ie 10 for win 7

IE reborn: Internet Explorer 10 arrives on Windows 7

As Internet Explorer 10 reaches Windows 7, Microsoft readies a massive auto-update campaign for the browser's previous version.

Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 7 is able to run modern Web apps, just like IE 10 on Windows 8.

Internet Explorer 10 debuted on Windows 8, and until now was only available to people who bought into Microsoft's big Windows redo. That changes today, as Redmond rolls out IE 10 for Windows 7 (download).

The update brings enormous changes to the browser, and mostly for the better. Internet Explorer 10 is not only faster and more stable than the current IE for Windows 7, version 9, it's also far more standards-compliant.

"Gone are the days when developers aspire to build for the lowest common denominator. The way the Web becomes like an application is when you take advantage of the latest hardware. We've stopped the era of trying to maximize for aggregate browser share," Ryan Gavin, general manager for Internet Explorer at Microsoft, said in a phone conversation with CNET last week.

So, Windows 7 gets the new IE10 Chakra and JavaScript engines; the Touch API innovations that help drive the browser on Windows 8; the security measures built into IE10 -- at least, the ones that are not dependent on Windows 8; location bar autocomplete; and an on-by-default Do Not Track header.Basically, what Gavin is saying is that hardware advances have made much of the modern Web possible, but he also acknowledged the role of Web developers. "One of the things that we hear from developers is that the depth and support across IE 10 means less time testing and more time developing," he said.

The standards that IE 10 adheres to are nothing to sneeze at. Microsoft claims that its labs have found the new version of the browser to be 20 percent faster on Windows 7 than IE 9, and it supports a veritable alphabet soup of HTML5 and CSS3 improvements -- 60 percent more standards-compliant than IE 9, says Microsoft. These include CSS Text Shadow; CSS 3D Transforms; CSS3 Transitions and Animations; CSS3 Gradient; SVG Filter Effects; HTML5 Forms; input controls; validation; Web sockets; HTML5 Sandboxing; Web workers; HTML5 App Cache; File Reader API; and HTML5 Drag-drop, among other backend improvements.

In short, modern HTML5 sites that run smoothly in IE 10 on Windows 8, or the latest browsers from Chrome and Firefox, will now work properly in IE 10 on Windows 7.

There were few interface changes from IE 9 to IE 10 on Windows 8 desktop, which is the version that Windows 7 users will see.

IE 10 for Windows 7 also comes with support for Pointer Events, which may seem strange to some. Pointer Events allow developers to write Web sites and register elements on the Web page to be responsive to multiple simultaneous interactions -- to respond to touch. Even though there are very few Windows 7 computers that shipped with touch screens, Gavin said that this was an important improvement to ship in the Windows 7 version of IE 10. "It's more about getting the developer to not having to do anything special to support the mouse on Windows 7 devices," he said.

Gavin and Rob Mauceri, Internet Explorer's group program manager who was also on the phone, both agreed that touch interaction would drive browser innovation for some time. "Four or five months ago, nobody was talking about touching the web," said Mauceri. "But now you've got new devices like the Pixel where others are following our lead."

Gavin was optimistic about the workplace adoption of IE 10 on Windows 7. "We're in a really good spot with enterprises, where we've been able to offer the latest version of our browser in a relatively short time frame," he said.

However, that's unlikely to be as cut-and-dried as Microsoft would like, even with Microsoft's best-in-class enterprise management tools. Browser adoption momentum indicates that businesses will continue gravitating away from IE, since IE 10 is only available on Windows 7 and Windows 8. The highest version of Internet Explorer that will work on Windows Vista is IE 9, while Windows XP users won't be able to graduate past IE 8.

One thing businesses won't have to worry about is whether Internet Explorer will adopt the six-week, rapid-release cycle of Chrome and Firefox. "We put less emphasis on release schedule and more emphasis on innovation. [Our] release schedule is a by-product of when that innovation is ready to go to market," said Mauceri.

There's little doubt that Internet Explorer 10 is the first version of IE in some time to ship with a fighting chance of being compared favorably to its competition. Being on Windows 7 is a massive boon to IE 10, but its inability to work on older operating systems that its competitors can comfortably perform on will hamstring it until those systems have significantly lower market share.

