TECHZIE.BLOGSPOT.COM

All right, so who had “one week after the RTM release” in the bets? Almost everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before Windows 7 got cracked by pirates, but to have its security already compromised just a week after it was released to manufacturing is a new low, even for Microsoft.

The company’s operating systems have been notoriously easy to crack and are very widely pirated, especially in countries with non-stringent copyright laws like India. Come on, you have to know at least 10 people using a pirated version of Windows, right?

Neowin reports that the new crack and activation, allegedly by Chinese hackers, is built on the Windows 7 Ultimate version given to Lenovo. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are given copies of the operating system much before it is released in the market, so that they can get their various devices ready for the launch.

“The news comes from various Chinese forums who state that you can already pass Windows Genuine Advantage validation offline, OEM style,” the site said. “The leaked .ISO was originally posted on a Chinese forum, which was then downloaded in order for people to get hold of the boot.wim, and in turn retrieving the OEM-SLP key, plus the OEM activation certificate. Microsoft uses the same digitally signed OEM certificate, which has an .xrm-ms extension, as that in Windows Vista. Another point to note is that the key is a master one, which can be used to activate other OEM branded installations, like ones from Dell, HP or indeed Lenovo.”

A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Neowin: "We are aware of reports of activation exploits that attempt to circumvent activation & validation in Windows 7, and we can assure customers that Microsoft is committed to protecting them from counterfeit and pirated software. Microsoft strongly advises customers not to download Windows 7 from unauthorized sources. Downloading Windows 7 from peer-to-peer Web sites is piracy, and exposes users to increased risks – such as viruses, Trojans and other malware and malicious code—that usually accompany counterfeit software."

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz (left) and Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer sign a mock deal at Yahoo headquarters

And then there were two. It’s official, folks, Yahoo is out of the search engine battle and now it’s all down to Microsoft vs Google.

On Wednesday, MS and Yahoo announced a search partnership as reported earlier, where Yahoo’s search engine will be powered by Bing while the company still gets a large share of the ad revenues. And it saves on all the massive costs of maintaining and developing a search engine and its servers.

Bing, on the other hand, gets access to one of the largest user databases on the Web, given that Yahoo is still one of the biggest online entities and has a huge loyal fanbase. For a new search engine, this deal is nothing less than striking gold.

“Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides,” said Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.

“Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness,” noted Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO.

The actual nitty-gritties of the deal are really not that interesting to most of us as they talk about the amount of share that the two companies get, what kind of ratio the monetary split will be, etc. The one big item was the period of the deal: 10 years.

Essentially, Microsoft could get all the data it needs and kick Yahoo out of the equation in this period. It’s the ominous ring of the death bell, and the rejection of MS’ initial offer to buy them out is now sounding like a fatal step for Yahoo.

With the two companies combined, they now control about 30% of the online search business, while Google remains the dominant player with around 65% of the share. The MS-Yahoo deal actually throws up a valid competitor to Google – something that generally works in the favour of consumers as the two parties try to outdo each other.

The partnership will start rolling out within the next 24 months, the two companies said. A full run-down of the deal can be found at Microsoft’s press page and the special site set up for this deal, Choice Value Innovation.

>UK-based online retailer Expansys has revealed the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 (previously known as the ‘Rachel’) ahead of any official announcement from the company, and thrown in detailed specifications too.

The big news is that the X3 will be packing Google’s Android operating system, although the familiar 9-paned 3D interface from the first Xperia will be gracing the home screen. In fact, here’s a cool video of the new interface – and we must say, it’s mighty impressive.

The specs sheet on Expansys says the X3 will be sporting a 4-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 800x400 pixels, although a few sites say that the unusual aspect ratio probably means it’ll be more like 852x420 pixels. Hey, as long as it’s over 800 pixels, we aren’t complaining.

And the developers thrown in an 8-megapixel camera in there, complete with 8x digital zoom, autofocus, LED flash, image stabilisation, face and smile detection, and VGA video recording at 30fps – the first on an Android OS.

What’s important to note is that Sony is really starting to get rid of its proprietary formats as it had announced earlier, with the Xperia X3 having a microSD card slot for all your memory needs and a standard miniUSB port to connect to your PC.

Speaking of connectivity, the X3 will support 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and AGPS, as well as push email. The Internet-access capabilities are welcome, considering how the OS seems to be primed for social networking and Web 2.0 services.

FujiFilm has made a surprising move with the FinePix S1500, launching the point-and-shoot digital camera at a price that competes directly with similar offerings from Sony, Nikon and Canon, instead of a lower price point to entice customers.

Perhaps the company believes it has a quality product that can hold its own against the big three, given that it can click 10-megapixel (3648x2736 pixels) images with its 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor.




The device comes equipped with a Fujinon 12x optical wide-angle zoom lens (33mm-396mm equivalent) and boasts of sensitivity levels of up to ISO 6400.

For continuous shooting, the camera can shoot 7.5 frames per second up to 15 frames (at 2MP) or 3.3 frames per second up to 6 frames (at 5MP). The feature is especially handy when coupled with the built-in Panorama shooting mode.

The S1500 also features new dual image stabilisation, where CCD-shift and image stabilisation technologies are coupled to get rid of shaky photos. Face detection and red-eye removal also make an appearance on this gizmo.

Recording videos isn’t the camera’s strongest point, although it can manage VGA (640x480 pixels) footage at 30 frames per second.

And all these features and the images you click with them can be stored on an SD or SDHC memory card, and viewed on the digicam’s 2.7-inch LCD screen.

However, a lot of people will be disappointed to see that FujiFilm has done away with a lithium-ion battery and gone in for four AA cells to charge this baby. That’s about 300 shots on regular AA batteries, and 700 shots on AA lithium batteries, the company says.

Bundled with a three-year warranty, the S1500

Remember all the ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s that greeted LG’s GD910 wristwatch-phone? Yeah, it’s still not on the market and Samsung has already beaten it in both release date and style, and kind of aped its numerical model number too.

The company is claiming that its new S9110 watchphone is the world’s thinnest of its kind, measuring only 11.98mm in thickness.

The device sports a 1.7-inch glass LCD touchscreen that promises not to get scratched, housed in a stainless steel body that will use its leather strap to wrap around your wrist.




The watchphone supports Bluetooth 2.1 for your headsets, and we are willing to venture that this is A2DP since it claims to be an MP3 player as well. There’s a speakerphone built into the watch, and it supports voice recognition – two very important features for such a tiny touch-operated screen.


