Official Adobe Flash 10.1 files leaked

Initially, they reported on the Adobe Flash 10.1 being officially launched for mobile platform partners. Well, BoyGeniusReport divulges details about a user reverting with an .apk file link to the Flash 10.1. Android 2.2 handset owners can immediately check out numerous websites that are created with Flash if they decide to install this software.

The .apk file can be downloaded without the compulsion of a root for the software. Moreover, it is speculated that this Flash Player can work with any Andorid 2.2 handset. The latest Flash upgrade is loaded with new features like Smart Zooming, Smart Rendering, Advanced Out-of-Memory Management plus a few others as well. This software has apparently been made available to various mobile platform partners so that it can support a variety of operating systems such as Android, BlackBerry, webOS, upcoming versions of Windows Phone, LiMo, MeeGo and Symbian OS. Allegedly, mobile buffs can obtain this software through Adobe Flash Player.apk.

Google may allow phone calls from Gmail

Already, Gmail serves as a control panel, an always-open tab, for the loyal Google user. It offers quick and simple access to our email, contacts, calendar, documents, chat and more. Soon, it may be home to a Web-based telephony client.

According to CNET, Google has begun testing a Gmail-integrated VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) client that would allow users to make phone calls directly from the browser.

The feature is different from the voice and video chat that is already available from Gmail using the chat feature, in that it isn't solely between chat users. Instead, the new feature looks to allow users to call any type of phone directly from their Web browser.

For those users seeing the test of the new product, the ability to make phone calls is added directly to the Google Talk popup that appears in the lower right corner of the Gmail screen, offering a keypad, a call history, and a credit balance. According to the screenshots from CNET, Google will offer free calls within the U.S. and Canada, with cheap international calling, in 2010.

Dell Studio 7100 XPS AMD equipped with 6 core processor launched in India

Dell’s New AMD six-core processor powered ‘Studio XPS 7100′ is one of the most affordable six-core processor powered desktop computer. If you want to have a powerful desktop for handling the multi- threaded tasks then this desktop computer is best for you. One of the most important features of this desktop computer is its standard 460 watt power-supply. This power-supply provides high level of resolution for games, movies and all other activities. The storage capacity of its hard-disk is about three Tetra-Bytes (3TB).

Dell has also provided the feature of Eight USB 2.0 ports in this Desktop Computer. Among these 8 ports, 4 have placed at the front tray and 4 at the back tray. Similarly its XPS 8100 chassis provides high level of expandability to its users.

Furthermore, this Dell’s New AMD six-core processor powered ‘Studio XPS 7100′ desktop pc also supports the Fusion Utility 2.0 of AMD. The sound quality of this system provides high level of audio fidelity for those people who really love to play music on their systems. In short it’s a complete package for all the Desktop users in an affordable price. Dell is offering these Desktop computers through their retailers and through online.

Dell Studio XPS 7100 PC is priced at Rs 49,900 in India.

HP, Sify tie up on cloud services

HP and Sify Technologies Limited, a leading Data Center player jointly announced an agreement to power SIFY’s On-Demand cloud services using HP’s Converged Infrastructure. This will allow Sify to provide demand based computing services on a pay per use or flexible contract model. Customers using the new service will be able to accelerate time to market and reduce cost by leveraging IT services on the fly, without making substantial capital investments in technology.

Using HP’s Converged Infrastructure, Sify is now launching new cloud services including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for select applications under its On-Demand Hosting Platform. To enable this, the Blade System Matrix a product of HP’s converged infrastructure, pools together Sify’s IT resource into a highly automated and virtualized resource pool. Specific application templates have been developed to automatically provision resources for every new business requirement. Businesses users will be able to request IT services on the fly by using a self service portal powered by the HP Insight Orchestration tool, within the Blade System Matrix.

Access Facebook on mobile devices for free

Popular social networking site Facebook can now be accessed through mobile devices for free or without any data charges in 45 countries, including India, on select mobile networks.

Facebook, which has over 400 million users worldwide, has tied up with Indian wireless operators -- Reliance Communications and Videocon -- to make the site available for cell phone users with zero data charges.

For this purpose, the entity has launched a new site ’0.facebook.com’ that includes all key features of Facebook but is optimised for speed.

“Today, we are launching ... ‘0.facebook.com’. “It, initially, is available through more than 50 mobile operators in 45 countries and territories with zero data charges,” a programme manager for Facebook Mobile, Sid Murlidhar, wrote in a blog on Wednesday.

In India, the new site would be available on the networks of Reliance and Videocon, the blog said.

Noting that the new site is fast and free, Murlidhar said it has key features of standard mobile site ‘m.facebook.com’ such as updating user status, send and reply to messages, among others.

”... people can access 0.facebook.com without any data charges. Using 0.facebook.com is completely free. People will only pay for data charges when they view photos or when they leave 0.facebook.com to browse other mobile sites,” he added.

According to the blog, over 100 million people are actively using Facebook from their mobile device.

5 Killer Features In Google Android 2.2

According to Google, the Android 2.2 mobile OS update will arrive later this year. Among the highlights described by Google at this week's Google I/O Conference in San Francisco, here are five that make Android 2.2 shine:

1. Faster Speeds: According to Google, Android 2.2 is as much as five times faster than previous versions. That's thanks to a Dalvik JIT compiler to boost CPU performance, Google said, and a JavaScript engine.

2. Tethering, Hot-Spot Support: As was heavily rumored in the weeks leading up to Google I/O, Android 2.2 includes built-in support for tethering and the ability to use Android phones as Wi-Fi hot spots. Questions remain about whether carriers of Android phones will charge users for the services, but they're there for Android.

