Techonomix

Google isn’t exactly a stranger to
allegations that they invade the privacy of
their customers, but now the search engine
is being asked to explain itself in court over
accusations that they snoop through
messages sent through its Gmail service.
Representatives from Google are asking a
federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit waged at
the company’s Gmail platform because the
plaintiffs in the case cannot explicitly prove
that their correspondence is being
unlawfully monitored by the email service.
Brad Scott and Todd Harrington are the
lead plaintiffs in a case that attempts to
call-out the Silicon Valley search engine
company as being in violation of
California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)
because they believe Gmail conducts
clandestine scans of emails for words and
content, intentionally intercepting private
communiqué as a result without obtaining
the user’s permission. Google, on the other
hand, maintains that only computers
complete all the legwork and that no
humans actually have their eyes on any
emails, also insisting that neither Mr. Scott
nor Mr. Harrington can back up their
claims that any action from Gmail has led
to injury.
Google condemned the case this week,
Courthouse News reports, arguing by way
of a 25-page motion that Gmail scans data
sent over its servers using its "fully
automated processes involve no human
review of any kind" that they insist exists
to screen out viruses and spam "for the
protection of its users." Now they are
asking US District Judge Lucy Koh to dismiss
the complaint with prejudice.
The plaintiffs say that Google’s actions are
enough to land them in court because that
conduct constitutes wiretapping and
eavesdropping in their eyes, a claim which
Google says is “contorting ” state law " in
ways the California Legislature never
intended.”
"In the context of emails, multiple
courts have recognized that no one can
reasonably expect that the emails they
send to others will be free from the
automated processing that is normally
associated with delivering emails,"
Google responds to the case with this
week’s motion.
"Plaintiffs fail to articulate a single
concrete injury stemming from the
automated processing of emails sent to
Gmail users," Google adds. "Plaintiffs
instead rely on conclusory allegations
that their privacy rights were infringed
in the abstract."
Additionally, Google charges that no state
statues being called into question applies
to the plaintiffs’ allegations, writing in their
motion that the terms " electronic
communication," "email," "Internet" and
"computer" are not included.
"Even if the court were to accept
plaintiffs' invitation to judicially rewrite
the statute to reach electronic
communications, choice of law rules
would still preclude applying CIPA to this
case," Google’s motion states.
"CIPA makes clear on its face that it is
intended to protect California residents
and not to regulate California
businesses," Google adds.
Judge Koh is now expected to hear the
motion on March 21, 2013. Meanwhile,
congressional Republicans wrote to the
White House this week to attack a planned
cybersecurity executive order that would
allow third-party companies, such as
Google, to openly share customer-inputted
information with the federal government.
“An executive order exerting influence
over critical infrastructure is not just a
step in the wrong substantive direction, ”
the letter reads. “It will almost certainly
be exploited by other nations to justify
their efforts to regulate the Internet.
This is a most critical time, and we
cannot afford a hasty, unilateral action
that will only serve to bolster the
efforts of less democratic nations to
stifle the very free exchange of ideas
and expression that has allowed the
Internet to flourish across the globe. For
these reasons, we urge you to rethink
the wisdom of an executive order.”
The letter to US President Barack Obama
was signed by 11 GOP members of
Congress, including US Rep. Fred Upton (R-
Michigan), Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New
Hampshire), Senator Marco Rubio (R-
Florida) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah)

