Thursday, December 27, 2012

Facebook adds drag-and-drop photos, trials simplified Timeline and delivers new privacy controls

Facebook adds drag-and-drop photos, trials simplified Timeline and delivers new privacy controls

Anyone who's returned from an event with a virtual armful of photos may have been frustrated with Facebook's upload interface, which until now has involved a less-than-intuitive file browser. The company is quietly solving that problem: an update pushing out to individual users lets them drag-and-drop photos into a new post, like we've seen on other social networks, and to a newly streamlined Messages format that's rolling out at the same time. A much smaller circle is seeing a second update. Facebook has confirmed to ABC News that it's conducting limited trials of an updated Timeline that moves the news feed to a single column, replaces the thumbnail navigation with simpler-looking tabs and makes all profile page information available through scrolling. A spokesperson wouldn't say if or when the new Timeline would reach the wider public, but history points to "when" being more likely. They did however mention that the new privacy shortcuts, activity log and untagging tool would be going live for all users starting tonight, and we've already seen them pop up on some of our accounts.

Google is Working on a 'X Phone' to Rival Apple and Samsung

Google is Working on a 'X Phone' to Rival Apple and Samsung

Google's engineers at Motorola are working on a 'X Phone' to rival the high end offerings of Apple and Samsung but the team has run into difficulties, reports the WSJ.

Motorola wants the marquee handset to have features that make it stand apart from existing phones when it is released next year. However, hurdles with manufacturing and supply-chain management have forced the company to rethink some of its ideas such as a bendable screen, better color saturation, and panoramic shots.

Some of the features were found to drain battery life or already have been incorporated into popular new devices, such as the iPhone 5 that launched earlier this year, they added. Motorola also ran into difficulties when it looked into using a bendable screen and materials such as ceramics that would allow the company to make the X Phone more stress resistant, use more colors and mold into different shapes, these people said.

One source told the Journal that Motorola will enhance the phone with its recent acquisition of Viewdle, a developer makes image and gesture recognition software.

The handset is expected some time next year.

Monday, April 16, 2012

New Apple iPad set to grace India on April 27




The new Apple iPad, launched on March 16 this year, is ready to arrive in India. Apple Inc has announced that the much awaited gadget will officially have an Indian launch on April 27.


The gadget, which will runs on the much faster A5X processor, will come with a new display with 2048x1536p resolution. Moreover, the iPad 2 successor will have a 5 megapixel rear camera, a back-illuminated sensor, a 5 element lens called iSight and a front camera named Facetime camera. In addition to the alluring camera, the device will come along with Apple’s image editing and multi-touch processing application- iPhoto.

The brand new Apple launch can also shoot videos in high definition (HD) and has a new key at the bottom that activates the microphone on just a tap.

Price of the new Apple iPad in India:

The minimum cost of the new Apple iPad will be Rs 30,500. It will be available in a choice of black or white, with the Wi-Fi models being sold for Rs 30,500 (16GB), Rs 36,500 (32GB), and Rs 42,500 (64GB), while the Wi-Fi+4G models will be sold for Rs 38,900 (16GB), Rs 44,900 (32GB), and Rs 50,900 (64GB).


In addition to India, countries like Colombia, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand will also witness the launch of the new iPad on April 27.

On the other hand Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, South Korea, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela will receive the new iPad a week earlier, on April 20.

Portable Flash Memory




Often referred to as a jumpdrive, the pen drive is a portable flash memory solution, designed to transport data files from one computer to another. The product can carry audio, video and data files, and is brilliantly simple; all the user has to do is plug the pen drive into a computer`s USB port, drag and drop the necessary files from the hard drive, remove it and plug it into another machine.

Durable, portable and scratch-resistant, the pen drive is a marked improvement on previous data transportation devices, such as the CD and floppy disk, and a source of constant relief and graduate for millions of people the world over.

The history
At the dawn of the new Millennium, it became clear that traditional storage solutions were no longer up to the job. People now needed to move large files between computers in the blink of eye, using intermediary technology which was quick to set up, easy to carry and hard to damage. A clutch of software companies, including SanDisk (then known as M-Systems), Lexar, Trek and IBM began working on a solution that would meet these needs.


Their solution was the revolutionary USB flash drive, which was gradually developed in the last years of the 20th century. In 2000 Trek rolled out the first-ever flash drive, named Thumb Drive, in Singapore, with IBM introducing a similar model to the North American market. Just a few months later Lexar introduced a Compact Flash (CF) card with a USB connection, and a companion card read/writer and USB cable; this eliminated the need for a USB hub, and allowed the pen/flash drive to enjoy meteoric growth over the next decade.

How it works
Each pen drive comprises a tiny Printed Circuit Board (or PCB) to store data, a USB connector, and a NAND flash memory chip using multicell level technology; this groundbreaking solution was first developed by SanDisk and Toshiba in 2005. The constituent technologies are encased within a tough outer shell, manufactured in metal, rubber or plastic, and the USB connector may be sheathed in an outer cap or protected by a retractable strip, which allows the user to withdraw the connector when not in use

The name pen drive is actually an anachronism; drives typically rely on mechanical systems, but this little gem does not. The term drive remains as a vestigial nod to the past because computers read and write flash-drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user interface as just another drive.

