Jason D says about poor iPod touch battery life

I’m always leary of manufactures claims of battery life, my rule of thumb is to cut what the manufacturer says in half.Apple claims that the iPod touch gets “up to” 22 hours of audio playback time and “up to” 5 hours of video playback time when fully charged according to Apple’s iPod touch Tech Specs page.

Many users have been complaining of significantly lower battery runtimes with the touch.

Here’s an example:
I purchased an iPod Touch (16 gig) last week. I have been waiting for iPhone service in my area, but waiting is painful.

I am really disappointed with the battery life and standard features of the iPod Touch. Battery life is totally unacceptable. After 3 to 4 hours of listening to podcasts I got the warning that 20% of the battery remained.

After a fully recharge I attempted to play a 2 hour movie (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). The touch made it through about 1 hour and 50 minutes then the battery crapped out. None of these times are close to Apple’s estimates and what some reviewers are indicating.

This particular reader disclosed that he ran iJailbrake on the iPod touch and installed some third-party applications–which could be the culprit, but I’m not sure.

Update: The reader quoted above clarifies the process of problems with his touch battery:

1. Ran iPod Touch as shipped from Factory for several days. Battery life terrible. 2 to 3 hours max when I got a message battery life was low.

2. Ran the iJailbreak hack and battery life was no better or worse.

3. Restored iPod Touch to default settings and used for another day. Less than an hour of listening to podcast (PowerPage Podcast), showed friend the features over lunch. Listened to remainder of said podcast and got the warning of less than 20% of battery life remaining.

4. Did a full recharge upon returning home. Disconnected from charger and started movie (Indiana Jones) got about 1 hour and 50 minutes when the iPod Touch turned off.

Source: ZDnetBlogs

LifeSize unveils low-cost HD video-conferencing solutions

LifeSize Communications was the first company to release an HD conferencing solution which I covered at Interop Las Vegas spring 2005. Now at Interop fall 2007 in New York, it appears that LifeSize has again rocked the video conferencing world by releasing 720p HD products at half the price of competing 720p solutions. The LifeSize Express sells for less than $6K and is cheaper than many standard definition video conferencing solutions. The new LifeSize Telepresence solution can be built for a quarter of the cost of competing Video Telepresence solutions.

Pictured to the left is the newest low-cost LifeSize Express 720p HD video conferencing solution. It will ship tomorrow on 10/23/2007 and it has an MSRP of $5,999 which is nearly half the price of competing 720p HD conferencing solutions on the market. The LifeSize Express has dual-input capability and it has HDMI input and output which carries audio. The 720p codec in this model is limited to 1.5 mbps. The $5,999 price comes with microphone, remote, and camera.





Pictured above is the back of the LifeSize Express. At this time the HDMI ports which carry digital audio and video capability don’t have HDCP compatibility which means you won’t be able to input commercial HD DVD or Blu-ray video in to the system since they require HDCP copy protection. At this point in time that wasn’t really a priority and no other product on the market has HDCP protection either nor do they have the convenience of HDMI ports.

Pictured left is the new LifeSize Team MP product which ships tomorrow on 10/23/2007. It has an MSRP of $8,999 and it adds 4-way continuous presence multipoint capability and supports up to 2.5 mbps. At under $9000 the Team MP is about the same price as some competing standard definition video conferencing solutions. Like the Express system it also supports a single camera and single display.







Pictured left is the LifeSize Room system which has been the flagship product for LifeSize for a year. It supports up to 6-way continuous presence multipoint, VAS (Voice Activated Switching), and up to 5 mbps. This model supports dual camera and dual screen. Seen in the picture is a LifeSize IP phone which is powered by standard RJ45 802.3af POE (Power Over Ethernet) port. The smaller microphones shown with the LifeSize Express and Team MP are analog microphones that go in to the microphone jack.

