Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::Microsoftâ€˜s social network So.cl now open to all::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337886342_temp.jpg.pagespeed.ce.O_G00biv0w.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" width="200" height="150" align="left" /> Microsoft has opened up its So.clsocial networking service to the general public, which lets users share and comment on interesting search results and connect with "like-minded" people.  It is targeted at students and had earlier been restricted to invitees at universities and schools in the US.  The service integrates with Facebook and is being pitched as an "experiment" rather than a rival to other networks.  Microsoft revealed that the product was developed by its Fuse Labs unit as a "research project... focused on the future of social experiences and learning."  Members are invited to create "collages of content" using the firm's Bing search engine technology and external links, which they can, then share with others.  Users can then identify people who are interested in the same topics, monitor their associates' feeds and take part in "video parties" during which members watch online videos together, commenting on them via chat function.  Members can sign in using their Facebook login details, however, their So.cl activities do not show up on Facebook's pages unless the option is activated.  The move to open up the service to the general public was taken over the weekend with little fanfare, prompting some analysts to speculate that Microsoft only had limited ambitions for the project.  "The fact that So.cl is targeted at students echoes Facebook's beginnings and has made many assume it is a Facebook clone," the BBC quoted Eden Zoller, principal analyst at technology consultants Ovum, as saying.  "But So.cl is, as Microsoft stresses, an experiment designed to be a layer on existing social networks.  "Microsoft is being sensible in positioning So.cl in this way - the opposite approach of Google, which entered social networking all guns blazing with a full on service, and is having modest success," Zoller said.  Zoller added that the project could also help Microsoft further improve Bing's search capabilities.  A study by Comscore suggested that Microsoft had a 15.4 percent share of the US search market in April compared with Google's 66.5 percent lead.  Earlier surveys have suggested that the gap is even wider in the UK and parts of Europe.

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::::Sony launches Xperia U, Xperia P, Xperia Sola in India::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337886123_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div><div id="storydiv"><div class="Normal" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px">Sony Mobile Communications has officially launched three new Xperia smartphones in the country: Xperia U and P, and Xperia Sola. The smartphones were initially unveiled at the Xperia S launch last month.  Sony Xperia U has a 3.5 inch scratch-resistant TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels and is powered by a 1 GHz STE U8500 dual-core processor. The smartphone runs onGoogle Android 2.3 operating system (upgrade to Android Ice Cream Sandwich promised). There's a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, 16x digital zoom and LED flash. The phone has 8 GB internal memory and 512 MB RAM. The smartphone is priced at Rs 17, 399.  Sony Xperia P is powered by a 1 GHz U8500 dual-core processor. It sports a 4-inch scratch-resistant TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 960x540 pixels. It runs on Google Android 2.3 OS (upgrade to Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich promised). There's an 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, 8x digital zoom, LED flash. The phone offers internal phone storage of 16GB, and 1 GB RAM. The Sony Xperia P is priced at Rs 26,799.  Sony Xperia Sola is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor. The smartphone has a 3.7 inch scratch-resistant TFT touchscreen The phone's 5 megapixel camera has auto focus and LED flash. There's 8 GB internal storage with microSD memory card slot expandable up to 32GB. Sony Xperia Sola is priced at Rs 20,449.</div></div>

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::::How India is hurting Dell::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337886015_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div> <img src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/133516280760/u/53/f/533923/c/33039/s/1fab9f79/a2t.img" border="0" width="1" height="1" /> Weaker performance in India brought down Dell's first-quarter earnings in the Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) region as the company's revenue in the region stood at $3.1 billion, down 0.5% sequentially.  "Demand was down in many countries, most noticeably India, which affected the results," said Amit Midha, president, APJ, Dell. Globally, the revenue fell 4% to $14.4 billion. First quarter profit declined by 33% to $635 million from $945 million in the same quarter last year. Midha highlighted the macroeconomic challenges posed by the fluctuation in rupee. He also cited the activity in the low-end consumerPC segment. "We remain number one in revenue but not in units. So there is clearly a shift in the market towards the low-end segment," said Midha. "Certain state governments in India gave out about 100,000 notebooks at around $260 and that changed the unit game dramatically. We stayed away from that because that is not part of our strategy."  Asked whether Dell would stay away from future government contracts as well, Midha said, "We remain committed to our strategy to serve customers' needs and to be financially successful. If we cannot make money on a certain project, we will certainly stay away."

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::::Samsung Galaxy S III: Inspired by Nature, Not Lawyers::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/xphoto_1337884794_temp.jpg.pagespeed.ic.H--kn8_CA_.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />Samsung’s Galaxy S III wasn’t designed by the company’s lawyers, though they surely approved it. And speculation that it was carefully crafted to dodge Apple’s trade dress patent infringement claims is silly.So says Samsung design VP Chang Dong-hoon, who today took exception with claims that the Galaxy S III is “the first smartphone designed entirely by lawyers.” According to Dong-hoon, the Galaxy S III boasts a design that has gone through hundreds of iterations, all quarterbacked by Samsung’s market-leading design team. “Our change in smartphone design is part of a five-year plan, not a sudden turnaround,” he told reporters at the 2012 Seoul Digital Forum.So the aesthetics of the S III are the result of a natural evolution and not the intervention of Samsung’s legal team. If you’ve got an issue with its design, blame Samsung’s designers, not its lawyers. Or, better yet, buy a different phone. 

