Supreme HUB - The Expert Talks

iPhone 4 Gets an Interesting Physical Keyboard

meetdilip — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:59:56 GMT

The iPhone might have a great on screen text input mechanism. But sadly, there are people on the face of this planet who still prefer the feel of a real keyboard to the nothingness of a touchscreen text input method. Unfortunately, since the smart alecs at Apple chose to ignore these poor mortals by choosing not to make the iPhone bulkier by adding a physical keyboard, they were left with no choice but to turn to the likes of RIM and Nokia who still cater to them by churning out devices with excellent QWERTY keypads.

But what if you want the UI of the iPhone and the feel of a physical keypad at the same time? Well, help is here in the form of Nuu Mini case for the iPhone 4 that adds an interesting physical keyboard to the phone. Now, if you're wondering how the keyboard connects to the iPhone, let us inform you that its not via the dock connector rather, via Bluetooth!
This is expected to go on sale by end of 2010 and would be priced at around the $60 (around Rs. 2,700) mark.

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Google Buzz Lawsuit Settled for $8.5 Million

meetdilip — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:25:35 GMT

Settlement filing states that Google must do more to educate users about privacy policies

Google never knew that it will actually have to pay a heavy price for its free to use social network - Google Buzz. As per AFP, Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million as settlement of a privacy lawsuit over Google Buzz according to court documents. Eva Hibnick, a 24-year old Florida resident and Harvard Law School student, haa filed a class action lawsuit against Google Buzz for sharing personal data without user content. Not only that, the California based search giant is asked to make more efforts to educate users about Google Buzz's potential impact of privacy.

Google Buzz social network was in troubled waters after Private Group complained against the privacy issues with the service. However, Google quickly worked and fixed the issue while the service continued to receive lukewarm response from Gmail users. Post that, numerous changes have been implemented in the service but a class action law suit was already filed against Buzz.

Seven different individuals have filed law suits against Google Buzz for privacy violations since the free social network was launched back in February. Now, as per the recent settlement filing posted online (PDF), Google will pay seven plaintiffs not more than $2500 and 30 percent of the settlement money would go to the lawyers as covering fees. The remaining amount would be put in to a fund for organizations that are focused on Internet privacy issues and education.

Mike Yang, Associate General Counsel, in a blog post on the official Google Blog talked about the new simplified and refined privacy policies of Google. So now, if you agree to Google's Terms and Condition pertaining to any new or upcoming servise, you will permit Google to collect your data.

Honestly, hardly 2-5 percent of users who sign up for new services read the Privacy Policies thoroughly. Whatever maybe the case, Google did goof-up on privacy grounds and paid a hefty price.

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uTorrent now available for Linux; A look at uTorrent 3

meetdilip — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:24:50 GMT

Rejoice all you μTorrent fans! The bittorrent download manager is now also available for the Linux platform. With the release of the Mac client a while back this means that μTorrent is now available for all three major platforms.

For those who haven�t heard of μTorrent, you either don�t use bit torrent at all, or you�ve been missing out on one of the best torrent clients available for Windows. μTorrent is possibly one of the lightest torrent downloading applications available, and even now the windows version is a mere 321kB. In this small package lie some very powerful features. μTorrent has a large list of features which you can find out more about here.

The μTorrent client for Linux however is currently only a �server� which has no UI at all. So what use is μTorrent without a UI? Well, first of all, this is just an alpha version, and a UI may come with time. Even without a UI there is much that can be dont with this Linux release of μTorrent server. So what can you expect today? We�ll tell you.

For quite a while now μTorrent has offered a feature called WebUI. This feature enables an alternate remote control interface of μTorrent which allows you to control you μTorrent client from anywhere in the world. μTorrent sets up a server on your computer which you can access from any other computer if you have your computer�s IP address (and you are not behind a firewall). The web UI of μTorrent offers nearly all the features of the main application interface, however it is accessible though a browser.
The Linux version of μTorrent includes only this WebUI for controlling the application. You can launch μTorrent, have it running in the background, and you will be able to connect to it through your browser and add / remove torrents and manage your downloads.

What lies ahead of μTorrent is even more exciting. In the coming version 3 of the application, we will see possibly the biggest update yet. By version 3.0 μTorrent will integrate three core new technologies which will completely change the μTorrent experience.

