With plug-in free web, Microsoft aims to offer more security, privacy, reliability and better battery life to Windows 8 users. Internet Explorer 10 will release with Microsoft’s most awaited operating system, Windows 8, which also features the Metro UI. The interface bares resemblance to Windows Phone OS and aims to make Windows usage simpler.

Internet Explorer program manager lead, John Hrvatin said in a blog post,

“Metro-style IE runs plug-in free to improve battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers. A plug-in free Web benefits consumers and developers and we all take part in the transition. The desktop browsing experience and most plug-ins were not designed for smaller screens, battery constraints, and no mouse. Providing an easy way to the Windows desktop is the last resort when no comparable plug-in free fallback content exists.”

The Internet Explorer 10 will also feature in the Microsoft’s upcoming, touch-centric interface geared for touch screens and tablets. With this move, Microsoft will finally support open standards like CSS3 and HTML5 while ditching its own Silverlight.

With Internet Explorer 10 closely integrated into the Metro UI, it is more likely that Microsoft won’t offer users an option to switch to other Internet browsers. While things are not pretty clear, we will have to wait for the day Microsoft officially releases its Windows 8.

Although, the IPO is believed to affect the authority of Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the company stated that he will continue exercising the authority of controlling the company. This statement from the company reflects the little say that the investors and shareholders of the company have.

Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout who was the pioneer of  this social networking miracle will control about 56.9% of the total voting shares of the company. The company is expected to be valued at $100 billion as soon as it goes public. According to Facebook, it generates 845 million active user profiles every month.

The filing of Facebook indicates that the company is seeking to raise $5 billion, but the figure is only an estimate of registration fees and can successfully drape in an investment close to $10 million or even more. This IPO will realize the companies actual value, which is expected to rise up to $100 billion. The ultimate figure of $100 billion dwarfs every other tech giant in its competition.

Mark Zuckerberg controls about 28% of company’s total shares which are expected to be worth $28 billion ranking him fourth in the list of richest Americans. However, he agreed to take a paycut for his  compensation from $1.48 million last year to $1 (yes, 1 Dollar) effective from 1st January, 2013, thus  repeating the example laid by Apple founder,Steve Jobs .

Comedian, Gavin McInnes created a hilarious video after the Los Angeles Times featured an article about the troubles that Scottish people face while using Siri on the iPhone 4S. The parody “commercial” is guaranteed to have you rolling on the floor with unapologetic laughter.

The “commercial” begins with the usual soul-searching music combined with a close-up of the Siri Interface;  a typical start for an Apple Advertisement. It does not take very long to understand that this is just not just another civilized Apple parody. McInnes asks some very simple questions to the application, but the developers of the voice recognition pattern were obviously not prepared for references to words like “jammy dodger”, “chip butty” as well as “Caledonian 80″.  Siri’s responses to the same are hilarious!

The one-minute video, however, contains some repeated profanities which are not advised for children. For those of you who are above 18 and don’t mind listening to an angry Scot, get ready to loosen your face muscles.

Listed below are some of the potential contenders of 2012. Be ready.

ServiceNowService

Now is a Software company that is known for its cloud-based software for IT Management and is used even by the IT employees from, yes…Facebook. This software effectively tracks problems, management of costs as well as the development of apps. Based in San Diego, ServiceNow has not only scored with Facebook but also has some big time customers like Google, Publicis Groupe, REL and some others.

Workday

Here is a company that supplies software as support for human capital management. HR Professionals make use of these software in order to manage the employee benefits, to set the budgets for staffing as well as to keep track of the new hires in the company. Although a Workday spokesperson denied the same, it is rumoured that the CEOs of Workday have been passing up multiple buyout bids and will be offering an IPO somewhere around second half of the year.

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is a security software company that has been termed a leader due to its “disruptive influence in the firewall market” despite it having a lame name. It provides a firewall technology that is known to be good enough to give giants like Cisco and Juniper Networks a run for their money. The signing of the new Chief Executive, Mark McLaughlin, was an attempt to take the company to a higher level, which pretty mush signifies an IPO.

