If you are a Google fan, you may have more reasons to celebrate in the coming months, as three giants – Intel, Sony and Logitech – have proposed to team up with Google and lunch Google TV and set-top boxes on an Android based platform.

The platform intends to seamlessly integrate web content and online services like Twitter, Youtube, online games, web apps and the formidable Google Search. It’ll also integrate a light weight browser for light surfing activities. Google TV will run on set-top boxes built with Intel Atom processor running the Android Operating System. Google TV technology will also be implemented on BlueRay drives and Sony TVs along with keyboard equipped remote control feature in partnership with Logitech.

Google TV

With all the blueprints, for the project in place, The Times has indicated that Intel and Logitech have advertised job listings for programmers with Android experience. Google plans to deliver a fully functional technology product rather than a product with cosmetic design value.

The field of television is an uncharted frontier for Google. But, Google sounds optimistic about it’s project plans and let’s hope they deliver the integrated power of the web and television as a part of this project.

Intel has been hitting the news lately, some good & some bad. the European commission just hit Intel with a fine of US$ 1.45 billion for violating the EC treaty & abusing their power unethically between October 2002 & December 2007. AMD had already filed complaints along these lines with the EC in 2000, 2003 & 2006, which urged a further investigation into this issue.

Intel Logo

A summary of the claims are as follows:
Intel allegedly gave hidden rebates to computer manufacturers & encouraged them to only stock up on their x86 CPUs. They also allegedly paid a major retailer to delay the launch of their competitors products.

The manufacturers that have been identified are Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo & NEC.

July marked one year since Apple began allowing independent developers to sell their apps through the iTunes App Store. During the year that passed by, we have witnessed a frenzy from geeks all over the world to create a variety of applications for the iPhone.

iPhone Apps

But are any of these geeks becoming millionaires selling inane applications such as “Rate a Fart 2.0″, which, incidentally, is selling for 99 cents? All logic points towards a Firm no. Still that hasn’t stopped the App Store’s repertoire from reaching well over 50,000 apps and more than 1.5 billion downloads. The base and top or this pyramid consists of applications that cost less than a dollar. One might in fact be inclined to think Apple is running a digital dollar store.

The best seller lists titles such as GloBall and Flight Control — both games. These are hardly the building blocks of something that can become as big as an Amazon or eBay.

Besides, most veteran app developers around the world are saying that the app store is now very crowded. Getting noticed is therefore becoming even more difficult. There are sites such as l48Apps.biz that even give app makers tutorials on how to market their applications. Tips include getting your app reviewed on some of the dozens of app review sites that have sprung up, such as AppScout.com.

Making apps might be serious business or just something that geeks do on the side for fun or popularity. Yet, there are signs that more serious and utility- oriented apps are on their way. For example, the QuickOffice Mobile Office Suite that has crept in at the 99th position on the top 100 list. It’s a $12.99 application for creating, editing and synching documents and spreadsheets. There i5 also a S 100-million dollar venture capital fund called iFund, that intends to “fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod Touch platform”.

However, the fund has so far managed to fund only five ventures. Considering the competition from Pre and Android that is expected in the near future, let’s hope the enthusiasm of app makers continues undampened.

Google Voice

Google Voice, the invitation only service launched by Google a while ago has now been ported to Android and Blackberry. The service basically lets you have one “Google Voice” number which is connected to your other numbers such as your Office, Home and Mobile Number. You can choose which of the phones you want ringing when someone calls.

One of the features it boasts is caller groups, with restricted access to certain phones. For instance, friends can have access to all three numbers while your pesky neighbor can be allowed to bug you only when you are at home.

The best part is that people only have to remember a single number. The number stays with you for life, so even if you change your other numbers it doesn’t make a difference. Simply update the new numbers with the service. Google Voice also gives you other services such as voice mail and automated transcripts of the same.

With the newly released Google Voice Mobile Application for Blackberry and Android, placing outgoing calls from a Google Voice number has become easier, said a blog post from Google. The app is fully integrated with contacts on the phone. For the thousands of people who don’t have an Android or Blackberry device, Google has a mobile web version which can be accessed by typing m.google.com/voice into your mobile phone’s browser. The blog post also says that “Currently, Google Voice is only available in the U.S.” Let’s hope it comes to our stores soon.

If you have been getting tempting messages with video links in your accounts in social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Bebo, Friendster and Hi5, beware. Any attempt to download the video will make you another victim of Koobface, a worm that may steal critical and personal data from your computer.

The ICER Team has warned that Koobface, a play on the name of social networking site Facebook, comes with an enticing tag line and spreads by spamming the contacts of the victim on networking sites. With more than 3 million members of Facebook alone in India, Koobface’s potential for wreaking havoc on the country’s computer systems is immense — a fact that has prompted the government to issue the alert.

Typically, Koobface victims get a message from one of their contacts inviting them to click on a video link. The link leads you to a site mimicking the video sharing site, YouTube. Once there, you are asked whether you want to download a software needed to watch the video.

If you click ‘yes’, the worm gets activated, leaving your computer vulnerable. The worm not only disrupts your internet experience by sending your searches on engines like Google elsewhere and returning garbled replies, it also steals data that may have been left in your computer’s memory.

If you have already been Koobfaced, the only way to protect your machine is to delete all files and registry keys that have been added by the worm. Internet users have also been advised to install and maintain updated anti-virus software in computers and block ports that aren’t required.

While you may not be able to notice the worm rummaging through your electronic files searching for personal data, including passwords, the visible signs of the worm would show up on your internet browsing where you would get abnormal results to your searches.

