Your update for IT stuff

Creative Launches ZiiO Tablets in India

2011-04-09T22:30:00.001-07:00

Creative Technology Ltd., which is known for its audio products, is entering the tablet market with the launch of two new products - ZIIO 7 "ZIIO 10" tablets in India. Creative Touch ZIIO tablets was launched to the world-X (lossless codec and audio format) enabled touchscreen tablet that works on Android operating system.

Creative tablets ZIIO boast the most perfect, no-frills experience Bluetooth pairing with a wide range of Creative speakers and headphones. The company claims that the tablets are designed to offer users an all-round multimedia experience, with the best audio performance wireless tablet Android Market, and integrated Sound Blaster X-Fi (X-Fi Crystalizer, X-Fi Expand) technology audio enhancement.

Creative ZiiO 7 inch Tablet Specs

* 7 inch 16.8 million color TFT, Resistive Touch Screen
* Android 2.2 Froyo OS
* ZiiLABS ZMS-08 HD Media-Rich Applications Processor
* 207.4mm x 133mm x 13.7mm
* Weight: 415 g
* 8GB / 16GB internal storage
* microSD Slot (up to 32GB)
* Front facing camera (VGA)
* WiFi 802.11 b/g
* Bluetooth 2.1 EDR (with apt-X, A2DP & AVRCP)
* X-Fi Audio Enhancements (Crystalizer, Expand)
* mini USB port
* HDMI port
* 3.5mm stereo jack
* Audio support: MP3, AAC, WMA9, FLAC, OGG, MIDI, WAV
* Video support: H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, MOV, AVI, MKV
* Battery Life: Up to 25 hrs (audio), up to 5 hrs (video)
* Colour: White
* Price: Rs. 17,999/-(8GB version)

Firefox 6 and Firefox 7 Soon to be Available for First Testing

2011-04-09T22:13:00.001-07:00

In a draft statement issued by the Director of Christian Mozilla Legnitto, gave details of future versions of Mozilla. According to the draft that we will have 6 and 7 Firefox. It also sheds light on the ongoing process of refreshing its procedure for issuing the browser companies in developing countries.

In addition, a new application was introduced already in Mozilla Aurora Central, Beta and Release.

A number of appointments in the channel using a browser that is ahead will be focused on several issues, but significant, he said. For example, Mozilla is the central focus on the overall development, the project blends repository. In addition, the North Mozilla will take care of pressure and support fixes / features that sets the center channel as a problem with a wider public beta and Mozilla solves the problems that could prevent a final release soon discovered and, in extreme cases off backout / pref.

Mozilla version is actually an emergency reserve in case of an enthusiastic response.

Development program and the announcement of each event:

Except for Firefox 5, in general, every step of the process for a period of 6 weeks.For for example, after the development of six months will be available in Central and Mozilla work on Mozilla's beta has started and so on.

And so we will have Firefox in the last week of June 5

Firefox 6 has its initial impulse, April 12 and next week we might have its first building for testing. The work on Firefox on May 7 will begin in mid May

What Is The Difference Between Debt and Equity Investments

2011-04-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's never too early to start financial planning for future needs, as the dream house, new cars, pension funds, early marriage, foreign travel, etc. Most young people who are in the first 30 or 20 in late great care to make money, but spend the hard earned money right now to live the married life. daily life is for them. They do not care much about the future needs and tend to fight when their purchasing power decreases with age. These people will realize their mistake later part of their life and regret not having a good plan.

I was one of those people who love to live life king size today. I used to spend all they earn very little or no savings. Thanks to my brother who found my kind of shopping bad and I learned a lot about the importance of saving and planning for the future. I understand the importance of savings and started to plan future needs.

I read a lot of information on financial planning and expenditure control instincts. Let me share my background and my thoughts on this blog with a new set of Personal Finance. I hope you guys will join me to exchange views and plan a better future.

The basics of financial planning is to understand various investment options available and the nature of their statements. financial investment products are classified into two types - debt and equity.

debt investment gives a guaranteed return and predetermined, but the yields are very low. Tell me who give me money and I promise to make money with a fixed interest - is a debt investment. debt investment options available in the market - the fixed rate deposits, government bonds, PPF, etc. These investments are safe, secure and at the same time, yields are low. In India, we get an average 8% return on debt.

The investments are totally opposed to debt - which offer high returns, but there are many risks associated with them. Let's say you invest in a company and do the same to share their profits with you. If the company is doing well and posting high profits, you get a high performance, but if the company loses bankruptcy or lose your investment or to obtain a much lower yield. Typical examples of investment in shares - invest in equities and equity funds. On an equity investment gives average yields ranging from 15% - 25% over the period with a considerable amount of risk associated with them.

I hope that these basic principles will help you have begun to explore various investment options available. I want to conclude this post with what I firmly believe in

No matter what you win today, but how many questions we have put the future of a game.

Energy Saving Tips For Smartphones

2011-04-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

There are many applications and functions that run in the background, many of them unpublished for users who remains unnoticed until the battery from your smartphone to run low. Being online and some modern applications do not eat the battery life.

There are some simple tips to turn a smartphone to stay longer in some applications available on App Store to help prolong the life of a cell phone.

UMTS applications with more energy. A simple way to save battery is to change the screen settings to the lowest level of illumination. Once the target coordinates are, disable the browser. This software keeps running in the background, "said Daniel Lueders.

Disable UMTS and Wi-Fi when not in need. Otherwise, look for the networks accessible at all times. In addition to the phone in Airplane mode when you go on a long journey in which there would be no access signal that the phone still in search of signals from the service provider.

In Android, there is a settings menu that shows which applications are using more energy. Making a video or data transfer via UMTS, the energy consumption is skyrocketing.

Disable the automatic downloading of e-mail directly and manually download smartphone, save energy.

How To Login To Multiple Skype Accounts At A Time From A PC

2011-04-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

We all love to use Skype to video chat and cheap international phone calls. This is an excellent tool for companies looking to provide online support via chat and voice calls. If you have two Skype, lets say one for personal use and one for your official use, how to connect to both accounts at once on your computer?

Multi Skype Launcher is a free program that allows you to connect to multiple Skype accounts on PC simultaneously. The request for application developers who tested with up to 5 accounts at the same time Skype and it worked fine. We tried with two accounts and it worked fine. Discover the request and let us know your opinion.

Download Multi Skype Launcher

Screenshot Of Windows 8 Welcome Screen

2011-04-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

This is the first taste of Microsoft Windows user interface 8 - grab screen Welcome Screen that allows users access to Windows. The user interface design (font and the current date / time information) is derived from Metro Phone Windows user interface and that is good (click the image below to view free).

The information that comes in various blogs suggest that Windows 8 is a built-in customization feature to change the Windows Wallpaper 8 logon screen

iPhone Tip: Force Quit Frozen Application

2011-02-26T02:14:00.000-08:00

Despite their nature, many politicians, may have applications for the iPhone is not responding too. This tip will help you leave the application for the iPhone that does not respond or if you want to leave a permanent application and does not reduce to a minimum when the multi-task is activated.

An iPhone application downloaded from the App Store can go at times that do not respond because of memory problems or other insects. Similarly, the opening of a large number of pages in the iPhone, Safari OSA can lead to not respond.

In case of no response because of memory problems, a watchdog iOS automatically closes the application in general. However, on some occasions, I found the need to quit Safari, when AOS pending indefinitely on access to poorly designed web page. Here's a suggestion that the PM will be useful in these situations.

How to stop the application of Frozen terminals without multitasking:

This included older devices like the iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G, and more. Since there is no bar on these multitasking devices iOS more here AOS manual method to force the application to quit.

While the media application, press and hold the power button until you see the slide off the screen.

Now press and hold the home button until the application is closed and you are redirected to the home screen. It usually takes about six seconds. You can now launch the application again and continue your work.

How to quit a frozen application on devices with multitasking:

Since the iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3G/4G support multitasking, the process is different from them. Follow these steps:

Double-click the Home button to access the multiple taskbar.

Now press and hold the icon for thrills. You will see a red sign (-) on each icon now. Press the red minus sign on the application you want to close. You may have to scroll left or right to view multiple applications.

Remember, press the red bar closes the application multitasking and do not delete it. You can start from the home screen, if necessary.

The next time a Web page that makes your iPhone reactive Äôll is as close and restart Safari.

Samsung Galaxy Fit Launched in India [Features & Specs]

2011-02-26T01:38:00.001-08:00

Samsung has already launched a variety of smartphones and feature phones on the market. Even Samsung is the market leader in Android phones in India. These days Samsung is more concentrated in increasing the range of combined galaxy. This time a new handset is launched in the galaxy series, Samsung Galaxy Fit.

Galaxy Samsung Fit

Samsung Galaxy Fit is a new smartphone added with 3.31-inch TFT touch screen with TouchWiz Interface 3.0 later. It works with 2.2 OS Android. The phone is integrated with 600 Mhz processor, Swype, Document Viewer. To make smart phone, Samsung Galaxy Fit is equipped with 5 MP camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and HSDPA support.

Features and specifications of Samsung Galaxy Fit

* 31.3-inch TFT touch screen capacitive
* 600 MHz processor
* Android 2.2 (Froyo) OS
* TouchWiz UI 3.0
* Support for 3G network
* Internal Memory: 160 MB
* Up to 32GB MicroSD card support
* 5 MP camera with autofocus
* Video 15 fps Recording Support up
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n
* Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
* FM Radio with RDS support
* GPS and A-GPS support

Samsung Galaxy Fit is released at the price tag of Rs 13000.

eBay India is Now Available on Mobile Phones

2011-02-26T01:33:00.001-08:00

World's most popular purchase and selling on-line site "eBay" is also available on your mobile. Now you can access and shop anytime, anywhere in India with the help of eBay's mobile applications. m.ebay.in simply typing and start shopping.

eBay has officially launched its mobile version compatible mCommerce platform, which will be available on all EDGE GPRS or 3G enabled mobile phone. Now, it is to buy a smartphone for special access to eBay, you can use telephones also provide basic access to eBay.

Words from eBay

"The new mobile application is optimized to meet most of the phones in the Indian market"

eBay mobile commerce interface offers a choice of over 400.00 ad line of branded products to new investors.

You can easily check for the retail price of any product by sending the search query to 567,678 in the format "EBAY.

You can access the mobile version compatible http://m.ebay.in

If you want more information: eBay India

Use Your iPad as a Virtual Canvas With Nomad’s Capacitative Brush

2011-02-26T01:13:00.001-08:00

An electronic brush that works with your iPad is now available on the market. Nomad Brush is the name of this accessory iPad that users can easily purchase online for $ 24. If you're passionate about drawing and then have a Nomad iPad iPad Brush is perfect accessory for you.

Don Lee, the creator of the accessory commented in a blog post that:

“I am an architect and an artist. I love to sketch and paint, and like many of you, I found the iPad to be a great digital sketchbook and canvas. However, I found that drawing with my finger was awkward. After trying out many styluses, I failed to find a suitable one…so I invented the Nomad Brush. Each Nomad Brush is carefully handcrafted and made with exceptionally conductive materials. This allows the brush to be extremely responsive, making brushstrokes immediate and effortless on any capacitive touchscreen device. Enjoy creating with your Nomad Brush.”

There are lots of application iOS available in the App Store that will allow owners to convert their equipment iPad tablet in a sleigh full of drawing canvas. But Nomad brush on the market, all iArtists got their hands on a perfect accessory that can help them create wonderful masterpieces on the game and Apple iPad developments selling.

For more information about Nomad Brush, you can visit their official website, more if you are interested in buying one, you can also follow this link Buy Nomad Brush

Imgur: Fantastic Way to Upload and Share Multiple Images

2011-02-26T01:08:00.001-08:00

We need immediate sharing of images many times especially when we have screenshots to share. There are many Web sites to share pictures online, but there are many limitations in most photo sharing sites. Suppose you want to download an image to tinypic, we must enter the CAPTCHA code every time you load an image. In addition, most websites do not support the uploading of multiple images and we have to load images one by one. There are a few sites offer free pictures and download more and do not delete images.

Imgur good service and easy to share the image

Imgur is a site that lets you download multiple files from your computer or an Internet URL specified. The download is fine and has never been interrupted. You can also resize the image transferred to our needs. The user interface of this site is attractive and uses a flash of default that shows the loading progress bar. You can also switch to the HTML version if your browser does not support the flash version.

Key Features of Imgur Image Sharing Service

* Upload an image file without worry, as CAPTCHA
* Upload multiple images
* Download the image with the URL of the image file.
* Allows you to use the direct link to the image of website layout
* Nice Flash Interface
* Custom Image Resizing option
* Meeting with the large community of Imgur navigation images downloaded
* Options for direct image bookmarking like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Reddit, etc.

What is Thunderbolt Technology

2011-02-26T01:01:00.000-08:00

Thunderbolt, a collaborative project of Intel and Apple, was presented today at the new line of MacBook Pro from Apple. Apparently, the next big thing, he is quoted to be the most powerful, flexible I / O technology into a personal computer.

This technology aims to replace the interconnections as FireWire, USB and other connections with up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth full-duplex per channel. Thunderbolt is based on the fundamental concept: create a technology unbelievably fast input / output that can connect everything. This line of thought is formed, allowing more high-performance PCI Express and DisplayPort devices to connect to a computer via a single physical connector.

The two most basic types of I / O: data display (with video and audio format). DisplayPort and PCIe Thunderbolt in a meta-protocol, and is responsible for transmitting them through the same cable routing and traffic control. Intelligent routing is through the implementation of garlands and hotplug devices. It 's a movement essentially clear and intelligent use of both technologies.

Thunderbolt uses copper wires, which are actually two full-duplex channels can provide 10 Gbps of bandwidth bidirectional. At 10 Gbps, the lightning is much faster than most current I / O technologies. This speed is 20 times faster than the theoretical limit of USB 2.0, 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and two times faster USB3.

According to Intel,

The choice of PCI Express was clear, providing for off-the-shelf controller use to attach to nearly any technology imaginable, and the choice of DisplayPort was equally clear for meeting the needs of the PC industry with capabilities like support for greater-than-highdefinition display resolutions, and support for up to 8 channels of high-definition audio.

Thunderbolt cables may be electrical or optical, since both use the same connector. The merit of the electric cable is that it may extend only to the connections of up to 3 meters in length and up to 10W of power transfer. Optical cables are however capable of much better performance. However, once again, users can add functionality to their machines for high performance on a cable, series connection, one after another, up to a total of 7 units, 1 or 2, which can be viewed with high resolution DisplayPort .

