Here we give you a detailed explanation on how exactly credit cards work, a little know-how on the scientific side of credit cards.



By the Numbers
Although phone, gas and department stores have their own numbering systems, ANSI Standard X4.13-1983 is the system used by most national credit-card systems.
The front of your credit card has a lot of numbers — here’s anexample of what they might mean.

Here is what some of the numbers stand for:

· The first digit in your credit-card number signifies the system:

3 – travel / entertainment cards (such as American Express and Diners Club)
4 – Visa
5 – MasterCard
6 – Discover Card
· The structure of the card number varies by system. For example, American Express card numbers start with 37; Carte Blanche and Diners Club with 38.

o American Express – Digits three and four are type and currency, digits five through 11 are the account number, digits 12 through 14 are the card number within the account and digit 15 is a check digit.

o Visa – Digits two through six are the bank number, digits seven through 12 or seven through 15 are the account number and digit 13 or 16 is a check digit.

o MasterCard – Digits two and three, two through four, two through five or two through six are the bank number (depending on whether digit two is a 1, 2, 3 or other). The digits after the bank number up through digit 15 are the account number, and digit 16 is a check digit.

Now that we know what the numbers stand for, let’s examine the stripe on the back.

Although physical MAC (Media Access Control) addresses are permanent by design, several mechanisms allow modification, or "spoofing", of the MAC address that is reported by the operating system. This can be useful for privacy reasons, for instance when connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot, or to ensure interoperability. Some internet service providers bind their service to a specific MAC address; if the user then changes their network card or intends to install a router, the service won't work anymore. Changing the MAC address of the new interface will solve the problem. Similarly, some software licenses are bound to a specific MAC address. Changing the MAC address in this way is not permanent: after a reboot, it will revert to the MAC address physically stored in the card. A MAC address is 48 bits in length.
As a MAC address can be changed, it can be unwise to rely on this as a single method of authentication. IEEE 802.1x is an emerging standard better suited to authenticating devices at a low level.

1) http://www.sewatch.net/

SeWatch is one stop place for you find out the 'complete' information about any website. SeWatch gives you all the information that you will need about any website including whois, SEO repot, traffic report, website development technology etc. We also track Adsense and Analytics id to find all website on same network.

You can use these data to analyze your website or competitor’s website and find how many website he have and which technology he is using to develop their websites also where his website server located

2) http://www.websiteoutlook.com/
Websiteoutlook is the perfect place to evaluate any website. When choosing to buy or sell a website having the proper information about your investment can be crucial to your success. Websiteoutlook is dedicated to finding all pertinent information that may pertain to your personal interest. And it's FREE! We hope that you find Websiteoutlook helpful and that you will return when you need us again. The information offered by Websiteoutlook is not guaranteed to be 100% Accurate and is offered as reference only. Further research and conformation of claims are advised before any substantial investment.

What will happen if your System is infected with viruses and the Antivirus you had installed failed to protect? In several cases, the virus may also disable any anti virus programs that you may try to run to disinfect.

Can we use a portable anti virus program which is installed in a USB Flash drive to scan our computer? The answer is a definite Yes! This is an easy way to disinfect an infected computer usiSB disk or your iPod.

ClamWin has come up with such an anti virus application. ClamWin Portable is a popular ClamWin antivirus packaged as a portable app, so you can take your anti virus with you to scan files on the go. You can place it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information behind.

Gmail has announced yet another small but really a time saving feature to its users.Now you can just drag and drop attachments from your PC, onto the message in Gmail while you are composing it, provided you are using either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox 3.6.

To add attachments to your email, just open the folder, where the target files (attachments) are located and now tile your

windows so that you can see both the explorer window and resized browser windows.Now just drag the files on to the browser

window and they will automatically be attached to your message.Follow the screenshots given below:











As of now this new functionality is only available in Firefox or Chrome.But Google is planning to extend this to all other browsers as soon as they support this feature.

Now a days Right Click Not Working In Orkut Friend Album Photos Dont worry Orkut have introduced its privacy Feature by disabling right click inside yours friend album ,This feature is introduced for orkut users to protect them from any illegal activites

Enable Right click in orkut

These feature is introduced only in single photo view in which you can view only the photo but not able to save it into yours system , but there are many other ways by which you can save all such pictures into yours computer .

To Re-Enable Click on yrs Friend AlbumPhotos Go to Tools > Page Info > Media and Scroll up or down to get the protected photo image Url ,Or Click Save as Directly from there to save that picture from orkut album.




This Trick will help you Getting URL of that Picture , Then simply paste that url in Address Bar and Hit Enter from there you can save yours Friends Image In Yours System

Method 2(Easiest one)

# Drag and Drop To Save Photos - Another cool and easiest ways to save orkut album images using firefox browser,Internet Explorer, google chrome just by dragging and dropping album picture in address bar.

Method 3
# Download orkut album Page – If above two trick fails to work then you can follow third trick that is via save whole album page by right click outside the images on album page this will save folder along with the page and you can easyly retrive images from that folder.

Method 4

Save Photos using Keyboard – Another way to save orkut picture from orkut is Keyboard ,This trick is generally used when all above trick fails to work as this trick will take some of yours time .You can press print screen button from orkut album page and paste this copied screen in paint ,and saving this picture from paint


If you have some more hack to save picture photos and images from orkut album then you can share with us using comment section.

Do cellphones cause brain cancer, dementia or have other side effects? Though there have been numerous studies on this, the verdict remains unclear. For, some studies reveal long-term side effects of cellphone usage, others term them as mere hype.

However, it is largely certain that cellphones do emit radiation. In fact, some analysts are now of the view that all cellphones should compulsorily display their radiation levels. US-based environmental group EWG recently published a list of phones with high levels of RF radiation. The list, which appeared on CNET, includes some of the most popular smartphone models from companies like LG, Motorola, Blackberry and Samsung.

The study is based on SAR or Specific Absorption Rate. SAR according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association is "a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body."

Here's over to the 10 mobile phones with highest radiation.



Sporting a clamshell design, low-end handset Motorola V195 packs most basic features including Bluetooth, Instant Messaging and speakerphone

SAR: 1.6 W/kg




Motorola Zine ZN5 packs a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, Xenon flash, optimised settings for low-light environment and red-eye reduction. It also includes stereo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

SAR: 1.59 W/kg





Motorola Rival

Featuring a full QWERTY keyboard, Motorola Rival has a 2 megapixel camera, microSD memory slot, VCAST support and GPS support.

SAR: 1.59 W/kg





Bar-style Kyocera Jax S1300's key features include SMS, voice memos, speakerphone, a 250-contact directory, 200 minutes of talktime and 8.3 days standby.

SAR: 1.55 W/kg






Featuring a 2 megapixel camera, BlackBerry Curve 8330 packs QWERTY keyboard, built-in MP3, GPS receiver, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and a microSD card slot.

SAR: 1.54 W/kg




Sporting a 2.8-inch touchscreen display with 240400-pixels resolution, Motorola Crush has a virtual QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, tap-to-silence feature, Bluetooth connectivity, music player, 3.5mm headset jack and microSD card support upto 16GB.

SAR: 1.53 W/kg





Dual-slider Pantech Matrix has a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and video share support.

SAR: 1.52 W/kg





Nokia E71x features a full QWERTY keyboard, Microsoft Exchange Email synchronization, Wi-Fi, Music Player, GPS, Full HTML Web browser with Flash support and PDF reader.

SAR: 1.53 W/kg





LG Rumor 2 packs a slide-out QWERTY keypad, QVGA display, 1.3 megapixel camera, a removable backplate and choice of Black Titanium and Blue shells.

SAR: 1.51 W/kg




With a 2.44-inch TFT LCD display, BlackBerry Bold features a full-QWERTY keyboard. Bold supports 3G HSDPA networks and is equipped with 624 MHz processor and 256 MB on-board Flash memory. The phone has a built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus, 2X digital zoom, flash and video recording.

SAR: 1.51 W/kg

Why would anyone want to install Windows XP from a pen drive?

1. Some Laptops like asus eeepc, acer aspire one, hp mini etc don’t have CD-drive
2. May be their CD drive isn’t working properly like mine, or
3. They don’t want to waste money on a CD

More over installation from a flash drive is faster compared to a CD.
Before we go on with the tutorial here’s what you’ll need

Requirements
——————

1. USB flash drive, 1GB or larger
2. 1 Windows XP installation disc
3. Assorted files that I’ll describe as we go along.


Note: Your BIOS should support usb boot, some older computers may not support USB boot.


First up, we need to prepare the flash drive.

