• First bank in UAE to introduce state-of-art cards to all customers
• Full range of cards available to Personal, Priority, Private and Business Banking clients

Dubai, February 10, 2010: Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the Middle East in terms of assets, in association with Visa, announced today the launch of its complete suite of Chip enabled Debit Cards. The new Emirates NBD Visa Debit Card comes equipped with the latest in card technology with the new generation of CHIP cards.

The bank which launched its new brand in November 2009, also unveiled its complete suite of Debit cards which cater to suit the varying needs of its customers. The new range of cards include vanilla offerings to the Personal Banking segment, in addition to variants like Platinum Debit card targeted at the Priority Banking segment, Infinite Debit card targeted at the Private Banking segment and a Business Banking Debit card catering to the large SME segment.

“Emirates NBD is proud to again be the UAE’s leader in product and service innovation, launching the country’s newest and most secure debit cards with EMV chip technology. This Visa Chip Debit card has been launched to offer cardholders a payment card with enhanced chip features, combining the convenience of a chip-enabled card with a greater level of security, thus falling in line with our strategy to combat fraud.” said Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Group Deputy CEO, Emirates NBD.

“Also we have segmented our customer base and have thereby targeted the right Debit Card product to the right customer segment. This has been a key priority given that we are the market leader in Debit Cards and this is the fastest growing segment across the globe”, he added.

Kamran Siddiqi, Visa’s General Manager for GCC, Levant, Pakistan and Afghanistan said: ‘Visa is delighted to partner with Emirates NBD and enable Chip and Pin technology on the new suite of Debit cards. Chip and PIN technologies add an important security layer to transactions, bringing convenience, speed and peace of mind to cardholders and merchants alike. Emirates NBD now offers a full stable of Visa Debit products, from HNW cards to business Debit cards, enabling everyone to take advantage of the benefits that Debit offers.”

The Emirates NBD Visa chip debit cards are great alternatives to carrying cash. It eliminates the need to write cheques or use ATMs to withdraw cash. It is faster, more convenient and can be used to pay for all day to day purchases anywhere cardholders see the Visa Logo. And what’s more – with the new Chip and PIN technology, transactions are more secure than ever before. 

The Emirates NBD Visa Debit Cards can be used to shop online or at any domestic or overseas merchant displaying the Visa logo - over 40,000 in the UAE and more than 24 million retail outlets worldwide.  This card can also be used to withdraw cash or make other transactions at more than 650 Emirates NBD ATMs as well as at over a million ATMs world wide. Unlike a credit card, funds are deducted directly from the cardholder’s account and there are no monthly bill or interest charges. The new Emirates NBD Visa chip debit card has both a magnetic stripe as well as chip functionality. The card will offer Emirates NBD Debit cardholders increased security and will mitigate fraudulent and disputed payments. When making a purchase with their card, cardholders have the opportunity to key in their unique PIN, thereby validating their identity. Around the world payment cards and card terminals are becoming chip compliant.

All new cards issued since January have been equipped with the latest technology and Cards will be issued to existing customers on a renewal basis; Emirates NBD will contact customers when their card is ready for issue to arrange a convenient time to deliver. Million of chip cards in use in countries around the world today points to the way the bank card industry is heading. Being the largest bank in the UAE, Emirates NBD has made the first move to rollout chip cards on a large scale for its banking customers.

Demonstrating Epicor for Financial Services for the First Time in Bahrain

Bahrain — 10 March 2010 — Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC), a leading provider of enterprise business software solutions for the midmarket and divisions of Global 1000 companies, today announced that Matt Muldoon, Epicor’s senior director of product marketing will be presenting at the ICAI Conference on 12 March 2010. Muldoon is presenting at 11.00 a.m. on the topic “Leveraging Technology for Better Financial and Risk Management,” educating local businesses on how they can use technology to improve accounting and risk management processes. Epicor will also use the event to demonstrate Epicor for Financial Services, its industry-specific next-generation Epicor 9 enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, together with its local partner Incarnate ICT.