Thunderbolt connector on a computer can be connected with a cable to Thunderbolt DisplayPort products or devices. Because the connector Thunderbolt is extremely low, it is ideal for cable systems, thin and compact. A method of interoperability between devices and household products DisplayPort provides compatibility with DisplayPort DisplayPort devices if the device is detected, a disk controller Thunderbolt will Compatibility Mode DisplayPort signals to this device. As such the existing monitors are equipped with Mini DisplayPort already compatible and can be connected directly, and Mini DisplayPort to VGA, DVI or HDMI even work.

The main features can be enumerated as follows:

* Dual-channel 10 Gbps per port

* Bi-directional

* Dual Protocol (PCI Express and DisplayPort)

* Compatible with existing DisplayPort

* Devices in a daisy chain

* Electric cables or optical

* Low latency synchronization with the very precise time

* Use the native protocol driver software

* The power supply for devices powered by the bus

In the words of Intel, the Thunderbolt technology brings a new balance of performance, flexibility and simplicity for end users and developers of similar products.

Twitter Keyboard Shortcuts – Use Twitter Like a Pro

2011-01-17T09:17:00.001-08:00

Keyboard shortcuts are the way to go for every ninja to get things done on computer very quickly. If you want to become a Twitter ninja , here are the keyboard shortcuts to quickly read, reply, retweet and to do more.

* . – Refresh list of tweets.
* / – Go to Search box.
* M – Opens a new Message in a pop-up window.
* N – Opens a new tweet in a pop-up window.
* Press G, then R – Open Replies.
* Press G, then M – Open Messages Inbox
* Press G, then F – Open Favourites.
* Press G, then H - Go Home.
* Press G, then P – Display your profile.
* Press G, then U – Go to another user’s profile, input Twitter name in displayed box.
* Shift + F – Add selected tweet to Twitter Favourites.
* Shift + R - Reply to selected tweet.
* Shift + T – Retweet selected tweet.

Watch Indian TV Channels Live On Apple iPad and iPhone

2011-01-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

After having your Apple iPad or iPhone with you, are you boring with your journey? Don’t worry now with the help of a small application called "YuppTV" you can watch Live Indian TV Channels free of cost on your journey. The Application can be directly downloaded from the App Store.

On launching the application you will find a list of TV channels that are available for live streaming – few of popular channels available through the app are: India Tv, 9XM, ABN Andhra Jyothi, DD Vyas, eTV2, HMTV, Maa Tv Telugu, NewX, NTv, RK News, Sakshi TV etc. Just tap on any of the channel in the list to view live feed of the TV channel.

Download YuppTV App From App Store

Apple Giving Away $10,000 On The Occasion of 10 Billion App Store Downloads

2011-01-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

Apple got yet another reason to brag it’s App Store success – nearly 10 billion apps downloaded around the world. To show off this, they put a big banner over here

To celebrate the occasion, Apple will give $10,000 iTunes Gift Card to the person who downloads the 10th billion app, either free or paid app. Rules and regulations of the contest are available here.

Apple’s App Store is a huge success and it’s at the centre of it’s smart devices eco system – iPhone, iPad and iPod. In April 2009 the store marked 1 billionth download, September 2009 2 billionth and in January 2010, 3 billionth app downloaded. In less than an year the number downloads has seen 3 fold growth and all set to reach 10 billions.

FireFox 4 Beta 9 Is Under Rigorous Testing For Release

2011-01-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

While the long-awaited Firefox 4 Beta 9 is undergoing rigorous testing, there are a number of completely new functionality in Firefox Beta 4 webfirefoxlogo 125x125 9 is undergoing rigorous testing for the release of the browser to wait, said some of the reliable resources. The power to bring out the favorites are faster and easier launch. To keep pace with the demands of today's needs, some of the trendy new app includes tabs and Panorama, which mediates the navigation options with the best ease of access to your favorite sites. Other improvements include observable performance and speed when using web applications and games. What is more interesting is the inclusion of Firefox Sync, which integrates the browser history, your bookmarks, open tabs, and passwords with the same browser on computers other smart phone. This is an advantage with a plague for privacy, which makes parents happy.

The most interesting thing is that web application developers are much happier with the ease of creating web applications for this browser, as it provides full support for HTML5 and WebMate HDVideo rendered 3D graphics WebGL the audio hardware acceleration APIs and Mozilla that lets you see the sound is made.

Firefox has to be smart to make these options available on the basis of information from more than 400 million users, who are perhaps likely to participate in making it difficult to launch the beta version of the update ahead of schedule. They're fast stimulus before IE, and nearly conquered Europe now.

Let us know which browser you prefer most? Chrome or Mozilla Firefox?

Gmail extends Free Gmail Calling for 2011

2010-12-21T08:40:00.001-08:00

Google is giving away Christmas/New Year gift to all of its users by extending its free calling service to all US and Canada for entire 2011. If you remember, Google started free US and Canada calling few months back.

Here's what Google said in its blog post:

We made calls to the U.S. and Canada free for the rest of 2010. In the spirit of holiday giving and to help people keep in touch in the new year, we’re extending free calling for all of 2011.

Google voice calls is a big hit ever since its launch and I am pretty sure, Gmail users would enjoy this holiday gift by Gmail! team.

Yahoo! shutting down Delicious MyBloglog Buzz

2010-12-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

Surprising news for everyone is that Yahoo is shutting Delicious, MyBlogLog, AltaVista and Larry King. In addition to these services, Yahoo is also terminating the Yahoo Buzz, Yahoo Bookmarks, and Yahoo Picks.

Yahoo! announced in a press conference:

"Part of our organizational streamlining involves cutting our investment in under performing or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond,” the company said. “We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months such as Yahoo! Buzz, our Traffic APIs, and others. We will communicate specific plans when appropriate."

This can be a big change for all the bloggers out there who are dependent on Delicious, Yahoo's Buzz to bookmark and share their articles. MyBlogLog is another useful product to bloggers who prefer to add the MyBlogLog widgets on your blog sidebar. Now these widgets and plug-ins are no longer useful.

Of course there are other services sharing and bookmarks available, but Delicious and Yahoo Buzz also played an important role in the exchange of links and bookmarks. I hope that Yahoo's think again about the same and did not exit the service. Meanwhile, do not forget to share your views on the closure of the above products Yahoo.

Unlock iOS 4.2.1 on iPhone 3GS/3G Using UltraSn0w 1.2

2010-12-07T06:47:00.001-08:00

Just as we predicted, the iPhone dev team released the 1.2 Ultrasn0w tool to unlock the latest firmware 4.2.1 iOS iPhone 3G and the 3G baseband later than 13/05/2004. The trick is to flash iPhone 3G/3GS with 06.15 baseband iPad 3.2.2 update.

Note that the iPhone 4 is not yet unlocked, because it has a different baseband OS. It is important to reiterate the risks involved with using 4.2.1 unlock iOS Ultrasn0w 1.2

- Once you unlock your iPhone 3G/3GS, you can never go back from 06.15 baseband. Warranty is void and version baseband will not be hidden by Apple.

- If some future baseband comes with a critical patch, you will not be able to update, if it remains in the sequence 05.xx (again, you would not update for you want to keep your unlock anyway).

- From 3G FW 4.2.1 iPhone with 06.15 baseband, you will not be able to restore to original firmware (it will fail). Restore using custom IPSWs to keep your unlocks.

Before unlocking you need to jailbreak iPhone 4.2.1 iOS 3GS/3G on using PwnageTool 4.1.3 or 0.9.6b5 RedSn0w. The jailbreak procedure using either the tools were provided previously.

Make sure the iPhone 3G is fully charged and connected to a PC or Mac via USB through the process. Also, do not leave your SIM in the iPhone. eject it and keep aside.

Step 1: After successfully jailbreaking is complete, connect your iPhone 3G/3GS to a Wi-Fi and run Cydia.

Step 2: Go to manage menu & then select sources. Press the Change button in the upper right, then press the Add button in the upper left.

Step 3: Enter the URL http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com in the small Enter Cydia / APT URL window popup.

Step 4: After the ultrasn0w source gets added, tap on the ‘Return to Cydia’ option & choose repo666.ultrasn0w.com from the sources list.

Step 5: Look for Ultrasn0w 1.2, select it and then tap on Install button on top right of the screen

Step 6: Wait for the ultrasn0w package to be installed and tap on Restart the Springboard.

Step 7: Insert the active SIM you wish to use on this iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1 with 06.15 baseband.

Download Windows 7 And Office 2010 ISO Images Directly From Microsoft Servers

2010-10-25T02:03:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 and Office 2010 are the most sought after products from PC users around the world. There are so many people searching for the ISO images or installers of these products on the web and often they bump into fake sites that provide malicious downloads.

In order to help the users who are looking for the ISO images of Windows 7 and Office 2010, we collected links on Microsoft and it’s affiliate sites. These are genuine and official download links. It’s completely legal to download and use these installer as they are not associated with any product keys. To activate the products you need to use your own product keys.

Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Home Premium

Microsoft Office 2010

Facebook & Skype shake hands

2010-10-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

Social networking giant and internet telephone giant are all set to shake hands. This news comes in a time when we heard rumors that Facebook is building its own phone and also Skype 5.0 version is about to be released in few weeks.

This partnership could further strengthen Facebook network with its users as communication could reach much higher level than just writing on the wall and sharing photos with friends. It looks like what has been proposed that….

when Facebook users sign in to the website they would also sign into Skype. When signed-on, the Facebook users can use the Skype’s services like text messages, voice chat and video chat with Facebook friends [within Skype].

This is very exciting to hear! Oh Google, the God of Internet, what are you going to do?

Convert Your photo into Art Work – Photo to Sketch

2010-09-29T06:33:00.001-07:00

Photo to Sketch Is a free software to convert any photo into Art Work or convert photo into sketch, this is easy photo to sketch conversion tool. With the help of this tool you can convert your photo into pen sketch, pencil sketch and pastel colours. To make your sketch more creative you can also change texture of your sketch.

Features-
# Pen sketch
# Pencil sketch
# pastel

With this easy-to-use program you can convert any photo-into-portraits.

Download

Convert PDF to editable Word files : PDF Word Converter

2010-09-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Simpo PDF to Word is a pdf converter, this tool converts pdf files into editable Word files. This converter can convert encrypted pdf also. With the help this converter you can edit pdf files after conversion. Simpo PDF to Word could convert PDF to Word with good quality, preserves graphs, charts and text layouts. This application is standalone, you do not need to install extra Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat.

Simpo PDF to Word Converter is a easy tool even beginners can use this tool easily. Simpo Standalone PDF to Word Converter is a economical tool to save your money, because you do not need to extra install Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat in your computer. You can use Simpo PDF to Word to convert a batch of PDFs to doc to save your time, because this utility allows importing batch of PDF files and converting PDF to Word at a time.

Simpo PDF to Word is a software with two outputs combined – convert pdf to doc or convert pdf to txt, that means, you get two different kinds software at the same time.

Download

5 Google Analytics Metrics To Increase Traffic

2010-08-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

Many of us may be busy in writing compelling content for our blog and forgetting to analyse the current visitors and trends that are driving traffic. Google Analytics is a great free tool that offers loads of information on visitors and traffic source of our blogs. If you can spend time once a week on analysing the important metrics of Google Analytics, you can take your blog to next level.

The 5 most important Google Analytics metrics we should check are:

1. New vs. Returning Visitors
2. Keywords
3. Referring Sites
4. Top Content
5. Visitor Loyalty

Indian Rupee Symbol now on Mobile Phone With Lava Mobiles

2010-08-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

We already knew that the Indian Rupee Symbol has been launched on documents, web and keyboards, now on mobile phones also. Lava Mobiles, an Indian mobile phone brand has launched a new mobile handset(Lava B5) that will have the Rupee symbol integrated on the mobile keypad.

The same Lava B5 mobile, which came out with the first full alpha keypad (means having keys in A,B,C,D format instead of normal QWERTY ones) few days back.

However it is quite heartening to see the rate of adoption of Rupee Symbol – Many prominent online publishers have already started using it. Also, if you glance at your daily newspaper, many advertisers now use it to show their product pricing.

Certainly, Lava B5 is the first mobile phone having the rupee symbol on its keypad.B5 is also the first phone with world’s first Alpha keypad with keys arranged in ABCD order. Expect more companies to follow this soon.

Earth running out of Helium: No more Balloons in Future for parties

2010-08-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that we are running out of many resources required for supporting life on Earth. There is shortage of water, oil, natural gas, minerals and many more resource.

Couple of days ago Stephen Hawking, the renowned astrophysicist, said that we should colonize space within two centuries, otherwise there is a danger of mankind extinct.

Another scientist Robert Richardson, a Nobel Prize winner, believes that Helium supplies will run out in another 25 years. Once we are out of Helium there are no more balloons for birthday parties or as gifts to our loved ones, at least for the common man.

Helium is widely used in medical MRI systems, manufacturing LCDs & fibre options, rocketry, airships, controlled atmospheres, pressurizing and purging gas systems.

So what do we do once we run out of Helium. According to Robert Richardson

"There is no chemical means to make helium. The supplies we have on Earth come from radioactive alpha decay in rocks. Right now it’s not commercially viable to recover helium from the air, so we have to rely on extracting it from rocks. But if we do run out altogether, we will have to recover helium from the air and it will cost 10,000 times what it does today."

US is the major producer of Helium as it accounts to 80% of the entire world’s production. US seems to be selling Helium at “ridiculously low prices” says Robert. So we need to do something to preserve this precious gas. Robert suggests

[Let the US] Get out of the business and let the free market prevail. The consequence will be a rise in prices. Unfortunately, party balloons will be $100 each rather than $3 but we’ll have to live with that. We will have to live with those prices eventually anyway.

iPhone 4 vs iPhone 3GS Comparison – Graphical Chart

2010-06-19T04:31:00.001-07:00

600,000 people in iPhone pre-order 4 on a single day and the rush of fan boys left both Apple and AT & T web servers down for several hours. If you wonder why so many people rush to iPhone 4, here is the picture that explains the difference between iPhone 3G and iPhone 4.

Delete Your Skype Call and Chat History

2010-06-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

Like all other modern applications, Skype also records all communications we exchange use. It records instant messages, calls, file transfers, SMS, etc., and it is easy to see through the conversation tab.

If you ever want to get rid of the history information, then you must delete them. Skype offers a single click option to clear the entire history of your account, but the functionality is buried deep under options menu.Really deep!.

To erase history follow the menu Tools -> Options, go to Privacy Settings tab on the left side, click Show Advanced Options button and then hit the Delete button history. Ah You're almost done. Just confirm popup, it displays on the screen and your story is missing from your account.

