US judge lifts Samsung tablet ban

A judge on Monday lifted a ban on US sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 computers as the South Korean firm added Apple's new iPhone 5 to a patent brawl between the two market rivals.

US District Court Judge Lucy Koh issued an order clearing the way for Samsung to restart sales of the Tab 10.1 tablets that were halted while it dueled with Apple in a high-stakes trial.

LG accuses Samsung of infringing patents

South Korea's LG Display, one of the world's top flat-screen TV makers, said Thursday it had filed a patent infringement suit against Samsung Electronics over the use of advanced displays.

LG Display, a sister firm of LG Electronics, accused Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display of infringing seven of its patents on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

Pigs' revenge as 'Angry Birds' makers launch new game

"Angry Birds" maker Rovio is to launch a new title on Thursday allowing users to play as the "Bad Piggies" from the smash-hit game, and take revenge on the birds who attacked them with slingshots.

Rovio Asia senior vice president Henri Holm said the new game would be launched in the Taiwanese capital Taipei in the first of a series of global events.

Myspace gives peek at website redesign

Myspace on Monday provided a glimpse at a major overhaul of the music-centric online community striving to reclaim lost glory.

A message atop the myspace.com home page promised: "Coming soon. The new Myspace," and provided a link to video showing a redesigned user interface that deeply integrates Facebook and Twitter.

The world's hottest smartphones

This time of year, it seems like a new phone comes out every couple days.

With the Apple's brand-new iPhone 5 now on sale, here's a roundup of some of the hottest smartphones on the market, along with a few that are coming soon. Many of these gadgets are getting faster and bigger -- so big, in some cases, they won't fit in a pocket. For the most part, tactile keyboards are disappearing, too.

Take a look and let us know what you think in the comments section.


iPhone 5

Perhaps you've heard of it. The sixth version of Apple's pioneering phone went on sale in stores Friday and boasts a larger screen, more powerful processor, better camera and the ability to run on faster 4G LTE wireless networks. Apple took 2 million pre-orders for the phone in the first 24 hours.

Make your smartphone your credit card

South Korea probes Apple complaint against Samsung

South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Thursday it was probing a complaint from US technology giant Apple that rival Samsung Electronics abused its dominant market position in wireless technology.

Apple's action, reportedly taken in June, is part of a long-running global patent war between the smartphone giants, which have accused each other of stealing intellectual property for their own products.

Twitter tops Facebook in mobile ads: survey

Twitter is outpacing Facebook in US mobile advertising revenue this year, according to a survey released Thursday showing a market dominated by Google.

The report by the research firm eMarketer said Facebook, which just rolled out mobile ads for the first time this year, will likely overtake Twitter by 2013 but will not come close to matching Google.

Internet has no ‘off switch’, says web inventor

LONDON—Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor of the World Wide Web, on Wednesday warned governments that attempts to block the Internet were doomed to failure due to its scattered structure.

Speaking at the launch of a league table showing which countries use the web most effectively, Berners-Lee said the lack of a global internet “off-switch” meant authoritarian regimes could not stem the influx of digital information.

“The way the Internet is designed is very much as a decentralised system,” he explained at the London launch.

“At the moment, because countries connect to each other in lots of different ways, there is no one off switch, there is no central place where you can turn it off.

“In order to be able to turn the whole thing off or really block, suppress one particular idea then the countries and governments would have to get together and agree and co-ordinate and turn it from a decentralised system to being a centralized system.

“And if that does happen it is really important that everybody fights against that sort of direction.”

Sweden came out on top of the global league table, which was calculated by the World Wide Web Foundation using indicators such as the political, economic and social impact of the web, connectivity and use.

The US came in second, ahead of Britain, Canada and Finland. France came in at 14th place. Yemen ranked bottom, closely followed by Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and Benin.

Berners-Lee, who was honored during the London Olympics opening ceremony, launched the first web page on Christmas Day 1990.

He is credited with creating the World Wide Web, which enables users to store and access information via the internet.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Nokia launches mobile streaming music in US

Nokia said Tuesday it was launching a free music streaming service for US customers with its Lumia handsets, without ads, as the Finnish firm seeks to gain traction in the smartphone market.

The announcement came a day ahead of a news event with Nokia and US giant Microsoft widely expected to launch one or more smartphones using the Windows Phone 8 operating system.

