Today is a rather momentous day for the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. Elevation Dock – a stunningly well designed iPhone dock, broke LunaTik and TikTok’s record for the highest amount of funding for a single project, and also became the first project to raise more than a million bucks from Kickstarter.

Elevation Dock is a high-end iPhone dock that is designed with the kind of precision and care that would make even Apple proud. It is precision engineered from solid billets of aircraft grade aluminum, and then hand buffed, glass bead blasted, electro-chemically micropolished, hard anodized and sealed. Elevation Dock features a unique low friction connection that allows hassle-free single handed undocking; all you need to do is pull the phone up. Even more impressively, Elevation Dock works equally well on iPhones with or without a case. Elevation Dock adheres to Apples design principles to the T, and in doing so makes Apple’s own iPhone dock look cheap and shabby. It is simple, elegant, drop dead gorgeous, and intuitive to use.

It is worth noting that the previous record holder on Kickstarter was also an Apple related project. Scott Wilson managed to raise $942,578 for his iPod Nano watch. The TikTok project also paid meticulous attention to design and construction. The iPod watches were engineered from premium material, and were both beautiful and convenient.

Elevation Dock is the first to reach the $1 million mark; however, its reign at the top will be fairly short lived. Indie video game Double Fine Adventure, which was announced earlier today, has already shattered the record for the most funds raised in 24 hours with more than $800,000, and it still has 33 days to go.

It appears that Google has had a change of heart, and has finally decided in favor of launching its own cloud storage solution to compete with the likes of Dropbox, Box.net, SkyDrive, and iCloud. The Wall Street Journal believes that Google is very close to launching Google Drive, something that users have been anticipating and demanding ever since Gmail launched with a gigabyte of storage. In fact, Google was almost ready to launch a similar product called GDrive, way back in 2008. However, Sundar Pichai, the current SVP of Chrome and Apps, managed to get the product dumped with a bizarre argument that files are outdated. According to Steven Levy’s “In the Plex”, Pinchai believed that “Files are so 1990”.

“You just want to get information into the cloud. When people use our Google Docs, there are no more files. You just start editing in the cloud, and there’s never a file.”
– Sundar Pinchai

Google’s entry into the cloud-storage arena is long overdue. Both Microsoft and Apple have compelling products in this segment, which are already (or soon will be) tightly integrated with their own ecosystem. Google, on the other hand, has allowed third-parties like Dropbox to take control of the Android ecosystem. What makes the prolonged lack of an online backup solution from Google surprising is the fact that Google is well known for having access to ginormous quantities of cheap storage. In fact, Google already offers plenty of storage to users in the form of Gmail, Google Docs, and Picasa. What it has been lacking so far is an integrated solution to unite its assorted services.

Like its competitors, Google will be opting for a freemium model. The basic storage plan for Google Drive will be free, with additional storage available for purchase. It will be interesting to observe how Google prices its new product. If it retains the current model of charging $5 per year for additional 20 gigabytes, and $20 per year for 80 gigabytes, it could very well demolish its competitors. It is also likely that at some point, Google will bundle Drive with Google Apps for Android, which should give an instant boost to its user base.

Dropbox famously turned down a nine-figure acquisition offer from Apple. Now, with Google, Microsoft, and Apple setting their sights on the cloud storage market, it will have its work cut out. However, if Dropbox manages to retain its focus on innovation and superior customer service, it will prove to be a tough competitor to beat.

As per schedule, the stable release of Google Chrome 17 is here. The biggest new feature is omnibox pre-rendering. Google already tries to autocomplete URLs for you as you begin typing in the omnibox, which is Google’s fancy way of referring to Chrome’s addressbar. However, in the latest version, Google will also begin to load the suggested URL in the background, if it believes that you are very likely to visit that website. This creates an illusion of speed by loading the website in advance. The technique itself is not new. In fact, Google’s infamous Web Accelerator heavily relied on pre-fetching to speed up web browsing, and Chrome already pre-fetches some of the search results on Google.com.

