Onlin [e] Guid [e]

A (very) quick look back at the Google story over the last 11 years. From Stanford to Mountain View and around the world, featuring many different products, starting with BackRub (Search) up to Google Wave, StreetView and Chrome.

Turns out by the time Sony went official with its inaugural VAIO W netbook, it was already old news to the Chinese KIRF market. The "VAIO" pictured above apparently came out some time in mid-June and does a laudable job of honoring the actual one's chassis, although the keyboard is more traditional than Sony's isolated / chiclet stylings. Throw in a 10.2-inch LED display, 1.6GHz Atom processor, integrated graphics, a 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, and decently convincing packaging and you'd be liable to think you went through a time warp spotting this in Shenzhen. It's got a pretty sizable head start on the legit version, but something tells us this particular model won't be trying its luck elsewhere in the world.

You haven't forgotten about that BlackBerry Storm 2, have you? The Boy Genius Report is claiming it's gotten device specs for RIM's touchscreen-centric maven, also reportedly called the 9550, and while not surprising (and not confirmed), according to his source the CDMA device will be sporting 802.11b/g (which we already sort of knew), a 3.2 megapixel camera, 360 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, and BlackBerry OS 5.0. If that's not enough, the site's also saying a GSM version of the original, with 3G in tow, does exist as the 9520 and is possibly on track for release soon on AT&T and Rogers. All nice fodder for dreams, but we're not getting our hopes up until something more official rears its SurePress-laden head.

If you've had you eye on the Tour, we bet you didn't forget they were going on sale today -- but just in case you had, consider this your official reminder. Both carriers are now offering RIM's latest and greatest CDMA BlackBerry for $199.99 on contract, so you're probably not going to see a lot of defections between carriers this time around. Pardon us if we don't shed a tear for the lack of exclusivity on this one.
Read - Sprint
Read - Verizon

Google today announced the Chrome OS (operating system) for desktops and notebooks throwing a direct challenge to Microsoft's Windows operating system family. This Linux kernel based operating systems has its roots in Google's Chrome browser and is different from Android. Google will be launching the Chrome OS for netbooks in second half of 2010.

Basically, Google Chrome OS is intended for those who would want to carry out their regular computing needs via the Internet; it will be designed for ultra portable netbooks as well as full-size desktop systems. This means, the Chrome OS will run on x86 and ARM processors based systems. Google pleads to not confuse the Chrome OS with Android. The Android OS has been designed to work on a variety of devices and platforms like from smartphones to set top boxes.
Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director at Google, stated in a blog post that 'there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google'.
Google Chrome OS's architecture is based on Google Chrome running on the top of Linux kernel. This operating system will use Web as the platform, therefore all the existing web-based applications will automatically work. New applications would be written using the current generation web technologies. Key aspects of the Chrome OS would be speed, simplicity and security.
Google is designing this OS to be faster to boot, and to be able to connect the user to Web within seconds of its start up. Just like Google's Chrome browser was treated for security, the Chrome OS will get the same security treatment by the redesigning basic OS architecture.
Chrome OS is a smart step by Google since Android doesn't run on x86 processor architecture, though ports do exist. Hence, Google touts that Chrome OS is all about the Web, making the OS experience faster, lighter and free from any sort of malware, viruses and security updates. Google plans to release Chrome OS for netbooks in second half of 2010. Till then, the Chrome OS's alpha versions will be tried and tested on various grounds that include processing, connectivity, stability, security and more.

A research firm Generator Research in a recently published report has confirmed Nokia's worst fears. At current rates of growth, the iPhone is likely to challenge Nokia's dominant position in the smartphones sector and possibly overtake it by 2012 - just three years from now. The research predicts that Nokia will lose its market share and will drop to 20% from its current 40% share.

