Great ideas, specific articulations of them and the books which present them transcend genres. The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig who is a professor of strategy and international management at IMD, Switzerland will most probably, be always found in the business section of the bookstores around the world. It just shouldn’t shouldn’t be so as it is a book which is as genre crossing as any, which should be read by many more than the people who would browse that section and is one which will surely be judged as one of the most important business books ever written. Read full story »

In China’s Henan province, citizens who send three or more erotic / sexy text messages (sexting) will be detained for a maximum of 10 days in jail and pay a fine of 500 yuan (approx. INR 3500). Liaoning province passed a regulation early this year saying that erotic text messages can be part of a sexual harassment charge. Read full story »

A survey by Forrester Research found that 15 percent of Japanese mobile phone users make payments and purchase products in stores with their phones, reports CNN. Only 3 percent of people in North America are expected to conduct mobile payments in 2012. Analysts say that within five years, mobile phones in the United States will be able to make electronic payments, open doors, access subways, clip coupons and possibly act as another form of identification. These futuristic uses for phones are becoming reality in countries like South Korea and Japan, which typically are ahead of the United States in mobile technology. Read full story »

ISRO unveiled beta version of “Bhuvan”, a web-based mapping tool like Google Earth (http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/) Bhuvan promises to give better 3D satellite imagery of India than is currently being offered by Google Earth. Bhuvan has a many India-specific features like weather information, administrative boundaries of all states and districts, etc.. Bhuvan has best resolutions over the Indian sub-continent. It allows users to fly from space to street level, grab, spin and zoom down to any place. Viewers can zoom into Bhuvan maps up to 10 metres compared to Google Earth’s 200 metres and Wikemapia’s 50 metres. Read full story »

A US judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling Microsoft Word application in the USA in 60 days after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party. I4i, a Toronto-based software maker, has been battling Microsoft over an obscure patent related to XML or Extensible Markup Language. Read full story »

USAA Bank, a privately held bank and insurance company in the US, plans to update its iPhone application to introduce the check deposit feature. The customers need to photograph both sides of the check with the phone’s camera. The image is going into the Bank’s deposit-taking system as any other paper check would. To reduce the potential for fraud, only customers who are eligible for credit and have some type of insurance through USAA will be permitted to use the deposit feature. Read full story »

Facebook announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. Taylor and Buchheit founded FriendFeed along with Jim Norris and Sanjeev Singh in October 2007 after all four played key roles at Google for products like Gmail and Google Maps. At FriendFeed, they’ve brought together a world-class team of engineers and designers.

FriendFeed is based in Mountain View, Calif. and has 12 employees. FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine the longer term plans for the product. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams. Read full story »

Airtel Special 5 is a new product from Airtel Mobile which offers very low calling rates for your Special 5 Airtel Mobile numbers. You can maintain your Special 5 numbers, which could be those Airel mobile numbers you call the most. Up to 5 Airtel mobile numbers can be enrolled as Special 5 feature.

For prepaid connections, Local Airtel to Airtel calls are charged 20 paise per minute and STD Airtel to Airtel calls are 50 paise per minute. Special Five tariffs are not applicable while roaming. Prepaid Customer can change his special 5 mobile numbers up to 5 times in a Month. Rs 5 will be charged for every number change.

Postpaid is available only on Special 5 bill plan. Benefits will be applicable post bill plan migration which will take effect from the nearest next bill cycle. Read full story »

A Nigerian was arrested in Kerala in connection with a 419 scam (Advance-fee fraud) or the Nigerian email scam. The scam had its origin in an email that the victim received in February 2008, informing that he had been nominated to inherit a rich fortune (15 million US Dollars) by a millionaire. After an exchange of emails, he had been asked to send €29,500 through Western Union Money Transfer as fees for the attorney to help with this money transfer. Read full story »

For the first time criminal hackers may have succeeded in creating a network of “zombie” cellphones, infected without the owners’ knowledge with software that can be used to send spam or carry out cyber attacks. Symantec says that a piece of software known as Sexy Space may be the first case.

Sexy Space uses text messages reading “A very sexy girl, Try it now!” to jump between phones. The messages contains a link that, when clicked, asks the user to download software which, once installed, sends the same message to contacts stored in the phone. Read full story »