Technology News Blog

Forbidden Fruit: Microsoft Workers Hide Their iPhones

REDMOND, Wash.—Microsoft Corp. employees are passionate users of the latest tech toys. But there is one gadget love that many at the company dare not name: the iPhone.

The iPhone is made, of course, by Microsoft’s longtime rival, Apple Inc. The device’s success is a nagging reminder for Microsoft executives of how the company’s own efforts to compete in the mobile business have fallen short in recent years. What is especially painful is that many of Microsoft’s own employees are nuts for the device.

The perils of being an iPhone user at Microsoft were on display last September. At an all- company meeting in a Seattle sports stadium, one hapless employee used his iPhone to snap photos of Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Mr. Ballmer snatched the iPhone out of the employee’s hands, placed it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it in front of thousands of Microsoft workers, according to people present. Mr. Ballmer uses phones from different manufacturers that run on Microsoft’s mobile phone software.

A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment and declined to make executives available for this story.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs referred an email asking about iPhone use at Microsoft to a spokeswoman, who declined to comment.

Despite Mr. Ballmer’s theatrics, iPhone users are in plain sight at Microsoft. At the sprawling campus here in a Seattle suburb, workers peck away on their iPhone touch-screens in conference rooms, cafeterias and lobbies. Among the top Microsoft executives who use the iPhone is J Allard, who helped create the Xbox game console and is chief experience officer for the entertainment and devices division.

Nearly 10,000 iPhone users were accessing the Microsoft employee email system last year, say two people who heard the estimates from senior Microsoft executives. That figure equals about 10% of the company’s global work force. (more…)

22 yr old Indian to solve cyber crimes @ mouse click

Jaipur: The 22 year old cyber crime expert, Sunny Vaghela, who is also the CEO of TechDefence, an information security solution provider is set to dive in the cyber war by making solutions available at a mouse click. Vaghela, who had exposed loopholes in mobile networks, social networking sites right from the age of 18, will launch a website where any complaints on cyber crime will be solved, reports Times News Network.

“This website is dedicated to solving cyber crimes and create awareness about it. All you need to do is to post your complaints on the website which will be analysed by a team of ethical hackers, mostly city-based engineering students. The team will issue a list of suggestions for police on how the case can be solved effectively,” said Vaghela.

These kinds of feats are nothing new for Vaghela, who at the age of 18 exposed loopholes like SMS and Call Forging in Mobile Networks. The technology that allowed to send SMS or Make Call to any International Number from any number of your choice. At 19, Vaghela found loopholes like “Session Hijacking” and “Cross Site Scripting” in popular social networking site Orkut.
(more…)

Sungrazer comet captured plunging into the Sun

NEW DELHI (PTI): An observatory has been able to take photographs of a sun grazer comet plunging into the Sun, a celestial event rarely captured on camera by astronomers.

Though the encounter was too close to the Sun for human eyes to see, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has monitored the action using an opaque disk to block the star’s glare and even managed to click photos of this event, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) C B Devgun told PTI on Sunday.

SOHO is a spacecraft launched to study the Sun. It is a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency. (more…)

MapmyIndia Road Pilot GPS navigator to explore India

With Mapmyindia’s new GPS navigation device, the Road Pilot, you have probably found the best way to explore India. Road Pilot lets you explore this mesmerizing country without any fear of getting lost. With its rich source of India’s best maps that helps you get a street level turn -by-turn direction, traveling in India is surely going to be a unique experience.

The Mapmyindia’s Road Pilot covers 620 cities across India with more than 2 million unique destinations. Preloaded with more than 30,000 tourist locations, no matter where you go, the GPS navigation covers them all. It is your perfect guide to discover India with over 52 categories of points of interest that covers hotels, restaurants, petrol pumps, ATMs and many more.

Mapmyindia’s
Road Pilot is your travel manager where you can search for your favorite tourist destination and create a custom route that matches your needs. It comes preloaded with maps of more than 125 tourist cities. It is also powered with industry leading SiRF Atlas 1V high performance chipset that helps you connect quickly. It also makes sure that you stay connected and guided all through your voyage.

Another amazing feature of Mapmyindia Road Pilot GPS device is that there is absolutely no requirement for SIM cards and GPRS connection for the device to work. It works exclusively on GPS signals and is also capable of guiding you in those areas where there is no mobile service provider. Traveling and driving can be so much fun with this navigator as you just need to punch-in your destination and relax as the route is guided by a voice navigation system. (more…)

Facebook starts India operations

HYDERABAD: Facebook is all set to start its India operations. According to a company release, the world’s no. 1 social network is opening its offic
e in Hyderabad.

