IT'S THE ZERO SITE FOR MOBILE FB USERS

This is planned to aim at mobile users; People behind Facebook will be launching in the coming weeks its Zero site.

The said plan to have the Zero site for mobile users of Facebook could help operators free-up critical bandwidth on their networks. This is due to the recent update of analyst at CCS Insights stating that there are more than 100 million people accessing Facebook on their phone.

The new site will definitely omit data intensive applications like photos. Another reason why this system was develop was due to the revelation by GSM Association that FB is responsible to almost half of all the time people in UK have spent going online through their phones.

At the moment the people at Facebook are discussing the option to make this social networking site, on mobile, more available to anyone anywhere thus encouraging more users.

There's also a slimmed down version of Facebook available to all those with either slow or poor internet connection. Facebook Lite is aimed for users in the developing world. This was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which run was held from February 15 to 18, 2010.

ON THE NEW WINDOWS PHONE 7

Windows Phone 7 is out however; according to Microsoft Australia Developer Evangelists who hosted the Frankly Speaking podcast reports (article in Gisomdo via zdnet) it will only be available in three chassis variants.

The first chassis sporting the Windows Phone 7 will be a touch screen handset. It has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor which was shown in Barcelona when the Mobile World congress 2010 was held.

The second type shows the windows phone 7 to have keyboard variants. This will apparently feature sliding keyboards and touch screens which is said to be more similar to the palm Treo
The third chassis to support the windows phone 7 remains a mystery up till this point.
It’s an interesting note that windows phone 7 promises these different look however there is still that undeniable excitement that this gives a certain turn to the competition of smart phones.

15 year old Indian student's idea clicks at Stanford

New Delhi: Think out of the box. This is what 15-year-old Sarojini Mahajan realized after her idea of using human pulse to charge a cell phone was picked up by Stanford University.

Sarojini, a class IX student of St Mark's Senior Secondary Public School, Meera Bagh, had sent her idea as an entry to IGNITE 2009 - a nationwide contest of innovative ideas. Though she won a consolation prize in the contest, Stanford University has decided to work on her idea.

According to Professor Anil Gupta, Vice-Chairperson, National Innovation Foundation (NIF), which conducts IGNITE every year, Stanford University has already given a token amount of $1,000 to develop a prototype if feasible. Professor Gupta said, "The girl has provided the idea. But we need technical assistance to make it work. Stanford University has come forward to try out if human pulse can be used to charge an e-book they have developed."

After hearing this news, Sarojini said, "I can't believe it's true. I had thought of this idea last year but never told anyone till Neena ma'am once asked for crazy ideas in the class. It was just an idea which has become so big now. Sarojini recalled that she was just sitting once when she thought of watches that run on the human pulse. I wondered if mobiles could be charged using the pulse too." Neena Punj is Sarojini's teacher and guide.

Sarojini teamed up with her teacher to develop her idea further who had by then decided to send her entry to IGNITE this year. They both worked for nearly four months and conceived a charging system in which sensors would be placed on the cell phone. Holding it in hand in a particular way would charge it using the heat of the palm. Sarojini's recognition has got other students thinking too.

Punj said, "Students have a lot of ideas and some of are absolutely crazy. Many of them will be motivated to share them now. I have already started getting new ideas from students."

Anjali Agarwal, Principal, St Mark's Senior Secondary Public School, agreed with Punj and said, "Sarojini has been a topper in class and though she loves science, she neither wants to become an engineer nor a doctor." "I may become a scientist but I have yet to plan," said Sarojini.

All those students, whose ideas have been selected, will be awarded by President Pratibha Patil on November 18. IGNITE is being organized since 2007 across the country in partnership with the CBSE. This year, it was organized between April 15 and September 15. Gujarat-based NIF (National Innovation Foundation) received 1,344 entries from 21 states. But out of all these, Sarojini's idea generated in the classroom may eventually turn into an invention. Professor Gupta said, "We were already in touch with Paul Kim from Stanford University who wanted us to have a competition to find the joyful ways of charging their e-book. We told them that we already had such an entry and they agreed to take it up."

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/15-year-olds-idea-clicks-with-Stanford-University-/articleshow/5129746.cms

Total Dominion of Search Maketplace: Google Ranking High on Surveys

The Internet really has dominated the revenue in marketplace with US solidifying in its recent months it searches. Gaining information has really powered up as the net gives people a chance for fast and easy researching. And among the search engine to give such results is Google gaining the highest number of users.

Google owned almost two-thirds of the market share. Yahoo and Microsoft (MSN) are trailed behind in the browser’s race for the top. The results from comScore showed Google capturing 65.4% of the search market since January while Yahoo and MSN gained 17% and 11.3% respectively. In comScore’s background screening of the said sites, it was seen that two of these have decreased compared to their previous months with Google once was owning 65.7% and Yahoo loosing minor with its last result being 17.3%. Microsoft however gained more as its last results were seen to be only 10.7%. The remaining details of the search market were already a compilation of the results from AOL LLC network and Ask network. These two sites have remained with the same status as they mark with 2.5% and 3.8% respectively.

