Facebook Allows High Resolution Photos, Bulk Tagging, and Makes More Improvements to Photos

On october 1st Facebook begins rolling out multiple improvements to its photos product. Users will be able to upload and download high resolution photos, quickly view photos in a pop-up light box view without leaving the page they are currently viewing, utilize two bulk tagging features to tag one person in multiple photos simultaneously, and use a streamlined and more reliable Flash uploading tool. Despite the monetary cost, Facebook has made the changes to keep the world’s most popular photos product technologically competitive.

Five months ago Facebook acquired photo sharing startup Divvyshot, who’s founder Sam Odio product managed these changes. Odio tells us “We took a fresh look at the photos product, built a new vision, and this is first step towards that vision. Facebook is building out a larger photos team, photos are becoming a priority within the company, and it’s something we felt like we should be doing for our users.” The new changes will only go live for a small random subset of users later today because of the 100 million photos Facebook takes in a day. However, barring any significant problems, the changes will be rolled out to 100% of the user base over the next few weeks.

High Resolution Photos

Users will now have the option to upload photos at 2048 pixels along the largest side as well as Facebook’s standard 720 pixels. This 8 times improvement in quality will cover the resolution of photos taken by most consumer cameras. Larger photos, such as those shot with DSLRs, will be re-sized down to 2048 pixels, or roughly 6000 kilobytes, on the user’s side just before the upload occurs. This means that if you try to upload a 6 megabyte photo, you won’t have to wait for that large file to be sent to Facebook. Users will still have to be patient, however, as the uploader notes high resolution photos take up to 10 times longer to upload.

Anyone will be able to view the print quality, high resolution photos on Facebook’s web interface, and there will be a link below them to initiate a download of a .jpg of the photo. The high resolution will allows users to print 5×7 inch photos at 300 DPI, or perhaps even 8x10s, without any degradation of the image. High resolution photos will also be available through the API, opening opportunities for print products, and high resolution photo experiences on HD televisions. Odio says he’s excited to see what the API partners come up with.

Facebook will still be using its Haystack storage infrastructure for high resolution photos. The significant drop in storage costs over the last five years makes the high resolution feasible, but it will still cost millions of dollars. Odio says, “Zuckberg made the decision. He though users would appreciate high resolution. He looked at the tab and said ‘Let’s do it.’” Odio explained that all the other major photo sharing sites offer high resolution, including Divvyshot, and while Facebook had previously been focused on sharing memories, not pixels, Facebook is ready to “get with the times”.

Light Box View Of Photos

Soon, you will be able to click a photo anywhere on site, on the news feed or within albums, and the photo will load over a darkened background of the content you were viewing. You can then browse to adjacent photos, or click out or hit escape to close the light box and resume viewing the page you were previously looking at. The view will also include comments and Likes below the photo, only one advertisement instead of two, and the total amount of other text and distracting graphics will be minimal.

Light box view will also help photos load faster. Instead of sending a get http request for a whole new page which would have to be generated by the server and sent back, now Facebook will just construct the light box over your current page and immediately start downloading the image. The image may appear first, followed by the comments and Likes a tiny fraction of a second later.

The change should help users keep their desktops tidy. Previously when users wanted to retain their place in Facebook but view a photo, they would typically load the photo in a new tab. Odio say, “This seemed like a clumsy experience. The funny thing is that everyone is tracking page views. This change will probably cause a significant hit to page views, but we but we think it’s better. It loads much faster and you don’t lose your context in the content you were interested in.”

Bulk Tagging

When you go to any album page, you’ll be able to click “Tag photo”, enter a friend’s name, click the face of that friend in multiple photo thumbnails, and hit save to simultaneously tag that person in all of those photos. “People were doing an incredible amount of tagging, but it seemed like a terrible user experience to have to tag each individual photo separately”. Odio says it might sound difficult to pinpoint faces in thumbnails, but it’s actually quite easy.

The original uploader of photos will have access to an express bulk tagging system. Facebook will recognize the same face being present in multiple photos, and temporarily the group photos with the same face together making it easy to tag that person in all those photos simultaneously. This should alleviate uploader tagging fatigue, which frequently resulted in users leaving their friends to tag themselves.

