Samsung S3 'most popular phone of the year'

Samsung’s new Galaxy S3 phone is the fastest-selling pre-order phone of the year, Carphone Warehouse has revealed.

Although the retailer said Samsung would not allow it to release specific numbers at this point, it confirmed that "thousands" of customers have preordered the new flagship Google Android device.

More than 800 Carphone shops will stock the phone at launch, which will go on sale at 7.00pm and May 29 to those who have pre-ordered it. General sales will begin the following day.

Graham Stapleton, Chief Commercial Officer at Carphone Warehouse, claimed, "Pre-order demand for the new Galaxy S3 has surpassed expectations since the handset was first unveiled two weeks ago. The first 24 hours alone saw thousands placing their pre-order at Carphone Warehouse."

The news will come as a further boost to Android's operating system, which already accounts for more than half the world's smartphones. Earlier this week it was reported that 9 million S3s had been pre-ordered by more than 100 carriers.

Korean Samsung is the biggest mobile phone company in the world, ahead of long-time number one Nokia, and also the biggest maker of smartphones ahead of Apple.

Apple's latest iPhone, the 4S, was preordered more than one million times in its first 24 hours of online availability to a global audience, but no further official figures or breakdowns were released.

Stapleton added, "The Galaxy S3 is without a doubt the fastest selling pre-order of 2012 so far. We're gearing up for an exceptionally busy launch day at the end of the month as the handset lands on shelves at our stores across the UK."

The Korea Economic Daily also claims that Samsung’s factory is producing five million S3 devices a month, and is already operating at full capacity.

The Galaxy S3, unveiled at an international launch held at London’s Earls Court arena, includes innovative new features such as eye tracking so that the screen stays on while a user is looking at it.

Samsung has already said that it will "substantially contribute" to its second-quarter earnings. In the UK it will be free with monthly tariffs from £28 per month. The manufacturer is hoping the device will replicate the success of its predecessor, the SII, which has sold a total of 20million units.

The S3 also features a 4.8” display, one of the largest on the market, and the ability to automatically initiate a call to a contact onscreen when the phone is held up to its user’s face. Samsung has also added voice control, similar to Apple’s ‘personal assistant’ Siri, and will offer 50GB of online storage via a partnership with Dropbox.com.

Samsung has also announced that the device will be the official phone of the London Olympics, and said that “a limited edition showcase device enabled with Visa’s mobile payment application, Visa payWave, will be available for Samsung and Visa sponsored athletes and trialists”.

Microsoft's smartphone share is now below 2 per cent globally, while LG and Sony's is also falling.

Windows 7 overtakes Vista and XP

According to the measurements of NetApplications, Windows 7 (perhaps the most complex software platform for mass consumption) has reached in only three months the market share reached by Vista in almost a year.

Windows 7 ended January with a usage rate of 7.5%, a level that its predecessor, Windows Vista  reached only after 11 months from its launch in January 2007.

In January also both Windows XP and Vista have lost market share in favor of Windows 7.

Windows XP has reached  66.3% market share, down 1.46%. Vista has lost 0.5 percent and reached 17.4% share. 

If the trend of the last three months doesn’t change, Windows 7 will overcome vista and will be ranked second in the top of the most popular operating systems in June.

Microsoft launches So.cl network

Software giant Microsoft has launched So.cl (pronounced "social"), a social 'network' that was tested by university students in 2011. According to Microsoft, So.cl is an experimental research project developed by the company's FUSE Labs focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning.

The service per se doesn't look similar to Facebook or Twitter. According to its FAQ, "So.cl is not meant to replace existing full-featured search and social networking tools. It is an experimental research project using a minimal set of features which help combine search with the social network for the purpose of learning."

Adding another layer to social networking it requires users to login through either their Facebook or Windows Live account. So.cl uses Facebook authentication, and a user's name and profile picture from Facebook also appears in So.cl.

However, by default Microsoft does not post any content from So.cl into Facebook stream. If a user chooses, he or she can post content to Facebook using the 'share to Facebook' feature in So.cl.

As for how it works, So.cl search is powered by Bing. Microsoft uses the public Bing APIs to display search result data. As students work together, they often look for the same content, and discover new shared interests by sharing results. These results can be web pages, images, or videos found through Bing. So.cl experiments on this concept by letting users share links as they search.

Facebook may allow children to join

 Facebook may relax a ban on children under the age of 13 joining its site after finding that many kids, some with their parents' permission and help, were already using it. 


"There is reputable evidence that there are kids under 13 who are lying about their age to get on to Facebook," Sunday Times quoted Simon Milner, Facebook's head of policy in Britain as saying. 