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Google switches on Google+

Google switches on Google+ sign-ins, in-app posting

Third-party apps and Web sites can now incorporate a sign-on service that resembles Facebook Connect or Sign in with Twitter, but with some Googley twists.

How a Web site can ask users to sign in with their Google accounts. Android and iOS apps follow a similar process.

Google has just made its Google+ platform much more social.

The company today will announce a significant new challenge to Facebook and Twitter by allowing Google accounts to be used when signing into apps and Web sites, a move that could weave Google accounts more tightly into the fabric of the Internet.

Mobile and Web developers will be able to accept Google sign-ins and -- depending on the permissions that the app requests and the user chooses to authorize -- gain access to Google+ social sharing. This follows the lead of other services such as Google Drive and Google Calendar that already have permitted developers full access.

"This is one of the most significant launches that has come out of the Google+ platform," David Glazer, engineering director at Google+, 

Glazer offered the example of Fitbit, the personal fitness startup in San Francisco that's one of the companies that Google worked with prior to today's announcement.

Fitbit previously permitted people to create a new account or sign in with Facebook; it now will also allow sign-ins with Google accounts, complete with the customary security procedures including two-step authentication, if enabled. Fitbit customers can elect to share information through Google+ with specific people, certain circles, or nobody else at all.

Some of the other companies that have already incorporated Google+ sign-ins are TheFancy.com, Flixster.com, the UK Guardian newspaper, and USA Today. Michael Silverman, co-founder of TheFancy.com, said in a new YouTube video that Google+ is a "better" way to sign on to his company's site because "you don't have to create a whole new username and password -- you just click the button and you're ready to go."

Even though its social platform is approaching its two-year anniversary, Google has lagged behind its competitors when offering third-party sign-ins: Facebook Connect is a little over four years old, and Twitter has permitted sign-ins since 2009. LinkedIn offers a similar sign-in option.

"No social spam!"
Today's announcement partially responds to complaints that there has been no way for third-party developers to allow their users to post updates or news to Google+.

Google has moved cautiously, even slowly, in opening up its social network to developers. In September 2011, Google offered a limited API for only public Google+ data, and followed it withGoogle+ history access last summer.

Google+ head Vic Gundotra wrote last August that he was responsible for limiting third-party developers' write access to the service. His explanation: "I've repeatedly stated the reason -- I'm not interested in screwing over developers. When we open an API, we want developers to feel confident that the innovations they build are going to be long lasting. Releasing an API, and then later changing the rules of the game isn't fun for anyone, especially developers who've spent their life's energies building on the platform."

The problem, of course, is that your Google+ stream could be overwhelmed if third-party apps or Web sites post too frequently. It presents a Facebook EdgeRank-like challenge: how to balance users' desires to share with a desire by friends, family, and colleagues not to be spammed with dozens of app-generated messages an hour?

Glazer, the Google engineering director, said that his employer is confident that its algorithms can do a good job of finding that balance: "This is about taking relevance and applying it to social sharing....The principle is making the information available in the right place at the right time."

The way Glazer described it  is that apps and Web sites will be able to post automatically to a page that can be viewed by someone visiting your Google+ home page and then clicking on the app's or site's icon -- essentially, an anti-spam-by-obscurity strategy.

Apps can also offer the option of sharing items with specific Google+ users, which will appear in their recipients' streams and not be relegated to obscurity. That form of more aggressive sharing requires affirmative user consent.

Today's announcement has a few twists:

• On Android devices only, using your Google account to sign into a Web site gives you the option to have that site's app automatically downloaded and installed on your mobile phone. You also have the option to decline. Apple does not allow that flexibility for iOS devices.

• Developers who are using custom programming environments -- for cross-platform coding, for instance -- may not benefit from the iOS or Android SDKs until those environments are updated. But they can still use Web-based authentication. (Details will be posted atdevelopers.google.com/+.)

• Google+ streams now feature "interactive" posts with buttons that can trigger another app when tapped from a mobile device. Tapping the "Listen" button from an NPR Google+ post might launch NPR's app, for instance. Developers can select from a palette of about 100 different pre-defined buttons but are not currently permitted to create their own.

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Ubuntu OS for smartphones, tablets.

Ubuntu Touch OS heading to slew of smartphones, tablets

Developers are working to bring the operating system to more than 20 varieties of smartphones and tablets.

The Ubuntu Touch home screen on a tablet.

