Yahoo on a change spree. First logo and now the email. What's next in the menu

In honor of Yahoo Mail's 16th birthday on Tuesday, the service is getting a revamp — inspired in part by mobile.

The most noticeable part of the update is its new rich themes. Designed to take advantage of high-quality mobile screens such as Apple’s Retina display, the new themes incorporate Flickr photos into Mail, giving your email experience an entirely new look.

Yahoo is currently working with the photographers of 24 different Flickr images and created customized themes around the colors in those images.

Yahoo tried out using Flickr photos earlier this year with the launch of Yahoo Weather, an app that displays photos in the background specific to the type of weather in your area.

Yahoo is taking this experience into consideration to help create the ultimate Mail experience.

“This is probably one of the first releases where you’ll hear us say, ‘We learned from the mobile and we added that feature set or that design pattern over to the desktop version,” Jeff Bonforte, SVP of Communications at Yahoo told Mashable.

Many users are using Yahoo Mail primarily on mobile and want some of the service's mobile features on the web version, too.

Things used to be the other way around, Bonforte said — Yahoo might try to take features that were popular on the desktop version and repackage them for mobile. Now, Yahoo is trying to take smart features from its mobile version and bring them to the desktop.

The Mail experience on the web now mimics its mobile app in many ways. Tuesday’s update will go live on desktop and mobile simultaneously.

Users can choose to take advantage of the new themes or opt for a more basic white background with back text. Your selected theme on the desktop will also be your theme on the mobile version of the app.

Yahoo is also making all of its premium mails features such as POP access and mail forwarding free to all users. The only paid feature for Yahoo Mail will be a $49.99/year charge for an ad-free experience.

Yahoo will also increase the storage space in mail, upping the total amount of storage per user to 1TB — the same amount of space it currently offers Flickr users for free.

The new Yahoo Mail is available Tuesday for the web and iOS, Android and Windows 8 tablets. The updated look will first roll out first to English-speaking users, but will eventually roll out worldwide.

Source - http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/yahoo-mail-redesign-flickr/

Facebook, mobile carriers offer free access to site

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook has teamed up with 50 wireless operators to offer cellphone users a stripped-down version of the social networking site that can be accessed without incurring data charges.

The new site, dubbed 0.facebook.com, is a text-only version of Facebook's flagship Internet site and is specially designed for mobile phones with limited bandwidth Internet connections.

The new site will be available beginning on Tuesday in 40 different countries, including Brazil, India, Indonesia and Turkey from a variety of carriers.

The new site comes as the world's largest Internet social network continues to grow its base and looks for ways to increase the amount of time Web surfers spend using its service.

At the company's annual developer's conference last month, Facebook introduced new technology that allows third-party Web sites to integrate Facebook features directly.

Roughly one quarter of Facebook's 400 million users access the site on mobile devices, according to the company.

But Facebook wants to make the service more accessible to cell phone users who do not own high-end smartphones such as Apple Inc's iPhone, or phones based on Google Inc's Android software.

"We are targeting people whose major barrier is they have little experience on the mobile Internet. They want to try it, they want something super simple, super fast. And they are potentially afraid of browsing costs," said Henri Moissinac, who heads Facebook's mobile business. "If you take an iPhone user in San Francisco, that's not his problem."

Among the carriers partnering with Facebook are Reliance and Videocon in India (with Tata Docomo coming soon), T-Mobile in Hungary and Vodafone in Greece.
Customers of the participating wireless operators will be able to access the new Facebook site without paying any wireless data charges, Facebook said.

The 0.facebook site offers the same capabilities as Facebook's standard website, allowing members to view their news feed, comment on posts and send messages.

But 0.facebook will not feature any photos or videos -- Web surfers can link to view photos and videos, although they will be charged standard wireless data fees by their carriers at that point.

Facebook is not paying the wireless operators any money to reimburse them for the free usage they provide and there are no financial terms to the partnerships, said Moissinac.

In addition to many so-called emerging economies in which 0.facebook will be offered, the site will be available in the United Kingdom, Finland and Hong Kong, among other places.

While the United States is not among the countries in which Facebook has operator deals, Moissinac said he hoped the site would eventually be available there as well.

An Ultimate Beauty from Apple - iMAC Desktop

The latest offering from Apple-the iMac desktop-which has a 27-inch panel with a 2560 x 1440 16:9 display and is 1.5-inch thick, promises to give you ultimate viewing pleasure. The LED backlight is vibrant and the viewing angles offer you to read even when standing side-on. With the speakers placed under the bottom edge, it manages to put out commendable amount of sound, similar to the 24-inch Apple Cinema Display. The widescreen makes it ideal for movie content.


