Archive December 2009
Report: Deal of ICQ?
A Russian company, Digital Sky Technologies (DST) is negotiating to buy ICQ instant messenger. Presently, owned by AOL, ICQ is one of the most leading instant messengers used today. The deal is supposed to be fixed between $200 millions to $250 millions.
Worth noticing is the fact that AOL bought ICQ in 1998 for $400 millions, and have millions of users all over the world. Market researcher Camscore has rated ICQ as the No.1 instant messenger in Russia so the enthusiasm of the deal is obvious. This news was published in a Russian newspaper Vedomosti.
Digital Sky Technologies was in news in May when it invested $200 millions in Facebook. And the market can see it as company’s yet another deal.
ICQ came into highlight when AOL asked Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co., investment bankers to find buyer for ICQ.
Security Expert Finds Problem with Microsoft’s MSN.com
Someone has discovered a problem on Microsoft’s MSN.com website and the question is being asked, “is a prelude or even the result of an attack on Microsoft’s website?”
The problem is with MSN’s Arabia subdomain. MSN uses subdomains to provide localized content to different parts of the the world. There are MSN subdomains for the UK, France, India and so on. There is also a subdomain for Arabia at http://arabia.msn.com. The problem occurs when users of the site try to access Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
On other subdomains and the main MSN.com website, entering a search term into the Bing search box takes you to the Bing search engine and a page of results for the term entered. But on the Arabia site using Bing results in an error. The error comes in two parts, the general error is “You are not authorized to view this page” and the reason given for this is “Forbidden: IP address of the client has been rejected.”
The problem was dsicovered by Dr. Jahangiri and he is calling on Microsoft to fix this problem quickly but to also check their MSN Arabia website to ensure that it hasn’t been compromised and also to check for any other vulnerabilities in the web server configuration.
[Via Press Release]
X-Ray Vision and Birds
A recent study by a team of researchers suggests that, birds like the small red-breasted robin in your garden has a kind of an “X-ray” vision. The team of researchers from the University of Oldenburg, wrote about their findings in the scientific journal “Nature”. According to them, the migratory pattern of many migratory birds and other birds were linked to the fact that they were able to sense the earth’s magnetic field.
This has now proven to be true, and has in fact revealed even more than that. The research team has said that, the birds can see the Earth magnetic field at night and this was possible by a particular area in the brain called “Cluster N” which processes light. Though they have not determined how this helps the birds in the process, but they have zeroed down on the fact that these birds could actually see the earth’s magnetic field.
Hackers: “Iranian Cyber Army”
On Friday morning, users while visiting Twitter encountered a message from “Iranian cyber army”, a group of some Iranian hackers. A similar thing was observed with Iran’s green movement website. It seems that these sites have experienced an attack of hackers. They call themselves “Iranian cyber army”. It was like a worldwide protest against green movement because it did not really appeared like a typical cyber crime which generally has some financial intentions. That really happened on Twitter was that the web page of twitter was redirected to a web page which displayed a green flag with Arabic words which mean that the site has been hacked by Iranian cyber army.
Not just this, the note at the bottom read, “USA think they controlling and managing internet by their access, but they don’t, we control and manage internet by our power, so do not try to stimulate Iranian people”.
The page contained many other such words of protest and ends with a note “take care”. The good thing about the attack was all the essential information remained safe. A series of talks have begun with these attacks both regarding security issues and political issues. Let’s see how it goes in the coming days.
Now You Can Connect a Keyboard to Your iPhone
There was a time when I used to dream… if I only had a keyboard to type on my iPhone so that I could type fast on this buttonless baby of mine. But my dream has now come true for me. Now there is an application through which we can connect iPhone or iPod touch to a keyboard.
If you want to sit and type through a keyboard, you must install “BTstack Keyboard app” from Cydia store. This application worth $5, but is equally helpful and pay its price.
This application works through Bluetooth. It searches for the keyboard device and let you connect it to your iPhone.
Isn’t that cool? So what are you waiting for? Just go for it!
