Will Android ever succeed in the tablet market?

It rules the smartphone market, but several factors prevent Android from going mainstream in the tablet market.

It is pretty clear that Android is the market leader in mobile operating systems when it comes to smartphones. A recent report from Gartner suggests that Android owns as much as 52.5 percent of the growing worldwide smartphone market, followed by Symbian at 16.9 percent and Apple’s iOS at 15.0 percent.

On top of that, its momentum seems unstoppable. Even with Apple’s law suits and the entry of Nokia’s Windows Phones, there is no stopping Android’s march to the peak of the smartphone mountain.

The same, however, cannot be said for Android in the tablet market. In fact, Android tablets have been met with only minimal market acceptance to date and signs suggest that it may never become a powerhouse for tablets like it is for smartphones. For one thing, Google has various versions of its OS for tablets on the market and no consistency of releases. It often releases a new tablet OS with only one "hero" vendor so that other licensees don’t get that version for as long as six months.

There are at least two other key reasons that the mainstream version of Android for tablets may never reach its full potential. First, Amazon's Kindle Fire uses Android, as does Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet. In both cases, the companies have taken the base version of Android and completely customized it. 

In a sense, they have hijacked Android for their own purposes. The process has caused a serious splintering, or forking, of Android for tablets. Especially true in Amazon’s case, software developers have to adapt their Android apps for tablet use and to be sold through Amazon's Appstore for Android. Amazon does not include Google's Apps Marketplace since it wants to curate the apps that go into its stores to make sure they work as designed and assure that they are free of malware.

The second key reason is that many of the vendors who have backed Android for tablets are discouraged by Google’s handling of Android for tablets via the "hero" vendor model and the lack of consistency of tablet OS releases. Also, they are quite leery of Google’s acquisition of Motorola as they believe that Motorola will always get preferential treatment, even though Google denies such. They are no longer certain that Android, outside of Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s versions, may ever become widely accepted in consumer tablets in the future.

I am also seeing a major move by the likes of HP, Dell, Lenovo, and some other past Android supporters in tablets to switch to Windows 8 for tablets for a couple of reasons. These big companies mostly sell to businesses and enterprises. They had already seen the handwriting on the wall when it came to Android’s acceptance in enterprises. IT managers, who at first were enamored with Android in tablets for use in their businesses but were concerned that they would have to re-write their apps for Android, are now shifting their attention to Windows 8. The main reason is that it will support existing apps, with some touch UI tinkering, when Microsoft and its partners release Windows 8 tablets in quarter three of next year. Though that seems like a long time away, they are willing to wait since they no longer believe they can convince IT buyers to use Android if Microsoft’s has a solution that would work more seamlessly within the current IT programs.

Another issue also poses concern when it comes to tablets in business and enterprise. At the moment, Apple is the only game in town and by its own admission, it has either pilot programs or sell-ins of iPads in 475 of the Fortune 500 businesses. In fact, it has sold 10,000 to American Airlines and United Airlines each and another 10,000 are being deployed by SAP in the coming year. I am also aware of at least ten other enterprise accounts that are considering buying more than 5,000 iPads each for their programs. Every day I hear of new business uses for the iPad and Apple is certain to enhance its push to business for the iPad in the New Year.

That suggests to me that Android in enterprise is dead in the water. While Apple has a major advantage in this area now, big Android vendors who sell to IT must support Windows 8 on tablets if they hope to eat away at Apple’s market lead.

Samsung seems to be the only vendor at the moment making any real progress with mainstream Android in the consumer space; Motorola and HTC are following behind. If they see it has a chance in the consumer market, Samsung and HTC may both adopt Windows 8 at some point, as well. This could dilute their focus on making Android successful in the consumer space.

So, while it is easy to predict that Android will continue to rule the smartphone space, the tablet market has a lot of other dynamics behind it that could keep the mainstream version of Android from ever achieving a similar domination. With Apple’s iPad lead and Microsoft’s soon-to-be entrance in tablets with Windows 8, Android for tablets may never realize its full potential.

