IE9 download rate up to 27 times per second

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded over 2.35 million times ever since it was released on Monday evening. A blog post on the Exploring IE Blog gave the rates as over 27 downloads every second or over 240 downloads every 9 seconds.The version IE9 Beta had scored only 1 million downloads on the first day of its release. The new version includes HTML5, an improved UI and the most advanced tracking protection feature.

This new version of the Internet Explorer only runs on Windows7 and Vista that is seen as a blockade for it to grow market share.

However, IE9 numbers are not that impressive for Microsoft. Firefox 3.5 had nearly 1 million downloads within few hours of its release in 2009. Firefox 3.0 was downloaded 8 million times in the first 24 hours of its release.

As Firefox is set to release its final version of f Firefox 4 on March 22, touch competition awaits for IE9 ahead. 

India threatens to ban BlackBerry over corporate email access

Expressing dissatisfaction over Research In Motion's stand on accessing of its enterprise email, the Indian government has given a March 31 deadline to the Blackberry maker to provide a working solution for the encrypted corporate emails. 

India's Minister of State for Communications and IT, Sachin Pilot said in a written answer in the Parliament that Indian security agencies are not satisfied with RIM's offer of access to BlackberryMessenger (BBM) services data.

RIM had earlier offered access to its consumer services, including its Messenger services but the Indian security agencies maintained their tough stance on encryption keys needed for the lawful access to its corporate email.





While RIM claims it is not technologically possible to provide complete access to corporate emails, the government agencies demands a same formula that the handsets maker has with other countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, China and the U.S. to access enterprise services.

The fate of BlackBerry in India seems to be in limbo as it is learned that the government might go for the extreme step to ban its operations in India if its conditions are not met by March 2011.
The Indian government fears that the terrorists and other insurgent forces could use encrypted services to co-ordinate attacks on the country. 

Software shows how Earth evolved millions of years ago

A new software allows us to see not only the Earth's surface as it is now, but also takes us back in time to see how itevolved over hundreds of millions of years ago.

Earlier, at the click of a mouse, scientists could only virtually inspect our planet's surface using widely available mapping software. The new piece of free software is developed by a Sydney University geophysics team and international collaborators.

Released late last year, GPlates1.0 allows anyone to easily visualise the earth's tectonic plates, continents and oceans far back in geological time, according to a Sydney University statement.

"It's a little bit like having Google Earth with a time slider," said Dietmar Muller, Geophysics professor at the Sydney's School of Geosciences.

"You ask the software to show you, for example, how the supercontinent Pangaea and the large oceans surrounding it were assembled 200 million years ago.

"It delivers that by calculating the probable positions, orientations and motions of the tectonic plates through time," said Muller.

GPlates does much more than merely visualise the appearance of the Earth's surface. Its users can reconstruct the topography of the continents and the oceans through time and then use that geological and geographic data as a boundary condition for a range of computer simulations. 

A one touch disaster alert app on your mobile

The University of Taiwan researchers have released a mobile application that alerts you on disasters. The application works by taking location data from a mobile phone's built-in global positioning system. With one touch it can send a request for help to emergency service phones as well as to family members, or whichever numbers the user programs in. It can transmit to any number of people of the location of users trapped in earthquake rubble or under mudslides.
It can also work during abductions or in any other critical situation that are impossible to escape without any help. The app transmits the latitude and longitude co-ordinates of people stranded in disaster areas.

Liang Chih-hsiung, assistant professor of multimedia and gaming development at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology said, "This project was my idea, Taiwan has experienced earthquakes and mudslides where we can't find people, with one touch, location data can get out, and maybe that would save your life. If you were crushed but still alive, someone can still find you."

The product went on sale in mobile application store after the massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan. Users can download Mobile Saviour for $2.99 in English, Chinese or Japanese. The sales of the app will go to the Japan victims either through Japan's foreign ministry or a Red Cross chapter. Money made from the app will be used to help the people of Japan