Apple expert John C. Welch is eyeing new iPhones

Macworld Expo Forecast: What's Up Steve Jobs' Sleeve?
Our Apple expert John C. Welch is eyeing new iPhones, upgraded laptops, and possible announcements regarding the Mac Mini and Apple TV.

An iPhone software update that talks better to Mac OS X 10.5 Server. Okay, I cheated. I honestly think that even if we don't see Steve talk about it on stage, we're going to get an iPhone update that lets at least Mac OS X 10.5 Server directly talk to an iPhone. It's too obvious not to do, and it's just silly that an iPhone can't talk to Apple's own server other than e-mail and iTunes. Chances: 90%.

More details on the iPhone SDK and a choice early adopter demo that will include Exchange connectivity, with a possible early release. Again, this is a gimme. The iPhone SDK will be less than a month away by the time Steve walks on stage for the Macworld Conference & Expo keynote. It is silly to think he won't show off what you can do with the SDK.
The most obvious choice is an Exchange connector application. For one, it's the big thing that every IT pundit wants for the iPhone. For another, considering the tweak that the iPhone smacking Windows Mobile around must have given Ballmer (particularly in light of his claim in April 2007 that, "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."), showing how an iPhone can be the best Exchange phone client is just a chance to twist the knife a little. While Jobs may consider Gates a friend, I have my doubts if he feels the same way about Ballmer. Chances for a specific SDK release date: 100%. Chances for SDK application demos: 100%. Chances that an Exchange client will be one of them: 90%.

Now that I've written about what I'd like to see from Apple in 2008 (see related story), I'd like to delve into what I think we're going to see at Macworld Conference & Expo 2008, which begins in San Francisco on Jan. 14. I'll also provide what I think are the odds for my predictions.

A new iPhone 3G model. This one seems obvious, but it depends on one thing: how good are the new 3G chips with regard to battery life. If they're good enough, sure. By the keynote, it will have been almost six months since the iPhone release. That's plenty of time for Apple to come out with a new model. Without 3G, it will be hard to get excited about it. With 3G, it's easy. Chances: 50%.

A new ultralight laptop. The call is there, the ability to make one that doesn't suck is there. The question is, does Apple see the marketshare? I think so, but it's not a lock. Ultralights have some hardcore fans, but most of them have already bought MacBooks. So the question becomes, can Apple make an ultralight interesting enough to switch? Chances: 75%.

Upgrades for the laptop line, possible touchscreens. For the first part, almost a given. Intel (NSDQ: INTC) announced the Penryn 45-nm chips. They're faster, stronger, better, yadda. Apple likes to announce fasterstrongerbetter at Macworld.
The only real question is will the overall laptop design change, and the big question there is, will the MacBook (Pro) line(s) get an iPhone-derived touchscreen. Honestly, I don't know. Yes, there are people who swear tablets are the future. But look at the sales on the PC side. All WinTel tablet sales combined can't outsell Apple's portable line. While there's a great use for them in various vertical markets, by and large, tablet sales have sucked.

If Apple can create something that's more than "look, a touchscreen" and integrate it into the MacBook line, then sure, I can see it. If nothing else, designers and artists will lose their minds about it. But otherwise, no. Chances for laptop upgrades: 100%. Chances for a touchscreen as part of that: 40%. Chances for a "pure" tablet, i.e., no physical keyboard: they introduced that June 29th, 2007. It's called "iPhone."

Some kind of announcement regarding the Mac Mini and Apple TV. Steve's got to say something about these. Yes, they both have a great little form factor, but they're not really getting a lot of attention. They've been rather ignored, at least publicly, for some time now, which is a great sign that they're going to get some kind of slot at the Macworld Conference & Expo keynote. (Steve calling the Apple TV a "hobby" is a possible sign that there are changes coming.) Whether that's a redesign, a replacement like the Mini replacing the eMac, or a combining of the two into a "Mac Home Media Center," noteworthy upgrades for both, I'm not going to guess at, but something's got to give there. Chances: 100%.

Just one more thing... Duh, it's a keynote, and there's no iPhone to dominate it. Chances: 100%.

