I just came across this awesome article for people who would like to become entreprenuers but are having certain doubts about their age. According to me there is absolutely no relationship between age and entreprenuership. I have made this point earlier in my blog and you can check it here. Age is certainly not the criteria when it comes to setting up your own company. It is good to know that my thoughts are getting resonated and there are many more people out there who believe the same thing.
So if you are someone who are in his or her 30s/40s or whatever your age might be, don’t let the stories of the founders of Microsoft or Google or Facebook stop you from opening your own company just because the founders of these very successful organizations started their own venture when they were just in their 20s.
To recapitulate and today I will say this louder than ever before – “Age no bar”. Forget about your age and the things people have been telling you about that. You are not competing with Google or Facebook, at the end of the day your are competing against yourself and it is you and only you who can fulfill your dream to run and nurture your own company. That is the fact which is also the most important part of our lives. Period.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
iCloud, iOS 5 & Mac OS X (Lion)
According to the press release from Apple which can be found here, the company is all set to release iCloud, iOS5 and much awaited Mac OS X (Lion)during its WWDC 2011 conference which is all set to start on June 6th. Moreover to the excitement of everybody Steve Jobs will be there to deliver the key notes. Hopefully I will be able to blog about the proceedings. Positive change in the shares of Apple (AAPL) after a long time, hope it remains the same way.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Google Wallet & Google Offers
Yesterday in NYC Google launched two amazing services - Google Wallet and Google Offers. Google Offers is nothing but Google’s reply to Groupon. To know more about Groupon visit its wiki page or my blog which I wrote sometime back.
Google Wallet is pretty interesting as it is something which will make your credit card, disappear. NFC or Near Field Communication is the underlying technology on which Google Wallet works. I blogged about NFC and its applications about three months back and if you want to refresh your memory then check that blog here. Sprint, Citi and Mastercard are the primary partners along with Google in the launch of this service. Google Wallet will be compatible with Google’s Nexus S 4G Android phone and slowly and gradually will be available on other devices as well. Security is one thing on which Google is working pretty hard and it seems First Data (Trusted services manager) will be working with Google in order to make Google Wallet impenetrable. ‘NXP PN65’ chip which was part of the Nexus S 4G will be useful in making the transactions more secure and will provide multiple security levels. This chip has got a lot of protections built into it like tamper sensors and protection from laser attacks. The chip will only tuned ON when using the Google Wallet else the chip will just sit in the hardware layer quietly.
Google is planning to officially release Google Wallet in San Francisco and NYC this summer and slowly will make the service available in other major cities as well. As per the team from Google, global launch of this service is near and Google will soon provide the update on that as well. Over 100,000 merchants ready for Google Wallet today and some of the major names include, Macy's, Subway, Walgreens & Toys 'R Us.
According to Google, Google Wallet will eventually replace your wallet but that will take some time as you have no other options but to use plastic in case you lost your phone or your phone battery is dead. The technology looks promising and I am sure this will be implemented big time in the coming phones including iPhone, the only thing to worry about at this point is the security which we all know can be compromised any level.
Google Wallet is pretty interesting as it is something which will make your credit card, disappear. NFC or Near Field Communication is the underlying technology on which Google Wallet works. I blogged about NFC and its applications about three months back and if you want to refresh your memory then check that blog here. Sprint, Citi and Mastercard are the primary partners along with Google in the launch of this service. Google Wallet will be compatible with Google’s Nexus S 4G Android phone and slowly and gradually will be available on other devices as well. Security is one thing on which Google is working pretty hard and it seems First Data (Trusted services manager) will be working with Google in order to make Google Wallet impenetrable. ‘NXP PN65’ chip which was part of the Nexus S 4G will be useful in making the transactions more secure and will provide multiple security levels. This chip has got a lot of protections built into it like tamper sensors and protection from laser attacks. The chip will only tuned ON when using the Google Wallet else the chip will just sit in the hardware layer quietly.
Google is planning to officially release Google Wallet in San Francisco and NYC this summer and slowly will make the service available in other major cities as well. As per the team from Google, global launch of this service is near and Google will soon provide the update on that as well. Over 100,000 merchants ready for Google Wallet today and some of the major names include, Macy's, Subway, Walgreens & Toys 'R Us.
According to Google, Google Wallet will eventually replace your wallet but that will take some time as you have no other options but to use plastic in case you lost your phone or your phone battery is dead. The technology looks promising and I am sure this will be implemented big time in the coming phones including iPhone, the only thing to worry about at this point is the security which we all know can be compromised any level.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Perfect day to be an Entrepreneur
I keep on telling this time and again and today I will emphasize on this fact and recapitulate that this is the perfect time for anyone with a great idea to be an entrepreneur. Promiscuous startups and the ideas conceived by these talented minds are getting the complete undivided attention of the VC community and the media. Various factors indicates and promotes the fact that this is a very good day to be an entrepreneur.
Just yesterday I came to know about this news that Facebook investor and board member Peter Thiel has announced 24 under 20 fellowships to bright and talented individuals to pursue their dream of opening their own company. Each of these winners will get $100,000, provided they leave the school and devote their full time attention in nurturing their startups. Businessweek has done a good job in writing this article, which I guess is a must read if you are crazy about doing something on the same lines.
There is another fascinating article for budding entreprenuers by Steven Levy (the author of the latest book ‘In the Plex’, which narrates the proceedings inside the walls of Googleplex) which got published in the wired magazine. The narration of this article is totally amazing and it is a very interesting read. Steven Levy explores the campus of Y-Combinator or YC (the seed stage startup funding firm) and how it is shaping the future of startups and their creators. You will be introduced to all the basic procedures and processes at YC. The article provides the details right from the interview stage to getting selected by YC partners, to making the final pitch (presentation & demo of your product) in front of hundreds of prominent silicon valley VCs. This article is the best resource if you want to know the inside out of what awaits you at the YC selection event and what happens if you and your team are lucky enough to get through. Also you will come to know what new entrepreneurs go through during this 13 week gruelling excersise on the campus of YC.
YC holds these competitions twice a year and this is an international event, meaning you are welcome to apply if you are outside US and are ready to spend 13 weeks with YC (this article does mention the names of some international founders). So if you have missed the winter session then there is one coming up right in the summer and you can get the details for the same here.
Put on your thinking caps and get ready to change the world. You better hurry as millions of promising ideas are floating around and we all know how fast the market saturates. Not in this case I assume, coz I believe that a great idea will always find its place to the top and has got the potential to touch the lives of many and will surely change them forever.
Good Luck !!
Just yesterday I came to know about this news that Facebook investor and board member Peter Thiel has announced 24 under 20 fellowships to bright and talented individuals to pursue their dream of opening their own company. Each of these winners will get $100,000, provided they leave the school and devote their full time attention in nurturing their startups. Businessweek has done a good job in writing this article, which I guess is a must read if you are crazy about doing something on the same lines.
There is another fascinating article for budding entreprenuers by Steven Levy (the author of the latest book ‘In the Plex’, which narrates the proceedings inside the walls of Googleplex) which got published in the wired magazine. The narration of this article is totally amazing and it is a very interesting read. Steven Levy explores the campus of Y-Combinator or YC (the seed stage startup funding firm) and how it is shaping the future of startups and their creators. You will be introduced to all the basic procedures and processes at YC. The article provides the details right from the interview stage to getting selected by YC partners, to making the final pitch (presentation & demo of your product) in front of hundreds of prominent silicon valley VCs. This article is the best resource if you want to know the inside out of what awaits you at the YC selection event and what happens if you and your team are lucky enough to get through. Also you will come to know what new entrepreneurs go through during this 13 week gruelling excersise on the campus of YC.
YC holds these competitions twice a year and this is an international event, meaning you are welcome to apply if you are outside US and are ready to spend 13 weeks with YC (this article does mention the names of some international founders). So if you have missed the winter session then there is one coming up right in the summer and you can get the details for the same here.
