World Gossip News

The 180th birthday of Carlos Juan Finlay, the man who came up with the theory that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes, has been celebrated with a Google Doodle. Finlay was a Cuban physician and scientist who did a lot of research into public health, particularly cholera and yellow fever. The search engine has replaced their usually coloured image with a picture of Finlay surrounded by lily pads, one of which has a mosquito on.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed that his company plans to use "octocopter" mini-drones to fly small packages to consumers in just 30 minutes. A demo video posted on the company's website showed the tiny robotic devices picking up packages in small yellow buckets from Amazon's fulfillment centers and then whizzing through the air to deliver the items to customers just 30 minutes after they made their purchase on Amazon.com. The mini-drones are powered by electric motors and could cover areas within a 16km radius of fulfillment centers, thus covering a significant portion of the population in urban areas. It projected a more optimistic timeline than Bezos himself for the project to be activated, saying the FAA's rules could be in place as early as 2015 and that Amazon Prime Air would be ready at that time. Bezos hinted that part of the motivation behind the mini-drones was to make sure Amazon remains on the cutting edge of the retail industry.

China launched its first lunar probe early Monday, which, if all goes well, will make it only the third nation -- after the United States and the Soviet Union -- to soft-land on the moon. The Chang'e-3 blasted off from a Long March 3B rocket in Sichuan province located in southwest China and is expected to land on the moon's surface in mid-December. The new space effort comes just over a decade after the country first sent an astronaut into space. Researchers say an impact crater named Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, is its likely destination. In 2010, China's previous lunar mission captured images of the crater while scouting potential landing sites for the 2013 probe.

According to recent test results from Speedtest.net, the USA is back in the pack, ranking a paltry 31st among countries around the globe. Countries in the Pacific and Europe rank above the USA with Hong Kong, Singapore, Romania, South Korea, and Sweden taking the top five. Hong Kong’s number one ranking of 71.03 Mpbs is roughly 3.5 faster than the mean listed for the USA at 20.77 Mbps. The Akami State of the Internet report shows the USA ranking as high as 9th.

Yesterday, Microsoft started selling hats, mugs, T-shirts, and hoodies with a distinct anti-Google message, bearing phrases like "keep calm while we steal your data" alongside the Chrome browser logo. They're the latest wave of Microsoft's long-running Scroogled campaign, designed to frighten people away from using Google services. While Microsoft is only selling T-shirts, Google is hard at work on its Google Glass wearable computing device. Still, Glass is very much a work in progress, and the retort can only reach so far. While only those who pay close attention to technology are likely to read Google's wit, Microsoft's clothing has the potential to reach anyone who sees the merchandise.

A US jury awarded Apple Inc about $290m in a damages retrial against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, restoring a large chunk of a landmark verdict the iPhone maker won last year. Apple had requested $379.8m, while Samsung argued that it should have to pay $52.7m. Apple and Samsung have been fighting in the courts for over two years. Apple was awarded over $1b last year after it convinced a jury that Samsung copied various iPhone features - like using fingers to pinch and zoom on the screen - along with design touches like the phone's flat, black glass screen. Earlier this year US District Judge Lucy Koh upheld nearly $640m of that verdict but ordered a retrial on the rest, ruling that the previous jury had made some errors in its calculations. Combined with the retrial verdict of $290.5m on Thursday, Apple has now been awarded $929.8m in the case.

Winamp, an iconic media player from the nineties, will cease to exist from December 20, with its owner AOL deciding to shut down the service. AOL, which runs the popular media player, has announced that it will shut down Winamp.com and its associated web services. Its last version (Winamp 5.66) was released yesterday. Winamp was developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev in 1997 as a freeware. Winamp was one of the first common music players on Windows. Initially developed for Windows, Winamp now offers betas for Android and Mac OS X and an alpha version for Linux as well.

Twitter and Facebook should let users block anonymous messages if they are serious about stopping bullying and trolling on social media sites, David Cameron's adviser on child internet safety has said. In a hearing with the House of Commons  media committee, she said bullying would be "driven down" if users could choose to block communication from anonymous users. Perry, who received online threats over the summer, said there should be an online verification process, so people can see if they are dealing with other users who have supplied their real names or chosen to remain anonymous.

Writing in British newspaper the Daily Mail, Google's executive chairman said more than 100,000 searches would no longer feature such material in their results. Google had developed technology that allowed illegal videos to be 'tagged' so all duplicate copies can be removed across the web.