While pre-fetching of content is a great feature for most consumers, it does have its share of disadvantages. If you have a tight data cap, the last thing you want is your browser to waste your bandwidth by loading pages you might not even want to visit. It will also create headaches for webmasters by registering fake hits that will increase bandwidth and server resource consumption, besides messing up analytics. Netscape had earlier experimented with pre-fetching, but it allowed the webmasters to be in control.

The other major new feature is called “Safe Browsing”. Going forward, Google will cross check all downloaded executables against a whitelist of publishers and files. If it doesn’t find a match, it will attempt to determine if the download is safe or not by leveraging a complicated machine learning algorithm. It is worth nothing that this feature sends data about the file along with your IP address to Google. After two weeks, any personally identifiable information (such as IP address) is deleted, and only the file URL is retained on Google’s servers.

Chrome 17 also fixes a grand total of 20 security vulnerabilities. Google awarded a total of $10,500 to security researchers for the discovery of these potential security threats. You can learn more about the security issues patched by Google over here.

The new release can be downloaded from google.com/chrome. However, Chrome users on the stable channel should be automatically updated to the Chrome 17 during their next browsing session.

Amazon is yet to enter India with its full force, but the ramifications of the impending launch are already being felt. Flipkart, which refused to let itself be acquired by Amazon, has made the aggressive move of acquiring LetsBuy.com – its biggest competitor.

Medianama is reporting that Flipkart paid anywhere between $20 million and $25 million for LetsBuy, which is the second largest online retailer in India. Flipkart, which reportedly raised $150 million at a valuation of around $850 million, is the undisputed leader. It sells almost twenty products every minute, and is expected to cross the $100 million revenue mark during the financial year 2011-12.

Flipkart is no stranger to acquisitions, having earlier acquired WeRead, Mime360, and Chakpak.com. However, none of its previous acquisitions were competitors. Instead, they were platforms and technologies that Flipkart believed would help in improving its core product.

At this point it will be prudent to take this news with a pinch of salt, since neither of the involved parties have confirmed it. However, if Medianama is spot on, then by acquiring LetsBuy, Flipkart is formally flagging off the consolidation phase that analysts have been predicting for a long time. Although, online shopping is rapidly gaining traction in India, the entry of a behemoth like Amazon will undoubtedly send shockwaves throughout the industry as smaller players will be hard-pressed to compete with Amazon’s inventory and pricing. LetsBuy, which is well known for its extremely aggressive pricing, will undoubtedly help Flipkart scale better. Although, it is possible that the acquisition will hurt consumers in the immediate future by reducing competition, it will probably turn out to be a good thing in the long run. The consolidation of the two biggest online retailers will enable the resultant entity to offer a more spirited challenge to the big names that will almost surely make an entry in the Indian ecommerce segment within the next couple of years.

Update: Sachin Bansal, the CEO and Co-Founder of Flipkart, has confirmed that “the rumors are true”.

Last year, Facebook’s mobile apps received flak for uploading numbers of cell phone contacts without intimating the user. Unfortunately, it now appears that this practise is a lot more prevalent than most of us could have anticipated.

Earlier today, Arun Thampi discovered that the new social network Path is also doing pretty much the same thing. He made this startling discovery by snooping on the API requests made by Path’s iOS app with the help of a man-in-the-middle proxy tool. Thampi found that as soon as you create a new account or log into Path’s iOS app, your entire contact list is uploaded to its servers. Everything including your contacts’ name, email address, and phone number is silently uploaded over HTTPS, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Soon after, Mark Chang uncovered that location sharing social network Hipster also grabs your contact list. However, Hipster is even more callous with your personal data. It transmits email addresses from your phone’s address book to its servers without even bothering to encrypt them.

Path uploading user’s address book

After the news broke, Path’s CEO Dave Morin apologized to users and offered the following statement.

We actually think this is an important conversation and take this very seriously. We upload the address book to our servers in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and efficiently as well as to notify them when friends and family join Path. Nothing more.

We believe that this type of friend finding & matching is important to the industry and that it is important that users clearly understand it, so we proactively rolled out an opt-in for this on our Android client a few weeks ago and are rolling out the opt-in for this in 2.0.6 of our iOS Client, pending App Store approval.

