.::REALITYRECALL::.

India’s new national census puts the population at about 1.21 billion people, or 17 per cent of the world population, the census commissioner says.

Don’t worry Africa, by Mal d’estro…(Read…)

It’s no secret that Netflix has grand plans to expand its global footprint that now feeds media to some 20 million North American subscribers. Hell, the company was boasting of the “significant dollars” allocated to its 2011 international expansion plans just four months ago. While nothing’s official yet, we’ve unearthed a few tantalizing openings posted to the Netflix job site over the last few days that could point to an imminent launch. Notably, Netflix’s customer service call center in Hillsboro Oregon is gearing up to expand its scope of operations beyond North America. Two new job postings for a Training Supervisor and Quality Assurance Analyst both mention the need to prepare for “rapid” international expansion and “will support a specific country / region outside of North America.” The Training Supervisor is being hired specifically to educate customer service reps in preparation for that future international growth. Neflix is looking for fluency in English in addition to Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European), leaving things pretty wide open with regard to the countries targeted for initial launch.

We do know that Netflix had plans to launch in the UK way back in 2004 — plans that were ultimately scrapped in order to focus on its core US business (and later Canada). But if not the UK then we should at least expect to see Netflix target the European continent first if a statement attributed to CEO Reed Hastings from way back in January of 2010 still rings true: “the big market for Hollywood content (after the U.S.) is Europe…Third is Asia. Fourth is the rest of the world.” Can’t let Amazon have the market to itself now can we Reed?

[Thanks, Chico]

Netflix beefing up service center in preparation for global launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They said they would do it, and by golly it’s nearly here — Samsung just revealed that its assembly lines are starting to churn out see-thru computer screens that don’t require power-sucking backlights to function. Unfortunately, it looks like the amazing AMOLED variety is still on the drawing board, but ambient light-powered LCDs are on the way, with Samsung offering a 22-inch, 1680 x 1050 resolution panel with a 500:1 contrast ratio to begin with. Sammy suggests we’ll see it in HDMI and USB-compatible monitors and suspects it’ll be used in advertising and teleconferencing first — which suggests this display won’t come cheap — but we all know the true killer app will be a nice big frameless laptop screen. We’ll take two, please. PR after the break.

Continue reading Samsung mass-producing 22-inch transparent LCD, your desktop monitor seethes with jealousy

Samsung mass-producing 22-inch transparent LCD, your desktop monitor seethes with jealousy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By the looks of the screenshot sent in by tipster Greg E., the fine people of Chicago, Rockford and beyond have roughly 36 hours to prepare for what weatherman Mike Caplan says is coming their way. More »

With the great NFC race looming, Google is axing support for QR Codes in their Places service. QR codes made a noble play for the hearts and minds of nerds, but honestly, I hope this is the first step towards their complete and utter annihilation. More »

As you’ll recall from yesterday, there was one small detail that stood out in Microsoft’s announcement of a new preview program for the Xbox 360 — namely, word that the latest system update would bring with it an “updated Xbox 360 disc format.” That naturally prompted plenty of speculation, and Eurogamer now says it has heard from a “highly placed development source” who has confirmed that the new disc format actually adds 1GB of storage space to Xbox 360 discs. As the site notes, the Xbox 360’s current disc format tops out at just 6.8GB, which still leaves some room to play around with on a standard dual-layer DVD. That would also explain the free copy of Halo: Reach that Microsoft is giving out to everyone accepted into the preview program — can’t really test a new disc format without some new discs now, can you?

Microsoft’s ‘updated Xbox 360 disc format’ to add an extra gigabyte? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TEPCO says they’re going to permanently shut down the four nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant which caused catastrophic problems for the entire Japanese nation after the earthquake that hit on March 11. More »

Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages. That’s why we recently started to include more information from people you know—stuff they’ve shared on Twitter, Flickr and other sites—in Google search results.

Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.

Say, for example, you’re planning a winter trip to Tahoe, Calif. When you do a search, you may now see a +1 from your slalom-skiing aunt next to the result for a lodge in the area. Or if you’re looking for a new pasta recipe, we’ll show you +1’s from your culinary genius college roommate. And even if none of your friends are baristas or caffeine addicts, we may still show you how many people across the web have +1’d your local coffee shop.

The beauty of +1’s is their relevance—you get the right recommendations (because they come from people who matter to you), at the right time (when you are actually looking for information about that topic) and in the right format (your search results). For more information about +1, watch this video:

So how do we know which +1’s to show you? Like social search, we use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google (your chat buddies and contacts, for example). Soon we may also incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible. If you want to know who you’re connected to, and how, visit the “Social Circle and Content” section of the Google Dashboard.

To get started +1’ing the stuff you like, you’ll need to create a Google profile—or if you already have one, upgrade it. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend. To see +1’s in your Google search results you’ll need to be logged into your Google Account.

We’ll be slowly rolling out +1’s, starting in English on Google.com. If you can’t wait to start seeing +1’s, we’ll soon let you opt-in to the launch by visiting our experimental search site. Initially, +1’s will appear alongside search results and ads, but in the weeks ahead they’ll appear in many more places (including other Google products and sites across the web). If you’re an advertiser and want to learn more about how the +1 button works on search ads and websites, visit our AdWords blog.

We’re confident that +1, combined with all of the social content we’re now including in search, will mean even better, more relevant results than you get today.

Posted by Rob Spiro, Product Manager

It looks like NBC has ditched Wonder Woman’s heinous shiny blue pleather pants and boots. Thank goodness. Actress Adrianne Palicki was spotted filming David E. Kelley’s new series in a slightly modified Wonder Woman costume. What do you think? More »

SaskTel recently announced that their next Android device will be the HTC Incredible S. no date of when this will be available but it has now shown up on their site and given the official “coming soon” stamp. SaskTel also does a good job with their description saying this Android will “leave you breathless”: “The […]

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The vagabonds of Google’s Street View team have struck again, this time conquering classical French and Italian landmarks for their mothership’s immense pictorial collection. As of today, you’re able to drop your little yellow avatar in Google Maps right atop such famous locales as the Colosseum of Rome or Florence’s Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, whereupon you’ll be transported right to it (or, in the case of the Colosseum, inside it) in the same way as if they were any old street addresses. This follows, of course, Google’s introduction of an intriguing indoor version of Street View for some of the world’s most prestigious museums recently and continues the company’s trend of bringing the arts, in this case classical architecture, to a wider audience. We just wonder what reason said audience will have to ever step outside with all this splendor at its fingertips indoors.

Google Street View invades historic landmarks, makes it unnecessary for you to ever leave the house originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It already has one of the cutest names in cloud computing, and now it has Google Docs, too. Following up on its integration of Dropbox, Jolicloud just added support for the online office suite, which means you can access and edit all of your important missives and memos via the Jolicloud Desktop or Joli OS. Setting it up is as simple as clicking a button to link the two accounts — after that, you can browse, edit, and do whatever you do in Google Docs, and because it’s all stored in the cloud, you can pick up on one device where you left off on another. Sound familiar? For complete instructions, follow the source link below.

Google Docs now on Jolicloud Desktop, Joli OS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A few weeks ago rumours were that RIM will be expanding their BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app past BlackBerry devices and have it available to Android and iOS devices. If and when BBM will be implemented on other platforms it won’t be the full experience that BlackBerry users love but a stripped down version. The Android […]

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