The report backs up its predictions stating quite a few reasons for the iPhone's increasing dominance. These include the affordability of the device and the increased chances of its availability on other networks.
That said, other manufacturers and factors seem to have been not taken into account whilst generating this report. For example, the effect of other players in the smartphone arena, like RIM, Android OS, Windows Mobile and even the upcoming Symbian Open Source OS are bound to have a say in the war that decides the outcome of this battle by the year 2012.

Now that Google Chrome OS has been announced, the partners who would be working with Google have also been declared. Of the many players in the technology space, Google has chosen Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments as Chrome OS supporting partners.

It's a bit surprising that Google managed to rope in four major PC makers, which include Acer, HP, Asus and Lenovo but left out Dell.
The Chrome OS is an open source project and will be available and accessible to all for free. Well, we already have a Linux-kernel based Ubuntu for free, but that's a different story.
Following the Chrome OS announcement, Google's VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director, Sundar Pichai wrote a short blog post on the official Google blog FAQ about the Google Chrome OS. In the post he mentioned that the OS would be open source and the source code would be publicly released later this year.

Genius, a provider of PC peripherals, has introduced two new digital tablets for designers and artists. The EasyPen i405 and MousePen i608 are dual platform tablets that work on both PCs as well as Macs.

The EasyPen i405 comes in a form factor of 4" x 5.5" while the MousePen i608 has a larger 8" x 6" working area, accompanied by a cordless scroll mouse. The EasyPen i405 has 28 programmable 'hot-keys', while the MousePen i608 has 29, that allow you to access common office and Internet functions at the click of a button. The cordless pen features 1024-level pressure sensitivity and two clickable buttons for controlling shapes and thickness while drawing or writing.

Both tablets can be used to write, draw, sketch and/or sign documents -- thereby saving on paper. Users also have the ability to edit their photos, make comments, personalize documents, etc. Creative professionals as well as first timers can use the digital tablets for drawing, illustrations, digital paintings, etc. without spending too much money.
These Genius Tablets aren't available in India yet. We're awaiting price and availability information from the company. Watch this space for updates!

Just a few days ago the Sony Ericsson 'Rachael' or the Xperia X5 was leaked to the world and some of the probable specs revealed. The phone was certainly impressive - at least the specs were.

Just two days later we have a video made public (along with a fresh set of pics) that shows an impressive Sony Ericsson UI running atop Android on what is seemingly an emulator (emulating the X5, of course).
Just to remind you, the 'Rachael' as this one has been codenamed boasts of a Snapdragon processor, an 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus, 7.2Mbps HSDPA and 3D graphics. I guess you should take a look at the video and judge for yourselves.

 

Hope this one comes without further delay and of course may it should be devoid of bugs right from the word go. We trust you on this Sony Ericsson!

Nokia has officially announced its latest "rugged" entry into the market in the form of the 3720 Classic, an IP-54 certified phone designed to resist water, dust and shock. The Nokia 3720 classic is encased in durable materials and is entirely sealed to protect the inner electronics.

The phone also boasts of a leak proof design that will protect the "insides" of the phone when subjected to extreme stress. Even the battery cover is locked with a screw enabling trouble free usage in muddy and dusty conditions. On the features front, the 3720 Classic sports a 2.2" display, expandable memory support and pre loaded Nokia maps software .There is an LED flashlight thrown in as well to help you out if you're stuck in some tunnel.

The Nokia 3720 is expected to retail for approximately EUR 125 (Rs. 8500) before subsidies or taxes and is expected to begin shipping this summer.

Kingmax, a manufacturer and supplier of DRAM and flash products, has announced the waterproof SD card with 16GB storage.

Based on Kingmax patent PIP technology, the new SD card is waterproof, dustproof and can perform in extreme weather conditions. The PIP technology has passed the waterproof test and receives IPX7 (equivalent to JIS waterproof grade 7) certificate from SGS. In addition, the unique packing technology safeguards the new SD card from piracy, claims the company.
Moreover, the card has built-in ECC (Error Correcting Code) to detect and correct transfer errors and supports CPRM (Contents Protection for Recordable Media) mechanism to ensure the licensed contents could be duplicated safely.
The new SD card also complies with RoHS, halogen free and PFOS/PFOA directives. Available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities, the card carries the global lifetime warranty. The 2GB card is priced at Rs. 1,370.

