Ericsson has recently launched a new and innovative social networking portfolio for mobile network operators that will offer easy sharing of user generated data content across different networks. There are two main services that contribute to this innovative social networking platform, namely, Pixl8r and the Social Media Portal.

The Pixl8r is developed to bolster the functionality of photo sharing portals like Flickr. It’s an open standard solution that will allow photo sharing in real time. Now the subscribers can easily share social media across different web sites. They will also receive SMS notification regarding their friend’s activities irrespective of the network. The Pixl8r compatible service will be delivered via Social Media Portal. The Social Media Portal easily connects the user to the social web using any mobile phone, even non-Sony-Ericsson phones like the Samsung SGH-480 Tocco. The best thing is that it does not require any download on the client side and thus it’s easy to use and encourages posting of user generated content in diverse online communities. If the portal offers services like personal storage, unified messaging or synchronisation then all the data is automatically backed up. The Social Media Portal paired with Pixl8r offer the operators all the tools that are required to become a part of the social web.

“The social web is a dynamic, continuously evolving ecosystem that offers exciting new revenue opportunities for operators. Ericsson can deliver the tools to allow community services to be delivered under operator brands that work together with the leading web communities,” says Laurence McDonald, Vice President, Consumer and Business Applications, Ericsson.

Windows 7 is the talk of the town these days. This new iteration of the Windows client is creating lots of buzz in the computing sector and promises to offer enhanced performance and a unique user interface as compared to its old cousins, Windows XP and Vista. The developer Microsoft also claims that the new Windows will be light weight with regards to system’s resource usage. The company, however, has not unveiled the final launch date of the software nor its price.

It is definite that the Windows 7 will come with amazing features but is it really fun to get your system upgraded. For most of the Windows Vista users (64 bit version) it is because they have to pay a marginal cost to shift to Windows 7. They can simply migrate their data (provided they have 9GB of free hard disk space) to the new OS platform and it’s all done. The Vista users will have basically three major upgrade options:

• Microsoft Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
• Microsoft Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
• Microsoft Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

But when it comes to Windows XP (which the majority of users prefer) upgrading to Windows 7 means a clean installation from scratch and spending huge amount to get a whole new copy of Windows 7. In enterprises having lots of clients running on XP the upgrade will become more hectic because before accepting the Window 7 as the in house software detailed testing have to be done to confirm the compatibility of the new OS and the applications used by the organisation’s users.