Gestures will work to your Laptop

Laptop makers are planning to launch a lightweight and thin laptop that can act according to human facial expressions and commands. The art Altrabuks's possible that Intel's chip manufacturing.

Mooley Eden, Vice President of Intel on Monday displayed cutting-edge prototype 'Nikiski' laptop along with 'Altrabuks' offered by Linovo, Acer, Samsung, Toshiba, LG and HP, which is equipped with Windows 8 software

Nikiski transparent touchpad below the keyboard panel has been engaged. The screen on the laptop off via touch pad panel is visible from outside. Without opening the whole laptop as a tablet that can be tapped.

Mooley Eden said, "We Altrabuks cutting down prices available to the common people". Hopes that the show will offer nearly 50 Altrabuks.

Save your Facebook Account from Spying

Now you can save your facebook account from syping. Researchers have designed a new screen which allows users to decide what type of information they want to share with which member. Researchers have created an interface that will help Facebook users to keep their private information secret.

Signing up for a game or application, Facebook members could overrule their global privacy settings. But now Penn State University researchers have devised a sign-up interface to tackle the problem.

Researchers claim that many Facebook app developers may try to profit from their games and tools by selling the data with advertisers and other companies. The information could also be leaked to identity thieves.

Members who sign up for an app must agree to new terms of information disclosure that are often different from their main Facebook privacy settings, they say.

Heng Xu said "The only way to find out how the information is going to be used is to go to each app's website and review the terms of use. And many people won't do that".

The sign-up screen currently is a general agreement that shows information third-party developers are requesting. If the member does not agree, the member cannot use the app.

The screen designed by the researchers allows members to decide what types of information they are comfortable sharing and with whom they want to share it.

Privacy settings allow members to determine how much information the member wants to display or share with their members of their network and Facebook.

This data can include birthdate, hometown and current city, as well as pictures the members uploaded to their pages.

Members may not consider data like hometown or birthdates vital information, but Heng said that hackers can use such information to guess social security numbers.

"Facebook has used feedback from the 800 million people who use the site to develop a strict application permissions process, where applications have to ask you what information they need in order to run."

Chinese students stealing tech secrets from UK varsities

British industrial designer Sir James Dyson has alleged that Chinese students at the country's universities are stealing scientific and technological secrets and passing them on to their country.

"They (Chinese students) go back home taking that science and technology knowledge with them and then they start competing with us. This is mad, it is madness,'' Dyson, best know for inventing the bagless vacuum cleaner, told the UK's Sunday Times newspaper.

British universities minister David Willetts said he will carefully study the evidence that Dyson has got.

Universities UK chief executive Nicola Dandridge said, "We are very aware this is going on and we are taking it very seriously." Electronic engineering and computer sciences are suspected to be among the two sectors where technology is being stolen. Dyson said many Chinese students continue to do so even after leaving UK. "Bugs are left in PCs so that data continues to be transmitted after the students return home."

via timesofindia

NASA disavows its scientist's claim of alien life

The gaps and stringy fibers in these space rocks sure look like bacteria, and a NASA researcher has caused a stir with claims that they're fossils of alien life. But as NASA found 15 years ago, looks can be deceiving.

Top scientists in different disciplines immediately found pitfalls in a newly published examination of three meteorites that went viral on the Internet over the weekend. NASA and its top scientists disavowed the work by noon Monday.

Biologists said just because it looks as though the holes were made by bacteria doesn't make them fossils of extraterrestrial microbes. The meteorites could be riddled with Earthly contamination. And both astronomers and biologists complained that the study was not truly reviewed by peers.

There are questions about the credentials of the study's author, Richard Hoover. And the work appeared in an online journal that raises eyebrows because even its editor acknowledges it may have to shut down in June and that one reason for publishing the controversial claim was to help find a buyer.

"There's a lot of stuff there, but not a lot of science," said Rosie Redfield, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, who publicly dissected the paper over the weekend. "I looked at it and shuddered."

The Associated Press talked to a dozen scientists, and none of them agreed with the findings. There was none of the excitement that surrounded a similar claim that NASA announced with fanfare in 1996 — but was forced to back away from later — that a meteorite from Mars found in Antarctica showed evidence of alien life.