The government's much-hyped mobile number portability (MNP) plan has hit a roadblock. Minutes of the meeting on MNP, indicates that access service providers have indicated that MNP roll out in a phased manner is not feasible.
Other issues raised include:
- Problems in call routing and charging in the MNP scenario
- No pan-India readiness for MNP; and
- Difficult to meet the government set deadline for implementing MNP
There is also a technical clash between location routing numbers (LRNs) and STD codes in at least 200 sites.
Department of telecom (DoT), however, has asked all service providers to adhere to the timeline.
The government has set a time line for implementation of the first phase of MNP as September 2009.

First, it was the Obama inauguration and now live coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral which triggered the maximum traffic on Akamai.

Akamai received the second largest day ever in terms of total online traffic with the live coverage of the funeral services of Michael Jackson.
Akamai said it delivered more than 2,185,000 live and on-demand streams in Flash and Windows Media formats. Total traffic on the Akamai network surpassed a rate of more than 2 terabits per second during the memorial service.
The largest day on the Akamai network in terms of total traffic on its network was the Obama inauguration live streaming in January 2009.
Akamai also delivered 548 Gbps of live and on-demand Flash streams utilizing Adobe Flash technology.

Microsoft has rolled out Silverlight 3 with a lot of new stuff including the Smooth screening feature. Silverlight is a browser plugin that enables rich media experience, audio playback, vector graphics and animation. Silverlight 3 was released a day early, as it was supposed to be out officially on July 10. Currently, Silverlight 3 supports Internet Explorer 6/7/8, Firefox 2/3 and Safari 3/4 browsers - no support for Opera and Chrome browsers.

Microsoft's Silverlight is a direct rival of Adobe Flash and is available for download from Microsoft's Silverlight site.
This new Silverlight 3 RTW (3.0.40264.0) version brings along a number of features, including Smooth Screening, GPU hardware acceleration, H.264/AAC/MPEG-4 Video support, and out-of-the-browser experience without any additional plugin downloads. Thousands of other API features are enumerated by Tim Heuer, program manager for Microsoft Silverlight.  
Microsoft touts that Silverlight 3 brings streaming of high-definition video in full screen with stutter-free live and on-demand video. For a demo of Smooth Screening, head to this special link for checking out the Smooth Screening experience of playing HD video at any point of time, instantly. The third version will allow streaming of 720p HD content over the web with an ability to Pause and Rewind the video.
The GPU hardware acceleration support will allow this framework to make the best of the available graphics in the user's system. Apart from that, version 3 is a mash up of streaming video and offering Rich Internet Applications experiences. Developers would be able to create Silverlight based apps so that videos can be seen even if the browser is shut off.

By the time you’re ready to print a photo, chances are you have optimized the image by adjusting your camera settings before you snap and maybe even Photoshopped it afterward. Now you have a third line of defense against bad photos: Canon has announced three new printers with technology that it says can resolve common photo-printing flaws.

The company says its two new Pixma all-in-one (print/copy/scan) devices employ Auto Photo Fix II technology to correct errors through exposure correction and improvements in face detection and scene analysis, plus brightness and saturation correction. The new Pixma inkjets also include software that enables users to target and print a specific area of a Web page, rather than printing an entire page (or pages), an eco-friendly option that will result in paper and ink savings.

The $150 Pixma MP560 Wireless2 Photo AIO Printer has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and two-sided printing, another great way to conserve resources (although it will slow your print job). This new AIO Printer can print photos directly from a U.S.B. thumb drive, a new capability. (All the new Canon devices accept a wide variety of camera memory cards.) Canon says the Pixma MP560, which employs five inks, can deliver borderless 4-by-6-inch prints in about 39 seconds.

