Finally the 'unlocked' iPhones are 'dead' !

Users are reporting that a new update to Apple Inc.'s iPhone is making previously unlocked iPhones unusable. The iPhone 1.1.1 update, released Thursday, breaks phones that have been hacked so that they work with providers other than AT&T Inc., the only U.S. provider Apple has allowed to carry its mobile phones.

Apple warned earlier this week that the iPhone update-which adds access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and fixes some security flaws-could permanently disable phones that have been already modified for use in networks other than AT&T Inc.,-its exclusive partner's network.

Security researcher Tom Ferris said the new software disabled a phone that had been unlocked using the open-source anySIM software in order to work on T-Mobile USA Inc.'s wireless network. After the update, the iPhone was stuck with an error message and apparently unusable. "It kept saying 'unsupported SIM card,' even with the AT&T SIM card in it," he said. "You can turn the phone off or on, but we just can't figure out how to get past this 'SIM card not supported'," he said.

There were reports online that employees at Apple stores were reviving or replacing some dead iPhones. But Ms. Bowcock. an Apple spokeswomen did not offer much hope to iPhone owners with problems: “If the damage was due to use of an unauthorized software application, voiding their warranty, they should purchase a new iPhone.”

Nokia to launch its new E51 Mobile phone

Nokia will be launching its E51 in India towards the end of next month. With the introduction of E51, the number of E-series phones available in the market would go up to seven (E50, E65, E90 communicator, E60, E61, E62 and E61i).

Introducing the product for the first time in India at a press conference here on Thursday, country general manager of the company, G. K. Chakrapani, said the product was launched in Europe and priced at 300 euro. However, the price of the product [in India] would be decided before the launch.

The slim E51, which was demonstrated, has many features. It has FM radio, music and multimedia players, 2 mega pixel camera, Nokia browser with a variety of Internet applications including interoperability with Windows Live, active notes, voice recorder, five-party conference calling, in-device search for finding data, video recording on 3G platform and MPEG-4.

It has a 130 MB of user data memory which is extendible up to 4 GB with microSD card, GPRS, remote and local synchronisation through Bluetooth 2.0 technology.

Thanks To Hindu-Business News

"Live Search" to compete with "Google Search"

Seeking to narrow the gap with Google, Microsoft Corp unveiled a retooled Web search service that aims to deliver more relevant results and combines text, video and other information onto a single page.

The overhauled Live Search, announced Wednesday, automatically packages results for some search queries -- such as celebrity, business and product names -- in a way that looks like a specially designed page on the subject, not a standard list of results.

The updates will be phased in by the end of the month, said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president for Microsoft's search and advertising group. Among them, he said, are improvements to the way Live Search interprets what users are looking for, even if they misspell a word, type in two separate words instead of a compound word or use a variation, like "driving" instead of "drive."

Live Search also will better detect what Nadella calls "stop words" — keywords or phrases that aren't considered unless there's a specific combination or context — like the name "Will Smith" in the U.S.

Apple warns against unlocked iPhones

Apple has warned that anyone attempting to unlock their iPhone to use with an unauthorised mobile network could find their phones irreparably damaged.

A few weeks ago, some teenager posted instructions about how to do it on YouTube. Since then, other hacks have surfaced, and the issue has become serious enough that Apple had to issue the warning late Monday against such actions.

The warning is likely to rankle the online community of programmers who have come up with various unlocking programs that permit users to reprogram the phones so that they can work on any wireless network based on the global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technical standard.

The company said that modified mobiles would become "permanently inoperable" once Apple updates were installed, i.e., Users with unlocked iPhones, in theory, might avoid the problems simply by not installing Apple software updates. That means they will then likely have to forgo new features Apple designs for the phones. Apple said its next iPhone-software update will be available later this week and will include the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, a new capability that will let users wirelessly download songs from iTunes.

MySpace occupies mobile space!

News Corp owned MySpace launched Monday a "free," mobile version of its Web site accessible to anyone with a standard Web-enabled cellphone.

The new site will work with all U.S. phone carriers and allow users to send and receive messages, comment on pictures, post bulletins, update blogs and request, find and search for friends.

Nothing is truly free, however: MySpace serves up ads to pay for the service. The new site loads two ads-one banner and one text snippet-for each visitor.

In coming months, the company-News Corp-also plans to offer a mobile version of Photobucket, its picture-sharing site, as well as mobile versions of FoxSports.com, gaming site IGN, AskMen and its local TV affiliates.

Microsoft's XP 'downgrade' option from Vista

While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.

Details vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and only apply to computers sold with Vista Business or Ultimate editions. Different vendors are handling the downgrade in a variety of ways: Fujitsu and HP, for example, offer the option of getting an XP disc in the box with its laptops. "That's going to help out small and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris told in a press conference. On the other hand Lenovo is allowing users to purchase a Windows XP recovery CD any time until July 31, 2008. In most cases, the XP CDs are very inexpensive, sometimes free.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's requirement that vendors no longer preload XP on computers is still set to take effect on January 31, 2008, though vendors have four more months to attempt to get Microsoft to change its tune.

