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Flickr's New Android App: Real-Time Photo Sharing

Flickr announced its first official Android app today.
(Credit:Yahoo)
 
SAN FRANCISCO--Yahoo today unveiled the first officialAndroid Flickr app, as well as a new feature that will allow users of its popular photo service to quickly and easily share pictures in real time with family and friends.
The new Flickr Android app gives users the ability to see their own photos, albums, and photostream, as well as that of friends and contacts.
(Credit:Yahoo)
Released at a press event here that was meant to highlight part of Yahoo's overall mobile strategy, the new Android Flickr app is the first Yahoo has released, although developers have already built dozens for both Google's and Apple's mobile operating systems. There is already an official iOS app.


Within the new Android app, users will be able to access all their own photos, as well as their albums and contacts. They can see activity streams, and photos that friends have uploaded.

In addition, Flickr developed its own camera experience that is built into the app. It has a custom viewfinder that allows a user to select different photo ratios, and lets him quickly name new photos and add metadata. The app also automatically appends geolocation data. Any new photograph taken inside the app can be instantly and automatically uploaded to Flickr, and can also be sent to other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, by clicking a check box.

Photo Session
In addition to its new Android app, Flickr also unveiled its new Photo Session feature, which is intended to replicate the traditional way that people would show others pictures from vacations or of their kids or pets. But instead of requiring that everyone be in a room together, Photo Session is meant to make it possible to share such experiences regardless of where anyone is.

It works, said Eileen Hiromura, the product manager for Photo Session, by generating a unique URL that a Flickr user can then send to up to 10 friends or family members. Once they click on the URL, those people can then join a group viewing of an album.


Flickr unveiled Photo Session, a feature that makes it possible for users to share photos with friends and family in real time.
(Credit:Yahoo)
The idea here is that the person who generated the session controls how those he or she shared it with see the pictures. So, as that person moves from photo to photo in the album, others taking part in the session will see the same progression. The feature works on computers, iPads, and iPhones. The URL lasts for 24 hours.

Photo Session also lets others who are partaking in an album viewing to make modifications to photos--such as drawing on them--that are instantly seen by everyone involved. And anyone invited to join a Photo Session group can also choose to browse the photos at their own leisure rather than look at them at the speed chosen by the photos' owner. If they want, they can then re-join the group whenever they want.


Photo Session will allow anyone participating in a group to modify photos. Everyone else in the session will see the modifications, such as drawings.
(Credit:Yahoo)
Flickr lead product manager Markus Spiering suggested that it's not entirely clear when users will create new Photo Sessions, but said it's likely that people who want to ensure friends and family members will be available to join a group together will contact those people in advance of sending out the session invitation.

Yahoo's eight mobile pillars

Flickr's announcements today were part of what Yahoo head of communications and community products Steve Douty said was the company's newly defined eight mobile strategic pillars.

Those pillars are, Douty said, delivering personal, quality content; a three-screen approach that brings Yahoo content in a seamless fashion to users'tablets, mobile phones, and computers; creating app-enhanced experiences; creating social and local scenarios that take advantage of what Yahoo knows about its users; creating continuous conversations between users irrespective of what kind of device they're using; sharing companion experiences with friends and family across devices; doing a better job of monetizing the company's mobile base via better mobile ads and commerce; and lastly, building new partner-friendly capabilities.
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The DOJ wants to know more about Google and Motorola Deal

Google today acknowledged receiving a so-called "second request" from the Justice Department for information as it considers the search giant's plans to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Google made the disclosure in a blog post this afternoon, saying the request was for "more information" in order to continue the review.

"While this means we won't be closing right away, we're confident that the DOJ will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile ecosystem will remain highly competitive after this deal closes," Google Senior Vice President Dennis Woodside wrote in the post. "We'll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review."

The move is likely to prolong, and could potentially complicate, the review process.

Woodside dismissed the request as "pretty routine." And he pointed to a previous second request that Google received a year ago, shortly after it announced plans to acquire travel data provider ITA Software.
But while the Justice Department ultimately approved Google's acquisition of ITA, the agency compelled Google to agree to certain conduct. Regulators required Google to continue licensing ITA's travel technology to rivals for five years on "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" terms, and forward to the agency any complaints the company receives from travel competitors upset about where they land in Google's search rankings.

Moreover, second requests are perhaps less routine than Woodside suggests. According to The Wall Street Journal, about 4 percent of all deals last year received a second request from U.S. antitrust agencies.
In a regulatory filing, Motorola acknowledged receiving a second request as well.

"The companies intend to cooperate fully and respond expeditiously to the DOJ," the company wrote in its filing. "The transaction is currently expected to close by the end of 2011 or in early 2012."

There seemed little doubt that regulators would look closely at the deal when it was announced last month. The Federal Trade Commission began an antitrust investigation into the search giant's business in June. And a week prior to the announcement of the Motorola deal, the Journal reported that the FTC was including Google's Android mobile operating system in that investigation over concerns that the company was preventing handset makers from using rival technology.

Just last week, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt faced tough questions at a Senate hearing looking into the company's business tactics.

"We know that close scrutiny is part of the process and we've been talking to the U.S. Department of Justice over the past few weeks," Woodside wrote in his post.

It seems likely that those conversations will continue for a bit longer than Google might otherwise have hoped.
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Happy 13th Birthday Google!

Google is celebrating its 13th birthday with a simple doodle on its homepage. The doodle looks like an old birthday photo, with the Google letters gathered around a birthday cake.


 Google opted for a low key doodle for its own celebration, as it usually does, and not any of animated or interactive doodles that it has been sporting some times.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact date when Google was created, but the company has settled on September 27 for the past several years.

It's not a date of any particular importance, at least not officially, but it's the date that the search engine has chosen for itself. A few times, Google has celebrated its birthday on September 7.

This year's doodle is a simple one, by comparison with some of the intricate designs it has been showing off on occasions, but it's one of the most elaborate birthday doodles the company has ever displayed for itself.

Until last year, each doodle was a simple variation of the Google logo, with some party and birthday elements thrown in. Last year, Google commissioned a doodle from American artist Wayne Thiebaud.

The doodle depicted a birthday cake with Google written on it. The artist is best known for his drawings of cakes, pastries and similar items.

Here, you can check out a complete list of all Google birthday doodles ever made, 12 of them.

