4 Most Powerful People in 2012

In a world that looks up to the magnitude of power and possessions as a mark of achievement, it can also intimidate or influence the mass, depending on how it’s negotiated. Here are the top ten extraordinary men and women who possess the element of supremacy to be most powerful people in the world, as listed by Forbes.

1 Barack Obama

Barack Obama is in the second running as the U.S. President this year, which allows him another four years to shower his power in and around the world. However, he is up against many challenges which include the unsettled budget crisis, the unfortunate high unemployment rate in U.S. and adding to this is the rekindled turbulence in Middle East. Obama still remains the Commander in Chief of the greatest military in the world and the head of the only economic and cultural superpower, which makes him the most powerful person in the world. 

2 Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel is the second person and first women on the power list. She is the appointed Chancellor of Germany and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party. She forms the foundation of the 27 member European Union. In the recent past she undertook the challenge with severe steps to ease the European debt crisis, while pitted against the hard hit southern countries and the wealthy north. Yet she stands tall. She has held her post as chancellor since 2005. The challenges that lie ahead for her is the 2013 German elections where she needs to boost the sagging popularity of her government.
3 Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin is the President of Russia since May 2012. He has juggled between the position of Prime Minister and President of Russia over the years. Putin has earned the credit for establishing political stability and economic progress in Russia, which ended the crisis of the 1990s. During his first Presidency in 1999 to 2008, his dynamic leadership showed a high economic growth. In his term the real wages have tripled, unemployment and poverty reduced by half. In 2010 when the wildfires wrecked the Ryazan region, instead of appearing in front of the camera, speaking of the situation, Putin chose to handle the situation and took the captain’s seat in the Beriev BE-200 amphibious aircraft prepared to save the day.

4 Bill Gates

Bill Gates, the present chairman of Microsoft is the fourth most powerful person in the world. He is also the second richest man in the world with $65 billion net worth. Gates has given away over $28 billion in charity to fight and eliminate many infectious and fatal diseases. Gates has superseded all levels of generosity when he persuaded his friends and colleagues to join the ‘Giving Pledge.’ They vowed to give away half their riches or maybe more to the world’s needy. The total number of Richie Riches’ who signed the Giving Pledge is 92 as of 2012.

5 Most Expensive Apple Products Ever

An Apple product can make you go gaga. It makes the owner feel holding something which defines geek and glamour. The feel, of course is good, but the price, will definitely make you think twice. If you thought iPhone is very expensive, read on to know some Apple products which cost mind blowing sum.

#5 Apple I Computer 

The first brainchild of Jobs and Wozniak, originally had a price tag of $666.66. If you own any of the 200 Apple I computers now, then you are a rich guy. The antique computing device can fetch you as much as 500 times its original price.

An auction by Christie’s sold Apple I for more than $212,000 in November 2010, the item included a signed letter by Jobs.

Sotheby’s, an auction house, put a working Apple I for auction in June this year, expecting a bidding of $150,000. But the devise was sold for $374,500, about 500 times its original price. Winner was an anonymous telephone bidder.  

#4 Founding Documents

 The founding documents of Apple Inc were sold to a sum which could equal as much as 8,000 iPhones.

The founding documents were signed by co-founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne on April 1, 1976. The three page agreement laid foundation to the Apple Computer Co. At that time there were no soothsayers to guess what fortune it can make or how big it can be. Jobs and Wozniak owned each 45 percent and Wayne, the remaining 10 percent. However Wayne pulled himself off the contract, forfeiting his ownership.

At Sotheby’s auction house, the initial bidding for the document began at $ 70,000 and was expected to reach $100,000 to $150,000. The house was in surprise when the document was sold to a sum of $1.6 million, about ten times the estimated price. Eduardo Cisneros, a media and entertainment mogul piped in the winning bid.

The simple company which had humble beginning at a garage has made inroads in to tech innovation, and in to human psyche.

#3 Silk screened logo by Andy Warhol

Getting your hands on any piece of art by Warhol is an expensive desire, and with Apple logo it could be whopping $26,000.

The art piece is a silk screen color print from the mid-1980s, part of Andy Warhol’s “ADS” portfolio, depicting Apple’s classic rainbow logo, it had Warhol’s sign in the corner.

The silk screen artwork was commissioned by former Apple executive Del Yocam, according to auction house O’Gallerie. And it was sold to an anonymous bidder for $26,000 in May 2009. If you think only devices can be expensive; then think again. 

