NOKIA 6210 NAVIGATOR

Seems Nokia has become rather adapt at making that one thing in your pocket thatis actually many things! This snazzy sliderthat wouldn’t want to part palms with is its latest offering. Slide it open and get mesmerised by its features, from the Navigator with preloaded maps of 8 Indian cities to visual radio to SMS reader to WWW access at the push of a button to Active Notes to organise your life. The battery life is decent at 1.5 days, unless you get hooked to the Net or Navigator and lose track of time! Available in black and this smart red, it is one of those gizmos that you take about an hour to get completely comfy with.

Hot Verdict

The navigator feature is for diehard geeks, till our city GIS comes on par with it. But as phone the 6210 is a sureshot winner, with all the latest add-ons.
SPEC CHECK
* 120 MB internal memory
* Weight 117gm
* 2.4 display
* 3.2 meg camera, 4X integrated Zoom

For more details, visit http://europe.nokia.com

Popularity: 68% [?]

Blackberry Storm: Manifesting Your Desires!

If touch is the big thing right now in gadgets, this touchscreen is the next big thing! Unlike in iPhone, Google’s G 1 or any other touchscreen phone, the BlackBerry Storm has Click Through, which has a suspension system beneath the display, so that when you go to select an application, you actually push the screen down like you would with any key. It sounds pretty realistic… But what keeps it in our virtual wishlist segment is that no one except Texas-based Research In Motion knows of its scheduled launch date (in India arid globally) or its pricing! Well, we guess we just have to wish and watch…!

SPEC CHECK!

* 3.25 display
* Auto switch between CDMA and GSM networks
* 3.2 meg camera 1GB onboard memory

For more details, visit www.blackberry.com

Popularity: 63% [?]

Philips SBA1500 Portable Speakers

These HOT, HOT SBA1500 speakers from Phillips are unlike any other sound blasters around. Though just the size of a cricket ball, one single speaker has the meat to blast off the jazz in style! The speakers come with their own power pack to amplify the music, which clips together pretty neatly with the speakers for true compact portability. And best bit: These portable balls of power are made to actually live off the power from your music device. So just plug them in and set the ball rolling!

Popularity: 64% [?]

Bonica Snapper-XP S5 Digital Underwater Camera - Discover The Outdoors

if God had know that we’d like to snap fish underwater he would have fitted us with shutter, we might as well capture fishy tales from down under with this awesome Digital Camera Mask. This high-quality 5-meg digital camera also doubles up as a cool underwater mask. Splosh!
Popularity: 59% [?]

NOKIA N96: All in One

This is NOT a phone. Seriously! It’s more like a micro-handheld computer fitted with security features that will put the CIA to shame and also put an end to TVs, laptops and what not! This small device has so much in it that I’m still striving to figure out what all gizmos it will soon replace! Its navigation system is as accurate as they come. It’s connected to satellites, which will in a year or so, let you click photos of places in NEW YORK even as you sit at the nukkad sipping chal! You can already watch all national TV channels on it; All this with a pretty decent battery backup of 1.5 days. And did I mention the amazing 5 meg camera, which shoots DVD quality videos? Phew!
SPEC CHECK
* 16 GB inbuilt memory, expandable to 24 GB
* Weight: 125 g
* 2.8 display
* 5 MP camera, Carl Zeiss lens, twin flash graphics card

For more details, Visit www.nseries.com

Popularity: 60% [?]

What Do You Hate About Backing Up Your Data?

Backup is one of those things that we rarely think about until it is far too late. It’s usually a task that’s somewhere buried on your to-do list. It may even be a high priority task on your list, but somehow weeks and months pass and still, no backup. Could it be because too much pain is associated with the process? Or maybe it’s just being a bit lazy? Or more likely, we are all too busy and just don’t make the time.

Here, we take a look at some of the painful aspects of backing up our PCs and laptops and how we can easily overcome that pain to make sure we don’t end up losing our valuable data.

Method
The first issue is determining how you will back up your data. Online? Off site? Off line? All of the above? And within each of those options are again many other options! First, here’s the bad news; you really should be doing all of the above. Three times the work you say! Not quite. Fortunately, with a little initial investment in time and money, you can setup these solutions relatively painlessly with the result being safe, secure data.

