Techonomix

An 18-year-old Indian-American girl has invented a super-capacitor device that could potentially charge your cellphone in less than 20 seconds.

Eesha Khare, from Saratoga, California, was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the Intel Foundation after developing the tiny device that fits inside mobile phone batteries, that could allow them to charge within 20-30 seconds.

The so-called super-capacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time, NBC News reported.

Khare has been awarded USD 50,000 for developing the tiny device. She has also attracted the attention of tech giant Google for her potentially revolutionary invention.

According to Khare, her device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries.

"My cellphone battery always dies," she said when asked about what inspired her to work on the energy-storage technology.

Super-capacitors allowed her to focus on her interest in nanochemistry "really working at the nanoscale to make significant advances in many different fields."

The gadget has so far only been tested on an LED light, but the good news is that it has a good chance of working successfully in other devices, like mobile phones, the report said.

Khare sees it fitting inside cellphones and the other portable electronic devices proliferating in today's world.

"It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric. It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense," Khare added.

With Apple having announced the date earlier on today for WWDC 2013, we’re bracing ourselves for a marked rise in the number of Apple-related news, rumors and reports. With iOS 6 having failed, in the opinion of many, to bring any dramatic improvements on iOS 5, the concepts and ideas for iOS 7 have been arriving thick and fast. The one you’re about to see below, as well as having been presented in a very professional manner, is one of the best iOS 7 concepts yet, and features a radically redesigned interface including a new Notification Center, widget support, and lock screen toggles. Catch the full demonstration video after the break!

What I like about this particular concept, which comes courtesy of designer Rafael Justino, is that not only has the problem of widgets, or specifically, the lack thereof, been addressed, but the whole look has been altered to give a fresher, contemporary appearance.


My favorite aspect is the ease in which many elements can be customized. If you want to change the aesthetics of any part of the UI aside from the wallpaper in iOS, it’s a closed door at stock level, and anybody looking to theme must facilitate a trip to the dark side by means of a jailbreak. Here, though, elements can be changed with ease, and the ability to flit between black and white depending on your particular device color / wallpaper is a very nice touch.

Having seen the clip a couple of times, I really do wish this were a real iOS 7 showcasing video. It addresses many of the ecosystem’s shortcomings while also offering a visual refresh, and if Apple were to unveil something along these lines in June, I suspect many Apple fans would be pleased.


Will Apple go the whole hog with customization, toggles and widgets? Perhaps not; but with Jony Ive, Apple’s lead industrial designer, now having a greater say on how the software looks and behaves, we are likely to see quite a few key alterations when iOS 7 finally makes it out of obscurity.

With that WWDC announcement now done and dusted, it probably won’t be long before we see an iOS 7 beta, and although it mightn’t necessarily represent the final release, it will give us a strong indication as to the direction Apple is headed.

I don't know weather  its a rumor or what but when I came across this News I said : "time for the next Techonomix Post"

So, here are the following Details:-


Rumour mills have for long speculating on the launch of the alleged iPhone 5S. Now, a news report also claims to have got the launch date of the much-awaited smartphone, the follow up to Apple's current flagship iPhone 5.

French website Nowhereelse.fr, which has a decent record of leaks surrounding Apple products, h
as released the image of an internal document of Japanese telecom operator KDDI. This document states that iPhone 5S will be announced on June 20 and hit the stores in July. The document also calls the device iPhone 5S, giving credence to speculation saying that the phone will not be named iPhone 6.

This internal document states that the device will get an upgraded 13MP camera, as compared to the 8MP unit used in its predecessor. The phone will run on iOS 7, it states.It was also Said that the Smartphone will costs aroun $99.

Previously, a Chinese website leaked the first photos of iPhone 5S under production. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, citing supply chain sources, said the upcoming smartphone will feature a 13MP camera, snappier processor, fingerprint recognition sensor and more powerful LED flash. Various analysts, including Kuo, Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster and Peter Misek of Jeffries, expect Apple to launch the device in the third quarter of 2013.

Sunil Lalvani

Struggling smartphone-maker BlackBerry has appointed Sunil Lalvani as the new managing director for India.

Lalvani, who used to head BlackBerry's enterprise business in the country, will replace Sunil Dutt, who left the company in March.

The top-management overhaul comes just months after Canada based BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion, unveiled it's latest touch-based smartphon
e - BlackBerry Z10.

