SimCity Game in OLPC

Electronic Arts has announced its plans to donate its original SimCity game to each computer in the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative.

OLPC, for those who are unaware, is a non-profit humanitarian effort to design, manufacture and distribute inexpensive laptops, with the aim of giving every child in the world access to modern education. This initiative has been kick started by Nicholas Negroponte.

Now that EA is offering its SimCity game on each of these OLPC laptops, the entertainment company is hoping to nurture OLPC users when it comes to developing their decision-making skills and honing their creativity.

About EA’s SimCity:
In SimCity, the player takes on the role of mayor of a new municipality, and he/she will be responsible for building and maintaining a place where citizens can work and live happily. Doing so requires laying out essentials such as housing, transport links, schools, factories and shops. The job also requires an ability to choose wisely — for example, some power sources pollute, while others do not but are more expensive. Players must also be financially savvy — raising taxes enough to guarantee an income that can be allocated to public services such as policing and road repair, but not so high that business growth is hampered or that citizens revolt.

The mayor must always be prepared for emergency situations as well, as earthquakes, floods and fires can wreak havoc on the town and require an immediate response so that fallout can be contained.

It is interesting to know that the idea to connect SimCity with OLPC came from Internet pioneer, activist and OLPC advisor John Gilmore who knew the game’s history and recognized its potential relevance to the non-profit project.

According to Steve Seabolt, vice president of global brand development, The Sims Label, “SimCity is entertainment that’s unintentionally educational. Players learn to use limited resources to build and customize their cities. There are choices and consequences, but in the end, it’s a creativity tool that’s only limited by the player’s imagination. “The game should prove to be an incredibly effective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun, particularly for first time players. We are thrilled to be making this contribution to OLPC to help meet their goal of educating the children of the world.”

Now, India hit by mobile chip piracy!

With India crossing hundred million mobile subscribers and approximately 25-30 per cent of the phone models in the market capable of music transfer, music piracy has assumed a new avatar- mobile piracy.

"The total loss to music industry due to piracy is around 600-700 crores per year. The size of the music market on mobile phones is estimated to be Rs 400 crore that includes products like ringtones, full song mobile downloads, music videos," says Savio DSouza, Secretary-General, Indian Music Industry (IMI).

He adds, "At present, there are more than 150 million mobile users in the country and the figure is increasing by 10 per cent annually. If 10 per cent users download one song per year for Rs 10, the size of the market is more than Rs 15 crore," he adds.

Experts point out that the mobile chip piracy is a technique by which digitised music can be easily copied from any storage device like computer hard disc or USB drive, a mobile phone into the built in memory of another mobile phone or on memory cards or chips.
Vijay Lazarus, president, IMI, says that the total loss to music industry due to mobile chip piracy is around 35-40 crore.

"Currently only Tamil Nadu and Kerala have an anti-piracy wing. It is time the government, both the centre and the state introduce necessary reforms and set up a audio-video anti-piracy wing. We want govt to levy heavy fines and increase the minimum prison sentence of six months to one year to the music pirates and bring the crime under Goonda Act," he adds.

According to IMI, it has helped authorities conduct 10,000 raids in the last five years and seized a huge quantity of cassettes, CDs and shut down more than 630 music downloading sites. IMI is also carrying out special induction programmes for police officials to help them in giving a clear understanding of the flourishing racket of mobile chip piracy and its functionality.

"Many people are still unaware of this crime. So our primary work is to make common people aware and convince law enforcing agencies the modus-operandi of this racket to minimize the volume of losses industry is suffering from," says D'Souza.

"We conducted a raid in Anand Vihar with the help of IMI and found that the shopkeeper was uploading 80-100 Bollywood songs in a mobile for just Rs 250, says Rishipal Rana, Inspector, District Investigation Unit, Delhi. We acted on the complaint of the official from music industry and we are always ready to help them, he adds.

Mohammed Asif, Senior Manager, Tips Industries, believes the music download expense should be made so cheap that the customer need not feel going to the dealers and whole process will become liberal and economic.

"Total eradication of mobile chip piracy is not possible but IMI is doing their bit in reducing it and all the music companies except T-series and Yash Raj, are their members," he adds.

The illegal transfer of music on mobile phones can be done via Bluetooth, data cable, memory card, wi-fi etc. The modes of transfer could be- PC to mobile phone, PC to memory card to mobile phone, mobile phone to mobile phone, mobile phone to memory card to mobile phone, sale of memory card pre-embedded with pirated music.

"Mobile chip piracy comes under provisions of the Copyright Act under Sections 51, 52A, 63, 65 and 68A. The persons who can indulge in mobile piracy include mobile phone dealers, mobile phone repair shops, computer accessories dealers, shops selling video games, games parlours etc.," says a Supreme Court lawyer.

"Piracy is affecting the film, gaming and music segments of the entertainment industry. Mobile chip piracy is something which is never looked at. There is a need for stringent mechanism to control, monitor and regulate the whole process of music distribution so that the actual owner of the music gets royalty," says Nilesh Mishra, lyricist of Gangster , Woh Lamhe fame.

While adding that one GB card costs around Rs 1000 and can save 12 hours of song, Lazarus says, "We want Indian govt to enact optical disc law. Under this, it will become compulsory for every manufacturer to put an identification number on a CD, so that it can be tracked to the source."
To sell their products, dealers offer recorded chips free to mobile phone buyers. On every download, 15 per cent of the revenue goes to govt and the rest is shared between the copyright owner, aggregator and the telephone company, he says D'Souza.

An Assocham report says, the Indian music industry earned more than USD 35 million, or 20 per cent of its revenues, from mobile music last year. Mobile music downloads in the Indian markets are valued at USD 75 million which will further rise by at least 25 per cent in a year time. It further says that about a year ago, roughly 6,00,000 to 8,00,000 ringtones were downloaded daily but is growing by over 50 per cent annually.

"We have also contacted different cellphone companies like, Nokia to help us to curb this crime, says Lazarus.

'$100 laptop' begins production

The first machines have started rolling off the production line Mass production of the so-called $100 laptop has begun, five years after the concept was first proposed. Computer manufacturer Quanta has started building the low-cost laptops at a factory in Changshu, China.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the group behind the project, said that children in developing countries would begin receiving machines this month
Last month, OLPC received its first official order for 100,000 machines from the government of Uruguay.

"Today represents an important milestone in the evolution of the One Laptop per Child project," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC.
The organisation had reached the critical stage despite "all the naysayers," he said.

Price hike
Since Professor Negroponte first put forward the idea of distributing low-cost laptop to children in developing countries in 2002, the plan has been both praised and mocked.

Intel chairman Craig Barret described the XO laptop, as the machine is known, as a "$100 gadget" whilst Microsoft founder Bill Gates questioned its lack of hard drive and "tiny screen".
Other critics have questioned the need for the laptops in countries which, they said, had more pressing needs such as sanitation and health care.
But Professor Negroponte has always maintained that the project is about education not technology.
However, the green and white XO machines pack a number of innovations which make them suitable for use in remote and environmentally hostile areas.
The machine has no moving parts and can be easily maintained. It has a sunlight-readable display that allows children to use it outside and, importantly for areas with little access to electricity, it is ultra low power and can be charged by a variety of devices including solar panels.
Although OLPC eventually plan to sell the machines for $100 or less, the current price is $188 (£93).

Christmas gift
Initially OLPC has said that it required three million orders of the XO to make production viable.

Uruguay is the first country to order the machines. Governments were originally offered the machines in lots of 250,000.

So far, however, the organisation's only confirmed order is from Uruguay. The South American country has ordered 100,000 of the machines with an option to purchase a further 300,000.
Other governments have expressed interest in the machines.

For example, the government of Mongolia has announced that it plans to launch a pilot project providing 20,000 laptops, to children aged six to 12.

OLPC has also allowed a limited number of the machines to be bought by people in North America through its Give 1 Get 1 programme (G1G1), which will allow members of the public to buy a machine for themselves as well as one for a child in a developing country.

The programme will offer laptops between the 12 and 26 November. OLPC said that the start of production means that people participating in the scheme will receive their XO by December this year.

Nokia launches two new phones

Nokia has launched two new “Nseries” premium multimedia handsets. Designed for the best in music, video and gaming capability, the new devices come with large screens, wireless LAN, high capability cameras, dedicated music and game keys with customisable user interface, and large flash memory.
The N95 device has been priced at Rs. 35,059, the N81 handset costs Rs. 26,249. Both devices promise an impressive capability to acquire, manage and share a wide genre of music, gaming and audio visual content. With these handsets, Nokia plans to target the Indian mobile entertainment market that now stands at $15 billion.
“Today people want to be more in control of how, what and where they acquire and consume their digital entertainment. With these two devices and entertainment content, we are aiming to offer the best of entertainment. We believe our new Nokia Nseries devices will bring a new dimension to entertainment on-the-go,” Nokia India Business Director (Multimedia) Vineet Taneja said.
The Nokia N95 8GB multimedia device comes with one of the largest ever displays at 2.8 inches and improved battery power. Boasting up to 8GB of flash memory, it is optimised for enjoying videos, playing games, or even locating your favourite destinations with full navigation with Assisted-Global Positioning System (A-GPS).
As a part of the new mobile content offering, Nokia Nseries will offer the best in the class entertainment package to its customers. For the first time ever, Nokia N81 and N95 8GB incorporate a full-length movie.
The N81 also comes pre-loaded with ten English music videos, ten best-selling Bollywood and Hollywood songs as also ten all-time hit comedy scenes from Bollywood movies across genres.

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