Pakistani actor Veena Malik injured in car accident

Pakistani actor Veena Malik was injured in a car accident in Pakistan. Veena was travelling from Islamabad to Lahore.

The model-actress became famous in India and invited cleric's ire back home with her antics on the hit reality TV show 'Bigg Boss'.

Malik was branded "baigharat" (immoral) by Muslim clerics on national television in Pakistan for her behaviour on 'Bigg Boss' where she was seen getting cosy with both actor Ashmit Patel and model Hrishant Goswami.

But Malik's feisty stance against the criticism earned her praise from the liberal sections of Pakistani media and society.

Source:timesofindia

Would You Pay $20 Per Month for Google's Web-Only Laptop?

Need a laptop? Mainly for web stuff?

How does $20 per month sound?

That's the deal reportedly about to be announced by Google any moment now.

For your $20, you'll get a Chrome laptop - a cousin of the experimental CR-48 notebooks the company was handing out a few months ago (see Doug's review of one here).
It will be a cheap laptop, very close to disposable. It will run Chrome, and not a lot else. This is a laptop for the Facebook generation, aimed at people who are rarely out of range of a wifi signal, and happy to trust Google with all their data. Forever.

Data storage and webapps are included too. Your email, your photo storage, and thanks to yesterday's Google Music announcement, your audio storage will all be included too.

Since the laptop is effectively leased, rather than owned, you'll probably be able to trade it in for a new model every now and then.

There'll be no software updates to worry about, no data to move from machine to machine. Since it's all online anyway, it will just be a case of logging out on the old machine, and logging in on the new one.

Sounds too good to be true? Google has deep pockets, so it certainly has the money to set this up. And if it could entice enough people to start paying their monthly fee - well, that's a very nice income generator for years to come. The cell phone companies have already discovered that.

The only remaining question is the trickiest one: trust. Do you trust Google to look after all your stuff, securely and safely? Does $20 per month sound like a good deal to you?

(Via Forbes)

Xbox 360 Update Includes Support for New Disc Format and PayPal Integration

In about a week's time, owners of Microsoft's game console will have another way to pay for their Xbox Live memberships and DLC, when PayPal support happens by way of a spring update. If you're setting up through the Xbox accounts web site, you can already choose the popular payment service as a billing option but the update will let you do so on the console.
The timing's probably just a coincidence but PayPal integration looks especially attractive after the PlayStation Network fiasco that's exposed PS3 owners' personal info and payment information. Using PayPal means not having to enter your credit card information where it could be compromised by hackers and presumably also adds the benefit of that service's security measures and fraud protection.

The Xbox spring update will also get consoles ready for the previously discussed, new Xbox Game Disc (XGD3) format, which enables more storage on DVDs and better copy protection. GamePro says to expect the dashboard update to start rolling out on May 19th. In a post-PSNgate world, it'll be interesting to see if PayPal sees a spike in usage once the update's live.

Source: techland.time.com

Twitpic Says Sorry for Copyright Confusion

Twitter image service Twitpic today apologized after an update to its terms and conditions implied that it claimed ownership of all images uploaded to its servers, and could sell them on without the original photographer's permission.

After a day of protest online, Twitpic rushed to amend its terms page, and said sorry to users on its blog. Company founder Noah Everett wrote:
"First off I want to apologize for that confusion and our lack of clarity. We've updated our terms again to be more clear and to also show that you still own your content."

So what do Twitpic's terms say now?

"You retain all ownership rights to Content uploaded to Twitpic. However, by submitting Content to Twitpic, you hereby grant Twitpic a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and Twitpic's (and its successors' and affiliates') business..."

Everett says that's standard website legalease, a clause essential for any service that's distributing your stuff across the web on your behalf. It's also there to protect Twitpic users, some of whom have found their photos used by media organizations without permission.

The speed that news spreads via Twitter is also one of its greatest flaws, and Twitpic's biggest challenge now is ensuring that its blogged apology gets re-tweeted and linked as much as the problem terms and conditions page did in the first place.

Source: techland.time.com

$1.53 Million USD - Worth of "Apple" Brand

Millward Brown has published the list of World’s Most Expensive Brands of 2011. This time we have great news for Apple lovers that Apple has beaten Google and took the first place in the World’s Most Expensive Brands List.

This research was done by the global brands agency Millward Brown. Annual BrandZ study of the world’s top 100 brands says that “The Apple’s brand is now worth $153 Million Approx, which is almost half of Apple’s market capitalization”.

Apple downs Google - World’s Most Expensive Brands 2011

Source: techmistry.com