"There has been no one in the scientific community, certainly no one in the meteorite analysis community, that has supported these conclusions," NASA Astrobiology Institute Director Carl Pilcher said Monday of the latest work.

Hoover, of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., claims he found fossils that look like remnants of bacteria in a handful of meteorites. His research, published online Friday in the Journal of Cosmology, concludes these must have come from outer space. It is based on three specimens of a rare type of meteorite — thought to come from comets — found in France in 1806 and 1864 and Tanzania in 1938.

Hoover's pictures look like microscopic versions of flattened tubes and tangled strings.

Hoover didn't return phone calls or e-mails from the AP.

Rudy Schild, a Harvard astronomer and editor-in-chief of the journal, said the study was reviewed by scientists, but he wouldn't identify them. Schild said the idea was to garner attention and generate debate, which happened after it was first reported over the weekend by FoxNews.com.

"We thought the purpose of the exercise here is having it released and having it discussed," Schild told the AP. He acknowledged the journal's imminent demise was "a factor in play, but there are other factors as well" in the decision to publish Hoover's research.

The year-and-a-half-old journal champions a disputed theory that life started elsewhere in the universe and was seeded on Earth by asteroids and comets.

Schild said criticisms of Hoover's paper "are legitimate" but that he agrees with Hoover's conclusion.

Other scientists say Hoover, who has worked for NASA in solar physics but now bills himself as an astrobiologist, doesn't have the proper expertise. "Anyone can call himself an astrobiologist. That doesn't make it so," said Pilcher, the astrobiology institute director.

And while Hoover's paper in the journal lists him as a "Ph.D.," NASA's solar physics website does not mention a doctorate. A colleague of Hoover's said he acknowledges that he doesn't have the advanced degree. Schild said someone at the journal — he doesn't know who — may have inadvertently listed Hoover with the doctorate title.

Top planetary scientists, including those who study meteorites, are at a conference in Houston this week and this was the talk — albeit mostly in a can-you-believe-this-stuff way, said Harry "Hap" McSween, one of world's foremost experts in meteorites.

"I don't think anybody accepts this idea," McSween said. "Nobody thinks they are extraterrestrial."

McSween has studied one of the meteorites cited — the one that fell to France in 1864. He said it was in "atrocious" condition at a Paris Museum with noticeable contamination. There was a vein in the rock that hadn't been there in old photographs, a sign of creeping moisture. That makes sense because even NASA moon rocks, hermitically stored, have been contaminated with Earthly microbes, he said.

McSween and other scientists said they had hoped the public would ignore reports about the study, but they didn't. It was on the top of Yahoo News much of Monday.

"It looks like it's kind of viral," McSween said. "It's extraterrestrial life, that's why."

via sify

Scientists solve mystery of disappearing Sunspots

In a major breakthrough, a team of scientists led by Dibyendu Nandi of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, has used a computer model of solar activity to explain how the Sun lost its spots and solar storms for a long period. Sunspots are dark spots on the Sun with strong magnetic activity. The results of the study on the characteristics of the Sun is slated for international release on Thursday in the "Nature" journal and has been praised by NASA as a breakthrough in generating advanced knowledge of sustained good weather in space.

Nasa has scheduled a conference on Thursday involving several international scientists to discuss the results.

Speaking to TOI from Kolkata, Nandi explained the significance of these predictions lie in the fact that these can be used by airline operators while scheduling air traffic, especially over polar routes and also by space agencies in planning missions.

"Did you know that there is weather in space just like weather on Earth? And that dark spots on the Sun's surface called sunspots can affect weather in space and can disrupt flights over the Earth's polar region," Nandi said.

"The shorter, polar routes are preferred by airline operators because less fuel is consumed and predictions of good weather can be used to direct heavier traffic through these remote regions," he said.

source : timesofindia

2-inch Cube that could replace unsightly Cell Towers

They tower over the landscape, sometimes disguised in a way that does not fool anyone.

Big trees that look so fake, they are derided as "Frankenpines." Flagpoles that soar higher than any flag would warrant. Or unadorned towers that offer absolutely no pretense as to their purpose.

But a day could soon come when those sky-high, unsightly cell phone towers that litter the countryside may be replaced with something no bigger than a Rubik’s cube.

