TWITTER UNVEILS REVAMPED, USER-FRIENDLY WEBSITE

Boston: Micro-blogging site Twitter has unveiled a revamped website that will make it easier for users to check images and videos, besides helping the company to attract more advertisers.

The "re-engineered" Twitter.com, aimed at providing an "easier, faster and richer experience" is expected to roll out around the world in the next few days.

The website is now split into two panes. One is devoted to messages or "tweets" posted on Twitter each day, and the other will feature photos, videos, replies and other information related to a Tweet's author or subject.

"This is really a complete revamp...It is going to increase the value that people are getting out of Twitter, so in less time you can get more information and value," Twitter's co-founder and chief executive Evan Williams said.

Users will now be able to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, unlike previously when such multi-media was displayed on other websites or browser tabs.

The company has reached agreements to display content from more than a dozen online photo and video sites, including Google-owned YouTube, Yahoo's Flickr, GoJustin.TV, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, Ustream, Vimeo, and yfrog.

The redesigned site also makes it simpler to see information about authors of Twitter posts and conversations among Twitter users.

"This is really a complete revamp," Williams said, adding, "Once you start using it, what you are going to see is that everything is very responsive... The entire front end is re-engineered to be more agile, more responsive."

The new features are aimed at attracting more advertisers to Twitter.com that faces stiff competition from social networking site Facebook.


The four-year-old San Francisco company is developing a platform for advertisers who want to promote products and services. Twitter has more than 160 million customers, while Facebook has over 500 million users.

While it's easy for Facebook users to upload photos and compose messages to be shared with friends, most Twitter customers don't post many messages or share links, Williams said. They mainly read what others post about events, disasters and their own lives.

The changes would roll out as a preview over the next several weeks. During the preview, users would be able to switch back and forth between the old and new format giving them time to grow accustomed to the new look.

"Eventually, everyone will have the updated version of Twitter.com," Williams said.

Twitter.com, which had about 24 million unique visitors last month, has been a simple website with few features. More than 90 million messages or tweets are posted daily on Twitter.

Increasingly, government agencies, news organisations and celebrities around the world are using Twitter to share information or links with followers on the site.

The company had said majority of its users are outside the US in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Indonesia.

WE HAVE GOT NEW INTERNET EXPLORER 9 BETA

Get it now from this link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/home?os=winvista&arch=a&browser=other

MAKE YOUR PC RUN AS FAST AS NEW

There could be several hardware-related reasons for a slow computer. For example, the processor, the brain of your computer, may be too slow to run today’s demanding software. It may drag along if you have several programs running simultaneously. Then, there is RAM - the temporary memory the computer uses to do its calculations. If you do not have enough RAM, your programs will run slowly.

For better speed, you can upgrade the processor or RAM. A tune-up may also do the job. All you need to do is tweaking some settings to breathe new life into your PC.

STEP 1

For those who believe their computer lags at start up, a quick look at the MSConfig would be the place to start. MSConfig can be accessed by hitting the Windows button on keyboard along with R key. This will bring up the ‘Run’ dialog. Type "MSConfig" and you will get the "Start Up" tab with a list of programs and executables that are launched when the computer starts up.

Starting up of too many programs when the computer boots could be a reason why the boot time is so long. The remedy would be to go through the entire list and uncheck the unnecessary items. If there are entries you are not sure about, check them on the internet, as unchecking the wrong entries could potentially mess up the functionality of some of your programs.


STEP 2

Defragment the hard drive once a month. It’s like changing your car’s oil — it should be the one thing on your list even if you don’t do anything else. Windows stores information about your programs in the Registry. This can get cluttered and affect performance. The solution is to download free registry cleaners from the internet (eg CCleaner) to remove redundant program entries.

STEP 3

Indexing Services is a nifty little program that uses a large amount of RAM. This processes indexes and updates lists of files on your computer. This is done so that when you search for something, it can search faster by scanning the index lists.

So, if you don’t search your computer often, turn it off would better performance. Simply go to ‘Start’ button on taskbar, click on ‘Control Panel’ and select ‘Add/Remove Programs’. Find the tab ‘Add/Remove Window Components’ and uncheck ‘Indexing Services’. Click Next.

Also, if there is a delay every time you open ‘My Computer’ to browse folders, try this. Open ‘My Computer,’ click on ‘Tools’, select ‘Folder Options,’ click on the ‘View’ tab to uncheck the ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’ box. Click ‘Apply’ and then reboot your computer for changes to apply.

STEP 4

Hard drive performance plummets as you near the drive’s maximum capacity. Assuming you don’t have an additional drive to move the content to, your choices are slim. But before you take a machete to your files, you may want to compress them.

Use the built-in compression tool in Windows, which makes accessing the files no different from it currently is. Go to ‘Disk Cleanup’ and make sure ‘Compress Old Files’ is checked. Click ‘Options’ and specify the age of the files you want Windows to compress — Windows will compress only the files you haven’t accessed in more than six months (or as specified).

STEP 5

An important feature of Windows is its ability to return system files to the state they were in earlier. Before tweaking, users can create a new "Restore Point." Go to Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance>System Restore or Start-All Programs > Accessories > System Tools>System Restore and select "Create a restore point."

If it is left alone, this can consume a good portion of your disk space with unnecessary restore points. By default, it uses up to 12 per cent of each of your drives and, even if you have a big hard drive, many extra restore points can slow down processes like virus checking, disk-defragmenting, etc. Typically, how much space you should allot to system restore depends on your system (200 MB - the minimum allowed - will hold 5 or 6 restore points) and should suffice for average users.

STEP 6

Also, the Windows XP (and Windows Vista) computers have features like smooth animated menus and transparent windows.

These use processor resources, too, which means they can cause slowdown. Right-click the ‘My Computer’ icon and click ‘Properties’. Click the ‘Advanced’ tab and under ‘Performance’, click ‘Settings.’ Choose to switch off some of these effects and see the improvement in your PC’s performance.

STEP 7

Accumulated dust in computer cases a reason for over-heated PCs. Dust gets into the ball bearings in the fan and cause the fan to stop working. This may lead to overheating of processor and permanent hardware failure. It is less common, but static charges from dust can also be a threat. A layer of dust on a memory chip can cause static electricity to build up. This can amount to electric charge, which discharges on to your motherboard or memory chip. The best way to stop dust from building up is to open the case on your PC and vacuum it.

(We recommend never tweak without knowing how to return where you began)

GET MORE OUT OF YOUR FREE GOOGLE ACCOUNT

So you have a Google account? While the search engine and the free Gmail account by now are common, the Internet giant also offers picture sharing through Picasa, blogging through Blogger, videos through YouTube and social networking through Orkut. But that is not what I want to focus on today.

The company has been either acquiring or building Web-based software so fast that many nice little features that you can use get overlooked. I illustrate a few here.

In search, a small link on the side of the Google search box talks of “advanced search” that needs to be leveraged better. Rather than a random search, this can help you define the exact terms or phrases that you are looking for, and more important, you can even specify domains, file format or language. For instance, if it is news you are looking for, you can just list news sites like CNN or hindustantimes.com and hope to get a refined reply.

While Google offers its Microsoft Office-like productivity software for word processing, presentations and spreadsheets at its documents site (http://docs.google.com) the site also offers you software under which you can create survey forms and even do a drawing. These can be additional to the usual applications.

My real favourite is the Google Calendar (http://calendar.google.com). Though you can now set you calendar and diary items on your commonplace mobile phones, where Google Calendar scores is that it is integrated with telecom service providers.

Typing a calendar entry is much easier on a desktop. You can fill in your appointments, and choose your own options in getting reminders by email and/or on your mobile phone.

I have used it so that I get the full address of my appointment venue (which I simply cut and paste from email to calendar) messaged to me on my mobile phone on the morning of a meeting.

Such little features can dramatically enhance the comfort of a Web-based lifestyle.

NEW FACEBOOK FAD: QUITTING IT

New Delhi, May 14 -- The tech world is buzzing with the new facebook fad. No, it does not involve hanging out on facebook or a new application which has caught everyone's fancy; instead many users are deleting their facebook account citing privacy concern.

Several high profile technology pundits and celebs are kicking the world's number one social networking site to the curb. Meanwhile, Facebook is making it difficult for users to delete their accounts.

Most users feel uncomfortable that their personal information is being sashayed on the internet and complain that adjusting their privacy setting is far too complex. Recently a glitch in the chat functionality gave access to people to view the user's conversations.

