Tech Readers

Zynga Games Reportedly Heading to Xbox Live

Mikey Mell — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:43:35 +0000

Considering the massive spending from Zynga recently, it won’t be surprising that the social games giant Zynga will bring its game to other platforms with a view to expand its presence. This is certainly surprising that what actually held Zynga until now to expand its presence to home console market, considering the popularity of its game on social networks.

Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga said in one of his recent interviews that the company is testing on back-end technology that would enable them to transfer save-states between multiple gaming platforms. Here, the mention of Microsoft Xbox was prominent enough to give rise to speculations that Zynga integration with Xbox Live may not far from now.

It seems a little contradictory to the starters when considering the statement of Zynga developer Brain Reynolds, where he said that the Xbox demographic was too small for Zynga’s prominent Facebook and mobile reach. It might not be enough for the 30 million subscribers of Xbox Live to conceive the hardcore games demographic to feel the need to play casual social games.

Despite a hardcore gamer did need to get involve in a lighter experience, they can play it on their computer or mobile device. No matter Pincus points out in his interview that games could be “customized for the Xbox controller,” a vast majority of Zynga games based on point-and-click functionality, which is well-suited for a mouse of touch screen. It is because of the controls that the social games would never become handy in the console market.

If and when Zynga opts for gearing up its future titles toward a larger cross-platform audience, it does have the capital to invest. Considering the existing collection of top titles and the general ease of their exiting platforms, it doesn’t look likely that the Xbox-compatible Zynga store will bring much fortunate for the company.

Microsoft Improves Internet Explorer’s 9 Image

Mikey Mell — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:14:26 +0000

You might be wondering what this news is all about. To tell the truth, you will find both funny and factual one at the same time,

The Redmond-based software giant, with its odd new advertising campaign for Internet Explorer (IE), seems to be making real efforts in sharpening the market’s perception of its long ruined web browser. The folks at PC World have this for us:

From March 5-14, BrandIndex measured a 10-point jump in the quality perception rating of IE among U.S. adults, and a nine-point increase in the group that identified themselves as early technology adopters. By March 16, IE’s quality rating was 50 among U.S. adults, 44 among early adopters.

A ten point jump undoubtedly is a big transaction. This certainly matters, particularly when we know that Windows 8 is on its way, and the software giant has an actual chance of regaining browser market share. Given the fact that the new Windows will convince people enough to hold the browser that it ships with, the company has a real chance to spread its market incursion. Moreover, if the people develop a favorable view about the IE, they are less than likely to make a switch.

As we have mentioned in the start that the report has to deal with some factual and funny aspect regarding Microsoft approach, let’s turn to the funnier side now. Strange enough, the company has done this all by mocking its own product. The following is given an ad from the company’s campaign which is extremely funny:

This is not the end, as the Microsoft has also put up a website, the “Browser That You Loved To Hate,” which is full of funny images as given above.

Microsoft is really pushing hard with the help of TV sports, YouTube clips and the weird Tumblr images to bring the necessary change for IE.

Google Advises Developers to Submit Privacy Policies

Mikey Mell — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:51:25 +0000

It has been noticed over the past few weeks that the Android and iOS apps being targeted for their treatment of customer data. The growing criticism about the way apps were handling customer data urged Google to become more practical about app privacy.

The search giant has recently added a field for developers to fill out their privacy policy while submitting an app to the Google Play. Google has made this a recommended addition for developers. According to the search giant, the inclusion of privacy policy is currently a developer tool for the time being, but soon these policies will be made available to customers in the Google Play market, so that they can review the privacy policy before downloading the application.

Prior to this, Apple, Microsoft, HP, Google, Amazon and RIM along with other companies, have already signed an agreement with the California Attorney General to expose app privacy policies before downloading. A violation of the agreement, while voluntary on the part of companies, does have a penalty:

If developers do not comply with their stated privacy policies, they can be prosecuted under California’s Unfair Competition Law and/or False Advertising Law.

It seems that the latest initiative took by the search giant is in fact its effort to fulfill this request. The Cupertino-based Apple currently doesn’t disclose privacy policies of apps to customers before download, except for offering a link to the website of an app developer.