Apart from the doodle, Google doesn't make a big fuss about its own birthday, at least not externally.

The company can't be in much of a celebratory mood anyway. While Google is still growing, adding more users and increasing revenue, it's facing stiffer competition, from the likes of Facebook in particular. It's also under scrutiny from regulators over anti-trust issues, due to its large size and market share.



Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-s-13th-Birthday-Doodle-223862.shtml
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Facebook vs. Google?

The algorithm is the key to success.

That's how Google replaced Yahoo as the Web's best search engine in 1998. Google became the font of the online world's information by both finding more information online than any other search engine, and by figuring out what of it was the most important to the Web's users. Google algorithmically connected the Web to people.

Facebook, by contrast, has always been about connecting people to each other, but as the the latest version of the Facebook platform illustrates, the company is now about using that information to do what Google has traditionally done: connect people not just to each other, but to things, ideas, and media.

The algorithm is a big part of today's announcement at the F8 developers' conference. The algorithm can determine what you're likely to like based on who you like, what you do, where you go, which apps you use (and how), and so forth--all of which is information that Facebook will now collect through its own service and all the apps that are being built to run on it.

Mark Zuckerberg describes how Facebook will connect people to media based on the strengths of their connections to other people.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Google also knows what you do online, but it doesn't have close to the same depth of personal information that Facebook has, for two reasons. First, Google's core service, search, is a way station, not a destination. Google knows where you're going because you transit the site and because you may be tipping it off through your browser's search bar or through ads on the sites you visit. But Facebook is a destination. People go to Facebook and stay there. And communicate. And like. And so on. All the while, Facebook collects the data.

Second, Facebook knows who your friends are. In addition to the fact that you tell it this when you "friend" people, how and with whom you communicate on the site is more data that Facebook's algorithm can use to classify your connections to other people. When you respond to what Facebook is now calling "lightweight engagement" activities in the Ticker--when you decide to listen to a song alongside a friend, for example--Facebook files away this information, building, bit by bit, a dossier on your preferences and the people who are most likely to influence you.

For advertisers, this data is more valuable than Google's. Facebook will be able to cluster likely interest groups together and sell marketers access to those people. The company will be able to work with media companies to make advertising on their pages more effective. This is a serious and credible threat to Google's position as the Web's premier advertising provider.

For users, Facebook will, probably quickly, learn what each of us is likely to like by watching what we do on the site. This will help solve a big problem on a Web overloaded with novel information: discovery. By mining the "data exhaust" collected from the activities, links, likes, and so on that we all generate, Facebook should be able to predict, with increasing accuracy, what we're most likely to engage with, be it music or grocery ingredients.

If Facebook gets this wrong, users will continue to complain about the new design of the site as being too cluttered and confusing. But if the algorithm starts to feed people links to things they like but didn't know they'd like, it means the algorithm is working and Facebook is on its way to becoming the source of the most valuable information on the Web: who likes what, who they influence, and how to reach the people most likely to influence others (hint: go through their friends).

It's scary to see one single company own this database, but Facebook is coating this pill in sweet candy. We will find music we love through it. We will connect with friends to go on hikes with it. We will learn things from publications using Facebook because we see our friends reading them. And we'll make the whole thing easier for our friends, and Facebook itself. But stuffing Timelines full of personal resumes of preferences and activities.

There will likely be privacy missteps along the way, as Facebook turns on the algorithm and makes the data available to more developers through its platform. One might be tempted to step away from Facebook or to try hard to not engage with the flow of attractive links and media that comes through it. But I think it's going to be hard for people to say no to what Facebook will soon be offering.


Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20110418-250/yes-google-really-should-worry-about-facebook/#ixzz1Z7dy2xCk
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News on Motorola Xoom 2?

Motorola, now with the backing of prospective new owner Google, may have a worthy competitor to theiPad 2 on the way, according to a report. And another, smaller model may be coming too.

Motorola Xoom 2?
(Credit:This Is My Next)
After some rather murky initial Xoom 2 speculation was reported earlier in the week, This Is My Next has come up with some more-solid details.

Those deets include a 9mm thickness (the iPad 2 is 8.8mm) and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. This time it may be a Texas Instruments ARM chip variant, according to speculation. The Xoom currently sports a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2. The ability to record 1080p video is also expected.

Other goodies include Adobe Flash Player 11, Netflix streaming in HD, an optional keyboard case, a stylus pen, and the ability to synch wirelessly to a PC, according to the report.

And that's not all. There may be a smaller 8.2-inch 0.95 pound Media Edition coming too.

Tablets and smartphones pouring out of Motorola Mobility over the next 12 months should be compelling considering that well-heeled Google--the provider of theAndroid software that runs on Motorola's consumer devices--is expected to absorb the company. Perish the thought that this would give Motorola a leg up over rivals in the Android ecosystem!
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What facebook told on the F8 Conference

Mark Zuckerberg introduces Timeline at F8 2011.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook is rolling out some of the biggest changes in its history, unveiling its new Timeline and all-new Open Graph features today, features that will radically change how users display their information, and the way they discover new content.

At F8, Facebook's annual developers conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the two new features. Timeline, he explained, is "the story of your life," significantly altering the way people's information is shown on the world's leading social network, presenting "all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are," Zuckerberg said.

Timeline, which went into beta today, is designed to let people go back in their lives, Zuckerberg said. "It's how you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page."

This is an extremely significant change to the way Facebook looks. With Timeline, users will see several new sections, including visual tiles, ways to get all their apps, and a cover photo.

To be more precise, in Timeline, all a user's stories appear in the bottom left-hand side of the page, much like their existing Wall. On the right, there's a timeline that breaks down all posts from various points. And finally, there's a large "cover photo" at the top of the page. The idea is that this allows users to jump back to their earliest Facebook posts.

Zuckerberg said that Timeline is already enabled for mobile devices.

Zuckerberg shows off how Facebook's new Timeline looks on a mobile device.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
In Timeline, users will be able to see everything shared recently. Click on a year in the timeline, and it scrolls down to that year. Years will also get broken down by month. Users can roll their mouse over a point in time, and they instantly get the option to add photos, notes, and other items to that time period.

In addition, items in the Timeline will be posted on a map, so users can visually see what they've done. The map is built by Bing, a result of the partnership between Facebook and Microsoft.