Pictured above is the new LifeSize Conference solution which is essentially a “Telepresence” solution without the display and furniture. The solution is essentially two LifeSize Team MPs and one LifeSize Room system bound together by a controller. It is extremely disruptive to the Telepresence market space because it sells for an MSRP of $39,999 when competing Telepresence solutions sell for $200K which includes the furniture and displays.Since you can buy three 52″ flat panel LCD displays for $6K and some pretty nice custom furniture and video studio lighting for $14K which means you can build a LifeSize Telepresence solution for about $60K. As LifeSize CEO Craig Malloy explained it to me in a telephone conference today, you can build a house in Texas with the remaining $140K. In the

picture above you’re probably looking at $2000 of furniture and wall mounts and I can’t see why you would need anything more than this other than a brightly lit room which produces a much better picture quality. This gets you the same video Telepresence quality of systems costing 4 times more money.

Source:
ZDnet blogs

Nokia and Reuters develop an N95-based "Mobile Journalism Toolkit"

The rise of the cameraphone has certainly changed the face of journalism, and old-guard wire service Reuters isn't about to get passed by -- the company has entered into a long-term partnership with Nokia to develop new mobile reporting technologies, and the two companies have recently completed trials of an N95-based "Mobile Journalism Tookit" that takes moblogging to a whole new level.

So what is in the Mobile Journalism Toolkit? First of all the phone. This is a Nokia N95 which now comes in three different versions. The original European version that we used for most of the trial (image on left). Then there is a the US edition which adds more memory and support for US carrier frequencies. Finally there is the news 8GB version which can store much more music and videos, and for our journalists more raw materials. The next part of the toolkit are the peripherals. A key component was the bluetooth keyboard that we used. This made it much easier to enter text-based stories in the field. For this we used the Nokia SU-8W (see image on left). This folds up and has a bracket to hold the phone. We also supplied a basic tripod to help in video interviews and a Sony microphone for directional audio recording and reducing background noise in interviews - this required a special adaptor plug that was made by Nokia for the project. Finally to deal with power issues we also used Power Monkeys, both basic and Explorer versions (see photo). The Explorer has a solar charging system which was particularly useful in Senegal


Link:
Reuters

Samsung reveals first 30-nm 64Gb NAND chip -- and a bit of skin

We're not sure what's more impressive here: the fact that Samsung has produced the world's first 30nm-class 64Gb (bit, not byte!) NAND chip or that they're now roping defenseless product waifs into hawking their silicon wafers. Nevertheless, we're looking at a serious jump in density in just 10 months. A maximum of 16 of the new chips can be combined for cost-effective 128GB (byte, not bit!) MLC NAND-based flash cards used primarily for data storage. Sammy's faster SLC based flash cards will still be the preferred choice when speed is of the utmost priority and cost isn't an issue. As such, Samsung also announced a 32Gb SLC NAND chip based on the same SaDPT (Self-aligned double patterning technology) manufacturing process. Sadly, we'll have to wait until 2009 for production to begin. Still, he looks happy dontchathink?

Source: Mydigitallife

Western Union Cooperate With GSM Association To Launch Global Mobile Cash Transfer Services

The US-based financial services and communications company, Western Union and GSM Association (GSMA) have jointly announced their plan to develop a system that would allow consumers to transfer money/cash across international borders via just a mobile phone. It’s a very cool and convenient commercial cash transfer service based on “Mobile Wallet” technology!“Mobile networks now cover more than 80 percent of the world’s population and 3 billion people1 have a mobile phone, creating an unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services to the majority of the world’s families for the first time,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA. “Mobile money transfers are a key driver in the development of a potentially vast market for financial services delivered via the mobile phone.”

“Western Union has a long tradition of innovation,” said Western Union President and CEO Christina Gold. “Our focus on the mobile money transfer space is an important step in expanding the range of Western Union’s global services to a new category of consumers. Our brand, extensive network, and compliance capabilities, combined with the GSMA members’ market reach, uniquely positions Western Union in the mobile money transfer marketplace.”

The cool and useful global mobile cash transfer services from a team of Western Union and GSM Association is expected to be available in 35 GSMA operators or about 100 countries around the world from Q2 2008.

