EtioleEtiole http://www.etiole.com Dream Tech. Live Tech. Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:11:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Is HR Using Facebook in the Hiring Process? http://www.etiole.com/2013/02/is-hr-using-facebook-in-the-hiring-process/ http://www.etiole.com/2013/02/is-hr-using-facebook-in-the-hiring-process/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:23:58 +0000 Guest Blogger http://www.etiole.com/?p=6600 Facebook

[caption id="attachment_5192" align="alignright" width="300"]Facebook Facebook[/caption] With the advent of Facebook and other social networks, human resources professionals have a new means of checking into potential employees. In addition to running a formal background check to look into criminal activity, the fact is that many employers are also utilizing Facebook during the hiring process. What can Facebook tell HR personnel about a potential employee? Depending on how much information is made public on the profile, Facebook can actually reveal quite a bit about an applicant. How Often Does HR Use Facebook? According to a study commissioned by CareerBuilder.com, nearly half of all HR representatives say that they use social networking sites to get more information about candidates. Even though LinkedIn is a social networking site created for the primary purpose of showcasing education and work background, HR is more likely to turn to Facebook to research someone before hiring him. They may even research someone before calling him in for an initial interview. Of course, an HR representative can only see the information that the candidate has chosen to make public on Facebook, which limits the amount of information that can be gathered in some situations. Why Facebook? While people are buttoned up, so to speak, during an interview and even on some websites -- Facebook is where many of them let their hair down. By checking into a Facebook profile, an employer can get a better sense of the candidate's true personality. For instance, someone who has a propensity for overreaction or complaining about his work is more likely to be transparent on Facebook than a site like LinkedIn where he expects colleagues to see what he writes. This gives an HR representative a window into what it might be like to work with the candidate if he is hired. Getting Impressions In a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology in 2012, HR professionals were asked to rank college students based only on the information that was made public via their Facebook profiles. The HR representatives were specifically asked to rank the students in regards to their employability. For example, students who exhibited emotional stability and a curiosity about intellectual endeavors would receive a higher score. Six months later, after working with students, the same employers reported that the impressions they gathered from Facebook generally proved to be true. With data like this, it makes sense for employers to use Facebook to gather information about candidates before making an offer of employment. As a job candidate, it's vital to consider one's Facebook profile before sending out applications. Facebook posts that reveal drug use or excessive drinking, a lot of personal conflict, or complain about another employer could mean that the candidate sabotages his own job offer. And, while it's illegal for an employer to use any religious beliefs or sexual orientation information they discover on Facebook against someone -- any impressions about overall personality and professionalism are fair game to be considered as a part of the hiring decision. This article was submitted by Jeremy Chilton, a blogger for CenturyLink Deals. He enjoys writing about social media and current events. References:  ]]> Facebook

[caption id="attachment_5192" align="alignright" width="300"]Facebook Facebook[/caption] With the advent of Facebook and other social networks, human resources professionals have a new means of checking into potential employees. In addition to running a formal background check to look into criminal activity, the fact is that many employers are also utilizing Facebook during the hiring process. What can Facebook tell HR personnel about a potential employee? Depending on how much information is made public on the profile, Facebook can actually reveal quite a bit about an applicant. How Often Does HR Use Facebook? According to a study commissioned by CareerBuilder.com, nearly half of all HR representatives say that they use social networking sites to get more information about candidates. Even though LinkedIn is a social networking site created for the primary purpose of showcasing education and work background, HR is more likely to turn to Facebook to research someone before hiring him. They may even research someone before calling him in for an initial interview. Of course, an HR representative can only see the information that the candidate has chosen to make public on Facebook, which limits the amount of information that can be gathered in some situations. Why Facebook? While people are buttoned up, so to speak, during an interview and even on some websites -- Facebook is where many of them let their hair down. By checking into a Facebook profile, an employer can get a better sense of the candidate's true personality. For instance, someone who has a propensity for overreaction or complaining about his work is more likely to be transparent on Facebook than a site like LinkedIn where he expects colleagues to see what he writes. This gives an HR representative a window into what it might be like to work with the candidate if he is hired. Getting Impressions In a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology in 2012, HR professionals were asked to rank college students based only on the information that was made public via their Facebook profiles. The HR representatives were specifically asked to rank the students in regards to their employability. For example, students who exhibited emotional stability and a curiosity about intellectual endeavors would receive a higher score. Six months later, after working with students, the same employers reported that the impressions they gathered from Facebook generally proved to be true. With data like this, it makes sense for employers to use Facebook to gather information about candidates before making an offer of employment. As a job candidate, it's vital to consider one's Facebook profile before sending out applications. Facebook posts that reveal drug use or excessive drinking, a lot of personal conflict, or complain about another employer could mean that the candidate sabotages his own job offer. And, while it's illegal for an employer to use any religious beliefs or sexual orientation information they discover on Facebook against someone -- any impressions about overall personality and professionalism are fair game to be considered as a part of the hiring decision. This article was submitted by Jeremy Chilton, a blogger for CenturyLink Deals. He enjoys writing about social media and current events. References:  ]]> http://www.etiole.com/2013/02/is-hr-using-facebook-in-the-hiring-process/feed/ 0 How to find a song name by lyrics, humming, beats or melody http://www.etiole.com/2013/01/how-to-find-a-song-name-by-lyrics-humming-beats-or-melody/ http://www.etiole.com/2013/01/how-to-find-a-song-name-by-lyrics-humming-beats-or-melody/#comments Sun, 20 Jan 2013 22:31:14 +0000 Monik http://monik.in/etiole/?p=6288 I’m sure, all of you have run into this tricky situation : You don’t know the song title, you just remember some musical element and you are desperately trying to figure out the song. I’m listing a few tools that will help you narrow down your search.

