Google has upgraded its search engine with a new database, that will enable users to get more accurate and more comprehensive results, while searching. The new launch is based on “Knowledge Graph,” a project that Google undertook, over the last two years, to build a collection of 500 million people, places and things on the internet, picking up vital information from online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the CIA Factbook and other sources.

“The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do,” Amit Singhal, SVP, Engineering, Google wrote on the company blog.

The Knowledge Graph enhances Google Search in three main ways:

Helps users find the right thing
The terms you use while searching can sometimes have more than one meaning. For instance, when you type ‘Taj Mahal’, you could mean the monument, or Taj Mahal, the musician? Now, Google will now display a box on the right side of the page listing several other options, so you can narrow your search results just to the one you mean.

Get the most relevant data
With the Knowledge Graph, Google can better understand your query, and therefore summarize relevant content around that topic, including key facts you’re likely to need. For example, if you’re looking for Marie Curie, you’ll see when she was born and died, but you’ll also get details on her education and scientific discoveries.

Make unexpected discoveries
Finally, Knowledge Graph can help you make some unexpected discoveries, while carrying out your usual search. “You might learn a new fact or stumble upon a new connection between facts, that would pique your curiosity and add more fun to searching on Google.

Google has begun to roll out Knowledge Graph to U.S. English users. The new search is also going to be available on smartphones and tablets. Check out this video to know more about the new Google search.

This post was written by Swati, editor of www.buzzom.com, Asia's #1 social media blog.

As per this report from the folks at Medianama, and personal accounts from the rest of the country, Airtel, Reliance and MTNL have blocked access to video sharing and torrent sites, following an order from the Madras High Court following a complaint filed by litigant R.K. Productions, the producers of Tamil movies 3 and Dammu to prevent piracy. The list of sites includes:

Torrent sites
Isohunt.com
thepiratebay.org/thepiratebay.se
torrentz.eu
kat.ph
torlock.com
kickasstorrents.com
torrentfunk.com
fenopy.eu
Video sharing sites
Vimeo.com
DailyMotion.com

Others:
Xmarks.com
Pastebin.com

(Source: Medianama)

Here’s what we got when trying to access vimeo.com on an Airtel Bangalore connection:

The court order, issued on 29th March 2012, is directed at 15 different ISPs - from BSNL to Reliance, Vodafone and even Tikona, though as of now, it seems that only Airtel and Reliance have brought the ban in to force.
It comes as a weird after-thought, considering ‘3’ earned its publicity from its song Kolaveri that went viral across the nation, reportedly netting the movie 13 crores in box office collections in the first 3 days of its release. Also, we wonder why the ban on Vimeo; best known as a platform for indie filmmakers. Do write/tweet with screenshots, the name of your ISP and location if you come across a block and watch this space for more analysis.

During the opening day, keynote presentation, NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Huang showcased two GPUs based on the Kepler architecture. This upcoming line of graphic processors will be sold under the moniker of Tesla, with the Tesla K20 releasing in the fourth quarter of 2012.

NVIDIA also showed of the Tesla K10 GPU, which houses two GK104 Kepler GPUs to deliver 4.58 teraflops of peak single-precision floating point and 320 GB per second memory bandwidth. The K10’s however, are designed specifically for oil and gas exploration companies for signal, image and seismic processing applications. Huang also announced that NVIDIA has released CUDA 5 Parallel Programming platform to members of NVIDIA's GPU Computing Registered Developer program to start exploring the Kepler architecture.

NVIDIA, at least on paper, seem to be making significant strides with its Kepler architecture. Using SMX Streaming Multiprocessor, NVIDIA has been able to improve efficiency of CUDA cores by reducing their clock-speed, but adding them in greater numbers. The performance bottleneck between the CPU and GPU often works like a cat and mouse game. To address this, NVIDIA has introduced two new technologies in Kepler, Hyper-Q and Dynamic Parallelism. With Hyper-Q, the GPU is able to work with more than one CPU core at a time, and Dynamic Parallelism allows the GPU to reduce dependency on the CPU for instructions. Using all these techniques, NVIDIA claims that the Kepler-based GPUs will have three times greater performance per watt, than the current Fermi-based accelerators. The entire keynote presentation video can be accessed at the GTC 2012 website, here.

