IBM to build 1000 times faster PCs : Get ready for next-generation computers and smart phones that are up to 1,000 times faster than the systems you use today. Computer maker IBM is developing "skyscraper" computers using huge sandwiches of silicon chips by sticking layer after layer of chips covered with tiny components together. The process, for which IBM has roped in glue maker 3M, will make PCs and smart phones up to 1,000 times faster than the existing ones and are expected to be available in market by 2013. The 3M currently makes heat resistant glues, adhesives used in the aerospace industry and sticky tapes, but the hi-tech glues created for IBM could actually be the key step towards making the next evolutionary leap in computing.

Happy Birthday Google: Making Sense of the Web for 13 Years-What were you up to 13 years ago? Maybe you were perfecting the ideal AIM screen name. Or you might have been surfing the “WestHollywood” neighborhood of GeoCities. Chances are, you had been using Yahoo! or AOL as your primary search engines. But Google’s debut  in 1998 would change the World Wide Web forever.

On September 4, 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for incorporation as Google Inc. — they had received a $100,000 check from an investor made out to Google, Inc., and needed to incorporate that name so they could legally deposit the check.

Prior to the launch, Page and Brin met at Stanford in 1995, and soon decided to launch a search service called BackRub in January 1996. They soon reevaluated the name (and the creepy logo) in favor of Google, a play on the mathematical figure, “googol,” which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The name embodied their mission to create an infinite amount of web resources. And that they did.

Since then, Google has become a household name to billions of people worldwide. You’ll overhear senior citizens command their grandchildren to “google” the price of foot cream. You’ll witness toddlers punching the screen of the latest Android phone. And chances are, you’ve navigated the circles of Google+.


 NASA Web App Lets You Control Space & Time in 3D: NASA has released its “Eyes on the Solar System” 3D environment, a free web browser-based application that lets you navigate a 3D version of the solar system. The app uses video game technology to let you control your point of view from anywhere in our solar system, speeding up time so that you can see the motion of the planets, their satellites and NASA spacecraft.

To try the Eyes on the Solar System app, you are also required to download the Unity Web Player for Mac and PC. Once you’ve done that, you can fly around beautifully produced models of all the planets, asteroids and the Sun. Or you can enter custom modules created by NASA that highlight missions such as Juno, the recently launched probe that’s currently on a five-year mission to Jupiter.

According to NASA:

“This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in real time,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “It demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to share our science with everyone.”

You can even keep tabs on the current locations of NASA spacecraft, with the help of NASA’s actual mission data. Don’t forget to click the Full Screen button for the full effect.


MPs Armed with iPads: Is This a New Beginning? Days are not far away when you will see our parliamentarians using highly advanced technological devices like iPad in the parliament that will eliminate the foot-dragging in the functioning of India's law making body. In a specially announced budget, each elected member of the upper house of Parliament has been granted 50,000 rupees to buy either an Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab to chuck out the paper clutter and red-tapism in the administrative process. The remarkable move by Rajya Sabha made it mandatory for all the MP's to own a tablet and increased their computer allowance to 200,000 rupees. Nearly 50 percent of the MPs in the upper house have already got their iPads and by next session, everyone is expected to own one. Lokh Sabha is said to follow the same steps shortly. Most of the MPs, regardless of their age, bring their iPads to the house daily. They are allowed to use it in their chamber to make notes; however, internet access is not available.


New iPhone 5 : Will It Have a 4-Inch Screen? As we get closer to the rumored release date of the iPhone 5, yet another clue about its true nature has also surfaced. A couple of publicly available third-party cases that purport to fit the iPhone 5, are wider enough, that it strongly suggests a 4-inch screen on the new iPhone, larger than the iPhone 4′s 3.5″ display.

However, knowing the secretive nature of Apple and the possibility of fake case specifications passed around to various manufacturers accused of leaks in the past, one can’t be sure of the dimensions of the iPhone 5 just yet. This is just one piece of info, but add this to all the other iPhone 5 clues, and most are pointing to the same thing: As the evidence mounts, it points to a wider, thinner iPhone 5 with a larger screen and tapered bottom.

