Apple's New iPad Coming to India on April 27

New Delhi: Apple has finally announced the launch of the new iPad in India on April 27, Friday. The prices start at Rs 30,500 for the base 16GB Wi-Fi only model.

The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white for Rs 30,500 for the 16GB model, Rs 36,500 for the 32GB model and Rs 42,500 for the 64GB model.

The iPad Wi-Fi + 4G models will be available for Rs 38,900 for the 16GB model, Rs 44,900 for the 32GB model and Rs 50,900 for the 64GB model.

Apple has also announced a price drop for the iPad 2, which is now available at a price starting Rs 24,500 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and Rs 32,900 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.


The new iPad features a new Retina display with 2048x1536-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi), Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad is claimed to deliver the all-day 10 hour battery life.
With 44 per cent increased colour saturation, the new iPad displays colours that are believed to be richer and, deeper.

With iOS 5.1, the new iPad has a number of new features and enhancements including a redesigned Camera app with video stabilisation technology; the ability to delete photos from Photo Stream; support for dictation in English, French, German and Japanese; and Personal Hotspot.


The new iPad also supports dictation, another way to get things done just using your voice. Instead of typing, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, then say what you want to say and the new iPad listens. Tap done, and iPad converts your words into text.

Apple's latest tablet has also been making news for the wrong reasons. There have been reports that the new iPad throws off a lot more heat than the previous version also that the battery it took much longer to charge. Apple had to offer Australian buyers of its new iPada refund after the nation's consumer watchdog accused it of misleading advertising over one key aspect of the product. The third-generation iPad cannot connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia due to technical incompatibility.

About a month ago online retailer Tradus.in has listed the new iPad 16 GB, WiFi model for Rs 36,799 after discount of Rs 3191.

The new iPad will be available beginning on Friday, April 20 in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela.

And, beginning on Friday, April 27, the new iPad will be available in Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.

Will The Social Web Kill Google?

Is the social web an asteroid for the Google dinosaur?

By Andrew Keen

Google launched last year its own social networking site, Google +, as part of efforts to keep up with Facebook.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Social media and government challenge Google's internet dominance of internet economy
• Google is relentless about its desire to make itself the center of the new social world
• Keen: Google is trying too hard to transform itself into a social company
• Keen: 2012 will be remembered as the year when Google's fortunes began to wane

Editor's note: Andrew Keen is a British-American entrepreneur and professional skeptic. He is the author of "The Cult of the Amateur," and the upcoming (June 2012) "Digital Vertigo." This is the latest in a series of commentaries for CNN looking at how internet trends are influencing social culture. Follow @ajkeen on Twitter.

For all the creative destruction that the Internet has wrought over the last decade, there has been one constant: Google's remarkable dominance of the internet economy.

In a "Web 2.0" world dominated by search and by the link, Google and its artificial algorithm have reigned supreme ever since the company's much vaunted IPO in August, 2004.

But now, as we go from a Web 2.0 to a Web 3.0 economy, even the once invulnerable Google might be in trouble.

Yes, for the first time in a decade, Google's global dominance of the Internet economy appears in jeopardy. This challenge to Google is twofold -- from both the market and from the government.

Andrew Keen

The market threat comes from the increasing ubiquity of social media. The link economy is being replaced by the "like" economy in a Web 3.0 world described by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman as "real identities generating massive amounts of data."

And the rise of social media with its avalanche of personal data is, of course, being primarily driven by Facebook, the locomotive of the like economy, with its near billion members and its expected $100 billion IPO later this year.

The dramatic shift from traditional search to social media was underlined last week in a speech by Tanya Corduroy the London Guardian's director for digital development. Eighteen months ago, Corduroy revealed, search made up 40% of the Guardian's traffic and social only made up 2%. Last month, however, she acknowledged a "seismic shift" in the Guardian's referral traffic, with Facebook driving more traffic than Google and making up more than 30% of the newspaper's referrals.

Of course, Google hasn't stood still in the face of the Facebook tsunami. First there were the social products Buzz and Wave, both of which were embarrassing failures. And then last year, Google launched the "quasi Facebook competitor" Google +, a product that one ex Google employee believes has "ruined the company" by trying to transform all Google products into social services. Indeed, Google has even launched a new search product called Search Plus Your World (SPYW), perhaps the company's most "radical" move in its history, which determines search results according to social rather than algorithmic criteria.

While the jury is still out on the success of Google +, with data showing that users spent an average of only 3.3 minutes on the network last month, there is no doubt that Google is relentless about its desire to make itself the center of Web 3.0's social world. Larry Page, Google's new CEO, has even tied 25% of all bonuses to the success of the company's social strategy.

Indeed, the problem might be that Google is trying too hard to transform itself into a social company.

Google's announcement in late January, that it intended to consolidate personal data across its different products and services -- from Gmail to YouTube to Google + to SPYW to Google maps to traditional search - had one concerned technology writer suggest that Google will now know more about us than our wives.

