This week on Twitter [Sep 05, 2010]

In an effort to make the Twitter news available on a daily basis, I have created Varunkumar Nagarajan daily based on my tweets and the tweets of people whom I follow. I will continue to post the “This week on Twitter” series here.

Science & Technology

• Smallest Full Moon of 2010. Link.
• TEDxAmazonia. In the middle of world’s largest rain forest. Link.
• Eclipse day at GooglePlex 2010. Link.
• After Apple & Google, Yahoo jumps into TV. Link.
• Firefox 4 Beta 4 out. Link.
• MIT testing self-assembling solar cells. Link.

Industry News

• Kevin Rose steps down as CEO of digg. Link.
• Google acquires Angstro to compete with Facebook. Link.
• Google buys SocialDeck. Link.
• Google backs out of JavaOne. Link.

Social Networks

• Facebook testing “Subscribe” – its version of follow. Link.
• Twitter in Real Time. Link.

Google

• Call phones from Gmail. Link.
• Gmail gets priority inbox. Link.
• Blogger turned 11 and Google organized BloggerFiesta worldwide.
• Useful Gmail shortcuts. Link.
• Google releases Chrome 6 on its second birthday. Link.
• Google mobile gets a cool new YouTube channel. Link.
• Google can read SVG documents now. Link.
• Google reader gets full screen mode. Link.

Gadgets

• One-click rooting for Nexus One. Link.
• Unicode fonts on Android. Link.
• Apple Music event 2010. New iPod Touch, Nano announced. Link.
• Official page of Samsung Galaxy Tab. Link.
• The great big spreadsheet of all known Android devices. Link.

India

• Landline telephone number may soon sport a 10-digit number. Link.
• Book KSRTC bus tickets from your mobile. Link.

Programming

• Lazy loading of JavaScript. Link.
• Binding Python and Mozilla DOM. Link.

-- Varun

3DS, the glasses free 3D technology!!

Three-dimensional (3D) movies / videos are cool but you need to have the special glasses to enjoy them. If you are a person wearing glasses already, 3D glasses are a definite pain. Here is a new technology which, will be part of the upcoming gaming console Nintendo 3DS, can produce 3D effects without the need for glasses. Check out the video by Kombo’s Jeff Grubb to know how it works. More information can be found here.

Thanks to Nanda Kumar (@nanda_kumar_R) for sharing this info. On a different note, YouTube has been testing a video player for watching videos in 3D.

-- Varun

This week on Twitter [August 15, 2010]

Science & Technology

• Street level imagery from Microsoft. Street Slide. Link.
• Sun eruptions spit plasma at Earth. Link.
• Eco-friendly USB rechargeable batteries. Link.
• Kindle games. Link.
• Helicopter game using HTML5. Link.
• Make your old add-ons work with Firefox 4. Link.
• Skype files for IPO. Link.
• Mathematical breakthroughs. Link.
• JQuery for mobile announced. Link.
• Amazon opens UK Kindle store. Link.

Social Media

• “Who to follow” is live on Twitter.
• Twitter’s short link service. Link.
• “You both follow” feature is live on Twitter.
• Twitter now even more Torrent friendly. Link.

Google

• Google launches multiple account sign-in. Link.
• Google discontinued Wave. Link.
• Google’s Ultimate demo system. Link.
• Google updates the Contacts in GMail. Link.
• Flipping for Gesture search. Link.
• Product development at Google. Link.
• Google unveils Voice actions for Android. Link.

Gadgets

• JailBreakMe, the first web based Jailbreak for iPhone. Link.
• RIM announces its first touch phone. Blackberry Torch. Link.
• Two new Android based smart phones from Moto. Link.
• HTC Wildifre available in India for 16K. Link.
• Nexus One officially became a developer phone. Link.

India

• Malaysia plans new Visa system (VFS) for India. Link.
• Indian Govt. forms programmers’ army to hack systems of hostile nations. Link.
• Mobile Number portability by Oct 31. Link.

Sports

• Stumpy is chosen as the mascot for the 2011 cricket world cup. Link.

Events

• Speakers announced for TEDxChennai. Link.

