Google+ After two weeks

Google+ has exploded in terms of users in the two weeks that it has been available. Though it is still invite only, it has attracted more than 10 million users. More than 1 billion items have been shared on Google+ already. Google+ added $20 billion to Google’s Market cap.

 

They say Google+ is not really about social. Watch the pics https://plus.google.com/photos/100238778462210489846/albums/5629087019815403777

 

Some say its just a facebook clone. This user explains why G+ is not a FB clone. https://plus.google.com/#112626028132643666125/posts/51pdcHohscF 

 

What the problem with G+ is? Too geeky. Too few females. http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/statistics . However, the ratio of M vs. F has improved from 87% male a while ago, to 74% now

 

 

"What Do You Love?" by Google

WDYL.com is a website rolled out by Google which shows A Range Of Google Product Results On One Page.

Here’s the site itself: http://www.wdyl.com/

 

Here is the quick introduction video.

 

 

This seems like an User Experience experiment, as they mash up different categories of search results on one page. Looks nice, though.

Windows Phone 7 Mango new Features.

Having played around with Windows Phone 7 Mango for almost a month, I’ve found the beta release to be stable and pretty functional. Following are the features which I liked the most and proved useful to me.

 

• Call Log History.
• Location checkins
• Conversation view in email clients.
• Batter saver
• Windows Live Messenger and Facebook chat along with switching between SMS and Facebook chat.
• Bind Local Scout and Music Search.
• Redesigned Music and Videos hub
• Improved Call screen
• Now playing lock screen
• IE9 with HTML5 support
• Sharing links from IE to facebook and windows live.
• Autofix pictures
• Multitasking and background tasks
• Visual Voice Mail
• SMS and Mail dictation
• App search
• Unified Inbox
• Inbuilt Twitter and Linked In support
• Video Full screen Mode and Video dragging bar.
• Outlook OOF setting
• Task switcher
• Image search
• Bing Vision
• Voice search

and lot more will be updated soon. Mango build is one heck of an update. Stay tuned for this fall.

Facebook Video Chat

Facebook announced a new feature to their site which involved video-calling and group chat in collaboration with Skype. This new feature involved giving current Facebook chat users the ability to video call their friends. They will be rolling out these features automatically over the next few weeks. If you don’t want to wait for these products, you can get it now. http://www.facebook.com/videocalling You can also create an ad-hoc group by adding more than one Facebook friend in the Facebook chat interface.

 

Click on the name of contact you want to chat with and then click on the Video calling icon in the chat window. You will be prompted to download a plugin for your browser. This is only a one-time process, so you will be able to video chat in the future without having to install this plugin again

 

The other feature announced was the ability to find people to chat with easier. Given that you have the available screen space, you can now see a ‘buddy list’ of Facebook friends. This will allow you more easily find the people you want to chat with.

 

Google Takeout

Google has unveiled yet another product at google.com/takeout which allows users to export their data out of Google for all Google products they are currently using. Additionally, all the data is made available in open and portable formats so it’s really easy to import them on other services.

 

 

Google takeout works with Google buzz, Google profile, Picasa web albums, Google Contacts and Google circles while support for more products is a work in progress. Using the tool is fairly simple, head over to the Google takeout page, sign in with your Google account and choose the products for whom you want to export the data.

Org Chart Of All The Major Tech Companies

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-org-charts-2011-6

Google + project announced

 

Google introduced Google+ social network for what it called 'real-life sharing.' The UI might look cooler (it does) but this won’t necessarily make it more attractive for social interaction. Drag-and-drop is grossly overrated as a UI interaction metaphor – many regular users have never used drag&drop. What is good about Facebook is that it “just works” without any setup effort. You see a continuous stream of thoughts from your friends, with no interactions from you, other than an occasional “confirm friend” or “add friend”. Plus, non-shy people can also post a link/text once in a while, whenever they feel like it. I don’t see that in Google+

Windows Phone: Mango version

 

Windows Phone next version is called Mango which has around 500 new features which focuses mostly on 3 key areas…Communications, apps and Internet. Following are the new features in each of these 3 areas…

 

Communications: Easier to connect and share

Threads, Groups, Deeper social network integration, Linked Inbox and Hands free messaging.

 

A smarter approach to Apps

Appconnect, Improved Live Tiles and Multitasking.

 

Internet

Internet Explorer 9, Local scout, Bing on windows phone and Quick cards,

 

Windows 8 demo

If you haven’t seen it already, may be you should. The video addresses many things in details and how windows 8 is going to change everything in tablet and pc market.

 

Skype & Microsoft

 

Microsoft has bought Skype for an imaginable amount, Skype has been sold with $8.5 Billion. It's not about Skype's current profit, but about how it can be combined with other things that Microsoft is doing. The three things that Microsoft might do with Skype is…

 

• Integrating Skype with XBOX and Kinect.
• Support Windows phone and wide variety of windows devices.
• Using skype to connect Lync users, outlook, xbox live, messenger and other workplace communications.

 

Lets hope it will be win-win situation for both the companies.