“The financial services industry is under pressure to look at ways of improving governance, risk and compliance management, while reducing costs at the same time,” said Matt Muldoon, senior director, product marketing for Epicor. “Many businesses in the Middle East are running large, expensive and aging accounting systems, or are stuck with cumbersome manual processes—not realizing that there are other options. Any financial services organization that is serious about growing its business should have a financial platform that is cost-effective in the long term yet flexible enough to change with the business where and when needed.”

“As the financial capital of the region, Bahrain is an important hub for Epicor, and with more than 400 customers and 15 partners in the Middle East, we are well placed to support local businesses across all industries,” said Basil Daniells, regional director for Epicor in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and India. “We have been present in the Middle East for over ten years and during that time we have helped organizations to improve business processes and grow operations locally, regionally and internationally.”

“Business technology is an important part of local BCICAI’s members’ roles today and we want to help them understand how they can better use technology to their advantage when managing finances and risks within their organizations,” said BCICAI chairman Alok Gupta. “As a global company with experience of solving financial challenges for small and large businesses we believe that Epicor is well placed to advise our members during the event this week.”

Epicor’s next-generation software provides support for the world’s most complex tax, currency, and legal standards. Available in 30 languages and 60 countries worldwide Epicor offers the financial services sector an innovative and flexible solution that has been built on a technologically advanced infrastructure. With comprehensive Financial Management and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) capabilities, Epicor also has expanded functionality for measuring key performance indicators across all operational aspects, helping organizations further their financial goals. Advanced financial reporting capabilities and a sophisticated advanced allocations module help finance departments greatly simplify business processes, and be integral to tracking financial performance across the enterprise, providing new levels of efficiency, visibility and audit-ability.

Incarnate ICT (ME) WLL, Epicor Authorised Partner in Bahrain, will be jointly participating for the event. Incarnate ICT has always focussed on achieving excellence by providing customer designed, client specific, result oriented IT solutions for a diverse set of clients. Incarnate prides itself in its perseverance to understand the clients business objectives, issues, processes, and resources; and then provide an effective solution built on its comprehensive repertoire of technologies, which are a natural extension of the existing setup. Their services include enterprise application software, networking, security consulting, IT audit, bio metric solutions, helpdesk management, and others.

7 March, 2010 - Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L), the global application software and services company, today announced that QNB, the leading national bank in Qatar, has licensed Misys BankFusion™ Equation to ensure it has the most modern technology platform available to underpin its business strategy.

QNB has the largest distribution network in Qatar, comprising 44 branches in addition to eleven Islamic branches and offices operated by its Islamic banking subsidiary QNB Al Islami, and more than 160 ATMs. QNB’s international presence is rapidly expanding to include new locations around the world to supplement long-established branches in London and Paris.  The Bank has affiliates and subsidiaries in 22 countries including, most recently Syria and Switzerland where the Bank commenced operations in 2009.

QNB is also among the highest rated regional banks according to leading credit rating agencies including Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch, and Capital Intelligence.

BankFusion Equation tailors business processes to the exact requirements of each bank eliminating any constraints of underlying technology. BankFusion Equation automatically generates the system’s Java code, significantly reducing manual input and errors and accelerating solution modifications. This helps bring new solutions to market faster and better serve customers.

In this latest release of the solution, Equation has been re-architected into an SOA environment using Misys’ revolutionary BankFusion™ platform. Misys BankFusion Equation provides improved security and risk management capabilities as well as the flexibility to scale the business rapidly when required. 

“QNB is one of the most advanced banking groups in the GCC region and invests considerable resources in deploying innovative technology and expertise to ensure the seamless delivery of its banking solutions to customers,” the bank states. “Advanced platforms such as BankFusion Equation serve the strategic growth objectives of QNB Group by, most importantly, providing an automated risk management framework, whilst seamlessly integrating with existing systems and technologies.”

QNB is already a leader in modern banking solutions such as straight through processing of foreign currency transactions and has won awards from Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan for the quality of its Euro and Dollar payments. The Bank is also one of the first institutions in Qatar to have developed an integrated eBanking platform. Branded “EAZYLife”, it is a suite of internet, mobile, telephone and ATM banking solutions serving customers in Qatar and abroad.

