Finally, something sweet from Microsoft

Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its mobile phone software Tuesday as it seeks to claw back market share from Apple and Google.
New York - Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its mobile phone software on Tuesday as it seeks to claw back market share from Apple and Google.

The Redmond, Washington-based software powerhouse said the latest version of its Windows Phone operating system, code-named "Mango," offers more than 500 new features.

Mango will be available for free to existing Windows Phone 7 customers and will ship on new phones this fall from Samsung, LG and HTC and new partners Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

Microsoft said it is also working on Mango handsets with new partner Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone titan which announced in February that it would begin using Microsoft's software as its smartphone operating system.

Mango comes seven months after the release of the first smartphones running Windows Phone 7, which were well received by analysts but failed to catch on with the public.

"Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more," said Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications, who presented Mango to reporters at an event in New York.

"With 'Mango,' Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort," Lees said.

Mango uses Internet Explorer 9 as the phone's Web browser and attempts to simplify the smartphone experience.

Microsoft said Mango organises information "around the person or group people want to interact with, not the app they have to use."

It allows users to switch between text, Facebook chat and Windows Live Messenger and integrates Twitter and LinkedIn feeds.

Mango also includes "built-in Facebook check-ins and new face detection software that makes it easier to quickly tag photos and post to the Web," Microsoft said.

Technology research company Gartner said last month that Google's Android mobile operating system will power nearly half of the smartphones worldwide by the end of next year with a 49.2 percent market share.

The market share for Apple's iPhone's was forecast to remain relatively stable at 18.9 percent in 2012.

Microsoft's Windows mobile operating system will account for 5.6 percent of the smartphone market at the end of 2011 but will rise to 10.8 percent in 2012, according to Gartner.

■単語
claw
[名]
1 （鳥獣の）鉤爪(かぎづめ)（のある足）；((通例〜s))（昆虫の）つめ；（エビ・カニ・サソリなどの）はさみ；（人の，やせて長い）手. ⇒NAIL[名]2, TALON 1

2 鉤爪状の物［道具］（くぎ抜きなど）；つめ状に並んだもの.

3 ((米俗))警官.

cut [clip] the claws of ...

…を無害［無力］にする.

get [have] one's claws into [in] ...

…をつかまえて離さない；〈女性が〉…との結婚を決心する；…をいやみ［ねたみ］で攻撃する.

in [within] one's claws

(1)（人の）手中に落ちて.

(2)((おどけて))つかまえて，つかんで.

━━[動](他)

1 …を（つめ・手などで）裂く，ひっかく，つかむ，引っ張る，かきむしる

claw hold of ...
…をつめ［手］でしっかりとつかむ

The child clawed the present open.
子供は贈り物の包装をつめでひっかいて開いた.

2 …をつめ［手］で（ひっかいて）作る

claw a hole in the sand
砂浜につめで穴を掘る.

3 〈道を〉かき分けて進む；苦難を越えて達する

claw one's way up
よじ登る；努力して成功する.

4 ((米俗))〈人を〉逮捕［拘留］する.

━━(自)（←(他)）

1 つめでひっかく［裂く，掘る］((away))；（…に）つめでつかまろうとする((at ...)).

2 （…を）手探りする［して捜す］((for ...)).

3 ((スコット))（かゆい所を）軽くかく.

claw ... back／claw back ...

((英))〈物を〉（苦労・努力して）取り戻す；〈政府が〉〈交付金に見合う額を〉追加税として回収する.

Foxconn confirms 3rd death at plant linked to iPad

Foxconn Technology Co Ltd on Sunday confirmed that a third person has died following a large explosion at a plant in southwestern China on Friday that local media have linked to production of Apple's iPad 2.

The Taiwanese company, Apple Inc's main contract manufacturer for gadgets from the popular tablet to the iPhone, operates the plant in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province.

A task force led by government officials and law enforcement said preliminary findings point to an explosion of combustible dust in a duct at a polishing workshop at the plant, Foxconn said.

The company also said that all operations at that workshop remain suspended and production at all workshops doing similar work is also suspended. All other production operations at its facilities in China are running as usual, it added.

An Apple spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

In addition to the three deaths, 15 employees were hurt. Of those six, have been treated and released from hospital, Foxconn said.

Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, is an affiliate of Taiwan's Hon Hai.