The Ubuntu Touch operating system is being ported to more than 20 types ofsmartphones and tablets.

The developer preview of the Linux-based OS was released for the Galaxy Nexus andNexus 4 smartphones and Nexus 7 andNexus 10 tablets last week.

And developers are working to port the OS to a far greater range of devices, including the Asus Transformer series, HTC One handsets, the LG Optimus 4x HD, the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Note and S series, and Sony Xperia phones. They're also working on ports for the Nexus S and Nexus One devices.

The work to adapt the OS is being carried out as part of the Ubuntu port-a-thon initiative to get the developer community to bring Ubuntu Touch to a wider range of hardware.

"We want to port Ubuntu Touch to all kinds of devices," says the porting guide for Ubuntu Touch.

"If you have experience in porting code to Android devices or are generally knowledgeable in terms of porting, working with the kernel and other core bits and pieces of a distribution, this might be interesting to you."

The ports are at various stages of progress and though the OS reuses some of the drivers and other hardware compatibility code used by Android, it will likely take some time to get each port in working order.

Users have been warned not to use the developer preview as their primary OS, and the preview's release notes highlight various issues when running on Nexus devices.

These included problems when using the OS with some 3G and 4G networks, such as CDMA and LTE, and the possibility that the Nexus 4 would refuse to boot if the battery was drained.

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new 'personal sound amplifier'

Listening in on Able Planet's new 'personal sound amplifier'

Device comes with preset environmental filters that reduce background noise while amplifying harder-to-hear sounds. 

Now that I've spent the past week using Able Planet's newly released behind-the-ear "personal sound amplifier," I've learned that I don't hear as well as I like to think. Everything sounds crisper and perkier with the device.

Of course, that isn't necessarily what I want in every environment. I'll spare you the details, but you don't really need to amplify sound when you're going to the bathroom. Nor should crossing your legs in corduroys or pulling a slice of bread out of the plastic bread bag feel so... tingly. With the rather clumsily named PS1600BTE, sometimes the smallest background noises become so bright that it's downright distracting.

The PS1600BTE is worn behind the ear and available online for $850 a pair.

In the intended noisier environments, however, these amplifiers feel like magic, even to someone who likes to think she's got stellar hearing. What's interesting is that it wasn't until I removed the device from each ear that I realized how much duller and more jumbled the sounds in noisy environments were. The PS1600BTE is like icing on a cake I didn't know existed.

The behind-the-ear device is meant to help even people with normal hearing in noisy environments, amplifying hard-to-hear sounds while reducing background noise. Available on its Web site for $850 a pair, Able Planet says it will roll out the amplifiers to U.S. retailers, e-commerce sites, and audiology practices over the coming six months.

It's the latest device in Able Planet's line of personal sounds amplifiers, a term that refers to what are essentially hearing aids for people who are experiencing hearing impairment but not actual hearing loss.

Able Planet is an audio tech company perhaps best known for its noise cancellation headphones. I first stumbled upon the company at CES 2012, when it was showing off its prototype of the in-ear precursor to the PS1600BTE. The concept was intriguing, but as someone without any hearing issues, I shrugged it aside.

One of the device's features is that it comes with preset environmental filters that are easy to adjust up or down right at the top of the device as it sits behind the ear. I did run into issues, however, because I have a lot of thick hair and I wear glasses, and any time I reached back to fiddle with the settings my fingers, strands of hair, and glasses rubbed ever so slightly against the device and the sound was annoyingly amplified.

All that said, the PS1600BTE does what it's intended to do. Even though I have no known hearing impairments, I can certainly imagine putting these on regularly when I go to bars, rock shows, and soccer matches where I sometimes struggle conversing with the person right in front of me.Another issue: Able Planet describes the device, which is held in place by a tiny, clear over-the-ear sound tube, as "highly invisible." I disagree, and so apparently did my 9-month-old baby who, when I picked her up from a nap wearing them for the first time, immediately stared at my ear and tried to grab the tubing.

"Hearing abilities are like fingerprints and everyone is unique," Able Planet CEO Kevin Semcken noted in the company's press release last week. "Struggling to hear in noisy places, like on an airplane, in a crowded restaurant, or at your local pub is common to people with all levels of hearing.... Having difficulty hearing in certain situations does not mean you need to incur the expense of a hearing aid. When hearing becomes a challenge, simply put in your Personal Sound."

