Technology

How to turn off and clear your web history

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Google announced last month that it was going to implement a major update to its privacy policies and terms of service — some 70 privacy policies will be replaced with just one for the majority of Google’s services. This new policy is also meant to be much more readable for any users wanting to understand how their data is being used.

This is good news because nobody wants to keep track of 70 privacy policies they agreed to, and no one wants to read legal jargon. However, there is a downside.

At the moment, Google treats your data for each service separately to a large extent. Your web history for searches is kept separate from Gmail, YouTube, Google+, and even Calendar. With the new policy that data will be combined, meaning Google can start matching up your search and services history, allowing them to better tailor adverts you may like or respond to. They also get a better understanding of who you are as an individual.

You can stop your historical data being combined into one big pot, though. And it’s actually quite simple to achieve. All you need to do is:

Login to your Google account
Visit http://www.google.com/history. (That URL needs to change if you are not in the US, for example, UK users would use .co.uk instead of .com.)
Once that page is loaded, choose to delete your entire web history by clicking the remove button. This deletes the historical data, meaning Google won’t have access to it when the privacy policy switch happens on March 1st.

Clearing your web history also has another benefit: it stops your web history being collected going forward. You can turn the feature back on if you wish, but it is now off by default.
Google argues that allowing a web history to be recorded means better personalized search predictions and recommendations. You can also search the full content of web pages you’ve already visited. It’s up to you to decide if those features are worth it.

More at the EFF and the Official Google Blog

PlayBook 2.0 Seriously sexy, or too little too late for RIM?

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:39:00 +0000

It’s got, at long last, “native” e-mail. It’s also got more apps, thanks to some Android compatibility. But it’s still doubtful whether a new operating system can finally make the PlayBook a world beater, technology writers and analysts say.
Die-hard BlackBerry fans like the new PlayBook 2.0 update, which Michael Clewley, senior product manager at RIM, said Monday is the work up to 1,000 employees spread out from Waterloo to Mississauga, Ottawa, Seattle and Boston.

But experts say it’s likely too little, too late for Research in Motion’s tablet computer. The updates didn’t do much for RIM’s stock price; after rising in early trading on the TSX Tuesday, RIM shares closed the day at $14.82, a fall of 20 cents.

“The upgrades are neat. But the changes all represent minor improvements to a tablet that needed to take massive steps forward to compete with its ever-progressing competitors. The PlayBook launched nearly a year ago in April, and despite the new software, the hardware remains the same,” wrote Roger Cheng of CNet news in a blog post.

And some of that hardware isn’t particularly impressive, says analyst Kevin Dede of Brigantine Advisors, who points to the PlayBook’s 7-inch screen, compared to the iPad’s 10 inches. Dede said he had a chance to try PlayBook 2.0 during the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

“It seems pretty okay, but I think the bigger issue is screen size, really,” said Dede.
The upgrade, which RIM made available for download as of 4 a.m. Tuesday, includes native e-mail, meaning you no longer need to attach a BlackBerry to get email on your PlayBook. But that’s something Apple’s iPad has had since day one.

“If they’d had this in there when it launched, I have no doubt they would have been able to meet their sales target of a million PlayBooks by now,” said Queen’s University technology professor John Pliniussen, who was puzzled by the PlayBook’s lack of email and, especially, its lack of apps when it launched.

“They’ve sold 800,000 of these things. What were those people doing with it? They called it the PlayBook, but there was nothing to play with,” said Pliniussen. “I really wonder why they bothered launching it. It wasn’t priced very well, and it didn’t do anything different than its competitors.”

With PlayBook 2.0 now offering some apps designed for Google’s Android operating system, Pliniussen says the situation has brightened a bit.

Together, the email and apps will “help nudge PlayBook to second base,” but nothing more, according to Pliniussen.

“They’re never going to catch up to iPad,” said Pliniussen, noting that Apple is expected to unveil the newest version of its market-dominating notepad some time this spring.
Dede agreed that adding some Android compatibility will help the PlayBook’s relatively meager selection of apps, but warns it’s not a panacea.

“The Android app compatibility is nice, but I don’t think it will be as seamless as it needs to be for real success,” said Dede.

And the changes won’t make a big difference to RIM’s overall business, says analyst Richard Tse of Cormark Securities.

“This has them catching up here a little bit, but the end game is still the phone. That’s what matters,” said Tse of Cormark Securities, who rates RIM “market perform,” with a $19 per share price target.

Tse says it’s “more than obvious” that RIM would have been better off if it had included native e-mail with the PlayBook when it was first launched a year ago.

Google Entertainment Device Tie Android and Google+ With Music

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:22:00 +0000

The new Google entertainment device that was unearthed in the media this week seems to be generating a lot of excitement for a still undefined product. It's a Google home entertainment system for streaming music, or videos, or both. The implications could be big for tie-ins to other Google items like YouTube videos, the Google Music Beta, Android Music and the Android Market, not to forget all of the custom Android apps. The Google+ social network could allow for real-time sharing, and of course this all points the Big Daddy of Google Search.

The "entertainment device" was first unearthed by GigaOm who said that Google wanted to "test a mysterious Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled “entertainment device,” in employees homes in four U.S. cities." This lead to articles from both the NY Times and Wall Street Journal, who outlined the idea a little more with the notion that it's not just about Google Search anymore, but spreading out into an ecosystem of products, as Apple and Amazon have done.

"As the Internet matures, the leading companies are trying to create full-fledged ecosystems to preserve their individual dominance. Amazon, which began as a retailer, now makes reading devices. Apple, which originally produced only hardware, now sells content," reads the article from NY Times.

Visit the Spacelab Guide to Streaming Music Sites

eWEEK also talks about the challenge Google faces in being new to creating products, as well as standing out from all the others that already exist: “Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey told eWEEK Google's biggest challenge will be in explaining to people that whatever it wants to sell is a platform rather than a product. Such a device could get lost in the muddle of other home TV devices from Sonos, Roku and Logitech. “

The interesting thing here is how it could play into a Google ecosystem. The Google Music Beta is the obvious big item, offering the Google music player a chance to be streamed around the house as well as drive people towards the Android Market for Android Music purchases. Since Android is an open platform, this could also open the door for developers to create all sorts of Android apps. Sound familiar? Apple and Amazon do this, and each product or service drives people to another product or service, creating the ecosystem. As a user, we get a seamless experience to listen, buy and consume music with ease. Then think about all of the uses for Android phones and Android tablets, with more apps and integrated streaming ...

Not that it's all about music ... we can't forget that other big Google name ... YouTube. The possibility of watching YouTube videos and renting from the YouTube Video Rental Store, now called YouTube Movies, could also weigh in, as well as how this wireless "device" could also work with any new Google TV offering. Google has been working with their Google TV for a while now, and the current consensus is that they'll offer a revamped Google TV product sometime this year or next to compete with Apple TV and the famed Apple TV Set. This is the Google TV vs. Apple TV war we keep hearing about.

Lastly (but not leastly), this all has the possibility of integrating with Google+ social network, which seems to be one of Google's main areas of focus right now. Much like Facebook with their Facebook Music offering that allows for the sharing of what users are listening to via streaming music sites like Spotify, MOG, Rdio and Rhapsody; as well as the freshly launched Facebook music player now called “Listen with friends.” The Google Music Beta could act as a Google music player that can tell your Google+ peeps what you’re listening too.