If you remember the lyrics…

You can try out my custom music search tool which searches the 9 best lyric websites for an exact match of your typed lyric. To restrict the search, type in your query within quotes (“). If you have any other data like the genre/artists/release-date, make sure you type it at the end of the search to make the results more relevant.

If you know how to sing it…

You can hum it or sing it on Midomi (through its website) and let it identify your song. The results are quite accurate if your microphone works fine and if you aren’t an extremely pathetic singer. Unlike Midomi, which is completely automated, you can use NameMyTune. This service allows users to record themselves, singing or humming a part of the song and then letting other users figure out the details. You can also listen to recordings of other users and identify their songs. After a match is reported, the uploader is emailed the details. A similar service is WatZatSong.

If you remember the beats or can tap to the tune…

The next best option to tap out your song on the keyboard is SongTapper and let it figure out your song. Although initially, when I tested the service to identify the songs I already knew, the results were not that great. Only after watching the video example did I get the tapping technique and get better results.

If you remember the melody…

MelodyCatcher will use your melody to fetch the song title. You can use it’s onscreen Java Applet to play the melody using a virtual keyboard or upload one through a “midi” file. If you have a keyboard plugged in, you can select that as the input for the on-screen keyboard and use it to play the melody. Musipedia has all of the above features along with a contour based search. To use melodic contour search, “all you need to know is whether the tune goes up, down, or if the pitch stays the same.”

If you have a part of the song…

Two dedicated mobile apps that can help you in your music identification quest are SoundHound and Shazam. Both function similarly : record a clip of your song (10-15 seconds) and search for a match in their database. These apps are available on all mobile platforms and are free. Apart from identifying tracks from the original versions, SoundHound is capable of recognizing any live event recording or humming or whistling of tune which Shazam cannot do. For those curious people who are wondering how services like these are able to convert music to some computer-readable data and store it, this paper will help you uncover the mystery.

If you still cannot find the song…

Forget the song and move on. It’s better than being unsatisfied about not being able to find the song name.

]]> http://www.etiole.com/2013/01/how-to-find-a-song-name-by-lyrics-humming-beats-or-melody/feed/ 3 Everything about Facebook’s Graph Search : Searching yourself for answers http://www.etiole.com/2013/01/everything-about-facebooks-graph-search-searching-yourself-for-answers/ http://www.etiole.com/2013/01/everything-about-facebooks-graph-search-searching-yourself-for-answers/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:34:58 +0000 Monik http://monik.in/etiole/?p=6291 Facebook introduced “Graph Search” at today’s press event. The idea isn’t new. Google has constantly been trying to display contextual search results with products like Google Now and Google Plus (Socially) integrated results. On top of that, users now demand exact results : things like Wolfram Alpha. Simply put, Graph Search is a search engine that searches “you and your connections” for the exact answers you want. The idea at the heart of this Facebook product : What ‘Apple’ may mean to an urban geek may not necessarily resemble the understanding of a farmer. How should the context be evaluated? This is where Facebook, with its massive user-base and activity data, comes in. The relevance of any “Graph Search Result” is cross-checked with your data – your likes, friends and their friends, location visits, tags and every public activity that Facebook can track. The conventional page-link search has outlived itself and probably, what Facebook calls, “Graph Search” is the future of discovering new data. To get a better idea, lets have a look at a few queries and their possible results in this new search engine -

  • You’ve gone to San Francisco and you “checked in” to some place on Facebook (A way of notifying Facebook about your location). You search for “Restaurant’s nearby.” Pages of restaurants in SF near your current geographic location will appear and their ranking will purely be based upon your and your friend’s likes and visits. This could give Yelp a run for its money.
  • You search for “Games friends from my school play” or “Music people in my city listen to” or “Friends who play table-tennis and work at my company.” Based solely on the information made “public”, your results will be delivered. Results will contain pages, profiles or photos.
  • The Photo search is interesting. Text is manageable but how can you sort images? Graph search’s important use could be finding images by applying different parameters which make sense in social contexts. For example, this query : Photos of my marriage that my friends liked, shared and commented on. You cannot get them without actually checking every uploaded picture and tabulating the number of likes and shares. With one search, you have the best pictures (assuming that you consider your friend’s choices to be good).
  • For queries like “The answer to life, universe and everything”, which I am not sure your friends would be aware of, Facebook will pull up results from Bing. (Incase you don’t know, the answer is 42.) It is a strategic partnership that will help Bing pull up its market share and at the same time, provide results to users, right on Facebook.