The current iPhone’s 3.5″ screen is way too small, and the users may like to see a display that’s even larger than 4 inches. In coming days, Apple will be enlarging the iPhone’s screen, to get closer to the even-larger screen sizes of many of its competitors. What do you think? To be sure, we’ll have to wait till later this month for the alleged introduction of the iPhone 5, with the rumored release in October.


Now you can use your home phone for Skype calls: For those of us who know about VoIP, the Analog Telephone Adapters (ATAs) are not such a big deal. ATA is doohickey that connects to your broadband connection on one end and an old-fashioned phone handset on the other. In its heyday, Vonage was using low-cost ATAs to lure customers. Now Skype finally has joined the party.

Just connect your home phone, broadband and landline to the phone adapter and enjoy the freedom of making Skype calls anywhere around the house from your home phone. You can also receive Skype to Skype calls from other Skype users on your landline phone using the Connect Me Home Phone Adapter.


Google announces next Android OS: The upcoming version of Android OS is termed as Ice Cream Sandwich and is expected to release in October or November 2011.


Microsoft reinvents flagship software - Windows 8 - for PCs and tablet : The next version of Windows is being billed as a radical reinvention of Microsoft's flagship operating system — the most extensive overhaul since Windows 95. But just as importantly, it comes at a time when the market has evolved, with computers and mobile computing devices being used in ways vastly different from even a few years before. It's a world in which sales of Windows — though still, by far, the most dominant operating system on PCs worldwide — have declined and Microsoft's competitors have charged ahead on mobile platforms. Apple is leading the market in tablets with its iPad, and Google's Android and Apple's iOS operating systems are dominating on smart phones. With Windows 8, Microsoft has to show that Windows can continue to dominate computing as computing moves to new hardware platforms.


117 government websites hacked: In almost last three years, 117 government websites have been hacked by various groups. As per the information tracked and reported to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team a total of 90,119,252 and 117 government websites were hacked in the year 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011(till June 2011).


10 products Google is shutting down: its spring cleaning time at search giant Google. In what the company describes as 'fall spring-clean' it has pulled the plug on as many as ten of its products. In a blog post, the company's senior vice president Alan Eustace wrote, "Over the next few months we'll be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features." The changes to Google's product portfolio were hinted at by chief executive Larry Page during the company's second quarter earnings call. The closures of these ten services follow Google's recent shutting down of applications developed by Slide, a social networking software maker it bought last year, and Google Labs project. The ten products that will be wrapped up in the coming days are-Aardvark, Google Desktop, Fast Flip, Google Maps, API for Flash, Google Pack, Google Web Security, Image Labeler, Notebook and Sidewiki.


Steve Jobs made Apple great by ignoring profit: Steve Jobs retires as the CEO of Apple with a reputation that will place him among the pantheon of history's great global business leaders. Many people have written about what makes Jobs and Apple special, but they're missing what truly set him apart. Jobs has succeeded by eschewing the one thing that most people view as the raison d'etre for companies -- profit.

In short, disruption describes how the incumbents move upmarket, and leave the bottom of the market completely open for scrappy upstarts to enter. It explains the rise and fall of many great companies.

But there has always been one company that doesn't follow that pattern. At some point of time these questions are there with students, : "What about Apple? Aren't they a high-end, upmarket player? Why haven't they been disrupted?"

It's a great question. Despite being perceived as a premium, high-end player, Apple under Jobs's leadership has not simply managed to avoid being disrupted by others, it has disrupted entire industries -- many of them. Even more impressive, it's disrupting itself.

What has made Apple so different is that instead of having a profit motive at its core, it has something else entirely. Many big companies like to pretend this is the case -- "we put our customers first" -- but very few truly live by that mantra. When the pressure is on and the CEO of a big public company has to choose between doing what's best for the customer or making the quarter's numbers most CEOs will choose the numbers. Apple's lack of focus on profitability has actually made it one of the most successful companies in the history of capitalism.