One step down is the $100 Pixma MP490 AIO Photo Printer, a four-ink system that can print a 4-by-6-inch photo about in 43 seconds. It lacks Wi-Fi connectivity but does include a U.S.B. slot for computer-less printing.

And for those who want to take a printer to the party, Canon has updated its Selphy line to include the $180 CP790 Compact Photo Printer. The CP790, like its predecessor, the CP770, comes in its own carrying “basket” (it looks more like a bucket, really) that houses the printer, as well as accessories like paper, ink cartridges and the power cord. Those who want to be truly mobile can also toss in an optional $80 battery.

Canon says the new Selphy yields better photos than last year’s model because of a new portrait-image optimization feature and face-detection brightness correction. The CP790 can output a 4-by-6-inch print in 43 seconds, according to the company.

The Selphy CP790 will be available this month, but you’ll have to wait until August for the new Pixma printers.

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has stolen a prominent Google lawyer.

The startup has hired Alexander Macgillivray, deputy general counsel for products and intellectual property at Google, to be its general counsel, according to a person with knowledge of the hiring.

Mr. Macgillivray has been an important member of the Google legal team, spearheading the controversial settlement with authors and book publishers over Google’s scanning of millions of out of-print library books. The settlement, if accepted by a federal judge, will clear the way for Google to make available online millions of historic books that would otherwise be difficult to access. The Justice Department has said it is inquiring into whether that settlement violates anti-trust laws.

Mr. Macgillivray, 36, has also represented Google in a wide variety of other matters, including Viacom’s copyright lawsuit against YouTube and complaints from the Associated Press that Google improperly used its content.

Before he joined Google, Macgillivray was with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the prominent Silicon Valley law firm.

Twitter’s legal issues, at least for now, revolve around issues of trademark and impersonation. Tony La Russa, St. Louis Cardinals manager, sued the company earlier this year, saying it did not do enough to prevent someone from falsely using the service in his name. He later dropped the suit.

Twitter is looking to expand its staff as it tries to evolve from online phenomenon to a money-making business. In addition to about a dozen engineering jobs that are listed on the site, the San Francisco startup has been interviewing possible candidates for the position of chief financial officer, according to a person familiar with the search.

The network attacks that severely disrupted several federal agency Web sites this week highlights the need for the government to quickly finish implementing its ongoing consolidation of Internet access points, the former de facto CIO of the federal government and others said today.

Multiple government Web sites, including that of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of the Treasury, were temporarily knocked out or slowed down earlier this week by a wave of distributed denial of service attacks.

The attacks were launched from a botnet believed to comprise of nearly 50,000 infected computers, and were designed to render Web sites inaccessible by inundating them with useless traffic.

Security researchers have described the attacks as being relatively unsophisticated. Even so, the attacks still managed to totally shut down the Web sites of the FTC and Department of Transportation for several hours over the weekend, according to statistics available from Internet monitoring firm Keynote Systems.

The most important lesson learned is that many federal agency security people did not know which network service provider connected their Web sites to the Internet, said Alan Paller, director of research the SANS Institute. "So they could not get the network service provider to filter traffic," Paller said.

The problem has to do with that federal agencies have more access points to the Internet than they know how to monitor or to manage, said Karen Evans, former de facto CIO of the federal government during the Bush administration.

An initiative called the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) program, which was launched in November 2007, is designed to tackle this issue by getting agencies to drastically reduce the number of individual external network connections, including those to the Internet.

Since the effort was launched, the number of access points across government has been reduced from more than 4,300 to about 2,750, per the last time data on the effort was publicly released in June 2008. The goal is to whittle that number down to about 80.

Instead of having each individual agency manage its own connections, the plan is to have a small group of TIC access providers offering centralized connectivity and gateway-monitoring services to a majority of civilian federal agencies. While 16 agencies will act as their own access providers, 121 others will have their connections managed via a U.S. General Services Administration-approved service provider.