Meteoric growth
In less than 10 years the pen drive has evolved from an optional extra for the technologically savvy into an indispensable staple for all computer users. People have found more and more reasons to use a pen drive, and they have been encouraged by rapid increases in storage capacity; the early pen drives had room for just 8MB, but this soon increased as the technology improved - today you can pick up a pen drive with capacity of 128GB, provided you are willing to pay top dollar for the privilege.

The growth of the pen drive has rendered the good-old floppy disk almost obsolete. Until 2005 most PCs were fitted with floppy disk drives as standard. Now, faced with the ubiquity of the pen drive, designers are leaving out the old drives and fitting USB ports instead. The revolution is nearly complete!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Apple mulls settling patent fights with Samsung



 Top executives at Apple and Samsung have met recently about a potential patent settlement, a media report said Thursday.

"Apple CEO Tim Cook does not seem to share his predecessor's passion about laying all foes to waste. Cook appears to view litigation as a necessary evil, not a vehicle of cosmic revenge," Xinhua reported quoting the Bloomberg Businessweek.

Last April, Apple sued Samsung in a US court, alleging that the Korean maker's smartphones and Galaxy line of tablet computers violated Apple's patent and trademark. Samsung later countersued Apple, pitting against the rival in courts around the world.

Besides Samsung, Apple has also been filing suits against other manufacturers like HTC and Motorola Mobility, which are actually proxies for Apple products' major competitor Android, the operating system Google gives away to device makers.

In the official biography of Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder told author Walter Isaacson that "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to and I will spend every penny of Apple's USD 40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," according to the biography.

As Bloomberg points out in the cover story titled "Steve Jobs' last war", the tech giant could save themselves considerable legal fees and distraction in the short run. The process may resolve similar litigation in the desktop computer field.

In 1997, Microsoft announced an investment of USD 150 million in Apple, saying the two companies had reached settlement to a long-standing dispute over whether Microsoft's Windows operating system infringes on Apple's patents.

In the long run, the competition between Apple and Google is nowhere near resolution, said the Bloomberg report. While fighting for dominance in mobile devices, the two tech giants, along with Microsoft are all gearing up for a future battle over the market for smart TV.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Adobe Releases Photoshop CS6 Beta




Adobe has released a beta of Photoshop CS6.


Explore Photoshop CS6 beta for a sneak preview of some of the incredible performance enhancements, imaging magic, and creativity tools we are working on. Discover for yourself why Photoshop CS6 software will be a whole new experience in digital image editing.


Photoshop CS6 Highlights:
● Content-Aware Patch -- Patch images with greater control using the newest member of the Content-Aware family of technologies. Choose the sample area you want to use to create your patch, and then watch Content-Aware Patch magically blend pixels for a stunning result.
● Blazingly fast performance and a modern UI -- Experience unprecedented performance with the Mercury Graphics Engine, which gives you near-instant results when you edit with key tools such as Liquify, Puppet Warp, and Crop.* Plus, a refined, fresh, and elegant Photoshop interface features dark background options that make your images pop.
● New and re-engineered design tools -- Create superior designs fast. Get consistent formatting with type styles, create and apply custom strokes and dashed lines to shapes, quickly search layers, and much more.


Important Notes:
● Photoshop CS6 beta includes all the features in Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended. Take this opportunity to try out the 3D image editing and quantitative image analysis capabilities of Photoshop Extended*, but note that-while these features will be included in the shipping version of Photoshop CS6 Extended-they will not be included in the shipping version of Photoshop CS6.
● Adobe ID login and online activation are required either at installation or within seven days after your first launch of the Photoshop CS6 beta. The same requirements will be in place for the shipping version of Photoshop CS6 when it is released. Your Adobe ID provides multiple benefits, including an easy way to access your serial numbers, the Adobe.com community, and the upcoming Adobe Creative Cloud membership.
● Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended will be part of the Adobe Creative Suite, and Photoshop CS6 Extended will be part of Adobe Creative Cloud membership. Both Photoshop editions will also be available separately.

Monday, March 19, 2012

New Nokia Asha



Nokia has expanded its Asha portfolio in the country with the launch of Asha 303 smartphone. QWERTY-based Asha 303 runs on Symbian Series 40 OS and has been priced at Rs 8990.

First announced at Nokia World 2011 in October, Asha 303 comes with 1GHz processor and a 2.6 inch capacitive display. Other features of the phone include full QWERTY 170 MB of internal memory with support for memory card, 3.2 megapixel camera, built-in FM radio, Bluetooth and internet radio.

Nokia Asha 303 comes pre-loaded with applications such as Angry Birds Lite, Mobile TV with Zenga TV, Whatsapp, NokiaMaps and Nokia Music Unlimited. The phone is available in red and graphite colours.

Nokia has partnered with Vodafone India to provide attractive data offers for the smartphon

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Aakash II to be launched in April





A faster, upgraded version of Aakash tablet -- touted to be the world's cheapest -- would be launched in April without hike in price, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said today.