As Morin explains, social networking apps like Path have a valid reason for requiring access to your address book. However, there is simply no excuse for failing to intimate the user about the same. Heck, Path and Hipster doesn’t even mention this in their FAQ, which most services use for covering their back while performing shady activities. The good thing is that Path has already rectified its mistake. In the latest version of its Android app, contact upload is opt-in, and the iPhone users will also get the same treatment as soon as Apple approves the latest update. Meanwhile, if you don’t want Path to have a copy of your phone book, you can request the deletion of data from its servers by sending a mail to service@path.com.

Update: Path 2.0.6 for iOS is now available in the App Store.

As I mentioned upfront, this practice is way more widespread than any of us could have imagined. Hacker News readers have already identified the same behavior in Beluga and Kik Messenger. Earlier today, Aurora Feint got delisted from the App Store for transmitting address book as plain text. However, with Feint, at least this is strictly opt-in.

Address book is something most users treat as extremely sensitive information, and it’s high time that the industry realizes that. Android does notify the user during installation, if the app accesses the address book. However, most users simply don’t have the habit of paying attention to the “Permissions” screen while installing apps. Moreover, there is no reason to conclude that if an app is reading contact data, it is uploading the same to its servers without permission. On the other hand, Apple, which often positions its App Store as more secure, gives apps full access to the address book without even requiring any additional permission.

One thing that Morin is right about is that this is an extremely important conversation. Hopefully, people will not just move on after expressing their knee-jerk reaction. An iOS app called MobileSubstrate that will alert users every time an app tries to access the phonebook is already under development for jailbroken devices. Ideally though, Apple and Google should take responsibility, and do a better job at protecting the user’s privacy. Perhaps, they should even consider changing their APIs to force apps into explicitly seeking permission before accessing the address book.

In the past couple of weeks, more than 300 people have been arrested in connection with the Occupy Oakland protests. Multiple incidents of violence were reported across Oakland with the police often resorting to the use of excessive force. As you might have guessed, the police clampdown didn’t sit well with Anonymous, which has retaliated in the only way it knows how. Anonymous has leaked private information of several top city officials, who may or may not have had a role to play in the reported police brutality.

Date of birth, address, private phone number, salary, social media accounts and other information of several prominent Oakland officials including the Mayor Jean Quan and her husband, City Administrator Deanna Santana, police Chief Howard Jordan, City Attorney Barbara Parker, and all City Council members, have been leaked. The only council member to be spared is Rebecca Kaplan. Anonymous thanked her for “being a true leader in the community” and revealed only her public phone number.

The hacked information is available on Pastebin, but Anonymous being Anonymous also released a dramatic video to announce their latest move. The video and its transcript are embedded below.

Anonymous has been watching. Since the inception of Occupy Oakland, We have been actively monitoring your behavior, and exposing the identities and sensitive information of Officers of the Oakland Police Department; as they have continued to act in an unprofessional and violent manner. You tear gassed Us. You shot Us with your weapons. You arrested Us. You beat Us. You also did this to Our Friends, and to Our Families. We watched as you cut budgets, cut Our jobs, closed Our schools, Our parks, and Our libraries, while leaving your own salaries alone. We laughed in disgust as Deanna Santana said she would need to speak to her attorney before discussing her pay cut. The people on this list are supposed to represent the best of what the City of Oakland has to offer. If they are the best, why is there so much trouble within the Police Department, and in the City of Oakland?

We are shocked and disgusted by your behavior. Before you commit atrocities against innocent people again, think twice.

You should have expected Us.

A couple of years back, Google launched Goggles for Android, which is pretty cool by itself. However, Google is now reportedly trying to build the real thing – an actual goggles with a HUD (heads up display).

9To5Google learnt by the way of a tipster that Google is currently developing wearable glasses that resemble Oakley Thumps. These glasses will be fitted with a tiny HUD for each eye on the sides. The display is expected to provide an augmented reality experience by showing real-time information corresponding to objects in your sight. Navigating the on-screen HUD is said to be as simple as tilting your head. The glasses will have a tiny camera equipped with flash, along with a mic for recieving voice commands. CPU, RAM, and other storage will be equivalent to previous generation Android smartphones, which will be stunning considering the form factor for the device.