Hide Facebook status from people

2010-06-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

Sometime we want to hide our status updates from specific people who are already accepted as Friends in Facebook. Do you wonder why we need to accept someone as friend and then hide status updates from them? Well, may be you have to accept a friend request from your boss, but certainly love to hide status updates as well as other Facebook activities from him. Something similar goes with few annoying friends whom you cant’ de-friend but like to hide your updates.

Thanks to Facebook for providing fine grain privacy options on controlling what we want to share and with whom we want to share. It’s very easy to block one or more specific friends from seeing your status updates. Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Login to Facebook and go to Privacy Settings Page. It shows a page something similar to what is shown in the below image.

2. Click on “Customize settings” link

3. Expand the privacy options available in the section Things I Share -> Posts by me. Choose Customise from the list of available options

4. Type the list of unwanted friend’s names in to input box of the section "Hide this from”. Here is a screen grab of couple of my friends whom I added for writing this post

5. Click the Save Settings button. That’s all. Facebook will ensure that these people will not see your status updates on their news feed.

Delete Top 100 Rows from SQL Server Tables

2010-06-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Want the top 100 / n to remove records from a SQL Server table, it is very simple to achieve with the below mentioned query:

DELETE FROM MyTable
WHERE PK_Column
IN(
SELECT TOP 100 PK_Column
FROM MyTable
ORDER BY creation
)

Why do you want to delete top 100 rows from SQL Server Database?

If the size of my SQL Server table is too huge, I often tend to delete top n records instead of deleting whole table. To simplify what I am saying, lets say I have 1 million records in a table, then instead of deleting whole table in one go, it would be faster to delete 1000 rows in a loop in one go.

Google's new Secured search

2010-05-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Google deployed secure version of its search engine at https://google.com (have you noticed https instead of http?). This search engine allows anyone to use the Google search safely.

How is it secure?

If you use https://google.com, data exchanged between your browser and Google's servers is encrypted so that nobody can feel it.

Is my Google search history secure?

No, the queries that you submit to Google's servers are stored in Google. There is no change in the registration of Google's search history.
Any difference between public and secure search results?

Yes. Secure Search is different from the regular search. When you go to Google Safe Search

1. Image search will not be available in the left sidebar.
2. Site may respond slowly compared to regular research site because of an overhead projector to show between your browser and the server.

WalMart Reduced iPhone 3GS Price To 97$

2010-05-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

Walmart store has cut the price of iPhone 3G 16GB model for $ 97 with two-year service contract. This offer saves you $ 100 and it starts today.

Apple slashes prices for its products where they plan to release an improved version of a product.

The slash of the iPhone 3G have enough confirmation that Apple is planning the next release of iPhone, unofficially dubbed as iPhone 4, released in the coming WWDC conference....

Intel wraps up 'best first quarter ever' by teasing new dual-core Atoms for Q2

2010-04-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Support for Android Moorestown is not the only piece of news Intel to come out today. In an earnings call today that started with the words of a 288 percent growth year over year net income - the "best [first fiscal quarter] Record" reported - Intel CEO Paul Otellini said, "the next innovation coming out on Atom is dual core, which appears in the second quarter. " Since there are already dual-core Atoms for nettop, we're going to guess he is referring specifically to the netbook. That jibes well with what we have heard about the alleged remake D510 N500. Guess we have something to look forward to the Netbook category in the coming months.

Toshima crams Core i3 and i5 options into business similar Tecra M11

2010-04-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

It is impossible not to notice the simple fact that this machine is aimed primarily at those rocking suits more often than pajamas, but only because the new equipment Tecra M11 is not flashy, does not mean that there is a party rages at ' procedure. In an attempt to keep with the times, Toshiba has equipped its newest fighter works with Intel Core and Core i3 i5 processors, and only if the company had to evolve its operating system, a copy of WinXP is cast into the side of Windows 7. Other specifications include up to 3GB of DDR3 RAM, integrated Intel Graphics HD (NVS NVIDIA 2100M or $ 1,229 on the model), a 320GB hard drive (7,200 rpm), dual-layer DVD burner and a 14-inch backlit panel LED (1,366 x 768). You will also have a webcam, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, WiFi, audio in / out, an ExpressCard slot and a three-year warranty, all for the low, low price starting at $ 899. Oh, and is available today!

Recover SQL Server Database Suspect Mode

2010-02-27T02:00:00.000-08:00

I got stuck with a SQL Server database which is on suspect mode and need to recover it without having any recent backups in hand. I Googled for quite a long time and found these steps to bring back the database to online state without losing any data. I found these steps very useful and I hope they will be useful to others who face similar problem

Step 1:
Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the SQL Server. Make sure that your current database is set to master

Step 2:
Clear the suspect mode of the database using sp_resetstatus DatabaseName. This will clear the suspect flag and make the database available online

Step 3:
Change the database status to Emergency using the following command. Emergency mode allows you to access the databases as normal but with no consistency guarantee. This option also allows us to export the table data so that we can minimize the damage.

ALTER DATABASE DatabaseName SET EMERGENCY;

Step 4:
Restrict database to single user by changing the access mode as mentioned below
ALTER DATABASE DatabaseName SET SINGLE_USER;

Step 5:
Run the CHECKDB command with “REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS” option. This option should be tried as last option as it always behaves the way it is named. We are not sure of what data it removes.

DBCC CHECKDB (DatabaseName, REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS) WITH NO_INFOMSGS, ALL_ERRORMSGS;

Even though the step 4 is expected to result in data loss while repairing the database, I was lucky to restore the database without any loss. My job would have been much easier if the admin of the database server followed few general guidelines that allow recovery of database in case of any unexpected failures. Here are the few of them

Backup your data frequently. (once in two days or daily or even more frequent depending on your needs)
Have multiple backups. Move the backups to external drives or tapes frequently
Validate that your backups are good by performing trial restores to alternate server
Run CHECKDB regularly if possibly in your case, to know how long it regularly takes

Use Rar File Open Knife to Open Rar File

2009-12-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

RAR is a compression file, to open RAR file there is a tool, RAR File Open Knife. RAR File Open Knife is a fast and easy-to-use tool that opens RAR files,The tool only opens RAR archives, as fast as possible. One can open a RAR file by drag ‘n’ drop, double click or shell integrated context menu. To speed the process up, RAR File Open Knife has the option to define a default output folder and a default password.

If selected, RAR File Open Knife automatically creates new subfolders for each RAR archive it opens. The new folders are named automatically after the archive being opened.

The program comes with short instructions in over 50 languages, the engine is highly optimized. In performance tests RAR File Open Knife was 2-11% faster than WinRAR, 7-Zip etc.

download RAR File Open Knife

Cut and Round or Semi Round your Picture With Cut My Pic

2009-12-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

Cut My Pic is a useful website to customize your pictures. With the help of this website you can upload a picture or photo from your collection and cut it according to your need and make corner round or semi round. You can also change darkness of your picture.

In this way you can resize your pictures and you can save it or send it to your friends through email. With the help of this website you can create Avtars also or customize your pictures. Over all this is useful online tool.

Visit Cut My Pic

Learn Sketching and Drawing Online with Sketchfu

2009-12-12T19:15:00.001-08:00

Sketchfu is a useful website, that provide you simple tool for learning, drawing and sketching. With the help of this tool you can not only learn drawing and sketching but also see how others make a drawing and sketching. You can also watch your creation by replay option.

This tool provide you facility to browse drawings of other person and selection from large collection so you can easily learn how other people draw and sketch.

In replay you can set speed of your replay. Over all this is useful online application to learn drawing and sketching. You can also save and publish your creation on Sketchfu website.

Visit Sketchfu

Extend Vista and Windows 7 Notebook Battery Life by Aerofoil

2009-11-28T19:04:00.000-08:00

Aerofoil is simple software to extend battery life in Windows 7 and Vista Notebook, it has minimal CPU usage and minimal memory usage. Having the installer configure Aerofoil allows you to have it custom configured to your particular system. This software is Open source and free.You need not to configure file, everything is customised with the installer.

Features

# Allowing you to manually disable Aero Glass.
# Optionally managing Aero Glass user interface.
# Optionally managing sound muting (NEW!).
# Optionally managing YOUR chosen power plans (NEW!)
# Optionally managing Windows Sidebar.
# Optionally showing a quick hibernate button
# Changing icon colour to show your power type (NEW!)

Download Aerofoil 1.5.0

Fix for “Facebook Chat Hijacks the Firefox Session”

2009-11-28T19:00:00.001-08:00

If you are a Facebook + Firefox user, you might have come across this persistent problem whenever you use Facebook chat.

When I am typing to someone in Facebook chat and they send me a message, it cuts off what I am typing then it resumes typing with some letters missing. Also when I am viewing another page, off Facebook and someone messages me in Facebook chat it pops me back to the Facebook page with the chat window open.

Basically, your Firefox session will be hijacked by the Facebook chat till you read the latest chat message. I found it really annoying, so just avoided it by going offline from Facebook chat. I initially thought I am the only one facing the issue but was surprised to see few others having the same issue! So today, I wanted to find out the reason and a possible solution for this, so that I need not hide myself from Facebook chat. This is when I bumped onto this page on Facebook issues and found the possible solution.

The problem was with QuickTime plugin for Firefox. I disabled the plugin and the issue was resolved!

I am yet to know the exact reason behind this, but it solved the issue, and that’s what matters!

Repair and Fix Common Windows 7 Problems with FixWin Utility

2009-11-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

As a Windows Vista or Windows 7 user, you must have come across some small but irritating problems like Recycle Bin icon missing from desktop or Windows sidebar missing from the desktop. Most of the times you might just ignore it and try to live with it or might go to internet to look for a possible fix. But now, luckily there is a small utility to fix 50 such annoying problems, all at one place. The Windows Club has released FixWin v1.0 utility which is a 529kb portable application file to repair and fix common Windows annoyances and issues.

FixWin provides one-click fixes for Windows Explorer problems, Internet & Connectivity issues, Windows media player problems, system tools and some additional fixes for uncategorized items. The small size and being a portable app, makes it a must have for all novice and expert Windows 7 and Windows Vista users.

Go ahead and try out this handy tool.

Download FixWin v1.0

Monitor the Kids’ Mobile Usage with My Mobile Watchdog

2009-11-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

Are you a parent who is worried about your kid’s usage of mobile phone? If so, My Mobile Watchdog is for you. This is a new mobile application that logs and stores copies of all mobile activity, including text messages, phone calls, e-mails, picture messages and websites accessed. My Mobile Watchdog safeguards your child while using cell phones and immediately alerts you if he or she receives unapproved email, text messages or phone calls. It sends an email every time the child gets a call from an “unapproved” number.

Recent instances of violent cyber bullying and “sexting” has confirmed the need for greater supervision and My Mobile Watchdog is a way for parents to monitor mobile phone use and ensure their children are safe. The software is set to be launched in August 2009 and will be costing $9.95 per month.

Safety at the cost of Privacy?

Its true that many kids fall prey to sexting or other similar habits, but intruding the privacy in such big scale is taking it little too far fetched. They claim that the American police is already using it to catch the pedophiles, but letting it used by parents to keep track of their kids’ each and every activity, doesn’t it amount to human rights violation? What if your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse start using it against you?

Checking if your PC is Windows 7 compatible

2009-11-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

After the Windows 7 RC was released to the public earlier this week, many users are unsure if their PC is capable of running Windows 7.

As per the official website, minimum system requirements for running Windows 7 is pretty light.
Minimum System Requirements for Windows 7

- 1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB of RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or higher driver

But how to be sure if your PC is Windows 7 compatible?

Microsoft has released a beta version of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. It’s simple and a no-brainer. This is a utility that you can run on your Windows XP or Vista machine to determine whether your system is ready for Windows 7. Basically, it checks your computer’s memory, processor, storage, and graphics hardware. It will also check for known software compatibility problems.

If your PC passes the test, the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will tell you. If not, it will attempt to provide steps you can take to get your computer ready for Windows 7.

Paint.net: A freeware utility

2009-10-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

Let's just say you need a photo editing software, you do not suppose the money for Photoshop or the Internet at speeds of more than 4 kb / s. You do not like much the GIMP, and wants to try something else. Of course you can always try the updated version of Microsoft Paint, or use Open Canvas. But will this program as Paint.net "Who put you in the head. It is a mere 1.6MB, and it promises to be simple, but powerful version of Photoshop.

Sound a bit dodgy? Well, it requires Microsoft. NET Framework (3.0) for the operation. Because it uses the engine. Net, it limits the amount of actual code in the program required. It has layers, layer settings ... Manipulation tools for their own form of distortion curves. Stuff you expect to be in any decent image editor. But of course, is the advantage of more Paint.net Photoshop, Gimp, perhaps, is that he has a Lab code to make plugins. The significant community have been a spate of plug-ins and offers features that put it on par with Photoshop CS4 in some areas. The only problem with Paint.net for the moment is the lack of support in a tablet. The developers said they support the touch screen quickly, which is a bonus.

If you think, its worth to be checked out, here is the site : Click Here

How to add Twitter search to Google search results

2009-06-14T01:07:00.000-07:00

The recent survey’s shows that the social media tool Twitter is going to dominate even the search engine giant Google.The power of Twitter lies in its real-time search results and already it is said to have more than 25 million tweets per day.

Here we’ve found out a very useful Firefox add-on which display these twitter real time search results for any search term on top of Google search results.

How can I Install Twitter search?

Unlike the other Firefox add-on’s, this Twitter search service comes as a Greasemoney script.Hence you will need to install a Greasemoney add-on first and then the actual add-on before you start using.

1.First install the Greasemonekey Add-on Through here.

2.Now, click on the ‘Install’ button inside this link to get the actual add-on ‘Real-time Twitter search on Google’.

Google apologizes for slow service

2009-05-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Following the reports of slowed and even interrupted service, which Google deemed a “traffic jam”, the company has now apologized for its slow service on the main page, the news site, and Gmail.

"An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our traffic through Asia," said Urs Hoelzle, a spokesman for the company and Google’s senior vice president of operations. "As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions," he said. "We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and 'always on', so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. Hoelzle continued, "We're very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we'll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won't happen again.”

The outage of the Google services has caused many to question the reliability, as this isn’t the first time a situation such as this has arisen. In January 2009 the company had serious technical issues resulting in an inability to return search results to users. In February 2009, the Gmail service experienced an outage that left millions across the globe with zero access to their web based email for a few hours.

Major outages such as this undermine Google’s attempts to deliver a “cloud computing” service which can be used rather than locally installed applications.

BlackBerry Curve outsells Apple's iPhone

2009-05-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

RIM's BlackBerry Curve has managed to position itself as the best-selling smartphone in the US by capturing nearly 50 percent of the consumer market in Q1 2009.