Source: Thinkdigit.com, PCMag.com

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ABCD of Computer - Part III

With ABCD Computer - Part III we are coming to an end of the series of blog posts covering popular terms from different zones. This particular blog post will focus on some of common terms from internet that we encounter everyday.
Following 13 terms include some of the hot-cakes from internet arena. So lets get started...


1. 404 Error
A 404 error is a common website error message that indicates a webpage cannot be found. It may be produced when a user clicks an outdated (or "broken") link or when a URL is typed incorrectly in a Web browser's address field. 


2. Active X

This Microsoft-based technology was built to link desktop applications to the World Wide Web. Using ActiveX development tools, software developers can create interactive Web content for their applications. 
For example, Word and Excel documents can be viewed directly in Web browsers that supports ActiveX. While ActiveX is a useful technology, the downside is that you need to have a up-to-date version ActiveX installed on your machine in order to use ActiveX-enabled content.


3. BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol designed to reduce the bandwidth required to transfer files. It does this by distributing file transfers across multiple systems, thereby lessening the average bandwidth used by each computer. 
For example, if a user begins downloading a movie file, the BitTorrent system will locate multiple computers with the same file and begin downloading the file from several computers at once. 


4. Bookmark
Similar to a real-life bookmark, an Internet bookmark acts as a marker for a Web site. (In Internet Explorer, they're called "Favorites").
When using a Web browser, you can simply select a bookmark from the browser's Bookmarks menu to go to a certain site. This way, you don't have to go through the redundant process of typing in the Internet address each time you visit one of your favorite sites.


5. Captcha
A captcha is program used to verify that a human, rather than a computer, is entering data. Captchas are commonly seen at the end of online forms and ask the user to enter text from a distorted image (shown below). 

The text in the image may be wavy, have lines through it, or may be highly irregular, making it nearly impossible for an automated program to recognize it. Most captchas allow the user to regenerate the image if the text is too difficult to read. Some even include an auditory pronunciation feature.


6. Cloud Computing
Cloud computing refers to applications and services offered over the Internet. These services are offered from data centers all over the world, which collectively are referred to as the "cloud." This metaphor represents the intangible, yet universal nature of the Internet.

The idea of the "cloud" simplifies the many network connections and computer systems involved in online services. In fact, many network diagrams use the image of a cloud to represent the Internet. This symbolizes the Internet's broad reach, while simplifying its complexity. Any user with an Internet connection can access the cloud and the services it provides. Since these services are often connected, users can share information between multiple systems and with other users.


7. FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Stands for "File Transfer Protocol." It is a common method of transferring files via the Internet from one computer to another. However, you can also use a Web browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer to access FTP servers. To do this, you need to type the URL of the server into the location field of the browser.
For example: "ftp://ftp.servername.com/" will give you a listing of all the directories of the FTP server, "ftp://ftp.servername.com/directory/" will give you a listing of all the files available in that directory, and "ftp://ftp.servername.com/directory/filename" will download the actual file to your computer. Many FTP servers are "anonymous FTP" servers which means you can log in with the user name "anonymous" and your e-mail address as the password. Other FTP servers require a specific login in order to access the files.


8. IP Address
Also known as an "IP number" or simply an "IP," this is a code made up of numbers separated by three dots that identifies a particular computer on the Internet. Every computer, whether it be a Web server or the computer you're using right now, requires an IP address to connect to the Internet. IP addresses consist of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255, separated by three dots.
For example "66.72.98.236" or "216.239.115.148". Your Internet Service Provider (ISP), will assign you either a static IP address (which is always the same) or a dynamic IP address, (which changes everytime you log on).