The PS1600BTE is now available through the company's Web site for $474.50 for one or $850 for a pair.

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Facebook prompts users to send gifts

Facebook prompts users to send gifts to friends with good news

The social network scans status updates for keywords that make for gift-giving moments.

Facebook has started nudging members to send gifts to friends with especially good news.

The company is featuring "Give a Gift" buttons in the News Feed alongside select status updates that mention special occasions such as a job change.

The buttons were first spotted by Inside Facebook, which obtained screenshots of status updates that talk about new jobs and show the Give a Gift suggestion. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to  that the buttons are part of a "newer test," and are "signaled by keywords."

The appearance of the buttons in News Feed marks the first time that Facebook has turned to the stream to prompt its fledgling Gifts service, a product that has yet to generate meaningful revenue for Facebook.

The social network also appears to be branching out on its definition of a gift-giving occasion. Facebook currently uses member profile data to encourage you to give gifts to your friends with birthdays and anniversaries, as listed in the right-hand sidebar. The newest "Give a Gift" buttons showing in News Feed, however, draw from the content of a status update to make an intelligent assumption about an important life event that might warrant a gift. Inside Facebook suggests that the social network is employing natural language technology from Karma, the gifting startup Facebook bought before launching its Gifts marketplace.

The smart "Give a Gift" buttons, if rolled out more widely, should help Facebook remind members that its otherwise hidden store is chalk full of little doodads for many an occasion. But don't expect Gifts to turn into a real money-maker anytime soon. David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, warned investors that the product would not be a substantial source of revenue for the company for all of 2013.

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today`s quote

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 

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Carlson Rezidor to hire 9,000 people in India

Carlson Rezidor to hire 9,000 people in India by 2015

Hospitality major Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group today said it will hire around 9,000 people in India as part of expansion, under which it plans to have 100 hotels under it in the country by the end of 2015.

NEW DELHI: Hospitality major Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group today said it will hire around 9,000 people in India as part of expansion, under which it plans to have 100 hotels under it in the country by the end of 2015.

"We plan to add around 9,000 employees by 2015 to our present strength of 21,000 and have 100 operating hotels by then," Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Executive Vice-President (South Asia) K B Kachru told PTI.

Kachru, who will be elevated to the position of Chairman of the hotel group in South Asia effective from July 1 this year, said that at present the hospitality chain has 63 operating hotels in India.

"The employees will work for our multiple brands, spread across the country," he added.

The chain has four hospitality brands Radisson Blu, Park Plaza, Country Inns & Suites by Carlson and Park Inn by Radisson in India which cater from mid-scale to premium segments.

On the group's business model, Kachru said: "We are primarily a management company. We manage andfranchise brands but if the right opportunity comes, we will not shy away from the investments."

He said the group will focus on metros, state capitals, religious centres and leisure destinations such as Goa and Shimla.

Last month, the group had said it will open 13 new hotels in India by the end of 2013 in different segments.

The hospitality firm had earlier signed a partnership with Bestech Group, giving it the exclusive rights to develop 49 Park Inn Hotels in north and central India by 2024. In addition, the Carlson Rezidor had agreed to invest Rs 213 crore in first two projects in Gurgaon and Mohali.

The new hotels under different brands will be in Navi Mumbai, Uttarakhand, Bhatinda, Merrut, Gandhidham, Pune, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Mysore, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kolkata and Guwahati.

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Lift Weights to Prevent Diabetes

Lift Weights to Prevent Diabetes

In a major study of nearly 14,000 subjects, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, concluded that each 10 percent increase in muscle mass (as a percentage of body weight) correlated to a 12 percent drop in prediabetes. Improvements occurred even in individuals who exercised but did not lose weight. To boost your odds of preventing type 2 diabetes, strength-train at least twice a week by lifting weights, exercising with resistance bands or doing push-ups and other moves that use your body weight for resistance.

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today`s quote !!

“Without music, life would be a 

mistake.” 

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Myo gesture-control armband uses muscle power

The Myo gesture-control armband is looking to consign camera-based gesture recognition to the history books.

The Myo armband uses your muscles for gesture control.

From "Minority Report" to the Kinect, we've been on a tech quest for touchless gesture control that frees us from the shackles of mice and old-style controllers. We want to get in on the action and use movement to command our digital devices.