Once the most popular device among corporates, BlackBerry has been losing market share to rival mobile phone vendors such as Samsung and Nokia over the past two years. Its market share in India fell from about 15% in 2011 to less than 8% in 2012, according to analyst estimates.

Lalvani's appointment is latest in a series of top-management changes at the beleaguered phone maker. In 2011, Dutt took over after BlackBerry's managing director Frenny Bawa stepped down from her position. Over the past two months, Rick Costanzo, the company's executive vice-president for global sales, was leading the team in India.

In an email statement, Lalvani said the company's focus will be on driving the latest mobile solutions to consumers and enterprises in India. He has about 20 years of industry experience and has worked at companies such as Nokia and Cisco.

First of all I would Like to give Credit to The Times Of India | Tech news for this post & info.

SmartPhone For Blinds

AHMEDABAD: The world's first smartphone for blind people is here. Soon, they will be able to read SMSes and emails on this phone, which converts all text into Braille patterns. 

"We have created the world's first Braille smartphone," says its innovator, Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation andEntrepreneurship, located in IIM Ahmedabad campus. "This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns," he says. 

Dagar, who is a post-graduate from the NationalInstitute of Design (NID), says he was motivated to develop the device when he realised that so far, technology was only serving the mainstream and ignoring the marginalised. He is collaborating with IIT Delhi on making the prototype, which is currently being tested at L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad. 

"The response during the test has been immense. It comes out as a companion more than a phone to the user. We plan to do more advanced versions of the phone in the future," Dagar adds. 

Dagar started the project three years ago while studying interaction designing at NID. After working with a couple of companies, he gave up his job to concentrate on his technology, formed a team of six people and started his venture, Kriyate Design Solutions. Currently, the venture is being funded by Rolex Awards under its Young Laureates Programme, in which they select five people from across the world every two years and fund their projects. 

How it works 

· The smartphone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes, i.e. expand and contract to its original shape after use. 

· The phone's 'screen' has a grid of pins, which move up and down as per requirement. The grid has a Braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter. 

· This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in Braille. 

· All other elements are like any other smartphone.

After A huge Success of Gangnam Style , PSY is Back with his brand new Music Video GentleMan M/V



The dance video to " Gentleman", the South Korean singer's long-awaited follow up to "Gangnam Style, was only posted on YouTube at 9:00pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday.

In the first 24 hours, it racked up around 20 million hits, destroying the previous record for single-day views of 8.0 million, set by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" video in May 2012.

Now that record looks set to be stretched again, with the view count 36 hours after release standing at 44.5 million.

GOOD GOING Mr.PSY.I'm a Great Fan Of yours.

OPPA TECHONOMIX STYLE !!!!

:PSY:

Till Then Stay Connected_ 

Samsung is planning to launch The new galaxy smartphones naming Samsung GALAXY mega 6.3 & mega 5.8

Galaxy Mega 6.3, as the name suggests, features a 6.3-inch TFT HD display and is powered by a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor. This device has 1.5GB RAM and comes in 8 and 16GB memory options, with microSD card support up to 64GB. This phone can connect to the internet over 2G, 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks and transfer data via Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and NFC. The manufacturer has strapped an 8MP camera with LED flash on the back of the device, whereas a 1.9MP shooter on the front.



The smaller device in the line-up, Galaxy Mega 5.8, touts a 5.8-inch TFT touchscreen and runs on a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU, coupled with 1.5GB RAM. This phone is available with only 8GB internal storage and supports microSD cards with capacities up to 64GB. Connectivity features in the device include 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0. On the back of this smartphone is an 8MP shooter with LED flash, while a 1.9MP unit is used on the front panel.