Put on your thinking caps and get ready to change the world. You better hurry as millions of promising ideas are floating around and we all know how fast the market saturates. Not in this case I assume, coz I believe that a great idea will always find its place to the top and has got the potential to touch the lives of many and will surely change them forever.
Good Luck !!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Spotify - why we are still waiting...?
If you have’nt heard about Daniel Ek or his super cool creation Spotify then there is no need to be ashamed of and believe me it is not your fault. But if you are among the millions of users who are currently using Spotify then by all means we here in the US are jealous of you guys and you can skip this blog and can go back to enjoy Spotify.
Spotify is the streaming music service which is currently available in certain European countries like Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Based in Sweden, Spotify was started by Daniel Ek in year 2008 and since then it has become one of the hottest music streaming companies. Unfortunately it will take sometime for Spotify to came to the US and the primary reason for that will be the tie up procedure that Spotify has to go through in order to sign the contract with major music companies and their affiliates.
Spotify has got pretty amazing features. Using Spotify you can sync the music to your Android or iPhone using wi-fi. Another cool feature is the Spotify desktop app which allows you to create a playlist as well as you can cache the songs if you want to listen the songs offline. It seems the streaming library is huge and there are millions of songs to select from. Keeping into consideration the people who are socially active, Spotify allows you to share your playlists with your friends over Twitter or Facebook. Currently Spotify allows you to stream around 3 hours of music per week which is kind of a drawback and I am sure this will change in the future.
If things go well and as per the plan then there has been this speculation that Spotify will be coming to Facebook. Let me remind you that Apple tried to cut the same kind of deal for its iTunes ping with Facebook and the deal never happened. The marriage of Spotify and Facebook can be a game changer but I guess Spotify need to step up in more and more countries and it had to surely come out of the Euro zone if it had to enjoy the social party. “Facebook Music" or "Spotify For Facebook" will be the name for this new app. Watch out for the announcement in couple of weeks.
I know to most of us this updates means nothing but I am sure Spotify is trying hard to make this meaningful to all of us. After all what Netflix is to movies Spotify is to music and now each of these companies want to show the world what there streaming power is capable of and each of them is trying to expand their footprint globally.
Spotify is the streaming music service which is currently available in certain European countries like Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Based in Sweden, Spotify was started by Daniel Ek in year 2008 and since then it has become one of the hottest music streaming companies. Unfortunately it will take sometime for Spotify to came to the US and the primary reason for that will be the tie up procedure that Spotify has to go through in order to sign the contract with major music companies and their affiliates.
Spotify has got pretty amazing features. Using Spotify you can sync the music to your Android or iPhone using wi-fi. Another cool feature is the Spotify desktop app which allows you to create a playlist as well as you can cache the songs if you want to listen the songs offline. It seems the streaming library is huge and there are millions of songs to select from. Keeping into consideration the people who are socially active, Spotify allows you to share your playlists with your friends over Twitter or Facebook. Currently Spotify allows you to stream around 3 hours of music per week which is kind of a drawback and I am sure this will change in the future.
If things go well and as per the plan then there has been this speculation that Spotify will be coming to Facebook. Let me remind you that Apple tried to cut the same kind of deal for its iTunes ping with Facebook and the deal never happened. The marriage of Spotify and Facebook can be a game changer but I guess Spotify need to step up in more and more countries and it had to surely come out of the Euro zone if it had to enjoy the social party. “Facebook Music" or "Spotify For Facebook" will be the name for this new app. Watch out for the announcement in couple of weeks.
I know to most of us this updates means nothing but I am sure Spotify is trying hard to make this meaningful to all of us. After all what Netflix is to movies Spotify is to music and now each of these companies want to show the world what there streaming power is capable of and each of them is trying to expand their footprint globally.
Adieu Mark Haines
Well if you are an aggressive CNBC viewer like me or anyone who keeps an eye on the day to day business news you must have came across this sad news that one of the primary CNBC anchor and one of the best business journalist of our times ‘Mark Haines’ has passed away last evening. It is indeed a very sad news as I am used to seeing Mark every morning and my day starts listening to his business commentary and updates.
My condolences with the family of Mark, his friends, his colleagues and to every viewer to whom he was a source of incredible knowledge and abundant information.
May his soul RIP. Mark you will be remembered….
My condolences with the family of Mark, his friends, his colleagues and to every viewer to whom he was a source of incredible knowledge and abundant information.
May his soul RIP. Mark you will be remembered….
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Mango - Microsoft's juicy treat
Today Microsoft introduced the latest offering in its Windows Phone (WP) OS, code named Mango. I wish this could be the comeback of Microsoft but we cannot suggest or comment on this as of now. Mango or WP 7.1 as the World is calling it, seems to be pretty revolutionary. According to Steve Ballmer this new OS will have around 500 new enhancements as compared to the earlier version of WP i.e WP 7.0. There are lots of built in APPs but what gathered my attention and the people who attended the event was this amazing search feature which is embedded in the OS.
Microsoft is trying to compete with Google and to some extent it has achieved some market share as far as search is concerned. Bing the search engine for Microsoft is the hope on which this huge organization depends and now Bing is bringing the magic to the WP. Whatever progress of Bing we have seen in search market and whatever it is able to achieve in this realm is the brain child of one and only one person, the president of the online service division at Microsoft – Qi Lu. There has been this very inspirational story about Qi Lu and how he manages to land this vital postion at Microsoft. I guess that does not suppose to be the part of this blog. The story of Qi Lu (which is very close to my heart) deserves a separate discussion and you will see that in my future blog.
Search is one of the two of the most fascinating features of Mango and I am pretty positive that technology will make substantial amount of progress in that direction. The second interesting feature which cannot go un-noticed is the real time text translation. The OS will recognize the word and at your order will try to translate the word to the language of your choice. If I even try to explain these two features in words I’ll be wasting your time and mine and that is why courtesy engadget there is this amazing demo video which you will enjoy for sure.
One thing that concerned me is the release date of Mango and that it won’t be out till this fall which is like sometime in August. This has been an absolutely very profitable opportunity for Microsoft to encash the power of Mango as Google is trying to fix the Android fragmentation issue and we don’t know when Apple will release the next iOS.
Finally competition in the smartphone market is picking up which is good for all. By the looks of it Mango looks perfect and hope Microsoft will make it more juicy. There has been this thing with Microsoft to release the product and fix it later, which has cost the company millions. Hope Microsoft will change this approach and with the release of Mango change it for good.
Microsoft is trying to compete with Google and to some extent it has achieved some market share as far as search is concerned. Bing the search engine for Microsoft is the hope on which this huge organization depends and now Bing is bringing the magic to the WP. Whatever progress of Bing we have seen in search market and whatever it is able to achieve in this realm is the brain child of one and only one person, the president of the online service division at Microsoft – Qi Lu. There has been this very inspirational story about Qi Lu and how he manages to land this vital postion at Microsoft. I guess that does not suppose to be the part of this blog. The story of Qi Lu (which is very close to my heart) deserves a separate discussion and you will see that in my future blog.
Search is one of the two of the most fascinating features of Mango and I am pretty positive that technology will make substantial amount of progress in that direction. The second interesting feature which cannot go un-noticed is the real time text translation. The OS will recognize the word and at your order will try to translate the word to the language of your choice. If I even try to explain these two features in words I’ll be wasting your time and mine and that is why courtesy engadget there is this amazing demo video which you will enjoy for sure.
One thing that concerned me is the release date of Mango and that it won’t be out till this fall which is like sometime in August. This has been an absolutely very profitable opportunity for Microsoft to encash the power of Mango as Google is trying to fix the Android fragmentation issue and we don’t know when Apple will release the next iOS.
Finally competition in the smartphone market is picking up which is good for all. By the looks of it Mango looks perfect and hope Microsoft will make it more juicy. There has been this thing with Microsoft to release the product and fix it later, which has cost the company millions. Hope Microsoft will change this approach and with the release of Mango change it for good.
