Highest-Paid Actresses 2011

Forbes.com, One of the best websites I usually check every time I need an updated list. I might say that they have been in my top 100 best websites I trusted and today I would like to share some post from them.

Most of us love gadgets and technology is our friend. From Teeny to Gramps, people can't deny the effect that this modernized civilization offers - not even star or celebrity. Tomio Geron (Forbes Social Markets) shared to us a list of Hollywood tech savvy stars.

Tomio quoted "Celebrities from Hollywood, music or the sports world seem to have a fascination with Silicon Valley and tech start-ups. Whether it’s the inner gadget geek, the urge to start a company, an interest in a quick-flip investment, a hope to be an hip early adopter, or just an interest in schmoozing with the next Ev Williams, celebrities seem to have a strong attraction to tech. Some like to show up at industry conferences, others invest in companies, while others just like to sign up for new web sites to boost their geek cred."

So here are the list of Top 10 Hollywood's tech savvy stars.

1 - Ashton Kutcher

He is better known for his acting career. But he has invested in tech companies including Skype, Airbnb, Likealittle and Milk. He recently started a tech investing fund called A Grade with Ron Burkle and Gary Oseary. Kutcher recently attended a Demo Day for incubator Y Combinator in Mountain View, Calif., drawing a crowd of wide-eyed entrepreneurs eager to talk to him.

2 - MC Hammer

MC Hammer, a.k.a. rapper Stanley Kirk Burrell has been a frequent guest at tech events in Silicon Valley with the likes of Ron Conway. Hammer also was an advisor to start-up DanceJam.com. Hammer here is seated with Conway in the audience during a town hall meeting with President Barack Obama, Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

3 - Chamillionaire

He has become a regular at Silicon Valley tech conferences, where he says he wants to learn more about how new technology can affect the music industry. Most recently he attended the July 29 TechCrunch Crunchup at AOL in Palo Alto, Calif. He also has been a judge at a TechCrunch start-up conference.

4 - Tim Ferris

Bestselling author Tim Ferris (The 4-Hour Workweek) has also been an active angel investor in tech start-ups. His investments include Twitter, Reputation.com, DailyBurn and SimpleGeo. He's also an advisor for companies including Evernote, StumbleUpon and Uber.

5 - Kim Kardashian

She is a co-founder of online subscription shoe company ShoeDazzle.com, which has reportedly raised $60 million in total venture financing. The founder of the company is Brian Lee, a serial entrepreneur whose first company, LegalZoom is expected to go public soon.

6 - Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is an investor in companies including Stipple, a photo advertising start-up, and Miso Media, a music education start-up.

7 - Curt Schilling

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a founder of gaming start-up 38 Studios.

8 - Will.i.am

Will. i.am of the Black Eyed Peas in January was named director of creative innovation at chip giant Intel. (What that means exactly is unclear.) His geek cred was solidified in December 2010 when he wrote and performed a song about cloud computing for Salesforce.com at CEO Marc Benioff's keynote.

9 - Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga invested in Backplane, a social networking start-up, along with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Tomorrow Ventures.

10 - Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal joined Twitter in November 2008 and helped draw mainstream users to the service. He also used web video service 12seconds.tv, drawing massive traffic to that website. He still records spots regularly on video iPhone app Tout.

• Reference/Source: Forbes.com by Tomio Geron (Social Markets) [08/05/2011]

About

Forbes.com



Forbes.com Inc. is a leading Internet media company providing business information services and lifestyle editorial content designed to serve the needs of business leaders, professionals, investors and affluent consumers. The Forbes.com Web site, located at http://www.forbes.com, is focused on the theme of wealth -- how it is created, how it is managed and how it can be enjoyed. The site includes daily original reporting on the business of technology; real- time business information news updates; the complete online editions of Forbes magazine, Forbes Global, Forbes ASAP and Forbes FYI; a powerful search engine with access to all current and archived Forbes content; stock and mutual fund stock quotes, and comprehensive company profiles; an expanded online version of the Forbes.com Best of The Web guide; and a wide array of interactive tools, calculators and databases, including the annual Forbes Lists.

About Tomio Geron, Author



He cover the social web/social networking, start-ups and various other Silicon Valley topics from San Francisco. He was previously a reporter for Dow Jones VentureWire, where he covered venture capital and Internet start-up companies, from search engines to seed investing to special purpose vehicles. He also previously worked for Red Herring, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and other outlets. In a previous life he was a web developer. Follow Tomio on Twitter: @tomiogeron.

This list was submitted by xanthuskidd of Xanthuskidd.wordpress.com. This is a list of things that every boy (no matter what age) should own.

Here's Top 10 of a "Must Have" Things for Every Guy. So sit back, put on your reading glasses, and enjoy!

10 - Various Fasteners

Everything needs to fastened sometime or another. Whether it be tools, forts in the woods, or little brothers. I recommend always having duct tape, rope, and a collection of glue on hand at all times.

Tip: glue a coin to the driveway and watch people’s reactions.

9 - A Collection (of something)

It really doesn’t matter what. I happen to collect old cameras and rocks. and coins and keys… Every boy should have a collection of something to show off to his friends and family. I even recommend having a collection of something fairly boring. When you want someone to leave, just whip out your old sock collection!

8 - Flashlights

You never know when you’ll be trapped somewhere with no natural lighting; that’s why I have a lot of flashlights. I think that you should have at least three different types of flashlights. A small, compact bright flashlight; a headlamp (stupid looking but incredibly handy); and a large, incredibly bright flashlight. I recommend a Maglight.

7 - Batteries

Along the lines of tape, this rather mundane but necessary item is a must have. All of those flashlights have to work somehow! You can also plug two 9-volts together and make little heaters. Just… be careful, sometimes they blow up.

6 - Fire-making Instruments

One of the most important (or at least fun) items on this list contains fire. I have a few different types of lighters, a flint and steel, and a few other means of ignition. I would say that a cigar lighter is my favorite, it burns hot and fast, and uses simple butane fuel. And you can get them cheap at Wal*Mart.

5 - Chopping Devices

You never know when you might need to chop down a tree. I found that my machete (a Gerber Gator with a saw on the other side of the blade) was an invaluable companion with me on my last backpacking trip. And I also own other machetes, a few saws, a hatchet, and various power tools.

4 - Knives

Very similar to chopping devices, this one is a more personal item. I recommend that every boy should have at least 10 knives. A pocket knife for each day of the week, plus a large knife, a multitool, and a swiss army knife. Knives are tools, not weapons, so to any motherly type people out there: don’t get too nervous.

I’ve only cut myself badly enough to go to the hospital once…

3 - Projectiles and the thing with which to fire said projectiles.

This includes air guns, real guns, bows, slingshots, catapults, and swingsets. Air guns and slingshots are absolutely necessary when there is an excess of plastic bottles or other targets too unfortunate to consider moving elsewhere.

2 - Legos

The most important and necessary part of any boy’s life, Legos are a must-have. These wonderful playthings are the stock of any good toy-box and will carry memories for years. If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then Legos are a boy’s. Speaking of which, have you seen the new Pirates sets?

1 - Pop Tarts

You knew I couldn’t make a list without including these. Pop tarts are the most delectable and perfect of the prepackaged pastries currently known. An absolute requirement for any ration box or collection of food, these are perfect for traipsing into the wilderness, playing games, or satisfying midnight snack desires. Don’t leave home without them.

There you have it. My complete listing of the top ten things all boys of any age should own. I have one particular item that is pretty amazing. An old 600 watt super-8 video light. What’s so special about that? You can light anything and burn anything with it. I’ve caught a 2×4 on fire with just this light. I highly recommend it to the nocturnal pyromaniacs out there.

Have a good one! ~ XK

• Reference/Source: Xanthuskidd.wordpress.com by xanthuskidd [7 July , 2011]
About

Xanthuskidd



Xanthuskidd is a blog owned by Chris Schultz. He is currently studying Civil Engineering at LeTourneau University. He live in the grand state of North Carolina. He's a follower of Christ, and quoted "If you don’t like Christians… my apologies. If you want to learn more about Christianity then, by all means, ask away!".

"A recreational Reader"

Hackers are a very diverse bunch, a group simultaneously blamed with causing billions of dollars in damages as well as credited with the development of the World Wide Web and the founding of major tech companies. In this article, we test the theory that truth is better than fiction by introducing you to ten of the most famous hackers, both nefarious and heroic, to let you decide for yourself.

Here's our Top 10 of the Most Famous Computer Hacks of All Time.

Black Hat Crackers

The Internet abounds with hackers, known as crackers or "black hats," who work to exploit computer systems. They are the ones you've seen on the news being hauled away for cybercrimes. Some of them do it for fun and curiosity, while others are looking for personal gain. In this section we profile five of the most famous and interesting "black hat" hackers.

1 - Jonathan James

James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at 16 years old. In an anonymous PBS interview, he professes, "I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off."

James's major intrusions targeted high-profile organizations. He installed a backdoor into a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server. The DTRA is an agency of the Department of Defense charged with reducing the threat to the U.S. and its allies from nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and special weapons. The backdoor he created enabled him to view sensitive emails and capture employee usernames and passwords.

James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice, "The software supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." NASA was forced to shut down its computer systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming, but contended, "The code itself was crappy . . . certainly not worth $1.7 million like they claimed."

Given the extent of his intrusions, if James, also known as "c0mrade," had been an adult he likely would have served at least 10 years. Instead, he was banned from recreational computer use and was slated to serve a six-month sentence under house arrest with probation. However, he served six months in prison for violation of parole. Today, James asserts that he's learned his lesson and might start a computer security company.

2 - Adrian Lamo

Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the "homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee shops and libraries to do his intrusions. In a profile article, "He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional."

Lamo's intrusions consisted mainly of penetration testing, in which he found flaws in security, exploited them and then informed companies of their shortcomings. His hits include Yahoo!, Bank of America, Citigroup and Cingular. When white hat hackers are hired by companies to do penetration testing, it's legal. What Lamo did is not.

When he broke into The New York Times' intranet, things got serious. He added himself to a list of experts and viewed personal information on contributors, including Social Security numbers. Lamo also hacked into The Times' LexisNexis account to research high-profile subject matter.

For his intrusion at The New York Times, Lamo was ordered to pay approximately $65,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation, which expired January 16, 2007. Lamo is currently working as an award-winning journalist and public speaker.

3 - Kevin Mitnick

A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went through a highly publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief was hyped by the media but his actual offenses may be less notable than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice describes him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom Downtime and Takedown.

Mitnick had a bit of hacking experience before committing the offenses that made him famous. He started out exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system to get free rides. Then, like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, dabbled in phone phreaking. Although there were numerous offenses, Mitnick was ultimately convicted for breaking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software.

Mitnick's mischief got serious when he went on a two and a half year "coast-to-coast hacking spree." The CNN article, "Legendary computer hacker released from prison," explains that "he hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks and broke into the national defense warning system." He then hacked into computer expert and fellow hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer, which led to his undoing.

Today, Mitnick has been able to move past his role as a black hat hacker and become a productive member of society. He served five years, about 8 months of it in solitary confinement, and is now a computer security consultant, author and speaker.

4 - Kevin Poulsen

Also known as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained recognition for his hack of LA radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a brand new Porsche, among other items. Law enforcement dubbed him "the Hannibal Lecter of computer crime."

Authorities began to pursue Poulsen after he hacked into a federal investigation database. During this pursuit, he further drew the ire of the FBI by hacking into federal computers for wiretap information.

His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones. Poulsen's most famous hack, KIIS-FM, was accomplished by taking over all of the station's phone lines. In a related feat, Poulsen also "reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance who then ran a virtual escort agency." Later, when his photo came up on the show Unsolved Mysteries, 1-800 phone lines for the program crashed. Ultimately, Poulsen was captured in a supermarket and served a sentence of five years.

Since serving time, Poulsen has worked as a journalist. He is now a senior editor for Wired News. His most prominent article details his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles.

5 - Robert Tappan Morris

Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris wrote the code for the worm while he was a student at Cornell. He asserts that he intended to use it to see how large the Internet was. The worm, however, replicated itself excessively, slowing computers down so that they were no longer usable. It is not possible to know exactly how many computers were affected, but experts estimate an impact of 6,000 machines. He was sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and a fined $10,500.

Morris is currently working as a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He principally researches computer network architectures including distributed hash tables such as Chord and wireless mesh networks such as Roofnet.

White Hat Hackers

Hackers that use their skills for good are classified as "white hat." These white hats often work as certified "Ethical Hackers," hired by companies to test the integrity of their systems. Others, operate without company permission by bending but not breaking laws and in the process have created some really cool stuff. In this section we profile five white hat hackers and the technologies they have developed.

1 - Stephen Wozniak

"Woz" is famous for being the "other Steve" of Apple. Wozniak, along with current Apple CEO Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple Computer. He has been awarded with the National Medal of Technology as well as honorary doctorates from Kettering University and Nova Southeastern University. Additionally, Woz was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in September 2000.

Woz got his start in hacking making blue boxes, devices that bypass telephone-switching mechanisms to make free long-distance calls. After reading an article about phone phreaking in Esquire, Wozniak called up his buddy Jobs. The pair did research on frequencies, then built and sold blue boxes to their classmates in college. Wozniak even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to be Henry Kissinger.

Wozniak dropped out of college and came up with the computer that eventually made him famous. Jobs had the bright idea to sell the computer as a fully assembled PC board. The Steves sold Wozniak's cherished scientific calculator and Jobs' VW van for capital and got to work assembling prototypes in Jobs' garage. Wozniak designed the hardware and most of the software. In the Letters section of Woz.org, he recalls doing "what Ed Roberts and Bill Gates and Paul Allen did and tons more, with no help." Wozniak and Jobs sold the first 100 of the Apple I to a local dealer for $666.66 each.

Woz no longer works full time for Apple, focusing primarily on philanthropy instead. Most notable is his function as fairy godfather to the Los Gatos, Calif. School District. "Wozniak 'adopted' the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment."

2 - Tim Berners-Lee

Berners-Lee is famed as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the system that we use to access sites, documents and files on the Internet. He has received numerous recognitions, most notably the Millennium Technology Prize.

While a student at Oxford University, Berners-Lee was caught hacking access with a friend and subsequently banned from University computers. w3.org reports, "Whilst [at Oxford], he built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television." Technological innovation seems to have run in his genes, as Berners-Lee's parents were mathematicians who worked on the Manchester Mark1, one of the earliest electronic computers.

While working with CERN, a European nuclear research organization, Berners-Lee created a hypertext prototype system that helped researchers share and update information easily. He later realized that hypertext could be joined with the Internet. Berners-Lee recounts how he put them together: "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and – ta-da! – the World Wide Web."

Since his creation of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. The W3C describes itself as "an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web standards." Berners-Lee's World Wide Web idea, as well as standards from the W3C, is distributed freely with no patent or royalties due.

3 - Linus Torvalds

Torvalds fathered Linux, the very popular Unix-based operating system. He calls himself "an engineer," and has said that his aspirations are simple, "I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can."

Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20, an 8-bit home computer. He then moved on to a Sinclair QL. Wikipedia reports that he modified the Sinclair "extensively, especially its operating system." Specifically, Torvalds hacks included "an assembler and a text editor…as well as a few games."

Torvalds created the Linux kernel in 1991, using the Minix operating system as inspiration. He started with a task switcher in Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver. After that, he put out a call for others to contribute code, which they did. Currently, only about 2 percent of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. The success of this public invitation to contribute code for Linux is touted as one of the most prominent examples of free/open source software.

Currently, Torvalds serves as the Linux ringleader, coordinating the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. He has had an asteroid named after him and received honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. He was also featured in Time Magazine's "60 Years of Heroes."

4 - Richard Stallman

Stallman's fame derives from the GNU Project, which he founded to develop a free operating system. For this, he's known as the father of free software. His "Serious Bio" asserts, "Non-free software keeps users divided and helpless, forbidden to share it and unable to change it. A free operating system is essential for people to be able to use computers in freedom."

Stallman, who prefers to be called rms, got his start hacking at MIT. He worked as a "staff hacker" on the Emacs project and others. He was a critic of restricted computer access in the lab. When a password system was installed, Stallman broke it down, resetting passwords to null strings, then sent users messages informing them of the removal of the password system.

Stallman's crusade for free software started with a printer. At the MIT lab, he and other hackers were allowed to modify code on printers so that they sent convenient alert messages. However, a new printer came along – one that they were not allowed to modify. It was located away from the lab and the absence of the alerts presented an inconvenience. It was at this point that he was "convinced…of the ethical need to require free software."

With this inspiration, he began work on GNU. Stallman wrote an essay, "The GNU Project," in which he recalls choosing to work on an operating system because it's a foundation, "the crucial software to use a computer." At this time, the GNU/Linux version of the operating system uses the Linux kernel started by Torvalds. GNU is distributed under "copyleft," a method that employs copyright law to allow users to use, modify, copy and distribute the software.

Stallman's life continues to revolve around the promotion of free software. He works against movements like Digital Rights Management (or as he prefers, Digital Restrictions Management) through organizations like Free Software Foundation and League for Programming Freedom. He has received extensive recognition for his work, including awards, fellowships and four honorary doctorates.