9. POP3 (Post Office Protocol)
Stands for "Post Office Protocol." POP3, sometimes referred to as just "POP," is a simple, standardized method of delivering e-mail messages. A POP3 mail server receives e-mails and filters them into the appropriate user folders. When a user connects to the mail server to retrieve his mail, the messages are downloaded from mail server to the user's hard disk.
When you configure your e-mail client, such as Outlook (Windows) or Mail (Mac OS X), you will need to enter the type of mail server your e-mail account uses. This will typically be either a POP3 or IMAP server. IMAP mail servers are a bit more complex than POP3 servers and allow e-mail messages to be read and stored on the server. Many "webmail" interfaces use IMAP mail servers so that users can manage all their mail online.


10. Proxy Server
Most large businesses, organizations, and universities these days use a proxy server. This is a server that all computers on the local network have to go through before accessing information on the Internet. 
By using a proxy server, an organization can improve the network performance and filter what users connected to the network can access.


11. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Stands for "Search Engine Optimization." Just about everyone wants his or her site to appear in the top listings of all the major search engines.
For example, ABC runs an online soccer store. He wants his site to show up in the top few listings when someone searches for "soccer shoes." Then he gets more leads from search engines, which means more traffic, more sales, and more revenue. The problem is that there are thousands of other soccer sites, whose owners are hoping for the same thing. That's where search engine optimization, or SEO, comes in.


12. URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
Stands for "Uniform Resource Locator." A URL is the address of a specific Web site or file on the Internet. It cannot have spaces or certain other characters and uses forward slashes to denote different directories. 
Some examples of URLs are http://www.thinkdigit.com/, http://dauniv.ac.in/, and ftp://info.apple.com/. As you can see, not all URLs begin with "http". The first part of a URL indicates what kind of resource it is addressing. 


13. Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is term that was introduced in 2004 and refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web. The term "2.0" comes from the software industry, where new versions of software programs are labeled with an incremental version number. Like software, the new generation of the Web includes new features and functionality that was not available in the past. However, Web 2.0 does not refer to a specific version of the Web, but rather a series of technological improvements.

Some examples of features considered to be part of Web 2.0 are: blogs, wikis, social networking, web applications, etc.


I hope ABCD of Computer blog post series helps you in understanding various concepts related to computer. Give your suggestions for upcoming blog posts.


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ABCD of Computer - Part II

So here we are, with the second installment/part of ABCD of Computer. As you know, we are covering everyday computer terms trough this particular series of blog posts, and we have already seen software terms in previous post, now its time to go through some of the popular terms from hardware zone of computer.

I have listed following 12 popular terms, some of them are known to us, and some create confusion with a closely related term. Let us take these terms one by one in a very simple language. Here we go...

1. Access Point

An access point is a device, such as a wireless router, that allows wireless devices to connect to a network. Most access points have built-in routers, while others must be connected to a router in order to provide network access. In either case, access points are typically hardwired to other devices, such as network switches or broadband modems.

Access points can be found in many places, including houses, businesses, and public locations. In most houses, the access point is a wireless router, which is connected to a DSL or cable modem.

2. DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)

Stands for "Digital Subscriber Line". It is medium for transferring data over regular phone lines and can be used to connect to the Internet. However, like a cable modem, a DSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection, even though the wires it uses are copper like a typical phone line.

3. Flash Drive

Flash drives have many names — jump drives, thumb drives, pen drives, and USB keychain drives. Regardless of what you call them, they all refer to the same thing, which is a small data storage devices that uses flash memory and has a built-in USB connection.

4. Flash Memory

Flash memory is a type of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). The name comes from how the memory is designed -- a section of memory cells can be erased in a single action or in a "flash."

A common use of flash memory is to store the BIOS settings in a computer's ROM. When the BIOS needs to be changed, the flash memory can be written in blocks, rather than bytes, making it easy to update. Most modems use flash memory for the same reason. 

Flash memory cards used for digital cameras, cellular phones, networking hardware, and PC cards. Though the memory's read/write speed is not lightning fast, it is nice to be able to tote around a little card rather than a cumbersome hard drive.

5. HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface)

HDMI is a digital interface for transmitting audio and video data in a single cable. It is supported by most HDTVs and related components, such as DVD and  Blue-Ray players, cable boxes, and video game systems.

HDMI carries the audio and video streams together, greatly eliminating cable clutter. For example, a component cable connection requires three cables for video and two for audio, totaling five cables in all. The same information can be transmitted using one HDMI cable.

6. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

LCDs are super-thin displays that are used in laptop computer screens and flat panel monitors. Smaller LCDs are used in handheld TVs, PDAs, and portable video game devices. Since LCD screens are based on the principle of blocking light (rather than emitting it), they use up much less power than standard CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube) monitors.

7. LED (Light-Emitting Diode)

An LED is an electronic device that emits light when an electrical current is passed through it. Early LEDs produced only red light, but modern LEDs can produce several different colors, including red, green, and blue (RGB) light. Recent advances in LED technology have made it possible for LEDs to produce white light as well.

Some examples include street lights, the red lights on cars, and various types of decorative lighting. You can typically identify LEDs by a series of small lights that make up a larger display. For example, if you look closely at a street light, you can tell it is an LED light if each circle is comprised of a series of dots.

The energy efficient nature of LEDs allows them to produce brighter light than other types of bulbs while using less energy. For this reason, traditional flat screen LCD displays have started to be replaced by LED displays, which use LEDs for the backlight. LED TVs and computer monitors are typically brighter and thinner than their LCD counterparts.

8. Modem

The word modem is actually short for Modulator/Demodulator. A modem is a communications device that can be either internal or external to your computer. It allows one computer to connect another computer and transfer data over telephone lines. The original dial-up modems are becoming obsolete because of their slow speeds and are being replaced by the much faster cable and DSL modems.

9. Motherboard

The motherboard is the main circuit board of your computer and is also known as the mainboard or logic board. If you ever open your computer, the biggest piece of silicon you see is the motherboard.

Attached to the motherboard, you'll find the CPU, ROM, memory RAM expansion slots, PCI slots, and USB ports. It also includes controllers for devices like the hard drive, DVD drive, keyboard, and mouse. Basically, the motherboard is what makes everything in your computer work together. Each motherboard has a collection of chips and controllers known as the chipset. 

10. Plug and Play

Plug and Play, sometimes, abbreviated PnP, is used to describe devices that work with a computer system as soon as they are connected. 

The user does not have to manually install drivers for the device or even tell the computer that a new device has been added. Instead the computer automatically recognizes the device, loads new drivers for the hardware if needed, and begins to work with the newly connected device.

For example, if you connect a Plug-and-Play mouse to the USB port on your computer, it will begin to work within a few seconds of being plugged in. A non plug-and-play device would require you to go through several steps of installing drivers and setting up the device before it would work.

11. Router

This is a hardware device that routes data (hence the name) from a local area network (LAN) to another network connection. A router allow only authorized machines to connect to other computer systems. Most routers also keep log files about the local network activity.

12. USB

Stands for "Universal Serial Bus." USB is the most common type of computer port used in today's computers (a sort of industry standard). It can be used to connect keyboards, mice, game controllers, printers, scanners, digital cameras, and removable media drives, just to name a few.

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10 must know Windows keyboard shortcuts.

Microsoft took a big step by completely transforming its flagship operating system Window XP to Vista (although not successful) and then fine tuned, ultra-light on memory consumption version Windows 7.

Windows 7 is not all about look and feel, and improved on performance, but Microsoft has put in a lot of efforts in how user can extract more of it. So, today we will look at 10 must know shortcuts keys of Windows 7 which will make our day-to-day work more fun!

1. Alt + P

In Windows Explorer, activate an additional file preview pane to the right side of the window with this new shortcut. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory.

2. Windows + + (plus key) and Windows + - (plus minus key)

Pressing the Windows and plus or minus keys activates the Magnifier, which lets you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in and out of parts of your screen. You can customize the Magnifier options to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor. Keep in mind that so far, the Magnifier only works when Aero desktop is enabled.