Visit the Spacelab Guide to Streaming Music Sites for more information on Google Music and other streaming music services.

Google Launches Google+ Developers Page

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:15:00 +0000

Google announced the launch of a new Google+ Developers page where developers can go to get and share information about developing for the Google+ platform.

Google has launched a new Google+ Developers page to help developers stay abreast of all the latest Google+ platform news, events, community, and more.

With Google+ gaining users everyday – up to 90 million at last count – the company’s social platform becomes a much more attractive target for developers.

In a Feb. 6 blog post introducing the new Google+ Developers Page, Chris Chabot, Google+ Developer Relations Team Lead, said, “As the lead of the Google+ Developer Relations Team, I’m really looking forward to meeting you there -- add the page to your circles to join the conversation, comment on posts, and join our hangouts.”

Chabot said on the new page, the Google+ Developer Relations Team will will host regular hangouts to talk about the +Platform, developers’ experiences with it, and share tips and tricks with the community. Moreover, the team will host weekly office hours hangouts every Wednesday at 11:30am - 12:15pm PDT from the Google+ Developers Page.

In addition, the +Platform team also will share Google+ developer events, conferences and hackathons, as well as photos and videos of the events on the developer page. “In addition, we’ll announce and discuss our +Platform launches on our page,” Chabot said.

Last month, in reporting on Google’s Q4 2011 earnings eWEEK reported that Google+ had reached 90 million users, noting:

Google+, the company's six-month-old social-network challenger to Facebook, now has 90 million users worldwide. That's up from the 40 million Google+ users Google CEO Larry Page announced during the company's Q3 earnings report in October.

In a statement, Page said, “By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+ we will create amazing experiences across our services.”

According to the eWEEK report: “Those ‘amazing experiences’ presumably include a broad, deep integration of Google+ into existing Google services. Google, for example, recently moved to make search more personal by injecting Google+ posts and photos in Google.com search results that are tailored to each user.”

Apple Versus Samsung: Win Some, Lose Some

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:14:00 +0000

Apple’s celebration of a recent German court ruling upholding a sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablets was cut short when another German court handed it a defeat to go along with its victory.

The Munich I Regional Court on Wednesday evening denied Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus, Samsung’s flagship Android smartphone, and its Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a newer version of the tablet intended to further differentiate it from Apple’s iPad, keeping it immune from litigation.

That differentiation didn’t much come into play in this ruling, though.

At issue in this case was a touchscreen-related patent that Munich Regional Court Judge Andreas Mueller evidently felt wouldn’t stand up. Said Mueller, “Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection.”

So, two patent spats resolved — for the time being. But the broader intellectual property battle between Apple and Samsung continues to rage on in various courts around the world.

Both AT&T and Verizon Change the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:05:00 +0000

The two leading cellular carriers in the USA, AT&T and Verizon, have both announced significant news in the last few months that will affect their data plans and network capabilities respectively. The upgrades should affect users’ everyday run-of-the-mill mobile activities, from phone number lookup to data downloads and social networking.

AT&T is rolling out new data plans that will affect their smartphone and tablet users. The new plans will carry a $5 price increase, but will facilitate more data downloads. These upgraded plans now involve the following price range: $15 per month/200MB (called “DataPlus”), $25 per month/2GB (called “DataPro”), and $45 per month/4GB with tethering included. Users will pay $15 for each additional 200MB of data. This will prevent people from getting hasty overage feeds for exceeding their data. Tablet devices will be able to service only 3GB and 5GB options. The new price ranges will be fixed for new customers, though existing customers will have the chance to stick to their old plans except for the $30 unlimited smartphone plan, which is now functionally extinct.

Changes to tethering have changed as well and will include iPhone options for the first time. Users will be able to tether their iPhones to their computers and use them as modems. This feature was a long time coming and long overdue. Never has the word “soon” become more tedious for iPhone users.

Meanwhile, Verizon continues to expand its 4G LTE infrastructure, covering an additional five markets: Glens Falls and Utica, N.Y.; Lawton, Oklahoma; Brownsville and McAllen, Texas and additional improvements to the established network in Atlanta, Houston, Spokane. These enhancements will bring them to a total of 195 cities, covering 200 million Americans.
The 4G LTE network provides customers with top-notch wireless data usage, media streaming services, file downloading, and Internet speeds (somewhere on the order of 10 times faster than 3G). This new push by Verizon seems to show a concern for America’s middle markets, where small businesses could thrive off the new service and take considerable advantage. As Verizon fills in the market gaps from coast to coast, we can expect to see other providers racing to catch up and join the 4G race.

How will these changes affect the cellphone provider industry? One can expect competitive, scalable data pricing and upgrades to 4G LTE networks becoming commonplace as demand for more data and better connectivity grows louder in big markets and begins to burgeon in smaller markets.

Android Is No. 1, But Still Makes Little Money

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:58:00 +0000

In just three years, Android has become the king of mobile operating systems. But it’s only now starting to make money for Google, says Larry Page, Google’s chief executive.

Mr. Page described Android as a young product with lots of potential during thecompany’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday. That’s a modest way to describe a piece of software that is installed on about 50 percent of smartphones worldwide.

“We are in the early stages of monetization for a number of our new products, and Android is one of those,” said Mr. Page, in response to an analyst’s questions about making money with Android. He said that Android had a strong advertising business and that its app store had served 11 billion downloads — many of which are free — to smartphone customers.

“But we see a lot of potential for us to make money on Android, and you’ll see us increase that a lot over time,” he added. “It’s hard to give you details about that right now, but I’m very, very optimistic.”

Android is free, open-source software that any manufacturer can use. Part of the reason it is not a bigger revenue generator is that many of the 250 million Android devices that Mr. Page said had been activated are not phones or tablets, where people see ads sold by Google, but rather gadgets like low-cost GPS navigators.

“Because it’s an inexpensive, somewhat open ecosystem, Android has become the backbone of a whole host of devices that people aren’t thinking about, and most of those aren’t phones,” said Jordan Rohan, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “At C.E.S., it became obvious that almost everything was an Android device — it was like introducing the new Android toilet, now with Pandora.”

And although Google is the top advertising company on mobile devices, this segment of the digital advertising business is still small, said Jan Dawson, an analyst with Ovum, a research firm. He estimates that Google will generate over $3 billion in mobile ad revenue this year. But that’s still not much compared to the amount of money Apple makes from selling iPhone hardware.

“It’ll take quite a few years before Google generates the sort of revenue from Android that Apple or other device vendors generate from selling devices,” he said.

Paradoxically, it might benefit Google for Android to produce less revenue, because of the continuing patent litigation over it.

“There are revenues, but Google is careful not to point to them directly, or else that would open up the door to lawsuits that claim damages or claim that some of that revenue should have gone for the patent infringement that Android may be found to cause,” Mr. Rohan said.

Depending on the outcome of litigation and the Motorola Mobility acquisition, Google could eventually be forced to pay license fees for Android devices, or to subsidize handset makers other than Motorola, Mr. Rohan said, which could add several billion dollars in costs.