The iPod was the first indication that they were, in fact, thinking different. Here was a personal computer company, used to selling $2,000 computers, willing to take a risk on a gadget that would sell for a fraction of that price. Most big companies would not invest the time and energy to develop a device that was not nearly as profitable as their existing products, in a market that did not even exist yet.


Facebook hires NIT Warangal student for Rs 45 lakh : It's raining lucrative jobs at NIT Warangal which has had the best placement season so far. The 51-year-old institute started its recruitment drive on August 15, 2011 and already has a 21-year-old fourth year B.Tech computer science student securing the highest ever pay package of Rs 45 lakh per annum.

The offer, made by Facebook, has created a record of sorts here. The institute confirmed that the student will be joining the technical wing of the social networking giant, as soon as he completes his course in March next year.


IBM building largest drive ever, can hold 24 million HD movies: It wasn't that long ago that desktop and notebook computers came with just enough hard drive space to get you by. These days, however, most new systems come with ample storage space for the majority of the population, but power users still might find their drives filling up quite quickly with music, movies, and games. But fear not, media lovers, IBM can build you a data drive with 120 petabytes of storage to hold every music, movie, and picture you've ever seen — and all you need is a deep bank account and a team of computer scientists to build it.

The ambitious project is currently underway at IBM, where researchers are working with 200,000 individual hard drives to create the single largest digital storage space known to man. When complete, the drive will have 120 million gigabytes of capacity, which is enough room to store roughly 24 million feature length HD movies. The epic drive also allows old or broken components to be swapped out without losing any data or requiring costly downtime.

IBM is crafting the custom storage center for an unnamed client that needs to perform massive simulations. The company hasn't revealed the cost of the project, but with IBM engineers taking on the task, you can bet it's not being built for a home office.


15 companies that can be next Infosys: India is a giant in software services, thanks in great degree to the extraordinary vision and work of NR Narayana Murthy, who retired in Aug 2011 from the company he founded, Infosys Technologies. The success of the software services industry has created talent that now has the desire, confidence and expertise to build global technology products. Thousands of such initiatives are in the works around the country. Here are some of the companies that have reached a degree of maturity, others that have seen amazing success in a short period- OnMobile, Tejas Networks, TringMe, Kayako, United Mobile Apps, Orangescape, iWave Systems, Subex, FusionCharts, Idea Device, Eka Software, Manthan Systems, Ventuno Technologies, Capillary and Sourcebits.


Navteq Launches 3D Maps For India: Navteq has announced the availability of new visual content for its NAVTEQ map for India. This content includes Motorway Junction Objects, Sign-as-Real and 3D Landmarks, for the top eight cities in India.

3D Landmarks are monuments, buildings or places of interest that are easily recognizable due to size, history or local appeal. They can be implemented as full 3D representations in the map for improved orientation.

Motorway Junction Objects is content that enables 3D animation of complex junctions to enhance lane-level guidance. By enabling situation-specific 3D context that more closely matches what is outside the windshield, drivers will be better prepared to avoid last-minute maneuvers, so that they can drive with confidence and ease. More than 300 key motorway signs are available in major cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Examples: Hebbal Flyover (Bangalore), AIIMS flyover (Delhi), and Western Express Highway (Mumbai).

Sign-as-Real is content that enables a highly realistic representation of key motorway signs. Applications can further simplify complex maneuvers by providing context such as emphasizing destination sign text and fading out irrelevant signs.

The latest commercially released version of the map is available for more than 2000 cities throughout India with 1.15 million km of road networks.


German court bans Samsung tablet: Samsung Electronics Co has stopped promoting its new tablet computer at Europe's biggest consumer electronics fair after a court-ordered sales injunction in Germany, the latest setback in its global patent battle with Apple Inc.

