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Dish TV India Limited (Dishtv) has appointed R.C. Venkateish as the CEO of the company. Venkateish recently resigned from ESPN Star Sports as Managing Director. Bringing with him a wealth of more than 27 years’ experience, of which 12 years have been in senior international positions, Venkateish has worked with global brands like Smithkline Beecham, Nestle India, Gillette, Kellogg India and ESPN Star Sports. Prior to joining Dish TV, Venkateish was the Managing Director India and South Asia for ESPN Star Sports and was responsible for business operations in these regions. He brings along with him a successful track record in turning around businesses and improving operating performances while re-defining the business process for winning brands like Oral-B, Kellogg’s etc. Venkateish holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from IIT – Madras and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Jawahar Goel, Managing Director, Dish

New Delhi: Backed by financial support, upgraded technology and a comprehensive pan-India distribution strategy, DD Direct Plus is aiming to double its existing subscriber base to over 12 million within next 15-18 months. The country’s first and only free direct-to-home (DTH) platform aims to challenge the dominance of six private DTH firms that currently command 25 million subscribers. In the process, DD Direct Plus has overhauled itself to provide the viewers a competitive DTH service at no monthly cost, sources in the I&B ministry said. To meet this aim within a fixed time frame, the ministry has decided to pump in Rs 81 crore in DD Direct Plus. A detailed proposal to this effect was approved last week by the ministry, a source said. This is significant because it is the first instance of a major funding exercise undertaken by the government for DD Direct Plus since its launch in 2004. However, to implement the plans, Doordarshan will be told to double the subscriber base

DTH major Dish TV today said it has partnered with sports broadcaster Ten Sports for bringing the High Definition (HD) telecast of the Micromax Cup India-Sri Lanka Test Series 2010 and One-Day Tri-Series between India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka to its subscribers. “Under the partnership, three test matches of the Micromax Cup (between India and Sri Lanka) and one-day tri-series between India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, starting July 18, 2010, would be available for our subscribers,” Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor said. “After FIFA World Cup, we are now offering international cricket series free to all Dish TV HD subscribers, new and existing,” he added. The ODIs will be available in a multi-lingual feed — Tamil, Kannada and Telugu — in both HD and Standard Definition (SD) formats, he added. HD transmissions offer better picture and sound quality compared to standard definition (SD) transmissions. HD set-top boxes (STB), which offer wide-angle viewing, are considered particularly suita

Strong growth of the domestic direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast market may soon catapult India into the No. 1 position globally in terms of the largest DTH subscriber base, ahead of the US, an industry official said. As of June 30 this year, India had 23.5 million DTH subscribers. “As at June-end, the DTH subscriber base in India stood at 23.5 million, which is equivalent to the size of the markets in other countries. By this year-end, we will leave the US behind, which has got a 32 million subscribers base, making us the largest DTH country,” Bharat Business Channel Limited (BBCL) Chief Executive Officer Anil Khera told. BBCL is the DTH broadcast arm of the multi-billion dollar Videocon Group. There are currently seven DTH broadcast service providers in the country with a combined revenue of around USD 2 billion. The industry will clock an 18 per cent growth this year, Khera said, adding, “Every month, around 8.50 lakh new customers are coming in across the DTH platform.” The

Few days before the World Cup finals between Spain and the Netherlands, football fans in parts of India found themselves unsure of whether they were going to be able to watch the clash of the Titans. The problem: a power supply failure in the communications satellite Insat -4B, meant that some Direct-To-Home (DTH) players like Sun Direct and DD Direct were unable to provide services to their viewers. While Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists quickly swung into action to rectify the problem, it served as a quick reminder of how much businesses are dependant on satellites—be it in terms of satellite technology, data or imagery. In fact, it is estimated that almost 56% of the revenues of the Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the ISRO, in 2008-2009, came from the business of leasing out transponders for the video and telecommunication services. The biggest user, undeniably, is the DTH industry, which already has a market of over 22 million homes in India and is

Serving its role of being a socially responsible corporate 94.3 MY FM once again took an initiative under ‘Koshish Dil Se’ umbrella to highlight the ailments of over population this World Population Day. MY FM Jalandhar team in association with Civil Surgeon Jalandhar, Punjab, took to the stage this World Population Day, by performing Nukkad Nautanki- a street play to impart the side effects of over population to the city’s residents. With a core message of family planning the team presented the gravity of the issue in an utmost creative manner. The initiative involved highlighting key messages of wise use of contraceptives, family planning and more. Setup on a busy street of the town, the play witnessed a plethora of audience, who quite attentively came around and received the message with an open mind. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Harrish M Bhatia – CEO, 94.3 MY FM (Dainik Bhaskar Group) shared “India is a progressive country and we are quite proud of what we have achieved, a

Venugopal Iyengar, erstwhile head – marketing, Walt Disney Television International India has moved to Sun Direct as head, marketing. Sun Direct is Sun Network’s DTH arm. Iyengar took charge at Sun Direct last week and reports to Tony D’Silva, chief executive officer, Sun Direct. D’Silva confirmed Iyengar’s appointment. Prior to Sun Direct, Iyengar had a four-year stint at Walt Disney Television International India. He joined in June 2006 as head – marketing for Disney Channel. At Disney, he led the off-air marketing teams for three TV channels in India – Disney Channel, Disney XD and Hungama TV. He also handled franchise management. Before that, Iyengar was with Zee Cinema for a year as deputy vice-president, marketing. He has also worked with MTV Networks India for four years as associate director, marketing, where he looked after Nick as well. In a career spanning 15 years, Iyengar has also worked with Shopper’s Stop, Buena Vista Television and AC Nielsen. Iyengar is an engi

Direct-To-Home (DTH) companies may have to wait for a while before their recently launched High Definition television (HDTV) services starts contributing to their revenue growth. DTH players and analysts feel that revenues from HD customers would add up to the average revenue per user (ARPUs) only in the long-run, once the number of channels beaming HD content increases and the subscriber base multiplies. The past month saw almost all DTH players launching their HD service to take advantage of the FIFA World Cup that was beamed by ESPN in HD format. The rush to acquire customers did force some companies to drop prices of their HDTV offering. “HD is only in the long run,” said Mr Anand Shah, analyst at Angel Securities. “There is hardly any contribution from HD. We don’t expect the ARPUs of DTH players to increase in the near term,” Mr Shah said. This is mainly because the numbers of channels offering HD content are few and so also the HD subscribers. According to a FICCI-KPMG repor

Whisked away to a women's jail in an unmarked sheriff's car after a brief hearing, Lindsay Lohan reported Tuesday for a 90-day sentence that the troubled actress likely will serve in isolation, and which may be significantly shortened. Wearing dark denim jeans, a gray top, black corset belt and black jacket, the 24-year-old Lohan showed up at the Beverly Hills courtoom about 10 minutes late. After a short hearing, she rose and was handcuffed behind her back to serve her time for a probation violation. Lohan was accompanied to court by her mother, Dina, and younger sister Ali, who wiped away tears after her sister was taken into a lockup. Her estranged father, Michael Lohan, yelled, "We love you Lindsay!" as his daughter was led away. She was then taken across town to the Century Regional Detention Facility in the industrial suburb of Lynwood. In court, Lohan was represented by her longtime attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, who had resigned earlier but never fil

Activision has officially made Joss Stone a Bond girl for "James Bond 007: Blood Stone" and everything is full steam ahead for " GoldenEye 007 " on the Wii. Could the N64's definitive shooter one day inspire a 3DS as remake as well, though? Activision would entertain that proposition. "Let's put it this way I think we would all love to think that 'GoldenEye' may make it onto the 3DS," Activision executive producer Julian Widdows told CVG. It's not in the works yet, however. For now, he and his team have their minds set on getting the 007 out on a console, not a handheld. "Today we're talking about the Wii, but yeah if you were at E3 and you played with the 3DS it's a great bit of hardware and we'd love to see it on there," Widdows explained. "But we don't know, there're no plans yet."