You can back up off site two ways: 1) Use a web-based service provider or 2) use a portable backup drive and physically move it off site. We recommend option 1, because it will save more of your time; however, if you prefer more control of your data and don’t mind the extra time involved, option 2 works just fine.

Since external drives are inexpensive, it’s also a good idea to maintain an on-site backup, giving you the advantage of speedy recovery when data is lost. While you can back up to a USB or FireWire hard drive attached to one of your PCs, a much more convenient solution is a network storage device, often referred to as Network Attached Storage (NAS).



A NAS, like Western Digital’s My Book World Edition, connects directly to your home network and allows for easy backup of any computer connected to the network.
Time
Now that you have your backup method ready to go, how to remember to back up? You have two options: 1) Setup an annoying reminder to tell you to back up every few hours or 2) automate it and forget it. You can guess that we prefer option 2.

Most on-line services will have this feature available, but you have to be connected to the Internet for it to work, and it can be slow. That is why we like the NAS solution so much. Devices like WD’s My Book World Edition backs up your systems as soon as you connect to your home network, even if you have no Internet access. With this particular product, you don’t have to remember anything – it backs up automatically every time you save a file.
What Do You Hate About Backing Up Your Data?
Now that you have automated the procedure, time no longer becomes an issue. That said, it’s a good idea to periodically check your back ups to make sure your data is indeed being backed up.

What do you hate about the process of backing up your data? How did you solve your problem?

Popularity: 50% [?]

Concept Color Picking Pen by Jinsun Park

Artists would love this new concept device i.e. the color-picking pen designed by Jinsun Park. It is just like the color-picker available in the Adobe Photoshop. This is a really nice concept, as its very out of the box idea and also a very useful one if it comes into manufacturing phase. It can take out colors from any item which you put it against and then the pen uses the same color.



The color you want to use is detected by the color sensor and the RGB cartridge of the pen mixes the required inks to create the required color. Below you can see the pic showing the various part of this concept pen.



ust imagine how this concept pen can change the art of drawing and all other stuff related to it. Below you can see a descriptive image of getting the color from a leave and then drawing with it.

Looks Into Some Old Bones

Many of us have broken bones in our bodies at one time or another, and when this happens a healing process begins. The same was true of animals in the past, and has been well documented in all groups of dinosaurs. But how can we study and understand the healing process?
A new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology uses high-resolution computed tomography (CT) imaging to guide sampling of bone lesions in the vertebrae of a hadrosaur (“duck-billed”) dinosaur for histological and isotopic analysis.

The detailed sampling made possible by CT imaging allowed scientists led by William Straight of Northern Virginia Community College to examine bone mineral deposited in the repair (the callus). This callus preserves a temperature record of the healing process, a record that can be measured with stable isotopic techniques. The results demonstrated that skeletal repair in at least some dinosaurs shows a combination of reptilian and non-reptilian characteristics. Despite hadrosaurs not being among those dinosaurs most closely related to birds, “healing and remodeling rates in our dinosaur bones are similar to those seen in birds,” says Straight.

Dinosaurs seem to be covered with these healed injuries, much more so than modern animals of nearly similar size. As Straight muses: “Quick healing may have offset the consequences of being so large, and being surrounded by other giant animals, in a Mesozoic school of hard knocks.”

Playstation emulator app for Palm Pre

We know that the Palm Pre isn’t just capable of multitasking but also emulating the NES for some retro gaming. But did it ever occur to anyone that it could also run Playstation games? This is exactly what this latest development has done. ZodTTD who is a master in this specialty has in the past done similar work for the iPhone, this time though he used his jailbroken Palm Pre and loaded up his Playstation psx4all emulator for some Wipeout gameplay.

Latest technology: Toyota develops mind controlled wheelchair

The clever Japanese researchers at the Brain Science Institute (BSI) Toyota Collaboration Center have done something quite incredible once again. Using a wheelchair controlled by brain waves measured using EEG, it’s basically a system that will control the ride using brain waves analysed every 125 milliseconds; therefore the name “mind controlled wheelchair”.

toyota-mind-meld-wheelchair-rm-eng

As you will see in the video to follow, testers using the wheelchair and the EEG cap system have achieved accuracy of up to 95% which is not a bad figure considering a high tech wheelchair like this may be used in place of current manual wheelchairs for patients who have had strokes or other significant mobility impairments.

