Microsoft Surface Parody

"Instead of playing with you kids, you can watch a video of them playing themselves...if ur mom has $10,000 laying around her house and she has nothing to do with...they can get one too and you can send her a post card...thats the power of microsoft surface!" lol

This video Paradoy of Microsoft Surface is soo funny! watch it yourself

Video demonstration of Sony's sugar powered battery

Some Sugar spice and anything thats nice! :P
Sony demonstrated how the sugar powered battery works. This battery is going to replace lithium batteries in future as a clean energy solution.

Its a video by ITworld.com on youtube ( The only one I found on youtube). You can also watch another published by PC World here.

Apple's iPhone unlocked by a 17 years old teenager!

A 17 years old teenager unlocks the Apple iPhone and is using on T-Mobile's network, in New York.

The iPhone was officialy released to be used on AT&T connection only but three separate hacks that fully unlock the Apple iPhone from AT&T surfaced, two of them claiming to be software-only.

Best documented was a hack by George Hotz, 17, of Glen Rock, N.J.

With a little soldering, a lot of command-line computing and about two hours of time, Hotz was able to switch an iPhone over to T-Mobile, which he documented in detail in a YouTube video and on his blog.

The point emerges...is this product designed so unsecure?. Apple and AT&T are not having a good time with this product.

Hotz is selling one hacked iPhone on eBay, mostly to recoup costs from his summer-long project. Another hacker donated an iPhone to experiment with, which is now a mess of parts and wires, and Hotz needs to buy him a new one. Hotz is keeping a third.

As of 5 p.m. EDT Friday, bidding was over $4,500! wow! The bidding will end on 30th August.


View complete story on FOXNews

Links:
ebay bid
Hotz blog (detail about unlockign the iPhone)

Sony Develops 'Bio Battery' Generating Electricity from Sugar

Sony (on 23 August 2007) announced the development of a bio battery that generates electricity from carbohydrates (sugar) utilizing enzymes as its catalyst, through the application of power generation principles found in living organisms

Test cells of this bio battery have achieved power output of 50 mW, currently the world's highest level for passive-type bio batteries. The output of these test cells is sufficient to power music play back on a memory-type Walkman.

In order to realize the world's highest power output, Sony developed a system of breaking down sugar to generate electricity that involves efficiently immobilizing enzymes and the mediator (electronic conduction materials) while retaining the activity of the enzymes at the anode. Sony also developed a new cathode structure which efficiently supplies oxygen to the electrode while ensuring that the appropriate water content is maintained. Optimizing the electrolyte for these two technologies has enabled these power output levels to be reached.

Sugar is a naturally occurring energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis. It is therefore regenerative, and can be found in most areas of the earth, underlining the potential for sugar-based bio batteries as an ecologically-friendly energy device of the future.

Sony is going to continue its development of immobilization systems, electrode composition and other technologies in order to further enhance power output and durability, with the aim of realizing practical applications for these bio batteries in the future.

The research results presented here have been accepted as an academic paper at the 234th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition in Boston, MA USA, and were announced yesterday.

The bio battery mechanism:
The newly developed bio battery incorporates an anode consisting of sugar-digesting enzymes and mediator, and a cathode comprising oxygen-reducing enzymes and mediator, either side of a cellophane separator. The anode extracts electrons and hydrogen ions from the sugar(glucose) through enzymatic oxidation as follows:

Glucose -> Gluconolactone + 2 H+ + 2 e-

The hydrogen ion migrates to the cathode through the separator. Once at the cathode, the hydrogen ions and electrons absorb oxygen from the air to produce water:

(1/2) O2 + 2 H+ + 2 e- -> H2O

Through this process of electrochemical reaction, the electrons pass through the outer circuit to generate electricity.

Source: physorg

Microsoft introduces animated search engine

Microsoft today announced the availability of Tafiti, a Silverlight-based search tool on top of Microsoft's Live Search engine. Tafiti, which means "do research" in Swahili, enhances searching on the web by allowing users to store and share search results across multiple queries and sessions. This is accomplished by using "shelfs" to store one or more search results simply by dragging the search result onto one of five shelf spaces. Shelfs can then be stored for future use, or can be emailed or blogged about with ease.