Called the lightRadio cube, the new device developed by Bell Labs in Murray Hill is generating major buzz by cell phone carriers around the world.

"The lightRadio could radically transform the model for wireless networks and could actually change the way the wireless industry operates," predicted Dan Hays, a telecommunications consultant with PRTM in Washington, D.C.

Cell phone antennas now must be large and high because they rely on sending signals down and outward like an umbrella. But officials at Alcatel-Lucent, where Bell Labs is located, said the lightCube directs cell phone signals more directly using far less power, while handling as much as 30 percent more capacity than current cell phone towers.

The device was created in Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless research division. As consumers clamor for stronger data and voice capabilities on their smartphones, telecommunications companies struggle to keep up with demand, said division head Tod Sizer.

Sizer challenged his team to come up with a solution. To push them further, he calculated the device could be as small as 2.3 inches. A hobbyist woodworker, Sizer went into his shop at his home in Little Silver, built a wooden model, and showed it to the group, which is scattered globally.

In March, they told him it would be impossible.

But in May, an inventor in Stuttgart showed his boss what he’d come up with: three 2-inch, stacked circuit boards for the antenna, radio, and network connection, replacing the conventional antenna system that connects every cell phone call.

"I said, ‘Do you realize what you did?,’" Sizer recalled, his voice rising with excitement. The team has since tested the prototype and proved the concept worked. To work effectively, the technology would force carriers to switch how they build wireless networks, but the lightRadio means rural areas and developing countries could get internet access. The device only requires a network connection and a power source.
"The flexibility this brings is really going to be quite fun," Sizer said.

The device shrinks the antenna and radio devices at the top of a cell phone tower, relocating the network communications power systems — which sit at its base — to central data centers. As a result, the antenna casing can be smaller — about 2.3 inches, down from conventional antennas that are typically the size of an ironing board.

Hays said the device could be a game changer. "Historically, the wireless industry has really revolved around towers with large areas of coverage," he said. "There’s now an opportunity to rethink how wireless networks are structured." The device will include wirings for all carriers and cell phone technologies, including 2G, 3G and the emerging 4G or LTE system. Officials said it should also be able to handle as much as 30 percent more capacity than a typical antenna, but that figure varies based on where it is deployed, the number of users and the other types of devices, traffic, and speeds that are on the network, said Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Wendy Zajack.

LightRadio garnered the biggest buzz at last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where it was launched, where cell phone companies were in Alcatel-Lucent’s booth, examining the lightRadio cube, taking pictures and asking questions.

"Beyond a couple of new smartphones and tablets that were announced, lightRadio was actually one of the most exciting new ideas that came forward," Hays said.

Already, dozens of mobile carriers across the world have approached Alcatel-Lucent asking for demonstrations and trials, according to Ken Wirth, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s 4G/LTE wireless networks business. Five carriers in the United States, Europe and China are enrolled for trials by the end of this year and the company hope to roll the devices out commercially within 18 months.

Tom Sawanobori, vice president of technology planning at Verizon Wireless, said his company was looking at the technology.

The cubes can be positioned nearly anywhere, from the sides of buildings to light poles, or arranged in grids for more strength. If a certain area has more use during a particular time of the day — say, weekday rush hour on the Garden State Parkway compared to the surrounding suburbs on weekends — the signals can change direction at the touch of a button.

The towers do have one benefit, though. Municipalities and state authorities gain revenue when the carriers install towers on their property. But it’s a Catch-22: nearby residents push back as more towers go up, while still demanding better connectivity, technology analyst Jeff Kagan said.

"We as a people have got a problem: we want more connectivity, but that means more towers, and we don’t want more towers," he said. "If (lightRadio) works as well as it sounds like it’s going to work, it sounds like the solution that we need."

via nj

Scientists create plastic that conducts electricity

Plastics are well known as poor conductors of electricity and find many applications in industries and households as insulators. But now scientists have claimed that they have prepared a new class of plastic material that conducts electricity similar to metals.

Scientists placed a thin film of metal on a plastic sheet. They mixed it with polymer surface using an ion beam. In this experiment, researchers found that the material well conducted electricity. Research was done by an international team of scientists.