There is no word on pricing, though the company says both devices are expected to launch in May.
But till then Stay CONNECTED_

Everyone loves a sequel - well,
Hollywood, the game industry and all
their test audiences and money men do,
anyway. So, perhaps it should be of little
surprise that today’s App of the Day on
Techonomix is another in a wave of hit
app second comings. You played the
original, you powered up until you could
power up no more, now you can
download the part deux. Sneakers at the
ready, it’s...
Temple Run 2
Yes, Temple Run 2. Like the first version,
it’s a never-ending chase game. Just as
before you have a large nasty chasing
you (except this time, it’s one giant
gorilla instead of a gang of three crow
people), you’ve got an ancient treasure in
your hand and you’re going to die
eventually. The only question, of course,
is how many coins can you collect, how
far can you run and, ultimately, will you
get a higher score than anyone else you
know? You won’t.
What’s been added this time around are
quite a few things, actually. On the
obvious side, the graphics are much
better and - unfortunately, and perhaps
unnecessarily - much harder going on
your device. Yes, it’s interesting to have
more atmosphere, rocky undulations and
better rendered character behinds but if
you’re not running the game on the
latest iThing, it can be a bit jerky from
time to time and you will curse it when
your game ends because of that.
The coin system is still there but the
concept of gems has been added and
gems can buy you little extras like the
ability to continue your game from
where you left off after you’ve gone
splat. You can collect both but, if you’re
going to be really serious about Temple
Run 2, you might want to willingly throw
yourself into the freemium trap and buy
them for real world pennies and pounds.
The power-ups are pretty much the same
as before except that each of the four
playable characters has a native one
which you can activate by double tapping
at any point in the game. There are also a
couple of gameplay differences too.
Along with the more obvious additions
of rope slides and mine cart sequences,
your path now has a couple of new
obstacles - rivers, spikey rollers et al -
and it undulates, which adds a lot more
difficulty to the game than you might
think.
At the heart of Temple Run 2, though,
it’s really Temple Run in new clothing.
We wouldn’t say don’t download it - it’s
free, after all - but, as good as the first
one was, we tired of it, and, despite the
added bells and whistles, it’s not really a
concept that thrills us any more.
Available in iTunes(free)

If reports on the Internet are to be
believed, then Nokia’s Windows Phone 8
powered flagship smartphone, the Lumia
920, that was expected to launch in India in
November will now launch at a later date.
No specific launch date has been
mentioned.
In a press release issued on October 29,
Nokia listed the countries that would
receive the Lumia 920 in November. The
countries included in the list were,
“Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong,
India, Italy, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates,
the UK, the US and Vietnam.” Yes, India too
was on that list!
Unfortunately, it seems that this was a
mistake. BGR India claims that a Nokia
spokesperson told them that the placement
of India on the list was a mistake and that
Nokia will announce the availability of the
device as soon as they freeze on a release
date. As of now, the device is under testing
with service providers in India to see that it
functions properly.
The Nokia Lumia 920 boasts of a 4.5-inch
IPS LCD PureMotion HD+ capacitive
touchscreen display with a resolution of
1280x768 pixels. It has 32GB internal
storage with no expandable memory
options. The rear houses a 8.7MP camera
with pulse burst LED flash that can shoot
1080p @ 30fps. The front has a 1.3MP
camera. The phone runs on a 1.5GHz dual-
core processor and 1GB RAM.