Yandex IPO - From Russia with Love
Last week it was LinkedIn and today it is Yandex. That is correct Yandex launced its IPO today and though not as volatile as the debut of LinkedIn but certainly Yandex is generating some buzz among the investors. Yandex is Russia’a answer to Google and it is extremely hot in Russia. The local market share of Yandex is around 65% whereas Google is 22%.
Yandex was co-founded by Russian mathematician and computer whiz Arkady Volozh and and geophysicist Ilya Segalovich. Go to the wiki page of Yandex to learn more about that. The stock which was suppose to open at $25 per share is now trading at around $35. It already touched the $40 mark in the morning but got retreated back in the 30s territory. To get the latest update on the price of Yandex (YNDX) check here.
Hope Yandex is here to stay as the competition in the search market is increasing everyday. Right from the start from Alta Vista to Yahoo to Google to Bing to Yandex many search technologies have seen their best before falling down on their knees. One such search engine of recent times was Cuil which was not able to withstand the competition and now is down for good. Cuil was launced by former Google employees but failed. Hope Yandex will learn from its mistake. I do see some traffic from Yandex on my blog as I have lots of views from the people of Russia and I am very thankful to them for reading my blog.
Hope Yandex won’t disappoint its solid user base and the investors who are pretty bullish on the stock and the company. Some debate that the search algorithm of Yandex is pretty stable and at times superior to that of Google. I say why not, there is a common link between Google and Yandex and that link is Russia (Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin was born in Russia). Well good luck to Yandex and its investors. Tech on boom and fingers crossed as usual.
Yandex was co-founded by Russian mathematician and computer whiz Arkady Volozh and and geophysicist Ilya Segalovich. Go to the wiki page of Yandex to learn more about that. The stock which was suppose to open at $25 per share is now trading at around $35. It already touched the $40 mark in the morning but got retreated back in the 30s territory. To get the latest update on the price of Yandex (YNDX) check here.
Hope Yandex is here to stay as the competition in the search market is increasing everyday. Right from the start from Alta Vista to Yahoo to Google to Bing to Yandex many search technologies have seen their best before falling down on their knees. One such search engine of recent times was Cuil which was not able to withstand the competition and now is down for good. Cuil was launced by former Google employees but failed. Hope Yandex will learn from its mistake. I do see some traffic from Yandex on my blog as I have lots of views from the people of Russia and I am very thankful to them for reading my blog.
Hope Yandex won’t disappoint its solid user base and the investors who are pretty bullish on the stock and the company. Some debate that the search algorithm of Yandex is pretty stable and at times superior to that of Google. I say why not, there is a common link between Google and Yandex and that link is Russia (Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin was born in Russia). Well good luck to Yandex and its investors. Tech on boom and fingers crossed as usual.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Party time..The World's coming to an end tomorrow
I guess you all came to know by now that the World is coming to an end tomorrow i.e 21st May 2011. According to some so called superhuman preachers (whom I call Mr X) tomorrow is the Judgement Day or Doomsday. Really ?? Oh Yeah !!
The brain of the man is one hell of a thing and every now and then it comes up with these nefarious ideas to cheat people of their money and time. What makes this equation interesting is that many of us do believe that what Mr X is saying is true and we just blindly follow each and every word delivered by him. So my friend if you are in sync with Mr X then tonight is the night to party and have tons of fun before the World comes to an end tomorrow. But hold on, do you really think the World is coming to an end tomorrow? Who cares, its party time.
Well folks according to me the end of the World is not an instant phenomenon. It is more of a slow destruction kind of a thing, something like slow poising something where you keep on losing something or the other over the period of time.
The people who predicted the end of the World for tomorrow are so very wrong. The end of the World is not tomorrow. The end of the World started the day human beings conceived the idea to invent the bullet, the invention of arms and ammunitions, no hard feelings for Mr Nobel but the day when he invented the dynamite, the day when religious fanatics lead their followers to believe that the only thing to make their religion popular is by forcefully imposing that on others, the day greed overtook man, the day human beings started to abuse the natural resources, the day when…..well this list is endless and practically difficult to compile and the the World will come to an end for sure if we all started giving out the ideas of when and how the actual destruction of the World started.
Oh boy!! That was a heavy dose in above paragraph and I am pretty sure that is not me who write all these words. I might be possessed by someone when I wrote those strong eye opener lines. Anyways fellow human beings and all the living creatures on this planet if you got hurt by any of my comments or actions then I am extremely sorry for that if you like anything that I have said or done then don’t thank me and as said by Peter Griffin in the family guy “just pay it forward.” Anyway after tomorrow I don’t think we have a chance or we'll be in a position to pay that forward to anyone as this is the end.
Let the rapture party begin...see you all next week...oopss...long live Mr X...check out my blog for the update on Apple's WWDC in June...ooppss sorry Mr X...long live Mr X...extremely excited to watch Transformers 3 in June and Mission Impossible 3 in December...what I am saying the World is coming to an end tomorrow...long live Mr X....Republicans or Democrats in 2012?...what I am talking about Doomsday is knocking on the door...long live Mr X...long live Mr X....
The brain of the man is one hell of a thing and every now and then it comes up with these nefarious ideas to cheat people of their money and time. What makes this equation interesting is that many of us do believe that what Mr X is saying is true and we just blindly follow each and every word delivered by him. So my friend if you are in sync with Mr X then tonight is the night to party and have tons of fun before the World comes to an end tomorrow. But hold on, do you really think the World is coming to an end tomorrow? Who cares, its party time.
Well folks according to me the end of the World is not an instant phenomenon. It is more of a slow destruction kind of a thing, something like slow poising something where you keep on losing something or the other over the period of time.
The people who predicted the end of the World for tomorrow are so very wrong. The end of the World is not tomorrow. The end of the World started the day human beings conceived the idea to invent the bullet, the invention of arms and ammunitions, no hard feelings for Mr Nobel but the day when he invented the dynamite, the day when religious fanatics lead their followers to believe that the only thing to make their religion popular is by forcefully imposing that on others, the day greed overtook man, the day human beings started to abuse the natural resources, the day when…..well this list is endless and practically difficult to compile and the the World will come to an end for sure if we all started giving out the ideas of when and how the actual destruction of the World started.
Oh boy!! That was a heavy dose in above paragraph and I am pretty sure that is not me who write all these words. I might be possessed by someone when I wrote those strong eye opener lines. Anyways fellow human beings and all the living creatures on this planet if you got hurt by any of my comments or actions then I am extremely sorry for that if you like anything that I have said or done then don’t thank me and as said by Peter Griffin in the family guy “just pay it forward.” Anyway after tomorrow I don’t think we have a chance or we'll be in a position to pay that forward to anyone as this is the end.
Let the rapture party begin...see you all next week...oopss...long live Mr X...check out my blog for the update on Apple's WWDC in June...ooppss sorry Mr X...long live Mr X...extremely excited to watch Transformers 3 in June and Mission Impossible 3 in December...what I am saying the World is coming to an end tomorrow...long live Mr X....Republicans or Democrats in 2012?...what I am talking about Doomsday is knocking on the door...long live Mr X...long live Mr X....
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
LinkedIn IPO coming tomorrow
The IPO (initial public offering) for the much hyped social media company LinkedIn will open tomorrow. It seems LinkedIn is planning to sell the share for $45 a piece and will sell around 7.8 million shares and raise around $352 million in the proceedings. Jeff Weiner the CEO of this Mountain View, California-based company is pretty sanguine about its future and so are its current investors. For quite sometime I was wondering about the the business model of this organization and I came to know that LinkedIn valued at around $4 billion makes its money primarily through business subscription which comes in the form of recruiting and the paid subscription which LinkedIn has started in 2005.