Beware Adobe Acrobat users!

The security researcher who discovered a recently patched QuickTime flaw affecting the Firefox browser says he has found a similar serious flaw in Adobe Systems Inc.'s PDF file format.

"Adobe Acrobat/Reader PDF documents can be used to compromise your Windows box. Completely!!! Invisibly and unwillingly!!!," wrote Petko D. Petkov, in a blog posting. "All it takes is to open a PDF document or stumble across a page which embeds one."

Petkov confirmed this issue on Adobe Reader 8.1 on Windows XP and he said he would not disclose the code that exposes how this attack works until Adobe provides a patch for the problem, but he has already sent other software developers scrambling for bug fixes over the past week.

Turkey's another YouTube ban

A Turkish court has ordered the country's top telecommunications company to block access to popular video-sharing site YouTube because of CLIPS the court deems insulting to leading political figures.

In March, Mountain View-based Google Inc.'s YouTube site was banned in Turkey for two days after complaints that clips insulted the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The ban was lifted after the clips were removed.

In response, a media advocacy group has criticized Turkey.
“Blocking an entire Web site because of a few videos is a disproportionate measure,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the authorities to reverse this decision.”

The latest ban involves alleges insults to Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the army.

IBM's helping hand for the blinds

IBM student researchers are working on technology which will help blind people enjoy online virtual worlds, the new fad among Net users. The team in Ireland is attempting to do this by creating an impeccable audio replica of virtual worlds which will give blind people a sense of space. They are using 3D sound for this.Researchers used the Active Worlds online environment for their design. Blind people entering it will hear even the rustle of leaves. The project will now be taken up by IBM’s Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in Texas to be developed further.


Thanks To DC-IT Watch

Phishing Mania: Thrilling Report From Symantec

Symantec Corp's latest security report says that cyber crime has become an increasingly professional business and that malicious code and services are being sold in open markets on the Internet.

Bank account details command prices of up to US$400, while credit card details sell for between $0.50 and $5, e-mail passwords from $1 to $350 each, and e-mail addresses from $2 to $4 per megabyte, according to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report.

The Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XII covers the period from Jan. 1, 2007, through June 30, 2007 and finds that professionally developed toolkits are being sold in the underground economy. Credit cards continued to be the top commodity sold by cyber criminals accounting for 22 percent of all advertisements, while bank accounts totalled 21 percent.

Google's Private Moon Landing Contest.

Google recently announced plans to offer up to $30 million to the first private organization that is able to safely land a robotic spacecraft on the Earth's moon.

Working alongside the X Prize Foundation -- a foundation known for offering challenges for monetary reward -- the contest will be open to any "nongovernmental entity" that is able to complete the mission.

Teams from around the world will vie for the Google Lunar X-Prize by building lunar missions complete with robotic rovers capable of roaming the surface of the moon for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and other data back to Earth, according to a statement from the X Prize Foundation.

Bonus prizes of upto $5 million will be awarded to teams that successfully complete additional mission tasks such as roving distances longer than 5,000 meters.

All zealed parties have until 2012 to complete the required tasks to collect the prize. If all teams are unable to complete the task, Google will extend the deadline to 2014, but the prize purse will also drop $5 million. Visit their site more info.

Yahoo's way of Social Networking: "Y! Mash"

Yahoo's rumored social network, dubbed "Mash," has arrived. The company started inviting people outside the company to test it on Friday, the company says in a blog.

Mash is different from other social networks in that you can start profiles for your friends and "open" your own profile to friends you trust, according to the Mash blog. What that means, exactly, is still a bit unclear.

You can also reportedly customize your profile or friends' profiles with other apps, ala Facebook.

"One last note before you jump in: Mash is still pretty raw--there are bugs and we haven't gotten to several of the features it really should have. We need to hear from you about where to focus our efforts," writes Will Aldrich, the head of Mash.

No word on what will happen to Yahoo 360, a social networking service that never really caught on, leaving Yahoo executives to acknowledge that they had some catching up to do.

Beware Skype Users!

A virus masquerading as a chat invitation is doing the rounds via the instant messaging facility of Skype, the popular Internet telephony network. It pops up on screens of Skype users with Windows operating system and offers a link to erotic pictures. Those who are gullible enough to click on the link will be persuaded to download another file which contains a virus that will steal crucial information from the computer. Skype is working with Internet security firms to neutralise the worm. Until then, those who love hot pictures might as well hold their horses.

Thanks To DC-IT Watch

Sandisk proclaimed war against Apple?

SanDisk yesterday announced a new, ultra-thin video MP3 player that appears likely to go head-to-head with Apple's newly upgraded iPod nano.

The new Sansa View combines MP3 playback capabilities with full-motion video support, a large screen, long battery life and generous capacity. Perhaps even more notable, the device also boasts an optional 8 GB microSD/microSDHC card for memory capabilities of up to 24 GB.
Scheduled to hit the market in October, the Sansa View will carry a suggested retail price of US$199.99 for a 16 GB flash-based player or $149.99 for a 8 GB version.