The music service will offer "over 150 exclusive playlists that are curated and kept up to date by an expert team of US based musicologists," Nokia said.

"The playlists span a wide spectrum of musical genres from underground Detroit house tracks to New York Philharmonic favorites. Nokia Music also offers playlists created by global artists such as Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga and Rihanna."

Nokia said users of its devices can create their own "personal soundtrack" by creating playlists based on preferred artists.

"Completely advertisement-free, and requiring no registration or subscription, Nokia Music lets consumers immerse themselves in the dulcet tones of their favorite artists without being disrupted," the statement said.

"For maximum convenience, Nokia Music playlists can also be enjoyed offline so consumers can listen to their favorite playlists anytime, anywhere -- perfect for a long flight, journey to work or train ride."

Users can also download songs from Nokia Music's mp3 store.

"The USA is the most vibrant and competitive digital music market in the world -- by a wide margin," said Jyrki Rosenberg, Nokia's vice president of entertainment.

"We have worked extra hard to ensure our service meets the expectations of the demanding, active and inspired music fans in the USA. I would like to challenge everyone to try Nokia Music and see just how easy and enjoyable the service is to use."

Consumers who own a Nokia Lumia 900 or Nokia Lumia 710 can download the Nokia Music app for free."

Nokia, once the leader in mobile phones, has been losing market share as consumers move to smartphones powered by Apple's iOS or Google's Android operating system.

The Finnish company's new strategy is phasing out its Symbian smartphones in favor of a partnership with Microsoft.

That alliance has produced a first line of Lumia smartphones, which Nokia is counting on to help it survive in a rapidly changing landscape.

Source: MSN.Com

After 'Angry Birds' success, Rovio to launch 'Bad Piggies'

Rovio, the Finnish makers of the world's most-downloaded mobile app, "Angry Birds", will launch a new game called "Bad Piggies" on September 27, the company said Tuesday.

"This innovative game turns the franchise on its head by letting the fans play as the pigs," Rovio said in a statement.

The "Angry Birds" game involves using slingshots to launch little birds at fortresses built by green pigs -- an absurdist, addictive game that quickly became the most successful mobile game in history, and which spawned an entire franchise of merchandise and media tie-ins.

"Bad Piggies gives you the chance to play as the second-most-loved characters in the Angry Birds universe, and explore this rich world through their green eyes," Rovio said.

The new game will be launched on iOS, Android and Mac on September 27, and versions for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and PCs will follow at a later date, the company said.

"Angry Birds" reached more than one billion downloads in May, according to Rovio.

The company published a net profit of 48 million euros ($60 million) on sales of 75.4 million euros for 2011, and has said it aims to seek a stock market listing by the end of 2013.

Source: MSN.Com

Cloud gaming with OnLive

Announcement of the launching – 22nd of September, in UK – brings OnLive officially in Europe! The event will take place at the Eurogamer Expo, in London, and it promised to reveal a package of over 100 new games for games devourers.

Let’s take a short look of what does cloud gaming actually mean for OnLive:

- Easy access from anywhere

- Gamers can play from any device: PC, mac, TV or any tablet

- Users don’t have to hold an up-to-date system configuration to play a “last generation game”, because their system is just an interface of the game.

The game is actually played in real time, on the OnLive’s powerful servers, within its datacenters. It will be needed an OnLive system which adapts games to run on the TVs

- There is access to free instant demo-games for you to play or for you to watch as others play, with the possibility of voice chat

- No more game-downloading, no further need of disks or any other special hardware
- Facebook integration.

Broadband is a key-factor regarding video quality and the required speed is 2Mbps.

The issue that came out in USA was also raised in UK – the delay. This is caused by lag and latency, which was officially recognized by the CEO of OnLive (Steve Perlman) to be 35-40ms, though in the US there were found played games at 200ms latency.

If you want to play a game, you can just rent it for a short time, buy it for unlimited play time, or pay an amount of money for 3 days, 5 days or a month of game access. But if you can make it to the event, OnLive promised to give thousands of Game Systems to the participants for free.

5.5-magnitude quake jolts Mindanao areas–Phivolcs

ZAMBOANGA CITY—An earthquake rocked some parts of Mindanao on Monday afternoon, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

Rommel Allan Labayog of Phivolcs here said the 5.5-magnitude quake, which occurred at 2:56 p.m. offshore of Cotabato, was tectonic in origin.

