Google Calendar bug shares details of private events

WASHINGTON: A Google Calendar bug might lead to some awkward situations for the users as it could end up sharing private events with others without any warning.

Developer Terence Eden pointed out that the users should be careful with how they name their events in the Google Calendar, otherwise it will automatically invite anyone whose email address is mentioned in the title, without even notifying the person who made the entry, the Verge reports.

According to the report, this works with some non-Gmail users too, but it does not occur at all when creating an event on Android.

These automatic invitations are occurring only when a user includes an email address from the expanded calendar entry screen.

However, Google believes that the issue has minimal impact on the security of the users.

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Consumer Watchdog complains against Google to FTC

WASHINGTON: Google is violating a privacy agreement it made with the US Federal Trade Commission by planning to link Gmail addresses to its Google+ social network.

John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director, a long-time critic of Google's privacy practices in a complaint to the agency, said that a user could be forced to be publicly associated with someone with whom they do not wish to.

Google+ also has a 'flagrant and fundamental privacy design flaw' because it allows any user to add other users to his circles without their permission.

According to PC World, Simpson said that people must have the right to choose with whom they are associated, adding that operating a social network as Google is doing in a blatant attempt to build traffic and the user base is an unfair business practice.

Google representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Consumer Watchdog complaint.

Google earlier this month announced to merge Google+ and Gmail contact lists, allowing a Gmail user to send an unsolicited email message to another user without knowing the second person's Gmail address, by adding the intended recipient to his Google+ circles.

According to the report, that merger of Google+ and Gmail accounts violates a March 2011 privacy settlement between Google and the FTC over Google Buzz, the company's failed first social-networking experiment, Consumer Watchdog alleged.

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Facebook rolls out ‘trending stories’ in India

NEW DELHI: Social networking giant Facebook launched last week its new feature 'trending stories', replicating Twitter's popular model of finding the most popular topics on the website.

The new Facebook feature is now being launched in India as part of a gradual roll out, and is so far available only to a few users in the country.

The top three trending topics on Facebook India right now are Microsoft's Q4 earnings, Rafael Nadal beating Roger Federer in the Australian Open final, and Justin Bieber getting out of jail.

Facebook's take on trending topics is a little different from Twitter's. The biggest social network in the world, Facebook shows the trending topics as well as the explanation for why they are trending. On the other hand, Twitter only lists the popular topics on the website, without any details on the reason they are popular among users.

Both websites tailor the trending topics based on locations and interests of users. Trending topics won't be available on the mobile version of Facebook, but the company said it is testing the feature in its app for smartphones and tablet computers. Twitter app, on the other hand, shows trending topics.

Facebook last year rolled out the hashtags, one of the most popular features of Twitter. However, it has failed to take off among users.

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Facebook’s hilarious reply to ‘disease & death’ study

WASHINGTON: Facebook has debunked the recent study by the Princeton University that the social networking website would lose 80% of its users by 2015-2017.

Facebook's data scientists have used the Princeton study's "correlation equals causation" methodology of tracking Google search volume to show the university would lose all of its students by 2021.

"Our research unequivocally demonstrated that Princeton may be in danger of disappearing entirely," Facebook Data Scientist Mike Develin posted on the website.

The Princeton study made a strained epidemiological analogy comparing Facebook to a "disease" that users eventually "recover" from.

The critical error in the non-peer-reviewed study is stating that since the volume of searches for "Facebook" began declining in 2012, it must mean there's an ongoing decline in Facebook usage, according to a report in Techcrunch.com.

Since 2012 Facebook has kept growing to its current 1.19 billion users, and it has never had an overall decline in user count, the report said.

"The report that Princeton put out is utter nonsense," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"While we are concerned for Princeton University, we are even more concerned about the fate of the planet -- Google Trends for "air" have also been declining steadily, and our projections show that by the year 2060 there will be no air left," Develin said.

"We don't really think Princeton or the world's air supply is going anywhere soon. We love Princeton (and air). As data scientists, we wanted to give a fun reminder that not all research is created equal - and some methods of analysis lead to pretty crazy conclusions," said Develin.

