Facebook launches Facebook Connect service for iPhone

Facebook has announced the new Facebook Connect for iPhone service at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, TX. Dave Morin, senior platform manager at Facebook, explained the new iPhone integration, the recently released Facebook features for brands and celebrities and the new homepage design.

Facebook Connect for iPhone is available now with several participating apps, and does for iPhone apps what Facebook Connect does for Web sites: users can link their apps with their Facebook profile to share their data with friends.

Morin invited several iPhone developers to show off their new functionality. Representatives from Playfish, Tapulous, and SGN showed off how Facebook Connect for iPhone will work with games. For instance, you can share you scores in your Facebook feed, see which of your friends are online, and invite both iPhone- and non-iPhone-using Facebook friends to play with you.

Other apps that are utilizing Facebook Connect include the popular Urbanspoon and Flixster Movies apps. Urbanspoon now lets users post restaurant pictures and reviews on their Facebook feeds, and Flixster does a similar thing for movies. Look for Facebook Connect-enabled apps soon from Citysearch, CitizenSports, Loopt, MTV, EA Sports, and several other companies.

Google to steer telephone traffic

Google is preparing to steer more telephone traffic with the introduction of Google Voice. Google Voice is based on the technology of Grand Central Communications, a company that Google acquired in July 2007.

Google is upgrading the service for GrandCentral's current users to include automated transcriptions of voicemails and discounts on international calls.

For now, Google Voice only will be available to the people who already have been relying on GrandCentral to manage incoming calls on their office, home and mobile phone lines. Google says several hundred thousand people have GrandCentral accounts.

The free service has been closed to new users while Google retooled the technology to handle a wider audience. Within the next few weeks, Google Voice will begin welcoming people who had signed up to be on the service's waiting list.

Here's how it works: Google Voice assigns a unique phone number to each user. Calls to the Google Voice number can then be directed to any other phone line. The service also provides a hub for all messages. The online command center also enables a user to customize greetings for friends and family or ward off unwelcome callers.

The move comes as Google increasingly branches out from its stronghold in Internet search, as it seeks to carve out a role in everything from cell phones to personal productivity software.

This isn't Google's first attempt to become a bigger player in the telecommunications market. The company has also built a software platform for mobile devices, called Android, that's designed to ensure that people on the go can easily access Google's services when they are away from home or the office.

Google makes money from selling enterprise versions of its applications to corporations. But the current priority is to make Google Voice a success as a free consumer product.

Google launches Interest Based Advertising System

Google has launched a test version of Interest Based Advertising System for its network of websites. Google will use its surveillance of web surfing habits to figure out which ads are best suited to each individual's interests.

Under this program, someone who frequently visits sites about cell phones might see more ads about cell phones even on sites that has nothing to do with cell phones.

The new system is designed to record the interests of users based on the pages they view and Internet searches they conduct, offering tailor-made advertising offers to match which can further be refined by the user.

The ads are set to debut within the next few weeks and will initially appear on Google's YouTube and thousands of other sites that belong to Google's ad network.

The tactic relies on technology that Google got last year in a $3.2 billion acquisition of the Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc.

According to Google, “Keyword advertising has been so successful because it's useful to users, advertisers and publishers - everyone's interests are aligned. We believe that interest based ads will create the same virtuous cycle, by giving users more relevant ads, while generating higher returns for advertisers and publishers”.

Google is following major rivals like Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. that already have been customizing ads based on the past activities of specific Web browsers. Until now, Google had been tying its ads solely to search requests and the general content on Web pages.

More on Interest Based Advertising from Official Google Blog

Nokia launches three music phones- 5730, 5330 and 5030

World top cell phone maker, Nokia has launched three new music phones. The all new music phone models from Nokia are Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, Nokia 5330 XpressMusic and Nokia 5030. The cell phone maker also laid emphasis on expansion plans for its music service as the company seeks additional revenue streams.

The 5730 XpressMusic model targets the social networking trend with a full sliding keyboard. This misic phone has been priced at 280 euros.

The 5330 XpressMusic model has been priced at 160 euros while the Nokia 5030 model has got a price tag of 40 euros. Here the subsidies and taxes have been excluded.

Nokia’s Comes with Music bundled service is currently available in Britain and Singapore. The company plans to expand this service to Australia later this month.

Additional launches, including Italy, Sweden and Mexico, are planned for the coming several months.

Comes with Music offers unlimited music from major music labels and a number of independents, and the music can be kept even after the yearly contract has expired.