Although Samsung has not specifically mentioned any sort of Internet connectivity, the fact that it syncs up with your Outlook mail brings some hope in that regard.

The S9110 is set to hit stores in France this month for about 450 euros (Rs 31,000 approx).

Frankly, the allure of watchphones is incomprehensible to most of us here at ThinkDigit, but if you are one to use a cell phone just for making and receiving phone calls (you Neanderthal!) and to look up the odd SMS, then we can see how these make sense to you. And hey, the ‘cool factor’ of speaking into your stylish wristwatch simply can’t be beat. Eat your heart out, Johnny Sako!

Sources: FN News, Samsung Hub

Tired of flat moving pictures on the web? Well... YouTube has a surprise for you!



It took Flash over a decade to go from 2D to 2.5D, but now YouTube has bridged the gap, with support for 3D videos!

By simply tagging a video with "yt3d:enable=true" you can now enable additional options which allows you view a video in different 3D modes, as Anaglyphs, Parallel places pictures, Cross eye etc.

While there is a dearth of 3D video capture equipment which is affordable for casual users, there are guides available which allow you to set up two video cameras for the same effect.


The feature was developed as a 20% project by Google developer two allow people to have 3D support inbuilt in YouTube, so that a single video could be uploaded by the creator for the different 3D video formats that are out there.


The feature is currently in beta status and has as such not been documented anywhere. However it can be activated and controlled applying using special tags to your videos (as explained by the developer in this forum discussion):


yt3d:enable=true Enables the view mode. (obviously you've already discovered this)
yt3d:aspect=3:4 Sets the aspect of the encoded video.
yt3d:swap=true Swaps the left and right sources. You may need to add this to videos when the player with fixed anaglyph modes ships. Apologies for the inconvineince.
yt3d:left=0_0.1_0.5_0.9 and yt3d:right=0.5_0.1_1_0.9 These tags are very provisional and most useful for fixing up old videos. They set the source area for each eye as pairs of coordinates x1_y1_x2_y2. The scale of these coordinates is 0,0 for the the top left down to 1,1 for the bottom right.


Check out a list of 3D content that people have created with this new feature.

A new development by Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus of New York University allows a camera to photograph images at night without an intrusive visible flash. Once their development reaches mainstream cameras, you can say good bye to persistent visions of splotches after a photo-shooting session with your friends.

Camera flashes flood a scene with light to get better details in low-light conditions, but what if the flash light used was invisible? Or more accurately, what if instead of using visible light, the flash used light from the invisible parts of the spectrum?


You might wonder, how can an image be captured using light that isn't even visible? What's the point if you cant see the photo that results!




Their "Dark Flash" technology uses a flash bulb which filters out visible light, and photographs the scene using UV and Infrared light. Also the filters which block the same radiation form the cameras CMOS have removed. This is like taking a photograph with a blue bulb or a red bulb (actually both). The result is that they are able to capture the details of the scene without using a traditional flash.


However the image captured using just IR and UV is not enough. It's a monochrome version which captures the details but does not capture the color. To make the image a true color photograph, the camera is required to capture another picture immediately after the first one with the flash. The second picture photographs the scene using only ambient light.


Since the second picture is taken in the dark, it will be quite grainy, but the technique they have developed uses the color information from the second shot and combines this with the detail captured in the first image with the "dark flash" to get a composite image that looks awesome! The best thing about this technique that it uses technology already present in cameras, but with a little extra processing. As such one can expect such cameras not to cost a bomb when they come out.

Before you start worrying about skin cancer, with this talk about UV and IR, the amount of UV and IR radiation is comparable to that of a normal visible flash. They used a slightly modified The spectrum of UV and IR that the flash produces In fact, their report calculates that the number of flashes required in a day to go beyond the safe exposure norms, is over 130,000. So you're safe as long as you not modeling for playboy.

Yahoo is all set to roll out a new version of its homepage this week and Kara Swisher of AllThingsD has managed to get a preview, along with an exclusive chat with Tapan Bhat, senior vice-president of Integrated Consumer Experiences.

First off, the good news for Indians: We will be seeing this new avatar along with the US, France and the UK next week. Perhaps our strong words about being ignored during the launch of Search Pad had some effect after all…

The beta version of the new homepage will be on an opt-in basis. After signing into their Yahoo account, users will be presented with an option to switch to what Bhat calls “the most fundamental change to the homepage ever.”




Swisher writes: “The most striking change is prominent left-side ‘My Favorites’ area, with 65 specially designed applications that users can customize, including giving a quick hovering glimpse of email, stocks and also of third-party sites like Facebook.

And of course, you can update your Facebook status messages and send emails directly from these hovering-popup boxes.




“Not quite a dashboard, nor exactly a social networking page, it feels a little like Yahoo took a browser tab or a toolbar, put it vertical format and gave it some great functionality,” Swisher adds.

And yes, for fans of the good lady’s wonderful tech updates, there’s a widget for AllThingsD too! For a full rundown of all the features and the interview, head over to the AllThingsD blog.

The good old days of free filesharing are slowly slipping away.

Napster succumbed to the wounds inflicted upon it by the RIAA back in 2003 and Napster 2 arose from its ashes, promising a 100% reduction in free filesharing fun, and expecting users to pay instead. And pay they did, Napster has over 800,000 subscribers.

Recently we saw The Pirate Bay close down for pirate ships, only to be reconfigured into a family safe theme park, pay as you go indeed. Most people chose to leave instead.

Now we see Kazaa promising to disinfect itself of all the viruses that are its claim to fame, and infect your files with DRM instead. Now a subscription-based pay service which gives you the freedom to download as many files as you want for $20 a month and play them in as many as three devices! Freedom indeed.

Their new service now allows you to share their files (photos, videos and documents) with each other. However, their press release does more to hamper your confidence than anything else. The original PR references court cases against a 'tereastarr' (real name Jammie Thomas) who was fined $80,000 for each of the 24 tracks he shared. Being in the technology field ourselves, we've heard of cheaper ways to share files, honest!


Worst case: we've lost another source of virus and DRM infestation.

At the end of 2008, many leading security experts had predicted 2009 to be the year that hackers start targeting mobile phones and personal media players. The ominous warning has rung true, as researchers at Trend Micro Labs have blogged about the discovery of the first botnet for cell phones.

