Google has come up with the Geolocation module which lets web applications to obtain the geographical position of the user. Using it web applications will be able to get the last known position of user, change in position of user and the current position of the user.

With the Geolocation module one can get a neat estimate of the position of the user through various location providers. This could be possible through server or onboard based providers. Check out for more details out here.

A couple of days back I had told you how a Polish security expert and hacker Adam Gowdiak had created ripples by reporting vulnerability in Nokia S 40 phones and had in turn asked for $29,500 for releasing the complete report. This entire incident had raise eyebrows in the community.

Nokia admitted to have received the security threat notice from Adam Gowdiak and now the company has admitted that its S series operating system is vulnerable to hackers and malicious programs could be installed. I was wondering whether Nokia had paid for his efforts or not since the company avoided commenting on this issue. Even Adam Gowdiak could not be reached on this issue but to me it seems that his efforts have finally paid off. Best of luck Adam for your new venture!!

Open source is something which receives applause from developers but Sun took ages to get associated with open source and when it did it seems to be making whole hearted effort to achieve the same. All this initiative seems to have brought those developers closer who had distanced themselves from Sun because of its dilly dallying attitude on open sourcing.

Now the company has come up with Light-Weight UI Toolkit or LWUIT which is an open source development toolkit. Developers will be able to create single interface which will be able to work where Java ME can be found.



LWUIT comes with touch-screen support, rich widgets, animation, variety of fonts, graphical components and 3-D integration. It will be available under the GPLv2 license. The company has been asking developers for their feedback and urging them to signup for their LWUIT Incubator Project.

I am still not sure how much of this is true. A self proclaimed security expert and hacker from Poland by the name of Adam Gowdiak states that he has come across vulnerability in the mobile Java technology implemented in Nokia S40 and if this is a fact then millions of such handsets out in the market are under security threat. Due to this vulnerability hackers could bypass security restrictions and install malicious applications on a phone of the person.

As per his claim nearly 140 Nokia phone models could be affected by the bug and if we consider the number of handsets in the market then the figure could be anywhere around 1.5 billion handsets. The information has not been made public and you will only be able to access the complete report if you are willing to shell out € 20,000. The reason he is not willing to fork out information for free is that he has spent months in research and wants to raise money to setup his own company.

In the research report you will get complete information regarding how you can hack into Nokia S 40 phones and target functions such as audio and video recording, phone information, SIM card access and phone book access.

Though Sun did not comment on the vulnerability notice sent by Adam Gowdiak but Nokia stated that it had received the notice. Gowdiak may be rebuked for his decision to ask money for the infomration but I believe that rather than begging in front of others for money for his startup he wants to pump in his own hard earned money to make his dreams take shape and probably he is correct to some extent.

Does the whole world speak only one language and is Apple iPhone only sold in America? Hopefully most of us would say a 'no' to both these questions and even Google realizes this fact therefore it has come up with Google Translate iPhone version which is a web service aimed at translating text between languages using computer algorithm.

Created using AJAX Language API it offers support for all Google Translate language pairs and updates automatically. Translations are possible anywhere between the range of 200 to 400 in 1MB data download and on the basis of this calculation it would cost around $10 (carrier charges depending on data usage) for 400 phrases translation when you are on international roaming. Certainly a good deal for people who are always on the move!!

Sun Microsystems may not be an official sponsor at Beijing Olympics 2008 but thtat doesn't seem to deter the company from making its presence felt in the unofficial arena. Keeping the Olympic frenzy in mind the company has announced a new social networking game on Facebook as a tribute to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Under this game players can compete with other competitors by predicting medal winners at one of the world's biggest sporting event. Dubbed as MyPicks Beijing 2008, the application enables you to pick winners of all the medals at the event well in advance and win points for your country. Player with the highest number of correct answers will be declared as the winner of the game. Interested people can play the game over here. I have registered for the game already and hopefully I might land the top spot. (Don't worry folks it's just a hope)