AMD

AMD Provided what "Nvidia Couldn't" for the 'Playstation 4'

On March 17, Nvidia spoke out on the Playstation 4. They said that they weren’t impressed by the console and that it would quickly become outdated. There was some discussion of whether or not AMD simply won the negotiation battle, because who wouldn’t want to be involved in the ever-expanding console market?

It appears that some of those inferences may hold more truth than previously thought. At this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, AMD has said that they gave the Playstation 4 what Nvidia couldn’t provide. Neal Robison, director of ISV relations at AMD, had this to say during an interview with Techradar:

"[Sony's] approach - and they've said this publicly over the last couple of days here at GDC - was, 'We looked at some of the ways that we approached hardware in the past, and we wanted to improve.' And they looked at us as being able as being able to provide that."

“AMD could provide an integrated solution through its APU that Nvidia couldn't,” he continued, “by optimizing information flows, generating greater performance, better power and heat efficiency, and by providing tools and dev relationships to provide the PS4 a strong launch.”

When asked about what Nvidia said, Robison honorably made an attempt to drop the subject.

"Well, of course they're going to do that,” Robison laughed, “They're a little bitter."

Robison was then asked if AMD would be continuing its working relationship with Microsoft. AMD provided chips for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. Robison deflected the question, but did note that AMD had “tremendous success” with the Xbox 360 and that, “"It was a great partnership and we enjoy working with them.”

Going by the quick dismissal, we’re guessing that AMD has something brewing for Microsoft as well.

Weekly review Sensex

Weekly review: Market ends FY13 on positive note, Sensex, CNX Nifty up 0.5%

Stocks: Both key indices, S&P BSE Sensex and CNX Nifty, closed the fiscal 2012-13 on a positive note, coming off four-month lows and and posting a rise of over 0.5 per cent during the shortened week under review.

The BSE and NSE, which were closed on March 27 and 29 on account of 'Holi' and 'Good Friday', snapped two weeks of downtrend.

Market commenced the week on a strong footing after debt- ridden Cyprus clinched a bailout deal as the Sensex logged a high of 18,950.22.

But, it soon reversed gears on worries over domestic political developments after Samajwadi Party, a key outside ally of UPA Government, indicated it may withdraw support to the ruling coalition at the Centre.

Possibility of political uncertainty triggered concerns about the fate of economic reforms.

Cyprus and its euro-zone partners early Monday reached a deal on a 10-billion euro (USD 13 billion) bailout package for the island nation to avoid bankruptcy and to keep it within the single currency group.

The market had been rattled by withdrawal of support to the UPA Government by the DMK last week and RBI's signal about little room for interest rate cuts in near future following high inflation and current account deficit (CAD), which reached a record high in Q3 of the current fiscal.

On Tuesday, the market snapped its seven-day losing string on short-coverings by operators before the expiry of derivatives contract on March 28. Some winding up of positions towards end of the current financial year also played a key role in the recovery of shares at the tail-end of the week.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share gauge, despite gaining on the last two trading days of the week, touched a fresh four-month intra-day low of 18,568.43 on Thursday. It finally ended the week up 100.17 points, or 0.53 per cent, at 18,835.77. Last week, the BSE benchmark recorded it biggest weekly point-wise fall since second half of December 2011, dropping a whopping 691.96 points, or 3.56 per cent.

The Sensex has gained 1,431.57 points, or 8.23 per cent, in 2012-13 as compared to the previous fiscal.

The broader CNX Nifty of the NSE also recovered by 31.20 points, or 0.55 per cent, over the last week to settle at 5,682.55.

Observing that investor pessimism in the country might be "overdone", German lender Deutsche Bank predicted that the Sensex would close the current calender year at 22,500.

Commenting on Nifty outlook, Rakesh Goel, Senior VP, Bonanza Portfolio, said: "If in coming week, Nifty sustains above 5,700, further recovery is likely. The Nifty at 5,700 shall be crucial deciding level in near term, and the index is likely to witness further buying above this mark."

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) infused Rs 1,947.47 crore in the week, including provisional figure of March 28.

According to analysts, the market will remain subdued as the current account deficit (CAD), announced by the RBI in its report on Balance of Payments on late Thursday (rpt) Thursday, touched a record high of 6.7 per cent of GDP in the October-December quarter.

Possibility of early general elections and concerns over the pace of economic reform process have already dented market sentiments, they added.

Out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 15 scrips finished with gains while remaining others ended with losses.

