Gadgets and Gizmos

The PowerShot S410 Digital ELPH is the perfect travel companion. It’s compact, easy to use, feature filled and great looking. An elegant Cerabrite finish not only adds style, but durability. The internal muscle matches the strong visual of this camera; the S410 features an impressive 4 Megapixel CCD.

The S410 has 3x optical/3.6x digital /11x combined zoom and a high-speed 9 point autofocus. You’ll never miss a spontaneous moment since this camera captures up to 3 minutes of brilliant video. The Quick Shot function comes in handy when you want to reduce the lag time between pressing the shutter and the start of the exposure.

Take advantage of the ability to print on the spot as this camera connects directly to any Canon Direct Print, Bubble Jet Direct or PictBridge compatible photo printer. The new Print/Share button makes direct printing and downloading images to a computer easier than ever. You can also print ID photos in a variety of sizes or an index card of still images from your recorded movie. The PowerShot S410 – serious image quality united with elegant style.

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. reiterated that its medium-term goal is to achieve double-digit earnings growth. Southeast Asia’s largest telephone company said it expects revenue from its Optus unit in Australia to grow faster than the market average in a presentation for its annual general meeting.

Optus, the No. 2 mobile services provider in Australia after Telstra Corp. (TLS), controlled a 33% market share as of March 31, down two points from a year ago, underscoring rising competition. It also expects double digit earnings growth from its regional mobile businesses.

SingTel has stakes in Thailand’s Advanced Info Service PCL, India’s Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., the Philippines’ Globe Telecom Inc., Indonesia’s PT Telekomunikasi Selular and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. For the last financial year ended March 31, SingTel posted a net profit of S$3.27 billion on revenue of S$12.62 billion.

Source : Online Resources

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday the bulk of the proceeds from the full sale of Telstra Corp. (TLS) will be poured into the government’s planned Future Fund. But Howard was noncommittal about a demand from the Nationals party that A$2 billion be put aside to protect telecommunications services for customers in rural and regional areas.

The rural-based Nationals party is the junior partner in the coalition government and its support is crucial to the Telstra sale legislation being passed in the federal parliament. A report in the Australian newspaper said Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Mark Vaile will later Friday use a speech to insist that A$2 billion from the A$30 billion-plus Telstra sale proceeds be quarantined for investment in telecommunications services for people outside the country’s major cities.

Questioned about what will be done with the sale proceeds, Howard said “quite a lot of it” will be directed toward the Future Fund, which the government plans to use to meet public service pension liabilities currently worth around A$91 billion. Howard also rejected claims this week by a Telstra executive that funding to meet service obligations in remote areas of Australia isn’t adequate to cover the cost of what needs to be done and isn’t sustainable in the long term.

Howard said the universal service obligation safeguards, introduced in 1997, are entrenched in government policy and federal legislation. Communications Minister Helen Coonan is expected to introduce the Telstra sale legislation into the parliament next month. The divestment of the government’s remaining 51.8% stake in Australia’s dominant phone company is expected to proceed in 2006, making it the world’s largest share sale next year.

Source : Online Resources

Mexican wireless phone giant America Movil SA more than doubled its net profit in the second quarter on the back of stronger currencies as the company added a record 7.4 million subscribers to its client rosters. The Mexico City-based company, which also has operations across Latin America and in the U.S., said it ended the quarter with 73.8 million wireless customers.

Mexican unit Telcel added 1.7 million subscribers to 32.3 million, while Claro in Brazil added 1.9 million to 16.2 million. The company said sales in the quarter rose 33.5% to 42.59 billion pesos ; operating profit rose 6.1% to MXN6.74 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, was up 10% to MXN11.80 billion.

America Movil said the exceptionally strong subscriber growth, with its associated costs, lowered its EBITDA margin to 27.7% from 33.6% a year ago. At the same time, gains in the Mexican peso and Brazilian real ($1=BRL2.407) led to exchange gains of MXN4.3 billion, helping to boost net profit in the quarter to MXN7.9 billion from MXN3.19 billion in the year-ago period.

Net debt as of June 30 was MXN36.7 billion, down 14.1% from the end of 2004 and equivalent to 0.8 times 12-months trailing EBITDA, America Movil said. Mexican unit Telcel had sales of MXN21.1 billion in the second quarter, up 20.1% from the like 2004 period, although average revenue per user was flat. Telcel’s EBITDA was up 23% on the year to MXN9.4 billion, with cost controls contributing to a 44.7% EBITDA margin.

Revenues in Brazil rose 41.5% to BRL1.69 billion, although the unprecedented subscriber growth contributed to an EBITDA loss of BRL179 million. Average revenue per user in Brazil fell 10.2% to BRL24.00, but was higher in dollar terms. America Movil officials had warned analysts in June that they no longer expected to achieve the 10% EBITDA margin in Brazil this year that they had been aiming for, but rather expect to break even.

America Movil’s biggest subscriber growth came in Colombia, where it gained 2.2 million customers to more than 9 million. In the U.S., Tracfone added 83,000 subscribers to 4.9 million. U.S. revenue was up to $241 million from $185 million, and EBITDA rose to $31 million from $19 million.

In Central America, where the company has 2 million fixed-lines and 3.1 million wireless subscribers, sales rose to $329 million from $243 million, and EBITDA grew even faster to $179 million from $127 million, for a margin of 54.4%.

Source : Online Resources

Vodafone Japan says that it will offer the Vodafone 703SH handset by Sharp, the lightest model in its 3G lineup, as part of its new 3G lineup, from early August 2005 and from mid-August it will market the Vodafone 903SH handset by Sharp, which features what Vodafone claims is the first 3.2 megapixel auto focus mobile camera with 2x optical zoom. Vodafone K.K. will offer expanded Chaku-Uta Full full track music download content starting mid-August to coincide with the sale of these new 3G handsets,

The main features of the handsets are as follows:

Vodafone 703SH
- Lightest Vodafone K.K. 3G handset (approx. 107g) and compact size
- Rich basic features like 2.0-inch QVGA screen, 1.3 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth
- Quick Operations for quickly calling up often-used functions and Custom Screens

Vodafone 903SH
- Features 3.2 megapixel CCD mobile camera with 2x optical zoom and auto focus
- 3D Surround Stereo Side Speakers for realistic sound enjoyment
- 2.4-inch Mobile ASV LCD for superior display and wide-angle viewing

Source : Online Resources