China blocks access to LinkedIn

(Fast Company) -- Users in China are reporting that access to LinkedIn has been blocked throughout the country. By all indications, it seems that the popular career networking site has run afoul of the country's infamous Great Firewall.
According to LinkedIn's Hani Durzy, the company is aware of a blockage in China and is "currently in the process of investigating the situation further."
The shutdown follows days of calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China, on the model of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. Access to Twitter and Facebook has been blocked throughout China for some time; Chinese internet users seeking to use Twitter have been forced to access the site through difficult-to-use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
However, Chinese dissidents have another way of accessing Twitter... LinkedIn.
Use of LinkedIn, which is fully integrated with Twitter, was by far the easiest way to access Twitter in China. Messages can be easily read and posted through Twitter via LinkedIn.

One Chinese Twitter user who accesses both Twitter and LinkedIn through a proxy posted photos to Twitpic that seem to confirm a Chinese LinkedIn outage.
Adding credence to the LinkedIn-shutdown-to-block-Twitter strategy is the news that the Chinese government has started censoring the name of U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman from search results on the wildly popular homegrown Twitter/Tumblr clones Sina Weibo/QQ Weibo. Weibo means "microblog" in Chinese.
Huntsman faces widespread charges in China of support for the Jasmine Revolution after a citizen journalist spotted him watching a pro-democracy protest from within a crowd this past Sunday. Like any good American abroad, Huntsman was standing outside a McDonald's.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese dissidents have been disseminating calls to protest and organizing events via LinkedIn. Reuters notes that the LinkedIn outagecould hurt the firm's chances at an IPO:
"If the disruption for LinkedIn is permanent in China, it could hurt the company's prospects at an IPO as a ban would exclude the company from the world's largest Internet market--about 450 million users and growing."
"It certainly would be a negative in terms of the company's future growth and profitability," said Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida.
"This is something where investors would take it into account and be willing to pay a little lower price per share." Luckily for LinkedIn, China's Internet censors are notoriously fickle: Sites blip on and off the Great Firewall frequently, with no prior warning. Related: Fast Company's Anya Kamenetz recently interviewed LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman. Read more about the social networking site as part of our Most Innovative Companies of 2011 project.
Related: Fast Company's Anya Kamenetz recently interviewed LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman. Read more about the social networking site as part of our Most Innovative Companies of 2011 project.

Apple releases new MacBook Pro lineup

The new lineup of MacBook Pro notebook computers, Apple Inc features new processors by Intel and graphics chips made by Advanced Micro Devices.

The new MacBook Pros will be powered by Intel Corp s latest dual-core and quad-core chips which includes integrated graphics processing. More expensive versions of the MacBook Pro also include graphics chips from Advanced Micro Devices for added performance unlike the previous versions of MacBook Pro which used graphics processors made by Nvidia.

Apple s trend-setting personal computers are a high-profile battleground for chipmakers Intel, AMD and Nvidia. Intel supplied the MacBook Pro with a faster, compact input/output technology called Thunderbolt, which supports high-resolution displays and devices through a single port.

The price of a 13-inch MacBook Pro, with a full-size keyboard, seven-hour battery life and an aluminum casing, will start at US$1,199. Whereas the 15-inch MacBook starts at US$1,799 and the 17-inch is priced at US$2,499.

News of AMD s presence in the new MacBook Pros helped boost its stock 5.5 percent to $9.02. Intel s stock rose 0.14 percent to $21.17 and Nvidia s shares were up 1.13 percent at $22.36 following a 13 percent sell-off over the past two days.

Facebook comes to the Nokia E71 & Nokia E72

The Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 now has a Facebook application, available right at the Ovi Store.


The application is pretty nifty, and lets you use all the basic features of Facebook.



There are still a couple things missing like the Facebook “like” feature, etc but hey atleast there’s finally an official app now.



It’s basically a non-touch version of the S60v5 Touch app.



To download the app, go on over to the Nokia Ovi Store on your Nokia E71 or Nokia E72 and search for “Facebook” to find the application.



No doubt more S60v3 devices will get the application soon.

