Tech Updates

Google’s day-one keynote from the 2012 I/O developer conference has officially wrapped up. We’ll have plenty of analysis directly from the show, but here’s a quick look at what’s been announced so far. Nexus 7 Tablet Google officially unveiled  the $199 Nexus 7 tablet , built by Asus. Its feature list is as follows: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system 7-inch, 1280×800-resolution touchscreen Quad-core Tegra 3 chipset with a 12-core graphics processor 8GB of storage (16GB version available for $249) Front-facing camera Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC Nine hours of HD video playback Weighs 0.75 pounds Google says the Nexus 7 tablet is “optimized for Google Play” – meaning it’s geared toward consuming music, movies, games, books, magazines and more. The feature-set and price tag will certainly put a whole lot of pressure on similarly-priced (but less powerful) 7-inch tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s able...

Microsoft Corp is looking at making its own smartphone to kickstart sales of its Windows mobile software, according to a Wall Street analyst who has followed the company for many years. The talk - unconfirmed by Microsoft - comes a day after the company unveiled its latest Windows Phone 8 software, and the same week it announced an own-brand tablet, signaling a break with 37 years of focusing on software and leaving hardware manufacturing to its partners. "Our industry sources tell us that Microsoft may be working with a contract manufacturer to develop their own handset for Windows Phone 8," wrote Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund in a note to clients on Thursday. "It is unclear to us whether this would be a reference platform or whether this may be a go-to market Microsoft-branded handset," wrote Sherlund, who covered Microsoft for Goldman Sachs when the bank brought Microsoft public in 1986. Microsoft did not confirm or deny the speculation. A spokesman said the c...

Several of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s comments made during an interview this week at Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital D10 Conference could be taken as further indication of an  upcoming iPad Mini release . Quick Background The current round of rumors and speculation regarding Apple coming out with an iPad Mini in 2012 is increasing to a fever pitch. Apple’s supply chain has systematically done its job as far as “leaking” to South Korea, China and Taiwan media just enough info to keep the discussion going, and growing, regarding a 7-8 inch iPad.  There are now close to 10 million mentions of “iPad Mini” on the Internet, according to Google’s search engine. Market Conditioning There’s now only one major task left that Apple must accomplish from a market-conditioning standpoint prior to it announcing the release date for the iPad Mini, and it’s a little tricky.  And it has to be done in stages. And that is to help people understand that  Steve Jobs would have be...

After Samsung tried to offer the public a rival for Siri, now LG comes up with its very own solution called LG Quick Voice. LG announced this intelligent voice recognition system today and you should know that it’s coming to various Android phones and the few tablets that LG has sold so far. The Optimus Vu phablet is also among the devices to get it and that will happen this month. The LG Optimus LTE II will get it in July. Quick Voice offers the ability to make phone calls, send texts and emails, search the web, set alarms and make calendar appointments, everything by using voice commands, instead of having to tap the screen or type. Having screen Samsung’s S Voice in action I can say it’s underwhelming and I expect better from LG through Quick Voice. Siri’s recent evolution through iOS 6.0 demands a real rival before things get out of hand and Apple controls the voice command/recognition area as well. Rumors also say that Google is working on its own voice solution, codenamed Maje...

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) released a new study that examines the attitudes of today’s tablet users. It also shows the iOS and Android tablet usage level and I must mention that the number of people who own iPads versus Android tablets has evened from 72% versus 32% to 52% versus 51% this year. The Kindle Fire contributed greatly to this increase. As you can see, the iPad 2 is still the most popular iOS slate, with 31%, followed by the original iPad, at 22% and the iPad 3 at 8%. Kindle Fire has 28%, followed by some Galaxy Tab model with 13% (unless all the Galaxy Tabs are lumped in together) and other Android models with 10%. At 9% we find the Nook from B&N, while the HP TouchPad gets a surprising 8%. Overall tablet usage for accessing the Internet has grown to 31% in the USA, a jump from last year’s 12%. This means that there are now 74 million more tablet users and the predictions say that this adoption rate will continue, reaching 47% penetration by 2013. Right ...

