Best Advice 7 Tech Idols Ever Received

The most successful people in every industry, including technology have received a piece of precious advice, at some point in their life from someone, which turned the course of their life and made them what they are today.

 
Richard Parsons, Former chairman of Citigroup considers the advice from Steve Ross, former CEO of Time Warner as his life changing one: "Just remember, it's a small business and a long life. You are going to see all these people again."

 
Business Insider compiled a list of such best tips the executives ever received and shared over the years. Here are some of the lessons received by the tech icons like Bill Gates to new world tech stars like Ben Silberman of Pinterest.

 

Marissa Mayer, VP,Google

 
“My friend Andre said to me, ‘you know, Marissa, you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I have got to be honest: That is not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there is the one that you pick and make great’. I think that is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten.”

 
-From an interview with Social Times

 

Eric Schmidt, Google -->

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google

“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids."

-From the book “The Best Advice I Ever Got” by Katie Couric.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook -->

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

When Sandberg was thinking she would not accept an offer to be Google’s general manager, Eric Schmidt told her, “Stop being an idiot; all that matters is growth.” She says that is the best advice she ever got.

Larry Page, Google -->

Larry Page, Co-founder, Google

"In graduate school at Stanford University, I had about ten different ideas of things I wanted to do, and one of them was to look at the link structure of the web. My advisor, Terry Winograd, picked that one out and said, 'Well, that one seems like a really good idea.' So I give him credit for that."

-From an interview with CNN Money

Bill Gates, Microsoft -->

Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft

"Warren Buffett has taught me a lot of things, but he got me thinking very early on that at some point I'd have the opportunity and responsibility to give the wealth back. And so, literally decades before the foundation got started I was reading about philanthropists from the past … what they'd done and how it worked."

Ben Silberman, Pinterest -->

Ben Silberman, Co-founder, Pinterest

"Don't take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give - with a few exceptions - generalize whatever they did. ...Every company carves its own path, and (founders) are under pressure to make their startups look like the last successful company everyone remembers."

Richard Branson, Virgin Group -->

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

 
"My mother always taught me never to look back in regret but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running ALL the Virgin businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve."

 
-Taken from an interview with The Good Entrepreneur.

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

 
Berkshire Hathaway director Thomas Murphy once told “the legendary investor”:

 
"Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow - you don't give up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way tomorrow."

 
-From an interview with Yahoo

Microsoft's First Ever Tablet To Be Revealed Today

Microsoft can no longer wait watching iPad eating up the entire PC marketand challenging its software, which runs on millions of systems worldwide. That may be why for the first time after 37-years, the company is going to offer a computer of its own creation.



The device is aimed to kill Apple’s iPad and is expected to be launched in Microsoft’s big party today. According to people familiar with the subject, the tablet is expected to run a new version of Windows and will have access to an e-books store using the Barnes & Noble’s technology. Microsoft on April had announced a strategic partnership with B&N, with an investment of $300 million into the business named “Newco.”

 
Microsoft’s decision to enter into the market is likely to be the outcome of tablet explosion lead by iPads. Tablets are causing a huge threat to the PC market. It has already reached eight percentages in size of PC market and is expected to grow to 40 percent by 2016.

 
With the introduction of device, Microsoft is also following its rival Apple, who was successful in integrating its own hardware and software. "If Microsoft wants to control the entire user experience and the entire quality of their products, they have to build their own hardware," said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a Redmond-based market research firm.

 
But according to many, Microsoft has a big risk of capturing the tablet market due to the existence of many competes including manufacturers who use Microsoft’s software. There are also new anticipated players into the space including Google, which is redy with its tablet.

 
“If it’s true that Microsoft is going to produce its own tablet, it’s a major turning point for the company and shows just how breathtakingly the landscape has changed in a just a few years,” said Brad Silverberg, a venture capitalist in Seattle and former Microsoft executive.

 
Microsoft’s had earlier failed with Zune, a music player introduced to compete with iPod.

Apple Co-Founder Hates Siri !

Everybody praise Siri,the voice guided personal assistant from Apple. But it seems like one guy doesn’t like its performance at all and unfortunately, the same guy happens to be Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniac.

