption ratio level, determines the level of radiation that a phone emits and the lower the level the better it is. SAR is a value that corresponds to the rate at which radio waves are absorbed by the body of a person using a wireless handset.

Manufacturers will also have to mandatorily declare radiation level on each mobile handset, which help people compare phones based on their SAR value and therefore induce competition amongst manufacturers to reduce radiation levels.

Although these recommendations came in February, it was placed on the internet for public comments and suggestions, and now the final report is ready and with the government, this was announced by the State minister for Telecom, Sachin Pilot.

WHO (World Health Organisation), though cautioned about mobile radiations’ cancerous effects, said that there is no provable link between human health and mobile, but many organisations have come out recently with studies that have proved adverse effect on mental and physical health of not just humans but also birds and bees.