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Welcome Google’s G1 — But is it better than the iPhone? The G1 combines a QWERTY keyboard with full touch-screen functionality and an impressive mobile Web experience

Google’s entry into the cellphone market is no longer a rumor. The company’s new G1 phone, unveiled this week, will go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone in an effort to capture part of the market in cutting-edge “app” phones — wireless phones that marry standard wireless telephony with data-driven applications.

But the G1 won’t be the best wireless phone for everyone. While the G1 is clearly a direct competitor of the iPhone — in terms of looks, feature set, and price — it’s a departure from the iPhone in significant ways. Here’s what you’ll get.

APPS

The G1 is designed almost from the ground up to run applications — Google’s apps and those created by third-party developers. Of course, Google will have the lion’s share of applications ready upon the phone’s release — everything from GMail to Google Maps to the growing number of office applications that Google offers in its Google Docs suite of programs.

Accordingly, the G1 comes with a keyboard — with traditional key locations — that’s larger than just about any other keyboard supplied on a wireless phone today. The slide-out keyboard is hidden under the phone’s LCD when not in use. The keyboard will come as a pleasant surprise to those who have never quite grown accustomed to “virtual” keyboards provided on some phone, such as Apple’s iPhone.

That keyboard could be put to good use by what very well may be the biggest news about the G1 — its open source operating system, dubbed Android, for which any developer with the necessary know-how can write applications. Contrast this with Apple’s typically proprietary approach with its iPhone operating system, and you just might be tempted to recall the thumping that Apple received from IBM-compatible computers many years ago when Apple insisted on keeping third parties from developing hardware and software that were compatible with its computers.

Google’s approach with Android will undoubtedly result in a flood of applications for its new G1. The downside is that, because Google has little control over third-party developers, the quality of those applications will be variable. Nevertheless, those who already use Google’s current applications will be pleased to see how well they operate on the G1. Google Maps on the G1, for example, is a wonder to behold. Making use of Google Maps’ Street View — which provides real-world, street-level views of your surroundings — makes finding your way to a destination particularly easy.

ERGONOMICS AND FEATURES

While the G1’s focus on applications suggests a device made for keyboard mavens, fans of touch screens won’t be disappointed. The G1’s LCD is a touch-screen that you can use to navigate and use many applications. The keyboard is often entirely optional.

In terms of design, the G1 is comparable in size to Apple’s iPhone — although the G1 is a bit taller and thicker. The G1 feels arguably a bit flimsier than the iPhone, more plasticky. The Android interface is contemporary-looking and attractive — much more like a miniature Windows-style desktop than the iPhone’s unique, highly tactile interface that seeks to become an extension of your natural ability to select drag, and adjust things with your hands.

Like the iPhone, the G1 offers a full array of features that one expects of a cutting-edge wireless phone today: Wi-Fi, a Web browser, music player, integrated digital camera, games, numerous applications, GPS, and e-mail. The G1’s digital camera, notably, is 3.2 megapixels, while the iPhone’s is only 2 megapixels.

There are areas in which the G1 simply does not provide as much as the iPhone, however. The G1’s battery life, unfortunately, is only about 130 hours standby, while the iPhone’s is 300 hours, and base memory of the G1 is 1GB, while the iPhone’s is 8GB. The G1’s memory can be expanded to 8GB, while the iPhone’s can be expanded to 16GB. The G1 also does not have streaming video capabilities, unlike the iPhone, although you can get YouTube on the G1.

The G1 also has no PC synching capability. Instead, Google expects you to synchronize your contacts and calendars through the Web. This will be a major shortcoming to those who are tied to Microsoft Exchange servers — that is, the Outlook e-mail and contact management program — at work. Apple’s iPhone, by contrast, is capable of synchronizing with Outlook, with the addition of a free software update. G1 users can synchronize with Google’s own e-mail service, GMail, but frankly there are not many offices that rely upon GMail as a primary e-mail carrier.

Oddly, the G1 also lacks a headphone jack. Instead, you’ll need to use the single USB jack on the phone to plug in either a special USB headset or enlist the help of a USB to 3.5mm adapter in order to use conventional headphones. To make matters worse, the G1’s only USB port is also used for power, audio, and USB synching. Needless to say, the G1 won’t be a plug-and-play replacement for your iPod or other mobile media player.

CONCLUSION

The G1’s seamless tie-ins with Google’s growing number of applications and its open source operating system will endear the phone to those already tied to Google applications. It will also be appealing to technophiles who enjoy trying out multiple add-ons and want to have at their disposal a potentially wider array of applications. On the other hand, opening up the G1 to coders around the world means that quality control may be an issue — and that the user ultimately experience could suffer. The G1, in short, will appeal to gadget freaks and technology warriors. Those who want a product that just works might want to place their bets on Apple’s tightly-controlled iPhone.

Source: Taipei Times by Jay Dougherty

This year held the Dutdutan Festival where a lot of Pinoy Tattoo artists showcased their talents and best inclination for Arts in the field of tattoo. One noticeable personality there was Ronian Poe, son of the late Fernando Poe Jr whose body is undeniably full of tattoos.

Of course, the event wouldn’t be accomplished without giving recognition to Hollywood Pinoy Tattoo artist - Chris Garcia. 

Chris Garcia is an electrical engineer working in NASA whose younger brother is Jamir of Slapshock band. Chris is now very well recognized hollywood pinoy tattoo artist whose expression on Arts is really very creative. He is now one of the favorite tattoo artists nowadays. Well, his eyeing to put tattoo on Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp. We will see if he will be able to do that someday. And that will be an update on this post in the near future.

