Apple has announced that the best OS that they have made so far is off to a great start. The new MAC operating system has amassed 9,376 user ratings on the Mac App Store, along with 2,091 written reviews. Overall, that averages out to a 4.5-star rating (out of 5 stars).

All said, the OS X Lion sports over 250 features. Some of the new features that Apple’s Lion packs are:

Multitouch gestures: The multitouch gestures takes you where you want to go quickly without having to navigate using a mouse. The Magic Mouse offers alternative gestures as well, so you won’t be uncomfortable if you prefer a more traditional mouse.

Full-screen apps: With Lion, you’ll now have Mission Control, which displays all your open apps and windows so it’s easy to find everything you’re currently working on in one screen.

Mission Control: Somewhat similar to what Expose was meant to do. But with Lion, you’ll now have Mission Control, which displays all your open apps and windows. Makes it easy to find everything you’re currently working on in one screen.

Safari: There are a few enhancements which have improved this browser aesthetically as well as interface-wise. It lets you use multitouch gestures to smoothly navigate from page to page. The app supports the newly designed scrolling method, along with tap or pinch to zoom, and swipes to navigate a tab’s history.

Additionally, sometime in the next month, the company plans to let customers buy it on a USB stick for $69, which is more than double the software’s $29.99 digital price tag.

It is final, the news is doing the rounds now. Kevin Rose resigned from Digg on 18th March, 2011 and today it is officially announced that he and Daniel Burka (as co-founder) will now be working on a new company.

Daniel Burka is leaving the ’Speck as a full-timer to reunite with his old Digg-mate, Kevin Rose. Daniel Burka was working at Glitch as the Director of Design with TinySpeck. He will now act as a consultant/advisor to the company. This is because of his wish to reunite with his old Digg-mate, Kevin Rose. Kevin Rose and Daniel Burka are pretty well known for their combinations to come up with some successful startups. Burka says he loved working at Glitch, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with Kevin again.

The new startup this super-team is going to work on is called – Milk Inc. Milk will be focusing on the mobile web industry. As quoted from TechCrunch – “Rose and a team of just five other coders, designers and thinkers are going to set out to solve a handful of big old-industry problems using the mobile Internet.“

Today, Google announced that it had made a “big algorithmic improvement” that, unlike other changes, could be noticeable to its users. Usually, any algorithm changes made by this search engine giant go unnoticed by most netizens. However, this time Google has launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to their ranking–a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of its queries.

This announcement was made by Google Fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts. The reason for this change as told by Matt Cutts was -

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites–sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites–sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on“

This is definitely some great news for hard working webmasters and bloggers who were affected by websites that contained plagiarized content and yet, attracted more search engine traffic. Google definitely has a responsibility in keeping the web eco-system healthy and this change in the algorithm could be one of the most effective steps towards achieving the goal.

Further reading:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_announces_big_algorithmic_improvement.php

There are many interesting, surprising and bizarre incidents that took place in the lives of our celebrated internet entrepreneurs and internet companies. This post is a quick compilation of interesting incidents in 2010 related to internet entrepreneurs.

Kanye West Performs At Twitter Headquarters

This one takes the cake away for being among the most amusing things that happened in 2010. When people set up a Twitter account or create a new Facebook fan page – they begin to belt out their updates. Kanye West went a step ahead in the July of 2010 when he performed at the Twitter headquarters.  The mammothly successful internet company also put up photographs of Kanye West’s visit on its company Twitter Office Flickr page.

This was no big deal for him though. Earlier, Kanye West also stopped by the offices of Facebook in Palo Alto, California, to preview several brand-new tracks for a roomful of rather awestruck Facebook employees.

Google Releases List Of Strangest Searches By American Users

Google tabulated a funny list of the strangest searches of the year, based on its American users.

They are:

— Can a horse have OCD?

— Am I bipolar or overachiever?

— Why are Americans afraid of dragons?

— Ninjas are better than pirates

— Why is a raven like a writing desk?

— Why does Brian Wilson dye his beard?

— Should I marry him?

