OPEN WORLD

5 things you need to know about online privacy policies

2012-02-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Ever since Google tweaked it's privacy policy on January 24, online confidentiality and its future has been the topic of a raging public debate, making it hard for an average Internet user to decide what he should and should not share on an online platform. Experts say that the key here is to understand each of the terms and policies before you sign in.

HOW IS DATA RETAINED?

The data retention policy allows the online provider to hold personal information about you. But the question is, for how long will they hold your data?

Data, here includes personal information such as your name, address, date of birth, photographs and transaction information such as when did you last log into your account, from which device, from which IP address, whose profiles did you visit etc.

It's ridiculous to ask "what bits of the privacy policy" should you read, says Graham Cluely, a senior consultant with security software developer Sophos.

"Because the only sensible answer is 'all of it.' Only you can decide if you're comfortable with it, so read it and you decide."

WHAT ARE THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS?

It is important to understand under what circumstances will the website share your personal information with the Central and State government agencies. For instance, Facebook would have to share your information with the Ministry of Home Affairs since Facebook has an office in Hyderabad and comes under the purview of the Indian IT Act.

"But Twitter could deny user information to the Egyptian government during the 2011 Arab protests as it did not fall under the Egyptian jurisdiction," says Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOUR ACCOUNT IS DELETED?

Experts say that deleting your account is not the end of it all as social networks usually store your personal information even after you delete the account. For instance, Google stores your data for nearly nine months even after you delete your GMail account.

Similarly, Twitter stores your IP address and personal information for a certain period after you delete your account.

WHAT PERSONAL DATA IS SHARED WITH PRIVATE ORGANISATIONS?

Apart from the information you share while creating the account, social networks also process and share personal data such as photographs, likes and events with their business partners and social-media analytics and monitoring agencies.

"So the basic rule is don't upload anything to the Internet which you don't want your mother-in-law or your boss to see, as you can't necessarily trust the various sites to keep them securely," says Graham Cluely.

"Further, think carefully about what other information you may be sharing online - such as your location".

WHAT CAN AN INDIVIDUAL DO?

The easiest thing is to customise every aspect of your privacy policy, according computer security firm Kaspersky Labs. For instance, on social networks such Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter, you may limit the information you display to certain groups of people.

"India needs to have a broad and horizontal law that establishes online privacy as a right. Unlike in European countries, India doesn't have a privacy commissioner who can state the principles, interpret the data and question the online providers," says Sunil Abraham.

After Twitter, Google to now censor content

2012-02-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

Google will now block posts or blogs from being available to users based on a country's local laws, in a move similar to Twitter's country-specific censorship that sparked off an outrage among critics across the globe.

Web critics have slammed the move saying, 'the change marks a new trend in the Internet companies bowing to the demands of authoritarian regimes'.

Google, however, claimed that the move would actually allow more freedom of speech, The Daily Mail reports.

The search giant said the blogs would be visible from everywhere else in the world, but invisible in one country.

"This will allow us to continue promoting free expression while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests in local law," the company said.

According to the paper, both Google and Twitter claimed that their move would simply allow their services to co-exist with regimes, rather than being banned outright.

"We believe that access to information is the foundation of a free society. Where content is illegal or breaks our terms of service we will continue to remove it," the paper quoted a Google spokesperson, as saying.

Google's blogging service named Blogger was launched in 1999, and has previously been banned outright in repressive regimes such as Syria, Iran and China.

Blog services and social sites such as Twitter and Facebook were crucial to the recent 'Arab Spring' revolts in countries such as Egypt, acting as a conduit for news and carrying messages of freedom and democracy.

Mark of one man on public Facebook

2012-02-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

Since the moment he dropped out of Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg has stayed remarkably focused on two things: Facebook, and being the boss of Facebook.

Early on he was convinced of the vast potential of the social network he built in his dorm room, say friends, investors and detractors. He pushed his team to be fast and take risks. He resisted efforts to change the way Facebook looked and worked, even if, in the beginning, it meant giving up revenue.

Most important, he arranged the ownership of Facebook so as to give himself extraordinary power to steer the company. By the time Facebook filed for a $US5 billion public offering Wednesday, Zuckerberg had managed to hold on to more than a quarter of the shares in the company, and his agreements with other investors enhanced his voting power to almost 60 per cent of total shares.

That's a greater measure of control than Bill Gates had at Microsoft when it went public in 1986 (49 per cent), and far greater than the co-founders of Google had in 2004 (16 per cent each). Typically, say Silicon Valley veterans, a first-time entrepreneur gets to the public market with a far smaller stake in his or her creation. Zuckerberg's arrangement leaves little room for investors to have much input on the company's direction.

Zuckerberg's success is an object lesson in what works in the crowded, competitive Silicon Valley: remain in charge, stave off potential predators and expand the company so quickly that no one can challenge the boss.

"He always knew before the rest of us what Facebook could be," said Paul Madera, managing director at Meritech Capital Partners, who invested in the company in 2005. "Mark's vision on the purity of the product really did benefit from his control and ownership. It wasn't subject to committee decisions. It was all Mark."

The power that Zuckerberg wields over the company has already drawn scrutiny. "You're willing to take someone's money but not willing to invite their participation," said Charles M. Elson, a professor of corporate governance at the University of Delaware. "It makes meaningless the notion of investor democracy."

Elsen added that Zuckerberg's arrangement is similar to moves by founders of other technology companies, including Google, to create special classes of stock that grant them extra voting power.