Jeremy Shoemaker, of the popular Shoemoney blog, posted that the owners of Best of the Web Directory are in talks to buy Dmoz from AOL and that a "deal could be reached fairly soon."

This is still currently a rumor but it’s buzzworthy nonetheless because of Google’s traditional hard-line stance on paid links comes into direct conflict with Google’s heralding of the community-edited Dmoz directory. What will this mean for Google, for search marketers, for webmasters?

It is unknown whether a sale would change Google’s use of Dmoz for its own directory or would prompt Google to reconsider how much weight it gives the sites linked within Dmoz. For those who don’t know, Google is still relatively cozy with Dmoz in that it maintains a Google Directory that is a duplicate copy of the dmoz.org content. Dmoz also is still considered a great place for your site to be listed to gain premium Google link power that helps your PageRank.

Over the last year Google has made it clear they don’t like the selling of links from anywhere, especially directories. Google has also made clear that it considers the selling of inclusion in a directory tantamount to selling links. Many directories have experienced a severe lowering of their PageRank that have effectively made links (and inclusion) less valuable to potential buyers.

Since Dmoz is a free directory with moderators who decide whether a site is included or not, Google still gives their coveted Google juice to sites listed in Dmoz.

A listing in BOTW.org is not free. It charges a hefty $249.99 review fee which is a prerequisite for inclusion. BOTW makes the point in bold font that their review for inclusion is not a guarantee of inclusion in their BOTW Submit Terms of Service. Apparently Google believes there is enough editorial value in these reviews because BOTW.org still has good PageRank within its categories.

However, Google has penalized many other directories that charge for inclusion reviews. Many website owners feel that even the appearance of selling links leads to PageRank reduction. BOTW is an old, established directory with lots of quality listings similar to Yahoo, which also sells inclusion reviews and suffers no repercussions from Google either.

A few questions …

- If BOTW buys Dmoz, will it merge the directories and charge for inclusion reviews?

- Will Google continue to mirror the Dmoz results for its directory?

- Will any of this impact the Google juice your sites get from Dmoz?

One thing is certain, the concept of volunteer editors that Dmoz uses is flawed. BOTW and its paid editors may be exactly what Dmoz needs to turn its quality around.

Web Technology News Source: WebProNews

Today’s Featured: Charice Pempengco

Well,  I am just one of the many Filipinos who is very proud of this young Filipina singing diva who captured all over the world’s heart. She’s just so amazing and her voice is very powerful considering Charice Pempengco at that age. Well, an update for her is that Charice got invited on Oprah for the second time where they featured her life story and then she sang Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

What is more surprising with the show because Oprah seemed to be Charice’ fairy godmother to have brought Charice Pempengo’s one and only idol - Celine Dion (She’s my idol too. I just love all her songs). And it even went a million notch higher when Celine invited Charice over to perform with her in Madison Square Garden in New York next week and they’ll sing “Because You Love Me”, for Charice’s mom. Super wow to the nth level! Congratulations Charice! So proud and happy for you.

Realization: Well guys, we can make our dreams happen too. Just take the action to achieve it! 

Are you confused of my title guys? I’m sorry about that but I’d love to express my thoughts as that. I hope you’d get the point after reading few more sentences what’s the post title all about.

Well, it’s more about getting more ambitious about what we want to experience in life.   This isn’t about figuring out where we want to go in our career, or how much money we want to be making in ten years. This should be about what experiences we want to have as a human being. Have you ever gone skydiving? Do you want to? Well, I want to. Since, I don’t have enough budget to go to a good skydiving place, I just tried a skyrider ride at Eden’s Nature Park here in Davao City.  

Well, what I really wanted to overcome is my fear of heights. Goodness sake, it took me a few minutes left that all of my friends are done skyriding before I was able to decide that I really wanted to join them, experience skyriding and conquer my fear. My goodness, at those moments going upstairs, I can’t just help but chase my heartbeat and start thinking if I die, at least I was trying to enjoy life before that happen and most importantly, I overcome my fear successfully. But oh thank God, because I landed safe. It was a terrifying experience. You might not even get the essence why I did that but to tell you, I have been living a so-so normal and ’safe’ life that I’d never had the chance to experience adventure trips. And that skyriding is my first time. 

I was ambitious enough about what I want to experience and that pushed me to do that thing. Now, I’m setting my mind for another adventurous trip to somewhere that I could experience mountain climbing. And I tell you, my skyriding experience was a very fulfilling experience that even I couldn’t believe before that I can. I believe we have different perspectives in life and so we have different views on to what we really want to experience to enjoy life. It may be different but I know for sure, you have a lot on your list to do. Why not get it started? When will you try? Is it when you can never do it anymore?

Remember guys, after all, the first step toward making it happen is thinking about making it happen. 

Last September 1, 2008, Google announced in their official web blog about the launching of their browser named as- Google Chrome. Google believed that with the launching of this browser will help drive innovation on the web. Well, obviously this is what people are looking nowadays. 

As they said, this is still on its beta version and is temporarily available only for Windows Vista and XP.  Google Chrome still needs to work out to meet MAC and Linux users. So, what are we going to expect with this new open source browser, Google Chrome? 

Quoted from Google Blog:  On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood of Google Chrome, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.

As usual, Google has a nice presentation  through a Comic Book. The comic book explained why Google Chrome is created and what we will expect from it. Let’s give it a try guys. Eventually, we can share our views about Google Chrome and will help the collaboration of driving the web forward.