Orkut Gets New Version

Google seems to have had enough of Facebook’s meteoric rise and has now sprung into action with a host of new design changes to its social networking website, Orkut.
The website, which has been in the decline for the past few months, will see a lot of new features and a drastic change in the looks. The “refreshing new look” of Orkut is based on the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) infrastructure and will include the ability to discover friends automatically, video chat integrated with Google Talk, ability to upload photos in bulk very quickly, add/view photos and videos in-line, and a more interactive activity stream, says Google.

The activity stream looks like a status message update functionality on the lines of Twitter and Facebook. Other new additions include video testimonials and of course applications

, which seems to have not taken off much — especially when compared with Facebook. The aforementioned activity stream has the option for comments as well – quite similar to the Facebook update feature – even visually!

Orkut, in its previous avatar, was notorious for its insecurity. The new version claims to be a lot safer and there will be customized mobile versions too for the iPhone, S60 and J2MEplatforms. Orkut also sees a neater integration with other Google services with the typical “Google bar” at the top of the site. This allows quick access to other Google services. Until now, Orkut looked like a Google outcast with no links to other Google services on the homepage – with the only Google indication being the integrated Gtalk and the occasional Chrome advertisements.

The new Orkut is being rolled out to a select few users initially. These selected few can invite others to experience the new Orkut. Orkut has a community for those who wish to take a preview of the new version and where you can list yourselves to be invited. Click here for more on that. The new version of Orkut with the new features certainly looks promising. However, will this be enough to stop the Facebook juggernaut that is taking over India? We will soon find out!

Gmail!! now in Indian Languages

Here is some good news for all you Indians out there who always wanted to email your friends and family in your native language. Google has launched a new feature in Gmail that makes it easy to type out emails in Indian languages. When you compose a new mail in Gmail, you will now see an icon with an Indian character. This feature is enabled by default for Gmail users in India. If you do not see this function enabled by default, you will need to go to the “Settings” page and enable this option in the “Language” section. Gmail currently supports five Indian languages — Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam — and you can select the language of your choice from the drop-down list next to the icon. You can pick from the following:

Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Oriya, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, UK English, US English, Ukrainian, or Vietnamese.

To change the language view in Gmail, you have to do the following:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
3. Select a language from the Gmail display language: drop-down menu in the Language section.
4. Click Save Changes.

Internet Explorer 8 out today!!

Although we happily use a combination of Chrome and Firefox in the office, a new version of Internet Explorer is still big news. Of course, it’s been in open beta for the last year so none of its new improvements and features are big breaking news – especially as most of these changes will be old news to anyone who has been used Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari in the last few months. That said, if you’re in an office where Internet Explorer is the only authorised browser, then there’s quite a lot to be excited about. Well, maybe not “excited about”, but it should make your day slightly more enjoyable at least. So, what kind of features are in Internet Explorer 8? Well there’s a lot under the bonnet to begin with – better security and malware protection mainly. External sources have estimated that IE8 catches two to four times as many malware attacks as other browsers, which is a really impressive step forward for a browser that has always been seen as vulnerable. Another, more tangibly testable, feature is Microsoft’s claim that the new Internet Explorer is the fastest browser on the market. Of course there are two caveats to that – firstly that we’re talking the difference of a fraction of a second, and secondly that with all the major players working on new versions of their browser this lead may well be short lived.

Cool Websites and Tools

(1) BlueHour – This site helps photographers estimate the best time frame for taking blue hour photos at any selected location so they know when they need to be there.

(2) CountOnIt – Online word count app that lets you quickly count words in PDF, Text, HTML, XML and CSV files.

(3) KidsMealDeals – It’s always a shame that kids have to pay the same price as adults, especially since they eat a lot less. This site allows people to find local restaurants with kids specials.

(4) OverThePhone – An online name speller tool that spells any submitted names or words using NATO phonetic alphabet. Simply type in the name you want to spell and click on “Go” button.

(5) Rudder – Here is something similar to online budget tracker site like Mint but it has a much simpler interface and functionality. It uses the same data services as 4 out of 5 top US banks so security is top notch.

Hackers attack Cern’s ‘Big Bang’ website!!!

The Big Bang experiment suffered a security breach on Wednesday when Greek hackers launched an attack on Large Hadron Collider project just before it was to begin.
While the first particles were flowing in the 27-km long machine near Geneva, the group hacked into the website, www.cmsmon.cern.ch, raising serious concerns over the security and arrangement of the ‘mother of all experiments’.
Identifying themselves as Greek Security Team, they mocked at the technology and called the physicists as “a bunch of school kids.”
The hackers, however, despite flashing the message “don’t mess with us”, also reiterated that they have no intention to disrupt the ongoing experiment.
They also posted a cheeky message for the scientists that said: “We’re pulling your pants down because we don’t want to see you running around naked looking to hide yourselves when the panic comes.”
Earlier also the scientists at different intervals have received threatening emails and messages from panicky public worried about the impact of the experiment.
The panic grew many folds when many including many scientists claimed that this could mean end of the world. International physicists on Wednesday successfully fired a beam of protons all the way around a 27 km (17 mile) tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border.
The 20-year project, under which the ‘Big Bang’ was re-enacted, is an attempt to explain the birth of the universe and how it came to harbour life. The experiment is also being dubbed by many as the mother of all scientific experiments ever conducted on earth.
Due to the onslaught by the hackers, the website – www.cmsmon.cern.ch – is no longer accessible by the public.

Yahoo! Releases Delicious Plugin for IE

The Delicious plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) has now been officially released. Nick Nguyen, senior product manager (del.icio.us), announced the same. Del.icio.us was bought by Yahoo! in 2005. The latter had rolled-out the beta version of the IE Del.icio.us plug-in only last month.
With this announcement, users of IE version 6 and 7 and 8 (Beta) can now begin to enjoy social bookmarking with the Del.icio.us plug-in on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista operating systems. The Del.icio.us plug-in already supports Mozilla’s Firefox browser, whose version 3 has been newly released amidst great fanfare. While the Opera browser supports Del.icio.us widgets.
All eyes are on Yahoo! (have been for some time now) that has been in recent times struggling with re-organization pressures given that several top executives have bid adieu to the company. Even Del.icio.us founder, Joshua Schacter will be leaving Yahoo! in end June, according to a company statement.