Source: MyDigitalLife

Microsoft indirectly announces next Windows Mobile version for the first time

Apparently this new Windows Mobile version - probably 6.1 - will be released early next year (i.e. 2008) and it is needed to use "System Center Mobile Device Manager" server product. This new version of Windows Mobile has been publicly and explicitly mentioned for the first time during the webcast about the System Center Mobile Device Manager. By the way of this announcement also Samsung BlackJack II smartphone - with GPS (!) - has been announced. More info:

Responding to customer needs beyond mobile e-mail and calendaring, Microsoft introduced the Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, a new mobile-dedicated server solution that helps companies manage Windows Mobile phones similar to Windows-based laptops and PCs. With Mobile Device Manager, companies can deliver new applications to phones over the air as well as connect people via Mobile VPN (virtual private network) with security-enhanced access to critical data such as expense reports or customer information.

Microsoft, AT&T and Samsung also unveiled the Blackjack II, marking more than 30 Windows Mobile phones that have been announced this year. Available later this year exclusively through AT&T for as low as $149.99 (ERP), the Blackjack II is a new Windows Mobile 6 phone featuring GPS that will be updatable to support Mobile Device Manager. The AT&T Tilt and other Windows Mobile 6 smart devices to be introduced by AT&T later this year also will support Mobile Device Manager. Other recently launched phones in the U.S. are the HTC Advantage, Mogul by HTC, Touch by HTC, T-Mobile Wing, and from Verizon Wireless the Samsung SCH i760, Motorola Q Music 9m, SMT5800 and XV6800.

Click for More info

Source:
MsMobiles

Right word for PTCL

I tried "Phone n Net" service of PTCL but It never connected. When number 131777777 is dialed a voice says
"your telephone service doesnt offer this service u have requested!"
...wht the...!!!
the FAQ's at PTCL's site already say "The Phone ‘n’ Net facility is pre activated on all PTCL telephone numbers. You just have to dial 13177777 to be connected to Internet."

But...?

Hina Aman (a colleague of mine) has discovered a right word for PTCL. Just turn on T9 (Dictionary) on your cell phone and type PTCL... U will get the right word (try it to laugh :D)

Free Download Manager (FDM)

Free Download Manager (FDM) is a full-featured download accelerator and manager. Using this software product you can easily download a list of files and whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. With FDM the downloading process will be as easy as never before. FDM is a light-weight, powerful and easy-to-use application. Also this software product is well-known for its intuitive and user-friendly interface. FDM can function as a site manager, accelerator, site explorer and scheduler. FDM can resume broken downloads. So you needn't start the downloading process from the very beginning after casual interruption. You can resume unfinished download from the moment when it was interrupted. Also this program warns you if resuming isn't supported by the servers. It allows you to make a decision about the downloading. So with FDM you save your time and money. FDM allows adjusting traffic usage. So it provides you with an opportunity to browse web pages much faster if you use a low connection speed.

Notes:FDM Lite version requires less size and lacks some functions (BitTorrent support, video conversion and upload manager) that can be downloaded and installed as plugins later.

* FDM is now released under GNU GPL! *

Download: Free Download Manager 2.5 build 721 FDM Lite 2.5 Build 721

Source : Neowin

PTCL Introduces "Phone n Net": Dialup internet for everyone!

PTCL has introduced "Phone n Net" services that has started offering dialup internet to all costumers

PTCL says

"Phone’n’Net offers lot more convenience and efficient services with no hassle of opening an account or buying scratch card forced usage, Prepaid services and so much other hassles.Whereas Phone’n’Net offers convenience at its best. If you want to use Internet just dial 13177777 and get connected. The usage will be billed through your telephone bill. It will be charged on per minute basis"

Following are features of this service

*Direct internet Access

*No scratch card needed

*Balance never finishes

*No Expiry or forced usage

*Don't have to pay up-front

*Flat rate of Rs. 0.10/min. (conditions apply). Hourly charges are Rs. 6/hour

*Code barring to restrict internet access

*Available on all landlines. Currently available in Khi, Lhr, Isb and coming soon across Pakistan.

*You will be able to connect from any PTCL landline number. The only difference is that the charges will be billed to that number from which you connected to internet.

