Monthly Archives: January 2010

Now Available – Firefox for Mobile Phones

Good news guys ! Mozilla has released mobile version of their browser firefox. Now most of the new users of mobile web will not have to think twice before selecting a browser for their mobile device, they have mobile version of their favorite browser. Well, brand works on web too !

Mozilla says that they have decided mobile firefox keeping in mind that mobile users love to touch more, and type less. seamless synchronization with desktop Firefox is another feature they are excited about. It is called “Weave Sync”

What is Weave Sync

Weave Sync helps you share your history, bookmarks, tabs and more between your PC and your mobile phone. It can share even your open tabs ! So, whatever you have on your PC version of firefox will be available on mobile version too, without manually setting it up. You will need to download and install the Weave Sync addon from this page. You should have this addon installed on both your PC and mobile versions of firefox, for this to work. For more information, and instructions, visit this page.

More Features

Awesome Bar – Go to your favorite sites in just a couple of keystrokes with intelligent and personalized searching
Weave Sync – Sync your Firefox tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords between your desktop and mobile device for a seamless browsing experience
Add-ons – Customize your Firefox by adding small pieces of functionality, like games and news readers, that help make the mobile Web browser your own
Location-Aware Browsing – Get maps and information relevant to your location
Tabbed browsing – View open tabs as thumbnails to easily identify and select the Web page you’d like to go to next
Safe Browsing – Get an Instant Web Site ID and easily access and edit security settings
Available in more than 30 languages and counting

Firefox is currently supported on Nokia’s Maemo5 platform and is available for download on the Nokia N900. Users can download and learn more by visiting Firefox.com/mobile . The download page says it will support Nokia N810 also. So, if you have other models of Nokia or any other brand, you might have to wait for the release.

Two New Features on Google Wave : Read Only and Restore

Read-Only Participants, was a feature that all Google Wave users were asking for. Now, Google Wave team has added to this feature. They have also added a new featured which lets you restore your wave from the timeline.

Read-Only Participants

The creator of a wave can now change other participants on the wave between full access and read-only by clicking on their picture at the top of the wave panel, and selecting the access level in the drop-down.

These users will have only one option, to view the wave. They will not be able to edit, or add users to the wave. This helps you share the wave with others, retaining the control over the wave to yourself. The  best use of this feature will be in those public waves.

Restore from Playback

Restore WaveAnyone with full access to a wave can now restore that wave to any previous state visible in playback. Restoring does not delete anything from the playback history, but adds the restored state to the end of the history.

Smart Recipe Search with Bing.com

Microsoft is not going to give up ! They know that Google is a really tough competitor, but they are fighting hard, with new and cool search features. Here is the latest from them; An advanced recipe search !

Visit Bing.com and type in any ingredient: ground chuck, quinoa, kidney beans, bacon, you name it and Bing will comb through recipe sites to return results. Click on the Recipes link and you’ll see a list of recipes which include the item you searched for. Every recipe has a picture, description, the name of the site where the recipe was found, and some easy visual guides like the rating that recipe has been given and whether or not the recipe is high or low in fat and calories. – reports lifehacker.com

We also have a video of this new feature in action ! Try this out  people !

Welcome, Nexus One

Google’s Nexus One is here .. is it an iPhone killer ? – this seems to be the most popular question here. I dont have answer for that question, but I do have some interesting facts about the phone for you !

Few Facts About Nexus One

  • Google will sell the phone through their online store located at google.com/phone.
  • This is Nexus “One” .. and there will be more Nexus phones from Google.
  • Google will add more Android devices to the online store, not just Nexus one.
  • The price for an unlocked Nexus One is $529
  • With ATT contract, it is $179
  • It has 3D capability.
  • Forget physical keypad, and touchscreen keypad, Nexus One can recognize your words and make it text. Speak, and send as text or email !
  • It supports Wifi, but no tethering as the moment.
  • Are you in India ? You will have wait until they launch the product here !

Questions Anyone ? :)

On E-Books and E-Readers

Amazon customers bought more e-books than printed books for the first time on Christmas Day.

Kindle, is now the most popular gift in Amazon’s history.

Kindle is now available in India

Don’t you see scope for a blog post in these three lines ?  Yes, and if you read books, I mean, a lot of them, this is enough for more than a blog post for you.

Will I ever consider buying an e-book reader, and start replacing my printed books with e-books ?

Yes, E-books are more convenient, cheap, and eco-friendly (less printed books = less number of trees cut )   – of course after you pay a good amount initially, for the e-reader , but I will not get to smell my new book .. (I love that smell ! )  .. and many more little and beautiful things about printed books …

Can I share books with people ? I buy a book, finish reading, and then exchange it with a friend for another one … ( free ! )  – is this possible with an E-reader and E-books ?

I have always wondered if the reading experience will be the same. But these new stats from Amazon is giving me better feeling about ebooks. People do like E-Books and E-Book Readers .. especially Kindle.

But, I should admit, I love the idea of ebooks, and would love to have a Kindle for myself ! but things are not looking so pretty in India,

Kindle in India

Even though the advertised price is $279, it may come up to $ 405 in India  including shipment charges, and taxes.  Browsing the Amazon online catalog and purchasing the book also may be costlier in India.

Do you have good things or bad things to share about ebooks ? Will you buy one for yourself ?

New Sources :  guardian.co.uk & intoday.in