Technology Maximum

Estylo 1.1: magnetic dual tip capacitive stylus for iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0000

Estylo 1.1: magnetic dual tip capacitive stylus for iPad

Estylo 1.1 is the first and ONLY wooden stylus to work on capacitive touch screens such as that of the iPad. At Plai our goal was to create a completely eco friendly product that would inspire the imagination. Designed for artists seeking greater accuracy over their work, it can also be used for writing or simply navigating the web. Inside Estylo we use high quality conductive materials so that no extra pressure is needed for it to be detected. In other words, Estylo is the pencil of NOW.

We need your support, because without you we are nobody. We have some cool rewards and will start shipping Estylo 1.1 one week after our deadline. Our project is unique in that we are manufacturing Estylo ourselves. Some of funding money will go towards a sanding machine that is almost complete. Other funding money will go towards new packaging. And all the extra money will go towards research and development of Estylo 2.0.

Features:

* Great for drawing, sketching, writing, playing games, reading ebooks or navigating the web.

* Magnetically attaches to the iPad 2.

* Ergonomic design that adapts to the natural grip of the hand.

* The front tip works between 5 to 70 degrees.

* Dual tip stylus. The back tip is perfect for more detailed work.

* No extra pressure is needed for the tips to function.

Estylo 1.1 works on: all generations of iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Samsung galaxy tab, Droid and other Android devices with a capacitive touch screen.

TouchFire makes your iPad feel like a normal keyboard!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:43:00 +0000

TouchFire makes your iPad feel like a normal keyboard!

TouchFire puts the "touch" back into typing on an iPad. You can now feel where the keys are and rest your fingers on the home row, so you can type as fast and accurately as you can on a laptop. You can even type without looking at the screen. TouchFire cushions your fingers as you type, something both touch-typists and two-finger typists really appreciate. Typing on an iPad is no longer a pain!

TouchFire is ultra-thin and weighs less than an ounce. It attaches to the inside of the iPad cover and folds with the cover, so you can always keep TouchFire with your iPad without it getting in the way.

What People are Saying About TouchFire

FastCompany – "Amazingly, the TouchFire appears to hit all these marks."

CNET – "Isaac let me try a prototype, and I enjoyed the experience."

iPadCTO – "TouchFire magically transforms [the iPad’s] virtual keyboard into a comfortable human-to-glass interface."

How It Works

TouchFire fits right over the iPad's on-screen keyboard and is completely transparent, so you can always see the keys underneath it.

TouchFire is soft and supple if you swipe through it horizontally, so you can easily select the special characters on the keyboard. Yet it is stiff enough vertically to allow you to rest your fingers on the home row keys without accidentally triggering the touch screen. At the same time it responds to typing with just the right amount of resistance and spring-back to feel like a lively and responsive keyboard. Amazing!

When you want TouchFire out of the way, you simply fold it down. TouchFire's magnets keep it neatly folded below the screen.

TouchFire also comes with a pair of cover clips, which help secure it magnetically to your iPad's cover.

You also get a thin storage case, should you ever want to store TouchFire off your iPad.

TouchFire Supports Both iPad 1 and iPad 2

As you saw in the video at the top of the page, TouchFire attaches to the iPad 2 using the magnets built into the iPad 2. TouchFire also works great with the original iPad.

Twitter Acquires Mobile Data Security Gurus Whisper Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:07:00 +0000

Twitter Acquires Mobile Data Security Gurus Whisper Systems

Whisper Systems, a company that focuses on enterprise-grade security on Android devices, has announced today via its blog that it has been acquired by Twitter. In what appears to be a talent grab, Whisper Systems says that, “Whisper Systems software as our users know it will live on (and we have some surprises in store that we’re excited about), but there is unfortunately a transition period where we will have to temporarily take our products and services offline.”

All of Whisper Systems’ products are still in a beta, judging by the version numbers which hover around points like 0.1 and 0.5. As such, it seems that Twitter is aiming to bring in the team to help secure its own system. Twitter has, as is widely seen, had problems in the past with security issues. The vast majority of these come from users not understanding how to properly protect themselves.

When you look at what Whisper Systems has done, which is take the onus of security off of the user and placing it into the systems themselves, a move of this nature makes considerable sense as Twitter continues to grow.

Whisper Systems appears to have begun as a business that was directed toward helping you to hide yourself from both Google and mobile carriers when using the Android platform, according to a writing in VentureBeat from 2010.

Its WhisperCore and TextSecure systems would likely be the most valuable IP for Twitter, but we’ll have to wait and see exactly how the acquisition plays out. WhisperCore is, according to the company, a system which “integrates with the underlying Android OS to protect everything you keep on your phone.” TextSecure, by comparison, allows for secure texting by storing them “in an encrypted database on your phone, and text messages are encrypted during transmission when communicating with someone else also using TextSecure.”

Motorola Droid 4 Specifications Leak

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Motorola Droid 4 Specifications Leak

The official specifications and pictures of the upcoming Motorola Droid 4 have been unearthed by Droid Life, revealing a device very similar to the Droid Razr, with the addition of a QWERTY keyboard.

The device sports a 4-inch qHD screen – slightly smaller than RAZR’s 4.3-inch screen – and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

It has an 8-megapixel camera on the back as well as a HD-capable one on the front for video chats, and it supports fast data transfer via LTE. As for the keyboard, it’s a 5-row, edge-lit, PC-like variety.

The Droid 4 is slated to hit Verizon’s stores Dec. 8.

Head on over to Droid Life for a neat comparison of the evolution from the original Droid to the Droid 4.

Billionaires Share Their Secrets to Success

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Billionaires Share Their Secrets to Success

By Robert Frank

: ABC News 20/20; Barbara Walters with Tony Hsieh

Get-Rich-Quick books are generally useless, as is most advice from the wealthy on how to get wealthy. Luck, timing and economic context play such a large role in wealth creation that tips like “work hard” and “stay focused” rarely explain a person’s millions.

Yet tonight on 20/20, Barbara Waltersspends time with four billionaires, who offer some useful advice no matter what you’re financial aspirations.

Her subjects include: John Paul DeJoria, the founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and owner of Patron Spirits; Patriarch Partners’ Lynn Tilton; Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil; and Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.

On the 20/20 web site, they have a list of the 20 “Billionaire’s 20 Keys to Success.” Here are 10:

1. Figure out what you’re so passionate about that you’d be happy doing it for 10 years, even if you never made any money from it. That’s what you should be doing.

2. Always be true to yourself.

3. Figure out what your values are and live by them, in business and in life.

4. Rather than focus on work-life separation, focus on work-life integration.

5. Don’t network. Focus on building real relationships and friendships where the relationship itself is its own reward, instead of trying to get something out of the relationship to benefit your business or yourself.

6. Remember to maximize for happiness, not money or status.

7. Get ready for rejection.

8. Success unshared is failure. Give back — share your wealth.

10. Successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do.

What would you add to the “Billionaire’s Secrets” List?

Memolane is a scrapbook that writes itself.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 07:30:00 +0000

Your social life, captured in a simple, elegant timeline.

Bring together all the moments you’ve saved through social media to tell your stories.
Track your past, search and rediscover great memories, and build the stories of your future with Memolane.

Memolane Video from Memolane on Vimeo.

Memolane is a scrapbook that writes itself.

“What we see is basically everyone is getting more and more active in posting their lives on the Internet, and contrary to [what] many believe, it’s actually happening much outside Facebook. And the number of amazing, great social media services is ever-growing. You have Foursquare, you have TripIt, you have Gowalla, you have Foodspotting, you have SoundCloud. All these services all capture different parts of your life, and it’s all happening now, so more and more people are capturing more and more of their life on the Internet, and it’s capturing and presenting all these moments, but the problem is, I think, also now how do we consume this?”

“A lot of our users are coming back and saying, ‘I tried to find it on Facebook, I tried to find it on Twitter. Where was it I actually posted this?’ And then they come on Memolane and they search and boof, it’s there. And what we’ve really emphasized is a nice visualization of their search result.”

All Your Stuff In One Place

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 07:03:00 +0000

All Your Stuff In One Place

In the cloud, your stuff is scattered over a lot of different services. Dispatch is a new way to manage and share your stuff, by bringing it together into one place.

There are a number of services that allow us to leverage the cloud for file storage and file sharing, unlocking information once trapped on a single device and making it accessible from our smart phones and tablets. In fact, many of us have files stored in several locations, and while there are certainly conveniences that come with these services, having files with multiple services that have multiple sign-ins comes with its own set of problems. Dispatch is developing a way for us to simplify file management in the cloud by supporting a seamless integration of our many cloud accounts.

“Dispatch brings together the cloud services you have—your DropBox, your Google Docs, your Evernote, your email and even your Instagram and Spotify eventually—so that you can see all of your stuff in one place,” explains Jesse Lamb, Co-founder and CEO of Dispatch, Inc. “Because everything’s moved to the cloud, everything gets kind of scattered, and Dispatch brings it back together.”

Whether it’s our photos on Facebook or our ideas on Evernote, we’re storing more and more information in the cloud. With Dispatch you can simply drag and drop files among the different services you use.

“There’s a power of having your stuff together…” says Lamb. “You can see the latest of what you’re working on and even launch into the different services, so if you have a lot of Google accounts, you can launch right into what you need from there without having to fight with the single sign-on that they have right now.”

Dispatch allows you to, in effect, connect your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Contacts, etc. and use these media to share files without having to worry about which cloud services the recipient uses. For example, instead of direct messaging someone on Twitter to get his email address so that you can share a photo, video or other file, you can just grant him access to the file directly via Twitter.