The tremor was felt at Intensity 2 in Zamboanga City, he said. It was also felt in Davao City.

“These are all initial data. We are still monitoring …,” Labayog said.

Some Cotabato City residents said the quake was “just mild.”

'Super Wi-Fi' poised for growth in US, elsewhere

Move over Wi-Fi, there's a new wireless technology coming.

So-called "Super Wi-Fi," which offers a bigger range than existing hotspots, is being deployed in the United States and generating interest in a number of countries, including Britain and Brazil.

Super Wi-Fi is not really Wi-Fi because it uses a different frequency and requires specially designed equipment, but it offers some of Wi-Fi's advantages, and more.

The name was coined by the US Federal Communications Commission in 2010, when it approved the deployment of unused broadcast television spectrum, or so-called "white spaces," for wireless broadband.

The long range and use of the broadcast spectrum could allow wireless signals to travel farther than Wi-Fi -- in theory as far as 100 miles (160 kilometers) -- although for practical reasons the range will probably be only a few miles.

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation, said that is an advantage of using the broadcast spectrum.

"Wi-Fi has been booming, but it has been limited by the frequencies it operates on, which go only a few hundred meters," said Calabrese, who has been pressing for the use of "white spaces" since 2002.

In contrast, "television frequencies travel long distances at low power and penetrate through buildings, trees and bad weather," Calabrese said.

This could provide high-speed Internet to sparsely populated rural areas which lack broadband. It could also allow consumers to create their own hotspots, which could be used on devices while away from their homes.

The first deployment of Super Wi-Fi came last year by Rice University in Houston, Texas, followed by another earlier this year in Wilmington, North Carolina.

A coalition of organizations has announced plans to deploy Super Wi-Fi to college campuses in rural areas starting early next year in a project called AIR.U, backed by Google and Microsoft.

Super Wi-Fi would be on "unlicensed" spectrum, like Wi-Fi, so companies would not bid on exclusive spectrum rights. This can lower costs. And there is often excess capacity, especially in rural areas, where fewer TV stations operate.

Mobile phone companies could use Super Wi-Fi, as they do now with Wi-Fi, to relieve some of the "spectrum crunch" from the explosion of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

But in order for Super Wi-Fi to gain traction, manufacturers of PCs and other devices would have to make chipsets that could operate on both systems.

Dan Lubar of the WhiteSpace Alliance, an association dedicated to new wireless technology, said he sees Super Wi-Fi gaining momentum in the US and other countries with unused broadcast spectrum.

"Everybody understands the value of this spectrum," he said. "It is the biggest swath of spectrum and has the most favorable characteristics."

Chipmaker Texas Instruments recently joined the alliance, suggesting that equipment makers are ready to start making Super Wi-Fi equipment.

"It's definitely going to be here in visible ways by the middle of next year," Lubar said.

Calabrese said that because of a lack of compatible equipment, most of the early Super Wi-Fi deployments are being back converted to regular Wi-Fi signals. At some point soon, he said, people may start using air cards or dongles to capture Super Wi-Fi.

Gerry Purdy, an analyst and consultant with MobileTrax LLC, was more cautious about prospects for Super Wi-Fi, saying it may take several years to gain traction.

"It's a good utilization of spectrum, but I'm more conservative than some people," he said.

"Building chipsets takes times, software standards take time; I don't think people should have false expectations."

The most vocal criticism comes from the Wi-Fi Alliance, which has a trademark on the name Wi-Fi and fears consumers will be confused by incompatible technical norms.

The group said it supports the use of unlicensed spectrum for broadband but that Super Wi-Fi "does not inter-operate with the billions of Wi-Fi devices in use today" and does not "deliver the same user experience as is available in Wi-Fi hotspots and home networks."

Although the name is the most controversial part of Super Wi-Fi, that did not come from the backers of the technology, but from the FCC and chairman Julius Genachowski.

"I wish we had thought of that. We had been calling it Wi-Fi on steroids," said Calabrese.

Source: MSN.Com

Facebook cracks down on insincere "Likes"

Facebook ramped up efforts Friday to get rid of "Likes" that aren't from people genuinely interested in giving a virtual thumbs up to pages at the world's leading social network. 

