Techstinger

Amazing Anara Tower - Dubai

2011-09-07T03:24:00.000-07:00

Anara Tower is the most cool and nice architecture on the world. Located in Dubai. The 125-story skyscraper is about 700 meters tall and vies for the tallest spot. The building will also host 300 residential apartments.

What is that thing in the middle at the top of the proposed Anara tower in Dubai? In most of the renderings it looks like a wind turbine integrated into the building, but when you look closely (image below) you can see that the hub is inhabited and that it is supported by the three blades. So now architects don't even bother with the real thing, they just borrow the imagery and put fake turbine-like things on the top of their buildings because they look cool.

This Skyscrapper will be called Anara Tower, and while it's not going to be the tallest in the world (it'll be about 500 feet shorter than the Burj Dubai at 2,150 feet), it's still incredible all on its own. The defining element of the Anara Tower is the massive propeller-like structure at the very top, at the center of which will be a glass-ceiling hub containing one of the world's most luxe restaurants. Strangely, the propeller doesn't rotate. Inside the tower there will be 300 super-expensive apartments, a 250-room luxury hotel and gardens every 27 floors. It will have a total of 125 stories.

The iPhone – If Bill Gates Had Created It

2011-09-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

It’s one of the most notorious battles ever fought. It’s a battle that has spanned decades, and it is still not settled as it’s hard to estimate what winning this “game” really means. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were the titans that were fit to star in the newly released “Clash Of The Titans” and their battle changed the world forever. There were no rules, no pardons or mercies, no kindness at the end of a deal… just simply a matter of winning or losing.

Even though Bill Gates has stepped down from his empire and Steve Jobs is stepping up his game yet another notch, I still feel as though we could need another spark in today’s technology landscape where we’d see a little bit more competitive forces working against each other. Sure, we have Google who’s digging around in pretty much everything these days but the old Sony/Ericsson, Nokia and those more old school cell phone companies are just doing what they know how to do best, to supply the world with second grade cell phones always destined to be one step behind the innovators.
What if the roles would have been reversed? What if Bill Gates would have gotten Steve Jobs’ role and vice versa? What would the iPhone have looked like then? These are questions that we can never get the answer to… or can we?
Designer Olivier Demangel once again stuns us with his wits and his eye for interesting designs. His take on the “Bill Gate’s iPhone” is quite genius; however, I am glad, now that I know how it would look, that Steve Jobs is pulling the strings over at Apple. Honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way as a matter of fact. Some actually suggest that if the iPhone was created this way instead, it would be much more suitable for gaming. I do not concur.
So, do you think this interesting concept would have had a chance in today’s technology enriched environment or is it just too old school and dated? Would you want your iPhone to flip open to reveal a small qwerty keyboard on which you could type your messages just like you did on your Nokia phone? If I had to answer, I would make the world know with an echoing “NO”. I want my iPhone to be my iPhone, if you know what I mean. However, Olivier is a master of bringing unknown territories to life and for letting us know that we’re on the right path after all…

The 5 Types of Guys Women Are Attracted To

2011-09-07T02:48:00.000-07:00

I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that women are more drawn to certain types of men than others. I don’t recommend that you change your personality, or wardrobe to match these types of guys. Instead, learn what you can from each type, and see if there’s an element that works for that guy, that you could incorporate more in your own life.

#1 Social Connector

Which are you?

Women are very social and love to make connections. To a woman, having a lot of social connections gives her power in her life. Her personal effectiveness is not based on brute strength or ambition (like men), but rather on the quality and quantity of her relationships.

A guy who knows where the party is at, can get her into the club without waiting in line, or has a great social network is very attractive to a woman.

#2 Artist

Women find creative, passionate guys intriguing and exciting. You don’t have to be a master painter, but you should have at least one creative outlet that gets you excited. Talk about this hobby, and see if there’s a way she can help you in your artistic endeavor.

Wood-working, writing, detailing cars – anything you do to express yourself creatively will turn women on.

#3 Edgy Dude (rocker, thug, etc.)

We all know that women like guys with an “edge.” This doesn’t mean you should pretend to be the new member of G-Unit, or put your hair in a Mohawk. But if you are playing it too safe in your mannerisms and fashion, you’ll appear scared and weak.

If you’re not pissing anyone off, EVER, then you are probably not being true to yourself. It’s OK to cuss occasionally, make sexual jokes, and break the “rules” in a fun way. What elements of your personality are you hiding, for fear of rejection or criticism?

#4 Professional

Women want a guy who is going somewhere. You don’t have to be rich, but you should have a job and career goals. I’ve had clients that became lawyers just to impress women.

This is an example of what not to do. What are you passionate about? How do you want to help the world? Take steps to make a living at it. A woman can’t respect a man who doesn’t respect himself. If you are wasting your life on the couch, or in a job you hate, you are essentially disrespecting yourself by wasting the time you have on Earth.

#5 NORMAL GUY

Women want a guy who is normal. I know this sounds strange, but think about a guy you know who always has a hot girlfriend. He is probably a calm, friendly, solid dude. Too often I hear women (HOT WOMEN) say, “I just want a guy who is normal. He’s not a bum, he’s not crazy, he’s not a dumb thug. I just want a solid guy who cares about me.”

The bar is pretty low, because most guys are completely clueless with women, and have no sense of who they are. Be a good friend, focus on your goals in life, and don’t try to impress people. Being attractive is about being yourself!

Love Marriage Vs Arranged Marriage!

2011-09-07T02:43:00.000-07:00

Which one is better – Love marriage or arranged? The issue is debatable all over the globe especially in eastern countries where arrange marriage is a tradition. As you read this question which option strikes in your mind first and why?

