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Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs, resignation from the American technology multinational was quite a shock for everybody but his medical condition did not allow him to continue. The industry idol was considered one of the most successful head in the market for his acute philosophies and innovative ideas that gave the best bump to the company. Recently stock market showed Apple’s indexes beating Exxon Mobil’s that was topping the world. All this was not possible without Steve who joined back in 1997 and gave the most outstanding decade to the firm.

While addressing to the students at Stanford University, the college dropout pushed the students to pursue what they love in life. He said that he was very lucky to find out what his passion was for very few fortunate people actually get this opportunity. Everyone in this world, Steve said, should find out what is it that you love, if it does not reveal itself to you automatically, search deep. This according to him is very important for if you are able to look it up, that thing will never you as work and there is nothing really arduous about it. Everything has challenges, tough days but you will not get up every day saying “Gosh, i wish i did not have to do this”. Jobs words are so true that everybody can relate to it, even a school going kid and this closeness to real life make his beliefs more interesting.

Also a board member and highest shares holder of Disney, Steve Jobs, was the one who recognized Jony Ive, the main designer behind iMac, iPhone, iPad and many other amazing gadgets that broke records. The designer was about to quit the company when Steve joined in and persuaded him to stay. Jony was not the only one, John Sculley ex-CEO of Pepsi Company was also convinced by Steve to follow their dreams and do what they like rather than what they were told to. Apple was taken to another level by this guy and now Apple has become a benchmark for other technology firms.

According to reports, China’s search engine giant, Baidu, has been attacked by China Central Television due to their advertisement policy.

Earlier this week, China’s biggest television network, CCTV, showed a program in which it exposed Baidu. They revealed that Baidu charges money from companies’ in order to rank them in top priority listing of the website. Baidu displays search results based on the amount of money it charges from the companies’ rather than the relevance of the search term typed.

Furthermore, CCTV’S reporters proved how easily a fake under licensed company could buy its way to the top of Baidu’s priority listing by just paying under the table. They said that Baidu’s sales and marketing agents are responsible to collect money from the companies who want to register themselves in Baidu’s top listing.

It has been reported that this is not the first time Baidu has been attacked by CCTV. Previously in 2008, CCTV showed a program in which it showcased Baidu’s practice of selling its top search result slots. Bidders with the highest bid would get the top slot for their product when it was typed by any user from around the world. Furthermore, Baidu also removed the links of companies who did not participate in the bidding.

Meanwhile, after it was attacked in 2008, Baidu launched Phoenix Nest. Phoenix Nest is a marketing system developed by Baidu. It’s main purpose is to improve relevance in paid search. However, the recent show aired on CCTV proves that Baidu is still involved in its old practice of charging money and still allows companies without a license to buy their way to the top.

However, many analysts have said that there may be certain motives behind CCTV attacks on the search engine giant. Nevertheless, what ever motives they may be whether political or commercial, there are rumors in the market that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology may regulate online search and introduce new policies. This may affect Baidu’s paid search listings.

Furthermore, the Deputy Director of internet safety at the Ministry of Public Security, Mr.Deng Hongmin said that numerous departments are looking into the internet regulations and will revise them soon upon mutual concern.

Smartphone and tablet maker Samsung has been busy over the summer launching its Galaxy S II smartphone in Europe and Asia and selling millions of units in the process. The company also launched the 10.1 inch screen version of its Galaxy Tab. That tablet has been the subject of a big patent battle between Samsung and Apple that has resulted in the Galaxy Tab 10.1 being banned from sale in Australia and also banned, and later un-banned, from most of Europe. For its part Apple is aiming to get all of Samsung's smartphones and tablets banned from Europe.

Now Boy Genius Report is claiming that Samsung is prepping for what it is calling a "big" announcement on September 1. Samsung is being pretty cagy on exactly what will be revealed but is teasing us with a couple of YouTube videos that, well, don't really give us any clues. You can check out one of the teaser videos below. The report speculates that the announcement might be a new version of the 7 inch screen Galaxy Tab tablet with an improved touch screen and the 3.0 Honeycomb version of the Android operating system inside. However it also says that it might be the reveal of a brand new smartphone from the company.

A recent leak has supposedly hit the Internet recently that shows off Samsung's product launches for the end of the year which include nine Android based phones along with a Windows Phone 7 based device.