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Nokia Lumia sales drop by 600,000 units in Q4

WASHINGTON: Sales of Nokia Lumia handsets has reportedly declined by 600,000 units in the fourth quarter of 2013, as compared to the previous quarter.

Nokia sold 8.2 million Lumia handsets in Q4, as compared to 8.8 million in the previous quarter, TechCrunch reports.

The drop in sales came at a time when the majority of Nokia's hardware assets are being sold to Microsoft, which means it's more of a problem for Microsoft than Nokia.

However, it does not indicate anything for the Windows Phone platform as it is showing signs of gathering momentum, the report added.

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Online anonymity increases number of hate comments: Study

WASHINGTON: Anonymity makes a difference online, with a number of anonymous comments containing vulgar, racist, profane or hateful language, a new study has found.

In a study titled, 'Virtuous or Vitriolic: The Effect of Anonymity on Civility in Online Newspaper Reader Comment Boards,' University of Houston assistant professor Arthur D Santana at the Jack J Valenti School of Communication found a significant correlation between anonymity and civility.

Comparing the tone of thousands of online comments posted by anonymous and non-anonymous users following online newspaper stories, Santana found that 53.3% of anonymous comments included language that was vulgar, racist, profane or hateful as compared to only 28.7% of non-anonymous comments were found to be uncivil.

The so-called 'online disinhibition effect', which predicts that when people's identity is hidden, found their actions or words have no consequences, thus their inhibitions drop.

Santana observed that non-anonymous commenters were nearly three times as likely to post civil comments.

He found that 44% of non-anonymous commenters posted civil comments following news articles compared to 15% of anonymous commenters.

His study also was designed to determine whether an online article's topic affected whether the comments' tones would be civil or uncivil.

Comparing comments following a racialized topic and a non-racialized topic, Santana observed that comments that followed the racialized topic were significantly more likely to be uncivil.

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Aircel offers ISD calls at 1p/sec

NEW DELHI: Aircel has launched a new international calling Aircel ISD 54444 plan, offering special calling rates for ISD calls to its customers. Users would not need to pay any additional charges under the new plan.
Under the ISD 54444 plan, Aircel will offer international calls to select top called destinations including USA, Canada, Singapore, China, UK at 1p/sec without any additional charges. Subscribers opting for the plan will need to prefix a 5-digit toll free short code "54444" followed by '00 - country code - customer number' to avail the benefits of discounted international calls at 1p/sec to these 5 destinations. The prefix dialing code 54444 is common across all Aircel circles. However, this service will not be applicable while on roaming.

Aircel has also announced ISD Super, a rate cutter pack priced at Rs 18, under which customers will be able to make international calls at pay per second rate to destinations in America, Europe, Asia and gulf countries. The pack will be valid for 28 days.

The telecom operator will offer this plan to all new Aircel subscribers for 90 days as part of a promotional offer till 31st March, 2014.

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Nokia smartphone sales, profits plunge in Q4

HELSINKI: Nokia has reported a fourth-quarter net loss of 25 million euros ($34 million) as the struggling company saw sales smartphone sales plunge 29%.

Nokia says that the devices and services unit, which it is selling to Microsoft, saw sales fall to 2.6 billion euros in the quarter, down from 3.7 billion a year earlier. It recorded an operating loss of 191 million euros compared with an operating profit of 97 million a year earlier.

Continuing operations, including its networks unit, saw sales slump by more than 20% in the quarter compared with a year earlier.

Nokia's share price was down 4% at 5.50 euros on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in early afternoon trading.

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Micromax commences Russian operations

NEW DELHI: Indian handset seller Micromax has commenced its Russian operations.

The company will be operating through a partnership with Russia's leading distribution house VVP Group. Micromax claims that the partnership will provide the company the required reach in the country and help it make its products available across the country.

In the initial phase, the company plans to launch 14 products in the country including the Canvas series smartphones and Bolt series smart feature phones. The company claims it has service infrastructure ready and plans to open more than 60 service centers by the end of the month.