Scientists found that this method can be used to produce cheaper, stronger, flexible and above all, conducting plastic films. Prof Paul Meredith of University of Queensland said about the research, "What the team has been able to do here is use an ion beam to tune the properties of a plastic film so that it conducts electricity like the metals used in the electrical wires themselves, and even to act as a superconductor and pass electric current without resistance if cooled to low enough temperature."

Read also : US Scientists unveils Hummingbird Robot

When this newly created material is tested in industry standards and all claims of research team proved valid. In order to verify conductivity, team created electrical resistance thermometers of industrial standard. Then team created another platinum resistance thermometer of industrial standard. When tested thoroughly, this material gave even better results, with comparable accuracy.

A team member, Prof Adam Micolich of University of New South Wales explained the excellency of this material. Micolich said this material has an advantage that it can adopt all desirable properties of polymers like flexibility, robustness and easy availability with additional feature of conducting electricity. Conventional metals which are used as electricity conductors usually do not possess all above described properties, making this new material more valuable. Adams said this discovery will begin a new era of plastic electronics.

Read also : US Scientists Invent World's First 'Anti-Laser'

Researchers said their material opens a wide scope in electrical conductivity. Scientists are capable of manipulating conductivity levels in the thin film from zero to that of metals, making it highly usable while designing electricity based products.

via topnews

Scientists claim: New satellites to be able to predict earthquakes

A team of British and Russian scientists have launched a project that could predict when and where earthquakes will occur, and thus save thousands of lives.

An agreement to work together on the project, that was signed in Moscow, says the TwinSat project involves the launch of two satellites - one is about the size of a TV set and the other smaller than a shoebox - which will orbit the earth a few hundred kilometres apart, The Independent reported.

Data from the satellites will be collated with data from the ground as the scientists try to understand what natural warnings are given prior to earthquakes.

Read also : US Scientists unveils Hummingbird Robot

"As stress builds up in the Earth prior to an earthquake, subtle electromagnetic signals are released that can be read from the upper atmosphere," said Alan Smith, director of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at the University College, London.

"We want to try to work out how these signals differ from all the other things that are present at any given time."

The two linked satellites will monitor zones with high seismic and volcanic activity, such as Iceland and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russia's far east.

Vitaly Chmyrev, of the Institute of Physics of the Earth, in Moscow, one of the Russian partners, said the possibilities for progress in earthquake research were extremely exciting.

Read also : US Scientists Invent World's First 'Anti-Laser'

Chmyrev said that in the days leading up to the devastating earthquake in Haiti last year, satellites picked up electromagnetic signals from the area, but they were only analysed afterwards.

This project could be a huge step towards understanding how to read the signals.

"Just imagine if we could have accurately predicted the Haiti earthquake a few weeks before," said Chmyrev.

"Or if we had predicted the Icelandic volcano eruption that paralysed transport routes for weeks. The potential human and economic benefits are enormous."

Peter Sammonds, professor of Geophysics at UCL and another member of the project team, said that because the satellites were so small, the technology was relatively cheap.

Read also : Scientists Building Largest Antimatter Trap Ever

"These satellites are absolutely incredible, you can almost hold them in the palm of your hand," he said.

"If the project progresses as we want it to, we'll be able to send up several more of them to increase coverage."

The first satellite launch is planned for 2015.

via hindustantimes

Scientists Building Largest Antimatter Trap Ever

Creating matter's strange cousin antimatter is tricky, but holding onto it is even trickier. Now scientists are working on a new device that may be able to trap antimatter long enough to study it.

Antimatter is like a mirror image of matter. For every matter particle (say an electron, for example), a matching antimatter particle is thought to exist (in this case, a positron) with the same mass, but an opposite charge.

The problem is that whenever antimatter comes into contact with regular matter, the two annihilate. So any container or bottle made of matter that attempts to capture antimatter inside would be instantly destroyed, along with the precious antimatter sample one tried to put inside the bottle.

Physicist Clifford Surko of the University of California, San Diego is hard at work to overcome that issue. He and his colleagues are building what they call the world's largest trap for low-energy positrons – a device they say will be able to store more than a trillion antimatter particles at once.

The key is using magnetic and electric fields, instead of matter, to construct the walls of an antimatter "bottle."

"We are now working to accumulate trillions of positrons or more in a novel 'multicell' trap – an array of magnetic bottles akin to a hotel with many rooms, with each room containing tens of billions of antiparticles," Surko said in a statement.