#4 First trade sign

This is the first banner which is used to identify the company and promote it during trade shows at the time of its start-up era, in 1976. Eventually, this wood-framed, Plexiglas, 8 by 4 inch long sign board was placed at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. However Jobs ordered a replacement sign board, and threw the old one in a dumpster.

M. Thomas Liggett Jr, grabbed the sign board, which was just lying in a dumpster for more than 30 years. Guess what, he sold it for incredible $18,000 in 2008. Literally found fortune from dustbin!

#5 Steve Wozniak's toolbox 

 

If you think tool box come cheap, then read on to know how expensive it could be.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak used a tool box while building Apple I and Apple II in late 1970s. And it was a norm in that era; all the Apple engineers used these blue tool boxes to carry on with their work with computers.

When Wozniak stopped using his tool box, he left it lying in some dumpsters at company’s headquarters.

When it was auctioned, the toolbox was empty, with just a self adhesive label of Wozniak’s full name; it was sold to whopping $7000 in 2009. Yes a tool box can be this expensive, even if it’s empty.

    

8 IT Lessons Learned From the London Olympics

The 2012 London Olympics wasn’t just another Olympics where the sport was dominated by contestants from all over the world. The games saw a new innovative platform, where application, infrastructure and technicalities moved all over the park. IT pros found the 2012 Olympics pretty interesting because of the increase in number of viewers - over 1 billion visitors in its official website, and the enhanced list of technologies being applied. Whatever be the end result, the mega event managed to offer some good and strong lessons to network and security admins all over the world. Suggestions ranged from how to build a good infrastructure, to successfully prevent sudden security breakouts and also to keep company operations run smooth even during massive network let-downs.

With that here is a list that features 8 top notch IT lessons from the 2012 Summer Olympics for technology specialists to improve services in infrastructure, network and data management.

#1 Business intelligence can expose data in new ways:

Business intelligence apps like QlikTech changed the whole projected view of this year’s Olympics. According to Anthony Deighton, the CTO of QlikTech, the company was totally surprised to see the end result of their business intelligence app in the Summer Olympics. QlikTech ran this app over 30 popular athletes, where viewers can predict who might win the gold, silver and bronze in an event. The app uses previously stored statistics, along with visual summaries and other analytics.

#2 Keep an Eye on Networks During Online Broadcasts:

Online broadcasting was another lesson to be learned from this year’s Olympics. With over 53 million views in YouTube alone, double the previous number, the online broadcasting networks took a massive turnover after the mega event. According to Mark Urban, security expert in Blue Coat, a network caching company; every single customer who is watching the Olympics via streaming can consume over 30 percent of company’s T1 line. The direct streaming technique possesses additional costs, mostly because of network and online management.

#3 Social networking can cripple GPS services:

The use of social networking services during an event can surely cripple the GPS services. For example, during a bicycle race at the event, fans kept on tweeting such that the tweets caused disruption of GPS services. These services where to provide the speed and location of the riders to the event officials and managers. Brian Jacobs, senior product manager at Ipswitch Network Management advises that this disruption could have been avoided if the network admins had put up a certain limited and restricted amount of activity to a particular social website.

#4 Stress - test your website with the cloud:

Another effective method implied at the Olympics was the use of Cloud stimulated software. According to the official London 2012 website, the London Organizing committee used stimulation software called SOASTA to test the endurance of their official site. One of the lead architects in SOASTA, Paul Bunnell said that the software ran stimulated tests of over 1 billion people accessing the site from every country across the globe. These analysis helped security admins to get an overall view of the website’s capability.

#5 Plans for Mass Deployments and Training:

This year’s games were all about providing good IT infrastructure to their well wishers. Acer, one of the official security partners, deployed servers, mobile devices and laptops to improve the IT communications within the event. Todd Olson, Acer program manager at the London Olympics said, they had deployed over 400 workers to install, direct and to improve the IT services. Olson also said that, the biggest challenge was to test the capability of these systems after two weeks of its hectic training.

#6 Protect Lost or stolen devices:

Protecting lost or stolen devices from data theft was one of the major concerns at the event. According to a mobile research study conducted by an enterprise security company, Venafi, over 67,000 mobiles and gadgets were supposed to be lost in the two week period. Gregory Webb, a Venafi spokesman exclaimed that it’s pretty impossible for companies to contain and physically protect the mobile. People must be reasonable to defend and encrypt their own data, with password and security code, so that their gadgets won’t be subjected to any data theft.

#7 Avoid potential high profile scams:

One of the latest methods in disrupting an event is the outspreading of fake news and scams. Rather entitled as a truth, at the games officials might get so thrilled that they often forget the security concern and later fall for fake announcements or news. Attacks like tweeting about a criminal running loose across the stadium can cause real havoc throughout. Ondrej Krehel, the information security officer with IDentity Theft 911, advises that security officials must really be bothered and experienced about the new techniques in hacking.

#8 Beef up data center capacity:

Neil Cresswell, managing director for infrastructure management company Savvis, said that one of the major concerns for the company was to ensure that the data center had the capacity to handle the total blitz in two weeks. According to Cresswell, the company added their fourth data center in London, increasing the megawatt capacity to 1.1 megawatt. Along with the data centers, Savvis also deployed many fuel generators, a secondary backup in case of any fuel transportation problem.

Nokia Is Going Down!

It’s official, Nokia is going down. The one time telecom giant, who had its reputed products spread over 50 countries, has announced a cut of 10,000 jobs, and a shutdown of 3 facilities, by the end of 2013.

The Finnish Telecom Manufacturers three senior executives will also be departing from the company. The closing facilities include a research center, a factory in Germany, Canada and in its home land Finland.

The company had issued a warning to investors that its loss was likely to be greater in the second quarter of this year. It had posted a loss of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Nokia also said the negative effects of its transition to a Windows-based Smartphone business would continue into the third quarter.

Once an undisputed leader in the mobile phone market, Nokia lose its charm over the years to Apple, Samsung and other handset makers based on Android.

The company, which announced its partnership with Microsoft in 2011 for making a range of Windows based Smartphones has since then saw a steep decline of sales and profit loss, mainly due to people and operators avoiding Nokia’s own Symbian based devices.

Nokia also announced the sale of its luxury handset business, Vertu to a European firm. With its streamlining efforts, the company is planning to save €1.6 billion by the end of 2013.

“These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia’s long-term competitive strength,” said Stephen Elop, the Nokia chief executive and a former Microsoft executive. “We do not make plans that may impact our employees lightly, and as a company we will work tirelessly to ensure that those at risk are offered the support, options and advice necessary to find new opportunities.”  

Last week, rumors about a Microsoft takeover had made Nokia’s sinking shares rose six percent.

“The cost savings and job cuts were intended to return Nokia to profitability “as soon as possible,” Elop said.

Highest Paying Jobs At Google

A company is as strong as its weakest employee. Certainly a superpower like Google must have some exceptional talents working for it. A company must also handout hefty remunerations to keep this talent from going elsewhere. Let us take a look at how Google pays the people who make the search giants such a success.

20. Associate, online sales and operations

Salary: $50,200      

Google is a tech company. They value their engineers much more than any other employees. So this does not come as a surprise that sales associates figure at the last spot on the list. But the advantage of having ‘worked for Google’ should make the relatively small pay package look a little better.

19. AdWords associate

Salary: $53,538

AdWords is Google’s main advertising product and its primary source of income. But surprisingly sales people working for this platform do not make as much money as they make for Google.

18. Account manager

Salary: $68,188

Accounts managers are key people in a company who take care of the management of sales and also handle some important clients. Google does not hand out a very big salary package to account managers though.

17. Business Analyst

Salary: $80,510

Analysts working for Google take home a slightly better salary than people in sales do. Their role is to keep a check on the overall working of a company and is a job that requires much more expertise.

16. Software engineer intern

 

Salary: $82,488

Surprise surprise!! Google pays its interns more than it pays its regular employees in sales and marketing. This clearly shows the love a tech company gives to its engineers. But it is understandable because a tech company is nothing without its engineers.

15. Network engineer

Salary: $87,219

Large organizations need a near perfect intranet service or else communication becomes difficult. This has a direct effect on the work that people have to do. Network enginers are the people responsible for keeping the internal networks working fine. Naturally they earn more than the sales people do.

14. User interface designer

Salary: $87,661

The user interface of a company is how a user sees the company. Having a brilliantly designed UI is of great importance. But Google still pays its UI designers slightly more than its interns.

13. Senior account manager

Salary: $89,778

Google pays its senior accounts managers a decent salary. Although it is nowhere close to what senior software developers make.

12. Database administrator

Salary: $94,420

Google is ideally known for its near magical search results. They have to crunch a large amount of data to make the search process run smoothly. Database administrators take care of all the data that Google has to process. These people are important and are paid relatively well.
 

11. Site reliability engineer

 

Salary: $94,934

These people are very important since they make sure that search pages are working allright. A company can lose a lot of money if the site is down even for a few seconds. Therefore site reliability engineers in Google are paid well.

