Will 2011 be ruled by Google?

There have been a lot of talks about the year 2011 and how the advancements will be in the field of technology.I predict the year of 2011 will be a trend setter for Google as it is expected to release it's Chrome OS.The rate at which Google is spreading it's products every gadget freak will have their fingers crossed.Google will be expanding itself in more areas than we predict.


The first such area is operating systems. Those of you who watch the mobile phone market know that the Google Android operating system (OS) is now the fastest-growing OS in mobile phone history. Google has already introduced its Chrome Web browser, which is garnering high usage and praise as one of the fastest and safest browsers.

Next year, Google is poised to introduce its Chrome operating system, which is now in beta testing. Google has just sent out tablet PCs with the Chrome OS to hundreds of testers.The idea behind the Chrome operating system is to create an OS that works almost completely online.Your tablet PC or small computer will be basically used only to access your online applications and information.


There are even applications to track financial data, perform asset management, increase productivity and control sales and marketing.IT costs will come down to great extent due to lesser hardware costs.Google will do this with added security and increased productivity.

Galaxy player from Samsung

After launching Samsung Galaxy Tab,the Korean giant has decided to launch a Android based media player to Apple's I-pod.The Android based media player will be launched in Consumer Electronic Show 2011 in Las Vegas next week.

The Galaxy player will run on Android 2.2 Froyo OS and features 1 GHz CPU.Android 2.2 is also being used in Samsung Galaxy S as well as in Galaxy Tab.The player will come with 4-inch Super Clear LCD screen supporting up to WVGA resolution (800×480), T-DMB, SoundAlive audio enhancing technology, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0

Galaxy player will be available in 8GB,16GB and 32 GB flash drives.There are no details regarding pricing and availability.

Android Tips and Tricks

Many are eager to get to know about Android tips and tricks from the horse mouth itself. With Android 2.2 doing the buzz,Jonathon senior vice president of Google's product management has published a list of ideas and hints on Google's official blog.

Majority of the suggestions were for Android 2.3(Gingerbread) which is currently available in Nexus S smartphone.In the coming weeks Nexus One is expected to receive over the air upgrade for Android 2.3

Let us look at the following tips

Scrolling:When you're in a scrollable list such as the Gmail inbox, an orange hue at the end of the list is a signal that you can't scroll any more.

Downloads: Items downloaded from the browser get collected in a downloads manager that's accessible in the apps drawer.

Wi-Fi: To turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, go to "Settings" and then "Wireless & Networks" followed by "Tethering & Portable Hotspot.

On the Keyboard

Capitalization shortcut: With Gingerbread, Shift+Key can be used to capitalize a letter instead of going to a separate all-caps keyboard.

Quick replace: On any previously typed word, users can tap on a suggestion to automatically replace it with the suggested word.

Applications

Favorite Apps suggested by rosenberg

Angry Birds

Astro

Flash -- "Runs even better on Gingerbread," Rosenberg notes.

Fruit Ninja

FXCamera

Instant Heart Rate

Phoneanlyzr

RemoteDroid

Shazam

SoundHound

Tango

Amazing Doodle from Google

Google's new doodle has been awesome and I never expected a doodle that focused on a holiday season all over the world.It features 17 holiday scenes from all over the world.When the user hover over the images it gets zoomed and when the images is clicked the user can get to know about it.Chilean Vineyards,Sahara Desert and Santa Claus on rooftop are some of the illustrations found in the doodle.

The doodle has been designed by Micheal Lopez and the concept was carried out by five artists over a period of 250 hours.The doodle will remain until Christmas is over.Google has been so creative when it comes to doodle this year.My favorite doodles include John Lennon's video doodle and another doodle which allowed users to play Pac Man.Let's wait and see what is in store from Google in 2011.

Text Analysis tools from Google

Google has introduced two tools that may help users discover new ways to parse the company's massive collections of public information.

One tool counts how often a chosen phrase shows up across 500 years worth of digitized books, while another divvies up search results by their levels of reading difficulty.

The first service called the Books Ngram Viewer, allows people to search for specific phrases within the company's massive collection of digitized books. In addition to links to the source material, the results will also provide a timeline showing when the phrase was most often used.

The tool runs searches against a database of 500 billion words found within 5.2 million books Google has digitized. The sampled books were all published between 1500 and 2008, in Chinese, English, German, French, Russian or Spanish.

With this service, Google hopes to introduce a new form of quantitative analysis to academic fields, one that could provide insights into historical trends or the birth of new ideas by the tracking the popularity of associated words and phrases. One group of researchers has coined the term "culturomics" to describe the approach.

Google has also added another form of analysis to its regular search as well: The company has introduced a new advanced search feature that can divide up results by reading level. The search breaks result into basic, intermediate and advanced reading levels.

Although Google does not specify what attributes define each reading level, most readability tests analyze texts by looking at attributes such as the number of words in each sentence or the number of letters and syllables in each word, under the assumption that more complicated sentences would be more difficult to read.

Google documentation explains that users might find the distinction of reading levels useful in helping to complete searches. A university professor might want only the advanced results, while a junior high school teacher might want to find more basic material for students.

Chrome Web Store opened

A portal has been started by Google for downloading extensions and web applications to it's Chrome Internet browsers.It includes nine themed categories including games, education, news,services and others.The Web Store site can be accessed only through Google's Chrome browser.

The expansions and applications have been designed with an eye toward the new HTML5 web standard. The themes area includes guidelines for setting the graphical interface of a browser to reflect one's personal choices.There are a whole lot of free extensions that can be pretty useful for the people who are new to chrome.People would have have been aware of Add Ons in Mozilla Firefox and I am sure that they will find Google's Chrome extensions useful

The store also gives software designers the chance to sell or give away their wares. The new portal replaces the gallery where users have, until now, bought apps for Chrome. According to Google, the number of users have tripled this year to to 120 million.

Body Browser from Google

Google Body Browser was launched yesterday which works in the same way like Google Earth version of human body.It's a in browser tool and one can able to view the 3D model of the human body.Like the Google Sky Map for Android, users can search for individual organs and expose different systems, such as the skeleton and internal organs.

Chrome, with WebGL is needed to run the Body Browser .WebGL, a 3D graphics API that can be run directly within the browser, was implemented in the Chrome beta that was launched earlier this week.Users will have to download the beta version of Chrome, which will put them on the beta track for updates.The female 3D model can also be zoomed and rotated.

Two users have reported on Google page have reported that the page is not loading

"Red Twitter" from China

"Red Microblog" is a Chinese site run by the local propaganda department in the city of Chongqing is attaining popularity among the Chinese people.It contains messages designed to promote revolutionary spirit among the Chinese people.There were some issues in the site that prevented new members to be a part of

it.Mr Mo, he has urged residents to sing red songs, from China's revolutionary era, read classical literature and tell stories about Chairman Mao's Long March.

The people are also been encouraged to write text messages praising the country or the city. They are called "Red Text Messages" by officials.Reports say that by October more than 120 million of these messages had been sent by local residents.

A Chinese analyst says there will be 75 million microbloggers in China by the end of 2010, an 837 per cent increase from last year. The firm estimates that the number will double next year and then to 240 million by 2012.

Samsung Galaxy Tab for $349 from T-Mobiles

T-mobile has priced Samsung Galaxy Tab at just $349 which is much lower when compared to competitors and this is the lowest price in which it is available. Sprint is charging $399 for the Tab with a two-year contract or $599 with no contract. Verizon Wireless is charging $599 with no contract, and AT&T is charging $649 with no contract. Of course, factoring in data plans for the Tab alters the total cost of ownership dramatically.

Galaxy Tab made it's debut in November and within a month the prices have been dropped.It's always common to see the prices drop during the holiday season.Apart form the price drop of Galaxy Tab,T-mobile has alos cut down the price of Samsung Galaxy S smartphone from $199 dollar to $149.

Samsung Galaxy tab lovers are going to have a great holiday season ahead with others operators are also expected to reduce the prices.

Streak to get Froyo on O2 network

Dell Streak will reach greater heights due to the presence of Android 2.2 operating system in the O2 network this week.It has been a long wait for Streak as updates will be available for Dell's 5 inch sized phone.Dell Streak was launched in June with Android 1.6 OS and got it's Android 2.1(Eclair) in September.

