Twitter Intros Official Android App

Twitter has launched its official application for accessing the microblogging site through smartphones running Google's Android operating system.

Twitter for Android makes it possible to share links or photos on the site by clicking the share button in an application and choosing Twitter. In addition, the smartphone app makes it possible to read tweets, the short messages Twitter users broadcast on the site to friends and followers, on a number of different places on an Android phone.

For example, the Twitter timeline can be viewed through the phone's home screen widget and a tweet location can be seen on a map. In addition, tweets can be accessed through the phone's phonebook, on Google Talk, or through any other application that uses Android's QuickContact bar.

Twitter introduced the application Friday and posted screenshots of it on the Twitter blog. The social network said Google would open-source the code used in the application in the near future, making it possible for developers to use the Twitter application programming interfaces in their Android apps.

The Twitter for Android app is available for phones running Android 2.1 or later, which would include Google's Nexus One and the new HTC Droid Incredible. However, the requirement means older phones, and even some new phones, won't be able to use the new application.

The fact that Twitter's app won't run on all Android phones is an indication of the fragmentation that could become a problem for users. Android phones each run the OS differently, whether due to screen size, keyboard configuration, or the version of Android being used.

There are currently four different versions available and it's up to the handset maker and carrier which to choose. Depending on the phone chosen, the user can get Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, or 2.1.

Part of the problem is due to Google releasing new core versions of the platform faster than its partners can keep up with their own tweaks and customization. Google is reportedly hoping the problem will eventually go away as the platform matures and fewer updates to the core become necessary.

Source:

http://www.techweb.com/article/showArticle?articleID=224700489&section=news

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100 Million Windows 7 Licenses Sold

Along with its third-quarter results, Microsoft on Thursday disclosed that it has sold more than 100 million Windows 7 licenses since the product debuted in October, 2009.

"To put that in context, more 10% of all PCs worldwide are already running Windows 7 today," said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a post. For the quarter, Windows sales were up 28% year-over-year, to $4.4 billion.

Still, Microsoft's Windows XP, now almost a decade old, remains the most popular OS. It's currently on 64.5% of PCs, according to data from market watcher Net Applications. Windows Vista holds a 10.2% share.

Overall, Microsoft said earnings per share for the period increased 36%, year-over-year, to 45 cents. Net income climbed 35%, to $4.01 billion, on record revenue of $14.5 billion, a 6% gain from the year ago quarter.

Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were, on average, expecting Microsoft to report quarterly EPS of 42 cents, and income of $4.8 billion on revenue of $14.4 billion.

Microsoft's results were mixed across its other product lines. Sales in its Server and Tools division increased 2.4%, to $3.6 billion.

Revenue from the company's Business unit was off 6%, to $4.2 billion, as customers remained on the sidelines in anticipation of the arrival of Office 2010, which is set for release in June. In addition to the standard versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, Office 2010 also includes free access to Web-based editions of the apps.

Sales in Microsoft's Online Services unit were up 12%, to $566 million, while revenue from the company's Entertainment & Devices group, which is home to the Xbox and Windows Games products, rose 2.2%, to $1.7 billion.

Microsoft shares were off 1.82%, to $30.82, in mid-afternoon trading Friday.

Source:

http://www.techweb.com/article/showArticle?articleID=224600306&section=news

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Google Phone Hits UK Stores

Google is launching their One smart phone through Vodafone stores and telesales services to the mobile market of UK. Vodafone will be the first mobile operating company in Europe to sell the Google Phone with contract prices starts from 25 to 28 pound per month. Users will be able to use 1 GB of data according to their deal plan. Users can also access Wi-Fi at home and in public spaces in UK. Google Nexus one phone runs on Android operating system was arrived publically in the start of this year 2010.

Initially arrived in U.S mobile market by Google and approximate 20,000 Nexus one phones were sold in it first week of release. Apple iPhone was launched in eight countries at the same time and 1.6 million units were sold. Nexus one has good market share and expected to give good market sales out put to Vodafone mobile operating company in UK phones market.