Tafiti includes a carousel to simplify the organization of returned search results. By rotating the carousel, one can access search results from the web, images, news, RSS feeds, or books. Tafiti also supports a Tree View where by search results are placed on the limbs of a tree which can be rotated and zoomed as necessary to visualize the search result.

Source : MSDN Blogs

Need help from my readers

My dear readers...I am standing in mid of something so I realy need your opinions... Please answer my question in the following link if you can

http://qna.live.com/ShowQuestion.aspx?qid=302ECCCD1EEC46FD85C9DF1B09DAD76C

I will be very thankful of you.

Brad Wardell speaks about 5 mistakes Microsoft made with Windows Vista

Windows Vista has kind of gotten a bum rap. Some of the rap is deserved -- Microsoft shipped it too early. But for the most part, the rap is carried on by vocal techies who just like to poop on things because they think criticizing things makes them appear more knowledgeable. Talking to a techie about the quality of mainstream software is a lot like talking to a film school graduate about the quality of mainstream movies. Sure, you might have liked Pirates of the Caribbean but talk to a film snob and it's the 7th sign of the Apocalypse. So how good is Windows Vista? The answer is, pretty good. Far better than Windows XP. But I can think of 5 big mistakes Microsoft made that has taken a window out of its sails. Let me outline those 5 mistakes Microsoft made with the Windows Vista launch and talk about how Microsoft might be able to keep Windows Vista from being a sequel to Windows ME.

#1 The UAC. The User Account Control in Windows Vista is a feature that appears to have been designed by a marketing committee. Some casual computer user decided that the way to make other casual users think that Windows Vista was "secure" was to have more prompts. A lot more prompts. And so, even a power user (i.e. early adopters) logged on as an administrator is going to find themselves being prompted regularly. They can turn it off but that defeats the entire purpose of having better security.

The result: Power users turn it off and casual users learn to ignore the myriad of repetitive dialogs.

Solution: Have the UAC be a lot smarter. A simple "Always give permission to continue for this action" checkbox at the bottom of the dialog would be nice. It's bad enough that changing the IP address on Vista requires 5 clicks to get to (versus 2 in Windows XP) but it adds a 6th click to get past the UAC.

#2 Windows Vista was shipped before drivers were ready. This, combined with item #1 are probably responsible for the majority of the negative vibe Windows Vista has received. As a practical matter, the first usable beta of Windows Vista wasn't made available until 4 or so months before Windows Vista shipped (or merely 1 month before "gold". This meant that many drivers, video drivers in particular, weren't ready. But for all those people who have a finicky scanner or Air card or other specialty peripheral had to be guinea pigs.

The result: Early adopters were stung with problematic behavior and a lack of drivers which caused frustration that they shared a lot with others.

Solution: This is mostly dealt with now (as of July 26th for nVidia users for instance). But when one considers how much reputation damage this caused Microsoft should really give more care in the future. Release a stable public beta long enough before going gold so that developers can provide adequate support.

#3 The new Start menu. Love the new Start Search. Kudos. Don't love the Start menu navigation which wants to exist in a fixed window. The example screenshot shows Microsoft's own apps being cut off. For those of us who liked to seriously organize our Start menu items into categories and such, this new start menu option is a huge pain.

Solution: Make the All Programs button behavior an option between the classic expanding menu or the new menu container.

#4 Unbelievably bad desktop performance. Another item that really hurt the initial impression of Windows Vista was how horrible basic desktop operations like copying and zipping were. A user would be copying a handful of files and would get this dialog trying to estimate how long the copy should take. Here's your answer: less than a second! At least, that's what it should have taken. Instead, the estimating time dialog would take a few seconds and then the copy would take a second or two. This sort of thing on routine file copying and moving made Windows Vista feel like a pig.

Solution: Service Pack 1 is supposed to address this sort of thing more thoroughly but the good news is that Microsoft did officially release some patches that improves desktop performance significantly.

