Google Conviction--An Internet Freedom Infringement

The long feared possibility of an Internet censorship is hanging over the World Wide Web like Damocles’ sword. The recent ruling by an Italian court convicting three Google executives and holding the company responsible for the content posted on its site can open many floodgates that would prove detrimental for the freedom of the Internet.

The case revolves around a video uploaded to Google Video in 2006. The video that drew 5,500 views in the two months showed an autistic boy in Turin being pummeled and insulted by teenage bullies at school. Even though Google Italy pulled it down two hours after being notified by police, the boy's father and an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome complained that the video violated privacy protection laws.

The Italian prosecutors said that the verdict upheld privacy principles and put the rights of individuals ahead of those of businesses. He further added that the case would force Google and other firms to be held accountable for screening videos hosted on their sites.

But how can you hold a company responsible for contents that are uploaded by a third-party? In a rather strange move, the judge equated Google to other publishing media and mentioned that they are responsible for the content and that all the content should be regulated. It is the first time that an Internet company has been held responsible for the content posted on its system. It is definitely an infringement on the Internet freedom and this will definitely change the World Wide Web that we know. No doubt everyone around the world has been flabbergasted with this ruling and the implications that it might have are even more mind-boggling.



The tools of free speech will be gone if intermediaries like Google or anyone who host a web site can be persecuted for other people’s content. That would mean that the site has to regulate each and every content. That would also mean that personal blogging sites, video upload sites, social networking sites and community sites and boards can come under scrutiny and those sites would be responsible for all the content that an individual puts up. It would be like blaming the knife maker for the murder committed by someone using his knives.

In addition, the search and advertising business depends heavily on its reach into every corner of the global Internet and on providing users access to as much digital content as possible, regardless of its origins or ownership. But this Italian ruling poses a significant challenge to all the search and advertising firms as they can be legally held responsible for text, photographs or videos made available by third parties.

Bloom Energy--Power In A Box

To call it revolutionary right now might seem being little too optimistic but it does seem to have the potential to become a truly revolutionary product. As per the company, the Bloom Energy Server is based on the solid oxide fuel cell (which the company claims can provide a cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable alternative to both today’s electric grid as well as traditional renewable energy sources) and provides distributed power generation, allowing customers to efficiently create their own electricity onsite. A confident Dr. KR Sridhar, principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy mentioned, “We believe that we can too have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications. Just as cell phones circumvented landlines to proliferate telephony, Bloom Energy will enable the adoption of distributed power as a smarter, localized energy source. Our customers are the cornerstone of that vision and we are thrilled to be working with industry leading companies to lower their energy costs, reduce their carbon footprint, improve their energy security, and showcase their commitment to a better future.“

The Idea That Led To Bloom
For NASA, Dr.Sridhar and his team were charged with building technology to help sustain life on Mars using solar energy and water to produce air to breath and fuel for transportation. They soon realized that their technology could have an even greater impact here on Earth and began work on what would become the Bloom Energy Server.



The company informed that Bloom’s fuel cell technology is fundamentally different from the legacy “hydrogen” fuel cells most people are familiar with and is distinct in four primary ways:
· It uses lower cost materials
· Provides unmatched efficiency in converting fuel to electricity
· Has the ability to run on a wide range of renewable or traditional fuels
· It is more easily deployed and maintained.

Customers and Benefits
The company further informed the customers currently successfully using the product are Bank of America, The Coca-Cola Company, Cox Enterprises, eBay, FedEx Express, Google, Staples and Walmart.

The company said that their customers have deployed the solution to lower and/or fix their energy costs, while significantly cutting their carbon footprint and enhancing their energy security by reducing their dependence on the grid. In addition, customers who purchase Bloom’s systems can expect a 3-5 year payback on their capital investment from the energy cost savings; and depending on whether they are using a fossil or renewable fuel, they can also achieve a 40-100% reduction in their carbon footprint as compared with the U.S. grid.

They further informed that the Bloom Energy Server converts air and nearly any fuel source – ranging from natural gas to a wide range of biogases – into electricity via a clean electrochemical process, rather than dirty combustion. Even running on a fossil fuel, the systems are approximately 67% cleaner than a typical coal-fired power plant. When powered by a renewable fuel, they can be 100% cleaner. Each Energy Server consists of thousands of Bloom's fuel cells – flat, solid ceramic squares made from a common sand-like "powder."