LokPal Bill

The JanLok Pal bill is meant to be some sort of nuclear weapon against corruption in politics and high end government offices. India suffering from Serious Cancer called Corruption. Therefore Anna Hazare fights against Corruption with his hunger strike.

 

 

And guess what , Government responds in this manner..

 

Sharad Pawar is leading the group of ministers formed to look into the changes in the Lokpal Bill.

Sharad Pawar as leader of GoM is like student writing his own question papers. That’s your April fool joke. If you still didn’t get it, its like making sreesanth the instructor for anger management or you could say munaf patel teaching sachin tendulkar how to bat. Well jokes part Support Sri Anna Hazare's movement.

 

Why LokPal bill is opposed http://goo.gl/edK7U; and why JanLokPal bill is important http://goo.gl/B150L. Lokpal bill (corrected as Jan Lokpal with improvements) is campaigned not only by Anna Hazare , but several others like Kiran bedi. Anna Hazare has been a freedom fighter and a social activist fighting against corruption for more years than our age! He is also credited with the creator of an Ideal Village (Adarsh Gaon - self-sufficient) in Maharashtra (Ralegan Sidhi). He is a well-known name in Maharashtra and has been instrumental in many developments in Maharashtra while making the Maharashtra government to bow to his satyagrahas and fasts! He has been splendid in riding the anti-corruption wave and rallying people these last few days.

 

In an open letter, Hazare politely asks Singh and co. to stop spreading FUD and reiterates what People Against Corruption really wants. I liked the way he phrased his letter not only by just being polite at the same time with an uncompromising tone.

The Toss

 

Am I the only one who could hear sangakkara calling tails at 35th second of the video. Oh! Sanga I thought you are a clean cricketer.The cheat is upto it again. He called tails for the first toss and heads for the re-toss. I sympthasize with you sangakkara. I thought you are a ethical cricketer. We know toss plays a vital role in subcontinent for sub continent teams but cricket is after all a gentle man’s game.

Google Talk Guru

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-talk-guru.html

 

The following is my transcript with the Guru. It could answer some questions.

 

me : weather in hyderabad

guru:

Weather:
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
29°C, Icy
Wind: NW 6 km/h
Hum: 16%
Thu: 20°C-37°C, Mostly Sunny
Fri: 19°C-38°C, Clear
Sat: 21°C-38°C, Clear

me: india capital city

guru

Sorry, 'india capital city' did not return any results.

me: president of america

guru

Sorry, 'president of america' did not return any results.

me: prime minister of india

guru

Sorry, 'prime minister' did not return any results.

me: speed of light

guru

Calculator:
the speed of light = 299792458 m / s

Sent at 12:07 PM on Thursday

me: define:musings

guru

Glossary:
Musings: Thought and thinking are mental forms and processes, respectively ("thought" is both). Thinking allows beings to model the world and to represent
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musings

me 2^32

guru

Calculator:
2^32 = 4294967296

Cricket Musings

An India-Pakistan cricket is the match and that too in a cricket world cup semifinal, its not just another cricket match. Cricket will be the winner at the end of it. I was as excited about this match as those were around me, and was truly looking forward for it. Before that accompanied excitement dies,India has kept its track record of never loosing a match against pakistan in cricket world cup. .. It was an overall good bowling performance. Many People including me criticized about dhoni’s decision to drop ashwin and take nehra back into that team. That too after Pakistan spinners doing very well over a flat track, it made me feel more miserable. But Dhoni proved me wrong again. Though he has been out of form with bat, his captaincy is unquestionable , it was his smart move with Nehra , and Nehra has done the magic with the ball in yesterday’s game. It’s not just with Nehra, every one bowled their best and it was overall a team effort.

 

Dhoni = Keeper + captain + Batsman.

Even if he fails in one department, he is handling 2 departments. Before Dhoni, we were struggling with two issues Captain who doesn't perform, Wicket keeper who can't bat. Dhoni solved both the problems. Off late he is not batting as well as he used to. But I think he is still a very valuable member of the team.

 

 

2 wickets from every one, especially when India doesn’t have a specialized 5th bowler its just good. It was a disciplined bowling and fielding by every member of the team. Our first extra was in 37th over we bowled. We didn’t drop a single catch and even the misfielding was just for couple of times and it didn’t cost us more than 2 runs. Dhoni kept claiming about those extra 20 runs in the batting powerplay, batting through the innings and poor fielding and this is the time for dhoni to praise the indian team fielding and with the discipline with which our bowlers bowled.

iPad2.0 Announcement

· CPU:  Based on new A5 dual core processor.  Up to 2x faster than A4.  Same low power consumption as A4.  First dual-core tablet to ship in volume.

· Graphics:  Up to 9x faster graphics.

· Form Factor:  iPad 2 is just 8.8 mm thick.  33% thinner than iPad 1.  Thinner than the iPhone 4. 

· Display:  Same 9.7” display. 

· Weight:  iPad 2 is 15% lighter than iPad 1.  It weighs just 1.3 pounds, versus 1.5 pounds in the previous generation.

· Cameras:  New front and rear camera.

· Inertial sensors:  Accelerometer, compass and new gyro just like the iPhone 4 and 4^th generation iPod Touch.

· Video mirroring:  The iPad will have HDMI mirrored video output. Up to 1080p. Anything you see on an iPad screen you see on HDMI. Works with all apps, supports rotation, no setup or configuration, and you can even charge your iPad while plugged into an HDMI gadget. The HDMI accessory will cost $40.

· Battery Life:  Same 10-hour battery life and over one month of standby. 

Looks like Apple concentrated more on hardware now. The iPad2 announcement was all about competent hardware specs(the announced iOS 4.3 offers only a few minor improvements such as Facetime for iPad, WiFi hotspot and a speedier Safari browser). They are combining continuous hardware innovation plus price reduction by which they keep raising the bar for the rest of the industry. I’m impressed with what they have done to make such serious hardware improvements without any discernable tradeoffs.

Dropbox : Why is it popular?

Dropbox is a great cloud-based online storage product. Whatit does exactly.. There would be a folder. You'd put your stuff in it. It would sync. The best feature is that it is very easy to sync in all the devices and run in windows, mac or linux. Its totally painless and it just works. Dropbox works better when you're sharing with others mainly because it syncs to the cloud so you don't have to make sure someone picks up your changes. Also it does backups of every change, which is nice when someone in your group accidentally overwrites a file, or, worse, deletes the entire folder. You never have to think about version control, file sharing. You never have to wake up with the though you have to carry your USB device or share your files and folders. It does lot of things..

 

1. Executed a solid Free-mium model.
2. Rewarded users with more "free" storage by referring more users.
3. Easy to remember name and URL.
4. You can install the app in your CPU and it's folder syncs (easily) with the cloud account.
5. Multi-platform app (iOS, Android, RIMM, WP7 etc)
6. It uploads and opens documents, pictures and video.
7. Multi-user folder sharing
8. Cheap and effective business model (Paid accounts are reasonably priced)
9. Free accounts have no ads (how about that?)
10. They focused on user experience than adding tons of features, bells and whistles

 

You could see the slide deck on dropbox below with lot of lessons for startups and other valuable stuff.

 

Click here to get yourself an account: http://db.tt/c1BVA4o Get yourself a dropbox account and help me out in that process by clicking the link http://db.tt/c1BVA4o I will get more space in my dropbox account.

 

Nokia + Windows Phone 7

So the Greatest hardware meets the amazing software. Good to hear that Windows Phone 7 will be on all smartphone price points not just high end. Nokia is very strong in standard cell phones but definitely not a leader in SmartPhones. Nokia are good at producing hardware……they simply now produce to hardware baseline so it runs WP7. But the question is “how is Nokia going to produce magic hardware that will prompt people to buy windows phone?”  Nokia has devoted fans. They just buy whatever Nokia is selling. All these fans see something in Nokia, a cultural backbone, a design philosophy which is uniquely Nokia’s. How can they possibly maintain that backbone while depending on an OS made and designed by another company? Lets hope it will be win win situation for both. Zdnet used a very nice graphic. The product mix looks awful.

 

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi passed away. One who gave his magical voice to popular DD song "Mile sur mera tumhara" is no more. It would be disrespectful if I put this in the blog title. We have been listening to just him since the Doordarshan Days. One of his lesser known music is the bhajan written by mahatma gandhi and the music maestro Ilayaraja did composition for it. It is surely worth a watch. If you have any his music do share it here in the comments.

 

Hardly Working

Link Via ehowa

summary of srikrishna commitee

Remember the Telangana agitation an year back, and the srikrishna committee formed after that. Finally the report is out and the here is the summary of it.

 

1) Maintaining Status Quo

2) Bifurcation of the State into Seemandhra and Telangana; with Hyderabad as a Union Territory and the two States developing their own capitals in due course

3) Bifurcation of State into Raya1aTe1angana and coastal Andhra regions with Hyderabad being an integral part of Rayala-Telangana

4) Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged Hyderabad Metropolis as a separate Union Territory. This Union Territory will have geographical linkage and contiguity via Nalgonda district in the south-east to district Guntur in coastal Andhra and via Mahboobnagar district in the south to Kurnool district in Rayalaseema

5) Bifurcation of the State into Telangana and Seemandhra as per existing boundaries with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra to have a new capital

6) Keeping the State united by simultaneously providing certain definite Constitutional / Statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region — creation of a statutorily empowered Telangana Regional Council

And here is the entire report

http://www.sakshi.com/newsimages/report/CCSAP-REPORT-060111.pdf

 

Any guesses what would be the end result after this. Looks like we are back to the same problem again. The destruction of public property starts again. But unfortunately, to repeat the public property destruction, all people who did during earlier riots were released by lifting cases.  Our government is responsible for releasing them without punishment.  It is like giving them another opportunity to repeat the mistakes again.

100 Things to Watch in 2011