Dynamite the Levees: Amazon’s Triple Threat to Undercut the Consumer Biz

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduces a new tablet called the Amazon Fire at an Amazon.com event in New York, NY on Wednesday Sept. 28, 2011. Photo: Victor J. Blue/ Wired.com

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduces a new tablet called the Amazon Fire at an Amazon.com event in New York, NY on Wednesday Sept. 28, 2011. Photo: Victor J. Blue/ Wired.com

NEW YORK — The advantage traditional paper-based media has always had over electronic media is that the consumer doesn’t have to bear the cost of the technology up front. If you buy a book or a magazine, the technology that enables its production and transmission is already built in.

The cost of the device can turn an electronic media gadget into a prestige device, like Apple’s iPod or iPad. But it’s nevertheless a hurdle for customers. $500 for an iPad or $400 for the first-generation Kindle is a lot of cash to drop for folks who want to read. It’s also a levee bottling up a torrent of content that can be sold and delivered over those devices.

With Amazon’s new $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G, and $199 Kindle Fire, Amazon dynamites that levee. The devices aren’t free, but they’re so much cheaper than comparable products on the market that they will likely sell millions of copies and many more millions of books, television shows, movies, music and apps.

The digital divide between haves and have-nots just potentially got a lot smaller.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the four new devices at a New York press conference on Wednesday morning. He seemed delighted to begin with the surprise new Kindles, and slow-play the long-awaited tablet — which dropped at a price much lower than most analysts earlier this week had guessed.

“Four years ago, we set out to improve upon the book,” Bezos said. The first iteration of the Kindle was greeted with skepticism, Bezos says, even from thoughtful, well-meaning people, who noted that Amazon had to create demand not only for the device, but for the content that fills the device. Unlike Apple — which benefited from Napster and CD-ripping to popularize MP3s — Amazon had to make e-books popular, too.

“Kindle is an end-to-end service,” Bezos said. Amazon not only sells books, but delivers them directly to users’ devices and stores them free of charge in the cloud. And it delivers and syncs those books anywhere, not only to Amazon’s own devices, but to software running on computers and phones and tablets, including some of Amazon’s competitors.

Kindle Touch is a new e-Ink device with an infrared touch display, similar to some of the technology used by Barnes & Noble, Sony or Kobo. But it costs a lot less: just $99 for the basic model with Wi-Fi, or $149 for the Kindle Touch 3G with free unlimited mobile connectivity. (Kudos to Amazon for keeping unlimited global mobile alive!)

The Kindle Touch also features an in-depth search index called X-Ray. Books include a built-in index — really a kind of mini-encyclopedic side file — that keys in to notable phrases and characters in the book. It’s backed up by Amazon subsidiary Shelfari, but it doesn’t live within the cloud: it’s stored locally and paired with the e-book file itself.

Don’t worry if you love the old Kindle and don’t care about touchscreens. “We have many customers who expressly tell us they don’t want touch,” Bezos says. So Amazon is also delivering a brand new Kindle — lighter, thinner, with faster guts inside — without a touchscreen, but a five-way navigator and page-turn buttons for $79. This new Kindle (Kindle 4?) is shipping today. Amazon is also pairing this Kindle’s Special Offers ads with Amazon Local, for local deals, not just coupons for stuff to buy at Amazon.com.

The Kindle Fire tablet, though, is the star of this show, because it leverages everything Amazon offers, from its multimedia sales to Amazon Prime streaming video service and free two-day shipping and Amazon’s industry-standard cloud infrastructure.

Quick hardware specs for the Kindle Fire: 14.6 ounces, dual-core processor, 7″ multi-touch IPS (i.e. infrared) LCD screen. What it’s missing: camera, GPS, 3G. It also has only 8 gigabytes of storage. But that’s a moot point: It’s a cloud-driven tablet.

Bezos took the opportunity to take a shot at Apple, pointing out the benefits of Amazon’s instant, wireless WhisperSync against a photograph of Apple’s iconic USB cable. WhisperSync now works just like Amazon books (or Netflix’s ability to hold your place); watch a video on the Kindle Fire, and you can pick it up at the same place on your Amazon VOD-enabled TV or set-top box.

Video isn’t the only draw of Kindle Fire over the mainstream e-readers. It also has Silk, a web browser leveraged by Amazon’s EC2 cloud processing power. Bezos calls it “a split browser.” It promises to use that extra computation power to do all of the DNS, TCP/IP, interactions, etc., on the back-end to make Silk much, much faster than competing mobile browsers. It also stores, reformats and compresses common instances of over-sized media designed for the desktop for faster mobile delivery. An Amazon engineer calls it “a limitless cache” to optimize the last-mile delivery between the web and the tablet.

And yes: Silk runs Flash.

Amazon’s unveiled a family of devices that stays true to its mission of bringing digital reading and media devices to as many people as possible. Now we have to see just how this market can grow.

Playing With Fire: Amazon Launches $200 Tablet, Slashes Kindle Prices

One year ago, almost to the day, Jeff Bezos gave me the reason why people should carry around a Kindle in the age of the iPad. No Angry Birds.

“The number one app for the iPad when I checked a couple of days ago was called Angry Birds — a game where you throw birds at pigs and they blow up,” Bezos told me in September 2010. “The number one thing on the Kindle is Stieg Larsson. It’s a different audience. We’re designing for people who want to read.”

Today at a New York City press event Amazon is releasing a $199 color 7-inch tablet device called Fire. It plays Angry Birds.
“Nobody is expecting that we’re coming out with a $79 Kindle!” –Jeff Bezos

No, Amazon is not giving up on people who mainly want to read. Bezos also unveiled a new e-book reader called the Kindle Touch. It uses the same high-density “pearl” e-ink as the previous Kindle, but you can swipe your finger on the page to turn the screen, type on an on-screen keyboard that otherwise slumbers while you snuggle in with Jennifer Egan or Neal Stephenson. It costs $149 with Amazon Whispernet mobile connectivity and only $99 for the Wi-Fi version. They ship on Nov. 21.

