Google Bought Metaweb, Semantic Search Company

By: Elgin

Image via CrunchBase

Google bought Metaweb in order to improve their search engine. Jack Menzel, Google director of product management, said that the acquisition would help "improve search and make the Web richer and more meaningful."

Metaweb has created an open database of more than 12 million things, such as such as people, companies, movies and books, and how they relate to each other. This database, called Freebase, will help Google answer more complex questions.

Metaweb is a semantic search company that has capability to connect internet search words to real-world things.

Apple Announces A Fix on iPhone 4

by Elgin

In response to iPhone 4 reception flaw, Apple announces a fix for iPhone reception problem rather than a recall the device, hoping to stem a growing chorus of complaints on the device. No details on the fix, but analysts are positive that Apple will not initiate a costly and embarrassing recall.

However, this problem has hurt Apple's shares ahead of its quarterly results next week that investors will be looking for information why this happened. Since June 28 - days after the launch, when complaints about faulty reception began surfacing on Internet technology websites - Apple has lost about US$16 billion (S$22 billion) in market value, with at least some of that related to the iPhone controversy.

100 Social Media Experts To Follow on Twitter

By Elgin

To those interested in social media, I've just got a list of popular people in social media. It's an interesting article and a mind-blowing. What saddens me is no one in the list is of Indonesia. A blogger of Malaysia is listed in the list. Well, I guess the list is about to change to see the trend in the future to come. Internet users increases in Indonesia, anyhow. What blows my mind is there are many things to do in social media commercially. Maybe, we got an inspiration or two :)

enjoy the list.

Facebook Credits Sold in Retail Stores

By Elgin

Facebook users in Asia now are able to buy Facebook Credits in retail stores. Through strategic partnership with MOL Global, Facebook Credit are made available in 500,000 outlets across Asia makes them available by partnering with MOL Global.

Under the agreement, MOL AccessPortal (a subsidiary of MOL Global) will become a payment provider for Facebook Credits. Facebook users are able to buy Credits using MOLPoints on Facebook and MOL.com.

MOLPoints are purchased within MOL's network of more 500,000 outlets mainly in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, New Zealand and Australia. Besides MOL's network, Facebook users are able to purchase in 7-Eleven stores and cybercafes.

This strategic move is in the favor of both enterprises. MOL Global has its momentum to strengthen their position in Asia as a payment provider, though for the last two quarters, MOL Global has seen a double-digit increase in payment transactions and payment volume.

As for Facebook, the move enables its users to buy and spend virtual currency in more than 150 applications on Facebook from leading developers without any frustration due to separate payment details to each application. Besides that, importantly, consumers in Asia rely heavily on offline prepaid cards rather than credit cards to purchase digiital goods and services, in particular Indonesia.

Verizon and Motorola Release DROID X

By Elgin

Verizon Wireless and Motorola made an announcement that DROID X by Motorola will be available online and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores tomorrow for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

 The features available are:
DROID X by Motorola is the newest innovation utilizing Android™ to run on Verizon Wireless' 3G network enabling ultra high-speed Web browsing. Other than that, DROID X is equipped with:

•  HD camcorder wit haudio scene selection and fully-loaded 8 megapixel camera, 
•  4.3 in. hi-res screen to access and watch your favorite TV shows or movies on the go,
• 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities, 
• 8 gigabyte (GB) onboard and a 16GB memory card.  
• For customers seeking the ultimate in storage, the new 32GB SanDisk® microSDHC™ card allows customers to expand DROID X's memory to 40GB.  Verizon Wireless is the only retailer that offers customers the 32GB SanDisk microSDHC card.

more detailed features are here

Your Site Promotions on Blogs and Facebook

by Elgin

For those who just start business, websites are important thing to have. Through websites, you let people recognize your businesses, products and services offered.

How to get recognized, then? it's the matter of how to market your websites. Presently, there is a new idea in marketing called social media marketing. Most people are new to it and basically, you can promote your businesses here. there are two basic forms of social media promotion that new businesses can use: blogs and Facebook.


Promotions on Facebook Fan Page

Why Facebook? As per 07/13/2010, there are 474,069,660 global users. It means Facebook is one of the most popular social network used by people across the globe. Contextually for Indonesia, there are 25,912,960 Indonesian users that might be your market share. That is why, for certain countries, Facebook is more important social network than others.

What you should do to promote your products is to build a Facebook fan page. Afterwards, you can place Facebook ads, participate in groups and other fan pages whose targets are similar with ours. You can create contests and conduct giveaways to encourage fans to share the link to your fan page. You can also take advantage of mailing lists for other groups/fan pages for your products and services. You can also create a useful widget that links back to your fan page that fans can use and share with their friends.

Efforts mentioned above are ones on Facebook. Off-Facebook efforts you can do are that you can use other social media networks to promote your Facebook content. You can use Pay Per Click (PPC) ads that lead visitors to a landing page. You can write and distribute press releases optimizing your products and services. You can also do SEO or link building to promote your landing pages. Email promotions can also be effective.

