Social Items

In the wake of National Security Agency (NSA) Surveillance saga, encryption has taken a new level of priority in the scheme of web service providers who have privacy of users in mind. Google has led the way in encrypting users' data, and have also promised extending same level of encryption to searches by users.

Whilst other internet companies have equally implemented digital defenses in response to reports that the NSA has been tracking online communications without the companies' knowledge or cooperation, privacy advocates had described the moves as long overdue, albeit, warning that the companies' efforts may not be a permanent safeguard, as encryption technology continues to evolve.

Privacy will remain a major debated topic in 2014, and as targeted tracking technologies gains upper hand, may even pose serious security concerns. 

Social networking platforms like Facebook has already demonstrated the business side of the social web, even as analysts remain wary of Twitter IPO, latest indication proves otherwise as WSJ reports that shares have nearly tripled since their initial public offering last month, including an almost 5% gain on Thursday, making the microblogging site's IPO one of the best performing this year.

Microsoft generation-shift to embracing users' feedback in enhancing its service offerings cannot be denied, and the innovative approach has seen it regaining immense number of users, especially across its web services including Outlook.com.

The whole of 2013 can be summed up as a new beginning for the enthroning of web-based application and services over conventional technologies. And the coming year will witness an unusual level of engagement and development in that regard.

Flashbacks: 2013 in Retrospect

THE AFFAIR is a geeky designers outfitters which recognizes and target the discerning intellect of men who read. As such every design has its literary inspiration printed on the inside neck, so you’re primed for chatting about something other than the weather.

It all began in late 2007 when a strange thing happened amidst the rubble of broken dreams and the boozers of East London, bringing the foreseen union of  industry experience, raw talent and shamelessly egotistical aspirations to live.

And now, they're extending the Christmas joy with a Bad Ass Boxing Day sale. Anything and everything at THE AFFAIR will be up to half off, with their three most popular styles at 70% off the regular price.

So use your spirit of giving wisely and give yourself something awesome this holiday season, also included is free hand screened Art Print with any purchase of two or more t-shirts. Get the scoop here: http://the-affair.com/boxing-day-sale/; and enjoy the season. Merry Christmas!

THE AFFAIR: Invite for Geeks to Indulge

Microsoft's commitment to ensuring secured online experience for users continue to get attention as the company announced "Recent activity notification" feature for Microsoft Accounts. The recent activity log serves to notify users of various point and means through which access has been gained into accounts, so as to be able to ascertain when an unauthorized access is gained.

The “Recent activity” page shows info about the activity in your Microsoft account, within the last 30 days, including any time that you signed in to your account, whether on a web browser, your phone, an email app, or a third-party app.

Microsoft is equally adding more control over security notifications for certain activities, such as resetting your password or logging in from a new device.

The company had recently pushed out Two-Factor Authentication to all users, ensuring maximum security through a second authentication method outside the common password. And with the new feature, promises to provide a fallback for users who have enabled two-step authentication on their accounts.

Security: Recent Activity Log coming to Microsoft Account

Microsoft has launched Bing Maps Preview app for Windows 8.1, bringing full 3D capabilities and zooming on a 3D globe to users worldwide. The new app comes as a true analogue to "Google Earth", with street-level scenery, routes from point to point, and virtual Earth views.

The new Maps Preview also feature a compass and a permanent search bar, which allows users to search out a destination or map out a route.

Now available for download in the Windows Store, Bing Maps Preview bring icons to toggle back and forth between 2D and 3D views, a feature that was lacking in the default Maps.

And Microsoft has integrated Maps with Skype, making a click-to-call functionality possible on the new Maps app. Also, boasting of a "street view" capabilities, accessed by swiping up on the screen, the new Maps Preview is truly a "Google Earth" challenge.

Bing Maps Preview debut on Windows 8.1

Facebook announced update to News Feed ranking in recognition that people want to see more relevant information and see how their friends react to such news. The company in a post on Monday iterated on its plans to prioritize news articles, differentiating it from random posts from other sources.

What this means is that users will start to notice links to articles a little more often in News Feed, especially on mobile, the company stated that people enjoy seeing articles on Facebook, and so they're now paying closer attention to what makes for high quality content.

According to its surveys, people on average prefer links to high quality articles about current events, their favorite sports team or shared interests, to the latest meme.

So, the company intends doing a better job of distinguishing between a high quality article on a website versus a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook when people click on those stories on mobile. And also, looking at ways to show people additional articles similar to the ones they've just read.

News Feed takes Priority on Facebook

Microsoft's Xbox Video service is now live on the web at XboxVideo.com, the company announced the launch on Wednesday, promising more fun and entertainment with ease, allowing users to watching TV shows and movies on the browser.

This means users can now watch movies and TV shows from the Xbox Video store on browsers using Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in, and the service is available for Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows 8.1 tablets and PCs, Macs, and with Windows Phone app still in the works.

The cloud-based service has been made available starting with 21 countries, and allowing users to watch their favorite movies on supported devices. However, support for HD playback is lacking at the moment, but the company promises to bring HD support soon.

TV shows are available in episodes and seasons in the Xbox Video store. Microsoft has already listed several deals on select TV shows and movies for the Black Friday weekend deals, and up to 50% discounts available.

Microsoft launches Xbox Video Service on the Web

Google has made available a Chrome extension, Google Voice Search Hotword, that will enable users on desktop to initiate a search without typing, just by speaking. The browser extension allow users to do voice search on Google.com by the command, "Ok Google", plus the search term.

The tool which is still in beta can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store and it's available both on desktop and laptops.

Chrome's active tab is required to be on Google.com for the feature to work, however, users can also conduct a new voice search directly from the search page, and it's ready when the microphone icon becomes bold.

Google has been readying some amazing voice features since the company's I/O conference in May, and working to improve the search algorithm especially on voice related commands along its semantic search technology.

Google's Automatic Voice Search debut on Chrome

The online pinboard, Pinterest is perhaps exploring the highly profitable location services with the introduction of Place Pins. Place Pins feature will allow users to see the location of businesses with complete mapping capabilities and to get direction from one place to another.

Place Pins will make it easier for users to plan trips and locate places of interest, making Pinterest more useful on the go and also share their pin-filled maps with others.

The tool is expected in the coming update of Pinterest apps for both iOS and Android, and on the web according to the company.

Pinterest has partnered with mapping developers MapBox and Stamen to design and customize the maps for Place Pins, adding  more location data to destinations or other places of interest accessible through the site.