Facebook declined to make executives available for interviews before the offering.

The focus on staying in charge began early. Sean Parker, one of Zuckerberg's first and most important advisers, helped him with that. Parker had learnt a hard lesson himself about losing control: he was ousted by the backers of a company he founded, an online address book called Plaxo. Parker helped ensure that would never happen to Zuckerberg.

Sopa and Pipa anti-piracy bills

2012-01-18T01:51:00.000-08:00

The Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) is the bill being considered by the House of Representatives.

The Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) is the parallel bill being considered by the Senate.

The proposed legislation is designed to tackle online piracy, with particular emphasis on illegal copies of films and other forms of media hosted on foreign servers.

The bills propose that anyone found guilty of streaming copyrighted content without permission 10 or more times within six months should face up to five years in jail.

The US government and rights holders would have the right to seek court orders against any site accused of "enabling or facilitating" piracy. This could theoretically involve an entire website being shut down because it contains a link to a suspect site.

US-based internet service providers, payment processors and advertisers would be outlawed from doing business with alleged copyright infringers. Sopa also calls for search engines to remove infringing sites from their results - Pipa does not include this provision.

The bills would also outlaw sites from containing information about how to access blocked sites.
The bills originally demanded that internet service providers block users from being able to access suspect sites using a technique called Domain Name System (DNS) blocking.

ISP immunity

This would effectively make them "disappear" from the internet - and is a process already used in China and Iran. However, after opponents claimed this could disrupt the internet's underlying architecture, the chief sponsor of each bill agreed to ditch the measure.

To protect sites against false claims of illegal activity Sopa proposes penalising copyright holders who knowingly misrepresent a site's activity - however, Pipa does not contain this safeguard.

Both bills offer immunity to ISPs that block access to websites if they have "credible evidence" that the third party's pages contain unsanctioned copyright material. Critics claim this could create a conflict of interest as it may encourage firms to block access to competitors' sites.
It could also encourage firms to take a "safety first" approach resulting in users being prevented from viewing legal material.

Sopa's supporters are trying to reach consensus on the bill before putting it to a vote in the House of Representatives, which suggests that any vote may be some way off.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid plans to put Pipa up for a vote in the upper house on 24 January.

Supporters of the bills include television networks, music publishers, movie industry bodies, book publishers and manufacturers.

Critics include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, AOL and Zynga.

Google ties up with O-Zone to provide free Wi Fi

2012-01-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

Google has announced a a unique marketing initiative with public Wi-Fi provider O-Zone Networks.

The initiative has been taken to encourage mobile internet usage and enabling users to access Google+ and YouTube on their portable devices away from work and home.

Users will now have unlimited access to Google+ on the Wi-Fi network at all O-Zone hotspots across the country. Users will also be enabled to surf and watch videos on for 10 minutes each week free of charge.

The offer will be launched this weekend and will be available for three months across India at all O-Zone Wi-Fi hotspots. O-Zone is also in talks with Google to make the initiative a long term one rather than only for the stipulated three months.

The offer is available for users at outlets like Café Coffee Day, McDonalds, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Costa Coffee, Subway and OM Bookshop among others.

Winter driving trouble? There's an app for that

2012-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

When a powerful blizzard ripped through North Dakota last winter, hundreds of drivers were stranded as white-out conditions shuttered interstates spanning the state. Snow whipped up by wind marred the lines between pavement and grassy drop-offs, leaving some scared motorists unsure what to do.

Two local software developers had a thought: There should be an app for that.

Bob Bertsch, an employee with the North Dakota State University Extension Service, and Jake Joraanstad, an NDSU computer engineering major, had just finished developing an app to help residents during floods when the blizzard hit in March, convincing them to shift their attention to winter disasters.

Winter Survival Kit was born. The free program, available for iPhones and Android smartphones, is both a primer to help motorists prepare for winter driving and a beacon when things go badly.

It can pinpoint a motorist's location, call 911, notify friends and family, and monitor how long the gas will hold out. The app also gives potentially life-saving alerts when users tap a big red button on its simple home screen that reads, "I'm Stranded!" Among the advice: stay with your vehicle and keep the tailpipe clear of snow, since a backup can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

"It's our sincere hope that no one ever has to use it," said Bertsch, an NDSU Extension Service web technology specialist who led the team that developed the app. "But if one person does have to use it and it keeps them in their car or keeps them from succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning, then it is definitely worth the time and effort that was spent on the app."

The app also helps drivers prepare for bad weather by inputting phone and policy numbers for insurance and roadside assistance, and designated emergency contacts. And it gives guidance on putting together a physical survival kit to keep in vehicles in case of emergencies.

"Any tools developed which arm people with information that will help keep them safe is of value," North Dakota Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong said.

The app does have limitations. Joraanstand said some especially rural areas of the country — particularly in the Great Plains — have shoddy cellphone coverage that could impede some features such as GPS. At that point the app would tell users that their location couldn't be pinpointed and instruct them to call 911.

Still, the app has emergency numbers handy, allowing users to send text messages for help. Text messages often can be sent by weaker signals than are needed for clear phone calls. And the app would give emergency advice on braving the elements — even telling users how to use parts of a vehicle to keep warm.

The Midwest hasn't seen much heavy snowfall in the last few months, so the app's developers haven't heard of any success — or horror — stories yet. But they're convinced that when the time comes, their app will help.