Search is a biiiiiiig market. Apple is chasing it with Siri, Google is exploiting whatever it can, Yahoo almost missed it and now, Facebook enters it (with the almost dead Bing) to model an engine completely around the user. Coming to the monetization part, Zuckerberg says “This could potentially be a business over time.” Hell yes, with businesses dying to take the top spots in such search results, it is a lot of money. The reason –  results are ultrapersonal and carry with them, a recommendation from connections which is worth more than any creative advertisement. The conversion rates shall definitely be higher than those of the existing search results. People have already started asking stuff like “How can I improve my brands visibility in these results.” We have already had enough of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and we might soon have GSE (Graph Search Optimization) techniques coming up. I’m sure, engineering a product like this would have been huge challenge. Understanding and processing the requests made in colloquial language is a problem. Scaling down the likes, comments, shares, visits, activity, etc to simple numbers to allow ranking is another tricky task. Right now, the product is in Beta and open to limited testing. You can join the waiting list to try out your luck.

]]> http://www.etiole.com/2013/01/everything-about-facebooks-graph-search-searching-yourself-for-answers/feed/ 0 Information Overload : Jack of all trades but master of none http://www.etiole.com/2012/11/information-overload-jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/11/information-overload-jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none/#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:18:47 +0000 Monik http://www.etiole.com/?p=6270 Shabby Homepages

In the name of design, news outlets and blogs are raping information. If I land up on one ( Mashable, Yahoo, TheVerge, Reuters, ... ) It's humanly impossible to sort out information on these pages. I can't decide which column to start from and which order to go in, to make sure I don't miss anything Interesting. [caption id="attachment_6271" align="alignright" width="300"]Shabby Homepages Death of Design[/caption] The pages looks colorful with lot of pictures and good typefaces scattered, typically resembling some Red Light District stores, just begging and luring you to get in. This defeats the purpose of technology, which was to scale down the time taken to make choices. Inundating information on the face of the reader might stun the poor guy but it is ultimately worthless. User time on site shoots up (which makes webmasters happy) but conversion rates droop down because the selection process consumes lot of brain power, something that people hate. If you are still wondering why these websites get lot of traffic then you need to look at their sources. Its either Google or Links posted on Facebook, Twitter and other social mediums. The sources are hyper focused on one piece of content which sounds sensible. So why not adopt it  and change the damn homepages? It's not about the feel the site gives but more importantly, about the process of discovering interesting information. Organization is the key.]]> Shabby Homepages

In the name of design, news outlets and blogs are raping information. If I land up on one ( Mashable, Yahoo, TheVerge, Reuters, ... ) It's humanly impossible to sort out information on these pages. I can't decide which column to start from and which order to go in, to make sure I don't miss anything Interesting. [caption id="attachment_6271" align="alignright" width="300"]Shabby Homepages Death of Design[/caption] The pages looks colorful with lot of pictures and good typefaces scattered, typically resembling some Red Light District stores, just begging and luring you to get in. This defeats the purpose of technology, which was to scale down the time taken to make choices. Inundating information on the face of the reader might stun the poor guy but it is ultimately worthless. User time on site shoots up (which makes webmasters happy) but conversion rates droop down because the selection process consumes lot of brain power, something that people hate. If you are still wondering why these websites get lot of traffic then you need to look at their sources. Its either Google or Links posted on Facebook, Twitter and other social mediums. The sources are hyper focused on one piece of content which sounds sensible. So why not adopt it  and change the damn homepages? It's not about the feel the site gives but more importantly, about the process of discovering interesting information. Organization is the key.]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/11/information-overload-jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none/feed/ 0 Where Inventors and Visionaries differ : Present and Future http://www.etiole.com/2012/10/where-inventors-and-visionaries-differ-present-and-future/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/10/where-inventors-and-visionaries-differ-present-and-future/#comments Sun, 07 Oct 2012 06:05:36 +0000 Monik http://www.etiole.com/?p=6259 Edwin Land

History has made the split between inventors and visionaries quite evident. And right now, it matters the most because it decides the fate of an idea, whether it lives to see itself revolutionize the world or find its place in a museum. Inventors are concerned with "how" while visionaries are busy figuring out "what". You just can't simply say who is more valuable, its more like the chicken-egg problem, both are equally important and in no manner am I going to debate their significance but what direct impacts they had.

