4CAST

Dropbox announces DBX. It’s first independent conference for July 9th.

Karthik K — Tue, 07 May 2013 03:10:59 +0000

Dropbox has announced its own invite-only conference, DBX. People who wish to attend the conference should request an invite for $350. Dropbox has been working so hard in getting their service to as many hands as possible for the past six years. The company, as we saw it, has been growing exponentially. And now, Dropbox is planning for a one day conference on July 9th in San Francisco. The conference, which is called DBX, is an invite-only event, where they are going to be talking about their platform features, helping out the developers with their APIs and much more. This invite-only process would start only if you request an invite for $350 via their website. This conference might be important for the company, since they're taking their business applications very serious. And with the recent launch of Dropbox for business, this move makes sense. While we are not expecting any big launch during the conference, this conference might be of much use for the developers who're looking out to leverage their applications and services using Dropbox's APIs.

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Complete Numbers from Apple’s Q2 2013 Earnings Call

Karthik K — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:15:55 +0000

Apple made news yesterday post its earnings call for the Q2 2013, for having a strong revenue, but a slight drop in its profit. The report from Apple surely beat the Wall Street's Projections, in all the categories.

Before we jump into the statistics, here are some of the important numbers to note from the Earnings Call.

Total Revenue: $43.6 billion
Gross Margin: 37.5%
Total Number of iPhones Sold: 37.4 million
Total Number of iPads Sold: 19.5 million
Total Number of Macs Sold: 4 million
Total Number of iPods Sold: 5.6 million

While these numbers exceeded, some of the numbers were still disappointing. And thanks to iDownloadblog for the stats in a neatly represented graphs. Here they are for your viewing:

What's next? Well, Tim Cook has spilled the bean that the company has got a few more categories to create. And may be that is the much talked about iWatch? Apple has also announced their premium yearly developers' conference, the WWDC 2013, which is scheduled to start on June 10th.

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Facebook Home surpasses 500,000 downloads. But still lacks good ratings.

Karthik K — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:45:27 +0000

Facebook's latest offering in the mobile space, the Facebook Home for Android devices, has now reached a milestone in just a few days after release. The new deeply integrated launcher kind of app for the Android devices, has passed over 500,000 installs on Android. The data comes from the much publicly available information on the Google Play Store, and interestingly, the average user rating still falls below half of the total rating. Facebook Home launched to the public on April 12th, and the new app was demoed during a special event at the Facebook HQ. With over 500,000 downloads now, the Home can be considered a hit, but the actual usage stats may vary. People who downloaded Facebook Home will not necessarily be using it for what it offers. While a lot of users thought Facebook Home would be the only way to use Chat heads, Facebook updated its Messenger for Android with Chat heads feature. The App is still not available in all the countries across the globe. Coming to the ratings, a majority of the users (Over 5000) have given it a very poor rating, and it seems to grow day by day. It's now too early to consider it a hit. Since, the number of downloads and number of active installs are a completely different use cases.

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This week’s news in a jiffy: 20 April 2013

Karthik K — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:06:20 +0000

4CAST brings you all the news from around the world that are REALLY important. And this week, we think the world has seen some of the most important happenings. Starting from Project Glass to Apple's Siri data storage, we've got it covered for you. So now, sit on the Sofa, and read along with your Coffee cup.

Week: April 20 2013

These were some of the top stories that happened in technology across the world. We'll have to wait until next week, to know what's in the bag for us. Meanwhile, there's a editorial on the Initial reactions to Glass coming our way. Stay tuned.

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Microsoft accounts get Two-factor Authentication

Karthik K — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:44:44 +0000

Microsoft has added two-factor authentication for its users today, beefing up its security protocols to their services. The long awaited security beef up is now starting to roll from Microsoft. The Redmond based software maker is rolling out this feature to its uses slowly starting today, and the transition is going to be happening in the weeks to come. The new update will also bring some important features like app passwords for Xbox and other services (We're not sure about the Windows Phones) and we think this is a brilliant move by the company. But how are you going to do the two-factor pass codes? Well, the company already has an app in the Marketplace for Windows Phones, but you can also use your other accounts to get the pass codes. But what if you own a Microsoft account, and are on Android or iOS? There's no hear on that. And if you're in this cross-platform situation, then you've gotta wait for sometime for the company to shed more light on this.

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Here’s the complete Google Glass Specs and its’ Companion App.

Karthik K — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:31:19 +0000

Google today revealed some of the specifications of its upcoming Google Glass device, in a dedicated page, and also has released a companion app called MyGlass on the Google Play Store. Here's a complete spec list of Google Glass.

While the people who were shortlisted to try out Google Glass have started receiving the devices, the company today revealed the specifications of the ultra portable device. Here's the specification of Google Glass:

Google Glass	CONFIGURATION
Display	High resolution display is the equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away.
Camera Configuration	5 megapixel Camera Video recording upto 720p resolution
Battery Life	A day full on nominal usage.
Connectivity	WiFi 802.11b/g Bluetooth (No info on which version. We hope its 4.0)
Storage	12GB Usable storage space

Now that the specs are out, the company's Google Glass companion app is also out in the Play Store. The app is just used to configure and control some portions of the Glass, but the mobile device is going to perform most of the functions.

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Facebook updates Messenger on Android with Chatheads. Runs on all Android devices.

Karthik K — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:12:49 +0000

Facebook has updated its Messenger for Android, along with the official Facebook app. The new Messenger update now features the Chatheads, which seems to be working on almost all the Android devices. Facebook made huge push in the mobile space earlier this month, and the company has rolled out one such promised feature today on the Play Store. The new update would satisfy all the Facebook addicts on Android. The much talked about Facebook Home is yet to be out on the Play Store, but the Facebook app has received an update, and the changelog says that the update adds just a few permissions to run Facebook Home. Once you update the app, you'll notice a Chathead widget floating around anywhere in the screen. We're closely tracking the Facebook Home release, and watchout this space for more.

