Technology Network

Oneshar.es: Self-Destruct Message after Transmission

2012-02-13T22:05:00.000+05:30

      We do share lots of things in our daily life, but some of them are private information. We use mailing system to send these confidential information to receivers inbox.
      We may not need to get forwarded these messages over and over to multiple users. Also, some message need to be deleted after a period of time.
      So, to accomplish this task for self destruction after an single access to data and keeping safe; Oneshar.es come with an tool to provide an Secure data transmission and self-destruction of message. These web tool provides users to share private information either using android phones or by browser.

How it Works:

The data that you want to share privately is entered to the input box (1000 Max character).
It then encrypts your confidential data and stored in an encrypted format on server. It then provides you the key URL in order to share the information.
These URL can be send to receiver by any channel. After accessing the key URL the information is displayed to receiver for the first time.
If now an user try to refresh the page with same URL, it says that now URL is expired. Hence, self-destructed.

So, let me know will you use this new online privacy tool?

URL Expanders to avoid spam Links.

2012-01-15T00:41:00.000+05:30

      When URL shorten came out, many of us take the advantage to shorten our long URL's. Also, it helps spammers to shorten their malicious URL too.

      So, URL shortner has pros and cons. But there are websites which helps us to identify or preview the short URL 's for their complete expansion.

      Here below are the some URL expander sites which u would like to visit and differentiate the Malicious URL.

Else, Install for Firefox or Chrome extension to Expand bitly links (and many other short links) on any web page to see page titles and links to bitly Info pages before clicking.

MiMedia: Get Cloud Storage of 7GB Free.

2011-05-12T12:45:00.000+05:30

      Mimedia is an online file backup and storage service. It offers customers some paid services as well as free option to store up to 7GB of data in the cloud.

      Like other online backup services Mimedia also provides access to data from any other computer, iphone, ipad or other smart phones. You can share the videos, photos, documents, Music and do find an dashboard to view and get instant access for your data.

      Other services like Dropbox provides 2GB of free space whereas Box.net provides 5GB. So, Mimedia is nice in order to have an Free space about 7GB. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month or $99 per year for 250GB of storage. That compares favorably to Dropbox, Mozy and Carbonite.

Check out this video to see how MiMedia works:

Currently Mimedia supports only Windows but the other OS users can upload and access their data using the web interface.

World IPv6 Day.

2011-05-05T09:01:00.010+05:30

      On 8th June, Google, Facebook, Yahoo! etc will be the most organizations that will offer their content over IPv6 for 24-hour "test flight".

      The aim of the "test flight" is to motivate the organizations like Internet Service Providers, Hardware vendors, Web sites; to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure successful transition as 4 address run out.

      So Google created the Google over IPv6 program, where ISP have to promise search giant that they have good IPv6. In turn, Google will respond to DNS requests from those networks with IPv6 addresses for various Google properties such as google.com and youtube.com.

      At this point, it's hard to predict what this experiment could mean for the amount of IPv6 traffic that flows through the Intertubes. If a lot of users are IPv6-enabled, a good amount of traffic can move from IPv4 to IPv6 overnight. This depends on how many additional sites and networks join the effort, though.

      So, Lets see whether your Internet Service Provider updates IPv6 test it here.

Quixey - One Search Engine for Million Apps.

2011-04-14T08:59:00.007+05:30

      Millions of Apps uploaded and downloaded that are uncountable available for web and mobile. But how to get those right ones when needed. Now, Quixey - a dedicated search engine for apps which helps to find the apps that you required.

      Quixey - describes that its an functional engine for apps. So instead of searching an apps by its keyword or description, the user can search their apps with Quixey-defined functions.The results of Quixey are ranked by relevance, with all of the web, Windows Mac, Android, Firefox, IE, etc.. that matches your query.

      You can filter the results according to type or by associated platform. On the right hand side of the page Quixey displays system-generated text for each app that attempts to inform you that whether the app lives up to its stated purpose.

      It fetches the app information from blog, forums, social media to return the quality results. Quixey is an seven person team with year-and-half to build the new technology to collect data for apps.

      Co-Founder of Quixey "Tomer Kagan" says that Quixey will soon launch developer pages to help developers to get their applications discovered.

      The above news i grabbed from Mashable which has exclusively obtained 500 Quixey invites for their readers. Interested parties can click on the "Quixey" here to get their private access to Quixey’s app search engine.

TOUT - Share Real-Time Video Messages.

2011-04-13T19:41:00.005+05:30

      Tout, a real-time social video update service which let you share 15-seconds video clips with your friend and followers. Its like video-twitter-short video updates to share with your followers.

      It allows you to share 15-seconds long clips so its about real-time conversation in video rather than text. Its an combination of real-time blog and rich clarity videos. The site has been testing with over 2,000 users, and went live on Tuesday.

      Tout's uses are flexible, and to an extent, unknown. In many ways, it plugs into the pre-existing model of social interaction online by allowing people an outlet to give updates on their life. But the video element may prove to have unexpected results.

      Downing also envisions that as tablets and devices like the Apple TV continue to catch on, that Touters could gather followings commensurate to something like television channels--real-time, highly personal reality TV for a future generation.

      But, its an simple way to keep updated about your followers and friends with brief video messages.

Foodily: An Search Engine just for Food.

2011-02-17T13:44:00.006+05:30

      A new search engine named as Foodily that is created to find over million of recipes. The website offers also an social sharing tools to enable users to share recommendations.

      The site's has recipes culled from more than hundreds of sources from TV chefs, food bloggers etc. The home page of the site Foodily is as simple as compare to Google's home page with just two boxes to help user to filter there recipes what they want to cook.

      In which a search box where user can enter the type of recipe they are looking for, and the second one in which they can specify what ingredient they don't want to put in recipe for example you can search for samosa without potato.

      The results are presented side by side with images, ingredients and instructions which allow the user to scroll and compare the dishes. User are also allow to share the recipe on social networking sites like twitter and Facebook. Also, they can save the recipe in a folder on a site.

      So, using Facebook connect, users can see what recipe that Facebook friends do like and also they share recipe which they like via Facebook. Also they can create an event on Facebook to which user can be invited, using the menu assembled from Foodily searches.

Website as Answering Engine.

2011-02-15T19:05:00.008+05:30

      An Computer wizards from London created an website which gives an answers to your questions.

      The website named as trueknowledge.com provides answers to your questions and act as 'phone-of-friend'.

      Unlike other search engines it gives you an direct answers of your question asked rather than providing links for it.

      For example, if an user ask an Who created true knowledge?. The snapshot of the result shown in below figure.

      If the website unable to answer your question, it inform user about it. However, more and more data are fed into website. This then able to provide more answers to its users.

      These Answering Engine uses semantic technology and a consolidated database of facts, lexical knowledge and common sense. Hope these website helps to find our answers more quickly than the search engines..

Gmail started 2-Step Verification.

2011-02-11T11:13:00.010+05:30

Gmail started 2-step verification which adds an extra layer of security to your Google account by requiring you have to access your phone as well as username and password.

These means that even if some steals or guess your password, then too the hackers still wont be able to access your account since they don't have your phone.

How you sign-in with 2 steps:

When you access any Google products, enter your username and password.

You will then next be asked to enter the verification code, which you get on your phone. You have to do only once in every 30 Days if you choose.

How to get started:
So you ready to make your account secure?. The step is now to see whether your account is eligible for 2-step verification yet. To do this you have, visit Google account and look for the Using 2-step verification link. If found you can start the setup process.

Note:

If 2-step verification is not enabled on your account then be patient - all Google account will be enabled soon.

Mobile Number Portability Steps..

2011-01-23T11:18:00.006+05:30

After long time waiting now Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is finally announced. The technology which allows to change the provider without fear of loosing their old number.

Thus it means that user can have their old number even if wishes to switch for new provider. The service is provided for both Post and prepaid customers also for both GSM and CDMA.

Step wise procedure for MNP:

Send an SMS to 1900 in following format: PORT - eg. PORT <your mobile number>. Operator SMS charges will be applicable.
You will get an SMS reply from 1901 that contains a Unique Porting Code (UPC) of 8-digit alphanumeric code and expiry date.
SMS to the preferred operator quoting the unique code. This code is valid only for a few days, and one must apply again if it expires.
Your existing operator will check with new operator & if there are no dues then approval will be given for porting.
You will get an SMS on the time and date when porting will take place. Rules mandate that process be completed within 4 days of applying.
After porting is complete, wait for an SMS from your new operator confirming the switch. Your phone may be dead for about 2 hours when the porting takes place.

Some Important Notes:
Prepaid account balance will not be forwarded to new service provider.
Postpaid user should clear the current outstanding bills before moving to new provider.
CDMA customers can switch to GSM or vice-versa as well.
You can't switch the service provider second time within 90 Days of first portability.

Protect Flash Drive using USB Safeguard.

2010-12-27T20:18:00.011+05:30

      Secure your removable pen drives using passwords tool USB Safeguard. It is an portable software which encrypts and protect the data with a password using AES 256 bits encryption.

      This is an key software which protects your confidential data stored inside an removable pen drives.

      It supports extremely powerful security solution to protect the valuable data stored in an pen drive. Also, it has an very useful feature that allows you to store the email and phone no. in case you loose you pen drive.

List of Features:

No Installation required.
AES 256 bits Encryption.
100% portable.
Assign Email and Phone no.

Note:

It works with only USB flash drive with max size of 2GB.
Full Version (Costs EUR 10 ~ 600 INR) supports max size up to 128GB Flash Drive.
It does not work with external hard drives.

Download Link : USB Safeguard.
Official Website : http://usbsafeguard.altervista.org/

Facebook Scam: To Show who viewed your Profile.

2010-11-30T20:21:00.007+05:30

      Normally, on Facebook we visit our friend's profile to view the profile, in case if we want to know about the people who visited and viewed profile. Hence, an Petitions that let Facebook users to view who visited their profiles, and numerous apps that claim to offer an access.

      Here is an another scam apps that we have to watch for, like other apps that promises to show you the who visited your profile. Don't Fall in it, installing the app and giving it rights to access your information will not only take you to close to spying attacks but also post an link on your wall.

      The app has been spreading rapidly on Facebook via the message, "OMG OMG OMG" I cant believe this actually works! Now you really can see who viewed your profile! on http://bit.ly/aFNPAb".

According to bit.ly these one link had received over 55,000 clicks :

      Sopos- an security firm conveys that your profile will be the victim of these viral scam - spreading the message to all of your Facebook friends because you continue...

See the snapshot of App:

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Now Like Button for Twitter.

2010-11-26T18:09:00.007+05:30

      Recently, Jesse Stay, a programmer has developed a browser plug-in to that will allow to Like the tweets. Apart from the reply and Retweet buttons an Like button too will appear on the stream.

      It is done using Facebook's iframe code which can be used only with browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer.

      To accomplish these you need to do install the plugin, and then you can start liking the tweets as shown below Like buttons looks out of its place.

      The developer planning to work on 'Post to Facebook' by inserting an checkbox below an twitter status update box. Also, to synchronize the Twitter and Facebook profile picture.

      The plug-in can be downloaded here.

Google Introduces Plugin to Integrate MS-Office with Google Docs.

2010-11-24T16:32:00.005+05:30

      Recently, Google had launch an plug-in for Microsoft office called as Cloud Connect. Which connects the Google docs directly with free of charge. These means that editing in your MS-Office Doc will automatically synchronize with the Google Docs when you hit an save button. You can share the preview of the document by sharing the Google doc link without worrying about which version your co-workers.

      The plug-in supports Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These service is launch for the Business customers and other will be getting very soon. Update: Google says that the demand was so high that it can’t accept any more volunteers, but you can sign up to receive a notification when it’s available.

      Once you have installed it, You will find an tool bar in MS-Office in the top of the Interface. Which makes easy to stay connected with the Google docs. As documents are edited locally but can be save on cloud whenever you press the save button. These documents as like Google docs web editor not reflect the changes as you type them due to these you have to hit the save button of MS-Office application.

      Since its obvious that an conflict will occur when same document is edited by two or more users. For-which google plug-in will prompt each user by showing the versions of the same doc and confirming the right version to be saved.

      More like an Offisync an application which offers the same functionality that Google had offered . Also Offisync has some more additional compare to the Cloud Connect.

Google will use new Image Format - WebP

2010-11-14T19:50:00.006+05:30

      Internet search giant planning to boost the load time of an webpage with the help of new image format WebP. Since these image format is lighter than the JPEG image. It is an image format used in electronic devices with an screen.

      WebP offers compression that has shown 39.8% more byte-size efficiency than JPEG for the same quality in a large scale study of 900,000 images on the Web.

      The most of the traffic over the internet is because of images, hence using WebP would make web faster. WebP format works with the Google Chrome 9 browser.

A snapshot of comparison between the JPEG and WebP compression is shown below:

      Since it is an open source project so an developer can make an use of it and can be downloaded from the site: Download WebP Converter Here. So start converting JPEG, PNG images into compatible WebP format to reduce size and increase the loading time of your webpages.

Facebook is rumored to launch its own Email Service.

2010-11-12T22:38:00.005+05:30

      Facebook has reportedly sent out invitations for a special invite-only event to be held on November 15 at St. Regis Yerba Buena Terrace in San Franscisco, US.

      Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch is betting that Facebook will unveil a new web-based email client codenamed Project Titan at this event. Where Internally Project Titan is refereed as "Gmail Killer".

      Earlier this month, Google ad updated its Terms and Service that its shutdown Facebook's access to fetch the contacts from the Gmail Account to protect the user data. For these, Facebook come up with an idea to download the Gmail contacts in CSV format and upload the same on Facebook.

      Now, to respond back to google, Facebook had rumored to launch its own email service with @facebook.com domain. It's pretty unlikely to kill Gmail but if Facebook launches its own email service, it would be interesting to see how other popular web-mail service providers react.

      As of now no other detail is provided we have to wait till 15^th Novemeber for Facebook's official announcement.

Trojan Forces Firefox to Save Passwords.

