Google Inc. has claimed that, its highly anticipated operating system, Google Chrome OS will prove to be the fastest operating system ever devised, with a boot time of just seven seconds. The announcement was made at a huge gathering where Google gave the first glimpses of its in house built OS to the world.

Google had announced its plans for a completely revolutionary operating system for desktops and notebooks about four months ago, a statement dropped a nuclear bomb on one of the biggest OS developers in the world, Microsoft, who had launched its much anticipated Windows 7 operating system just over a month ago.

As Google had claimed the preview of the Google Chrome OS clearly shows that, its OS is heavily dependent on the internet, with virtually all the applications requiring network access. The user interface of Google Chrome OS is in shape of a browser, instead of a traditional stand alone operating environment that provides a host of offline capabilities to the users.

The all new Google Chrome OS is expected to hit the markets near the end of the year 2010 and will be available on specific netbooks that will be comprised of the hardware supported by the Google OS. These netbooks will be able to run the operating system only with an active internet connection as the user data and other services will be stored on internet servers, instead of local hard drives.

A bigger news for the users across the internet spectrum is that, Google will be providing the new operating system absolutely free of cost. The availability of free Google Chrome OS isn’t anything new on the part of Google, as the company is famous for introducing awesome web services without charging a penny.

Via Reuters.

Sony Corporation’s own brand of e-book reader, the Daily Edition is also facing a similar situation of a shortage of supplies to the stores, just like the Nook, thus leaving the Kindle as the only alternative in the field of wireless e-readers for the consumers this holiday season. The more the shortage prolongs, the more the scope for Kindle’s sales increase.

The Nook devices that have been ordered since Friday last week will be shipped to the customers in the week beginning from January 4th, 2010. Furthermore, the e-book readers available in the Barnes & Nobles stores are in extremely short supply, thus making it very difficult to meet the consumers’ demand. According to Barnes & Nobles,

“While we increased production based on the high consumer interest, we’ve sold out of our initial Nook allotment available for delivery before the holidays. We do anticipate having limited stock available in our highest-volume stores over the holidays.”

Even Sony has stated that, due to the high consumer demand, the Daily Edition will also be experiencing an extreme shortage and thus will be available to the customers only on a first come, first serve basis and there can be no guarantees as far as the supply of the Daily Edition for the holiday season is concerned.

According to Rotman Epps (Forrester),

“These two companies wanted to show the market that they would be competition to Amazon for the 2009 holiday season and now they have to face the consequences of that strategy and apologize to consumers for empty boxes under the tree. There may be a lot of e-reader frustration — it may be the Cabbage Patch doll of the year or the Tickle Me Elmo,” referring to two popular toys of prior years that sold out quickly.”

Via Reuters.

For a long time now, Yahoo! Inc has been experiencing a significant slump as far as the usage of its search engine, Yahoo! Search is concerned. Users worldwide have become more inclined towards Google and Microsoft’s Bing search engines and reduced the usage of Yahoo! drastically.

In an effort to revive the importance of its search engine, Yahoo! has reportedly gotten into a deal with the micro blogging sensation in which, Yahoo! will now be fetching important tweets and information from the micro blogging website and incorporate them into Yahoo! Search. Even though Microsoft’ and Google have already made sub deals with Twitter, Yahoo will be the very first service to show tweets into the search engine.

Yahoo! plans to show tweets from Twitter that revolve around important information and events. Whenever a search string is keyed in Yahoo! search regarding a specific topic or a news event, Yahoo! will display fur unique tabs for the query, each one will be dedicated towards links to news sites, one tab for images, one tab for video and the last tab will specifically display tweets from Twitter.

The Twitter tab in Yahoo! search will display the information from Twitter pages of some of the most respected media outlets, such as, CNN and Associated Press and will also the users tweets that might be directing towards an interesting or breaking news. The deal between Yahoo! and Twitter has reportedly been devoid of any financial compensations and Yahoo! will be employing the free tools at its disposal to include Twitter in its search results.

Via Digital Trends.

The music hardware giant, Sony Corporation has announced that, it will be launching an all new online music store, called Sony Online Service, that will be one stop store for music, videos and other multimedia entertainment files. The Sony Online Service is being viewed as a stark competitor to the Apple iTunes, that has so far led the domain of online music stores.

The all new service from Sony was announced at Sony’s management strategy meeting in Tokyo, Japan and the service is expected to have some similarities to iTunes, that has been taken as the platform on which Sony Online Service has been designed.

