Facebook-not into building Phone!

According to TechCrunch reports, “Facebook is building the software for the phone and working with a third party to actually build the hardware. Facebook wants to integrate deeply into the contacts list and other core functions of the phone. It can only do that if it controls the operating system”, the Facebook authorities has referred to the report as false and misleading.

Facebook spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin said in an email “Facebook is not building a phone.” She even talked of a no. of ways through which the social network wants to move closer to the core of phones, such as using software development kits (SDKs) and supporting the nascent technology standard HTML5.

She wrote, “Our approach has always been to make all phones and apps more social, not build a phone. Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this.”

Facebook’s head of mobile Erick Tseng, in an interview talked about the future of Facebook’s mobile efforts as “stepping away from doing just one-off applications.”

He said, Facebook would be moving “towards a platform strategy -all of that great social goodness that third party developers are now enjoying for the desktop Web, they might be able to enjoy for mobile apps”.

“The beauty of having a platform play is that all of the social interactions that you are familiar with now become available throughout the entire phone,” he said. “Any app, whether it is a restaurant or shopping or a movie ticket service, can plug into this Facebook mobile platform and extract this social intelligence as if it was a utility.”

He said, “Facebook wants to bridge that physical phone experience to all that really great rich social data in the cloud. That level of personalization and context for a phone is what is going to define the next generation of user experience.”

Providing these functionalities might require deeper integration of Facebook with a phone’s operating system. For that, Facebook either has to build friendly relation with companies like Apple, Google and Blackberry that make smartphone operating systems–or make its own.

Indian Readers ready to switch to E-Readers???

“Wink” released last week, is said to be the first E-Reader launched in India. Now the question is…are the Indian readers willing to accept the device??? If yes, Is the no. comparable to the one in US???
Study shows that only 42% of Indian Readers may like this new device, while most of them still prefer using PCs for reading E-Books as only 20% of Indian readers use e-books and out of them too, 90% prefer using PCs to read.
Like other e-readers, Wink is also expected to provide access to some 5 lakh books, magazines, journals and newspapers. It will also support 15 different languages, a feature which is unique only to Wink. According to Pradeep Palazhi, chief operating officer of EC Media “It will also have a free newspaper service called Wink Wire where owners will get daily regular news updates.”
A basic Wink XTR, with six-inch screen, 2 GB inbuilt memory (expandable up to 16 GB), WiFi, a headphone jack, a battery life of 10,000 page turns (or 10 hours of music playback) and a USB 2.0 port will be available for sale from September 1 for 11,490 rupees.
The features and price looks very attractive and affordable, but it is hard to say how fast Indian readers would accept the new device as their first choice for reading e-books.

Samsung Wave S8500: Empowered with new Skyhook Technology

A recent deal between Samsung and Skyhook Wireless is supposed to empower new Samsung sets with enhanced localization features.
The new model 'S8500' will be the first to recieve the benenfit of this new technological deal.
The new headset comes with greater no. of social networking applications like Twitter, Shazam and OpenTable, apart from extended and more accurate navigation features.

According to Hyungmoon Noh, Vice President of R&D Planning Team at Samsung Electronics, “Samsung is committed to delivering the maximum benefits of smartphones for our customers and developer partners. Precise location is central to the mobile experience, and Skyhook’s Core Location will provide Samsung mobile devices with market-leading location capabilities.”

Skyhook's Core Location system takes the help of Wi-Fi, Cellular and GPS readings to find the most accurate location in minimal time.

Samsung S8500 is just the 1st outcome of the merger...there are much more headsets in the queue to add to our ease of socializing and keeping in touch with our loved ones!

No more awareness against Texting while driving - the cell phone enforces it all!

Focus on one thing at a time! That is what the new application of cell phone has to say to its users particularly when one is driving.
After a long fruitless effort of extensive awareness plans against using cellphone (for any purpose) while driving, the job has been left on the cell phone itself.

The new cellphone application text blockers like iZup, tXtBlocker, CellSafety and ZoomSafer, locks up the phone while driving so as to keep our attention off the cell phone and focus on safe driving. The phone's GPS measures the speed at which we are moving and if it exceeds 10 miles an hour, the application blocks all cellphone activities displaying a message: "Message Blocked".
Once we are inside vehicle and the phone is blocked, the only thing we can do with our phone is dial 911 or make or recieve calls from parents or home by setting the no. in advance to bypass the blockade.
The four different applications work as:

tXtBlocker: It is meant for the parents to track the phone's location and speed of the user on an an online map. It also prevents texting, calling or web surfing while in motion. This app comes at a price of $25, plus $10 a month or $100 a year; family plan available; for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

CellSafety: This app blocks everything except the phone calls. It also offers location tracking and speed monitoring features. It also alerts the parents(through text message) when their child enters a certain area and lets them block or unblock texting in that particular location. Price range of this app is around $10 a month, accessible on Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones.