Oakley Thump

The glasses are still a long way from being done, and Google isn’t even sure if there is an actual demand for such a gadget. However, what this clearly illustrates is just how ambitious and bold Google has become. It’s not afraid to invest money and time into projects that almost appear to be science fiction. 9To5 believes that Google might launch a public beta testing program to gauge demand, as it did with the Cr-48 Chromebooks. Let’s hope that they are right.

Last week, we learnt that the eagerly awaited Galaxy S3 won’t be making an appearance at the Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona towards the end of this month. However, we were hopeful that the latest and greatest Galaxy device will hit the shelves before the end of first half of 2012. Now, South Korea’s Electronic Times News has published a new report that backs this up.

ET News believes that the first quad-core powered behemoth from Samsung will be released in May. As you might expect from Samsung, there are multiple variations of the Galaxy device in the pipeline, including a 3D version and one with a touch pen. ET also divulged some of the other specifications of the Galaxy S3. The S3 will feature an 8 megapixel rear and a 2 megapixel front camera, SAMOLED Plus display, 2GB RAM, and Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). However, the S3 isn’t simply about mighty specs. Measuring in at 7mm, the next-gen flagship from Samsung is also rumored to have killer looks.

Samsung has witnessed spectacular success in the smartphone segment with the Galaxy S and S2. However, it will face stiffer challenge this year. The iPhone 5 is expected to be a significant overhaul that should hit the market around about the same time as the S3. 2012 should be an extremely interesting year for smartphone enthusiasts.

Windows 8 is a bold new step forward for Microsoft. We already know that the Redmond giant will be ditching the traditional Start Menu in favor of its Metrofied full-screen cousin. Now, it appears that Microsoft has also made up its mind to get rid of the Start button, which has been a hallmark of Windows operating systems for almost two decades.

In Windows 8 developer preview, the Start button’s role was reduced to toggling between Metro and classic interface, and displaying “Charms”, which provide quick access to some basic functionality. However, newer builds of Windows 8, such as build 8220 that is pictured above, does away with the Start button completely. According to Neowin, Microsoft has instead decided to implement a hot corner in the bottom left of the screen, which will both provide access to Charms, and facilitate toggling between the Metro and classic user interface. Touchscreen users will be able to access the same functionality through a swipe gesture.

The death of the iconic Start button will undoubtedly trigger mourning across the web; however, one has to agree that this had to happen sooner or later. The new full-screen, touch optimized Start page pretty much stole the Start button’s thunder.

The beta of Windows 8 is slated to be released in a few weeks. Meanwhile, here are a few more screenshots of Windows 8 post developer preview (build 8220) to ponder over.

It’s an open secret that Amazon wants to grab a share of the rapidly growing e-commerce segment in India. Today, Amazon made its first public move by launching Junglee.com, which describes itself as “an online shopping service by Amazon”. Somewhat disappointingly though, Junglee is nothing like the Amazon that we are familiar with.

The bar on 100% foreign direct investment, coupled with the steep prices demanded by local players like Flipkart, has made it difficult for Amazon to come in all guns blazing. As a result, it has opted to kick off with a soft launch in the form of the revival of a brand that it had acquired almost fifteen years ago.

Junglee isn’t an online store. You can’t buy products directly from Junglee. It’s a price comparison service that pits several online retailers against each other. Junglee features 1.2 crore products and 14,000 brands from hundreds of retailers including Homeshop18, UniverCell, Hidesign, Gitanjali, The Bombay Store, Fabindia, Bata India Limited, Dabur Uveda, Microsoft India Store, Reebok, and Amazon.com. Conspicuous by their absence are some of the biggest players like Flipkart, Infibeam, and LetsBuy, which are likely to offer the stiffest competition to Amazon India.

Junglee isn’t the e-commerce destination that consumers had been anticipating and online retailers dreading. It’s just another price comparison service that is handy, but hardly disruptive. I am certain that the full-fledged launch of Amazon India is in the pipeline. However, until then, Amazon is testing the waters with this new India oriented service. It’s a smart move as Junglee will allow Amazon to get the logistics in place, while thwarting bigger players like Flipkart by offering smaller retailers increased visibility.