Despite unknowns about Android’s contribution to Google’s revenue, its strategic value probably accounts for $30 billion to $50 billion of Google’s $190 billion market capitalization, Mr. Rohan estimated. “But people haven’t figured out the actual costs yet, because it’s winding its way through the legal system,” he said. “I think 2012 is the year we’re going to get a better idea of both the revenue model and the cost of Android.”

Who’s gone dark to protest anti-piracy bills?

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Wednesday, Jan. 18: the day of the SOPA "blackout" protest. As you may have seen from our coverage, major names in the online world such as Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla and Reddit are censoring their own websites with black bars and blacked-out pages in protest of SOPA and PIPA, two online anti-piracy bills currently under consideration on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers who support the bills say the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act will protect the intellectual property rights of music, movie and TV studios. But the websites and tech giants taking part in the Wednesday blackout argue that SOPA and PIPA would allow for a censoring of the Internet that would forever alter the Web and what we can do, say and publish online.

And it's not just Silicon Valley that's protesting SOPA and PIPA in the day-long blackout -- a few publications that cover the tech world are taking part as well, including Wired and ArsTechnica.

Here's a list of more than 30 websites (and screen shots of each) we've spotted that are protesting today in the form of full-on blackouts or even just making their anti-SOPA and anti-PIPA stances known publicly. If there are a few we've missed, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Wikipedia.org

Google.com

Craigslist.org

Mozilla Firefox's start page

BoingBoing.net

Reddit.com

ArsTechnica.com

Wired.com

TheVerge.com

OReilly.com

TechCrunch.com

MoveOn.org

WordPress.com

Xkcd.com

Fark.com

4Chan.com

GigaOm.com

FunnyOrDie.com

PerezHilton.com

GoDaddy.com

KnowYourMeme.com

Imgur.com

BoardgameGeek.com

Newgrounds.com

UrbanSpoon.com

DemocraticUnderground.com

JoinDiaspora.com
Heritage.org

GameBreaker.tv

Pocho.com

RateYourMusic.com

SparkFun.com

DayTrader.com

TextsFromLastNight.com

Android Design tells the Ice Cream Sandwich story

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:08:00 +0000

If you're writing apps for Android, or even thinking about it, Google has a new site for you: Android Design. Well, I think it's new. A blog post popped into my RSS feeds late this afternoon, but dated yesterday. So I can't say whence came Android Design.

Christian Robertson, the guy behind the Roboto font family used in Ice Cream Sandwich -- you know, Android 4.0 -- calls the new site "the place to learn about principles, building blocks, and patterns for creating world-class Android user interfaces. Whether you’re a UI professional or a developer playing that role, these docs show you how to make good design decisions, big and small". Heck, even if you're just an Ice Cream Sandwich user (gimme Galaxy Nexus), Android Design is worth your time.

Why end users? Because the site goes into vivid detail about the design principles behind Ice Cream Sandwich. It's essentially the operating systems' story -- and that will grow with the number of devices. Until this week's Consumer Electronics Show, Android 4.0 was available just on Galaxy Nexus or to those Nexus S smartphones having received the update (I'm still waiting for it). But several mobile device manufacturers upped their commitment during CES. For example, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime will get ICS imminently and new Huawei MediaPads will ship with Android 4.0 later in the quarter.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the future of Android, closing the fork between Gingerbread (for smartphones) and Honeycomb (for tablets). Whatever design principles Google applies here will carry forward to future versions. Perhaps there will be future integration, between Android and Chrome OS, down the road -- or Android could someday replace the browser-based operating system.

Perhaps because of my profession, I glommed on to writing guidelines for developers' apps, which could apply to day-to-day communications for anyone:

1. Keep it brief. Be concise, simple and precise. Start with a 30 character limit (including spaces), and don't use more unless absolutely necessary.
2. Keep it simple. Pretend you're speaking to someone who's smart and competent, but doesn't know technical jargon and may not speak English very well. Use short words, active verbs, and common nouns.
3. Be friendly. Use contractions. Talk directly to the reader using second person ("you"). If your text doesn't read the way you'd say it in casual conversation, it's probably not the way you should write it. Don't be abrupt or annoying and make the user feel safe, happy and energized.
4. Put the most important thing first. The first two words (around 11 characters, including spaces) should include at least a taste of the most important information in the string. If they don't, start over.
5. Describe only what's necessary, and no more. Don't try to explain subtle differences. They will be lost on most users.
6. Avoid repetition. If a significant term gets repeated within a screen or block of text, find a way to use it just once.

I agree with all but the last, for general writing (apps are different). In long-form writing, a little repetition helps to emphasize the point.

As for Android Design, Robertson promises: "The Android User Experience Team is committed to helping you design amazing apps that people love, and this is just the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll expand Android Design with more in-depth contents".

Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:25:00 +0000

The Amazon Kindle Fire, as confirmed by multiple reports including company sources, has done amazingly well for itself. There have been third-party reports suggesting the growing sales of the Kindle Fire have taken away, potentially, revenue from sales of anywhere between one and 2 million units of the iPad, in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The news, however, has yet to be confirmed by official sources.

In any case, the fact remains that Amazon's Kindle range of tablets (and in particular the Kindle Fire) is one of the best-selling tablets in the market, despite its not having as many high-end features.

Check out Amazon's Kindle Fire and Apple's iPad 2, as they go head-to-head..

Size: The iPad 2 has a dimension of 241.2×185.7×8.8 mm and weighs 1.33 pounds, while the Wi-Fi and 3G version of the iPad 2 weighs 1.35 pounds. The Amazon Kindle Fire has dimensions of 90×120×11 mm and weighs 0.91 pounds.

Must Read

Display: Amazon's tablet has 1024 x 600 screen resolution capabilities at 169 ppi, while the iPad 2 has an LCD screen and has resolution capabilities of 1024 x 768 at 132 ppi.

Processor and Memory: The Kindle Fire comes with 8GB of storage space which certainly seems insignificant, compared to even the smallest of the iPads, which come with 16, 32 and 64GB of storage space. The point, however, is that while designing their product, the Amazon designers focused on the practical uses of secondary storage spaces... meaning the Kindle Fire offers cloud storage options, although only for content purchased on Amazon.com
The iPad 2 has a 1GHZ Apple A5 custom dual-core processor and 512MB of memory. The Kindle Fire, on the other hand, has a 1GHZ dual-core TI OMAP 4 processor and also offers 512MB of memory.

Operating System: The iPad 2 uses the iOS 5 software while the Fire runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Battery: The iPad offers about ten hours of battery life while the Kindle lasts for about eight hours.

Camera: The iPad 2 features dual cameras. The rear camera has a 5 megapixel digital zoom unit that can be used to record video and capture up to 30 high-definition frames per second, with audio. The front camera is only a VGA unit, though. Nevertheless, this is still much better than the Fire, which has no cameras, either in the front or at the back.

Pricing: The Kindle Fire comes at the amazingly low price of $199, while the iPad 2 ranges between $499 and $899.

Apps and GPS: The Kindle Fire has a little more than 15,000 applications to choose from, while the iPad 2 has more than 90,000 applications. Meanwhile, the Fire does not have the GPS option, unlike the 3G models of the iPad.

Music: Unlike Apple's iTunes store, the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Amazon Web site allow users to download Digital Rights Management-free (DRM) music; in essence, allowing you to transfer them to any device you like.

