Microsoft, Yahoo join forces to challenge Google

Source: SiliconIndia News

Tech giants Microsoft and Yahoo reached a long-awaited partnership on Wednesday in a bid to challenge Google, which holds a 65 percent market share in online search. The two companies have plenty of challenges now, but the ground rules have been set: Yahoo's job is to be an online hub, and Microsoft's job is to out-Google Google

Under the 10-year deal, Microsoft would provide Yahoo with the Search Engine Technology with its Bing Search while Yahoo would handle the Advertising part from its huge traffic.

In exchange, Microsoft will pay its partner Yahoo with 88% of the search revenues generated on yahoo sites.

According to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, the deal will allow Microsoft to "create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company".

A Yahoo-Microsoft partnership would mean about 28 percent of Internet searches would be performed on their combined platform, according to figures from ratings firm ComScore.

That would still be less than half of the about 65 percent market share of Google Inc., which has long dominated the search space.

Last year, Microsoft attempted to buy Yahoo for more than $45 billion, an unsolicited bid Yahoo rejected, but the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has long had Yahoo's search business at the top of its wish list, and the two had reportedly been in discussions for months.

Yahoo estimated the deal would add $500 million to its annual operating profit, as well as saving it around $275 million in expenses related to developing and maintaining its own search technology.

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Activation code for Windows 7 cracked!

Source: SiliconIndia News

Some Chinese hackers have been rumored to have cracked tehe activation code for Windows 7. Microsoft sees the news as a security risk after the recent release of the final code for Windows 7 to manufacturers.

CNET News has reported that he Windows Genuine Advantage has been compromised by teh hackers for the Wuindows 7 Ultimate release.
This would simply mean that any user can fully activate and run the new OS without connecting to the Activation Server of Windows and doesn't need to activate the Windows product.
It is known that the hackers must have used the leaked ISO file to get hold of the activation certificate that Microsoft digitally signed for the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) version of Windows 7.
An OEM activation key will unlock multiple copies and it is rumored that this particular key will work in machines from Dell, HP and Lenovo.

To this, Microsoft has responded, "We are aware of reports of activation exploits that attempt to circumvent activation and validation in Windows 7, and we can assure customers that Microsoft is committed to protecting them from counterfeit and pirated software." It also advises customers not to download Windows 7 from unauthorized sources.

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Fake Antiviruses growing: Reports

Source: CNET News

A report released on Wednesday from PandaLabs suggested that malware posing as antivirus software are spreading fast infecting millions of computers each month.

PandaLabs found 1,000 samples of fake antivirus software in the first quarter of 2008. In a year, that number had grown to 111,000. And in the second quarter of 2009, it reached 374,000, Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs said in a recent interview.

PandaLabs found that 3 percent to 5 percent of all the people who scanned their PCs with Panda antivirus software were infected. Using that and worldwide computer stats from Forrester, PandaLabs estimates there could be as many as 35 million computers infected per month with rogue antivirus programs.

About 3 percent of the people who see the fake warnings fall for it, forking over $50 for an annual license or $80 for a lifetime license, according to Corrons.

Last September, a hacker was able to infiltrate rogue antivirus maker Baka Software and discovered that in one period an affiliate made more than $80,000 in about a week, said Sean-Paul Correll, a PandaLabs threat researcher.

The malware generally reports fake infections and gets people to pay for software they do not need. Or worse, it may download viruses, Trojans and worms which may cause further damage.

Reports also state that such malware-creators can get as many as $10, 0000 a day from these fake softwares.

The most important thing for the consumer to understand is that no legitimate antivirus vendor will start a scan automatically on their computer without their consent.

After all the hoopla about the Conficker threat, researchers seemed almost relieved that it turned out to distribute fake antivirus software instead of something much worse.

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Firefox 4.0 to look like Chrome!

Source : CNet News - Webware

A recent design idea from Mozilla had eliminated the browser's title bar for the more nearer firefox 3.7 mockup. This was replaced by two drop down menu buttons on the right of the new browser...the same that Google Chrome has natively since its debut.

This Firefox 4.0 mockup shows a very Chrome-like interface.

(Credit: Mozilla)

Secondly, the new Firefox 4.0 includes the "Tabs-on-top concept" where all the tabs for a certain page reside where the Title Bar must've been.
Mozilla says the advantages to this is that it saves vertical space and removes visual complexity.
On the other side, it is new and a bit different and might confuse people who look for the usual File and Edit Menus. Also, the users see a part of the original title of a page at any point of usage.

For Firefox, putting tabs on top meshes conceptually with Electrolysis, aka Content Processes, an under-the-covers change that will make each tab a separate computing process. That carries potential performance, stability, and security advantages, but requires more memory.