“We’re not trying to build another channel for messaging,” explains Lamb, “because we already have really good channels. The idea is extending those so you can do more with them and maybe finally get people to stop using email attachments [and eliminate] all the friction that happens around that. [It also] gives you a way to move things back and forth and have a conversation around [the file] you’re talking about. There’s a lot of power, once you bring all these services together and bring all the people together that you know so that you can work around your stuff in new ways. It’s really exciting.”

More info:

Dispatch web site: http://dispatch.io/
Dispatch profile on CrunchBase: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/dispatch-io
Dispatch profile on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Dispatch

Fantastic video on the progression of information technology

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:02:00 +0000

Fantastic video on the progression of information technology, researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman, remixed

Shoppers fight over $2 waffle

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Shoppers fight over $2 waffle

It’s Black Friday, the biggest day of discount shopping in the U.S., and horror stories are pouring in from across the country.

Among the more sensational items: one Walmart shopper in Los Angeles used pepper spray to fend off customers in the Xbox aisle, injuring 20, while another was shot by an armed robber outside of a Walmart in northern California, the Associated Press reports.

How to submit site map to Google

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:05:00 +0000

How to submit site map to Google

more on:http://youtu.be/hPz0a26Otg8

Let’s use video to reinvent education

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:55:00 +0000

Let’s use video to reinvent education

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises — and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script — give students video lectures to watch at home, and do you “homework” in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

Digital Adults

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:44:00 +0000

Digital Adults: Pre-teens are on Facebook and Twitter

An eleven year old trying to create a Facebook profile is likely to be met with eight simple words: ”Sorry, you are ineligible to sign up for Facebook.” Most eleven year olds, are unlikely to be deterred and will simply add a couple of years to their birth date. That’s according to research performed for AVG’s Digital Diaries series that found that most kids have reached “digital maturity”-that is, are on mainstream social sites- by age 11.

AVG, an online security firm, commissioned the report for the fourth installment of its Digital Diaries, a look at how technology is “fundamentally changing the nature of childhood.”

The research for Digital Diaries has involved a different age group at each stage. Previous studies looked at everything from the digital footprints of infants to the higher likelihood that a toddler can play a computer game than ride a bike.

The latest survey of 4,000 parents in 10 countries found that 58% of their kids aged 10-13 had access to a “mainstream” social network, such as Facebook or Twitter (or their regional counterparts like Tuenti in Spain.) In over half of those countries, the age at which kids began accessing adult social networking sites was just 11. In the US, 53% of parents surveyed shared that their 10-13 year olds were networking.

The survey responses came from parents and, of those who know their kids are online, 40% admitted that they do not monitor their computers. Two thirds, however, claimed they could directly access their kids’ accounts and over half did.

Yet, even with parents who know their kids are on adult social networks, kids are circumventing their parents’ controls. In fact, they have their own access to the Internet. Most 10-13 year olds have their own computers and Australia is the only country where the computer is likely to be in the family living room. An increasing number of pre-teens are also accessing social media on their smartphones-away from parental eyes.

The study results raise questions of Internet safety and security for preteen. Parents who are aware of their kids’ online habits may be better able to take the advantages of a wired life. Conceivably, they would also be better prepared to deal with the dangers, such as cyber bullying.

AVG’s recommendations? Be aware of where your kids are online, keep up a dialogue with your children about the pros and cons of Internet and social network use and consider installing software in both computers and smartphones that allow you to monitor your children’s online use, but also their safety.

Jaxtr.com – Free Phone to Phone Calls Worldwide

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:05:00 +0000

Jaxtr.com – Free Phone to Phone Calls Worldwide

Jaxtr links phone to the web, so you can hear from callers worldwide while keeping your existing phone number private. You can use Jaxtr to receive calls and voice messages from people worldwide while keeping your phone number private.
You don’t need a headset or broadband to use Jaxtr. No download required. It works with te phone you already use, including ordinary landline phones and mobile.

You can call other Jaxtr users for free. You can invite your friends whom you would like to call for free to Jaxtr. You can also import contacts from your Outlook or your webmail like Yahoo, Hotmail and GMail.

You need enough talk time credits called “jax” to get calls on Jaxtr. Depending on which phone you send your calls to, you use up different jax per minute.

Jaxtr gives 100 jax per month. If you don’t have jax remaining in your account, calls to you will go into the voicemail. You can listen to the voice messages at jaxtr.com. You can earn 20 jax for each new Jaxtr user you sign up.

The PrivacyShield feature allows you to send all calls from unknown callers to voicemail. You can add up to 3 phones to the list and select where you would like to receive the calls.

Jaxtr connects your phone to the Jaxtr user using a local number. For India, it seems a Mumbai number (022+) is used for land phones and a cell number is given for cell phone users. To call the same person next time, the local number can be used. This way Jaxtr help you make international calls for the local charges at your location.

