So GMail has rolled out a brand new feature known as Google Buzz and it intends to integrate a whole bunch of features right into your inbox. Surprisingly enough, when I logged into GMail, I was greeted with the following page.
If you haven’t been invited yet, you can directly opt to try out Buzz by going to Google Buzz.
GMail has always been awesome with rolling out better and newer features and integrating them right into the inbox. First it was just email, and then came chat, video chat, and with Labs features enabled, we could do much more with our plain old GMail inbox.
GMail Buzz intends to take it to the next level with the integration of other Google services such as Reader, Picasa etc. as well as other social networking services such as Twitter, Flickr all in one place – your inbox. And it is indeed very simple to get started, as seen below I integrated my twitter account.
All this means just one thing; Google is trying to bank on its GMail services to get back into the social networking arena [after Orkut having lost the match to twitter/ facebook etc]. Sharing links, content etc is all going to be integrated in your inbox.
It is also available on your mobile phone. For more details visit this link [ Google Mobile Blog post: Introducing Buzz for Mobile ]
The 30 odd minutes or so that I got to play around with the Google Nexus One of a friend were one of the fastest 30 minutes on earth. I spent those most precious 30 minutes having a proper run-through the UI, the phones hardware and software and most importantly comparing it with the market leader and benchmark -iPhone 3GS. In this post, we’ll just keep it to what we thought of the Google Nexus One as a phone which stands up for itself.
Screen: Awesome and bright OLED capacitive touchscreen flaunting a 800X480 resolution. The size of the screen is 3.5″ which is a bit smaller than the Droid’s 3.7″. But the OLED means brighter pictures and lesser power consuming – hence longer battery life.
Although the overall design is essentially HTC, the aesthetics of the hardware are appealing. Very curvy and smoothened edges and the back feels non-plasticky, which is always a plus point.
For all the people who have craving for an Android Phone, but still holding back due to unwilligness to shell out megabucks on the Motorola Milestone or the new Google Nexus One, here’s some good news. Unlike HTC’s smaller screen HTC Tatoo, or T-mobile Pulse, LG’s newly launched LG InTouch GW620 is just right for your pocket. Similar to other smartphones of the Android genre, it has a 3 inch touchscreen with QWERTY keyboard.
The customised Android interface sports a social-networking app called Linkbook, which integrates Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Android build is an earlier one [possibly Android 1.5 or 1.6] and hence, does not support Flash [but well, you can root it]. Other goodies included are the 3.5mm jack, Wi-Fi, 5MP camera and Micro-SD slot to increase the storage space and most importantly, an HSDPA internet.
The pricing revealed are quite attractive too. The phone comes for free with T-mobile 24 month contract at £20 a month -unlimited data. But the best deal is with Virgin Media -18 month contract at £18 a month -unlimited text and data.
Certainly a good buy for entry-level smartphone buyers. No news on the specifications of the phone such as screen type -capacitive or resistive and Android Marketplace support.
Chinese manufacturers Lenovo revealed their Android based Mobile – The LePhone at the current CES at Las Vegas. It is the first smartphone from the manufacturer and it definitely is dressed to impress. An AMOLED 3.7″ screen with 800X480 touchscreen and merely 12mm thick and 60mm wide. The LePhone also comes loaded with Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS support.
On the pro side, this phone has some awesome features of its own which is completely different from the Android 2.0 version it houses. The UI is absolutely different, and on-screen widgets and a very Palm Pre Web-OS-esque card view task manager. The applications menu is definitely inspired by the Apple iPhone, although the icons are all circular.
The homescreen brings forward an array of options for contacting your contacts – via. a mobile call, email, IM or text in a pretty flower design.
The accessory that houses the keyboard is a dock for charging and is ideal for making conference calls. It has dual cameras ideal for video chats, and the rear one is a 3mp.
It also has a Snapdragon Processor similar to the Google Nexus One.
On the down side, this phone does not support Android’s marketplace.
No news about the international date of launch in the US,UK or anywhere else. Currently, Lenovo plans to launch it first in China.
Have a look at the Crunchgear CES hands on video after the jump and get ready to be impressed. And also a bonus video courtesy Mobileburn. Also lots of LePhone glamour photos for your viewing pleasure.
I know I am being a bit nasty to say this, but for all tech lovers who have been following tech headlines for the last couple of months, we have certainly seen a loss of interest for the Apple iPhone. And why is that? Primarily because iPhone’s 3GS has not been revolutionary in terms of the differences between the 3GS and its predecessors [ of course a better processor and video camera were included]. And add to that, the surging popularity of the Android family backed by HTC’s range and Motorola’s Milestone/Droid did not help much to the iPhone camp.
