SECEN organized a workshop on IPv6 transition.

Feb 23, 2015: SECEN (Society of Electronics and Communication Engineers Nepal) organized a workshop on the issue of new IP addressing scheme (IPv6) transition. The workshop entitled as a "The number game: 128 bits for Keeping the internet going and growing", was presented by one of the SECEN executive member, Er. Krishna Prasad Bhandari who is working as Deputy Manager in Nepal Telecom. KP sir presented the idea of what the IP addressing scheme is right now: IPv4 and the reason to change addressing scheme to IPV6 sooner or later. He clearly mentioned the game behind the limitation of the current addressing scheme, the challenges for the transition to IPv6 and the way ahead. As we know the future of communication is in the development of connected devices and IoT (internet of Things) that was coined a long ago but coming to reality with 5G, billions of devices like sensors, wearable techs, smartphones, and much more things around us that will come to the network, needs a unique identity to keep it connected, for which the transition to this new addressing scheme is mandatory. IPv6 can provide identity for huge no of devices (that is more than enough for the ones we have foreseed) with  higher 128 bits (as compared to 32 bits in IPv4). SECEN President Er. Lochan Lal Amatya also expressed the idea of smart cities to be interlinked with this new addressing scheme. He congratulated the presenter and IPv6 certified engineer Kshitiz Shrestha with whom he has conceived of organizing a separate technical session. He even assured of continuing such talk/ interaction in the future, at least once or twice in a month. This sort of interaction promotes discussion among similar professionals to make a concrete voice for the issues around us, and lobby with the policy makers/regulators to cope with the technology. As NEA (the home to all engineers of Nepal) is continuing the talk program on regular basis, such event from SECEN will create additional platform for more in depth discussion on issues of information and Communication technologies. I must appreciate SECEN and the executive committee for organizing such event. I assure I will be there for more of such events.

Here are some pictures that I took in the event.

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Meizu on the rise!! M1 note and M1 gets sold out in seconds.

Its not Xiaomi now when somebody talks of a phone maker that you have never heard of. 2014 was the year for Xiaomi which just toppled Samsung as the top handset maker in China and it will continue to grow this year too, but another handset maker will join them for similar exponential rise in the no of sales in 2015. I am talking of Meizu, the Chinese handset maker (already in the top ten list) which is creating a big buzz in the tech world with its MX series flagship and the recent phablet M1 Note. Such cheap and powerful devices are getting more popular with flagship features and build quality. The buzz garnered $590 Million investment from e-commerce Giant Alibaba that enables them to get more recognition both locally and internationally. Meizu has gone international way before Xiaomi gets in the light but Xiaomi grew fast to be the tech giant in China, leading to more recognition. As Android is the dominant operating system in this region, Chinese manufacturers are opting to use Android Skin or customized interface like MIUI from Xiaomi, Flyme from Meizu, Emotion from Huawei and many alike. Apart from Android skin Flyme, Meizu is known to use Alibaba's YunOS to power its smartphones. It is also speculated that Meizu will launch a phone with Ubuntu OS in MWC 2015, most probably a all new M1 note. 

Meizu store in Huaqianbei, Shenzhen, China

Meizu M1 Note and M1 phone:

M1 note, the latest offering from Meizu, is a 64 bit MediaTek MT652 Octacore processor powered phablet with 5.5 inch 1080P IGZO display, 13 MP/5MP shooter, and 3140 mAh battery. The dual SIM 2G/LTE device looks similar to iPhone C, with ditto set of colors (green, pink, white, yellow and blue).The phone has 2 GB RAM, dual tone flash feature in camera and FDD LTE (the variant that is supposed to land here in Nepal after licensing from the regulator). As already mentioned, the device supports the latest version of its own Android skin, Flyme 4.2 (based on Kitkat). Marked as an direct competitor to Xiaomi Redmi 2 in affordable and entry level smartphone range, the phone price is 1000 RMB ($160) in china which is a little higher than Redmi2, but with all better hardware and performance. The light phone (145 gm) is made up of plastic and has 16 GB/32 GB memory space with no SD card slot. 

Meizu has even released another version with 5 inch display and Snapdragon 615 processor. Dubbed as M1, the phone has 1 GB RAM/ 8GB Memory space, SD card slot, Single SIM with LTE support and 2500 mAh battery. Most of the other impressive features and looks are similar to M1 Note where M1 phone does not have this dual tone LED flash. The phone is priced at CNY 700 ($112) in China but it will cost more in the stores other than the official one where phone gets sold out in a matter of seconds.

Ever since I heard of M1 note, I thought of owning it, especially the blue colored one. As I have already asked my friend who is going to China for a month, to bring the phablet for me, it will take a month to have it in my hand. If I find the performance of the phablet to be impressive that is on paper now, then I will definitely entice more of my friends and blog readers to be "proud owner of Meizu". A month to wait!!

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KMG launches a new TV channel "Kantipur Gold".

Kantipur Media Group has launched a new TV channel called Kantipur Gold. Marking the 22nd anniversary of the big media house (Falgun 7- Democracy day), they started airing the new channel on a test basis. The new TV channel is known to focus on Entertainment, Sports and Lifestyle. This is the second TV channel of Kantipur, First being launched 13 years ago. Recently Government owned NTV launched a new TV channel dedicated only to news. Though it is hard to tell the exact no of TV channels in the country, the numbers seems to be in twenties (discarding the local channels from the cable provider itself).

Kantipur Gold TV logo

If you see the current list of TV channels in Nepal, it is mostly dominated by News. Now that Kantipur has started this new Channel focused for entertainment, it is obvious other houses to follow suit, and come as a trend to boost the entertainment business of the country. Similarly, sports being one of the entertainment means, this sort of channel will definitely lift the status of the country in sports. As Kantipur recently got the broadcasting rights of the games of Nepali cricket team (that will be playing the World Cricket league in home and away form), I presume this to be aired through this new TV channel, which will bridge the gap in this Sports crazy nation.

Kantipur will also start airing the M&S Video Magazine (previously a M&S Youtube channel) on Kantipur TV, at Friday 10 to 10:30 pm.
After the news came out, I auto-searched the channels in my cable TV (Subisu cable), but could not find it and so I will be calling the operator to request them to put it in their list.

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