Edwin H. Land, straight from the 1930's, devised the first inexpensive polarizing film. These were to become the foundations of the modern day cameras. He founded Polaroid which tried a hand at making it a commercial success. At first, it worked out because they were the first ones in the market but the future was bleak. His next attempt, Polavision -- an instant movie system venture, was a financial debacle which lead to his resignation from Polaroid's board. Later, Polaroid went through multiple reorganizations and finally went bankrupt. All the while he was at Polaroid, he was a genius chemist and inventor but not a visionary. It was meant to happen. Land wasted the potential. Although he did make attempts like the optics in Lockheed U2 program but not enough to just make it. It could have been great, but things are different now. He didn't see his idea's future. He failed to imagine the possibilities with his products and concepts and thus became a great example for my post. I would be deemed insular to measure success merely on the basis of financial gains. But Money, you see is like food. You like it or not, you need it to survive. Land failed miserably here as he couldn't make polaroid a financial succes. Ironically, he inspired one the visionaries of our times, Steve Jobs. He wasn't the inventor, he just knew what was to be done and he executed it perfectly. He filled up all the loopholes in Land's story. He founded Apple with a team of inventors who were guided by him. He simply polished their work. Every product manufactured by Apple after Job's return to Apple was a hit. It's not just luck. Every idea seemed to invite the future and exploit everything Apple had (Ofcourse, until Apple felt it was ready for the public). More than the products, he left a culture and culmination of methodologies which keep Apple alive today. He filled all the top ranks with his vision and hypnotized them into taking every decision with future in mind. Only the far-sight and foresight have allowed Apple to reach crazy financial benchmarks coupled with technological breakthroughs. Jobs and Land are symbolic of those people who construct the future. Its difficult to spot someone with Scientific and Rational thinking of an Inventor combined with the creative and imaginative decision taking approaches but when these two come together, expect a good show.]]> Edwin Land

History has made the split between inventors and visionaries quite evident. And right now, it matters the most because it decides the fate of an idea, whether it lives to see itself revolutionize the world or find its place in a museum. Inventors are concerned with "how" while visionaries are busy figuring out "what". You just can't simply say who is more valuable, its more like the chicken-egg problem, both are equally important and in no manner am I going to debate their significance but what direct impacts they had.

Edwin H. Land, straight from the 1930's, devised the first inexpensive polarizing film. These were to become the foundations of the modern day cameras. He founded Polaroid which tried a hand at making it a commercial success. At first, it worked out because they were the first ones in the market but the future was bleak. His next attempt, Polavision -- an instant movie system venture, was a financial debacle which lead to his resignation from Polaroid's board. Later, Polaroid went through multiple reorganizations and finally went bankrupt. All the while he was at Polaroid, he was a genius chemist and inventor but not a visionary. It was meant to happen. Land wasted the potential. Although he did make attempts like the optics in Lockheed U2 program but not enough to just make it. It could have been great, but things are different now. He didn't see his idea's future. He failed to imagine the possibilities with his products and concepts and thus became a great example for my post. I would be deemed insular to measure success merely on the basis of financial gains. But Money, you see is like food. You like it or not, you need it to survive. Land failed miserably here as he couldn't make polaroid a financial succes. Ironically, he inspired one the visionaries of our times, Steve Jobs. He wasn't the inventor, he just knew what was to be done and he executed it perfectly. He filled up all the loopholes in Land's story. He founded Apple with a team of inventors who were guided by him. He simply polished their work. Every product manufactured by Apple after Job's return to Apple was a hit. It's not just luck. Every idea seemed to invite the future and exploit everything Apple had (Ofcourse, until Apple felt it was ready for the public). More than the products, he left a culture and culmination of methodologies which keep Apple alive today. He filled all the top ranks with his vision and hypnotized them into taking every decision with future in mind. Only the far-sight and foresight have allowed Apple to reach crazy financial benchmarks coupled with technological breakthroughs. Jobs and Land are symbolic of those people who construct the future. Its difficult to spot someone with Scientific and Rational thinking of an Inventor combined with the creative and imaginative decision taking approaches but when these two come together, expect a good show.]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/10/where-inventors-and-visionaries-differ-present-and-future/feed/ 0 txtWeb launches App2Fame Contest for Developers to develop Txt based apps http://www.etiole.com/2012/09/txtweb-launches-app2fame-contest-for-developers-to-develop-txt-based-apps/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/09/txtweb-launches-app2fame-contest-for-developers-to-develop-txt-based-apps/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:58:43 +0000 Monik http://www.etiole.com/?p=6233 Logo_App2Fame