Education and media played a vital role in changing the perception of the Indian mind. Love marriage is supposed to provide freedom and more independence as compared to arranged marriages where the girl/boy is chosen by the parents. The usual question of love marriage voters against arranged one is that how can anyone marry the person whom they don’t know?
Amid popular love lore like Soni Mahiwal, India always had a long tradition of arranged marriages. With the advent of the British and the subsequent introduction of British education system more Indians got educated. Education and exposure to the media, started to make people to think and realize they need not be bound by tradition and they can choose their own marital partners without having to rely on parents, matchmakers, relatives or having to consult astrologers. This gave rise to love marriages. Currently in our country we have arranged as well as love marriages taking place.
If we start comparing love and arranged marriages we will see that both has certain pros and cons. If we talk about the love marriages first, it provides time for a mutual understanding between the partners which is needed for any successful relation. Knowing somebody before marriage allows partners to have better respect and understanding for each other’s needs and desires. This way they are better adjusted in the marriage when they finally take their wedding vows. In arrange marriages, there is a pressure to conform to parental expectations like producing a male heir, taking part in family rituals and traditions, putting up with sisters-in-laws, contributing to family expenses etc. Lovers have to try hard if their parents don’t agree with the relation. That is why it is said that Love is not an easy way out!
As the partners are happy with their spouse and its their own decision to marry him/her, love marriages should be successful but not all love marriages have happy endings. Sometimes discord arises even in love marriages. After spending a happy time of marriage, the same couple can be seen regretting on their decisions. They found hard to save the marriage and at last have to break up. If they them self chosen their partner and had a perfect tuning then why this unhappy end of the relation after marriage?
Perhaps to avoid this kind of ending, now-a-days youngsters prefer arranged marriages. It is thought that arranged marriages happen only in the east but this was not always so arranged marriages were happening even in Victorian Europe. The best part in an arranged marriage is that parents and the family is happy and they them self arrange the marriage. There is no tears and no battle for their permission. Arrange marriage offer more protection and security to the women. There is not much pressure on the women to look like models. Parents employ maturity and wise judgment when choosing suitable spouses for their children.
Caste system gave birth to arrange marriages, as the upper caste families didn’t want their children to marry outside their community and caste. In some case, by love marriage people lost all things like parents, society and religion. But after World War II and industrial revolution people’s perception started changing and they became familiar with the concept of love marriages. Slowly but steadily, love marriages are acceptable in Indian society also.
To decide which one is ideal is an unending debate. Love or arranged both is based on empathy, responsibility, commitment, love and concern. A marriage needs a lot of dedication and effort to sustain the relation.
So there is nothing like an ideal marriage it’s all about the way you perceive your marriage. The target is the happiness and stability of the relation in the marriage whether it is love or arranged.

Top 10 Billionaires Who Dont have Degree

2011-09-07T02:26:00.000-07:00

If you are going to achieve excel in any field then you just need confidence, talent and urge, the degree does not matter. But off-course degree can polish your skills.
You will be surprise to know that there are billionaires having huge business don’t have degrees.

10. Michele Ferrero

Michele Ferrero has the worldwide business of chocolates “Ferrero Rochers”, having total wealth of $17 billion.
9. Lee Shau Kee

He has total wealth of $18.5 billion. Well he was awarded with many honorary degrees.

8. Liliane Bettencourt

She is the Founder of L’Oreal cosmetic company. Her net worth is $20 billion.
7. Li Ka-shing

A tremendously successful business man, His net worth is US$ 21 billion.
6. Ingvar Kamprad

He started his business success at the age of 17. Now has net worth of $ 23 billion,
5. Karl Albrecht

He started his business after the World War II with his brother. His net worth is $23.5 billion.
4. Christy Walton

Christy is a successful business woman of Wal-Mart. Her net worth is $ 24 billion. She doesn’t have a degree/diploma of higher education.

3. Amancio Ortega

The major success of Amancio is business model Ortega. His net worth is $25 billion.
2. Larry Ellison

He has gained the success with the famous data base company Oracle. His net worth is $ 28 billion.
1. Bill Gates

Bill Gates is one of the richest persons of the world, his net worth is $54 billion. He was the student at Harvard University but could not complete his degree.

Top 21 Desktop Shortcut Keys To Ever Use

2011-09-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

These days are very interested to use shortcut keys & some newbies asked me to list it, but now I’m back to college, so i listed out the top 21 & we will blog the whole shortcut keys list later. Now let us see the top 21 desktop shortcut keys.

Windows key + E = Explorer
Windows key + Break = System properties
Windows key + F = Search
Windows key + D = Hide/Display all windows
Windows key + R = Run command pop-ups
ALT + Tab = Switch between windows
ALT, Space, X = Maximize window
CTRL + Shift + Esc = Task Manager
CTRL + C = Copy
CTRL + X = Cut
CTRL + V = Paste
CTRL + Z = Undo an action
CTRL + Y = Redo an action
CTRL + A =Select all items in a document or window
F1 = Display Help
F2 = Rename the selected item
F3 = Search for a file or folder
F4 = Display the Address bar list in Windows Explorer
F5 = Refresh the active window
F6 = Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop
F10 = Activate the menu bar in the active program

These commands are very useful to day to day life, keep using and then you’ll automatically remember when you

Hacker Leaks 100 Million Facebook Pages on Torrent Site

2011-09-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

A 2.8GB torrent is floating around out there containing data from 100 million Facebook profiles. But don’t freak out: all the data was already available publicly.

Hacker Ron Bowes from Skull Security has created the torrent file (2.8GB), which contains the Facebook account details of roughly 100 million users. That’s about 1 in 5 of the half billion accounts the social networking site has! The 2.8GB torrent was compiled via a web crawler program that harvested data on users contained in Facebook’s open access directory, which lists all users who haven’t bothered to change their privacy settings to make their pages unavailable to search engines.

Bowes’ directory contains 171 million entries, relating to more than 100 million individual users – more than one in five of Facebook’s recently trumpeted half billion user base.The file contains user account names and a URL for each user’s profile page, from which details such as addresses, dates of birth or phone numbers can be accessed.

Accessing a user’s page from the list will also enable you to click through to friends’ profiles – even if those friends have made themselves non-searchable. There’s absolutely nothing illegal about what Bowes has done – the information is, after all, publicly available – but perhaps the existence of a stalker’s online black book might finally persuade less security-minded Facebook users to get their act together.

Microsoft Ties a Ribbon on Windows 8 Explorer

2011-09-05T04:15:00.000-07:00

Microsoft will apparently use the Ribbon graphic user interface first seen with Microsoft Office applications on Explorer, the OS' file management utility. The decision's drawing some mixed reactions. Microsoft said it went with the Ribbon after intense study of user behavior, though some users think the Ribbon is either confusing or takes up too much screen space.

Speculation about what features Windows 8 will include is sizzling as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) continues to remain tight-lipped about details of the new operating system.

However, Redmond has talked to some extent about the upcoming OS' handling of Explorer, the Windows file management system.

Posts on the Windows 8 blog indicate Explorer will have the ribbon GUI Microsoft Office users know -- and, in some cases, hate. It will also let users mount VHD and ISO drives, possibly doing away with the need for optical storage media.

Company spokesperson Emma Mahoney directed TechNewsWorld to the blog in response to a request for comment.

Boldly Going Where Everyone's Gone Before :
Microsoft says it has three main goals for Windows 8 Explorer: Optimize it for file management, create a streamlined command experience, and restore the most relevant and requested features from Windows XP that will fit.

Research through telemetry -- where Windows users agreed to let Microsoft harvest data about their usage patterns of the operating system without tying it to them -- formed the basis of the decisions Microsoft made about Windows 8 Explorer's features.

Telemetry showed that more than 70 percent of usage is for core file management, and that the top 10 commands constitute almost 82 percent of usage, for example.