In the past few days, the security firm has encountered a new threat for Symbian devices, detected as SYMBOS_YXES.B. According to Marianne Mallen, Escalation Engineer in TrendLabs, it poses as the legitimate application ACSServer.exe and calling itself Sexy Space, it steals the user’s subscriber, phone, and network information, and connects to a website in order to send the said information. In addition, the malware can also send spammed SMS messages to the user’s contacts.

“In short, it appears to be a botnet for mobile phones,” wrote Jonathon Leopando in the blog post.

However, the malware itself is classified as low risk, with a low distribution potential, according to a Trend Micro analysis.

The surprising part, though, is that the botnet has been digitally signed – a move that makes them “trustworthy” for Symbian phones.

"The signing process – undertaken by the Symbian Foundation itself – is supposed to ferret out instances like this, but somehow this slipped through. It may well be a coincidence, but it does not reinforce confidence in the signing system," Leopando wrote.

So, Symbian users, be on the alert while receiving any new files or while visiting some untrustworthy Web sites.

BenQ’s new 22-inch LCD offers lots of input ports, free DTH connection

If you have a thousand gadgets and want a ‘one-screen-to-rule-them-all’, BenQ’s new SE2231 might be just what the doctor ordered.

The 22-inch widescreen fullHD (1920x1080 pixels) LCD monitor comes with more input ports than you could ever imagine. The device has ready ports for HDMI, D-Sub, Component, Composite, S-Video, DVI audio and PC audio. And although there’s no direct DVI port, you could always use a converter to fit it into the HDMI or VGA slot. With that many slots, you could connect your set top box, a couple of video game consoles, your PC and DVD player at the same time!
And if you aren’t happy with the output of the dual 3-watt speakers, the SE2231 also has an easy-to-access headphone jack.
As suggested by the fullHD resolution, the aspect ratio is 16:9, with a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. A response time of 5ms should be enough for most video games too.
BenQ has even thrown in a few picture-enhancement technologies, with four standard picture modes (Dynamic, Standard, Cinema and Personal) as well as de-interlacing and noise reduction.




The best part, though, is the remote control that comes packaged with the device. Now you can sit back and enjoy all your favourite videos and even watch TV!
Speaking of televisions and set top boxes, BenQ’s introductory offer for the device includes a new DTH connection (although the brand hasn’t been specified), installation and six months subscription – all for free! This one is valid till stocks last, so better rush if you want to snap it up.
So, the big question: How much damage would your wallet have to endure? BenQ’s asking for Rs 16,999 – not a bad deal considering the freebies that come with it.
For a full gallery of pics,

Every once in a while, we come across a new piece of technological research that just blows us away. And the Blind Driver Challenge project by a bunch of students at US’ Virginia Tech University has to rank right up there. The team has designed a car that lets the blind and visually-impaired to drive with full control of the steering wheel and no aid from other people.

Before you read further, let the enormity of this project sink in: A person who cannot see what lies an inch from his face is about to be able to perform the complex functions of driving a car. Wow.

The team at Virginia’s Robotics and Mechanics Laboratory (RoMeLa) retrofitted a four-wheel dirt buggy to include laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake, and accelerate.

One of the first blind test drivers was Mark Riccobono, the executive director of the Jernigan Institute, a research and training institute dedicated to developing technologies and services to help the blind achieve independence.

Mark Riccobono drives the Virginia Tech Blind Driver Challenge vehicle through
an obstacle course of traffic cones on a campus parking lot. Team leader
Greg Jannaman sits in the passenger's seat, monitoring the software.
Credit: Steven Mackay, Virginia Tech

"This is sort of our ‘going to the moon’ project," he said. "Blind people have brains, the capacity to make decisions and want to live independent lives. Why would they not want to drive?"





The idea of designing a car that gives a blind motorist complete control of the steering wheel, just like a sighted driver, threw up various challenges. For one, the laser range sensor scanning the car’s environment needs to relay the information back to the driver very quickly and accurately. So the RoMeLa team came up with a bunch of innovations.

The students developed non-visual interface technologies, including a vibrating vest for feedback on speed; a click-counter steering wheel with audio cues; spoken commands for directional feedback; and a unique tactile map interface that utilises compressed air to provide information about the road and obstacles surrounding the vehicle.

The acid test came on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus this summer.


"It was great!" said Wes Majerus, also of the Jernigan Institute and the first blind person to drive the buggy. “As far as the differences between human instructions and those given by the voice in the Blind Driver Challenge car, the car's instructions are very precise. You use the technology to act on the environment – the driving course – in a very orderly manner. In some cases, the human passenger will be vague, like saying ‘turn left’; (but) does that mean just a small turn to the left, or are we going for large amounts of turn?”



"There wasn't a moment's hesitation with any of our blind drivers, whereas blind-folded sighted drivers weren't as quick to let go of their preconceptions," said Blind Driving Challenge team leader Greg Jannaman. "The blind drivers actually performed better than their sighted counterparts. An overwhelming sense of accomplishment overcame me as I simply rode along while Wes and Mark successfully navigated the driving course without my assistance."


But the project isn’t done yet, as the team plans to refine almost every element and make some major changes too. The first priority is to replace the dirt buggy vehicle with a fully electric car. The all-electric vehicle would reduce the vibration which can cause problems to the laser sensor, and it will provide clean electric power for the computing units and that is better for the environment.

While Google is still working on Chrome OS for Netbooks, people have already managed to create a version of Android for x86! Meaning it will run on your PCs or laptop, or in a virtual environment such as VirtualBox or VMWare.

Running Android on a PC has been possible since a long time, as an emulator is included with the Android SDK. However the project called "liveandroid" is more than just an effort to run Android on a PC. The aim of the project is to create a version of Android for the PC which will make it possible for people to actually use Android as their OS.


You can download "liveandroid" from its page on Google Code. It is available as a live CD, as an iso file which you need to download and burn to a disc (or use a virtual machine), although future versions are likely to include support for installation to a hard disk or atleast a liveUSB version.


Currently Android is not suitable as a replacement OS for PCs as it is entirely built around running on mobiles and much of its functionality and features are built around that. Even in the current v0.2 build of "liveandroid", you will find telling signs reminding you that this is an operating system for mobiles. you will most probably be greeted with a battery low warning as you boot into the OS, a call manager, and a keyboard layout that's sure to have your head spinning.


