Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 10 Preview for Windows 7
Microsoft has officially released Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7. The preview build of the IE10 browser can be downloaded today, with the final build launching some time next year.
On the official IE blog, Rob Mauceri, Group Program Manager, Internet Explorer says, “IE10 on Windows 7 has the same standards based platform for developers to target as IE10 on Windows 8. We built an entirely new browser with Windows 8, with more performance and developer capabilities. IE10 brings improved real-world site performance and additional standards support to Windows 7 that Web developers have been asking for. We look forward to getting your feedback on IE10 on Windows 7, and will provide another update when the preview is available.”
IE10 was originally designed for Windows 8 with touchscreens and tablets in mind and it will be interesting to see how the new browser translates on Windows 7. IE10 claims to bring with it a bunch of
new features such as a faster and more fluid browsing experience, more
interpolated HTML5 support, rich visual effects, enhanced web
programming model, privacy with “Do not track” on by default and an
overall smoother browsing experience. You can read the complete features
of the IE10 on the official Microsoft IE blog here.
Dropbox Crosses 100 Million Users, Announces 100GB Free Contest
Dropbox, the cloud storage service, has crossed 100 million users, according to the company’s founder, Drew Houston. This is quite an achievement for the five-year old company,
especially now when tech titans such as Google, Apple, Amazon and
Microsoft are investing aggressively in the cloud storage space with
their own offerings. Apple had recently announced that its iCloud
service had 190 million users. Google has also started its Google Drive
service which offers 5 GB of free space to Gmail users.
Dropbox was under a spam attack earlier
this year, which caused users to get spammed via email accounts.
Speaking to New York Times, Houston assured
users that his company had added additional features to prevent future
discrepancies. According to Houston, users store more than 1 billion
files in Dropbox every day and the number of users has quadrupled in the
last year itself.
To celebrate the 100 million landmark,
Dropbox is inviting users to share their ‘Dropbox story’ and the top 10
favourite stories will get 100 GB storage space for life. Here are some stories, and you can submit your own story on the same page. Facebook is Adding the 'Share' Button to iOS and Android Apps
Facebook has confirmed that the 'share' button that is available on its
desktop website will make its way to the iOS and Android app. TechCrunch has reported that the appearance of the share button on the mobile version of the site, m.facebook.com, was a way of testing waters but Facebook has confirmed to them that this is not a test and all mobile site and app users will have the share button soon.
It is surprising to see that the share
button has taken this long to make an appearance in the mobile site and
app versions of the social networking site as it is one of the most used
features of Facebook.
The Facebook app for iOS was recently
updated and brought with it new features such as easier chatting with
friends, faster sharing of multiple photos, as well as the ability to
give real gifts (US only).
Currently on the mobile version of the
site, the share button sits neatly next to the like and the comment
button. Just like the web version, users can add a descriptor before
sharing the post. Once shared, the post will give credit to the person
from whom you have shared it by saying via and then the name of the
person or page.
India Ranks Second Globally in Accessing Private Details of Users
According to the latest transparency report released by Google, India ranks second in the world for accessing private details of its citizens, only after the U.S. The Google report lists out requests it received from governments across the world to access details of users of its various services.
Google's
data reveals India had made 2,319 requests involving 3,467 users in the
first six months. The U.S. made 7,969 requests, while Brazil, which
ranks third, made 1,566 requests during the same period. Worldwide
20,938 requests were made during the January-June period. The report
says the information shared included complete Gmail account, chat logs,
Orkut profile and search terms among others.
The requests for accessing user data
from India had grown two-fold from 1,061 in July-December 2009 to 2,207
in July-December 2011, the report points out. According to the report, India has been
consistently sending requests to remove content which it brands as
defamatory and against national security. The court orders, however, to
take down content has remained almost stagnant over the years; though
requests from the executive and police have grown.
"Though India is a large country with a
significant number of internet users, this data is nonetheless an
indicator of growing surveillance," Times of India quotes
Pranesh Prakash, policy director at Centre for Internet and Society (
CIS), a Bangalore-based organization looking at issues of public
accountability, internet freedom and openness, as saying.