— I wish I could speak whale

— Why couldn’t you stand on the sun’s surface?

— Why does my baby grunt?

Italian Woman Places Charges Against Virtual Facebook Burglar

Do you call yourself a Facebook addict? Well, then you might be in for some tough competition. In a bizarre case, Paola Letizia has filed charges against an unknown user for breaking and robbing a house, the one which exists not in the domain of physical reality but inside a Facebook game in the virtual world. The hacker had cracked her password and stripped the virtual house inside the game “Pet Society”. Paola Letizia had decorated the home for her virtual cat, which to her relief has been left behind, and the list of stolen items indicate a loss of $140. The case has been handed to the National Post Office for investigation.

Steve Jobs Proves He’s Human

Photos posted on  the popular tech blog – TechCrunch created ruffle when Apple demi-god, CEO Steve Jobs was spotted in San Francisco hotspot Flour + Water over the weekend. Soon there were many parodical stories that did the rounds of the internet. One of the best that I found was that of – eSarcasm. They are a must read if you have a good sense of humor!

Mark Zuckerberg’s Girlfriend Demands A Contract

After graduating in spring 2007, Priscillia Chan finally took the Facebook job in July 2010 and moved to California. Not that she was an easy hire: Zuckerberg’s long-distance sweetheart demanded a contract specifying one date per week and 100 minutes of alone time, minimum, before agreeing to move out West.

Hope you enjoyed the post!

This post is a list of 10 safe and popular file hosting website where you can upload your files with no need to sign up. As a very impatient guy myself, I really find it a big waste of time when I have to register before I begin to upload a file. So I compiled a list of good file hosting website that do not need sign up. All the file hosting websites listed here are fast, free, secure with no sign up required.

What is a File Hosting Website?

This is an introduction to noobs who may be unaware of file hosting. File Hosing websites allows users to upload their files and share them publicly or keep them password-protected. The files can be images, music, videos, documents etc. So the file hosting websites make it easy for you to share your files with customers, friends and families worldwide. These websites are also known as file sharing websites. Such services are useful to retain a backup or when files are too large for sending as email attachments.

List of top file hosting websites with no sign-up required:

Hotfile:

Hotfile Logo

Hotfile is a quick and simple way to upload your file in a single click. They allow a maximum file size of 400 MB on each upload.

FileFactory:

Filefactory Logo

They provide file sharing service that lets you upload movies, upload music, store documents, images, zip files and more.  FileFactory allows up to a massive 2000 MB for each file you upload. There are no limits to the number of times a file can be downloaded.

MediaFire:

Mediafire Logo

They allow you both the options. Either you can upload file without a sign up or you can create a free account. The benefit of a free account is that it will help you manage and organize your uploaded files. Free users can upload files up to 200MB in size.

ZippyShare:

ZippyShare Logo

ZippyShare is a 100% free file hosting and sharing service. They allow upto 200 MB size of each file uplaod. Like FileFactory, ZippyShare also does not pose any limits on the number of times your hosted file can be downloaded.

YourFileLink:

YourFileLink Logo

YourFileLink is a super fast file sharing website. You can upload any kind of file without any sign up. They also allow a whopping 5 GB file size for each upload.

FileDropper:

FileDropper Logo

They are a super-simple and effective file hosting website. FileDropper allows you to upload files upto 5 GB at a time.

MailBigFile:

MailBigFile Logo

They allow upto 200 MB of file size for each upload. However, they also have an option for pro-account which provides many more benefits. Once you upload the file, MailBigFile will send the link of the file to the email address that you have entered. It is very easy and fast to use.

WikiSend:

Wikisend Logo

Upload and download lots of  files, big files, small files, data files, media files, archives or backups – any files. With Wikisend it’s simple and free with no need to register. But the drawback is that they only allow upto 100 MB of file size for upload – this is quite less compared to the other file hosting website services.

FileHosting.org:

Filehosting.org Logo

Just upload the file you want to share with your friends and they send you a download link to your file. You can give this download link to your friends by mail or messanger.

