Apple iPad 2 Debuts in Australia Today

Following a raving success in the US, Apple has now launched iPad 2 in Australia today. Apple is currently the dominant force in the tablet PC market with its original iPad being sold around 15 million units last year.

Apple launched its second generation tablet PC, iPad 2, on 11 March in the American market and has reportedly sold more than 500,000 units of iPad 2 already.

Naturally, Apple is expecting similar success in the Australian market too. In fact, the company currently holds around 90% share of tablet PC market in Australia.

Compared to original iPad launched last year, the iPad 2 has much more attractive features including a smart cover which allows the users to turn on the device instantly. Both hardware and software wise, iPad 2 is superior to most of the tablet PCs available in the market.

Though it has some hiccups like not supporting Flash and having no memory card slot, still there are a number of reasons users are expected to queuing up in front of the stores for the iPad 2 tablets once the device gets to the shelves of the stores.

Apple iPad 2 starts at Australian dollar 579 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version. The device is also available with 32GB and 64GB versions. In addition, users can also choose the 3G version of the device by shelling out some extra bucks.

Amazon Android app store is launching on March 22

Amazon is going to launch its Android app store on March 22, 2011. The app store will have some new Angry Bird games and other apps at deep discounts.

Wired.com had been tipped off by a source about the unveiling of the app store. News of Amazon Android app store first came up in September 2010. It was said that the store’s structure will be similar to that of the Apple iTunes app store. Developers would have to pay $99 to sign up and the revenue sharing will be 70:30.

Last week, image of the app store webpage leaked on Internet showing horizontal menu containing 48 apps and their prices. What apps get into the store will be decided by Amazon and it will covered up in its DRM. Developers can not sell their applications at a lower price in other stores.

Related articles:

Wired.com

Business Insider

Google TV Remote app for iOS devices is available now

On March 18, 2011, Google launched its new Gooogle TV Remote Apple iOS devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. With the app users can search channels by their voice from anywhere in the house. However, the iOS version does not support webpage sharing from mobile to the screen.

One of the major problems of the Google TV Remote app is that it is quite complex. For a regular user, it would be quite difficult to use. The app interface contains 33 buttons. So many buttons so many functions, it would take users a long time to find out the right button.

The Android version of the Google TV remote app was launched in December 2010.

Google TV was rolled out in October 2010 on Logitech's Revue companion boxes and Sony Internet TVs and Blu-ray players. It is an Android based software that connects TV with the Internet and allows users to access Internet based services such as Netflix, and Amazon VoD. The service was not well received by the critics. They considered it expensive and incomplete with lots of bugs.

Related article:

eWeek

Internet Explorer 9 is good but perhaps too Late

I have used Internet Explorer 9 and I liked it despite the fact that I am fond of any other browser except IE. Page loading is really fast but still, I do not feel comfortable with it. Perhaps the main reason is that I am habituated to other browsers and I do not have any good memory of using IE in the 5-6 years.

There are many people like me who perhaps have the same feeling right now about IE. So, it may become difficult for Microsoft to convince users like us to leave Chrome or Firefox and make IE as the main browser in our day to day life. 

Firefox 4 vs. IE9 vs. Google Chrome 10: Good, Better, Best

In March 2011, we are seeing three major browser releases. Internet Explorer 9 has been released on March 14, 2011. Last week, Google released Chrome 10 and on March 22 Mozilla Firefox 4 will be released.

Michael Muchmore of PC Mag.com conducted a wide range of benchmark test on these three browsers and Chrome 10 comes out as the winner. He focused on Interface, Speed, Security and Privacy, Standards Support, and Extra features.

In terms of Interface – All three browsers followed Chrome’s footsteps and took over simplistic UI. All of them have tabbed browsing features and each has its own special features. For example, Chrome’s web store that lets you install websites, Firefox’s “Panorama Tab Manager,” and IE9’s website pin feature.

Three JS engines- SunSpider, Mozilla Kraken and Google V8 (V.6) has been used to test the speed.

In terms of HTML5, IE9 wins hands down. Both Chrome 10 and IE9 offers better security features. However one major weakness of IE9 is that it would only run on Windows 7 and further but Google Chrome 10 runs on all types of OS. To see details of the test visit:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382108,00.asp

The obsession of getting larger number of Apps

Just the other day, Microsoft announced that its Windows Phone 7 platform has got now more than 10,000 apps. Apple has already more than 400,000 apps while Android had over 200,000. Still, Google and Apple are not that much satisfied and they are trying to attract more app developers. Microsoft has to do it too.