Myo from Thalmic Labs takes that gesture-control desire and builds it into an armband you wear on your forearm.

The Myo is available for pre-order. (Click to enlarge.)

The Myo uses a combination of motion sensors and muscle activity sensors to track gestures. When you snap your fingers, wave your hand, or point your finger, it translates that movement into a gesture based on the muscles used. An ARM processor and rechargeable batteries power the armband, which communicates with devices usingBluetooth low energy.

The Myo team suggests using the armband to "unleash your inner Jedi," an enormously appealing idea. It could potentially be used to not only control your computer, but also to fly quadrocopters, interface with iOS and Android, and play video games. The potential is limited only by what developers can create.

The armband will work from the get-go with Mac and PC computers, enabling control of popular activities like Web browsing, media content, and watching videos. I, for one, am eager to see the gaming abilities showcased.

Details on the device are still pretty thin, but a promotional video shows the direction Thalmic Labs is taking. What do you think? Is this a more appealing technology than existing options like the camera-based Kinect?The Myo can be preordered for $149 and is expected to ship in late 2013. Its success may well depend on the number of applications it will work with.

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implantable cardiac defibrillator

FDA approves single-lead implantable cardiac defibrillator.

The device comes with a cellular-based home monitoring system that allows physicians to detect a range of heart-related events, including silent arrhythmias.

The Lumax 740 DX System is now approved in the U.S.

Cardio med tech company Biotronik today announced Food and Drug Administration approval of the world's first implantable cardiac defibrillator that uses just one lead to sense atrial arrhythmias.

Say what?

For those unfamiliar with the mechanics of the heart, let's back up. Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common heat arrhythmia, occurs when the electrical signals in the atria (the heart's two upper chambers) fire fast and frenetically, causing the atria to essentially quiver instead of pulse regularly, which can result in blood pooling or clotting and thus greatly increase the risk of stroke and congestive heart failure.

As if that's not bad enough, this type of arrhythmia -- which can last for minutes, days, or even be a permanent condition -- is often asymptomatic. This explains why even the most elite young athletes in the world can suddenly drop to the ground mid-performance and suffer a heart attack without ever knowing they were at risk in the first place.

Until now, the only way to constantly monitor patients with or at a heightened risk of AF was to implant a cardiac defibrillator (ICD) that uses two leads (thin, flexible wires) and has pacemaker functions built in to deliver electrical shocks to the heart when it starts beating dangerously fast.

It doesn't take an expert to work out that the risk of complications increases with the amount of hardware implanted in the heart. So patients who don't appear to be at specific risk of AF are typically given a single-lead ICD, which until now hasn't been able to detect AF.

Enter Biotronik's newly approved Lumax 740 DX System, which uses a newfangled lead (called Linoxsmart S DX) that features a floating atrial dipole, along with some fancy algorithms, to differentiate between actual AF and atrial flutter, as well as another type of arrhythmia calledsupraventricular tachycardias.

In other words, the folks at Biotronik have managed to incorporate atrial sensing into a single-lead ICD.

Biotronik -- which is headquartered in Germany and happens to be celebrating its 50-year anniversary in 2013 -- says it expects the implants will be available in the U.S. in the next few weeks, and that the DX System is currently approved and available in many international markets as well, including Japan and the European Union."Until now, our only option to obtain important and useful atrial signal information from patients undergoing defibrillator implantation has been to implant a separate atrial lead," says Bradley P. Knight, medical director of the Center for Heart Rhythm Disorders at Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. "The DX System addresses a significant gap in ICD therapy. Patients now have access to the benefits of both dual and single-chamber ICDs without the risk of additional hardware."

The DX System comes with a cellular-based home monitoring system that enables physicians to monitor the device remotely so that a wide range of important but hard-to-detect events, including silent arrhythmias, can be caught as early as possible for medical intervention.

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microsoft tablet`s

Microsoft will reportedly launch Surface tablet in Japan

The Windows tablet may make its debut in Japan next month, according to a report from the Nikkei news service.

Microsoft's Surface RT tablet could be headed for Japan.

Microsoft's Surface tablet may surface in Japan as early as next month, according to a story from the Nikkei news service, as reported by the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.

Microsoft is expected to sell the Surface RT edition to Japanese consumers. That version can run certain desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office RT and Internet Explorer 10, but otherwise is restricted to Windows store apps.

