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.

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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.

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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!

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More on your savings account!

MUMBAI: RBI is all set to deregulate the interest rates on savings bank accounts in the next financial year. This will fetch more interests to the funds that are available on the savings accounts. The current interest was upgraded to 4% last financial year and this has been maintaining the slow pace from 1978.

The new system comes into effect immediately and would replace the existing one, which has been in place since 1978. 

Within hours of the policy, private sector player, Yes Bank, increased the return on its SB accounts to 6%. Other banks with a relatively lower share of retail deposits such as IDBI Bank and Kotak Bank may follow suit in a bid to poach customers from rivals. Although the small banks lack the distribution network, they are likely to play the upstart by targeting salary accounts with the larger banks. 

Although the major banks are still in discussion with RBI on the new deregulation policy as they will have to have a greater liquidity of funds to provide the high interest rates. What RBI feels is that with the amount more in savings account there wont be much spending and can prevent further inflation in the country. 

But on the counter parts, banks believe that if a person needs greater interests then they can always open a sweep account, which should earn them higher interest rates than savings account. "We have not set any parameters for the savings deregulation as we wanted banks to devise their own schemes and compete in the best interest of the customers and the country," said D Subbarao, governor, RBI.

"We are not in a hurry to raise savings deposit rates. We would rather see how it plays out...even today depositors have the advantage of getting higher returns through sweep accounts. Unless there are competing pressures we are not looking at raising rates now." Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman, State Bank of India, said.

In reality, as pointed out by the large banks, depositors already have several options for getting a better returns on their savings. For instance, any depositor with a significant balance in a new generation bank can open a 'sweep account' which is nothing but a unitized fixed deposit account where the deposit can be broken in parts and the amount credited to the customers account whenever he needs them. 

There are also liquid funds where funds can be deployed and withdrawn at will. However, there continues to be a large section of customers who are either not sophisticated enough or not active or simply too conservative to try a higher yielding option. These borrowers will be the main gainers.

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US H-1B Visas to Indians increased by 24%

NEW DELHI: With regards to the attention brought over by the Indian government over the increased count of rejections on to H-1B visas and resulting in a count much less than the permitted count for India. 

The United States has increased H-1B visas to Indians by 24 percent between 2010 and 2011.The US government on Tuesday said that it had increased H-1B visas from 54,111 issued in 2010 to 67,195 in 2011.

The issue was brought up by Indian Industries in the Indian US CEO forum, India had sought an early resolution to the problems being faced by the IT industry over H-1B visas in the US.


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Cheapest Tablet PC here in India!

NEW DELHI: India now has the world's cheapest tablet, Aakash. The tablet is priced at Rs. 2999 and will be commercially available from November 2011. The tablet is manufactured with collaboration with India Government and British based company Datawind. 

The tablet currently runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and with a 7 inch touch resistive screen, 800 x 480 resolution and 350g weight. The tablet has 256MB RAM and an expandable memory slot that supports upto 32G and also includes two USB ports. 

The tablet comes with a 12-month replacement warranty and supports formats like DOC, DOCX, PDF and PPTX etc. Aakash has standard 3.5 mm headphones jack. 

The commercial version of the tablet would have no duty waivers or subsidy, as in the government's version and come with added features like an inbuilt cellular modem and SIM to access internet. 

The government will be acquiring the tablet for Rs 2250 from DataWind which will be supplied to the students across the country. The device will initially be made available to post-secondary students. 

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