2010-10-09T20:52:00.004+05:30

      A new Firefox Trojan had been discovered that forces the browser to save password and used them on an infected PC to create new user account.

      The Trojan-PWS-Nslog malware was discovered by security Company Webroot. Actually the Trojan adds a few lines of the code and comments out the other portions of the code from the file of the Firefox file called "nsLoginManagerPrompter.js" with the result that all the passwords get saved locally without any input from the user.

      The Trojan Creates a new account under the name "Maestro" on the infected computer. It then "scrapes information from the registry, from the so-called Protected Storage area used by IE to store passwords, and from Firefox's own password storage, and tries to pass the stolen information onward, once per minute - added by Webroot researcher Andrew Brandt.

      Webroot can easily identify and remove the Trojan from infected machines, it says. To fix the modified Firefox file, users should download the latest Firefox installer and install it over the existing installation. No bookmarks or add-ons will be lost in the process, Brandt said.

      Since, Firefox ranks 2nd in Browser market, also by default it does remember password. to avoid to these, go to tools in menu and select options, select security tab and uncheck the remember password, Webroot Advices.

      So, be safe while browsing from our all time favorite Mozilla Firefox ..

Enhance Email by setting an background and visual effects.

2010-08-21T23:12:00.005+05:30

Now, using a program named as IncrediMail which enhances your all boring e-mail by adding some colors and fanfare to it. It also manages all your email messages, communications, contact details and email-transactions.

IncrediMail allows you to:

Bring your emails to life with animated 3D effects.
Choose from 100's of amazing email backgrounds.
Get notified of incoming emails by special animated characters (called Notifiers).
Add fun emoticons and animations to your emails.
Manage all your emails from different accounts (like Yahoo and Gmail) in one place.

So, now enjoy mailing to friends by making it colorful...

Dowload Link : IncrediMail Software.
Official Website: incredimail.com

Now Delete the Duplicate Song Files using Similarity Software.

2010-08-01T22:30:00.006+05:30

      Similarity is an useful software that helps to delete and find the similar, duplicate files such as MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, WV, MPC etc..

      These is an program where the similarity of the sound part is checked, not just music tags or the file content but also it analyzes the artist, title, album of the music which is present in the audio files and compare these parameters with other audio files.

      You can adjust sensitivity of searching criteria to find exact or similar files. Duplicate files can be deleted or browsed. The list of duplicate files can be sorted, exported to play-lists, and acted upon.
      You may not know how many duplicate audio files on your computer hard disk will be present that you have been downloaded from different Internet, CD's etc.. Since Similarity would help you to solve and remove these duplicate files with just little effort of setting your criteria for duplication search..

Hope these files would some how help our PC with some more space to store files..

Download Software From Here: Similarity (1.68 MB Size)

Around 2.5 Million users Might quit Facebook!.

2010-07-19T20:03:00.005+05:30

Recently, there was lot of unrest between Facebook and some members from the muslim community. Since we know that Pakistan had temporarily banned Facebook in the country.

Due to which Facebook had deleted a few pages related to islam like:

Facebook.com/Rassoul.Allaah
Facebook.com/Logo.Ramadan
Facebook.com/Quran.Lovers
Facebook.com/Love.Mohammed.

      Which all consists a huge number of Facebook likes and Fans. Due to which muslim has given an two week notice to bring back those pages or they will leave Facebook.

      The group says that the pages does not contains any hate speech. Also they went to facebook to say that if it doesn't take any action for the same pages then about 2.5 million Muslim Facebook members will quit Facebook and join madina.com - a Facebook-twin for Muslims.

      Do we think that Facebook will accept the demands of the group and reactivate the four pages that have been disabled?.. Please Leave your comments..

Epic - First Browser from Indian Origin.

2010-07-15T19:51:00.005+05:30

      Recently, in Bangalore an Hidden Reflex has announced an launch of browser named as "Epic" which aims to make all Indians proud.

      Epic, is the first entirely Indian made browser which is based on Mozilla platform that comes with lots of India centric features. The company Hidden Reflex was founded by an US based Engineer Alok Bhardwaj in 2007. The company is in Bangalore.

      Apart from these Epic browser when you install it the first thing you will get is the bright colours of the browser. Epic is highly customizable and initially comes with a "Peacock" background that isn't too easy on the eyes. Also, you can change the background of the browser. Even at the launch there are about 1500 themes for Epic.
      The browser consists host of applications such as Twitter, Facebook etc.. on its sidebar. Epic also comes with an inbuilt anti-virus protection. It also do supports around 12 Indian languages and an India content sidebar that aggregates news headlines, TV to live cricket commentary and other things that matters to us Indians.

      Download an Free Epic browser here: Epic Browser

Proud to be an Indian... Jai Hind!.

India Second Largest Spam Emanating source in the World.

2010-07-15T11:17:00.005+05:30

      Although india is not an ranker when it comes to total number of internet users or the availability of broadband connectivity.

      But there is an one thing in which india are ahead i.e Spam. India is an Second largest Spam Emanating source in the world after USA.

      These calculation are revealed by security analysis firm Sophos. Sophos had released an its annual list of top spam polluters. An general snap shot of list is shown below:

      According to the Sophos spamming is done increasingly and it becomes malicious. Also lots of spams are generated by financially motivated criminals to control the compromised Zombie computers for the purpose of spamming also to steal identity and secure information.

      They also added that internet users should not click on links or attachments in the spam mails which can make their PC controlled by other cybercriminals.

      Spam emails make up 97 percent of all emails received by business email servers, both putting a strain on network resources and wasting a huge amount of time to lost productivity.

Now Trust Strangers using Robots.

2010-07-12T19:58:00.004+05:30

      With the help of psychologists, economists, and robotics an range of institutions are to program an Robot which will mimic the nonverbal gestures and tics that humans use to signal their trustworthiness. Yes, an Robot named as Nexi is cracking the code of why humans trust.

Northeastern psychology professor David DeSteno explains why this is crucial:
      "People tend to mimic each others body language, which might help them develop intuitions about what other people are feeling — intuitions about whether they'll treat them fairly."

      While researchers believe that it's down to subtle non-verbal cues that we pick up on as we interact with people, and has created a wide-eyed robot to try and find out exactly which gestures help us decide whether a person is trustworthy or not.

      In other words, our tendency to imitate the gestures & nonverbal cues of others gives us insight into their motivations and intentions. It's then a question of translating this information into an intuitive hunch as to whether the person we're talking to is as trustworthy as they say they are. If that's true, there should be specific gestures Nexi can do that will either maximize or minimize people's assessment of its trustworthiness.

      The Testing with Nexi is done using an economic game known as "Give Some", the humans have to decide how to share the sum of money equally between them and Nexi, as well as how they would get if an distribution is done by Nexi .

      These is how help researches to continue their work by testing whether Nexi can assess the trustworthiness of its human conversation partners.

Facebook largest Photo sharing Community in India.

2010-07-10T10:30:00.004+05:30

      If we ask which is an most visited image upload service in India, we may answer like its an Flickr, Imageshack or picasa etc.. But its now some one else who achieve the crown from these top websites.

      Its an Social Networking Site Facebook, which according to the recent Vizisense report, is an actually india's most used photo sharing website today. Facebook is even ahead of youtube in sharing video.

      This is just because that an Flickr and Youtube stuck with an images & video respectively whereas, Facebook consists and handles both.

      The latest Vizisense data reveals that Facebook.com had a staggering 18.7 million unique users in May while YouTube.com in comparison had about 15.5 million. Compare this to Flickr which managed to garner just 1.91 million Indian users.

      Facebook is growing quite fast in India as well. Orkut too was nudged away by Facebook recently in India as the country's most used social networking platform.

Gmail Launches Rich Text Signatures.

2010-07-09T10:47:00.005+05:30

      Signatures for Gmail mostly done by us in normal text or done by using browser plug-in, Greasemonkey scripts etc.. Due which some of us frustrated with of not being able to change the colors or font size of the Signatures, or doing insert image or links. Hence, Gmail had launched an ability to write your own rich text signatures right in Gmail.

      These can be done by visiting to settings page of Gmail, you will see an rich text editor in the signature section. Here, you can customize your signature by adding images, links, text formatting etc..

      These feature now also supports to have unique signatures for alternate email address that is associated with your account simply select the alternate email address from the drop down and set an unique signatures for every alternate email address.

      Currently, only the latest desktop version of Gmail supports rich text signatures and multiple signatures. The older version and HTML version of Gmail, along with the mobile versions, use a plain text version of your primary account’s signature.

Mozilla Launches Firefox 4 Beta.

2010-07-07T10:34:00.005+05:30

      Today, Mozilla Launched an Firefox 4 Beta Which introduces an new look and new features.

      According to the official blog of Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta 1 is now ready to download and test!. Also they mention that an new versions for the same will be release in every two to three weeks.

      In order to do these they provide an bundled a Feedback Add-On with the Firefox 4 Beta that provides an easy to use Feedback button as shown in below image.

      With Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta, Mozilla introduces a new interface, its like Mozilla Takes ideas & cues from Different browsers and place the tabs on the top by default. Also, if you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista the Menu bar was replaced with a single Firefox button so we can get to the most used options with just one click. (in Windows only; it'll come to Mac OS and Linux later on).

      It also provides some crash protection like other browsers if an plug-in crashes it bring down an plug-in instead of causing entire browser crashing down.

There is a lot more to this beta than a face-lift on Windows, including:

New Add-Ons Manager.
HD Video.
Privacy improvements.
Crash Protection.
Performance.

For Web developers there are some of the changes they made under the hood:

HTML5 ParserWebSockets
IndexedDB
Web ConsoleSimpler Add-On Development
Simpler Add-On Development
For a full list of Web technologies supported by Firefox check out "big chart o’ features.”

Download Link : Firefox 4 Beta.
For more Details: Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta Release Notes.

A New Device with TV, Mobile and Internet in China.

2010-07-05T13:51:00.004+05:30

      China would soon launch a new facility for people to access the Internet, Mobile and TV using a Single Device which combines broadcasting & telecommunication technologies.

      These Facility would be launched in China for 11 Chinese Cities. However, it is not mentioned about the development of an trail Programme.

      These Programme is known as "Three Networks Integration" in chinese, it aims to make the three systems Compatible and allow users to make telephone calls, surf internet and watching television through only one cable or wireless entrance.

      Currently, TV, telecom and Internet networks are separated in China, and different operators provide access to cable TV, telecommunications and the Internet.

      The State Council, China's Cabinet, said in January that the program would be accelerated through pilot projects from 2010 to 2012, focusing on trials connecting broadcasting and telecommunication networks.

      These Programme will boost investment and consumption by 668 billion yuan ($98.38 billion Approx) over the next three years, said Wu Hequan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

-Siliconindia.com

Set background image for Google home Page.

2010-06-09T17:26:00.006+05:30

      Recently few weeks back, Google had added an feature to set your own background image for your Google home page just like an bing.com home page these feature was added recently at www.google.com .

      But now these feature is added to www.google.co.in. So, to set & activate your own google home page background image you have to select the link provided in google home page as shown in below highlighted with red rectangle.

      Hope these feature of google makes your google home page interface with your own defined background image.

Google Chrome OS to be Released these September

2010-06-04T00:31:00.003+05:30

Company expects millions of users to get Chrome OS on day one..

      According to the news, Google had announced that Chrome OS would be released soon in these coming September.

      Google's vice president of product management, Sundar Pichai said, "We are working on bringing the device later this fall." So now, we have a fixed time frame when Chrome OS will finally be made available on notebooks and desktops. It was in July 2009 that Google had announced Linux kernel based Chrome OS for desktops and notebooks. This open source operating system is based on Google's Chrome browser and is designed to work seamlessly with web applications.

      Pichai added, "It's something which we are very excited by ... We expect it to reach millions of users on day one." Untill we come across and use a Chrome OS based device, we cannot say whether Google will beat Microsoft or not. Google Chrome OS would be available on notebooks and desktops from partners like Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo.

-techtree.com

Beware of Dubious Facebook Page.

2010-05-30T18:04:00.007+05:30

      Whenever it comes to security issues related to the Internet, the first thing that comes in a mind is an social networking site such as Facebook.
      After the couple of attacks like video link attacks which was recorded in last week, a new type of spam that hits the website again.
      Trendlabs Researchers have alerted Facebook users about the Dubious Facebook page that uses the javascript code to spam everyone in an user's friends list.

      The Page called as "10 lies girls ALWAYS tell guys! funny!" is a classic example of how Facebook pages can use JavaScript to spam users who are curious enough to hit the "Click here" button to view its contents.
      However, in order find this out, one must follow the instructions displayed. It asks users to hit Ctrl + C to copy the JavaScript and Alt + D to select the address bar. The succeeding steps from the prompt then run the JavaScript.

If one goes through the code that users are prompted to enter into the address bar step by step, it appears that it is meant to keep the specified page element hidden. It also overwrites the contents of a separate specified page element with that of another page element.
      The code also creates a simulated mouse click on the "suggest" element of the page. The code toward the end sets five-second timers that click items found in the suggestion box, which selects all of the user's Facebook contacts and suggests the application to them. It then creates a simulated mouse click on the "like me" element of the page.

      While this code does not pose any other immediate threat from the spamming the Facebook walls and requests. So, be careful while using Social networking sites..

-techtree.com

The New Window Phone Concept.

2010-05-30T10:44:00.005+05:30

This new Window Phone is the concept mobile phone, which is able to transform its appearance like a window as per the weather.

The phone is designed as a thin, clear and transparent plastic sheet, which remains clear during a sunny day, becomes humid during a rainy day and takes a dump outlook during a snowy day.

Some More Snapshot:

For, Call Mode....

For, Snowy Day...

For, A Rainy Day..

Hope it Come as soon as possible...

Phishing Attacks: Update Gmail Account.

2010-05-13T19:50:00.005+05:30

      According to the news recently Gmail users received an notice from the Gmail team to update their account details for the security reasons. This particular legal notice from Gmail requested the users to update their account name, password, occupation, birth date and country of residence etc..

      It also includes the warning that the users which are unable to update the above details within next 7 Days then they would loose there Gmail account permanently.