Tech giant Apple has launched a bid to
overturn a court ruling that orders it to run
an embarrassing national newspaper
advertisement admitting that Samsung did
not unlawfully copy its iPad design.
LONDON: Tech giant Apple has launched a
bid to overturn a court ruling that orders it
to run an embarrassing national newspaper
advertisement admitting that Samsung did
not unlawfully copy its iPad design.
A British High Court judge had ordered
Apple "to put advertisements in the
relevant newspapers and to put a
statement on their United Kingdom
website", admitting its Korean rival had not
infringed the iPad design.
Apple, however, argued that, in finding
Samsung had not infringed its design, the
trial judge had place too much emphasis
on differences between the design of the
back of Galaxy Tab range and the back of
the iPad, the Telegraph reports.
Michael Silverleaf, representing Apple, said
that the differences highlighted in the
ruling amounted only to "decoration" that
should not carry significant weight in
judging whether Samsung copied.
Whereas the back of the iPad is almost
featureless, Galaxy Tabs have a separate,
different coloured section along one edge
that contains the camera and flash. T
"I say he was wrong to take these aspects
[of colour] into account at all. This [the
iPad] is a design about shape. You don't
make a non-infringing design by making
the same shape and decorating it," the
paper quoted Silverleaf, as saying.
He said that more weight should have been
given to the similarities between the front
of the iPad and the front of Galaxy Tabs.
Silverleaf pointed out that both designs
have a thick black border around their
rectangular touch screens.
"Too much weight was given to the features
of the back and far too little weight to the
features of the front," Silverleaf said.

Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part.
FREMONT: Apple's new maps app came out
the day I started a 2,243-mile road trip
through four states. As complaints about it
trickled in and Apple's CEO apologized, I
was left wondering whether people were
using the same app I was.
Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part. I
know many people will disagree with me,
but I even find it an improvement over the
old app on iPhones because I now get voice
navigation and automatic re-routing.
I've used Google's Android app since it was
released three years ago. I don't own a car,
but I travel a lot. The app has proven
crucial in getting me to unfamiliar
territories in New England and various
Southern states from Arizona to South
Carolina.
Google brought to the phone the spoken-
aloud, turn-by-turn directions once limited
to GPS navigational devices from Garmin,
TomTom and others. Make a wrong turn,
and the app automatically updates with
new directions. Best of all, it's always been
free.
Until last month, Google was also behind
the free, main maps app on iPhones.
But that one didn't have voice navigation or
automatic re-routing. Driving with it meant
swiping through pages of on-screen
directions. A friend missed a train in May
as we overlooked a step and went the
wrong way on a highway, ending up back
where we came from. A drive from Ann
Arbor to Lansing, Mich., took 17 steps, each
with its own page. After Step 9, I had to
pull into a rest stop to memorize
subsequent steps and avoid an accident.
Apple wanted voice directions, too, and
figured the only way to get it was to build
its own maps app and bump Google from
its perch as the default offering. It
partnered with TomTom and shipped the
iPhone 5 with the new app. A software
update out September 19 made it available
on the iPhone 4S and the cellular versions
of the latest two iPad models.
I updated an iPhone 4S in a hotel room in
Grand Rapids, Mich., that night and was
immediately impressed. It was a nice touch
to have turn-by-turn directions narrated by
Siri, the familiar female voice from Apple's
virtual-assistant feature.
Then I started hearing the complaints.
I agree with many of them. The Apple app
didn't show as many businesses and
landmarks as Google's. Some appeared in
the wrong location or were mislabeled. The
Apple app didn't offer public transit
directions, something crucial for New
Yorkers like me. A friend I was visiting
toward the end of the two-week trip
immediately complained that the app
looked different as she pulled it out for the
first time.
Head to head, the Google app for Android,
which I used on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus
and a Galaxy S III, outperformed Apple's
version in many respects:
- Google's app typically told me about turns
a second or two quicker. Sometimes, I
didn't hear from Siri until I got to the
intersection, two lanes away from where I
needed to be to make a right turn.
- I got better navigation on private roads
with Google. At a shopping mall, Google
guided me along the right driveways to get
to JC Penney, while Apple got me to the
general vicinity. Google also got me to the
front door of my hotel in Ann Arbor, while
Apple got me to the entrance of a complex
that included other hotels, a gas station
and retail stores.
- In Akron, Ohio, Siri had me turn left to get
on a highway, while Google's app properly
instructed me to take a ramp on the left. In
Indianapolis, Google knew about a service
road alongside Michigan Road, while Siri
assumed I was on the main road and would
have had me crash into a Chinese
restaurant. In Charleston, W.Va., Siri told
me to head northeast, as if I had a
compass, while Google just told me to turn
left.
- Besides public transit directions, Google
offered options for avoiding tolls or
highways while driving. It allowed me to
choose continuous satellite images instead
of animated maps, while Apple's app
offered them only for route overviews, not
for live navigation.
- While Siri's voice sounds much more
human than the one Google used in its
early mapping apps, Google now has a
voice that makes Siri sound robotic by
comparison. Google also was more sparing
with words, which was good as long as I
didn't get lost for lack of detail.
That said, Apple's map offers 3-D views.
That may sound like a gimmick, but it
presents the map in a way that mirrors
what you're seeing through the windshield.
On Apple's map, the direction you're going
is on top in the regular view or toward the
back in 3-D. Outside of big cities, Google
often has north on top, which can be
confusing when driving east or south.
Apple's maps are also more pleasant to
view. Instructions such as "turn right onto
Pearl St." are in white against a green
background, similar to the signs you see on
highways. Street names at intersections are
in a green rectangle, similar to actual street
signs at corners. Unlike Google's, Apple's
app showed me the distance and time
remaining and an estimated time of arrival
all at once, though I would have
appreciated larger text.
Apple's app was mostly dead-on in getting
me to my destination. The one big miss was
when it had a winery I was looking for
about a half-mile east of its actual location.
I went to another instead.
But Google has made mistakes, too. It told
me to turn left to get to a lighthouse along
the Straits of Mackinac connecting two
Great Lakes, even as the road sign in front
of me pointed to the right. Then again,
Apple's app didn't even find that
lighthouse in a search.
Both apps gave me other questionable
directions, even though they got me there,
which was what mattered most. At one
point, Google had me on a curvy one-lane
residential street with little visibility, even
though a faster, safer road ran parallel to
it. Apple's directions to a roadside tourist
trap had me take an exit four miles to the
south, only to return four miles north on
smaller roads.
Bottom line is no app is perfect. After all
the complaints about Apple's app, I
downloaded a 99-cent iPhone app called
MotionX GPS Drive. It got good reviews and
offered more features than either Apple or
Google. But it tried to lead me off the
wrong exit in Ohio. Plus, all the extra
features diverted my eyes to the settings
menu when I should've been paying
attention to trucks and, ahem, police cars
around me.
One of my favorite scenes from "The
Office" television show is when clueless
boss Michael Scott drives into Lake
Scranton because he was blindly following
GPS directions.
There will be mistakes, but it beats driving
in a new place with nothing. You just need
to use your common sense.
Apple's app is far better than the one
Google had when it first came out in late
2009. In apologizing for an app he says
"fell short" of Apple's own expectations,
CEO Tim Cook says the company will keep
working to improve it.
It's true Apple's app falls short of what
Google now offers for Android, but if all
you have is an iPhone or an iPad, Apple's
new app will get you there just fine.
Clinging to the old, voiceless app is like
hanging on to your cassette tapes while the
world has moved on to CDs and digital
downloads. I can't imagine driving without
hearing voices.
(Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology and
media editor for The Associated Press)