The project is in it's beginning stages and of course such things are to be expected. As a v0.2 it is merely a tasty snack to consume while contemplating a much more scrumptious

The day Microsoft announced Project Natal for the Xbox 360, a friend and I were talking about how cool it would be to have this technology on your Windows PC. The conversation went so far as to state that this could be an actual game-changing user interface, much in the same way that the iPhone changed the touchscreen world. Well, apparently we shouldn’t have been talking on Windows Messenger, because someone gave Bill Gates the chat logs.

In the same interview with CNET News where he finally spoke about what he thinks of Google’s Chrome OS, Gates also talked about porting the depth-sensing cameras to the PC.

“(It is) not just for games, but for media consumption as a whole,” the former Microsoft CEO said. “I think the value is as great for if you're in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it's very cool there.”

It’s a tantalizing idea: Imagine lying down on a bed while watching a movie, and simply using your fingers to operate the playback slider, volume control and other features. Or you could be in the kitchen and you want to skip to the next track playing on your PC. One snap of your fingers would be all it takes. The possibilities are endless…

And Gates isn’t just focusing on the home. Microsoft’s core business is corporations, so he obviously wants to take it into office environments.

“They (could) connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication,” he explained.

Sounds great! We’re waiting, Bill.

Forget about hunky Austrians, it is more likely that insects will be the first cyborgs!

Ryohei Kanzaki of Tokyo University's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology has set his mind to develop an electronic equivalent of an insect brain, an exercise that will help in our understanding of how brains work, even our own.

According to Kanzaki, "It will be possible to recreate an insect brain with electronic circuits in the future. This would lead to controlling a real brain by modifying its circuits."

The human brain has as many as 100 billion neurons forming a network so complicated the internet aught to be ashamed itself. Insects on the other hand have about a 100 thousand, making it much easier to duplicate its intricacies.


Male moths which can trace the smell of a mate from as much as a kilometer away, were genetically modifies so that they wold react to light instead of odour, or the odour some other moth.


Using this they were even able to make a moth drive an electric toy car using the smell of a female moth, (man, what these insects do for a little cooch!). The insect was even able to steer the vehicle correctly when they simulated the effect of a flat tyre. Even using a severed head of an insect (RIP) they were able to wire up the controls and make the insect-car hybrid drive itself.

As the source suggests such technology could also be used by scientists to create robots capable of detecting drugs from miles away, or finding people buried under buildings.

This isn't the end of the line tough, as Kanzaki says:
"Our brain turns the car into an extension of our body... an insect brain may be able to drive a car like we can. I think they have the potential.

It isn't interesting to make a robo-worm that crawls as slowly as the real one. We want to design a machine which is far more powerful than the living body."

We wonder how this would work with EATR. A robotics project that intends to create robotic devices which can feed on organic materials for energy! Twenty years form now your insect could be driving your car through the jungle eating squirrels and nuts on the way. One this is clear though, if Skynet does take over.. it wont have a difficult time finding and eating all humans alive.

You heard that right! Move over Schwarzenegger! Skynet would rather use insects!

Cords? Wires? A Sony Jedi craves not these things! Or so it seems, since the company has come out with an all-in-one MP3 player that wraps around your head – a bit like those fancy Motorola Bluetooth headsets that were all the rage a while back.


The new Sony NWZ-W202 Walkman MP3 player is targeted at joggers and others for whom “being active” is more than just a green dot on their GTalk.

The player offers 2GB of built-in flash memory to store your songs, which is roughly 500 tracks recorded at a bit rate of 128kbps.


The 13.5mm EX series headphones, of course, are part of the device itself, and a few reviews peg them as having great bass output for their size. Still, the inability to change the headphones might be a dealbreaker for some audiophiles. The headphones also have a jog dial with playback buttons, the volume control options and a shuffle switch.


Naturally, this gizmo doesn’t have an LED screen, so the default mode of listening is through Shuffle. However, the ‘Zappin’ feature allows you to use the jog dial to listen to a few seconds of each song. It sounds cool, but in practicality, it might be a bit tiresome.


A full charge of the NWZ-202 – carried out via USB – will allow about 12 hours of continuous music playback. There’s also a three-minute quick-charge function that will give you 90 minutes of playback. Nice!





Available in black, white, pink, violet and lime, is a price tag of Rs 4,990 enticing enough to discard the cords?

In the age of the Internet, it’s difficult to keep things under wraps till you launch a product. Microsoft’s announcement of Office 2010 is still a few hours away, but since its page went up a while ago, Google already cached it!
The biggest news out of the launch is, without doubt, the introduction of the Office Web suite of applications, which will be taking on Google Docs. Microsoft has finally realized the value of ‘free’ as Word, Excel and PowerPoint will have free-to-use online versions, accessible via your Windows Live account.
Based on that cached page and TechCrunch’s guide, here are some of the salient features of Office 2010:

1. Office Web 2010:
a) Word, Excel and PowerPoint will look the same as they do in their desktop versions, complete with the popular ‘ribbon’ interface from Office 2007.
b) You can directly publish documents from your desktop Office suite to the online Office Web suite, and work on it in any browser. Almost all browsers are supported, as MS is working out the chinks in running the suite on Google Chrome.
2. Word 2010:
a) Multiple users can work on the same file at the same time. Details of how this will happen haven’t been released, but MS has said that as you make changes, the program will alert the other users to update the document for the same. The collaboration, however, will not be available in the Web version.
b) Copy-paste functionalities have received a boost, and Word 2010 will also be able to handle taking screenshots and embedding them into the document.
3. Excel 2010:
a) A new feature called Sparklines gives a visual snapshot image of a data trend over time within a cell.
4. PowerPoint 2010:
a) Video and image editing will be integrated into PowerPoint, with the former option being akin to Apple’s iMovie, while image-editing is like a stripped-down version of Photoshop.
5. Outlook 2010:
a) The ‘ribbon’ interface has been included into all Office 2010 Apps, including Outlook.
b) The inbox layout has also changed, with a new message-tree-like appearance.
c) The ‘Ignore conversation’ feature will allow users to remove themselves from irrelevant email strings.

