Google to Sell Music Online


iTunes is pretty much the place to buy music these days. Cd’s is seems to be getting old now. Google is betting on the future of cloud based storage for your music library. A service Google appears to be calling your “digital locker”. As broadband internet access becomes more and more ubiquitous, local storage becomes less and less important. What do you think about a phone or music device with no storage? One day that won’t seem strange.

The search giant is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would let its mobile phone users play songs wherever they are. Google (NMS:GOOG) hopes to launch the service by Christmas, according to sources. Google is trying to compete with Apple, which dominates via its iTunes Music Stores, accounting for 70% of all U.S. digital music sales. It rose 1.5% to 470.30.

Windows Phone 7 and Android Platform Competition


Encroaching competition
Microsoft (MSFT) has finally unveiled its Windows Phone 7 operating system, bringing another mobile platform to compete with Android. With a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor and hi-rez screens, the initial Windows Phone 7 devices will be fairly well equipped to match many features on Android devices. For gaming and entertainment especially, it’s clear that certain standards have been established for smartphones.

Android Market keeping pace
Hardly fazed by Microsoft’s launch today, Android rolled out a Market update for non-Froyo users. You now get tabbed app browsing, bulk updates for apps and auto-updates for apps you select. The changes are important towards improving navigation around the Android Market, making it easier to manage what some deem are the most important features on your device. With the likes of AppBrain making searchable apps for managing your marketplace, Android itself needs to keep pace.

Another entity that is interested in its own front for the Android Market is Best Buy (BBY). The electronics retailer mentioned interest in experimenting with an app store for Android, which would be a great way to interface and market to their customers. Coming off the heels of Amazon’s (AMZN) delve into Android Market storefronts, we’re sure to see a deep and ongoing evolution for Android’s economy.

Superheroes on-the-go
DC Comics is likely to reap the benefits of this marketplace maturation, with plans to release an Android app in the coming weeks. The publishing company has managed to remain relevant throughout the generations, and having a strong mobile front is just another wave of the future. A number of print media publishers have turned to the mobile industry lately, as it’s reached a point of reasonable distribution and montization.

YouTube Testing Live Video Streaming


YouTube is making its long expected foray into live streaming by launching an experimental trial with four new media partners.

The new live streaming platform will be previewed in a two-day trial beginning Monday, but is expected to later grow considerably across the Google Inc.-owned website.

Four YouTube partners will participate: the celebrity-focused Young Hollywood; the online television outlet Next New Networks; the how-to guide Howcast; and Rocketboom, the Internet culture vlog.

"This is just an initial trial, a first step," said YouTube product manager Josh Siegel. "We're going to look at a whole bunch of data about the performance of our new platform and then, based on that, make decisions about how we'll open it up, with the goal of opening it up to all of our partners over time."

For the last two years, YouTube has offered numerous events live, including a U2 concert, cricket matches in India and President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address. But for all of those events, YouTube relied on third-party technology to enable the live webcasts.

Chris Hamilton, a product marketing manager at YouTube, said live streaming is "a natural evolution to online video" that "adds an extra level of engagement" for the site's audience.

YouTube, though, is far from the first company to step into the streaming video space. Startups such as Ustream.tv, Justin.tv and Livestream have already established themselves.

But YouTube remains the largest video platform on the Web and is expected to quickly become a considerable force in the rapidly growing live streaming video business.

ComScore recently announced the amount of time American audiences spent watching the major live video publishers grew by 648 percent in the last year. The advertising possibilities are also good, since the average live streamed video view is 7 percent longer than the average online video view, according to ComScore.

Ustream is the current leader in live video, with 3.2 million unique viewers in July. But Google video sites, which are primarily driven by YouTube, drew 143.2 million unique visitors in July, according to ComScore.

Hamilton said YouTube will be monitoring the live trial to see how well the video looks and how well servers handle any bandwidth increases.
Among the broadcasts scheduled for Monday beginning 11 a.m. EDT is Rocketboom, which is planning an hour-long variety show, pulling from Rocketboom and its numerous spin-offs. Producer Leah D'Emilio said the site is planning a TV-like broadcast, with multiple cameras and correspondents.