Last January Americans were noted to conduct 15.2 billion searches. This made a 3% turn of increase for the search market. Google sites were responsible for the 9.9 billion searches. But it wasn’t only Google (or Yahoo or Bing/MSN or any of the browsers mentioned) that got into the comScore result.

This was no surprise. Craiglist and Facebook also had a share of the search marketing results. comScore also showed that they have search results of 636 million and 395 million respectively. It was also noted that Facebook constituted 13% gain.

Amazon sites were unfortunately the biggest losers at this point. comScore showed them to have their results fall (compared to last month’s) to 302 million searches.

There are others who have conducted the said survey. Fox interactive Media recorded a 5% drop from FAcebook and Craigslist as well.

Whichever way we look at search marketing, let’s admit that the internet has become the best source of information that even people search or pre-employment background search are being conducted through it. Documented, although at times it may be blemished by hackers, searching something that may help people gain ideas are at this point basically coming from the net. The results presented by ComScore are no surprise and at this point it can’t be helped to make the domination of search marketing grew.

Going Automated: PCOS Machines for 2010 Philippine Election

The long wait is over. For years the use of machines for voting and counting ballots has been a main issue when talks on election arise. Some say it will give results speedily; what used to be weeks of determining elected officials will only be known in a matter of days.

The use of Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS machines has been long delayed. For this coming 2010 elections, the usage of these automated machines are being prepared hoping that things will definitely bring the elections on track. There have been speculations that with these not only will the results be given earlier but also the cheating will be eliminated. The systems are guaranteed that it can’t be hacked and ballots won’t be stolen unlike past news on elections where even people are killed just to alter the results.

What is this PCOS machine that is said to give a certain “order” to the coming election?

The Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine uses tabulate paper ballots where choosing would mean shading the appropriate ring that represents a candidate. There are approximately 47 million registered voters here in the Philippines. This certain number is divided among 320,000 precincts where each is estimated to have 200 voters at most. To maximize the benefits of the PCOS machine the precincts are divided into clusters. These consist of at most five precincts. This system was organized with the knowledge that a remote area has 1000 voters meaning that a PCOS machine will be able to handle that certain number.

For every cluster there is a PCOS machine and for every machine there are people involved to ensure the security of the votes. However the ensuring to the machine will start days before the said period when it will be used.

Few days before the election, testing and sealing procedures will take place. This will be done in public where they will take on test ballots, first manually count them then have them fed to the machine to do the automated checking. After the test, comparisons will be made between the manual counting and the automated counting. This will see if there is any glitch on the machine or if it is working properly. In the account that the machine is accurate and in top shape it will be sealed and only opened during the said time of usage—Election Day where it will be opened in front of different watchers and BEI.

Recently news shows that COMELEC has asked Smartmatic-TIM (the group who’ll be giving the machines) to run a test on the PCOS machines only on selected areas in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It was also reported that as per last Friday, February 5, 2010, The Commission on Election has the source code, the software that dictates the functions of computing machines, is ready.

Smartmatic did recently demonstrate the PCOS to the public in a forum in Astoria, Ortigas. However no COMELEC official was present while the smartmatics guy who demonstrated the said machine was grilled with question after question, especially as he was not able to give a good answer.

Even will all the critique on the said automation, authorities under the said automation are still confident that the usage of the PCOS machine will be pushed through. AS of now the only thing that the public should worry is who to elect especially in the presidential chair.

Beep…Beep…Found it: Technology and Background check

I Spy, you spy and things are really haywire. We’ve seen James Bond do it, and almost every Secret agent who hit both big screens and small screens. They have gadgets that fire as weapons, gadget that retaliate attacks like shields and computers that act as locators. When they first started they were but blip blips from the imagination. Now, these are found in the market available for the average Joe consumers—functional in every way.

Background check services have always been very specific and detailed in checking out a person history. When it comes to their people finder tracking is carefully done, from interviews to records search methods. There is one form of doing all of these and technology has handed that down to us. The social networking sites are but a few but a mobile tracker is another issue. There are instances when even background check services consider this a useful tool in searching for someone. Mobile credit accounts are one thing but how about a mobile tracker.

For mom’s who are worried too much for their kids’ safety; mobile trackers are usually featured as great locators in case they are lost. It becomes a buddy system between two mobiles or simply the phone has the feature where the GPS is involved.

GPS-track satellite networks are used to help people find the present location of the person they are looking for. Just like Credit card accounts are managed, a bank can tell which branch the card was accessed. The GPS even gives an outlook on the map where the person is presently located. The view then focused on the street where he is. It’s like a pictured being zoomed in—just like in the movies.

They were once ideas to spice up a movie. At present they have become more than a possibility as they are further enhanced. Things at present are definitely exciting like spy movies.