Within days of going on sale online, the 2,500 rupee (about $47) Aakash computer appears to be sold out, according to the tablet’s official Web site.

The tablet has generated huge excitement among gadget geeks and internationally renowned columnists alike, who say the product could advance education in India and revolutionize the lives of the world’s poor. But it has been dogged by complaints about its performance and delivery delays.

DataWind, the company that designed the tablet, started selling it online on Dec. 14, next to the tablet’s slightly more expensive cousin, the UbiSlate7+. In less than a week 60,000 Aakash orders were placed, said Suneet Singh Tuli, the chief executive of DataWind, in an interview.

That is when DataWind stopped taking more orders for Aakash, and it won’t sell any more of the tablets, Mr. Tuli said. Instead, the Aakash is being revamped in response to user demands, he said.

Screenshot of the website that sold Aakash tablets.Aakash, originally designed for college and university students in India, wasfirst unveiled here in New Delhi in October with great fanfare. The Indian government said it had already ordered 100,000 tablets, which it would distribute at a subsidized price of $35 each, and 500 were given free to students invited to the launch event.

The news hasn’t all been good since then.

“Aakash looked like a decent device for students and early adopters of technology,” said Sandeep Budki the executive editor of The Mobile Indian, a Web site that reviews information technology products across India. But compared to similar products available in India, including Beetel’s “Magiq” tablet and the Reliance tablet, “the performance was sluggish,” Mr. Budki said.

Anecdotal feedback, through media reports from students and others about Aakash, led DataWind to believe it needed to add some upgrades, Mr. Tuli said. These include a faster processor, a longer lasting battery, GPRS, an option to add a SIM card and phone functionality.

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The complicated relationship between Netflix and HBO just got a bit more complicated.

The New York Times' Brian Stelter is reporting that HBO is no longer selling its DVDs at a discount to Netflix as of January 1, a move that continues the battle between the two entertainment giants for the eyes of paid content buyers.

Though Netflix will certainly lose money having to buy its DVDs of HBO series from retail outlets, HBO's non-cooperation here is perhaps more important as a further declaration of war between Netflix and HBO, two companies that often name-check each other in public as both rivals and potential partners, true frenemies in the big entertainment world.

Recent highlights of the HBO-Netflix feud include HBO co-president Eric Kessler telling an audience in December that Netflix would never get its shows for streaming, which followed by six months HBO's decision to hook up with Dish Network's Internet streaming service DishOnline rather than Netflix in April (with, as a bonus, a Dish Network exec taking a shot at Netflix's service model in the press release); a Time Warner exec anonymously telling the Hollywood Reporter in January that HBO might consider listening to Netflix's overtures if the company started charging $20 per month; and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings saying that the show he wants most on Netflix streaming is HBO's narco-drama "The Wire" in April and that the direct competitor his company is most concerned with is HBO, whose streaming service HBO GO is included for most customers who pay for HBO with their cable and satellite subscriptions.

Of HBO as a rival, Hastings said the following in December:

The competitor we fear the most is HBO Go. They aren't competing directly with us now, but they can. HBO is becoming much more Netflix-like, and we're becoming much more HBO-like.
That Netflix and HBO aren't directly competing is not quite true, in fact, as the two previously battled over the upcoming drama "House of Cards," created by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey. Netflix eventually won that battle, securing exclusive rights to "House of Cards" for a reported 100+ million dollars. It was the first original programming deal for Netflix; the company soon followed up with exclusives for a fourth season of cult classic "Arrested Development" and the Steven Van Zandt mobster drama "Lilyhammer", which debuts next month.

HBO is indeed becoming more Netflix-like, however, with its HBO GO streaming service and its agreement with Dish. Netflix, meanwhile, is also becoming more HBO-like, with its content deals for premium shows.

The HBO-Netflix War certainly escalated in 2011, and this latest monetary swipe by HBO once again puts the two at odds in 2012

Can you hear me now? Can you hear me ever?

No, it's not the chorus of the latest Coldplay song, but the cries of a growing chorus of frustrated iPhone 4S owners. These disgruntled Apple-ites have taken to the official Apple discussion forums to complain of an unidentified, intermittent bug in the new iPhone that they say silences all audio on outgoing phone calls.

The most popular thread runs over 100 pages and has garnered more than 150,000 views in less than three months. Most of the thread's over 1,700 comments concern the apparent inability to hear the recipient when making outgoing calls, even though the recipient can hear the caller just fine.

