RKOwebster

You Know What’s Cool? Not Myspace

2011-10-02T18:07:00.003+05:30

Myspace savior Specific Media laid off 8% of its staff yesterday, about 50 people. Those laid off were mostly Myspace employees, presumably eagerly awaiting their severance package according to one source; “The people that [sic] got let go were celebrating because Specific Media doesn’t have a clue what to do.”

In the past three months, Specific Media had gone from the excitement of new acquisition smell to post partum depression it seems like, recently scaling backthis summer’s grand Myspace relaunch plans because of unfavorable progress.

We armchair tech enthusiasts can say that this was inevitable, but hindsight is 20/20 especially when you consider the ambitions Specific Media held for the company exactly a quarter ago, hoping that Myspace could find solace as a platform for premium celebrity online content.

At their grand entrance on Myspace’s sale day, Specific Media co-founders Tim and Chris Vanderhook sauntered into HQ to rally the troops — mainly with the news that former Mouseketeerand current superstar Justin Timberlake would also have skin in the Myspace game. One of those troops decided to record the speech for perpetuity, which you can listen to above in full.

It’s a pretty fascinating recording — in case someone at HBS is in need of a spare case study …

With their Pollyanna-esque enthusiasm, the Vanderhooks are basically making the classic mistake certain ad networks make, thinking that because they have the ads they can become a content or media company. Great media companies start with the media. Anyone can sell ads, but creating great content is an art.

Parts of the talk I found endearing …

“We wanted to move from just the advertising piece and truly become a digital media company.”
“What we were looking for was ‘Can we find a property that has scale and reach and really fits the bill that we could match up with our advertising infrastructure and then go head to head with Yahoo, go head to head with Facebook, go head to head with AOL, go head to head with AOL. Go head to head with Microsoft?’”

YIKES.

“We grew up in Southern California. We love Myspace. This is an iconic brand, we plan to bring back what Myspace was supposed to be. We want to invest in the business.”
“We are fired up, Justin [Timberlake] is fired up. He can’t wait to interact”
“I think it’s pretty simple, I mean you look at Myspace, it has a great platform, great technology, 70 million people still using the site. People can talk about the decline but there’s just one thing missing, it’s just got to be cool. At one point Myspace was cool and all of a sudden Facebook somehow became cool, We’re going to make Face uh – Myspace cool again.”

Denial is sometimes a lot more dangerous than that river in Egypt.

Samsung Drops Prices for Google Chromebooks

2011-08-31T11:56:00.000+05:30

Chromebooks went for sale in June and in this short period of time, Samsung has already dropped the price of their Google Chrome OS laptops by as much as 10%.

The Wi-Fi only Series 5 Chromebook is now selling for ₨18,421.98, down from ₨19,803.66while the 3G + Wi-Fi Chromebook is available for ₨20,724.79, down 10% from the original₨23,027.59 The prices for Acer Chromebooks are however unchanged.

While a price drop is always welcome, I am still not convinced why would anyone prefer a stripped-down Chrome OS based laptop over these netbooks that are much more versatile.

Diploma or Dropout: The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma

2011-08-27T15:49:00.000+05:30

What do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg all have in common?

Well, lots of things. The three are some of history’s greatest innovators and they’re super-rich, super-successful entrepreneurs. But perhaps most intriguing is the absence of a university degree on their impressive resumes.

All three enrolled in college (Jobs at Reed, Zuckerberg and Gates at Harvard) but ultimately chose business over books. Add Michael Dell, Paul Allen and the Twitter co founders to the list, and it almost looks like entrepreneurial success is the norm for college dropouts.

These unconventional career paths have led many, such as Flickr founder Caterina Fake, to speculate that dropping out belies an entrepreneurial streak. Plus, it makes sense that being young and debt-free can lead to creative risk-taking.

Of course, mega successful dropouts are one in a million. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 57% of first-time students complete a degree within six years. It goes without saying, not all of these former students make it big. However, given this uncanny trend, we took a look at the reasons creative types ditch the classroom for entrepreneurship. We spoke with three young entrepreneurs who have left school in the past six months to learn what it takes to innovate without a degree.

The Thiel Fellowship

In May, Facebook investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel launched the “20 under 20 Fellowship.” It awards$100,000 to students to pursue entrepreneurship. The motley crew of 24 fellows (20 total teams) will substitute traditional academics for two years of tutelage under Thiel’s oversight. While the benefactor has two degrees from Stanford, he’s infamously outspoken on the overhyped status of higher education. Thiel believes his fellowship will help solve the bubble of underemployed American degree holders and nourish the creative spirit in the America’s business environment.

All of the fellows are positioned to innovate in trendy topics. Three delved into biotech, two in career development, two in economics, three in education, four in energy, three in information technology, one in mobility, one in robotics and one in space.