Free Mobile Texting. Local And International.

How does it work?
Use JaxtrSMS to send and receive messages with any other mobile phone in the world forFREE.

1. Recipient does not have to be a user
2. Send a text message to any other mobile phone, domestic or international.
3. Use your own phone number

JaxtrSMS - The world's First FREE. and OPEN mobile to mobile texting application.
	Use JaxtrSMS to send and receive messages with any other mobile phone in the world for FREE.
	Why use JaxtrSMS?
	FREE to download
	Save Money - Send text messages for FREE.
	Save Time - works on WiFi & 3G and all devices
	Instant Delivery - our app to app delivery of messages is instant

Read more at TECK.IN: http://teck.in/jaxtr-free-phone-to-phone-calls.html#ixzz1eRlybFKL

New YouTube Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:29:00 +0000

How to Enable the New YouTube Design Now

Word on the street is that YouTube has a slick new design. It’s a revamped homepage with some pretty tight Google+ social integration and content discovery features.

But if you’ve fired up your trusty Internet machine and the new YouTube hasn’t yet appeared for you, don’t fret. Our friends at The Verge have figured out an easy way to turn on the new features right the heck now.

At present, the trick only seems to work in Firefox and Chrome. Open up your browser’s development tools:

In Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + K (Win) | Cmd + Shift + K (Mac)

In Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + J (Win) | or Cmd + Alt + J (Mac)

Then add this string of delicious and nutritious code to the console:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";

Close your development tools, then reload The YouTubes. Voila! A fresh homepage for videos.

1. Welcome

Once you get the new design, a message will pop up, prompting you to take a tour.

2. Channel Activity

Clicking a channel's name in the left-most column will bring up its recent activity in the center column.

3. Add Channels to Your Homepage

You can add your favorite channels to the left-most column of your new homepage.

4. Recommended Channels

YouTube will suggest other channels to subscribe to based on the videos you've watched.

5. Subscribe

Subscribe to at least three channels to fill up your column, then return to the homepage for some easy video viewing.

Video on new youtube design:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twQ3A8VcNLA

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:10:00 +0000

Lessons From the Launch of Google Music

Here's what you can learn from Google Music's entrance into the music marketplace, and how to make your next product a stand-out in a crowded market.

It seemed inevitable. Google Music's late arrival into the online music marketplace immediately sparked headlines comparing it to its' biggest competitors: "Can Google Music unseat Apple's iTunes, Spotify?;" "Cloud Music Showdown: Amazon vs. Apple vs. Google;" and "Google, iTunes Turn up the Volume."

Why does this matter to you? Because even if you're Google, when your product is late to the game, you're going to have to fight for the spotlight. While the jury is still out on whether Google Music is a stand-out, it's a good time for small business owners to look at just how to surface their new products in an already crowded market.

Here, experts reveal key lessons from Google Music's launch and how to ensure your next launch gets its share of the spotlight.

Focus on user experience. Since the product will be similar to others, user experience counts ten-fold. It's a phenomenon not limited to tech companies—whether you're hawking a Polo shirt or plate of sashimi, the way your customer feels about and interacts with your product could be the difference in success and flat-out failure.

"Think about the first iPhone. When it came out, it certainly was competing in a cell phone market where consumers were pretty comfortable with the status quo," says Hamilton Wallace, an Arizona marketing consultant. "But the user experience was so ground-breaking, it really pushed it way passed a lot of the other guys. This is a good lesson in the importance of user experience."

Where can you start? He suggests doing a full analysis of your competitors' customers before launch. Find out what your product can provide those customers that they aren't already getting.

Scott Stratten, consultant and president of consulting firm UnMarketing, which is based in Ontario, Canada, agrees. "Remember, you can't outspend the bigger guys, but you can out-awesome them," he says.

Don't lose control of the conversation. "If there are already similar products out there, decide where your product will fit before you launch," says Wallace.

Why? Because it's human nature to categorize, he says, and you shouldn't fight it.

"If you don't tell your customers how to think about your product, what to compare it to, the press and critics will do that for you," he says. "That's a sure way to lose prominence in the market."

The good news is, while a large company like Google has a hard time controlling the chatter around their new product, a smaller company can decide this early on, and market accordingly.

Be a humble competitor. "There isn't much value in going negative on your competitors," says Wallace. "You should simply focus on what makes your product unique."

Stratten warns: "Taking shots at your biggest competitors might not be the best way into a market, because they might swing back. Then you'll just look like a jackass and no one will care about your product."

Wallace, however, adds that this doesn't mean you shouldn't be aggressive about marketing or responding to critics.

"You should most definitely respond to critics, just as you would respond to advocates," he says. "Just keep the focus positive. Bashing your competitors just makes them a part of your conversation. They don't need to be."

