Facebook has won $873m law suit against Canadian spammer

One of the most popular social networks Facebook has won a law suit against Canadian spammer who was sending "sexually explicit" messages to the network users on behalf of the members whose accounts he had hacked. Now Adam Guerbuez, a resident of Montreal is ordered to pay $873m to Facebook owners. According to Jeremy Fogel, the US District Judge the fine has so high because Guerbuez has violated the US federal CAN-SPAM Act. Adam Guerbuez, who runs Atlantis Blue Capital and Ballervision.com was also restricted to use the prominent social networking site. During his activity Guerbuez has sent more than 4 million junk messages.

"Everyone who participates constructively in Facebook should feel confident that we are fighting hard to protect you against spam and other online nuisances," Max Kelly, Facebook's director of security, wrote Monday on the company's blog.

Efforts to reach Guerbuez for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.

The case against Guerbuez and his business, Atlantis Blue Capital, illustrates how Internet rogues can manipulate Facebook's communications system to unleash massive marketing blitzes.

According to Facebook, Guerbuez fooled its users into providing him with their usernames and passwords. One method was the use of fake Web sites that posed as legitimate destinations.

After Guerbuez gained access to user's personal profiles, he used computer programs to send out more than 4 million messages promoting a variety of products, including marijuana and penis enlargement products, during March and April of this year, Facebook said.

"Despite the resources dedicated to spam eradication, current available technology does not permit Facebook to completely prevent the transmission of spam on its site," the company's lawyers wrote in the case against Guerbuez.

Source : AP

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touch phone launched in India at Rs 21, 839

Nokia’s much-awaited touchscreen phone finally comes to India. The much speculated and talked about phone -- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic -- is touted as the company's answer to Apple iPhone.

Seems, the world's top cellphone maker took some cues from Apple iPhone’s pricing in India, Nokia 5800 is reportedly priced at Rs 21,800 (almost Rs 9,000 less than 8GB iPhone and Rs 14,000 less than 16 GB iPhone).

Nokia 5800, which can handle as many as 60 different languages, will be in shops early January 2009. The phone will also feature Nokia's Comes With Music service, which challenges Apple Inc's dominance in the digital music market.

On the looks front Nokia 5800 has same rounded corners and similar screen like iPhone. The screen size is 81mm (3.2-inch) diagonally, with 640x480-pixel touchscreen display that can play multiple types of video at a high resolution.

Measuring 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, the Nokia 5800 weighs 109 grams. Positioned as a music phone, the phone will be available in black, red, and blue variants.

The phone supports both finger and stylus touch.

Nokia's touch phone comes with 81MB internal memory, 8GB microSD memory card, capable of storing approximately 6,000 songs. The memory can be further expanded upto 16GB. Nokia 5800 is equipped with the Symbian S60 interface which Nokia showed off last year.

The battery life is reportedly as much as nine hours (GSM) or five hours (HSDPA), 35 hours for music playback or three hours of video. The company claims that the standby time is up to 17 days.

Nokia 5800 has 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash with 30 fps video recording. It also has a second backward facing camera. Nokia 5800 has built-in surround stereo speakers, Nokia Maps, GPS, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth and a top-mounted 3.5mm headphone socket.Unlike the Apple iPhone, the Nokia 5800 has Flash support, a programme used to power many online video services and websites.

The phone has a Media Bar, a drop down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment.

Reportedly priced at Rs 21, 839, Nokia's touchscreen phone will be available in India beginning 2009.

Intel Looking To Invest in Indian WiMax operators

Sitting on a cash pile of $15 billion, chip maker Intel is looking to invest in companies which will enable uptake of WiMAX-based broadband services in India. This could include picking up stake in Indian telecom operators who win the WiMAX spectrum and also invest in smaller companies that have equipment or software solutions to build the ecosystem.

Mr Sriram Viswanathan, Vice-President, Intel Capital and General Manager, WiMAX Program Office had this to say when questioned on his India plans - “We are always looking for opportunities. We have invested a significant amount in many countries including US, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan. We have done roughly a dozen plus operators. Our objective is to cover a billion people over the next few years with WiMAX technology and India with its huge population offers good opportunity,”

The only way Intel can invest into wimax is invest in Telecom Co’s that get Wimax spectrum alotted to them via the auction which is expected to be held in January 2009. Besides for state-owned telecom majors BSNL and MTNL, private players including Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are expected to deploy WiMAX-based wireless broadband services in India by next year.

“India will have four WiMAX licences. We want the market to grow for which we will have to do some heavy lifting. Though we cannot have five different relationships in the same geography, it doesn’t mean that we need to have only one. In the US, we had commercial relationships with both Clearwire and Sprint," he said.

The major issue facing the growth of technologies like wimax and 3G is investments especially in the current slowdown scene where cash is hard to come by and lesser and lesser companies would take risk with new technologies. Intel has made investments the world over in application and equipment companies like Telsima, Beeceem and also NIIT, Sasken and Rediff.

But given the auction is just around the corner more such investments would need to be made for the growth and adoption of new technologies.

Nokia 6260 slide mobile phone with 5 megapixel camera at price of EUR 299

People use mobile devices to share their lives with friends and family and with this in mind, Nokia introduces the Nokia 6260 slide. The phone call is the most obvious way to use the new handset to connect with people, but it will also be used to share photographs and videos, check on a friend's social network status or be guided to a restaurant to meet up with a loved one. For this, the Nokia 6260 slide features quick access to search engines and points of interest straight from the home screen and the new 360° navi-key allows a great mobile Internet experience.

Uploading images and videos to websites, blogs and social networks is quicker than ever with Nokia's newest arrival, which features lightning-fast speeds over both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The Nokia 6260 slide comes with the latest 3G technology, with high speed uploads (HSUPA) and downloads (HSDPA), a great camera, music player and web browser with a simple, instantly familiar interface. Combined with the range of Ovi services on offer, Nokia brings a compelling mobile Internet experience to a huge group of consumers.

A 5Mpix Carl Zeiss camera with flash takes fantastic pictures which can be easily shared and uploaded to Share on Ovi or other photo and video sharing websites. In addition to the photo, music and sharing features that come packed in the Nokia 6260 slide, Nokia Maps and the assisted GPS provide a great navigation experience. The Nokia 6260 slide brings GPS into the Series 40 software platform for the first time, really signifying navigation arriving in the mass market.

The Nokia 6260 slide is expected to begin shipping at the beginning of 2009 for an estimated retail price of EUR 299, before taxes and subsidies.