Gallery: Unboxing LG Viewty Smart GC900 8-megapixel mobile phone

We were absolutely delighted to receive the new LG 8-megapixel flagship Viewty Smart GC900 just before the weekend. So here’s the unboxing gallery, while we have a further play with it, we’ll also soon do a quick gallery comparing the new Viewty Smart with the recently launched Arena, so look out for that photoshoot!

unboxing-lg-gc900-viewty-smart-s-class-mobile-17

unboxing-lg-gc900-viewty-smart-s-class-mobile-18

If anyone has been thinking about buying this phone and have any specific questions on its features, do give drop us a message and we’ll address that in our upcoming review! Hit the jump for the full unboxing gallery…

Firefox 3.5: Pasts one million downloads, almost 100 per second!

Firefox 3.5 is shaping up to be one of the most successful Firefox releases to date. Its been reported that the fastest Firefox yet has already been download more than one million times (within a matter of hours and counting!) with downloads almost hitting 100 per second, that’s quite something.
So how does 1.3 million downloads in a few hours stack up against its rivals? Well, the most recent browser to offer a major upgrade was Safari, which claimed 11 million downloads in 3 days. But those numbers are tricky because Apple includes Safari updates in its regular OS X software updates, so pretty much all OS X users were at least asked to upgrade after its launch. Still, Apple claimed that of the 11 million, some 6 million were users on Windows machines. And Firefox also pings users to do auto-updates when a new version is available.

Moonshots on your computer

Forty years ago, the world watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on television sets and giant screens. This year, the tale of the moonshot is being retold on computer monitors and mobile phones. Here's a Top 10 list of online destinations celebrating the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11:

0.11″ thin 4GB USB data card is credit card slim!

Measuring at 3.4″ x 2.1″ x 0.11″ this super slim data usb card with 4GB memory capacity is certainly the sort of gadget you would want if you don’t prefer to have a normal sized USB fingerdrive. Its credit card like thiness would allow you to pocket it into any slot in your wallet with ease. When you need to use it, simply flip it open and plug straight in.
The credit card size wallet USB drive is available in orange, red, blue, clear, and gray for $24.99 each.

Sea-Quad - amphibious wind glider for rich people

This new vehicle known as the Sea Quad allows lazy surfers to surf on the beach as well as on the sea without ever needing to get up (or fall off). This is certainly no ordinary surf board. The Sea Quad is sail powered which means it does rely on wind power, the sail is connected to a steering bar allowing you to glide through winds at whatever speed it allows.
Though the Sea Quad is no Rinspeed sQuba, once its development completes, it’ll set you back $13,950 which isn’t the type of budget anyone could afford under the current day economics.

Rumor: 16GB Zune HD to cost up to 20% less than equivalent iPod?

The latest rumor to develop over the upcoming Zune HD reincarnation is about the 16GB version of the new Microsoft portable media player. Its been said that an engineer from Microsoft has leaked pricing info that the 16GB Zune HD will cost in the range of $250 and $280.
As pointed out by CrunchGear, the similar spec 16GB iPod Touch currently costs $300, this rumor therefore implies that the upcoming 16GB rival may be cheaper by around 10% to 20%. This is great news for Zune fans, especially considering this more affordable price will include that rather expensive OLED screen. Is it a temptation for iPod users?

iPhone 3.0 secrets: 7 Hidden features

iPhone 3.0 has settled in quite well in my view and I am sure many have been more than pleased to see Apple finally give the iPhone features such as copy and paste, MMS, landscape mode typing, Spotlight search, push notifications and many more. But did you know that actually there are some “hidden” functions that weren’t announced?

You may have figured out some of them yourself already but there are actually quite a few of them. I wouldn’t like to call this a secret but rather just tips and tricks to using the new iPhone OS 3.0. Check out the full list after the break…