Don't underestimate the power of innovation. Some critics of Google Music point out that its entrance into the music marketplace isn't about innovating an already existing service; rather, they say, it's simply about making money.

Eric Clemons, a Wharton School management professor who has studied Google, suggests that small businesses shouldn't think that they can enter a crowded market without out-innovating the other guys.

"Google has the luxury of owning their own platform and having billions in the bank. They didn't necessarily have to come up with a more innovative product. Make no mistake, that isn't the case with small companies," he says.

chrome book updates

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:14:00 +0000

A simple, streamlined user interface

From the moment you hit the power button and watch your Chromebook boot up in eight seconds flat, you’ll notice that the operating system got a bit of a facelift. For example, the Chromebook now sports a fresh, clean login experience.

We’ve also revamped the New Tab page to make it easier to manage your apps, bookmarks and most visited sites. By popular demand, we’ve added a few handy new shortcuts to the New Tab page: a shortcut to the File Manager on your Chromebook, as well as to music apps and games in the Chrome Web Store.

You may have also noticed, we recently gave the Chrome Web Store a new look, so that you can easily scan the wall of images to discover fun and useful apps and extensions.

Hassle-free for the holidays

We’ve heard from many of you that one of the things you enjoy most about the Chromebook is its hassle-free simplicity. If you’re someone who’s often called upon to provide tech support when you’re home for the holidays like I am, you’ll be happy to know that the Chromebook gets your loved ones up and going on the web quickly, without the usual pains of computing like seemingly endless boot times and setup manuals. With that in mind, we wanted to share a few updates to the lineup of Chromebooks that make them more giftable to loved ones.

For folks in the United States, Samsung is introducing a sleek, black version of its Wi-Fi only Samsung Chromebook Series 5.

We’ve also been working closely with our partners to continually improve the overall Chromebook experience while making them even more affordable. So, we’re excited to share that beginning this week Acer and Samsung Chromebooks will be available starting at $299. The updated prices will be available through our online retail partners.

Lastly, if you’re in the U.S. and you’d like to take a Chromebook for a test drive, visit theSamsung Experience in New York City or check one out when flying with Virgin America. We’re excited to hear your feedback, as we continue to build a faster, simpler and more secure experience on a computer that always gets better. In the meantime, we’ll leave you with one in a series of new film shorts that highlight some of the reasons why we think Chromebooks make a great holiday gift.

Technorati Tags: technology, updates

Volun, the Italian search engine that goes to attack Google

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:39:00 +0000

Volun, the Italian search engine that goes to attack Google

The tom-toms on the Net is still low but the volume is rising .Especially after Massimo Marchiori participated - a real star - the Roman festival for the 20 years of the Web . The mathematician of Padua - known as "the inventor of the algorithm of Google "( here's the story told by him ) - is launching a new online search engine: Volun, an all-Italian project that you can already start out at this link .

Marchiori says: "With the engine Volun give discomfort to Google."You think you can?

Yes, the Italian mathematician knows at the bottom of the web and semantic search is the novelty of the future (56%, 2,093 Votes)
No, the Big G is now a reality too closely tied to the surfing habits in order to be replaced (even partially) (44%, 1,637 Votes)

Total Voters: 3,730

Rate

Meanwhile, the name, behind which there is an investor-Mariano Pireddu adventure Marchiori - Sardinian businessman who in 2001 founded Voljatel, Slovenian telecommunications company. "And then little else: the name sounds good," he said Marchiori. "And then the roots of" flight "and" moon ": our desire to fly really high, to reach an ambitious goal and dream." Then there's the effort, and pride, to do something big in Italy. "Had we been abroad, we might be able to go online a year before." But past the bureaucratic difficulties, remains the greatest happiness of a project born and raised in our country. Italian capital, developers mostly grown at the University of Padua. "My former students, all members of the company in various capacities." With an operational basis in fact in the Venetian city. And the servers in Sardinia.

The new search engine, and not for time reasons but just as novel to explore the Web, will start within the first two weeks of December ("definitely before the end of the year, because we want to go online in the year of 150 Anniversary of our country ") in twelve languages. Massimo Marchiori studied for years the semantic network, an approach to the amount of meaningful information in the next Net revolution Why this is, after that of Google Page Rank at the end of the nineties right on cue Hyper Search by Marchiori. Bing Microsoft has tried to improve the results of research data from the Big G while remaining on the same line as the Mountain View giant. And it allowed them to move the mass needed to really annoy Google.

