Fortza 2

Microsoft Game Studios launched the upgraded version of its motor sports game, Fortza Motorsport 2, in India priced at Rs 1,895.The launch of Fortza 2 marks a new price point that Microsoft has introduced in the Indian market. company had spent nearly 40 million dollars and two years in upgrading the title for gamers globally. Microsoft is also planning to bring a top-end variant of its high-definition gaming console, X-Box Elite, in the Indian market by August.

facebook

With an ambitious strategy for expansion, Facebook is getting into MySpace's face.Facebook, the Internet's second-largest social network, was originally popular on college campuses, but over the past year it has opened its dorm-room doors to all and seen its membership rolls explode at triple-digit growth rates.Some of the new features, demonstrated by software developers at a Facebook event in San Francisco on Thursday, will allow members to recommend and listen to music, insert Amazon book reviews onto their pages, play games and join charity drives -- without leaving the site.The Facebook invitation is expected to result in a proliferation of new tools and activities for Facebook's 23 million active users, who have largely been limited to making online connections, sharing photos and planning events.

Mobimii

Mobimii, a cross platform social networking portal for cellphones, launched in its Beta-phase today enabling users to chat and share photographs and video-clips through their cellphone with no additional charge other than that of their regular online network fee.Another benefit according to mobimii (pronounced mobi-me) is the unlimited free content that users have access to. Subscription to the site is free thereby combating the premium rates of current cellphone content. So whilst the subscriber would usually pay around R5-00 for a wallpaper or R15 for a ringtone with mobiwii the only cost they have to worry about are their network data charges.

Face book

Facebook.com took the wraps off its highly anticipated makeover from a members-only club into what it hopes can allow it to become a software operating system for all sorts of Internet media. The college student social networking site, which opened up to users of all ages over the past year, said it has signed up 65 partners, including Microsoft and Amazon.com, to build Web applications within Facebook.Founded in 2004 by then-undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg as a socializing site for fellow Harvard students, Facebook now has 24 million active users and is growing by 3 per cent a week.The No 2 social network site, behind News Corp's MySpace, will allow developers to build services that work both inside Facebook's site and on their own independent sites.

Email Ids for Every Indian

Microsoft Corp. has announced unique email ids for every kind of Indian powered by Windows Live Hotmail beginning with www.lokhandwalarocks.com. Users in India can now chose any email id they want through a feature called custom domains.This initiative is being flagged off by unveiling an email id for the residents of Lokhandwala in Andheri, Mumbai called www.lokhandwalarocks.com. This is Microsoft's first step towards customizing email for consumers in India.Windows Live Hotmail is the next generation MSN Hotmail providing a faster, safer and more powerful online communication experience than before. Windows Live Hotmail is designed so people can get their email any time, and any where in the way they want, via the Web, mobile phone or desktop.Windows Live Hotmail will offer users more ways to stay in touch with all the people you care about, plus powerful protection features. It is also integrated with other Windows Live services such as Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Spaces to deliver a seamless integrated communication experience for users.

Social networking sites

Social networking sites are feeding off each other's good will, according to a new report by competitive intelligence service company Hitwise.
Facebook's traffic has doubled in just over 18 months, but MySpace still receives most of the Web's social networking traffic. MySpace captured 79.7% of social networking traffic in April, according to figures released by Hitwise on Monday. Facebook accounted for 11.47% of social networking visits, while MySpace alterative Bebo drew 1.28% of the traffic last month, according to the Hitwise report.
MySpace visits rose 70% from April 2006 to April 2007, while the percentage increase for the lesser-used sites was much more dramatic, according to Hitwise. Facebook visits increased 126% from April 2006 and Bebo's traffic rose 184% from last year, Hitwise announced.

social networking

Yahoo executives have publicly acknowledged that the company's Yahoo 360 social networking site has failed to achieve expected levels of popularity. Last year, it was rumored that Yahoo tried unsuccessfully to buy social networking site Facebook for US$1 billion, the same figure Yahoo is reportedly willing to pay for Bebo, the U.K. newspaper reportedIn the U.S., News Corp.'s MySpace attracted almost 80 percent of all visits to social networking sites in April, followed in a very distant second place by Facebook with 11.5 percent, according to Hitwise Pty. Ltd. Bebo came in third place with 1.3 percent of visits. Yahoo 360 took seventh place with 0.71 percent.Bebo has a particularly strong following in the U.K., where in mid-April it ranked as the eighth most popular Web site with 1.27 percent of all visits, one spot below MySpace, which ranked seventh with 1.34 percent, according to Hitwise.

