Two Earth-like planets spotted around distant star

Scientists have found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star outside the solar system, an encouraging sign for prospects of finding life elsewhere.

The discovery shows that such planets exist and that they can be detected by the Kepler spacecraft, said Francois Fressin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They’re the smallest planets found so far that orbit a star resembling our sun.

Scientists are seeking Earth-sized planets as potential homes for extraterrestrial life, said Mr. Fressin, who reported the new findings in a paper published online by the journal Nature.

One planet’s diameter is only 3 per cent larger than Earth’s, while the other’s diameter is about nine-tenths that of Earth. They appear to be rocky, like our planet.

But they are too hot to contain life as we know it, with calculated temperatures of about 760°C and 425°C, he said.

Any life found on another planet may not be intelligent; it could be bacteria or mould or some completely unknown form.

Since it was launched in 2009, NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope has found evidence of dozens of possible Earth-sized planets.

But Mr. Fressin’s report is the first to provide confirmation, said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington. He’s a member of the Kepler science team but not an author of the paper.

The researchers ruled out a possible alternative explanation for the signals that initially indicated the planets were orbiting the star Kepler-20. The star is 950 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lyra.

The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are part of a five-planet system around the star, and their location challenges current understanding of how planets form, scientists said.

In our own solar system, the small rocky planets are closest to the sun, while gaseous giants are on the periphery.

But the five-planet system has no such dividing line; big and small planets alternate as one moves away from the star.

That’s “crazy,” and unexplained by current understanding of how planets form around stars, said study co-author and Harvard scientist David Charbonneau.

Earlier this month, scientists said they’d found a planet around another distant star with a life-friendly surface temperature of about 22°C. But it was too big to suggest life on its surface. At 2.4 times the size of Earth, it could be more like the gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean, scientists said.

Barcelona won Club World Cup

Lionel Messi grabbed a brace as a rampant Barcelona outclassed the Brazilian team Santos 4-0 to lift the Club World Cup on Sunday and confirm its status as the best team on the planet.

The clash between the European and South American champions in Japan had been billed as a showdown between Messi, widely acknowledged as the best player in the world, and 19-year-old Brazilian sensation Neymar.

In the event, it was no contest — either between the two supreme talents or their teams — as Barcelona picked up its second World crown after winning the competition in 2009.

Messi, set up by Xavi, got the first after 17 minutes, before Xavi put Barcelona 2-0 up just seven minutes later to put it firmly in control, as prodigious forward Neymar struggled to get a sniff of the ball.

Cesc Fabregas, who pulled the strings in midfield, got the third on the stroke of half-time as the Spanish champion, which was at full-strength, threatened to run riot for the full house of 68,166.

Messi got his second eight minutes from time as he rounded the keeper to roll the ball in after the influential Dani Alves threaded the ball through to him.

Barcelona, which lost striker David Villa to a fractured shin in Thursday's semifinal, had the better of an open first 15 minutes, Messi forcing a save out of Rafael Cabral after skipping a couple of half-hearted Santos challenges.

Shortly after that the Argentine was at it again, taking a dinked pass from Xavi and lifting the ball delicately over Cabral from just a few yards out to put the Catalans into an early lead at the International Stadium in Yokohama.

Barca show

It was all Barcelona, so it was no surprise when it went further ahead on 24 minutes, full-back Alves driving down the right wing and cutting inside to set up Xavi, who rifled the ball past a horribly exposed Cabral.

Television cameras quickly focused on a glum-looking Neymar.

Still Barcelona and Messi kept coming. On 26 minutes he was denied by a terrific last-gasp tackle when through on goal, and three minutes later Fabregas struck Cabral's near post after he was set up by Xavi.

But Fabregas and Barcelona would not be denied, as the former Arsenal man grabbed the third just before half-time after more good link-up play — including an audacious back-heel — from Messi.

Less than a minute after the restart it should have gone 4-0 up when Fabregas, set up by Messi, saw his prodded effort on the run saved by Cabral, then Neymar went up the other end and headed over when he should have scored.

