News In Brief: NTT Comm, ZTE, Fujitsu, Unicom, Google

NTT Comm’s Arcstar Global IP-VPN services will soon be available in Russia, after the firm agreed to interconnect its service with Russian long-distance carrier Transtelecom. The link-up is the latest step in a strategic partnership signed 2006, and will bring VLAN, MPLS, IP-VPN, leased lines, and ATM services to Russia.
 
Germany will become the centre of ZTE’s European test and research activities, when it opens a laboratory in the Dusseldorf Test & Innovation Centre. The centre, which is operated by Vodafone Germany, will become the hub for ZTE’s network testing in the region. 
 
Bluetooth 4.0 devices could begin shipping by the end of the year. The latest version of the standard adds Bluetooth low energy support as a requirement, but this is unlikely to have an effect on battery life for most gadgets.
 
Former Fujitsu president, Kuniaki Nozoeis is seeking to be reinstated, after his controversial resignation in September.
 
China Unicom is working with Apple to bring Wi-Fi compatible iPhones to the Chinese Market, its CEO said. The mobile operator has been offering custom iPhones since October, but these handsets disabled Wi-Fi to comply with obsolete government regulations.  
 
Google plans to add automatic captions to all the English-language videos hosted on YouTube, but the technology is far from perfect as of yet.
 
Apple’s iPad will go on sale on April 3 in the US, but customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK will have to wait until late April. US users get WiFi-only initially, with 3G-enabled versions due by end-April.