Flash Uploader and Streamlined Flow

Facebook is implementing a new Flash uploader which increases reliability and takes advantage of the greater market penetration of Flash. Facebook has experimented with Java clients and browser plugins over the years, but rewrote the uploader in Flash for its ability to select multiple photos at once. The upload flow has also been streamlined. When you hit “upload photos” you’ll immediately begin selecting photos, and not be first asked to create and name an album as you were before.

Reliability is measured by how many users who at first click “upload” actually end up with new photos appearing on the site. Facebook expects at 5-10% increase in reliability thanks to the Flash uploader and streamlined flow. While users in the US with modern computers and fast connections might not see much difference, users in countries like Indonesia with older computers and worse connections will have a much improved upload experience.

Free Entertainment Apps for iPhone

Now get your favorite Comcast® services on your iPhone and iPod touch with this free Comcast mobile application.
Category: Entertainment
Updated:Jul 26, 2010
Current Version:2.2
Language:English
Seller:Comcast Cable Communications
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

Avaya A175 Business-oriented Tablet

Avaya has introduced new business-oriented tablet that is recognized as Avaya A175,expected to cost between $1,500 and $2,000, this 11.5-inch enterprise tablet is designed primarily to be used at a cubicle, doubling as a SIP phone and tripling as an office collaboration tool. Dubbed a “Polycom killer” more than an iPad killer, this unit relies on Aura 6.0 and the newly designed Flare user interface (detailed in the video past the break), which enables touchscreen operation and supports multi-user video calling, email, web browsing and support for Android applications. Specs wise, it’s “slightly thicker than an iPad,” has a trio of USB 2.0 ports, inbuilt WiFi, 3G / 4G WWAN support and an integrated battery for those days when you simply have to clock in from the comfort of Venice Beach. Hit that More Coverage link for a live report at the device’s unveiling, and feel free to start hassling your manager to order up a few dozen of these. Or use that money for office-wide raises — whatever floats your boat.

UEFI -A replacement to BIOS

New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

ios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

The acronym stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is designed to be more flexible than its venerable predecessor.

UEFI frees any computer from being based around the blueprint and specifications of the original PCs. For instance, it does not specify that a keyboard will only connect via a specific port.

The first to see the benefits of swapping old-fashioned Bios for UEFI have been system administrators who have to oversee hundreds or thousands of PCs in data centres or in offices around the world.

"Conventional Bios is up there with some of the physical pieces of the chip set that have been kicking around the PC since 1979," said Mark Doran, head of the UEFI Forum, which is overseeing development of the technology.

Before now, said Mr Doran, getting those machines working has been "pretty painful" because of the limited capabilities of Bios.

By contrast, he said, UEFI has much better support for basic net protocols - which should mean that remote management is easier from the "bare metal" upwards.

For consumers, said Mr Doran, the biggest obvious benefit of a machine running UEFI will be the speed with which it starts up.

Source: On This Page

Tweetbeat -The Best of Twitter in RealTime

-Tweetbeat scans more than 90 million Twitter updates each day, using semantic technology to pick out the most interesting people discussing the most interesting topics, in real time. The Mountain View start-up bills the service as "the end of hashtags" because its users would no longer have to tag an update.

Tweetbeat is a real-time source for what people are saying about any major event.

• LiveFollow event streams to see up-to-the-minute reactions from fans, experts and celebs.
• Replay tweets from earlier events.
• Watch Firsthand commentary from key people and players at the event.
• Read Headlines about the event from top news sources.
• Get Recommendations for people to follow who share your event interests.
• Search for events happening right now.

Kosmix, which officially released its Tweetbeat product Wednesday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

TweetBeat Website http://tweetbeat.com/about

Google Street View Hits All Seven Continents

Today google announce that you can now explore Street View imagery on all seven continents, with the addition today of Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica.

The original idea behind Google Street View was a good one: give everyone in the world a view from any street in the world. Of course, when it launched in May 2007, Street View was only available in five cities in the U.S. But the update today — over three years later — completes an impressive feat for the product: it’s now available on every continent. Yes, all seven. Yes, that includes Antarctica. Yes, a place with no real streets.


