Firmware 4.5 for Zune HD adds a new application called Smart DJ, which is somewhat similar to the iPod Genius feature. he update will provide expanded MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile support – which includes Xvid and AVI codec support as well.
To update to Zune HD 4.5 Firmware, connect your Zune device to the Zune software and go to Settings -> Device -> Player Update. If your device is connected you can check for software updates and upgrade to the latest firmware.
Watch a video of the new features which are available in Microsoft Zune HD Firmware 4.5.
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For the past few days, almost every tech site has been writing about the iPad which was released to public a day before Easter. It is not that iPad is out of the news yet, but HP has just released a video of the upcoming HP Slate on YouTube and from the looks of it this one is a definite beauty.
HP Slate, which will run on Windows 7 has a camera for video support, multi-touch support with pinch to zoom, USB ports, SD memory expansion, Adobe Flash support and more. With all these features and possibly more, PC World has dubbed the device as an iPad killer, however, it is really too early to call anything a iPad killer yet.
However, there is no denying of the fact that the HP Slate as of now is a superior device than the iPad with the Slate adding several pieces of hardware missing from the iPad. The HP Slate also runs on Windows 7 which would make it compatible with a lot of software already available for Windows. In addition to that, inclusion of a camera in the Slate along with USB ports makes it a much closer replacement for the netbook as opposed to the iPad, which lacks both of these.
HP Slate is not yet ready for sale and there is no release date available right now, however, considering that iPad just launched it would be critical for HP to get the device out as soon as possible to capitalize on the user interest in tablets.
Watch a sneak peek review of the HP Slate embedded below to see the beautiful device in action.
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.Com and .Net form a bulk of the registered and active domains on the Internet. However, if you have either a .com or .net domain or are planning to buy one after July 1st, you will have to pay an extra 7% on .com domains and extra 10% on .net domains.
In a recent newsletter sent by GoDaddy, they have stated that VeriSign, the registry for .COM and .NET domains will increase the prices as stated above, this price increase will then be passed on to users by registrars like GoDaddy.
The increase will also be applied when you renew .com or .net domains. Right now, .com domains can be purchased for around 10$, this might go up to 11$ or 12$ starting July 1st 2010.
However, users can renew or register their domains before July 1st and continue paying the old rates. If you are a GoDaddy user, use the discount coupon "gda334c" to get a 30% discount on your new domain purchase or current domain renewal till April 25th 2010.
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Apple has released a new version of iTunes, iTunes 9.1 which changes how certain things work. If you have upgraded to iTunes 9.1, several programs will start giving you an error that ASL.dll is missing.
This problem also occurs while trying to jailbreak iPhone using Blackra1n, when running the executable will give you an error saying that ASL.dll is missing as shown in the above screenshot.
The solution for this is simple, you will need to place the Blackra1n executables in the Apple folder under Common files in Program Files. The folder would be located in the following locations:
32 Bit – C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support
64 Bit – C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support
Once you copy the blackra1n executable to the above folder, create a shortcut for it on the desktop and double-click it to run it as usual.
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Now that the iPad launch is out of the way, Apple needs to get the next generation of iPhone out on the blocks as it has already been so long since the iPhone OS received a serious boost.
There have been rumors of the iPhone 4G along with several fake iPhone 4G images cropping up on the Internet, along with an interesting but most likely fake video of iPhone HD.
However, it looks like there might be some good news from Apple, since BGR is reporting that Apple has sent out press invites to get a sneak peak at their next generation of iPhone OS, most likely iPhone OS 4.0.
With April 8th just a few days away, this will definitely send the rumors mills into high drive. We will be here covering the event live for you, so stay tuned and follow our RSS feeds to get the latest updates.
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eBay is a great place to make a quick buck, and with the iPad frenzy on in full flow, you would definitely expect quite a few iPad’s to make their way to the self-selling online store. Well, people didn’t have to wait that long too since some users are now selling iPad on eBay.
The good news about the eBay store is that people can purchase and ship the iPad to worldwide locations, however, the bigger bad news is that they will have to pay a premium on the original markup.
