Although the Adam I was not up to the standards of the current market, Notion Ink have confirmed that they would be developing Adam II. Equipped with Android 4.0, an OMAP44xx processor, Wi-Link 7.0, and audio parts.

Notion Ink would also be releasing what it calls a “Modular Based Software Architecture” which would basically be able to facilitate in the drag-and-drop application development. The company claims this would enable humans to create, “logic analyzer, media imaging [...], 3D modeling, and multi-media” apps.

It would be interesting to see if this can take the market share from giants like iPad and others.

(The image above is that of Adam I.)

Wikipedia has officially announced its app to released on android platform. Previously this app was unavailable on Android OS and only iOS users could enjoy the access to limitless information from one of the most authentic sources in the world.

The app allows user to read any article in almost any language of the world. The app is more over capable of remembering the history for a stealthy future reference. However, the seemingly most important part is the saved pages where a user is allowed to save any given article on wikipedia onto the memory for offline use. Also it carries the ability to bookmark pages and the ‘Nearby’ button gives search results for the entries located near the point of access of the app. Share is also one of the added android features. Though being just a week old, this app is hitting big on android market, making its way up to the top downloads.

You can download the app through the Link.

You must have been hearing the recent legislations now being presented in the US Senate. What this bill is and what is it about, we shall try to describe here with all the details in a simple manner.

An  Introduction:

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. PIPA stands for Protection of Internet Protocol(IP) Act. These Two bills were presented in the US House of Representatives on October 26 2011. The initiater of SOPA was Lamar Seeligson Smith who hails from the state of Texas. He now has the support of about 30 legislators. PIPA was initiated by Patrick Joseph Leahy who hails from Vermont. It has the support of almost 40 legislators. The total representatives against these bills are about 123 congressmen.

The Content:

The bills authorizes the United States Department of Justice to seek court orders against the sites outside of USA which are allegedly or reportedly involved in copyright infringement, piracy, selling illegal goods, distributing military artifacts, counterfeit drugs, etc. When the court delivers the orders and declares such aforementioned sites as violators, then the Internet Service Providers, Advertisement Networks and Payment Processors are directed to cut of their ties with these criminals infringing on intellectual property rights. The search engines displaying the links of these sites would also be penalised.

Aims:

1.  To provide protection to the inventors and authors so that only they can get the credit for the hard work done by them. This will in turn effect the flow of revenue and economy within the US.
2. To curtail the distribution of Counterfeit and Unbranded medications and drugs.
3. To stop the advertisement of illegal materials including military equipment, intoxicated drugs, etc.

Impacts:

1. The US First Amendment guarentees the basic fundamental human rights to its citizens, whereas this legislation would badly effect the freedom of speech by cutting down on the information exchange.
2. It would open the door to such laws in future by other countries as well. Very soon maybe some European countries would be placing a ban on the objectionable American sites.
3. Online Communities that host the content updated by users would be effected the worst of all. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, Etsy, etc would be bearing the brunt on behalf of the actions of few of its users.
4. E-Commerce would virtually come to a standstill. The advertisements of brands displayed on the sites would disappear with a big blow on their part. Similarly, businesses of the payment processors like PayPal would be in doldrums too.
5. The service providers would have to stop rendering their services  to such sites. Users in US would be forced to switch over to the DNS servers located in other countries.
6. Major stakeholders and the most affected would be compelled to shift their head offices and infrastructures out of USA. This would backfire on the initiaters of the bill having the original purpose to strengthen the economic edifice.

Reaction:

The majority of the Internet Community came down hard upon the legislation terming it as a heinous and draconian bill. Wikipedia, Google, eBay, Reddit, AOL, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Mozilla, Wired, Vimeo, Tumblr, WordPress, Scribd, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, NVIDIA and many others have came out with official stances against the bill. They term it as innovation killer and abridging freedom of speech. On the other hand, some organizations and lobbyists are in favor of the legislation. Most prominent include US,Chamber of Commerce, Motion Pictures Association, American Bankers Association, Pfizer, Visa Incorporation, etc. They think that the law really protects the copyright laws and would be helpful in protecting the intellectual properties. The Obama led administration has sought to file a petition against the bill stating the intolerance to internet censorship and infringement of freedom of speech. Many of the politicians are against it and a good number are  in favor too.
The Latest