While Timeline is only in beta now, developers will be able to access the new feature immediately.

Open Graph, Ticker
After unveiling Timeline, Zuckerberg then moved on to Ticker, part of the next version of the social network's Open Graph.

Mark Zuckerberg introduces the Facebook Ticker and its link to Spotify today at F8.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

The idea, he said, is to enable a "completely new class of social apps."

Open Graph and Ticker will be rolled out slowly, giving developers a chance to create apps for Timeline. However, Zuckerberg said the elements of Open Graph that help people discover media content like music, movies, TV, and news will be available immediately.

Last year, Zuckerberg said, Facebook rolled out Open Graph, a map of all a user's connections in the world, and made it so users can connect to anything they want in any way they want. But now with the next Open Graph, he said, users will also be able to connect to an order of magnitude more things than ever before using Ticker, a way to express "lightweight" actions, thoughts, and other things anytime they want.

Facebook updates will now include verbs when people listen to songs, cook
a meal, or watch a show.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
When a user shares a post normally, it goes into their news feed. But when that user adds activity through Open Graph, it will go into Ticker, and into Timeline, but not into the news feed unless that's what's desired, Zuckerberg explained. It's a stream of everything a user is experiencing and expressing through Facebook, and the first time the service has enabled sharing so-called lightweight activities, such as listening to a song, watching a movie, reading a book, or even cooking a meal.

And Zuckerberg said that he expects this will enable users and others to create "a completely new class of social apps than what was ever possible before," including those about music, movies, TV, books, and any media as well as lifestyle apps that let people express all kinds of things about their lives: their runs, their naps, their moods, and much more.

All told, the new feature will allow "frictionless experiences," "real-time serendipity," and finding patterns and activity, Zuckerberg said.

Clearly, Facebook designed the new Open Graph with the intention of allowing users to easily access all kinds of media content from a wide range of publishers. That includes music, movies, TV, news, and games. On stage, Zuckerberg and guest speakers including Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings talked about how music and video content can be easily discovered, and Zuckerberg talked about how dozens of partners will be making news stories available through Open Graph. In addition, many game publishers will allow users to get easy and streamlined access to the leading type of Facebook content.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20110181-93/what-facebook-announced-at-f8-today/?tag=topStories 
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Facebook Redesigns: A History of Hate and Love

Facebook users love to rage about redesigns, and new changes to the site’s News Feed have already triggered the predicable response. Users are complaining about the changes, which emphasize algorithmically important status updates instead of recent posts, saying that they don't want Facebook prioritizing status updates, and that they'd rather just see everything in chronological order.
The real news would be if Facebook users didn't get worked up over design change. The latest outrage is just one of many backlashes that Facebook has endured, none of which seem to accomplish much --except to give angry people something else to write about on Facebook.


Let's do a little rewind to see how Facebook users have complained over the years:September 2006: Facebook introduces the News Feed, which showed all your friends' latest activity in a single timeline. This was before the age of status updates, when cruising through individual profiles for scraps of information was the thing to do.
Protesters organize "A Day Without Facebook" to show their displeasure with perceived privacy violations, and declares "Mission Accomplished" when Facebook adds the ability to hide activity from the News Feed. But as far as I can tell, this option is no longer available.
September 2008: Facebook rolls out a redesign to all users, breaking different areas of the site into separate, customizable tabs. Users decry the redesign as "very very ugly" and organize protests with hundreds of thousands of members. Tabs have since been moved to Facebook's left sidebar, but the idea behind them remains to this day.
March 2009: Facebook launches another major redesign, this time around status updates to better compete with Twitter. The feed updates in real-time, while highlights appear on the right side of the screen. (Essentially, this is the opposite of how updates appear in Facebook's latest redesign.)
The backlash is bigger than ever, as 1.7 million users cry out in protest. Facebook makes a few tweaks to placate angry users, but sticks with the new design, at least temporarily.

October 2009: Facebook redesigns its home page again, introducing an algorithm to decide which status updates should be displayed first, rather than relying on chronological order. Some events that were removed from timelines early that year are added back, including friend acceptances and relationship statuses. In other words, Facebook makes concessions after the big backlash of March 2009.But users are still not satisfied, and more than one million of them protest to change Facebook back to the way it used to be. Some users beg Facebook to bring back chronological order for news feed updates.
November 2010: Facebook quietly reduces the font size of news feed updates. Users complain on Twitter. Facebook responds -- on Twitter. Weird.
December 2010: Facebook overhauls profile pages, most notably by boiling down user information into a summary at the top of the page, and by adding a strip of photos underneath the short summary. Comments on Facebook's blog post are almost entirely negative.
June 2011: Facebook tests a "Happening Now" feature on some users, showing the latest status updates in a separate feed on the right side of the screen. Early guinea pigs hated it. Some of them formed a "Facebooks 'Happening Now' Haters Group" to commiserate.
The Happening Now feature was a precursor to the News Ticker, which Facebook rolled out to all users this week.
I wonder what would happen if Facebook suddenly changed its design back to the way it was in 2004.

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AVG has Launched a Faster and Boosted Anti-Virus

Last week saw the release of the latest version of the world’s most downloaded free software. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 v12.0.1796 is available as an upgrade for those lucky enough to have a previous version installed and also as a standalone installation for those who don’t.

AVG has been around for 10 years and is already used by more than 98 million computer users worldwide. The team at AVG likes to work on the same premise as neighborhood watch, when one of its 98 million users sees something it raises the alarm. In other words it is only through 10 years of AVG that AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 is able to offer such an outstanding free security solution. As JR Smith, CEO of AVG, put it “AVG is more than just an antivirus company. We’re a secure, community-driven digital ecosystem dedicated to helping consumers protect themselves and the things they care about the most”.

With the latest version of its free anti-virus solution AVG focused on three key areas; faster scans, easier of use and better performance. For example according to AVG it has reduced both download size (a mere 65mb) and install time by 50%, reduced average disk space by 45%, 20% less processes and memory usage, and loading time has increased by 10%.


