Max Payne 3 impresses with innovative shooting system

When one hears “reinventing the wheel” it’s typically used in a derogatory fashion to suggest that the supposed innovation isn’t required, and is in fact inferior to the accepted standard. In the case of Max Payne 3’s third-person shooting, Rockstar Games truly are making advancements with the mechanic’s reinvention.

As explained in a dramatically-narrated new trailer, the player aims and moves as they would in a first-person shooter, but in the third-person perspective to add intensity and visual splendor to the scene. To achieve this feat, which hasn’t even been tackled before, Rockstar have created thousands of animations that Max will dynamically utilize as the reticle is moved, the standout example being Max flipping onto his back from a prone position to tackle an enemy approaching from the rear.

By monty with No comments

2012 Mobile Roadmap

Mobile computing, consisting of smartphones and tablets, has been the most exciting part of the computing landscape for the past several years and that promises to remain true in 2012. In fact, you could argue smartphones have replaced traditional PCs as the center of the technology market since smartphone sales overtook PC sales this year (even though the PC market continues to grow, albeit at a slower pace).
The past few years have seen some truly revolutionary steps: the acceptance of the smartphone, the introduction of the iPad and Android-based consumer tablets, and the introduction of LTE. Nonetheless, 2012 foreshadows more evolution.
Operating Systems
Mobile operating systems have truly defined smartphones and tablets recently, and that's likely to stay the same. The first big change for next year should be the introduction of many more phones and tablets that run Android 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich. The first phone based on this technology, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, is already out (here's my take), and a number of vendors have said some of their existing models will be upgraded to the new OS shortly. But 2012 is likely to see dozens of new phones and tablets all designed to run Android 4.0.
Microsoft's 2012 roadmap is also getting a lot of attention. For tablets, the company will push Windows 8, running on both traditional x86-based computers and on systems based on chips from ARM-based vendors Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm. Although it will run on desktops and traditional notebooks as well, Windows 8 seems very much optimized for tablets. For phones, we haven't seen many details yet, but Microsoft—which just shipped Windows Phone 7.5, known as Mango in October—is working on Windows Phone 8, called Apollo, for the later part of 2012. It may well have an interim release in between. The other OS vendors will be upgrading their systems, as well.
Research In Motion has promised a February update for its PlayBook tablet OS. That should include native email messaging and calendar clients. In the later part of 2012, RIM has promised a new OS, called BlackBerry OS 10, which combines features from the QNX-based PlayBook OS with the traditional BlackBerry ones. One particularly interesting feature promised is a "Player" that will allow some Android applications to run on BlackBerrys.
And finally, there's Apple, which, as usual, has remained very tight-lipped about its plans. The latest version of its mobile OS, iOS 5, shipped just this fall, so it would be surprising to see a major revision any time soon.
Networks and Screens
Verizon rolled out its 4G LTE service this year on a variety of phones and says its service now reaches over 186 million Americans. AT&T is in the process of rolling out its service and recently released its first LTE phones. Sprint, which has backed Wimax for 4G until now, has said it will be launching LTE in mid-2012. U.S. Cellular is also planning an LTE rollout. Of the major carriers, that leaves T-Mobile, which is promoting its HSPA+ network as 4G, as the only one without an LTE strategy.
As a result, we're likely to see a lot more LTE devices next year. So far, just about all the LTE phones and tablets run Android, but Nokia has promised an LTE Windows Phone in 2012 and other makers seem likely to follow. BlackBerry is expected to get LTE support with the BlackBerry 10 OS. Apple isn't talking, but everyone assumes LTE support is coming next year, as well.
Over the past few years, led by the iPhone 4's retina display, almost all smartphones have dramatically increased their screen resolutions. While tablets often have a higher resolution display, it is spread over a larger area so the pixel density has been notably less. In 2012, I expect many of the screen makers, and thus many of the tablet makers, to offer higher-density displays, both from traditional LCDs and Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) screens.
Mobile Chips
Until a few years ago, no one outside of the industry cared which processors were running our mobile devices. Now, that has changed. Processors are routinely used to differentiate phones and tablets.
The vast majority of these devices run some version of the ARM architecture and the various makers of ARM-based chips compete, updating the number of cores, increasing performance and power efficiency, and enhancing integration.
Just about all of the major mobile chip vendors now have dual-core processors, but Nvidia has taken multi-processing to a new level. Its Tegra 3 chip, known as Kal-El, has four standard ARM Cortex-A9 cores plus an additional "companion core" that runs at low-power when the more powerful chips aren't needed. The Asus Transformer Prime pioneers the chip but Nvidia has said it expects new tablets and phones with Tegra 3 and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to be out in the first quarter of 2012.
The advantage of this chip, Nvidia said, is that it allows higher-performance games and 1080p playback, all while using notably less power than its previous Tegra 2 dual-core processor. Sometime next year, the company plans an improved version known as "Tegra 3+," followed by a major upgrade known as "Wayne" in the second half of the year and a version with an integrated baseband processor known as "Grey" in 2013.
Next year, Qualcomm will introduce its Snapdragon S4 line. It will use a CPU core known as Krait, which combines the baseband processor (for controlling the radio) with the applications processor on a 28nm process and will also feature its Adreno graphics. This should include such things as integrated LTE support and lower power usage, along with notably higher performance. These will be dual-core processors with integrated basebands; Qualcomm will also offer a quad-core S4 application processor with no baseband for tablets and other mobile computing devices.
Texas Instruments' OMAP4 line has been chosen as the initial processor for the first Android 4.0 devices, as well as the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet, and has a big change planned for next year's OMAP5. This chip uses a new core from ARM called the Cortex-A15, which allows for 40-bit instructions (versus 32 in the current ARM Cortex-A9). TI has said this chip will have dual A15s running at 2 GHz or faster, as well as two Cortex-M4 cores for low-power applications and Imagination Technologies' PowerVR graphics.
Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments devices are used in Android phones and tablets and will be used in Windows 8 designs, as well.
But there are a number of other ARM-based vendors who sell chips for smartphones and tablets.
Samsung is already sampling its own Exynos series of processors using a 32nm process and dual Cortex-A15 cores, and is the first company to ship that core. To date, Samsung has mostly used its processors internally, rather than selling to other phone makers, but we'll see if that changes. ST-Ericsson has a new family of processors known as NovaThor, available either as separate application processor and baseband chips or an integrated solution, and has historically been quite strong at Nokia. Marvell has single, dual, and quad-core ARM chips as part of its Armada family of applications processors.
Freescale is sampling one-, two-, and four-core versions of its i.MX6 family, including a quad-core Cortex-A9 version with a 64-bit memory bus and Vivante graphics. While Freescale focuses more on "intelligent systems" and embedded markets, it has also seen success with e-book readers and low-end tablets, and will be breaking into the tablet market next year. Broadcom, which is known for its highly-integrated connectivity chips (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.), is also making a move into the smartphone category with application processors and 4G LTE basebands. A few companies that make processors based on the MIPS core (a competitor to ARM) are working on Android-compatibility versions, as well.