Sibal said during Question Hour in Lok Sabha that Datawind will supply one lakh high speed tablets with a longer battery life and better screen.

"These higher specifications which include 700 MHz Cortex A8 processor, 3200mAH battery with three-hour usage time and a capacitative touch screen have been necessitated to overcome the initial difficulties observed in the devices," he said.

The first phase of one lakh tablets were targeted for students in higher technical education institutions so as to further ascertain technical feedback on its operation and usability, the minister said.

To demands from members for extending the distribution of tablets to school students, Sibal said the same would be made available when the proposed National Mission of Education through ICT for Schools got necessary funds.

He said once the production capacities are built up, norms for distribution with an aim to prioritise empowerment of students, especially from disadvantaged and marginalized sections of society, through this low cost access-cum computing device would get developed.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Panasonic set for $10.2 billion loss



Japan's Panasonic on Friday warned it would see its worst-ever net loss of 780 billion yen ($10.2 billion) for the year to March, blaming the strong yen, flooding in Thailand, and acquisition costs. The electronics giant said the huge net loss - which would be one of the worst everrecorded by any non-financial Japanese company - was due to one-off costs it incurred to acquire rival Sanyo, among other factors.
"We expect a sizable decline in sales due to the impact of massive flooding in Thailand last October on broad supply chains, together with a global economic slowdown triggered by the European debt crisis," the firm said.

It made a net profit of 74 billion yen in the year to March 2011, and its first forecast for the current year had been a 30 billion yen profit.

Osaka-based Panasonic revised downward its annual sales forecast to 8.0 trillion yen, from 8.3 trillion yen earlier. Operating profit for the year is now seen at 30 billion yen, compared with 130 billion yen projected earlier.

The company separately said it posted a net loss of 333.82 billion yen for the nine months to December, reversing a 114.70 billion yen profit in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Operating profit for the period plunged 85.0 percent to 39.54 billion yen on sales of 5.97 trillion yen, down 10.3 percent. On top of the impact of the Thai floods and the eurozone crisis, Panasonic blamed the strong yen and the impact of the March earthquake and tsunami, as well as severe price competition.

Heart Attacks And Hot Water





A very good article which takes two minutes to read. Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water

This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about .Heart Attacks. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt theirdrinking habit while eating.

For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by theintestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
Common Symptoms Of Heart Attack...
A serious note about heart attacks - You! should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be theleft arm hurting . Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.
You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.
A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this message sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this & Send to a friend. It could save a life... So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Motorola launches Atrix 2 in India




At Rs 22,990, this seems to be a very reasonably priced high-end handset with equally appealing specification.

Motorola Atrix 2 is now available in India for Rs 22,990. Though it does not have the best of specifications amongst high end smartphones, but it certainly offers the best for the price.

Motorola Atrix 2 comes with a 4.3-inch qHD display with a resolution of 540×960, 1 GHz dual-core processor, 8 GB internal memory which can be expanded to 32GB, 8 megapixel rear camera and a 0.3 megapixel front camera as well. The phone is based on Android 2.3 OS.

Atrix 2 is also compatible with Motorola's lapdock, which is a laptop shaped docking station that has its own battery and screen but uses phones processing power to deliver laptop like experience. Currently this docking station is not available in India, however with the launch of two compatible devices (Motorola RAZR and Atrix 2) in India, we can expect the lapdock to come to our country very soon.

The well designed Motorola Atrix 2 comes preloaded with EA games. At Rs 22,990, this phone is priced in the close vicinity of phones like HTC Desire HD, HTC Radar (Windows Phone), Blackberry Bold 9780, and Samsung Galaxy R.

In terms of Android based phones, there are very few phones that are priced near the Atrix 2, and in comparison to all the above mentioned handsets, Atrix has slightly better specifications and features. Thus it will be a good buy for people looking at an Android smartphone below Rs 25,000

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Heart valve change without operations


A new technique to replace heart valves offers hope to those unfit to undergo open-heart surgery due to old age or other health complications.

The new method called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement ( TAVI), involves doctors transporting a synthetic valve to the heart through a small incision in the groin.

Three elderly patients with severe blockage of the main blood vessel of the heart (calcified aortic stenosis) have been treated using this technique at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute.

Dr Ashok Seth, chairman of cardiac sciences at the heart institute, said the patients had reported ill to the hospital .

"They were at risk as conventional surgery would have involved opening up the chest and heart and putting patients on cardio-pulmonary bypass. Two of them had earlier undergone bypass surgeries and were frail while a woman also had extreme calcification of aortas making her unfit for surgery," said Seth.

Apple launch iPad 3 on March 7




Apple Inc, the world's most valuable company, will hold a product event on March 7 in San Francisco, where it's said to be releasing the third generation of its best-selling iPad tablet computer.

"We have something you really have to see. And touch," Apple said today in an invitation, which features a picture of an iPad screen. The new device will sport a high-definition display, run a faster processor and work with speedier wireless networks, people familiar with the product said last month.

After pioneering the tablet market two years ago, Apple is counting on the new model to beat back competition from newer devices running Google Inc's Android software. The company has sold more than 55 million iPads, generating at least $34.5 billion in revenue. Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire, which uses Android, emerged as the iPad's biggest rival over the holiday shopping season last year.

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment beyond the information in the event invitation.

Apple's manufacturing partners in Asia started ramping up production of the iPad 3 in January, said one of the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details aren't public. The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users jump more quickly between applications, the people said.

LTE networks
The company has been working to make the iPad compatible with a wireless standard called long-term evolution, or LTE, one of the people said last month. Carriers such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc are rolling out LTE networks to give users faster access to data.

Smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and Nokia Oyj, have already introduced smartphones that work on the faster networks. Apple is bringing LTE to the iPad before the iPhone because the tablet has a bigger battery and can better support the power requirements of the newer technology, one of the people said.

The new Retina display is capable of greater resolution than the current iPad, with more pixels on its screen than some high-definition televisions, the person said. The pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material, according to the person. Videos begin playing almost instantly because of the additional graphics processing, the person said.

New high
Apple shares were trading at $532.98 at 2:47 pm New York time, up 1.4 per cent, after earlier reaching a record high. The stock has climbed 31 per cent this year.

The introduction of the new iPad will be Apple's first major hardware release since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs in October. With new features, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook aims to give customers more reasons to stick with the iPad, even as rivals undercut it on price. While Apple's tablet starts at $499, the Kindle Fire costs $199.

Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, surpassed Samsung as the No 2 seller of tablet computers last quarter, shipping 3.89 million units, according to research firm IHS Inc Apple, meanwhile, maintained its lead in the market, accounting for more than half of shipments.

The company also may use the March event to unveil an updated Apple TV set-top box, which could stream higher- resolution video to consumers' televisions, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos in Minneapolis. Apple is planning to release a full television set as early as the December quarter, Munster said today in a report, reiterating an earlier prediction.

The new iPad is being assembled by Apple's main manufacturing partner, Foxconn Technology Group. That company, which also builds the iPhone and other Apple products, gets about 22 per cent of its sales from Apple, according to supply- chain data compiled by Bloomberg

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Microsoft plans to roll out Windows Phone software in 23 countries





Microsoft Corp plans to bring its Windows Phone software to 23 new countries and put the operating system on less expensive smartphones, part of an effort to win back market share lost to Google Inc and Apple Inc.

Microsoft will kick off the expansion by opening mobile- application stores in China, Thailand,Venezuela and the 20 other nations by the end of the month, with phones arriving around the same time, said Terry Myerson, who oversees the company's Windows Phone business. That will bring the total number of markets Microsoft serves to 63, letting it target 60 per cent more buyers, he said.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

BSNL has launched three tablets


 

BSNL has launched three tablets with the cheapest model costing a mere Rs 3,250, making a quiet entry into the increasingly competitive market for the hand-held computers.
Recently, Datawind, promoted by a Canadian India, had made a much-publicised entry into the market in a tie-up with the government to provide cheap networking devices 'Aakash', priced at Rs 2,250 for students.
The three tablets launched by BSNL are priced at Rs 3,250, Rs 10,999 and Rs 13,500. Two of them come with 7-inch resistive screen with Android 2.3 operating system, while the third comes with an 8-inch touchscreen, a BSNL official said.
Made by Noida-based Pantel, these tablets will be sold with discounted data plans from BSNL, sources said.
According to Pantel, the T-PAD IS701R has 1GHz processor and 256M RAM and is wi-fi enabled. The built-in 2GB memory can be expanded by up to 32GB.
The second model T-Pad WS704C has 512MB DDRIII RAM and can be connected to TV through HDMI.
The costliest model, T-PAD WS802C is powered by a 1.2GHz processor and 512MB DDRIII RAM and also has a built-in Global Position System.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Samsung launches ‘Ultra' notebooks




Samsung on Thursday introduced its new range of ‘Ultra' notebooks, which are thin, lightweight and powerful computing device loaded with latest processor and multimedia capabilities.

The new ‘Series 5 Ultra' notebooks are available in 13 inch and 14 inch screen sizes, priced at Rs.48,990 and Rs.54,390, respectively. The notebooks come with features such as instant starts using ‘FastStart' and the innovative ExpressCache storage. Designed with consumer feedback in mind, the 14 inch model is also one of the firsts in the market to feature a built-in DVD drive and SD card slot, giving users the ability to easily access software, movies, photos and more.

“With the Series 5, our consumers will be able to enjoy superior performance, great looks and complete portability…through these products, we are creating a new segment within the Notebook space, said Samsung India Head (Mobile & IT) Ranjit Yadav.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

NASA looking for vendors


NASA is looking for vendors as it has plans to open source its NASA.gov website. For this, NASA has released a Request For Information (RFI) for reimplementing the NASA.gov website with open source software and open standards, states a report from The H.

The task of making the website open source is sure to be huge as there are around 6,00,000 unique visitors and over 1.29 TB of traffic per day on the website. Also, there are 140 different websites and applications involved along with over 7,00,000 Web pages in the task.
NASA has published the RFI as it is looking for companies that are "visionary, that get open source, cloud computing, and citizen engagement using the latest online technology," states Nick Skytland, Open Government program manager at Johnson Space Center.

