Tech News Beats

The browser market is pretty saturated where big boss Microsoft having the largest market share with its Internet Explorer. There is also Mozilla Firefox which is run by Mozilla foundation with active technical and financial support from Google. Google was actively promoting Firefox., so why Google needed to come with a new browser altogether? The answer lies in Google’s insecurity that Microsoft with the help of widely popular Internet Explorer may influence search in future. Google suspected that Microsoft may send searchers to its search engine “Live Search”.

Google has made Chrome public today with the Beta version and is available for free download on its website. This browser is an open source software and is available free of cost. Chrome claims to be very simple yet high security. Chrome has capitalized on open source software like Webkit, Mozilla firefox etc and some new technologies in an effort to give a next generation web browser. A comic book by Scott McCloud has been sent to bloggers and journalists explaining the features and motivation for using it.

The browser war will be hotting up with Microsoft releasing IE 8 beta 2, Mozila Firefox 3.0 and now Joined by Google Chrome beta. By the end of this year it should be clear if Chrome is Chromosome or just namesake! With Chrome Google may be looking to have a larger say which it did not had with the independent minded Mozilla corp. With chrome Google also intends to have better integration with its various tools like Analytics, Picassa etc. As of now Chrome is only available for Windows XP/Vista. It will launch for Mac OS and Linux soon. Read more about the features…….

Now the question is which browser will it hit the most? My understanding tell Mozilla Firefox will be the worst hit. As Firefox will now become almost a step child. I do not think IE will be hit very hard but it can have long term implications.

A first look at the Google Chrome browser.

Note: I will post more updates as I go through the browser more.

We might have been Orkut-ing for long time now but mobile and sms thing came little late from Google. Please note that Orkut sms is a premium service and is charged by the mobile phone service provider(typically Rs 2 except MTNL which charge Re 1). Also, it surprised me that premier mobile phone connectivity providers like Vodafone, Airtel and BSNL are not included. These three controls the majority of the market among them. There seems to be no apparent reason for exluding these service providers. The mobile site can be found at m.orkut.com. To learn more, visit here.

But there are hacks which can be used to receive sms completely free of cost to your mobile phone. However, note that you will require to activate GPRS connection if you would like to access Orkut on your mobile phone. You can browse Orkut conviniently using keypad shortcuts on your mobile phone like 3 for Friends, 7 for Scrapbook, 5 for Logout,6 for My Profile, 1 for Help etc. So you can now stay connected with your friends all round the clock.

Kontera ads is an Inline text ad company is offereing a bumper scheme this July. Publishers just to need up this month and they will share 100% revenue that you will earn via the ads that will feature on your website or blog. However, this comes with a rider. The scheme is valid only for the month of July. Sad but if they run this scheme for long, they will not be able to survive for long. Because their revenue comes from the share they from what the advertiser pay.

So if you have a website or blog with considerable traffic then you can sign-up with Kontera and earn more. The best thing about Kontera is that it does not take any extra space. It just picks up keyword from your content and double underlines it. When anyone clicks on that, you are paid. Kontera pays when you reach $100. Sign-up if you have more than atleast 1000 unique visitors per day. The offer is valid only if signed up from the promotional page.

To implement Kontera is quite easy either you can insert the ad codes on every page of your website or before <body> tag of your blog/website template or use the plugins for Blogger, Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla.

There are tons of free blog host service providers these days but what should be our criteria for selecting one. Just do not go by if it is free, as if your blog becomes popular - it can open many earning oppurtunity. The criterias should be:

Webspace - How much webspace is provided - unlimited the better.

Uptime - The site should be 99.99% time online.

Bandwidth - How much bandwidth is provided? If you gain huge traffic at a latter stage will it be able to handle it? Unlimited bandwidth always better.

Features - what all features apart from the basic ones?

Monetization - Does it allow you to run your own ads? or it has some sharing income policy.

Keeping the above criterias in mind, I will give you a list of free blog hosts.

1. www.blogger.com - Unlimited webspace and unlimited bandwidth. Lots of features and allows monetization.

2. www.wordpress.com - Unlimited space and bandwidth, features, no monetization.

3. www.livejournal.com - It another popular blog host and has one of the largest number hosted blogs.

4. www.greatestjournal.com - offers podcast, free blogs, 1 gb photo uploads etc

5. www.freevlog.org - It is very good video blog host. The best thing about this host is, it allows you to customize your blog with your own domain.

6. www.busythumbs.com - It is moblog or mobile blog host and allows users to upload stuffs via GPRS enabled mobile phone or via website.

My idea is not to give you a big list of free blog hosts but to give reference of a few well maintained competent blog host which do the work for you. The above six I have mentioned should take care of all your blogging needs. If anyone is new to blogging, it is advisable to start with a free blog from blogger or wordpress to get a taste of it. Later when you gain experience and if you are serious about blogging then you can move your blog to your own domain for more control. You can use Wordpress publishing platform as it is very easy.