Sony plans to the integrate its on PlayStation network, a services that provides the PlayStation gamers with an online environment where they can play the multi player modes of their favorite titles. The PlayStation network is currently comprised of more than 33 million users world wide.

According to a report published by Sony Corporation,

“Sony will try to differentiate its service from iTunes. One example: Users will be able to upload videos shot on camcorders, save photos taken with digital cameras, and post other digital content to their personal online accounts. That’s how Google’s suite of Net-based services (such as YouTube video-sharing and Picasso photo site) works. At some point down the road, Sony would consider letting independent software developers create applications for the service, much the way Apple does for its iPhone.”

Sony has long been facing financial crunch especially in its two most prominent divisions, TVs and video games. Due to the global economic downturn and the high prices of Sony electronic appliances, the company has witnessing a substantial loss in its revenue and profits. The all new online strategy developed by Sony management is the only shot that, the company can pin its hopes on for a recovery.

Via Electric Pig.

The much awaited and highly anticipated Google Chrome OS, that has the online community jumping with excitement, has finally made its way to the users’ machines in the form of a virtual boot. The test version has been released in the form of a VMware image of Google Chrome OS, that can be tested on the systems in the form of a virtual environment. The peer to peer torrent file for the Google Chrome  virtual boot is available at the Pirate Bay.

The all new Google Chrome OS boasts a much fast boost timing than that of the current operating systems. The Google OS is now known to be completely web oriented, as the applications that will entail the Chrome OS will be more different than the conventional applications found on today’s operating systems, as these new apps will consist of URLs and online functioning.

The entire settings and applications in Google Chrome are known to be completely online and have very limited offline capabilities. Features such as GMail, Google Docs and other Google tools and even the notepad in Google Chrome OS will all be internet dependent. Google Chrome OS is expected to make it debut next year, but as per inside sources, the operating system will be built with specific reference hardware and will be provided with especially with original equipment manufacturers.

Via Life Hacker & The Pirate Bay.

After a long standing legal battle between the online auction giant, eBay and the internet telephony company, Skype has finally led to the salvation of Skype, as eBay has sold out a major share of telephony company, but still retains 30% stake in Skype. It is one of the most biggest and most successful web telephonic company, that provides its users with free calling between Skype and also provides

Skype has been sold a group of investors, after eBay managed to complete a successful assessment of Skype’s value that finally reached to $2.75 billion. The group on investors that, bought Skype includes Andreessen Horowitz, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Joltid Limited and the brains behind Skype, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Ebay had purchased Skype on the year 2005.

However, the founders of Skype had filed a lawsuit against eBay earlier this year, that almost brought the end of the world’s most preferred web phone company. In the lawsuit, the founders of Skype had stated that, the technology for Skype was their own creation and also accused eBay of violating the licensing agreement. The court case was later settled as Zennström and Friis were finally given a share of their company.

According to Josh Silverman (President, Skype),

“Great news – we’ve closed the deal with the new investors. Our journey continues: say hello to the future!”

Via Sky & Skype.

The all new feature available on the Kohl’s website is the ability of creating a list of items and commodities that will be available for the consumers for the Black Friday shopping season. The Friday after the U.S Thanksgiving, is traditionally known to be the beginning of the holiday shopping season. This new service will be available to all U.S user between November 22nd to November 27th 2009.

According to Julie Gardner, (Chief Marketing Officer, Kohl’s Corp.),

“In a tough economy for our customers, pre-shopping and planning their shopping are more important than ever because they really have to stretch their budgets. If we have a list, we stay well within our budget more.”

All Kohl’s stores across the U.S will remain open till 4 a.m. on Black Friday and will also be offering $10 coupons on every $50 purchases made by consumers along with ‘early bird’ deals on specific items as well. During the Black Friday season, the major retail stores throughout the United States are allowed to work till late hours at night and they offer sensational discounts and offers in an effort to generate more sales and revenue.

Via Bloomberg.

One of the biggest shopping seasons in the United States of America, also known as the Black Friday, as it falls on the first Friday after the Thanksgiving has made two of the biggest shopping networks, Wal-Mart and Target come out with all guns blazing. Both the companies have announced bottom dollar prices for their products and incredible deals on commodities that have the consumers run to their nearby Wal-Mart and Target outlets.

The all new explosive deals are targeted at electronic items such as, high-definition TVs, laptops and Blu-ray players etc. and also envelops day to day entertainment items for both children and adults such as, toys, DVDs etc. This new Black Friday shopping campaign by both the stores has raised their expectations as far as sales are concerned and the retail chains strongly believe that, this year’s holiday season will be extremely gratifying for their revenues and profits.

Even though Wal-Mart hasn’t announced all its commodities deals till yet, still some of the hot bargains that have indeed been by announced by the retail giant are, 50 inch Sanyo plasma HDTV for $598, Magnavox Blu-Ray disc player for $78, TomTom GPS System for $59, 
Reversible Fleece jacket for $7, Childrens sleepwear for $3. Apart from these daily items of use, Wal-Mart has lowered down the prices of some of the most sought after gadgets such as, Wii Play Bundle for Nintendo Wii for $39, Xbox 360 120GB Elite System w/ Free for $50, Xbox 360 Black Controller for $39, Gift Card for $299.99
, 
Lexar 4GB microSDHC Memory Card for $10.00
, Lexar 4GB SDHC Memory Card for $10.00 and 
Electronic Gadget 3-Slot Charging Station for $14.99.

Along with the above mentioned items that have been designated for the sale, Wal-Mart has also heavily focused on the entertainment section as well with a long list of items that are sure to make the consumers go on a shopping spree. These items include, a 15.6-inch eMachines laptop with 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, AMD CPU, and Windows 7 for $198, a 42-inch Emerson 720p plasma TV for $448, a 50-inch Sanyo plasma for $598, 46-inch Sony 1080p LCD TV for $798, Rock Band Special Edition (with all the instruments) for $50, Sony PlayStation 3 Slim with two games and a Blu-ray disc for $299, 320GB Western Digital external hard drive for $49 and a 10.1-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot camera with 3x optical zoom for $79.

As far as Target is concerned, the retail store is selling the Westinghouse 32″ Widescreen LCD HD TV for only $246 and the Xbox 360 120GB Elite System for $299.99.

Via Tha Indian & Yahoo! Tech.

For a long time now, there has been a rugged protocol in effect in offices around the globe, where the office management has constantly been warning its employees that, their private e-mails are under scrutiny of the company’s IT department.

However, recently some cases in the courts have shed light on a surprisingly new trend, where judges and legal experts are now advocating for enhanced employee rights, especially when it comes to electronic privacy. This latest change in the field of employees’ electronic privacy has come at a time, when the internet has fast become a place where privacy is constantly under threat.

According to Katharine Parker (Lawyer, Proskauer Rose),

“Courts are more inclined to rule based on arguments presented to them that privacy issues need to be carefully considered.”

Some time ago, the courts were more sympathetic towards the companies when it came to e-mail privacy of employees, as the companies stated security concerns for monitoring the incoming personal e-mails of the employees. However, courts have now softened their stance on employee privacy considerably. The courts’ changed views on employee privacy have been evident from a New Jersey case, where the employee of a health care company was justified in the requesting the management not to monitor a specific personal e-mail.

Even with the U.S First Amendment, stating the freedom of speech, the collecting of employees’ personal e-mails is still a continuing practice. This is because, even though the emails are being viewed on third party email applications, yet the machines are the property of the offices and such e-mails are being collected in servers, from where these mails can then be retrieved by an employers, at any given time.

Via Wall Street Journal.

One of the most reputed news aggregations on the internet, Techmeme has announced the expansion of its staff with the addition of three new editors to its roll call. The new team of editors, Lidija Davis from ReadWriteWeb, Mahendra Palsule, a former IT Project Manger and Rich DeMuro of Cnet have all joined the Techmeme staff and brought along years of experience and expertise in the field of information and technology.

The founder of Techmeme, Gabe Rivera, is reportedly extremely happy with the latest acquisitions because, with the three new editors in the organization, there is now more manpower that will have the responsibility of picking up vital internet news that matter to the users. Previously, Techmeme heavily relied on computers and algorithms to filter the news feeds and select the most appropriate ones to show on its website. However, the company soon realized the importance of human intervention and intellect and has been in the processing of acquiring talent made from flesh ever since.

Along with its information website, Techmeme also runs a unique leader board, that is a combined list of some of the most reputed technology blogs and news agencies that provide the users with valuable information, keeping them up to date with the latest events and enabling them to make informed decisions. Techmeme has also gone big time Twitter, with a feed dedicated for Twitter users that keep the uses informed about the latest happenings in the company.

Via Erictric & Techmeme News.