1. You can now have 11 home screens instead of the previous limit of 9 home screens. So you can now launch 32 more iPhone apps from your iPhone’s home screen.
2. Thanks to Spotlight for iPhone, there is no limit on the number of iPhone apps that can be installed on the iPhone running iPhone OS 3.0 assumming that you have the required storage space on your iPhone. If you install more applications then the home screen icon limit, you can now access them using Spotlight.
3. This hidden feature addresses one of the minor annoyance in previous iPhone OS. When a phone call interrupts you, after the phone call you are taken back to the iPhone app you were using before you were interrupted.
4. iPhone’s virtual keyboard has also been updated with few more extra special characters while holding certain characters down similar to the “.com” button. In iPhone OS 3.0, when you hold down the “.” you also get “…”. The dash “-” also displays an em-dash “-” and quotations and apostrophes display “<<” and “>>” and can also be curved.
5. Along with Spotlight, Apple has also added Camera app to the Home button settings (Settings > General > Home Button) in iPhone fimrware 3.0 so if the Camera application is your favorite iPhone; you can quickly launch it from your iPhone’s home screen or any other iPhone app by double-clicking on the Home button.
6. You now have another option to force quit an unresponsive iPhone app. You can hold the sleep/wake button until the red slider appears, then press and hold down the home button to quit the iPhone app.
7. You can undo typing by shaking the iPhone. When you are in the Mail, Messaging, Safari or Notes applications, after you typed a word/several words, just shake the phone and a pop-up will appear, asking you whether you want to undo what you have just entered.

Forgotten evolutionist rediscovered at last

Darwin’s contemporary, Alfred Russel Wallace, gets his due after 150 years


SANTUBONG, Malaysia - As he trudges past chest-high ferns and butterflies the size of saucers, George Beccaloni scours a jungle hilltop overlooking the South China Sea for signs of a long-forgotten Victorian-era scientist.

He finds what he's looking for: an abandoned, two-story guest house, its doors missing and ceiling caved in.

"Excellent. This is the actual spot," he yells.
It is on this site, in a long-gone thatched hut, that Alfred Russel Wallace is believed to have spent weeks in 1855 writing a seminal paper on the theory of evolution. Yet he is largely unknown outside scientific circles today, overshadowed by Charles Darwin, whom most people credit as the father of a theory that explains the origins of life through how plants and animals evolve.

Now, in the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, a growing number of academics and amateur historians are rediscovering Wallace. Their efforts are raising debate over exactly what Wallace contributed to the theory of evolution, and what role, if any, the spiritual world plays in certain aspects of natural selection.

Beccaloni, a 41-year-old British evolutionary biologist with London's Natural History Museum, is on a quest to return Wallace to what he sees as his rightful place in history. He and Fred Langford Edwards, a British artist making an audiovisual project about Wallace, are retracing the scientist's eight-year trip around Southeast Asia.

Moonshadow on Saturn's rings

The spiky black shadow of Saturn's moon Mimas dips onto the planet's rings and straddles the Cassini Division in this natural color image, taken by the Cassini orbiter as Saturn approaches its August equinox. Shadows on Saturn's rings are extremely elongated at this time in Saturn's 29.5-year orbit because the rings are facing the sun nearly edge-on. The picture was taken on April 8 and released on June 22.

Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II hits 4TB

Western Digital has released its latest My Book Studio Edition II that will now come with 4TB worth of data, double from the previous version which had just 2TB capacity. This new My Book Studio Edition II dual drive storage system was specially built to play nice with Mac computers, bringing together a balance of high performance as well as power conservation. It works great with the Apple Time Machine automatic backup feature is specially formatted for Mac computers, targeting creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and folks looking for superior speed in data transfer courtesy of its dual-drive RAID 0 configuration and high-speed interfaces. Regardless of any system you use, the My Book Studio Edition II is able to hook up thanks to the four interfaces it offers - eSATA and FireWire 800 for maximum performance as well as FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 for maximum flexibility.

Not only that, since hard drives tend to sip up a pretty amount of juice off the grid, Western Digital has made sure that their My Book Studio Edition II will play nice with Mother Nature, featuring an eco-friendly system that complements WD GreenPower Technology for power savings and cool and quiet operation. According to Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group, “The new My Book Studio Edition II is the best choice for creative professionals who require massive capacity and extra-fast performance,” said . “With 4 terabytes of capacity, photographers, graphic artists, videographers, and home video enthusiasts alike will have the space they need to store hours of high definition videos as well as the performance they need for demanding video editing applications.”

Those who are interested in upgrading their backup storage solution can look to the My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage system that will retail for $649.99 a pop.