I feel that it is really has become an obsession for Apple, Google and Microsoft to just boast the number of apps from time to time. If you are in iPhone user then how many of the 400,000 apps available to you would be ever used by you! The same can be said for Android users as a good deal of apps in Android market is free.

The obsession towards apps is hardly doing the consumers any good. Most of them do not bother which company has which number of apps. Instead, they want their smartphone or tablet experience becomes comfortable. Apple has received a lot of criticism for trying to get more money from the publishers as well as trying to slow down some apps.

Internet Explorer 9 : You should check it out

Internet Explorer 9 is out and available for download. The new browser from Microsoft received positive reviews from everywhere. Before writing this post, I downloaded it and ran on my laptop and I have to admit that Microsoft has come up with something great this time. Just go and download the browser and start using it.

It is fastest browser ever released by Microsoft. If you have used earlier versions, you will easily feel the difference. The browser load pages very fast. Internet Explorer 9 uses a new Java Script Engine called Chakra.

The UI is very simple and clean and if you use Google Chrome you will obviously find some similarities with the interface.

I like the “Pin to taskbar” option of Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 brings this feature for websites. Now, you can pin your favorite website to taskbar and open it within seconds.

Internet Explorer 9 provides better security features against a wide range of attacks. The smart screen application makes sure that you do not download files containing malwares.

The IE9 can be a great addition for enterprise. It has “Group Policy support” which allows a company’s IT staffs to control different aspects of the browser.

Last but not least, the browser provides anti-tracking features.

From what I have seen, it can be said that IE9 will help Microsoft gain browser market share it lost to Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Related articles:

eWeek

Apple iPad 2: Weekend sales had been successful and it has been hacked

Just two days after its arrival, hackers have been able to jailbreak the iPad 2. An iPhone developer and hacker, who goes by the name Comex, has been able to jailbreak the device and access Cydia.

The hack by Comex exploits a new vulnerability since all the old flaws have been patched in iOS 4.3. He remotely performed the hack. Techspot posted video clip of a hacked iPad 2. It is not sure if the hack is available for everyone.

The iPad 2 is thinner, lighter, packs a more powerful processor and comes with iOS 4.3. The device went on sale on March 11, 2011 and it had been a huge success. Compared to the previous year, when the first-gen iPad was launched, the iPad 2 has been made available in more places. Aside from Apple retail stores, the iPad 2 was available in Best Buy, Walmart, AT&T and Verizon outlets.

On the first day, there were long lines in many stores and they sold out almost all their iPad 2 units in the first day. By Saturday, most of the stores ran out of their iPad 2 stocks.

Analysts are expecting that Apple iPad 2 sold one million units in the first weekend a feat took 28 days for the first-gen iPad to perform. This is great news for Apple and its investors.

Related articles:

Edmonton Journal

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is now officially available for download

On March 14, 2011, at the SXSW at Austin, Texas, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 9. The good news is, IE9 comes with many great features. The bad news, it will not be available to Windows XP and Mac users but Vista and Windows 7 users which the IE team refers as “modern” PCs.

Dean Hachamovitch, IE Corporate Vice President, said that on IE9 website’s will be able to exploit a PC’s hardware power like regular apps. He further said,

"The way sites are going to do that is through the browser. The way the browser does that is though the operating system….Other browsers dilute their engineering investments across a lot of different systems. Because IE focuses exclusively on one, IE can make the most of the Windows experience and PC hardware - just like graphics programs and games have done for years."

Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser in the world but it is losing market to Google Chrome of Mozilla. Analysts feel that Internet Explorer 9 will stop this downward trend.

So far, Internet Explorer 9 received positive reviews. The beta version of the browser was a huge hit. In the first two days of its release, it observed 2 million downloads.

Related articles:

Channel Register.co.uk

International Business Times

Apple: Will cloud-based MobileMe become the next big move?

PC Mag’s Tim Bajarin claims that cloud-based service will be the next big post PC trend of Apple and he takes the cue from the nuances of Steve Jobs’ presentations.

