Archive for August, 2010

Google acquires social games website SocialDeck

August 31st, 2010

New York: Internet search giant Google has acquired social games website SocialDeck for an undisclosed amount, in a move to strengthen its social networking service.
The transaction comes within days of Google’s acquisition of Angstro, which makes applications to discover new photos on Facebook and create a real-time social address book.
Going by reports, the deal is one of several acquisitions in the past month through which Google is hoping to build a social-networking service to counter rival Facebook.
SocialDeck has announced on its website that it has been acquired by Google.
“SocialDeck has been acquired and we have joined the Google team. We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting new mobile devices,” the company stated on its website yesterday.
SocialDeck, a Canadian start-up, has launched several games titles for Facebook, Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices.
The firm’s games platform technology enables simultaneous game play across multiple mobile devices and social networks.
Earlier in the month, Google had bought social widgets maker Slide Inc in a deal that would give the search giant a team of developers with vast experience in social networking.

Courtesy: LiveMint

HP settles government lawsuit for $55 million

August 31st, 2010

Hewlett-Packard will pay the U.S. government $55 million to settle allegations that it defrauded the U.S. General Service Administration and other agencies by paying kickbacks to systems integrators in exchange for recommendations that agencies purchase HP products, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

The settlement also resolves government claims that a 2002 contract HP had with the GSA was defectively priced because the company provided incomplete information to GSA contracting officers during negotiations, the DOJ said.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

Google buys fifth company for August

August 31st, 2010

Google has made its fifth acquisition since the start of August, this time scooping up SocialDeck, a company that develops games that people can play against friends using iPhones, BlackBerry devices, or via Facebook on a PC.

Most of Google’s recent acquisitions have been related to social networking and games, fueling speculation that the company plans to release a new social networking service, potentially centered on games, to compete with Facebook.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

Networking Made Easy for Introverts

August 31st, 2010

Does the thought of making small talk make you cringe? Does schmoozing make you feel like a schmuck? Devora Zack, author of “Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed and the Underconnected,” is just like you and has written today’s guest post on this very topic.

Zack, who’s the president of Only Connect Consulting and an expert in personality and the workplace, travels the nation, rubbing elbows with and making presentations to executives in private industry, the public sector and federal agencies; she’s also an introvert … so who better to write about introvert networking than a person who shatters the stereotype?

Introverts Can Sizzle on Networking Job Search

By Devora Zack author of “Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed and the Underconnected.”

To network or not to network?  That is the question.

What’s at stake?  Whatever you most want to accomplish; no biggie.

What if you don’t like networking and have no interest?  It drains you.  It never works.  You don’t have time.  You don’t need to.  It’s phony, self-serving, fake, inauthentic, superficial, conniving, manipulative and useless.

Hold it right there.

In my experience, people who claim to hate networking also believe they are not good at it.  The reverse is true.  People who hate networking fail at traditional networking by following advice never intended for them in the first place.  You have the raw materials to be a stellar networker.  You are just following the wrong rules.  Standard networking advice fails you, so you assume you fail at networking. Plus you hate it.  What is networking?

» Read more: Networking Made Easy for Introverts

AutoCAD coming to iPad, iPhone, returning to Mac

August 31st, 2010

Autodesk is bringing its AutoCAD architecture, design, and engineering software back to the Mac OS after an 18-year absence, the company announced this evening. But the company plans to do more than offer a Mac OS X version of AutoCAD: It says it will release a free version of the software, dubbed AutoCAD WS, for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch that lets users review, edit, and share AutoCAD files on those popular mobile devices.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

Cisco patches bug that caused partial Internet blackout

August 31st, 2010

Cisco has fixed a bug in its IOS (Internetwork Operating System) router software that contributed to a brief Internet blackout last week, thought to have affected about 1 percent of the Internet.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

LinkedIn Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Social Network for Professionals

August 31st, 2010

Our LinkedIn guide delivers expert advice on the site’s features, step-by-step how-to instructions, details on its apps and proper LinkedIn etiquette. Also included: tips and tricks for your job search and company analysis.
Courtesy: CIO.in

7 Skills Every IT Manager Needs to Survive the 2010s

August 31st, 2010

Pure technology is out, communication and business insight are in
Courtesy: CIO.in

Nokia to set up server in India; may put pressure on BlackBerry

August 30th, 2010

New Delhi: Amid security concerns raised by the government over encrypted data travelling through mobiles, handset maker Nokia, which offers push-mail services on Monday said it will set up required infrastructure by November to help the government monitor the contents.
The decision of the Finnish firm may put more pressure on Research In Motion (RIM), which offers BlackBerry services, to give security agencies more access to its encrypted messenger and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES).
The similar kind of services offered by BlackBerry recently came under the security scanner, as the government failed to intercept and monitor the data travelling through the BlackBerry devices.
“Currently the Nokia Messaging Service is in beta format. We have been working towards installing the requisite infrastructure in the country and will set up servers for our push email service by November 2010,” Nokia India managing director D Shivakumar said.
Push email uses a mail delivery system with real-time capability to “push” email to clients as soon as it arrives.
Nokia Messaging is a push e-mail service, which was launched in 2009. The Nokia Messaging servers aggregate messages from upto ten accounts and pushes them to compliant devices.
BES also works similarly, as it monitors the e-mail servers, and when it sees new e-mail for a BlackBerry user, it retrieves a copy and then pushes it to the BlackBerry device.
The Indian government has been demanding greater access to mobile and online communications on the back of national security concerns.
“We are launching the server on 5 November in compliance with all the rules and regulation in the country…It is for hosting mail and ensuring that the government has access (to the data),” Shivakumar told reporters here.
RIM, who are the makers of BlackBerry, are facing a closure of services day after tomorrow, as they do not have a server hosted in India and the data travelling through their mails could not be intercepted.

Courtesy: LiveMint

Apple’s iPad lures business users in law, medicine, and other fields

August 30th, 2010

Apple’s iPad tablet is being used by doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople to ease their workloads, but many believe the popular touchscreen device can’t yet replace a laptop for functions such as writing long documents.

Courtesy: Infoworld News