MakTeck

We all know about the Apple iPod competitor from Microsoft; Zune. Although not as much popular but this Christmas Microsoft would be dancing and rejoicing that its product was being searched as one the most popular gift items.

Zune related searches peaked in the top 20 most searched for terms Christmas morning (in the US) on Google then settled mid range at 40-50 as it came off its peak.

The strategy for Microsoft seems to be working as it is aggressively marketing the latest Zune and pricing it competitively against the iPod. If you are looking to set up your Zune, click here.

A job well done Microsoft.

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As I told you earlier George W Bush gains popularity in games so another online gaming company steps forward and creates this game

Facebook has already moved past MySpace when it comes to global user engagement, but the leading social network is crawling closer to Google as well (rapidly). In a recent survey by comScore, Facebook users spent an average of 33.9 billion minutes compared to Google’s 41.6 billion, with Yahoo topping engagement with 120 billion minutes. The gap is quite big, but Facebook has grown at a tremendous rate, jumping up by 19% (in October) compared to Google’s 3.6%. Any tosses on when Facebook may actually crawl past Google?

Inspired by the Iraqi journalist who launched his shoes at president George W. Bush, it seems now anyone can take a virtual swipe at the man himself – thanks to the appearance of two new games on the internet.
‘Sock and Awe’ sees the player trying to knock Bush out by flinging their footwear at the US leader. The site hosted an impressive 1.4million players before folding under the pressure earlier this week. Briton Alex Tew created the game, which is craftily named after the US campaign that initiated the Iraq invasion.
Another Norwegian site has reportedly recorded over 2.69million hits. Should you tire of following in the footsteps of Durgham Zaidi, there’s also an online campaign urging people to send their old shoes to Bush.

[via Tech radar]

Atif Shamim, a Pakistani Engineering student studying at Carleton University Canada, has pulled off a trick that the multi-billion dollar giants like Apple and RIM couldnt do – i.e extend the battery life of devices like iPhone and BlackBerries. Shamim, an electronics Phd student at Carleton, has built a prototype that extends the battery life of devices by removing wires that connects the electronic circuitry with the antenna. These wires are now replaced with wireless connections resulting in more than 12 times decrease in the power consumption of the devices.

“This has not been tried before — that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly. They’ve been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That’s where the power gets lost,” Mr. Shamim said.

The invention has already won accolades, as paper about the invention was named the best paper at the European Wireless Technology Conference. Shamim has also filed patent applications in the U.S. and in Canada, but it might be years till we see this technology in industrial use.

Picture above shows Shamim (right) and fellow researcher Muhammad Arsalan (center) receiving Industrial Collaboration Award from Iain Scott (left), Strategic Microelectronics Council of ITAC.

“This has not been tried before — that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly. They’ve been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That’s where the power gets lost,” Mr. Shamim said.

The invention has already won accolades, as paper about the invention was named the best paper at the European Wireless Technology Conference. Shamim has also filed patent applications in the U.S. and in Canada, but it might be years till we see this technology in industrial use.

Picture above shows Shamim (right) and fellow researcher Muhammad Arsalan (center) receiving Industrial Collaboration Award from Iain Scott (left), Strategic Microelectronics Council of ITAC.