Nokia unveiled three new phone models

Nokia unveiled three new phone models and said its new Booklet 3G will go on sale for about 575 euros ($820).

Nokia smartphone on line-up to better compete with Apple and put a price on the new laptop leading its foray into the fiercely-competitive netbook market. Nokia has major challenges on developing user experience, and might have to wait for a significant improvement until the second half of next year. Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last few quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could further depress earnings. Nokia had to do it. You see more and more PC guys getting into the mobile operators

With the move into laptops, Nokia is crossing the border between two converging industries from the opposite direction to Mac-maker Apple, which entered the phone industry in 2007 with the iPhone.

The handset announcements, the latest moves by the Finnish firm to match Apple’s innovation in a sector switching focus to services and software, left some analysts unimpressed.

What makes Microsoft to launch Office 2010 version for the Mac

What makes Microsoft to launch Office 2010 version for the Mac?

A survey taken in the fourth quarter of last year by the ITIC/Sunbelt Software group found that more than two-thirds of businesses were open to integrating Macs into the IT infrastructure and more than 50 percent of respondents wanted to further integrate Macs with iPhones.

The recent announcement of an Office 2010 version for the Mac, it’s understandable that Microsoft wants to take a bite out of money-making Apple. Mac users has been steadily growing in the corporate environment.

These days, it doesn’t take much to get Windows apps to run on Macs. The reason for this, however, is due less to the development of thick applications by PC software makers and more because of desktop virtualization. With applications like Parallels Desktop for Mac, it is easy to get Windows and respective applications up and running.

In fact, according to information compiled by Wakoopa, a social networking platform that tracks the software most widely used, VMWare Fusion is the 16th most installed application on the Mac. VMware Fusion being, of course, another desktop virtualization product. Web-based applications also are an alternative to a local install of Office for Mac users.

However With all of the cloud-based productivity suites out there ability to use Outlook Web Access, is a local install of Outlook 2010 on Macs. Besides, the next iteration of OS X, Snow Leopard, will have inherent support for Exchange connectivity.

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2010 Beta and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta- Available For Downloads

Microsoft has released the first Beta version of its next-generation development platform and tools. Visual Studio 2010 Beta and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta are now available for download, in the first phase of broadening the testing process. For the time being, access to the Beta bits is limited to just MSDN subscribers.

The public downloads of Visual Studio 2010 Beta and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta are not that far behind. In fact, the software giant plans to start serving the Beta for the successors of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 tomorrow, May 20, 2009.

The .NET Framework is an integral Windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and Web services

The next generation of Microsoft’s development platforms and tools are synchronized with the evolution of the company’s software products. In this context, the focus with Visual Studio 2010 Beta and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta is on parallel programming, but also Cloud and web development. Developers will be able to enjoy an overhauled graphical user interface and leverage the results of Microsoft’s efforts to democratize Application Lifecycle Management via Visual Studio Team System 2010.

The Senior vice president in Developer Division S. Somasegar said that, if you are a MSDN subscriber, you can [already] download the Beta. For the rest of the world, the Beta will be publicly available on Wednesday. He also said that we have more work to do in terms of finishing up the feature work for some of the scenarios and getting to the right levels of quality and performance, but we have made enough progress that we wanted to start getting your feedback. As with any software development process, getting customer feedback in a timely manner helps us make better products. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback on this beta.

Bharti Airtel – The first Indian telecom to have 100 million users

Bharti Airtel, which launched its mobile operations in Delhi (1995). On Friday it announced that it has become the first Indian telecom to have 100 million users. Others which have achieved the milestone are China Mobile and China Unicom.

Bharti Airtel the country’s largest mobile phone operator looking at big-ticket acquisitions abroad in its quest to double its subscriber base, after it became the third Telecom in the world to have more than 100 million customers on a single network.

Bharti’s chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said that If we focus on India alone, we will reach 200 million (users) in the next two-and-a-half years, but this will happen much faster if we make an acquisition.