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Opera to ditch Presto for Google’s Blink.

Karthik K — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:15:50 +0000

Opera has now confirmed that the company would be moving along with Google's new WebKit fork, the Google Blink rendering engine. So starting next version, Opera would carry the new Blink engine, instead of the Presto content rendering engine. Google's move to fork WebKit to create their own Blink rendering engine was a huge thing for the WebKit using browsers across the world. While its' obvious that Chrome would start adopting this new engine starting version 23, its Opera which joins this bandwagon, dumping Presto for Blink. Talking to TNW about this move, an Opera spokesperson says:

“When we announced the move away from Presto, we announced that we are going with the Chromium package, and the forking and name change have little practical influence on the Opera browsers. So yes, your understanding is correct,”

And this change is due for both the desktop and mobile apps of Opera. This move has mainly come in, to free some of its resources in developing its own rendering solution and adopt a well built solution like Blink. Opera's decision to adopt Blink should be making Google excited. Opera might not be the top browser in the desktop space, but its definitely a winner in the mobile space, with all its cloud syncing capabilities in place. And the company also said that this move would benefit more than 300 million users across the world. Now that two major WebKit browsers are adopting Blink, it would be interesting to see what other browser makers would make this move. Especially, if Safari makes a move towards Blink, it would be a sure win for Google.

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Whatsapp Google?!

Dwarak — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:06:28 +0000

Gone are the days when SMSes were ubiquitous. Everybody now says Whatsapp me. What’s more? All you need is a smartphone and a data connection. Reason is, things that these new IM platforms provide are way above the capabilities that conventional messaging can deliver. For giants like Google who are building devices that work in unison, having a messaging platform that works in sync is more or less a necessity. Google’s messaging is already in wrecks with separate chat lists across its platforms like Gmail, Google Plus and Talk. Video calling is not available in desktop Talk app. Not to mention the Group chat feature, which if required has to be accessed via web app. They desperately need to have a hold in IM sector. There is already news that Google might be starting a unified communications feature by the name Babble. What wonders me is why they chose to buy Whatsapp? Google already has a strong following in Google Talk – that is also supported via Gmail and Plus. Of course, they could be looking to buy Whatsapp for its user base, which by the way is a very good reason to do so. Other than that, what other features are they worried about in Whatsapp that they find difficult to replicate? I’m not sure. If they are looking to do the acquisition for the latter reason, I wouldn’t be so optimistic about the whole buy out thing. But, wait. All these are speculations doing the rounds. Let’s not get so excited about the whole news, until we have something concrete to talk about.

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Facebook Home is here. It’s not just an app. Its a family of apps for Android.

Karthik K — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:04:57 +0000

Facebook unveiled its’ new home on Android. And as expected, Mark was very clear in saying that they are NOT building their own smartphone, but they’re aiming at making the smartphone experience better with their homebrew apps and customizations. The first stop right now, is on Android. And we take you through what they unveiled and what’s in it for you.

What is ‘Facebook Home’?

Mark Zukerberg started off with an interesting note. He said:

“More accurately, we’re gonna talk about how you can turn your phone into a Facebook phone. Phones are designed around apps, not people. We wanna flip that around.”

And we think their idea is worth it. The new Facebook Home is a set of social networking apps, built around Facebook that becomes the new home for your Android device. As the company says, they’ve tried to put people first on the phones, rather than the apps that is currently appearing first. The Facebook Home consists of some of the interesting customizations and real working apps, that has features like Cover Feed, integrated chat and group chat feature called Chatheads, and much more features that we’ll be exploring shortly. Here’s the official video demo of Facebook Home: [youtube clip="W3d5VbOLck0"]

Why Facebook Home?

Well, Facebook has a point. According to them, people want to talk to people, and not apps, when they lift their phones. And I think they’re right. At least for me, I always use my phone to talk to people, and interact with people. The Facebook Home is here to address this thing on your phone. As Mark said, people would be able to turn their Android phones into a great social device with just installing Facebook Home from the Google Play Store.

Facebook Home: The Features and Beyond:

Now that its’ officially out, and will be available for download to a limited models of Android Phones starting this April 12th via the Google Play Store. Before we get into how to get kind of details, let’s jump right into the features. The first thing is the Cover feed. A new visually stunning lockscreen, with added features like the ability to initiate messages, post updates and such. This is basically a swipable version of News Feed on the Android device. The next big feature is the Chatheads. These are floating widgets that can appear when a new message is received, anywhere on the phone. It does not require you to switch to the messaging app to reply to your friend. but if you’re not interested in replying back immediately, you can drag the Chathead widget towards the bottom of the screen to remove it from your view. While these are some of the major features that Facebook Home brings, there’s much more like this, and these can be found on the Facebook Home pre-installed devices like the HTC First. The HTC First is a LTE capable device, basically running stock Android Jelly Bean, and comes with Facebook Home installed and activated by default. And Facebook has no-regrets in calling it, the first official Facebook Phone. The phone is now up for pre-order at AT&T for $99. Facebook has partnered with HTC and AT&T to bring Facebook Home to the hands of the customers, who’d love to experience is fully on their hands, but the Facebook Home will be available for Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II. These are interesting. And most of the features that come with the Facebook Home are really good. And these features are like those we’ve been seeing in concept videos, and now, they’re real. But there’s one thing which is breaking my mind. Battery Life and performance. Facebook Home is definitely going to consume a lot of battery life, and also a lot of data in the background.

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