Bajarin predicted that sometimes this year, Jobs would reveal his next 10-year plan for Apple. He says,

Instead he [Jobs] will most likely announce the long-rumored, cloud-based MobileMe service, and if I were to put words into his mouth, it might come out as, "Our cloud service will be the center of our digital lifestyles for the next decade."

I agree with Bajarin for two reasons- first, he attended all the speeches of Steve Jobs ever made as Apple’s president and recently Apple is reported to be offering unlimited downloads to its iTunes users.

Bajarin attended all the speeches of Steve Jobs since he became the president of Apple. In 2001 Jobs said "The Mac will be the center of our Digital Lifestyle." With this statement, Jobs meant that Mac PCs will be Apple’s main focus. Over the years, Apple introduced flurry of product that seamed to work smoothly with its Mac PC the acted as the central data-hub for these devices.

In early March, news came out that Apple will offer unlimited downloads to its iTunes users. Apple was reported to be in talks with record labels including Vivendi SA (VIV)’s Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG) and EMI Group Ltd.

Under the new system, iTunes users would be able to listen to music on multiple iOS devices such as iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad once they purchase it from iTunes store. They can even store their music in their iTunes account. In case if their device gets lost or damaged, they can access their music on a new device via iTunes account.

Google Circles: Just one of the many unborn babies

News of Google launching a social network spread out from the SXSW conference. Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read Write Web first reported that at the SXSW interactive event, Google would launch its “new social service” called Google Circles.

Later, Liz Gannes of All Things Digital confirmed that Google has no announcement plans at the event and such a product is not under development. Google officially told Texas Time that no such service called Google Circles exists.

It was reported that Chris Messina and Jonathan Sposato, founder of the popular photo-sharing website, Piknik were the creators of the service. In a tweet, famous tech-pundit, Tim O’Reilly, said that he has seen the service and described it as “awesome.”

Google Circles was reported to be such a social network that would allow people to create boundaries between his/her family, friends, and acquaintances just like the real world. In the real world, a person does not share same relationship with all the people he knows. The problem with the present day social networking sites is that they do not have any clear boundaries between friends, family or loved ones. They put everything in one big system.

Already, a social networking service called Path is trying to adopt this approach. It allows users to share mobile content only with 50 people. Facebook also has a similar tool called Facebook Groups, where people would have to specifically define who their friends are.

Related article:

Network Effect

Gene Munster’s survey reveals Apple iPad 2 is attracting lots of new users

In a survey conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster, and his team, it has been revealed that majority of the buyers of the iPad 2 are new to the device. It shows that Apple is expanding its tablet PC market.

Munster and his team conducted the survey on 236 buyers in New York City and Minneapolis and also contacted different retail outlets including Apple stores, Target, Best Buy, looking for the iPad 2.

Munster estimated that a total of 400,000 to 500,000 units of iPad 2s had been sold in the first weekend which is higher compared to the 300,000 iPads sold in first weekend last year. Another big difference is that almost all the iPad 2s were sold in the first day. By Saturday, retailers ran out of their stocks and did not receive any new shipments.

Among the respondents, 23 percent own iPhone 4 and are new to the iPad while 51 percent were Mac users, 49 percent were PC users.

Last but not least, 41 percent buyers bought the 32GB iPad 2 which is also higher compared to 32 percent buyers of the first gen iPad.

In the end, Munster concluded that adding new customer to its product would help Apple gain further lead in the market. He is also hopeful that Apple would hold on to its position for the company “record of building unmatched brand loyalty.”

Related article:

Fortune

Apple iPad 2: Smart cover and powerful GPU make it even better than Motorola Xoom

So what if it does not come with flash, micro-SD expansion, or USB, or a low quality camera, the iPad 2 is still the best tablet PC. The new iPad 2 is thinner and lighter comes with smartcover and a GPU that even makes the Xoom look ordinary.

The specialty of the Smart Covers is upon removing it, the iPad 2 instantly wakes up. You can also use it like a stand for typing or watching movies. The Smart Cover lives up to its promise. It turns on the device even faster than your Mac or a regular Windows PC or laptop.

