Even after 2 weeks of Osama Bin Laden’s take down, offline and online world is still swinging with the brand value of Osama Bin Laden. There are people who have done the research on operation which had ended only with the death of Osama, many have tried to find out the minute by minute report on last life day and many have tried to analyse what is the impact on people post Osama death.
In the same row, here is an interesting infographic, which has been brought by burialinsurance.org, to cover whole life and various important facts of Osama bin laden. The whole infographic covers the terror life of Osama bin laden started in 1984.
The harmony over cloud computing has been vetted by many industry experts and undoubtedly, it has changed the ecosystem of computing in last one decade. Robust connectivity and accessibility of data has given major push among people to leverage on Cloud. However, the moment you touch cloud – be it email, online banking, social media activity – in hit back a server located at Data Center. Like any hungry beast Data Center, responsible to produce and transit billions of megabytes of data every second, pull more energy and which in-turn has substantial impact on environment.
ABB – experts in Data Center power computation automation – has released an interesting Infographic which showcases the illusion (rather indirect) of cloud computing advantages through non-optimized Data Centers.
Just few days back we had exposed another remarkable infographic which exposes how Internet is subsidizing the growth of planet. The Infograhic challenges the Internet for its down-sides impact over planet, through search queries, emails and other Internet based activities.
Even ten days after the late-night announcement on May 1st, 2011, the death of Osama Bin Laden is still a hot topic on many news shows. It is a story with an endless cache of angles, twists, retracted statements and tongue twisting names (Osama/Obama—say it 10 times fast!). The below infographic, released by Good Morning, culls the answers to a USA Today/Gallop Poll survey questioning Americans’ post-Osama feelings.
According to the poll, 54% of Americans feel that the U.S. is safer after Bin Laden’s death. To the question of importance, 1% of Americans responded humorously that it was “not at all important” that Osama Bin Laden was killed. Also interesting is who respondents feel deserves the most credit: 89% back the U.S. Military.
As one chapter in American history closes and almost instantly reopens with further chaos and unrest in the Middle East, it is good to see Americans questioning and developing opinions about the events of the past nine and a half years. Especially when those opinions come in the form of a nifty graphic
Time and again, Facebook is at center of criticism for accidentally leaking personal information of users to advertisers and other third parties for years. It has been learned by Symantec that Facebook was unintentionally giving way for hackers to gain access over thousands of users’ profile from last four years – Since company started offering applications on its platform in 2007.
The unintended access included Photos, profile, chat and the ability to post message and mine personal information. Though, Facebook has claimed to address this issue and denied to obtain any evidence that any actual data was leaked due to such flaw, it puts the company’s services & security measures back on debate board.
Symantec has claimed that “security process which allows access to any third-party application” holds (was) major flaw. However, there are chances that many third-party app developers didn’t realize such security threat.
Generally Facebook assigns a “Token” to every third-party application using which app can access user’s information. These tokens are valid for certain time duration – in some cases until user change his password. Though, Facebook has started using OAUTH2.0, legacy authorization system is still in place and getting used by many app developers. Symantec explains that possible leak of these tokens happens when user get redirected to permission page through a client side redirect with this token code integrated in URL using normal HTTP access.
To encounter this exposure Facebook has released a clarification email stating “We’ve conducted a thorough investigation which revealed no evidence of this issue resulting in a user’s private information being shared with unauthorized third parties,” Interestingly, they didn’t bother to mention how exactly the company conducted its study.
Earlier, Facebook has been criticized several times for various security loop holes and failing to take adequate measurement for users’ personal date. In January this year, it was Mark Zuckerberg – CEO of Facebook – who faced the heat when his fan page got hacked with the message “Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it? [LINK] What do you think? #hackercup2011″.
Twitter is no science and neither opting followers. It’s an art – an art of conversation and engagement with others through your words in limited fashion. But still the most countable aspect of the service is number of followers any one has. Users always like to gain attention for their tweets and if it’s in scores, they get motivated towards farming a bigger cube of maximum number of followers.