The HP TouchPad has become one of the biggest failures in the tech industry in the past few years. The company hyped up its webOS based tablet with a massive marketing campaign since it was launched on July 1. However poor reviews and sales made HP pull the plug on selling the TouchPad and all webOS based devices a few days ago. Now the company is selling the remaining stock of TouchPads at fire sale prices.

But what about those folks who already bought the TouchPad before HP decided to stop making it? According to WebOSCentral.com, people who purchased the TouchPad before HP's decision to drastically cut its price could get a credit on the difference or even a full refund. The story claims that in order to get that credit you will have to call HP’s Home and Office phone service. If you are willing to be put on hold for a little while you can ask and HP will honor your request for either credit option. HP will even give you an additional $10 credit for the fire sale difference to compensate you for your local sales tax. HP is also supposedly sending out a memo to retailers asking them to also honor the new credit plan.

In related news, Best Buy has confirmed via News.com that it is selling its remaining stock of HP TouchPads for the same price that HP is selling the tablet: $100 for the 16 GB version and $150 for the 32 GB version.

The latest case of a Xbox 360 gamer suing Microsoft has surfaced and this time the man filing the legal action is asking for a whopping $500 billion (with a b) from the company. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that David Stebbins from Arkansas filed a motion earlier this week in Seattle as he tries to use the terms of his Xbox Live contract against Microsoft. According to the story, Stebbins claims that on May 6 he sent a notice to Microsoft that he was "unilaterally amending the terms of service" of his Xbox Live contract. He also claimed that if Microsoft did not terminate his contract with him within 10 days, it would have to accept the new terms of service.

In effect, Stebbins is trying to do what companies like Microsoft do when they change the terms of a contract with consumers. Most people receive emails with the new terms and blindly accept them without even reading them.

Stebbins claims that after Microsoft didn't terminate the Xbox Live contract he then invited the company to have legal talks to discuss the case which he claims involve the $500 billion in damages. Microsoft didn't respond in which case Stebbins claims he is the automatic winner of that massive amount of money.

The article points out that Stebbins has also filed lawsuits against a number of other businesses with similar terms. Many of those lawsuits have been dismissed by the courts. Yet Stebbins says he is not just sending out frivolous lawsuits for the heck of it, claiming, "My true goal is not to just harass, and it's not just to get rich. My true goal is to level the playing field."

Despite the fact that Resistance 3 was destined for release on September 6th, one lucky gamer has managed to get the game early. Resistance 3 only recently went gold, though the lucky gamer has boasted of his success via Reddit. Going by the Reddit username of 'jearbear', the user posted an image of him holding his copy of the game's box, as well as the title screen in the background. It's hard not to be jealous, but jearbear was kind enough to provide some thoughts on the game.
In the Reddit comments, he also responded to a user. The television in the background is 52" in size, and apparently dominates the wall behind him. It's hard not to be slightly jealous of the display he will be enjoying the game on, over two weeks before anyone else will get to play the release title. His feedback is as follows:

“Compared to R2 it is so much better…. graphics, controls, story, difficulty… I am really enjoying it. How it feels and plays is a ton better than R2. It is difficult on normal (more strategic, no run and gun at least in this difficulty). The graphics are dang good too. The game feels very dark and graphically it has a very dark palette. It is also quite intense in some areas. I also enjoy how there are med packs instead of health regeneration! The art direction is pretty cool

I don’t play COD much so I can’t really compare much. Last I played was World at War. This feels similar

Haven’t played multiplayer yet…

To be honest I played a couple hours yesterday but couldn’t really get into it… just wasn’t in the mood. Tonight I am really enjoying it tonight though. I am probably 4 hours in so far and the levels are pretty good. I am currently in a “stealth” area and it doesn’t feel like other stealth games (to me at least).”

He also said:

“I just want to say that this game seems to be what Insomniac wanted Resistance 1 and 2 to be”

Considering that Resistance 2 was regarded as one of the best PlayStation 3 exclusives upon its release, saying Resistance 3 is an improvement still is very high praise. He also explains how he managed to get the game. According to his post on Reddit, a few copies landed in the office, and his boss saw fit to let him grab one of them as he did not play games.

Resistance 3 is scheduled to release on September 6th. The story follows Joseph Capelli, in place of Nathan Hale from the first two titles. It is set in 1957, four years after the events of Resistance 2. The game is promoted under the tagline of "You are the resistance", as a direct reference to civilians being the only opposition in the Chimaeran dominated country. The story will travel from New York City to St. Louis, in Missouri.