The GPU of iPad 2 is even better than that of Xoom or first-gen iPad. A GLBenchmark 2.0 test, conducted by Anandtech, revealed that the Imagination Technologies' PowerVR SGX 543MP2 GPU is far better than the SGX 535 used in first-gen iPad and

Nvidia Tegra 2 of Motorola Xoom. Here is the result of a textured triangle test:

The first gen iPad produced 8.7 million triangles per second while iPad 2 29 million, a 3x increase and Xoom little more than 15 million.

Anandtech review said that the iPad 2 GPU makes it a great device for 3D gaming.

Related articles:

The New York Times

AnandTech

Price and Size Made the Task Tougher for Motorola Xoom?

Many believe that Motorola Xoom has the potential to become the first real competitor for Apple iPad, and many even has gone this far that it would considerably cut iPad’s dominance in the tablet PC market.

Well, that did not happen yet and Apple second generation tablet, iPad 2, has passed the test with flying colors. iPad 2 was a huge success in the America market after its release on 11 March and many stores sold out in mere two hours.

No doubt, Xoom has some highly attractive features. First of all, it is the first tablet PC running on Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb) OS. Secondly, it has HDMI port, SD card slot (though it is not active, but would be active soon) and a large 10.1 high definition screen. More than that, it allows users to install and run third party application smoothly.

However, there are few drawbacks too. For example, it is a bit pricy compared to iPad 2. Then the current version does not support Adobe Flash, though the company assured the customers of providing Flash support very soon. Then the Android’s online store is not that rich as of now, compared to Apple app store where iPad users can choose from 65,000 iPad-centric applications.

The 10.1-inch may be confortable for eyes, but then it has made the device little odd in shape, and thus, making the task tougher for the users to hold it for a long time. On the other hand, iPad 2 is nicely shaped with a 9.7-inch display.

Verizon, one of the carriers besides AT&T selling iPad 2, is currently selling Xoom. Naturally, the Motorola device would come into direct competition with iPad 2. It is true that Xoom may not be able compete with iPad 2 significantly, but can make a very good competition with other tablet PCs like Samsung Galaxy Tab and other coming devices like Dell Streak, HP WebOS and Rim BlackBerry PlayBook.

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clarionledger

Microsoft Windows 8 OS Coming in 2012

Microsoft Windows 8 operating system will most probably be released in 2012. Recently a Microsoft roadmap was leaked which indicates that the operating system giant would come up with its next Windows version sometimes next year and the beta version of Windows 8 OS would be released at the end of 2011.

It is pretty much understandable that Microsoft will try to make Windows 8 as much compatible as possible for tablet PC. It is also suggested that the next OS from Microsoft would be available first in tablet PC, before coming to conventional PCs like desktop and laptop. Naturally, it is expected that Windows 8 will be very good for touch related functionalities.

As it is clear that Microsoft would not come up with its next OS before 2012, there is no way Apple iOS and Google Android will see any considerable competition from Microsoft. Microsoft also lags behind Apple and Google in the smartphone market, though it is currently in the recovery process and has made a lucrative deal with mobile phone giant Nokia.

The mistake Microsoft did in the smartphone market was that it did not try to find some strong partners. So, it is expected that the OS giant would not make the same mistake with its Windows 8 OS in the tablet PC market. Microsoft has a big potential in the tablet PC market because Windows is still the most popular operating system among the desktop and laptop users.

Related article:

techgadgetsweb.com

Nokia Windows Phone 7 based handsets will come out in 2013

Nokia, in February 2011, announced its partnership with Microsoft and at MWC 2011, Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, said that the first Windows Phone 7 based Nokia handset will come out this year but a new report revealed that Nokia WP7 is expected to hit the market in 2013.

In a publicly released report, Nokia said that it will take two years for the company to make its transition from Symbian and MeeGo to Windows Phone 7 as its “primary smartphone platform.” The problem is, two-year is a pretty long time and the landscape will change so much and Google Android and Apple iOS would further cement their positions in the smartphone market. This is a big gamble for both Microsoft and Nokia and both the companies would lose billions if it fails.

The 200+ page report, called Form 20-F 2010, was submitted by Nokia to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and posted on Nokia’s official website. Regarding Nokia’s transition to Windows Phone 7, the document says,

While we transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform, we will continue to leverage our investment in Symbian for the benefit of Nokia, our customers and consumers, as well as developers. This strategy recognizes the opportunity to retain and transition the installed base of approximately 200 million Symbian owners to Nokia Windows Phone smartphones over time.