$250,000 Turing Award to MIT Professor Barbara Liskov

MIT professor Barbara Liskov has been honoured with Turing Award. Google Inc and Intel Corp supported, Turing Award is one of the most prestigious honors in computing, which is given for helping to make computer programs more reliable, secure and easy to use. This time Turing Award worth $250,000 has been given to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

MIT professor Barbara Liskov was honored for pioneering new designs in computer languages that gird everyday digital applications. Professor Barbara Liskov is only the second woman to win this prestigious prize. The prize money for the Turing Award comes from Google Inc and Intel Corp.

The Association for Computing Machinery, which honors the Turing Award, said Barbara Liskov revolutionized the programming field after she was the first US woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in computer science. Liskov got her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1968, and she has been an MIT professor since 1972.

According to MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif, “Her exceptional achievements have leapt from the halls of academia to transform daily life around the world. Every time you exchange e-mail with a friend, check your bank statement online or run a Google search, you are riding the momentum of her research.”

The prestigious Turing Award is named for the late British mathematician Alan Turing. Past winners of this award include Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn. Professor Barbar Liskov will be honored with Turing Award on June 27 in San Diego.

On the occasion of her winning the Turing Award, Professor Barbara Liskov participated in an interview with the MIT News Office, which you can find here.

MIT Professor Barbara Liskov on winning Turing Award

Dell launches Latitude E6400 XFR -its First Rugged Touch Screen Laptop

Dell is going to launch the tough Latitude E6400 XFR laptop with a touch screen. Dell claims that the Latitude E6400 XFR laptop withstand drops, dust and high-pressure water sprays.

The tough laptop was designed according to US military specifications and is being targeted at users such as military personnel.

The Latitude E6400 XFR laptop is really tough. The laptop can withstand rain and wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour, and can work in temperatures from -20 degrees Fahrenheit (-33.88 degrees Celsius) to 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius). It can also work for an hour at an altitude of 15,000 feet.

The laptop is also designed to withstand drops of around 4 feet (48 inches) when not operating and 36 inches when operational. The LCD screen floats a little bit within the LCD cover so it can take impacts and shock.

It is Dell's first entrance into the rugged laptop space, where it will compete against companies like Lenovo and Panasonic. The world's second-largest PC maker already offers semi-rugged laptops, including the Latitude E6400 ATG laptop.

The Latitude E6400 XFR is powered by Intel's Core 2 Duo processor. It has a 14.1-inch screen and weighs 8.5 pounds (3.87 kilograms) with a six-cell battery and a solid-state storage drive. It comes with a graphics card, supports up to 8GB of RAM and up to 120GB of storage on a hard drive or 128GB of SSD storage. It runs Windows Vista and has Wi-Fi, 3G mobile broadband and GPS antennas.

The laptop will be available starting March 10 (today) in US, Canada, France, Spain, UK, Germany and Italy. The cost will be around US$4,299.

American Idol to encash iPhone users

FremantleMedia is launching a new mobile application for fans which will have hit numbers from its reality contest -American Idol.

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users will be able to get videos of the 13 finalists along with their bio data, pictures, news and behind-the-scenes content.

This application will come at for a one-time charge of $1.99, and will be updated for users on a weekly basis for the rest of this season. It is expected to have a total of 78 videos between now and the finale. The application will also give a chance to the fans to test their talent-spotting power by enabling them to predict and track which contestants stay and which go.

David Luner- The senior vice chairman of FremantleMedia, North America for interactive and consumer products noted that among the 25 million weekly viewers of Idol there are several millions viewers who go online just to know more about the contestants and the contest and this application could just serve the purpose.

FremantleMedia has been trying hard to spread info on American Idol on as many platforms as possible. Recently it tied up with the teen- centric virtual world Habbo and a new mobile phone game from EA Mobile to promote the show.

UK users blocked by Youtube

Google has taken step to block UK users from watching music videos on YouTube after negotiations with Britain's music royalty-collecting body- PRS for Music -broke down.

Google said it was forced by PRS for Music, which it said is asking for royalties that would cause Google to lose money every time a video was played on YouTube.

In an statement google said, “Our previous license from PRS for Music has expired, and we've been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us”.

Until a solution is found, “we will be blocking premium music videos in the UK that have been supplied or claimed by record labels”, added the Internet Titan.

PRS for Music collects money on behalf of writers and publishers worldwide.

