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NOKIA C7 Specifications

2010-03-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

Nokia C7

C7-00-wheels has, for the reports, an officer of Nokia use now by a series of XML tags confirmed that were added on the Nokia Web site.

XML, apparently gives the C7 integrates the latest Symbian OS ^ 3, and shows a screen with 360x640 pixel resolution NHD.

You say C7 phone pictures leak online a week ago. The images show that the phone with an 8-megapixel camera, a dual LED flash on the camera front and rear will be built just above the screen of the phone.

The Nokia C7 should have said, stereo speakers and a 3.5 mm audio jack that their main features, with a 3.5-inch screen. The XML code for Nokia C7 also said to indicate that the power of ARM-based CPU with the device. The phone is also expected to feature 3G UMTS / HSPA, Bluetooth and WiFi. However, the disappointing news that the prices on the Nokia C7, and the official launch date still kept secret.

Windows Server Management Tools - To address the critical management

2010-03-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

Server management is the aspect most of the time in the IT industry. A long time ago, but it is necessary for the proper functioning of the server. can be assisted in the administration of Windows servers, the computers, both the virtual and physical environments notice. With dedicated and highly sought after provider of server, Windows a variety of tools to help engineers reduce the burden in dealing with everyday tasks to the server.

One of the instruments to a Windows server to manage is to manage energy consumption. While many companies IT systems, server applications with 24 / 7, the important question is the major energy address. Besides cost aspects, the distribution of energy is also a limitation for data centers to expand their business. To mitigate and adapt existing power settings on Windows servers, there is the possibility of increasing the number of servers in data centers.
In the world of computers, data management is no longer a marginal aspect or costs. It is important to manage data more efficiently. Windows File Classification of infrastructure is a management tool, Windows Server, to organize the data and to ensure that enables efficiency in the process. Thus, the information is not compromised and no leakage causes many problems in the near future. With this tool, administrators will be able to streamline deal with risks, and reduce costs.
It is very rare for a Windows Server managed locally. It is therefore important to manage remotely. This management tool for Windows Server uses the Management Console, the graphical remote management makes possible. With the integration of Server Manager can support in the settings are made Remote Manager. The next phase is to use the command-line or automated scripts. In this method, you can can run scripts in two or more computers or more professionals to continue running scripts on a computer.
Identity management tools are very important in the management of Windows servers. This is the most important of all tasks of network management based on Windows. Security concerns are high, if the identity systems are poorly managed. Domain Services Using Active and Active Directory Federated Services are used to treat this problem in the management of identities. The ads use some improvements. Tools for using this tool can restore deleted documents, the administrator. There are an improved methodology to reach the area and there is a better account management.
In all of these instruments to manage Windows servers will ensure focus on procedures for critical data center and the entire process is optimized. Apart from these, there are a variety of tools that are used, to manage Windows servers. However, it is important to ensure that the tools are supported for use on Windows, so they turned not to jeopardize the effectiveness and reliability of servers and thus, the information stored on servers.

The basis of fixing the USB device not recognized error

2010-02-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

An error that is often experienced after connecting the hardware on a computer system is not the USB device detected error. When this problem occurs, it is important that the factors that can cause problems, as it may be useful in determining the most appropriate solutions useful knowledge. To computer users with this error, this article about the ways to solve this problem, to focus the system.

The causes of the error USB device not recognized

One of the most common causes of this error is a bad connection or plug in bulk. If a window appears on your screen to the user informed about the problem, is the first thing to do is to carefully remove the device to retrieve it. If another pop-up window appears on the screen, the problem is not bad by a connection.

Another error is a configuration of inadequate equipment. The solution to this problem depends on the type of operating system that uses a computer. For example, for those using computers with Windows XP, can correct the error by clicking the Start button and select Control Panel. Select the Add tab "New Hardware, and double-click it. Then the user can manually assign devices to operate.

In addition to the above solutions, users can try to convert the power management settings on their computers. To do this, click the Start button at the bottom of the computer screen to the left and then click Run. If a pop-up box, type devmgmt.msc, and click OK.

Choose the option that relates to Universal Serial Bus controllers. Next, place the cursor on the USB root hub and right click. Select the tab "Properties" and select power management. Check the boxes next to the option, turn off the computer to the device to save power, says. Click OK. If the problem persists, it is preferable to seek the help of computer technician because there may be problems with hubs stick.

If no hardware problems and the major centers, so that the most important thing to do, do visit the site and used the computer manufacturer and the product must be. In this way, the user can identify the real cause of the problem and solutions to the USB device not recognized error to develop.

Apple calls Adobe lazy, and Google's "Don't be Evil" motto bullshit

2010-02-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

Disguised as a battle centred around the freedom of the web, we now have Apple, Adobe and Google in the ring, dishing it out. Who started it? Who knows! But things are getting interesting.

Adobe had long been complaining about Apple's lack of cooperation in improving support for the Flash player for the Mac platform. With the iPhone, Apple had adamantly refused to let the Flash player in. Apple, in their defense, have cited performance concerns where websites loaded with Flash advertisements and such could hamper the user experience. This still does not explain however, why even the choice of installing / uninstalling the player wasn't left to the user. After all, most smartphones today have been demoed by Adobe with the full Flash Player 10.1, and they seem to be running fine.

Now with their more powerful iPad, Apple seems to be on the same path again, promising the best web experience while adamantly refusing to support Flash which powers a rather high percentage of the web's content. A large number of popular websites will just become unusable without Flash as explained in an eloquent post by Lee Brimelow, a Flash Platform Evangelist at Adobe. While it has been removed now, this post humorously included screenshot of a pornographic website which was somehow construed as Adobe playing the porn card.

While many people hold the naive attitude that disabling Flash / the end of Flash is good because it will mean the end of annoying Flash ads, the truth is that Flash is just a medium some advertisers use for their advertisements. If Flash indeed is to "die" some day, the advertisers will just start using HTML5 video or canvas tags for the same. Advertisers will find a way, and with ads popping up as HTML5 elements instead of Flash ones, they will only become more difficult to block.

As tensions increased with people split over whether the Apple iPad really was something new and worth buying, Flash support was of course one of the most important points. If Apple is indeed targeting this for students as well, they will find it nearly useless for eLearning content on the web as it is usually in Flash.

Earlier Steve Jobs commented that they didn't enter the search business, instead Google made a phone to compete with them and kill the iPhone, which sounds like "I didn't go to the sandbox, they came to the swings". Dear Apple, you too entered in competition with Nokia and other mobile manufacturers when you unveiled the iPhone. Get over it. He also called Google's "Don't be Evil" mantra bullshit or a load of crap, which makes sense, since Apple doesn't seem to follow it at all.

Steve Jobs, the One Who Must Not be Blamed, said Adobe were lazy, with the potential to do interesting things which they haven't lived up to. He claimed that the Flash player is buggy and is responsible for a majority of crashes on Mac OSX, and that the world will move to HTML5 which is more open.

Calling Adobe lazy is a stretch a amazing coming from a company which just spent the last couple of years feeding their iPod touch steroids. Adobe on the other hand developed a new compiler to bring content created in Flash to the iPhone and iPad touch in a manner which is compliant with Apple's arbitrary restrictions. They created the OpenScreen project which aims to bring their runtime to as many devices as possible. Any device manufacturer can gain access to the Flash Player source code and create optimized versions for their own platforms with Adobe's help. Hardly lazy behaviour I'd say.

The Flash player on Mac IS buggy, and Adobe had better do something about it, however many people forget that the Flash format IS open. The specifications for Flash player are open and available for all to implement. In fact, the Tamarin engine which interprets ActionScript 3 in the Flash Player is open source. With an open specification the only thing closed is the Adobe Flash Player itself, which is merely an implementation of the Flash specification by Adobe.

Any company, even Apple is free to create their own Flash player implementation which they think is less buggy than the one by Adobe. You can compare this to HTML, which is an open specification, and any browser can implement it. On the other hand, browsers such as Opera, Internet Explorer, and Apple's own Safari are closed source implementations of the open specification. Just because HTML is an open specification doesn't mean that closed source implementations are bad. People often also forget that Adobe has a stake in HTML5 too, as creators of web development products, and they have showed their dedication to that as well.

Apple does have a point about the Flash Player's performance, which might be a bigger problem with portable and low powered devices than PCs, however that is something which is in need of optimization by both the content creators and Adobe, and Adobe has been busy with optimization for their Flash Player 10.1.

Apple has made some beautiful products, and the iPad is no exception, but their recent trend is towards more and more closed systems which pot Apple in full control of its economy. In the end it is clear this is not about open standards at all, such arguments are hardly fitting of a company like Apple.

10 reasons why the iPad fails to impress

2010-02-19T19:31:00.000-08:00

The iPad has finally arrived, like the punchline of a poorly constructed joke gone on too long. It's too late to even laugh at the effort. Starting with the very name, which is embarrassingly close to a certain women's hygiene product and became a laughing stock as soon as it was unveiled.