5 - Tsutomu Shimomura

Shimomura reached fame in an unfortunate manner: he was hacked by Kevin Mitnick. Following this personal attack, he made it his cause to help the FBI capture him.

Shimomura's work to catch Mitnick is commendable, but he is not without his own dark side. Author Bruce Sterling recalls: "He pulls out this AT&T cellphone, pulls it out of the shrinkwrap, finger-hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down Capitol Hill while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder, listening to him."

Shimomura out-hacked Mitnick to bring him down. Shortly after finding out about the intrusion, he rallied a team and got to work finding Mitnick. Using Mitnick's cell phone, they tracked him near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The article, "SDSC Computer Experts Help FBI Capture Computer Terrorist" recounts how Shimomura pinpointed Mitnick's location. Armed with a technician from the phone company, Shimomura "used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex." Mitnick was arrested shortly thereafter. Following the pursuit, Shimomura wrote a book about the incident with journalist John Markoff, which was later turned into a movie.

• Reference/Source: Focus.com by IT Security Editors

The following 10 steps will ensure the longevity of your prints and a high-quality appeal that will stand the test of time.

1 - Choice of Printer and Ink.

A good-quality printer with genuine ink supply is the most influential factor you need to consider. It’s better to use a printer that allows you to replace individual ink cartridges because it will save you more money if you print a lot of photos compared to a single colour cartridge printer.

2 - Quality of the Photo Paper.

A premium acid-free photo paper is essential. It has been specifically made to control ink absorption and produce a moisture barrier to preserve your photos. The most realistic photo reproduction is accomplished with photo glossy paper, which reflects the most light and interacts very well with the inkjet process. Matte photo paper comes close to glossy paper in producing colour photos. Furthermore, the soft, flat (non-reflective) surface often lends realism to a photo.

3 - No Dust or Humidity on Stack of Paper.

Fan your stack of photo paper before placing it in your printer to ensure there is no dust or humidity on its surface. High humidity is connected with higher temperature most of the time which has a negative impact on prints. That includes moisture in the air as well.

4 - Ink Should Be Completely Dry.

Wait for the ink to completely dry before stacking the digital print or moving them to the next step like mounting, framing, storing, or shipping.

5 - Keep It In Acid-Free Storage.

Store your images and photo paper in a cool, humid-free environment. Keep your prints in an acid-free storage box or print sleeve to prolong their life and minimize fading.

6 - Coating Protection.

Coating your digital print for protection is dependent on how it was made and what problems need solving. Coating protects it against moisture, UV light damage, and the usual fingerprints due to print handling. Rapid yellowing of photo paper is due to polyethylene or plasticisers content so avoid using those.

7 - Avoid Direct Sunlight.

Heat and UV radiation will greatly accelerate fade and damage your image in photo paper. You can reduce this fading and improve the longevity of your digital photo prints by protecting them from direct light. Avoid displaying or storing it outdoors nor hang prints in bathrooms or kitchens unless sealed properly.

8 - Mounting And Framing It.

Framing helps protect and present your digital print in a professional way. Framing photos behind glass or Plexiglas helps protect them as well. Use anti-UV coated glass if you want to display and place your image inside a frame. Aluminium frames are least affected by moisture in the air if you live in a humid environment. Avoid rubber cement or masking tape. Use only acid-free mounting, matting, backing, and framing materials.

9 - Use Interleaving Sheets.

It’s okay to stack prints but separate them with interleaving sheet. It’s a protective sheet of tissue or blank paper pasted or inserted loose to prevent rubbing. It is highly recommended for print storage if you are using matte or fine-art papers with pigment ink.

10 - Avoid Touching.

Poor handling like folding, creasing, smudging, scraping, fingerprinting reduce the permanence of prints. It is always a good idea to avoid touching your prints with your fingers.
Most studies show that what degrades first is not the photo paper but the ink. It depends to a number of factors as to how long your prints may last. Manufacturers’ claims will only give you a generalized guesstimate of what’s going to happen to your prints. Too many factors to consider. What is the atmospheric pollution level where the print will be displayed or stored? What is the UV component of the light coming in from the windows? What’s the temperature? What’s the humidity? These are just some of the influencing factors that will significantly affect the permanence of the print.

• Reference/Source: Weddingphotography.com.ph

Electronic gadgets market is giant market with countless gadgets that gained recognition and praised worldwide. Technology is advancing so rapidly, that with every passing day, we get to listen about new electronic gadgets and their upgraded versions being launched in the market by electronic giant.

Many people are still waiting till Christmas, in order to get some of 2010’s best gadgets in technology. Indeed 2010 was a great year with tablet and 3D revolution, and we can hope that the next year will be more interesting and beat these gadgets! So below cutting-edge selections not only represent many of the best new gadgets that are available to business owners and working professionals in 2010, but will also appear in 2011.

1) Google Nexus

Google’s Nexus is a speedy smart phone. It’s a intuitive handset having five customizable home screens with animated backgrounds. It also provides slick speech recognition capabilities. Nexus is now integrated with most of the software services provided by Google. Nexus One represent itself as a search giant’s first expansion in the world of e- commerce and hardware. Although that some well-publicized customer service issues come up with the device, still it remains among those ionic customer electronics which are at top of the list throughout the year.

2) RIM BlackBerry Presenter

As many of you have already noticed that micro and mini projectors will be available soon. Manufactures like 3M, Microvision and other. Thank God this handy 3.4-inch x 2.4-inch boxlike accessory is designed, so that it can be used with BlackBerry smart phones. It is very simple in use. What you have to do is that, simply connect it with a projector or monitor and you can use Blutetooth connectivity in order to display Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 slides directly from your handset. You can pause images, set slides to automatically swap at prearranged intervals and in this way you can enjoy the benefit of accurate reproductions with most visual and animated effects.

3) PlayStation Phone by Sony

Sony, the leader of innovative technologies is ready to launch playstation phone code named “Zeus” in early 2011. Zeus would have Andriod 3.0 Gingerbread operating system. It also contains SD slot card having 8GB of memory with 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor. It comes up with 3.8 display and graphics processing unit of Adreno 205. This superb phone also contains 1GB ROM and 512 MB RAM. 3.8″ touch screen and its touch pad is just like gaming console of PSP. Through PlayStation Phone you can also download different games. So for those who love games, it is going to be a best product.

4) 3D Vaio by Sony

In order to be synchronize with BRAVIA glasses 3D laptop computer by Sony will boast of IR blaster. Lodged in F series chassis, the laptop contains display of 16”, so it can also be used for PS3. For games and videos, this laptop comes up with 1080p 240fps display. You can upgrade it from 2D to 3D with Blu-ray drives. In order to retain crystal clear picture quality, 3D VAIO uses the same technology in BRAVIA TV, with Black Frame Insertion. 3D VAIO used sequential technology for HD display while utilizing shutter glass. With just one touch button you can change between 2D to 3D. So, 3D VAIO would be a 0utstanding electronic gadget of 2011.

5) Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 5 is based on face recognition mechanism with a sleek design. It contains 64GB memory with OLED screen. With GPS navigation feature you are able to synchronize with iTunes and customize SMS alerts and tones with HD audio quality. With Apple iPhone5 you can do video chat on 3G. For more durability, the screen is made scratch protected. For improved resolution it contains the most advanced graphic chips in it with chips dual core processors. On iPhone 5 you are also able to watch local channels. It also includes Pico projector which is used for presentation on a wall or flat surface.

6) PlayBook by BlackBerry

With simplified and advanced operating system BlackBerry is going to launch PlayBook. It would be highly compatible with current web requirements such like HTML5. This BlackBerry Tablet Operating System also called as QNX, supports open GL and PSIX. It will also be compatible with Adobe AIR and Flash 10.1. It comes up with 1GHZ processor, 1GB of Ram, 3MP camera with 5MP lens and 1024X600, 7″ display. Playbook offer video conferencing and features micro USB jack, 1080p resolution, Wi-Fi, HDMI port and Blue Tooth. Playbook is hardly just 0.4” thick and approximately weighs just 450 grams. It is possible to extract the data out of BlackBerry on PlayBook with the help of BlueTooth tethering application.

7) 3DS by Nintendo

The Nintendo 3D comes up with 2 outward lenses and 1 inward lense for taking pictures and it is compatible with 3D graphics sans glasses. With outward lens you can take picture of any person and at the same instant the user’s picture can be taken with the inward lens. It is possible to combine two images and produce a single one. Users cartoon avatars automatically created by 3DS. It also enables users of 2DS for communication. With the help of tag mode, you are able to get the details of another user of 3DS, like you can come to know about the games he or she played last.

