Editorials

[Infographic] How to Look Great While Wearing Smartwatches

We know how dull and drab most wearables and smartwatches look when we actually wear them. Of course they do provide great features which we would love to use, but at there are times when you’d rather not be caught wearing one of these geeky tech devices.

Here’s an infographic from Samsung showing us how to accessorize and wear their Galaxy Gear range of smartwatches for all occasions. These tips also hold true for most other smartwatches as well, so take a look and get inspired.

(Click on the image for a larger view)

[Infographic] How Men and Women Use Social Media and Mobile

Here’s an insightful infographic which shows how men and women use their mobile phones and Social Networks differently. Here are some key pieces of information:

Men are more likely to scan QR codes and coupons
Women are more likely to go for sharing and camera while men prefer to view videos, read news and use GPS apps.
A shocking find is that women are more likely to play games on their smartphones than men.
Globally, women are less likely to respond to social media ads than men. Women are less likely to respond to mobile text ads than men.
71% of women on Facebook are willing to ‘like’ a brand for deals. Only 18% of men do that.
In terms of usage that men are more likely to engage in than women, 27% of men are more like to use social media for business reason compared to 22% for women. Also, 13% of men are more like to use social media for dating compare to just 7% for women.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Source: financesonline.com | Author: David Adelman | Follow our Youtube

[Infographic] All you need to know about 3D printing

Back in 2012, we wrote a piece about 3D printing, and printing our cases and accessories for phones from home. Fast forward two years later, there are sites which have sprung up where people can share objects which can be printed out, medical uses for 3D printed objects, weapons which are printed out and a lot more. Though amidst all this, we haven’t seen the price of 3D printers fall down enough for regular house holds to get a hold of these printers. But we’re still at the beginning of the 3D printing revolution

Now, how much do we know about 3D printing and it’s uses, who are the folks using these printers and for what? Get to know about these by going through this infographic created by Element 14. If you would like to embed this infographic on your site, check out the embed code at the end of this post.

How Technology Makes Us Human

Does technology make us more human? Some say yes! We’re going to look at some of the specific ways that tech actually makes us human. Others say that technology hampers humanity, but this just isn’t the case if you look at all the facts. Once you read out list, you’re going to start to look at the technological tools you use on a daily basis in a different way most likely.

How Technology Makes us More Human

Here’s a look at several specific ways that technology can make us more human.

Skills:
Whether it’s computers or the ability to print our thoughts and knowledge down on paper to pass them down to future generations, technology makes it possible to improve skills and become better humans.

Empowerment:
They have exoskeletons on the market that allow you to be able to lift large objects easily as well as walk longer distances. This technology has even been able to help the disabled move around, which is a big part of being human.

Communication:
Being a human is all about communication. The Internet makes our lives better by providing a more efficient and instantaneous means of communication these days. Without the Internet, the global economy wouldn’t be able to be a reality. Well, it wouldn’t be as easy as it is without the ‘net. Technology has allowed us to communicate a lot more, which is a big part of us being human.

Love:
Another big part of being human is the ability to love. Technology has helped many couples be able to live more full and fulfilling lives. And telephones and other technology makes it easier for us to find someone to love us no matter what. This would still happen without technology, but tech like the Internet has made it a lot easier.

War:
This is not a positive way that technology has helped mankind, but it has to be mentioned. Technology of weapons has come a long way over the years. It’s finally reached a point where we can destroy the entire planet. This has caused some people to look at the big picture – that humans need to learn how to get along if we’re going to survive.

A man I knew provided remote desktop services, and when I first saw the technology, I was amazed. There’s so much great technology out there these days. If you look at the list above, it’s easy to see why so many agree that technology is actually a part of humanity – something that has allowed us to come a long way in a short time. Without technology, we’d still be living in caves and scavenging for food around the planet. Leave us a comment if there’s one piece of technology that you couldn’t do without. Don’t worry, there’s probably more than one piece of tech that makes your life easier so leave a list of everything you need to survive the modern world.

Author Bio:

Adam Prattler is working as a full time internet marketer and blogger. He has a dream of becoming world leader. Previously he was appointed as content manager at SIRJ accounts, IJKV tech and some other companies.