The Google+ social networking service has been a big success so far with tens of millions of people joining in the past couple of months. That includes a number of celebrities who have decided to have a presence in this new and growing network. But until just a couple of days ago Google was unable to verify if that Google+ profile for William Shatner was, in fact, made by William Shatner.

This week the company announced that it has started to put in verification badges for Google+ profiles. According to a Google+ post by Google's Wen-Ai Yu, verified names will have a grey checkmark logo next to their Google+ name. If you move your cursor on that checkmark it will expand and show "verified name". Yu also said that ordinary Google+ users won't be able to have their profile verified yet, saying, "For now, we’re focused on verifying public figures, celebrities, and people who have been added to a large number of Circles." She added that verified support should be expanded in the future. However she didn't go into detail on exactly how Google makes sure a Google+ profile is created by the person who supposedly is in charge of it.

Having verified profiles on Google+ should make the service much more inviting for celebs and public figures to join and communicate with other Google+ users. In theory, that should also help expand the number of Google+ users in general. Nearly two months after its public launch Google is still keeping Google+ as an invite only service.

Nintendo has announced a redesigned Wii console, destined for release before Christmas. As Techradar reports, the new console will have a more streamlined shape. The current shape console can be placed both horizontally and vertically, but the new console removes support for vertical placement. The new console also removes GameCube compatibility. It will not run the games, or use GameCube accessories, so owners of Nintendo’s previous console may wish to look for the older model consoles.
The new Wii will release as a bundle pack. Inside the pack comes the console, Wii Party, Wii Sports, a Wii Remote Plus, and a nunchuck. Nintendo plans to sell other game bundles in order to ensure some appealing deals for parents.

As all the consoles were intended to remain in the console race for an extended period of time, all that remains is to push those who do not own one of the consoles to buy their way in. Sony has done this by dropping PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable prices. Microsoft wants to focus on the Kinect again due to its success this year.

Nintendo is releasing the new Wii design in order to maintain a fight for the market, though they are focusing on ensuring the Wii U will be the best possible purchase when it releases, around April 2012. The redesigned Wii’s release and pricing are not yet known, but it is likely cheaper than current models due to the lack of GameCube support. It will likely release between September and November, which are typically the peak buying seasons for Christmas gifts.

Dell has revealed its latest financial numbers for the quarter that ended on June 30. Revenue for the quarter came in at $15.66 billion, which is only a slight increase compared to the $15.5 billion in revenue Dell brought in at the same time period a year ago. However, net income for Dell was a huge improvement as it recorded $890 million for the quarter, well above the $545 million in net income it brought in at the same period a year ago. Dell said that a lot of its growth in the quarter was due to its enterprise business as sales of servers and storage products surged up.

So everything is good at Dell, right? Not so fast. The company also announced that it was cutting its revenue forecast for its full fiscal year. Dell now expects revenue growth of between 1 to 5 percent for the fiscal year versus its previous predictions of between 5 to 9 percent. Dell said it was cutting its forecast due to a "more uncertain demand environment". That was enough to send Dell's stock prick down in after hours trading today.

There is definitely a fear that the PC industry as a whole is slowing down and Dell is still primarily a PC company. Its efforts to break into the smartphone market haven't been successful and more recently the company has tried to enter the tablet market with the Streak. Dell recently launched a 10 inch screen version of the Streak but only put the tablet on sale in China.

On Monday, Internet rumors spread that Apple was testing a version of its iPhone that had support for 4G speeds via the LTE protocol. Now a new report from Engadget claims via unnamed sources that it has seen a photo of LTE equipment being installed inside an Apple store at an undisclosed location. The article originally came with the photo itself at first but Engadget has since removed the image.

According to the story, the LTE equipment was being installed by AT&T who is supposed to start launching its LTE 4G network sometime this summer, but in only in a select few cities. Verizon Wireless, which also sells the iPhone, launched its LTE network months ago and has now expanded it to cover well over 100 US cities and metropolitan areas. The same report also claims that all Apple stores in the region were the 4G support was being installed are ramping up its staffing needs by 30, percent although it's not clear as to what the reasons are.

Most industry observers don't believe that the next version of the iPhone, the iPhone 5, will contain support for 4G LTE speeds. However, Apple has surprised the media before with announcements and features for previous versions. The biggest question still remains: When will the iPhone 5 be released? Again industry pundits have predicted that Apple will launch the new iPhone as early as early September and as late as the last week of October. We are also still awaiting Apple's annual iPod refresh.