"Some seem to be doing it with their parents' permission and help," Milner said. If the decision to lift the ban is implemented, a flood of new users are likely to sign up to the social network, which floated on the stock market last week for $105 billion last week. 


The number of people with profiles - currently estimated at 900 million active users - would probably hit the iconic one billion mark, meaning that more than one in seven people in the world would be an active user of the site. 


However, Milner said the decision to allow children to create profiles was still at a very early stage. Milner said he will launch a debate about the minimum age in Britain when he appears next month at Wellington college, Berkshire. 


"We have a strict under-13 rule because of legal issues in America," he said. 
"We apply the same rule all over the world. But a lot of parents are happy their kids are on it. We would like to hear from people what the answer might be." Supporters of the minimum age believe it helps shield children from cyberbullying and inappropriate contact with adults. 


Past surveys in the UK have suggested that one in three British children has been the victim of abuse on the internet. The poll, commissioned by charity Beatbullying in 2009, also revealed that girls are up to four times more likely to face online bullying than boys, Daily Mail reported. Some school bullies have even set up Facebook groups allowing dozens of people to band together to abuse classmates, it said. Facebook has responded to criticism in the past by adding a number of safety features to the site to attempt to combat online bullying.

A Guide to the Classes in Diablo III

Fans of Diablo ? Now check this this one out.

Diablo III is finally here and if pre-orders are any indication, many of you are probably already playing it. With five separate classes that each have their own unique playstyle, you may be having trouble picking which one to play first. Luckily we've got a guide to choosing which class is right for you so you can start facing Hell's most powerful demons as fast as possible.

Demon Hunter

Great if your favorite Diablo II character was: the Amazon or Assassin. Diablo III's Demon Hunter is probably the most complex character to play, at least in the early going. With two separate resource systems to manage (Hatred and Discipline) and a fairly small health pool, the Demon Hunter tends to punish mistakes. However, the high damage output and multiple abilities to get yourself out of trouble makes it an ideal class for people who like playing as a frail but powerful character. If you enjoy the thought of destroying everything on screen before they manage to touch you, the Demon Hunter may be the class for you.

Wizard

Great if your favorite Diablo II character was: the Sorcerer. Diablo has had a spellcaster in all three of its iterations, and Diablo III's Wizard feels like a natural progression. It has the same frenetic feel as Diablo II's sorcerer while adding in some new tweaks. While the Sorcerer could occasionally feel starved for resources while constantly casting (at least until you got to higher levels) the Wizard starts off as a magic-casting machine. While this means the Wizard's attacks aren't quite as powerful as the sorcerer felt early in Diablo II, it solves the "hurry up and wait" game Diablo II could sometimes turn into while retaining the flashy effects and damaging spells players loved from Diablo II's ranged spell slinger.

Witch Doctor

Great if your favorite Diablo II character was: the Necromancer. The Witch Doctor is Diablo III's summoner character class. If you like creating tons of minions to do your fighting for you then the witchdoctor's collection of spiders, demon dogs and other abominations is just what you're looking for. The Witch Doctor's main downside is that it's tough to say how it'll play at higher levels; many of the Necromancer's summons ended up feeling like they were made of paper toward the end of Diablo II, and we don't yet know if the same will be true of the Witch Doctor.

Monk

Great if your favorite Diablo II character was: the Paladin. Diablo III's other melee class is also the one that grew on me the most during my first few hours with the game. In the early levels the Monk plays a bit like the Barbarian with more area-of-effect attacks and some self-healing abilities, but it also felt a great deal like Diablo II's paladin in that you're constantly building up the holy energy needed to unleash a devastating attack that can demolish your enemies.

Barbarian

Great if your favorite Diablo II character was: well...the Barbarian. The one returning class from Diablo II plays very close to its Diablo II counterpart. If you loved the Barbarian for the ability to leap into crowds of enemies swinging your weapons wildly at anything that moves, then Diabo III's Barbarian is only going to give you more of what you enjoyed. The new rune system means you'll still need to spend a little time re-learning the class but for veteran Diablo II players looking to get that old feeling back, the Barbarian is the easy choice.

SIM card to help parents protect children from bullying

Parents will be able to control their child's mobile phone thanks to a SIM card remotely managed from a computer.

The Bemilo system, to be run on the Vodafone network, offers a service for parents to prevent their children from going online, texting or calling during certain hours.

Unlike an app, a child will not be able to switch the service off.

The UK's Family and Parenting Institute said the SIM would help protect children from mobile phone bullying.

