World's Tallest Dog 7ft Long

Standing at nearly 43 inches tall from paw to shoulder and weighing a staggering 245lbs could this be the world's new tallest dog?

Pictured here in the parks of Tuscon, Arizona, George, a four-year-old blue great dane, looks more like a miniature horse than a dog.

The gentle giant, who measures 7ft 3ins from nose to tail, could be a prime contender to take the title from the former record holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who passed away from cancer last August.

Now George's owners, David and Christine Nasser, are awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records to see if he has achieved the lofty heights. 'He's 42.625 inches at the shoulder,' said David. 'He's very very unique.'

According to David, George consumes 110lbs of food every month, and sleeps alone in his own Queen Size Bed. David and Christine raised George from when he was 7 weeks old, but never expected him to grow so big..

With size comes problems: The giant great dane barely fits in the back of his owner's SUV.

 

Paws for thought: George's giant feet dwarf his owner Dave Nassar's hand. Last August the world's tallest dog, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane, passed away from cancer.

The couple eventually had to move their aptly named dog out of their king sized bed, when he grew too large for the three of them to share the same sheets.  

Dr. William Wallace of the Buena Pet Clinic in Tucson, who witnessed the documentation necessary for the Guinness record, said: 'In my 45 years of experience working with giant breed dogs, without question, George is the tallest dog I have ever seen.' 

David is currently rushing to get that necessary documentation into Guinness as other dog owners are coming forth claiming the record.  

As they wait for the results to come through, George is busy occupying himself with his new found stardom and even has a Facebook fan page and Twitter accounts for his adorning fans. It appears as though the sky's the limit for this mammoth hound.

'Giant George' and owner Dave Nasser share a couch together: The four-year-old blue great dane, weighs a staggering 245lbs and measures almost 43ins at the shoulder.

Magnificent: George measures more than 7ft from nose to tail and tucks away 110lbs of food every month.

Sony Ericsson rejected opportunity to build Nexus One

According to Sony Ericsson president Bert Nordberg, the company rejected the opportunity to build the Google Nexus One, saying that it did not want to gain a reputation as a subcontractor. After SE turned down the offer, HTC gladly took the chance to manufacture the smartphone.

Although sales of the Nexus One have been rather small by most standards, HTC gained tons of publicity from the partnership, with their CEO given a few minutes to talk at the much-hyped Nexus One launch last month about his company and the brand itself.

Sony Ericsson has seen over $1 billion in losses over the past year, and continues to lose market share to rivals, leading to over 2000 layoffs.

Nokia cancels order for delayed NFC 6216 handset

We have reported on the new benefits of NFC, but it doesn’t look like Nokia will be picking up some of them.
Apparently, the big Finish cell company doesn’t want the 6216 handset, a model that has already been delayed. Nokia has said that “the quality of the consumer experience was not what it needed to be”, but it hasn’t completely shut the door on NFC handsets.

Aeturnum Lanka wins Microsoft FAST Search award

A product developed by the local arm of US-based software company, Aeturnum Inc., was recognised with a "FAST Innovative Solution Award" at Microsoft's recent SharePoint Conference FASTforward, held in Las Vegas, USA; according to a statement by the company's domestic subsidiary.
Further, Aeturnum Lanka-developed the "Search Solutions Framework", which is built on Microsoft's FAST Search enterprise platform, earned one of only six awards handed out worldwide to companies as a part of the conference's inaugural awards programme.

Google goes Social

Google introduced a social networking tool called Google Buzz that allows sharing of status updates, images, and videos via a new Gmail tab called Google Buzz. In other words, a somewhat Facebook version for Google. The Google Buzz features will also be available on Android based phones as well as the iPhone (via a Web-based application) allowing for real-time updates to your Google Buzz feed that can show up on a new version of Google’s mobile maps.

Google says the new Google Buzz tab will begin showing up on about 1 percent of Gmail user accounts starting today. Luckily enough, I was part of that 1 percent ! 

Google hopes that instead of conversing on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, you’ll instead turn to Google Buzz for sharing status updates, photos, and videos. Not an easy task, given the fact that these social platforms are incredibly popular well entrenched in the user market. How will the search giant convince you to make Google Buzz your social network of choice? Perhaps the following Buzz features might just do that.

Blends With Gmail

The main way of accessing Google Buzz will be through Gmail. Below your inbox, there will be a tab for Buzz, allowing you to read status updates, photos, and video.

The 40 people you converse with the most in Gmail and Gchat are automatically added as friends. Buzz updates also appear in your inbox if someone comments on your updates or comments, or someone directs a Buzz to your attention by using the familiar “@” symbol.

“Page Rank” for Status Updates

Google brought up that familiar criticism of social networks, that no one cares if you ate a bagel or stubbed your toe.

To compensate for noise, Google Buzz lets you like and dislike status updates, and learn over time whether to show or collapse status updates from your friends. It also looks for conversations outside your direct group of followers and adds them to your feed as recommendations. A very cool feature !

Media Gets Pulled In

Photos from Flickr and Picasa and video from YouTube appear as thumbnails in Google Buzz. Click a YouTube thumbnail, and the video will expand to play inline. Click on a photo, and it’ll expand to fill most of the browser window, with the rest of the gallery in a narrow strip along the bottom of the screen.
If you post a link in Buzz, you’ll automatically be able to append images and the headline from that Web page. Finally, you can pull in tweets from Twitter into Buzz. Not surprisingly it won’t pull in feeds from Facebook. Unfortunately, you can’t send your Buzz updates out to Twitter or other social networks as yet.

