Tech Roundup: Mar 31, 2013
Facebook has a new 'Home on Android':
Facebook, after having decided to splash ads on your main News Feed, is now stepping up the game further. In a new press event scheduled for April 4 this week, the social network behemoth is expected to be announcing a modified version of Android operating system in partnership with HTC. But conflicting rumors also say it could be a new user interface skin (like Sense, TouchWiz etc.) on top of Android with tighter integration to Facebook. This news comes close on the heels of repeated denials from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the company wasn't working on a Facebook smartphone. HTC's previous attempts at closer Facebook integration (HTC ChaCha and Salsa) haven't been greatly successful for the company as well. Anyway are you ready to live in the Facebook world 24x7?
Why Flipboard 2.0 is a disappointment for me!
Popular Android and iOS social news aggregator Flipboard hit 50 million users recently and along with this milestone, the team behind the app has also announced a major update for its iOS version (Android update is on the works) with focus on letting users create their own content (called Magazines) and share them across for public consumption. If you are using an iPad or iPhone, you can easily create a magazine by adding your favorite articles or soundtracks and publish them (there are only two options as of now: public and private). If your magazine setting is public, others can subscribe and even suggest new additions to them.
While all this is good, here's is my list of peeves about the app after using it for almost an year now:
1) There is still dearth of news sources that publish Flipboard optimized content: I absolutely detest heading over to the browser when the news story can be modified to be displayed within the app!
2) Flipboard is more a social reader than a RSS reader
3) There is no web-app
Amazon snaps up Goodreads:
Being an avid reader myself, stumbling upon Goodreads was a godsend for me and I couldn't have asked for more. The website not only allows you to find great books of your liking, but also allows you to catalog your collection online, create reading lists, publish book reviews and discuss with fellow bibliophiles. So you can easily see the rationale behind Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads (for a rumored $150 million USD). Amazon, currently the most popular stop for books, can easily leverage these features to its benefit. Though its acquisition of Shelfari, a similar social cataloging service, didn't work wonders, this one is a real clever move that's sure to reap in enough revenue for the company. Despite Amazon's vows to keep Goodreads independent, the Authors Guild president and writer Scott Turow (known for popularizing the legal thriller genre) has condemned the move stating the acquisition was an attempt at monopolizing the book industry.
A 17-year old who became a millionaire:
Ever since ex-Googler Marissa Mayer took over the reins at Yahoo!, the company has been on an acquisition spree. The latest is the iPhone news app Summly that publishes bite-sized news for easy reading and developed by a 17-year old programming whiz Nick D'Aloisio years back. Said to be acquired for a whopping $30 million USD, Nick has also been offered a job at Yahoo! London office once he completes his diploma. For its part, Yahoo! will now incorporate the app's algorithm in its mobile apps. However with cases of copyright infringement mushrooming (Google's case in France for instance), it remains to be seen if presenting altered versions of published news stories can continue to remain legal.
Forecast.io is an amazing way to know weather:
In a time when everyone seems to be going the app way, here comes a web app that's clean, beautiful and works so flawlessly that it will blow your socks off! I am talking about Dark Sky's Forecast.io, the new weather app on the block. To use the service, all you need to do is visit the above link on your browser, allow access to your location and you are done. The weather alerts presented are not very accurate unfortunately (at least for Bangalore!) and there is a forecast slider that allows you to check the conditions for the next 24 hours. One cool feature is the Time Machine which is currently available only on the desktop web version. It lets you feed any historical date to know the weather of any location in the past. It also predicts the weather conditions for a future date based on available data!
Biological transistor that can command living cells:
We are fast approaching the world of biological computers, if this latest research is any indication. Scientists at the Stanford University have succeeded in creating a biological transistor that's made out of genetic material (i.e. DNA and RNA). To rewind a bit, RNA is synthesized by an enzyme RNA Polymerase through a process called as transcription. And this new biological entity, dubbed as transcriptor, can essentially control the creation of RNA itself by controlling the movement of the enzyme on a DNA strand during this process. The breakthrough can pave way for creating new biological devices that can transport drugs to various parts of the body or even better act as counters to monitor cell division and act on them if they turn out to be cancerous! Now this is pretty amazing right?
In other news:
Facebook, after having decided to splash ads on your main News Feed, is now stepping up the game further. In a new press event scheduled for April 4 this week, the social network behemoth is expected to be announcing a modified version of Android operating system in partnership with HTC. But conflicting rumors also say it could be a new user interface skin (like Sense, TouchWiz etc.) on top of Android with tighter integration to Facebook. This news comes close on the heels of repeated denials from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the company wasn't working on a Facebook smartphone. HTC's previous attempts at closer Facebook integration (HTC ChaCha and Salsa) haven't been greatly successful for the company as well. Anyway are you ready to live in the Facebook world 24x7?
Why Flipboard 2.0 is a disappointment for me!
Popular Android and iOS social news aggregator Flipboard hit 50 million users recently and along with this milestone, the team behind the app has also announced a major update for its iOS version (Android update is on the works) with focus on letting users create their own content (called Magazines) and share them across for public consumption. If you are using an iPad or iPhone, you can easily create a magazine by adding your favorite articles or soundtracks and publish them (there are only two options as of now: public and private). If your magazine setting is public, others can subscribe and even suggest new additions to them.
While all this is good, here's is my list of peeves about the app after using it for almost an year now:
1) There is still dearth of news sources that publish Flipboard optimized content: I absolutely detest heading over to the browser when the news story can be modified to be displayed within the app!
2) Flipboard is more a social reader than a RSS reader
3) There is no web-app
Amazon snaps up Goodreads:
Being an avid reader myself, stumbling upon Goodreads was a godsend for me and I couldn't have asked for more. The website not only allows you to find great books of your liking, but also allows you to catalog your collection online, create reading lists, publish book reviews and discuss with fellow bibliophiles. So you can easily see the rationale behind Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads (for a rumored $150 million USD). Amazon, currently the most popular stop for books, can easily leverage these features to its benefit. Though its acquisition of Shelfari, a similar social cataloging service, didn't work wonders, this one is a real clever move that's sure to reap in enough revenue for the company. Despite Amazon's vows to keep Goodreads independent, the Authors Guild president and writer Scott Turow (known for popularizing the legal thriller genre) has condemned the move stating the acquisition was an attempt at monopolizing the book industry.
A 17-year old who became a millionaire:
Ever since ex-Googler Marissa Mayer took over the reins at Yahoo!, the company has been on an acquisition spree. The latest is the iPhone news app Summly that publishes bite-sized news for easy reading and developed by a 17-year old programming whiz Nick D'Aloisio years back. Said to be acquired for a whopping $30 million USD, Nick has also been offered a job at Yahoo! London office once he completes his diploma. For its part, Yahoo! will now incorporate the app's algorithm in its mobile apps. However with cases of copyright infringement mushrooming (Google's case in France for instance), it remains to be seen if presenting altered versions of published news stories can continue to remain legal.
Forecast.io is an amazing way to know weather:
In a time when everyone seems to be going the app way, here comes a web app that's clean, beautiful and works so flawlessly that it will blow your socks off! I am talking about Dark Sky's Forecast.io, the new weather app on the block. To use the service, all you need to do is visit the above link on your browser, allow access to your location and you are done. The weather alerts presented are not very accurate unfortunately (at least for Bangalore!) and there is a forecast slider that allows you to check the conditions for the next 24 hours. One cool feature is the Time Machine which is currently available only on the desktop web version. It lets you feed any historical date to know the weather of any location in the past. It also predicts the weather conditions for a future date based on available data!
Biological transistor that can command living cells:
We are fast approaching the world of biological computers, if this latest research is any indication. Scientists at the Stanford University have succeeded in creating a biological transistor that's made out of genetic material (i.e. DNA and RNA). To rewind a bit, RNA is synthesized by an enzyme RNA Polymerase through a process called as transcription. And this new biological entity, dubbed as transcriptor, can essentially control the creation of RNA itself by controlling the movement of the enzyme on a DNA strand during this process. The breakthrough can pave way for creating new biological devices that can transport drugs to various parts of the body or even better act as counters to monitor cell division and act on them if they turn out to be cancerous! Now this is pretty amazing right?
In other news:
- Android and Chrome OS will remain separate, says Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.
- Apple turns on 2-factor authentication for Apple ID and iCloud.
- Google+ for iOS and Android gets a major facelift.
- Microsoft outs major update for Windows 8; drops support for Google Calendar.
- Google Nexus 7 now available via Play Store India for Rs. 15,999.
- Facebook finally rolls out Reply to comments feature.
- Popular social-blogging platform Tumblr hits 100 million blogs.
- North Korea revokes wireless 3G internet access for tourists a month later; still allows international calls.
- Nokia Asha phones get transportation app Nokia Transit.
- Gravity Guy 2 becomes the first app (and game title) to be available first on Windows Phone Store.
- Google Play for Android adds Movies section in India; opens YouTube video rentals.
- RIM co-founder Mike Lazardis leaves BlackBerry.
- Microsoft acknowledges it's working on Windows Blue, the next operating system to succeed Windows 8.
- Amazon chief Jeff Bezos' new patent takes cloud computing to the next level; envisions tablets and e-readers that run on wireless power and processing.
- BlackBerry slides back to profit as it sells 1 million BB10 OS devices.
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