The Firefox 4.0 mockups also show a combination button to the right of the address bar that changes behavior depending on what the browser is up to. The button can be used to start loading a page whose address has been typed, to stop loading if it's in the process of doing so, and to reload it if it's finished loading.

An example of Chrome's latest interface.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

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HP SimpleSave: Back up solution from Hewlett packard

Source: CNET News - Crave

(Credit: HP)

Backing up a computer can be tricky for many people, especially those who access data via the software applications without knowing where the actual data files or folders reside on the hard drive. I have some friends who used to believe that you could back up all your office documents just by dragging and dropping the icons of Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook over to an external hard drive.

This is where products such as the SimpleSave external hard drive series, like the SimpleSave Portable that Hewlett-Packard made available Monday, comes into play. (The other drive inthe series, the SimpleSave desktop, will be available in September.)

HP SimpleSave photos

"Read the Whole Article Here"

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AVG Blocks iTunes;labels it as malware

Source: CNET News

AVG's free antivirus product temporarily blocked users from getting to iTunes late last week, detecting it as a Trojan, the company said on Monday.

For about five hours on Friday starting around 4 p.m. PDT, AVG users couldn't access iTunes because of the false alarm.

(Credit: AVG)

"AVG discovered the false alarm in the virus signature engine relating to some localization components of iTunes (so not iTunes as a virus but rather some localization components of iTunes) and it was fixed within 5 hours," AVG spokesperson Siobhan MacDermott said in a statement. "AVG would like to apologize for any inconvenience to our users/customers."

AVG was alerted to the problem by customers, who were posting to the AVG and iTunes forums.

While irregular, false positives do happen. Last year, AVG flagged ZoneAlarm as malware and a Windows system file as a Trojan. And earlier this month, Computer Associates' antivirus software mistakenly identified a Windows XP systems file as a virus.

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Its time for Donuts;Google Android's team circulates for Android 2.0

Google has been quite at the work with Cupcake and now its time for Donuts.
Google's Android team has started circulating the ingredients that will make up the donut release of its Android mobile operating system.
After Cupcake's entry in May this year, its time now for Donut labeled as Android 2.0.
However, Google's not expecting more than 2 Android releases a year. So, it might not be right to label Donut as Android 2.0.

Donut was rumored to incorporate multitouch support but a Google developer shot down the rumor.
Donut code is starting to make its way arounfd the community of developers that work on Android this weekend.
Among the notable additions are support for the CDMA networks used by Verizon WIreless and Sprint to the operating system, as wellas new features like Universal Search. It may as well have incremental features like a redesigned camera application but is still saving the big additions for another time.

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Samsung announces 1GHz processor "Hummingbird"

Source: CNET News

Samsung and Intrinsity jointly announced on Monday one of the fastest processors to date likely to be aimed at devices such as the Apple iPhone.
The new 1GHz chip co-developed by Austin, Texas-based Intrinsity and Samsung is similar to the processor that powers the current iPhone 3GS which is a 600MHz Samsunf processor based on the ARM Cortex A8 design.
The new Samsung chip is code-named "HUMMINGBIRD".
"Hummingbird," could be bound for a future iPhone or like device. "Yes, I think it's possible," said Tom R. Halfhill, senior analyst at the Microprocessor Report.

"Samsung could drop Hummingbird into the existing S5PC100 design with few or no changes," Halfhill said in response to an e-mail query, referring to the S5PC100 processor now used in the iPhone 3GS. "Bingo! A next-gen iPhone that could run at speeds up to 1.0GHz," he said.

Halfhill added that Samsung will likely use Hummingbird for future smartphones and discussed Hummingbird at length in an article that appeared Monday in the Microprocessor Report, where he also addressed the possibility of the chip making its way into a future Apple device.

Increasingly sophisticated smartphones will demand faster processors, according to Halfhill. One way to get there is cranking up the chip's speed--referred to as "clock speed"--something that ARM has not emphasized in the past because its designs, to date, have been all about power efficiency not about high-performance.

But that is changing. "The biggest challenge in mobile processor core design and implementation is to achieve high clock speed performance while keeping the power consumption low," said Jae Cheol Son, vice president, SOC Platform Development, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics, in a statement.

According to market researcher Forward Concepts, the ARM's Cortex-A family could account for about half of the total market for mobile application processors by 2013. The main processor in a smartphone is called an application processor.

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Mathematics != Love

Mathematics and Love. No Match.

source

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Study reveeals Advertising in Movies expected to Double!