You have the option of using a 3.06GHz dual-core processor or one of Intel's latest quad-cores. The quad-core iMac also benefits from Turbo Boost. If you're using an application that doesn't need every core, Turbo Boost shuts off the idle cores while simultaneously increasing the speed of the active ones. On the side there's the same 8x SuperDrive as its predecessor, while graphics are courtesy of an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB of dedicated memory.

Another striking feature is that it is one of the quietest computers ever, in spite of being loaded with heavy electronics. There is only a faint hum of the fans, even with a DVD drive, which gets drowned by sound of typing. Sadly, the desktop is still not height adjustable and has no Blu-ray option but has got a SD card slot this time on.

Also as with Apple's recent desktop and mobile range, their choice of panels keep getting better. In fact, the 27-inch model, particularly, would make for the perfect HD workstation, both for consuming and producing high-definition content. With a Wi-Fi network connection and the included Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Mouse, the iMac can truly be a one-cord computer.


With a hard drive of 1TB and 4GB RAM, the product is priced at Rs. 89,900. Although not a cheap purchase, but Apple's recent financial report has shown that there are plenty of people willing to pay a premium for high-end design and the aesthetic ease of OS X.

Effective E-learning for rural development

Gandhigram Rural Institute's e-learning programme is a classic example of effective e-learning

BANGALORE, INIDA: There has always been the apprehension about how can E-learning help the masses in the rural part of the country, despite the 'digital leap' that India has made.

But the initiatives of Gandhigram Rural Institute, a provider in distance education and a deemed university in Tamil Nadu, shows how the possibility of E-learning can be utilised to reach out to the masses.

Gandhigram has created an E-learning programme for creating literacy campaign in the rural areas and it is a classic example of the effective reach of technology in helping towards the development of rural India.

An E-learning center is set up by the institute in every village, where the people are taught how to read and write by using visual and audio content.

Content are developed on various issues particularly faced by the villagers such as Panchayati Raj, right to information, human rights, self funding, sanitation, environment restoration, superstitions, etc.

"The criterion is to educate the rural masses on the basic knowledge and about the current happening around the globe," said L. Raja, director, Gandhigram Rural Institute, while speaking to CyberMedia on the sidelines of the two-day knowledge conclave being held in Bangalore.

He said, people from various sectors such as media, educational organization, government organization etc are invited to conduct workshop through which we get information for generating the content.

The villagers so far have welcomed this initiative openly and are very excited about e-learning as the content in form of audio and visual are very appealing to them.

The idea to initiate such kind of e-learning campaign was generated to this institute by TCS's literacy model.

This initiative was started by the institute five years ago and is funded by UGC.

The university so far has covered 100 villages and educated about forty to fifty thousand villagers.

This campaign shows the power of technology to transform the entire country in to a high knowledge base.

Here lies the answer to the question; of how effective is e-learning not only for higher education but also for increasing literacy rate and as well as rural development of the country.


©CyberMedia News

Source - http://www.ciol.com//News/News-Reports/Effective-E-learning-for-rural-development/23109115170/0/

Google Gdrive: Is the 'PC killer' arriving?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Search giant Google is reportedly all set to make another giant leap in the world computer, with its plan to launch this year the long-rumoured and the most anticipated GDrive storage-in-the-cloud service.

According to industry reports, the company is about to launch 'GDrive', which would allow people to store almost all their data on the Internet and access it from wherever they are.

"Throw your hard drive away, Google's Gdrive is arriving in 2009," said TG Daily, an American technology news website.

According to it, when Google Drive, or Gdrive, arrives, it will likely cause a major paradigm shift in how we use computers and bring Google one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop.

The service has the potential to eclipse even Gmail, Google's second best-known product after their google.com search engine, it added.

Gdrive is basically a cloud-based storage that should have two faces: A desktop client that keeps local and online files and folders in two-directional sync via a web interface for accessing your desktop files anywhere and anytime, using any network-enabled computer.

In addition, it will come tightly integrated with other Google services to enable editing of supported document types, like spreadsheets and presentations via Google Docs, email via Gmail, images via Picasa Web Albums, etc, said TG Daily.

The GDrive would enable users to access and update all their information such as emails, photographs, music, documents and spreadsheets from any device with an Internet connection.

This move on Google said to be a part of its 'cloud computing' initiatives, in which the web rather than the hard drive is used as the place where information is stored.

Actually the first rumour about Gdrive was broke way back in 2006 March, when it described about the product in a Google's Analyst Day Power Point presentation.

"With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today," it said.

However, Google had removed this presentation from its website and was silent about it. Now the rumour has got stronger once again. According to Britain's Observer newspaper, G-Drive has the capacity to kill off the desktop computer.

With the GDrive, a PC would be a device acting as a portal to the Web, enabling users to think of their computer as software rather than hardware, it said.

However, Google is still silent about the GDrive launch was imminent. "We don't comment on speculation, and we don't pre-announce product launches," said a Google spokesperson.

But what do you feel? Can the mysterious drive make the PC redundant?
©CyberMedia News

Source - http://www.ciol.com//News/News-Reports/Google-Gdrive-Is-the-PC-killer-arriving/27109115196/0/

Adobe to open flash platform messaging protocol

The company recently also launched the eAdobe Technical Communication Suite 2 and Adobe eLearning Suite

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Adobe Systems Incorporated, a provider in technology and software solutions announced the plans to publish the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) specification, which is designed for high-performance transmission of audio, video, and data between Adobe Flash Platform technologies.

Providing developers and companies open and free access to RTMP is the latest advancement of the Open Screen Project, said a press release.

The initiative would enable the delivery of rich multi-screen experiences built on a consistent runtime environment for Web browsing and standalone applications across personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics, the release added.

"With the RTMP specification, developers and companies will be able to provide users with optimized audio, video and data streaming, no matter what kind of device the user is on or where the content is coming from," said Kevin Lynch, CTO, Adobe.

Developers and companies will have free and open access to the documented RTMP specification to help enable unparalleled delivery of video, audio and data in the open AMF, SWF, FLV and F4V formats compatible with Adobe Flash Player, the release added.

For the customers who want to protect their content, the open RTMP specification will not include Adobe's unique secure RTMP measures, nor will the license that accompanies the specification allow developers to circumvent such measures. However, developers will be free to use their own technological measures to secure content, Adobe said.

The RTMP specification is expected to be posted on the Adobe Developer Connection in the first half of 2009.

The Open Screen Project is an initiative with 20 major industry partners who are working together to provide a consistent runtime environment for Web browsing and standalone applications, taking advantage of Adobe Flash.

Adobe system had also recently launched the eAdobe Technical Communication Suite 2 and Adobe eLearning Suite.

Technical Communication Suite 2 is an upgrade of its solution for authoring, reviewing, managing, and publishing rich technical information and training content across multiple channels.

The eLearning suite is a new content-authoring solution for learning professionals, educators and trainers to create rich learning experiences that can be delivered via the Web, desktop, mobile devices and learning management systems.
©CyberMedia News

Source - http://www.ciol.com//News/News-Reports/Adobe-to-open-flash-platform-messaging-protocol/22109115086/0/

Satyam faked 13,000 salary accounts: prosecutor

CID custody of Raju and brother extended

HYDERABAD, INDIA: A prosecutor pursuing allegations of the financial fraud at Satyam Computer Services Ltd told the court on Thursday that the company has faked 13,000 salary accounts.

Satyam actually employs 40,000 people, and not 53,000, said the prosecutor.

While ten thousand employees were non-existent, 3,000 belonged to attrition category. Assistant prosecutor K. Ajay Kumar also said as many as 400 fake transactions had been uncovered in the investigation so far.

The public prosecutor said that crores of rupees were possibly siphoned off at regular intervals and diverted it to benami accounts.
also said that accounts were fudged, bank statements were forged and shares were transferred.

The court which heard the case extended the CID custody of Ramalinga Raju and his brother and Satyam's former managing director B. Rama Raju for one more day.

A lawyer for both Ramalinga Raju and Rama Raju denied the prosecutor's allegations, saying they were false, weren't included in documents filed with the court, and that there was no siphoning of money from the company.
©CyberMedia News

SOurce - http://www.ciol.com//News/News-Reports/Satyam-faked-13%2C000-salary-accounts-prosecutor/22109115111/0/

http://www.ciol.com//Global-News/News-Reports/NetApp-is-the-best-company-to-work-for/23109115131/0/

The offering comes as companies are under pressure to both slash expenses amid a slumping global economy

LOS ANGELES: International Business Machines Corp (IBM) unveiled a consulting tool on Thursday that allows companies to reduce both costs and carbon dioxide emissions in their supply chains.