You can now see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica.
visit visit the Street View gallery


More info On this google blog

Google Phone Gallery

Today google rolled out Google Phone Gallery -- a showcase of Android-powered devices that deliver the best Google experience today. Check it out at http://www.google.com/phone
All the phones in the gallery include Android Market, Google Search, and other Google Mobile services such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube. There are tools that make it easy to compare phones side by side: you can filter phones by country, manufacturer, and carrier; view and compare technical specifications and features; and find where each phone is available for sale.
Source : On This Page

Predictions for the Future of Display Ads by google

1. Google announced two new kinds of video ads for YouTube and predicted that half of display ads would include cost-per-view videos that viewers choose to watch. On YouTube, people will be able to skip video ads they don’t like after five seconds (and the advertiser won’t pay for those views) or choose which of three ads to watch.

2. Half of the audience will be viewing ads in real-time, Google predicted. That means changing elements of ads on the fly based on things like location, the viewer’s interests and the weather. Google demonstrated technology from Teracent, an advertising company it acquired, that changes a car ad depending on whether the viewer is in a sunny or rainy place, is a woman or a man, and prefers shopping or sports. The technology would allow “millions of possible permutations,” Mr. Salzman said.

3. Google has been talking for a while about mobile being a priority and predicted that cellphone screens would be the No. 1 screen for viewing the Web by 2015. In display advertising, that means using phones to bridge the gap between a magazine ad and an online ad. An app called Google Goggles already lets people take photos of things like a landmark to search for them on Google. Eventually, people will be able to take a cellphone photo of a print automobile ad, for instance, and see the car in 3-D, zoom in and visit the company’s Web site.

4. There are metrics more important than clicks. “Whatever the marketing goal is, you should be able to measure it,” Mr. Salzman said. In addition to measuring engagement with rich media ads and video views, other examples of new forms of advertising measurement include “sentiment analysis” that examines “the tone of consumer comments about a brand” and geo-based metrics will allow marketers to measure the increase in foot traffic or to their stores.

5. Three quarters of all ads will be socially enabled. “All users will be able to share an ad, comment on an ad and give feedback on an ad,” said Mr. Mohan. Instead of advertisers talking to consumers directly, Mr. Mohan envisioned “a two-way communication channel between a brand and its consumers.”

6. Rich media ads will comprise 50 percent of all campaigns. According to Mr. Salzman, “Static banner ads will become a thing of the past.” To illustrate his point, Mr. Salzman showed the audience the live video stream of the presentation as it was streamed to ad units on the Advertising Age Web site. He described it as a “meta media phenomenon.”

7. Display advertising will grow to be a $50 billion market.

Source : On This nytimes Page

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 IE9 Q and A

Q: What’s so special about IE9?

A: IE9 shows that Microsoft has been learning from its competitors — most notably, Google’s Chrome. Microsoft has also clearly been listening to the complaints of the legions who have made rival browsers Firefox and Chrome serious threats to IE’s dominance in the browser market.

The first thing you’ll notice about IE9 is its interface, which is immediately reminiscent of Google’s Chrome. Like Chrome, IE9 is stripped of most screen elements by default. The title bar, menu bar, and most toolbar buttons are hidden by default. Instead, along the top of the browser window, you’ll see only the Back and Forward buttons, an Address bar which doubles as a search field, tabs for your open websites, and View Favourites and Tools icons, reminiscent of similar icons along Chrome’s top edge. The effect of this lack of clutter is that web pages start to feel more like applications rather than pages running inside of another program.

Happily, all keyboard shortcuts for accessing hidden menus and other features still work. Press Alt-A, for instance, and your Favourites menu appears. The interface is also thoroughly customisable and reacts to changes the way you imagine it would. For instance, if the Address bar seems too narrow to you, just grab it by the right—hand side and extend it as far as you’d like.