Place Pins: Pinterest's Dabbling with Location Data

LinkedIn announced a milestone in the service's integration to Pulse, the notorious social newsreader app, which it acquired in April. LinkedIn Today, the service's news curation feature, will be making way for Pulse, meaning more relevant news experience with content tailored to users' interests.

LinkedIn Pulse will become the main vehicle for social news experience across mobile and desktop and will ultimately replace LinkedIn Today.

And for the first time, social actions like commenting and liking on Pulse are possible and will sync with your LinkedIn.com experience. When you download the new Pulse app on iOS or Android, you'll be prompted to sign-in using your LinkedIn profile. Once you’ve done this, the channels, influencers and LinkedIn content you already follow in your Pulse experience will be automatically added.

The overall search functionality has been improved with faster auto-complete suggestions, making it easier for you to find “What’s New” across timely world events and what’s trending.

Also, you can create unique lists in the “My Lists” section around professional topics like green technology, real estate or business, and discover new suggested topics via recommendations or easy right-to-left scrolling to see the next article within a channel or publication. You can check out the new Pulse experience on LinkedIn.com by clicking here now.

What Pulse integration with LinkedIn means for Users

Microsoft Nigeria in conjunction with The Future Project (TFP) yesterday at the Civic Centre, Lagos unveiled Aiki Nigeria, an employment enabling  program that seeks to bridge the gap for job seekers, entrepreneurs, artisans and secondary school leavers by availing them networking opportunities for mentoring, and accessibility to various job openings.

The Aiki Nigeria web platform will among other things provide free resources, training and career guidance services to young Nigerians.

The program is designed to serve as a networking hub where young people can connect for development at a continental level. The Future Project is leveraging on its extensive knowledge in engaging the youths over the years to help Microsoft in achieving its aim of equipping thousands of young Nigerians with the right tools, skills and matching employment opportunities.

The Aiki.ng web portal is expected to go live early December, and with key features such as: Online learning on skills and personal development, meeting advisers and mentors from different occupational fields among others.

Aiki.ng - Web-based Career Development Platform

Google on Monday announced a new service, Helpouts, that can avail internet users professional assistant from people in a capacity to help through live video chat. It's aimed to use the convenience and efficiency of the web to enable everyone, irrespective of time or place, to easily connect with someone who can help.

Helpouts makes it easy for getting help for a computer glitch, a leaky pipe, or a homework problem as clicking a button?

It might be learning a new skill, like how to speak a foreign language or graphic works; or it might be general advice on how to improve your fitness or your writing. With Helpouts, you can choose who you get help from based on their qualifications, their availability, their price, their ratings and reviews.

The company, however assured that the number of people giving help on Helpouts and the type of help available will grow over time. And that it will take time to get used to interactions via real time video. If you're interested in giving help on Helpouts yourself, simply hit the link.

Helpouts - Get and Give Help over Live Video

Microsoft on Saturday warned users still stuck on Windows XP that the operating system will be prone to malware attacks more than ever before starting April 8, 2014. The warning came on the heels of the company's bi-annual security intelligence report.

Tim Rains, director at Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, in a blog post iterated on the risks posed by the aged operating system, stating that users should expect an increase in malware attacks when support for the OS is dropped next year.

Windows XP will become more prone to attacks, continued Tim, and that after support ends, attackers will have upper hand over security tools on the operating system.

The company perhaps for the first time has been open about the risks customer may face after dropping support for an OS, which is unusual to its norm of simply ignoring an old operating system without accompanying danger tag. While there could be other reasons for the purported increase in infections, lack of updated security software been among, main reason remains the fact that XP SP2 has not been patched.

Windows XP Users warned on Malware Increase

Mozilla announced what it calls an experimental pilot project, Mozilla Location Service, which is invariably a geolocation lookup based on publicly observable cell tower and Wi-Fi access point information. Albeit, it is still in early developmental stages, but it already provides a basic service experience in select locations.

The company is aiming the mobile ecosystem with the new service, especially mobile phones with weak GPS signal and additionally, laptops without GPS hardware can use this service to quickly identify their approximate location.

And before now, there's no large public service to provide this crucial part of any mobile ecosystem. Mozilla intends to tackle the technical challenges by getting real data, and leveraging on open-source technology to improving privacy issues which have hitherto plagued such related service offerings.

Even as geolocation data is by its very nature personal and privacy sensitive, the fact that the signals are publicly accessible posed some risks.

The service is evolving rapidly and already provides basic coverage in select locations within the following countries: U.S., Brazil, Australia, Indonesia and Russia.

Mozilla Location Service: What You need to Know



The internet has continued on an astronomical rise; since 2006, the number of internet users has more than doubled. And as access to internet via mobile: smartphones and tablets increases, it makes us wonder what that means for the demography of users and their experience on the web.

Statistics by Internet Service Providers puts the current number of internet users at 2.4 billion globally, with yearly growth rate at 39 per cent, that number is expected to reach 2.7 billion by end of the year.

What then do the next billion internet users look like?

The Next Billion Internet Users: What Will They Look Like?

INFOGRAPHIC: Next Generation of Internet Users

MakeMyBrowser.com is a new tool that enables anyone create a private and customized browser experience. It is Chromium based, meaning it is built with security in mind from the architectural point of view.

All the extensions that support Chrome also support MakeMyBrowser personal browsers, all the themes can be implemented and feels no difference. You can create a private customized browser for each of your family members, with icon, bookmarks and themes.

Why a Private Browser?

 As users' privacy is increasingly a much debated topic nowadays, having a browser in which you're in total control certainly is a great point. And the good part, all at no cost.

Why create a Personalized Browser?

As many computers are used by more than one person, each user is expected to log in and out from Windows, which really takes a lot of time and effort. With MakeMyBrowser, you can let your mom keep on using Chrome, while you use your own browser. You can actually create as many browsers as you wish.

If you have your own computer, you might have two or more Gmail/Facebook accounts. Creating your own personal browser, allows you to navigate quickly between the two, and identify your browser by your own selected image. No need to type in password all over, login and log out etc. Also, you might want to have your “fun browser” with links and extensions to YouTube, Hulu, and other sites, but alongside have your “work browser” with links and extensions that are work related.

And in case of a stolen PC, it is recommended that users should log in to their personalized browser using any Google Account. This will save all your bookmarks and passwords online, and you can always login back from chrome or other chromium browser and restore all your information.

MakeMyBrowser.com - Create Your Own Customized Browser

Apple announced the availability of OS X Mavericks on Tuesday, and for the first time, the premium OS is coming completely free. The company has dropped the price on its desktop operating system, making room for cheaper PCs, as the days of spending hundreds of dollars to get the most out of your computer are gone.