The iPad Jobs claims is "more intimate than a laptop, and it's so much more capable than a smartphone." Certainly one can understand that the device would be more intimate than a laptop, being operated entirely via a touch screen, however it isn't more capable than one. Is it even more capable than a smartphone?

Comparing it with Apple's own smartphone, the iPhone, and what do we see, a larger screen hence an interface to support the larger screen, thanks to the large screen we now have a larger keyboard, a larger screen enables better use of productivity software — which by the way you have to pay for — and a better multimedia and internet experience. Kinda like an iPod avatar in a, well, larger body. Might as well call it an iPhoneNot.

Sure, the faster processor means it is more capable technically, however as more smartphones come in the market with 1Ghz and faster processors, this point becomes moot. The Nexus One itself features a 1GHz processor, and does not come with the shackles surrounding the iPhone OS store.

Matching the iPhone and the iPad feature for feature, the iPad actually comes out on the losing side. Quite obviously, the device is not a phone, yet when comparing it with the iPhone you come to realize that is is just an oversized iPhone which can't make calls. Connect your iPhone to a larger display and what can't you do?

How is this different from an Android-based tablet?

With great derison Jobs discards netbooks as cheap laptops, yet the iPad is still to show any multitasking capabilities. It does not come with the free ecosystem of application and development as the netbooks have. Instead you are pointed to the 140,000 application which exist in the Apple store, many of which will irrelevant for a device which is not a phone, and the others will have to go through the painful process of updating their applications for the new screen size and getting their updates pass through the gatekeeps for the App Store.

For a device which claims to provide the best internet browsing experience, support for Flash is essential, and yet the iPad shuns Flash. This does more to hurt the iPad than it does Flash. For an internet centric device which boasts of 3G and WiFi connectivity, the lack of suppot for the full and rich interent experience is a blunder. A large sumber of cloud applications rely on Flash, and it is not just restricted to web-video. While shunning Flash from the iPhone might have worked out fine since no one expects a full interent experience on a phone, however when you are buying a device which is supposed to bring the "best web experience" you expect more.

Better than a netbook really? The iPad fails to be better than even an iPhone.

So here are 10 reasons why we think the iPad sucks, if we haven't made that clear already:

No multitasking. Remember, it's meant to be better than a netbook.
No Flash support. "The best web experience"; indeed
Screen is not widescreen. Well, innovation sometimes take us a few steps backwards
No HD output. Who watched HD these days anyway?
No camera. So much for video chat...
No USB port. Don't want to be too much like a netbook now do we?
No SD card slot. Cause 64GB ought to be enough for anybody...
Essential peripherals sold extra: keyboard, USB, SD card dongles, each sold for $30!
Another iPhone-like operating system. Read closed system. This seems to be Apple's game plan
You need to pay $10 per app for the iWork productinvity applications suite. It's like Apple didn't want you, or expect you to be productive on it by default

Even so, the iPad has a chance for success, and for many of the same reasons that the iPhone is a success. It is a beautiful product, with a dedicated developer community which just won't give up dispite the constant abuse. It has hundreds of thousands of applications which give it an edge over new platforms which have lesser applications. The iPhone continues to be a favourite of many because it is a pleasure to use despite its many flaws. Apple may not have done anything new here, but just given a more of the good old stuff that they already know works.

ZInstall XP7 - For a painless upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 [Review]

2010-02-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

Due to the disaster that was Windows Vista, many Windows users would have been left stranded with XP as the time came for an upgrade to Microsoft's latest Windows 7. This was since Microsoft did not leave users with a clear upgrade path between Windows XP and Windows 7. This is despite the fact that Microsoft claims Windows 7 is more compatible with Windows XP applications than Vista.

Here comes ZInstall XP7 which takes away the pain from upgrading your Windows XP system to Windows 7 and with no loss of data or installed applications! Using virtualization technology, it ensures that your older copy of Window XP continues to run without problems as you switch to Windows 7. It is different from installing Windows 7 in parallel to Windows XP on your computer in that it allows you to run both operating systems at the same time, without reboot; and it is different from running XP in a virtual machine in that it is more integrated with your system and retains your settings.

With an upgrade coming nearly eight years after the release of Microsoft's last favoured OS, Windows XP - for many users it is not a matter of choice but one of necessity to upgrade to Windows 7. Eight years is too long in this industry to be using any technology, especially one as integral as an operating system. That is quite like using Windows 3.1 in 2001 after the release of Windows XP!

Windows 7 comes with Windows XP mode, which is near-guaranteed to run any Windows XP application that is out there by running it on a virtual machine. However, the reason that an upgrade is preferable to this approach is that an upgrade retains the older applications' configuration and settings, some of which cannot be transferred even using the Microsoft Easy Transfer wizards.

Since ZInstall XP7 is also based on virtualization like Windows XP Mode, it offers the same benefits. It however lacks the closer integration with Windows 7 which you get with XP mode, wherein files can open in virtualized Windows XP applications and application installed in the virtual mode will have entries in the Start Menu, etc. Oddly enough, while the application is called ZInstall XP7, Windows Vista is one of the supported operating systems, and it is possible for you to migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista, or from Windows Vista to Windows 7.

Even so, ZInstall XP7 offers some significant features which make it better than using the bundled and free Windows XP mode, and might be worth the $89 price. To begin, Windows XP Mode is only available as a free download for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate, others need to own a copy of Windows XP, and install that in their VM -- of course, if you’re thinking of upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7, it is assumed you have a Windows XP license in the first place!

Another important thing about ZInstall XP7 is that it even supports running without hardware virtualization which is essential if you wish to use Windows XP Mode with Windows 7.

Most importantly, ZInstall XP7 does not give you a fresh new install of Windows XP in a virtual environment on which to install your old applications, instead it converts your entire old system into a virtualized instance with your applications, settings and files intact! So as soon as you are done migrating your old computer with ZInstall XP7 all its applications are ready for you to use.

While the entire procedure of converting your physical machine into a virtual one takes quite some time (and space), it is quite effortless, and takes only a few short steps.

The ZInstall XP7 application is a single large (nearly 250MB) EXE file which launches the migration guide and install the virtual machine. You merely run the executable to begin the process, and after a short loading period, you are asked to accept the licence terms and activate your product. This requires an internet connection.

Once you are done activating, you are asked to specify your migration scenario, whether you have only the computer you are using, or you are migrating from an older comp on a network. In our case, we performed a migration on the same computer. After this point, you can select if you want to perform an in-place migration or migration from another hard-drive.

In the case on an in-place migration, you need to have installed Windows 7 on the same hard disk partition as the one with Windows XP installed. This renames your old Windows installation system to windows.old. ZInstall XP7 will then gather all this data to construct your new XP virtual machine.

Migrating from another hard drive is done when you have installed Windows 7 on a different hard drive than the one with Windows XP. If you have purchased a new computer and installed Windows 7, you can connect your old hard drive and use this method. We performed an in-place migration.

This was all the information ZInstall XP7 needed, and it then set about finding our old Windows XP installation, and its final resting place. After it is done, you see your migration scenario, with the source Windows XP hard drive and the destination drive to contain the virtual machine. A destination drive with enough space needs to exist of course, and since it retains your entire old machine it will need considerable space.

At this point, your work is done! The following procedure takes quite a lot of time, however it requires no intervention, and you can leave the computer to its task.

In the case of a migration over the network, you need to have both computers switched on and on the same network. You then run the application on both computers and choose "I am moving between two PCs." After this point you are asked to select which computer is your old one, and which is the new one.

Once the migration is done, you will see an icon on your desktop and one in the system tray which will allow you to start your virtual Windows XP instance. Switching to your old computer is as simple as double-clicking on the icon in the system tray which will start the virtual machine and boot into your old Windows XP. After you have used it once, the virtual machine can continue running in the background and you can easily switch to it in less than a second by double clicking on the system tray icon. Once your virtual XP installation is fully booted and the VM tools are activated, switching between your old and new computers really is as simple as changing TV channels, as the software makers claim.

The virtual Windows XP machine will also have the ZInstall XP7 tools installed which will allow you to instantly switch back to your Windows XP install by double-clicking on a similar icon in your virtualized install. In your old computer, drives from your new computer are accessible via a shared drive.

While it might seem too much to pay for Microsoft's mistakes especially after you have paid for the OS itself, ZInstall is more than just a migration guide, it is a product which continues to run on your computer. Being quite a powerful product it is quite sad that it is limited to just migration between Windows versions, such a solution would have been quite awesome if it could allow you to arbitrarily run multiple OSs with the ease of switching between them at any time.