Business Is Calling

Andrew Sutherland says leaving M.I.T. after three years of studying computer science was one of the hardest decisions he ever had to make. He has been working on his company, Quizlet, since his sophomore year of high school when he developed the program to study for a French test. Quizlet is an online study tool allowing students to create and share flash cards.

This summer, Sutherland realized he had to either choose his business or his schooling. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both well,” he says. “I saw how big Quizlet was getting, how many people were using it and how big an impact it could have for millions of students.”

Wesley Zhao similarly withdrew from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania two weeks ago when he decided to devote his energies to AvantCard, a site reinventing gift card giving. AvantCard’s co-creators, Ajay Mehta, Jesse Beyroutey and Dan Shipper, are not leaving school to pursue the startup.

“I think you just get different things from being in class and going into business,” says Zhao. “I definitely think you learn things in class but you learn more practical skills by doing it yourself.”

For 19-year-old Zhao, the decision isn’t risky because he knows he can always return to school. He plans to go back someday to pursue a degree, however, he no longer intends to major in entrepreneurship.

Sutherland also hopes to return to college, noting that he had a great time meeting friends and studying computer science. He believes M.I.T. does a great job of fostering entrepreneurship, easily allowing students to take leaves of absence and subsequently return to campus.

The Classroom Is Lacking

Dale Stephens left Hendrix College in March to pursue his blog-turned-social movement UnCollege. Halfway through his freshman year, Stephens started writing about his frustrations with higher education.

“I found smart people writing term papers, not changing the world,” he says. “I was working on theoretical homework rather than seeing the direct application of my work in the real world.”

Stephens was awarded a Thiel Fellowship to pursue his work as an educational futurist. He initially applied with a proposal for a budget transatlantic airline. Although his proposal was rejected, the committee approached him after he left college to work on UnCollege. Stephens, now based in Silicon Valley for Thiel’s mentorship, is using his seed money to publish his first book, “Hacking Your Education,” which he describes as a practical guide for gaining the skills schools aren’t teaching. The release is scheduled for early 2013.

While his book is in the works, Stephens says universities around the country have reached out to him as a consultant. “Tech is changing faster than they can. It’s really inspiring to see individuals working within the system, genuinely interested in building a better university of the future,” Stephens says.

To Each His Own

A college education, like most things in life, depends on the individual. Just because Zuckerberg, Jobs and Gates created empires without degrees does not make a college education worthless. Even Stephens, founder of UnCollege, admits traditional schooling is the right fit for some.

“I’m not advocating that everyone drop out of school,” he says. “That would be as ludicrous [as saying] that everyone should go to college.”

Did your university degree help you get to where you are today professionally? If you could go back, would you forgo the diploma? Let us know in the comments.

Facebook Makes Photos Bigger & Faster

2011-08-27T15:20:00.000+05:30

Facebook has rolled out a new version of its popular Photos app, complete with speed improvements and larger images.

“Now, the photos you share on Facebook are bigger (720 pixels to 960 pixels) and load twice as fast, giving you quicker access to more detailed images,” Facebook’s Justin Shaffer said in a blog post. “Photos you’ve already uploaded to your profile will also be displayed at this higher resolution.”

In addition to the increased photo size, Facebook is rolling out a revamped photo viewer. The new viewer takes up more screen real estate (since photos are now larger) and reduces clutter so users can focus on the photo and nothing else.

“The light box is now set against a simple white background that puts more of the focus on the photo, and less on the surrounding frame,” Shaffer noted.

Facebook rolled out its revamped Photos interface in February with the lightbox UI and support for hi-res photos.

Check out the new Photos interface and let us know if you like the improvements in the comments.

iPad 3 Coming in Early 2012 [REPORT]

2011-08-19T23:50:00.000+05:30

Apple has reportedly begun trial production on its next-generation iPad tablet device and it’s scheduled to launch in early 2012.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has begun ordering chips, display panels and other key components for the iPad 3. It is reportedly expected to feature a high resolution (2048×1536), 9.7-inch display, up from the iPad 2′s 9.5-inch, 1024×768 display. (The report didn’t say anything about the iPad 3′s rumored OLED screen, however.)

One supplier claimed that Apple has already placed orders to develop 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter.

Apple announced the iPad 2 in March, just 15 months after the launch of the first-generation iPad. The accelerated release cycle has helped Apple maintain a dominant share of the tablet market, which Thursdayclaimed its first victim: the HP TouchPad.

Apple could not be reached for comment at press time.

The Web Is 20 Years Old Today

2011-08-06T23:11:00.000+05:30

It was twenty years ago today/ Tim Berners-Lee taught the world to play/ Although 20 years ago he would have sworn/ That there wouldn’t have been so much porn. That’s right – the world’s first website, a placeholder page written by Sir Berners-Lee way back on August 6, 1991 in the then-nascent Hypertext Mark-Up Language, is celebrating its 20th birthday today. And, on this important anniversary, we ask what hath the web wrought?