Major recruting companies uses the myriad of professional skills databases available on the site of LinkedIn to mine the skill sets of the individual that match their requirement and I guess they need to pay some fee to LinkedIn for this whole process. As of now LinkedIn is firing on all cylinders and we will come to know more about it once the company goes public tomorrow. The stock will start trading on NYSE tomorrow and the ticker for LinkedIn will be LKND. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase will led the stock offering. Keeping into consideration the IPO of LinkedIn hopefully Facebook, Groupon and Zynga (the creators of very popular Farmville) are the next in line to introduce their IPOs.
It seems more and more companies are going public this year which could be one of the indications that the economy is recovering, other reasons could be that we all are heading for another bubble probably in the field of IT. Currently we are not in the postion to take any stand on that. I bet Nouriel Roubini the famous economist can comment on that, as he along with others was able to predict the current crisis. So far things and looking good and we all would like to keep it that way. Fingers crossed.
Update 1: Shares of LinkedIn (LNKD) are now trading at around $90 a share. This morning (19th May) the shares opened at $83 and their value is increasing since then. It seems investors are buying the shares left and right. With the current scenario LinkedIn is now valued at around $8 billion. Is seems like it is 1999 all over again but we all know how it ended. All I can say is hungry investors of the web 2.0 era seems tireless and are adding tech and social networking to their portfolios. Seems big time ahead for the social networking companies but you never know when the sky will fall down...till then...its party time.
Update 2: It started out yesterday that LinkedIn IPO will be priced at $32 then by yesterday evening the shares were traded in after hours at $45 and when the market opens this morning the shares opened at $83 and gone up as high as $122.70 and then came down at $94.25 at the close of the market. All happening within a span of just 24 hours. The market is just too volatile but not as volatile as the boom of 1999. Still there is hope and we all will make it, no sureties though.
Major recruting companies uses the myriad of professional skills databases available on the site of LinkedIn to mine the skill sets of the individual that match their requirement and I guess they need to pay some fee to LinkedIn for this whole process. As of now LinkedIn is firing on all cylinders and we will come to know more about it once the company goes public tomorrow. The stock will start trading on NYSE tomorrow and the ticker for LinkedIn will be LKND. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase will led the stock offering. Keeping into consideration the IPO of LinkedIn hopefully Facebook, Groupon and Zynga (the creators of very popular Farmville) are the next in line to introduce their IPOs.
It seems more and more companies are going public this year which could be one of the indications that the economy is recovering, other reasons could be that we all are heading for another bubble probably in the field of IT. Currently we are not in the postion to take any stand on that. I bet Nouriel Roubini the famous economist can comment on that, as he along with others was able to predict the current crisis. So far things and looking good and we all would like to keep it that way. Fingers crossed.
Update 1: Shares of LinkedIn (LNKD) are now trading at around $90 a share. This morning (19th May) the shares opened at $83 and their value is increasing since then. It seems investors are buying the shares left and right. With the current scenario LinkedIn is now valued at around $8 billion. Is seems like it is 1999 all over again but we all know how it ended. All I can say is hungry investors of the web 2.0 era seems tireless and are adding tech and social networking to their portfolios. Seems big time ahead for the social networking companies but you never know when the sky will fall down...till then...its party time.
Update 2: It started out yesterday that LinkedIn IPO will be priced at $32 then by yesterday evening the shares were traded in after hours at $45 and when the market opens this morning the shares opened at $83 and gone up as high as $122.70 and then came down at $94.25 at the close of the market. All happening within a span of just 24 hours. The market is just too volatile but not as volatile as the boom of 1999. Still there is hope and we all will make it, no sureties though.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Apple's OS X Lion uses Nuance speech technology
It seems that the speech recognition technology will be the next big thing for both Google & Apple. I blogged last week about the speech recognition functionality becoming the part of the Chrome web browser which got announced last week at the Google I/O and today I was reading that traces of speech recognition were found in the preview release of Apple’s OS X - Lion.
Nuance one of the leaders in the field of speech recognition will eventually shake hands with Apple as the sample of voice translations found in OS X (Lion) were same that has been developed by Nuance. Though nothing is official yet but there has been significant development between Nuance and Apple and hopefully the functionality will become the part of both OS X and iOS.
Patently Apple use to give updates about the patents filed on the behalf of Apple and it released this very interesting patent information on the 12th of May where it has shown how speech to text and text to speech functionality is being planned to be the part of iOS. To get more details about this technology and its real time application and use go here and check. It seems someone is trying to make the SMS obsolete but again this is what ever changing technology is all bout. Can't wait to install OS X Lion on my macbook pro.
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| As seen from OS X Lion - System Preferences |
Nuance one of the leaders in the field of speech recognition will eventually shake hands with Apple as the sample of voice translations found in OS X (Lion) were same that has been developed by Nuance. Though nothing is official yet but there has been significant development between Nuance and Apple and hopefully the functionality will become the part of both OS X and iOS.
Patently Apple use to give updates about the patents filed on the behalf of Apple and it released this very interesting patent information on the 12th of May where it has shown how speech to text and text to speech functionality is being planned to be the part of iOS. To get more details about this technology and its real time application and use go here and check. It seems someone is trying to make the SMS obsolete but again this is what ever changing technology is all bout. Can't wait to install OS X Lion on my macbook pro.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Seven deadly sins .... personified
Seven deadly sins. Some believe them some don’t. I try to personify each sin and thanks to Mr. Kahn of IMF that today I am able to compile and finish my list.
So here it is.
• Lust - Dominique Strauss-Kahn (hot hot news of today. 62 but young at heart. IMF puts net US debt at 72% of GDP, Mr Kahn can you phhlease reconsider that now)
• Gluttony - Raj Rajaratnam (see it to believe it…don’t waste time google his name and see for your self)
• Greed - The masterminds of the present Economic crisis (sorry I could have ran out of space even if I try to explain what this sin means)
• Slot - Bernie Madoff (he needs no introduction but if you are not sure about his gift google him and learn the art of ponzi scheme within no time. Atleast I guess that he will teach for free… ooppss sorry about that extra `r` I mean fee)
• Wrath - Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers (sitting on the pile of cash he made during his time at the bank he is single handedly responsible for the destruction of one of the wall streets oldest financial institutions)
• Envy – OBL (his death puts Pakistan and its army out of business, but I am sure Pakistan will come up with something after all somebody I mean somehow they need to run their country)
• Pride - Jeffrey Skilling of Enron (those were the good old days when people pay the price for their deeds not like today where trillions of dollars have vanished but still things have’nt changed a bit).
Some of these names can be put against more than one sin or all of them but this is the best what I can come up with. If you have any better ideas then please comment on this blog. On lighter note this particular blog is just to make you smile and not to incorporate the fear of these sins.
Enjoy !!
So here it is.
• Lust - Dominique Strauss-Kahn (hot hot news of today. 62 but young at heart. IMF puts net US debt at 72% of GDP, Mr Kahn can you phhlease reconsider that now)
• Gluttony - Raj Rajaratnam (see it to believe it…don’t waste time google his name and see for your self)
• Greed - The masterminds of the present Economic crisis (sorry I could have ran out of space even if I try to explain what this sin means)
• Slot - Bernie Madoff (he needs no introduction but if you are not sure about his gift google him and learn the art of ponzi scheme within no time. Atleast I guess that he will teach for free… ooppss sorry about that extra `r` I mean fee)
• Wrath - Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers (sitting on the pile of cash he made during his time at the bank he is single handedly responsible for the destruction of one of the wall streets oldest financial institutions)
• Envy – OBL (his death puts Pakistan and its army out of business, but I am sure Pakistan will come up with something after all somebody I mean somehow they need to run their country)
• Pride - Jeffrey Skilling of Enron (those were the good old days when people pay the price for their deeds not like today where trillions of dollars have vanished but still things have’nt changed a bit).
Some of these names can be put against more than one sin or all of them but this is the best what I can come up with. If you have any better ideas then please comment on this blog. On lighter note this particular blog is just to make you smile and not to incorporate the fear of these sins.
Enjoy !!