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How Famous Companies Got Their Names?
Nike: Named for the greek goddess of
victory. The swoosh symbolises her flight.
Skype: The original concept was ‘Sky-
Peer-to-Peer’, which morphed into
Skyper, then Skype.
Mercedes: This was actually financier's
daughter's name.
Adidas: The company name was taken from
its founder Adolf (ADI) Dassler whose first
name was shortened to the nickname Adi.
Together with first three letters of his
surname it formed ADIDAS.
Adobe: This came from the name of the river
Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of
founder John Warnock.
Apple Computers: It was the favourite fruit
of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months
late for filing a name for the business, and
he threatened to call his company Apple
Computers if the other colleagues didn't
suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.
CISCO: It is not an acronym as popularly
believed. It's short for San Francisco.
Compaq: This name was formed by using
COMP, for computer and PAQ to denote a
small integral object.
Corel: The name was derived from the
founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It
stands for COwpland Research Laboratory.
Google: The name started as a joke boasting
about the amount of information the search-
engine would be able to search. It was
originally named 'Googol', a word for the
number represented by 1 followed by 100
zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate
students Sergey Brin and Larry Page
presented their project to an angel investor;
they received a cheque made out to
'Google'. So, instead of returning the cheque
for correction, they decided to change the
name to Google.
Hotmail: Founder Jack Smith got the idea of
accessing e-mail via the web from a
computer anywhere in the world. When
Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business
plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of
names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for
hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the
programming language used to write web
pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL
with selective uppercasing.
Hewlett Packard: Bill Hewlett and Dave
Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the
company they founded would be called
Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel: Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted
to name their new company 'Moore Noyce'
but that was already trademarked by a hotel
chain so they had to settle for an acronym
of INTegrated ELectronics.
Lotus (Notes): Mitch Kapor got the name for
his company from 'The Lotus Position' or
'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of
transcendental Meditation of Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi.
Microsoft: Coined by Bill Gates to represent
the company that was devoted to
MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally
christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed
later on.
Motorola: Founder Paul Galvin came up with
this name when his company started
manufacturing radios for cars. The popular
radio company at the time was called
Victrola.
Sony: It originated from the Latin word
'sonus' meaning sound and 'sonny' as lang
used by Americans to refer to a bright
youngster.
SUN: Founded by 4 Stanford University
buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford
University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim
built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla
recruited him and Scott McNealy to
manufacture computers based on it, and Bill
Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the
computer.
Apache: It got its name because its founders
got started by applying patches to code
written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result
was 'A PAtCHy' server - thus, the name
Apache Jakarta (project from Apache): A
project constituted by SUN and Apache to
create a web server handling servlets and
JSPs. Jakarta was name of the conference
room at SUN where most of the meetings
between SUN and Apache took place.
Tomcat: The servlet part of the Jakarta
project. Tomcat was the code name for the
JSDK 2.1 project inside SUN.
C: Dennis Ritchie improved on the B
programming language and called it 'New B'.
He later called it C. Earlier B was created by
Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon
programming language (named after his wife
Bonnie).
C++: Bjarne Stroustrup called his new
language 'C with Classes' and then 'newC'.
Because of which the original C began to be
called 'old C' which was considered insulting
to the C community. At this time Rick Mascitti
suggested the name C++ as a successor to C.
GNU: A species of African antelope. Founder
of the GNU project Richard Stallman liked
the name because of the humour associated
with its pronunciation and was also
influenced by the children's song 'The Gnu
Song' which is a song sung by a gnu. Also it
fitted into the recursive acronym culture
with 'GNU's Not Unix'.
Java: Originally called Oak by creator James
Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his
window, the programming team had to look
for a substitute as there was no other
language with the same name. Java was
selected from a list of suggestions. It came
from the name of the coffee that the
programmers drank.
LG: Combination of two popular Korean
brands Lucky and Goldstar.
Linux: Linus Torvalds originally used the
Minix OS on his system which here placed
by his OS. Hence the working name was
Linux (Linus' Minix). He thought the name to
be too egotistical and planned to name it
Freax (free+freak+x). His friend Ari Lemmke
encouraged Linus to upload it to a network
so it could be easily downloaded. Ari gave
Linus a directory called 'Linux' on his FTP
server, as he did not like the name Freax.
(Linus parents named him after two-time
Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling).
Mozilla: When Marc Andreessen, founder of
Netscape, created a browser to replace
Mosaic (also developed by him), it was
named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla). The
marketing guys didn't like the name however
and it was re-christened Netscape Navigator.
Red Hat: Company founder Marc Ewing was
given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red
and white stripes) while at college by his
grandfather. He lost it and had to search for
it desperately. The manual of the beta
version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to
readers to return his Red Hat if found by
anyone!
SAP: "Systems, Applications, Products in
Data Processing", formed by 4 ex-IBM
employees who used to work in the
'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of
IBM.
UNIX: When Bell Labs pulled out of MULTICS
(MULTiplexed Information and Computing
System), which was originally a joint Bell/GE/
MIT project, Ken Thompson and Dennis
Ritchie of Bell Labs wrote a simpler version
of the OS. They needed the OS to run the
game 'Space War' which was compiled under
MULTICS. It was called UNICS - UNIplexed
operating and Computing System by Brian
Kernighan. It was later shortened to UNIX.
SCO (UNIX): From Santa Cruz Operation. The
company's office was in Santa Cruz.
Xerox: The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named
his product trying to say 'dry' (as it was dry
copying, markedly different from the then
prevailing wet copying). The Greek root 'xer'
means dry.
Yahoo: The word was invented by Jonathan
Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's
Travels'. It represents a person who is
repulsive in appearance and action and is
barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang
and David Filo selected the name because
they considered themselves yahoos.
3M: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
Company started off by mining the material
corundum used to make sandpaper. It was
changed to 3M when the company changed
its focus to Innovative Products.