In the past two decades we’ve been given ecommerce and spam, we’ve torn down the music, news, and publishing industries, and we’ve LOLed at more CATS than we can count. We’ve seenempires rise and fall, the dissolution of the line between public and private, and the end ofenforceable copyright. We’ve seen new modes of communication drive out unwanted regimes at home and abroad and we’ve heard the endless howl of a million voices calling out at once, most of them in comments on this site.

We’ve also seen lots of the aforementioned porn.

The original (can there be an original?) page is mirrored here and it’s a fascinating look at the seed crystal that catalyzed change to the world as we knew it in those heady pre-Internet days. Also porn.

Happy birthday, Internet Web. Here’s to another 20 happy, healthy years.

GQ Names Zuckerberg Worst-Dressed Man in Silicon Valley

2011-08-04T19:12:00.000+05:30

While nobody’s calling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a fashion plate, he certainly doesn’t deserve to be on another worst-dressed list, does he?

Unfortunately, it’s happened again in the latest issue of GQ magazine — with Zuckerberg taking the top (or is it bottom?) spot of the 15 victims, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs coming in second.

Previously, Zuckerberg had appeared on Esquire’s worst-dressed listin January.

GQ’s “15 Worst-Dressed Men of Silicon Valley” is a mean-spirited little article that seems to attack many of these billionaire gentlemen because of their shape or weight issues. And all of the descriptions of the men are simply catty. For example, here’s GQ’s write-up for Zuckerberg:

“Style Sins: Oblivious to the fact that jeans and ties come in skinny sizes — or that suits exist — the father of Facebook (and we do mean father) loves to recycle the fresh-from-Stats-class look. Zuck’s style is so poor, it even inspired a mock fashion line, Mark By Mark Zuckerberg, which thankfully doesn’t sell any actual clothing.”

Jeez, guys – that’s just harsh.

Survey: Cellphones vs. Sex – Which Wins? [INFOGRAPHIC]

2011-08-04T07:48:00.003+05:30

It’s no secret how much most people are attached to their cellphones, but now TeleNav has released a survey showing just how willing Americans are to give up the finer things in life so they can still hang onto that handset.

Think about this hypothetical situation for a moment: What would you be more willing to give up so you could still have your mobile phone?

Not only does this infographic give you insight into mobile-device love, but it also helps you sort out general priorities as well. For instance, one third of the US population would rather give up a sex for a week than a mobile phone, but 70% were willing to give up alcohol for that phone?

Or who would’ve guessed that smartphone users had worse manners than their cellphone counterparts, with 26% of smartphone users frequently pulling out their handset at the dinner table, compared with 6% of cellphone (“featurephone”) users?

Worse (and this one’s not included in the infographic) — According to TeleNav’s survey, “Smartphone users were twice as likely as feature phone users to give up hot showers rather than their phone for one week.” Now that’s got to be love.

Facebook Wants Your Unborn Child

2011-08-03T19:40:00.002+05:30

Sometime in the past week, Facebook flipped the switch on allowing you to add your unborn baby to your list of family members via the “Expected: Child” option on Facebook profiles. Apparently too many parents were creating “illegal” fake profiles for their yet unhatched offspring — setting their fake babies’ ages to 13 instead of negative whatever, the minimum Facebook allows.

Also, I dare you to come up with a bolder customer acquisition strategy than getting them hooked while they’re still in the womb!

Of course this very important news caused an Internet earthquake, and as the aftershocks hit mainstream media CNN split its screen into four! boxes (below) so four women who are experts on the subject of declaring that you’re pregnant could talk about whether the social network had gone too far. Meanwhile America is technically fighting two wars.

But maybe expectant moms like care about this stuff, and stuff? I mean how would I know? My uterus is currently as barren as the T.S. Eliot poem. Hoping to shed some light on the subject, I asked resident TechCrunch pregnancy representative Sarah Lacy what she thought about the Facebook change, “I couldn’t care less about it. Anyone who is remotely close to me already knows I’m pregnant.”

That horse has already left the barn, indeed.

Chrome Overtakes Firefox To Become UK’s Second Most-Popular Browser

2011-08-01T22:10:00.002+05:30

Google’s web browser Chrome is now the second most-popular browser in the United Kingdom, according to web metrics company Statcounter.

Chrome’s market share has been on an upward trajectory globally, but in the UK Google’s browser has been doing exceptionally well, having captured a 22.12% market share in July, edging out Firefox, which currently holds 21.65%.

The first spot is still held by Internet Explorer, which holds a massive 45.51%, but its market share has been steadily declining over the past 12 months.

