U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Seismologists say Twitter is the fastest way to get information out of an earthquake area, especially in those less densely populated with seismic instruments.
After an earthquake, people often rapidly report that an earthquake has occurred and describe what they have experienced, and tweet it. Those quick, early reports are able to … Read full story »

Google’s subsidiary, Google Energy, has applied to become an electricity marketer, and to identify and develop opportunities to contain and manage the cost of energy for Google. Google Energy wants to act as a power marketer, purchasing electricity and reselling it to wholesale customers. Google Energy will engage in wholesale electric power and energy transactions as a marketer; the granting of certain blanket approvals, including the authority to sell electricity at market-based rates. Read full story »

A job satisfaction survey by the Corporate Executive Board found that the number of dissatisfied workers continues to increase in IT industry. The survey found that the willingness of IT employees to exert high levels of discretionary effort has gone down to its lowest levels. The recession and its accompanying reorganizations and layoffs have been corrosive to IT employee job satisfaction. Over a third were planning to change jobs once the job market improves. Tech workers are under constant pressure to keep up and want to be in jobs where they can learn and grow. Read full story »

Samsung Corby TxT (B3210) comes with a QWERTY keypad, 2.4 inch screen, built-in social networking (Facebook, My Space, Orkut), SMS inbox, 2 mega pixel camera, Music Player supporting MP3 , AAC and WMA formats, FM Radio with RDS, Speaker phone, EDGE and GPRS support, mini USB 2.0, Bluetooth v2.1, access to apps like Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and Friendster, Multi IM capability (Google talk, AIM, ICQ, Fring), Conversational SMS and Email Setup Wizard. The Samsung Corby TxT is approximately priced at Rs 7,000 in India. Read full story »

Sony unveiled Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer tablet device, designed solely to access information on the Internet. It has a the 7 inch touchscreen and supports pictures, music and video. There’s no storage on-board, but with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, you can connect it online and download over 1,000 specially written free Internet applications, for news, calendaring, weather, sports, social networking and more. Read full story »

A report commissioned by France’s culture ministry has proposed a plan on taxing online advertising as well as Internet providers, and using the revenue to aid creative sectors, such as the music industry, which are struggling to adapt to the age of downloads. The “Google tax” plan could also target other big Internet players such as Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and Facebook. Read full story »

Intel unveiled several platform products, including more than 25 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel Core i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel 5 Series Chipsets, and Intel Centrino Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters that include new Intel My WiFi features. More than 400 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from computer makers based on these products, with another 200 expected for embedded devices. Read full story »

Microsoft Mediaroom 2.0 is the next generation IPTV platform will help TV service operators to offer content and services from television and the Internet across multiple screens, including Windows 7 PCs, TV and mobile phone. The Mediaroom software supports whole-home digital video recording (DVR), on-demand capabilities, interactive applications and access to both operator-hosted content and Internet TV. Mediaroom 2.0 will be made available for testing in February 2010. Read full story »

MTS MBlaze wireless broadband USB Modems also functions as your data storage device. Choose your MBlaze, and just plug it into start surfing. MBLAZE offers speed upto 3.1 Mbps. MBlaze is based on the EV-DO technology. To subscribe to MBlaze, there is no initial security deposit or activation charge. Currently there is no unlimited usage plan available. Read full story »

Qualcomm announced its new open Brew Mobile Platform (Brew MP) mobile operating system that delivers high-end features across all 3G technologies. It is as a native and fully realized mobile OS. Brew MP’s flexibility, openness and operator focus, combined with its ability to be integrated with virtually any mobile content delivery system, make it the best choice for mass-market devices. Qualcomm anticipates commercial Brew MP-based devices to be available in the U.S. and key international markets by the late summer of 2010. In a separate announcement, AT&T said it will launch Brew MP-based devices later this year. Read full story »

Samsung launching Papyrus e-book readers – E6 with 6-inch and E101 with 10-inch electronic ink screens. Users can write on the screen to annotate their favorite works or take notes. Papyrus features a stylus and 512MB of memory. The e-book reader also includes handy applications: a memo pad, scheduler, calendar, world clock, calculator, and contact list. The pricing is expected to be $399 and $699 respectively. Read full story »

Skype’s new video-calling software offers HD-quality video calling at 1280 x 720 pixel resolution and up to 30 frames per second (fps) on PCs and internet-connected widescreen HDTVs. Consumers will require a high-speed broadband connection, a new HD webcam, a PC with at least a 1.8GHz processor and Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows. Skype will be embedded into the Panasonic’s VieraCast HDTVs and LG’s web-enabled LCD and plasma HDTVs. Read full story »

Tata Docomo has partnered with NTT Docomo to offer world renowned Manga and Marvel comics to Tata Docomo customers in India, under the brand name DOCOMICS. DOCOMICS is the service brand for reading mobile comics through a viewer application. Subscribers can view the mobile comic content frame by frame through a viewr application or download the same from WAP site. As an introductory offer Tata DOCOMO customers will be charged only Rs 15 per comic chapter and there will be no data charges in home network. Read full story »

RIM introduced BlackBerry Presenter portable device, which can deliver PowerPoint presentations wirelessly from your BlackBerry smartphone. You just need to plug the BlackBerry Presenter into a projector or monitor and select Present from the wizard on your BlackBerry smartphone. With the Bluetooth connection between the BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry Presenter, users can also walk around freely while presenting. It supports roaming up to 30 feet between the devices. It also supports 24 animation and 55 transition styles of PowerPoint 2003 and 2007, and you can even set the time between transitions. Read full story »

Amazon.com announced that Amazon Kindle DX is available for the first time to customers around the world. with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, which is 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display, Kindle DX’s larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content, such as professional and personal documents, newspapers, magazines and textbooks. Kindle DX with Global Wireless is available for pre-order for $489 at Amazon and ships January 19. Read full story »