Belatedly, the Brazilian side was up for it after its coach Muricy Ramalho had sent it out onto the frigid pitch well ahead of its opponent.

Neymar should have found the net when clean through on goal just before the hour, but Victor Valdes saved well with his legs. It summed up the teenager's night.

Earlier, Al Sadd, which lost 4-0 to Barcelona in the semifinals, beat Japanese champion Kashiwa Reysol 5-3 on penalties to take third place at the annual intercontinental tournament.

The results:

Final: Barcelona 4 (Messi 17, 82, Xavi 24, Fabregas 45) bt Santos 0.

Third place: Kashiwa Reysol 0 lost to Al Sadd 0 (Al Sadd wins 5-3 on penalties).

N.Korea's Leader Kim Jong-il passes away

Kim Jong-il, North Korea's reclusive “Dear Leader” who ruled the country for 17 years, leading it to nuclear power status but also presiding over a devastating famine, died on Saturday. He was 69.

Kim suffered “an acute myocardial infarction complicated with a serious heart shock” while on a train journey on Saturday morning, the North Korean state media announced on Monday.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said his death was the result of “a great mental and physical strain caused by his uninterrupted field guidance tour for the building of a thriving nation.”

Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, who has been groomed as his successor, especially after the older Kim suffered a stroke in 2008, was expectedly named by the ruling Korean Workers' Party (KWP) as “the great successor.”

“Under the leadership of our comrade Kim Jong-un, we have to turn sadness into strength and courage and overcome today's difficulties,” the KWP said in a statement, calling on the country to rally behind him.

News of Kim's death immediately sparked concern in Seoul, Beijing and Washington, with long-persisting fears that an uncertain succession in the nuclear-armed state could cause regional instability.

Those concerns appeared well-founded on Monday, when South Korean officials said the North had test-fired a short-range missile into the sea off its eastern coast, just hours after announcing Kim's death, in a likely show of strength amid uncertainty.

South Korea responded to news of his death by placing its military on an emergency alert, with its Joint Chiefs of Staff increasing “monitoring activities” along the border, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Kim's death was announced to 23 million North Koreans on the state television on Monday morning. A woman newsreader read the news dressed in black, visibly emotional and in a trembling voice.

That the North Korean leader's death was unknown to the rest of the world for almost two days underscored how cut-off the “Hermit Kingdom” has remained under his iron-fisted rule, with the news even appearing to evade South Korean intelligence officials who closely monitor the reclusive country.

Kim's death is likely to stall any progress towards resumption of the suspended six-party talks aimed at getting the North to abandon its nuclear programme. The North quit the talks after conducting missile tests in 2009.

Aakash tablet goes on sale for Rs 2500 ($55) online

DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, has started the online booking and pre booking of the much anticipated low cost Android tablet. Online booking is for students' version of the tablet and pre booking is for UbiSlate 7, the upgraded version of Aakash.

Students' version of Aakash will be available for Rs 2,500 and will be delivered in seven days. The commercial version, UbiSlate 7 is priced at Rs 2,999. The payment mode for both the tablets is cash on delivery.

The commercial version of Aakash tablet will be powered by Android 2.3 and will have a resistive touchscreen, Cortex A8-700 MHz processor and graphics accelerator HD video processor, 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory.

Other specifications are a one standard USB port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 7 inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, resistive touchscreen, GPRS and WiFi support.

"The improved version of Aakash tablet will be available in retail outlets by January end," a spokesperson of DataWind told The Mobile Indian.

The tablet was to be made available in retail stores by the end of November. "The delay in the availability of the tablet has been due to upgradation in the tablet and some unforeseen delay in manufacturing," the spokesperson said.

To book and prebook student and commercial versions respectively of Aakash tablet, users have to visit DataWind's website and fill up the required form. In case of booking they will get a booking ID and a message which will state, "You will shortly receive an email confirmation from our support team with further details."

In case of pre booking users will get a confirmation message which will state, "The commercial version of the Akash UbiSlate 7 would be launched in early weeks of December. After the commercial launch we would get in touch with you to deliver your device as soon possible."