However, Google has moved a step further by urging its Android app developers to fill out a privacy policy regarding app at the time of submitting the app to the Google Play market. We can only speculate that Apple will soon take an initiative to urge developers to enter a privacy policy while submitting an app to App Store.

Google Might Let You Buy Movies via Google Play

Mikey Mell — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:29:50 +0000

The search giant is in talks with movie studios to start selling movies via Google Play, Google’s recently redesigned hub for exploring and buying apps, movies, books, and music, according to new report.

Consumers can only rent movies via Google Play at the moment, even though they can still purchase digital downloads of films via other retail channels, such as Apple’s iTunes.

Cnet, while citing several unknown sources, reports that the search giant could start selling films somewhere around this summer. However, there are some sources who even claimed that the initiative to sell movies and just renting may perhaps be coming from the studios themselves, as they demanded the search giant agree to sales so as to get access to rentals in the first place.

If the negotiations between Google and film studios come to any solution the deal would certainly open up movie purchases to a massive audience – owners of Android devices. Currently, there are about 300 million Android devices activated all across the globe, as Andy Rubin of Google announced on stage at February’s Mobile World Congress.

For studios, film sales is still a vital business, who have already witnessed a gradual decline in DVD sales as more content is made available via streaming and DVD rental providers, such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Redbox.

In another report related to Google Play, the search giant has announced plans for initiating ebooks sales in France as well.

iTunes Movie Trailers App Receives Retina Display Support

Mikey Mell — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:59:52 +0000

Apple recently announced its next-generation iPad referred as the new iPad. Since its announcement, developers have been busy packing new Retina Display friendly graphics into their apps to make certain that once the new tablet got its way to the people’s hands, the new and smoother apps were already there for download.

It is self-evident that every existing iPad app have to be re-launched with “Support for Retina Display” listed in its “What’s New” copy. Eventually, we have got out hand on an app with Retina Display support that was more than prettier and much smoother in its functionality.

Back in October, the official iTunes Movie Trailers app made its debut, and since then, offering us with impressive HD content.

The app has finally updated to version 1.1 and the most interesting thing about this updated version is the added Retina Display Support.

It is obvious now that the Cupertino-based technology giant Apple has invented the Retina Display to support such type of content. Certainly, users will like the idea of bringing an update that will offer them movie trailers look nice, which they had never enjoyed before. Surprisingly, the updated version doesn’t include any other prominent change.

The nice and beautiful graphics will of course be welcomed warmly by the users, still if the update doesn’t get any other new feature.

The app is now available free for download in the Apple’s App Store. You can use the link given below to download the app on your iPhone or iPad.

iTunes Movie Trailers for iOS

Apple Outsells RIM in Canada for the First Time

Mikey Mell — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:15:13 +0000

Surprisingly, the Canadian-based smartphone manufacturer RIM is outsold by Apple for the first time in history. A recent report suggests that RIM is no longer the favorite brand in the country.

According to the statistics collected by IDC and Bloomberg, the Cupertino-based Apple shipped more smartphones than Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion did in 2011. The stats reveal that Apple shipped as much as 2.85 million units compared to RIM’s 2.08 million.

This happens for the first time that RIM is surpassed by any other manufacturer on its home turf. BlackBerry shipped over half a million units in Canada than Apple in Canada in 2010, which means that customers purchased just one iPhone for every five BlackBerrys they bought.

Where Apple enjoyed a significantly successful last year, RIM had a relatively terrible year, where it experienced highly advertised service outages, a plunging share price, a CEO swap and a declining mobile market share.

In the third quarter of 2011, RIM’s saw a decline of about 45% sales in Canada to the figures of previous year. comScore reports earlier that RIM ended January with a share of 6.6% in the United States. However, optimists pointed out that the figure remained unchanged since October, further noted that the market share of RIM’s may have decline further.

There is still something to celebrate for RIM as it still continue to outperform Apple in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

Thorsten Heins, CEO of RIM told the New York Times in January, “People have a very U.S.-focused view on RIM, but we have a very global focus at RIM. They’re really actually quite different markets. In the rest of the world, BlackBerry is growing very fast.”