3. Flash Support: Android 2.2 is the first version of Google Android that can fully support both Adobe Flash and Adobe Air. Adobe is a key relationship for Google, and at Google's I/O Conference Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra didn't waste an opportunity to needle Apple and its very public war of words with Adobe.

"It turns out that on the Internet, people use Flash," he said. "And part of being open means you're inclusive, rather than exclusive, and that you're open to innovation."

4. SD Card, App Backup: Both are space-adders: Users can now install Android apps right on an SD card or using an Android phone's internal storage. Another new function lets users back up and restore Android apps data.

5. Microsoft Exchange Support And Other Messaging Options: Lost amid a lot of the hype around Android 2.2's most expected features was another nugget that might make Android phones more appealing to enterprises: support for Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Exchange. What's more, Android now includes a cloud-to-device messaging feature that lets users more easily move information between Google applications on the Web and their various devices.

Apple Pulls Core Apps From iPad

Look at Apple's main 'hero' shot of the iPad and what do you notice? Yes it's a big iPod touch, but as Wired points out if you look more closely you'll notice there are certain core apps missing, namely: Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Weather and Voice Memos. But why is perhaps the most interesting aspect.

Acclaimed blog Daring Fireball claims to know the answer and it is a surprisingly superficial one: they look ugly on the larger 9.7in display.

"It’s not that Apple couldn’t just create bigger versions of these apps and have them run on the iPad," blog owner John Gruber explains. "It wasn’t a technical problem, it was a design problem. There were, internally to Apple (of course), versions of these apps (or at least some of them) with upscaled iPad-sized graphics, but otherwise the same UI and layout as the iPhone versions. Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated. So they were scrapped by you-know-who."

Destroying key functionality for the sake of looks? Well, if any company would choose that route...

Of course this is something few have considered. A calculator on a netbook is a little window, on the iPad it fills the entire 9.7in 1024 x 768 screen and will have buttons the size of Oreos. In fact it would look rather comical, like a giant cartoon calendar made by Acme.

The irony in all this is Apple is letting existing App Store apps run on the iPad, many of which will look ridiculous (users have the option to run them in a 3.5in rectangle, turning the rest of the screen blank - but this is equally silly). So it appears to be just Cupertino which doesn't have the ego to let its applications look anything less than perfect.

Affordable Asus Seashell Eee PC 1201T Unveiled

The Eee PC 1005PR runs on an Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor and has either 1 or 2GB of DDR2 memory. Standard.

But then, Asus has packed in a Broadcom BCM 70015 HD accelerator to be paired with the higher-resolution screen they’ve installed for some better picture quality. Not bad. They’ve also thrown in a free one-year trial of 500GB of additional space on ASUS WebStorage. Also, not bad, but not something that would really push me over the edge into buying a netbook, unless I really needed that much space and would be willing to pay for it after the first year.

I’m more interested in the six-cell battery included, which boasts up to 11 hours of battery life. Portability is essential when it comes to a netbook. Thus, battery life, weight and connectivity are what matters most. Storage space is important, but not as critical so long as there is at least 250GB of internal hard drive space (which there is on this netbook).

Here are the rest of the new Asus netbook specs tucked in that signature seashell design:

* 10.1-inch LED-backlit WXGA display (1366 x 768 resolution)
* Express Gate / Dual OS
* 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
* RJ-45 LAN
* MMC/SD/SDHC card reader
* Connectivity: three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, hi-def audio
* 0.3-megapixel webcam
* Weighs 2.8 pounds

No word on pricing or availability yet, but it probably won’t be long until we hear something since it’s already posted to their website.

FutureDash Supports PowerMeter

Internet giant Google has introduced a new PowerMeter API designed to make it easier for developers and manufacturers to build home energy monitoring devices that work with Google's power monitoring tools. The company said in a blog post that it is hoping to build an "ecosystem" of developers making information about energy efficiency available to home users and businesses, reports BusinessGreen.


"With the launch of the API we are highlighting the core design principles towards integrating with Google PowerMeter," said Google Product Manager Srikanth Rajagopalan. "In particular we outline the underlying data model and the accompanying protocols to ensure that Google PowerMeter provides consumers with access to their energy consumption with utmost care in maintaining the user's privacy and control on access to the information."

Google PowerMeter was launched in the UK last year and is a free software tool available through selected energy providers, such as First Utility. The system takes information from smart meters in the home and provides data, including graphs on use and waste, on a dedicated iGoogle web page. "If you can't measure and view your energy use, it's very difficult to make savings," said First Utility Chief Executive Mark Daeche.

Your Windows 7 Free Ride Is Coming To An End

Windows Phone 7, a dramatic upgrade of Microsoft's mobile operating system, looks fairly impressive out of the gate. In addition to a stylish user interface that's strongly influenced by the underappreciated Zune HD media player, Windows Phone 7 is tightly integrated with Redmond's Bing search engine.

Tap the Search button on a Windows 7 device, for instance, and a Bing window appears. Microsoft says the Windows Phone interface is locked, that its hardware partners won't be allowed to replace the UI. Might those rules extend to the default search engine too? It's a given that Bing, not Google, will be the default search engine for every Windows 7 phone that ships. Users will likely have the option of digging into the settings to select another search tool (e.g., Google or Yahoo), but most won't bother.

Android vs. Windows Phone

Mobile devices are the latest battleground in the search wars, and a revitalized Windows Phone 7 would make for a more bruising fight. Google, of course, is gaining mobile market share too. Its Android OS is slated to debut on dozens of mobile devices this year, all of which will have tight hooks into Google Search.

As for Apple's iPhone, rumors persist that Bing may soon become the device's default search engine. Cupertino's relationship with Google continues to sour, particularly in light of Google's Android push and its iPhone-like Nexus One handset.

A Google vs. Apple battle may be very, very good for Bing. Healthy sales of Windows 7 phones wouldn't hurt either.