JitNik's Tech World

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Time magazine's 2010 Person of the Year, is not the first honoree from the world of technology and science. He's in good company, with a list that includes tech titans, a machine, and even a planet.

Time cited Zuckerberg "for connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them, for creating a new system of exchanging information and for changing how we live our lives."

Since 1927, Time magazine has chosen someone or something that, "for better or worse," made the greatest impact during the year. The story goes that Time editors first came up with the idea during a slow news week. (That sounds familiar.)

Benefits

Google’s Realtime Search offers you a convenient way to search through status updates, news articles and other links that are shared on the social web, mainly Twitter and Facebook.
Microsoft too has a similar search product called Bing Social and though both these tools are powered by the same data coming from Twitter and Facebook, I find Bing’s Social Search a slightly better product than Google’s Realtime Search.

Both Bing and Google display search results from Facebook and Twitter in a self-updating river of news format but with Bing Social, you have an option to filter out status updates by source.
That means you can limit your search results to either Twitter or Facebook, something that is currently not possible in Google’s Realtime search.

LG has announced its intentions to launch its first Tegra based phones by the end of 2010.

These new devices would be based on the second generation NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor - also known as the Tegra 2 System on a Chip (SoC). This processor is a powerful dual core number cruncher that would provide hitherto unheard of processing power for hand-held devices.

Facebook is rolling out a new security feature that lets users log out of their accounts remotely from another computer.

To do this, go to "account settings" on your Facebook page and click on "change" next to "account security." There, you'll see where else your Facebook account is logged in, including the type of device and the city it's in or near. To log out of any of them, click "end activity."

Facebook is making this available over the next couple of weeks. It will be accessible on computers, but not mobile devices.

The feature is similar to what Google Inc.'s Gmail offers to its users, and Facebook says it's designed to help users keep their logins secure.

Why should web designers start looking at HTML 5 and what are the advantages it can bring to our work? In this short blog post we run through a few of the many advantages we can gain from latest incarnation of HTML.

Improved Code

HTML 5 will enable web designers to use cleaner, neater code, we can remove most div tags and replace them with semantic HTML 5 elements.

Greater Consistency

As websites adopt the new HTML 5 elements we will see far greater consistency in terms of the HTML used to code a web page on one site compared to another. This will make it far easier for web designers and web developers to immediately grasp how a web page is structured even if they are brand new to it.

Improved Semantics

As the elements used to code a web page are standardised, using the new HTML 5 elements, the semantic value of every web page will increase. As it will be easy to see which parts of the page are headers, nav, footers, aside, etc. and most importantly know what their meaning and purpose is in a machine readable format.

Improved Accessibility

With HTML 5 it should be possible for assistive technologies to expand on the features they can offer their users as they can immediately build up a more detailed understanding of the structure of a page by looking at the HTML 5 elements it contains. Could this spell the end for skip links?

Audio And Video

The new video and audio elements make this really easy. Most of the APIs are shared between the two elements, with the only differences being related to the inherent differences between visual and non-visual media.

Both Opera and WebKit have released builds with partial support for the video element. You may download the experimental build of Opera or a recent nightly build of WebKit to try out these examples. Opera includes support for Ogg Theora and WebKit supports all the formats that are supported by QuickTime, including third party codecs.

The simplest way to embed a video is to use a video element and allow the browser to provide a default user interface. The controls attribute is a boolean attribute that indicates whether or not the author wants this UI on or off by default.

[video src="video.ogv" controls poster="poster.jpg"
width="320" height="240"]
[a href="video.ogv"]Download movie[/a]
[/video]

The optional poster attribute can be used to specify an image which will be displayed in place of the video before the video has begun playing. Although there are some video formats that support their own poster frame feature, such as MPEG-4, this provides an alternative solution that can work independently of the video format.

It is just as simple to embed audio into a page using the audio element. Most of the attributes are common between the video and audio elements, although for obvious reasons, the audio element lacks the width, height, and poster attributes.


Download song

HTML 5 provides the source element for specifying alternative video and audio files which the browser may choose from based on its media type or codec support. The media attribute can be used to specify a media query for selection based on the device limitations and the type attribute for specifying the media type and codecs. Note that when using the source elements, the src attribute needs to be omitted from their parent video or audio element or the alternatives given by the source elements will be ignored.