Google Fined $14,300 per day
Google was fined by a French court for $14,300 a day till it stops showing copyright books. A Paris based court ruled this judgment on Friday. Google inc. was also asked to pay $430,000 to a French publisher La Martiniere, who brought out the lawsuit on behalf of other French publishers.
This may set back the ambitious dream of this search engine giant to scan all world literature to an online digital library in next five years. Though, Google attorney Alexandra Neri has said that Google will appeal against this judgment. Google as a company is becoming more and more powerful day by day. There is already a U.S legal settlement that gives right to Google, to scan millions of books to its digital library. It is interesting to see that Google has scanned over 10 millions of books with the consent of over 30,000 publishers since 2004. Critics are saying Google is going beyond its rights, but no one is denying that it is very hard to stop Google from its mission.
Slim Tablet PC’s From the Makers of the $100 Laptop
The makers of the $100 laptop and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) have unveiled a new slimline tablet PC, the XO -3. The new tablet PC which is proposed to be released sometime in 2012, will be retailing for a price less than $100 and will be aimed at connecting children around the world. The company had earlier scrapped all plans of developing the XO 2 which was a foldable notebook kind of device.
The XO which was the actual $100 laptop had run into troubles with its cost right from the beginning and it was retailing for almost twice the price. The company has sold around 1.5 million units in over 34 countries and aims that the ever decreasing price of electronics would only bring the prices of these laptops down. The company would also be releasing the XO 1.75 in 2011 which was an upgraded version of the XO with a new processor and a touchscreen.
Source : BBC
Microsoft Ends the Fight with EU Over IE
Microsoft has finally come in peace with the European Union on the issue of the web browsers. The issue that started in 1998, was about Microsoft killing competition in the European browser market. Microsoft was criticized by the European Union for bundling their operating systems with their default web browser, Internet Explorer. Many felt that, this move of Microsoft could kill the competition in the web browser market and that users should be given the choice when it comes to choosing a web browser.
The European Union had also imposed fines on the computer maker to the tune of 1.68 billion Euros for not coming to an agreement in the web browser issue. After the computer maker had arrived at a consensus with the European Union, it had ended what was considered to be the biggest fight on web browsers. Users now in Europe will have to choice to choose their web browsers and a number of people have welcomed this new move by Microsoft. Chief Executive of Opera, Jon von Tetzchner said that this was the victory of the web and this move would definitely help build a healthy competition in the European web browser market.
4G Comes to Scandinavia!
4G networks have now become a reality and people in Norway and Sweden could be first ones to use the fourth generation in mobile networks. Telecom company TeliaSonera has announced that they have been working on two mobile networks in Stockholm and Oslo and people will be able to use the networks from sometime in early 2010. The networks are based on the Long term Evolution technology and users will first be able to access the network only through a laptop and a dongle as no mobile devices currently support the 4G network.
TeliSonera has said that the networks will be able to offer downlink speeds of upto 100 megabits per second and that many other operators will take on this new network. TeliSonera has not announced the costs a person will incur when he accesses the network. Customers will have to use a dongle to connect the network and it will be manufactured by Samsung. Mobile handsets supporting the 4G network will be available from the later half of 2010.
Source: BBC
Review of Nokia E72
Nokia is known for its top class smart phones. Recently, E72 was launched into the market. “E” stands for executive, so this is the latest addition in Executive class phones by Nokia.
E72 has an elegant smart design, that can impress anyone, but the more important thing about this phone is that it is feature packed.
Features of E72
- Full QWERTY keyboard.
- Measures elegantly 114 x 58.3 x 10.1 mm and weighs merely 128g.
- 3.5mm headphone sockets.
- 5-megapixel camera.
- It has 2.36-inch 320 x 240 QVGA display.
- Battery: 12.5hrs GSM talktime & 492hrs GSM standby
Along with these features it comes with all tradition features of a smart phone. This phone gives lot of reasons of why to buy it, so guys if you looking for a cool smart phone, E72 must be your choice.
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