If you're among the ones who're still stuck on loyally to your ageing browsers, you might have to do so at the cost of losing a handful of services that Google offers. The search giant has announced that those users who're still using the older, ageing versions of the popular browsers like IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5 will not have access to a couple of Google's immensely popular features – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, among others. Browser biggies have been issuing notices for a while asking users to switch over to the latest versions of their respective browsers which they keep rolling out at regular intervals. A recently report about Mozilla struggling to get 12 million of its users onto the latest versions of Firefox. Apparently, even though, Mozilla managed to post an attractive milestone with over 150 million downloads for its latest version of Firefox (Firefox 4), it was struggling in the truest sense of the term to get a good 12 million users to use its latest builds. Firefox, was quoted as being at the end of its tether with the unending patches that the ageing browsers need. Firefox isn't alone, other major browsers, too have this problem in common. The older browsers also lack compatibility with HTML 5 making it difficult for its engineers to incorporate any modern day changes, thus making the need to shift over to the newer versions all the more urgent. The cutting off of services by Google will take effect from August 1, this year; and StatCounter, the web stats provider states that this strong emotion by Google would have the much needed effect on over 17 per cent of the users. Meanwhile, Mozilla's campaign to initiate the migration from the older versions seems to have worked wonders for the browser. The numbers of users using the older versions [...] Visit us at FastFind
The United Nations has declared Internet access a human right, and disconnecting people from it is against international law. The recent UN report explores the issues of Internet access in great detail, both on the infrastructural level and as a matter of access to content. "There should be as little restriction as possible to the flow of information via the Internet, except in few, exceptional, and limited circumstances prescribed by international human rights law," the report says. It recognizes that there are certain circumstances in which restricting the information flow on the Internet may be legitimate, such as cyber attacks. It also points out that states often misuse their power with this regard. "In many instances, states restrict, control, manipulate and censor content disseminated via the Internet without any legal basis, or on the basis of broad and ambiguous laws, without justifying the purpose of such actions. … such actions are clearly incompatible with states' obligatio ns under international human rights law, and often create a broader 'chilling effect' on the right to freedom of opinion and expression," the report says. The report also strongly recommends against disconnecting people from the Internet — often considered an anti-piracy measure, for example in France — under any circumstances. The report "considers cutting off users from Internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law, to be disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." The UN's report echoes a European Parliament directive from 2008, which asked individual countries to "avoid adopting measure 
Mozilla have recently announced their newest version of their email messaging client – Thunderbird 5 Beta. Like their Firefox browser, this client will also be a part of their rapid release schedule. Updates to the Thunderbird email client will be quick in keeping with their rapid release program. The last version was Thunderbird 3.3, so the version 4 was skipped altogether in order to sync the latest version easily with the Firefox web browser. The new improvements in the first beta version of Thunderbird 5 include new Add-ons Manager and extension management API, tabs can now be reordered and dragged to different windows, revised account creation wizard that offers improved set-up, attachment sizes now displayed along with attachments, new troubleshooting information page to aid supporting and diagnosing problems in Thunderbird and plug-ins can now be loaded in RSS feeds by default. The release notes for the Thunderbird 5 Beta also suggest that there is support for Mac 32/64 bit universal builds, as well as numerous other bug fixes. The latest version is available across Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems. To download the latest version of the emailing client for desktops from Mozilla, click the link 
Yesterday, social engagement data startup PostRank announced it had been acquired by Google. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed. PostRank launched in 2007 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The PostRank staff will be moving to the San Francisco Bay Area to join the other Googlers at Google's main Mountain View campus. Last year, PostRank Analytics added Activity Streams, which the company called "a FriendFeed for content." The analytics service itself launched the year before as a way to track data on a large number of social media platforms, including Twitter, Digg, Delicious and more. PostRank CTO and founder Ilya Grigorik wrote today on the startup's blog, "We are extremely excited to join Google. We believe there is simply no better company on the web today that both understands the value of the engagement data we have been focusing on, and has the platform and reach to bring its benefits to the untold millions of daily, active Internet users." 