Now comes something new really from Italy . "But more when I can not say, really ... I apologize," Massimo Marchiori is not only a great scholar, is also a great person. "The beta is strictly by invitation and they will come just a week before starting in earnest. The fact is that a reality as Google, for example, there's nothing to put 100 engineers to work day and night on our idea and go out before us. " A prudence which leaves really think the fact that the project aims at raising Volun-up: "Look, I tend to be realistic. And I answer sincerely: had I not thought it was a big thing, able to compete with the big names of online search, I would never put there. " The basic idea is very simple, totally different from the idea of the current search engines: "If Google uses the club, here we will work with the foil. Emerge due to the difference of our system. And why Volun be really useful to people. "

The engine is finished, as I said after 3 years of hard work - "It 'was a commitment crazy ...." - now it is just reaching the critical mass of testers selected in different countries (between 50 and 100 000), make sure that everything goes well, the system will react correctly in all languages and supports the physical impact of user requests. Then go online Volun. And maybe then the Web may not be the same again. And so Italy's role in the digital economy. Thanks to Massimo Marchiori, the mathematician who in 1996 gave way to that which still is the greatest phenomenon that the Net has ever known.Warehouse. "But the idea of revenge, I was never even mentioned," laughs Marchiori. "Really. The reality is that this idea is so beautiful that it would be a shame not being able to do it. And realize now is the right time. "

The Top 25 Worst Passwords Of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:11:00 +0000

The Top 25 Worst Passwords Of 2011: See What To Avoid

Think your password is fine? You'd better check this list to be sure.

Password management app maker SplashData has released their list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011.These are the passwords that get hacked the most frequently, based on SplashData's study of millions of stolen passwords that have been posted online by hackers.

Many of the worst offenders are sequential numbers ("123456") or sequential keyboard keys ("qwerty") or password-related words like "password" or "letmein".

According to SplashData CEO Morgan Slain, who was quoted on Mashable, "Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft."

People's hesitance to make complicated passwords is understandable considering the sheer number of passwords the average person has--but that doesn't make it alright. A 2007 study found that the average person had 25 passwords and used 8 of them per day. That number has almost certainly increased. However, what's more annoying than having to remember Qw!cK@sAbunN!3 is having your identity stolen. In 2010, the FTC received 1.3 million complaints of fraud or identity theft.

So how can you make your passwords better? Use a variety of letters, numbers and symbols. Change them every six months. Don't use the same one for every account, and know that even a slight variation makes a difference. Avoid using real words. According to Daily Finance, hackers use "dictionary attacks" that make it easy for them to crack passwords that are words or sequential numbers. And finally, don't use any of these--SlashData's 25 worst passwords of the year:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Check out more common passwords to avoid here or here.

largest mural ever

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:30:00 +0000

The largest mural ever was completed Thursday, as part of the seventh annual Guinness World Records Day. British artists '3D Joe & Max,' with their incredible 3D street mural that measures a whopping 9,601 square feet, joined over 300,000 other people as they all attempted to break various records around the world.

Produced in collaboration with athletic brands Reebok and CrossFit, the massive optical illusion depicts a waterfall cascading into a deep gorge, making it look as though the members of the Reebok/CrossFit team are performing death-defying stunts. View the impressive mural below as well as a slideshow of behind-the-scenes footage and other cool 3D murals we found.

Google launches music service

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:56:00 +0000

Google launches music service

Google Music, with more 13 million songs, will be integrated with Android Market, the company's online store for smartphone apps and videos as it plays catch-up with its rivals. Apple, Amazon and Facebook have to varying degrees integrated music into their core online and mobile products.

Google Music will allow the Web search leader to do the same by letting consumers access music from various Internet-connected devices and easily share tracks with friends.

But analysts said the lack of soundtracks from Warner Music - a major label whose artists include Led Zeppelin and Prince, among others - will limit the appeal of Google Music.

"They've got to get that catalog filled pretty quickly," said Mike McGuire, an analyst at industry research firm Gartner. "It's a launch, but it's kind of like a work-in-progress."

Google Music was unveiled at a splashy event at the Mr. Brainwash Studios in Hollywood, California on Wednesday.

Google has negotiated U.S. deals with three of the four major music companies: Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group; Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment; and EMI. It has also signed deals with the increasingly influential independent label group Merlin and London-based Beggar's Banquet label group, home to the year's biggest selling artist, Adele.

Analysts say selling online music is unlikely to provide much of a lift to Google's revenue. But they say Google needs to be in the market to ensure that its Android-based mobile efforts can match offerings from competitors.

Android is the world's No. 1 smartphone operating system, powering about 200 million devices worldwide. But without a music service, Android-based smartphones and tablets may not be as attractive to consumers seeking a product that offers a seamless media experience.

And with music storage increasingly moving to remote Internet servers in "the cloud" rather than on the device itself, companies like Google and Apple have a way to keep users locked in to their respective mobile services, said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.

"Everyone is using music and media as a jail. Ultimately, this stuff is going to be stored in the cloud and it becomes harder and harder to switch systems," he said.

To help jump-start the new music store, Google said it will offer one free song for consumers to download every day.

Google will also allow consumers to share purchased songs with friends on the Google+ social network. The feature will give users of Google+ a "free, full-play" of songs purchased by their friends.