Create and Promote a Company Blog

You should create a company blog that can promote your products and services. Before launching, you should ensure that the blog is valuable by writing several blog posts. To attract attention, blog commenting. Find blogs that are relevant to yours and influential in your niche and start commenting on them. Provide a link back to your blog on your comments. If you leave thoughtful comments, people are naturally going to click on your link and visit your blog.

Other way to attract attention is to create a blogroll and link it to other influential bloggers in your niche. People will click on those links and the blogger is eventually bound to notice the source of all the new traffic. In order to build visibility, links to your blog, and a new audience, submit guest posts to influential blogs in your niche.

Ensure to include your blog URL anytime you mention your site URL online. Have all employees include the blog URL in their email signatures and social media profiles. When you write a particularly useful blog post, leverage the social media networks you participate in to promote your content. Most importantly, focus on providing excellent content on a consistent basis. By doing so, you’re sure to attract attention and links naturally over time.

Last but not least, track and monitor the results of your campaign using analytics tool so you can tweak your efforts along the way.

Top Ten Registry Cleaner

By: Elgin

Usually, computer users use a registry cleaner that comes out of a search engine. They have no idea of how good the cleaner is.

Before you buy and use one registry cleaner, make sure that the cleaner has been around for some time. Read the testimonies on its site. it could reflect on the cleaner performance. Make sure you try first. Get the cost-free trial and see how effective the cleaner is. By doing this, you save your money and know exactly the cleaner quality. Eventually, you should compare several cleaners. The comparison is made based on the reviews and recommendations you've got on the internet. Besides internet, word of mouth experiences from your friends, colleagues and others are good recommendations you should think of.

The personal list of mine is:

1. Registry Easy
2. Advanced System Optimizer
3. Fix-It Utilities
4. Ace Utilities
5. Advanced Registry Optimizer
6. DT Utilities Registry Repair
7. PC Tune-Up
8. Registry Mechanic
9. Uniblue RegistryBooster
10. Registry Fix

UK To Test Flight Unmanned Jet

By: Elgin

In 2011, we will see a test flight for unmanned stealth jet called 'Taranis'.

Taranis is a project of informal partnership among UK Ministry of Department and British engineering firms such as BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, Qinetics and GE Aviation.


Taranis is designed to be invisible to ground radar, to travel at high jet speeds and cover massive distances between continents. It is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on enemy territory using onboard sensors. Not just that, it has a long-range strike capability for it can carry a cache weapons - including bombs and missiles.
Taranis Specs

Dimensions:

Approximate Height

4m

Approximate Dimensions

11.35m x 9.94m

Weight

8t

Performance:
Range

Intercontinental

Estimate of Engine Thrust

6,480lb

Corax Air Vehicle:

Corax Air Vehicle:

Estimated Wingspan

9.1m

Kestrel Air Vehicle:

Estimated Wingspan

5.5m

AMT Turbojet Engines

2 x 0.29kN

Landing Gear

Fixed tricycle-type landing gear

Raven Air Vehicle:

Estimated Wingspan

5.5m

Landing Gear

Retractable tricycle-type landing gear

As Gerald Howarth, Minister for International Security Strategy, said: 'Taranis is a truly trailblazing project. (It's) The first of its kind in the UK, it reflects the best of our nation’s advanced design and technology skills and is a leading programme on the global stage.'

The project itself costs £143 million. However, the project, as Howarth said:'... shows the UK's advanced engineering, research, technology and innovation sector at its world-beating best.'

MIT and Fibers That Can Hear and Speak

By Elgin

MIT produced fabrics of the future that could both hear and make noises. Yoel Fink, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues developed fibers that are active where most are passive. Specifically, through a new application of widely used technology called piezoelectrics, fibers can convert sound waves into an electrical signal and vice versa.

Different-shaped fibers can emit sounds in a variety of ways. (Credit: MIT)

Piezoelectric speakers have been around for a long time, usually for digital watches and musical greeting cards. Fink's approach is making the fibers so that one side is different from the other, rather than being symmetric. One edge of the fiber has more fluorine atoms running along it, and the other has more hydrogen atoms. This difference is responsible for the connection between the fibers' movement, whether caused by sound or causing it, and its electrical properties. "Fabrics woven from piezoelectric fibers could be used as a communication transceiver," the researchers wrote, describing their approach in the July 11 issue of Nature Materials.

Not only this kind of fabrics can speak and hear, MIT has also developed camera-like fibers that is sensitive to light. If developed further, th fibers could give a soldier a uniform that would help him see threats in all directions.

However, don't expect to see this soon. There are manufacturing and other practical constraints, including the fibers today work only with kilohertz to megahertz sound frequencies, and humans employ much lower frequencies.

Google Me, The Next Social Network?

By Elgin

It's not enough for Google that it tries to find a way to enter social network market. Actually, Google has already had Orkut and Google Buzz but Orkut only made its fame in India and Brazil, and the ill-received Google Buzz dealt with privacy problem. The rumor now said that Google was working on a project called, 'Google Me'.