Also reminiscent of Chrome is the way IE9 shows your “most popular” (favourite) sites whenever you create a new tab. You can change what appears on new tabs, as you can with Chrome, but the default behaviour of the two browsers is now identical in this respect.

Microsoft’s headline feature for IE9 is hardware-accelerated text, video, and graphics. What this means is that IE9 takes advantage of the hardware in your PC in ways that previous versions did not. The result: faster pages loads and faster display of graphics. Most unofficial tests since the beta release of IE9 show the browser’s speed to be at least on a par now with Firefox, with some tests showing IE9 pulling ahead.

Also out in front on the feature list is tight integration with Windows 7. The most notable evidence of this is the Pinned Sites feature, which refers to the ability to drag a tab from the browser and drop it onto the Windows 7 taskbar, where the site then becomes available with one click in the future. In testing, this feature worked only when the taskbar was located at the bottom of the screen, however — not when it had been moved to the left or right edge.

There are assorted other changes in IE9, as well, and most of them again bring IE up to the performance and usability standards set by other browsers. There are beefed-up security features, for instance, to help protect you against phishing attacks or stumbling upon malware-infested websites. There’s a new download manager that arguably makes downloads easier to organise and find. Also to help with the safety of downloads is a new “download reputation rating” system, which will help you know whether you’re downloading a file from a trusted source. Noteworthy, too, is a new “no add ons” option for launching the browser, which should aid in troubleshooting issues caused by browser plug-ins.

Q: Is IE9 compatible with all version of Windows?

A: Unfortunately, no. The IE9 beta is not compatible with Windows XP. And according to Microsoft insiders, the company has no intention of making the final release of IE9 compatible with Windows XP, either.

IE9 is compatible with Windows Vista and, of course, Windows 7. It is also compatible with Windows Server 2008. Its memory and disk space requirements are unremarkable. Essentially any computer running Vista, Windows 7, or Server 2008 should work fine with IE9.

Q: Is IE9 stable enough for me to use now?

A: IE9 is still beta software. That means that it has too many bugs to be considered ready for widespread release. When the final version is available, it will show up in Windows Update as an upgrade option for users of Windows Vista and Windows 7. You’ll also be able to download the final version separately.

That said, however, the current beta of IE9 will work without issue on the majority of websites. Some sites that don’t display properly will be automatically switched to “compatibility view” by the browser, which takes just a few seconds. Some have also reported browser crashes with IE9 that they did not experience before.

The bottom line is that IE9 will run fine on your computer now, but you should be prepared for the occasional glitch. If that idea bothers you, stick with IE8 or whatever browser you’re currently using. It’s important to note that you cannot run IE9 simultaneously with an earlier version of IE. Once you upgrade, IE9 is the only version of Internet Explorer that you’ll have.

Q: Where can I download IE9?

A: Microsoft has set up a Test Drive site (http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive). Click Get the Beta button to begin the process. Note that if you’re using Windows XP, you won’t see the Get the Beta button, since IE9 will not install on XP.

Tips to create better personal twitter handle

Keep it as short as possible. That way you have a handle that looks good and fits into RTs very easily and the brand association is also better when it is easier to remember . So when you have aa choice between @MyFirstandlastname and @Myname, go for the latter and chuck the former.


Avoid funny characters when possible. Try to stick to a non-complicated sequence of aplhabets , it is better to have @GeorgeB rather than @_I_am_George_B when it is available . Moreover the underscores and numbers are a clear giveaway that there are many folks with the same name and you missed the first stop of the bus


Do not over-use numbers. While it is sometimes unavoidable to use numbers in your handle , try not to go over the moon with them . What I mean is , no one is going to follow a @13_12_2010 , not in their wildest dreams , although the idea of a date is cool , in this context , it is a no-no . You will probably get very few non-bot followers with that kind of handle .


Do not add funny adjectives. I have encountered a very troubled breed of tweeps who cannot resist the temptation to add an adjective like “hot” , “cool” , “sizzling” etc to their handles . Let me assure you that with an adjective like that in your handle , that is what people think you are not and not the other way round . I have even seen blind blocking of such handles.


