Search engine juggernaut Google on Thursday released a new feature that significantly broadens publishers' ability to modify the look of their blogs. Available through Blogger in Draft (Blogger's testing ground/sandbox site), the Blogger Template Designer tool offers 15 brand-new, highly customizable professional templates which divided into four categories: Simple, Picture Windows, Awesome Inc, and Watermark. Users can also choose from among of hundreds of background images and patterns from iStockphoto and tweak color schemes in an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. One pretty useful feature of the new tool is the ability to select the size and arrangement of the columns. For example, publishers can easily adjust the size of the entire blog or sidebar by either moving the slider bar or entering the desired value in pixels.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said he "still loves" his Prius car, despite what he suspects is a Toyota software problem behind sudden spikes in acceleration. "It is just like all other gadgets we have...Everything today has a computer in it, so everything will fail," Mr Wozniak said, during on-stage banter as part of a geek talk show at a computer security conference on Friday. He said he had bought nine Prius hybrid cars, and had driven one from the Silicon Valley city of San Jose to San Francisco that day. He had conducted his own tests of Prius acceleration, taking his car to an open stretch of highway at dusk and then notching up the speed, using the cruise control mechanism. At "some number over 72 miles per hour the car accelerated and kept picking up speed," he said. "I wanted to see how high it would go." Mr Wozniak add: "It wound up being unlimited so I hit the brake. The problem had to be in the software.

A decade ago, Microsoft was clearly leading the tech industry. But the Redmond-based company is now facing stiff competition from tech juggernauts Apple and Google. In an effort to develop killer products that would keep Apple and Google at bay, Microsoft plans to spend a massive $9.5 billion on research and development this year, which a senior executive said the figure is $3 billion more than the next closest technology company. Microsoft's chief operating officer Kevin Turner spoke at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany that much of this multi-billion dollar investment will be centered around improving software in the cloud. "Especially in light of the tough difficult macroeconomic times that we're coming out of, we chose to really lean in and double down on our innovation," said Turner. "We're going to change and reinvent our company around leading in the cloud."

Asaf Hanuka's two-mouthed Google Books monster, which was featured in this month's issue of California Lawyer, paints a grim picture of how the search juggernaut is actually trying to demolish physical libraries, and groups are protesting Google's plan to scan millions of books and build the biggest digital library store. This graphic you see below, however seems to contradict Google's famous slogan -- Don't Be Evil. The controversy over Google Books Search goes all the way back to 2005 when Google decided to to carry out an ambitious plan to make digital copies of 10 million volumes by 2015 and create a vast library of electronic books.

In a shocking move, AT&T's new Motorola Backflip, which runs on Google's Android OS, will feature Yahoo as the smartphone's default search provider instead of Google. This is the first time I've heard of a Google Android handset not using the Google Search by itself. Yahoo will be set up to handle mobile Internet searches, though users can still choose Google if they desire to. David Katz, a vice president at Yahoo, said in an e-mailed statement, "We have a long-standing relationship with AT&T and more than 80 carrier partnerships around the world for our award- winning mobile-search experience. Mobile search continues to be a focus for investment and innovation." Meanwhile, Google declined to comment on the Backflip, saying "This is not a Google-branded product and, therefore, product inquiries should be directed to AT&T and Motorola."

Inspired by Apple's iPad, the folks over at Transparent House have come up with an interesting video clip. The animation, created using 3Ds Max and V-Render, offers a beautiful visualization of of a brief history of the California-based tech juggernaut, from the its Apple 1 personal computer kit om April 1976 to the recently-launched Apple iPad tablet on January 2010. Full video after the break.

Ever since the Nexus One was launched in January, it has only been on TMobile's network. Google has had listed on their website that the Nexus One will be launched to Verizon (US) and Vodafone (Europe) this spring. The web has gotten rumors on when the release date might be. Neowin reports the phone will be on Verizon March 23. The CDMA version of the Nexus One just passed the FCC. All of this coming from a Google employee. The New York Times reports that sources have told them that the Nexus One will be coming in April. If I lived in Europe I would wait until the release of the Desire.

Have you ever wondered how teachers spy on students through laptop webcams. Well, below is a video which shows a quintessential example of how it is done. Assistant Principal Dan Ackerman at Intermediate School 339 Bronx, NY. Ackerman demonstrates how he remotely monitors the students' laptops to check for inappropriate use. And he even boasts that he could use Macbook webcam to see the attire of the student.