Guy Warren, EVP and General Manager, Banking, Misys states, “The ground-breaking technology in BankFusion Equation will allow QNB to launch innovative new products and services quickly to the market.  The management team has chosen to invest in Misys, our BankFusion strategy and the future roadmap of the solution.  This gives them the most modern, flexible next-generation core banking platform available on the market today to underpin the bank’s operations.”

Three new mice in fun colors give consumers ultimate mobility.

February 25, 2010 - Today Microsoft Hardware extends its award-winning line of BlueTrack Technology mouse products, debuting the advanced tracking technology at its lowest prices ever — under AED110.1 Now people have the opportunity to track on virtually any surface2 at an affordable price with three new mice to choose from — the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, Wireless Mouse 2000 and Comfort Mouse 4500. The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 and Comfort Mouse 4500 will be available in bright colors just in time for spring so people can add a touch of personality to their computers.

BlueTrack Technology was created in response to people’s increasingly mobile lifestyles, letting them ditch their mouse pad and use their BlueTrack mouse virtually anywhere — from the granite kitchen counter and the wood table at the coffee shop to the armrest at the airport. Debuting in September 2008, BlueTrack Technology is now available in eight Microsoft mice so consumers can choose the best design, color and price to fit their needs.

Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 and Wireless Mouse 2000

The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 includes a Nano transceiver that sticks out less than a centimeter from the USB port, so it can remain plugged into the computer at all times, and the Wireless Mouse 2000 comes with a minitransceiver that easily snaps into the bottom of the mouse when on the go. The two mice also offer an ambidextrous shape with rubber side grips; the Wireless Mouse 2000 is a full-size mouse while the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 is a bit smaller, so people can pick the best fit for their hand size. The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 will be available in Loch Ness Gray and Dragon Fruit Pink, and the Wireless Mouse 2000 will be available in gray.

Comfort Mouse 4500

The Comfort Mouse 4500 is the first wired mouse featuring BlueTrack Technology, making it a great choice for people who never want to deal with changing batteries. Like its wireless counterparts, the Comfort Mouse 4500 will track on virtually any surface2 and will be available in black as well as three fresh special-edition colors: Sea Blue, Poppy Red and Strawberry Pink.

Pricing and Availability

The Wireless Mouse 2000 and Comfort Mouse 4500 will be available for AED 109 and AED99,1 respectively, and will ship in March when they are widely released. The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 will be available for AED 1091 and ship in April when it is widely released. All three mice are backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty. More information about this and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.

Dubai, UAE., Feb. 18, 2010 – HP today extended its cloud consulting services portfolio with a new design service that helps businesses and government agencies accelerate the adoption of cloud-based infrastructures to improve technology and business flexibility.

The HP Cloud Design Service takes a proven approach to designing and deploying scalable, cloud-based infrastructures that speed up the delivery of projects while mitigating risk. Additionally, HP’s design principles ensure the cloud infrastructure can support a hybrid sourcing model that includes private and public cloud options. This allows organizations to consume and deliver services that support different workloads.

As part of the HP Cloud Design Service, HP works with clients to understand their requirements and existing IT investments. HP then creates a customized cloud infrastructure design blueprint and an implementation plan. This plan includes cost estimates, guidelines for deployment, testing, operational management, service life cycle management, governance and support.

The HP Cloud Design Service offers the following benefits for clients:

— Everything needed to offer a cloud service. The HP Reference Architecture for Cloud acts as a common framework for all cloud engagements and accommodates different business requirements, technologies, software stacks and cloud service requirements.

— Speed time to delivery and mitigate implementation risk. The design blueprint and implementation plan take into account people, process, technology, cost estimations and workload migration aspects.

— Reduces costly technology redundancies while helping clients make strategic investment decisions. HP uses tested, repeatable planning and analysis tools from HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 best practices and proven methodologies developed from major cloud design implementations.

— Leverage existing technology investments. Heterogeneous and highly repeatable design principals and objective recommendations ensure seamless integration of HP Converged Infrastructure technologies, HP software and third-party products into the overall cloud infrastructure design.