Such a consolidation of access points and management functions would allow for much better network monitoring, filtering and incident response than is possible today across civilian government, Evans said.

"The TIC initiative is about closing down external access points so that you can then monitor traffic in a way that allows you to take more strategic [actions to protect federal networks against threats]," she said.

The model would be similar to the one in existence across Department of Defense networks, Evans said. "The DoD works as a single enterprise. They manage their network as a corporate asset and they do things in accordance with a framework" that is consistent across the .mil domain she said.

"They have been working on this for several years. They know where their external access points or so they are monitoring them," in better fashion than civilian agencies are, she said.

As a result, DoD networks are better prepared and equipped to respond in a more coordinated fashion to attacks of the sort witnessed this week, she said. Evans said that after this week's attacks it won't be surprising at all if more agencies move faster to the TIC model than they have been.

"TIC offers a capability to immediately block those offending IP addresses that are launching an attack," said Patricia Titus, former chief information security officer at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), who now holds a similar job at Unisys Corp.

But a lot will depend on how securely it is architected, Titus said. A major component of TIC is a federal network monitoring technology called Einstein that is designed to capture anomalous network activity and flag suspicious behavior in near real-time.

If this component is not well implemented, the network access point consolidation could end up giving attackers a central point to go after federal systems, she said. But she added it is "very unlikely" that such an implementation error would be allowed to happen. "The government has put out a very careful thought out architecture. This is something they are definitely paying attention to."

Details on the consolidated access points will also not be publicly published making them harder to find and therefore to attack, Evans said.

This week's attacks show how federal agencies continue to remain vulnerable to network threats despite having relatively sophisticated, well-funded and well-staffed security operations, said Amit Yoran, former director of the National Cybersecurity Division at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

"If this can happen to organizations such as the ones affected, it certainly can happen to people downstream as well," said Yoran, who is now CEO of security vendor NetWitness Corp. The attacks show the need for organizations to centralize security policy and enable persistent monitoring of network ingress and egress points in the manner being contemplated by TIC, Yoran said.

"If you don't have consistent monitoring of access points then the risk accepted by one gateway or one component of your network is effectively shared by all participants in the enterprise," he said.

Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize for the role they played during the recent civil unrest in Iran, according to a former U.S. national security adviser.

Mark Pfeifle, a former aide for George W. Bush, suggests that Twitter be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded to those who push for "fraternity between nations" and for "holding the promotion of peace," reports Brand Republic.

Previous winners of the Nobel Peace Prize include Mother Teresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Martin Luther King Jr, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Apple board member Al Gore.

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, Pfeifle said: "When traditional journalists were forced to leave the country, Twitter became a window for the world to view hope, heroism, and horror."

"It became the assignment desk, the reporter, and the producer. And, because of this, Twitter and its creators are worthy of being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize."

"I first mentioned this idea while being interviewed on a cable news program [Fox News]. Many scoffed. That's understandable. But think about what Twitter has accomplished: It has empowered people to attempt to resolve a domestic showdown with international implications - and has enabled the world to stand with them. It laid the foundation to pressure the world to denounce oppression in Iran.

"Twitter has been criticized as a time-waster - a way for people to inform their friends about the minutiae of their lives, 140 characters at a time. But in the past month, 140 characters were enough to shine a light on Iranian oppression and elevate Twitter to the level of change agent. Even the government of Iran has been forced to utilize the very tool they attempted to squelch to try to hold on to power.

"Without Twitter, the world might have known little more than a losing candidate accusing the powers that be of alleged fraud. Without Twitter, the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy. They did so because they knew the world was watching. With Twitter, they now shout hope with a passion and dedication that resonates not just with those on their street, but with millions across the globe. "

Pfeifle also commended other social media sites such as Facebook -- on which Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has amassed more than 100,000 supporters.