Photo credits: Will Folsom via Flickr

What bothers me about Google trying to acquire WhatsApp

I don’t think WhatsApp requires any introduction since most of us are already on it and sending messages to friends and family using this app. Over the past few days, the news vine has been flooded with rumors that Google is looking at acquiring WhatsApp. Let’s first see why Google thinks this messaging platform is good for their product line.

What’s in it for Google?

Let’s start with what WhatsApp has to offer. They have a very popular platform with users from across the globe on a variety of platforms. They also have a hugely scalable application and infrastructure in place. In fact, did you know that during the New Year eve, they processed more than 18 billion message in a day! That goes to show how successful their existing platform is. One reason for their popularity is the variety of smartphones and feature phones the app supports.

On Dec 31st we had a new record day: 7B msgs inbound, 11B msgs outbound = 18 billion total messages processed in one day! Happy 2013!!!
— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) January 2, 2013

They are currently monetizing their platform, which means they are making money, whether it’s enough or not, they’re still able to rope in some cash. They charge a nominal annual subscription of 0.99 per year, and the industry estimates that they have around 200-300 million active users. The actual revenues may be less, given that they do give a year’s worth of free access to first time users. Nevertheless, if Instagram, a company with no revenue stream can be bought for around $1Billion, WhatsApp with their ability to monetize should command more. The question is whether Google actually needs this revenue?

Google’s competitior, iOS from Apple already features a iMessage, which allows users to send unlimited text messages over WiFi, but this is limited to only iOS users and Google really needs something like WhatsApp preloaded and integrated with Google’s platform on the Android to catch up with iOS. (Thanks to Cherian for pointing this out in the comment below)

Boosting Google’s sagging Social Network Portfolio

Google is looking at boosting their Social Network portfolio to compete with the likes of Facebook. Their Google Plus network and Hangouts are being used, but not at the scale Facebook operates at. Google still has a long way to go to get adoption on their platform. Even today I still don’t see many of my non-tech friends active on Google Plus, which means that I still have to keep in touch with them on Facebook.

To top it off, Google still doesn’t have a messaging system for the mobile. Of course, there’s Google Talk and Hangouts, but they are not really easy to use on the mobile, especially when one has to setup a predefined group and communicate with that group. There’s also the problem of cross-platform compatibility, chatting or hanging-out with friends who are on Blackberry, iOS, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone just doesn’t work seamlessly.

Even their biggest rival, Facebook was missing this aspect of social interaction on mobile, and they’ve been quickly and fervently working on bridging this gap. They’re now trying to promote downloads of their Facebook Messenger app which tried to integrate text messages along with Facebook Messaging.

So Google needs WhatsApp now!

Trouble Brewing?

Of course a lot can go right with WhatsApp if Google does agree to buy them out, but it’s what *can* go wrong which people should think about. Here’s some probable scenarios:

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Cutting out Platforms – Google could always decide that some platforms are not worth developing on and discontinue support for Symbian variant, Blackberry and who knows Windows Phone? Given the recent history with Google and Windows Phone, Google’s really not bothered about following their ‘Don’t be evil‘ motto. I just don’t trust Google as much these days.
Deciding to Merge WhatsApp into a totally new App – People are used to their WhatApp! Google may just decide that their Messaging platform, Babel, is better (even if it isn’t) and merge WhatsApp users over their new shiny app.
Leave WhatApp to rot in it’s current state with no more updates – This is a possibility if Google realizes that they don’t want to invest time and money in further development of this platform after they buy it. A classic example of this kind of move from Google is Feedburner, the feed distribution service. Google bought Feedburner, made a few minor updates over the years and now it’s rotting with no updates and users are awaiting Google’s decision to axe the service.
Close down WhatsApp – There have been a lot of news buzz of the recent decision from Google on discontinuing the Google Reader service. There are chances that WhatsApp can go down this route as well, leaving all users of the app stranded, and hopping to other similar apps.

[divider]

I just don’t want to loose my favorite Messaging Platform if and when they’re bought by Google. What are your thoughts on this? Do let us know by commenting below.

