Will Apple Fall Again, Will History Repeat ?

Way back in 80’s when Xerox engineers came up with their ingenious Mouse and window based Operating System. The Xerox Boss laughed and said what do you think, we are going to sell mouse and put the project on scrap.

Young Engineers thronged to the Xerox center to study the Alto and Steve Jobs gave a commercial hit with the Mouse and GUI based or Window based Operating System to the world.

When all was going well ,Microsoft came in to the play , they developed (they indeed screwed Apple over icons and Dialog patent) a GUI operating system called Windows.

Stop Stop , this is a very old history, why we should talk about this now.

Because the war is out again, indeed in the same style. that time it was PC and this time it was Mobile platform

Then

Microsoft created Windows Operating System and distributed to multiple Hardware Vendors and that indeed cost very badly to Apple, Still now they are not out of it. The Status quo has changed from then.

Now

Google has created a open source Operating System Android OS (decent copy cat of iOS) and doing the same, its distributing the Mobile Operating System to various hardware vendors . Apple is still going with its Hardware + Software Bounded Model, which has already cost them the huge PC market.

Now to more foray Microsoft has launched its new Mobile Operating System, which means they also providing the software to multiple hardware.

New Mobile OS are all set to come from Nokia + Intel called MeeGo, so the race is heating up.

Now if you take the stats , Once Apple iPhone has no competitor but now Google’s Android is capturing the smartphone market.

Now the Big Question is will Apple release iOS for other hardware ?

For me this is a simple question but for the company its a huge strategy shift, that will change the whole stuff.

But Apple has won our hearts with its cool creation iphone(same way they won with MAC long back). Will the History Repeats????…..

Presenting New Group Feature In FACEBOOK

Everybody Knows Group Feature or Listing is already available in FACEBOOK(FB) , Don’t think what I am going to talk about.


Problem Scenario:

I usually get lot of friends request from Family and some old so called friends or unknown or Friends of Friends, I was either forced to accept (in case of family) or ignore the friends request. I personnaly fell FB is my second world and I don’t want to show case to the whole real world. As of now in FB its either take it or leave it.

Solution

FB has revamped their existing Group or List feature , now we can post status, pictures, link, notes etc and share only to the group. The notification will go only to the group members. I think its really one awesome feature, FB has worked to increase privacy of the user.

They will provide a group email id , so that we can upload photo via Mobile phone or email and it will be shared only to the Group.

The Group will be displayed in your Home page Left side widget and it will show you specific notification count for each group (This is quiet interesting)

Other Features

Secret Group

What ever you post on Group will be visible only to the group members, but the group name and members of Group will be visible in your profile. If that is also a problem then you can set a option called “Secret” to create your own secret group.

Group Chat
FB is introducing Group Chat, so that you can chat with your complete group, its really going to be funny

Download All
FB now will compress all your photos, message, status updates as on zip file and will mail to you, you can keep it as for backup

For More information : Check the Facebook Event 2010

5 Dead Services of Google

1. Google Wave

The Uber cool hyped collaboration tool was finally dead. Google has very recently told they will stop all the future development of Google Wave.
Purpose of Creation:  A Web app for real time communication and collaboration
Reason for Failure: Too many options that confused the users, ultimately led to its failure

2. Google Video

It was actually started before youtube surfaced in Internet , Google video could never reach the popularity of iFlims or Youtube. After acquisition of youtube, Google’s attempt to change youtube as google video was a flopshow, they retained youtube and dropped Google Video

In a recent statement Google admitted that maintaining Youtube was costly for the company , hence we are seeing some pricing for the videos

3. Google NoteBook

The Idea was to take notes while we are browsing, it was integrated with Google Toolbar too, but the service did not go well, Google has stopped  developing it but still supports the old users. But how long

4. Google Answers

Google launched this service against Yahoo answers , but things did not go as planned, it literally failed, now its officially retired , look the Google’s statement
Google Answers is no longer accepting questions.
We’re sorry, but Google Answers has been retired, and is no longer accepting new questions.
Search or browse the existing Google Answers index by using the search box above or the category links below.

5. Other Unknown Services

Jaiku – it’s a micro blogging platform same as twitter, but it never went up as twitter. Google has officially stopped development but its given as open source for others to maintain the same

DogeBall – This service was replaced as Google latitude , it’s a location based service. User can text about their location and find location and friends.

Google Mashup Editor – Not much information is available for this, it was said to be a place where developers can test their code.

Google Lively – it’s a really cool social networking which has ability to create avatars, your own house, even space station , chat with friends, I guess something like virtual reality but it never went up and they have closed the service.

Future Services to Die (All My opinion only)
Orkut

• Google Buzz
• Google Calendar
• Google Alert

Feel Free to tell about others. What ever even Microsoft had great flops like Microsoft BOB, Vista etc..

People’s Choice : Blogspot too :(

Top Ten Gadgets for Lazy Peoples

1. Toothpaste Dispenser

For those who are very lazy to take the toothpaste, open the cap position it against brush and squeeze the paste out. Now with this Gadget you just need to press the button.

if you need more attractive one check this , it will hide the half squeezed tooth brush and one more feature is you don’t need to press a button just push the toothbrush head this is called Touch Brush

Image Source

For Buying : Check here

2. Automatic Soap Dispenser

Image source : click here

3. To Do List Tattoo

This cool stuff helps your hubby not forget your shopping list.

Image Source

4. Motorized Ice Cream Cone

For those lazy ones who feel lazy to rotate the ice cream cone and ate, what an idea sirji?

Image source

5. Wine Glass Holder

Image source

6. Automatic Noodles / Spaghetti Fork

For People on the Move , just dip the bowl of Spaghetti / Noodles and press the button, No more hard work and fight with Spaghetti

Image Source

7. Automatic CD / DVD Writer

 

For those guys who feel taking a blank DVD, press the DVD writer button, Open it put the DVD and close it errrrrrrrrr how much work. Simply put the whole DVD bunch it will take care of your problem

8. Shopper Bag Hanger

This one is good indeed for shopaholics or for hubby whose wife do lot of shopping, now don’t worry about carrying lot of covers, you can just hang them all

9. Boy Friend Pillow

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10. Gal Lap Friend Pillow

Again No Comments

Special Gadget

Mobile Phone Wrist Carrier

For those who talk more (for lovers and engaged people) tired of holding your phone in hand try this it will reduce tiredness and increase your productivity

Look What’s India Searching the Most

 

Is Google Image Search Reliable ?

The Much Hyped Apple Ipad is out, lets try to get some picture of Apple Ipad using the famous Google / Bing and Yahoo Search

Search Keyword : Ipad

Google

Where is the Apple Ipad Image no way Google Images has failed us. Let try our hand on

Bing

Not So bad but it too failed to get the desired image results

Ok I am tired of this I am going to call my old friend Yahoo, lets check whether Yahoo can deliver

Yahoo

To my surprise its giving the latest ipad images with cache day also and its still able to provide the exact ipad pictures in next pages too

So the winner is our old Yahoo :) Google and Bing need to catch up with your Search bots they are showing the very old images.

So guys if you are searching for some images in Google please don’t think you cannot get else where. Google Image search was not that good, same goes with Bing and try Yahoo also.

Please always try various options rather than dying with one

What are You Tweeting : Know Yours & others Twitter Stats

I was so happy until a mail from my senior came with all my Tweets stats. I was shocked how come horrified but the truth is he did everything without my user id and password.

Yes there is a site called tweetstats which will give all your activity in Twitter with graph, your RT ( Retweeting) Ratio, whom you Replied the More, which interface is used web or any other 3rd party software

The Tweet density shows in which day , which time you are tweeting the max too

another option is tweet cloud, you can see the words you are using often

you can change the color of the tweet cloud also.

So this stats says i give 2.4 tweets per day :)

This can be used both as good and bad, it can be used for research and spy tool also. people can know whom your are tweeting more like that.

How ever ,now a days people can get the info in Google search and yahoo search hence its not a big deal.

Now pls dont try to put your boy friend / gal friend id in tweetstats and monitor them lolz

It’s True Microsoft Courier is leaked

The ebook Reader and Tablet PC Market is heating up with Apple’s much hyped iPad

Now the News leaked in engadget was about the long running rumor of Microsoft Courier(a tablet PC) is true, we can expect that any time soon.

Dubbed as “Digital Journal” is awesomely portable powered by nVidia Tegra2 processor (SOC). The Courier has Dual LCD Screen, which is not bigger than 5x7 ( normal photo size) when closed.

Microsoft Courier is running on the same OS of Zune HD, pink and the core of Windows 7 Phone Series, its nothing but Windows CE 6.

This device will be a combination of Tablet, eBook Reader and net books which will be lesser than a pound and lesser than a inch. The second screen can also be used as virtual keyboard, so you can have lot of screen space.

Other leaked features were it will have hand writing recognition feature, built in Camera, Head phone jack, cloud storage etc.

Image Source :  engadget

Nothing has been confirmed by Microsoft yet but we can expect news about it by Q3 or Q4 of 2010. No details about pricing yet.

