Words from Web Worker

According to O2’s ( UK based telecommunications company), recently released report about smartphone usage ,  smartphones are being used in ways that are remarkably different from the way we used phones five years ago. Smartphone users spend more time browsing the internet (25 minutes a day), social networking (17 minutes a day), playing games (14 minutes a day) and listening to music (16 minutes a day) than they do making calls (12 minutes). We spend about 11 minutes a day on email, 10.2 minutes on text messaging and when you total it all up, we stare at our smartphones for a whopping 128 minutes i.e over 2 hours a day. Whoa! But wait there is more. The study shows that phone has also started to replace a range of other possessions : Over half (54%) use their phones in place of an alarm clock Almost half (46%) have dispensed with a watch in favor of using their smartphone Two-in-five (39%) have switched to use their phone instead of a separate camera Over...

After months of speculation, Google revealed some information (on April 4th, 2012 to be specific) about the Project Glass. Instead of using a smartphone to find information about an object, translate a text, get directions, compare prices, you can use smart glasses that augment the reality and help you understand more about things around you. Google says "We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don't. A group of us from Google [x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment". Since, it has been more than a week, I had a good chance to read and analyze most of the views several Tech blogs and experts shared about this project. Here are few more details, about Project Glass and with whom my opinion synced well. Google's concept glasses have a: a) Camera, b) Microphone, c) 3G/4G data connection (to send and r...

For the first few seconds after I read this news on 5th, my world came crashing down on me. It was perhaps the only time that I didn’t care for the technology news; I didn’t want to write about it. Why doesn’t the world realize that my Hero is dead! I don’t care about a world that is a lot less exciting than it was when Steve was around. Can’t you see that my soul is being put through a grinder. Every generation has its heroes. Among the people, who inspire me, I've read about Mahatma Gandhiji only in books. So for me, Steve Jobs was the only living legend, I could look at. I don’t know why, how and where that happened but Steve was my icon. To me, just the idea of Steve was powerful enough. For many of us who live and die for technology and the change it represents, he was an example of what was possible. Steve put life and soul into inanimate objects. Everyone cared for specifications; he saw opportunities that inspired emotions. People saw a phone ; Steve saw a transpo...

Former Wired editor &  Futurist,  Kevin Kelly  writes  that, 10 years from now, an average person will carry two gadgets with him everywhere s/he goes.  Over the long term, say 100 years, we may carry no devices. How many Gadgets will people carry? The two devices we'll carry (on average) will be: 1) A close-to-body handheld thingie(The handheld will be our wallet, purse, camera, phone, stopwatch, navigator, watch, keys, etc.), and 2) A larger tablet thingie at arms length. The tablet will be a bigger screen and multi sensor input. It may unfold, or unroll, or expand, or be just a plain plank. Different folks will have different sizes. Kelly notes that he's not counting devices we'll wear, like  quantified self-tracking devices  built into your clothing or accessories (as he notes, you don't carry a watch). We'll have devices built into belts, wristbands, necklaces, clothes, or more immediately into glasses or worn on our ears,...

Google  and Motorola today  announced  that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire  Motorola Mobility  for a total of about $12.5 billion in cash. The news is a shocking turn for the fast-growing Android ecosystem, which was built off of Google’s operating system but did not include any actual hardware built by the company. Soon Google will have a hardware platform that it controls and could offer the sort of integrated hardware-OS package that Apple is famous for. Google co-founder and CEO  Larry Page  writes in a  blog post , that Google has acquired Motorola not only because of its strength in Android smartphones and devices, but also for being a “market leader in the home devices and video solutions business.” It’s also a move to build up the company’s patent portfolio, he adds, as it will “enable us to better protect Android from  anti-competitive threats  from Microsoft, Apple...

According to June date from  Nielsen , Android( despite mounting legal challenges ) has claimed the top spot in the U.S. smartphone OS market. Figures have it as: 1.      Google Android comprising 39% of the market, i.e on about four out of every 10 smartphones sold in the U.S. 2.     Apple iOS a distant second at 28%, 3.     RIM BlackBerry OS, dragging its feet at 20%, 4.     Windows Phone 7 at 9% and 5.     HP WebOS and Symbian (both at 2%). This should not surprise Nokia owners, given what seems like the gloomy lack of Nokia smartphones in US. Few interesting tidbits: Android moved up to 39% from 29% between  November and January , a rise that has come at the expense of BlackBerry, which fell from 27% to 20% over the same period. Apple’s iOS has grown 1% since November to January period. Meanwhile, Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile lost a point over the same period, falling from 10 to 9 percent. Simply put, t...

Not many of us would admit that we're poor listeners, but the proof may surround us in our daily life. If you find your friends/coworkers asking you the same questions repeatedly, or you respond to email without reading it, you're probably missing something. Fortunately, being a better communicator isn't that difficult. Web Worker Daily argues that a great deal of productivity is lost to resolving miscommunications, that could have been avoided if each party had simply paid more attention to what was said & when. They point out that ineffective communicators are usually the ones who skip meetings, figuring someone will fill them in later, ones who are asked same questions repeatedly by friends/colleagues and the ones who reply to a message with multiple questions in it but only answer one of them. Few tactics for being a better communicator: Slow down a little & make sure you completely understand what you're being told. It helps to make sure you're c...