A free, online version of MS-Office will undoubtedly have a lot of people trusting the cloud more, because no matter what Google Docs has to offer, MS-Office is still MS-Office! Without doubt, there is lots more to come from the Redmond-based software giant when it makes its official announcement. And we will keep you updated as more news breaks…

Does using your laptop for a long duration usually end up with a burning sensation at uncomfortable spots? And according to Logitech, 43 per cent of consumers are worried that excessive notebook heat can slow or damage their PC.
The numbers might be a bit bloated, but the discomfort caused by a hot laptop is quite real. So here’s a nifty little solution that should ensure your thighs never have to bear the brunt of extreme temperatures again.
Logitech’s N100 notebook cooling pad claims to improve the airflow around your laptop, by using a built-in fan that that uses a rear air intake to circulate air via a slotted surface.
The cooling pad is powered by USB, which claims to have very little effect on your notebook PC’s battery life.
Weighing about 650 grams, the device can support laptops with a screen size not more than 15.4 inches. And yes, Macbooks work fine with this too.
Covered by three years of warranty, the N100 cooling pad retails at Rs 1995. More details about the gadget can be found

Ever notice the word "Malmo" emblazoned across the face of Android's analog clock widget? That's a subtle nod to the city where the Swedish design team called TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) is headquartered -- a group of nerds responsible for finessing the look and feel of the T-Mobile G1's user interface including such innovations as the window shade menu and 9-point visual key-lock. In fact, TAT's software prowess can be seen on the Samsung Instinct, S60 handsets from Nokia, and a variety of devices from Motorola and Sony Ericsson. So when TAT releases a new "3Deyetracking UI" concept that lets you see behind on-screen objects, well, you can bet that the entire cellphone industry is paying attention. Check the video after the break.

Read -- TAT's industry influence
Here!....

Can you see 5 dimensions? Can you even imagine what they could be like? Well some people still manage to think 5D.


At the Centre for Micro-Photonics at the Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria, Australia reasearch led by its director Min Gu has lead to the development of a new material on which data can be stored in 5 dimensions.


Five dimensions may seem absurd, but dimensions here represent how many parameter are used in locating the data. in Today we have CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs which store data in two dimension (or 3). In CDs the data is stored in a spiral, with the two dimensions being those of the surface of recording. With DVDs and Blu-Rays there is the additional concept of layers, which add another dimension to data storage, but not by much. Holographic discs, which are still under development store data in 3 dimensions by having hundreds or thousands of layers instead of just 2 or 4.


The new material can be used to store data 5 dimensionally, using the three spatial dimensions (the 2D surface, and the layers), with the two additional dimensions being the polarization of the laser used to store data and its wavelength. Needless to say this can have a huge impact on how much data we can cram into the discs of tomorrow.


In their studies they used 3 different wavelengths and two different polarizations to achieve a density as great as 1.1 terrabyte per square inch!


With each additional dimension the storage capacity increases greatly. Taing Blu-Ray for example, with an increase in layers, the storage is increased to twice its size (50GB) using two layers, or quadrupled by using 4 layers (100GB). If now the parameter of wavelength is introduced, then by using just 3 different wavelengths as done in their study, the storage capacity of a quad-layer BluRay becomes 300GB. With the added parameter of polarization, with two possible polarizations, we can double the capacity to 600GB, for our quad-layer, triple-wavelength, dual-polarization disk.


This material is made up of “layers of gold nanorods suspended in clear plastic spun flat on a glass substrate”. According to Min Gu. "You can record each bit by one laser pulse, The writing laser melts and reshapes the gold particles, which are less than 100 nanometers long. The changes affect how the nanorods interact with light from a laser-imaging system, allowing the data to be read.”


Wer're trading in our Blu-Ray's NOW!

The iPhone 3GS has some great new features, but some users are finding they have to disable them in order to stretch the handset's battery life. "Why would anyone get an iPhone if they had to 'turn off everything fancy?'" objected blogger Pete Mortensen in a discussion on Cult of Mac. "I got it to be a PC, not a slick feature phone."

The Apple-focused blogosphere is still chugging along, even as the summer sun starts pounding down. Aside from some reports of overheating iPhones, more and more users seem to be using external battery packs to give their iPhones a new boost of juice.

Meanwhile, the 13-inch MacBook Apple Store Discount on Office 2008 for Mac - Home and Student Edition . Click here. Pro seems to be selling surprisingly well, and tracks left behind by an elusive next-generation iPod touch have been spotted in the wild.

Got a Green Battery?

While Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) More about Apple new MacBooks have been getting good reviews for the long lives of their built-in batteries, the iPhone still isn't getting battery raves. Take Pete Mortensen, posting on Cult of Mac, who writes, "if you're actually interested in using the phone for its intended use (web browsing, e-mail Grow Your Business-Fast! Sign up for a FREE trial of Infusionsoft and double your sales in 12 months. and video), battery life is ridiculously inadequate. In spite of assurances at WWDC, the 3GS only lasts marginally longer than the 3G, and I often need to charge up mid-afternoon to make sure i have decent battery for my train ride home."

While some owners are getting battery life they consider excellent, it difficult to say if they are actually using their iPhones all that much.

"I must admit, I have been considering buying a battery pack," commented Kev Robinson on the Cult of Mac post. "Since I upgraded from my 3G the battery life seems worse than ever. I could previously go to uni 10-6 and it would still be going strong but now that rarely happens. I have to put screen brightness right down and turn off wifi and 3G. It's the only downside to the iPhone, but it is a hell of a downside."

But do you really need an extra external battery?

"Seriously, turn off Push. That thing is a killer for battery," commented Bob Williams.

"Turn the screen to auto and half brightness. Once you've run it in stock settings with everything fancy turned off (even try turning off 3G), you'll see a dramatic increase in battery. Either that or stop using it as a PC," he added.

"Why would anyone get an iPhone if they had to 'turn off everything fancy?'" chimed in Mortensen. "I got it to be a PC, not a slick feature phone."
3G Is Slower With 3.0

Joel Johnson's review of the Mophie Juice Pack Air on Boing Boing Gadgets sparked similar comments.

"My complaints about the iPhone battery stem not from games (I think I have two on there), but from email -- if you use it like you'd use a Blackberry and have a busy day, the 3G's battery is toast in seven hours," commented IHAVESEENENOUGH.

The whole battery issue brings up a lot of questions, certainly, not the least of which is what's going on with older iPhone 3G units that owners haven't upgraded to the 3GS? There've been some rumblings that 3G owners might be losing juice faster than before. Some, of course, turned on push capabilities to test finding their iPhones via Mobile Me and Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 software update. So, might newly noted battery issues be focused all on push?