[video poster="poster.jpg"]
[source src="video.3gp" type="video/3gpp"
media="handheld"]
[source src="video.ogv" type="video/ogg;
codecs=theora, vorbis"]
[source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4"]
[/video]
[audio]
[source src="music.oga" type="audio/ogg"]
[source src="music.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"]
[/audio]

For authors who want a little more control over the user interface so that they can make it fit the overall design of the web page, the extensive API provides several methods and events to let scripts control the playback of the media. The simplest methods to use are the play(), pause(), and setting currentTime to rewind to the beginning. The following example illustrates the use of these.

There are many other attributes and APIs available for the video and audio elements that have not been discussed here. For more information, you should consult the current draft specification.

Metasearch engine Ixquick and its U.S. brand, Startpage.com have released a new proxy service that allows users to surf the web with complete privacy.

The Ixquick proxy is a free service that works in conjunction with the Ixquick search engine, available at www.ixquick.com. When users perform a search, they will find a clickable "proxy" option below each search result. When this option is selected,Ixquick acts as an intermediary to retrieve the page and display it in a privacy-protected Ixquick window.

The proxy offers anonymity, since the user never makes direct contact with the third-party website. The user's IP address is invisible to the viewed website. In addition, the website cannot see or place cookies on the user's browser.



Ixquick does not record IP addresses, make a record of users' searches, or record details about proxy usage. The company's data collection practices are third-party certified with the “European Privacy seal”.

The proxy service is being launched on January 28th, to celebrate international Data Privacy Day.

http://www.ixquick.com

If you took the first steps in a radical new technology only to be superseded by someone on the lines of mere reach and power, you’d want to win back that power. Way back when we were playing Pacman in our school labs Marc Andreesen saw a similar story written for him. He made his first browser ever – Mosaic, before heading to build the then famous Netscape Navigator only to see it get piped by Microsoft’s IE.

However, tech streams are now abuzz with reports of Andreesen, now an investor and startup adviser among many other things getting his hands behind a new browser. Andreessen is backing a startup called RockMelt, staffed with some of his close associates, that is building a new Internet browser. There are plenty of options availabe really if you want to go beyond the big four among browsers actually, but when the father of web browsing renews his interest in the field that he essentially created, you’d be interested very much.

The premise of this new adventure is the fact that browsers these days are essentially better versions of an existing skin, means they have not kept up with the changing web. And therefore, if one is creating a browser from scratch,t here would be a lot many things that would be done differently from what is conventional. In many ways Andreesen thinks Rockmelt is doing these different things.

According to Andreesen browsers don’t quite match up to the need of changing web habits influenced by sites like Twitter, Facebook, et al. He should know, he is after all ont he board of Facebook. Which brings us to the other aspect of the Rockmelt.

Readwriteweb claims it is the Facebook browser and offers a number of tidbits on that front. Though there has been no official word on it, it can very well be true and put the limelight squarely on Facebook. And that’s a huge move for a web publisher.




The implications on both counts are really high, on one hand there is a brilliant team developing what can perhaps change the way browsing happens and on the other Facebook can perhaps have towering presence among those fighting for extending their ubiquity on the web and beyond. A lot of questions then begin to find ground, and hopefully they will get answered when Rockmelt comes out of its stealth state.

I don’t know how important this news is really to a lot of people, but personally this can be a godsend and so this post goes out to the few people who want better control over their to do lists. So what’s the dope? GMail has taken a lab product and made it better and more accessible for all users with the new Tasks feature.

From today whenever we log on to our Gmail we will see a small feature lying in between Labels and Chat Box. Welcome Tasks to your inbox.

According to Google, one doesn’t need to turn it on through labs anymore and can be accessed straightaway. And they haven’t spared a lot of features while doing this, this is what the Gmail blog had to say,

We’ve been continually improving Tasks since it first launched in Labs. We believe simple and fast is best, so we’ve been working to make Tasks more responsive and get basic interactions working better: we’ve added mobile and gadget views, made improvements to task editing and management, launched in more languages, and integrated with Google Calendar. We’ve also added a printable view for those people compelled to do things away from their computers or mobile devices.

Personally, mobile and gadget views, and Calender integration to go with the email integration when Tasks were first introduced in labs last year are the most killer features. Check the video Google has put up to know more about tasks.

Tata Teleservices strengthened their alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo by launching their GSM Service in Karnataka. Prior to this Tata DoCoMo launched their GSM services in Tamilnadu, Orissa and Kerala. Their much awaited GSM Mobile service has been now rolled out in Karnataka and AndhraPradesh as well. The Prepaid Starter Pack comes for Rs.49 in both circle with Life time validity. They have also introduced their post-paid plans in detail so that users can choose according to their usage. So apparently they are entering the competitive market full of biggies in GSM services like Vodafone, Airtel and others. The Japanese telecom major had acquired 26 per cent in TTSL, Tata group’s unlisted telecom company, for around $2.7 billion in November last year.