Read full    Go to Home

US Scientists unveils Hummingbird Robot

Pentagon researchers have taken robots for a science fiction spin, building a robotic hummingbird that's ideal for covert surveillance.

A year and a half ago, we saw our first look at the hummingbird drone from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a teeny robotic spyplane inspired by the mid-air dexterity of the hummingbird. But now we've got a video of the drone in action, much more capable and with the ability to do its acrobatics for much longer.

The drone, built by AeroVironment with funding from DARPA, is able to fly forwards, backwards, and sideways, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Not only does the 'bot resemble its avian inspiration in size (it's only slightly larger than a hummingbird, with a 6.5-inch wingspan and a weight of 19 grams), it also looks impressively like a hummingbird in flight.

Read full    Go to Home

US Scientists Invent World's First 'Anti-Laser'

Instead of having chips with transistors and silicon, these new computers will use both light and electrical energy

The laser - a 50-year-old invention now used in everything from CDs to laser pointers - has met its match in the "antilaser," the first device capable of trapping and canceling out laser beams.

While such a device would seem most fitting in a science fiction movie, its real-world application will likely be in next-generation, optical computers, which will be powered by light in addition to electrons, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

"It's a device which basically works like running a laser backwards," A. Douglas Stone of Yale University, who published his findings in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.

While a laser takes in electrical energy and emits light in a very narrow frequency range, Stone said, his antilaser takes in laser light and transforms it into heat energy.

But it could be easily converted into electrical energy, he said.

Conventional lasers, which were invented in 1960, use a so-called "gain medium," such as a semiconductor material, to produce a focused beam of light waves.

Stone's device uses silicon as an absorbent "loss-medium" that traps light waves, which bounce around until they are converted into heat.

And while the technology seems cool, his antilaser would never be used as a potential laser shield.

"This is something that absorbs lasers. If a ray gun was intended to kill you, it's going to kill you," Stone said.

Read full     Home

Google starts up Newspaper Subscription Service to rival Apple's

Google has launched a digital newspaper and magazine subscription service less than a day after rival Apple.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of the web search giant, yesterday said Google would take 10pc of the cash collected via its One Touch digital newsagent service, with 90pc going to publishers.

Apple's system will see it take a 30pc cut from subscriptions bought through iPad and iPhone apps.

Google will also provide publishers with the names and email addresses of readers, while Apple has refused to share customers' details.

"You've got a very publisher-friendly approach; we basically don't make any money on this," Mr Schmidt said during a speech in Berlin yesterday. "The most important thing is to get the money to people who are producing high-quality content."

Mr Schmidt said Google would not profit from the service, and explained that the company's 10pc cut was to cover costs.

The service is available now in the UK, the US, Canada, France, Spain, and Germany. It will be expanded to other countries soon. It is available via tablet devices, smartphones and PCs.

Google said publishers can charge readers as much or as little as they like and offer single issue purchases to long subscriptions. The company has been working on the project for some time, but is understood to have brought the launch forward following Apple's demand yesterday for a 30pc cut of in-app subscriptions.

 source  Go to Home

Google Launches Chrome Site Blocking Extension

Following up on action taken in January to bolster faith in its search results, Google is allowing users to block spam-filled domains.

Dogged by recent complaints about Web spam polluting its search results and the proliferation of low-quality content from so-called "content farms," Google on Monday released a tool that allows Chrome users to filter undesirable Web sites from their search results.

Personal Blocklist adds a "Block" link to Google search results. Clicking on this link prevents the blocked domain from appearing in future searches, until the block is removed by the user.

The software is not merely sweeping spam under the rug on the client side of things. It's also reporting what users block back to Google, which means it may affect sites' actual Google Web ranking.

"If installed, the extension also sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results," explains Matt Cutts, who runs Google's Web spam team, in a blog post.

read full @ informationweek 

Facebook photos get a new viewer

Facebook is rolling out a new photo viewer to all of its users over the next few weeks.

Unlike the older version of the viewer, the user stays on the same page while viewing a photo from his/her wall or elsewhere on Facebook. The images get displayed in a pop-up with a lightbox-like effect. Comments viewing and sharing has also been made easier.