“Organizations of all types are struggling to understand how to build a cloud-specific infrastructure that is safe and effective while meeting their business objectives,” said Samer Zein, Technology Services Manager, HP Middle East. “HP has the experience to help clients ensure the design and implementation of cloud infrastructure will deliver the expected benefits today and in the future.”

The HP Cloud Design Service is available worldwide with pricing based on specific customer requirements. For clients that are still at the education, strategy or planning stages, HP offers the HP Cloud Discovery Workshop and the HP Cloud Roadmap Service.

The HP cloud services portfolio helps organizations use the cloud as part of a broader IT service delivery strategy. HP takes a comprehensive approach to cloud design – how to build, source, manage and secure it. Most importantly, HP helps customers develop a solid, fact-based business case for fast investment decision making. More information about the complete portfolio of HP Cloud Consulting and Infrastructure Services is available at www.hp.com/services/cloud.

Dubai, UAE, Feb. 11, 2010 – HP today introduced a records management solution that enables customers to significantly reduce the business risks associated with the growing regulatory compliance and legal discovery demands.

HP TRIM 7 – an advanced records management solution built on 24 years of experience and best practices – enables organizations to transparently manage all of their Microsoft SharePoint Server records in a single environment, regardless of the source. This includes documents as well as information found in SharePoint Server blogs, wikis, discussions, forms, calendars and workflows.

Widespread adoption of SharePoint Server provides the opportunity to consolidate and simplify the management of content stored across multiple SharePoint instances. HP TRIM 7 enables the transparent capture, search and management of all types of physical and electronic business information, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the upcoming SharePoint Server 2010. 

“Businesses today are faced with managing an explosion of content 2.0 environments while trying to meet a wave of new regulations. Our new HP TRIM solution allows customers to benefit from a dynamic collaboration platform such as SharePoint with best practices records management and governance capabilities,” said Mounir Mahmoud, Software Director, HP Middle East.

HP TRIM 7 is an advanced records management solution built on 24 years of experience and best practices. To help SharePoint Server customers, HP TRIM provides two new modules: HP TRIM Records Management for SharePoint and HP TRIM Archiving for SharePoint. 

HP TRIM Archiving module helps customers reduce the risk of data loss when reclaiming storage and system resources from SharePoint Server.  The module seamlessly archives specific list objects in SharePoint Server, or entire SharePoint Server sites to HP TRIM. This happens behind the scenes, and allows users to take entire SharePoint Server sites offline once projects are completed, while ensuring continued access to information. 

”We’re pleased to see HP embracing and extending the SharePoint platform for their TRIM offering. For our joint customers, this provides a great opportunity to realize the value of their investment in both technology stacks,” said Tricia Bush, director, Microsoft SharePoint. “This shows the commitment of both companies to openness and interoperability in the content management arena.”

With the new HP TRIM 7 web client interface and its highly configurable, off-the-shelf capabilities, customers can realize a faster deployment compared to other records management solutions – in weeks rather than months. In addition, the improved indexing and search capability allows customers to decrease the time spent searching for critical information as well as reduce response time for legal discovery, compliance requests and audits.

More information is available at www.hp.com/go/informationmanagement

H.E. Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi leads UAE delegation to New Delhi

February 9, 2010

UAE Minister of Foreign Trade (MoFT) Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi led a huge delegation from the government and private sectors on the opening day of the 2nd Arab-Indian Partnership Conference running from February 8 to 9, 2010. The conference launch was also attended by ministers of commerce and economy from India and Arab Countries, the Deputy Secretary of the Arab League, and representatives from Arab trade and investment institutions.

The delegates escorting H.E. Sheikha Lubna included H.E. Mohamed Sultan Abdulla Al-Owais, Ambassador of the UAE in India; MoFT General Manager H.E.Abdullah Ahmad Al-Salih; H.E. Saeed Khammas, Vice President of the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce & Industry; H.E. Abdullah Sultan, Secretary General of the Federation; and Miss Hala Lutah, Director of MoFT’s Government Communication Relations Department.