StarCraft 2 " players already know what Blizzard demanded of their computers to run the game's beta test, but up until now the system requirements for the full game have been just outside the reach of the public radar. On the heels of making the official "StarCraft 2" client downloadable, however, they have listed everything you'll need to have to be able to run the game when it comes out on July 27. You can peruse them all after the jump. Whether you plan on using a PC or Mac to run "SC2," Blizzard has both recommendations and requirements to inform you about, according to a report on Big Download. If your video card or processor aren't up stuff, don't say we didn't warn you ahead of time based on the following details: Minimum System Requirements*: PC: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 (Latest Service Packs) with DirectX 9.0c 2.6 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 PRO vi

Raven Software's "Singularity" fell in a PR black hole after an E3 2009 showing, not to appear again in playable form by press until it was released last week. Moves like this are typically big, big indicators that a game might not be all that was promised. But such is not the case for Raven's latest title. It's better than you'd expect and an unfortunate example of solid game flying under the radar for seemingly no good reason. The Basics In the fledging years of the Cold War, the Soviets discover a new element called "E-99." As any rational empire would, the Soviets get to work on harvesting and experimenting with this new hotness in the hopes of dominating the West. As a result of the effort, time travel, agricultural manipulation, and the prospect of unlimited energy become near-realities. One catch, though: E-99 is unstable. Like, wicked unstable. The E-99 research center, Katorga-12, goes to crap as a result only to be seen again 60-some odd

A file for a trademark doesn’t necessarily mean that a device is up and coming, or that the name itself will actually get used on a product released in the future. But, more often than not, that’s exactly what it means. And while we were warming up to the name Hurricane for the future webOS tablet, we guess we could get used to saying PALMPAD . Thanks to a new USPTO trademark filing, HP is trying to make sure that no one else out there can get their hands on this obviously desired title. Of course, when you look at the devices that HP is trying to cover in the trademark filing, it leaves a lot of possibilities on the table: Computers, computer hardware, computer software, computer peripherals, portable computers, handheld and mobile computers, PDAs, electronic notepads, mobile digital electronic devices . See? There’s no way to confirm at this very moment whether or not it’s going to be a tablet, but PALMPAD just seems like the right fit for nothing else. So what do you think of the n

It’s obviously 3D day today, because no sooner do ASUS push out a 3D-capable LCD display but LG get into the game with a trio of 3D toting hardware. Like ASUS they’ve a monitor, the Full HD LG W63D , but then there’s also the Full HD projector which we saw back in January, the LG CF3D, and a notebook, the LG R590. The LG W63D has 400cd/m2 brightness, 172Hz refresh rate and auto-brightness control, together with an automatic gaming mode. It also supports SRS Tru-Surround HD, and will land in the UK in early August. As for the LG CF3D, that’s the world’s first polarized glasses 3D projector capable of transmitting full HD picture through a single lens, and can create up to a 200-inch picture. Maximum brightness is 1250 ANSI lumens, with a 7,000:1 contrast ratio. It’s available today – no word on MRSP, but we heard around $10,000 back at CES 2010 – complete with six pairs of polarized glasses in the box. Finally, the LG R590 has a 15.6-inch screen, Intel Core i7 Processor with HM55 c

ASUS UK have outed a pair of new notebooks in their Bamboo series , with the U33 and U53 both clad in a mixture of brushed aluminum and “smoky-brown” bamboo. The 13.3-inch U33 and 15.6-inch U53 each get an Intel Core i5-430M processor paired with NVIDIA Optimus graphics, automatically switching between a GeForce 310M 1GB GPU and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics. Ports include a USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, HDMI and VGA, along with ethernet and audio in/out. There’s also a DVD burner and a 640GB hard-drive on the U53 or a 500GB hard-drive on the U33. Each gets 4GB of DDR3 memory together with a 2-megapixel webcam and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Battery life is up to 10hrs, though that’s assuming you make judicious use of the integrated graphics. Both Bamboo Series notebooks are available now, priced from £849 ($1,297) for the U33 and from £899 ($1,373) for the U53.