Interestingly, a back up plan may already be in place for ex-Facebookers- 'Diaspora'. A group of programmers have already raised $100,000 for their Diaspora project which they call "an open source personal web server that will put individuals in control of their data."

Follow us on Twitter!

FIVE HIDDEN DANGERS OF FACEBOOKING

An expert in online privacy has drawn attention to the five dangers of sharing information on social networking site Facebook.

Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO (Chief Security Officer) Online, claims marketing efforts by the company often results in a compromise on account holders' privacy, reports CBS News.

Goodchild noted five risks of using Facebook on 'The Early Show on Saturday Morning.' They are:

1.Your information is being shared with third parties

2. Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign

3. Facebook ads may contain malware

4. Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable

5. Scammers are creating fake profiles

Earlier this week, 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the site manipulates privacy settings to make users' personal information available for commercial use.

SHAKESPEARE'S "ROMEO AND JULIET" IN TWITTER TWIST

LONDON – One of Shakespeare's most famous plays gets a 21st century makeover in a new version of "Romeo and Juliet" which will unfold through Twitter messages and on the Youtube video website.

Entitled "Such Tweet Sorrow," the experiment is a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Mudlark, which produces entertainment on mobile telephones.

The production will take place over five weeks and allows for the characters to interact not only among themselves but also with members of the "audience."
Each character writes their own tweets, guided by an existing storyline and diary which outlines where they are at any moment in the adventure.

And so two families named after the original adversaries the Montagues and Capulets have loathed each other for years after a fatal car crash in an unnamed English market town in 2000.

Juliet, played by actress Charlotte Wakefield, is just turning 16 and wonders whether she should have a birthday party to celebrate. She posts a video on Youtube showing viewers a typical teenager's bedroom.
Her Twitter name is @julietcap16 while Romeo's entry into the messaging world comes later as "he is too busy on his Xbox."

"We have no real idea of what the next five weeks will bring, but we are holding onto our seatbelts," said Charles Hunter from Mudlark.

Michael Boyd, artistic director of the RSC, added: "Our ambition is always to connect people with Shakespeare and bring actors and audiences closer together.

"Mobile phones don't need to be the antichrist for theater. This digital experiment ... allows our actors to use mobiles to tell their stories in real time and reach people wherever they are in a global theater."

OPERA BROWSER GETS ACCEPTED FOR APPLE iPHONE

HELSINKI – Apple Inc has accepted distribution of Opera Software's Internet browser for its iPhone after a long review, opening a new and potentially lucrative market so far closely guarded by Apple.

There are numerous versions of Apple's own browser on App Store, but Norway-based Opera is the first rival to get access to iPhone.

Opera applied on March 23 for its mobile browser to be distributed on iPhone, and it was available for downloading to consumers early Tuesday, three weeks later. Usually the review process takes up to one week, developers say.

Analysts have said the decision was difficult for Apple -- whose application store is the only way to distribute software for iPhone users -- as its Internet browsing function is key behind the success of the iPhone.
Opera's browser promises up to six times faster download speeds than Apple's own browser and to cut data traffic by up to 90 percent.

Massive data traffic from iPhone mobile phones has caused problems for many operators' networks.

APPLE iPHONE TO SOON GET LONG-SOUGHT MULTITASKING

CUPERTINO, Calif. – Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad devices will soon be able to run more than one program at a time, an ability that phones from Apple's rivals already offer and that iPhone owners have long sought.

The changes, coming this summer to iPhones and this fall to iPads, mean that users might be able to listen to music through the Pandora program and check a bank account online simultaneously. Currently, users must return to Apple's home screen, effectively quitting the open program, before starting a new task.

"We weren't the first to this party, but we're going to be the best," Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared Thursday, as bloggers, software developers and others in the audience greeted the news of such "multitasking" with applause.

The iPhone already permits some multitasking, but that's largely limited to Apple's own programs. Apple had not given users ways to seamlessly switch among all the software "apps" available from outside software companies, the way phones from rivals Palm Inc. and Google Inc. already do.

That will change with the updates known as iPhone OS 4. Apple generally makes such updates available for free, and often automatically, as a software download.

"It really changes the way you use the iPhone," Jobs said. "You're bouncing around the apps with tremendous fluidity."

Jobs said the company waited so long because it wanted to offer multitasking in a way that didn't drain the iPhone's battery or reduce the phone's performance.

In demonstrating the feature, Jobs double-tapped on the iPhone's main button while playing a game to reveal a row of icons for other programs that were quietly running in the background and accessible with a finger tap.

Multitasking could enhance the functionality of Internet phone services such as Skype. Currently, a call automatically ends if you exit the Skype app. With multitasking, that call could continue while you look up directions, or you could receive incoming Skype calls even if you're reading the news or a "Gossip Girl" blog instead.

Full multitasking had been high on many people's wish lists. Because Apple's new iPad runs the same software as the iPhone, changes would apply to that larger gadget as well. Some people have held off buying one because of its inability to run more than one program at once.

Other updates include the ability to have messages from multiple e-mail accounts land in a single inbox and a way to connect an iPhone with a regular keyboard using Bluetooth wireless technology.

But Apple still won't support Flash technology, even though many Web sites require it for displaying video. Flash was alongside multitasking at the top of many wish lists.

Although Apple is making the updates available to all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad models, some features will only work with newer versions. The multitasking function, for example, won't work with the original iPhone or the iPhone 3G — only the 3GS versions that came out last summer. For the iPod Touch, you'd need the models that came out late last year.

Jobs also announced an advertising platform called iAd in which Apple will sell and host ads to run on apps made by outside developers; those developers will get 60 percent of the ad revenue. Jobs said users shouldn't find the ads annoying because Apple will make it easy for people to navigate back to what they were doing before clicking.

He admitted that Apple is still "babes in woods" when it comes to advertising, though the company is learning fast through Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company that Apple bought in January for an undisclosed amount. Jobs said the company had wanted to buy mobile advertising service AdMob, but lost out to Google. That deal is undergoing regulatory review.

Jobs also said the company has sold 450,000 iPads since its launch Saturday. The company earlier said it delivered more than 300,000 iPads on the first day, though that included pre-orders and units shipped to retail stores such as Best Buy but not necessarily purchased right away.

NEW NETFLIX DEALS MEAN MORE STREAMING MOVIES BUT LONGER WAIT FOR 'AVATAR', OTHER DVDs

Can't wait to rent "Avatar" on DVD or Blu-ray? Well, if you're a Blockbuster subscriber, the day you've been waiting for arrives in just a couple of weeks. If you're a Netflix user, though, don't expect to find "Avatar" in your mailbox until mid-May.

Mirroring a deal that Netflix signed with Warner Bros. earlier this year, the freshly inked agreements between Netflix and two other big Hollywood studios — Twentieth Century Fox and Universal — call for a 28-day delay between the time that new DVD and Blu-ray releases from the studios go on sale and when they become available for rent in your Netflix queue, PC World reports.

In the case of Fox, that means "Avatar," which has a retail release date of April 22, won't be available for rent through Netflix until May 20, according to PC World. Meanwhile, "It's Complicated" from Universal won't bow on Netflix until May 25, nearly a month after the movie's April 27 retail debut.

The 28-day delay gives the studios a little more time — or at least, they hope so — to rack up sales on their latest DVDs and Blu-rays and get more on-demand exposure (both via cable and iTunes) before Netflix renters get their hands on the discs. In return, Netflix will get more instant streaming titles from the two studios. From Fox, expect "Aliens," "The Thin Red Line," and Patton," plus full seasons of "Lie to Me," "24," "King of the Hill," and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"; Universal, meanwhile will offer up such titles as "Gosford Park," "Billy Elliot," "The Pianist," and "Do the Right Thing," according to TechCrunch.

Meanwhile, Blockbuster will get a leg up on Netflix thanks to its new deal with Fox, which (as the L.A. Times reports) allows the retail chain to rent Fox's DVDs and Blu-rays — both in stores and by mail — on the same day they go on sale. (Blockbuster signed a similar deal with Warner last month. That effectively gives Blockbuster an advantage in terms of offering, say, "Avatar" for rent nearly a full month before Netflix does. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, no: The "Avatar" Blu-ray that's coming out this month won't be in 3-D.)

On the other hand, as the L.A. Times points out, financially strapped Blockbuster had to pay a heavy price for the privilege: Both Fox and Sony Pictures (with which Blockbuster also cut a deal) now have a first lien on Blockbuster's Canadian stores. Ouch.