The first major new technology is μTorrent Web. What if you could access your μTorrent interface from anywhere without worrying about configuring firewalls and NATs? The new service at web.μTorrent.com offers just this service. You simply need to configure a username and password in your μTorrent configuration, and use the same credentials to log in at web.μTorrent.com and you are set! You will see your μTorrent interface no matter where you are as long as you have access to a standards compliant browser.

Not only can you control your downloads remotely, you can even stream any media files in your download list from you computer, so you can play it back anywhere. You can even use the �Get File� function to download non-media files from your μTorrent list.

Another useful feature to come by μTorrent 3 is sharing torrents. If you are a seasoned torrent user, you will often have difficulty explaining the �often rather convoluted� means of downloading torrent files. For those used to downloading files by simply clicking on a link and waiting while the browser download manager saves the file, the multiple steps involved in downloading a torrent client, finding the torrent for what you want, downloading the torrent, loading the torrent in the torrent client and downloading the contents of the torrent itself can be a little daunting. With the new �Send Torrent� feature of μTorrent, you can simply right click on a torrent click on �Send Torrent� and you will be taken to a page from where you can download a version of μTorrent which comes prepackaged with the torrent file you chose. You can then simply share this link with a torrent novice, and he will be able to download the torrent client, and the torrent, in one step. If the client was already installed, the download will simply start off, else the user will get a small wizard for installing the μTorrent.

Another major feature in μTorrent is the addition of a new Apps framework codenamed Griffin. This new framework is light, with apps built using HTML and JavaScript. A number of applications are already available for μTorrent, which include games, an antivirus application to check your torrent downloads, and a number of networks which provide free content delivered using torrents. Quite obviously all of these networks are purely legal torrent sources.

Besides the major features, a number of small improvements are also on the way. For one, the icons and looks of μTorrent have changed completely giving it a sleeker modern look. UDP support is another nice addition to μTorrent. One of our favorite new features is the addition of fine-grained priorities. Till now μTorrent supported four modes for files, HIgh, Normal, Low, and Don�t Download / skip. Now you will have a range of priorities from 15 (highest) to 1 (lowest) with 0 for skipped files. This makes it easier to ensure that files from a multi-file torrent are downloaded in exactly the order you want them to. An additional option available is to �Prioritize by File Order� which will automatically assign decreasing file priorities to the selected files, ensuring that they download nearly in the order they appear in the list.
For such a small torrent application, it seems like μTorrent�s aims are certainly giant. We look forward to what this brilliant application will bring in time.

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Splashup

scratchlikeme — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:32:47 GMT

With Splashup you have more than basic image editing capabilities at your fingertips, anywhere you go. You can edit multiple images and layers together, use a variety of filters and tools as well as access your stored images just about anywhere (Flickr, Picasa, etc).

Price: Free
Requires: Flash

Link: Splashup

iTunes 10

scratchlikeme — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:19:54 GMT

Apple has just released a new version of their music organization software iTunes, bringing the version to 10. Probably the biggest new feature is Apple�s new social network Ping, which is designed to provide iTunes users with options to connect with friends, and receive updates about music and concerts.

Ping allows them to follow friends and artists, and everyone will be able to post information including images, videos or music.

ITunes Ping feels a lot like Facebook in this regard. It requires a valid Apple ID and needs to be activated after the installation of iTunes 10 before it can be used.

Ping offers some interesting features, including custom top ten lists based on the listening habits of a user�s friends. The software will be available as an app on iPhone and iPod touch so that users can interact with the network from their mobile devices as well.

But iTunes Ping is just one of the new features in iTunes 10. TV show rentals are now available for 99 cents per episode. The shows are commercial free, come in HD, and are available for 48 hours in a 30 day period after renting the show. The shows can be watched on PC, Mac, Apple TV and iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Additional features worth mentioning are improved syncing, which shows a capacity bar for devices connected to the computer, Apple TV support and AirPlay support so that AirPlay capable devices can connect to iTunes.