As a matter of fact, the confirmation message a reader will see is factually incorrect as The mobile Indian had reported earlier the Aakash tablet will be available only by January end.

Datawind has however not cleared how it is going to establish the identity of students who will book the cheapest version of Aakash tablet. When The Mobile Indian contacted spokesperson of Datwind he said, "Anyone can book the student version of Aakash tablet."

This defeats the purpose of providing students an affordable tablet as now anyone can place an order to get the tablet. Interestingly, now it has been revealed that the government has procured only 10,000 Aakash tablets for distribution in schools and colleges of the initial 1 lakh proposed.

It looks like the company was in a hurry to start the online booking process and has not done not proper homework before staring it.

Sehwag smashes Sachin's record became higherst ODI run scorer

Indore was home to two of India's greatest cricketers, CK Nayudu and Syed Mushtaq Ali. The two richly talented all-rounders were known for their fearless big-hitting that entertained Indian crowds.

How fitting was it that the most fearless of India's batsmen and the straightest of talkers — Virender Sehwag — paid rich tribute to those masters by breaking the record for the highest score in a one-day international at Indore's Holkar Stadium today.

After electing to bat against the West Indies, the Indian opener and stand-in captain made 219 off 149 balls, becoming just the second man to score a double-ton in ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar was the first in 2010, when he made 200 not out not too far from Indore in Gwalior against South Africa.

As you would expect in an innings of this nature, the West Indian bowlers threw everything they could at Sehwag to no avail. The Indian opener toyed with the field placements, picked up boundaries with ridiculous ease, prompting Chris Gayle to jocularly describe the innings as "child abuse."

Sehwag's form had been questioned after a string of casual dismissals and small scores. However, with this innings, he buried those concerns, powering India to a record 418-5, setting up a series win with a game left in Chennai.

West Indies at one point were in danger of being bowled out for less than Sehwag's score when their ninth wicket fell on 201. Denesh Ramdin's 96 and a last-wicket stand of 64 with Sunil Narine delayed an Indian win.

Sehwag had two big partnerships along the way: 176 with the opening wicket with Gautam Gambhir (67 at a run-a-ball) to kick off the run-fest and 140 with Suresh Raina (55 off 44) to keep the momentum strong.

The 33-year-old completed a hundred off just 69 balls and the double off just 140. He had some luck along the way. On 97, a difficult catch was put down at point as Sehwag slashed a four to get to his hundred. Later on a 170, West Indies captain Darren Sammy put down a sitter running back at extra-cover.

Sehwag completed the double hundred in just the 44th over, cutting Andre Russell for four. The shot took him to 201, beating Tendulkar's record.

Kepler 22b nearly Same as Earth planet

Astronomers announced on Monday that they had taken E.T. off hold and resumed searching for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations with a set of radio telescopes in Hat Creek, Calif. The project, part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, was suspended in April when the University of California's Hat Creek Observatory ran out of money.

Astronomers from the SETI Institute had been using an innovative set of radio telescopes known as the Allen Telescope Array to try to listen in on alien broadcasts from the raft of planets newly found by NASA's Kepler satellite. Under a new deal — as well as a public fund-raising effort that netted $200,000 — the SETI astronomers will share the telescopes with the Air Force, which is interested in using them to track satellites and space junk.

At 6:18 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Monday, when the stars in Kepler's field of view rose in Hat Creek, the array was back on the job, looking for what Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute here called “technosignatures” of any inhabitants of those planets.

“We know there are planets there,” she said.

SETI's resurrection was announced at the start of a weeklong conference here devoted to results from the Kepler satellite, which is conducting a cosmic Gallup poll to determine the fraction of stars that harbour habitable, Earth-like planets.

About Kepler

An overflow crowd of more than 500 astronomers signed up, and they got their money's worth in the first hour: William Borucki, Kepler's principal investigator, reported that Kepler had confirmed its first “Goldilocks” planet, one that orbits its star in the so-called habitable zone — the right distance from its star to have liquid water on its surface.