Smartphones are becoming an alternative to computers likes Apps to softwares. Text messaging's potential has almost been neglected. txtWeb has built its business on this idea. Its a platform designed to allow developers create text based applications easily and release it to the community, free of cost to the users. What makes text-based applications stand against smartphone apps is the fact that computation is carried out on the servers which are capable of handling millions of queries and have much faster processors and more resources compared to the smartphone. The second thing is that the text apps are scalable and almost universally accessible from any mobile phone ( Smartphones only make up 40% of mobiles phones today") can utilize these apps. They connect Text to the Web (Just as their name says). txtWeb has launched App2Fame, a contest for developers to develop and submit apps built on the platform and win prizes with total worth of Rs. 7.5 Lakh! Few of the categories are Most Popular and Business Solutions.  The contest is only open to Indian Nationals. I would recommend you to have a look at various apps in their marketplace. There's this App I saw, it's called FBPage. Without internet you can access a facebook page by simply texting @Fbpage <pagename> to txtweb and get the details. It's simply awesome because the text carrier plans are much cheaper compared to the internet ones. Here's an interview with TxtWeb's Srinivasan Narayan, Head of Development Strategy.
1. Since it's a developer driven community, what do you offer to the developers to catalyze app development? Developers & Publishers on the platform see the potential to impact millions of mobile phone users with their work Successful developers earn recognition for their work We also have a 'marketplace' where txtWeb projects for businesses and developers can bid for the apps. Selected developers get compensated for the project. We have a constant pipeline of projects to award developers building such apps. In addition for a significant number of our developers txtWeb provides a platform and a learning opportunity to develoeprs to apply their learning to solve for real users. An app can be used by any mobile phone so imagine the number of users a developer can reach out to, through his app. Also we hold our annual contest App2Fame inviting developers to build apps on the platform. Every edition is different and unique and offers developers an opportunity o build apps. We also hold other theme based contests from time to time.   2. How does the backend of the process look like? Starting from the reception of users text message till it's replied?   Essentialy a developer needs to build a web application in html and share the external facing URL with us. We take care of converting the app to SMS.   3. Could you highlight a few apps that your team has created?   While we created a few apps during the platform's infancy over 90% of the apps on the platform are created by third party developers and businesses. At txtWeb we believe that our developer community is vital to help solve for the varied and unique problems that may exist. In fact only 2 of our own apps are in the top 10 reinforcing our belief in Crowdsourcing – it demonstrates the power of many. Some apps on the platform (not all built by us) include - – @wikipedia– to get the Wikipedia entry on an topic on SMS –@cricbuzz – to cricket live scores - @tweeple: To follow tweets from famous personalities –@fb - to update facebook status –@autofare– for the autofare and directional points along the route between 2 points in your city   4. With smart phones getting powerful and being adopted at a tremendous rate, do you feel text is still relevant?    There is a huge untapped market for SMS in India. SMS is a way of life today and we feel there is an opportunity to provide short bite sized contextual information on demand to people at large. According to a recent article by Internet and Mobile Association of India , SMS is the most widely used service by the connected population of the world with 2.4billion users , effectively 75% of all mobile phone subscribers. In addition we are a platform play, where users on the one hand get a standardised platform to access any kind of information without premium charge as and when they have a requirement, on the other hand developers get a unique opportunity to learn this technology, build an app that could impact millions as well as innovate with their aplications. Who wouldn't want to build an app that can attract a million users and who wouldn't want to use a service that has no premium charge associated with it and provides you all the information you need right at your fingertips by texting to a number? But importantly our vision to enable access to information & services. SMS is a channel of delivery of these services to the user and as the markets evolve we will continue to add other access features.
]]> Logo_App2Fame

Smartphones are becoming an alternative to computers likes Apps to softwares. Text messaging's potential has almost been neglected. txtWeb has built its business on this idea. Its a platform designed to allow developers create text based applications easily and release it to the community, free of cost to the users. What makes text-based applications stand against smartphone apps is the fact that computation is carried out on the servers which are capable of handling millions of queries and have much faster processors and more resources compared to the smartphone. The second thing is that the text apps are scalable and almost universally accessible from any mobile phone ( Smartphones only make up 40% of mobiles phones today") can utilize these apps. They connect Text to the Web (Just as their name says). txtWeb has launched App2Fame, a contest for developers to develop and submit apps built on the platform and win prizes with total worth of Rs. 7.5 Lakh! Few of the categories are Most Popular and Business Solutions.  The contest is only open to Indian Nationals. I would recommend you to have a look at various apps in their marketplace. There's this App I saw, it's called FBPage. Without internet you can access a facebook page by simply texting @Fbpage <pagename> to txtweb and get the details. It's simply awesome because the text carrier plans are much cheaper compared to the internet ones. Here's an interview with TxtWeb's Srinivasan Narayan, Head of Development Strategy.
1. Since it's a developer driven community, what do you offer to the developers to catalyze app development? Developers & Publishers on the platform see the potential to impact millions of mobile phone users with their work Successful developers earn recognition for their work We also have a 'marketplace' where txtWeb projects for businesses and developers can bid for the apps. Selected developers get compensated for the project. We have a constant pipeline of projects to award developers building such apps. In addition for a significant number of our developers txtWeb provides a platform and a learning opportunity to develoeprs to apply their learning to solve for real users. An app can be used by any mobile phone so imagine the number of users a developer can reach out to, through his app. Also we hold our annual contest App2Fame inviting developers to build apps on the platform. Every edition is different and unique and offers developers an opportunity o build apps. We also hold other theme based contests from time to time.   2. How does the backend of the process look like? Starting from the reception of users text message till it's replied?   Essentialy a developer needs to build a web application in html and share the external facing URL with us. We take care of converting the app to SMS.   3. Could you highlight a few apps that your team has created?   While we created a few apps during the platform's infancy over 90% of the apps on the platform are created by third party developers and businesses. At txtWeb we believe that our developer community is vital to help solve for the varied and unique problems that may exist. In fact only 2 of our own apps are in the top 10 reinforcing our belief in Crowdsourcing – it demonstrates the power of many. Some apps on the platform (not all built by us) include - – @wikipedia– to get the Wikipedia entry on an topic on SMS –@cricbuzz – to cricket live scores - @tweeple: To follow tweets from famous personalities –@fb - to update facebook status –@autofare– for the autofare and directional points along the route between 2 points in your city   4. With smart phones getting powerful and being adopted at a tremendous rate, do you feel text is still relevant?    There is a huge untapped market for SMS in India. SMS is a way of life today and we feel there is an opportunity to provide short bite sized contextual information on demand to people at large. According to a recent article by Internet and Mobile Association of India , SMS is the most widely used service by the connected population of the world with 2.4billion users , effectively 75% of all mobile phone subscribers. In addition we are a platform play, where users on the one hand get a standardised platform to access any kind of information without premium charge as and when they have a requirement, on the other hand developers get a unique opportunity to learn this technology, build an app that could impact millions as well as innovate with their aplications. Who wouldn't want to build an app that can attract a million users and who wouldn't want to use a service that has no premium charge associated with it and provides you all the information you need right at your fingertips by texting to a number? But importantly our vision to enable access to information & services. SMS is a channel of delivery of these services to the user and as the markets evolve we will continue to add other access features.
]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/09/txtweb-launches-app2fame-contest-for-developers-to-develop-txt-based-apps/feed/ 0 How does light look in slow motion? http://www.etiole.com/2012/08/how-does-light-look-in-slow-motion/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/08/how-does-light-look-in-slow-motion/#comments Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:36:37 +0000 Monik http://www.etiole.com/?p=6228 femtophoto