Be yourself and go for the gut. When you haven’t got a lot of choices and feel like your handle is limiting your brand , remember that ultimately it is what comes through from you that matters more than the handle . Try your best and when your gut says something , go for it . It might just be a matter of time when the handle you wanted becomes available and you can jump on it.

OneTrueFan Is The Foursquare For Websites

OneTrueFan is launching a service for web publishers that allows visitors to earn badges for interacting and sharing content on the site.

OneTrueFan is the brainchild of MyBlogLog’s founders Eric Marcoullier and Todd Sampson. MyBlogLog was acquired by Yahoo in 2007. Unsurprisingly, some of OneTrueFan’s interface is similar to MyBlogLog. OneTrueFan has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Dave McClure, Jeff Clavier, David Cohen and Bob Pasker

OneTrueFan, which will be available as a browser add-on or as a javascript code that publishers embed on their site, aims to help engage visitors while they are on a website interacting with content. The startup revolves around a game-format that allows you to see who is reading content in the site, compete for the most engagement and encourages you to share content within the service and on social networks.

As users share more content within OneTrueFan, and on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, they can earn points, and special badges from publishers. You’ll be able to see a leaderboard of users who have been sharing content and can mouse over fellow contributors to see more information about how they’ve been interacting with a site. All of this info can be seen on the bottom of a publisher’s website.

OneTrueFan will eventually launch a dashboard that allows web sites get a multi-dimensional view of their readers based upon frequency of visits, amount of content read, regularity of shares and traffic sent. Web site owners can use existing channels, such as Twitter and Facebook, to communicate with readers.


In the future, OneTrueFan will be releasing an API so that publishers can customize the experience for their visitors. In the end, the aim of OneTrueFan is to help publishers increase engagement amongst everyday users and time spent on their sites.

Website:http://onetruefan.com/

BlackBerry PlayBook - Preview

Research In Motion® (RIM) introduced the new professional-grade BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry® Tablet OS – check out the below video for more details on the new BlackBerry PlayBook!

iphone blackberry android shopping apps

Barcode readers

    RedLaser (free for iPhone): Think "red laser" as in the laser in the scanner at the cash register. By tapping the lightning bolt on the screen and steadying the phone's camera over a barcode, you can get details in a flash. If the camera isn't picking up the barcode, you can tap in the digits in the code. You can create wish lists of your scans and e-mail your list.

It's a great tool for comparison shopping online -- and offline. There's a "local" feature that looks for your products at nearby locations using the location services of your phone.  On many food items, RedLaser calls up nutritional information. Of course, it doesn't always find what you're looking for, but we've had more hits than misses.

Google Shopper (free for Android): This Google app lets you do a voice search and image or barcode search. Same concept, tap and zap. You can share results through many avenues including Bluetooth, e-mail and Twitter. Like RedLaser, this app lets you do comparison shopping online and offline. It also provides reviews when available.

You can also use your Android phone to snap the cover of a book, DVD or video game to get details (available in SnapTell for iPhone).

The voice-searching works fine, too. But it can be a little less specific. For instance, if you just say "The Lucky Ones," you're likely to get a bunch of results to weed through until you find the one you're really looking for. 

ShopSavvy (free for Android, iPhone, Nokia and $1.99 for iPhone 2G): It also offers barcode scanning and wish lists like the other two. ShopSavvy also recognizes QR codes, those codes you may see popping up in stores and magazines that look like some kind of inkblot or obscurist black and white box art. 

Another helpful feature is the price alert for items you're interested in. It lists prices for stores built on clicks and bricks.

Lists

Shopper (free for Android, BlackBerry, 99 cents for iPhone or the free "Lite" version): This is one of the apps that includes RedLaser barcode scanning. There's also a Web interface you can access from your computer of choice. The lists you create are sharable via e-mail or through the app. Shared lists will update with any changes. You can customize your stores lists with those you frequent and get a list of weekly deals. 

You can also use the app to track your grocery budget and spending. It'll calculate what's on your list versus what's in your cart, add in tax and the discount for any coupons you have.

Remember we mentioned scanning? Well, for those of us who are more impulse buyers than planners, you can scan items into your shopping list. And if it's something you plan to buy again, you can make it a favorite to save the information you've already entered.