Sprint has finally announced availability and pricing for their new, ruggedized Android smartphone, the Motorola i1 . Set to land on the Nextel network come July 25th, the i1 packs a 3.1-inch HVGA touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and 3G EVDO Rev.A, all in a chassis that’s resilient to dust, shock, vibration and blowing rain. There’s also push-to-talk functionality, WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as photo barcode scanning and signature capture, wireless asset management and tracking, and Sprint Mobile Locator support. Not much use to mainstream consumers, perhaps, but potentially interesting for businesses hoping to outfit their employees with a little Android. For all that, Sprint plan on charging you $149.99 following a $50 mail-in rebate when the i1 goes on sale this coming Sunday. All well and good, but the Android 1.5 OS doesn’t leave us particularly enthused.

Smart energy meters are great for helping people conceptualise their use of energy in real-time, rather than being faced with a nebulous bill every quarter, but what if rows of numbers leave you equally non-plussed? Swedish designer Hampus Edström has come up with an alternative: his simply titled Budget Tool consists of a wireless PDA-style controller that links up with a physical 3D bar chart. That chart, then, can show five different factors in a far more tangible way than a column of numbers on-screen. It could be as simple as income versus outgoings – with the two bars getting worryingly close as your frivolous lifestyle exceeds your meager wage – or energy use at different times of the day. It would take some investment from energy providers, naturally, but given that we’re constantly being told to turn down thermostats, be more frugal and generally live more mindfully of the environment, perhaps they’ll see fit to give us the geekily interesting tools that should help that ha

The more we see RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 9800 touchscreen slider , the more impressed we are. In the latest batch of videos to sneak out to Salomondrin, the 9800 demonstrates its BlackBerry OS 6 media andbrowser credentials, making short work of not only the previous browser but what you’ll find on the iPhone and Android devices. There’s also a nifty overview of OS 6 itself, just in case RIM’s two official preview videos haven’t been sufficient to sate your curiosity. We’re most interested in the browser, frankly, which scores significantly higher in various online compliance tests – such as HTML5 – than rival browsers on iOS and Android.

Remember the so-called “$10 laptop” project the Indian government was spearheading early last year, that turned out to be a basic standalone storage brick? Something similar this way comes, in the shape of the Humane Reader : a low-cost 8-bit display device that uses your TV as a display and cheap PS/2 peripherals, it can store around five thousand texts – including local Wikipedia mirrors – but costs just $20. The handiwork of Human Informatics, the Reader is designed for homes and schools that have no budget for PCs and no internet connection for downloading content. It’s built using three Atmega328p microcontrollers complete with an SD card reader and microUSB port; display output is via a composite video port. There’s also infrared support, audio and four hardware buttons. Interestingly, the expansion headers are compatible with Arduino shields, opening up various avenues of flexibility. No sales availability as yet – Human Informatics are looking for a partner to help them com

AMD’s Ontario processor for ultraportables and netbooks should see a release in Q4 2010, according to company CEO Dirk Meyer. Speaking after AMD’s financial results call, which Seeking Alpha transcribed, Meyer confirmed that Ontario is now set to arrive “in the fourth quarter of this year, ahead of schedule”; the CPU couples the company’s low-power Bobcat core with integrated DirectX 11 graphics. Meanwhile the first AMD desktop and server CPUs based on the company’s Bulldozer platform should begin sampling in the latter half of 2010, “and remain on track for 2011 launches” according to Meyer. Bulldozer is a completely new 32nm core with shared L2 cache, improved power management and – perhaps of most interest – “significant performance improvements.” Finally AMD’s Llano platform apparently remains on course for a release in the first half of 2011, targeting mainstream desktops and notebooks with their Fusion-based processing units. Each unit can be turned to suit CPU or GPU crunchi

