Google pulls Gmail app off BlackBerry smartphones

In a move, which will strengthen its rivalry with the manufacturers of popular BlackBerry smartphones (Research in Motion), Google has decided to discontinue offering Gmail app support on BlackBerry, Times of India reports. Beginning from the 22nd of November, 2011, BlackBerry users will not be able to access the Gmail app. The report, however, also confirms that while users will not be able to download the app after the above mentioned date, those already having the app will be able to use it just like they always did. Alternatively, by using their smartphone's web browser,  or syncing their Google account with the BlackBerry service, users will be able to access Gmail.

App no more for BlackBerry 

In response, the article quotes Google as saying that they wish to concentrate on the mobile browser experience, and hence decided to stall the development of the app for BlackBerry. RIM also stated that the BlackBerry smartphones allow users to sync their mail accounts to their BlackBerry smartphones, hence a dedicated app is not a neccessity.

Either ways, this spells trouble for the future of BlackBerry smartphones, who we learn are going through a rough patch, as reportedly they're witnessing their users shifting their loyalties to a fast-growing Android or the iPhone.

source:     http://tech2.in.com/news/blackberry/google-pulls-gmail-app-off-blackberry-smartphones/256542

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Posted in application , BlackBerry smartphones , Gmail , Gmail for BlackBerry , Google , Research in Motion , RIM

Google prepping a new online music store to rival Apple, Amazon

Google is reportedly prepping an online music store to compete with rivals such as Amazon and Apple. The search engine company is presently in talks with record companies and is expected to announce its new music store by end of this month. Google is seeking permission from the companies to sell downloads and to stream purchased music to customers' devices.

According to The New York Times, Google's online music service may arrive before Apple launches iTunes Match, a similar cloud-based music store. The New York Times quotes executives who "spoke on condition of anonymity” that the new store were likely to be linked with the Music Beta, Google's existing cloud-based music store where users can back up their tunes online and stream to their devices. The Music Beta is presently available for the US-based users only. Music Beta was launched nearly five weeks after Amazon opened a similar unlicensed service, Cloud Drive.
Unlike the Music Beta, Google's new music store will actually sell music, on the lines of Apple's iTunes Music Store and Amazon's MP3 store. Reports also suggest that Google may go ahead with its new music store without backing of any record company. The search engine company may soon enter an agreement with EMI Music Group in this regard.
Google's latest foray into entertainment indicates the company's attempts to boost its revenue and sales by maintaining the popularity of Google. The search engine company recently had a successful run with its new social networking experiment Google+.
Apple earlier this month launched iCloud, a service that allows users to store music, photos and documents online from their iDevices such as iPhone and iPad. According to reports, the iCloud may soon feature movies as well.

source:   http://www.thinkdigit.com/General/Google-prepping-a-new-online-music-store_7755.html

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Posted in amazon cloud drive , Apple , Google , google cloud , google online music service , itunes match , music beta

Google to gain from growing mobile focus: analysts

Analysts cheered Google Inc's quarterly results and set a target of as much as $720 on the stock - suggesting a near 30 percent rise from current levels - and said the Internet search giant could emerge a "top mobile play." On Thursday, Google reported a 26-percent rise in third-quarter earnings - ahead of market estimates - helped by growing online ad market and sharper research focus. Accelerating revenue growth in Google's international business, particularly from emerging markets, and its mobile business contributed to the 28-percent increase in paid click growth, according to analysts.

Riding strong

BofA Merrill Lynch analysts see Google's third-quarter results signaling a positive trend for the sector and said they continue to expect a strong third quarter for eCommerce companies. They maintained a positive stance on eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc. BofA Merrill Lynch maintained a "buy" rating on Google's stock, but lowered their price target to $720 from $740. Analysts at J.P. Morgan Securities, however, raised their price target on the stock to $705 from $685, and believe mobile was the biggest factor in Google's sharp acceleration in paid clicks growth. The revenue run rate for Google's mobile business is more than $2.5 billion, a significant leap from $1 billion just a year ago. It is plowing money into its fast-growing mobile business which competes with iPhone maker Apple Inc. The strong mobile revenue highlights the importance of Google's Android mobile software - already the world's most-used smartphone platform - and supports the rationale for its Motorola Mobility Holdings deal, the analysts said.

