Progeniq's new HMMer BioBoost-accelerated application improves bioinformatics computation on the Mac OS X by up to 40 times.

The announcement at the recent Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, which was also carried on AOL, Forbes, and InfoWorld, was about Progeniq's new HMMer BioBoost-accelerated application for the Mac, which enables the commonly used HMMer bioinformatics application to harness the power of BioBoost to speed up computations on Mac OS X.

HMMer refers to a protein sequence-matching algorithm and BioBoost provides hardware accelerated processing for this computationally intensive application by using Field Programmable Gate Array technology. This enables the processor to "rewire" itself on the fly according to the application that needs to be accelerated. According to Progeniq, adding BioBoost removes computational bottlenecks and optimises the entire workflow to provide results more quickly. The Universal version of BioBoost allows applications to run natively on both PowerPC, and Intel-based Macs.

According to Progeniq's Chief Executive Officer Darran Nathan, the company has seen very strong demand from Mac users over the past year since launching the BioBoost v3.0 for Mac OS X Universal last year. The BioBoost-accelerated HMMer is available for immediate shipment and requires Mac OS X version 10.4 Tiger.

On the mobile security front, Singapore startup tenCube (www.tencube.com) has unveiled a service designed to protect both mobile phone handsets and the data inside them, in the case of loss or theft. Since winning the national business plan competition Startup@Singapore last year, tenCube has been named one of the 100 Hottest Technology Start-ups in Asia by Red Herring and was one of six finalists of the prestigious GES Award by Asian Wall Street Journal.

This time round, it is making the news with WaveSecure (www.wavesecure.com), which allows mobile phone users to lock the phone upon losing it, track the phone even if the SIM card has been changed and report the new phone number back to the rightful owner, and automatically backup the phone's data to secure, protected servers. In case of phone loss, the user can choose to remotely wipe out all private data contained in the device.

Over the past few months, several ICT multinationals have set up their regional headquarters in Singapore, attracted by the stable economy, robust ICT infrastructure and strategic location.

Mr Hansjoerg Wagner, EDB's Assistant Managing Director Manohar Khiatani and US Ambassador Patricia L. Herbold officiate at the opening of Polycom's new regional HQ.

• Unified collaborative communications solutions vendor Polycom (www.polycom.com) set up its Asia Pacific headquarters here in June to oversee its financial, sales and marketing, legal, order management, IT and HR operations in the region. According to Mr Hansjoerg Wagner, Vice President of Sales and Managing Director for Asia Pacific, the company's decision to locate its Asia Pacific headquarters here was influenced by Singapore's strategic focus on infocomm and its central location in the region. Polycom, which currently has more than 40 employees in Singapore, expects to boost its head count here to 55 by year end.
• Network solutions company Harris Stratex Networks (www.harrisstratex.com) opened its 12,500 sq ft international headquarters (IHQ) here in June to serve as a global logistics and procurement centre. The IHQ will also overseee other day-to-day operations such as finance, sales, distribution, technical support, and supply chain management. The company also plans to establish an R&D centre focused on software development at its new IHQ. Harris Stratex Networks, which currently has 12 employees in Singapore, plans to grow this to over 60 employees within 24 to 36 months.
• Internet search giant Google (www.google.com) opened its Singapore office in May to serve the local and Southeast Asian markets. According to Google, the new office will enable it to bring its advertising platform, services and search experience more effectively to users, advertisers and partners in the region. Richard Kimber, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Google, pointed out that Singapore has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world, with more than 71 per cent of households having online access. The Google Singapore office will focus primarily on serving both Google AdWords and Google AdSense customers.

Singapore Telecommunications (www.singtel.com) has announced the launch of a pay TV service that offers video-on-demand over its broadband network.

Interactivity will be a key feature of the new Internet protocol TV (IPTV) offering. The 33-channel mio TV allows customers to select and pay only for the programmes that they want to watch, instead of having to subscribe to a bundle of programmes.

Interactivity will be a key feature of the 33-channel mio TV service.

Viewers can search for content by genre, by title or by actor's name. They will also be able to pause, rewind and record live TV programmes if they opt for a set-top box with a recording function. The mio TV website allows viewers to programme their recordings even when they are not at home, and an upcoming service will enable them to do it via their
mobile phones.

"This is the future of television - a world where viewers are able to control their own instant replays, pause the 'live' news to get a drink and command their set-top box to record a programme even when they're out for dinner," said Mr Allen Lew, SingTel's Chief Executive Officer Singapore. The mio TV set-top box allows one channel to be recorded while watching another and has a capacity of 80 hours
of recording.

According to SingTel, mio TV is currently available to 85 per cent of homes in Singapore, and the rest will be able to come on board when their phone systems are upgraded. Subscribers do not have to be SingTel
broadband customers.

With the on-demand option, viewers can choose from up to 25 selected movies for unlimited viewing for only $12 per month. Mio TV features blockbuster movies form major Hollywood movie studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Disney. A deal with Sony Pictures Television International allows subscribers to view Sony's upcoming slate of feature films at the same time as the DVD release. MediaCorp's free-to-air high definition (HD) channel, HD5, will also be available on mio TV, putting Singapore among the world's first to have a free-to-air HD channel carried on an
IPTV platform.

For more information on Residential Broadband Services in Singapore, visit www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20061213184450.aspx

Mr Phang: The public sector within the APEJ region represents an industry of diverse spending.

Government spending on IT services and products will continue to increase steadily in the Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9 per cent from 2007-2011, according to the latest study from research firm Government Insights (www.government-insights.com).

"The public sector within the APEJ region represents an industry of diverse spending behaviour, with spending expected to exceed US$32 billion by 2011," said Mr Raphael Phang, Research Director of Government Insights Asia Pacific.

The IT growth will be driven largely by China and India, which together account for more than half of the total. These countries have been building up their information and communications technology infrastructure to increase outreach to their citizens, especially in the rural areas, noted Phang.

With a double-digit CAGR in China (10.2 per cent) and India (17.6 per cent), the growth rate of these developing countries also outpaces all other countries within the region, said Mr Phang.

Government Insights also predicts that overall IT expenditure will continue to be largely driven by hardware, although a slight decline is expected from 57.5 per cent of expenditure in 2007 to 54 per cent in 2011. Expenditure on services and software, on the other hand, is expected to increase steadily.

According to Mr Phang, IT investment in the APEJ government sector will remain strong. However, growth is expected to slow down as spending on large infrastructure projects begins to decline with e-government initiatives shifting beyond the infrastructure build-out stage, towards maximising the value of existing infrastructure, he said.