In a mere 6 weeks after releasing Firefox 9, the web browser, yet again surprises users with its latest version called Firefox 10. The Firefox 10 supports Mac, Windows, Android and Linux machines. The rapid release policy adopted by Mozilla corporation has seen six updates of Firefox web browser in past nine months.

Users who term Mozilla as their favourite can expect a new version release every six months.Firefox 10 includes many new features, bug supports and improvised extension support. It also offers multi-touch for Android version with many other fine improvements.

The previous versions of Firefox however, were found breaking the extension compatibility. Firefox 10 has been updated manually by developers. Most compatible add ons and extensions which worked with Firefox 4 will run swiftly and smoothly with Firefox 10.

Firefox sync has been enhanced and enables you to synchronize your browsing history, password, bookmarks,  and open tabs across your laptop, PC and your phone. It will also incorporate a better and easier installation process to pair devices.

The extensive updates policy which was introduced by Apple has seen many takers in recent past. Firefox has lost some of the market due to the improvements and popularity of the biggie, Google Chrome. This new extensive update policy is will surely add something new to the Mozilla arsenal in order to expand its market reach and regain supremacy in the Web browser popularity charts.

As reports go, over 50 WWE related topics were trending on Twitter following the World Wrestling Entertainment’s special event, ‘Royal Rumble’. While some were understandable, others made little less sense.

Several whacky spellings of Vickie Guerrero began to trend when she was sent backstage during one of the matches. A commercial feautring Big Show, Eve Torres and Rey Mysterio led to ‘Slim Jims’ trending on the micro-blogging site.

Hunico may have stolen Sin Cara’s entrance when he paraded in as a ‘fake’ Sin Cara, but that only led to the masked wrestler getting his share of publicity on Twitter.

John Morrison shot to fame with his amazing save in last year’s Royal Rumble, and he started trending again when Kofi Kingston pulled off a similiar move this year.

Road Dogg unintentionally (and unwillingly) led to his former partner from New Age Outlaws, Billy Gunn to trend after his entry in the ring.

While Kia Stevens may have donned a new avatar as Kharma, it seems his past wouldn’t let go. When Kharma made his entrance, his alter-ego Awesome Kong was more talked about in Twitter than his current role.

The trends put up quite a list and go by the lines of -

1. #RoyalRumble
2. Steel Cage
3. World Heavyweight Championship
4. The Road to Wrestlemania
5. Daniel Bryan
6. Elimination Chamber
7. Beth Phoenix
8. This Cena
9. Alicia Fox
10. Kelly Kelly
11. Glam Slam
12. Zack Ryder’s
13. Cena vs. Kane
14. #LetsGoCena
15. Cena and Kane
16. Tombstone Piledriver
17. Eve Torres
18. Zack Ryder
19. Brodus Clay
20. #WHATTHEFUNK
21. Slim Jims
22. WWE Championship
23. Vickie Guerrero
24. #ITSCLOBBERINTIME
25. Vicky Guerrero
26. The Miz
27. Royal Rumble Match
28. Cobra vs. Socko
29. Ricardo Rodriguez
30. Santino Marella
31. Sin Cara
32. Jerry Lawler
33. Booker T
34. Hunico
35. Great Khali
36. Awesome Kong
37. Michael Cole
38. John Morrison
39. Dolph Ziggler
40. Kofi Kingston
41. Kharma
42. #ohyoudidntKNOW
43. Billy Gunn
44. Road Dogg
45. David Otunga
46. Walls of Jericho
47. Sheamus
48. Jericho
49. #GreatWhite
50. Sin Cara

Earlier this week, a Federal Judge summoned Apple, Google and five other prime companies to court over allegations of violating the antitrust laws; these big boys conspired poaching employees from other companies.

The issue revolves around whether or not, these companies attempted to hire employees from one another’s firms.