What connects Isilon, Avatar & Apple ?
Before I start on this subject there is this vital information I would like to share and we all will see how this helps in understanding the depth of what I am going to discuss.
1 Terabyte = 1,024 GB (gigabytes)
1 Petabyte = 1,000 Terabytes
I know in our daily computational life these numbers are just beyond imagination and hard to comprehend but believe me this is nothing, absolutely nothing and we will see that in a short while.
Now back to the topic that I am going to discuss - what connects Isilon, Avatar and Apple? Well please don’t consider Isilon to be another moon (just like Pandora) of the fictitious planet Polyphemus created by the genius James Cameron for his mega blockbluster Avatar, nor is Isilon one of the alien species shown in the movie Avatar. Isilon is the name of the storage company which deals in creating the super cool clustered storage systems and got acquired by EMC (one of the pioneers of the storage technology) last fall. Seattle based Isilon is the leader in the scalable NAS (network attached storage) and fairly advanced than SAN (storage area network).
Isilon & Avatar:
It came to my notice recently that James Camerson’s Lightstorm Entertainment was one of the early adopters of Isilon and they were one of the primary customers of this storage company. In fact James Cameron and Jon Landau (the producer of Avatar) were so impressed by the functionality offered by Isilon that they look no further when it comes to making the decision to choose the storage to dump the unfathomable data they were going to generate during the making of Avatar. The massive production of Avatar generated terabytes of data on weekly and at times on daily basis and James and Jon were looking for some solution that is scalable, efficient and cutting edge and Isilon answered.
Isilon & Apple:
I guess we all know how busy Apple is preparing to move its iTunes into the cloud and some of us are anxiously waiting for that. Well it seems Apple also picks Isilon to provide the storage for its upcoming cloud services. The news came out on April 6th that Apple is planning to buy some 12 petabytes of storage from Isilon for this project of migrating iTunes into the cloud. More details about this can be found here. 12 petabytes seems to be a large chunk of storage and sure Apple will need that. But after doing some research on the internet and specially on wikipedia I came to know that 12 petabytes is not that big of a storage space. Well I might be out of my mind but here is the information what others have been using and why 12 petabytes is nothing considering the size and reputation of someone who is non other than Apple.
• Teradata Database 12 has a capacity of 50 petabytes of compressed data.
• Google processes about 24 petabytes of data per day.
• The BBC's iplayer is reported to use 7 petabytes of bandwidth each month
• AT&T has about 19 petabytes of data transferred through their networks each day
• The 4 experiments in the Large Hadron Collider will produce about 15 petabytes of data per year, which will be distributed over the LHC Computing Grid
• The Hippocampus of a human adult brain has been estimated to store a limit of up to 2.5 petabytes of binary data equivalent
• The German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) has a storage capacity of 60 petabytes of climate data
• The Internet Archive contains about 3 petabytes of data, and is growing at the rate of about 100 terabytes per month as of March, 2009
• Games: World of Warcraft uses 1.3 petabytes of storage to maintain its game.Valve Steam delivers over 30 petabytes of content monthly
• The 2009 movie Avatar is reported to have taken over 1 petabyte of local storage at Weta Digital for the rendering of the 3D CGI effects
I bet you are pretty amazed by seeing the power and flow and storage of information. Well guess what my friend this is just the beginning. I will shutup and would like to point you to another amazing piece of information as far as storage is concerned. Go to here and find out who is the big daddy of this era of digital storage consumption. Feel free to pinch yourself as I guess you need to.
1 Terabyte = 1,024 GB (gigabytes)
1 Petabyte = 1,000 Terabytes
I know in our daily computational life these numbers are just beyond imagination and hard to comprehend but believe me this is nothing, absolutely nothing and we will see that in a short while.
Now back to the topic that I am going to discuss - what connects Isilon, Avatar and Apple? Well please don’t consider Isilon to be another moon (just like Pandora) of the fictitious planet Polyphemus created by the genius James Cameron for his mega blockbluster Avatar, nor is Isilon one of the alien species shown in the movie Avatar. Isilon is the name of the storage company which deals in creating the super cool clustered storage systems and got acquired by EMC (one of the pioneers of the storage technology) last fall. Seattle based Isilon is the leader in the scalable NAS (network attached storage) and fairly advanced than SAN (storage area network).
Isilon & Avatar:
It came to my notice recently that James Camerson’s Lightstorm Entertainment was one of the early adopters of Isilon and they were one of the primary customers of this storage company. In fact James Cameron and Jon Landau (the producer of Avatar) were so impressed by the functionality offered by Isilon that they look no further when it comes to making the decision to choose the storage to dump the unfathomable data they were going to generate during the making of Avatar. The massive production of Avatar generated terabytes of data on weekly and at times on daily basis and James and Jon were looking for some solution that is scalable, efficient and cutting edge and Isilon answered.
Isilon & Apple:
I guess we all know how busy Apple is preparing to move its iTunes into the cloud and some of us are anxiously waiting for that. Well it seems Apple also picks Isilon to provide the storage for its upcoming cloud services. The news came out on April 6th that Apple is planning to buy some 12 petabytes of storage from Isilon for this project of migrating iTunes into the cloud. More details about this can be found here. 12 petabytes seems to be a large chunk of storage and sure Apple will need that. But after doing some research on the internet and specially on wikipedia I came to know that 12 petabytes is not that big of a storage space. Well I might be out of my mind but here is the information what others have been using and why 12 petabytes is nothing considering the size and reputation of someone who is non other than Apple.
• Teradata Database 12 has a capacity of 50 petabytes of compressed data.
• Google processes about 24 petabytes of data per day.
• The BBC's iplayer is reported to use 7 petabytes of bandwidth each month
• AT&T has about 19 petabytes of data transferred through their networks each day
• The 4 experiments in the Large Hadron Collider will produce about 15 petabytes of data per year, which will be distributed over the LHC Computing Grid
• The Hippocampus of a human adult brain has been estimated to store a limit of up to 2.5 petabytes of binary data equivalent
• The German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) has a storage capacity of 60 petabytes of climate data
• The Internet Archive contains about 3 petabytes of data, and is growing at the rate of about 100 terabytes per month as of March, 2009
• Games: World of Warcraft uses 1.3 petabytes of storage to maintain its game.Valve Steam delivers over 30 petabytes of content monthly
• The 2009 movie Avatar is reported to have taken over 1 petabyte of local storage at Weta Digital for the rendering of the 3D CGI effects
I bet you are pretty amazed by seeing the power and flow and storage of information. Well guess what my friend this is just the beginning. I will shutup and would like to point you to another amazing piece of information as far as storage is concerned. Go to here and find out who is the big daddy of this era of digital storage consumption. Feel free to pinch yourself as I guess you need to.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
New iPhone (4S) - The Paraskevidekatriaphobics effect
Paraskevidekatriaphobics is the real tongue twister. It means the fear of the Friday the 13th which was yesterday and all gone good. I came to know about these fresh inputs on the new iPhone iteration which is due out in fall and I am in a kind of a dilemma to update this on my blog or not, as I came to know more about the new iPhone on Friday the 13th. Well does that make me superstitious? Well I don’t think so.
Here are the updates and I hope we all remember what the rule of the thumb is, but let me remind you all again – “If it started coming out as a rumour then some portion or all of it had to be true”. We have seen that before in many cases and this is not different. Anyway here is the list of what to expect in the new iPhone:
• The iPhone is due out sometime in September, this is something not new we all know about this (perfect start for the holiday season)
• The new iPhone will come out as iPhone 4S and not as iPhone5 (not sure why Apple would do that, guess they got confused between S & 5)
• Some minor changes in the design is expected along with better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ support (sounds cool, what about NFC ?)