Stealth WPC-500F waterproof computer

We all know that electrical devices and water don’t make good friends, as whenever they meet, there tends to be flare ups as well as a possible explosive “argument” since both parties aren’t able to see eye-to-eye. Well, computers do fall under the electrical devices category, which is why the WPC-500F from Stealth Computer is different from the rest. After all, their WPC-500F is an industrial rugged machine that is waterproof, coming in a small footprint that does away with built-in fans to keep things cool. It is tough enough to operate in situations where regular computer hardware would have long ago given up the ghost. Definitely worth considering if you want something different in your home, as how many of your mates own a waterproof computer?

According to Stealth Computer, the WPC-500F offers the most environmental protection of any PC to date from the company, where it was specially created to completely sealed on all half dozen sides despite operating in the harshest of environments. This 100% water-tight computing machine is able to handle virtually anything thrown at it, including liquids, chemicals, dust and dirt intrusion, as it meets IP67/NEMA 6 environmental specifications. The internal processor will remain cool without the help of any cooling fans since it relies on advanced heat pipe technology. In addition, the rugged aluminum chassis also doubles up as a heat sink to dissipate internal heat and provide noise free operation.

Just in case you were wondering how small the WPC-500F is, it measures a mere 7.51″ x 11.37″ x 2.97″, and despite being this small, it is somewhat like one of those tiny breed dogs that tend to boast a superior bite compared to larger breeds. In fact, the WPC-500F is powered by the latest Atom processor from Intel, helping it surpass the performance of most other industrial and embedded PCs available today in the market. Prices start from $1,995 upwards when the WPC-500F hits the market later this July, and will go upwards according to the specifications you throw inside.

Magna, GM aim to sign Opel deal in July

U.S.-based carmaker General Motors Corporation and Canadian auto part maker Magna International have set July 15 as a target for reaching an agreement on the sale of a majority stake in GM subsidiary Adam Opel to the auto part group and its Russian partner Sberbank, sources close to the talks told news agency Reuters.






“There was an agreement that Magna and GM on July 15 should be far enough in their negotiations that they can reach a conclusion that serves as the basis for a contract,” one person familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters.

Magna co-CEO Siegfried Wolf said on June 3 that he expected a “final signing” in four to five weeks’ time. Then there would be another waiting period for regulatory approvals. The closing is expected by the end of September.

Two days after Wolf’s comments, GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster confirmed Wolf’s rough plan of reaching a “definitive agreement” by July and a closing by September.

During the time that General Motors is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and until a sale to a new investor is concluded, 65 percent of Opel’s shares are formally held by a trust set up to ensure that a €1.5 billion (Kč 40 billion) bridge loan extended by Germany is not misappropriated.

The U.S. government has attempting to bail out GM, and the sale of Opel is part of the plan to streamline the auto giant. The restructuring “will mark the end of an old GM, and the beginning of a new GM; a new GM that can produce the high-quality, safe, and fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow; that can lead America towards an energy independent future; and that is once more a symbol of America’s success,” U.S. President Barack Obama said.

On June 1, 2009, GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, making it the fourth-largest filing in the U.S. history after Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, and Worldcom. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows for a companies and individuals to reorganize and establishes a plan for resolving debt. GM stock was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 8.

Rival bidders waiting in the wings such as Fiat and Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC) are still hoping for a collapse in the talks in order to re-enter negotiations with GM.

Microsoft enters searching fray

Microsoft Corporation recently entered the search engine battlefield with a new search brand called Bing.




Its beta version has been online since June 3 on www.bing.com and the media is playing up the move as Microsoft’s attempt to take away some of search rival Google’s dominance of the sector. On the local market, Bing is set to start cooperating with Seznam.cz, according to Microsoft sources.

At the end of May Microsoft began releasing Bing, what the company refers to as a “decision engine” that goes beyond mere searching. Bing is predicated on helping people use the information they find online, and even if unstated, implies that Google is no longer enough to navigate the bewildering range of information available online.

“Bing is primarily something like a decision-making machine. It sorts information not only to provide users with logically sorted information, but also to help them make fast and instant decisions. In the first phase, we are targeting the solution of complex decisions in the areas of traveling, shopping and health,” said Tomáš Koška, Microsoft’s manager of online services for Central and Eastern Europe. “Searching itself is still no more than publishing a list of web pages, which don’t always come with some added value. Bing brings more relevancy by highlighting the best possible results. Part of the result is also [in obtaining] difficult to find information, like the telephone number of the customer service line or a suggestion of the traffic connection,” Koška added. Bing is also a very organized too, he said. “The content of the web is very dynamic today and users are often looking not only for a text but also for audio, video, pictures or news. Bing shows a result containing all these parts in one. From the new features I could speak about the search panel located on the left side of the screen, which offers everything that users need—search history, quick links, categories, etc.,” Koška added.