The 32GB Surface RT tablet starts at $499 in the U.S. That same model may sport a price tag in Japan of around 50,000 yen ($531).

Surface has been wending its way around the world. The RT version debuted last October in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia, and China. On February 14, the RT tablet went on sale in 13 additional countries throughout Europe, including Austria, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Earlier this month Microsoft unveiled Surface Pro, which runs the full flavor of Windows 8 and can handle existing desktop applications.

Microsoft was mum about any plans to offer the RT tablet anywhere else. A spokeswoman for the company sent CNET the following statement:

"The worldwide customer response to Surface has been exciting and humbling to see. In order to meet customer demand and retailer expectations, we are taking a phased approach to the availability of Surface. With regard to additional markets, we have nothing further to share at this time."

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facebook`s cold storage !!

Facebook builds 'cold storage' archive for old photos.

Facebook is building a vast new "cold storage" facility in the US to archive all the messages, photos and other postings that its over billion users do not need every day but want to retain for future reference.A 16,000-square-foot data centre under construction in Prineville, Oregon, is designed to provide a more efficient home for older and less popular material.
The new cold storage facility will join two existing data centres in Prineville, The Oregonian reported.
Facebook knows you might want to see your old photos again someday. Or scroll back through your Timeline to revisit your posts as an online diary. But storing all those pictures and keeping them immediately available takes a lot of space.
Not in the physical sense, but in the virtual. That means lots of hard drives, lots of storage and lots of energy.
So Facebook is preparing to try out a more efficient storage system at its Prineville "cold storage", for those archival posts that people don't need every day, but that they don't want to lose altogether.
Facebook says 82 per cent of its traffic is focused on just 8 per cent of its photos. Its cold storage facility is designed to create a more efficient way to store those photos that are not in heavy rotation.
The cold storage building is just a skeletal frame now, and a concrete pad. Facebook hopes to have the first of three phases up and running soon.
Each of the three 16,000-square-foot data hubs could hold an exabyte of data, equivalent to 1 million hard drives inside a contemporary personal computer.
The tens of thousands of servers inside the two existing buildings are always on, ready to deliver your pictures and musings to your Facebook friends around the world.
By contrast, most of the computers in the new cold storage facility will be asleep. A few will be alert, awaiting a request for old material and ready to summon the slumbering computers to provide their data.
This material won't reach your computer as quickly as something posted just a few hours ago, but Facebook says it won't take long.
"The principle will be so that it doesn't impact the user experience, so think about a matter of seconds, or milliseconds," said Michael Kirkland, a Facebook communication manager.
Facebook estimates a cold-storage data center will cost one-third less than its standard data center.

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free call in facebook

Facebook iOS app adds free calling support in US, Canada.

Facebook allowed users on Friday to make free calls to friends at the leading social network using its application tailored for iPhones or iPads.
An updated Facebook "app" for the popular Apple mobile devices shows when friends are online and then gives the option of ringing them up by tapping an icon on the screen. The feature is right now limited to users in US and Canada only.
Calls are routed over the Internet using telecom service data plans or connections to Wi-Fi hotspots. Facebook introduced a version of the feature earlier this year in its messenger program.
Upgrades in the Facebook 5.5 app included a button designed to make it easier to "like" online content and post comments at the social network.
What's new in Facebook for iOS version 5.5
New button design makes it easy to like, comment and share posts in News Feed.
• Improved buttons to like, comment and share posts
• Share button to re-post stories from your News Feed now available in all languages
• Call friends for free right from Facebook (US and Canada) *

* Free calling uses your existing data plan.

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Pure water

 Don’t have soft drinks or energy drinks while you're exercising. Stay properly hydrated by drinking enough water during your workout (just don't overdo things, as drinking too much water can also be dangerous). While you might need energy drinks for long-distance running, in shorter exercise sessions in the gym, your body will burn the glucose from the soft drink first, before starting to burn body fat. Same goes for eating sweets.

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today`s quotes

"If you want to know what a man's like, 

take a good look at how he treats his 

inferiors, not his equals.” 

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RIGHT ON TOP: Skipper M.S. Dhoni struck a recordbreaking unbeaten 206 as India finished on 515 for eight on day three of the first Test against Australia in Chennai on Sunday. 