Facebook Allows Users to Upgrade to the New Messages Product, Why You Should

Some users are seeing a prompt when they visit their Facebook Messages inbox allowing them to upgrade to the New Messages product launched in closed beta in November. The product automatically filters non-essential communications into an Other folder, allowing the main inbox to show only important messages. It also routes sent messages to whichever device or interface Facebook deems is the most convenient for the recipient, whether that’s Chat, Messages, SMS, or email. While initially only available to press and an early tester-base, it appears all users will soon be able to upgrade to New Messages.

At the product’s launch event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that New Messages was built to facilitate modern communication which is simple, immediate, lightweight, and personal like SMS and instant messaging, opposed to more formal, asynchronous email. Though users get an @facebook.com email address, Facebook doesn’t expect users to shift things like payment receipts and newsletters there. Instead, the product reduces noise, eases cross-interface conversation, and creates a more comprehensive record of the communication users already perform. Users who don’t see the prompt to upgrade on their inbox can visit the New Messages about page to request an invitation. We expect a full rollout to occur in the next month or so, similar to how the profile redesign is now being pushed to all users.

The best part about New Messages is how it brings Chat into threaded, searchable conversation history. If someone sends you Message, but you’re online, you’ll see it as a Chat. If you send them back a Chat and they’ve already logged off, it will be routed to their New Messages inbox, and shown in the same thread as your previous Chat. This means you don’t have to worry about conversations breaking down because one person changed the interface through which they were communicating. Or if you accidentally close your last Facebook web interface window or head out the door, you’ll still be able to access those Chats from your phone in the form of Messages.

This system is similar to the interplay of Gchat and Gmail, and its adoption could pull users away from Google who use that company’s product for their reliability of delivery. The New Messages product also separates conversations by people rather than by interface, between which the lines are blurring as users increasingly use Chat, email, and Facebook Messages from their mobile device as well as the web. Other useful features of New Messages include forwarding and attachment support, and a one-click “Mark as Read/Unread” option.

The main problem with New Messages at present is the filtering of conversations. Event, Page, and Group updates are usually filtered properly into the Other inbox, leaving a high-signal, low-noise main inbox of one-to-one messages. However, Messages, including time-sensitive businesses communications, from people who aren’t your friend and don’t have mutual friends are filtered into the Other inbox as well. Without the red notification counter on your home page or gray counters on your Messages sidebar navigation link, it’s easy to forget that important Messages may be being filtered out.

For instance, I didn’t check my Other inbox for a few weeks and had multiple Messages from people who wanted to show me their soon-to-launch products. When Facebook sought to inform users of the five-day window to give feedback on proposed changes to its privacy terms via the Facebook Site Governance Page, that Message was also filtered out. Some users prefer to Message someone they’ve met before adding them as a friend, but these personal, social, one-to-one Messages might not reach their recipients until much later. Users can move a conversation between inboxes once it has started, but Facebook could address part of the problem by allowing users to opt to have the first Message from someone they aren’t connected to routed to their main inbox.

Overall, Messages will help most Facebook users. It anticipates the shift to using multiple devices and interfaces to conduct a single conversation. It also declutters the inbox by removing spammy and low-value Page and Event updates. Professionals who are frequently contacted by those they aren’t connected to will need to pay attention to their Other inbox. But for most, we advise upgrading or requesting an invitation to New Messages because it improves one of the core uses of Facebook — instant communication with friends.

TAT BlackBerry PlayBook apps blow us away

An Introduction to the Windows Phone 7 Development Platform

On Sep 16th 2010, Microsoft made available the RTW (Released to Web) version of the development platform for Windows Phone 7. In some ways, for many of you, parts of this will be a re-introduction to technologies you already know or with which you have become familiar. This is great news because it means you can become productive very quickly, and that’s no mistake. If you are wondering whether this platform is going to be a success then consider that there are millions of developers out there with existing skills which they can already leverage to build applications for Windows Phone 7. Even for those who have never used tools like Visual Studio before, the barrier for entry is low because the basic toolset has been made available completely free of charge!

Exciting news about Ovi Chat

Nokia is pleased to announce that the updated Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo! service has been released! What does this mean for you? You can now invite your Yahoo! Messenger friends and Ovi Chat friends into your friend list, giving you access to an even larger community for chatting.

