The rise of the App store

This will sound odd, and might date me the way radiocarbon dates old trees. The first mobile phone I bought was just to make phone calls. At Rs 16 a minute, to boot. Oh well, this was 1996, a different era. Hey, it was an earlier century, in the last millennium.

This – now this is the iPhone age. That thing in your pocket, it ain’t a phone. It’s the Communicator from Star Trek. It’s a universal infotainment terminal. It does stuff we couldn’t have dreamt of in the nineties, from letting you read books and watch movies on it, to storing (and editing) all your life’s documents, telling you your exact location on the planet and tomorrow’s weather… Read on» » » »

Good value social networking - Micromax ezpad Q5

It’s quite a relief to see a QWERTY handset that seems to have its own ‘personality’ and doesn’t look like a BlackBerry. This Q5 or ‘ezpad’ as it’s been dubbed, was apparently designed to be real bliss for the avid social networker and here’s how it fared.

Form
The handset’s prime focus is the keypad and not the screen, so there’s that slightly awkward Micromax LCD panel. Although the Q5 is less skewed than its predecessor, the Q3, it’s still the handset’s biggest drawback.

Thankfully, the large QWERTY keypad is fantastic. The buttons are easy to use and well-spaced and take a couple of attempts to get used to. Navigation is a breeze thanks to the track ball. Read on» » » »

The buzz around Buzz

Of course I’m going to talk about what everyone else is talking about Google Buzz. What’s the big deal? Is it worth it? And do how you go about getting the best from it?

I’m not sure that I have all the definitive answers to these questions. But it is quite fun to speculate. So, without further adieu, let us segue into my user’s experience of Google Buzz.

Day One
Twitter and Facebook is full of references to this Hot! New! Thing! called Google Buzz. I don’t know what it is, but I know I must have it. Everyone else seems to be having the same reaction. Rumours on the block is that it will finish off Facebook and Twitter completely, obliterating them from our memory. Read on» » » »

A temporary email address

You have just come across a new website at xyz.com that offers an interesting ebook for free. The offer is simple — you give them your email address and they’ll send you the download links for the ebook directly to your Inbox.

Now while the website policy clearly states that they “won’t sell your email address to third-parties”, you aren’t feeling very comfortable sharing your private email address with a website that you’ve never heard about before.

What do you do then? Read on» » » »

It’s time to think of wireless homes

Everything from 9/11 attacks to the global economic crisis have spoilt some of the fun associated with the revolution that information technology is bringing to us. But guess what? Technology is still happening big-time, waiting for no-one or nothing but innovations that are making things faster, cheaper and better. And I think the time is ripe for you to think of wireless homes that use wi-fi technology. Read on» » » »

Born-again Explorer takes on Chrome

Software giant Microsoft, fast losing its market share to new entrants like Google’s Chrome, on Thursday launched the latest version of its Web browser, the Internet Explorer - IE8, with features that allow quicker navigation, content search, and a cool display that gives an easily updated view of favourite pages. Read on» » » »

Google starts SMS search for no-Net phones

Search giant Google Inc took the Internet war to a new high on Tuesday by launching an SMS-based service that will offer search services across the country at cheaper rates to those who have mobile phones but do not have Internet connections.

Apart from the unrestricted search linked to its market-leading search engine, Google is also aiming to woo tens of millions of people not touched by the World Wide Web. Read on» » » »

Google’s search index hits one trillion page mark

Google announced recently that their search engine has indexed over 1 trillion unique web-pages from all over the globe.

“We knew the web was big,” the article on Google’s official blog begins. “Even after removing those exact duplicates, we saw a trillion unique URLs.” This article also introduced the indexing technology behind the stage. Read on» » » »

Now use Google Phone Search to get info on the go

Google has recently launched Google Phone Search , a service that will help you search Google on the go. All you have to do is to pick up your phone and dial 1-800-41-999-999 to get access to local business information, movie times and real time flight statuses and so on. All this comes without any charge.

Simply dial 1-800-41-999-999 (toll free) from any phone. The service is currently made available in Hyderabad, India in English, Hindi and Telugu languages. Read on» » » »

Mozilla Sets a New World Record

Mozilla’s new browser Firefox 3.0 has been downloaded over 8 million times within 24 hours of its launch. The Mozilla Foundation had encouraged users worldwide to download their latest browser on the Download Day in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. The target of five million downloads was reached earlier on June 18, and with few minutes to go, the eight million mark was reached as well. Read on» » » »