But it's Intel that really hopes to change the market by embracing Android 4.0 with a new design of its x86-compatible Atom chip, known as Medfield. Intel has long promised it would be a player in the phone market, but has always come up short. Through the chip's support of Android and its move to 32nm technology, Intel hopes to be more of a player in 2012, and I expect to see a big push for this at CES in January.
For the past several years, Intel's Atom has been on 45nm technology, while its Core processor line has been on new process technology. That will change over the next few years with a 32nm architecture known as Saltwell slated for 2012, a 22nm version known as Silvermont for 2013, and a 14nm version known as Airmont in 2014—all of which have multiple chips. On the 2012 32nm roadmap, Medfield is aimed at Android-based tablets and smartphones, while Clover Trail is aimed most directly at Windows 8 tablets. (Of course, you'll also see some Windows 8 tablets based on the more powerful but more power consuming Core family, using notebook style chips.)
AMD also plans a break into tablets and smartphones with Desna, a variation of its E-series processor based on the low-power Bobcat core. This was slated to be replaced in 2012 by a version known as Hondo, but AMD's roadmap is currently unclear.
And then there's Apple, which of course, hasn't announced its plans. It is widely expected, though, that its dual-core A5, based on the ARM architecture and manufactured on Samsung's 45nm process, will be replaced by a new processor called the A6, widely rumored to be on a 28nm or 32nm process with four cores. I'd be very surprised to see a new iPhone next year without a new processor.
From operating systems and processors to screens and networks, 2012 promises all sorts of changes for makers of mobile devices. Will either of the two companies that have dominated the traditional PC—Microsoft and Intel—come back and impact the smartphone and tablet market, where smaller competitors have thus far been much more successful?

By monty with No comments

Apple to release two iPads in January

Drop everything. There's another iPad rumour. According to Digitimes, Apple will unveil not one, but two new iPads next month.

Citing "sources and supply chain partners," Digitimes said the two devices will be revealed next month at iWorld, an annual Apple expo. The site, a frequent Apple rumor monger, said the new tablets will target mid-range and high-end price segments, leaving the iPad 2 to compete with the Kindle Fire in the "price-sensitive market segment."
It also alleged that both new iPads will feature 9.7-inch, high-res 1,536-by-2,048 pixel displays, with panels supplied mostly from Sharp, as well as some from Samsung and LG. However, previous reports have indicated that Apple will produce a 7.85-inch iPad.

Apple will reportedly kick up the processing speed for these next iPads, adding quad-core A6 processors, Digitimes said.
Much like the iPhone 4S, the duo of new iPads will supposedly get upgraded cameras. Digtimes alleged that one will have a 5-megapixel camera from Samsung and another will have an 8-megapixel lens supplied by Sony.

We've entered a post-iPhone news cycle, when iPad rumors are surfacing with full force. But Digitimes reports should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, last spring it was often reported that Apple would release two models of the iPhone, and sure enough, in October, only one iPhone appeared.

Of course the launch date has been discussed quite a bit, as it goes with an anticipated Apple device. Recently, the Economic Times claimed Apple would debut the device on Feb. 24, Steve Jobs's birthday. Others have called for an early 2012 launch, as well as a March reveal.

By Anonymous with No comments

Mobile Roadmap-2012

Mobile computing, consisting of smartphones and tablets, has been the most exciting part of the computing landscape for the past several years and that promises to remain true in 2012. In fact, you could argue smartphones have replaced traditional PCs as the center of the technology market since smartphone sales overtook PC sales this year (even though the PC market continues to grow, albeit at a slower pace).

The past few years have seen some truly revolutionary steps: the acceptance of the smartphone, the introduction of the iPad and Android-based consumer tablets, and the introduction of LTE. Nonetheless, 2012 foreshadows more evolution.

Operating Systems
Mobile operating systems have truly defined smartphones and tablets recently, and that's likely to stay the same. The first big change for next year should be the introduction of many more phones and tablets that run Android 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich. The first phone based on this technology, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, is already out (here's my take), and a number of vendors have said some of their existing models will be upgraded to the new OS shortly. But 2012 is likely to see dozens of new phones and tablets all designed to run Android 4.0.