It also showed that almost 55 percent of commands are invoked with a right-click and another 32 percent using keyboard shortcuts, while only about 11 percent are invoked with the Command bar. Further only two of the top 10 commands invoked in Explorer are available in the Command bar.

After evaluating several approaches, Microsoft decided to use the Office-style ribbon as the user interface for commands. Among other benefits, this offers familiarity to users of Office, Microsoft Paint and Windows Live Essentials, so there's little to learn.

The ribbon will have Home, Share and View tabs; a File menu; and various contextual tabs.

Existing add-ons will work in the right-click menus in Windows 8 but they won't be able to plug into the ribbon UI, Microsoft said.

You can see a demo of Windows 8 here.

Ribbons Aren't for Everyone :
At least one analyst is none too excited about having the ribbon as a UI in Windows 8.

"In Explorer, where you're looking at files or documents, you'll give up space to see your commands," groused Michael Cherry, senior analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "Ribbons take up a lot of real estate on the screen, and seeing all the commands isn't as important to me as seeing all the files and documents."

Another possible problem with the ribbon is that it may not be suited to touchscreens, which will increasingly penetrate the PC and laptop market.

DisplaySearch predicts that touchscreen module revenues will hit US$14 billion by 2016, undergoing strong growth in all-in-one PCs, mini-notebook and slate PCs, education and training, and information and self-check-in kiosks.

For example, touch functionality in mini-notebooks and slate PCs will grow from 1 million units in 2010 to 50 million in 2016, DisplaySearch forecasts.

"I'm not convinced ribbons will work with touch and gestures," Cherry told TechNewsWorld.

No More Optical Drives????
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has done away with the optical drive with the MacBook Air, and it looks as if Microsoft may be anticipating the death of the disc drive with Windows 8. Redmond's adding native Explorer support for ISO and VHD files in Windows 8.

This means users won't necessarily require a physical CD-ROM or DVD drive. However, that doesn't necessarily mean Windows 8 PCs will not have optical drives.

"Microsoft doesn't build the PCs, so it's up to the OEMs to decide whether or not they want to build them without optical drives," Directions on Microsoft's Cherry pointed out.

"I don't think optical drives are as necessary as people think they are," Cherry added.

However, if Microsoft does away with the need for optical drives, then users' music and image files have to be transferred over a network, and this means Explorer must enable rapid file transfer, Cherry said.

"The biggest thing about Explorer that frustrates me right now is that, somewhere in the Vista timeframe, file copies became very, very slow," Cherry stated. "Rather than making things pretty [with a ribbon] I'd prefer they made them extremely fast."

One other complaint Cherry has about Explorer is its estimates on how long copying a file takes.

"Their estimates on how long a copy will take are worthless," Cherry remarked. "I'd prefer they give me an accurate estimate of how long it'll take to copy files so I know how long it will be before I can start working with data."

New Facebook Privacy Tweaks Have a Googley Aftertaste

2011-09-05T03:53:00.000-07:00

Facebook has given its users a new set of privacy controls, allowing them greater powers to select who sees what and approve tagged posts. The new features appear somewhat similar to those found in Google+, the social network that could prove to become a major Facebook rival. Facebook's changes have received a nod of approval from some privacy advocates.

In a nod to users who have complained about Facebook's privacy settings for years, the social network announced new, simplified settings Tuesday that allow users to exercise greater control over what information is shared across the network.
Going forward, users can choose a feature called "Profile Tag Review," which would allow them to approve a photo or post in which they're tagged before it hits their profile, or they could simply remove the tag.
The upgrades also make it easier to share tagged photos or posts with specific individuals or groups, much like the Circles feature in rival network Google+.
Those controls, and other privacy settings such as the option to see how a particular individual views your profile, will now appear in a drop-down menu next to the photos and posts for easier access to the security features.
Although users now have the option to refuse a tag, they may have to do so more often -- Facebook also announced that users can now tag anyone, even non-friends, in photos or posts. Early critics worried that option could be used in unintended ways, such as by advertisers or spammers looking for a new way to recruit customers, but Facebook doesn't think that's a concern.
"Something to note is that whenever you're tagged by a non-friend, it will always go into your Pending Posts section of your profile [regardless of whether you've turned on the Profile Tag Review or not]" Meredith Chin, product communications spokesperson at Facebook, told TechNewsWorld.
Facebook also expanded the location-based technology aspect of the site. Now, users will have the option to tag themselves from anywhere, not just a mobile device.
The changes will begin gradually rolling out on Thursday, and once it hits one's profile, the user can be guided through a tour to get a better feel for the updates.

Privacy Report Card:

Due to the number of complaints and public relations headaches Facebook's privacy policies have caused it in the past, the company worked with technology privacy advocates to make sure the new settings would receive a warm welcome, and so far they seem to have made a positive impression.
"On the big picture we think these changes look very good. Facebook has been working to develop these for a while and made a real effort to make sure these are intuitive changes for users, that users understand how they work and don't accidentally overshare," Erica Newland, policy analyst at the Center for Democracy & Technology told TechNewsWorld.
One initial concern was the new ability to tag non-friends in photos. Facebook touted the feature as helpful when tagging a photo of a group of co-workers, for example, or acquaintances who may not necessarily be Facebook friends, though there was concern it would become just another way for spammers to work their way into the ecosystem. Since those photos or posts must be approved, though, the user is given a measure of control.
"I think there is some sense to allowing people to tag non-friends. It's Facebook's decision on how to optimize that experience for users, but it's important they're giving users the option to exercise control. That's something users have asked for a while and it's absolutely a step in the right direction," said Newland.
It's a direction many social networks are taking. Since the lines between what is appropriate to share online blur between generations, professions and lifestyles, networks are leaving it up to users to decide just how much of their info they want out there.
"We're happy Facebook is creating a forced choice. That's a very good model for privacy controls, rather than assuming you know what the user wants," said Newland.

Pressure From Plus???

Facebook's new controls are entering the scene around the same time as Google+, the search engine's attempt at a competitor to challenge Mark Zuckerberg's far-and-away leader in social networking.
After its debut in July, Google+ saw an unprecedented, almost immediate surge of users, and there was speculation it was because of the network's more personalized, controlled sense of privacy and security. In Google+, contacts are divided more naturally into groups, or what the site calls "Circles." Users choose from the onset who is a friend, family member, or co-worker, for instance, and with each post or photo must decide with which Circle they'll share.
The concept is similar to Facebook's changes, but the social network leader says it wasn't modeled after anything in particular.
"We've been working on these changes for the last several months. We're excited to be introducing a lot of changes that people have been requesting," Chin told TechNewsWorld.
The bigger question is not if this was a competitive response, but if all networks treat user information with the concern it deserves as online sharing becomes an inevitable part of the social scene.
"I can't speculate on how the two may have been connected, but what is really clear is that social networks see that privacy is a value for users. In order to attract and retain users, they have to offer controls. It's kind of a maturing of the social networking ecosystem," said Newland

WikiLeaks Stews in Its Own Juice

2011-09-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

The tables were turned on WikiLeaks when a massive amount of highly sensitive and confidential diplomatic cables it was sitting on became exposed online. "WikiLeaks is the perfect example of thieves stealing from thieves," said Prem Iyer, head of the information security practice for Iron Bow Technologies. "All the info that they stole from others, they decided to store online -- and the password was leaked."