If you have an Ovi Chat account but cannot log in, visit https://t.ovi.com from your phone or computer to accept the additional Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo! Terms and Privacy Policy. Once you have done this, you will be able to log in to your Chat account.

If you do not see some of your friends in your friend list, they might not have accepted the additional Terms and Privacy Policy. Please encourage them to go to https://t.ovi.com so they can join you on Ovi Chat and share in the updated experience.

We will have more exciting updates to share about Ovi Chat in the coming weeks. Until then, keep chatting with Ovi Chat!

Nokia Working on Charge-less Mobile Phone

In order to attain charger less world, Nokia is working on a mobile phone that would be charged wirelessly through ambient radio signals that are available in atmosphere. Markku Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre, in Cambridge, U.K told MIT’s Technology Review that ambient electromagnetic radiation – emitted from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell-phone antennas, TV masts, and other sources – could be converted into enough electrical current to keep a battery topped up

The team at Cambridge is working on a prototype device that could harvest up to 50 milliwatts of power from the electromagnetic soup – which is sufficient to trickle charge a switched off phone.

Current versions can scavenge 3 to 5 milliwatts. To increase the amount of power that can be harvested, Nokia is focusing on harvesting many different frequencies. “It needs a wideband receiver,” says Rouvala, to capture signals from between 500 megahertz and 10 gigahertz–a range that encompasses many different radio communication signals.”

MIT noted that historically, energy-harvesting technologies have only been found in niche markets, powering wireless sensors and RFID tags in particular. If Nokia’s claims stand up, then it could push energy harvesting into mainstream consumer devices.

Rouvala said that he envisaged commercial products could be launched in three to four years time.

Nokia Phones to Recharge Automatically, Soon!

Soon, your Nokia cell phone will never run out of battery, while you are on the go.

New Scientist figured out that Nokia has filed for a US Patent for a phone that recharges as the phone user moves.

Some watches already use similar pattern for generating energy – they use circular frames on back end of dial, that keeps moving to generate energy.

Nokia thinks that there can a phone in which the heavier components, such as the radio transmitter circuit and battery, are supported on a sturdy frame. This frame can move along two sets of rails, one allows it travel up and down, the other side to side.

Strips of piezoelectric crystals sit at the end of each rail and generate a current when compressed by the frame. So as the user walks, or otherwise moves the phone, the motion generates electricity. This charges a capacitor which in turn trickles charge into the battery, keeping it topped up.

How to Increase Mobile Phone Battery Time?

In this present epoch we have become so much obsessed and dependent on our mobile phones that we detest anything that prevents us from being in tact with our mobile phone.

We are all aware that mobile phone’s battery has not improved as much as the mobile phone and these latest gadgets have improved. Juice draining is a common problem that many of us are suffering from.

Now a days many people are buying more than one battery for their mobile phones and getting car chargers too, to keep their mobile phone powered on 24/7. Many even try to make sure that they carry their charger with them along wherever they go.

Keeping Battery Power Stay for Longer:

Scientists are working on air-fueled battery that would have the capacity to store up to ten times the energy storage. Oxygen drawn from the air reacts within the porous carbon to release the electrical charge in this lithium-air battery. But we can not wait for this technology to reach our hands, so about trying to save the battery from draining so quickly!

Use Genuine Charger:

Always use a genuine mobile charger, instead of going for the low-priced Chinese made non-genuine mobile phone chargers in order to get maximum out of your mobile battery.

Take Care of your Mobile’s Battery:

Keep your mobile battery terminals clean – you can do this by cleaning it once in a month time with alcohol. keeping it away from moisture, water and high temperature.

Lower your Mobile’s Display Brightness:

Set the brightness of your mobile phone on a low level – this will also be good for your eyes. Also, shorten the display duration too, this will help you in great deal!

Use Dark Colored Themes:

Use themes with dark colors, as whitish themes eat more battery than any other activity on phone.

Turn off Bluetooth/ WiFi/ Background Applications when not in use:

Most infamous battery-draining culprits are Wi-Fi, EDGE, GPRS, Camera, Flash, Bluetooth, FM radio, video player. Then comes mobile applications, JAVA, games etc. that consume plenty of energy.

All of these can be left on unintentionally, which will drain your battery with ease.

