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Archive for October 2011
Facebook Allows Friends To Help Recover Accounts
Announced in an official Facebook post this morning, the social network plans to test a method of account recovery that uses trusted friends to provide access to a user’s Facebook account. This system is similar to lending out a house key to a neighbor or friend when traveling on vacation or a business trip. Friends can help a Facebook user recover account access when the user forgets their password and doesn’t have access to an email account for recovery. Facebook users can choose between three to five friends to trust with account recovery and they will be supplied a code via email to help regain access to the account.
Trusted Friends isn’t going to be a mandatory feature for Facebook users, but rather an optional tool similar to answering security questions. Facebook is also providing a new method of accessing applications through an extra layer of security. While the vast majority of apps only require a user to be logged into Facebook to work, app passwords can be used when logging into a third party application such as Spotify or Skype. To enable this feature on a particular application, the user goes to Account Settings, clicks on the Security Tab link and selects the third party application in the App Passwords section of the page.
Facebook management also touted security efforts from the social network to keep spam out of Facebook feeds. Less than four percent of content shared on Facebook is spam compared to nearly 90 percent of all sent email. Less than half a percent of all Facebook users experience spam each day and only 0.06 percent of the one billion logins per day are compromised. With over 750 million Facebook users across the world, fifty percent of that group logs into Facebook on a daily basis.
Microsoft Demos New Xbox & It's App
Seeing as the latest Nokia phones run Microsoft software it was slightly expected that we would see a Microsoft presentation during Nokia World. Nokia World attendees were treated with a live demonstration of the new Xbox Dashboard, and as well as a demo of a new Windows Phone Mango app that will communicate with your Xbox.
We have seen leaked images and videos of this upcoming Dashboard update, so we already knew that it would look very much like Microsoft’s Metro UI found on Windows Phone devices. Joe Belfiore, Director of the Windows Phone program, showed how the new styling mimicked how Metro UI looks and functions. He also informed the audience that users will be able to navigate the UI by using Kinect. It is not clear how Kinect will control the UI, if it will all be voice controlled or if you will be able to swipe through the menus.
Belfiore also showed off a soon to be released Mango app called Xbox companion. With this app when you are home you will be able to control the functions of your Xbox with your phone. You will be able to launch games, videos, and even search for content using Bing on your Xbox. The feature that was most impressive to us though was that when your Xbox is playing a movie or a game your Mango device will give you information about that movie or game.
There is still no official release date for the new Dashboard, but we have heard rumors that are pointing to November 15. This would line up with the original launch date of the original Xbox, so the rumors make sense to us.
India Launches "World's Cheapest" Tablet Computer
Most of India's 1.2 billion people are poor and products such as Apple Inc's iPad are beyond the reach even of many in the fast-growing middle class. "The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide," Telecoms and Education Minister Kapil Sibal said.
The government is buying the first units of the lightweight touch-screen device, called Aakash, or "sky" in Hindi, for $50 each from a British company which is assembling the web-enabled devices in India.
A pilot run of 100,000 units will be given to students for free, with the first 500 handed out at the launch to a mixed response. It supports video conferencing, has two USB ports and a three-hour battery life but some users said it was slow.
India has a reputation for creating affordable products that are easy to use and sturdy enough to handle its rugged environment -- from Tata Motors' $2,000 Nano car to generic versions of pharmaceuticals.
Two years in development, the paperback book-sized Aakash may help the government's goal of incorporating information technology in education, although critics were doubtful of its mass appeal.
Rajat Agrawal, executive editor of gadget reviewers BGR India, said the 660 mhz processor from U.S. company Conexant Systems was "decent" for the price, but warned the machine seemed slow and the touch screen not very agile.
"Because of the price there is a lot of excitement," he said. "People might use it initially but if it is not user friendly they will give up within a week." After first giving them out for free, the government aims to sell them to students for $35 next year. A retail version will be sold in Indian shops for about $60.
The device uses resistive LCD displays rather than a full touch screen and connects via wireless broadband. DataWind CEO Suneet Singh said future versions would include a mobile phone connection, making it more useful in rural areas.
The launch last week of Amazon's Kindle Fire shook up the global tablet market, with its $199 price tag and slick browser a serious threat to Apple's iPad. Like the Kindle Fire, the Aakash uses the Google Android operating system.
MRP - Rs2999/-