And while senior Google executives like Google + supremo Vic Gundotra promise that they won't break users' trust, more and more pundits fear that Google's obsession with keeping up with Facebook is making a mockery of its "Do No Evil" corporate mantra.

In my view, Google is no more or less evil than a multi-national bank or oil company. But there is good reason to fear the company's insatiable appetite for our personal data in today's Web 3.0 world. That's because Google's business model remains primarily the sale of advertising around its free consumer products. Thus, Google's desire to intimately know us is primarily driven by its core business objective of -- one way or the other - selling that knowledge to advertisers.

This threat was laid out chillingly by the Center for Digital Democracy in a complaint about its new privacy policy to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC): "In particular, Google fails to inform its users that the new privacy regime is based on its own business imperatives: To address competition from Facebook, to grow its capacity to finely profile and target through audience buying; to collect, integrate, and utilize a user's information in order to expand its social media, social search, and mobile marketing activities ..."

Governments around the world are, however, waking up to this threat. A number of U.S. lawmakers, for example, questioned the impact of this new policy on users' privacy.

While earlier this week, the FTC published a 57-page report of privacy recommendations which included the addition of a "do not track" system intended to give us more control over our online data. And last month, the White House proposed its own "Privacy bill of rights" that depends on voluntary commitments by both Google and Facebook.

But Google, driven by its Facebook envy, is in no mood to voluntarily commit to protecting our privacy. In spite of overt U.S. and European government pressure not to implement a policy that consolidates all our personal data across the company's many products and services, Google did indeed, on March 1, unilaterally move ahead with this controversial new privacy policy.

And herein, I suspect, lies Google's greatest vulnerability. Late last month, France's data protection authority, the Commission Nationale de l'Information et des Libertes (CNIL) wrote to Larry Page warning him that Google's new privacy policy might be unlawful in the EU. The CNIL letter was strongly supported by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who also requested that Google delayed the implementation of the policy.

Next month, European Union regulators, led by Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, will announce their plans for pursuing an antitrust investigation into Google's broad business practices, particularly accusations by a number of companies including Microsoft, Travelocity, Expedia and Kayak that it has abused its dominant position in search.

Given all the controversy surrounding the company's new privacy policy, don't be surprised if this contributes to Almunia formalizing the antitrust charges against Google.

I suspect that 2012 will be remembered as the year when Google's fortunes began to wane. The company won't disappear, of course. But with an inexperienced new CEO, a badly botched new privacy policy, a marked decline in public trust and a looming EU antitrust investigation, it is hard to see Google dominating today's Web 3.0 world from the same unchallenged position as it once controlled the Web 2.0 economy.

Google Charts A Careful Course Through Asia's Maps

Launch of Street View in Thailand met with enthusiasm, in contrast to obstacles elsewhere

Cameras that capture 360-degree views to collect panoramic images are seen along Negro River in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon Basin August 17, 2011. Google rushed out its panoramic Street View maps in Thailand on Friday as part of the country's efforts to show tourist hot spots have recovered from last year's floods.

But it also marked something of a change of fortunes for Google itself, which has weathered several storms in Asia over its mapping products.

Google rolled out 360-degree images of the streets of Bangkok, the resort island of Phuket and the northern city of Chiang Mai. Street View allows users to click through a seamless view of streets via the company's Google Maps website.

Google plans to use a tricycle-mounted camera to photograph places that can't be reached by car, such as parks and monuments. The Tourism Authority of Thailand will launch a poll to choose which sites to photograph first.

"We really want to show that Thailand isn't still underwater," said David Marx, Google's Tokyo-based communications manager. "People should see Thailand for what it is."

Pongrit Abhijatapong, marketing information technology officer at the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said it was less about showing that Thailand was back to normal.

"Rather, we hope tourists can see with their own eyes what Thailand is like. Street View will help their decision-making process in a positive way in regards to visiting Thailand."

Google has not always been able to count on such enthusiasm elsewhere in Asia, illustrating the challenges the company has faced besides high-profile spats with China over privacy and India over removing offensive content.

While Google has faced issues globally — most recently over its changes to its user privacy policy — Google's efforts to map and photograph streets across Asia have encountered cultural, political and security obstacles.

In Japan, for example, Google was required to reshoot its street level photos in 12 cities in 2009 after complaints the 360-degree camera, set atop a vehicle plying Japan's narrow streets, was photographing the insides of people's homes.

And in South Korea its Seoul offices were raided in 2010 after police discovered that the Street View vehicle was not just taking photos but also capturing data over Wi-Fi networks.

BALANCING
In India, Google's plans to capture street-level images of Bangalore were blocked by Indian police in 2011. Google says it is in discussions with the Indian government "on ways to move forward."

Marx pointed out that Street View had been rolled out without problems elsewhere in Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, and is about to begin photographing Malaysia.

The cases in Japan and Korea have been resolved, Marx said, and Street View was now live and popular in both countries.

Indeed, Marx said Street View now covered much of Japan, including far-flung islands. In addition, Google captured street-level images of the area hit by the tsunami as part of an initiative to chronicle the devastation and reconstruction.