At the end of the day, given its reasonable pricing and neat looks, the Kindle Fire provides understandably intense competition to the iPad 2. However, it must also be said that truly take on the iPad and other competitors, Amazon will need to look at improving some of the features it offers and include some others it doesn't.

Google Gets IBM Patents, Including One for a Semantic Social Network

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Google got a late Christmas gift in the form of 217 patents, acquired by way of IBM. While the patents cover a variety of topics, one in particular could give the search giant a new tool for its social network, Google+.

The patents cover many different technologies, but they mainly deal with data services like email management, online calendars and transferring web apps between devices. The patent grab, first reported by SEO by the Sea, potentially serves two purposes: providing avenues to develop new products, and providing ammunition in litigation.

The latter reason is undoubtedly the primary one. The search giant had previously received more than 2,000 patents from IBM over the past year, a year that’s seen an unprecedented amount of lawsuits in the field of patent law. Most notoriously, Apple has sued, in one form or another, many companies involved in building devices for the Android platform, including HTC, LG, and Motorola. Apple even won a recent case, which effectively forces HTC to stop selling certain devices in the U.S. or create a software fix.

By shoring up its patent portfolio, Google will be that much stronger when in its defense of Android. A big reason behind the company’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility this past summer was to get its hands on Motorola’s large cache of patents (24,000, including pending ones).

On the product development side, it’s anyone’s guess which of the IBM patents may become future products, but social-media watchers might be interested in U.S. Patent 7,865,592: “Using semantic networks to develop a social network.”

The patent details how a social network could be leveraged to lead users to find “experts” or like-minded enthusiasts on specific topics. As the patent’s summary describes, “A method, apparatus and program product are provided for identifying common interests between users of a communication network. … [Interests] may be determined, for example, by calculating a ratio of the number of words in a content source to the time spent viewing the content.”

For example, you may want to find someone knowledgeable about real estate in a specific neighborhood to ask for buying advice. But the right person may not list that as an “interest,” so you may not be able to easily find them in your expanded network (which includes friends of friends). A semantic network would find the right person to talk to by analyzing which people in your network post content having to do with the specific topic, and how much time others spend reading it.

Might we see a Google+ expand its abilities someday with the semantic social network patent? And is it something you’d be interested in? Let us know in the comments.

Google Pulls Siri App from Android Market

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:34:00 +0000

Google has reportedly yanked an app masquerading as Siri, Apple's voice command personal assistant software, from the Android marketplace.

The move comes amid a deluge of Siri wannabes that have invaded the Android market since Apple introduced the iPhone 4S and its innovative features.

An app called Siri for Android, made by an outfit called Official Software, appeared in the Android market on Friday and was pulled from the bazaar by Google just hours after its arrival there, according to a report by The Next Web.

Also, all other apps by Official Software disappeared from the market, as it appears that Google has pulled the software maker's account, which allows it to sell programs at the outlet.

The software company did a number of dubious things that appear to have prompted Google to act against the firm.

For example, it used Apple's Siri icon for the Official Software Android app. The word "official" was used in a way to make the app look like it was a true clone of the Apple app. When the Siri icon was tapped, all Official Software's app did was load Google's own voice command software, Voice Actions.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened.

A French developer has even found a way to tap into Apple's servers to enable software running on other mobile phone platforms to duplicate Siri's feats, although the legality of such a move would be doubtful.

A search for "Siri" on the Android Market by PCWorld revealed 131 hits, but less than a handful of the programs had more than 10,000 downloads. They were Vlingo Virtual Assistant (32,328 downloads), Iris (20,309), Skyvi (19,444) and Speaktoit Assistant (11,600).

While the Android world has been laboring hard to emulate Siri's functionality since Apple pulled the wraps off it, it hasn't quite made it there yet,according to PC World's Ed Albro.

"I've concluded that you can find decent virtual help on an Android phone, but the assistants available likely won't be as smooth and capable as Siri," he wrote.

He described Siri as the classic executive secretary -- "always well-dressed and possessed of an elephant's memory and a dry wit."

The whole time with ALL the BUZZ over SIRI, I have been using VLINGO for a long time and love it. Before SIRI or SAM, VLINGO....... Try it, darn easy.

Apple vs. Android: A grueling patent war

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:39:00 +0000

HTC was forced to drop one feature. Motorola may have to drop another. More to come.

Many commentators took at face value HTC's declaration of "an actual victory" after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that it had infringed Apple's (AAPL) patent on software that allowed a user to dial a number embedded in an e-mail simply by clicking on it. That particular feature was only one of 10 patents Apple had tried to assert, HTC argued, and the Taiwanese manufacturer of Google (GOOG) Android phones had already found a way to remove it.

Now it looks like Motorola (MOT) may have to do something similar about Apple's patented method of flipping through pages in a smartphone photo gallery and zooming in on a particular image. According to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, a court in Munich is likely to rule in February that Motorola's Android phones infringe this patent as well. Another Android phone manufacturer -- Samsung -- was already forced to drop the feature by a Dutch court's injunction in August.

Neither case constitutes a knockout blow for Apple, but Mueller argues that the company is making headway in a war of attrition in which Android manufacturers have to modify their smartphones one feature at a time to work around Apple's original ideas -- which, he says, is what Steve Jobs wanted all along.

"While one or two wins of this kind won't be enough to change consumer preferences," Mueller writes, "the aggregate effect of the enforcement of half a dozen or more patents of this kind could make an appreciable difference in user experience."

Apple, he says, is fighting for long-term opportunities.
"As long as it doesn't come under enormous pressure, it can afford to crack one nut at a time, country by country. In this you-win-some-you-lose-some game, a substantial drop-out rate is less important than steady progress."

Android device activations reach 700,000 per day

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Android chief and Google VP Andy Rubin revealed late Tuesday that device activations for the mobile OS platform have reached 700,00 units per day.

The executive provided more color on the number on his company's Google+ social networking service.

"For those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and "activations" means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service."

Rubin's announcement follows an update from a quarterly earnings call in July when Google touted a new figure of 550,000. In June, Rubin announced that activations had topped 500,000 a day and were growing at a rate of 4.4 percent per week.

Android growth appeared to have tapered off some, as the platform's growth rate in June and July would have presumably pushed the platform past the 700,000 per day mark by the end of September.

Regardless, Google has seen substantial growth in Android's user base this year. Recent figures from The NPD Group show that Android-based smartphones represented a 53 percent share of the market from the beginning of the year to the end of October. By comparison, Apple's iPhone held 29 percent.

At least for now, Apple is maintaining a sizable lead on Android in the tablet market. IDC reports that the iPad held a 61.5 percent share of the tablet market in the third quarter. However, with the addition of sales of Amazon's Kindle Fire in the fourth quarter, the iPad is expected to drop to 59 percent market share.

As Google has widened its lead on Apple, the iPhone maker has declined to continue updating its activation numbers. The most recent figure comes from last October, when late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs revealed that iOS activations stood at 275,000 on average per day. CEO Tim Cook did, however, say that cumulative iOS sales topped 250 million devices during the most recent September quarter.

SCAM WARNING: AT&T Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:21:00 +0000

One of us got this message in our email account, WOW! Huge mistake for them!