Wozniac calls Siri, poo-poo.After Apple made announcements about the enhancements to Siri in its latest WWDC, Wozniac gave his opinions about this software to reporters of Times Union, “A lot of people say Siri. I say poo-poo. I was using it to make reservations long before Apple bought it.”

According to Wozniac, Siri performed better before it was acquired by Apple. As you may recall, Siri was once a third party app on Apple’s App store. At that time it could call taxis, make hotel reservations and even perform complex arithmetic. “I would say, ‘Siri, what are the five largest lakes in California?’ and it would come up, one, two, three, four, five. Then I would ask ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ and they would come up all in a row. That was pretty incredible,” Wozniak said. He used to talk to his friends and family about the beauty of the app, how it understands like talking to a human and so on.

Then started Siri’s second phase. On seeing the potential of  App, Apple bought the company months after it entered Apple’s store and brought it right into the iPhone 4S. Now, as Wozniac says, “Siri had lost many of its earlier capabilities. If I ask Siri ‘what are the largest lakes in California?’ I would get all these lakefront properties. And I would say, ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ And I would get prime rib.”

Well, it is the first time Wozniac directly criticize one of the Apple’s prestigious app. But the man who co-founded one of the world’s most reputed company is famous for openly criticizing. Earlier this year, he had talked in favor of android devices and what can it do more than iPhones. But, with Apple’s latest updates to Siri, let’s hope it will become the “future,” that once Wozniac imagined.

West Bengal Government to Set Up IT Hub in Kolkata

Kolkata: West Bengal government will set up an IT hub with private partnership in the south-east suburb of Behala in the metropolis, state Industries and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee said here today.

"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given instructions to look for land at Taratala or adjacent areas for this purpose," Chatterjee said at a function here.

"Techno India Group, Webel and the IT department of the state will jointly set up this hub," he said.

"Creation of jobs is the priority of the Mamata Banerjee government and there are a lot of job potentials in the IT sector," Chatterjee said.

He said the government was also on the look out for land to set up a software and harwdware technology park.

"Talks are on with Intel for setting up the hardware technology park," he said.

He also said that connectivity between the south-eastern suburbs of Behala with the central parts of the city would be much improved with the introduction of the 16.7 km Joka-BBD Bag metro railway. "Services between Joka and Taratala will begin within a year or two in the first phase," he said.

The foundation for the Rs 2619 crore project was laid by President Pratibha Patil on September 22, 2010 and work began on December 29 the same year.

Android this week: Razr beats iPhone; Acer outs HD tablet; Intel phone shows promise

This is the first week I can remember where a single Android phone is reportedly outselling Apple’s iPhone at one carrier. According to a research note from William Blair, that’s exactly what’s happening at Verizon stores. A check of inventory and sales indicated Motorola’s Droid Razr is topping the iPhone 4S, which is good news for Motorola and its new owner, Google.

It’s possible that Verizon’s LTE network is part of this surge for the Android-powered Razr: Without an LTE iPhone on any carrier, the Razr — and other Android phones — can deliver mobile broadband speeds topping 20 Mbps or more; as fast as wired broadband at home. The iPhone 4S holds its own against LTE on HSPA+ networks, but falls far shorter on Verizon and Sprint, where speeds generally average 1.5 Mbps with occasional 3 Mbps bursts. Razr sales could see their own burst as CNet noted this week that Android 4.0 was coming soon to the smartphone.



Android 4.0 is already included with Acer’s new slate:The company this week introduced its A700 tablet with the latest Google software. Pre-sales have begin in the U.S. and Canada at $449 for this 10.1-inch tablet boasting a 1900 x 1200 display with 178-degree viewing angles. I haven’t had the opportunity to try the A700 yet, but it looks good on paper.

Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 powers the A700 which also has one gigabyte of memory and 32 GB of storage, which can be expanded with the microSD card slot. The slate is Wi-Fi only — no 3G/4G radio — but includes Bluetooth, an e-compass and GPS. Acer added Dolby Mobile 3 and 5.1-channel surround sound support and a battery life claim of 8 hours for web surfing or 10.5 hours of video watching; not bad if accurate.