Google advertises Chrome as a lightweight, speedy browser and uses it as a base for its operating system, Chrome OS. The first portable machines based on the OS — Chromebooks — arrived on the market in June 2011.

Once a breath of fresh air on the browser market, Firefox has been losing users globally in 2011 — at least according to Statcounter’s numbers. Mozilla’s open source browser recently sped up its upgrade pace, having released two major versions of the browser — Firefox 4 and Firefox 5 — within a three months’ span.

IE Users Have Lower IQ Than Users of Other Web Browsers [STUDY]

2011-07-31T00:11:00.000+05:30

A recent study links intelligence test results with browser usage — and the results don’t look good for users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, especially its older versions.

The study, titled “Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage” by Canadian company AptiQuant, compiled IQ test scores of 101,326 individuals older than the age of 16 and divided them into groups according to the browser they use.

The results are fascinating. Users of Internet Explorer 6 have an average IQ score barely more than 80; Firefox and Chrome users fare much better, with average IQ scores of around 110, while Opera and Camino users have an average IQ score more than 120.

It’s also interesting to note that average IQ scores of IE6 users were significantly higher in 2006, and that the IQ scores get better with newer versions of IE.

Internet Explorer 6 has long been a thorn in the side of developers who hated it for its non-compliance with web standards, while users struggled with its many security flaws. This new study will probably induce more mockery of the ancient (but still sometimes found on older computers) browser and its users, but it’s probably not telling us that much about the browser itself — it’s about unwillingness to upgrade to a new version of any software.

The study concludes that “individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers.” It’s only logical that users with a higher IQ are more likely to experiment, choose a different software version or variant (notice that users of IE with Chrome frame score very high on IQ tests) or listen to upgrade suggestions and security advice.

In March, Microsoft started a campaign to get users to stop using Internet Explorer 6. But did it take into account the fact that many IE6 users tend to have lower than average IQ scores? Maybe that’s the key to finally getting rid of the world’s most hated web browser.

“Individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers. … Now that we have a statistical pattern on the continuous usage of incompatible browsers, better steps can be taken to eradicate this nuisance,” the study concludes.

Imagine if Famous Inventors used Microsoft Office

2011-07-28T19:47:00.000+05:30

What it would be like if inventors like Thomas Edison - who made the first light bulb - or the famous Wright Brothers - who invented the world’s first airplane - had access to the Internet and computer software that they could use to collaborate with their team members just like a modern-day office worker?

The following videos may offer you some hint:

These creative videos are part of Documents in History, a new promotional site for Microsoft Office. If you are in the U.S. or Canada, you can fill out a short form and also be eligible to win an Xbox 360 with Kinect every week.

Cellphones Don’t Cause Cancer New Study Reports

2011-07-28T19:03:00.000+05:30

In the battle of the cellphone cancer studies, now we can chalk one up for the scientists who say there is no relationship between cellphones and cancer in children.

A 1,000-participant study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute researched the effects of cellphones on children and adolescents, comparing cellphone usage of a group diagnosed with brain tumors against a control group of cellphone-using individuals who were in good health.

The result? “The absence of an exposure-response relationship either in terms of the amount of mobile phone use or by localization of the brain tumor argues against a causal association,” concludes the study abstract.

This is the latest in a long line of extensive research aimed at finding the truth about whether cellphones cause cancer or not. The three most recent studies:

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced the results of its cellphones/cancer study in May of this year, calling cellphones “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
A study published in February found that cellphone use caused increased activity in certain parts of the brain, but couldn’t determine if those effects were causing any harm, or even if they were beneficial.
Last year, a less-credible study that was partially funded by the wireless industry found no evidence of increased risk of brain tumors associated with mobile phones. But the scientists behind that study acknowledged that the results weren’t definitive.

What’s a cellphone user to do? If you’re still worried about an unknown/unseen mechanism at work here, just join the teens of the world and text a lot more than you talk on your cellphone.

iPad Will Rule Untill 2015 Study Shows

2011-07-28T18:16:00.001+05:30

The iPad will continue to dominate the growing tablet market until Android tablets take over in 2015, according to forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media.

The study estimates that Apple currently owns about 75% of the tablet market, which is expected to expand from less than 20 million units in 2010 to more than 230 million in 2015. By that time, Apple’s share of the market will drop to just 38%, due largely to the proliferation of cheaper and more advanced Android tablets. Still, it will take another year — until 2016 — for Android tablets to outsell Apple ones.

RIM’s prospects for market expansion are less optimistic, the study finds. Once the PlayBook begins supporting Android apps and 4G connectivity — HSPA+ and LTE versions are expected before the end of 2011 — sales are expected to improve.