"Japan," he said, "has become one of the global highlights of Street View."

But issues remain in both countries. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has since warned Google to comply with the country's privacy laws. That included a notice in November instructing Google to delete data collected from Wi-Fi networks.
In South Korea, prosecutors said their investigations were only temporarily suspended after failing to gain access to some Google staff involved in the matter.
To be sure, the issues Google faces are not exclusively Asia-related. But many of the problems over its mapping applications have been.
While it chose to risk China's ire by pulling its search operation out of China over a censorship dispute in 2010, in other cases in Asia it has danced carefully between local laws and sensibilities, and not compromising its own position.
Take Google Maps, for example, which is the mapping service that Google users access through a web browser or their phone.
To comply with laws in India and China, which require all published maps to hew to the host country's official borders, Google has created different versions - one for those accessing Google Maps inside India, one for those in China and another for the rest of the world.
OFFSHOOT
Stefan Geens, a Belgian consultant who tracks the political dimensions of Google's mapping services at his blog ogleearth.com, says that given the size of both markets Google had little choice.
But Geens, the recipient of a Google grant to research international law and remote sensing technologies, said it also had to take into account the feelings of local staff in both countries.
"Google doesn't have to answer just to the Indian government, but also to its employees, when they do stuff which might offend Chinese or Indian sensibilities," he said.
Google's multiple version may have allowed Google Maps to be launched in those countries, but it has not quieted all criticism.
Cambodia has complained about the depiction of its disputed border with Thailand, while Vietnam has complained about depiction of its maritime claims in the South China Sea, which overlap with China and other countries. Google says the latter is down to Vietnamese Internet users viewing the Chinese version of Google Maps.
In India, protests have been more voluble and less easy to brush off. Over the past few years media and MPs have been outraged about the delineation of the China-India border on Google Earth and Google Maps, most recently earlier this month when a newspaper in northeast India ran a banner headline reporting that Google Earth was showing parts of the state of Assam as being part of China.
Most of these cases, Geens says, are either due to mistakes by Google or users looking at the wrong maps. Where locals are quick to see a conspiracy, he says, it's more often "an honest mistake on the part of Google."
Google has had more PR success with an offshoot of Google Maps dreamed up by two of its engineers in India. Frustrated that parts of the country were inadequately covered by the product, they developed a tool to allow users to fill in the holes.
Submissions are then reviewed before being added to Google Maps itself. Called Map Maker, fans include the Pakistan army, which used it to update their maps after floods swept away local infrastructure in 2010.
But Map Maker's appeal has been limited by criticism that any data contributed is proprietary, compared with open source projects such as OpenStreetMap.
On Monday, the World Bank, which announced in January that Google had allowed it privileged access to Map Maker for its disaster relief efforts, responded to criticism that it was using a closed system by stressing that it was not using Map Maker to create new data, but as another source of data.
Google's launch of Street View in Thailand, therefore, is a chance for Google to highlight a trouble-free partnership with a government in a country it views as a surprisingly strong market.
Google says that use has grown significantly there, and that it is now one of the biggest users in the world of the live traffic feature on Google Maps — unsurprising, perhaps, given the capital's traffic jams.
Thailand is not the first Asian country to embrace Street View but its request that the launch be brought forward was unusual, Google's Marx said. Although Google had already started photographing before the floods hit, they completed the project within six months after the government's request. Thailand, said Marx, "is an outlier in a good way."

Facebook Blocks 'Chutia', is Twitter Next?

New Delhi: If you are a "Chutia", your Facebook account might get blocked! No pun intended. This is what Facebook is doing these days.

Of late, Facebook reportedly blocked accounts of almost all the members of the All Assam Chutia Students' Union (Aacsu), confusing their surname "Chutiya" with Hindi slang. However, Chutiya, pronounced as Sutiya, is the name of a community in Assam.

But "Chutiya, or Chutia" is also a derogatory term in Hindi. And that's what Facebook must have presumed before deleting those accounts.

"Facebook has blocked the accounts of all the subscribers belonging to the Chutia community of Assam thinking the names are false and fabricated. For Chutia being an abusive word in the Hindi language, Facebook authorities thought that the account holders are fake and fabricated. But, they are still unknown to the fact that Chutia is an ethnic tribe of Assam which has a rich historical background in the state history," Firstpost quoted Jyotiprasad Chutia, Aacsu general secretary, as saying.

Facebook always insists that the users register themselves with their real name else the action will be taken against those using a pseudonym. But the latest move by Facebook is nothing but a result of its sheer ignorance. However, Facebook's goal may be to become an international verified identity service, but its desired project to become a network of real-named people is halted when the network spreads into cultures and languages where the company lacks expertise. And that's what has happened in this Chutiya incident!
If Facebook can not bear to have profiles with derogatory words on its site, then what about the pages with such names? There are many pages with lewd names on Facebook like "Ye kya Bakchodi hai?" that has over 94,000 subscribers, "Daaru Pi Daaru Bakchodi mat kar (Drink whiskey & stop being non-sense)", "Jab kismat ho Gaandu, to kya kare Pandu", "ye kya chutiyapa hai" with approx. 60,000 subscribers, and many others. These pages have existence on Facebook for quite long. And practically, most of the content posted on these sites are quite humour-driven, and not libidinous.