She expects that live streaming will further engage the YouTube community.

"Any time you can bring your viewers into a broadcast — like making a shout-out to someone who left a comment — the audience really gets excited about that, on YouTube in particular," said D'Emilio. "It breaks down any kind of wall between the people on camera and the people who are watching."

Download Internet Explorer 9 Beta, Launched With Gorillaz


Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer 9 beta in London this evening with a special endorsement from the Gorillaz.

Microsoft previously unveiled that the software giant and the virtual animated band were pairing up, earlier this week. The band appeared tonight in a promotional video to add its backing to Internet Explorer 9 beta. Working with the Gorillaz’ design team, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Microsoft assisted the Gorillaz to create a unique online experience for fans. The site has taken full advantage of HTML5 and the new features in IE9.

Gorillaz issued a statement regarding the partnership:

“Of course those clever bods at Microsoft came to us Gorillaz first with their new Internet Explorer 9 Beta technology. And it works like magic – our website now pushes past the boundaries for visual speed and our fans will be able to interact with us better than ever before. Gorillaz.com through Internet Explorer 9 Beta – it’s like a Wizard’s Portal!”

Internet Explorer 9 is now available for download.

You can Download New Internet Explorer 9 beta here.

Download: Internet Explorer 9 beta

Internet Explorer 9 Preview HTML 5 Video Leaked


Microsoft has just released their latest platform preview of Internet Explorer 9. The 7th release of the IE9 platform preview brings a number of performance improvements in Charka, Microsoft’s JavaScript engine.

The initial platform preview was released just 8 months ago, and already is impressing the tech community. The latest platform preview beats out all of the competition in the WebKit SunSpider JavaScript benchmark tests, and is even faster than Google Chrome. The first IE9 beta was released three months ago.

Internet Explorer 9′s preview platform is already leading the pack in HTML5 conformance tests, showing early signs Microsoft is doing something right with their latest browser. The IE9 team has increased its performance by 345% since the first platform preview. The video posted by Microsoft also shows off how well IE9 Platform Preview 7 can handle HTML5 compared to Firefox 4 beta 7 and Chrome 8 beta.

The new platform preview brings three three new benchmark tests, including Galactic, HTML5 Sudoku, and Shakespeare’s Tag Cloud.

Microsoft also announced that since the launch of Internet Explorer 9 beta, it has seen over 13 million downloads. You can download IE9 Platform Preview 7 from testdrive.com.

Microsoft Sues Motorola Over Android Phones

Microsoft filed patent infringement complaints against Motorola and its Android phones in the International Trade Commission and U.S. federal court Friday, indicating that the software giant may hope to use its strong patent position as one way to set its mobile software apart from the competition.

Microsoft said that Motorola's Android phones infringe nine patents, including some that would appear to threaten most smartphone platforms. Android is the open source OS built by Microsoft rival Google.

The patents appear to include some related to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which syncs e-mail, calendar and contacts between a mobile phone and a software-based computer program, according to a blog post written by Horacio Gutierrez, general counsel at Microsoft.

Other patents involve technology that displays signal strength and battery power on phones.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 Released - Download Now


Microsoft has released the final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011.

As we exclusively revealed earlier today, the software giant has released the final edition to the web.
The complete package comes just over a month after a beta refresh was issued on August 17. Microsoft originally released a Windows Live Essentials beta on June 24. Essentials includes the popular programs Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail, Messenger, Writer, Sync, and Family Safety. The Windows Live team has aimed to ensure that the next version of Windows Live Essentials takes advantage of Windows 7 fully. All applications now use the new ribbon UI and integrate further into Windows 7 by using Jumplists. Windows Live Sync is also included which keeps your files synchronized on the web and across multiple PCs.

Microsoft also introduced several new features for Windows Live Photo Gallery, including photo fusing to blend photos together and improved facial recognition.

