TRAI asks telcos to block violators

TRAI’s 100SMS/day move to ward of unwanted callers was extended, with additional 100 SMSes after almost a month. Soon after, it faced yet another challenge when telemarketers started using international servers to send pesky messages. TRAI had disclosed that it has no control over messages that came from servers overseas. However, that did not deter TRAI trying to find a solution for this problem, with the other telcos in support. TRAI now asks telcos to find and block violators using international servers, reports Business Standard.

Block violators (Image credit: Getty Images)

"The operators have been asked to track Internet from servers outside India, which is being used by telemarketers to send unwanted messages. Telemarketers are playing a cat and mouse race. They are going one step ahead than what we do," TRAI Chairman, R.S. Sarma told reporters on the sidelines of the National Telecom Summit, 2011 on Friday.

Reportedly, subscribers of the National Customer Preference Registry (previously called the National Do Not Call Registry) have complained that unwanted calls/messages don’t seem to halt. Moreover, such pesky calls are usually related to real estate. The unwanted messages market is said to be worth more than Rs. 335 crore and service operators sell bulk packages of such SMSes.

YouTube, IPRS lock-in a licensing agreement

Popular destination for online videos, YouTube locked-in on a deal with the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), a non-profit making company looking after the copyrights for artists in India. The deal would now mean that the artists, who's content feature on YouTube will be able to earn their revenue off it. Artists, in this respect would mean songwriters, music composers and music publishers. With digital content growing by leaps in bounds, both in usage and popularity, this deal shows promise. The deal invariably means that the creators of original content will be rewarded with this revenue. 

Now rewarding original content creators

An official statement received in this respect reveals that while YouTube has locked-in on agreements with several music labels in India, before, this is the first time it has signed a deal with a collection society in the country. Earlier, YouTube only earned revenue when advertisements were displayed against its partner’s videos. This revenue would then be shared by its partners. 

According to a statement provided by the CEO of the IPRS, Rakesh Nigam, "We are extremely delighted to do this deal with leading video site like YouTube, as this association will benefit our publishers/music companies, author and sister societies. As more users get online, consumption and monetization of music will increasingly happen on the internet and YouTube will drive it.”

This deal follows YouTube's similar deals with ASRAC in Japan, KOMCA in Korea, CASH in Hong Kong, MUST in Taiwan, APRA-AMCOS for Australia/New Zealand, FILSCAP in the Philippines, and COMPASS in Singapore.

Trail:The game

Trail is a free platform game of a unique kind. It explores the concept that you leave a trail in the world as you journey through life. When you eventually die, you are required to collect this trail to achieve moksha or final piece. It therefore consists of two states: a living world and a dead world. While in the living world, you continue to drop and leave behind memories as you progress. When you die and enter the dead world, your goal is to reach the first memory you left in the world. Your health constantly falls while in the dead world, so you have to achieve your goal within a stipulated time.

In essence, you first play forward and then trace your steps backward from the point of your death. The living world is white, while the dead world is black. In the living world, your score increases you drop memories and decreases when you touch it (symbolising that it is sometimes painful to revisit the past). Once you die, the world turns black and you start from the point of your death with your health reset, though it keeps deteriorating. You can still be hurt and health decrease by the things that hurt you when you were alive, while it increases when you collect memories. However, memories keep moving away from you, making it increasingly difficult to achieve your goal of collecting your first memory.

You win the game when you collect the first memory and achieve moksha, while your life remains incomplete and unfulfilled if you fail. Based on the score you achieve and your age, the game displays a short piece of text that sums your life.

Download

21.8 MB 

Windows (All) Freeware Homepage

Now Call Your Facebook Friends Using Skype

In an effort to further its partnership with Facebook, Skype has now enabled video calling to users of the social network through its client software. The VoIP provider has released updates to facilitate video calling between the two. Earlier this year, FB had introduced a free video calling feature using Skype technology as a desperate measure to counter theHangout feature offered by rival Google+.

Skype's Chief Technology Strategist, Jonathan Rosenberg said, "We've been on a mission to connect a billion users and with this, we take a big step closer to that". This new step will allow video calls between the 170 million Skype and 800 million FB users, which makes for a user base just shy of a billion. It must be noted that the update, which is Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows and Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac will allow Skype members to initiate FB-to-FB and Skype-to-FB calls within Skype IM.

To make use of this feature, users must connect their Skype account with their FB account so that the FB Friends list becomes available as contacts in the Skype IM client. Once this is done, it is as easy as selecting the FB contact and hitting the Call button. This new version of Skype also includes smoother video rendering for Mac users and group calling, also known as Group Screen Sharing. This premium subscription feature is currently available only for Mac users, but will soon extend to Windows as well.

