THFire.com – i-News

Got an ipod ? Now having trouble transferring your music playlists in Windows Media Player to your ipod ? I got a solution for you.
First of all you need to get iTunes to manage you music files in your ipod. iTunes automatically detects your iPod and lists the music files that are available in your ipod. You can easily transfer your music files using iTunes.

Download iTunes using any of the following methods :

You can download iTunes from Apple.com

Click here to Download from Apple website Directly.

Click Here to Download from an alternative server.

The installation is a very simple process and you can just slide through it.

I know the above section is quite useless cause everyone who owns a ipod will automatically have an iTunes installed in their computer. Anyway I just wanted to give some headstart in case you are really lost.

Now, the real pain is when you want to transfer your Playlists in Windows Media Player to your iPod. There is no direct way to do that as Windows Media Player and iTunes uses different kinds of playlist format. The good news is there is a way to transfer them without having to go through the painful process of adding all your favorite songs one by one again in iTunes to update in your iPod.

1. Open Windows Media Player and select the playlist you want to transfer to iTunes.

2. Now go to the file menu(Press ALT & F to get it). Now click on “Save now playing playlist as..” Now make sure you select the “Save as Type” as “M3U Playlist”.  All your playlists by default are stored in My Documents -> My Music -> My Playlists folder.

3. Open iTunes go to File menu then “Library” and then click “Import Playlist” option. Now select the file you just saved. Browse to My Playlists and select newly saved file i.e., the M3U format file.

Thats it! All your playlist will now appear in iTunes. Now you can transfer them to your iPod.

The Big G has been sued by a Chinese author Mian Mian. Mian Mian sued Google in October after Google scanned one of her books, Acid House, and added it to Google’s Library.

Google said it had removed the book as soon as it learned of the lawsuit, but had no further comment on the case.

She is seeking damages of 61,000 yuan ($8,950; £5,576) and a public apology.

A Beijing judge has told the Chinese novelist Mian Mian, who is suing Google over its plan to create an online library, to hold settlement talks. After a two-hour hearing, the court ordered both sides to talk but did not set a deadline for reporting back, according to the author’s lawyer.

Mian Mian writes risque novels – including titles such as Panda Sex and Candy – about China’s underworld of sex, drugs and nightlife. Most of her work is banned in China.

She is not alone in complaining about copyright issues raised by Google’s online library. The China Written Works Copyright Society is also looking for compensation for other Chinese authors whose work is included in the project.

In France, a court ordered Google to stop digitising French books without the publisher’s approval. The search engine was also told to pay 300,000 euros ($430,000; £268,000) in damages and interest to French company La Martiniere, which had sued for copyright infringement for scanning book excerpts.

In the US, Google agreed a $125m settlement with American authors and publishers – although this is still waiting for final court approval.

Source : BBC

HP Cameras are Racist

A YouTube video suggesting that face recognition cameras installed in HP laptops cannot detect black faces has had over one million views.

The short movie, uploaded earlier this month, features “Black Desi” and his colleague “White Wanda”.

When Wanda, a white woman, is in front of the screen, the camera zooms to her face and moves as she moves.

But when Desi, a black man, does the same, the camera does not respond by tracking him.

The clip is light-hearted in tone but is titled “HP computers are racist”.

“HP has been informed of a potential issue with the facial-tracking software included on some of its systems, which appears to occur when insufficient foreground lighting is available,” an HP spokesman told BBC News.

“We take this seriously and are looking into it with our partners.”

LOL, HP can end up in a lot of problem if someone sues it over this.

Here is the Video you are looking for

Looks like Google is looking forward to close the deal by the end of this year. In case you are wondering what Yelp is. Yelp is a local search that also reviews all kinds of businesses from restaurants to spas, pretty much everything.

Google is reportedly brokering a deal to buy local search and review property Yelp for $500 million.The Web site had 26 million visitors in the last 30 days through November. If Google can get Yelp, it will have a treasure trove of local information with which it can pair contextual mobile ads. If Google does bid for Yelp, it would be Google’s seventh of 2009, preceded by On2 Technologies, ReCaptcha, AdMob, Gizmo5, Teracent and AppJet, all since August.

Yelp local search engine in Google's claws?