"Recommendations from friends are the single most important way that people discover music and we think that this feature has the potential to really transform purchasing behavior," said Zahavah Levine, Google's director of content partnerships for Android, at Wednesday's event.

Music executives said that even though sales have struggled in recent years, music usage has never been more popular on different types of formats like social networks and mobile devices.

Facebook, the world's largest social network, unveiled a tab in September through which music services like Spotify, Rdio and MOG enable Facebook users to share music. Amazon has also long been a major music retailer and has a music locker service

Earlier this year, Google unveiled the Google Music beta, which allowed users to upload their music to Google servers, and access the music from multiple devices.

Shares of Google, which finished Wednesday's regular session at $611.47, were up 72 cents in after-hours trading.

Scan All Your Files Online

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:24:00 +0000

http://www.virustotal.com

About VirusTotal

VirusTotal is a service developed by Hispasec Sistemas that analyzes suspicious files and URLs enabling the identification of viruses, worms, trojans and other kinds of malicious content detected by antivirus engines and web analysis toolbars.

VirusTotal's main characteristics are:

Free, independent service.
Runs multiple antivirus engines.
Runs multiple file characterization tools.
Real time automatic updates of virus signatures.
Detailed results from each antivirus engine.
Runs multiple web site inspection toolbars.
Real time global statistics.
Analysis automation API.
Online malware research community.
Desktop applications (VTUploader, VTzilla) for interacting with the service.

Featured

Featured resources are (usually free) goodies (freeware, browser extensions, scripts, etc.) related to VirusTotal that are, in addition to being added to the corresponding section in this site, highlighted in this tab so as to make them publicly known to the community.

VTchromizer: free Google Chrome browser extension that allows users to easily interact with VirusTotal. It adds an entry to the context menu in order to scan links with VirusTotal. It also adds a quick search box and scan link as a topbar popup.

VTzilla: free Mozilla Firefox browser extension that allows users to easily interact with VirusTotal. It adds an entry to the context menu in order to scan links with VirusTotal's URL analysis engine and it also integrates itself into the download dialog so as to allow the automatic VirusTotal inspection of downloaded files.

VT Uploader: Microsoft Windows freeware application that adds an entry to the context menu to easily scan local files with VirusTotal. Additionally, it can also download and scan links and running processes.

Public API: HTTP + JSON interface to automate analysis tasks with VirusTotal and retrieve scan reports, both on URLs and files.

VT Community: VirusTotal's pseudo-social network, allows making comments on file and web site analysis reports, interaction with other users, file tagging, reputation based scoring, etc.

How To Unzip Files Online?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:10:00 +0000

http://wobzip.org

You have a folder of funny images to send to your friends. The image files are large, so you compress them into, for example, a .rar file thinking, that you can share your files with your friends. However, your friends say that they do not know how to open the file. So you direct them to WobZIP.

WobZIP is a free online tool that allows you to uncompress your files online.

Web-based means hassle-free
Now you can unzip your files in school, at work or anywhere as long as you have access to the Internet. No longer will you be limited by the inability to install programs onto admin-protected computers.
Uncompressing online means safer
We scan your compressed files using an anti-virus scanner so any infected files will be removed before you download them onto your computer.
Uncompressing online means the freedom to choose
Our aim is to allow users to uncompress as many compressed file formats as possible. This means that you can compress your files using the compression format of your choice and send it to your friends. Tell them about WobZIP and uncompress on the fly.

Start uncompressing now with WobZIP!

The Best Tools for Content Curation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Let’s say your team has just launched a new product at some conference and they have asked you to collate all the conversations and buzz happening around that product on various websites, blogs and social sites. You have to act fast because the stuff that gets shared on the real-time web often gets buried almost as quickly.

So how should you go about collecting stuff around the Internet? Should you just save everything that’s being said to your browser bookmarks? Or maybe put all the web clippings in an Excel sheet as that would be easy to share? Or how about capturing screenshot images of the chatter?

There are umpteen ways to do this but what you should really look at is a dedicated content curation tool that is designed to capture web content with minimal effort.

Don't Bookmark, Curate Online Content

A content curation tool, in simple English, lets you easily pull videos, images, presentations, tweets, blog posts and other web content into a collection which you can then embed, publish or share online. I have been testing a few online curation tools and here’s a quick review of them all to help you pick the right one for your needs.

The way these content curation tools work is quite similar to Evernote’s web clipper. You install an add-on for your browser, or a bookmarklet, and then clip content with a click.

The first tool that I tested is Bundlr available at gobundlr.com. Bundlr can automatically recognize content on YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, Twitter and a couple of other sites. Alternatively, you may select an image or a text snippet on a page and add it to your bundle. The bundle may then be embedded in another page or you can publish it as a standalone page.

Bundlr makes clipping pages really simple, especially when you are collecting individual tweets, but I wish it supported more services and the overall layout of the bundle doesn’t look all that nice (see example).