It'll also send "carts," so you can let your other half know what's already been bought.

Evernote (free for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre/Pixi, Windows Mobile): This app is one of those gems that you probably have sitting on your phone and never use. But make a note to yourself to use it. Not only is it accessible on multiple smartphone platforms, you can use it on your Mac or PC, making it quite the MVP. You can create text lists, photo and audio notes. We recently used it for both a honey-do list and for mattress shopping, complete with geolocated photos.

Source:On This latimes Page

How Facebook Can Conquer Mobile

• Open its own app store. Facebook already has a massive developer community, a payment system and tremendous traffic — three components that are key for any distributor of mobile apps. While it obviously couldn’t deliver applications to iPhone users, Facebook could certainly tap into the booming Android space, not to mention the huge Symbian market.
• Leverage its vast library of contact information. While Android automatically syncs contact information for Facebook users, the company’s iPhone app does little more than add profile pictures to the address book. Facebook has a chance here to expand that integration and add features like presence and location.
• Compete with Google Voice. Improving the sync of contact information paves the way for a user’s Facebook ID to become more important than the phone number itself. Opening up a mobile address book — which is essentially a user’s network of Facebook friends — would allow one to call, IM, text message or email anyone in their network with just a couple of clicks and would be a competitor for Google’s voice service.
• Allow users to share information with specific groups. Facebook has a few hard-to-find settings that users can tweak to give friends varying levels of access to their information, but the company should enable users to create customized groups of friends (like colleagues, family members and college buddies) that would see different kinds of information. Once those settings are established online, they should be easy to find and use on the phone, making it simple to send the right content to the right people without exposing others to it.

How to prevent new orkut virus BomSabado

Today Orkut has been attacked by a new worm named Bom Sabado.(Bom Sabado means "Good Saturday" in Portuguese).It is actually a new script indeed.
This script is believed to be generated from Brazil where Orkut is most popular social networking website. Earlier mysterious links were spreading on Orkut and creating huge problems, that almost made Orkut users quite Orkut!
This new worm spreads on Orkut which sends a scrap with words “Bom Sabado” in it. There are some HTML content also there.
If you open your scrapbook, same scrap will be sent to all your friends from your account.

How it works?
When any one opens a orkut page that is infected by this worm,a javascript will run automatically on that page. Your browser will be hanged for some minutes or seconds. That script will automatically join you some communities.

For Preventive measures you can do the following:
Change your password .
Delete all of your cookies .
If you want to use Orkut then follow these steps :
Open your Host file with notepad :
Windows 95/98/Me C:windowshosts
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro C:winntsystem32driversetchosts
Windows XP Home C:windowssystem32driversetchosts
Windows 7 – C:windowssystem32driversetchosts
Add this code at the end
127.0.0.1 tptools.org
127.0.0.1 www.tptools.org
127.0.0.1 convites.001webs.com
Orkut has disabled creation on new topics on communities for the time being

Bento App for Organizing Business Cards

Bento ($5 for Apple devices) is the program helps users organize a multitude of areas, including projects, To Do items, events, recipes, teams and, yes, business contacts.


Bento is most useful as a mobile companion to Bento 3, a $49 desktop program for the Mac, because it is far easier to type in a list of things to do on a computer keyboard than on a phone. On an iPad, though, that equation changes, since the screen makes project management much more eye-friendly, and typing isn’t so much of a chore.


Business contacts fit nicely in the mobile app, because the app imports names and information stored in your device’s Contacts list. Use the business-card scanning apps to fully populate that list, and you can syndicate those names through whatever projects you manage on Bento.


Since you can store pictures, video and audio clips along with each contact, your personal Rolodex is suddenly much more fun to thumb through.


Source:On This nytimes Page

VisualBasic for Windows Mobile 7

Today Microsoft announced that developers interested in building applications for Windows Phone 7 can now use Visual Basic to do so, in addition to the previously supported platforms of C#, Silverlight and XNA. This, says Microsoft's Brandon Watson via an official blog post, was the biggest request from the company's developer community to date.