The Singapore’s largest telecom operator SingTel, which owns 30% in Bharti, said that it would be happy to increase its holding in Bharti. Mr Mittal said he would play a global role within the company as it seeks to expand outside India. My job is to get 100 million from outside, while the Airtel team here will get the next 100 million from here. We want to take our success story, which is built on low cost, high volumes and high minutes of usage to the world.

On the ongoing controversy over the allocation of spectrum, the airwaves on which mobile signals travel, he said that the telco would have no objection if the government decided to allot this scarce resource through auctions.

Earlier this year, it hired German communications major T-Mobile’s chief technology officer Joachim Horn and just prior to that, it had roped in B Srikanth from Unilever UK and Shireesh Joshi from beverages and chips maker PepsiCo China. Bharti has been lining up top global talent of late and analysts say the hiring of these top executives could be an indication that the telecom is arming itself for a big-ticket acquisition.

Sony has announced the launch of the world’s thinnest LCD TV in India

Sony has announced the launch of the world’s thinnest LCD TV in India along with dozens of other new models to strengthen their current crop of offerings in the mid to high end segment.

The highlight of the launch was the announcement of the Bravia ZX1, which at 9.9mm happens to be the world’s thinnest 40″ LCD TV. And soon it will be on sale in India! Apart from being slim, this one is quite light as well, tipping the scales at just 15.5 kg..

The ZX1 features:

* Bravia Engine2
* Edge LED technology
* Motionflow 100Hz
* Image Blur reduction as image techniques to reproduce premium pictures with vivid and vibrant tonal range.
* TV supports a Full HD display resolution of 1920 X 1080 pixels.
* The Sony Bravia ZX1 actually consumes less power than a light bulb.
* For easy integration with compatible BRAVIA products, it comes with Theatre Sync and possesses outstanding audio enhancement features like a digital amplifier, S-Force Surround, voice zoom and Dolby digital plus.
* The TV comes packed with four independent HDMI inputs, a PC input, composite inputs, component inputs, USB connection, and a RGB compatible SCART input.
* Wireless HD enables the users to enjoy Full HD quality images without any messy wires or cables.

Apart from the ZX1, the company has also announced the addition of as many as fourteen new TV’s to the S, V, W and Z series. The new TV’s launched will be priced between the Rs. 16,000 and Rs. 2.99 lakh range and will range from 20″ entertainers to 50″ monsters. The price of the ZX1 is yet to be announced.

Sony has also announced that it will now completely stop the sale of CRT’s and is awaiting the exhaustion of stocks at its dealers to concentrate on LCD’s and large screen TV’s.

The company has also registered a considerable growth in the number of large screen TV sales over the past year.

New search tools For Google search platform – Google Squared

Google Tuesday unveiled search tools for its Google search platform which includes Google Search Options and Google Squared. And also quirky planetarium-type application for Google Android phones called SkyMap.

Google’s search products vice president Marissa Mayer told that Google’s Searchology event in Mountain View. Google was looking to make its search tools better, more specific and more sophisticated than ever before certainly a Google prerogative as the search giant looks to maintain its heavyweight status and put even more distance between itself and the competition.

Google’s new tools also might say a lot about what it perceives its market-share competition to be. Google Search Options, for example, allows users to “slice and dice” data according to different metrics, including how recently certain page results were updated. The flavor there? Realtime. And realtime, as everybody knows is something associated with platforms like Twitter and other social networking services. Last month, Google-to-buy-Twitter rumorl was churning at full speed, one of the key selling points, observers noted at the time, was that having a Twitter-like platform in its stable would push Google toward a realtime search engine capability.

Another new features is Google Squared which search, creates a spreadsheet of information on a particular topic, allowing the user a visual and line-by-line comparison of various results. Drawing together a broad collection of comparable data points, not just listing search results, is a key characteristic of WolframAlpha, the new search tool created by Mathematica idea man Stephen Wolfram. Google seems to fear competition from WolframAlpha about as much as it did Cuil, the sputtering search engine launched last summer by ex-Google employees. But Google’s interest in a similar approach to WolframAlpha also sends a clear message to potential Google challengers that they’d better get even more creative as Mountain View looks to stay ahead.

