Sony is Going to Take Full Control Over Ericsson

Sony intents to take control over joint venture Sony Ericsson by buying its Swedish partner for $1.45 bn. Sony decides to become a rival for such companies as Apple and Samsung. It means the end of decade-long joint venture with the telecoms company. Now it is integrated into consumer division which includes TVs, the Sony PlayStation, PCs and tablets.

Sony announced that the agreement is cross-licensing and includes ownership on five essential families of patents for wireless mobile phone development.

This month Sony Ericsson broke even in its third-quarter financial update for 2011. It holds a market share of 11% of the Android phone market. As a result represents 80% of the company's third-quarter sales.

IBM: The First Female CEO in 100 Years History

Virginia "Ginni" Rometty will be the first who will take over the helm at IBM. 54-year old woman is a veteran at the technology giant she is famous for her conservatism corporate culture. Sam Palmisano, 60-year old ex CEO who has been running the company for a decade, leaves the position but stays on at the company as a chairman.

Rometty takes over on 1 January 2012. Recently Meg Whitman was named a CEO of HP. She previously joined eBay when it was a startup. So now we can see Hewlett-Packard expanding their business while IBM aimed to high-margin businesses and further thrive. HP however had another female CEO Carly Fiorina. Her tenure has ended when she was forced out in 2005 over disappointing financials and the fallout from her hard efforts to buy Compaq Computer. So female CEO is not a rarity. But it was unexpected move from IBM.

"She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the company's future," Palmisano said.

Twitter helps to the victims of earthquake in Turkey

Not enough have been done to help the victims of previous deadly earthquake. There are still people sitting on the streets who have lost their homes. The 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the country on Sunday.  Erhan Çelik, a journalist for Turkey's Kanal 7 TV station, suggested that there will be a lot of those willing to help if he send a twit to his 22,000 twitter followers. He offered to send an email to those who want to provide an accommodation to the victims. In seven hours he twitted that there is 17,000 emails in his mailbox. Soon after that he twitted that the hot line would be opened to take offers of accommodation by the Istanbul authorities. Hot line was working for 24 hours. The offers were coming to twitter also.
Erhan Çelik also offered to three operators to provide their subscribers with free text messages and minutes so they could reach loved ones. Facebook also played role in all this by giving instructions where aid is needed.
That is how social networks works in emergencies. Erhan Çelik has shoved it.

Zipcar on Facebook

Facebook announced the launch of new app for Zipcar. Now you can reserve your wheels on the greatest social network. The company warns you that the app is being tested in public right now. Users can also check the car availability, view upcoming registrations, charge existing and other.
For those who don’t know, Zipcar is a social network for providing a car any country any place. It is really helpful ‘cause sometimes you utterly need a car. The service has very convenient way of registration and key service.
One of the advantages is that even if you don’t have an account you still can make a reservation or join Zipcar. But the service is only available in US and UK.

Some Apps Review

ChatON is already available for Android. New service allows to chat over android based devices. You can share photos, videos, locations and other.
Kurt Cobain: The Graphic Novel. It is based on the 2003 print edition of the novel Now it is available for your iDevice. It is devoted to the 20th anniversary of the launch of the album Nevermind which had become a breakthrough.
Scientology online course. There is an app has been launched that represents a course that "provides an exact technology with step-by-step procedures you can use to handle problems and better your life and the lives of those around you". The course is represented by Church of Scientology.
Just Dance 3. Ubisoft has promoted it’s new console game Jast Dance 3. The app let’s you record your friends “doing staff” and synchronize the movements with various tracks.
Love me, love me not. The app advices couples hoe to avoid stupid fights.

Have fun!

Wash your hands and your mobile to avoid E coli

The recent research showed that there is harboured E. coli (Escherichia coli) in 16% of hands and 16% of mobile phones. The bacteria inhabit the human intentines. In 12 British cities the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London took nearly 400 samples from hands and mobile phones. Apparently Birmingham is the dirtiest city. There is 41% of contaminated hands and phones. In London it’s only 28%. Dr Val Curtis said that there is clear and strange difference between north and south of England.
So, what is the problem? Don’t people know how to wash their hands? It seems so. The correct hands washing technique is made by Professor John Oxford. He says you have to wash your hands while singing two verses of Happy Birthday to you. But while letting your children, or your husband, play in the dirt may well be ok, they still need to wash their hands after the toilet.

Sony suffer from the hacker attacks

93,000 accounts are affected globally. But this time the company seemed to be better prepared and all credit card information is safe. Philip Retitinger, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer,  has posted an article which says that PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment Network were attacked and as a result affected. The company halted about 93,000 accounts and wanted them to secure the log in information via email. There are a little details on this point. Sony’s spokesman said that there was an attempt to hack 35.000 account in US and 24,000 in Europe between 7th an 10th October. He reminded that if there was a credit card information under your account than it is safe. The question is why to hack more than 93,000 accounts at a time?

Bangladesh Launches it’s Very First LapTop for $130

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched domestically made computer named Doel. It is one of the cheapest computers in the world. Telecoms company Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS) is producing four models of the laptop. The model runs Android OS. This is a big step forward for Bangladesh. The laptops will be distributed to a various government departments. Later it will be available to students. Mr Ismail reported that 10% of the details are made other are imported. Within 6 month the country will be available to produce 60% of details. But the country Internet connectivity remains very poor. The government has launched the program called Digital Bangladesh with the aim to improve digital connection by 2021.