This week I enjoyed reading a review of the Orange San Diego handset. Why? This device, available in Europe, is based on Intel’s smartphone reference design for Android. We’ve waited a long time for Intel to truly get in the smartphone game and the San Diego shows promise for Intel’s Medfield solution.



The Verge wrote the detailed review finding that Intel may not have surpassed ARM-based chips, but in many ways, has at least caught up. I’m not too surprised because the Medfield chip demos on Android devices I saw in Januaryimpressed me enough to say that Intel’s time may have arrived.

The San Diego shines in most performance scenarios and has good stand-by time, but software is the current downfall here; particularly in the camera application. Still, the San Diego is still worth a look as it provides a glimpse into future Android smartphones carrying the “Intel Inside” sticker.

Google’s latest OS android 4.0.3

Till now galaxy Nexus is the only handset running Google’s latest OS android 4.0.
But Google recently announced its latest OS Android 4.0.3 which is an advanced release of Ice cream sandwich.
From the side of Android developers it is declared that the new OS will come with new optimization and bug fixes for android based tablets and smartphones.Apart from this optimization,there’s a small amount of new API’S for developers.Android 4.0.3 bring optimization and bug fixes to ICS.Google has listed some of the new API’S in ICE CREAM sandwich. Which includes a social stream API in contacts provider, calender provider enhancement, new and defined camera quality and accessibility refinements.This new API lets apps show users what the people they know are doing or saying along with photos and other contacts information.New camera capabilities enables the apps to manage video stabilization.There is also improvement in graphics ,spelling checking and many more.

You Might See Facebook Browser & Dead Opera – Soon!

The rumor is spreading like fire, that Facebook is looking to buy Opera Software. If it turns out to be true then we will probably see a new web browser, Facebook brand.



Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer just got a new competitor few days ago, namely Yahoo Axis, but it looks like they will have to make room for another one. If the said deal confirms, most probably we will see a brand new Facebook browser. If you don’t know about Yahoo Axis yet, it’s a web browser (of course) which has many new features, but the one it’s bragging about is – thumbnails. It has replaced the standard search results page and address bar suggestions with thumbnails, which shows a quick preview of the web page. Know more about Yahoo Axis.

We are saying this because, a few weeks ago the social networking giant bought Instagram and after a while launched a camera app very much similar to Instagram and apparently, Facebook is serious about developing its mobile services and make its own space in mobile sector – Acquisition of Opera Software is a very good move for this purpose. Also, it has plenty of money as it just went public, in figures its more than 16 billion dollars.




Opera claims to have 200 million users worldwide. Undoubtedly, the mobile browsers by the entity are very good and recommended by many people. Even I recommend it for mobile devices, but when it comes to desktop… I’d rather use Firefox or Chrome. Opera recently launched its very own browser for Android and Linus based TVs. We can only imagine what will happen when the growing and innovative company will get support of social networking giant and its huge public funds.

We can also expect some integration of the said browser with the social network to increase the engagement of its users and may be some exclusive features, similar to desktop notifications of Gmail which are only available in Chrome. To check the authenticity of the rumors, when Mashable contacted the PR team they replied, “Thanks for checking in, but Facebook isn’t commenting on this.” Well, what can we conclude out of that?

What do you say about this? Will you use Facebook browser instead of Chrome or Firefox?

Here's How To Get iOS 6 Right Now

First make your way to Apple's developer center website. It's at developer.apple.com. Go to the iOS Dev Center.




 

Then you'll want to register a free account. Go through the process and put in all your information.



Once you have your account, log in on the iOS Dev Center.

Click on the iOS 6 button on the iOS developer center page.

 



If you aren't a registered developer, you'll have to spend $99 a year to sign up.

From there, jump to the downloads page...

...and download the appropriate version of iOS 6 for your device. We have an iPhone 4S, so we went with that.

Bang! Here we go.

 

This is the file you'll get. It's useless if you click on it, so go to iTunes.




Find your phone on the iTunes navigation bar.




With your phone plugged in, hold the option/alt key on the keyboard and press "restore." We advise that you back your phone up first.