Download: Windows Live Essentials 2011
Download: Windows Live Essentials 2011 Offline installer

iPhone Losing Market Share To Android


A new poll says that during the last 90 days, as many consumers have decided they want Google’s Android phone as want Apple’s iPhone. And this trend may just be an appetizer.

DailyTech reported that research company ChangeWave conducted a pair of surveys, one in June 2010 and the other last month in September, and compared the results. In the June survey, 50 percent of people who said they were in the market for a smartphone said they preferred an iPhone, with 30 percent opting for Android.

Just three months later – a period which included the June 24 launch of the iPhone 4 – Apple’s serious lead was seriously diminished. The September survey has only 38 percent of consumers looking to iPhone, a substantial 12-percentage-point drop. Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) has surged up seven points and now is nearly tied with the iPhone at 37 percent.

Bing To Integrate Facebook Features in Search Engine Soon

You may start seeing some familiar faces in Bing search results soon.

Microsoft deepened its corporate friendship with Facebook Wednesday, announcing tighter integration with the social network into Bing's search results.

Bing will display data from Facebook, such as user profiles and pages your friends have "Liked," to complement Web searches.
For example, if you search Bing for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 26-year-old chief executive, you might find a link to his personal profile, with buttons for sending him a message or adding him as a friend. That's in addition to the standard links to Wikipedia articles and news stories.

A link on that same results page to the website for "The Social Network" could show pictures of your friends who have inidicated on Facebook that they "Like" that movie.

The new Bing features will also show up in searches made from Facebook's website.

Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi was unambiguous about his excitement for the Facebook partnership.
"This is going to profoundly change how we search," Mehdi, the company's senior vice president for its online audience business, said at the news conference.

Last week Yahoo added new features to its search results pages, which are powered by Bing. In addition to slideshow enhancements and a new shortcuts feature, Yahoo began pulling in some photo albums from Facebook.

Despite advancements by rival search engines, market leader Google continues to gain.

Google was used for 66 percent of internet searches in September, according to market research firm comScore. During that period Yahoo had 17 percent and Bing had 11 percent, the report said.

But Google has struggled to form partnerships with Facebook. The search giant says it wants to tap into the social network's 500 million users.

MySpace Leak User Data With Advertisers


As we know MySpace is one of the promising Social Networking website like facebook. But it has been observed and reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday that sister News Corp. property MySpace has been giving advertising companies data that could identify members of the social networking service.

MySpace and some third-party applications popular at the online community transmitted unique ID numbers that could be used to find profile pages that could contain names, pictures, gender, and more about a person, the Journal reported.

"Knowledge of a public user ID does not give anyone access to private user data," a MySpace spokesman said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"We share non-personally identifiable information with advertising companies as part of our ad serving process."

MySpace maintained that its terms of service prohibit third-party developers from sharing any user data, including public ID numbers.

"It has recently come to our attention that several third party app developers may have violated these terms and we are taking appropriate action against those developers," the spokesman said.
Actions taken "regularly" to enforce terms of use at the online community include suspending or removing offending applications, according to MySpace.

Social networking king Facebook on Thursday said it planned to start encrypting user identification data that had been inadvertently leaking out through games and other outside applications synched to profile pages.

The move came just days after a Wall Street Journal article exposed the problem, making no mention of the situation at MySpace.

Amazon Music Sale: 1.99$ MP3 Album Now

Looking for latest Music Albums? Now you can load your iPod with some new music tunes in cheap price. Amazon now offering their customers to get MP3 Album in just $1.99 for all your favorite Bands and Singers.

Now you can get following popular Music Albums in just $1.99 each.
At least some of these (including John Mayer and Pink Floyd) are on sale today only, but they'll be replaced tomorrow with at least five more $1.99 albums.

So, how can you score one for free? Turns out the Get $6 in MP3 Downloads deal I mentioned the other day is still running. You can apply that $3 credit to any of these albums--and still have a buck left over!