      The Mail also includes that "Gmail Team is working on total security on all accounts in order to make Gmail better as ever and as a result of this security upgrade we require all Gmail members to verify their account with Google. To prevent your account from disability you will have to update your account by clicking the reply button and filling the space below."

      These phishing activity has been rise since from December, also its biggest target is Banking Sites but now its followed by free email services such as Gmail, Yahoo etc.. & with Social Networking Sites such as Orkut, Facebook etc..

      While discussing the issue one of the staff from Google said that, we always advise our users to be wary of any message that asks for your personal information, or messages that refer you to a web page asking for personal information. Google or Gmail does not send unsolicited mass messages asking for passwords or personal information; even if the message asking for it claims to be from us, please don't believe it.

      So please be sure & careful for clicking such links & updating such details. We do know that it is an hard job to identify between the fake & original notices. But still we should be well enough to handle these attack from now.

-Siliconindia.com

Images can be Dragged & Dropped in Emails, Buzz

2010-05-12T16:55:00.006+05:30

      Google now lets you to add images directly to your emails & Buzz in Gmail by simply drag & drop function. These feature makes easy to add images in your mails instead of adding it using attachments.

      These helps you to determine whether you have pasted the correct images. Unfortunately these feature is enabled & works only with the latest Google Chrome.

      Also, recently Google had introduced a feature of drag & drop attachments in last month. Now extending that feature a bit more, which makes user to add the images directly to their messages.

      The best part is you don't have to enable any labs feature or settings. Just remember to use Google Chrome's Latest build.

A preview is shown below:

      Hope you all enjoy these new feature of Gmail...

Now Drag & Drop Attachments in Gmail.

2010-04-19T19:34:00.012+05:30

Google had recently an new feature to add the attachments for your mails.
These feature saves time for attaching multiple files. These feature allow to you to drag & drop multiple files from your local computer into the attachments in Gmail.

Following is the procedure to attach the file(s) in an new mail.

1) Open an new compose mail box & open the folder which contains the file you wish to attach in a mail as shown below:

2) Now select the File(s) from the folder & drag the files from folder to drop into the attachments as shown in below :

3) These add you file(s) as an attachment to your new mail as shown below:

Note: Currently, this feature works only in latest builds of Firefox 3.6 and Google Chrome.

This new attachment adding feature will surely make your life easy but still you've to ensure that you select the correct files. Google promised to bring this support for other browsers soon.

Hold Friend's Hand over Internet using Robotic Hand.

2010-04-17T21:10:00.003+05:30

      According to the latest news update it is possible now to hold the hands of your family & friends over internet with the help of specially designed robotic hands which experiences you the sensation of touch.

      It simply plugs into the computer & communicates with an electronic wristband to experience the sensation touch while shaking hand with your friends & family.

      Its not only shake & grip, but also able to give the signs of OK & Peace. These tool is developed by scientists at the Chinese university of Hong Kong .

      It works by using the electrical impulses generated by muscles as they contract. The signals are picked up by a sensor which sends signals to the computer that uses software to turn it into muscle movements.

      The information is transmitted over the internet to the receiving computer, where the signals are translated into instructions for the robotic hand that carries out the same hand movement, the media report said.

      The intention behind the research team had been to develop something which could help the elderly keep in touch with their families.

      "Although they can show their care through phone calls, physical touch is still a better way to express love. With the system, elderly people and their children and grandchildren can touch and hold hands via the internet and show affection directly."

- Siliconindia.com

Google Suggest is now for Mobile.

2010-04-14T19:17:00.008+05:30

      Search giant Google had started the Google search suggestion even now in mobile searches. These Google suggest is same as you find on your desktops while searching using Google. It simply suggest you answers related to your search query by itself.

      The same scheme now Google had implemented for the mobile phones as well. The interesting thing about these scheme is that it comes with Google's universal Search feature.

      As of now these scheme for mobile is available only in U.S and that to it works with Android devices, Palm WebOS phones, and Apple's iPhone and iPod. If you want to try out these feature then log on to the site http://google.com from your handset's and do take a look how these technology work's.

      Here, above is the snap shot of the Google's suggest in mobile..

Quick Preview your Mails in Gmail Inbox.

2010-04-13T21:38:00.008+05:30

      Gmail had added an new service to enhance its service. A new Message sneak Feature which gives you an snapshot of the mail without opening them. These snapshot is shown when u simply right click on desired mail in gmail inbox. But to achieve these feature you have to enable it from the google labs that is available in the settings option.

      With the help of this feature you would able to just preview your mail instead of opening it which makes easier to review your lots of mails. To enable these feature just go to the settings in your gmail inbox than enable "Message Sneak Peek" from the labs tab.

      These enhancement shows you a card which can be close by simply clicking on the x mark.

Gmail also added other features too such as:

Nested Labels: These feature gives you an freedom of having an parent & child relationship between the labels. These feature enhancement for your gmail inbox can too enable it from the same settings option than in labs you will find these named as Nested Labels. After that, if you want to create a new sub-label, you'll have to add the sub-label name after the main label name. The general snapshot is shown below.

Enjoy using gmail Services..

Facebook Beats Google as Most Visited Site in US.

2010-03-19T21:45:00.010+05:30

      According to the news at independent.co.uk in 2010, the world's largest social networking website had managed to do that other web sites had never done before. It actually managed to beat the search giant Google by becoming the most visited site in US last week. Even though, the Facebook is achieved who had its history in WWW started as recently as in year 2005.

      Facebook is on a steady rise and it is the most popular web site in US during festive seasons too. Also, these is the first time that Facebook manages to attract more users than Google. The rate at which the Facebook grows is an 185 % per year which is way above the Google measures 9%.

      Besides this the measures are calculate only for the domain Google.com so if considering other Google services like Youtube, Gmail etc.. makes Google an bigger competitor. But then Facebook doesn't compete with Google on those fronts. Google already has a couple of entities in the social networking space - most notably Orkut, which is dominant in Brazil and India and is little known elsewhere globally. It also made a recent splash with Google Buzz.

      Facebook Claims that it has over 400 million users signed up and these is steady increasing daily. Recently it opened the office in Hyderabad, India to topple Orkut's dominance as the de-facto social network in the country.

Watch Live IPL Matches now on your Mobile.

2010-03-09T19:54:00.008+05:30

      The IPL is going to be started very soon from Friday, 12^th March, 2010. Due to these YouTube had started the live telecast of the IPL matches & they launched an separate URL site: http://www.youtube.com/ipl.

      Recently, a Company named as Global Cricket Ventures (GCV) had tied up with the IPL & its Licensing partners to launch IPL Mobile Internet Service.

      These Service will be use to watch video clips of IPL matches on their mobile screen. Also these clips will be played back in real time on a user's phones after having the service activated. So, now here is the procedure how to subscribe for such a great service of GCV.

      The Activation is done by calling the MiX(Mobile Internet Experience) Platform toll-free No. 08 123 123 123 or by accessing the WAP Site: http://m.iplt20.com. During the Television broadcast of the IPL, the Phone No. 08 123 123 123 will be displayed on the TV screens.

      Once you registered for the service, an SMS with a link to the real time video clips will be sent to your mobile. This link can be used to watch all the matches on the move..

So, Enjoy the Season of IPL..... Jai Hind...

Kingston Release 256GB Pen Drive.

2010-03-09T06:15:00.003+05:30

Kingston had introduced a New USB Flash Drive with Capacity of 256GB it is known as 256 DT310 USB Flash Drive. These Flash Drive is available for India for Rs. 48,380 & warranty of 5 Years.

Features of Kingston DataTraveler 310's :

Its read speed is of 25MB/s & write speed is about 12MB/s.
Dimensions are - 2.90-inch x 0.87-inch x 0.63-inch (73.70mm x 22.20mm x 16.10mm).
It also features Password Traveler Software to create & access a password protected privacy policy.
It is Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux etc.. However, its Password Traveler Software is compatible only with Windows.
It also supports Windows ReadyBoost feature.

Due to its excellent features these DT310 can be used in Windows Vista or Windows 7 aa for disk cache or can be used as additional memory.

It is meant for the people who wants to carry large amount of data on a tiny device..

Google Buzz hit by Spams.

2010-02-13T21:17:00.003+05:30

      Its hardly been some time since the launch of Google Buzz, and the first spam using this new service has already been launched, according to a report by Websense, a company dealing with security solutions.

      The spammer which contains a message about smoking, is already following 237 people. This particular message leads to a site hosted on a free Web hosting service talking about how to quit smoking.

      When Twitter was launched, it took a while before it was used to send spam and other malicious messages. In this case, it only took two days. In such a situation, it can only be hoped that Google is geared up for dealing with the volume of spam it's bound to see on the new service.

Google Plans Superfast Internet.

2010-02-11T20:49:00.004+05:30

      Google plans to build a fibre optic broadband network that will connect customers to the internet at speeds 100 times faster than most existing broadband connections in the US, the company announced on its corporate blog.

      "Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make internet access better and faster for everyone," two Google product managers, Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly, wrote in the blog post Wednesday.

      They said that Google plans to build and test the network in trial communities around the country starting later this year and that the tests could encompass as many as 500,000 people. They cited 3-dimensional medical imaging and quick, high-definition film downloads among the applications of such high-speed internet access.

      "We'll deliver internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fibre-to-the-home connections," the post said. "We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people."

      "We're doing this because we want to make the web better and faster to everyone," said Kelly, who also promised that the network would operate on open access network, in which users could choose various internet providers and which would not give preference to any one kind of content. Kelly appealed to local officials who were interested in having their community participate in the trial to contact the internet giant.

      While broadband industry incumbents may fear the entry by Google, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski welcomed the move, the Washington Post reported.

      "Big broadband creates big opportunities," he said in a statement. "This significant trial will provide an American testbed for the next generation of innovative, high-speed internet apps, devices and services."

Gmail now allow status updates like Twitter.

2010-02-11T20:22:00.006+05:30

      Google has finally launched its new social product, Buzz, at an event held at its Mountain View, CA headquarters. Google Buzz is an easy way to start conversations, share updates, photos, videos, add comments and much more - right from a Gmail account. The updates, which are often termed as 'Buzz', are available in real-time to the users right in their Gmail Inbox.

      Head to http://buzz.google.com and check if it is being made available to you from your PC or iPhone/Android browser. Yes, Google Buzz has also been rolled out for iPhone and Android platform, leaving the rest mobile platforms behind for the time being. Buzz is free from any sign-up or setup hassles.

      Google Buzz is being heavily compared with Facebook acquired FriendFeed service that allows posting, sharing and viewing photos, videos and commenting within the stream of updates. If you can recollect, two years back, Yahoo had introduced a service named - Buzz, which is mostly a social news service that collates user-select content from the web and ranks it on basis of popularity.

Some Key features of Google Buzz:

Gmail Inbox Integration:
It will take place without pushing update emails to Inbox mail as the updates will be dynamically updated in real-time to form threaded Buzz conversations.

Automatic Friends Lists:
Based on the contacts you frequently mail and chat with, Buzz will automatically make names appear in your Buzz stream. Buzz will also give you a list of "Recommended Buzz" users that will based on 'friend-of-friend' content sharing into your stream - even if those folks aren't acquainted to the user.

Richer, Faster Sharing Experience:
In Buzz, Google focuses on one of the most crucial aspects in social arena today - real-time sharing and updates. Buzz allows importing feeds from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr and Google Reader to stay updated with the contacts on those services. Photos from Flickr and Picasa would appear as thumbnail and clicking on thumbnail will give an overlay interface based full view of the image.

Public and Private Sharing:
An option of public and private sharing of updates is offered. So, one has a choice to make update publicly viewable or only for private network of friends and family. Public updates to Google Profiles of the user and the contacts who follow them.

Buzz on the Mobile:
Google has brought Buzz for mobile in two ways - as a web app and as a layer for Google Maps for mobile. It is currently available for iPhone OS and Android OS based cellphone owners.

PayPal had Blocked India for Payments.

2010-02-11T20:04:00.005+05:30

      Popular online payment service PayPal shocked several Indians and rest of the world by suspending payment transactions to and from India for more than a week. Anuj Nayar, spokesman from communications team for PayPal, posted on the official PayPal blog, that personal payments to and from India and the transfers to local banks in India have been suspended.

      This directly impacts several freelancers from various fields and businesses that depend on PayPal as a transaction gateway. Though temporarily, PayPal has given a mini cardiac arrest to several India-based PayPal users by shunning payment transactions to and from India.

      Apart from that, these users can't even transfer their funds to local Indian banks to withdraw their balance.Nayar's post indicates that the situation is temporary and the issue is to address the questions about the service that PayPal's business partners and other stakeholders have.

Google Transliteration for Indian Languages.

2010-01-30T08:29:00.002+05:30

      Google has launched software that will allow users to type words in phonetically in any of the 14 languages like Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, using an English keyboard. The software called Google Transliteration IME (Input Method Editor) is a desktop application which can be accessed even when offline, according to Alootechie.

      Google Transliteration service has already been available on the web in Gmail, Orkut, Blogger. "The IME transliteration technology is an innovation from Google India that furthers our corporate mission of making the world's information universally assessable and useful. We have extended this to several other international languages as well as we believe there is a huge global opportunity for this technology," Rahul Roy Chowdhury, Senior Product Manager, Google India, has said.

      The application was conceived and developed in India at Google's Bangalore R&D Centre.

-By siliconindia news bureau

Fake Google and YouTube site emerge in China

2010-01-30T08:11:00.005+05:30

      As Google is contemplating whether to leave China or not after recent cyber attack, fake Google and YouTube websites are popping up in the country. YouTubecn.com offers videos from the real YouTube, which is owned by Google and blocked in China. The Google imitation is called Goojje and includes a plea for the U.S.-based company not to leave China, after it threatened this month to do so in a dispute over Web censorship and cyber attacks, according to Hindu.

      So far the Chinese authorities have not pulled the site down. China's National Copyright Administration has been cracking down on illegally run Web sites and this month issued a code of ethics, but no statement was posted on its site on Thursday about the new imitations.