In other news, iTunes 10 is still one of the programs with the most active background processes after installation. The new version will automatically start AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe, distnoted.exe and iTunesHelper.exe as permanent background processes:

AppleMobileDeviceHelper.exe � Listens for commands to help iTunes communicate with devices
distnoted.exe � Allows iTunes to sync with iPhone and iPod touch
iTunesHelper.exe - �Listens� for commands to help iTunes communicate with devices (such as iPod).
The iTuneshelper.exe process can be removed from startup in msconfig or any other startup manager. The remaining background processes are triggered by services, specifically Apple Mobile Device and iPod Service.

Apple iTunes 10 can be downloaded from the official Apple website.

Windows Phone 7 Released to Manufacturers

meetdilip — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:19:25 GMT

First devices should start trickling in soon

Microsoft has officially announced the final version of its latest smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7, to manufacturers. The RTM (Release to Manufacturing), as Microsoft calls it, means that the OS is now ready to be released to Microsoft's partners, who will then integrate it to their respective hardware (phones, in this case).

According to a blog post on the official Windows Phone blog, this release is their biggest milestone. Prior to being RTM'd, Microsoft has had nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes. Apart from these, Microsoft says that it has had thousands of independent software vendors and early adopters testing the software in order to provide them feedback.

All this basically means that we can start expecting the first official releases of handsets based on this platform in the near future. While we are not expecting a launch immediately, there is a possibility of the first handsets from manufacturers in a months time. Microsoft had earlier released a technical preview to which they had made some changes.

Let's see who would be the first to commercially release the first Windows Phone 7 powered handset on the planet.

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After BlackBerry, Indian Gov Targets Skype, Google

meetdilip — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:58:01 GMT

Just after BlackBerry users (and RIM) heaved a sigh of relief after the Indian government's decision to give RIM a two-month period to set up servers in India, it has turned its attention to Google and Skype. Both have been asked to set up their servers in the country so that access to data from them would be easier.

According to The Times of India, the government is planning to send notices intimating the same to Google and Skype soon.

This move is being taken to check if people with anti Indian interests are using these services to plan attacks against the country. Apart from Google and Skype, the government also has VPN (Virtual Private Networks) in its radar that are usually set up by corporates to provide secure access to their company networks even when they are away from office.

It remains to be seen how Google and Skype respond to this directive of the government. Do you think it is fair on the government's part to spoof on what you are doing online?

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Gmail Priority Inbox

scratchlikeme — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:12:08 GMT

Gmail Priority Inbox Launches: Your E-mail Will Never Be the Same

Today, Google will begin rolling out Priority Inbox for Gmail, a new feature for managing massive amounts of e-mail. Your inbox will never be the same again.

Priority Inbox is Google�s attempt to solve the e-mail woes of Gmail power users. At its core, the feature is an algorithm; Priority Inbox uses information such as keywords, the people you e-mail the most and your e-mail habits to select the most pressing e-mails in your inbox. Those e-mails are brought to the top of your Gmail and marked as important so you deal with them first.

Priority Inbox is also an adaptive algorithm. Marking items as important or unimportant teaches the system what types of messages you deem the most urgent. You can also use Gmail�s filters to automatically mark certain messages as important (for example, from your boss or your spouse),

The new feature appears as a new menu item just above the �Inbox� link. Instead of indicating how many unread e-mails you have in your inbox, Priority Inbox only displays how many priority e-mails still require your attention. These appear at the top of Gmail as �Important and unread.�

The second layer of the new layout is your starred e-mails. These messages appear in their own section under the Priority Inbox. The goal is to get users to star important e-mails they have read but for whatever reason still need in their inboxes. Under the �Starred� section is �Everything else,� which contains the rest of your unarchived inbox.

The Impact of the Priority Inbox

During the many months of testing the feature internally, the search giant found that users spent 16% less time reading insignificant e-mail. If you do the math, that�s about a full week�s worth of time saved. According to Google, once someone switches to Priority Inbox, he or she never needs or wants to go back.

We can see why. We�ve had the chance to test out Priority Inbox for the last few days and discuss the new feature with Gmail Product Director Keith Coleman, and we�re impressed. Our inboxes get filled with hundreds of e-mails daily, but only a few of them require our immediate attention. Even with dozens of Gmail filters, important messages often get lost in the pile, leading to lost opportunities or missed meetings.