8) Samsung LED 9000 Series

Samsung’s LED 9000 series of television sets is pencil-thin. Yes it’s just 0.3 inches wide and it can support and having the great ability to display 3D images and can convert 2D content into third dimension. You must be impressed by knowing that it can offer great support for downloadable apps, just like you’d find on the iPhone or Nexus One. Its application served via open development platform which means that any entrepreneur is able to insert content in it and can add up huge functionality, from the world of social networking clients to the downloadable games.

9) Palm Pre Plus

With minor changes in hardware the newer version of palm pre comes up with patch up keyboard and some little changes in user interface. It contains 3.1 inch multi touch screen with 320×480 resolution with HVGA display. In order to capture amateur video capture, it contains 3MP camera with LED flash. Palm Pre Plus will be coming up with Verizon. It runs on WebOS in its smartphone platform, which gives applications like Hotspot Tethering. You can get Palm Pre Plus for just 150 $ with two years Verizon contacts with their data plans.

10) Lenovo IdeaPad U1

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 is a 1.6 inch Linux based PC. It can also become a fully functional 3.7lb notebook having multi-touch capabilities that boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. This device really functions well while offering solid five hours of battery life. E-mail and other web surfing facilities are also available. It attracts to those mobile professionals who are looking for great diversity in computing solution. So you can call it as two for one deal.

HUMOR Me...
Technology Has Taken Over Your Life

1. Your stationery is more cluttered than Warren Beatty's address book. The letterhead lists a fax number, e-mail addresses for two on-line services, and your Internet address, which spreads across the breadth of the letterhead and continues to the back. In essence, you have conceded that the first page of any letter you write *is* letterhead.

2. You have never sat through an entire movie without having at least one device on your body beep or buzz.

3. You need to fill out a form that must be typewritten, but you can't because there isn't one typewriter in your house -- only computers with laser printers.

4. You think of the gadgets in your office as "friends," but you forget to send your father a birthday card.

5. You disdain people who use low baud rates.

6. When you go into a computer store, you eavesdrop on a salesperson talking with customers -- and you butt in to correct him and spend the next twenty minutes answering the customers' questions, while the salesperson stands by silently, nodding his head.

7. You use the phrase "digital compression" in a conversation without thinking how strange your mouth feels when you say it.

8. You constantly find yourself in groups of people to whom you say the phrase "digital compression." Everyone understands what you mean, and you are not surprised or disappointed that you don't have to explain it.

9. You know Bill Gates' e-mail address, but you have to look up your own social security number.

10. You stop saying "phone number" and replace it with "voice number," since we all know the majority of phone lines in any house are plugged into contraptions that talk to other contraptions.

11. You sign Christmas cards by putting :-) next to your signature.

12. Off the top of your head, you can think of nineteen keystroke symbols that are far more clever than :-)

13. You back up your data every day.

14. Your wife asks you to pick up some minipads for her at the store and you return with a rest for your mouse.

15. You think jokes about being unable to program a VCR are stupid.

16. On vacation, you are reading a computer manual and turning the pages faster than everyone else who is reading John Grisham novels.

17. The thought that a CD could refer to finance or music rarely enters your mind.

18. You are able to argue persuasively the Ross Perot's phrase "electronic town hall" makes more sense than the term "information superhighway," but you don't because, after all, the man still uses hand-drawn pie charts.

19. You go to computer trade shows and map out your path of the exhibit hall in advance. But you cannot give someone directions to your house without looking up the street names.

20. You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon.

21. You become upset when a person calls you on the phone to sell you something, but you think it's okay for a computer to call and demand that you start pushing buttons on your telephone to receive more information about the product it is selling.

22. You know without a doubt that disks come in five-and-a- quarter-and three-and-a-half-inch sizes.

23. Al Gore strikes you as an "intriguing" fellow.

24. You own a set of itty-bitty screw-drivers and you actually know where they are.

25. While contemporaries swap stories about their recent hernia surgeries, you compare mouse-induced index-finger strain with a nine year-old.

26. You are so knowledgeable about technology that you feel secure enough to say "I don't know" when someone asks you a technology question instead of feeling compelled to make something up.

27. You rotate your screen savers more frequently than your automobile tires.

28. You have a functioning home copier machine, but every toaster you own turns bread into charcoal.

29. You have ended friendships because of irreconcilably different opinions about which is better -- the track ball or the track *pad*.

30. You understand all the jokes in this message. If so, my friend, technology has taken over your life. We suggest, for your own good, that you go lie under a tree and write a haiku. And don't use a laptop.

• Reference/Source: smashinghub.com by kiranfatimaa(December 16th, 2010)

CES 2011 was great and will be even better next year. The products debuted at CES 2011 were even greater than the convention itself. What was the best category of products released? We believe it was tablets. So many tablets were debuted and they all looked so great, that we thought it would be appropriate to find the top 10.



Here they are: Tablets

1. Motorola Xoom

2. LG T-Mobile G-Slate

3. Asus Ee Pad MeMO

4. Vizio VIA

5. Asus Eee Pad Slider

6. Asus Eee Pad Transformer

7. RIM PlayBook

8. Dell Streak 10

9. MSI WindPad 100W

10. Wi-Fi Only Galaxy Tab

• Reference/Source: techunwrapped.com By
  Graham,1/9/2011

I had a chance last week to talk with Adam Garry, Dell’s manager of global professional learning. A former teacher turned technology evangelist and educational leader at Dell, he had some great insight into where educational technology was headed this coming year. Some of the predictions could be tied to Dell products, but by and large, he and I agreed that 2011 would be the year of the platform.

As Adam explained, it’s no longer “all right to just drop off hardware anymore.” Rather, Dell works hard to ensure that the solutions they provide schools can support their learning platforms of choice and their goals for educational technology. If the goals and platforms don’t exist or aren’t well-designed and integrated, then Adam and Dell staff work to fully develop them and provide a basis for learning with technology.

I’m not going to number the predictions; but I will list Adam’s first. While he and I were in complete agreement on the broad trends for Ed Tech in 2011, I have a few more specific predictions of my own to share as well. The common thread, though? Platform, platform, platform.


Adam Garry’s Top 5 Ed Tech Trends/Predictions for 2011

“1:1 should be a learning initiative instead of a tech initiative”
This is probably my favorite quote from our conversation. So many technologies can be leveraged in such cost-effective ways to get students ubiquitous Internet access during the day and outside of school that the focus of 1:1 is no longer so much “How do we get kids computers and maintain them all?” but “How do we use these things to improve teaching, learning, and student achievement?” While financial hurdles still exist in many schools, a variety of solutions can be used to maximize student access, even if schools can’t achieve 1:1. However, without an underlying platform for learning and clearly defined strategy for using the technology both in and out of the classroom, you have a whole lot of expensive typewriters.

"Personalized learning instead of differentiated instruction"
The idea of differentiated instruction has been around for a long time. However, as Adam pointed out, we have finally “reached a tipping potin with digital assets and access” that can support truly personalized learning. We will hear less talk of learning management systems and more talk of platform that allows students to access the individualized digital assets (whether leveled reading, response to intervention software, or remediation tools, for example) they need to improve achievement. Dell is actually piloting a personalized learning platform, the idea being that every student can show mastery of subject matter in many ways. Not only will these platforms for personalized learning be driven by data (formative and summative assessments), but will cater to students’ learning styles and needs. Adam predicted that this approach won’t just be enabled by advances in technology and access, but also by the common math and literacy core standards being adopted nationwide.

"Product-based assessments"
Adam identified this as more of a hope than an actual trend, but noted that he is seeing a move towards assessments that are more product-based. As he noted, ”our Web 2.0 is Web 1.0 for our learners”. Since they are accustomed to producing and sharing content, a move towards a model of students as producers will provide opportunities for more authentic assessments and the sorts of portfolios that provide a much better picture of a student’s capabilities than a set of standardized tests can.

He also noted that the 2012 PISA should include measures of digital literacy, assessing critical thought and creativity, as well as the core subjects that received so much attention this month and placed the US so poorly compared to China and other industrialized nations.

"Increased focus on conceptual learning"
Looking at the new common core standards, it’s apparent that there will be a significantly increased focus on conceptual learning. While our curricula in the States have traditionally been wide and shallow, covering many topics poorly, we are moving towards much deeper, conceptual explorations of a smaller number of topics.

"The evolution of 1:1 - Different access models"
As I have noted many times on this blog, 1:1 can take many forms. Adam sees more and more schools providing the platform (wireless access, virtual classrooms, social learning, etc.), but allowing students to bring their own devices to access these platforms (with appropriate subsidies for those who cannot afford to). This obviously brings its own challenges, just as the so-called “consumerization of IT” has for businesses. However, it lets schools focus on the platform and learning rather than hardware acquisition.

On that note, he explained that Dell would continue supporting its netbook platform and the Connected Classroom hardware. Their Inspiron Duo (currently available to consumers and available early next year in school-appropriate and academically priced configurations) would be the next step for schools looking to a unified 1:1 platform from Dell since the product allows students to easily consume information as needed and easily switch to content production whenever they wanted.

Chris Dawson’s Top 5 Ed Tech Predictions for 2011

"Tablets. Nuff said."
Well, not quite enough said, since obviously I’m about to write a little blurb on tablet, but they almost speak for themselves. While I agree with Adam that devices like the Inspiron Duo that allow easy consumption as well as creation of content are going to be important in 1:1 and student computing, simply providing access to e-textbooks and the Internet in a small, light, relatively inexpensive form factor is going to revolutionary in and of itself.

While we’ve been hearing about those Android tablets for some time, the truth is that actually satisfactory Android tablets are going to take Android 3.0 and some serious economies of scale to reach the right price points. All indications are there that this confluence of tablet-ready Android (as well as the second-generation iPad) and serious OEM uptake will happen by the middle of 2011. It might be fall 2011 when the first large deployments start hitting schools, but tablets will be Internet portals for a lot of students this coming year.

"Getting thinner"
I’m not talking about slick new thin and light notebooks or MacBook Airs. I’m talking about thin computing. Everything from virtualized desktops to Windows MultiPoint Server to Userful’s Linux-based MultiPoint competitor will enable student access like never before. Even Google’s Chrome Notebook supports browser-based VNC and Citrix application presentation, making inexpensive devices and consumer IT products able to leverage enterprise-class applications and storage.

Whether it’s MultiPoint’s effective, yet relatively archaic RDP connections or sophisticated desktop presentation from VMWare or Wyse, thin clients (in all their forms) will get a lot of kids connected for less money and less management effort than virtually any other solution. The technology has now matured to such a point that even PC-Over-IP is accessible to schools for highly manageable advanced lab settings.

"The dog will not eat your homework"
Whether it’s Google Apps for Education, Live@Edu, Office365 for Education, or some social learning platform like Journ(i)e where students produce and submit most of their work online, cloud-based tools have become so easy to deploy and use that there is little reason not to. If you need a learning platform on the cheap, both Google Apps and Live@Edu provide free solutions that creative educators can use to engage students and run classes in really innovative ways.

"The Kindle fantasy finally dies"
I can’t tell you how often I still hear administrators and school board members continue to talk about getting Kindles for kids to lighten heavy backpacks and make reading fun and “21st century.” The Kindle isn’t bad for what it is, but it will never work in widespread educational deployments because of its underlying technologies and 20th-century DRM. Fortunately, the iPad has opened a lot of eyes to how digital content can be presented to kids and a variety of new, mainstream devices should finally put Oprah’s favorite little e-reader to bed in the minds of educational leaders.

"E-textbooks come to life"
The Kindle might be dead in ed, but e-textbooks will finally come of age in 2011. Google eBooks, open source books, teacher experts and students producing their own content, and even mainstream publishers seriously hopping on the e-textbook bandwagon will ensure that, as Adam Garry pointed out, digital assets will be plentiful and accessible.

Cheap tablets, iPad adoption (thanks to the Apple marketing machine and some compelling e-learning content, widespread EPUB adoption, and innovative form factors like the Dell Inspiron Duo will also help solve the chicken/egg problem (if there are no devices, why should publishers create e-content). Finally.

• Reference/Source: zdnet.com by Christopher Dawson

The world is going mobile. In 2010, we saw some major jumps in terms of mobile development, including the explosion of the Android operating system, the introduction of the iPad and an increased rate of internet access via smartphones. In 2011, we can expect to see even more of a shift towards the mobile realm, as more consumers access the internet while on the go. By 2011, more than 85 percent of the handsets shipped globally are expected to include a browser, which means a major percentage of phone users will be accessing the web through mobile means.
Analysis

These are the top 10 trends we can expect to see in the mobile realm for 2011:

1. Android vs. iPhone showdown – This summer, the Android surpassed the iPhone in terms of market share, with Droids taking 27% of the market and iPhones taking 23%. In 2011, there are substantiated rumors saying that Verizon will be getting the iPhone, which may help to increase Apple’s market share. Additionally, the Droid will continue to see improvements and a growing number of apps in their marketplace (one of the main arguments of iPhone proponents). 2011 looks to be the key year that will determine which operating system reigns supreme.

2. Mobile advertising spike – As more and more consumers begin to access the web through their smartphones, versus home or work computers, we’re going to see more opportunities for advertising in these mediums. Due to the size and constraints of mobile, this advertising has to be simpler and more concise, so marketers need to change their strategies compared to standard digital placements. 2011 is looking like a landmark year for mobile advertising.

3. Mobile SEO – The importance of having a mobile site is becoming more substantial, as growing numbers of consumers with different levels of web-enabled phones begin accessing sites. Business owners need to be aware that mobile browsers have different algorithms than traditional browsers, so SEO efforts need to be adjusted accordingly. 2011 is a year that will demonstrate the difference between those who adopt mobile SEO practices and those who fail to meet the new challenge.

4. Touchscreen website development – Touchscreens offer a different user experience than regular computers that utilize mouses, and their popularity is skyrocketing. For website developers, this means it’s time to consider how sites can best be developed to meet the needs of consumers who are navigating with their fingertips. In 2011, look for an increased focus on the schematics and usability of a website to be geared towards a touchscreen functionality.

5. Location-based apps –Increasing numbers of applications and sites are relying on location-based functionalities to aid consumers. From Yelp’s check-ins, to Facebook’s places, there are growing numbers of opportunities for location-based communication and promotion of local businesses. Expect to see more websites & smartphone applications that take advantage of location–based technology.

6. Free wi-fi – Many communities are enacting free wi-fi programs. Miami Beach and Times Square in NYC have put these into effect. As wi-fi access grows nationally, more and more consumers are likely to use their devices and computers on the go, and in public places. Also, this means more consumers are likely to get online, since the cost will be significantly lower.

7. Location-based social networks – With the rise of sites like Foursquare and now Scvngr, location-based social is continuing to rise in popularity at a rapid rate. Foursquare recently reached 3 million users, and SCVNGR just passed the 500,000 user mark. These networks designed around location are going to see a bigger push in 2011, and we’re likely to see additional social sites hit the market.

8. Increase in mobile video viewing – By the end of this year, the number of mobile video viewers is expected to hit 23.9 million, and those numbers are set to double by 2013, according to eMarketer. Addressing video as a function of mobile, versus traditional desktops, is something marketers have to consider, especially when looking at new advertising opportunities. As this number spikes in 2011, there will be many additional ways to capitalize on this growing market.

9. Consolidation of technology – As smartphones and tablet computers are able to do more and more, expect to see a decline in the use of more specific technology – GPS units, mp3 players, cameras, etc. Many smartphones serve to fill all these needs, so consumers no longer need to purchase additional devices. The same applies to tablet computers, which can serve as e-readers, making Kindles and Nooks less necessary.

10. Mobile to mobile technology – With the iPhone 4’s introduction of Face Time video calling, a new era was born in terms of communicating via mobile devices. Smartphone video calling is expected to reach 29 million users by 2015. The Skype app allows video calling on all Android smartphones, and this market is likely to see substantial growth in 2011 thanks to these new technologies.

Conclusion: Mobile is gaining market share by the day, and eventually the majority of our browsing will likely happen via smartphone. Savvy business professionals and marketers need to get ahead of the game when it comes to mobile, and start learning more about these trends for 2011, as well as taking advantage of mobile-based opportunities.

• Reference/Source: www.focus.com by
  Hannah Sentenac

Gartner, Inc. today highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011. The analysts presented their findings during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, being held here through October 21.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.

A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses. It may also be an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage for early adopters or with potential for significant market disruption in the next five years. As such, these technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives.

“Companies should factor these top 10 technologies in their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

“Sometimes the decision will be to do nothing with a particular technology,” said Carl Claunch, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “In other cases, it will be to continue investing in the technology at the current rate. In still other cases, the decision may be to test or more aggressively deploy the technology.”

The top 10 strategic technologies for 2011 include:

Cloud Computing. Cloud computing services exist along a spectrum from open public to closed private. The next three years will see the delivery of a range of cloud service approaches that fall between these two extremes. Vendors will offer packaged private cloud implementations that deliver the vendor's public cloud service technologies (software and/or hardware) and methodologies (i.e., best practices to build and run the service) in a form that can be implemented inside the consumer's enterprise. Many will also offer management services to remotely manage the cloud service implementation. Gartner expects large enterprises to have a dynamic sourcing team in place by 2012 that is responsible for ongoing cloudsourcing decisions and management.

