6 Startup and trends of 2011

As the time goes technology and science seeks advancement day by day which lets the new trends to walk in .Here is the list of new trends and startup which is introduced to define 2011.

1. Checkin check’s in

Some say that checkin is dead but it has taken a new face. This internet based network services is re launched with refreshed ideas which is suits current technology .Foursquare which devoured in the year 2009 put up his new 3.0 version .SCAVNGR has also launched its new payment APP “LEVELUP” but it is of no use. Some of the preemptive checkin apps like imup4, crowdbeacon, ditto is helping people to tell what they are planning to do instead what they are doing.

2. Independent Group messaging Apps

Though there are rumors coming around about the acquisitions and re launches of group messaging Apps by many App making giants has subsided. Google launched its Disco which was Slide’s App but it had many flaws in it. later facebook came out with a acquirement news of Beluga followed by Skype’s Groupme.

3. Everything for Everyone says Birchbox

Birchbox is a smart streamlined way to buy high end cosmetics, now it has also included featured products from InStyle, New York Post and Mari Claire and staples. It has jus followed the footsteps of Groupon to promote its products through Daily deals. Now consumers can avail their monthly requirements even for their babies and pets from their subscriptions.

4. Local and Real time for peer to peer Marketplaces

As ebay and Amazon does a great job in peer to peer market, some small enterprises like craiglist, Zaarly, Taskrabbit has planned to implement real time location based services using mobile phones and GPS services. This improvement will help the individual to outsource their chores in the market which they don’t want to deal with.

5. New age online

The days of “love at first sight” has been changed to “love at website” a study from Match.com says 17% of the couple got married through online dating in past three years .They seem to be comfortable in moving their real life with the aid of internet. They rely on it completely before they make a move trusting that it will create a positive impact.

6. Rise of New York tech city

While twitter has already opened its first official NYC office on Madison Avenue.It is expected that the city will become as a Hub for technology based industries. The city appointed its first chief digital officer Rachel Sterne. Her Moto is to draw potential investors to build their organization in the upcoming 2.1 million square foot tech campus on Roosevelt Island where facebook will have its engineering office soon.

60 Percent of Indian Internet Users Shop Online

Online shopping is gaining popularity in India, with a report from ComScore Inc. showing that 3 of every 5 Internet users now shop online.

The report is based on online audience measurement data from ComScore Media Matrix. It states that 27.2 million, i.e. nearly 60 percent of online population in India visited retail sites in November 2011 which is an 18 percent increase from the last year.

16.5 percent of the total online population visited Deal or Coupon sites which show the increasing popularity of these sites. The increased online visibility of retailers through the marketing campaigns and the awareness of people about the sites make the people shop through web. According to Kedar Gavane, ComScore Director for India, “The online channel is playing an important role in connecting the retailers and customers. The retailers have to take advantage of this growth by addressing the needs of potential customers like convenience in ordering and attractive pricing.”

The Coupons category showed a whopping increase of 629 percent from the last year with a visit of 7.6 million customers, lead by Snapdeal.com with 5.2 million followed by mydala.com with 1.4 million and Crazeal.com with 1 million visitors.

ComScore also released the list of top online retail sites based on the number of unique visitors. Amazon leads the list with 6.8 million visitors representing a 14.7 percent of online population. Apple.com worldwide sites came second with 3.4 million followed by Samsung.com with 2.8 million and Flipkart.com with 2.7 million.

The whole time popular item Books, showed a negative growth of three percent from last year. In the user Demographics, male users dominate with 61.8 percent compared to the 38.2 percent females.

With the launch of more retail sites and promotion of existing sites, the number is expected to grow more in the future.

China Racing to Build Super-Computing Centers

With an online population of around 500 million, China is vigorously racing to complete its construction of big, efficient and abundant datacenters as well as super-computer sites, especially with the development of national computer infrastructure in its latest five year plan.

The massive construction of a supercomputing site in the Shenzhen province was noted last year at the IEEE Forum, by IBM’s vice president of deep computing- David Turek , as China's serious effort to develop itself in the field of supercomputing.

According to Steve Sams, VP of global site and facilities services (a unit of Global Technology Services), the Hebei Langfang Range Information Hub would be the centerpiece of China’s third development zone. The Hebei project is expected to be completed by 2016. Another data-center development project is underway in the province of Shanghai.