1. Download and unzip this file, which should contain 2 folders: 1 titled Bootsect, and the other USB_prep8.

or you can download from these locations
http://www.techrena.net/downloads/usb_boot_prep_xp.zip
password :techrena.net

http://geniushackers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/flash-drive-prep.zip
2. Navigate to the USB_prep8 folder and click on usb_prep8.cmd. This will bring up a Windows console window.
3. Press any key to continue and a PeToUSB window will open.
4. Make sure your flash drive is selected, and click start to format your flash drive.
5. When the format is complete, click OK, but do not close the PeToUSB window or the Windows Console.






6 Open a new console window by typing “cmd” into the run box in the Windows Start Menu.
7 Directed to the second folder – Bootsect folder (if you’re not used to DOS commands, you can type “dir” to list directories and files, type “cd foldername” to navigate to a folder name – called foldername in this example, and if there’s a long folder name you can save time by typing the “cd” and just the first few letters and then hitting the Tab key to fill in the rest of the name).
8 Once you’re in the Bootsect folder, type “bootsect.exe /nt52 g:” if “g” is the letter assigned to your flash drive. If it’s E, then change the letter to e. If it’s Z, make it z. Get it?
9 When this is done, you should see a message letting you know that the bootcode was updated, and you can close this console window (but not the other console window).
10 Close the PeToUSb Window, but make sure not to close the remaining console window yet
11 You should now see a list of 8 options in the console.


12 Select one and find the drive with your Windows installation disc.


13 Select 2 and pick a random drive letter (but not one that’s already on your PC, since this will be a virtual drive used for copying your files).
14Select 3 and enter the drive letter for your USB flash drive.


15 Select 4 and follow the rest of the on-screen directions and you should be all set.




The process should take about 15-20 minutes. When it’s done, you should have a bootable USB stick that you can use to install Windows XP the same way you would if you had a CD/DVD drive.

16 It will ask you to format the T drive. Enter y and it will format your temp drive. Press any key to continue. Now it will start copying the XP files to the tempdrive.

17 After the completion of the file copy process Press any key to continue. Now it will ask you to copy the files to your USB drive or not. Select Yes.




18 During the copy process it will ask whether to change migrate.inf file or not. Is you are using a USB stick then Select Yes. If you are using a USB hard drive then Select No.



19




After the successful completion of the process close the cmd console. Now your pen drive is ready for the installation process.

20 Plug in the USB drive to the computer you want to install XP. While start up make sure that you set the first boot choice as your USB drive. To do this you have to enter to the bios and change the boot order to USB Disk as the first choice. For entering to BIOS press the BIOS setup key while start up. This key is usually seen in the screen in the boot screen. For most of the systems it is DEL key. For HP and Compaq it is F10 etc. Go to the boot configuration tab and change the boot order.

21 While booting up from the USB it will ask you to choose between GUI and TXT mode of setup. Select TXT mode for now.





22 Follow the onscreen instructions. It is same as the usual setup process. In the partition selection screen do not select you USB drive for install. And if you are installing in a new RAW hard disk then your USB Drive will be the C drive. Now first create a new partition and format your HDD using the setup. And again restart the process from step 15 by Quitting the current Install(Press F3). Then you should get your HDD partition as C drive. Continue your installation.





Source: http://www.techrena.net

BitTorrent is a protocol that enables fast downloading of large files using minimum Internet bandwidth. It costs nothing to use and includes no spyware or pop-up advertising.

Unlike other download methods, BitTorrent maximizes transfer speed by gathering pieces of the file you want and downloading these pieces simultaneously from people who already have them. This process makes popular and very large files, such as videos and television programs, download much faster than is possible with other protocols.

In this article, we'll examine how BitTorrent works and how it is different from other file-distribution methods. In addition, you'll learn how to use BitTorrent and what the future might hold for this innovative approach to serving files over the Internet.

Traditional Client-Server Downloading
To understand how BitTorrent works and why it is different from other file-serving methods, let's examine what happens when you download a file from a Web site. It works something like this:

* You open a Web page and click a link to download a file to your computer.
* The Web browser software on your computer (the client) tells the server (a central computer that holds the Web page and the file you want to download) to transfer a copy of the file to your computer.
* The transfer is handled by a protocol (a set of rules), such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).

The transfer speed is affected by a number of variables, including the type of protocol, the amount of traffic on the server and the number of other computers that are downloading the file. If the file is both large and popular, the demands on the server are great, and the download will be slow.


