Technology World has been moved to a new registered blog called The Exciting Internet. More updates and exciting information will be posted there and this blog will stop operating from now on.

Pls visit: http://www.exciting-internet.com for more information

Thank you and happy reading!

Ever wonder what information Google knows about you? With a click or two, now you can find out.

Google released a feature Thursday that lets users see and control data that the Web giant has collected about them. Called Google Dashboard, the service provides an online summary of a user’s Google files — Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa photos and so on — by collecting pre-existing privacy controls in one place.

Dashboard users can review and delete recent Google searches, see recently opened and shared documents and survey their interactions with other Google-powered sites such as YouTube.

Google, which has come under fire from politicians and privacy advocates for its data-collection practices, announced the service with a blog post headlined, “Transparency, Choice and Control — now complete with a Dashboard!”

“Over the past 11 years, Google has focused on building innovative products for our users,” the company said in its official blog on Thursday. “Today, with hundreds of millions of people using those products around the world, we are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data.”

The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, which has been critical of the amount of personal data Google stores, called the dashboard a small step in the right direction.

“If Google really wanted to give users control over their privacy it would give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the company and its advertisers in crucial areas such as search data and online behavior,” spokesman John M. Simpson said on the group’s Web site.

“The Dashboard give the appearance of control without the actual ability to prevent Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers.”

Reviews in the blogosphere Thursday appeared relatively muted for a feature Google described as unprecedented in scale and level of detail.

“Sure, it’s nice to have all these in one place, should you ever want to review all your private information stored at Google at once, but there’s nothing really new about this list,” said Stan Schroeder, a blogger at social media site Mashable. “Unfortunately, it’s also an unpleasant reminder of just how much data you’re giving out to Google.”

Tech blogger Matt Asay, writing for CNET, said most Google users won’t bother with Dashboard because people are willing to sacrifice some Internet privacy in exchange for being able to store and share information online.

“Dashboard leaves Google in the prime position of being able to honestly say that it doesn’t control user data, while still delivering increasingly beneficial services based on that data,” he wrote. “It will not change the way that the vast majority of consumers use Google, but it just might change the way they think about Google.”

Courtesy of: Cnn.Com

Determine for yourself  if the apps i listed below are useful to you.

AudioBoo lets you record and share mp3 audio files up to three minutes in length.  You can add text, titles, photos as well as geolocation info. (Free)

PocketMeter allows you to measure any room or distance using sound to bounce off objects.  You just point the iPhone’s microphone at the floor or wall and tap on the screen.  The app emits sound and measures the time it takes for the echo to return.  It can calculate distances between 8 inches and 13 feet within 0.4 inches of accuracy. ($0.99)

Sonar Ruler similarly uses echoes to measure distances up to 60 feet. ($0.99)

AppSniper is an app about apps.  It allows you to track apps when they go on sale and it tells you when they are within your price range. ($0.99)

Boxcar conveniently sends you push notifications anytime you receive a mention or a direct message on your Twitter account.  It conveniently works with most Twitter clients, so you can view a message once you receive a push. ($2.99)

Pocket Universe, an augmented reality app, is a planetarium in your pocket.  Just point your phone up to the sky, and it simulates the exact night sky above you, complete with the names of all the constellations.  The app works best on the iPhone 3GS, which has a digital compass and an accelerometer. ($2.99)

AutoStitch lets you create panoramas out of multiple pictures you snap with your iPhone’s camera. ($1.99)

Geocaching is a global treasure-hunting game where players can locate hidden containers or ‘geocaches.’  The app uses the iPhone’s GPS capability to provide a list of real-time information about geocaches near your location. It’s available in English, Dutch, French, German and Japanese.  ($9.99)

Last week, we heard news about Sony cutting their Playstation 3 price to $299. This week, another great news for console gamers, Microsoft is cutting their Xbox 360 Elite`s price by $100!. I`m still waiting for news to see if the price cut will include Malaysia as well but at the meantime, lets start saving money and get ourselves a discounted Elitebox!

*SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Microsoft Corp. is slashing the price of its high-end Xbox 360 model by $100, ratcheting up the stakes in the game console fight this holiday season.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) will drop the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.99, it said Thursday, just days after Sony cut the rival PlayStation 3 to $299.