Izup: Izup is a stricter version of tXtBlocker and CellSafety apps. It blocks every feature of the phone once you are in mootion. “We believe that is key in the fight against distracted driving. We are purists in our approach here.” says the company.
The only call we can access is 911 or any of 3 preapproved numbers. Once blocked, Only the parent or boss can unlock the blocking — by entering a password before you start to drive. If you’re a passenger, bad luck :( (Price: $5 a month or $50 a year; family plan available; BlackBerry, some Android, LG and Samsung phones.)

ZoomSafer: This apps starts with a little sound, we can have a pre-recorded sound saying "Stay safe!" or "Come home soon, I m waiting!". We can program our ZoomSafer to be either as strict as iZup or a lenient pal like CellSafety.
For users, the best thing about ZoomSafer, though, is that instead of paying $3 fee every month, you can pay a one-time $25. The other apps here require a monthly fee forever, which is borderline outrageous.

It would be a wise to make use of one such app and not relying on our luck as we already have so many horrifying driving-distraction statistics on our planet earth!

Experience the all new look and feel of Microsoft Word 2010!

Microsoft has been updating its products frequently given the increasing dependency on computers for every single work. New Features of Microsoft Word 2010 helps in creating dynamic contents with attractive look and feel allowing one to create and access things from almost anywhere. The new version is equipped with the ability to create professional quality documents and save it online, allowing us to access and share the same document from any web browser.
Some of the unique offerings of Word-2010:
Improved Search and navigation:
The ‘Find’ result of this version gives a summary of the matched words in a single pane, from where we can access a single result depending on our requirement. The navigation pane gives an outline of the documents which is a much easier way to search the documents from.

Working in a team:
With Word 2010, people can work and share ideas together without having to wait for their turn. They can even chat with each other while using Word.

Access and Share Documents from almost anywhere:
Through the new Word 2010, it is now possible to create document anywhere, save it on web and then access it from virtually anywhere and any computer.

Adding Visual effects:
Now, we can easily apply formatting effects like glow, blevel, shadow and reflection to texts enhancing the presentability of the document. Most of the effects used only for images earlier are now applicable to both image and texts allowing a greater coordination between all contents.

Text to Diagram mapping: Word 2010 provides enhanced features to add visual effect to documents. SmartArt Graphics allows us to transform simple bullets into visuals to effectively illustrate the contents.

Recovering Lost work:
While using Word 2010, we don’t need to panic if the document got closed accidentally without being saved. We can access the draft version of the recently edited file and subsequently recover our lost document even if without saving it.

Well, these are only few of the unique qualities of the new version of Microsoft… There are more such mind blowing features of Word 2010…we have to use it in order to feel the purpose behind developing one more version of Microsoft Word with advanced features.

Australia and India to join hands for Ocean Research...

India is planning to join hands with Australia to conduct Research on the impact of various factors like population growth and climatic changes on oceans.
The team from both the countries will use 'Remote Sensing Technology' for this purpose.
The Indian team from ISRO will use its program of multiple satellite sensors to closely examine and monitor changes in ocean system, while Australian's expertise in oceanic science, its measurement and modeling will help in improving its access to satellite’s remote sensing abilities.
The motive behind this research is said to be the role of oceanic color in understanding the interactions between aquatic ecosystems, human impacts and other climatic factors... Lets hope this move to be beneficial for all of us in the long term!

Google partners with Italy for long awaited book scanning deal...

Now we can search through Google for all types Italian literary texts as Google Inc including books by Galileo. Google said on Wednesday that it will scan ancient Italian literary texts ranging from Galileo Galilei to herbal medicine manuals as part of the Internet company's first publishing partnership with a national government. Google and the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage have reached an agreement to digitize up to a million out-of-copyright works at the national libraries in Florence and Rome.
Google is not only to work closely together with the Italian libraries, but also with the Italian ministry of culture – the first time that the search engine has had a government department a such a close partner on such a project. Google called it a "groundbreaking deal".
The deal involves digitizing up to one million books held in the National Libraries in Rome and Florence. Google has similar arrangements for out-of-copyright books with Oxford University, Madrid's Complutense University and the Bavarian state museum.
"The libraries will select the works to be digitised from their collections, which include a wealth of rare historical books, including scientific works, literature from the period of the founding of Italy and the works of Italy's most famous poets and writers," says Google's strategic partner development manager, Gino Mattiuzzo, in a blogpost announcing the deal.
"We envision a future in which people will be able to search and access the world's books anywhere, anytime. After all, Antonio Beccadelli and Anastasius Germonius – like Shakespeare and Cervantes – are part of our human cultural history."