Mobile Applications and Media Tablets. Gartner estimates that by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing an ideal environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web. Mobile devices are becoming computers in their own right, with an astounding amount of processing ability and bandwidth. There are already hundreds of thousands of applications for platforms like the Apple iPhone, in spite of the limited market (only for the one platform) and need for unique coding.

The quality of the experience of applications on these devices, which can apply location, motion and other context in their behavior, is leading customers to interact with companies preferentially through mobile devices. This has lead to a race to push out applications as a competitive tool to improve relationships and gain advantage over competitors whose interfaces are purely browser-based.


Social Communications and Collaboration. Social media can be divided into: (1) Social networking —social profile management products, such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendster as well as social networking analysis (SNA) technologies that employ algorithms to understand and utilize human relationships for the discovery of people and expertise. (2) Social collaboration —technologies, such as wikis, blogs, instant messaging, collaborative office, and crowdsourcing. (3) Social publishing —technologies that assist communities in pooling individual content into a usable and community accessible content repository such as YouTube and flickr. (4) Social feedback - gaining feedback and opinion from the community on specific items as witnessed on YouTube, flickr, Digg, Del.icio.us, and Amazon. Gartner predicts that by 2016, social technologies will be integrated with most business applications. Companies should bring together their social CRM, internal communications and collaboration, and public social site initiatives into a coordinated strategy.

Video. Video is not a new media form, but its use as a standard media type used in non-media companies is expanding rapidly. Technology trends in digital photography, consumer electronics, the web, social software, unified communications, digital and Internet-based television and mobile computing are all reaching critical tipping points that bring video into the mainstream. Over the next three years Gartner believes that video will become a commonplace content type and interaction model for most users, and by 2013, more than 25 percent of the content that workers see in a day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio.

Next Generation Analytics. Increasing compute capabilities of computers including mobile devices along with improving connectivity are enabling a shift in how businesses support operational decisions. It is becoming possible to run simulations or models to predict the future outcome, rather than to simply provide backward looking data about past interactions, and to do these predictions in real-time to support each individual business action. While this may require significant changes to existing operational and business intelligence infrastructure, the potential exists to unlock significant improvements in business results and other success rates.

Social Analytics. Social analytics describes the process of measuring, analyzing and interpreting the results of interactions and associations among people, topics and ideas. These interactions may occur on social software applications used in the workplace, in internally or externally facing communities or on the social web. Social analytics is an umbrella term that includes a number of specialized analysis techniques such as social filtering, social-network analysis, sentiment analysis and social-media analytics. Social network analysis tools are useful for examining social structure and interdependencies as well as the work patterns of individuals, groups or organizations. Social network analysis involves collecting data from multiple sources, identifying relationships, and evaluating the impact, quality or effectiveness of a relationship.

Context-Aware Computing. Context-aware computing centers on the concept of using information about an end user or object’s environment, activities connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end user. The end user may be a customer, business partner or employee. A contextually aware system anticipates the user's needs and proactively serves up the most appropriate and customized content, product or service. Gartner predicts that by 2013, more than half of Fortune 500 companies will have context-aware computing initiatives and by 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based.


Storage Class Memory. Gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. It also offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages — space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Unlike RAM, the main memory in servers and PCs, flash memory is persistent even when power is removed. In that way, it looks more like disk drives where information is placed and must survive power-downs and reboots. Given the cost premium, simply building solid state disk drives from flash will tie up that valuable space on all the data in a file or entire volume, while a new explicitly addressed layer, not part of the file system, permits targeted placement of only the high-leverage items of information that need to experience the mix of performance and persistence available with flash memory.

Ubiquitous Computing. The work of Mark Weiser and other researchers at Xerox's PARC paints a picture of the coming third wave of computing where computers are invisibly embedded into the world. As computers proliferate and as everyday objects are given the ability to communicate with RFID tags and their successors, networks will approach and surpass the scale that can be managed in traditional centralized ways. This leads to the important trend of imbuing computing systems into operational technology, whether done as calming technology or explicitly managed and integrated with IT. In addition, it gives us important guidance on what to expect with proliferating personal devices, the effect of consumerization on IT decisions, and the necessary capabilities that will be driven by the pressure of rapid inflation in the number of computers for each person.

Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers. A fabric-based computer is a modular form of computing where a system can be aggregated from separate building-block modules connected over a fabric or switched backplane. In its basic form, a fabric-based computer comprises a separate processor, memory, I/O, and offload modules (GPU, NPU, etc.) that are connected to a switched interconnect and, importantly, the software required to configure and manage the resulting system(s). The fabric-based infrastructure (FBI) model abstracts physical resources — processor cores, network bandwidth and links and storage — into pools of resources that are managed by the Fabric Resource Pool Manager (FRPM), software functionality. The FRPM in turn is driven by the Real Time Infrastructure (RTI) Service Governor software component. An FBI can be supplied by a single vendor or by a group of vendors working closely together, or by an integrator — internal or external.

• Reference/Source: gartner.com | Analysts Examine Latest Industry Trends During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 17-21, in Orlando

Software security firm Imperva will release details of its 10 key security trends for 2011 next week. Here is a preview.

1. Man in the browser (MITB) attacks are a new threat which consumers will face and the hacking industry is widely adopting, especially as many security products are not mature enough yet to deal with this problem.

2. File security. With Sharepoint being the fastest growing product in Microsoft history and data growing at a 60% annual rate, file security will become the top security issue. With PCI DSS being expanded to refer not only to databases and web apps but also to files, organisations will need to carefully consider how they protect their files.

3. Smartphones will be the new target in 2011. Hackers are using mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) as a new attack platform. With a number of applications on mobile devices (CRM, Salesforce, Access to work e-mails), these will become more susceptible to attack.

4. Hackers and security side-by-side in the cloud. As organisations' IT infrastructure moves to the cloud, so will their security controls. However these services will also become hot targets for hackers, with the popular ones being the most data-rich, the security on these services will need to be tightened immensely.

5. Insider threat. With more job losses set for 2011, there will be more disgruntled employees than ever. Employees are more likely to want to take information to help them with new jobs or as an act of revenge to pass on to competitors.

6. Social networks have started to blur the notions of privacy and security. 2011 will bring even more confusion when it comes to security and the trust people put in social networks.

7. Convergence of regulations over countries. Convergence of regulations amongst the OECD countries will lead to standardising laws on data security and privacy.

8. Security is becoming part of the business process. With the recent acquisitions of McAfee by Intel and Fortify by HP, suppliers are gaining an understanding of the need to apply security throughout the complete process of building a system. Today, cybersecurity can't be separated from business operations. Security teams need to become business process experts to keep the bad guys disarmed while keeping the good guys productive.

9. Hackers are feeling the heat. Proactive security seems to be the new approach for most security practitioners and due to this more hackers will get caught. However, due to the industrialisation of hacking, hackers will raise their professional bar by "buying" other smaller groups or merging, leaving the more sophisticated hackers in business.

10. Hacktivism meets industrialisation. Hacktivism as we know it has been very targeted. However, hacktivists are learning from the success of industrialised hackers and will soon follow in their footsteps. The attacks will transition from restricted targets to a wide range of targets.

• Reference/Source: computerweekly.com by Ian Grant

If you are in the marketing profession, I think you’ll agree that our profession is experiencing some major disruption.

The traditional marketing theory and methods I learned at Kellogg Graduate School of Management back in the mid-90’s are still very valid. Half the battle is still doing the all important work of market segmentation, targeting, and positioning. I still refer to my 7th edition of Phil Kotler’s textbook Marketing Management from time to time (although that book is now in it’s 12th edition!)

However, back in 1995, we had no clue just how much the Internet would impact marketing over the next 15 years. And the impact has been very significant. The Internet has turned into a game changer for marketing.

Leading edge marketing professionals understand that they need to learn how to leverage all the new digital marketing capabilities. It is a great opportunity to build brand value, increase revenues, and cut down on marketing expenses.

So with that in mind, lets take a look at the top trends in online / digital marketing for 2011.

1. Marketing Budgets Will Continue to Shift Towards Online. Customers and prospects are increasingly going online early in the buying cycle to gather information, form relationships, and make decisions about how they will buy. As a result, marketing leaders must move marketing mix budgets to mirror where the customers and prospects are - online. Online channels can reach a very targeted audience, are lower cost, and are becoming more measurable. As a result we should expect the continued decline in the use of traditional media. This cannibalization of traditional media will bring about new marketing channels, professions, and processes as well as a decline in overall advertising budgets. Traditional agencies and publishers must transform their businesses to include digital marketing capabilities.