The NPD Group attributed Curve's success to Verizon's "buy-one-get-one" aggressive promotional campaign.

"Verizon Wireless's aggressive marketing of the BlackBerry Storm and its buy-one-get-one BlackBerry promotion to its large customer base contributed to RIM capturing three of the top five positions," explained Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at The NPD Group. "The more familiar, and less expensive, Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major US national carriers."

Smartphones, which represented just 17 percent of handset sales volume in Q1 2008, currently account for 23 percent of sales.

"Even in this challenging economy, consumers are migrating toward Web-capable handsets and their supporting data plans to access more information and entertainment on the go," said Rubin.

The first-quarter 2009 ranking of the top-five best-selling smartphones is as follows:

* RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
* Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
* RIM BlackBerry Storm
* RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
* T-Mobile G1

UPDATE:

Rubin told that carriers have "tremendous" leverage in determining smartphone success in the US market.

"Three of the top five handsets have been heavily promoted as exclusive hero handsets by carriers while the leading BlackBerry Curve enjoys distribution on all major carriers," added Rubin.

4G Sprint trial to continue

2009-05-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

A move by Sprint to strike out claims against IPCS in a court case was dismissed by a Cook County, Illinois circuit court.

Sprint wanted the court to dismiss claims in an amended complaint over Sprint's Wi-Max venture with Clearwire.

The case, filed earlier this year, alleged that Sprint improperly withheld 4G technology after the Clearwire transaction.

The ICPS subsidiaries can go ahead and make a claim for any actual or direct damages resulting from the case.

ICPS CEO Timothy M. Yager said: "Technological advances are central to any wireless business and we are confident that after the evidence is presented in this case, the court will uphold the business deal that we reached with Spring over 10 years ago to 'be Sprint' in our exclusive territories and offer the most advanced seamless wireless nationwide network to our subscribers."

ICPS is also waiting for Sprint to comply with a court's ruling that it must stop owning, operating and managing the Nextel wireless network in IPCS wireless terrority by January next year.

eBooks fail to attract young readers

2009-05-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

If Amazon's Kindle e-book reader is looking to make reading fab, hip and groovy, it is failing miserably.

A few months back, CNET mused about whom exactly was using Kindle, as Amazon itself seems somewhat recalcitrant to discuss the matter in public. Some 700 people replied, leading the mag to conclude that, at $359, younger folk would prefer to buy a gaming console, an iPod or to rent a copy of Porky's VIII - Revenge of the Vomit with a side order of a mega bucket of Buffalo Wings and chilli sauce.

Of 700 users polled, half were over 50 and 70% are over 40. This would seem to indicate that the majority of users are people who would read books anyway, rather than being kewl dudes and dudettes with the attention span of - hey! Look! A castle!

While more mature folks are on record as stating that the digital reader can be easier to handle and read than printed books for arthritis sufferers and those with poor eyesight, we cannot but help feeling that Kindle has abjectly failed in diverting younger folk from the shiny allure of ten second YouTube clips of dancing kittens, co-eds drinking tequila shots using only their feet and people throwing up in their shorts. Or someone else's.

It's at times like this that I feel very, very old and very, very worried about the future of personkind. I've never met a person I liked who didn't love reading books. Either in print or pixel form.

Mozilla’s Fennec gets Firefox 3.5 core

2009-05-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

Mozilla thinks beyond the desktop version of its Firefox browser and the next big opportunity to claim market share: The mobile version of Firefox, currently code-named Fennec, will receive similar capabilities as the desktop version and integrate the core technologies of Firefox 3.5.

Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla, confirmed in a recent conversation with TG Daily that Fennec will adopt the same code base as Firefox 3.5, which is currently available as a public Beta 4. While it will be a streamlined version, Fennec will be based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering engine and include the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Beltzner noted that Mozilla believes that mobile browsers “should not be second class browsers,” but provide an experience similar to a desktop browser.

Beltzner made the comments when talking about growth opportunities for Firefox, which he said are primarily in making the software faster, more secure and much more extendable to enable a “customizable web.” Another opportunity is in corporate applications, which still rely on Internet Explorer 6 in many environments. Beltzner said that Mozilla moves into this field by allowing companies access to Mozilla developer teams and browser documentation. For example, the organization helped IBM develop an “IBM-specific version” of Firefox, which apparently is deployed company-wide.

He noted that Microsoft has significant progress with the recently released Internet Explorer 8 and said that Mozilla welcomes that “Microsoft is investing in the web again.” However, despite the apparent enhancements in privacy and performance, he did not think that IE8 has any new or unique features Mozilla would want or adopt for Firefox.

iPhone to overtake Linux within 18 months

2009-05-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Since June 2008, the iPhone has more than tripled its market share, while Linux has merely added 0.18% to its customer base.

According to new figures from MarketShare, iPhone users accounted for just 0.16% of web users last June, but now total an impressive 0.55%. Linux, on the other hand, has grown from 0.8% to 1.02% share over the same period.

Mac users have increased from 7.94% to 9.73%, while Microsoft must be crying into its beer as its market share has plummeted to a derisory 87.9%.

But it is the seemingly-unstoppable rise of the iPhone that has industry watchers all-aquiver. Assuming the iPhone batteries don't explode and the displays don't crack, it looks very much as if Linux will be consigned to the dustbin of history before the decade is out.

Google expands Gmail search options

2009-05-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Google has introduced a new web search widget for its popular Gmail service. The optional feature, which can be activated in Gmail Labs under the Settings tab, allows users to search the Internet without opening a new browser window.

"People would ask me questions, over chat or email, and I'd have to leave Gmail to search Google for an answer. Then I'd have to select the answer, copy it, go back to Gmail and paste the answer into the chat window or my reply," software engineer Adam de Boor explained in a blog post. "Sometimes I'd get distracted and forget to go back to Gmail, and I'd have to go through it all again when I remembered what I'd been doing. With the new Google Search experiment in Gmail Labs, my problem is solved. Type your search in, and a window (like a chat window, but a bit bigger) appears at the bottom of your screen with the first few search results. "
According to de Boor, users can easily insert the search results into chats and e-mails. De Boor also recommended enabling the "Navbar drag and drop" in Labs to move the web search box up to the top of the page for easier access.

Google has added a number of new features to Gmail over the past few months, including search autocomplete, support for various Indian languages and extra emoticons. The search giant has also "rewritten Gmail" for mobile devices and offline use.

Twitter citizen journo beat New York packTwitter citizen journo beat New York pack

2009-05-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

It was a tweeter who first reported Air Force One flying close to Manhattan earlier this week.

According to Harvard University project, the Nieman Journalism Lab, there was a heap of backchat on social media sites, blogs, message boards and on Twitter.

That back footed the New York news organizations that, however, jumped onto the story as quickly as they could. Unlike Trachtman, they have news web sites.

Nieman quotes New Jersey resident Amy Trachtman, who tweeted away seconds after she heard the aircraft approach NYC.

Trachtman took her dog for a walk, still spooked by her experience, but noticed that the building next door was being evacuated. She used her BlackBerry to tweet again. Then she phoned her friends in Manhattan and went to the news sites to see if there was anything up online.

A reporter at the Advance filed the first online report, but meanwhile the stock market began to get the collywobbles.

The Wall Street Journal go to the story before the New York Times, but the Twitter was the first off the mark. Nieman reckons there's no grand lesson about reporting on the Interweb.

The twitterati were first, but the Harvard project reports there is no great lesson to be learned from this. We think there is.

IE8 can’t stop IE market share decline

2009-05-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer 8 may now be available through Windows Update, but the more aggressive rollout of the browser has yet to impact IE’s continued loss of market share. According to Net Applications, Microsoft’s browser shed another 0.72 points of market share setting another 10 year low. And yes, Firefox is still gaining.

IE was estimated at a market share of 66.10% in April, down from 66.82% in March. Mozilla’s Firefox kept the pressure on Microsoft and was able to increase Firefox’s market share from 22.05% to 22.48% in the same time frame. Safari lost slightly, from 8.23% to 8.21% and Opera also saw a marginal decline from 0.70% to 0.68%, according to Net Applications.

Of course, the truly interesting information of these statistics is unveiled when we dig a bit deeper. For example, IE saw its market share decline to as low as 60.90% on one day, while Mozilla topped 25% on two days for the first time ever in Net Applications’ charts. Also, we know that Microsoft has not found an effective way to use IE8 to stop the overall IE market share decline: IE7 was estimated at 44.51% during April, down 2.05 points from March. IE6 dropped by 0.86 points to 18.36%, bringing the total share loss of these two browsers to 2.91 points for the month. Meanwhile, IE8 picked up only 2.16 points to 3.99%, leaving 0.75 points - or roughly 25% of the market share IE7 and IE6 dropped - on the table. Those 0.75 points seem to have fed the majority of a 0.59 point gain of Firefox 3.0, which climbed to 20.25% as well as a 0.23 point gain of Safari 3.2, which jumped to 4.29%.

The conclusion here clearly is that Microsoft needs to do much more to push IE8. Of course, we also notice that the monthly market share loss is relatively small and, according to a previous TG Daily analysis, it would take Mozilla, at the current pace, more than five years to surpass the market share of IE. Microsoft has some time to catch up with the leading browsers, but it can’t make too many mistakes anymore. The current IE market share is hovering around a 10 year low: IE5, which was introduced in early 1999, was among Microsoft’s most successful browsers and lifted IE’s share from about 62% at its introduction to more than 70% within one year after launch.

Mozilla updates Firefox, fixes critical flaw

2009-04-28T19:31:00.001-07:00

Mozilla has released an upgrade for the popular Firefox browser. Version 3.0.10 reportedly corrects a critical flaw that caused frequent crashes for a number of users.

"One of the security fixes in Firefox 3.0.9 introduced a regression that caused some users to experience frequent crashes. Users of the HTML Validator add-on were particularly affected, but other users also experienced this crash in some situations. In analyzing this crash we discovered that it was due to memory corruption similar to cases that have been identified as security vulnerabilities in the past," explained Mozilla.

Firefox 3.0.9, released just a week ago, fixed a slew of problems, including:

* Refresh header redirect to javascript
* POST data sent to wrong site when saving web page with embedded frame
* Malicious search plugins capable of injecting code into arbitrary sites
* Same-origin violations in XMLHttpRequest and XPCNativeWrapper.toString
* XSS hazard using third-party stylesheets and XBL bindings
* Same-origin violations when Adobe Flash loaded via view-source
* URL spoofing with box drawing character

Verizon eyes partnership with Apple

2009-04-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

Verizon Wireless is reportedly considering a partnership with Apple.

According to Business Week, the companies are currently thrashing out the distribution terms for two new iPhone-like units.

One device is described as an "iPhone lite," while the other is thought to be a "media pad" capable of playing music, HD videos and displaying photos. The "iPhone lite" is slightly thinner than the current iPhone, but will be cheaper to produce as it is powered by a system on a chip. Meanwhile, the media pad is apparently smaller than Amazon's Kindle electronic reader, but with a larger touchscreen. The pad may also be capable of placing calls over Wi-Fi and a high-speed wireless connection from Verizon.

"The media pad category might go to Verizon," a source told Business Week. "We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category."

Apple is also examining the possibility of developing a new iPhone that would utilise the Verizon's CDMA network.

However, Gene Munster, a senior analyst at Piper Jaffray (PJC), noted that the manufacture of a CDMA iPhone was "unlikely."

"We believe such a deal is unlikely due to the technology hurdles involved in building and supporting its first CDMA iPhone," wrote Munster in a research note.

Cablevision to offer 101 Mbps broadband

2009-04-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Cablevision Systems unveiled plans to launch a new high-speed Internet and WiFi service that could quite possibly bring Verizon, which posted excellent quarterly earnings based solely on their wireless, Internet and TV division’s strength, a little competition.

Cablevision officials announced that they intend to begin offering the nation’s first 101 Mbps high-speed Internet service on May 11. Currently, the company delivers high-speed Internet, digital cable TV and digital voice services in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut via its Optimum brand.

The new service, priced at $100 per month, is being called “Optimum Online Ultra” and leverages the new DOCSIS 3.0 technology. Cablevision believes that Optimum Online Ultra will put them a step ahead of competitors allowing the company to offer a superior product to anything else available. As a comparison, Verizon offers its FiOS fiber optic service at a rate of $140 per month, for download speeds reaching only 50 Mbps. Cablevisions said its service will provide up-speeds of 15 Mbps.

If Cablevision in fact can provide 101 Mbps, users will be to download full-length HD movies in less than 10 minutes – or 150 MP3 tracks or 750 high-resolution digital photos in one minute, the company said. And yes, we are also wondering about those download caps and how long it will take you to run into such a barrier with that connection speed. Cablevision did not release any information on bandwidth caps for its new flagship service.

The wireless Internet access offered by Cablevision will also be doubling in speed to 3.0 Mbps utilizing Wi-Fi technology. The service is free to individuals who subscribe to Cablevision when they want to use their laptops and mobile devices locally in specific areas.

Cablevision said that the new broadband service required an investment of about $300 million.

Swine flu defines social media’s new age

2009-04-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

If someone tweets it, is it news? Should Twitter be our first stop when we want to know what’s going on? Do we even have a choice anymore?

Over the last year or so, Twitter has emerged as an early warning system of sorts for major breaking news stories. Following the earthquake that devastated the Sichuan region of China in May, tweets from the disaster zone gave the rest of the world its first glimpse of the scope of the devastation. When US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in January, Twitter got the scoop on everyone else with a nowiconic picture of passengers waiting calmly for rescue on the wing of the downed plane.

As swine flu sweeps from its origins in Mexico to countless countries around the world, Twitter finds itself once more on the front lines of modern hybrid journalism. And as much as Twitterati appreciate the hair trigger ability to know what’s going on Right Now, such knowledge comes with a price.

In the land of social media, anyone can say anything. While the collective influence of the crowd tends to rein in anyone intent on posting the online equivalent of graffiti, the real-time web as exemplified by Twitter often makes this self-policing a bit of a joke. That’s because by the time the crowd has shamed the perpetrator back on the righteous path, the damage has already been done.

So as an endless barrage of tweets – from individuals, citizen journalists and major news outlets alike – raises our collective panic level around this emerging global story, we find ourselves knowing more about things sooner than ever before. But at the same time, we’re more vulnerable to misinformation. Individuals with no primary newsgathering capability of their own send out hastily worded, ill=informed messages in the hope that hyperbolic language will attract more attention. Conventional media journalists are just as guilty for using their Twitter pulpits to hawk upcoming shows and goose ratings. Like the teaser spots they play before going to commercial, they’re usually just exciting enough to get us to hang in – even if they’re misinformed and irresponsible.