Google Ready to Open Office in Indonesia

Mikey Mell — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:14:26 +0000

The search giant is all set to launch its office in the Indonesia, as the search giant is sending invitations for the official opening ceremony scheduled for March 30. On Friday, the company will officially open its office in Indonesia after a prolonged delay.

The event will be held in the Kuningan district of Jakarta and is hoped to be attended by two ministers, Dr. Mari E. Pangestu, minister of travel & creative economy and Gita Wirjawan, Minister of trade. As far as details provided by the search giant, the pair will talk about the importance of Google’s onset and significance of its presence for the Internet industry in the country.

The Managing Director for Google Southeast Asia, Julian Persaud, is given the task to handle the opening ceremony for the event, where the country head for Indonesia will also be revealed to the public.

Earlier, Daily Social broke the news that Google has hired the former MNC director Rudy Ramaway, and supposed to be the head of Google’s operations in Indonesia together with Krishna Zulkarnaen, who currently works as Chief Marketing Officer.

It’s been quite some time that Google has been in talks with Indonesian government to discuss different aspects before opening its office in the country to serve the population of about 220 million. The company is aiming to make its presence felt in the emerging internet space of Indonesia.

With the opening of this office, the total number of Google’s offices in Southeast Asia will reach four. The company launched its offices in Thailand and Malaysia in 2011. Indonesia is a fast growing market and expected to become a vital platform for web firms in the future. The presence of Google in the region would certainly benefit both the country as well as the search giant.

YouTube Announces One Click Video Cleanup Tool

Mikey Mell — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:31:16 +0000

Whenever you go for capturing something really amazing, funny, or hilarious with your camera, the quality of the video is the last thing you are thinking about. If you have got everything right while capturing a video, there are chances that you have in your hands the next “viral” gem.

The video sharing site has come up with a new tool for its users to assist them focusing on capturing the perfect moment skillfully. It is in fact a one click tool to enhance the quality of the clip you shot. There can be different things that often spoil the shot, such as unsuitable lighting, hand partially covering the microphone and some other unwanted stuff.

Last year, YouTube introduced a video editing suite that offers some neat tools to fix your video, such as stabilization and color saturation control. The new feature introduced by YouTube will fix things automatically. This is what YouTube team had to say about the new feature:

If you upload a video that’s shaky or dark, we’ll automatically offer to fix it for you, creating an updated version of your video on YouTube.

When you upload a video that could use a fixup, you’ll see a notification bar on the Upload page and in your Video Manager. Click the button to fix it, and you’ll see a side by side preview to decide if you want to accept the edits.

The good thing about the new feature is the provided ability to turn back to the original version if a user opts to, as YouTube will keep both the copies. The only thing that this new feature lacks is its lack of support for mobile device.

The search giant has taken an impressive initiative in the form of this new feature with a focus giving on content sharing. Moreover, the major complaint YouTube users were reporting was related to the poor light or rough quality. The new feature would possibly address all these issues.

YouTube team has uploaded a video demonstrating a preview of the new feature:

Twitter Finally Rolls Out Promoted Tweets for Mobile

Mikey Mell — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:25:05 +0000

Twitter made an announcement late Tuesday that it was going to bring Promoted Tweets to mobile devices.

Twitter mentioned about the Promoted Tweets last month. A with roll out already started, Promoted Tweets will soon join Promoted Accounts on users’ mobile devices. Moreover, advertisers are allowed to specify if they want their Promoted Tweets to run on iOS, Android or any other mobile platform.

In one of its blog post, Twitter stated that the targeting is “great for brands who want to increase the prominence and reach of their message to a particular type of mobile user. For example, mobile game and app sellers can now pinpoint the users who are likely to purchase their products.”

Such tweets will appear in the timelines of iOS and Android Twitter apps for mobile users. However, Promoted Tweets will appear in the timeline only once. According to company, the Promoted Tweets will appear in the timeline only if they are relevant. You can simply remove a tweet if you find it irrelevant.

Furthermore, the company also states that the Promoted Tweets will flow with the other timeline feeds as they scroll down. However, when Twitter rolled out its ‘Quick Bar’, it met with heavy criticism. The bar appeared on the top of the screens as users scrolled, clearly displaying a rotating list of trends, such as those paid for by sponsors. Following the criticism, the Quick Bar was discontinued within the month of its release. Compared to Quick Bar, the latest version of Promoted Tweets for mobiles seems to be more user-friendly.