Source:

http://www.zahipedia.com/2010/04/29/google-phone-hits-uk-stores/

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Social networking exposes business networks to risk

Once upon a time, instant messaging was a consumer technology. That consumer toy worked its way into the corporate network and was eventually not just accepted, but embraced and leveraged as a valuable tool. Social networking is on that same path, but still has some security growing pains to go through on the way.
nCircle conducted a survey of 257 information security professionals regarding social media in the enterprise, and found:
• 59 percent maintain a social media policy

• 39 percent of respondents' organizations ban social media use

• 46 percent of respondents were unsure if their employees comply with social media policy

"Even though almost 40% of respondents ban employee social media use, this type of policy is a knee-jerk reaction to the serious security risks associated with social media and is not necessarily effective," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle. "The real security concern when it comes to social media is what employees are divulging via their social networking activity and how that affects the security of their employer."

It is a sign of how far social networking has already woven itself into the corporate fabric that nearly 60 percent of those surveyed have a social media policy in place. However, the 46 percent who aren't paying attention might not find a recent Webroot survey very comforting.
Webroot's second annual survey of social networking practices gathered information from 1,100 social networking users, and found:

• 61 percent include their birthday

• 52 percent include their hometown

• 17 percent make their cell phone available.

• More than three quarters (77 percent) don't restrict who can access their photo albums.

• 81 percent don't place any restrictions on who can see their recent activity, including updates generated by geo-location-based tools that report where their users are visiting.

Combining the two surveys results in some privacy and security concerns for those 46 percent. In the nCircle survey, 41 percent have no social media policy, and 46 percent aren't monitoring compliance with the social media policy they do have. That adds up to 87 percent of corporate networks being put at risk by the personal information being shared by employees on social networks.

For More Read....

http://www.computerworld.in/articles/social-networking-exposes-business-networks-risk

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Yahoo expands mobile services

HELSINKI, FINLAND: Yahoo Inc has struck a deal to expand the role of its services on cellphones of the world's second-largest handset maker Samsung, as the two battle larger rivals on the wireless market.

The role of mobile services and software has increased sharply since Apple and Google entered the industry, forcing traditional phone makers like Samsung and Nokia to hurry to build up their offerings.

Weak services and software offerings are seen as a potential stumbling block for the ambitious plans of Samsung and its domestic peer LG Electronics in their plan to win a bigger share of the smartphone market.

Samsung and Yahoo, who have partnered since 2007, said the expansion of their contract will give millions more Samsung phone owners easy access to Yahoo's services, starting from May.

The new contract includes phones running Samsung's own Bada platform and Google's Android platform, which will have better access to a wide range of Yahoo services including mail, messenger, search, news and calendar.

source:

http://www.ciol.com/Developer/Developer/News-Reports/Yahoo-expands-mobile-services/135439/0/

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Microsoft Partners Say Office 2010 Ready To Roll

With Office 2010 now code-complete, Microsoft channel partners are getting ready to drum up demand for the latest version of the software giant's productivity suite.

Ken Winell, CEO, ExpertCollab, a SharePoint-focused solution provider in US, has been using the beta version of Office 2010 for months. "I have found it stable and feature-complete," he said. "Microsoft has always been careful to ensure the flagship product is not buggy out of the box, and the extended beta period hopefully made sure.

Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a Microsoft partner, agrees with the stability assessment. "It definitely bodes well for its launch," Sobel said. "I haven't had any issues with it, but Office has always been stable. I expect customers to have the same sort of reaction.

One of the most closely watched aspects of Office 2010 is Office Web Apps, free cloud-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. Office Web Apps will go up against Google Apps in the market for free Web-based productivity apps, and they're viewed as Microsoft's response to Google Apps' growing profile in the marketplace.

But Google Apps has some key limitations, such as its inability to format and work on documents offline. That's an essential feature for many users, according to Winell.

However, Google has started to make some inroads in sharing documents, Winell said. "The new version offers a near real-time collaboration ability that is pretty good," he said. "It is my understanding that the attraction of Google Docs is the cost (none) or for enterprises is substantially lower than a full Microsoft license.

Microsoft partners believe that Office Web Apps will give Microsoft a powerful tool for combating Google Apps, particularly in companies that have standardized on Microsoft technology.

"We just haven't seen any customers express any interest in Google Apps at all," said Marc Harrison, President, Silicon East, a Microsoft solution provider in US. "That being said, if they do at some point in the future, we'll just point to Microsoft's Office Web Apps, offhandedly mention they're compatible with the desktop apps pretty much the entire world is using, and let them make their own decision."

Sobel echoed this sentiment: "There's a faceoff between Microsoft and Google because both want to manage the technological environment as well as customer relations," he said. "Google oversimplifies and has always had a one-size-fits-all philosophy, while Microsoft now offers more choices and is embracing multiple ways of doing things."