As expected, Microsoft announced its forthcoming mobile operating system at its Developers Summit on Wednesday. Expected to be released this fall, somewhere around September, Microsoft is all geared up to survive the competition from the iOS and Android platform. With a lot many new features outlined at the Summit, here are the few important ones. Shared Core:  "The future of Windows 8 is a 'shared core' between  Windows Phone 8  and Windows 8," said Windows Phone 8 product manager Joe Belfiore at the Developers Summit on Wednesday. This means Windows Phone 8 will be deeply linked with PCs and tablets running on Windows 8 platform. Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 will share the same kernel, file system, multimedia apps and graphics support. As a result all apps that will work on Windows Phone will work on tablets and desktop PCs as well. Even sharing content and apps between the three devices will be much smoother. Even developers will be able to create content that wi...

Samsung Galaxy S III Review: Your Next Android Phone Samsung Galaxy S III Review, by Ginny Mies June 19, 2012 The Samsung Galaxy S III ($200 with a new two-year AT&T contract, price as of June 20, 2012) is one of the most hyped phones this year--and we’ve finally gotten a chance to spend some time with it. After Samsung’s splashy launch event, the lawsuit drama with Apple, and the announcement that this model would be coming to five U.S. carriers, we’ve had high expectations for this phone. So is the Galaxy S III the next great Android phone? In terms of design, display performance, and features, I’d say yes. It isn’t perfect, however. S Voice doesn’t always work well, and some of the sharing features are useless if you don't know other Galaxy S III owners. Editor’s note: The Galaxy S III is coming to Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, as well. Other than the differences in networks, pricing, and storage capacities, the G...

For the past few days, Samsung has been drawing quite a lot of attention with the Galaxy S III. Looks like the Korean company can't seem to get enough. Sources of a Korean publication (MK Business News) are suggesting that the Galaxy Note II is due to launch in October this year. Does that ring a bell? Yes, another phablet from Samsung. The Korean manufacturer is planning to release the next version of Galaxy Note in time for Apple's launch of the next iPhone, which is also expected in the month of October. The smartphone is expected to feature a thin unbreakable plane display (UBP) with a better display resolution and sport a slimmer design. Other rumoured features include a quad-core processor, a 12MP camera, longer battery life and a sturdier build compared to its predecessor. What's more, the smartphone is also likely to run on Jelly Bean, a successor to latest Android version Ice Cream Sandwich. We hope to see Jelly Bean debut at the Google I/O event that will ta...

On a wonderfully bright Monday afternoon in Hollywood, Steve Ballmer,  Microsoft’s ( MSFT )  chief executive officer, appeared at an art and film studio to deliver what looks like Microsoft’s finest, most controversial product in ages. In fact, it’s a family of products—a line of “Surface” tablet computers aimed at both consumers and workers. As it does with the Xbox, Microsoft has opted to make the Surface tablets—both hardware and software—on its own. This stands as a huge affront to Microsoft’s longtime PC partners. Making matters worse, the Surface products look far better than anything else the PC makers have shown to date on the tablet front. Even  Apple ( AAPL )  has been put on notice, if the hoots and hollers from the event were any indication. The first Surface device shown weighs about 1.5 pounds and is 9 mm thick. A second, the Surface Pro, is slightly thicker and heavier. Both tablets come with a built-in kickstand, so you can stand them up to watch mov...

Internet marketing is all about attracting the eye of the users, luring them towards your website, and then with persuasive layout and other tactics on the website, a business tries to capture and convert the visitor into a lead or sale. When it comes to attracting traffic towards the website, then there is no better way of doing it than application of PPC. There are different online modes which businesses use to attract relevant traffic towards their website. They use social networking websites, and other websites like YouTube to attract visitors. However, effective  PPC management  is the most effective of them all. The lines below give a detail about what PPC from a new online marketer’s prospective. PPC(pay per click): As the name indicates, that PPC is all about paying the search engine company for every click the ad of a business receives in the search engine. The search engines allow a business to display ads after bidding against a particular keyword. The general tren...