AVG have apparently added around 127 new features to the latest version. Most of these improvements are far from obvious to the eye. However, there are number of features that are worth noting. The interface has been made clearer and easier to navigate, although visually it remains awfully similar to the previous version. Security upgrades include the LinkScanner, which protects users from the majority of fishing attacks. The feature has been improved to accommodate more dynamic code. It will detect and remove fake anti-virus programs and a whole host of other computer infection that put your computer at risk without users actually knowing. It removes even the most resistant malware. Further improved control over scans and system options has been provided in the latest 2012 version. The one-click social network scan for Facebook and Twitter is also a particularly handy tool. The new AVG advisor feature will let users know what exactly is affecting their computer’s performance. In other words AVG 2012 Free also functions as a PC Tune-up/optimizer tool. The AVG Accelerator is another awesome feature that optimizes connectivity to online content such as music, photos and videos. It minimizes that annoying wait for content to load. Also worth a mention is the AVG Family Safety feature which is ideal for those with kids, making sure they don’t see something they shouldn’t.


If you have liked previous versions of AVG, then you will love AVG Free 2012. AVG prides itself on being one step ahead. AVG offers powerful protection and is currently the leading free security software solution.

Source: http://news.brothersoft.com/avg-anti-virus-free-2012-v12-0-1796-rapid-scans-and-boosted-performance-19008.html
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Google+ is FREE for ALL! No more invitations!

Google+ on the Google Search Engine
Google+, the search giant's bid to boost its relevance in the socially networked world of the Web, is now open to the masses.
Google had required invitations to the service since its debut as a "project" in June. But this morning, Google opened the doors of Google+ to all. Google+ has also graduated to being a "beta" product. 
"We're nowhere near done, but with the improvements we've made so far, we're ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open sign-ups," Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra wrote in a blog post. "This way, anyone can visit Google.com/+, join the project, and connect with the people they care about."

Lifting the sign-up restriction comes just two days before Facebook's F8 conference. There, Facebook, the service that caught Google flat-footed and led to the creation of Google+, is expected to introduce a number of new features, potentially including a new music service that would help turn Facebook into more of a media platform. Some reports suggest that Facebook might even unveil a major site redesign.

In addition to opening up Google+ to all, Google is rolling out a host of new features to Hangouts, the videoconferencing service in Google+. Since its debut, the Hangout feature was limited to Google+ users on a PC, even though the social network was available as an application for devices running itsAndroid mobile operating system as well as Apple's iOS.

Google is now making Hangouts available to mobile devices running Android version 2.3 and later that have front-facing cameras. And it says it will add mobile Hangouts to iOS devices "soon."

Google is also turning Hangouts into a broadcast medium. From launch, Google limited the number of participants in a Hangout to 10. The company is now letting "a limited number of broadcasters," likely those with the biggest Google+ followings, set up Hangouts On Air. The new feature still limits the number of participants to 10. But anyone can tune into a broadcast. The company is kicking off the service tomorrow night with a Hangout On Air featuring Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am.

And Google is giving users the ability to share their computer screens with others during Hangouts as well. Previously, users could watch a YouTube video together. Now they can share computer screens to show off vacation photos, plan trips, collaborate on documents, or even scribble together with a new Sketchpad feature. And, as is Google's way with beta products, the company says it's testing the various features, which it expects to change over time.

"The extras are still under construction, but we wanted to preview these features and get your feedback sooner versus later," Gundotra wrote.

The company has also created application programming interfaces to let third-party software developers create their own applications that take advantage of Hangouts.

Google has also added search to Google+, a feature that had been surprisingly absent from the search giant's service until now. Users can type queries into the Google+ search box and get results from people and posts from the service, as well as content from around the Web.

Google also seems to recognize that users want to tap into their social network on the go. In addition to participating in mobile Hangouts, Google+ users can now post to updates and comments, receive notifications, and respond to group messages using text messages, according to a separate blog post from Punit Soni, Google+ Mobile product manager. AndiPhone users can show approval for a comment with Google's +1 feature, akin to a Facebook's like feature. Google says that using +1 from Android devices will be available soon.

Google is also renaming its Huddle mobile group messaging feature to Messenger. With the new name comes a new feature: photo sharing. Users can now snap a picture with their mobile phone and share it with their circle of friends instantaneously.

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Xtravo Web Browser: Alternative to Firefox, IE and Chrome


The dominance of Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer in the web browser market has meant alternative browsers have really struggled to make any impact. Xtravo Web Browser is often overlooked and ignored.

The dominance of Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer in the web browser market has meant alternative browsers have really struggled to make any impact. Xtravo Web Browser is often overlooked and ignored. Xtravo has continually struggled to excel among such competition. But it certainly has not given up.

The Trident based & Tetrapod Technology based browser, Xtravo was developed by 19 year old Pakistani Imran Sheikh back in 2008. Sheikh evidently went for out and out speed. The lightweight browser became the fastest on the market as soon as it was released. However, after the initial release it was clear that factors such security and stability had been neglected. Nevertheless by October 20th 2009 Xtravo had already reached 2.5 Million Default users.

Xtravo now focuses on three main aspects; speed, security and stability. The browser has been carefully developed to ensure it runs as fast as possible. Ever since it was first released in Beta form Xtravo has prided itself on its speed. It achieves this by ensuring that start-up time and web page loading time are kept to a minimum. It has also further developed the browser to allow complex web applications at ultra-fast speeds. Elsewhere Xtravo offers a safe and stable browsing environment. But then again so will any web browser in today’s online environment.  What’s more in terms of security and stability it still struggles to complete with the big three.

It is not all doom and gloom for Xtravo. The browser still remains packed full of interesting features. The ‘Image Sniffer’ cleverly saves all images in batch process which allows users to save time by not needing to save each image individually. Code Inspector is a useful tool for developers to check the code of a website that they are viewing for developmental purposes. Developers are also able to edit or/and test it real time while the site is running. The RSS Suite lets users add, edit or delete their RSS and obtain a websites RSS whilst browsing. The search suite, which was added in version 4, and new tab function are similar to the likes of Firefox and co. Its simplistic yet sleek design adds to the user experience.

In June 2011 Xtravo 4.5 was launched. It included a silent update feature give users updates instantly as soon as they run the browser, install the update in seconds and run the new version. The transition into the faster pace of development cycle, Xtravo updating pattern will change from Web check downloading to silent upgrading pattern as seen in Google Chrome and Firefox. In July 2011 Jawoco finally launched Xtravo operating software as a beta version. It is a move that shows its intent to compete with the likes of Google Chrome in both browser and operating software fields.  Xtravo 6 is expected on November 12th2011, which also happens to be the anniversary of the browsers launch.

