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"THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IS SINCERITY.
ONCE YOU FAKE THAT YOU'VE GOT IT
MADE."
"THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IS SINCERITY.
ONCE YOU FAKE THAT YOU'VE GOT IT
MADE."
The new tablet is supposed to come out in the fall or maybe this summer, analysts predict, which has only raised the hype meter.
Here are three burning questions swirling around this mysterious device.
Burning Question No. 1: Who will carry the Apple tablet?
Apple's 1993 Newton PDA wasn't unleashed to the market before its time. It just wasn't a good idea. Aside from niche users, say nurses roaming a hospital and updating medical charts, the large PDA was doomed to quickly fade from the mainstream user's radar screen like a bad X-Men prequel. (Okay, I just saw the Wolverine flick and think you probably should not.)
A tablet will surely weigh heavy on your belt or in your shirt pocket. That's not good for most guys, unless droopy jeans is the look you're after or you miss the glory days of super-sized pocket protectors. Not sure about purses, though, since I don't carry one regularly.
"The need for super portable computing has largely been satiated by the smart phone," says Forrester analyst Nathan Safran. "I'm not sure that enough folks also want a tablet PC."
But the tablet will fit nicely in your backpack just like a laptop or netbook, which, of course, begs the question: Why not carry a laptop or netbook? An Apple tablet would mostly be used for Web browsing and email, Safran says, and that's still best done on full-featured computers with QWERTY keyboards.
Burning Question No. 2: Will the Apple tablet run on Verizon's network?
There have been rumors that Apple will release the tablet on Verizon's CDMA cellular network—yes, an Apple rumor, which is about as real and rare as Twitter spam. (Want to know how to start an Apple rumor yourself, and game the stock? Jim Cramer tells all.)
Rest assured that Apple and Verizon won't hook up for a while. "I don't think it's real," says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. "Apple has said publicly that they don't care for CDMA because it's not a worldwide standard. Thus, the first time Apple could show up on Verizon is when they move to LTE (long-term evolution), which is about 2012."
An Apple-Verizon deal for the tablet also carries the risk of alienating iPhone customers who've already switched over to AT&T for the iPhone, Safran says. On the upside, an Apple-Verizon deal would help Apple reduce the role of carriers, says Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.
Burning Question No. 3: Kindle who: Is this the killer e-reader?
Is there any doubt that the Apple tablet will go after the suddenly hot e-reader space, even though Steve Jobs has pooh-poohed the market? From Amazon's new large screen Kindle aimed at academia to New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. shaking the e-reader pom-poms to a slew of e-readers coming to market, signs everywhere point to a market on the verge of taking off. And an Apple tablet could light the fuse.
The problem, though, comes down to cost. It's unlikely that an Apple tablet will be cheap enough to get into the hands of the masses. Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney envisions the tablet as a clamshell version of the iPhone that will have a hard time breaking the $500 barrier. Indeed, there was a collective moan when Amazon announced the Kindle DX's price tag: $489.
The safe bet is that people won't pay that much for an e-reader. "There has been a lot of attention around the e-reader category recently, and this could be another interesting use case" for the Apple tablet, Safran says. "I don't see it being priced nearly low enough for this, though."
Microsoft expected to unveil new version of its Internet search engine:
Microsoft is expected to unveil a new version of its Internet search engine next week, turning up the heat in the battle for market share with Google and Yahoo.
The new search engine, which has been in private tests within Microsoft for months, is designed to help consumers better organize search results, according to people familiar with the matter.The software giant, the sources say, plans to demonstrate its new search engine publicly for the first time next week at the All Things Digital technology conference in California. Microsoft had no comment on the report.
Tracking firm ComScore said that 64.2% of the searches conducted by Americans last month were at Google sites, up from 63.7% in March. Yahoo's share slipped slightly to 20.4% while Microsoft was down to 8.2%.
Separately, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft said Wednesday they will spend as much as $180million over the next four years to jointly develop and sell hardware and software for messaging, video and voice in a challenge to Cisco Systems.
H-P plans to create new desk phones and expand its ProCurve networking products for use with Microsoft software. The effort is one of the largest undertaken by the Frontline Partnership they formed two decades ago, the companies said.
The deal is the second in the past month between H-P, the world's largest personal-computer maker, and Microsoft, the biggest software company.
Microsoft said last month it will sell its Web-based e-mail and business software through H-P's Electronic Data Services unit in an agreement that is expected to generate $3 billion in sales over five years.
What is the Difference between a Search Engine and a Directory?
A search engine is a machine - or a robot. A human may program algorithms for a search engine, but humans have nothing to do with your site when the spider is visiting your site or when the engine is ranking your pages. Google.com is an example of a search engine.
For the most part, humans compile directories. Dmoz.org (Open Directory Project) is an example of a directory. When you submit your site to Dmoz, a human will review your site for consideration in the Dmoz directory of web sites.
A search engine has a very large database because it will store several pages of every web site it indexes. A directory will only store a link to the home page of each site and a description.
Search engines will take the description either from some of the sentences on the web page or from the description meta tag. A directory will take the description from your submission information.
We love to hear user feedback and one of the most common questions we get is, "When is this coming out for my phone?" Well, for those of you who have been asking about
on your Nokia S60 smartphone, we're happy to announce that you can now synchronize your Google Contacts and Calendars with your mobile device. Google Sync offers two-way, over-the-air contacts and calendar synchronization.
This means that you can make changes to your contacts and calendar on your phone or in your desktop Google account. Since Sync uses push technology, the changes should automatically appear within minutes. And your information is constantly syncing, so it's up-to-date and securely stored within your Google account, even if you lose your phone.
Please note: Google Sync for S60 requires Nokia software to be installed on the phone. We also recommend backing up your calendar and contacts before setting up Sync. To find out more about setting up Google Sync on Nokia S60 phones, please visit our help center.
To try Google Sync, visit m.google.com/sync from your desktop.
Posted by harish, Engineers, Google Mobile.