Major gainers from the Sensex pack were ONGC (5.31 per cent), Coal India (3.93 per cent), HDFC (3.74 per cent), HDFC Bank (3.09 per cent), Hindalco Ind (2.06 per cent), TCS (2.00 per cent), NTPC (1.76 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.65 per cent)

and Sterlite Ind (1.41 per cent).

However, Hero Motocorp dropped by 6.90 per cent followed by RIL at 4.58 per cent, Tata Steel at 3.04 per cent, L&T at 2.39 per cent, Maruti Suzuki at 1.75 per cent, BHEL at 1.69 per cent, Bajaj Auto at 1.53 per cent, M&M at 1.45 per cent

and Jindal Steel at 1.07 per cent.

Among the major indices the S&P BSE-CD rose by 3.95 per cent followed by S&P BSE-PSU 1.63 per cent, S&P BSE-Metal 1.54 per cent, S&P BSE-IT 1.44 per cent, S&P BSE-Teck 1.40 per cent, S&P BSE-Bankex 1.29 per cent and S&P BSE-FMCG 1.13 per cent.

However, the S&P BSE-Auto dropped by 1.20 per cent, S&P BSE-CG 1.16 per cent and S&P BSE-Oil&Gas 1.14 per cent.

The total turnover at BSE and NSE fell to Rs 6,906.07 crore and Rs 23,955.64 crore respectively during the week as against the last weekend's level of Rs 10,973 crore and Rs 56,627.38 crore.

He has millions and a new job at Yahoo

He has millions and a new job at Yahoo, and soon he'll be 18

One of Yahoo's newest employees is a 17-year-old high school student in Britain. As of Monday, he is one of its richest, too.

That student, Nick D'Aloisio, a programming whiz who wasn't even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to Yahoo on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own mobile apps, with D'Aloisio's help.

"I've still got a year and a half left at my high school," he said in a telephone interview Monday. But he will make arrangements to test out of his classes and work from the Yahoo office in London, partly to abide by the company's new and much-debated policy that prohibits working from home.


D'Aloisio, who declined to comment on the price paid by Yahoo (the technology-oriented website AllThingsD pegged the purchase price at about $30 million), was Summly's largest shareholder.

Summly's other investors, improbably enough, included Wendi Murdoch, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono. The most important one was Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, whose investment fund supported D'Aloisio's idea early on, before it was even called Summly.

"They took a gamble on me when I was a 15-year-old," D'Aloisio said, by providing seed financing that let him hire employees and lease office space.

The fund read about D'Aloisio's early-stage app on TechCrunch, the Silicon Valley blog of record, found his email address and startled him with a message expressing interest.

The others signed up later. "Because it was my first time around, people just wanted to help," he said.

For teenagers who fancy themselves entrepreneurs - and their parents, too - the news of the sale conjured up some feelings of inadequacy, but also awe. For Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, a mobile rewards company, the reaction was downright laughable: "I feel old!"

A few years ago, Wong was described in the news media as the youngest person ever to receive venture capital funding. But a couple of younger founders came along - "and then Nick broke all of our records," Wong said Monday.

Among the attributes that 

helped D'Aloisio, he said, was a preternatural ability to articulate exactly what he wanted Summly to be. "There were no umms, no uhhs, no hesitations, no insecurities," Wong said.

D'Aloisio, for his part, sounded somewhat uninterested in answering questions about his age on Monday. He acknowledged that it was an advantage in some pitch meetings, and certainly in the media, "but so was the strength of the idea." He was more eager to talk about his new employer, Yahoo, which is trying to reinvent itself as a mobile-first technology company (having dropped the digital media tagline it used before Marissa Mayer became chief executive last year).

"People are kind of underestimating how powerful it's going to become and how much opportunity is there," he said.

For a company that badly wants to be labeled innovative, those words are worth a lot.

D'Aloisio's father, who works at Morgan Stanley, and his mother, a lawyer, had no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their son's fascination with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an app with what he calls an "automatic summarization algorithm," one that "can take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it." In other words, it tries to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation tl;dr: "too long, didn't read."

Summly officially came online in November. By December, D'Aloisio was talking to Yahoo and other suitors.

Yahoo said in a statement that while the Summly app would be shut down, "we will acquire the technology and you'll see it come to life throughout Yahoo's mobile experiences soon."