Zshare:

Zshare Logo

Zshare requires no sign up but with registering a free account you can upload bigger files. With no sign up you can upload File size upto 500MB, alternatively you upload 1024MB if you have a free account. There is no limit how long files are kept on the server, but if files are not downloaded for more than 60 days are automatically deleted.

Hope this post was useful to you! Feel free to drop your own suggestion below!

Google India has built upon its Adwords platform by launching a new call center in Hyderabad for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). It has also introduced a new training program called Google Engage in India, the first country in the Asia Pacific Region.

What is Google Engage training program?

Google Engage has been developed to help businesses that are offering web-related services to their customers. Upon registering, paticipants are provided with promotional materials, educational material and free online training.

How Can Google Engage benefit your internet business?

India has over 35 million SMEs. This training program will educate Indian SMEs to gain from the benefits of online advertising. Their self-service model sa instant adoption from technically savvy Indian businesses. But most SMEs still require a hand-holding to get them started. Google Engage is a step in that direction.

Why Google Adwords?

Google Adwords platform is a cost-effective advertising model. It has a system in place that records all the data, click-though-rates (CTR), clicks that have converted to sales etc. Through this, Google can take a good analysis of the required advertising model for your business.

The new call center in Hyderabad will provide regional language support to SMEs regarding the Adwords platform.

This is the list of the most popular news websites on the internet. These sites update themselves in real-time and are a great source of global breaking news. You should make it a point to subscribe to any of the news website that you like below on the list.

Here you go:

1. Yahoo! News

2. CNN

3. MSNBC

4. Google News

5. New York Times

6. HuffingtonPost

7. Digg

8. Fox News

9. Washington Post

10. LATimes

11. World News

12. The Daily Mail

13. Reuters

14. ABCNews

15. USA Today

16. BBC News

17. Drudge Report

Do you have any other site to add to this list? Let me know below.

Wikileaks is a website that is used for publishing sensitive materials. Sensitive materials can include national secrets, secrets kept by Governments of various countries and high-profile organizations. For example, in October 2010 the site released almost 400,000 secret US military logs detailing its operations in Iraq. This post is a beginners guide into understanding all about Wikileaks in simple layman’s terms.

What Is Wikileaks?

As mentioned before, Wikileaks is a website that is used for publishing sensitive documents and news. WikiLeaks established an editorial policy that accepted only documents that were “of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical interest”.

How Does It Work?

WikiLeaks Logo

WikiLeaks was launched as a user-editable wiki site, where any person can submit sensitive data without the fear of being traced by Government agencies or organizations. However, a team of reviewers – volunteers from the mainstream press, journalists and Wikileaks staff – decides what is published.

WikiLeaks describes itself as “an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking”.

What Is WikiLeaks’ Website?

WikiLeaks has been in the eye of the storm due to the controversial nature of content published by it. They really do not have any permanent website due to a number of denial-of-service attacks (by governments) and its severance from different Domain Name System (DNS) providers. Formerly, the website was www.wikileaks.org.

If you want to find a currently active Wikileaks site, then it is suggest that you do a Twitter search with #imwikileaks.

But you can try these links:

• http://www.wikileaks.at/
• http://www.wikileaks.nl/
• http://www.wikileaks.si/
• http://www.wikileaks.pl/
• http://www.wikileaks.fi/

How Does WikiLeaks Remain Uncensored and Avoid Being Shut Down?

Governments around the world would like to take down WikiLeaks for once and for all, but it is not that easy. They are only able to block the website. But it can be bypassed using separate URL’s maintained by Wikileaks. There is nothing Governments can do except block the site and Wikileaks can never be completely taken off line. This is because:

WikiLeaks hosts itself by PRQ, a Sweden-based company providing “highly secure, no-questions-asked hosting services”. PRQ is said to have “almost no information about its clientele and maintains few if any of its own logs”. The servers are spread around the world with the central server located in Sweden. Julian Assange has said that the servers are located in Sweden (and the other countries) “specifically because those nations offer legal protection to the disclosures made on the site”.  It is forbidden according to Swedish law for any administrative authority to make inquiries about the sources of any type of newspaper. These laws, and the hosting by PRQ, make it difficult to take WikiLeaks offline. Furthermore, “Wikileaks maintains its own servers at undisclosed locations, keeps no logs and uses military-grade encryption to protect sources and other confidential information.” Such arrangements have been called “bulletproof hosting.”