Is Mudslinging the New Mobile Marketing Mantra?

Has mobile hardware and software reached a stage where there’s nothing else revolutionary to make and market? Most new devices and platform updates these days are at best an incremental update from the ones already being sold. So how do you make the new phones and tablets stand out from the others?

Unique Features

One way to do that is to dream up a great feature, add it to the device and market it via TV, magazines and social media. This gives the manufacturer a great lead in terms of standing ouside the crowd of devices flooding the market. People want that feature which gives them an edge over their friend’s devices for boasting rights.

Wireless charging, Fast Shot cameras, pushing the envelope on megapixels, faster processors and bigger screens are some examples where manufacturers have been able get one up over their competition. New and improved operating systems and good design and body colors with more bling are a good crowd puller as well.

Marketing & Buzz Words

Another is to hype up standard features with marketing buzz-words which catch the consumers fancy. This technique has been a tried and tested staple of Apple Inc (Retina Display, Face Time – do you want more examples). These buzz words seem to resonate with the consumers, and thrown in with a great marketing pitch, they drive up the hype about that device. Fans can’t have enough of it. But not all manufacturers have the perfected this technique.

Borrowing ideas

However much company folks and fan followings of each platform or brand cry hoarse, each platform has ‘borrowed’ features from the others. I won’t call it stealing, because sharing is a true part of innovation. Companies can go at each other’s throats with patent suits, but the fact still remains, unless key features make it to the other platforms, users on each platform end up missing something or have to make do with a sub-optimal experience. Let’s not get into the who sued who and won news items which are a rage these days.

No, I’m not against the idea of patents, I’m just in the mindset, that given the pace of the technology industry these days, the current patent laws need drastic changes. Depending on the country you’re in, the patent term can range from 10-20 years. (Additionally, it takes upto 3 years from filing the patent application to getting the patent granted). That’s an eternity for today’s fast paced industry. Ideas and technology go obsolete in a year or two, and are considered ‘pre-historic’ if they’re more than 5 years old. So why can’t technology patents have a shorter term?

What else?

That’s one side effect of the frenetic pace of development of technology. Meanwhile, there are certain key areas that are struggling to catch up. People often complain about how battery technology needs to catch up and be ready for current portable device usage. Unfortunately, this isn’t an area where developments and innovations happen overnight; and even if they do, they aren’t usually ready for consumers for a long time! (As it currently stands, it takes around 15 years from the start of research on new battery chemistry to it being available for use in consumer electronics). OEMs are rushing to make other components more power efficient in the mean time, which leads to more power efficient processors and SOCs, displays and wireless radios.

Potshots

Since most high-end phones and devices have comparable processing muscle, the memory and storage, cameras and platforms, the marketing teams seem to be having a tougher time getting their products to stand out. How’s this affecting their campaigns?

Over the past few months the marketing muscles of some of the major players seem to be taking aim and taking shots at their competitors in advertisements, product launches, websites and social media. Now why is that? Have they run out of sellable and hype-able features? Recently we had Apple denounce Android tablets during the iPad Mini launch and Amazon retaliating to that, Samsung taking poking fun of the iPhone 5 in their Galaxy S3 Ad and Nokia didn’t miss capitalizing on the Apple Map Fiasco. From the looks of it, everyone seems to be ganging up against Apple. But that’s changed – now we have infighting among Windows Phone manufacturers to deal with as well. This has become a mainstream markting activity as far as we can see this year.

My shout out to the marketing folks out there – if you really have to stoop down to denouncing a competitor’s product in your marketing campaign, does that mean your product isn’t good enough to stand up on it’s own? If you need to belittle the competition in order to get your product up there, I don’t think you’re doing a great job at marketing in the first place, or is it that your product is just not good enough?

Image Credit - iStockPhoto

[Infographic] How much can you do with 1GB of Mobile Data per month?

(Photo credit: joe.ross on Flickr)

The data plan you subscribe to on your mobile phone really dictates what you can do on your phone. If you are looking at limited data plans, you really have to limit the amount of content you send and receive daily, else you could be looking paying extra on your monthly bill.

