Facebook founder's fan page hacked

The fan page of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been hacked by a mystery invader who posted a message decrying the company's attempts to cash in on its hugely successful site.

Facebook declined to comment on the embarrassing security snafu, but did take down the compromised page. "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?" said the message, posted just days after Facebook confirmed that it had raised $1.5 billion from global investors at a valuation of around $50 billion.

"Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it?" the message continued, referring to the founder of the Grameen Bank which has transformed millions of lives by extending micro-loans to poor people.

Zuckerberg's fan page has more than three million followers and is probably managed by media assistants to the social networking magnate, according to cyber-security experts.

The hackers may have stolen control of the page by guessing the password, sniffing it out over unsecured wireless networks, tricking Zuckerberg or the account manager into revealing it, or even surreptitiously gaining control of their computer.

"We don't know how the hack was perpetrated," said Paul Ducklin , head of technology at internet security firm Sophos . "Whatever happened in this case, it raises one more tough question: do you still trust Facebook with your online persona?"

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Sony unveils new handheld; takes on DS, smartphones

Sony Corp launched a new handheld gaming device , the first to feature 3G wireless connectivity , as it battles with Nintendo's best-selling DS and tries to fend off rising competition from smartphones and tablets.

The announcement came the same day Nintendo is expected to report a slide in quarterly profit. Nintendo launches its 3D version of its popular DS model next month.

Sony said the new device, which it has codenamed "NGP" for Next Generation Portable, will go on sale around the year-end.

It will feature 3G wireless connectivity, the first in a portable games device, and use a 5-inch OLED panel, Sony said.

That compares with 3.5 inches for a standard smartphone screen.

The device also has a back touch pad in addition to the front touch panel and a motion sensor for more intuitive use, Sony said.

With smartphones and tablets from the likes of Apple Inc eating into the market for portable gaming devices, Sony and Nintendo desperately need a blockbuster product to boost sales and profit.

Nintendo's DS sold nearly 136 million units up to last September. Sony's PSP has sold some 61 million.

The next-generation PSP may be closely related to a PlayStation phone that may be in the works.

If not announced this week, the PlayStation phone could be unveiled on Feb. 13 at a Sony Ericsson event in Barcelona.

Analysts expect Nintendo to report a nearly 40 percent drop in profits for October-December as sales of its DS and compatible software fade ahead of the 3D launch.

Next week, Sony is expected to post a fall in profits for October-December, hit by its struggling TV business.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Sony to release new PlayStation Portable this year

Sony said Thursday the successor to its PlayStation Portable machine will go on sale late this year, offering the quality of a home console in an on-the-go machine boasting a screen double the size of smart phones.

The NGP, short for ``next generation portable,'' has a touch panel in the front and touch pads in the back to allow players to tap on the machine to move images, in addition to the usual buttons and switches.

It also offers a third-generation wireless connection plus the already available WiFi, allowing for more social networking and downloads. Its five-inch screen is OLED _ a different technology from liquid-crystal display _ for good color and image quality about four times better than the current PSP.

Sony said gamers will be able to play games they had been playing on the PlayStation 3 home console without feeling any drop in quality.

Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony Corp.'s gaming section, proudly held the shiny black machine to cameras, declaring: ``This is the NGP.''

He did not give a price, regional release plans or other details. ``We will pursue the ultimate in entertainment,'' said Hirai, President and Chief Executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Tokyo-based Sony's gaming unit. ``We want to create a revolution in your hands.''

Flash an LED smile to scare somebody

Flash that LED-tinged smile to light up a room or to scare somebody.

Japanese schoolgirls have pounced on the new product, which is being advertised as a "party in your mouth" and demand for it has gone through the roof, the Daily Mail reports.

Simply put, it is an LED (light emitting diode used as lamps) insert which can be affixed to your teeth - a bit like a mouth guard. It lights up when you smile.

You can even get a wireless hand-held computer to control the contraption, making your teeth change colour, from a lurid green to demonic-looking red or even blink.

Previous toothy-trends for gold caps and diamonds glued onto molars have been successful.

Surely then, it is only a matter of time before light-emitting smiles spread across the world.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Number of Internet users worldwide reaches 2 bn: UN

The number of Internet users worldwide has mushroomed to reach the two billion mark, the head of the UN's telecommunications agency, Hamadoun Toure, said on Wednesday.

The number of mobile phone subscriptions also reached the symbolic threshold of five billion, the secretary general of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) told journalists.

"At the beginning of the year 2000 there were only 500 million mobile subscriptions globally and 250 million Internet users," he said.

"By the beginning of this year 2011 those numbers have mushroomed to over five billion mobile users and two billion subscribers to the Internet," Toure added.

An ITU statistician told AFP that the figure for mobile telephones related to subscriptions.

Fresh data posted online by the agency showed that the estimated number of Internet users had reached 2.08 billion by the end of 2010, compared to 1.86 billion a year earlier.

The estimated number of cellphone subscriptions worldwide reached 5.28 billion at the end of the last year, compared to 4.66 billion at the end of 2009.

"The very high growth in mobile (phones) is slowing and we're reaching the end of double digit growth in mobile," Susan Teltscher, ITU head of market information and statistics, told.

Facebook tightens user security

Facebook on Wednesday announced heightened privacy controls for members of the world's largest online social network.

The security enhancements came on the heels of a hacker posting a bogus message on the public fan page of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg suggesting that the website pursue social good instead of business profit.