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::::100 Most Valuable Brands: Apple Tops Again; Nokia Disappears::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337884627_temp.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />WPP’s Millward Brown published its annual BrandZ study, ranking the world’s leading brands, which are increasingly technology companies. According to the research house, four of the top five global brands and seven of the Top 10 are tech firms.At $183 billion, Apple is the world’s most valuable brand, a title it claimed last year as well, though at that time the brand was worth $153.3 billion. In the ensuing year, it has grown another 19 percent. IBM ranked second with $116 billion in value. Google, which ranked second last year, this year swapped places with IBM, after its brand value slipped 3 percent year over year. With a $76.7 billion brand, Microsoft claimed fifth place, ranking below McDonalds — the only non-tech company in the top five.The biggest year-over-year gain also went to a tech company: Facebook, which rose from No. 35 in 2011 to No. 19 in 2012. A meteoric rise, and one that spiked the company’s brand value 74 percent to $33.2 billion.Nokia, which ranked 81st in brand value in Millward Brown’s 2011 study after a 28 percent year-over-year decline in value, fell even further in 2012. So far, in fact, that it seems to have fallen right off the chart. Not a surprise, really, given the company’s current situation. But worth noting just the same; as recently as 2008, Nokia was the world’s ninth most valuable brand.<img src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2012/05/BRANDZ2012-640x404.jpg" border="0" alt="BRANDZ2012" width="500" height="500" /> 

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::::Morgan Stanley, others make $100 mln profit on Facebook trades - WSJ::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337884094_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and other underwriters have made a profit of about $100 million stabilizing Facebook (FB.O) stock since trading began on Friday, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.Facebook's listing, envisioned as a crowning moment for an eight-year-old company that has become a business and cultural phenomenon, has instead turned into a legal and public relations fiasco for the company and its lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley.As a lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley would receive the largest chunk of those profits arising from stabilizing Facebook's stock price, the people told the Journal. These profits come on top of millions of dollars of IPO fees, according to the newspaper.The underwriters made the bulk of the profit in Monday's trading when they bought shares below the $38 offering price, a person familiar with the matter told the WSJ.Morgan Stanley was in charge of an overallotment of about 63 million shares that can be used to help support Facebook's share price. The underwriters are given the option to buy the overallotment of shares from the company at a discount.The underwriters bought from Facebook the offering's 421,233,615 shares, but sold into the market 484,418,657 shares, including the overallotment and doing so made the underwriters "short" 63,185,042 shares, the paper said.

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::::Facebook launches Facebook Camera for iPhone, complete with filters and batch photo uploading::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337883740_temp.png" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Just after its proposed $1 billion acquisition of mobile photo sharing service Instagram, Facebook has announced Facebook Camera for iPhone this afternoon in a blog post.  The app features filters just like Instagram and features the ability to upload a batch of photos at once, where as the regular Facebook app only allows you to upload one photo at a time. Upon first opening Camera, it detects any Facebook accounts already associated with the iPhone so you can begin uploading photos. Facebook Camera for iOS is now available on the iTunes App Store.As you can tell from the screenshots of the app in the gallery below, it reminds us a lot of Instagram. There’s also the ability to view your friend’s photos in a single timeline. Complete with filters and quick sharing options, it’s almost like Facebook has launched a competitor to its own app.Here’s the full breakdown of features:<ul style="vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; list-style: none"><li style="text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 15px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px">Post multiple photos from your camera roll at a time</li><li style="text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 15px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px">Crop and apply filters to give your photos a new look</li><li style="text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 15px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px">Scroll down a single feed of all your friends’ photos</li><li style="text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 15px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px">Tag your friends, add photo captions and say where you are</li><li style="text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 15px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px">See photos from the different apps your friends use</li></ul> <div id="gallery-1" class="snap_nopreview gallery galleryid-175163 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-thumbnail" style="vertical-align: baseline; margin: auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px"><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-24-at-1-10-08-pm.png?w=155&h=103" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 1.10.08 PM" title="Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 1.10.08 PM" width="155" height="103" /><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-24-at-1-15-49-pm.png?w=155&h=113" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 1.15.49 PM" title="Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 1.15.49 PM" width="155" height="113" /><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-24-at-1-15-42-pm.png?w=155&h=113" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 1.15.42 PM" title="Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 1.15.42 PM" width="155" height="113" /><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/mza_6994328467552621843.jpeg?w=86&h=130" border="0" alt="mza_6994328467552621843" title="mza_6994328467552621843" width="86" height="130" /> <img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/mza_2980066498118615432.jpeg?w=86&h=130" border="0" alt="mza_2980066498118615432" title="mza_2980066498118615432" width="86" height="130" /><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/mza_4435136449462719345.jpeg?w=86&h=130" border="0" alt="mza_4435136449462719345" title="mza_4435136449462719345" width="86" height="130" /><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/mza_1811103374789598310.jpeg?w=86&h=130" border="0" alt="mza_1811103374789598310" title="mza_1811103374789598310" width="86" height="130" /><img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/mza_7178373315264897789.jpeg?w=86&h=130" border="0" alt="mza_7178373315264897789" title="mza_7178373315264897789" width="86" height="130" /> <img class="attachment-thumbnail" src="http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/atrt2decaaeqzpz.jpeg?w=86&h=130" border="0" alt="AtrT2dECAAEqZPZ" title="AtrT2dECAAEqZPZ" width="86" height="130" /> </div>A lot more to come. 

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