Another global security mess is in the making, on the heels of the publication of thousands of sensitive security documents obtained by WikiLeaks. However, in this particular instance, WikiLeaks insists it didn't mean to do it.
Last week, WikiLeaks reportedly made some 134,000 diplomatic cables available. Unlike earlier disclosures, though, these cables were published with the names and identities of confidential and sensitive sources fully intact.
WikiLeaks blamed UK publication The Guardian for the dump, explaining that the encrypted file containing the cables had been online, but secure -- that is, until a journalist released the password in a password-decryption book published by the paper.
Knowledge of the leak has been spreading online for months, according to WikiLeaks, but only recently has it reached critical mass.
"For the past month, WikiLeaks has been in the unenviable position of not being able to comment on what has happened, since to do so would be to draw attention to the decryption passwords in The Guardian book," reads a WikiLeaks editorial.
With the connection publicly made, WikiLeaks says it can speak about the matter now. The site has begun pre-litigation action against The Guardian and an individual in Germany it accuses of distributing the passwords for personal gain.
The Guardian has rejected WikiLeaks' claims that it is responsible, and it has called on the site not to release the remaining cables.
The E-Commerce Times received no replies from WikiLeaks, The Guardian or the U.S. State Department to its requests for comments.

Lessons Learned :
This episode would be downright amusing if the stakes weren't so high. Potentially, lives could be at risk. WikiLeaks carved out a place for itself in the global political arena by leaking sensitive information that supposedly was secure, and now it has been tripped up in similar fashion.
"WikiLeaks is the perfect example of thieves stealing from thieves," Prem Iyer, head of the information security practice for Iron Bow Technologies, told TechNewsWorld. "All the info that they stole from others, they decided to store online -- and the password was leaked."
Despite the unique circumstances of the leak, the players and the ramifications, there are several themes common to more mundane leaks. Observing and learning from them could help a company avoid its own corporate disaster.
"WikiLeaks learned that securing sensitive data online can be more difficult than it realized, between ever-growing sophistication of hackers and human errors," Iyer said.

Dangers of the Cloud :

Any company or government agency that is looking to store data online must realize that cloud solutions are at risk of attack.
"You cannot assume that the proper security controls are in place," warned Iyer.
"Organizations who are considering cloud solutions must understand the security mechanisms that the cloud provider has in place," he advised, "and then determine if public cloud is still an option or if a private cloud solution would be a more secure alternative."

Overprivileged and Accident-Prone :

Another oft-cited reason for inadvertent disclosures is the generous granting of administrative privileges to people who don't need them, Brian Anderson, chief marketing officer of BeyondTrust told TechNewsWorld.
"You might have a secretary who has admin privileges and she accidentally copies a sensitive file and emails it to an entire client list. That has happened," he said.
The point is that companies need to protect their systems not only from people intent on stealing information -- for greed or other reasons -- but also from people who are sloppy with their security practices, explained Anderson.
"Set systems so they grant the least privilege access -- only what a particular individual needs and nothing more," he advised.

The Peril of Writable Media :

The motherlode of WikiLeaks' sensitive cables came to it via U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who allegedly downloaded the purloined material and handed it over to the site.
The propagation of mobile devices and writable media such as USB devices and read/write CD/DVD drives has led to an increase in productivity across organizations, but has provided an increased threat from malicious insiders, John Sennott, director of marketing for Prism Microsystems, told TechNewsWorld.
Companies need to recognize the potential threat these devices can have for their security and adopt a concept of "trust but verify," he said. "It is important to let the users know they are being monitored, so they are afraid of getting caught if a policy is not followed."

Windows 8 to arrive with better copy, move, rename and delete functionality

2011-09-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Along with the new interface and the many features it has to offer, Microsoft has recently announced the upcoming Windows 8 OS to possess a number of enhancements for file management covering copy, move, rename and delete functions. Being some of the most used operations within the OS, these improvements are aimed towards providing users a more convenient way of carrying out commands unlike what we’ve seen in the previous versions.

In conjunction to the company’s goals towards the copy experience being ‘One place to manage all copy jobs,’ ‘Clear and concise’ and ‘User in control,’ Microsoft has carried out four major improvements in Windows 8 OS to justify the same. Unlike previously where each copy operation had a separate window, the new system will integrate them all into a single interface. Also, for convenience in managing file transfers, new options like pause, resume and cancel are added along with a detailed view that provides a graphical representation of each operation, transfer speed and an improved calculation of the estimated time required to complete the task.
The new design adopted for the Conflict Resolution dialog box is stated to provide a much better understanding on the critical information for all file collisions. With the window divided into two parts where the source files are displayed on the left and the target location ones on the right, users can easily identify which files they want to replace without overwriting the needed one. Additionally, many unwanted confirmation dialogs that appear on deleting a file Windows 8 OS have been removed like ‘Are you sure you want to move this file to the recycle bin?’ or ‘Are you sure you want to merge these folders?’ for a better experience.
The implementation of these new improvements and enhancements to the upcoming Windows 8 OS clearly depict Microsoft’s intentions of creating a better and more user friendly OS.

Irresistible Reasons Why iPhone 5 Will be the Best-Selling Smartphone

2011-09-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

The iPhone 5 is one of the most eagerly awaited devices this year. With rivals like Samsung gaining a foothold in other parts of the world, Apple’s expected launch of iPhone 5 in the U.S. market this September will not be an unchallenged one.

Here, however, are the reasons why iPhone 5 will be the best selling smartphone.

Device Specifications: iPhone 4, previously, enjoyed immense popularity among customers although there were other smartphones in the market which came up with better specifications showing better processor, RAM and battery than iPhone 4. The rumors that are circling the iPhone 5 suggest a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, an 8 MP dual-LED rear camera, a possible 1 GB RAM (Apple is known to upgrade its device’s RAM with every release) and improved battery life.

Sales Strategy: The iPhone, to date, has become the best selling smartphone. No other smartphone in the market has been able to interrupt the sale and popularity of an iPhone. A previous rumor said that Apple has contracted with a manufacturing company to build 15 million iPhone 5 units. There are very few chances that the upcoming iPhone 5 won’t sell exceedingly well. In case of Apple, history always repeats itself.