The release of improved tools for protecting the content of users' profiles was tied to an international Data Privacy Day this week, according to Facebook.

"A key part of controlling information has always been protecting it from security threats like viruses, malware and hackers," Facebook's Jake Brill said in a blog post.

New security features being rolled out included the availability of one-time passwords that US Facebook members could use at shared computers in places such as cafes, airports or hotels where keystrokes might be saved on machines.


Sending a mobile phone text message reading "otp" to 32665 will result in a Facebook user getting a response containing a password that works only once and expires in 20 minutes.

Apple's bold risks keep love affair with consumers going

What is driving the consumer love affair with Apple?

The company didn’t create the MP3 player, the smartphone or the tablet computer, yet Apple products dominate each of those categories.

The iPod is so prevalent that it’s commonly used as a generic name for any MP3 player.

An iPhone is a status symbol of sorts, like a Louis Vuitton handbag, even though one version of the smartphone is now sold for $49.

And the iPad reinvigorated a long-struggling category and turned this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show into a tablet fest.

Apple fanboy? Try Apple fandom.

Consumers generally point to two aspects of the Cupertino, California-based company’s products that set them apart: sleek design and ease of use.

The former is connected to the hardware, the latter to the software. Unlike most consumer technology companies, Apple controls both.

“They have more control than any other consumer tech company has over their product lines — over the way their products are created, built and marketed,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD Group , a market research firm based in Port Washington, New York.

Google’s Android mobile operating system has surpassed Apple’s iPhone iOS in market share, but the online search giant doesn’t make handsets, partnering with manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Motorola. That’s led to a mishmash of Android-based phones.

Though some have sold well, such as the HTC Evo and Motorola Droid X, none have come close to supplanting the iPhone’s supremacy — even while it’s been tied to the oft-criticised AT&T network.

Microsoft sells 2 million phones in last quarter

Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it sold more than 2 million units of its new Windows Phone 7 software to handset makers last quarter, as it looks to counter Apple Inc's iPhone and the rise of Google Inc's Android system.

The world's largest software maker, which launched its new phone software in October, licenses the technology to handset makers such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , LG Electronics Inc and HTC Corp.

Apple said last week 16.2 million iPhones were sold in the last quarter. Microsoft is set to report quarterly earnings on Thursday.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

House That! Google invests in low-income housing

Melbourne Apartments is a new 84-unit building in Des Moines, where a three-bedroom apartment rents for $775 a month but comes with restrictions – a family of five, for example, can earn no more than $47,460 a year. What is remarkable about this otherwise modest project is that the equity came from the search engine giant Google, whose Mountain View, Calif., headquarters are more than 1,500 miles away.

The investment by Google and other large corporations in Melbourne Apartments and similar projects is one reason a cloud of gloom has lifted for developers of income-restricted housing. These developments depend heavily on low-income-housing tax credits, which provide the equity that makes the difference between whether a project gets built or not.

But when the economy collapsed in 2008 the market for these tax credits dwindled, and many projects never got off the ground. Just $4.5 billion in tax credit equity was raised in 2009, compared with $9 billion in 2006, said Frederick H. Copeman, who heads the tax credit practice at the Reznick Group, a national accounting and consulting company. “People were ready to walk off gangplanks,” he said. Copeman estimated that $7 billion was raised last year.

Created more than two decades ago to instill market discipline into the development of subsidized housing, low-income-housing tax credits are allocated by the federal government and awarded by the states to projects that meet strict requirements. Developers sell the credits to investors–generally financial institutions – that are seeking to reduce their federal income tax over a 10-year period. The banks have another incentive, because investing in tax credits helps them fulfill their obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act to invest in poorer neighborhoods where they have customers.

But after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, “the banks were focused on their long-term liquidity,” rather than on offsetting profits, said another income-restricted housing expert, Michael Novogradac, the managing partner in the San Francisco office of Novogradac & Co. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which had been major investors in tax credits, stopped buying them in 2007. Weakened demand for tax credits led to lower prices, which made them less valuable to developers.

Japanese cos are eyeing Indian IT for acquisition

Japanese IT companies are aggressively looking at technology companies in India to acquire. Three Japanese IT majors, Fujitsu, NTT Data and Hitachi Consulting, were amongst the early bidders to acquire Patni Computers, though all of them eventually backed off.

But they have been successful in some others. NTT Data acquired US-based IT services firms Keane International and the US-based Intelligroup in 2010, and Hitachi Consulting acquired another US IT company called Sierra Atlantic in January 2011. Over three-fourths of employees in these companies are based in India.

“In the next 18 months we could expect a lot more action from Japanese companies,” said Partha Iyengar, V-P at research firm Gartner. According to IT industry body Nasscom , the Japanese IT services market, pegged at $108 billion, is the world's second largest after the US.

A shortage of skilled manpower and increasing cost pressures are driving the Japanese IT majors to explore cheaper offshore buys in India. The demand for IT services in Japan is driven by the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing industries, which together account for over 40% of the IT services market. Local companies like Fujitsu, Toshiba , NEC and NTT Data and US-headquartered IBM are the top players in Japan.

According to Raja Lahiri, director - transaction services at KPMG India , Japanese companies are looking at acquiring mid to large sized IT services companies in India. “It makes sense to have a presence in India to service global clients, as also the large Japanese market. With an ageing population they lack the manpower skills that India can offer,” he said.