London Chess Classic, Viswanathan Anand in quarters London Chess Classic

LONDON: Former world champion Viswanathan Anand found his way to the knockout stage in the London Chess Classic with an easy draw against tailender Andrei Istratescu of France in the fifth round of the preliminaries that concluded at the Olympia.

After scoring three wins in the first four games itself, Anand was destined to move to the quarterfinal stage in this 16-players event spilt in to four groups.

With one round still to come in the prelims, Anand is likely to head his 'A' group with 11 points in his kitty under the Soccer scoring system in place here.

Michael Adams of England trounced compatriot Luke McShane and joined Anand on 11 points and the two meet in the next round to determine the group winner.

Traditionally a super tournament, the London Classic this time became a Rapid tournament as the world championship was held just two weeks before its commencement.

Anand will play as black against Adams in the decider for the first place in the last round having promoted himself to the knockout quarterfinals in the 16-players event split in to four groups.

Among other groups, Russians Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler looked poised to qualify from the 'B' group while in the 'C' group Boris Gelfand of Israel and Hikaru Nakamura of United States already made the cut like Anand and Adams.

The situation in the 'D' group is also clear with Nigel short of England hitting form and the two qualifiers from here are Fabiano Caruana of Italy along with the English Grandmaster who holds a high repute.

Google removed privacy feature from its Android mobile software

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has removed an experimental privacy feature from its Android mobile software that had allowed users to block apps from collecting personal information such as address book data and a user's location.

The change means that owners of smartphones using Android 4.4.2, the latest version of the world's most popular operating system for mobile devices released this week, must provide access to their personal data in order to use certain apps.

A company spokesman said the feature had been included by accident in Android 4.3, the version released last summer.

"We are suspicious of this explanation, and do not think that it in any way justifies removing the feature rather than improving it," said Peter Eckersley, technology projects director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The digital rights website first publicized the change in a blog post on Friday.

Android users who wish to retain the privacy controls by not upgrading to Android 4.4.2 could be vulnerable to security risks, Eckersley said. "For the time being, users will need to chose between either privacy or security on the Android devices, but not both."

Many third-party apps for Android devices, such as music-identifying service Shazam and popular smartphone flashlight apps, require access to personal information that does not always have an obvious connection to the app's functionality, such as phone call information and location data.

The privacy feature allowed users to pick and choose which personal data a third-party app can collect, Eckersley said. Users had to install a special Apps Ops Launcher software, which was created by another company, in order to access the hidden privacy controls.

Android software was loaded on 81% of all smartphones shipped worldwide in the third quarter, according to industry research firm IDC. Apple's iOS, the software used on the iPhone, had 12.9% market share.

Privacy has become an increasingly important issue as smartphones, which are loaded with consumers' personal information, become the primary computing device for many consumers. In November, Google agreed to pay a $17 million fine to settle allegations that it secretly tracked web users by placing special digital files on the web browsers of their smartphones.

Lumia 1520, 1320 in India on Dec 16

NEW DELHI: Nokia is sending invites for a Lumia focused event scheduled for 16 December 2013 in New Delhi, where it's expected to launch its new large screen phones, namely the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320, that were unveiled during Nokia World, in October.

Nokia Lumia 1520 is already listed on Nokia's India website with a 'coming soon' tag.

Lumia 1520 is a high-end phablet and the first Windows Phone device to feature a 6-inch full HD display and a quad-core processor. The device will compete against the likes of Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z Ultra and HTC One Max in the Indian market.

The Lumia 1520 sports a 20MP PureView camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) and is powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 chipset. The handset comes with 2GB RAM, 32GB expandable storage, a 3,400mAh battery, NFC and wireless charging. Nokia had announced a $749 price (excluding taxes) for the device at its global launch, so the phone could be priced upwards of Rs 45,000.

The Lumia 1320, on the other hand, features an inferior 720p 6 inch display. It is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset. The handset comes with 1GB RAM, 8GB expandable storage, and a 3,400mAh battery. It sports a 5MP rear camera and a VGA front camera. Nokia had said that the Lumia 1320 would start shipping in Q1 2014 at an estimated price of $339 (excluding taxes and subsidies).

NASA has successfully transmitted data between the moon and Earth

NASA has successfully transmitted data between the moon and Earth, using laser beams sent from this device. The transmission set new communication records with download rates of 622MB per second