Should I buy an iPod now?

Don't even think about buying an iPod between now and Sept. 5. Apple has invited the press to a "special event" next week in San Francisco.

Modern Approaches for data visualization

There is a variety of conventional ways to visualize data - tables, histograms, pie charts and bar graphs are being used every day, in every project and on every possible occasion. In fact, there are much better, profound, creative and absolutely fascinating ways to visualize data.

Nokia announces online music store

At a special press event held at the Ministry of Sound in London this morning, Nokia introduced “Ovi” the company’s new consumer facing Internet services brand, and in doing so, took aim at Apple, its mobile carrier “partners”, and — to a lesser extent — dot com giants Google and Yahoo.

Indians are Asias richest

From being one of the world's poorest economies six decades ago to becoming a "top spot" today, India has come a long way, Forbes says in a special report even as it lists more billionaires in India worth $191 billion than in any other Asian nation.

"India's top ten, worth $112 billion, account for two-thirds of that wealth," it says in the report 'India at 60'.

34 More Ways to Build Your Own Social Network

A few weeks ago Techcrunch posted 9 Ways to Build Your Own Social Network, a review of several hosted, do-it-yourself white label social networking solutions. In this second post, they cover these remaining 34 companies, all of which offer either made-to-order solutions or downloadable software.

India win in England after 21 years

India failed to win the final test, but managed to win the series 1-0. Congratulations to the Indian team.

Facebook Source Code Leaked

We just received a tip that the source code for the Facebook main index page has been leaked and published on a blog called Facebook Secrets. There are at least two possible ways that the source code got out - the first is that a Facebook developer has sent it out, or the more likely option that a security hole or other method has been used on either one of the Facebook servers or in their source code repository to reveal the code.

Balco is largest Aluminium producer in the World

Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco), a member of Vedanta Resources plc, is set to become the largest aluminium producer in the world from a single location as it signed a pact with the Chhattisgarh government to set up a new smelter plant with an investment of Rs.80 billion ($ 2 billion).

The proposed plant with a capacity of 650,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) will come up in its existing complex in Korba district. It will take the company's total aluminium output from 135,000 tpa to 1 million tpa - making it the largest aluminium producer in the world from a single location.

India tops the charts in outsourcing deals

While the global outsourcing market saw a 25 percent decline in the emergence of new deals, India has emerged as the largest market for new outsourcing deals in the Asia Pacific region for the first half of 2007, reports the sourcing advisory firm, TPI.

India outsourced deals worth $1.68 billion, accounting for 30 per cent of the total deals emerging from the Asia Pacific region, outpacing traditional players such as Australia and Japan.

Web TV Portal on India

Digital Spy are reporting that Watch India, a subscription-based Internet TV channel with a focus on Indian programing, has been a great success: “In its first month, it managed 100,000 unique viewers, with over 33,000 coming from the UK alone.” Watch India has a particularly strong position regarding its appeal to ex-pat Indians.

Wipro buys Infocrossing

In what could be the largest overseas takeover by an Indian IT company, Wipro Technologies, country’s third largest IT company, has acquired Infocrossing Inc, a US-based provider of IT infrastructure management, enterprise application and business process outsourcing services, for $600 million (around Rs 2,425 crore).

World University Rankings

Four Indian education institutions figure in the latest world university rankings, which continue to be topped by the universities of Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, for their strengths in teaching and research.

The four Indian institutions are the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU).

HAL of India is rated 34th in the World

Aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has climbed 11 places to reach the 34th position in the list of top 100 defence companies in the world.

The list, released by US-based Defence News magazine, saw HAL improving its position from 45th with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAe Systems, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon occupying the top five slots in that order.

Geocoding available in India

Over the past few weeks, Google enabled geocoding in the API for India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Ireland. That means there are potentially 1.1 billion more users that might now be able to locate themselves on your map - that's about 1/5 of the world's population.

India Bags Gold In Archery World Cup

India's ace archer Dola Banerjee overcame a tough challenge from Chinese Juan Juan Zhang to win the recurve individual gold medal at the Meteksan Archery World Cup in Dover, England, Sunday. According to information received here, Dola defeated Zhang 111-110 in a nail- biting finish in the final round.

India's win after the Great Escape

An article on the Indian cricket team's win in England, after the escape in Lords.

Skateboarder falls 45ft at X Games

Bob Burnquist won gold in Skateboard Big Air in the opening night of the X Games on Thursday, scoring 95.6 on the final run of the competition. Jake Brown, from Sydney, Australia, was in first place with a score of 95.33 when he rolled down the ramp for his final attempt. After doing a 720 over the gap, he lost control of his body and board when he launched over the quarter pipe and fell 45 feet onto his face and stomach, making a loud thud and leaving the crowd silent. Checkout the Video.

Ford recalls 3.6 million vehicles

Ford recalled 3.6 million passenger cars, trucks, sport-utility vehicles and vans to fix a cruise-control switch that led to previous recalls based on reports of fires. Ford said the recall covered more than a dozen models built from 1992 to 2004.

iPhone speaks various languages

The Apple iPhone can now translate phrases and speak in several foreign languages, thanks to a new talking translator application from lastminute.com .

The lastminute.com Talking iPhone Translator is a free service providing travellers with text and audio translations from French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German (with a Greek translation version to follow shortly).

In-Flight Wi-Fi Service Over U.S.

Today, AirCell, the leading wireless data and voice communications provider in business aviation, announced it is teaming with American Airlines to test broadband services with passengers across the U.S. beginning in 2008. AirCell's new Broadband Internet service will allow business and leisure passengers to check e-mail, surf the Web, tap into an office network and stay current on the latest news, using their own Wi-Fi enabled laptops, PDAs, iPhones(R), BlackBerrys(R) and portable gaming systems -- while in flight.