"This app can literally save someone's life. We take great pride in that," said Joraanstad, the 22-year-old chief operating officer for Myriad Devices, a startup company in NDSU's research and technology park that produced the app.

Bertsch, Joraanstand and two colleagues who teach at NDSU have become experts in disaster apps. Last year they developed a program to help residents deal with flooding that has overwhelmed North Dakota in the last few years. The H2O app provides news feeds, river levels, road closure maps and other information.

Winter Survival Kit, which works in the U.S. and Canada, joins several apps from other developers that were designed to help smartphone users in a bind, such as Help I Crashed My Car, Emergency Radio, iMapWeather Radio, iTriage, Close Call and pMonitor. As of this week, there didn't appear to be other winter survival-specific apps in either iTunes' or Android's app stores.

"I think we hit a particular niche," Bertsch said.

About 12,000 people downloaded the app in the first week it was released, and Joraanstad said that at last check, there were another 3,000 downloads. The early returns have been mostly favorable. Out of 16 user reviews on the Android website, 13 gave 5-star ratings. "Practical ... yet simple," reads one review. It had a 4-plus average rating among Apple iPhone users.

People posting lower ratings reported trouble with the app crashing. Joraanstad said those glitches are being addressed as they arise with updates.

Yahoo dangled $27M pay package to get new CEO

2012-01-10T03:16:00.000-08:00

Yahoo dangled a $27 million pay package to lure its newly hired CEO Scott Thompson away from PayPal.

The struggling Internet company disclosed the details of Thompson's compensation in a regulatory filing late Friday. Thompson starts his new job Monday after spending the past four years running eBay Inc.'s PayPal service, where revenue more than doubled during his tenure. PayPal took in an estimated $4.4 billion last year.

That kind of robust growth is a fuzzy memory for Yahoo Inc., a one-time Internet star whose revenue has sagged as online advertising flowed increasingly to rivals Google Inc. and Facebook.

Yahoo has promised better times under three new CEOs in less than five years, only to frustrate investors each time. They've been especially disenchanted since the company squandered an opportunity to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008. The stock hasn't traded above $20 in more than three years, with the shares closing Friday at $15.52. The last time it closed above $33 was 2006.

Thompson, 54, is highly regarded in Internet circles, although some analysts question whether he is the right fit for Yahoo because he has no experience in online content or advertising, the company's financial lifeblood.

Yahoo offered Thompson a deal that includes a $1 million salary and a bonus of up to $2 million this year. Yahoo is guaranteeing to pay him $1 million of the bonus; the remaining $1 million will hinge on Yahoo's financial results this year.

Thompson also will receive stock incentives valued at $22.5 million. The stock awards could be worth more or less, depending how Yahoo's long-slumping shares fare under Thompson's leadership.

To top it off, Yahoo is paying Thompson $1.5 million to offset money he forfeited by leaving PayPal. A $6.5 million chunk of the stock awards are also meant to offset some of the compensation Thompson would have gotten at PayPal, according to the filing.

Thompson received a $10.4 million compensation package at PayPal in 2010. It included a $645,000 salary. EBay hasn't yet revealed how much it paid Thompson last year.

Unless more money and stock is added later in the year, Yahoo won't be paying Thompson as much as his predecessor, Carol Bartz, who was hired three years ago and fired four months ago. Tim Morse, Yahoo's chief financial officer, had been running Yahoo since Bartz's ouster.

Bartz's compensation package during her first year on the job was valued at $47.2 million. Much of that, though, included stock incentives that haven't become as valuable as the original calculations envisioned because the company's shares remained in a funk during Bartz's regime. Bartz's salary was $1 million, like Thompson's.

CIOs at India Inc not rushing investments in cloud computing

2012-01-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

Concerns over data security and privacy and an immature ecosystem are likely to stunt the growth of cloud computing in India.

Despite the obvious benefits of lower capital expenditure and quicker rollout of new products and services, chief information officers (CIOs) are hesitant to make full-scale investments in the new technology. For now, they are rolling out pilot projects or waiting for the technology to stabilise, before making this radical shift.

Unlike traditional information technology, cloud computing relies on storing, managing and retrieving data hosted on the internet, rather than on a local server.

Cloud computing is a marketing term for technologies that provide computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. A parallel to this concept can be drawn with the electricity grid, wherein end-users consume power without needing to understand the component devices or infrastructure required to provide the service.

Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on Internet protocols, and it typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet. This may take the form of web-based tools or applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if the programs were installed locally on their own computers.
Cloud computing providers deliver applications via the internet, which are accessed from web browsers and desktop and mobile apps, while the business software and data are stored on servers at a remote location. In some cases, legacy applications (line of business applications that until now have been prevalent in thin client Windows computing) are delivered via a screen-sharing technology, while the computing resources are consolidated at a remote data center location; in other cases, entire business applications have been coded using web-based technologies such as AJAX.

Railways offer train ticket reservation facility on mobiles

2012-01-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Booking train ticket was never so easy as you can now get it done through your mobile phone.

After initial registration and downloading of suitable software on the mobile handset with Internet facility, it will be possible for the mobile users to book a ticket through their own mobile.

Launched by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation ( IRCTC), a PSU under Railway Ministry, has been offering the service of booking e-ticket over the mobile phone, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

After booking, the passenger will receive a reservation message with full details of the ticket including PNR, train no, date of journey and class.

"This virtual message would be treated at par with the print-out of the e-ticket which at present is taken out by the passengers and is known as Electronic Reservation Slip ( ERS)," he said.