      Google had little to comment. "The only comment I can give you right now is just to confirm that we're not affiliated," spokeswoman Jessica Powell said in an e-mail.

      "I did this as a public service," the Founder of the YouTube knockoff, Li Senhe, told The Christian Science Monitor in an instant message conversation.

      Goojje, is a search engine that looks like a combination of Google and its top China competitor, Baidu. "Exactly speaking, Goojje is not a search engine but a platform for finding friends," one of the Founders, Xiao Xuan, told the Henan Business Daily on Wednesday.

-By siliconindia news bureau

Now Edit Word & Excel Files using Office2.

2010-01-28T20:29:00.003+05:30

      Bye Squared has launched Office2, an office application for iPhone and iPod. This application will allow users to edits their Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in .doc and .xls formats, reports David Dahlquist of Macworld.com.

      Apart from that Office2 also provides integration with Google Docs, letting users to edit Google Docs documents and spreadsheets from within the app. Users can access, move, and delete documents stored in Google Docs, iDisk and any WebDAV server. With the help of Office2 word processor, users can view, create, edit and save documents in Word 97-2003 (.doc) format. It will also support character formatting, tables, images, searching of text within documents, undo and redo up to 100 undo levels, and auto-correction and auto-completion.

      The application also works with Excel 97-2003 (.xls) and handle multiple worksheets with unlimited rows and columns, searching and sorting of cells, cell formatting, cell types, and pane freezing among other spreadsheet necessities. Office2 uses the iPhone's touch screen effectively, letting you tap and drag to change row heights and column widths, and tap cells to compose formulas.

- Siliconindia.com

Google launches its first mobile: Nexus One.

2010-01-06T20:42:00.004+05:30

      Internet search giant Google has unveiled its first mobile phone and increased the pressure on Apple's iPhone in a mobile market that many analysts predict will come to dominate the internet in the coming years.

      Nexus One beats iPhone in many criterias such has camera and pricing. In terms of pricing plans in the U.S for unlimited usage, Apple's iPhone cost $3,780 over 24 months as compared to Google's Nexus one $2,580, almost 50 percent more, according to Tech Crunch.

      Google said it would sell the phone from its website for $530 and will ship the phones to the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. Customers can also buy a subsidized device together with two-year service plans for $180, from the top U.S. carrier Verizon, as well as fourth-placed carrier T Mobile.

Technical specifications of this phone.

The phone has 3.7" AMOLED 480x800 WVGA display and weighs 130g.
Camera is quite impressive with 5 megapixel auto focus with flash and geo tagging.
It has a 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM memory and comes with a 4GB removable SD card.
Memory can be extended upto 32 GB.
In terms of audio, it has a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with four contacts for inline voice and remote control.

It also has the typical Android features like Google Maps Navigation, Email, Phone book, Android Market and Quick Contacts. The phone also has a voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields. User can speak a text message, instant message, tweet, Facebook update, or complete an email. User can also record Hi-Res MPEG4 video, and then upload to YouTube with one click.

"The Nexus One represents the unique combination of design and innovation two companies like Google and HTC can have when they collaborate," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. "The Nexus One continues HTC's strategy of offering people a portfolio of phones that meet their diverse needs."

- By siliconindia news bureau

Microsoft Announces Prices for MS-Office 2010.

2010-01-06T20:27:00.004+05:30

Microsoft has announced that it will charge between $99 and $499 for four retail versions of its Office 2010 software, which will be released later this year. The prices are quite affordable as compared to the successful product lines of Office 2007 programs, reports Reuters.

The four retail version of the product will include a $99 academic version, a $149 basic version for consumers and a $499 full-featured package for businesses.

Firefox Browser for Mobile...

2009-12-22T18:18:00.004+05:30

      Mozilla has claimed that the Firefox mobile will put an end to app stores like the iPhone's App Store or BlackBerry App World. As the smartphone web browsers will share much of the desktop Firefox's engine and render both complex HTML and JavaScript, the Mozilla mobile Vice President Jay Sullivan anticipates many developers opting to write web apps instead of producing native code.

      "As developers get more frustrated with quality assurance, the amount of handsets they have to buy, whether their security updates will get past the iPhone approval process. I think they'll move to the web," Sullivan explains. Firefox Mobile is being developed for virtually every smartphone platform that embraces a comparatively unrestricted app environment, including Android, Nokia's Maemo, Symbian and Windows Mobile. It's currently only in beta stage for Maemo phones like the N900 but will be entirely unavailable on platforms like the iPhone, where Apple's submission rules ban most code interpreters and thus third-party web browsers.

      Web apps may still face a difficult road ahead based on user reactions. As a consolation to iPhone developers, Apple in 2007 tried promoting web apps as an alternative to the then-absent support for third-party native software. Most still objected, and whether due to this or other factors Apple launched its App Store a year after the iPhone became available.

- By siliconindia news bureau.

Google URL Shortener..

2009-12-17T22:39:00.004+05:30

Google URL Shortener at goo.gl( http://goo.gl/ ) is a service that takes long URLs and squeezes them into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends. The core goals of this service are:

Stability – ensuring that the service has very good uptime.

Security – protecting users from malware and phishing pages.

Speed – fast resolution of short URLs.

Google URL Shortener is currently available for Google products and not for broader consumer use.

4G Mobile Debuts in Sweden.

2009-12-16T21:40:00.003+05:30

      While we, in India, haven't even started dabbling with 3G, half a world away in Sweden, the country s leading Telecom operator TeliaSonera has announced the launch of its commercial LTE services.

      LTE is a fourth generation mobile technology that offers blazing fast Internet access to wireless devices. In fact, with LTE, users get insane data speeds of up to 100Mbits/second. That s about 10 times faster than existing 3G services.

      The service is currently available in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, Oslo, the Nordic capital, and will expand to over 25 cities over the course of 2010. The service is targeted at users who use data intensive applications like live video streaming, video conferencing and online gaming. Now that the service has been launched, initial costumers will have to face the trouble of making their devices compatible with LTE, which is currently poorly supported in terms of hardware availability.

      TeliaSonera will provide special 4G modems to the users in order to use their devices whilst they are under 4G coverage. Looks like its time manufacturers start making 4G enabled mobile phones. Currently, the service is accessible only through the aforementioned 4G modem.

Rediff Enables Blogging in 9 Languages..

2009-12-16T21:25:00.002+05:30

      Rediff.com India had announced that Rediff Blogs will replace their earlier blogging platform Rediffland. Rediff Blogs has social media elements enabling bloggers on the site to quickly get noticed.

      Hot topics under discussion at any given point of the day can be found in the 'What's the buzz' section of the service.

      Rediff Blogs supports nine major Indian languages including Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Malayalam.

      Users can upload photos and videos to their blogs. The service also enables users to adopt themes powered by WordPress and widgets like Category/Tag cloud to choose from.

Mozilla drops Google as default search engine, picks Bing

2009-12-12T21:28:00.003+05:30

      Bangalore: Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's Director of community development, has suggested Firefox users to add Microsoft's Bing to the list of the browser's search engines after Google's CEO downplayed consumers' privacy concerns.

      Citing a clip from a CNBC broadcast last Friday, during which Google chief executive Eric Schmidt discussed online privacy, Dotzler provided a link to the Firefox extension that adds Bing to Firefox's search engine list. "Here's how you can easily switch Firefox's search from Google to Bing," said Dotzler in an entry on his personal blog today. The link he included leads to the Bing search add-on, according to ComputerWorld.

      During the interview, Schmidt was asked: "People are treating Google like their most trusted friend...should they be?" It was Schmidt's answer that motivated Dotzler to show users how to drop Google, Firefox's default search engine, for rival Bing. "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," Schmidt told CNBC. "If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities," added Schmidt.

      Dotzler fumed over Schmidt's comments on privacy. "That was Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, telling you exactly what he thinks about your privacy," said Dotzler on his blog. "There is no ambiguity, no 'out of context' here." Dotzler added that he considers Bing's privacy policy better than Google's.

      Dotzler is a 10-year-veteran of Mozilla. What made Dotzler's touting of Bing interesting is that Mozilla, which has a multi-year deal with Google that ends in 2011, derives the vast bulk of its revenue from the arrangement, which sets Google's search as the default in the browser and shunts some revenues from ads that Firefox users click on to Mozilla.

      According to Mozilla's most-recently-released financial statement, 97 percent of its revenues came from deals it has with Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and others. The lion's share of its search engine-based income, however, originated from Google.

- By siliconindia news bureau

Google Launched Real Time Search Results.

2009-12-11T21:11:00.003+05:30

      Google had Launched real time search results on 8th December, 2009. Its results will include items from recently updated such as blogs, news and tweets etc.. To accomplish these google had made some changes in its search engine by officially adding support to real time search results. These idea comes from the sites like Twitter and facebook that are added and updates with the seconds.

      The service will be introduced gradually to all Google users and over the next few days, you will be able to see "new" updates that have been posted seconds ago, in Google Search results. The search results will include items from recently updated blogs, news articles and of course tweets and status updates. This is a step up from Google's earlier option where news and articles from only "a few minutes" ago only appeared in search results by default. The new option will work in a way that is similar to Twitter's existing search feature - albeit on a larger and broader scale. Twitter and Facebook, both have confirmed that they have signed a deal with Google to make real time results a reality. Earlier, Twitter had also struck a separate deal with Microsoft to make live updates available in the Bing search engine.

      The power of real time search results was observed in emergency situations like the Mumbai Terror attacks last year and during the Obama elections. Real time search results will prove useful during situations when people need updated information constantly, and aggregate them from various sources.

New Contest from Google to Generate "Hindi Content"

2009-12-11T20:54:00.003+05:30

      Google has announced the 'Hai Baaton Main Dum?' contest to reinforce its commitment to make the Internet more relevant and useful to India. The aim of the contest will be to spur the creation of high-quality Hindi content on the web using the Google Indic Transliteration tool. The contest is open to anyone who is more than 13 years of age and has a passion to write and provides a platform to the participants to get their content published on the Internet.

      Interested participants can visit http://google.co.in/meribaat (Contest Site) to see all the details of the contest. All other interested users can vote for their favorite entry on http://google.co.in/meribaat. These votes would be considered by the judges, during the final round of judging. The winner will be announced on February 28, 2010 and will be judged on the following criteria: originality, quality and users' interest, adds Google.

      The participants can select from one of five categories and write a short essay on the selected topic. They will have to upload their entries on http://google.co.in/meribaat. The website is open for entries up to January 31, 2010.

      The five categories for the submission of entries are:

Entertainment, culture and literature: Write about your favorite movie, film star, book or festival.
Travel: What is your favorite travel destination? Why?
Sports: Write about your favorite sport or sports personality.
Health: Share your tips for healthy living
Social, economic and political issues: What is the most pressing issue facing the nation? And what is the solution?

The winners in each of the 5 categories will receive a laptop; the best entry in each category submitted by a 9th to 12th standard student will receive a gift voucher worth Rs. 5,000 from an online bookstore. The top 50 shortlisted entries will receive Internet subscription for six months and the next 250 entries have a chance to receive surprise Google goodies.

Indian 3,286 Websites Hacked in Five Months.

2009-12-08T07:11:00.002+05:30

      As many as 3,286 websites were attacked in India between January and June 2009, most of them of various government organizations. According to the CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) of the Department of Information Technology, there has been an increase in the attacks on government websites from January 2005 to February 2008.

      "We are aware of the attacks on National Informatics Centre, the IT mainstay of the Indian Government, which was attacked by GhostNet, allegedly by a China based cyber spy ring. In 2008 alone cyber attackers defaced over 4,000 Indian portals out of which 100 were Indian government Sites," said Sridhar Jayanthi, Senior Vice President (Engineering) and Head of Operations - India, McAfee to Indian Express.

      The website easternrailway.gov.in was also hacked recently. "We have also seen hackers turning an Indian Bank website into a malware distributing source recently," he added.

      The attacks have come under the scanner in view of the Virtual Criminology report published by McAfee. "As an initial step the government has set up a National Security Council to prevent cyber attacks," explained Jayanthi. It is the private sectors, experts say, that are more at risk of an attack. "Private sectors in India too need to build a strong defense mechanism as today a majority of their infrastructure is connected to the Internet," he said.

-By siliconindia news bureau.

Yahoo links up with Facebook

2009-12-08T07:00:00.002+05:30

      Yahoo has announced that it will allow its users of email, photo-sharing and other online products to link their content and activities directly into Facebook. This 'Facebook Connect service' will start in the first half of 2010 and it represents an important move in Yahoo's efforts to tap the popularity of social networking and underscores the growing clout of Facebook, which now counts more than 350 million worldwide users, according to the New York Times.

      Earlier this year, Yahoo allowed users to preview messages from their Facebook friends directly on the Yahoo homepage, as part of a broad revamping of the Yahoo front page. This latest announcement takes the integration between Yahoo and Facebook a step further, by automatically pushing activities performed on Yahoo sites, such as photos shared on Yahoo's Flickr, into the Facebook news feed. Yahoo said it expects that the content that consumers share on Facebook will drive visitors back to Yahoo.

      Facebook Connect, which was introduced last year, provides a universal ID that lets people automatically log on to participating sites with their Facebook credentials. It also allows people to notify their Facebook friends about their activities on third-party Web sites.

      Yahoo's move comes as the company seeks to revive its growth under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz, who took the reins in January and announced a controversial deal to hand off the operation of its Internet search technology to Microsoft in July.

- By siliconindia news bureau.

Bing Map Beta: Microsoft's answer to Google Maps

2009-12-08T06:41:00.003+05:30

      Bangalore: Microsoft has launched the Bing Maps Beta, which offers users a slew of minor upgrades that include enhanced street viewing and multiple application overlays, designed to go toe-to-toe with its biggest search competitor, Google.

      Bing Maps Beta is similar to Google Maps, but distinguishes itself with a few innovative tweaks. For one, there's Bing's Streetside, paralleling Google's Street View feature, which allows users to take a virtual walk through any city street with a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding buildings and landmarks, reports ChannelWorld.