It was not clear how long the music videos would stay blocked. Both PRS for Music and Google said they hoped their dispute could be resolved quickly.

China Mobile to produce 3G mobile phones

World's largest mobile carrier, China Mobile is in talks with Taiwan's three major mobile phone network operators to cooperate on roaming services.

Chairman of China Mobile, Wang Jianzhou said talks had been held with Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications about potential cooperative arrangements.

Wang Jianzhou added the firm also hopes to cooperate with Taiwan phone makers to develop mobile devices.

Deputy general manager of China Mobile, Zhang Chunjiang said the company's volume of calls has declined since the last quarter of 2008 due to the financial crisis.

Zhang Chunjiang said China Mobile will work with foreign companies including Nokia to produce third generation (3G) mobile phones. The company plans to spend 58.8 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) this year on its 3G network, which will cover about 300 Chinese cities by the end of 2009.

Mimi Switch controls Electronic Devices with Facial Expressions

A wink, a smile or a raised eyebrow could soon change the music on your iPod or start up the washing machine. All this is possible because of a new Japanese gadget.

The device looks like a normal set of headphones but is fitted with a set of infrared sensors that measure tiny movements inside the ear that result from different facial expressions.

The gadget called the Mimi Switch or Ear Switch- is connected to a micro-computer that can control electronic devices, essentially making it a hands-free remote control for anything.

Acording to Mimi Switch inventor, Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Osaka University, “You will be able to turn on room lights or swing your washing machine into action with a quick twitch of your mouth”.

“An iPod can start or stop music when the wearer sticks his tongue out, like in the famous Einstein picture. If he opens his eyes wide, the machine skips to the next tune. A wink with the right eye makes it go back”.

“The Ear Switch can be programmed to run with various other facial expressions, such as a wriggle of the nose or a smile”.

The Mimi Switch could also store and interpret data and get to know its user.

The researcher Kazuhiro Taniguchi said, “It monitors natural movements of the face in everyday life and accumulates data. If it judges that you aren't smiling enough, it may play a cheerful song”.

The device could also have serious applications to make people's lives safer and easier.
“If the system is mounted on a hearing aid for elderly people, it could tell how often they sneeze or whether they are eating regularly,” said Kazuhiro Taniguchi.

"If it believes they are not well, it could send a warning message to relatives."

The device could also serve as a remote control for appliances for physically disabled people, from cameras and computers to air conditioners, or alert medical services if a person has a fit.

The Ear Switch or the Mimi Switch follows on from an earlier device called the Temple Switch that was small enough to fit inside a pair of eyeglasses and also read the flick of an eyelid.

Indian Voters go Online

India is turning to the Internet as general elections approach, but it is not political parties or the main candidates in the world's biggest democracy that are embracing the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube to swell coffers and boost support.

While the ruling Congress and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party stick to largely traditional campaigning for now, tech-savvy groups are targeting the growing- and potentially influential- middle classes on the worldwide web.

"A lot of people have seen the change in the US since the elections and made them realise that they can actually do something," said Shridhar Jagannathan, a 30-year-old copywriter involved in the non-partisan www.voteindia.in website.

"It was the literate middle class that brought the change. What happened in the US has inspired people in India to go out and make a difference."

India has some 714 million eligible voters, including 170 million under 35, but unlike in developed countries, it is the marginalised rural poor who vote in the biggest numbers, often along caste, regional or religious lines.

In contrast, many of the English-speaking middle and upper classes readily admit to having never voted, yet still complain loudly about standards of leadership and governance.

According to a recent Times of India survey, most Indians (83 percent) feel lawmakers are corrupt and 59 percent think their main motivation is money.

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) believe politicians are inefficient and 60 percent blame them for all the country's ills.

"Bad politicians are chosen by good people, who fail to vote," says Vote India. Its message is echoed by others like the Tata Tea-backed www.jaagore.com - all Indians need to take responsibility for their elected representatives.

According to Jagannathan, campaigners can help improve standards by targeting the 60 percent of Internet users who live in India's eight largest cities using easily available technology.

The site's creators say they were shocked at the lack of awareness among educated urban dwellers about the democratic process, despite India's diverse, vocal media and growing 24-hour news culture.

At the last nationwide vote in 2004, about a quarter of the 543 members elected to India's lower house of parliament faced criminal charges, including murder, kidnap and rape.

"Our concern is that good governance should come in by increasing the number of votes and more importantly, the quality of votes."