The much-awaited Apple iPhone 5 will hit
Indian retail shelves on November 2,
according to sources close to Apple. So far,
pricing has not yet been revealed. In the
meanwhile, Apple has introduced local
Rupee currency pricing for the iTunes App
Store.
Redington India and Ingram Micro have
been appointed as the master distributors
of the iPhone 5, and will be responsible for
providing the device to the two Apple
carriers (Aircel and Airtel). Other resellers
will also be able to procure the iPhone 5
from the two distributors, and sell it with
their own markup.
Hence, users can expect pricing to differ
across resellers and carriers – however,
Apple may end up controlling the pricing.
Expected pricing of the iPhone 5 ranges
from Rs. 45,000 for the 16GB model, to Rs.
65,000 for the 64GB model. Apple could
however, price the 16GB model lower, if it
decides on a more aggressive model. U.S
pricing for the unlocked 16GB iPhone 5 is
$649, translating to roughly Rs. 35,000,
excluding duties.
With the new FDI rules, Apple's plans of
opening its own retail store in India have
been thwarted , with the company required
to source 30 percent of its product sales
from local companies.
Apple’s introduction of Rupee pricing in its
App Store is a boon for both users and
developers, with more transparency for
both parties when buying and pricing apps.
Google has had local currency support on
the Google Play store for a while now, but
only recently introduced seller support in
the country – after a long wait.
According to a TOI report, most of the
Indian telecom operators are ready with
the Nano SIM cards required by the iPhone
5, so users can expect to start using the
device from launch date itself.
Already, almost all Indian carriers are ready
with nano SIM cards to support iPhone 5.
The demand for the iPhone 5 in India has
already been vast, with the device selling
well at a massive premium via online
retailers who are importing the device, and
the grey market. The top-end versions of
the device have been famously selling in
India for more than Rs. 1 lakh, a staggering
investment for a mobile phone.
Currently, the iPhone 5 is available for pre-
order on online retail sites such as
Infibeam, who are charging a Rs. 5,000
booking amount – and promise to reveal
the price only after launch.
Source: TOI

Google isn’t exactly a stranger to
allegations that they invade the privacy of
their customers, but now the search engine
is being asked to explain itself in court over
accusations that they snoop through
messages sent through its Gmail service.
Representatives from Google are asking a
federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit waged at
the company’s Gmail platform because the
plaintiffs in the case cannot explicitly prove
that their correspondence is being
unlawfully monitored by the email service.
Brad Scott and Todd Harrington are the
lead plaintiffs in a case that attempts to
call-out the Silicon Valley search engine
company as being in violation of
California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA)
because they believe Gmail conducts
clandestine scans of emails for words and
content, intentionally intercepting private
communiqué as a result without obtaining
the user’s permission. Google, on the other
hand, maintains that only computers
complete all the legwork and that no
humans actually have their eyes on any
emails, also insisting that neither Mr. Scott
nor Mr. Harrington can back up their
claims that any action from Gmail has led
to injury.
Google condemned the case this week,
Courthouse News reports, arguing by way
of a 25-page motion that Gmail scans data
sent over its servers using its "fully
automated processes involve no human
review of any kind" that they insist exists
to screen out viruses and spam "for the
protection of its users." Now they are
asking US District Judge Lucy Koh to dismiss
the complaint with prejudice.
The plaintiffs say that Google’s actions are
enough to land them in court because that
conduct constitutes wiretapping and
eavesdropping in their eyes, a claim which
Google says is “contorting ” state law " in
ways the California Legislature never
intended.”
"In the context of emails, multiple
courts have recognized that no one can
reasonably expect that the emails they
send to others will be free from the
automated processing that is normally
associated with delivering emails,"
Google responds to the case with this
week’s motion.
"Plaintiffs fail to articulate a single
concrete injury stemming from the
automated processing of emails sent to
Gmail users," Google adds. "Plaintiffs
instead rely on conclusory allegations
that their privacy rights were infringed
in the abstract."
Additionally, Google charges that no state
statues being called into question applies
to the plaintiffs’ allegations, writing in their
motion that the terms " electronic
communication," "email," "Internet" and
"computer" are not included.
"Even if the court were to accept
plaintiffs' invitation to judicially rewrite
the statute to reach electronic
communications, choice of law rules
would still preclude applying CIPA to this
case," Google’s motion states.
"CIPA makes clear on its face that it is
intended to protect California residents
and not to regulate California
businesses," Google adds.
Judge Koh is now expected to hear the
motion on March 21, 2013. Meanwhile,
congressional Republicans wrote to the
White House this week to attack a planned
cybersecurity executive order that would
allow third-party companies, such as
Google, to openly share customer-inputted
information with the federal government.
“An executive order exerting influence
over critical infrastructure is not just a
step in the wrong substantive direction, ”
the letter reads. “It will almost certainly
be exploited by other nations to justify
their efforts to regulate the Internet.
This is a most critical time, and we
cannot afford a hasty, unilateral action
that will only serve to bolster the
efforts of less democratic nations to
stifle the very free exchange of ideas
and expression that has allowed the
Internet to flourish across the globe. For
these reasons, we urge you to rethink
the wisdom of an executive order.”
The letter to US President Barack Obama
was signed by 11 GOP members of
Congress, including US Rep. Fred Upton (R-
Michigan), Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New
Hampshire), Senator Marco Rubio (R-
Florida) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah)

Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part.
FREMONT: Apple's new maps app came out
the day I started a 2,243-mile road trip
through four states. As complaints about it
trickled in and Apple's CEO apologized, I
was left wondering whether people were
using the same app I was.
Although it's not flawless or as good as
Google's maps app on Android phones,
Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me
where I needed to go - for the most part. I
know many people will disagree with me,
but I even find it an improvement over the
old app on iPhones because I now get voice
navigation and automatic re-routing.
I've used Google's Android app since it was
released three years ago. I don't own a car,
but I travel a lot. The app has proven
crucial in getting me to unfamiliar
territories in New England and various
Southern states from Arizona to South
Carolina.
Google brought to the phone the spoken-
aloud, turn-by-turn directions once limited
to GPS navigational devices from Garmin,
TomTom and others. Make a wrong turn,
and the app automatically updates with
new directions. Best of all, it's always been
free.
Until last month, Google was also behind
the free, main maps app on iPhones.
But that one didn't have voice navigation or
automatic re-routing. Driving with it meant
swiping through pages of on-screen
directions. A friend missed a train in May
as we overlooked a step and went the
wrong way on a highway, ending up back
where we came from. A drive from Ann
Arbor to Lansing, Mich., took 17 steps, each
with its own page. After Step 9, I had to
pull into a rest stop to memorize
subsequent steps and avoid an accident.
Apple wanted voice directions, too, and
figured the only way to get it was to build
its own maps app and bump Google from
its perch as the default offering. It
partnered with TomTom and shipped the
iPhone 5 with the new app. A software
update out September 19 made it available
on the iPhone 4S and the cellular versions
of the latest two iPad models.
I updated an iPhone 4S in a hotel room in
Grand Rapids, Mich., that night and was
immediately impressed. It was a nice touch
to have turn-by-turn directions narrated by
Siri, the familiar female voice from Apple's
virtual-assistant feature.
Then I started hearing the complaints.
I agree with many of them. The Apple app
didn't show as many businesses and
landmarks as Google's. Some appeared in
the wrong location or were mislabeled. The
Apple app didn't offer public transit
directions, something crucial for New
Yorkers like me. A friend I was visiting
toward the end of the two-week trip
immediately complained that the app
looked different as she pulled it out for the
first time.
Head to head, the Google app for Android,
which I used on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus
and a Galaxy S III, outperformed Apple's
version in many respects:
- Google's app typically told me about turns
a second or two quicker. Sometimes, I
didn't hear from Siri until I got to the
intersection, two lanes away from where I
needed to be to make a right turn.
- I got better navigation on private roads
with Google. At a shopping mall, Google
guided me along the right driveways to get
to JC Penney, while Apple got me to the
general vicinity. Google also got me to the
front door of my hotel in Ann Arbor, while
Apple got me to the entrance of a complex
that included other hotels, a gas station
and retail stores.
- In Akron, Ohio, Siri had me turn left to get
on a highway, while Google's app properly
instructed me to take a ramp on the left. In
Indianapolis, Google knew about a service
road alongside Michigan Road, while Siri
assumed I was on the main road and would
have had me crash into a Chinese
restaurant. In Charleston, W.Va., Siri told
me to head northeast, as if I had a
compass, while Google just told me to turn
left.
- Besides public transit directions, Google
offered options for avoiding tolls or
highways while driving. It allowed me to
choose continuous satellite images instead
of animated maps, while Apple's app
offered them only for route overviews, not
for live navigation.
- While Siri's voice sounds much more
human than the one Google used in its
early mapping apps, Google now has a
voice that makes Siri sound robotic by
comparison. Google also was more sparing
with words, which was good as long as I
didn't get lost for lack of detail.
That said, Apple's map offers 3-D views.
That may sound like a gimmick, but it
presents the map in a way that mirrors
what you're seeing through the windshield.
On Apple's map, the direction you're going
is on top in the regular view or toward the
back in 3-D. Outside of big cities, Google
often has north on top, which can be
confusing when driving east or south.
Apple's maps are also more pleasant to
view. Instructions such as "turn right onto
Pearl St." are in white against a green
background, similar to the signs you see on
highways. Street names at intersections are
in a green rectangle, similar to actual street
signs at corners. Unlike Google's, Apple's
app showed me the distance and time
remaining and an estimated time of arrival
all at once, though I would have
appreciated larger text.
Apple's app was mostly dead-on in getting
me to my destination. The one big miss was
when it had a winery I was looking for
about a half-mile east of its actual location.
I went to another instead.
But Google has made mistakes, too. It told
me to turn left to get to a lighthouse along
the Straits of Mackinac connecting two
Great Lakes, even as the road sign in front
of me pointed to the right. Then again,
Apple's app didn't even find that
lighthouse in a search.
Both apps gave me other questionable
directions, even though they got me there,
which was what mattered most. At one
point, Google had me on a curvy one-lane
residential street with little visibility, even
though a faster, safer road ran parallel to
it. Apple's directions to a roadside tourist
trap had me take an exit four miles to the
south, only to return four miles north on
smaller roads.
Bottom line is no app is perfect. After all
the complaints about Apple's app, I
downloaded a 99-cent iPhone app called
MotionX GPS Drive. It got good reviews and
offered more features than either Apple or
Google. But it tried to lead me off the
wrong exit in Ohio. Plus, all the extra
features diverted my eyes to the settings
menu when I should've been paying
attention to trucks and, ahem, police cars
around me.
One of my favorite scenes from "The
Office" television show is when clueless
boss Michael Scott drives into Lake
Scranton because he was blindly following
GPS directions.
There will be mistakes, but it beats driving
in a new place with nothing. You just need
to use your common sense.
Apple's app is far better than the one
Google had when it first came out in late
2009. In apologizing for an app he says
"fell short" of Apple's own expectations,
CEO Tim Cook says the company will keep
working to improve it.
It's true Apple's app falls short of what
Google now offers for Android, but if all
you have is an iPhone or an iPad, Apple's
new app will get you there just fine.
Clinging to the old, voiceless app is like
hanging on to your cassette tapes while the
world has moved on to CDs and digital
downloads. I can't imagine driving without
hearing voices.
(Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology and
media editor for The Associated Press)

"We're making a version of Hangman using
images ," says 21-year-old Sumit
Mulchandani. Sumit and his classmates
Akshay Sharma and Akash Giri are from the
Vellore Institute of Technology and were in
the city to participate in a app-a-thon held
last week at KTPO in Whitefield, Bangalore.
The trio was huddled around laptops as
they pounded away on a development
program. "We've already built this app for
the Windows Phone," said a proud Sumit.
"We are trying to tweak it so that it works
as well on the larger canvas provided by
Windows 8."
Microsoft, Blackberry, Yahoo, Facebook and
Samsung are among those trying to tap
into Indian developers . And increasingly,
"Catch them young" is the motto.
Sumit, Akshay and Akash are three of the
beneficiaries of Microsoft's big push
towards getting more and more students to
work with its development tools. Microsoft
is acutely aware that it lags behind tablet
market leader Apple in terms of the sheer
number of applications available for the
platform. Unlike competing tablet operating
systems iOS and Android, Microsoft's
strategy is "PC down" versus "Mobile Up" .
It's logical , considering that the PC
platform has many more applications than
the Windows mobile platform. But it
remains to be seen whether those
applications can be made Windows 8 and
tablet compatible fast enough.
Yahoo has been hosting hackathons in
Bangalore to get developers to use their
technology to develop applications. They
hosted their fifth edition of the event in
Bangalore in August. "Bangalore's hacks
are always looked forward to because of
the amount of innovation they bring,"
Arunav Sinha, head of corporate
communications for Yahoo, had said during
the event. The event saw 730 developers,
who submitted an impressive 157 hacks at
the end of a 24-hour coding session.
"Last year (at Yahoo's hackathon), the
theme was the web, but this year it was
mobile devices. Everyone is trying to come
up with an app that can combine social
and mobile elements," said Sandeep
Bhaskar of Ideaphone, a startup that
developed a carpooling app.
Facebook hosted "World Hack" in
Bangalore earlier this month. The event
saw about 175 developers creating apps for
Facebook. "It's surprising we weren't here
earlier," said Bear Douglas, developer
advocate for Facebook. Bear was
coordinating the event and making sure
that the coders were getting information on
Facebook's technologies, permissions and
APIs "We had some issues with our beta
version when it came to permissions , but
we got it sorted out here at the event,"
says Vishnu Govind, a developer at the
event who was working on an app which
would give a better social stratification of
your friends on Facebook.
Douglas said that the India leg of World
Hack generated a lot of interest in Android
and Web based applications for Facebook.
The US leg saw developments on iOS
platforms.
Microsoft's New England Research and
Development Center (NERD) hosted a paid
12-week internship program between June
to August this year. Selected interns
underwent a boot camp, mentoring and
training, and produced six programs at the
end of their training, including a Fedex
package tracking program, an alarm clock
and a game that involves penguins and
aircraft.
The VIT team is a beneficiary of a Microsoft
program called Dreamspark. Dreamspark is
a program that's open to students,
teachers and educational institutions.
At KPTO, Mayra Dolos was hunched over
her laptop, working on a video streaming
application. Mayra is from Pune. She is the
kind of enthusiast that any software
company would love. "I'm a huge fan of
Microsoft. I was a Microsoft Student
Partner," she says proudly. "I went through
a rigorous selection process - there were
four levels of selection and now I'm
spreading the message of Microsoft
Technologies," she says with evangelical
fervour.
Her partner, Mandar Kulkarni nods. He was
working on a game called Tilt - using
motion sensors. "I gave up a better paying
job with Oracle Financials so that I could
work with Microsoft Technologies," he says.
Mayra nods. She gave up a better paying
job with Sears to work with Microsoft.