Other analysts are more bullish on Apple’s market dominance. A study released by Gartner in April predicted the iPad will maintain a 47% share of the tablet by 2015, with Android hovering just above 38%.

Who will win the tablet wars, and how long will it take? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Zynga Partners With Tencent To Launch Localized Chinese Version Of CityVille

2011-07-26T18:57:00.000+05:30

Zynga is furthering its presence in China with a new partnership with Chinese internet giant Tencent. As part of the deal, Zynga is launching a beta version of Zynga City, a new localized Chinese version of CityVille. The game will launch in the next few days and features brand-new content and game-play inspired by both traditional and pop culture in China. As reported earlier this year, Zynga City beta will be operated by Tencent on its Pengyou platform and will soon launch on the company’s QZone platform. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either company.

Zynga City beta will include brand-new decorations and architecture the Chinese audience can identify and connect with, in-game events and competitions linked to Chinese holidays and news, as well as culturally relevant game mechanics such as the chance for players to send street peddlers to their friend’s cities. Zynga City beta will also feature quest system, which Zynga says will “quench Chinese players’ thirst for rich storytelling within the games they love to play.”

Zynga is actually building off of Tencent’s Open Platform, which is an operating system of sorts.Using this platform, Chinese players will be able to play Zynga City in their own language. As I mentioned above, it’s unclear what the terms of the revenue share are from the partnership.

The game will first be operated by Tencent in a beta version on its Pengyou platform, which is its social network and game platform, with a wider launch on several Tencent platforms including QZone to follow.

This isn’t Zynga’s first localized game in China. The gaming giant actually acquired Chinese game developer XPD Media in May of 2010 and set up a Beijing office. And in August the company launched Zynga’s first internationally localized game, Zynga Texas Poker, in traditional Chinese.

So why CityVille as the next localized game and the initial title in the partnership with Tencent? Andy Tian, General Manager of Zynga China, says that because CityVille is Zynga’s largest and most popular game, the localized version of Zynga City was the ideal choice. The Zynga China studio is actually leading the development of Zynga City including its new localized content and game features.

Lin Songtao, General Manager of Tencent Open Platform, said in a release: Zynga has a lot of experience with game development, services and support. We hope that Zynga City will be a success on Tencent Open Platform. In the future, Tencent Open Platform will keep improving the abilities and value on service and support, with the cooperation of more and more successful social game developing companies. We are expecting that more and more international social game developers will bring their popular games to Tencent Open Platform for Chinese Internet users and this will support the rapid growth of the social game market in China, which is good news for all social game developers.

For Zynga, a deal with Tencent is alluring for a number of reasons. First, Tencent has a massive reach in China, with the potential to reach hundreds of millions users. In fact, the Chinese company has just under 400 million active users. Second, the deal spreads Zynga’s dependence off of Facebook as a major platform.

Of course, Zynga has major ambitions when it comes to international growth. In the past few game releases, Zynga has launched international versions of its titles, hoping to appeal to broader audiences, especially on mobile platforms. If this partnership works out, this will be a huge gateway for Zynga into China.

For Tencent, Zynga China is a strategic partnership that could help the Chinese internet giant expand to North America and Europe. Last year, Tencent bought 10% of Digital Sky Technology, which in turn owns significant portions of of Zynga and Facebook. And as my colleague Sarah Lacy wrote recently, Tencent has been trying to enter the U.S. market quietly, acquiring Riot Games in February and dozens of smaller, unreported acquisitions over the last year or so.

As Zynga prepares for a public offering later this year, the company could stand to learn a lot from Tencent, which is one of the largest publicly traded Internet companies on earth.

Easily Select Multiple Files in Windows Explorer

2011-07-26T00:25:00.000+05:30

This is a quick and simple tip for Windows users who feel less comfortable memorizing keyboard shortcuts and prefer using the mouse as much as possible.

Let’s say you want to move a group of files from one Windows folder to another. What approach will you follow to first select these files inside Windows Explorer?

If these are consecutive files, you can just click on the first file, hold down the Shift key and click the last file – this will select all the files in between which you can then copy, move or delete in a batch. Alternatively, you may drag your mouse in the shape of a rectangle around all the files that you want to include in your selection.

The technique is a little different if you wish to select non-consecutive files that are not arranged side by side. You need to hold the Control key with one hand and then use the mouse on the other hand to click on every single file that you want to select.

Enable Checkboxes for Easier Selection

An easier alternative, as demonstrated in the video above, could be that you enable checkboxes in Windows Explorer. This will let you select any number of files or folders in a window, consecutive or non-consecutive, with one hand using the mouse itself.

Open Windows Explorer and under Folder Options, check the setting that says “Use check boxes to select items.” Windows will now add checkboxes next to file names /thumbnails and you just need to click the checkbox to add the corresponding file to your selection.