The rumor started from a rogue tweet from Kevin Rose, The Digg co-founder, that wrote "Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon 'Google Me,' very credible source."Adam D'Angelo, ex-Facebook executive and Quora co-founder, backed up Rose's rumor on his own site. "This is not a rumor," wrote D'Angelo, pointing to information culled from "reliable sources."He again wrote, "This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this"

Well, this project could be big, people are waiting for Google's next move and the market is so vast that there are still rooms for other social networks to penetrate, according to Matt Brittin, Google's UK Chief Executive. Not only Facebook gain 500 million members, commercial activities target social networks as well. A new study published last week by Regus, the office supply company, found that 40pc of businesses around the world have successfully used social networks to win new customers. However, that figure falls to 33pc when applied to the UK market. The survey also found that 27pc of businesses worldwide have set aside a proportion of their marketing budget to invest in members of their staff to build a strong brand presence on social networks.

However, Google has its own advantage to enter the social network market. Google already possesses a number of social media features, such as Google Profile, Social Search, and Buzz. What it lacks is a central hub designed with the intention of definitively tying together these sites into a true social network, in the Facebook and MySpace sense. Doing so would require a bit of reverse engineering—essentially, building a Facebook from the top, down.

Still, one of the things to consider for Google is privacy matters. Besides Buzz's privacy problem, privacy became an issue among Facebook users as well. before Facebook announced the changes on privacy settings in last May, Sophos, a computer security organisation, questioned 1,588 Facebook users. 60pc of the users considered deleting their accounts on the social networking site while 16pc of them had already stopped using Facebook because they felt they had inadequate control over their data and a quarter said that they would not be quitting the social networking site.

However, Google has the infrastructure. As Emma Barnett said, "If Google can really learn from both its own mistakes post the Buzz debacle and Facebook's blunders, Google Me could become a very powerful alternative to the biggest social network in the world."

Gmail Adds Rich Text Signatures

by Elgin

Google now has modified one of their Gmail features, rich text signatures. This has been requested among Gmail users.


Gmail only supported plain text signatures until Google added rich text signatures. Now, Gmail users are able to add company logos, fancy formatting or web and mail links to the text.

Mark Knichel, The Software Engineer of Google, said that Gmail users "... have tried their own solutions, including Greasemonkey scripts, browser plugins. ... Others have simply lived with frustration of not being able to change the colors or font size of your signature, or insert images and links. Either way, you'll be happy to know that today we're launching the ability to write your own rich text signatures right in Gmail."

Gmail users can access the feature from user's settings page and they can set a unique signature for each individual email address associated with an account.

However, only the latest desktop version of Gmail supports rich text signatures and multiple signatures. The older version and HTML version of Gmail, along with the mobile versions, use a plain text version of your primary account’s signature.

Twitter's Search Engine Hit 800 million searches A Day

by Elgin

Other function of Twitter, the search engine, has made Twitter become the world's fastest search engine. Twitter has supported 800 billion search queries a day, in relation to Yahoo! and Bing combined.



In total, Twitter has served 24 billion per month, while Yahoo! has 9.4 billion per month and Bin has 4.1 billion per month. Twitter's figure is still below Google with 88 billion per month but people used twitter to find real-time information.

Twitter has refocused the business seeing the fact, as Evan Williams, Twitter's Chief Executive, said, "we know many people are only using our search engine now and consuming information via Twitter – and not tweeting – so we need to make this service as good as other search engines, in terms of generating relevant search results.”

iPhone Spies on You

by Elgin



If you are thinking to commit a crime, you'd better left your iPhone home.

Apple iPhone has the capability to snap a screen shot of the phone's last position and store it when iPhone's internal mapping system is closed down. According to Jonathan Zdziarski, police investigators can access these images and establish users' whereabouts.

If users post pictures online, the pictures can tell where they were taken and the serial number of the phone took it.

Keyboard logging cache of iPhone can memorize anything typed on the keyboard over the past three to twelve months so that an expert can retrieve.

So, leave your iPhone home :)

Indonesian Urban Tech: Mozilla Released Firefox Version 4 Beta

Indonesian Urban Tech: Mozilla Released Firefox Version 4 Beta: "by Elgin Mozilla released their first beta version Firefox 4. Mozilla plans to issue new beta versions every two or three weeks in order to ..."

Mozilla Released Firefox Version 4 Beta

by Elgin

Mozilla released their first beta version Firefox 4. Mozilla plans to issue new beta versions every two or three weeks in order to modify the browser in response to beta users' comments.

There is a new add-on manager to support Google's WebM for compressed video content. Firefox 4 beta 1 has improved responsiveness at start-up and during page loads. Other feature is Jetpack software development kit (SDK) for authors to create add-ons. It does not require users to restart their browser to install.

Other features include webSockets to build realtime online interactions (gaming and chat apps), support for Cascading Style Sheet 3 (CSS 3) and Web console.

To download Firefox 4 is here.