Soure

While doing the hard disk test last month, we were wondering whatever happened to the sci-fi like holographic storage medium that was supposed to be just around the corner. Now it seems there is a DVD being developed that based on Nano Technology dubbed ultra-DVD that can store 10TB in a single disk.

Currently, Blue-ray disk that hold 50GB are not even close to projected capacity of these ultra DVDs. Scientists working on the project say the DVD could be available to consumers as early as five years from now. It will surely change the way we view & even perceive digital data, & even entertainment. Its outcome could include things such as three dimensional video & some ultra-HD viewing. The scientists working on the project say that nano-structured material can be incorporated on to a disc to increasing the size of the disk.

Meanwhile, another study is also under way in Australia that is looking at developing five dimensional DVDs. researchers have already designed a five dimensional DVD that can store 1.6 TB of data on a standard size DVD. That is as much as 30 Blue-ray disks!

Unlike normal DVDs that have two layers of stacked data these disk have an additional 3 layers- one data & two for reading wave length & polarization. The layers will be made of thin glass films & will be coated with gold nano rods with three different sizes. To record data on the disc a laser is focused on the nano rods.each nano rod melts at different wavelengths into spheres.

This change of state denotes the change from 1 to 0.The researches are currently working with Samsung to make the technology commercially viable but it could take anywhere between 5 to 10 years.

The challenge is that since the data is so densely packed, reading it at high speeds will pose a problem, Also currently a very large & not to mention expensive titanium-sapphire femto-second laser is being used in the study. A cheaper laser will have to be developed.

If you’re a web developer, you’ll hopefully be aware that there are many helpful (and free) tools designed to progress your quest for an epic website; the only problem with this, though, is that you have to find them. There is currently no centralized directory for all such tools, but Mozilla’s fed up of this, and has set out to build one of their own, according to MoMB (via the folks at TechCrunch).

Mozilla

Mozilla has posted an entry on their official blog regarding the new site, with Ben Galbraith saying, “There are an immense number of tools that have been created to help web developers. Unfortunately, you might never know this; there’s no central index of these tools. It turns out that keeping up with all the development in this space is really difficult–even for folks like us who have been tracking it every day for years.” He continues to say that Mozilla wishes people to submit tools to the directory, via this URL., and to place feedback regarding features and usability of it, too. One idea on how they wish to display more info about a tool can be spotted here.

If you’re running a modern browser, such as Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Chrome 2 or Safari 4 (to name a few) you can already check out the project as it is, though note it’s still in Mozilla Labs, so it’s still a work in progress. This is great if you have a nifty tool that you wish to get out to the world, as that’s exactly what Mozilla wants; submit your tools now, and place feedback here in the comments (or preferably, to Mozilla) on how things work out for you.

Windows 7

Microsoft today has officially announced the start of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program allowing consumers and small businesses to receive Windows 7 when they purchase a qualifying Windows Vista PCs starting June 26. Under the program, PCs pre-installed with “premium versions” of Windows Vista will qualify for a license equivalent of Windows 7.

“There is a lot of excitement for Windows 7 in the marketplace today. However, many consumers need a new Windows PC for school, work or home before October 22. So starting June 26th, any customer who buys a PC from a participating computer maker or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate will also receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Window 7 at little or no cost,” said Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows consumer marketing at Microsoft.

Under the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program, the following Windows Vista versions will correspond to the following Windows 7 upgrade equivalents:

Windows Vista Home Premium -> Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows Vista Business -> Windows 7 Professional
Windows Vista Ultimate -> Windows 7 Ultimate

The Windows 7 licenses will be provided to computer manufacturers at no charge from Microsoft. Although some manufacturers may require a payment for costs such as shipping and handling. The program will be available through January 31, 2010 from computer manufacturers and participating retail partners selling qualifying editions of Windows Vista.

There is no “Upgrade Option” path for systems purchased running Windows Vista Home Basic.

When Microsoft released the official beta for Windows 7 a while back, it also published a set of system requirements. These were a general overview, and it seems that they have been updated to match the Windows 7 RC recently made available.

Here’s the list of initial system requirements Microsoft made available:

1. 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
2. 1GB of RAM
3. 16 GB of available disk space
4. Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)

And here, you will find the updated and final list of requirements:

1. 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
2. 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
3. 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
4. DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

According to ZDNet, however, “If you are planning to run Windows XP Mode along with Windows 7, Microsoft is recommending a PC with a minimum of 2GB of memory and 15 GB of additional disk space.” Microsoft stated, “In addition, Windows Virtual PC requires a PC with Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in the CPU, as it takes advantage of the latest advancements in hardware virtualization.”

If you’re interested in comparing, here is the list of final specifications for Windows Vista:

1. 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
2. 512 MB of RAM (for Home Basic); 1 GB of RAM for all other versions
3. 15 GB of available disk space
4. Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory (for Home Basic); 128 MB of graphics memory plus WDDM support for all other versions

These specifications are not specific to any particular SKU, and again, are final.

Submitted Through Neowin.

Microsoft today announced their upcoming releases on Office Products. Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010.

Though Exchange 2010 beta is now released and available for public download at Microsoft’s site, the final release will be available on last quarter of 2009.

Microsoft Office 2010, including Office Web Applications, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010, will enter a Technical Preview in the third quarter of 2009 and will release to manufacturing in the first half of 2010.

The term “Technical Preview” made us to belive that Microsost will not release any beta for Office 2010, rather, it’ll will be given to workers in Microsoft’s largest corporate accounts as well as ‘run-of-the-mill’ consumers.

Its confirmed that Microsoft will start shipping of both the 32bit and 64bit of the Office 2010 in second quarter of 2010.