Things we'd like to see at Google I/O 2013

Google I/O is an annual developer-focused conference held by Google in San Francisco, California. Google I/O features highly technical, in-depth sessions focused on building web, mobile and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Chrome, Chrome OS and more. Google I/O was started in 2008. The "I" and "O" stand for input/output and "Innovation in the Open". 

Let's start with Google I/O 2012. It was held from June 27-29 at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco. One of the many awesome things that happen here at this conference, is that the attendees get the newest gadgets from Google! In 2012, Google gave away the following devices to the attendees :

• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• Asus Nexus 7
• Nexus Q
• Samsung Chromebox

Well, what can attendees expect to get this year?

• I think first can be the "much difficult to get your hands on" LG Google Nexus 4. 
• Second can be the Asus Nexus 7 again, but I don't think Google would like to repeat the same device they gave last year. 
• Well, Nexus 10 can be the third one.
• I don't really know about a fourth device but it can be one of those chromebooks that Google has manufactured with Samsung, Acer or HP. 

What announcements can we expect from Google at I/O 2013?

• Key Lime Pie - Key Lime Pie or Android 5.0 as rumored will be the newest flavor of Android and has been in the pipeline for some time now. It is supposed to be released at I/O '13. What all would be the new features of this version of the android OS? Well, it would be faster than Jelly Bean,of course, maybe an upgrade to Photosphere and Google Now, let's see.

• A new Nexus device? - As rumors suggest, Google is making a Nexus device with Motorola. Nexus 4 was just released in the fall, so there may not be an announcement on this new device but we never know what surprises are in store for us at the event!  

• Google TV - It is a Smart TV platform from Google which integrates Android and Google Chrome to create an interactive television overlay on top of the existing internet television. For some time now, Google has been mum about any announcements or up gradation of content about the G-TV, so maybe this year, we would get to hear something new about it.

• Google Fiber - This awesome broadband internet service using optical fibers has only been launched in Kansas City, Missouri. Maybe this year, Google would announce their expansion plan for Google Fiber. I would love to have a 1GBps connection at my home here in India!

• Google Glass - Google Glass was announced last year at I/O '12 with an awesome demonstration where skydivers wearing Google Glass landed on the top floor of Moscone Center West and brought the Google Glass with them to the floor where attendees were watching the live view through skydivers' Glasses! You can take a look at the video here. I read somewhere that Glass would hit the market this year for around $1500. Let's see what's in store for the attendees at the event, maybe they get lucky and are given these awesome Glasses by Google in addition to the mentioned gadgets!

Google I/O is a pretty big event and tickets would be sold out within some time of the opening of the registrations! Be sure to setup your Google+ and Google Wallet accounts if you want to attend the event! Feel free to post comments on what you think will be in store for us at the event! 

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5 Reasons why Google+ is Awesome

Google+ is a ... "social network". Many of you won't agree to that. When you type in "Google+ is.." in google, you get a lot of negative search suggestions. Most people would classify Google+ as a failure. I disagree, so, here i am with top 5 reasons, why Google + is awesome.

Reason 1- The +1 button

That button is everywhere. You can +1 videos, pictures, content, websites, articles and what not. There is even a  chrome extension to the button, which lets you +1 webpages with just a click. And, just so guys know-

The Verge - 18,000 +1's

Gangnam style -63,000 +1's

Google.com - 1,47,000 +1's
Youtube.com - 1,94,000 +1's
Nice.

Reason 2 - The People

Google signed up 400 million people on g+ recently. Now, most of you might say that google forces people to sign up and most of them are inactive. However about 100 million people use g+ everyday!

It is probably the best social network to meet people. so, if you thing that g+ is a ghost town by your experience, you are probably doing it wrong. something like following 0 people on twitter.

Reason 3 - The Mobile App

The mobile app is a BAWS. the app is so fluid and well made, that even my low end android phone managed to handle it quite well. It is so good, that there is no need of a third-party app. You go to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace there are always these features which the mobile app lacks, with the G+ there are none. Btw don't even try downloading the MySpace app, it is sincerely disastrous.

Reason 4 - The Awesome UI

No social networking site comperes to the clean, no nonsense User interface of g+. Google did an awesome job integrating its various services in the g+ homepage. they did a more awesome job in the way it is presented. Every service is given a place in the left edge, making it such a neat and eaily usable design. You will be surprised how fast you get used to it.

Reason 5 - Hangouts

This is awesome! It is basically a video calling service. You can start hangouts right from the web- page and it lets you to hangout with up to 10 people at a time. It is inbuilt to g+ so no separate clients are needed. you can, also do cool stuff like watch a you tube video together or grow a mustache on your face...uh... yeah!

