Most of us have shifted to other better RSS feed readers, but for the ones who still rely on the brilliantly simple Google Reader, it's time to move on people.

 Yes folks! Many of you might have already received a notification, but for those who havent logged-in in days (just like me), this is the latest news - Google Reader will not be available from July 1, 2013 onwards. 

 Though Google is allowing it's users to download all the data they have stored in Reader, but is that enough? No reason is known for this step but we hope it is a pretty genuine one.
Posted by Unknown On- 20.4.13


Google has announced today that they are going to officially shutdown the RSS service, Google Reader on July 1, 2013. Although the service is popular and still many people use it, Google says that "over the years usage has declined."

The company is also going to shutdown the Google voice app for blackberry.The company will also stop providing updates for Snapseed, the popular photo and filter app that Google acquired last September.

--Vedang Parmar
Posted by Unknown On- 14.3.13


Google has released its first update to Google Maps for iOS, bringing some features from Android and the web.
Version 1.1, available on the App Store on Tuesday, now allows you to search for addresses based on their Google Contacts if they choose to log into their Google accounts. Additionally, the app now also allows you to search for general categories like "restaurants," "bars," "gas stations," and so on. 
Users can now sync up previously-searched locations based on contact information, so if you have an address saved under Mom, searching by name will point you to the place on the map.
Google asks customers to note that some of these features may not be available in all countries.
--Vedang Parmar
Posted by Unknown On- 7.3.13

Google has extended its google play books service now to India. Now the users of india will be able to download ebooks from a collection of 4 million titles. This service is available on mobile version as well as web version.

 Users can also view some books before buying them.People will need internet service to access the books because these books are saved on cloud service.


Google has customised store according to the needs of indian market. This is not the first time we are having ebooks in india, before this, Amazon and Flipkart have also were selling ebooks and are selling it till now in a well number.

 Google needs to work hard on the Google Play Store of India because many things like music downloads, movie downloads are still not available on it.

 --Vedang Parmar
Posted by Unknown On- 27.2.13

So, Google has launched indoor maps for singapore. This map will be able to see inside buildings, offices, shopping malls, large buildings etc. Such information includes floor plans and basic walking directions for any building which has submitted its indoor maps to Google. It uses existing Wi-Fi access points to pinpoint a user's location and follows his movement as he travels across different floors.

 22 Malls have been set up for its launch. But the changi airport is not lucky yet. Well, the indoor maps are not new for the public of singapore, in 2010, SingTel launched an app which gives you the direction and detailed floor plan.

 Google maps do not need to launch a new application for indoors, they can just put something that when we zoom, we can see the floor plans.To keep the application updated, businesses can upload their floor plans to Google.

 --Vedang Parmar
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 19.2.13
Google India has announced Mapathon 2013, the country's first mapping competition. It is a crowd sourcing initiative aimed to improve Google Maps in India. Registrations for the competition, which commences on February 12 and concludes on March 25, 2013, have begun. The top 1000 mappers stand a chance to win Android tablets, smartphones, gift vouchers and Google merchandise, the company said. 

Those who sign up for the competition can update the maps via Google Map Maker. It is a tool to add details to Google Maps via satellite imagery or users' own local knowledge. Once an entry has been submitted to Google, it will be verified and then added to Google Maps. Apart from adding new locations, participants can also update sites that are already listed on Google Maps. 

Highlighting the USP of Google Map Maker, Jayanth Mysore, product manager, Google India says, "Google aims to provide better maps for India by building better maps for the users, by the users. Today, citizens across India can participate in this great project through Mapathon 2013."
Posted by Unknown On- 7.2.13


Google+ Hangouts is now available to all Gmail users in India. Google+ Hangouts allows Gmail users to add up to 9 people to a voice chat. Using Hangouts, Gmail users can watch YouTube videos with their friends, collaborate on Google Docs, or play games by adding apps from a menu. Those with a slow connection can opt for the 'Low Bandwidth' mode.
To begin using Google+ Hangouts, you have to click the Hangout button on the top of the chat list in Gmail. Users can also schedule a hangout using Google Calendar.
Google hasn't been lazy with rolling out updates and improving the user experience on Gmail. Following a recent update, Gmail gave users the ability to add labels and stars to their messages right in the new compose box. To star a message or label it, you will have to click on the 'More' options menu at the bottom right and hover on the Label option there.
Google redesigned Gmail's Compose window in October last year. The compose box opens just like a chat window would, but is a bit larger. Phil Sharp, Google's Product Manager, stated that with this new design, it was possible to keep the compose mail box open and still look for older mails for reference. This way, users can also keep an eye out for newer mails. Sharp said, "The new compose is designed to let you focus on what's important: your message."
Posted by Unknown On- 6.2.13

The world's leading PC manufacturer becomes the first company to offer a 14-inch Chromebook. Initially available in the US only, the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook will retail from $329.99.
 HP Monday confirmed widespread rumors by officially launching its first Chromebook. The HP PavilionChromebook, as the name suggests, has a 14-inch screen, making it the biggest notebook yet to run Google's Chrome OS. 