Having Android 2.2 will bring the Streak in line with its competion. The other Android 2.2 tablets it will compete with are Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab and Viewsonic's 7-inch Viewpad. Viewsonic's 10-inch Viewpad has a dual boot setup with Android 1.6 and Windows 7.

The Streak comes with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-inch 800x480 multi-touch screen, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of internal storage, an SD card slot with a 16GB card supplied, quad-band GSM, HSPA, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 5MP rear camera with flash and a VGA forward-facing camera.

Good news for Android Developers

Android market was never so good and with Google updating its Android Market to make it easier for developers to get their products seen and, presumably, bought .The developers of the Android Market were anxious as the number goes beyond 100,000.How a single application will stand out without spending money for marketing.Well, Google claims to have made it easier for both developers to promote and users to find and buy applications.

The update will be visible to all users running Android 1.6 or newer, or just about every Android device sold in the last 18 months. Eric Chu, member of the Android Developer Ecosystem team at Google, said the update was to "streamline the browse-to-purchase experience". Although laden with marketing guff, Chu's statement is an important one as the ease of application discovery is vital to the continued success of Android.

There will be a carousel of promoted applications visible on home and application category screens. From Google's point of view, the carousel represents a nice little earner as larger publishers will use it to increase the visibility of their wares. Aside from the applications category, Google has introduced additional categories for live wallpapers and widgets.

The refund time for purchases will be reduced to 15 minutes, a change that Google says will be "largely transparent" to most users as refunds are generally requested "within minutes of purchase". Google's reason for the change was to allow developers to "manage their businesses more effectively".

Google has increased the maximum package size to 50MB, which should make life a little easier for games developers as they will not have to worry so much about heavy compression.

Chu says there will be further updates to the Android Market in the coming weeks and months. If they continue to be as developer friendly as this one, then there should be no let up in the pace of new applications appearing on the Android Market. µ

Android users makes it to the top

Users of Google's Android mobiles and Samsung Galaxy users have used more data services than other smartphone users.On the other hand, wireless operators are looking forward to the profits made through the social networking boom and web browsing. These days, wireless operators are facing huge loss in their profits from the traditional voice calls. However, they are facing heavy jam-packed networks. Mostly all operators are facing network problems, however only few of them are openly admitting it, as there is a fear of losing existing and potential costumers.


In last two years it has been observed that the Android software, which was provided to the mobile vendors, has strongly grown. In global market, in the last quarter the usage of Android has ranked second, following Nokia’s Symbian. It has already pipped leading operating systems like, Apple’s iPhone as well as Research In Motion. By the end of next year, analysts expect Android to become the leading operating system across the globe.

Mobile vendors like Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericson and Alcatel-Lucent are struggling for their potential costumers and expect that the rise in the data traffic may provide them with new orders. But, the use of Android is growing and is not expected to fall down, making it as an extremely important for other operating systems to make the required changes in their services, so as to remain in the race.

So, will the Android users change their way of data usage, is something which we need to think on. My take, they should; but it won’t be so easily said & done.

Android Activation reaches 3 lakhs

This is going to be remarkable number without any doubt.Can you able to guess the number of Android phones getting activated every year?The answer to it is 3,00,000.These figures were revealed by Google's Vice President Andy Rubin in Twitter.The usage of Android based phones are increasing every month and we can see   that prices of it will also drop down further.

Android is a profitable venture for Google even though that it is based on a open source.The advertising on Android mobile makes it profitable for Google.The flexible hardware specifications and open source roots makes it easy for the users and also encourages some users in creating a customized App to suit their need. In the mobile market we can find almost all brands making smartphones based on Android.The numbers are expected to go high and the prices of mobiles are expected to fall down further.

Chrome OS will bring PC prices

The test version of Google's chrome OS has been launched and it is expected to cut down the PC's cost in India atleast by 25%.As Chrome OS is offered free people are expecting it to live up to their expectation.There is also good news for the starters as they do not have to install any new softwares in it.

PCs rely on applications delivered over the internet, making it easy for users to access files and applications from any machine. Google first announced the release of Chrome OS in July 2009 along with plans to sell netbooks running the software from the second half of 2010.In San Francisco News Conference,Google began distributing a limited number of PC models running the software does not mean that users are about to lay their hands on the Chrome OS. 