Smartphones these days use data in all kinds of way: Emails, Videos, Music, Social Networks, Voice Calls, and surfing web pages on your mobile browser. All this requires the use of data on your phone and each uses varying amount of data. If you use your phone for all of these tasks daily, you could end up consuming a lot of data. To give you an idea of what you can use, Three Mobile a telecom provider in the UK, has published an infographic on their site comparing their All You Can Eat plan against a 1GB monthly plan.

Here’s how your daily quota of data could get used up if you have a 1 GB data-plan. 1 GB per month breaks down to 34 MB per day, which seems quite limited when you break things up this way!

Source: Three Mobile

3D Printers – It’s there – Now! Ready to print a case for your phone?

These days inkjet and laser printers are present almost everywhere at home and office. These are great to print your documents, travel tickets and photographs. How about printing out your next Mobile’s case using a printer? Technology for this is available today, 3D Printing. Of course you can’t use that inkjet printer and paper at home to do that unless you’re an Origami expert.

3D printers were used earlier, and now, in the manufacturing industry to quickly create prototypes of products to try out before sending a product for mass-manufacturing. This helped designers conceptualise the product and show it around for feedback. It’s easier to give feedback about a product when you can touch and feel it, instead of imagining the it based on an image on screen.

The cost of a 3D printer is still not reached a level where you can go out an pick one up from the nearest store. Printers like the Relicator 2 from MakerBot sells for more than $2000, while a Kickstarter project Printerbot has a cheaper set for $549. These 3D printers make objects based on an additive technique. In this technique, objects are created layer by layer, each layer made using a molten material or thermosets.

MakerBot MixTape 3D Printed

Even if you can afford to buy one of these printers, you’ll need some knowledge of a 3D design software to create the 3D models required to print. The STL file format seems to be the most widely supported format for 3D printers these days. Meshlabs and Blender can be used to generate 3D models and save in this format. Once the file is loaded into the 3D printer, the actual printing process could take hours to “print” out, depending on the size and complexity of your design.

People are already printing out quite surprising items using 3D printers these days, how about a custom 3D printed Guitar, or a cycle and jewelry? How about a MP3 player which looks like a Cassette which is printed? If you don’t want to own a printer, there are online services, like Sculpteo and i materialize, opening up allowing you to upload your creations there and have them print, ship and even sell your creations for you.

With all these avenues, hobbyists and enthusiasts have already taken off on the 3D printing revolution. The technology is still quite a while away from being something every one would use at home, but lower costs and easier accessibility though online services or neighbourhood printing stores, it’s something you can take a stab at to make that unique creation you can boast about.

Tempted to try out 3D printing yet? Ok, 3D printing not as easy as printing that document on your home or office printer. It takes some work to get your very own personalized work of art printed using a 3D printer. To give you an idea of what it takes, take a peek at this video from Sharon Vaknik at CNet showing how she prints a customized iPhone case using a 3D printer.

 Picture Credit - iStockPhoto

Impact of Mobile Apps on PC Software

Smartphones and mobile applications are creating lots of buzz now-a-days. With the tremendous growth in development and utilization of mobile applications, the corresponding impact is also felt on development of new software for personal computers. The four year old Apple’s App Store is a great success. This success has led to the Mac Application Store (meant for desktops) in the year 2011 and Windows Store in 2012.

Let us check how mobile applications and app stores have influenced the development of desktop software.

