Tag Archives: google

India’s $35 Tablet Runs on Google’s Android OS ?

I am sure you guys have already noticed the Indian government’s plan to launch a $35 tablet PC for students. They are planning to bring it down to $10 in near future. Many of the big gadget websites have covered it.

Is this tablet running on Android Operating system by Google ? Or a modified version of it ? Okay, lets check out two screenshots.

First Screenshot is from a random Android phone. Search android UI in Google and you will find many of them.

android indian tablet

Now, let us see how a screen capture from a video report on a National channel about our Indian tablet, ( wish it had a name !! ).

Indian goverment android tablet $35 dollors

Click on the image above, to view full size. I’ve added the original video also, in case you don’t believe this ;) .. So now you tell me, Is Indian government’s new Tablet PC running Android ? Did they announce on the press meet ?

Why Android, and Not Google Chrome OS ?

“Google Me” is Google’s Own “Facebook” ?

google fight facebookRumor has it that Google is planning a Facebook like social media networking platform, named “Google Me”. This news comes after their failed experiment with  “buzz”  which was supposed to be a twitter competitor. So, its better not to have too much of expectations about this

The news came out through a tweet by Kevin Rose, found of digg.com, which according to him, was from a credible source. Well, let’s hope so !

Well, Google, one question though, do you remember Orkut.com ?

In another news, Facebook hired the Guy Who Built Google’s Chrome OS. And Facebook is going to open it’s first office in Asia – 500 member facility in Hyderabad. ( news not to fresh )

Are you excited about Google Me ? (  if there is going to be a Google Me, that is ! )

Google’s HTML5 plans for Gmail include 1 second-to-Inbox startup

Gmail Soap

Gmail will be the most used website, or webapp  and we always wait patiently wait for it to load, we understand the pain it takes to load all our emails chats and attachments right ?

You said Yes ?

Really ?

I thought so, gmail is loading slower these days with all the new features and extensions added to it and if you have offline gmail enabled, it will take much longer for gmail to load. Well, Google also knows this patience test that we go through every time we open gmail and they are working on a 1 second to inbox startup solution.

Google is planning to do this with the latest HTML5 technology which is gaining popularity these days. ( Apple, iPhone, Flash is evil – got the puzzle ? )

Thanks to HTML5, we will soon have advanced features on more webapps, and gmail will be on of the best platforms for HTML5 to show its strength.

Good move, Google !

Next Company For Google to Acquire

Last week I wrote about an awesome Google Chrome extension  to  ”Replace Ads in Gmail with Social Media Profile of the Sender” on Chromestory.com. I added a small bit on the end of that blog post, saying I am sure that Google will buy this company.

UK-based start up called Rapportive has created an awesome Extension for Both Firefox and Google Chrome, which replaces the advertisement space in Gmail inbox with social media profile of the user whom you are interacting with, on that email.

Do you think Google Will Buy This Company ?

1. This is an awesome service which will see thousands of followers in coming days.

2. Even though ads inside gmail inbox is not Google’s revenue system, Google will not be happy about users removing ads with the help of a simple extension. They will buy this company, and include this service in gmail without hurting their income source.

What do you think ?

Get Email Update When a Wave is Updated

Google Wave has a new feature called “Email Notification”. It’s pretty simple. When enabled, Google wave will send you an email whenever a wave is updated.

How to Enable

To enable, click on the the dropdown button on your inbox, select notifications. You will get options to set up notifications. You can select to receive updates “Immediately” “Hourly” or  ”Daily”.

I do not see an option to enter a different email address than my gmail ID. May be this feature is yet to be implemented. Let me know if anyone else here that option !

Instead of adding email notification, you can add Wave Notifier extension if you are using Google Chrome. Here is How to.

Enjoy !

Google Phone Is Coming to India, But ..

Google phone is coming to India, but not the original one. Google will introduce a “mini” version of the Nexus phone, with less price, and lesser features.

This was revealed by Ankit from CNBC-TV 18 after an “editorial meet” with Google India head Shailesh Rao. Ankit wrote:

Nexus One will not come to India in its US avatar, the India specific Google Phone may be a stripped down version and priced lower!

I am glad that Google is not making the same mistake that Apple did. Since we do not have cell phone contracts to give subsidized phones, selling the same phone or on same price will not work in India.

So, obviously, a different type of phone,  with lesser number of features will do better here. I am confident about this matter after seeing the response to touch screen smartphones from samsung from Indian customers.

Competing with Samsung’s cheaper touchphones is a different game  altogether. I dont think google can bring such a drastic change to the price of Nexus phone.

Source: Labnol

The Google Picnik

Oh yes, yet another Post about Mr. G. Now, dont give me those stares :D there is something good to happening here, and really good if you are a flickr user.

Flickr users know what Picnik is, and how useful it is. Picnik is an online photo editing tool. It is easy to use and does some awesome things with your freshly clicked photographs. After you upload a photo to flickr, you can click on “edit” and access picnik services from the same page. You can use this service from picnik.com even if you do not have a flickr account.

Google Acquires Picnik

Google is shopaholic these days. They have announced that Picnik is in their kitty now. When I saw the news, I said,  ”Goood” .. and if you ask me why ..

There are many cool features available in picnik.com, but only paid members have access to most of them. I believe that sometime in future, Mr G. will make those services available for non paying users as well. If that happens, it will be awesome ! *looks at flickr users*

Do you use Picasa ?

If you are a Picasa fan and use it for photo sharing, you should be happy too , because we will this feature on Google’s own picasa too soon. Cool right ?

This will be a good addition to Google’s upcoming Chrome OS. Probably, the most used web app on chrome os after gmail.

Google Buzz – Beyond Status Messages

I will have to keep refreshing my gmail inbox for the whole day, or even longer !

Reason ?

I am waiting for Google Buzz to be added to my account.

My first thought  about Buzz was, hey Google is trying to start something similar to twitter.  Later, I figured that, this is little different. Google is trying to respond to most of the twitter and twitter like services, along with twitter related services we use regularly use.

1. Twitter : With status updates and @ replies, google will compete with twitter directly here, and this happens inside gmail inbox, so Google has millions of users already with them. Well, if they all start using buzz, of course.

2. URL shortening: Google has its own URL shortening service, which will be integrated to buzz.

3. FriendFeed: Friend Feed collects all our web 2.0 activities on a single page. Buzz is trying to do something similar. It can automatically pull updates from your twiiter, flickr, picasa and youtube etc, and I believe, more services will be added to this via plugins or extensions, later.

4. Twitpic and Others: We will see picasa being an important part of Buzz, for quick photo sharing, directly competing with twitpic and other twitter photo sharing websites.

Many Social networking services may end up being a buzz plugin or extension, in future, if Google Buzz becomes really popular, which only time can reveal to us. So, lets wait for our future to be decided ;)