The offering -- which IBM calls the Supply Chain Network Optimization Workbench, or SNOW -- comes as companies are under pressure to both slash expenses amid a slumping global economy and reduce impact on the environment.

Built with IBM-branded software, SNOW helps clients review the number of distribution centers they need and decide whether to do manufacturing themselves or through a third party.

In a test, Chinese shipper and logistics company COSCO Ltd used the system to reduce the number of distribution centers it uses to 40 from 100, lowering costs by 23 percent and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent, IBM said.

"When you improve the overall efficiency of a system you can almost automatically lower cost, waste, and environmental impact," Eric Riddleberger, head of IBM's business strategy consulting practice, said in a statement.


©Reuters

Source- http://www.ciol.com//Global-News/News-Reports/IBM-tool-helps-companies-cut-costs-and-emissions/23109115127/0/

NetApp is the best company to work for

Google drops to No.4 in Fortune magazine's list of 100

NEW YORK: NetApp tops the list of the 100 best companies to work for, most of which have open positions and are hiring, Fortune magazine said on Thursday.

Coming in second on Fortune's 12th annual list was Edward Jones, followed by Boston Consulting Group. The list was published online on fortune.com/bestcompanies and contained in an issue set to hit newsstands on January 26.

NetApp, based in Sunnyvale, California, provides storage and data management services to business.

It employs 5,000 people and topped the list due to its "employee enthusiasm for the legendary egalitarian culture," Fortune said.

Of the 100 companies, 73 are hiring, and the open positions are identified in Fortune's list, the magazine said.

California had the most number of companies on the list, at 15, followed by 14 in Texas and nine in New York.

Fifteen companies made the list for the first time, including Zappos.com, DreamWorks Animation SKG, salesforce.com, T-Mobile TMOG.UL and Accenture.

Google, which topped the list for the past two years, dropped to No. 4.

Rounding out the top 10 were Wegmans Food Markets, Cisco Systems, Genentech, Methodist Hospital System, Goldman Sachs and Nugget Market.

Fortune polled more than 81,000 randomly selected employees at 353 companies, using a 57-question survey. Two-thirds of a company's score was based on survey results and the balance was based on studies about demographics, pay, benefits, communication and other factors, it said.


©Reuters

Source - http://www.ciol.com//Global-News/News-Reports/NetApp-is-the-best-company-to-work-for/23109115131/0/

Microsoft stuns with profit miss, job cuts

NEW YORK, USA: Microsoft Corp stunned Wall Street with disappointing results that included plans to slash up to 5,000 jobs and a warning that profit and revenue will almost certainly drop over the next two quarters.

The news from the world's largest software maker, which had not been expected to report results until after the close of trading on Thursday, sent shock waves across financial markets, pulling down the Nasdaq, and sending U.S. Treasury debt prices higher as investors sought safer assets.

Microsoft's shares dropped as much as 11 per cent to their lowest level since January 1998, adding to a 40 per cent decline in the past year.

The company blamed the miss on the weak PC market and the popularity of low-cost netbook computers, which have combined to badly undercut sales of its Windows operating system.

"Our financial position is solid ... but it is also clear that we are not immune to the effects of the economy," Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told employees in a letter. "Consumers and businesses have reined in spending, which is affecting PC shipments and IT expenditures."

The market has become so volatile, Microsoft cautioned, that it will not issue earnings or revenue forecasts for the rest of its fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 -- other than to predict both will very likely be lower.

"It is pretty bad when things are deteriorating so fast that even the largest companies in the world don't know how rapidly it is happening," said Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert.

Microsoft posted a profit of $4.17 billion, or 47 cents per share, in its fiscal second quarter ended December 31, versus a profit of $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts were looking for earnings of 49 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 2 per cent to $16.63 billion, missing the average analyst forecast of $17.1 billion.

Sales in the Windows segment fell 8 per cent, while its Business division, responsible for the Office software package, marked a 1 per cent increase. Revenue at the unit that makes the popular 360 Xbox gaming system rose 3 per cent.

Looking ahead, the Windows business is expected to perform in line with the weak traditional PC market, Microsoft said.