The nature of light has always intrigued scientists throughout ages. Ramesh Raskar with his team at MIT's Media Lab has developed an apparatus to capture one frame per femto second (10-15 second). This reveals some stunning characteristics about light and its nature. Although particle nature may have been established firmly using experiments, the wave nature of light is clearly depicted through this imaging technique. It oscillates into the frame and explodes like a bubble of light when it hits an obstacle. ]]> femtophoto

The nature of light has always intrigued scientists throughout ages. Ramesh Raskar with his team at MIT's Media Lab has developed an apparatus to capture one frame per femto second (10-15 second). This reveals some stunning characteristics about light and its nature. Although particle nature may have been established firmly using experiments, the wave nature of light is clearly depicted through this imaging technique. It oscillates into the frame and explodes like a bubble of light when it hits an obstacle. ]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/08/how-does-light-look-in-slow-motion/feed/ 2 Why the Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III) Wont Fly In India http://www.etiole.com/2012/06/why-the-samsung-galaxy-s3-s-iii-wont-fly-in-india/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/06/why-the-samsung-galaxy-s3-s-iii-wont-fly-in-india/#comments Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:08:07 +0000 ankur http://www.etiole.com/?p=6210 Galaxy-S3

Samsung Galaxy S3Android is surging, with over a million phones being activated on a daily basis, we are looking at over 350 million devices every year. That certainly is a massive pace at which Google's Android platform is growing. Reaping the benefits of the OS popularity are companies like Samsung and HTC who have managed to backup Android with solid hardware for years now.

Samsung, the largest smartphone maker in the world is perhaps the strongest player in the Android ecosystem with a plethora of devices under its belt. Samsung's Galaxy S II is the most popular smartphone for Android users and with the recent launch of Galaxy SIII, Samsung is looking at a strong 2012. However, I have doubts on how well the Samsung Galaxy SIII would do in India.

The Galaxy SII and Galaxy Note sold in good numbers. The former started at a price range of Rs 30,000+ and quickly went down to 29,000 levels, while the former sold anywhere from Rs 32,000 to 33,000. Samsung Galaxy S3's Price In India is Rs 37,500. Thats a 20% premium over the opening price of the SII and over 10,000 more than the current price of its predecessor.

This equation might hurt Samsung. India is dominated by Android, however the prime reason for the same has been affordability. A Samsung Galaxy Y sells because people get it below Rs 8000. The moment one hits a price range of over Rs 35,000, the iPhone factor kicks in. The iPhone 4S might be expensive in India at over Rs 45,000, but the ones who can afford the SIII at today's price, can very well afford the 4S.

I don't mean to suggest that the iPhone factor alone kills the market for the S3. The SIII makes the SGS2 a much more lucrative offering at Rs 26,500 today. The S3 is expensive at its given price, HTC One X is somewhat cheaper and compares with the S3 and the iPhone isn't too far. Samsung should not expect the S3 to be a blockbuster like the S2, but with price cuts over time, things might well change.

The author is a technology enthusiast.