Singapore Airlines to create no-frills offshoot

SINGAPORE Airlines is creating its own low-cost carrier to take on the likes of Jetstar, Air Asia and Tiger Airways for medium and long-haul routes in the Asia-Pacific region.
The new airline - whose name is yet to be announced - will be a wholly owned subsidiary and be based out of Singapore, it was announced late last night.
Its chief executive is expected to be recruited from Singapore Airlines, but the no-frills airline will be managed independently of its parent.
While Singapore Airlines has a 32.9 per cent stake in Tiger Airways, it has no day-to-day management of the carrier - Singapore Airlines considers it as merely an equity holding, a spokeswoman said.
The new no-frills carrier was likely to compete with Tiger Airways and other low-cost carriers in the region on some routes, the spokeswoman said. It will announce its routes later.
It will recruit pilots internationally and cabin crew will be employed from Singapore, open to those with Singapore work permits. The airline will use a wide-body fleet.
''As we have observed on short-haul routes within Asia, low-fare airlines help stimulate demand for travel, and we expect this will also prove true for longer flights,'' said Singapore Airline chief executive Goh Choon Phong.
''We are very excited about what our new low-fare subsidiary will offer to consumers. We see a new market segment being created and this will provide another growth opportunity …,'' he said. Singapore Airlines is yet to file for its Air Operator's Certificate but promises the airline will be up and flying within 12 months.
Singapore Airlines' announcement came after a report in the Australian Financial Review that Australian airline Qantas was planning to establish a new premium carrier based in Singapore.
Qantas would not confirm the report, dismissing it as speculation, but has said its international business had not been performing to expectations, with market share in this area falling in recent years.

■単語
offshoot
[名]
1 派生物；分家；分派；子孫.
2 植物枝，分枝.

The real danger to air passengers is not the ash cloud ? it's these men

The two forthright Irishmen at the helm of Ryanair and British Airways have been outspoken in their criticism of the Met Office and aviation authorities over their assessment of the risk posed to aircraft by the plume of volcanic ash drifting in and out of UK airspace.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, formed from the merger of BA and Iberia, has joined his business rival Michael O'Leary, who heads Ryanair, in condemning the forecasts and risk assessments from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Met Office.

Mr Walsh said yesterday that he had sent one of his aircraft through an area designated a "red zone" by the CAA and found "absolutely nothing" in terms of visible damage to the cockpit windows, aircraft surfaces or engines.

He aligned himself with Mr O'Leary, who had done something similar the day before with a Ryanair test flight at 41,000ft in Scotland, using some very colourful language to describe the "mythical" idea of red zones established by the CAA and the Met Office.

The chief executives have a track record of decrying the attempts by aviation authorities to bring some science to the assessment of the risks posed by volcanic ash. Last year, Mr Walsh said that the closure of UK airspace in the aftermath of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption was "a gross overreaction to a very minor risk", while Mr O'Leary said that the closure was "completely unnecessary".

But the men are guilty of playing to the gallery of public opinion in their criticism of the measures taken to minimise the risk to air travellers. They know their stock will rise by condemning those whose job it is to ensure airline safety - even if it means flight cancellations.

A single satellite snapshot apparently showing no volcanic ash in an area designated a red zone does not disprove the methodology used by the CAA and the Met Office, as Mr Walsh implied. And a single test flight at one altitude does not show that the entire concept of a red zone is a myth, as Mr O'Leary suggested on Tuesday.

The idea of a red zone, where the concentrations of volcanic ash exceed 4,000mcg per cubic metre, was instigated to get around the need for the blanket closure of airspace applied last year. This is the concentration of ash that is recognised as posing a significant risk to aircraft.

There is little scientific dispute over the risk to any aircraft that flies though a cloud of volcanic ash, which acts like a harsh, abrasive powder that can enter the smallest nooks and crannies of a plane's engine. The ash is composed of tiny fragments of pulverised rock and glass and it can grind away an aircraft's exterior, such as the windows of the cockpit and the blades of a turbine. But it also melts at the high temperatures inside a jet engine and sticks to the moving turbine blades, which alters their aerodynamics and causes the engines to stall.

This happened to a British Airways Boeing 747 in 1982, when at 36,000ft it flew too close to an ash cloud from the Galunggung volcano in Indonesia.

All four engines failed and the pilot only just managed to restart them after descending to 12,000ft, at which point the engines had cooled down enough for the melted volcanic glass to splinter from the turbine blades.

A study published earlier this year by Icelandic and Danish scientists supported the measures taken in 2010 to minimise the risk to aircraft from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption.

Tests on volcanic ash indicated that it retains its highly abrasive nature for several weeks after it is sent into the air.

The difficulty for the Met Office and the CAA is predicting where the current plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano will drift. They use a plethora of scientific instruments, from optical sensing machines on the ground to satellites in space, to gauge the thickness and whereabouts of the ash. They also model its future drift and altitude using sophisticated computer models of changes to wind speed and direction. When Mr O'Leary denounced the red-zone concept on Tuesday after a single flight at 41,000ft, he failed to mention that the Met Office had predicted that the ash cloud would not be at this altitude at this point in time.

Equally, when Mr Walsh said his own test had found absolutely nothing, he failed to say that the red-zone idea is based on a probabilistic notion, where dangerous concentrations of ash are likely, rather than definitely, found.

The next time Mr Walsh holds up a small vial of volcanic ash to emphasise just how small and insignificant the concentrations in a red zone are, he should be made aware that he, along with the CAA, may be held to account if one of his aircraft falls out of the sky after flying through an ash plume.