Source: Phoenix New Times Blog By James King in News

Just when you were in between of that favorite movie of yours when there is an intimate scene between the hero and the hot chick, this idiotic washing powder commercial comes over and washes away all your interest, doesn't it feel just to kick their a** and yell them to get out of the way.

But the bad news is...its gonna be more of a thing now. Read along...

www.repmanblog.com

A study released by the Department of Research and Economic Affairs
at Arizona State University found that subliminal advertising through
product placement in movies is becoming more effective than ever, which
of course means advertisers are going to start doing it...a lot.

Michael Wiles, an assistant professor of marketing at ASU, conducted the study, published in this month's Journal of Marketing. It
finds that when a product is successfully placed in feature films, the
company that makes it enjoys a dramatic boost in its stock price.

Wiles says companies have taken notice of this spike and are increasing spending on strategic product placement.

In 2005, Wiles says, marketing firms spent $722 million to get their
products on the big screen and in the hands of characters like James
Bond. By 2010, Wiles expects that number to more than double to $1.8
billion.

"It's a difficult balancing act to figure out which ones will be
worth the most," Wiles says. "You also have to avoid having too many
placements in the same film. As more brands get mentioned in a film,
the placements compete and become less valuable."

Wiles finds that the most successful product placements in history have been Pepsi in Austin Powers: Goldmember,and the Mini Cooper in The Italian Job.
Wiles says they were so successful because they were targeted at
the ideal audience, and weren't outrageously expensive like the Aston
Martins in most James Bond films. 

Wiles says his study also found that product placement within
television shows or movies is becoming more successful than an actual
advertisement because, as cute as the Geicko Gecko may be, people can
fast-forward right through him these days.

"There's quite a bit of value to be gained from film product
placement because the spots are impossible to avoid," Wiles says.
"You're able to tie your product to the characters and what's portrayed
to get rich symbolic associations with the movie and pop culture."

Our head's splitting with all those products inside.

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What's Cookin'? Anti Gravity Dinner.

Source: CNET News

What do you eat when you're set out in space with no gravity...anti gravity Dinner. And what's most difficult out there. Just to sit and eat! You can't even have enough when you're floating upside down 3 feets above the table!!!

The combined 13-member crew of the shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station can enjoy a joint meal when time permits, but getting everyone around the table is a bit of a challenge in the cramped confines of the lab complex.

Luckily, the absence of gravity makes "sitting down to dinner" a different sort of experience. No word yet on whether the last one to the table has to do the dishes.

The Endeavour crew arrived at the space station on July 17 and are set to leave Tuesday.

The shuttle Endeavour's seven-member crew dines with the space station's six crew members.

(Credit: NASA)

The astronauts partake in joint meals in the U.S. Unity module.

(Credit: NASA)

The combined crews pose in the Harmony module of the International Space Station.

(Credit: NASA)

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Western Digital's New 1TB Laptop Hard Drive

Source: CNET News

Increasing the storage capacity on laptops has taken a leap with the 2 new Laptop Hard Drives from Western Digital.

Western Digital announced Monday two laptop drives that offer "extreme" amounts of storage: the Scorpio Blue 1TB and the Scorpio Blue 750GB. Prior to this announcement, the largest laptop hard drive available was 500GB.

Scorpio Blue

(Credit: Western Digital)

Currently, the largest desktop hard drive on the market is 2TB. The Scorpio Blue 1TB drive, though half the capacity, is still very impressive, considering the fact that a 2.5-inch laptop drive is much smaller than a 3.5-inch desktop drive. The new WD laptop drives are the first that use 333GB per platter technology.

The Scorpio Blue Hard Drives are a little incompatible, having a thickness of 12.5 mm opposed to the standard of 9.5 mm. For such reasons, WD says the new drives will be perfect for portable storage as WD's new My Passport Essential SE Portable USB Drive.

Other than capacity, the new Scorpio Blue drives also feature a set of advanced storage technologies, including:

• WhisperDrive, which is WD's technology that uses seeking algorithms to produce one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives available
• ShockGuard, which helps the drive withstanding shock, such as accidental drops, and vibrations better
• SecurePark, which is a mechanism that parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up and spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures that the recording head never touches the disk surface to improve long-term reliability

Both new drives come with 8MB of buffer memory and spin at 5,200rpm, which is slightly slower than the 5400rpm speed of mainstream laptop drives.

The Scorpio Blue 750GB drive (model WD7500KEVT) is available now and costs $190. The 1TB version (model WD10TEVT) is, for now, only available configured into the My Passport Essential SE USB drive, but it will be available as an internal hard drive in a few weeks. It will cost $250.

However, the bigger the better!!!

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