Jasbir – Etiole

Google all set to pull the plug off the Nexus One Online Store

Jasbir — Sat, 15 May 2010 06:48:36 +0000

Now getting a Nexus One via the web will become a history. Google has just announced that it is all set to pull the plug on the Nexus One web store and that it will concentrate more on selling the phone via retail and carriers. "While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the Web store has not," Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering at Google, wrote in a blog post. People generally want to know more about the product by getting hands on experience. When selling the phone via carriers , the customers will get to know the wide variety of plans available and choose the one which suits them. Google launched the product in early January and people could purchase it online at www.google.com/phone. There were reports about the slow sales via the web, which could be seen as the reason behind such a step. On April 30, Vodafone became Europe's first carrier to sell the Nexus One. Google said Friday that going forward, it will follow this model rather than Web sales. "We'll shift to a similar model globally," Rubin wrote. Once the magnitude of sales through retail rise, Google will certainly put a halt to the web sales. This was a much expected and needed step from Google. Nexus One would stand nowhere if Google stuck to the online sale model and poor sale figures reflected the fact on those revenue charts. While Android devices are on the rise, lets see what the big "G" has got in store for marketing when Big Daddy's like iPhone rule the market!

iPhone 4G coming to AT&T this June?

Jasbir — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:55:57 +0000

What we are seeing hints that iPhone will be releasing this June. Why you ask? We've got a little piece of information, AT&T which is iPhone's official carrier seems to pull back the upgrade eligibility dates. Users noted that instead of the end of the year, it's been pulled back to end of June. June is the month where every year, Apple draws it's curtain off the new iPhone and upgrades. In short, instead of begging it just wants you to pay and get the freaking iPhone 4G. Here's a picture of the upgrade page from MobileCrunch.

While those who are eligible for upgrade get hands on the new device for a little less cash. None of the companies, Apple or AT&T, have made any official announcements regarding this matter. Confused? So , why is AT&T doing this? It could be perhaps, iPhone may become available for more carriers following this launch, so probably AT&T wants to rope in as many customers possible. Another reason, they don't want to lose their current customers who are tired lamenting of AT&T's amazing service (yes, i am being sarcastic). But for now, those who are eligible will get a shot at the new iPhone for sure!

Facebook join likes of Foursquare, Twitter- Location sharing Feature expected.

Jasbir — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:00:16 +0000

Next time when you log in to Facebook Mobile, you might get to share location. Yes, Facebook is following the lines of Twitter, that is to share location via the status updates (Remember Geotagging tweets?). The reports have been circulating for quite some time about the location features. These announcements were expected in the f8 conference, Facebook did announce some, but not the location feature. The code has been spotted Facebook's touch version for iPhone and iPod touch, that reveals a coming "places" tab to accommodate location features. If you run around the code, you'll find a clue in the Javascript code, and stand up and say "Places" is coming! Mcdonald's has already started building a campaign around them. The mobile version will be using the HTML5 location component to extract your location from your phone. Once done, you will be taken into a new Places area, which will have the list of venues around you to check-in. Yeah, the Foursquare way, isn't it? The code also suggests, that Facebook will not only record the latitude and longitude, but also your altitude, heading and speed. This will give Facebook a hell lot of your information, seriously. The Places feature could be a major threat to it's Facebook's friend, Foursqaure which offers similar type of service. One thing is for sure, once Facebook enters the location sharing arena, user acquaintance with it's new feature will be very alacritous since it beholds and army of 400+ Million Users. That means Location Sharing is here to stay and stay longer. [Via TechCrunch]

“iPod, iPad and Xbox are source of distraction” – Obama

Jasbir — Mon, 10 May 2010 08:18:35 +0000

In an address to the Hampton University graduates, President Obama bemoans the iPod as a distraction, and that information has become a distraction posing problems for the democracy. He stated, "You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter," he told the students. "And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy." What the president wants to convey is that these are toys as compared to the laptops. Let me tell you, the iPad has various educational applications , which educate the users, if not distract them. And there is only one benefit by using these gadgets. The ipad can revolutionize the education system. Imagine, in a class where you don't have to write in the text books, and use the iPad instead. The information could me immediately updated. The White House has already rolled out an app for iPhone, called The White House App, so that people can directly watch the stream of the live President’s public events at the White House. Firstly, they roll out the application , then they say they are distraction. Simply put , iPads are next generation notebooks, and calling them distraction, isn't limiting their use. Time will tell if the iPad becomes just another distraction or, rather, more of a reading platform and educational tool.

New Google is better, dont beg for the old one.

Jasbir — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:13:35 +0000

Change is constant, and change is the only thing that makes people from around the globe, to be connected via the world wide web and keep them glued to their screens. Google , last week upgraded its view from a classical one to modern. And, as we all know, the most common homepage is Google's, so any change to that, will catch attention.The new rolled out model, has three columns, if you search for any option, you get a result page, which is what I think similar to Bing. There is a middle column consisting of the results, there is a right column consisting of the ads, and the left column for the advanced search options. The newer interface allows us to get multiple results at once, without going for the advanced options in the top left options row in the classical model. Simply put, the new Google layout is good, user friendly. In the Google forum, there are ,variety of people complaining of the design and want the old one back in. But Google is not going to listen to them, The google spokesman Nate Tyler confirmed by stating : "We’re not offering a way to revert back to the old design." That is expected, Google has had changes in the past, and there come a bunch of people who hate the change in the first place and then going on to be liking it. People can use the search preferences page to control number of results shown, popping-open search listings in their own windows, enabling subscribed links and other options. For people who desperately want the old design back, they can bookmark this site. The move to a permanently three-column design sees Google following in the footsteps of Ask.com, which pioneered the look back in 2007. Bing and Yahoo followed the three pane trend in 2009, and now it has effectively been given the stamp of approval by search giant Google itself.

Why crop screenshots, when you can directly embed tweets into your webpage?

Jasbir — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:50:24 +0000

The micro blogging service Twitter has rolled out a new tool that will let users to embed tweets into their blogs or websites. Black Bird Pie , is a tool provided by twitter that asks the users, the link of a tweet and and upon hitting the "Bake It" button you will be provided with a full fledge ready to embed tweet and the code you need to fit it in your webpage. Why would you prefer Embedding Tweets than actually taking a screenshot and posting? First of all, the biggest advantage is that whenever you embed a tweet, the tool recognizes your webpage styling like font family and tags from CSS and appy the same formatting on the tweets. Next all, It also copies over whatever background a person uses on Twitter. So in that regard, it is just like taking a screen grab. Well, its simply just like pasting a crop-shot of the actual page with all working links, images, etc! Here is a screenshot of the tool :