Hitwise also noted in its report that longer search queries are becoming more popular with the average search now employing three words or more – key piece of information to consider as Google and its rivals continue to tweak their search engines. The research firm Hitwise submitted search engine traffic data for April that suggests Google’s lead in the market continues to widen. According to Hitwise, nearly 73 percent of all online searches in the U.S. in April were through Google. Yahoo clocked in for April at 16.27 percent, Microsoft’s MSN Search claimed 5.68 percent and Ask.com claimed 3.95 percent.

Facebook in Indian Language

In order to gain some more footing from Indian citizens, Facebook has launched the local language version (translated) in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Users can change language settings through the ‘settings’ tab or through the language option on their Facebook homepage.

facebook1

Facebook looks towards expanding its over 200 million user base by reaching out to the vast Internet user community in local languages in India. Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam are the languages being offered.

However, Facebook is not yet enabled for transliteration ie conversion of English script into phonetics of other languages. The move is expected to bring in a substantial rise in Facebook users.

Orkut still leads the social networking race India, and with this Facebook hopes to connect to the Indian audience on a more local level.

New Firefox version Latest- Free Downloads

The new Firefox version is in the process of release soon. Now they are in the act of getting the feedback from the users. They have placed this free trial version in their webpage. So if you wish to download this version then click the below picture

This browser has many new features; some of the features I found while I tried this version are;

Private browsing is the main feature which is included in this version.

When we use this mode and browse the history will not be stored in the web page or any other source.
Includes private browsing, enhanced performance and other new features are present.

When you go to that link and see, we have flexible versions as per the users OS usage it supports are XP, MAC OS, Linux, etc..

Microsoft to Launch Next Generation Search Engine- Kumo

Although Microsoft is testing the search engine under the Kumo name, executives have said that is just one of several names the company is considering.

Microsoft has reportedly put up a clock in one of its buildings with a 40-day countdown to the launch of its next generation search engine, code named Kumo.

The search engine focuses on a couple of areas, including an attempt to break down a search query into a couple more detailed options. When searching, say, for the term “Audi,” Kumo breaks things down into an initial result with facts such as price and fuel economy pulled out in bold, followed by general Web results, then results by category, such as Audi parts, used Audis, and Audi accessories.

The software maker has been testing its search engine internally since last month, but has not said exactly when the service would launch. The countdown appears to roughly coincide with a speech from newly minted online boss Qi Lu, who is slated to speak at the SMX Advanced event on June 3. The timing also seems to coincide with reports that Microsoft plans a big ad campaign for its search engine starting this summer.

Yahoo-new music service

The new version of Yahoo Music, unveiled on Monday, aggregates paid and free music services available on the Internet, allowing Yahoo users to access and interact with the services directly from the Yahoo site.

Yahoo Inc is partnering with other online music providers as the Internet giant tries a fresh approach to getting an edge in the evolving digital music business.

The move comes a little over a year after Yahoo announced it was shuttering its own paid-music service, and is in keeping with the company’s latest efforts to make Yahoo a more open service by integrating products and services developed by other companies.

Visitors to the Yahoo Music site will be able to select from a variety modules representing the Web’s disparate music sites, including free, radio-like streaming audio services such as Pandora and last.fm, music videos from Google Inc’s, YouTube, and paid music downloads from iTunes and Amazon.com.

Yahoo Music was the No. 2 online music site in December, with 19.6 million unique visitors, according to research company ComScore. Time Warner Inc’s AOL Music was the top site with 24.6 million visitors, while News Corp’s MySpace Music ranked third with 17.2 million visitors. The new Yahoo Music-a major strategic shift for Yahoo.

Yahoo Music General Manager Michael Spiegelman said that We really want to focus on providing the service that’s most valuable to users, and then partner with third parties to provide the entire set of music services.