IBM to make mobile devices more accessible

IBM is embarking on a research project to design mobile gadgets that are easier to use for people who have disabilities or aren't fully literate. The goal is to develop a common interface for mobile devices that will make them easier to use. As digital information becomes more vital, IBM said, it believes the Internet needs to be more accessible to a wider range of people, including those who are illiterate, blind, deaf, and elderly, and those in developing countries.

"Through this collaborative research initiative, we will uncover real information accessibility requirements and issues that the elderly and people in developing economies are facing today," Chieko Asakawa, an IBM Fellow and chief technology officer of IBM's accessibility research, said in a statement. "By focusing on mobile devices, which have a tremendous potential to empower them, we believe the findings will help us offer affordable services to a large population, who are still deprived of access to key information sources."

Any software created by IBM Research and the universities will be released as open source, freely available for governments and businesses to use. Big Blue's partnership is part of its Open Collaborative Research program, which teams up the company with universities to develop new and open technologies. The Tokyo center is the first university-based research institute in Japan to join the program, while the National Institute of Design is the second university in India to do so.

IBM researchers in Tokyo and a team from the research center there will focus on making mobile technology easier for Japan's growing elderly population. In India, IBM Research and the design institute will look at ways to help that country's non- and semi-literate population find information through mobile devices.

The new research project is just the latest effort by IBM to try to bring technology to people who could be considered outside the mainstream. The company has been recognized in India for its "Spoken Web" technology, which lets people who are illiterate or have vision problems access the Internet by voice.

Technology that allows bosses to spy on employees

A Japanese phone company has come up with a new technology that can track most minimal movement of mobile phone users and beams the information back to HQ.

KDDI Corporation, which has developed the technology, intends to offer the service to clients such as managers, foremen and employment agencies, or whoever may be interested keeping in check the activities of their employees.

The new system uses analytical software to detect more complex behaviour, unlike sensor systems. The software is held on a server back at base, to match patterns of common movements. Because this technology will make central monitoring possible with workers at several different locations, businesses especially are very interested in using such technology to improve the efficiency of their workers.

But there will surely be negative consequences when applied to employee tracking or salesforce optimization.

Poor security questions put e-mails at risk

Experts have warned that hackers can comfortably crack questions used as security checks in webmails. Security researchers at the University of Cambridge, insists that attackers can break into at least 1 in every 80 accounts if they get three chances to guess answers.

They recommends webmail firms to replace simple answers with more complex tests to confirm a person's identity. The researchers claim that hackers are successful in getting answers to security-check questions correct every 80 accounts, as information people use as answers are often publicly accessible, such as US marriage and birth records which were viewable online for a long time.

They measured how hard it was to guess answers. Asking what was the name of someone's first grade teacher seems like a secure choice. The problem is that there's a tonne of teachers out there named Mrs Smith."

They warns that cyber criminals maintain a long lists of e-mail addresses to attack. Webmail was never really designed for mail security but it is taking on a pretty important security role. Once you have an e-mail account you can take over a lot of other things with it. However, the researchers believe Webmail firms can tighten their security.

Websites such as Google, are already sending reset passwords by text message in a bid to protect the account of its users.

Next level of breaking the 'Google habit'

Google search has registered itself in mind of its users around the world. Most of them are in the habit of using google as it favours most of them. It has been a great challenge for the google to remain from ages. Now microsoft and yahoo are teaming up to bring up a new search to compete with the google.

Google has a vast range of services from search engine to earning money for its users. The company has emerged back in industry later with greater innovative technologies for its customers all at one place...It enjoys the benefits of being An Early Beginner...when a company gives so much to its customers then why we want to get away from it & yes above all they are one of the best innovative ideas in the industry and an exemplary for any e-business company.

Into its next era, google has got much more to remain in this competition. As now, it has given the best for its users. But isn't it time that google has to go to its next level of technology because with time technology also changes the human habits. It is for now google leads the race but will it be there always....Can we break the Google habit?

Integration of social networking and search

Today is the age of social networking where people are leaving status messages and tweets and people are following others and carefully watching what's happening around the world and also people are getting together like never before a cause like in Haiti earth quake due to social networking they raised millions together and that would not have been possible without a tool like social networking in the world, and currently Facebook leads the lot and closely followed by Twitter and now recently Google has joined the race with its Google buzz.

With more than 9 million posts and comments in two days, Google Buzz stormed the web like a swarm of locusts. An array of strong features, integration with Gmail, and lots of press have turned Buzz into an overnight phenomenon.

Google the no.1 search engine has just launched its new service called Google buzz which will be integrated into its Gmail, and surely this will change the whole scenario how an email service will be provided in future which has integrated with social networking, this also had to do with the growing dominance of facebook which is threatening Google with its increasing user base on a regular basis, the success of Google buzz is anybody's guess at the moment. How Google buzz can take on traditional social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter? And eventually how social networking is going to evolve in coming days?

It is getting into the new phase of technology where integration playing a role in the competitve world. What happens next, lets wait and see...