Peer-to-peer File Sharing

Peer-to-peer file sharing is different from traditional file downloading. In peer-to-peer sharing, you use a software program (rather than your Web browser) to locate computers that have the file you want. Because these are ordinary computers like yours, as opposed to servers, they are called peers. The process works like this:

* You run peer-to-peer file-sharing software (for example, a Gnutella program) on your computer and send out a request for the file you want to download.
* To locate the file, the software queries other computers that are connected to the Internet and running the file-sharing software.
* When the software finds a computer that has the file you want on its hard drive, the download begins.
* Others using the file-sharing software can obtain files they want from your computer's hard drive.

The file-transfer load is distributed between the computers exchanging files, but file searches and transfers from your computer to others can cause bottlenecks. Some people download files and immediately disconnect without allowing others to obtain files from their system, which is called leeching. This limits the number of computers the software can search for the requested file.





What BitTorrent Does

Unlike some other peer-to-peer downloading methods, BitTorrent is a protocol that offloads some of the file tracking work to a central server (called a tracker). Another difference is that it uses a principal called tit-for-tat. This means that in order to receive files, you have to give them. This solves the problem of leeching -- one of developer Bram Cohen's primary goals. With BitTorrent, the more files you share with others, the faster your downloads are. Finally, to make better use of available Internet bandwidth (the pipeline for data transmission), BitTorrent downloads different pieces of the file you want simultaneously from multiple computers.

Here's how it works:



* You open a Web page and click on a link for the file you want.
* BitTorrent client software communicates with a tracker to find other computers running BitTorrent that have the complete file (seed computers) and those with a portion of the file (peers that are usually in the process of downloading the file).
* The tracker identifies the swarm, which is the connected computers that have all of or a portion of the file and are in the process of sending or receiving it.
* The tracker helps the client software trade pieces of the file you want with other computers in the swarm. Your computer receives multiple pieces of the file simultaneously.
* If you continue to run the BitTorrent client software after your download is complete, others can receive .torrent files from your computer; your future download rates improve because you are ranked higher in the "tit-for-tat" system.

Downloading pieces of the file at the same time helps solve a common problem with other peer-to-peer download methods: Peers upload at a much slower rate than they download. By downloading multiple pieces at the same time, the overall speed is greatly improved. The more computers involved in the swarm, the faster the file transfer occurs because there are more sources of each piece of the file. For this reason, BitTorrent is especially useful for large, popular files.

Google has given us so many good webservices which include Gmail a web mail, Orkut a social networking, Web Search history, Book Search, Adsense, Checkout and many more. I suppose their will hardly any user who will not be happy with any of this web service.

The Number of such users will be very very less and their will be some one at other end of this world willing to get rid of his google account or want to close or remove his Gmail or Orkut account. I have seen many users asking how to delete/close or remove Google Accounts, Gmail Account, Orkut account or all the Google Web services. Well most of the users are unaware that they can remove or delete any or all the google account and its webservices such as Gmail, Orkut etc as the link to remove and delete google account is not easily accessible. Today we are going to show you how you can delete/ remove or close Google Accounts

How to Delete/Remove/Close Google Account and its Web services like Gmail, Orkut

1. Login/Sign in to your Google Account using http://www.google.com/account

2. Click on Edit link beside My products heading.




Delete/Close Account of any Google Webservice

i. If you want to just delete or close account of any Google Webservice then follow the respective Remove account link under “Delete a Product” section

ii. Once you click on link to “Remove … Account Permanently” A confirmation page will appear with title “Please Read Carefully”

iii. Click “Yes” to confirm and Delete Your Google Web Service Account.





Once you click yes the respective Google Web service will get deleted permanently
Delete/Close Google Account

i. If you want to Delete your Google Account then follow the link Close account and delete all services and info associated with it from Delete Account Section

ii. A page with title “Please Read Carefully” listing Google Services will appear.




iii You need to confirm and acknowledge this action and once you click Delete Google Account your Google Account will get Terminated permanently.



How do I close Yahoo! account?


If you want to close your Yahoo! account, you can follow the steps on the Account Termination page.

You will be asked to sign in or to verify the password for the account you want to delete.

Note: Before deleting your account, please read the instructions on the Account Termination page carefully, as important information about your account is included. You can then confirm the deletion of your account.

Important:

* Please complete the deletion process only if you are certain you want to remove your entire Yahoo! account and any features you have personalized within the account. After you delete your Yahoo! account, you can’t reactivate it, although you can always sign up for a new account.
* When you close your account, you lose access to your Yahoo! ID, Yahoo! Mail, and profile names. We will delete your account data and settings across the Yahoo! network. This means you will lose all of your content in:

Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! Address Book

Yahoo! HotJobs

My Yahoo!