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search requests

A feature listing the day's 100 fastest-rising search requests has been unveiled by Google. The chart, part of the search system's trends service, will be refreshed several times a day using data from millions of searches.Google says a large number of searches are made on the eve of college entrance examinations which appear to come from high school students doing last-minute preparations

mobile phone call

A British climber has become the first person to make a mobile phone call from the top of Mount Everest. Mountaineer Rod Baber, 36, removed his oxygen mask to make two calls from the mountain's north ridge. In the first call to a special answerphone set up by sponsors Motorola.Although bulky satellite phones have been used on Everest for some time, this is the first time anyone has made a mobile phone call from the top of the mountain.Although bulky satellite phones have been used on Everest for some time, this is the first time anyone has made a mobile phone call from the top of the mountain.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com became an ally and a rival to Apple with plans to launch an online music store featuring songs without anti-piracy software.The Internet retailer will compete with Apple’s iTunes digital music store while siding with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in a campaign to eliminate digital rights management (DRM) software in digital songs.Amazon.com said it is launching an online music store this year featuring millions of songs without copying limitations.The online retail giant said it had a deal with British-based music publisher EMI Music to include its music catalog as well as those from 12,000 other music labels.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com became an ally and a rival to Apple with plans to launch an online music store featuring songs without anti-piracy software.The Internet retailer will compete with Apple’s iTunes digital music store while siding with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in a campaign to eliminate digital rights management (DRM) software in digital songs.Amazon.com said it is launching an online music store this year featuring millions of songs without copying limitations.The online retail giant said it had a deal with British-based music publisher EMI Music to include its music catalog as well as those from 12,000 other music labels.

Yahoo

Yahoo! today expanded the reach of its popular mobile search service, Yahoo! oneSearch beta, to consumers in India. It will go live in beta today in seven countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.oneSearch reinvents search on the mobile and is designed to provide consumers instant, relevant answers on their mobile device. It can now be accessed through Yahoo!'s mobile Web site, on any mobile phone with a browser and Internet access.

Google

Google Inc.’s ease to use, simplicity of design, and massive database listings have made it the numero uno search engine in the world. Now, the Mountain View, California-based Web search leader is extending its design magnificence in new directions by combining its different Web search services into one "Universal Search" service that will present Web sites, news, video and other results on one page.The online search giant has expanded its main Web search engine to incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources, including videos, photos, books and other content, into its main results page. Users can now find all the relevant information collected on a single, easy-to-use Web page.

you tube

Thailand said that it had reached an agreement with the video-sharing site YouTube to remove clips deemed insulting to the Thai king, but threatened to prosecute those responsible for the images.If the videos are removed, Thailand would stop blocking the site owned by Internet giant Google.YouTube has been banned in Thailand since a clip appeared in early April showing digitally-altered images of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej next to a photograph of feet, considered deeply offensive here.

INTERNET

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended that IPTV and IP-VPN would not come under the definition of internet, and suggested that ISPs shall not be permitted to have PSTN/ PLMN connectivity and shall not allocate E.164 numbering.It also wants to remove restrictions on the use of devices/protocol employed to make internet telephony calls to facilitate use of affordable and user-friendly devices/adapters conforming to international organisations specification like ITU/ IETF.General consumer awareness to use authorised internet telephony services only needs to be developed. Print and electronic media will be effective in promoting such awareness.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

SOCIAL NETWORKING is currently a hot technology area through websites such as Orkut (www.orkut.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com) and MySpace (www.myspace.com), where people can build up the online equivalent of a circle of friends.A network such as MySpace is much more socially focused, aiming at connecting people on an informal level and providing a focus point for people who enjoy similar things. Those may be as simple as model train enthusiasts or more complex, such as rallying people to a social cause. But for people interested in both, such sites provide a central point to bring it all together.