Private and Public

With each update you send, you’ll have a choice of making it private or public. Private updates can go to all of your Buzz followers, or just a select group. Public updates are posted on your Google Profile page and are immediately indexed for Google Search. Kudos to Google for addressing the private-public issue upfront with Buzz !

So question is, will I move out of Facebook onto Buzz ? Highly unlikely. But I will certainly not give up playing around with it. Only time will tell.

Facebook Outage:Facebook Problems Today Facebook Not Working

Facebook Outage:Facebook Problems Today Facebook Not Working – Facebook Problems Today/Facebook Not Working/Facebook Outage/Facebook Hacked/Facebook Slow/Facebook Is Down/Facebook Site Maintenance infos can be found here.Today February 20th over 400 million Facebook users have been complaining about problems at the social media site.It appeared that the site was hacked therefore making it impossible for people to log in, and go on with their usual business.
But rest assured a Facebook representative has put a out a statement saying that the company is looking into the problem.

Apple to Bring Auto-Switch Graphics to New MacBook Pro Models

A new round of rumors suggest Apple will bring smoother, auto-switch graphics, powered by NVIDIA, to its upcoming MacBook Pro models. Up until now, the company has implemented dual graphics cards, a low-end for lightweight tasks, and a high-end GPU for gaming, that switch between the two to give the best combination of power and battery life. However, if you wanted to switch between the two, you would have had to do it manually in settings.
Not anymore. With NVIDIA’s new technology, Apple hopes to make the transitions automatic and smooth for users, thereby eliminating the need to manually adjust settings in switching between tasks. This technology is expected to appear when Apple reveals a refresh to its MacBook Pro models.

Rolls Royce Ghost To Spawn 4 New Models

This exquisite Rolls Royce Ghost pictured on the right had such a great response at its debut back in Frankfurt that recent reports state Rolls Royce is now considering making coupe, convertible and long-wheelbase versions of this outstanding sedan.

These new versions are expected to be presented as experimental concepts with an aim to asses the public's viewpoint.

Sources have also revealed that despite originating from the RR Ghost platform, the new models may not have the word "Ghost" in their names.

Earlier in November, it was reported that a hybrid version of the Ghost was also in progress.

Windows Phone 7 Puts Xbox Live And PSN In Your Pocket

The news that Xbox Live will be available on Windows Phone 7 mobile devices this Fall has already got a lot of folks talking about the advance of the mobile gaming market. Anticipations about unique game titles, user experiences, and streamlined account activities abound. There are even speculations about when–and if–Sony's Playstation Network might consider joining the fight.

The news of mobile Xbox Live alone is enough to instill bowel-evacuating excitement in Xbox owners everywhere, but how feature-rich will this experience be? Gamers that opt to buy a Windows Phone 7 mobile device will expect (and receive) the basics, which include access to their Xbox Live profile, gamer points for mobile titles, and achievements they can earn while they play. That doesn't sound like anything mind-blowing, but it is a step towards a more integrated mobile game experience on Windows Phone 7.

What games will be available on the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system? This is one of the the bigger concerns that seems to be emerging around this new OS. At the moment, this essentially sounds like another completely unique development platform that game designers and developers will have to plan for. Although unlikely in the near future, finding a streamlined way to port current Xbox Live titles directly to a Windows Phone 7 mobile device would be a big win for gamers and game companies alike. Xbox Live fans will be able to have a seamless gaming experience regardless of their location. That means you don't have to sweat buckets trying to acquire that last Braid puzzle piece before work; you'll be able to take all that glorious mental frustration along with you! Game developers would have one less delivery platform to worry about when envisioning their titles.

That of course doesn't mean that custom titles and experiences would be unwelcome on a Windows Phone 7 device. Taking advantage of the boastfully sleek and simple user interface could present some very intuitive and refreshing games. If Microsoft couples this with a strong focus on Xbox-specific brands, it could mean very awesome things for the mobile game market. This does present a slippery slope, however, as the potential for creating cheap and watered-down facades of popular Xbox titles is very plausible. Too often the game industry has traded product quality for delivery dates and marketability; and that's something faithful gamers don't want in their pocket.

As for reaching beyond their initial client-base, Windows Phone 7 devices have an opportunity to cater to the hordes of more casual gamers. There's no denying that a lot of people just want the ability to play their turn-based mobile games with family and friends. Anything that delivers a Facebook-style experience seems to be gold, especially when people are on-the-go. This demographic may not be a big draw for the Microsoft big-wigs, but it is definitely an entertainment channel that Windows Phone 7 devices would be wise to address.

Adding a similar feature for connectivity to Sony's Playstation Network would also be a useful market for the Windows Phone 7. This would obviously be an unusual clash of branding, however, and its not clear if Sony would have a strong enough reason to consider such a move. Perhaps waiting to see what features and game titles Microsoft will bring to their Windows Phone 7 Xbox Live service would be a viable strategy before Sony decides to let Playstation Network enter the mobile phone arena.

Overall, we're incredibly excited about this new mobile gaming platform. Windows Phone 7 devices have an opportunity to influence the future of portable games which will include robust connectivity across multiple platforms for a single user. We aren't expecting to have a Mini Master Chief in our pocket anytime soon, but when we do, the tiniest of wars will unquestionably be waged