Sony's Virtual Game Item ‘Cherry Blossoms’ Collect Money for Relief Funds

Creating a very effective amalgam of gamming and charity, Sony Online Entertainment has now introduced in-game virtual items for sale, which any player can buy during their game and the money deducted will be used for supporting those affected of Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami.

Several SOE games players now have a new item for sale, which is titled cherry blossom; it is available in the market place of specific games. This strategy is designed for raising awareness among the audience for the tragedy of the day, SOE has promised to donate a $10 for every cherry blossom purchased for the dates; 25^th to 28^th of March. All the proceedings collected will be sent to the American Red Cross to assist in their relief program. Moreover, several other items similar to cherry blossoms will also be available alternatively for the same purpose.

Nokia Will Keep Selling Symbian Simultaneously As They Make the Transition towards Windows

Nokia (NOK1V.HE) has announced that it will soon be shifting slowly from selling smart phones having the Symbian software to the smart phones with Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Windows. It has claimed that the symbian phones will still be sold long after even they put Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) go on sale.

It has previously been informed that Symbian platform will be swapped with the new Microsoft's Windows Phone in the next couple years by the mobile phone giant, Nokia. These plans were announced in February, as Nokia claimed that Sybmian phones are losing their market share. Purnima Kochikar, developer relations at Nokia, wrote in an open letter addressed to all developers that "We will be selling (Symbian) devices long after Windows Phone devices from Nokia have already started to appear.”

Google Secretly Trying Group Texting App for iPhone; Disco Messenger

Google has joined the race in a very competitive market for offering group chat capabilities thorough text messaging on smart phones via their cell phone operator. It has released its own underground application, Disco Messenger, which is exclusively for iPhone users. It was created by a company titled, Slide, which was acquired by Google in August last year.

Interface of the Disco Messenger App

The services of Disco Messenger can also be accessed on the internet (which is also Google’s acquisition now). Anyone can simply sign-up online and the user will be assigned a new phone number, after which it gains access to the actual SMS rampage. Texting a whole bunch of people, rather anybody at all, collectively with one button is a very powerful tool, even if it’s through Disco service or some other.

Baidu Apologizes To Writers and Claims to Remove Any Infringing Content

Baidu, the Google of China, gave an apologetic statement this Saturday addressed to all the writers who were condemning the search engine for the violation of their copyright. It also said that it was going to remove all kinds of infringing items in the next three days ahead.

Kaiser Kuo, the spokesman for Baidu informed AFP that: "We will now make a concerted effort and devote considerable technological and manpower resources towards getting rid of any infringing content in the next three days." He said straight forwardly that "We apologize to any authors or publishers whose feelings may have been hurt by the presence of infringing content on Baidu."