      Both Bing's and Google's applications are almost identical. But those taking a stroll via Bing Streetside will have the ability to move with a special 'light speed' feature that blurs the passing scenery, as well as zoom in and out on specific locations. Users will also have access to vector information drawn into the images illustrating street direction and street names hovering above the streets.

      Specifically, Bing relies on Microsoft's Photosynth technology, an application that integrates numerous photos into a 3-D montage that gives users the sense that they're walking into their images. Bing users can then rotate the comprehensive image to view details from various three dimensional vantages.
      Bing's Streetside is coupled with its new Enhanced Bird's Eye feature, which gives the user an aerial view of the chosen location. Enhanced Bird's Eye is automatically adjusted based on whether the user is viewing an urban landscape or a rural one.

      Bing also comes with a new Applications Gallery, a catalogue designed to streamline searches and bookmark favorite applications built within Bing Maps. Users can peruse applications or local content sources associated with cities and a few specific neighborhoods on Bing Maps, or search map-based news articles.

      Additionally, the Application Gallery provides the user with a series of map overlays, allowing them to perform multiple searches by adding different content layers to the map at once, including tweets, local blogs, business listings and Photosynth, enabling users to add various applications to their maps at their discretion.

      One drawback, however, is that Bing Streetside doesn't appear to be nearly as comprehensive as Google Streetview. Moreover, in order to take advantage of Bing's new features, users will be required to install Microsoft Silverlight 3.

- By siliconindia news bureau

Twitter for Mobile Interface..

2009-12-08T06:28:00.004+05:30

      Micro-blogging service Twitter has introduced a new mobile interface for its site. Optimized for Android, iPhone, WebOS and Nokia S60 browsers, the new interface carries the 'look and feel' of Twitter website. The standard m.twitter.com will continue to function as is and for the Android OS, iPhone, WebOS and select S60 handset owners can head to http://mobile.twitter.com. The interface will work on BlackBerry browsers but certain features won't be work well since the interface isn't tweaked for it.

      Twitter's new mobile interface gives Twitter web-like experience offering almost all features to the mobile interface. This new Twitter Mobile interface will eventually take over the existing m.twitter.com experience and said to work well on webkit based mobile web browsers.

      New Twitter Mobile interface offers Reply, Retweet and Favorite buttons at the end of the updates in timeline. Also, you get to see Home, Mentions, Favs (Favorite), and Msgs (Direct Messsages). The user gets to see his/her count of updates, followers and also popular trending topics just below Search box located at the bottom of the page. One can turn off images with the option at the end in order to have faster reload times and also save some data packets.      Instead of Previous and Forward option like in m.twitter.com, the new Twitter Mobile interface has More button just like the Twitter web. New Update box shows character count which worked for us only on iPhone OS based iPhone-iPod Touch.

      This new mobile interface will surely lure more Twitter users to stay logged in from mobile while they're on the go. However, the rest can continue using m.twitter.com from their mobile browsers.

Set Your Own Default Text in Gmail.

2009-12-04T09:24:00.006+05:30

      Gmail Labs introduces new feature Default Text Style which makes you to set the default text styles while composing your mail. Also it makes now to make your friends to identify your mail easily just by knowing your default text.

      Just like other Gmail labs options these feature also allows you to set your own default font size, style & color. Since these option is off by default you have to enable it by clicking on Gmail settings link then choose Labs & you will then find the Default Text Style feature in it as shown in below picture.

      As now if your done with the enabling of these feature now your are able to set your own text style to compose your mail. But to accomplish these you have to set your own text style by head over to the 'General' tab on the 'Settings' page, and change the default text styling to better suit your preferences as shown in the below picture.

      Now, just start setting your own text style & enjoy mailing...

Gmail, Facebook accessible on cable TV!

2009-11-27T21:29:00.002+05:30

      Good news for those who use cable television services. You can now check your mail, watch YouTube videos or connect with friends on Facebook at the regular cable subscription charge of Rs. 150-200 per month.

      Logic Eastern, a Noida-based manufacturer of cable infrastructure, has developed special set-top boxes which come with an in-built patented hardware that enables connection to Gmail, Facebook and YouTube. The company has made possible two-way flow of data - from websites to cable operators to consumers and return by using the existing cellphone technology.

      The company has installed large servers which download Gmail, YouTube and Facebook pages on behalf of its subscribers and pushes them on to their television screens. For now, consumers can access this service with a special remote control. However the company is developing a wi-fi keyboard that will be given along with the set-top boxes. Also, apart from the remote control, consumers can use their mobile phones to surf channels or access these websites.

      Logic Eastern has already deployed 60,000 such set-top boxes across South Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and Jammu. The company has roped in ICICI as an investor. It has bought a 20 percent stake, which is helping Logic Eastern monetise these services that even existing Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) companies and the Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators have not been able to achieve.

      "It will be critical for cable operators to differentiate their services by leveraging the massive bandwidth that their cables take to each home. This is something that even DTH cannot do," says Vineet Wadhwa, Chief Technology Officer and Promoter of Logic Eastern. Instead of value-added services, the company prefers to call them 'enhanced services.' But how safe is accessing your email via cable? It is as safe as logging on to the internet on your home computer or laptop, says Wadhwa.

- By siliconindia news bureau

Portable CD/DVD Writer by Transcend...

2009-11-27T21:01:00.001+05:30

      Transcend has introduced its first portable CD/DVD writer for laptops and netbooks. The new 8X slim portable CD/DVD writer features an ultra-thin, sleek design, making it easy to carry around. No external power adapter is needed, as the CD/DVD writer is entirely USB powered.

      The CD/DVD writer comes bundled with a full-featured copy of the media writing software CyberLink Power2Go, and also includes a bonus 30-day trial version of CyberLink's MediaShow. With these software tools, users can not only burn music, data, video, bootable discs in a variety of CD and DVD formats, including CD-R/RW, DVD" R, DVD" RW, DVD" R DL, and DVD-RAM, but also compile, arrange, and produce media files with a simple software interface.

      Users planning to upgrade to Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows7 need not worry as Transcend's all-new CD/DVD writer will work with both current and future systems. It comes with up to 8X DVD and 24X CD write speeds, plus support for the latest dual layer recordable DVD media formats.

      This CD/ DVD Writer comes with a two-year warranty and will cost Rs. 4,300.

New SSL attack can steal data from secure sites.

2009-11-26T21:20:00.002+05:30

      Bangalore: A Seattle based computer security consultant says he has developed a new way to exploit a recently disclosed bug in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, used to secure communications on the internet. The attack, while difficult to execute, could help attackers to inflict very powerful phishing attacks.

      Frank Heidt, Chief Executive of security engineering consultancy Leviathan Security Group, says his "generic" proof-of-concept code could be used to attack a variety of websites. While the attack is extremely difficult to pull off - the hacker would first have to first pull off a man-in-the-middle attack, running code that compromises the victim's network - it could have devastating consequences, reports InfoWorld.

      The attack exploits the SSL Authentication Gap bug, first disclosed on November 5. One of the SSL bug's discoverers, Marsh Ray at two-factor authentication provider PhoneFactor, says he has seen a demonstration of Heidt's attack, and he is convinced it could work. "He did show it to me and it's the real deal," Ray said.

      The SSL Authentication flaw gives the attacker a way to change data being sent to the SSL server, but there's still no way to read the information coming back. Heidt sends data that causes the SSL server to return a redirect message that then sends the web browser to another page. He then uses that redirect message to move the victim to an insecure connection where the web pages can be rewritten by Heidt's computer before they are sent to the victim. "Heidt has shown a way to leverage this blind plain text injection attack into a complete compromise of the connection between the browser and the secure site," Ray said.

      A consortium of internet firms has been working to fix the flaw since the PhoneFactor developers first uncovered it several months ago. Their work gained new urgency when the bug was inadvertently disclosed on a discussion list. Security experts have been debating the severity of this latest SSL flaw since it became public knowledge.

- By siliconindia news bureau

Google now will track your TV Viewing Habits..

2009-11-26T21:01:00.003+05:30

      Bangalore: Google and TiVo know that you accidentally watch a few ads while fast-forwarding through the commercial breaks of your recorded programs, and they'd like a little more data to back that up. So now Google is planning to add TiVo 'television viewing data' to its existing Google TV ads program.

      Google TV ads is the company's attempt to re-create its 'AdWords and AdSense' model on the small screen through a partnership with Dish Network, and it wants to use TiVo data to help its advertising clients measure how and when their ads are viewed, reports CNET News.

      DVRs like TiVo are not the favorite tech product of the television advertising business, as they allow viewers to watch shows whenever they like and skip the commercials. But most DVR owners (except for a few masters of the remote control) catch glimpses of ads as they whiz by, or overshoot the end of the commercial period and hit the 30 second rewind button, exposing them to the last ad shown before the program resumes.

      That kind of viewing shouldn't count as a full ad impression, since the advertiser knows that the viewer didn't watch the full ad, but Google seems to feel that it can't be completely ignored, either. It plans to use 'anonymous second-by-second DVR viewing data' to track how viewers see ads placed through Google TV ads. It also gives Google more access to viewer behavior on sources outside of Dish Network, including cable, satellite, and over-the-air viewers.

      In a somewhat related move, TiVo has also partnered with MillerCoors to expose football fans to Coors Light ads when they are fast-forwarding through recorded NFL games.

- By siliconindia news bureau

New Technique to Stop Computer Viruses..

2009-11-26T20:27:00.004+05:30

      London: When a new virus hits the Internet, there is little that an anti-virus software can do to stop the malware on the very day. But now British engineers have come up with an answer to the problem. Engineers Simon Wiseman and Richard Oak from defence technology company Qinetiq, Worcestershire, have found a way to stop computer viruses in their tracks by intercepting every file that could possibly hide a virus and adding a string of computer code to it that will disable any virus it Contains.

      Their technique mainly targets emailed attachments and adds the extra code to them as they pass through a mailserver. A key feature of the scheme, which they are patenting, is that no knowledge of the virus itself is needed, so it can deal with new, unrecognised 'zero day' viruses as well as older ones, reports New Scientist.

      Many mailservers already block attachments that will run as executable programs - such as PC files with a .exe suffix - in case they are viruses. But virus writers have tricks up their sleeve to get round this. For example, they can disguise files as an innocent Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file to fool unsuspecting users into converting them into an 'executable' program file that will run on their computer.

      Qinetiq aims to prevent this by inserting a line of machine code - the raw code that microprocessor chips understand - into the header area of incoming files.

- By siliconindia news bureau

Microsoft Lanch New Transliteration Software..

2009-11-26T19:16:00.006+05:30

      At the Microsoft India Development Center, the software giant showcased a set of tools that help users enter text of select Indian languages into computers easily and quickly.

      The beta version of the tools will be made available as a free download soon and will initially support six languages - Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. These tools have been engineered by Emerging Markets Labs (EM Labs) of the Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC). The technology can be leveraged to support other syllabic languages other than Indian languages.

      These input tools use free-form transliteration. Users' need to spell words of an Indian language phonetically using English alphabets, which the tools transliterate into the right words in the chosen Indian language. In addition to desktop and web versions, visual keyboards for all supported languages are also available.

      Microsoft said the desktop version is unique among the free-form transliteration offerings in the market today, as it enables the user to enter Indian language text directly into any application running on Microsoft Windows, such as Microsoft Word or Windows Live Messenger. The web version allows the user to enter text on any web page without requiring software download. The visual keyboard enables users, who are not familiar with English alphabets, to visually select and directly enter Indian language characters.

Wikipedia Losing Editors..

2009-11-24T19:37:00.003+05:30

      Wikipedia has been an exceptional success story ever since its inception back in 2001. The website, amongst the world's most visited sites, is seeing a sharp increase in the number of its Editor (English Language) exodus - which according to a recent Wall Street Journal report has reached a staggering 49,000 in the beginning of 2009.

      The report states that this large exodus had increased 10 times as compared with the data for the previous year when only 4,900 Editors left Wikipedia. The problem for Wikipedia now is that the number of people leaving the Editorial post is way more than the rate of new joinees. There is no need to panic, however, considering the fact that Wikipedia still has three million active contributors.

      However, there are people who are concerned about the dip in quality levels, once these well established editors move on. There is no doubt that Wikipedia has managed to keep its quality levels in check - thanks to the efforts of these established editors. It would be difficult for new joinees to match their old counterparts and if that wasn't enough, there isn't actually a flood of new joinees coming in. Wikipedia has also been under a lot if pressure to ensure its quality levels of late and this exodus isn't helping the cause at all.

      The reason for the mass exodus has been attributed to issues arising when users post controversial subjects and have arguments over the content. Even though Wikipedia has bought in a new set of rules for users, it doesn't seem to be able to plug the exodus. Having said that, it is strange to see how the editor exodus has reached these levels now for the reasons stated. Conflict-ridden topics have always been there and controversies and heated discussions happen. Then why the burnout now?

Windows 8 will be Arrive in 2012.

2009-11-24T19:25:00.004+05:30

      At the Professional Developers Conference 2009, Microsoft announced public beta of Office Professional Plus 2010 productivity suite. In all the fanfare, Stephen Chapman of Microsoft Kitchen managed to grab a Microsoft roadmap pointing next Windows operating system's arrival.

      Microsoft launched Windows 7 on October 22 and now the plans of Windows 8 roadmap were spotted on the Interwebs. The successor to Windows 7 is tentatively codenamed as Windows 8 and is expected to be next "Major Release" in 2012. On the contrary, Windows 7 is being treated as "Release Updates" - to what? Maybe the wild Vista code.

      This means there will be a three year gap till next Windows Operating system and their rival Apple believes in keeping two year gap - between Leopard and Snow Leopard. In these two-three years, both OS-making giants want the consumers to get used the new technologies incorporated in their OS and be ready for new ones.

      Before you start making Windows 8 features wishlist, start using Windows 7 extensively and then list down what you wish to see next. Obviously, Gamers would love to go for DirectX12 and who knows what would be incorporated in it.

Google Shutting Down GrandCentral..

2009-11-24T19:03:00.005+05:30

      Google is shutting down its GrandCentral web site on December 31. GrandCentral was the telephony service acquired by Google in 2007. It was being used to offer services to over a million Google Voice users. The GrandCentral users were the first ones to be upgraded to Google Voice and the website will be pulled down now.

      GrandCentral service allowed users to manage their voicemails and SMS. The transition from GrandCentral to Google Voice took place in March this year. As of now, all GrandCentral users are being sent an email to back up their messages and voice mails before the website shuts down.

Here's copy of GrandCentral website shut down email retained by Neowin.net:

From: voice-noreply@grandcentral.com
Date: November 20, 2009 11:55:25 PM PST
To:
Subject: The GrandCentral website is shutting down - GrandCentral is now Google Voice.

Dear GrandCentral User:

We're writing to let you know that we will be closing down the GrandCentral website as of December 31, 2009.

All GrandCentral accounts were upgraded to Google Voice earlier this year, but since that time, you've still been able to log-in to your GrandCentral account and listen to old messages there. You will no longer be able to log-in to your GrandCentral account after December 31. Because of this, we strongly suggest downloading any messages or contacts that you want to keep in the next 43 days.

We will send you another reminder before closing down the site, but we suggest you take action now to download any information you want to keep.

- The Google Voice Team.

      Just like GrandCentral, Google Voice too is limited to U.S. based individuals only. We wonder if Google is planning to open up Google Voice to rest of the world. However, that would take a while.

Google Chrome OS Details..

2009-11-20T20:03:00.005+05:30

Google's much anticipated Chrome OS has quite some time to go till it is released for you and me. However, as speculated earlier, Google has provided juicy details of the upcoming OS at an event. While it is no Windows Killer by any margin, Chrome OS does give the user the option to boot into a web based OS, anytime, anywhere.

Chrome OS?
That's right. The OS might be named after Google's very own browser for obvious reasons. For once, the OS looks like a browser on steroids as it is almost completely web based. When you boot into Chrome OS, you are basically opening a browser window for running web apps. Unlike "normal" operating systems, you will not be able to install applications in the Chrome OS environment. Instead, it uses HTML5, for bringing an app like experience right within the browser - without the need for installing anything. To make things easier, think of it in this way. The Chrome OS is nothing but a barebones, stripped down version of Linux that is fast and launches like a web browser.

Getting it and Installing it?
While you can install Chrome OS on any X86 machine or using Virtualization, officially, Google will make it available only to select devices that will be "Chrome OS compatible". This might be partly owing to the fact that Chrome OS does not have a driver SDK as of now. Designed to run on a barebones system, most Chrome OS compatible devices will run on Intel and ARM's low powered processors. Google adds that Chrome OS laden devices will work as an "instant on" machine, which will boot itself up in under 20 seconds. Only flash-based storage media will be supported and for the same reasons storage capacities will be on the lower side - especially when compared to hard drive based netbooks. Another facet of the Chrome OS would be its search functionality. The user can use the address bar or the Quick Search box to quickly navigate to personal content stored locally, or on the servers. Of course, the same boxes can be used to search for content on the web as well.

Security Concerns:
Since the OS will run off the web, security will be a major concern since all your data will be stored on a remote server. Getting into your account will be as easy as hacking into your password. However, following the basics will ensure your account stays safe in your hands.

Connectivity:
Now, for a web-based system, it is essential to be Internet ready to be online whenever the user needs it. So, all Chrome OS machines will be Wi-Fi ready and will have the same as the primary connection method. There is a talk of Google taking the OS offline as well. However, little is known about that facet, as of now. While the options for Internet access might vary from one device to another, we think it would make sense to offer a GPRS and 3G ready device as well that will increase the range of the Chrome OS device exponentially. This is somewhat similar to what Nokia has done to its Booklet 3G netbook.

Is it for you?
Well, you might want to try is (just like most others do) since this is coming from Google. However, once the initial fanciness wears off, you will be constantly reminded about the fact that the Chrome OS is after all a stripped down OS that will do just about all the things a modern, self respecting browser of today does. The key for Google is to place this product in such a way that the user does not expect Chrome OS to be a full fledged desktop OS replacement. Apart from all these, pricing Chrome OS laden devices sensibly would make sense. It wouldn't make economic sense for any buyer to invest in a "computer" that basically runs just a web browser and is priced almost similar to a netbook that can do a whole lot more.

When?
While Google has not confirmed on any specific launch dates, the Chrome OS is largely expected to be released sometime in 2010. Now that the source code of the OS is out in the open, development on the OS will be for everyone to see. If you are one of those geeky kinds who can't wait to get your hands on the early builds of this one, you can use Virtual Box to see for yourself, how the OS, in its current avatar functions.

For more on the Chrome OS, you might want to visit the Chromium OS home page here.

Microsoft to launch Cloud Computing System..

2009-11-19T20:36:00.006+05:30

      Microsoft has announced that it will be releasing its cloud based computin g system Azure on January 1, next year. The company plans to take advantage of the growing interest in internet-based software and services, according to Reuters.

      Azure provides an online platform for software developers to create their own programs, and space for customers to store data. The service was rolled out for experimentation a year ago.

      The announcement was made by Microsoft's Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie in the company's annual software developers conference.

      Microsoft is expected to be a big player in the cloud computing market - broadly the trend toward running software in remote data centers and accessing it over the Internet - but has lagged behind pioneering rivals such as Amazon.com, which already sells cloud-based storage, and Google, which offers a range of free, online software.      The first month of the service will be free, and billing will start in February, said Ozzie.

Google Rumored to Preview Chrome OS Soon.

2009-11-18T21:25:00.003+05:30

      Google is rumored to show a demo of its upcoming Chrome OS and also share details of the operating system. TechCrunch has reported that this may not be a proper launch but a sneak preview on the development of the Chrome OS in the Google Labs. Google is also likely to reveal the details of the Chrome OS launch, which is expected in late 2010.

      Google dropped a bomb on the desktop based operating systems from Microsoft with the announcement of the Chrome OS in July. However, the OS will make its debut on netbooks in late 2010. TechCrunch learned that Google will hold a special event at their Mountain View Headquarters to preview the Chrome OS on November 19.

      At this purported special event, Sundar Pichai, Google's VP of Product Management and Matthew Papakipos, Google Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS would share the Chrome OS details. With such level of accurate details, it seems like Google will indeed demonstrate the Chrome OS.

Get MS Office 2010 Beta on MSDN, TechNet

2009-11-18T20:58:00.003+05:30

      Microsoft has made the much awaited Office 2010 Beta available to Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet Plus subscribers. The annual Professional Developers Conference event for this year starts on Tuesday at Los Angeles and will continue till November 19. Following this event, Microsoft is expected to release the public beta of Office 2010 suite.

      MSDN and TechNet Plus Subscribers can download the x64 (64-bit) or x86 (32-bit) versions of Office 2010 Beta from the Microsoft website. The company's PR team did tweet about some exciting news to share at PDC. Now that the Beta downloads will go live, it's obvious that Microsoft will announce the public beta of the productivity suite.

      This new Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta is the second beta build that succeeds the first Beta build and Technical Preview meant for select testers only. This new Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta build version 14.0.4536.1000 features new installation procedure, Upload Center, modified version of Backstage view and refreshed icons of all Office applications.

      Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 beta build 64-bit version weighs 749.87MB, while the 32-bit version weighs 684.48MB. Lucky MSDN and TechNet subscribers can grab the respective beta copies with official product keys before Microsoft announces Office 2010 public beta on November 18.

      MSDN subscribers can head here and TechNet subscribers can go here to download their Office 2010 beta builds.

      This beta build was already leaked with different version numbers on the Torrent sites. Since Microsoft will make the Office 2010 beta publicly available in a day or two, there is no sense downloading the builds from Torrents to join the "me first" clan.

Google Swirl makes Image Search Easier

2009-11-18T20:15:00.005+05:30

      Searching images can be a pain at times when you're looking for a specific kind. Google has rolled out an experimental feature dubbed Image Swirl in Google Labs to ease the trouble during image search. As Google wisely puts it -- 'the underlying technology is a work in progress, no specific time could be determined when it will be available by default in Google Search'.

      This total eye candy feature for image search literally mocks the Bing's Visual Search function introduced in mid-September.

      Google Image Swirl is an experimental image search interface that shows up a grid of 12 thumbnails stacked with images. This grid represents most relevant group of images. On clicking on any of the 12 stacks, the page shows up a big circular cluster connected to a small cluster circle with remaining 11 thumbnails. The effect shown for the thumbnail grid transforming to Cluster circles is referred as "Swirl".
      Sub-groups can be further explored in the cluster. The new experimental Images Swirl is a combined implementation of Picasa Face Recognition and Similar Images. At this moment about 2,00,000 queries can be identified by Image Swirl and more will be added over a period of time.

      Apparently the image search result clusters will be dependent on the image metadata. With billions of users uploading images to the web without any description or metadata, getting desired images would still require some effort. As image analysis technology advances the image search engine will rely more on the graphical recognition of image than the metadata attached to the same.

Microsoft Bing Increases US Market Share

2009-11-18T20:01:00.004+05:30

      According to a latest ComScore report, Microsoft's Bing has increased its Market share in the US, with the relaunched search engine grabbing a 9.9% share of the US Search market between September and October 2009.

      Both Google and Bing have managed to increase their share, which has apparently come at the cost of Yahoo that seems to have lost its market share slightly. Comscore's report, while being far from dramatic, does show that Bing is slowly tightening its grip in the highly competitive search department.

      Google continues to be the leader in this segment with a dominant 65.5% market share followed by 18% share commanded by Yahoo. Yahoo, however, has lost its share by a few points from 18.8% in September 2009.
      While Bing might not still be "up there" when you compare its numbers with Google, the very fact that it has been able to make a modest headway into Google's traditional turf seems commendable.

Google Sites Gets Templates..

2009-11-18T19:44:00.005+05:30

      Google has announced updates to its Google Sites service that allows users to build their own websites with ease. New templates have been added to the service that has been made available to businesses and individuals.

      The new templates include ones for personal use and for planning family events, groups and organizations. Google Sites is based on JotSpot that Google acquired back in 2006. The new templates allow users to quickly start off a new site with various gadgets, links and pre-built content.

      The more advanced version for businesses also finds the option of sharing proprietary site templates using Google Apps. Google Sites is a direct competitor to Microsoft's Sharepoint service that more or less helps users do the same things as Sites does. While there are significant differences in the way Sharepoint and Google Sites function, only time will tell which amongst the two is lapped by larger number of users in the near future.

AT&T introduces new Cloud Computing service..

2009-11-17T13:05:00.006+05:30

      Bangalore: Global telecoms company AT&T has expanded its portfolio of cloud-based services to include on-demand compute capacity.

      The addition of Synaptic Compute as a Service offering strengthens AT&T's position in competing with other large cloud-based service providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google. The telecom company already offers cloud-based storage and hosting services.

      "As companies increasingly move to cloud-based environments, AT&T Synaptic Compute as a Service provides a much-needed choice for IT executives who worry about over-building or under-investing in the capacity needed to handle their users' traffic demands," said Roman Pacewicz, Vice President of Strategy and Application Services, AT&T.

      The service, expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2009, will feature a Web-based interface, pay-as-you-go billing structure and multiple storage options for use with the existing Synaptic Storage offering. AT&T said that there will be no up-front fees, long-term obligations or early-termination penalties.
The company partnered with the leading virtualization software developer VMware and multi-faceted technology company Sun to develop its newest offering. The product is using VMware's vSphere hypervisor and vCloud API.

      The company will deploy the service in the U.S, but it will be accessible from anywhere through the internet. It Plans to expand the offering globally in the future.

New search engine TipTop launched..

2009-11-17T12:31:00.004+05:30

      Bangalore: TipTop Technologies and ITC Infotech have announced the launch of an innovative search engine, which will help internet users find the best and most relevant answers for any search, along with an opportunity to directly engage with people who could share their experiences related to the search topic.

      The search engine is called TipTop, and a search using TipTop will reveal people's emotions and experiences about it, as well as other concepts that are being discussed in connection with the subject. Various interactive features of the search engine will allow the user to navigate among these messages using filters and categories, or discover more about the people whose messages they like. "TipTop solves a problem that users (Consumer and Enterprise) have encountered at some point - how to cut through all the information that's available on the Web and find what's useful to everyday life," says Shyam Kapur, TipTop's President and CEO.

      L. N. Balaji, President of ITC Infotech, Americas, said, "TipTop is a front-runner in the ongoing revolution in search technologies. ITC Infotech has worked along with TipTop to make the search engine user friendly for both enterprises and consumers. Internet Media is one of ITC Infotech's focus verticals and we are constantly striving to innovate and deliver maximum value to our partners."

      Users can experience the power of TipTop Search Engine at the beta site, which answers user's queries through analysis of tweets on Twitter. The real-time quality of the information that TipTop filters makes it part of a growing trend in online search that prizes unedited content generated by non-experts. "Although Twitter is only the first step in our overall vision for this technology," Shyam explains, "It's probably the best example of a platform full of real-time information that can be useful with the right technology to facilitate contextually relevant, fast searches and connect with the best people. That's where TipTop comes in."

Check out now visit : http://www.feeltiptop.com/

Google now will replace HTTP to make web twice as fast

2009-11-17T11:44:00.003+05:30

      Bangalore: Google's Chromium group has announced an effort to replace the traditional Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) web browser language with a new protocol that supposedly boosts Internet browsing by up to 55 percent. HTTP currently is the protocol used by all web servers and browsers, hence the "http" in front of web addresses. But, as noted by Ars Technica, HTTP becomes inefficient when transferring many small files on many modern websites.

      By contrast, Google's cleverly named SPDY protocol can compress and handle the individual requests via one connection that's SSL-encrypted. That allows higher-priority files to slip through immediately without becoming backed up behind large files.

      SPDY has shown up to 55 percent web page loading when tested under lab conditions, and the Google team has released their source code for public feedback.

      But Ars Technica raises some points of caution about the mandatory SSL encryption requiring more processing power from small devices and computers alike. Requiring SSL could also worsen the problem where server operators neglect SSL encryption and unintentionally encourage people to ignore warnings about unsecured websites.

