Interesting News from the World of Technology

Gmail to adopt IMAP

2007-10-27T12:48:00.000+05:30

Google Inc. has launched a new IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) service for Gmail that will allow users to sync Gmail with their e-mail clients.

"It keeps the same information synced across all devices so that whatever you do in one place shows up everywhere else you might access your e-mail," said David Murray, associate product manager, in a blog post. "For example, I can read an e-mail in Gmail, then move it to the 'Starred' folder on my iPhone, then archive it by moving it to 'All Mail' in Thunderbird, then see all of those changes on my BlackBerry or any of [these] devices for that matter."

As with many things Google, Gmail's IMAP implementation is not quite finished. It lacks a few important features, and in our initial tests, we found it to be painfully slow.

"Our primary focus is on our users and the user experience," a Google spokesperson says, "and we're focused on building the features that are most important to our users. We'll be updating our IMAP implementation as we go, in response to how our users use it and what they request."

To use the new service, users should click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab in their Gmail Settings and turn it on.

Apple OKs Unlock Process

2007-10-19T22:19:00.000+05:30

After taking much flak for ‘locking up' its prestigious iPhone, Apple has announced that it would ‘open it up'.
Apple CEO Stave Jobs said on Wednesday that the company would allow third-party applications to work on the iPhone.
There was much fury after Apple issued an update last week which messed up iPhones which had installed other software.
Though Apple meant it as a lesson to those who did not heed its words, consumers were not at all amused.

Computer sales hit peak

2007-10-18T22:26:00.000+05:30

Computer sales peaked from July to September this year, mostly driven by the increased demand for laptops.
Reports released by analyst firms IDC and Gartner also showed that Hewlett Packard had surged ahead in PC shipments leaving its immediate rival Dell far behind.
There was a 15.5 per cent increase in global PC shipments in the third quarter. In all, 66.9 million PCs were shipped from July to September this year, while only 57.9 million were sold during the same period last year.
HP has further cemented its number one position by increasing its share in the world PC market to 19.6 per cent, while Dell's share declined and touched 15.2 per cent.
Gartner predicted that the overall growth in global PC shipments this year would be around 12.3 per cent.

Thanks To DC IT Watch

Google- The Boss!

2007-10-12T15:26:00.000+05:30

Google Inc. topped global search charts in August, but search engines in China and South Korea are challenging the search company in their own countries, according to Internet research firm comScore Inc.

Google captured roughly 60 percent of the searches conducted worldwide in August, blowing away the field with 37.1 billion of 61 billion queries, comScore said. Five billion of Google's August searches came from the Mountain View, Calif., company's video property YouTube.com.

Yahoo was the second most used engine, followed by Baidu, the Chinese language search engine, the report said.

"Seeing Asian search engines like China's Baidu.com and Korea's NHN ranked alongside Google and Yahoo underscores the fact that search has become a truly global phenomenon," said Bob Ivins, executive vice president of international markets at comScore, in a statement.

Mozilla preps a Mobile Firefox

2007-10-11T21:26:00.000+05:30

Mozilla has recently hired two new developers to help work on the project and plans to release Mobile Firefox some time in the next year or two.

"People ask us all the time about what Mozilla's going to do about the mobile web, and I'm very excited to announce that we plan to rock it," Mike Schroepfer, a Mozilla developer known as "schrep," wrote on the Mozillazine blog.

Mozilla's plans include making mobile devices a first-tier platform, shipping a version of Firefox designed for mobile devices that also supports extensions and XUL application development, and expanding the team of full-time mobile Firefox developers. The problem for Mozilla is that there are already some entrenched players in the mobile space, and dislodging them is bound to be difficult.

The new Mozilla hires who will contribute to the mobile Firefox initiative are Christian Sejersen, who recently worked for Openwave Systems Inc., and Brad Lassey, who worked for France Telecom R&D, which has been very active in mobile Linux initiatives.

Microsoft-XBox offers complementary gift!

2007-10-09T20:05:00.000+05:30

Microsoft on Monday has announced release of two Xbox 360 bundles that will come with two games-Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Forza Motorsport 2 packed in.

The games, which Microsoft lists as a $90 value, will be included with every $450 Elite system and $350 Pro system sold this holiday, beginning at the end of October. The games will not be included with the limited-edition $400 "Halo 3" version of the console.

Microsoft is counting on this holiday season to provide the Xbox 360 with plenty of momentum to fend off Sony and Nintendo. The company has said it expects at least seven upcoming and recently released Xbox 360 games to break the million-unit sales mark, including Madden NFL 08, BioShock, Halo 3, Project Gotham Racing 4, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

'Internet Explorer 7' for all (legally)!

2007-10-07T06:34:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has released a new version of its Internet Explorer 7 Web browser that does not require Windows Genuine Advantage validation to install.

"Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we're updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users," Microsoft Program Manager Steve Reynolds wrote in a blog post.

Flaws in Windows Genuine Advantage have reportedly resulted in millions of Windows users erroneously being reported to Microsoft as software pirates. A Chinese student has gone so far as to sue Microsoft over the issue.

Microsoft is clearly hoping the update will boost adoption of IE 7, which debuted last year for Windows XP and was updated in January for Windows Vista. Despite the releases, Explorer's market share has declined slightly over the past year as competition emerges from Firefox, Safari, Opera, and other alternative browsers.

Yahoo, ebay and Paypal to fight against Phishing

2007-10-05T20:46:00.000+05:30

Yahoo Inc, is working with auction leader eBay Inc and its PayPal payments unit to block fake e-mails to users purporting to be from eBay and PayPal, hoping to spur on an industry that has been slow to fight the scourge of so-called phishing attacks.

Phishers use forged e-mail messages that purport to come from brand name services like eBay or PayPal to dupe computer users into clicking on Web links that lead to phony Web sites. Unsuspecting consumers may then enter personal or account information and passwords under false pretenses. Phishers typically use this information for fraud or theft.

To prevent phishing messages from reaching users of Yahoo Mail, the companies are now using Yahoo's Domain Keys technology in the U.S. to block e-mail messages that claim to come from eBay or PayPal but really originate elsewhere. Yahoo expects to make the system available globally in the next few weeks.

Over the past decade, phishing has been clogging the inboxes of e-mail users worldwide with ever more sophisticated attempts to fool users into clicking on fraudulent sites or giving up personal financial details to commit fraud.

Beware of Video files!

2007-10-04T15:09:00.000+05:30

Hackers are depending more on online videos to introduce malicious code into computers. They have chosen this mode since most users are wary of opening suspicious looking emails. But nobody thinks twice about clicking a video link to You Tube. A report on Internet threats released by Georgia Tech Information Security Centre the other day termed the use of online videos a major threat. One code opens a booby trapped website as soon as the user opens a media file. Another malicious programme installs spyware by way of a video link. Social networking sites, blogs and wikis are also becoming fertile terrain for hackers.

MS-Office goes 'Online'

2007-10-02T13:23:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has revealed more of its software-plus-services plan to better compete with online competitors, announcing new hosted services targeted at enterprise customers and small businesses.

In the coming months, Microsoft will roll out "Live" and "Online" service offerings, with the former aimed at consumers and small businesses, and the latter at larger businesses.

"The distinction between Live and Online was made in response to larger businesses asking for better articulation of the vendor's services strategy", said Eron Kelly, director of product management in Microsoft's business online services group.

Users are now invited to pre-register for Office Live Workspace, which allows those with Microsoft Office to access their Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents online.

Also Microsoft announced the start of Microsoft Exchange Labs, a research and development program intended to produce next-generation messaging and communication technologies. It will involve select universities and school districts, Microsoft said.

Finally the 'unlocked' iPhones are 'dead' !

2007-09-29T21:06:00.000+05:30

Users are reporting that a new update to Apple Inc.'s iPhone is making previously unlocked iPhones unusable. The iPhone 1.1.1 update, released Thursday, breaks phones that have been hacked so that they work with providers other than AT&T Inc., the only U.S. provider Apple has allowed to carry its mobile phones.

Apple warned earlier this week that the iPhone update-which adds access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and fixes some security flaws-could permanently disable phones that have been already modified for use in networks other than AT&T Inc.,-its exclusive partner's network.

Security researcher Tom Ferris said the new software disabled a phone that had been unlocked using the open-source anySIM software in order to work on T-Mobile USA Inc.'s wireless network. After the update, the iPhone was stuck with an error message and apparently unusable. "It kept saying 'unsupported SIM card,' even with the AT&T SIM card in it," he said. "You can turn the phone off or on, but we just can't figure out how to get past this 'SIM card not supported'," he said.

There were reports online that employees at Apple stores were reviving or replacing some dead iPhones. But Ms. Bowcock. an Apple spokeswomen did not offer much hope to iPhone owners with problems: “If the damage was due to use of an unauthorized software application, voiding their warranty, they should purchase a new iPhone.”

Nokia to launch its new E51 Mobile phone

2007-09-28T12:31:00.000+05:30

Nokia will be launching its E51 in India towards the end of next month. With the introduction of E51, the number of E-series phones available in the market would go up to seven (E50, E65, E90 communicator, E60, E61, E62 and E61i).

Introducing the product for the first time in India at a press conference here on Thursday, country general manager of the company, G. K. Chakrapani, said the product was launched in Europe and priced at 300 euro. However, the price of the product [in India] would be decided before the launch.