Is Twitter providing a balanced public service that allows us to optimally manage our way through a potential threat to our collective health? Or is it helping some among us increase their ratings and raise their follower counts by spreading a little needless panic along the way?

No matter who you are, there’s nothing wrong with using Twitter as a tool to keep abreast of what’s going on in the world. It’s a welcome addition to the fast-evolving world of online media, and a great way to quickly plug into whatever network makes the most sense to us at any given moment. Where we begin to lose it is when we assume it’s the only thing we’ll need going forward. It isn’t. And in the absence of the context provided by using a well-chosen set of conventional and new media tools to stay up-to-date, we run a greater risk of being unable to separate fact from fiction.

Carmi Levy is a Canadian technology analyst and journalist covered with scars from his years leading IT help desks and managing software development projects for big bad insurance companies. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.

New Firefox beta finally arrives

2009-04-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Under development for ten months, Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is finally available for download.

Based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, Firefox 3.5b4 is available in 70 languages and features improved tools for managing private data, including a private - aka porn - mode.

Mozilla claims the new browser offers better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, together with the ability to provide location aware browsing using web standards for geolocation.

Improvements to the Gecko layout engine include speculative parsing for faster rendering. Support for HTML5 video and audio, downloadable fonts and other new CSS properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 offline data storage for applications, and SVG transforms are also included.

The 7.6MB beta is available in Windows, Mac and Linux versions and you can get it from here. The usual dire warnings about compatibility problems with some websites and add-ons apply.

iPod/iPhone Tips: How To Free Yourself From iTunes With SharePod

2009-04-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

SharePod is a light weighted iTunes alternative that you can launch directly from any windows PC even no need of administrative rights.This one feature itself has won the popularity for this free utility to manage iPods/iPhones at the work places, where it usually requires admin privileges for installing any applications.

This tiny app has already made the LifeHacker’s most popular free windows downloads of 2008.The real power of the application lies in its GUI, which make accessing your music so simple and smooth.

SharePod latest releases also supports new iPhones and iPod touches along with as usual iPod nanos.In addition to basic music playback features it supports complete iPod back up feature and copying entire or individual tracks from iPod to PC and vice versa.Now with the SharePod we can edit the albums art work or share your albums to friends very easily unlike the complex iTunes apps.

9 Best Sites To Read Reviews Before You Buy An iPhone App

2009-04-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

As there are hundreds of applications available on Apple App Store for iPhones it is tough to decide which application to buy or not to buy.

Another unfortunate issue is that there is no way to try an application before purchasing. App Store does not provide any demo version of applications to download and try them.

iPhone App review sites comes very handy to know about an application before shelling out your hard earned money. Check out a list of great web sites that provide detailed reviews of iPhone Apps.

1. AppVee

AppVee understood that it is unfortunate that we cant try an application before purchasing and they provide a demo video of the application as part of their review. AppVee is a great web site for detailed review of iPhone Apps along with video demonstrations.

visit AppVee.com

2. Apple iPhone School

Apple iPhone School has mini reviews of the applications with loads of pictures and occasional video demos. This site also hosts reviews on the process of jail breaking the iPhone and the applications that run on jail broken iPhones.

visit Apple iPhone School

3. What’s On iPhone

The mission of What’s On iPhone is to review the latest applications, be the forum of iPhone and provide application resources. With a great team of engineers, writers, home makers and other professionals What’s On iPhone provides excellent reviews.

visit What’s On iPhone

4. iUseThis

The iUseThis iPhone application review website stands out from the rest of the review sites by providing the count of people really using the application. This makes it easy to decide which one to buy if you have more than one application in the same arena.

visit iUseThis

5. App Store Apps

App Store Apps web site hosts a list of Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free applications. So if you are a new iPhone owner browse the tow lists to get a glimpse of best of iPhone Applications available for you.

visit App Store Apps

Blogs

There are few blogs that post reviews of interesting iPhone applications and provide good insight information

1. The Gizmodo iPhone App Reviews
2. Ars Technica iPhone App Reviews
3. iPhone Alley iPhone App Reviews
4. Life Hacker iPhone App Reviews

How To Capture Screen Shots of iPhone 3G

2009-04-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

The new iPhone 3G has a built in feature that allows you to grab screen shots without installing any third party applications.

To capture a screen shot hold down the home button and press the top button. The screen will flash indicating that a screen shot is captured and the resulting image is placed in your photos folder.

This is a very useful feature for bloggers as they had to use digital cameras to capture screen shots.

The built in screen capturing capability is available in only iPhone 3G models. If you are having a old iPhone and willing to upgrade it iPhone 3G read the section “Upgrade your old iPhone to firmware version 2.0″ in the post 5 Steps to Upgrade From a Hacked iPhone to an iPhone 3G by Matt Cutts.

How To Save All Your Opened Tabs In Google Chrome

2009-04-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome, blazingly fast browser, provides an useful option to restore all of the tabs that you had open when you last closed.This feature is similar to Firefox’s Session Manager.
Uses

By using this option you can just leave up all of the pages that you visit frequently and they were the next time when you the browser.
You can easily recover all the tabs from any sudden crash of the browser.

How to Enable The Option

By default this option is disabled.Follow the below steps to enable the option:

Step 1: Click on the Tools button located on top right of the browser and select Options.
Step 2: On the Basics tab of the Options just enable the Restore the pages that were open last option which is located at the top.That’s it!

How To Add Missing iTunes Album Art

2009-04-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Everyone has this problem - you have tracks in your iTunes library that don’t have album artwork.With the release of iPhone and iPods this album art became a major part in our music listening experience.

There are many online tools available to automatically fix this.But it won’t work for the tracks that came from some obscure CD that iTunes has never heard of.

Luckily we have a very simple solution to fix this without requiring any application to download.

The process is simple:

Select the songs that belongs to the same album.
Right click on it and select ‘Get Info’ option.
Drag the art from your browser(using google image search) into ‘Artwork’ image box located at the right-side of the dialog. You’re done!

How To Create iTunes Store Account Without Credit Card

2009-04-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

Many of us who have the iPhone/iPod are still struggling to install free applications available in the iTunes store. The problem is either we don’t have a credit card to create the account or may be the free application is not available in our country’s iTunes store(most of the free apps are available for US users only).

To solve both the problems there is way in which we can create iTunes account as a US user and also skip entering credit card details. Here are the simple steps to follow:

1. Launch iTunes application on your computer
2. Select “iTunes Store” from the left side panel options; displays iTunes Store home page.
3. Select United States as your location from the country selection drop down menu available at the bottom of the page
4. After choosing the country, click on "Top Free Apps" section
5. When the application’s page is loaded - click on "Get App" button; login window will appear.
6. Click on the "create account" button
7. Fill out US address details and click on continue. If you don’t know any valid US address you can use Apple US retail store address by pointing your browser to http://www.apple.com/retail/ and choosing a store from the list available in the page
8. After submitting valid US postal address details, iTune Store registration takes you to payment mode page. Here choose the option "None" and finish the registration.
9. You will now see the congratulation page.You’re done! Your iTunes Store account is created without credit card and from now onwards you can download all the free applications available to US users from any country.

Note: If you try and create an account directly from the logon box, you will be missing the option called "None" in the payment page, and you end up in compulsory submitting your credit card details.

How To Access Blocked GMail From School or Office

2009-04-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Are you a GMail addict and tired of your office or school administration blocking access to GMail? Here is a guide with various tricks to unblock your favorite GMail and enjoy the full mail access at your organization.

1. Instead of gmail.com Use Different Address Like mail.google.com, google.com/mail, etc

Instead of using the URL gmail.com to access your GMail account, try other web address like mail.google.com, google.com/mail when GMail is blocked at your school/office. This trick is expected to work if the IT administrators has blocked gmail.com alone and left the rest of the domains open as they are not widely known to people. Here is the list of alternative address to access GMail

* http://m.gmail.com
* https://gmail.com
* http://google.com/mail
* http://mail.google.com or https://mail.google.com
* http://googlemail.com

2. Access Blocked GMail Using iGoogle

GMail is available as a gadge to iGoogle and you can use this gadget to access GMail. When you access GMail through iGoogle all the communication with the GMail servers is routed through iGoogle servers. So this defeats all the restriction and filters applied by IT administrators in blocking gmail.com domain.

To access GMail through iGoogle

1. Login to iGoogle using your Google Account
2. Add GMail gadget to iGoogle by following this link or by using Add Stuff on screen
3. That’s all. Start accessing your GMail inside iGoogle.

3. Access GMail Using Opera Mini Simulator

Use Opera Mini Browser Online Simulator application to access GMail in a small screen window. Opera Mini is a popular web browser for mobile phones. It allows users to work with live demo of Opera Mini that functions exactly like it would when installed on a handset.

Point your browser to http://www.operamini.com/demo/ and start accessing blocked GMail using the URL m.gmail.com.

Reading mails on mobile simulator is definitely not convenient as reading them on a full screen browser computer. But when you need to access your GMail urgently, This trick might be helpful to you.

4. Use Microsoft Outlook Or Other Mail Programs To Access GMail Using POP3/IMAP

Configure your mail clients like Outlook, Live Mail, Lotus Notes to access GMail using POP3 or IMAP protocol. This trick of accessing GMail when blocked is mostly useful for working professionals as they should be definitely using some mail client for official mail access.

You can find the instruction to configure POP3 and IMAP access for various mail clients over here and here.

5. Launch GMail from Google Talk

launch_gmail_from_google_talk At few organizations they block access to GMail but not to Google Talk. If that is the case at your organization, then you can launch GMail from Google Talk application. Sign in to GTalk and click on the envelope icon to launch access GMail.

6. Use Your Smart Phones

If you have internet connection on your mobile, you can make use of your mobile phone to access GMail.

GMail has an excellent native application for most of the mobiles like iPhone, Nokia, Android, Windows Mobile, etc. The ease at which you can read and reply to mails through GMail for Mobile is amazing. It is my favorite mobile application.

You can download GMail application for mobiles from Google

7. Use Proxy Web Site To Bypass

Using proxy website to beat censorship is one of the popular ways for unblocking any kind of websites. When we try to access GMail using a web proxy, the web proxy hides our IP address and uses it’s own IP address to load the page.

8. Nothing Working? Then Bribe Your IT Administrator

giftIf none of the above methods worked for you then take help of someone at IT department and get access to GMail. Bribe them :) Offer small gifts, drinks or something else they like.

Either you can ask them to grant access for your PC or get details of internal proxy server that allow GMail access.

Apple sold 3.8 million iPhones in Q1

2009-04-23T07:02:00.001-07:00

Apple has announced its financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2009. The company racked up an impressive $8.16 billion in revenue, with a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share.

The company racked up an impressive $8.16 billion in revenue, with a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. Revenue was up from $7.51 billion in the year-ago quarter, while net quarterly profit rose slightly from the previous figure of $1.05 billion. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Cupertino giant managed to sell 3.79 million Iphones, which represented 123 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The company also sold 11.01 million iPods, which indicated a three percent unit growth. However, Macintosh sales decreased to 2.22 million, registering a three percent drop compared to the year-ago quarter.

"We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. "Apple's financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29 billion in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet. Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.95 to $1.00."

Wikipedia signs pact with phone company

2009-04-23T07:00:00.001-07:00

Sprawling online encyclopedia Wikipedia said it has forged a relationship with Orange.

Orange and Wikipedia will work together to develop channels for Orange's mobile and web portals.
The deal will kick off in the UK, Spain, France, and Poland first, with co-branded content from the Wikimedia Foundation.

Orange will develop mobile and web based widgets so customers can directly access Wikipedia content from cellphones or web pages. In the future, the two will work together to extend the provision of content to television, with services being offered across the whole of Europe.

Orange claims 55 million unique visitors a month for its own web sites. Financial details of the arrangement were not provided by either Wikipedia or Orange.

White House may take control of cybersecurity

2009-04-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

The White House should take direct control of US cybersecurity - with a little help from the private sector - according to the official who has just completed a national review of net security.

Speaking at the RSA conference in San Francisco, Melissa Hathaway said that net security posed "one of the most serious challenges of the 21st century". She added, "We have witnessed countless intrusions that have allowed criminals to steal hundreds of millions of dollars and allowed nation- states and others to steal intellectual property and sensitive military information," she said.

She urged security professionals and the private sector to join the government in efforts to secure the net. She said the job ahead was "a marathon, not a sprint but we have taken the first steps to make real and lasting progress".

Hathaway, who is acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Council, has just completed a 60-day review of cybersecurity for the President to determine how the government should restructure the way it handles the internet and security. The review is expected to be made public at the end of the month. Ms Hathaway said more detailed discussions will take place once the President and his administration had have an opportunity to digest her recommendations.

Hathaway declined to give any details of the review, but did present what she called her "60-day movie trailer", which outlined a desire for collaboration between the White House, security experts and the private sector. She also called for a national dialogue to "help this critical conversation grow."

Currently, non-military cybersecurity issues are handled by the US Department of Homeland Security, which has been charged with the creation of a national response system for online attacks and a risk management program for critical infrastructure. But it has come under fire repeatedly from government auditors who said it was failing to fulfil its responsibilities and was unprepared for emergencies.

The announcement of the review led to speculation that the White House's National Security Council or the National Security Agency would be handed more cybersecurity responsibilities.

Humans cause growth in Antarctic sea ice

2009-04-23T06:58:00.001-07:00

So it's not all bad: it seems human activity is as much to blame for the increase in Antarctic ice as it is for the melting of the Arctic ice cap. Unfortunately, the effect won't last.

The growth in Antarctic sea ice over the last 30 years is a result of changing weather patterns caused by the ozone hole, according to scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and NASA. They say that while there has been a dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice, Antarctic sea ice has increased by a small amount as a result of the ozone hole, delaying the impact of greenhouse gas increases on the climate of the continent.

The new research helps explain why observed changes in the amount of sea-ice cover are so different in both polar regions.

Lead author Professor John Turner of BAS said, “Our results show the complexity of climate change across the Earth. While there is increasing evidence that the loss of sea ice in the Arctic has occurred due to human activity, in the Antarctic human influence through the ozone hole has had the reverse effect and resulted in more ice."

But, he warns, the effect is likely to be temporary. "Although the ozone hole is in many ways holding back the effects of greenhouse gas increases on the Antarctic, this will not last, as we expect ozone levels to recover by the end of the 21st century. By then there is likely to be around one third less Antarctic sea ice,” he said.