Local governments are providing their support and funding to this cause, and aim for the construction of as many as 20 data centers with time.

The past has seen China undergoing tides of growth, but none of them have been well-planned and organized said Rick Einhorn, worldwide director for HP's Critical Facilities Services group.

However, Sams said that the data centers under planning and current construction would be built according to the latest eco-friendly construction concepts.

Foreign companies and businesses such as IBM and HP along with businesses in the US will benefit greatly from this growth spurt, as emphasized by Einhorn. "We have more people in China focused on data center development and strategy than, I believe, in any country in the world," he said.

However, some analysts such as Michelle Bailey from IDC say some companies might not pick China as a center for international IT services as a result of its policies regarding “…ownership rights for data and other assets.” She said it would be interesting if China could evolve to keep in step with the market.

Other competitors in the race to build super-computing centers, as pointed out by Turek, include Europe, Japan and Russia.

'LG Prada 3.0' Arrives in India by Jan 2012

The united product of LG and Prada into the Smartphone market “LG Prada 3.0” is entering the Asian and European market in the first month of 2012. Presently the handsets have Android’s Gingerbread and LG confirms that the latest Android OS-Ice Cream Sandwich-will be available for the device in the future.

LG Prada 3.0, which is also known as LG Prada K2 has a trendy design and a high performing hardware. It is equipped with 4.3-inch wide NOVA Plus LG TFT-LCD display with a WVGA resolution of 800 x 480, a dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, an 8MP camera with 1080p HD video recording, a 1.3MP front-facing camera and also supports GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. Some additional features are; 8GB internal memory with microSD card support, 1540mAh battery and has display features 800 nits of brightness.

The exact price of this Smartphone in India is not yet confirmed by LG, but YS-Tech reports states that it will cost around 42,315 ($ 778). Reports also reveals the fact that LG will not price its Prada 3.0 so high in price sensitive markets like India, therefore we can expect to see this stylish handset in an affordable price this New Year.

LG Launching World's Biggest OLED TV

LG is all set to launch world’s biggest OLED TV panel in 2012 at Customer Electronics Show in January. Earlier Sony came up with 11.1 inch SonyDrive XEL-1, the first OLED TV that cost around 69600. But still, the biggest ultra thin TV is yet to come and LG has made it possible by creating a 55-inch ultra-thin OLED TV with 100,000:1 contrast ratio.

“Our objective has always been to actively define and lead emerging display technology markets,” said Sang Beom Han, CEO and Executive Vice President of LG Display. “Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display’s 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers.”

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) are more advanced and has more advantage over existing LCDs. The OLED display transmits better image quality even in low ambient light and it is lighter and thinner compared to LCDs. As per the company, the 55-inch OLED model that is 5 millimeters thick would be the largest OLED display so far with the white OLED technology giving the best-quality images. The price and availability details are not yet disclosed.

LG’s Press release states “The panel adopts an Oxide TFT technology for backplane which is different from a Low Temperature Poly Silicon (LTPS) type generally used in existing small-sized OLED panels. Moreover, the Oxide TFT type produces identical image quality to high performance of LTPS base panels at significantly reduced investment levels”.

However, Samsung is also planning to unveil its 55-inch OLED TV at CES in 2012. So, LG will be facing a big time competition with this huge player in the TV market for this vertical too.

10 Best Doodles of the Year 2011

Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s initiative to notify the users of a server crash during the Burning Man Festival of 1998 in the Nevada desert kick started a whole new genre of doodles. Google celebrates festivals, honors legends, and allows you to play around with physics through its doodles.

Here is a list of 10 most cherished Google-Doodles of year 2011 as listed PC-Mag.com

1. Google plays guitar for Les Paul’s 96^th Birthday

Google celebrated Les Paul’s 96^th birthday by means of its guitar doodle. Les Paul was a Guitarist and inventor who built his own guitar, and electric guitar out of his passion for stringed instruments, and in his search for the perfect sounding guitar. The interactive Guitar Doodle created by Kris Hom and Joey Hurst in June 2011 using JavaScript & Flash allowed users to record their own composition when they “strummed” the strings.

2. Shy man “Mercury” as a Doodle

This featured Doodle was created in remembrance of “Don’t stop me Now” Hero Queen Frontman Freddie Mercury and had a YouTube video on its Back end. Google Engineers took three long months to design the Doodle. Jim Beach who is the member of Mercury’s band has set up Mercury Phoenix Trust for the people who are affected by HIV positive.