However, Google+ recently relaxed its real name policy to pseudonyms. Also, Twitter also does not ban users for having pseudonyms. But if one day, all the social networking giants continue this trend of removing fake names and become stringent with their real name policies, then there are many pages and accounts across these social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, which might get deleted.
These also include the twitter account @BollywoodGaandu, which actually tweets about Hindi film gossips, @GhantaGuy, @SabChutiyapahai, and other such accounts on Twitter.

Besides, one more concern here is that will Facebook also remove the pages of companies and institutes whose acronyms come out to be dirty. One such example is Tamilnadu Advanced Technical Training Institute (TATTI). Though there are many other possibilities.

Thus, it is suggested that the social networking websites should focus more on the content than names. If something is to be removed, it should be based on the content being posted, not on the basis of profile or page names.

Every 60 Seconds: Apple Sells 925 iPhones, 2 Million People Watch Online Porn, More

By Zach Epstein

Apple sold 925 iPhone 4S handsets each minute during the device’s debut weekend, and it sells 81 iPads every 60 seconds on average. Research In Motion sells 103 BlackBerry phones, Amazon sells 18 Kindle Fire tablets and Microsoft sells 11 Xbox 360 consoles every minute. More than 700 computers are purchased around the world every 60 seconds, and 232 of them are infected by malware. That malware stat seems surprisingly low, however, when you consider that 2 million people watch online porn every minute. Read on for more.

Website design firm GO-Globe recently spread a variety of technology-related stats out across an infographic and the result helps us put a lot of things in perspective. Beyond the scary amount of Internet porn watched around the world, we can see just how entrenched various consumer electronics and digital goods and services have become in modern life.

Eleven million conversations take place using various instant messaging platforms every 60 seconds, 2,100 people check in using foursquare and 1,100 acres of virtual land are farmed in FarmVille. Thirty-eight tons of e-waste is generated around the world every minute, though we’re not sure if that stat includes all of the virtual land in FarmVille.

Every minute, $219,000 worth of payments are made using PayPal, $10,000 of which is sent from mobile devices. EBay is used to purchase over 950 items each minute and more than 180 of those purchases are made using mobile phones or tablets.

Surprisingly, perhaps, physical media maintains a huge presence in our lives despite the advent of the digital age. Four hundred and fifty Windows 7 discs are sold, 1,400 Redbox DVDs are rented and a staggering 2.6 million CDs containing 1,820 terabytes of data are created each minute. Four thousand USB devices are sold every 60 seconds as well, along with 2,500 ink cartridges.

It’s amazing how much happened every 60 seconds in 2011 and as the year draws to a close, we can’t wait to see what each minute will hold in 2012.

How To Set Up Your Facebook Timeline

Facebook Timeline: Tips For Setting Up Your New Profile

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK -- I've often joked that if something's not on Facebook, it didn't happen. Facebook's new Timeline feature makes that adage even more apparent.

Timeline is Facebook's new way of presenting you to the world. It replaces your traditional profile page – the one with your headshot and a smorgasbord of personal musings, photos and other items to share with friends. Instead of just a snapshot of you today, Timeline is supposed to be a scrapbook of your whole life.

But these highlights are culled from what Facebook sees as important – the stuff you and your friends have chosen to write or post photos about over the years. So it's crucial to spend time curating it, so your life doesn't come across as vain. If you're not careful, you also might reveal skeletons from your past to more recent friends.

Once you're ready for Timeline, you have a week to airbrush your life before it replaces your current profile. That's not a lot of time when you have (cough, cough) years of your life to go through. I suggest focusing on the years since you joined Facebook. You can always add photos from childhood later.

MAKING A SPLASH

Start by choosing a cover photo, the image that will splash across the top. You can choose a sunset, your dog, a hobby, anything that reflects who you are. Keep in mind the dimensions are more like a movie screen than a traditional photo. A close-up portrait of your face won't work well, but one of you lying horizontally will.

Your old profile photo will still be there, but it'll be smaller.

If you haven't done so already, you can add where you've worked, lived and went to school. If you specify years – such as when you started a job – those items will be added to Timeline's stream of life events, even if they took place before Facebook's founding in 2004.

You can also add other life events to the stream, such as when you broke your arm and whom you were with then, or when you spoke your first word or got a tattoo. By adding them to Facebook, you signal that those things really did happen.

MORE ON THE STREAM

The timeline stream is your life on Facebook in reverse chronological order.

At the top are your recent status updates, comments from family and friends, photos you're in and events you've attended. As you scroll down, you'll get highlights from last month, then earlier in the year. Scroll down even further for last year, the year before that and so on. Click one of the "Show" links to get all posts from a particular month or year.

Posts will be more sporadic the further you go back. You'll see when you joined Facebook and the first post you ever made – mine was "Anick Jesdanun is wasting a lot of time on facebook."