To have the service, parents would need to buy a "safety pack" with a SIM card inside, install it into the child's phone and use it on a pay-as-you-go basis, from £2.95 per month.

"It's a SIM that is just like any other SIM you would buy for any other network, but it enables parents to have full control in the context of safety," Simon Goff, founder and chairman of Bemilo, told the BBC.

"They can allow or disallow certain contacts to call them, and they can set the times of day the phone can operate."

For instance, he explained, if parents wanted to switch off the phone during school hours, they could do so remotely from a website on their computer.

But even if nearly all the functions on the child's phone are disabled, parents can always manage the handset in such a way that they are able to reach their children, and the child is able to contact them.

Parents would also be able to read their child's texts, added Mr Goff.

Sexting threat
Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

Today's generation of children are facing new pressures such as mobile phone bullying, and parents want help in protecting them”

Katherine Rake
Family and Parenting Institute
The service could help prevent mobile phone bullying and "sexting" - when a child is subjected to unwanted phone calls or texts.

A recent report commissioned by the NSPCC has found that teenage girls were coming under increasing pressure to text and email sexually explicit pictures of themselves.

It could also prevent a child, especially a teenager, from visiting websites parents deem offensive.

But besides enabling parents to help ensure their children's safety, they would also be able to control other aspects of their behaviour, said Mr Goff.

"If you put a child to bed, and we're talking about young adults here, those who are just under 16 years old, the parents often think they've gone to bed - but then they find out that they're texting very late into the night or accessing the web into the night," said Mr Goff.

According to a survey of 2,000 parents conducted by Bemilo, 40% of children from eight to 16 who own a mobile phone are sleep deprived, and 25% have been subjected to mobile phone bullying.

The new service has been welcomed by a UK independent charity called the Family and Parenting Institute.

"Today's generation of children are facing new pressures, such as mobile phone bullying, and parents want help in protecting them," said Dr Katherine Rake, the organisation's chief executive.

Google Chrome Overtakes Internet Explorer

Google’s Chrome is now the most popular Web browser worldwide, surpassing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the first time, according to the latest figures from StatCounter. After years of slowly chipping away Internet Explorer’s market share, Chrome took the lead with 32.76 percent share, while IE dipped to 31.94 percent.

Just a year ago, Internet Explorer was leading the Web browser market share with 43 percent, followed by Mozilla Firefox with 29 percent, and Chrome was third with 19 percent. Twelve months later, IE has lost 12 percent of the browser market share while Chrome gained 13 percent to the detriment of IE and Firefox, which also lost about 4 percent of its users and now comes in at just over 25 percent.


This is not the first time Chrome has leapfrogged Internet Explorer. For a single day in March, Chrome was estimated to have held a few percentage decimals over IE. This time however, Chrome overtook IE for the entire week, though by still less than a percentage point.

While Chrome is leading the browser market worldwide, in the U.S. it still has a lot of catching up to do. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has a wide lead at home with 37 percent, with Chrome a distant second at 23 percent, closely followed by Mozilla Firefox 22 percent.

StatCounter figures are generally reliable, as they are based on data collected from some 15 billion page views around the world. However, these stats can wildly differ from one provider to another, as for example NetMarketShare shows Internet Explorer had 54 percent share this month, while Chrome has 19 percent, and Firefox has 20 percent.

Hwo to delete Autorun.inf Virus using just Winrar

We have all heard about the dreaded autorun.inf virus thats can pretty mess up our computer. This virus can corrupted almost all the drives on the Hard disk, and when ever you try to double click on the drive or opening  any drive it opened in a new window. In some cases, when your drive is infected with this Autorun.inf virus, you won’t be able to access the drive completely. You have to browse the drive by Exploring it i.e; Ctrl+E keys from the keyboard.

Sometimes ever you will not be able to see hidden files even if you have Show hidden files Enabled under Folder Options. well, this are all the wonders of this Autorun.inf virus.
I am going to show you this rare method of removing Autorun.inf manually using just winrar application, not any antivirus or malware programs.
Solution to Remove Autorun.inf Virus
Step 1: First Disable CD/DVD or USB Autorun in windows
Step 2: Open Winrar.exe  (Start–>All Programs–>WinRar–>WinRar.exe)
Step 3: Now Browse to any drive that is infected with Autorun.inf virus using winrar explorer.
Step4: Here you will see all the hidden files under winrar for that particular drive.
Step 5: Look for the file Autorun.inf and open it using notepad.
Step 6: In that Autorun file, some .EXE file will be mentioned that will be executed along with the autorun file. This exe file is the main culprit.