Yahoo! Groups

Finance Portfolio

Any other area of Yahoo! that can only be accessed with your Yahoo! ID and password
* Deleting your Yahoo! account does not alter or delete your Yahoo! People Search listing. You must edit or delete this separately.
* If you are subscribed to any premium services, we recommend that you cancel them before you delete your account. There is no guarantee that deleting your Yahoo! account will immediately cancel the billing for any premium services you are subscribed to. To cancel your current subscriptions, visit Yahoo! Billing Information for your account, click My Services, and then click the Cancel link for each subscription.

Bangalore: Microsoft unveils its Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 and Silverlight 4 today. "In the new versions of Visual Studio, .NET, and Silverlight we've packed hundreds of new features, new functionalities and benefits that improve the development lifecycle from design to deployment. This is the biggest tools release we have put up so far. When we have a phenomenal product everything else flows from that. Using the Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 tools, developers have a way to where they want to be and they also have a powerful tool to easily create compelling user experiences both on and off the Web," says S Somasegar, Senior Vice President - Developer Division at Microsoft.



For the first time, Microsoft has taken a novel approach to launch its product globally. "In the past, we would first do the U.S. launch and then go to other locations. This time, we decided we will launch on April 12th in all locations. We will follow the Sun," notes Somasegar. The first launch is in China, second launch in Malaysia, third launch in India, fourth launch is in Malaysia, fifth launch in the U.S. These five locations have been chosen understanding the strategic importance of countries where there is huge developer population and is growing at a very healthy rate. Apart from these strategic launches, Microsoft has planned 150 other launches in other parts of the word starting tomorrow. "The goal is to physically touch a million developers or more through the launch event," he notes.

India is the second largest developer population in the world. Currently in India there are approximately 1.5 million developers and in the U.S. it is 3.2 million developers. In India, developer growth rate is in the range of 14 to 16 percent range and 3-4 percent in the U.S. Majority of these developers use Microsoft technologies (tools and platform). "The rate at which the developer community in India is growing should soon see it on the top. In the next 5-7 years, the number ofdevelopers in India will exceed that in the U.S.," says Somasegar, while speaking exclusively for SiliconIndia.

The Visual Studio launch is happening in the backdrop of Microsoft TechEd India, a three days conference that promises to enrich developers, IT professionals, architects and CXOs with knowledge and expertise by introducing them to the world of today's cutting-edge trends which make life easier for them at work. At this year's Microsoft TechEd there are 105 technical sessions, 21 technical tracks and several keynotes. "This is a larger than life event for developers and Microsoft. Developers, IT professionals, architects and CXOs can take a look at what is coming down the pipe in terms of new technologies, platform and exciting innovation. This is also an opportunity for us in Microsoft to interact with them. It is technology all around," says Moorthy Uppaluri, General Manager, Developer Partner Evangelism, Microsoft India. While over 3000 are attending the sessions on-location in Bangalore, Uppaluri is expecting to touch 50,000 IT professionals through three hundred event hosting centers across India via live broadcast of the event. "This is indeed a Diwali for developers in India," he says.

"Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4 is powerful tool for any developer in today's world. Visual Studio 2010 is designed keeping in mind today's developer. Indian developers create software for everybody in the world. In a way our developers are core of innovation for the world. India is where the future is. Keeping this in mind we are launching this product that is relevant to them," says Uppaluri.

CODE JAM!
Welcome to Google Code Jam


About Google Code Jam 2010: Do you enjoy solving tough problems and grappling with technical challenges? Then enter Google Code Jam! Know more..

Google Code Jam is a programming competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you compete in the programming language and development environment of your choice. If this is your first time competing in Code Jam, take a look at our Quick-Start Guide to learn the basics of how to compete. The competition consists of four online rounds, culminating in the on-site finals in Dublin, Ireland!
Key dates for 2010.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 19:00 UTC Registration Begins
Friday, May 7, 2010 23:00 UTC 24 hr Qualification Round Begins
Saturday, May 8, 2010 23:00 UTC Registration and Qualification Round End
Saturday, May 22, 2010 01:00 UTC Online Round 1: Sub-Round A
Saturday, May 22, 2010 16:00 UTC Online Round 1: Sub-Round B
Sunday, May 23, 2010 09:00 UTC Online Round 1: Sub-Round C
Saturday, June 05, 2010 14:00 UTC Online Round 2
Saturday, June 12, 2010 14:00 UTC Online Round 3
Friday, July 30, 2010 TBD Onsite Finals

* View schedule details

Rules and prizes.