In the end, for those who want to retain their applications, data and settings without losing productivity as they ease into the new OS, ZInstall is a brilliant solution, however if your needs lie in just running you old Windows XP applications with full compatibility even when you have moved to Windows 7, you might be better off with the greater integration provided by Windows XP Mode.

Furthermore installing a fresh OS is a much better and less buggy solution than upgrading your XP to Vista to 7, and ZInstall XP7 lets you do that without losing your old desktop experience.


The ZInstall Wizard unpacks	ZInstall takes a little time to load and activate	Now you select a Migration scenario. We selected "I only have this PC"	Now you can select whether you are migrating from the same hard disk or an XP installation on an old hard disk. We selected "No, I am doing an in-place migration"

The Zinstall wizard now searches for an old installation of XP as per your migration scenario.	It will then display the old installations detected by it, and will allow you to detect a destination for the virtualized install.	The migration process begins by analyzing the selections.	The analysis and migration process takes quite some time.

The migration will retain your old disk structure, thereby retaining all your old data in the new install.	The migration process itself will take a couple of hours as an image of you old systemw ill be made and adjusted to work on the new virtualized hardware.	And you're done! The new system will have an icon in the system tray which will allow you to switch between your Windows 7 and XP machines at any time.	The ZInstall system tray icon gives you access to your old or new systema and its files.

Your old system files are accessible in the new Windows 7 system, and your new system's files are visible in the old XP system as network shares.

The making of the Google Nexus One phone - go behind the scenes with Google

2010-02-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

Google will be releasing a series of short clips documenting the concept, design, manufacturing and development of the Google Nexus One phone. The first two videos in the series are up. Take a look --

There is a third video showcasing the testing process of the Google Nexus One. Unfortunately, it's a private video on Google's Nexus One channel on YouTube. You can check it out by clicking here.

Stay tuned for more videos showcasing the making of the Google Nexus One phone.

Is Apple developing a search engine to compete against Google?

2010-02-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

Google has consistently been trampling on Apple's toes, with unsettling announcements of new operating systems, mobile phones, and with all the publicity surrounding Apple's rejection of the Google Voice application for the iPhone.

Now Apple has taken on an unlikely partner in its battle against Google, Microsoft. Apple, it would seem, now has plans to replace Google, and go for Bing instead as its default search engine. It's remarkable to see how Google has now taken over Microsoft as Apple's biggest threat.

Recently Apple has been on a buying spree, trying to rid itself of the last vestiges of Google intrusion into its platform. In the recent past they are rumoured to have bought their own maps service to remove their dependence on Google Maps, and they have also purchased their ownmobile advertisement company to further remove the taint of Google's presence.

As if that was not enough, Apple's plan could include having their own search engine, and choosing Bing could be, as BusinessWeek reports , a stop-gap measure. Apple wont "outsource the future".

Could Apple really be entering the highly competitive search market? How far will they go? It would seem Apple has an alternate exclusive internet in mind for its own users.

As Google has started entering some of the domains of Apple, will Apple start entering those of Google? What next, iTube, iDocs, iJustDontKnowWhenToQuit?

While this is still just speculation from a unknown entity about an possible strategy based on an undeclared move, it does seem to fit with Apple's recent trends. With Apple's penchant for good clean design and consistent interfaces, it will be interesting to see what approach they take with their search engine if they ever do come up with it.

Stream videos and music to any device with a USB port using Infinitec’s Infinite USB Memory Device (IUM)

2010-02-19T19:11:00.001-08:00

Showcased at CES, Dubai-based startup Infinitec’s IUM is said to be ready for launch, and could just be the best thing since buttered bread – a gadget that lets you stream media & data to your TV, laptop, DVD player, or game console, or just about any device that accepts a USB stick. Offering “unlimited storage” on a normal-sized USB stick, Infinitec’s new flash-drive is able to stream data from your computer onto almost any device you connect it to, simply requiring a software installation on your Windows 7 or XP PC and a network dongle. The “streaming flash-drive” can be set to represent any size from 1GB to more than 1TB, and then simply plugged in to use.

With no need to worry about sharing or network protocols, this revolutionary idea of a device (when released in the market) will act like your computer’s surrogate storage (read receiving) device, creating an ad-hoc WiFi network using an 802.11n module. This could be an invaluable tool that lets you mimic the use of an external hard drive on any device in the same room as your computer, allowing you to stream media and data with a simple click of a button, without the need of wires, multiple data transfers, backups, and reconnects required with external HDDs. The network connectivity opportunities are mind-boggling, and could be especially useful transferring data between two computers in the same room.

2010-02-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

We caught a glimpse of what the future of smartphones might be like, with the announcement of the launch of four new mobile operating systems, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. While Samsung’s Bada OS is now available on the shelves in the form of the good-looking Samsung Wave S8500, the other three, Windows Phone 7 series OS, Intel & Nokia’s collaborative MeeGo OS, and the Symbian^3 OS - will be launched later this year, with the hardware that will host them remaining a mystery. Let us take a look at what we know about these four OSes, and how they might change the way we use our smartphones.

Samsung’s Bada OS

Heralded as a “complete smartphone platform”, Samsung’s long awaited Bada is a developer friendly OS that will run “high-performance native apps and services”. Starting with the Wave, it will roll out in many of Samsung’s touch mobile handsets in 2010, and officially inviting third-party developers to work with its open-source code, hoping to enjoy the resulting range of applications and customizations for its users, including Samsung’s Apps. This is why the OS has been named Bada, after the Korean word for ocean or sea, indicating the vast variety of potential applications which can be created using the new open platform.

Based on Samsung’s TouchWiz User Interface, Bada’s software development kit (SDK) is already available for developers to use, allowing them to easily implement flash control, web control, motion sensing, fine-tuned vibration control, and face detection in their applications, along with a variety of sensors (such as accelerometers, tilt, weather, proximity, and activity) that will support sensor-based, context-aware applications. A measure of Samsung’s complete embracing of the open-source way can be seen in the Developer Challenge, that will be a chance for developers to win a share of a US$2,700,000 prize fund, by building a wide variety of applications for Bada devices. Samsung will also announce a series of Developer Days that will be held across the world this year, starting with Seoul, London and San Francisco, which will be open to all developers. Samsung’s current development partners include such heavies as the micro blogging service Twitter, movies and games rental outlet Blockbuster, and iconic videogame developers such as CAPCOM, EA Mobile, and Gameloft.

Supporting various service-oriented features, Bada will also offer native social networking, device synchronization, content management, location-based services, and commerce services. Bada also supports Open GL ES 2.0 for advanced gaming capabilities and Immersion's TouchSense Player for haptic functionality. Another interesting feature is the Lifelog, which allows developers to create intelligent call logs.

Samsung Bada’s architecture is interesting, and is made up of four distinctive layers: the kernel layer (based on a real-time OS or Linux kernel, depending on hardware configuration), the device layer (providing all the core functions such as system and security management, data protocols and telephony, audio-visual and multimedia management, etc.), the service layer, and the innovative framework layer, which will allow developers to export standard open APIs in C++, and consists of application framework and functions exported by underlying layers. The OS will be customizable with advanced widgets and home screen functionality, and versatile enough to Sync mail, calendar, and contacts from a web account to the mobile. On the marketplace front, users can easily download their required applications from Samsung Apps, via WiFi or cellular connection. Also interesting is the Social Hub service, which is Samsung’s new integrated messaging service in partnership with major portals, and a messaging service that is centered on Contacts. Being push based, it also removes the need to constantly log in and out of other networks.

The first example of a Bada-using device, the just launched Samsung Wave S8500, has notably not ironed out all its flaws. However its potential is exciting, with its stunning 3.3 inch capacitive AMOLED screen, and the ability to multitask with more than 512MB of RAM and a 1 GHz processor. It is also the first phone to feature Bluetooth 3.0, and also offers GPS receiver with A-GPS. On the multimedia front it supports 5.1 virtual surround sound, playback of DivX/XviD video, and a 5 MP camera with autofocus and 720p HD video recording and playback.

Nokia & Intel's MeeGo

Yet to be launched, there is no real hands-on data available about Intel’s and Nokia’s collaborative MeeGo OS at present, but here’s what we know.

A fusion of their respective Linux platforms, Maemo and Moblin, Intel and Nokia declared their long-term relationship about 8 months ago, a unified platform that will be used in a variety of devices from mobile phones to tablets to netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Like the Bada, the MeeGo will be open-source and developer friendly, and will embrace Intel and Nokia's developer programs, Intel Atom Developer Program and Nokia Forum (using Nokia's cross-platform application development framework Qt), allowing them to create applications for anything from the Nokia Symbian S60 devices to Linux, Windows and MacOS X. These apps will be made available on both Nokia's Ovi Store and Intel's AppUp store. MeeGo will feature "visually rich graphics, multitasking and multimedia capabilities and the best application performance", and will be available in the second half of this year, hosted by the Linux Foundation. As explained by the president and CEO of Intel, MeeGo will allow seamless communication “between computing devices from the home, auto, office or your pocket”. MeeGo will also support ARM architecture and Intel's own Atom processors. The source code, SDK, and other details will also be made available soon, allowing the development of applications before the launch of the OS and its supporting hardware.

Aiming to avoid fragmentation, the cross-platform approach of MeeGo is unique, and it will be really interesting what will happen when it is used by other mobile manufacturers besides just Nokia, giving the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android-based phones a real run for their money. Applications written for MeeGo will be able to work on multiple device types regardless of manufacturer, giving users the ability to easily migrate their applications when switching between devices. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO, emphatically stated that the MeeGo will not completely replace Symbian, saying that “Symbian is alive and Symbian is strong”.

Windows Phone 7 Series

Announced by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Mobile World Congress, the much delayed Windows Mobile 7 will be launched at the end of this year, branded as Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7). Designed for “Life in Motion” the Ballmer unveiled a prototype device that he called “a different kind of phone”, which will “redefine what a phone can do for people”, integrating the “Web, applications and content in an intuitive way”. A complete rewrite from WinMo 6.5.5, WP7 will also bring such services such as the popular MS music player Zune and games platform Xbox LIVE to the phone for the first time.

A key differentiator from other smartphones, most notably the numerous small icons on the iPhone’s home screen, the Windows Phone’s home screen will feature large, colourful and customizable icons atop a black background. Called “live tiles”, they will update themselves with relevant information, such as calendar appointments and reminders, status updates, weather information, and more. Aiming to be more intuitive, the home screen will feature only what Microsoft believes is required there, without the clutter of hundreds of small icons. The new OS will also be centred on ‘hubs’, each a grouped amalgamation of local and dynamic online content, making it easier for users to smoothly access their now-well-categorised information. The various hubs include: the Office Hub, which will let users access their mobile documents, Outlook e-mail, and other Microsoft Exchange functionalities. The People Hub will display feeds from the user’s social networks, organise contacts and friends, and easily contact them via SMS, IM, e-mail, etc. Native integration of Facebook and Twitter has also been announced. The Multimedia Hub is for photos, music, and videos, similar to the Zune’s interface. The Games Hub will provide numerous local and online games, as well as synchronization with XBOX LIVE, allowing users to chat with their fellow gamers on their friends’ list, share statistics, watch game demos, and hopefully remotely control the XBOX console’s downloads. Proximity or location is also a built-in feature of the phone, making it easier to access local news, services, and information while on the move.

Applications have become a major selling point for smartphones, and the iPhone, with its Apple App Store, is considered to be way ahead of the competition, leaving Nokia, BlackBerry, Samsung, and Android phones in the dust. Microsoft has a major task ahead of it, if it intends its ‘Marketplace’ to compete with the App Store, which already has more than 150,000 applications available. The OS will also feature an application manager, allowing you to install, update, and sort applications with your convenience.

Another interesting announcement was that Microsoft will not support flash on the WP7, a move that might not hold many surprises for regular Apple iPhone users. Also noteworthy, is that Joe Belfiore, Director of Windows Phone, hinted that the OS may only support selective multitasking, like the iPhone, calling “the core operating system” “a modern multitasking operating system”. This will probably just allow you to use an application while still retaining the ability to receive e-mails, calls, texts, etc., and listen to music simultaneously. Using more than one third party application at the same time is a no-no, but Belfiore said that they will try to make it as functional as possible, by allowing data feeds in hubs, as well as in the live tiles. Search on Bing will also be instantly accessible with a click of a button, and the possibility of allowing a choice of search engine has not been ruled out.

As for being an open-source OS, Microsoft has revealed that it will closely collaborate with developers, but not fully release its code, allowing more third-party customization than Apple, but not as much as the Samsung, Nokia, Symbian or Google. Developers though, can look forward to Microsoft’s legendary documentation and support.

Symbian^3 OS (S^3)

The Symbian Foundation announced the release of its new Symbian^3 operating system at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona yesterday. Heralded to be Symbian’s first fully-open source mobile operating system, Symbian^3 provides some much needed updates on its prior versions, as well as some great new user-oriented functionalities.

The feature-complete release is scheduled for the end of the first quarter, which means that the first phones to start using the S^3 OS will be only available later this year, giving developers plenty of time to design applications and customize features till then.

Here are some of the new features of the S^3 OS:

Full Multi-Touch Support – A much needed refinement over the previous version, users can now use gestures to control their phone, including pinch-and-zoom, and flick-and-scroll. A single-tap paradigm has also been implemented, reducing the number of taps/clicks required per operation. HDMI Support – A great idea, Symbian now lets users enjoy full 1080p high definition external playback on their monitors or televisions.Radio & Music Store Integration – Enables automatic identification of songs on both the radio and music store, along with more information about them. Also new is the convenient placement of the ‘buy now’ button in the same screen.Writable Data Paging – Allows for more efficient memory management, which in turn lets more applications run in parallel, for a more efficient multi-tasking experience, and a great improvement over older Symbians. New 2D & 3D Graphics Architecture – Gives users the full advantage of hardware acceleration, enabling a faster and more responsive user interface, as well as visual enhancements, and smooth transitions, and when combined with OpenGL ES, also provides a platform for high performance games.New Networking Architecture – Ready for 4G networks, with optimized use of bandwidth, leading to lower latency times and less jitter. Ideal for VoIP and media content streaming.One-Click Connectivity – Simplifies the process of connecting to the Internet, without causing interruptions for the user. Also allows platform-wide behaviour and global settings, easily switching between networks, something the older Symbian would have become confused doing.Multiple Widgets – Attractive and useful new home screen which has multiple pages of widgets along with simple flicking between them. A widget manager will also make it easier to find, download, and categorize widgets. Support for multiple instances of a native widget allows users to monitor multiple widgets simultaneously, such as weather forecasts, news feeds, social networking and e-mail accounts, through a single common interface.

Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, Lee M. Williams, said that "S^3 is another huge milestone in the evolution of our platform. Now that it is fully open source, the door is open to individual contributors, device creators and third-party developer companies". While talking about the new multi-touch support, Ian Hutton, Chairman of Symbian's Features & Roadmap Council mentioned that there will also be “support for third party developers to add extra gestures if they want to", as well as continuing support for non-touch phones. Also to be kept in mind is the fact that Symbian^4 is in the pipeline as well, and is on track to be released by the end of the 2010.

Closing Comments

The four new mobile operating systems certainly have their work cut out for them, with the stiff competition of the iPhone, and its innumerable applications and users. However, while the iPhone is a user-friendly experience that is very popular with consumers, the business end of users have no use for it, and most prefer the BlackBerry, or other smartphones with simpler and more intuitive enterprise functions than it. Here, WP7, with Microsoft’s long standing enterprise relationships, will have a distinctive advantage, while what Nokia/Intel’s MeeGo, Symbian^3, and Samsung’s Bada do to tap into this market, is yet to be seen.

Flash support, a controversial and raging debate these days between Adobe and Apple, will also be a differentiator, with the WP7 confirming that it will go the iPhone way, and not offer it. While MeeGo’s stance on this is not known yet, both Samsung’s Bada and Symbian ^3 offer it, and this may go a long way in making their web-browsing experience more wholesome, if the Flash-support is sufficiently-well optimized.

Multitasking will also be a point to consider, as the iPhone and the WP7 (at least the working prototype displayed at MWC) offer limited ability in this sphere. In fact, copy/paste functionality is as of yet not perfected in the WP7, a serious blow to MS’ image. Samsung’s Bada in its Wave form however, with its large RAM and fast processor, claims to be a good multitasking unit, though it remains to be seen, as does how MeeGO will perform in its hardware avatar. The Writable Data Paging of the Symbian, with its improved memory management, seems to put Symbian in the lead (only time will tell), though the hardware & RAM size will obviously be a factor.

Last, but not the least, is the obvious comparison between the open-source nature of the S^3, MeeGo and Bada, as opposed to the semi-closed nature of Apple’s and Microsoft’s efforts. Developers have however, not let this stand too much in the way of their job on the iPhone, with innumerable applications easily available in the App Store. But, this may very well be the deciding factor in years to come, as the very nature of open-source will put almost no limits on customization and variety, though quality assurance may become a pain. Other competitors, like Research in Motion, Palm, Qualcomm, and Sun Microsystems, are all also trying to build and encourage developer communities for their operating systems.

Comparisons have long been drawn between Google's Open Handset Alliance and the Symbian Foundation, both third party alliances of partners that manufacture the phones/devices. While Google’s Android OS, an already successful open-source platform, has certainly paved the way for the three new open-source operating systems, the Symbian Foundation will finally enjoy a more equal footing with this release of its first fully-open source OS, the S^3.