"We're making a version of Hangman using
images ," says 21-year-old Sumit
Mulchandani. Sumit and his classmates
Akshay Sharma and Akash Giri are from the
Vellore Institute of Technology and were in
the city to participate in a app-a-thon held
last week at KTPO in Whitefield, Bangalore.
The trio was huddled around laptops as
they pounded away on a development
program. "We've already built this app for
the Windows Phone," said a proud Sumit.
"We are trying to tweak it so that it works
as well on the larger canvas provided by
Windows 8."
Microsoft, Blackberry, Yahoo, Facebook and
Samsung are among those trying to tap
into Indian developers . And increasingly,
"Catch them young" is the motto.
Sumit, Akshay and Akash are three of the
beneficiaries of Microsoft's big push
towards getting more and more students to
work with its development tools. Microsoft
is acutely aware that it lags behind tablet
market leader Apple in terms of the sheer
number of applications available for the
platform. Unlike competing tablet operating
systems iOS and Android, Microsoft's
strategy is "PC down" versus "Mobile Up" .
It's logical , considering that the PC
platform has many more applications than
the Windows mobile platform. But it
remains to be seen whether those
applications can be made Windows 8 and
tablet compatible fast enough.
Yahoo has been hosting hackathons in
Bangalore to get developers to use their
technology to develop applications. They
hosted their fifth edition of the event in
Bangalore in August. "Bangalore's hacks
are always looked forward to because of
the amount of innovation they bring,"
Arunav Sinha, head of corporate
communications for Yahoo, had said during
the event. The event saw 730 developers,
who submitted an impressive 157 hacks at
the end of a 24-hour coding session.
"Last year (at Yahoo's hackathon), the
theme was the web, but this year it was
mobile devices. Everyone is trying to come
up with an app that can combine social
and mobile elements," said Sandeep
Bhaskar of Ideaphone, a startup that
developed a carpooling app.
Facebook hosted "World Hack" in
Bangalore earlier this month. The event
saw about 175 developers creating apps for
Facebook. "It's surprising we weren't here
earlier," said Bear Douglas, developer
advocate for Facebook. Bear was
coordinating the event and making sure
that the coders were getting information on
Facebook's technologies, permissions and
APIs "We had some issues with our beta
version when it came to permissions , but
we got it sorted out here at the event,"
says Vishnu Govind, a developer at the
event who was working on an app which
would give a better social stratification of
your friends on Facebook.
Douglas said that the India leg of World
Hack generated a lot of interest in Android
and Web based applications for Facebook.
The US leg saw developments on iOS
platforms.
Microsoft's New England Research and
Development Center (NERD) hosted a paid
12-week internship program between June
to August this year. Selected interns
underwent a boot camp, mentoring and
training, and produced six programs at the
end of their training, including a Fedex
package tracking program, an alarm clock
and a game that involves penguins and
aircraft.
The VIT team is a beneficiary of a Microsoft
program called Dreamspark. Dreamspark is
a program that's open to students,
teachers and educational institutions.
At KPTO, Mayra Dolos was hunched over
her laptop, working on a video streaming
application. Mayra is from Pune. She is the
kind of enthusiast that any software
company would love. "I'm a huge fan of
Microsoft. I was a Microsoft Student
Partner," she says proudly. "I went through
a rigorous selection process - there were
four levels of selection and now I'm
spreading the message of Microsoft
Technologies," she says with evangelical
fervour.
Her partner, Mandar Kulkarni nods. He was
working on a game called Tilt - using
motion sensors. "I gave up a better paying
job with Oracle Financials so that I could
work with Microsoft Technologies," he says.
Mayra nods. She gave up a better paying
job with Sears to work with Microsoft.

Apple seems set to launch the iPhone 5 in
India on October 26, industry sources say.
However, Apple spokesperson refused to
comment on the matter.
NEW DELHI: After the initial round of global
iPhone 5 launches, Apple seems set to
launch the latest version of its iconic
smartphone in India on October 26,
industry sources say. However, Apple
spokesperson refused to comment on the
matter.
iPhone 5 is eagerly awaited in the country
and is already available in the grey market
at sky-high prices, touching over Rs 1 lac. It
is the fastest selling smartphone of all time,
with 5 million units sold over the first
weekend itself. With this device, Apple
broke its mould of 3.5-inch screens and
ventured into the 4-inch screen size
domain and introduced the all-new
Lightning dock connector and EarPods.
In India, iPhones have commanded top
dollar and are out of reach of the masses,
one of the main reasons for the meager
market share of Apple's phone in India as
compared to Android phones. Last year,
the base variant of iPhone 4S was launched
at Rs 44,500 in the country and currently
costs Rs 41,500 after the recent price
revision. In contrast, no Android
smartphone in India currently costs above
Rs 40,000, though it must be remembered
that Samsung Galaxy S III was priced
around Rs 43,000 at the time of launch.
However, the company soon brought the
official price of the device down to Rs
38,900 and currently the phone costs Rs
35,500 on the company's e-store.
Recently, when Apple slashed prices of its
phones in India, the iPhone 4 was given a
price tag of Rs 28,300, which is quite high
considering that it is two years old.
Apple has been making efforts to penetrate
the Chinese market, but seems to largely
ignore India's potential. On the other hand,
Samsung, the arch rival of Apple in the
smartphone domain,has already made
inroads into India and is perched right at
the top of the smartphone market in the
country. India has become one of the
biggest markets for the South Korean
company's mobile division.
Nevertheless, things seem to be changing
for India, as Apple looks set to bring its
latest offering to the country within a short
span of its worldwide launch, especially
considering that the first iPhone was never
launched here.