Mobile application vs. Desktop applications

Mobile applications give you flexibility and convenience. As the Smartphone is always switched on in addition to the usage of the gadget for various communications, you can easily access information and services through various applications.
Mobiles can also provide context sensitive information which the desktop counterpart may not be able to provide. Location based apps is a good example of this case. Location based apps range from maps, exercise tracking, traffic reports and more.
However, mobile applications have their own limitations. These applications should be designed by taking into consideration of the availability of the processing power, memory capacity and battery backup.
Some of the widely used mobile applications are games and aids to information such as city traffic, climate and various live updates. You can install the application of your choice directly from the app store. About 50% of the total applications that are available for download inthe app store are free.
Even though there was craze for the promotion of web applications, developers are again switching gears to develop applications that can be installed by users on their desktops and laptops to improve performance. As a matter of fact, web applications eliminate the process of installation of the software on the client side.
Web applications were promoted by convincing users that it was a clever way to avoid viruses and malware that may enter your system while downloading the software. By registering for a service through online, you will gain access to the web service.
Desktop applications are again getting their prominence. This segment has enough scope for growth. Unlike mobile application users, desktop application users will not hesitate to purchase premium applications. All they want is the availability of powerful features.
There are no restrictions for developers as well in terms of processing capabilities, memory utilization and power consumption available with desktops and laptops. This will let users experience technology at its peak levels. Developers will be able to release challenging applications and users will be thrilled to utilize these cutting edge technologies.

There is a clear distinction between mobile and desktop applications. Desktop applications will serve the needs of serious technical brains, who would like to explore the technical capabilities of new applications which will improve the productivity. Even though there will be games and other applications of entertainment value, utilities and productivity applications are the most sought after desktop applications.

The Future

User engagement through applications is steadily growing. The world of applications is growing and it is affecting desktops and laptops as well. This was recognized by Apple and Mac Store, which were launched in 2011. It was a great success which has already attracted more than 100 million downloads. As mobile applications are made available for download on the App Store, similarly desktop applications will be made available on application store. Users can go for updates as and when the new version is released. It can be summed up that mobile applications have influenced the lifestyles of millions of people across the globe and in the same way desktop applications are going to change the desktop scenario as well.

Pic Credit – Quole Tech via Flickr

Emergence of Facebook as a Winner of the Mobile Photo War

Almost all of us love to take and share photos with our friends, families and relations. They are one of the biggest things on the internet from nearly the beginning of the days of commercial web. Photos are probably the easiest way to show one’s emotion digitally. Initially, it was about using your camera, be it a point and shoot or a DSLR and uploading them to Flickr, Myspace or Facebook. We’ve since moved on to Mobile phones: the best camera is the one that you have with you, and you always have your mobile phone with you, right?

Mobile photo sharing that is largely in use now-a-days forms an important aspect to the success of Facebook as a social media website (and as a larger entity too). So when it faced a threat in this matter from a company named Instagram, it took a very wise business decision of buying the company even though it cost them a billion dollars. Facebook thus won the war for mobile photo sharing in the worldwide global market.

The Popularity of Facebook as a Website

Photo sharing is the heart of Facebook and its photo-sharing album is the most updated all over the internet. This constant updating makes Facebook one of the most dominant players in the new connected world. Another contributing factor to the immense popularity of Facebook is its cross-platform nature and the fact that it gives a fully global identity, bringing together people from all parts of the world.

Numerous efforts have been made to attract more and more people to Facebook over the years. Innumerable applications, games, options for watching, listening and reading have been incorporated in Facebook. However, the greatest success of Facebook has come through photos and their sharing and is mainly due to this aspect of Facebook that this company is still growing and gaining more popularity.

Strategies Implied to Popularize Mobile Photo-sharing Application

• At the beginning when Facebook included this photo sharing application for mobiles, what the users obtained was a very tiresome, convoluted and complicated application that did not arouse too much of interest among its users.
• Nevertheless, being a great company as it is, the masterminds behind this company knew about these drawbacks and worked very hard and silently to sort it out.
• Soon enough they came up with a solution in the form of an application named ‘Camera’ that largely helped in the simplification of the process of sharing mobile photos on Facebook.
• Many people were a bit confused when Mark Zuckerberg and his companions released their photo sharing application, Camera, after they announced that they were buying Instagram for billions of dollars.

Now, why anyone would spend millions (or a billion) buying a company that makes applications for sharing mobile photos when they have already made an application for themselves.

The photos that you take and share are associated with you as a person, and your identity. It’s about what you see and share because of who you are. That’s that Instagram is about; seeing through someone else’s eyes. And that’s probably why Facebook bought Instagram (and has it’s own camera app too): a way to try and combine your Digital and Real identity.

Image Credits: The Facebook Blog