Cars started by iphone !

It can send e-mails, play video, access the Web and snap pictures, but control a car? Swiss automobile design house Rinspeed will unveil a concept electric car controlled by an iPhone at next week's Geneva Motor Show.

The car is nicknamed as iChange!

Designer Frank Rinderknecht, who came up with the iChange, is well-known in his native Switzerland for creating interesting concept cars. Last year it was the "sQuba," a sports car that can drive underwater, that he unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. The cars he designs typically never make it to market so don't go looking for the iChange at a car dealership anytime soon.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090223/tc_pcworld/iphonecontrolledcartodemoatgenevamotorshow

Sky falls when cloud fails

Kristian Luoma, an Ovi product manager wrote: "Words can't explain how incredibly sorry we are for the inconvenience. We're sorry for the lost contacts in your phonebooks. We're sorry that the profile pictures you love, and we love, too, are gone. Nothing can make this right, we know, but we're hoping that you can forgive us and give another chance to give you good service."

When The Cloud Fails: Nokia's Ovi Service Loses 3 Weeks Of User Data

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/02/when_the_cloud.html?cid=nl_IWK_ota_txt

By the way, I dont know how, but my data and contacts are there! May be they lost last three of weeks data only??

Beep, Beep: You’re Fired!

Image: YLE

Sacking by text message is becoming an increasingly popular way for employers to instantly deliver termination news.

Getting the axe via text message is becoming common in the IT sector, says chairman Tapio Huttula of the Finnish Confederation of Professionals, STTK.

“It’s incomprehensible that this has become a method of contacting staff to tell them they’ve lost their jobs. The correct way of notifying workers is outlined in labour agreements,” says Huttula.

Source : http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/02/beep_beep_youre_fired_551123.html?origin=rss

Mobile phone makers agree to create standard charger

Mobile phone makers agree to create standard charger

"The target is that the majority of mobile phones shipped by 2012 will support this new interface," added O'Hara.

Manufacturers had been under pressure from the European Commission to produce a standardised charger.

Introducing a one-size-fits-all charger might help the firms to cut costs since new handsets would no longer necessarily need to be sold with a charger in the future.

But the manufacturers will lose the revenues they currently make from replacements of lost or broken chargers.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ih_j32054dBCTph_Ah6l-9WdDfPA

two nuclear subs collided?

Nuclear subs 'collide in ocean'

A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear submarine in the middle of the Atlantic, it has been reported.

The crash between HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant is said to have occurred earlier this month.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt said despite being equipped with sonar, it seems neither vessel spotted the other.

The UK's Ministry of Defence is not commenting on the reports, but insisted nuclear security had not been breached.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7892294.stm

$20 laptop? India tries

India's $20 laptop computer was formally unveiled Tuesday, and while there are questions whether the device can be made and sold at that price point, officials responsible for the "Sakshat" laptop are promising it will be available for $10 six months after it goes into mass production.

The Sakshat model scheduled for display in the city of Tirupati Tuesday has 2 GB of memory, which is expandable. It has Wi-Fi and fixed Ethernet capability and will consume just 2 watts of power. The laptop was created over several months in a cooperative effort involving government, academic, and commercial interests.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=213000685

Do you know where your kid is? Check Google's maps

With an upgrade to its mobile maps, Google Inc. hopes to prove it can track people on the go as effectively as it searches for information on the Internet.

The new software to be released Wednesday will enable people with mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.

The feature, dubbed "Latitude," expands upon a tool introduced in 2007 to allow mobile phone users to check their own location on a Google map with the press of a button.

It could also raise privacy concerns, but Google is doing its best to avoid a backlash by requiring each user to manually turn on the tracking software and making it easy to turn off or limit access to the service.

Google also is promising not to retain any information about its users' movements. Only the last location picked up by the tracking service will be stored on Google's computers, Lee said.

The software plots a user's location — marked by a personal picture on Google's map — by relying on cell phone towers, global positioning systems or a Wi-Fi connection to deduce their location. The system can follow people's travels in the United States and 26 other countries.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-M-K-pIKopEG408pEwSho6rDeVwD964I9D80

When you watch these ads, the ads check you out (AP)

Watch an advertisement on a video screen in a mall, health club or grocery store and there's a slim — but growing — chance the ad is watching you too.

Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer's gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity — and can change the ads accordingly.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090131/ap_on_hi_te/tec_nosy_ads

Google warns entire Internet is malware (CNET)

I myself had faced this error !!

TechCrunch and CNET reported around 7 a.m. PST that every site found via Google search was flagged with this message: "This site may harm your computer." As part of Google's malware protection, clicking on a flagged site's link would pull up an additional warning. Although a link could simply be cut and paste, Google's warning was unnerving enough to keep some people from pushing their luck.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/cnet/20090131/tc_cnet/8301100131015394292

Google said, "human error".

Nokia threat to leave

Nokia threat to quit Finland 'unless law changed'


HELSINKI (AFP) – Mobile phone giant Nokia threatened to leave its native Finland if a change to laws blocking companies from monitoring employee emails was not introduced, a respected Finnish newspaper said Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090201/bs_afp/finlandpoliticsrightstelecomequipcompanynokia

Last day at work ? burn it with virus!

A 35-year-old computer programer pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges that he planted a computer virus designed to destroy all the data on 4,000 Fannie Mae computer servers the day he was fired from the company.

Rajendrasinh Babubhai Makwana, an Indian citizen who had been working as a contractor employee at Fannie Mae's facility in Urbana, Maryland, was indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury for computer intrusion.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090202/wr_nm/us_fanniemae_virus

Google underwater

'Google Ocean' launched as extension of Google Earth to map the seabed

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/4434916/Google-Ocean-launched-as-extension-of-Google-Earth-to-map-the-seabed.html