At the height of the Iranian protest activities more than 221,000 Iran tweets were sent in an hour. In one day, 3,000 Iranian videos were uploaded on YouTube, and 2.2 million blog entries were posted.

Mark Pfeifle was deputy national security adviser for strategic communications and global outreach at the National Security Council from 2007 to 2009. In January 2009 Fort Leavenworth Commander and former Iraq War spokesman LTG William B. Caldwell awarded Pfeifle the Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Award for "dramatically improved communication planning and strategies... in support of the Global War on Terror."

When the government conducts its census next year, Sprint will be providing wireless equipment, coverage and secure connections to workers out in the field.

Managing telecommunications for the census is no simple task, of course. The company estimates that it will need to provide census-takers at Harris Corporation with 500 MPLS sites, 150,000 active telemetry wireless devices and about 1,500 managed devices and mobile broadband connection cards. Bill White, Sprint's vice president of federal programs, says that the 150,000 telemetry devices were custom-built by HTC and were wirelessly connected by Sprint to help tie together the 450 local census offices that Harris is operating.

The big goal is for Sprint to provide census workers with secure connections that will allow them to wirelessly transmit sensitive data over a secure connection to the Harris Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) database for safe storage. White says that one of the big advantages that Sprint has in helping take the census is its private wireless network that allows government and enterprise users to securely link between their wireless devices and their central server without using the public Internet.

"One of the unique aspects of our wireless capabilities is the ability to securely transmit information from a wireless handheld computer to a server farm without using the public Internet," he says. "With traditional wireless data services, once information leaves the device it goes over the Web."

Sprint says that its coverage capabilities give it another advantage in tackling the census, as its wireless capabilities "exceeded" the Harris's program requirements. For areas where the carrier's wireless coverage isn't as strong, it's implementing an IP dial-up service that will provide users with a secure, albeit antiquated, way of transmitting data.

"We've found a way of doing this that uses both old and new technology to make connections," says White. "The type of information that is sent through the census computers tends to be short bursts of data stream. While we do have a dial-up service available, we're confident that our wireless services cover a large majority of the country."

Fusion-io, the flash storage start-up with Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist, says it can now manage commercial-grade flash memory in a way that ensures enterprise-class reliability.

This means Fusion-io can offer less expensive disks to customers while sacrificing little in terms of performance and endurance, the company said Tuesday.

The announcement focuses on the differences between multi-level cell (MLC) flash chips, used primarily for consumer devices; and single-level cell (SLC), primarily used in enterprise applications.

MLC, the less expensive version, fits twice as much storage capacity into the same amount of silicon as SLC, but is less reliable with more misreads and errors, says CTO David Flynn.

"The single-level cell is a niche product targeting only enterprise SSDs, not even consumer SSDs," Flynn says. "Because it's a niche it costs four times as much per bit."

Fusion-io announced Tuesday that it is releasing new products that take MLC chips and cut the usable storage capacity in half, while eliminating most of the potential for errors. This allows the use of a less expensive type of flash for enterprise-grade applications.

"We're taking off-the-shelf MLC and using it in a way where it acts as if it were SLC," Flynn says.

Earlier this year, Fusion-io landed $47 million in venture funding, and announced that Apple co-founder Wozniak had taken a full-time position as the company's chief scientist.

Fusion-io's ioDrive products are PCI Express (PCIe) cards that are loaded with flash memory and inserted directly into servers. The company already offered both SLC and MLC products and is dubbing its new line of tools "SMLC."

The SMLC devices "closely approximate" the performance and endurance of SLC, but are not 100% accurate, Flynn says. Therefore, some enterprises will still prefer to use SLC for write-intensive workloads.

SMLC will be available later this month in 160GB and 320GB ioDrive cards. Fusion-io did not release specific pricing but said it would be about halfway between the price of SLC and MLC. A typical Fusion-io MLC product costs about $15 per gibabyte while the company's SLC costs about $30 to $40 a gigabyte.