7 Negatives for Windows 7

Microsoft's latest operating system Windows 7 opened to rave reviews last week. After the dismal performance of its earlier operating system Vista, Microsoft seems to be heaving a sigh of relief at the grand reception that its new OS has received.

PC makers are scrambling to offer Windows 7-based systems, including Netbooks, as they hope the operating system to spur PC sales. After skidding for six months, computer shipments have shown some improvements recently. Seems Microsoft is all set to further strengthen its grasp over computer desktops.

Not really! As many skeptics beg to differ. According to them, Vista too got high marks before its release as well, with writers praising the new visual design and glossing over quirks that later became common gripes.

Here's looking into what may dampen Microsoft's Windows 7 party.
Shifting from XP

One of the biggest complain that most analysts have is the lack of direct upgrade from XP, the operating system which still continues to run on almost 80% of the world's computers. Windows 7 fails to offer a smooth transition from XP as there is no upgrade option. Users will have to go for a fresh install.

Writes Tony Bradley of PC World, "After the issues with Windows Vista, and knowing that the vast majority of users-both consumer and enterprise-are still relying on Windows XP, it seems like a direct upgrade path is a necessity. Many users may be frustrated by the lack of upgrade path and having to do a fresh install, reinstall all of the other software and migrate user settings. Microsoft has provided tools to ease the pain, but this is still the biggest opportunity for negative PR or backlash related to Windows 7."

According to Microsoft, the upgrade option is not available in Windows 7 Setup when installing Windows 7 on a computer running Windows XP. However, users can use Windows Easy Transfer to migrate files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 on the same computer.

Hardware upgrade

The basic requirements of a PC to run on Windows 7 are 1 GHz processor, minimum 1GB of RAM and 16GB hard drive space. This in simple words means any hardware that worked with Vista will work for Windows 7 too.

However, one of the most crucial reasons for Vista not succeeding was that the operating system almost forced a hardware upgrade on users. Hope the almost similar requirement does not hamper the prospects of Windows 7. It's is also to be noted here that that the basic PC configuration has seen a jump since Vista days.

Hardware and Drivers support

According to Bradley, Windows Vista stumbled due to the lack of hardware and device driver support. He writes, "The vendors just weren't ready when Vista was launched and Vista never really recovered from the damaged reputation even after most of those issues were resolved."

It is not a great experience for users working on a new operating system to find out that their existing printer, wireless router, webcam, and other peripheral hardware devices don't work with the new OS. This means either they stop working on that hardware or look for new hardware that is compatible.

UAC is still there!

The most controversial and much maligned feature of Vista, UAC or User Account Control is a part of Windows 7 too. The UAC was designed to prevent unauthorised execution of code by displaying a pop-up warning every time a change is being made to the system, whether by the operating system or a third-party application.

Many Vista users complained of being bombarded with the warnings. It proved a huge annoyance for users installing new applications frequently. Windows 7 now allows you to set the level of information that a user desires.

However, writes Bradley, "... still after much debate with the security community during the Beta testing, the default setting is still set to what users experienced with Windows Vista. Frankly, UAC serves a purpose and it is better to leave it alone. But, those who dislike UAC are going to have to go into the control panel and modify the configuration to their liking or be faced with the same pop-ups that annoyed the world with Vista."

Vista's ghost

The failure of Vista continues to cast a deep shadow on the Microsoft's fresh launch, especially among the business users. Most enterprise customers skipped Windows Vista reportedly due to the numerous technical glitches that the OS had. According to reviewers, the operating system suffered from frequent hangs and crashes, and incompatibility with certain software and hardware.

A section of analysts believes that `Vista's reputation' may hamper Microsoft's efforts to convince enterprises about the Windows 7 improved features.

Ahead of the launch, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said that the company's reputation never recovered from the poor performance of Vista. Ballmer said Microsoft's reputation took a beating after the release of Vista in 2007, an operating system which caused computers to hang indefinitely, among many other technical glitches.

High pricing

Price is seen as one of biggest issue that may dampen the Windows 7 release. Microsoft is charging $199.99 for the Home Premium version of Windows 7, or $119.99 for users seeking to upgrade from older versions of the operating system. However, India pricing seems to be comparatively low.

In India, the Home Basic package will cost about Rs 5,899, while the Windows 7 Ultimate (high-end version) will be available for Rs 11,799. In the US, the high-end version costs $320 (Rs 15,000).

Microsoft Vista Home basic costs around Rs 3,500, Home Premium version is priced at Rs 4,800. Microsoft Vista Business costs around Rs 6,400 while Microsoft Vista Ultimate is priced at Rs 9,500.

PC makers HCL Infosystems, Acer and Hewlett Packard have already started shipping Windows pre-loaded PCs and notebook computers. HP India will retail Windows 7-preloaded PCs between Rs 27,990 and Rs 90,000. HP's preloaded Windows 7 notebooks will be priced at Rs 39,990 onwards.

Acer PCs with Windows 7 OS will be priced between Rs 15,000 and Rs 35,000, while the notebooks will be priced at Rs 21,000-Rs 70,000. HCL Infosystems' Executive Vice President George Paul informed that HCL will price it between Rs 16,000 and Rs 55,000, whereas the notebooks would cost Rs 22,000-Rs 80,000.