A recent report by Kaspersky Lab has announced that India and Brazil continued to lead the pack in dissemination of spam via the internet in April. India accounts for 12.76% and Brazil 7.15% of the total spam volume. The reports seem to be in favour of spam as; compared to the last month the amount of spam in email traffic increased by 1.2%Â and averaged 80.8 %. Two malicious programs that hit PC's across the world in April were Packed.Win32.Katusha.n and Trojan-Downloader.Win32.FraudLoad.hxv. Both malicious programmes are linked to fake Antivirus programs, the former is used to pack them while the latter downloads them to users' computers. PayPal was on top of the table in websites that were hit by spam, closely followed by Facebook and Satander. 
Global online traffic will quadruple by 2015 as the number of gadgets linked to the Internet climbs to 15 billion, according to a forecast by networking colossus Cisco. Cisco's fifth annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, released on Wednesday, predicted that nearly three billion people, more than 40 percent of the expected world population, will be using the Internet by the year 2015. 'The explosive growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an opportunity in the years ahead for optimizing and monetizing visual, virtual and mobile Internet experiences,' said Cisco vice president Suraj Shetty. Personal computers generated 97 percent of consumer Internet traffic last year, but the share will drop to 87 percent in the next four years as more people turn to smartphones, tablets, and Web-enabled televisions, Cisco said. Online video traffic, including data rich 3-D and high-definition transmissions, was projected to be 14 times greater in 2015 compared to last year. 
The promise of high-end phone services by mobile firms through the much-hyped third generation (3G) telecom technology seems to have hit a roadblock as customers complain of frequent call drops and inconsistent internet speeds. Experts say it could take between six and nine months for the service to stabilise. Among the nine-million odd people who are estimated to have opted for 3G services in the country, there are many who are facing similar problems with their services across the country. The private telecom operators who shelled out billions for buying spectrum claim that every new technology needed some time for maturing and becoming consistent. According to them it was a matter of time for consumers to experience the promised quality of 3G. But Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) Chairman J S. Sarma does not agree with the claims of operators. 'It is high time customers start getting quality services for the money they are paying. You cannot go on saying that the problems are caused due to initial phase launch for so long. Such excuses can be accepted for a week or so,' Sarma told IANS. 'We also need to look into what kind of investments these people are making,' Sarma said and added that the telecom watchdog was looking into the matter and would come out with a quality check very soon. 
Mobile phones may cause brain cancer in humans, a World Health Organisation agency said, citing a review of studies. Exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from handsets is greater than that from phone towers and base stations, Robert Baan , the senior scientist in charge of the International Agency for Research on Cancer report on the subject, said on a conference call with reporters. The fields are 'possibly' carcinogenic, the same category as diesel fuel, chloroform and working as a firefighter, according to the IARC, based in Lyon, France, which classifies cancer risks. This is the first time an agency working group has surveyed research on radiofrequency electromagnetic fields to make a definitive classification, the IARC said yesterday. The agency didn't issue guidelines for cell-phone use and said more study is needed after finding some evidence for an increased risk of glioma, or brain cancer. 'It's not at the moment clearly established that the use of mobile phones does in fact cause cancer,' said Kurt Straif , head of the IARC Monographs Program , adding that the research points to ways in which risks may be lowered. 'For example, the highest exposure is from voice calls. If you use text messaging or headsets, this will lower the exposure.' Concerns have risen in recent years that cellphones might be harmful to the health of people who use them, according to the WHO agency, which said there are 5 billion wireless subscriptions worldwide. The US Federal Communication Commission has said devices with a specific absorption rate, the amount of radio-frequency energy absorbed by the body, within a set limit are safe. The IARC considers studies in its reviews that may have flawed data, John Walls , vice president