#5 Upgrade Pricing is a joke. I wonder what color the sky is on planet Microsoft. Because on planet Microsoft, the Xbox 360 is $350 which not only includes the OS (with Media Center), a 20 Gigabyte Hard drive and other goodies, but at the same time Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade lists for $160. Sure, it's not a truly fair comparison (console makers get a piece of revenue from console games) but the point is still valid. One might get the impression that Microsoft has a monopoly in the PC OS market but does not in the console market. The big problem is that Microsoft's marketing never made the case for what you are actually getting for that $160. I like Windows Vista. I think it's a big improvement over Windows XP. And when I buy a computer, I am glad Windows Vista comes with it. But upgrading my existing computers? The incredibly stingy "Family Discount" (which has expired) wasn't even close to justifying upgrading machines to Vista. Maybe there is $160 in value buried in Windows Vista Home Premium but Microsoft's marketing didn't make the case. And I can't find it -- especially when you combine it with the above issues. This wasn't a problem with Windows XP. Windows XP was blatantly better than Windows ME/98 and it was noticeably better than Windows 2000 (which only had a tiny share of the market compared to 98/ME). As a result, 7 months later, Windows Vista has less than 10% of the market. By contrast, I remember watching Windows XP's launch and the migration to Windows XP was pretty swift.

Solution: No solution. They aren't likely to lower pricing any time soon. Once Service Pack 1 has been integrated into the OEM versions (the ones that ship with new PCs) you'll see nearly everyone opting for Windows Vista on a new machine while older machines continue with Windows XP.

Conclusions: I could go on with numerous other items like the terrible icon handling, the fact that development tools weren't ready for prime time, that Microsoft's marketing efforts were seemingly handled by non-technical people (I mean, really, Flip3D is actually one of the first things mentioned on the Windows Vista home page -- how deep are you digging to find compelling features when a fairly useless task switcher is your money shot?), all have contributed to the negative buzz around Windows Vista. Which is a shame because Windows Vista is really very good. On a scale from 1 to 10, if Windows 98 was a 4, Windows ME a 3, Windows 2000 a 6 and Windows XP a 7 then Windows Vista is easily an 8. It's a worthy and significant upgrade. It deserves a good reputation. Hopefully, Microsoft can get Service Pack 1 out sooner rather than later and address as best they can the issues that many people have brought up.

Source: neowin

ITCN Asia aftermath

The biggest IT event of South Asia, the ITCN Asia was held in Karachi, Pakistan from 9-11 August. I was there on last two days in the exhibition but I missed the very important conferences because of my university classes in morning. I had the corporate passes for conferences on first two days but the thing i didn't like was they weren't allowing visitors without National Identity Cards even if they have corporate passes. Visitor's without NIC were allowed only on 3rd day I also didn't had my NIC (I am 18! and will be 19 INSHAHALLAH after 9 days, m too lazy to get an NIC :P) but i got in because of my friend who was in the reception team. Three halls were full but there wasn't much crowd as compared to last ITCN in 2006. It had nothing much to offer a person at student level or just a home user but it had allot for businessmen. Following is a smal review of the ITCN Asia

Dany discount coupons:

Dany (www.dany1.com ), makers of peripherals distributed free coupon cards, each card with many coupons was offering discount for Rs 6,700/- with at least discount of Rs 300/- to Rs 500/- on 15 different products. The cupons are valid for 30 authorized dealer shops across city!
Discount at AGN computers stall: AGN computers were offering discounts on all their products (I don't remember the exact percentage). They weren't selling the products there, the discount was applicable from 9th August to 13 August on the AGN outlet. So I thought it was the good time to get a WMC compatible TV tuner card that I was planing to buy so I got it on discount! I may also write the review of that TV tuner card

Wateen Telecom's wi-max From the day I visited Wateen's telecom's stall, my MSN PM is "I want wi-max" :p . Wateen Telecom, a Warid company has made Karachi one of the World's Largest wireless hot spot city. Its first time in Pakistan that w-max internet connection, upto speed of 2MBPS has started. They have plans to launch it for public this month. And what I expect is the affordable, cehaper than Land line DSL. I talked to the sales agent about rates, he said they haven't revealed them yet. While talking to two different sales persons on Wateen Telecom's stall, I asked both of them about their expectation of rates. One said "I think the price of 256K connection will start from Rs 500 with unlimited volume" (its so cheap!) and the other said "The technology is wi-max! so it will be expensive that landlines DSL" (I hope he's wrong). Lets see whats the tariff when its available to public.