Note: Sorry! This Offer of 1.99$ MP3 Album has been ended, But you can still get your favorite Discounted MP3 Music Album from Amazon Store! Happy Listening!

You can also get 6$ MP3 Music Album from here!

Bing's HTML 5 Browsing and Animation


Amongst all of the excitement with the launch of Internet Explorer 9 today, the Bing team made another presentation with the introduction of Bing in HTML5.

The updated search engine will answer back at Google’s instant search results with their very own kind of search improvements, including taking the power of HTML5 and introducing it into their home page.

The new improvements will allow for an animated home page using the Canvas HTML5 tag. Bing demonstrated an animated beach home page, where the water crashes onto the beach, all without the use of additional plug-ins or video.

We also showed off a preview video of the new Bing home page last week, with smooth transitions from the search page, to your actual results, all without reloading the page.

The video below shows just how the new Bing.com will work, with animated home pages, smooth transitions between the home page and your results, including hovering over tabs to show off content, to animated weather.

The new updated home page is expected to preview in a month, and expected to replace the existing home page within the next few months.

Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 Smartphone Review

After the huge success of Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000, Samsung is again introducing its yet another Windows Phone 7 based Smartphone Samsung I8700 Omnia 7, Which experts think is Samsung one of the finest made Smartphone ever.

With the Galaxy smart phone doing great business and the Galaxy Tab tablet out later this year, Samsung's invasion of the touch screen market is well and truly underway. But it's not only the Android operating system that's tickling the South Korean tech giant's toes; the Omnia 7 GT-i8700 is the company's first handset to run Microsoft's shiny new Windows Phone 7 operating system.
Blockhead
The Omnia 7 sports a pleasing square design. The edges are rounded, though, so the phone won't slice through any major arteries as it sits in your pocket. It feels quite large, but that's to be expected with the 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen this bad boy boasts. Samsung has done a good job of bringing the edge of the screen right up to the edge of the device, so there's no wasted space.

The phone feels pleasingly light. While that's often a sign of compromised build quality, it doesn't seem to be the case with the Omnia 7.

Super screen
That display has a resolution of 800x480 pixels, and it's rather spiffy. Super AMOLED displays are always divisive -- some people think they look too garish and bright. That's something you'll have to make up your own mind about.

One of the Omnia 7's most interesting features is a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 processor. It should give the phone plenty of speed, and, indeed, we noticed the Windows Phone 7 interface moving extremely swiftly and fluidly. This processor will also come in handy when playing games, for example.

Around the back, you'll find a 5-megapixel camera, which, as well as handling your snaps, is capable of shooting 720p video footage. These kinds of specs are par for the course when it comes to high-end smart phones these days.

Outlook
The Windows Phone 7 operating system looks really cool, and the Samsung Omnia 7 GT-i8700 looks like a tasty piece of kit. If we have any early complaints, it's that there doesn't seem to be much that distinguishes the Omnia 7 from the rest of the pack.

Check this Video for Samsung I8700 Omnia 7 UI Demo

Amazon Offering Free Kindle E-Books Gift

World's Larget online retailer and seller Amazon is now offering you a chance to take Amazon Kindle E-Books for free as a gift from company.

Before, customers could only give gift certificates to cover the cost of an e-book.
Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 6" Display, White - 2nd Generation
Click Image for more info!

To receive a Kindle e-book gift, the recipient only needs an e-mail address, not necessarily a Kindle e-reader. Although the e-reader starts at $139 for a version that can wirelessly download content over Wi-Fi, Amazon also offers a number of free applications that can be used to read Kindle books on gadgets such as laptops, tablet computers and smart phones.


Amazon also reiterated that millions are reading Kindle books on the dedicated e-reader and on free apps. This still doesn't give an indication of how many people have bought the Kindle — something which the Seattle-based company has never given precise details about.

There are currently more than 725,000 books in Amazon's Kindle Store.


Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally - Latest Generation

IE 9 Doesn't Require 7 SP1

Update: Microsoft reached out to us via email saying that IE9 will run on either Windows 7 RTM or Service Pack 1. It seems like IE9 could come out earlier than next year, and won’t actually require SP1 to work;
I want to follow up to let you know that the TechNet FAQ has been updated to provide further clarification about requirements for Internet Explorer 9.  Internet Explorer 9 will work on Windows 7 RTW and Windows 7 SP1.  When you install Internet Explorer 9 on a system that has Windows 7 RTM installed, additional operating system components are included as part of the installation of Internet Explorer 9.  Those “additional operating system components” will be part of Windows 7 SP1.  Either way, this will be a seamless process for the user.  Just wanted to make sure you had the latest.


Microsoft continues to push that it’s not essential for businesses to wait for SP1 and IE9, but to deploy now and roll out these updates later, when they are released. Microsoft explained on The Windows Blog why users shouldn’t wait for SP1 or IE9 to upgrade.

This gives an estimate of when a final IE9 release is expected, since Windows 7 SP1 isn’t due out until some time in the first half of 2011, but no specific date has been announced. A beta of Service Pack 1 is currently available.

Microsoft To Open Big Store Like Apple


Microsoft is planning on opening up a mega-sized store in Mall of America later this year, and not only will this be their biggest store yet, they plan on opening it directly across from an Apple store. For Microsoft to compete against Apple’s 300+ stores across the world, they need to pull out the big guns for this head-to-head battle.

This will be the fifth Microsoft Store to launch in America, with two already in California, one in Colorado and another in Arizona. Apple already has five stores in Minnesota alone, so this surreal showdown directly across from one another at Mall of America will be interesting.

Twincities.com managed to get some images from within Mall of America, showing where the new Microsoft Store locations will be, and just the scale of how large it will be. Just the sheer size of the
Microsoft Store in Mall of America dwarfs the competition.
It looks as if Microsoft plans on putting their best foot forward with this new store location, showing off their new electronics like the Xbox 360 slim, Kinect and Windows Phone 7. The Microsoft Stores carry all their electronics and hardware, including the Zune HD, Windows 7, Office 2010, and many, more products.

One user has posted a video of the new Microsoft Store location on YouTube:

Windows Live Space Powered by WordPress Now

Rather than continuing to push its currently limited blogging platform, Spaces, Microsoft has partnered with Automattic to provide WordPress.com blogs to all Live Spaces users.

Craving expandability and better spam protection, the Live team chose WordPress as its ideal platform partner due to WordPress’ impressive track record. Powering 8.5% of the web, almost 26 million sites, WordPress and WordPress.com serve over 250 million unique visitors every month. By developing this partnership, Microsoft has not only provided a solid service to their users but also has gained a large share of the personal blogging space.
Utilizing Messenger Connect, WordPress.com is changing as well. All blogs can be linked to a Live account, serving updates and media to the users’ news feed for full Messenger integration. This will not affect current RSS feed sharing, yet adds another avenue for connectivity.
If new Windows Live users, or those with out a blog, choose to create one, they will automatically be redirected to the cross-branded WordPress.com/Windows Live site. A new blog will be created like normal, but just as migrated pages, will be linked to the user’s Live account..

By choosing an established platform rather than attempting to develop their own, Microsoft has made a smart move, both financially and from the users’ standpoint. Many Spaces users may be familiar with WordPress already, and if they aren’t, it provides an avenue to learn and expand into a very robust platform. Also, by integrating WordPress.com’s currently impressive userbase, Microsoft will gain significantly from the potential increase in advertising revenue. This looks to be a win for all parties involved.

Microsoft Launches "Cloud" Version of Office

Microsoft Corp launched a fully online version of its popular Office suite of applications on Tuesday as it looks to extend its customer base and beat back rival Google Inc.

The new service, called Office 365, is available as a limited test from Tuesday, and will be on sale on a subscription basis worldwide next year.

Combining some of Microsoft's existing cloud-based services, it will be available through most browsers and on mobile devices.

That means customers can get access to Office programs like Outlook e-mail and SharePoint websites without installing software, from virtually anywhere.