Microsoft's 2012 roadmap is also getting a lot of attention. For tablets, the company will push Windows 8, running on both traditional x86-based computers and on systems based on chips from ARM-based vendors Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm. Although it will run on desktops and traditional notebooks as well, Windows 8 seems very much optimized for tablets. For phones, we haven't seen many details yet, but Microsoft—which just shipped Windows Phone 7.5, known as Mango in October—is working on Windows Phone 8, called Apollo, for the later part of 2012. It may well have an interim release in between. The other OS vendors will be upgrading their systems, as well.

Research In Motion has promised a February update for its PlayBook tablet OS. That should include native email messaging and calendar clients. In the later part of 2012, RIM has promised a new OS, called BlackBerry OS 10, which combines features from the QNX-based PlayBook OS with the traditional BlackBerry ones. One particularly interesting feature promised is a "Player" that will allow some Android applications to run on BlackBerrys.

And finally, there's Apple, which, as usual, has remained very tight-lipped about its plans. The latest version of its mobile OS, iOS 5, shipped just this fall, so it would be surprising to see a major revision any time soon.

Networks and Screens
Verizon rolled out its 4G LTE service this year on a variety of phones and says its service now reaches over 186 million Americans. AT&T is in the process of rolling out its service and recently released its first LTE phones. Sprint, which has backed Wimax for 4G until now, has said it will be launching LTE in mid-2012. U.S. Cellular is also planning an LTE rollout. Of the major carriers, that leaves T-Mobile, which is promoting its HSPA+ network as 4G, as the only one without an LTE strategy.

As a result, we're likely to see a lot more LTE devices next year. So far, just about all the LTE phones and tablets run Android, but Nokia has promised an LTE Windows Phone in 2012 and other makers seem likely to follow. BlackBerry is expected to get LTE support with the BlackBerry 10 OS. Apple isn't talking, but everyone assumes LTE support is coming next year, as well.

Over the past few years, led by the iPhone 4's retina display, almost all smartphones have dramatically increased their screen resolutions. While tablets often have a higher resolution display, it is spread over a larger area so the pixel density has been notably less. In 2012, I expect many of the screen makers, and thus many of the tablet makers, to offer higher-density displays, both from traditional LCDs and Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) screens.

Mobile Chips

Until a few years ago, no one outside of the industry cared which processors were running our mobile devices. Now, that has changed. Processors are routinely used to differentiate phones and tablets.
The vast majority of these devices run some version of the ARM architecture and the various makers of ARM-based chips compete, updating the number of cores, increasing performance and power efficiency, and enhancing integration.

Just about all of the major mobile chip vendors now have dual-core processors, but Nvidia has taken multi-processing to a new level. Its Tegra 3 chip, known as Kal-El, has four standard ARM Cortex-A9 cores plus an additional "companion core" that runs at low-power when the more powerful chips aren't needed. The Asus Transformer Prime pioneers the chip but Nvidia has said it expects new tablets and phones with Tegra 3 and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to be out in the first quarter of 2012.

The advantage of this chip, Nvidia said, is that it allows higher-performance games and 1080p playback, all while using notably less power than its previous Tegra 2 dual-core processor. Sometime next year, the company plans an improved version known as "Tegra 3+," followed by a major upgrade known as "Wayne" in the second half of the year and a version with an integrated baseband processor known as "Grey" in 2013.
Next year, Qualcomm will introduce its Snapdragon S4 line. It will use a CPU core known as Krait, which combines the baseband processor (for controlling the radio) with the applications processor on a 28nm process and will also feature its Adreno graphics. This should include such things as integrated LTE support and lower power usage, along with notably higher performance. These will be dual-core processors with integrated basebands; Qualcomm will also offer a quad-core S4 application processor with no baseband for tablets and other mobile computing devices.

Texas Instruments' OMAP4 line has been chosen as the initial processor for the first Android 4.0 devices, as well as the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet, and has a big change planned for next year's OMAP5. This chip uses a new core from ARM called the Cortex-A15, which allows for 40-bit instructions (versus 32 in the current ARM Cortex-A9). TI has said this chip will have dual A15s running at 2 GHz or faster, as well as two Cortex-M4 cores for low-power applications and Imagination Technologies' PowerVR graphics.

Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments devices are used in Android phones and tablets and will be used in Windows 8 designs, as well.

But there are a number of other ARM-based vendors who sell chips for smartphones and tablets.
Samsung is already sampling its own Exynos series of processors using a 32nm process and dual Cortex-A15 cores, and is the first company to ship that core. To date, Samsung has mostly used its processors internally, rather than selling to other phone makers, but we'll see if that changes. ST-Ericsson has a new family of processors known as NovaThor, available either as separate application processor and baseband chips or an integrated solution, and has historically been quite strong at Nokia. Marvell has single, dual, and quad-core ARM chips as part of its Armada family of applications processors.

Freescale is sampling one-, two-, and four-core versions of its i.MX6 family, including a quad-core Cortex-A9 version with a 64-bit memory bus and Vivante graphics. While Freescale focuses more on "intelligent systems" and embedded markets, it has also seen success with e-book readers and low-end tablets, and will be breaking into the tablet market next year. Broadcom, which is known for its highly-integrated connectivity chips (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.), is also making a move into the smartphone category with application processors and 4G LTE basebands. A few companies that make processors based on the MIPS core (a competitor to ARM) are working on Android-compatibility versions, as well.