Kepler 22b, as it is known, is 2.4 times the size of the Earth and about 600 light years from here. It takes 290 days to orbit its star, which is slightly smaller and dimmer than the Sun. Mr. Borucki said that if it had a reasonable atmosphere, the surface temperature on 22b would be about 72°Fahrenheit, “a very pleasant temperature.”

But whether Kepler 22b is actually habitable depends on its composition and atmosphere, neither of which is known. Kepler finds planets by detecting starblinks when planets pass in front of their own stars; this allows astronomers to measure the sizes of the planets, relative to that of their home stars, but not their masses and thus their densities and compositions.

The size of Kepler 22b, however, puts it in a class of planets known as super Earths, about which little is known since there is no planet in that range in our own solar system. It could be mostly rock, making it about 13 times the mass of the Earth, or it could be mostly gas, like Neptune. Probably, it is somewhere in between, said Mr. Borucki, adding, “We have no planets like this in the solar system.”

He did say that because there could be water there, Kepler 22b was a good target for SETI.

The bounty hardly stops there. Natalie Batalha, Kepler's deputy science team leader and a professor at San Jose State University, unleashed an avalanche of new planet candidates, bringing Kepler's potential bounty to 2,326 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. Among them, she said, are 207 objects that are about the size of the Earth and 680 others up to 10 times the size of Earth, or super Earths. In all, 48 of the putative planets are in the Goldilocks zone, Dr. Batalha said.

And so there are plenty of targets for the re-energised Allen Array, named for Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist who paid for the array of 42 telescopes. Dr. Tarter said that the SETI effort needed about $100,000 a month to keep operating and that in the long run, the Air Force money would not be enough to keep it alive.

Anand plays out draw with Adams

World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw against Briton Michael Adams with black pieces in the first round of third Chess Classic here.

Taking into account his mediocre result in the just finished Tal Memorial, where the World Champion ended with as many as nine draws, this was Anand's 10th draw in a row in classical chess.

World Number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway snatched an early lead after defeating the lowest-ranked David Howell of England in a tense game.

In the other two games of the day, Levon Aronian spoilt a position of strength against Luke McShane of England while Vadimir Kramnik of Russia played out a draw with Hikaru Nakamura of United States.

With the soccer-like scoring system in place with three points for a win and one for a draw, the Norwegian enjoys a two-point lead over his nearest rivals as the other games ended in draws.

Anand, Kramnik, Adams and Nakamura share the second spot with one point each.

Nigel Short is yet to play a game while Howell stands at the bottom of the table. Anand went for the Sicilian Najdorf and faced a harmless-looking Classical set up from Adams who played white.

The middle game witnessed exchanges at regular intervals and the experts even thought that Anand might have had some chances.

However, with precise liquidation, Adams came down to a queen and pawns endgame which was a routine draw.

Commentator Daniel King cheekily reminded the world champion that he had now drawn 10 games in a row and that a win counts for three points in London. Anand was not at all put out and his reply was self-deprecating. “Even if they had been using a 9-1-0 scoring system in Moscow, I would probably still have drawn all my games.”

Nadal secures fifth Davis Cup title for Spain

Rafael Nadal got the winning point as Spain won a fifth Davis Cup title here on Sunday.

The World No. 2 beat Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro to give the host a 3-1 win, rallying from a set down to see off the 2009 US Open champion 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (0).

“It was an unbelievable match. These guys are great and that's why we were in the final,” said Spanish captain Albert Costa.

“Rafa tried to play deeper and harder because at the start Del Potro was inside the line and hitting so hard. He fought hard so that's why we won.”

Nadal and David Ferrer had won Friday's opening singles before David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank kept Argentina's hopes alive by beating Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco in Saturday's doubles.

Spain previously won the titles in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2009.

But there was more heartbreak for Argentina which became the first nation to lose four finals — it also lost to Spain in the final three years ago at home.

Del Potro, who lost a marathon five setter to Ferrer on Friday, had gotten off to a strong start leading 6-1, 1-0 and 40-0 on his service against Nadal.