"The Sansa View is a new video MP3 player that combines all of the great characteristics of an MP3 player with the video capabilities of a portable media player, and packs it into a pocketable device," said Eric Bone, vice president of marketing for SanDisk's Sansa audio/video product line. "What's more, we're once again showing that category-leading technology can still be very affordable."

AMD Quad-Core release

Quarrels and Competition between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the world's leading chip makers, will redouble on Monday with the launch of AMD's quad-core processor for the server market.

This is the company's most important launch in four years.

AMD's chip with four "brains," codenamed Barcelona, is part of its Opteron product line and comes at a critical time for the company.

Firefox Campus Edition for Students.

Firefox recently launched its new version of Internet Browser targetting students. Firefox Campus Edition, as it is known, is the same and has all the features of its earlier version except that it is bundled with some three featuristic add-ons- FoxyTunes, Zotero, StumbleUpon.

FoxyTunes- Let users to play music while they browse the Internet. The player is located at the bottom-right of the browser. There is an option to even select the player to play the files-from Windows Media Player to Pandora!

Zotero- May be a bit confusing at a first-see. It can be used for taking notes, snapshots of the website while browsing. It will be a very useful tool for those students who involved in researches.

StumbleUpon- It is a kind of Bookmarking-tool. Users can align the internet to their interest, connect to all sorts of people and sites.

Though this edition is meant only for students, for others its worth a try.

Excuse me, No Cellphones please!

Using a mobile phone inside a hospital may risk the lives of patients by interfering with equipment, according to academics.

Signals from mobile devices may alter the performance of pacemakers and other life-saving machinery, says the study from the University of Amsterdam.
Researchers recorded 50 incidents of electromagnetic interference caused by mobile use, and classified 75 per cent of them as being hazardous.
Most of the problems result from General Packet Radio Service signals, a data transfer service used by the most recent handsets.
Mobile phones should be kept at least a meter away from hospital beds and equipment, according to advice published in online medical journal Critical Care.
'Critical care equipment is vulnerable to electromagnetic interference by new-generation wireless telecommunication technologies with median distances of about three centimetres,' says the report.

Thanks To vnunet

Facebook profiles to go public?

Facebook Inc, the social-network site that has enjoyed explosive growth in new members over the past three months, said it plans to let users tell the rest of the world how to find them on the site.The function will initially allow anyone who is not registered with the site to search for a specific person.
By publicizing member profiles, Facebook could attract a new wave of users. Unlike most sites on the Web, Facebook has previously denied access by search services to information on the site.
In a few weeks, Facebook will also make the information accessible via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN Live, said Facebook engineer Philip Fung in the blog post.
Users who don't want their listings to become public can opt out by changing their Search Privacy settings. Listings will only appear in outside searches if users' search settings are set to "Everyone."
Facebook began life as a way of keeping US college students in touch with each other. Devised by Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg, the site now accounts for 1% of all net traffic and is the sixth most visited site in the US.

Chinese Children : An Internet Addict!

The vast majority of Chinese schoolchildren chose to stay home and surf the Internet during the summer holidays rather than play outside, state media said on Tuesday, citing a survey.
The poll of 103 children aged 4 to 14 found that just 4 percent chose to do outdoor activities during the holidays and only 9 percent took part in summer educational camps.
School began again across China on Monday.
"Five years ago, when the Internet was not so popular among students, they preferred going out during summer holidays. Nowadays they prefer to stay at home and play Internet games," a medical official was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
About 13 percent of China's 20 million Internet users under 18 are classed as addicts, state media have reported.
In Shanghai last month, local authorities launched an experimental summer camp for 40 youngsters to try to wean them of their addiction.

Thanks To Reuters

Vista SP1 release scheduled

On Aug 29, 2007, Microsoft Corp. finally put out details of Service Pack 1(SP1), the long-awaited first major upgrade of the operating system that the company released in January. SP1, as it's known, will be available to the public in the first quarter of 2008; the 50 MB upgrade will come to Vista users as a download. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will be released to more than 10,000 beta testers in the next few weeks.

SP1 will bring improvements in security, reliability, performance, and system administration, and it will roll together bug fixes and other updates that have been issued in the seven months since Vista's launch. One thing it doesn't include: major new features. "This is not a feature delivery vehicle," says David Zipkin, a Microsoft senior product manager.

IBM launches two great Nanotechnology

IBM has demonstrated how to perform certain computer functions on single atoms and molecules, a discovery that could someday lead to processors the size of a speck of dust, the company said Thursday.
In a first report, IBM scientists describe major progress in probing a property called magnetic anisotropy in individual atoms. This fundamental measurement has important technological consequences because it determines an atom's ability to store information. Previously, nobody had been able to measure the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom.
In the second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich said they had used an individual molecule as an electric switch that could potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips.
The company published both research reports in Friday's edition of the journal Science
Although still far from making their way into products, these breakthroughs will enable scientists at IBM and elsewhere to continue driving the field of nanotechnology, the exploration of building structures and devices out of ultra-tiny, atomic-scale components. Such devices might be used as future computer chips, storage devices, sensors and for applications nobody has imagined yet.