But it's Intel that really hopes to change the market by embracing Android 4.0 with a new design of its x86-compatible Atom chip, known as Medfield. Intel has long promised it would be a player in the phone market, but has always come up short. Through the chip's support of Android and its move to 32nm technology, Intel hopes to be more of a player in 2012, and I expect to see a big push for this at CES in January.
For the past several years, Intel's Atom has been on 45nm technology, while its Core processor line has been on new process technology. That will change over the next few years with a 32nm architecture known as Saltwell slated for 2012, a 22nm version known as Silvermont for 2013, and a 14nm version known as Airmont in 2014—all of which have multiple chips. On the 2012 32nm roadmap, Medfield is aimed at Android-based tablets and smartphones, while Clover Trail is aimed most directly at Windows 8 tablets. (Of course, you'll also see some Windows 8 tablets based on the more powerful but more power consuming Core family, using notebook style chips.)

AMD also plans a break into tablets and smartphones with Desna, a variation of its E-series processor based on the low-power Bobcat core. This was slated to be replaced in 2012 by a version known as Hondo, but AMD's roadmap is currently unclear.

And then there's Apple, which of course, hasn't announced its plans. It is widely expected, though, that its dual-core A5, based on the ARM architecture and manufactured on Samsung's 45nm process, will be replaced by a new processor called the A6, widely rumored to be on a 28nm or 32nm process with four cores. I'd be very surprised to see a new iPhone next year without a new processor.

From operating systems and processors to screens and networks, 2012 promises all sorts of changes for makers of mobile devices.

By Anonymous with No comments

Samsung to review Android 4.0 ICS upgrade plans for Galaxy S

Samsung is not too unexpectedly rethinking its earlier stance after dropping the rather shocking news that it would not be updating its top-selling Galaxy S family devices with Android 4.0 ICS. Samsung is a very popular brand for Android devices in the country, and we hope it finally reveals detailed and widespread update plans, like LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson already have.

As noted by our earlier report, Samsung had said the hardware and software of the Galaxy S devices would make it difficult to optimize the upgrade, but that hadn’t held it back from including the similarly-specced Nexus S in its list of Ice Cream Sandwich recipients.
The latest news, that Samsung is reviewing its upgrade process for the Galaxy S family and 7-inch Galaxy Tab, was spotted in a MSN Korea report. Samsung has yet to officially confirm the truth behind this however.
The first Android 4.0 ICS devices, the Huawei Honor and Galaxy Nexus, are expected to arrive in January next year.

By monty with No comments

Humble Indie Bundle 4 becomes the most successful one yet

The latest Humble Indie Bundle 4 has been the most successful one yet, accruing over $2,300,000 since its launch a couple of weeks ago, already passing Humble Indie Bundle 3, which hit 2.1 million in its last hours. Sales of Bundle 4 are still on for the next 12 or so hours, so if you are interested, you better hurry over.

Games include Gratuitous Space Battles, Cave Story+, Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, Super Meat Boy, Shank, and Night Sky HD, as well as the five games of Humble Indie Bundle 3 - Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight, and, And Yet It Moves.
The new Humble Indie Bundle lets users choose exactly how their purchases are divided: between the developers, the Child's Play Charity or the American Red Cross, or Humble Indie Bundle. So far, over 425,575 bundles have already been sold.

By monty with No comments

Mumbai students to get the Aakash tablet for Rs. 1,138

Mumbai college students will be soon given the Aakash tablet at a subsidised price of Rs. 1,138. It's notable that the market price of the ultra low-cost Aakash tablet is Rs. 2,500. According to a TOI report, the subsidised Aakash will be made available in 100 varsities including Mumbai University.
Rajpal Hande, director, board of college and university development, tells TOI that the department had issued circulars to all affiliated colleges and department in this regard and they have already given their requirements. Hande further says that the students might also be offered the upgraded version of the Aakash tablet a.k.a UbiSlate 7, which is scheduled to be launched in January.

The official further says that the Aakash will help students access online content for different courses. To get the Aakash tablet, students need to place an order with their respective colleges or the departments concerned. The tablet will allow both teachers and students in the university to access online content whenever they require.
The Aakash tablet was sold out in less than a week after it was released online. DataWind, the maker of the Aakash, has stressed on pre-booking of the UbiSlate 7, which is said to be the upgraded version of the Aakash tablet. The UbiSlate 7 comes with various improvements over the original Aakash tablet and costs just Rs. 499 more.
The Aakash tablet is still not available in the retail stores and DataWind has not yet provided any information on its availability. You may wait for another few weeks to lay hands on a better version of the Aakash tablet.

By monty with 2 comments

Nokia Money: Is India ready to switch to a mobile payment solution?

It is quite surprising that while several established banks and marketing companies offer a raft of services, most are not actively looking to cash in on an important, and soon to be vital, part of any business: the ability to make and accept mobile payments. Mobile payments are now becoming an increasingly vital tool in a business’ armoury. It is projected that mobile payments are going to replace plastic, or even hard currency, as the primary medium of monetary exchange in the next five years. This particular method is poised to change the way consumers buy goods and services.

Quite a few banks have their payment apps for smartphones, however, in a country like in India where feature phones are still majority, the concept of apps will not work for the masses. Several payment solution providers are seeking to address this problem. Nokia, the manufacturer of some of the most widely used mobile phones in the country, is also seeking to address the issue with its recently launched its mobile payment service, Nokia Money. The Nokia Money works with feature phones and allows most basic monetary transactions ranging from mobile top-ups to ticket booking, without the necessity of having a bank account.
Nokia’s mobile wallet service is aimed at rural India, where most of the people do not have a bank account or don’t own a smartphone, personal computer or credit/debit cards. Nokia also aims to simplify lives of people by giving them a secure and convenient method of paying their utility bills. Prior to the launch, Nokia had conducted a successful field test for about a year in areas such as Pune, Nashik and Chandigarh. The company partnered with YES Bank and Union Bank of India to provide the service.