During the last year Xtravo has already successfully reached 38 million users worldwide. In order to increase the user satisfaction, Xtravo will now be upgrading versions with new improvement and also that innovating faster. Continual progress is being made with the Xtravo Web Browser is under full changes with new innovations and also that new era of browsing to be experienced.

Source: http://news.brothersoft.com/xtravo-web-browser-a-serious-alternative-to-firefox-ie-and-chrome-19052.html
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Firefox 7 final will launch on September 2011?


Mozilla recently released Firefox 7 Beta 6, the beta has been made available for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. Mozilla is planning to release Firefox 7 final by the end of September 2011.


Mozilla recently released Firefox 7 Beta 6, the beta has been made available for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. Mozilla is planning to release Firefox 7 final by the end of September 2011. Early adopters can install Firefox 7 beta 5 to test the new features. The boost of memory performance is the key aspect of Firefox 7. Mozilla's MemShrink project aims to reduce Firefox's memory consumption and avoid memory leaks in Firefox 7. Mozilla claims that Firefox 7 uses less memory than Firefox 6: often 20% to 30% less, and sometimes as much as 50% less.

Mozilla Firefox is focused on improved memory handling, performance, and stability, improved XUL, and new core components such as application data stored in SQLite. Mozilla Firefox could break a few existing extensions and applications built on top of Firefox, and it will definitely include new optimizations if you like to build on the popular browser. Mozilla Firefox should have additional javascript and SVG features if you're into that sort of thing. Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose. Stop annoying popup ads in their tracks with Firefox's built in popup blocker. View more than one web page in a single window with this time saving feature. Open links in the background so that they're ready for viewing when you're ready to read them. Built with your security in mind, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls. A comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity your business.

Firefox built on top of the powerful Gecko platform, give user fastest and reliable web browser with Smaller Memory Foot Print, Memory Management, Faster Page Load, Color Profile Support, Super Speed and Real World Performance. Personalization: User can customize their firefox with over 6,000 ways to customize, add-ons Manager, Beyond Add-ons and user can dress their firefox with Personas
Intelligence: With awesome bar, Tags, Library, One-Click Bookmarking, Smart Bookmark and Form Complete.

The latest version of Firefox beta has the following changes: drastically improved memory use; add a new rendering backend to speed up Canvas operations on Windows systems; bookmark and password changes now sync almost instantly when using Firefox Sync; added support for text-overflow: ellipsis and Web Timing specification; added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of Firefox. This can be enabled by installing an add-on Fixed several stability issues.

Firefox Beta is the build for those who like a little bit of jeopardy, but who don’t want to risk everything by trying out Firefox Aurora. It gives you a sneak peek at the next version of Firefox with a relatively stable build that’s not quite ready for primetime, but still pretty solid. Whereas Firefox Aurora installs as a completely separate application alongside your existing Firefox installation, Firebox Beta will replace the stable build. Should you subsequently wish to go back to the safer version, you’ll need to manually download the stable version and install it over the top of the beta build. Confirm which build you have by selecting About Firefox from the Firefox menu or button (it’s inside the Help menu if using the Firefox button).

Compared with the recent released Firefox 6, Firefox 7 is a bigger update, with much improved memory management and a host of similar features. There are all the usual improvements including enhancements to Firefox Sync, increased performance for HTML5 Canvas animation and better CSS3 support, but none of those really matter because there's one important improvement that isn't even visible to the user.

The latest Firefox 7 brings a number of fixes to the memory footprint, particularly for users who like to keep multiple tabs open and iconify rather than close their web browser. Other changes include dropping http:// from the awesome bar and painting the sub-domain element of a URL in lighter grey.

As we have seen on previous Firefox versions, there aren't important visible changes in this new release, but, nevertheless Firefox 7 is speedier and comes with bug fixes. Mozilla's next release of Firefox will be known for its significant reductions in memory utilisation, an issue that has dogged Firefox since its first release. Now Mozilla says it has implemented what it calls Memshrink in such a way that it expects somewhere on the order of a 20 to 30 per cent decrease in memory utilisation and sometimes as much as 50% less. In particular, Firefox 7′s memory usage will stay steady if you leave it running overnight, and it will free up more memory when you close many tabs.

Firefox 7 features proper remedy to the age-old memory leak problem. Instead of relying on the user to manually free up memory using the "about:memory" dialog, version 7 takes control of the process itself through increased garbage collection frequency and defragmentation of memory chunks, which will reduce Firefox's memory consumption by tens or even hundreds of megabytes over a lengthy period. In the meantime, how you can stop Firefox's increasing memory demands from spiralling out of control? The answer lies with a tiny add-on appropriately titled Memory Restart.

Memory Restart does two things: first, it displays Firefox's current memory consumption in the Add-ons Bar. This immediately reveals how Firefox's memory demands increase over time, regardless of how it's being used. When Firefox's memory consumption hits 500MB, the text will change to red to warn you that it's in danger of overrunning the rest of your system, telling you it's time to shut down and restart Firefox to free up most of the memory it's snaffled. Memory Restart's other trick is that you can configure it from its Options dialog to automatically restart Firefox when the 500MB threshold is reached, preserving all your open tabs and allowing you to continue browsing without too much hassle. Better still, the arbitrary 500MB figure can be altered to any amount you like, allowing you to tweak Memory Restart according to the amount of installed RAM in your computer.

There are two big changes in Firefox 7 that should reduce the memory footprint of Firefox for all users: increased GC frequency, and defragmentation of memory chunks used by various core Firefox processes. Increased GC frequency should massively improve the performance of Firefox over long, multi-day browsing sessions, and less fragmentation will result in memory footprints that are tens or hundreds of megabytes smaller than they currently are.

With the memory footprint squished, Mozilla’s attention will now hopefully turn to the desktop implementation of Electrolysis, the technology that separates content and core functionality into individual processes.

The reduced memory usage should also result in fewer crashes and aborts on Windows, where Firefox is built as a 32-bit application and so is typically restricted to only 2GB of virtual memory.
Mozilla’s MemShrink efforts are continuing. The endurance test results above show that development versions of Firefox 8 already have even better memory usage, and I expect we’ll continue to make further improvements as time goes on. We also have plans to improve our testing infrastructure which should help prevent future regressions in memory usage.