But Nadal hung on to get back into the match as Del Potro began to show signs of the fatigue from Friday's five-hour marathon playing with both of his thighs bandaged.

Despite looking dead and buried after losing his serve early in the fourth set, Del Potro managed to claw his way back into the tie with some magical shots which saw him serve for the set at 5-3.

Nadal dug deep however and the momentum swung his way again and once into the tie-break there was no looking back as he sealed victory after just over four hours on court.

It's the first time that Nadal had secured the winning point for his country and it came on the court where in 2004 he became the youngest Davis Cup winner aged 18.

The victory finishes a difficult six months for Nadal since winning Roland Garros in June.

“It was a very emotional match and I am happy for the team,” said Nadal.

“It was the most amazing atmosphere I have ever played in. The crowd were crazy. Everything was perfect.

“It was complicated at the start of the match, but the beginning of the second set was very important and at 1-0 and 40-0 that was the turning point for me.”

World's smallest car from nanotechnology

Ben Feringa of Groningen University in the Netherlands reports on his research in the British scientific journal Nature, describing how the tiny vehicle is electrically powered. His electric nano car even has four-wheel drive.

The nano car is not the first externally powered molecule, but it is the first that uses its own power to move in a directed way across a surface. They regard their design as a step towards developing nano machines capable in the future of carrying out work at the molecular level. To make the car, Feringa and his co-researchers mounted four previously developed molecular motors onto a central beam. Each of the molecular motors then becomes a drive wheel. The team has yet to find a way of reliably producing cars in which all the drive “wheels” travel in the same direction. Currently they have to select by trial and error those nano cars that do actually move forwards.

Electricity is provided by means of a scanning tunnelling microscope which transmits current through its extremely fine point to get the molecular car moving.

A brief pulse of half a volt changes the configuration of the molecular motors, and provided they all move in the same direction, the nano car moves forward around 0.7 of a nanometre.

The team got its molecular four-wheel drive to move around six nanometres across a copper surface with the aid of 10 pulses.

Nokia’s Lumia 800: smartphone and saviour?

Nokia and Microsoft are both banking on the new Lumia 800 to provide them with a big comeback in the smartphone market, currently dominated by Android devices and Apple’s iPhone.

The fact that two global market leaders -- Nokia has seen its market lead cut by Android and Apple, while Microsoft operates the world’s premier PC operating system, while failing so far to crack the smartphone market -- have tied up so much hope in one device is reason enough to give it a close look.

Nokia announced in February that it was switching to Windows Phone as the operating system for its smartphones. The Lumia 800 is the first fruit of that partnership.

It is a purely Windows device. Controls and functions are identical to smartphones using the system, like those from HTC or LG.

But the Lumia is supposed to get a boost from its design, its camera and Nokia’s navigation service.

Nokia will have to deal with the fact that, just this summer, it released its first, and likely last, smartphone using the MeeGo operating system, developed in collaboration with Intel: the N9.

The Lumia 800 looks identical to the N9. It has a seamless polycarbonate housing with rounded corners, meaning it sits better in the user’s hand. Connections for earphones and a mini-USB device are hidden under a plastic lid along the top side. Next to that is the dock for a micro SIM.

It comes in classic black, light blue and bright pink. The screen is also slightly arched and merged into the housing, keeping with the overall feel of the device. Measuring 3.7 inches (9.4 centimetres) diagonally, it has a resolution of 800 X 480 pixels.

Despite bright colours, that means the Lumia’s display is significantly less defined than the display of the iPhone 4, with its 960 X 640 pixels.

Its camera has a wide-angle lens from Carl Zeiss and an 8-megapixel sensor. Nokia is especially proud of its serially produced integrated navigation service, which comes with a 3D view that lets users view a city plan from a bird’s eye view.

When it comes to software, the Lumia 800 is firmly in Microsoft’s hands. The centerpiece of the operating system is the large tiles that have become the calling card of Windows Phone on other applications. Those provide an initial overview of email and contacts as well as links to the app marketplace and the XBox Live gaming area.