The name for new brand will incorporate brand names of both Tata and NTT DoCoMo. Tata DoCoMo announced the introduction of the pay-as-you-use advantage for many of its Value-added Services, including all its voice portals, 24-hour music, cricket commentary and voice chat. The company is offering per second billing to prepaid customers at a rate of 1 paisa per second for all phone calls across India. Other commercial operations have now begun in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The GSM service in Karnataka will have and extensive coverage of 472 towns and 2,642 villages apart from the highways, railway lines, airports and places of tourist interests. The joint venture plans to conquer more circles and become a pan-India player in a battlefield-like GSM arena. They had made a promise that this would bring to the country products and services that will redefine the telecom experience. In a market that is cluttered with many operators that throw up confusing options, they will try to offer simplicity to consumers by being the country’s most transparent, innovative and liberating telecom brand. They target have targetted the South Indian Circles going live first. This will be followed by areas in East, West and Northern region.

Nokia N97 comes equipped with 434 MHz processor and 128 MB Ram while Apple iPhone 3G S comes with 600MHz processor and 256MB RAM. While comparing this hardware configuration, Apple iPhone 3G S stands ahead.

But main advantage of N97 comes when we take the operating system. N97 comes preloaded with Symbian 5th edition S60 while iphone 3G S comes with latest iPhone OS 3.0. But main advantage of N97 is that almost all applications for all purpose ia available for Symbian OS. Though the N97 has some touch gestures and the accelerometer, we have to admit that touch features on the iPhone remain iconic despite all efforts by Nokia and Windows Mobile.

Other noticable thing is battery life Nokia N97 provides more battery life than iPhone 3G S with its 1,500 mAh Li-Ion battery.

Also while we consider the storage part N97 has 32GB inbuilt memory and has a microSD card slot to expand ths storage capacity while iPhone 3G S, which has 16GB internal memory.

While coming to design part, nokia N97 has a 3.5 inch touch display and QWERTY keyboard while iPhone 3G S has touch screen display only.



In multimedia features also , N97 makes a step ahead of Apple iPhone 3G S. The main features is camera- N97 comes equipped with a 5 megapixel camera while iPhone 3G S has a 3.2 megapixel camera.

N97 also comes with the best speakers than the Apple iPhone 3G S and while on ear phones also Nokia n97 is able to compete with Apple iPhone 3G S.

Features such as handwriting recognition, Bluetooth file transfers, FM radio and video recording on the N97 clearly makes it a head over iPhone 3G S.



The Nokia N97 is expected to available at a price of Rs 36,119 in India while the 8GB iPhone 3G S is expected for about Rs 29,000. As per all the features are considered, the Nokia N97 is better than Apple iPhone 3G S .

Around a week back we blogged that HTC will soon launch Google Android based phones in India and here they are, HTC is launching HTC magic in India today in strategic partnership with Airtel. HTC magic will be priced between 26,000 and 28,000 and will not be locked to any operator unlike Apple Iphone thus making it a go-go for users with any operator.

HTC Magic have a huge list of features making it a compelling buy for the users opting for a smart phones, giving stiff competition to Nokia N97, Blackberry and Iphones.

All Google services like Gmail, Google Search, Street view etc comes inbuilt with G2.
Smart Dialer with on screen touch keyboard making it easy to type.
Microsoft exchange server integration making it lucrative even for business users.
Wifi Connectivity so that one can use WiFi connection while in office,home. G2 also provides easy network switching capability, so that users can switch from Operator provided network to office/home WIFI in a click of a button giving them better speed and saving some pennies .

Though the price tag may look little bit on the heavier side but it may be able to pick up cashing on the Googlemania . Users will be happier with their Gmail, Calendar, contacts all syncing up regularly.
SPECIFICATIONS:-
Processor:Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Operating System:Android
Memory ROM:512 MB
RAM:288 MB
Display:3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320x480 HVGA resolution
Network:HSDPA/WCDMA:900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Device Control Trackball with Enter button
GPS:Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity:Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™:(11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera:3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Talk time:
Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 450 minutes for GSM
Standby time:
Up to 660 hours for WCDMA
Up to 420 hours for GSM
Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter:Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 47/63 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features:
G-sensor
Digital Compass

Android is a mobile phone operating system developed by Google. Android is unique because Google is actively developing the platform but giving it away for free to hardware manufacturers and phone carriers who want to use Android on their devices.