 Built for web performance the notebook is powered by an Intel Celeron processor and Intel HD graphics, and can be specified with up to 4GB of RAM. In terms of storage, the Pavilion offers a 16GB SSD for the fastest start-up and shut-down times plus 100GB of free storage via Google Drive so that users can save work to the cloud and access it wherever they are on any device with a browser.
HP's first venture into the Chromebook market brings the number of Chromebooks currently available to four. Samsung currently offers two Chromebooks -- the Chromebook 550, which offers built-in 3G connectivity, a 16GB SSD and a 12.1-inch HD-'compatible' display which retails for around $400, as well as the extremely lightweight MacBook Air-lookalike Chromebook which weighs in at a mere 1.7kg for $200.
 For the same price, Acer offers the C7 Chromebook, which boasts a 320GB hard drive and a HD camera.HP's first entry into this emerging market will retail for $329.99.
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 5.2.13

Big news for small developers: regardless of size, presence or popularity, all devs can now respond to comments in the Play Store.
Way back in June of 2012, Google began letting developers reply directly to user comments in the Play Store. The one catch with that, this was made available only for a select group of developers, those sporting a “Top Developer Badge.” And well, flash forward back to the present day and it looks like this is now rolling-out to all developers.
 Not only will this help establish better relationships between app developers and their customers, but it will also allow developers to provide feedback and answer questions to critical comments or concerns. Trevor Johns, developer programs engineer at Google, previously said that “conversations are meant to be two-sided, and facilitating discussion between developers and users will ultimately yield better apps, to the benefit of everyone.”
The feature doesn’t seem to have rolled out in full, though it should only be a matter of time before your complaints can be heard, and dealt with, in one fell swoop.
Google+ integration was also recently added to the Play Store, forcing members of the social network to post comments under a real name, opening up richer commentary and preventing troll culture from taking over.
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 11.1.13

Rejoice, Windows Phone users: your daylong Google Maps crisis will soon be over.
After causing quite a kerfuffle the other day by effectively blocking some Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps in-browser, Google has released a statement (obtained by The Next Web) clarifying its rationale and promising that it would soon fix the issue.
“IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality,” the statement reads. “As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users.”
Here’s a quick primer on the situation in case you’re not familiar with it: late yesterday, Windows Phone users discovered that they could no longer access Google Maps from within the preloaded Internet Explorer browser – they’d be redirected to the Google homepage instead. When the expletive hit the fan shortly afterward, Google issued an official statement that, no, it never officially supported in-browser Google Maps on the Windows Phone platform, blaming the “fact” that IE doesn’t lean on the WebKit layout engine. It wasn’t long at all before people figured out that wasn’t exactly the whole story. Google was only redirecting users whose browser user-agent strings betrayed them as Windows Phone owners.
So long story short, the experience for Windows Phone users really sucked, and they didn’t want people using it. Fair enough, I suppose. I get not wanting people to draw inaccurate conclusions about Google Maps because it doesn’t yet play nice with a particular platform. But to say that Google handled this whole situation poorly is a bit of an understatement. Walling off a service like Maps to an entire class of device owners was bad form, even if it wasn’t the vindictive, anti-competitive move some people first thought it was.
Really Google, could you not have just told Windows Phone users that when they tried to access Google Maps? Was a blind redirect really the best you guys could come up with? Granted, Microsoft’s mobile OS hasn’t exactly picked up the sort of traction that makes every developer swoon yet, but surely there must have been another way.
It really seems like Google just took the path of least resistance here. After all, there’s a decent enough Maps app baked into every Windows Phone, and Google clearly didn’t expect the likely small subset of users who leaned on Google Maps to get too ticked when access to a sub-standard experience was revoked. I can’t help but think that it was foolish of Google to underestimate the ire of spurned geeks, but with any luck, Google will think long and hard before it does something as short-sighted as this again.
Posted by Unknown On- 6.1.13

Microsoft’s complaint that Google is hoarding its YouTube metadata has fueled a new conspiracy theory: The search giant has pulled levers to prevent Windows Phones from accessing Google Maps. In reality, this phenomenon likely has little if anything to do with chicanery on Google’s part and everything to do with Microsoft’s reluctance to support the WebKit browser framework.
While Google Maps was never officially built for or supported by the Windows Phone platform, prior to this complaint, the service was accessible to a certain degree. Users of Windows Phone 7 and 8 both seem to be facing this issue.
Google released an explanation for the issue, saying that Google Maps rely on WebKit on mobile devices and Internet Explorer for Windows Phone does not utilise the rendering engine.
Microsoft, over the past few months, has publicly sparred with Google over its shutting down of Exchange Activesync support at the end of January. Microsoft expressed “disappointment” in the action and implored any affected users to transition to Outlook.com, its new (and excellent) mail offering. By turning off Activesync access (which applies to all platforms, not just Microsoft’s), Windows Phone users will not be able to sync Google contacts or calendars. Because Microsoft has yet to implement CalDAV and CardDAV support in its mobile OS, users will be out of luck by the end of the month.
Apple, on the other hand, will be unaffected by the change as it implemented the new calendar and contact sync standards in its latest version and has push support for mail via a native app. Android users, of course, will suffer no such issues with sync as their phones tie directly into Google’s activation servers.
While it’s currently assumed that the redirect is a bug and not the status quo going forward, we’ve yet to hear from Google on the issue.
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 5.1.13


According to TmoNews, the Google Nexus 4 should become available in all T-Mobile stores starting in January. It could indicate that Google is slowly resolving inventory issues as the device has been hard to buy from Google Play. The device will remain available in the online store.
The news comes from an internal email sent to retail locations. As the headline of the memo suggests, T-Mobile and Google are going full-on with an expanded availability. The device was already available in a few T-Mobile stores, but it was nothing close to a nationwide availability
After being sold out, Google started referring U.S. customers to T-Mobile. T-Mobile customers could buy the 16GB Nexus 4 online for $199 on a 2-year contract, after a $50 mail-in rebate. For reference, Google is selling the 8GB Nexus 4 for $300 off-contract.
If a 2-year contract is something that you would be willing to do, you should expect the same price, as T-Mobile confirmed the $199 price tag in November. TmoNews believes that each store will only get a few units.
T-Mobile already announced back in November that it would carry the phone, but it was only available online in a few stores. Now, it will be available in-store across the country. Maybe even Google Play will get a reliable inventory soon.
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 3.1.13
Consider it as a new year gift from Google to it’s users in Asia, who are all set to experience 30 percent faster speeds while using Google services like Google web search, YouTube, etc. All this would be possible with the company’s three new data centers which will go online this year.
The new data centers  have been under construction since late 2011 in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to a report in the Economic times, the data center in Singapore is expected to go online in early 2013, while the one in Taiwan will go online in the second half of this year whereas Google’s hasn’t yet given a clear time frame as to when the construction of the data center in Hong Kong would be completed.
The fact that the new data centers will be geographically closer to India would result in almost 30 percent faster speeds for Indian users. Earlier, Google has considered India as one of the locations to set up it’s data center but chose not to do so, owing to India’s hot climate. The report in ET also pints out the fact that India is currently ranked No. 112 globally, in terms of internet speeds.
Lalitesh Katragadda also agreed to the fact that many of the Google services like YouTube and Google Hangouts weren’t accessible at optimal speeds to users in India at present, but he said that with the new data centers, the time required to access these services would be dramatically reduced, and it would also help in increasing the adaptation of Google services in India.
With over a 100 million users, India is one of the largest markets for Google, which constitutes for almost 95 percent of the total internet search market in India and the company expects more than 500 million users to come online from various emerging markets, as opposed to just 15 million from the united states.
Thus, you can expect all the major services like Google Mail, YouTube, Google Maps, Google docs, etc. to improve significantly this year while it would make even a more delightful user experience for mobile users using Android or any other platform which uses Google services.
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 3.1.13

On the Internet, it can be difficult to show feelings of grief regarding senstitive topics, much less offer support to those grieving. Despite this, simple things stand out amidst the darkness.
Google has joined India in honoring the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim whom most now call the Delhi braveheart after her death on December 29. The Indian version of the Google homepage now has a candle below the search bar, a silent offering of virtual light to remember her by.
The body of the gang-rape victim, who became the focus of countrywide protests and prayers, was cremated early Sunday soon after it was flown in from Singapore at 3.30 a.m. Since Saturday evening, a large number of people have assembled at various places in Delhi to offer their condolences.
The 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted and gang-raped Dec 16 by six men in a moving bus in south Delhi before being thrown out of the vehicle. She battled for life — first in Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi and then in a Singapore hospital — before dying of her injuries Dec 29.
Thousands of people poured out onto the streets Saturday to light candles; some lay on the roads with black bands across their mouths and others just marched. But all of them grieved, vowing that the girl would never be forgotten.
Posted by Vedang Parmar On- 1.1.13
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