Google Docs adds ZIP and RAR support

Google Docs has added support for ZIP and RAR archives since yesterday which allows users of Google Docs to preview the file contents of compressed archives in their browser before downloading. Gmail users too will benefit as they can use Google Docs to view the files in zip and rar archives coming in as email attachments before opening them.

Business users who depend on Google Docs rather than on desktop tools like Microsoft Office and other users who use Google Docs as their primary productivity suite will benefit the most from this.

For the large number of Gmail users, the option to open zip and rar archives being received as email attachments without downloading or opening them would be of great facility as users are often worried that attachments could contain malicious files.

Google claims 10M Google+ users amidst record results

In the wake of its impressive second quarter results, Google was eloquent about the early success of Google+, its high-profile social networking service. While announcing a 36 percent jump in quarterly profit, new CEO Larry Page said that more that 10 million people have joined Google+ since it launched a limited, invitation-only trial earlier this month. Page said that more than an billion items are shared and received through Google+ in a single day while the Google+1 button is being served 2.3 billion times a day.

Google also revealed that 550,000 phones a day are now activated on Android, with more than 135 million total Android device activations to date. Although Google’s core search engine advertising was the largest contributor to the growth in the latest quarter , Page stressed that the company's investments in its Android mobile-device software and the Chrome Web browser will "generate huge new businesses for Google in the long run, just like search."

Microsoft to discontinue support for Windows XP in three years

Microsoft announced this week that it would stop support for Windows XP by the spring of 2014 as the company shifts entirely to Windows 7 and plots future iterations.

Users of Windows XP now have less than 1000 days before support for the product ends.

Microsoft has claimed that 400 million Windows 7 licences have been sold since its release in 2009, thereby justifying its decision to end support for the decade-old XP. Microsoft intends to do all it can to assist die-hard users of XP make the transition to Windows 7.

Erwin Visser, the Windows Commercial Marketing Team’s Senior Director said “One way users can stay updated on the latest version of Windows is through Windows Intune, our cloud-based PC management and security service that includes the benefit of upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise as well as future versions of Windows”

Google blocks co.cc from its search results

Google took the initiative of attack on malware by blocking the entire co.cc subdomain. The move removed 11million results from the Google search index and is expected to drastically clean up malware in search results.

Co.cc which is classified by Google as a "freehost", is owned by a Korean company that allows bulk purchase of domains, offers domains for free or offers them very cheap.

A scan performed by Google on the domain co.cc revealed that a very high percentage of their sites contained malware.

This change made by Google is welcome and should make it much easier to sift through search results in future.

Google says Okrut and Google+ to co-exist

Orkut, the other social networking site from Google, which has been around for about seven years and has millions of users, will continue to operate alongside the new Google+ for the time being. Google has kept its options open regarding fusing the two sites through some kind of integration in future.

When asked what the future holds for Orkut, a Google spokeswoman said over e-mail, "Orkut and Google+ are different products, and will both exist. Over time, we'll determine what makes the most sense in terms of integrating these products,"

Riding on Google+, the company is expecting to compete with Facebook, a social networking site with tighter and easier to configure privacy features.

Google is hoping that though Facebook is the dominant player in social networking, a good number of its users feel uneasy about its privacy controls that they would be willing to switch to a rival that offered them improvements in that area.

Yet Google has no imminent plans to shut down Orkut, which is a good news for the users.

Motorola launches Droid 3 with Verizon

Motorola has teamed up with Verizon wireless to launch the new Droid 3 running on Android 2.3. claiming to be the worlds thinnest full QWERTY smartphone, the DROID 3 runs on a dual-core 1 GHz processor for fast multitasking and will be available from July 14 for US$199.99 with a new 2 year customer agreement from Verizon. 

Image source: zdnet.com

The device will however be shipped with a locked bootloader, preventing ardent Android geeks from doing much tweaking and tinkering with the device. The new handset comes with a 960×540 resolution display and a keyboard with a small fifth row of dedicated number keys. It includes support for GSM / HSPA networks and can accept a SIM for voice and data usage in more than 200 countries across the world. Though the device comes with a front facing camera, it will not be possible to do video chatting using Google Talk unless upgraded to Android 2.3.4 .

Google introduces support for NFC tagging in Android app for Google+

The Android app for Google’s social network Google+ has been reportedly found to ‘tag’ content automatically using NFC (Near Field Communication)-based technology. Readwriteweb.com reported that Singapore-based developer Ridzuan Ashim showed the feature working in a circulated video (shown below)

On scanning, the text stored in the tag is automatically placed in the 'Share your thoughts' screen in the Google+ Android app, which is typically used to post Facebook-style status updates to the social network. 