The move strikes a blow against rival Google, which has had some success with its Google Apps service, which provides a low-cost, Web-based alternative to Microsoft's traditional Office software.

Shares of Microsoft were down 2.7 percent at $25.12 in morning trading, while Google fell 1.1 percent to $610.95.

Microsoft is doubling down on its commitment to the cloud with the launch of Office 365, a service that combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online with the cloud.

Announced at a press event in San Francisco by Kurt DelBane, president of Microsoft's office division, Office 365 is a subscription service that integrates cloud-based syncing, collaboration, and accessibility to businesses and organizations worldwide. So long as a device supports ActiveSync, customers can access their e-mail, calendars, team websites and office web apps from anywhere. The inclusion of Lync also means that Office 365 has videoconferencing capabilities.

There are two editions of Office 365. Office 365 for Small Businesses is designed for organizations of one to 25 people. It's a pre-built package that includes Office Web Apps, Lync, e-mail sync, and more. It doesn't require IT support on the user's end and will cost $6 per user per month.

The second version is Office 365 for Enterprises. Unlike the small business version, the enterprise edition can be customized based on an organization's needs. It can be customized so different teams have different access levels to Office 365's features. The enterprise edition comes with everything in the small business version, plus single sign-in, Office Pro Plus (via subscription), internal social networking tools, voicemail in the inbox, and more. It costs anywhere between $2 to $27 per user per month, depending on which features the company chooses to utilize.

The beta will be available to a few thousand organizations starting today; its full launch will occur sometime next year in 40 countries. Sometime in late 2011, Office 365 will add Microsoft Dynamics CRM to its suite of products.

Microsoft is extraordinarily bullish on the cloud. DelBane said that the company believes the cloud is as radical of an innovation as the graphical user interface. Office 365 just makes sense though; the rising demand for enterprise-level cloud apps like Dropbox and Box.net is due to its ability to help teams collaborate and coordinate their efforts.

United States World's Top Spammers

The United States is now the top source of spam, accounting for almost 19 percent of all junk e-mail sent throughout the world, according to a new report out today from Sophos.

The security firm's "Dirty Dozen" report highlighted the top 12 countries responsible for the world's supply of spam during the third quarter. With the United States generating almost 2.5 times more spam than second-place India, the country now accounts for almost one in five junk messages. The United States' 18.6 percent share of all global spam also showed a significant jump from its 15.2 percent share in the second quarter.
Click To Enlarge Image!
Among the other top sources of spam, according to Sophos, are India with 7.6 percent of all global junk mail, Brazil with 5.7 percent, France with 5.4 percent, and the U.K. with 5 percent.

The report also highlighted the growth in spam from social-networking sites over the third quarter. Last month, Twitter users were hit by a "MouseOver" exploit that redirected them to third-party spam sites if they simply hovered over a link in a tweet. And over the summer, Facebook users faced their own scams, ones that attempted to trick them into filling out bogus surveys, with the information then used to spam their friends.

Much of the spam now being generated around the world isn't coming from the spammers themselves but from botnets, networks of infected computers directed to send junk mail to other unsuspecting users.

"You should never even be tempted to open a spam message out of curiosity, as it can only take a second to effectively hand over control of your computer to the spammers," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, explained in a statement. "If your computer does become part of a botnet, you're also inviting further malware infections, which may compromise your personal or banking information."

Beware of Google TV Hackers

Users Should aware of Google TV Hackers because like Apple TV, Google's new TV platform is getting the attention of hackers: AndroidForums user Apeman made an attempt to root his Google-powered Sony Blu-ray player.

The video above shows how Apeman managed to get into the player's Recovery Menu by holding down the Power button. Note the System Update with USB there. This might allow hackers to gain root access to the Android-based Google TV OS, and potentially install apps onto it before Google launches the Android Market for Google TV next year.

Members on various Android and developer forums are currently debating all the cool apps and other custom hacks that could come into being if this hack works--imagine playing Angry Birds on your TV screen.