A Dusseldorf court ordered the South Korean company to stop selling Galaxy Tab 7.7 when the annual IFA electronics show started in Berlin. The move follows an earlier ban on German sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 by the court in late August until its final ruling on September 9.

Samsung and Apple have been locked in acrimonious battle over smart phones and tablets patents since April 2011 as Apple seeks to rein in the growth of Google's Android phones by taking directly aim at the biggest Android vendor, Samsung.

Apple has argued that Samsung had infringed on its patents and the Galaxy line of smart phones and tablets "slavishly" copied its design, look and feel. It is fighting legal battles in the United States as well as Europe, South Korea and Australia.

The battle forced Samsung to delay its tablet sales in Australia twice. Samsung has counter-sued, arguing Apple infringed its wireless patents.


Department of Information Technology expects 11 states to adopt e-payment gateway by March, 2012: The government will throw open a single payment gateway for e-governance services in 11 states by March, 2012, which will facilitate collection of fees for licenses and other chargeable services over the internet.

"We are done with proof of concept with Maharashtra and are ready with standard guidelines to replicate the whole process throughout the country. NSDL has been selected for this service," Department of Information Technology Additional Secretary Shankar Aggarwal told PTI.

He added that around 20 services, including those provided by both the central and state governments, will be linked to the payment platform in the next two to three months, enabling citizens to make online payments and doing away with the need to visit government offices.

The technology provider for this platform, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), will be paid on the basis of each transaction made. Assuring NSDL that a minimum of one crore transactions will take place every year through this platform, the government has signed a revenue gap funding agreement with it. Under the agreement, if the number of transactions in a year are less than a crore, the government will compensate NSDL for the lower volumes on the basis of the commission promised. However, if the number of transactions through the platform touch the one crore-mark, the government will not have to pay any amount to NSDL.


Online voting looks simpler but not feasible in India: “Technology is not an issue for implementing e-voting. But it is not feasible in India at this point of time. How do we know who is voting on whose behalf? It is not possible to provide security for every voter with a gunman behind him or her. Online voting is not good, though it looks simpler,” said SY Quraishi, Chief Election Commissioner of India in an interview.


Internet takes ‘distance-learning‘ into the Amazon : The Internet is letting a school sprout in the Amazon where teachers tend not to linger due to harsh living conditions and a scarcity of students.

Teachers in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, conduct lessons streamed to students in the village of Tumbira using an Internet connection made possible with a generator-powered radio signal.

If not for "distance learning," children from far-flung Amazon river communities would forgo school or endure arduous boat trips to places with traditional schools.

A home for the distance-learning school was created by Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS), which built classrooms, a library and even sleeping quarters where students could string up hammocks that serve as bedding in the Amazon.


Tata Interactive solution to power 1000 schools: Tata Interactive Systems has said it will digitize 1,000 schools spanning 140 cities by deploying its classroom solution 'Classedge' by the end of the current academic year.

The city-based Tata Group firm has already deployed the Classedge classroom solution in 100 schools across 52 cities, which are affiliated to various boards like the CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE and state boards.

The Classedge solution typically provides schools an Internet connection, a personal computer, a digital projector as well as regularly supply updated proprietary content, based on the syllabus through a cloud computing model.


Carol Bartz,Yahoo CEO fired over the phone: Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock fired CEO Carol Bartz over the phone , ending a tumultuous tenure marked by stagnation and a rift with Chinese partner Alibaba. Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse will step in as interim CEO, and the company will search for a permanent leader to spearhead a battle in online advertising and content with rivals Google Inc and Facebook. Shares in Yahoo jumped 6 percent in after-hours trading. They are scarcely higher than where they were when Bartz first took the reins in January 2009 with hopes of reviving stalled growth and competing with up-and-coming rivals. Her efforts were abruptly halted after Bostock called with the bad news.