Apple’s App Store: In case you didn’t know, the term app has become a popular buzzword. In January 2011, app was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society.

As of May 2011, Apple had approved its 500,000th app, 37 percent of all apps were made free with the average price $3.64. At early July 2011, around 200 million iOS users had downloaded over 15 billion apps from its App Store. Apple’s users have grabbed apps by the billions and Android Market has been steadily gaining grounds but is yet to match App Store. However, one significant advantage of Android Market apps is that that the Android OS is open source and the technology is designed to be extended by an active community. Other app stores are far away from App Store and Android Market.

Brand Name: Apple has considerably become a brand which creates trust and an emotional attachment. This attachment then causes the consumers to decide about the product. Lately, Apple has also become the world’s most valuable brand according to a study published by global research agency Millward Brown.

Apple’s brand value jumped 84 per cent to $153.3 billion, driven largely by the company’s success with the iPad and iPhone 4, the study found. According to Millward Brown, brands’ values were determined by a mix of factors, which included future earnings (discounted to their present-day values) and in-depth consumer surveys. Apple’s revenues are bigger than Nokia, Samsung or Sony’s mobility business.

Operating System: Lately, iOS 5.0 and its features were announced on June 6 at the WWDC 2011 keynote address. The new operating system comes with iCloud service and the Notification Center, as well as improvements to native apps such as Camera. Moreover, the new operating system has more than 200 new features. In fact, the operating system of Apple is a mobile operating system that was already years ahead of anything else before Android could even make its move.

Many users were upset with iOS notification feature but that will change as iOS 5 will arrive with cutting-edge notifications, messaging and cable-free connectivity. It is, however, noticeable that Apple has borrowed few features from Android most notably like Cloud Synchronization, Notification Center, Over-the-air updates, Photo sharing and Twitter.

Other features include iMessage, system wide twitter integration, quick camera access, photo editing tools, advanced reminder system.

Carriers: The iPhone 5 is expected to feature international support as the consumers will be able to use the device on a GSM network around the world which will benefit world travellers. The iPhone was selling well even before it reached the carriers like Verizon and AT&T.

With the launch of the Verizon iPhone earlier this year, it seems more like than ever that Apple will support the carrier’s 4G network. As Verizon has the prospective to reach more than 100 million people with 4G network, most reports suggest Apple will capitalize on that and bring 4G connectivity to the next Verizon iPhone.

Design: When it comes to the iPhone, Apple has always updated the design of their smartphone each year. Designers Michal Bonikowski and Antoine Brieux have played it safe with the design of the new iPhone. iPhone 4 and Apple’s original iPad looks very similar in terms of design.

The iPad 2 which was launched this year with aluminum back-panel with white frame was thinner and lighter when compared to original iPad, and hence the probability of iPhone 5 sporting an aluminium back-panel along with thinness is a certain prospect.

Samsung Has Aces Up One's Sleeve in Fight Against Apple

2011-09-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

After Hewlett-Packard decided to cease production of webOS devices, including the TouchPad, eyes were on Samsung Electronics. Samsung is the largest seller of devices that run on the Android platform and is Apple Inc.'s biggest supplier-turned-rival.
But recent events have given logic to Samsung's possible acquisition of HP's webOS platform or mobile devices business: the Android is involved in legal issues with Oracle and Apple, and Motorola now has a distinct advantage over its Android peers as it is about to be sold to Android's developer, Google, Inc., for $12.5 billion.
At this year's IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics and home appliances show, Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung said Samsung would never acquire webOS. Korea-based Samsung already has the Bada mobile OS, which is popular in China and other parts of Asia, and it's relying on Google's assurances that it remains committed to Android partners. Motorola also has a deep portfolio of patents that can be used for Google's counterstrike against Apple and others.
At the IFA, Samsung was due for an embarrassment, at least in the tablet arena, after Apple obtained an injunction against the display and sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Berlin, which is hosting the IFA extravaganza.
But Samsung has laid cards on its sleeve: it unveiled at the IFA three new tabs that aim to trample Apple's devices. Samsung has the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, and the Galaxy S WiFi.
Owning a Galaxy Note is cheaper than buying an iPad and iPhone altogether. The Galaxy Note has a 5.3-inch screen (bigger than the 3.5-inch screen of the iPhone 4), and is powered by 1.4GHz dual core processor (faster than the iPad2's processor), 1GB of RAM, runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). For a bigger screen, but more portable than an iPad 2, there's the Galaxy Tab 7.7 -- it's thin (only 7.89mm), light (at 335 grams) and features the same Super AMOLED Plus screen technology used in the Galaxy S 2. For those looking for the iPod touch-like devices, Samsung is offering the Galaxy S WiFi 3.6.
The three new devices plus the September release in the U.S. for the Galaxy S II (it's fastest selling Samsung smartphone ever) will be a major threat to Apple's dominance in the mobile devices market. Apple has not yet released the highly anticipated iPhone 5 due to production problems and will only launch the iPad 3 next year.

Samsung has been the manufacturer of integral parts of Apple devices, including the A5 processor for the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5. But due to the ongoing hostilities, Samsung is said to be cutting ties with Apple, and now Apple is scrambling to look for a new manufacturer for the A6 multi-core processors, which will power the iPad 3 and the sixth edition of the iPhone.
Notwithstanding Samsung's ammunition, Apple could still distance itself against its rivals when and if it launches the "iPhone 5" and the device meets high expectations.
And in the tablet market, Apple will likely continue to dominate with the $499 iPad. HP is liquidating the TouchPad at $99 and other rivals are cutting prices: Research in Motion is cutting prices of the PlayBook by $50 (to $449 for the 16GB variant) and Lenovo is launching the IdeaPad tablet at only $199. This does not bode well for Samsung: while Apple has been able to record high margins with the iPad, its rivals would have to settle with low margins (or at a loss, in HP's case) just to sell their tablets.
As its LCD/LED panels unit sales has seen softening this year, Samsung needs the margins and the cash from its mobile devices unit in order to fund its defense against the barrage of lawsuits filed by Apple all over the world. Apple on the other hand has enough cash with $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities as June 25 and has no outstanding debt.
But it doesn't mean that Samsung is backing down, and that Apple has been victorious in its suits. While Apple has obtained temporary bans of Samsung devices in Australia and some parts of Europe, Samsung has managed to put up an adequate defense. In the Netherlands, for example, a court dismissed Apple's claims that Samsung devices were infringing on Apple's designs. The Dutch court only found that Samsung infringed on a software-related issue (the way the Galaxy S phones is scrolled), but this can be easily addressed with a software update. The Dutch court's decision denying Apple's "look and feel" claims could set precedent for similar rulings in the European Union and other countries.
"Apple's strategy amounts to little more than an attempt to smother its most prominent rival and the largest manufacturer of Android smartphones and to intimidate mobile phone carriers under an avalanche of meritless, rapidly evolving legal threats, rather than fairly competing in the marketplace," Samsung said in a court filing in U.S. district court.
Samsung has a deeper patent portfolio than Apple. Sooner rather than later this Korean electronics giant will strike back against Apple.

