There has been much speculation made over the new email service being launched by Facebook in lieu of breaking the monopoly of Gmail and Yahoo Mail services. Looks like the rumors were right and the GMAIL Killer as the new Facebook email service is being called will definitely prove to be a tough competitor to play with.
Messages, the new email service offer Facebook users an email id with Facebook i.e. @Facebook.com.

According to Marc Zuckerberg, one of the youngest successful entrepreneurs of this generation and owner of Facebook called it “Modern Messaging system.” It provides you communication in real time! It means you can communicate with your friends and colleagues without filling the proverbial CC and BCC fields as compared with Gmail and Yahoo.

Since the iconic popularity of Facebook continued to reach new heights every year, the absence of a proper email id with Facebook was the only thing bothering its users as they had to still rely on the Gmail service for email messaging. This new email service has gone one up over the Gmail service in terms that it allows Facebook users to text, chat or emails their friends using the email account!

Earlier, one could only exchange email with the help of Gmail and yahoo mail accounts but with Facebook you can do three things- text, chat and email as they wish. What more, the receiver on the other end can choose to receive the message as per their wish i.e. either in text, chat and email! This certainly wasn’t available with any other email service!

Your email, chat and text messages with one particular person are saved in one single place. In other words, all the conversation that you have with a particular friend goes into a single location. The additional feature of social inbox categorizes your messages from Facebook friends into one place and the rest in others box. Settings can allow you to bar any emails which you don’t wish to receive.

One can ask for an invite as the new email ids would be soon awarded by Facebook to its users. But with the current reaction and speculation, it is already decided that GMAIL Killer s here to stay. Its’ time for modern messaging system in the form of Facebook email service!

The feud between the blackberry maker i.e. Research In Mobile [RIM] and Indian government doesn’t seem to be coming to a conclusion in the near future. The deadline for RIM to come up with a permanent solution for the issue raging between Blackberry services and Indian intelligence agencies have been now set for December 31of this year. The issue in concern is the grant if access to privately encrypted data sent through the RIM servers.

Let’s have a look at the views of both the parties in question

Government’s point of view
Indian government has tightened its hold over the securities measures since the terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26/11. It has full right under national security to screen and monitor calls and messages send through mobile phones. All the other phones and servers allow access to the government for intercepting and monitoring calls. However, Blackberry restricts the access on its enterprises services and messenger services.

So far, they can only tap voice calls, messages and emails while with other mobile services and carriers they get easy access to the encrypted data as well. Under the current scenario, when threat of terror loom dominantly over the country, it is fully within their rights to demand access to Blackberry encrypted data.

RIM point of view
RIM totally disagrees on this point about allowing third party access to their encrypted data. As a matter of fact, it claims of an absence of a master key that can allow such entry into their privately encrypted data. It is in clear violation of their customer’s right to privacy.

The company also states that by lowering the encryption level would invite hackers to hack the important business data stored by many Blackberry users all across the world. In fact, in India alone over one million people use Blackberry phones majority of whom are from corporate world.

The RIM has also refused to set up their servers in India. This clearly indicates the company’s reluctance to comply with the wishes of Indian government.

Current situation
Countries like UAE and Saudi Arabia banned blackberry in their countries on account of national security earlier. However, UAE has allowed Blackberry to operate in the country as the new norms are in compliance with country’s conduct.

Thus, Indian government is optimistic about the decision swinging in their favor.

RIM has to take up a decision soon in order to prevent losing its rapidly growing clientage in a country wherein approx 16 million new mobile users are added on a daily basis!

All the below mentioned prices are officially declared by Apple. So find out which one comes in your price range in India!

Apple iPod Touch 4G
• Modeled on iPhone 4G
• Dual camera
• High retina display
• 40 hours of battery life

US price 8GB ($229), 32GB ($299) and 64GB ($399)
Indian price 8GB (Rs 15400), 32GB (Rs 19900) and 64GB (Rs 25900)

Apple iPod Shuffle
• Dedicated voice over button
• Buttons included in the hardware
• 15 hours of music playback

US price 2GB @ $49
Indian price 2GB @ Rs 3200

Apple iPod Nano Multitouch
• iPod Nano with Multitouch
• MP3 player

US price $149 for 8GB | $179 for 16GB
Indian price Rs 10700 for 8GB | Rs 12800 for 16GB

All the Apple iPods products will have a global release including India!

Surprised to hear this? Well don’t be because the iPod Touch 4G is modeled on the same lines as an iPhone 4G sharing the same processor and technology! This latest iPod is built in its previous design only. However, it includes certain new and improved features which will surely entice the likes of Apple iPod lovers!

The iPod Touch 4G comes with a pre installed iOS4 the same as in iPhone 4G. Its 3.5 inch multi touch screen boasts retina display of a 960X640 resolution. You will also find its dual camera quite handy. The rear camera can record high definition videos of 720 P. and click photos [960X720 resolutions].

The front camera on the other hand can be used for FaceTime with other iPod Touch and iPhones.