Stealth upgrades for things not announced at the keynote. This always happens. Random Xserve, Xserve RAID, other stuff that's necessary, but not cool enough for the stage. Again, duh. Chances: 100%.
So there it is, what I want to see from Apple in 2008, and what I think we'll see at the Macworld Conference & Expo keynote. After Expo, I'll have a write up on what really happened (if I'm not posting something during the show) for both Apple and third parties.

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Apple Fans Await Job's MacWorld Keynote

Boston (dbTechno) - Apple fans are already counting down the hours until the big Steve Jobs keynote address at this year's Macworld Conference & Expo, set for January 14 in San Francisco.

Many have been speculating about what is going to be unveiled at MacWorld this year, as many fans expect Apple to do something just as big as the iPhone announcement one year ago, which shocked the wireless industry.

The rumors have been speculating from top to bottom about what Apple is going to reveal this year at MacWorld. The leading guess would be an updated 3G iPhone, which would allow it to run on faster networks.

It is also expected that Steve Jobs will reveal Offfice 2008 for the Mac, which has been a long-delayed product at this point.

Apple is also expected to reveal details on their newly announced iTunes movie rental service which has not yet been officially announced. Apple is close to deals with many film studios to offer movie rentals. These include 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, MGM, Sony, Lionsgate, and Warner Bros.

A MacBook with touch-screen technology is also highly-rumored, similar to the touch-screen that is now on the iPod Touch and the iPhone.

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OLPC America plans distributing low-cost laptops to needy students in USA

One Laptop Per Child Project Extends to American Students

OLPC America plans to combat digital divide by distributing low-cost laptops to needy students in the U.S.

The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) plans to launch OLPC in 2008 to distribute the low-cost laptop computers originally aimed at developing nations to needy students in the United States.

The group, which was formed in the U.S. by teachers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), came under criticism shortly after forming because its original mission did not include the U.S.

Originally, the aim of OLPC was to develop a $100 laptop for kids in poor nations to ensure they don't miss out on the benefits of computing, and to make sure developing countries don't fall further and further behind modern nations due to their inability to buy computers, a conundrum commonly referred to as the digital divide.

OLPC America already has a director and a chairman, and will likely be based in Washington D.C., said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC, in an interview.

"The whole thing is merging right now. It will be state-centric. We're trying to do it through the 50 state governments," he said.

The decision to launch OLPC America came about due to three considerations.

"For one thing, we are doing something patriotic, if you will, after all we are and there are poor children in America. The second thing we're doing is building a critical mass. The numbers are going to go up, people will make more software, it will steer a larger development community," Negroponte said.

The third reason is educational, so that children in the U.S. communicate with kids in developing nations and expand their horizons.

The reason OLPC had not included the U.S. in its low-cost laptop program was because of the huge difference in need, Negroponte said. In the U.S., people spend US$10,000 per year per child in primary education, but in Bangladesh, a developing country, they spend $20. It's a huge difference, and many people in the U.S. can afford more expensive laptop PCs for their kids anyway, he noted.

But although the U.S. was not the focus of OLPC in the beginning, it has always been in the plans.

"To have the United Sates be the only country that's not in the OLPC agenda would be kind of ridiculous," Negroponte said.

OLPC Considering 'Give One, Get One' Offer in Europe

Europeans interested in the One Laptop Per Child Project's XO laptop may soon have the chance through a similar to one offered in North America last year.
Europeans interested in the One Laptop Per Child Project's XO laptop may soon have the chance through a "give one, get one" offer similar to that offered in North America last year.

"At some point we might do it in Europe," said Walter Bender, OLPC's president, in an interview Friday.

Under the "give one, get one" program offered in Canada and the U.S., customers could buy an XO laptop for $400 and a second XO laptop would be donated to a developing country. Each XO laptop currently costs around $188.

OLPC hasn't yet made the offer available in Europe because the XO has not received the necessary certifications to be sold there. "We haven't finished all that stuff, so we couldn't do it in Europe yet," Bender said.