Launch timing

Microsoft’s big release coincides with one of the worst phases in the global economy. The past few months have witnessed a downfall in the spending as cost-cutting became the mantra for businesses around the world.

Though most companies see a recovery on the horizon, they still see no big jump in corporate budgets. The companies globally continue to remain cautious and are tightly guarding their purses.

Certain analysts believe that the tough economic climate may impact the sales of Windows 7. At the same time, PC makers like Lenovo are betting on the new operating system to revive the falling computer sales.

Piracy

Another big challenge for Microsoft is to deal with piracy. Even before the official release of Windows 7, authentic looking pirate copies of the OS were available in China for a mere $3.

According to Reuters, Windows 7 has been openly available in China's grey market for over a month now. Shopkeepers in Shanghai’s Xinyang market are said to be offering all versions of Windows 7, in both Chinese and English for just 20 yuan ($2.93). This compares with the list price of up to $320.

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IT 2008-09: Salary hikes & attrition

The average IT sector attrition rate, which was 18 per cent last year has dropped to 15 per cent, according to a survey by IDC, a premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and Dataquest.

Despite the marginal increase in salaries, a freeze on fresh induction, layoffs, cutting down on talent and keeping offer letters on hold, the industry saw a dip in attrition rate to 15 per cent.

The average retention rate, defined as percentage of employees retained out of the total employees as on March 31, 2008, improved to 85 per cent, from 79 per cent in 2008, the survey stated.

The survey results indicate a visible improvement in work environment even though the average salary increases during the year were pared to 1.4 per cent.

The salary increases for employees with less than two years of experience earned 2 per cent increase. Those between 5.1 and 10 years received an average salary hike of 5 per cent and those with over 10 year experience earned four per cent salary increase.

In addition to work-life balance, job security came out as a crucial factor in the survey. The study reveals that there is a drastic fall in the number of people who feel that their job is secure within their company.

The reducing bench and mass layoffs by the larger players seems to have left an impact on the minds of people.

A majority of IT employees said they changed jobs for better salaries and compensation (53 per cent), overseas postings (38 per cent), better job security (18 per cent), flexible working hours (18 per cent) and training and development (9 per cent).

The survey also reveals that companies have become more transparent in their communication with employees giving them a sense of belonging. They have also gone ahead and adopted a higher degree of professionalism in their dealings with employees as well as customers or suppliers.

Another key finding is that more employees are satisfied with the interest shown by their companies as well as their immediate seniors in helping them strike a work-life balance compared to last year.

More employees believe that training has helped them in their all round growth. On the salary and compensation front, a surprisingly high number of employees feel that they are being paid at par with industry standards compared to last year.

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First Cut: Google Chrome 3.0

Google Inc has rolled out a new version of its Chrome Web browser as the company aims to double its browser marketshare. The Internet search company is readying a battery of updates, along with efforts to forge new distribution partnerships it hopes will soon make Chrome a much more significant player.

Almost exactly one year into Google's high-profile entry into the browser market dominated by Microsoft Corp, the Internet search giant is a distant No. 4, with a marketshare of roughly 2.8 per cent.

Version 3.0 of Chrome for PCs brings improvements to the browser's interface, including faster performance and "themes" that allow users to customise how the browser looks.

Here's looking inside Google Chrome 3.0.

Goes blazing fast

Google Chrome 3.0 is significantly faster than its predecessor, claims the company. The updated Chrome boasts over 150% jump in Javascript performance since its very first beta, and a 25% jump from the most recent version.

The browser starts up quickly from users' desktop, and is fast to load web pages and web applications, says the company.

New Tabs

Chrome 3.0's new features include more customisable tab pages. The tab page, which opens by default when a user starts the browser, is redesigned and allows greater customisation.

Users can now rearrange thumbnails of their most-visited websites by simply clicking and dragging mouse. Additionally, they can "pin down" icons to keep them permanently in-place (otherwise, they continuously rearrange to show user's most recently visited sites).

Chrome 3.0 also allows users to view the tab page icons in a list format, if they prefer, or to hide them from the page altogether. For example, users can hide parts of the page they don't want to see, or even opt for a simple list view of their most visited websites.

Omnibox goes new

Chrome 3.0 upgrades Omnibox, the address bar at the top of the screen where a user type URLs or search terms. So far, the Omnibox offered users suggestions as they type in terms. In the new Chrome release, the suggestions are better organised with an optimised dropdown menu. The 3.0 Omnibox uses added icons bookmarks, history, common searches, or Google recommendations.

Chrome 3.0 Omnibox has added little icons to show users whether the items come from searches, bookmarks, or sites from their browsing history.

HTML 5 capabilities

Google Chrome 3.0 adds support for HTML5 capabilities, including the 'video' and `audio' tags for integrated embedding of multimedia elements.

The ‘video’ tag in HTML5 makes embedding videos in a page as simple as embedding regular images. The video tag also allows video playback without plug-ins or external utilities.

Users can give the ‘video’ tag a whirl in Google Chrome and also check out 50th Chrome Experiment, which uses HTML5 ‘audio’ and ‘canvas’ tags.

Themes

Chrome 3.0 offers users customisable themes. Just a couple of clicks, and users can get a new look for their browser and apply it immediately. Themes allow users to deck up their browser with colours, patterns and images.