Conclusion
The customers who are currently using the Bloom are not only happy but also praising about its benefits. Looking at the excitement it has garnered and the positive response of the current customers, it would not be a farfetched to forecast that the product will be a successful one. But whether it will remain a product or will be a revolution (like iPod), only time will say.

Apple’s 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs- Hard To Beat

Apple’s 21.5-inch or 27-inch display with edge-to-edge glass covers nearly the entire front of the enclosure. All you see is the display, nothing gets between you and what’s onscreen. Movies, TV shows, websites, photos — everything looks stunning on the new 16:9 widescreen iMac display.











LED Backlighting
When a display has more pixels, you need to push more light through them to achieve the best picture possible. LED backlighting in the new iMac does exactly that, with remarkable brightness and efficiency. Because the LED backlight doesn’t take up much space, the iMac enclosure stays thin — even with all the high-performance components inside.

Higher Resolution
The new 21.5-inch iMac features 1920-by-1080 HD resolution, while the 27-inch iMac features 2560-by-1440 resolution. That’s 78 percent more pixels than the 21.5-inch iMac.



IPS Technology
The iMac display is designed to look great from almost any angle. A technology called in-plane switching (IPS) makes this possible. Whether you’re sitting in front of the display or standing off to the side, you’ll get a perfect picture with superb color consistency and no loss of detail.

Seamless Enclosure
While you’ll find a collection of ports on the back of iMac, you won’t find much else. A seamless, precision-forged enclosure makes the back one continuous aluminum surface. And there’s only one cord: the power cord.



Cool & Quiet
The wider iMac display allows more room to separate the two hottest components, the CPU and the GPU. This keeps things cool inside the iMac enclosure. Apple engineers also implemented an intelligent control system that monitors temperatures and delivers just the right amount of airflow to critical components. And the three fans inside iMac have been tuned to be ultraquiet. A system that operates at 18 decibels when idle — so quiet, you hardly know it’s on.

Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
iMac embodies simple design that eliminates desktop clutter. So naturally, it’s the first Mac to come standard with the Apple Wireless Keyboard and the new wireless Magic Mouse.

Multi-Touch Technology
Magic Mouse is designed to do all the things a mouse should do — pointing, clicking, and scrolling — but with no scroll wheel, no trackball, and no visible button. Magic Mouse uses Multi-Touch technology to let you click, scroll, or swipe anywhere on its perfectly smooth, seamless top shell. But the real magic of Magic Mouse is how it knows what you want to do. A chip inside Magic Mouse acts as a brain, detecting the difference between a resting hand, a scrolling finger, a two-finger swipe, and a simple click.

iMac Graphics

21.5 Inch
Basic: Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Upgrade: ATI Radeon HD 4670
256MB of GDDR3 memory
Up to 4x faster performance than NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Gives you better gaming performance and better responsiveness for video and photo editing.
27 Inch
Basic: ATI Radeon HD 4670
Upgrade: ATI Radeon HD 4850
512MB of GDDR3 memory
Up to 1.8x faster performance than ATI Radeon HD 4670
Gives you the fastest, most responsive graphics for photo editing with Aperture, animation with Motion, and graphics-intensive 3D games like Call of Duty.

P.S: The info and the details are gathered from Apple.

A Chat With Notion Ink About Its Adam

Notion Ink’s Adam is the garnering news and excitement. As per the company, "Adam is a Android-based slate using the latest-gen NVIDIA Tegra chipset and Pixel Qi’s innovative low-power display".

Notion Ink’s CEO Rohan Shravan, said that the reasoning for name the product was, “ Adam was the first of its kind. And so is Notion Ink's Adam.”

He further specified that Notion Ink is working forward to forge great partnership with best in the line of content providers; it would include digital magazines, ebooks, comics and various other exciting content.

He pointed out, “The greatness about the product is its complete eco-system, and that it is not just a box like other tablets. Hardware is something special right now. By the time we launch, we will have more than 1000 applications, millions of books, videos, and music. We will have a complete store only available on Adam.”