We're in a football mood today at
Discovery, but we aren't always able to
keep up with the game. If life gets in the
way of you watching football, you might
want to check out the NFL's tablet app,
Game Rewind. With a paid subscription,
users can watch full replays of the 2012
season on demand using an iPad or
Android tablet. Replays of past games,
dating back to 2009, are also available.

The recent update has added a few new
features including "Condensed Game." It
shows you an entire game in a span of
about 30 minutes, penalties and all, with
no commercials. While watching an on-
demand game or catching up with instant
replays, scores can also be displayed from
different games. If you don't want to know,
they can be hidden, too. If you're an
analysis kind of guy (or girl), play-by-play
details of the games from coaches shows
you all angles of the game. A telestrator
feature on iOS devices is also on hand to
enhance the experience.
It's a good way to keep up with the game
without necessarily having to have a cable
or dish subscription. The app is free, but
access to features require a subscription.
One-time payments of $34.99 to follow one
team, $39.99 for the entire league and both
of these cover you up to January of 2013.
The Season Plus package, which includes
the telestrator feature, lasts through July
31, 2013 for $69.99. Monthly subscriptions
are also available.
Credit: NFL

When you start learning coding and web designing in HTML, you basically begin with normal HTML markup. Laying out a page, adding colors, buttons, images etc are just the basic part you never skip to design your page.


But being a beginner you must know that no matter how basic your code is it can still have some uninvited errors. There are certain important things that you must consider to make your coding valid and capable to view in any browser window.

Let’s discuss what those 7 things are.

Make your code human readable

Because you are a HTML beginner, you are never going to use any HTML editing software like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. are you? You literally start with a NOTEPAD or similar text editor and start coding but have you ever thought that you need revise your HTML markup sometime?

In the image below can you easily find the parent tag or its order?


                          

The answer to the question is probably no if you are a beginner. Because such type of coding is just easily readable by the browser not the user. You must make it clearly readable by yourself so that you can easily find the section you are looking for in future modification.

Though the HTML tags are enclosed in “<” and “>” our brain cannot easily distinguish it from other character easily in such a huge crowd. Instead you can use CAPITAL LETTERS to rectify the HTML tag out of the web contents.



Look how the tags are distinguishable from the text contents.

Other thing you can do is make a tree order so that you can easily find the parent or child of the tag easily. This can be done by leaving some space from the right. See the example image below for more clarification.



This trick will make you easy to edit and look for the exact tag when necessary.

Using of HTML comments wisely

It is not much necessary to use HTML comments because, HTML comments are for users and browser doesn’t render it in its window. The necessity of HTML comments rises when your HTML markup goes more complex and complex. In such case using of HTML comments is necessary. As we’ve already discussed about human readability of the code in first step.



The HTML comments start with “<!--" and ends in “-->” everything between the start and end code is not rendered in browser screen but you can easily find the it in it’s source.