Nearly 30 options are reportedly available in Chrome's Themes Gallery, and many more are likely to be added soon.
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Google's new search engine: Caffeine

Google Inc is working on a new test version of its search engine, which the company claims will be faster and more relevant than ever before. The company has dubbed the new search engine "caffeine".

Look-wise, the new engine doesn't appear different, but its developers hope that the technology they have used will noticeably index new content faster.

Google engineers are said to have invited web developers to test the new search engine, and give their feedback. Matt Cutts, a principal engineer at Google, and Sitaram Iyer, a staff software engineer, have posted an entry on the company's webmaster central blog, appealing to developers to try the newly improved service and send them some feedback.

"For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions," the Telegraph quoted them as having written on the blog.

"The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback," they said.

A Google spokesperson added: ""Google is always working on new technologies to improve the quality of our search services. We hope this new system will improve search in the areas of speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness."

Martin McNulty, director of search marketing specialist, Trafficbroker, who has tried the new version, said: "Google's caffeine is undoubtedly faster, almost twice as fast at times. It's like a Google GTi. Caffeine may be 'under the hood' but with this noticeable injection of speed it won't remain under the radar for long. As for accuracy, it's hard to say at this early stage but Google is clearly upping its game by including real-time results and more breaking news, as well as updates from the likes of Facebook and Twitter."

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Microsoft banned from selling Word

A US judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word document creation application in the country in 60 days after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party.

Microsoft Office, which includes Word, accounted for more than $3 billion in worldwide sales in Microsoft's most recent fiscal year and is used by literally millions of businesses and consumers for everyday tasks like word processing and making spreadsheets and presentations.

I4i, a Toronto-based software maker, has been battling Microsoft over an obscure patent related to XML or Extensible Markup Language. XML is a key software component of many websites as well as Word and other programmmes.

Upholding a May 20 jury decision Tuesday, Leonard Davis, a federal district court judge in Tyler, Texas, banned the world's largest software from selling Word 2003, Word 2007 and future versions of the software that use i4i's technology without a licence.

The judge also ordered Microsoft to pay several hefty fines to i4i, including $200 million in damages and $40 million in "enhanced damages".

"We feel vindicated with this result," said Michael Vulpe, who co-founded i4i in 1993.

"It is not a question of fear or pride or anything else," said Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i. "We're very respectful of Microsoft, but when you're in the right you have to persevere."

Microsoft plans to appeal. "We are disappointed by the court's ruling," spokesman Kevin Kutz said in a written statement. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."

The suit involves a patent i4i's founders obtained in 1998 that is the basis for a "customised XML" tool the company supplies to drug and defence companies and other large corporations, said Owen.

XML is a specialised alphabet that can capture any kind of computer file as a regular text. It's designed to make computer data human-readable -- and make it easier for one programme to load and process data created by another programme.

Judge Davis found that Microsoft was aware of i4i's patent and that there was enough evidence of Microsoft "wilfully infringing" on the patent to issue the injunction, pending continuation of the case.

Investors shrugged off the news -- perhaps in anticipation of a higher court overturning the ruling, which arose from the plaintiff-friendly Eastern Texas federal jurisdiction, Information Week reported.

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Infosys to start hiring from next year

IT major, Infosys Technologies Limited plans to go to campus recruitment across the country next year.
Chief Executive Officer and Managing director, Infosys technologies Limited, S Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a CII meeting that companies which skipped campus recruitment following global economic downturn this year, are looking at training about 18,000 of their employees under the extended mode till January 2010.

The recruitment and expansion would begin early next year, he said hoping that economy will revive in second quarter of the fiscal. Economic meltdown affected the growth rate of leading IT companies including Infosys, he said.

Gopalakrishnan expected better performance of IT companies including Infosys in the first quarter results. He said the IT and ITES industry would continue to grow despite the economic slowdown and its growth rate is expected to pick up by mid next year.

Gopalakrishnan said that his company has no immediate plans to expand activities in two tier cities in Andhra Pradesh.

Infosys work for the second campus at the SEZ has already begun and is expected to be complete by next year as the campus with over 10,000 employees in Hitech city was inadequate, he said.

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Microsoft-Yahoo deal: How it will work

Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc sealed a 10-year Web search deal to better compete against market leader Google Inc. The long-expected deal means Microsoft's new Bing search engine will be combined with Yahoo's experience attracting advertisers in the first serious threat to Google Inc -- if the companies get regulatory approval and can make the partnership work.

Here’s how the Yahoo-Microsoft deal will work out: Financial details, search, advertising, risks, obstacles and more...


Financial details

* Microsoft will guarantee the revenue per search for Yahoo's owned and operated sites in each country for the first 18 months after initial implementation in that country.

* Yahoo expects the agreement to boost annual GAAP operating income by about $500 million within two years and help capital expenditure savings by about $200 million. Yahoo also expects the partnership to add about $275 million to annual operating cash flow.

* Microsoft will pay Yahoo through a revenue-sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo's network of both owned and operated and affiliate sites.

* Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs to Yahoo at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo's owned and operated sites for the first five years.

Advertising

* Yahoo will act as the global sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers.

* Microsoft's AdCenter platform will fulfill self-serve advertising for both companies.