Nokia Money: Key points:
To avail Nokia Money, you need not have a bank account.
Nokia Money is independent of network carriers and individual banking networks.
The service works without any kind of KYC documentation.
Nokia Money works with almost every Nokia phone. The feature comes pre-installed in various Nokia phones including Nokia 100, and 101.
You do not need set up an Internet connection to run this service. However, while registering for the service, you can opt between SMS and Internet. This way you have the flexibility of using the service even on an Internet data plan. You can also use Nokia Money via GPRS.
You have an option of choosing/subscribing to either Union Bank Money or YES Bank Mobile Money Services.
Nokia Money can be used for varied functions, such as topping up mobile account of family members.
Nokia Money is reportedly being tested using NFC devices and NFC chips. We can expect Nokia Money to run on NFC in near future.
It is not clear whether this service can be used on handsets manufactured by other manufacturers or not, though watblog.com says Nokia Money works on all handsets.

By monty with No comments

The best Google Chrome Extensions 2011

Picking the best from so many great add-ons was hard, but we did so. Here are our choices for some of the greatest extensions you can add to your Google browser.

Google Chrome continues to dazzle us at PCMag and that goes for the rest of the Web browsing world as well. Now up to version 17, Chrome remains our Editors' Choice for browsers because it's super-fast and has excellent security, bookmark and preference syncing, and strong support for HTML5. The browser tipped into greatness in late 2009 when it started to support extensions to give it almost unlimited customization.
The Chrome Extensions category of the Google Chrome Web Store has exploded since then, going from 300 to 11,500 in just the first 14 months. Two months ago, the extension gallery got a major facelift. Now, it's even easier to find the best items to install for extra features while surfing (albeit on a never-ending scrolling page full of icons).

We figured, why make you search and search when we can simply tell you what the best are up front? Here's our list of 22 fantastic extensions that all Google Chrome users should know. They'll increase productivity, security, and make the overall experience of using this already-great browser even better. Try them all and if you don't like them, type chrome://extensions into the browser's address bar, which lets you disable or remove all of them. You can also right click an extension's icon to ditch it. Disagree with our list? Have something to add? Tell us about your favorite extensions in the Comments area.

1. Xmarks Bookmark Sync

If there's an extension that's necessary for users of multiple computers—and even multiple browsers on the same or multiple computers—it's Xmarks. It ensures that your bookmarks, tabs, and even passwords are synchronized no matter what browser you use, be it Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or IE.




2. Readability
You'll need an account on Readability.com to take advantage of this extension, which provides just what it says: readability. If you're surfing the Web and you encounter an article or page you want to read but prefer to view it in a less cluttered interface, just click the icon. It will store the page in your account for later access. Readability will even shoot the page in question to your Kindle, or you can use the mobile app versions to read the articles on your phone and tablet. (Evernote Clearly has a similar extension and works with your existing Evernote account.)

and many more...

By monty with No comments

Hands on with Facebook Timeline

The new Timeline, which replaces your profile and wall, shakes Facebook out of the in-the-moment quandary and makes it less like Twitter.

Facebook has begun rolling out Facebook Timeline worldwide to all users. Timeline is, as one might expect by the name, a chronological, visual story of your life, as Facebook has recorded it (or as you choose to tell it).

This new feature replaces the user's Facebook profile page and wall - but currently only if you opt in. You have seven days to hit "publish" after enabling the feature, at which point it will automatically publish."
I keep two Facebook accounts, and I set up Timeline on one of them back in September when the feature became available to anyone with a developer account. Developer accounts are free to create, so the only real barrier to entry was time, but I thought this was a really good idea on Facebook's part. It gave the company a way to start a beta period that was essentially open but wouldn't be flooded by the social network's estimated 800 million members.

Since September, I've noticed a few changes to Timeline, but mostly they are small differences that make it easier to use.

Meanwhile, I left my second Facebook account as it was, which means when the feature became available to everyone, I could sign up for it again to make sure I went through the same enrollment and activation process that nearly everyone else would (see How to Get Facebook Timeline for a quick guide to turning on Timeline).


First Impressions of Facebook Timeline
My first impression of Facebook Timeline is that it's a cross between a visual blog and online scrapbook, at least in theory. In principle, it's more a rearrangement and different display of the information that's already in Facebook. It only becomes a scrapbook when you add detailed information that you might not have had before, like your birthday (with year), photos from childhood, and other memories that could fill in the gap between the beginning of your life and the beginning of your life on Facebook.
Like a scrapbook, pieces seem a little tacked on. If you expand all the expandable boxes, the word "hodgepodge" quickly comes to mind.

Overall design. I don't want to belittle the comment that Timeline is a rearrangement and different display of information, as design very often is a deciding factor between a good Web service and a bad one. Facebook Timeline is designed for activity. The page changes and moves as you scroll. Drop-down tabs at the top and right let you quickly jump to different points in time. The new arrangement emphasizes activity while deemphasizing basic info ("About" information, list of friends, etc.). As before, you have to click through to a new page to see the full information, but now there's an "About" summary right on the page, decreasing the chances perhaps that you'll link to the complete information. Likewise, little snapshots and thumbnail images for things like "friends" and "photos" may also satisfy your curiosity without you ever having to leave the Timeline page.

Cover image. Facebook has named the leading image on any Timeline page the "cover image." It's a large splash photo that you can change at any time, but is not your profile picture, which I like. You can choose any photo to represent you or your life without it being the picture people see of you. This is a welcomed addition. I get the sense that many people want to make their profile picture some image the captures how they're feeling or what they're excited to share at the moment, rather than a picture of their face. I have no problem with creative profile pictures, but there actually is a breakdown in the mechanics of Facebook when you can't identify your friends by sight; several of Facebook's authentication procedures require you to identify your friends. I've failed them on several occasions by staring blankly at pictures of infants, groups of people on a stage, and cartoon images of dogs.