Apple is Working on Chips for the Post-PC Era

1,000 Apple engineers are working on chip for the post-PC era. The idea is getting low power and smaller. Apple has started building it’s own design in 2009. The whole Apple stuff is 50,000 people, so only 5% are working on the new small and low power chip. It started designing its own chips because Intel and AMD were still stuck in the PC era. The latest A5 processor first appeared in the iPad 2. Now it is also in iPhone 4S. The latest device is now twice as fast as the previous one. Apple is also removing the hard drives from its products and replacing them with flash memory chips including MacBook Air’s storage. So Apple combined these two fundamental changes at the silicon level. So now you can put a computer everywhere. 

Even people who want to go to the heaven don’t want to die to get there...

Even people who want to go to the heaven don’t want to die to get there

He:

• was adopted
• wasted a lot of parent’s money for the university which he never finished
• visited some courses as a free student including courses in calligraphy and that’s why we have such a beautiful typography on our PC
• has a biological sister - writer Mona Simpson, didn’t know about her existence in childhood
• didn’t eat meat, only fish
• wanted to become a monk, his wedding was held by buddhist monk
• tried LSD at least once, in childhood, and said that it was the most important experience in his life
• having not enough radio components he called William Hewlett (HP) and ask some, after what William offered a job to the boy on holidays
• official documents show that Steve Jobs’s salary was 1 dollar a year, the fact is noted in Guinness World Records
• Made John Sculley leave Pepsi-Cola for Apple and then argued with him what made Steve leave Apple
• was big fan of the Beatles, Sebastian Bach and Barbara Streisand
• was driving Mercedes SL55 AMG and always parked in the places for invalids
• has become one of the youngest milliner in 25 years after the launch of Apple II in 1977
• leaded the list of the most hated directors several times in press
• worth to go to the heaven after all he has done for the world, isn’t he?

Samsung wants iPhone 4S to be banned in Europe.

Currently it is seeking an injunction to get the new iPhone 4S banned in Italy and France. The accusation looks like that - Apple has used 3G wireless technology, which Samsung invented, without paying for it.
Samsung announced: "Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride on our technology, and we will steadfastly protect our intellectual property."
As you remember and as it was mentioned before, patent war is still going on between two giants. Apple has already banned sales of Samsung Galaxy series in Austria and Germany.
Some bloggers think that Samsung is acting too fast by seeking an injunction. 

iPhone 4S has been launched

Philip Schiller, head of marketing, Apple, has presented yesterday brand new iPhone 4S! It looks exactly like the previous version but don’t be deceived because inside it is all new. What Apple has done is put powerful processor inside a super thin phone. So now you can check out brand new features:  
1. Play game features. 7th faster graphics. Even more, now you can customise your weapon!
2. Battery life: 8 hours of 3G talk time, 14 hours of 2G talk time, 6 hours of browsing at network, 9 hours of Wi-Fi, 10 hours of watching video, 40 hours of listening to music. Fantastic battery life!
3. Twice as fast in downloading data. It is possible due to specially designed A5 chip used in iPad.
4. The 4S has 2 antennae to ensure that it works on the both technologies - CDMA and GSM.
5. All new 8 MP camera which has 60% more pixels than iPhone 4.
6. Whole new voice control system. Users are able to speak requests for the time, setting the alarm clock, a weather update, or finding the nearest restaurant.

"Only Apple could make such amazing hardware, software and services and bring them together into this experience," Cook said in his closing remarks. "I am so incredibly proud of this company."

The new handsets will be available in black and white and in three price bands, depending on memory size:
• $199 (US) for the 16GB model
• $299 (US) for the 32GB model
• $399 (US) for the new 64GB model
The phone will be available on 14 October in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. By the end of the year, the 4S will be available in 70 countries.

IPhone 4 will be available for £99 what makes it a lot more competitive in comparison with cheaper and faster-selling Android models. The 3GS will be available for free with a contract.

Apple has broken into the top 10 most valuable global brands of the world

Interbrand's annual report assigns a dollar value to each brand based on financial performance, brand strength etc. The report marked Apple as the biggest riser in its 100-brand report with its value rising 58% year on year to $33.5bn.
Apple displaced Nokia to 14th position and become the only newcomer to the top 10.
Google maintained fourth place. Its value soared 27% to $55bn.
It is the first time in the 12 years the report has showed that Apple has made the top 10.
Congrats, Apple! We are looking forward to iPhone 5 in a few hours. The Internet is full of rumors about it!

India sets limit for sending sms

Indian telecom regulator set a sms limit. Now no-one is able to send more than 100 sms a day from a mobile phone. 

India always had problems with telemarket firms who bombarded mobile phone users with sms. Now they can breathe with relief. All the previous attempts to deal with unwanted phone calls and sms has failed, BBC correspondents say.
Now subscribers can register their number with national “do-not-call” list by sending a message. Also the commercial phone calls will be banned from between9pm and 9am.
A lot of complains have been made from cell phone users. The daily cap of 100 messages per phone is expected to deal with the problem, officials say.
India has the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, with more than 700 million subscribers.