According to Facebook, over 100 million photos are uploaded to the site every day and they believe that the re-designed photo viewer will increase photo views by 5 per cent. This would calculate to about an additional billion photo views every day.

The new viewer was also necessitated because the older viewer was "supported by some of the oldest code in the system and was in dire need of an upgrade."

Users can easily browse through photos either by clicking on the icons or by using simple keyboard shortcuts: Press Escape key to close the viewer; click the right or left arrow keys to move to the previous or next images in the album.

Facebook had first announced its plans about revamping its photo viewer back in September 2010, when it had began support for high-resolution images.

source 

The Wonderful Tech Gifts For Your Sweetheart This Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is this Monday! And there's a good chance you're going on a date sooner than.


You bought your special-something something special, right?

Uh oh ... you forgot, didn't you?

Don't worry, you still have time and we've got your back.

We've rounded up ten cool gadgets that might make a great gift for your special someone on February 14.

read full @ businessinsider 

Wireless advances could mean no more Cell Towers

As cell phones have spread, so have large cell towers — those unsightly stalks of steel topped by transmitters and other electronics that sprouted across the country over the last decade.

Now the wireless industry is planning a future without them, or at least without many more of them. Instead, it's looking at much smaller antennas, some tiny enough to hold in a hand. These could be placed on lampposts, utility poles and buildings — virtually anywhere with electrical and network connections.

If the technology overcomes some hurdles, it could upend the wireless industry and offer seamless service, with fewer dead spots and faster data speeds.

Some big names in the wireless world are set to demonstrate "small cell" technologies at the Mobile World Congress, the world's largest cell phone trade show, which starts Monday in Barcelona, Spain.

"We see more and more towers that become bigger and bigger, with more and bigger antennas that come to obstruct our view and clutter our landscape and are simply ugly," said Wim Sweldens, president of the wireless division of Alcatel-Lucent, the French-U.S. maker of telecommunications equipment.

"What we have realized is that we, as one of the major mobile equipment vendors, are partially if not mostly to blame for this."

read full @ google
go to

Google Introduces Two Step Gmail Security

 Last year, Google made Gmail access via HTTPS protocol default for all account holders to add a security layer. Now, Google has introduced another security layer upgrade with an advanced opt-in feature dubbed 2-Step Verification. This 2-Step Verification feature requires using a specific code to sign in to the Gmail account. Google either calls you (only if you are in U.S., I suppose) to give that code or sends the code via SMS or generates it via a mobile app for Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. Gmail finally gets a bank account like security feature for sign-in.

Gmail's 2-Step Verification advanced sign-in feature is optional and would be visible to all Google account holders at Manage Account page soon. This new security feature makes your Google account more secure and most importantly Gmail out of all Google services.

The 2-Step Verification stands for its name since it requires two major credentials: your Google account password and a six digit pass code obtained using phone. This requires the user to set up the opt-in 2-Step Verification feature from the Manage Account page. During the set-up process, you'll be required to enter your phone number and also create certain backup pass codes just in case you lose your phone or it gets stolen. After completing the 2-Step Verification setup, you ll land on to an additional page once you log into your Google account using your login ID and password.

To prevent third-party sign-in or someone sneaking into your account, make the best of 2-Step Verification. Yes, it does involve an additional extra step but it certainly secures your account. Google had been testing this feature with Google apps users and it would be available to all Google account holders over a period of time.

read more @ techtree

Microsoft discovers disposable email

Microsoft is introducing throwaway email addresses for Hotmail users.

You might have thought that Hotmail was already for chuckaway email addresses, but the software giant will now make it easier to redirect mail to your existing primary address.

Hotmail subscribers can already use a +sign and add a word to the first part of their email address to create a sub-address. But doing this means you still give away part of your address.

Under the new rules you can add up to five new email addresses per year. Messages will be sent to a folder within your primary email.

Windows Live director Dharmesh Mehta used the Windows Live blog to explain the changes: "Let’s say you’re in the market for a new car. There are a bunch of websites that will email you price quotes, sales alerts, etc. During your car search, these messages are helpful, but once you’re done, they become clutter that can be difficult to stop. By using an alias on these websites instead of your main email address, you can avoid this."

