Obama recently has given the gift of the internet by signing off on a provision under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which, amongst many other things, provides $100 million in subsidies for high speed internet access. The act, dubbed the Rural Area Internet Act aims to make high speed internet access available to the 100 million Americans that don’t have high speed internet, as well as the other 14 million who don’t have internet access at all.

If you don’t think that the internet is worth spending tax money on, you’re probably one of the lucky few that live in an urban area. Most of us who live in densely populated, urban areas don’t realize that the majority of the country is rural, which in the eyes of cable companies equates to “not profitable.” Since these rural areas don’t have the luxury of living on a grid of cable networks like we do (and thus enjoying the low costs that it entails), their only option is satellite based internet, which almost always comes at exorbitantly high prices.

Thanks to the Rural Investment Act, however, subsidies are offered for qualifying members in the form of mail in rebates. The goal of delivering high speed internet to these regions is not just to enable the rest of the country to download porn at the same speed as the rest of us, but to increase educational and job opportunities to previously isolated areas. Also, it seeks to strengthen of the interconnectability between local businesses, which in turn will benefit the national economy.

Google has decided to pull the kill switch for Google Videos in favor of Youtube.

Half a decade ago, the Internet giant developed Google Videos to offer free video hosting and streaming. Soon it acquired Youtube which was ruling the online video business back then. Today, Youtube accounts for 2 billion video views per day and brings in a decent revenue. Google Videos never achieved as much popularity as Youtube did and so it’s obvious that Google wouldn’t spend its time and resources on a dwindling identical service. In an email sent out to Google Videos users, Google notified them of service getting shut down on April 29, 2011. However, users can still be able to download videos till May 13th.

The email read,

Dear Google Video User,

Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. We’ve always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.

On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We’ve added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don’t want to download your content, you don’t need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)

We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you haven’t done so already. YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner. To learn more go here.

Here’s how to download your videos:

1. Go to the Video Status page.
2. To download a video to your computer, click the Download Video link located on the right side of each of your videos in the Actions column.

Once a video has been downloaded, “Already Downloaded” will appear next to the Download Video link.

If you have many videos on Google Video, you may need to use the paging controls located on the bottom right of the page to access them all.

Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.

Thank you for being a Google Video user.

Sincerely,

The Google Video Team

You won’t be able to play videos on Google Videos after April 29th. But if you want to download them, you may do so till May 13th after which the service will go inert for the most part. You will still be able to search videos hosted by other services like Metacafe, Youtube, etc. using Google Videos.

Environment is a matter of concern and the tech world is aware of it. Every now and then some tech company is talking green. Recently Google invested a lumpsum in wind energy to help bring clean and renewable energy to 2 million households. Software and web-apps focussing on the power consumption of computers are being made and are being used by increasing number of people. Going along similar lines, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) made a new green file format: .WWF. Essentialy, a WWF file is a PDF file that can’t be printed. Once you download and install the WWF software, you will be able to save any document in a WWF format. It can be opened in a PDF viewer like Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader just like any other PDF file. The only difference is, the Print button is now disabled.

WWF hopes that this small step will help prevent, at least to some extent, unnecessary printing of documents and thereby saving paper and trees. Some companies like SunCycle and B.A.U.M.e.V and Tridos Bank have already started using the WWF format on a grand scale.

Full Specifications of the iPhone 4:

Recently we did a post about a seemingly fake site offering pre-orders for Microsoft’s Natal. There we even quoted what might be the actual price tag of the same. Turns out, our estimate was right – Yes, Microsoft’s Project Natal is likely to be released on Oct 26th with $149 price tag for the stand-alone unit.

A ‘trusted source’ of a Game Industry Network, Edge-Online, reported the exclusive news and also stated that the motion sensing camera will also be bundled with the console for $299. This is certainly awesome because, right now, the XBox 360 Arcade system itself is priced around $199. Add to it the motion sensing camera (the Natal standalone unit) priced at $149, the whole bundle could have been around $350. So my point is, Microsoft did get the pricing right.

Also, the standalone unit, won’t certainly be called ‘Natal’. I am sure Microsoft would have thought of a much cooler, market-friendly name for it and should officially unveil more details at the world-premiere event on June 13th.

The first two weeks of June this year will be pretty exciting. With Apple’s WWDC on June 7 where the iPhone 4G await its grand ceremony followed by Natal’s world-premiere on June 13th, we are surely going to have a nice time.

Stay tuned with us as we cover all the latest tech updates. Subscribe to our feeds and join us on Facebook and Twitter !!

