While many social networking Gurus and Blog aggregators do not get tired discussing about the Big Blogs, we at Techkeyla feel the need to appreciate the wave of change. And I know, that not only the top notch bloggers deserve a mention. How about the ones who are new to the field, but are still making their presence felt. Don’t we bloody deserve a nudge or two – Hell, we deserve to be called AWESOME. So here I am, making my list of the top 20 Newbie tech blogs who will be called the Awesome 20 – Emerging Force of Tech Bloggers. Beat that you elite lot. Entries are now open, and closes Christmas eve. And the winner will be announced on the 31st of Dec, 2009.

And just for a little motivation, Premium WordPress Themes are up for grabs worth 120$.

For the rules, hit the jump!!

1. To enter this competition, you will need to provide a link to this post, by copying the URL below and promoting it in your blog post.

[URL: Techkeyla Awesome 20 -Emerging Force of Tech Bloggers ]

2. Only English blogs please.

3.Only blogs related to technology, Social Media, Gadgets etc. We will scrutinise it thoroughly. Blogs catering to irrelevant categories will not be entertained.

4. Send in your nomination in the comments section with your blog URL, author’s twitter ID, and links to what you think your best 3 posts are. Also include the major categories of technology that your blog caters to – eg iPhone Apps, Android, facebook, WordPress, Web tricks etc.

5. All blogs who want to nominate themselves should have at least 50 posts.

6. You can definitely ask your blog followers to vote for your blog by commenting in the comments section mentioning your blog name, and why they want it to be in the list.

7. If you have more than one blog, you can still enter, provided it is not a sub-domain. I guess you should know what I mean by that.

8. If it is a multi-author tech blog, please give details of all authors.

9. The final poll list will be thrown out for open vote during the last week. And the best 20 with the greatest votes win.[ All previous votes will also be considered in this poll] In case, we are not able to find enough votes, the judgement of Tech Gurus @Techkeyla HQ will be final and binding.

10. Finally, in case of any clarification required, or should you have any questions, drop your comment below, or tweet us @techkeyla 

Also, we will be contacting potential nominees over the next couple of weeks informing them about this competition. So if you do receive a comment from us about this, spring into action and promote this competition to your readers so that they can vote for you!!

Also to be fair, we are not including ourselves in the Awesome 20 list. As sad as that sounds, you can show us your love by linking to us, and/or becoming a fan of techkeyla on Facebook [ Link: http://facebook.com/techkeyla]

And what is there to win?
GLORY, FAME and PRIDE.
Not only will your blog be mentioned and scrutinished thoroughly by the tech gurus at Techkeyla HQ, we will be offering our take on what is good, what is great and what is awesome about your blog. And not only that, we will also do a feature on what your blog should possibly change and what can it do to improve.

Finally, a Premium WordPress Theme also awaits you worth 100$. More details on that later.
With so much to win, the stakes are definitely high.
So what are you waiting for? Nominate your tech blog now.

Special tips:
Publicize and Promote this Father of a Blog competition on your Blog, on Twitter, Facebook and each and every social network you can think of. Digg it baby!! Digg it!! The race has begun!

Stan Schroeder from Mashable raised an interesting question of the frequency of visitors now to the main homepage of Google, i.e. Google.com ( etc. depending upon your geographical location). It is true that with browsers which have in-built search functionality in the address bars viz. Chrome and Opera, the middle layer of the Google homepage has been largely eliminated. Add to that, other browsers like Firefox, IE and Safari include a search bar. It’s pretty safe to state that the entire spectrum has been covered. So, is anyone really using Google homepage and why?

One of the major reasons for people still using the Google homepage is that fossilised browser that it still breathing. Yes, IE6. There are no search bars, and the only option to search is Google. Of course, users here would be able to install Google Toolbars and stuff. According to W3counter statistics, as of Sep 2009, IE6 still maintains the fourth position in browser usage share with 13.28%, behind IE7, Firefox and IE8. It is difficult to segment the share of people out of this percentage who use search solely through Google’s homepage. There were no Google toolbar statistics to help us out.

Secondly, mobile devices and gaming devices have their own apps to surf and search through the Google search engine. So no interference here from the homepage.

Having said that, we must not forget the technological knowledge of the common user which cannot be gauged properly by us who use Google 24X7 in our address bars and are very conversant even with the exact syntaxes of Google hacks. If I was to tell my mom to search for anything over the phone, I’d just say Google it. And the first thing she’d do is to go to Google.com. The percentage of users who go to Google.com by default is also not only influenced by the ease that Google’s homepage suggests, but also by habit. Of course, we by now are quite used to typing straight away in the addressbar. But who will install Chrome on my mom’s laptop?

And lastly, I don’t believe that people return to Google for the doodles. Those doodles are just buzz creating tributes to legends and historical figures, and in a way one of those brand marketing exercises which never fails. The blogosphere will never fail to mention them, and other bloggers who read them will surely give it a visit. [ Guilty as charged. See here, here, here, here and here].

