The New Google Privacy Policy: What You Need to Know

The newly consolidated Google privacy policy is set to take effect March 1, 2012, but not without skepticism from several well-respected critics. The European Union has asked the Internet giant to put the policy on hold, while 36 U.S. attorneys general have banded together to raise concerns about the changes. This is only a few weeks after the platform was accused of bypassing security settings in Internet Explorer and Safari. All this fanfare may leave you wondering what to expect from this much debated change in guidelines.

The Policy

The new policy attempts to streamline the user experience by sharing users' data across applications like You Tube, Gmail, and Google +. According to the official Google privacy policy, this data includes the following:

• Personal information
• Device information (hardware model, operating system, etc.)
• Cookies
• Search queries
• Telephone information

According to The Washington Post, the company has no plans to share any of this information outside of Google applications. They also state that users can avoid having data shared between application by logging off from one service before logging into another.

So what's all the fuss about? The attorney generals and internet advocacy groups alike are upset with the fact that the new policy backs users into a corner, while potentially making money off them through ad revenue. Tracking and combining users' search engine queries and location information can target the ads that pop up in their browsers, potentially leading to more clicks, which in turn leads to more ad money for Google.

In a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, the attorneys general express their concern over what these new guidelines will cost businesses that don't feel comfortable with the new policy. Completely avoiding information sharing could mean ditching Google altogether and moving to a new platform. The switch involves retraining employees on new applications and changing over business Gmail accounts to other servers. A transition like that could potentially be costly.

The letter also brings up concern for Android smartphone users. Those who choose to opt out of the policy stand to render their phone useless and may have to buy a new one.

What This Means for Businesses

According to a statement on InfoWorld.com from Google, the company promises that, "As always, Google will maintain our enterprise customers' data in compliance with the confidentiality and security obligations provided to their domain. The new privacy policy does not change our contractual agreements, which have always superseded Google's privacy policy for enterprise customers."

Though the new Google privacy policy won't share users' data between their business and personal Gmail accounts, it is wise for businesses to check the policy they do have in place with Google to ensure that they won't be affected by the new guidelines. This is a moment in time when reading the fine print is a must.

Unfortunately, smaller companies with employees who use their Gmail accounts for both personal and business may want to consider requiring them to create separate accounts to avoid the privacy policy from affecting their enterprise. If they don't employ separate accounts before the rollout, clearing out their browsing history and turning off Google Web History will keep them from cross-sharing browsing information within Google applications.

That said, who knows how long this new policy will stay intact? Privacy advocacy groups recently filed a suit with the Federal Trade Commission in regards to the new policy, and the Obama administration has also put the platform on notice under their voluntary "consumer bill of rights." It will be interesting to see how long before amendments to these dubious new guidelines are asked to be made.

Courtesy: InfoBoom

See 5 Bright Planets in Night Sky—First Time in 8 Years

Find out when and where to see naked-eye objects this week.

For the first time in almost a decade, sky-watchers this week will be able to see all five naked-eye planets over the course of one night for several nights in a row.

The classical naked-eye planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—can be seen easily without optical aids and so have been known since ancient times.

But the quintet hasn't appeared together during a single night since 2004.

What's more, this week's parade of planets will be joined in the nighttime skies by the waxing crescent to waxing gibbous moon and the superbright stars Sirius and Canopus.

"Although being able to see these objects simultaneously doesn't have any scientific value as such, it is a really fun opportunity to get a sense of how we fit in the universe," said Geza Gyuk, an astronomer with the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

"It is a bit like looking at an astronomy class in a nutshell."

Courtesy: NGC

WVIL's unbelievable 31 megapixel cameraphone is unbelievably fake, attempts pathetic viral campaign (update)

Honestly, we never thought people could get this high and drunk in Vegas, but the guys from WVIL werereally pushing it. Their crime? A blatantly staged viral campaign for an "unbelievable" smartphone that sports a 31 megapixel CMOS full frame sensor. Oh, and it has an interchangeable lens, too, with which you can use the main body as a wireless viewfinder (like the Samsung SH100 paired up with an Android phone). Nice concept, WVIL, just too bad your mom called to disown you at CES. Video after the break.

Update: The Artefact Group, a Seattle design firm, just emailed to inform us that the idea is their own -- see the whole concept at our more coverage link below.

Google Chrome TAB Shortcut Keys

How many tabs do you have open right now?