It seems that Twitter introduces its Promoted Tweets into its mobile app in response to Facebook, which has also integrated ads into its mobile apps recently.

However, both these companies still behind compared to Google, which could generate as much as $4 billion in revenues from the mobile advertising in 2012, predicted by an analyst.

This will certainly result in bringing some big revenues to the company. Twitter already generated $139.5 million in ad sales last year, according to estimates collected by eMarketer. For the current year, the company’s revenue is anticipated to rise from 86.3% to $259.9 million in 2012.

Apple Cuts Working Hours in China to 48 Hours a Week

Mikey Mell — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:20:41 +0000

The Cupertino-based technology giant Apple has been busy for quite some time to address excessive work hours. The company has finally announced that the average work-week has now dropped down to an average 48 hours per week. This means it falls inside 1 hour a day of the US average, currently sitting at 42.6 hours a week.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball states earlier that this was all happened during the increased activity for Apple’s new iPad production, launched last Friday.

It was back in January when Apple pointed out that it had gathered data on 500,000 workers at its suppliers and discovered that 84% of them occupied with the maximum of 60-hour work a week. However, in February, the numbers further went up by 5% to reach 89%, as a result company forced to address the working hours.

According to Apple, the change is “a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better. We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis.”

Furthermore, the company also posts some other handy results. For instance, the company needed 52 facilities to implement policies to keep out discrimination based on certain medical tests. There are 24 facilities found conducting pregnancy tests and were halted, while 56 other facilities also needed to put policies in position that avoided discrimination based on pregnancy.

The Cupertino-based company also emphasized on the fact that it will continue to probe incidents of underage labor in its facilities, but also mentions that “this year, our audits of final assembly suppliers found no cases of underage labor.”

Mike Daisey was one sole name that in his monologue raised the fact of employing underage workers by Apple, which was broadcast earlier this year on a now-retracted This American Life episode. Daisey’s report about underage workers at Apple facilities added fuel to the fire and coming out to be absolute forgery.

Moreover, the company states, “we will continue regular audits and go deeper into our supply chain to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier.”

HTC Inks Deal With LogMeIn to Offer Remote Android Fixes

Mikey Mell — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:08:08 +0000

HTC announced its new ‘One’ line of smartphones in February. Keeping its promises, the company is bringing new experiences by signing a new deal with remote-assistance software specialists LogMeIn to install its LogMeIn Rescue software on all future HTC Android devices.

HTC’s deal with LogMeIn will help its worldwide call centers with software that would be capable of connecting to the company’s newest Android devices, enabling customer care staff to “remotely configure, diagnose and troubleshoot a technical issue wherever the customer has a data connection.”

Whenever a user installed a bothersome app and got their device unable to perform a particular task or want a hand setting up something on the device, HTC will be there to rescue them whenever a data or Wi-Fi connection is presented.

Vice President of Global Customer Experience at HTC, Simon Harper said, HTC is committed to providing the best and most personal customer experience in the mobile industry, from designing great products to delivering superior after-sales service and support.” He further added, “We believe LogMeIn’s technology, team and vision are a great match for HTC and for our customers and will allow us to continue to create great experiences for our customers.”

Furthermore, HTC will insert a LogMeIn Rescue applet on the device, only if carrier agrees. If carriers agree on this, the company’s technicians can then run remote diagnostics, push common device and network configuration settings as well as remotely control the customer’s device to resolve issues.

It is important to note here that the software is itself web-based and offers tools to configure devices as well as live chat and will also perform diagnostics as if the device was in their hands.

Yahoo! Inks a Deal with Fandango to Sell Movie Tickets

Mikey Mell — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:06:30 +0000

Movie Section is perhaps one of the hotter media attractions that Yahoo has. It offers show times, reviews as well trailers. However, the site has been missing a major part by not having an ability to sell tickets for long time. The company has now addressed the issue by partnering with Fandango.

The idea to join hands with Fandango seems pretty simple, as Fandango offers ticket purchasing for more than 20,000 screens across the United States. The partnership between the two will cover Yahoo Movie users on the web, mobile as well as tablets.