Check out the below video to learn more about this new feature.

Apple reports 1 million pre-orders in 24 hours

Apple had announced the iPhone 4S last Tuesday at a media event in Cupertino. Quite a few people were disappointed, since Apple took a year and three months to announce the newest iPhone and that it did not feature a design overhaul. Many analysts had estimated that due to this fact the flagship handset from Apple would not meet sales expectations. Apple started the pre-orders for the iPhone 4S on Friday and the company have announced that its pre-orders for the smartphone have topped one million in a single day, surpassing the previous single day pre-order record of 600,000 held by iPhone 4.

One million Apple iPhone 4S pre-ordered

Speaking about this, Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing said, “We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S. The first day pre-orders for iPhone 4S have been the most for any new product that Apple has ever launched and we are thrilled that customers love iPhone 4S as much as we do.”

Here’s a quick look at the features of the iPhone 4S:

• iOS 5 running on an Apple A5 chipset
• Dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU
• 3.5-inch Retina Display
• GSM and CDMA networks
• HSDPA of up to 14.4 Mbps
• 8MP AF rear camera with LED flash
• 1080p video recording with Image Stabilization and Temporal noise reduction
• Airplay mirroring
• Internal memory - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB
• Siri – Intelligent assistant activated through voice command

For more information on the Apple iPhone 4S, click here.

See Map of UnFacebook World: Where people don’t use Facebook !!

The UnFacebook map was created by visual arts grad student Ian Wojtowicz. He mashed the Facebook connections map released by facebook in December of last year and NASA's map of Earth at night.

• The Black = heavy Facebook usage
• The Brightest Yellow = places where people do not use Facebook.

Ian Wojtowicz said Subtracting one Map from the other by using a Photoshop difference layer, we get an image the shows only cities that don't use Facebook.

Amazing! isn't it ?

Mark Zuckerberg Stands 9th on Forbes List of 'World's Most Powerful People' !!

Mark Zuckerberg Who founded addictive social networking site Facebook in February 2004 from his Harvard dorm room Stands 9th on Forbes List of  'World's Most Powerful People November 2011' .

According to Forbes

"What the CIA failed to do in 60 years, Zuck has done in 7: knowing what 800 million people--more than 10% of the world's population--think, read and listen to, plus who they know, what they like and where they live, travel, vote, shop, worship. U.S. users spend more time on Facebook--on average 6.3 hours a month--than on any other site. The Harvard dropout is now creating his own monetary system, ­Facebook Credits, to facilitate transactions and profits. With a net worth of $17.5 billion, he is now America's 14th-richest man. 2011 Highlight: The movie inspired by his life, The Social Network, which depicts Zuckerberg as a coldhearted dweeb, won 3 Oscars."

Microsoft's software wizard and the world's second-richest man Bill Gates is however 5thMost Powerful Person and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page shares 30th Spot on the list.

Rovio's Angry Birds smashes 500 million downloads

We all knew at some point Angry Birds had become an unstoppable part of the pop culture but its developers Rovio yesterday reminded us how really big it has become – Angry Birds has now smashed more than 500 million downloads and becomes perhaps world's fastest selling mobile game. Angry Birds achieves the milestone in less than two years since its launch.

Rovio also highlights there has been no sign of slowing down in popularity over the years. If figures provided by Rovio are to be believed, a total of 200,000 years of Angry Birds have been played by fans across the world, with 300 million minutes of daily play. Moreover, over 266 billion levels of Angry Birds have been played, while 400 billion birds have been launched. And some 44 billion Stars have been collected in the process.Announcing the accomplishment, Rovio CEO Miael Hed says, "This is a fantastic landmark achievement for us, and we’re extremely delighted to see such an incredible amount of people enjoying our games. We remain committed to creating more fun experiences and bringing exceptional quality to Angry Birds Fans everywhere."

Rovio's behemoth franchise is comprised of Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio. The games are available for all major smartphone platforms, including Android, iOS and Symbian. There's a web version of the game also, available on the Chrome web browser. Angry Birds comes pre-loaded in recently launched Nokia's Asha phones as well.

What's next for Angry Birds? Well, Rovio is currently planning to open the world's first official Angry Birds retail shop in Helsinki, Finland. Angry Birds is also going to feature in the forthcoming Nokia Asha 300 and 303 S40 feature phones, which Rovio believes, will bring Angry Birds entertainment to completely new emerging mobile markets.

The Angry Birds has continued to woo fans from different age groups, and going by the current rate, we should soon see the billionth download bash. In the meantime, check out the Angry Birds success story in the video below: