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Engineers at Motorola Mobility are hard at work on a sophisticated handset—known internally as the “X phone”—but the Google Inc. unit is running into some obstacles in its effort to provide more potent competition for Apple Inc., said people familiar with the matter. Seven months after being acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, Motorola is designing its marquee handset with cutting-edge features to stand apart from existing phones when it is released next year, these people said. But while Google is known for swift execution on the Web, its new hardware unit has run into hurdles associated with manufacturing and supply-chain management that have caused the company to rethink some initial plans for the X phone, such as using a bendable screen, these people added. The previously undisclosed development effort is a key facet of Google’s strategy for boosting the minuscule market position of the cellphone pioneer, based partly on bolstering quality while reducing the quantity of M

For the first time in Sri Lanka, the National Mobile Service Provider – Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, launched a Mobile 4G/LTE network to provide enhanced services to the public.  Mobitel’s latest addition to the technology portfolio is the natural successor of the telecommunication evolution of the world. With the latest addition, Mobitel will be one of the most decorated and equipped operators in the world in the technology front which includes FD LTE, HSPA+ DC, HSPA, UMTS and 2G services. This will enable Mobitel to provide an enhanced and diversified service to its customer base. Mobitel carried out a successful trial of 4G/LTE with a downlink speed exceeding 96Mbps for the first time in the South Asian Region in May 2011. Mobitel established its dominance of the mobile technology industry by being one of the first ten mobile service providers in the world to launch a 3.5G HSPA network in 2007. Mobitel was also the first company with a Super 3.5G network in South Asia.

The demerit point system introduced by authorities as a measure to curb escalating road accidents and aimed at creating disciplined motorists will come into action from tomorrow (January 01). Commissioner General of Motor Traffic H.S. Harischandra stated that when the points of motorists caught committing traffic offences, such as driving under the influence of alcohol, accumulate to 24 points their license will be suspended for a year.  Errant drivers will also be produced before Court and they could lose their license permanently depending on the severity of the charge, he said.

Sydney: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has blasted his players for playing bad cricket during their humiliating innings and 201 runs defeat at the hands of Australia in the Boxing Day Test match at the MCG. Jayawardene said the batsmen were required to bat well during their second innings on day three but failed miserably, and added that the team needs to dig deep to gain anything from the final Test match in Sydney, the Age reports. Jayawardene said Australia played really well throughout the match and slammed his players for playing loose shots, giving away their wickets at crucial junctures. The veteran said everyone in the team needs to take the responsibility for the ignominious defeat. Meanwhile, the tourists will likely have to make three forced changes with star batsman Kumar Sangakkara (broken finger) and pace man Chanaka Welegedera (hamstring) ruled out, and wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene is also unlikely to recover from a fractured thumb in time

Not many will doubt that one of the most sought after keyword on Internet is “sex”. And Sri Lankans, it seems, are the most search savvy when it comes to Googling that term. This is according to Google Trends, a public web facility that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. Second-placed India is not far behind in search for the term, and so isn’t (surprise, surprise) #3 Papua New Guinea and #4 Ethiopia even as Pakistan completes the Top 5 nations that Googled for ‘sex’ in 2012. According to Google Trends, search for the term peaked in Sri Lanka during the week April 15-21, 2012, even as the partial data for the current week (December 23-29, 2012) shows it as second-highest week during which the term was Goggled in 2012. In India, people most Googled for the term during the week November 11-17, 2012 while the week October 21-27, 2012, wasn’t far behind.

A Sri Lankan court has ordered the release of 27 fishermen who were taken into custody by the Lankan Navy recently along with their four boats. The fishermen are expected to leave for India later today and are expected to be in Tamil Nadu by tomorrow, Indian media reports. According to fisheries department officials and president of the ‘Innocent Fishermen’s Association’ U Arulanandam, the court ordered their release. They said the Jaffna court had also ordered for release of the four boats and these vessels be taken along with the fishermen to Talaimannar. The fishermen, who belonged to Karaikal and Nagapattinam, were arrested on December 23 when they were fishing in the Lankan maritime area, police said. The fishermen would arrive in India shortly, they said. Lankan Navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya had said on December 24 that the Indians were arrested for “poaching inside Sri Lanka international maritime border limits off the eastern coast”, PTI reports.

Police said that six persons had gone missing after a boat capsized in the Tissa Wewa today and that four of them had perished. The bodied of the four youth have been discovered, police said. The incident had occurred at around 3.40pm today (22) when a boat with 22 passengers had capsized in the Tissa Wewa. They are said to be employees of a private company in Homagama. The group of youths were returning from Kataragama when they had engaged in the boat trip in the Tissa Wewa.

The disaster management centre (DMC) stated that roughly 175,000 people have been displaced due to the weather conditions in the past few days. Assistant Director of the DMC Pradeep Kodippili stated that 16 people have died, 14 people are missing and 33 people have come under various other accidents. Property damages were also mentioned, with 141 houses completely destroyed, 805 houses partially destroyed. There are 47 IDP tents and 9696 people who are temporarily placed there. The rains have distrupted the roads as well, with parts of the Puttalam – Colombo road under water. 

Railway employees are to launch a 24 hour islandwide token strike from midnight tomorrow (Dec. 04) demanding salary hikes, railway trade unions said.