Using satellite images of sea ice and computer models the scientists discovered that the ozone hole has strengthened surface winds around Antarctica and deepened the storms in the South Pacific area of the Southern Ocean that surrounds the continent. This resulted in greater flow of cold air over the Ross Sea, leading to more ice production in this region.

Whilst there has been a small increase of sea ice during the autumn around the coast of East Antarctica, the largest changes are observed in West Antarctica. Sea ice has been lost to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula – a region that has warmed by almost 3 degrees Celcius in the past 50 years. Further west, sea ice cover over the Ross Sea has increased.

The research will be published in Geophysical Research Letters this week.

NASA showcases spinoff technologies

2009-04-23T06:57:00.001-07:00

From swimming costumes to firefighters' uniforms, from trucks to electric cars: NASA has launched an expanded version of an interactive online program that allows users to discover some of the many ways in which everyday life has been improved by NASA technologies.

NASA at Home and NASA City take users on an illustrated tour of commercial technologies and products that have originated from or been enhanced by NASA's investment in space and aeronautics research and development.

Visitors can scroll more than 100 technologies grouped by themes such as home, airport, grocery store, sports arena, hospital, public safety and manufacturing. After entering an area, users can experience the impact NASA has on their lives and find descriptions of such technologies as temperature-regulated clothing from materials designed for astronaut suits and gloves, wireless headset telephone technology pioneered to transmit the first words from the moon, fire-resistant paint and steel coatings from NASA's heat shield technology, and remote-controlled ovens based on technology used aboard the International Space Station.

Among the new features on the sites is Spinoff Challenge, a metagame that offers users NASA Home and City graphics, wallpapers and screen savers. NASA Billboard gives visitors up-to-date information about what is new at NASA.

NASA has documented more than 1,600 examples of how the agency's technologies have been used to improve life on Earth in its annual Spinoff publication. The technologies are available in an online searchable database that can be accessed directly from this new web feature.

Yahoo drop in profits means 700 will go

2009-04-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

A fall in advertising revenues has resulted in Yahoo's profit falling by 78 percent and that means 700 jobs will go at the company.

Revenues for its first financial quarter dropped 13 percent to $1.58 billion, while its net income fell to $118 million. In the same period last year, revenues amounted to $1.81 billion while net income was $537 million.

CEO Carol Bartz, brought in to shake up Yahoo, said that the 700 jobs or so that would be lost would not be across the board, but from specific business units.

Gossip continues that Yahoo is still in talks with Microsoft to create a strategic alliance on search technology but neither firm care to comment about such talks.

An alliance would certainly give rival Google a tiny migraine, but we doubt it would essentially change the search landscape. Dominant Google, although affected by the global meltdown like every other company in the known universe, only has to sit tight in order to give both Yahoo and Microsoft an enormous splitting headache.

Google boosts ego of people with boring names

2009-04-22T10:57:00.001-07:00

Search engine behemoth Google introduced a set of tools helping people who want to "look themselves up on the Internet" but have really dull names.

The search index now includes a profiling feature that will help egotists with somewhat dull names discover themselves.

The number of John Smiths, David Jones, and Ramesh Patels out of the six billion people on the planet won't be known until we have a world government and an international census. Try a search on "John Smith" and you'll get the picture.

A search on "Wolfgang Gruener" or "Mike Magee" narrows down the results significantly, although apparently there is an American soccer player called Mike Magee, as well as a Dr Mike Magee. Magee, to my knowledge, only played soccer when he was a child, 500 years ago. Perhaps Mike Magee needs to see Dr Mike Magee but that is a different matter.

While Google may seem to be giving the opportunity to folk to ego-boost themselves online, they can only access the Profile feature if they sign up. And that increases the possibility of Google persuading them to use additional services.

Sanyo releases powerful hybrid bicycle

2009-04-22T10:56:00.002-07:00

Japanese firm Sanyo said it has released a hybrid bicycle which with the aid of its Eneloop battery can help you peddle half as hard to get where you want to go to.

The SY-SPG226 has broad wheels and a big front basket as well as a rack at the rear to carry extra large items. Its range, Sanyo claims, is 85 kilometres, but the battery re-charges when you're coasting down hills.

Sanyo faces fierce competition from three other Japanese players - Yamaha, Bridgestone and Panasonic. Panasonic is set to acquire Sanyo later this year.

The electric motor allows a ratio of motor to peddle power of two to one. The Japanese government eased its laws on the power of electric-powered bicycles at the end of last year.

The number of electric powered bicycles sold in Japan grew 20 percent last year, partly as a result of higher fuel prices and partly because they're seen as greener and more sustainable than motorbikes.

This latest machine dispenses with gender distinctions by dispensing with a cross bar for men. All models of the SY-SPG226 free men from having to put their leg over a cross bar. The convention arose in Victorian times when women wore huge skirts which made riding a bike rather problematical.

You can find a picture of the bike at Sanyo's Japanese site, here.

Ebay gets knuckles rapped over pricing

2009-04-22T10:56:00.001-07:00

An advertisement by Ebay has drawn the ire of the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Ebay issued a poster claiming that prices on its site were 25 percent cheaper than the High Street for brand new items. High Streets in Britain are the main shopping areas in a town or city.

The firm said the source of the complaint was an organization called Frontier Economics, obtained by comparing the average sold price, including postage and packing of 288 new products.

But a complaint was received saying the claim would mislead buyers, because Ebay hadn't made sufficiently clear the basis of such a comparison. Ebay's response was that the independent survey looked at typical household items sold both on its site and in mainstream stores. Unbranded products and second hand and used items were excluded from the study.

But the ASA upheld the claim on the basis that the phrase "25% cheaper than the High Street on brand new items" was an absolute claim that Ebay was cheaper than all main high street stores for all new items. The full evidence, however, wasn't available, the ASA noted. Plus, there were product sectors not included that should have been, such as furniture, garden goods, computers, and toys and games. Ebay had not made that clear.

The ad breached the advertising code on three counts - substantiation, truthfulness and comparisons with identified competitors and/or their products.

Thundered the ASA: "The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Ebay to ensure they held robust evidence to support comparative claims in future."

Scientists make gasoline from garbage

2009-04-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

You never know what you might find when you go rooting around on a garbage dump, and US scientists reckon they have struck black gold.

Scientists at a synthetic biology lab at the University of California have used a bacterium found living on a French dump in the early 1980s which can be used to turn plant waste into gasoline that is chemically indistinguishable from fossil-fuel based petroleum.

Their method allows for the use of agricultural waste products like corn stover and sugar cane bagasse. This sidesteps criticism of biomass projects for helping drive up food prices and damage the environment.

With improvements in the rate of production from genetic engineering, the researchers estimate that production costs could be as low as $1.65 per gallon from sugar cane bagasse.

The lab used a bacterium discovered in the early 1980s living in a French garbage dump, which was then combined with yeast. When mixed with biomass, the bacteria digest it and produces the chemical acetate. The yeast then converts the acetate into methyl halides, which can be collected and converted into gasoline.

Bluetooth 3.0 released

2009-04-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the release of the Bluetooth 3.0 +HS specification, which increases the wireless standard’s bandwidth by a significant margin and turns Bluetooth into the product it should have been a few years ago. Finally, there is an opportunity for the technology to reach for products beyond the headset.

A few days ago, I pulled out an old picture of the first commercial Bluetooth card released, back in 2000, and remembered how painful it was to use the technology, when data was transferred at less than 50 kB/s. Nine years later, Bluetooth is finally what we imagined it to be at the beginning of this decade.

Bluetooth 3.0 + HighSpeed (HS) lifts the maximum bandwidth from 3 Megabit/s (Mb/s) with 6 ft to 24 Mb/s within 10 ft. Shifting data at a peak speed of 3 Megabyte/s (MB/s) is a quantum leap over the first generation and even the preceding 2.1 + EDR version. However, it is substantially slower than what was originally planned – Bluetooth 3.0- was originally planned to use UWB technology.

Previously, the SIG said that the new Bluetooth technology would be using a traditional 2.4 GHz radio as well as an additional 8 GHz UWB radio to hit data rates of at least 53.3 Mb/s.

The organization still went with the dual-radio approach, but Bluetooth 3.0 ended up with the Wi-Fi 802.11 radio protocol. The inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides the increased throughput capability. Other changes in Bluetooth 3.0 include “enhanced power control” as well as new data encryption technologies. No features were dropped from version 2.1 + EDR to 3.0 + HS. The SIG said that the rollout of Bluetooth 3.0 products is “eminent”.

The bandwidth of the new wireless standard may be disappointing in some respect, but a data rate of about 3 MB/s is clearly enough for more than just connecting a headset to a cellphone – and it will interesting to see whether it is too late for the technology to move into application fields that are now have been occupied by Wi-Fi. The SIG still indicates that most applications for Bluetooth will be limited to the cellphone, but it is now much more convenient to synchronize music, send video from a cellphone to a TV and download pictures from your phone to a PC.

Why I won’t be celebrating Earth Day today, and instead everyday

2009-04-22T09:46:00.001-07:00

It’s April 22, and there is absolutely no way I could have possibly forgotten. For the past couple of weeks my e-mail inbox and unfortunately even my postal mailbox has been flooded with marketing materials. Promotions for eco-friendly and green products, sales in the name of the special day, it would seem that as many corporations and businesses as possible are trying to capitalize on the event, which was originally established in 1970 as a grassroots attempt to gain environmental awareness.

It would seem, the original purpose of the day has been lost. Environmental awareness, sustainability and green living are not just for one day of the year. It’s a commitment. It’s a dedication. And it’s actually for those of us who are committed, a way of life.

Many companies are utilizing Earth Day as an opportunity to make more money and draw more business, though their efforts seem positive, the results aren’t. Subscribers to Newsweek can utilize the cover from the April 14 issue and fold it into an envelope and use it to send plastic bags to Target. In exchange these individuals will receive a reusable tote bag. If you shop at Macy’s, you can make a $5 donation to the National Park foundation, for a 10% to 20% off discount during the weekend of April 26. The company is also giving away reusable totes and saplings.

Do these companies and corporations jumping on the Earth Day bandwagon not realize that excessive e-mail campaigns, print marketing and even airing commercials is utilizing renewable resources, and wasting energy? The issue here is that the practices being utilized are not green, nor environmentally friendly. These advertising campaigns which are costing companies a pretty penny are being launched via direct mail, store catalogs, in store signage, newspaper advertising, and television campaigns.

I think it is great that companies are gaining awareness for the movement. However, their practices are not environmentally friendly and they do not reflect the movement in which these companies are pumping, or profiting from. Though many of the campaigns attempt to or maintain the Earth Day message by contributing to a good environmental cause, the issue is two-fold. What is the environmental impact of the campaign in itself?

Consumers are becoming skeptical, and feel that they should avoid the green arena all together, as these days every company, and every product comes in a “Green” form. What is truly green? What is truly sustainable? Many individuals believe that all organic clothing is “green”, these words are thought to be interchangeable. People don’t realize that a product sold to them as “green” could in fact be manufactured using chemicals, or utilizing a process which is damaging to the environment in general.

The more the concept of green, and eco-friendly is pushed on consumers, the less they will be responding, and soon it will become lost, another commercialized holiday with no impact or true message concerning its original roots.

The green-marketing guides were last updated in 1998, and the Federal Trade Commission began reviewing the guide in November. This move is in response to claims of green-washing and the onslaught of green and eco-friendly ad campaigns.

I won’t be celebrating Earth Day today. I celebrate Earth Day every day. We have been given the gift of life, and we have been given the power to protect our environment. I urge you to utilize that ability on a daily basis. Do I feel that you should abandon your lifestyle and change everything that you do, and think solely of the environment? Absolutely not. Do I feel that you should be environmentally aware? Yes, of course.

Environmental awareness and the “celebration of Earth Day, everyday” is a simple concept. It involves little steps and incorporating as many, or as few into your life as your wish. Methods of conservation and environmental preservation include:

- Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
- Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.
- Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
- Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
- Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refrigerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.
- Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.
- Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
- Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.
- Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.
- Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
- Check labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water or a little more elbow grease.
- Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one.
- Minimize pesticide use.
- Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. Yard debris too large for your compost bin should be taken to a yard-debris recycler.
- Join a carpool or vanpool to get to work.
- Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.
- Use discarded paper for scrap paper.
- Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.
- Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets.
- Install a low-flow shower head.
- Check your car for oil or other leaks, and recycle motor oil.
- Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
- Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient. About 33 of what we throw away is packaging.
- Reuse items like bags and containers when possible.
- Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones.
- Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and cling wrap.
- Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.

Why I won’t be celebrating Earth Day today, and instead everyday

2009-04-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Americans not green enough, Microsoft claims

2009-04-20T10:58:00.002-07:00

A survey released by MSN Green claims that 70 percent of the population of the USA don't use a kitchen composter and don't limit toilet flushes to save water.

Worse than that, America produces enough rubbish in a day to equal the weight of the Empire State Building - which, by the way, is quite heavy, although the survey doesn't say exactly how heavy it is. This site says the building weighs 365,000 tons. That's a load of rubbish.

The survey is intended to support "Earth Day", and quizzed 1,086 people over the age of 18. Half of those surveyed said simple systems need to be introduced to identify recyclable waste, and the trash needs to be picked up from their homes.

A fifth of Americans don't have access to recycling services and don't know what a carbon footprint is. Astonishingly, half of the respondents will give up air conditioning for a summer or become a vegetarian for a year to reduce the carbon footprint. But a third want a tax credit before they'll recycle or compost their trash.

Microsoft asked the people it surveyed who their favorite most green celebrities were. The men said Cameron Diaz and the women said Leonardo DiCaprio.

Man sues Microsoft, Google for $30,000,000

2009-04-20T10:58:00.001-07:00

A Utah man is suing Microsoft, Google and Bill Gates for $30,000,000 alleging that his email accounts were blocked by the companies.

Ronnie McDaniel filed the suit in a Utah district court at the end of last week. He claims both Microsoft and Google have shut down his access to email.

In the filing he alleges his outgoing email was “locked up” and his email security breached without his knowledge. He said: “My Internet privacy has been tampered with and my e-mail security has been breached after numerous contacts and pleas ti defendants with no attempt at resolution.”

He wants the court to launch an “investigation into all accounts and circumstances and $30,000,000 in lost revenue from the defendants”.

We doubt Mr McDaniel has a leg to stand on given that the number of other email accounts he could use are legion, and that the problem is more likely to be a technical one rather than a conspiracy between the two major software giants.

Urine test may reveal lung cancer risk

2009-04-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Most of us poor smokers like to think we'll be one of the lucky ones who makes it to 100 unscathed. And now researchers think they may soon be able to tell which of us will, through a simple urine test.