There’s also a new Kindle where you turn pages with the traditional side buttons. It’s slimmer and lighter — under six ounces — because there’s no physical keyboard. It costs only $79, and is available now. Bezos can’t contain his excitement at this. “At $79, it’s really going to blow people away,” Bezos told me in Seattle last week when he shared a glimpse of his new line of devices. “Nobody is expecting that we’re coming out with a $79 Kindle!”

All the new e-ink Kindles have an innovative feature called X-Ray. When you download a book on an e-ink Kindle you automatically receive a second file with information about the characters and settings of the book. The sources include Wikipedia and an Amazon-owned company book-related social service called Shelfari. It’s a welcome means to quickly figure out whether an unfamiliar character had appeared a few chapters earlier.



But Fire is the hottest of the bunch, because it marks Amazon’s media assault on the sizzling category of tablet computing. Ever since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, a slew of competitors ranging from HP to Samsung have tried to come up with their own tablets. It’s been like the Charge of the Light Brigade as one after another get sent out to the slaughter. None of them are as good as the iPad and they generally cost as much or more.

With a groundbreakingly cheap, small, even simpler tablet — and a powerful inventory of books, movies, television shows and digital tunes to fire up — Amazon is a more formidable foe. Its goal is not selling hardware, but selling the media that runs on the device. Amazon, he says, now has a $15 billion media business — most recently it inked a deal with Fox for movies and television shows. “It’s not just books,” he says. “It’s music, games, software, it’s a bunch of different things.” Now it has a platform to play those songs, games, and apps.

Bezos sees the Fire as a machine that could make Amazon’s media services — some of which have lagged behind those of Apple, Netflix and others — as powerful as the Kindle has made it in books. The elements of Fire, he says, involve many services that Amazon has built in its 15-year history. Besides media, Fire involves its popular $79-a-year Amazon Prime service that allows customers free shipping, and the company’s quietly powerful Amazon Web Services infrastructure, which does computing for a huge number of internet companies, including even its competitor Netflix.

As with the Kindle, the Fire is not a shiny trigger for technolust. And it lacks some of the features of the iPad and other tablets. No camera. No GPS. Not even 3G. And only 8 gigabytes of storage.

But it is designed to do its job very well. Bezos insists that people not see Fire as a standalone device, but part of an integrated media service. “That’s why the Kindle has been successful,” he says. Like the original Kindle, the Fire arrives knowing who you are by your Amazon account — you’re ready to buy stuff. Weighing 14.6 ounces, it’s the size of a DVD case, and its seven-inch LCD screen shows movies sharply. It’s powered by a dual-core TI OMAP 4 chip. If you are one of millions who belong to Amazon Prime, you can stream from the reasonable if not totally satisfying (11,000 videos) collection of movies and TV shows for free. (Fire purchasers who are not Prime members get a one-month free tryout.) New software organizes music, which you can buy or upload to Amazon via its cloud music service.

Bezos takes special pride in the Fire’s speedy web browser, dubbed “Silk” because that substance is almost invisible yet really strong. The Fire uses a home-grown technology called “split browsing.” Because of Amazon’s advanced data centers, the company can handle some of the heavy digital lifting on time-consuming processes like loading web pages — before it sends the data off to the device itself. It gets a further boost because many popular sites use Amazon’s cloud services, allowing for greater efficiency. This enables Silk to run much faster than other tablet browsers.

Oh, and it also runs Flash. Take that, iPad.

Of course, because Fire runs on a modified version of the Android mobile operating system, Amazon has access to thousands of apps. Even though Amazon has made Fire simpler to use, it has taken care to make sure that you’ll have your Angry Birds.

“You can think of Android in two pieces,” says Bezos, citing what the user sees and what the developer has to deal with. “Android is simpler and easier to use in terms of user interface,” he says. “But our goal is to keep Android easy for developers — if they write an app, we’re going to work hard to make sure it’ll run on this device, but we’re going to — on the consumer-facing piece, you know — we’re starting with Android and making it simpler.”

Clearly Amazon is betting that there’s a big market for people who want tablets mostly for media and browsing — and don’t want to pay $500. But even if the Fire doesn’t give iPad a hotfoot, it will probably have a big impact on Amazon’s other competitors. Barnes and Noble, which had been feeling good about how recent versions of the Nook were arguably slicker than the now-outdated Kindles, is now outflanked by a more versatile color device and a very affordable e-reader.

Possibly the biggest loser today is not Apple, but Netflix. Just as its customers are outraged at higher pricing of Netflix streaming (and furious that the DVD business has been offloaded to a new subsidiary), here’s Amazon offering a nifty device with an even better price: $79 a year. And there are millions of people who pay for Amazon Prime who don’t even know they’re getting free video streaming. If Amazon builds up the inventory — and it certainly has the bucks and the clout to do this — it will be the logical place for disaffected Netflixsters to land after storming out of Reed Hastings’ house in a huff.

Still the introduction of Fire — which will ship November 15 — introduces a contradiction. For years, Bezos has been touting the virtues of e-ink for reading. Now he is introducing the first in what will probably be many back-lit, heavier Amazon devices. Which gadget will people choose?

Bezos has an answer. “They’re going to buy both,” he says.

But if that happens, who will stop playing Angry Birds long enough to read a book on the Kindle?