With the end of 2009 drawing nigh, Google is reportedly brokering a deal to buy local search and review property Yelp for $500 million, a royal sum for a company that banked $31 million in funding and boasts a $30 million run rate.

Google is no stranger to such premiums and set a serious precedent by offering $750 million for AdMob, which IDC said earned $40 million in mobile display ad sales in 2009.

A Google spokesperson declined to confirm or deny a deal, first reported by TechCrunch, was forthcoming, coyly telling eWEEK: “While we’re always talking to various companies about various things, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

elp provides reviews for local businesses, including restaurants, spas and pretty much any type of concern one might need to call on to aid them through the daily grind. The Web site had 26 million visitors in the last 30 days through November.

“Yelpers,” as the site’s members are known, have composed more than 8 million reviews, representing a massive volume of opinion and ratings. Yelpers can also share information with fellow Yelpers, making the property a niche social network.

Google wants this information to boost the data and services it already provides with its Local Business Center. Participating businesses list their phone numbers, hours of operation and other factoids with Google, which renders this info on Google Maps Place Pages, which include directions, reviews and other information pertinent to specific businesses. Yelp has been immensely successful providing similar info, but lacks Google’s massive Web presence.

Google also recently unveiled its “Favorite Places on Google” initiative, which lets more than 100,000 business owners in its LBC place a window sticker with a bar code on their storefronts. Users walking by on the street can scan the QR code from their Apple iPhone, Android-powered phones, surfacing the business’ Place Page right from their handhelds. Local mobile search and advertising are the keys to Google buying Yelp.

If Google can get Yelp, it will have a treasure trove of local information with which it can pair contextual mobile ads. A user walking around a city with his Apple iPhone or Android device could feel his phone vibrate. He would check the phone and see shopping alerts from Google/Yelp, which might also offer them coupons from retailers.

Imagine two-for-one offers from clothing stores, a free cup of coffee offer as one passes the local Starbucks, or a 10 percent off coupon from a nearby Indian restaurant. With Yelp data powering Google Maps Place Pages on Android phones, the ad possibilities are endless.

Adam Bunn, of U.K. search marketers Greenlight, said such a deal would give Google fresh local search results without the need to go through the usual crawling and indexing process and sending searchers to another site. This points to the huge potential for Google to sell targeted ads. Interestingly, Bunn said Google seems to be taking a page out of a competitor’s playbook, and it’s not local search power Yahoo.

“This is one of the strategies that Microsoft had chosen for Bing, and the main reason why it took so long for Bing to launch properly in the UK; identifying potential content or functionality partners relevant to that market, negotiating with them and then integrating their data takes time.”

Kelsey Group analyst Michael Boland noted that in Yelp Google would also be acquiring a fat sales force of advertisers:

“[Yelp] COO Geoff Donaker told us at last week’s Interactive Local Media show that 200 of the company’s 300 employees are advertiser facing in some way, including account rep or direct sales positions. Google has always maintained that it’s not in its strategic interests to  buy or build a direct sales force to access the elusive SMB marketplace at the heart of its “long tail” paid search efforts. That’s kind of true but this deal changes it a bit.”

If Google does bid for Yelp, it would be Google’s seventh of 2009, preceded by On2 Technologies, ReCaptcha, AdMob, Gizmo5, Teracent and AppJet, all since August. Moreover, Google is also rumored to be eyeing real-estate search provider Trulia.

These deals underscore how Google is well positioned to maintain and extend its lengthy search, ad and Web services lead into 2010.

Source : eWeek.com

We all know that Dark Matter exists. But it seems they have been detected for the first time. Dark matter may have been “felt” for the first time deep in a Minnesota mine, physicists say.

Detectors in the mine, part of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment, were tripped recently by what might be weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.

WIMPs are among the most popular candidates for dark matter, the invisible material that scientists think makes up more than 80 percent of the mass in the universe.

Recently detectors in the mine recorded two hits with “characteristics consistent with those expected from WIMPs,” according to a statement posted on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Web site.

There is a one-in-four chance, however, that the particles detected are not dark matter but ordinary subatomic particles such as neutrons, the team cautions. (Related: “Dark Matter Proof Found Over Antarctica?”)

Mike Shull, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, also urged restraint in interpreting the results.