If you're like us, then it's probably quite a few, and constantly clicking between them can sometimes be distracting. Today's #chrometip features a few keyboard shortcuts that you can use to quickly switch between your open tabs:

Ctrl+Tab -- Cycle to the next tab.
Ctrl+Shift+Tab -- Cycle to the previous tab.
Ctrl+1 through 8 (Windows only) -- Jump to the tab whose placement on the strip corresponds with the key, with Ctrl+9 taking you to the last tab.

"Contagious" Yawning Occurs More Among Loved Ones

Yawning in response to another's yawn may be form of empathy, study hints.

Call it the finding that puts the "aw" in yawn—scientists have discovered that people yawn more in response to the yawns of people they care about most.

So-called contagious yawning is a type of psychological effect that happens only in response to seeing, hearing, or reading about yawning.

Though there have been previous hints of a link between contagious yawning and empathy, the new study marks the first time scientists have actually observed the connection.

New statistical models showed that the rate at which people yawned contagiously was highest in response to kin, then friends, then acquaintances, and lastly strangers.

The findings suggest that yawning is a form of empathizing with people experiencing a feeling, which—in the case of yawning—usually means stress, anxiety, boredom, or fatigue.

"This is the important point: By reenacting the mechanism, it's like you share emotions, so your response is higher because you mirrored each other's emotions," said study co-author Ivan Norscia of the Natural History Museum at the University of Pisa in Italy.

By contrast, spontaneous yawning, a purely physiological phenomenon, may occur to cool our brains, according to recent findings.

The Stronger the Bond, the More You Yawn

For the study, Norscia and co-author Elisabetta Palagi, of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies in Rome, spent a year collecting behavioral data from more than a hundred adults of different nationalities.

The observations were made in a variety of natural settings—such as on the train or around the dinner table—in Italy and Madagascar, where the study authors also conduct primate research.

The scientists recorded several variables, such as the subjects' relationships to each other, countries of origin, genders, and styles of yawning, i.e., open-mouth versus suppressed yawning.

The team then developed a statistical model based on their data and tested the effects of each variable on contagious yawning.

In the model, only social bonding emerged as a predictor of response to another person's yawn, according to the study, published December 7 in the journal PLoS ONE.

The research provides "a pretty compelling case that empathy may be involved in contagious yawning among humans," said Andrew Gallup, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University who has also studied yawning.

Are Yawners Paying Attention?

However, Gallup pointed out a potential limitation in the new results: People may simply notice yawning more often in their loved ones and friends.

For instance, people may be more attuned to the behaviors of people they know than those of, say, strangers on a train.

"I don't think that this completely discredits the results, but I think it's something to take into consideration," Gallup said.

A potential remedy, he said, would be to set up an experiment in which people are shown video clips of other people of varying relatedness to the subject, with instructions to pay equal attention to each clip.

If the same connection between social bonds and yawning emerges, "then you're home free," he said.

But study co-author Norscia pointed out that a person may actually pay less attention to a family member's yawn.

That's because a person's response to new stimuli is usually heightened, whereas a person's reaction to familiar stimuli might be reduced.

This is "an evolutionary adaptation to avoid an unbearable overloading of the attentional system," Norscia said. When someone does notice a loved one's yawn, though, they're more likely to respond due to their emotional attachment.

(Related: "Lizards Do 'Push Ups' to Get Their Neighbors' Attention.")

As for the potential study design with video clips, in Norscia's opinion, "I doubt you can drive someone's attention simply by asking them to do it. I wish controlling attention was that easy."

Contagious Yawning Still a Mystery

If people do yawn as a form of empathy, the reasons for the response are still unclear.

Evolutionarily, contagious yawning is a much more recent phenomenon seen only in humans, chimpanzees, baboons, and—more controversially—dogs.

Spontaneous yawning, on the other hand, has been around for at least 200 million years—even fish do it.

A potential benefit of contagious yawning could be to improve the overall vigilance of a group, Princeton's Gallup said. That's because, by cooling the brain, yawning enhances alertness and overall mental efficiency.

Likewise, yawning may be a way of encouraging people to lend a helping hand, study co-author Norscia suggested.

If "I am able to empathize with you to perceive what you are feeling," he said, "maybe I can engage in behaviors that can help you do something."

