iCloud - Apple's New Product.

What is iCloud?
Apple's iCloud is a set of free cloud-based services that will allow users to sync their apple devices with each other and manager personal data easily.
What does iCloud do?
Everything can be stored online and accessed via either 3G or Wi-Fi.  To sign up, you need an Apple ID and an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS X Lion.


When will iCloud be available?
While the beta is available to developers now, end users should expect to get access by Q3 this year.
What is iCloud for us?
iCloud will be particulary useful for those who own multiple iOS devices.  All data will remain backed up, accessable if your device gets stolen or needs to be rest.

iCloud Free Download.
iCloud will be available as a free download when Apple releases the new version of iOS this fall.  This feature will include 5 Gigabytes of free storage for users files, plus unlimited room for purchased apps and books, and recent phots.
The New version of iOS will come with a notification system to alert users when they get text messages and updates from applications such as Facebook.  It also will make it easier to see Web articles and save them for future reading.  
As part of iCloud, Apple introduced a $24.99 music feature called iTunes Match that will scan every song in users libraries and match it with a copy in the cloud.  That means customers do not have to upload all their music song by song. 


Attack on Rivals: Apple is competing with Amazon.com, the biggest online retailer, and Google's Android software, which runs rival smartphones(for Samsung, HTC, and Motorola) and tablet computers.   A new Twitter, Inc. partnership will help users access the social networking service and post photos. And a feature called Newsstand lets customers purchase and organize newspaper and magazine subscription for the iPad and iPhone

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Show the playing Music Track as your Gtalk Status.

Can't you able to show the track you are playing to your friends as your status in Gtalk. In spite of installing the latest version of Gtalk  things are not turning up? Well even you get doubt what Music player to install/play the songs so that it displays in the Gtalk Chat messenger.  

You don't require anything special to display, just a two step procedure solves your problem. 


Step 1: First, uninstall if you have already have installed the Gtalk, and download the Gtalk Install file. And while Installing the file, Right Click the download file and instead of click open, Click Run as Administrator and follow the installation in an as usual way.

This will install an additional plugin which supports the Windows music player to associate with Gtalk client.


Step 2: You can play the songs in your Windows Music Player itself, no need of any new music player to display the Song track as your Gtalk Status instead of any other text you usually do.

Now Go to Organise > Options and Select Plug-ins Tab.
In that Select Background and Check Google Talk Music Plugin and click OK.


You are done! Now what ever you play the songs in your Music player it will display in your Gtalk Status as your Current Music Track automatically.  Hope this has helped you, if any queries feel free to leave your query at the bottom.

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MBA Internship Project HR Titles List.

As a part of MBA/PGDM people are asked to do projects as Summer Internship Project(SIP)/Training period. This list will help in deciding what type of HR Projects you are interested to work on.

MBA Internship Project HR Titles.
1.   HR Planning & Recruitment - Comparison between PSU and Private Sector Companies.
2.   HRP in Public Sector Organization -  A Case Study
3.   HRD Strategies - Comparison between PSU and Private Sector Companies
4.   HRM Practices in an Organization.
5.   Impact of Training on the performance of employees - A Case Study
6.   Selection and Recruitment practices in an organization - A Case Study
7.   Application of appraisal strategies in an organization - A Case Study
8.   Labour /Employee Turnover - A Case Study
9.   Settlement and Grievances Handling in an organization - A Case Study
10.   Role of HRM department in Turnaround management
11.   Role of HRM department in a Growing organization
12.   Role of HRM department in ERP (SAP / People Soft)
13.   HR Accounting
14.   Alignment between process requirements & Governance capabilities in BPO
15.   Philosophy of HR Management
16.   Talent Management
17.   Knowledge Management
18.   Affect of Leadership on Performance of the Organization
19.   Career Stagnation dcauses and effects on the Individual / Organization
20.   Organizational effectiveness through HRD in the Changed Liberalized markets
21.   Organizational Climate and Leadership of an Organization a comparative study
22.   Design of Personal Information system for an organization
23.   Culture and Cross border Mergers & Acquisitions
24.   High Skill Equilibrium
25.   High Skill Eco System
26.   Knowledge Transfer through Inheritance
27.   Jib satisfaction and Health of employees in an organization
28.   Reward system - a tool for promoting desired organizational performance a case study
29.   Identification of training needs of security personnel in an organization
30.   HRD Strategies and Industrial Relations - A Case Study
31.   Planning and Identifying HRD interventions for solving organizational problems a study
32.   Role of change agent (External/internal) in an organization
33.   Role of HRD in TQM
34.   Various Incentive schemes a comparative study.
35.   Work Measurement and wage payment plans
36.   Study of Employee morale and attitudes
37.   Pay Revision Management
38.   Wage fixing administration
39.   Quality of work life
40.   Motivation and morale
41.   Dignity of Labour
42.   Performance appraisal and counseling
43.   Training needs analysis
44.   Positive force field analysis and change management
45.   HRM Consultants
46.   E-Learning
47.   Paperless office