Amazon Announces the Kindle Fire for $199

 

Amazon announced today that they will be shipping on November 15th the Kindle Fire with a 7 inch color multi-touch screen for $199 dollars. With all the speculation it looks like they delivered on their promise of a highly functional reader complete with access to the web, ebooks, apps, music, and streaming video. At $199 dollars they will carve out a niche for those consumers who were waiting on the sideline to jump into purchasing a tablet of their own. The Kindle Fire will be powered by a dual core processor and host a multi-touch screen (7" multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors) and come standard with Wi-Fi and a USB 2.0 Micro-B connector along with a the built-in Amazon Silk browser for fast web surfacing. The Kindle Fire is reported to be able to run for 8 hours on a full charge and can be charged with the wall AC Adapter or via a USB connection to a computer. The Kindle Fire will ship with has a native email client that can support Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc. Of course you will have access to the entire Amazon collection of music, videos, apps, and music which you can purchase for their store. This looks like the Amazon Kindle Fire will hit that sweet spot for a powerful but easy to use device that can serve as portable tool when we are away from our desks. For now the Kindle Fire only support Wi-Fi, but I would imagine if it is a success in the marketplace that we will see a 3G version as well. From the likes of it, it doesn't look like the Kindle Fire supports Bluetooth- but I will have to delve into that a little more. Amazon has put on their boxing gloves and looks to be in for the long haul as they position the Kindle Fire as an alternative to Apple's iPad. At a price point of $199 dollars the Kindle Fire is sure to be a winner for consumers. The Kindle Fire can be pre-ordered now from Amazon for a mid November delivery.

Flickr launches Android app, real-time photo sharing

Flickr announced its first official Android app today. (Credit: Yahoo)

SAN FRANCISCO--Yahoo today unveiled the first official Android Flickr app, as well as a new feature that will allow users of its popular photo service to quickly and easily share pictures in real time with family and friends.

Released at a press event here that was meant to highlight part of Yahoo's overall mobile strategy, the new Android Flickr app is the first Yahoo has released, although developers have already built dozens for both Google's and Apple's mobile operating systems. There is already an official iOS app.




The new Flickr Android app gives users the ability to see their own photos, albums, and photostream, as well as that of friends and contacts. (Credit: Yahoo)

Within the new Android app, users will be able to access all their own photos, as well as their albums and contacts. They can see activity streams, and photos that friends have uploaded.

In addition, Flickr developed its own camera experience that is built into the app. It has a custom viewfinder that allows a user to select different photo ratios, and lets him quickly name new photos and add metadata. The app also automatically appends geolocation data. Any new photograph taken inside the app can be instantly and automatically uploaded to Flickr, and can also be sent to other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, by clicking a check box.

Photo Session
In addition to its new Android app, Flickr also unveiled its new Photo Session feature, which is intended to replicate the traditional way that people would show others pictures from vacations or of their kids or pets. But instead of requiring that everyone be in a room together, Photo Session is meant to make it possible to share such experiences regardless of where anyone is.

It works, said Eileen Hiromura, the product manager for Photo Session, by generating a unique URL that a Flickr user can then send to up to 10 friends or family members. Once they click on the URL, those people can then join a group viewing of an album.




Flickr unveiled Photo Session, a feature that makes it possible for users to share photos with friends and family in real time. (Credit: Yahoo)

The idea here is that the person who generated the session controls how those he or she shared it with see the pictures. So, as that person moves from photo to photo in the album, others taking part in the session will see the same progression. The feature works on computers, iPads, and iPhones. The URL lasts for 24 hours.

Photo Session also lets others who are partaking in an album viewing to make modifications to photos--such as drawing on them--that are instantly seen by everyone involved. And anyone invited to join a Photo Session group can also choose to browse the photos at their own leisure rather than look at them at the speed chosen by the photos' owner. If they want, they can then re-join the group whenever they want.




Photo Session will allow anyone participating in a group to modify photos. Everyone else in the session will see the modifications, such as drawings. (Credit: Yahoo)

Flickr lead product manager Markus Spiering suggested that it's not entirely clear when users will create new Photo Sessions, but said it's likely that people who want to ensure friends and family members will be available to join a group together will contact those people in advance of sending out the session invitation.

Yahoo's eight mobile pillars
Flickr's announcements today were part of what Yahoo head of communications and community products Steve Douty said was the company's newly defined eight mobile strategic pillars.

Those pillars are, Douty said, delivering personal, quality content; a three-screen approach that brings Yahoo content in a seamless fashion to users' tablets, mobile phones, and computers; creating app-enhanced experiences; creating social and local scenarios that take advantage of what Yahoo knows about its users; creating continuous conversations between users irrespective of what kind of device they're using; sharing companion experiences with friends and family across devices; doing a better job of monetizing the company's mobile base via better mobile ads and commerce; and lastly, building new partner-friendly capabilities.

DOJ asks Google for more data about Motorola deal

Google today acknowledged receiving a so-called "second request" from the Justice Department for information as it considers the search giant's plans to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.


Google made the disclosure in a blog post this afternoon, saying the request was for "more information" in order to continue the review.

"While this means we won't be closing right away, we're confident that the DOJ will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile ecosystem will remain highly competitive after this deal closes," Google Senior Vice President Dennis Woodside wrote in the post. "We'll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review."

The move is likely to prolong, and could potentially complicate, the review process.

Woodside dismissed the request as "pretty routine." And he pointed to a previous second request that Google received a year ago, shortly after it announced plans to acquire travel data provider ITA Software.

But while the Justice Department ultimately approved Google's acquisition of ITA, the agency compelled Google to agree to certain conduct. Regulators required Google to continue licensing ITA's travel technology to rivals for five years on "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" terms, and forward to the agency any complaints the company receives from travel competitors upset about where they land in Google's search rankings.

Moreover, second requests are perhaps less routine than Woodside suggests. According to The Wall Street Journal, about 4 percent of all deals last year received a second request from U.S. antitrust agencies.

In a regulatory filing, Motorola acknowledged receiving a second request as well.

"The companies intend to cooperate fully and respond expeditiously to the DOJ," the company wrote in its filing. "The transaction is currently expected to close by the end of 2011 or in early 2012."

There seemed little doubt that regulators would look closely at the deal when it was announced last month. The Federal Trade Commission began an antitrust investigation into the search giant's business in June. And a week prior to the announcement of the Motorola deal, the Journal reported that the FTC was including Google's Android mobile operating system in that investigation over concerns that the company was preventing handset makers from using rival technology.

Just last week, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt faced tough questions at a Senate hearing looking into the company's business tactics.

"We know that close scrutiny is part of the process and we've been talking to the U.S. Department of Justice over the past few weeks," Woodside wrote in his post.

It seems likely that those conversations will continue for a bit longer than Google might otherwise have hoped.