*Only one call will be charged as per PTCL rules for 131 number.(Thats cool :D)


Settings:

Phone number: 13177777
Login: ptcl

Password:ptcl

For more details:
PTCL Phone n net

Samsung shows water-powered Mobile Phone batteries

In 2010 your mobile phone may be powered by water. During the 2007 Korea Electronics Show. Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced that it has developed a micro-fuel cell and hydrogen generator that runs on H2O.And it even showed a working prototype of the new "Micro Fuel Cell" which works with the Korean version of the Samsung SGH-i600 (I wouldn't mind to test it as well). According to Samsung, the micro-fuel cell can generate up to three watts of electricity which is enough to be used in mobile devices. The new fuel cell could power a handset for 10 hours (talk time, standby time?), twice as long as rechargeable batteries.

"When the handset is turned on, metal and water in the phone react to produce hydrogen gas," explained Oh Yong-soo, vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' research center. "The gas is then supplied to the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power. Other fuel cells need methanol to produce hydrogen, while Samsung's needs only water."

"If the user uses the phone for four hours a day on average, they would have to change the hydrogen cartridge about every five days," Oh said. "Later handsets will be developed that don't need the hydrogen cartridges to be changed, and would only need to be filled with water."

According to Oh, the water-powered handsets are expected to hit the market by 2010.

Source: the::UnWired

Release of .NET Compact Framework for Symbian imminent

Symbian Smartphone Show starts next week (October 16-17, 2007) in London, EU, and while most announcements there will not be related to Windows Mobile, this one is! With .NET Compact Framework for Symbian that is being developed by Red Five Labs company from South Africa, it will be possible to run .NET applications for Windows Mobile also inside of Symbian phones. The compatibility level however is probably only .NET CF 1.1 or 1.0 (while current Windows Mobile has .NET CF 2.0 pre-installed in ROM) and unfortunately still no download is available... to prove that this whole software is not just a vaporware...

Information fromn Red Five Labs follows.

* * * * *

Red Five Labs to announce the launch of the public beta program for Net60, the first-ever commercial .NET Compact Framework implementation for S60 devices

Red Five Labs, is to announce the beta release of Net60, its ground breaking implementation of the .NET Compact Framework running on S60 3rd edition devices.

Net60 enables managed Windows Mobile applications to run unchanged on S60 devices. Using C# and Visual Basic .NET in Visual Studio, developers can now use the .NET Compact Framework environment to build applications for Symbian devices.

This beta release is intended for System Integrators and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who are interested in exploring the possibilities of Net60 ahead of the commercial release. User feedback is highly encouraged.

For download instructions, beta release notes, known issues and to learn more about the product, please visit the beta page at http://www.redfivelabs.com/content/download.aspx

For live demonstrations, please visit us on Symbian Smartphone Show stand number 55. To arrange a meeting at the show with Red Five Labs' CEO Dusan Babich, please contact press@redfivelabs.com.

Source: MSMobiles

Google increases Gmail storage

Google has announced that the free online storage for Gmail will increase gradually in the next days.

As of October 23th, users will get 4321MB of storage, and from January 4th next year, will see 6283MB of storage.

After that users will receive 3.3MB every day, which is apparently 10 times larger than the current rate of growth.

Google Apps mail accounts will have the same quota as standard Gmail accounts, while Google Apps Premier Edition will have 25GB mail accounts, compared to 2GB and 10GB previously.

"In April 2005, we started increasing Gmail storage as part of our "Infinity+1" storage plan. At that time, we realized we'd never reach infinity, but we promised to keep giving Gmail users more space as we were able," says the Gmail Blog.

Yahoo and Microsoft have recently increased the online storage they offer, so it appears as if Google, once the market leader in the area, has moved to catch up.


source:
Pocket-lint

OS X v10.5 Leopard Available October 26, Pre-order Today!

Back in April, Apple announced a delay from June to October for the next version of its operating system due to needs of the iPhone program. Well, October has finally arrived. The company says that OS X v10.5, which is now expected to ship on October 26, contains over 300 new features and “installs easily, and works with the software and accessories you already have.” Some of the highlighted features include a revamped desktop, a new Finder which includes Cover Flow technology, Quick Look which gives full-scale previews of documents before opening them and Time Machine which creates incremental backups of files.