]]> Galaxy-S3

Samsung Galaxy S3Android is surging, with over a million phones being activated on a daily basis, we are looking at over 350 million devices every year. That certainly is a massive pace at which Google's Android platform is growing. Reaping the benefits of the OS popularity are companies like Samsung and HTC who have managed to backup Android with solid hardware for years now.

Samsung, the largest smartphone maker in the world is perhaps the strongest player in the Android ecosystem with a plethora of devices under its belt. Samsung's Galaxy S II is the most popular smartphone for Android users and with the recent launch of Galaxy SIII, Samsung is looking at a strong 2012. However, I have doubts on how well the Samsung Galaxy SIII would do in India.

The Galaxy SII and Galaxy Note sold in good numbers. The former started at a price range of Rs 30,000+ and quickly went down to 29,000 levels, while the former sold anywhere from Rs 32,000 to 33,000. Samsung Galaxy S3's Price In India is Rs 37,500. Thats a 20% premium over the opening price of the SII and over 10,000 more than the current price of its predecessor.

This equation might hurt Samsung. India is dominated by Android, however the prime reason for the same has been affordability. A Samsung Galaxy Y sells because people get it below Rs 8000. The moment one hits a price range of over Rs 35,000, the iPhone factor kicks in. The iPhone 4S might be expensive in India at over Rs 45,000, but the ones who can afford the SIII at today's price, can very well afford the 4S.

I don't mean to suggest that the iPhone factor alone kills the market for the S3. The SIII makes the SGS2 a much more lucrative offering at Rs 26,500 today. The S3 is expensive at its given price, HTC One X is somewhat cheaper and compares with the S3 and the iPhone isn't too far. Samsung should not expect the S3 to be a blockbuster like the S2, but with price cuts over time, things might well change.

The author is a technology enthusiast.

]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/06/why-the-samsung-galaxy-s3-s-iii-wont-fly-in-india/feed/ 0 Nokia Lumia 610 – Shot In The Arm For Windows Phone? http://www.etiole.com/2012/06/nokia-lumia-610-shot-in-the-arm-for-windows-phone/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/06/nokia-lumia-610-shot-in-the-arm-for-windows-phone/#comments Sat, 02 Jun 2012 19:12:15 +0000 ankur http://www.etiole.com/?p=6208 Nokia-Lumia-6101

Nokia has committed itself to Windows phone and while the Microsoft partnership promises to bring a new life to now the dinosaur class smartphone market that Nokia is, the challenges are huge too. Windows Phone 7 is a year and a half old and it hasn't really set sales records, for either Microsoft or Nokia. The Tango update that was due to be out in early 2012, is not yet here and Microsoft is mum about the features of Apollo. At the same time popular apps and games continue to remain loyal to iOS and Android.

With the Nokia partnership, Microsoft needed volumes for Windows Phone and that's the only way to attract quality developers. At the same time, Nokia needs a mature OS to fight Android and iOS, which depends on releases by Microsoft. Given the challenges, one option that both Microsoft and Nokia have is to get a Windows phone 7 in as many hands as possible by lowering the cost. To an extent this has happened with the Lumia 800 and 710, both of which have seen a price drop. Onlygizmos is now reporting the imminent launch of Nokia Lumia 610 in India at a price point of Rs 11,000. 

Of course that remains a rumor, but if true, it certainly is a shot in the arm for Windows Phone platform and Nokia. Nokia stands to gain from good smartphone sales, akin to what Samsung got with the Galaxy Y and Ace, at the same time Microsoft gets a quality Windows phone device out in the market, this helps several prospects

a) Total shipment numbers: Android can tout a million device activations per day. A whole lot of these may not be used by actual smartphone users but it adds buzz to the Android ecosystem.

b) Developers Developers Developers: No of active users on a platform is an important metrics to get developers on board

c) Consumer get consumer: with more people using a soothing UI and quality Windows phone device, the consumer demand for windows phones should go up. A lot of people talk about getting an Android phone, purely on the basis of word of mouth that Google has managed. Microsoft would do well with some of that.

The author is a technology freak and a gadget lower since 04:15 PM 1st April, 1997. ]]> Nokia-Lumia-6101

Nokia has committed itself to Windows phone and while the Microsoft partnership promises to bring a new life to now the dinosaur class smartphone market that Nokia is, the challenges are huge too. Windows Phone 7 is a year and a half old and it hasn't really set sales records, for either Microsoft or Nokia. The Tango update that was due to be out in early 2012, is not yet here and Microsoft is mum about the features of Apollo. At the same time popular apps and games continue to remain loyal to iOS and Android.

With the Nokia partnership, Microsoft needed volumes for Windows Phone and that's the only way to attract quality developers. At the same time, Nokia needs a mature OS to fight Android and iOS, which depends on releases by Microsoft. Given the challenges, one option that both Microsoft and Nokia have is to get a Windows phone 7 in as many hands as possible by lowering the cost. To an extent this has happened with the Lumia 800 and 710, both of which have seen a price drop. Onlygizmos is now reporting the imminent launch of Nokia Lumia 610 in India at a price point of Rs 11,000. 