Hence, with the virtual message, passengers would not be required to take a print-out of e-ticket to be carried with them. Showing the reservation message of the confirmed ticket on their mobile during travel will be sufficient. Internet is required on mobile phones to book tickets through mobile.

The passenger has to register at the time of first transaction and thereafter book the ticket using his ID and password.

The service was introduced on a pilot basis for a few and now the more than a thousand users are availing this facility everyday, he said.

The service charge is similar to e-tickets-- Rs 10 for Sleeper class and Rs 20 for other higher class.

Hackers developing satellite system for 'uncensorable Internet in space

2012-01-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

The threat of Internet censorship has spurred some to seek refuge in space. Hackers at the Chaos Computer Club’s Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin this year proposed an initiative called the Hackerspace Global Grid (HGG), which aims to create and freely make available satellite based communication as a fallback or to bypass stuffy legislation.

The bunch of “hobbyist hackers, tinkerers and part time scientists” are predominantly based in Stuttgart, Germany. They say their ultimate goal is to put a hacker on the moon in 23 years, but right now they’re keeping their goals small. They want to keep their freedoms safe from threats like the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), by creating an “uncensorable Internet in space.” The project builds off of an earlier idea by Nick Farr in August for a Hacker Space Program.

The BBC interviewed 26-year-old Armin Bauer from Stuttgart who is working on the communications infrastructure for the project with his team. Bauer is currently working with Constellation, which is a platform that uses Internet-connected computers for aeropsace related research.
The team is developing an idea for a network of low-cost ground stations for when the project gets those low-orbit satellites up there. The stations would be there to pinpoint satellites and facilitate sending data back to earth.

Bauer said, “It’s kind of a reverse GPS. GPS uses satellites to calculate where we are, and this tells us where the satellites are. We would use GPS coordinates but also improve on them by using fixed sites in precisely-known locations.”

Three prototypes are in development, and the team hopes to have them in place in the early half of 2012. Prices for individual ground stations will be 100 euros ($129). The team is exploring other sources for time and position data such as Galileo, GLONASS and ground-based surveying, but they are starting with GPS because it is simple and reasonably priced.

As the project is in the early stages, the hackers stress that they will have to deal with problems as they occur. “We’re trying to concentrate on reasons why this will work, not why it won’t,” they say on the HGG page.

On New Year, Twitter crashes because of overloaded messages

2012-01-03T05:09:00.000-08:00

Popular micro-blogging site Twitter reportedly crashed on new year as it was overloaded with New Year messages.

In Britain, the website crashed at 3 PM (local time) and was out of action for over an hour. It coincided with midnight celebrations in Japan when revellers were said to be sending a record 16,197 tweets per second.

The overload meant no one could post new messages or read existing ones. Instead, frustrated users were greeted with the error message: "Twitter is over capacity."

The site returned to working order but then stopped on several other occasions, prompting speculation that it was being hit by the arrival of New Year in different parts of the world, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

One user tweeted: "It's amazing how three words can ruin my day! Twitter over capacity." Another joked: "Twitter's New Year resolution needs to be I will never go over capacity."

"Some people experienced issues connecting early today," said Carolyn Penner, a spokeswoman for Twitter, in an e-mail to the 'New York Times', although she declined to clarify why Twitter went down or for how long the service was unavailable.

Meanwhile, Facebook says it's ready for the surge in New Year traffic as it expects one billion uploads from people sharing photos and comments via their laptops and smart phones during New Year 2012 celebrations.

Jay Parikh, Facebook's director of engineering, told the 'Times Herald' the key is to predict the surge in traffic.

"There is a little bit of a special preparation in terms of watching over it, but it's not this fire drill. We'll just kind of run through a preflight checklist type of thing," he was quoted as saying.

Berlin Hacking Conference: Hackers could shut down train lines

2012-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hackers who have shut down websites by overwhelming them with web traffic could use the same approach to shut down the computers that control train switching systems, a security expert said at a hacking conference in Berlin.

Stefan Katzenbeisser, professor at Technische Universitat Darmstadt in Germany, said switching systems were at risk of "denial of service" attacks, which could cause long disruptions to rail services.

"Trains could not crash, but service could be disrupted for quite some time," Katzenbeisser told on the sidelines of the convention.

"Denial of service" campaigns are one of the simplest forms of cyber attack: hackers recruit large numbers of computers to overwhelm the targeted system with Internet traffic.

Hackers have used the approach to attack sites of government agencies around the world and sites of businesses.

Train switching systems, which enable trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction, have historically been separate from the online world, but communication between trains and switches is handled increasingly using wireless technology.

Katzenbeisser said GSM-R, a mobile technology used for trains, is more secure than the usual GSM, used in phones, against which security experts showed a new attack at the convention.

"Probably we will be safe on that side in coming years. The main problem I see is a process of changing ... keys. This will be a big issue in the future, how to manage these keys safely," Katzenbeisser said.

The software encryption 'keys', which are needed for securing the communication between trains and switching systems, are downloaded to physical media like USB sticks and then sent around for installing - raising the risk of them ending up in the wrong hands.

Happy New Year says Google Doodle

2012-01-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Google's last Doodle of the year 2011 carries Happy New Year wishes for search giant's millions of users across the globe. The colourful Doodle has the letters in the word "Google" seemingly attending a New Year party, wearing decorative caps and blowing trumpets. The second 'G' of the letter 'Google' wears the year 2012's goggles. A click on the logo takes users to a page which has all the Happy New Year-related links.

Google's Doodle last week featured a colourful neon design with images of a snowflake, Santa Claus, bell, snowman, candle and a gift box on a black background, wishing its users "Happy Holidays". A click on the Doodle took users to holiday-related links like tips for holiday, holiday greetings and budget tours.

Google recently revamped its Doodle site allowing users to purchase items featuring Google Doodles. The update brings the page into line with Google's other socially-enhanced sites and enables users to share their favorite logos on social networking websites.

The new site features over 1,000 doodles, some of which include a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process and links to the interactive versions.

Google Doodles are the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. The first Google Doodle was created by Larry Page and Sergy Brin Google in the year 1998 to mark the celebrations of the Burning Man Festival. Google currently has over 1000 Doodles.

Google India unveils search format for ads

2011-12-28T21:49:00.000-08:00

Google India unveiled a format for media advertisements (ads) to target, pay for and experience video ads on its Web search engine.

"The new ads format is designed to ensure users find the information they are looking for and enable advertisers to reach potential customers with the right information," Google India sales head Praveen Sharma said in a statement here.

As a standalone format designed to put video ads front and centre, the search target is automated.

"The format is launched with STAR TV campaign built around its new channel Life Ok. The media and entertainment category search volumes have shown phenomenal growth. In the last two years, the query volumes have grown at 125 per cent year-on-year," Sharma said.

The format will also enable media firms to capture the traffic on search and leverage it to create familiarity of the content.

"Our research has shown that a substantial number of users are looking to watch the movie trailer or TV show clips on the search results page, which translates into a high response rate for this ad format," Sharma noted.

The format also changes the way users experience video on Google search. It introduces a new Lightbox media player. When the video is played either by clicking the thumbnail or the 'watch' link, the Lightbox player expands to the centre of the screen and dims the rest of the page around it.

"The experience is meant to put the viewer's attention on the video and to create a theatre-like experience," Sharma added.

Media Ads are charged at a flat rate on clicks. The pricing model makes it easier to budget for media ads campaign and to know how much an interaction is going to cost.

Google's search technologies connect millions of people the world over with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is a top Web property in all major global markets.

Google's targeted advertising programme provides businesses with measurable results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for users.

Intel-powered smartphone, tablet to enter market in 2012

2011-12-27T22:58:00.000-08:00

Smartphones and tablets running Intel's chips will enter the mobile market early next year, posing a challenge to the dominance of Apple's iPhone and iPad, US media reported Wednesday.

Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it had tested prototype smartphones and tablets equipped with Intel's latest mobile chip, dubbed Medfield. The products run Google's Android mobile operating system, reported Xinhua.

"We expect products based on these to be announced in the first half of 2012," Stephen Smith, vice president of Intel's architecture group, told the magazine.

The prototype products are known as "reference designs" which are sent out to make a pitch for persuading manufacturers to build their devices around Intel's technology.

According to Technology Review, the phone prototype was similar in dimensions to the iPhone 4 but noticeably lighter.

The phone was powerful and pleasing to use, at par with the latest iPhone and Android handsets. It could play Blu-Ray-quality video and stream it to a TV if desired; Web browsing was smooth and fast, said the review.

An outstanding feature of the phone is its camera's "burst mode" which can capture 10 full-size eight-megapixel images at a rate of 15 per second, it noted.

Intel's tablet, running the latest version of Android system, has a slightly larger screen than the iPad 2 but is about the same thickness and weight. The review said a limited trial suggested it was nicer to use than older tablets based on older versions of Android.

Intel has tested its reference handset against a handful of the leading phones on sale today and the tests show that Medfield offers faster browsing and graphics performance and lower power consumption than the top three, Smith told Technology Review.

In September, Intel announced a partnership with Google to enable the Android system to support the world's largest chip maker's architectures.

Intel has been struggling to get a bite of the booming market of smartphones and tablets. Most of the current mobile devices use chips based on architecture from ARM Holdings, which are considered more power efficient than Intel's products. Nokia had planned to ship smartphones with Intel chips this year, but it shifted to ARM-based phones with Windows Phone 7 system.

Sify Technologies introduce cloud-based online storage - Sify mystorage

2011-12-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

Losing one's critical information, be it in the form of documents, mail, photos, et al can prove frustrating to anyone.

With an aim to bring a solution to this, Sify Technologies have launched their online-based cloud storage service, called Sift mystorage. Confirming in an official statement, Sifty states that their cloud-based online storage service is also a backup solution targeted for consumers, in general and to small businesses.

With Sify mystorage, confirms the official statement, users will be able to safeguard their important files - be it in the form of documents, mail, photos, videos, music from threats like virus attacks, file corruption, accidental deletion or a PC crash.

Explaining the merits of the service, Sify claims that, "With a single mystorage account, a user can backup and store documents from any number of devices.

A file saved in Sify mystorage can be accessed online from anywhere or can be shared with friends and family easily. Sify mystorage is intuitive to the extent that the user’s files are organized and stored in the cloud in exactly the same folder structure as in his/her device."

To cater to the varied requirements of its different section of users, Sify mystorage can be availed by users, according to the plan of their choice. Plans start at Rs.175 per month for 10GB storage. Users can also make changes to their plans online.

The service, claims Sify comes with a MS-Office plug-in, using which users can upload and backup documents directly from MS Office applications: MS-Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.

At the launch, Mr. Natesh Mani, President – Commercial & Consumer Business, Sify Technologies Ltd, said, “Sify is deeply committed to enabling a digital lifestyle for its consumers. As one of India’s largest and most advanced data centre companies, we are confident of revolutionizing daily life with valuable and novel cloud services."

Actually, Searches For “Google+” Are Petering Out

2011-12-27T22:53:00.000-08:00

Just last week, Google was promoting the fact that “Google+” was the No. 2 fastest-growing search term of the year in its annual Zeitgest list. And it did have an amazing pop when it hit “10 million members” a couple weeks after launch last summer. People wanted to know what this new Google+ thing was all about. And since it didn’t exist the year before, on a percentage basis the growth in the number of searches for the term was astronomical.

If you are not paying close attention and hear that “Google+” was the No. 2 search term of the year, you might assume that a lot of people are still searching for it. But you would be wrong. The Zeitgeist site shows all sorts of stats about that pop in searches for “Google+” back in July.

What you won’t find there is the overall trend of searches for the term, and the fact that searches have been declining. In order to find that you have to go to Google Insights for Search, a terrific tool that lets you plot search volume for any term. You can see the chart for “Google+” above. The trend is not good. There was an initial spike at launch, then a lot of hype around the 10-million-user announcement, and then a smaller spike in September when it opened up to everyone. Then the search volume just kind of peters out.

Why is this important? Searches are an indication of pure intent. People search for what they intend to do. Venture capitalists look at search volume data all the time as a gut check to see whether there is any interest in a startup’s product. The same logic applies to products at big companies like Google. If fewer and fewer people are searching for “Google+”, it makes you wonder if anyone is actually using it. Remember, just because Google+ has tens of millions of registered users, that doesn’t mean those people ever came back after Google made them click to register.

All you have to do for a reality check on this approach is compare searches for “Twitter” to “Google+” (see chart below). Interest in Twitter dwarfs Google+. (Don’t even try to compare it to searches for “Facebook”—that spike turns into a flat line). People search for what they intend to do or want to learn more about. They even search for “google” or “gmail,” but not so much for “google+.”

The fact that the “Google+” line isn’t as big as the one for “Twitter” or “Facebook” would be fine if it was growing. But it’s not. It’s going in the opposite direction.

China to allow commercial use of its next-generation internet

2011-12-27T22:51:00.000-08:00

China will allow commercial use of its next-generation internet system by 2015 after putting it on trial in 2013, a media report said Saturday.

The new system expands the capability of the Internet Protocol address and improves the speed of the internet. It is also expected to create employment, the Chinese cabinet said in a statement Friday.

The new technology, called IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), is an upgrade of the current IPv4 whose IP addresses are about to be all used up, People's Daily reported.

The new IPv6 technology opens up a pool of internet addresses that are a billion to trillion times larger than the total pool of IPv4 addresses and are virtually inexhaustible for the foreseeable future, experts said.

The IPv4 was developed in the early 1980s and has a capacity of just over 4 billion IP addresses.

The new IPv6 network bandwidth can reach 2.5-10 gigabytes per second, 100 times faster than the current speed.

The government will try out the system on a small scale by the end of 2013 before expanding it in 2014 and 2015.

China is the world's biggest internet market with about 500 million online users.

Chinese companies are also encouraged to develop new technologies on the new IPv6 network, such as cloud computing, Internet of Things -- uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure -- and Three Network Convergence -- an initiative that hopes to integrate telecommunications, TV and radio, and the Internet in the world's most populous country.

Since 2004, the IPv6 networks have been built in some research organizations in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou for testing.

Coming soon: More powerful supercomputers?

2011-12-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

Scientists claim to have created a new optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip which could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers.

A team at Purdue University says the "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring some 10 microns in diameter, or about one-tenth the width of a human hair, the 'Science' journal reported.

Unlike other optical diodes, it doesn't require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.

The diode is capable of "nonreciprocal transmission", meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Prof Minghao Qi, who led the team. "This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," added Qi.

Although fibre-optic cables are instrumental in transmitting large quantities of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyber attack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa, say the scientists.

"This translation requires expensive equipment. What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fiber directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security," they said.

Electronic diodes constitute critical junctions in transistors and help enable integrated circuits to switch on and off and to process information.

"The new optical diodes are compatible with industry manufacturing processes for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors used to produce computer chips. These diodes are very compact, and they have other attributes that make them attractive as a potential component for future photonic information processing chips," the scientists said.

The new optical diodes could make for faster and more secure information processing by eliminating the need for this translation, the scientists added.

Court sets deadline for 21 websites to remove objectionable content

2011-12-27T22:42:00.000-08:00

Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, Google, among 21 others will have to strip their websites off any objectionable content, latest by February 6, 2012, according to a Delhi court's directive.

A Times of India report confirms now that 21 social networking sites, including the ones mentioned above have been "issued summons" by the court, on grounds of carrying objectionable content.

They have now been charged with section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Acting on a private complaint, Metropolitan Magistrate, Sudesh Kumar has asked the Centre to file a report in the court, latest by January 13. Social networking sites in India have been going through a rough phase, after the government began showing dislike for the content portrayed.
Now, as per the court's directive, if these sites fail to clear derogatory content off their websites by February 6, 2012 they would be charged for contempt of court.