Dhoni pounds Australia

Dhoni’s unbeaten 206 is the highest score by an Indian captain against Australia. His partnership with Virat Kohli (107) yielded 128 crucial runs.

Bat-speed combined with strong wrists as the sphere was sent rocketing to distant corners. This was ‘power play’ by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Yet, Dhoni’s sensational unbeaten 243-ball 206 at Chepauk before a wildly cheering Sunday crowd was not all power. It was also about heart and fight. And a captain’s ability to respond to pressures that come with the territory.

The ground was Dhoni’s canvas and he brush-stroked it with shots of vibrant colours. The Aussies chased leather or, helplessly, followed the flight of the ball into the stands. What an innings!

Dhoni’s dazzling double century — his first in international cricket — and a well-constructed 107 by the impressive Virat Kohli took India, leading Australia by 135 in the first innings, to 515 for eight on the third day of the first Airtel Test at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.

On a wearing surface offering increasing assistance to the spinners, India holds the aces.

Several records

For the Australians, the rampant Dhoni was a force of nature. To the Indians, he was a responsible skipper, building partnerships and rallying with the tail.

Captain Courageous swept past several records during his blitzkrieg. This is the highest score by an Indian captain against Australia in Tests. And Dhoni became the first wicket-keeper batsman from India to cross 4000 runs.

Dhoni’s counter-attack stunned the Aussies. Yet, this was no thoughtless hitting. The onslaught was calculated.

He walked in after Nathan Lyon had dismissed maestro Sachin Tendulkar (81) with an off-spinner that turned sharply from the edge of the rough just beyond the good length area.

The Australian close-in cordon was in and the host was under stress. It was here that Dhoni disrupted Lyon’s length by getting forward and clouting the spinner on the leg-side without allowing the ball to spin or jump.

The sense of adventure in Dhoni’s batting is unmistakable. And it was in full view during his 109-run association in just 25.4 overs with a dogged Bhuvneshwar Kumar that might have taken the game away from Australia.

Bhuvneshwar’s contribution was a mere 16 as Dhoni launched into the tiring Australian attack. Incredibly, in the final session (extended by half an hour), Dhoni smashed an astonishing 109 runs.

No mercy

Hurricane Dhoni showed no mercy. James Pattinson was bludgeoned over long-off and the ball landed inches in front of the ropes. Dhoni was severe on the slightest of width and the pacemen were flashed between cover and point.

Even if the ball reversed, Dhoni was seeing and picking the sphere so well that he essayed the whip between square-leg and mid-wicket.

Some of his straighter hits were breathtaking. Peter Siddle looked into the heavens as Dhoni smashed the ball past him. The delivery was quick but the ball sped faster to the ropes.

Support seamer Moises Henriques was taken to the cleaners. Dhoni sashayed down the pitch and slapped left-arm paceman Mitchell Starc to the point fence. This was aggressive, inventive batsmanship that forced the bowlers to alter their line.

And Dhoni waltzed down to Lyon to dismiss the bowler ruthlessly into the stands beyond mid-wicket. As Lyon lost his confidence, the lack of depth in the Australian spin stood exposed.

Valuable ally

Earlier in the day, the 31-year-old Dhoni found a valuable ally in Kohli. The right-handed Kohli’s batsmanship combined the urgency of present-day methods with solid, old fashioned blocking. The young man oozed character in the middle.

Kohli’s fourth Test hundred was overshadowed by the explosive Dhoni but his was an important contribution that lent stability to the innings.

The Delhi batsman’s back-to-back Test centuries — Kohli notched up a hundred against England at Nagpur — confirmed his stature as a feisty batsman. In the Nagpur Test too, Kohli and Dhoni figured in a crucial association although the Indian captain missed out on a hundred by a run on that occasion.

At Chepauk, Kohli and Dhoni were involved in a vital 128-run partnership. Kohli’s back-swing was easy and he got solidly behind the line of the deliveries when Pattinson and Siddle bowled testing spells in the morning.

Kohli, subsequently, drove and flicked with panache but failed to press on after his hundred; he was picked up at widish mid-on off Lyon.

Ravindra Jadeja shouldered arms to a Pattinson delivery from round the wicket to see his stumps in a mess and India gradually seemed to lose the plot.