The decision to oust Bartz was reached by an unanimous vote of Yahoo's 8 independent directors late last week, according to a person close to the company. Bartz, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who are also on the board, did not participate in the vote, the person said.

Yahoo is still one of the most popular destinations on the Internet but faces increasing competition from social networking service Facebook and from Google, which has a market value of $170 billion, ten times more than Yahoo.

Yahoo said that a newly-formed executive leadership council would help Morse in managing day-to-day operations as well as supporting "a comprehensive strategic review" to position the company for future growth.


Tata Communications announces cloud based DDoS protection service: Tata Communications recently launched its network-agnostic Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. Delivered over a cloud-based infrastructure, the firm’s DDoS Detection and Mitigation services will now be available to any enterprise that depends on its Internet availability to serve customers, suppliers, partners and other stake-holders – regardless of which service provider supplies it with internet connectivity.

DDoS attacks are caused by thousands of globally distributed internet-based ‘bots’ flooding target websites with such a high volume of traffic that genuine users can no longer visit. They can affect any organisation that has an online presence. These increasingly frequent attacks can be driven by crime, malice, espionage or even national security issues and typically, prevents organisations from conducting business over the Internet.

The DDoS solution from Tata Communications constantly monitors traffic patterns across a network, detects attacks against a customer’s internet-facing infrastructure and then ‘scrubs’ the data, discarding attack traffic while ensuring that legitimate traffic can reach the intended infrastructure. This allows the customer’s business to stay online and fully operational throughout an attack.


China renews operating license of Google: China said that it has renewed Google's license to operate in the world's largest online market, after the US company last year moved its Chinese search engine overseas in protest over censorship .The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology named Google's China website operator, Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., as one of 137 firms whose licenses were renewed following adjustments in their operations. The ministry had ordered the adjustments after some firms had changed shareholding structures without official permission, provided services beyond their approved business range or had lax information security controls. The ministry, which posted the license renewals on its website, did not specify the kind of changes individual companies had to make.

Google spokeswoman for China Marsha Wang confirmed to AFP that the company had been granted the license renewal."We have passed the 2011 annual assessment (of the license)," she said. This means Google's Internet content provider license in China has been extended for one more year, she said. Google said in March last year it would no longer bow to government censors and effectively shut down its Chinese search engine, re-routing mainland users to its uncensored site in Hong Kong. Google has maintained that such an approach complied with Chinese law.


Cloud computing can counter illiteracy: Neelam Dhawan, managing director of Hewlett-Packard (HP) India, says "Since many schools don't have space to have a computer lab, we created a compact lab for NCERT as a pilot.  For government schools, the company has just launched what it calls a lab-in-the-box. HP took a shipment container, painted it, made windows on it, installed a DG set, provided for cooling, provided a VSAT connection, and set up 13-14 student desks and one teacher desk with computers, all inside the container. There are several technology companies who are doing such pilots but most are yet to prove themselves to be scalable. But Neelam Dhawan is convinced that India's problems of vast illiteracy and low levels of education will get solved with cloud computing. "Take CBSE, you can have the courseware and the books on the cloud. You could have an NCERT cloud or an ICSE cloud. Students can download the courseware from wherever they are. We can have videos of the best teachers teaching the courses on the cloud. And any school can simply view these videos."

She says if students need books, they can simply print it from the cloud. With cloud, everybody will have to pay far less, since it is shared by millions of students. "These experiments have to work; otherwise we will never get a society that has uniform access to education."


More efficient Software to help police fight crime: A new generation of computer technology is revolutionizing crime fighting by creating startlingly accurate pictures of wanted criminals. The latest police photo-fit computer program called EvoFIT is the brainchild of Charlie Frowd, an academic from the University of Central Lancashire, and Peter Hancock, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Stirling. Traditional facial composite systems have operated by asking victims and witnesses to remember key features such as the nose and eyes in isolation, but EvoFIT allows the witness to distil the features and face of the assailant and filter out any extraneous thoughts or images that may intrude as you work your way through the process.