In its statement the court said, "It appears from a bare perusal of the documents that prima facie the accused in connivance with each other and other unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content which also appears to the prurient interests and tends to deprave and corrupt the persons who are likely to read, see or hear the same.

It is also evident that such contents are continuously openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents."

FIR against Facebook, user for anti-Gita comments

2011-12-27T22:37:00.000-08:00

A social activist from Lucknow has lodged an FIR against social networking site Facebook and one of its users for allegedly posting comments and spreading hatred against Hindu's holy scripture Bhagavad Gita.

Nutan Thakur has filed an FIR against Jalandhar resident CI Chumbar and the networking site under section 153 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of communities and other grounds), 153 A (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 153 B (public nuisance), 290 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 504 (criminal intimidation) 506 and 66 A IT Act (using Information Technology for these purposes).

Confirming the news, Circle officer Alok Singh said, "The FIR has been registered at Gomti Nagar Police Station on a complaint lodged by Nutan Thakur under various sections of the IPC on Saturday."

In her FIR, Nutan alleged that the user calls himself the Editor-in-Chief of a Punjabi daily newspaper and he had asked people to burn the Bhagwad Gita on Facebook.

The journalist claimed the scripture made derogatory references to women, she said in the FIR.

In her complaint, Nutan alleged that the comments on Facebook were enough to provoke anger and trigger communal riots.

"Through the Facebook comments, the person has been asking the people to burn the holiest scripture of Hindus in public across nation. The comments have come at the backdrop of the protest following the proposed ban of Gita in Russia. The holy book facing the ban in Russia has already become a sensitive issue and such comments would just trigger more anger," Nutan said.

She said that the Facebook user has not only criticized the holy book but has also openly used obscene words and language for Lord Krishna and Lord Bramha. She claimed the words and abuses were of such nature that they are wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

"Through abusive language, the person has been denting the image of the Hindu Gods. More so, the networking site also turned a blind eye and did not initiate any kind of action. The Facebook is equally responsible in the crime by encouraging such acts by not taking any action against the people involved in such mischieves," Nutan said.

Nutan recalled that her husband Amitabh Thakur had lodged the FIR against Facebook and others at Gomti Nagar police station for allegedly portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner through an online group 'I hate Gandhi'.

Thousands warned of charity hacking threat

2011-12-27T21:46:00.000-08:00

Tens of thousands of people and thousands of companies have been told their bank accounts could be at risk after hackers stole credit card details and personal data held by a US security company.

Anonymous, the loose-knit hacking network known for its repeated, politically motivated attacks on corporations, claimed on Christmas day it would use the stolen details to make $1m worth of donations to charities. Several clients of Stratfor, the Texas-based private security company, confirmed that their accounts had been used for unauthorised transactions to charities such as the Red Cross and Save the Children.

Hackers also published Stratfor’s highly confidential client list, which included banks, such as Barclays and HSBC, defence contractor BAE Systems and large corporations such as Apple ad BT.

Stratfor was on Tuesday trying to play down the incident, saying on its Facebook site that this was not a list of companies it had relationships with, but merely a record of those that had bought the company’s publications.

However, Stratfor said it had hired external security consultants to investigate the incident, as well as an identity theft monitoring company to help the potential victims. It advised customers to monitor their accounts carefully and to contact their banks and the US Federal Trade Commission if they saw any unauthorised activity.

Stratfor’s servers and email have been suspended.

It issued a warning on Monday that individuals who had spoken out publicly against the hacking attack might be targeted and have their personal details published on websites. The company urged people to either refrain from commenting on Facebook, or to take extra precautions if they did.

Facebook for Android gets new Timeline feature

2011-12-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

This week, Facebook started rolling out a new feature for profiles on its website. It’s called Timeline, and it presents your Facebook activity over time in a new way.

The feature is now available for all Facebook users, just visit Facebook's Introducing Timeline page to find out more, but Facebook is already deploying it among its mobile apps. Well, not all its mobile apps. Specifically, right now, Timeline is only available on Facebook for Android.

As Fierce Mobile Content reports, the mobile Timeline view starts with a “cover photo” that you choose, and then moves down the page in reverse-chronological order, showing photos and status updates you’ve posted ranging from the newest to the oldest. Facebook explains it a little better on its blog:

As you scroll down, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so you can quickly view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. You can also swipe through the views at the top of your timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.

The Timeline update to Facebook also affects other parts of the interface for viewing Facebook in general. Photos uploaded and shared with friends are larger, for example, and you can see maps showing different social interactions thanks to the Facebook Places location-based features.

Right now, interestingly, Timeline is only available to Android mobile users and on the mobile web, not on Apple’s iOS platform’s version of Facebook. That’s a reversal of history for Facebook, as it usually rolls out new features on its iPhone and iPad apps first. It’s not clear what the delay is for Apple users, but for the time being, you can only enjoy the new features at Facebook.com or on an Android device.

A Nielsen survey on smartphone users from earlier this week confirmed that among everyone with a smartphone who uses apps regularly, Facebook is the most popular. Nielsen says about 80 percent of Android users who have used any app in the last 30 days have accessed Facebook in that time – and with 800 million users worldwide, that make sense.

It’s not clear if this might signal a change in how Facebook treats its mobile apps, given that while iOS is extremely popular, Android is still more so. But at least for the time being, it means cool new features that might make you happy you opted for Android over Apple. Given how many people are Android users and how many use Facebook, it’s likely at least a few will appreciate it.

Who is in Google CEO's inner circle?