The slim E51, which was demonstrated, has many features. It has FM radio, music and multimedia players, 2 mega pixel camera, Nokia browser with a variety of Internet applications including interoperability with Windows Live, active notes, voice recorder, five-party conference calling, in-device search for finding data, video recording on 3G platform and MPEG-4.

It has a 130 MB of user data memory which is extendible up to 4 GB with microSD card, GPRS, remote and local synchronisation through Bluetooth 2.0 technology.

Thanks To Hindu-Business News

"Live Search" to compete with "Google Search"

2007-09-27T22:44:00.000+05:30

Seeking to narrow the gap with Google, Microsoft Corp unveiled a retooled Web search service that aims to deliver more relevant results and combines text, video and other information onto a single page.

The overhauled Live Search, announced Wednesday, automatically packages results for some search queries -- such as celebrity, business and product names -- in a way that looks like a specially designed page on the subject, not a standard list of results.

The updates will be phased in by the end of the month, said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president for Microsoft's search and advertising group. Among them, he said, are improvements to the way Live Search interprets what users are looking for, even if they misspell a word, type in two separate words instead of a compound word or use a variation, like "driving" instead of "drive."

Live Search also will better detect what Nadella calls "stop words" — keywords or phrases that aren't considered unless there's a specific combination or context — like the name "Will Smith" in the U.S.

Apple warns against unlocked iPhones

2007-09-26T13:00:00.000+05:30

Apple has warned that anyone attempting to unlock their iPhone to use with an unauthorised mobile network could find their phones irreparably damaged.

A few weeks ago, some teenager posted instructions about how to do it on YouTube. Since then, other hacks have surfaced, and the issue has become serious enough that Apple had to issue the warning late Monday against such actions.

The warning is likely to rankle the online community of programmers who have come up with various unlocking programs that permit users to reprogram the phones so that they can work on any wireless network based on the global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technical standard.

The company said that modified mobiles would become "permanently inoperable" once Apple updates were installed, i.e., Users with unlocked iPhones, in theory, might avoid the problems simply by not installing Apple software updates. That means they will then likely have to forgo new features Apple designs for the phones. Apple said its next iPhone-software update will be available later this week and will include the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, a new capability that will let users wirelessly download songs from iTunes.

MySpace occupies mobile space!

2007-09-24T23:44:00.000+05:30

News Corp owned MySpace launched Monday a "free," mobile version of its Web site accessible to anyone with a standard Web-enabled cellphone.

The new site will work with all U.S. phone carriers and allow users to send and receive messages, comment on pictures, post bulletins, update blogs and request, find and search for friends.

Nothing is truly free, however: MySpace serves up ads to pay for the service. The new site loads two ads-one banner and one text snippet-for each visitor.

In coming months, the company-News Corp-also plans to offer a mobile version of Photobucket, its picture-sharing site, as well as mobile versions of FoxSports.com, gaming site IGN, AskMen and its local TV affiliates.

Microsoft's XP 'downgrade' option from Vista

2007-09-23T21:42:00.000+05:30

While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.

Details vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and only apply to computers sold with Vista Business or Ultimate editions. Different vendors are handling the downgrade in a variety of ways: Fujitsu and HP, for example, offer the option of getting an XP disc in the box with its laptops. "That's going to help out small and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris told in a press conference. On the other hand Lenovo is allowing users to purchase a Windows XP recovery CD any time until July 31, 2008. In most cases, the XP CDs are very inexpensive, sometimes free.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's requirement that vendors no longer preload XP on computers is still set to take effect on January 31, 2008, though vendors have four more months to attempt to get Microsoft to change its tune.

Beware Adobe Acrobat users!

2007-09-22T22:46:00.000+05:30

The security researcher who discovered a recently patched QuickTime flaw affecting the Firefox browser says he has found a similar serious flaw in Adobe Systems Inc.'s PDF file format.

"Adobe Acrobat/Reader PDF documents can be used to compromise your Windows box. Completely!!! Invisibly and unwillingly!!!," wrote Petko D. Petkov, in a blog posting. "All it takes is to open a PDF document or stumble across a page which embeds one."

Petkov confirmed this issue on Adobe Reader 8.1 on Windows XP and he said he would not disclose the code that exposes how this attack works until Adobe provides a patch for the problem, but he has already sent other software developers scrambling for bug fixes over the past week.

Turkey's another YouTube ban

2007-09-21T15:36:00.000+05:30

A Turkish court has ordered the country's top telecommunications company to block access to popular video-sharing site YouTube because of CLIPS the court deems insulting to leading political figures.

In March, Mountain View-based Google Inc.'s YouTube site was banned in Turkey for two days after complaints that clips insulted the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The ban was lifted after the clips were removed.

In response, a media advocacy group has criticized Turkey.
“Blocking an entire Web site because of a few videos is a disproportionate measure,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the authorities to reverse this decision.”