2. Social Media Marketing Is Maturing. Those in the marketing profession can sense that we are in the middle of an important transition to the use of social media for marketing purposes. While the past few years many marketers have been experimenting with social media tactics, in 2011, leading marketing teams will be executing social tactics that are fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy. An overall social media marketing process will emerge that has firms following a never ending cycle of 1)Research, 2) Plan, 3) Engage and 4) Measure. Simultaneously, a new set of marketing capabilities are emerging, including Social Listening Research, Influencer Marketing, Community Marketing, and Social Gaming. These new capabilities will require new marketing marketing professional Career Paths and Education tailored to the new social media marketing realities.


3. Mobile Marketing Set To Take Off. In conjunction with the Social Media Marketing trend described above, the interest in mobile marketing has exploded, driven by the tremendous success of and media buzz around Apple’s iPhone, Google’s introduction of Android, and Apple’s introduction of the iPad. As smartphone adoption grows, mobile marketing will expand beyond mobile messaging, and make mobile email, mobile websites and mobile applications viable channels in which to conduct marketing. The combination of new devices, faster networks and new location-aware technology, will fuel this steady march toward greater significance. Some key mobile marketing trends to watch in 2011 include Location Based Services, Mobile Apps, Mobile Gaming, Event-Based Mobile Marketing, and Augmented Reality.


4. Personalized Marketing Customizes Messages To Individual. Expect more personalization capability to be embedded in websites in 2011. Regular visitors to a web site will see a page based on all the information collected from previous visits. Marketers will present personalized sites to these customers by organizing information and prioritizing it based on the individual's liking. Products and services offered on those pages will be pre-configured. “Anonymous” visitors to websites will get customized messages based on referring URL, search terms, geo-location and other insights. Personalized marketing will be extended beyond the website to other digital channels, including social media marketing, mobile marketing, and email marketing.


5. Social Video As A Marketing Tool Gains Momentum. Video is an incredible way to connect with people online. Until the Internet, the only way to get your video message to a mass audience was to pay for a TV commercial. Today, social media sites and video go hand in hand. Distributing video via your social networks is a powerful way to imprint your images into the memory of your customers and prospects. Video strengthens the relationships you have with existing customers and it helps prospects get to know you better. So in 2011, there will be a focus among digital marketing professionals to understand how to make the best use of Video Marketing within Social Media Marketing Strategies and Programs.
6. Search Engine Optimization Gets More Complex. Customers naturally use search engines as their primary vehicle to find information on products and services. But its not a one search engine game anymore as Google’s been joined by Bing in the US market and there are important local players like China’s Baidu and Russia’s Yandex. On top of that, social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are increasingly becoming an important source for searching. Add to that search engine innovation, mobile search, and geo-location search and the job of the marketing professional to ensure their brand is on the first page of search results gets so much more complex.


7. Marketing Analytics Helps Make Sense Of All The Noise. The explosion of social conversations across the many online channels is providing marketers with a never ending stream of incoming data. The challenge for marketing professionals is to turn all that data into insights and then develop strategies/actions based on those insights. Marketing analytics applications can help, but they need to get better at integrating data from all sources (web, search, video, mobile, and social conversations). Analytic applications will also need to get smarter and more predictive about customer buying preferences based on all that data. In 2011, I expect to see a focus on the development of advanced analytic capabilities that can identify, analyze and describe patterns within all the information “noise”, giving marketing professionals important predictive insights they can use for making better decisions.


8. Real Time Web Assistance Connects Buyer With Experts. Online customers and consumers are some of the most impatient and demanding around. They expect answers from your online support group right away. Live chat services allow operators to interact with online customers and respond to their questions quickly, helping you convert web queries into customers and site traffic into transactions. In 2011 watch for leading edge companies to combine the use of Twitter customer service accounts and the real-time chat services to provide ways of connecting product / service experts with customers in real-time in order to solve customer business issues.


9. Online Privacy Concerns Continue. Privacy issues continue to be an important trend for marketing professionals to be out in front of as government regulators have threatened to legislate solutions if the industry does not take action by itself. Creating a secure online transactional environment is absolutely critical to a maintaining trust in customer relationships. All it takes is one significant privacy issue to negatively impact a brand. Privacy concerns from customers have forced brands like Facebook and Google to continually adjust their business models. As enterprise marketing gets more social and mobile, privacy issues must be dealt with very carefully.


10. Digital Marketing Optimization Emerges As A Priority. The past few years we have seen new ‘islands’ of marketing capabilities emerge within the marketing profession. We are moving beyond Web 2.0 with all sorts of new channels and capabilities including mobile (messaging, websites, apps), rich media (video, podcasting, gaming), social media (blogs, microblogging, social networks, user generated content), and more. The state of digital marketing is such that these ‘islands’ are not well integrated into an overall cohesive strategy. In 2011 expect to see a focus from marketing leaders to focus on optimizing and integrating these separate initiatives into an overall umbrella digital marketing strategy.

So these are the online and digital marketing trends I’ll be watching closely in 2011. A look through the above list tells you that there is so happening in online marketing. As it is in almost every industry, Internet technology is totally changing the rules.

• Reference/Source: horizonwatching.typepad.com by Bill Chamberlin

As we say goodbye to the 200x’s and welcome the 201x’s it’s good to pause a bit and think about the world as it was ten years ago. There was no Wikipedia, no YouTube, internet access was still dialup for a huge portion of the population, and we didn’t have a whole heap of really cool robots. To highlight some of the great inventions of the past ten years, we’ve selected 10 of the best robots fom the past 10 years.
With any sort of list like this, things are pretty arbitrary, but we tried to pick robots that have made an impact in our culture or have impacted the hobby or science of robots in a major way. Below you’ll find 10 amazing robots from the military, toy industry, consumer industry, and science community that have had a lasting impact on robotics.
Take a look and tell us what you think. If you had to nominate 10 robots of the decade, who would they be? Keep reading for our picks for robots of the decade.


KeepOn (2007 – present)

KeepOn took the online world by storm in March of 2007 when Marek Michalowski, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, uploaded a film of KeepOn dancing to Spoon’s, “I Turn My Camera On”. The catchy beat plus KeepOn’s utter adorableness prompted over 2 million people to watch the video. KeepOn then went on to star in a WIRED sponsored music video featuring Spoon’s, “Don’t You Evah”. This video garnered another million plus views. KeepOn is hard to describe, other than “incredibly cute”, and it’s still stunning how lifelike and emotive two squishy stacked balls with googly-eyes can be.

Developed by Hideki Kozima, a researcher in cognitive science at Miyagi University in Japan, KeepOn was designed to be an interactive toy to study, “social development and interpersonal coordination as well as in therapeutic practice for children with developmental disorders such as autism“. He features two cameras behind his eyes that allow a researcher or doctor to observe a patient interact with the robot, without being directly involved. KeepOn’s disarming charm and personality allow a broad range of interaction that might be impossible between a normal adult and a child with autism.

KeepOn makes the “Top Robots of the past 10 Years” list simply because of his amazing ability to charm his way into mainstream culture.
PackBot (2001 – present)

iRobot’s PackBot saw its first real action in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, as it searched through the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. The US Military also used them shortly thereafter in Afghanistan to search caves and buildings for insurgents, and to investigate anti-personnel mines. The military quickly realized the usefulness of such a tool and the number of PackBots in use has grown to over 2,000 (iRobot’s site says 2,500 currently in use).
Due to the huge number of road-side bomb attacks in Iraq, iRobot developed an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) package for the PackBot and quickly became a strong competitor in the EOD arena, competing against the much larger and older TALON robots by Foster-Miller. EOD soldiers tended to prefer the PackBot to the TALON due to its more intuitive and responsive controls.

The PackBot’s distinctive design, fast speed, and ruggedness have made it a favorite of robot builders and military personnel alike. Its unique flippers allow it to climb obstacles, right itself, and increase its height to peer over small walls. It can also be carried in a backpack and can be submerged in water. The PackBot has starred in a music video, been recreated with LEGO bricks, and featured in dramatic intellectual property lawsuit.
iRobot’s PackBot makes the list of important robots from the past decade because of its extensive use in the Iraq war, the number of lives it has saved, and the intense bond that soliders form with it while performing operations.

Pleo (2007 – present)

At the DEMO event in 2006 an amazing robot named Pleo was unveiled by Caleb Chung, the creator of the Furby (actually, maybe Furby should be on this list too!). Chung promised a successor to the unbelievably popular Furby, which sold 27 million units in one 12 month period. Pleo was supposed to supersede Furby’s ability to learn and interact with its users while adding the ability to move around by walking.
Pleo was originally announced to cost $200 and be released around Christmas 2006. Both numbers quickly slipped and Pleo was finally released in December of 2007 for a cost of over $300! Amidst all the hype around Pleo, sales were sluggish and Pleo mainly appealed to the techno-savvy crowd. Promises of a Pleo software development kit were delayed, and while Pleo owners were overwhelmingly positive about Pleo, Ugobe (Pleo’s parent company) was never able to convince the average consumer they needed one. In fact, Ugobe really didn’t know how to market Pleo at all. By late 2008 the global economy effectively shut down the company and the IP was auctioned off in April of 2009. Amazingly enough, though, the IP to Pleo was purchased by Jetta Company Limited who announced that they would continue to sell and develop Pleo.