Go to the file you unpacked for iOS 6, and select that one.




 

It'll give you one final warning before installing iOS 6 on your iPhone.

 

And you're done! It'll take a few minutes to install and update, and you'll be good to go



 

If you can't wait to try it out.

Future iPhones May Have Interchangeable Camera Lenses

A patent filing uncovered by AppleInsider suggests that Apple is interested in making it possible to swap out different lenses for photography on your iPhone.

 

From the patent: "It would be desirable to provide a structure for a compact device that allows the end user to reconfigure the optical arrangement of the device while retaining the benefits of assembling the device using a pre-assembled digital imaging subsystem."

Steve Jobs had told Walter Isaacson before passing away that he wanted to reinvent the photography market.

These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America

This infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad shows that almost all media comes from the same six sources.

That's consolidated from 50 companies back in 1983.

NOTE: This infographic is from last year and is missing some key transactions. GE does not own NBC (or Comcast or any media) anymore. So that 6th company is now Comcast. And Time Warner doesn't own AOL, so Huffington Post isn't affiliated with them.

But the fact that a few companies own everything demonstrates "the illusion of choice," Frugal Dad says. While some big sites, like Digg and Reddit aren't owned by any of the corporations, Time Warner owns news sites read by millions of Americans every year.

Here's the graphic:

The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable

iFixit removes the logic board from the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display during their teardown. Photo: iFixit

 

This week, Apple delivered the highly anticipated MacBook Pro with Retina Display — and the tech world is buzzing. I took one apart yesterday because I run iFixit, a team responsible for high-resolution teardowns of new products and DIY repair guides. We disassemble and analyze new electronic gizmos so you don’t have to — kind of like an internet version of Consumer Reports.

Kyle Wiens

The Retina MacBook is the least repairable laptop we’ve ever taken apart: Unlike the previous model, the display is fused to the glass, which means replacing the LCD requires buying an expensive display assembly. The RAM is now soldered to the logic board — making future memory upgrades impossible. And the battery is glued to the case, requiring customers to mail their laptop to Apple every so often for a $200 replacement. The design may well be comprised of “highly recyclable aluminum and glass” — but my friends in the electronics recycling industry tell me they have no way of recycling aluminum that has glass glued to it like Apple did with both this machine and the recent iPad.

The design pattern has serious consequences not only for consumers and the environment, but also for the tech industry as a whole.

The Retina MacBook is the least repairable laptop we’ve ever taken apart.

Four years ago, Apple performed a market experiment. They released the super thin, but non-upgradeable, MacBook Air in addition to their two existing, easily upgradeable notebooks: the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. Apple’s laptops had evolved over two decades of experience into impressively robust, rugged, and long-lasting computers. Apple learned a lot from the failings of the past: the exploding batteries of the PowerBook 5300, the flaky hinges of the PowerBook G4 Titanium, the difficult-to-access hard drive in the iBook.

Apple’s portable lineup was a triumph — for consumers and for Apple itself. IT professionals the world over love working on the MacBook. I’ve disassembled a few of them myself, and I can attest that they are almost as easy to repair as they are to use.

The 2008 Air went in a new direction entirely: It sacrificed performance and upgradeability in exchange for a thinner design. Its RAM is soldered to the logic board (as in the Retina MacBook Pro), so upgrading it means replacing the entire expensive logic board. And like all laptops, the Air has a built-in consumable. The MacBook Air’s battery was rated to last just 300 charges when it was introduced. But unlike laptops before it, replacing the Air’s battery required specialized tools and removing some 19 screws.

When Apple dropped the MacBook Air to $999 in 2010 to match the price point of the MacBook, they gave users a clear choice: the thin, light, and un-upgradeable MacBook Air or the heavier, longer lasting, more rugged, and more powerful MacBook. Same price, two very different products. At the time, I wasn’t very happy with the non-upgradeable RAM on the MacBook Air, but I respected that Apple had given their users a choice. It was up to us: Did we want a machine that would be stuck with 2GB of RAM forever? Would we support laptops that required replacement every year or two as applications required more memory and batteries atrophied?