Next in the list is curated.by – it offers a Chrome extension that adds a “Curate” button next to every single tweet on twitter.com and you can thus save any of them to your bundle with a simple click – no pop-ups needed. Curated.by can also be used for curating media content from around the web in the same bundle (see example).

Then you’ve everyone’s favorite curation service called Storify. You can add items to your Storify collection in two ways – there’s the bookmarklet to curate content from any public webpage and then you also have an integrated search where you can add items by simple drag and dropping. For instance, you may search public updates on Facebook or Twitter and drag any of them to your collection without leaving the Storify website. This works with Google search results and RSS feeds as well.

The designers at Storify have done an excellent job with the formatting and this makes your overall collection look really good (see example). You can embed Storify collections as a JavaScript widget but the most-unique part is that you can also “publish” the story to your Tumblr or WordPress blog as a new article (so you also get the SEO benefit).

You may also want to check out the new version of delicious service for curation. They have added “Stacks” which are like a collection of bookmarks but the difference is that stacks can display media content inline without you having to click the bookmark. For instance, if you bookmark a Flickr page, the corresponding picture will included in the stack page automatically and the same is true for YouTube videos or Slideshare presentations.

Unlike any other curation tool, Delicious stacks include a thumbnail feature so if you bookmark a web page, the thumbnail image of that page will automatically get included in the media view (see example). I will however give maximum points to Storify because, other than presenting your curated stories inside a clean and beautiful layout, Storify also lets you easily publish them to other sites.

Chromebook to debut in India in Next Few Months

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Google Chromebook, the software-less notebook where you do all the work in the web browser and all your files are stored in the cloud, could launch India in the next few months.

Sundar Pichai, who heads the Google Chrome browser and the Google Chrome OS initiatives, told The Hindu that he would be surprised “if Chromebooks are not shipped in India by early 2012.” He didn't discuss the price though.

Google notebooks, or rather netbooks, are manufactured by Acer and Samsung and are available in both 3G and Wi-Fi versions. The Wi-Fi only Chromebook from Samsung is available online for $399.99 while the 3G + Wi-Fi model is available for $449.99.

The first Chromebooks hit the retail shelves in June 2011 and, after all these months, I expect there will be price drop before they bring these notebooks to India. Would you buy one?

Facebook Employees Go Nuts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:53:00 +0000

Facebook Employees Go Nuts As Zuckerberg Tells Them The IPO Is Coming

A source close to Facebook employees emailed us yesterday to say that the rumor flitting from employee to employee is that "a Facebook S1 filing is coming really soon. Possibly as soon as next month."

"The IPO talk inside Facebook has ramped up the past 6 weeks and Zuckerberg repeatedly has said that it is 'coming,' which he *never* said in the history of Facebook."

The truth is that Facebook is going to go public, and relatively soon. Because it's surpassed the SEC's 500 shareholder limit, the company has to disclose its financials in April. That doesn't mean it has to IPO, but we understand the company plans to bite the bullet and go for it around then anyway.

As for whether or not Facebook will file its S-1 very soon, we're skeptical. A source close to the IPO process tells us Facebook has not yet decided which banks will underwrite the offering. That's a step that has to happen before the S-1 gets written and published.

Facebook employees who joined the company three or four or more years ago have endured a lovely, teasing kind of torture.

Back then, they joined a startup that was already the hottest in Silicon Valley – worth a couple billion dollars.

They all got a bunch of stock options or, later, restricted stock units, that would someday turn into real equity. The payout looked good based on where Facebook was then.

But then Facebook's valuation exploded in a way that few dared to predict. In 2007, it got a $15 billion valuation. In 2009, a Russian billionaire invested $100 million at a $10 billion valuation. At the end of 2011, Goldman Sachs invested at a $50 billion valuation. The company currently has an ~$80 billion implied valuation on the secondary markets.

The torture part of the equation was this: even as the theoretical value of their vested RSUs and options exploded, there wasn't much employees could do about it.

Employees who joined before fall 2007 got real options that, when vested, turned into real stock. But they weren't allowed to sell it on secondary markets unless they quit the company. Employees who joined after Fall 2007 had it even worse. They didn't get real options. They got RSUs that wouldn't become liquid until after Facebook held an intial public offering.

This was, and is, a particularly brutal restriction because over the past five years, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly and privately abhorred the idea of rushing the company into an IPO. Some, including Zuckerberg's biographer, suggested that Facebook might never IPO.

Now, obviously, this torture is one that most of the rest of us would happily endure – with a big smile on our faces. Also, there were a few occaisions where Facebook employees were able trade in some of their vested options (never RSUs) for cash.

But still, sitting there and watching your theoretical net worth shoot to the moon and not being able to do much about it has created an atmosphere of taut suspense among Facebook employees. It's been like the pressure that builds inside a kettle.

These days, the kettle is starting to whistle.