Bluetooth, WiFi, EDGE/GPRS can receive and transmit information even when not in use and this consumes battery power. Keep it turned off when not in use.

Get up when it sounds:

Get up as soon as you hear the wake-up alarm instead of letting it consume your battery.

Do not Let it Ring for long:

When you get a call answer it as soon as possible so that it rings for lesser time. When busy keep it on silent to prevent it from ringing that long. Try not to keep long duration ringtones and sms tunes. Keep them on a beep or similar.

Keep the Talk short:

This might sound odd and totally absurd, but try talking short – especially when you know that your battery might run out. Particularly, when you are on motor-way and may not reach a recharging point for next few hours.

You can leave some of the unnecessary gossips (aur sunao stuff). Keep the conversation brief and relevant and of course avoid taking unnecessary calls.

Turn Off Vibration:

Vibration feature in the mobile phone consumes quite a lot of battery power, therefore, we should try keeping the vibration off unless the mobile phone is on ‘silent’. Vibrating mobile phones also create disturbance during an important meeting. So keep it off unless it is very necessary.

Switch it Off:

Don’t assume that I am asking you to switch off your phone off all the day or all the time, but you can keep it switched off when you are out-station and there is no coverage.

Let it Discharge completely before you charge again:

If you want to get the maximum out of your mobile phone’s battery then always let the mobile battery get fully discharge and then turn off the mobile before you charge it. Full charging gives the battery long life time.

Nokia Announces Partnership with Microsoft

Ahead of its Strategy and Financial Briefing in London, Nokia has shared some details on what it plans to announce at the event. Company said it is aligning its strategy with Microsoft for smartphones.

Nokia said that it will adopt Windows Platform as its primary smartphone strategy.

Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

GLOBAL – Today in London, our two companies announced plans for a broad strategic partnership that combines the respective strengths of our companies and builds a new global mobile ecosystem. The partnership increases our scale, which will result in significant benefits for consumers, developers, mobile operators and businesses around the world. We both are incredibly excited about the journey we are on together.

While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here’s a quick summary of what we are working towards:

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.

• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.

• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.

• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.

• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

We each bring incredible assets to the table. Nokia’s history of innovation in the hardware space, global hardware scale, strong history of intellectual property creation and navigation assets are second to none. Microsoft is a leader in software and services; the company’s incredible expertise in platform creation forms the opportunity for its billions of customers and millions of partners to get more out of their devices.

Together, we have some of the world’s most admired brands, including Windows, Office, Bing, Xbox Live, NAVTEQ and Nokia. We also have a shared understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a mobile ecosystem, which includes the entire experience from the device to the software to the applications, services and the marketplace.

Today, the battle is moving from one of mobile devices to one of mobile ecosystems, and our strengths here are complementary. Ecosystems thrive when they reach scale, when they are fueled by energy and innovation and when they provide benefits and value to each person or company who participates. This is what we are creating; this is our vision; this is the work we are driving from this day forward.

There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.

There will be challenges. We will overcome them.

Success requires speed. We will be swift.

Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.

Engro Rupiya Facebook Page Got Hacked and then Re-Hacked

Apparently, the Engro Rupiya of Engro Company has lost its facebook page. According to updated available on Facebook, the page was officially used on 3 back.

However, as per latest status update on the page, a Pakistani hacker is claiming that the page was hacked and he had to re-hack it to brings it back. Hacker is now looking for the real admin to give the page control back to the owner.

Hacker claims that the page was hacked by some Albanian hacker. We are awaiting response from the hacker and the company on the situation.

Meanwhile, go through following conversation made after recent most status update.

New Nokia N8 - What will you do with it?

Facebook to remove users in prison

After a prisoner updated his status from Facebook, the user’s account was closed because internet access in prison is not available which means someone else was operating his account. That is a violation of the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities of Facebook, which governs the relationship with users.



Prisoners in the state of South Carolina are not allowed to keep a mobile phone. Yet prisoners are found with mobile thrown to them over the fences. Prisoners found with mobiles face solitary confinement, loss of visitation and canteen privileges. Now anyone caught with a cell phone or using Facebook via mobile internet or any other means might soon be looking at 30 extra days behind bars and a $500 fine.