Beyond that, you may see details about high school or college. A colleague even saw the birth of her younger brother listed, after having told Facebook which of her friends were her siblings.

The bottom simply says "Born" with your birth date and birthplace, if you've chosen to share that.

This may come across as a big privacy breach, but keep in mind that people could have seen many of those posts before by continually hitting "Older Posts." The difference is most people wouldn't bother. With Timeline, you can jump more quickly to older posts.

Another thing to consider: Although your privacy settings remain the same, your list of friends has likely grown over the years, and your definition of friends has probably broadened to include parents, bosses and random flings at weddings. Someone you didn't know in 2008 would suddenly have easier access to something you posted then.

CURATING YOUR LIFE

You can change who has access to which posts. Perhaps you'd want to narrow an embarrassing photo from Thanksgiving to family members who were there. You might want to delete other posts completely or hide them so that only you can see them.

You can change the date on a post. For example, if you had waited a week to tell the Facebook world that you broke up with someone, you can change the date to reflect when all the screaming and crying took place. You can also add where you were, retroactively using a location feature that Facebook hadn't offered until recently.

For major events in your life, you can click on a star to feature them more prominently.

You'll likely feel overwhelmed when you see your Timeline for the first time. Years-old posts made by people you're no longer friends with are still there. Musings on a trip or a long-forgotten event suddenly lack context. Your life may also come across as duplicative, such as when multiple friends post similar photos from the same party.

Here are a few tips:

_ Start with your older posts. You were probably experimenting with Facebook then, and most of those could go into hiding. Plus, those are the ones you'd need to be most careful about because you had reason to believe only a few friends would see them.

_ Find the button for Activity Log. Click that to see all of your posts at a glance and make changes to them one by one. Open Facebook in a new browser tab first, though. Every time you switch between the log and the timeline stream, Facebook resets to a default view rather than let you return to where you were. So have one tab for the log and the other for the stream.

_ Think carefully about what you want to highlight when people scroll through your past. Facebook has a secret formula for determining which items are included in your highlights, using such factors as how many friends commented on a post. That may not necessarily be what you want to showcase.

Unfortunately, getting the stream to look right is difficult.

There's no easy way to highlight something Facebook's formula didn't pick, without starring it such that it gets splashed across the page. I also couldn't find a good way to remove something from the highlights without hiding or deleting it completely. There are events I wouldn't consider major, but would want people to see if they took the time to browse through my past.

There also ought to be a way to star or hide posts in batches.

And oddly, Facebook includes stuff posted by others, but it doesn't include items you've posted on other profiles. Older posts come across as one-sided without the back and forth for context.

MOVING FORWARD

Overall, I like the concept behind Timeline. I got a nice stroll down memory lane, and I enjoyed stalking my friends and uncovering their pasts, too.

I just wish it were easier to customize, and I don't appreciate being rushed. Facebook spent months developing Timeline and rolling it out to its 800 million users. Why give us just seven days?

If you're not ready to start Timeline, you can still view Timelines your friends have already activated. Just keep in mind that Facebook eventually will force you to switch, so you might as well do it now if you have the time.

You might also want to take this as an opportunity to clean up your presence on Facebook. Review your privacy settings and get rid of friends who don't need to be there. That will be the topic of next week's column.

___

Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor for The Associated Press, can be reached at njesdanun(at)ap.org.

Aakash Tablet Now Available Online

Kapil Sibal's made in India low cost tablet is now available on http://www.aakashtablet.com/.

The Aakash tablet is available online only and the payment for the device can be made on delivery.

Once ordered, the device will reach your doorstep in seven days.

The Aakash tablet is available for Rs. 2,500 where as the UbiSlate 7 (the upgraded version of Aakash) is open for preorder and is priced at Rs. 2,999.

Take a look at the differences in specifications of both the devices below.

Buffy, ‘The’ Facebook Phone coming soon

After denying for years that it is not interested in entering the hardware space, Facebook is indeed working on its own phone, AllThingsD reports. The phone will be manufactured by HTC and will be run on a heavily customized version of Android.

Facebook was apparently tapping both HTC and Samsung but eventually sided with the Taiwanese OEM-turned-smartphone-vendor. It will also support HTML5 as a platform to run Facebook apps and is apparently still 12-18 months from launch.

The project has been in works for about two years but has changed in scope and size. Facebook has earlier partnered with both HTC and Motorola to make smartphones with keys dedicated to Facebook. Recently, it partnered with MediaTek to bring a better Facebook experience to low-cost feature phones.

Read

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Go Live, Starts From Rs 44,500

Airtel has just flipped the switch on iPhone 4S pre-orders. Users will have to pay the full amount online and will get the phone on the day of launch – November 25.

The iPhone 4S is priced at Rs 44,500 (16GB) and Rs 50,900 (32GB). There is no mention of iPhone 4S 64GB variant. The iPhone 4 8GB page at the moment is redirected to Apple’s Hong Kong store.