In August, Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The deal will give Google access to one of the largest patent libraries in the wireless industry as well as hardware manufacturing operations that will allow it to develop its own line of smartphones. The increasing usage of tablets in a manner more similar to PCs than phones is helping drive incremental queries and paid clicks to Google, even if they are coming at a lower price for now, JP Morgan analysts, who rate the stock "overweight," said in a note to clients. "We expect this trend to continue, and for Google to be the primary beneficiary as it likely has 90 percent plus share of mobile search - even higher than on the desktop," they added. Google's Frankfurt-listed shares were trading up 8 percent on Friday. On Thursday, Google shares closed at $558.9 on Nasdaq.

source:  http://tech2.in.com/news/mobile-phones/google-to-gain-from-growing-mobile-focus-analysts/249042

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Posted in Google , Google Android , Google Mobile , Google Mobile App , Google Mobile Blog , Google Mobile Phone Tracking , Google Mobile Sync , Google mobiles , Motorola Mobility

Get Gadgeted this Diwali for Rs. 25,000

We show you what gadgets you can squeeze into a budget of Rs. 25,000 for this festive season's spending.

In our previous “Get Gadgeted” story we covered a range of devices we recommend under a stricter budget of Rs. 10,000. It’s time to take things up a notch so we’ve upped the ‘expense account’ to Rs. 25,000. Here are a bunch of goodies you can get yourself (or others) with a budget of Rs. 25,000. Micromax A70 (Rs. 7,889) View Stores With a rather sharp looking device, Micromax has managed to gain some redemption in the smartphone segment with this, their A70 Android powered device. The A70 runs on a 600MHz processor and utilizes Android 2.2 aka FroYo quite well in terms of functionality. It offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, 32GB microSD card support and a 5MP camera. Micromax has also provisioned the A70 with quite a few freebies like a task manager, network manager, power manager, software manager and file manager as well as an internet radio streaming application. The trackball under the 3.2-inch display works out quite well for menu navigation. Low budget smartphone that gives you a value for money deal Canon A1200 Powershot Digicam (Rs. 5,550) View Stores Cameras are a sure shot option when thinking about gifting yourself or loved one a gadget this Diwali. It’s no problem if you’re an amateur at photography or just want a camera for casual purposes. We have identified the ideal camera for those who want a camera that's extremely easy to use and suited for most budgets – the Canon PowerShot A1200. This camera features a 12.1MP CCD sensor, optical zoom of 4x and the camera is extremely easy to use. This camera also has 720p HD video recording. This is a great camera for a great price. One can purchase this camera for a street price of Rs. 5,800 and possibly in some places a little lesser. So go ahead and start clicking with this camera during this festive period. Snap those fireworks with this well priced Powershot Apple iPod Shuffle 2GB (Rs. 3,150) Diwali is the time for celebration, music and fun. If your music needs haven’t been fulfilled so far then this one’s for you. Apple’s new iPod Shuffle provides a cool 2GB of memory which can store around hundreds of your favourite music tracks. It also provides 15 hours of battery life which means whether you’re working out, or running a few laps in the park, or travelling; the iPod is not going to run out of juice. Also, it’s available in five colours - Silver, Blue, Green, Orange and Pink, so there’s no dearth of options to choose from depending on your liking. Priced at Rs. 3,150 for the 2GB version, this Diwali gift your ears with a superior audio experience.  Great for the gym or to down out the fire crackers Canon Pixma MP287 (Rs. 2,999) What better way to complement your PC than a nice little MFD. Canon has a really affordable one, the MP287, which retails for as little as Rs.2,999 on online stores like Flipkart. This inkjet printer also has a copier and scanning functionalities, all bundled up in a rather good looking package. It uses Canon's Hybrid Ink system for better colours and sharper prints. The bundled application helps enhance the grey text on web pages making it easier to print pages from the web. The ease of use and good feature set makes it a very good pick, especially at this price. An  Multi Function Device to bring more color to your festive spirit source: http://tech2.in.com/features/general/get-gadgeted-this-diwali-for-rs-25000/248832