Vodafone introduces Rs 700 mobile phone for India

2010-02-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

While we fortunate Indians are still grouchy about the poor 3G facilities in India, we need to remember that a large population of India can't even afford phones. Vodafone has now launched possibly the cheapest phone in the world with their Vodafone 150.

“The cost of mobile handsets can be one of the most significant barriers for people in accessing and benefiting from the growing number of socially valuable mobile services. The lives of people who use these phones - the Vodafone 150 and Vodafone 250 – will be changed and improved as they become part of the mobile society. I am proud of the work we have done and will continue to do in this critical area of customer empowerment.”Patrick Chomet, Vodafone's Group Director of Terminals

Priced at a mere $15, or Rs. 700, this phone is a boon for people in developing countries such as India, where mobile phone usage is booming. No longer will people have to rely on unbranded Chinese mobiles without warranty, or dodgy vendors selling second hand mobile phones of unknown legal status. Vodafone aims to reach 60% of India, by reaching deep into rural segments.

Besides voice calls and SMS, the phone will also support mobile payment services which are becoming popular in developing countries such as ours. By their estimate over 11 million Vodafone customers use mobile banking services

The Vodafone 250, a next model with a larger color screen and FM Radio will cost a -- still very cheap -- $20 or Rs. 900. As evident in the video below, the phone is quite similar to the feature phones of 5 years ago. However having a supported product such as this available today, and especially in the rural market where such a product stands to have a great impact is a pleasant thought indeed.

Phone specifications (Vodafone 150):

Black candy bar device with 5-way navigation key; 1.0” monochrome graphic display 96x64 pixels; voice and SMS; GSM 900/1800; polyphonic ringtones; vibration; alarm clock; calculator; currency converter; 2 embedded games; memory for up to100 entries in phonebook plus SMS storage; torch; battery: 500mAh (standby up to 400h, talk time up to 5h); mini USB connector.

Virgin Mobile comes to Maharstra: Local calls at 20p/min and 40p/min; Rs 69 will get you 500 SMSes a day

2010-02-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

As part of their plan to bring GSM services to all of India within this financial year, Virgin Mobile has expanded their GSM services to Maharashtra.

Virgin offers incredibly low calling rates, with a mere 20 paise per minute for local and STD calls to other Virgin Mobile numbers, and a 40 paise per minute for local calls to numbers other than Virgin Mobile. STD calls to non-Virgin Mobile numbers will be at a low rate of 50 paise per minute. The operator will only be offering prepaid plans for subscribers.

Targeting the urban youth, Virgin Mobile also offers cheap SMS packs. A Rs. 33 SMS pack, valid for a month will give you 2000 free SMS messages local or national, while the Rs. 69 SMS pack entitles you to a whopping 15000 SMS messages in a month, with 500 free messages a day. Enough to message a dictionary in about a month!

While Virgin offers services over TATA's infrastructure, which has its own Docomo GSM service, it claims that their service is more targeted towards youth, and as such features call rates, and services (such as social networking) which match their needs. Over the coming six months, Virgin Mobile will be spending as much as Rs. 500 crore in promotions activities.

xPUD - Firefox powered Operating System [Review]

2010-02-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

While Google might have dashed to the front lines with its Chrome browser-based OS, it is Firefox which is more suitable as a base for an operating system: With its near unlimited extensibility thanks to add-ons, plugins and themes, you can make your Firefox supremely powerful and uniquely you. When one looks at the array of applications built on the same powerful framework as Firefox, one realizes how much more appropriate it is as the basis for a cloud operating system; compared to Google Chrome, that is.

xPUD is build around Firefox, and sports a custom minimalistic interface for all your basic needs. Its user interface called "plate" is web-based and runs on Firefox. This makes the OS interface quite hackable by the end user. xPUD comes with very few application installed by default. That said, it does not sacrifice your ability to install additional applications, and in fact has its own system called opt-get for delivering applications. The opt-get system is designed to be very simple to use, and applications can be downloaded and installed straight from the internet using the bundled application. Applications can be downloaded as the packaged .opt files, and need only be dropped into the /opt folder to be automatically loaded during bootup!

The OS packs the latest Mozilla Firefox 3.5 browser and gnome-mplayer for all your multimedia playback needs. It also includes a file manager for browsing your file system and a terminal so you can go about mucking within the OS if you want.

The remarkable thing about xPUD is its rather small 64MB download size! While the OS doesn't come with much, this is still quite remarkable. The repository of applications available for the OS is quite small, however it covers all the essentials, such as, extra drivers, Windows codecs for video playback, Dropbox for syncing your files to the cloud, Skype, OpenOffice.org, and "Extra utilities" which include the bittorrent client Transmission, a text editor, an image viewer and a PDF viewer, amongst other applications.

With all of these installed, there is little ground left to cover for simple netbook needs. While the same cannot be said about the applications, the user interface of the OS itself is suitable for use with a touch-screen. For those not comfortable using an online office suite, OpenOffice.org is available in the opt-get repository. With the media player included you need not be limited to playing only online videos, and with the codec pack installed, you'll be able to play back all kinds of content including proprietary formats. With Dropbox, you can have all your data synced to the web easily, and with Skype you can have internet telephony.

Additionally, since the browser is Firefox, you have access to the wide variety of powerful plugins which come for it. You can use a plugin like FoxyTunes to convert your browser into a full featured music player, or use FireFTP to browse FTP files with ease.

The operating system is very light as well, it has very low minimum system requirements, and needs only 256MB to operate. It performed admirably when started in a virtual machine with only this minimum amount of RAM configured. The interface was smooth and responsive and while the browser expectedly took quite some time to load, the whole experience wasn't that bad. With this OS you can easily convert your old aged desktop into a nettop computer instead of discarding it.

xPUD also comes with single-site-browsers for Facebook, Google Calender, Meebo and YouTube, however there doesn't seem to be a simple way to add your own. These open the websites in a separate browser instance thereby isolating them from crashing each other. Similar to the Chrome browser approach of running each tab in its own process.

You can try out xPUD in many different ways. You can download and test it on your system using a LiveCD, or on a VM. It can be installed on a USB drive using unetbootin, and xPUD even comes with an .exe installer for Windows which can install xPUD in conjunction to Windows on your harddrive without messing with partitions. It is also possible to install in conjunction with an existing install of Linux. However, it does not come with any kind of tool to allow installing it on a hard disk partition.

Despite all its brilliance, there are many points about xPUD which make it annoying to use at times. For one, the OS doesn't yet have a way to add your own site to the web-apps list, which for an operating system designed for the cloud is kind of sad.

The window management in xPUD also leaves much to be desired. Due to its minimalistic interface, it features no proper task management interface. The application menu does indicate if an application is running, and clicking on the icon of an already running application will switch to it, however handling of multiple windows is quite poor. The OS also runs as a superuser, which means you have unlimited destructive power in your hands, and a malware Firefox plugin / extension has the ability to wreck complete havoc.

The applications included in the OS and the ones available in the repository are also not customized to blend in with the interface, unlike Jolicloud or Moblin.

While right now the xPUD OS is not complete, but merely usable, the good thing is that the developer of xPUD is aware of these issues, and is working on fixing them. Which means that by the time we see a final release, this might be one winning OS. The developers also have plans for adding many more application to the repository after testing them on the OS.

xPUD eventually plans to be a completely modular OS, where you can mix and match the modules you want to create the OS you want, and in this it is unique among the tested distributions.

Overall, xPUD provides a good balance of minimalism and extendability, and allows for a user to give his OS only as much juice as necessary. While for now we would only recommend you to install this OS in a virtualized environment, it seems to be headed in an interesting direction, and is a strong competitor is the field of cloud OSs.

XPUD Video

Managing Files and settings in xPUD

Jolicloud - A great Linux distro that blurs the line between desktop and web applications

2010-02-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

As an OS with 'cloud' baked into the name, Jolicloud does quite well as an internet centric system. Unlike xPUD and Chrome OS, it does not enforce a browser choice on you (although xPUD will allow you to install Google Chrome in the future). You can use the already-installed Firefox, or install Google Chrome or even Opera.

Jolicloud is essentially an Ubuntu 9.04-based OS which is redesigned in looks and features to work better with netbook, net-tops and other internet-centric computers. It aims for a more even mixture of internet and native applications, and has one of the simplest application installation procedures amongst its peers.

The Jolicloud UI is netbook-oriented, and as such, takes up a minimal amount of hard disk space and memory, leaving most for your applications. A thin bar at the top displays your running applications, system tray icons, and the date and time. It focuses on one task at a time, and as such all applications running in the background are collapsed to icons. A major portion of the panel at the top is taken up showing the active application. Here again, space is saved by displaying the application title-bar in the panel at top. A home button at the leftmost area of the panel takes you back to the home interface where you can launch applications. This interface might save space for netbooks, but it also means that this operating system would perhaps not be quite so suitable for tablet computers.