"iPhone OS 3.0 is backwards compatible with all iPhones but was written for iPhone 3GS," said Chris Hazelton, research director of mobile and wireless for the 451 Group.

"The performance and responsiveness of iPhone 3G using 3.0 OS is slower, particularly noticeable with the accelerometer. This affects battery performance as well, in that 3.0 OS is designed to work with the more power efficient 3GS -- so 3G users are seeing reduced battery life after software update," he told MacNewsWorld.

"Compared to other smartphones, iPhone has always trailed in battery performance due to a large high-resolution touchscreen, 3G/WiFi connectivity, and [because] users use it more than traditional smartphones. ... It is more comfortable for browsing and gaming -- two power-intensive activities," he added.

As for push, the feature means means the iPhone is constantly pinging email servers, Hazelton said.

"Turning this off means iPhone only polls the server once every 5 minutes or more, so it's much more power-efficient to keep off," he explained. "But that's not acceptable for many enterprise users."
MacBook Sales Ramp Back Up

MacBook sales will be strong during the third quarter of 2009, expects Piper Jaffray's Apple-focused analyst Gene Munster, according to reports. It seems Apple has been having trouble keeping its new 13-inch MacBook Pro in stock. The former 13-inch MacBook not only gained the "pro" moniker and some pro-only benefits, like an improved screen and backlit keyboard, but also picked up a lower price.

"Either because Apple didn't plan well enough, or customers were encouraged by the price, Apple's Web site shows that it's now a 7-to-10-day delay to order one of the 13-inch MacBook Pro configurations," noted Erica Ogg on Cnet.com.

Regardless of seemingly new popularity, not everyone is completely happy.

"I argue that, in spite of soaring MacBook sales, it could be better if Apple offered matte screens," commented MacMatte2009 on the Cnet.com post on the subject.

And reader kelmon, who currently uses a 17-inch MBP with a matte screen but would prefer a 15-inch MBP, added, "I suspect that I'm going to be sticking with a 17" model next time but I am consistently amazed that Apple does not at least offer the Build To Order option of an anti-glare display for the 15" model despite customer demand for one. By all means offer the 15" MBP with a glossy display by default but at least provide the option of an anti-glare one for those that need it."
Next-Gen iPod Touch Spotted in the Wild

Pinch Media has started detecting the "iPod 3,1" version number in its analytics reporting from App Store applications. The currently shipping iPod touch is model "iPod 2,1" so this new track left by the device is believed to make it an upcoming iPod touch.

Pinch Media seems to believe that someone is testing the iPod.

"The first time an application using Pinch Analytics was run by a 'iPod3,1' device occurred in late April 2009," PinchMedia reported, adding, "Applications using Pinch Analytics were run by 'iPod 3,1' devices very infrequently until late May 2009, when the pace picked up slightly. As of this date, a few dozen distinct 'iPod 3,1' devices have run around two dozen different applications using Pinch Analytics."

On the MacRumors.com post on the subject, readers jumped at the chance to speculate on the specs.

"64 Gb, Camera Video, Voice Control iPod, that'd be enough to last me until my AT&T (NYSE: T) More about AT&T contract is up, along with Apple and AT&T's too!" commented angemon89.

"I hope it's a little faster than the iPhone 3GS, has a GPS/compass built-in and has the option of a 3G internet card (so that you can use the internet with it, but not make phone calls.)," added djgamble.

No matter what, September has been the historical month for Apple to introduce new iPods, so we'll have to wait until then to get our hands on one.

FORT BAKER, Calif.--As data moves to the cloud, attackers and thieves will follow, a federal prosecutor said on Friday.

Matthew Parrella, assistant U.S. attorney
(Credit: Elinor Mills/CNET News)

The days of tracking down software counterfeiters in other countries who are selling pirated CDs are numbered as companies increasingly distribute software and store data online via hosted computing services, Matthew Parrella, an assistant U.S. attorney based in San Jose, Calif., said at Symantec's Norton Cyber Crime Day.

"That model of importation of software is becoming obsolete because we're seeing on the horizon cloud computing where so many of these operations are pushed from a user's PC or a user's computer onto Google Docs or Salesforce.com," he said.

Looking ahead five years, "I'm thinking the attack is going to be on cloud computing centers," said Parrella, chief of the computer hacking and intellectual property unit at the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The immediate threat will be attacks to steal data from the servers they are stored on, either remotely or by an insider or someone who gains access to the data center, he said. Later on it's likely any stolen data could be pirated, he said.

Parrella spends a lot of time prosecuting counterfeit software cases, as well as trade secret theft, he said.

His office also has been tracking a botnet for a long time that has grown to include 100,000 or so compromised computers.

"We don't know what it does," he said. "That's the type of threat we're looking to prosecute...malware that may lead to distributed denial of service attacks."

Parella declined to comment on the most recent DDOS attacks that have targeted Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea since the July 4 weekend.

FBI agent Donna Peterson said her office had seen a "tremendous uptick in large-scale, fairly devastating data breaches," with the biggest heist being close to $10 million stolen in 24 hours.

Cyberthieves "are getting more organized and their technical sophistication is better," she said. "They do what they need to get the job done...if they can use a 5-year-old exploit in conjunction with an exploit that they paid a programmer in another country $60,000 to (write), they will do it."

Cybercriminals can spend anywhere from two weeks to six weeks to completely own a corporate target's computer system so completely that "you won't even know that they're there," she said.

Businesses have opened on a Monday morning only to discover that so much money has been stolen since employees went home on Friday that they are no longer solvent and there is no record on their systems of the activity, Peterson said.

Also on the cybercrime panel was San Jose Police Sergeant Edward Schroder, who talked about how he spends his time investigating fraud related to sites like eBay and Craigslist, Nigerian or lottery scams, and money mule or work-from-home scams.

Schroder also said he gets a fair share of cases involving phishing attempts and e-mail extortion cases in which someone's life is threatened if someone don't pay the hired killer money.

Since more than 95 percent of all information is electronic and it's estimated that upwards of 97 billion emails are sent each day, it is no wonder that every lawsuit has electronic evidence. All IT shops protect themselves from disaster with the knowledge that every computer will fail, but computer systems are not designed to provide easy access for lawyers and judges.