Vice President of the Yahoo Media Network, Kenneth Fuchs had described the importance of partnership as:

Adding Fandango as our ticketing partner allows us to bring our 30 million users even more access to their favorite films. Fandango will enhance our current theater reach and provide a best in class online and mobile solution to movie ticketing.

The deal certainly seems reasonable considering the fact that most of the users who are reading reviews or watching trailers are in a buy-mode, but were not offered with an option to buy tickets until now. Certainly, the partnership brings some good for Fandango as well, as this will help them becoming the biggest movie ticket reseller online.

Fandango recently signed new ticketing agreements with AMC and Regency Theaters that helped Fandango to achieve recent landmarks, with addition of 3,000 screens to its network.

The ability to purchase online tickets certainly has its role to play in raising the ratings of a movie, as we have seen a record opening weekends for 21 Jump Street that opened last Friday. It broke records for non-sequel movies rated R, while pre-sales and marketing had much to do with it.

Apple to Spend $45 Billion on Dividend and Share Buyback

Mikey Mell — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:13:25 +0000

Just ahead of its call, the Cupertino-based technology giant announced it plans to set off a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share at some point in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, starting July 1^st, 2012. The company undoubtedly has a massive on hand cash with it and wants to make full use of it.

In addition, the technology giant also has plans to start a $10 billion share repurchasing program, expected to start in company’s fiscal 2013 that will begin on September 30, 2012.

This implies that that the Cupertino-based tech giant is up to spend almost $45 billion of its cash reserves on dividends and share repurchase within in the first three years after these programs will go live.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said in one of his statement, “We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future.”

Cook further added, “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”

Unsurprisingly, the company has a very healthy cash flow. And with these new programs, the company’s treasure chest might be able to increase considerably in the next three years to pass its existing reserves of $97 billion. The company has already felt that it has enough cash in hand for potential acquisitions and for all other expenditures. The company realizes the fact that it still has enough reserves to buy back some shares and pay out a dividend. This will certainly please the shareholders.

Digg Founder Kevin Rose Joins Google

Mikey Mell — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:49:36 +0000

The founder of Digg has been hired by the search giant Google. He announced this on his Google+ page where he mentioned that he has finally joined the Google and is bringing its entire staff of his startup Milk to the Google.

Rose pointed out that ““I’m beyond excited to announce that the Milk crew (Kevin Rose, Daniel Burka, Chris Hutchins and Joshua Lane) is joining Google! It’s been a privilege to use Google products over the years (I still remember begging for a Gmail invite) and I can’t wait to be a part of the amazing team that is shaping the future of the web.”

Just a few weeks after leaving Digg (which he founded), Rose formed a startup Milk back in April 2011. Milk was established with an aim to work as development lab for mobile web ideas, which was situated in Mission District in San Francisco.

The news of Digg founder Rose and his team coming to Google was originally surfaced last week. The news comes just a few days after Milk pushed the plug on its very first app, Olink that enabled users to rate the insides of places. Rose further mentioned that ““Oink was our first test and, in preparing to move onto the next project, we’ve decided to shut it down to help focus our efforts” – the efforts that will now take place at Google’s camp.

Perhaps, a good initiative taken by the search giant, Kevin Rose will certainly help bring something valuable to the company.

The New iPad Costs Apple Roughly $316 to Build

Mikey Mell — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:35:46 +0000

It has become a common practice these days that whenever the Cupertino-based Technology giant Apple announces a new device, iPhone or iPad it may be, tech geeks waits anxiously to get their hands on it with an aim to tear it apart. As I mentioned that it has become a regular practice, Apple’s new iPad has also gone through the same treatment.

Along with several others, IHS iSuppli also got their hands on a new iPad and the team there had nothing much to with it except for tearing it down with an aim to find out just how much this new device costs the Cupertino-based tech giant to make, and how much the device is supplementing to the company’s world famous bottom line.

Certainly, the answer depends to a large extent on the number devices sold, but one thing is obvious that the company is making huge profit on each unit sold.

As a matter of fact, the new Retina Display introduced in the new iPad is not inexpensive. As it is said that the new Retina Display is provided by Samsung, and with Sharp and LG expected to come on board as well, the display could cost the company as much as $90 depending on the manufacturer and volume. You may not found it a lot, but it is certainly about a quarter of the finished device’s retail value.