There were also around 40 other representatives from MoFT; the Ministry of Economy; the Central Bank of the Emirates; the Departments of Economic Development of Abu Dhabi And Dubai; the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority; the Abu Dhabi Exhibitions Company; the Authority of Free Zones in Sharjah, Ras Al-Khaima and Fujeira; the Ras Al-Khaima Investment Authority; the Union of Trade and Industry Chambers in the UAE; the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry; as well as several private national companies and foreign banks and companies based in the UAE.

In a speech delivered at the beginning of the Conference, H.E. spoke of the resilience of the UAE economy, particularly against the global crisis, as well as the numerous business and investment opportunities offered by the country especially in non-oil sectors. She explained that these would create broader horizons for future collaboration between the UAE and India as well as Arab-Indian cooperation in various fields.

H.E. explained how Indian and international companies can capitalize on the UAE’s exceptional geographic location close to top European and Asian markets; highly-competitive Free Zones; world-class services; the possibility of transferring capital and profit at a 100 per cent rate; and highly productive industries and non-petroleum sectors which contribute more than 63 per cent of national GDP. In addition, she noted the availability and ease of access to raw materials; low-cost energy sources; business-friendly regulatory reforms; zero-taxes on profits and personal income; the country’s emergence as an R&D and alternative energy hub; political stability; and an integrated infrastructure as among the features which make for one of the most competitive business environments in the world.

With regards to relations with India, H.E. pointed out that the UAE is committed to enhancing commercial partnerships between the two nations as reflected by her promotional tour across four key industrial cities in India. She noted that Indian investments into the UAE in 2007 were valued at around USD 2.5 billion, representing 7 per cent of total foreign direct investments during the year. On the other hand, she noted that the UAE ranks first among India’s commercial partners and 8th among its top 10 foreign investors. The Emirates’ non-petroleum trade with India surpassed USD 32 billion in 2008, representing around 15 per cent of the UAE’s total foreign trade for the UAE.

Sheikha Lubna added that there are more than 105 Indian companies registered in the UAE, many working within the country’s various Free Zones. She said that products such as pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, precious and base metals, false jewelry and coins made up more than two thirds of total exports, 7.85 per cent of non-petroleum exports and 93 per cent of total re-exports. She called for closer collaboration between the two countries’ private and government sectors in adopting enhanced investment policies and developing joint investment programs and projects.

Her Excellency lauded the improving relations among Arab countries and India and particularly noted mutually beneficial achievements in tourism, transportation and general commerce. She highlighted the fact that India is exploring potential energy and infrastructure partnerships with Arab countries and Gulf states in particular in pursuit of its annual economic targets through the next 20 years.

The first day of the Conference sessions tackled joint investment opportunities worth approximately USD 21 billion, covering activities in infrastructure, energy, small and medium industries, social infrastructure, and information and communications technology.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, affirmed the historic bonds with Arab countries and the importance of their cooperation. He said that the global financial crisis presents a huge opportunity to strengthen ties and that the Arab World’s status as the top provider of energy resources makes it a vital ally. He added that the improving conditions of Indian workers in Arab countries bode well for enhanced collaboration.

For his part, Mr. Anand Sharma, Indian Trade and Industry Minister, commended the exceptional economic and commercial ties between the UAE and India and said that they can serve as role models for excellent Arab-India relations. He outlined the main challenges posed by globalization, called for greater unity between Arab countries and India, and urged all parties to learn from their shared histories. He finally referred to potential areas of cooperation especially in technology and energy, and noted that commercial exchange was at around USD 140 billion.

Mr. Ahmad Ben Helli, Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League, confirmed the robustness of Arab-Indian relationships. He likewise encouraged greater cooperation in fields such as energy, scientific research, human resources, and environment.

In a speech delivered on behalf of the President of the Union of Arab Trade and Industry

Chambers, Saeed Khammas, Vice President of the Union, emphasized the importance of commercial exchange between Arab countries and India which he said reach an estimated USD 100 billion in 2009, with the Arab share in India’s foreign trade hitting around 21 per cent. Mr. Khammas pointed out that Arab countries are committed to engaging in joint projects in vital economic areas such as petroleum, energy, food safety, infrastructure, technology, electronic data processing, communications, health services and education with India. He urged India’s economic entities to learn how to benefit from investment opportunities available in Arab countries, especially as the region has proven its ability to overcome the challenges posed by the global downturn.