A walkthrough of Jolicloud

To take benefit of Jolicloud, you need to create a free online account and register your computer. The Jolicloud service connects with Twitter and Facebook, and while this aspect hasn't been utilized much, it is something to look out for in future versions. Right now, you can follow other Jolicloud users which will let you get notifications of the software they install.

Jolicloud might have a minimalistic UI, however it is by no means a minimalistic OS. The OS is around 600MB, the size you'd expect any other distro, and comes with enough juice to justify that size; the OS comes with Firefox for browsing, F-Spot for managing your photo albums, Pidgin for instant messaging, Transmission for downloading torrents, Facebook, a dictionary app, a media player, a text editor, and a lot more. It's safe to say, you will find even the default install covers a lot.

While web apps are an important part of Jolicloud, it does not limit the use of native applications, and its repository is filled with such applications. The Firefox version bundled with Jolicloud comes with an extension which hides the menu-bar, making it available via an alternate interface, this is a boon for small-screen devices.

The inclusion of Adobe AIR in the Jolicloud repository means that you have access to a growing number of Adobe AIR based applications such as the popular social networks client TweetDeck. The Jolicloud application directory also includes Wine, a software which allows running of Windows applications on Linux. A large number of Windows applications will be able to run on Jolicloud if you install Wine.

In Jolicloud there is no distinction between a web and a native application, and both are installed in pretty much the same manner using the same procedure. Installed applications also face no discrimination and they appear in their relevant categories. Jolicloud transparently installs your web apps using Mozilla Prism, a Mozilla Labs project which is useful for creating single-site applications.

The advantage of this approach is that it makes your browsing experience more stable as each web application runs in a separate process, meaning that a crash in your GMail instance won't effect the work you have going on in Google Docs, Zoho Writer, and your Last.Fm will keep playing songs.

What stands out in Jolicloud is its dashboard, which is a central place from which you can manage your Jolicloud account, browse the App directory, install / remove applications, and interact with other Jolicloud users.

The interface for discovering and installing application is quite simple, and web based. An App directory lists all installable applications, native or otherwise and a lets you install them with a single click. Since web application are installed using Prism, which is already present on the system, they install in just a few seconds. New applications are continually added to the App directory and you will be pleased to find that nearly all categories of applications are covered.

Installing applications in Jolicloud

From this very directory you can easily see what applications have updates available, and you can sort applications to see the latest additions. Unfortunately, this dashboard is missing a section where you can get a list of all the applications you have installed. This means that you need to browse through the increasingly long list of applications to get to that rare native or web app you installed to update or remove it. The dashboard also seems to be optimized for a netbook resolution, and doesn't take up the screen space when used on a larger screen device. This is a little sad, since for some people it can work as a good desktop OS as well.

Installing Jolicloud itself is a breeze, and is one of the easiest Linux distros to install. The default Jolicloud installer is actually a Windows EXE file which will allow you to install Jolicloud straight from Windows! It will install Jolicloud on you hard disk without disturbing any of your Windows partitions, and will add an entry to your Windows boot manager. For those running Windows, this makes it incredibly safe and easy to try out this OS.

For those already running Linux or wanting to install this on a pen-drive, the Jolicloud website has an alternate installer in the form of an ISO which can written onto a disk or pen-drive and then used to install the OS anywhere. Jolicloud itself comes with a tool for copying it on a pen-drive, so you can share it with your friends if you have a copy installed.

Jolicloud is a strong contender as a cloud OS, and its native applications support might appease even those who don't want a cloud OS, as it doesn't abandon native applications. Jolicloud is in active development, and the version available right now is just a pre-beta version of the OS, and might be unruly at times. In its current state, it takes under 25 seconds to reach the login screen, which is quite fast for a complete Linux distro.

Another good thing is that unlike Chrome OS and xPUD, it does not significantly change the interaction patterns you are used to. So ALT+tabbing works as expected, and for Linux users it comes with two virtual desktops as well.

In the end Jolicloud manages to keep a good mixture of native and web applications, and abstracts the differences between them so you can just focus on doing your work. This is one OS to look for when it releases.

Your Gmail account could embarrass you

2010-02-18T19:33:00.000-08:00

Unintentionally, Google has created a major buzz about its new social networking service, ironically named Buzz. By automatically turning people’s Gmail email accounts into social networking ones, Google may have broken the trust the account holders have about their privacy. Google certainly seemed to have an idea that they might be invading personal space, making several serious modifications to the Buzz service soon after its launch. But the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) believed that this was not enough, and filed a formal complaint [PDF] with the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, requesting more changes to the service.

What exactly did Google do wrong? How did they manage to get these regulatory bodies riled up? In a statement by EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg, the fault seems to lie in not providing a choice to consumers, about if they wanted to join Buzz or not. "E-mail is for private messages. You sign up for social networking to communicate publicly with people, Google tried to turn e-mail into social networking, and that's where they ran into trouble." The EPIC believes that Google indulged in unfair or deceptive trade practices that violate the Federal Trade Commission Act. To begin with, Google never asked people if they wanted to join Buzz. When users logged into their accounts, many might have been irritated/underwhelmed by the ‘offer’ to “Check out Buzz”, and simply continued on to their inbox, by clicking the “Nah, go to my inbox” button. Little did these users know, regardless of whether they did check out Buzz or not, the service was activated.

While this at first might seem deceptive but in the end, relatively harmless, the ensuing breach of privacy when users began to use their Buzz service certainly is not. Buzz users first public (automatic) posting was a list of their most frequent e-mail contacts. According to the EPIC complaint, this is “deeply personal information”, and Buzz made it public. Who you choose email is decidedly your own prerogative, and making the list public can cause potential embarrassments, and reveal skeletons in what was till now your own very private, secure, closet. Those who emailed prospective employers about new jobs for example, would now have those contacts displayed as “followers” on their Buzz page, letting anyone see them, even your current employer. Lovers, doctors, attorneys, anybody you emailed frequently, would now be visible to all. "Users were not explicitly warned that their lists would be automatically visible to the public... Anyone looking at a newly activated Buzz user’s following list would know that the list indicated which people that user communicated with most often."

Apart from just causing potential embarrassment, the EPIC says that Google has broken the law by disclosing these e-mail contacts – “Improper disclosure of even a limited amount of subscriber information by an e-mail service provider can be a violation of both state and federal law,". "An attempt by an e-mail service provider...to convert the personal information of all of its customers into a separate service raises far-reaching concerns." Even after modifications, Google has not addressed the issue satisfactorily according to the EPIC, and frequent email partners will become “followers”, unless the user prevents that. By emplacing frequent email contacts by default, Google may have paved the way for unintended disclosure of personal information by users themselves.

The entire issue rests on the fact that things are done automatically, by default. Rosenberg states that Gmail users should have been given a choice to sign in to Buzz before it is activated, instead of enabling them to opt out of the service after.

Rosenberg claims that Google in its headlong rush to compete with social networking giants such as Facebook and Twitter, blithely ignored privacy policies, and “tried to take advantage of its market position" by making all Gmail users (all several millions of them) into Buzz users in one unfair move, playing catch-up by cheating.
Users can be assured (at least those who have not yet suffered in the hands of Buzz) however by the statement Google made to msnbc.com, stating that it was working hard to make the necessary adjustments to Buzz, keeping "user transparency and control top of mind”.

Some of the actions that the EPIC wants the Federal Trade Commission to enforce on Google include making Buzz a completely voluntary service, stop using private email contacts as the base to compile lists of “followers”, allow Buzz users total control over what information they are displaying, and to explicitly provide notice and request consent from users before making further changes to their privacy policy.

This blunder by Google could not have come at a worse time, with users still reeling from Facebook’s privacy scare a few months ago and ready to revolt against further infringements of their personal space.

Transcend launches the StoreJet 35T - 42MBps Tx speed; up to 1.5TB, for Rs 14,000

2010-02-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

Transcend has launched a high-performance external hard drive in India yesterday, called the Transcend StoreJet 35T. Offering 1 terabyte and 1.5 terabyte variants, the Transcend StoreJet 35T gives users a host of convenient features, such as its Turbo HDD USB transfer mode, One Touch auto-backup button, 2 years product warranty, Windows 7 certification, and hidh data-transfer performance with writing speeds of nearly 42 MB per second.

Stylishly designed, the Transcend StoreJet 35T is compact at just 3.5 inches – “the size of a hardback book” , and has an LED that will change colour from green to bright blue to indicate the drive’s current speed status. Users will also receive bundled software with their purchase, called StoreJet Elite, which offers advanced 256-bit AES file and folder encryption with compression options to maximize the storage space and protect data at simultaneously. Transcend has also tried to make the Transcend StoreJet 35T as eco -friendly as possible - it is designed to automatically go into power-saving sleep mode after ten minutes of inactivity, which according to the company will allow energy-savings of up to 67%.

