Monfu IT Solutions

Another acquisition from Google

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:34:45 +0000

Google has acquired Jambool, the company behind virtual currency Social Gold. The deal is rumoured to be around $70 million. Its founders Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein said “Our vision is to build world-class products that help developers manage and monetize their virtual economies across the globe,” the founders said in their letter. “When the opportunity arose to join forces with Google to execute against this vision, we couldn’t pass it up. We are thrilled to bring the Social Gold platform to Google’s global users.”

Jambool is best known for its Social Gold platform, which allows games and virtual worlds to create their own virtual currencies, including in-application payments and virtual economy analytics. The company has raised approximately $6 million in two funding rounds.

Source Mashable

The Holy Bible will be Tweeted

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:22:28 +0000

And on the eight day God created Twitter and also a person to tweet the whole Bible in 3 years! That’s the latest trend news that is going around the internet at the moment. Its the account creator Chris Juby who is taking this challenge to fullfill God’s mission. Currently the account has 2198 users and I am sure that this number will increase by the minute once he starts his mission.

This project started a few days ago, and the project should take till November 8, 2013. This can be followed on the account @BibleSummary. In an interview with the Telegraph, the account’s creator, Chris Juby, made the salient point that the Christian Bible holds an important role in Western literature.

“The Bible underpins so much of our culture” he said. “People like Shakespeare and Dickens made casual references to what we would now regard as obscure passages of scripture.”

TweetDeck Android app will be more than just Twitter

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:06:28 +0000

The word is around that popular social media management tool TweetDeck will be available as an Android app very very soon. Infact a beta .apk has already been leaked on the net.

This is like a breath of fresh air for all twitter users on the Android platform like myself. I have already tried Seesmic which is a pretty good application and also Tweetcaster. However having used TweetDeck as a windows app, I have always longed for a similar app to be unveiled on the Android platform.

According to reviews there are on the web at the moment, it should look as good as the win app.

It integrates Facebook, Twitter, Buzz (before its completely dead) and Foursquare accounts into a single application. Updates are color-coded and presented in a single, blended column. There’s also a “Me” column for reviewing all your Twitter @replies and comments and like for your Facebook posts.

Overall, the UI is clean and optimized for mobile displays — and the way updates are pulled is easier on battery life than having a constantly running, real-time stream of data.

So this is a huge plus for Android users since there are more useful features than are currently available on the iPhone version of TweetDeck, which doesn’t yet support Foursquare or Buzz. But this Android app is a clear signal of where the company’s Apple-focused applications will be headed.

In future iterations of the app, TweetDeck hopes to add improved map performance, better handling for multiple Twitter accounts, video upload capabilities and better integration with Android hardware.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta launching September 15th, might enter a beauty pageant

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:33:51 +0000

Once again, the whispers were true. Microsoft has proudly announced on this fine day that September 15th will mark the official launch of the Internet Explorer 9 Beta, but details beyond that are scant. We do know that the Big M will hold a gala in San Francisco to celebrate “The Beauty of the Web,” and once it hits the tubes, you’ll need either Vista or Windows 7 to use it (sorry, XP loyalists). ‘Course, it remains to be seen if IE can catch up to Chrome and Firefox in the technical department.

Source engadget.com

Oracle Sues Google Over Android

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:25:58 +0000

Claiming egregious IP infringement, Oracle has filed suit against Google over its ever-more-popular mobile operating system, Android.

In a statement released today, an Oracle rep stated, “In developingAndroid, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement.”

Last year, Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and, along with it, Java. In its formal complaint, Oracle calls the Java platform “one of the most important technologies Oracle acquired with Sun.” And no one can argue that the platform isn’t ubiquitous and very important in the technology industries.

Claiming that Android competes with Java as “an operating system software platform for cellular telephones and other mobile devices” and that the Android stack employs Java apps running on a Java-based framework, Oracle says that Android and the Android SDK infringe on its patents, and it wants to see some cash for its unwitting involvement in the mobile OS’s success.

Oracle also says Google has known about these patents since the middle of the decade when the latter company hired several Sun Java engineers.

In addition to patent violations, Oracle is also claiming copyright infringement; Java’s code is copyrighted, and Oracle believes Google has used it without any kind of license.

And remember that Android is open-source software and that a lot of manufacturers and developers are involved in making the Android platform what it is. The kicker in this lawsuit is Oracle’s assertion that Google has “induced, caused and materially contributed to the infringing acts of others by encouraging… others to use, copy and distribute” what could be called derivative works.

In addition to requesting monetary compensation, Oracle is also asking that all copies of Java-related work be “impounded and destroyed or otherwise reasonably disposed of.” Does this mean Oracle wants to bring a complete end to Android as it stands if, in fact, the OS uses Java code?

Source mashable.com