Apple seems set to launch the iPhone 5 in
India on October 26, industry sources say.
However, Apple spokesperson refused to
comment on the matter.
NEW DELHI: After the initial round of global
iPhone 5 launches, Apple seems set to
launch the latest version of its iconic
smartphone in India on October 26,
industry sources say. However, Apple
spokesperson refused to comment on the
matter.
iPhone 5 is eagerly awaited in the country
and is already available in the grey market
at sky-high prices, touching over Rs 1 lac. It
is the fastest selling smartphone of all time,
with 5 million units sold over the first
weekend itself. With this device, Apple
broke its mould of 3.5-inch screens and
ventured into the 4-inch screen size
domain and introduced the all-new
Lightning dock connector and EarPods.
In India, iPhones have commanded top
dollar and are out of reach of the masses,
one of the main reasons for the meager
market share of Apple's phone in India as
compared to Android phones. Last year,
the base variant of iPhone 4S was launched
at Rs 44,500 in the country and currently
costs Rs 41,500 after the recent price
revision. In contrast, no Android
smartphone in India currently costs above
Rs 40,000, though it must be remembered
that Samsung Galaxy S III was priced
around Rs 43,000 at the time of launch.
However, the company soon brought the
official price of the device down to Rs
38,900 and currently the phone costs Rs
35,500 on the company's e-store.
Recently, when Apple slashed prices of its
phones in India, the iPhone 4 was given a
price tag of Rs 28,300, which is quite high
considering that it is two years old.
Apple has been making efforts to penetrate
the Chinese market, but seems to largely
ignore India's potential. On the other hand,
Samsung, the arch rival of Apple in the
smartphone domain,has already made
inroads into India and is perched right at
the top of the smartphone market in the
country. India has become one of the
biggest markets for the South Korean
company's mobile division.
Nevertheless, things seem to be changing
for India, as Apple looks set to bring its
latest offering to the country within a short
span of its worldwide launch, especially
considering that the first iPhone was never
launched here.