Idiosyncrasies. The dimensions for the cover image are very unconventional, and I found that I didn't like how most of my images looked when I uploaded them without manipulating their size and cropping
them significantly. It's also a large space to fill, so higher-resolution photos work best. You can drag an image around the viewer space, but you can't crop or resize from directly within Facebook. (I'm taking bets now on how soon Facebook will build an image editor, or acquire a company that already makes one.)

History. Timeline solves one big Facebook issue: the matter of it being too in-the-moment. As it stands, the news feed generates flutters of sporadic activity all day long, kind of like Twitter. If you're not logged into Facebook when the activity happens, you might very well miss it. Your experience relies heavily on your timing. Of course, some status updates and activity rises to the top of your news feed based on popularity (another feature I appreciate in Facebook), but there's still some luck of the draw involved. Say you want to re-read something you remember your friend posted roughly two months ago. Her wall may have been flooded with the most recent activity, whereas her timeline is structured in a way that lets you more easily scan and look for the information you want.

Timeline creates a record of events, changes, and other activity, and makes it easier to read or comment on slightly outdated (or even very old) activity by person and time, so if other factors are what trigger your memory, it's still quite difficult to find older posts. There still isn't a robust search tool.

If you're wondering what appears on Timeline, the answer is pretty much everything you do on Facebook: status updates, photos, friendships made, job history, marital status changes, and other information that you've recorded on the social network. Timeline replaces your profile page and wall, only after you opt into it and either publish it or seven days after you enable it.

Final Thoughts
I must admit that I liked playing with Facebook Timeline a lot more than I liked filling in standard profile information, but it can also quickly feel overwhelming. With your profile, you only fill in as much as you want. With Timeline, you face a huge swathe of data that you've already created, and now you're tasked with making sure it's all appropriate and what you want the world to see. If it isn't, you have exactly seven days to change it. That's right. You have seven days (or fewer, if you hit the "publish" button sooner) to adjust your Facebook Timeline before it goes live. I like that's it's not immediate, but I don't like that users are forced into it. And there's no undo. Once Timeline is live, it's live for good.

You can always tease it into shape after the fact, changing permissions at any time, deleting or hiding images you don't want everyone to see, rotating out the cover image, and so forth.

By monty with No comments

Creating IM Bot

This quick tutorial will show you how to develop your own functional IM bot that works with Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live and all other popular instant messaging clients.

To get started, all you need to know are some very basic programming skills (any language would do) and web space to host your “bot”.

For this example, I have created a dummy bot called “insecure” that listens to your IM messages. To see this live, add insecure@bot.im to your GTalk buddy list and start chatting.

If you like to write a personal IM bot, just follow these simple steps:-

Step 1: Go to www.imified.com and register a new account with a bot.

Step 2: Now it’s time to create a bot which is actually a simple script that resides on your public web server.
It could be in PHP, Perl, Python or any other language.

Example Hello World bot:
The example below illustrates just how easy it is to create a bot.
This example is coded in PHP.
<?php

switch ($_REQUEST['step']) {
case 1:
echo "Hi, what's your name?";
break;
case 2:
echo "Hi " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . ", where do you live?";
break;
case 3:
echo "Well, welcome to this hello world bot, " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . "<br>from " . $_REQUEST['value2'] . ".<reset>";
break;
}

?>

Step 3: Once your script is ready, put it somewhere on your web server and copy the full URL to the clipboard.

Step 4: Now login to your imified account, paste the script URL

Screen Name: insecure@bot.im
Bot Script URL: http://www.biteitzone.com/imbot.php

Step 5: Add that im bot your friends list. That’s it.

This is a very basic bot but the possibilities are endless.

For instance, you could write a bot that will send an email to all your close friends via a simple IM message. Or you could write one that will does currency conversion.

By monty with No comments

Aakash tablet goes on sale online; pre-orders for UbiSlate 7 begin

The much-awaited ultra low-cost Aakash tablet is now up for grabs, as DataWind make the tablet available for online purchase. The Aakash, also touted as the world's cheapest tablet, has been priced at Rs. 2,500. DataWind is promising delivery of the tablet within seven days. Moreover, the company has also started taking pre-orders for the upgraded model of the Aakash a.k.a UbiSlate, which has been priced at Rs. 2,999.
To refresh your memory, the Aakash tablet was announced in October this year. Previously nicknamed as Sakshat, the Aakash tablet is a government-sponsored device, which aims to connect rural India with the ongoing technology boom in the country. The susbsidised Aakash tablet is likely to cost Rs. 1,750. DataWind, however, is offering the commercial version of the Aakah tablet.

 The Aakash tablet runs on Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. The Aakash has a 7-inch display with 800x480 pixel resolution. For connectivity, it has an built-in Wi-FI support and can connect a datacard for 3G and GPRS connectivity. The storage of the device can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD. It has a 256 MB RAM. The device supports document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP and can run PDF viewer, Text editor. It has a 2,100 mAh battery which is promised to give 3 hours of backup depending upon usage. Read  'Your guide to the new $35 Aakash Tablet' for further details.You can also visit the official website for more details.

The UbiSlate 7, which is expected to be launched next month, features both GPRS and Wi-Fi. The UbiSlate 7 will also have the functionality of a mobile. The processor will be upgraded to 700 MHz, which will apparently be "three times better" than the original Aakash in performance. The tablet will also come with a 3,200 mAh battery, which is expected to give a back up to 5 hours. It comes with a headphone/mic plus integrated speaker. Read more details about the UbiSlate 7 here.