Micromax has also tied up with several VAS providers.

Commenting on the launch, Rahul Sharma, co-founder, Micromax said, "As we look to take Micromax to key international markets, we are excited to announce our foray into the Russian mobile handset market which has immense potential not only for smartphones and features phones, but also for tablets and data products. Our initial focus in the Russian market is to replicate the success witnessed in our other markets in the last couple of years."

Micromax claims to be the world's 11th largest mobile phone brand.

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7 hot sub-Rs 45,000 Windows-based laptops

I currently use a Windows 7 PC; should I buy a touchscreen laptop if I'm seeking to upgrade to Windows 8? Also, are there any models available for under Rs 40,000, preferably with 1GB graphics?

Swastik Jha, Mradul Dubey, Shivam Thakur, Rohit Ranjan, Arup Sengupta

The Windows 8 operating system uses gestures like swipe and tap to access many of its features, especially in its new tile-based interface. Besides, the OS also supports apps that work best with a touchscreen. So the simple answer is 'Yes'; if you're looking to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, a touchscreen laptop would be preferable.

Sadly, it would be hard to find a touchscreen notebook with a dedicated graphics processor within your budget of Rs 45,000. But if you're willing to push it up by a few more thousands, consider...

1. Lenovo Essential G400s

Price: Rs 42,500

Specs: 14-inch (1366x768px) HD LED touch display, Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen) 2.5GHz processor, 4GB RAM, Nvidia GT 720M (2GB) graphics, 500GB hard disk, DVD-RW drive, (1x)USB 2.0, (2x)USB 3.0, HDMI, multi-card slot You can also buy the G400s machine without the graphics processor, but with integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 for Rs 38,000

2. Asus X550CC-CJ 650H VivoBook

Price: Rs 43,100

Specs: 15.6-inch (1366x768px) HD LED touch display, Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen) 1.8GHz processor, 4GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 720M (2GB) graphics, 500GB hard drive, DVD-RW drive, (2x)USB 2.0, (1x) USB 3.0, HDMI, multi-card slot

3. Dell Inspiron 15 3521

Price: Rs 43,000

Specs: 15.6-inch (1366x768px) HD LED touch display, Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen) 1.9GHz processor, 4GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1GB) graphics, 500GB hard disk, DVD-RW drive, (2x)USB 2.0, (2x)USB 3.0, HDMI, multi-card slot. It should be noted that the Inspiron 15 notebook is available in many variants, so ask for the touchscreen model.

4. HP Pavilion TouchSmart 15-N 015TX

Price: Rs 43,700

Specs: 15.6-inch (1366x768px) HD LED touch display, Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen) 1.8GHz processor, 4GB RAM, AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8670M (1GB) graphics, 500GB hard drive, DVD-RW drive, (1x) USB 2.0, (2x) USB 3.0, HDMI, multi-card slot

Now, if you're willing to forego the graphics processor, you could consider

5. Lenovo Ideapad Flex 14 59-395516

Price: Rs 40,198

Specs: 14-inch HD touchscreen, Intel Core i3 (4th Gen) 1.7GHz processor, 4GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4400, 500GB hard disk, as well as an 8GB solid state drive (SSD) for faster boot-up.

If you don't need a DVD drive, you go for the following

6. Acer Aspire E1-470 P

Price: Rs 40,000

Specs: 14-inch HD touchscreen, Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen) 1.9GHz processor, 4GB RAM, and Intel HD Graphics 4000, 500GB HDD

7. HP Pavilion 14-B 157TU Sleekbook

Price: Rs 39,500.

Specs: 14-inch HD touchscreen, Intel Core i3 (3rd Gen) 1.9GHz processor, 4GB RAM, and Intel HD Graphics 4000, 640GB HDD

As always, before you buy, we suggest you try out as many notebooks as you can for keyboard comfort; viewing angles, display quality, reflectiveness and touch response of the screens; speaker output, as well as overall build quality.

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