Apple Premium Resellers (APR) are hosting a series of iPhoto workshops in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad on 28th – 29th June and 4th to 6th July. The workshop will engage customers by demonstrating benefits of iPhoto on a Mac.

You can discover new ways to bring alive your digital photos. Learn how to import, organize, edit your photos and print calendars, photo books and cards as PDF’s through a home printer. You can also take home your Family portrait. A lucky winner will be chosen from a lucky dip, who will walk away with a brand new iPod shuffle.

Store Details

Imagine
210, Level 2, Forum Mall,
Hosur Road, Koramangala,
Bangalore
Contact No. 080- 32999099/100
E-mail: asit.b@ample-india.com, rajesh.narang@ample-india.com

iStore
No 87,Almas centre,
MG Road,
Bangalore 560 001
Contact No. 080 - 41571068 / 69
E- mail: sriram.swaminathan@zmail.ril.com

Pic by niallkennedy on flickr

Yesterday Bill Gates bide adeiu to the company he founded and propelled it to the biggest technology company in the world. Microsoft, which he founded with his childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975 in a garage, has made him the richest man in the world for 12 consecutive years. Though now he has slipped to 3rd position after warren Buffet and Carlos Slim. However, he will still work part time on various technology projects and will become the non - executive chairman. He is looking work full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationclick here

True to American culture Bill gates is doing, as once Andrew Carnige said, the first half of the life one should spend earning and the second half one should spend giving it back. Gates foundation has large contribution in India too particularly in the health sector. From today the business world will be missing a full time great leader. Read more about Bill gates.

Microsoft will have to work hard to maintain its position with ever rising Google and a resergent Apple Inc with its new ipod and iphone. It may not be easy with gates not around. However, I think he will have a say in all major decisions even now.

I have attended a bloggers meet in Bangalore which took at the campus of Microsoft. Microsoft also sponsered the event. But this blogger’s meet on a house boat looks a new concept and refreshing. Kerela has taken lots of initiative in tourism and by hosting this conference on a large house boat - they taking it further by blending with technology and tourism. So if you want to be there, Hurry Up! as seats may be limited.

Venue: House Boat, Alappuzha

Date: 16/08/2008

To register visit the following link:

Url : http://www.contactvirus.com/blogcampkerala
Shared Key : godsowncountry

They will contact you to confirm your attendance

I am glad to break the news that technewsbeats.com is now out of the harmful site list of Google search engine. As I mentioned in the earlier post, the issue was with some malicious codes which were there in the free website templates I was using. This malicious codes downloads stuffs on the website users computer without their permission and sometimes even redirect users to other sites. It also attacked my wordpress installation files and injected malicous codes over there. However, you can clean than as I did. This things happen mostly when your FTP password is compromised. So first change your FTP password and then remove any malicous codes you may find apart from codes which are required for the template. The codes may have “eval”, “escape” and may have number of digits and alternating %. Just remove them and upload the newly saved file. To clean the wordpress, you will have to remove all the old wordpress installation files and uploaded a newly downloaded one. This should do the job. In case Google has flagged your site, then after cleaning the site, file for a review. If they find your site clean, Google will clear it.

So as I mentioned technewsbeats.com is has been cleaned and cleared by Google of any badware. It is fully safe now.

Welcome to the First ever Carnival of Tech NewsBeats. The idea behind starting a carnival was to let other bloggers or site owners to share their valuable knowledge with the readers of TechNewsBeats.com, while the readers getting access to more info without leaving the site.

The first edition of the carnival is as follows:

Stephen Dean presents How To Buy A New PC posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

WM Media presents Creating A Website Using Social Networking Skills posted at Sell Website Blog.

Eric Brown presents WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION posted at SEO TIPS 4 U Blog.

Marcus Hochstadt presents SEO vs. Design posted at Marcus Hochstadt.

John W. Furst presents Serendipity Weblog Software - Finally it’s in a Book posted at E-Biz Booster Blog.

Sheamus presents Which Wordpress Plugins Do You Use? posted at i am Sheamus - [Very] Personal Development.

Only Three Notes presents List of PR 10 sites posted at Business & Controversy of Technology.

Bloggers or for that anybody is naturally frightened to write anything about his/her present company, ex - company or for that any company. With tons of blogs coming up these days, you can find a disclaimer on many stating that all that in a particular blog his/her view and not necessarily reflect the employer’s view. It is quite fair and understandable that the companies image is at stake. But now you have new place where you can discuss all about your company, rate your company, rate your boss, share or review a salary etc at Glassdoor.com anonymously. Yes, anonymously. There will be hate reviews, as some dead frogs will write that way after a bad experience. But honest review will be very helpful for knowing about a company and while choosing a job as these reviews will be coming from Company Insiders.

This is a new service, so add your reviews for all the tech geeks.