A few representative posts from the Apple discussion forum:

Picked up a Verizon iPhone 4S - 32GB and on about 1 in 10 calls I get no outbound audio when dialing. Call shows the timer counting as if the call is progressing but absolutely no ring back and cannot hear the party on the other end when they answer.I am also having the same issue in Australia on the Telstra network with the new iphone 4S. If I make a call, no audio. The person I called can hear me but I can't hear them.Same problem here. Got new iPhone 4S yesterday and when the issue does occur - which seems to be more often than not for me the phone looks as if it is dialing but I do not hear the rings, the timer starts counting up when the other party answers but I cannot hear them and they cannot hear me. Once in awhile I can hear them but they cannot hear me. Very frustrating. Positng this to further reinforce to Apple this is an issue that needs to be fixed.While using speakerphone, a Bluetooth headset, or turning Siri off have proved to be temporary fixes, none of these solutions are practical if the glitch is occurring on every call, as some users have reported. The frequency of the audio outages seems to vary widely, with some users only reporting problems on one in fifty calls. A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment on the issue.

The apparent glitch was first noticed in mid-October when the iPhone 4S was launched, but at the time complaints were overshadowed by the more widespread and loudly criticized iOS 5 battery troubles. Apple has addressed these battery issues in two separate statements, though it has not yet publicly acknowledged the audio problem, which has gained considerable media attention over the past months, with influential tech blogs including Mashable, Gizmodo and MacRumors all detailing the kerfuffle.

Coverage peaked again this week when tech site GigaOM published a report claiming that the issue would not be resolved with the upcoming release of iOS 5.1, a claim we were unable to confirm as iOS 5.1 is currently in closed beta testing and cannot be discussed by developers with knowledge of the upgrade. It should be noted, however, that the beta build of an iOS does not feature what will or will not be included in the final version.
We'll have to wait until iOS 5.1 officially drops before we know for sure whether it will solve the iPhone 4S's occasional audio woes. For now, if you're experiencing this problem, let us know in the comments below. Also, many carriers are offering handset trade-ins and The Atlantic Wire put together a nice list of potential solutions. We'll let you know the moment Apple updates us. 

Apple is planning to make devices powered by hydrogen fuel cells, according to patent applicationspublished by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The plans could create computers and phones with weeks-long battery power. It would also make the devices lighter and less bulky.

According to the Telegraph, hydrogen fuel cells work by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water and electrical energy. This technology is already being explored for cars and the military.

"Our country's continuing reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable governments in the Middle East, and has also exposed our coastlines and our citizens to the associated hazards of offshore drilling," reads the patent application. "These problems have led to an increasing awareness and desire on the part of consumers to promote and use renewable energy sources."

This won't come as much of a surprise to those who follow Apple closely. The company has filed several other patent applications for similar technology, as reported by Apple Insider in October.

Check out a diagram of the system, courtesy of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Win Bennet traveled extensively with his parents growing up, part of a family that enjoyed exploring different cultures.

When he graduated from Brown University with a major in economics and international relations in 2009, the American job market was less than welcoming, to say the least — so he looked to India.

“India is a natural choice for a few reasons,” said Mr. Bennet, 24, who studied urban planning in Bangalore in his junior year. “The Indian overseas diaspora is a very vibrant and welcoming community.” Also, he said, Indian professional networks with the West are large, deep and growing. “It was easy to explore opportunities and find a niche that fit my passion and skill set,” just by talking to family friends and acquaintances, he said.

Mr. Bennet landed a job as an analyst at ICICI, India’s largest private bank, and has lived in Mumbai for the past three years.

With the economy at home showing no signs of improving, an increasing number of recent graduates from the United States are job-hunting in India. Eager for the talent, Indian companies have responded by setting up recruiting programs overseas. While the pay in India is usually much lower than a graduate would earn in America, a lower cost of living can mean a better quality of life. “The chance to travel the world and live in a colorful Asian democracy far outweighs salary considerations when you have just graduated,” Mr. Bennet.

Kunal Bahl, the co-founder of Snapdeal, an Indian e-commerce company, recently returned from a recruiting trip to the United States with stops at Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern and Stanford. “We don’t have a very old legacy of Internet technology in India, and for a company that is as fast-growing as us the talent pool quickly dries up,” said Mr. Bahl, 29, an engineer with a business degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

When Snapdeal’s team spread the word that they were planning a U.S. recruiting trip, they were surprised by the response: more than 2,000 resumes, 30 percent of them from people who were not of Indian descent. For many non-Indians, Mr. Bahl said, “It’s not that they are not getting jobs there, but they are not getting the jobs they want.” So young American graduates “would rather come to India with all the resources available and get to do exciting things,” he said. He plans to return in the spring for another recruiting drive.