“I regard this as interesting but very much an interim ‘progress report’ on a promising technique,” said Shull, who did not participate in the research.

“I hope they’ve detected [WIMPs],” he added, “It’s exciting if it’s true.”

WIMPS: Best Dark Matter Candidate?

Scientists have predicted that WIMPs can interact with normal atoms but only weakly and very rarely—hence the name.

When such an interaction happens, a WIMP careens like a billiard ball off an atom, the theory goes. But the collision leaves behind a unique signature in the form of a small amount of heat, which can be detected.

The smashup also creates charged atoms, or ions, that are detectable.

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment uses 30 detectors made of germanium and silicon crystals.

The detectors were placed a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) underground at the Soudan mine, a defunct iron mine in northern Minnesota. The deep location helps block “background noise” from other particles, such as solar and cosmic rays.

Aside from the online statement, details on the new detections have yet to be published, and members of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search team are declining comment.

But University of Chicago theorist Craig Hogan said that while the new detections are exciting, “it’s not time for the champagne bottles yet.”

The real significance of the apparent find would be that it could be used to help shape future dark matter detectors, which will be more sensitive and can better rule out false hits, Hogan said.

“It’s not a discovery yet, but if these detections are real, we can turn it into a discovery.”

Dark Matter Detected for First Time?

Dark Matter Origins

If WIMP detections are confirmed by other experiments, then scientists will likely want to know where the particles are coming from, the University of Colorado’s Shull added.

That’s because the origins of dark matter particles passing Earth could help solve other cosmic mysteries.

Some theories of galaxy formation, for instance, say that our Milky Way and other “adult” galaxies are enveloped by halos of dark matter that are densest in the galactic centers.

If this is correct, Shull said, then dark matter particles would be expected to originate from the center of the Milky Way more often than from other regions of space.

Source : nationalgeographic.com

Nexus one ?

It looks like Google is all set to produce and sell its own cellphone “Nexus One”. Sadly google has not yet made any comment regarding this. All I could find about this was news reports. All this was started by Wall Street Journal, who posted an article and said they have sources for the information. Well, atleast Google plans to sell them next year. Maybe they wanted to give a Christmas or a New Year surprise.

Here is the article from Reutures:

Called the Nexus One and made by smartphone maker HTC, the phone will run on the search giant’s Android operating system — around which Motorola and other cellphone makers have built devices — and will be sold online, the newspaper cited persons familiar with the matter as saying.

Cellular service will have to be bought separately, it added.

The Internet search leader may be sounding a challenge to wireless carriers such as Sprint and Verizon, as well as smartphone makers like Apple. It marks a departure for the leader in Web advertising, which has rarely sold devices directly to consumers, the newspaper said.

Google’s Android phones have won attention in the mobile industry lately, with Motorola and Sony Ericsson choosing to launch it with their new top models.

Analysts say the aim is to gain access to valuable consumer data that can be used to sell ads at premium prices, rather than to make money from direct hardware sales, as companies such as Nokia or Research in Motion do.

Research house IDC estimates the market share for Android operating software rose to 5.4 percent from 4.2 percent in July-September in Western Europe, a key market.

Executives at HTC, the Taiwan-based world’s No. 4 smartphone brand, were not available for comment. Google was also not available for comment. Google began sharing a version of the Nexus One with employees in recent days, the newspaper cited its sources as saying.

Well, atleast for a short time. Microsoft’s Search Engine Bing has suffered from a outage resulting it in disappear from the internet. The outage lasted atleast over 30 minutes. Microsoft has already apologized for the outage. It looks like Microsoft was making some configuration changes to the Search Engine which caused the outage. The outage occurred in the early hours of  Thursday, 3rd December. Microsoft released a statement regarding the outage saying it was “”unfortunate and unintended consequences”.

Visitors who visited Bing.com during the outage got a error message displayed.

Microsoft’s senior vice presidents in its Online Services Division, Satya Nadella said “”As soon as the issue was detected, the change was rolled back, which caused the site to return to normal behavior.”

This week Microsoft updated Bing Maps to add test features that allows applications, such as real time traffic feeds, to be added to the site. It also introduced a system that lets people create 360 degree panoramas of locations.