The price on the entry-level Xbox Arcade model will stay at $199.99, and Microsoft will phase out its mid-range Pro console, leaving it with two models. The Pro will sell for $249.99 until supplies run out. The global price cut is effective Friday.*

Ever wondered if theres any device out there that enables you to combine both your digital and reality world together? Have you ever wish to have an ability to be informative wherever you go, by just using your mobile phone? Well introducing, Layar, the world`s first mobile augmented reality browser. Make real time purchases & check real time information;its all reality based! Now if tht isnt cool enough, check out the demo below.

This service was launched last June in the Netherlands for the first time and a lot of techy users out there are already paying attention to the usability and benefits this Layar has to offer. Let`s see if Layar will be as hot as Tweeter in future.

iPhone 3GS may be a very hot and possibly the most talked topic among techy guys out there these days. When they were launched last month, the sale of this model was so overwhelming that it actually helped Apple in generating positive revenue in a single quarter, even under such economic situation.

While you were busy playing with the iPhone that you have waited for so long, have you ever wondered if there`s any security problem that might exist in your iPhone`s OS that could easily jeopardize your reputation through some information thefts etc? Well, there is.

During a Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas last Thursday, security experts presented a flaw in iPhone`s SMS service where hackers can get into your iPhone through SMS protocol to launch a Denial of Service (DoS) attack that enables them to take over your device and thn do whatever they want with the phone that belongs to you!

Imagine what would happen if someone manage to hack into your iPhone, then send out the same SMSes to all your friends in your phone book, and the same thing then happen to your friends phones. Apple would be in big trouble basically.

To counter this issue, Apple launched a new patch for their OS (patch 3.0.1) last Friday right after the security flaw presentation by the experts the day before, claiming that this patch 3.0.1 was released to fix this security flaw. I’m not really sure if this will work but do remember to update your iPhone OS as soon as possible, if you havent, and keep yourself posted on any updates regarding this issue.

The fact that some of these businessmen are more creative than other original mobile phones manufacturer in terms of their promotional activities as well as their selling method (its a lot cheaper as well), their sales are taking over a huge chunk of profits from the main players such as Apple, Nokia, Motorola etc.

Whats more? They actually export their ‘bandit phones’ to other countries for sale as well? Thats amazing. So for those of you who are targeting or soon to buy the upcoming iPhone 3GS, make sure you check with Apple first to make sure they are original. You dont wanna buy an iPhone that has a label “Made in Guangzhou, China”

Article link: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/29/china.fake.phones/index.html

“Blipping” is a famous word that most music lovers out there are using nowadays, thanks to the creation of a twitter-style music streaming website called Blip.fm (www.blip.fm). Using similar concept and layout as Twitter.com, if you are registered, you can choose to follow other users that are sharing the same genre of music as yours, simply by typing in the name of artists that you like in the search text box; a list of other users (or so-called DJs) will appear

The best part of this site is besides following other DJs and listening to their musics, you can be a DJ yourself as well by selecting and playing the genre of music that you like. People will start searching for you and be your followers, depending on the kind of musics that you play.

Sounds similar to Twitter? Yes it is Twitter like but the only function that Blip.fm dont provide for the time being is the short message posting to the site using mobile phone. Everything has to be done online.

Check out this cool site if you are a music lover or if you have the intention of broadcasting the musics that you listen everyday to your friends and family. I’ve registered and tested it and so far i`d managed to listen to all sort of nice songs played by other DJs that share the same interest as you. Lets see if Blip.fm can be as successful as Twitter.com one day

Fueled by strong computer and iPhone sales, Apple had a robust third quarter — posting a 15 percent jump in net profit compared with last year.

Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh computers and 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter — a 626 percent unit growth for the iPhone over the year-ago quarter.

“We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.

The company reported a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, on revenue of $8.34 billion for the quarter ending June 27.

This time last year, earnings were $1.07 billion or $1.17 a share on $7.46 billion in revenue.

“Even though expectations were low, the record earnings really aren’t surprising,” said Roger Tutterow, economics professor at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. “Early numbers last week from the technology firm Intel were pretty strong as well so it’s probably an indication that despite a global economic recession some of the technology companies are holding up pretty well.”

While many companies right now are having a difficult time staying afloat financially, Apple’s main issue seems to be stocking enough iPhones.

The demand for the product is so overwhelming that the company has been forced to delay by a few weeks the introduction of their latest iPhone, the 3GS, in roughly 60 countries.

It is already available in 18 countries.