Interested developers can now download the Visual Basic CTP (Community Test Build) for Windows Phone Developer Tools package which includes templates, designer support, emulator and phone support and IntelliSense for Visual Basic, an auto-completion tool used in coding.

Source:On This Page

BlackPad new tablet computer from BlackBerry

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (NasdaqGS: RIMM - News) could unveil its new tablet computer—as well as the operating system that will power it—as early as next week at a developers' conference in San Francisco, said people familiar with RIM's plans.

The tablet, which some inside RIM are calling the BlackPad, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year, these people said. It will feature a seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras, they said.

It will have Bluetooth and broadband connections but will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry smartphone, these people said. Since the tablet won't be sold with a cellular service, it's not clear which carriers or retailers will sell the device.


The RIM tablet is being manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan, and will run on chips from Santa Clara, California based Marvell Technology Group Inc. (NasdaqGS: MRVL - News), according to people familiar with the tablet's manufacturing.

Source:- on this page

10 twitter tips

1. 140 characters can be limiting sometimes. Did you know you can shorten your URL when it is too long? Services like Bitly or Tinyurl are some tools to help this

2. Use a real picture as your avatar. It personalizes the experience and connects you to your followers.

3. Use twitter search to find people to follow or groups of people who have similar interests. Good examples of must follows include @shunmugam1234 @Chrisbrogan @SethGodin @Kakief @Burbursfriends ;D

4. Build relationships one person at a time. Retweets are one way to do this. If you see a tweet that you think might add value to your followers be sure to use this feature. Here is an example of what a Retweet might look like on Twitter: “

RT @KakieF: Advanced Screening Movie Review: “The Social Network” Based o Mark Zuckerberg and Story Behind Facebook: wp.me/ptP4G-yt “

5. Acknowledge new followers at Social Oomph. This allows you to automatically send a direct message to people who follow you. Be sure the direct message says something authentic and does not have a link in it.

6. A hashtag starts with (#) and is a way to identify a certain trend or group of people.

7. Find a good mobile phone application to tweet from your phone.

8. There are great desktop tools out there to help you manage your accounts. Tweetdeck, Hootesuite, Twhirl are some examples

9. Personalize yourself by sharing photos using twitpic, flickr, etc. In addition, use a real picture as your avatar. It personalizes the experience and connects you to your followers.

10. Listen before you tweet. In other words, observe how others are using it in different circles. It is amazing what you will learn.

Nokia releases Qt 4.7 new mobile UI framework

Nokia has announced the official release of Qt 4.7, a new version of the company's open source development toolkit. The update introduces an impressive new framework called "Qt Quick" that accelerates the development of mobile user interfaces that work across multiple platforms and form factors.

Qt is a cross-platform development toolkit created by Norwegian company Trolltech, which was acquired by Nokia in 2008. Qt—which is used by mainstream commercial software vendors like Google, Adobe, Amazon, Autodesk, and Skype—offers a broad set of libraries, a comprehensive widget toolkit, and a pre-processing tool that extends the C++ programming language and object model with a number of advanced features.


Under Nokia's stewardship, Qt has gained some extremely sophisticated new features for creating mobile user interfaces. The Qt Quick framework, which is the result of those efforts, is now available for use in version 4.7. The Qt Quick stack primarily consists of a new declarative scripting language called QML that allows developers to describe flexible user interface layouts. QML can be used seamlessly with JavaScript as glue code for controlling the behavior of the user interface.

The collection of standard layout elements that are supported by default in QML greatly simplify the process of creating a finger-friendly user interface. Features like kinetic scrolling are tightly integrated, and useful effects like animated transitions are trivially easy to achieve. The QML language emphasizes a design-driven workflow and makes it easier to turn a free-form mockup into a working user interface. Qt Quick is a lot less rigid than a conventional user interface toolkit because it encourages developers to piece together their own distinctive user experiences using arbitrary graphical assets rather than discrete widgets.