Even if you want to download a free app like Twitter, you have to set up a Windows Live account with Microsoft. Prices for apps in Microsoft’s Marketplace are significantly more expensive than those for iPhones and Android machines.

But, if nothing else, Nokia has delivered a machine that’s up to running Microsoft’s demanding operating system. Whether you’re using email, Facebook or an internet search engine, using the Lumia 800 is like paging through a magazine, with large text and colourful pictures.

And the processor, with a speed of 1.4 gigahertz, makes sure that the phone reacts with lightning speed to every touch of the finger, hindered only sometimes by the speed of the internet connection.

The touchscreen navigation is expanded by three buttons on the screen’s edge. There is a back button, one that creates a direct link to internet searches, and a Windows button that returns to the initial screen.

Users will have to make do with the Lumia 800’s 16 gigabytes of storage. There is no SD card slot. Nor is there a second camera on the touchscreen side for video telephony.

Then again, Nokia and Microsoft do not seem to tire of telling everyone that this is just the first device of their partnership and that customers should be ready for more products in the future.

"Why this kolaveri di" makes blockbuster in Youtube

In the last two weeks, two videos have gone viral on the Internet in India. One, the catchy Tanglish-folksy ‘Why this kolaveri di' video, and two, the flash mob at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai where a few hundred Mumbaikars were seen shaking a leg to the Bollywood hit, ‘Rang de basanti'.

If you logged on to any social avatar of the World Wide Web, these videos, the ‘shares', the ‘likes' and the instantly-trending tweets were unmissable. While the flash mob at CST, a tribute to those who lost their lives on 26/11, has around 11.45 lakh views on YouTube, ‘Kolaveri di', a promo for Tamil hero Dhanush's upcoming film 3 uploaded by Sony Music on November 16, has been viewed 1.43 crore times.

On the Web, a world that is constantly on the look out for the ‘next cool thing', that Kolaveri's viewership continues to grow by the day, has made commentators christen it the first viral marketing campaign in India. Perhaps more interesting than the song itself are the over two dozen versions of it that you will find on YouTube. There's an anti-inflation version featuring Sharad Pawar; a group of boys from Kerala using the song to appeal to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on the Mullaperiyar dam issue; a talented young girl presenting a “female version” reply to the song that's arguably gender-biased, and many others have done remix versions and videos of the song. Like the song's appeal, the rip-offs too are pan-national.

While Bollywood trailers and content have always been popular online, film-makers have not actively tapped into this medium. Earlier this year, the makers of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Ra.One became the first film to have its own YouTube channel, featuring songs, promos, footage, ‘behind the scenes', and cast interviews, supplemented by a fairly effective social media campaign. Add to this, the potential of revenue generation offered by music downloads and caller ring-back tone subscriptions; this form of marketing is cheap, easy, instant and a potential recipe for success.

Indeed, mobile value-added service provider, Techzone, which holds the exclusive rights for music tracks, videos and digital entertainment formats for the ‘Kolaveri' movie 3, has seen a “phenomenal” number of subscriptions, downloads and ‘live-in' requests. Techzone reportedly saw 22,000 downloads of the song in the first five days. While refusing to share numbers, marketing representatives from Techzone told The Hindu that the response has been overwhelming. TechZone deployed the content through its entire distribution network, which includes all telecom operators.

“Generally, for Tamil songs, 90 per cent of the demand comes from Tamil Nadu, but with this song we have received a sizable amount of requests from different parts of the country. This is a first for us,” the Techzone representative said.

A vibrant medium

So are we witnessing a change in cinema's relationship with cyberspace, asks Nishant Shah, a researcher from the Centre for Internet and Society. A campaign like Ra.One does not compare to ‘Kolaveri' because a movie trailer simply offers people a chance to be spectators, unlike the simple and catchy ‘Kolaveri', which has people remixing, editing the footage and using the video to create their own narratives.