Whether or not OLPC does make the XO available in Europe remains to be determined, and such an offer remains under consideration. "We may or may not do it," Bender said

From OLPC's perspective, the "give one, get one" offer helped large numbers of people in North America get involved with the group's efforts to bring computing to children in developing countries, Bender said.

"A lot of people [are] jumping in to the software, to learning and to support. ...That's what I was hoping Intel would do, but they didn't. The public is doing it instead," he said, referring to Intel's acrimonious departure last week from OLPC's board of directors.

OLPC has so far shipped around 50,000 XO laptops to North American customers under the "give one, get one" program, and more remain to be shipped, Bender said. The number of customers who ordered laptops under the program was not immediately available, but as many as 150,000 units may have been donated through the program.


OLPC and Microsoft Working On New XO Laptop
According to reports, the One Laptop Per Child project is working with Microsoft to create a new version of the XO laptop that would be able to boot Linux, which is the current operating system, as well as Windows.

The two companies are working together to try to create an environment on the OLPC XO laptop that would allow users to have a choice and either boot Linux or Windows. They would be able to choose so that they could better run the applications which they need at any given time. Nick Negroponte of the OLPC project made the announcement on Wednesday that they are working with the software giant Microsoft.

The OLPC is hoping that this partnership with Microsoft will put them ahead of Intel’s rival budget laptop, the Classmate which runs both Linux or Windows. It does so though in a way that is not dual-boot.

Microsoft and the OLPC have been in talks for months but nothing concrete has come out of the talks for the XO laptop as of yet. This is not likely to replace the current XO laptop, but instead put two different models of the laptop out to the world.

This comes just one week after the OLPC and Intel split ways due to Intel’s commitment to the rival Classmate PC.

MIT researchers and colleagues report in the first brain imaging study of its kind.

Brain activity in East Asians and Americans as they make relative and absolute judgments. The arrows point to brain regions involved in attention that are engaged by more demanding tasks. Americans show more activity during relative judgments than absolute judgments, presumably because the former task is less familiar and hence more demanding for them. East Asians show the opposite pattern.

Culture influences brain function, MIT imaging shows

People from different cultures use their brains differently to solve the same visual perceptual tasks, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the first brain imaging study of its kind.

Psychological research has established that American culture, which values the individual, emphasizes the independence of objects from their contexts, while East Asian societies emphasize the collective and the contextual interdependence of objects. Behavioral studies have shown that these cultural differences can influence memory and even perception. But are they reflected in brain activity patterns?

To find out, a team led by John Gabrieli, a professor at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, asked 10 East Asians recently arrived in the United States and 10 Americans to make quick perceptual judgments while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner--a technology that maps blood flow changes in the brain that correspond to mental operations.

The results are reported in the January issue of Psychological Science. Gabrieli's colleagues on the work were Trey Hedden, lead author of the paper and a research scientist at McGovern; Sarah Ketay and Arthur Aron of State University of New York at Stony Brook; and Hazel Rose Markus of Stanford University.

Subjects were shown a sequence of stimuli consisting of lines within squares and were asked to compare each stimulus with the previous one. In some trials, they judged whether the lines were the same length regardless of the surrounding squares (an absolute judgment of individual objects independent of context). In other trials, they decided whether the lines were in the same proportion to the squares, regardless of absolute size (a relative judgment of interdependent objects).

In previous behavioral studies of similar tasks, Americans were more accurate on absolute judgments, and East Asians on relative judgments. In the current study, the tasks were easy enough that there were no differences in performance between the two groups.

However, the two groups showed different patterns of brain activation when performing these tasks. Americans, when making relative judgments that are typically harder for them, activated brain regions involved in attention-demanding mental tasks. They showed much less activation of these regions when making the more culturally familiar absolute judgments. East Asians showed the opposite tendency, engaging the brain's attention system more for absolute judgments than for relative judgments.

"We were surprised at the magnitude of the difference between the two cultural groups, and also at how widespread the engagement of the brain's attention system became when making judgments outside the cultural comfort zone," says Hedden.

