It seems like Google is on a major roll here, giving new services to its users practically everyday. Most of us are probably loaded with several Google services, like Gmail, YouTube, Google Analytic, Google Wave and so many more, it gets hard to keep track of everything. Google just announced a Google Dashboard that lets you control everything under one roof. You can sign into your Google Dashboard at http://www.google.com, visit the dashboard, and all the services that you’ve ever used before will be listed down including Google Document, Calendar,  and even services such as AdSense and Adwords. Watch the video below from Google for more information.

(Source: Google Blog)

A couple of months ago, HP Space went around looking for the finest creative talents in Asia, receiving over 2000 digital auditions on their website at http://www.hpspace.com. After short listing 65 contestants, they were chosen to participate in on-grown auditions in China, Singapore and India where they were given mini-challenges, and had to work with complete strangers to meet strict deadlines. Recently, HP Space revealed the 16 finalists to have their skills and determination to a test.

“The high standard of work exhibited at the auditions and the vibrant personalities of our short-listed contestants convinced us to increase the number of finalists from 12 to 16.  It is going to be very exciting to see these charismatic, immensely talented young Asia’s bloom in HP SPACE,” -- David Searl, Executive Producer of HP SPACE.

Hit the jump to find out who these finalists are and where you can catch the shows which will be premiering in Singapore on 10 November 2009.

You can now update your Facebook and Twitter account via SMS using your Maxis line. Maxis recently just announced this new “fb2mobile” service allowing you to connect with these social networking services without the need of a Smartphone or any Internet connection. Apart from posting your real-time status updates or photos via SMS and MMS, you can also receive updates from your friends.

For more information about how to activate the service and its charges, visit http://www.maxis.com.my.
 

When I first saw the headlines I could literally hear my wallet running away, your online shopping days will be made easier via Google Commerce Search. You know how we always log on to different online stores for different type of things to buy? Imagine all of those online merchants integrated into a single place with a very customizable search engine that allows you to filter the results then sort them by category, price, brand and many other attributes. Google just introduced this new feature for online retailers to install on their website, making it easier for them to reach out to their potential customers. Shopping anyone?

(Source: Mashable)

While you’re sulking over your slow Internet connection and probably waiting for this page to fully load, the folks in Hong Kong will be enjoying 100Mbps Internet speed at 50% of its original price. All they have to do is introduce a friend, and both of them get the half price benefit, paying only USD$13 a month each. You know what’s best? They’re guaranteed at least 80% of the advertised speed when browsing domestic websites, sounds like such a far fetched dream for us.

“William Yeung, Chief Executive Officer of HKBN noted that at least 32% of Internet users in Hong Kong suffer from broadband speeds below 10Mbps, and the Hong Kong special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China lags behind Korea and Japan in terms of fiber to the home service, something Yeung would like to see changed.”

(Source: Stop The Cap)

It seems that according to Google Maps, there’s a village up North of England called Argleton which looks fine, except for the fact that it does not exist in real life. The map below clearly shows Argleton in a land with no buildings, just fields, so how did this “village” come about? The same location on Bing maps however, does not show any signs of this mysterious place. How did Google come up with a new village in the middle of the fields?

The new MSN page is not due until next year, but MSN is rolling out a preview at http://www.msn.com/preview.aspx. Adopting a white background instead of blue, the new MSN page is definitely more organized and user-friendly. The news are now rearranged into colorful tabs, allowing you to switch between various news categories without having to refresh the entire page or open up a new window. MSN also integrated social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter onto the right side of the page, allowing you to log into these services and view all the updates in a single page. It’s a big change for Microsoft, lets just hope this new update comes faster.

Here are both new and current version for your comparison.

The new MSN Page

Current MSN Page

If you’re one of those who’ve paid cash to buy virtual goods like Zynga Poker chips, then you’re among those who’ve contributed to online business. Of course there are other ways such as completing a survey or registering for something in exchange for points which may seem like a very normal way of doing business, but TechCrunch thinks so otherwise. They recently discussed how people can easily get scammed by such methods, providing several examples of such scams. Very eye-opening indeed, what do you think?

“A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant. When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number, and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that, they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. Tatto Media is the company at the very end of the line on most mobile scams, and they flow it up through Offerpal, SuperRewards and others to the game developers.

As you can see in the image below, nothing in the offer says that the user will be billed $10/month forever for a useless service.

”

Watch this video of Michael Arrington from TechCrunch asking the CEO of Offerpal the ethics of the company’s business during the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco.

(Source: TechCrunch)

Nokia S60 users can now speak Chinese Mandarin when using Google Voice Search. The application, Google Mobile App, can be downloaded by visiting m.google.com on a Nokia browser. Although this new feature is supported only in Nokia S60 phones for the moment, Google will be expanding it to other mobile platforms such as iPhone and Android. It might be a cool feature to use, all you have to do is speak into your phone in either English or Mandarin and it will automatically recognize your speech and do a Google search on your request, unfortunately, it’s not available in Malaysia - is our accent so hard to recognize? The English version of Google Voice Search has been fine-tuned to recognize accents from US, UK, Australia and even India.

(Source: Google AFP)

Sony Ericsson today unveils the XPERIA™ X10, the first phone in a family of phones to deliver a consistent user experience where communication truly becomes entertainment. Building on Sony Ericsson’s entertainment heritage and combining rich graphics with intelligence capabilities, the XPERIA™ X10   introduces a new UX platform that will evolve across the product portfolio and expand over time continuously introducing new features and capabilities.

The UX platform builds on top of the Open OS and creates a unique Sony Ericsson user experience by combining best-in-class entertainment features with signature applications, unrivalled integration of social media services and a rich graphical user interface. The XPERIA™ X10 is the first mobile phone to truly humanise the way people interact with their phones.