If we move further on, the low-end 16GB Wi-Fi iPad took Apple to invest almost $316 to make it, with the retail price being set at $499. iSuppli points out that with such a scenario, Apple is making a profit of about 37%. Similarly, with the increase in retail price, the profit automatically increases. The 64GB 4G model costs Apple $409 to make, while being sold at $829, which means that Apple is making a profit of about 51%.

Certainly, with the increased trusts of customers in its products, Apple is hoping to make huge profits.

RIM Confirms the PlayBook Will Get BlackBerry 10

Mikey Mell — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:28:43 +0000

The Canadian based smartphone manufacturer RIM launched its tablet, the PlayBook, last spring that runs an operating system different from BlackBerry’s other devices. The device is based on QNX, an operating system that will serve as the backbone for the next generation of BlackBerry devices, planned for this year.

But the forthcoming operating system, namely BlackBerry 10, will be somehow different than the existing PlayBooks. The company until this today hasn’t said anything about whether the PlayBook will get an upgrade to BlackBerry 10, but it is officially confirmed now that “The PlayBook will get a BB10 upgrade.”

The Vice President of Product Management Rob Orr, while talking to Tech Radar said, “We’ve said publicly a number of times that our first BB10 handset will be available towards the end of 2012, and that’s still firmly the case. At some point after the launch we’ll bring BB10 to our PlayBooks, yes.”

The company confirms the upgrade right after the PlayBook software to version 2.0. At the time of its launch, the tablet was criticized for not offering native email or calendar apps. Also, the tablet required to wirelessly pair with a BlackBerry phone to use those features. PlayBook 2.0 offers those features natively along with other improvements.

According to Orr, good number PlayBook owners have preferred to upgrade to the new software, calling the up-take rate “astonishing.” Furthermore, the company announced that over 50% of PlayBook owners upgraded to version 2.0 on the very first day of release.

Have you got your pack of PlayBook? Did you upgrade to 2.0 and if you did how it worked for you? What you can expect to have in the forthcoming BlackBerry 10. Share your though with us in the comment section.

Firefox Reveals Plans for 2012

Mikey Mell — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:19:22 +0000

Mozilla has recently released a new version of its web browser, Firefox 11. The company has also laid its plans for 2012 out as well and there will be lot of interesting features in the works for one of the most popular web browsers on the Internet.

There are many features which are part of the plan have already been achieved in Firefox version 10 and 11. In the new versions, the company has addressed many issues regarding old add-ons not working in new versions of the browser. Mozilla had made these compatible by default. With having Firefox 11, users will now able to sync add-ons across numerous computers.

The complete Firefox roadmap, however, unveils a range of other impressive updates scheduled for later time this year.

The most striking among others is silent updates that will be downloaded and installed quietly in the background with no need of user intervention. Mozilla has planned this feature for Firefox 13.

One other interesting feature planned for later time this year is the added ability to share links and updates to a variety of social networks straight from the browser. We have seen products such as Flock in the past that made an attempt to integrate social networking straight into the browser. However, none of them succeeded in making an impression in the market.

There will certainly be mixed number of reviews for several features offered and planned by Mozilla in its web browser. Some may be liked, while other may be criticized depending on the requirements of users. Share your thoughts in the comments section about Mozilla’s revealed plans.

Apple Shares Tops $600 for the First Time

Mikey Mell — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:05:52 +0000

The world’s largest Cupertino-based technology firm Apple announced that it has hit the $600 mark on the NASDAQ for the very first time in the entire company’s history. This means that investors continue to show strong faith in the company to maintain its incredible growth.

Apple’s stock reached $600.01 in pre-market trading, but fell shortly after it opened to $599.82. The Cupertino-based firm’s stocks are trading at $592.72 per share at the moment.

It took only 23 trading days for company to boost its stock value from $500 to $600. However, it took 34 trading days to rise from $400 to $500 earlier.

Perhaps, the major reason behind the rise in stock it the fact that the company is going to launch its new iPad at 8 a.m. local time in 10 countries on Friday, just after a week it announced its tablet at its keynote event in Sans Francisco.