10. User experience researcher

 

Salary: $95,320

Google needs to know how users react to their products. User experience researchers are responsible for this. Their work is crucial because they find out which product is working and which is not.  

9. Software engineer

Salary: $103,436

The high numbers start here. Software engineers make google what it is today. Their work is to create codes for new products and services. Android, search etc all run because of them. Naturally they make money at Google.

8. Financial analyst

Salary: $104,819

Finances of the company are handles by financial analysts. They find out which product s is profitable and which ones are not. A handful of these financial analysts earn the big bucks at Google.

7. Product marketing manager

Salary: $106,667

Google products are widely appreciated by users. Product marketing managers use heavy research to come up with products that will be well received by the world. Their work is very important.

6. Software research engineer

 

Salary: $116,593

A tech company can survive only if it keeps itself ahead of the times. Google has engineers working on futuristic products which could become a reality someday. These people are responsible for all the cool stuff Google comes up with. Case in point, the Google glasses.

5. Research engineer 

Salary: $117,900

Google recently became a hardware company and they need seriously talented people to research in the hardware field. it is a new territory for Google and they need only the best in the industry to work for them in this field.

4. Sales engineer

Salary: $118,710

Sales engineers are the technical glue of a technical sale. They are responsible for letting the customers solve any issues with the product. Their expertise is required for the success of any product. They earn a lot for shouldering this responsibility.

3. Product manager

Salary: $119,495

A product manager is the person entirely responsible for a particular product. He has to work closely with the developers, engineers, sales and marketing departments and make sure that products become a success.

2. Research scientist

Salary: $121,547

Research scientists work on the fringe products of a company.  It is their knowledge and expertise which helps a tech company come up with offbeat products that have the capability of changing the world. Their expertise earns them a more than hefty pay package from Google.

1. Senior software engineer

Salary: $139,084

The gold is earned by the top most software engineers. They are the ones responsible for all the products that Google launches.

Most Desirable Brands in India

A branding consultancy, Clear, has come up with a global study stating that brands that Indian consumers love the most are those perceived to be hard working, confident, modern and ambitious. Listed below are the brands that create profitable and stable business than others.

Microsoft 

Microsoft Corporation tops the list of desired brands in India. The American multinational corporation is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States and it develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services mainly related to computing through its various product divisions. Microsoft is one of the largest software corporations in the world. The value of Microsoft's brand was nearly $59.1 billion in 2011, down 3 percent from the year previous. The company has expanded in recent years into the video game industry with the Xbox and its successor, the Xbox 360 as well as into the consumer electronics and digital services market with Zune, MSN and the Windows Phone OS.

BMW 

BMW, Germany’s largest industrial companies, is amongst the most flourishing car and motorcycle manufacturers in the world. BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce are the three strongest brands in automobile industry. The vehicles manufactured by the BMW Group attempt to set the highest standards in terms of aesthetics, dynamics, technology and quality. Since September 2006, Norbert Reithofer represents the BMW AG as CEO, succeeding his predecessor Helmut Panke. BMW’s brand value increased by $3,541 million to $20,157 million. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands. In 2010, the BMW group produced 1,481,253 automobiles and 112,271 motorcycles across all its brands.

Google 

Google is rated as one of the world’s prominent brands and nothing seems capable of stopping it. Google’s most recent venture into the Chromebook and social networking substantiates the Mountain View, Calif.-based Company’s bright plans for the future. It continues to raise awareness for “climate change, global public health, and poverty” with more than $100 million grants awarded in the United States during the last 8 years. However, Google’s brand value is nearly double Apple’s with an estimated $55 billion.

Apple 

Apple’s brand value shoots up during 2011, enough to propel the company into the list of higher Global Brands. Apple’s brand value saw a rise by 58 percent over the course of the last year, and it now has a value of $33.5 billion. Consumers continue to follow its product launches with anticipation and are quick to integrate its sleek products into their lifestyles. iPad is actually is considered as the key reason behind its growth and iCloud will further extend the benefits of being connected ‘anywhere anytime’ to a fast-growing audience. Apple has around 357 retail stores in ten countries, and an online store. Moreover it is the largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalization, overtopping ExxonMobil by some $150 billion, as well as the largest technology company in the world by revenue and profit, more than Google and Microsoft combined.

Adidas 

Adidas AG is a German sports clothing manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which includes Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas Golf Company and Rockport. In addition to sports footwear, the company also manufactures other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, and other sports- and clothing-related goods. The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world. In 2011, the brand value of Adidas increased by $1,052 million to $6,754 million. But the enterprise value saw a decline has fallen to $10,631 million compared to $11,232 million in 2010. Nonetheless, Adidas maintains its AAA- brand rating.