The RFI was posted by NASA on 6 February 2012 on normal government channels and is also available online. The RFI lists down 19 questions regarding the approach that would be taken by vendors to handle problems like cloud development, incremental growth, backup and restore, service level agreements, compliance and bandwidth. Also, the objective of the project is to "leverage open source to drive down cost of software", but it also lists that it will "strive for vendor independence through the use of open source software" and implement open standards-based solutions.

The potential applicants for the project need to respond by 15:00 ET on 6 March 2012.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Google celebrates Hertz birthday By Google doodle




Google's latest addition to their animated doodles, celebrates Heinrich Hertz' 155th birthday. A German physicist, his experiments led to the discovery of electromagnetic waves which ultimately led to the development of the radio and the wireless telegraph.

Born in Hamburg, he was first apprenticed as a jeweler. He displayed remarkable aptitude for the sciences and not to mention, Arabic and Sanskrit. A true genius, he easily grasped the dynamics of physics while very young; he later enrolled to study the subject in Berlin.

At the age of 22, he earned his PHd - on electromagnetic induction in rotating spheres - from the University of Berlin. TWhen Hertz took up the position of a professor at Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule in 1885, he turned his attention to open electrical circuits. He demonstrated electromagnetic induction using a condenser discharging through an open loop.

In the course of doing this, he noticed something quite unfamiliar; something that he had never dealt with before - the emergence of 'side-sparks' in another nearby loop.

There, in Berlin, in 1886, he successfully generated and detected electromagnetic radiation - a feat that was not quite so simple but, seemed simple enough for the young 29-year-old physicist. By 1888, demonstrated that the electromagnetic emissions associated with these sparks behaved like waves.

The astounding discovery answered so many unanswered questions! It clarified and added new dimensions to the theory of electromagnetism that had been put forth by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884.

Hertz's name is now the common term used for radio and electrical frequencies - in hertz (Hz), kilohertz (kHz) and megahertz (MHz).

Heinrich Hertz died in Bonn, Germany in 1894 after being detected with Wegener's granulomatosis, a disorder in which blood vessels become inflamed, and subsequently effetcs the nose, lungs and kidneys. He was buried in Ohlsdorf, Hamburg.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

MSN adds new feature to take Internet's pulse




Microsoft is hooking up MSN.com with a hipper sidekick to broaden its appeal and stay on top of the Internet's hottest topics.

The trend-tracking service, called "msnNOW," tunes into the buzz by sifting through millions of Internet searches and links circulating among the hordes on Facebook and Twitter. The chatter is then distilled into the equivalent of a digital water cooler — a place where people can go to keep in touch without taking up a lot of their time.

After months of development, the new feature debuts Thursday at http://now.msn.com.

The service is primarily aimed at college-age teenagers and young adults who are increasingly relying on smartphones and other mobile devices to remain plugged into what everyone is talking about from one hour to the next. It's an "information-snacking" addiction that msnNOW is looking to feed with a smorgasbord of morsels served up a team of about 20 editors who will write 100-word summaries of the stories driving online conversations, said Bob Visse, MSN's general manager.

Although it's tailor made for people on the go, msnNOW isn't offering an app for smartphones or computer tablets. It will include tools to make it easy to share on Facebook, Twitter and email.

Taking the Internet's pulse isn't new. The main page on Yahoo Inc.'s website has highlighted the top trends for years and Internet search leader Google Inc. calls out the top queries each day. Twitter regularly updates its rankings of the most-tweeted topics.

But MSN believes its new service will prove to be even more effective because it is drawing upon Microsoft Corp.'s expertise in data management and relying on human editors to ensure the real-time site is more compelling than a list of words and links.

Facebook Inc. and Twitter also have negotiated deals that make more of their data available to Microsoft's Bing search engine than to Google, but msnNOW isn't relying on that privileged access, Visse said. Instead, msnNOW is conducting its analysis through the public entryways that Facebook and Twitter offers to all websites. MsnNOW is also leaning on BreakingNews.com, a part of MSNBC that also pores through a variety of social media to find interesting stories as they unfold.

MsnNOW's reliance on Bing to monitor online search activity could be a drawback because it processes far fewer requests than Google. But Bing is picking up more cues now that it's powering Yahoo's search engine as part of a 10-year partnership. Combined, Bing and Yahoo have a roughly 30 percent share of U.S. search volume compared to 66 percent at Google.

Bing's second-banana status in search is a big reason why Microsoft's online division has been a financial albatross. The software maker's online operations have lost about $8 billion since June 2008.

MSN.com remains one of the Internet's top destinations with about 520 million users. In comparison Facebook boasts 845 million users, Yahoo has about 700 million and Twitter has more than 100 million.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Hackers bring down Microsoft India website


Microsoft was in for a rude shock late Sunday night when the leading packaged software maker discovered that its Indian retail website has been hacked.
The incident has not forced the company to pull down its Indiasite temporarily; it also gave hackers access to the password and ID of the users.

Microsoftspokesperson, when contacted, confirmed the development.