With its India operations, the company aims to support its growing number of users, advertisers and developers in the country and across the world. Facebook’s Hyderabad office, like the others, will house online advertising and developer support teams.

The centre will add to the company’s existing operations in Palo Alto, California; Dublin, Ireland; and Austin, Texas. (more…)

Rewrite of Physics by Einstein on Display

JERUSALEM — There are pasted-on half pages, numerous cross-outs and insertions in meticulous penmanship and an open acknowledgment that some of the mathematics was beyond even him. Albert Einstein personally rewrote the laws of physics in a sparsely furnished central Berlin apartment nearly a century ago and the resulting manuscript, profoundly human and surprisingly moving to examine, has been put on display here for the first time.

A detail of one of the pages. Einstein’s wife Elsa donated the manuscript to the Hebrew University on the occasion of its opening in 1925.

Each of the 46 pages, labored over between November 1915 and their publication in May 1916, has its own case, each lighted dimly in a room that has been darkened to protect the paper. There on Page 1 is the now familiar title in German: “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity.”

The display of the work, which forced a redefinition of gravity, predicted the existence of black holes and illuminated how galaxies are formed, is at the center of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Out of concern for the life of the documents, it will be up only for the next three weeks. (more…)

Mozilla pitches Firefox 3.6 upgrade offer to users

Computerworld – Mozilla yesterday began offering Firefox 3.6 to users running older versions of the open-source browser.

Thursday’s offer was the first coordinated invitation to Firefox 3.6 that Mozilla has displayed to users of 2008’s Firefox 3.0 and mid-2009’s Firefox 3.5.

As with past update offers, the one for Firefox 3.6 lets users accept the upgrade, postpone the next reminder by 24 hours or decline the invitation. The latter, however, doesn’t necessarily block future offers. Mozilla typically issues multiple upgrade invitations to users who have previously declined, hoping to get everyone onto the newest version.

According to Mike Beltzner, the director of Firefox, the offer screen appears after a minute of keyboard inactivity “to ensure we don’t get in the way of anyone’s activities.” (more…)

Now, a PC that reads minds

LONDON: British scientists have developed a computer that can read human minds, a key breakthrough which they claim takes telepathy a step closer to reality.

According to Eleanor Maguire of University College London and colleagues, the computer is able to decipher thought patterns and tell what people are thinking simply by scanning the brain.

For the research, which focused on the hippocampus, an area at the centre of the brain that plays a crucial role in short term memory, the scientists carried out an experiment involving 10 volunteers.

The subjects were shown three seven-second films featuring different women carrying out an everyday task in a typical urban street such as posting a letter or drinking a cup of coffee from a paper cup.

The volunteers were asked to memorise what they saw and then recall each one in turn whilst inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner which records the brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow
within the brain.

The computer algorithm then studied the electrical patterns and could tell which film the volunteer was recalling with an accuracy of about 50% — which was well above chance.

Week in review: Game on for Sony

The entertainment and technology giant this week unveiled the Move, a small device that looks like a microphone and represents Sony’s bid to gain control over the motion controller wars. Those wars are currently led by Nintendo, with its Wii controller, although many think they will be dominated by Microsoft and its Project Natal controller system.

To Sony, releasing the Move is an obvious move for the PlayStation, given it believes it started the motion controller era with its Eye Toy. Sony held its press conference during the Game Developers Conference here. Now, the Move, which will be available this fall in a starter kit that begins at under $100 for a Move, a PlayStation eye camera, and a game, is its attempt to jump ahead of Microsoft’s Natal and to begin winning over Wii users.
•What’s next for video game AI?
•Dolby bringing 3D voice chat to consoles, Mac
•Intel debuts six-core gaming chip

50pct of Cambridge students sleep with two partners in 7 days

About half of Cambridge University students have slept with two people in the same week, a new survey has revealed.

According to the study, nearly 46 percent of the University’s students had two sexual partners in a week.

The poll for online tabloid student newspaper Tab also found that 20 percent of students had bedded at least three people in seven days.

Three percent of students also confessed to having at least five partners in the same week.

It was found that 20 percent of the students had intercourse every day, while 28 percent said they had a one-night stand at least once a term.

Over three quarters of students at Cambridge said they would rather have “first class sex” than write a first class essay.