television

About 90 per cent of the children in the US below two years of age and as many as 40 per cent of infants under three months are regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos, researchers said.About half of the shows watched were in the educational category, with the remainder split evenly among non-educational children’s content, baby DVDs/videos and adult TV. Just 12 per cent of the parents whose children watched less than an hour of television a day said their child “hardly ever does homework,” compared to 21 per cent of those who watched one to three hours a day and 27 per cent of those who watched more than three hours a day. Johnson said he believes TV may be shortening teens’ attention spans. “Over time, it could really dumb down society

best Indian portal 2007

BharatMatrimony Group, one of India's leading Internet companies, grabbed the awards for the best Indian portal 2007 under three different categories of matrimony, property and jobs.PC World, one of the leading Indian IT magazines, gave away the awards for the matrimonial site BharatMatrimony and the property portal called IndiaProperty.ClickJobs, the group's job site, was recognized for its best design.PC World had done a survey of around 126 online Indian companies for the awards.

best Indian portal 2007

BharatMatrimony Group, one of India's leading Internet companies, grabbed the awards for the best Indian portal 2007 under three different categories of matrimony, property and jobs.PC World, one of the leading Indian IT magazines, gave away the awards for the matrimonial site BharatMatrimony and the property portal called IndiaProperty.ClickJobs, the group's job site, was recognized for its best design.PC World had done a survey of around 126 online Indian companies for the awards.

best Indian portal 2007

BharatMatrimony Group, one of India's leading Internet companies, grabbed the awards for the best Indian portal 2007 under three different categories of matrimony, property and jobs.PC World, one of the leading Indian IT magazines, gave away the awards for the matrimonial site BharatMatrimony and the property portal called IndiaProperty.ClickJobs, the group's job site, was recognized for its best design.PC World had done a survey of around 126 online Indian companies for the awards.

my space

Social-networking site MySpace, owned by Murdoch's News Corp., has agreed to acquire Photobucket, the Web's No. 1 photo-sharing service. Before the deal is announced, the two sides must wrap up a few details. Financial terms weren't available, but it is widely known that Photobucket, with 40 million registered users, has been shopping itself in recent months and asking for about $300 million. Late Monday, a Reuters report quoting a source familiar with the deal said a preliminary agreement had been reached for around $250 million.

Pew Internet & American Life Project

A new report from Pew Internet & American Life Project has some disturbing statistics based on a survey of 4001 people on the state – or otherwise – of the connected union.Pew Internet & American Life Project has suggested in their report on 'Technology and Media Usage' that nearly half of US citizens have a “distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology”, with 15% of Americans disconnected from cell phones or an Internet connection. The report says that this 15% is mainly ‘older adults’, some of whom do have digital cameras and computers (but evidently no Internet connection to go with it), despite the easy and generally affordable availability of a plethora of gadgets and increasingly inexpensive Internet accounts.

Windows Live Hotmail

Microsoft Corp. has launched Windows Live Hotmail, the successor to MSN Hotmail, in 36 languages. The most significant upgrade for Hotmail since it pioneered the Webmail industry in 1996, the new service has been built to be a vast improvement over the previous Hotmail offering, having incorporated input from more than 20 million beta testers.Windows Live Hotmail will deliver a safer, more powerful and productive email experience than previous versions with flexible access via the Web, on a mobile phone or with an email client. Microsoft also announced that later this month Windows Live Hotmail customers will be able to access their Windows Live Hotmail email and contacts for free using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Office Outlook 2007 via the new Microsoft Office Outlook Connector beta

Disney XD

Entertainment industry giants Walt Disney have launched a new feature named Disney Xtreme Digital which enables the preteens to create mini social networking sites. This could provide them with the same experience adults have with services like MySpace.com.The Disney XD features parental controls as they want to empower the parents to keep a check on the online activities of their childrenThe chat feature on the service requires the kid to get parental approval. This stops them from revealing personal information to the others connected to the service.Yanover added that the kids would be able to just use the Disney content on their Web sites and parents would be able to monitor their activities on this service.