Google has been catching up fast in releasing the new versions of their web browser Google chrome. Google has released Chrome 12, which is now the stable release of Google’s web browser, bringing several improvements in security, privacy and graphics capabilities.

Chrome 12.0.742.91 includes a number of new features and updates, including:

• Hardware accelerated 3D CSS
• New Safe Browsing protection against downloading malicious files
• Ability to delete Flash cookies from inside Chrome
• Launch Apps by name from the Omnibox
• Integrated Sync into new settings pages
• Improved screen reader support
• New warning when hitting Command-Q on Mac
• Removal of Google Gears

Google Chrome 12 is available at www.google.cxom/chrome. Existing users will be automatically updated to the new version in the next couple of days.

Google Chrome team promises to continues execute its six-week release schedule with many more improvements coming in the way.

Download: Chrome

Please see the Chromium security page for more details regarding the updates and changes.

                          

YouTube India & Intel have partnered to bring a new service in India. The service YouTube Box Office has been launched with the service like to offer its viewers a latest block buster movie free of cost.

One of the first movie over the YouTube Silver screen is 2010 Block Buster movie Band Baaja Baaraat ft. Anushka Sharma. Users will  have the option to view the movie in 720p and 1080p apart from the other standard resolutions.

Grab some popcorns & Tune into YouTube Box Office to watch it.

Enjoy!

                          

While penning down few of the innovations and future projects by Microsoft at the Microsoft India Development Centre, Hyderabad during MVP Open day I was astonished by one of the vision Microsoft had. The vision of Digital Payment system which visualized payment to different merchant & services using a mobile device. You may flicker amongst all your e-cards to select one to make payment from.

A few days later, as per on Google Blog, Google gave a demo of Google Wallet, an app that will make your phone your wallet along with Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint at the New York City office of Google.

Google Wallet users can tap, pay and save using their phone and near field communication (NFC). NFC is a technology which has been in buzz since almost seven years. Google had been testing Google Wallet and plans to release it soon.

Google Wallet is aimed at making it easier for customers to pay for and save on the goods, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to customers, as well as bridging the gap between online and offline commerce.

Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You’ll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.

Initially Google Wallet will support both Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid. Consumers will be able to tap their phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Google Wallet will also sync Google Offers, which can be redeemed via NFC at participating SingleTap merchants, or by showing the barcode as you check out. In the beginning, Google Wallet will be compatible with Nexus S 4G by Google, available on Sprint.

To learn more on Google Wallet visit www.google.com/wallet.

This is just a start to what Microsoft visualized many months ago and now has already been a great adventure towards the future of mobile shopping. Google instead of creating fancy videos brought this to consumers. I hope Microsoft will be learning from this. The concept was shown in the video titled MSFT Vision 2019.. and Google brought it in 2011. All I can say is “Vision of Microsoft… Profits of Google”.

                          

Software giants like Microsoft & Google regularly bring out technical challenge competitions for students. Imagine Cup, an initiative by Microsoft is a popular competition where student compete against developing a real world problem’s solution and test their knowledge. In the similar fashion there is a technical challenge initiated by Google, coined as Code Jam.

Google Code Jam is a programming competition in which unlike Imagine Cup, both professional and student programmers can participate where they are asked to solve increasingly complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you compete in the programming language and development environment of your choice.

The competition consists of four online rounds, starting on May 6th and culminating in the world finals at Google’s office in Tokyo, Japan.

Details

Register Here

                          

As Google mentions, “The +1 button is shorthand for this is pretty cool or you should check this out.” However what I personally think it is a hybrid of Digg and Facebook Like this feature.

The concept involved is whenever a user Google (searches using Google), he can plus one (recommend) a link amongst his search. A user need to Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval or recommendation. User’s +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.

If you are signed into a Google account, you can +1 things over the web specifically the Google search. This helps people see who recommended that tasty recipe or great campsite. When you create a profile, it’s visible to anyone and connections with your email address can easily find it.

Your +1’s are stored in a new tab on your Google profile. You can show your +1’s tab to the world, or keep it private and just use it to personally manage the ever-expanding record of things you love around the web.

The Video demonstrates more about Google Plus One-ing.

Learn more about the +1 button and personalization on sites across the web.

                          

Larry Page has officially taken over as CEO of Google with effect from today. It was declared in the last quarter of 2010-11 that Eric Schmidt will be stepping down as the Google CEO. However, Eric will remain on the payroll and will still be a part of the company as chairman.