Apple has presented the market with a choice. They have two professional laptops: one that is serviceable and upgradeable, and one that is not.

Consumers overwhelmingly voted yes, and the Air grew to take 40 percent of Apple’s notebook sales by the end of 2010.

The success of the non-upgradeable Air empowered Apple to release the even-less-serviceable iPad two years later: The battery was glued into the case. And again, we voted with our wallets and purchased the device despite its built-in death clock. In the next iteration of the iPad, the glass was fused to the frame.

Once again, with another product announcement, Apple has presented the market with a choice. They have two professional laptops: one that is serviceable and upgradeable, and one that is not. They’re not exactly equivalent products — one is less expensive and supports expandable storage, and the other has a cutting-edge display, fixed storage capacity, and a premium price tag — but they don’t have the same name just to cause confusion. Rather, Apple is asking users to define the future of the MacBook Pro.

Apple isn’t fundamentally against upgradeability and accessibility. The current Mac Mini has compelling finger slots that practically beg people to open it. When Steve Jobs released the “open-minded” Power Mac G3 with a door that opened from the side, the audience oohed and aahed. Apple products have historically retained their value quite well, in part due to third-party repair manuals, but also due to a number of very modular, very upgradeable designs.

Even the MacBook Pro was originally touted as an accessible, repairable machine — at Macworld in 2009, Steve Jobs said, “Our pro customers want accessibility: [...] to add memory, to add cards, to add drives.” That’s part of what I love about my MacBook Pro. I’ve upgraded my RAM, and I even replaced my optical drive with an 80GB SSD.

We have consistently voted for hardware that’s thinner rather than upgradeable. But we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.

On the other hand, Apple has consistently introduced thinner, lighter products. They learn from experience. They react to their customers. They’re very adept at presenting us with what we want. And they give us options from time to time and allow product sales to determine their future designs.

We have consistently voted for hardware that’s thinner rather than upgradeable. But we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. Our purchasing decisions are telling Apple that we’re happy to buy computers and watch them die on schedule. When we choose a short-lived laptop over a more robust model that’s a quarter of an inch thicker, what does that say about our values?

Every time we buy a locked down product containing a non-replaceable battery with a finite cycle count, we’re voicing our opinion on how long our things should last. But is it an informed decision? When you buy something, how often do you really step back and ask how long it should last? If we want long-lasting products that retain their value, we have to support products that do so.

Today, we choose. If we choose the Retina display over the existing MacBook Pro, the next generation of Mac laptops will likely be less repairable still. When that happens, we won’t be able to blame Apple. We’ll have to blame ourselves.

6 Wild New Patents: The Future Of Tech

New is always better, says Barney Stinson. We agree. New developments in technologies keep making our lives better and convenient. Tech giants keep filing patents for discoveries made by their R&D teams and are constantly involved in patent infringement lawsuits. This shows how competitive the market has become. We bring you a list of 6 wild patents filed by leading tech companies that will pleasantly surprise you.

 
1. Diary Free Calorimeter
Company: Microsoft

How would you like to have a device which could act as your dietician and trainer? This might soon turn into a reality as Microsoft has files its patent for a device which is your quintessential calorimeter.

The device will estimates nutritional caloric intake by periodically monitoring weight and sensing physical exercise, which can then be used in a calorimetric model derived from regression analysis of a population.

The device will be a wrist strap on which will sense heart rate, body temperature, skin resistance, motion/acceleration and velocity. This device is a super intelligent trainer and dietician combined.

 

2. Nose Bridge Sensor

 

Company: Google

Google glasses sound like one hell of a gadget if we go by the patents that Google has filed for it. The latest one is the nose bridge sensor.

Google glasses need to have a number of sensors which will work better if placed in a forward facing part of the device. Hence the nose bridge is the ideal spot for a video camera, a sonar sensor, an ultrasonic or possibly a microphone.

This technology could also be used to switch the device on when the presence of the nose is sensed between the nose bridges. The possibilities sound very interesting and we can’t wait to see how it turns out.

 

3. WiFi and GSM Landmarks and Neighborhoods for Location Based Services

 

Company: Microsoft

Every other location today has some form of wireless landmark information such as a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi access point. This new patent by Microsoft will capture and then send the information from these landmarks to mobile devices.