Source: NVIDIA

AMD is usually the quieter of the two rival companies, sometimes going for months without making any significant public announcements. AMD would like to remind us that while they have been quiet, they have not been sitting idly while Intel basked in attention generated by its recent release of Ivy Bridge architecture. The company has announced that it is ready to reveal the successor to the incumbent Llano architecture. These new generation of chips will be called Trinity, and we should expect to see stateside release of a laptop by Hewlett Packard called Envy Sleekbook, by as early as June.

The two key areas where AMD has focused on with Trinity architecture is reduction in power consumption and improving multimedia performance. The CPU cores in the new system will use the "Piledriver" architecture that uses “resonant clock mesh” technology to reuse part of the power consumed during calculations. Using this technique, AMD claims to have shave 10% off the chip’s power consumption.

AMD will also be adding a single graphics core to accompany CPU core(s), to form a hybrid processor that was first introduced as APU or AMD Fusion. Using this and some software trickery, Trinity will offer improvements in multimedia playback and gaming. Hit the source links after the break to get the full scoop.

Source: BBC

Sources at the Wall Steet Journal have revealed a shift in Google's strategy with the Nexus brand. More than five handset OEMS are likely to get the source code of their next release, which means that the Nexus brand will no longer be exclusive to a single flagship device.

For Android enthusiasts, a Nexus device has always been a safe insurance against the tryanny of firmware updates, pre-installed bloatware and unwanted UI customisations. This move is likely to be reflected across tablet and smartphone platforms. We'll have to see which OEMS get the Nexus brand on-board with Android's upcoming OS update, codenamed "Jelly bean". It's safe to expect some significant product and feature reveals at the next Google I/O conference late June this year.

Photo courtesy: Bobby Yip / Reuters

Rumour mills are known to generate reams of data on the subject of the latest iPhone but this one seems legitimate - according to wire sources quoting Wall Street Journal, Apple plans to use a larger 4-inch screen on the next iPhone, an estimated 30% larger viewing area from the previous generation.

If this report turns out to be true, it would be seen by many as Apple trying to catch up with its Android competitors, and a major deviation from the 3.5-inch form factor, which has been consistent across the iPhone and iPod Touch range since the launch of the first-generation device in 2007.

As expected, Apple hasn't confirmed the report, but it makes sense as Apple has already milked the "Retina Display" innovation two years ago. First introduced with the iPhone 4 in 2010, the 3.5-inch offers a 640×960 pixel resolution at 330+ ppi. Apple's closest competitors in the smartphone race - HTC, and Samsung both sport 4-inch+ screens at the 300 dpi range on their flagship phones. What's more, launched last month, the Sony Xperia S, available at approx. 30k now tops the particular density charts with a 342 ppi screen. At the value-end of the segment, it's not uncommon to see iPhone sized Androids with HVGA and WVGA screens under Rs. 10,000. The new iPhone is expected to be on the same yearly timeline as the iPhone 4S, which was released in October.

Photo courtesy: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Imagine this reads as a trailer. You hear a gravelly voice saying, 10 years in the making, a fantastic adventure against the power of evil at the superb Activision special bonus price of $60. Except you can't log in, ever, for your money's worth. FYI, 60 USD at current conversion rates works out to about Rs. 3,600. Now the internet is diverting their rage onto Blizzard, venting their frustration at the cryptic Error 37 and Error 3006. Amidst thousands of hate messages, this video stands out the most, by Internet funnyman Francis who sums it up for all you guys.

It seems the large game developers don't give a shit for your gaming dollar - releasing broken games and in general pulling the wool over everyone with DLCs. Blizzard needs to get its act together or it's going to affect their spotless track record till now. Wonder that Activision has got up its sleeve... perhaps selling off the patch as a special-edition DLC?

Via: Kotaku

Last week, Twitter had acquired the team and technology of RestEngine, a personalized email marketing service that helps social app publishers send targeted messages to subscribers. Early this year, Twitter also bought the social news aggregator Summify, that compiles news from different social media sources such as Google, Facebook, Twitter etc. and delivers it to the users by email.

Now, after the acquiring the teams and technologies of these two startups, Twitter has launched a weekly email digest service, that delivers the relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people right to your inbox.