Samsung launches Galaxy R Android 2.3 and Tegra 2

Samsung yesterday announced its newest Android phone, the Galaxy R. The naming scheme makes sense phones after they discover their technical specifications and realizes that he is a little less advanced than the S Galaxy II.

Nevertheless, as you can see from the pictures above, it is not so different. The design is basically the same, except the outline of the camera and back. But the similarities stop at design. Unlike his brother S II, Galaxy R comes with an LCD screen of 19.4 inches with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. He also has a 5 megapixel back camera with flash, front camera of 2 megapixels, comes with 8 GB of internal flash memory and runs Android 2.3. 

The Tegra processor is one with a 2 GHz clock. And as it is the family of NVIDIA, the company managed a unit of Galaxy R and made a video demonstrating some of the features of it, which you can check below.

Google Nexus Prime with Android 4.0 await in October

According to a report from BGR, Google nexus prime smart phone third self branded android device will lunch this October 2011. Sources have confirmed that the original report came from electronic times.

Electronic times had professed that, Google’s Nexus Prime is the first smart phone to be prepared with the Android 4.0 operating system, the fans excited about the new version of the Android operating system, and it looks impressive.

Google Nexus Prime Detailed specifications:

* 1.5GHz Exynos dual-core processor
* 4.65-inche display
* Super AMOLED HD screen
* 1280x720 - resolution
* 1GB RAM
* OS: Android 2.4.1
* 16GB internal memory
* 8MP camera
* Battery: 2000mAh
* Weight: 130-140g  

U.S. government concerned at hacking of Japan arms firms

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday expressed concern about recent cyber attacks on defense contractors in Japan, which build U.S.-designed missiles, warships and military aircraft, calling for the attacks to be taken seriously.

Experts speculated that the cyber assaults announced this week, the first on Japan's defense industry, may have included the Stuxnet computer virus which has been described as a guided cyber missile which targets industrial control systems.

"Cyber security must be a public-sector priority," U.S. embassy spokeswoman Karen Kelley said.

One industry source said Washington has been pressuring Japan to step up security against cyber assaults.

The attacks on Japan's top defense contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds F-15 fighter jets, Patriot missiles and nuclear reactor parts, and on other contractors, may have come from a nation state, some experts said.

Mitsubishi Heavy is also involved in the development of a ship-launched surface-to-air missile designed for the U.S. ballistic missile shield and is therefore privy to highly-sensitive weapons technology.

Similar attacks earlier this year, which included one on the U.S. defense industry, were said to have originated in China. Chinese authorities denied having anything to do with those or the latest ones reported in Japan.

Japan's defense industry, supplied by a slew of small and medium-size firms with key technologies, is seen as particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks.

"Many of these small firms could have been hacked in the past, without anyone noticing," Kobe University Professor Masakatsu Morii said.

Computers at Mitsubishi Heavy, Japan's biggest weapons maker, were subject to an online assault in August. The company,

which supplies over 20 percent of Japan's defense equipment, said that some network information, such as IP addresses, may have leaked.

An outside contractor is now checking to see if any sensitive data had been breached.

"I believe this is probably the first example of a Stuxnet attack in Japan," said Yoshiyasu Takefuji, a cyber-security expert at Keio University.

Mitsubishi Heavy said that it has so far found eight viruses, none of which were Stuxnet.

The Stuxnet computer worm, which some suspect was created by the United States and Israel, targets industrial control systems sold by Siemens and used widely in infrastructure including nuclear power generators, chemical factories, water distribution systems and pharmaceutical plants.

Mitsubishi Heavy delayed reporting the breach to the defense ministry, which may have been a violation of its military supply contracts.

A second Japanese military contractor, IHI Corp, which builds engine parts for fighter planes, said its employees had been subject to a growing number of suspicious e-mails which it had informed the police about.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a maker of airplanes, helicopters and rocket systems, has also been receiving virus-tainted e-mails, the company confirmed on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly, James Topham, Isabelle Reynolds and Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Michael Watson and Jonathan Thatcher)

Facebook finetunes news feeds from friends

Facebook on Tuesday began rolling out the latest in a rapid-fire series of enhancements to the leading social network as nascent rival Google+ opened its membership to the world.


Facebook's "News Feed" that streams updates from friends will give priority to important posts, images shared at the website will be displayed larger, and a "Ticker" chat column is being added for real-time conversations.

"As Mark (Zuckerberg) put it, this is launching season," Facebook product manager Keith Schacht told AFP while discussing the new features.

"This is an update we have been working on a long time, unrelated to anything else," Schacht responded when asked whether the launch of rival Google+ in June was a factor behind the recent barrage of Facebook features.

In recent weeks, Facebook has focused on ways for members to better control what information gets shared with whom.

Facebook last week began letting members follow strangers Twitter-style with the addition of "Subscribe" buttons that let people hear from people who aren't friends at the network, and share insights with strangers.

Facebook also began letting members be more selective about what kinds of updates from friends make it into their personal news feeds.

"Last week we announced (Smart) List and Subscribe, which were about more control of what members see in the News Feed," Schacht said. "Today, these changes are about letting people see the most important news."

If a Facebook user hasn't visited the social network for a few days, the news feed will prominently display significant posts from friends that may have been missed during that time away.

Someone who frequently checks their Facebook account will have recent happenings at the top of his or her news feed.

"If you didn't read the newspaper for three days, then on Day Four you pick up a newspaper how awesome would it be if the front page summarized the news from the past three days?" Schacht asked.

"Facebook will get better over time at understanding what is important to each person," he said. "If we are wrong, you can tell us."

The latest enhancement to photo viewing at Facebook increases the size of uploaded images. About 250 million photos are uploaded daily to the social network.

The new "Ticker" chat panel in a right-hand column on the screen allows people to engage in text chats focused on freshly uploaded images or other posts.

"News Feed is an historical view of what your friends have shared," Schacht said. "Ticker is about real-time exchanges with friends."

Facebook planned to begin rolling out the new features globally Tuesday and expected them to reach all of its more than 750 million users within a week.