Open Handset Alliance:

Google formed a group of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies called the Open Handset Alliance with the goal of contributing to Android development. Most members also have the goal of making money from Android, either by selling phones, phone service, or mobile applications.

Android Market Place:

Anyone can download the SDK (software development kit) and write applications for Android phones. Google doesn't screen developers or applications. Google doesn't even take part of the profits.
These apps can be downloaded from the Android Market Place.

Service Providers:

The iPhone has been very popular for AT&T, but unless you void your warranty to unlock it, you can only use an iPhone with AT&T. Android is an open platform, so many carriers can potentially offer Android-powered phones. That doesn't mean individual carriers won't lock the specific phone they sell you to their service, but even that may change as more companies offer Android phones.

Data Plan:

To use Android, you need a data plan on top of your voice plan. You can't even activate an Android phone without a data plan enabled.

Google Services:

Because Google developed Android, it comes with a lot of Google services installed right out of the box. Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Web search are all pre-installed, and Google is also the default Web page for the Web browser.

Touchscreen:

Android supports a touch screen. However, it does not include "multi-touch," which is an Apple patented technology for iPhones. This means you can use a single finger to move items around or select them, but you cannot re-size by pinching or spreading gestures with two fingers.

Keyboard:

The initial release of Android requires a separate keyboard. However, the next major release, code named "Cupcake," will feature an on-screen keyboard. Dialing numbers and using non-text portions of applications can all be done without the keyboard.

The Bottom Line:

Android is an exciting platform for consumers and developers. It is the philosophical opposite of the iPhone in many ways. Where the iPhone tries to create the best user experience by restricting hardware and software standards, Android tries to insure it by opening up as much of the operating system as possible

Nokia's 8 MP N86 announced at the MWC at Barcelona earlier this year has started shipping globally.

"People demand mobile cameras that take excellent pictures in all light conditions," says Juha-Pekka Sipponen, Director, Nokia Nseries. "That's why the aperture of the Nokia N86 8MP is comparable to that of a high-quality, stand-alone digital camera. Whether it's running with the bulls in Pamplona or capturing the panoramic beauty of a sunrise over Sydney, the Nokia N86 8MP will take brilliantly clear, wide-angle images that are instantly geotagged to be uploaded onto sites like Ovi Share or Flickr."

The Nokia N86 8MP camera includes a wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for panoramic pictures, shorter latencies and variable aperture for super sharp photos in challenging bright and low light conditions. A fast mechanical shutter will help ensure pictures with less motion blur. What could be construed as a disappointment would be the presence of a dual LED camera flash instead of a Xenon.

"When it comes to taking the best digital photos, it's the quality of the lens and the sensor that count, not just the quantity of pixels. The Nokia N86 8MP is the first mobile device with variable aperture, adding to the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens for excellent results. It has never been easier to capture special moments in such a great quality," says Helmut Heier of Carl Zeiss.

The handset features -

* 2.6 inch OLED, scratch resistant hardened glass display with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
* Dual Slider
* 8GB of internal memory (microSD card support)
* HSDPA, Wi-Fi, EDGE
* Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0 (micro)
* GPS with A-GPS support (Nokia Maps)
* FM radio with RDS and FM transmitter feature
* 3.5mm AV socket
* Rear kickstand

The Nokia N86 8MP estimated retail price of Rs. 23, 331 (EUR 375), before taxes and subsidies.

Western Digital Corp. today(June 9),released its biggest consumer external hard-disk drive targeted at Mac users with a whopping 4TB of capacity.

The drive's $650 price tag may turn some off, but if you need space to fit 1,540 DVD movies, 800,000 digital photos or one million MP3 music files, then this may be the drive you.

The My Book Studio Edition II drive comes in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities and is designed with WD's GreenPower Technology, so the system uses about 30% less energy than standard WD drive systems and runs quietly because it doesn't need a fan.
The drive comes with a four ports, ultra-fast eSATA and FireWire 800, and FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, along with the accompanying cables.

It is compatible with Apple's Time Machine and includes software and instructions for reformatting to Windows operating systems. The system supports Mac OS X 10.4.10+, 10.5.2+ Windows 2000/XP/Vista: The 4TB version works with Windows Vista only because Windows XP does not support hard drives with capacities above 2TB.

The new My Book Studio Edition II two internal drives can be configured for RAID 0, which affords users the full 4 TB of capacity, or RAID 1, which mirrors the two drives to protect data in case of a drive failure but reduces storage capacity by half.

The new drive comes with a 5-year limited warranty.