This new technology will create a complete map of the area for a mobile device based on the information provided through the visible access points.

4. Method, System, and Apparatus for Patient Controlled Access of Medical Records
Company: IBM

IBM’s patent will allow different platforms to access controlled medical information for patients, the information will be provided only when permission is granted by the patients.

The information stored in networks shall be shared with hospitals, pharmacies, research institutes, emergency services, laboratories, physicians and insurance companies. This technology can help save lives in case of emergencies and mishaps.

 

 

5. Method and Program Product for Preventing Distribution of an E-Mail Message
Company: IBM
This latest patent will surely come in handy for all the corporate and for people running them. Using this technology a user receiving mails will not be able to forward it to unintentional users. The mail will be received only by the recipient and will not be sent or forwarded to a third party.

 

 
6. Automatically Generating Nodes and Edges in an Integrated Social graph
Company: Facebook

Facebook has recently files two patents and one of them is a method for maintaining a data store for nodes and edges. This technology will be used to understand what information from a user is shared.

The technology will make it easier for Facebook to understand concepts Facebook users use to connect to other users. Because of this technology making recommendations will become easier.

6 Secrets Of Facebook-Apple Relationship

The two have shared an on and off relationship for the last few years. Apple’s latest announcement about deep Facebook integration in all its platforms confirms their deep bond. Together they will take the world by a storm. We bring you their rocky love story from when they met in 2006 to when they made it public in 2012.
1. Apple And Facebook Meet:

The year was 2006 and Facebook was facing stiff competition from MySpace. The social network was nowhere as big as it is today. It had 8.3 million users and was the 7^th most visited website in the US. Facebook made friends with Apple by signing a deal with Apple to give away 10 million free iTunes samplers to Facebook users.

This was the first time Facebook and Apple had an association. Apple had also launched the Apple Student group on Facebook. It was a runaway success with 450,000 people joining the group in a short time.

2. iOS4 Designed With Facebook Integration But…

The setting changed and it was 2010. Facebook had become the biggest social networking site and was a force to reckon with. Apple was just about to launch its iPhone 4 and iTunes10. Media reports were ripe with reports of Apple and Facebook working together.

According to an Apple employee, “Apple had fully integrated Facebook into the iPhone and iPad’s operating system, and was ready to launch...…” Apple had also come up with Ping which was a social media for iTune users. That was supposed to have Facebook integration as well.
The video demonstrated by Apple for iPhone4 also showed Facebook integration. Then something terrible happened.

3. Ping Causes Rift Between Apple And Facebook

Apple was all set to launch its iPhone4 and iTunes 10 with Facebook integration but the deal just fell through. Apparently Facebook and Apple could not reach an agreement on certain terms. According to Jobs the terms offered by Mark were ‘onerous’.

Apple anyways tried to launch its new products with Facebook integration without the social network’s consent. When Facebook got to know this they sealed their API.

4. Facebook App For iPad Causes More Problems:
In 2010, Jobs visited Mark to discuss about Facebook iPad application. Zuckerberg had promised to create their first tablet app with iPad.
An apple employee says, “Roughly three months ago, Steve Jobs — then the Apple CEO — paid a visit to Facebook to discuss a Facebook for iPad application with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg promised Jobs that the social network would release its first ever tablet application for iPad.”.

Jobs later got to know that Facebook had already developed an app for HP’s TouchPad, Apple’s rival. Needless to say Jobs was furious. Mark then tried to pacify the situation by asking Jon Rubinstein at HP to remove the FB app. HP refused to comply and Mark ended up freezing HP’s access to FB’s API.

5. Facebook Apple Kiss And Makeup:

After the HP debacle Facebook and Apple became friends again. In fact both the companies were working closely.

“Not only are the pair finally aligned on the Facebook for iPad application, but they’ve been working together closely on Facebook’s HTML 5 mobile app platform. This is the closest Apple and Facebook have been to creating something meaningful together, one source says. They’re partnering because they share a common enemy: Google.” reveals a close aid of the company.