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In today's world, it is no wonder that every lawsuit has electronic evidence. Unfortunately, for the most part, lawyers and judges do not understand IT or the Internet. As a result, litigation generally misses the mark regarding what is now referred to as "ESI," or electronically stored information. It is in your best interest to learn more about the legal issues regarding e-discovery to be prepared, since surely everyone reading this article will be impacted in the future, if not already.

Litigation in the United States is controlled by state or federal court systems, or, alternatively, by private arbitrations governed by the rules of the American Arbitration Association -- or some other organization, like JAMS, which is a leading private alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider.

Most people are familiar with the trial system because of television and movies, but are unfamiliar with arbitrations in which the hearing (rather than trial) is conducted by non-judges of one to three panel members (most often lawyers, but sometimes industry experts).

IT has become an integral part of the search for ESI in virtually every lawsuit, but lawyers do not always know what to ask or, even worse, how to interpret the answers received back from IT. So, this article will give some advice about what IT needs to be aware of in order to be prepared.
What Is Discovery?

Generally, after a lawsuit or arbitration is filed, there's a period of time referred to as "discovery" that extends to just before the trial or hearing. Simply put, this is a time when each party of the suit has a chance to ask questions of the other parties. Each side is entitled to inquire about the claims and defenses, so that when the trial occurs there are no surprises. In fact, if a party withholds information, it may be penalized by losing the trial -- or a mistrial may be called by the judge or arbitration panel. The evidence that is collected in discovery is used at the trial or arbitration hearing to prove or disprove specific claims.

There are four primary categories of discovery:

* written questions referred to as "interrogatories";
* requests for the production of documents and things;
* requests for admissions; and
* oral testimony called "depositions."

For the most part, there are limits on each category, but since ESI is fundamental to every lawsuit today, it is best to have a basic understanding of each type. Interrogatories, document requests, and requests for admissions usually include definitions, and in today's world, they mostly detail IT or Internet issues related to the dispute.

The types of discovery requests included in interrogatories regarding ESI can include items such as these: "Describe the procedures for daily backup of the email system"; "When did you start using Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) More about Google Analytics to measure traffic on your Website?" or "List all employees who had passwords to the Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) More about Oracle Financial database from January 20, 2003, through May 9, 2005." Under most procedures, the responding party has 30 days to send its answers or objections to the questions posed, all of which can be challenged for completeness or accuracy.

Document requests may include a request for all emails from certain individuals during a defined time period; all reports from a certain financial system; or copies of correspondence between specific individuals or departments. Under most rules, the guidelines for producing answers to requests state that these documents be produced in their native electronic format rather than in paper, tiff or pdf.

Parties are not required to create items that do not exist, but ESI is different from paper, tiff or pdf, so the ability for IT to respond to these document requests requires an understanding of the issues in the litigation, strategies for your business, and defenses to claims of the other side.

Requests for admissions are exactly that; one side sends the other a series of questions that they either admit are true or deny -- for instance, "Admit or deny that all emails sent by Jane Doe were not saved between June 27, 2001, and September 10, 2003"; "Admit or deny that John Doe broke through the firewall and stole financial records on December 6, 2004"; or "Admit or deny that Richard Roe was fired without cause."

Depositions under most state and federal rules are limited to six or seven hours, during which individuals are asked questions before a court reporter (maybe a video camera as well) with lawyers representing each party present. Questions in depositions can be far-ranging, and the lawyers cannot really coach the deponent (the person who is answering the questions). However, since few lawyers really understand IT, even if they ask IT deponents questions, they may not understand a technical answer, so logical follow-up may not occur. Sometimes lawyers will bring their IT experts to depositions so they can coach the lawyers about probing IT issues. Under the discovery rules, an IT professional can be deposed by a category of "the person or persons most knowledgeable" about lists of things like email, backups, databases, Web sites related to the lawsuit, and the like.
Records Retention Policies

Because ESI has become fundamental to litigation, companies need to have a records retention policy; otherwise, how can a company explain to a judge why certain ESI was retained or deleted? Clearly, different industries and businesses are subject to state and federal regulations and laws that require retention of records, such as seven years for IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and 50 years for FDA (Food & Drug Administration). So every company needs to analyze what types of records it has and which need to be retained.

When you become aware that a lawsuit may occur, the records retention policy must be changed regarding records relevant to the litigation. The legal term for this is "litigation hold"; however, the rules of evidence have always required potential litigants to save evidence, and if they destroy critical evidence, they lose their case because of the intentional destruction, which is call "spoliation."

Of course, before ESI became critical, records generally were only paper stored in file cabinets or the desks of the individuals involved in the dispute. Now, ESI is managed and controlled by IT, and as result, IT has a critical role in all litigation. The records retention policy may state that certain accounting records are retained for seven years for tax purposes, but the IT backup procedures will likely have no means to search old backup media to delete old records. Likewise, if the accounting data is part of an SQL database, it is likely that IT would not be inclined to search old records and delete out-of-date information.
Disaster Recovery

Everyone in IT knows that each computer will fail at some time. Every box has components with an MTBF (mean time between failures), so failure or disaster are a fundamental part of the use of IT. Accordingly, IT plans for these failures or disasters by doing routine backup of systems and data to avoid business interruption. As an example, when my office Apple Store Discount on Office 2008 for Mac - Home and Student Edition . Click here. had a flood on the 33rd floor of our building and our data center was shut down, our business was not adversely impacted, since we had good backup procedures already in place.

IT sees backup as a disaster recovery issue; however, judges and lawyers think that copies of ESI are easily available to them since IT does backups regardless of the systems involved. As a result, before litigation -- and at least by the point of litigation hold -- it is essential that IT and lawyers communicate about what ESI is available, in what format, and for what timeframe.
Pivotal Cases

In 2006, the federal rules of civil procedure (and since then, many state rules as well) were changed to specifically deal with ESI. If you have been reading any reports of trials, you will know that there have been some very high-profile companies that have lost millions of dollars as a result of destruction of emails (Zubulake v. UBS), failing to provide all 14,000 backup tapes of emails during discovery (Coleman v. Morgan Stanley), or hiding more than 41,000 relevant emails (Qualcomm Inc (Nasdaq: QCOM) More about Qualcomm. v. Broadcom). All of these cases could have avoided such litigation disaster had the lawyers and IT been communicating.

