Wikipedia Blackout : Reasons and access tips

The accesses to Wikipedia will find a black page today, this blackout is in protest against the SOPA and PIPA bills that are in the US parliament waiting to be passed. The move is to prevent copyright infringement but as wikipedia observes this, it is an axes the right of common man to access information freely on the internet. And Wikipedia finds future troubles associated with the bills and also mentions this as ill prepared set of bills. The details are listed here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

But if you will like to get information through wikipedia today, you will have to try the mobile version of the site, it is still available on the android phone apps and ipad browsers. PC users can also get the contents if they are to visit : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/

This does help as a temporary solution and do support Wikipedia for the cause they are fighting for.

Read More

Twitter interface changes!

Twitter has relaunched their home page and have made quite a few changes on to the interface and not it aims at providing greater ease of use and also helps companies to advertise their profile. The new version of Twitter, which the company is gradually making available starting on Thursday, will feature a new look and feel and faster performance, the company said.

The redesign seems to be due to the latest releases on google plus and facebook subscribe, which works very much close to the idea what twitter does. This seems to be quite evident in the changes as the hash tags has been added on with a link that will help you search the contents. Also a new activity bar which helps you find or follow the latest on your favorites.

"We have to provide the simplest and fastest way for people around the world to connect to everything they care about," Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo said as he introduced the new version of the site at an event at the company's future headquarters in San Francisco.

Costolo appeared alongside Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who returned to the company in March as executive chairman to oversee the company's product design and development efforts.

Twitter allows people to send 140-character messages, or "tweets," throughout the network of over 100 million users. It is one of the Web's most popular social networking services, along with Facebook and Zynga.

People also find this increase due to the latest signups and tie-ups the company has been making. Apple had integrated the application on to their devices and this had increased the subscription by 25 million. "Twitter should be useful by those who know the shortcuts, and also equally useful by those who don't really use the shortcuts," said Dorsey.

A new "Discover" section of the website highlights the most popular topics on the site based on each user's location and interests.

The new version of Twitter also features a revamped profile page, in which a company can customize the look of their brand and highlight specific content, such as videos or photos. Previously, the profile pages displayed a chronological list of the company's most recent Tweets.

Read More

EMOJI on iOS 5!

Dont you think the emoticons have grown older? or may be a bit boring? However hard we try the thing gets boring by the day, sometimes it becomes hard for the recipient to realize if the smiley is sad or happy! What would you like to do to ask a friend out for coffee, text her or send a coffee cup with steam animation ?

I bet you will like the later, or clinging bear or a heart icon is much more accepted than the older smileys, this is what emoji does. Emoji was a plugin developed in Japan which provided the users with the ability to use animated icons that were clear and visible than regular emoticons. Emoji don't require tilting your head sideways to make sense of the image. They are a kind of pictorial alphabet stored on a phone that can be displayed in place of the regular keyboard, making it easy to tap out a visual message. Outside their native Japan, emoji have been available to in-the-know smartphone owners for some time via add-on applications. But now they may be on the verge of going mainstream, thanks in part to Apple's latest update to its iPhone software. The latest version, iOS 5, comes with an installed library of emoji that can be turned on as an "international keyboard" in the device's settings.

This might be a new move by iphone to standardize the emoticons on its devices, be it the imac, ipod or iphone, we might see more development of Emoji through the time. But for now, it comes free and is readily available at:

istore - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/emoji-free!/id332509635?mt=8

Enjoy!

Read More

China refutes the charges of buying land in Africa

China has been recently accused for buying land in South Africa, this allegations are getting strong and the act of neo-colonialism is being blamed against the Chinese government. Recently China has refuted the charges and has claimed this to be a concrete effort to help the continent gain sustainable agricultural strength.

Speaking to the media, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hong Lei, said "China always seeks food self-sufficiency through its own domestic output," China, instead of grabbing land in Africa, has been providing as much technical assistance as it can to help develop agriculture there and enhance the continent's capability of using its natural resources and addressing issues such as climate change and food security, he said. 

"Those efforts are welcomed by the African nations," he added. Replying to a question on neo-colonialism, Hong said that "there is indeed neo-colonialism in Africa, but absolutely not from China". "As an important strategic partner, China has made great contributions to the economic development and the betterment of people's livelihood in South Africa," said Hong. 

"Africa is victim to agricultural neo-colonialism," Hong said, adding that it is the common obligation of the international community to promote the sustainable development of Africa's agricultural sector. 

Some Chinese enterprises are carrying out small-scale cooperation through internationally-accepted business models with their partners in Africa, and sell their products to meet local demand, he said. 

Read More

Yahoo makes spammers pay $610m

As the case went strong against the spammers who were using the name of internet giant to spam and get valuable information from those who got affected with, has finally won the case and will receive a sum of $610 million as penalty. The default judgment, which meant no one showed up to defend against the accusations, was declared on Monday by a federal district judge in New York, according to Yahoo!.

It was left to Yahoo! to find the culprits and collect the money.

"In the scheme, email messages were unlawfully sent to internet users with the intent of deceiving them into believing they had a lottery prize offered by Yahoo!," the California firm said in a release.

The scam involved sending out mails to victims that they did win a lottery and required to send a fee for processing the sum, the accusations also include that credit card information and other sensitive data were also collected and this was termed similar to looting by the court. 

The award included $27 million for trademark infringement and a $583 million penalty for violating the US CAN-SPAM Act.

The struggling internet firm could use the cash, which promised to be nearly impossible to collect.

Read More

Nokia plans to launch Luxury mobiles

Luxury brands like 'Vertu' has already been ruling the luxury markets, now Nokia the Finnish company is planning to make entry to the luxury market. Although the project is still in early stages but the plan is almost confirmed, the report was first made by Economic Times. 

The newspaper mentioned that a person close to Nokia on the project has confirmed that Nokia has appointed Goldman Sachs to oversee the sale of its UK subsidiary, but talks are still at an early stage. Vertu, which makes luxury handmade phones, has yet to be given a value, although annual revenue is estimated to be between 200 million euros and 300 million euros ($268 million and $402 million).

With the recent growth of Vertu, it has attracted attention of many luxury goods brands, given its emerging market customer base and the potential for cross-selling.

We will still have to wait few more months to get a final picture

Read More

Vettel Grabs GP India!

GREATER NOIDA: World champion Sebastian Vettel won India's first ever Formula One on Sunday as McLaren's Jenson Button tightened his grip on the championship's second place. 

Red Bull's Vettel led throughout for his 11th victory of the season, finishing some 8.4 seconds ahead of Button with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso third and Australian Mark Webber fourth. Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher battled to fifth but McLaren's Lewis Hamilton came in seventh after yet another collision with his Ferrari bete noire, Felipe Massa. 

With this win, Vettel has closed in on the record set by Michael Schumacher, of 13 wins in a year. Vettel still has two more races this season. "Yes boys! Yes, we did it," Vettel shouted over the team radio as he finished. "The first Indian Grand Prix. Fantastic challenge, we did it!"

Shopping Coupons

Read More

Libya Set to export more oil

TRIPOLI: Libya's crude oil exports will jump to almost 350,000 barrels per day in November, more than double the volume sold the previous month, sources at the National Oil Company (NOC) told Reuters in an interview on Sunday. 

The NOC plans to sell a total of up to 14 cargoes of oil from several fields, primarily in the east and at offshore sites which escaped the worst of the damage inflicted by the war and located in areas that were liberated soon after the uprising. 

A further two cargoes were expected to be offered by Benghazi-based subsidiary Agoco, bringing the total to 16, the sources said. 

Libya's crude oil exports virtually ground to a halt during the war, with just two cargoes leaving the country's ports until September, when the first flows began trickling back into the market. 

Before the February uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi and ultimately led to his capture and death just over a week ago, Libyan crude oil exports stood at 1.3 million bpd. 

Agoco was due to hand over responsibility for sales in mid-November, the sources said. 

At least eight cargoes of crude and condensate have been sold since Agoco's fields began pumping oil again almost two months ago, and several grades have been offered.

Shopping Coupons:

Read More

Samsung Phones Beat Apple!

NEW YORK: Samsung Electronic Co hit the market by surprise when it shipped more smartphones than the darling in the industry, Apple! The latest ratings based on quarterly sales of both manufacturers, and the figures clearly outline how Samsung has outrun Apple.

The sales analysts believe that this is the normal trend of Apple, Inc. as it has been doing so from the start and there is always a lack of available equipment. Apple sold 17.1 million iPhones in the third quarter, 3 million fewer than expected. Samsung, meanwhile, shipped more than 27 million, according to analyst estimates.

Apple's latest iPhone, the 4S, didn't come out until the quarter ended, so its sales are not included in the figure. People held back on buying older models in anticipation of the new iPhone, which came out Oct. 14. Apple said it sold more than 4 million units in its first weekend on sale, and that should be reflected in the tally for the current, holiday quarter.

The most common issue outlined is the lack of models available for Apple when compared to Samsung. Apple currently ships only Iphone 3GS and 4 when compared to Samsung's Conquer, Replenish, Focus and Indulge. IHS estimates that Samsung sold about 40 different models during the third quarter.

Although the Seoul based Samsung doesn't publish the official count of phones that are exported, but the estimates are that the 17.3 million phones are in market from Samsung. Although when compared to revenue, the Apple still holds the upper hand as Samsung does have the options for both cheap phones and high end models, which the company considers as a broader spectrum of users in its reach. 

Apple also holds the top notch with the brand still dominating the tech world for its shear quality, where Samsung does show a single model Galaxy to the league.

Although the competition continues between Samsung and Apple, the real leader in the market is still the Finnish company, Nokia, who sells 16.8 million phones this quarter which is three times what Samsung or Apple has done in the same period!

Shopping Coupons:

Read More

IIT's offerring better salaries to attract more faculties

MUMBAI: In the latest turn of events IIT has beefed up its infrastructure to accommodate better faculties for its institutes. The procedures include the increased salary for each of its faculties, with an addition of opportunities for spouses to live along with faculties. These are the highlighted changes which are being drawn in, apart from this there are changes being rolled out on R&D, housing, helping create opportunities for the spouses of faculty members, providing lump sum grants for young faculty for research, building new state-of-the-art sports complex for new campuses, providing up to 25% higher salary through donations for new joinees to offering joining allowances for fresh recruits - institutes are leaving no stone unturned.

The results are already showing up for the changes, the phD holders from various institutes across the world are already lining up for the job and are already joined for the venture. Faculties are arriving from some of the best institutes of the world including IITs, Indian Institute of Science and universities and institutes such as University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Max Planck institute, Germany, University of South California, Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College, London, UK.

"Incentives like these do a world of good in attracting best talent. It is a concerted effort over a period of time that shows results. We are already getting ambitious and high potential candidates who want to work with us," says Prof Devang Khakhar, director of IIT-B.

Shopping Coupons

Read More