Samsung and LG unveil new and cool LED-backlit HDTVs
Aug 4th
LED-backlit is said to be a short-term target for HDTVs until OLED technology become commercially available. These OLEDs are priced too high for most consumers same as the LCDs with 120Hz refresh rates were a couple of years ago.
LG’s new sets along with the new LED model are under discussion these days. That is because the company has eliminated so much of the bezel that it can now advertise an “edge-to-edge” screen. The previous SL80 series with 150,000:1 contrast ratio and LG’s TruMotion 240Hz technology are included in backlit series. The SL90 series is the LED version, with a depth of 1.15 inches. LG has released no details about this model. Even no pricing or availability information is provided yet.
On the other hand, Samsung have these details for its new 8500 LED series, which consist of two models arriving in September. The Samsung 8500 LED series boasts a 7,000,000:1 ratio while offering a 2ms response time and 240Hz refresh rate. This set also include Samsung’s Internet@TV – Content Service, which makes use of the Yahoo Widget platform for networked content like weather/sports updates, Twitter, YouTube and so on. Also it let users stream media from the PCs on your home network to the TC using Ethernet connection in Medi@2.0. The prices are $3,599.99 for the 46 inch UN46B8500 and for the $4,499.99 55-inch UN55B8500.
Looks like LG is getting late in rolling out details about its products which will verily affect LG’s products market in long run.
Twitter attracts 44.5 million global users in June
Aug 4th
As I write this news, I am still amazed by what I am going to share with you guys. Without any further delays here it goes. Around 44.5 million people visited Twitter during the month of June. ComScore has come up with these interesting statistics that led to this amazing news. This means that Twitter recorded a 19 percent growth from the month of May 2009. You might be surprised to know that Twitter managed to increase its global reach by 1,460 percent as compared to June 2008 when only 2.9 million people around the world used Twitter.
Around 20 million visitors of Twitter come from America. This means that Twitter’s worldwide audience is about 55 percent and is set to increase even more. ComScore ranks Twitter as the 52nd largest site in the world. Twitter is above ESPN and just behind BBC. The data provided by ComScore only counted traffic or those users that visited traffic. Since a large number of Twitter users use Twitter apps to publish tweets, it can be said that Twitter’s audience is larger than you may think. ComScore just provides a consistent measure and metric of the growth of the most popular microblogging network.
Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5.2: A security and stabiliy update
Aug 4th
Mozilla on Monday, 3rd August, 2009 at 3:03 PM released a security and stability update for Firefox 3.5.x users. The latest security and stability version Firefox 3.5.2 is now available for Firefox 3.5.x users. This version represent’s Mozilla’s effort to provide secure and stable browsing experience to its users. The latest version is available for users of Windows, Mac and Linux.
So what are the various changes that this latest version brings to you. Well as you can expect it fixes several security issues. The latest fixed security vulnerabilities are:
Security Fixes
- MFSA 2009-46 Chrome privilege escalation due to incorrectly cached wrapper
- MFSA 2009-45 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.9.1.2/1.9.0.13)
- MFSA 2009-44 Location bar and SSL indicator spoofing via window.open() on invalid URL
- MFSA 2009-43 Heap overflow in certificate regexp parsing
- MFSA 2009-42 Compromise of SSL-protected communication
- MFSA 2009-38 Data corruption with SOCKS5 reply containing DNS name longer than 15 characters
Image Rendering Issue
- Images with ICC profiles now render properly on all monitors.
Bugs Fixed
In totality, 70 bugs have been fixed. You can get the complete list at Bugzilla The bugs (which have been fixed thankfully) which are worth mentioning are:
- Download Manager treats search terms as regular expressions
- Entering Private Browsing mode prohibits keyboard focus on URL location bar
- Importing passwords to mozstorage can fail when signons3.txt is corrupted.
- Firefox needs to register the proper name with session management for restart.
- Very slow startup for Firefox 3.5 due to accessing IE Internet Temporary Files and Windows Temp folder.