      Still Google's team recognizes these problems and has already proposed workaround solutions. An open approach has already proven a smashing success on Google's Android operating system, but redesigning the Internet's architecture will undoubtedly prove trickier in the days to come.

Access your e-mails without GPRS..

2009-11-16T17:23:00.003+05:30

      Mobee Mobile Services has announced the launch of its new simplified e-mail messaging solution Mobee through which users can get their e-mails into their mobile phone without the need for a GPRS connection - or by installing anything.

      The service allows users to reply to, send (even attachments) from a normal mobile phone. Mobee claims that is a unique offering for the corporate and enterprise customers wherein its users can stay connected to their official e-mails anytime everywhere without any GPRS connection. The service works on all types of cellular like CDMA and GSM and there is no operator limitation as well. This ensures that the service works irrespective of where you are in the country or which network you're on.

      For more details regarding the pricing and set up details, users might want to visit http://mobee.in. Users can also sign up directly from their mobile phones by sending an SMS saying SIGNUP to 9845498454

Windows Marketplace Hacked in Two Hours..

2009-11-14T21:29:00.006+05:30

      Microsoft had launched Windows Marketplace last month along with its Windows Mobile 6.5 update. According to WMPoweruser, xda-developers forum member named Chainfire managed to crack Microsoft's new copy protection code "in less than two hours". This must've got Microsoft worried about the anti-piracy measures being used for Windows Marketplace.

      Microsoft announced new features and second level of stronger anti-piracy protection for the developers. Earlier too Chainfire had found a hack for the CAB file based copy protection in less than five minutes. Now, Chainfire again cracked the code of protection layer.

      Obviously, Chainfire won't be releasing the hack to public as his intention is to make Microsoft aware about the weak copy-protection measures implemented. This might shake up the developers who'd be looking forward to make some money off the Windows Marketplace. Such weak anti-piracy protection layers would make them think twice if they should develop apps for platform or not. Hence, Microsoft needs to provide more secured anti-piracy protection layer for the Windows Marketplace.

Transfer Money in India Via Mobile..

2009-11-14T21:20:00.002+05:30

Tata Indicom, in association with Corporation Bank and PayMate, has launched 'Green Money Transfer'- a person-to-person mobile money transfer service. The transfer of funds via mobile will be facilitated by PayMate's technology, Corporation Bank's banking system and Tata's PCO and True Value Shop (TVS) network.

Customers can register for this service at a Green TATA PCO, TVS or with Corporation Bank. Upon registration, they will receive an mPIN to enable them to authorize the transaction.

Example:

A sender in Mumbai goes to a Green Tata PCO or TVS and places a request of transferring Rs. 5,000 to his parents in Pune
The sender hands over the cash to the Green Tata PCO or TVS. The PCO or TVS triggers an IVR call to the sender
The sender enters his mPIN to authorize the transaction and gets a Transaction code on his mobile to be conveyed to the recipient.
The recipient goes to the nearest registered Tata PCO or TVS and shares the transaction code.
The PCO or TVS triggers an IVR call to the receiver who enters his/her mPIN to verify the transaction
Once the verification is done the cash is handed over to recipient

The companies say Green Money transfer service is primarily targeted at the un-banked population of the country by providing them a branch less banking service to send and receive money effortlessly.

Corporation Bank says this facility is being proposed as an additional service to the rural masses who can now receive remittance in their Bank account instantaneously and draw through Business Correspondents at their own place. This will enable the Bank to augment customer acquisition as well.

This facility has been launched on a pilot basis in Kerala and will later spread to other areas.

Google Go: Its own Web Programming Language..

2009-11-11T20:01:00.003+05:30

      Google search giant launches its own web programming language. It has released an ‘open source programming language’ for the developers and named it ‘Go’. It is an excellent news for the developers yet sources stated that the programming language is still in an experimental stage. Experts are conducting studies on it and one can expect the language to become better once it reaches the final stage.

      In a blog post, Google officials have given an overview of the new programming language that is expected to benefit the developers. It has been stated that ‘Go’ is launched with the aim of combining C++, a compiled language, with another computer language called Python. They also stated that they have designed the new programming language so that one can do the work faster. ‘Google Go’, which will provide support to multiple processing, is expected to be an useful language and would help people in conducting their works in a better manner.

      According to the sources, the programming language ‘Go’ is not only memory safe but also type safe. The language is mainly aimed for running software on different multi-core machines. Experts at Google always consider that programming languages need to be productive and fast. Users should derive fun while using the programming languages and it is expected that the new programming language would provide all these.

Evil Virus Downloads Child Porn on PC

2009-11-11T19:49:00.003+05:30

      Viruses and other malware have existed to create menace at several levels. However, certain viruses are seriously dangerous by nature and can land the PC owner behind bars. Now, Associate Press has reported that an evil virus is on the prowl that downloads heinous photos and videos of children by itself in the resident computer.

      Nefarious virus makers have always had some or the other motive behind it but the recent outburst against child pornography seems to have drawn their attention. Several folks have been arrested for storing illegitimate videos and photos of children in their computers. Of these arrested folks, many claim that they don t have any information about how the heinous content got to their systems.

      Recently, pedophiles have become way smarter and adopt I don t know how it got here practice. Some smart ones use viruses to store their stash of illicit collection in someone else s computer in a way that no one believes that a virus did that. This way pedophiles keep their systems clean and victims get blamed for keeping child pornographic content.

      The pedophiles can simply use someone s computer to surf websites with objectionable child content and make it a warehouse to view it remotely. Or else, it could be an attempt to set up the PC owner. In Associate Press investigation, it was found that innocent people got framed because of the PC virus. Though the traces of suspicious activity are always found, sometimes it would be difficult to know how the content was placed there.

      Viruses can be dangerous and hence we plead readers to use good antivirus programs. Those already using antivirus programs should update the virus definitions regularly. People should avoid visiting dubious websites and resist giving out login credentials at shady websites. Be cautious about spam and delete the mails carrying attachments from unknown senders.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 with 190 Fixes..

2009-11-11T19:17:00.005+05:30

      Mozilla has released the second beta of Firefox 3.6 web browser. About 190 bug fixes have been added in this release which came after two weeks of the first beta. Download Firefox 3.6 beta 2 for any operating system from here.

      Firefox 3.6 browser codenamed Namoroka is a step-up version of 3.5 and is based on Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform. Add-ons compatibility can be tested installing the Add-on Compatibility Reporter to the Firefox 3.6 beta2. Over 190 bug fixes help improve the performance, security and overall stability of the browser on any OS.

      Major changes in the Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 include:

Optimized to run on small device OS such as Windows CE and Maemo.
Improved JavaScript performance, startup time and overall responsiveness
Support for HTML5, CSS and DOM web technologies
Web Open Font Format (WOFF) support
Alerts for outdated plugins
Open, native video support in full screen mode
Built-in Personas support to change browser appearance with single-click

Firefox offers the new 3.6 second beta version in 45 languages. Final build of the 3.6 version is expected by the end of this year.

New Version of Orkut..

2009-11-10T21:16:00.003+05:30

      Google seems to have had enough of Facebook's meteoric rise and has now sprung into action with a host of new design changes to its social networking website, Orkut.

      The website, which has been in the decline for the past few months, will see a lot of new features and a drastic change in the looks. The "refreshing new look" of Orkut is based on the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) infrastructure and will include the ability to discover friends automatically, video chat integrated with Google Talk, ability to upload photos in bulk very quickly, add/view photos and videos in-line, and a more interactive activity stream, says Google.

      The activity stream looks like a status message update functionality on the lines of Twitter and Facebook. Other new additions include video testimonials and of course applications, which seems to have not taken off much -- especially when compared with Facebook. The aforementioned activity stream has the option for comments as well - quite similar to the Facebook update feature - even visually!
      Orkut, in its previous avatar, was notorious for its insecurity. The new version claims to be a lot safer and there will be customized mobile versions too for the iPhone, S60 and J2ME platforms. Orkut also sees a neater integration with other Google services with the typical "Google bar" at the top of the site. This allows quick access to other Google services. Until now, Orkut looked like a Google outcast with no links to other Google services on the homepage - with the only Google indication being the integrated Gtalk and the occasional Chrome advertisements.

      The new Orkut is being rolled out to a select few users initially. These selected few can invite others to experience the new Orkut. Orkut has a community for those who wish to take a preview of the new version and where you can list yourselves to be invited. Click here for more on that.

      The new version of Orkut with the new features certainly looks promising. However, will this be enough to stop the Facebook juggernaut that is taking over India? We will soon find out!

Microsoft Courier Booklet UI Leaked..

2009-11-10T21:01:00.006+05:30

      Microsoft is working on tablet-style UMPC device while rival Apple continues to hop, skip and jump around the Mac Tablet rumors. Microsoft Courier dubbed tablet device with dual-touchscreen is being rumored in works. Gizmodo has come up with several images of Microsoft's Courier interface. The images appear to be that of a concept prototype and are too good to be real. Hardware specifications of the Courier aren't available yet.

      Details about the tablet device dubbed as Courier were reported first by Gizmodo with concept video and images. As per those details, Microsoft Courier is a booklet with about 7-inch multi-touch screens. This booklet is meant for writing, drawing/sketching, and viewing/editing photos using a stylus along with fingers, of course.
      Two large multi-touch screens would be stuck together with hinged spine. Courier obviously appears like a magazine with home button at the bottom on the hinge.

      The new images leaked indicate gestures as a part of Courier's user interface. Gestures controls so far include - tap and hold to clip the content, finger flicking in directions, and flicking from one screen to other zooms the content.
      Infinite Journal is the name given to entire content on the Courier held together. It summarizes the Pagestream view for a better and easily manageable blocks consist of appointments, emails, to-dos, weather and messages from friends. Probably, it's the screen that appears immediately after home screen of Courier.

      Courier will have a Browser like our File Explorer and will offer Vertical Cover-flow like interface to flip between different files. Apart from this, Library is termed to be the actually file explorer interface element that will help organize and catalogue every file on the device.

      Any content can be clipped, then "tucked" between to screens can be moved for pasting on the either side of screens.

      The back of Courier booklet will host a camera to click pictures. Also, it gets a dedicated hardware button to click snaps and also a view finder for proper adjustment. Probably, a 2-3.2 megapixel camera sensor might be added for clicking photos. For more details on features and gestures, head to Gizmodo Gallery.
      Microsoft Courier interface looks fairly impressive. It, quite likely, has been designed from Windows CE platform just like Zune HD's new interface. Courier would be used as reading device too and hence, acts as an eBook reader too. Depending upon the interface features, the Courier may have 3G network capabilities, WiFi, expandable storage and maybe web browsing support. We wonder how much battery life would this device offer.

      Courier surely looks impressive and intriguing but Asus might not be pleased with that. At the CeBIT Expo 2009 in March, Asus showed off its dual-panel touchscreen PC concept prototype which is now dubbed as Asus Eee Reader. Of course, Microsoft has gone a step ahead and added a unique stylus with twin buttons. Both products have striking physical similarity and screens.

      But are the Eee Reader and Courier merely concepts or will they ever reach consumers? We'll have to wait till either Asus or Microsoft make their respective products official.

Soon Video Conferencing by Google?..

2009-11-10T20:46:00.003+05:30

      Google already has added voice and video feature in Google Talk for users to interact one on one basis. Rishi Chandra, Google Apps product manager, SFGate, told SFGate that Google is planning to bring multi-user video conferencing feature in all of its Apps. The video conferencing feature will be rolled out soon - how soon, we don't know yet.

      Chandra said, "This [current Gmail capability] is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video [and voice] chat capabilities. It's a great opportunity for us to push that space along." So, the multi-user video conferencing would be integrated across apps and not rolled out as separate feature. One may have to download a small package to enable that may be just like Video for Gtalk (browser version).

      Once this feature is rolled out there will be enormous spike in the bandwidth usage in professional as well as home settings. Network department would have tough time monitoring the traffic spikes.

      Google can make big with this feature in enterprise settings unless they're planning to. Several organizations and individuals are using Google Apps for official purposes and multi-user video conferencing might just speed things up.

      Just like we have missed voice call, maybe Google will bring a video message. That would require lot of conversion taking place in user's system or Google's server. We'll have to wait till Google shares its concrete plans with the general public.

Now Webportal for Indian Army...

2009-11-10T20:28:00.004+05:30

      The Indian Army has dived into the technology driven environment by launching a webportal - www.indianarmy.nic.in. The webportal is hosted on National Informatics Centre (NIC).

      The newly launched webportal, as claimed by the authorities, has been developed on the state-of-the-art technology available and is built on a strong platform to thwart any hacking/defacing attempts. Various options like search, user interactivity, latest events, feedback, secured login, decentralized data update, space for all the arms/services of the Indian Army etc. are part of the newly launched webportal.

      The website also hosts recruitment procedure details and those who are interested can download application forms from the website too. It also has a photo and a video gallery. One can also inquire about The Right to Information Act and its application plus pay homage to the martyrs through this website.

Google Dashboard - Control User Data.

2009-11-05T18:39:00.005+05:30

      Several Google obsessed people don't know the amount of Google they use for different services. Probably, one won't realize the statistics of data stored in multiple Google services at that same time. Google has introduced the all new Google Dashboard feature that displays a consolidated summary of information related to a particular Google Account.

      Access dashboard at www.google.com/dashboard and log in with Google Account credentials if required. Otherwise, head to Manage Accounts page and check Dashboard under "Personal Settings".

      Google Dashboard is a service console that shows all personal data stored across all Google Products of a Google Account user. Users can change the privacy settings, delete data from a particular Google service and read their privacy policies. Basically, Google has given the key to control user's data in the user's hands to observe better transparency with Google.

      Dashboard shows concise display of data from Google services like Search, which gets two thirds of search queries passing, number of conversations and mails in Gmail, Contacts, Docs, YouTube, Picasa, and so on. Each Google service will list the data/information stored with it. Apparently, no information from Blogger was available at the Dashboard.