The Transcend StoreJet 35T will retail at Rs. 14,000.

Microsoft adds Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace to Outlook 2010

2010-02-18T19:25:00.001-08:00

In partnership with MySpace and Facebook, Microsoft has announced to get “more social” by including social-networking information in their flagship business software - Microsoft Outlook 2010. Business-networking site, LinkedIn is also offering a beta tool that will integrate the activity of a user into Microsoft Outlook 2010.

In November last year, Microsoft had announced the Outlook Social Connector for Outlook, a new Office 2010 feature that integrates the social-networking feeds into Microsoft's Outlook 2010 inbox.

This Wednesday, Microsoft released the Social Connector update that included the first third-party feature from LinkedIn. This update will allow users to view status updates, photos, and so on of their peers and colleagues. Microsoft says that the same will be possible for Facebook and MySpace users. You will be able to directly update your status from Outlook 2010 and will also be able to perform other activities associated with social networking.

Although the Social Connector feature has been developed for Microsoft Outlook 2010, it will also work with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Outlook 2007.

Expect this integration to be part of the package when Microsoft releases the Microsoft Office 2010 suite June.

ORACLE 9i

2010-02-18T19:08:00.000-08:00

Oracle9i Database provides efficient, reliable, secure data management for high-end applications such as high-volume on-line transaction processing (OLTP) environments, query-intensive data warehouses, and demanding Internet applications. Oracle also offers several additional optional database products that enhance the capabilities of Oracle9i Database for specific application requirements.

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SMS SPAMMER

2010-02-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

Now you can flood other mobile's inbox...

Must have java enable mobile phones..

download:
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Batch Virus Generator v1.0-Amrik Virdi

2010-02-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

Download:

rapidshare.com/files/351363280/Amrik_Virdi_s_Batch_Virus_Creator.zip

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Password: AMRIKVIRDI

Mobile data traffic growing 2.4X faster than fixed-line broadband; one billion DVDs of data by 2014

2010-02-15T06:31:00.000-08:00

The world’s largest and leading router and switches manufacturing Company – CISCO has made a startling revelation based on its results from the Global Mobile Data Forecast for 2009-2014. These results were obtained on its internet usage monitoring tool, known as ‘Visual Networking Index’ (It is used to forecast and analyze the growth and use of IP networks worldwide).

The revelations indicate that mobile data traffic throughout the world will reach 3.6 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 40 exabytes by 2014. In other words, the amount of data traffic traversing the mobile network by 2014 will be equal to about one billion DVDs. By contrast, it is equivalent to 133 times the data that has ever been transmitted across a mobile network since networks were first launched in the 1980s. The rate at which mobile data traffic is growing today is about 2.4 times faster than fixed broadband data traffic around the world.

The Driving Force

One could wonder what’s the driving force behind all this growth in mobile data traffic? One of the major reasons could be the increase in number of technologically advanced mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone. In the next few years there could be dozens of such gadgets powered by Google's Android operating system. By 2014, Cisco's researchers estimate there will be more than five billion personal devices connecting to mobile networks.

As per Mr. Doug Webster, senior director, of service provider marketing for Cisco, "The rapid consumer adoption of smart phones, netbooks, e-readers and web-ready video cameras as well as machine-to-machine applications like eHealth monitoring and asset tracking systems, are continuing to place unprecedented demands on mobile networks".

Another important factor driving the mobile traffic growth seems to be the mobile video. Researchers estimate that mobile video traffic will represent 66 percent of all mobile data traffic by 2014, increasing 66-fold from 2009 to 2014. This is the highest growth rate of any mobile data application tracked in the Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Forecast, as per CISCO revelations.

The downside is that, it’s causing serious problems to wireless operators in keeping up the demand for greater bandwidth and avoiding network bottlenecks. For example, AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Apple iPhone, says that it has seen its network traffic grow by 200 percent in 2009. The company has been criticized by consumers for dropping calls and poor service in densely populated urban areas like San Francisco and New York City. It appears that AT&T invested an additional $2 billion in 2010 to upgrade its network and accommodate the increasing network traffic.

The result of this massive mobile data explosion has forced most of the internet service carriers to upgrade their networks to 4G wireless technology (4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards). Verizon Wireless is rolling out commercial 4G service using a technology called LTE(Long-term Evolution) later this year. And Clearwire is expanding its 4G WiMax network in 2010 and in 2011. But Mr. Webster said that these newer, higher capacity networks could lead to even higher data consumption over the next few years. That means, it would further increase the mobile network traffic over the years!

Although 4G upgrade plans of massive proportions are on, the wireless operators are not sure how the consumers would pay these expenses. It is not clear whether the consumers will benefit from all these new business models and hyped up super-bandwidth services. However, one thing is certain that mobile broadband is here to stay and the ever increasing mobile consumer base will remain hooked to it for a long time to come.

HTC Hero review - the iPhone killer?

2010-02-15T06:30:00.000-08:00

The HTC Hero is a path-breaking smartphone that introduces the HTC Sense technology to the Google Android operating system. HTC Sense promises to take the Android's user-experience to the next level. With features such as multi-touch and wide screen, it is little wonder that the HTC Hero is being talked in the same breath as the Apple iPhone.

Ergonomics of the HTC Hero

The first thing that strikes you about the HTC Hero is its unconventional design. The base of the HTC Hero has a 15 degree tilt; forming a 'chin' to the phone's profile. Bevelled edges offer a good grip and the tilt helps in grasping the phone easily. The 3.2-inch touchscreen comes with an anti-fingerprint finish, which prevents smudging. Although we noticed while testing, that leaving fingerprints is inevitable and you will find yourself constantly cleaning the screen. The Hero has only five buttons along with a trackball. The trackball though, is a redundant addition, if you ask us; rarely used except for when using the camera. The volume control knob is located on the left hand side of the phone.

Features of the HTC Hero

The HTC Hero runs on a Qualcomm 528MHz processor with inbuilt support for Adobe Flash. The phone runs the Android OS v1.5. However, HTC has announced plans to upgrade the OS to v2.1 by March 2010.

The capacitive touch sensor is very smooth. The phone's display is crisp, and flipping through the various screens does not leave any lag. More on the screens in a bit. The screen's response is quick but at the same time it is advisable to not get carried away running multiple applications on the home screen as that slows down the performance of the phone.

The HTC Hero offers as many as seven home screens, each of which can be customized according to the your taste and choice. Each of the seven home screens can be set to a pre-defined one or you could customise them. So what's a scene? A scene basically is a collection of applications that can be placed on each of the seven home screens of the phone. The HTC Hero comes with scenes for: Social, Work, Play, and Travel, among others. Let's take an example of a businessman to understand scenes better. During the weekdays when he or she has to take care of a lot of office work, then the Work Scene would be helpful as it puts work related widgets such as email, stocks, and connectivity right there on the home screens. During the weekend when it's time to switch off and relax, the Play Scene would be more appropriate. Activating which would put up widgets such as games, Facebook, Twitter, etc. on the home screens. Likewise you can also make your own customised scenes and set them to particular days of the week, or a particular time of the day. The Scenes mode is a part of the Sense UI which enables the user to have multiple phone screens on the same device, thus adding an extra bit of personalisation.

The menu button on the phone's face is programmed according to the application chosen. The search option offers contextualized search, based on the screen on which the user is (apart from the normal Google search), thus saving on a lot of time.

An interesting feature while dialing phone numbers is the option to search for your contact with the number pad. The idea to integrate various facets of the contact: such as phone details, messaging, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter onto one screen, prevents the user from toggling between different applications to access details of a particular contact. This is a very cool feature.

The HTC Hero recognizes files directly from the MicroSD card and you don't need to paste the file inside dedicated folders. Before connecting the phone to the computer, you do need to download HTC Sync to enable communication between the phone and the system.

Viewing Office documents such as Word files, Excel sheets, among others, is a cakewalk. For Word documents, you can maximize the document size, and the screen readjusts the document such that the user does not have to use the horizontal scroll bar. Viewing PDF files on the Android OS is much faster as compared to the Windows OS. It allows the user to view the PDF in continuous as well as reflow size - it disables the need to use the horizontal scroll bar at any magnification.

The camera of the HTC Hero

The phone comes with a 5MP autofocus camera along with an inbuilt geotagging and 'Footprints' applications. While clicking a snap, the focus can be adjusted to any point in the frame by just touching that particular spot on the phone's screen. The shutter release button is the track ball which can get very annoying due to the ultra-sensitive nature of said ball - one tends to get a lot of blurred photos, no thanks to it. A separate standalone shutter button would have been a much simpler option. Absence of a camera flash makes shooting in low-light very difficult. Video recording can be done at a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 which is not that great. Video shooting mode does not provide many options to the user. The HTC Hero cannot play HD-quality videos either.