Biggest Job Cuts Ever

Microsoft's staggered elimination of 5,000 jobs -- 1,400 immediately and the rest over 18 months -- amounts to about 5 per cent of its estimated 96,000 work force, the biggest reduction ever by the software maker. Other cost cuts include travel and marketing budgets, and the roster of independent contractors.

"Clearly business conditions are worse than people were expecting," said Richard Williams, analyst at Cross Research. "This is a substantial amount of jobs cuts. Microsoft has never had a layoff like this in my knowledge and it's sending a signal that the times are definitely changing."

The job cuts follow similar moves by other technology firms, including AT&T Inc, Dell Inc, Motorola Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, all of which are suffering from the global economic slowdown.

Microsoft faces a shift by PC buyers to netbooks, which are smaller, stripped-down laptops. Microsoft only gets $60 or less for each sale of Windows for a netbook, compared to $90 for traditional laptops, according to Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle. Some netbooks also use the rival open-source Linux software instead of Windows.

On a conference call, Ballmer said Microsoft also lost market share to Apple Inc, which on Wednesday posted surprisingly strong results. Ballmer, whose public histrionics often overshadow a sharp intellect and gift for numbers, was serious in tone.

"We are certainly in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions," Ballmer said, adding that the company is "dealing with unprecedented ground."

As for the economy, Ballmer said he did not expect a quick rebound.

Still, Ballmer noted that Microsoft will be adding "thousands of jobs" in strategic areas like Internet search, where it has been lagging behind Google Inc, and that he still desires a search partnership with Yahoo Inc.

Ballmer said the result of the job cuts and additions would be an overall staff reduction of 2,000 to 3,000 positions.

But Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said he does not expect significant acquisitions this year, despite hopes from some Yahoo shareholders for a buyout.

Shares of Microsoft were down $2.13 at $17.25, after touching an intraday low of $17.17, the weakest level since January 1998. It was the biggest single-day drop in the stock since an 11.38 percent fall on April 28, 2006.


©Reuters

Source - http://www.ciol.com//Global-News/News-Reports/Microsoft-stuns-with-profit-miss%2C-job-cuts/23109115129/0/

BSNL to increase rural Internet connectivity

To invest Rs 1,600 crore in the next two years on broadband equipment

CHENNAI, INDIA: In an effort to increase the number of broadband connections in the country and also to increase the rural net connectivity, state-owned telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to invest Rs 1,600 crore in the next two years on broadband equipment, including Wi-Max and optical fibre.

BSNL chairman and managing director, Kuldeep Goyal told reports that the investment would help BSNL to increase its capacity of around 8 million broadband connections.

"We are working on a target to have around nine million broadband connections in the next two years," he told reporters here.

Goyal said the government's target is to have around 20 million broadband connections by 2010-end from the present 5 million.

He also said that out of the 30,000 exchanges that BSNL has in rural areas, 23,000 exchanges have been provided with equipment for rolling out broadband connectivity.

BSNL is also looking at wireless technology to rollout broadband in rural areas and has recently placed orders for 1,000 WiMax equipment.

The telecom player is also having advanced talks with the government of India for using Universal Service Obligation fund to rollout broadband services in rural areas, he added.


Source - http://www.ciol.com//News/News-Reports/BSNL-to-increase-rural-Internet-connectivity/5109114404/0/

Sun, Microsoft enter distribution tie-up

The deal focuses to offer all US-based Internet Explorer users an option of installing the Live Search-powered MSN toolbar when they download the Java Runtime Environment

CALIFIORNIA, USA: Sun Microsystems, a provider in IT services, announced on Wednesday that it has entered in to a distribution agreement with Microsoft to offer all US-based Internet Explorer users the option of installing the Live Search-powered MSN toolbar when they download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

The toolbar would not be automatically upgraded for existing customers and the customers who have already downloaded Java would be offered the option to install the MSN Toolbar when they upgrade to the latest Java version, said a press release.

Internet Explorer users downloading Sun's JRE would also have the option to download the MSN toolbar and get one-click access to Live Search features including news, entertainment and sports from the MSN network, it added.

They users would also get direct access to Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

"This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering," said Yusuf Mehdi, Senior vice-president, Online Audience Business, Microsoft.

He added that vast array of Java software-based web applications that are downloaded every month, this deal would expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for the search advertisers.

Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems, said, "This deal would be one of the most valuable distribution deals ever struck in the industry and it likely makes Microsoft one of Sun's largest customers. It'll also set the stage for an even more interesting auction next year, as more and more folks realize the value of retail distribution."

Source - Cybermedia.com