For example, a 64GB Wi-Fi version iPad is selling at a flat rate of $999.99, the same can be purchased on the Apple store for $699. Now, a difference of $300 is huge, since you can purchase an 8GB iPad from the Apple Store for only $499.
Nevertheless, if you stay outside of United States and want to get your hands on an iPad, head over to http://ipad.ebay.com and order yours, that is if you don’t mind spending the extra bucks.
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Well it might be coming soon, because look who is waiting in line to get one . Yes, George Hotz aka GeoHotz, the famous iPhone jailbreaking master, who is also coming up with an untethered jailbreak for iPhone OS 3.1.3 soon is waiting in line to get his hands on the iPad and most likely a untethered jailbreak for iPhone OS 3.2 which is powering the iPad.
iPad is now available in stores, but it is still 1G so there might be changes coming up in the next few months or so, however, if you have purchased the iPad, keep an eye on George as he might just make the device all the more exciting for you with a jailbreak.
We will keep you updated as and when something is available to jailbreak the iPad. Don’t forget to subscribe to our feeds to stay updated.
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Amazon has always been know to sell products at a discount, which other retailers cannot provide. However, in a startling marriage, Apple and Amazon have decided to tie-up and offer the iPad at a comparative discount that even Best Buy could not come up with.
Amazon will be stocking around 250000 iPad which will go on sale on April 12th, after Apple has fulfilled their current pre-orders. This move comes as a surprise since Apple themselves are competing with Amazon’s Kindle, which is being widely used to read e-Books.
The join statement by Apple’s Steve Jobs and Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos will go live today April 1st. At first, we though that this was an April Fool’s joke, but we now have confirmed news that this will happen.
Amazon will be selling the iPad for around $399 which a markdown of $100 on the actual Apple price, there is no news on why Apple would want to have Amazon sell the iPad at such a rate considering that the iPad is currently only available through the Apple store.
Apple also has plans to tie up with Walmart who are the biggest retailers in US to offer the iPad for $350 or so, however, those plans are under wrap and may be revealed in late May or June.
Rest assured we will keep you up-to-date on these rumors which are part of our April Fool’s pranks. Have fun.
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Google is no doubt one of the biggest search engines in the world, but the fact is that most of the Google employees prefer using Bing for the reliability and let me say better travel options it presents, considering that Google is busy shipping its employees in and out of Silicon Valley.
The survey which was conducted by an internal Google team was leaked out and send out to us, we are unfortunately unable to present the survey as it is under embargo and won’t go out until 1st April 2010, however, we decided to break the embargo to write this post.
74% of those who surveyed and answered thought that Bing added more color to their lives with the new backgrounds which they wished they had as a wallpaper. However, 65% of the people surveyed also said that they missed their flights because of the problems with Bing’s Flight timings, and they switched back to Google again.
Nevertheless, 90% of those who were planning a trip did use Bing in an attempt to appease Redmond and have some of those high flying executives to get free trips sponsored by Microsoft. However, all they got was Kayak and Expedia.
The 90% of Google employees who used Bing said that they would use it to download a new wallpaper everyday, however, when questioned about actually using Bing to search, the employees drew a blank and asked whether Bing could actually be used for search.
Many people were questioning why Bing’s market share was increasing, we now have our answer and it is the wallpapers.
Thanks for the tip Google Bot, we love April Fool’s too.
Disclaimer: Anything written in this post should be devoured with utmost care. April Fool’s does provide us with a good reason to provide inedible content to our readers .
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If you thought that the meeting between Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt from Google was a joke, this could be a big breakthrough. According to few sources we have heard, Apple is planning to run the Android OS on the iPad.
According to some real close sources the discussion was about having the Android OS on the iPad and future versions of iPhone, precisely iPad 0.00001 will see Android 0.000002 being implemented on it.
The marathon meet which was spotted by Gizmodo was an actual hands up submission about Android (as you can see in the screenshot above) by Steve Jobs to Eric Google and their superior Android OS.