Riverbed Grows Global Market Share in WAN Application Acceleration Equipment; Continues With Product Innovation for Cloud Environments

February 09, 2010 – Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD), the IT infrastructure performance company for networks, applications and storage, recently announced that Gartner has identified Riverbed® in its recent December 2009 report, “Market Share: Application Acceleration Equipment, Worldwide 3Q09,” as the WOC (WAN optimization controller) Advanced Platform (AP) worldwide market share leader for 3Q 2009 based on revenue. According to Gartner’s market share report, Riverbed increased its revenue share from the previous quarter by 1.8 percentage points, to 34.3%.

Enterprises leverage Riverbed WAN optimization to improve remote and mobile employee productivity, enable private clouds, and provide enterprise-wide network and application visibility. By speeding the performance of applications between remote offices, private data centers and mobile workers, in some cases by up to 100 times, Riverbed Steelhead® products enable companies to consolidate IT, improve backup and replication processes to ensure data integrity, and improve staff productivity and collaboration. Nearly 7,000 customers, across a wide range of markets, have implemented Riverbed WAN optimization solutions in their geographically dispersed organizations. 

In a separate report published in June 2009 by Gartner, Riverbed was positioned in the leaders quadrant in the “Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controller (WOC), 2009” authored by Andy Rolfe, Joe Skorupa and Severine Real.  According to Gartner,

“Leaders exhibit an ability to shape the market by introducing additional capabilities in their product offerings and by raising awareness of the importance of these features. We expect a Leader to be growing the market as a whole, and to have solutions that resonate with an increasing number of enterprises. Leaders in the WOC market need to have a broad feature set, including QoS, generic compression, protocol acceleration and file system acceleration, with the majority of features proven in substantial real-world implementations. They also need to be able to offer sales and support on a global basis.” To download the report, compliments of Riverbed, visit: http://www.riverbed.com/lg/whitepaper-gartner-2009.php?CID=70170000000IqIo. 

Riverbed WAN optimization allows organizations to overcome the performance barrier to successfully consolidating IT infrastructure into private clouds. In 2010, Riverbed will begin to introduce solutions that extend the benefits of acceleration to applications and storage in the public cloud.
 
“Our success is a testament to our ability to align technology innovation with customer requirements, which have expanded to include overcoming performance barriers in different types of cloud environments – including private, hybrid and public,” said Eric Wolford, senior vice president of business development and marketing at Riverbed. “Our solution is a critical component in developing a cost-effective and efficient IT infrastructure because we enable organizations to successfully consolidate, virtualizes and accelerate data and applications anywhere in the world - even thousands of miles away - without experiencing performance problems.”

Building on its success in enabling organizations large and small to build private clouds, Riverbed recently unveiled its cloud direction, including the upcoming virtual Steelhead for the cloud, which will extend the benefits of Riverbed WAN optimization by accelerating the performance of applications and data transfers across private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructures.

Similar to how Riverbed addressed fundamental protocol inefficiencies for applications (used over the WAN) that resulted in order of magnitude performance gains, Riverbed will release advanced new technology that addresses fundamental protocol inefficiencies for block storage protocols that again produce order of magnitude performance gains over the WAN.  What was deemed impossible before—running any block protocol over the WAN—will be possible with this new technology.  This new innovation enables thousands of miles of separation between storage and compute resources, transforming the WAN into a SAN.    

“We continue to grow our product leadership as we ensure high-performance access to applications and storage. As customers embrace the adoption of private, public and hybrid cloud models and their users move further from their data, we are raising the bar for delivering innovative solutions to meet their needs,” said Wolford.

