Category: Technology

Gmail gets a new look

Gmail’s new design is official now. Google started rolling out the new changes to its user. Here is what Gmail offers now:

Streamlined conversations: Conversation view has been completely redesigned to help you read through your email threads. You’ll now see profiles pictures for your contacts, so it’s easier to keep track of who said what. We also stripped out as much as possible so you can focus on communicating with your friends and colleagues.

Elastic density: We know that you use Gmail from a variety of screen sizes and devices, so now the spacing between elements on the screen will automatically change based on the kind of display you’re using. If you prefer a denser view all the time, you can change your density manually in the Settings menu.

New HD themes: Themes have been completely rebuilt to enable us to bring you a new set of beautiful high resolution themes with imagery provided by iStockphoto. We’ve updated most of the old favorites as well and your theme will be automatically carried over to the new look. Go to the Settings menu to take another look at themes and choose the one that fits you best.

Smarter navigation: The navigation panel on the left keeps your labels and chat contacts in view at all times. It’s also more customizable: you can resize the labels and chat areas if you want to see more, or hide the chat area entirely via the chat icon in the lower left. You can also use the arrow keys to navigate around the interface.

Better search: Click the dropdown in the search box to see a new advanced search panel, which makes it easier and faster to find exactly what you’re looking for. You can use the same panel to create a filter from any search in just a few clicks.

For more info. click here

Ubuntu Heading to TVs, Smartphones and Tablets

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, announced at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando, FL, that they will be taking Ubuntu Linux to smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.

Shuttleworth said, “This is a natural expansion of our idea as Ubuntu as Linux for human beings. As people have moved from desktop to new form factors for computing, it’s important for us to reach out to out community on these platforms. So, we’ll embrace the challenge of how to use Ubuntu on smartphones, tablets and smart-screens.”

For more info. check zdnet

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: Features

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, announced on October 19, 2011, brought Honeycomb features to smartphones and added new features including facial recognition unlock, network data usage monitoring and control, unified social networking contacts, photography enhancements, offline email searching, and information sharing using NFC. The company says 4.0 is a complete rethink of Android’s image and is part of a push to make the OS “Enchant me, Simplify My Life, and Make Me Awesome.”

1. Face Unlock: One of the outstanding features of Android is Face Unlock.As the name suggests, unlocks your handset based on facial recognition technology.

2. Android beam: Android is using NFC (near-field communication) so you can share apps, URLs, videos, and songs just by tapping Android phones together.

3. Advanced camera: It allows to conveniently filter, crop, reduce red-eye and many more image editing stuff. Improved auto-focus and integration with other apps.

4. Screen Capture: Its now easy to capture the screenshot of your android device. Just Hold down the power and volume buttons to snap a screenshot.

5. Redesigned UI: The new UI is much sleeker, makes the phone more visual and easier to use. The new system bar provides more control across the entire device and frequently used apps. Roboto typeface made it more attractive and professional.

6. Data Control: An inbuilt feature of Android is the new data control, which allows to manage, monitor, control the data usage. To make it more impressive, it comes with charts and diagrams.

7. Improved Text Input: The new one is faster and more accurate. It got a better dictionaries for correcting misspelled words, also shows wrong spelling with red underline. Copy paste became very simple and easy, as you can move around entire block of text.

8. People App: A new spin on the contact list. The phone’s owner has their own profile, and people’s contact details are sourced from Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Users can define favorite contacts, and individual people can be placed on the homescreen or in folders for quick access.

9. Favorites Tray: Users can stow their favorite apps, links, and folders into a new Favorites tray for quick and easy access.

10. Flexible Widgets: Ice Cream Sandwich’s stock widgets are re-sizable and more robust than previous versions. Also allow us to create folder and categories all apps, contacts etc…

Ubuntu’s 7th Birthday

On Oct 20th, 2004 Mark Shuttleworth and his team announced the initial version of Ubuntu, UBUNTU 4.10. Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project’s codebase. The original aim of the Ubuntu team was to create an easy-to-use Linux desktop with new releases scheduled on a predictable six-month basis, resulting in a more frequently updated system. Ubuntu’s first release was on 20 October 2004. Since then, Canonical has released new versions of Ubuntu every six months with commitment to support each release for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. It was decided that every fourth release, issued on a two-year basis, would receive long-term support (LTS). LTS releases are supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.


Ubuntu 4.10 Screenshot

Applications:

  • GNOME 2.8 (Yes, GNOME 2.8)
  • Firefox 0.9
  • OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
  • Gaim instant messenger 1.0 (Gaim would later become Pidgin)
  • GIMP 2.0
  • Floppy Formatter

    • Naming Convention:
    ‘Warty Warthog’ was so named because of the short amount of time in which it was put together, resulting in release lacking ‘polish’

    If you like to experiment Ubuntu 4.10, Click here to download

    iPhone 4S v/s Samsung Galaxy SII Drop Test

    When we search on net ‘iPhone 4S v/s Samsung Galaxy SII’, we usually find blog notes on hardware specification, performance, software etc. Its really rare to find what happens when you drop it by mistake, moreover nobody going to attempt it. Here is a team named SquareTrace, a company that sells warranties for mobile electronics. Usually video end up with Broken electronic and followed by advertisement. However not this time, well one of the phone got shattered. Have a look.

    How To Upgrade From Ubuntu 11.04 To Ubuntu 11.10

    The latest version of Ubuntu 11.10 is out few hours back. If its a fresh installtion, you can download from Ubuntu Site or download from here

    To upgrade from ubuntu 11.04 to ubuntu 11.10, follow the procedure

    1. To start the upgrading process, Press ALT+F2, type update-manager –d and press Enter
    Note: You can also you Terminal for the same.

    2. This will open the Update Manager where an upgrade button will be visible with a message that the new Ubuntu release is available for upgrade. Click Upgrade to continue.

    3. Shortly after continuing, Release Notes window will be visible. Click Upgrade to initiate the upgrade process.

    4. Just before the upgrade, you will be asked to enter your password, after which the upgrade process will initiate.

    5. During the process, it will list out install files, no longer needed files, no longer supported by canonical files, Remove files and upgrade files. Click Start Upgrade to continue. Update will take time depending upon your internet connection speed.

    6. Once the the upgrade is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.That’s it you have successfully completed the process.

    Geekphilip tips:
    1. Make sure, you take backup of your files
    2. You can cancel the download, any time you like. When you try again, it will resume from the same location.
    3. Make sure, you don’t halt the upgrade process once the installation process begins.

    LibreOffice completes one year

    On 28 September 2010, several members of the OpenOffice.org project formed a new group called “The Document Foundation”. The Document Foundation created LibreOffice from their former project, over concerns that Oracle Corporation would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open-source project, as it had on OpenSolaris. It was originally hoped that the LibreOffice name would be provisional, as Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. Oracle rejected offers to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project, and demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, citing a conflict of interest. The Go-oo project was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice. Improvements made by the project are being merged into LibreOffice. Enhancements made in other forks are also expected to be incorporated into LibreOffice. Also underway is the reduction of Java dependency, with the goal of minimizing security issues and improving application stability.

    As of September 2011, The Document Foundation estimates that there are 10 million users worldwide who have obtained LibreOffice via downloads or CDs. Over 90% of those are on Windows, with another 5% on Mac OS X. There are an estimated 15 million Linux users, with most having obtained the software directly from their distribution. This gives a total estimated user base of 25 million people.

    Firefox 7 is out

    Firefox 7, released on September 27 2011, uses as much as 50% less memory than Firefox 4 as a result of the MemShrink project to reduce Firefox memory usage. Mozilla Firefox 7.0 is currently the latest stable release.

    Couple of new features of Firefox 7:
    * Vastly improved memory usage (up to 50% better) and increased speed[43]
    * Added a new rendering backend to speed up Canvas operations on Windows systems
    * Bookmark and password changes now sync almost instantly when using Firefox Sync
    * Added support for text-overflow: ellipsis
    * Added support for the Web Timing specification
    * Added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of firefox. This can be enabled by installing an add-on
    * Fixed several stability issues

    Google Wallet Review

    Google Wallet is a mobile payment system developed by Google that allows its users to store credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards among other things, as well as redeeming sales promotions on their mobile phone. Google Wallet uses near field communication to “make secure payments fast and convenient by simply tapping the phone on any PayPass-enabled terminal at checkout.”

    Right now, the only phone supported is Sprint’s Nexus S 4G, but Google plans to produce NFC stickers associated with one credit card each, ostensibly to be affixed to non-NFC-capable phones. Two methods for providing money to the service are advertised, Citi Mastercards and “Google Prepaid Card”, which can be loaded using any major credit card. During Google Wallet’s unveiling at NYC headquarters, Google also touted the openness of their new system. Naturally, someone asked about what this meant for non-Android phones. “In terms of iPhone, RIM, Microsoft — we will partner with everyone,” said Google VP of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius.