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.

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.

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.

The long standing dispute been AT&T and Verizon Wireless, that flared up because of the advertising tactics employed by the latter, is set to come to a closure, as a Federal Court is expected to pass a verdict on the case soon. In the recent weeks, Verizon had started an advertising campaign, wherein, the wireless carrier made every effort to ensure that, AT&T’s network coverage, especially 3G networks take a reputation hit.

The advertising campaign led to a lawsuit filed by AT&T against Verizon stating that, the false advertisements has hurt the credibility and has shaken public confidence in AT&T’s services. However, Verizon has stated that, the AT&T’s anger over the advertisements is not because they are offensive, but due to the reasons that, they are true.

The ongoing tussle between America’s two biggest wireless carriers has also shed light on a new issue and that is the use of differentiating facts when it comes to advertising. Many experts believe, that wireless carriers have now adopted the practice of misleading consumers about their rival’s operations and have begun bending the truth in order to forward their own commercial ambitions. The lawsuit by AT&T in the federal court seeks for an injunction on Verizon’s advertising campaign and the verdict is expected soon on the case.

Via USA Today.

Besides the new look, the service has implemented tools that help in the understanding of non-Latin languages such as Chinese, Arabic or Persian. For these languages, will be offered the option “show romanization, which will enable the understanding of the sound of words from a phonetic writing. You can also write in any language is from the Latin sounds of words, which will be converted to characters of the selected language, according to information from the PC World site

According to Tom Kratz, site CNET News, this is an important step in the Google translator, adding language that comes into service in recent years, but that was a bottleneck in the translation between languages Latin and non-Hispanics.

For translations into English service will also provide an icon that will hear the words translated, as explained awaneesh Verma, product manager at Google, the official blog post. Just click the icon for the speaker to hear the sentence translated. The instant translation, which comes as the User types the phrase to be translated, is also one of the new service.

Via: PCWorld.

It was released for testing the use of Google’s image search Swirl, a tool that allows you to search for images with words, and from a given selection in the results, opens a tree-like figures, helping in the search.

The search for images has never been an easy task. The known Google Images service has its relevance, but it is not precise and can take a while to find the desired figure.

To make life easier for the users, Google launched Google Swirl, an interface for image search, part of Google Labs. According to the website TechTree, the application, still in its experimental displays the results of a search in a grid with 12 miniatures, representing the most relevant, according to the search term.

Clicking on any of the 12 thumbnails, the page displays a large circle with the selected image, connected to other small figures less relevant and that have some relation to the bigger picture. Moreover, there is a connection with a smaller circle that leads to the first groups displayed.

It is precisely this mixture of images and circular references that gives its name to the tool, Swirl. Although still limited, there is already a lot of terms available for consultation.

Image Credit.

Via: TechTree.