Apple hits fourth slot, pushed RIM behind

Apple is yet to make more records with its Smartphone, iPhone apparently. The mobile maker has outpassed long time biggies RIM and Sony Ericsson to grab the number four position globally in terms of shipments.

Sources cited that for the current quarter, Apple has made it to fourth slot with 4.3% market share. The company in all shipped 14.1 million handsets and signifies almost double of the shipments made last year.

Apple planning to make it tough for mobile carriers with specially crafted SIM?

Apple, the tech honcho is here again to change the mobile game; this time it is not the new device but its attempts to sideline the mobile carriers.

With its App store, the iPhone gave a run to mobile operators for the revenues and latest on the chart is a special “SIM” card that makes mobile carriers; a complete obsolete from the scene. The vendor is reportedly working with SIM card manufacturer Gemalto over a special SIM card that will kick off the dependency of users on the mobile carriers.

Google’s Developing Self-Driving Cars

There’s a Toyota Prius in California, and a VW Passat halfway around the globe both equipped with bucket-shaped contraptions that let the cars drive themselves. Following their research on autonomous autos in the DARPA Urban Challenge, a team at Germany’s TU Braunschweig let the above GPS, laser and sensor-guided Volkswagen wander down the streets of Brunswick unassisted late last week, and today Google revealed that it’s secretly tested seven similar vehicles by the folks who won that same competition. CMU and Stanford engineers have designed a programmable package that can drive at the speed limit on regular streets and merge into highway traffic, stop at red lights and stop signs and automatically react to hazards. Google says its seven autos have already gone 1,000 unassisted miles. Google estimates self-driving vehicles are at least eight years down the road.