BusyPak infotech:
A small software house was selling an accounting software for Rs 99/- I purchased it because it looked a little attractive there, I was in hurry so I didn't saw the demonstration of that on the stall. It seemed to be developed in Visual Basic, it isn't compatible with my Windows Vista Ultimate...I tried it on Windows XP Professional. The interface was dull, unattractive and understandable to use. It had so many development and designing flaws that even a student developer like me takes care of them while programming. The worse was the background picture of the MDI application was not vector edged and was just designed for 14'' display, and on my 19'' display it was just like a 640X480 image in upper left corner of screen .The about section of that application says its developed in India, don't know why they were selling such a low quality software in Pakistan.

No attractive internet hours packages for dial up users:
I didn't found any attractive packages for dial up users. In last ITCN exhibitions, there were many.

PTCL DSL:

PTCL dropped rates of their DSL connection by 30 percent. So the PTCL stall was an attractive spot for DSL subscribers as their lowest package starts from Rs 1000/- per month

Board of Information Technology Sindh:
Board of Information Technology Sindh was offering call center training course in Rs 5000/- who's real cost is (as they say) about Rs 45,000/-. So its a very good call center agent training program for promotion of outsourcing of telemarketing

-------------------------

Event was good but not as much attractive as it was expected

Links
http://www.itcnasia.com/

Dark time apologies!

A darkage for my blog...from 13-16 August! I wasn't able to blog. I realy felt bad when my internet connection was brokendown and there was not any other alternative. I experienced bad customer service! everytime i call my desi cable net operator he says everthing will be alrite in an hour but it went on for 4 days. I didn't even had modem (my mistake) to use dialup and heavy rainfall in Karachi blocked roads to where i can get a good quality modem (I got it now!). Im waiting for Wateen Telecom's wi-max connection, no wires no tention.

I had many things to say in that days to my readers, i had to cover ITCN Asia, Wateen's Wi-Max, Windows Media Center's Live TV , Personal review of Microsoft Zune and much more. I will continue to write that all from now. Hope u all enjoy my blog.

Microsoft drops Xbox 360 prices by $US50

Model with 20GB hard drive drops to $US349 starting today, Madden NFL 08 to launch August 14.
The recent $US100 price drop by Sony from its PlayStation3 console has already had the desired effect for consumers with Microsoft succumbing to the pressure to offer a reduction of its own.
The software giant has done that dropping the prices of all Xbox 360 models by $US50, coinciding with the release of Madden NFL ’08 due August 14.

That brings the price of the standard 20GB console down to $US349, the basic Core model down to $US279 and the 120GB-equipped Xbox 360 Elite to $US449.

Microsoft also expects big business from its upcoming Halo 3 release with plans to offer a limited edition green-and-gold finish Xbox 360 in September for $US399. The kit will features a matching wireless controller, Xbox 360 20GB model, headset, Play and Charge kit and other extras.
“The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360,” said Mitch Koch, corporate vice president, Global Retail Sales and Marketing Group, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “On the eve of the best holiday games lineup ever and the launch of ‘Madden NFL 08,’ there has never been a better time to jump into Xbox 360.”

All of the major console manufacturers are lining to grab a slice of the US holiday action as new price drops and greater competition come into effect.

Microsoft has already fired its first salvo with the price drop plus the news that market research firm NPD Group found that 6.1 games are sold to every Xbox 360, the highest game takeup rate for any console according to its latest June 2007 figures.

Source: Techlogg

Elton John Wants To Shut Down the Internet

POP legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN.Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing.

He claims it is destroying good music, saying:

“The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision. It’s just a means to an end. We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet. I mean, get out there — communicate. Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet. Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging. I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span. There’s too much technology available. I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”

Multi-millionaire Elton, who turned 60 earlier this year, has admitted in the past that he is a bit behind the times.