This will definitely give Android (and Eric and Google) a big boost on the sales of the Nexus One and give them a kick ahead with Android, which will be shortly seen in the next generation of iPhone. Thank you Steve Jobs for doing the right thing, the iPhone OS was really good, but it had no future, this decision was really mature and had all the Steve Jobs mantra behind it.
Ouch, don’t take this serious will you? This is an early April Fools Joke from our side, have fun.
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The Jolicloud team has released the pre-final version of Jolicloud Robby which contain a number of updates including support for HTML5 through Chrome. Jolicloud Robby also has a new network manager and a new desktop mode.
You can install Jolicloud Robby either through a windows installer or by using the ISO file provided for downloads. With this release Jolicloud has officially exited the beta stage and a final version of Jolicloud Robby will be released shortly.
There was no clear indication on the blog post on whether current Jolicloud users will have to download the new version. Also, the new version is not yet available as an update for users. We have asked for confirmation with regards to this, and will update the post once we have a confirmation on it.
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Microsoft has released a security advisory which states that a emergency patch for a critical security hole in Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 will be released on Tuesday, 30th March.
The vulnerability that exists in IE6 and IE7 is being active exploited by hackers and users computers are being infected. However, the vulnerability does not affected users of Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7.
The out-of-band security bulletin is a cumulative security update for Internet Explorer and will also contain fixes for privately reported vulnerabilities rated Critical on all versions of Internet Explorer that are not related to this attack.
Earlier this month, Microsoft had also released a workaround to fix this vulnerability, however, this is a proper patch. If you are using IE6 or IE7, it is highly advisable to download and install the patch.
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Google has been working on version 5 of Google Chrome for quite long now, in-fact the dev version of Chrome 5 was released late January. However it looks like Chrome 5 is now inching towards a mainstream release with the beta version of Chrome 5 now being made available for downloads.
The beta version has a lot of features including auto-translation, auto form filler, Windows 7taskbar previews among others and also fixes some bugs. You can download the beat version of Google Chrome 5 for Windows by visiting this page.
Don’t forget to check out some excellent Google Chrome Extensions we have covered in the past to use with the browser.
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Of late we have been getting a lot of requests from guest bloggers who want to contribute and write permanently for Techie Buzz, however, we often have to reject those offers due to several reasons.
We don’t like to deject users, so we are starting out with a new way to have your posts published on Techie Buzz through permanent contributor accounts at Techie Buzz. Contributor accounts will be able to write posts for Techie Buzz and get them published to a wide audience of readers.
Contributors on Techie Buzz can write any number of posts for the site which is related to our niche. However the posts they write will be credited to them instead of us having to publish guest blogger posts.
In addition to getting credited for the posts you write, you will also get to work with our editorial team and improve upon your mistakes (if any), and also get help to write posts in a better way.
Contributing editors will also get to add a Bio and link to their own websites on the posts they write for Techie Buzz as pictured in the screenshot above. The best part is that you will join the Techie Buzz team and be part of the community.
Interested? Oh yea I hear you, send out an email to keith [@] techie-buzz.com with a brief profile on where you write currently and why you want to become a contributing editor for Techie Buzz.
Note: This is not a paid gig and will not involve any revenue sharing, any posts you contribute to Techie Buzz will become the property of Techie Buzz and cannot be republished elsewhere. We also reserve the rights to not publish the articles you contribute, however, unpublished articles can be used on any other site.
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Notion Ink also demoed the gadget during the electronics expo at CES 2010. We got a chance to catch up with Notion Ink’s CEO Rohan Shravan and asked him a few questions about "Adam" and other interesting developments around it. So without ado, here is the interview with Rohan Shravan.
Keith: First of All Could You Introduce Notion Ink to us? Rohan: Notion Ink is a firm for Innovation. Very very young and very different. Average age of employees is 22 yrs! Based out of India. It was my dream to design devices which can do anything. And thats what we are doing right now. The first thing you do to realize your dream is to write is somewhere. And thats what we will help other to do. We will be their Notion Ink.