- [Mac] Alltabs dropdown lacks scroll arrows
Since this release is more of a security release, it is advised and recommended to get your hands on it as soon as possible. The browser will automatically prompt you for the automatic update in the upcoming 24-48 hours. Only those users who have Firefox 3.5 installed will be prompted for an automatic update. You can always get the update yourself by moving to the Help menu and selecting the Check for Updates option. The link for downloading the latest version is given below
Here comes WordPress 2.8.3
Aug 4th
Well, here you go again. WordPress has released version 2.8.3 of WordPress. This latest releases comes out as a security release. It fixes all those issues which were missed by Ryan Boren when he was tweaking and fixing the privilege escalation issues for 2.8.1. The areas which needed improvement were identified by the ever valuable WordPress community. Since the nature of the release is related to security, it is well advised and would be a smart thing to get your hands on the latest version in order to protect your blog. Ryan Boren announced this news in the following manner:
Unfortunately, I missed some places when fixing the privilege escalation issues for 2.8.1. Luckily, the entire WordPress community has our backs. Several folks in the community dug deeper and discovered areas that were overlooked. With their help, the remaining issues are fixed in 2.8.3. Since this is a security release, upgrading is highly recommended.
To get your hands on the latest release, you can either Download WordPress 2.8.3 or you may go for upgrading automatically from your admin.
Eric Schmidt steps down from Apple’s board of directors
Aug 3rd
Ever since Google CEO, Eric Schmidt became part of Apple‘s board of directors, many have voiced their concerns over this matter as it creates conflict of interests since Apple and Google come out as competitor to each other. Google’s Android is directly a competitor to Apple’s iPhone. And with Google’s very own operating system Chrome OS coming soon the competition will be getting tougher.
Apple has been under much pressure due to its rather suspicious rejection of Google Voice and the FCC’s order to respond to an inquiry letter. As you can imagine, the pressure on Schmidt would have increased even more, and as a result, the CEO of search engine giant has decided to step down from the Apple’s board of directors. This news was reported on Apple’s website as a press release in the following manner:
Apple® today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple’s Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.
Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.
Bing gains 1 percent more in US search market
Aug 3rd
Microsoft‘s latest search engine sensation Bing keeps on gradually gaining ground in the U.S. search market. Bing has managed to increase its share in the US search market by 1 percent for the month of July. Bing alongwith its new search partner Yahoo takes its combined share to 20.36 percent.
Our old and reliable friend StatCounter once agains revealed the statistics which we will be sharing with you guys. According to StatCounter, Bing managed to secure 9.41 percent of U.S market search in July compared to 8.23 percent for the month of June. Interestingly Google’s share slipped from 78.48 percent to 77.54 percent. StatCounter believes that with the recent signing of deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, both the parties have to come up with something big to give a fight to Google. StatCounter stated:
Bing continues to make slow but steady progress but the combined Yahoo figures suggest that the deal announced last week will have to demonstrate major future synergies if it is to make any dent in Google’s dominance.
It would be interesting to note that even at the global level, Google’s share dropped from 89.80 percent in the month of June to 89.23 percent for the last month (July).
It would be interesting to know how is Bing performing at the global, but the current statistics do suggest one thing Bing is gaining ground in the U.S. search market, the pace at which it is gaining is another thing. However Microsoft might like to see Bing gain ground at a faster pace.
Going Google : An ad campaign by Google to compete with Microsoft
Aug 3rd
Google starting from today will be launching a campaign by the name Going Google. This campaign is in no way a chance for you to visit Google’s headquarters and get a chance to look at the amazing setup they have. Instead Going Google is an ad campaign by Google through which it attempts to challenge Microsoft and take away its market share. In the about to be launched campaign, Google will be placing billboards in NewYork, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco with the target of encouraging IT managers to switch from Microsoft products to Google Apps.
