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What is ChromeBook ??

Ankur Kumar

Google has unveiled the Chromebook - a laptop that runs on Chrome OS. The Chrome OS is a cloud based operating system which means that all your data (or most of it) will be stored on a remote server rather than on the local hard drive. Another way of saying it is you can literally rip apart and destroy your Chromebook (assuming you have deep pockets) and still get a good night's sleep because your data is safely backed up somewhere on the net.

The following are some of the advantages of Chromebook as touted by Google.


  •  Boots in 8 seconds flat.
  • Full support for Adobe Flash and the latest web standards.
  • A rich collection of web apps catering to every ones need.
  • Share your Chromebook with friends and family without giving them access to your email and personal data. 
  • Automatic OS updates provided seamlessly over the net. 
  • Secure out of the box - Providing multiple layers of protection,including sandboxing, data encryption, and verified boot.
  • 3G and WiFi support.
Google has roped in Samsung and Acer to market the first set of Chromebooks.

If the price is right (free), this could be an exciting proposition for any one. In fact, Google says it will offer Chromebooks to the student community for a monthly fee of $20 per student and for the business community for a monthly price of $28 per user (Source), which is exciting if this price also includes a data plan.

For the rest of us, the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is set to cost US$429, while the Acer Chromebook would cost US$349 for the Wi-Fi version. The 3G version would be slightly dearer. 

 

10 Reasons why Facebook is better than Twitter

Ankur Kumar


People have become so addicted to Facebook that one window is always open where they are online through this social network. Around 600 million use Facebook whereas Twitter has around 200 million users. In that sense, Facebook is more widely connected and international than Twitter. Facebook is for close family and friends, whereas Twitter is to follow those people whom you want to be friends with or share some interests alike. Both Facebook and Twitter have their own fan following, each is competitive for the services they provide. Both are the one of the largest social networking sites and each day they are evolving with addition of newer and better features than ever before. This generates more users and hence more involvement on their platforms. But here are 10 reasons why Facebook is better than Twitter: 

1. Better Expression

Profiles on Facebook are more elaborate and exclusive. You can get to know them better through reading their pages, whereas Twitter lacks that connectivity of people. The tweets are anything about anything, but on Facebook people tend to right more thought-provoking and discussion driven statuses which then leads to more excitement and involvement of people on the platform. One can clearly see and tell who are friends with whom on Twitter as there is elaborative categorizing on Facebook, whereas on Twitter one is not sure of how much a follower is closer to the person he or she is following.

2. Interest Oriented

Another better thing about Facebook is that it constantly suggests people whom one might know to connect with them on the site. Whereas there is only a conventional way of finding friends out on Twitter through various email services that one might be using. Through those email services one can see who is part of the website and can request connection. But on Facebook one knows who are friends with whom and in that way can find like-minded people easily forming groups and supporting causes that one believes in. This is how Facebook is more interest oriented.

3. News Feed is Better

Facebook is really good at suggesting news and making you reach out to the details of an event or happening that you might be eager to know exclusively about, whereas Twitter will only break the news for you. It works more like a breaking news tickler and a channel for headlines only. To get to know the depth of a story and to cover it better, Facebook is a better option certainly with enthusiastic debates and discussions on every day events that affects our lives.

4. Personal Connection

On Facebook, people tend to present themselves virtually, as if it is their virtual lives and their virtual existence. Whereas on Twitter, people just tweet whatever that they are thinking momentarily and might even change their mind on that. So in this particular sense, whatever that is being said or much rather written on Twitter does not necessarily stand for longer. It changes with the passage of time and is not a status so as to say.

5. Instant Connectivity

On Facebook one can have better connectivity with their contacts than on Twitter as there are many means to communicate, like writing on their profile walls, sending messages or simply writing a status and indicating them. Whereas on Twitter, the connection is only through tweets and messages, and one cannot have more in depth discussion or thought exchange in such a limited platform.

6. Different Environments

Facebook is where you can express yourself and show who you are, whereas on Twitter the window to self-depiction is very narrow. Both of these sites have basic differences in what their purposes are and the means through which they achieve them. Their environments are different and their uses have thus been deemed to be different when it comes to social networking. To each his own, therefore, for some people Facebook might coincide with their purpose and method of usage better than for someone who prefers Twitter for their own interests. It is all about what suits ones needs better than the other and one should choose that option.

7. Everything At One Place

On Facebook one can find everything at one junction only and one does not has to roam around to get all that one needs to keep up with. There are photos, videos, links and status updates, and all that in one place. Around more than a billion photos have been shared on Facebook by 2010. Whereas on Twitter one has to use couple of other services to get see whatever one wishes to through different formats.

8. Branding Opportunity

One of the best features that Facebook has is that of personal profile that one could create along with a page or group for any business or any other purpose. Facebook pages work almost like mini-websites for the brand promotion and information. Whereas on Twitter there is no such privilege. One has to just follow the profile or account or more specifically their channels, but there is no such thing as pages or groups on Twitter, which then again leads to its uses being limited only.

9. Chatting With Friends

On Facebook one can easily chat with friends and send instant messages. There is a threaded type discussion on Facebook which you could follow as it informs you instantly whenever someone has posted a new comment on your status or your photo or any other link that you have shared. This is the biggest feature of connectivity that Twitter lacks. As it is just about writing limited 140 characters tweets with no messaging to friends and no chatting with them online.

10. Supports Games and Apps

The interesting thing about Facebook is that it has games to play and have fun, where your friends could also join in as competitors, which doubles the excitement. According to a statistics, about 20 million people play games on Facebook daily. Besides this, it supports thousands of apps to enjoy and kill boredom. Whereas on Twitter there is no such exciting activity going on, which then makes it a bit dull.

 

Why Google can never beat Microsoft !!

Ankur Kumar

Google seems to be in some kind of existentialist dilemma.It desperately wants to dethrone Microsoft,and yet majority of its service like the search engine,Gmail and Google Docs are mostly accessed through IE browser,running on a Windows powered system.
The only way Google can change its equation against Microsoft,is by coming up with its own OS.
But that is easier said than done.It was in 1983 that the first Windows operating system was introduced and since then Microsoft has dominated the world of computing.The idea that more than 90% of PCs run on Windows sounds to some ears like an archetypal cliche`,which might remain true forever.
Google is really good at what it does,but is it capable of coming up with an OS comparable to Windows 7?
Rumors about Google's plan for a new Operating system had been around for quite sometime,and in the middle of 2009,the company accepted that it was aiming to create an open source,lightweight operating system.
According to Google,its Operating system is a natural extension of its Google Chrome browser,and it has been named Google Chrome Operating System.

Some analysts have been predicting that net books powered by Google's OS might become available towards the end of 2010.
Google has announced,"Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of net books to market next year".The words to be noted in the Google's blog-post are,"users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates." Is Chrome Os going to be a proverbial magic carpet that will transport the users to a paradise,which is completely cleansed of the evil programmers??

Google Docs is a seminal achievement,and yet Microsoft Office continues to be the choice of majority of the users.In India more than 90 percent of computers are run pirated versions of Microsoft Office,even though the original version of Google Docs is available for free online.
The only way the Chrome OS can make headway is by offering users a better desktop computing experience than Windows 7 does.

So,if any company dreams that net books powered with its OS will fly off the shelf just because they are cheap,then they are probably living in a fool's paradise.
In any case,it is not going to be that easy to wean people away from desktop centric systems in which Microsoft continues to be in dominant position.