Step 7: Note the exe file mentioned in the Autorun.inf file. Close this Autorun.inf file.
Step 8: Now look for that .Exe file in the drive (Ex: c:/), Delete that .exe file along with Autorun.inf
Step 9: Restart your Operating System. Now your system is free with Autorun.inf Virus.
Note: Repeat the same process if your Usb or Pendrives are infected with Autorun.inf virus.

Comments and other method you know is very welcome. Just comment on this post.

Simple trick to hide your data in Mobile without using any software

Here is a neat trick for you to hide your files/folder in your mobile and you dont even have to use any software for that. How cool it that!


This trick can be used for any JAVA phone from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG or any other company.

JUST FOLLOW SIMPLE STEPS

Create any new folder or you can use any existing folder that is to be hidden.
Rename the folder to any name but with the extension of .jad like if I want to hide my images folder then I will name it as IMG.jad
Now create a new folder with the same name in the same directory but with the extension of .jar So, I would create the folder with the name IMG.jar
And thats it!! My orignal images folder which has been renamed with .jad gets hidden and only folder with.jar extension is visible which is empty.So,my data is protected/hidden from unwanted eyes.


To unhide the orignal folder you have to remove the .jar extension from the new folder and your orignal folder with all the files and with .jad will become visible.

Now go and hide all your precious files :)

Founder of Facebook married his long-time girlfriend

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg married his long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan on Saturday in a small, surprise wedding. There were only about 100 guests at Zuckerberg's home and they thought that they were going to celebrate the Graduation of his girlfriend (Chan).

SAN FRANCISCO - For Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it was quite a week , from birthday, to IPO, to I DO.

A day after the historic Facebook stock offering, Zuckerberg on Saturday wed 27-year-old Priscilla Chan, his girlfriend of nearly a decade, according to a guest authorized to speak for the couple. The person spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

Zuckerberg gave his new bride a ring he had designed with a "very simple ruby" to end an incredibly eventful week, according to the guest.

The couple married at his Palo Alto, Calif. home in front of fewer than 100 stunned guests who thought they would be attending a party to celebrate Chan's graduation from medical school.

On Monday, Zuckerberg turned 28 and Chan graduated from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where she'd studied pediatrics.

Then on Friday, Zuckerberg took his blue-and-white web behemoth public in one of the most anticipated IPOs in Wall Street history.

The seemingly well-coordinated timing was largely a coincidence, the guest said. The wedding had been planned for months and the couple was waiting for Chan to finish medical school, but the date of the IPO was a "moving target" not known when the wedding was set.

Attendees, including Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, were told after they arrived that they were not mere party guests but wedding guests.

"Everybody was shocked," the guest said.

The person would not discuss the names of others who attended to protect their privacy.

Ditching his trademark hoodie and sneakers, Zuckerberg sported a dark blue suit and tie with a white shirt for the ceremony, while Chan wore a traditional white wedding dress with veil and lace.

Food was served family-style and included dishes from the couple's favorite Palo Alto sushi restaurant.

Zuckerberg met Chan at Harvard, where he founded Facebook in a dorm room in 2004, and have been together for more than nine years.

Chan's own Facebook page, which now lists her as married to the founder, said she is a native of Braintree, Mass., and attended high school in nearby Quincy.

She graduated Harvard in 2007 then taught science to fourth and fifth graders at the Harker School in San Jose for two years before starting medical school, according to her profile.

Her page also says she "loves cooking and soft things."

Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg, who grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., remains Facebook's single largest shareholder, with 503.6 million shares, and he controls the company with 56 percent of its voting stock.

The site has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people and made its founder, Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2010, one of the most famous businessmen of the Internet age.

,,,

Associated Press Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this story from Los Angeles.

Facebook is facing $15 Billion Class-Action Suit Over Privacy

A facebook user is sueing Facebook in a class-action suit over violating the users’ private poilcy. In the detail of the suit Facebook is being accused of tracking data on its users even after users have logged out of the site.

“This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications,” said David Straite, a partner at Stewarts Law, in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.

This lawsuit, filed on the 17^th in San Jose, California, includes 21 other lawsuits also accusing Facebook of invading user privacy. According to the filing, by the U.S. Wiretap Act every Facebook user is owed up to $10,000 for over $100 per count of violation. Between Facebook’s over 800 million users, that’s somewhere in the ballpark of $15 billion that Facebook would owe. Considering Facebook’s impressive IPO, it’s… probably not entirely out of the realm of possibility, but $15 billion is a hard figure to swallow.