Both bills have been tabled now. Wide Spread Protest are going on. The hearing on SOPA have been cancelled and PIPA is yet to be voted upon. Senator Harry Reid, a sponsor of the bill, tweeted this morning that the vote on PIPA has been postponed till Tuesday in the light of the recent events. So lets wait what becomes of these bills……. And keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks to:  Wikipedia  TechCrunch  Twitter   TheVerge

By now, most of us already have some idea about the notorious decentralized activist group of hackers collectively known as ‘Anonymous’. For those of you who don’t, Anonymous is a global organization of online activists that come together in protest under a common agenda from time to time. The groups primary method of action is the DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack, where thousands of anon members clog a website server, rendering it inaccessible. The group claims it is under no leadership, and mostly members interact through shady chat room websites or image forums such as 4chan. ‘Anon’ first rose to prominence through such coordinated attacks as ‘Operation Tunisia’ and the Paypal website attack, but perhaps they are most widely known through their role in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Now, after the recent Megaupload crackdown, Anonymous has retaliated by carrying out a massive online attack on many American websites. Just hours after the international arrests of some of Megaupload.com’s webmasters, websites of the The Department of Justice (DoJ), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and even the FBI were brought down by coordinated DDOS attacks. Anon members claim that this was their largest online attack to date, with reports of more than 5000 people being involved.

Anon’s actions are primarily portrayed as a protest to maintain the Internets neutrality and freedom, and come just a day after the protest of hundreds of websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit over the impending SOPA legislation under deliberation in the US senate. It is now worthy of speculation what ramifications the attacks will have on the future of Megaupload.com, one of the webs largest file-hosting sites.

iTunes U is yet another app that Apple let out this evening. iTunes U is an education targeted app that allows students to interact with teachers. It provides students with entire courses that are provided by many of the top institutions of the world. iTunesU allows students to access the course content from anywhere in the world, that was previously restricted to the classrooms only.

There is a Notes Tab in the app which features all the notes relating to the course at one place. More than 1000 universities are using iTunes U to deliver educational services to its students. You can download the app directly from here.

Source  PC World

The all quiteness from Apple is the sound of approaching of a storm. And this one’s named iBooks 2. A software designed to let iPad, iPhone and iPod user get access to textbooks via their own devices using an Apple patented software.

iBooks 2 will comprise of a number of features, most exclusive being the 3-D imaging and gesture control. Particularly designed to focus student’s needs, the software allows to read textbooks, watch videos and  even take notes right inside their e-books, as reported by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for world-wide marketing. Along with this wonder app, Apple also released iBook Author that would allow users to make any book of their choice and upload it to Apple’s iBookstore. According to Guardian, the textbooks will be available in the US only. The iBookstore will feature a range of books with customers ranging from every walk of life. It also provides books for students that are in either high schools or colleges with the pricetag of products ranging from $14.99 to $499.

This iBook is particularly released to compete with Amazon’s kindle Fire that grabs most of the e-readers in the market.

Source  Guardian

Apple announces release date of their iPad3 in March2012. Apple reports that the tablet has gone in production and will be available for sale in 2 moths time. Bloomberg reported that the new iPad will feature a HD  high resolution display, a quad-core processor and Lte as the site claims to have three authentic sources to approve of the news. The new in line tablet is reported to have larger battery life and Lte compatible. The videos are reported to be launched instantly due to improved graphics processing. The tablet would definitely face a strong competitive market based on user inter-activeness and cost. Apple currently holds the title of world’s largest technology company and the product would be the major launch since the demise of it’s legendary CEO Steve Jobs.

Source: Bloomberg

Apple decides to stand up for a greener planet and switches it’s cabling to halogen-free as in today’s issue of The Independent. Apple made it’s decision regarding the fact that halogen cables can cause a menace if burnt due to a mishap and can cause the release of harmful and toxic gases in the atmosphere. This wise decision was however not much welcomed by Volex, the maker of Apple’s cabling,  that is going to spent a fortune in the shift. Volex will spent $6M in the shifting process, that includes redesigning and the substitute material for the cables.

Source: The Independent