The Grammy award-winner was once quoted as saying:

“I am the biggest technophobe of all time. I don’t have a mobile phone or an iPod or anything. I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano.”

Sales of Elton’s last album The Captain & The Kid were disappointing — it barely shifted 100,000 copies. And in the past Sir Elt has opposed illegal downloading of his music from the net. But the flamboyant singer has embraced the web in other ways. The 60th birthday concert Sir Elton played to a 20,000-strong crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden was streamed live over the internet. The singer also announced earlier this year that his entire back catalogue of albums would be made available for digital download. The internet has played a huge role in kick-starting the careers of some of Britain’s best new talent. Sandi Thom shot to fame after broadcasting webcam concerts from her London basement flat, while both the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen acknowledge the part played by the web in their success. But Elton also complained about the quality of music being released. He said:

“In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic. Now you’re lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality. And there are more albums released each week now than there were then.”

I guess that’s what Sir Elt would call a net loss . . .

Source : The Sun

Warid Free 50 minutes are not free actualy

I received an sms on my Warid number that was

"Special offer! Now get daily 50 FREE MINUTES! This offer is on ALL Warid Numbers from 9am-5pm. To activate sms "Zem2a" to 5060. Daily Charges 15+tax"

I was very excited so i immediately subscribed to the promotion. Its worthy but the fact is its not free. Its just way of marketing! i say the worst way! Its like same as if a greengrocer says that "Special offer! Give me Rs 15 and get 1 KG potatoes for free!" ha! man its the most worse way of marketing! I called Warid helpline and asked why they said its free and didn't enclosed the details is the SMS they said about...that I cant make a call or send an SMS if I don't have Rs 20 or more in my account, and why i was hanged up for 6 minutes (it was very early actually, there are times when we are hanged up for 15 minutes). She showed some rudeness, I became a little rude to because of her reaction...then she said "Sorry sir I can't help you! Thankyou for calling Warid costumer service, ALLAH HAFIZ! Bye " and line off!

After a survey, among the lowest call rates offered by three companies Jazz, Telenor and Warid, Warid stands as the most expensive who says "Free 50 minutes!".

Check out the following list of lowest call rates offered by three competitors.

Warid Zem: Rs 0.30* per minute (Form 8am to 5pm,50 minutes only! and balance must be atleast Rs 20 or you wont be able to call or even sms )

Jazz Ladies First: Rs 0.08* per minute (Form 11pm to 7am)

Telenor djuice: Rs 0.07* per minute (From 12am to 5am)

*Excluding Tax that is 20%

Clearly Warid Zem is the most expensive and most limited, Telenor djuice is the most affordable and Jazz ladies First just behind.

Call for Rs 4 per hour from your djuice!

More heat on! more cheaper call rates! the low down of call rates is also
adapted now by Telenor.

Man! these days we have the lowest call rates!

djuice offers call rates as low as Rs 4 per hour, its valid for all friends and family numbers from 12 am to 8 am everyday.



Visit djuice website for further details: www.djuice.com.pk

Free 50 minutes everyday From Warid

As heat is on in competition that was started by Jazz Ladies First offering Rs 5 per hour air time. Waridtel and Telenor also have very attractive packages

Warid presents an attractive promotion customers. Now Warid ZEM customers can get daily 50 FREE MINUTES on all Warid Numbers.

• With a daily charge of Rs 15 + tax‚ customers can avail 50 free minutes between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
• Subscribers can also enjoy 250 free SMS/MMS in addition to the 50 free on-net minutes at a daily charge of Rs. 20 + tax

Visit : www.waridtel.com

Microsoft Cuts Vista Price By Over 50% in China

Microsoft has more than halved the retail price of its Vista operating system in China.
The Home Basic edition dropped from $201 (1,521 yuan) to $66, and the Home Premium package dropped from $238 to $118. The move was effective as of Wednesday.
The price cut is the company's latest effort to tackle the rampant software piracy in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. The theory is that if legitimate software costs less, people will be less likely to turn to pirated versions. Microsoft had sold 60 million Windows Vista licenses globally by the end of June, including 20 million copies sold since mid-May, the company said last month.

Source: Cnet