2010 does not look good for iPhone either. All the focus from Cupertino seems to be static on the rumored Apple tablet -iTablet or iSlate. There has been a sort of a tradition followed at Apple, the announcement of a new version of iPhone every year: 2007 -iPhone released. 2008 -2nd Generation, and 2009-3GS. But 2010 is looking quite hazy in terms of what new can the iPhone offer.
The appstore of the iPhone has already touched the 100,000 mark. But with such huge quantity, there comes the risk of becoming static in terms of growth and expansion. The big question that faces Apple is what more can the iPhone offer?
The Android Alliance with players like HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericcson in the bandwagon certainly poses as the future of smartphones. And with consumer-friendly price tags for some of the phones [ HTC Tattoo, T-Mobile Pulse], owning a smartphone couldn’t have been easier and cheaper. The Android is also fast catching up in terms of developers community making a range of applications. And with HTC’s announcement of 2010’s range of new Android phones, iPhone could soon be facing a big challenge to sustain its domination of the smartphone market.
Here’s wishing iPhone a quick and speedy recovery.
So we do have our own daily visited websites. I can’t live without my daily dose of Techcrunch and Lifehacker. And then, there are the usual ones – Facebook, Twitter, GMail etc. Now, although browsers like Chrome, Opera and Firefox with addons do allow users to have a start up Fast-Dial page which has links to those highly visited links, there is still a big link missing in the amount of stuff we want. Of course, that void has been filled to some extent by the father of all start-up pages – iGoogle. iGoogle is highly customisable, with gadgets, widgets and feeds. You can add a lot of stuff to keep your iGoolge engaging, but again, adding too much stuff makes it cluttered and takes ages to load. And not to forget, you have Themes on iGoogle.
Enter a new alternative to iGoogle – 44tips.com, a website run by some awesome developers at picturesque Amsterdam [ I am imagining that they have an awesome view in their office ] The first thing you notice about the UI [user interface] on 44tips is that the site design is simplistic, clutter-free and quite minimal – yet, pretty. The colours are basic dark grey and Orange with a twang. Both remind me of Firefox somehow, which means-it works for me. Let’s explore the usability and the features on this website, and if it is worth making it your homepage. Shall we?
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.
Initially, when I heard about the idea of a browser on a USB portable pen-drive, I started questioning about its applicability. I mean, why would someone not install an actual browser on the machine itself, and rather have it on a USB pen drive. The answer is simple: Portability. Not only of your favorite browser experience, but also of all that comes with it – bookmarks, addins etc etc. The applicability does not actually matter much if you access internet only at home, through your own machine [ in case of which, its better to just install it]. Or if work does not allow access to USB ports and installing of any new browsers, you are indeed forced to use whatever is available. But, if you do have access to USB ports at work, and you do not want to install your browser [ or are not allowed so by corpo firewall] , and also share your history data, bookmarks etc on your work machine – Portable browsers are the way to go.
Good news is – all your favorite flavours are available in their portable avatars. And here’s the list.
1. Firefox 3.0 on USB:
Portable Apps bring the Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition. So, now you can take your bookmarks, passwords, history, extension with you. Visit the PortableApps website - Mozilla page to download the browser. It is just 9 MB in size, and after installation it expands to 27 -77 MB. I really don’t know what that * sign, beside the 77MB figure, means on the Download button.
Works fine on Win XP SP2 onwards, Win Vista SP1 and Win 7.
Chinese manufacturers Lenovo revealed their Android based Mobile – The LePhone at the current CES at Las Vegas. It is the first smartphone from the manufacturer and it definitely is dressed to impress. An AMOLED 3.7″ screen with 800X480 touchscreen and merely 12mm thick and 60mm wide. The LePhone also comes loaded with Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS support.
I know I am being a bit nasty to say this, but for all tech lovers who have been following tech headlines for the last couple of months, we have certainly seen a loss of interest for the Apple iPhone. And why is that? Primarily because iPhone’s 3GS has not been revolutionary in terms of the differences between the 3GS and its predecessors [ of course a better processor and video camera were included]. And add to that, the surging popularity of the Android family backed by HTC’s range and Motorola’s Milestone/Droid did not help much to the iPhone camp.
] The first thing you notice about the UI [user interface] on 44tips is that the site design is simplistic, clutter-free and quite minimal – yet, pretty. The colours are basic dark grey and Orange with a twang. Both remind me of Firefox somehow, which means-it works for me. Let’s explore the usability and the features on this website, and if it is worth making it your homepage. Shall we? 
1. Firefox 3.0 on USB:
