Nicki Minaj named Billboard's Rising Star for 2011 !

Nicki Minaj has been named as the Billboard's Rising Star for the year 2011. Nicki Minaj is the fourth singer to be awarded as Billboard's Rising Star, following Jazmine Sullivan (2010), Lady Gaga (2009), and Colbie Caillat (2008). And  she is also the first female rapper to top the Billboard 200 in a decade !

Massive success of her debut album, 'Pink Friday' has earned her this title. According to Nielsen SoundScan, 1.6 million copies of her album have been sold ! Her mega single, 'Super Bass' has reached No. 3 in Hot 100, which is actually a bonus track in deluxe edition of the album.

The 28 year old singer, born Onika Tanya Maraj, started her career in music industry in 2007, releasing mixed tapes. Later she signed with Young Money Entertainment, a label founded by Lil Wayne. Recently she also bagged a pair of awards at American Music Awards as Favorite rap/hip-hop Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Artist.

She will be honoured with the award on December 2, 2011 at Billboard's Women in Music 2011 Event in New York City. She will be accompanied by Taylor Swift, who has been named as Billboard Woman of the Year.

Nicki Minaj was excited to be recognized as Billboard's Rising Star of the year, "I'm deeply honoured to be recognized by Billboard', she said. "My nation of barbz and I have come a mighty long way; yet we are nowhere close to where God will take us. Sit back and enjoy the ride". She has also tweeted on twitter that her next album, named 'Pink Friday : Roman Reloaded', will be released on Valentine's day of 2012.

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Laugh & Learn - Understanding the Patience :)

Patience is a precious art everyone should master. Things will never always go in our way. Understanding and adjusting ourselves to the situation will always simplify the matter, right ? Human mentality is really typical. When we do mistakes, we try to compromise. But when someone else does mistake, we command for Justice !

There is no reason why I'm explaining all these. I recently read an old Joke. In fact, rather being just a joke, it tries to teach something out of Life. It is just a 'pick from the attic', so you might have heard this one. Just go on reading.....

'James was cleaning out the attic one day when he came across a ticket from a shoe repair shop. The date stamped on the ticket showed it was over eleven years old ! He felt sure the shoes would not still be there, but decided to stop by and check anyway.

He handed the ticket to the man behind the counter, who scowled at the date. "Just a minute," said the clerk. "I'll have to look for these." He disappeared into a back room. After a few minutes, the clerk called out, "What do you know - here they are!" "That's terrific!" said James, hardly believing his good fortune.

The man came back to the counter, empty-handed. "They'll be ready by Thursday," he said !!'

Just guess the response of James to the shop keeper's words. I really don't what James might have done, but here we need to look at two things; Patience and Understanding.

All living beings tend to forget almost everything in time. Understanding the situation and being patient plays a great role in our lives. We will never get the nose which is cut when we were angry. So, remember to understand ! Being patient makes one strong. But well, there is a limit for everything. Extremes are always dangerous ! Being too good is as dangerous as being too bad.

So, when it is with in a limit, remember, be Patient, be Happy :)

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Tokyo Sky Tree - The Tallest Tower in the World !

The Tokyo Sky Tree, located in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area of Sumida Ward, Tokyo, has been recognized as the tallest tower in the world ! Boasting a height of 634 meters, this tower has been built with Japanese Culture in mind.

Alistair Richards, Managing Director of Guinness World Records, confirmed the record by presenting the certificate to Michiaki Suzuki, President of Tobu Tower Sky Tree. This tower has replaced Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China, as the tallest tower, which stands at a height of 600 meters. Tokyo sky tree will be used for Television & Radio Broadcasting. It has also witnessed the complete transition from Analog to digital broadcasting in Tokyo !



The construction of this tower was started in July 2008, and has been finished this November. Tokyo Sky Tree employs the Japanese cutting edge technology in reproducing the traditional architectural know-how of the 'Shimbashira-Seishin' (center column vibration control) used in the five-story pagoda. This tower holds  digital TV antenna at the top and two observatories at the height of 350m and 450m.



The colour design of Tokyo Sky Tree is a blend of Japanese traditional beauty and neo-futuristic design ! The White colour has been used extensively, which the Japanese believe to be a colour that differentiate one from the rest and also to recall a symbolic value. Inspired by the technique of indigo dyeing, the Sky Tree White has a tint of blue in it. The faint bluish white gives a subtle luster to the Tower.

This tower is still not opened for public, but with a grand opening ceremony in spring of 2012, Tokyo Sky Tree will be made available for public.

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Nokia Lumia 800 - First Windows Phone by Nokia !