2011-12-18T21:11:00.001-08:00

The most powerful group at Google Inc (GOOG.O) used to be known simply as 'The OC,' short for operating committee. Now, it goes by a more telling name: L Team, short for Larry's Team. The new members of this team are... The change is more than a mere rebranding after Google co-founder
Larry Page became chief executive nine months ago, reclaiming a title he last held in 2001. Page has moved quickly to remake the company in his image, and this influential group is responsible for plotting strategic priorities, such as social networking and mobile computing.

In the revamping of the group earlier this year, Page swapped out several of the executives who previously had seats at the table and brought in managers spearheading key initiatives.

Among the new members of Page's cabinet are social networking head Vic Gundotra, Android mobile chief Andy Rubin and YouTube head Salar Kamangar, according to people familiar with the matter.

Page meets regularly with the team, which also includes Google's top finance and legal executives and is now internally called the L Team, to discuss, evaluate and approve their plans, from acquisitions to new products.

"All major decisions flow through that group," said one of the people, speaking anonymously because of the confidential nature of the topic.

The new team was appointed around the time that Page took over as CEO and reorganized the company's management structure. In addition to placing directors of key product groups under his direct supervision, and giving those groups more leeway to operate autonomously, Page transformed the operating committee into the L Team, a move not reported until now.

A Google representative declined to comment on the changes Page made to the team. The company also declined to make executives available for interviews.

The revamp is part of Page's efforts to make the world's No. 1 Web search engine more nimble and competitive amid a shifting technology landscape in which Google is increasingly battling heavyweights like Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Facebook.

To make room for his new advisers, Page chose to remove some well-known and powerful executives from the inner circle instead of expanding it, according to the sources.

They said the executives who have left the group include Marissa Mayer, the head of Google's local, maps and location services business; Rachel Whetstone, its London-based global communications and public affairs chief; and Shona Brown, who previously oversaw business operations and now heads the company's philanthropic arm.

Mayer's membership within the group was particularly short-lived. The former head of Google's flagship search product and user experience was appointed to the operating committee in October 2010, roughly around the time she was assigned a new job overseeing Google's local business.

But she and other executives Page moved out of his inner circle were not completely sidelined, the sources said. Mayer still has a "huge job," said another person familiar with the matter. Whetsone was promoted to senior vice president in April.

The changes to the group reflect the shifting influence within Google's top ranks, said first source, who added that changes were natural with a new CEO in place.

2011: the year of Google Android

2011-12-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

2011 was the year when Android tablets broke loose and ran rampant over the annual Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. It was here that Motorola showed off the world's first Android 3.0 tablet and lookalike Android 2.x devices seemed to pop out of every booth.

The year that followed has been a tumultuous one for tablets. Big players like Hewlett-Packard and RIM released major products that quickly found their way to the bargain bin. Apple sent everyone back to the drawing board after the release of the ultrathin iPad 2. And Amazon reset everyone's expectations of what a tablet should cost, and what features consumers could live without.

What will 2012 have in store for tablets? There's no way of knowing for sure, but here are some trends I expect to see at CES 2012.

Thinner designs
With the iPad 3 release still months away, the competition still has some time to show off designs that are thinner and lighter than the current iPad. It's a particularly tough engineering challenge for Android tablet manufacturers, as Android fans have come to expect features such as microSD expansion and HDMI output, which bulk up the design. You also have to account for the thickness of LCD panel technology and the rechargeable battery pack.

Android 4.0
What Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) was to CES 2011, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will be to CES 2012. The first question that will be asked of any tablet unveiled at CES will be whether or not the device is capable of running Google's latest operating system.

But unlike last year, no one company will be able to claim Android 4.0 exclusively. Google has already released the code into the wild and manufacturers should be able to demonstrate some basic functionality on the tablets.

Windows 8 tablets
Considering that Microsoft introduced Windows 8 at CES 2011, we're bound to hear about its progress at CES 2012. Much has been made of the software's suitability for use on tablets, but we haven't been able to get hands-on with yet. Perhaps we'll hear some official product announcements about Windows 8 compatible tablets.

Higher resolutions
One of the most expected features of the iPad 3 is a higher-resolution display that can rival the Retina Display used on Apple's iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.

Rumor has it that manufacturers are now capable of making tablet-size QXGA resolution (2,048x1,536 pixels) touch-screen panels with a pixel density of 264ppi, which is twice that of the iPad 2.

Flexible displays

We've seen companies like Sony and Samsung show off flexible OLED screen technologies in years past, but never yet on a product they had any intention of making available. Perhaps 2012 will be the year we see this technology become viable.

Recently, Nokia has been showing off its Kinetic concept device, which allows users to navigate through menus and zoom in and out of images by twisting and bending the screen. If a manufacturer at CES could demonstrate a similar concept on a larger, tablet-worthy screen, it would make quite a story.

Different sizes
The success of the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet have show that the 7-inch tablet isn't the dud form-factor we thought it was. Samsung has clearly shown a willingness to try different screen sizes, such as its Galaxy Player 5 and Galaxy Tab 8.9. Maybe we'll finally see a tablet that dares to venture into larger 12-inch or even 15-inch sizes.

As noted in CNET's laptop predictions for CES, the worlds of tablets and laptops are showing signs of collision.

One of the hottest tablets on CNET currently, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime employs a detachable keyboard dock that makes it practically indistinguishable from a modern laptop. The release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, and its suitability for both laptops and tablets, will surely blur the line further.