A new bill prepared by a Democrat Wendell Gilliard would make it unlawful for an inmate to be a member of any internet social-networking site. Anyone found using any social networking site will be convicted and will get a penalty for the offense. The bill has already 12 co sponsors as legislators think it is a good idea.


A newspaper provided details of the people in South Carolina prison who were active on Facebook. Such as Anthony Enriquez, who is serving life without parole for murdering a man he robbed of a pack of cigarettes, is an active member of Facebook, despite the facility of internet in the prison.
Wendell Gilliard said. "The inmates have been using social networking to put coded messages out about where money is to be found, who turned them in, wanting revenge. It s putting innocent people s lives at stake. The goal of the bill is to stop the inside from coming out.”


In March of 2010, Facebook closed the account of Tennessee death row inmate Nikolaus Johnson. "Being imprisoned and having a Facebook account isn t against our policies, but providing others with a password to access an account is a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which governs our relationship with users," Andrew Noyes, public policy communications manager at Facebook, said in statement then. "Since this individual does not have Internet access, someone else is maintaining the profile. Thus, the account was disabled." added Andrew Noyes.

Facebook Browser Friends YouTube, Helps You Waste Time Faster

Rockmelt, the Facebook browser that launched with much fanfare (and mucho criticism) in November 2010, has been quietly fixing bugs and is now slowly rolling out updates to its beta users. One of those updates is a brand-new YouTube application, which would well allow you to watch more video, which is a massive (and fun) time waster during the workday.

I for one have not given up on Rockmelt; It is a simpler and better way of using Facebook Chat, which is Facebook’s most important feature for me — plus,it also overcomes the inherently slow speed of Facebook pages. Since it is based on Chromium, it is also pretty standards-compliant. The new updates to the browser use Chromium 9, which puts it on par with other browser offerings based on that engine.

The new updates also fix a lot of bugs -– about 70 of them — and increase the speed of the browser. One of the new features enables Mac users to now import Chrome bookmarks, and RockMelt has also made memory use more efficient.

That’s all good, but the real news to me is a cool little YouTube app RockMelt has developed for the platform. This is a big step for the little company. They also allow you to add RSS feeds to the browser –- for instance, once you add a GigaOM feed, it shows up as a button on the right-hand side and a simple click on the icon helps you scan headlines.

Rockmelt is basically turning web services into apps, which have their own unique experiences. I am an online video junkie — why else would I start NewTeeVee? – and I watch an inordinate amount of videos, especially music videos, which are now part of my playlists and often are playing in the background.

According to Rockmelt CEO Eric Vishria, I am not alone: There are millions of folks who create their playlists on YouTube and listen to music that way. Vishria and Tim Howes co-founded the company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif.

“What we’re trying to do with the YouTube App is make it super easy for users to consume their video content,” Vishria added. “This is where people are spending a lot of their time, so we’re just cutting out all of the middle stuff of them having to go to YouTube and search for their videos or playlists.” In other words, it is making it easy for the folks to do things they like to do on YouTube -– like viewing videos and managing their playlists.

The RockMelt YouTube app is one way of turning those Playlists into a television station –- a bespoke MTV channel, so to speak. In addition to allowing you to watch one-off videos, the YouTube app allows you to play videos continuously, which I think is pretty cool.

“The YouTube App is just the beginning of what we envision for the browser as we continue to add more non-feed, interactive apps that support way people use the Web,” Vishria added.

How it works?

Under the gear icon, you can choose to login. If you sign in with your YouTube account, you can also load playlists, add videos to playlists loop and shuffle videos in playlists, and save videos to watch later. In addition to watching your favorite videos, the YouTube App also lets you:

• Play videos continuously
• Search while playing videos
• Share and rate videos quickly
• See your recent video searches

Inside The New Facebook Layout

* News * Technology * Facebook Facebook considers $1bn staff share sale

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's stake in the company is currently worth $15bn. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Facebook is weighing plans to let employees sell up to $1bn (£621m) of their shares to outside investors. The sale would value the social network at about $60bn, according to an influential industry blog.

Major investors have been clamouring to invest in privately-held Facebook. The sale would allow Facebook employees to raise money on their stakes in the company while the firm considers selling shares in an initial public offering (IPO), the All Things Digital blog said, citing Facebook sources.