6. Facebook And Apple Change Relationship Status To Committed:
After all these years and several talks about working together, their union became a reality in June2012. On Monday, Apple unveiled their latest version of iOS and its new Mountain Lion for Macs. The relationship seems to have been strengthened because of a common enemy Google.
Apple announced that the latest version of iOS will have deep Facebook integration. This will include a ‘like’ function for Apple’s App and iTunes store and integration with Siri will also be seen. Apple will also have a public API for third party app developers to be able to better integrate the feature into their app. Apple also announced Facebook integration into Mountain Lion for Macs.
Users around the world must be rejoicing because of this union. The world’s two most admired and loved companies have come together. Finally!

Nokia Is Going Down!

It’s official, Nokia is going down. The one time telecom giant, who had its reputed products spread over 50 countries, has announced a cut of 10,000 jobs, and a shutdown of 3 facilities, by the end of 2013.



The Finnish Telecom Manufacturers three senior executives will also be departing from the company. The closing facilities include a research center, a factory in Germany, Canada and in its home land Finland.

The company had issued a warning to investors that its loss was likely to be greater in the second quarter of this year. It had posted a loss of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Nokia also said the negative effects of its transition to a Windows-based Smartphone business would continue into the third quarter.

Once an undisputed leader in the mobile phone market, Nokia lose its charm over the years to Apple, Samsung and other handset makers based on Android.

The company, which announced its partnership with Microsoft in 2011 for making a range of Windows based Smartphones has since then saw a steep decline of sales and profit loss, mainly due to people and operators avoiding Nokia’s own Symbian based devices.
Nokia also announced the sale of its luxury handset business, Vertu to a European firm. With its streamlining efforts, the company is planning to save €1.6 billion by the end of 2013.

“These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia’s long-term competitive strength,” said Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive and a former Microsoft executive. “We do not make plans that may impact our employees lightly, and as a company we will work tirelessly to ensure that those at risk are offered the support, options and advice necessary to find new opportunities.”

Last week, rumors about a Microsoft takeover had made Nokia’s sinking shares rose six percent.

 
“The cost savings and job cuts were intended to return Nokia to profitability “as soon as possible,” Elop said.

Worst Idea Ever: Samsung To Launch Facebook's Clone

Samsung is trying really hard to expand its presence in different industries. Its latest ploy is to jump on the social network bandwagon and come up with a Facebook like service sometime next year reports Korea Times. Though it sounds like a really bad idea since we already have enough social networks dominating a better part of our lives.
The project internally called ‘Samsung Facebook’ is all set to compete head on withZucky’s company.  The new site will be launched across all its platforms ranging from televisions to cameras. A Samsung official said “The eventual goal is to expand our social media service across different devices from different companies across different mobile platforms. That includes cameras, televisions and blue-ray players,”
Samsung has tasted some success with its independent messaging service called ChatOn and is also the world leader in smartphones and web enabled televisions. The company will work hard to cash in on these strengths to make their social network the next Facebook. Samsung also plans to integrate the site with Amazon’s cloud computing platform to make it accessible to any device anywhere in the world.
Samsung’s website will be an identical twin of Facebook and will surely compete with it head on. The question that remains unanswered here is if this will work? Reactions so far show that, it will not.
Facebook is a very strong brand etched in the minds of users.Also users will appreciate an original idea and not a replica of a hit format.
Samsung must think on those lines and try and come up with something Un Facebook like. Anyways, users have had enough of Zucky’s company. Food for thought.

Google pays almost $18.7 million to get domains - .google, .youtube, .goog and .plus

Google wants love. But so do six other companies. They are after .love, actually, a new "top-level domain" that could catch on as .com, .org and .net did.

Love might not prevail, but chances are, at least one of the domains in 1,930 applications for new extensions will. The domains are the letters that follow the dot in Internet addresses, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, revealed the new requests on Wednesday.

Google proved to be one of the more ambitious applicants. It spent almost $18.7 million applying for more than 100 top-level domains, some expected, some not. Not surprisingly, the search giant wants .google, .youtube, .goog and .plus. It was the only applicant vying for .fly, .new and .eat. But it is going to have to fight Johnson & Johnson for .baby,Microsoft for .docs and .live, and Amazon for 17 top-level domains: .wow, .search, .shop, .drive, .free, .game, .mail, .map, .movie, .music, .play, .shop, .show, .spot, .store, .talk and .you.