It was reported earlier that considering the fact that investors “still underestimate the earnings potential” of the Cupertino-based technology giant, Morgan Stanley has decided to raise Apple’s price by almost 40% – that is – from $515 to $720. It is quite reasonable when we see the increasing share price on the back of its recently announced iPad as well as expected new Mac and iPhone products.

Katy Huberty, an analyst pointed out a number of earnings drivers that would possibly push growth in Apple shares, quoting enterprise tablet adoption and a robust interest in advancing to a new LTE-equipped iPhone that could possibly be announced some time later this year.

In the recent few weeks, rumblings began to surface claiming a possible 4G-enabled iPhone, considering the new LTE-support in recently launched iPad. Good number of people expecting some similar sort of treatment from Apple to its next smartphone. David Small, CTO of Verizon Wireless also hinted that the operator will only offer 4G LTE-enabled devices by the end of 2012.

David Small revealed company’s handset plans in a response to the Verizon’s recent 4G outage that was caused by network updates as the carrier looks to widen its LTE networks.

Google Earth for Android and iOS Updated, Adding KML and G+ Support

Mikey Mell — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:38:21 +0000

An updated edition 6.2 has been released by Google for its Google Earth app on iOS and Android devices. This new update came with a lot of new and efficient attribute to the mobile version of the well-liked mapping application.

In the middle of those is the capability to introduce a KML mapping organizer direct into the app, with simply tapping a connection on the web from your device. Some of the files permit their users to allocate custom maps along with specific data points, trials and routes are known as ‘Google Earth’ files. This supposed to be a great line of attack for hikers, dispatch riders and geocacher to divide up their preferred maps.

The latest iOS and Android apps have both acknowledged support for the Google Earth Gallery along with KML import, a storage area of maps that emphasized attention-grabbing material like real-time earthquake update from the USGS, or the best hiking paths or even a map of the College Basketball Tournaments occasions.

Android is the only one with which Google has also included the capability to share screenshots of your latest map by means of Gmail and Google+. These are gathered on the Google Earth +Page, Google has fired up after it included support for its community network to the desktop account of Google Earth in January.

If you are an Android consumer you can take the revised version from the Google Play market now, while the App Store soon should have the iOS version.

Google Claims Its Ads Are Safer Than Ever

Mikey Mell — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:31:36 +0000

In today’s world, everyone seems busy Googling for one reason or another. Google has become has major source of getting results for our queries. Google also provided us with a number of context-relevant ads. This is how the search giant makes money and this won’t seem to change in near future.

In one of its blog post entitled “Making our ads better for everyone,” the search giant points out the process that advertisers must go through to make certain that the ads displayed on the search engine results and other Google properties are legal and not destructive or risky.

According to Google, all ads will have to pass through a thorough technological review along with a manual one to take away ads with malware and spam-like functionality. Furthermore, the search giant claims that it has pushed “millions of dollars” into making this system best of the best.

Following are given a list of some major improvements Google has introduced to its ad system:

Improved “query watch” for counterfeit ads: While anyone can report counterfeit ads, we’ve widened our proactive monitoring of sensitive keywords and queries related to counterfeit goods which allows us to catch more counterfeit ads before they ever appear on Google

New “risk model” to detect violations: Our computer scanning depends on detailed risk models to determine whether a particular ad may violate our policies, and we recently upgraded our engineering system with a new “risk model” that is even more precise in detecting advertisers who violate our policies

Faster manual review process: Some ads need to be reviewed manually. To increase our response time in preventing ads from policy-violating advertisers, we sped up our internal processes and systems for manual reviews, enabling our specialists to be more precise and fast

Twenty-four hour response time: We aim to respond within 24 hours upon receiving a reliable complaint about an ad to ensure that we’re reviewing ads in a timely fashion

What Google is claiming about its ads should be viewed with skepticism. Certainly, the company wants to ensure that its ads are safe and users are not worried about any spam or malware, but the fact is company makes money with every single time you click on any ad…

Furthermore, the company also claims that “bad ads” on its ecosystem had dropped by 50% last year from 2010, discarding more than 130 million affected ads. The search giant has shared video with us to describe how its ad system works and why it is safe to click on them:

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