Google, Facebook Fight Indian Censorship Demands
the high court judge told the companies at a hearing earlier this week that they must find a way to monitor and delete offensive content, or India could go the way of China and start blocking entire websites more actively
No, no, no, no! Have the judges forgotten that India is a DEMOCRACY! One of the things that makes India a great example of how a modern democracy can survive is the ease with which individuals can protest against unfair policies.
It’s time for everyone to protest this ludicrous pronouncement by the New Delhi judges. Censoring online content is a violation of every Indian’s fundamental right to free speech, a right enshrined by the Constitution.
Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi
Amazon unveils the Kindle Fire (a 7” multi-touch colour tablet) for US$199, the Kindle Touch (a 6” touch screen E Ink Kindle) for US$99, and introduces a low priced, ad-supported E Ink Kindle for just US$79.
The the bargain basement Kindle will become a staple for users dipping their toe into the eReader market, while the Kindle Touch will be a nice upgrade for current Kindle owners. Finally, the Kindle Fire introduces a totally new product category, one that is cheaper than the iPad and current stock of Android tablets but ostensibly does just as much.
Personally I won’t be getting the Kindle Fire for reading purposes. My current Kindle 3 works just fine and the only reason I would upgrade is to get faster page refreshes. After all it’s just words on a page, you don’t need any fancy graphics for that!
Google Street View goes to the Amazon Rainforest
How can you not be in awe of Google?
I’m Seeing Circles - Google+ Could Be The Future Of Social Networking
Having tried Google+ here are my thoughts:
1. There needs to be some compelling feature to pull users away from FB. I would argue that the most compelling feature right now is the explicit nature of controlling your privacy settings. However, once you have over 100+ people on your network, I doubt you would bother categorizing them and determining who sees what, it’s simply too much work.
2. A better mobile experience. One of FBs biggest failings have been its lack of a coherent mobile strategy. There is the app, the mobile website, the touch mobile website, the web website (not a mistake), the “zero” website, and apparently the “lite” website. All these different iterations of FB have different features so I often find myself jetting from one to the other. Google+ must ensure that it has an app for each mobile platform (Android and iOS to start with).
3. Better support. Google has a poor support track record, but arguably FBs is even worse. Users need to be assured that their data and passwords won’t be hacked or leaked.
4. Better aggregation. Right now it can be troublesome to view older data on FB, and there is no way to search through your or your friends’ content. Considering Google is a search powerhouse, I should think they would have a good aggregation system for older content.
5. Cleaner interface. FB won the war against MySpace because it had a cleaner interface. Over the years a lot has been tacked onto FB and it is a shadow of its former self. Google+ is fresh, new, and for the moment “clean” (doing my best Justin Timberlake impression). Google needs to ensure that whatever new feature is added in the future, the site remains clutter-free.
6. People need to use it. This is perhaps the most important point, if my friends aren’t on Google+ then there is little utility in me using the service. The slow invite-only roll-out seems a little strange if Google is hoping to make Google+ the next big thing.
That’s all I can say for now. I’ll be adding more posts with updates later.
Looks like there are no more invites :(
Anyone want Google+ invites?
A kind soul just sent me a Google+ invite! Now I have invites to share, send me your email address if you would like one :)
Google+ Has A Gender Neutral Option
Unlike Facebook who stirred up controversy by forcing its users to choose a gender (either male or female), Google has taken an interesting approach with its newest foray into social media by offering an alternative “other” option.
Apple’s iCloud: Data in Forefront, Devices in Background
I’ve been on the fence about using Apple products.
What makes me a Google/Android “fanboy” is the seamless integration between GTalk, GMail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar. These four services are essential and I like that they are baked into my Android phone. I could achieve similar functionality with iOS, but it would not be as seamless. For example, I would have to download a separate GTalk app.
However, Apple’s iCloud service has caused a real disruption in mobile syncing. As I predicted iCloud is completely free. The only paid service will be iTunes Match. All an iOS user has to do is hit the sync button and data is automatically downloaded/uploaded between their devices. This is the Holy Grail of multi-device syncing. There is no need to worry about setting up automatic folder synchronisation or using Dropbox-like tools, which while arguably very powerful requiring some tweaking.
I use a desktop, a laptop, a smartphone and will possibly also purchase a tablet. Keeping my music and videos synced on all these devices will be an annoyance and if iOS can make this less of a headache, I may really consider switching.