Only about one in 10 smokers gets lung cancer. "A history of smoking has always been thought of as a predictor of lung cancer, but it is actually not very accurate," said Jian-Min Yuan, associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota. "Smoking absolutely increases your risk, but why it does so in some people but not others is a big question."

Researchers collected data from over 80,000 men and women, carrying out in-person interviews to assess levels of cigarette smoking, dietary and other lifestyle factors. They also collected blood and urine samples from more than 50,000 patients.

The nicotine metabolite NNAL had been shown to induce lung cancer in laboratory animals, but the effect in humans hadn't yet been studied. To evaluate its impact, researchers identified 246 current smokers who later developed lung cancer and 245 smokers who did not during the 10-year period following the initial interview and collection of urine samples.

Patients with a mid-range level of NNAL had a 43 per cent increased risk of lung cancer compared with those with the lowest levels, while those at the highest level had more than double the risk of lung cancer, after taking into account the effect of number of cigarettes per day and number of years of smoking.

Levels of nicotine in the urine were also calculated. Those with the highest levels of nicotine and NNAL had eight and a half times the risk of lung cancer compared with smokers who had the lowest levels after accounting for smoking history.

"Smoking leads to lung cancer, but there are about 60 possible carcinogens in tobacco smoke, and the more accurately we can identify the culprit, the better we will become at predicting risk," said Yuan.

The results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009.

Adobe Flash coming to your TV

2009-04-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Adobe is driving its Flash technology much more into the mainstream with an announcement that the software platform will soon be supported by “set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and “other devices in the digital living room.”

According to the company, Flash will be integrated directly into the hardware and will be used by “major System on Chips (SoC) vendors,” OEMs, cable operators and content providers including Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors, Sigma Designs – all of which announced support for Adobe Flash today. SoCs with embedded Flash technology are expected to ship in the second half of 2009.

Adobe said that its Flash technology will allow consumers to watch HD Web videos via the Flash Video (FLV) file format on their TVs, without the need for a web browser.

“Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home will dramatically change the way we view content on televisions,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “Consumers are looking to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens.”

From a hardware view, the most significant announcement may be Intel’s note that the Media Processor CE 3100, one of the firm’s first SoCs for consumer electronics will come with integrated Flash support. The chip primarily targets set-top boxes, high-definition digital televisions and Blu-ray Disc players.

MySpace Fires Employee After Data Breach

2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

MySpace employees experienced some unusual high and lows this week at work. On Monday, workers for the social networking site learned of a data breach orchestrated by a fellow employee, who collected names, Social Security numbers and compensation information of many of his co-workers. Fox Entertainment Group (the company that operates MySpace) sent e-mails to all employees alerting them to the incident, and assured them that no bank account or medical information was compromised.

Fox Entertainment promptly terminated the perpetrator; a departure from the typical MySpace and Facebook firing stories we often cover here at Switched. The internal e-mail, which was forwarded to TechCrunch, told employees that the thief used the acquired data to "annoy selected individuals," but did not send the information to any third parties. At least the thief didn't crash the company's server, as we've seen before.

In addition, MySpace employees received some slightly odd news via e-mail Wednesday evening: Southern California Edison power company had to shut down power to MySpace's Beverly Hills headquarters from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday. Employees were encouraged to grab their laptops and work from home the while the power was off. Since the e-mail went out after many workers had already gone home for the day, we're guessing many of them conveniently "missed" the part about grabbing their laptops. C'mon, everyone needs a day off!

Google tries new Captcha method for Bots

2009-04-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

Google has released research results about a new test to foil computers pretending to be humans by requiring them to orient an image so it's upright.

A persistent problem on the Internet is screening out automated computer systems that can be used, for example, to sign up for spam-sending e-mail accounts or post comments designed to improve a site's search results. Google, which already devotes a lot of resources to block e-mail and Web spam, has tried a new test to keep the bots at bay.

The test is the latest variation on a screening technique called a Captcha (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart). The idea is that people can often tell which way is up in a photo, but computers have a harder time.

Captchas are in widespread use today, usually in the form of obscured or distorted text that people can still read. But there's a lot of work in the area, including identifying 3D images and distinguishing between cats and dogs.

Here's how Google authors Rich Gossweiler, Maryam Kamvar, and Shumeet Baluja described the image-orientation technique in their paper:

This task requires analysis of the often complex contents of an image, a task which humans usually perform well and machines generally do not.

Given a large repository of images, such as those from a web search result, we use a suite of automated orientation detectors to prune those images that can be automatically set upright easily. We then apply a social feedback mechanism to verify that the remaining images have a human-recognizable upright orientation.

The main advantages of our Captcha technique over the traditional text recognition techniques are that it is language-independent, does not require text-entry (e.g. for a mobile device), and employs another domain for Captcha generation beyond character obfuscation. This Captcha lends itself to rapid implementation and has an almost limitless supply of images.

We conducted extensive experiments to measure the viability of this technique...Our Captcha technique achieves high success rates for humans and low success rates for bots, does not require text entry, and is more enjoyable for the user than text-based Captcha.

The tricky part is finding the right balance between too easy and too confusing. Some images are hard for people to orient correctly, and some have cues--faces, text, blue skies, and green grass--that computers can use to figure out which way is up.

To get around this issue, while being able to draw from the large number of images on the Web, the technique presents people with new images as well as those known to perform well. If people have trouble consistently telling which way is up, that image isn't included in the library.

The researchers like their system in part because the image doesn't have to be obscured or distorted, as in text-based Captchas such as those Google currently employs. But image-based Captchas aren't immune from the bot vs. Web site arms race.

"As advances are made in orientation detection systems, these advances will be incorporated in our filters so that those images that can be automatically oriented are not presented to the user," the researchers said. "The use of distortions may eventually be required."

10 Youtube URL Tricks One Should Know

2009-04-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

Youtube - You know that site with videos and all. Yeah! It turns out that its quite popular and you happen to visit and use it quite often. Instead of just searching and playing here are some top Youtube URL tricks that you should know about:

1. View high quality videos

Youtube gives you the option to switch to high quality videos for some of the videos, however you can check if a video is available in high quality format by appending ‘&fmt=18′(stereo, 480 x 270 resolution) or ‘&fmt=22′(stereo, 1280 x 720 resolution) for even higher quality.

2. Embed Higher Quality Videos

While the above trick works for playback, if however you want to embed hig quality videos you need to append “&ap=%2526fmt%3D18″ and “&ap=%2526fmt%3D22″ to the embed url.

3. Cut the chase and link to the interesting part

Linking to a video where the real action starts at 3 minutes 22 seconds, wondered if you could make it start at 03:22? You are in luck. All you have to do is add #t=03m22s (#t=XXmYYs for XX mins and YY seconds) to the end of the URL.

4. Hide the search box

The search box appears when you hover over an embedded video. To hide the search box add ‘&showsearch=0′ to the embed url.

5. Embed only a part of Video

Just append ‘&start=30′ to skip first 30s of the video. In general you can modify the value after start= to the number of seconds you want to skip the video for.

6. Autoplay an embedded video

Normally when you embed a Youtube video and load the page, the player is loaded and it sits there waiting for you to hit the play button. You can make the video play automatically by adding ‘&autoplay=1′ to the url part of the embed code.

7. Loop an embedded video

Append ‘&loop=1′ to make the video start again without user intervention after it reaches the end.

8. Disable Related Videos

Publishing your content in the form of Youtube video? Don’t want people to see other people’s content that may be related but may as well be in competition to you? Just add ‘&rel=0′ to the end of the url part of the embed code and you just turned off the related video suggestions!

9. Bypass Youtube Regional Filtering

Some videos are only available in certain parts of the world. Your IP Address is used to determine your location and then allow or deny access to the video. Change the url from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= to http://www.youtube.com/v/

10. Download Video

Although not inherently a youtube trick but useful all the same for downloading videos. Just change youtube to kickyoutube in the url of the video and it will take you to kickyoutube.com with all the options for downloading the video you were watching.

Xbox 360 sales remains strong

2009-04-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 may be older than the Wii and PS3, but it is the only console that continues to post increasing U.S. unit shipments – which jumped by 26% to 330,000 in March. Nintendo still rules the segment, but showed some weakness, while Sony’s PS3 clearly needs more incentive to attract buyers.

While we had doubts one year ago that Microsoft would be able to sustain its sales against the Wii and the PS3, it seems that the company has found key features that make the Xbox 360 an attractive buy.

Nintendo’s Wii came in at 601,000 units, according to NPD; the Xbox 360 was second with 330,000 units and the PS3 third with 218,000. However, compared to March 2008, Wii sales were down more than 16% and PS3 sales were down more than 15%, but the Xbox 360 number climbed by 26%. It is also clear that the market is separating into three distinct segments: While the Xbox 360 was close to the PS3 in sales numbers last year, it is now outselling Sony’s PS3 by more than 50%. If we believe the current trend, then it seems that the Wii will settle at a market share of just above 50%, the Xbox 360 at just below 30% and the PS3 at slightly less than 20%.

All three players are entrenched in their market segments at this time and a major market shift would require either player to make either a huge mistake or make brave move to attack the others. It is somewhat obvious that Sony cannot be happy about its current situation. The PS3 needs more than just a decent game launch here and there. More entertainment content and a substantial price decrease are the only tools that can help the console at this time.

Combined Wii sales since launch currently stand at 19.7 million in the U.S., followed by the Xbox 360 with 14.9 million and the PS3 with 7.5 million, according to NPD. The three consoles add up to 42.1 million total unit sales.

Overall U.S. game consoles unit sales were down year over year the first time in 14 months. Combined sales were 1.15 million units, down 7% from 1.24 million in March 2008.

Watch out Hulu: YouTube’s coming with video

2009-04-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

Google's YouTube streaming video site has announced a partnership with Hollywood studios, which provide television and movies in the United States viewers. Among the partners agreed to provide content on the site are CBS, BBC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lions Gate Entertainment, an independent film studio.

Freedom of view, ad supported content is delivered through a "Shows" page of YouTube, and will be separated from the user-generated content.

YouTube is the introduction of the premium content in an attempt to compete with sites like Hulu, which offers ad-supported television shows and movies to users. YouTube new content is older television shows and films, rather than the new content offered by Hulu.

Google has been known to take a hard hit this year due to high cost and low return on YouTube, and the company hopes that YouTube over grant aid in the fight against this through advertising revenues. The company also introduced Google TV Ads, which places advertisements in the television programs which are monitored online.

Awesome 500$ 3D Mouse

2009-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Many of us are willing to sink hundreds of dollars on a new LCD. Serious players are used for firing of $ 500 or more for a new graphics card. And in May we Plunk even brighter for a new CPU. But what about a mouse? Would you spend $ 500 for a mouse really capable?

So I must be fair. 3DConnexion SpacePilot Pro is not really a mouse, my webmaster told me. There is some aspect that you would expect from a mouse and it does not look like such a mouse at all, even if the manufacturer calls a "3D mouse". Let's call it a 3D controller.

The Pro SpacePilot is a huge machine that exceeds the size of several mouse pads. The platform is dominated by the browser 3DConnexion button. But there are many programmable hot keys - as well as an LCD display, which allows users to scroll and select applications. Applets even allow the screen to display content such as new e-mails.

While the device works perfectly under Windows, it is clearly a device that excels in 3D applications. The manufacturer claims that the controller is the most accurate ever built, entry recognizing that small of 4 micrometers. Most applications are not available to take advantage of this $ 500 controller and it would be too pure (and certainly annoying also) used for text, spreadsheet or image editing.

However, I have written before these devices are fantastic controllers Space Navigator for those who love Google Earth. Entry level products, including the button of the browser are a cost of approximately $ 100.

Google Maps Now Show Views From Webcams

2009-04-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

The latest layer to be enabled in Google Maps is one of the webcams. Just click on the "More" button at the top right of each card next to the "traffic" button. When you do this, it shows you thumbnails of different audiences Webcams around the world as followed by Webcams.travel.

You do not see a real video, just the last image captured by the webcam. But it may be convenient when you want to see traffic on a highway you or how to look like waves on the beach. If you're here, you can also click the other layers, such as Wikipedia entries, photos, YouTube videos, and public transport.

What are the other sections of the Google map we need?

Some awesome gadgets

2009-04-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

About 10 years ago, we didn’t really expect the 1.4mb 3.5 inch floppy to evolve into flash drives 10x smaller with storage capacity as big as 32gb. The interesting thing about technology is; it’s just going to get more and more high-end but the size, is just going to get smaller and slimmer.

These concept gadgets you see before you today, have extremely high chance of getting into production anywhere in the future. For example, Microsoft’s Surface Computing Technology certainly tells us they are for real. Here’s some really cool concept gadgets, just concepts for now but we really hope it’ll be implemented, that inspires. If we happened to missed something impressive, please let us know in comment. Full list after jump.

B-membrane Laptop/Desktop

Concept computer designed by Korean designer Won-Seok Lee. No bulky monitors, just a UFO shape system that displays screen like a projector.

Nokia Aeon Full Screen Concept Phone

The most prominent design feature of aeon is a touchscreen that stretches over the full surface area of the phone.

Napkin PC

The Napkin PC is a multi-user, multi-interface, modular computer designed for creative professionals to collaborate and bring their greatest ideas to life.

Cellphone Code

This phone uses haptic technology to provide physical feedback for making a call. To turn it on…twist a section, to dial a number…twist a bunch of sections, to make an international call…break your wrist!

New dSLR?

Concept of a digital camera which can be used in one hand.

Future Internet Search

All you need to do is point the tablet at any object and you should get search results as good as Google’s, just more interactivity.

Sunshine Pillow

We arent sure if it’s warm enough, but it’s good to own one.

Capsule Radio Clock

Not rocket science, but definetely cool to get one.

Info-Live Watch

INFO Live is an data organizer for connected internet world. It is able to transfer data information to any hardware and person any moment in time of need.

Jive for the elderly

Jive is a range of 3 products that were designed to get elderly technophobes connected to their friends and family.

LifeMap

Touch screen digital photo storing and organization product.

Microsoft Arc Mouse

When you go advanced in all your computer equipments, the next best thing is to get a futuristic mouse.

Globalfoundries at 32 nm in H1 2010

2009-04-16T19:26:00.001-07:00

AMD’s spun off manufacturing arm, now called Globalfoundries, said that it is on track to manufacture 32 nm semiconductors in H1 2010 and will begin accepting half-node 28 nm designs in the second half of that year.

Following news that IBM’s technology alliance is marching toward 28 nm chips, we hear that AMD’s former fabs will be able to accept 32 nm designs in late 2009 and produce 32 nm chips in the first half of next year. If Globalfoundries can keep that promise, it would be a remarkable step for the company, considering the fact that AMD was unable to reduce the manufacturing technology gap with Intel over the past few years.