The researchers went on to show that the effect was greater in those individuals who identified more closely with their culture. They used questionnaires of preferences and values in social relations, such as whether an individual is responsible for the failure of a family member, to gauge cultural identification. Within both groups, stronger identification with their respective cultures was associated with a stronger culture-specific pattern of brain-activation.

How do these differences come about? "Everyone uses the same attention machinery for more difficult cognitive tasks, but they are trained to use it in different ways, and it's the culture that does the training," Gabrieli says. "It's fascinating that the way in which the brain responds to these simple drawings reflects, in a predictable way, how the individual thinks about independent or interdependent social relationships."

Gabrieli is the Grover Herman Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and holds an appointment at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and supported by the McGovern Institute.

UCLA researchers show that culture influences brain cells

A thumb’s up for “I’m good.” The rubbing of a pointed forefinger at another for “shame on you.” The infamous and ubiquitous middle finger salute for—well, you know. Such gestures that convey meaning without speech are used and recognized by nearly everyone in our society, but to someone from a foreign country, they may be incomprehensible.

The opposite is true as well. Plop an American in a foreign land and he or she may be clueless to the common gestures of that particular culture. This raises a provocative question—does culture influence the brain"

The answer is yes, reports Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, a researcher in the UCLA Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity, and Marco Iacoboni, director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center of UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Their research appears in the current issue of the journal PLoS ONE and is available online at http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000626.

In their study, the researchers wanted to investigate the imprint of culture on the so-called mirror neuron network. Mirror neurons fire when an individual performs an action, but they also fire when someone watches another individual perform that same action. Neuroscientists believe this "mirroring" is the neural mechanism by which we can read the minds of other people and empathize with them.

When it comes to the influence of culture, they found that indeed, the mirror neuron network responds differently depending on whether we are looking at someone who shares our culture, or someone who doesn’t.

The researcher’s used two actors, one an American, the other a Nicaraguan, to perform a series of gestures--American, Nicaraguan, and meaningless hand gestures, to a group of American subjects. A procedure called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to measure the levels of so-called “corticospinal excitability” (CSE)—which scientists use to probe the activity of mirror neurons.

They found that the American participants demonstrated higher mirror neuron activity while observing the American making gestures compared to the Nicaraguan. And when the Nicaraguan actor performed American gestures, the mirror neuron activation of the observers dropped.

“We believe these are some of the first data to show neurobiological responses to culture-specific stimuli,” said Molnar-Szakacs. “Our data show that both ethnicity and culture interact to influence activity in the brain, specifically within the mirror neuron network involved in social communication and interaction.”

“We are the heirs of communal but local traditions,” said Iacoboni. “Mirror neurons are the brain cells that help us in shaping our own culture. However, the neural mechanisms of mirroring that shape our assimilation of local traditions could also reveal other cultures, as long as such cross-cultural encounters are truly possible. All in all, our research suggests that with mirror neurons our brain mirrors people, not simply actions.”

Thus, it appears that neural systems supporting memory, empathy and general cognition encodes information differently depending on who’s giving the information—a member of one’s own cultural/ethnic in-group, or a member of an out-group, and that ethnic in-group membership and a culturally learned motor repertoire more strongly influence the brain’s responses to observed actions, specifically actions used in social communication.

“An important conclusion from these results is that culture has a measurable influence on our brain and, as a result, our behavior. Researchers need to take this into consideration when drawing conclusions about brain function and human behavior,” said Molnar-Szakacs. The findings, the researchers note, may also have implications for motor skill and language learning, intergroup communication, as well as the study of intergroup attitudes toward other cultures. Source : University of California - Los Angeles.

S.F. appeals court bars government's probes of NASA scientists

A federal appeals court barred the Bush administration Friday from looking into the personal lives of NASA scientists and engineers who have no access to classified information, saying the probes are intrusive and unrelated to national security.

The planned inquiry into the employees' backgrounds, finances, alcohol and drug use, mental state and unspecified additional issues amounted to a "broad inquisition" with "absolutely no safeguards" that would limit disclosures to topics that are important to the government, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by 28 scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, who were about to be fired in October for refusing to submit to the background checks when another panel of the court issued an emergency order.