3.  Windows + UP arrow key and Windows + DOWN arrow key

If a window is not maximized, pressing Windows + Up will fill it to your screen. Windows + Down will minimize that active window. Unfortunately, pressing Windows + Up again while a window is minimized won’t return it to its former state.

4. Windows + RIGHT arrow key and Windows + LEFT arrow key

One of the new features of Windows 7 is the ability to automatically make a window fill up half of your screen by dragging to the left or right. This pair of shortcuts performs the same function without your mouse. Once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut to flip it to the other side. This is useful if you’re extending a desktop across multiple monitors, which prevents you from executing this trick with a mouse.

5. Windows + Home 

This shortcut performs a similar function to hovering over a window’s peek menu thumbnail in the Taskbar. The active window will stay on your desktop while every other open application is minimized. Pressing this shortcut again will restore all the other windows.

6. Windows + E

Automatically opens up a new Explorer window to show your Libraries folder.

7. Windows + P

Manage your multiple-monitor more efficiently with this handy shortcut. Windows + P opens up a small overlay that lets you configure a second display or projector. You can switch from a single monitor to dual-display in either mirror or extend desktop mode.

8. Windows + Shift + LEFT arrow key and Windows + Shift + RIGHT arrow key

If you are using two or more displays, memorize this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which his useful when working with multiple documents. Utilize that real estate!

9. Windows + [Number]

Programs (and new instances) pinned to your Taskbar can be launched by hitting Windows and the number corresponding to its placement on the Taskbar. Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth.

10. Windows + Space bar

This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar. It makes every active window transparent so you can view your desktop. The windows only remain transparent as long as you’re holding down the Windows key.

I Hope this information will enhance your working experience on Windows. Suggestions are welcome! :)

Servicing your Windows Operating System!

Today's IT (Information Technology) and IT enabled services are integral part of our daily lives. We are so much dependent on them that we can't imagine our self without them. Well, my agenda is not about computer and our daily lives, but it is about the times when we are in hurry to get aways with our (computer) system related works as quickly as possible, and these are the times when we notice that our system is not working the way we want it to, i.e. Windows is taking longer time to startup, applications too are taking longer time to start and close, etc.
To sum-up, its time to fine-tune your Operating System (with reference to Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7). So in this blog we will see different ways to reduce Windows startup time and increasing system's performance as a whole.


Check point #1 - Reducing Windows startup time
Click Start, go to Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
System Configuration Utility window will pop-up.

 

Now go to Startup tab, from the list available you can check/uncheck the services/programs, you want to be started when Windows start, a system restart is required after you apply new settings.

Note that, you can uncheck all the programs, leaving your Antivirus program checked, it will significantly boost your Windows startup time.

Check point #2 - Deleting the temporary files permanently
Click Start, go to Run, type %temp% and press Enter.
It will direct you to a new window, herein select all the files and hit Shift + Del keys from your Keyboard, it will permanently delete these unnecessary files from your system.

Note that, some files will not delete, skip them. Following this check point once in a week is recommended.

Check point #3 - Stopping unwanted services
Every time when Windows starts, it starts with approximately 130 services! We don't need all of these services to be working at the same time, even we don't need some of them to be working at all.
While tweaking some of them you may find it bit technical, so will we take some of general services which we can stop very easily.
Click Start, go to Run, type services.msc and press Enter.
Services window will pop-up.

From the list, find:

1. Smart Card, double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.  
2. Windows Error Reporting Service (Error Reporting Service, in case you are using Windows XP), double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK. 
3. Windows Update (Automatic Updates, in case you are using Windows XP), double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.  
4. Terminal Services (only for Windows XP users), double-click on it, corresponding window will pop-up. Under General tab, find Startup type; from the drop-down menu select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.

Try these tips and tricks for yourself and see the difference in performance of your system!