Egypt shutdown worst in Internet history: Experts

The scale of Egypt's crackdown on the Internet and mobile phones amid deadly protests against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak is unprecedented in the history of the web, experts said.

US President Barack Obama, social networking sites and rights groups around the world all condemned the moves by Egyptian authorities to stop activists using cellphones and cybertechnology to organise rallies.

"It's a first in the history of the Internet," Rik Ferguson, an expert for Trend Micro, the world's third biggest computer security firm, said.

Julien Coulon, co-founder of Cedexis, a French Internet performance monitoring and traffic management system, added: "In 24 hours we have lost 97 percent of Egyptian Internet traffic.

According to Renesys, a US Internet monitoring company, Egypt's four main Internet service providers cut off international access to their customers in a near simultaneous move at 2234 GMT on Thursday.

Don't let Facebook get you into trouble

These days, Facebook may be the single best way online to keep in touch with friends, associates, far-flung family members, and people with similar interests. But if you're not careful, it's probably also the site most likely to get you into trouble.

Virtually every week, there's another news report about employers using Facebook to evaluate or screen employees or potential employees, making assumptions about character, trustworthiness, or conduct based upon Facebook postings or "friends."

Girlfriends and boyfriends, husbands and wives, friends and neighbours can check out each other's Facebook pages with ease, possibly jumping to erroneous conclusions about what shows up. So how can you enjoy what Facebook has to offer while limiting your risk? Follow these steps:

Know your privacy settings

Whether you're active or not on Facebook, if you haven't visited the Privacy Settings area, you should put this on the top of your to-do list. In short, Facebook pages get indexed very well by the major search engines, and unless you know both what's on your page and what could be on your page as a result of friends' postings, you should take control pronto.

New laser sensing techno sniffs bombs, pollutants from a distance

Scientists have developed a new laser sensing technology that could allow soldiers to detect hidden bombs from a distance.

The Princeton University technology may also help scientists better measure airborne environmental pollutants and greenhouse gasses.

"We are able to send a laser pulse out and get another pulse back from the air itself. The returning beam interacts with the molecules in the air and carries their finger prints," said Richard Miles, the research group leader and co-author on the paper.

Miles collaborated with three other researchers: Arthur Dogariu, the lead author on the paper, and James Michael of Princeton, and Marlan Scully, a professor with joint appointments at Princeton and Texas A&M University.

The new laser sensing method uses an ultraviolet laser pulse that is focused on a tiny patch of air, similar to the way a magnifying glass focuses sunlight into a hot spot.

Within this hot spot oxygen atoms become "excited" as their electrons get pumped up to high energy levels. When the pulse ends, the electrons fall back down and emit infrared light.

Now, a mobile system which weathers crises!

Scientists have developed a new mobile technology which they claim is set to improve calls during disasters by allowing the transmission of signals with -out nearby cell phone towers.

An international team, led by Flinders University, has created the software which can run on "off-the-shelf" mobile phones and allow them to relay calls for one phone to another -- without the presence of mobile phone towers in the vicinity -- before ultimately re-connecting with an operating mobile telephone tower.

"Our technology allows the signal from the working towers to be relayed into areas lacking signal, allowing calls in and out of affected areas. What is amazing is that we have programmed fairly ordinary mobile telephones to perform this function, without using any specialised hardware," Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen, who led the team, said.

He added: "My team and I are excited about the potential of our technology to help when a crisis strikes.

From the outset of this project we have been committed to making our technology freely available.

"Any telephone carrier or handset manufacturer that wishes to incorporate our technology into their products is free to do so, and indeed we would be delighted to assist them in that process."

The technology also has the potential to dramatically improve mobile telephone coverage in many rural and remote locations where a signal is available only from limited locations in a community or with a frustratingly weak signal, say the scientists.

"Phones running our software relay calls between themselves. If even just one of those can see a cell tower, then calls can be with any of the phones, thus sustaining communications in affected areas. A balloon is not necessary; a phone running our software at any vantage point can suffice," he said.

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

BlackBerry knocked out of Top-5 sellers by China' ZTE

China's ZTE Corp. has replaced BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) among the world's top five mobile phone sellers.