3. Google’s Art for Art

It was Art Clokey’s 90th birthday that Google dedicated its home page to, with an interactive stop motion doodle that depicts the important characters of Gumby, (which was created by Art). The characters popped out for a moment as the cursor moved over the colored ‘clay’ figures. “This Doodle is a tribute to my father” said Clokey’s son who now owns the all new Gumby Website.

4. Google honored Charlie Chaplin

Google posted an action video depicting Charlie Chaplin’s silent film on his 122^nd birthday. It occupied 36 long hours to honor Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin, who was born in 1889, began his entertainment career at the age of 14. He started his own film company in 1917, and lived till he was 60.

5. Birthday of Muppets creator Jim Henson

Google has brought in six original characters with life crafted by Henson who is a Muppets creator .The characters were created in Jim Henson’s company for Google’s Doodle to launch as a home page for Henson’s 75^th birthday .The Muppets are from diversified family . Henson philosophy was that we should love people not for their similarities, but for their differences.

6. Google celebrates Verne’s Birthday

Author Jules Verne’s 183^rd birthday was celebrated by Google with an interactive Doodle .This Doodle allows the visitors to navigate under the sea which is the “20,000 leagues under the Sea”. This Doodle remains the most fascinated Doodle of the year says Google Doodler Jennifer . Verne’s some of the famous works are “journey to the center of the earth” And The world Famous “Around the world in 80 days”.

7. Animated Doodle Honors Martha Graham

The animation began with Graham’s signature from “lamentations” and then got morphed into a pose from “satiric festival” and then ended with “a sweep of a skirt”. She was well known for her new style of dance in early 1920’s. She performed 181 stage shows throughout her life.

8.Lucille Ball’s 100th Birthday

This logo which is in the vintage TV is from Lucille’s I love Lucy TV show in 1951, Ball’s began her profession for a Hollywood movie Studio MGM she was been acting for Hollywood movies for 20 years before getting in to small screens.

9. Children’s Author Roger Hargreaves 76th Birthday

Google put a series of pictures from Roger’s Mr.Men and Little Miss Book. Hargreaves was a well known children’s author .This was one of his biggest success which sold millions of copies. Mr. Men is being sold every 2.5 seconds around the world.

10. 92nd Birthday of Richard Scarry

Scarry who was born in Boston in 1919, was a comfortable childhood author. He is an art director, editor, and also an eminent writer .The doodle carried the characters of “Busytown” which is a fiction. He was known for anthropomorphic animals living in the fictional Busy Town.

2012: A Year of Mobile Threats

2011 witnessed convoluted malware attacks on the mobile field. The end of 2011 showed a 4 percent increase in the mobile attacks compared to the first quarter. Adding to it, the global yearly likelihood of an android user clicking on a malicious link reached to a 36 percent and the trend is not going to end as 2012 is predicted to be the year of mobile malware.

The android world keeps on evolving; so are the malwares. The malware developers took an estimated $1 million from android users this year and are planning on looting more. The smart phones are most vulnerable targets as they are rich in applications and data, are tied to the payment processing services, and usually have less security compared to the PC’s.

The expected threats will be on various levels like SMS/Fraud calls, mobile botnets, and vulnerable smart devices. The SMS malware raises primary threat as they are the easiest tie into a transaction infrastructure. Google has removed 22 applications from the android market last month as they are found to charge customers by sending and receiving messages on their behalf. Botnets include a connection of infected mobiles which have the capacity of infecting other phones. 10 families of botnets were discovered in the late 2011 and the number is expected to increase in the coming year. Also security holes in the numerous smart phones will be a driving factor.

The threats are building up as there are new ways of speeding up the process to save the time and money of a malware writer. One process is “Automated repackaging” where the repackaged, infected versions of applications are released into the third party markets. “Malvertising” is another process where a genuine looking advertisement will lead the user to a fraudulent site. The PC based attacks like fraudulent websites, e-mails are also finding their way into the android market as the number of users accessing the internet from smart devices is going to touch a whole time high.

The applications which are more likely to come up with threats are games, utility and porn. So the mobile users are warned to take extreme precautions while downloading and installing the vast applications as they may be stepping into a trap, unknowingly.