700,000 Android Devices Activated Daily

Just few months back Google said 500,000 Android devices were activated on daily basis. Today Andy Rubin, SVP Google, let loose another number on Google's social network Google+. He said as of Dec 20th more than 700,000 Android devices are activated every day.

There was lot of criticism from competitors that Google was counting re-activations in the total number of activations to inflate the number. However, Andy Rubin also mentions "and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and "activations" means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service."


This means close to 30,000 Android devices are activated every hour and 500 devices activated every minute. In comparison only 250 babies are born every minute in the world and Android is reproducing at a much faster pace than child birth.

Waiting for BlackBerry 10? Don't Wait!

RIM has officially announced that the new platform BB 10.0 (BBX) won't be ready until the latter half of 2012. If you have been waiting to upgrade your phone be prepared to wait longer. Only time will tell how this news will affect RIM's outlook for 2012.

RIM stock plummets after earnings report

RIM reported its 3rd quarter earnings after the closing bell on Thursday. Even though RIM only missed the earnings forecast by a small margin (actual $5.2B compared to forecast of $5.3B), the 4th quarter guidance was worse than expected.

Net Income dropped to $285M from $911M in the same quarter last year. As reported earlier RIM took a massive loss on Playbook sales writing off $485M due to lagging sales. RIM said it shipped only 150,000 Playbook Tablets in the 3rd quarter.

RIM projects revenue to be between $4.6 - $4.98 Billion in the 4th quarter. Streets expectations were around $5.12 Billion. Based on these forecast stock price for RIMM dropped 7% ($13.98) in after-hours trading.

Free calling from Gmail extended until end of 2012

Today Google announced that it is extending the free calling feature from with in Gmail and Google Voice until end of 2012. Until yesterday it was still un-clear if Google would start charging for calls from Gmail, but all that speculation has been put to an end now.

If you would like to replace your land line with ObiTalk you can be rest assured that you will still have free calling until end of 2012 and most probably extended beyond that date.

Facebook Beats Google in Android Market

According to Nielsen Research Facebook app has overtaken Google apps on its own turf. The research was based on the active usage of the app in last 30 days. After Android Market, which is required to download apps, Facebook was the most actively used app on Android devices.

Gmail came a close second in most age groups. One app in particular that catches my attention is Advanced Task Killer. Almost 25% of the users actively use Advanced Task Killer on their phone. For those of you who don't know about the app, it is a app that is constantly running on the phone and terminates apps that are running in background and no longer needed. It helps in freeing up memory as well as extends the battery life.

If so many users have to depend on a third party app to improve the performance of the phone why can't Google come up with a built-in app for better app management?

Source: Nielsen Blog

Free Tech Support from Microsoft

Microsoft has launched a 24/7 Tech Support service call AnswerDesk. You can initiate a chat with one of the Answer Techs and ask them any technical questions you may have. Even better, if you would like to speak to one of them you can give them your number and they shall call you to help you over the phone. Best part is it's FREE.

The Answer Tech you speak with will attempt to diagnose and resolve your PC questions during a complimentary troubleshooting session. Additional services such as Virus Removal, issues with Microsoft office products, PC Start up issues, etc are available for a fee. If you choose to accept any of these services the Tech will use remote assistance to access your PC and perform necessary actions to resolve your issue.


They also provide one hour personal training for $49. You will need to log in using a windows live ID. Do you have any issues with your PC or are just bored looking at Facebook profiles? Go to the source link and chat away with a Answer Tech to get rid of your boredom.

Source: AnswerDesk

Google TV Update Coming to Logitech Revue Today

About time. Finally the much anticipated HoneyComb update is coming to Logitech Revue. Today morning Google announced on its official blog that all Revue units will start receiving the update Over The Air today.

Update will include

1. A Simple Interface with customizable home screen.
2. Make it easy to find something worth watching. You can now search for movies whether it is Netflix, Youtube, or Amazon.
3. Improvised YouTube experience with YouTube specifically built for Google TV.

If you own one of the Logitech Revue devices go ahead and update your device for some Honeycomb awesomeness.

10 cents apps in Android Market

Google's Android Market recently crossed 10 Billion downloads and to celebrate this milestone Google will be offering bunch of apps each day for the next 10 days at 10 cents each. Today, they starting with Asphalt 6 HD, Color & Draw for Kids, Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro, Fieldrunners HD, Great Little War Game, Minecraft, Paper Camera, Sketchbook Mobile, Soundhound Infinity and Swiftkey X. 

Keep checking this link every day to see if any of the apps that you have been wanting, but have held your self due to the price shows up for 10 cents.

HUB, Yahoo's app for free International SMS

Recently we wrote an article on JaxtrSMS providing a service to send and receive local and international SMSes for free over Wifi or cellular data connection. Today Yahoo joined the Free SMS party with their app, HUB, in the Android Market.

The description from the Android Market states "Hub (beta) is a fast and easy-to-use messaging app that allows you to send text messages and have group conversations for FREE. There are no text messaging fees – messages are sent over WIFI or using your data connection. And it doesn’t matter what phones your friends have, they don’t need the app to reply!"

Just like JaxtrSMS, the recipient of HUB messages don't need to download the app to receive messages. Currently HUB is only available on Android devices, but you can send messages to any device and any phone number*.

One feature in particular that stands out with HUB is ability to send group messages. Just like groups in BBM or Whatsapp, but the recipients of your HUB message may not be a member of HUB.

HUB is currently only available to users with a US mobile number.

* This feature is currently available when sending to numbers in United States, Canada, Indonesia, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam. SMS recipients may be charged by their carriers.

First Ice Cream Sandwich Phone to Arrive in US on Friday

The first Android 4.0 phone, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, is set to launch on December 9th. Verizon is the first US wireless carrier to start selling the Galaxy Nexus. The phone is highly anticipated as it is going to be the first phone to sport Ice Cream Sandwich operating system by Google.

Even though the price has not been confirmed yet, it is rumored to be $299 on a 2 year contract. If you are in the market for a new phone go visit your nearest Verizon store on Friday.

Comparing VoiP Services

Few years back when anyone would say land-line phone you would imagine a twisted pair of cable, which is pulled in your house by the local telephone company's technician. Depending on the country of residence it could take any where from few days to several months for the telephone company to pull the cable and activate the land-line for you.

VoiP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has now changed the definition of land-lines. You can now have a so called land-line connection in minutes. Just as the name suggests, VoiP, routes voice conversations over the internet compared to traditional land-lines which carries the signal over cables to the phone company.

As more and more companies are offering VoiP services it has become difficult for the end user to decide which one is best for them. I have compiled a comparison chart for 4 major VoiP providers. I hope this helps you decide which one is the right one for you.

As of 12/03/2011	Vonage (Vonage World Plan)	MagicJack Plus	ObiTalk with Google Voice*	Skype (pay per minute plan)
Monthly Price	$25.99	$19.95 yearly	$0.00	$0.00
Device Cost	$0.00	$50	$50	$0
Use without computer	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Use with Computer	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Use from SmartPhone	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Rates to call US/Canada	Unlimited Free	Unlimited Free	Unlimited Free	2.3cents per minute
Rates to call India	Unlimited Free	5cents per minute	2cents per minute	9.2cents per minute
Rates to call UK land-line	Unlimited Free	2cents per minute	2cents per minute	2.3cents per minute
Setup Difficulty Level	Easy	Easy	Intermediate	Intermediate

* Google is offering free calling until end of 2011. It is yet to be seen if they will extend that offer or not.

PlayBook to cost $485 Million to RIM

Due to poor sales of BlackBerry Playbook, RIM said it would take a $485 Million charge in its 3Q. The huge charge is mainly due to RIM only selling 500,000, 250,000, and 150,000 Playbooks in 1Q, 2Q, and 3Q respectively. Just to get rid of the huge inventory price for the Playbook has been trimmed by as much as $300 per playbook. Some reports also speculate that RIM might be selling the playbook for a loss at $199.

Despite the challenges RIM is still committed to the development of Playbook which can be seen as a positive or negative depending on which side you are seeing it from.

120 Gbps Internet and 12,000 People

This is what it looks like to have 12,000 people in one place sharing a 120Gbps internet connection. Over the weekend, Dreamhack Winter 2011—the largest LAN party in the world—went down in Sweden.

Dreamhack goers played LAN games like Starcraft II and Counter-Strike. According to Kotaku, "There was also live music, stores, parties, the works. Looks like the best, if not also the stinkiest, weekend a PC gamer could wish for."

Are you drooling over the picture and wish you were there to party? You can check out Dreamhack's website for their next event so that you can plan ahead for your next trip.

Source: Kotaku

Free Domestic and International SMS - JaxtrSMS

Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail has recently started a free SMS service called JaxtrSMS. JaxtrSMS will allow users to send free SMS to any number in their phone-book; domestic and international. There are lots of apps in the market place today where you can send messages for free, however they all require both the sender and the recipient to be a member of their service. With JaxtrSMS the recipient of the message need not be a JaxtrSMS user, and they will receive the SMS in their usual SMS inbox.

All you need for JaxtrSMS to work is to download their app on your phone and be connected to the internet via the WiFi or 2G/3G connection. It has a app for all smart phones and even the not so smart phones. (Android, Apple, BB, WIndows, Nokia, and Java)

According to Bhatia "JaxtrSMS would do to SMS what Hotmail did for e-mail". It will be interesting to see if JaxtrSMS also gains as much popularity as Hotmail did.

Thanks to Andy for sending this in.

Source: JaxtrSMS