We will be updating this post through the day, stay tuned. Just for the record, the prices of iPhone 3GS 8GB could be priced at Rs 20,900 and the iPhone 4 8GB at Rs 37,900.

Motorola Launches Defy+ in India for Rs 17,990

Motorola today officially announced the Defy+ in India at a best buy of Rs 17,990. The Defy+ still features the same ruggedness as its predecessor but sports a faster processor (1GHz processor) and Android 2.3 operating system.

Other features remain the same – a 5.0 MP camera, 3.7-inch display with Gorilla Glass, 512MB RAM, 1GB ROM and 2GB of internal storage and the usual connectivity options.

The Defy+ will compete with Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA Active, which is available for Rs 19,990. Motorola is also expected to launch the Android version of the RAZR in India later this month.

APB - Reloaded - Nun's Bun's Gun's & Schoolgirls

APB stands for (All Points Bulletin) and it's on online pretty hot videogame that recently was renamed APB: Reloaded. Well here is a general idea of what's what in the game just incase you've missed out or if your into guns & chicks & blowin shit up.

 

Facebook Attacked By porn, Inquiry On

Are pornographic images invading your Facebook news feed?

We have yet to see it, but ZDNET recently reported that “gory, violent pictures” and “hardcore pornography” are spreading across the social network.

Facebook says it is getting to the bottom of the problem, but hasn’t yet revealed a solution or how the fiasco started.

“Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms,” Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes said.

“We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue.” It is unclear who is behind the attack.

As The Washington Post points out, the flood could be a trick played by the now infamous hacker group Anonymous, in celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, which occurred on November 5th, but the group typically stakes its claim on major attacks.

The images, which are apparently spreading like a wild fire, could also be the result of unsuspecting users having been tricked into clicking malicious links. Updated with statement from Facebook.

Facebook’s official statement on the matter is as follows:

“Recently, we experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browser vulnerability. Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible.

During this spam attack users were tricked into pasting and executing malicious JavaScript in their browser URL bar causing them to unknowingly share this offensive content.

Our engineers have been working diligently on this self-XSS vulnerability in the browser. We’ve built enforcement mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious Pages and accounts that attempt to exploit it.

We have also been putting those affected through educational checkpoints so they know how to protect themselves. We’ve put in place backend measures to reduce the rate of these attacks and will continue to iterate on our defenses to find new ways to protect people.”

Read [ZDNET] Read [The Washington Post]

Virtual Tailor: Software That Can End The Agony Of Online Clothes Shopping

By Jaya Narain

Shopping online for the latest fashions aims to take the drudgery out of tramping the High Street.

But variations from shop to shop often means choosing the right size can be little more than guesswork.

But now a new ’virtual tailor’ has been launched which boasts of being able to take your vital statistics in less than three minutes.

All dressed up: A screengrab from the Upcload online shopping website showing how the virtual tailor works

The software works by scanning your body as you stand in front of your webcam at home.

By holding up a familiar object - such as a CD or DVD - the software can accurately determine your exact measurements and then uploads a 3-D template of your body.

Asaf Moses, chief executive of Upcload, said a database of around 100,000 people is then used to recommend clothing which might suit your size, shape and age.

He said: ‘It means we can suggest clothing ideas to people that they may never have thought of before.

‘The program is using your body shape to suggest genuinely new ideas to people rather than simply suggesting on the basis of your historic buying pattern. It is like having your best friend with you'.

Also product characteristics, such as textile material and consistency, are all taken into consideration before making a final recommendation for the proper size and fit.

Mr Moses said the idea came about when he had to exchange online clothing purchases once too often.

He realised the online market for fashion was booming but faced a big problem with clothing returns.

Almost every second clothing purchase made online is sent back to the retailer because, in most cases, the customer had ordered the wrong size

He discovered almost every second clothing purchase made online would be sent back to the retailer because, in most cases, the customer had ordered the wrong size.

The user, for whom the service is free, must complete the measurement process just once.

They will then have an UPcload profile which they can use at all the online shops within the UPcload network, and all they have to do is login and purchase.

It is the shops that pay for using the Upcload profile to successfully send out clothing which is the correct size for the customer.

Mr Moses said it has taken more than two years to bring the software to this point though they were still trying to iron out minor problems.

He said people with fat legs which do not have a gap between them pose a particular problem for the software as did people who had very pale skin.

He said: ‘The low-grade cameras used in computers were unable clearly to see the dimensions of a pale-skinned person if they were standing in front of a white or light-coloured wall'.

The company, which is based in Berlin, has been running the system with German shops but has just launched a trial with North Face in the United States.

It hopes to launch in Britain shortly and be taking online measurements of customers by next summer.

Aircel Starts Pre-Booking iPhone 4S

Aircel today announced it will start pre-booking for the iPhone 4S from November 18, with the launch happening on November 25. This is line with what we have been exclusively reporting for over a fortnight now.

Both Airtel and Aircel will initiate the fanfare that usually happens with any iPhone launch on November 24, with sales starting from midnight in select stores in major cities.

Apart from the online pre-booking, we are also hearing at least one carrier might also have some online booking post the launch.

Our sources are indicating the carriers have received lower number of units than what they would have liked.

Apple is reportedly diverting a big chunk of its iPhone 4S inventory to Europe and the US, where the demand remains high despite reports of battery woes that have not been fully resolved with the recent iOS 5.0.1 update.

The shortage of iPhone 4S inventory is expected to continue till January, once the holiday season shopping frenzy in the west subsides.

Know About VoIP Here

Call Using Your Phone, not your Service Provider

VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol. In layman’s terms — this is the technology that allows you to reroute voice communications over the internet.

You’ve all heard of Skype by now, I’m sure. It’s strange that VoIP is so uncommon on the platform specifically designed to make calls.

At first glance it looks counterintuitive. But think about it — it’s your cell that you’ll keep on you at all times, not your laptop. Why hasn’t the idea caught on then? VoIP has its issues — it’s more prone to noise and latency than traditional phone calls.

Established service providers see it as a threat. International calls are much cheaper using VoIP and as internet becomes cheaper, it will only grow.

For now, remember to install a VoIP client and get a net connection to make your life easier if you need to make international calls or if you’re travelling abroad to a first world location — it’s simpler and cheaper than buying a local SIM or praying for network portability — trust me on this.

Plenty of competitors are in the market — Skype, 3CX, Vyke, Viber — take your pick.

iPhone4S vs Galaxy Nexus vs Droid Razr

The smartphone battle has just got hotter. Just days after Apple launched iPhone 4S, Samsung has launched its much awaited Galaxy Nexus powered by brand new version of Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. Joining the fray is Motorola's Droid Razr, touted as the world's slimmest smartphone. With Droid Razr, Google-owned Motorola Mobility is reviving its once-popular Razr brand.

Here's how Galaxy Nexus and Motorola Droid Razr stack up against Apple's iPhone 4S, which has already become one of the highest-selling smartphone ever.

Display

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S features a 3.5-inch LED-backlit TFT screen with 960x640 resolution.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Samsung Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65-inch, super AMOLED HD display with 1280x720 resolution.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razr sports a 4.5-inches qHD Super AMOLED screen with 540x960 resolution.

Camera

iPhone 4S: As anticipated, the new phone packs an 8 megapixel camera with f2.4 aperture. Apple has also included other camera improvements like backside illuminated sensor which Apple claims gets 73% more light than the iPhone 4 sensor. There is also hybrid IR filter and better colour accuracy. For video, the camera will shoot at 1080p HD with real-time image stabilization and temporal noise reduction which will help iPhone users take videos in low light.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Galaxy Nexus features a 5 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calling. According to Samsung, Galaxy Nexus has zero shutter lag. Ice Cream Sandwich OS, which powers Samsung Galaxy Nexus also comes equipped with photo editing tools for removing red eye and cropping.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razor sports an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels for video recording. The other improvements include an auto focusing, image stabiliser. The phone also features an additional front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera that allows video calling.

Processor

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S will be powered by dual-core A5 processor, as found in iPad 2. The company claims that two cores in A5 chip deliver up to two times more power and render graphics up to seven times faster than iPhone 4. The dual-core graphics offer faster and improved 3D experience.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Galaxy Nexus will be powered by 1.2GHz dual-core processor.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid runs on dual-core 1.2GHz processor.

Memory

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S has a 512 MB RAM and the device is available in three models 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: As for the memory, the phone will pack 1GB RAM. The phone will come with 16GB or 32GB storage capacity on-board.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razr packs 1GB RAM and boasts internal memory of 16GB extendable upto 32GB using MicroSD cards.

Battery

iPhone 4S: Apple claims iPhone 4S will offer a much better battery life with as much as 8 hours of 3G talk time, 6 hours of browsing (9 on Wi-Fi), 10 hours of video playback and 40 hours of music.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a 1750mAh battery.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razr claims to have a battery life of 12.5 hours talk time, 8.9 hours of video playback.

Connectivity

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S can run on both CDMA and GSM networks. With AirPlay feature, iPhone users can wirelessly stream the data phone to HDTV and speakers via Apple TV. In addition, with AirPlay Mirroring, whatever you do on your iPhone appears on the HDTV at the same time.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Samsung Galaxy Nexus can runs on WCDMA and UMTS networks. On the connectivity front, the device has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Near Field Communication (NFC) and a USB 2.0 port.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razr can run on 4G networks, LTE, HSDPA, CDMA. The other connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and mini HDMI port.

Dimensions

iPhone 4S: iPhone 4S measures 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm and weighs 140 gram. The new device retains the same 3.5-inch (diagonal) Retina display as found in iPhone 4.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Samsung Galaxy Nexus measures 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94mm, the phone weighs mere 135 gram.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razr claims to be the world's thinnest smartphone measuring 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1mm and weighing just 127 gram.

 

Operating system

iPhone 4S: The iPhone 4S uses iOS 5. iOS is very simple to use. It is simple, effective and efficient. Also with iOS 5, Apple has overhauled the notification system, thereby removing one of the biggest drawbacks its mobile OS had.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus: Samsung Galaxy Nexus features the just-launched version of Google Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, which has 'talk-to-type' technology, image-editing tools, off-line search for emails and support for mobile payments.

Motorola Droid Razr: Motorola Droid Razr runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Himalayas: The Future Of Solar?

By John Roach

The Himalaya, including the Mount Everest range 87 miles northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, shown here, have a massive potential to produce solar electricity, a new study finds.

The high peaks of the Himalayas may soon be a beacon for adventurous solar power entrepreneurs, suggests a new study that identified the lofty region as having some of the world's greatest potential to capture energy from the sun.

Other regions not traditionally considered hotbeds of solar power potential include the Andes of South America and Antarctica, note Takashi Oozeki and Yutaka Genchi with the National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology in Japan.

In addition to copious amounts of sunlight, these regions are chillier than the usual suspects such as the southwestern United States and the deserts of North Africa. Colder temps increase the operational efficiency of certain photovoltaic solar cells, which turn sunlight into electricity.

"The Himalayan region is especially attractive because it is near regions with large future energy demands such as China and India," the pair writes in Environmental Science and Technology.

The finding is based on a global analysis of photovoltaic potential that takes into account the effect of ambient temperature, something the team says has not been done before.

Plopping solar cells high up in the rugged mountains will require addressing additional challenges such as building and maintaining the transmission infrastructure to bring the electricity to the cities where it is most needed, the pair notes.

But overcoming those challenges may be worth the hassle especially when factors such as global climate change are added to the equation. China, for example, adds the equivalent of two 500 MW coal fired power plants per week, according to a 2007 MIT report.

"Because CO2 emissions per unit electricity in China and India are larger than those in the developed countries, using PV energy in these regions could have a large mitigation effect on climate change," write Oozeki and Genchi.

Big solar in Antarctica, the team adds, doesn't make much sense — at least with current technology — given the low population there and the fact that it's dark for half the year.

"If some way can be developed to store the generated energy, e.g. in the form of hydrogen or refined metals, then it may be possible to utilize the large potential in this region in the future," the team notes.

 

source: msnbc.com

Steve Jobs: Inventor, Innovator, Visionary, Entrepreneur, World Changer

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, has died, according to the company. He was 56.

The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet -- all of which changed how we consume content in the digital age.

Jobs had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as CEO in August because he could "no longer meet (his) duties and expectations."

The Internet Pays Tribute To Steve Jobs

Here are some tributes to Steve Jobs that have showed up following Apple’s announcement that he had died.

by Jonathan Mak Long via J. Adam Moore

by Mike Mitchel

India Launches $30 Tablet: Sakshat

Kapil Sibal Reappears with Mythical Sakshat Tablet for October Launch

The Indian wonder tablet was suppose to be launched on June 2011, to initial testing by shipping it to IIT students.

Then, it disappeared, along with Kapil Sibal, HRD Minister, possibly succumbing to Team Anna's protest.

Now, both of them have reappeared.

At a function in Delhi, Sibal said: "The computer will be launched next month…This is not just a dream, it is a reality," he added. Officials announced that the device will be launched on October 5, 2011. However, Sibal has not spoken about the device's specifications. 

The device's prototype is likely to be a 5/7/9 inch touchscreen gadget, featuring a webb browser, PDF reader, video conferencing, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and a content viewer.

Sibal also mentioned how "corruption…in the recent past will be dealt with through initiative of IT…"… the device.

Sibal hasn't announced any program to institute the tablet for government work, Besides, And, the tablet won't actually be used for any of this - Indian government has issued a directive granting Rs. 50,000 to MPs to buy iPads and Samsung Tabs for parliamentary work, along with training to use the tablet interface.

The Rs. 1750 price-tag (quoted in dollars by the government) has also been questioned. Even though the tablet is considered, by experts, to be a copy of the Chinese Hivepad tablet, such a low-price tablet has never been invented by the Chinese.

According to PCWorld: "The basic components like a processor, motherboard, memory, display, etc, however obsolete they might be, that go into a computer, would cost more than $35 even if you buy in millions of pieces, which the major manufacturers anyways do…"

Meet The Huawei-Discovery Expedition

Discovery Communications has partnered with Huawei Technologies to come up with the ‘Huawei-Discovery Expedition’ phone. The partnership and the launch of the handset is a part of the expanding Discovery Expedition line, the official lifestyle brand of Discovery Channel.

The Discovery Expedition handset is quite a rugged phone (water-resistant, dustproof and anti-shock, includes a GPS, torch, compass, G-sensor) suitable for the outdoorsy kinds. Yes, it will come with native SNS apps like Facebook and Twitter to allow you to share your adventures online with your buddies.

We do wish that we had some more specifications to talk about but judging just by the looks of it, we can say its a fairly sturdy and strong. No don’t expect any ridiculously frail touchscreen display as this one is meant for the adventurous kind.

The handset is expected to hit various markets anytime in the next three months.