Archive for April, 2007

Blu-ray Way Ahead of HD-DVD

Its Blu-ray all the way. 70% of high definition discs sold in Q1 2007 were Blu-ray, way ahead of rival format HD-DVD. Blu-ray which was released months after HD-DVD, now clocks a sale of 1.2 million discs as against 937,500 HD-DVDs.

Blue-ray disc

With the patronage of major studios like Sony, Blu-ray surely has a distinct edge over HD-DVD.

Heavy Losses For AMD

AMDAMD has reported a dismal first quarter performance. It has slipped deep in the red with a net loss of $611 million. Clearly, AMD is going through hard times with decreasing average selling prices of microprocessors coupled with stiff competition from Intel. Add to that, the burden of acquiring ATI.

Robert J Rivet, AMD’s chief financial officer, has said

We are aggressively addressing the issues that led to our significant revenue decline. We are aligning our business model, capital expenditures and cost structure with the goal of accelerating our return to profitability.

Joost is Here!!

The guys who were behind the excellent technology of Skype, the much talked about VoIP software and the pioneering P2P sharing software, Kazaa, have reckoned again. This time with their Internet TV. They say, “TV, the way you want it”. Well its called Joost and its live now with its beta version 0.9.2 released on April 10th, 2007.


joost beta

The magic of television, with the power of the internet built right in. Joost puts you in control, and TV will never be the same again.These guys had been onto this project for a year with the codename The Venice Project. Its simply the technology of tomorrow. They have developed an excellent technology for high-speed, high-definition broadcast of full length TV shows over the internet. All you have to do is install their client software which comes with a very nice interface and an amazing channel flipping.The program is based on P2PTV technology and is expected to deliver near-TV resolution images. It turns a PC into an instant on-demand TV without any need for additional set top box. You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you can find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection(although the speed could be a limiting factor, but quality is excellent)

Download Joost Beta

Google Beats Microsoft in Online Ad Race

The speculation that Google has been eying online ad company DoubleClick for sometime has been confirmed with the 2 companies reaching an agreement today. In a deal worth $3.1 billion that is almost double the value Google paid for YouTube last year, Google has won the bidding race in which Microsoft was the other contender.

An excerpt from New York Times:

Keeping Microsoft away from DoubleClick is worth billions to Google, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, Jordan Rohan, said.

Average Revenue Per User: Airtel Beats Hutch

Airtel has stolen a march from Hutch as far as ARPU or average revenue per user is concerned. According to Cellular Operators Association of India data, Airtel now leads with an ARPU of Rs 343.17 per month against Hutchison Essar’s Rs 340.15 per month (December 2006). In fact Hutch has seen a sharp fall in its average revenue, as much as by 9% compared to a mere 1.5% fall witnessed by Bharti Airtel.

ARPUs of other operators are like this:

  • Spice Telecom - Rs 241.79
  • BPL Mumbai - Rs 386.28
  • Idea Cellular- Rs 276.66
  • Reliance Telecom - Rs 187.09
  • Aircel - Rs 226.91

Source: Economic Times

Microsoft to add IM to XBOX 360 :)

INSTANT MESSAGING facilities will be added to the Xbox 360 from May 7th, Microsoft announced today.

Microsoft will provide the Xbox 360 spring update access to Windows Live Messenger with people able to console themselves by chatting to up to six buddies at once while playing games or watching movies.

Continue reading ‘Microsoft to add IM to XBOX 360 :)’

Google Maps: all for you

In the last few years we all have witnessed the rise of the ‘user generated content’ on the net.

The revolution which was much started by the giant Wikipedia grew huge and well today the net is pretty much in the hands of users, who may not necessarily be related to any technical field.

Google maps has been a very interesting tool ever since its launch. Google had provided its API for the developers to make use of it. And now Google is set to make the maps ‘the next big user-generated thing’.

The search company released a new Google Maps feature Wednesday night that lets people create custom maps documenting anything from the neighborhood’s best bars to the world’s biggest volcanoes — supplemented by embedded notes, links, digital video and photos.

The Google Maps My Maps feature, available at maps.google.com, is the latest salvo in an intense competition among the major online mapping sites. Those sites are often closely connected to local search features, which return information about people and businesses in specific geographic areas.

The maps can be made public which enables you to share your map info with others through Google’s Map Search.

Here is the map which I made.


My Map : udHappy Mapping to One and All!!

Google TiSP

This year Google had launched 2 new products on the 1st of April, or to say that they had made April Fools two times than they had last year(with Google Romance).

In one of her previous posts Cinthia has already mentioned about the Gmail Paper.

The second spoof was the Google TiSP in which they claim to provide people free in-home wireless broadband service through the pots in the washrooms.

In their words : “Want Wi-Fi around, just flush it down.”

Google TiSP Google TiSP

Google TiSPGoogle TiSP

See it in action here