At $60bn Facebook would become one of the world's most valuable companies, worth as much as Ford Motor Company. The new valuation marks yet another jump in valuation, coming just a month after company founder Mark Zuckerberg raised $1.5bn in financing in a deal that valued Facebook at $50bn.

In the interim period social media firms have been attracting ever increasing attention. Goldman Sachs led the last round of financing for Facebook and had planned to offer shares to its top tier US clients. Those plans had to be scrapped when the bank was inundated with requests for shares and the publicity over the share sale threatened to breach rules about private placements.

Zuckerberg, who started the firm in a Harvard dorm room, owns about a quarter of the company, making his stake worth $15bn. In December he joined fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in The Giving Pledge, a network of super-rich people who have promised to give most of their fortunes to charity.

The news of Facebook's potentiall share sale follows revelations that Facebook and Google are both stalking Twitter, the micro-blogging site. The price for the fast growing but still loss-making firm is said to be between $8bn and $10bn. Alongside Facebook and Twitter's valuations, social media firms including Groupon and LinkedIn are planning to raise billions in IPOs.

Zuckerberg, who started the firm in a Harvard dorm room, is expected to lead the biggest social media IPO when he takes Facebook public in 2012. The company now has over 600 million members worldwide and has become the hottest investment property on the planet. Last year it eclipsed Google as the world's most visited website. According to Experian Hitwise, 8.9% of unique online visits were to Facebook last year, compared with Google's 7.2%. A survey by Nielsen found that Americans spend nearly 23% of their time online using social networks, up from about 16% in 2009.

Under US rules a private company with 500-plus shareholders must either go public or start publishing full accounts. Facebook has been keen to keep rivals from looking over its books and Zuckerberg has carefully managed those numbers up until now. The firm recently said it would publish financial results by April 2012 even if it hasn't held an IPO, according to a document sent to prospective investors.

Employees were given the opportunity to sell shares in 2009 to one of Facebook's investors, Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies (DST). Current and former employees were able to sell up to 20% of their common shares at $14.77 per share at a $6.5bn valuation. If the latest deal goes through, those who sell their shares this time will get almost 10 times that amount.

The prices have led some to claim a new dotcom bubble has been formed and is about to pop. Colin Gillis, internet analyst at BGC Partners, said: "I wouldn't say there was a bubble but there is certainly more confidence than scepticism about. It all depends on whether you think social media is going to be more or less important in the future. Personally I think it's going to be more important."

CES 2011 - Microsoft Keynote: New Laptops and Microsoft Surface

Mozilla Seabird 3D

Could Nokia embrace Android?

Recently Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop while discussing about the Q4 performance stats, said – "There are multiple ecosystem patterns that need to be considered." This statement as many claim, could be a hint that Nokia are considering a shift from Symbian to another platform, probably Android. But would Nokia go all out and ditch Symbian and MeeGo to make Android based smartphones?

Nokia have not been the dominant force in the cell phone industry like they once used to be. Android and iOS based phones have given Symbian a run for their money, ultimately leaving them behind. If Nokia would actually embrace Android, we could see plenty of happy faces.

Nokia could also go for the Windows Phone 7 platform instead of Android or could choose both. Elop said that we’d learn more about their future decisions next month, probably after the MWC starting in a month.

If your Website Reproduces Content from Other Websites Then You are in Trouble

We recently wrote on how to report to Google the copyright infringements for those who think their genuinely written unique content is aggressively copied over the web.

Well, to all those legitimate bloggers/ webmaster you may not need to report websites for copy/pasting any further.

Actually here’s a good news, at same time a death warrant for those scamper bloggers who copy/paste content on their website, and the news is:

“we (Google) are evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.”, Matt Cutts, Head of SPAM at Google

Via: mattcutts.com

In simple words, all those websites which reproduce content from elsewhere on the web will be ranked lower or will be marked as SPAM and won’t appear in search engines at all.

So if you are working on a blog idea, which will reproduce content from other websites, straight away forget it. If you are already doing this then start looking for other ways to earn money.

Qik Overview

What is Qik

• Capture special or spontaneous moments on video using your mobile phone.

• Share the moments live or anytime later with anyone you choose.

Why use Qik?