“The weekly digest will have a design similar to the recently updated Discover tab, emphasizing who shared each story beneath summaries to help you decide which ones matter most to you. Click any headline to finish reading the story, add your take by tweeting directly from the email, and see related Tweets from the people you follow,” Othman Laraki, Director, Growth and International, writes on the company blog.

To help your discover interesting tweets outside your netywork, this new email digest will also include the most engaging Tweets seen by the people you follow, even if you don’t follow those who actually tweeted them. You can see the retweeted or favorited Tweets from the people you followand click “View details” to retweet, favorite, reply or view the conversation around them.

The new email service will be rolled out to all Twitter users over the next few weeks. So, keep checking your inbox for new updates from Twitter in the coming days.

This post was written by Swati, Editor of www.buzzom.com, Asia's #1 social media blog.

The mid ranged smartphone from Sony known as Xperia U is now available for purchase in India via online retailers. This includes Flipkart and Saholic who are selling the device for Rs. 16,499 while Infibeam for some unknown reason is selling the devices at Rs. 17,399. To clear the air, Sony is yet to officially launch this Android smartphone.

The Sony Xperia U is a device which comes pre-loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (Android 4.0 ICS update on the way), it has a 3.5-inch display of 854 x 480 pixel resolution and is powered by a 1GHz dual core STE U8500 processor.

The device has 4GB of built-in memory, features a 5 megapixel camera capable of 720p video capture at 30fps. Sony has specced the 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery to be capable of up to 45 hours of music playback, with over 6 hours of talktime on 2G networks. Next in line is the Sony Xperia Sola, expected sometime later this month.

The device had previously been spotted, and as expected the Taiwanese manufacturer officially launched its new entry-level Android based smartphone. This upcoming device which is expected to launch later in summer is called the HTC Desire C.

The Desire C is an Android 4.0 ICS based device which is powered by a 600 MHz processor. The device also features a 5 megapixel rear camera, it has a secondary front facing VGA camera, 4GB of built-in memory, 512MB of RAM and is skinned with the latest Sense UI.

The device will no feature the ImageSense technology for cameras which HTC featured on its One series device however the Desire C will get 25GB of cloud storage on Dropbox. The pricing is yet to be confirmed.

Apparently, HTC has cooked up a new low-end Android smartphone which may soon be announced by the company. Press images of the device have appeared online, courtesy Vodafone Portugal. The device is called the HTC Desire C and it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Other specifications of the HTC Desire C include a 3.5-inch display, 5 megapixel rear camera, 4GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM. The processor has not been specified however it is expected to come with a sub-1GHz CPU clocked at 600 mHz.

The pricing is not yet revealed but looking at the current offering from HTC the device will surely be priced under the HTC One V, which is a mid-ranged smartphone. This is quite an under-powered device and may probably be placed in the 10,000 rupee category. The official launch is not yet confirmed and it is likely that it will happen soon.

|Via|

Xbit managed to snag and post a couple of slides from an Intel presentation used by the CEO to discuss research and development of chip fabrication technology. The company’s mobile chip line-up will be split into a low-cost line headed by Atom 22000 carrying and XMM 5255 radio, and the high-performance Atom 22580 that will sport a XMM 7160 radio.

New, 22nm architecture for mobile chips will see the light of with the release of Merrifield and XMM 7260. The company is currently researching 14nm fabrication process, which it hopes will be ready for production sometime in 2013. Beyond that, over the next years, Intel hopes to develop 10nm fabrication process, followed by 7nm process and then ultimately developing a 5nm fabrication process. In addition to research, Intel is investing in upgrading it fab-plants in US and Ireland for 22nm fabrication.

Source: Xbit

Following a few other local handset manufacturers, Karbonn has launched yet another new Android based device in the Indian market. The smartphone is simply known as Karbonn A9 and it is available for purchase via online retailer Infibeam.

This will be a 1GHz powered smartphone running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread. It will also include dual-SIM capability (GSM + GSM) making it yet another contender in the famous low-cost, dual-SIM Android market. Like others it will allow users to use both number simultaneously.

Other specifications of the Karbonn A9 include a 3.8-inch display with a 800x480 pixels resolution, 3G and WiFi capabilities, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and a secondary front facing camera. It will support expandable memory up to 32GB via microSD card.