A single-user license costs just $129.00 direct from Apple while a five-user license will set you back just $199.00. Customers who pre-order OS X v10.5 today from Apple are guaranteed to have their copy on their doorstep on October 26.

Source: DailyTech

Any Audio Converter

Any Audio Converter is designed for extracting audios from videos and converting audios between popular formats, such as WMV, MP4, WAV, WMA, OGG, AAC, MP3, M4A, MP2, etc. With Any Audio Converter, you can convert audio between MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC and OGG as well as video files including AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV, ASF, etc to popular audio files, e.g. convert MP4 to MP3.The user-friendly interface of Any Audio Converter lets you add and convert any unprotected audios and videos to MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG easily. Most work can be done automatically with a few mouse clicks. All conversions are very easy to handle with super fast speed. You can convert many files in batches regardless of their source formats. Any Audio Converter also supports playback of all the audio files with its built-in player. If you want to convert wma to mp3, convert mp3 to AAC, convert MP4 to MP3 or if you need to save a sound segment from VIDEO for some reasons, Any Audio Converter is exactly what you are looking for.

Selected Features:

* Friendly user interface and easy to use
* Support all popular audio formats
* Extract audio from AVI, WMV, ASF, MPEG, MPG to MP3, WMA, OGG.
* Extract audio from videos in super fast speed* Lossless sound quality
* Offer multithreading and batch conversion
* Fast conversion speed is beyond your imagination.

System Requirements:
* Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista
* DirectX 8.0 Runtime or higher
* Pentium 300 MHz or better
* 128M or more RAM

Download Any Audio Converter 1.02 freeware

Links:
Any Audio Converter homepage
Screen Shot

Source:
Neowin

Microsofts gets patient for it's new Mobile User Interface

Evey patient is an innovation so its a new innovation from Microsoft, the new UI for Windows Mobile!

The Windows Mobile touchscreen interface is ready for single-hand use, the United States Patent and Trademark Office yesterday unveiled a patent which was given to Microsoft (Application Number: 11/765,684). Title of the patent: "Extensible Filtered Lists for Mobile Device User Interface" which is about systems and methods for providing an improved user interface for mobile devices (smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like are explicitly stated in the patent specification). Access to data and services from multiple software applications can be provided through a group or list of items. Each group or list can include multiple items, which can be associated with data or tasks from multiple applications.

Briefly described, the provided subject matter concerns an improved user interface for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like. Selected data and services provided by multiple software applications can be accessed through a group or list of items. Each group or list can include multiple items that provide access to data or tasks from multiple applications. For example, a list centered around a user's current day can include items corresponding to meetings scheduled for that day using a calendar application, E-Mail received on that day through an E-Mail application, and a weather forecast for the day provided by a weather service application. Many WM users believe that interface can be made more user friendly so this new patient is step towards an easier and innovative Mobile User Interface.

Source: Theunwired

Eid Mubarak!

Eid-ul-Fitar Mubarak from Technobuddy. Wishing you a very very happy Eid day and a pray for all who are not amoung us this Eid, May Allah bless us all!

On this occasion we must not forget the poor and hungry, we must help them to enjoy the most blessing and happy event of nature. Allah loves those who love thier fellow men and real happiness is in helping others to celebrate and celebrate among them.

I wish everyday in my life is like Eid mornings! Its a real pleasure and coolness to eyes waking up for fajar prayers at Eid morning. Once again Eid Mubarak!

E-Card/Image Source: Sakkal

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta released analysis (The final SP)

Its not that unofficial one that fools people to be real service pack. The official Service Pack 3 Beta is officially here now. As Microsoft said it will say bye bye to Windows XP in 2008 to promote Windows Vista, so this is the last official Service Pack for Windows XP.

This release, also shipped as windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe, is 334.2 megabytes and has been made available to tier-one Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 beta testers

It contains only patches and hotfixes most of them backported from Windows Vista:

• New Windows Product Activation model: no need to enter product key during setup.
  
• Network Access Protection modules and policies have been brought to XP after being one of the more-well-received features in Windows Vista.
  
• New Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module - the Windows XP SP3 kernel now includes an entire module that provides easy access to multiple cryptographic algorithms and is available for use in kernel-mode drivers and services.
  