Mobile phone app developers will have the worst. Should they develop applications for a WP7 Nokia phones that would come out after two years or should they develop apps for Nokia Symbian that has a shrinking user base?

Related article:

Computer World

Will Blog Networks come back in 2011?

If you are blogging for the last five or six years then you surely remember that in 2005 and 2006 there were many blog networks visible in Internet. These days, most of them are gone and in other words, they are no longer in business. Some very big networks with more than 100 blogs have disappeared or changed their business. The economic recession that started from the middle of 2008 played the most damaging part. Now, things look better at least for the USA economy and there is a possibility that we may see old blog networks coming back or new ones being created. On the other hand, things may not become so easy for various reasons. In this entry, I am going to explore the possibilities and problems of blog networks.

As I have just mentioned that the economic recession that started from the middle of 2008 and continued until the end of 2009, caused massive damage to the blog networks. The main problem that happened is that almost all the blog networks saw their revenue getting decreased because of poor income from advertisements. All the blog networks used to earn money against traffic or page views. The more traffic or page views they could manage, the better possibility they had of earning more money. The recession caused bad business for everyone and the companies could not spend like past for ads. The same thing happened to Google Adsense. If you have Adsense for the last three or four years, then you should have noticed significant decrease in EPCM or Earning for Per Thousand Impressions from Adsense, no matter what kind of topic you have.

I like to talk about three very large blog networks that got closed during the recession. The first network is Know More Media in which I used to blog. I used to write in South Asian Biz and Indian Raj websites for them. Know More Media had around 100 blogs and they closed their business in the end of July in 2008. Creative Weblogging was another very big blog network with around 150 blogs. That website is still there but has no sign that it was such a big network. The last blog network that I want to talk about is B5Media which in its prime time had more than 300 blogs. The economic recession changed them and B5Media now has changed its business style. In fact, B5Media is no longer a blog network but it likes to call itself as life style publisher.

During the time of recession, while blog networks got closed we saw another style of content websites becoming popular. Examiner.com is such an example. It started to hire many people in 2009 and 2010. It is still continuing hiring many people. The basic idea behind Examiner.com is that it has hired many people in USA and Canada and then ask them to write about local news. I do not know about the current payment system of the Examiner.com but until a few months ago, they used to pay around $9 or $10 for 1000 page views.

Another example of this kind of content website is HubPages. It flourished during the recession and its idea is to give nearly 60% of the revenue to the bloggers or writers (they display writer’s Ads 60% of the time and their own ads 40%). Perhaps the poster boy of the new kind of networks is Demand Media. Demand Media did not go for revenue sharing or paying for traffic. It gives flat fee. Demand Media became very successful and got valuation of around $1.3 billion.

All these new publishers went mainly for Google search engine results. Their goal is very simple- to get in the top three or five positions of Google search results for as many keywords as possible. This kind of business model became successful but in the last few days, Google has decided to go tough against content farms. All of a sudden, some kind of uncertainty is hanging for their future.

AOL has invested heavily for acquiring big websites or blogs. In 2005, it bought the Weblogs, Inc. and it became the owner of successful blogs such as Engadget or Autoblog. In 2010, AOL bought TechCrunch and just a few weeks ago AOL bought Huffington Post. Thus, AOL has emerged as the biggest owner of the largest blog network although Weblogs, Inc blogs, TechCrunch and Huffington Post operate more and less autonomously or independently.

To answer the original question, I do not think that blog networks will make a come back in 2011 because I cannot find enough entrepreneurs. More than that there is a feeling that content websites like Examiner.com, HubPages and Demand Media have become very large and become the successful model. It will be perhaps difficult for new blog networks to compete against them.

Finally, although the worst impact of recession is finished, revenue from advertisement has not comeback to the pre recession condition yet. If you have AdSense then you can easily compare your income of 2011 and 2008. Then you will understand what I am saying. However, there is no need to get frustrated because at the end of the day the number of internet users is increasing and the condition of global economy is becoming stable. So, the potential for earning money through blogs or blog networks will gradually come back to the pre recession condition. If it happens then we will see many new blog networks.

On the other hand, if Google can become successful against the content firms then we will see some entrepreneurs coming up with blogging networks focusing on quality content instead of creating content only for search engines. What do you think about it?