At 65 and 45 nm, AMD was 12 – 14 months behind and now it seems that the fabs will be able to cut the gap at least in half. Of course, we have no idea if AMD will take advantage of that manufacturing capability right away. Further down the road, 28 nm design can be submitted to the Dresden Fab 1 in the second half of 2010 with production beginning “shortly thereafter.”

NASA’s Kepler telescope captures first images

2009-04-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

NASA’s mission to find Earth-like planets in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy is shifting into the next gear. The Kepler space telescope has taken first images, which show millions of stars. NASA plans to survey more than 100,000 of them over the next three years.

"Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring," said Lia LaPiana, Kepler's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking."

One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view and mission target, which is equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The regions contain an estimated 14 million stars.

Two other views focus on just one-thousandth of the full field of view. One image shows the NGC 6791 cluster of stars located about 13,000 light-years from Earth. The other image zooms in on a region containing a star, called Tres-2, with a known Jupiter-like planet orbiting every 2.5 days.

Full fielkd view

Cluster view

"It's thrilling to see this treasure trove of stars," said William Borucki, science principal investigator for Kepler at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "We expect to find hundreds of planets circling those stars, and for the first time, we can look for Earth-size planets in the habitable zones around other stars like the sun."

The Kepler mission is expected to last for about three years. NASA hopes the telescope will identify hundreds of planets that are at least the size of Earth orbiting distance stars which are much like our own sun in energy output, luminosity and mass. The telescope will focus on the potentially habitable zone within their space and "could find dozens of worlds like ours." However, NASA also mentioned that Kepler may not find any such "Earths" - especially if they are rare.

To find the planets, Kepler will stare at one large expanse of sky for the duration of its lifetime, looking for periodic dips in starlight that occur as planets circle in front of their stars and partially block the light. Its 95-megapixel camera, the largest ever launched into space, can detect tiny changes in a star's brightness of only 20 parts per million, NASA said.

"Everything about Kepler has been optimized to find Earth-size planets," said James Fanson, Kepler's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our images are road maps that will allow us, in a few years, to point to a star and say a world like ours is there."

Scientists and engineers will spend the next few weeks calibrating Kepler's science instrument, the photometer, and adjusting the telescope's alignment to achieve the best focus. Once these steps are complete, the planet hunt will begin, NASA said.

"We've spent years designing this mission, so actually being able to see through its eyes is tremendously exciting," said Eric Bachtell, the lead Kepler systems engineer at Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Bachtell has been working on the design, development and testing of Kepler for nine years.

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. Ames is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL manages the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission operations.

SlingPlayer shot down for iPhone App Store

2009-04-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

Apple has yet again banned an application from its App Store. This time, SlingPlayer, which first showed its face at MacWorld Expo in January, and met all of the qualifications and guidelines for Apple’s user interface, got the boot. This morning it was announced that, at the request of AT&T, Apple has made the decision to ban the SlingPlayer application from its store.

Heavy use of the iPhone already puts a tremendous strain on the AT&T data network, as we saw just recently during South by Southwest, when so many iPhone users in one place caused the service to take a turn for the worst. This morning, BoyGenius said that AT&T has asked Apple to reject the SlingPlayer for iPhone application from the company’s store. No reason for the requested ban was cited.

One possibility for AT&T’s request to deny the SlingPlayer for iPhone application could be their speculated desire and plans to launch their own mobile service in which they would offer mobile streaming video for uses, placing the SlingPlayer in direct competition. In March, AT&T changed its terms of service to prohibit the offering of services like that of SlingPlayer on its network.

If AT&T’s request to Apple for application removal was launched due to a possibly overwhelming bandwidth use then the application might have to find a different method for landing back on the App Store shelves. This situation is similar to the one which Skype entered into, in which the software was required to only allow calls to be placed utilizing WiFi, which reduces the bandwidth usage by customers.

At this time SlingPlayer has had no news from Apple on the status of their iPhone application, but their website still says they have “submitted the first release of our application to the iPhone App Store.”

Understanding your baby's dreams

2009-04-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

The first human fetus spends most of its growth after the seven month mark asleep. So far it has been a mystery whether or not the brain during sleep or remained inactive. Now, scientists know the answer.

Using sophisticated mathematical techniques to detect patterns, a Friedrich Schiller University in Germany, the team found that the immature fetus are capable of entering a state in which they dream, just weeks before the onset of rapid eye movements . The scientists based their findings on analysis of the sleep habits of immature fetal sheep.

The team discovered the cycles of the complexity of the activity of the immature brain. Unlike the sleep patterns that occur in the later stages of development, the cycles vary from 5 to 10 minutes and change over time as the fetus develops.

Scientists have recorded the electrical activity in the brain of a 106-day-old developing fetus directly sheep, which had never been done.

The sheep were used in this study because they are equipped with one or two fetuses that are similar in both weight and size to that of men. In addition, brain development in humans and sheep is also very similar in humans, it lasts 280 days and 150 sheep.

Scientists say it is difficult to imagine what the fetus experiences throughout these cycles in terms that make sense for adults, but the models will describe the origins of sleep.

"Sleep is not suddenly a change from a brain at rest. Sleep and sleep changes are state regulated active processes," team leader said Karin Schwab.

These results will help scientists determine why we need sleep and how you can use these models to determine optimal growth and optimal health of individuals from the state of life.

Virgin partners with Google to provide email

2009-04-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Virgin Media has announced a partnership with Google to power its email service to enable better management of the inbox and more storage space.

Available to the first 20,000 to sign today on a pilot basis, the service will be offered to all customers in the near future, with a maximum of 10@virginmedia.com authorized addresses per user.

Virgin claims that all the bits that make up the Gmail service from Google (as the message more easily search, management of mobile viruses and spam and control) will be available for emailers, using Google Apps Partner Edition , which allows companies to use Google's services under their own domain name.

Google and son e-mail discussion, already an integral part of the Gmail experience, will also be focused on users of Virgin Media.

In the old with the new

Those who have already a@blueyonder.co.uk, @ ntlworld.com or@virgin.net e-mail will be able to keep their domain or choose to enroll in a new@virginmedia.com e-mail but all are likely to use the new Google collaboration.

Google Apps Partner Edition is also planned for companies who want to use services like Google Calendar, Docs and Talk, and it seems Virgin Media wants to add to his service in the future:

"With e-mail so important in everyday life, we are delighted to work with Google and the launch of a brand new, feature-rich and easy to use email service," said Alex Green, Executive Director Online Virgin Media. "We look forward to exploring the future of Google services and to continue to provide market-leading communications and entertainment to our customers."

62 Trillion Spam E-mails by Spammers

2009-04-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

All those junk e-mails that clog your Inbox is not only a huge inconvenience but a colossal waste of energy.

According to a report released this week by computer security company McAfee, spammers have generated last year, a huge 62 billion junk e-mails.

All those junk e-mails that clog your Inbox is not only a huge inconvenience but a colossal waste of energy.

According to a report released this week by computer security company McAfee, spammers have generated last year, a huge 62 billion junk e-mails.

What does this mean in terms of energy?

Instead of sending messages asking for money or the marketing of Viagra, the electricity used for sending e-mails could have fed 2.4 million households for a year or drive a car around the planet 1.6 times, according to the report.

This energy waste is also polluting the environment.

All that power also emits greenhouse gases. McAfee researchers say every junk e-mail emits 0.3 grams of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). This May not seem like much, but if one considers the overall annual volume of spam, after all.

Spam Grand Carbon Footprint

Spam emissions for all e-mail users worldwide in 2008 totaled 17 million tons of CO2, according to ICF International, the consulting firm in partnership with McAfee to the study. That is, 2 percent of total global emissions.

"The amount released into the atmosphere is important," said Dave Marcus, director of security research from McAfee. "Spam is a large carbon footprint. This is something that people should be aware of. "

The report said that nearly 80 percent of spam-related emissions of greenhouse gases come from energy burned by PC users to view, delete and search for legitimate e-mail under mounds waste. To view and waste a piece of spam takes about 3 seconds, McAfee said.

Marcus said about 85 to 91 percent of all e-mail is spam, but consumers can reduce their burden of spam while surfing the Net with a little more care.

For example, when you use a website to participate in online discussions or post comments, make sure that your name has nothing to do with your e-mail. And think twice before using the auto-complete feature of your browser as it will allow spammers to harvest in May of personal information. Some experts also advise to change your e-mail an.

But what could all that wasted energy-spam do? Click on the next page to discover these estimates based on the report from McAfee and Carbonfund.org.

Instead of sending messages asking for money or the marketing of Viagra, the electricity used for sending e-mails could have fed 2.4 million households for a year or drive a car around the planet 1.6 times, according to the report.

This energy waste is also polluting the environment.

All that power also emits greenhouse gases. McAfee researchers say every junk e-mail emits 0.3 grams of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). This May not seem like much, but if one considers the overall annual volume of spam, after all.

Spam Grand Carbon Footprint

Spam emissions for all e-mail users worldwide in 2008 totaled 17 million tons of CO2, according to ICF International, the consulting firm in partnership with McAfee to the study. That is, 2 percent of total global emissions.

"The amount released into the atmosphere is important," said Dave Marcus, director of security research from McAfee. "Spam is a large carbon footprint. This is something that people should be aware of. "

The report said that nearly 80 percent of spam-related emissions of greenhouse gases come from energy burned by PC users to view, delete and search for legitimate e-mail under mounds waste. To view and waste a piece of spam takes about 3 seconds, McAfee said.

Marcus said about 85 to 91 percent of all e-mail is spam, but consumers can reduce their burden of spam while surfing the Net with a little more care.

For example, when you use a website to participate in online discussions or post comments, make sure that your name has nothing to do with your e-mail. And think twice before using the auto-complete feature of your browser as it will allow spammers to harvest in May of personal information. Some experts also advise to change your e-mail an.

But what could all that wasted energy-spam do? Click on the next page to discover these estimates based on the report from McAfee and Carbonfund.org.

Blu-ray: Third anti-Apple ad by Microsoft

2009-04-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has launched its third commercial hunters Laptop. This time, there is a budget of $ 1500 and the target is a portable gaming computer fast, with a large hard drive. And guess what: they are left with a PC again.

If you had to spend $ 1500 on a laptop now, what you are looking for. A PC or a Mac? If you've done your initial search, you already know that you will end up with a 13 "Macbook, a hard disk of 250 GB, 2 GB of memory and Nvidia 9400 graphics - that's about it.

Jackson and his mother trying to find the perfect laptop for about $ 1,500 he needs "speed for games and a large hard drive. The first look at the PC, then check the "pretty" Macs, but eventually to new PC. Microsoft launches advice that PCs are available in more colors than the Mac are the largest and screens. In the end, the Blu-ray drive available on a 16.4 "notebook Sony seals the deal.

Apple close to one billionth App Store app served

2009-04-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

Today, Apple created a Countdown webpage which indicates how many Apple App Store apps have been served. As of the time of this writing, it's at 928.7 million, and is expected to reach the one billion mark soon. To commemorate the milestone, Apple has created a Billion App Countdown Promotion whereby gifts will be awarded to the person who downloads the one billionth app.

To enter the competition, simply download an app, or visit the Billion App Countdown Website and click the Enter to win without purchase link, along with Apple's official contest rules. Limited to 25 entries per person per day. Prizes include a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro.

Apple has also listed the all-time top 20 apps. They are:

TOP 20 PAID APPS:

1) Crash Bandicoot Nitro, $5.99, Vivendi Games Mobile
2) Koi Pond, $0.99, The Blimp Pilots
3) Enigmo, $3.99, Pangea Software, Inc.
4) Bejeweled 2, $2.99, PopCap Games, Inc.
5) iBeer (5 drinks...), $1.99, Hottrix
6) Moto Chaser, $1.99, Freeverse, Inc.
7) PocketGuitar, $0.99, Shinya Kasatani
8) Flick Fishing, $0.99, Freeverse, Inc.
9) Tetris, $4.99, Electronic Arts
10) Texas Hold'em, $4.99, Apple, Inc.
11) Super Monkey Ball, $5.99, SEGA
12) Pocket God, $0.99, Bolt Creative
13) Cro-Mag Rally, $0.99, Pangea Software, Inc.
14) Ocarina, $0.99, Smule
15) Fieldrunners, $2.99, Subatomic Studios, LLC
16) iFart Mobile, $0.99, InfoMedia, Inc.
17) Touchgrind, $4.99, Illusion Labs
18) iHunt, $0.99, JOHN MOFFETT
19) iShoot, $1.99, Ethan Nicholas
20) Monopoly, $4.99, Electronic Arts
TOP 20 FREE APPS:

1) Facebook, Facebook
2) Google Earth, Google
3) Pandora Radio, Pandora Media, Inc.
4) Tap Tap Revenge, Tapulous
5) Shazam, Shazam Entertainment Ltd
6) PAC-MAN Lite, Namco Networks America
7) Backgrounds, Stylem Media
8) Touch Hockey: FS5, FlipSide5, Inc.
9) Labryinth Lite Edition, Codify AB
10) Flashlight, John Haney Software
11) Urbanspoon, Urbanspoon
12) Movies, Flixster
13) iBowl, SGN
14) Lightsaber Unleashed, TheMacBox
15) Sol Free Solitaire, Smallware
16) MySpace Mobile, MySpace.com
17) Virtual Zippo Lighter, Moderati
18) The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel International
19) BubbleWrap, Orsome
20) Remote, Apple Inc.

Apple retains 30% of every sale made, to cover the cost of running the App Store, processing payments, and distributing software. It is estimated that over 30,000 applications now exist on the App Store.

Opinion

Buy an expensive iPhone, pay a huge monthly service fee, then buy $6 applications on top of it ... not for me. Sorry, Charlie! :) Still, I'm sure with such a promotion Apple will make far more than $10,000 and the cost of the other equipment. Ah, Corporate America, gotta love it?

Microsoft fined 11.8M for Office 2007 price gouging

2009-04-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

German antitrust regulators have fined 9 million euros ($ 11.8 million) to Microsoft for violations of agreements relating to price gouging and price fixing Office 2007 products.

The Bundeskartellamt, Germany, the regulator of the economy, said that Microsoft has worked with a distributor that does not disclose the pricing of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, before launching an advertising campaign.

In a statement issued, the Federal Cartel Office said "all contacts between the supplier and the retailer in respect of illegal resale price constitutes a concerted practice. In this case, this line has been crossed."

Microsoft said in a statement: "We will use this case as an opportunity to review our internal processes and ensure that we are in full compliance with German law."