It's possible to build entire applications with only QML and JavaScript, but QML is even more powerful when it is used in conjunction with C++. Qt 4.7 offers a declarative view widget that developers can use to load a QML layout inside of a conventional Qt window in a C++ application. The C++ program's underlying functions and data structures can be exposed through the declarative view and made accessible in QML, allowing developers to implement the performance-sensitive parts of their program in C++ but use QML to create a rich user interface on top.

QML is designed to take advantage of Qt's powerful model/view/controller (MVC) framework, meaning that existing Qt applications designed around Qt's MVC classes will be easy to refit with a QML user interface. This opens up a path for bringing existing Qt desktop applications to mobile devices. Developers merely have to add a few roles to their model and then expose it to a QML view, where a touchscreen-friendly interface can be created with a little bit of declarative scripting.

You can download the Qt 4.7 SDK from the Qt website.

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New online Google tool Transparency Report

Google released a new online tool on Tuesday that shows where the Internet giant's services and products such as YouTube are being blocked around the world.

The new tool, which is called "Transparency Report" and located at google.com/transparencyreport, will "allow people to see where governments are demanding that we remove content and where Google services are being blocked."

It will help show whether traffic disruptions in services and products such as Google Search, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google News and YouTube "are related to mechanical outages or are government-induced."

The Transparency Report shows that YouTube has been blocked in Iran, for example, since June 12, 2009 following the country's disputed presidential election.

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HowTo Improve Your Blog’s Alexa Rank

• Use Toolbar : Install Alexa Toolbar. Alexa currently has toolbar for IE and Firefox only, hard luck for Chrome and Opera users. Now set your blog as homepage in both the browsers. You can do this in your relatives and friends house or even in browsing centers.
• Use Widget : Many blog owners found this tip useful. Placing Alexa Rank Widget in your blog helps a lot. But it is worth trying.
• Consistency : Alexa rank automatically improves if you update your blog frequently with good contents. Update your blog daily for a better Alexa rank.
• Write About Alexa : Many bloggers love to learn the tips for improving Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic. It is better to keep ‘Alexa’ as a category or a tag.
• Reviews And Ratings : Some bloggers claim this tip has something to do with Alexa rank. Try to increase reviews and ratings for your Alexa website profile.
• Update Info : Update your listing data and blog’s site info using their Self-service tools. It gives a professional touch to it.
• Claim The Blog : Create an Alexa account or use your existing Facebook account and claim your blog. You can verify by uploading a text file or using a meta tag code

VLC player Now on Your iPhone and iPad

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework, that plays most multimedias files and various streaming protocols.

VLC for iPad has hit the iTunes App Store, bringing with it support for a far wider ranger of video and audio formats than are natively supported by Apple.

Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.

Source: itunes.apple.com

first gold dispensing ATM machine

The first gold dispensing ATM machine in the world. Emirates Palace in Abu Dhab

Use Outlook to Take a Vote

Many a time, you need quick feedback from a group of colleagues for their schedules, opinions, or priorities. Such information comes in handy when fixing meetings, scheduling after-work events, arranging extra training sessions, and taking a rough poll of people's views on a certain subject or project. Microsoft’s Outlook makes this process easy for you through Voting Buttons. Here is a detailed guide for using this feature.

Outlook wraps up the entire process of seeking votes in two quick steps – creation of Vote buttons (Yes or No), and tallying responses when they come in.

To create voting buttons:

• Create a New Message
• Select the "Options" tab
• Select "Use Voting Buttons"
• Choose from options provided (Approve-Reject, Yes-No, Yes-No-Maybe, or Custom).
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Now, draft your email – clearly state the question that needs to be voted on, set the requisite deadlines, include all appropriate recipients, and send it. Recipients will see a note above the "From" field – Vote by clicking "Vote" in the Respond group above. They will also notice the "Vote" button, which displays your chosen options, when pressed.

Reply emails will have the voting option selected in the subject line. You can now tally the votes yourself, or let Outlook do the job, especially if you are dealing with a large number of respondents.

To tally the votes:

• Go to Sent Items
• Open the message that had voting buttons
• In the Ribbon, go to the "Show" section and select "Tracking"
• You will see the total number of replies, followed by a list of the individual votes.