Products like the iPhone have allowed Apple to be a trend setter in the industry, Tutterow said.

“Apple has historically tried to be an innovator in terms of product, not only on the PC side, but also in terms of the iPhone. They have done quite well,” he said.

Not all news was rosy for Apple, however.

The company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter

*Source: Cnn.com

From: Cnn.Com

A significant redesign is finally coming to the Yahoo.com home page, one of the most well-traveled destinations on the Internet, and the company’s search page will follow suit starting next month.

Yahoo plans to let people in the United States start selecting a new, more personalized version of the home page beginning Tuesday afternoon.

The revamp lets people select basic applications to use not just Yahoo sites, but also others’ such as eBay, Facebook, and Twitter, said Tapan Bhat, Yahoo’s senior vice president for consumer experiences.

These applications are available on the left side of the page under a customizable section called My Favorites; hovering over them with the mouse pointer makes each application and its accompanying advertising pop up.

“We’re pulling together everything about the user they care about, be it on Yahoo or off, to create a personally relevant experience,” Bhat said. “In a world like this, Yahoo needs to make the user experience come first.”

The effort is a centerpiece of Yahoo’s effort to revitalize its core business: showing content and accompanying advertisements to a large, general audience on the Net. Yahoo’s profitability for years has trailed that of its main rival, Google, which depends chiefly on search ads for revenue, and Yahoo faces increasing pressure from Microsoft’s online business and new arrivals such as Facebook as well.

The company also hopes for more success with advertisers. “We’re creating great opportunities for advertisers to target content and context,” he said, demonstrating a movie application that showed a prominent ad along with movie showtimes locally tailored for a particular user.

The My Favorites feature will arrive on Yahoo’s search page, too, making the search site and results shown on it into more of a portal to access content. Yahoo faces search pressure from dominant Google and now to a certain extent from Microsoft’s Bing, too.

Even if it consummates a possible search and advertising deal with Microsoft, being able to show its own display ads in applications adjacent to search results could help the company extract more money from its search operation.

Long-coming changes

Newer Web sites change rapidly, but Yahoo proceeds at a relatively glacial pace to change its site, visited by a whopping 340 million people monthly.

Yahoo announced the new front page plan in October 2007, recognizing that people wanted to get to other destinations on the Net besides Yahoo’s. It began “bucket testing” it a year afterward, trying variations of the new page on randomly selected users, some of whom squawked at the changes and their inability to revert.

New Chief Executive Carol Bartz has been trying to light a fire under the company’s developers, but even this revamp is only is the beginning beta testing on Tuesday.

The change will arrive in the U.K., France, and India later this week, in Spain and Mexico next month, and in Asia next year, Yahoo said.

Users had no choice about earlier tests, but now they’ll be able to select it as default on their own by visiting http://yahoo.com/try new or clicking on Yahoo promotions for the change.

“The home page was tested by thousands and thousands of people. We got tons of feedback — tens of thousands wrote about what they liked and didn’t,” Bhat said. “It was really key to helping us figure out what worked and didn’t.”

The new home page will become default for others when beta testing is done “in the coming months,” Yahoo said. The revamped search pages will enter bucket testing in August, meaning that users can’t choose to use or not use the new design.

More changes

Opening up Yahoo’s content to other sites’ operations — and letting other sites use Yahoo data can use such as Facebook-like status updates — is part of the Yahoo Open Strategy.

That effort, under way for well over a year, is designed to increase users’ activity on Yahoo, to draw more people to Yahoo, and to make the company a better partner for advertisers.

There are about 60 applications available now, and more are being added daily, Bhat said. Users can create their own, too.

Also coming in August will be the ability to select what type of news people can see, with a slider that moves on a spectrum between “fun” and “serious,” he said.

In addition, Yahoo is revamping its mobile site. One big feature: when users customize Yahoo for use with regular computers, that customization will carry over to their mobile version.

Bhat wouldn’t share details about whether the new home page fares better, either in terms of user engagement or revenue. However, because Yahoo plans to make its official home page announcement Tuesday while detailing second-quarter financial results, it’s possible Bartz may be more forthcoming than Bhat.

Bhat did indicate, though, that things are moving in the right direction for the company.

“Our experience in our test indicates that people are excited about this home page. They feel this meets their needs and is fresh new look for Yahoo,” Bhat said. “We are designing the page around users. What we do know when design page that users like, they tend to get more engaged.”