So, did I give you enough reasons already? Shout it out in the comments.

Just a couple of hours from now [ exactly at 6 pm, London time ] the WWDC 2009 keynote will be held at Moscone West, San Fransisco. Unlike previous year, and the years before, when Steve Jobs took the centrestage to unveil many a fabulous products that Apple has, this year it will Apple’s SVP for Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, who will be presenting the keynote. And by this time, since the first announcement of the dates for this year’s WWDC, the internet and the blogosphere has been buzzing around with rumors and predictions on what possible products will Apple lift the curtains from. This post covers all of them, and also gives you the essential links you will need to stay connected to this year’s WWDC. [WWDC image source: Adam Jackson's Flickr Photostream]

First up: The Liveblogs:
Yes, these are the bunch of ‘Apple Groupies’ who will be tearing off their Tees, and screaming out loud with whistles blowing et al. They will be covering the event live through their Netbooks, Macbooks etc. Here is the elite list.

Engadget Liveblog of WWDC 2009:
Gizmodo Liveblog of WWDC 2009:
Slashgear Liveblog of WWDC 2009:
ComputerWorld Liveblog of WWDC 2009:
Macrumors Liveblog of WWDC 2009:
9to5mac LivePanel of WWDC 2009:
Macrumors Link for the Keynote Video [as and when Apple updates it]:

**Rumors and Predictions:**

The New iPhone 3GS:
What does ‘S‘ stand for? Is it Super or could it be Speed? Does that mean better processing speed, i.e. faster processors and more RAM. Also does it mean more storage? And oh, S could also mean (more) Saleable -i.e. a budget range product with a budget range price-tag. All these rumors have been making waves since the last couple of weeks. Let’s discuss them.

Well from different sources [mentioned below] we have collected the following data that the new iPhone 3GS is going to have the following features.
..significantly faster processors, twice the RAM, and twice the storage.
..expected prices to remain the same as the current lineup: $199/299 for 16/32 GB, respectively.
..better Battery life. [via Daring Fireball]

From images from Carphone Warehouse [ via AppleInsider] , the new iPhone should have more storage space, of the range of 32 GB.

Also among other rumors, Apple could bring Sexyback. I mean the 4GB model for 99$. [via Macrumors]. This could possibly be a smaller version, nicknamed the iPhone Nano or Mini. And yes, Engadget, Financial Times as well BGR second that.

The major feature to be added in the new iPhone is the Video Capture, plus Video Call. This means the possible addition of a front facing camera on the iPhone 3GS. Also, the camera will be upgraded from the now existing 2MP to 3.2MP. [via Techcrunch]

Finally Gizmodo has enlisted the following features to make it to tomorrow’s keynote.
A matte finish external design, with a glowing Apple Logo.

Other Apple rumors [besides iPhone]
The Snow Leopard may be displayed [most probably in the first 15 minutes of the Keynote to build up the anticipation]. Although this is the next big release of the Mac OS, but it is for sure that the event will be eclipsed totally by the new iPhone.

New Macbook, Macbook Pros, Macbook Air. [Anyone bothered?]

Other hardware releases such as Apple Cinema Displays, iPod Touch, Apple TV, iTunes updates etc.

**Lies:**

Okay Lies are just rumors which turned out to be negative. Since, WWDC Keynote 2009 is still a good 17 hours away, we cannot exactly call the following as lies. But, according to our respectable sources, the following are hardly going to make the cut. [And it also includes the labor of all those genius Photoshoppers].

TouchScreen Tablet aka iTablet or iTab [ via Wired].

Some fake, noisy picture of the new iPhone [via 9to5Mac]

Steve Jobs: Is Mr.Jobs really gonna make a guest appearance or at least wave from the audience inside Moscone West?

**And all that:**

Just a quick reminder for survival through the week overdrive in WWDC. Here is a post by Brent Simmon [inessential.com] which gives all of us the tips for WWDC. The list includes, Hotel Tips, Food Tips, Session Tips etc.

Of course, WSJ’s Walt Mossberg, confirms that the new iPhone to be announced tomorrow will be sporting a lot of new hardware. [Source: WSJ-Mossberg's Palm Pre Review]

And finally, since the new iPhone will be featuring a Video Camera [hopefully a front-facing one], all the features of Video Conferencing and MMS enability in iPhone 3.0 will be explored.

Now go on, have some sleep. Catch you at one of the Liveblogs. Peace out!

Right! I have been on quite a long hiatus now. Almost two months. The last post was on July 30th. Both my blogs, this one and OKS have been quite dead. Not that many people have been asking me why, but I do feel the need to explain why. Well, simple and plain, I have been busy. And not simple, plain busy. It has been a helluva hectic ass-pounding 2 months for me. And to top that, I have been dwelling in an offline world. You ask me, how’s that possible. It is, indeed. Yeah, the occasional online sessions at a cybercafe don’t count, do they?