Detailed Analysis

But check out the E-Mail address that it came from? "willandjudith @ btopenworld.com" Yeah..... NOT AT&T !

Let us know if you get a message like this one, we are collecting them. We are going after them! We are going to flood this email address every day!
This email, which purports to be from US telecommunications giant, AT&T, claims that AT&T accounts are set to be shut down. According to the message, users who wish to keep their accounts must verify them by replying with username and password details.

However, the email is not from AT&T and the claim that all unused accounts are about to be closed is untrue. In fact, the message is an attempt by criminals to trick users into divulging their account login details. Those who fall for the ruse and send the requested details will be effectively handing control of their AT&&T accounts to scammers. Once they have collected a victim's login details, the scammers can login to the compromised account, steal more personal information stored in the account's files and use the account to launch further scam and spam campaigns. Often, the scammers use the hijacked accounts to send typical "stranded in a foreign country" scam messages to people on the victim's contact list. Because the messages apparently come from a person that the recipients know, they may be more inclined to believe the scammer's story and send money as requested.

AT&T will never send you an unsolicited email that expects you to reply with sensitive information such as passwords. Nor will any other legitimate Internet or telecommunications company. This is a common scam that has targeted users of several high profile services, including Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Bigpond.

Some variants of the scam instruct recipients to follow a link which opens a bogus website form that asks them to submit account login details. Other variants include the bogus form in an attached file. If you receive one of these emails, do not reply. Do not open any attachments that the message may contain. Do not click any links in the email.

Siri meets its match with Google’s Majel

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:12:00 +0000

Ask any honest Android fanboy what he envies about the iPhone 4S and chances are good that he or she will menton Siri. And since we're speaking honestly, I'll be the first to admit that this is one feature that I wish my Android could do.

Sure, there are plenty of apps vying for the "Android version of Siri," but none of them are as quite as well-rounded as the iOS app.

Thankfully, we should have an official client on the way as rumors of a "Majel" project began picking up steam this week. Factoring in the early details uncovered by Android And Me and one very recent acquisition, it appears that Google is wasting no time in bringing about a rebuttal.

In the few days since the first information came to light, Android And Me has obtained new tips that paint the picture of a fast-tracked project. One particularly interesting detail comes from a source who claims to have spent time with an early release.

Their tipster advises that it was "definitely as good, or better, than Siri" and that the version that he used was tablet-based. The source goes on to describe trays of results which can be swiped away or selected based on what the user was looking for.

Like, if you say "show me the Statue of Liberty" it'll automatically take you to Google Image results, but another tray beneath it might be its location on Google Maps and then another tray might have a Wikipedia page. It's also pretty good at giving you succinct answers if you ask it a question. The UI is definitely more powerful than Siri's, even if a little harder to navigate. At least at one phase of the development you would activate it by saying "Computer..." It was hard not to use a Jean Luc Piccard accent when doing it!"

A second, anonymous Google employee indicates that over the last few years Google X's focus has been based around a super smart AI robot that leverages the tech behind a number of popular Google programs. Described as being 'the most amazing thing" he'd ever seen, the AI had passed the Turing Test 93 percent of the time over the course of an hour long IM-like conversation.

Based on what I'm reading here, I see a future of being able to talk with my phone in a casual manner for extended periods of time, and not with simple requests such as, "What is the weather forecast for San Diego tomorrow?"

Skip to around 5:13 in the video below to see exactly what type of questions Google expects to be able to handle in the future. I don't know about you, but this sounds like a more-than-viable alternative to Siri.

Android And Me goes on to pull together quotes from industry players including Google's Manager of Speech Technology and Google's computer-interface designer and user-experience lead. I find it interesting to look back all all of these statements and interviews as many of them feature references to Star Trek.

As CNET blogger Lance Whitney pointed out earlier this week, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry provided the voice to the computer system from the television series. Has Google been leaving bread crumbs to the project all along, hiding it in plain site?

As I read through the comments from the various outlets covering the Majel project, I sense a growing excitement over an official Google product of this scale. If there's any name that could power a new search and AI system for Android, it would be Google.

It is expected that Majel will find its way into the market in early 2012 where I assume it will be offered as standalone application. It would not surprise me to see Google unveil the next release of Android (Jellybean) in June at Google IO and announce that Majel is integrated into the platform itself.

Can Zynga break free from Facebook?

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:44:00 +0000

"We generate substantially all of our revenue and players through the Facebook platform and expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable future," Zynga wrote in its IPO prospectus.

Technically, the admission is called a risk factor. But since Zynga, the wildly popular maker of mobile and social games such as "Mafia Wars" and "FarmVille," generates about 95 percent of its revenue through Facebook, the worry for investors is that its relationship with Mark Zuckerberg's social network is less a risk factor than a business model.

And how Zynga ultimately performs as a public company -- it is aiming to raise $925 million at a $9 billion valuation when it begins trading on theNasdaq on Friday -- will depend in large part on its ability to break free from Facebook. Or at least its ability to convince investors that it can do so.

So far, however, the skeptics remain unconvinced. At Zynga's IPO roadshow luncheon in San Francisco on Monday, investors spent most of the question and answer time with Zynga executives asking about Facebook.

"Any time you have such a large reliance on a single company, you have to be concerned," said Dan Niles, chief investment officer of AlphaOne Capital Partners, who didn't attend the luncheon but watched one of Zynga's presentations over the Internet.

From an investment perspective, ignoring the fact that all but 5 percent of Zynga's $828 million in revenue in the first nine months of this year came from Facebook could be detrimental.

Zynga conceded that point in its IPO prospectus, noting that, "any deterioration in our relationship with Facebook would harm our business and adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock."

Facebook takes a 30 percent cut of the revenue Zynga derives from the social network, which features more than 222 million monthly active Zynga users, according to the data tracking website AppData. Zynga itself makes most of its money from less than 3 percent of its players, who buy virtual items like trucks and poker chips.

Being so dependent on one company clearly poses risks to Zynga's growth potential. If Facebook's user growth slows, for instance, Zynga's growth is likely to slow as well. Or, in an extreme case, if Facebook suddenly decided to banish games, it could harm Zynga's entire business.

Zynga is also beholden to Facebook in other ways. According to a regulatory filing on July 18, the company has to publish some of its games exclusively on Facebook before other platforms.

What's worse, Zynga may have botched one main attempt it has thus far made at trying to break away from Facebook.

When the company unveiled its new online platform "Zynga Direct" during a rare media event at its San Francisco headquarters in October, it was billed as a way for Zynga to deal directly with its consumers without an intermediary.

But when players visited Zynga's website to sign up for a user name, called a "Z Tag," they were told to first install the Zynga app on Facebook, giving the impression that it was being more closely integrated with the world's largest social network instead of being weaned off of it.

A Zynga spokesman on Wednesday declined to comment on the company's IPO.

FACEBOOK FLIPSIDE

The counter argument is that Zynga's reliance on the platform may attract investors looking to bet on Facebook's growth. With Facebook's IPO at least several months away, there currently are not many ways to gain exposure to Facebook on the stock market.

"Ahead of Facebook's IPO, Zynga is the closest proxy investors have," said Robert W. Baird & Co analyst Colin Sebastian. "As of today, Zynga is highly dependent on Facebook and could bring in investors who are looking to find ways to gain exposure to social media."