Footprints is an interesting app on the HTC Hero. It essentially adds location information to a photo snapped using the HTC Hero. Footprints allows you to take a picture of a particular place with the Hero's camera and geo-tag it, so that it can be located on Google Maps. You can also add other details such as ratings, phone number, a website, and a voice memo. The Sense UI also allows one to categorise the place for options such as shopping, dining, etc. This is a great application for frequent travellers as it allows them to make up a list of their favourite places. It would have been better if there was an option to send this information across; maybe as an MMS - to family and friends.

Audio quality

The HTC Hero comes with a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. But music output of the phone is not up to the mark. Moreover, there are no options for manually adjusting the equalizer. FM radio is also absent on the phone. The speaker quality of the HTC Hero adequate; nothing to get excited about. In short, this is not a phone for the audiophile.

Internet Experience

The phone performs wonderfully when connected to the internet. The HTC Hero reflows text on websites, which, alongwith the magnification is a very useful feature. Although the phone supports Adobe Flash, playing videos on YouTube left a lot to be desired. For instance, while waiting for the video to buffer, the phone would go into its lock mode; upon unlocking, we found that they video could not play. Unfortunately, you can't let YouTube stream in the background, which would have been a wonderful feature.

Some of the widgets makes the online experience truly amazing, like Google Maps, for instance. While using Street View on Google Maps, the phone acts as our eyes on the street. We tried looking at the Eiffel Tower through the phone using Google Street View. One neat touch here - if you move the phone from the ground to the ceiling, you can actually see the Eiffel Tower from its base to its peak. It's an ideal app for couch surfers and travellers.

Price and conclusion

All in all, this a very good phone for working professionals who are active on the social media platforms. If you are looking at a phone that offers a good camera or one that delivers a good music experience, then the HTC Hero is not the one for you. The Hero's smooth interface and convergence of applications works to its advantage. However at Rs. 31,990 (Rs. 34,600 in Maharashtra and MP) the HTC Hero is a tad overpriced. Anywhere in the Rs 26,000 to Rs 28,000 bracket and the HTC Hero would have been a steal.

You can also find the specifications, features and listing of prices of HTC Hero through online stores at consumermate.com. Also compare other HTC Models such as HTC Touch, HTC Magic,HTC Viva and others.

How's a USB Flash Drive is Made? Trip to the Kingston Production Plant

2010-02-15T06:25:00.001-08:00

Wavepad

2010-02-15T06:22:00.001-08:00

Wavepad sound editor is a powerful audio editing software available from www.nch.com.au.

Working in Batches
Wavepad can process files in large batches. Go to Tools > Batch Convert Files. Add files using either the Add Files button or the Add Folder button. If you add one folder, a list of audio files in that folder appears, if you add a number of folders, just a list of folders appear. Click on Next. Under Command List select ADD and add a suitable effect or effects. For every effect you add, change the settings. For example, if you add ‘Insert silence at the start’, the default setting is for ‘0’ seconds, change it to ‘5’ or ‘2’ as per your convenience. Some effect changes, like pitch change, are handled with percentage values. If you put on a lot of effects, then it makes sense to save the commands list as a batch script file just in case something goes wrong. Click on Save As and enter a file name. Click on Next. Under Output File Format specify a different format or use the same format that the file was loaded in. The Output Folder has two options, to replace the files in the same folder, or to save in a different folder. Pick one of these options and click Finish.

Using WavePad As A Transcoder
You can transcode MP3 files to a lower bitrate for use in your mobile phones or PMPs to save memory space. This technique can also be used to send audio files over e-mail. First save all the MP3 files you want to work with in one folder, then go to Tools > Batch Convert Files and add files using the Add Folder Option. Click on Next, ignore the commands window and click on Next again. Under Output File Format click on Format Options. Change the Constant Bit Rate drop down box to 96 Kbps, and uncheck ‘high quality encoding’. Click OK, select an output folder and click Finish.
Advanced Noise Reduction
For high quality audio recordings, it is essential to reduce noise for clarity. There are two automatic noise reduction options available, but wavepad also allows a manual approach. Select a section of the audio file that has only noise, the larger this selection, the better the noise reduction will be. Once the selection is made, go to Effects > Noise Reduction > Grab Noise Sample From Selected Area. Then go to Effects > Noise Reduction > Apply Spectral Subtraction Based On Noise Sample.

Record Audio
Make sure a microphone or an AUX wire is providing input to your computer. Then go to Control > Record. Select a sample rate—a sample rate is the number of permanent records made from the signal per second, the default is 44100 hz, which is the same quality of an audio CD. The higher the sample rate, the higher the quality, and the more the disk space used to store the media. Click on the Stereo radio button and click on OK. A bar showing audio activity should appear. If more than one audio input device is connected to the computer, select the relevant input device in the device drop down box. If you want wavepad to start recording automatically every time noise is detected, click on Advanced Recording Options and check Auto start recording. Press the circular red button to start recording.

Text To speech
Go to Tools > Text To Speech, select a sample rate if prompted, and then type text out in the window and click on OK. Wavepad uses Microsoft’s text to speech engine, so this feature will not work if you do not have this engine. Every time this is done, a new file with the speech is created. The default is the Microsoft Sam voice, but a few alternatives are available for download from the NCH Web site.

Tone Generator
Go to Tools > Tone Generator, which is an install-on-demand module for wavepad. It is a small file, but you will need an Internet connection for this to work. The tone generator has a number of options and can generate sine, triangle, square, sawtooth and impulse train tones. Go to Tone > Number Of Tones to change the value from 1 to 16 for the number of parallel tones generated. It is possible to change the frequency of all these tones. Additionally, the tone generator also generates white noise and pink noise. Go to File > Save As WAV to save the tone for later use. Clicking on Edit will open the tone as a temporary file immediately in wavepad for you to edit.

Remove Clicks And Pops
Many recorded tracks have clicks and pops as artefacts of faulty audio hardware—or when the equipment is moved, handled or toggled. Wavepad can automatically take care of these clicks and pops. Go to Tools > Auto Click/Pop Restoration. Maximum click length is the length of the longest defect in the track—the poorer the recording quality, the longer will this be. The default is 450, which should take care of the problem. If the clicks and pops persist, increase it to 600 and run the operation again. If there are still clicks and pops after this, identify the artefact in the waveform, select it and then either press the delete key or go to Tools > Manual Click/Pop Repair.

Frequency Analysis
Wavepad offers two kinds of frequency analysis. The basic frequency analysis plots the waveform into its frequency components. For stereo files, there is a blue graph (left channel) and a red graph (right channel). Select a portion of the file, go to Tools > Frequency Analysis. You can zoom in or zoom out in the frequency analysis window to more closely look at the waveform. An alternate mode of frequency analysis offered by wavepad is Temporal Frequency Analysis, under Tools > Temporal Frequency Analysis. The intensity of any frequency at any point of time is mapped on this graph, giving a hot to cold gradient that can be analysed. A slider adjusts the heat of any particular frequency, which is useful for high intensity music. The brighter areas mean greater intensity (more decibels) of a particular frequency, and the darker areas show a lack of intensity at particular frequencies. This window also has a zoom function, and a grid toggle for reference.

Twitter, Facebook go down; emptiness of lives revealed

2010-02-15T06:20:00.001-08:00

Thursday saw a real-life recreation of the scene from The Truman Show, where once the plug is pulled on the show, people search about aimlessly for something else to do – a commentary on how television has taken over our lives. Only this time, TV was replaced by social networking site Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter, as both sites crashed after a malicious attack.

The attack came so suddenly that Twitter did not even have time to put up its ‘fail whale’ error image. Co-founder Biz Stone said on the site’s blog that they were the victim of a denial-of-service attack, a technique in which hackers overwhelm a website's servers with communications requests.

"We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate," Stone wrote.

Facebook too faced a similar attack, with a spokesperson saying: “Earlier this morning, Facebook encountered network issues related to an apparent distributed denial of service attack, that resulted in degraded service for some users. No user data was at risk and we have restored full access to the site for most users."

A similar attack – expected to be orchestrated by the same hackers – also took down blogging service LiveJournal.

All three services are now back to full functionality, but the impact it had on its audience spoke a lot about how dependant the world has gotten on them.

As Monica Hesse of the Washington Post puts it: “It was almost like social networking had died. Or had a heart attack, at least. For several hours, millions of users were catapulted back to the dark, informationless days of 2003, before such pertinent information as what Ashton Kutcher had for a snack became readily available, before it was possible for people to take a simple quiz to learn which ‘Twilight’ character or dog breed they were most like.”

Anand Chandrasekaran, a serial entrepreneur in Mountain View, California, said he felt "completely cut off" from hundreds of friends without Twitter.

"Director John Hughes died today and I didn't know because Twitter was down," a user called kristenthomson tweeted shortly after the site was functioning again. "Do I have to go back to watching the news to get my news?"