Amazon also went after .tunes, .got, .author, .smile, .song, .joy, .bot, .like and .call. It does not appear that Facebook applied for any domain. Apple applied for .apple.

The most sought-after extension is .app, with 13 applicants though not Apple, which popularized the mobile application.

"The Internet is about to change forever," said Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of ICANN.

ICANN is expected to approve hundreds of these extensions, the first of which should be in use by next year. ICANN set the application fee high, at $185,000 a name, to try to discourage frivolous bids; still, more than 200 terms are being sought by more than one bidder. ICANN decides who gets ownership of the contested top-level domains.

ICANN will evaluate applicants in batches and consider various objections. Among the objections it will consider are those from rights holders. It would have very likely thrown out an application for .microsoft from an entity that is not Microsoft. The most common objection is likely to be the "limited public interest condition." In those cases, people might object to a profit-making company like Google owning a generic top-level domain name like .love or .fun.

The geographical origin of the applications demonstrates the increasingly international nature of the Internet. While nearly half of the bids are from North America, more than 600 have come from Europe and about 300 from the Asia-Pacific region.

More than 100 of the applications are for extensions in non-Western alphabets. While so-called internationalized domain names have been phased in since 2010, the current expansion could accelerate the globalization of the Internet, Beckstrom said.

"That is going to mean a lot to the people in countries who maybe feel they haven't benefited fully from the Internet," he said.

While there are already several hundred dot suffixes, many of these, including country-specific domain names like .co.uk, come with restrictions. There are only a handful of so-called generic top-level domains, including .info, .net, .org and the popular .com - which, according to supporters of the expansion plan, is running out of capacity for accommodating the digital world's ever-growing addressing needs.

The expansion creates an opportunity for marketers, who will be able to develop websites with addresses ending in their companies' brand names, or an entire category of products or services, like .music or .insurance.

There is also a lingering question about whether the new suffixes are needed at all. Some top-level domains that ICANN has created in previous, smaller expansion rounds have attracted little interest. Many consumers find websites via search engines, rather than typing in an exact Web address. Others are increasingly using mobile applications, rather than the open Internet.

"This is an opportunity for brands, cities and countries to step out of what was this very limited - in my view - environment in which they could promote their brands," said Alex Berry, senior vice president for enterprise services at Neustar, an Internet registry service that is working with clients like New York City, which is seeking the .nyc name. "This is a positive, a once-in-a-generation opportunity that we'll look back on 10 years from now and say, 'Wow."'

The .wow domain, by the way, is sought by Google, Amazon and the online content publisher Demand Media.

Govt to remove multi-level TDS on software from July

 In a big relief to the software industry, the government today said it will do away with the complex multi-level system of Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) for the sector from July 1.

"... no deduction of tax shall be made on... payment by a person (transferee) for acquisition of software from another person (transferor), being a resident," the Finance Ministry said in a notification.

The provisions will come into force from July 1, 2012, it said.

Under the current structure, TDS of 10 per cent is levied at every level of software distribution chain -- right from master distributor to retailer and then to the final consumer.

Responding to the long-standing demand of the software sector, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had last week said that Section 194J of the Income Tax Act, 1961, would be amended so as to avoid multi-level TDS on information technology sector.

Section 194(J) of the IT Act deals with fees for professional and technical services and covers royalty and non-compete fees.

The exemption from multi-level TDS would be applicable in case where the software is acquired in a subsequent transfer, without any modification.

Besides, the exemption will also be provided in cases where tax has been deducted under 194J on payment for any previous transfer of such software or under Section 195 on payment for any previous transfer of such software from a non-resident.

Further, it will also apply in those cases wherever the transferor had paid the taxes.

Software industry body Nasscom had been demanding removal of the multi-level TDS on software arguing that such a decision would improve finances of the IT sector.

The TDS model, it had argued, "was leading to an unsustainable model for software distributorswho operate on very low margins."