Windows Phone 7 Is Real Facebook Phone

When Microsoft and Facebook announced that they were partnering to integrate Facebook and Bing for social network-powered search, it confirmed something I thought Monday: Windows Phone 7 is the real Facebook phone.

I don't know whether Facebook has a secret team working on a phone where they control the OS. But the company don't need one. It's already deeply integrated into Android and iOS. Now with the Microsoft partnership, it's tied to the most socially optimized smartphone ever brought to the market.

"This is, I think, one of the most exciting partnerships we've done on the platform so far," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the Bing announcement Wednesday. "Our view is that over the next five years we expect that almost every industry is going to be disrupted by someone building a great product that's deep in whatever area that industry is, plus is extremely socially integrated."

The first Windows Phone 7 handsets are due in stores November. The OS is Microsoft's complete do-over on mobile, after its predecessor Windows Mobile tanked in popularity and market share in the wake of more consumer-savvy handsets such as Apple's iPhone and Google's Android-powered smartphones.

Every aspect of Windows Phone 7 is geared to social networks: phone, contacts, gaming, photos, even Office. Focusing the phone around Hubs doesn't just mean that local client apps and cloud apps are grouped next to each other. It means that the local client and cloud work together.

Microsoft tried to explicitly build a social networking phone featuring Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace with the Kin. The Kin failed and was killed by Microsoft, mostly because it wasn't a full-featured smartphone (it was a fork of Windows Phone 7), but required a smartphone's data plan.

Facebook Vs. Orkut Battle


As we know facebook is now become one of the most popular social networking websites amongst people and now every social network wants to connect like facebook and accept the existence of facebook in Social Network arena. So now Facebook wants to get more success in Brazil and India where Orkut is still popular amongst users.

Facebook is now allowing Orkut users only to link their account to Facebook. Some reports suggest that this is available only for Orkut users in Brazil and India but that’s not evident from the “Link Your Facebook Profile With Orkut” page. This means they can use Facebook to update Orkut, allowing them to keep in touch with their friends on Orkut but giving Facebook the bulk of their time and attention. As Ryan Kim at GigaOm puts it, “it’s basically an invitation to jump ship”.

Google launched Orkut, named for one of its engineers, in 2004. It was the dominant social networking site in India for a long time, until it was overtaken by Facebook earlier this year, and it remains number-one in Brazil. However, Facebook is growing faster than Orkut in both countries.

Reportedly, Facebook started offering the integration tool without any cooperation from Orkut or Google. I think the assessment that it benefits Facebook more than Orkut is probably correct, though it also potentially means the users left behind on Orkut have less reason to move. I’ve never used Orkut but I understand it offers a slightly different set of features to Facebook.

Microsoft Docs Support Facebook Groups Now


As we mentioned before that Microsoft soon going to integrate Facebook Group in its upcoming Microsoft Docs. Until now, sharing a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF document with other FB users implied doing it individually or choosing every recipient one by one. Not anymore. With the new Facebook Groups integration you can now share a document with a pre-arranged group of peoples.

Unlike Office Web Apps, Docs.com enhances their service with several social networking features. When you share doc, this will post on the Group’s wall via Facebook’s newsfeed, and it will show up on each member’s indivdual wall too. People can also comment on the document on the post or beside the document itself. The coolest thing about this is that you don’t have to have Microsoft Office installed in your computer to use this application. Simply use Microsoft Office Web Apps via Docs and you’re set.

Auto Refresher Tool for Chrome Web Browser


If you are fed up with your browser hanging problem or slow connection and you continuously press F5 to refresh your web page to load it fast. Now your problem is getting solved by Google Chrome auto refresher tool. Now you can use this tool to refresh your browser without any hesitation of pressing F5 or clicking your mouse continuously.

A click on the Start button initiates the process, and the extension will from that moment on refresh the page in the given interval. It will continue to do so even if the tab becomes inactive. Users can switch to other tabs to continue their web browsing session without having to worry about refreshing the selected tab manually.

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