More Facebook announcements are expected at the social network's annual developers conference taking place in San Francisco on Thursday.

The gathering will come just days after Google dropped the need for an invitation to join the Internet giant's challenge to Facebook, Google+.

"For the past 12 weeks we've been in field trial, and during that time we've listened and learned a great deal," Google senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said Tuesday.

"We're nowhere near done, but with the improvements we've made so far we're ready to move from field trial to beta... Anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about."

Fresh enhancements to Google+ included letting members take part in video-chat "Hangouts" using camera-enabled smartphones or tablet computers, or broadcast video presentations to groups of watchers using "Hangouts On Air."

Google said it has also woven its Internet search expertise into the social network by adding a query box.

Google+ combined aspects of Facebook and microblogging sensation Twitter, and promised users that sharing aspects of their lives at the social network would reflect levels of confidentiality granted in real life.

Google+ stresses the ability it gives users to separate online friends and family into different "Circles," or networks, and to share information only with members of a particular circle.

Google is hoping its billion users worldwide are drawn into the California-based Internet giant's social network.

Windows 7 will not boot right? Learn how to recover

Created with Windows Vista, Startup Repair is even better in Windows 7. This tool is able to correct certain errors that prevent your operating system to be initialized, which usually happens by the absence of errors or system files. The tool does not fix hardware failures, errors such as hard disk or incompatible memory.

Startup Repair is located in the "System Recovery Options", where there are several diagnostic and recovery tools, and is only accessed before initialization, also known as boot.

Step 1. Before accessing the menu "System Recovery Options" on the computer, remove all floppy disks, CDs and DVDs and restart using the on / off switch. If you are using a Tablet PC or a touch a computer, connect a keyboard.

Step 2. If your computer has only one operating system installed, press the F8 key while the computer is restarted, this before the Windows logo appears. If your computer has more than one operating system, use the keyboard arrows to select the operating system you want to repair, holding down the F8 key.

Step 3. On the "Advanced Boot Options", select "Repair your computer" and press Enter on your keyboard. (If "Repair your computer" is not listed as an option, you do not have the recovery options pre-installed or your network administrator has turned off).

Step 4. Select your keyboard layout and click "Next" (Next). From the "System Recovery Options", click "Startup Repair" and when the computer finishes checking and correction, restart. The fix has been successful if Windows starts normally, without errors




The following steps are only useful for those who need or prefer to recover using the Windows installation CD to repair the system. This will occur as needed when the computer is damaged to the point that you can not even access the menu "Options Windows Recovery."

Step 5. Insert the Windows installation disc. Restart your computer and watch the screen to boot from the CD. When prompted, press any key.

Step 6. After clicking on any key as requested in the previous step, you should get the screen of Windows Setup. Click on "Repair Computer".

Step 7. You will be directed to screen "System Recovery Options." Just select your language and click "next". Follow from Step 3, requesting a correction startup.

Step 8. The computer displays a screen with system errors recovered. After that, simply restart.

This is a rather useful and recommended when you encounter problems when you start Windows, but if these steps do not resolve, you probably need to format the drive and do a clean install of Windows , but worth a try. Always remember to keep up the backup of your most important files.

Facebook Posts depending on the location and population

Facebook has several options to control and own friends list, photos, biographies you have many options for privacy settings in your profile to ensure visibility in various areas of the profile control of the filter. Well now you can also choose who to show your Posts on Facebook.

In favor of the follower pages you admin, you can choose countries and places where people strength be clever to perceive a post. You can use these options for each update on Facebook. If the status area, click the lock icon and select Customize. Now You’ll have a privacy, with people you like, you can choose the face in particular. You can choose from pop, friends, friends of friends, or just a few. 

The selection of a particular person,lets you enter the names of your friends who will be able to see your post. You can also filter the e-mail from your friends.These characteristics of the target is also very useful for those areas. You can select post to users by country and language. Open the management page and click on the padlock before sending updates to the site. 

You can also set the city or province inside the countries where the post will be visible.  You can also direct users to a specific language. You can add languages that will filter the post only to the speakers of the language within your preferred location.

By customize your posts on your follower pages; you can simply object your particular products by country, constituency or languages.

SEO Tips - Tips for Visitors Blog

SEO Tips - Tips for Visitors Comfortable in Blogs - Blog Traffic is crucial for the blog. Blog traffic is important, so much the Blogger tries to get a lot of traffic. Traffic means visitors much more. You can buy traffic blogs, but you can not buy loyalty visitors to your blog. Traffic will come if you are smart enough in terms of search engine optimization or SEO is often called. 

Your blog visitors come because they feel have the benefit, comfort, friendliness and personal warmth. Traffic does not give a link to your blog, visitors to your blog with a link volunteer link to your blog. If visitors to your blog is so important, what can you do to entice him to keep it comfortable and come back again to visit your blog? 

Here are simple tips on how to captivate visitors to be comfortable and back again on your blog. 

1. Appreciate Your Blog Visitors 

If you want to captivate visitors of your blog, there is no other way except to appreciate your blog visitors. If your blog URLs of the home, then you URLs of blog visitors guest. Honor your guests. Be humble. Santunlah language. Courtesy does not mean identical with "EYD", which sometimes even too formal and rigid. Write your own style, although it is a style slang though, but get yourself to always be polite. Finally, do not ever brag to your blog visitors.

Points - Points: 

- Be humble 

- Use polite language 

- Do not ever brag

2. Give More on Your Blog Visitors 

Yes, give more. Of course not mean that should be money. Giving more can be providing blog content really useful. Something that can not be found on other blogs. Giving more can also be a good blog design with easy navigation. Examples Related Post , Breadcrumb Navigation , Numbered Page Navigation , etc.. And provide the necessary links for your blog visitors. Giving more can also be by simply changing your blog into Dofollow. How to change a Dofollow Blog . And if possible, provide incentives for free (eg in the form of e-book) to visitors of your blog. And if your blog Dofollow status already, give your blog visitors backlinks.

