Sony with Google to thwart Amazon

Seeking to challenge the online retailer Amazon. com in the growing digital books market, Sony Electronics teamed up with the internet-search giant Google Inc., on Wednesday. Sony announced that it has got into a deal with Google that will make a half million copyright-free books available for its ebook Reader device, the main competitor of the Amazon Kindle.

In a statement, Steve Haber, president of the digital reading business division of Sony Electronics, said, “We have focused our efforts on offering an open platform and making it easy to find as much content as possible, and our partnership with Google is another step in that direction. We would love to continue working with Google to see how we can get more content for Reader owners.”

Sony stated that its deal with Google will help fetching over a half a million classic titles free to users of its ebook Reader device, a hand-held device that helps to read books and newspapers. Sony claimed that the deal will lift up the number of titles available its eBook Library to more than 600,000. However, neither Sony nor Google disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

Google, on the other side, has been working to encode books in a free, open electronic publishing format, ePub, to make them easier to read on devices like Sony’s Reader. It is looking to enhance the number of copyright-free books in the Google Book Search catalog available to Sony and any other e-book distributor. Last month, Google announced to make its collection easily accessible to mobile devices such as the iPhone.

Google is also looking to its collection of public domain books widely available. The public domain books are not owned or controlled by anyone; they are not protected by copyright. Several Shakespearean classics, Jane Austin’s “Persuasion” or Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” are public domain books.

Sony claimed that the users of its Reader will now be able to read the Google books on their devices, or download a PDF file to read on a computer. Sony markets two versions of its Reader that is the chief rival of Amazon’s Kindle.

Analysts feel that Sony’s partnership with Google will give big boost to Sony’s ebook store, against Amazon that has 250,000 books in its Kindle library; the deal will decelerate the momentum of Amazon’s Kindle. However, Amazon declined to comment on the Sony-Google deal.

---

Sony with Google to thwart Amazon was first posted on March 19, 2009 at 10:58 pm.

Gmail Launches Undo Send Feature

All those who tend to get themselves into unpleasant email “situations” every now and then can finally relax, thanks to an “undo send” feature launched by Gmail.

Any user can enable the new feature in ”Gmail Labs” under ”Settings’.

If a user feels that the email he just sent should be stopped, he or she should hit the ‘undo send’ button.

However, the user intending to stop the mail from being sent would get only five seconds to hit the button, reports the New York Daily News.

---

Gmail Launches Undo Send Feature was first posted on March 21, 2009 at 12:03 pm.

Cricket Nokia 3606 Phone Launched

Cricket Communications has rolled out Nokia 3606 flip phone that comes packed with a wide array of fun applications and features.

The phone, which comes with a user-friendly interface, sports a clamshell design.

Moreover, it has a 128 x 128 x 262k TFT external display and 176 x 220 x 262k color TFT internal display to view pictures and text.

The HAC compliant Nokia 3606 features is an ideal choice for music buffs as it features MP3 music, stereo Bluetooth and FM radio too.

The music keys are placed on the exterior, which light up when the music option is selected, and lets users to access their desired songs at once.

Ian Laing, vice president of Nokia North America Sales said, “The 3606 is a natural fit for Cricket’s services. The form factor is compelling and the phone’s core features make it a music powerhouse and a stylish communications device.”

The ultra-thin and stylish Nokia 3606 phone supports microSD card slot up to 8GB to store loads of music files, videos as well as pics. The phone includes BREW 3.1.5 with 15MB user memory too.

For pictures and video, the phone also has a 1.3 megapixel camera with LED flash located at the back of the phone.

Vice president of marketing for Cricket Jeff Toig stated, “The Nokia 3606 is an extremely attractive device that will be popular with customers who are looking for a handset with a sophisticated design and a high end feature set. The features are ideal for music lovers, with an MP3 player and stereo Bluetooth, which compliments Cricket’s Mobile Music offering.”

The Cricket branded Nokia 3606 flip additionally comprises of SMS/MMS with predictive text and stereo Bluetooth.

The phone, which offers up to 3.5 hours of talk time together with up to 10 days of standby time from a full battery ad can be purchased at a price of $179.99 from Cricket retail stores and dealers.

---

Cricket Nokia 3606 Phone Launched was first posted on March 22, 2009 at 12:36 pm.

WGA Notifications updated For Windows XP Professional

Microsoft this week is preparing to update Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications for Windows XP. The new version includes the usual updates to validation that improve WGA’s ability to detect invalid product keys and other attempts to circumvent product activation.

Since Windows XP Professional is the most often counterfeited version of XP, Microsoft has focused on including the latest validation information, such as recently stolen or misused product keys, for the Professional edition. Customers who installed the last update will simply have their validation information updated without needing to go through the install process again.

---

WGA Notifications updated For Windows XP Professional was first posted on March 26, 2009 at 4:06 pm.

Samsung Launches S8300 UltraTouch Smart Phone in India

It’s the world’s first AMOLED touch screen phone; it’s an ultra-slim 12.7mm full-touch slider phone; it’s the phone featuring 8 mp camera; well, it’s Samsung S8300 UltraTouch smart-phone, which was launched by Samsung India on Wednesday.

The Samsung S8300 UltraTouch smart-phone, in its brushed metal frame, features a 7.2 cm wide AMOLED scratch resistant touch-screen, 8 mega pixel camera features with dual power LED flash and smile shot mode, a 3