Tag :
government,
system
New BlackBerry Messenger 7 Brings Free Voice Chat Feature
Research In Motion (RIM) has released a
BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) v7 beta, adding a new voice chat feature to
the application. The BBM 7 beta works on BlackBerry smartphones running
BlackBerry OS version 6 or higher. According to reports, RIM will be
soon rolling out the voice chat feature to BB smartphones running
version 5.
The new feature, known as BBM Voice,
allows users to make voice calls to other BBM users via wireless
Internet connection. The split-screen feature allows users to talk and
text at the same time, so for example, they can send a picture to their
contact while talking with them. They can also check other BBM text
chats, check email, or navigate to other apps while engaged on a BBM
Voice call. Moreover, users can initiate the voice chat without needing
to text first.
The BBM Voice features a “visual
indicator” that notifies users when a contact is available to take a
voice chat. The new feature is compatible with standard BlackBerry voice
accessories. Users can chat via BBM Voice using speakerphone, similar
to the normal phone calls. Apart from voice chat, BBM version 7
also integrates with a BlackBerry ID for backing up groups, contacts and
profile information, which can restored when switching to a new
BlackBerry device.
While announcing the new BBM, Vice President of BBM and Social Communities at RIM T.A. McCann said in a statement: “The new BBM Voice feature is for when
you’re travelling and you want to call home without worrying about
phone charges. It’s for when you have news you can’t wait to share, for
quickly explaining complicated details, and collaborating with
colleagues.
Indian Government Unveils Aakash 2 Tablet PC
President Pranab Mukherjee today unveiled the much-awaited ultra low-cost Aakash 2 tablet PC at an event in New Delhi. Designed, developed and manufactured by DataWind, the Aakash tablet, also dubbed as the Aakash 2.0, will be available to students at a subsdised price of Rs. 1,130. DataWind is supplying the Aakash tablet to the Indian government at Rs. 2,263 per unit.
In the first phase, DataWind is going to supply 100,000 units of Aakash 2 to IIT Bombay, which intends to distribute them to Engineering University and College students in the country.
Specifications of the Aakash 2 tablet
are as follows: 7-inch multi-touch 4-point capacitive display with 800 x
480 pixel resolution, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, 512 MB of RAM,
Cortex A8 1 GHz processor, 4GB built-in storage, microSD card slot that
supports storage up to 32 GB, micro USB, Wi-Fi b/g/n and a 3,000 mAh
battery. The included accessories are wall charger, USB Adapter, USB
cable and USB Hub (4port).
The commercial version of the Aakash 2 unit is branded as the UbiSlate 7Ci, and is available for purchase on DataWind’s website. According to reports, the government has
shortlisted 244 engineering colleges in the country that will work as
remote centres for “Aakash in Education” programme, coordinated by
IIT-Mumbai under the National Mission on Education through ICT
(NME-ICT). The programme will cover all engineering colleges in due
course.
The Subrao Nilekani Chair Professor at
IIT Bombay, Dr. Deepak B. Phatak, heads the project at IIT Bombay with
the support of C-DAC. Professor Phatak says “I'm not only confident,
but sure that Aakash 2.0 is here to stay.”
NME-ICT Director, N.K.Sinha adds, “We
envision all 220 million students across India to be enabled by low cost
Aakash devices in the coming years.”
RIM Offers BlackBerry Paid Apps Worth Rs. 2,000 For Free
Research in Motion (RIM) is offering
various premium paid applications free for BlackBerry and PlayBook
devices in view of the ongoing festival season in India. Paid apps worth
Rs. 2,000 are available till December 31, 2012.
The list of free premium paid apps in BlackBerry App World includes Photo Studio Pro, Room Escape, Pencil
Camera, Jigsaw Plus, Popup Display your messages, Slider Lock for
BlackBerry, SayIt, Zapp Clock, Create Animated Avatar for BBM, Fruit
Slash, iTunes Sync, Catapult, App Lock, Lens Boost and Radio for
BlackBerry.