A latest infographic, from memeburn, shows top five methods to increase your followers and stay effective over Twitter. It suggests that most important attraction for followers, from your profile, is your profile pictures which is equally important like your personal details.
People don’t want to keep listening about your activities – until you are a celebrity or public figure. You should not bug up you’re your tweets by talking only yourself most of the time.
Be much more responsive than active. The response rate is much higher from people who have less than 1000 followers. It’s difficult to pay attention to each and every tweet and therefore you should concentrate and maintain an pro-active list of followers instead just identical numbers.
Don’t be negative thought donor. People come to Twitter to have share their happiness and get along with people who can make them feel good. Avoid feeling your tweets with sadness, criticism, negative or personal aggressive feelings. It will only draw people away from you on Twitter.
So, you hold single flat screen Tablet which is running on Android Honeycomb – Android 3.0 operating system specifically made for tablets. And you have been bugged up with the same old interface and features, desperately waiting for some good news from Google to give a virtual re-birth to your Android Tablet. Then, you should be a jumping jackal as Google has announced first ever upgraded to version of Honeycomb – Android 3.1.
Today in Google I/O developer conference, company has announced the first upgrade of Honeycomb. The upgrade will first be introduced with Motorola’s Xoom tablet and shortly be coming to Google TV this summer. The upgraded version is introducing many new, expandable widget as well as support for USB peripherals, including cameras, joysticks etc.
Google introduced Android 3.0 in October last year, specifically to cater the phenomenal growth of Tablet market. Many Industry analysts took such diversification on criticism notes as they didn’t see any significant achievement for Google by having two separate version of same operating system for devices which are identical to mobile industry.
Google is also expected to spill beans on upcoming upgraded version of Android 2.4 – also known as Ice Cream Sandwich – which has been developed for Smartphones. We shall update you shortly on that as are monitoring Google’s event closely.
Many of us already know the negative impact of sitting for long hours. Though, we take many precautionary measures to overcome such problems, every human body reacts in own way which will far more dangerous anyone can ever imagine. A recent medical journal has revealed that sitting in the same place for more than six hours per day makes you up to 40% likelier to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than 3 hours. – Even if you exercise regularly!
It’s almost inevitable for professionals if their jobs demands minimum 9 hours of sitting culture. However, there are many short movements which you can perform from short sneak break wherever and whenever it’s possible. Below is an interesting infographic – thanks to Medical Billing and Coding – which exposes the real dangerous of immovable position.
Skype acquisition efforts are turning out to be more fascinating with every passing day. Last week speculations were made favoring Facebook to ‘shake hand’ with Skype, then Google fuel the fire by showing interest in Skype and yesterday technology giant Microsoft has jumped into the acquisition race.
As per the latest information from various sources, it’s Microsoft who is quite close to grab Skype by shelling out somewhere between $7 billion to $8 billion in cash and stocks. Microsoft’s latest move, apparently, has switched off Google and Facebook. Representatives for Microsoft and Skype declined to comment.
Buying Skype – service which connects millions of people across the globe through Internet-based voice & video – would give Microsoft much-needed hype in Internet space especially when it comes at the time Google and Facebook are already stamping their dominance effectively.
Is Microsoft Overpaying Skype?
Just evaluate these figures: Skype’s last year revenue was 860 million. Consequently, operating profit stood $264 million but on net-to-net it lost $7 million. The company also had long-term debit of $686 million as of December 31 last year. A company which holds more than 675 million users base still struggling to find a positive profit figure as net income – Surprising!
If Microsoft agrees to pay close to $8 billion, it’s nine times of Skype’s last year revenue and 30 times of operating profit. Do all such calculations on business sheet really make any profitable sense for a company which has failed to give single master class over the Internet till such date?
If Microsoft pocket Skype with whooping $8 billion, it will be the biggest ever acquisition in the history of the company. n 2007, Microsoft paid about $6 billion to acquire online advertising firm aQuantive Inc. Many current and former Microsoft executives believe Microsoft significantly overpaid for that deal. But they are also relieved that Microsoft gave up on an unsolicited $48 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. nearly three years ago. Yahoo is valued at half that sum today.