• It’s convenient. Interesting moments can happen anywhere. Your mobile phone is the one device that’s always with you.

• It’s easy. Before you finish recording, your Qiks are already saved to your online Video Gallery, ready for safe-keeping or sharing. What could be easier than that?

Who can you share with?

• Anyone you choose. Share your Qiks with a single family member, a group of friends, or broadcast to your entire community. You decide.

• Many sharing options. With a single tap, share by email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, your blog, through your own Video Gallery on Qik.com, or directly to another mobile phone.

When can you share Qiks?

• Live. Share your Qiks live (right as you are recording them)!

• Later. If friends and family aren’t available to watch live, they can see your Qiks anytime later that’s convenient.

File Hosting Services – Simplify File Sharing Without Paid Accounts

Penetration of Broadband internet is increasing with time and sharing of large-sized files isn’t much of a task now-a-days.

E-mail services can be exploited for sending files up to 20 MBs but for sharing of large files, such as one of 500 MBs, web file hosting services can be better options.

Besides file sharing, these services can also be helpful if someone want to backup/upload important data to a remote server as data will be easily accessible on the go.

A famous example of file hosting service is RapidShare; however, it keeps the reins tight on free users – leaving them with no other choice than to buy a premium account. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of some of the file hosting services which are arguably the best in business and paid subscription is not necessary for frequent use.

MediaFire:

It offers unlimited storage space, direct access to uploaded files (no countdown & CAPTCHA) and resuming of interrupted downloads. There’s no traffic limit for parallel file downloading from this site. I’ve tested this service with 30+ concurrent connections without any issue.

However, if you don’t access your account for 2 months then it’ll be expired with possible deletion of all the uploaded files. Similarly, if any of your uploaded files isn’t downloaded for a month it’ll be deleted. For free users, per file size limit is 200MBs but file splitting is allowed i.e. multiple parts of a single file can be uploaded separately.

iFile:

iFile a.k.a mihd.net also provides unlimited storage with no traffic/bandwidth limitation. Interestingly, all accounts are free and no paid subscription is supported at this site, at least for the time being. Files of size up to 300MBs can be uploaded in one go while file splitting is allowed here as well. Guest file uploading is also supported and per file size limit is same as for free users i.e. 300MBs per file.

A download ticket is generated (valid for 24 hours) for each requested download; meaning that downloads can be resumed in that interval. Interrupted downloads can be resumed even after the expiration of download ticket. A general method will be elaborated later in the article which holds true for most of the file hosting services. Files are downloaded with direct access; however, only 4 parallel connections are supported.

FileServe:

Unlike, iFile & MediaFire, it provides 500GBs of storage to free users and doesn’t offer something exciting like direct access to files or parallel downloading but it does offer per file size limit of 1GB. Multiple files can also be uploaded in batch operation.

This service uses CAPTCHA method for verification purposes and takes about 15 seconds (previously 35 sec) to generate download link of the requested file. Download restriction of 1 file per 10 minutes (previously 12 minutes) is also applied i.e. once you’ve started downloading a file, next request should be sent after 10 minutes at least. If your previous file takes more than 10 minutes for completion then next one can be requested without any delay.

MegaUpload:

It offers 200GBs of storage and free users get to wait 25 seconds (45 seconds for non-registered users) for download link of the requested file. Downloads are resumable for free accounts but no parallel downloading is supported. However, there’s no time restriction between downloading two files separately. Batch uploading of multiple files is also supported and this service offers upload limit of 1GB per file.

HotFile:

HotFile provides unlimited storage space and upload limit of 400MBs per file but it’s on par compared to rest of the services discussed above. It imposes traffic limit of 1 file per 30 minutes with no support for parallel downloading or resuming of interrupted downloads. Download link is generated after CAPTCHA verification and a delay of 15 seconds (previously 60 seconds). Similar to FileServe, 1 file per 30 minutes limit indicates that next file should be requested, at least, after 30 minutes of previous request.

Common Features:

All services offer adequate amount of storage space and don’t even require free account for uploading files, however, file management won’t be possible without free subscription. Some of the services like FileServe, HotFile & iFile have support for free remote uploading. Remote uploading is the method of transferring files from one hosting service to other. However, remote uploading requires actual link of the file to be transferred (not the webpage link of uploaded file) while some services also require premium accounts for remote fetching of files (e.g. MegaUpload).