And the release OS X Mavericks, also brings Flash Player now protected by an OS X App Sandbox.

Apple Mac suffered many security breaches in the past owing to vulnerabilities associated with Flash plug-in, now with Flash Player sandboxed under Safari in Mac OS X, means better restriction on the ability of attackers to exploit any vulnerabilities in the browser plug-in.

The sandbox also limits Flash Player’s local connections to device resources and inter-process communication (IPC) channels, which in turn limits Flash Player’s networking privileges to prevent unnecessary connection capabilities. And the end point is that Flash Player’s capabilities to read and write files will be limited to only those locations it needs to function properly.

Mac OS X Mavericks is available as a free download from the Mac App Store.

Mac OS X Mavericks arrives, Free with Flash Sandboxed

Google Ideas, which is an initiative of the internet giant to serve as a think/do tank that explores how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of conflict, instability or repression - now, has scheduled a summit in New York with partners to discuss on the theme "Conflicts in a Connected World".

Google hopes to leverage on the ideas generated to better understand how to protect people confronting online censorship.

The summit brings together “hacktivists,” security experts, entrepreneurs, dissidents and others to explore the changing nature of conflict and how online tools can both harm and protect, according to the official Google blog.

And along with partners, the company intends to launch several new technology products to help with fighting censorship, such products includes: Project Shield (which protects websites against DDoS attacks), Digital Attack Map (live data visualization that maps DDoS attacks) and uProxy (new browser extension that allows contacts share trusted pathway to the web).

Google believes access to the free flow of information is increasingly critical, and have gone ahead in taking necessary steps to help those fighting for free expression around the world.

Google set to Unleash new Tools to fight Censorship

Google is currently pursuing a really ambitious project, Google Fiber aimed to bring the experience of super fast and hybrid internet connectivity comprising digital television to communities, of course within the United States.

Google announced plans to install Google Fiber internet service in Provo, Utah, which was the third city after Kansas City that the company has marked for the initial roll-out plan.

What exactly is Google Fiber and How would it affect Consumers?

Google Fiber is a hybrid internet infrastructure service powered by Google. It's aimed to bolster super fast internet service with plans starting from 5Mbps all the way to a blistering fast 1,000Mbps. The 1,000Mbps service comes with a bevy of perks, including 1TB of Google Drive storage with the television service equipped with a 2TB DVR recorder in addition to the Google Drive storage.

Google Fiber is perhaps inspiring other ISPs to lessen the broadband gap. Or, as put on DSLReports the goal is to “…light a fire under the pampered behinds of incumbent broadband operators.”

Though Google Fiber is not yet available everywhere, nor gigabit internet in general for that matter, it mostly has to do with areas internet infrastructure. Only a handful of cities in the U.S. are wired up for fiber optics, which means only so many places can get Google Fiber or the gigabit internet service. And It’ll be a long time before it reaches every nook and cranny of the U.S. (if it even does).

Google Fiber: The Projected Future

Microsoft has announced a new student advantage program which will allow any academic institution that licenses Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus for staff and faculty to provide Office 365 ProPlus to its students for free. This new campaign allows college students to try office 365 for free for up to six months.

The Student Advantage makes it easy for qualifying institutions to provide students with the latest version of full Office at school and at home. Combined with Office 365 for Education plan A2, which is free for schools, Student Advantage gives students access to the same set of world-class productivity tools and services used by Fortune 500 companies all over the world, according to Microsoft blog.

The cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 Education is currently used by 110 million students, faculty, and staff. At the time of kick off, more than 35,000 educational institutions that are already subscribed to Office 365 will be automatically eligible to participate in the Student Advantage service.

And the actual launch date has been set on Dec. 1, beginning which the free campaign will kick off. For any academic institution that doesn't have Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus, individual students, faculty members, or staff can pay $79.99 for a four-year subscription to Office 365 University.

Microsoft: Free Office 365 for Students

LinkedIn on Wednesday announced the introduction of a mobile app, linkedIn Recruiter to aid job recruitment on the go. Albeit, the company had made available various recruiter tools on the web version of the social network, a mobile app to cover same purpose had been lacking before now.

LinkedIn Recruiter is aimed to enable job seekers pitch for potential employers on the go, via mobile devices, as mostly this top executives with final decision making powers are always on the go following their usual busy schedules.

The company puts it that people are more mobile than ever before, while recruiters and the recruiting process, are still chained to the desktop, which has made it painstakingly difficult for candidates to search for, discover and apply for jobs via mobile. And this has also limited users productivity because they can’t interact with candidates and hiring managers while on the go.

Recruiter Mobile is free to existing LinkedIn Recruiter customers and is available today in the App Store for iPhone users. Not an iPhone user? You can also access it from your mobile device’s web browser at www.linkedIn.com/recruiter.

LinkedIn Recruiter: Mobile App for Recruiting on the Go

Pinterest may have perhaps scored a great point in the collaboration feature announced by Microsoft's Bing in a blog post on Wednesday. According to the post, Pinterest Boards, which brings together curated collections of images from people around the web is now available on Bing image search.

Bing in the post iterated on the fact that computer-generated contents cannot yet match the accuracy and precision of users' generated contents, citing the example of Pinterest to support the notion.

On Pinterest, passionate curators can build up a collection of ideas that shows off their unique style, giving rise to most interesting pictures on the web. Bing, albeit, using cutting-edge computer vision, powerful filtering tools, and lots of computational horsepower to sift through billions of images on the web has come to acknowledge that the most interesting pictures on the web are being collected by people, not computers.

Bing image collections are great for searches like Halloween decorating ideas, bringing together cute and unique pictures from around the web with creative collections by people who are both passionate and ready to share their ideas.

Bing, added that this is only the beginning of exploration of ways to showcase social communities within Bing image search, promising more in the weeks and months ahead. If you wish to get started, go to bing.com and click on the Images tab to take Bing image search for a spin.

Bing brings Pinterest Boards to Image Search

Social marketing is taking a huge chunk out of internet marketing budgets, and the notorious visual bulletin board, Pinterest, in order not to be left out in the windfall, is exploring ways to open up the platform to advertisers as it announced plans to launch "Promoted Pins".

Pinterest's great appeal to users, coupled with beautiful interface and compelling contents are what may perhaps endear the social platform to retailers for marketing purposes.

Promoted Pins is certainly a preview on how the company will go about pursuing a scalable revenue generation system, and see how it appeals to its ever growing user base, according to Ben Silbermann, Pinterest's CEO in a blog post.