Then, Dhoni boomed with Bhuvneshwar. The crowd, disappointed at Tendulkar missing out on a hundred, was up on its feet as Dhoni celebrated his 200th run.

This was an explosive innings.

Scoreboard

Australia — 1st innings: 380.

India — 1st innings: M. Vijay b Pattinson 10 (15b, 2x4), V. Sehwag b Pattinson 2 (11b), C. Pujara b Pattinson 44 (74b, 6x4), S. Tendulkar b Lyon 81 (159b, 7x4), V. Kohli c Starc b Lyon 107 (206b, 15x4, 1x6), M.S. Dhoni (batting) 206 (243b, 22x4, 5x6), R. Jadeja b Pattinson 16 (45b, 3x4), R. Ashwin b Lyon 3 (6b), H. Singh b Henriques 11 (31b, 1x6), Bhuvneshwar (batting) 16 (56b, 2x4), Extras (b-2, lb-14, w-3) 19, Total (for eight wkts. in 141 overs) 515.

Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Vijay), 2-12 (Sehwag), 3-105 (Pujara), 4-196 (Tendulkar), 5-324 (Kohli), 6-365 (Jadeja), 7-372 (Ashwin), 8-406 (Harbhajan).

Australia bowling: Starc 25-3-75-0, Pattinson 26-5-89-4, Siddle 22-5-61-0, Lyon 40-1-182-3, Henriques 17-4-48-1, Clarke 8-2-25-0, Warner 3-0-19-0.

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microsoft next os windows blue

Microsoft said to be readying public preview of Windows Blue

Microsoft's Windows Blue operating system update rumored to be coming in the next couple of months.

More rumors about Microsoft's next Windows release, codenamed Blue, are trickling out from Win8China.com, a site known for leaking information about new Windows releases.

Though I cannot corroborate all Win8China's specifics, I'd say based on previous Windows Blue tidbits I've heard, the site's latest Blue information seems largely believable.

In August 2012, I blogged about Microsoft's Windows Blue work, noting that a summer 2013 debut was the internal Microsoft delivery target. Win8China claimed today that the release-to-manufacturing phase for Windows Blue is supposedly June 7, with retail availability planned for August 2013.

Looking back, Microsoft released Windows 8 to manufacturing on August 1, 2012 but didn't make the release available at retail until October 26. Up until now, there's typically been a roughly three-month lag between RTM and the date when at least some PC makers would have the latest Windows release preloaded on new PCs. With Blue, Microsoft is trying to get Windows on a faster development track, and also get the final bits into consumers' hands almost as soon as the product RTMs, I've heard.

Win8China is also reporting that the second of the two expected Windows Blue milestones will be a public "milestone preview" build. I blogged recently that there would be two Windows Blue "milestones," according to my contacts, but had no information as to when and whether Microsoft planned to release a developer or consumer preview before RTMing the product.

In January, I reported that Windows Blue was expected to include tweaks to the user experience, new dev-platform related bits, as well as new versions of Internet Explorer, Mail, Calendar, Bing and other integrated apps. Blue also was expected include some kernel and driver-level updates that could help with battery life and overall performance, according to my sources.

It sounds like Win8China also is hearing the same, noting there will be performance enhancements. The site is also claiming there will be scalability improvements for Metro-Style (Windows Store) apps so that they render correctly on differently sized screens. (We know Microsoft officials are touting Windows 8's ability to support multiple screen sizes, so this seems like a good bet.)

Win8China also said that Microsoft intends to make the Windows Blue upgrade free for Windows 8 users. I have no idea if this is true, or if Microsoft will go the Apple route and make OS refreshes available for a relatively nominal fee.Win8China also mentions windowing improvements will be part of Windows Blue. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I'd be really happy if we could run more than just two apps side-by-side like we're stuck doing with Windows 8. A woman can dream....

Win8China hasn't posted about the other products that I've heard are part of the upcoming Blue wave. Windows Phone, Windows Server, Outlook.com and SkyDrive are all set to get "Blue" refreshes at some point. I've heard from my contacts that Windows Phone Blue is running later than Windows Blue. It's unclear whether that means Windows Phone Blue will be a fall/winter 2013 or a 2014 release. (This should not be interpreted as Windows Phone Blue being "delayed," as I have no idea what the Windows Phone team's target for Blue is/was.)

Microsoft officials are declining to comment on anything pertaining to Blue.

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