Keith: Back in December 2009, we were surprised to see a tablet from an Indian startup? Why did you choose to get into an industry which was not yet established worldwide, leave aside India? Rohan: We are working on it since last 3 years. It took the final shape in 2008 end. The device we want to make is still technologically not possible and we will work till we achieve the same.
Keith: How and why did you come up with the name "Adam" for your Tablet? Did it have to do anything with "Adam & Eve"? Rohan: I wanted a named series. Something people can relate to. Adam tablet is the first of its kind. Its an ebook reader and tablet, both, hence a new species which brings a new convergence. And hence the name Adam. Eve will be there, soon.
Keith: What according to you sets Adam apart from the rest of the competition? Rohan: It will bring in new user input mechanisms, new UI trends, OS behaviors, Cloud computing relations, Content Eco-system, ebook and tablet convergence, open system and already a huge fan base!
Keith: Do you follow the developments behind iPad, Joojoo, Slate and other upcoming tablets? How do you see them as a competition? Rohan: I do. But only as developments. Competition is healthy. It is good for end user. And it brings innovation.
Keith: How was your experience at CES 2010? Did you find recognitions for Adam there? Rohan: CES was wonderful. It made it clear that people are waiting for it. And it is the right time for this product.
Keith: Given the current Indian market which basically is made up of cheap or mid-range cell phones, do you think that Adam will do well, or do you have different markets in mind right now? Rohan: Firstly, thats not true. There is a huge market for smart phones and mobile internet adoption is one of the fastest.
Secondly, Notion Ink does belong from India, but Adam was not designed with India as its reach. It is designed for people who are ahead of others. For those who will be the leaders in technology. And they happen to belong in all the countries. Some have many, some have few.
Keith: Are you collaborating with big partners to get the device out? Rohan: Yes, we are in good stages of these collaborations.
Keith: What are the Specifications for Adam, not that we don’t know it, but we would love to hear it from the horse’s mouth? Rohan: I believe what we don’t know is not in the public domain yet.
Keith: Are you planning any variations in the device based on where you launch it, to narrow down the costing? Rohan: Not necessarily.
Keith: Where do you plan to manufacture the device? Will it be in India or from within US, considering that your major market will be US and Europe, and you have to pass through tough manufacturing standards to be able to export to these continents? Rohan: Even the educated people in India would demand FCC certifications. Quality is first goal. Nothing gets manufactured in US. Our bases will be same as US houses.
Keith: How do you foresee the future of Internet tablets, not as a manufacturer, but as a end-user? Rohan: As end user, i see carrying only tablets. All other things will vanish. Phones will be just headphones, laptops will be on clouds, and tablet will even replace books and notepads.
Keith: Lastly, would you be able to tell us when this device will be out and how much it will cost along with how people can buy it? Rohan: It is definitely not as costly as iPad.
Thanks to Mr. Rohan for sparing the time to answer our questions. Hope you had a great time catching up with the CEO of one of the most waited upon device, the "Adam". You can check what Notion Ink is all about by visiting their website, or keep up with the latest updates from the company by visiting their blog.
For those who haven’t yet got a chance to see "Adam" in action can watch the embedded video below.
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Meenal J. Balar, a manager at Facebook for International growth, recently wrote a blog post on the Facebook blog promoting the sport (cricket) people are crazy about in India and several other parts of the world.
Though Cricket is not as popular as Football (soccer), it definitely has a lot of fan following, and it being promoted on a social network which has more than 400 million users definitely shows where Facebook is heading in the future after it has almost become the number 1 site in US.
Though Meenal did promote several external sites, the main focus was on how users can use Facebook Connect to easily access the site by using their Facebook account.
India is no newcomer to the social networking scene and there are people who use a mix of Facebook, Twitter and Orkut to keep in touch with friends, but using a sport which is almost touted to be a religion in India is a good move by Facebook to connect with people and grow their user base in India and even around the Indian sub-continent.
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Facebook fan pages are a great way to have people who use Facebook keep up-to-date with your brand or website. In-fact many brands even use them to promote exclusive offers and more.