“Cambridge is not the work-obsessed, sex starved misery pit it is sometimes portrayed to be,” the Telegraph quoted student Ali Lewis, from Tab, who compiled the results, as saying. (more…)

Sony India aims to achieve 30% market share

Consumer electronics major Sony India today said it was targetting to be the number one player in the LCD TV segment and was aiming to achieve 30 per cent market share this fiscal.

Sony was confident that it will be able to achieve the targets based on three strong pillars of technology — picture quality and design — said Sony India General Manager (Marketing) Takakiyo Fujita here.

The company had a 25 per cent market share in the segment in the corresponding period last year.

It also announced the launch of 24 new models in NX, EX and BX series under the Bravia umbrella of varying screen sizes ranging between 22 and 60 inches.

Sony would also launch 3D TVs in India and announcement in this regard will be made in June this year, he said.

“Indian consumer today is more technology savvy than ever before and with the launch of new technologies like 3D, Internet TV and LED, we want to ensure that they get nothing but the best,” he said.

Our aim was to double the sales this fiscal to 8 lakh units from 4 lakh units last year to achive 30 per cent market share, he said.

The company would expand its sales network by increasing the outlets to 5,000 from the present 2,500, he said.

Brownnosing for Google Broadband

Jared Starkey is going all out for Google (GOOG) broadband. The day after Google said it would provide high-speed Internet service to as many as 500,000 people in the U.S., Starkey set up a Facebook page to persuade the company to come to his hometown of Topeka, Kan. Since then, Starkey has passed out bright-orange necklaces made of fiber-optic cable and even organized a rally of 100 Topekans in support of the broadband plan. “I’ve been talking to absolutely everybody about this,” says the 26-year-old owner of a small Web design company.

Cities and towns across the country, hungry for better broadband, are trying to grab Google’s attention. The Mountain View (Calif.) company said last month it’s planning a new Internet service of 1 gigabit per second, or about 20 times faster than the speediest offering from Verizon Communications (VZ). Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington telecom and media counsel, says the company may spend “hundreds of millions” on the effort, which will involve stringing fiber-optic lines into homes in a small number of cities. Google is accepting applications on its Web site until Mar. 26. (more…)

Technology that allows bosses to spy on employees

A Japanese phone company has come up with a new technology that can track most minimal movement of mobile phone users and beams the information back to HQ.

KDDI Corporation, which has developed the technology, intends to offer the service to clients such as managers, foremen and employment agencies, or whoever may be interested keeping in check the activities of their employees.

“Technically, I think this is an incredibly important innovation,” the BBC News quoted Philip Sugai, Director of the mobile consumer lab at the International University of Japan, as saying.

He added: “For example, when applied to the issue of telemedicine, or other situations in which remotely monitoring or accessing an individual’s personal movements is vital to that service. (more…)

India needs more parks and corridors for long-term survival of its animals

WASHINGTON: In a new study, an international team of scientists has determined that the long-term survival of many large species in the midst of rapid economic growth in India will require improving existing protected areas and establishing new protected areas and corridors.

The study, carried out by researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Duke University, and other groups, found that country’s protected area system and human cultural tolerance for some species are key to conserving the subcontinent’s tigers, elephants, and other large mammals.

The researchers created models to estimate extinction probability for 25 large mammal species, determining current species distributions along with more than 30,000 historical records from natural history, taxidermy and museum records dating back 200 years.

The models were used to gauge how factors such as protected areas, forest cover, elevation, and human demographics, and cultural attitudes impact extinction predictions. (more…)

Chidambaram takes National Crime Records Bureau to task

NEW DELHI: Union home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday took the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to task for delaying the ministry’s pet project of creating a national databank of crime and criminals and their biometric profiles and asked it to do it “efficiently and in time”.

Expressing his disappointment over the initial delay in implementation of the project — Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) — Chidambaram said: “If we remain firm, determined and have complete control, it is possible to limit the slippage in some stages.”

He said though the initial easy tasks of the CCTNS project had been completed, the key works were yet to be done and hoped that the NCRB would be able to do so efficiently and in time. (more…)

BSNL Unlimited EV-DO Gets Cheaper

BSNL has announced the launch of a promotional plan that will allow users to avail its EV-DO based broadband connection at a discounted price of Rs. 750 per month. The same service cost users Rs. 999 per month until now.