Other news-reading apps have attracted corporate attention as of late, reflecting the scramble by media companies to adapt to skyrocketing traffic from mobile devices. The social network LinkedIn was said to be pursuing an app called Pulse this month. Still, the eight-figure payday for a teenage entrepreneur Monday struck some as outlandish and set off speculation that Yahoo was willing to pay almost any price for "cool."

D'Aloisio, though, will have plenty of time to prove his and his algorithm's worth. As for the sizable paycheck from Yahoo, he said he did not have any specific plans for the sudden windfall. "It's going to be put into a trust fund and my parents will help manage it," he said.

He did say, however, that "angel investing could be really fun." When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies - cricket in particular - and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.

IT websites in India

IT websites in India are the top targets for phishers: Report

 

Phishers have already made their mark in the financial sector by causing more than 130 crore loss to Indian banks in the last 3 years due to various sophisticated attacks, news reports have stated.
While the country is still feeling the heat of the advancement and exponential rise in phishing attacks, the Symantec Intelligence Report on phishing sites in India reveals Information Technology sites to be the most vulnerable amongst the targeted websites by the Phishers last year.
According to Symantec February Intelligence report, the global phishing rate increased by 0.018 percentage points, taking the global average rate to one in 466.3 emails (0.214 percent) since January 2013. In the month of January, the number of phishing URLs associated to Indian brands accounted for 0.15% of the global phishing statistics.

While education was at the top of the most targeted websites in 2011, but fell to second place in 2012. The states in India where phishing sites spoofing education websites was most prevalent were Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Punjab.
This implies a new wave of phishing attacks among various organizations as the cyber criminals become highly sophisticated and targeted. Phishers continue to pursue Indian sites across many disciplines to host their phishing pages. The most targeted Indian sites are classified in various categories - Information Technology (14.40%), Education (11.90%), Product Sales and Services (9.80%), industrial and manufacturing (7.30%), and Tourism, Travels and Transport (5.80%).
The figures for secure websites such as Government, Telecommunication, and ISP were low and at the bottom of the list. This offers evidence that phishers opt to target more vulnerable websites.

Google working on smartwatch

Google working on smartwatch: Report

LONDON: Internet search giant Google's Android team is reportedly working on a smart watch that would compete with Apple's iWatch.

The reported Google device is separate from the Samsung smartwatch, which the Korean firm this week confirmed that it is working on. A Google smartwatch has not been confirmed, but is working on has not been confirmed, but came via an insider briefing to the FT.

According to the Telegraph, the leak would, however, seem to be confirmed by the fact that last year Google had a patent application approved for a "smart watch" with dual-screen "flip-up display", and a camera.

The patent filing also mentioned a "tactile user interface", or touchscreen. The paper pointed out that the challenge facing smartwatch designers is miniaturisation.

The major task is to fit all technologies, screens, processors, GPS, mobile software, Bluetooth wireless networking, into something small enough to look stylish on a wrist.

YouTube hits one billion

YouTube hits one billion monthly users

YouTube, the world's largest online video-sharing platform, today said it now has more than a billion unique users every single month, or nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits the Google-owned site.

"If YouTube were a country, we'd be the third largest in the world after China and India. Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube," the YouTube Team said in a blog post.

"PSY (the South Korean rapper) and Madonna would have to repeat their Madison Square Garden performance in front of a packed house 200,000 more times. That's a lot of Gangnam Style!" said the fast-growing video website.

From the aspiring filmmaker in his basement and the next great pop musician, to the fans all around the world who tune in, subscribe and share their favourite videos with the planet, thank you for making YouTube what it is today. You have truly created something special, said the YouTube Team.

Founded in 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. In 2006, Google bought the website for USD 1.65 billion

 

Google updates Gmail for Android

Google updates Gmail for Android; lets you reply from notifications 

New Delhi: Google has rolled out a new update to its Gmail app for Android, thereby saving your time on the actions - reply, archive, and search - you often use. Users, who are using the Gmail app on an Android 4.1+ device, can reply and archive messages right from notifications with one quick tap.

When you expand the notification, you will find a box containing options to reply and archive. The new app also introduces faster search and better search suggestions so you can find your messages quickly online and offline. Users can get the latest version of Gmail on Google Play.

"You can combine this with existing notification features like the ability to customise which messages you receive notifications for and set up different sounds for individual labels. So if you filter and label all the messages from your mom, you could set a ringtone to let you know you received a new mail from her and then quickly reply (because we know what can happen when you ignore your mother!)," said Andy Huang, Software Engineer, in a blog post.