Points - Points: 

- Write content that is really helpful 

- Make your blog design "different" among other blogs and more professional look 

- Give your referral link that takes visitors to your blog 

- Give free e-book

- Give Backlink

3. Be a Good Friend 

When deciding to create a blog, you actually have decided to be friends even if only through the virtual world or cyberspace. Befriend through a column of comments on your blog. Wherever possible, comment on blog greet you with a polite language. I am often surprised to find blogs with a comment and that too without any reply. If indeed you want visitors to your blog again, greet each comment, then help your visitors if you have any questions, or even greet even if only by giving of thanks.

Points - Points: 

- Try as much as possible to reply to comments on your blog 

- Assist visitors to your blog if you have any questions

4. Greet visitors and Call Her name 

One adage that I like is the call of their name. And even then available for visitors to your blog. If you reply to a comment on your blog, make sure to write down the names of visitors who leave messages on your blog. Do not just with the greeting "Mas, Mbak, Om, Coy or Bro" Write the name correctly. If you appreciate the name of your blog visitors, in exchange for your blog visitors will appreciate you. 

Points - Points: 

- Write the name of your blog visitors to comment 

- Write the name correctly 

5. Visit Your Blog Owned New Friends 

Establish friendships in the online world (virtual world) is not different than in the offline world (real world). Giving, sharing and mutual respect are essential in both worlds. If anyone is visiting your blog and make comments, even though only one, try to visit and give comments back on his blog. Give only comments that are positive. Finally, try to visit them periodically according to the time you have. 

Points - Points: 

- Try to visit the blog to comment on your blog 

- Give comments that are positive 

- Visit regularly 

Once again, blogging is more than just data and numbers. Blogging is something real like in the real world. If you want to captivate visitors of your blog, there is no alternative but to treat it as human. Not just for enhancing "traffic". The more you understand and appreciate your blog visitors, the greater your appreciation to your blog visitors. 

How to Show Hidden Windows 7 Themes

One feature that is already widely known by users of Windows 7 is the Aero Theme. Microsoft offers the Aero Theme in accordance with the location where you live or called Aero Regional Themes. When you first install Windows 7, you will be asked to select the language, currency formats, and setting time of computer equipment.

Typically, most people chose Bahasa Indonesia (U.S.) as a regional default location of the computer device. This choice will also determine what the theme will be used as a default from the Windows 7. 

Actually, Aero Themes from other locations that are not selected as the default regional locations have also been installed on the computer. But most of us have never activate it. To enable Aero Theme from other regional locations, please follow the instructions and steps below:

1. Click the Start button menu. 

2. On the form or the Search box, type C: \ Windows \ Globalization \ MCT and then press Enter.

3. After that will open the Folder MCT. In Folder MCT, you will find some themes from other countries you've never use such as Australia (AU), Canada (CA), United Kingdom or Great Britain (UK), American or United States (U.S.) and South Africa. If Theme American or United States (U.S.), most of you already installed it. For in the Install Windows 7, most of you choose the language of Home (U.S.). So the theme is automatically installed.

4. Try to open each folder, you'll see a lot wallaper that can be selected and used as Desktop Background. In addition, the theme in this folder can also be directly installed into the Personalize the way, open the Themes folder is located at each regional folder, then open or click left twice an existing theme files in the folder. For example, such as Theme below.

5. Now all that is hidden regional themes can already be accessed through the Personalize menu on the desktop.

Search ranking guarantee?

Many SEO companies guarantee rankings often used as an enticement to attract leading businessmen eager to rank, which is the standard business practices, is understandable.

But the ranking can be guaranteed it?

Through the efforts of a number of SEO, is relatively unpopular industry or keyword is easier to guarantee. For popular keywords, such as cosmetic, such credit can only say that through the efforts of SEO can be relatively improved ranking, ranking ahead of possible increases.

Quoted the well-known U.S. search engine review site Search Engine Watch's executive editor Chris Sherman in March 2006 in Nanjing at the Search Engine Strategies (Search Engine Strategies Conference) words: through some effort you can enhance the site for free ranking, but the effect is not guaranteed. If you want to ensure that your search results appear to point of purchase access to paid keyword advertising it!

Google's own Web site point of view contained in the Webmaster Tools Help which also mentioned some highlights:

SEO can provide many important services, but there are some unethical SEO marketing tactics too aggressive, trying to unfair tactics to manipulate search engine results, SEO results to harm the reputation of this line. If the related violation of our guidelines, your site's ranking in Google search results will be lowered, and may even be removed from the index. Please note the following points:

Beware been actively send email to your SEO company, Internet consultants or agents.

You absolutely can not think, even this type of junk mail we receive: "google.com Hello: We have visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories ..."

E-mail about the search engine of publicity, most like the claim that "effective night" diet pills, like, please be sure to keep a skeptical attitude.

No one can guarantee rankings in Google on the first.

Requests the Special beware of those who claim to guarantee rankings of the SEO, or claims and Google have a "special relationship" or in Google has a "priority submit right" SEO. Google never submitted to provide priority treatment. In fact, the site submitted directly to Google's only way is through our Add URL page or through the Sitemap, and you can own operations, all without any fees.

For some mysterious or unwilling to do so that the company intended to, be sure to keep guard.

If any do not understand, should ask for instructions. If the SEO on your behalf to establish fraud or misleading content, such as doorway pages (doorway page) or "flyers" domain, we may share your site removed from Google index completely. The end, you still have to be responsible for all acts employing company, so please do understand they offer "help." If the SEO can access your FTP connection to the server, they should have to show you them on your website everything changes.

You totally do not need to link to SEO.

Claims to avoid the use of so called FFA Link, link mechanism to improve website ranking heat, and that can submit your site to thousands of search engines SEO. These are usually just empty the vernacular, and will not change your primary search engine results ranking (at least not you imagine the positive effect).

Please choose carefully.

Co-decision and a SEO, it is recommended first look at the service industry. Of course, with the power of Google is one of the options. You can also find some news from the past enough to learn from the report as, for example, the following article describes a family too aggressive SEO.