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Article Summary: Using Activity Based Costing and Economic Profit to Grow the Bottom Line

Using ABC costing management technique as well as Economic Profit or EVA can dramatically improve the financial health of a Company as it presents the real picture or the factsheet, as the ABC tracks the cost objects consumed in the activities and therefore the resources consumed in those activities, to know accurate individual overheads instead of simply relating on the volume. The ABC concept is defined as costing technique that takes into consideration both factors – the resource drivers as well as the activity drivers to determine the price of a product/service.

The objective of this summary is to show that using Activity based Costing model and Economic profit unlike traditional financial management techniques can affect the profitability of an Enterprise in a major way.

It should be realized that the profitability of a company does not alone rely on the sales of the product/services but also on the expenses involved in the production of that particular product/service. In a case study of an Automotive parts manufacturing Company located in Norway, it was proved that only a small percent of their product line had a positive Economic Profit and Return on Sales. In fact when Operational profitability and the Economic Profit of their product line were categorized and columned side by side, it was eye opening.

As the companies usually mix up the overheads cost with the direct costs it may not be ended up the accurate price setting method of the product, so a scrutinizing of accounts on Bill of Materials (BOM) should be done. It was found that the Company’s largest product line had a very low operational profitability which in turn gave a negative EP. To be honest, sale of such products should be discontinued. In another study conducted on the same products, the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and threats) framework was employed. It was found that the products that generated a positive EP had more weaknesses than strengths.

So to conclude, we can say that Activity Based forecasting model combined with or without EP is an effective financial tool in the management of a company.

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Aditya Birla Group in Acquisition Spree.

Recent times, the word Acquisition is buzzing all over the country, Inbound acquisition and outbound acquisitions number is increasing year on year(yoy) basis. One company Aditya Birla Group is in a high-speed acquisition mode.  Three(3) Acquisitions in just four months that cumalatively cost $1.4billion( that is close to Rs.6,300 crore) are the signs a man looking for size and scale, and getting them in a hurry. 

Kumar Mangalam Birla,
 Chairman of Aditya Birla Group

Kumar Mangalam Birla(43 yrs in age) chairman of the Aditya Birla Group(ABG) aims to more than double the revenue of his conglomerate to $65 billion(Rs.2.93lakhs crore approximately) by 2015 as per the recent press note released where the figures will take it to the current revenue of Tata Group.


Recent Acquisitions of Aditya Birla Group.
On 18th April, the group bough Swedish pulp and fiber maker Domsjo Fabriker for $340 Million(Rs.1530 crore). Earlier in same industry it took over Athloville and Nackawic in Canada, and Jingwei Fibres Company in China. 
Note: Aditya Birla Group is the largest player in the Pulp and Fiber maker segment with 20% market share.
Earlier it also agreed to acquire the chloro-chemicals division(CCD) of Kilkata based Kanoria Chemicals & industries(KCIL) for Rs.830crore in cash.
Aditya Birla Group first deal of the year was the acquisition of Atlanta based Columbian Chemical Company for $875 million (Rs3975 crore) in January. 