Mr. Shah feels that indeed this is the first viral online video campaign that India has had. Most viral videos so far, he points out, were invariably pornographic or even voyeuristic in nature. “Like the Delhi MMS video — that was perhaps one of the earliest videos to go viral — to other pornographic clips of movie stars. Later on, we saw interesting remixes or spoofs, mostly regional; this is the first time that we have home-grown content that has gone viral simply because it is fun, simple and addictive. In that sense it's an intelligent campaign,” he explained. He also feels that this could be the coming of age of video as a medium, particularly so because the campaign has become a pan-India phenomenon.

Tried and tested

Viral marketing is quite big abroad. In that sense, this has all been ‘tried and tested' abroad — from commercials for beer and sunglasses to selling computers and even presidential campaigns; online videos and viral marketing plans are indeed the mainstay of many publicity strategies.

Marketing campaigns can no longer ignore the Internet. Neither can they treat it as an also-ran, says Prashanth, a social media junkie and marketing professional. “Campaigns now have to start thinking of making promotional content for the new media. Currently, a shorter version of regular campaigns are edited for the Web; there are some successful ones in this category too. But a campaign such as the ‘Kolaveri' has the industry sitting up and taking notice. In some sense, the logic is simple: you have your audience cut-out, and the reach is pretty much pan-national,” he explains.

Google to discontinue seven more products

Internet search titan Google plans to discontinue seven more products, including ‘Wave’, in a bid to simplify its services further after bringing down the curtains on its ‘Buzz’ social networking, microblogging and messaging tool.

The off-season “spring cleaning” would mark the end of various Google services such as Wave, Knol, Gears, Bookmarks Lists, Friend Connect and Search Timeline, Google Senior Vice-President (Operations) Urs Holzle said in a blogpost.

In addition, Google said it will also shelve its ’renewable energy-cheaper-than-coal initiative, which was touted as an effort to drive down the cost of renewable energy.

This is the third time that Google has announced a whittling down of its products slate after they failed to generate interest among users.

Google said some of the services will stop working from next month and by next year, most of the products will be shut down completely.

“To recap, we’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts and ending several which have shown us a different path forward. Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience,” Holzle added.

The US-based firm said Google Wave -- which was an attempt to combine email and instant messaging for real-time collaboration -- will turn off completely from April 30, 2012.

In addition, Google Friends Connect service -- which allowed webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a snippet of code -- would be retired from March 1, 2012.

Google Gears, which maintains web browser functionality when working offline, will stop working from December 1 and Google Bookmarks List, a service which allowed users to share bookmarks with friends, will end on December 19.

Last month, Google announced that it will shut down its social networking product Google Buzz. In September, Google said it will close as many as 10 products, including Aardvark and Fast Flip, as it streamlines operations and focuses on areas that have “higher impact”.

New, but improved? as iPhone 4S

Following in the footsteps of its successful predecessor, the iPhone 4S makes an entry this year. Does it live up to that daunting legacy? Well, yes and no, says Arjun Sukumaran

There's no denying that Apple's spoiled us. Since 2007's launch of the original iPhone, they've released a new, improved version each year; which never fails to take the smartphone world by storm.

The upgrades

Let's examine the case for the iPhone 4S. Having taken the critically-acclaimed iPhone 4 as a template, Apple's added a dual-core Apple A5 processor — the same one used in the iPad 2. As a result, the iPhone 4S is more responsive than the iPhone 4; not by a significant margin, but still noteworthy given how smooth the iPhone 4 was.

The camera's been upgraded as well (from 5 megapixels with an f/2.8 aperture to 8 MP with an f/2.4 aperture), and this is reflected in the pictures it takes. Apple's put a lot of work into the camera software as well, and boasts that the 4S is the fastest camera in the smartphone world. Certainly, in my time with the phone, the camera's performance was in keeping with those claims.

Maximum available storage has also been increased to 64GB, placing it on par with the iPod Touch. (Note: However, I was told that the 64GB 4S is not currently available; unfortunately, there was no word as to whether that might change in the near future.)

