New Technology 4 U

Toyota’s US president apologizes for sudden acceleration problems: The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations is apologizing for the company’s slow handling of sudden acceleration problems in its vehicles.

James Lentz says Toyota took too long to confront the issue. He says Toyota had poor communications within the company, with government regulators and with its customers.

Lentz’s written apology was prepared for the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel, which is holding the first congressional hearing Tuesday on Toyota’s safety issues.

Lentz also asserted that no problems exist with the Toyota’s electronic throttle control system. He said the vehicles are built with multiple fail-safe mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power if the system fails.

Google sees Apple as a valuable partner and sees no reason for that to change, a senior executive said amid rumors that Microsoft’s Bing search engine may replace Google on the iPhone.

“Apple is a very close and valuable partner and we’re very excited about the relationship we have with them today. We have no reason to believe that’s going to change,” Vic Gundotra, who leads Google’s mobile engineering, told journalists on Monday.

“We don’t want to comment on those rumors,” he said when pressed on the issue of the iPhone at a roundtable at industry trade fair Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “We think that relationship is stable.”

Asked about the Nexus Two, a second Google-branded phone aimed at enterprise customers that the company is expected to bring out, he said no decisions had been made yet about how many Google phones there would be or who would manufacture them.

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Google Buzz is a dark horse that has big backing and access to existing platforms. Estimated to sit on a user based of over 100mm active gmail users, they have access to the most popular webpage in the world, google.com.  Has access to mainstream users on Google.com and advanced email users on Gmail.

A large talent pool of engineers to pull from, Buzz stands on top of existing Gmail, mobile devices, and dominant search portal.  As Buzz grows, they can integrate with all Google apps –and aggregate the entire internet. But the only drawback is Late to the party, Google has had a series of social networking misfires from Wave, Dodgeball, Orkut their culture shows signs of becoming corporate –like Microsoft. continue reading…

The whole internet world is Buzzing! Yes, only now with the new Google application called Google Buzz. Just a simple word BUZZ is definitely going to buzz all your contacts and friends with all your latest updates, videos and photos on Google buzz. It is customized so as to provide all these features in the main Gmail mail box.

In Google buzz, you need not open another window to view these files and the comments received from friends will be delivered directly to your inbox, for which you can reply through the same emails. Isn’t Google buzz cool?

We all love to share our best and worst moments in life with our friends. This is what social networking is all about – sharing? Google Buzz enhances this sharing experience by incorporating all forms of sharing from videos, photos and messages to voice chats and much more, all in one simple Application.

If you are too concerned about your online privacy in Google buzz then this application can also provide you with private sharing. The public sharing option in Google buzz enables you to share your updates with everyone. These updates will even be shown in your online public profile as well. But then you have an option whether or not to share it to the whole world.

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Google on Thursday launched a click-to-call feature for its mobile advertisements. The new function works with the iPhone, Android-based devices, and other smartphones. The AdWords function lets consumers call a vendor by clicking on a link that displays the phone number rather than clicking through to a web site and searching for the number.

“Sometimes when you’re searching for a local business on your mobile device, you’re not looking for their web site, but rather to connect by phone,” said Surojit Chatterjee, product manager for Google’s mobile-ads team. “After searching for a restaurant, you might want to call and make a reservation. Or after searching for a video store, you might want to find out if they have the video you want.”

An Intuitive Experience

Chatterjee added that the ads and phone numbers displayed are based on the smartphone user’s location. So if a store or restaurant has multiple locations, the user will be calling the nearest one.

Users can also use Google Maps with the My Location feature to make sure they get search results tailored to their location. The feature takes information broadcast from mobile towers near users to approximate their current location. Google admits it’s not quite GPS, but insists it comes pretty close.

Meredith Papp, a product marketing manager for the Google mobile-ads team, said advertisers can benefit by allowing users to click to call right from an ad just like they can click through to the advertiser’s web site.

“Not only does this feature offer helpful information for users, but advertisers who participated in our beta trial saw really great results, ranging from five to 30 percent increases in their click-through rates,” Papp said. “The cost of the click on the phone number is the same as the cost of a click to visit your web site.”

EyeTV One connects to your TV antenna and delivers live digital TV, in stunning-quality, straight to the high-resolution display of your computer. Uncomplicated to set up and easy to use, EyeTV One gets all the great TV shows that are broadcast over-the-air for free. Better yet, many of these shows are broadcast in full HD.

Highlights
* Digital TV tuner, receives HDTV channels that are broadcast over-the-air for free
* Very easy to set up and use; simply connect to a TV antenna (not included) and to a USB 2.0 port on a computer continue reading…

Not all of us have inner strengths to open jars, hence the Black & Decker Lids Off Jar Opener. This gadget is very simple to operate and it is ideal for a person that needs a strong grip.

The adjustable height makes it easy to open a variety of jars and the collapsible design makes it easy to store. The Lids Off Jar Opener is perfect for a wide variety of jars from spaghetti sauce to baby food. If you want one, you can purchase the Black And Decker Lids Off Jar Opener for $19.99.

There are times when you feel so lazy to move your hands or to walk across the room to turn on and off a light. So, if your lights are voice-operable, then you can simply shout them on or off.

This LED lamp is USB powered and controllable by your voice.

The USB Voice-controlled LED lamp is backed by 12 bright LED lights. It can be turned on and off in the normal way (using your hands) or controlled by using your voice.

The lamp can only be voice-controlled within the 10-meter effective range. There is no information about what word you should say to turn on or off. But be sure to say the right word so you won’t accidentally turn it on or off at wrong times. continue reading…