Few minutes ago, Google unleashed Google TV at the Google I/O conference held at San Fran, California. Google TV is something that’s going to be taken really seriously by the company. Google surely sees a huge opportunity in 4 billion TV users worldwide. Considering the luck Google had with 1 billion Internet users and 2 billion mobile users, it’s obvious for the giant to eye on something even more larger.

Google flipped out some statistics related to TV users around the globe. According to the stats, people in US have increased TV usage more than ever to 5 hours/day and the total money spend on TV advertisements hovers roughly around $70 billion. Of course Google aims to capture more eyeballs to their advertisements, it’s got something to offer too.

Google claims to offer seamless replacement for the traditional TV systems in your house. You just need to connect your existing TV cables with a special Google TV device (manufactured by Sony) and you are good to go. With Google TV, it’s more of watching TV than searching for programs. It takes personalization to another level. The hardware for Google TV will include a keyboard and a mouse. Have an Android phone? Sure that’ll come in handy. You can control your TV with multiple Android phones. Google TV runs Andriod 2.1 and has Google Chrome as a browser.

Image courtesy: TechCrunch

The devices will be specialized TVs and Blu-ray players manufactured by Sony with inbuilt Google TV facility, powered by Intel Atom Processors. Thanks to Android OS, you can run Android apps on your TV. Google TV comes with a new SDK as well. And lastly YouTube’s come up with YouTube Leanback to optimize your TV experience.

Google expects to roll out Google TV in Fall 2010. 

UPDATE: Although Google is lip-locked about the price, chances are that once you pay for the hardware, the service will be COMPLETELY FREE.

After releasing the brew-based Smart and HTC Legend (with Android 2.1), HTC released the HD Mini for the Indian ‘junta’. HTC HD Mini is, as the name suggests, a subset of the big brother HD2 which was launched by Tata DoCoMo back in Dec. 2009.

Full Specifications:

• Sense UI
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.5.3
• Display: 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen
• Camera: 5 megapixels autofocus
• 384MB RAM
• 512MB ROM
• Processor: Qualcomm 7227 600 MHz
• microSD support
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Stereo FM with RDS
• Facebook and Twitter integration

Price: Rs. 23,490/- (~ $519). Kind of expensive for a phone that will never be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.

Samsung rolled out one more model to its immensely popular Corby series. The new Samsung Corby (S3370) is equipped with 3G awesomeness. Samsung gained popularity with the Corby series largely after the Corby CDMA followed by Corby Plus/Pro and then by Corby TV. With the new 3G feature, Samsung hopes to keep the trend alive. The new Samsung Corby 3G looks sporty and dashing; made specifically for the youth.

Samsung Corby 3G specifications:

• Model: Samsung S3370 (closely resembles Samsung Lindy M5650)
• Form factor: Candybar
• Display: 2.6 inch QVGA touchscreen
• Camera: 1.3 megapixels
• User Interface: TouchWiz 2.0
• Gadgets: Yes
• Internal memory: 49MB
• External memory: up to 16GB (microSD)
• Social network integration (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace)
• Bluetooth: Yes
• WiFi: No
• 3G: Yes
• FM Radio
• DNSe 2.0 for better multimedia playback.

The Samsung Corby 3G (S3370) is priced at $190 (~ Rs. 8,600/-

Back in January 2010, Apple Insider reported the possibility of LED camera flash in iPhone 4G. Now the latest reports are coming in from The Chosum libo that iPhone 4G will indeed have an advanced 5MP LED flash camera manufactured by a Korea based company, LG Innotek.

Rumors already had it that the iPhone 4G will be big on camera. The brutal dissection saga of the iPhone 4G by Gizmodo also revealed a front-facing camera along with a LED Flash on the back.

Image credit: Gizmodo

With a 5MP camera, the next iPhone will come in line with what’s offered by Google’s Nexus One. Hopefully, Apple will unveil the iPhone 4G at the annual WWDC 2010 during June 7-11 in San Fran. Other much anticipated features in the next iPhone are native Facebook integration, a better resolution screen, video conferencing using iChat app and overall performance boost. [via]

Nokia unleashed a new entry level X series phone called the X2 in India. Nokia X2 is expected to hit the markets by June 2010 and has striking similarities with Nokia X3 and Nokia X6.

Specifications of Nokia X2

• Display: 2.2 inch QVGA
• Camera: 5 mega pixel with video recording
• FM Radio
• microSD card (upto 16GB)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Facebook integration
• Instant access to OVI Store
• Dual speakers
• Nokia Messaging for email and IM
• 3.5mm headphone jack

The Nokia X2 is priced at Rs. 5150/- ($112) approx.