Other Recent Deals of Aditya Birla Group
Domsjo Fabriker for $340 Million.(April 2011)
Kanoria Chemicals for $184 Million(mn).
Columbian Chemicals $875 mn (Jan 2011)
Spice Telecom $600 mn (June 2008)
Novelis $5.7 bn (Feb 2007)
Tata's stake in Idea for $983 mn (April 2006)
Ultratech Cement $183 mn (May 2004)

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How to Fight against Tiredness and Boredom.

Is that you wondering how to get rid of boredom, or tiredness. Here is what you can do if your energy has taken a brief vacation.

Take a Nap: What a concept! when you are to tired to do something, take a short nap to revive yourself.  Maximize that nap's effect by keeping it short- 20 Minutes is ideal, 40 minutes absolute maximum.  After that, you go into another phase of sleep and you may wake even more tired than before.

Have a Drink: A little caffeine will not harm you a cup of coffee or tea, a glass of soda.  Just be careful not to mainline it - caffeine's "wakeup" properties seems to reverse when you reach a certain level, making you far more tired than you were!

Turn Down the Heat: You need not build an Igloo out back, but too warm a room will inevitably leave you dreaming of sugarplums.. while your paper remains unwritten on your desk.

Shake a Leg: Go for a walk, high step around the kitchen, do a few jumping jacks - even  mild physical exertion will give you an immediate lift.

Change your Schedule: Presuming you have some choice here, find a way to do the things when you are normally more awake and/or most efficient.

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Study Group: Tips for Forming your Own Study Group.

How to form a Group for Studying. Group studies can be very helpful and can make the study more interesting and easy.

Tips for Forming your Own Study Group:

• I suggest four students minimum, probably six maximum. You want to ensure everyone gets a chance to participate as much as he or she wants while maximizing the collective knowledge and wisdom of the group.
• While group members needn't be best friends, they should not be overtly hostile to one another, either.  Seek diversity of experience and demand common dedication.
• Try to select students who are at least as smart, committed, and serious as you.. That will encourage you to keep yo and challenge you're the "star".
• Avoid inviting members who are inherently unequal into the group - boyfriend/girlfriends combination in which one or the other may be inhibited by the amore's presence; situations where on students works for another.
• Decide early on if you are forming a study group or a social group.  If it is the latter do not it is the former.  If the former, do not just invite your friends and informally site around discussing your teacher for an hour each week. 
• My suggestion is to assign each class to one student. Each student must master his or her assignment class, completing any supplemental assigned reading, taking outstanding notes, outlining the course, being available for questions, and preparing various practice quizzes.
• Needless to say, all of the other students should still attend class, take their own notes, and do there own reading and homework assignments. But the student assigned a particular class should attempt to actually become the "substitute professor" of that class in the study group.

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How to Set a Goal as Part of your Life?

All the time people ask you what is your Goal? what you want to achieve in future? let that be in an interview or other. The major problem answering this question is the individual himself does not know what to do, or do not know how to set a goal for himself. 


Here are some hits I think will help in setting up goals a part of your life.


Be Realistic when you Set Goals: Do not aim too high or too low, and do not be particularly concerned when (if not) you have to make adjustments along the way.
Be Realistic about your expectations: Seek a greater understanding of a subject for which you have little aptitude rather than getting hopelessly bogged down if total mastery is just not in the cards.
Do Not Give Up too Easily: You can be overly realistic - too ready to give up just because something is a trifle  harder than you would like.  Do not aim too high and feel miserable when you do not come close, or aim too low and never achieve your potential - find the path that is right for you.
Concentrate on areas that offer the best chance for Improvement: Unexpected successes can do wonders for your confidence and might make it possible for you to achieve more than you thought you could, even in other areas.
Monitor your achievements and keep Resetting your Goals: Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, - ask yourself how you have done and where you would like to go now.
Put your Goal Pyramid right up on the Wall: See It, Feel It. Live It.

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