Microsoft to develop a system for web browser switching

World's largest software company, Microsoft Corp is developing a feature in its new operating system that allows users to turn off Internet Explorer and other key Microsoft programs.

The new feature is a major step for the software giant, which has been accused by competitors and regulators of forcing consumers to run its own software, squeezing rivals' offerings out of the marketplace.

The new design will make it easier for users to remove any traces of Internet Explorer from their desktop, although the software will remain installed on the computer, and allow them to run other browsers more smoothly.

Last month Google Inc, which recently launched its own Chrome browser, joined the Mozilla foundation, producer of the Firefox Web browser, and Norway's Opera, in protesting Microsoft's dominance in the browser market.

Paid Apps at BlackBerry App World start at $2.99

Research in Motion (RIM) has provided more information about its BlackBerry App World. Users can sign up to receive an e-mail notification when the store is ready to go live.

RIM has said that the app store will work with all BlackBerry smartphones running OS version 4.2.0 or higher, including the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Storm, and BlackBerry Bold. Devices with trackwheels are not supported.

The store will feature free apps, but paid apps start at $2.99. Users will also have access to a MyWorld feature, which will house all purchased applications.

"In the event a user runs low on storage space, wipes their device or moves to a new device, the user can use MyWorld to re-download the applications they've previously paid for without having to re-purchase them," RIM said.

There is no storage limit on how many apps you can place in MyWorld, or how many times you can re-download apps to the same device. However, if you're switching BlackBerries, you can only re-download MyWorld contents to a different phone three times per year. Applications cannot be stored or run from an SD card.

At launch, the app store will be available in the US, Canada, and the UK. It will initially only support English-language apps, but French, Italian, German, and Spanish will be available in future releases.

Developers from around the world are invited to submit applications to BlackBerry App World, except those located in the Belarus, Myanmar, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic.

There is a $200 application fee for developers to complete registration.

Amazon launches video games trade-in store in challenge to GameStop

Amazon.com Inc has launched an online videogame trade-in store, granting credit at the online retail giant to customers who send in used games.

According to a company blog post from Amazon, “Amazon Video Games Trade-In is a new service that enables you to trade in your games for an Amazon.com Gift Card”.

Customers use a prepaid shipping label to send a used videogame to Amazon and receive credit in return they can use to purchase items on Amazon.com. Users can mail in used games and get varying amounts of Amazon.com credit, including a 10 percent bonus toward items in Amazon's online video games store.

Amazon's move is seen as potential challenge to US videogame retail store GameStop, which has 6,100 stores in the United States and 17 other countries and offers a lucrative game trade-in service.

You may visit Amazon Video Games Trade-In page here.

BlackBerry App World

BlackBerry App World is the name of Research in Motion's yet-to-be launched mobile application storefront.

The company officially unveiled the name - BlackBerry App World- for the store, which is set to go head-to-head with Apple's iTunes App Store and the Android Market.

According to a company spokesperson, the newly branded site should be online soon. As for a public launch of the store, www.BlackBerry.com will also feature a mailing list for users who want to be notified when it goes live. For that BlackBerry fans will have to sign up at www.blackberry.com/appworld .

At the same time, the spokeswoman said, RIM will be relaunching its BlackBerry developer site.

BlackBerry App World is RIM's attempt to emulate some of the iPhone's phenomenal success with consumers, who can choose from thousands of applications in the iPhone apps store on iTunes.

YouTube crossed 100 million US viewer mark

comScore, which is a leader in measuring digital world, has released January 2009 data for Video Metrix services. According to that data Youtube has crossed 100 million US viewer mark. For Youtube, this has happened for the first time. In this way, Youtube dominated the online video arena.

The overall number of videos watched online in the US in January climbed 4 percent from the previous month to 14.8 billion, with YouTube viewing accounting for 91 percent of that growth.

Google-owned websites, specially YouTube, ranked at the top of the US online video heap with 6.4 billion snippets watched during the month.

Fox Interactive Media, which owns online social-networking service MySpace, had the second highest number of videos viewed - 552 million.

Yahoo! online destinations were third with 374 million videos watched, the industry tracking group reported.

According to comScore, approximately 147 million US Internet users watched an average of 101 online videos each in January, with 102 million of those people using Google-owned sites. comScore reported that 99 percent of the video viewing at Google websites took place at YouTube.

Fox Interactive saw the second highest number of online viewers, attracting 62.1 million people. MySpace accounted for 54.1 million of those online video watchers.