NFC is a wireless technology which facilitates data transfer at short distances and is often used for contactless payments. As more handsets support the technology, further uses of the technology like performing check-ins, sharing of contact information etc. could emerge. 

Dell rolls out cloud service

Dell has quietly rolled out a cloud service offering that is set to take on iCloud from Apple. Dubbed Stage, the release of the software did not have the hype surrounding that of iCloud from Apple or 666 from Microsoft and began shipping last week.

It allows a user who takes a snap with their Stage-enabled Dell Streak or Dell mobile device to automatically upload it to a free 2 Gbyte pool of storage. Devices can also  remotely control and playback shared audio and video using the new software. Dell has also included support for podcasts; integrated a Noisey application showcasing music and an enhanced Napster home page.

Printer to produce personalised 3D chocolate

Exciting news for chocolate lovers!! They may soon be able to print their own 3D designs for chocolate. Researchers at the University of  Exeter in the UK have been able to design a 3D printer that uses chocolate and uses layers of chocolate instead of ink or plastic. Several retailers have expressed the desire of taking one such device which is still a prototype.

Once the prototype takes the shape of a finished product, it is likely to become a part of the restaurant and food preparation industry. 

Becoming part of social networks

Lead scientist Dr Liang Hao's team wants to take he printer into cyberspace. Dr Hao said next to come would be creating a chocolate oriented website.

As told by Dr Hao to BBC News, "Now we have an opportunity to combine chocolate with digital technology, including the design, digital manufacturing and social networking".

"Chocolate has a lot of social purpose, so our intention is to develop a community and share the designs, ideas and experience about it."

South Korea to digitize textbooks by 2015

South Korea is set to transform elementary education in the next three years which will result in a huge market for home grown electronics.
All elementary-level education material in the country will be digitized by 2014. By 2015, all school-age curriculum is to be delivered through computers, smartphones and tablets. The country's education ministry has revealed that it will spend $2.4billion on purchase of the tablets and digitizing material for them.

Debates about whether or not students learn better from display screens or printed material are already on. Also being discussed is the ideal form factor of devices to be used in place of text books.

This seems to be a huge business opportunity for Samsung as governments and students are considered as captive audience. 

Google Chrome exceeds 20% market share, IE keeps sliding

The continuing rise in popularity of the Google Chrome browser took it past the milestone of 20% worldwide market share for browsers, according to StatCounter, the free website analytics company. 

From 2.8% in June 2009, Chrome rose to a worldwide share of 20.7% in June 2011. Internet Explorer from Microsoft slid from 59% to 44% during the same period. 

StatCounter's method of tracking highlights Google's strength of attracting power users. Another usage tracker, Net Applications too shows Chrome rising fast, up to more than 13% usage in comparison to IE's 54% and Firefox's 22%. 

The groups count differently as Net Applications tracks the total number of users for a browser while StatCounter measures the total number of website clicks. This means that the StatCounter ranking gives more weight to a Chrome user who surfs the Web more often than an Internet Explorer user.  

The performance of Chrome has been particularly well in South America where it overtook Firefox in April to become the number two browser. In June it touched 29.7%, ahead of Firefox's 24.6% and behind IE at 44.1%.

Vodafone launches content channel in Android market

Vodafone announced that it has become the first company in Europe to launch a content channel of its own brand in the Android Market. The channel will offer customers regular updates on Vodafone services apart from the best news, sports, information and gaming apps, which would all be sourced from Vodafone's global and local partnerships, either on an exclusive, free or discounted basis. While the channel is already available in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain, launches are also planned for Greece, Portugal and Ireland. The store is only available to Vodafone customers using a handset running on a customized version of Android from Vodafone.

GSM completes 20 years of commercial service

On 1st July 2011, GSM services completed 20 glorious years of commercial service. It was on 1st July 1991 that the first ever GSM call was made over a commercial network in Finland. To commemorate the landmark a press release was issued by Nokia Seimens Network (NSN). The first commercial GSM network was built for the  Finnish operator Radiolinja by Telenokia and Seimens and the historic first converstaion was between the Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri in Helsinki and Kaarina Sounio (Mayor in the city of Tampere).

In 1987, the basic parameters of the GSM standard had been agreed upon and adopted as the standard for digital mobile technology in Europe. The second generation (2G)  technology was capable of both voice and data communication and enabled the advent of services such as the SMS. The total number of subscribers worldwide for GSM services has now crossed 4.4 billion and over 1 million new subscribers join in everyday.