Was Apple's Lost Smartphone Not iPhone 5?

2011-09-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

The recently lost iPhone 5 still remains missing, though the investigators have found the house from which the lost device was emanating signals.

The San Francisco Police Department has admitted to accompanying Apple investigators to the man’s home.

Surprisingly, SFPD told the SF Weekly that the police did not get inside the man’s home along with the Apple investigators.
Calderon, the owner of the house said in an interview that none of the investors acknowledged being Apple’s employees, and one of them offered him $300 and said if he returned the phone, no charges would be pressed against him.
He confirmed only two of the six people who came by, entered his house and they did not identify themselves as police officials.

It is hard to believe that the police officials who accompanied the Apple employees did not get inside the man’s house for investigation.

The iPhone 5 story is unverifiable and consistently changing.
It is not even verified if the lost device was an iPhone 5 prototype or Apple was trying to retrieve some kind of arbitrary test unit which isn’t set to become a consumer product.
Last year, before the release of iPhone 4, an Apple employee lost the prototype of iPhone 4 at a bar. Gadget site, Gizmodo bought the prototype from the person who found the phone, and released pictures and specs of the iPhone 4 before the company's official announcement. Gizmodo received legal threats for putting up pictures and releasing specs.
It is also surprising that the trusted Apple employees who are given the iPhone prototypes for testing, lose it at a bar and get away with the carelessness without being fired by the company.
The company’s loss of the iPhone prototypes twice before their release raises a lot of questions, the answers to which will not be clear until Apple comes up to comment on the alleged phone loss.

Droid Bionic Release Confirmed, Will iPhone 5 Still be Waited For?

2011-09-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

Verizon Wireless confirmed on its Twitter page that the Motorola Droid Bionic will be unleashed on September 8, which was denied by Motorola later, while the other anticipated smartphone, iPhone 5 is still stuck in rumors about its release date.

"As I have said,The Motorola Droid Bionic is confirmed to release on September 8th," tweeted @DroidBionic on Friday.
The Motorola Droid Bionic is powered by Android 2.3 and it looks similar to Droid X2, which is another dual core smartphone without 4G support.

Droid Bionic has a huge battery power, 4G LTE and a qHD display of 4.3 inch 540x960 pixels TFT capacitive touch screen. The iPhone 5 is rumored to have a 3.5-inch or 3.7-inch, 960x640 resolution at 312 ppi display screen.

Compared to the Motorola Droid 3 (167.2 grams) or HTC Thunderbolt (176.6 grams), the Motorola Droid Bionic is lighter(158.8 grams)
The input features in Droid Bionic will include multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, touch-sensitive controls, and proximity sensor for auto turn-off.
The iPhone 5, like iPhone 4 will come with a scratch-resistant oleophobic surface, multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, three-axis gyro sensor and proximity sensor for auto turn-off.
Motorola Droid Bionic will come with a memory of 1GB RAM, 2 GB ROM and 16 GB storage. Since iPhone 5 is expected to feature processor similar to iPad 2, the possibility of iPhone 5 running on 512 MB RAM cannot be ruled out.
Motorola Droid Bionic will come with 8-megapxiel 3264x2448 pixels camera along with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection and image stabilization support.
In the case of iPhone 5, Bloomberg reported that Apple’s next version will have 8-megapixel camera and will closely resemble the iPhone 4. And 1080p video recording along with dual-LED flash will be found in iPhone 5. As leaked by Sony CEO Howard Stringer, iPhone 5 may also carry an "HD" FaceTime camera similar to those shipping with the current MacBook Pro lineup.
With iOS 5 and iPhone 5 releases expected to be on September, Apple iPhone 5 will come with iOS 5 operating system. Motorola Droid Bionic will come with Android OS v2.3 (Gingerbread).
As iPhone 5 is going to come with Apple iPad 2 processor, the smartphone is expected have 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU Apple A5 chipset processor. But, with iPad 2 featuring a 900 MHz processor, iPhone 5 can expect to get a 1.2 GHz processor to counter the 4G LTE support to some extent for speed enhancement.

Department of Telecom blocks file storage websites !

2011-07-21T00:07:00.000-07:00

Filestorage websites such as Mediafire.com, Megaupload, Rapidshare are being blocked in India.

A thread started on a popular online forum focused on developments in Indian broadband has furious and surprised users sharing a list of websites blocked by their Internet service providers. Going through the thread and my Twitter interactions, India’s Department of Telecommunication is behind the block.

Some users say they are not able to browse the file uploading websites, others say they can access and download content.

Users of popular Internet Service Providers MTNL, BSNL and Airtel have confirmed seeing the same error while visiting some or all of the following websites:

Megaupload.com
Mediafire.com
Megavideo.com
VideoBB.com
Novamov.com
Movshare.net
Rapidshare.com
Putlocker.com
Hotfile.com
Fileserve.com
Filesonic.com
Filesonic.in
Depositfiles.com
Wupload.com

The decision behind banning the websites looks like piracy since most of these websites are widely used to share media production houses and record labels would want users to pay for. Users are comparing the ban to Internet rules in China. The Department of Homeland Security in the US also made definitive moves against piracy by seizing domains of websites hosting pirated content.As of now there is no official word from the DOT.

Facebook Terminates Google+ Ads

2011-07-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

It looks like Facebook doesn’t want anything to do with Google+ on its site, even if the content is a paid one. An app developer learned this the hard way and it has caused his other campaigns to be suspended by the social network.

The said app developer is Michael Lee Johnson. He ran a Facebook ad that asked people to join him on Google+. It has a simple message stating to add Michael to Google+. What seems to be a harmless ad was banned by Facebook.

Aside from removing the offensive ad, Facebook also suspended his other campaigns. He received a message from Facebook that all his ads has been stopped and would not return in the web site. It didn’t provide a specific rule that the ad violated.

Facebook doesn’t want people promoting rival products with Facebook ads. According to its Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines, the company can refuse ads at any time for any reason if they determined that the ad promotes competing products or services.

Facebook could have just removed Johnson’s Google+ ad and left his other ads running. Suspending his other campaigns might be a little too much punishment for the ad. This could serve as a warning for others who might want to run their Google+ ad on Facebook.