Can Microsoft Capitalized On Skype Services?
Post acquisition efforts and strategy are already on the cards of Microsoft. This we can confirm because, unlike Google and Facebook, company is not shielding itself behind any investment or advisory firm for Skype acquisition exercise.
Microsoft has never been known as communication oriented company. For a company which leads all the way in Office and Desktop enterprise business, it would be a daunting task if Skype couldn’t scale up in next 6-8 months of post-acquisition.
On the bigger note, many are predicting higher chances of execution failure if Microsoft overcomes Skype. To justify the buyout investment and to make Skype work Microsoft will have to transform Skype for an enterprise business solution which will not only challenge Cisco’s WebEx but also draw the possibilities to go with company’s enterprise solutions. However, in such transformation era, Microsoft will also have to make sure the Skype’s current market with consumers who want to bypass the traditional phone companies and their outrageous bills.
So, what about windows Phone platform? That aspect is much more interesting for this acquisition. Recent marriage between Microsoft and Nokia has already raised the expectations of management from both companies. Therefore, it’s very important for Microsoft to offer an exponential software platform with feature rich “bolt-ons” to Nokia which can largely compete with Andorid and iPhone.
Skype is already enjoying the attention from Android and iPhone users due to seamless integration of its Voice & Voce conference facilities. If Microsoft manages to control Skype, besides having direct advantages for its Windows platform, it would be able put both the companies (Apple and Google) in damage control mode – till an extent.
It’s not the first time when Skype is going through such acquisition exercise. Founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, Skype was sold to eBay Inc in mid 2005 for $2.6 billion in cash and stocks. Industry as well as eBay was expecting to see surge in sales from the help of Skype service where sellers and buyers could have much effective discussion over transactions. However, eBay was flat in execution and finally surrendered it by giving away 70% of stake to a group of technology investors including Silver Lake Partners, venture capital firms Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who will make a handsome return on the Microsoft transaction.
Now, when Microsoft is, apparently, going to control Skype, it would be interesting to see how company leverages on Skype’s legitimate capabilities by having seamless integration with enterprise and Internet wings.
UPDATE: WSJ reports that Microsoft will announce acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion later this morning at 8 am ET ( 6 pm IST today)
UPDATE 2: So, the big news is out finally. Microsoft has agreed to pay $8.5 billion in cash against take over of Skype. In the statement Microsoft said that Skype currently has 170 million active users, out of which 8.8 million are those who are paying for the services. The new acquisition will work as a separate business division and would be known as “Microsoft Skype”. Current Skype CEO Tony Bates will continue as a president of the new division and will directly report to Steve Ballmer – Microsoft CEO.
Internet is growing every day with the help of Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare. People are becoming more fascinated towards the ‘instant engagement capability’ of Internet. Most of them take all precautionary measures to ensure their privacy, identity and to safe guard their confidential information while they deal with Internet properties. But do you know despite of all such security precautions, like password protection, Server Security layer (SSL) browsing, Secure connection or cache screen, your most of the information peeps from various corners of Web – only to be found out by hacker and miscreants ?
Though, many people may argue on this as they feel to work with most secured environment for their online activities, possibilities are always there that many of them throw away their information unknowingly. People are getting engaged in more and more activities on internet whether it is photo sharing, email, social networking or messaging, without knowing the possible threat for all such online social incubation.
Also, due to the Smartphone revolution, millions of applications deal with your personal information on a regular basis only to provide you an environment to stay with your preferred services like Gmail, Facebook or Twitter. However, people are bound to use such apps without actually going deep inside the potential threat of Information leak or self-surrender.
Here is an interesting infographic by WorldStream, which highlights possible threats and the amount of personal information which is available on Web only to damage the creditability of many human being. (Click to enrage the image)
Samsung mobile division must be riding high with the news that company has secured more than 3 million booking as pre-order for its first ever dual core Samsung Galaxy S II Smartphone. On Sunday, company said that worldwide pre-order figure of 3 million is ten folds higher than what was recorded in home country South Korea.