The device is officially priced at Rs. 10,990 however is available on Infibeam for Rs. 8,999. The A9 will be battling it out with the latest offerings from Spice, Micromax and Samsung.

The Nokia PureView 808 caught everyone’s attention when it made its debut appearance with a whopping 41MP camera, making it one of the more talked about phones from Nokia in recent times.

The Indian portion of the Nokia Shop has the 808 listed as coming soon, but it does not disclose its price. Some diligent scouring by Androsym through the website source code has revealed clues that indicated PureView 808‘s price at Rs. 29,999.

Nokia has earlier confirmed that India and Russia will be among the first countries to get the PureView 808 in May. While the price of 30K seems very likely, we will have to wait for a few more days to get the final word from the phone’s makers.

Compare India's GDP with developed nations, it's no secret that affordable smartphones have a huge market in India. Hence, we bring you ten of the latest smartphones priced below 10,000.

Research In Motion opened its first premium BlackBerry store in India, in Delhi last month which was soon followed by a new store in Gurgaon last Friday. The company has revealed that it has plans to open a total of 15 stores in the country by the end of the year.

RIM has announced plans to open similar stores across major cities in India including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. All the stores will include live demo areas featuring enterprise as well as consumer-grade solutions from RIM.

India has already proven itself as a huge market for BlackBerry phones and it is no surprise that BlackBerry is showing huge interest in this growing market. There has been a huge increase in BlackBerry subscribers in the country especially amongst the youth...

|Via: Crackberry|

Despite not proving to be as successful as Android, Samsung has launched a new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango based smartphone called the Samsung Omnia M. The new Windows Phone smartphone sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED display of WVGA resolution (800x480 pixels) and it is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

The Omnia M also sports a 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, it has a secondary front facing camera for video calling, 384MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and a 1500 mAh battery. Additionally the device will get 25GB of free storage on Microsoft SkyDrive and will also include the mobile version of Microsoft Office.

It will also come pre-loaded with a few Samsung applications which includes ChatOn messenger, Family Store which is a cloud-based family network, Samsung AllShare which allow users to share content, Music Hub and  Smart DJ.

This is a slightly affordable version of the Omnia W, however it sports a bigger display. The device will initially hit the European market and is expected to follow in India. It may bear a price tag of around Rs. 15,000.

Yahoo had confirmed through a press release that the company’s CEO, Scott Thompson, had left the organization for an undisclosed reason. In his stead, Yahoo has appointed Ross Levinsohn as the interim Chief Executive Officer of the company that will go through a reshuffling of Board of Directors.

Before Yahoo made this news official, All Things D reported that the company’s CEO may be asked to leave for reasons that more about his academic record and less about the company’s recent woes. At the beginning of the year, investor Daniel Loeb pointed out that Thompson did not have a computer science degree as he officially claimed.

Scott Thompson, who was once the President of PayPal, later admitted to not having a computer science degree and called the whole episode an “inadvertent error”. While Yahoo did not touch on the subject while declaring Thompson’s resignation, the company had released a statement earlier this month, threatening “reviewing this matter” about Scott Thompson. Head over to the Yahoo website to read the official word in its entirety.

Via: The Verge

Forbes has reported on finding by Torrent-tracking and analysis firm Big Champagne, which puts HBO’s Game of Thrones as being well on its way to becoming the most pirated show of this year.

According to rough estimated released by Big Champagne, the show has been downloaded more than 25 million times from public torrent trackers since it began in early April. This trend hit its peak following April 30th’s episode, which resulted to more than 2.5 million downloads in a day.

Big Champagne admits that it is too early in the year to be certain, but the show does find itself at the top of the Pirate Bay’s top one hundred TV shows chart. TorrentFreak’s measurements had put Game of Thrones as the second-most pirated show of 2011 behind the sixth season of Dexter. Comparing these numbers from last year with this year’s numbers tracked by Big Champagne, shows Game of Thrones is currently topping Dexter’s fate in 2011. Many blame HBO for its current woes with the show. In spite of the show’s popularity, it is not available for download of live streaming through any legitimate sources. Hit the source link after the break for further reading.

Source: Forbes

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