I'd also expect the other shoe to drop soon with Redbox, which (like Netflix) recently signed a distribution deal with Warner Bros. that calls for — you guessed it — a 28-day window before it can start renting the studio's latest DVDs.

Redbox had initially opposed the idea of a DVD retail window and filed suit against Warner, Fox and Universal, all of whom had instructed their distributors to hold back their DVDs from the buck-a-night kiosk company until a month or so (depending on the studio) after their discs had arrived in stores. Redbox dropped its suit against Warner once it signed the new distribution deal, and I'm guessing we'll see the same thing happen with Fox and Universal in the near future.

HP LAUNCHES STORAGE WORKS LTO-5 ULTRIUM TAPE SOLUTIONS

Bangalore: HP is expanding its Linear Tape Open (LTO) technology portfolio with the upgraded HP StorageWorks LTO-5 Ultrium tape drives, which deliver improved data transfer speeds and management capabilities. Available with the HP StorageWorks MSL tape libraries, these new archive solutions enable businesses to better manage information through enhanced data protection, disaster recovery as well as long-term data retention operations.

HP StorageWorks LTO-5 tape solutions improve backup performance and reduce data loss with built-in encryption. This prevents unlawful access in the event of theft or malicious use by encoding data to ensure it is unreadable to unauthorized users. With nearly double the capacity of LTO-4 tape drives and encryption support, HP LTO-5 drives can store more data at a lower cost while meeting data security requirements.

HP LTO-5 tape solutions offer easy-to-use management tools that automate maintenance tasks, providing clients with improved operational efficiency through the new HP TapeAssure software that proactively monitors the status, performance, utilization and health of drives as well as backup media. Simplified data backup and recovery with HP StorageWorks MSL tape libraries that automatically backup and consolidate drives through an easy-to-manage network.

Lowered operational costs as the tape drives' increased capacity reduces the amount of media, time and human intervention required for daily tape backup. HP StorageWorks Enterprise LTO-5 tape library will be available mid 2010.

MICROSOFT UNVEILS VISUAL STUDIO 2010,.NET FRAMEWORK 4

Bangalore: Microsoft unveils its Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 and Silverlight 4 today. "In the new versions of Visual Studio, .NET, and Silverlight we've packed hundreds of new features, new functionalities and benefits that improve the development lifecycle from design to deployment. This is the biggest tools release we have put up so far. When we have a phenomenal product everything else flows from that. Using the Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 tools, developers have a way to where they want to be and they also have a powerful tool to easily create compelling user experiences both on and off the Web," says S Somasegar, Senior Vice President - Developer Division at Microsoft.

For the first time, Microsoft has taken a novel approach to launch its product globally. "In the past, we would first do the U.S. launch and then go to other locations. This time, we decided we will launch on April 12th in all locations. We will follow the Sun," notes Somasegar. The first launch is in China, second launch in Malaysia, third launch in India, fourth launch is in Malaysia, fifth launch in the U.S. These five locations have been chosen understanding the strategic importance of countries where there is huge developer population and is growing at a very healthy rate. Apart from these strategic launches, Microsoft has planned 150 other launches in other parts of the word starting tomorrow. "The goal is to physically touch a million developers or more through the launch event," he notes.

India is the second largest developer population in the world. Currently in India there are approximately 1.5 million developers and in the U.S. it is 3.2 million developers. In India, developer growth rate is in the range of 14 to 16 percent range and 3-4 percent in the U.S. Majority of these developers use Microsoft technologies (tools and platform). "The rate at which the developer community in India is growing should soon see it on the top. In the next 5-7 years, the number ofdevelopers in India will exceed that in the U.S.," says Somasegar, while speaking exclusively for SiliconIndia.

The Visual Studio launch is happening in the backdrop of Microsoft TechEd India, a three days conference that promises to enrich developers, IT professionals, architects and CXOs with knowledge and expertise by introducing them to the world of today's cutting-edge trends which make life easier for them at work. At this year's Microsoft TechEd there are 105 technical sessions, 21 technical tracks and several keynotes. "This is a larger than life event for developers and Microsoft. Developers, IT professionals, architects and CXOs can take a look at what is coming down the pipe in terms of new technologies, platform and exciting innovation. This is also an opportunity for us in Microsoft to interact with them. It is technology all around," says Moorthy Uppaluri, General Manager, Developer Partner Evangelism, Microsoft India. While over 3000 are attending the sessions on-location in Bangalore, Uppaluri is expecting to touch 50,000 IT professionals through three hundred event hosting centers across India via live broadcast of the event. "This is indeed a Diwali for developers in India," he says.

"Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 is powerful tool for any developer in today's world. Visual Studio 2010 is designed keeping in mind today's developer. Indian developers create software for everybody in the world. In a way our developers are core of innovation for the world. India is where the future is. Keeping this in mind we are launching this product that is relevant to them," says Uppaluri.

GOOGLE CEO SAYS APPLE HELPED AD MOB DEAL

WASHINGTON - Apple's plunge into the advertising market announced this past week gave Google a big boost in arguing for regulators to approve its acquisition of mobile advertising leader AdMob, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on Sunday.

U.S. antitrust enforcers are apparently concerned the AdMob purchase could hurt applications developers, who often sell their apps for very little and make their money by selling advertising space on them.

But Schmidt, speaking after a speech at the American Society of News Editors, said Apple's plan to make a foray into the advertising market with iAd, was "evidence of a highly competitive market."

"It just seems obvious to me," said Schmidt. "I hope it (Google's purchase of AdMob) gets approved."

Apple's new advertising platform for the iPhone and iPad -- dubbed iAd -- marks Apple's first move into a small but growing market.

With iAd, applications developers will pocket 60 percent of the revenue. Apple will sell and host the ads.

Apple's entry into the mobile ad arena had been widely expected. It paid $270 million for Quattro Wireless, an advertising network that spans both mobile websites and smartphone applications.

Google, the online search leader, announced a $750 million deal in November to buy AdMob, which controls about one-third of the market for putting ads on mobile applications and web pages.

FTC staff have been canvassing app developers to try to line up support to fight the deal, said one developer, who asked to remain unidentified because he had been interviewed by FTC attorneys.

"It's been really interesting talking to them because they are so dead set against this," said the developer. "They have been clearly positioning to try to stop this."

Google, which generated 97 percent of its $23.7 billion in 2009 revenue from advertising, has faced growing antitrust scrutiny.

The company walked away from a search deal with Yahoo in 2008 when the Justice Department said it would challenge the tie-up. And Schmidt was forced to step down from Apple's board last year after his dual roles came under FTC review.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been sharply critical of Google's settlement with book publishers and authors' groups that would allow the search giant to create an online digital library.

HP PAVILION DV6-1240US LAPTOP

View the video here of HP PAVILION DV6-1240US LAPTOP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrLBoO8Qn3Q&feature=player_embedded

ANTI VIRUS SHIELD GUARD LAUNCHED FOR iPAD

Bangalore: Intego, company which provide security solution for Mac, has come up with first antivirus scanner capable of inspecting Apple's iPad. But security experts around the world doubt the need of an antivirus for iPad.

The operating system used on iPad is same as on iPhone and so far only few security issues has been reported on jailbroken iPhones and even then only by a handful of high-profile worms, such as the Rickrolling worm in Australia and the D'oh bank credential stealing worm in the Netherlands, which both spread last November, according to The Register.

Whether either of these worms might be capable of infecting an iPad is unclear. Intego acknowledges there is no iPad malware to defend against as yet but argues it will be ready if and when the threat materialises. "We're not saying there is malware in the wild," Peter James, an Intego spokesman explained. "But there are exploits that can take advantage of vulnerabilities."

James explained that the malware risk on the iPad, such as it is, mainly applies to devices that have been jailbroken to run apps not approved by Apple. Users of these devices can download cracked software that might pose a malware risk, or they could be exposed to future potential iPad-specific drive-by-download attacks while surfing online.

"Jailbreaking takes advantages of vulnerabilities," James told The Register. "Those users who don't jailbreak their devices have fewer security risks because they are protected by sandboxing. Jailbroken devices are not protected in same way.

"If and when iPad malware arrives we have the engine ready". But there are certain problems that the company has to solve as well. "The software doesn't run on an iPad or iPhone itself. We're looking forward to multi-tasking that will make this possible and in the mean time offering the best we can," James said. "We can't detect things live but its the best compromise we can offer for now."