There are various other apps in the list. Users can download the apps from the featured category in the BlackBerry App World app on your BB or PlayBook device. During the festival season last year, the company offered a free BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone with the purchase of its PlayBook tablet.
Transcend Launches Wi-Fi Enabled SD Card
Transcend has launched a brand new
product to its range of memory card offerings – the Wi-Fi SD memory
card, with integrated wireless capability for SDHC-compatible digital
cameras. The card, via the use of Wi-Fi networks and a Wi-Fi SD app,
lets users transfer images from their camera to their laptops and/or
smartphones immediately after capturing them, via wireless networks.
The App is available for the iOS and Android platforms, and is
free-to-download from the iTunes stores as well as the Google Play
store. Using the Wi-Fi SD App, users can switch
between Direct Share Mode and Internet Mode instantly. Internet Mode
connects directly to any Wi-Fi networks in the facility, even picking up
the personal hotspots provided by smartphones. When connected in this
mode, users can browse and download photos from the Card via the App,
and even share them instantly via email and/or social networking through
their phone.
The Wi-Fi SD card has two modes it can
function in: Direct Share Mode and Internet Mode. In the Direct Share
Mode, as the name suggests, uses can transfer images directly between
camera and phone by establishing a peer-to-peer connection, ideal for
those times when you’re in the middle of nowhere and don’t have access
to a Wi-Fi network.
The SD Card is available in 16 GB and 32 GB formats for US $69 and US $99 respectively.
Tag :
technology,
updates
Facebook Brings Timeline Layout to Friendship Pages
Facebook has rolled out a redesign of “Friendship Pages”, which shows the two friends' history in a Timeline format.
Friendship Pages shows users' mutual friends, likes, photos, and interactions they had on the social networking website. Facebook's
Friendship Pages were one of the last segments of the social network
that resembled the old profile. With the addition of Timeline layout,
these pages are now easier to navigate.
The update provides users more options
to personalise the pages, and have a more complete look on the
interaction between the two friends. Users will be able to remove
different areas of their relationship details. They can also remove the images they are
tagged in from the friendship Timeline. To remove such images, users
need to click on the pen icon on the upper right hand corner and choose
“hide from Timeline”.
Google Nexus 7 (16GB) Launching in India Tomorrow, Priced at Rs. 19,981
-Launching-in-India-Tomorrow-Priced-at-Rs-19981-front-cyber-technology-news.jpg)
-Launching-in-India-Tomorrow-Priced-at-Rs-19981-cyber-technology-news.jpg)
Asus has officially announced the launch of the Nexus 7 in India and it will be hitting store shelves tomorrow, on November 8. The pricing of the device feels a little steep considering the fact that the Nexus 7 tablet is (now)
priced at $199 (Rs. 11,339 approx.) for the 16GB variant and $249 (Rs.
14,188) for the 32GB variant in the US. The Nexus 7 was unveiled at the
Google I/O event back in June.
In July, the 8GB version was available
for Rs. 16,952 via the Indiatimes online shopping website. The 8GB model will not be officially available in India unfortunately, with the refreshed Nexus 7 lineup from Google what will be arriving in India.
Mobile Subscriber Base Declines to 906.62 Million: TRAI
According to the latest figures released
by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of mobile
phone subscribers declined to 906.62 million at the end of September
2012 from 908.36 million in August 2012. TRAI says this decline is
mainly due to large scale disconnections by some of the service
providers.
The share of urban wireless subscribers
has decreased from 63.32 percent to 63.06 percent whereas the share of
rural wireless subscribers increased from 36.68 percent to 36.94
percent. The number of telephone subscribers in India declined to 937.70 million at the end of September 2012, down from 939.57 million at the end of August 2012 – a negative growth rate of -0.20 percent.
Mobile Number Portability
TRAI says, by the end of September 2012 about 69.78 million subscribers have submitted their requests
to different service providers for porting their mobile number. In MNP
Zone-I (Northern & Western India), the maximum number of requests
have been received in Rajasthan (6.70 million) followed by Gujarat (6.08
million).