"We have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook terms" of service, the Facebook security team said in a blog post.

"These newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users or purchased bulk Likes."

Facebook has long given members the ability to endorse pages at the social network by clicking on "Like" icons.

High numbers of Likes can give "fan count" status to pages, particularly those dedicated to brands.

"A Like that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a page benefits no one," Facebook said.

"This improvement will allow pages to produce ever more relevant and interesting content, and brands will see an increase in the true engagement around their content."

Facebook expected that less than one percent of the fan count on any given page would be trimmed as a result of the crackdown on "suspicious Likes."

Source: MSN.Com

UN ups pressure on Iran over nuclear activities

Iran was under increased diplomatic pressure on Friday after an International Atomic Energy Agency report said it was expanding its controversial nuclear programme and had "hampered" the UN watchdog's work.

The report added to criticism of Iran's nuclear stand by UN chief Ban Ki-moon at a two-day Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran that was to wrap up on Friday.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the summit with a speech railing against the United States, the "Zionist wolves" of Israel and the "dictatorship" of the UN Security Council, which are at the forefront of the pressure directed at his country.

He said Iran would "never" cease its nuclear energy activities, regardless of UN and Western sanctions, and insisted that the programme was not aimed at developing nuclear weapons, whose use he called an "unforgiveable sin."

The International Atomic Energy Agency report released late on Thursday -- in the middle of the Tehran summit -- said Iran had doubled its capacity to enrich uranium at its underground Fordo nuclear facility by installing, but not yet switching on, more than 1,000 more centrifuges.

It also said that UN inspectors wanting to see part of a military base in Parchin, outside Tehran, which is suspected of hosting tests of explosives that could be used in a nuclear warhead, had been "significantly hampered" by months of refused access, what looked like intensive scrubbing and scraping at the site, and the use of covers to shield the site from satellite cameras.

A member of Iran's parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying that the timing of the report's release was "politically motivated" with the aim of "undermining the summit."

"This report does not raise any points or content but merely repeats the agency's previous claims," he said.

Iran's uranium enrichment, and its Fordo bunker, were two of the key points raised in negotiations this year by the P5+1 -- the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany -- that have all but stalled.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing the P5+1, is to talk with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili "in the coming days," Ashton's spokesman said on Thursday.

Iranian officials have dismissed the UN concerns over their nuclear activities, saying that Parchin was an off-limits military base, that the focus on it was overblown and that suspicions about its atomic programme were based on "false" Western intelligence.

Ban, on his first visit to Iran as UN secretary general, this week told Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad their country needed to take concrete steps to allay international concerns, notably by complying with the IAEA and with UN resolutions.

He warned about bellicose rhetoric from Israel and Iran that has been rising in recent weeks, saying "a war of words can quickly spiral into a war of violence."

In a speech at an Iranian diplomats' college on Thursday, he also warned about the "cost of Iran's current trajectory," saying that "any country at odds with the international community... finds itself isolated from the thrust of common progress."

While the top leaders of Israel -- which is widely believed to possess the Middle East's sole nuclear arsenal -- have given the impression they are poised to launch imminent strikes on Iran, the United States is emphasising diplomacy.

"The window of opportunity to resolve this remains open... but it will not remain open indefinitely," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday.

The worsening showdown added to other issues overshadowing the NAM summit in Tehran.

A key one has been the hosts' steadfast support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his regime's deadly 18-month conflict with insurgents.

On Thursday, Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi -- making the first trip to Iran by an Egyptian head of state since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- used the summit to openly voice his support for the Syrian opposition.

The "oppressive" Syrian regime had lost all legitimacy and was confronted with the same pro-democracy rebellions that had swept the Arab world, including Egypt, since 2010, he said, as Ahmadinejad listened stone-faced.

Source: MSN.com

Japan court to rule on Apple-Samsung patent brawl

A Japanese court on Friday will issue a ruling in a bitter patent dispute between Apple and its South Korean rival Samsung, the latest case in a global war between the two technology giants.

The Tokyo District Court was expected to rule on Apple's claim that Samsung illegally copied technology from its iconic iPhone and iPad tablet for some of its Galaxy smartphones and the Galaxy Tab.