A probe was conducted by the Justice Department of the U.S, which revealed at least six such companies that kept aside a “Do Not Call” list with their recruiters. Although the companies have managed to settle these complaints; the employees that were involved in the incident are now seeking compensation for damages.

The lead attorney for the employees, Joe Saveri, pit forth an argument that the alleged conspiracy has resulted in the stifling of competition which had lowered the salaries of employees. He stated,

“They are definitely putting the interests of the company ahead of their employees. That’s fundamentally wrong.”

Some of court filings that were released recently also included an e-mail from Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO, to Eric Schmidt, Google Executive, about the recruitment of Apple’s engineer. Jobs wrote:

“I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this.”

Google then went ahead to sack the recruiter and replied with an email that read:

“Please extend my apologies as appropriate to Steve Jobs “

Joe Saveri now states that these were agreements that were formulated, implemented and spread as well as concealed at the highest possible levels of the hierarchy. He also presented documents which proved that there were a few executives who were not very comfortable with the agreed arrangement. Steve Jobs received an email from the past CEO of Palm which was worded as follows:

“Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other’s employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal.”

As of now, all of the mentioned companies have insisted that the case be dismissed and have argued that these allegations of involvement in a grand conspiracy are implausible. However, lawyers say that if this lawsuit gains the class action status, the compensation for the damages could run into millions of dollars. Phew!

Following the recent problem, e-mail service providers including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL have formed a coalition to fight against online phishing and fraudulent activities. The new efforts are believed to reduce the frequency of phishing activities online.

Phishing Emails are attempts to trick Internet users and obtain personal and financial details. Users often believe the information they provide is sent to a legitimate source, only to realize later, that they have been fooled. Some underlying innovations have been put into effect for the protection of  Internet users against phishing and other such online fraudulent acts.

The above mentioned companies are aiming to offer a helpful, safe and secure web environment for  online trading. By planning to promote technological tools that cater to better and secured mail services, these biggies are surely being collectively constructive.

The success of this new idea of authenticating -Emails will allow business entities and corporate giants to communicate with people on a whole new level. A customer can trust an e-mail guiding him to a link which can be prove lucrative to his financial and account information.

DigiMouth Speak -

The fact that companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are taking such incredible measures to stop phishing is a positive sign towards building a better future. Companies are working together to create new tools for authenticating Emails. Can we can trust this surprising, yet amazing alliance with delivering great results? Only time can answer that.

The announcement comes when the company is all set to expand its network into new territories. With support for Urdu, Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi, Twitter hopes to increase its user base to 100 million users and generate better revenue. In an official blog post, Twitter said that with the company’s global expansion,

“we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”

According to social networking site, the new feature is designed keeping transparency in mind. Twitter also said that they

“will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld.”

Although Twitter is yet to implement the feature, it has tied up with chillingeffects.org to share removal requests from Governments, individuals and companies.

We will have to wait and see if such a move can create a clean impression for Twitter in the minds of government bodies and other such organizations.

This is how U.S. Rep Darrel Issa. R. – Calif, has explained the new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Act, also known as ACTA. He stated,

“As a member of Congress, it’s more dangerous than SOPA. It’s not coming to me for a vote. It purports that it does not change existing laws. But once implemented, it creates a whole new enforcement system and will virtually tie the hands of Congress to undo it.”

He also added that the ACTA is comparatively much more dangerous to SOPA & PIPA, owing to the fact that the Congress is unable to change it.

Issa goes on to add that unlike the SOPA & PIPA which are bills that were initiated in the Congress, ACTA is a global that has far-reaching effects in an attempt to strengthen protection for copyright  content as well as intellectual property across all nations that are ready to participate in the Act. This Act, also includes offline issues like counterfeiting in materials like pharmaceuticals. While it has still not been clarified whether the ACTA is as enforcing as the SOPA was, the fact still remains that there are many implied similarities between the ACTA & SOPA.

Countries that have already signed up with ACTA include Poland, Italy, France, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland as well as the U.S.A.