Seagate has outed its latest addition to the GoFlex family of removable storage, the Seagate GoFlex Home , a media and backup NAS designed for domestic use. Coming in a choice of 1TB or 2TB capacities, the GoFlex Home’s storage can be easily upgraded since it uses the same SATA port connector as other drives in the range; you simply pull out the preinstalled drive and slot in a newer, bigger example. Alternatively there’s a USB 2.0 port which can be used to add external drives, or to share a USB printer across the home network. Digital media files can be streamed around the network – there’s an ethernet port built in, but you’ll need to hook up a wireless router if you want WiFi support – and the GoFlex Home is compatible with both PC and Mac for backup purposes. As for remote access, like we’ve seen on the Pogoplug you can share photo albums, videos and documents with friends and family via an invite-only webpage; Seagate also offer an optional premium version of the service, Seagat

RIM and Nokia aren't the only ones saying "WTF Steve!?" after last Friday's press conference attempted to draw the competition into the Antennagate saga. Samsung has issued its own choice reaction about supposed problems with the Omnia 2, though this one is somewhat less sternly worded than the others: The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone's antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future. Why is Samsung being rather more polite? Because it's full of really nice people? Or, is it because the iPhone 4is stuffed with Samsung memory chips? We'll let your level of cynicism be your guide here.

If you've been following the ongoing saga of Dell's Streak , you've probably already read our review of O2 UK's version -- thing is, the British perspective can be very different from the Yankee one (we didn't see eye-to-eye during the War of 1812, for instance). To that end, we wanted to circle back now that the gargantuan Android beast is finally coming close to a US release and get another quick take. As a refresher, this thing matches or exceeds the specs you'd expect to find on any modern high-end smartphone in most respects, starting with a 1GHz Snapdragon core, a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, 850 / 1900MHz 3G for use on AT&T, Rogers, Bell, and Telus, and 2GB of internal storage coupled with a bundled and pre-installed 16GB microSDHC card. Where the Streak sets itself far, far apart from the crowd, though, is with an absolutely enormous 5-inch capacitive touchscreen at 800 x 480 resolution. Needless to say, it's a polarizing feature -- an

Chances are you're a little sick of different carriers having different qualities of service in different areas of the country, and have probably wondered at some point: "Can't we all just get along?" The answer is no, we can't, but LightSquared is looking to launch something of an alternative. It's starting a multi-billion dollar wholesale LTEdeployment that will run coast-to-coast in the United States, covering 90 percent of the population by 2015. It will also mix that in with satellite connectivity somehow, pledging true nationwide coverage. Nokia Siemens Networks will be laying the groundwork, a $7 billion project that will surely be aided by that company's recent acquisition of Motorola's networking bits, and the total rollout is estimated to create 100,000 jobs -- good news regardless of your carrier allegiance. Anyone who wants to offer connectivity to their customers can buy some bandwidth and pass it along, meaning we could see the rebirth

Virtual phone numbers aren't exactly hard to come by these days, but TelCentris' VoxOx looks to be doing a decent job of distinguishing itself with its newly announced offerings -- and, for a change, it's letting Canadians in on the act. The new options expand on the basic free virtual number included with VoxOx's current service and, in addition to Canadian phone numbers, include numbers that are SMS and fax-capable for both inbound and outbound calls, and an optional "vanity" search for those willing to try their luck at snagging the phone number they've always wanted. Unlike Google Voice, you can also link as many virtual phone numbers to your account as you like, and you'll get free iNum integration so you can be accessible from overseas at local rates. Of course, the numbers themselves aren't free, but they are pretty reasonable -- just $1.95 a month or $19.95 a year. Head on past the break for the complete press release, and quick demo video