The latest ban involves alleges insults to Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the army.

IBM's helping hand for the blinds

2007-09-20T23:08:00.000+05:30

IBM student researchers are working on technology which will help blind people enjoy online virtual worlds, the new fad among Net users. The team in Ireland is attempting to do this by creating an impeccable audio replica of virtual worlds which will give blind people a sense of space. They are using 3D sound for this.Researchers used the Active Worlds online environment for their design. Blind people entering it will hear even the rustle of leaves. The project will now be taken up by IBM’s Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in Texas to be developed further.

Thanks To DC-IT Watch

Phishing Mania: Thrilling Report From Symantec

2007-09-17T22:54:00.000+05:30

Symantec Corp's latest security report says that cyber crime has become an increasingly professional business and that malicious code and services are being sold in open markets on the Internet.

Bank account details command prices of up to US$400, while credit card details sell for between $0.50 and $5, e-mail passwords from $1 to $350 each, and e-mail addresses from $2 to $4 per megabyte, according to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report.

The Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XII covers the period from Jan. 1, 2007, through June 30, 2007 and finds that professionally developed toolkits are being sold in the underground economy. Credit cards continued to be the top commodity sold by cyber criminals accounting for 22 percent of all advertisements, while bank accounts totalled 21 percent.

Google's Private Moon Landing Contest.

2007-09-15T12:16:00.000+05:30

Google recently announced plans to offer up to $30 million to the first private organization that is able to safely land a robotic spacecraft on the Earth's moon.

Working alongside the X Prize Foundation -- a foundation known for offering challenges for monetary reward -- the contest will be open to any "nongovernmental entity" that is able to complete the mission.

Teams from around the world will vie for the Google Lunar X-Prize by building lunar missions complete with robotic rovers capable of roaming the surface of the moon for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and other data back to Earth, according to a statement from the X Prize Foundation.

Bonus prizes of upto $5 million will be awarded to teams that successfully complete additional mission tasks such as roving distances longer than 5,000 meters.

All zealed parties have until 2012 to complete the required tasks to collect the prize. If all teams are unable to complete the task, Google will extend the deadline to 2014, but the prize purse will also drop $5 million. Visit their site more info.

Yahoo's way of Social Networking: "Y! Mash"

2007-09-14T12:31:00.000+05:30

Yahoo's rumored social network, dubbed "Mash," has arrived. The company started inviting people outside the company to test it on Friday, the company says in a blog.

Mash is different from other social networks in that you can start profiles for your friends and "open" your own profile to friends you trust, according to the Mash blog. What that means, exactly, is still a bit unclear.

You can also reportedly customize your profile or friends' profiles with other apps, ala Facebook.

"One last note before you jump in: Mash is still pretty raw--there are bugs and we haven't gotten to several of the features it really should have. We need to hear from you about where to focus our efforts," writes Will Aldrich, the head of Mash.

No word on what will happen to Yahoo 360, a social networking service that never really caught on, leaving Yahoo executives to acknowledge that they had some catching up to do.

Beware Skype Users!

2007-09-14T00:33:00.000+05:30

A virus masquerading as a chat invitation is doing the rounds via the instant messaging facility of Skype, the popular Internet telephony network. It pops up on screens of Skype users with Windows operating system and offers a link to erotic pictures. Those who are gullible enough to click on the link will be persuaded to download another file which contains a virus that will steal crucial information from the computer. Skype is working with Internet security firms to neutralise the worm. Until then, those who love hot pictures might as well hold their horses.

Thanks To DC-IT Watch

Sandisk proclaimed war against Apple?

2007-09-11T21:57:00.000+05:30

SanDisk yesterday announced a new, ultra-thin video MP3 player that appears likely to go head-to-head with Apple's newly upgraded iPod nano.

The new Sansa View combines MP3 playback capabilities with full-motion video support, a large screen, long battery life and generous capacity. Perhaps even more notable, the device also boasts an optional 8 GB microSD/microSDHC card for memory capabilities of up to 24 GB.
Scheduled to hit the market in October, the Sansa View will carry a suggested retail price of US$199.99 for a 16 GB flash-based player or $149.99 for a 8 GB version.

"The Sansa View is a new video MP3 player that combines all of the great characteristics of an MP3 player with the video capabilities of a portable media player, and packs it into a pocketable device," said Eric Bone, vice president of marketing for SanDisk's Sansa audio/video product line. "What's more, we're once again showing that category-leading technology can still be very affordable."

AMD Quad-Core release

2007-09-10T13:35:00.000+05:30

Quarrels and Competition between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the world's leading chip makers, will redouble on Monday with the launch of AMD's quad-core processor for the server market.

This is the company's most important launch in four years.

AMD's chip with four "brains," codenamed Barcelona, is part of its Opteron product line and comes at a critical time for the company.