-- Varun

Mathematical breakthroughs!!

Lots of interesting things are happening in the Math world. Some of the remarkable breakthroughs this week:

• Computation of Pi. Mathematicians Alexander J. Yee & Shigeru Kondo have successfully completed the computation of Pi to Five Trillion digits. The computation took 90 days on a single desktop. This is a new world record. The previous record was computation up to 2.7 Trillion digits. Link.
• Rubik’s Cube solution. A team of researchers found that every possible combination of the Rubik’s cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible Rubik’s cube positions. This is a new world record. The previous solution solved the problem in 28 moves. The number of moves used to solve the Rubik’s cube problem is known as God’s Number. Link.
• P != NP. Researcher Vinay from HP labs claimed proof that P != NP. However, a major (unfixable) flaw was found later on his paper.

There are much more happening in the Math world. Subscribe to Slashdot Sciene / @digg_sciences to keep yourself updated on the latest happenings.

-- Varun

This week on Twitter [August 01, 2010]

Science & Technology

• Why People think computers can’t. Link.
• Yahoo! Japan to use the Google search in future. Link.
• Oracle rebrands Java. Breaks Eclipse. Link.
• Time saving auto hotkeys for windows. Link.
• Firefox 3.6.8 released. Link.

Social Media

• Twitter testing inline photos and videos. Link.
• Twitter begins user stream testing. Link.
• Facebook questions beta is out. Link.

Google

• Google’s CEO says there is no need for ‘Google Me’. Link.
• How to get a Google Nexus One. Link.
• Google docs to get a new file type “Punch”. Link.
• Google CEO announces Zynga partnership. Link.
• Upcoming GMail features. Link.
• YouTube launches a music video discovery page. Link.
• YouTube’s new embedding code supports HTML5. Link.
• Google places for Android gets Yelp like interface. Link.
• Play hidden snake game in YouTube. Link.
• YouTube increases the max video length to 15 mins. Link.

Gadgets

• Jailbreaking iPhone is legal now. Link.
• Apple announces new products on its store including Mac Pro and Magic Trackpad. Link.
• Froyo for Samsung Galaxy S leaked. Link.
• Froyo for HTC Incredible leaked. Link.
• Amazon reveals new Kindle. Link.
• Smartpen – a pen which records and playback what you wrote. Link.
• Android user interface stencil kit. Link.

India

• ISB iDiya 2010, a national social idea challenge announced. Link.
• IT dept has extended the last day for tax filing to 4-Aug-2010 due to technical issues on e-filing site.Link.

-- Varun

This week on Twitter [July 25, 2010]

Science & Technology

• OpenStack. Open source cloud computing software. Link.
• Nokia Siemens acquires Motorola wireless unit for 1.2Bn USD. Link.
• Deploy your own satellite for $8000. Link.
• Regular expression for finding prime numbers. Link.
• Windows 7 keyboard shortcut. Link.
• What the hack? Link.
• Yahoo! Open hack day Banagalore 2010 was a grand success with 430 hackers and 110 info geeks.
• Intel Capital invests in cloud-based game streaming service Gaiki. Link.
• Piezoelectric batteries. Link.

Social Media

• Yahoo! Pulse available for everyone. Link.
• Facebook officially crosses 500 million users. Link.
• Apple’s real problem with the white iPhone4. Link.

Google

• Google introduces user policy management for Google Apps. Link.
• Google re-designs its image search interface. Link.
• Screen capture extension for Google Chrome. Link.
• Google Chrome tells you when sites are down for other users. Link.

Gadgets

• Apple iPhone 4 coming to India in October. Link.
• Swype Input interface sneaks into Windows 7 demo. Link.
• Google Nexus One sold out. Link.
• 58.8% of Android handsets run a recent OS version. Link.

India

• How to use the Indian Rupee symbol on websites? Link.