It has been really a long wait for the Aakash tablet (considering that the tablet was announced nearly two years ago). The ultra low-price of the Aakash tablet has already made it popular worldwide. So are you all set for the Aakash tablet? Or, you plan to wait for another month to lay hands on an upgraded version of the tablet that costs just Rs. 500 more? Let us know your take in the comments section below:

By monty with No comments

YouTube for Schools launched, with subject playlists and no distractions

YouTube has launched YouTube for Schools, a new service targeted at institutions of learning, featuring educational videos, as well as no distractions, with only relevant content being shown.
YouTube for Schools was introduced in a blog post by Brian Truong, product manager for the online video sharing site, and can be found at youtube.com/schools. Google’s vision behind the service was to deliver a platform where teachers would be able to show their students the “vast array of educational videos on YouTube,” without being worried about distractions in the form of irrelevant or inappropriate recommended videos, such as the “the latest music video or a video of a cute cat.”
Therefore, in other words, the new service is more “a network setting for school administrators,” restricting access to educational content only, and subject-aligned relevant playlists from more than 600 partners, such as MIT, Numberphile, Smithsonian, Steve Spangler Science, and TED, most of which was previously also found on the YouTube EDU site along with university-level content.

YouTube for Schools will launch with more than 300 subject playlists from mathematics to science, and English, sorted by grade level. They can be found at youtube.com/teachers. Teachers can also suggest their own playlists.

By monty with No comments

Facebook's new tool allows users to report suicidal behaviour

Facebook has come up with a new tool that allows users to help friends, who have expressed suicidal thoughts on the social networking site. With the new tool, users can instantly connect with a counselor through Facebook's chat messaging system. It's notable that Facebook has previously taken measures to report offensive content, fake profiles and bullying. Facebook says the new tool will help improve safety on the social networking site, which has more than 800 million users.
How it works? Users can report suicidal behaviour by clicking the report option, placed next to any piece of content on the site. Users then need to mark the content under the harmful behaviour option. The reported user will receive an e-mail from Facebook which will have a direct link for a private online chat with a crisis counselor. "This was a natural progression from something we've been working on for a long time," Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens is quoted as saying.

Facebook users can also report the suicidal behaviour by visit the site's Help Centre or by searching the suicide reporting forms. Users can also use the reporting links around the site. Facebook will also send an e-mail to friends who reported the suicidal behaviour, confirming the resolution of the problem.

By monty with No comments

HTC Desire HD, Incredible S, ChaCha, Wildfire S get Android 2.3.5 update

HTC is rolling out the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread update to its smartphones including the Desire HD, Incredible S, ChaCha and Wildfire S. HTC has also announced Sense 3.0 update for its smartphones, excluding the Wildfire S and ChaCha.
According to a GSMArena report, HTC UK has confirmed that the Android 2.3.5 update for the aforementioned smartphones. The update is likely to come with varioius bug fixes and optimisations. HTC Turkey had posted a timeline and list of devices that would be getting the HTC Sense 3.0 UI and Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread update.

According to reports, HTC is also planning an update to improve the Twitter and Facebook tools on its Salsa smartphone. The update is likely to come later this month or next. HTC may still announce an Android Honeycomb update for its HTC Flyer tablet, which currently runs on Gingerbread..

With the new HTC Android-based handsets rolling out with the latest Sense 3.5UI, it was long expected that the company will bring 3.0 update for its existing users. As of now, there's no word on rolling out the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates for these HTC Smartphones.

By monty with No comments

The Kindle Fire: Clunky but Content-Rich

As gadget reviewers have pointed out, the newly released Amazon Kindle Fire is clunky and slow -- in keeping with Amazon's sense of style. But it seems it is being purchased in droves by consumers and is poised to become the second-most-popular tablet in the United States, after Apple's iPad.

In a press release issued by Amazon on Monday, the company said, "Kindle Fire remained the best-selling product across all of Amazon since its introduction 8 weeks ago." As is its custom, the company gave no specific numbers.

Based on calculations by Forrester, it is believed that Amazon will sell close to five million Kindle Fire tablets by the end of the holiday season. Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, thinks it will be slightly less,at about four million.

So why is the Kindle Fire selling so well if it is not so pretty? The answer is price and content.
The Kindle Fire costs $200. The least expensive iPad, which only comes with Wi-Fi and 16 gigabytes of memory, costs $500. The Kindle Fire also comes packed with lots of goodies inside, including access to more than 18 million movies, TV shows, magazines and books, according to Amazon.

"It comes down to the content and the strength of Amazon's brand. Amazon is the No. 2 brand, after Apple, among consumers," said Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester research analyst who specializes in mobile computing. "The Kindle Fire is a decent consumer media device for a very good price."

Ms. Rotman Epps pointed out that the Kindle Fire hardware is essentially the BlackBerry PlayBook with one difference: the content.

"You turn the BlackBerry PlayBook on, and it doesn't work because there is nothing to do with it," she said. "The Kindle isn't perfect, but it's a simple out-of-box experience, and most importantly its content is front and center as soon as you start it for the first time."

Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive, predicted the Fire's appeal in an interview with The New York Times last month. "Part of the Kindle Fire is, of course, the hardware, but really, it's the software, the content, it's the seamless integration of those things," he said.

Mr. Bezos and Amazon obviously realized they could not beat Apple by creating better hardware, but Amazon could definitely compete with the company on services, content and price.

Either way, the Fire would jump beyond other makers' tablets, many of which have been ignored by consumers. Apple has sold more than 29 million iPads during its first 15 months on the market.