You may use this tip with Windows 7 and Vista but not Windows XP.

Use your Mobile Phone to Scan Business Cards

2011-07-22T23:18:00.001+05:30

You attend a conference, you meet lot of new people and you usually exchange business cards with them. Thus, over the years, you’ve collected hundreds of business cards - some are useless and can be safely thrown into the trash bin but the other cards do carry important phone numbers and other contact information that you would like to store digitally in your phone’s address book or even the cloud - like Google Contacts.

So how do you import all those business cards into your phone’s address book?

Few years ago, you would have probably considered buying a dedicated scanner for reading business cards but not anymore. Now we have access to some excellent mobile apps that can turn any phone into a business card reader. The apps are smart – they have OCR capability to extract the characters from the scanned photo and can also recognize the various fields in the business card like your contact's email address, phone number, and other details.

What do you need to get started?

These business card scanner apps are available for all mobile platforms and some will even work with mobile phones that have a low-resolution camera or don’t have one at all.

Business Card Reader Apps for your Mobile

The first mobile app that you may want to try is Google Goggles. This is a free app for iPhone and Android based mobile phones that uses your phone’s built-in camera to scan a business card, perform OCR and then offers you to an option to add the scanned data as a new contact to your phone’s address book. Here’s a demo from Google Slam:

In my testing with about half a dozen different visiting cards, I found Google Goggles fast though the text recognition accuracy was only above average. It seemed to work very well with cards that used slightly larger fonts but almost always failed at extracting postal addresses from business cards.

Also, you would need to be in a 3G or Wi-Fi zone to scan business cards using Google Goggles as the OCR probably happens on Google servers.

The next app that I tested was CardMunch. This is from the LinkedIn family and unlike any other Business Card app that use bots, CardMunch employs real people who transcribe your scanned business cards into digital contacts.

CardMuch works something like this. You download the app on your iPhone (the BlackBerry version is coming soon), log in with your existing LinkedIn account and then snap a picture of any business card. The image is instantly uploaded to CardMunch servers where actual humans will convert the card into a digital contact and it is then pushed down to your phone.

The transcription is accurate and the service works just as advertised. There’s a brilliant fire mode where you can scan multiple business cards in quick succession and send them all to CardMunch for transcription in one go.

CardMunch is an iPhone app but works just fine with the iPad camera as well. The downside is obvious – it’s not instant but you won’t have to wait for more than a few hours to get your scans. Also,in some cases, the human transcribers ignored parts of the card that I would have really liked to include into the phone address book.

The next scanner app that I tried is Abbyy’s Business Card Reader. I tested the Androidand iPhone versions though it is also available in the Ovi Store for Nokia phones.

There are several things to like about Abbyy’s app. First, the app performs OCR offline and thus you can scan business cards anywhere without requiring an active data connection on your phone. In my tests, I found the transcription results from Abbyy highly accurate and in some cases, it even recognized text written in very small fonts with relatively fewer errors.

If you have a mobile phone with a low-resolutions camera (like an old iPhone), you’ll particularly like the Abbyy app. That’s because you can capture pictures of the business card separately with a digital camera, transfer them to your mobile and then use the Business Card Reader app to transfer those picture into your phone’s address book as new contacts.

A Font Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi

2011-07-21T22:41:00.003+05:30

The Gandhiji Font is an impressive typeface the design of which is completely inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s trademark round glasses.

The font is available in English, Hindi, Urdu and other major Indian languages. Head over to gandhijifont.com to download your free copy.

The font, which was recently converted into a hardcover book, was also an entry at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival. KV Sridhar, Payal Juthani, Nadine Pereira and Zainab Karachiwala form the core team that conceptualized and designed the Gandhi font.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Sets Midnight Box Office Record

2011-07-16T18:04:00.000+05:30

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 took in $43.5 million at the midnight box office in North America — the biggest midnight opening of all time. Potter earned almost 50% more than previous midnight champion, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which earned $30 million from midnight shows when it was released in June 2010.

The Harry Potter franchise is estimated to be the most profitable film franchise ever. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the eighth and final film has already grossed more than $100 million at the worldwide box office. If momentum keeps rising, this may be the biggest worldwide opening of all time.

The film’s big North America opening early Friday morning can be attributed in part to the 3,800 theaters that had midnight screenings. During the day Friday, the total number of theaters will jump to 4,300, with 3,000 of those houses showing the film in 3D. Warner Bros. tells The Hollywood Reporter that all of its 3D midnight showings are sold out, indicating that 3D could be a big ticket driver for Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Warner Bros. really embraced digital media and social networks when promoting the film. It appears to have paid off. At the time of this writing, seven of the 10 trending topics on Twitter in New York City were related to Harry Potter. Earlier Friday that figure was as high as nine out of 10 trending topics.