Of course technical details of the search engine have not been made available to the public and are being kept secret. Microsoft has also not disclosed any details regarding the investment into its new project. “I can only reveal that Bing contains very intelligent tools to support vertical decision making—about local information, traveling, air tickets, health, new car buying etc.,” Koška said. Bing has a fully functional Czech version.

Another factor behind Microsoft’s new product is the reported tendency of consumers to do price shopping over a number of different websites. At the beginning of June, Microsoft released Bing Travel to simplify the often long and tedious process where people spend weeks and even months comparing the prices of air tickets and hotels over a dizzying array of sites. With functions such as Bing’s price predictor and rate indicator, travelers will have their hotel search streamlined as well, he said.
“War” of the search engines
Google is the current leader of the Internet search world these days, both with its search technology and its search portal itself, which is accompanied by a number of other services such as e-mail, online document processing, blogs, groups, notebook and a news portal, among many other features. Google’s dominance has reached such heights that the perception has arisen that there is a need for a David to face off against this corporate Goliath. The media has been quick to latch onto the story of any potential competition coming onto the market although the company claims not to be threatened by the newcomer.

“It is natural that users are trying different search engines that are available on market. We are expecting them to try this new one, too, and that is a good thing. More possibilities to choose from means there is a need for improvement and development of the search engines,”said Janka Zichová, communication and corporate affairs manager at Google Czech Republic. “According to the latest data from Navrcholu.cz [from May 2009], Google is being used by about 32.7 percent of Czechs. This number is much higher than two and a half years ago when Google started on the Czech market,” she added.

Before Google, many people used search engine Yahoo. Many also remember the golden age of AltaVista, run by Overture Services, which introduced Babel Fish translation long before Google first provided its own well-known translation service. Babel Fish is currently owned by Yahoo.

Czech search portals divided

Google search technology is also a dominant presence on Czech search portals Centrum.cz and Atlas.cz, both owned by Centrum Holdings. “It is important to offer users a local gateway into the Internet services—that is called a portal. The portals Atlas.cz and Centrum.cz are among the most visited Czech portals. For search technology Google represents quality—the best on the market and that is why Centrum and Atlas are using it—they want to offer the best available local search,” said Jiří Hájek, corporate communications director at Centrum Holdings. Other users of Google search technology include publisher Mafra’s news portal iDnes.cz, social networking site Libimseti.cz and the active portal of Telefónica O2 Czech Republic.

On the other hand search portal Seznam.cz opted for an alternative and negotiations between the company and Microsoft are currently underway for the portal to use Bing’s search technology. Rita Gabrielová, spokeswoman for Seznam.cz, declined to comment on the negotiations because there are no details to specify at this time, but Microsoft’s Koška was more forthcoming. “Bing will be helping millions of Czech Internet users with information searching, and will offer them a new user environment connected to the access to advanced functions and actual information on the Internet. Bing services on Seznam will start in August this year,” he told CBW. Bing therefore could soon have a local test environment that will be a factor in the ongoing search engine competition.

The politics of Facebook

Online community is not only another new marketing buzzword heavily used in almost every industry from food to telecommunications. These communities really work.






And, as already proven by the egg campaign against ČSSD leader Jiří Paroubek, they seem to work quite well especially in political campaigns in the Czech Republic. U.S. President Barack Obama was admired for his sense for using trendy Internet communication tools in his presidential campaign. Czech political parties are also picking up on the trend and putting a lot of stock in them.

Facebook, still quite a new phenomenon to the Czech market, has already become a strong political tool in Czech political culture. It’s not only exploited by political parties themselves, but it’s being more and more used by voters, especially in organizing protests. Very shortly after the successful Paroubek egging campaign, young voters started to fight for the deferral of the new state high school graduation exams and guess what: politicians have realized the strength of Facebook and even before the official protest took the place, they almost instantly agreed with this Facebook community and swept the state graduation away. This is something that would just a year ago be absolutely unimaginable. And we can just ask why. Is it because Facebook after the egg campaign is currently “in” in Czech politics? Or is it just because 18- and 19-year-old people involved in the upcoming state exams are the new voters who might significantly affect the upcoming October elections?