6 Billion Apps Installed On Android

2011-07-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Google announced during its second quarter earnings conference that there are now six billion apps installed on its Android operating system. The company also noted that there are 550,000 Android device activations each day. This is up from 500,000 activations two weeks ago.

In 20 months Google reached the 1 billion mark on apps installed on the Android platform. Five months later, the company announced that it already hit the 2 billion mark. Then two months later, the company said that there are already 3 billion apps installed on Android.

Android is an open ecosystem and this means users can download apps from more than one app store. Aside from the official Google Android Market there are other app stores, including Amazon’s App Store that was launched last month.

Apple said that there are already 15 billion downloaded apps on its iOS. Apple achieved the 1 billion apps downloaded milestone in April 2009. Then in April 2011, the company said that it has already passed the 10 billion app downloaded mark. Apple iOS apps download are still increasing each day.

Because of Android’s success in the market, app downloads will continue to increase and could probably catch Apple iOS’ numbers. This is impressive considering that there are 200,000 apps in the Android Market as of December 2010 while Apple’s App Store has more than 300,000 apps as of September 2010.

Facebook rolls out a Java App that even runs on dumb phones!!

2011-07-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

Facebook has started its figthback against Google and its Google+ project. The company has just released a Java-based version of its mobile application, which should extend its reach to just about every mobile platform out there.

The app is compatible with 2,500 Java-enabled phones and gives you access to the most popular features of the social network such as News Feed, Inbox, and Photos and it also enables you to upload photos and find friends from your phone’s contacts. The app should work on just about any platform that didn't have an app already.

Facebook has optimized their new application to use less data, so your cell phone charges don't go through the roof. What's more the company has reached an agreement with several carriers, which will offer free data access to this app for 90 days. That means that you won't have to pay for the data used by the Facebook app for full three months.

If you have a Java-enabled phone you can head to m.facebook.com and download the app right away. You can also get it at some of the popular independent app stores, including GetJar, Appia, and Mobile Weaver.

Can Facebook and Google+ Coexist ?

2011-07-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

The two Internet giants are going head-to-head in a social networking battle, but cooperation could be the key to their survival.

Like oil and water or like peanut butter and jelly? Google+, the search giant’s new social network, has everyone in the tech industry speculating about whether it’s "the Facebook Killer."

The death of MySpace seems to prove that people have room in their lives for only one social network, one profile page. After all, how many different places do you need to announce your favorite TV shows? How many different places do you need to share your witty thoughts?

On the other hand, Twitter proved that "social" can come in different forms--and 140 characters is more appropriate for some witty thoughts than for others. Twitter also allows users to link certain posts to their Facebook page if they wish, meaning that if the social networks could restrain themselves from treating social networking as a zero-sum game, everyone might win.

Of course, Google and Facebook haven't played nice lately, and they probably won't now. Google has tried to index public Facebook pages for its searches, inciting the ire of Facebook, which earlier this year hired a PR company to pitch Google-negative stories to the press. And Facebook's recent partnering with Skype to compete with Google+’s Hangouts suggests that each Internet giant has the other in its crosshairs.

Theory 1: They Can Coexist Independently

Though all-out war between the two companies seems imminent (if it hasn't already begun), Google’s executive chairman (and former CEO as of this April) Eric Schmidt thinks that there’s more than enough room for the two companies to exist independently. According to a July 7 Reuter’s article, Schmidt said that Google+ will succeed just as Facebook and Twitter have because demand for entry into Google+ is high, and because Hangouts--Google’s multiperson video chat feature--is very popular with younger users.

The response is a familiar one from Schmidt, who told 60 Minutes back in 2005 that Google believed it could coexist with Microsoft’s relatively new Bing search client. Because of Google’s size and search accuracy, the company never seems to break a sweat in public, insisting that identical services can exist in tandem. But that talk might just be a PR ploy: Google and Microsoft do compete head-to-head for search advertising dollars, just as Facebook and Google+ will in the social network arena. In June, the Federal Trade Commission launched an antitrust probe into Google’s dealings, concerned that the company may exercise too much control over what we see on the Web.

Despite their face-off, both Google and Facebook have massive user bases (and a massive potential user base in the case of Google+) so it’s entirely likely that the two can and will coexist. Smaller companies such as LiveChat, which builds software for companies to offer customer service through video chat, are expecting both social networks to succeed and thrive, and are strategizing accordingly. Mariusz Cieply, the CEO of LiveChat, says that his company hopes to offer its services through both Facebook and Google+ in the near future, so that companies can, for example, provide post-sales tech support through video over Facebook or Google Hangouts. “It will be great to have both Facebook and Google Plus,“ Cieply says. “We will start with Facebook first, but we see a huge opportunity with Google Hangouts.”

The idea that Google+ and Facebook can offer people different types of social media and therefore coexist without endless hostilities isn’t crazy. People have created channels on YouTube, profiles on Twitter, AIM screen names, Flikr albums, and Tumblr pages. Surely there’s room for one more?

If Tom from MySpace, and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, are on Google+ then maybe everyone can get along after all.

Theory 2: They Can Coexist Only If They’re Willing to Work Together

Many industry experts believe that the ability of Google+ and Facebook to coexist will depend on how well the two companies connect with one another. Jason Shellen, head of AIM products at AOL, sees the Google+ vs. Facebook battle as a familiar story--after all, AIM coexisted with MSN messenger, and now is trying to reinvent itself to compete with Facebook chat and Gchat (the Google Mail chat client) by allowing users to set up video chats without any login or account beyond an AOL-generated URL, and AIM hopes that that URL will be shared and embedded on Facebook and Google+ walls.

“We’ve made it so you can go to Gchat and add an AIM buddy,” Shellen says of AIM’s coexistence strategy. “We federate and talk together; sometimes this false walled-garden thing doesn’t need to be that difficult.” Certainly that worked for Twitter, whose hashtags and 140-character tweets can be linked to just about every other social media hub, from Facebook to YouTube channels.

In this respect, however, Google+ is at a disadvantage. In the same recent Reuters article mentioned earlier, Google’s Schmidt admitted that talks with Facebook to allow importation of friends from Facebook to Google ended in an impasse, and talks with Twitter to integrate that service also broke down. That leaves Google+ a little less convenient for people who like to link their profiles together.

But the other loser in Google’s failed “Facebook integration” talks is Facebook, because Google has a huge user base (including people who use Gmail, Google Checkouts, or Picasa, for example), and Facebook has been butting up against a lot of negative press lately that could increase Facebook users' willingness to switch to Google+ if they have to choose one or the other.