Lunar Eclipse - In Chennai, tamilnadu Canon 600D

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from striking the Moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a full moon. The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes. The most recent total lunar eclipse occurred on December 10, 2011

Android in 2012: What’s after Ice Cream Sandwich - Page 1 - Integrating IT

Android in 2012: What’s after Ice Cream Sandwich - Page 1 - Integrating IT

Google Inc. only scratched the surface with the latest improvements to its Android mobile operating system. Users have been left wanting more, and they are likely to get it in 2012.

Better graphics, better cameras, and maybe even a voice-command feature similar to Siri (bundled with the latest iteration of Apple's iOS operating system) could be on the horizon for Internet search leader Google.

Android's latest big update, Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, is coming with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and it's only a matter of time before other smartphones and tablets begin seeing the update.

But as fresh as Ice Cream Sandwich is, users are looking ahead. Android is already installed on tons of smart phones across countless wireless carriers, and that reach is sure to expand with each new update.

Here's what to expect for the little green robot in 2012.

Doing More With Voice

Siri brought voice commands to the masses, and you can bet that Google is working on something similar for Android.

Ice Cream Sandwich already allows for instant speech to text, and voice commands have been a part of the OS since Android 2.0, but they lack some of the personal charms that Apple has given its voice-activated virtual assistant.

While we shouldn't expect a snarky secretary like Siri, we can look forward to Google incorporating voice functions into more of its apps. A great example of this is the new Google Translate app. It has a conversation mode that allows you to translate your speech and the speech of others into one of more than 50 different languages. It's by no means perfect, but it gives us a good idea of how Google can use voice input to make even better apps.

Better Camera Software

When it came to mobile cameras, the stock Android camera software was hardly something to brag about. It was clunky, slow, and had only a few basic settings you could really customize.

Ice Cream Sandwich gave the software a much-needed update, introducing features like panoramic photos and zero lag between snapshots. Future Android updates could include face detection and more-advanced settings for experienced shutterbugs. But those camera improvements wouldn’t just be for phones. Tablets that use video chat would gain better focus and video quality, especially as we begin to see more tablets that run over 4G and LTE networks.

More Apps That Take Advantage of Hardware Acceleration

We've recently seen more phones with dual-core processors, but unfortunately not all apps have been optimized to take advantage of the extra processing power. Starting with Ice Cream Sandwich, however, hardware acceleration is enabled by default, meaning that new apps released on the OS will run smoother and games will look better than their predecessors. Older apps will have to be updated to see a boost in performance, and how an app behaves on a dual-core versus a single-core device will be noticeably different.

More Devices

Android is a versatile OS, and it's been installed on everything from USB drives to robotic bartenders.

At Google I/O 2011 (an annual developer conference), Google launched the Android@Home project, a framework for Android to be installed into automated "smart" houses. These Android smart houses would communicate with other Android-powered gadgets to make life easier for the people inside.

Some car manufacturers are even looking into Android to power the media consoles in their vehicles and to do things like media sharing from phones to the car. If it has a chip in it, chances are someone will try to install Android into it.

Lighter Overlays

Android overlays are no big deal as long as they don't get in the way of the Android experience.

Overlays can add a lot of functionality, such as what we saw on Honeycomb tablets. But on phones, most of them are clunky and resource-heavy. With Ice Cream Sandwich incorporating a ton of useful features that were previously seen only on HTC and Samsung devices, overlays are slowly being toned down.

A good example: Motorola's MotoBlur overlay. Once an overwhelming and visually assaulting UI, the MotoBlur overlay has been greatly reduced to a lightweight skin that blends in relatively well with the stock Android UI.

A More Complete Shopping Experience

When it comes to media, iOS is the reigning king.

The iTunes store has not only apps and music, but also movies, TV shows, and even books. With the launch of Google Music, Google is trying to create a similar ecosystem for Android.

The Android Market is steadily becoming the one-stop shop for all Android-related media. You can currently rent movies from the Android Market, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see TV shows and podcasts also make their way to the Google-run store. Once Google adds those to its Android Market lineup, Android will become a much stronger contender in the mobile media-player space.

Next: Jelly Bean?

Expect at least two updates to Android in 2012.

One will most likely be an incremental update to Android 4.0, but some observers expect another major update to the Android OS as well. Reportedly named "Jelly Bean," some people are already calling this next iteration of Android a "game-changer."

While details so far are slim, it is quite likely that Jelly Bean will contain one or more of the features described here.