Facebook has become a strong tool to influence thousands of Czech young people in a very short time and in a very strong manner. The simple fact that one of your Facebook friends believes in something, and makes that belief public by becoming a fan or a member of some Facebook group, makes you think about things that you didn’t care about before. That’s the reason why establishing any group declaring any strong political statement or point of view brings you several thousand sympathizers in a few days. And these sympathizers, unlike in other situations, are unafraid of showing their opinion not only in the virtual world,but in the real one, too. This means that the upcoming elections will be extraordinary not only in their term, but also in the tools that will be used by political parties.

EU Windows Users Must Upgrade with "Clean Install"

Europeans who purchase Vista-powered PCs starting Friday will have to do a "clean install" of the free Windows 7 upgrade they'll receive later this year because Microsoft has yanked Internet Explorer from the new OS, according to a Web site that regularly publishes accurate information about the company's plans.

TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that has frequently posted details about Microsoft's free Windows 7 Upgrade Option offer, said yesterday that users in Europe will have to overwrite the hard drive with Windows 7 when they receive the upgrade media this fall.

"The upgrade path from Windows Vista to the E or the N versions of Windows 7 will not support an 'in-place' upgrade," TechARP said, quoting from a leaked Microsoft memo to computer makers. "Instead, the upgrade must be performed as a 'clean installation.'"

An in-place upgrade retains all data and applications, replacing Vista with Windows 7. A clean install, on the other hand, wipes the hard drive -- erasing all data and applications -- before installing the new operating system. In a clean install, users must back up data, then later restore that data and manually reinstall all applications. Microsoft will ease some of the transition with a special utility designed to back up data and some Windows settings.

"It is very important that the end user understands the implications of a clean installation upgrade, and takes all necessary steps to retain their applications, files and settings, including backing up applications, files and settings prior to installation," TechARP added, again citing the Microsoft memo to OEMs.
The change to a clean install -- previously, Microsoft made it clear that Vista users would be able to do in-place upgrades -- was necessitated by Microsoft's preemptive move to remove IE8 from Windows 7.

Last January, European Union antitrust officials charged Microsoft with illegally bundling IE with Windows. The EU is reportedly considering requiring a ballot screen that would offer users several browser choices. Most analysts saw Microsoft's dropping of IE8 as an attempt to head off the ballot screen concept.

Because the clean install of Windows 7 E -- the designation Microsoft's given to its IE-free edition -- results in a PC without a Web browser, computer makers will have to provide one with the free upgrade. "Microsoft recommends that OEMs include a Web browser with Windows 7 upgrade media," said TechARP. If OEMs do not take Microsoft's advice, users will find it difficult -- some of them will find it impossible -- to download a browser, in effect crippling their computers after the upgrade to Windows 7.

In the next breath, however, Microsoft tells OEMs that they can install IE8 on the upgrade media they'll provide to customers after Oct. 22, Windows 7's launch date.

"Microsoft will license Windows Internet Explorer 8 for E and N Editions of Windows 7 Products (the 'IE pack') to OEMs as a royalty-free, standalone product under Desktop Operating System (DTOS) Agreement 12.0," TechARP said. "OEMs may use the IE pack to preinstall Internet Explorer 8 on E and N versions of Windows 7, including versions of those products installed on Program upgrade media."

In effect, what Microsoft is saying is that while it will yank IE8 from Windows 7, computer makers will have the ability to return it to the upgrade.

Microsoft and its OEM partners are expected to kick off the upgrade offer Friday, June 26, the date that both TechARP and a leaked Best Buy memo have pegged as the start of the marketing campaign.

Only EU customers will be affected by the clean install requirement of Windows 7 E upgrades. Users in the U.S., for example, who buy a Vista PC between June 26 and the launch of Windows 7 will be able to do an in-place upgrade.

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8 Races and race cars that rev auto innovation

Races and the engineering behind the cars gunning for the checkered flag are powerhouses of automotive technological innovation. Click the "Next" arrow above to check out eight places where races and race cars are making a mark on the future of the industry, from proving the viability of alternative fuels to cars piloted by robots. Here, ethanol-fueled Indy cars make a lap at the Indianapolis 500.