Nokia has unveiled its first Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia 800 ! Since the debut of Android, Nokia's hold on mobile market has loosened to a large extent. But this time, Nokia is expected to come back with a boom into market.

Nokia Lumia 800 is one among the two Lumia series phones launched. Lumia 800 has a simple but yet, stylish and beautiful looks. It features a 3.7" ClearBlack AMOLED display with WVGA 800x480 resolution. It can display 16 million colours to keep the view real. The curved glass on display is seamlessly integrated with one piece body.

This phone has 512 MB of program memory (RAM) and 16 GB of user memory (storage). 25 GB of free online storage with Skydrive is also available. The 8 MP camera and 28 mm wide angle Carl Zeiss lens with LED flash brings every picture you take into life. It can record videos in HD (720p, 30 fps) with auto focus and touch focus. Battery survives for 13 hours of talktime on GSM and 9.5 hours on WCDMA. Battery life in standby mode is very impressive but for browsing, it is of just 4.5 hours.

Lumia 800 runs on Windows Phone 7.5 platform, supported by wide array of applications. Sharing has been made easier as facebook is integrated with phonebook. Internet Explorer 9 takes the browsing experience to next level. Browse the Internet as you do in your PC ! It supports HTML5, Javascript, CSS3, XHTML, DOM and more, hence an amazing browsing experience !

Lumia 800 is business ready with Microsoft Office available on your phone ! Integrated GPS, A-GPS, Nokia Maps (to be downloaded from marketplace), Bing maps make navigation easier. Preloaded with many popular games and Xbox Live Hub, enjoy a better gaming experience.

Over all, Nokia Lumia 800 is quite identical to Nokia N9 ! From looks to features, Lumia 800 is duplicated from N9. The only feature that distinguishes Lumia from N9 is, it runs on Windows Phone platform while N9 runs on MeeGo. Though its performance capability is less than N9, initial reactions have been good for Nokia Lumia 800.

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Future of Computing - Nokia's 'Kinetic Device' with Flexible Display !

Today, Technology is occupying our lives like never before. It has became almost impossible to live a day without phone. Days when mobile phones were just used to make a call have gone. Now a day mobile phone are capable of taking pictures, shooting videos, play games and even scan bar codes !

People of this generation, that's we, have witnessed a miraculous drive in technology. From vaccum tubes to silicon chips, Floppy drives to solid state drives, Command line to Graphical User Interface and motion sensor, we have experienced it all ! If I say we are breathing the Technology, it is not superlative !

Why am I explaining all these things you already know ? Let me come to the point. After the touchscreen, technology is taking a big leap and soon, your mobile device will be flexible enough to bend !



Nokia has unveiled prototype of a new mobile device called 'Kinetic device', last week at Nokia World 2011 in London. This phone features flexible display, which can be bent as you wish ! Instead of pinching to zoom, you can accomplish the same task by bending or twisting this device. Not just that, you will be able to control this device without removing it from your pocket ! you can receive call or change song just by twisting it inside your pocket !





One of the most important features of this device is its durability. They almost doesn't break at all. Such devices are much tougher as well as water resistant ! This device, for instance, can be much helpful for blind people to control their phone. This device is made possible by bundles of carbon nanotubes, embedded to flexible substance.




Though Nokia didn't precisely mentioned the availability of 'Kinetic device' to public, they are working on this device to bring it soon into market. Meanwhile, Samsung is expecting to release one of this kind device the very next year !

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Iris - Siri of your Android !

Want to have Siri, but don't have an iPhone ? Now you can have Siri on your Android ! Well, not exactly but Iris, a voice activated personal assistant like Siri is now available for your Android.

Iris, said to be acronym for "Intelligent rival imitation of Siri", is an Android alternative for iPhone's Siri. Iris was developed in an 8 hour hackathon by the Dexetra team ! Iris is exactly the reverse of Siri, and is meant to be the same ! The app makers themselves say that Iris is inspired from the iPhone feature Siri, which interacts with you in voice.

Now you can ask Iris instead of searching the Internet for information. Ranging from philosophy, culture, history, science, to General conversation, Iris has proved to work decently. You can ask Iris to call someone from your contact list, search internet, or text someone. There will be some humorous answers if Iris doesn't understand you right !

It has been a hit on Android Market for some extent. You can download Iris to your Android here. But please note that you need to have 'Voice Search' and 'TTS library' installed in your phone for Iris to work.  It can answer most of your straight forward questions, but fail at contextual scenario.

When compared with Siri, Iris is too weak to compete against Siri. But not to forget, Iris is still in alpha and not brushed up well, like Siri. In coming days, Iris would prove challenging to Siri and that's for Sure ! There are many other Siri imitators for Android, one notable app among them is Skyvi, you can try that too.

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