Microsoft Plus Yahoo vs. Google, So It Begins
The Microsoft and Yahoo marriage has been blessed by antitrust regulators both in Europe and over the pond, giving the two companies green light to implement their anti-Google search alliance. On the morning of February 18th, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Antitrust Commission have wrapped up their reviews of the Microsoft-Yahoo search agreement. With the alliance between the two giants cleared without restrictions, the duo will now move to implement the deal.
“Although we are just at the beginning of this process, we have reached an exciting milestone,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. “I believe that together, Microsoft and Yahoo! will promote more choice, better value and greater innovation to our customers as well as to advertisers and publishers.”
Microsoft claims that the search agreement was announced in late July 2009, but the company has been flirting publicly with Yahoo for a total of over two years, but there’s no way of telling just how much time had Ballmer actually spent on this deal ahead of the start of 2008. The debut of February 2008, brought with it an unsolicited offer of $44.6 billion from Microsoft, which at the time was trying to acquire Yahoo. Making sure that the deal fell through was Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, then occupying the position of CEO. Read more
HTC Magic
The second device launched by the joint-venture HTC and Google – HTC Magic aka G2, suggests that the new Android-branded phones have great potential on the smartphone market. Updated to the latest firmware version, including Cupcake 1.5, HTC Magic is now shadowed by its new brother, HTC Hero, which features the new Sense GUI developed by the Taiwanese manufacturer. Still, Magic owners will be happy to find that HTC officially announced that they would be able to update their devices with the new Sense GUI, if their Magic smartphones were unlocked. Yes, those that got their devices from network carriers like T-Mobile or Vodafone will not be able to take advantage of the new GUI offered by HTC.
Announced in February 2009, HTC Magic hit the shelves three months later, in May 2009. The device is available in two classical colors: black and white. HTC Magic can be bought for around 450 USD, but that depends on location and plan. I suggest buying the unlocked version, so you can get the new graphical user interface that has been included with the Hero model. Read more
Google To Challenge Windows and Mac
Rumours that Google are working on a desktop operating system, to rival Windows and the Mac OS have been floating around the web for a while and they’ve generally been dismissed but now it’s official. Google Chrome OS is due to hit the streets some time in the second half of 2010. Whether or not the good folk at Microsoft and Apple will be quaking in their boots remains to be seen but on past experience Google certainly has the clout to make it happen and the Android OS for smart phones is already starting to have an impact.
Chrome OS is designed to run on standard x86 PC hardware, as well as ARM chips and the ever popular Intel Atom used in the majority of netbooks. It’s going to be based on a Linux kernel and according to Sundar Picha, the Google Engineering director who broke the news on his blog, key user-inspired features will include near-instant startup and email download Read more
Google Has a Need for Speed
Everyone knows faster Internet is better, but Google is actually doing something about it. The company wants to make the web faster with a variety of different measures detailed on the newly launched site code.google.com/speed, aimed at web developers and full of tips, tutorials and tools, all focused on speed.
“We are excited to discuss what we’ve learned about web performance with the Internet community. However, to optimize the speed of web applications and make browsing the web as fast as turning the pages of a magazine, we need to work together as a community, to tackle some larger challenges that keep the web slow and prevent it from delivering its full potential,” the official Google blog reads. Read more
Google Books Gets a Major Update
Google Books has made the headlines mostly with the controversy surrounding the project rather than with the product itself. But this hasn’t stopped the search giant from improving it and it has just announced a major update adding some very useful features.
“Today I’m excited to announce that we’re rolling out changes to Google Books that give readers and book lovers everywhere new ways to interact with the words and images contained within the books we’ve brought online. We’ve also made it easier for users to share previews of their favorite books on their blogs or websites,” wrote Brandon Badger, product manager for Google Books.
The most important new feature is a much simpler way of embedding the books on other websites. The Mountain View-based company now provides a small code snippet that should make sharing a book just as easy as sharing a YouTube video. Read more
iPhone 3G S Features
Apple has officially announced the launch of its fastest and most powerful iPhone called iPhone 3G S.
It is almost same in the shape but it has some new features added including the the camera of the new iphone is upgraded to 3 megapixel with auto focus, Tap to focus, Video recording, VGA up to 30 fps with audio and lot more other features listed below
New Features Added with To iPhone 3G S
- 3MP camera with autofocus, auto exposure, automatic white balance, low light sensitivity, macro mode, photo and video geotagging
- 3.5-inch Multi-Touch display with 480 x 320 pixels resolution at 163 ppi Read more
Google Launches Google Squared
The amount of online data is increasing exponentially and everyone trying to keep track of it is having a harder time doing so. Even Google isn’t having it any easier and it has acknowledged that the current keyword-based search won’t be able to keep up for long. Adding structure to the data online, using it more like a database, would make it much easier to manage the volume of information. This is what the search giant hopes to do with its Google Squared project.
Having the web all organized, labeled and structured is what many companies are trying to do for the search engines of tomorrow. A recent popular example in this regard is the recently launched Wolfram Alpha, which works differently from most search engines, including Google’s, because instead of just indexing the data on the web it gathers it and stores it in its internal databases. Read more
Nokia E71 smartphone review
Nokia’s E-range is aimed firmly at corporate users, with the E71 offering a full QWERTY keypad to make emailing easier, and loads of features that help to make it a great out of office tool.
Build quality is among the best that we’ve seen to date on a smartphone, with aluminium used on the front and rear to create an incredibly stylish yet robust finish. The most surprising aspect of this handset is just how thin it is, however, making it appear a lot smaller than it actually is.
It’s also narrower than rivals such as RIM’s Blackberry Bold, leading to a keyboard that may be too cramped for some users. Raised centres to the keys make it easy to get up a good typing rhythm, however, striking a good compromise between portability and usability. Read more
Google to Allow Free Music Downloads in China
On Monday, Google Inc. has announced that it has begun offering free and legal downloads of licensed music on its Chinese servers, after the American company reached an agreement with the four largest music producers and distributors in the world – Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI and Universal Music. Google will pay for the songs by sharing some of its advertising revenues with the music companies, one of the first attempts made by the music industry to cash in on the large Chinese market.
In China, the most popular search engine is not the leader of the market, but trails behind giant Baidu.com Inc., which has the most visitors and registered searches per day. The President of Google for greater China, Lee Kai-Fu, said that one of the main reasons why the company lagged behind Baidu was the fact that Google offered no music downloads. “We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads. We were missing one piece – we didn’t have music,” Lee stated. Read more
MS Firefox discovered!
Once the most preferred browser is Internet Explorer, Firefox, especially with the support of its plug-and users, and software developers are happy. Many independent programmers and users for Firefox, is developing its own plug-ins offer. In this way, and has made their introductions, and facilitate business users. The new Firefox add-ons that enhance the company’s very difficult for independent programmers, because these firms with IT giant Microsoft.
“Heavy on demand, we have to integrate Live Search to Firefox” and speaking of Live Search software manager Ray Debapriya own blog, Microsoft’s add-in was announced by the official. Read more