Who Is Julian Assange?

Julian Paul Assange founded the controversial WikiLeaks website in 2006 and serves on its advisory board. He is best known as the spokesperson and editor-in-chief for WikiLeaks.

Julian Assange

Before working with the website, he was a physics and mathematics student as well as a computer programmer. He has lived in several countries and has told reporters he is constantly on the move. He makes irregular public appearances to speak about freedom of the press, censorship, and investigative reporting; he has also won three journalism awards for his work with WikiLeaks.

Why Is Julian Assange Arrested?

On 30 November 2010, Interpol placed Assange on its red notice list of wanted persons; at the same time, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for him. He was wanted for questioning on suspicion of sexual offences and was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police on 7 December by appointment, after a voluntary meeting with the police. Assange denies the accusations made against him.

What Are The Controversial Documents Released By Wikileaks?

Here is a list of few controversial and sensitive documents that were released by WikiLeaks:

• Extrajudicial killings in Kenya
• A report of toxic waste dumping on the African coast
• Church of Scientology manuals
• Guantanamo Bay procedures
• Releasing more than 251,000 American diplomatic cables, mostly unclassified but including many labelled “Confidential” or “Secret”

Are Wikipedia and Wikileaks related?

No, they are both different entitities. Wikileaks is in no way affiliated to Wikipedia. It is a very common misconception due to both having the term “wiki” in their names.

Would you like to have any other questions answered regarding Wikileaks? You can ask them below.

Annual campus recruitment programs in the IITs – the premier educational institute of India got a big bump when Facebook offered one of its students a Rs 70 Lakh job offer. The student in question, who gives his name as DKS — he is to graduate from the school of computer science and engineering at IIT-Kharagpur in 2011 and doesn’t want his full name to be revealed — has received a ‘‘ join-us’’ post from the website.

On the offer letter, officials from IIT-Kharagpur said Facebook offered a starting salary of $90,000, a relocation bonus of $10,000 and a one-time signing amount of $25,000 to the 21-year-old from Jamshedpur. But on the Kharagpur campus , students said DKS had also been offered ESOPs and the entire offer translates to about Rs 1.7 crore.

This news comes as a testimony to the change of power in the world. Internet industry is quickly becoming the most lucrative one and taking precedence. A few years ago, it would sound insane for anyone to work for a website, let alone a social networking site. But internet entrepreneurs have transformed the internet into an amazing medium which has the powers to change the global economy.

What are your views on this news about IIT students placed via campus recruitment in Facebook? Share it below.

Myspace has virtually surrendered to Facebook with a partnership agreement. The partnership terms are quite clearly the last thing that Myspace should have signed up for. But the internet business is a weird world, the Myspace-Facebook partnership sounds more like a joint party thrown by Manchester City and Manchester United – in other words, extremely improbable. Myspace and Facebook have been competitors since eternity.

Myspace Facebook Partnership

The reason why this partnership agreement is more of a surrender rather than a partnership is:

• Facebook users will now be able to push all their Facebook status updates to MySpace. So your Facebook stream will appear on your MySpace profile.
• Now all existing MySpace users can “log in with Facebook”.

After these partnership Terms, TechCrunch humorously quoted -

“Now all MySpace has to do is figure out how to get at least some of those users to hang out at MySpace occasionally, not just at Facebook.”

Myspace Facebook Partnership

The partnership was signed between MySpace CEO Mike Jones and Facebook VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose. The word is that MySpace was a little more than embarrassed that Facebook did not make someone more senior available for the event.

As soon as TechCrunch released an article over the “formal surrender ceremony” of MySpace, MySpace chief executive Mike Jones responded that it just reflects MySpace’s new focus.