In addition, the iPod Touch 4G also features an accelerometer with a 3 axis gyroscope. It has also introduced a new feature called the Game Centre which allows you to play games with other iPod Touch users through the world.

Available in 3 versions- 8GB, 32GB, 64GB.

• 3.2-inch TFT-LCD screen
• Wi-Fi 802.11n
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Samsung Apps support
• Social Hub
• 5MP camera with LED flash
• dedicated camera button
• flip leather cover
• microSD card slot
• accelerometer
• USP port
• GUI application support
• 320 x 240 resolution video recording
• A-GPS

The social hub in Samsung Wave 723 allows instant access to facebook, user contacts and their address books. It acts as one stop shop for social media management for this smartphone.

The phone comes with integrated Auto UI scaling in SDK 1.1. of Bada OS. This makes it quite easy to tackle the varied screen resolutions. It helps the application developers to scale new horizons and allow them to port their already developed applications without any hassle.

Samsung Wave 723 resembles the earlier Samsung Star phone complete with a leather flap in the front. Its body is although metallic and boasts an attractive design. The phone is expected to be priced lower than the Samsung Wave but higher than the Wave 2 and Wave 2 Pro phones.

It might hit the markets by the end of September 2010 with its first stop in Germany followed by a release in various other parts of the world like European, South East Asian, Middle East, Asia and African nations.

The three Sony touch e readers are
• Reader Pocket Edition
• Reader Touch Edition
• Reader Daily Edition

Out of these, only Daily Edition supports Wi-Fi connectivity. Besides this, all the models use same UI, compatible with different e book formats like ePub, Microsoft Word and PDF [unlike its contemporary Kindle e readers]. The touch screen uses E-Ink Pearl display which offers a much better responsive touch and a brighter display.

Reader Pocket Edition
• 5 inch touch screen display
• 5.7 X4.1X0.3 inches
• 11.4 oz
• Small, light weight and streamlined
• 5 slim buttons at the bottom
• 2 GB on board memory
• On screen keyboard
• Stylus
• Colors available- silver and pink

Reader Touch Edition
• 6 inch touch screen display
• A bit larger than pocket edition
• 6.6X4.7X0.4 inches
• 7.9 oz
• Ability to play MP3 & AAC audio files
• Memory Stick PRO Duo
• SD Media slots
• 2 GB on board memory
• On screen keyboard
• Stylus
• Colors available- black and red

Reader Daily Edition
• 7 inch touch screen display
• 9 oz
• WI-FI and basic web browsing through AT& T 3G connection
• 2 GB on board memory
• On screen keyboard
• Stylus
• Colors available- silver

In conclusion, we can say that the absence of Wi-Fi might cause reluctance on customers’ part but all in all its light weight, easy UI, touch screen and compatibility with different e book formats will surely make Sony Touch E Readers a success!

iPod Nano multitouch showcases 4 icons at a time. One can access to all their music, FM radio, Nike+ support with the help of multitouch! Besides, this the iPod also features hard volume keys, a pedometer and an accelerometer. The sound quality is as good as ever and one can clip it to any of their accessories or clothes and just groove to the music!

Interestingly the new iPod Nano is at least 46% smaller and 42% lighter than its earlier models. It boasts of a built in lithium battery with a 24 hours playback time! It retains its earlier ‘shake to shuffle’ feature. Although the ‘Live Pause’ facility is turning out to be quite appealing. You can pause in ‘Live Radio’ and rewind back to 15 minutes of radio.

iPod Nano comes with 30 pin dock connector and available in 7 colors and 8GB & 16GB.

And now Samsung had gone one step ahead and outfitted the dualview digital camera with 1.8 inch larger front LCD screen. The users can now frame their self-portrait shots on an even wider screen than before!
ST100 and ST600 are the new Samsung dual view digital camera models.

So what all can one do with these new front and back screen digi cams?
•Self portraits
•Animation
•Self timed pictures
•Smile triggering shot modes
•NEW-Jump shots- this feature asks the subject to jump within a specific time and then take three simultaneous shots while the subject is still in mid air!

ST100 and ST600 share almost the same features as that of the previous digital cameras by Samsung

Highlights
•NEW-1.8 inch front LCD screen
•3.5 inch touch back LCD screen
•High resolution 1,152 Kdots for back LCD
•Image sensor-1.2.33 inches
•Image capture-14.3 megapixel
•High definition video recording [1280 X720] at 30 frames per second
•5X optical zoom lens, 27-135 mm focal length [ST600] and 35-175 mm focal length [ST100]

Except for the varying focal length and the extending camera outside the camera body in ST100 both the dual view digital cameras by Samsung functions on the same lines.

ST100 and ST600 will be available from September this year.
Both are a great buy!

The Google Buzz will be available on phones with the Android OS such as Motorola Droid and well as the Apple iPhone allowing for real time updates to the users Google Buzz feed.

Join the facebook group for Google Buzz: Facebook

Learn how to use it; check out this video.

Sale on Amazon.com

Enjoy your shopping!