Of course that remains a rumor, but if true, it certainly is a shot in the arm for Windows Phone platform and Nokia. Nokia stands to gain from good smartphone sales, akin to what Samsung got with the Galaxy Y and Ace, at the same time Microsoft gets a quality Windows phone device out in the market, this helps several prospects

a) Total shipment numbers: Android can tout a million device activations per day. A whole lot of these may not be used by actual smartphone users but it adds buzz to the Android ecosystem.

b) Developers Developers Developers: No of active users on a platform is an important metrics to get developers on board

c) Consumer get consumer: with more people using a soothing UI and quality Windows phone device, the consumer demand for windows phones should go up. A lot of people talk about getting an Android phone, purely on the basis of word of mouth that Google has managed. Microsoft would do well with some of that.

The author is a technology freak and a gadget lower since 04:15 PM 1st April, 1997. ]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/06/nokia-lumia-610-shot-in-the-arm-for-windows-phone/feed/ 0 Google Needs A Nexus Tablet, Now! http://www.etiole.com/2012/05/google-needs-a-nexus-tablet-now/ http://www.etiole.com/2012/05/google-needs-a-nexus-tablet-now/#comments Mon, 28 May 2012 16:08:24 +0000 ankur http://www.etiole.com/?p=6201 Whispersync

Rumors of a Nexus tablet backed by Google aren't new. It has been the trend with smartphones (or superphones as Google calls them). Now, people expect Google to do the same for tablets. In 2010, Google under the Nexus program worked with HTC to bring out the Google Nexus One phone, since then two more phones, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus have been released with the help of their partner, Samsung. Delivering a stock Android experience, the Nexus phones have done their bit to make Android the most popular smartphone platform around us. However when we look at tablets, such dominance is far from Google's reach at the moment. 

7-inch tablet

Google needs a Nexus tablet and they need it now. While the rumors of Google's 7" Nexus tablet along with Asus coming out in June might be true, I am astonished to see that people expect Google to fight back into the tablet market with the Nexus tablet. Lets be clear, a Nexus device is never the most premium and best config out there. It isn't meant to sell in multi millions, but rather do a show of strength for the Android platform and give developers a pure Android experience with fastest rollout of software updates. And that's exactly what Android tablets need at the moment. iPad leads the tablet market with thousands of tablet customized apps available on the platform. That would be the first target for Google, getting quality tablet apps on the Play store. Once done, they can certainly work forward to get hardware champs like Samsung and HTC to get the mass adoption.

The point of worry is the fact that rumors point towards a $149 tablet with a 7" screen from Asus / Google. That would mean that Google wants to mass market an Android tablet like the Amazon Kindle Fire. This IMO is a distraction from what the Nexus initiative is meant for. Google should be looking at a 9-inch - 10.1-inch tablet and focus on getting quality apps, popular websites tablet compatible and add value for the Android ecosystem, not mass sell cheap 7" tablets. That said, lets hope Google does the right thing.

The author is a smartphone / tablet junkie and a contributing editor at iPhone Help.  ]]> Whispersync

Rumors of a Nexus tablet backed by Google aren't new. It has been the trend with smartphones (or superphones as Google calls them). Now, people expect Google to do the same for tablets. In 2010, Google under the Nexus program worked with HTC to bring out the Google Nexus One phone, since then two more phones, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus have been released with the help of their partner, Samsung. Delivering a stock Android experience, the Nexus phones have done their bit to make Android the most popular smartphone platform around us. However when we look at tablets, such dominance is far from Google's reach at the moment. 

7-inch tablet

Google needs a Nexus tablet and they need it now. While the rumors of Google's 7" Nexus tablet along with Asus coming out in June might be true, I am astonished to see that people expect Google to fight back into the tablet market with the Nexus tablet. Lets be clear, a Nexus device is never the most premium and best config out there. It isn't meant to sell in multi millions, but rather do a show of strength for the Android platform and give developers a pure Android experience with fastest rollout of software updates. And that's exactly what Android tablets need at the moment. iPad leads the tablet market with thousands of tablet customized apps available on the platform. That would be the first target for Google, getting quality tablet apps on the Play store. Once done, they can certainly work forward to get hardware champs like Samsung and HTC to get the mass adoption.

The point of worry is the fact that rumors point towards a $149 tablet with a 7" screen from Asus / Google. That would mean that Google wants to mass market an Android tablet like the Amazon Kindle Fire. This IMO is a distraction from what the Nexus initiative is meant for. Google should be looking at a 9-inch - 10.1-inch tablet and focus on getting quality apps, popular websites tablet compatible and add value for the Android ecosystem, not mass sell cheap 7" tablets. That said, lets hope Google does the right thing.

The author is a smartphone / tablet junkie and a contributing editor at iPhone Help.  ]]> http://www.etiole.com/2012/05/google-needs-a-nexus-tablet-now/feed/ 1