The name may sound like something out of a Final Fantasy game, but we hear it stands for Music On the Go, and today MOG is doing the name proud by bringing a wide swath of streaming music to Android and iPhone. $10 a month gives you access to over 8 million songs, and during a completely unscientific impromptu testing session, that number actually included a reasonable amount of most everything we'd want. Of course, you don't get to keep any of the 320Kbps MP3 files, merely store local copies on your phone for as long as you pony up, and even on Android (where we take task switching for granted) the merest jump to web browser stops those tracks cold. (MOG says it's working on it, at least for the iOS 4 version.) We were also disappointed to find out the MOG Radio feature is nothing like we were told -- rather than a Pandora you can tune to specific artists, the feature just seems to filter your existing queue . Playback options were also lacking in this early version (lik

Sharp , you see, hasn't had much luck with its North American phone efforts as of late -- they've made almost all of the now-dead Sidekick series, and the Kin... well, you know how that ended up working out. So on that note, we seriously wish these guys the very best of luck with their first non-Sidekick, non-Kin entry in the US market in as long as we can remember: the FX for AT&T (which looks curiously like a Sidekick, actually). This puppy pairs a touchscreen with a QWERTY slide and just a 2 megapixel camera -- not particularly high-end -- but interestingly also features support for AT&T's FLO TV-based Mobile TV service, making it a nice upgrade forQuickfire users. It'll be available next Sunday, July 25 for $99.99 on contract after $50 mail-in rebate; in the meantime

That over-the-air firmware update that rolled out to early Droid X units in the field prior to the launch seems to be trickling out to retail units now, and along with that news comes a surprisingly long changelog. Along with a bunch of squashed bugs, the latest build has a few visual tweaks and improvements to Bluetooth, Exchange ActiveSync, and Visual Voicemail connectivity, so it seems like this is an OTA notification you'll want to promptly tap "OK" to. On a slightly less-positive note, BGR points out a troublesome privacy issue with the phone: when you delete your call log or a text message thread, the deleted items still show up in the history log attached to your individual contacts. That sucks, yeah -- but seeing how the phone has been out for mere days and we've already seen two updates get pushed out since the first review units hit the streets, we're hopeful that'll get patched up on the double

Nokia Siemens has just announced that it will be purchasing Motorola's wireless network infrastructure for a cool $1.2 billion in cash. This comes on the heels of an announcement by Moto that it would be splitting the company in two, one for Mobile Devices and one for Broadband and Mobility Solutions. It's clearly the company's strong showing in both WiMAX and CDMA that Nokia Siemens is after, although The New York Times points out that integrating the 7,500-strong staff, manufacturing, supply lines, and multiple product lines will be quite a challenge. The deal will hopefully be finalized by the end of the year. PR after the break.

banes There’s a new scam on Facebook promising to show you a video revealing the “truth” about Coca-Cola, but all it’s really after is your personal info. The message reads: “I am part of the 98.0% of people that are NEVER gonna drink Coca Cola again after this HORRIFIC video,” followed by a link. If you click on the link, you’ll be asked to share the video seven times. However, the counter doesn’t work, so eventually you’ll be tempted to click on a link that says “Cant Be Bothered To Wait? –> Click Here To Skip This.” The second link takes you to a poll, which — you guessed it — is the central part of the scam. It asks you for personal information you should definitely not reveal to just anyone or any application. As always, we advise you not to click on suspicious links, even if it comes from your Facebook friends who might have fallen for the scam. And under no circumstances should you give away your personal information, unless you’re absolutely sure why and who you’re giving i

If you use several Google accounts on a daily basis, you would probably like to be logged in to all of them at the same time. You have to use several different browsers to achieve that currently. Now, according to Google Operating System, Google is testing a feature that will let users log in to multiple Google accounts in the same web browser. Personally, I have at least four different Gmail accounts open at all times, and this feature is very high on my wish list. Google services that are currently being tested include Gmail, Reader, Sites, Calendar, Code and Docs. There is one limitation: if you turn on multiple sign-in, you cannot access Gmail in offline mode.