Always close the tag

I understand you know this fact, but when the codes get complicated with larger contents and lots of inner divisions and blocks you’ll get confused in the middle of the path. Basically, when you view the HTML page that have unknown incomplete tags, the contents will be visible with no errors. But incase if you have added some CSS styling and tables to your web design layout you’ll probably have lots of error and fault in proper rendering in such unknown incomplete tags. Therefore ending a tag is most important thing.

Even though you are aware about it you miss to close the tag because we cannot always remember which tag was opened first and which was at last. But there is a trick (or say tips) that you can apply to have your HTML tags complete one.

Whenever you begin for a new HTML tag, close it immediately after the opening of tag.

For example, look at the sample coding below. The <BODY> tag is closed instantly after it’s opening.



Then you can start filling the contents and other sub tags inside it.



Always provide alternate text for the image

This trick though won’t affect your coding, user readability or browser render-ability, it is recommended that you use alternate tags.

<img src=”image.jpg” />

The above tag renders a image file named image.jpg from the specified source. But incase if you don’t have the image in specified location or mistakenly deleted the image file it will render nothing (in some browser it will show image icon or red cross icon).



Remember how important the image can be to the web page visitor. To understand your contents, S/he must know what the image was about. You must use alternet text what will  show up when browser is unable to locate your image file. This will at least give the imaginative picture of the unknown image.

<img src=”image.jpg” alt=”Image showing a couple kissing each other” />



Proper sequence of Headers

H1 is the first and largest header of your HTML document. If you use header (H1, H2, H3) tags you must use it in sequence. For example, <H1> must be preceeded by <H2> or <H3> or <H4> but they must not be parented under smaller header see the image below.











But this one is not right because, lower header must not parent larger header. Though this won’t show any error it is not considered as good method.

Moreover parenting headers is not recommended even it is acceptable and can be rendered properly.

Use of block and inline HTML elements

You must understand the meaning of block and inline HTML elements. Usually a HTML element can be a block or inline element. The block element is like a box that can contain other contents inside it. The inline elements doesn’t have box wrapped around it and only occupies the space that its contents have. While block element occupies as much space as it is capable of until the size or width is specified.

<DIV> is literally a block element while <SPAN>, <STRONG>, <EM>, <I>, etc are inline elements. <DIV> inside <SPAN> is not recommended but you can use as many <SPAN> as you can inside <DIV>.



Seventh? What can be the seventh one? Comment here.

You might have already joined Google Plus, if not you can get one invitation from us. Google Plus is up with great features which makes the users to use it frequently. As we know Google already announced that we can Sign in to Google accounts with multiple emails. So, we can also use multiple emails to sign in to Google Plus.

Lets see how we can do it.

Step 1

                                    


Log in to Google Plus and click your name containing at the top right side of the page. Click Account settings option.

Step 2
                           
                        
                               

In the Security, you'll see Multiple sign-in. Click 'Edit' link just next to it. In the next screen choose 'On' option and check all the required that will make you sure how to use multiple sign in feature (see below).



Click save button.

Step 3
                                                   

Now again, at the top right side of the page. Click your name and click Switch account > Sign in to another account...

No finally you can enter you username and password of your existing Gmail email. After all, you can switch to multiple accounts. See below.



Finally you are done and enjoy using Google Plus. If you know more tricks about Google plus then kindly share it via comment below.

People share a lot of links online. This is particularly true as microblogging services such as Twitter have grown in popularity. If you’re not familiar with them, URL shorteners basically squeeze a long URL into fewer characters to make it easier to share with others. With character limits in tweets, status updates and other modes of short form publishing, a shorter URL leaves more room to say what’s on your mind — and that’s why people use them. They said on their blog announcement.

 However, there is nothing to to be happy, since Google URL shortener is not a stand-alone service i.e., you can’t use it to shorten links directly. Currently, Google URL Shortener is only available from the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner.

With limited space for tweeting, the URL shortener business has boomed, currently Bit.ly was leading.
Side by side with Google’s URL shortner, Fb.me is also showing up in several tweets. However, it’s unclear how long fb.me has been in operation.