Apple rejects Samsung offer

Apple Inc has rejected an offer from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co to help settle their tablet-computer dispute in Australia, hoping for an important court victory there in its global campaign of patent litigation.

Apple has claimed Samsung's Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets had "slavishly" copied its iPhone and iPad. It has already secured a block on the latest Galaxy tablets in Germany and is delaying their launch in Australia.
Samsung made an offer to Apple last week, promising to help ensure an expedited court hearing in return for Samsung being able to immediately launch the Galaxy 10.1 tablet in Australia.
But both companies made clear to the Federal Court on Tuesday that there appeared to be no prospect of such a deal.
"It is one we don't accept and there is no surprise. The main reason we are here is to prevent the launch (of the Galaxy 10.1) and maintain the status quo," Apple lawyer Steven Burley told the court.
Samsung has been forced to delay the launch of its new Galaxy in Australia until after the court makes a ruling.
"It is not going to be achievable your honour, given the positions advanced by each party," a Samsung lawyer told the court when asked about the prospects of a settlement.
Last week, Samsung agreed to withdraw two features from the Galaxy 10.1 which allegedly infringed Apple's patents. That has reduced their dispute in Australia to the one patent over touch-screen display technology.

Microsoft fixing Hotmail

Microsoft said on Friday it had restored access to its Windows Live services, including Hotmail, for most customers after a major glitch that took them offline for several hours.
Microsoft said in a statement it became aware of the problem at about 0300 GMT. Services started to be restored at 0530 GMT.
The company had said on its Windows Live blog it was actively working to resolve the outage, and in an update posted at 0649 GMT said services had been restored for most customers.
"If you have been trying to use Hotmail, SkyDrive or our other Live services in the last couple of hours you may have noticed problems accessing our services," Chris Jones, a Microsoft executive, said on the blog.
Hotmail is the world's most-used online email system, with more than 360 million users. SkyDrive is a cloud-computing service mainly for small businesses that stores data and delivers it over the Web.

online payment system

Bharti Airtel Wednesday said that its African-arm has launched an online payment system -- PayOnline that will allow its mobile subscribers to use handsets to make purchase online along with Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide.

'While initially launched in Kenya, this product will soon be available across Africa,' the company said in a statement.
PayOnline will allow registered airtel consumers to make online purchases from any site where MasterCard is accepted. The customers will be able to request a one-time virtual card number with the amount of purchase.
Airtel money services platform will generate a special 16 digit number that enables the completion of the transaction. On completion of the transaction, a confirmation message will be sent to the consumer's handset.
'The sustained socio-economic changes witnessed in Africa over the last decade have shown that the continent has the ability to leapfrog conventional systems and embrace innovations on platforms such as the mobile phone,' said N. Arjun, chief projects and transformation officer, Airtel Africa.
The global opportunity for mobile payments is growing. According IE Market Research Corporation the global mobile purchases will reach $224.4 billion by 2014.
The PayOnline solution is compatible with all mobile phones and operating systems via a configured update from Airtel customer service.

Way2SMS reaches

Way2SMS, Hyderabad-based web portal, which offers free messaging from PC to mobile, has disclosed it has reached a milestone of 20 million users.

Its platform is managing a massive 365 million mobile contacts and is reaching over 55 million mobiles every month. Way2SMS adds about seven lakh new users to its service every month, said a statement from the portal.
'With twenty million registered users, one in every four or five internet users in India is registered with us. This feat allows us to compete with the leading social networking brands around the globe,' said V.V. Raju, founder and CEO, Way2SMS.
'SMS prices are dropping globally. The global scenario is becoming much more exciting. We are seriously looking out to take our success story to other countries. We want to take Way2SMS globally and would love to grow as skype for messaging,' Raju added.