Siri – voice control system

And then, we come to Siri — the one thing that really makes the 4S unique. Voice control systems are nothing new; however, when you add Apple's level of polish and refinement to such a system, you have the potential for something truly revolutionary. Siri is an automated voice control system that people can interact with through spoken questions or commands.

Unlike other similiar programmes, Siri doesn't require you to use a particular type of phrasing; with the result that interaction with Siri feels much more like a conversation than a sequence of queries and responses. The possibilities for such a system are virtually endless. Say you receive a text message while driving; Siri can read it out to you, and you can even dictate a reply. If you feel like eating Chinese food tonight and tell Siri so, it will pull up a list of highly-rated Chinese eateries in your area. The very best technology feels like you're being transported to the future as you use it; and Siri definitely gives you that feeling.

As with any budding technology, though, there are some drawbacks to Siri. Most worryingly for us, multiple sources have stated that Siri loses a great deal of functionality outside the United States; specifically the location-related features, such as asking for directions or local businesses. Already, rumours are spreading that Apple might not officially support Siri in India; rumours that appear to be substantiated by the fact that Siri is frequently and prominently mentioned on Apple.com, but there's no mention of the feature on Apple's Indian website. I was assured that Siri is fully functional in India by store employees, but had no way of verifying this at the time.

You would have noticed that the iPhone 4 has been mentioned on numerous occasions already in this article, and there's a good reason for that; at the time of its launch, it was widely regarded to be the best smartphone in the world. It's only been a little over a year since then, but the 4S faces much stiffer competition from rival companies. It's a crowded market right now and competition is fierce; but the most telling mark against the iPhone 4S is that it isn't substantially better than the phone it ostensibly replaces — the iPhone 4.

Final analysis

The iPhone 4S finds itself in an unenviable situation — stuck between its illustrious predecessor and its eagerly-anticipated successor, it's unlikely to be judged entirely on its own merits. While it can be argued that that's not entirely fair, the truth remains that the technological world moves at a rapid pace; a pace that is usually set by Apple, but not this time.

To sum up, if you simply want the best iPhone in the world, you needn't look any further than the iPhone 4S.

If you don't already use a smartphone and you want to buy an iPhone, it's a toss-up between affordability and performance — the iPhone 4 is still one of the best smartphones around, and the release of the 4S has knocked its price down a bit.

However, if you already own an iPhone 4 or an equivalent smartphone, you'd probably be better off waiting for the iPhone 5. The 4S is a very, very good phone; in a world where Apple needed to make a strong statement in order to fend off its growing competition, though, the iPhone 4S just wasn't it.

Slin laps on Sale

Sleek and smart

Lenovo India launches its new luxury laptop, the IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook™. The U300s is not only thin and light-weight but also power-packed with myriad features. It has a thickness of 0.6 inches (14.9mm), and is built from a single-piece aluminum shell to create a lightweight product weighing in at less than three pounds. It also comes with the second generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, and HD graphics support, an HDMI output and integrated stereo speakers with SRS® Premium Surround Sound™.

Price: Rs. 67, 990

Available at: All Lenovo exclusive stores and select large format retailers

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Text away

Sabeer Bhatia, the creator of Hotmail.com, launches JaxtrSMS, a mobile application that lets users send unlimited free text messages to any other phone anywhere in the world. This mobile texting application is completely open, that is, recipients do not need to have the app installed. It is available as a free download for all major mobile platforms — iPhone, Android, Blackberry and J2ME.

JaxtrSMS can be downloaded from: www.jaxtrsms.com or from the app store on the handset for free and is compatible with all mobile operating systems including the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and J2ME.

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Just beat it!

HTC unveiled the HTC Sensation™ XL with Beats Audio™ integration. With a 4.7” screen, slim 9.9mm design and Beats Audio integration, the phone has been specifically created to deliver the best entertainment experience for music, movies and games. It also includes the new light weight Beats™ headphones, created exclusively to integrate with the Beats' audio profile on the device and boasts an 8MP camera, featuring a f/2.2, 28mm wide-angle lens with BSI sensor.

Price: Rs. 39,990