As the PC Mag reported Schmidt said he will “focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.”

Although it is not a very good sign for Google till now as  far as Investors are considered as the very first day Google’s stock has declined 1.5% after Page has made his way to Google as a CEO. While this move is not cheered loudly amongst Google investors, this might be the turning point in Google’s strategy once again and Google may lead to offer more interesting and unique offerings unlike the previous ones which failed to make a mark, be it their long time friend Orkut, Buzz or Wave.

                          

Honeycomb is expected to power the tablets.Currently ,Android 2.1 or 2.2 version is used to power tablets which was often criticized as Android 2.1 and Android 2.2 were meant to power smart phones only but with Honeycomb we can expect some really cool apps specifically made for tablets in Android Market Place.

In fact , one of the earliest Honeycomb tablet is expected to ship on 24th Feb,2011.The two great features which Honeycomb will have manage the rotation of the tablet better than its earlier versions and second feature for developers is that they don’t have to assume anything to build the app in portrait or landscape mode.

For more info, check out Android 3.0

                          

At a keynote today at Google I/O ,  Google came out swinging against its competitor Apple and announced Google TV. again. Google TV is a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet. Watch an overview video below, sign up for updates, and learn more about how to develop for Google TV.

Google has partnered with Sony and Logitech to provide TVs and Blu-ray players with Google TV built in. Logitech will have a companion box. Intel will be powering all the devices with the Atom processor.  Google says Video should be consumed on the biggest, best, and brightest screen in your house And while they’re not the first to attempt this, Google thinks they can get it right. There are four things they’re focusing on:

• With Google TV, you’ll spend less time finding, more time watching
• We’ll also show you more ways to personalize content
• We’ll make existing TV much more interesting
• This is much more than a TV

Google TV is built on Android 2.1 which will be upgraded later. It runs Google Chrome for the browser and has Flash (10.1).  And since Google TV is Android-powered, Android apps will work on the TV too.

Develop apps for Google TV  web apps and Android apps

Watch the Google TV announcement

The official Google TV site

                          

Android lovers have a good new. Now they can Translate the real world with Google Goggles where they can use pictures to search the web. Traveling to another country can be an amazing experience. The opportunity to immerse yourself in a different culture can give you a new perspective. However, it can be hard to fully enjoy the experience if you do not understand the local language. For example, ordering food from a menu you can not read can be an adventure. A new feature of Google Goggles will prove useful to travelers everywhere: Goggles translation where users can capture an image and use visual search technology to know more information about the picture taken.

Here’s how it works:

• Point your phone at a word or phrase. Use the region of interest button to draw a box around specific words
• Press the shutter button
• If Goggles recognizes the text, it will give you the option to translate
• Press the translate button to select the source and destination languages.

As per Google Mobile Blog  :

The first Goggles translation prototype was unveiled earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and could only recognize German text. Today Goggles can read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and can translate to many more languages. We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities to other Latin-based languages. Our goal is to eventually read non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) as well. Every new release of Google Goggles contains at least one new feature and a large number of improvements to our existing functionality. In addition to translation, Goggles v1.1 features improved barcode recognition, a larger corpus of artwork, recognition of many more products and logos, an improved user interface, and the ability to initiate visual searches using images in your phone’s photo gallery.

Although this is work in progress but it impresses me a lot, visual search technology would be a revolution in Searching and other search engines like Bing must be keeping an eye on the progress of this feature. However, Computer vision is a hard problem and Google admits that there are many images that cannot yet recognized and The Google Goggles team is working on solving the technical challenges required to make computers see.

Here is a demo video that highlights the features of Google Goggles :

Google Goggles works most effectively to visually search : 

• Landmarks
• Books
• Contact Info
• Artwork
• Places
• Wine

And the guys at Google are working to add more to the list. Only drawback which Google Goggles has is that its v1.1 is available on devices running only Android 1.6 and higher. The only way to test this feature for a non Android user must be using Android Emulator.

                          

There are 3 formatting options for Gtalk that may be used in Gtalk messenger :

1. Bold Text
2. Italics Text
3. Strikethrough

How to do it ?

Write any text in Gtalk and put * before and after the text and it would be written in Bold text.

Write any text in Gtalk and put _ (Underscore) before and after the text and it would be written in Italics. Similarly use – (Hyphen) to get a strike through text effect.

This is very similar to the way you write “: )” which turns to a Smiley for Smile. Although the conversion delay is around a second for this when you type it in text box and when you get the result in the Chat Window.