Newest innovation from the Applied Sciences Group gives gamers control of up to 26 keys at once

Dubai, February 3, 2010  What gamers request most is better control in-game, and today Microsoft Hardware launches the SideWinder X4 Keyboard, a keyboard designed to give gamers more control over their gaming experience with the industry’s most advanced anti-ghosting technology. Developed by the Applied Sciences Group, this new technology ensures gamers’ most complex key combinations will be recognized by the computer to keep the game in action. The new keyboard also offers other advanced gaming features such as macro recording, mode and profile switching, and adjustable backlighting.

I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost

The Applied Sciences Group, an interdisciplinary research and development team that works across the Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division doing applied research for Microsoft Hardware, Microsoft Surface and Xbox 360, developed the anti-ghosting technology with gamers in mind. The advanced technology takes anti-ghosting to the next level by allowing gamers to press up to 26 keys at once. Because each key is scanned independently by the keyboard hardware, each key press is correctly detected regardless of how many other keys are being pressed at the same time. The SideWinder X4 Keyboard excels where other keyboards fail, letting users execute key combinations and taking full advantage of their skill and speed.

“We’re always looking for new and novel ways to enhance people’s interactions with their PCs,” said Armagan Demir, Head of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division Middle East. “We know that ghosting can be a problem for gamers, so we wanted to develop a way to eliminate this issue and improve the overall gaming experience, and we’ve succeeded with the new anti-ghosting technology in the SideWinder X4 Keyboard.”

Precise Gaming Keyboard With Advanced Features

The SideWinder X4 Keyboard also offers more of the features gamers need to stay at the top of their game. Macro recording lets them string together multiple moves into one press of a button, and the new automatic macro repetition feature lets them repeat the macro over and over as needed with one key. Mode and profile switching also provides easy ways to customize the keyboard for different games and users while adjustable backlighting lets gamers select the lighting level that meets their needs.

Pricing and Availability

The SideWinder X4 Keyboard will be available in March 2010 for the estimated retail price of AED 229. The SideWinder X4 Keyboard is backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty, and more information about this and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.

Dubai, UAE – February 2nd, 2010    EastNets, a leading global provider of compliance and payments solutions, announced today that Clearstream Services External Businesses had deployed EastNets’ anti-money laundering solutions as the strategic platform to provide “Software as a Service” (SaaS) compliance solutions to their clients world-wide.

With this new On Demand service powered by EastNets technology, customers of Clearstream Services External Businesses benefit from cost-effective anti-money laundering controls designed to meet regulatory requirements, reduce capital expenditure and streamline efficiencies.   

Clearstream Services External Businesses hosts and operates an entire front and back-office banking environment through an On Demand banking platform, providing clients with a highly secured environment to house their IT infrastructure. With EastNets, Clearstream Services External Businesses expands its services to include watchlist filtering and transaction monitoring capability to detect and report money laundering activity. With no upfront fee, financial institutions can immediately benefit from their choice of services priced and packaged based on volume.

“We are delighted to have selected EastNets’ market leading solutions as the centerpiece and command centre of our anti-money laundering service offering,” said, Michel Rodriguez, External Business Development Director of Clearstream Services. “The company’s long history in compliance and payments, the exceptional quality of its solutions and strong industry expertise made EastNets an obvious choice.”

“As financial institutions strive to control costs and risk, outsourcing operations and business processes become increasingly interesting and appealing,” said Hazem Mulhim, CEO of EastNets. “With Clearstream Services External Businesses’ integration of EastNets’ solutions, financial institutions will have immediate and cost-effective access to world-class anti-money laundering solutions to meet regulatory requirements and mitigate risk.”

As their first common reference, Clearstream Services External Businesses hosts and operates EastNets’ solutions for East West United Bank based Luxembourg.

The EastNets solutions offered on Clearstream Services External Businesses’ On Demand banking platform include en.SafeWatch Filtering, providing real-time blocking and list filtering, supporting all lists including OFAC and PEP; en.SafeWatch Profiling, providing customer and account monitoring and profiling, risk scoring, peer group analysis, case management and regulatory reporting; en.Recovery, enabling SWIFTAlliance users to restart operations within minutes after an outage instead of hours; en.Reporting for FIN and XML traffic monitoring and reporting; and en.Duplicate Detection, preventing in real time emission of duplicate payments or other FIN messages sent to correspondents.