And the initial test-run will include promoting a few pins in search results and category feeds, which the company has assured will not be obstructive as the usual banner ads we're accustomed. Silbermann, however, promised pinners that the promoted pins will be relevant, and improved based on users' feedback, and of course, no flashy banners or pop-up ads.

The company also assures on transparency by letting users know when a pin is actually paid for. The testing has not started, but will be rolling-out soon.

Finally, Here comes Promoted Pins

Facebook video ads rumor which has been making round since late July, now substantiating on the hints, the company have gone ahead to announce the test run for the new feature. The TV-styled ads, according to the Facebook Newsroom report, has already commenced with a select group of Facebook mobile users.

The new video feature automatically plays video to users who pause on the box when scrolling through their news feed.

This feature will be limited to videos posted by individuals, musicians and bands with verified pages. And that only videos uploaded to Facebook; not videos posted from YouTube or elsewhere are supported.

The company, however, declined to specify when the video feature will be opened up to advertisers. 

The implementation on desktop is quite different from mobile application, as clicking on video on desktop opens up a new window. While Facebook mobile users who do not wish to watch the video ads can simply scroll through to other items on the news feed.

Facebook: Gearing up for Video Ads?

The growing trend of web technology vendors persistently tracking users activities online for ads targeting purposes have continued to be debated across different fora. And recently, the NSA was reported to be circumventing manufacturers' controls to access users data on mobile devices, all these pointing to the fact that users cannot rely on vendor provisions in guarding their privacy.

Smart mobile devices have made it almost impossible to maintain effective privacy control online, and the debate as reviewed on the prolific mobile lifestyle blog, Mobility,  posits that the National Security Agency (NSA) can go as far as hacking into these devices to get information, according to documents released by the German news magazine, SPIEGEL.

The report maintains that the issue is not about having access through the companies behind these smart devices, but actual hacking of those devices.

Now, what other options do users have, since smart devices cannot be trusted? Encryption is perhaps the only solution, albeit, not 100 per cent foolproof, as even encrypted messages can be decrypted. However, it remains that the act of deciphering a single word in an encrypted message is a task not many such agency can be subjected.

So, smart security approach is the way out - the data itself should be protected. And to ease the process of the encryption on social networking platforms, BlockPRISM can be availed to cover such social privacy issues.

How Encryption can Eliminate Web Tracking

Google's web-based application revolution with its operating system, Chrome as the pivot of the new beginnings, is hitting up the debate over native-application continuum. Albeit, native applications have hitherto shown a better performance rating compared to web apps, innovations coming to the later has demonstrated that equal, if not better feat is possible.

Google had earlier released Chrome Apps Launcher for Windows, allowing users to launch Chrome standalone apps directly from Windows taskbar, even without launching the browser. Now, Chrome Apps have landed on the browser in a near-native experience, capable of working in offline mode, and storing data locally.

The new Chrome Apps can interact with PC hardware as a native app, while still retaining the everywhere availability advantage of web-based applications. Google on Thursday announced the availability of the new Chrome Apps on Chrome Web Store.

Mac users, however, will have to wait till the next version, Chrome 30 to enjoy the new feature, as its currently available for only Windows and Chrome, starting form OS 29.

Native Experience comes to Chrome Apps

Oracle released Java 7 update 25 in June 2013, while admitting the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) bug (CVE-2013-2463) in the later version, Java 6 and advised that users should upgrade to the most recent version. Now, security experts within last few days have uncovered an active exploitation of the vulnerability in Java 6 "Proof of Concept for CVE-2013-2463" attack code to compromise users systems.

The Neutrino crimeware kit which was first uncovered in March 2013, seems to be the point of exploit for the vulnerability according to security analyst, Timo Hirvonen of F-Secure.

The mode of attack include exploitation of Java vulnerability to install ransomeware on users PC, while such users are coaxed into paying some fines citing law enforcement agents involvement among others. The bug could be "exploited by malicious local users to disclose certain sensitive information, manipulate certain data, and gain escalated privileges and by malicious people to conduct spoofing attacks, disclose certain sensitive information, manipulate certain data, cause a DoS(denial of service), bypass certain security restrictions, and compromise a vulnerable system," according to Secunia.

Java 6 was officially retired in February, which is more reason the company did not make available a patch for it, but instead, recommend that users should upgrade to Java 7. Albeit, almost 48% of all Java users in the U.S. are still stuck to Java 6 according to statistics released March, 2013.

Security: Experts warn on Java 6 Vulnerability

The ubiquity of the internet has strongly influenced modern communication systems, with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) haven hitherto exerted enormous pressure on traditional communication players (Telcos), and the competition is even now fiercest as the new technology, WebRTC is gaining traction on the web.

WebRTC (Web-based Real-time Communication) is an open-source project (of course, free) that enables browser-to-browser applications with real-time communication capabilities through simplified JavaScript APIs without plug-ins.

The prototype comprises codes that Google open sourced  in May 2011, and followed by an ongoing work to standardized the relevant protocols in the IETF and browsers APIs in the W3C. The implementation revolves on works on HTML5 and related technologies supported by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). The project is supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera, increasingly spreading amongst other major web technology vendors.

Google is equally responsible for the key voice and video codecs WebRTC currently support - VP8 (video), iSAC (wide-band links) and iLBC (narrower connections).

What does all these mean? It won't be long after the point of aligning to standards for developers to start building applications into web-pages for voice and video calls. Albeit, such capabilities are possible already, but are specific to vendors implementing them. What WebRTC does is open the technology to all, not just to vendors that can afford to license a proprietary system.

Now, the revolutionary drive behind WebRTC is that ordinary Web developers using just JavaScript APIs can build fully functioning voice, video and data collaboration applications or have same embed within other applications or website with just a few lines of code.

The new technology, WebRTC will make voice and video call enabled web pages pervasive, with no plug-ins to download and install that may not be compatible with all the browsers you use, on the desktop or on your mobile devices. And that may ultimately be the future of voice and video calls for all.

WebRTC: Real-Time Communication between Browsers

Microsoft's revolutionary web-mail service, Outlook.com has already garnered a lot of accolades from tech industry watchers as regards bridging the communication gap with real-time social networking features right within the inbox, and now the company have also added Skype support.

Skype is perhaps one of the largest communication service on the web, making it possible for internet users to communicate with friends and family through instant messaging and video calls, all at no cost.

Microsoft had earlier made the announcement of bringing Skype to Outlook.com late April, and have now gone ahead to launching the service starting with North America as a first point of call, including United Kingdom according to Outlook blog. 