“ I’m setting the example, and it’s going to be puzzled over and studied and followed, from now on. ” – John Doe, Seven . Although Wieden + Kennedy had a very different aim than the homicidal “John Doe” character from David Fincher’s thriller Seven , this is probably what the advertising agency behind Old Spice’s latest marketing campaign must be thinking right now. The campaign, in which the “Old Spice guy” — as actor Isaiah Mustafa, who starred in most of Old Spice’s recent commercials, has come to be known as on the Internet — ended today. In his final tweet and video, Mustafa says, “like all great things this too must end.” And then he catches a giant fish that falls from nowhere. The team behind this amazingly well-run campaign managed to engage half of the Internet, and provoke almost unequivocally positive results from social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter . Hell, even the comments on YouTube were overwhelmingly positive — and that never happens. The Old Spice Twitt

If you’re a digital content distributor, you’ve probably heard of iTunes Connect: It’s a set of tools that helps you manage your content in the App Store. Now, you can do it from your iPhone with the iTunes Connect Mobile (iTC Mobile) app. It lets you review your individual and aggregated unit sales by product line, as well as related trends. The app features graphs and allows you to see data through select periods of time. You can install the iTunes Mobile Connect app for free fromhere.

You know that German octopus who successfully predicted all those World Cup games? He’s back in the form of an iOS app that makes predictions about anything you want it to, not just football. The uTouchLabs-developed app is called “Ask the Octopus” [iTunes link] and it’s available in the App Store for the iPhone , iPod touch and iPad (though it doesn’t have a special iPad version). It’s pretty basic. When you start it up, you see an animated octopus, and you’re asked to enter in two things to compare (Soup or salad? Paper or plastic? Jacob or Edward? We’re sure you can think of better things to compare). After you’ve picked the options, the octopus drifts to the sea floor and selects a box, just like Paul. It’s random, of course — we don’t believe this octopus has secret predictive powers, but like a Magic 8-Ball, it’s fun to play with. You wouldn’t call the real Paul’s selections random, though. Surely, he had some reasons for them, but who knows what they were. Whatever his animal

According to an email from Apple, the first beta of the iPhone’s iOS 4.1 mobile operating system is now available from the iPhone Dev Center along with the 4.1 SDK. Combine that with news that Apple is holding a special press conference this Friday regarding the iPhone 4 and we just might be looking at that expected software fix for the now infamousreception issues plaguing the device. Even if the two tidbits happen to be unrelated, the rollout of iOS 4 beta indicates a software update to the iPhone’s operating system must be fairly close to public release. With the reception issues deemed serious enough for Consumer Reports to withhold their recommendation, as well as reaching mainstream awareness to the point of making David Letterman’s Top Ten slot last night, it’s hard to imagine the announced fix would be put off for terribly long. We’ll know more after the hastily-called press event on Friday, but for now there’s good reason for left-handed iPhone 4 owners to keep the dream alive

This series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace’s hosting solutions here. From open souce projects to the enterprise, more and more developers are working on distributed teams. Now that we don’t all have to be in the same room to fiddle around with punch cards, the era of online connectivity is allowing for unprecedented freedom in how, where and when we work. This freedom is great, and it also presents some challenges — challenges for managers who need to ship a product and challenges for developers who need to squash bugs, track versions and communicate with the rest of their team. Fortunately, there’s a whole subsection of development tools created and tailored just for distributed teams, whether that distribution means a far-flung group around the globe or a few local devs who occasionally work from home. Every developer and every manager will have his or her preferred tools for working with a distributed team. We’ve rounded up 10 tha