Users, who are using the Gmail app on an Android 4.1+ device, can reply and archive messages right from notifications with one quick tap.

Fujitsu smartphone can check your pulse

Fujitsu has unveiled a smartphone that can take a person's pulse by looking at their face.

Fujitsu's camera can measure a person's pulse. Photo: AFP

Pointing the smartphone camera at a person's face for around five seconds will give an accurate reading of their pulse, Fujitsu says.

The Japanese firm says the technology could be available within a year and could have health benefits as well as possible security applications.

The application works by analysing variations in a person's face caused by the flow of blood through numerous blood vessels running through the face.

"Even at a busy workplace, or any time a person is sitting in front of a PC, whether for teleconferencing or writing e-mails, their pulse can be measured during brief moments of quiet," the company said in a press release.

The company suggests that cameras at concerts or other events could monitor crowds to spot people who are in poor health. At airports, the technology could be used to identify people who are acting suspiciously.

Virus can generate electricity

Virus can generate electricity,charge your 

smartphones and tablets

Move over wireless, induction chargers here comes a virus which can generate electric current. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to generate power using harmless viruses that convert mechanical energy into electricity. The team succeeded in powering an LCD screen using the power generated by the virus.

How it works?
The scientists coated a postage stamp-sized electrode with specially engineered viruses M13. When someone taps on this electrodes the viruses convert the force of the tap into an electric charge.

During the initial tests the electrode produced  up to six nanoamperes of current and 400 millivolts of potential when tapped, which is about a quarter the voltage of a AAA battery. That much current was enough to power the display and show number 1 on it.

You will never run out of batteries as being a virus, M13 replicates itself by the millions within hours, so it continues to 'create' more batteries. The virus is safe for humans as it only attacks bacteria and is found to be benign to people.

The team of scientists which conducted this research compries of Seung-Wuk Lee, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and a UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and a professor of materials sciences, engineering, and physics at UC Berkeley; and Byung Yang Lee of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division.

"More research is needed, but our work is a promising first step toward the development of personal power generators, actuators for use in nano-devices, and other devices based on viral electronics," says Seung-Wuk Lee, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and a UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering.

So your phone is running out of battery? Tap it!

Nimbuzz Hits 150 Million

Nimbuzz Hits 150 Million Raising Competition for Facebook in Asia

Aren''t free apps, just the best? Nimbuzz which is a free Instant messaging platform announced that it's global user count has crossed 150 million mark. Looks like Facebook messenger has something to be worried about now. Nimbuzz has a customer base spreading over 200 countries and Asia contributes 60 percent of the total user base, with India having the highest. According to a survey from Nielsenindia, Nimbuzz is ranked 4th in the list of top consumer brands in India, ahead of Facebook messenger, YouTube and Gmail.

Nimbuzz reached 50 million users in August 2011 and 100 million in August 2012. Observation wise the user base for Nibuzz seems to be doubling every year. Nimbuzz is available for all major platforms including BlackBerry 10, Android, iOS, Symbian, Windows Phone, and J2ME. It is also available for Windows and Mac computers

Nimbuzz which started in 2006, was originally a Netherland based company, but after creating an office in India, in 2008, it quickly blew into an India based one.

Nimbuzz combines the powers of the Internet and mobile communications into one, and lets you make calls, send messages and share files, on any mobile device, for free

Things you can do with Nimbuzz

Call, chat and messaging on your terms, plus photos, music and video sharing.

Be there for your friends - Stay connected, see who's online, and what they are up to.

Connect with new friends in chat rooms and meet face-to-face via location sharing.

For everyone. No matter what device, Nimbuzz most likely supports it, so go ahead and invite your friends.

RoboFest 2013 –VIT University

ROBO FEST 13 BY VIT UNIVERSITY 

Welcome to RoboFest 2013 – The BIGGEST Robotic Festival of the Season!

RoboFest 2013 is being organized by roboVITics – the official robotics club of VIT University, Vellore, in association with Robotics and Control Division, School of Electrical Engineering.

RoboFest 2013 will be organized on April 20th-21st, 2013 at VIT Vellore Campus. RoboFest includes the following never seen before mix of events, which will indeed be the BIGGEST robotics fest ever conducted in India.

• Exhibitions
• Scientific Talks
• Robotic Pro-shows
• Robotic Games
• Competitions

Come and experience a whole new world of robotics. Its just how we do it – ROBOTICS REDEFINED!

For details about anything about RoboFest, feel free to ring up the following numbers anytime!