The company also intend to demonstrate the effect of visual communication in sales promotion, especially as it concerns local businesses, by announcing a contest in the United States whereby consumers can submit a recipe with a chance to make a video call with Gail Simmons, the food expert and television personality.

And for every entry, Microsoft will donate $10 to Common Threads, a charity that promotes healthy eating with kids, while entry direct from Outlook.com account attracts $20 donation. If you wish to learn more about the contest and enter, go to: chow.com/outlook.

Microsoft brings Skype to Outlook.com

LinkedIn, the unparalleled professionals network, is honing their great pool of user base to avail prospective students of relevant information as regards various universities by providing a ready made information hub, University Pages.

The University Pages on LinkedIn is aimed at helping students attain critical milestone in their campus life to a fulfilling, successful career.  And foremost, to serve as an information hub for students making that initial search for universities to attend.

Beginning on September 12, LinkedIn intends to open up the University Pages for high school students to explore schools worldwide, along with expanding their opportunities on the after school scenario, by building on a network of friends to help at every milestone.

And currently, about 200 universities have adopted their pages, including INSEAD, NYU among other notable citadels of learning.

LinkedIn had accordingly made some changes to its terms of service, most notable being the change in minimum age to 14 for eligibility to join. Also, stressing on the openness and prospect of adding "thousands of schools" along the line.

LinkedIn Introduces University Pages

Social networking has greatly influenced online conversation, the line between strangers keep getting blurrier, while privacy have been utterly relegated to the background. Privacy as regards users personal information will continue to draw attention in lieu of targeting advertisements, and for those users who do not wish to be tracked, there is finally a solution.

BlockPRISM is nonprofit project undertaken by a group of computer science students at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam and a mechanical engineering student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, with the aim of allowing users encrypt their private messages on social networking platforms.

The goal of BlockPRISM is to enhance secure communication on the internet by creating programming tools that allow seamless integration across social media, without the user having to go through any trouble to encrypt his or her messages.

While the cryptographic technology to make this possible has existed for some time, encryption has not been widely adopted because it can be too complicated. And as a first prototype, the team have programmed a Chrome browser plugin to serve as a proof of concept.

Also, in order to complete the development cycle and to make it available on mobile devices (iOS and Android), they have equally launched what they called the indiegogo campaign.

The team is hoping to reach the widest possible audience with their campaign to meet the goal of encrypting every personal information across the social networking platforms and thus create a secure communication on the internet.

BlockPRISM: Encrypt Messages in Social Networking Platforms

Online privacy has indeed taken a center stage in modern internet usage, given the proliferation of tracking technologies aimed to bolster advertising efforts, even at the expense of users personal information. Internet users, on the other hand have always clamored for more control over their data, and had reacted with outrage whenever such rights have been abused.

AdChoice, is a familiar web icon for those who are used to surfing the internet. It's an initiative of Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), which serve to educate users on personal data collected by targeted ads, availing them the option to opt-out of such tracking.

Now, the coalition have devised plans of bringing same user control to mobile browsers, with a disclosure icon that will give users option to Do Not Track command on their mobile devices.

The overriding idea, however, is for internet users to have control over who or what gains access to their personal data, and preventing unwanted intrusion to users privacy.

And the timing is perhaps, even more accurate given the dominance of smart mobile devices in modern internet usage, which has correspondingly driven advertising thereto. The project is still in early developmental stage and according to DAA will be coming on board by next year.

Privacy: "Do Not Track" Icon for Mobile browsers?

Google on Wednesday announced the upgrade of Chrome 28 to the stable channel, with Chrome 28 for Android sporting new features of data compression, translation and fullscreen support which hitherto had been available only on the web version.

Data Compression had been a highly sought after feature for mobile browsers owing to the high consumption of data especially on Android devices. Chrome support for data compression utilizes Google's SPDY network technology to optimize web pages for mobile devices.

Google Translate for Chrome, on the other hand, means automatic translation of web pages right from within the browser, making it easy for users to access information presented in foreign languages. While fullscreen support allows users to display web contents in full-screen mode.

However, the downside of Chrome's data compression is that encrypted websites are not supported, unlike what is obtainable with Opera Mini.

Google's push on Chrome to take a center stage on the web is very much evidence in the current slew of improvements coming to the browser. And also recently have gone ahead to switch to its own rendering engine, Blink

Chrome 28 for Android brings Data Compression

Opera Software has extended its transition to WebKit which started with Android to desktop running Windows and OS X in the launch of Opera 15. The revamped Opera browser for desktop also spot Opera signature feature like Speed Dial, also bringing new features that debuted on Android version like Off-Road Mode and Discovery Tool along.



Off-Road Mode employs Opera's proxy-browsing technology to speed up slow network connections. And the feature automatically turns off when internet connection becomes fast again. While Discovery Tool (Opera Discover) serve web pages based on a user's interests.

The company, however, hinted on their resolve to introducing all old Opera signature features along with the revamped Opera browser in subsequent versions.

Opera next releases will include themes to customize the browser's appearance and vsiual system for tab management according to Sebastian Baberowski, Product Management Director at Opera Software. Also, together with the new Opera is what the company terms release streams: Opera Stable, Next and Developer versions, mimicking Chrome's development cycle.

If a user installs Opera from any particular stream, the update will remain the same, meaning Opera Stable will be updated to Opera Stable, Opera Next to Opera Next and so on. The new Opera 15 for desktop is now available for download.

Opera 15 brings WebKit-based Experience to Desktop

Google announced its acquisition of QuickOffice mid 2012, while assuring on the goal of getting more done with the Productivity Suite through the enabling of seamless interoperability with popular file formats. Now, Google's QuickOffice has made its first appearance in the ability to edit Office Documents right within Chrome OS.

The ability to edit Office Docs in Chrome OS comes as an answer to compatibility challenge presented by Microsoft's Office Mobile, while filling-in the gap on Google Apps incompatibility problems.

Google's attempt in deploying QuickOffice within a browser has long been rumored, and now has eventually found its way on Chrome OS. The company has labored to bring the compatibility aspect along with the functionality of Google Apps.

Google's QuickOffice, however, does not present any threat to Microsoft's Office Suite, because its functionality cannot yet match the later. But given the fact that it's running on the unstable Dev channel of Chrome OS means the feature has not been made available for the public, hence not fully ready.

Eventually, within the coming months will see the arrival of the feature to the stable channel. Before then, if you would like to give the new feature a spin, you'll need to get a Chromebook while ensuring its running version 29.0.1547.2 or later.