A good feature in Facebook is that page administrators are able to monitor fan activity through something called as "Insights". Insights tracks interactions which happen on a Facebook Fan page, including new fans, wall posts, likes and comments.
However, it looks like Facebook is now sending out email updates to Facebook page administrators which contains a summary of all the basic activities a fan page has had during a week. The screenshot below, which was shared by Amit Agarwal from Digital Inspiration shows the email that was send by Facebook to summarize the activities on the fan page he created.
The email summarizes the number of new fans that joined in a current week along with the total number of fans, the number of wall posts comments and likes in a week as opposed to last week and the amount of traffic generated by Facebook to a website.
I am not really sure if Facebook is sending out this email to everyone yet, however, users might see a the emails being sent out to Facebook page in near future. Rest aside, this is definitely a good feature, since it will give a basic idea of how the fan page is doing without having to actually visit Facebook every time and on par with how Google Analytics can be used to send out daily stats report about a site.
Did you receive an email from Facebook which summarizes your website’s fan page activities yet?
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Jolicloud is one of the most popular cloud-based netbook OS based on Linux. It has been quite popular with the masses for the lightweight and web-centric interface.
The Jolicloud team has been working on underlying changes to their web app platform to make it more faster and consume less memory. For these reasons, they have switched from the Mozilla driven Prism platform to a Chrome-based web app platform, which is similar to the Google Chrome OS.
You can now enjoy the 600+ web apps available in our App Center with a faster, low memory footprint, and HTML5 ready browsing experience.
The latest update from Jolicloud will replace the Prism web-app platform with the Chrome-based web-app platform which was rewritten by the Jolicloud team to provide the same visual experience as Prism.
The customized platform is open source and is named Nickel “Chromium for fullscreen web apps”, which can be downloaded from here. Another major change with the new update is that Jolicloud now fully supports HTML5, so you can watch HTML5 videos on YouTube and more.
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However, its China’s turn now as some reports are flowing in that the Chinese government has started blocking certain search results in China. Earlier today, ZDNet got a statement from a Google executive to confirm the banning of certain search results.
"Certain terms seem to be being blocked by the firewall," said a Google spokesperson, referring to the ‘Great Firewall of China’, the popular nickname for Golden Shield.
However, there were no reports on which specific terms were being banned by the Chinese Government. Popular Google services like YouTube and Blogger have suffered a complete ban in China for quite sometime now, and it looks like Google’s web search and image search are headed in the same direction.
Right now Google’s Mainland China service availability page displays full access to Google web search and image search. However, that page has not been updated since March 21st, so expect to see some more red cross-marks appearing on the page soon.
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Google recently shut down their operations in China by redirecting Google.cn to Google.com.hk, however, that is not the only restriction they have put in place. Google is also redirecting all the Google.com and Google.com/ncr, which provides global access to Google sites in English, irrespective of location when it is accessed from anywhere including China.
One of our readers had several problems when accessing Google from China, even when the person tried accessing the global site. Here is what the unidentified commentator had to say:
I am a foreigner stationed in China. For all these years I had happily been able to use search at Google.com (NOT .cn) – as it had never been banned/censored in China. There had always been an option "Google in English" which was linked to Google.com, and voila – you were out of restricted area.
Not any more. From today I am being forcefully redirected to google.com.hk which I don’t want to use.
Trying to get through to http://www.google.com/ncr does not help: I am turned back to .hk.
Not that is is better or worse, I just DO NOT WANT TO BE REDIRECTED ANYWHERE.
Guys at Google now did exactly what the Chinese authorities didn’t: removed my freedom to search for the information where I choose to.
Such a disgrace.
The Google withdrawal may have led so many people who rely on the search engine to be delivered in English/their language without restriction to now actually just be redirected to a Chinese site which they may not understand.
Did Google even estimate or think or providing an option for users to actually switch their languages to English, or can we expect hundreds of thousands of users to switch to Yahoo, who are one of the biggest successes in China?
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