By releasing a tablet that is inexpensive and works just well enough for consumers, Amazon is
helping assert itself as a player

By monty with No comments

Twitter tries to simplify its service

Twitter on Thursday announced a new design for its service that the company hopes will draw in new users, keep them on the site longer and persuade paid advertisers to follow them there.

The new look for Twitter, which is rolling out first in applications for Apple and Android phones, has three new tabs that Twitter hopes will make the service simpler for the uninitiated to use: a personal home page, marked by a birdhouse icon; an "@ connect" tab signifying conversations, people and brands; and a "# discover" tab for keywords and topics. Clicking an old-fashioned quill symbol lets you compose a message.

Jack Dorsey, a Twitter founder and chairman of the board, characterized the new look this way: "Less places to click, less things to learn."

Founded five years as a platform for sending out pithy text-message-like missives, Twitter now has 100 million users worldwide, according to figures from the company. Its audience is a fraction of Facebook's and, on average, younger and more tech-savvy.

Twitter is remarkably easy in some respects. Every message - or tweet - must be limited to 140 characters, including links to Web sites, music or photographs. Or a user can quietly follow others who have something to say - celebrities, politicians or their moms - or read about the issues that are "trending," or popular worldwide.

Twitter is designed for public messages and allows users to sign up using pseudonyms. It has proved to be a remarkably nimble tool in mobilizing protest movements and spreading political messages.

But it has been vexed by a perception that it is difficult to use. Quirks like hash tags, or message topics preceded by an # symbol, can be off-putting to first-time visitors.

Thursday's announcement seems designed to position Twitter as a more mainstream instrument, and presumably to draw more advertisers.

As a symbol of its ambition, Twitter unveiled the new design at its would-be new headquarters: a 215,000-square-foot space in a long-defunct Art Deco-era building in downtown San Francisco. Twitter, which currently employs 700 people in a smaller office space, said it would be able to hold "thousands" of people in its new space.

By monty with No comments

India asked Google to drop 255 items for govt criticism, 8 for hate speeches

Google has received government requests for removal of 358 items from its services, including YouTube and Orkut, during the January-June period, according to a report by the Internet search giant.
   
As many as 255 item removal requests cited the government criticism as the reason, said the Google Transparency Report.

The government had asked Google to remove 236 items from Orkut and 19 items from YouTube for the same reason, it added.
   
Other reasons include defamation (39 requests), privacy and security (20 requests), impersonation (14 requests), hate speech (8 requests), pornography (3 requests) and national security (1 request).
   
As much as 51 per cent of the total requests were partially or fully complied with, the report said.
   
The information assumes significance in the backdrop of the raging controversy over the screening of content on social networking sites. Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal has asked them to screen derogatory, defamatory and
inflammatory content about political leaders and religion.
   
The report added that "we declined the majority of these requests and only locally restricted videos that  appeared to violate local laws  prohibiting speech that could  incite
enmity between communities".

 According to the report, Orkut topped the list of products for which content/item removal requests were received with 264 requests.
   
Google received requests from the state and the local law enforcement agencies to remove YouTube videos that displayed protests against social leaders or used offensive language in reference to religious leaders, the report said.
    
"In addition, we received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 236 communities and profiles from Orkut (Google's social networking site) that were critical of
a local politician. We did not comply with this request, since the content did not violate our community standards or local law," it said.

During the January-June period, Google received 1,739 user data requests, which are governments requests for disclosure of user data from Google accounts or services. In
addition, 2,439 users/account data access requests were made.
   
Google report stated that 70 per cent of the data requests have been fully or partially compiled with.

By monty with 1 comment

Apple forced to deal with patent troll??

Apple appears to have entered an unusual deal with a company commonly referred to as a patent troll.

Digitude Innovations--a company known more for obtaining patents for the purpose of suing other companies for royalties than making products--appears to have acquired two Apple patents it's using to press for royalties or product bans from other tech companies, according to a Tech Crunch report. Digitude is reportedly using the patents against Amazon, HTC, LG, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, and Sony.

The company may have been forced into the pact to avoid a costly legal dispute with Digitude, a company founded in 2010 to "acquire, aggregate, and license key technology areas within the consumer electronics and related technology fields in a patent consortium." The Virginia-based company announced in April the "completion of its first such strategic partnership with one of the world's leading consumer electronics companies."

Digitude didn't identify that company, but it appears that it may have been Apple. Digitude recently filed a lawsuit with the International Trade Commission, which has the power to block imports, against a handful of companies (PDF) that cites two patents formerly owned by Apple, Tech Crunch reports.

The transfers seem to have occurred through a mystery company called Cliff Island, which appears to exist only in name.

The bigger mystery is why Apple would do this. Tech Crunch suggests two scenarios: Either Apple is using Digitude as a "hired gun" to go after patent royalties, or Digitude went after Apple and Apple transferred these patents to assuage Digitude.

Apple representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

By Anonymous with No comments

Next-generation iPad available in 3-4 months--report

Updates on the status of the next-generation iPad are becoming more frequent as the Asia-based supply chain gears up for production. That latest report says the next iPad will be available in three to four months.

Why by April? Component manufacturers have already started delivering next-gen iPad parts to original equipment manufacturers, according to a report in Taipei-based Digitimes.

Chinese device manufacturing giant Foxconn will begin to produce the future iPads in January and "ramp up" production volume starting in February, Digitimes said, citing a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times, which, in turn, cites Kevin Chang, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets.

The report goes on to claim that as manufacturers gear up for the new iPad, there will be a corresponding decline in production of the iPad 2--to between 4 million and 5 million units in the first quarter of 2012, the report said, citing sources.

Production of the newest iPad is expected to hit almost 10 million units in the first quarter of 2012, according to estimates.

By Anonymous with No comments