Mercedes 

Mercedes-Benz is a multinational division of the German manufacturer Daimler AG, and the brand is used for automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, its name first appeared in 1926 under Daimler-Benz but traces its origins to Daimler's 1901 Mercedes and to Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first automobile. Mercedes-Benz is one of the most well-known and established automotive brands in the world, and is also the world's oldest automotive brand still in existence today.

Top Luxurious Phones

When phones have that midas touch of designers, they become exclusive, classy and a style statement. These posh phones are not priced on the basis of high-end feature, the gold and diamonds which they carry makes them pricy. Have a look at these designer labeled uber-exclusive phones.

1. Goldstriker iPhone 3GS Supreme - Pink Gold:

This is the world most expensive phone which comes from the house of Hughes with rose gold, 100 carats of flawless diamonds and Apple logo made of fifty-three diamonds. The home button is built with diamond. You have to be insane or insanely rich to even think to owe this dazzling iPhone.

Price:  Around  Rs. 42 Crore

2. Goldstriker iPhone 3GS Supreme – Gold:

The iPhone 3GS Supreme is designed by Goldstriker International. The iPhone 3GS Supreme is studded with 270 grams of 22 carat gold. The front frame of iPhone 3GS Supreme has 136 diamonds worth 68 carat while the Apple logo behind is designed using 53 flawless diamond and the home button is designed with a rare 7.1 carat single diamond.

Price: Around  Rs. 16 Crore

3. GoldVish ‘Le Million’ Piece Unique

The Guinness World Record has certified the GoldVish ‘Le Million’ Piece Unique and declared the sale as the most expensive and most exclusive mobile phone ever sold. The phone is made of using 18 carat white gold and mounted with 120-carat VVS-1 graded diamonds. Limited editions of 100 phones are distributed worldwide and are only available upon special request.

Price: Around  Rs. 7 Crore

4. The Diamond Crypto Smartphone

The Diamond Crypto smartphone is designed by Peter Aloisson of JSC Ancort, Mescow. This luxury smartphone is created with fully platinum body and decorated with 50 diamonds including eight rare blue diamonds. The Ancort logo and the navigation key are made of using 18 carat gold.

Price: Around  Rs. 7 Crore

5. Gresso Luxor Las Vegas Jackpot

The Gresso Luxor Las Vegas is an ultra-exclusive and extraordinarily expensive phone. The phone is inspired by Egyptian design and features 45.5 carats of black diamond decorated along the side frames and the back panel is made from 200 year old African blackwood which is the most expensive wood in the world. More over each key is hand polished sapphire crystal and all these luxurious materials are framed in a 180 gram solid gold.

Price: Around  Rs. 5 Crore

6. Vertu Signature Cobra

The Vertu Signature Cobra is designed by French jeweler Bouncheron. The Signature cobra is made with two diamonds, two emerald diamond and 439 artfully arranged rubies on to an absolutely garish cobra, glues it to a phone.

Price: Around  Rs. 1.5 Crore

7. Sony Ericsson Black Diamond

Jaren Goh, an industrial designer of Singapore has designed this extremely stylish concept for Sony Ericsson. The phone features polycarbonate glossy mirror finish skin and comes with OLED border less touchscreen. The mirror finish gives the phone a sleek and futuristic look. The company has created only five pieces of the design, making it a true limited edition luxury phone.

Price: Around  Rs. 1.5 Crore

8. Peter Aloisson’s Kings Button iPhone

The Austrian designer and jeweler Peter Aloisson has designed the Kings Button iPhone. It is called as the Kings Button because the home button is designed with flawless rare 6.6 carat white diamond. The iPhone is full made of solid 18 carat yellow gold, white gold and rose gold. The white gold is studded along the sides with 138 brilliant cut diamonds.

Price: Around  Rs. 90 Lakh

9. Peter Aloisson’s iPhone Princess Plus

The Princess Plus iPhone is designed by Peter Aloisson using 138 princess cut and 180 brilliant cut diamonds. The total 318 diamonds worth 17.75 carat are decorated in 18 carat white gold around its frame.

Price: Around  Rs. 90 Lakh

10. Nokia 8800 Arte with pink diamonds

The Nokia 8800 Arte is designed by Peter Aloisson using the solid 18 carat white gold and decorated with 680 pink and white brilliant cut diamonds worth over 21.5 carat. The phone comes with 2 inch water resistant screen and a 3.15 MP rear camera with auto focus.

Price: Around  Rs. 70 Lakh