Prashant Agarwal, Fest Manager, +91 904 333 0393
Sarthak Dubey, Fest Manager, +91 979 050 5162

link : http://robofest.in/

Google Online Marketing Challenge 2013

Google Online Marketing Challenge 2013

Welcome to the 2013 Google Online Marketing Challenge

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an exciting opportunity for students to experience and create online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords and Google+. Over 50,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 5 years.

With a $250 budget provided by Google, students develop and run an online advertising campaign for a business or non-profit organization over a three week period. The teams that develop and communicate the most successful campaigns win awesome prizes, including a trip to Google for the students and their professor. Students also have the opportunity to participate in the optional Google+ Social Media Marketing Award by maintaining a Google+ Page for their clients over a six week period.

The Challenge is open to student teams of three to six members, regardless of their majors. All students must register under a verified professor/instructor at a higher education institution. Visit Discover GOMC to learn more about the Challenge and how to participate.

Be sure to follow us on our Google+ page for the latest updates and announcements throughout the year.

DESCRIPTION

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an exciting opportunity for students to experience and create online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords and Google+. Over 50,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 5 years. With a $250 budget provided by Google, students develop and run an online advertising campaign for a business or non-profit organization over a three week period. The teams that develop and communicate the most successful campaigns win awesome prizes, including a trip to Google for the students and their professor. Students also have the opportunity to participate in the optional Google+ Social Media Marketing Award by maintaining a Google+ Page for their clients over a six week period. The Challenge is open to student teams of three to six members, regardless of their majors. All students must register under a verified professor/instructor at a higher education institution. Visit Discover GOMC to learn more about the Challenge and how to participate. Competition Process: For more details on each of the steps, please refer to the sections on the left side of this page. Step 1: Register for the Challenge. Professors register for the Challenge and are verified by Google. Students form teams of 3-6 members and appoint a team campaign. The team captain then registers under the verified professor, who in turn confirms each student team by clicking a verification link sent via email after the team registers. See Registration for more information. Step 2: Create and Link AdWords Account. Once the professor has received a notification email and has verified the student team, the team can enter in the Customer ID (CID) of the AdWords account that the team creates at adwords.google.com. Step 3: Select a Business. The team along with its professor should identify a client business or non-profit organization. See Selecting a Business for more details. Step 4: Learn about AdWords and the Client. Review the Educational Resources and Digital Marketing Course. Student teams meet with the business or non-profit organization and determine the campaign goals and strategy, which is then included in the Pre-Campaign Report. Step 5: Upload Pre-Campaign Reports and Credit AdWords Account. Once the student teams have uploaded their Pre-Campaign Reports, student teams request crediting within the dashboard. We will then verify and credit the associated AdWords account with US$250. Step 6: Run Campaign. You may run your campaign over any three consecutive weeks from February 12, 2013 to June 14, 2013. Step 7: Write and Submit Post-Campaign Report/Impact Statement. Your report must be submitted within four weeks of your AdWords campaign ending, but no later than June 14, 2013. If you chose a non-profit organization and wish to be eligible for the Social Impact Award, you must append an Impact Statement to your report. Step 8: Google+ Social Media Marketing Award (Optional). Student teams that wish to be eligible for the Google+ Social Media Marketing Award should work with their business or non-profit to create and maintain a Google+ page (along with the AdWords campaign) for six consecutive weeks between February 12 and June 14, 2013. See Running a Campaign for more information. Step 9: Judging and Awards. Google and a panel of independent academics from all over the world select the winning teams based on the success of their campaign and the quality of their competition reports. Winners will be announced to all participants in August 2013.

GOMC 2013 KEY DATES

Professor Registration: January 14 - May 3, 2013 Student Registration: February 12 - May 10, 2013 AdWords and Google+ Campaign Window: February 12 - June 14, 2013 Deadline for Uploading Reports: June 14, 2013 All Awards Winners Announcement: August 2013

REGISTERATION DETAILS

Please follow this link.

PRIZE DETAILS

AdWords Awards Global Winners Regional Winners Google+ Social Media Marketing Award Winners Social Impact Award Winners Winning teams will also receive the following donations for their partners: 1st place - $15,000 donation to the non-profit partner 2nd place - $10,000 donation to the non-profit partner 3nd place - $5,000 donation to the non-profit partner All winners and their professors will be provided with personalized certificate of appreciation noting their status as a prize winner in the Competition.

EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE

https://www.facebook.com/GoogleChallenge