Samsung has steadfastly denied those claims in a string of similar cases filed across the globe.

The Tokyo ruling comes a week after the iPhone maker won more than $1.0 billion in a massive US court victory over Samsung with jurors finding that the South Korean firm had "willfully" infringed on Apple's patents.

Jurors rejected the South Korean electronics firm's patent theft counterclaims against Apple.

The high-profile verdict affects patents on a range of Samsung products including some of its popular smartphones and its Galaxy 10 tablet -- devices alleged to have been copied from the iPhone and iPad.

Also last week, a court in Seoul ruled the pair had both swiped each other's technology and awarded damages to both technology giants.

It also imposed a partial ban on product sales in South Korea of Apple's iPhone 4 and iPad 2, as well as Samsung's Galaxy S and Galaxy S II among other products.

"If the (Japanese) verdict rules that Samsung violated patent rights, it would have a significant impact on Samsung," said Michiru Takahashi, a patent lawyer at Jones Day in Tokyo.

"But if the verdict does not recognise a violation... Samsung will regain momentum," she added.

The patent cases could shake up the sizzling market for mobile devices in which Apple has been losing ground to rivals like Samsung that use the Android operating system developed by Google.

A survey by research firm IDC showed Samsung shipped 50.2 million smartphones globally in the April-June period, while Apple sold 26 million iPhones. IDC said Samsung held 32.6 percent of the market to 16.9 percent for Apple.

Source: MSN.Com

How secure is your work laptop and its contents?

Have you ever paid your bills online during your lunch break? Do you go to meetings without locking your computer first? Has your curiosity caused you to click on a link in an email, knowing there's a chance it might contain a virus?

Any of these actions can create a potential security risk, but many workers aren't taking the necessary precautions to keep their company's or their personal information safe on their work laptop. According to a new CareerBuilder survey, of the 26 percent of workers who reported having office laptops, 61 percent said they have critical, sensitive information stored on them.

To store or not to store

Some workers use their company laptops as their personal computer, too, saving private emails, pictures and other sensitive information on the device. According to the survey, which included more than 3,800 workers nationwide, 18 percent of respondents store personal financial details on their workplace computer, while another 18 percent keep other personal information on it. Forty-eight percent of workers save company information, and 27 percent store their client's sensitive information.

Unlocked and unlucky
Some private information may need to be stored on a work computer, but not much is being done to keep the contents safe. The survey found that most workers don't always keep critical information under lock and key.

·         57 percent of workers don't have a laptop security device.

·         52 percent don't lock their computer when they're away from their desk.

·         25 percent have left their laptop unsecured overnight.

Passing on passwords
Fortunately, half of respondents memorize their various work-related and personal passwords. Unfortunately, 12 percent don't trust their memory, opting instead to keep their passwords at their desk, written on their laptop or in their computer case, purse or wallet.

Others trust their co-workers a little too much; 27 percent of workers reported that a co-worker gave them his password, while 15 percent have shared their password with a co-worker.

Infectious emails
The next time you get an instant message from a friend telling you to "check this out!" double-check that it's legitimate before you click. Hackers have become more sophisticated at fraudulent Internet activity, so online interactions aren't always as innocent as they may seem. Some risky behaviors that respondents acknowledged:

·         9 percent of workers have downloaded a virus on their computer at work.

·         18 percent of workers have opened an attachment or clicked on a link from a sender they didn't know.

·         18 percent have looked at a website that they knew wasn't secure while at work.

Laptops aren't the only source of workplace security breaches. Eighteen percent of workers access corporate email through a smartphone, and the smartphones of 5 percent have been lost or stolen. Eric Presley, chief technology officer at CareerBuilder, shares the following tips to keep your laptop and mobile device safe:

1. Use hard-to-decipher passwords. Use a different password for home and work, and don't share them with anyone. Make sure your mobile phone requires a password as well.
2. Never click on links or attachments from unknown sources. There's a good chance a virus may lurk behind the scenes.
3. Don't leave your laptop unattended. Buy a laptop security cable, and lock your laptop when you're away from your desk. Don't leave your laptop in your car.
4. Keep up-to-date. Make sure your laptop has the latest antivirus software.
5. Keep personal information separate. Store personal financial information and other files on your home computer.

