January

• Internet access and international telephone calls throughout Malaysia and most of Asia were disrupted for weeks due to an earthquake in Taiwan that damaged the underwater Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 link. Everything returned to normal in February after repairs by ship were completed.

• TIME Engineering Bhd signed an agreement with MSC Management Services, a subsidiary of Multimedia Development Corporation, to provide wireless broadband nationwide via WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and WiFi.

• Malaysia won an award for its eBario Project, which provides information and communications technology to an isolated community in Sarawak. The 2006 International Innovations Gold Award came from a Canada-based non-profit organisation, the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management.

• The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia moved to stamp out illegal “over-the- counter” sales of song downloads to mobile phones.

• The Multimedia Development Corporation announced that the pilot of the animated series Saladin was ready to be screened.

• A new music download site, www.bimbit.com, was launched. It allows users to buy music using a points system instead of a credit card.

• PC maker Dell Inc announced it was building an 18,600sq m global business centre in Cyberjaya, which will be operational by year end.

• e-Commerce spending in Malaysia grew 70% in 2006 from previous years, announced industry researcher IDC.

February

• After five years of development and several missed deadlines, Microsoft Corp’s Vista operating system was finally launched.

• Trials of Maxis Telecommunications Bhd’s WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) service, with communications infrastructure provider Motorola Inc, began.

• More than 300,000 underprivileged women benefited from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Grant. The funding is used to train women in the use of information technology to better their lives and livelihood.

• Four local outsourcing companies did the nation proud. They were among 100 global companies selected for the 2007 Global Service 100 list. They were Consulting Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, Scicom (MSC) Bhd, SnT Global Sdn Bhd, and Vsource Asia Sdn Bhd.

• Despite considerable progress in combating piracy, the International Intellectual Property Alliance recommended that Malaysia remain on the US Trade Representative’s piracy watch list. It has been on this less criticial list since 2001.

• MDeC and Mimos signed another MoU, this time with the Islamic Development Bank for the provision of information and communications technology solutions to member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

• Malaysia’s first blog advertising network was launched. Nuffnang was introduced.

March

• Advertlets, Malaysia’s second blog advertising network was launched.

• A couple of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology companies in the country announced that the just-launched Malaysian Microchip has the potential give the industry a boost.

• The Motion Picture Association (MPA) strengthened its efforts against movie piracy in the country by coming down harder on websites that hawk pirated DVDs on the global market.

• The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs flew in two specially-trained labrador retrievers to sniff out mailed packages for optical discs – a move to better combat the smuggling of pirated movies, music and software. The initiative was a huge success.

• Standards body Sirim Bhd ended a battle between IBM Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia over competing technologies – the open-source based Open Document Format versus OpenXML, a proprietary solution owned by the software giant.

• A delegation of 27 Malaysian companies from the creative multimedia sector secured RM93mil worth of deals in Hong Kong.

• Applied research and development organisation Mimos Bhd agreed to establish research laboratories with organisations in Taiwan and South Korea.

May

• Telekom Malaysia Bhd and 16 other telecommunications companies in the region signed an agreement to build a US$500mil (RM1.75bil) undersea fibre-optic cable linking Asia to the United States. Called the Asia-American Gateway, it is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008.

• DELL Inc agreed to work with Microsoft Corp and Novell Inc under an alliance that the rival software developers formed last year, to make it easier for the Windows operating system and the increasingly popular Linux operating system to work together.

• The Government establishes the intellectual property court to specially deal with cases involving music, software and movie piracy.

• Industry regulator the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission announced a plan to create a database of lost handphones, to aid the recovery of such devices and to discourage cellphone thieves.

July

• Popular computer game Tomb Raider, starring heroine Lara Croft, celebrated its 10th anniversary. To mark the occasion, developer Crystal Dynamics released Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which pleased local fans of the game.

• Standards body Sirim Bhd was handed the new task of helping local universities to research and develop products or services that could be marketed internationally.

• DELL Malaysia unveiled a range of colourful notebooks in a bid to take back its lead from rival Hewlett-Packard Co.

• An upgraded PlayStation3 console, with a bigger (80GB) hard drive for storing more videogames and high-definition movies, showed up in local stores.

• Alam Teknokrat founder and chief executive officer Tengku Farith Rithaudeen unveils his book about how to be successful in the local IT market.

• Microsoft Malaysia unleashes a new server operating system, Windows Server 2008.

• The Government revised the household broadband penetration target from 75% by 2010 to 50% by the same year.

August

• The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and India’s Satyam Computer Services Ltd launched Campus Link, a programme to turn local graduates in knowledge workers.

• Malaysian Skype users were among the 220 million worldwide that experienced a breakdown in the popular and free Internet-based phone service. Skype said the failure was not due to any malicious activity.

• MDeC upped its efforts to develop the local creative content industry by holding the first buyer fly-in programme in the country. About RM385mil worth of content was sold.

• The Halal Industry Development Corp teamed up with Microsoft Malaysia to come up with an online halal certification and processing application service called Remote Halal Certification.

September

• Nokia launched its Ovi digital media portal, which includes the Nokia Music Store – a virtual music shop offering downloadable tracks.

• Registration for the World Congress on Information Technology 2008, which will be hosted by Malaysia in May 2008, was opened.

October

• Sony put its 12-megapixel Alpha 700 DSLR camera on local shelves, marking its second foray into the DSLR camera market.

• Local Macintosh fans get Apple’s OS X Leopard operating system, which boasted more than 300 new features.

• MDeC announced a plan to build a Cyberjaya training facility to train local graduates to work in the information technology industry.

November

• The Entertainment Software Association launched “Operation Games Attack” to eradicate videogame piracy in Malaysia.

• Asus’ Eee PC ultra-portable notebook, weighing less than 1kg and features a 4GB solid state drive, WiFi connectivity and integrated card reader, makes an impact on local computer users. Stores reported that the first batch of 200 units sold out quickly.

• Google offers US$10mil (RM35mil) in prizes for developers worldwide to build software for its mobile phone operating system, Android.

• MakCik PC introduced. Claimed as the world’s slimmest PC.

• Third blog advertising network was launched—-GradMyAds

December

• The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit launched two new products – MyMeeting and MyWorkspace – at the Malaysian Government Open-Source Software Conference 2007. Both applications were designed as office productivity tools.

• Fourth advertising network was launched. Called Nufflets, it targets the Asia market and it is the first to use CPC text ads similar to Goolge in Malaysia.

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