APPLE UNVEILS iAD PLATFORM;iPAD SALES LOOK STRONG

CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed off a new smartphone operating system on Thursday that features an advertising platform to compete with Google's, and revealed stronger-than-expected sales of 450,000 units for the iPad.

The iPhone 4.0 software will be available on Apple's hugely popular smartphone this summer, complete with a number of upgrades, including a long-awaited multi-tasking capability that allows the use of several applications at once.

A version of the iPhone's operating system is also used on the iPad, and the latest generation of software will come to Apple's new tablet computer this fall.

The new advertising platform for the iPhone and iPad -- dubbed iAd -- marks Apple's first foray into a small but growing market, and is sure to please the thousands of application developers who make their living off those devices, providing them with a new revenue stream.

The iPad's early sales impressed analysts, many of whom expect 1 million units to be sold in the quarter ending June, and roughly 5 million in 2010, though estimates vary widely.

"We're making them as fast as we can. Our ramp is going well, but evidently we can't quite make enough of them yet so we're going to have to try harder," Jobs said, noting iPad sellouts at Best Buy stores.

The electronics giant has staked its reputation on the 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet, essentially a cross between a smartphone and a laptop. It is helping foster a market for tablet computers that is expected to grow to as many as 50 million units by 2014, according to analysts.

"I think it's pretty impressive, five days almost half a million units, and it shows there's still pretty good momentum behind the first day," said Gartner analyst Van Baker.

Despite critics who question whether a true need exists for such a gadget, analysts expect Hewlett-Packard, Dell and others to trot out their own competing devices this year.

Since the iPad went on sale on April 3, users have downloaded 600,000 digital books and 3.5 million applications for the device, Jobs said. There are already 3,500 apps available for the iPad.

"It was above my expectations, frankly," said Joe Clark, managing partner of Financial Enhancement Group, referring to iPad sales. "The day the original Apps Store launched it was a game change for the iPhone and it will do the same eventually for the iPad."

At a media event at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters, Jobs said Apple had so far sold more than 50 million iPhones, the smartphone that competes with Research in Motion's Blackberry and Motorola's Droid.

That implies that the company sold 7 million or more devices in the March quarter, which would be above many analysts' forecasts.

MICROSOFT TO BRING SILVER LIGHT PLATFORM TO SET-TOP BOXES

Washington: Software giant Microsoft announced that it will launch new products and initiatives at the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show next week in Las Vegas.

The company said it is working with System-on-Chip (SOC) partners Intel and Broadcom to deliver support for reference designs that will provide complete Silverlight platform to set-top boxes, connected TVs, Blu-ray Disc players and other devices.

Microsoft also unveiled details about Internet Information Services (IIS) Media Services 4 and announced the upcoming release of Silverlight Media Framework 2.0. The latest version allows providers and broadcasters to encode content once and deliver it to Silverlight- and non-Silverlight-enabled devices. Version 4 also supports smooth multicast streaming, along with third-party encoding products and Microsoft Expression Encoder.

Silverlight Media Framework 2.0 is claimed to allow users to distribute media content with almost no coding. The framework is essentially an open-source version of the player used by NBC, NRK and CTV for the recent Olympics coverage.

"Our vision is to bring Silverlight to every screen, and as we continue to expand the capabilities and resources for Silverlight and IIS Media Services," said Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of the .NET Developer Platform at Microsoft.

iProf LAUNCHES INDIA'S FIRST EDUCATION TABLET

Delhi: iProf Learning Solutions India has launched iProf, India's first personal education tablet, and iStudy Zones, the first chain of e-learning centres in India that will spread to 30 cities in April 2010. A 7 inch touch screen tablet, it comes bundled with content from premier education institutes and has been launched at a price of Rs. 14,900.

Initially, iProf is set to cater to the test-preparation education segment, the market of which is estimated at about Rs. 10,000 crores. iProf is starting with IIT-JEE preparation and has tied-up with Brilliant Tutorials. iProf would foray into MBA test preparation by end of May 2010, followed by PMT, CPT, CA among others.

On bringing the novel concept to India, Sanjay Purohit, Founder and CEO, iProf Learning Solutions India said, "Through innovative technology and platform, we aim to revolutionize the education delivery mechanism. iProf will provide a safe, secure and affordable way to access high quality education content from India's best faculty. We address three major problems that plague e-learning from spreading far and wide -low computer penetration, piracy and broadband connectivity. Also, there is an acute shortage of good quality professors, especially in tier II and tier Iii cities. We have created an infrastructural solution enabling access to high quality education which solves all the issues."

E-learning is highly effective, as proven by extensive research. It not only increases retention but also gives complete flexibility to the student of reading e-books, revising video lectures, animations, taking tests and setting their schedules on their own pace IProf is positioned as a self-study tool, that would mitigate pressure on students, enabling them to perform much better.

iStudy Zones are enablers of the e-learning delivery mechanism, for its students. High performance servers are being deployed in iStudy zones with high speed broadband and Wi-Fi capabilities, so that content can be downloaded on iProf in a secure environment. Besides, the iStudy Zones can hold video conference for doubt clearing sessions between faculty and students, to make sure that the learning circle is complete.

The company expects to mobilise investments of over Rs. 100 crores via iProf eco-system in the next 18 months.

iProf has built in high quality operating system Android (from Google) and a Learning Management System installed on it, that provides students with a highly interactive form of education for preparation (practise and revision) for competitive exams in a walled environment.

YOU TUBE'S NEW LOOK DRAWS MOSTLY CHEERS

YouTube's streamlined new design has ruffled a few feathers, particularly among users who prefer the old five-star rating system to the new thumbs-up or thumbs-down options. Still, early impressions seem generally favorable. Playbacks are up, and more people are engaging by supplying comments and ratings.

After months of planning and testing, the Internet's No. 1 video-sharing site, YouTube, launched a new look and received mixed reviews.

The redesign eliminates one of the chief irritants to tubesters: clutter.

"We heard from users that there are a lot of unnecessary features and clutter that could be cleaned up," YouTube spokesperson Chris Dale told TechNewsWorld.

"Video is the center of our universe, and it's the center of the user's universe, and that is much clearer in this redesign than it has been in the past," he maintained. "We're bringing everything back to centering on the video experience and how the users are engaging in that video."

To avert clutter, the redesign groups all the information about a video in one place, and its detail can be obtained in a consistent way.

The action bar on a video's page has also been cleaned up, and the presentation of controls for sharing, flagging and embedding videos streamlined.
Smarter Discovery

In addition to curbing clutter, the redesign seeks to improve a videophile's ability to find clips of interest. The service's suggestions on what to watch next is "smarter" and based on how a video currently being watched was discovered in the first place.

"I think the redesign is an improvement," Coree Silvera, a YouTube user and founder of Market Like a Chick, told TechNewsWorld.

"I especially like the hover features," she continued. "It's such a pain when you want to look at a video, and you're not sure if it's exactly the right one, and you switch to the page, and it's not the right one, and you have to go back to your search results and do it all over again."

"Now you can hover over it, and it shows you everything right there -- you can see if it's popular or not before you look at it," she added.

Hidden Channels

The way YouTube handles "channels" -- groups of videos uploaded by a user -- has also been tweaked. Both the channel name and subscribe button are on top of the video. What's more, there's a button showing how many videos are in the channel. Clicking that button displays a bar of thumbnails for the videos in the channel that can be scrolled through horizontally.

"You can continue to watch your video while scrolling through all the videos in your channel," YouTube's Dale explained. "That heavily favors partners of ours or users who have channels and uploaded lots of videos to them."

Not all YouTube partners agree with Dale's assessment of the channel redesign, however.

"My goal is to get people to watch more of my videos," Jeff Martin, associate director of search marketing Learn how SugarCRM will improve your business. Free Trial. Click here. for TouchStorm, told TechNewsWorld. "By putting my videos at the top and closing it by default, the user has to take action just to be exposed to any of my content. Essentially, my content is hidden."

Another redesign issue that's stirred up some controversy among users is the new ratings system adopted by the service.

Trading Stars for Thumbs

Rather than using a star system, similar to the one favored by Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), YouTube has gone to a simple thumbs-up-thumbs-down scheme, similar to Facebook's.

Much of the hoopla over the ratings change has more to do with an emotional attachment to the old system than its actual value in rating videos, YouTube's Dale argued.