* AdCenter's automated auction process will set prices for all search ads.

* Each company will keep its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

* Yahoo will act as the global sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers.

* Microsoft's AdCenter platform will fulfill self-serve advertising for both companies.

* AdCenter's automated auction process will set prices for all search ads.

* Each company will keep its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

Search

* Under a 10-year license, Microsoft will be able to integrate Yahoo's core search technologies into its current Web search platforms.

* Microsoft's Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo sites. Yahoo will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business, including display advertising technology.

* Yahoo will innovate and "own" the user experience on its own properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology.

* The agreement restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. To protect consumer privacy, it will limit the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform.

* Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its current search affiliate partnerships.

* The companies will continue to compete in other areas as the agreement does not cover each company's Web properties and products, email, instant messaging or display advertising.

Job cuts at Yahoo

Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo, said the deal will result in "redundancies" in Yahoo's staff, although she declined to be specific. She stressed any changes would not occur until after full implementation of the partnership.

Also, many Yahoo search engineers will be asked to take jobs at Microsoft, whose Redmond, Washington headquarters is far removed from Yahoo's California homebase.

Risks

"There are risks on both sides. Big deals like this tend not to work out. It's a long-term deal that's going to take a long time to implement," said Ryan Jacob, chief investment officer of Jacob Asset Management, the $40 million fund holds some Yahoo shares. "It's better than no deal."

And unlike previous discussions which involved an outright acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft, this deal will create a number of uncertainties for both companies as they fuse disparate technologies, cultures and business priorities.

Yankee analyst Carl Howe said integrating two separate search engines is an inherently thorny process that requires merging vast and often incompatible indices of Web data.

Anti-trust obstacle

Microsoft and Yahoo still face antitrust and privacy issues. Google dropped a planned search partnership with Yahoo last year under pressure from the US Justice Department.

The partnership poses only a theoretical challenge to Google at present. It could take two-and-a-half years to get approval and be fully implemented, according to Yahoo CEO Bartz, which would mean the partnership would not be fully effective until early 2012.

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Microsoft, Yahoo in Web search deal

Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc have launched a 10-year Web search deal to challenge market leader Google but stopped short of combining other advertising businesses or suggesting any deeper ties.

The long-expected deal means Microsoft's new Bing search engine will be combined with Yahoo's experience attracting advertisers in the first serious threat to Google Inc -- if the companies get regulatory approval and can make the partnership work.

Yahoo shares fell 12 per cent as some investors were disappointed by the limited scope of the deal, which did not include up-front payments for Yahoo. Some investors had expected up to $3 billion up-front, according to a Bernstein report.

"I would have preferred more money," said Ryan Jacob, chief investment officer of Jacob Asset Management, pointing to the lack of an upfront payment, as well as revenue-sharing and cost-savings terms that were not as high as he expected.

"There are risks on both sides. Big deals like this tend not to work out. It's a long-term deal that's going to take a long time to implement," said Jacob, whose $40 million fund holds some Yahoo shares. "It's better than no deal."

Microsoft shares closed up 1.4 percent, while Google shares fell 0.8 percent. Yahoo estimated the deal would boost its annual operating income by about $500 million and yield capital expenditure savings of $200 million. Yahoo also expects the deal to boost annual operating cash flow by about $275 million.

Antitrust obstacle

Under the deal announced, Microsoft's Bing search engine will power search queries on Yahoo's sites. Yahoo's sales force will be responsible for selling premium search ads to big buyers for both companies.

The partnership poses only a theoretical challenge to Google at present. It could take two-and-a-half years to get approval and be fully implemented, according to Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz, which would mean the partnership would not be fully effective until early 2012.

Microsoft and Yahoo still face antitrust and privacy issues. Google dropped a planned search partnership with Yahoo last year under pressure from the US Justice Department.

But experts said the deal would likely get the go-ahead after examination by Obama administration antitrust officials since it would create a stronger rival to market leader Google.

Google said only that it was "interested" in the deal, while the chairman of the US Senate antitrust panel said it warrants "careful scrutiny."

Microsoft and Yahoo expected the deal to be "closely reviewed" by regulators, but they were "hopeful" it could close in early 2010. The deal co
ncludes a lengthy, and at times contentious, dance between the two companies. They have been in on-again, off-again talks since Yahoo rebuffed Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid last year.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer clashed last year with former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who was strongly opposed to an all-out acquisition. Relations between the two companies improved under new Yahoo CEO Bartz, who took the reins in January and started to shake up Yahoo's management.

Ballmer and Bartz met "three or four times" over the past six months as they hammered out a deal, according to Ballmer.

How the deal works

While Bartz had previously said any deal would require a partner with "boatloads of money," she said on Wednesday the agreement provided "boatloads of value," adding the revenue- share agreement in the Microsoft deal was more valuable to Yahoo than a one-time payment.

"Having a big up-front cash payment doesn't really help us from an operating standpoint," Bartz said.

Microsoft's AdCenter technology will serve the standard sponsored links that appear alongside search results. Microsoft will pay Yahoo an initial rate of 88 per cent of search revenue generated on Yahoo sites in the first five years.

That means Yahoo can concentrate on selling ads on its websites, while still generating revenue from search ads without the expense of maintaining its own search engine.

Bartz said the deal will result in "redundancies" in Yahoo's staff, although she declined to be specific. She stressed any changes would not occur until after full implementation of the partnership.

According to comScore, Google has a 65 per cent share of the US search market, compared with Yahoo's 19.6 per cent and Microsoft's 8.4 per cent.

"Microsoft will be able to report a greater share in terms of search ... And Yahoo doesn't have to spend any more money on search," said Barry Diller, CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns rival search engine Ask.com.

Yahoo shares closed down $2.08 at $15.14 on Nasdaq, while Microsoft closed up 33 cents at $23.80 and Google shares closed down $3.61 at $436.24.

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Layoffs: Cisco lays off hundreds of employees

US computer networking giant Cisco Systems has laid off between 600 and 700 employees at its headquarters in San Jose, California, in a bid to reduce costs amid slow sales, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The company has also cut jobs at other branches in the United States, although the total number was not immediately clear, the business daily said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

"We are doing everything possible to minimize the impact on employees affected by the limited restructuring," a Cisco spokesman told the Journal.

In February, the group had said it would likely eliminate between 1,500 to 2,000 employees, or three per cent of its workforce. In late April, the company had some 66,550 employees.

After Cisco reported a 24 per cent drop in its net profit, or 1.3 billion dollars, in the third quarter, chief executive John Chambers nonetheless said in May that he saw signs of stabilization in the group's sales.

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Yahoo homepage gets new features

Yahoo began rolling out a promised major redesign of its homepage as the struggling Internet pioneer worked to revitalise its ima
ge and incorporate hot new online trends.

The debut of the promised overhaul came several months ahead of schedule and as speculation grew of renewed talks of an online search deal between Yahoo and global technology giant Microsoft.

The new Yahoo homepage features a customisable toolbar on the left of the page, which allows users to connect with their favorite outside applications including hot online services such as Facebook and MySpace.

"Today's launch represents the most significant change to the Yahoo homepage since the company's inception," Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said in a release.

"This launch is a major milestone in the Yahoo Open Strategy, which seeks to mesh the Yahoo experience with the best online content and services."

Yahoo began its Open Strategy early last year in a move that built on a Facebook-led trend to open once walled operating platforms to hip, fun or useful applications made by outside developers or other Internet services.

Yahoo lets homepage users choose from 65 applications to customise "My Favorites" boxes. Favorites can include email services provided by Yahoo rivals Google and America Online as well as links to social-networking websites Facebook and MySpace.

Facebook and MySpace users are able to share "status" updates with friends directly from Yahoo homepages. Yahoo said it is providing simple tools for users to make their own homepage applications linking to preferred Web addresses.

Portions of the homepage provide glimpses at trends, hot search topics, and "fun facts" gathered from the Internet. The homepage also lets people tailor "hyper-local news" feeds focused on topics that most interest them.

Yahoo said that it is working on synchronising homepages on people's personal computers with those on smartphones for "a more seamless PC to mo
bile integration."

The new Yahoo homepage is available in the United States at yahoo.com/trynew and will be rolled out in France, India, and Britain in the coming week.

The Yahoo homepage had more than 113 million US users as of June, rising 17.2 per cent in the course of the preceding year, according to comScore statistics cited by the Internet firm.

Yahoo reportedly has more that 570 million users worldwide, reaching nearly 51 per cent of the Internet-using population. Company executives hope the early launch will give the firm a much needed shot in the arm. Yahoo was expected to release its second quarter earnings on Tuesday, with traders predicting a dip in earnings.

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Wipro adds 710 employees in Q1

In a quarter when peers TCS and Infosys reported a negative hiring, Wipro reported a net addition of 710 staff, as the company continues to follow a more conservative hiring strategy based on the demand from customers.

“Hiring is a reflection of demand. We have started bringing people in certain niche areas and delivery centres, “said HR Head Pratik Kumar.

The company currently has 98,521 professionals in Wipro Technologies. This year, Wipro plans to hire more local workers in its top export markets of US and Europe in order to serve the customers better and also globalize its workforce.

“Almost 30% of our sales force is already foreign, 20% IT workforce onsite are foreigners, We will hire more locals. Each one of us is driving globalization in US, Europe, Middle East and Japan,” said Suresh Vaswani.

In order to gain more business from large, complex customer accounts, Wipro also plans to hire more experienced sales professionals. For instance, Wipro appointed Martha Bejar as the new president for global sales and operations to drive revenue growth. In her last assignment,” Bejar was the corporate vice president for communications sector at Microsoft.

“This clearly demonstrates that we will invest more in our go to market capabilities,” said Kumar. For the quarter ended June 30, 2009, Wipro Technologies reported an attrition rate of 8.4%, which was marginally higher than 7.9% registered in the sequential quarter. However, the company’s involuntary attrition rate dipped to 1.9% as against 2.6% in the sequential quarter.

Wipro Technologies has continued to maintain its higher utilization rate which stood at 78.2% at the end of the first quarter which was marginally higher than 76.8% recorded in the sequential quarter. The company, once again reiterated that it would be honouring all the campus offers made for the current fiscal, though it would be done in staggered manner. Wipro had made offers to around 7,500 fresh engineering graduates.

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Microsoft releases Windows 7

Microsoft Corp said that it is releasing the code for Windows 7 to PC manufacturers, keeping the software company on track to have machines running its new operating system in the stores by late October.

The move means Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc, Acer Inc and other computer makers can start to load up new PCs, laptops and netbooks with the operating system, the successor to the unpopular Vista.

Both Microsoft and the manufacturers are hoping the full launch of Windows 7, scheduled for October 22, will help lift PC sales out of the slump caused by the global economic downturn, and give the holiday shopping season an extra lift.

Manufacturers have been testing early versions of Windows 7 for several months, but this week marks the release of the "gold code," according to a Lenovo Group Ltd executive, referring to the software industry jargon for the finished product.

PC makers no longer have to fly discs in helicopters to their manufacturing plants, as the transfer is now done electronically. But it still marks a dramatic day as manufacturers hustle to get new products into stores in time for the release date.

Machines that have Windows 7 installed, or devices that are compatible with it, will simply have the Windows 7 logo on them, a Microsoft executive said.
The company will not be splashing the word "capable" around in marketing efforts, after it received complaints at its last launch that some machines branded "Windows Vista Capable" could only run the lower-end versions of the software.

Few industry watchers expect such problems to hit Microsoft this time around as the company has spent more time making sure PCs will be able to run the new software.

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Tool to hack Oracle's database

Hackers will soon gain a powerful new tool for breaking into Oracle Corp's database, the top-selling business software used by companies to store electronic information.

Security experts have developed an easy-to-use, automated software tool that can remotely break into Oracle databases over the Internet to simulate attacks on computer systems, but cybercrooks can use it for hacking.

The tool's authors created it through a controversial open-source software project known as Metasploit, which releases its free software over the Web.

Chris Gates, a security tester who co-developed the Metasploit tool, will unveil it next week at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, where thousands of security experts and hackers will gather to exchange trade secrets.

"Anyone with no skill and knowledge can download and run it," said Pete Finnigan, an independent consultant who specializes in Oracle security and who advises large corporations and government agencies.

He has not yet studied the Oracle tool but is familiar with other Metasploit software and said it works by automating many of the complicated procedures required to hack into Oracle databases, allowing amateurs to hack into them.

Oracle, which declined to comment, has already issued patches to protect against vulnerabilities that the Metasploit tool targets. But some companies are not diligent in upgrading their software to add the patches, so they are vulnerable to attackers using the new tool. They hire consultants like Gates to help them make sure they are protected.

Metasploit hacks are available for other software programs, including Microsoft Corp's Windows as well as the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

Gates said this is the first Metasploit program to target Oracle's database.

"There is no way to keep these tools out of the hands of people who want to use them for nefarious purposes," said Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute. SANS trains security professionals in areas including use of Metasploit.

Security testers and hackers have previously used other programs to break into Oracle databases, but the new software from Metasploit is easier to operate and runs more quickly than existing options, said Gates.

Metasploit is the most widely used free hacking tool and has a loyal following in the security community. In addition to letting hackers break into databases over the Internet, the Metasploit tool allows rogue employees to access them from their work PCs.

Workers could break into an Oracle system and secretly steal confidential data such as credit card numbers, give themselves pay raises or make other changes to corporate databases, said Finnigan, who has specialized in Oracle security for eight years.

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Google Broadcasts YouTube...in 3D!!!

Just a day after Sonic Solutions announced that CinemaNow was preparing for the launch of 3D movies delivered electronically later in the year, Google has apparently followed suit.

As the image above demonstrates, Google is apparently testing delivering some movies in 3D formats. What's interesting is that switching the format on the dropdown menu also adjusts the format of the movie itself. So far, however, most of the formats seem to favor the older anaglyph style of 3D, the sort which requires the funky red and green glasses.

Google hasn't made any announcements on its YouTube blog at the moment, so we'll wait to see what the company says, if anything. In any event, however, it looks like at least some of the older B-movie classics might appear in 3D goodness.

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Microsoft Office 2010 Sneak Preview

The Microsoft Office 2010 technical preview is available today through invite only and--though it's not in its final form--there are plenty of feature enhancements to be excited about, if Microsoft can pull it off. According to Microsoft, the focus of this update was on three things: to make work flows more efficient; to effectively use Web applications to make your work available anywhere; and to make collaboration with others much easier. In this CNET First Take, we'll take a look at some of the notable feature changes across many of the applications. Microsoft says Office 2010 will let you use your PC, phone, and the Web to make your projects come together more efficiently. From what we've seen, they might be right and the Web applications might also give Google Docs a run for their money.

The Ribbon (introduced in Office 2007) continues to keep frequently used features handy at the top of your work space. But in Office 2010, you'll have access to the Ribbon across all of the applications in the suite, with contextual tabs and features to help you get the most out of each program. In Outlook 2010, for example, a Quick Steps section of the Ribbon has options to let you quickly create team meetings, move threads to specific folders, or custom forward messages (with premade subjects) to specific recipients. In Excel, you can flip through the tabs to access formulas, insert diagrams and charts, and quickly import data from connected sources. Having an easy way to access the most-used functions of each of the Office applications is very handy, and it's clear Microsoft did its research to make the most of each application's Ribbon.

It's also clear that Microsoft has paid attention to patterns across all of the applications to come up with easier ways to get things done. The new Paste Preview lets you easily switch between paste options so you know your work will be formatted correctly in your document before you commit. In Outlook, it's now possible to turn long e-mail threads into conversations, so you can quickly find information from specific participants without having to scroll through long, confusing threads. Another new feature lets you ignore entire threads including future e-mails on a subject so you can eliminate noise and distractions in your workday. Office 2010 includes many new time-saving features like these across the entire suite, but there's more than just tweaks to existing work flow.

Some of the flashier feature additions will be good news to those who work with media in their documents and presentations. PowerPoint now has options for editing video right within the program. You'll be able to trim video so your audience sees only the video content you want them to see. You also can add video effects, fades, and even create video triggers to launch animations during your presentation. When it's a static presentation you're working on--such as a publication, newsletter, or pamphlet--Office 2010 will let you edit and add effects to images so you won't need a third-party image editor. Microsoft has also added easy access to Ligatures and Stylistic Alternates to fonts in Publisher so you can add your own personal touches to your publications. Like most of the new features in Office 2010, you can find most of these added options in the Ribbon for that particular application.

As more of our data moves into the cloud, sharing and collaboration have become a major part of project execution, and Office 2010 will offer several options to help people work together. Though the Web-based components of the Office suite are not available in the technical preview, adding these options will make sharing information easier--whether it's from your home computer, your phone, or when you're traveling for business. Lightweight Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote have been announced, and, according to Microsoft, they will preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of the device you're working on--even if it's your smartphone.

New coauthoring in Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote and advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Outlook will make collaboration much easier, reducing the time it takes to finish large projects with several contributors. Businesses will be required to use Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 or Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to gain access, but private users will be able to access their work using Windows Live. Obviously, we can't predict how well the Web components of each program will be implemented or how they will translate to different hardware, but offering access to shared documents in key business applications from anywhere is something any international business or business traveler can appreciate.

One of our favorite improvements to Office 2010 is what Microsoft calls the Backstage view. Offered as a replacement for the File menu, Backstage gives you a launching point to share documents, print out your work, set permissions, and other program specific options to get your project ready for distribution. You'll find all of the usual document management features, like open and save, here as well, but you'll also get a nice layout of templates for new documents, several different ways to share your work, and print settings and page layouts all in one place. We think people might initially be resistant to a new way of doing things (as is often the case), but once you get used to using the Backstage view for all of your file management, we think you'll find it useful and efficient to have access to everything in one place.

Microsoft Office 2010 will be released early next year and it appears Microsoft has made extensive usability improvements across the entire Office suite. We're told the Web components of Office applications will become available for testing later this year, so check back as more information becomes available.

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Mozilla Releases Jetpack 0.3

Mozilla's Jetpack API got another upgrade on Saturday.

Jetpack is an API launched in May that lets developers create add-ons using well-known technologies such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript, which can then be added without restarting the browser.

"There are now over 60,000 people who have the Jetpack platform extending their browsing experience," Mozilla wrote in a blog post.

Version 0.3 includes two new additions -- selections and clipboard. Selections lets you look up something on a page, like a selected word on Wikipedia. Previously, grabbing currently selected text or figuring out when a selection was made was a bit difficult, so Mozilla has simplified the process. Clipboard, meanwhile, lets you get and set text from the system clipboard.

Mozilla also added new features to slide bars, like the ability for a slide bar to notify the user of an update in a non-obtrusive way. Jetpack 0.3 also has more persistent storage and "prettier" status bars.

Users must have Firefox 3.5 before upgrading to Jetpack 0.3

Want to work firsthand with Jetpack. Mozilla said it is looking for a full-time product manager and software engineers to join Labs and work on Jetpack.

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Hirings: Ericsson to hire 1000

Ericsson AB, the world’s largest maker of wireless networks, plans to spend $1.5 billion in South Korea over the next five years to devel
op a high-speed wireless Internet technology backed by AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless.

The Stockholm-based network-equipment maker said it will set up a facility in the Asian nation for research, development and testing of fourth-generation wireless services. The center will develop so-called long-term evolution, or LTE, technology, Minako Nakatsuma Olofzon, a spokeswoman at Ericsson, said.

The infrastructure market for LTE, which will compete against WiMax technology in the wireless Internet market, will reach $5 billion in 2013 after deployment begins in the second half of this year, researcher Infonetics Research said in April. Global sales of equipment and devices for WiMax, which is available commercially in markets including the US and South Korea, will rise almost fivefold to $16.1 billion this year from 2008, according to ABI Research.

“Deployment of WiMax has been slower than expected while LTE’s expansion has been faster,” Kim Dong Joon, an analyst at Seoul-based Good Morning Shinhan Securities Co, said today. “It’s not favorable news for WiMax and it seems Ericsson wants to expand in Korea, which is leading the WiMax technology.”

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc. are the world’s second- and third-largest mobile-phone makers behind Espoo, Finland-based Nokia Oyj.

Supporters of LTE

Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile-phone company, aims to begin offering a high-speed network in all US regions by 2015 using LTE, which is scheduled to reach 30 markets by next year. Clearwire Corp., the U.S. provider of mobile WiMax service, plans to spend $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion in 2009 on expanding its network to reach as many as 120 million people across the country by the end of 2010.