Google does not comment on specific companies, but to remind you that we come across a number of SEO companies claim to be, the more significant moments of their approach is absolutely not acceptable corporate behavior. Please be careful.

However, due to increased demand for SEO, printing of many different companies claim to rank guarantee home and give out a lot of success example, costs are often tens to hundreds of thousands per month.

Of course, the real need for a lot of SEO services is cost, however, truly professional company and will not guarantee your ranking (most of the so-called guarantee is less than if the rankings do not charge their clients up to the meaning of money.) They will use a professional approach to enhance the overall site ranking and natural search visibility.

Although the focus of some keyword ranking is to assess, but the real experts should tell your SEO strategy should not only some of the keywords as SEO ranking is evidence of effective implementation.

In addition, consumers want to know SEO is a protracted war, is the need to regularly analyze and adjust the strategy is a necessary site provision on a regular basis the project budget. In large enterprises, the need for education within the department to be responsible for the site, responsible for website copywriting, website marketing personnel responsible for a clear understanding of the logic and method of operation of SEO, SEO can make long-term, effective fermentation in the corporate website .

Since the search advertising more widely used, in order to reduce advertising costs, many companies want to reduce or even through the natural order completely replaced by the cost of search advertising. In fact, inside the complete search strategy, SEO is as important as with search ads are indispensable

Meta keywords tag need not?

Two or three years ago, I have the Meta keywords tag need to establish the project as a web page, and now no longer continue to use.

Meta Tag on a few popular foreign search engines may also be useful, mainstream search engines should have not watch this thing.

Meta Keywords Tag why there

Meta keywords Tag it exists because the original design because the search engine on the hardware and software as is now advanced. Goals before the search to search the main web site home page; by the site administrator with notice search engine keywords, search engines can then search for the relative backwardness of the hardware and software were quick to provide search results.

Therefore, when the keywords tag is often enough to write a version, it is not necessary to the preparation of each page independent.

Search technology and advances in computing hardware, reducing the need for active content of notice

Now the search engine is more advanced, not only included home, but can easily and automatically recorded, analysis of the global content of each site page. Meta Title, Description with Keywords If you want to continue using the site as a Web page designer will write the content of each page independent of the title, description and keywords; rules Even so, many sites today still have not even the title with the description of written, not to mention the keywords. Most people into the station with the same keywords on all pages within, this would also distort the original intent of this design.

But each site of a set of keywords for the search is very inadequate, so hard-working website owners are expected to write effective and accurate page keywords tag, but also seems impractical. Therefore, the search engines have been less likely to rely on Keywords Meta Tag keywords and page content analysis to establish the relationship.

Influence of age on the SEO website

Whether the age of the site has a close relationship with the SEO?

The answer is "YES! And No!"

Ranking the age that there are some relations with the site, but it is important, in fact, may not necessarily. The older the site, in theory, SEO score is also relatively high. There are many network interpretation of these conditions:

1. Web site for registration under the age calculation of time?
2. Web site under age, to calculate the external links exist?
3. Web site online, according to age, to calculate the time?

Comments are also many websites which claim is correct, which statement is wrong. We should make a habit not to comment on some of the technique is right or wrong, but from a reasonable logic to determine if other, please let it be.

Let it because, there is no future without rules does not mean, now does not mean that the future can not be less than a judge. Making these judgments than on rules, development of the latest search technology than on the world's top search engine engineers are engineers, you are not with them than you?

Theory: the old ginger is hot

Logically, the longer survival of the site does indeed credibilty (trustworthiness) higher, like an elderly person to speak to speak more often than a guy credible, I think this is the basis of this theory.

Controversial basis for the influence of low natural

Spicy ginger is the old basis of the theory itself, you and I know there is considerable controversy worthy of a place, because:

1. To determine whether a person with the same trusted, age is not everything;
2.'s Own website is often important no matter how old, can be judged from the angle of the other of its importance;
3. Itself is boring, meaningless content sites, too, can survive for a long time.

From this points of light, we know the age to determine if a site, regardless of age, registered with the site to determine, or use the search records to calculate, have not become a decisive condition.

Since the conditions not be decisive, in fact, you and I know his importance is not high, if a waste of time playing the old URL idea, it is better to focus on other more useful aspects.

Google’s preparation Problem: Ads sustained in spitefulness of warning

Google might contain nonstop to serve ads for banned drug companies level after being warn by some groups that the ads and the online pharmacies they promote despoiled the act.

If the company did intentionally allow criminally in service companies to use its promotion stage, it might have to pay the division of impartiality up to $500 million, one of the biggest sums ever salaried to the government in a business dispute.

In the DOJ’s analysis, officials are trying to decide whether Google worked with advertisers who be promote against the law behavior, such as advertising forbidden pharmaceuticals to U.S. citizens from pharmacies working in Canada and other countries.

Now, according to proof that has been review by the Wall Street Journal, “state regulator and business watchdogs” may have frequently alert Google to the banned movement. These warning had been coming to Google since at least 2003 and intensify in 2008, when ads from banned online pharmacies appear in Google ads even after the company in progress using a moderator confirmation system.

Just a few months ago, Google announced it was suing online pharmacy advertisers for breaking the search engine’s terms of service and violate U.S. central laws by using the Google ad system to put on the market prescription medication without a instruction. However, specified the timing, this statement may have basically been a face-saving reaction to DOJ probes.

We’ll carry on to go after this case. Do you believe Google was blameless in these matters, the injured party of against the law advertisers who were target on gaming the system? Or could the web giant have been complicit, collecting cost and spinning a sightless eye to its advertisers’ behavior?

Online CSS Editors for a skilled Web Designer

The most important feature of CSS is that it is designed to part content of a webpage from its image appearance. It provides web designers, the suppleness to change fundamentals of a website similar to Font, color, layout etc at their determination. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Selection of style sheets can be used with just a particular change in code line.

The entrance of online CSS editors has made it best friend of a web designer. The movement of use online editors has improved quickly because of its advanced features. Most outstandingly, most of the online CSS editors are free, high-speed and user friendly.