Millions of Apple and Android users who are enjoying what some have called BlackBerry's "forbidden fruit" can rest easy with the knowledge that BBM, the company's mobile instant messaging chat service, will remain free for the foreseeable future. BBM will turn a profit through a combination of marketing and advertising through some yet-to-be-launched features, such as BBM Channels. BBM Channels is a social networking feature currently in beta testing. Once up and running, it would allow users to amass followers and share content as well as allow BlackBerry to tailor and target ads towards individual users. Video and voice chatting services for BBM, which are currently available to BlackBerry users only, is also coming soon to the Apple and Android platforms.

Bitstrips, a new app for Google Play, Android, iOS, the iPhone, and iPod users, shot its way up to the top spot on the free apps section for Google Play and the Apple Store. The application allows users to share comic-style messages with friends on social networks. Users can use Bitstrips, which was partially created by Cartoon Network, to design a comic of friends or family. More than 10 million people downloaded it as of Thursday. For users trying to download it, it’s available here on Facebook, Android,or for iOS. 

Apple Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a Retina iPad Mini and the iPad Air, a thinner, faster full-size iPad that Apple executives said was innovative enough to "deserve a new name." The iPad Air weighs 1 pound and runs on Apple's new A7 chip, said Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple. It will also have an updated camera. It will come in silver, white, space gray and black and will start at $499. With cellular capabilities, it will run $629. Apple also announced it will add a Retina display faster chips to its iPad Mini. Apple fans are still anticipating news of a fifth-generation iPad and second-generation iPad Mini with Retina display before the product event ends.

BlackBerry is resuming the rollout of iPhone and Android apps for its popular BlackBerry Messenger mobile social messaging service. The company said the free BBM apps will start showing up in Google Play, Apple App Store and some Samsung App Stores. Last month, the company paused the rollout of the apps after an unreleased version of the Android app was posted online. About a million Android users jumped in within seven hours to grab that version, which the company pulled back.

Microsoft has released the Windows 8.1 update for its flagship operating system. The download seeks to address some of the criticisms levelled at the original version of Windows 8. In particular, the update restores the start button and allows a computer to boot up with a traditional desktop interface.

changes in 8.1

·         start button - tapping once on this brings up the tiled interface and a long press opens up system controls

·         desktop mode - lets people avoid the tiled interface entirely

·         keyboard shortcuts - removes the need to toggle between different on-screen keyboards when typing numbers and letters

·         gesture control - some applications, such as those for cooking, can now be paged through without touching a screen

·         tile sizing - the blocks on the touchscreen interface can be in one of four sizes

·         web browsing - Windows 8 machines will now display separate web pages side by side

Windows 8 was created to capitalise on the growing popularity of tablets and other portable gadgets. Microsoft needs to get people using its software on these machines because sales of desktop machines are in sharp decline. Servers ready to dispense the update were turned on at 07:00 New York time (12:00 BST). The update is free to those already running Windows 8. Charges will apply if users upgrade to 8.1 from Windows 7. The update comes just over a year after the launch of Windows 8.

The rumoured Nexus 5 has been leaked again in new purported images revealing the rear and sides of the device. The new set of images, which come courtesy of Anton Kuznetsov, a Google+ user   are of slightly lower resolution than the previous leaked images. The leaked images show the rear of the alleged Nexus smartphone featuring rubberised plastic finish that appears to be fingerprint magnet accompanied by large camera sensor. The rumoured Nexus 5 has been in the news for the past couple of months ever since Google announced its next iteration of mobile operating system, Android 4.4 KitKat. Rumoured specifications of the Nexus 5 include a 4.95-inch full-HD (1080p) IPS LCD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM, 8-megapixel rear camera with OIS and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The alleged Nexus 4 successor has also been expected to include a host of sensors like ambient light, proximity, pressure as well as accelerometer, compass, notification LED and gyroscope.

China Telecom (2412) Open iPhone 5S appointment this morning registration, total gold, silver, gray, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, a total of nine kinds of combinations, less than 1 hour, all reservation is completed, among the three colors, especially this year, most new golden ram, only half an hour, Chunghwa Telecom will play an appointment is full words, it seems that iPhone 5S wave of replacement probably still not be underestimated.

Taiwan's big (3045), remote (4904) already launched last Thursday appointment activities, CLP is the only officially opened late to an appointment today. In Taiwan, a large, remote reservation registration to buy gas is not as warm past precedent, the market originally thought that China Telecom's appointment to buy gas also is not too hot, I did not expect China to buy gas or electricity this year as in the past, not the morning 10:00, Chunghwa Telecom booking page it crashes, you can not successfully connect, less than one hour, nine kinds of aircraft models fully reservations are full.

China Telecom said, compared to other models, iPhone or popular number, this time, because 5S, 5C all colors, all sizes add up, the combination of up to 19 species, integrated past experience, reference to international sales, if fully open appointment, for a considerable challenge CLP internal operations, therefore, China Telecom decided to open only 5S appointment registration, 5C in store sales.

iPhone 5S sales are still hot, many consumers can not be reserved, for this point, CLP said that it will attract more supply, customers want an appointment to digest, digestion is completed, it will not be open to an appointment as soon as possible to the user. According to this year's iPhone 5 sales experience, a half or so will be fully digested reservation users, but iPhone 5S can digest as soon as possible, the most important is to see Apple's supply volumes.

In the past, iPhone because National Communications Commission must wait (NCC) certification, coupled with global supply tight, stretched the iPhone stage time, Taiwanese consumers usually have to wait about three months duration, in order to get the iPhone new machine, This time, NCC certification through the iPhone very early, so that Taiwan successfully listed on the list of the second wave of iPhone 5S squeeze, fruit powder as soon as possible to get the iPhone 5S for still quite happy.

Corporation that CLP for the telecommunications leader, has more than the number of customers, but also Taiwan's first telecommunications company started selling the iPhone, sales still have enthusiastically indicator, it appears that this year's iPhone 5S wave of replacement or can not be underestimated.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has signed an agreement to acquire the Israeli startup Onavo for more than $100 million. Onavo, the developer of an award-winning mobile utility app and the company behind Onavo Insights, made the announcement Monday morning to its employees and published a notice on its blog. According to the agreement, Onavo will keep its Israeli offices, with their 30 employees, making this the first time that Facebook will run a research and development center here. When Facebook acquired Snaptu andFace.com, it transferred the employees to its own offices in the Silicon Valley. Facebook will also be keeping the products that Onavo developed. Since Onavo was established, it raised $13 million from a series of leading investors. Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Motorola Mobility Ventures and the Israeli venture-capital fund, Magma Venture Partners. Horizons Ventures and Magma Venture Partners are two of the venture-capital funds that also invested in Waze, which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion. Onavo has 40 employees, 30 of whom work in Israel.

Onavo Insights shows customer data such as the percentage of market penetration in the United States smartphone market, a general ranking of application popularity, competing applications, retention rate and engagement. The free service includes information about iPhone applications in the United States, while the paid service includes information about iOS and Android applications in dozens of countries.

Beijing on Wednesday criticised the US space agency NASA for what it termed “discriminative action” over a decision to exclude Chinese from a forthcoming science conference in the United States. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced that Chinese nationals will not be permitted to enter the Second Kepler Science Conference on exoplanets at California’s Ames Research Center in November. In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was aware of reports on NASA’s decision. “At the same time I have also noticed that the discriminative action by NASA has also met opposition” in the United States, she added.

The restriction is based on a law passed in 2011 and signed by President Barack Obama that prevents NASA funds from being used to collaborate with China or to host Chinese visitors at US space agency facilities. The law bans NASA funds from being used to work “bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company” or being “used to effectuate the hosting of official Chinese visitors at facilities belonging to or utilised by NASA,” according to a copy of the legal text sent to AFP by Wolf’s office.

NASA has completely shut down its website, making it impossible for users to obtain important information. When attempting to get to the site, the user is greeted with a notice that says “Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available. We sincerely regret this inconvenience. For information about available government services, visit USA.gov.” The NASA agency responsible for letting the public know about any potentially hazardous asteroids hurtling toward Earth, NASA Asteroid Watch, has stopped Tweeting. The NASA website is completely shut down ‘due to a lapse in funding.’ This shutdown is completely unnecessary and is a great inconvenience. CNN reports that the shutdown seems as though it won’t be ending anytime soon. Let’s hope that by the time it does, Earth won’t have been obliterated by an asteroid.

October 2, 2013, KDDI has held a smartphone recital of 2013 Winter model of au. In the same event, in addition to the seven new model smart phone, tablet, announced two models of new services, new feature phones were made. Among the fight against three companies, President that on stage in recital, Takashi Tanaka is good stock of "iPhone 5S is and inside, tough touch to the new model of iPhone is released from three companies career after the greeting Comments I think I put out the results. and "will put out next week after detailed numbers. It is a sales performance that was seen as reduce large, but appeal were in due a positive result has been made.