Microsoft reckons the average person has three email addresses for different parts of their lives, or spam. The software giant points out that maintaining three accounts, presumably with three different passwords, is a pain.

via theregister 

Social Networking Apps More Popular than Game Apps

Smartphones have become an important part of our lives. With phones that can do much more than just calling and SMSing, entertainment as well as management of our everyday affairs have become the top functions of mobile phones today. As we all know, these can be performed using a plethora of applications (apps as we call them) that have been created for various platforms. Our phones are a home to many Games, News Feeds, Music, Social Networks and loads of other apps these days. Ever wondered what kind of apps are the most popular?

According to a global study by Nokia, social networking apps are the most popular in India. They are followed by music, business, utilities and games apps. This might have come as a surprise a few years back when social networks were not as popular as they are today. I mean, with one out of six people in the world being on Facebook, what did you expect? The survey further goes on to say that women (43 percent) are more active on social networks than men (38 percent), in India. A majority of 18-24 year-olds download and use social networking apps, the survey states.

What came as a shock was that 77 per cent of people in India have up to 30 apps on their smartphones, with men more likely to download an app (93 percent) than women (87 percent). According to the survey, most smartphone users frequently rely on apps throughout the day (48 percent) while a further 22 percent log on and use them two or three times a week. Also, 17 percent of Indians only download the free apps available for their phone via app stores.
While social network apps top the list of apps actually used by Indians, music and social networks apps top the list of apps downloaded by users. With our love for Bollywood and Bhangra, this doesn't surprise me.

Talking about global stats, Brazilians showed their appreciation for a party with 42 percent downloading music related apps including ringtones, track recognition, and music mags. Germans found functional apps such as alarm clocks and flashlight (29 percent) the most appealing, while Indians prefer business-focused apps like email and expense managers.

Nokia, along with Professor Trevor Pinch, Cornell University's sociologist and professor of science and technology studies, analyzed more than 5,200 smartphone users in 10 countries - India, Singapore, China, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and U.S. The study was aimed at gathering insights into the smartphone behavior of consumers in these countries.

via techtree 

IPv4 Address Depletion Won`t Cause Stampede to IPv6

News Analysis: Despite the depletion of IPv4 address blocks, you don’t have to worry about running out of new addresses just yet. But you should start planning to make sure your computer systems are IPv6-capable.

When the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) issued the last blocks of IPv4 addresses to the Regional Internet Registrars, it wasn’t the end of the world, or even the end of the Internet. In fact, it’s not even the end of the world for IPv4 addresses. Chances are, you’ll still be able to use IPv4 addresses for a long time, probably for years.

What’s actually exhausted is the supply of new IPv4 addresses that the IANA can issue to the five regional Internet registries around the world. Those regions can still issue addresses to organizations that need them, and will continue to do so for the next few months.

In fact, the vast number of users of all types on the Internet will likely not notice any changes in their addressing. The major Internet providers all have IPv4 address pools which they can issue as needed and most of them are using private addressing pools and may never need to change. But there are some networks that will see the effects eventually. They include large businesses and other major organizations that act as their own ISPs and have their own pool of addresses. When those run out, they’ll need to find a way to react.

But right now, there’s no reason to rush madly into IPv6. For one thing, there’s virtually no place on the public Internet that is using IPv6, so you will have few choices of destinations. One estimate I saw recently puts the number of IPv6 sites on the global Internet as less than two tenths of a percent. While there are a few Web sites that do allow connectivity using IPv6, those also allow IPv4 connections.

So what’s all the fuss about? Eventually, large organizations are going to burn through their pools of IPv4 addresses, and will need to start moving to private networks that use NAT (network address translation) or they’ll need to start using IPv6 where they can. As demand for IPv4 addresses continues to grow and supply dwindles IPv6 networking will become more useful. Likely, businesses will find that some types of communications, such as between data centers, or between data centers and cloud providers or even within the data center, that are able to use IPv6 with little or no disruption to other activities.

A move to IPv6 will free up IPv4 addresses for end-users, for devices that can’t use IPv6 and for network infrastructure that isn’t or can’t be enabled for IPv6. Eventually, portions of the public Internet will start supporting IPv6, but it’s not going to happen overnight. And even when it does start to happen, the change won’t be all at once.

credit eweek