According to a report released Friday by tech research company IDC, the low-priced cellphone maker ZTE also pushed Apple to the last spot on the Top-5 list on the back its surging sales.

The report "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker'' said Apple was pushed from the fourth slot to the last position despite shipping a record number of iPhones during the fourth quarter.

BlackBerry had made to the IDC's Top-5 list only last April.

According to figures, Nokia remained the No. 1 mobile phone seller, shipping 123.7 million units during the quarter even though its sales declined 2.4 percent since last year.

However, Nokia still commands about 31 percent of the global smart phone market.

Shipping 80.7 million units during the period, Samsung was at the second spot, with 20.1 percent share of the global market.

Google updates service tracker amid Egypt shutdown

An Internet blockade in Egypt inspired Google on Friday to provide an improved tool for tracking access to the firm's popular websites.

A portion of a Google Transparency Report that charts worldwide Internet traffic patterns was modified to reflect conditions on the Web within the past four hours.

Prior to the change, the traffic tool launched late last year had a 30-hour delay.

"Given the recent interest in the availability of our services, we've reduced the time delay in the Traffic tool on our Transparency Report to less than four hours," the company said.

The roller coaster graph line for Egypt traffic to YouTube , Blogger, and other Google sites during the past two weeks plunged abruptly to zero on Thursday and was still there when checked by AFP at 2330 GMT on Friday.

According to Renesys, a US Internet monitoring company, Egypt's four main Internet service providers cut off international access to their customers in a near simultaneous move on Thursday.

"The Internet has been one of the greatest innovations of our lifetime because of the access to information it gives people around the world," Google chief legal officer David Drummond told Al-Jazeera news on Friday.

"We believe that access is a fundamental right, and it's very sad if it's denied to citizens of Egypt or any country."

The Egyptian government's unprecedented shutdown of Internet access in the face of massive anti-government protests came under fire on Friday from the White House , social networking giants and digital rights groups.

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

iPad apps, accessories as profitable as the tablet itself

iPad hasn't just made $10 billion for Apple in less than a year of its launch. It is also the breeding ground for thousands of apps and accessories that make millions on the side. This is because an iPad buyer is condemned not to be content with just the device alone.

Within days of the purchase — if not at the time of purchase itself — iPad owners download many of the over 2 lakh apps (some free, some paid) on offer and pick up an accessory or two-cases, docks, speaker systems, keyboard...the list goes on.

Now that the iPad is officially available, here's a quick lowdown on what you will most probably need to have with the device — if you are planning to buy one. The first thing you will need is a case. You can choose to go for the official Apple iPad case (Rs 2,500) or one of the many hundreds of different skins, sleeves or hard cases from manufacturers like Belkin and Griffin.

Prices start as low as Rs 1,200 and can go up to Rs 4,000 on the more expensive wooden, engraved or personalised options. Then, depending on how finicky you are, you will want a screen protector and/or screen cleaner kit (the fingerprints on that gigantic screen are a nightmare).

As for the apps-the iPad accesses a specific section of the Apple App Store , so you don't have the might of 3,00,000 applications like you do with the iPhone, but there were 60,000 iPad-specific apps at last count. Many of the same apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch are also available for the iPad, but tagged with the 'HD' (or high definition) moniker.

MS betters outlook, Windows falters

Microsoft surprised Wall Street with a better-than-expected profit, helped by resurgent corporate spending after the belt-tightening of past years. But its shares stayed flat as investors expressed concern about the weakness of overall computer sales amid a faltering US recovery.

The world's largest software maker, whose Windows operating system runs on 90% of the world's computers, is heavily dependent on PC sales, which grew only 3%in the quarter. “Outstanding numbers when you take a first look at it, but then you delve into them, Windows missed expectations by $300 million,” said Brendan Barnicle , analyst at Pacific Crest Securities .

Sales of smartphones and tablets are expected to grow much more quickly than PCs over the next few years, posing athreat to Microsoft's key market.

But some analysts argued that fears of tablets and other hot-selling gadgets replacing PCs were overblown -- at least for now. “We've gotten over 300 million Windows 7 licenses sold. I mean, PCs are not disappearing. Put that into perspective with 7 million tablets sold last quarter from Apple ,” said BGC Financial's Colin Gillis.

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