Other supporters of LTE include NTT DoCoMo Inc., which plans to introduce the service in 2010, Vodafone Group Plc and Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile unit. The WiMax standard, which can transmit data to laptops and mobile phones up to five times faster than current technology, is backed by mobile carrier Sprint Nextel Corp., chipmaker Intel Corp, cable operator Comcast Corp and Samsung Electronics.

To qualify as 4G, the wireless technology should be able to transfer data at 1-gigabit per second during low mobility or while stationary, and 100-megabits per second during high mobility, according to the International Telecommunication Union, which has yet to select a standard for 4G technology.

Similar technology

LTE and WiMax are based on similar technology called orthogonal frequency division multiple access. LTE can be upgraded from the current wideband-code division multiple access, or WCDMA, technology, while WiMax, which is aimed mainly at portable devices, is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.16 standard. Wireless Fidelity, or Wi- Fi, which has less coverage than WiMax, is based on the IEEE 802.11 standard.

Ericsson plans to increase the number of employees at its South Korean unit to 1,000 from 80, South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement yesterday.

LG Electronics, Asia’s second-largest mobile-phone maker, said in December that it developed a faster wireless chip for use in handsets based on LTE technology. The LTE market will be bigger than that for rival WiMax products, Skott Ahn, president of LG’s mobile-phone business, said at the time.

Samsung said last month it expects to increase network- equipment sales as more operators begin deploying WiMax services.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company has a share of about 35 percent of the mobile WiMax-equipment market, Executive Vice President Kim Woon Sub, who heads Samsung’s network business, said in an interview last month.

Mobile WiMax, which already has commercial deployments, will outpace LTE over the next few years due to its head start on deployments, according to researcher In-Stat.

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Layoffs: Siemens IT arm lays off 128

IT firm Siemens Information Systems, a unit of German conglomerate Siemens, said it has laid off 128 employees as part of its cost cu
tting measures, debunking union's claim that 500 employees had lost jobs.

The IT-ITeS union UNITES India said the number of employees laid off by the company could be around 500. It added that Siemens is laying off its employees in Bangalore violating the Industrial Dispute Act.

When contacted SISL spokesperson said, "As a part of our cost-cutting initiatives, we have released only 128 employees from one of the business units."

UNITES Professionals India General Secretary Karthik Shekhar said, "The figures provided by the company does not include the number of employees who were on contract. In the last one month, the company has laid off more than 128 employees."

SISL has over 5,500 employees in the country. The union has also written to the headquarters of the firm in Germany. About compensating the employees, the company said it has already compensated the affected employees higher than the contractual terms.

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Google Coming Up with full fledge OS Google Chrome in 2010

No need to check your calendar. It is not April 1. This is not a joke. I suspect the Steves--Ballmer and Jobs--have gone to the Pepto bottle already! Google is in the operating system business and not just for phones.

"Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve."

That word is fresh from Google's official blog. It is a radical upheaval. It is a game changer. Google has just made me a friend with benefits!

Until now when you bought a computer you also bought an operating system--or at least an overwhelming majority did. The operating system provides the underpinnings that lets applications work with processors and other hardware. Purchasing an operating system is expensive. It is a significant contributing factor to Bill Gates' riches.

Google's Chrome OS promises to change that in a few radical ways. By using the words "open source" Google is screaming free. They promise it is "a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel."

Beyond that Google's OS will make programs hardware agnostic.

For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

As if that weren't enough Google promises they're "redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates." Tall order. It's tough not to be a skeptic when so many people are so heavily motivated to break into your computer.

We are about to enter a brave new world. Everything will change.

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Yahoo Launched Its Scratch Pad For Yahoo Search

Most of the hubbub about search lately has centered on Bing and Google. But the one that started it all, Yahoo, will try to make its own splash in search, with a new feature called Search Pad.

The service will go live Tuesday night at 9:00 PM Pacific Time.

Basically, Search Pad pops up a window that saves your search process as clickable links, that can be saved to the Yahoo service if you're logged in. Search Pad will automatically collect visited sites and their thumbnails during your research session. You can also add their own notes and drag and drop additional content onto the window. The tool also allows users to print, email, or share the research via social networks such as Delicious, Facebook, and Twitter.

Google discontinued its similar Notebook service this past January, but Yahoo's implementation makes Search Pad more a part of the searching process, by proposing itself when your session looks like research, rather than a simple query. Likewise, Bing's search history feature shows all your previous searches in a sidebar and lets you save clicked links from a search to a local or online folder in its SkyDrive service.

"At Yahoo Search we are committed to understanding people's intent and building the right tools to help them complete their most important tasks online," said Larry Cornett, vice president of consumer products, at Yahoo Search. "With Search Pad, Yahoo is providing an elegant solution that understands when valuable research is being conducted and offers a way to effortlessly gather information in one place. Yahoo Search Pad helps people make decisions, save their work, and share the best with friends and colleagues."

To try the service out for yourself, after 9:00PM tonight Pacific Time, simply enter six or more related searches, say on a planned trip, and you'll see Search Pad proposed. It remains to be seen whether the feature will help Yahoo make a comeback in a search market that, on the one hand, remains dominated by Google and on the other is being aggressively pursued by Microsoft.

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