Broadband
Total broadband subscriber base has
increased from 14.82 million at the end of August 2012 to 15.08 million
at the end of September 2012, thereby showing a monthly growth of 1.71
percent. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 16.19 percent during
the last one year (October 2011 to September 2012).
Microsoft to Drop Messenger, Switch to Skype
Microsoft is dropping its instant-messaging program and forcing most users to switch to Skype.
Maintaining Windows Live Messenger made less sense after Microsoft Corp bought Skype for $8.5 billion last year. A new version of Skype released a few weeks ago allows users to sign in with a Microsoft account. By merging the two services, people won't have to maintain two separate contact lists. Microsoft says much has changed in how people communicate. There's more use of text messaging and social networking.
Microsoft says that Messenger users who switch to Skype will get benefits such as the ability to call landline and mobile phones and better support on mobile devices. Messenger will be discontinued worldwide after the first quarter of 2013.
Tag :
entertainment,
microsoft
Opera 12.10 for Desktop Released, with More Powerful Extensions
Opera has launched the final version of Opera 12.10, with improved extensions and other new features. Opera says the update brings in more customisation features. With more powerful extensions possibilities in Opera 12.10, combined with Opera's Speed Dial that gives an easy overview of favourite sites and shortcuts, users can apparently now get their favourite content faster and easier. Other updates include basic touch support for Opera in Windows 8 classic and Opera Turbo for slow network speeds.
Opera in its announcement also highlights the new Speed Dial extensions for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StubmleUpon, Readbility, Gmail, Google Calendar and TED. By introducing the Context API, web developers can let the context menu (what most people call the right-click menu) get extended usability for example, start a Tweet by right-clicking a link. The Resource Loader API lets web developers have their extensions interact with advanced CSS and JavaScript on webpage,” says Opera in a release.
Opera has also increased support for
Macs. Opera v12.10 supports features Notification Center in the newest
version of MacOS X and support for the Retina Screen in newer Macs.
Built-in support for the SPDY protocol to improve and secure
connections. Gmail and Twitter have already started using SPDY to
supplement the HTTP protocol.
SkyDrive For Windows Phone 8 Gets Released
SkyDrive app has been amiss from all
Windows Phone 8 devices so far, but Microsoft has amended that pretty
quickly by releasing the SkyDrive app. Version 3.0 of SkyDrive brings with it, first of all, a dedicated app for Windows Phone 8,
which in our initial observations, is much faster than the SkyDrive app
available on Windows Phone 7. The app also now allows browsing and
opening of all supported file types such as documents, spreadsheets,
presentations and PDFs. The app also brings with it improved visuals and
animations that fall in line with the entire Windows Phone 8 user
experience.
The SkyDrive app can be downloaded for free from the Windows Store
through your Windows Phone 8 device. If you’re on Windows Phone 7 and
using SkyDrive app version 2.2, the new version of SkyDrive isn’t yet
available as an update for you guys. We’re hoping that once Windows
Phone 7.8 is out, the SkyDrive app will get an update to match
performance.
You can download the app from here.
Google Chrome 23 Release with Do Not Track
Google Chrome 23 is now available, and
will bring such features as Do Not Track, as well as promises such as
lower power demands (hence better battery life for laptop users) due to
increased use of hardware accelerated video decoding.
For Chrome
users, the update should roll-out automatically soon. New users can
download the new version already. As we mentioned Chrome 23 now features
the option of sending a “do not track” request to websites and web
services, a feature that was a glaring omission with most other major
browsers having already adopting it a while back. Chrome 23 also makes it easier for users
to view and control any website’s permissions for capabilities, from
geolocation to pop-ups and camera/microphone access. The
website-specific options can be found on the page/lock icon in the
omnibox, and toggled from there directly.
As for better battery life or lowered
power consumption, the Chrome team says that in their tests, they
experience 25% longer battery life than average. The feature is for
Chrome on Windows, where GPU-accelerated video decoding has been
enabled.