The employees "face a stark choice - either violation of their constitutional rights or loss of their jobs," Judge Kim Wardlaw said in Friday's 3-0 ruling.

Their lawyer Dan Stormer said the ruling also applies to workers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View and other NASA operations in the nine Western states covered by the Ninth Circuit.

After a hearing later Friday at which a federal judge in Los Angeles formally issued the injunction, Stormer said NASA had announced it would refrain from conducting the investigations of similar employees at any of its installations nationwide. NASA representatives were unavailable for comment.

"This is a tremendous vindication of the constitutional rights of my clients, all loyal, hardworking scientists who have dedicated their lives to the space program," Stormer said.

The injunction is to remain in effect until the case goes to trial. The government could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

The 28 employees, most of them with at least 20 years' service, all work for the California Institute of Technology under contract to the NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When hired, they underwent routine background checks of their identity and criminal records, their lawyers said.

The new investigations were ordered by a number of agencies, including NASA, after President Bush issued a homeland security directive in 2004 requiring that employees at federal installations have "secure and reliable forms of identification."

To keep their jobs, employees at the agencies are required to authorize the government to seek information about them from any source, including former employers, landlords, schools and acquaintances. The sources can be asked if they have any negative information about an employee's work, truthfulness, finances, alcohol or drug use, emotional stability, overall behavior or "other matters," the court said.

Lawyers for the employees said the inquiries also may include their sexual orientation and their overall attitude.

The appeals court said it saw no relationship between Bush's 2004 order for a secure identification program and the wide-ranging investigations of "low-risk" employees. Likewise, a 1958 federal law allowing the government to fire employees who threaten national security applies only to those in sensitive positions, the court said.

The scope of the inquiry also may violate the employees' privacy rights, Wardlaw said.

The "open-ended and highly private questions are authorized by this broad, standardless waiver (that employees must sign) and do not appear narrowly tailored to any legitimate government interest," she said.


Feds ask judge to dismiss smart-ID case filed by NASA contractors
Workers claim background checks mandated under new security program are too intrusive

The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles will hold a hearing Friday on a motion to dismiss a case involving 28 NASA contractors suing the government over background checks that are required under a mandatory smart card credentialing program.

The contractors are senior scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is staffed and managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

The group filed suit last August in Los Angeles District Court against the U.S. government, NASA and Caltech, challenging what they claimed were overly intrusive background check requirements by NASA. The 28 JPL employees asked the court to not only permanently stop the background investigations but to also issue a preliminary injunction to halt the checks while the case was considered.

The background checks that were at the center of the issue were required under the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 of August 2004, a presidentially mandated smart-card credential program. HSPD-12 requires federal agencies to issue new tamper-proof smart-card identity credentials called Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards to all employees and contractors. As part of the program, all employees and contractors are required to submit to comprehensive background checks, including criminal histories.

Federal agencies were supposed to have completed those checks and issued PIV cards to all employees with less than 15 years experience by last October, though many failed to meet the deadline.

In their suit (PDF format), the JPL employees claimed that the NASA requirement violated their constitutional right to "informational privacy", the right to be free from unreasonable searches and the right against self-incrimination. The scientists argued that none of them were doing any classified work for NASA and said the mandated background checks were too open-ended, and pried into "protected associational activities." They claimed the checks submitted them "to a determination of their suitability for employment that includes such wrong-headed and/or dangerously vague criteria" such as sexual orientation as well as medical and emotional history.

The judge hearing the case initially dismissed it on October 3. However following an appeal by the employees the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction on October 5. The injunction was issued literally hours before JPL was to begin advertising for replacements for employees who were deemed non-compliant with HSPD-12, according to a press release announcing today's hearing from one of the plaintiffs.

That temporary injunction still remains in place. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is still deliberating whether to extend it.

In the meantime both Caltech and the government filed motions for dismissing the case in District Court. Those motions were allowed to continue by the Ninth Circuit court. On January 9, District Court judge Otis Wright, who is presiding over the case, issued an order dismissing Caltech as a party to the lawsuit.