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Posted in Amicromax A70 Release Date , android , Android 2.2 , Android FroYo , Diwali , FroYo , Get Gadgeted , Google , Google Android FroYo , Micromax A70 India , Micromax A70 Smartphone

Googling for 13 years and counting

Thirteen years ago, that is on 27th of September, 1998 Google Inc was registered as a company. As it turns an awkward teen, we look at the growth ...

Thirteen years ago, that is on 27th of September, 1998, Google Inc was registered as a company. As it turns an awkward teen, we look at the growth, transitions, success and pitfalls of the services offered by the brand, and its impact on the Internet at large. While the roots of Google as a search engine can be traced back to January 1996 (when it was first called BackRub), it was only after the company was incorporated that it bloomed to its full potential. Let’s take a look at what they did right and what flopped in Google’s reign so far: Google took its nascent steps into technology with the search engine, which continues to be the backbone of its operations. The success story of Google has a lot to do with its robust search optimization tools, and is rated as the most visited site as per latest Alexa rankings (the top two sites most visited in India are Google.co.in and google.com). In fact, a comScore result in August 2011 shows that Google sites make up for 65% of the search market in the US. However this journey had its share of security run-ins too, especially with the communist nations and the EU. However, everything said and done, Google did manage to strengthen its search engine roots with a variety of other products like Google Analytics and Google Maps. Maps have been a runaway success thanks to the mobile computing segment as an independent product too. It started off with just looking for what you want Google AdWords and AdSense (AdWords: October 23rd, 2000; AdSense: June 18th, 2003) How do you make a living and ensure that you pay enough salaries to not just become the best employers in the world, but also attract the brightest of minds, selling free services? Well you can't. You need resources that earn you your bread and butter and Google is no different. Google AdWords was launched on October 23, 2000 and is the company's primary advertising product that acts as its important source of revenue. The company registered total advertising revenues of over $28 billion in 2010 alone. Helping you understand the web AdSense launched on June 18, 2003 and is a program that enables AdWords advertisers to publish advertisements on website. These advertisements are placed and maintained by Google, which makes it possible to calculate revenue based on the per-click or per-impression basis AdWords model. Form this service, Google reportedly earned US$2.34 billion in 2011 alone. The success of AdWords and AdSense lies in the fact that it presented ads in an obstructive pattern, but an effective way, unlike flashy ad banners that was quite a rage in the 90s. Google Image Search (July, 2001 No confirmed date available) Google's runaway success in the search arena wasn’t merely because they focused primarily on their result base, and not flaunting ads, but also because of how they added more features to make it all pervasive. To further the process, they introduced the image search feature in July, 2001. The multilingual project was tied well with the main interface of the main search window where in users were offered to jump directly to the image search page directly through a search listing. As of 2010, the service is said to have indexed over 10 billion pages (1), with over a billion hits every day (2). And as a birthday gift, they have thrown in some new features: apart from image size, color and type, you can also sort the image results by subject. So for instance if you search for Jaguars, you can narrow it down as animals, cars, locations, etc. Quite an impressive upgrade! Now the next best thing would be image based search, akin to Google Goggles on the Android platform. source:http://tech2.in.com/features/web-services/googling-for-13-years-and-counting/246662

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Posted in Gmail , Google , Google Earth , Google ImagesGoogle Analytics , Google Maps , Google Plus , Google Search , Google Street View , Google Translate , Googlemail , Gtalk , Search Giant Google