Galaxy S II’s figure is based on the pre-bookings received by the company till the end of last month (April 2011). As device is expected to see the launch in more than 140 countries, this figure may get eclipsed by much attractive pre-booking or sales figures.
Last week, Samsung said that pre-order of latest Android Gingerbread based Smartphone in South Korea had surpassed 120,000 in just three days which was, again, three folds higher than what its predecessor had got at when it was launched in June last year.
All this figures are expected to grow further as Galaxy S II is continuing to gain traction among every segment of users across the globe.
The Galaxy S II is currently known as fastest Smartphone with 1 Ghz Dual core Tegra 2 processor. It is also known as one of the lightest Smartphone ever. Demand is likely to taper off with time but with this constant growth in Smartphone market, company is gearing up to challenge the dominance of Apple’s iPhone.
In its own segment Galaxy S II holds the biggest screen with 4.3 inch Super AMOLED plus display. Though, there are few more Smartphones lined up from other companies with almost similar specifications, like LG Optimus 2X and HTC Sensation , it would be interesting to see how people react to dual core Smartphone segment.
For our esteemed visitors, who would be interested to know more about Samsung Galaxy S II or looking for ‘hands-on’ review, here is one of the best video review:
For the last one week or so, possibilities of Skype acquisition/tie-up by Facebook or Google are swirling over the Internet. Two separate sources of Reuters have confirmed that company is progressing talks with both Facebook and Google, either for partnership or for an outright acquisition. To add further more spices, we are hearing that Microsoft has jumped into this Rat race and has emerged as strongest contender for this deal.
As per the sources, Skype can spill the beans on this in next 2-3 days or probably if gets excited enough – on Monday. Currently, all senior management and attorneys of the company are burning their mid-night oil this weekend before any announcement.
The big question which swings now what there for Microsoft in it ? Is it just to keep competition away by pocketing Skype’s exponential business outreach or is there some serious strategy post-acquisition? I personally feel that Microsoft’s interest into Skype makes significant sense for several reasons:
1) A recent marriage between Microsoft and Nokia will get a big boost from this tie ( either acquisition or Tie-up). Skype controls the “bolt-on-mobile-application” market through its services/solutions, like mobile video chat, VoIP services etc, which can be added advantage for Microsoft when it will plug Windows Phone platform with Nokia hardware.
2) It will open the door for further tie-ups and collaboration for Microsoft with various carriers who are interested to partner with Skype. This will have another in-direct benefit for Microsoft Mobile and Telecom solution arm.
3) Microsoft don’t have any direct “say” to social media Industry. Though, it has own financial interest with Facebook, Microsoft still wants to come out strongly by its own in collaboration and information sharing business like voice, video chat or other collaboration tools. This will help the company to win over its closest competitors Google and Cisco in such niche area.
Interestingly, despite of having mutual interest from three Industry Titans, Skype is still holding cards for IPO. I am really not sure how far and where exactly this will end but either by having tie-up or by acquisition, all three companies are set on the target which is going to play an optimistic role in collaboration Industry which is going on through up growth transformation.
We are keeping a close eye on all related development and shall update you as and when any crack down will happen. Keep following this space !
Apple’s phenomenal growth has finally paid off to its brand eventually. Demand an acceptance of iPhone and iPad has made Apple world’s most valuable brand pushing Google down ending a four-year region by the Internet search titan. With staggering 84% appreciation towards its value in last one year, Apple stands firm at top position with whooping $153 billion brand valuation.
As per the sixth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report, by Millward Brown Optimor, Apple leads the list followed by Google, IBM, McDonald and Microsoft. Interestingly, previous brand leader Google is the only company, among top 10 brands, which has recorded negative change of 2% to its brand value compare to last year.
Other key findings in the study are that during the economic recovery of the last year, the combined value of all the brands in the top 100 has risen by 17 percent and is now worth $2.4 trillion. In terms of geography, according to the 2011 BrandZ study, 19 of the Top 100 brands now originate in “BRICs” markets, versus only two in 2006.