• Apple might announce new carriers like Sprint, T-mobile and China carrier (wow this is something which would make Sprint jump on Monday market opening)
• No LTE (long term evolution) support for the new iPhone (now why would Apple do that when Verizon is out their making a so called killing on its so called LTE network)
Well hope this news will make some movement in the share of Apple (I doubt that will happen) which has not shown any significant moves for quite sometime. Every now and then the analyst upgrade the price target for the share of Apple but still the share is playing ping pong between the territory of $340 - $350.
iPhone 4S ha…not bad. Let’s see how Apple will surprise us all with its release.
Here are the updates and I hope we all remember what the rule of the thumb is, but let me remind you all again – “If it started coming out as a rumour then some portion or all of it had to be true”. We have seen that before in many cases and this is not different. Anyway here is the list of what to expect in the new iPhone:
• The iPhone is due out sometime in September, this is something not new we all know about this (perfect start for the holiday season)
• The new iPhone will come out as iPhone 4S and not as iPhone5 (not sure why Apple would do that, guess they got confused between S & 5)
• Some minor changes in the design is expected along with better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ support (sounds cool, what about NFC ?)
• Apple might announce new carriers like Sprint, T-mobile and China carrier (wow this is something which would make Sprint jump on Monday market opening)
• No LTE (long term evolution) support for the new iPhone (now why would Apple do that when Verizon is out their making a so called killing on its so called LTE network)
Well hope this news will make some movement in the share of Apple (I doubt that will happen) which has not shown any significant moves for quite sometime. Every now and then the analyst upgrade the price target for the share of Apple but still the share is playing ping pong between the territory of $340 - $350.
iPhone 4S ha…not bad. Let’s see how Apple will surprise us all with its release.
Zuckerberg Sandberg - they rhyme
My 5 year old has this habit of bringing it to the attention of everybody whenever he hears or speaks the words that rhyme, something like 'more' & 'snore' and he excitedly says "they rhyme", hence the title of this blog.
Anyways back to the blog, well Mark Zuckerberg turned 27 today and he has got all the good reasons to enjoy this day. With around 640 million customers what else do you want? I bet there is one more good reason for Zuckerberg to enjoy and it seems he is extremely lucky to have this one person by his side, the present COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. There has been an excellent article on Sandberg and her contributions towards Facebook and other projects which have earned her a lot of respect. She is having an impeccable record starting off with her journey at Harvard and then Larry Summers became her mentor and slowly she moved to work with the treasury department and then Google and then finally landing up as a COO of Facebook.
Read this article (on Bloomberg Businessweek) which is very informative and I certainly liked it and recommend reading it. I really feel elated whenever I hear women making it to the top in the corporate world and getting the recognition for the same. This is a good sign not only for the corporate world but also for the society we live in. In the end of the article there has been an speculation that with the present qualities that Sandberg possess, there are chances that she could ran for the president of the US (post Facebook I assume). Well Good Luck to Sandberg with that. Right now what I can say is she is doing one hell of a job at Facebook. Facebook is growing and roaring like an uncontrollable monster and it does not require a geek to run the show what it requires is a methodological manager with the aptitude and proven track record to tame it.
Anyways back to the blog, well Mark Zuckerberg turned 27 today and he has got all the good reasons to enjoy this day. With around 640 million customers what else do you want? I bet there is one more good reason for Zuckerberg to enjoy and it seems he is extremely lucky to have this one person by his side, the present COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. There has been an excellent article on Sandberg and her contributions towards Facebook and other projects which have earned her a lot of respect. She is having an impeccable record starting off with her journey at Harvard and then Larry Summers became her mentor and slowly she moved to work with the treasury department and then Google and then finally landing up as a COO of Facebook.
Read this article (on Bloomberg Businessweek) which is very informative and I certainly liked it and recommend reading it. I really feel elated whenever I hear women making it to the top in the corporate world and getting the recognition for the same. This is a good sign not only for the corporate world but also for the society we live in. In the end of the article there has been an speculation that with the present qualities that Sandberg possess, there are chances that she could ran for the president of the US (post Facebook I assume). Well Good Luck to Sandberg with that. Right now what I can say is she is doing one hell of a job at Facebook. Facebook is growing and roaring like an uncontrollable monster and it does not require a geek to run the show what it requires is a methodological manager with the aptitude and proven track record to tame it.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Google I/O 2011 - Day 2 (Google introduces Chromebook)
Following are the highlights of the second day at Google I/O:
• Chrome users increased from 70 million to 160 million.
• Voice recognition support for Chroms web browser. We really need to see how that shapes out in the future. In addition to that language translation facilty added to Chrome so it can translate to the language supported as you speak.
• Now here comes the big one, the introduction of the Chromebook. This one is the complete cloud based solution and the hardware will be developed by both Samsung and Acer. The Chromebook will have instant turn-on and it will be up and running within three minutes. Everything is cloud based so that you can access anything anywhere. $429 in the US for the WiFi Samsung model, $499 for 3G. $399 for the Acer. It will be available here in the US on June 15th through Best Buy and Amazon. Six more countries included for the same release date -- Spain, France, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Italy. More good news, Chromebook will be jailedbreaked from day one so that you can hack and tweak the kernel. Google will be promoting the Chromebook like crazy and it seems Google is having big plans to launch Chromebook in the corporate world. Chromebook will be available for small businesses for $28 (per user) monthly subscription and that will include software and hardware and services – whoa!!. To promote Chromebook in education $20 per user for schools and government organizations and will include same services as mentioned above.
• Another big announcement was on the gaming front. Angry Birds will be coming to the Chrome web browser. This will be a sweet tie up between the creators of Angry Bird i.e Rovio and Google. The game can be cached and can be played offline as well. New game levels called Chrome Dimension added specially for Chrome.
With all these incredible announcements it has been a very wild and amazing ride for the last 2 days and it seems Google is really about to change something in this year’s I/O conference. We all have to wait till 6th June when Apple’s WWDC (world wide developers conference) will start. With no iPhone release set for this years WWDC let’s see what Apple has to offer in its developers conference. I am pretty sure Apple’s latest OS X - Lion will be among the many things Apple will share with all of us. I am already excited and I hope so are all of you.
• Chrome users increased from 70 million to 160 million.
• Voice recognition support for Chroms web browser. We really need to see how that shapes out in the future. In addition to that language translation facilty added to Chrome so it can translate to the language supported as you speak.
• Now here comes the big one, the introduction of the Chromebook. This one is the complete cloud based solution and the hardware will be developed by both Samsung and Acer. The Chromebook will have instant turn-on and it will be up and running within three minutes. Everything is cloud based so that you can access anything anywhere. $429 in the US for the WiFi Samsung model, $499 for 3G. $399 for the Acer. It will be available here in the US on June 15th through Best Buy and Amazon. Six more countries included for the same release date -- Spain, France, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Italy. More good news, Chromebook will be jailedbreaked from day one so that you can hack and tweak the kernel. Google will be promoting the Chromebook like crazy and it seems Google is having big plans to launch Chromebook in the corporate world. Chromebook will be available for small businesses for $28 (per user) monthly subscription and that will include software and hardware and services – whoa!!. To promote Chromebook in education $20 per user for schools and government organizations and will include same services as mentioned above.
• Another big announcement was on the gaming front. Angry Birds will be coming to the Chrome web browser. This will be a sweet tie up between the creators of Angry Bird i.e Rovio and Google. The game can be cached and can be played offline as well. New game levels called Chrome Dimension added specially for Chrome.
With all these incredible announcements it has been a very wild and amazing ride for the last 2 days and it seems Google is really about to change something in this year’s I/O conference. We all have to wait till 6th June when Apple’s WWDC (world wide developers conference) will start. With no iPhone release set for this years WWDC let’s see what Apple has to offer in its developers conference. I am pretty sure Apple’s latest OS X - Lion will be among the many things Apple will share with all of us. I am already excited and I hope so are all of you.
Rajaratnam guilty on all 14 counts
Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty on all the 14 charges (9 for insider trading + 5 for fraud). The jury came out with the verdict today in NYC. This is surely a good news and hope this will help send the message to the people who are still involved in this heinous act of making money and taking the undue advantage of their knowledge and power. After the final sentencing which is due for the 29th June, Raj could face up to 15 – 19 years of prison time.