Google's QuickOffice: Edit Office Docs within Chrome OS



Microsoft's resolve to filling-in the web app productivity space dominated by Google is increasingly on the spotlight as the company demonstrated more collaborative Office features on more devices. The new update means bringing more real-time collaborations to Office web apps, which hitherto had been available only on the desktop Office software.

Office Web Apps was launched in 2010 as Microsoft's answer to Google Apps, while the later have attained notoriety for real-time collaborative functionality, Office Web Apps had been lagging behind.

Microsoft in the next few months will be rolling out improved collaboration features in Office Web Apps aimed to bring real-time co-authoring on desktop browsers, Android and iOS devices. Also included in the new updates is ability to edit documents real-time without the need to refresh page.

The company in the demonstration revealed the pre-release web apps on a notebook, touting features like real-time co-authoring, design elements and document formatting. 

Albeit, adding co-authored tables to a document is possible in the current version, the new update will allow co-authors to make live text-formatting changes. That means ring-level real-time co-authoring in Excel, and real-time editing in Word and PowerPoint.

Microsoft, however, have been trailing its earlier May announcement without any specific timing for the actual launch date for the updated version.

Microsoft demonstrates Real-time Co-authoring on Office Web Apps

Google announced on Thursday the discontinuation of Chrome Frame, an Internet Explorer plug-in that tends to bring modern web technologies to legacy versions of the browser. The controversial plug-in was released to serve as a modern engine to old versions of Internet Explorer, to enable complete new browsing experience.

Chrome Frame allowed developers to scale the huddles of building different versions of app to suit the varied user agents, while ensuring better experience even for those still using old versions of the browser.

However, given the proliferation of modern browsers and more capable rendering engines, the challenge of users who were unable to move to a more capable browser is far lesser. And the usage of legacy browsers according to latest statistics is declining significantly.

What that means is that the leading edge browser experience have become mainstream, hence the need to retire Chrome Frame. Google will cease support and updates to the program in January 2014.

And developers who have hitherto employed the browser plug-in are required to instead prompt users to upgrade to a modern browser. While enterprise users who depend on old technology to run certain apps, are recommended to try Google Apps for Business, which allow employees to switch seamlessly between Chrome and another browser.

Google's Retiring of Chrome Frame: What it means?

Yahoo launched a revamped email interface on Monday with a couple of other changes in the service's privacy agreement. The new policy have generated outrage from users especially concerning the line on scanning of private email by Yahoo to improve its ads targeting campaigns.

Privacy have continued to be the bane of internet advertising, given the enormous appeal advertisers have for users personal information. Whereas such users deem it necessary that their privacy should be respected.

Yahoo Mail current additional "Terms of Service" is yet another twist in the privacy saga, although they are not the only service provider who have come open with such policy on tracking users, as well as scanning their private messages for advert purposes. As Google also have implemented the policy on Gmail service.

Microsoft had in 2012 announced same policy changes in its Cloud Services, which was also met with resistance from users. Albeit, the company had opposed email scanning for advertising purposes.

However, if you have upgraded to the new interface, Yahoo have afforded users the option to opt-out of letting the service scan their private messages for advert purposes.

Apart form the policy changes, other notable addition to the revamped Yahoo Mail includes integration of Dropbox cloud storage service which allows users to add attachment to their messages and equally save received attachments direct to the service.

Yahoo Mail "New Policy": Another Privacy Twist?

Google announced would-be hard knock news on forking WebKit early April, signalling the beginning of work on its own rendering engine for Chrome, Blink. WebKit emerged in 2001 out of KHTML as an open-source rendering engine, whose flexibility and performance have endeared it to many web technology vendors including Google.

WebKit has kept pace with the growing capabilities of the web platform, thanks to the great open-source community who have been contributing in its development.

Why would Google want to discontinue using WebKit rendering engine? Despite the fact that WebKit has thrived in supporting the emerging web technologies, it has slowed down the pace of innovations owing to its complexity, hence the need to introduce a more streamline version, Blink.

Blink is based on WebKit with internal architectural improvements and simplification of the code-base, leading to more stability and fewer bugs. And which will be easier to make proposed specifications work in both WebKit and Blink. However, there is the fear that the common code-base could lead to some problems in recommending new standards.

But, the increased competition would lead to more focus on standards, meaning better browsing experience, which is a win win for the web and individual users.

Blink is expected to be turned on by default in Chrome 28, though it's already available as part of the Canary build for developers and early adopters who want to give it a spin.

Blink or WebKit: Which way to Go, Google?

Twitter could be cooking-up an ad exchange program, according to a report credited to AdAge. The report has it that the Twitter Ad Exchange program is aimed to bolster the company revenue system and as a challenge to Facebook owned Ad Exchange, FBX.

The Ad re-targeting exchange will employ user tracking mechanisms to determine previous pages visited by a user and then re-target them with display ads on the network. It uses cookies to track users and re-targets them when a partner bids to target such user on the social network.

Twitter is already rallying for support from several FBX partners who are experienced in brand re-targeting to make the program a success. The talks, however are still in hush-hush, as Twitter has not briefed partners on actual launch date.

The micro-blogging platform has been saddled with revenue issues and would want to explore any possible means to end the crunch race. Albeit, the company did not respond to request for further information on the purported ad exchange program, close sources have validated the claims.

Perhaps, it won't be long before we start seeing the early track on the ads program. And Twitter is also expected to pursue an IPO next year, the new revenue system is seen as a means to avoid pre-IPO push back.

Is Twitter Prepping Ad Re-targeting Exchange?

There's nothing quite as nice as curling up on the sofa and watching your favorite film. If, like many people, you consider yourself to be a film fanatic, it's likely that you have built up quite a large collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays over the years. However, most of us, if we're being honest, only re-watch a small percentage of the films that we have in our collection. The others are usually left on our shelves, collecting dust. Moreover, as we get older, our taste in films tends to change. You might, for example, have adored action-packed blockbusters a few years ago, but now prefer foreign or indie productions.

If this is the case for you, it might be time to do a clear out of your Blu-Rays and DVDs and decide what you should do with them. If you have a number of films that are in good condition, but which you know you are unlikely to ever watch again, you may want to sell them. This way, you can make a little extra cash and declutter your house. On top of this, your old DVDs will end up going to a good home and may end up becoming someone else favorite films.

Auction Sites

The first option, if you want to try selling films online, is to use an auction site. On this type of site, you can list your item at either a fixed price or a starting price. They're relatively easy to use and you should be able to make a sale quite quickly. However, do bear in mind that you will probably incur seller's fees and so if you're selling your DVDs and Blu-Rays for a relatively small amount of money, it may not be worth your while. In addition, if you want to draw attention to your listing, you will have to spend some time taking clear photos of your items and writing up an accurate description for each one. This can be time consuming and so may not be the best option if you want a hassle free way of getting rid of your goods.