Priority Inbox, while not perfect, is a dramatic step toward solving that problem. Important messages bubble to the top, while e-mails that still require attention can sit in the Starred section until they�re addressed. It basically takes the Gmail Multiple Inboxes feature and adds a smart algorithm for cherry picking the threads that require your attention.

Coleman says that the company has been working on the feature for 18 months, but the original version of Gmail had something similar to this before it launched, but was removed because it simply wasn�t ready for mass consumption. Now it is refined enough for use by all.

YouTube - Gmail Priority Inbox

What do you think of Priority Inbox? Let us know in the comments.

Apple Introduces �Ping�

scratchlikeme — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:02:52 GMT

Apple Introduces �Ping� Music Social Network and iTunes 10

Apple has revealed iTunes 10, the newest version of iTunes complete with a new logo, new features and its very own social network for music called �Ping� that he described as Facebook meets Twitter for music.

Ping allows users to follow others, just like Twitter. You can follow artists or your friends to find out what they�re listening or what they�re creating. It has custom song and album charts, a news feed, 17,000+ concert listings, and is available to 160 million iTunes users. Ping will be available not only for iTunes on the desktop, but for iPhone and iPod touch as well.

Jobs also touted the growth of iTunes and the iTunes store. He announced that more than 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded through iTunes. 450 million TV episodes and 100 million movies have been sold through Apple�s music software, while 35 million books have been downloaded through the iBooks store.

iTunes 10 is available starting today.

Little grey text next to my Name

scratchlikeme — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:55:24 GMT

Go to Account>Account Settings.
Then click "Change" where it says Name.
And then where it says "Full alternative name" put the name you want in grey.

Indonesia to RIM Block Porn or Exit: Indonesia to RIM

meetdilip — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:18:06 GMT

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Dilip/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Dilip/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]

RIM has been facing a torrid time over the past few months with various governments. While the dust has settled over its future in Saudi Arabia, UAE and India (temporarily -albeit) we have some fresh news from the Indonesian government who seems to be worried about pornography on BlackBerry handsets.

The Indonesian government has allegedly issued a directive threatening a ban over the BlackBerry service in the country. To remain in Indonesia, RIM would need to block pornographic content on its devices. The Indonesian Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring has "requested" RIM to take the necessary measures to ensure that all adult content is blocked for all Blackberry phones using RIM's services in the country. He also added, "If they are still not responding to our request, we have to close it down,"

The Indonesian government adds that its decision to block pornographic content on the Internet is in line with its anti pornography law enacted in 2008. RIM, which uses its own servers to handle requests from BlackBerry devices, seems to have been exempt from this law - until now, that is.

Topic of The Month Of The Month September, 2010

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:32:25 GMT

Which post should win this month nomination contest?

Choose from the topics (posts/threads) listed throughout the forum(s), and vote for your favourite post now.

What is Topic Of The month ?
Topic of the month is a contest that select posts on which we would like the community to commit to as a group and then comment/discuss on them during the course of the selected week. Any listed topic (thread) is eligible for the Topic of the Week selection.

What determines a Topic Of The month?
Topic Of The month is based on a simple nomination system. Throughout the selected forums, members with adequate permissions can nominate their favorite topic by clicking on the award nomination button below the post.

The topics with the most nominations during the course of the week are displayed on this thread using the poll feature. At the end of the week, the first three topics with the most nominations are the award winners of the contest.

AMD decides to simplify - will retire ATI brand by 2011

meetdilip — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:03:53 GMT

It�s been four years since AMD bought ATI, and almost anyone who had apprehensions about the deal then, have by now resigned themselves to the fact, and for the most part, are happy about the way AMD has maintained ATI�s gamer quotient till this date, and how they saved it from Nvidia�s ruthless market tactics. While many industry experts felt $5.4 billion was simply too much to invest in a graphics company when with a similar amount of money AMD could have built its own, the popularity of the ATI brand was perhaps the number one factor in favour of an acquisition over internal development. Things are different now � ATI is at the top of its game, it has even edged out Nvidia as the market leader in discrete GPU shipments, and AMD is doing really well with its chipsets and integrated graphics. Things will apparently change some more soon, as AMD has revealed it will soon be doing away with the ATI brand.