Pleo’s amazing firebird-like story and his continued popularity with owners, children, the elderly, and robot builders put him on this list of top robots from the past 10 years. No one has successfuly produced a consumer product that is so sophisticated, intricate and accessible to the average person. Pleo’s future looks bright as long as Jetta can nail down a target market and successfully advertise Pleo. Educational and hobbiest development looks promising too.


BigDog (2005 – present)

Boston Dynamics calls BigDog, “the most advanced rough-terrain robot on earth.” If you asked someone on the street about BigDog, they’d probably say, “oh yeah! That really creepy looking walking robots. That’s awesome!” While Boston Dynamics claim may certainly be true, the incredible reaction from the general public is the main reason you’re seeing this robot on this list.
Released in 2005, BigDog was designed using funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and was created to serve as a “pack mule” for a solider in the battle field. The robot is about the size of a large dog and can carry a load of up to 340 pounds (150 kg) at 4 miles/hr while climbing over rough terrain and steep inclines. The success of the robot, and most of the creepy charm, comes from its ability mimic the walking motion of real animals. Its design absorbs shock, and recycles energy from one step to the next. It also has an onboard LIDAR and stereo vision system for navigation.
Video of an updated version of BigDog was released in 2008 and has been watched by nearly 10 million people. BigDog’s ability to recover from a kick, and walking on icy surfaces is simply amazing.

BigDog makes this list of robots of the decade because its amazing engineering impresses not only robot lovers, but the general public as well. It even inspired a very funny prody video, with nearly 3 million views.

RoboSapien (2003 – present)

RoboSapien was a unique robotic toy released in 2003. Produced by an obscure Hong Kong based toy manufacturer named WowWee, the $100 walking, talking, robot was a smash hit. For those in the BEAM Robotics community, perhaps the release wasn’t such a surprise, as Mark Tilden, the father of the BEAM field, had quit his job at Los Alamos National Laboratory and moved to Hong Kong to work on robot toys. The RoboSapien quickly won a whole slew of awards and sold close to 2 million units. WowWee released a RoboSapien V2 toy in 2005, and many more toys in the “Robo” lineup.
One of the most unique features of the RoboSapien, and a large portion in its continued popularity, is the intentional “hackability” built into the toy. Tilden designed the toy so that it could be easy modified, and was easy to understand once taken apart. Built on Tilden’s BEAM principles, the RoboSapien was amazingly versatile with just a few motors and sensors.

RoboSapien makes the list of important robots over the past ten years because of its numerous awards, large sales volume and immediate recognition by the average member of the public. WowWee proved that advanced and innovative robots could also be cool and a viable consumer product.

ASIMO and Honda P-Series (2000 – present)

Asimo is the 11th in a line of walking robots developed by Honda, called the P-Series. Unveiled in 2000, Asimo could walk and run like a human, which was an amazing feat. ASIMO had a significant upgrade in 2005, that allowed him to run twice as fast (6 km/hr or 4.3mph), interact with humans, and perform basic tasks like holding a platter and serving food. The current ASIMO models number about 100 worldwide, stand 4.2 feet tall, and weight about 120 lbs.

ASIMO, with his space-suit looking appearance, is cheerful and endearing. He has paved the way for many subsequent walking, human-like robots, but still holds his own as an advanced and powerful robot. ASIMO is a great boon to Honda’s global branding, and helps the company’s appearance of innovation and technology. ASIMO has also appeared in commercials for Honda, like this one, has his own website, and makes many celebrity appearances. A YouTube video showing ASIMO’s 2005 upgrade has had over 2.5 millions views.
ASIMO makes this list because of his winsome appearance, world-wide recognition, and advanced technology.

Aibo (1999 – 2006)

2006 was the year that robot dogs died, when Sony shut down its popular and sophisticated robotics divsion. Started in 1999, Sony produced the very popular Aibo robot dog, which quickly became a favorite robot of dog lovers and high-rolling robot builders alike. Sony developed the robots through three generations and garnered a large following of devoted developers.

Aibo was also the star of the RoboCup’s “robot dog soccer” category, where teams of Aibo’s would compete in a soccer match. With the demise of the Aibo, RoboCup searched for a replacement and selected Aldebaran Robotic’s Nao platform. Estimated sales for Aibo were somewhere around 150,000 units.
Aibo makes the list of robots of the decade because of its continued popularity, numerous uses in research, and tearful story of corporate robo-execution.

Predator Drone (1996 – present)

The Predator drone has been in existence since 1996, but has risen to prominence thanks to the events of September 11, 2001 and consequent wars. Prior to 2001 the unmanned vehicle was strictly for reconnaissance, when it was retrofitted to be armed with hellfire missiles. The Predator Drone has since then been used in countless operations, like this one, and has logged nearly one million hours of flight time. The number of drones used by the Department of Defense has grown from 300 in 2002 to 7,000 in 2009.
The drone, which was developed by the secretive General Atomics company, has flown combat missions in several foreign countries, and is extensively used by the US military in the war in Afghanistan. The Predator’s low airspeed makes it nearly invisible to ground troops, and advanced camera’s and optics allow the ground-based operator to obtain high-resolution images of the ground below.

Most of the Predators are controlled via ground-based troops stationed in Southern California, and the drones are controlled via military satellite links. The video downlink feeds can be access by troops in the field, or by insurgents themselves, as the video feeds aren’t encrypted.
The Predators make this list because they have been instrumental in saving hundreds of soldier’s lives over the course of the past 10 years. It can only be left to the imagination how difficult the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been without powerful air-based surveillance by these robots.

LEGO Mindstorms (1998 – present)

If you were a robot builder or a LEGO fan in 1998, the biggest news of the year was the release of LEGO’s LEGO Mindstorms RIS product. It was revolutionary for a strictly toy company to unveil an advanced robotics platform that appealed to hobbyists, educators, and children alike. The first set, the RIS 1.0 sold well and LEGO released a RIS 2.0 kit shortly thereafter. The RIS set was wildly successful (LEGO’s best selling product) and spawned a huge variety of projects, books, and various compilers. The RIS also had its own competition, the FIRST Lego League competition.
For eight years the set remained substantially the same, while the rest of the world made huge progress in computing power and robotics technology. Then, in early 2006, LEGO announced the creation of a brand new and completely re-imaged Mindstorms kit called “LEGO Mindstorms NXT”. The new kit featured a powerful processor, bluetooth connectivity, a LABView-based programming environment, and several new sensors. The motors in the kit were also significantly upgraded to allow for speed control or position control – a major difficulty in designing robots for the RIS. The kit was released to the public in July of 2006 and was praised as a great addition to the Mindstorms lineup. Amazingly enough, LEGO had designed the new set in a mere eleven months, with the close help from a team of its biggest Mindstorms fans. Mindstorms NXT 2.0 was released in the summer of 2009 and continues to sell well.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT (and RIS) make this list because it has introduced millions of children to the world of robotics. While RIS was relased over 12 years ago, the NXT release in 2006 once again kicked off a flurry of books and innovative creations that excite and inspire. I firmly believe that the world will be a better place 20 or 30 years from now because so many were inspired by the Mindstorms kits and went on to do great things.

Roomba (2002 – present)

It’s awful hard to remember back to 2001 when the dream of floor cleaning robots was still just that – a dream of housewives and robo-fanboys everywhere. iRobot took the household cleaning market by storm when it released its first commercial floor cleaning robot, called the Roomba, in 2002. By 2004 the Roomba had sold 1 million units, when a second generation model was released, the Roomba Discovery series. iRobot has since gone on to release a 3rd generation model in 2007, and a floor scrubbing robot, Scooba. To date 2.5 million Roombas have been sold.

The Roomba makes the list because my grandmother has one. Any robot that can be operated and loved by a technophobe is a rare find and worth celebrating. SNL also did a very funny parody of Roomba, called the “Woomba”.
Onward To The Next 10 Years …

So, there you have it. The 10 most important robots of the past ten years. What do you think? Are there any robots I left off or any robots you think shouldn’t be on this list? It’s been a pretty busy 10 years for robotic innovation, so I don’t doubt there’s plenty more than I could have listed. Here’s to ten great years of robot goodness and high hopes for ten more!



| Reference/Source: gorobotics.net