Microsoft to increase the storage limit of Windows Live Hotmail

Very soon, Microsoft will increase the storage limit of its recently upgraded Windows live hotmail from present 2GB to 5GB. This was declared in public earlier this week by Ellie on his website. By this storage upgrade, Microsoft will lead the race with Google which is offering 2.8GB of storage space. Early this week, Google has also announced paid storage of about $20 for an additional 6GB. However the paid storage service of Microsoft remains same at $15 for additional 10GB. It looks like Microsoft has surpassed Google in the race of online free storage space, both in terms of capacity and cost. Google is on its way of increasing its storage space every day, whereas Yahoo users are enjoying its un-limited free storage which Yahoo has upgraded in March this year. The storage will be rolled out to all the hotmail customers over the next few weeks. Apart from the storage up gradation, Microsoft is also concentrating on the speed issue. Speed matters for the entire web based e-mail access solutions, as you all know that we-mail will be slower when compared to the mails which we access in our office.


Also, the new Windows live Skydrive was made public as a beta preview earlier this month, with a free storage capacity of 500MB. Users can store documents as well as image files in this drive. This works same like the Gmail drive offered by Google, users can just drag and drop files in another drive displayed in windows explorer. Microsoft describes this drive as the personal hard drive on internet.


Read the complete review of the upcoming updates for live hotmail on Ellie’s Web site. Ellie Powers-Boyle is a Program manager at Microsoft for windows live hotmail project. See the complete report here

I think now it is Google's turn to show off their smartness. This is a never ending race between the two competitors.

Google Is Entering WiMax

Very soon US users will be going WiMax with Sprint, the 3rd largest service provider there and they have chosen Google to provide the search, email and instant messenger services to its subscribers. To access these Google’s services, Sprit will be hosting the portal through which the users will be able to access their favorite Google service. Sprint will initiate testing this service in Washington DC, Chicago areas by the end of 2007. WiMax is expected to be ready by mid 2008 and users will be able to use it through the embedded devices specially designed for this purpose. Subscribers of this service will be able to access WiMax on their laptops, desktops and even their PDA’s or cell phones.


There is also news that Sprint is building this network along with another provider named Clearwire. Both these service providers will be building their respective network and will be enabling roaming between their frequencies. But like every time, Sprint will be the major player in this role. It will be making this service available to 185 million people where as Clearwire is expected to be some where nearly 115 million people.



Last month, Google has also declared that it will be bidding the Auction by FCC and if all the rules by FCC are in favor of Google, it is ready to bid a big amount up to $4.6 Billion. If it is so, that no one can stop Google from expanding it services in an un-imaginable way. FCC will auction its 700MHz spectrum to different service providers. Google is interested in open access demands, as they like to spread their services. I think, Google is the only company which is thinking to serve people free of cost. If this auction is won by service providers like AT&T or Telco, they will be selling this to us as a customers to use our cell phones. Imagine, if this auction is won by Google, we can soon imagine internet access at $2 a month with un-limited access and that too without any ads.

I am really looking ahead to see Google as the winner.

Attention IPhone Owners

Your Iphone can be hacked very easily.

Surprised!!!

Not to be, as this is the first time in the history of Apple that its device can be hacked. Yes it is true. The IPhone which you have owned can be hacked when a malicious code is injected into it when you browse a web site.





Though Apple decided to provide third party applications to run as a widget, it is easy for the bad guy to take total control of your phone.

Charlie Miller, Principle security analyst at Independent Security Evaluators says that IPhone and other Apple products can be hacked very easily. The hijacked IPhone can be used to send Span messages. There is also report that the operating system of this device can also be crashed. ISE and its team recommend all the Iphone users, to visit sites which they trust.

This flaw applies to the Safari browser which comes as a default browser for IPhone as well as Macintosh based Apple computers.

But one good thing in Apple devices is that , they are designed in such a way that they can autaomatically update themselves when ever a patch is released by Apple. I think Apple would be working on this and would soon release some path to over come this vulnerability. Next month, there is a conference by ISE team on internet, I am sure, that Apple will come up with a solution to overcome this hurdle.

Using Electronic devices in rain could be very hazardous

Be careful if you are using gadgets while it’s raining, these small gadgets in your pockets could be like a time bomb for you. There were many incidents of gadget users shaken up by thunder lightening. This news was also sited in most of the local news papers here, which says. “Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes.” Even after such advancements in technology, the masters couldn’t win over this natural hazard. Electronic devices attract lightning in the same way as the tall trees do. There were many incidents reported from past a year or so in which gadget users are getting affected by this natural effect.




A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns when lightening current traveled through his music player’s wires. Sources also reported that this incident has decreased about 50% of his listening capacity. Surprised!!! No not to be, this guy was standing under a tree while it was raining and for passing on his time, he was listening to devotional music on his portable music player with an ear phone hooked in. He would not have imagined that this would cost him a lot. Even though the wires were out of his shirt, he suffered this injury. Other guy who was mowing the grass at his home had burns due to his earphone wires on the sides of his face, his hips got nasty burns as the music player was in his pocket. In an other incident, a 39 year old jogger got second degree burns while listening to music on the way back to his house from jogging. This un-fortunate incident dislocated tiny ear bones that transmit sound waves. He is still suffering as even one year down the line he is still wearing safety equipments. There was also an incident where in a man got struck by lightning when the current ran through his pager.

So, next time when you are out under open sky, be careful with your small iPod, iPhone, cell phone or other electronic gadgets. Try to avoid taking shelter under a tree when it is raining, opt for hardcore shelter instead. To be on safe side, do not talk on mobiles and listen to music while it is lightening or when there is a bad whether. If you are planning for an outing, better seek Meteorological department or explore different whether forecasts in news or on net.




Prevention is Better Than Cure


Safety measures by struckbylightning

Weather Decision Technologies

New Sony Playstation Portable

Playstation Portable, the development of which was announced at E3 2003 and the release was announced at E3 2004, is a portable gaming player, a music player, an internet ready device and a UMD (Universal Media Disk) based multimedia player.





Last month, Sony was in news as it released its firmware upgrade for its Playstation Portable which can give upto 25% boost in its clock speed. There was a rumours by an unnamed source that the previous firmware version was hacked by game developers and they could allow their games to run on full CPU speed. There were speculations that the high impact games were running at 266MHz where as the full potential clock speed is 333MHz. Soon after the firmware news, it is now turn to introduce a more advanced and upgraded PSP. This includes a brighter screen, a slimmer profile and increased battery life.



The rumours of this re-designed PSP was prevailing from almost a year now. The new PSP looks almost same like the old one, but it has some enhancemnts in it. Revealed at E3 meadia & Business sumit yesterday, this new re-designed PSP would be 33% lighter which is 189g when compared to the present 280g and 19% slimmer which is 1.8cm than its predessor which is 2.2cm. This portable playstation comes with a port to connect the console to your television or to a big screen, it has 4.3 inch wide inbuilt LCD screen.. You can now charge your PSP by connecting to a PS3 or a PC via a USB cable even while the data transfer is taking place. There is also rumours of the memory capacity of this slim PSP. It is said to be 64 MB when compared to the present 32 MB.



This new device is all set to hit Europe, Japane and US gaming markets from early September this year at an estimated cost of $170 US. The new PSP comes in three colors of "Piano Black", "Ceramic white" and "Ice Silver". There is also a package in which PSP ships with Star Wars with an estimated cost of $ 199.9 US. Sony claims that it has shipped more than 25 million PSP units since its launch in 2004.


Read more about this news

Official PSP Website

Hands-on with the new PSP