Microsoft has a clear advantage over Google when it comes to cloud apps because of customers' preference for Office software, particularly in the business marketplace, says Matt Makowicz, Principal, Ambition Consulting, a US-based solution provider.

"Microsoft has made it a mission to win in the cloud computing space," Makowicz said. "The availability of Office 2010 will help keep Microsoft at the forefront of the productivity suite conversations and ahead of Google, with help from partners who continue to recommend Office over anything else."

Source:

http://www.crn.in/Software-022Apr010-Microsoft-Partners-Say-Office-2010-Ready-To-Roll.aspx

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Chennai Super Kings are the IPL champions

Chennai Super Kings were crowned Indian Premier League 3 champions after thumping Mumbai Indians by 22 runs in a thrilling summit clash here on Sunday night.

Electing to bat, Chennai posted 168 for five, thanks to Suresh Raina's unbeaten 57 and then restricted Mumbai to 146 for nine to win their maiden IPL title in the grand finale at the packed D Y Patil Stadium.

Chennai though had to spend some anxious moments towards the close of Mumbai run chase with big-hitting Kieron Pollard threatening to almost singlehandedly win the match before he was out in the penultimate over for a 10-ball 27 which was studded with three fours and two sixes.

For Chennai, who were playing in their second final after finishing runners-up to Rajasthan Royals in 2008, it has been a roller coaster ride having made it to the semifinal in their last league match.

Mumbai, who were playing in an IPL final for the first time, were the most consistent side in the tournament having won 10 of their 14 league matches, but they faltered at the final hurdle.

For Mumbai, captain Sachin Tendulkar, who declared himself fit for the grand finale after sustaining a right hand webbing split in first semifinal, top-scored with a 45-ball 48 which was studded with seven fours but he did not get enough support from his batting colleagues.

Tendulkar's 66-run stand from 58 balls for the second wicket with Abhishek Nayar was the only substantial partnership for Mumbai. Left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati emerged the most successful Chennai bowler with two for 26 while Doug Bollinger, Albie Morkel, Muttiah Muralitharan and Suresh Raina took a wicket apiece.

Mumbai began their run chase of 169 on a shaky note with opener Shikhar Dhawan failing to score the opening over from Ravichandran Ashwin and was out in the second over bowled by Bollinger for an eight-ball duck.

Mumbai struggled for runs before Tendulkar and Nayar took 10 runs from the fifth over by hitting a four each off Ashwin. Tendulkar, who celebrated his 37th birthday yesterday, then smote Albie Morkel for two fours to take Mumbai to 33 for one after the first power-play.

With off-spinner Muralitharan introduced in the seventh over, runs came in trickles and he was unlucky not to have got Nayar with Matthew Hayden dropping the batsman when on eight. Nayar struck two sixes in as many balls off Jakati in the 10th over to take Mumbai score to 58 for one at the halfway mark.

Indians bowling attack then put an effective shackle on the batsmen on a wicket that offered good bounce but on which the ball stopped a bit on the batsmen. For Mumbai, tall Sri Lanka pace bowler Dilhara Fernando emerged the most successful with 2 for 23 while Zaheer Khan and Kieron Pollard picked one wicket apiece.

Openers Hayden and Vijay started cautiously and saw off one over each from Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga before stepping on the accelerator. It was the left-handed Hayden, who has been struggling in the tournament, who started the attack by hoisting Harbhajan over long on for the first six of the match in the third over.

Vijay then pulled Zaheer Khan into the stands beyond the mid-wicket area and then punched Malinga exquisitely to the extra cover fence for a four.Malinga was then square cut by Hayden and the duo looked all-set for a big stand. But Vijay fell caught just inside the boundary line off a skier by Saurabh Tiwary off Fernando. His 26 came off 19 balls and included two sixes and a four.

From 44 for one, it became 47 for two when Hayden, who survived a close leg before wicket appeal off Zaheer earlier, tried to charge out to Kieron Pollard and mistimed a pull to be caught behind by wicketkeeper Ambati Rayudu.

Chennai progressed to 58 for two after 10 overs, sign that Mumbai have bounced back into the game. Raina and S Badrinath (14) got together briefly before the latter got out, caught at fine leg for 14 off Fernando. Then came the most fruitful stand of the innings between Raina and Dhoni. They put on 72 runs in 35 balls.

For More Read....

http://cricket.ndtv.com/IPL2010/news_story.aspx?ID=SPOEN20100139442&keyword=news

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