Samsung releases Chrome desktop computer

Samsung releases Chrome desktop computer

Staunch Google partner Samsung unveiled Series 3 Chromebox along with a beefed-up Series 5 Chrome book that is the latest in a line of Chrome-powered laptops introduced last year by Google.

“This is the next step in our journey toward an always-new computing experience focused on speed, simplicity and security,” said Google director of product management Caesar Sengupta.

The Series 5 Chrome book with its 12.1-inch (31 centimeter) screen weighs 3.3 pounds (1.48 kilograms) and measures less than an inch (2.5 centimeters) thick.

The Chromebox measures just 7.6 x 7.6 x 1.3-inches (19 x 19 x 3.3 centimeters).

Buyers will need to provide their own monitors, keyboards, and mouse devices.

The new Chrome book and the Chromebox feature dual-core Intel processors, 16-gigabyte solid state drives, and built-in wireless internet connectivity.

“The new Samsung Series 5 Chromebook and Series 3 Chromebox provide the rapid, convenient and ever-improving computing experience that was so well-received in our first Chromebook,” said Samsung marketing vice president Todd Bouman.

The Chromebox was priced at $330 and available at US and British online shops including Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, and BestBuy.com. It was to roll out in additional countries in coming weeks.

The Series 5 Chromebook Wi-Fi model was priced at $450 and a version with 3G telecom data service capabilities was priced at $550.

Google built its Chrome operating into notebook computers in a challenge to software at the heart of Microsoft’s empire.

The computing model shifts operating software into the Internet letting data centers store data and tend to tough tasks.

Shifting operating software to banks of servers on the Internet means that Google tends to matters such as updating programs and fending off hackers and malicious software.

Advantages include quick start-ups from disk-drive free machines, long battery life, and essentially being able to dive into one’s desktop data from anywhere on the Internet.

“With a new, app-centric user interface rolling out today and thousands of available web apps, we couldn’t be more excited about this evolution,” Sengupta said.

“This next-generation hardware from Samsung based on Intel processors and hardware-accelerated software delivers nearly three times the performance of the first-generation Chromebooks.”

Munter found drone strikes unacceptable

Munter found drone strikes unacceptable

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: The outgoing US Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron P. Munter, found the drone strike-driven American policy unacceptable and complained to his colleagues that “he didn’t realise his main job was to kill people”, a colleague told The New York Times.

An extensive report in Tuesday’s newspaper says that President Barack Obama has taken personal responsibility for drone attacks. He approves every name on the target list, reviewing their biographies and the evidence against them, and then authorises “lethal action without hand-wringing”.

The report says that Mr Obama’s focus on drone strikes has made it impossible to forge the new relationship with the Muslim world that he promised in his June 2009 speech in Cairo.

“Both Pakistan and Yemen are arguably less stable and more hostile to the United States than when Mr Obama became president,” the report notes.

In Pakistan, according to the report, Mr Obama had approved not only “personality” strikes aimed at named, high-value terrorists, but “signature” strikes that targeted training camps and suspicious compounds in areas controlled by militants.

Some State Department officials, however, have complained to the White House that the criteria used by the CIA for identifying a terrorist “signature” were too lax.

“Signature strikes in Pakistan were killing a large number of terrorist suspects, even when CIA analysts were not certain beforehand of their presence.”Dennis C. Blair, director of national intelligence until he was fired in May 2010, told the newspaper that discussions inside the White House of long-term strategy against Al Qaeda were sidelined by the intense focus on strikes. “The steady refrain in the White House was, ‘This is the only game in town’ — reminded me of body counts in Vietnam,” said Mr Blair, a retired admiral who began his Navy service during the Vietnam War.

“Mr Blair’s criticism, dismissed by White House officials as personal pique, nonetheless resonates inside the government,” the report adds.

The report points out that the counting method the Obama administration uses allows it to claim that civilian deaths in these strikes are very low.Under this approach people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Al Qaeda operative, are also considered enemy combatants.

This accounting method has so troubled some administration officials outside the CIA that they have brought their concerns to the White House. One called it “guilt by association” that has led to “deceptive” estimates of civilian casualties.

The report notes that the case of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, was problematic on two fronts. The CIA worried that Mr Mehsud, whose group mainly targeted the Pakistan government, did not meet the Obama administration’s criteria for targeted killing: he was not an imminent threat to the United States. But Pakistani officials wanted him dead, and the American drone programme rested on their tacit approval. The issue was resolved after the president and his advisers found that he represented a threat, if not to the homeland, to American personnel in Pakistan.

Then, in August 2009, the CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, told the White House that the agency had Mr Mehsud in its sights. But taking out the Pakistani Taliban leader, Mr Panetta warned, did not meet Mr Obama’s standard of “near certainty” of no innocents being killed. In fact, a strike would certainly result in such deaths: he was with his wife at his in-laws’ home.

President Obama told the CIA to take the shot, and Mr Mehsud was killed, along with his wife and, by some reports, other family members as well, the report adds.

Facebook to buy “Opera” web browser company

Facebook to buy “Opera” web browser company

So it appears facebook wants to rule the ‘browser’ dominion now. According to one source, facebook is trying to purchase the Opera Software, the company behind the Web browser. This could be called a sure sign that the social-networking corporation might be aiming to launch its own browser.This stunt would put Facebook in competition with other tech sharks in the browser game – including Yahoo, which recently launched Axis and Google, which recently incorporated its social networking component, Google+ into the browser.The funny part is that Facebook has declined to comment, neither confirming nor denying the allegation.

Pakistan successfully test fires Multi Tube Missile Hatf IX (NASR)

Pakistan successfully test fires Multi Tube Missile Hatf IX (NASR)

NASR, with a range of 60 km, can carry nuclear warheads of appropriate yield, with high accuracy, and possesses shoot and scoot attributes.This quick response system addresses the need to deter evolving threats, specially at shorter ranges.According to ISPR here, the test was witnessed by Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai ®, Chairman NESCOM Irfan Burney, Commander Army Strategic Forces Command, Lieutenant General Tariq Nadeem Gilani, Senior Officers from the Strategic forces and scientists and engineers of strategic organizations.Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai ®, terming the NASR Missile as a weapon of peace, said that the test was a major development which will consolidate Pakistan’s deterrence capability at all levels of the threat spectrum, thereby ensuring peace in the region.The successful test has also been warmly appreciated by the President, Prime Minister and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, who have congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding success.

Dual Nationality: SC rejects Rehman Malik’s ‘weak’ evidence

Dual Nationality: SC rejects Rehman Malik’s ‘weak’ evidence

During today’s hearing of Supreme Court’s case regarding Members of Parliament who possess dual nationalities, the the Supreme Court rejected the documents submitted by Rehman Malik’s lawyer proving that he is not a UK citizen anymore.  Aaj News reported.

The petition for this case was filed by Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi, who alleged that Rehman Malik possessed dual nationality.

Earlier, Rehman Malik’s lawyer, was asked to present the court with receipts of payments made in the process of revoking Malik’s British nationality, as evidence. The chief justice remarked that Malik’s counsel should present authentic documents of declaration renouncing the minister’s UK citizenship, instead of a fill out form.

A failure to produce the required evidence, might result in Rehman Malik loosing his membership from the National Assembly.

At the end of the hearing, after Malik’s counsel had made several attempts at proving to the court that the form was sufficient to prove his client is not a British citizen, but was reassured by the court that a show of receipt of the payment made to revoke his citizenship, would be considered as sufficient evidence.

On 25 May, the Supreme Court revoked Farah Naaz Isphani’s membership from the National Assembly  on account of  not disclosing her dual nationality status to the Election Commission.