The billboards are expected to run for a month and will change every single day. Each day, they will explain the advantages that Google Apps suite has to offer. The billboards will be displayedhe Mass Pike in Boston, San Francisco’s 101, New York’s West Side Highway and The Ike in Chicago. The ads will invite and attract the viewers to switch to the Apps at Work Site which says:
Thousands of companies are going Google by switching to Google Apps — a web-based suite of messaging and collaboration applications. It’s all hosted by Google, and designed with security and reliability in mind, saving your company the frustrations and hassles of managing traditional IT solutions yourself. Find out how others have switched from Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes to Google Apps
Should be Microsoft worried about this campaign?. I might be wrong but in my opinion it should not at the current stage be wary of this campaign. Take for the example the rich in features product of Office suite Microsoft Word, would you be interested in leaving Microsoft Word and going for the Word version offered by Google Docs?. So what do you say. Do share your thoughts with us.
The unheard laws of PC you need to know
Aug 3rd
I was just going through my routine surfing activity when I came across this link. I enjoyed what I got to see and read. So I thought of sharing it with you guys as well. The laws stated below were written on the basis of experience and are related to a person’s experience while using a PC. After going through these laws, you might agree with some or even all of them. So, without any further delay the laws are stated below:
- Law 1: For every fix that a Windows Update patches, the update will break two more things on your PC. –Darren Gladstone, PC World
- Law 2: The likelihood that Windows will automatically install time-sucking critical updates is directly proportional to your need to get your PC started. –Steve Fox, PC World
- Law 3: The hard drive always fails just before you were going to back it up. –Denise Paolucci, Dreamwidth Studios via Help A Reporter Out (HARO)
- Law 4: Your data will get corrupted just before you plug in your new backup external drive. –Darren Gladstone, PC World
- Law 5: Your backup plan is only as good as your last successful restore. –Michael Fisher, ElephantDrive.com via HARO
- Law 6: The number of USB ports on your Mac will always be one less than you need at any given time. –Blair Hanley Frank, Macworld
- Law 7: Feeling time pressure to make a computer fix quickly will cause you to take longer. –David Marshak, via PC World Facebook page
- Law 8: If you close the PC case with screws before testing, it won’t work; If you test before closing, it will. –Harry Liebman via HARO
Demonstration of Windows Phone mobile OS
Aug 3rd
Most recently Microsoft has given an exclusive demo of the final version of the new Windows Phone operating system, by running it on a touch screen HTC Touch Diamond2.
A video of that demonstration of the final version of the Windows Phone OS, previously known as Windows Mobile 6.5.
In this demo complete redesign of OS user interface is shown, and its Zune-esque look and feel. It has been seen fir the first time that Microsoft’s new 24-bit menu icons for accessing all of the Windows Phone applications.
These icons replace the standard folder view seen after pressing the Start button on the current version of the Windows Mobile OS.
Microsoft also demonstrated the Market Place for Windows Phone. This is the online software application repository for the Windows Phone, and is much much much like Apple’s Itunes App Store.
And yes once again it appeared for the first time are the new My Phone synchronization features of the Windows Phone OS, with which the mobile’s contents can all be backed-up to the cloud via a Windows Live account.
The My Phone PC client software can also remotely wipe the handset if it is lost or stolen and can download all the SMS, emails and contacts to a replacement mobile.
One thing is still missing from Windows Phone is the multi-touch ability of the iPhone.
It has been told that the Windows Phone OS will arrive before Christmas, most probably around the same time as the Vole’s public release of the Windows 7 operating system which is on October 22.
AT&T denies any involvement in Apple’s App rejection
Aug 2nd
Yesterday we shared with you FCC’s decision to query both AT&T and Apple regarding the rejection of Google Voice. Since Apple rejected the Google Voice app, there was always speculation as to whether AT&T had a hand in this decision or not. Well AT&T has responded in that regard. In a statement AT&T claimed that they are not in anyway involved in evaluating application of App store for rejection or approval. AT&T said that they will be responding to FCC’s letter without any doubts. AT&T said:
AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.
But there is some confusion when you consider this fact: Apple & AT&T have an agreement which states how the phone will use the network. For example approving every video streaming app for instance has a major impact on AT&T. While it may be true that AT&T did not ask Apple to reject Google Voice directly, this is no way rules out the possibility that the agreement did not force Apple to make this decision which Apple might have to rue eventually. Things will become more clearer once one gains insight into the agreement held between both the parties.