Later than many days of investigate and analysis, I contain approach up with best online CSS editors. An only some of them might not be much admired but due to the features they are present, I have integrated them in listing.  So have seemed on these and go for the one which suit you greatest.

1) CSSportal It is a easy but very helpful online device. You just have to attach your code there and build change. It also has extra features like image style editor and CSS validator. CSS validator debugs if there are any error in your code.

2) YAML Builder This tool is used for diagram creation of web layouts and it provides you with very simple options. It provides you multiplicity of multicolumn options and navigational features for a web page layout.

3) CSS Frame Generator This tool is just for the reason of editing CSS code. It increases the good organization of your job by speedily editing the code.

4) TS Webeditor It is a highly developed tool with variety of options. It edits CSS next to with extra languages similar to PHP, HTML etc. TS Web editor is very user friendly as it differentiates coding grammar with different colors and gives suggestion while editing code.

5) Sky CSS tool is particularly helpful for basic and those who want to work in a very simple atmosphere. It generates CSS code with reorganized tags. This tool builds a strong base of CSS learners.

6) CSS Mate is helpful for quick CSS editing and creating basic layouts. Basic web layouts can be designed with no trouble using an amount of editing features.

7) CSS Mate If you want to grip full master skill in editing CSS tags and Styles, then PIXY at no cost Browser CSS Editor is the best option for you. It has exclusive and user sociable features

8) Grid Designer It is most likely the simplest of all CSS Editors, to be used. With the help of easy navigation and chart buttons you can design selection of layouts in unlike grids.

9) Iconico The advantage tip of Iconico is that it gives you the option of editing full code file at once. Preview window below the editor window helps you more for editing CSS code.

ChatBox Dropbox with Easy Path Project Management

The most practical way to back up the files on your computer that provides file hosting services, the clouds, the strengthening of the mobile integration is becoming more and more popular with each passing Sunday. Turkey is extremely popular Dropbox 's on this issue, as well as Box.net , SpiderOak, SugarSync and AVG recently have launched a LiveKite are alternatives, such as.

With these applications, a certain folder on your computer will automatically back up the clouds is extremely practical. Moreover, thanks to cooperation with the opportunity to offer file and folder sharing, this also allows to develop applications that many of the most beautiful feature.

This feature uses the chatbox to a MAC application is extremely simple and practical way Dropbox'a collaboration and project management features adds.

Edwin Chu, a Hong Kong developer's free and is prepared by the chatbox, Chu expression began as a weekend project. Currently in the process of beta adds Chatbox'ın Dropbox'a eliminate the deficit, perhaps the two most important: Comment and cooperation.

ChatBox an easy way possible to comment on any shared folder or file. With the knowledge of communications makes it easier to follow the interpretations. Obviously, for a weekend project, a study has been extremely successful. Despite the simplicity of innovation brought by all the Dropbox for many users may make a lot more useful. Because all the data stored on Chatbox'a Dropbox is a new membership does not require registration or other advantage.

Chu, if you devote a few weeks to the end of the Chatbox'a by adding more advanced collaboration features, the project can make much more interesting. In that sense, the first step in the move to Windows will probably Chatbox'ı ...

 

Case-Mate seems to breathe the first Samsung 4G business

Case-Mate, that the presentation of the race when it comes to new cases for mobile phone, which has just been published. Transfer the Samsung 4G is the latest gadget to do with Case-Mate. The case is difficult to teach, which seems to fit available. I'm not ambitious task in the world, the world's thinnest smartphone on Second? I think so.

What's more, it is not Case-Mate has also launched a tough, Gelli, and Pop! Durable double layer of safety and security of the phone, even if you're distracted by the transfer of 4.5-inch touchscreen display. The hard part is the tape can withstand a drop of silicone shell and hard and difficult. Gelli visually appealing design and color, while the Pop! The technique used to print well together, logs, integrated with soft grip.

If you are planning a new life for Samsung animation, can be protected and stylish. All these teas Samsung 4G cases are offered for sale to the Case-Mate, and now at a price of $ 24.99 to $ 34.99, respectively.

Make your trip with only a picture of the application offer

The most popular kind of Internet for online customers came up with a great machine for users of Android. Well, if you're a proud owner of a phone with Android, so there is no need to be boring and just go to the bank to verify the payment of the deposit. Now just Android mobile applications with PayPal and see only a system of monitoring and enforcing instant PayPal wants peace. Keep the money in your PayPal account or bank account. Now you can waste precious time with Android use PayPal.

This feature of the iPhone PayPal in October 2010. His greatest success was PayPal, said that iPhone users download millions of dollars segment But now, at the end of Android, which are tested for their ability to scream for storing images only.

12 Google Chrome Beta Available To Download, All The News

The objective of the following article is to present to our readers the long awaited news of Google Chrome 12 , the new version of the browser to Google .

Let's say first that many of quieted news had already been announced by the leaders of the "Colossus of Mountain View, while others were more or less what people were expecting.

Google, after updating the version 11, has ensured that users could already test the new features in version 12, you read the comments on the web, seems to be one of the web browser most respected in an absolute sense.

It is expected a fierce competition between the new Firefox browser and Big G 5, which most probably will be released the next harvest.

Going into details to be characteristic of the new browser by Google , we can safely say that its greatest strength lies in the "features multi-account ", that is a feature that will allow users to simultaneously manage multiple Google accounts, they can switch from one profile to another with a single click.

Another aspect to consider is that of dropping support for Google, in order to focus on ' HTML 5 .

An extension of the security algorithms provide a much safer browsing the Net over the display of Flash content.

Support for CSS 3D greatly improves the speed of hardware, allowing for optimal viewing of animated 3D written in CSS, getting the maximum return from the power of the GPU.

One factor that should provide competitive advantage to Google Chrome 12 is the speech that will enable her to "talk" to the PC, conducting research voice.

That's ultimately what's new in Google Chrome 12 , which is now available to download in its Beta version.

At this point you have to wait only if the stable version will be able to satisfy users.