Theory 3: There Can Be Only One Survivor

The "One Social Network to Rule Them All" mentality might be right as consumers get smarter about how to deal with social media. Judy Shapiro, a blogger for AdAge and the CEO of EngageSimply, a technology marketing firm, says that both Facebook and Google+ are in a war, and consumers will choose the victor based on privacy or on how well they can turn the social network off. “Google+ is just Google's attempt to be Facebook, and Facebook is doing its share to become Google,” Shapiro says.

In the beginning, Google had search and a way to make money through ads, and Facebook had social data. Google seems to feel that the best way to improve the accuracy of its search results is to integrate social data, something it tried to do back in 2010 when it acquired Aardvark, a company that gave feedback to questions based on the preferences of the asker's identifiable friends and followers. For its part, Facebook has gradually built an onsite platform that allows advertisers to send targeted ads based on users’ personal and preference data. It has also established a partnership with Bing to help generate revenue from all of that social data.

But Shapiro argues that the convergence in what Google and Facebook can do might not merely create a mass exodus of users from one social network to the other; it might ensure their mutual destruction. “The more precisely a network can target us [in terms of ad-sales] the more resistant we become to it,” she says. “If you marry the strength of the search that Google has with behavioral base of social media that Facebook has, that's a one-two punch. But our privacy becomes the collateral damage.” Eventually we might get smart enough to seek alternatives that let us share information with friends and family, and yet avoid sharing it with companies that have an abiding interest in monetizing our data.

Lost world discovered below Atlantic Ocean !

2011-07-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON: Geologists have discovered what they say is an ancient, lost landscape that lies deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean near the northern coast of Scotland.

The massive landscape with furrows cut by rivers and peaks that once belonged to mountains is believed to be some 56 million years old. "It looks like a map of a bit of a country onshore. It is like an ancient fossil landscape preserved 2km beneath the seabed," senior study researcher Nicky White said.

The researchers, who used an advanced echo-sounding technique to find the landscape, said their data has so far revealed a landscape about 10,000 square km west of the Orkney-Shetland Islands that stretched above sea level by almost as much as 1km.

They suspect it is part of a larger region that merged with what is now Scotland and may have extended toward Norway in a hot, prehuman world.

The researchers, who detailed their findings in the journal Nature Geoscience, used high pressured air via metal cylinders, producing sound waves that travel to the ocean floor and beneath it, through layers of sediment. Every time the sound waves encountered a change in the material, an echo bounced back and microphones trailing behind the ship on cables record these echoes.

From the information, they constructed 3D images of the sedimentary rock below, said White, a geologist at the University of Cambridge in Britain.

The team found a wrinkly layer 2km beneath the seafloor - evidence of the buried landscape , reminiscent of the mythical , lost Greek island Atlantis.

They traced eight major rivers, and core samples, taken from the rock beneath the ocean floor, revealed pollen and coal, evidence of land-dwelling life.

But above and below these deposits, they found evidence of a marine environment, including fossils, indicating the land rose above the sea and then subsided - "like a terrestrial sandwich with marine bread," White said.

Now, the burning question, according to White, is what made this landscape rise up, then subside? He has a theory pointing to an upwelling of material through the Earth's mantle beneath the North Atlantic Ocean called the Icelandic Plume. The plume works like a pipe carrying hot magma from deep within the Earth to right below the surface. The researchers believe a giant hot ripple pushed the landscape above the North Atlantic, then as the ripple passed, the land fell back beneath the ocean.

British researchers design a million-chip neural network 1/100 as complex as your brain

2011-07-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

If you want some idea of the complexity of the human brain, consider this: a group of British universities plans to link as many as a million ARM processors in order to simulate just a small fraction of it.

The resulting model, called SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network architecture), will represent less than one percent of a human's gray matter, which contains 100 billion neurons. (Take that, mice brains!)

Yet even this small scale representation, researchers believe, will yield insight into how the brain functions, perhaps enabling new treatments for cognitive disorders, similar to previous models that increased our understanding of schizophrenia. As these neural networks increase in complexity, they come closer to mimicking human brains -- perhaps even developing the ability to make their own Skynet references.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says "400 million Windows 7 licenses sold"

2011-07-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

So much for not keeping pace, huh? We heard back in June of last year that Microsoft had blown through 150 million Windows 7 licenses, and just a few months later, it had surpassed 240 million.

At this year's Worldwide Partner Conference, head honcho Steve Ballmer took great pleasure in announcing that said figure has now swollen to beyond 400 million in under two years. Not surprisingly, that makes Win7 the fastest-selling operating system in history, and Tami Reller - corporate vice president and chief financial officer of Windows and Windows Live - made clear that it's "the path to Windows 8."

The outfit also announced that 100 million copies of Office 2010 have flown off the shelves since launch, and while no one really came out and said it, we're counting on seeing a Windows 8 build at the BUILD event this fall. Head on past the break for a whole heaping of (deserved) self-congratulations.

Apple files second ITC patent infringement complaint against HTC

2011-07-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a little legalese to take the edge off on a Monday, eh? Just months after Apple smacked HTC with an ITC complaint, it looks as if the company's doing the same thing again.

As if one ongoing ITC complaint against Samsung wasn't enough, the US International Trade Commission is reporting that HTC is being accused again.

As predicted, the patent infringement complaint is asking for the entity to block the import of "personal electronic devices" by HTC, but until it becomes available for public viewing, it's hard to know exactly which device(s) ticked the lawyers in Cupertino off. As for the prior tiff? A judge is expected to rule on that August 5th, and those findings are then subject to review by the full commission.

Google $20 Billion Richer With The Launch Of Google+?

2011-07-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Investors love Google. In fact, they love it so much, they’ve added $20 billion to Google’s market capitalization since the launch of the Google+ social network.

That number has since been trimmed by Morgan Stanley to around $15.8 billion, but hey, when you can add 15 billion to a companies value in a week, doest it really matter? The day before the launch of Google+, June 27, a share in Google would’ve set you back $482.80; just a week later on July 7, that cost rose to a head-numbing $546.60 per share.

Even with the Morgan Stanley adjustments (based on fears Google+ will fail), the jump in share price is a firm indicator that investors see Google’s new outing as a credible threat to Facebook’s dominance. Of course, there are other factors that drive market sentiment, but Google hasn’t had such a jump in quite a while. Even the launch of Google buzz didn’t produce such potent results.

One of Google’s advantage is that Google+ is a brand new service. Facebook on the other hand, is well established. Now, you may ask, how is it that a brand new service can trump a well established social network? Here’s how it works: Google has the “novelty” factor, which for Facebook wore off ages ago. You can see proof of this in the fact that Facebook made an announcement in an effort to steal some of Google’s buzz. Introducing video calling in an existing social network is nothing like announcing a brand new social network. And this is why investors and users alike are salivating at the mouth over Google+. If it’s new, people want in—pure and simple.

Watch the video below to see how Google+ might impact on Facebook.