The plan offers “unlimited” data usage with a maximum speed of 3.1 Mbps. This plan has been extended for existing as well as new users. However, you might want to act quickly because this offer is only valid for those who apply for it before March 31, 2010. There is one catch though – this service comes with a fair usage policy – which means that if you exceed a limit prescribed by BSNL, you would be liable to paying Rs. 0.50 per MB. This, mind you, is by no means cheap!

BSNL’s EV-DO service is available in only select towns across India and uses a CDMA based 3G technology. It is unclear as to how many cities currently serviced by BSNL’s EV-DO service will get these new tariffs. If your town was already under the EV-DO network, you might want to get in touch with your local BSNL telephone exchange to find out if you can get a new connection with this plan – or simply change your plan to this new one. (more…)

Complete crime tracking mission fast: Chidambaram

Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday asked his officers to stick to timelines and complete by 2012 the Crime Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project, a national databank of crime and criminals and their biometric profiles.

‘Terrorists and organised criminals have developed overt and covert technologies, including information communication technology. This has made the job of law and order professionals far more challenging than ever before,’ Chidambaram said, advocating a real time decision support system.

Addressing the silver jubilee function of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), the home minister said the CCTNS database will have a handshake with databases of over a dozen agencies of the criminal justice system like courts, jails, immigration and passport authorities.

‘It would subsequently be extended to other national agencies through the national intelligence grid (NATGRID) so that terror and crime could be fought more professionally,’ he added. (more…)

Symantec enables mid-size biz manage data back-up

BANGALORE, INDIA: Symantec Corp. today announced Backup Exec 2010 to help mid-sized businesses save time and money by protecting more data and utilizing less storage.

Backup Exec 2010 offers fully integrated data deduplication and archiving technologies and is the first backup and recovery solution to offer granular recovery of Microsoft Exchange, SQL and Active Directory in VMware and Hyper-V environments from a single pass backup.

The solution also adds new support for Microsoft Windows 2008 R2, Hyper-V R2, Exchange 2010, Windows 7 and VMware vSphere 4.0.

“Organizations of all sizes are struggling to effectively manage information growth, particularly as they leverage virtualization technologies, creating new backup and recovery complexities,” said Vijay Mhaskar, vice president, Information Management Group, Symantec. (more…)

BSNL Launches 3G Services in Vijayawada and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today launched its 3G GSM mobile services in business city Vijayawada, Guntur, Prakasam and Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh telecom circle. BSNL 3G services allow telecom operators to offer Video calls, high-speed Internet with speed Up to 3.1 Mbps and various multi media services.

According to the BSNL announcement its 3G Network is ready in 29 Cities/Towns across the state and we will roll out the commercial services in all districts by the end of this month. The existing BSNL 2G prepaid mobile subscribers can migrate to 3G services just by one SMS “M3G120″ to 53733 while Postpaid 2G subscriber need to send “M3G25″ to 53733.
BSNL 3G Prepaid Connections will cost Rs.59 and after the activations subscribers has to recharge with the FRC-120 for the desired 3G tariff plan which provides the lowest tariff for voice,video calls and Data usage. The new 3G subscribers will get 50 free video calls and 25 MB Data usage as a welcome gift. After recharging with the 3G FRC-120, users can enjoy Local Voice and Video calls at just 30 Paisa per minute and All STD video calls will be chargeable at 50 paisa.

For more information or details on BSNL 3G dial to 1800-180-1503 / 9400024365.

Now surf unlimited with BSNL EVDO Wireless Broadband

Bharat sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) today announce unlimited web surfing and download at a speed of up to 3.1 MBPS on BSNL EVDO Wireless Broadband USB device. Unlimited web surfing and download is available for post paid subscribers and for pre paid customers, BSNL announce 5 paisa per 100 KB plan with all India roaming.

BSNL also announce a promotional offer in which new customers activating EVDO postpaid unlimited data plan upto 31.03.2010 will be charged reduced Fixed Monthly Charge (FMC) of Rs.750 in place of Rs. 999 also existing EVDO customers in lower data plan migrating to theunlimited plan during the promotional period will also get the benefit of reduced FMC of Rs. 750 tariff.

EVDO data card tariff:

Terms and conditions:

* Service Tax as applicable will be charged extra.
* The above bundle free usage will also be available while roaming.
* The usage charges beyond bundled free usage will be @ Rs. 0.50/- per MB.
* The above volume-based tariff will be applicable wherever volume-based charging and billing is feasible. Otherwise, revised Unlimited plan (Rs.999) as mentioned above will be applicable.

For more details on tariff plans call: 1502 or contact your nearest BSNL center.