Today's hearing is expected to focus on the federal motion to dismiss the case.

"We cannot predict what will happen, and we do not know whether the Ninth Circuit will issue its ruling before the Friday hearing," a statement on the plaintiffs' Web site noted.

It is possible that the judge could postpone the hearing until the Ninth Circuit makes a ruling regarding the temporary injunction, or it could hear arguments on the motion to dismiss and then postpone its decision until hearing from the Ninth Circuit, the Web site noted.

World's Cheapest Car

Tata Company Chairman Ratan Tata announces the newly launched Nano, in New Delhi, 10 Jan 2008.

World's Cheapest Car Unveiled in India
India's booming economy has created a middle class of people eager to take to the road in a car of their own. Hundreds of millions currently have to make do with walking, cycling or using three-wheeled taxis or overcrowded buses. As VOA's Steve Herman reports from the Indian Auto Expo in New Delhi, aspiring motorists are finding that auto ownership has just come a lot closer.

Hundreds of vehicles are vying for attention at the Indian Auto Expo here, from exotic imports to feature-laden domestic models. But it is a barebones, all-sheet-metal-bodied vehicle from Tata Motors that is stealing the show.

Tata's Nano, dubbed the "people's car," was introduced amid much fanfare.

Tata intends to sell the four-door, pod-shaped car for the equivalent of $2,500, the lowest price in the world for any conventional four-wheeled automobile. In Indian terms the price is one lakh, or 100,000 rupees.

For that price, the buyer will get a car three-meters long, with a two-cylinder, 624-cubic centimeter engine mounted in the rear, an analog speedometer, and trunk able to hold nothing much larger than a briefcase. Forget about air conditioning or power steering in the standard model.

But the car is being heralded as an engineering triumph, with 34 patents applied for. Tata says the vehicle will be very fuel-efficient, traveling 20 kilometers on a single liter of gasoline.

Company chairman Ratan Tata promises that the Nano will put millions of Indians in the driver's seat for the first time, in the spirit of Ford's Model T and Volkswagen's Beetle of generations past. He acknowledges the modest vehicle will not be to everyone's taste, however.

"I am sure in the next few months there will be many analyses of the performance of the car, which will decide whom it will cater to best," he said.

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, and some of Tata's competitors are trying to steal a bit of limelight here this week with similar announcements.

Bajaj, best known for building India's ubiquitous three-wheeled taxi scooter known as the "auto," is displaying its own prototype. But it is not expected to be on sale for another two years. Ford and Renault are also making noises about a similar cheap vehicle for the Indian market.

The general manager for India of the Indo-Japanese automaker Maruti Suzuki, K.D. Singh, congratulates Tata for its coup, but he says Maruti Suzuki will continue to target Indian's growing middle class.

"We have sold cars to about 6.5 million Indian people who bought cars [at] two lakh [200,000 rupees] and above," he said. "The incomes of those people are growing, their lifestyles are improving. They need bigger and better cars with more features, and we are ready to provide those to them."

Not everyone here is enthusiastic about the prospect of many millions of new cars hitting the road, whatever the price. City planners and environmentalists say an explosion of ultra-cheap vehicles will further crowd India's already congested urban streets, and substantially increase air pollution.

About TATA.....

The Tata Group is India's largest conglomerate company, with revenues in 2006-07 of Rs. 129,994 Crore (US $28.8 billion), the equivalent of about 3.2% of India's GDP, and a market capitalisation of US $73.6 billion as on December 13, 2007. Out of 98 operating companies in seven business sectors, 27 are publicly listed enterprises. The Tata Group has operations in more than 85 countries across six continents and its companies export products and services to 80 nations. The group takes the name of its founder, Jamsedji Tata, a member of whose family has almost invariably been the chairman of the group. The current chairman of the Tata group is Ratan Tata, who took over from J. R. D. Tata in 1991. The company is currently in its fifth generation of family stewardship. [1]

The Tata Group comprises 98 companies in seven business sectors. 65.8% of the ownership of Tata Group is held by the charitable trust of Tata.Companies which form a major part of the group include Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Power and the Taj Hotels.

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