Yahoo! and Microsoft websites ranked third and fourth with 41.9 million and 30 million viewers respectively.

Average duration of video snippets viewed was said to be 3.5 minutes.

More on this can be found at comScore Video Metrix data for January 2009

LG to enter netbook market in US

The Korean consumer electronics giant, LG Electronics is gearing up to enter the booming netbook market in the US.

According to a report published by Forbes, LG will launch the X110 in the United States by July. The X110 is a 10-inch netbook. The low-cost mini-notebook, features a 1.6GHz Atom processor and 3G wireless. Although, the X110 will enter US markets now, the product is already available in many worldwide markets.

The X110’s specs are fairly conventional: an 80GB or 120GB hard drive and Windows XP Home. At the Mobile World Congress show in February, LG had introduced a newer model, the X120.

LG’s move into netbooks market makes a lot of sense. With its strong relationships with US cellular providers, LG is ideally positioned to be a major player in the netbook market. AT&T is already offering netbooks from Acer and Dell, and LG would be a nice addition.

Sony reveals new Blu-ray Disc Players- BDP-S360 and BDP-S560

Sony has revealed new Blu-ray Disc Players at Las Vegas. Sony has plans to release two new Blu-ray Disc Players. The models are BDP-S360 and BDP-S560. BDP-S360 will cost $300 while BDP-S560 will cost $350.

Both the models are BD-Live capable. The BDP-S560 comes with integrated 802.11b/g/a/n Wi-Fi for accessing firmware updates and BD-Live content on titles that offer extras such as social networking, online games, and trailers.

The Wi-Fi Protected setup permits easy connecting the player to appropriately enabled wireless routers. The player can connect to other Digital Living Network Alliance-compliant devices to share content such as digital photos.

Both of the Blu-ray Disc Players support AVCHD discs for displaying high-definition home video. And both support Sony's Precision Drive technology, which stabilizes damaged discs and corrects wobbling along three directions.

Both of the new Sony models of Blu-ray Disc Players have stellar audio codec support. The BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 each have on-board 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding.

Google Ads in Google News

Google has introduced ads to the results of search queries on Google News aimed at turning the news aggregation site into a money-making venture. This means that when one a query is entered into the Google News search box, one will see text ads alongside your News search results. These ads would only currently appear on Google News search-results pages in the United States.

Josh Cohen, a business project manager at Google, announced the change on Wednesday. "In recent months we've been experimenting with a variety of different formats. We've always said that we'd unveil these changes when we could offer a good experience for our users, publishers and advertisers alike," Cohen said.

Google News aggregates headlines from more than 4,500 English-language news sources around the world and provides links to articles on their websites. These articles are selected by computers that evaluate how often and on what sites a story appears online.

"I presume that Google gets paid per click for action on those ad offerings. But I doubt that they have any particular plans to share that with the people whose news they're aggregating," said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute.

Kelly McBride, another Poynter faculty member, said "it's always been obvious that Google didn't develop Google News as a public service - they intended to make money off it. I'm ok with Google News making money," she said.

The introduction of ads to Google News search could prove to be controversial. One has to wait to see its results.

Honda launches CB1000R and CBR1000RR in India

After Yamaha and Suzuki it is now Honda who is eying share in the premium segment. They already a fair share in the mass commuter segment with Unicorn, Stunner and Activa. And now they are targeting the premium Indian market with its most exciting superbikes from its international portfolio, the CBR1000RR and the naked CB1000R.

CBR1000RR popularly known as Fireblade will spearhead Honda in the premium bike segment which is currently dominated by Yamaha R1. The bike is powered by a 999 cc inline-four engine with a red line of 13,000 rpm. The engine features titanium valves and pumps out a peak power of 178 bhp. The Honda CBR1000RR has also got the distinction of offering ABS on a series production bike. This Fire blade comes at a price of 12.5lacks.

Next in line is the CB1000R which will be pitted against Yamaha’s MT-01 and comes at a price of 9.5 lacs. This naked bike sees a 1000cc Fireblade engine re-tuned for mid-range performance and dropped into a naked frame.The bike has features like fully adjustable front forks, radial front brakes taken from the Fire blade, single sided swingarm, all-new single backbone frame, a sleek 4-swept-spoke ninja star rear wheel, an all digital dash and H.I.S.S security system.

Honda will sell the CBR 1000RR and CB1000R through exclusive stores in four metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata in the first phase. The company plans to expand the dealers to other cities depending on the demand.