      While competitors accused Google for hoarding user data and controlling it, Dashboard is just a step towards handing over the control.

Google to Bid for 3G in India.

2009-10-28T19:55:00.003+05:30

      Google seems to be gung-ho about India's massive telecom sector. What apart from that would be the reason for the company to be interested in bidding for the 3G and wireless broadband spectrum?

      Apparently, Google has tied up with an undisclosed Indian partner in order to bid for third generation wireless license. Google seems to be interested in the WiMAX Broadband wireless auction in the form of a "technology partner" for the currently unknown firm.

      According to a recent report, the Department of Telecommunications is expected to auction the radio spectrum for 3G and Wireless broadband in January 2010. If this turns out to be true, this would be an interesting diversion by Google, which has been traditionally inclined towards "online" businesses.

Web Addresses in Non-English Soon..

2009-10-28T19:29:00.004+05:30

      The Internet has been long limited to its Latinized domain names. This has been the norm ever since the inception of the Internet over 40 years ago. That, however, is about to end if the Internet's regulatory body Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) goes ahead with its plans to bring in web addresses with non-Latin characters.

      The initial proposal to bring in other languages into domain names was approved in 2008. However, from what we now know, testing of the system had been underway for quite some time now. The plan then was to include certain Asian and Arabic scripts for web addresses. In its latest announcement ICANN has said that should the plans to implement this is approved, it would start taking applications for the new Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) by the second week of November. In fact, by mid 2010, we might see a fairly large number of websites out there with non-Latin domain names.

      With over half of the Internet populace using languages other than English for communication, it kind of made sense to introduce multi linguistic support for web addresses. With this move, it no longer becomes necessary to know English to be able to use the Internet.

      Once approved, ICANN will apply "necessary changes" to the Internet's current Domain Name System (DNS) to translate non-English characters to something that the system understands. Essentially, it will be a huge real-time multi language translator at work. It might be interesting to note that "unapproved" workarounds for typing in web addresses in local languages have been tried in the past as well - mainly in countries like China and Korea. However, these were often buggy and were not internationally recognized and had issues working on all computers. The new IDN includes many new languages including Chinese, Hindi, Tamil, Japanese, Korean, Persian and Yiddish

      If this proposal eventually gets the nod, it might not be long when your grandparents would be typing away web addresses in their own languages instead of English.

Apple Boot Camp to bring Windows 7..

2009-10-24T10:06:00.003+05:30

Apple had introduced its Boot Camp application that enabled Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP and Vista. Since Microsoft officially launched Windows 7 yesterday, many Mac owners would be looking forward to boot their Intel-Macs in Windows 7. Apple posted new support article stating that it will bring Windows 7 support with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard by the end of this year.

Boot Camp is an official utility from Apple that allows Mac machines to dual boot in Mac OS X and Windows OS. Before the end of this year, Apple will roll out a software update to Boot Camp for adding support to Windows 7 (Home, Premium and Ultimate). The Windows 7 support on Boot Camp is available only on Intel-based Macs and users holding Genuine Windows 7 copy or Windows 7 upgrade.

The following series of Mac models won't support Windows 7 using Boot Camp:

iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

Users willing to run Windows 7 under virtual environment on Mac OS X can use virtualization software like Parallels Desktop 4.0.

Apple stated no reason for not supporting 2006 Mac models. The non-availability of compatible drivers for different hardware is presumed to be the reason for dropping support for these Macs. Hopefully, Apple provides clarification on this issue when the update for Boot Camp bringing Windows 7 support is released.

Microsoft Windows 7 Launched in India..

2009-10-24T09:21:00.004+05:30

      The long wait has finally ended. Microsoft has proudly announced the availability of its next operating system Windows 7 for the Indian customers. It's about time that users should take a step ahead and upgrade their Windows XP/Vista PCs to Window 7. Microsoft Windows 7 Full Pack Product would be available in India at prices starting Rs. 5,899.

      Last October, Microsoft finalized Windows Vista's successor operating system as Windows 7. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, had showed off first beta of Windows 7 and after that came Release Candidate in May. After the bump ride journey with Windows Vista, Microsoft came out Windows 7 that looks like a smoother version of it.

      Windows 7 shines with new features like Aero Shake, Peek, Snap Jumps List and a totally revamped Task Bar. Several new features have been included in this operating system of which majority got mentioned in our Windows 7 Beta review. For multimedia, users can do more with photos, music, movies and videos. Then there's legendary XP mode for running old productivity applications.

      Microsoft offers Windows 7 in six editions of which two primary editions are Windows 7 Home Premium for home users and Windows 7 Professional for small and medium sized business. Other editions are Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging markets), Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate.

      Windows 7 Starter edition comes for the netbooks. If you are a netbook owner (regardless of whether you are contemplating to move to Windows 7 or not) check our feature on bidding adieu to Windows XP.

The prices of various Windows 7 SKUs are as follows:

Windows 7 Home Basic:        Rs. 5,899

Windows 7 Home Premium:  Rs. 6,799

Windows 7 Professional:      Rs. 11,199

Windows 7 Ultimate:             Rs. 11,799

      Microsoft India didn't share prices of Windows 7 Starter edition and Windows 7 Enterprise editions as they aren't sold in as FPPs and both are OEM / license based.

      Now, since Windows 7 has arrived, be ready for a flood of new Windows 7 compatible hardware products and accessories in the coming weeks. From graphics cards to USB Flash Drive, makers would came out with respective device drivers for Windows 7.

      If you wish to experience Windows 7 before purchasing, download Windows 7 release candidate. And if you want to know what we like, then we just listed the seven things we love about Windows 7. Alternatively, you can grab your Windows 7 copy from the retailers, re-sellers or software vendors.

      Note that those who purchased Windows XP or Vista copy or PC pre-loaded with them after June 29, can apply for Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program. From October 31 onwards, Microsoft will roll out this program in 21 countries beyond the existing U.S., Canada and Japan. The offer is valid only on the system purchased from the participating PC and laptop manufacturers. Check out the Update Program page for more details.

Google Docs in Preview Gmail

2009-10-24T08:55:00.003+05:30

      Gmail has been out of beta since three months. Still, Gmail Labs has actively continued adding new enhancements to it. Now, Gmail Labs brought new content preview feature of Google documents, spreadsheets or presentation in the same Gmail window. Hence, users can now get a preview of such documents in Gmail itself on receiving link to either of the files.

      Earlier this year, Gmail got PowerPoint and TIFF file viewer by default. And now, Gmail Labs brings Google Docs viewer in Gmail. The new "Google Docs previews in mail" feature comes handy when email carrying link to Google Doc (Document, Spreadsheet or Presentation) are received.

      Gmail auto-detects document name as well as type of document and displays when Google Doc link carrying email is received. Icons depicting the type of document will be shown in email with the option to "Show preview" and also "Open in new window" would be available. What if document preview is available for text documents sent in any file format? That would be interesting but that would require quite a conversion for Gmail.       To get this feature from Gmail Labs, click on Labs icon and check Enable in front of "Google Docs previews in mail" option and save the change. So, users can now preview Google Docs besides YouTube videos, Flickr photographs and Picasa albums.

Microsoft, Google add Twitter Search..

2009-10-24T08:18:00.002+05:30

Microsoft has announced that it will add live updates from micro-blogging service Twitter to its search engine - Bing. Following that, Google too announced plans for live Twitter updates integration in its search engine. At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft mentioned about its public access to public Twitter feed and also got Bing Twitter search beta; only for U.S. residents as of now. Google promised to roll out Twitter integration in its search engine "in the coming months".

      Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's online services group, said, "We are going to get access to all of the public Twitter information in real time." Bing will also get the Facebook status feed at a later date. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, Facebook, said, "We are giving Bing a feed of data made open to everyone. No money exchanged hands. We are not trying to make money on data.

      Bing Twitter search comprehends text of a Twitter update and any shortened links tagged with it. Domain names are displayed after the shortened links mentioned in the Twitter update. However, Bing Twitter search throws up results after indexing only a week's Twitter updates. Protected and deleted Twitter updates won't be displayed into Bing Twitter search since it shows up results after indexing data of public Twitter Feed.

      So, if there's a Twitter update: Apple updates Mac Mini Lineup http://bit.ly/crLDU, Bing Twitter will show it up as "Apple updates Mac Mini Lineup http://bit.ly/crLDU (techtree.com)".

      Back in April, Google and Twitter were reportedly involved in preliminary discussion over real-time search and product search. Marissa Mayer, vice president of Search Products and User Experience, stated in a blog post on the Official Google Blog that Google's search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data. Basically, Google is finally bending to include indexed data for real-time search.

      We know not what's going on in the minds of Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Twitter had acquired Summize.com and integrated the search engine to show it as Twitter Search. A few months down the lane, we'd get to see real-time content to seep into mainstream search. With this integration and more people joining Twitter, one major issue has been burning since a while - spam. Not to worry about it anymore since Twitter has already pulled up its socks to fight spam.

      Once again, the cold war between the search engine giants has begun by bringing a real-time flavor in their searches. What's in for users? Real-time data along with the regular search.

      Financial aspects of the respective deals aren't disclosed as yet.

iPhone to Get Mozilla App Soon..

2009-10-21T22:10:00.004+05:30

      Mozilla CEO John Lilly has, in a recent interview, shed some light on its upcoming iPhone App. Well, not much except that it is an app.

      That said, any app for the iPhone from Mozilla would be interesting. This is because Mozilla is famously known for its browser and to have a different browser apart from the default Safari browser on the iPhone is almost impossible. Apple did approve two browsers late last year though - but none of them was from major developers like Opera or Mozilla.

      So, it is interesting to note what kind of an application is Mozilla actually working on. While it's quite natural for anyone to assume it might be a new browser, keeping in mind Apple's stand on third party browsers, we can also expect a software other than a browser. It could be anything, ranging from a bookmark sync tool or a plug in for the existing Safari browser.

      Mozilla is making a big push into the mobile browsing territory and already has browsers for Windows Mobile and the Maemo platforms.

Orkut's Losing Battle Against Facebook...

2009-10-21T21:30:00.004+05:30

      Of late, there has been a lot of talk regarding the social networking war underway in India. For as long as most people will recall, Orkut was THE place to find your old friends, contacts and associates if you happened to be in India. Yes, there were the others like MySpace, Hi5 and the homegrown ones like Yaari.com and some really interesting ones like Hikut, which was an Orkut and Hi5 alternative for users who had these two sites blocked. Eventually, all of them seem to have outlived their fanciness and only the most appealing ones now survive and boast of an active and ever increasing user base.

      Apart from Orkut and MySpace, other networks did not find a steady stream of active users. At about the same time, in the west, MySpace (the then world's largest social networking website) was battling it out with Facebook which was barely a blip on the radar in India. Orkut with its simple, uncluttered look and feel was the hot favorite in India and in Brazil where it still rules the roost by quite a margin. However, outside India, Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 and even Tagged boast of more users than Orkut.

      Having said all that, as I type this, the social networking war in India has reached a tipping point when in the latest Alexa rankings, Facebook for the first time has been seen above Orkut. Orkut's Indian URL was seen languishing at the number 5 spot just behind Facebook not long ago. Orkut has, since then, regained its position and continues to enjoy its stint - but it might just be a matter of days when it will be eventually eclipsed. While this does not necessarily translate into more number of users being on Facebook, one thing that has been made exceptionally clear is that Indians are spending more time on Facebook than on Orkut.

      If the current trend continues, it might not be long when Facebook eventually displaces Orkut from its coveted pedestal. Apart from usurping the most visited social networking website crown from Orkut Facebook is also aiming to be the biggest such site in India and its plans seem to be working. In the last month, Orkut has seen a constant drop in its visitors. Facebook on the other hand has been increasing its userbase exponentially. In fact, Facebook even has a nifty contacts import tool that lets you find your Orkut friends on Facebook. This tool did rake up a controversy after Orkut allegedly blocking the functionality. That however was refuted and all seems well now.

      Ironically, Orkut is a product of Google and traditionally, Google has been a "market leader" in most of the things it is involved with - except for Chrome and Orkut we guess. However, Chrome is certainly growing - quite unlike Orkut which seems to be losing users by the second. The question is will Orkut ever rise from the mess it is in right now? Functionality wise, there seems to be nothing wrong with it - but new features along with a new UI would be certainly welcome. There have been recent reports about a possible arrival of a "status update" tool for Orkut on the lines of Twitter as well. At this time, all these attempts might just not be enough to stop the Facebook juggernaut from rolling.

Do you think Google can do something dramatic & make Orkut attractive for users again?
Or will it be Facebook all the way from now on?
Leave a comment.

Twitter Crosses 5 Billion Tweets..

2009-10-21T18:16:00.002+05:30

      Come 2010 and there will be more tweets on this planet than the tweeps that exist. This is what it seems like if we go by the number of tweets Twitter users post each day. Oh, if you you're all new to this Twitter fad, tweeps are nothing but the twitterised term for people on Twitter.

      So, what we are on about here is that Twitter seems to have recently crossed the 5 billion tweets barrier with a Twitter user Robert Sloan managing to post the tweet numbered 5000000000. Now, it certainly does mean it was the tweet number 5 billion, but was it really the five billionth tweet considering there were millions of deleted tweets and of course pre release test tweets on the site? We never know unless of course Twitter comes with a detailed blog post on how it counts tweets. Anyway, that doesn't seem to matter here anyway as long as the tweet is numbered 5000000000.

      The Pentagigatweet as Robert Sloan has named the hapless five billionth tweet was eventually deleted by him making things more confusing. So, the 5000000000th tweet no longer exists on Twitter and we do not have a clue who's tweet was next in line to Robert's so that the person can be given due credit.

      Now, for some mind boggling facts. The five billion figure mark for any website in terms of anything is impressive. Be it the page views, status updates, number of users or anything else for that matter. That taken into consideration, it was just in November 2008 that Twitter had passed the measly one billion updates mark! In the 11 months after that, there has been more than fourfold increase in the number of tweets. Going by the way things are moving it could be just a few months until there are ACTUALLY more tweets on the planet than there are humans. So, what are you doing?