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We know that India is very attractive to the Social Networking moguls since 44% of Indian online traffic uses the Internet just for social networking (according to JuxtConsult, April 2007 survey). Today, MySpace has decided to go head to head with Google whose Orkut, the most popular social networking site in India, has a 64% market share there.

According to Compete, in 2007, MySpace growth was negative by -1% and Facebook traffic increased by 77%. We can easily understand why MySpace is looking for new areas of growth and India is the best place to try it. India is also one of the largest film producer in the world with Bollywood, which gives MySpace an edge.

Getting ahead of the competition by leveraging the recent partnership agreements with the entertainment industry is an obvious strategy for MySpace: read the interview of Chris DeWolfe by Laura Locke on Wired.

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Because weird phone customization can no longer be kept within the pithy confines of the screen, we give you the Nokia Buddha Phone.   

But don’t be fooled, kind stranger – that is most assuredly not gold that covers the whole phone. According to the Buddha phone’s site, its shell is made out of stainless steel plated with 24 karat gold plating. But tell me, doesn’t that corner edge look it’s just plastic painted over?

The Buddha has small details that are somewhat attractive, like the use of Jade for the main video button, the shape of the keys, and the apparently accurate Buddhist symbols.  The tech stuff is secondary with this one, though the site does allude to a touchscreen and a music player that comes with several recordings of Buddhist scriptures embedded within.

I wonder what the Buddha would think about this phone. He’d probably chalk it up as a bit gaudy, but part of the life course, especially the part where it is "the noble truth that is suffering."

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by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 17th 2008 at 3:36PM We could go on about the uBOT-5’s ability to detect when a person has fallen down, check their vital signs, and dial 911 — but, seriously, is there anything can we possibly add to that picture?

[Via Digg]

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Hantat unveiled one of the funnier looking USB flash drive designs to date - it comes in the form of a ripe banana and has been given the code name HK9-03. There is no flesh to eat inside, but the “skin” itself is made out of rubber in order to absorb shock whenever it drops onto the floor to protect the case as well as precious data within. There is no word on pricing, but this banana USB flash drive will come in varying capacities of up to 8GB.

Source: AVing

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by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 17th 2008 at 12:14PM Wearable mice aren’t exactly a new idea, but it seems that Microsoft thinks it can do things one better, with a recent patent application revealing its plans for a desk-defying device of its own. As you can see above, this one is designed to be worn even while your typing on a keyboard, with the cursor movement able to be switched on an off with a simple hand gesture. That pointing itself is handled by some gyroscopic sensors, with an accelerometer and a magnetometer apparently also employed for further gesture and position sensing. Needless to say, there’s no indication of it becoming an actual product anytime soon but, unlike some of Microsoft’s other patent applications, this one seems like it could well find its way off the drawing board sooner rather than later.

[Via istartedsomething]

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Asus has quietly introduced the U6Ep notebook in the Chinese market. From its technical specifications, you could immediately see that the U6Ep might score big again for Asus similar to what they achieved when the Eee PC was released.

The Asus U6Ep features a 12.1-inch widescreen display, biometric fingerprint for enhanced personal security, Intel 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor, Intel GM865 Express Chipset, 667MHz RAM and Intel X3100 graphics. In addition, the Asus U6Ep also boasts of a 160GB hard drive with additional 256MB flash drive, Bluetooth and wireless connectivity.

The Asus China site did not yet mention anything about pricing or a release date, but it will certainly be released along the lines of Asus other low-cost notebooks.

Via [Mobile Whack] Product [Asus]

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Netflix has passed another milestone in the by-mail DVD rental business, they have passed the 100,000 movie mark. In addition Netflix now also has over 8,000 movies and TV shows available to watch instantly along with approximately 7.5 million customers.

Netflix has also surpassed rival Blockbuster who currently has just 80,000 movies available for their online service and at this point are only rumored to begin offering movies for immediate viewing. Maybe a merger with Circuit City could help Blockbuster pick up some needed strength.

Via [HackingNetflix]

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Popular social networking site Facebook has introduced a new feature that will allow it’s users to share content from other sites via their Mini-Feed, which sends it to the News Feeds of their friends. Users can import stories, albums, and other content from such sites as Flickr, Yelp, Picasa, and del.icio.us. This latest feature is yet another way for users to share information with each other easily and quickly. All they have to do is click the “Import” link at the top of their Mini-Feed. The site promises it will be adding even more sites, including Digg, in the near future.

Read [Facebook Blog]

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Could it be? An Apple rumor that’s not 3-G iphone related? Today, MacRumors is boldly mixing it up and working in some aluminum MacBook gossipry. One MacRumors reader has apparently stumbled across a .Mac page that contains (undoubtedly fake) promotional images for these new aluminum-sheathed Apple products. Actually, we originally posited these redesigned MacBooks would debut at this year’s Macworld Expo. We were wrong, of course. Nevertheless, non-plastic Macbooks do seem like a safe bet as Apple has promised to do away with all those evil PVC plastics and brominated flame retardants by the end of 2008. Also, the whole black and white coloring scheme seems to be on its way out in Cupertino.

As you can see from the images, we have a MacBook endowed with multitouch (right), as well as a redesigned 17-inch MacBook Pro with an iMac-like screen (left). In addition to the reworked lappies, the page also features a number of other juicy tidbits, including teasers for iTunes 8, and a 32GB (presumably 3-G) iPhone with a June 10 launch date attached to it. If nothing else, I suppose it’s interesting to see some photoshoper’s take on how Apple might try to differentiate MacBook Pros from regular ol’ MacBooks — note the black, iMac-like trim of the former’s screen — once this aluminum conversion is complete.

Also, these new laptops will apparently be running Tiger (see background).

More pictures after the jump.

[MacRumors]

Photos courtesy of MacRumors