Raj was accused of making around $63 million by practicing insider trading. He not only gained confidence of the people who helped him in this fraud but also made them the part of it. Not sure what will happen to the others who helped him in this job. Raj is originally from Sri Lanka and had earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of the brightest and most educated on the street but again he felt helpless when it greed overtook him and now like others common criminals he is waiting for the final sentencing. The lawyers of Raj will file for the appeal and we need to wait to see the results for the same, but as of now the odds are not in the favor of Raj and he knows that.
Raj was accused of making around $63 million by practicing insider trading. He not only gained confidence of the people who helped him in this fraud but also made them the part of it. Not sure what will happen to the others who helped him in this job. Raj is originally from Sri Lanka and had earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of the brightest and most educated on the street but again he felt helpless when it greed overtook him and now like others common criminals he is waiting for the final sentencing. The lawyers of Raj will file for the appeal and we need to wait to see the results for the same, but as of now the odds are not in the favor of Raj and he knows that.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Google I/O 2011 - Day 1 (Cloud music service announced)
The fourth Google I/O 2011 kicked off today in San Francisco and it will be a 2 day event. Google I/O is the annual community meeting for the developers of Google and Android from around the World. The highlights of day 1 is as mentioned below. I put down these highlight so you don’t have to go through the live blog. So far this years highlights seems pretty cool and here they are for your eyes only:
• All the numbers are on world wide basis. 100 million Android activation in 2011. 36 OEMs (original equipmets manufacturers), 215 carriers & 450K developers are now the part of the Android family. Around 400,000 devices getting activated per day. 200,000 available apps and 4.5 billion apps download.
• Devices running Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) can be used as hosts. Increased usb devices support including game controllers.
• Google TV will be getting Android 3.1 this summer and the developers will be able to create apps for it.
• Android Ice Cream sandwich is the new version of Android. This one OS will fuel – Phones, convertible Laptops and tablets. It will have enhanced UI (User interface) for better performance and will be releasing sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. The main purpose of Google is to put an end to the fragmentation of Android and hopefully this will be the first step towards it.
• Android market homepage (market.android.com) now have instant movies for streaming. More bad news for Netflix. This functionality is same as using Netflix with the starting price of $1.99 and HD for $4.99. You’ve got 24 hours to complete the movie (well that sucks).
• This is the big one – Music Beta by Google is the cloud service from Google for which many of us were waiting. This makes Google number 2 in launching the cloud music service just behind Amazon who launced the service couple of months back. Now Apple will be under pressure to release their own cloud based music service. Visit this link to explore more. Android phones will have the app for this and any device running Android 2.2+ can download this app today.
• Android Open Accessory announced which supports Android 2.4.3 & 3.1
• Launch of ADK – the reference hardware design. It can be used to control hardware using your Android device via usb and hopefully bluetooth in future.
• Android@Home is something new which Google is trying where you are in control of the appliances at home like dishwasher, lamps etc and can fiddle around with home devices via Android devices. It seems home automation gets the attention of Google and it is now upto the developers to make it a house hold name. Lighting science which is the part of Android@Home will start selling the Android controlled lights by the end of this year. So far no pricing mentioned for this.
It is one hell of a show put up by Google and its Android team and we all have to wait to see what Google has in store for day 2 of the I/O conference. Impressive so far.
• All the numbers are on world wide basis. 100 million Android activation in 2011. 36 OEMs (original equipmets manufacturers), 215 carriers & 450K developers are now the part of the Android family. Around 400,000 devices getting activated per day. 200,000 available apps and 4.5 billion apps download.
• Devices running Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) can be used as hosts. Increased usb devices support including game controllers.
• Google TV will be getting Android 3.1 this summer and the developers will be able to create apps for it.
• Android Ice Cream sandwich is the new version of Android. This one OS will fuel – Phones, convertible Laptops and tablets. It will have enhanced UI (User interface) for better performance and will be releasing sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. The main purpose of Google is to put an end to the fragmentation of Android and hopefully this will be the first step towards it.
• Android market homepage (market.android.com) now have instant movies for streaming. More bad news for Netflix. This functionality is same as using Netflix with the starting price of $1.99 and HD for $4.99. You’ve got 24 hours to complete the movie (well that sucks).
• This is the big one – Music Beta by Google is the cloud service from Google for which many of us were waiting. This makes Google number 2 in launching the cloud music service just behind Amazon who launced the service couple of months back. Now Apple will be under pressure to release their own cloud based music service. Visit this link to explore more. Android phones will have the app for this and any device running Android 2.2+ can download this app today.
• Android Open Accessory announced which supports Android 2.4.3 & 3.1
• Launch of ADK – the reference hardware design. It can be used to control hardware using your Android device via usb and hopefully bluetooth in future.
• Android@Home is something new which Google is trying where you are in control of the appliances at home like dishwasher, lamps etc and can fiddle around with home devices via Android devices. It seems home automation gets the attention of Google and it is now upto the developers to make it a house hold name. Lighting science which is the part of Android@Home will start selling the Android controlled lights by the end of this year. So far no pricing mentioned for this.
It is one hell of a show put up by Google and its Android team and we all have to wait to see what Google has in store for day 2 of the I/O conference. Impressive so far.
Review: Wall Street (the movie - 1987)
Usually I don’t watch any movie during the weekdays or in this case weeknights, but when I was pressed hard by my office buddy with whom I share the same passion for business I could not say no to him. My friend loaned me the DVD copy of `Wall Street` and he told me it is a must watch and I had to watch it last night as that copy belongs to the library and had to be returned the following day.
So what was my initial reaction after watching this classic master piece by Oliver Stone? Well in first place I cursed myself that I am watching Wall Street after almost 24 years of its release. That is correct Wall Street was released in 1987 and till date it is a must watch for business enthusiasts. So what makes Wall Street a must watch? One for sure is the pretty tough dialogue delivery, rock solid script, fantastic direction and some extraordinary acting skills portrayed by most of the actors.
No doubt the movie belongs to Michael Douglas who played Gordon Gekko, the chain smoking, shrewd, cunning and audacious investor for whom happiness, sadness, family, relationships and life revolve around just one and only one thing and that is money. I believe this is one of the best movies of Michael Douglas and his acting in Wall Street have made him won the best Oscar for the actor in a leading role in 1988. Charlie Sheen played Bud Fox who wants to climb the success ladder and is looking for a short cut and someone like Gordon Gekko to help him achieve his dreams. Gordon keeps Bud under his wings and with that started the act of corporate espionage, deception and greed.
In the form of dialogues there are some very powerful quotes from the famous military strategy book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The Art of War is a must read for an MBA aspirant a matter of fact and I am pretty sure you won’t regret reading it. Moreover after watching Wall Street I came to know that insider trading is as old as the street. From Gordon Gekko to Raj Rajaratnam insider trading has many disciples and it lures the money hungry investors forever.
If you haven’t watch the Wall Street, watch it as it is a must watch. Viewers discretion is advised as when someone is trying to depict the inside world of the Wall Street there had to be drugs and nudity and of course greed, tons and tons of it.
Here is the small speech (promoting greed) that Gordon Gekko gives at the Teldar Paper stockholder's meeting in the movie:
The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.
Look all around and we all will find many who got inspired by this speech. This is how the street works and this is how it will keep working. As Gordon Gekko says and I feel it has somehow become the motto of the Wall Street `Greed is Good`. Taking present times into consideration I somehow distorted it to `Greed is God`. Now thats better and you know what, the street is nodding.
So what was my initial reaction after watching this classic master piece by Oliver Stone? Well in first place I cursed myself that I am watching Wall Street after almost 24 years of its release. That is correct Wall Street was released in 1987 and till date it is a must watch for business enthusiasts. So what makes Wall Street a must watch? One for sure is the pretty tough dialogue delivery, rock solid script, fantastic direction and some extraordinary acting skills portrayed by most of the actors.