Version 7 also sees the Address Bar tweaked to resemble Chrome and Opera: that means the http:// prefix disappears completely (https:// still appears, however, for secure sites), while www. is also grayed out to emphasize  the domain name. While it seems to be only a cosmetic change, the purpose is to highlight the current browser location in a much more meaningful way and drop the protocol prefix, which has been confusing especially to users that are new or not familiar with the Internet. Firefox also greys out the "www" or subdomain of a URL, as well as the resource ID and deletes any trailing single slashes in a web address. To maintain a reasonable level of security while browsing, Firefox 7 still displays the https:// prefix, to inform the user when the browser is showing a "secure" webpage. Firefox will also include the prefix when users copy and paste URLs from the location bar. Mozilla is following both Chrome and Opera with the elimination of the prefix. Chrome dropped the prefix with the release of developer versions of Chrome 5 back in April of 2010.


Source: http://news.brothersoft.com/firefox-7-beta-6-launched-improves-performance-stability-and-xul-19774.html
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When will Google Wallet Launch?

A credit card running with Google Wallet on the Nexus S.
(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)
The pieces appear to be falling into place for the launch of Google Wallet today.
Last night, social-media blog TechCrunch posted an image purporting to be from Google Wallet partners, showing documentation on the service. That documentation says that "Google Wallet is launching September 19, 2011."

Then this morning, another blog, GigaOm, posted an image, taken by one of its reporters at a coffee shop in San Francisco, of a Google Wallet payment reader. The reader provides directions on it, saying users must "tap" their smartphone against the device in order to "pay by smartphone."

Google unveiled its Wallet service in May. The offering, which relies upon near-field communications (NFC) technology to work, allows users to pay for products by simply tapping their smartphone against the Google Wallet-enabled reader.

However, there are a few barriers to entry to get Google Wallet running. For one, users need theAndroid-based Nexus S smartphone, which has an NFC chip in it. In addition, the service is only available with MasterCard's PayPass system. According to the Google Wallet site, the service will work with Citi MasterCard credit cards and the Google PrePaid Card. In addition, Google Wallet can store "gift cards from participating merchants," Google says.
Related stories:
Gogole unveils mobile payments, coupon service
George Costanza's wallet in Google Wallet ad
The major players in mobile payments
Mobile payment systems are viewed by many as the next big thing in e-commerce. A slew of companies are vying to carve out a portion of the mobile-payment service in addition to Google, including PayPal, Visa, and American Express. There is also rampant speculation that Apple'siPhone 5 will come with near-field communications, paving the way for that company to also enter the space.

However, such fragmentation could prove troublesome for consumers. In order for mobile-payment services to work, several stakeholders need to be on-board, including merchants, credit card companies, and mobile device vendors. All the major U.S. wireless carriers are also planning to make a splash in the market, which could drastically alter which service comes out on top.

Regardless, it appears that companies see a bright future for people paying for products from their smartphones, rather than being forced to open their wallets and take plastic out. Google has been especially focused on driving home the value of a mobile-payment system. Last week, the company unveiled an ad for its Wallet service showcasing Seinfeld character George Costanza's troubles with his own, massive wallet. The ad ends with a simple catchphrase: "Goodbye, wallet. The phone will take it from here."

 Watch the Youtube video HERE!

Exactly when Google Wallet will launch, however, still remains to be seen. The service's official Web site still says that it's "coming soon," and so far, Google has remained tight-lipped on the launch: the search company did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
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Subscribe in Facebook? Twitter-like style

Facebook now has a "Subscribe" button

With Google+ just around the corner and while it’s not getting that steam recently, Facebook still sees it as a threat and has been launching features here and there to rival Google+. The latest of these is their new “Subscribe” feature. Like in Google+ and first seen in Twitter, this allows users to “follow” and connect to each other without being added as a friend. Unlike Google+ and Twitter however, the subscribe option only appears when the user actually chooses others to subscribe. Furthermore, only updates posted as public will be in the subscribed users’ feed. Those who will subscribe then has an option to either receive all updates, most updates or only the most important of updates.

Source: http://www.techgeeze.com/2011/09/facebook-goes-twitter-esque-with-subscribe-feature.html
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Music on Facebook! Lalalalala

(Credit:Facebook)
We may finally have the answer to the great mystery of who Facebook will partner with to bring a music service to its massive social network: Everyone.

Dutch entrepreneur and developer Yvo Schaap took a look at the HTML for all the major music services and found that several had references in meta tags to what appears to be a custom Facebook format.
Specifically, Schaap found Spotify, MOG, Rhapsody, Soundcloud, Rdio, Deezer (France), and VEVO all seem to be tagging their songs to be Facebook-compatible.

Among the notable services absent from the list are Pandora and Napster. Pandora has been thought to be among Facebook's most likely partners for adding music streaming to its network.
Schaap explained briefly on his blog what he thinks he's found:
The undocumented mentioned audio type audio/vnd.facebook.bridge seems to refer to a format that bridges audio between the streaming services and the Facebook platform.

It seems all the partners are ready: free streaming, link between the music service and Facebook, all we need is to wait few more days.
(Credit:Screen capture by Eric Mack/CNET)
 
Facebook is widely expected to announce the details of a new music service at its F8 conference on Thursday. There have also been reports that some sort of stronger relationship between Facebook and Hulu will be announced at the gathering of developers.

Whatever Facebook announces, it will come just one week after Rdio and MOG both joined Spotify in offering a free account option. Clearly, the floodgates are beginning to open in the streaming world.
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Samsung's new Handheld has Intel and Windows 8 on it.

A Samsungtablet expected to be shown at a Microsoft conference next week will be powered by an Intel chip, according to a source familiar with the device.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 currently on the market runs 
the Android operating system and uses an Nvidia processor.
(Credit:Samsung)
Windows chief Steven Sinofsky is expected shows off an early version of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system running on a tablet from Samsung at the BUILD developers conference next week in Anaheim, Calif.
At least one version of the tablet being shown--and possibly distributed to some attendees--will be based on Intel silicon, said an industry source who is familiar with the device.

The fact that Intel is inside could be viewed as a surprise because many Windows 8 tablets are expected to favor competing ARM processors from suppliers like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Nvidia--the latter is the same supplier whose chips currently power Motorola, Samsung, and Sony tablets that run Google'sAndroid operating system.

It is not clear if other Windows 8 tablets will be shown at the conference running on ARM processors. Nvidia, for example, is expected to have a quad-core chip for tablets and smartphones ready by the end of this year.

Generally, ARM processors are more power efficient than Intel processors, thus their wide use in tablets and smartphones. But Intel is working to close the power efficiency gap. Power efficient versions of its Sandy Bridge Core i series chips will power "Ultrabook" laptops as thin as 0.6 inches--not unlike a tablet's thickness--and Intel continues to accelerate development of Atom processors, which are already relatively power efficient.

Windows 8, which is a much more tablet-friendly OS thanWindows 7, will run on both Intel/AMD chips and ARM. A first for a mainstream Microsoft operating system.

Microsoft and Intel declined to comment on this story. Samsung could not be reached for comment.
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Microsoft + Twitter = Real-Time Search

Summary: Microsoft and Twitter have signed a deal via which real-time search results from Twitter will be displayed via Bing. The pair aren’t disclosing further details or terms.

Microsoft and Twitter seem to have renewed their deal via which Twitter results will show up as part of the real-time search results in Bing (at least if you go by a series of flirty tweets between the @bing and @Twitter accounts on Twitter).

There’s no press release and no blog post announcing the renewal. In fact, all a Microsoft spokesperson would say when asked is:
“We are pleased to announce that we are extending our collaboration with Twitter.  We are not sharing terms of the agreement.”
Microsoft officials are not commenting on what the pair are collaborating on — if anything — beyond Twitter’s provision of real-time search results.

As AllThingsD reported in mid-July that after failing to come to terms with Google for its “firehose” data stream licensing deal with Google, Twitter was trying to close a similar deal with Microsoft. After the Google-Twitter deal expired on July 2, Google took its entire real-time search product offline, AllThingsD noted. More details from AllThingsD’s July story:


“Bing, whose original Firehose deal — which like Google’s was signed in the fall of 2009 — was for six months longer than Google’s. Among the less contentious terms is the licensing fee. Twitter wants about $30 million per year for its exhaustive real-time stream, a doubling of the previous fee. But Microsoft (like Google) hasn’t yet agreed to Twitter’s other demands: More user interface control, a larger cut of ads sold next to its tweets and more linking back to Twitter, sources said. Microsoft would also like a longer term than Twitter is offering.”

In other search-related news in the Microsoft realm, Carol Bartz has been fired from her role as Yahoo’s CEO. Bartz became CEO shortly after Microsoft’s proposal to buy Yahoo for $45 billion fell through — in large part due to the foot-dragging of former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.

When Microsoft and Yahoo finally cemented a partnership in place of a buyout deal, it was Carol Bartz who signed on the dotted line along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. What will today’s news mean, if anything, for the Microsoft-Yahoo relationship in the future? It’s probably too soon to say, given the search partnership between the pair, signed in 2009, was a 10-year contract
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Latest News on Web Certificate Errors (Sept. 2011)

The number of fraudulent security certificates issued by a hacked Dutch firm has ballooned from the 247 reported last week to 531, and the main purpose of the attack appears to have been to spy on Iranian dissidents.

Result of an SSL error in Chrome
The list of domains for which fraudulent Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates were issued by DigiNotar, a root certificate authority, now includes sites such as the CIA, MI6, Facebook, Microsoft, Skype, Twitter, and WordPress, among others, according to a list released this weekend by the Dutch Ministry of Justice. In the wake of the new revelations, the Dutch government has reportedly expressed a lack of confidence in the Netherlands-based company and taken control of it. 

DigiNotar representatives did not respond to a request for comment.


The intrusion was revealed late last month when Google said Gmail users in Iran were at risk of having their log-in credentials stolen after someone broke into DigiNotar to steal the digital equivalent of an identification card for Google.com. The problem first surfaced on a Google support site on August 28. However, DigiNotar only acknowledged last week that it had detected an intrusion into its Certificate Authority infrastructure on July 19.

During the intrusion, someone issued fraudulent certificate requests "for a number of domains," but DigiNotar said earlier--when the list of affected domains was smaller--that it had revoked them. A fraudulent certificate allows someone to impersonate the secure versions of those Web sites--the ones that are used when encrypted connections are enabled--in some circumstances.

The Gmail incident affected mostly Iranian users, and it now appears the certificates might have been issued for the purpose of spying on Iranian dissidents, perhaps by the Iranian government. The Tor Project's Jacob Appelbaum, who published the list of affected domains, notes that one domain certificate on the list is "a calling card from a Farsi speaker," the language spoken by most Iranians:

CN=*.RamzShekaneBozorg.com,SN=PK000229200006593,OU=Sare Toro Ham Mishkanam,L=Tehran,O=Hameye Ramzaro Mishkanam,C=IR
RamzShekaneBozorg.com is a bogus address, and Appelbaum reported that "RamzShekaneBozorg" translates from Farsi to "great cracker," while "Hameyeh Ramzaro Mishkanam" translates to "I will crack all encryption" and "Sare Toro Ham Mishkanam" translates to "i hate/break your head."


Ot van Daalen, director of Bits of Freedom, a Dutch group that defends digital privacy rights, said the hacking put Iranian dissidents "at grave risk."

"It's horrible to say, but it's entirely possible that the hacking attack has endangered lives in Iran," Van Daalen told Radio Netherlands Worldwide."There is a real chance that the Iranian authorities have used these certificates to eavesdrop on users. And it can't be ruled out they will continue doing so with other certificates."

Appelbaum, who noted that DigiNotar's audit trail is incomplete, said the list includes certificate authority (CA) roots that should probably never be trusted again.


"The most egregious certs issued were for *.*.com and *.*.org while certificates for Windows Update and certificates for other hosts are of limited harm by comparison," Appelbaum wrote in a Tor Project post. "The attackers also issued certificates in the names of other certificate authorities such as 'VeriSign Root CA' and 'Thawte Root CA' as we witnessed with ComodoGate, although we cannot determine whether they succeeded in creating any intermediate CA certs."

SSL Error in Firefox
The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome, andFirefox have revoked trust in DigiNotar certificates, and users will see warnings if they visit Web sites that use that root authority's certificates.

This is the second time this year that the Iranian government has been linked to attempts to obtain fraudulent certificates to impersonate major Web sites. Comodo, a Jersey City, N.J.-based firm that issues digital certificates, said in March the nine certificates were fraudulently obtained. The Internet Protocol addresses used in the attack were in Tehran, Iran, said Comodo, which said that because of the focus and speed of the attack, it was "state-driven."

Kaspersky Lab's Roel Schouwenberg wrote in a blog post that the DigiNotar attack may prove to be more of a watershed moment than Stuxnet, a worm code discovered last year that is widely believed to have been designed to sabotage a uranium enrichment facility in Iran.

"The attack on DigiNotar doesn't rival Stuxnet in terms of sophistication or coordination," Schouwenberg wrote. "However, the consequences of the attack on Diginotar will far outweigh those of Stuxnet. The attack on DigiNotar will put cyberwar on or near the top of the political agenda of Western governments."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20101786-83/dutch-firm-linked-to-many-more-fraudulent-net-certificates/#ixzz1XFTW2QmM
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Know the "iPhone 5"

With anticipation for Apple's iPhone 5 (or whatever branding is ultimately used) extremely high, most of the focus has been, not surprisingly, on design and timing. But what will make the iPhone 5 tick? That's the question I asked a couple of experts.The upcoming phone is expected to pack Apple's latest and greatest A5 silicon, a Qualcomm 3G chip, and circuits that support a higher-resolution camera.

Apple's A5 chip 
is used in the iPad 2
and appears destined
for the next version of the iPhone.
(Credit:Apple)
A5 chip: The Apple A5 houses the main processor--or so-called application processor--that will power the phone. The A5 (technically a system-on-a-chip or SoC) is the same chip that currently powers theiPad 2. The A5 distinguishes itself from the older A4, used in the iPhone 4, by having two processor cores (the A4 has one) and faster graphics circuits. Two cores allow the device--like the iPad 2--to multitask better than a single-core phone.

"It's liable to be the A5," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a company that tracks the phone chip market. But Strauss expects the chip to be a variation of the A5 in the iPad 2. "It's a geometric shrink of the A5. The geometries (size of the chip) will be smaller," he said. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to manufacture the chip, not Samsung, the longtime supplier of iPhone chips, added Strauss.

A shrink of an existing chip typically results in better performance and/or lower power consumption.
Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at The Linley Group, a chip consulting firm, agrees that it will be an A5. "Presumably, dual-core A5...I haven't heard anything different," he said in response to an e-mail query.

But getting a dual-core chip into a small device like a smartphone--as opposed to the larger iPad--means that chip must excel at effectively managing how much power it uses. "The secret is the power management. It's got dynamic power management. So, the chip can lower the [speed] depending on the workload," Strauss said.
3G or LTE? One of the burning questions about the next version of the iPhone is whether it will have LTE (Long Term Evolution), a faster broadband technology sometimes referred to as 4G. "I don't think LTE is going to be in it. That won't happen until the April announcement (of a future iPhone)," Strauss said.

Qualcomm: Which brings us to the 3G chip. "Verizon has already said it's going to be a world phone. So, it has to be able to handle WCDMA and CDMA. And, of course, that's Verizon. We've not heard anything out of AT&T. But if it's going to be the identical device, it has to be Qualcomm as far as the baseband (3G) goes," said Strauss.

"Qualcomm baseband would enable one iPhone model that works on all networks," said Gwennap.
Strauss' and Gwennap's assessments are echoed by other analysts , who have said that Qualcomm will supply the baseband chip, allowing "Apple to streamline production of the iPhone for various countries."
Camera: OmniVision is rumored to be supplying the 8-megapixel CMOS sensor that comprises the circuitry for the iPhone 5's camera. That would be a step up from the 5-megapixel camera in the iPhone 4. Sony will also supply CMOS sensors, reportedly.


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An Unreleased iPhone is "Missing"?

Cava22, the San Francisco tequila lounge where another unreleased iPhone apparently went missing.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
San Francisco police have confirmed that they "assisted" Apple internal security in a recent search of a home, which CNET was the first to report earlier this week was aimed at finding an unreleased iPhone owned by the company.

"Apple came to us saying that they were looking for a lost item," San Francisco Police Department spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield said, according to a report this afternoon by SF Weekly.

Sergio Calderón, who lives in the city's Bernal Heights neighborhood, told the paper that about six people who looked like police showed up at his house and he gave them permission to search it.

One of the investigators reportedly was Anthony Colon, a former San Jose Police Department sergeant who's now a senior investigator for Apple. After the report appeared, Colon deleted his LinkedIn profile (a copy is here).

Apple declined to comment this afternoon. Dangerfield did not respond to repeated requests for comment. (A police spokesman previously told CNET he could not divulge information about the search unless he had the police report number or the name of the person--not the company--making the complaint.)

A day or two after the iPhone was lost at the Cava22 tequila lounge in late July, Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police and said they had traced it to a home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood, a source familiar with the investigation told CNET. San Francisco police, accompanied by Apple internal security, performed a consensual search of the home but did not find the device, according to the source.

Following a search of the house and garage, Calderón said he was offered a cash reward for the return of the phone to the tune of $300, though was not told what the device was.

While Apple has not publicly announced any plans for future phones, unconfirmed reports in the last few weeks suggest the launch date for the iPhone 5 is likely to be in early October. Other reports from Taiwan have set the date at September or October. (See CNET's iPhone 5 rumor roundup.)

Last year's prototype iPhone went missing when Robert Gray Powell, an Apple computer engineer who was 28 years old at the time, left it in a German beer garden in Redwood City, Calif.

In early August, San Mateo County prosecutors filed misdemeanor criminal charges against two men, Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower, for allegedly selling Powell's iPhone 4 prototype to Gawker Media's Gizmodo blog. An arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow.

Prosecutors obtained a warrant to search the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen and indicated they might prosecute Gizmodo, but eventually decided not to file charges.

Under a California law dating back to 1872, any person who finds lost property and knows who the owner is likely to be--but "appropriates such property to his own use"--is guilty of theft. In addition, a second state law says any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year.

Cava22, the San Francisco tequila lounge that sparked a hunt by Apple internal security for what appears to be an unreleased iPhone
Cava22, the San Francisco tequila lounge that sparked a hunt by Apple internal security for what appears to be an unreleased iPhone.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20101161-37/sf-police-confirm-search-for-lost-unreleased-iphone/?tag=topStories
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