Top 25 finalists will divide over $10,000 in prize money.
1st place $5,000
2nd place $2,000
3rd place $1,000
4th - 25th place $100

Make sure to read the rules before the competition starts, so that you know what to expect.

* View complete rules

Apple iPhone OS 4 software released a beta version of the software to iPhone Developer Program members. The iPhone OS 4 beta release includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,500 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer. New features include Multitasking for third party apps; Folders to better organize and access apps; improved Mail with a unified inbox, fast inbox switching and threaded messages; enhanced Enterprise support with even better data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution and more; Apple's new iAd mobile advertising platform; and iBooks, the delightful new ebook reader and online bookstore recently debuted on the iPad.

iPhone OS 4's new multitasking offers users a new way to quickly move between apps, and provides developers seven new multitasking services to easily add multitasking features to their apps. These services include background audio, so apps like Pandora can play music in the background, and VoIP, so VoIP apps can receive a VoIP call even when the iPhone is asleep or the user is running other apps. iPhone OS 4 provides multitasking to third party apps while preserving battery life and foreground app performance, which has until now proved elusive on mobile devices.

The iPhone OS 4 beta release includes a developer preview of Game Center, which contains a set of APIs that allows developers to create apps with the ability to invite friends to play a game, start a multiplayer game through matchmaking and track achievements and compare high scores on a leader board. Apps created with GameKit APIs will work with Game Center, Apple's new social gaming network available to iPhone and iPod touch users later this year.
New enterprise features in iPhone OS 4 include improvements in security, scalability and compatibility. The new Mobile Device Management service can be integrated with third party servers to wirelessly configure, query and even wipe or lock managed iPhones, and iPhone OS 4 enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute their own in-house developed apps to employees. The new Data Protection feature uses a user's passcode as an encryption key to protect mail messages and attachments stored on the iPhone. iPhone OS 4 now provides the option to set a longer, more complex passcode, making iPhone and its data even more secure. iPhone OS 4 allows IT managers to set up multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts, is compatible with Exchange Server 2010 and includes support for forthcoming SSL VPN applications from Juniper Networks and Cisco.

The life span of a Google query is usually less than half a second, yet involves quite a few steps that must be completed before you see the most relevant results.

Watch this video...

Microsoft Corp is set to announce its long-awaited "Project Pink" phones early next week, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, as the world's largest software company attempts to gain traction in the growing market for young smartphone users.

The mobile phones, to be sold by top U.S. mobile operator Verizon Wireless, are being targeted at heavy users of social network sites, according to sources. They will have a different name when the launch is officially announced.

In photos leaked to a tech blog last month, the new phones appear to be stylish, updated versions of Microsoft's Sidekick device, which is popular with the youth market.

The new phones, which likely won't be on the market until summer, are to be made by Sidekick manufacturer Sharp Corp, sources said.

Microsoft has sent invitations to media to attend an event in San Francisco next Monday, but declined to comment further. A representative of Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between U.S. phone company Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group plc, also declined comment.

The new phone does not appear to be a central part of Microsoft's main thrust in the mobile phone market, which is centered on the revamp of the Windows software it licenses to handset makers, which will be available later this year.

Microsoft hopes its Windows Phone 7, launched with great fanfare in February, will win back share from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd and iPhone maker Apple Inc, and beat back newcomer Google Inc, which is making ground with Android-powered phones and its own Nexus One.

Microsoft is losing share fast in the U.S. smartphone market, according to tech research firm comScore, dropping 4 percentage points to 15.1 percent between November and February.

Ahead of it are Apple, with 25.4 percent, and Research in Motion with 42.1 percent. Google is the fastest-growing rival, now holding 9 percent of the market.

Google has enabled the functionality to share photos, documents, and other files while chatting with your friends and family in iGoogle and orkut. File transfer works directly in the browser without needing to install anything.

This feature is also compatible with the file transfer functionality in the Google Talk client software, so you can share files directly from the web version to the desktop version.


File transfer is available in orkut and iGoogle only for now. Google promises to bring this fucntionality to Gmail soon.

From the new toolbar on the top of the chat window, you click the blue camera and phone icons to start video and voice chats with your friends or the group chat icon to add additional friends to a text chat

Google is working to bring file transfer and the new toolbar to Gmail too. In the meantime, you can continue to access voice, video and group chat in Gmail from the “Video and More” menu in a chat window.