Have you seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2? What do you think of the film and its social media impact?

Earn 1.50-2.00$ in 5-20 minutes Daily

2011-07-13T19:14:00.003+05:30

WOW! this is amazingly easy! The articles are like 2-3 paragraphs long,
it literally takes less than a minute to read them. at the bottom of the article
there are 5 stars, you click on the 1st star to rate it a 1, click on the 2nd star to rate it a 2 and so on. I myself read the articles because they are so very short, but for those black-hatters out there,
you can simply wait a minute and then rate the article without even reading it, because they don't ask you anything like what the article was about to see if you read it.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

The only thing I suggest doing to stay under the radar is
give it a minute or so between rating the articles,. But really, you should just read the article, they are the shortest articles I have ever seen. The average pay for rating an article is about 5 cents, but I have been
paid 4 cents on one, and 7 cents on another. You get to select 50 topics and those are the articles you will be shown to read and rate. You can also change your topics every 24 hours.

**As of now, I make about $1.50-$2.00/day for about 15-20 min worth of
of article reading. You read only the articles you are interested in,
and they have a gigantic selection.

If you want to see how easy this is, how short the articles are,
and basically how it looks doing this, I made a short video recording of my screen activity
that shows me clicking on the article, reading/skimming thru it, rating it, then going on to the next article. I posted it on youtube and
you can see it below: (click to make the video full screen if you want to see it better)

If you want to check this out, You can do so by clicking either link below,
One is my referral link, and the other is a link to the site itself. Either
one will take you to the sign up page.

Home - readbud - Get paid to read and rate articles! (my referral link)

Enjoy!

New Windows Theme for fans of Angry Birds

2011-07-09T09:30:00.000+05:30

If you are a big fan of Angry Birds, how can you not have the Angry Birds theme for your Windows desktop.

The theme is a collection of six desktop wallpapers featuring, you guessed it right, pigs and wallpapers but the more interesting part are the sounds effect that come with the theme. You exit Windows and the birds scream as it they have broken the entire castle in one short. Another sound effect is that of pigs grunting whenever you get a new email message.

The Angry Birds theme is officially designed for Windows 7 but you can also use it a XP and Vista machines with a simple hack.

Evidence of a Facebook Music Service Surfaces

2011-07-08T12:29:00.000+05:30

References to a product called “Vibes” have been found in Facebook’s code, and it could be related to the company’s rumored music service.

The social network launched its Skype-powered video chat service on Wednesday. Part of the process of getting started with the one-on-one video communication product is downloading and installing a programon the desktop.

Eagle-eyed software engineer and researcher Jeff Rose was curious about what he was installing and how it interacts with Skype, so decided to look into the code of the desktop app. In it, he found that the installer supports not one, but two applications. One is called “Peep,” which is related to the video chat client, and one is called “Vibes,” which is apparently related to a music downloading app.

Here’s the code in question:

if (paramString.equals("com.facebook.peep")) return this.window.getMember("VideoChatPlugin"); if (paramString.equals("com.facebook.vibes")) { return this.window.getMember("MusicDownloadDialog"); }

It seems clear that Facebook has something related to music downloading up its sleeve. Could it be an app for downloading your music and uploading it to the cloud? Could it be powered by Spotify? Or could it just be code that refers to a defunct or discarded product?

Don’t bet on Facebook’s music app being called “Facebook Vibes,” though. There’s a reason why Facebook’s video chat product isn’t called “Facebook Peep.” Still, we know Facebook has a music product coming soon, and now we believe it will do more than simply play your favorite tunes.

What do you think Facebook has up its sleeve?

Facebook Launches Skype-Powered Video Calling

2011-07-07T18:41:00.000+05:30

Confirming our report last week, Facebook has just announced a major new feature that it’s launching in tandem with Skype: video calling.

It’s a feature that’s been rumored for quite a while, and it’s one that Facebook is putting a lot of weight behind. Now, whenever you browse to a friend’s profile, you’ll see a new button nestled between the ‘Message’ and ‘Poke’ buttons that says ‘Call’. Click that, the other user will see a popup asking if they want to accept a call, and you’ll be immediately connected (you’ll need to install a small plugin the first time you use the service).

You’ll also see video calling integrated into Facebook’s Chat product. Really, you can’t miss it — Facebook is launching a new chat sidebar today that by default it takes the entire right side of the screen, and the first time you click on any user you’ll see a prompt asking if you’d like to make your first video call. If you try to initiate a video call and the other user doesn’t respond, you’ll be prompted to send them a video message.

So why is this a big deal? Facebook emphasized the fact that users will not have to create new Skype accounts to make calls, and that this will allow users to call their friends and family with a very minimal amount of setup (the flow for installing the applet only took a few seconds).