This one looks cute and baby I will get this if its released its for sure :)

This Could be the Future of Apple : Spoof

Image Source : thenextweb

Ding Ding Buumm – Touch Screen SkinPut

Remember Singaravelan Movie(Tamil) where Kamal hasan taps on Thai Amma’s Hand and says

“Ding Ding Ding Bummm” --- People have used this to found a new touch screen technology called Skinput ( I think People in Microsoft Research Lab has been inspired from this movie lolz (Tamil Lollu))

Technology

This future technology is developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University. The system works with acoustic waves i.e. it has the ability to pick the Ultra low frequency sound also it can have a pico projector to display the User Interface on the Hand

 

Working

When ever we tap on our Arms or Hand we get sound, people have captured that sound to recognize which part of the hand you have tapped based on the Bone density, Mass and size, distance between the joints and also filtering from soft tissues this makes each skin area sound as unique one or the system can easily identify the “Skin Button”

If you normally tap the hand we won’t feel any difference but when seen in a slow motion each tapping produce a transverse wave. This technology is actually harnessing those bio acoustic waves for processing.

The system beams a keyboard or menu onto the user's forearm and hand from a projector mounted in an armband. The acoustic detector which is also mounted in the armband will calculate which area the user has touched the skin.

The system could use wireless technology like Bluetooth to transmit commands to many types of device including phones, iPods and even PCs , TV etc

In Picture : Chris Harrison ( Researcher, Man behind the Technology)

Interface

 

Currently the research claims to have achieved a 95.5% accuracy in tapping, the pictures shows the different tapping areas of the hand

The Tap area gives us minimum 10 skin button which is enough to control any Phones or Personal Media player (PMP) like iPods, MP3 players,

The above picture shows the User can regular User interface with back button or like this they have developed scrolling option in hand, if you tap on top of the hand it will scroll up, if you tap near hand elbow joint it will scroll down. To go back to previous screen you need to pinch or touch your thumb finger with any other finger.

The Touch screen technology is surely different one.

Applications

So far this is a Research Project has some cool applications. The below picture shows user controlling Tetris game in the computer by tapping his finger

 

This below picture is showing a tetris game projected on your hand using pico projector

Source : New scientist

Watch this video

so the Future is your hand saying is becoming true :)

Unknown Cool Google Services

We are all aware that Google has some cool services which starts from Search Engine, Gmail, GTalk , Google Earth , Google Map and the recently launched Google Buzz etc. But still there are some cool features that is not so famous lets see them

Google News TimeLine

This project his hidden under the sleeves of Google Labs, its main feature is to give Head lines of all news for a particular time line (per recent week). You can search your desired content and Google News Line will pull up the recent headlines and populate for you in date wise. So its a one shot news preview.

Link : Google News Time Line

Google In Quotes

This quotes displays the recent quotes made by a particular Political Leaders in recent times about a topic. This feature is good but has limited set of political leaders. This might expand soon to Scientist, Actors/ Actress etc. This is a upcoming features

Link : Google in Quotes

Google Patents Search

Are you a inventor or currently programming your own software algorithm, you can search whether the same has been already patented or already the technology has been invented. This site search through indexed patents registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The search engine uses optical character recognition (OCR) to sift through patents based on words and terms embedded in the image scans.

Link: Google Patents

Google Image Swirl

This one is hell a Cool Feature guys we have super cool feature called Google Similar Images. This feature is now graduated to Google Image search. Google Similar image will give result set of similar images but Image Swirl goes way a head and gives us a superb user interface of images and its sub groups

First the images gives stacked search images then clicking on the images gives us the one shot grouping view

Link : Google Image Swirl

Google Code Search

No need for explanation name itself suggest it search code for us. Good for Learners and Coders

 Link : Google Code Search

Google Fast Flip

This is like virtual News Stand, this is some what similar to Google News Timeline but this gives new in brand wise, there is a iphone Mobile version of the same

Other Notable Services

There are some more cool services but need lot of catch up to do

Google Scholar : if you are searching to make any paper presentation or read docs its good place

Google Product : One stop Shopping site but not as great as eBay.

Google Trends : Gives you the latest hot searching keyword trends, discover what the world is searching

Google City Tours : its awesome idea, gives you day wise tour trip of a city and even walking distance and time and even direction take right and take left but needs lot of catch up to do. it’s not working in IE 8, try in Google Chrome

Google Audio Indexing : same as Google Quotes but its not taking index from their news text , its taking from their audios, which are in Google Videos , you tube etc. as of now its very limited data only.