Akram Yosri, managing partner of 3i Capital Group, attended Zynga's roadshow presentation in New York and said he was satisfied with how management responded to questions about Facebook and how Zynga can grow in partnership with the social network.

"They didn't dodge the question," said Yosri, whose firm has $1.4 billion in assets under management. "As long as it's a working relationship, it's a plus for Zynga because Facebook is going to be there a long time and has a proven business model. "

Zynga also gathers lots of data on its millions of users, more than half of whom are female, which marketers could find attractive.

CHINA AND BEYOND

Still, Zynga faces a long road to a less Facebook-dependent future. According to regulatory filings, Zynga's contract with Facebook doesn't come up for review until 2015. This gives it three years to find new revenue sources outside the social network such as moving into new markets like Asia and making more games for mobile devices.

In July, Zynga entered mainland China's games market for the first time, partnering with Chinese platform Tencent for a local version of the game "CityVille."

"Zynga has at least until that time to expand its presence in Asia and it is trying to do that aggressively in mobile," said Steve Sorrano, an equity analyst at Calvert Investment Management, which has $12 billion of assets under management.

Sorrano added, however, that investors might find Zynga too risky to bet on while it is building out its business in these new areas since it is unclear whether the company can deliver a high enough or sustainable return on capital investment.

"That's a relative unknown for a young company in an industry that is developing this rapidly. This raises risks for going in(to the stock) that early," Sorrano said.

Zynga's total expenses rose 115 percent to $747.9 million in the first nine months of the year, a sign that its international ambitions are adding to costs.

With regard to mobile, while games such as "Words With Friends" have become hits, its roughly 13 million mobile users are dwarfed by the hundreds of millions of users who play it on Facebook.

While Zynga was one of the earliest game makers on the Facebook platform, it lacks that first mover advantage on mobile. For instance, Disney released a mobile game in September called "Where's my Water" that is ranked ahead of some Zynga titles in Apple's App store.

And investors said that Zynga may already be losing market share on Facebook itself, as video game companies such as Electronic Arts make large acquisitions to compete with it. Indeed, AlphaOne's Niles pointed to EA's "The Sims Social" game, which has 28 million monthly active users, as a successful example of encroachment by another video game company on Zynga's turf.

Over time, however, there is hope the Zynga can break free from Facebook with services like "Zynga Direct." Though that service still has no date for when it will launch or which games will be available, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said that it "should help reduce Zynga's platform risk somewhat."

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker in New York, additional reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Peter Lauria and Steve Orlofsky)

Google pulls fraudulent apps from Android Market

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Google has recently removed 22 fraudulent apps from Android Market that rack up hidden charges for unsuspecting users who downloaded seemingly innocent services, such as horoscopes, wallpapers and games.

Apparently, these forecasts and other apps have been ploys for criminals to lure consumers into clicking on options that led to premium charges tied to SMS usage.

Lookout Mobile Security posted about RuFraud on its website, which appeared in batches of horoscope, wallpaper and games apps that used pop culture appeal in conjuring Angry Birds and "Twilight."

According to Lookout, Google responded quickly to Lookout's alert to pull the piracy apps from the Android Market, but more reappeared over the weekend, masquerading as "free versions of popular games."

Google would not comment on the incident.

Lookout elaborated: "It appears that these apps may have reached a broader audience while published to the market: we estimate upwards of 14,000 downloads of these apps."

It affected mostly users in Europe.

The company has deployed an over-the-air update that protects those who have downloaded Lookout from all known instances of RuFraud.

Android is ahead of iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt boasted of Android's wins against the iPhone during an interview this week. But Google can't just sit back and relax.

"Android is ahead of iPhone now," crowed Schmidt during Wednesday's on-stage interview at the annual Le Web tech confab held in France.

"What kind of lead? [It's ahead] by unit volume, with ICS [Ice Cream Sandwich] features, prices are lower, with more vendors, more price points--do I need to continue the list? It's free."
Schmidt doesn't mince words, does he? Obviously, he's proud of Android's achievement, which has gone from zero to hero in three short years, toppling the likes (and fortunes) of the once-mighty Nokia and Research In Motion to take the worldwide smartphone crown.

To say that Android's rise has been nothing short of phenomenal is an understatement. Google is activating 550,000 new Android handsets per day, and those users are downloading new apps at the rate of 1 billion per month. Google this week announced that Android users have downloaded 10 billion applications since the Android Market launched in 2008 (still about 50% behind iPhone's numbers).

[ Apps are one reasons Android is doing so well. View a slideshow on 10 Epic Android Apps. ]

Questions from attendees of the event took Schmidt to task over the quality of those apps, however. When asked why Android apps aren't of the same quality as iOS apps, Schmidt responded, "Six months from now, you'll say the opposite. Ultimately, application vendors are driven by volume. The volume is favored by the open approach Google is taking. Whether you like ICS or not, you will want to develop for that platform, perhaps even first."

At this point, there are still more iOS devices out there than Android devices, but that probably won't hold true for long. Apple's daily activation rates are far lower than Android's. Android's momentum, mind share, and opportunity are clear. Many developers still target iOS first and Android second, but Schmidt sees that changing in Android's favor.

What Schmidt is forgetting, however, is Android's update story.

According to the stats published by Google, Gingerbread versions 2.3 through 2.3.7 account for 50.6% of all the Android smartphones out there. This is the first time that Gingerbread has been the dominant version of Android on Google smartphones. (Reminder, Gingerbread was first released in December 2010).

Android 2.2 Froyo fell to second place, with a still-too-large 35.3% share of Android phones. Android 2.1 Eclair is on 9.6% of Android phones, and, shockingly, Android 1.6 Donut is on 1.6% of Android phones.

Right now, Ice Cream Sandwich's share of the Android Market has to be under 1%.
By way of comparison, about 40% of iOS device users have updated to iOS 5, the latest version.

Schmidt is not wrong to be proud of Android and not wrong to be confident in its future, but that doesn't mean Google can sit back and relax. It still has plenty to tackle. It has to work with its handset maker and carrier partners to get Ice Cream Sandwich onto as any handsets as possible, as quickly as possible. That's a more difficult task than I think Schmidt seems to realize.

Here's Schmidt's full interview.

The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 25-29 in Orlando, Fla. Find out more.

Google and Verizon Battle Over Mobile Payments

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Google Wallet is currently available on the Nexus S smartphone. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

It always gets ugly when there’s money involved.

Just days before Google’s next flagship smartphone launch, Google and Verizon are locked in a public battle over mobile payments, with both companies vying for a foothold in the fledgling mobile e-commerce arena.

The issue in question: Whether Google’s e-commerce app — dubbed Google Wallet — should appear on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the biggest Android smartphone launch of 2011. Google says Verizon doesn’t want Wallet on the phone.

“Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product,” a Google spokesman told Wired in an e-mail late Monday evening.

Unfortunately for Google, it doesn’t have much time to negotiate, as rumor says the phone is set to debut in the United States this Friday, Dec. 9, on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

One of the phone’s marquee features is its NFC (near-field communication) technology, which allows the phone to communicate with other NFC-enabled devices and terminals. In theory, NFC could allow you to pay for coffee at a nearby Peet’s, or swap information between two NFC-capable phones. Google Wallet, then, is Google’s e-commerce app that takes advantage of NFC technology, allowing users to buy small retail items with a simple wave of their phones.

Verizon’s anti-Wallet stance is a big problem for Google, as Google needs as many devices running Wallet as it can get. As of today, only the Sprint-carried Nexus S 4G is capable of using the Google Wallet app. This means that out of the 200-plus devices running the Android operating system, only one can run Wallet.

In its effort to push Wallet to mainstream consumers, Google already faces significant barriers — infrastructure installation, retail employee training, weak consumer awareness — so this latest diss from Verizon only makes its job harder.

So why would Verizon want to keep Wallet off of its phones?

On Tuesday morning, Verizon cried concerns about the way Wallet handles security. In an e-mail, a Verizon spokesman told Wired.com the following:

Recent reports that Verizon is blocking Google Wallet on our devices are false. Verizon does not block applications.

Google Wallet does not simply access the operating system and basic hardware of our phones like thousands of other applications. Instead, in order to work as architected by Google, Google Wallet needs to be integrated into a new, secure and proprietary hardware element in our phones.

We are continuing our commercial discussions with Google on this issue.

Verizon’s statements are true. Part of what makes Google Wallet a safe payments app is its integration with so-called “secure element” hardware, essentially a chip that houses your credit card credentials on the phone itself.

Nonetheless, for Verizon to raise concerns about app implementation this late in the game seems disingenuous. “Sprint didn’t seem to balk at the security, and they’ve had it up and running on phones for some time now,” said Greg Sterling, owner of Sterling Market Consulting and a long-time contributor to Search Engine Land. “It seems like it could be a delaying tactic.”

Verizon already has skin in the mobile payments game, so it may indeed be acting to slow Wallet’s adoption on a second handset. Last year, three out of the four major telcos in the U.S. — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — came together to form Isis, a carrier-backed version of a digital wallet just like Google’s.

Currently, Sprint is the only major carrier to eschew Isis support — just like it’s the only carrier to offer a phone with Google Wallet. Naturally, if carriers decide to prop up Isis by knocking down Google Wallet, it’s feasible that Wallet will also be barred in upcoming phones carried by AT&T and T-Mobile.

An Isis spokesman declined to comment, referring Wired.com to Verizon’s previous statement.
“This is a question of Verizon not wanting Google to beat them to the punch,” said Simon Buckingham, CEO of mobile app store Appitalism Inc., in an interview. “It’s a power struggle over a major land grab for U.S. territory.”

Isis lacks a number of features Google Wallet offers — not the least of which includes an actual released product. Wallet has been on the market for months now, and launched with the support of Mastercard and a significant number of retail partners. Google is also working with Visa, AmEx and others to bring more card support to the app. Further, Google Wallet works in conjunction with Google Offers, the company’s Groupon-like daily deals program.

Conversely, Isis hasn’t launched, and has yet to gain the support of any major credit card companies. But the carriers have something that Google doesn’t have: Millions of credit card-backed customer accounts. With an initiative like Isis, mobile customers could ostensibly funnel their mobile wallet purchases to their monthly phone bills. That means no new credit card numbers to register, and no significant barriers to entry. It’s a fast track into mobile e-commerce.

But blocking Wallet in an effort to prop up Isis may also be short-sighted.

“It reeks of anti-competitive behavior,” said Sterling. “These days, the moment anyone does anything anti-competitive, you see class-action lawsuits and even possible congressional consequences.”

Regardless of how this plays out, it’s an annoying sticking point for Google’s mobile payments app. Google has made it more than clear that NFC-based economics is the way of the future, and the company will continue to push handset manufacturers into creating devices with NFC chips inside.

What’s New YouTube?

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:57:00 +0000

Just recently Google, the search giant had revamped Gmail and it’s now gone ahead and done the same to its popular video sharing website YouTube (if you have recently visited the website, you will understand what we are talking about). The Home page has been re-designed (Google has used its own colour scheme of grey and white) and all the activity from subscribed channels now appears directly on the home page. Let us explore the changes made to the website in detail.

First of all, when a user logs in, he/she will be able to see the recent activity from their subscriptions. They can also browse and add new ‘channels’ to their homepage. For adding a channel, users can click on the ‘add channels’ button on the left side of the homepage (under the advertisement) and then browse the available categories (20 in total, like top blogs, animation, beauty and fashion, automotive, comedy and celebrity and gossip etc) to find interesting channels.

They can then preview the channels content with a click and once a channel is selected, users can subscribe to that particular channel. All the activity from that Channel will appear on the user’s homepage.

An option of connecting with Google+ and Facebook has also been provided to the user so that he/she can share their favourites with friends.

Additionally, channel owners can also personalize their channels by customizing their own featured tab and communicate directly with their subscribers by posting bulletins to their YouTube homepages. They can also use the ‘channel feed’ as a distribution centre since any content that is shared by the channel owner (like uploads, comments, favourites, likes, playlists etc) is directly posted on their feeds and can be viewed by their subscribers.

There is no doubt that Google has put a lot of focus on the channels. Users can now have more control over their channels and also personalize them as per their liking. The fact that connectivity options with Google+ and Facebook has been provided could mean that Google is looking to make YouTube a globally connected video-sharing site. Although the large advertisement right at the top of the page is a turn off, it can easily be hidden so it’s not much of a problem.

New Google+ Ad Shows Social Network’s Biggest Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Google has released yet another TV commercial to help demonstrate the features of its new social network, Google+. Like the other marketing efforts, the ad is slick, polished and even sort of funny. Unfortunately, it also demonstrates everything that’s wrong with Google+ in a just minute’s time. In fact, if the video hadn’t been posted to Google’s own YouTube channel, you may have almost wondered if it was a parody put out by Facebook PR.

The ad, published the day prior to Thanksgiving in the U.S., tells the tale of two Google+ users, Kyle and Lisa. In it, Kyle places Lisa into his “Love of My Life” Circle while Lisa puts Kyle in her own unfortunately named “Creepers” Circle. Oh, poor Kyle! Over time, though, it becomes clear that Lisa and Kyle’s relationship changes, as the ad shows Lisa moving Kyle into a variety of other Circles, including “Book Club,” “Guys With Cars” (shallow much, Lisa?), “Ski House,” “Maybes” and finally, “Keepers.” Cue the awwwwww’s, right? Wrong.

What the ad has so effectively demonstrated is the incredible amount of work it involves to constantly qualify our interpersonal relationships. To be fair, neither Facebook nor Google+ have gotten this 100% right. Friendships aren’t binary (friend or not) as they are by default Facebook, but they’re also not meant to be obsessively organized into groups like they are on Google+. Relationships change. They’re dynamic. And herein lies the problem with this aspect of the Google+ value proposition: Circles don’t work.

When Google+ launched, Circles were introduced as a means to give you back the privacy and control that Facebook once stole from its users. (Well, prior to the launch of Facebook’s own automatic smart lists feature, that is - take that, Google+!).

When you share with a Circle of “Friends” on Google+, you know your boss, mom, and various frenemies won’t see the update. Guaranteed.

But not only do the “normals” hate making lists, even the geekier among us will eventually encounter something I once dubbed “Circle Management Overhead.” Drag-and-drop, however cute the user interface, is a poor substitue for automation assisted by intelligent algorithms. Heck, even Google knows this, which is why it acquired Katango, the automatic friend sorting service, noting how impressed it was by Katango’s “innovative approach to making your social circles smarter.”

While Circles themselves may be a selling point for Google+ (at least in Google’s mind, if not yours), the Circle Management demonstrated so aptly by “Lisa” in this video is actually a drawback to the whole labor-intensive system. Which is why this Google+ ad is so weird. Why show this off?

At any given moment in time, Lisa knew who Kyle was to her, but her social network did not. That’s not a feature to brag about, that’s a problem that needs to be fixed. Google, to be sure, is working on smarter Circles now. In the meantime, it might be better if Google+ marketing focuses on something that Facebook isn’t doing a better job with, like comparing Google+’s 10-person video chat “Hangouts” with Facebook’s Skype chat, for example, or the Google+/YouTube integration, or the….umm….the, uh….umm….a little help here?

Secret HTTPS Enabled For Google Services

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:41:00 +0000

Google adds forward secure HTTPS encryption for its key Web services to thwart retrospective decryption

Like Fox Mulder in the “X-Files” Google is fighting the future when it comes to securing email search and other Web services.

The search engine provider, which last month made HTTPS encryption its default security mode for search, said it has added forward secret HTTPS for Google+, Gmail, SSL Search and Docs, paving the way for more secure Web services in the future.

Retrospective decryption protection

Most major sites that support HTTPS, such as Facebook and Twitter, do so in a non-forward secret fashion. What this means is that encrypted, normally unreadable email could be recorded while being delivered to a computer today and decrypted in the future by knowledgeable attackers, when computers become much faster.
To combat what it calls “retrospective decryption,” Google is using forward secrecy, which requires that the private keys for a connection are not kept in persistent storage. When an adversary breaks a single key, they will no longer be able to decrypt several months’ worth of connections. Moreover, server operators themselves won’t be able to decrypt HTTPS sessions in the future.

Google said forward secret HTTPS is now live for Gmail and many other Google HTTPS services such as SSL Search, Docs and Google+.

Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox Web browsers and Microsoft Internet Explorer (Vista or later) browsers support forward secrecy using elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDHE), a key agreement protocol that allows two parties possessing an elliptic curve public-private key pair to establish a shared secret over an insecure channel.

No Microsoft Support

Only Chrome and Firefox will initially use it by default with Google services because Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support ECDHE and the RC4 software stream cipher.

Users can check whether they have forward secret connections in Chrome by clicking on the green padlock in the address bar of HTTPS sites. Google’s forward secret connections will have a key exchange mechanism of ECDHE_RSA.

Google Security team member Adam Langley also said Google has released the work that it did on the open-source OpenSSL library that led to forward secrecy HTTPS encryption.
“We would very much like to see forward secrecy become the norm and hope that our deployment serves as a demonstration of the practicality of that vision,” added Langley, who provided more detail of Google’s security move on his personal blog.

Google’s security team has been very active in trying to thwart some of the more mainstream attacks on its Web services.

In April, Google began work on two security projects to improve the public key infrastructure, which was rocked by the Comodo digital certificate spoofing incident in March.

The Google Certificate Catalog is a database of all of the SSL certificates Google’s Web crawlers record in the DNS for the company’s search engine and Web services. The DANE Working Group at the IETF is intended to allow domain operators to publish information about SSL certificates used on their hosts.

Google Music - 7 Things You Need to Know

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Google just made its music cloud service, Google Music, available to all, and it's mostly self-explanatory: You go to music.google.com and start uploading or purchasing music that you can then listen to on your computer, or on your Android phone, Google TV, or iPhone. Just like iTunes, right? Well, not really. Maybe it's not so straightforward after all. Here are a few pointers that may help clear out some of the possible sources of confusion:

1. It can automatically back up iTunes and most other music flies. When you set up the service, you can tell it to upload your iTunes library, your Windows Media Player library, or any file folders you designate. The service supports more file types than competitors iTunes and Amazon Cloud Player. This includes not just the MP3 and AAC formats those support, but also WMA, OGG, and FLAC. The latter are saved as 320 Kbps, even if your originals are of higher quality.

2. It's two separate sites. Google Music is the player and library, but you buy music on the Android Market site—whether or not you ever use any Android device. From the Google Music site, you can also download an app, Music Manager, that scans your PC or Mac for music files and upload it to your cloud-based music locker. The Android Market is where you browse, preview, and purchase new music, which then appears on your Google Music pages or in your Android Music app.

3. You can't download songs to another computer unless you bought them on Google Music. iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player let you download stored music to any computer or compatible mobile device.

4. Some Android devices fully support it, some don't. There is, of course, an Android app, but that hasn't yet been updated with all the new features, and some phones and tablets still don't see music in the Android Market app yet. The whole point of Google Music is to finally give Android mobile users an equivalent to the iTunes services enjoyed by iPhone and iPad users. Google states that this will be updated within days, but it's unclear which phones and tablets' Android versions will be updated on what schedule. Some Android phones and plans, starting with T-Mobile, will even let you pay for music through your phone bill.

5. There's no official iPhone app, but music.google.com works on iOS devices. The Google Music site is even formatted well for iPhone screens. You can listen to any music in your Google Music cloud locker and even buy music from the separate Android Store, but you can't back up music on the iOS device to Google Music. Nor can you download music bought in the Android Music store to the iPhone directly (see #1 for how to do it indirectly).

6. There's tons of free music. But you need to give Google your credit card information even for the free stuff. This could be a concern to those who worry about Google profiling them.

7. You can only share purchased songs to Google+. If you do so, anyone following your Google+ profile will be able to stream the full song once. A Buy button is prominently displayed. Songs you uploaded but didn't buy at the Android Market don't get this treatment.

Google releases Android 'Ice Cream Sandwich' source code

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:35:00 +0000

Google is now sharing its Ice Cream Sandwiches with everybody.

The tech giant has released the source code for its eagerly anticipated Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system -- the first version of Android designed to run on both phones and tablets.

The version of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.1) released by the Mountain View, Calif., company is the same software that will run on the upcoming Galaxy Nexus smartphone, built by Samsung and exclusive (so far) to Verizon Wireless.

"We just released a bit of code we thought this group might be interested in," Google engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru wrote in a post in an Android developer Google Group on Monday. "Over at our Android Open-Source Project git servers, the source code for Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is now available."

The Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and download instructions are available here.
In announcing the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, Queru also offered a new bit of reasoning behind Google's never open sourcing Android Honeycomb, its only version of Android built specifically for tablets.

"This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases," he said of the Ice Cream Sandwich source code. "However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich."

Although Queru described Honeycomb as incomplete, Google's head of Android, Andy Rubin, told Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in March that the company didn't want to open source Honeycomb because it didn't want the tablet-optimized operating system to end up on smartphones.

From Bloomberg Businessweek's March report:

Rubin says that if Google were to open-source the Honeycomb code now, as it has with other versions of Android at similar periods in their development, it couldn't prevent developers from putting the software on phones "and creating a really bad user experience. We have no idea if it will even work on phones."
"Android is an open-source project," he adds. "We have not changed our strategy."

Indeed, with Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android is open source once again.