How do you expect me to get hold of everything in the techno-blogosphere and elsewhere from a cubicle, with no-AC, a shitty keyboard which makes me hit the keys like I was Lars Ulrich, a Monitor which has its own idea of colors, a USB port which wouldn’t recognise mine, and at the end of it all , charge me Rs.35 for an hour. Bitches! All I could do was check my mail, mail back the important ones, and by that time (yes, I indeed didn’t mention the disconnections and the snail speed), the hour bell has rung.

And why was I exactly in such a place. Coz I was preparing for my education loan, back at home. And as they say, ” All’s well that ends well”. The ending was certainly happy and it marked the beginning of a new era. Here I am, in England, Southampton. I am studying M.Sc in Management Sciences in University of Southampton, and I am loving it here. Hope to write more posts soon.

Ciao!

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The unformatted version is:

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READ BETWEEN THE LINES MATE!! HEHE..

It seems like a moment of triumph. Seems like what started as a silly hobby, and having fought many obstructions and other temptations and having not given up after almost 3 years of blogging, has finally paid off. I got my first interview published on an e-mag called Pakspectator.

It is an online magazine encompassing different topics and they feature interviews of writers, passionate bloggers, webmasters et al. I believe that I belong to the second kind. They contacted me and I couldn’t help say anything but yes. Very soon, they replied me with a long list of questionnaire which included questions on my blogging experience etc.

An excerpt:-

Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?

Oh yes many, including my English teacher back at school. I never gave standard answers which were marks friendly.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for – what would your top 3 choices be?

New York- Big Apple

Cupertino – Home of Apple

Tokyo – Home of Jap-Anime

How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?

There are ways to generate income through blogs. Though I do not blog professionally, and haven’t made a reasonable income from my blogs, there are bloggers who make their entire living from it, and even make a killing. I am still searching for the answer to this question myself.

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?

It might be true, and might not be as well. I blog whenever I can. It does not come across as a hindrance to my work (may be the other way around is true). But I do know of people who have very tight schedules but also regularly maintain their blogs which are successful as well.

Leaving aside the bandwagon of celebs (read Bollywood celebs) who cash in on their celeb status to catapult their online presence, there are in fact people with demanding careers who also blog and do a commendable job at it too.

You can read the full interview here. I feel so elated and a bit like a snob as well. Good going Sujoy!!!

Cheers!!

You see the following logo on the Google Homepage today. It is 22nd April, the Earth day and Google is celebrating it.

The interesting thing is, Yahoo is also showing it’s green colors. Should we say, it’s “green with envy”. LOL. See the logo below.

Anyway, Google has many plans rolled out for the Earth Day. Google ‘s Official blog reports the following:

1. A Google Desktop gadget called the Energy Saver. It is a plugin for the Google Desktop and will manage power settings for your computer and turn it to sleep when you are not using it for a long period.

2. The post also tells us of many other blogs who are celebrating Earth Day . One of them is a story of the reduction of paper use by using the online ( read Google docs) alternative.

It’s 9 pm, and HBO is showing “An Inconvenient Truth” here in India. It is indeed high time that we all geared up and acted positively to make our planet Earth a better place to live in . From today onwards, I shall be actively blogging about environmental issues and also about news from all across the world related to it. Do remember to check out the category GREEN to stay updated with my posts. And what better to call this little project as “Project Green”. So all my posts pertaining to Project Green will be indexed on a single page as well, and expect PG on the titles. Peace! Green Peace!!

And to all my readers, and also to all who do not read this: Happy Earth Day

I use a very few of those Facebook apps…NOT. I actually use quite a lot of them. Right from the different walls, to the Addicted to TV Series , and Flixsters and iLike etc etc. But I was glued to BlogFriends due to the wonderful functionality of letting your Blogposts known to your Facebook pals. But of late, I hadn’t seen any updates of my posts on my page. I wondered what was wrong. The latest post that was showing on BlogFriends was a post that was written on 28th March -
Saturday Night at Bangalore circa March 2008. This had already got on my nerves, when I saw even Flog Blog wasn’t updating my RSS feeds. I went to the app page of BlogFriends to find out that they have decided to let it all go DOWN. As in forever. The notification available on the app page reads:

Blog Friends is closing
Dear Blog Friend, We’re very sorry to announce that Blog Friends is to close down.

When i-together raised some seed funding back in the summer of 2007, Benjie, Jof and I fully anticipated taking Blog Friends onto great things, and we worked as hard as we could to make that happen.

Although it appears simple on the surface, Blog Friends is actually an unusually complex and resource-intensive application to maintain and grow. It also is pretty original in the way it combines your extended, fuzzy social network and your interests as filters for your blog recommendation River.

Because Blog Friends was so original and quite ambitious, we had no way of projecting accurately just how many users we could welcome before our solution began to creak. We hoped for 100,000. It turned out that 20,000 was closer to the mark. And now that we have around 27,000 users signed up, Blog Friends has been brought pretty much to its knees (as you will have noticed from the increasing frequency of the error messages you may have been seeing).

For the full screenshot go here.