Even so, the financial details of the users are safe, the official added. "Immediately after the report surfaced, our technical team swung into action and informed the users to change their password. So, their financial details such as credit card number and other details are safe."

In an e-mail statement, Microsoft said the company was investigating the limited compromise of the company's online store in India. "Customers have been notified and provided with guidance to reset their passwords. We are diligently working to remedy the incident and keep our customers protected," the statement added.

Microsoft Store India is not run by Microsoft, but by an Indian vendor called Quasar Media. Microsoft is yet to confirm how the hackers broke into their system.

This is the latest case of website hacking in the country. According to the data with CERT-IN, which is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents, as many as 1,425 websites were defaced in India last month alone. Last year even saw the website of the country's Central Bureau of Investigation having been hacked.

The Microsoft Store India website, www.microsoftstore.co.in, showed an error message: "The Microsoft Store India is currently unavailable. Microsoft is working to restore access as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

According to cyber security expert Ankit Fadia this kind of security incidents are unavoidable. "We should learn to accept this reality. Two days ago, even the CIA website became inaccessible for hours."

Fadia also has a word of advice for the netizens. "Try to use multiple passwords." One should not use single password for e-mail, net banking, e-commerce and others.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

iPad 3


 Apple Inc plans to introduce its latest iPad tablet at an event in the first week in March, the website AllThingsD reported, citing unnamed sources. 


The event will be held in San Francisco, likely at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which is Apple's preferred site for product launches, the website said. 


An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. 


Apple has typically introduced the latest versions of its iPad in the first few months of the year. The current iPad 2 was introduced on March 2, 2011. The original iPad was introduced at the end of January 2010. 


Apple's iPad dominates the nascent market for tablets even though deep-pocketed rivals are taking aim at the lucrative segment. Amazon.com Inc's Kindle Fire, which sells at half the cost of an iPad, has chipped away at the lower end of the tablet market. 


Apple iPad tablet sales doubled in the December quarter to 15.43 million units from a year earlier.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Panasonic set for $10.2 billion loss

Japan's Panasonic on Friday warned it would see its worst-ever net loss of 780 billion yen ($10.2 billion) for the year to March, blaming the strong yen, flooding in Thailand, and acquisition costs. The electronics giant said the huge net loss - which would be one of the worst everrecorded by any non-financial Japanese company - was due to one-off costs it incurred to acquire rival Sanyo, among other factors.
"We expect a sizable decline in sales due to the impact of massive flooding in Thailand last October on broad supply chains, together with a global economic slowdown triggered by the European debt crisis," the firm said.


It made a net profit of 74 billion yen in the year to March 2011, and its first forecast for the current year had been a 30 billion yen profit.


Osaka-based Panasonic revised downward its annual sales forecast to 8.0 trillion yen, from 8.3 trillion yen earlier. Operating profit for the year is now seen at 30 billion yen, compared with 130 billion yen projected earlier.


The company separately said it posted a net loss of 333.82 billion yen for the nine months to December, reversing a 114.70 billion yen profit in the corresponding period a year earlier.


Operating profit for the period plunged 85.0 percent to 39.54 billion yen on sales of 5.97 trillion yen, down 10.3 percent. On top of the impact of the Thai floods and the eurozone crisis, Panasonic blamed the strong yen and the impact of the March earthquake and tsunami, as well as severe price competition.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Narendra Modi sad to hear about ill-health of Yuvraj




Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he was sad to hear about the ill-health of India's ace cricketer Yuvraj Singh and expressed hope that he would play again for the country.

"Sad to hear about ill-health of Yuvraj Singh. He is a fighter and I am sure he'll come out of it very soon and play again for India," Modi wrote in his twitter account.

Yuvraj, who played a stellar role in India's ODI World Cup triumph last year, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy in the United States.

The 30-year-old left-hander was adjudged the Player of the tournament in the World Cup last year with 362 runs, 15 wickets and four Man-of-the-Match awards.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Google To Twitter As vice-president Shailesh Rao




 Shailesh Rao, managing director (media &platforms) at Google's Asia-Pacific operations, has left the world's biggest Internet search company to set up Twitter's international business.

A Google India spokeswoman confirmed that Friday was Rao's last day. "We thank Shailesh for his fantastic contributions to Google and Google India, in particular, and wish him the best in his future endeavours," the spokeswoman added.
Rao, 41, will join Twitter as vice-president for its international operations. For Twitter, the micro-blogging site that competes with other social media networks such as Facebook, growing operations in the markets outside the US will help it garner revenues from advertisers in Asia and elsewhere.

Last month, Twitter said it had added a new feature to censor tweets, or 140-character posts, on a country-by-country basis, drawing criticism from some of its 100 million-odd global users.

Rao, a Wharton graduate, relocated to lead Google's India operations in March 2007 from the company's California headquarters, where he served as a director for the search business.

Rao has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a BS from the Wharton School with a concentration in finance, and an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management.

Facebook


According to Wikipedia and its Info page, Facebook was launched exactly six years ago, on February 4, 2004. Back then it was called “Thefacebook,” and it was originally located at thefacebook.com, but it’s definitely the same project.

Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, together with his college roomies Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, Facebook was originally intended to be a network only for Harvard students, but was later expanded to other universities and finally to everyone.

Intelligent design, a lot of smart business decisions and gradual expansion made Facebook what it is today: by far, the biggest social network on the Internet.
 Now, it boasts more than 800 million users worldwide — or 40% of all Internet users — and is on track to reach 1 billion members by August. Behind Google, it’s the number one most-visited site worldwide..

Ferrari and Force India launch controversial new cars for 2012 Formula One season




Ferrari and Force India became the latest teams to launch their 2012 challengers on Friday morning, with fans immediately reacting with horror to the 'stepped-nose' design featured on both cars.
The feature, a response to new safety regulations requiring the car's nose to be nearer to the ground, was first seen on the Caterham which launched last week.
The CT01 was dubbed the 'Platypus' by Formula One aesthetes but its designers insisted other teams would follow suit.
And they have. Although McLaren managed to retain a sleeker look with their MP4-27, launched at Woking on Wednesday, Ferrari's F2012 - which the correspondent for Gazzetta dello Sport described as "the ugliest Ferrari ever" - was immediately being lampooned on Twitter as the 'Hammerhead'.
It raises the question of whether McLaren have missed a trick in not opting for a stepped-nose - or even whether their engineers considered it.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said he hoped the F2012 would be competitive from the start this season after a disappointing 2011 in which he won just one race.


Friday, February 3, 2012

Why you SHOULD drink water at night !!!!!

     Something I didn't know:

             I asked my Doctor why do I and other
people urinate (pee) so much at night time.

                    Answer from my Cardiac Doctor:  Gravity
holds water in the lower part of your body when you are upright. When you lie down and the lower body (legs and other things) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This then ties in with the last statement!
                           I knew you needed a minimum amount of
water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to me.
                           Correct time to drink water... Very
Important. >From A Cardiac Specialist!

                       Drinking water at a certain time
maximizes its effectiveness on the body:

                               2 glasses of water after waking up -
helps activate internal organs

                               1 glass of water 30 minutes before a
meal - helps digestion

                               1 glass of water before taking a bath
- helps lower blood pressure

                               1 glass of water before going to bed -
avoids stroke or heart attack


                               Some Physician told that water at bed
time will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.
One can try and see the diference himself........

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Facebook IPO




We knew Facebook was big -- you don't get to 800 million users without making a few bucks -- but until today, we didn't know just how big.

Facebook filed papers for an initial public offering on Wednesday, pulling back the curtains on the inner workings of the world's largest social networking site and opening a new phase in the company's ambitious plan to compile, and make money off of, our personal information. Facebook seeks to raise $5 billion in an IPO that looks likely to be the largest by a web company since Google in 2004 and could place the social network's value as high as $75 billion to $100 billion.

The portrait of Facebook that emerges in Facebook's over 150-page S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is of a mature company -- by Silicon Valley standards -- already enjoying robust revenues thanks to a vast, active user base churning out data for the site. Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg also enjoys the use of a private plane, the filing revealed, and earned a base salary of $500,000 last year, more than triple the salary of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin when Google filed for its IPO.

Facebook looks more seasoned than many of its Silicon Valley peers had when they announced plans to go public. According to the prospectus it filed with the SEC, Facebook has been profitable for the past three years. The company reported revenues of $3.7 billion last year, an 88 percent increase over the prior year, and earned a $1 billion profit, more than Google's total revenue the year it debuted on public markets. Facebook's income also dwarfs that of other internet companies that recently completed their IPOs. Zynga's profits totaled $90.6 million in 2010, for example, while LinkedIn had barely flirted with profitability when it filed for its IPO and Pandora was still hundreds of millions of dollars short of breaking even.

Advertising comprises a full 85 percent of Facebook's revenues, down from 98 percent in 2009. Zynga alone accounts for 12 percent of Facebook's total revenues, as the social gaming company must pay Facebook a cut of purchases made in Zynga's Facebook games.

Facebook revealed impressive statistics about its growing and active userbase, which totals 845 million members, more than half of whom, or 483 million, return to the site daily. These hundreds of millions of users have shared more than 100 petabytes (100 quadrillion bytes) of photos and videos with Facebook, and produced an average of 2.7 billion "likes" and comments a day in the final three months of 2011.

The company's stunning growth will prove difficult, if not impossible, to sustain, however. Facebook has reached a 60 percent penetration in the U.S. and U.K., according to the company's own estimates, and Facebook warned investors to expect its expansion to slow.
"We anticipate that our active user growth rate will decline over time as the size of our active user base increases, and as we achieve higher market penetration rates," Facebook wrote. "To the extent our active user growth rate slows, our business performance will become increasingly dependent on our ability to increase levels of user engagement in current and new markets."

Facebook users could also be wooed away by the very features the social network introduced, Facebook noted. The company has made a push to grow its platform and attract third-party app developers, such as the Washington Post and Spotify, to build apps that run on Facebook. But, the filing cautioned, "[o]your efforts to expand the Facebook Platform may result in users increasingly engaging with our Platform developers' Facebook-integrated websites instead of engaging on Facebook, which may negatively affect our advertising revenue and harm our business."