"When we did research, the vast majority of ratings [were] five stars or more," he noted.

"So even though people thought that was a really good indicator of the value of a video, it actually wasn't," Dale continued.

The new rating system is more flexible than the old star system, he asserted. When a user clicks on the "like" button, a drop down menu will appear showing the percentage of people who liked the video compared to those who didn't like it.

"That's a really good indicator of a video's popularity," maintained Dale, "and, frankly, a much better indicator than what five stars was."

Advertising Flap Red Herring

How video eyeballers comment on YouTube content is also being changed in the redesign. Comments are rated with the "thumb" system and the highest-rated comments are prominently displayed on the page. In addition, comments by the creator of a video are given priority over other commenters.

"Comments were a big user pain point," Dale disclosed. With the new system, more useful comments migrate to the top of the stack. "A video might have 100 people writing 'LOL,'" he observed. "That's great, but it doesn't necessarily tell you much."

How the new redesign integrates advertising into the site has also caused a stir among users and pundits, though Dale discounted much of that criticism.

"I think that's a red herring. At the end of the day, the redesign is based on user experience and user feedback," he declared.

"Without the user, without the community, YouTube has no legs to stand on," he continued. "If we alienate the user, if we do things too much in favor of one constituency or another, the users will leave and the advertisers will leave and the content providers will leave, and the whole site won't do well."

Doing well appears to be what the redesign is doing for the site. Early returns show overall playbacks up by 6 percent and "engagement" -- comments, ratings, etc. -- up 7 percent.

MAJORITY OF PC FOR TEENS TO BE TOUCHSCREEN BY 2015

Delhi: The immediate productivity gains promised by the flood of touch-enabled devices coming to market in 2010 will be slow to materialize in the enterprise, according to Gartner.

"What we're going to see is the younger generation beginning to use touchscreen computers ahead of enterprises," said Leslie Fiering, research vice president at Gartner. "By 2015, we expect more than 50 percent of PCs purchased for users under the age of 15 will have touchscreens, up from fewer than 2 percent in 2009. On the other hand, we are predicting that fewer than 10 percent of PCs sold to enterprises in 2015 for mainstream knowledge workers will have touchscreens."

Ms. Fiering said that although touch and pen input are not new to the PC industry - both have been available, largely as niche products for vertical industry applications, for over 20 years - there is renewed interest in touch input today. Multitouch on smartphones and the Apple iPhone phenomenon have shown users how useful touch can be with the right implementation, and Apple's introduction of the larger iPad has set off a wave of speculation about changing the industry.

The earliest adopters of touch-enabled devices will be consumers who rarely deal with legacy issues. They will be looking for entertainment and casual gaming applications. Gartner predicts that iPhone and touch-enabled smartphone users will want to extend the multitouch experience to their PC computing. iPad and the overwhelming majority of slate, tablet and touch-enabled convertible devices planned for 2010 will have a consumer focus.

Touch-enabled devices will have slow adoption in the enterprise, due to heavy requirements for typing and text input, Gartner analysts said. The "muscle memory" of mouse users and the potential problems of moving a user's hands from the keyboard to the mouse will create particular adoption barriers for knowledge workers. Instead, consumers and education will be the earliest adopters of touch-enabled PCs and notebooks.

One of the key target usages for the next wave of tablets will be media content consumption (movies, newspapers and e-books), and the real success driver for entertainment devices will be the content delivery ecosystem. If this category succeeds, it will create greater market awareness of and demand for touch in other PC applications.

As prices drop, education will become a major market for touch and pen-enabled devices. Younger children just entering school find direct manipulation on the screen a natural way to interact with their computers. Older students are already using pen input to annotate class material or capture formulae and graphics that can't be recorded with keyboards (for math, chemistry and physics classes, among others). However, most school districts do not want to support two separate devices - one for touch and another for pen. To deal with the differing requirements of the different grades, most districts are looking for dual-input screens that support both touch and pen in a single device.

"Consensus among the Gartner client U.S. school districts is that over half, and possibly as many as 75 percent, will be specifying touch and/or pen input within the next five years," said Ms. Fiering. "Consider this as the precursor to a major upcoming generational shift in how users relate to their computing devices."

Conversely, enterprises will be slow to adopt touch input for mainstream knowledge workers. The long tail of legacy enterprise applications that don't leverage touch, and the large contingent of mouse-trained employees, will make many enterprises doubt the business case for adding touch - and any additional costs - to PC hardware standards. However, employees are increasingly bringing their own PCs and technologies to work, whether sanctioned or not, and as with other consumer technologies, enterprises will eventually be forced to acknowledge the use of touch for their mainstream knowledge users.

LENOVO LAUNCHES C200 AND IDEA PAD S10

North Carolina: Lenovo has unveiled two new consumer PCs, C200 with optional NVIDIA ION graphics, and the IdeaPad S10-3s. "Our new S-series netbook and C-series all-in-one PCs are stylish in design but offer a relaxing computing experience that all consumers can appreciate," said Dion Weisler, Vice President, Business Operations, Lenovo. "Whether you are looking for a family PC for your living room or one for your travels, Lenovo PCs are designed to make computing more fun and intuitive."

Lenovo C200 has an 18.5 inch HD 16:9 widescreen display, up to NVIDIA ION 256MB graphics processor for high definition video support and an optional single-touch touchscreen panel. This all-in-one computer, available with up to Intel Atom Dual Core processor D510, and complete with an integrated DVD reader/writer, is the ideal PC for any room in the home. For improved video chat communications, the C200 features integrated stereo speakers and the Lenovo High-Sense Webcam, which boasts a larger lens and finer color and shading sensitivity to create clearer images and greater contrast, especially in low-light environments.

"The Lenovo C200 with NVIDIA ION is an ideal way to meet the 'info-tainment' needs of today's digital family. Its snappy graphics and big screen are perfect for accessing the Internet, sharing family photos, playing casual games together or enjoying the latest online videos in high definition," said David Ragones, Director of ION and GeForce product marketing, NVIDIA. The C200 is equipped with the Lenovo Rescue System - a quick and easy solution to back up and restore important data files.

The IdeaPad S10-3s has Intel Atom N470 or N450 processor and is available in black, white or a "spring flowers" cover pattern. The S10-3s offers a familiar typing experience similar to a full size laptop with its 98 percent full-size chiclet keyboard, with individually-spaced and rounded keys that make typing comfortable and easy. The S10-3s comes with Dolby Headphone audio, while DirectShare allows users to instantly sync their files wirelessly with any other type and brand of computer, without even connecting to the web.

The S10-3s also features Active Protection System (APS) - a feature previously found only on Lenovo's premium ThinkPad and IdeaPad laptops, but now fitted as standard across the S10-3 netbook range. And with VeriFace face recognition technology and OneKey Rescue System data recovery and anti-virus tools, the S10-3s is packed with features that make computing more fun and convenient. Users can choose from a suite of wireless options like 802.11b/g/n, WWAN, 3G and Bluetooth.

The Lenovo C200 is available at around Rs. 18,350 ($399), while the IdeaPad S10-3s is available at around Rs. 17,450 ($379).

HOW TO BACKUP CONTENT ON A GMAIL ACCOUNT

I have a good article on the topic HOW TO BACKUP CONTENT ON A GMAIL ACCOUNT. Here is the link:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2032617_backup-content-gmail.html

HOW TO BACKUP YOUR GMAIL

I have a very good article here on the topic HOW TO BACKUP YOUR GMAIL. Here is the link:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5425164_backup-gmail.html

Toshiba TubeTop - World's First Inflatable Laptop

View the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Btn3zKB2I&feature=player_embedded

BROADCOM SAYS PHONE COMPANIES WILL OFFER FREE TABLET COMPUTERS

Broadcom Corp., the biggest supplier of chips for television set-top boxes, said phone companies around the world will soon offer free or subsidized tablet-style computers to retain customers.

Broadcom's Persona Tablet design and chips are the basis for the Hikari iFrame, a tablet distributed by Japan's Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Broadcom Vice President Martyn Humphries said in an interview. NTT's counterparts in Europe will follow later this year and in the U.S. next year, he said.

Apple Inc.'s iPad, which researchers say contains some Broadcom chips, has fired up interest in tablet computers among consumers. Phone and Internet service providers may try to tap into that demand with free or cheap tablets that improve access to entertainment and communications offerings as a way of stopping their customers from looking elsewhere.

'Apple's created the big buzz today, but some of the carrier developments have also been going on in parallel,' Humphries said. 'The biggest value to the carrier is he starts to maintain more customer loyalty.'

Wireless carriers typically offer free or subsidized mobile phones to customers who sign contracts to pay monthly service fees over a long-term period, often two years.

Humphries, speaking at a product demonstration in San Francisco, declined to name potential U.S. and European phone companies that might offer free tablets with Broadcom chips, citing confidentiality agreements.

Controlling TVs

The tablets will be able to play music and video and send content wirelessly to other devices in the home, controlling and feeding multiple televisions. Service providers will be able to boost revenue by offering advertising, home automation and home- security services through such devices, Humphries said.

Broadcom fell 23 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $34.40 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have gained 9.3 percent this year.

Apple uses Broadcom chips in the iPhone and new iPad tablet, according to researcher ISuppli Corp. and technology analysis firm Chipworks Inc. Irvine, California-based Broadcom, whose revenue fell 3.6 percent to $4.49 billion last year, has been trying to broaden the market for its products by promoting devices to carriers that use either Google's Android operating system or Linux variants.

Broadcom is one of several chip companies hoping to capitalize on tablet computers. Market analyst IMS Research predicts that, by 2012, more than half of all tablets sold each year will be distributed by mobile and fixed-line broadband providers.

INDIA SAW 71 MILLION NET USERS IN 2009

The increasing broadband penetration in the country has led to an exponential rise in the number of Internet users, said a combined study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and marketing research firm IMRB. The joint report titled Internet in India said the number of people who 'claimed' to have used the Internet in 2009 stood at 71 million, the study added.

According to the study, 'claimed users' (those who said they had used the Internet in some form, such as for checking results online during the year) is an important category for understanding the future trends in active user base. However, the number of active Internet users rose to 52 million in September 2009 from 42 million in September 2008, registering a year on year- on- year growth of 23.8 per cent.

Active users are those who access the Internet at least once in a month. This surge in number has been primarily due to the increased number of users in the remote urban pockets (small metros and towns) and among lower socio-economic classes, it said. Internet usage has also gone up from 9.3 hours per week to 15.7 hours per week, a steep 68.8 per cent rise, the report said.

This can be attributed to innovative content delivery, better applications and its increased use for the purposes of entertainment, comprising downloading music or videos, socialising through social networking sites and expressing one's own opinions and views through micro-blogging and user-generated content sites, it added.

"We are happy to note that while people in the smaller towns are taking to Internet seriously, for a deeper engagement we need to provide them the best innovations in the language of their choice, at an access cost that does not pinch and through a device that they have. Only then this engagement is going to be sustainable," IAMAI noted.

NEW SOFTWARE TO DEMYSTIFY PLANNING PROCESS

New Delhi: A new software has been developed to "demystify and strengthen" the planning process at the panchayat level.

The Panchayati Raj ministry Tuesday said the software has been developed in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

In a statement here, the ministry said the software known as 'Plan Plus' is generic and open to customisation by states, line department and local governance agencies.

"It is a decentralised planning tool, which aids the various participants through the planning process, so that informed decisions can be taken by the participants in preparing, vetting and approving the plan," it said.

The software will be employed to make the planning processes interactive from "need assessment, identification of project, work, preparation of draft annual plans, approval by technical appraisal committee and final approval by district planning committee".

According to the ministry, the software will also provide "a holistic view of how funds from different central and state-sponsored schemes could be converged to carry out works approved in a plan."

"The software is a web-based software and captures the entire planning work flow...it is highly generic and can be extended to capture the plans prepared by line departments at the state and central level to generate the national plan," the statement said.

"The software brings about total transparency in the plan approval process and provides role-based authentication and authorisation," the statement said.

However, school and college students are the largest group of web users, young males too have a sizable chunk. Whereas women have a tiny presence. Cyber cafes are the favorite place to log in from, with free office internet coming a close second. While a quarter of all users log in from home, about two million Indians surf the web on their phones.

Checking e-mail is India's favourite web activity. Downloading and social networking comes a close second. Finally, just 16 percent of users get the news updates from the web.

"Factors like an increased popularity of smart phones and the imminent arrival of 3G networks means more people will access the web on their mobiles. By next year we expect the figures to double, "said Ray.

37 PERCENT OF INTERNET USERS ARE FROM RURAL INDIA

New Delhi: According to a survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), 20 million Indians use Internet everyday. The survey also shows that 36 percent of all web users are from small towns like Kolhapur, Thrissur and Panipat, reports Jaimon Joseph from CNN-IBN.

"We did the survey across 31 cities in the country, among 19,000 households, 68,000 individuals," said President, Internet and Mobile Association of India Dr. Subho Ray. "While we are happy to note that people in the smaller towns are taking to internet seriously, for a deeper engagement we need to provide them the best innovations in the language of their choice, at an access cost that does not pinch and through a device that they have. Only then this engagement is going to be sustainable." However, the figure is comparatively more than metros. In a nation of a billion plus population, just 71 million people claimed to have used internet in 2009.

WHY WE SHOULD NOT USE FACEBOOK

London: Social networking site Facebook has been blamed for many social ills, the latest allegation being: it has led to a resurgence of the sexually transmitted disease syphilis.ow, Telegraph has come up with a list of problems the site has been linked to:

1. Facebook leads 'children to suicide'

Archbishop Vincent Nichols from the Catholic Church in England and Wales, claimed that Facebook reduced friendship to just a "commodity". Because of the "transient nature" of it, teenagers become more prone to suicide when their networks collapse.

2. Facebook 'killing off traditional sayings'

The site has been blamed for the slow death of British sayings such as "a little birdie told me" and "hold your horses". In a survey on communication trend researchers found phrases commonly used by parents and grandparents were disappearing.

3. Facebook blamed for 'rickets surge'

Facebook has been linked to the rise in the number of children suffering from rickets. Researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal that the social networking site, and computer games had led to the disease, caused by chronic vitamin D deficiencies. It occurs because of sitting for long periods out of natural sunlight and a poor diet.

4. Facebook 'turning Britons into introverts'

A study from Mintel, the market research company, found more than half of adults who use sites such as Facebook admitted they spent more time chatting online than they did actually speaking to friends and family.

5. Facebook 'makes partners jealous'

University of Guelph researchers found Facebook use led to increased jealousy in relationships, amid greater social exchanges with friends and previous partners. Lovers often get suspicious when their partners get hooked to the site.

6. More middle-aged people 'learning to love' Facebook

Ofcom, the communications regulator, found more middle-aged people are logging on to social networking sites such as Facebook in ever larger numbers. The number of 35 to 54-year-olds, using social networking sites, have increased by 25 per cent in just one year.

7. Facebook makes users 'feel unattractive'

Some Facebook users avoid uploading photos because they think they are too fat, old or ugly. A survey found almost one in two people admitted to leaving out pictures from their "fat days" when uploading pictures to their online profile.

ORKUT TRUMPS FACEBOOK IN INDIA:SURVEY

Facebook might have overtaken Orkut globally in terms of the number of users, but Google's social networking offering still remains the favourite in India, according to the England-based online traffic tracking firm comScore.

In its latest report on social networking activity in the Asia-Pacific region, comScore says the Google-owned Orkut is ranked as the top social networking site in India, with 46.8 per cent of the nation's web population using the website.

Facebook, on the other hand, ranks numero uno in Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The study covered all Internet users aged above 15 in these countries, who accessed social networking sites from home and work locations.

However, it excluded those visiting the sites through Internet cafes, mobile phones or personal digital assistants. It also did not include China in the study.

The study has found that 50.8 per cent of the total online population in the Asia-Pacific region visited a social networking site in February 2010, translating into a total of 240.3 million visitors during the month.

"While social networking continues to be one of the most popular and fastest growing web activities in the world, its dynamics in the APAC region exhibit significantly more individual market differentiation than in other global regions," comScore executive vice-president Will Hodgman said.

"In some markets, such as the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia, social networking is one of the most popular web activities, reaching nearly 90 per cent of the entire online population, while other markets report less PC-based social networking penetration, which can often be attributed to the high propensity to engage in social networking via mobile devices in these markets," he added.

About 68.5 per cent of India's web population accessed social networking sites in February, visiting these sites on an average of 13 times.

An average user spent about 2 hours 10 minutes on these sites.

In contrast, Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region spent an average of 2.5 hours on social networking sites during the month and visited the category on an average of 15 times.

COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS MAY ATTRACT MORE READERS WITH iPAD

Bangalore: Not only to newspapers or magazines publishers, the launch of Apple's iPad in the market may also help Comic book makers to breathe life into characters like Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk by beaming them on to Apple's new tablet computer.

Three day ago, Disney's (DIS) Marvel comics unit released an iPad comic book application, which is free to download from Apple's App Store. The software lets readers buy digital versions of more than 500 Marvel comic books for $1.99 each. "Our app is for comic book lovers as well as lapsed readers' people who might be in their thirties or forties who stopped buying comic books after college," said Ira Rubenstein, Executive Vice President of Marvel's Global Digital Media Group.

Similarly, startup Graphic.ly, which is part of Microsoft's BizSpark program for fledgling companies, is also developing an iPad application that will let fans trade comments within the pages of digital comics. "The publisher that really ends up making the biggest splash on the iPad is the one that's not going to look to replicate print," says Micah Baldwin, CEO, Graphic.ly

According to Marymount Manhattan College professor Kent Worcester, who teaches classes on comics and animation and who co-edited A Comic Studies Reader, there are about 3,000 comic book stores in the U.S, down from about 10,000 in the 90's. "There are plenty of towns which have no comic book stores," said he.

Comic book publishers expect that new digital versions of their titles can turn comics into mass-market entertainment, not just artifacts for collectors. "Hollywood and television have begun to give people what they used to get out of comics," said Marymount's Worcester to Business Week.

APPLE'S iPAD DEBUTS STRONGLY, BUT KEY TESTS REMAIN

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc sold more than 300,000 iPads on the tablet computer's first day in stores, a strong showing that roughly matched Wall Street forecasts and mirrored the iPhone's debut in 2007.

Despite a solid opening weekend, which prompted several investment banks to raise their earnings and revenue forecasts, the bigger test will come later this year, as consumers outside the company's core fan base size up the iPad.

Questions remain about whether consumers will shell out $500 or more for a device that fits between a smartphone and a laptop, and which Apple hopes pioneers a new class of device.

It hopes the sleek iPad, which hit Apple stores on Saturday, joins the iPod and the iPhone in its stable of successful consumer products, providing the next driver of growth as sales of its multimedia player and smartphone begin to moderate.

Should it take off, the iPad would not only provide a new market for component makers, but another platform for which software developers and content companies would hawk their wares.

Time will tell whether Apple has another bona fide hit on its hands, but media companies like New York Times Co and News Corp are betting the iPad will erect a profitable bridge from print to digital content.

"The launch went pretty much as expected; it was well received," said Shannon Cross of Cross Research. "There is widespread enthusiasm for the product, but it's a new category, and it will take time for people to understand it."

Apple has staked its formidable reputation on a 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet with no clear-cut case for use other than pure media consumption. Rivals including Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc are preparing tablets of their own later this year, so consumers will have a range of choices, particularly in the crucial holiday period.

"From a bigger strategic picture, the iPad is a content gatherer for Apple; that's what separates it from the others," said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Brian Marshall. "This has been a successful strategy for Apple in the past with iTunes," the company's online music store.

MARKET HOOPLA

Many analysts believe the company likely sold 350,000 to 400,000 iPads for the weekend. A number of Apple stores in the United States were closed for the Easter holiday on Sunday.

At least four brokerages lifted their full-year earnings estimates and price targets for Apple following the iPad launch.

JPMorgan raised its price target on Apple stock to $305 from $240; Kaufman Brothers increased it to $295 from $253; and Thomas Weisel Partners lifted its target to $280 from $270. Susquehanna raised its target to $275 from $260, while Barclays kept its target unchanged at $285.

Shares of Apple closed up 1.1 percent at $238.49 on Nasdaq, close to its all-time high of $238.73. The stock ran up last week in anticipation of the debut of the tablet computer on Saturday.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman called the first-day sales figure "reasonable, but not a blowout number."

He said the iPhone, which was launched in 2007, sold at a similar pace to the iPad in the beginning. Sales passed the 1 million mark after 74 days.

Apple's first-day iPad sales included deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers -- which may have helped depress opening day crowds at some locations -- as well as shipments to sales partners and sales at Apple retail stores.

Analysts expect the company to sell 1 million or more iPads in the current quarter ending in June. Wall Street expects about 5 million to be sold in 2010, although estimates vary widely.

Only the Wi-Fi version of the iPad went on sale on Saturday, and only in the United States. Apple will expand to nine international markets, and roll out a 3G-compatible iPad, later this month, with wireless service from AT&T.

FESTIVE MOOD

Media companies are not the only ones counting on the success of the iPad. Companies found to have supplied some of the key components to the iPad received a boost in trade on Monday.

These include Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, up 1.5 percent; LG Display Co Ltd, up 2.2 percent; Broadcom Corp, up 4.5 percent; and Texas Instruments Inc, up 3.1 percent.

An analysis by research firm Chipworks also identified chips in the iPad from suppliers such as Cirrus Logic Inc, which jumped 8.3 percent on Monday, Atmel, Linear Technology, Intersil and STMicroelectronics.

Others may be quaking. Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro said the iPad was likely to take share from Amazon.com Inc's Kindle because of its robust e-reader capabilities. Amazon shares were off 0.2 percent.

There did not appear to be any supply issues on the iPad's opening weekend, as some had feared, with only a few reports of stores selling out, as was the case during the iPhone's launch.

Long lines and boisterous crowds emerged at Apple stores in big cities such as New York and San Francisco, but some stores in suburban areas were not as crowded.

Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner said in a research note that the launch day performance was "a measure of brand loyalty among Apple devotees, who would buy virtually anything bearing that magical fruity logo. For others, it will take time to recognize a compelling use case for the device."

Apple said iPad users downloaded more than 1 million applications from the company's App Store and more than 250,000 ebooks from its iBookstore during the first day.

APPLE iPAD WILL TAKE TIME TO HIT INDIAN MARKET

New Delhi: Craving to get your hands on the Apple iPad? Wait for a while as it will be still some time before it becomes available in the Indian market.

Experts also believe that the tablet will create a new user segment in India.

Unveiled in January, the iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read e-books and much more. The 9.7 inch touchscreen tablet is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds-thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook-and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.

The product, touted as a device between smartphone and a laptop, was officially launched in the US market Saturday. Prices in the US start at $499 and the most advanced model costs $829. But Indians customers who are eagerly waiting to try the 'game changing product', as it is often called, will have to wait for some more time.

"iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year," said an official release.

Industry observers in the U.S. believe the iPad could well outsell the Apple's iPhone, launched in 2007, of which one million had been sold after 74 days on shop shelves.

However, considering price sensitive Indian market where consumers always look for a package product seeking maximum features in lowest possible amount, iPad may remain limited to the upper middle class segment only.

According to technology experts, besides the great features iPad has constraints too like it cannot multi-task, doesn't have a external keyboard, disk drive or a USB drive.

The experts believe it would create a niche market for itself and emerge as a lifestyle product and not a mass product in India.

"This product will create a new class. But given the Indian market scenario, iPad it is not going to have a mass market. It will be a niche product ... it will be a lifestyle product ...," said Akhilesh Tuteja, executive director KPMG, a consulting firm.

"To start with, it will have buyers who would like to experience it. It will create a class of its own. For a complete experience, one needs to have peripherals. But iPad doesn't have an external keyboard, no USB drive and disk drive," Tuteja told IANS.

INTEL MEETS ITS MATCH IN IBM

There are few, if any, microprocessor manufacturers equal to Intel. IBM, however, is a very large exception.

By the time Intel had introduced its latest processor for servers, the Itanium 9300,IBM had already stolen Intel's thunder with its new Power7 chip technology, announced earlier in the morning.

And rightfully so: the Power7 is impressive. It has eight cores, while Intel's Itanium 9300 (PDF) has four. And each of the Power7's cores is capable of four threads, or tasks, compared to Itanium's two per core.

Although both companies are touting dozens of other features--for example, better thread performance and improved scaling of workloads--IBM is taking a lead in marquee features for the lucrative high-end server market.

"While Intel is talking about a 2x [two-times] performance boost per chip, IBM is talking about almost an 8x [eight-times]," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64. "IBM has gone from two cores to eight cores per (chip). And each of the cores is roughly twice as fast as the [prior-generation] Power6," according to Brookwood, adding that IBM was already ahead of Intel to begin with.