While analyzing the finding, another interesting fact which has beamed that six out of top 10 brands is directly related to Technology and Telecom Industry.
However, Mc-Donald’s, at number four position in the list, has emerged has top brand in Fast-food category with appreciation of two position compare to last year while Coca-cola lost similar number only to reach at sixth position in this year list.
The BrandZ index calculate the brand value on number of factors – estimate of a brand contribution to earnings, valuation of intangible assets, measures of customers perception and an estimate of growth potential.
“The anecdotal evidence is that if employees are given the choice of two similar jobs they opt for the one with better technology for its employees – for example an iPad,” said by Mr Walshe – Global BrandZ director of Millward Brown. Apple, he added, had also succeeded in emulating luxury goods brands, in that making its products more expensive had increased their desirability.
Surprisingly, social media giant – Facebook – got positioned at number 35 with overall brand value worth 19.10 billion. Company has been listed first time ever in BrandZ list and is the only company in the space of Social Media. Ebay, which was holding 76th position last year, has got depreciation of 6 positions only to reach at number 82 in this year Top Global Brand list. Though, Ebay’s brand value has been appreciated to $10.7 billion compare to $9.2 billion last year, decline in the position came due to stronger emergence of other global brand.
When Acer first announced Honeycomb Tablet – Iconia Tab A500 – in January, I knew that this could be the first Tablet running on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) which can come to India quit sooner compare to others. Thanks to Acer’s India preference policy. Keeping my excitement level intact, today Acer has announced the launch of Iconia Tab A500 in India.
Despite of all its hardware & software specifications, the one thing which has charmed me most is its very competitive price in Honeycomb segment. In International market, its available at $449 and India it has been tagged with Rs. 27,999 and 32,499/- for two different versions.
However, the subsidization of price came at the cost of 3G feature. I am really feeling bad for finding unsupported 3G capability. A 10.1 inch capacitive touch screen with Dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor make it a strong contender among Honeycomb Tablet line – if your omit 3G consideration.
16 GB Internal memory – expandable upto 32 GB – with 5 mega pixel rear and 2 mega pixel front camera justifies all its comparison with other front line Tablets currently available in market.
Acer Iconia Tab A500 is available with Android as well as Windows platform – Is Acer checking Indian user’ pulse of Android acceptance like Windows ?
Just to help our readers, before you reach with your verdict, here is a Hands on video review of Acer Iconia Tab A500. I am sure, this will help you till and extent !
Are you planning for a startup or already you have joined the bandwagon! No matter where do you stand today with your thoughts and engagement, the below Infographic on startups may push you to re-visualize your game plan – till certain extent. A visual combination of ground realities, challenges, advantages, facts and startup drive are all which everyone should know before they swing (first time) into Entrepreneurship eco system.
A crude but factual infographic, presented by Focus , will surely help those who have been bitten first time by Entrepreneurship bug. (Click to enlarge)
Have you ever thought about holding a phone which is unbreakable, thinner than ever and most important, easy to navigate? A small sheet of paper like phone which can almost do everything what any other Smartphone can, is set on the launch pad. The new Smartphone prototype, called Paper Phone, is best described as a flexible iPhone which consist the display of mere 9.5 cm diagonal thin film flexible E Ink display. This flexible form is makes it much more portable than any current mobile computer.
The revolutionary phone will be unveiled on 10 May by Dr. Vertegaal at Association of Computing Machinery’s CHI2011 (Computer Human Interaction) conference in Vancouver – the premier internal conference of Human-computer Interaction.
“The paperless office is here. Everything can be stored digitally and you can place these computers on top of each other just like a stack of paper, or throw them around the desk” says Dr. Vertegaal.
The new paper phone has many features which makes it much more productive and environment friendly. Its large and flexible version devices are able to store and interact with documents which make no room for any paper or printer. Even it doesn’t need any battery or power supply support at the time when no one is using it.
We are not sure how far such device can transform the mobile devices ecosystem but we would like to know from our readers “What they think about this new Invention?”