Of course, this comes just a week after the launch of Google+, which includes a video chat feature called ‘Hangouts’. Facebook’s video chat doesn’t support group chats yet, but when asked if Facebook will be rolling out group video calling, Zuckerberg said not to rule anything out. He added that one-to-one calling makes up the vast majority of video calling.

Skype CEO Tony Bates took the stage to make a few comments. One important thing he noted: Skype is talking with Facebook about having some paid products available through the web format.

Update: Facebook engineer Philip Su has just published some notes on how the team built the feature.

He writes that Facebook is using different techniques to install the Skype plugin depending on what browser you’re using to help streamline the experience:

Installation Flows for Each Browser and OS
To make installation as easy as possible, we specifically customized the installation flow for each OS and browser combination. For instance, on Mac browsers with Java enabled, the installer is hosted entirely within the browser so that no additional clicks are required. We use a small bootstrap EXE in Windows browsers to minimize the initial download time and to manage installation permissions as seamlessly as possible. We also put the entire installation flow inline with the feature itself, instead of requiring a separate download and installation page, so that your call automatically continues once installation completes.

Also very cool: Facebook users are using Skype’s service anonymously.

Protecting User Identity
To ensure that you can make a call without needing a separate Skype account, Facebook connects to Skype’s secure REST APIs using encrypted user IDs to set up the necessary credentials. This opens up the possibility of video calling to users who might never have used Skype before, and makes the overall calling experience much simpler for everyone. While it would have been easier to give user IDs directly to Skype, we instead went to great lengths to make sure users are protected and anonymous on Skype’s service.

Adding more.

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse – 6 Units to Giveaway!

2011-07-06T21:08:00.005+05:30

If you feel more comfortable using an external mouse with your laptop than the built-in touchpad, the new Arc Touch mouse from Microsoft could just be a perfect accessory for you to carry with the laptop. And do expect a see some from curious faces because the Arc Touch, though a mouse, doesn’t look like one until you bend it.

The Arc Touch is almost the size of a regular cell phone and since it also flat, you can easily slide it in your pocket. Like most other Bluetooth-enabled mice, you need to attach a small transceiver to the USB port of your computer and then bend the mouse to turn it on. When you are done working, simply flatten the mouse to turn it off.

The Arc Touch transceiver is extremely small but you are less likely to misplace it – that’s because there’s a magnet hidden on the lower side of the mouse where you can stick the transceiver when it’s not attached to a USB port. Some good thinking here.

Most of the the newer mice models coming from Microsoft, including Arc Touch, use BlueTrack and thus can work on all kinds of surfaces including that wooden bench in the park but there’s one exception – you can’t use them on a glass table.

The mouse, which has a strip between the left and right-click buttons instead of a wheel, is both sensitive and accurate. You can scroll up and down with the strip, and though there’s no mouse-wheel, the vibrations feel quite similar. A double-tap done in the middle of the strip is equivalent to middle-click though you can always change the defaults with the Intellipoint software.

There are however a few things that I didn’t like about Arc Touch.

First, the mouse feels really light but the grip could have been better. The button sometimes feel stiff and you have to apply pressure to click them. The navigation strip at the center is small and only after using the mouse for a few days will you feel comfortable with the tapping zones on that strip.

You have to bend the mouse to turn it on and, in doing so, the mouse makes a fairly audible “click” sound – this can be a little embarrassing if you are in a quite meeting because everyone around will not fail to notice that sound.

Arc Touch Mouse Giveway (6 Units)

The Arc Touch wireless mouse is currently available on Amazon.com for $42 while you can get on in India for around INR 3.4k from the online Microsoft Store.

Alternatively, you can just answer a simple question and this stylish and portable mouse could be all yours. Microsoft has graciously offered six pieces of the Arc Touch for Digital Inspiration readers in India so your chances of getting one are pretty high!

All you have to do is suggest any one computer task that you think you do with more ease and style with an Arc Touch than using the touchpad of your laptop.

You can post your responses on this Facebook thread and good luck!

iPads Generate 1% of the World’s Web Traffic

2011-07-05T23:15:00.001+05:30

Apple’s iPad is responsible for 1% of the world’s web traffic, as well as 2.1% of web traffic in the U.S., according to the latest numbers from NetMarketShare.

Looking at earlier reports, the iPad’s share of web traffic has been steadily growing by 10% or more since March 2011. And looking at the overall market share of mobile and tablet devicescompared to desktops, we can see that it reached 5% for the first time in June.

It’s too early to proclaim the death of the desktop, but the trend is strong and obvious — tablets and smartphones are becoming an increasingly important part of our online life.

These latest numbers reinforce a similar report from StatCounter in April. That report indicated that the iPad iOS accounted for 1.17% of U.S. web traffic, ahead of Linux, which only accounted for .71%.