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Microsoft on Thursday unveiled a new corporate logo for the first time in 25 years as the US tech giant geared up for a series of big product launches.The new logo features a square made up of four separate colored squares. The move comes with Microsoft ramping up the buzz for its Windows 8 operating platform and its first tablet computer, called Surface. The company is also making an aggressive effort to gain ground in the smartphone market. "It's been 25 years since we've updated the Microsoft logo and now is the perfect time for a change," said Microsoft brand strategy manager Jeff Hansen. "This is an incredibly exciting year for Microsoft as we prepare to release new versions of nearly all of our products. From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs. "This wave of new releases is ...

Mundane status updates, posting photos of food and writing about your boring habits are among the top Facebook gripes, a new study has found. Public displays of affection, wonderful partner and equally brilliant children also make people sick and if you don't stop clogging up others' news feeds with your mundane status, you're likely to get unfollowed, according to the study. While 59 per cent of the 1000 Aussies surveyed admitted they would delete friends that hogged their news feed, 42 percent named using the social network as a diary as the most annoying Facebook habit, followed closely by posting Instagram photos of their food. Checking in everywhere you go rated a 38 per cent annoyance rate, and your public fawning over your latest squeeze is causing 29 per cent of your friends to want to never see your name on their screen ever again. As many as 21 per cent of people want to stop following you if you keep posting photos of your baby 'News.com.au' reported...

Is India becoming another China? That’s exactly what struck my mind when the Indian government threatened "appropriate and suitable action" against Twitter, which has about 16 million users in India, if it failed to block accounts containing objectionable content. As soon as the already weak social fabric of India was exposed with the so-called exodus of northeastern Indians from major cities, the government began a sort of crackdown on social networking websites, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. It asked Internet service providers to block around 300 web pages in a bid to quell ethnic tensions between illegal Bangladeshi migrants and people from the North East. And it further limited SMS messages to five per user per day for 15 days (the limit has now been revised to 20 per user per day). According to the government, Google and Facebook largely cooperated, while Twitter’s response has been slower to block 28 accounts containing objectionable content. When the governme...

NEW DELHI: As part of its 'transparency report', Google on Monday said that it had received 101 content removal requests from Indian authorities between July and December last year, asking it to delete 255 items from its websites. Of these, just five requests were made by courts. Google, which runs services like YouTube and Blogger apart from the widely used search engine, said the number marked an increase of 49% in such requests compared with January-June 2011 period. In terms of requests made by the government bodies excluding courts, India topped the list as it sent 96 requests to Google to remove content. However, in terms of number of items that governments wanted to remove, Brazil, US, UK, Germany and Spain were ahead of India. According to the Google data, the company was asked to remove 130 items, including 77 videos on Youtube, because they were deemed defamatory. Another 25 items, including 24 videos, were considered hate speech. The interesting bit was that of the...

Facebook fiasco: Two lakh accounts hacked in 24 hrs Users of the popular social networking site woke up to a harsh reality yesterday when they found their pictures morphed, put on pornographic sites and feeds sent to friends; experts fear this may bring about site's downfall Over two lakh city Facebook users woke up to a social media embarrassment yesterday morning as their accounts had been hacked and weblinks to their morphed pornographic pictures sent as feeds to friends and family. According to global media reports, more than 60 lakh Facebook accounts were hacked since Sunday night. Social networking analysts have claimed that officially more than 2 lakh Bangalore Facebook accounts were hacked. The cyber crime department has received many calls and complaints regarding the mass hacking. They have started preliminary investigations in a few cases too. All Porn and gore A resident of Koramangala logged on to her Facebook account yesterday morning from a cyber caf ©, onl...

Con artists are lurking in the shadows of your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and eHarmony accounts, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association, the oldest international investor protection association. Crooks have always gravitated to so-called "affinity" frauds, which target the members of a set group such as members of a particular church, alumni association or country club. That's because victims let down their guard when they're introduced through a friend, even if that introduction is second-hand. (Think: "I was referred to you by Father Jim." Or "Susan suggested that I give you a call.") In fact, scammers purposefully infiltrate tight-knit groups, figuring that common hobbies, lifestyles, professions or faith will help them establish a bond with their victims. Because we assume that our friends won't betray us, that bond increases the likelihood that even a reasonable, thoughtful individual will become a victi...

Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, in an all-cash deal. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is said to be a big champion of the deal, the largest in the history of the company. Ballmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates will host a press conference to announce it officially. The deal is Microsoft's largest cash purchase in its 36-year long history. "The combination will extend Skype's world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft's existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services," according to Microsoft's press release on the deal. "With 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally." Skype has been up for sale for some time, thanks to some very antsy investors. Facebook and Google were said to be earlier dance partners...