• New “Black Hole Router” detection - Windows XP SP3 can detect and protect against rogue routers that are discarding data.

Windows XP SP3 is compatible with all versions of Windows x86, included Embedded, Fundamentals, Start, Professional, Media Center, and Home Editions.

Windows XP SP3 now contains 1,073 patches/hotfixes, not including those in previous service packs. Of the 1,073 included updates, 114 are for security-related issues. The remainder are updates to performance & reliability, bugfixes, improvements to kernel-mode driver modules, and many BSOD fixes.

As with Service Pack 2, these include both previously publicly-available updates (whether through support.microsoft.com or via Windows Update) as well as any and all privately-redistributed updates for select customers or partners with specific problems/scenarios

Reference:
NeoSmart blog

Use PHP in Visual Studio 2005

IPhp is one of the most popular languages for developing web applications. In fact, the Php community has the largest pool of rich open source applications, frameworks and resources to make your development life easier. VS.Php lets those who enjoy using Visual Studio use their favorite IDE for Php development. VS.Php also provides many unique features by leveraging the Visual Studio IDE like Php/Javascript debugging.

VS.Php is a Php integrated development environment based on Visual Studio. With VS.Php you can design, develop, debug and deploy Php applications within the Visual Studio IDE. VS.Php key features are around providing rich Php and Smarty editing capabilities as well as its ability to debug Php scripts locally as well as remotely.

VS.Php offers a set of productivity features designed to improve productivity. The new 2.3 release offers many improvements around working on remote projects including remote access, importing and improved deployment.

link:
Php IDE - VS.Php for Visual Studio 2005

Zune 30 will be updated to all features of new Zunes (unlike Apple do)

Microsoft has taken a fresh approach in updating its mp3 lineup. They are not actually trying to replace the original Zune (called as Zune 30) but are actually adding new variety to their lineup. Now what does this actually means is that the current zune owners who bought Zune 30 will get all the new features (yes all of them) of Zune 4, Zune 8 and Zune 80 through a firmware upgrade. This is something which Apple has failed to deliver for their loyal iPod users. Whenever a new iPod was released, the older versions didn't get any new updates or the features of the newer models which left their loyal users with no option but to spend more bucks and get the new device.

In what I consider to be a classy move, Microsoft is imbuing each Zune device with exactly the same features. (And yes, this includes the original Zune 30, which will require a software update.) So if you have bought a Zune last year doesn't mean you're out of luck. What a concept.

Updates for Zune 30 will include:

>The new improved user interface.

>Ability to sync with Windows Vista PCs via WiFi.

>New desktop Zune software.

>Zune Community Site (a.k.a "Zune Social") to create dynamic Zune Cards and share their playlists etc. with fellow zuners.

Microsoft will also keep on selling Zune 30 along with their new lineup come this November.

The pricing for all four models will break down as follows:

Zune 4 - $149
Zune 8 - $199
Zune 30 - $199
Zune 80 - $249

...its great! Apple never provides updates for old iPods when new iPods arrive

Source :
Microsoft Wow blog

Ig Nobel Award Winners Announced

Every year, we salute a select and elite group of scientists, artists, writers, and peace activists who, through extraordinary accomplishment, have bettered humanity. These...are not those people. Instead, the Ig Nobel Prize, a parody of the Nobel Prize, is awarded to the zanier side of science, things which, according to the founders of the Ig Nobel Prize, "make people laugh and then make them think." This year's winners have been announced, and highlights include:
Medicine: Brian Witcombe of Gloucester, UK, and Dan Meyer of Antioch, Tennessee, USA, for their penetrating medical report "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects." Apparently the most common side effect is "sore throat."

Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan, for developing a way to extract vanillin -- vanilla fragrance and flavoring -- from cow dung. I was going to say something funny about this, but there's really not much more you can do.

Linguistics: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Núria Sebastián-Gallés, of Universitat de Barcelona, for showing that rats sometimes cannot tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards.

Peace: The Air Force Wright Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio, USA, for instigating research & development on a chemical weapon -- the so-called "gay bomb" -- that will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other. That's certainly another way to look at the concept of a flaming bomb.

Economics-: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, of Taichung, Taiwan, for patenting a device, in the year 2001, that catches bank robbers by dropping a net over them. An absolute captivating report, I assure you.

And, last, but not least, Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek of Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina, for their discovery that Viagra aids jetlag recovery in hamsters. It must've been a very stimulating study for these poor rodents.

...about Peace, I am confused about why a noble prize for this?

Full list:
Improperable resesarch

Source:
In-House

.net open source!

A great step taken, Microsoft just anounced that Visual Studio 2008 will come with viewable source libraries of .net 3.5 frame work. The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL).

Everyone will be able to download the .NET Framework source libraries via a standalone install (allowing to use any text editor to browse it locally). We will also provide integrated debugging support of it within VS 2008.

References/Links:
ASP Blog entry

Zune 2

Microsoft tells about new Zunes 2 that will hit stores in mid November.

There will be an 80GB hard drive model, similar to the original Zune models, but packing a larger 3.2-inch QVGA screen, and a slimmer case design.

Smaller 4GB and 8GB flash-based models are also on the way to go compete effectively with the iPod Nano. All three new models are with the 4GB retailing for $149, the 8GB for $199 and the 80GB for just $249.

Additional details which have surfaced include automatic sync-over-WiFi capability (Apple, are you listening?), and a DRM-free music store (surprise!) As an added bonus to Zune early adopters, the original model (now known as the “Zune 30″) will get a firmware update to match the features of the newer models.

Additionaol information reaveals that the new zune has automatic sync-over-WiFi capability and a DRM-free music store

As an added bonus to Zune early adopters, the original model (now known as the “Zune 30″) will get a firmware update to match the features of the newer models.

Links:
Microsoft official Press release
Zune Website

Waiting for Wateen

Its so much delayed. First they said it would be in start of September, then they said in the end of September and now they are saying in end of October.

I really want Wi-Max! I am using dialup from last month because I am waiting for Wateen and its delaying!... People hope Wateen will bring great price cuts in broadboand. They are not reavealing their tariff but hopes are with them as they said about it.

And I think comming of Wateen in market has made other broadband companies to drop thier rates. As PTCL is showing off thier DSL and claiming amazing rates.

So Wateen, we are waiting for you. Hope you are not further delayed

Link:
Wateen Telecom

Portable Firefox

Biggest frustration using lab computers in most universities is limitation of access granted by the server administrator. Especially when using a web browser. When someone needs to install ActiveX controls or plugins in a web browser then access isn’t granted. It’s a common problem and it limits access of web browsing. Important plugins like Adobe Flash player are very much needed while surfing the web.

I just found a great solution for removing the limits for web browsing anywhere on Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (with Wine only). Its Firefox potable!

Now no one can stop you using Flash player 9 and silverlight anywhere! :D

Features:

Extension-Friendly Launcher - Firefox Portable Launcher 1.0.8 is now included by default. It will alter the paths to any extensions you install to work relative to the program package.

Default Profile - A default profile exists within the firefox directory.

No Default Browser Check - Firefox won't check to see if it is the default browser on startup.

Download Prompt - Firefox will ask where to save download

Download History Cleared - Download history is cleared on exit.

Browser History Disabled - The history has been disabled to decrease disk size and the number of writes to the disk, increasing disk life.

Form Info Saving Disabled - Information from forms is not saved.

No Disk Cache - The browser disk cache has been disabled to decrease disk size and the number of writes to the disk, increasing disk life

Links:
Portable Firefox website

Microsoft launches "Cool Hotmail" in India

Whether you call Bombay thier home, or Bangalore. Whether your favorite star is Hrithik, SRK or anyone else! Whether you call yourself cool or hot! Whether you like junk or sportics! or if you have class of thier own! Its here for them.

Microsoft brings coolhotmail for India. Now no more same pintch for everyone. Everyone can have its own style represented by his/her e-mail address. You can have a unique e-mail address that flly represents you personality like yourname@clubashwariya.com, yourname@globicallyunique.in, yourname@iamwhatiam.in and much more. There are 141 to choose from. It will be really cool if Microsoft launches something like this for Pakistan too.

Check it out!

Link:
Coolhotmail