Zuckerberg might dress the part of low-key Silicon Valley start up CEO, but the tech visionary has already made a mint, has a private plane at his disposal, and stands to make tens of billions of dollars off of Facebook's IPO.

Facebook's filing provides a glimpse into the scores of cash being accumulated by the company and doled out to its investors and employees.

Zuckerberg's base salary, which amounted to $500,000 in 2011, was the highest of any employee at Facebook. By contrast, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin earned a salary of $150,000 each when Google filed for its IPO in 2004.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and chief financial officer David Ebersman tied for second place, with a base salary of $300,000 each. Yet Sandberg's total compensation in 2011, or $30,873,579, made her the highest paid of any Facebook employee, followed by Facebook's vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer, who took home $24,727,128.

Zuckerberg owns 28 percent of the company, which could be worth $28 billion following the IPO, and the 27 year-old CEO plans to take a $1 per year salary beginning in 2013, much like former Apple CEO Steve Jobs did while at the helm of Apple.

Being CEO of Facebook comes with a few perks. The filing noted, "[o]ur compensation committee has also authorized our CEO and COO to use private aircraft for business purposes," and continued, "Mr. Zuckerberg may use private aircraft for personal purposes in connection with his comprehensive security program. On certain occasions, Mr. Zuckerberg may be accompanied by family members or others when using private aircraft."

In his letter to investors, Zuckerberg included a manifesto entitled "The Hacker Way" that spelled out the company's priorities and focus on delivering features first and improving later.

"Done is better than perfect” is painted on Facebook's walls, Zuckerberg wrote.

"The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it -- often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo," wrote Zuckerberg. "Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: 'Code wins arguments.'"

"We don’t build services to make money," Zuckerberg added. "We make money to build better

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Apple





Apple Working on NFC Capabilities for the iPhone 5?

A new report suggests Apple could be working on implementing NFC capabilities into the next iPhone and may talking with MasterCard and Visa for payment processing.

9to5Mac spoke to a well-connected developer at MacWorld who is building a NFC app for the iPhone. When asked why he would do that given the limited NFC support for the device, the developer told the site that he had no hardware knowledge, but he had spoken to Apple iOS engineers on multiple occasions, and they are "heavy into NFC."

When asked how confident he was, the developer said, "Enough to bet the app development on."

Late last week Ed McLaughlin, the head of emerging payments at Mastercard, made some interesting comments about NFC/Paypass to Fortune Company:

"The timeline is always as rapid as it makes sense for consumers," he says. "That's a combination of having a critical mass of the merchants, which is what you're seeing right now, and getting devices into the hands of consumers. I don't know of a handset manufacturer that isn't in process of making sure their stuff is PayPass ready."

So that would include Apple then?

"Um, there are...like I say, [I don't know of] any handset maker out there," McLaughlin says. "Now, when we have discussions with our partners, and they ask us not to disclose them, we don't."

Interestingly, a Visa representative did confirm to Fortune Company that they have talked to Apple about their PayWave system.

"I can't tell you when Apple is going to put NFC in the next version of the iPhone," Bill Gajda, the Global Head of Mobile Product said, "but we've had discussions with them around the PayWave standard and they've asked to look at our specification and certification process so that when they decide to do something those lines of communication are open."

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Deepest Lake In The World









Lake Baikal (Baikal) in Siberia, Russia is the deepest lake in the world measuring 1620m deep at its deepest point. This makes it not only deep but also the oldest lake in the world estimated to be around 25 million years old. At over 636 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide this fresh water lake holds over 20 percent of all the fresh water in the world and is second in size only to the Caspian Sea (the caspian is called a sea but is technically a lake).

To put things into perspective the lake is so big that if all the rivers in the world flowed into its basin it would take almost 1 year to fill. We all know Siberia isn’t the warmest of places so you can imagine what a phenomenal site it is when in the winter months the lake freezes over holding ice up to 115 meters thick. Now that’s a lot of ice!

Monday, January 30, 2012

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE




Let's say it's 6.15pm and you're going home (alone of course),
after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself..!!


NOW HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE..


Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.
A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.
A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating.
The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Celebrities: Real and filmy name Celebrities (Bollywood)


         Preity Zinta - Preetam Zinta Singh






 Katrina Kaif - Kate Turquotte




 Sridevi - Shree Amma Yanger





Mallika Sherawat – Reema Lamba







Madhubala – Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi







Salman Khan- Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan






Mahima Chaudhry – Ritu Chaudhry





John Abraham – Farhan Abraham





Shammi Kapoor – Shamsher Raj Kapoor




Akshay Kumar - Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia


'
Dilip Kumar – Yusuf Khan



Govinda – Govind Arun Ahuja




Bobby Deol – Vijay Singh Deol



Ajay Devgan – Vishal Devgan





Rekha – Bhanurekha Ganesan








Kamal Haasan- Alwarpettai Aandavar






Jeetendra – Ravi Kapoor








Johnny Lever - John Prakasa Rao Janumala






 Megastar

Amitabh Bachchan – Amit Bachchan

 

And Superstar

Rajnikant – Sivaji Rao Gaekwad