Source: MSN.Com

G7 calls on oil producers to raise output

The G7 industrial countries called Tuesday on oil producers to increase output, saying higher prices posed "substantial risks" to the global economy.

With growth weakening in key economies and tensions over Iran worrying major oil importers, finance ministers of the powerful group also hinted they were ready to push for the release of strategic oil reserves to prevent a tightening of the market.

"The current rise in oil prices reflects geopolitical concerns and certain supply disruptions," the Group of Seven finance ministers said in a statement.

"We encourage oil-producing countries to increase their output to meet demand, while drawing prudently on excess capacity."

"We remain vigilant of the risks to the global economy," the ministers said in the statement, which was released by the US Treasury.

"In this context and mindful of the substantial risks posed by elevated oil prices, we are monitoring the situation in oil markets closely."

The statement applauded Saudi Arabia's commitment, made at the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, in June, to mobilize spare capacity when necessary to ensure supplies to the market are adequate.

But it also suggested the leading industrial democracies were ready to tap into global strategic oil reserves to keep price pressure down.

"We stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to take appropriate action to ensure that the market is fully and timely supplied," the statement said.

"We remain committed to well-functioning and transparent energy markets."

The statement came four days after the Petroleum Economist magazine reported that the IEA, which represents oil-consuming nations, was reluctantly backing the idea of a release of strategic oil stockpiles by major importers in September.

The IEA came behind the idea after Washington signaled it would move alone on a release

"The loss of supplies from sanctions-hit Iran will be used to justify the move," the magazine said.

It added that the move could involve as much or more than last year's release of 60 million barrels from stockpiles.

Sanctions on large crude exporter Iran to pressure the government to curtail its nuclear activities -- accused by the West to be aimed at developing nuclear weapons -- have tightened oil markets and helped boost prices.

Many worry that a military attack on Iran by Israel and/or the United States to wreck its nuclear installations could result in sharp disruptions of the flow of supplies from the oil-rich Gulf on Iran's southwest coast.

Oil prices nevertheless remain around 13 percent below their peak of the past year.

The US benchmark WTI crude closed in regular New York trade Tuesday at $96.33 a barrel, and fell only slightly in after-market trade following the G7 announcement.

That price compared with the year's low in late June of around $77 a barrel, but still well beneath the 52-week high of $110.65 and far below the July 2008 all-time peak of $145 a barrel.

The London benchmark, Brent crude, was at $112.58, compared with its June low of around $89. In July 2008 Brent spiked to $147 a barrel.

Source: MSN.Com

Yap.TV tunes Internet Age viewing for the world

San Francisco startup Yap.TV went international with a hit service that helps people mine gems from junk in the growing mountain of shows, films and videos.

Versions of Yap.TV software released in the United States early last year for Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices have been customized for 19 more countries and in four languages other than English.

Applications for smartphones or tablets powered by Android software were in the works and expected to be ready in a matter of months.

Yap.TV lets show watchers engage in real time on Twitter, Facebook or the firm's own social network, essentially tapping into friends or others with similar interests to find programs or films likely to please.

Yap.TV blended input from friends and show fans with programming data to enable users to not only have conversations around shows they like but to be directed to new options by viewers with similar interests.

"It starts with discovery, which is why a guide became such a big part of this," Yap.TV co-founder Shawn Patrick told AFP.

"No one has ever created a worldwide social television guide," he continued. "We are the new front-end to TV."

Yap.TV mated the television program guide with the Twitter stream, Facebook and other social networks to let people see what shows people are talking about and join in the conversation along with the viewing.

Yap.TV backers include Javelin Venture Partners and Blumberg Capital, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is an advisor to the startup.

Patrick, 44, spoke of being enthralled by the Kwai Chang Caine character in the US television series "Kung Fu" as a young boy and imagining as a child that he would grow up to become "Batman".

"Media content is escapism; these stories are powerful talismans," Patrick said. "We bring people together around the content they love."

"We want people to get shows they want without having to dumbly navigate through 900 channels," he continued. "It is a nightmare menu with no way to know what is garbage without insight -- that is where social media comes in."

More than 600,000 people have taken to using Yap.TV since it launched early last year and the website has gotten visits from every country except two in Africa.

"Nearly everybody on this rock invests time in consumer television content," Patrick said. "This creates a better way."

The list of countries where free Yap.TV applications are available includes Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.