Some services offer reward schemes e.g. MegaUpload awards points when someone downloads your uploaded files (depends upon region). Likewise, FileServe & HotFile have affiliate program through which users can earn money.

Some hosting services have their own application programs for uploading/downloading of files e.g. Mega Manager by MegaUpload. These file managers are primarily meant for paid users but free users can also be benefited through them with limited functionality, of course.

How to Resume Downloads:

Resuming of interrupted/broken downloads depends on the hosting service. MediaFire &iFile provide this support to free/non-registered users while MegaUpload also offers this functionality to free users only. FileServe doesn’t support this functionality for free users, however, free users of HotFile can only start interrupted downloads from the beginning by using previously generated link (link is valid for limited amount of time). Below mentioned steps can be helpful for resuming interrupted downloads (requires download accelerator/manager).

• Always try to resume downloads from your download manager/accelerator at first place and check the response.
• In case of failure, open the webpage of shared file and wait for generation of direct link by the hosting service.
• Copy generated link of the file.
• Go to properties of file in your download manager/accelerator and replace old link with new one.
• Close properties dialog and restart the download.

Above mentioned procedure will work only with MediaFire, iFile & MegaUpload or any other similar hosting service with support for direct downloads. An alternative to conventional download accelerators/managers and designed specifically to download files from hosting services is JDownloader. It’s a free, open source and platform independent java application which can be useful for both premium and non-paid users.

How to Split Files:

File splitting has been mentioned several times above but one thing is to be noted; users are required to split files themselves. None of the hosting services offer splitting at server side. Unlike file compression, file splitting is a quick process and can easily be done by free utility named HJ-Split.

It performs file splitting and joining functions, can compare length of any two files and can also generate checksum of any given data file.

Final Words:

Aforementioned sharing services are certainly not the only ones available in the realm of file sharing. There’re several alternatives available; MultiUpload, for instance, is kind of a service which doesn’t host files on its own server rather it distributes files to 6 different file hosting services in one go.

These services include RapidShare, MegaUpload, DepositFiles, HotFile, zShare andUploading. It only maintains information regarding uploaded files and users don’t have to register at included hosting services. Similarly, FileSonic, Kiwi6 and TooFiles also offer unlimited storage space and TooFiles even offers direct access with no download limit. It’s just the matter of personal requirements to determine what and what-not to select.

Experience a more beautiful web - Windows Internet Explorer 9 Beta

What’s new in Internet Explorer 9?
The improvements to Internet Explorer are as much about what you don't see as what you do see. Internet Explorer 9 has a streamlined design, fewer dialog boxes to click through, more intuitive navigation, and many new features that speed up your web browsing experience. Features like Pinned Sites let you pin your favorite website directly to the taskbar for one-click access. Other features, like hardware acceleration, deliver an all-around faster browsing experience. With Internet Explorer 9, websites perform and feel more like the programs you use every day on your PC.
Here's what's new:
Streamlined design

The first thing you'll notice when you open Internet Explorer 9 is the compact user interface. Most command bar functions, like Print or Zoom, can now be accessed by clicking the Tools button, and your favorites appear when you click the Favorites button. Otherwise, Internet Explorer gives you the basic controls you need, and lets the web take center stage.

Experience a more beautiful web - Windows Internet Explorer 9 Beta

What’s new in Internet Explorer 9?




The improvements to Internet Explorer are as much about what you don't see as what you do see. Internet Explorer 9 has a streamlined design, fewer dialog boxes to click through, more intuitive navigation, and many new features that speed up your web browsing experience. Features like Pinned Sites let you pin your favorite website directly to the taskbar for one-click access. Other features, like hardware acceleration, deliver an all-around faster browsing experience. With Internet Explorer 9, websites perform and feel more like the programs you use every day on your PC.







Here's what's new:







Streamlined design

The first thing you'll notice when you open Internet Explorer 9 is the compact user interface. Most command bar functions, like Print or Zoom, can now be accessed by clicking the Tools button, and your favorites appear when you click the Favorites button. Otherwise, Internet Explorer gives you the basic controls you need, and lets the web take center stage.