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PlayStation 4

The PlayStation 4 is a video game console and will be the fourth video game console produced by Sony and successor of PlayStation 3 as a part of the PlayStation series. In January 2013, Sony introduced a website teasing a major announcement, slated for 20 February. The announcement event, known as the PlayStation Meeting 2013, took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios in New York featuring the unveiling of details about the console. It was a little disappointing as they didn't display  the actual console, and didn't reveal the price too. PS4 will be launched in Q4 of 2013. Let's take a look at it's specifications! 

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

Boasting 8 GB of GDDR5 System Memory, PS4 houses a next generation AMD Radeon GPU containing a unified array of 18 compute units, which collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops/s of processing power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two. It has a custom-designed single-chip x86 8 core CPU also developed by AMD. It is code-named "Jaguar". A Hard Disk (Size unannounced) is included. The read-only optical drive will read Blu-Ray discs at 6x and DVDs at 8x. It also has a USB 3.0 slot, Bluetooth 2.1 and can be connected output screen via HDMI and analog AV-out. For those of who found the above gibberish, the PS4 packs state of the art hardware, the type which would be a ginormous leap in the area of gaming consoles. The console will be able to produce graphics like never seen before, bringing an array of new titles in the range.

The DualShock 4 will be PS4's controller.It is quite similar to DualShock 3, with several new features. It sports an integrated capacitive touch pad, headset jack, share button and LED player identifier. In addition to helping track a player for motion-based controls, the built-in LED can also be used to represent in-game elements, like a player's overall health! 

The PlayStation 4 Eye has been revealed as having a 1280 X 800 pixel camera capable of capturing video at 60 frames per second! Which is significantly over Kinect's 640 X 480, 39 frames per second camera. It can also be used to automatically detect players.

It's Microsoft's move now to respond with the next generation Xbox but we can finally say that the next generation of consoles is coming!

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Smart Wars

BlackBerry, Apple, Nokia, HTC, all of these tech giants have a thing in common. Each of these companies owe their huge popularity to a single device, the Smartphone. Technically the smartphone is a mobile device which is built on a mobile Operating System,  packs the functionality of a portable media player, compact digital cameras, GPS navigation units and high end, wireless data transfer units. And oh! it lets you make calls  
as well.

There are a ton of smartphones in the market today, literally a ton! No matter what your requirements or what your budget, there is a smartphone out there made just for you. Checkout a quick comparison of the presently, most popular smartphones in the market.

(Click on the table to enlarge it)

So, the smartphone industry is growing exponentially. The full HD display - 441 Pixels Per Inch (*mouth waters*), is quite the rage now. Most of the upcoming phones including the Samsung SIV, are said to have the full High Definition resolution. The processors or the CPU of these phones are a pieces of Engineering marvel in themselves. The Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon Quad-core 1.5 GHz  on the Google Nexus 4 is a beast in particular. Another revolution in this industry could be the development of flexible displays. 

still cannot find THE ONE for you? here is a list. suit yourselves.

Samsung Galaxy NOTEII             
Samsung Galaxy Grand
Samsung galaxy Ace Plus
Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos


 HTC One                                                   
 HTC ONE X

if you are the, "Everyone has this phone, i want something different" types, here are the less known ones:

Oppo Find5
Micromax A90s
Micromax A116 Canvas HD
Huawei Ascend

Them smartphones may have the best gaming experience on a mobile device, with the most enthralling titles in range. But, nothing beats SNAKE on the NOKIA 1100. \m/

By the way, a little food for thought : "Biggest joke of this decade - Smartphones were designed to save time" - Random Quote on the internet.

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Ubuntu on tablets

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as   free   and open source software, using it's own desktop environment. It is named after South African philosophy      of ubuntu ("humanity towards others") or another translation would be : "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity". Ah!, the basic technical definition. I first heard of it in May 2012 when my friend  posted a screenshot of the Head Up Display (HUD), a new feature in Ubuntu 12.04 or the Precise Pangolin (all versions have quite cool nicknames! :P). I found the UI very awesome, maybe because it was a change after years of using Windows, but well, it was awesome. 

It has come a long way since then. From being just an OS used in Desktops, Servers etc. to Ubuntu TV, Ubuntu for android, Ubuntu for phones and the recently announced, Ubuntu for tablets.

Ubuntu on tablets has taken multi-tasking to a whole new level. The tablet interface works gracefully on different screen sizes and resolutions. 

• The home screen has that circular gear which shows the user's social activity. 
• A left edge swipe takes the user to the installed apps. Switching from one app to another is a whole lot easier than I experienced on the stock android UI.
• A new feature is the Side Stage which can be accessed with a right edge swipe which can be used to run an app in a smaller part of the screen while multi-tasking on the larger part. I found it to be quite similar to Windows 8 UI in which the same can be done. There is only one difference that we can resize the width of the smaller part.
• Not only the tablet apps but phone apps can be run using the Side Stage.
• Down edge swipe brings in the new features which have been integrated in the apps.
• Top edge swipe lets you access your messages and stuff; and apps to be used in Side Stage.

(Click on the image to get an enlarged view of the Side Stage)

• Ubuntu uniquely supports a new category of convergence device-add a keyboard and a mouse and your ubuntu tablet becomes a full PC, with access to Windows apps over standard protocols from Microsoft, Citrix, VMware and Wyse.

Development of Ubuntu is led by Canonical Ltd. a UK based company owned by Mark Shuttleworth. Here is a video in which Mark explains how ubuntu will change the way we use our tablets. 

PS : You can download Ubuntu for your PC/laptop here . 

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Facebook Graph Search

There are a few pillars of the facebook ecosystem, one is News Feed, you show up and you can see all the important stuff that is happening recently with your friends. Another pillar has been Timeline, each person can share whatever they want with whoever they want on facebook, it's the place where you can curate everything you want to show about you in one place. Graph Search is going to be another pillar.

It's like people want to find all the photos of someone, all the photos of their family, they want to find all their friends who live in a particular city because they are going to visit there and those are really hard things to find right now, you have to go to a bunch of different pages, piece all the stuff together but now with Graph search, it's easy. You can just say (search) what you want and you get the results.

For example; you want to find all your friends who like playing cricket or any other game, you just type "Friends who like playing cricket" in the search bar and there they are!

You can sign up for Graph Search Beta by following this link and clicking on "Try Graph Search" at the bottom of the page.

One change that comes with the graph search is the new search bar in place of the conventional search bar.

(Click on image to enlarge it)

Facebook graph search is a cool feature which is here to stay! Till then stay updated and keep sharing!

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Apple iWatch

So, rumors are rounding up that Apple may launch yet another i-device, this time it would be called the Apple iWatch. No brownie points for guessing the prime function of this device. It is being said that the tech giant has already set a hundred men to task under the leadership of Apple's senior director of engineering, James Foster. If rumors are to be believed the device is already  "beyond the experimentation phase" and should hit the market by Q3, 2014.

however, the specifications and functions of this device is yet unclear. Word is, that the device could be used, to remotely control the iphone or the ipad, letting the user access the internet, make mobile payments, navigate through cities, monitor health and activity. The device could be powered by an Intel processing unit and integration with Apple's voice assistance Siri is rather obvious.

There lies a ton of smart-watches in the market. However, giants such as Sony along with many others have failed to make feel the presence of such devices to the customers. the answer primarily lies in the fact, that most people would prefer to wear a Rolex on their wrists rather than a cheap piece of plastic and glass. Apple owing to its ginormous fan-base could easily give a 180 degree conversion to such a situation.

Personally, i would hugely favor such a device from Apple. Just imagining, the fact that i have power to control my mobile device right on my wrist and not pull my phone from my pocket everytime, gives me quite a geeky high.  Innovation is something which runs through the DNA of this company and the device is announced at a time when the company is under pressure due to slowing sales and a fall in share prices.
Alot is expected from the Apple iWatch.

Some day, i wish these devices could fire up holographic projections and other cool stuff they show in 007 movies. Till then Die Another Day. 

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Google Summer of Code 2013

Hello techers!

Google announced the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2013 yesterday. It is their annual worldwide program in which Google awards stipends to hundreds of students who successfully complete a requested free and open source software coding project during the summer.The program kicks off in February, followed by organization and student applications in March-May and the selected students code from June to September. 

How the program works?

While there is still time for the student application period, you can work on your proposal if you wish to participate in this huge coding event. Your proposal should include the following : your project proposal, why you'd like to execute on this particular project and the reason you're the best individual to do so. For more details, you can follow this link .

You can also visit the Google Summer of Code 2013 website and glance upon the various deadlines.

Such events are something which keep the meticulous sides of mine, up and running. Learning, recognition and industry training are something we all long for, not to forget the paycheck they mention on the website. I will be there, and hope to find you on the battlefield. Haha. Towards fame and glory.

Let's code the summer away!

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Hello World!

As you may have guessed this blogspot is a blog predominantly dedicated to potato.  "Potato- uh -err", I came here thinking this blog will be my final destination for the tech nirvana, in the search of which I spend hours online, reading the extremely long articles of seemingly genius tech sites, trying my hands at reviewing gadgets.


Ladies, gentlemen,geeks and awesome people of this universe, you need not fret now, because TechScylla is here. From the latest  app reviews to how Steve Ballmer fails every time he tries to mock Apple, we will try to get it all here, condensed and crisp.

Blogs would feature latest in the tech news, latest in the tech reviews, tweaks, hacks for whatever smartphones you are carrying. Will try to act as crazy Apple fanboys or Jellybeaned droidheads, will often fail, but, hey! in the end we are all here for some great tech, something this blog is all about. So, brace yourselves, blog posts coming very soon.

P.S-  Just so you guys know, we are a bunch of geeks, engineering undergrads (hehe) and troll meme enthusiasts. this would be our very first blog and we aspire to convert it into a full fledged website sometime soon. so, stick around because you guys are the boss.

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