-- Varun

This week on Twitter [July 18, 2010]

Science & Technology

• The most important algorithms. Link.
• Space saving furniture. Link.
• Mouseless, the invisible computer mouse. Link.
• Amazon hooks students with a free year of Amazon Prime. Link.
• Amazon opens Super Computing service. Link.
• "SiteOnMobile" takes internet to the masses with low-end mobiles. Web access via SMS. Link.
• Which came first? Chicken or egg? Scientists say its chicken. Link.
• Apple buys Google Earth like product. Link.
• OpenSuse 11.3 released. Link.
• The world's only immortal animal. Link.
• Firefox 4 Beta 1 released. Link.
• Adobe Flash is going 3D. Link.

Social Media

• Employees challenged to crack Facebook security, succeed. Link.
• Twitter confirms analytics product. Link.
• Facebook's Open Graph going mobile. Link.

Google

• Google's URL shortener for your domain. Link.
• GMail gets rich text signatures. Link.
• Update on China. Link.
• Google Maps gets shortened URLs. Link.
• Google secretly invested in Zynga, preparing to launch Google Games? Link.
• Google's anagram easter egg. Link.
• App Inventor to ease application development on Android. Link.
• Picasa web integrates with Picnik. Link.
• Google Maps celebrated its fifth birthday. Link.
• YouTube hit by HTML vulnerability. Link.
• 4K videos coming to YouTube. Link.

Gadgets

• Android targets China and India for growth. Link.
• Browsing experience Android vs iPhone 4. Link.
• Apple iPhone 4 catches fire. Link.
• World's first mobile phone projector. Its Android based. Link.
• Apple to give away free cases to iPhone 4 users suffering from death grip. Link.
• Nexus One changes in availability. Link.

India

• New Delhi Traffic Police issuing notice to violators using photos on Facebook wall. Link.
• Indian Rupee gets a symbol. Link.
• Tatkal booking made easy for common man. Link.

Sports

• Spain won the FIFA World Cup 2010.
• World's best off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan to retire from Test cricket. Link.
• Tickets available for World Cup Cricket 2011. Link.

-- Varun

Aqualux 3D - New 3D display technology using water drops!

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new 3D holographic projection system trade named as "Aqualux 3D" using water drops. The refraction of light on water has been the main concept behind this system. The idea was born when the scientists were trying to understand the reflection / refraction of light on water drops for building better car headlights.

More details can be found here and the video with technical details of the system is available here.Thanks to @nanda_kumar_R for the info.

-- Varun

This week on Twitter [July 04, 2010]

Science & Technology

• Firefox 3.6.4 released with crash protection. Link.
• HTML5 showcases of Google, Apple and Microsoft. Link.
• Firefox 3.6.6 released for patching the frequent Flash player crashes. Link.
• Cell phones as eye doctors. Link.

Social Media

• Facebook launches Hover-cards. Link.
• Twitter to publish shopping deals through @EarlyBird account. Link.
• Google Me social networking to take on Facebook. Link.
• Facebook unveils suggested interests list. Link.
• Facebook unleashes Open-Graph search engine. Link.

Google

• Google Spreadsheet adds format painter. Link.
• YouTube’s world cup Easter egg. Link.
• Google apps training and certification tools for teachers. Link.
• Google to use more HTML5 features in GMail. Link.
• Google’s update on China. Link.
• Google adds real-time web analytics to Blogger. Link.

Gadgets

• Infibeam, India has announced its Windows and Android based tablets named “Phi”. Link.
• The newly launced Apple iPhone 4 has reception issues. Link.
• Microsoft Kin discontinued after just 48 days. Link.
• Android Vs iPhone 4 multitasking compared. Link.
• Yahoo gets serious on Android development. Launches Y! Mail and Messenger for Android. Link.
• Android 2.2 Froyo rolled out to all the Nexus One users. Link.
• Amazon Kindle for Android released. Kindle for iPhone to have audio and video support. Link.

India

• Infibeam has launched its own brand of mobile phones in India. Link.
• Facebook, Hyderabad India is hiring 500 people. Link.
• Mukesh Ambani, D.E. Shaw close to Joint Venture. Link.
• Get address proof from Indian Postal department. Link.

Events

• TEDx events in India. Link.
• Dev Camp, Chennai on July 10. Link.
• Seth Godwin in India on July 07. Link.

Misc

• The next version of Eclipse IDE “Helios” is out. Link.

-- Varun