No doubt the movie belongs to Michael Douglas who played Gordon Gekko, the chain smoking, shrewd, cunning and audacious investor for whom happiness, sadness, family, relationships and life revolve around just one and only one thing and that is money. I believe this is one of the best movies of Michael Douglas and his acting in Wall Street have made him won the best Oscar for the actor in a leading role in 1988. Charlie Sheen played Bud Fox who wants to climb the success ladder and is looking for a short cut and someone like Gordon Gekko to help him achieve his dreams. Gordon keeps Bud under his wings and with that started the act of corporate espionage, deception and greed.
In the form of dialogues there are some very powerful quotes from the famous military strategy book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The Art of War is a must read for an MBA aspirant a matter of fact and I am pretty sure you won’t regret reading it. Moreover after watching Wall Street I came to know that insider trading is as old as the street. From Gordon Gekko to Raj Rajaratnam insider trading has many disciples and it lures the money hungry investors forever.
If you haven’t watch the Wall Street, watch it as it is a must watch. Viewers discretion is advised as when someone is trying to depict the inside world of the Wall Street there had to be drugs and nudity and of course greed, tons and tons of it.
Here is the small speech (promoting greed) that Gordon Gekko gives at the Teldar Paper stockholder's meeting in the movie:
The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.
Look all around and we all will find many who got inspired by this speech. This is how the street works and this is how it will keep working. As Gordon Gekko says and I feel it has somehow become the motto of the Wall Street `Greed is Good`. Taking present times into consideration I somehow distorted it to `Greed is God`. Now thats better and you know what, the street is nodding.
Microsoft bought Skype (It is official)
Microsoft in its biggest tech deal ever bought the internet telephony company Skype for $8.5 billion in cash. At $8.5 billion Skype seems to be overvalued by a long shot but looking into the desparation of Microsoft it seems $8.5 billion is just peanuts. Microsoft will now try to embed Skype in its gaming platform and soon there will be some functionality which will become the part of the XBOX and the Kinect gaming systems. Skype will also be integrated in the new Windows Phone 7 and hopefully Microsoft will try to make a impressive impression in that field as well.
Various versions of Skype which currently supports iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android phones will continue to support its existing customers and this has been confirmed by Steve Ballmer. Finally it is good to know that there is still some passion left in Microsoft apart from adding to its Windows platform and its iterations. All the proceedings of this merger will be completed by the end of this year. Well good luck to Microsoft with that. It seems when it comes to M&As (Merger & Accusitions) there is still a lot to happen in the tech industry.
Various versions of Skype which currently supports iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android phones will continue to support its existing customers and this has been confirmed by Steve Ballmer. Finally it is good to know that there is still some passion left in Microsoft apart from adding to its Windows platform and its iterations. All the proceedings of this merger will be completed by the end of this year. Well good luck to Microsoft with that. It seems when it comes to M&As (Merger & Accusitions) there is still a lot to happen in the tech industry.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Apple: World's most valuable brand (beats Google)
I tried not to write more about Apple but I guess we all feel helpless and just cannot overlook the achievements of this great organization. I guess every single day there is some news or the other about this giant which is proliferated beyond imagination. Recently Apple became the most valuable brand in world beating Google which was on the top spot for the last 4 years.
Here are the top 10 brands in world (courtesy BrandZ)
Apple valued at $153 billion saw a surge of 84% since last year and easily beat all its competetiors by a substantial margin. The brand evaulation is done by BrandZ and the very informative PDF can be found here. Check the PDF to see the top 100 brands in the world and how the brands are valued. I hope good news keeps on flowing for Apple.
So what is next in line for Apple? I guess iCloud which will be the cloud music service offered by Apple. Though not officially released but hopefully this will be the next big announcement we all are waiting for. As per the market predictions, Apple will launch the service soon and something should happen in the coming few weeks. What a way to start the summer…bring it on.
Here are the top 10 brands in world (courtesy BrandZ)
Apple valued at $153 billion saw a surge of 84% since last year and easily beat all its competetiors by a substantial margin. The brand evaulation is done by BrandZ and the very informative PDF can be found here. Check the PDF to see the top 100 brands in the world and how the brands are valued. I hope good news keeps on flowing for Apple.
So what is next in line for Apple? I guess iCloud which will be the cloud music service offered by Apple. Though not officially released but hopefully this will be the next big announcement we all are waiting for. As per the market predictions, Apple will launch the service soon and something should happen in the coming few weeks. What a way to start the summer…bring it on.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
GMAT Update: G-Mode
I will not blame anyone except myself for the ordeal I am facing with the GMAT. Somehow for the past 1 year I am not coming in the G-Mode (GMAT mode) to prepare myself and sit for the exam. 1 year is a long period of time and somehow I need to beat this 500 pound gorilla (which we all call GMAT) in order to start my MBA journey. As of now all I can say is I am not prepared for the GMAT which I have scheduled for the 21st of May. I will reschedule the GMAT and plan to give it sometime in the next 3 months. It is now or never for me as time pressure is building. The days are flying making it an uphill task to complete my dream of getting an MBA. Hopefully this is will be the last time I need to reschedule the GMAT as I have decided no more rescheduling. I have also decided that I will give the GMAT in another 3 months no matter what and if the scores are not in the desired range then I will retake it. Sounds like a plan.
If you are in the same boat make sure you prepare for the GMAT and give it ASAP. Delaying things will make matter worse and this holds good for anything. Good Luck to me and to all preparing for the GMAT. It is time for me to clean the dust from my books and tune myself to the G-Mode.
If you are in the same boat make sure you prepare for the GMAT and give it ASAP. Delaying things will make matter worse and this holds good for anything. Good Luck to me and to all preparing for the GMAT. It is time for me to clean the dust from my books and tune myself to the G-Mode.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Heal the World
Justice has been served after almost 10 years (since Sep 11, 2001) and things are looking pretty good on the proceedings on the war on terror. One of the most wanted man on the Earth (OBL) has been killed by the US special forces. This has been one of the most important US military raids of all times and it surely will bring in peace and joy to the people of the world and to all the humanity. All praise goes out to the President Obama who kept his promise to bring down the terror network and sure he delivered what he promised. Tons of explanation lies ahead for the people of Pakistan as according to CNN this operation happened like 1,000 yards from the Pakistan military compound – WTH. I guess US should learn from the incidents like this as US has spend billions in Pakistan to help capture OBL but in the end US armed forces has completed this arduous mission all by themselves.
On this day my heart goes out to all the people who are the victims of terror and has lost their lives and their loved ones at the atrocities of terror. This will be the dawn of the new era and hopefully things will become better from now on.
On this day my heart goes out to all the people who are the victims of terror and has lost their lives and their loved ones at the atrocities of terror. This will be the dawn of the new era and hopefully things will become better from now on.
Illinois Marathon 2011
More than 18,000 runners and 3,000 voluteers makes the `Illinois Marathon 2011` one hell of a event. This is one of the biggest Marathons of the mid west and fun to be the part of. Me and wife ran the 5K on 29th April (our first official run as far as marathons are concerned) and I must admit it is totally worth it. The Illinois Marathon brings in around $10 million to the Champaign county which itself explains the substantial size of this event. If you are a runner and intrested then the next Illinois Marathon will be happening in 2012 in the last week of April (26 - 28th). The registration will be opening from July 2011 and the details for the same can be found out here.
Out of the two things I planned out for this year, one thing is surely happening and that is my running and the efforts towards it. The next big thing will be preparation towards my GMAT and I will try to accomplish that as well.
Summer is almost here so put on your running shoes and start running………
Out of the two things I planned out for this year, one thing is surely happening and that is my running and the efforts towards it. The next big thing will be preparation towards my GMAT and I will try to accomplish that as well.
Summer is almost here so put on your running shoes and start running………
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