When I enquired about Adam’s advantages over iPad, Shravan modestly claimed, “ I can’t say right now that it is better than iPad. Our product is not just the hardware and software. Notion Ink cannot compete with iPad in terms of marketing and Apple's muscle power to get the buyers. But one day we will have product, which we will officially launch against Apple.”

The company has claimed that Adam’s battery life would be 2-3x longer than the iPad, and its Pixel Qi display enhances the longevity even more. In addition, its latest-gen NVIDIA Tegra chipset is capable of outputting 1080p HD video.

Key Features
•10 inch transflective LCD
•180 degree Swivel Camera
•Dual-Core ARM® CORTEX
-A9 MPCORE™ Processor
•Full High Definition Multimedia
•Longer Battery Life
•Dual Display
•Ebook Client
•3G and WiFi Connectivity
•Multi-touch Support.

The Tablet War--Interesting Products

Well, the competition to beat Apple's iPad is on!!



Here's some of the products that would give Apple a stiff competition or might even emerge as a winner.

Archos 9 looks eqully stunning and can give iPad a run for its money.








When it comes to PC, can Dell be far away. Dell's Tablet concept looks interesting.













HP's Slate looks enticing too. And with Microsoft behind it, the product can go a long way.












But among the lot, the one garnering great coverages is home grown Notion Ink's Adam. With great specs, less price and stunning looks--Adam can definitely emerge as a winner.

Marketing Public Relations--The Mantra for Many Companies

It is interesting to see how Marketing Public Relations (MPR) is becoming so popular in India, and fast catching on with various organizations. MPR via press releases have been a normal mode since long, but via events are not that old and seem to catch the fancy of the consumers as well as the providers. Recent example is the Apsara Award where the Chevy cars were being shown and introduced at the same platform where the biggies of the entertainment industry were been awarded. After effects of that function was that people not talked about the winners but the flashy cars too.

What is MPR?
Marketing is all about the promotion of a specific product or service of the company, while Public Relations is about the image of the company; and when you join both of them together, you come up with this potent solution called MPR

For the starters, MPR is actually a form of advertisement but not through the traditional mode but via press releases and public events etc. Often time it is deemed as a more powerful tool as the information comes directly from the company and usually has a byte of the top guys in the company which seems more credible because you would prefer to listen to the head honchos of the company rather than listening to some actors mouthing some dialogues.

MPR is Free
MPR most often does not cost you anything, but it can gain more eyeballs than the traditional mode of advertising. Getting the head-honchos of the company talking on the talk shows about the company and its products is not only a powerful tool to communicate directly to the people but you do that without spending a single penny.

In addition, the press releases can get an organization’s message about a solution or a service out for free.

MPR Effective To Fight Bad Press
Holding a press conference or an event to fight any bad or negative coverage about the company, explaining in a talk show about any bad news regarding the company or its products, and publicly confronting any bad press about the company—are great ways to regain the trust of consumers as well as maintain the good image of the company. All these shows that MPR can be a great tool if used effectively, and it can not only make the public aware of an organization and its products but can also keep the trust of the consumers intact.

Apple's iPad Unleash Fear

Read an interesting article--the havoc Apple’s iPad would unleash on the e-reader, TV and computer companies could be similar to the way iPod did to portable music market and even almost wiped out Sony (till then the leader with its walkman) from the scene. Although cynically glorified as an enlarged version of iPhone, the iPad can do better and quicker. The features does look similar to the iPhone but you can use it as an all in one package --- you can read anything, you can see anything and you might even do everything that you can do on your personal computers!!!

Apple’s ability to-go-to market with new imaginative products is mind-boggling…starting with Mac Book to iPod to iPhone and now iPad!! It was not surprising to see that in most of the US Univs, the students could do without the mi2— mac, iPod and iPhone. Be it peer pressure or anything, you are in if you are with mi2.

Now coming back to iPad. Even though the comics and the cynics had a field day for its unusual name and some even went to the extent of comparing it with pads, everybody had to admit that it was real good product.

As per Apple, one can use the device to browse the web, read and send email, enjoy photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read e-books and do much much more. It is also lighter and thinner that any laptop or netbook available in the market. Currently, iPad comes in two versions—one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Gauging by the success of its recent new product launches, it would be interesting to see what changes does this new offering from Apple brings in to the market.