By mid 2011 Chrome OS will hit the market and until then we can hear about it from any of your friends working in Samsung or Acer as they are Google's partners.

I-pad 2 from Feb 2011

Taiwanese component maker  Foxconn has been notified that it should be ready to ship 400,000 to 600,000 units of the next version of i-pad in the next 100 days.Foxconn has reportedly declined to comment on these reports as they need to remain confidential about I-pad 2.

Digitimes reported that Apple had originally expected to begin mass production of the unofficially dubbed iPad 2 in January, but Apple postponed that schedule because the device's firmware is still undergoing testing.

The iPad 2 has been widely expected to come out in the first quarter of 2011 and feature a front-facing camera. Some analysts also expected Qualcomm will provide chips that allow the iPad to run on both CDMA and GSM networks, a so-called "world" iPad. The current 3G version is GSM only.

Google now in E-Book market

Unlike digital bookstores run by Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Barnes and Noble Inc., Google's venture, unveiled Monday, is not tied to a particular reading device, Google said. Instead, its electronic books can be read on most devices and not just on those that the seller manufactures. An e-book bought from Apple, for instance, can be read only on an Apple device.

"Google is essentially going to try to break that model open" by allowing users to purchase books online and read them on as many devices as possible, said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

Google is entering a market that has more than tripled in 2010 and is expected to grow by nearly 40% next year, to $1.35 billion, according to Forrester. By the end of 2011, more than 25 million U.S. adults will be regular e-book readers.

Google also has a big ace up its sleeve: The company has been scanning library books since 2004 and says it has digitized about 15 million books — close to 12% of the world's estimated 129 million books.

Amazon's Kindles make up about half of the market for black-and-white e-readers, not including devices like Apple's iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab. In addition to its Kindles, Amazon supports other platforms for reading its e-books, including Android-based devices, the iPad, the iPhone and the BlackBerry, as well PCs and Macs.

While Kindles hold half of the black-and-white e-reader market, the more serious question is how many books Amazon has sold through its e-readers.

Apple Will Continue to lead in 2011 also

Apple will "maintain both market and profit share leadership" in mobile devices during 2011, claims Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley. The statement is founded on "continued strong sell-through trends for the iPad and iPhone," including a series of bulletpoint facts. During the third quarter of the year, for instance, Apple is said to have had 47 percent of industry profits for mobile devices and tablets; the next closest competitor was RIM at 18 percent. RIM has yet to launch its own tablet, the PlayBook.

Walkley has raised his iPad sales forecast for the fourth quarter from 5 million to 6.3 million. Apple's tablet market share for the whole of 2010 is expected to be 75 percent; looking ahead to 2011 though, this share is forecast to slip to 50 percent. The company is already competing with the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and aside from RIM, Apple will also have to deal with tablets from the likes of LG and Motorola.

The iPhone has a slight dominance in US smartphone marketshare -- not profits -- at 27.9 percent, beating RIM by just half a point. The iPhone platform is more marginal globally, behind Nokia's Symbian and Google's Android. Apple's influence stems mainly from early rapid growth of the iPhone, and the high profit margins it claims on each device.

Send and receive money in Facebook using Dwolla

Dwolla has introduced a new payment system that allows users to send money to each other through Facebook and Twitter.

Paying people to be your friends online just got a whole lot easier. Dwolla, a peer to peer payment platform, has just announced that its service is now available in all 50 U.S. states and supports Facebook and Twitter, reports the AP. Dwolla is a web service with mobile apps as well. Like PayPal, it allows users to send and receive funds to one another via the net.

With its new Facebook and Twitter service, Dwolla users can message or direct message their friends a link with a Dwolla payment attached to it. The process is more secure than standard web-based transactions and only costs 25 cents per transfer, much less than traditional credit card fees. If both the sender and receiver have an account, the sender pays the fee; if only the sender has a Dwolla account, the receiver pays the fee. Pretty simple.

In addition, Dwolla has received $1 million in funding from the Veridian Credit Union, which also gives the company FDIC backing. Dwolla transactions are secured by the same technology that protects online banking systems.

Google Chrome 8 released!!!