Trade In

Another option is to trade in your DVDs and Blu-Rays for cash on specialist sites; there are several of them on the web. These sites make the process of getting rid of your old movies easy. You can normally just type in the title of your old film into the site search box and you'll be given a value for it instantly. Some sites also allow you to scan the Blu-Ray or DVD's barcode using an app on your phone or by using your webcam. Then, it's simply a case of sending off your items and getting paid. The process is quick and uncomplicated and perfect if you want to clear out your shelves without any bother.

What Should You Do With You Old Films?

Google has released Chrome 27 to the stable channel according to the official Chrome Releases blog on Wednesday, with slew of improvements which includes the ability to engage in a conversation with the iconic search engine, Google on desktop computers.

Google had earlier made its voice search feature available for mobile, Google Now, on Android and iOS devices, which has greatly improved general search experience on smartphones and tablet devices.

Now, Google voice search can be experienced right on your desktop computer once you've got Chrome 27 installed. The feature allows you to engage in a direct conversation with Google instead of typing search queries, simply speak your search terms and Google will respond with the answer.

The new search innovation rides on its Knowledge Graph technology to arrive at a more accurate answers to your search queries. Unlike conventional search pattern that relies on keywords, the Knowledge Graph brings semantic understanding to search experience, an intelligent model that relates to real-world events and entities.

The feature adds to already growing voice technologies coming to the web, and also recently, the Web Speech API was demonstrated with stunning results signaling the beginning of more intelligent voice applications coming to the web soon.

Chrome 27 brings Smarter Voice Search on Desktop

Google's obsession for speed and faster deployment of images on the web led to the development of WebP, an open-source image format which is an improvement on the compression that JPEG and PNG provides. WebP was officially announced in September 2010, as an alternative image format, with significant bytes savings of about 30% - 80% compared to JPEG and PNG.

The open-source image format, WebP took a center stage at the just concluded developers' conference Google I/O, with session covering the latest features, news and future roadmap of the WebP format.

Google has effectively implemented the new image format on its social networking platform, Google+ Android App and a host of other web service companies including Facebook have joined the WebP bandwagon. WebP's unique features includes ability to render transparent sections of an image with lossless compression as in the case of PNG and lossy as in JPEG (Lossy compression is shrinking of file with data losses, while Lossless compression retains original image).

Albeit, PNG supports image transparency, JPEG not supported; WebP can offer both transparent and more beautiful smaller fill size of lossy compression.

The encoding is based on Google VP8 codec, applied through the infra frame coding to push the envelope in still image coding. And runs on the WebM technology, which means any hardware that supports WebM will also support WebP.

The company hopes to push WebP into replacing current image formats, JPEG and PNG on the pros of increased efficiency and rendering speed recorded in the new format.

Google's WebP: Future Image Format?

Google at its ongoing developers' conference Google I/O, announced the integration of Google Wallet (the company's online payment system) with Gmail, allowing users to send money directly within emails. The innovative feature, "payment-via-email" is aimed to boost the reach of Google Wallet service among other things.

Google Wallet availability via Gmail means users can now securely send money to friends and family without the hassles of leaving their inbox.



The service is free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or you're using your Google Wallet Balance, according to the company's blog. While sending money using your linked credit or debit card attracts low charges.

The feature will be rolling-out to Gmail users ages 18+ in United States in the next few months. And to activate, simply look for the $ icon in your attachment options.

However, if your friends have early access and send money to you, you'll automatically get access to use the service.Whereas, without getting a payment from someone with early access to the service, you'll have to wait until the service have been rolled-out to everyone to activate.

The company is hoping to drive more users to its payment service by this new feature and intend to make it go viral in the coming months.

Google Wallet is now Integrated with Gmail

Adobe's Creative Suite CS6 launch about a year ago created a unique new way for the company to license it's product offering: introducing the Creative Cloud service, which affords users access to Adobe's software library for a monthly or annual fee.

Creative Cloud makes Adobe's applications available in an entirely unique way not before thought possible, via a subscription model for the very first time. What this means for users is that instead of coughing-out a whopping Adobe Software license fee, they can have complete access to Adobe's Software library at a more tenable monthly or yearly fee as the case may be.

The line of argument, however, is on the fact that a Master Collection license is forever, while on the Creative Cloud service, constant subscription charges are applied.

On individual usage calculation, if you require Adobe's application for a brief spell, then the Creative Cloud option seems a better bargain. But for those professionals who are always on the job, a Master Collection license is best.

Also, non power users are at a more disadvantage with Creative Cloud option, as the same charges apply even when fewer applications are actually used. While, on the Master Suite you can purchase license on only selectable applications you require.

The pros of Creative Cloud hinges on features like cloud storage and syncing options available on the service. Perhaps, software as a service (SaaS) offerings will take a clue here, given that Adobe's business model, Creative Cloud is gaining more and more attention, lately.

Adobe Creative Cloud: What You Need to Know?

Microsoft web-mail service, Outlook.com is indeed building up to challenge the Gmail advances with slew of innovative features coming to the messaging platform. The new web-mail service already boast of the best social integration with Skype, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn connections and now, has added Google chat integration according to the Outlook blog.

Microsoft's openness to users demand is becoming more evidence, hence the endless pool of features to improve users experience across its service offerings.

Google chat integration means users can connect with friends using Google services without leaving the messaging platform. The feature is currently rolling out and so may take some more days to get across all users.

Microsoft recently launched two-factor authentication system to beef of security across its services, and the good part, it's open to all locations unlike Google's 2-Step Verification which omitted some really heavy users' country like Nigeria in the supported country list.

Outlook.com also support core security standards like DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) making the platform impregnable to phishing attacks.

Perhaps, going by the tempo of innovative additions, Outlook.com may eventually become the Gmail Killer analysts have dubbed it.

Google Chat Comes to Outlook.com

Mozilla Foundation has been at the forefront of innovations coming to the web, promoting openness and opportunity, currently advancing the web as a platform for gaming with its latest experiments on JavaScript. The company through its "extremely restricted" subset of JavaScript is now wooing developers and publishers to take advantage of the fast performance that rivals native applications without the additional costs.



Mozilla's ASM.js project is perhaps the greatest bet on the proliferation of web application, with the ability to supercharge developers' gaming program on the browser, visually compelling, and fast 3D gaming experience.