Indians who have lived abroad for some time are also aggressively looking for work back home. “We do get a lot of C.V.’s from people abroad, especially Indians looking to come back to India,” says Hitesh Oberoi, chief executive of Naukri.com, a leading Indian job site. “The number of Indians going abroad to study has increased significantly in the last few years, and they are potentially a great talent pool for companies here, especially start-ups,” he said.

Snapdeal is not alone in looking for fresh talent overseas; Mahindra & Mahindra is recruiting at the Wharton School at Penn along with Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. At job fairs held in New Jersey and California recently, Indian companies included FlipKart, InfoTech Enterprises, Jindal Steel & Power and Tata Motors.

“In the recent past, a lot of Indians who have been living and working abroad have shown an interest in moving back to the country,” said Mekin Maheshwari, president of engineering at FlipKart, of the decision to participate in the job fair.

Universities have also noticed the trend. Rajiv Dewan, a senior associate dean at the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester, said that about 20 percent of the school’s 400 graduates were now taking jobs in Asia, up from less than 10 percent five years ago. Of the nearly 40 Indians in the class, about 10 have taken jobs back home, where in the past only a handful would have done so, he said.

“In the past, if people come back they would be considered a failure,” Mr. Dewan said during a recent visit to India. “Now, when people come back they feel that this is the best start for them.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — AT&T Inc. said Monday that it is ending its $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile USA after facing fierce government objections.

The cellphone giant said that the actions of the U.S. government to block the deal do not change the challenges of the wireless phone industry, which it says requires more airwaves, known as spectrum, to expand.

The deal would have solved that problem for a time, and without it, "customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled," AT&T said in a statement.

It called on the government to quickly approve its purchase of unused spectrum from Qualcomm Inc. and come up with legislation to meet the nation's long-term needs.

AT&T, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier behind Verizon Wireless, faces paying Deutsche Telekom $3 billion in cash and may have to enter into a roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom, while transferring it the rights to spectrum it doesn't need for the rollout of its planned, next-generation "4G" network.

AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom of Germany would have made it the largest cellphone company in the U.S. T-Mobile is currently the fourth-largest.

The Justice Department sued to block the merger on Aug. 31, saying it would reduce competition and lead to higher prices.

Last month, the companies withdrew their application to the Federal Communications Commission after its chairman also opposed the deal.

In this special year-end collaboration,TED and The Huffington Post are excited to count down 18 great ideas of 2011, featuring the full TEDTalk with original blog posts that we think will shape 2012. Watch, engage and share these groundbreaking ideas as they are unveiled one-by-one, including never-seen-before TEDTalk premieres. Standby, the countdown is underway!Watch author Eli Pariser discuss secret censorship on the Internet, and read is accompanying blog post below following up on his talk.

People enter the newest Apple Store during the opening on the East Balcony in the main lobby of New York City's Grand Central Station REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Apple on Friday treated New Yorkers to the official opening of its Grand Central mega-store.

Occupying the roomy area behind the east and northeast balconies, overlooking the terminal's Main Concourse, the shop will employ 315 Apple sales experts and will offer ample display tables and three Genius Bars, as well as dedicated rooms where people can set up new devices and learn how to operate them, according to a press release from the company.
Apple paid the former occupant, Charlie Palmer's Metrazur restaurant, $5 million to vacate the space,reports the Wall Street Journal.

At 23,000 square feet, the Grand Central store is one of the largest in Apple's global chain. It is estimated that more than 750,000 people pass through the terminal per day; during the holidays, that number soars to over 1 million.

New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority will rake in over $1 million per year as a result of the Apple's lease on the terminal's balcony space, although some have pointed out that Apple may have signed on for a sweeter deal than other Grand Central tenants. Writes CBS New York, the MTA "collects 'percentage rent' from every retailer except Apple. That is because the retailer cut a deal with the MTA for a straight lease, totaling about $1 million a year." New York's Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions is currently investigating the 10-year agreement between Apple and the MTA, according to Pix 11.

The store is Apple's fifth location in Manhattan.

Take a look at the slideshow (below) to see photos from the new Grand Central Apple Store.

Another quarter has come and gone, and you know what that means: Nielsen ratings are out again. The latest batch of numbers don't reveal anything wildly new, but they're still just as telling nonetheless: 44 percent of mobile subscribers in the US use a smartphone in the US. Of those, 71 percent are in possession of an Android device or an iPhone. Additionally, 56 percent of all phone purchases during the third quarter were smartphones. And -- this probably won't come as a surprise to anyone -- at a decisive 42 percent, Android remains the number one smartphone OS while Apple is still perched firmly on top as the leading manufacturer (28 percent). Check out the source link below and graph above for more of the tiny details.