Chrome 8 version has been released quietly.The stable release adds a new built-in PDF viewer that, like Safari, saves having to use a companion app. The tool is sandboxed to prevent a rogue PDF from compromising the browser and posing a security threat to the rest of the system.

Although not directly mentioned, developers have also revealed that Chrome 8 should have the underlying framework for the Chrome Web Store. Google's portal will let users shop for web-based apps, such as Flash games or HTML-based productivity tools, without having to visit separate sites.Access to the store isn't currently active.

Full release notes aren't available, but the update should fix a pair of major security holes with SVG images and XPath as well as other crashes and exploits that focus most on web video. Linux and Mac users get a specific fix that updates the list of dangerous files to be in sync with the Windows edition.

Unlimited game streaming for $10

Ever wondered what you can do for $9.99 per month,you can do a lot more and the latest buzz is that Onlive is introducing unlimited gaming for just $9.99 per month.In the recent days $7.99-$9.99 seems to be a magical number.Both Netflix (movies) and Hulu (TV) recently announced unlimited plans for $7.99 and now OnLive, their video game equivalent, is offering unlimited use of its service for a monthly fee of $9.99.

The service, named OnLive PlayPack, has 14 games at the moment, including Prince of Persia, Lego Batman, Fear 2, and World of Goo. These games can be played for free with a subscription. Other titles, like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed II, and Unreal Tournament III are available for 3-5 day rentals and full purchase. All OnLive users have free access to the PlayPack service until it leaves beta on Jan. 14, 2011.With PlayPass games priced from $3.99 to $49.99, along with the new $9.99 per month PlayPack plan, OnLive’s growing library of games will suit any budget and any type of gamer, from casual to hardcore.

OnLive is different from other consoles because it streams all games from remote servers, much like Netflix streams a movie from the Internet. Instead of having a lot of local processing power and a DVD drive, games are served via the net, making the system very affordable ($99 with a controller and free game) and compact. Unfortunately, it requires a very stable, high speed Internet connection. No one wants to lag out during a game of Unreal Tournament.

Google Chrome moves ahead

Google's Chrome browser entered the browser war with stiff competition from Microsoft's IE,Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari.It has now jumped to 9.27 percent of usage in November from 8.5 percent in October, which could be a sign that Chrome OS netbooks are being used by Googlers.

The .77 percent gain appeared to come at the expense of Microsoft Internet Explorer, which dropped to 58.41 percent from 59.18 percent a month ago, and Mozilla Firefox, which nudged down a tad to 22.81 percent from 22.83 percent.

But the star of the November browser numbers was Google's Chrome 7. Share for Google's latest build of the OS grew 5.64 percent in November, second in growth only to Firefox 3.6, which saw a 6.09 percent gain between February and March.

The gain in Chrome 7.0 and in Chrome share overall is likely due to the internal use of Chrome Operating System netbooks by Google employees and computer maker partners, such as Acer and Lenovo.

The Chrome OS which was due this year has been pushed back for some reasons which Google does not want to discuss with the media.

Apple I-pads in India

There were lots of questions in people's mind when Apple I-pad will be officially available in India and the news is that Apple I-pas are available in Apple franchises all over the country but it is available only in bulk India Bulls, Hcl are few of the Indian corporates who have already booked the I-pads in bulk.

The I-pad is priced at Rs 33,000 for a 16GB model and Rs 54,000 for 32GB model with warranty and invoice.There were even reports that unlocked models are available in Hong Kong which means there won't be any warranty.India has always remained in the last position as well as Apple products are concerned.

Even though India has been home to 650 million mobile subscribers and witnessing 80-million in PC sales every year, India sees muted offtake of Apple products because there is no differentiated pricing based on purchasing power parity or a focused marketing campaign.

Froyo now in Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung India has started rolling out the Android 2.2. Froyo updates for Galaxy S smartphones.Froyo comes out with many exciting features which as been missing in it's previous versions.In this new version we can able to convert the smartphone into Wi-fi hotspot and it is still not that the feature is available in India.

Another exciting feature is that user can able to install the applications in the memory card itself and there is better performance with Flash and HTML5 based web apps in native mode.The colorful menus and icons makes this version quite popular among the youth.