Epic Games is among the early birds in the Mozilla project, teaming up with the open source giant to leverage the scale of the web to distribute stunning and performance intensive games to billions of web users without the additional costs associated with third-party plugins.

Mozilla demonstrated how it was unlocking the web as a platform for gaming in the announcement of a port of Unreal Engine 3 running on Firefox compiled from C++ source with Emscripten, running efficiently without the need for plugins.

And in conjunction with Epic Games has gone ahead to demo "Epic Citadel", so that users can try it out themselves. However, it's recommended that you use the newest version of Firefox Nightly (Firefox 23 and above) for better experience.

Game developers have been called upon to explore the possibilities of the web as a platform for gaming by visiting Mozilla's Developers Gaming Network. Also, those wishing to port their already existing games can find useful information through the Emscripten Project page.

Mozilla: Web As a Platform for Gaming

Microsoft search engine, Bing debuted its social search feature exactly about a year ago today, bringing the integration of Facebook information stream to open search. The latest update to the social search service now includes Facebook friends connection.

Bing.com deeper integration with Facebook, connecting searchers' with friends help in making more informed recommendations on search queries based on users experience, as conventional internet search becomes more gamed, its harder for web searchers to get trusted information.

Now, the possibility of having friends who have had direct experience regards your search query can be really comforting, and removes every uncertainty when users ask those friends for guidance.

Microsoft partnership with Facebook is perhaps geared to match Google in its game. Google has deeply integrated its social network Google+ into overall information stream in Google search, making it possible for users to get trusted recommendation on searched terms based on connections on Google+ service.

However, Bing social integration provided a separate search columns, while Google's directly stream with open search. The separate search columns means users have control over the information pattern made available to them.

The service, however has not been rolled out to all users, but can be accessed by visiting the test page: www.bing.com/new on your browser while logged into Facebook. Microsoft plans eventual roll-out of the service unto the main Bing search page in the coming week.

Bing Social Integration Adds Friends Connection

As more consumers than ever before now makes majority of their purchases online, both established and start-up businesses have come to recognize the importance of online presence. If you are thinking about starting your own e-commerce business, you'll find no shortage of tools available to help you with everything from web design to market research. This has helped break down the barriers to successful e-commerce business transactions, even for those with little experience in the field. The following are a few useful tools that can help you grow your e-commerce business.

Website Design and Shopping Cart Services

The first major task that any e-commerce business must contend with is setting up a user-friendly website. There are numerous e-commerce platforms and shopping cart programs which allow you to do this using an all-in-one package. Open source e-commerce tools or software often features secure web hosting, domain name registration, content management systems, and web design templates. They also allow you to enable payments on your website, using multiple payment gateways. Some of the big names in shopping cart services include Bigcommerce, Shopify, and Pinnacle Cart.

Keyword Research Tools

Google offers numerous analytical tools which can be of great use to e-commerce businesses. You can use their Keyword Tool to research the volume of specific keywords or phrases. This allows you to find out how many potential customers are searching for words related to your products, which can give you some indication of the market size. This information can also help you find out how competitive certain search terms are, which allows you to work out an SEO strategy. Another useful research tool put out by Google is Google Trends, which lets you find out whether your products or industry is more of a fad, or a growing market. This can help you with basic market research without hiring a separate consultant.

Market Research Tools

As you research your potential market, you will also want to find out how competitors in the same industry are doing. Using tools like Alexa.com allows you to see visitor demographics from similar websites, which can help you narrow down your target market. You can also use online tools to help you price your items more effectively. Alibaba.com allows you to search for wholesale items, to find out what their base rate is. You can compare this to competitor prices to get a feel for what a reasonable mark-up would be.

Shipping Tools

Shipping can be one of the biggest logistical issues and costs for a new e-commerce business to work through. One solution is to sign up with a drop ship business. Essentially, this allows you to advertise the products of your choice on your website and then leave the actual shipping in the hands of the wholesaler. It eliminates the need to hold onto inventory and deal with shipping.

The Most Useful Online Tools for E-commerce Business

Google's video sharing platform, YouTube could be working on the launch of paid subscription service for some specialized video channels according to a report on CNET. YouTube had been saddled with revenue issues despite the great pool of users the platform has generated lately.

Earlier in February, YouTube confirmed on the rumor that it was developing a paid subscription service, but declined to pinpoint when it will be ready for launch.

The company, however, was quick to label the news leak as "looking into creating a subscription channel that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer".

YouTube had according to the report entered into partnership with some leading producers about creating contents for a paid subscription platform.

Apparently, if the report is to be believed, YouTube paid subscription channels may be going live within the week. Albeit, the company declined to confirm the report, evidence can still be seen in the new coding on Android version of the app that referred to paid subscription.

Is YouTube Prepping Paid Subscription Channels?

As though push of innovative features are endless to Google Chrome, the company has also announced automatic offline syncing ability for Google Drive on Chrome browser. Google debuted its cloud service, Google Drive, in April 2012 to augment the cloud computing adoption by enterprise.

With the new feature, users of its cloud storage service, Google Drive can now sync files while in offline mode on Chrome browser without the fear of internet connection disruption. 

The automatic offline synchronization for Google Drive can be enabled by setting up offline access with Chrome Web App already installed.

Google, however, warned on the risk on enabling automatic offline sync on shared or public computers. Also note that the new feature will be rolling out in a couple of days, so may not have been made available for everyone yet. To check if it has been enabled for your account, simply click on the tab "More" and select offline.

Automatic Offline Sync for Google Drive on Chrome

Google has pushed Chrome Office Viewer extension into the beta version of its browser, making it possible for users to access Microsoft Office documents direct on browser. The feature is perhaps a great leap in the enterprise productivity suite being implemented on Google Chrome.

Microsoft Office users can now heave a sigh of relieve as the hassles of endless upgrades in order to be able to receive Office documents are over.

The Chrome Office Viewer extension affords users direct access to Office documents, Spreadsheets, and PowerPoint Slides direct on the browser. It is compatible to Windows and Mac version of the browser and requires the latest beta version of the browser.

However, there is the limitation to view only, as editing of documents are not possible on the browser. There remains the options of uploading files to Google Drive or open in Microsoft Word to edit.

Google also iterated the security enhancement in the browser viewer, stating that it incorporates Chrome sandbox technology in isolating the documents, according to the Chrome blog. In that way, malwares are isolated from infecting the computer if compromised files are accessed on the browser.

Indeed, the browser-side technology are currently on the spotlight with Chrome championing the web app revolution. Albeit, native applications are still exacting great influence in overall productivity landscape, the future is truly web-based application.

Chrome Browser Support for MS Office docs

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)