"Buyers who are sitting on the fence and have an application that could go either way (Itanium or Power7), may find that the Power7 offers a more attractive platform," Brookwood said, acknowledging that Itanium or Intel's upcoming eight-core Nehalem-EX processor would be a good choice for those seeking to use popular applications such as SQL Server that run on Windows and are not supported on the Power7.

IBM Blue Waters supercomputer

Power7 has another leg up on Itanium: it is already being used to construct what may be the fastest supercomputer in the world at the renowned National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, a credible claim, considering the center's history--and IBM's, whose chips in the past have powered the world's fastest supercomputers.

The Blue Waters project supercomputer, housed in a special building on the Urbana-Champaign campus, will theoretically be capable of achieving up to 10 petaflops, about 10 times as fast as the fastest supercomputer today. (A petaflop is 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second, a key indicator of supercomputer performance.)

One of the novel ways the University of Illinois is able to cram together the thousands of Power7 chips used in the Blue Waters supercomputer is by tapping a novel memory technology called eDRAM, or embedded dynamic access memory, for the level-3 cache memory.

Widely-used "static" RAM memory, or SRAM, is used as the on-chip memory in almost all processors today and can add as much as a billion transistors to high-end processors. IBM wanted to avoid these ballooning--and costly--chip counts, electing to use eDRAM, keeping the total number of transistors to 1.2 billion per processor. (Power7 uses SRAM in the smaller-capacity 32KB level-1 and 256KB level-2 cache; eDRAM is used in the large-capacity 32MB level-3 cache.)

The equivalent number of transistors using traditional SRAM would be well in excess of 2 billion, Bradley McCredie, an IBM fellow in the Systems and Technology Group, said in a CNET interview last year. (Two billion, in fact, is the chip count Intel is citing for the Itanium 9300.)

IBM has stated that the chip's speed--between 3.5GHz and 4GHz--actually has a lower rating than the previous Power6 chip, which ran at 5GHz. "We have gotten performance from other spots, such as the dense eDRAM. We had to back off from the gigahertz in order to get eight of these cores onto the chip and not have it melt," according to McCredie.

Intel, of course, is not standing still. The next-generation Itanium will be made on a cutting-edge 32-nanometer production process, and its upcoming Nehalem-EX server chip may go a long way toward leveling the playing field. But IBM has shown that it has the technological and manufacturing wherewithal to keep Intel on its toes, if not racing to keep up.

MONSTER TO BUY YAHOO' S JOBSITE

New York: Online career and recruiting firm Monster Worldwide has announced that it will acquire Yahoo's jobsite HotJobs for $225 million, which will be paid in cash.

Both the firms have also entered into a three-year 'commercial traffic agreement' in which Monster would become provider of career content on Yahoo's home page in the U.S. and Canada, reports PTI. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2010. Yahoo! has been cutting cost and closing its underperforming businesses like the GeoCities Web-hosting site.

The company also sold its e-mail technology unit Zimbra to VMware for an undisclosed amount. Yahoo said it "remains focused on its core businesses and delivering exceptional experiences to users, partners and advertisers." Yahoo had acquired HotJobs in 2002 for $436 million.

FINALLY, MICROSOFT AND YAHOO TOGETHER TO BEAT GOOGLE

Bangalore: In one of the major steps towards replacing Google from top, Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, and Yahoo, owner of the second most-used Internet search engine, are together to develop Internet search and advertising programs.

"In the first seven months of Bing, we witnessed 90 million in unique users in U.S, which 11.5 percent of U.S. search market. We believe that partnership with Yahoo will help us to put our footprint globally," said Satya Nadella, Senior Vice-President, R&D, Online Services Division (OSD), Microsoft.

According to ComScore, this partnership will take Microsoft's share in U.S. search market to approximately 39 percent. Currently Google holds near to 49 percent share in the U.S. search market. This partnership also reflects that in the current situation, it's not possible for Microsoft or Yahoo alone to catch up with Google.

In simple term, the deal means that Bing will be the search engine for Microsoft and Yahoo sites, while Yahoo will focus on attracting advertisers. Microsoft will be handling the automated auction of search ads for use on both sites, and give Yahoo a portion of search ad sales generated on Yahoo pages.

Microsoft also plans to take support of Yahoo's software professionals, who are working search technology, to boost Microsoft as well as Yahoo. Speaking on this issue, Nadella said, "We are planning to have the support 400 Yahoo's software professionals. Half of them will be working Bangalore R&D, while other 200 will be working in Silicon Valley R&D centre." The company believes that by September 2010, majority of transition will be done.

79,924 PANCHAYATS HAVE BROADBAND CONNECTIONS

New Delhi: As many as 79,924 panchayats (village councils) in India had broadband connectivity by February this year, says the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Data on the DoT website shows the numbers have been achieved against the target of providing all 242,279 panchayats with broadband connectivity by May 2012.

With 182.88 million rural subscribers in January, the rural tele-density stood at 22.18 percent.

As many as 564,225 villages had public telephones by January and the number for rural broadband connections stood at 462,168 in February.

India had 601.02 million telecom subscribers in February and the tele-density for the month stood at 51.08 percent, according to the DoT.

GOOGLE INDIA ADDS SHOPPING TOOL

Google announced the launch of a new tool to find product information online in India. Google's new shopping tool - erstwhile available in U.S. and European countries now finds its way into India. Like Google shopping in the US, this tool indexes thousands of websites that have price and images of various products. As of now, the Indian avatar of Google Shopping throws data available from over 30,000 Indian websites.

Users can now try and look for product details and latest prices of goods and items across a wide spectrum. The tool also features a price comparison tool. This can help you look for the cheapest price available for the product of your choice. It also helps users choose products that are within their budgets. For example, you can search for all the phones that are priced from Rs.10,000 to Rs. 15,000.

One thing that Google could have made easier was getting into the shopping tool for India. This is the way Google suggests you need to adopt to use the shopping tool in India as of now. "To use Google's shopping tool, simply enter the product name into the search box at http://www.google.co.in. Then, on the results page, click on the "Show Options ..." link located above the search results and select "Shopping". Once you start seeing shopping results, you can customize your filtering options as required.

THE NEWEST PRODUCT IN APPLE TECHNOLOGY THE iPAD

Watch this video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHncCyJoEoc&feature=player_embedded

ASUS LAUNCHES 3D GAMING NOTEBOOK IN INDIA

Bangalore: After almost four months of its release, Asus G51J 3D has arrived in India, bundled with specially designed 3D glasses and equipped with NVIDIA 3D Vision. ASUS G51J 3D has NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M with 1GB DDR3 video memory.

EAX and CMSS audio technology further enhances in-game immersion, delivering crystal clear sound and compelling environment audio effects through bespoke Altec Lansing speakers. ASUS G51J 3D is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor and 64-bit Windows 7 operating system. A pair of 3D Vision active-shutter glasses coupled with a wide-range infra-red emitter delivers stereoscopic images with clarity, brightness and depth-of-field (DOP) at full resolution without any viewing angle restrictions. The GPU driver and a 120Hz 3D panel render each scene twice, delivering up to 60 images evenly to each eye, amounting to a total of up to 120 images at any given time. Gamers can experience total immersion into their games from what were previously flat 2D worlds, to true-to-life 3D.


"NVIDIA is excited about the world's first 3D Vision notebook coming from ASUS," said Phil Eisler, General Manager of 3D Vision business unit at NVIDIA. "The ASUS G51J 3D notebook will set the standard by which gaming and 3D notebooks will be judged. Congratulations to ASUS for achieving this monumental milestone!"

Complementing the immersive visual effects is EAX Advanced HD 4.0 3D audio technology and CMSS surround sound. EAX Advanced HD 4.0 audio technology enhances in-game environments and scenarios by providing corresponding three dimensional sound effects. It can provide up to 64 additional sound effects from its sound library, and produces ultra-realistic spatial effects for more than 300 supported games. Together with high fidelity Altec Lansing speakers, the ASUS G51J 3D delivers a gaming and multimedia audio experience that no other notebook can match.

The ASUS G51J 3D features four dedicated physical cores working in tandem with the operating system and applications for additional performance. It allows users to utilize and launch multiple applications, and to enjoy high definition multimedia and processor-intensive games effortlessly. It also has a built-in 2 megapixel camera and has 15".6 HD LED backlight screen.

The ASUS G51J 3D will be available at around Rs. 99,000 with a two years warranty.