When evidence has been destroyed (spoliated), a judge or arbitration panel can grant a verdict against the destroying party, fine the party, or issue an adverse inference to the jury. An adverse inference directs the jury to assume that the reason the party destroyed the evidence was that it was adverse to its claims in the lawsuit. Most of the time, juries will accept the judge's instructions and agree that the evidence destroyed was damaging, which is what happened in the Zubulake and Coleman cases.
In Conclusion

Judges and arbitration panels are having to come to grips with the fact that they have to understand ESI, since every case has some critical evidence that is only electronic. However, only about 5 percent of the cases filed actually go to trial, and most litigation is settled during the discovery process.

Clearly, IT has a role in every lawsuit because of ESI. As a result, the better prepared IT is for litigation, the better things will turn out.

Americans no longer believe the U.S. leads the world in scientific accomplishments, suggest the results of a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Further, many Americans do not agree with scientific consensus on a variety of issues, such as the role of humans in global warming and the evolution of species. Scientists blame the media, in part, for the disconnect.

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U.S. science, medicine and technology were under the microscope in the latest survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, and one finding that's generating headlines is that only 17 percent of the public participants held the belief that American scientific achievements are the best in the world.

However, the people who write those headlines and do the reporting on science, medicine and technology -- the media -- also got low grades from the scientists who were surveyed. Their view was that newspapers and television news oversimplify science coverage and don't do enough to separate sound science research from that which is not.

That particular insight comes at a time when many major media organizations at the local and national level are cutting back on science, health and technology reporting, laying off or offering buyouts to experienced science journalists.

Those cutbacks don't bode well for a clear-headed examination of science issues that are getting more mainstream news attention, such as climate change or stem-cell research, suggested the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which bills itself as the country's largest general scientific society.

"That's, of course, of tremendous concern to us, because the science journalism community has done a wonderful job in helping convey to the public not only the importance of science and the content of science, but also the excitement of science," Alan Leshner, PhD, told TechNewsWorld. "I think that's really scary."
Media Impact on Public/Science Opinion

The AAAS took part in the Pew survey with a sample of 2,533 members answering questions; 2,001 members of the public responded to the survey, conducted between April and June.

The Pew Center neither takes positions on its findings nor suggests solutions to any problems discussed in the surveys, said Scott Keeter, director of survey research. Yet he does see some linkage between the results and the media; for example, an overwhelming 85 percent of the scientists surveyed expressed the belief that the public has a lack of basic scientific knowledge, which can pose a problem for science overall.

"Clearly, the combination of facts that the public is not particularly knowledgeable about science and that scientists feel that coverage by the media is partly responsible suggests that there is a bridge to be built there," Keeter told TechNewsWorld.

Forty-nine percent of the scientists also held the view that the public has unrealistic expectations about the speed of achievements in science.

"You might also put that back at the feet of the media," Keeter said. "The public expects solutions to problems too quickly, and that can be triggered by news coverage that suggests recent medical breakthroughs will lead to cures in the short run."

The media will give plenty of attention to hot-button issues like climate change and local controversies over the teaching of evolution in schools. Reporters covering those particular issues have already done some harm, said Leshner.

"Scientists for a very long time have complained about what's called 'the balance issue,' where journalists feel compelled to present both sides or all sides of an issue," he noted.

If there's no scientific disagreement, Leshner continued, reporters find somone to present a contrary political or ideological view. The public may not discriminate between a lay person and a scientist when watching the coverage.

"Stem cells is an issue where there's a great disconnect between the public and scientific views," observed Leshner.
Media Not Solely to Blame

If scientists are going to be quick to blame the media for sloppy reporting or faulty public perceptions, "they also need to blame themselves," Leshner suggested, "because there's a tremendous need, an obligation, and an opportunity for scientists to reach out to the public, and they need to do it far more than they ever have in the past."

Other Pew survey findings highlight his point regarding areas of science that have generated headlines and controversy:

* While 84 percent of the scientists surveyed were convinced human activity like burning fossil fuels is causing higher global temperatures, just 49 percent of the public agreed;
* 87 percent of scientists maintained that humans have developed via evolution and natural selection; only 32 percent of the public agreed.
* 93 percent of the scientists favored animal testing in science research; 52 percent of the public agreed;
* 93 percent of scientists surveyed wanted the government to fund embryonic stem-cell research; just 58 percent of the public survey respondents thought federal funds should be used.

Some of the survey's other findings:

* Only 12 percent of the public viewed space exploration and the 1969 moon landing as the greatest scientific achievement of the past 50 years. In 1999, 18 percent of those surveyed had that opinion.
* 27 percent of the public viewed scientific advancements in general as one of America's greatest achivements, down from 47 percent 10 years ago;
* 84 percent of the public respondents indicated a "mostly positive" view of scientists;
* 70 percent of the public believed scientists contribute "a lot" to society's well-being;
* No surprise here: More than 80 percent of scientists viewed a lack of funding as a serious impediment to scientific research and progress

So Google’s coming out with its own operating system based on the Chrome browser, and it will be a portal to the Web since we are all going towards cloud computing anyway. But why announce the Chrome OS now, out of the blue and with hardly any details? Some Internet pundits seem to think it’s because of Microsoft’s upcoming announcement on Monday.


What the announcement is from the Redmond giant is not known, although speculation is through the roof. The entire series of conjectures, rumours and speculations was fuelled by blogger Robert Scoble on his FriendFeed account, where he said: “Why did Google announce Chrome OS this week? Well, of course, Microsoft has a big announcement coming on Monday (I’m embargoed).”


The hot favourite rumour is the introduction of Gazelle, a Web browser by Microsoft Research that is essentially better at protecting your system from various Web-based attacks, and making it a smoother experience when the world moves towards Web Apps.


In no way has Gazelle been indicated as a replacement to MS-Windows or Internet Explorer. Think of it more as an independent browser that is “made with the expertise that comes with several years of developing an OS,” as researcher Helen Wang puts it.


Still, what Microsoft seems more likely to announce is the introduction of Office Web – a full, free online suite of Office applications to take on Google Docs.


Scoble has hinted that "part of the Microsoft announcement on Monday runs on Google Chrome (and Firefox for that matter)."

Keith Combs, a Microsoft evangelist, has also Tweeted recently about testing a “super secret” Microsoft software that he can’t talk about till next week.


We can’t wait for Monday to come around. Let’s hope it’s both Gazelle and Office Web!

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@ Tech Guru