AMD-ATI's rise since its acquisition (AMD Discrete GPU Marketshare, Source: Mercury Research)
Surprised? Well, not everyone is, as AMD has certainly been busy this past year, wresting the crown from Nvidia, and, also trying to simplify its brand structure in the form of AMD Vision, which is a logo a PC gets if the CPU and GPU are manufactured by AMD. Vision, Vision Premium, Vision Ultimate, and Vision Black are the price progressions, from entry-level to top-end.
AMD says it has some solid market research (at least as solid market research could ever be) to show why it has made the decision to phase out the ATI brand by Q1 2011, and retain only the Radeon/FirePro brands (thus making it AMD Radeon, or AMD FirePro).
Here is a look at AMD�s internal research:

These points all certainly make sense from a marketing point of view, but what will really connect to gamers� hearts, is the real question. One thing is for sure though, AMD certainly benefited from ATI�s expertise and brand name, and, for gamers, it was a win-win situation, with AMD-ATI and Nvidia competing head to head to produce some seriously killer architecture. ATI will live on in the mass consciousness, leaving a tangible vacuum as it is going out at its very zenith.
Let us know what you think about AMD�s move, in the below comments section.
Do also check out some more research below from AMD that apparently justifies the move, as well as the new logos of AMD�s graphics products:

New logos, with AMD branded logos on top, and special non-AMD branded logos below, meant for OEMs who are putting an Intel processor along with AMD graphics.

All this change, ahead of the launch of the Fusion APU, which some believe is the ultimate fruition of the ATI acquisition.

Google planning Pay-per-view Movies on YouTube

meetdilip — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:56:45 GMT

Users would be able stream new titles from popular Hollywood studios for as cheap as $5

Google recently introduced free full movies channel service with a catalog of over 400 movies on YouTube. And now, the search giant is planning to bring blockbuster Hollywood movies with its pay-per-view subscription service. Financial Times reported (need to login) that YouTube video sharing site is in talks with several leading Hollywood studios since several months.

YouTube's plans sound similar to the recently introduced Hulu Plus Ad-supported subscription service for streaming TV shows. Nevertheless, users will be able stream full movies which may or may not have Google ads in between. As always is the case, this new service might start off first in U.S. and then made available to rest of the world. FT also reported that users could pay as low as $5 to stream new movies.

New movies would be available for streaming on YouTube when they're released on DVD and also available through with Amazon plus Apple's iTunes service. YouTube has been pursuing several Hollywood studios since months. Only after recent rife in Apple TV launch rumors with $1 TV Show rentals to the living room, the search giant seems to be pushing harder.

It's no secret that Google has been trying to stay abreast of other services in terms of multimedia distribution - be it photos (Picasa) or videos (YouTube). The recent buzz seems to be hinting at the fact that Google is planning to make it big in multimedia distribution of movies and games. We won't be surprised to see movie rentals on Android phones. Till date, YouTube has been renting out a couple of independent movie titles. So if Hollywood studios give a green flag to streaming HD movies via YouTube, it's the users who're at the winning side. Still, we wait for the big daddy - Google to confirm this news officially.

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Watch Full Movies on YouTube for Free

meetdilip — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:06:05 GMT

YouTube Movies brings catalog of Free 400 Hollywood and Bollywood movies

YouTube has introduced new free movies service after successfully striking a deal with US-based Studios like Lionsgate, MGM and Sony Pictures as well as Blinkbox in the UK. A catalog of full length 400 movies that include both Hollywood and Bollywood flicks is available at YouTube - Movies. Full length movies were already available on YouTube but only for select regions. Now, it's been made available to the entire world.

From a number of Jackie Chan movies, to evergreen Bollywood comedy movies like Andaz Apna Apna, loads of movies can be watched on-demand for free. Donagh O'Malley, YouTube head of video partnerships, said, "This is one of many efforts to ensure that people can find all the different kinds of video they want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to full-length films and TV shows."

We hope YouTube will consider including on-demand paid HD movies in future. However, as of now, if you have a YouTube enabled TV then you can stream full length movies on it at no cost. Of course, you'll have to pay for the Internet connection.

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