Saturday, May 18, 2013

4 more months to a new Kindle (eBook reader)!

I have been in love with my Kindle Paperwhite ever since I got it! Now that I have a Moko cover, I am even more in love!

Counting the days to the next version of the Kindle - wonder what cool features it will contain!

I do have my own wishlist. Here it is:
- Want a quicker/faster way of turning off WiFi (don't like needing to go to Setting and then needing to come back)
- Would love to see Amazon adopt Android as a platform for the eBook Kindles too. Will encourage more people to develop apps for it
- I think I wouldn't mind sound an a built-in eBook reader. Even if I don't ever use it, it shows the product off very well :-)
- I would like page turning to be faster (not sure if this is a processor or screen issue)
- Some magical way to increase my reading speed. All that has happened since the Kindle came out, is my reading backlog has grown enormously!

Google Play Services (and how Google just brilliantly scr*wed Amazon, etc.

In Google IO 2013, Google just announced Google Play Services, which is automatically distributes to all phones running Google Play.

What they didn't announce very loudly, is they just scr*wed all the folks who have branched off Android without working with Google. This definitely includes Amazon. It also includes manufacturers who run AOSP without Google Apps (i.e. without Google's blessings).

"How?", you may ask. Well, all apps that use any of these new Google Play Services, won't run on those devices (since they don't have Google Play or any of the Google Play Services). While this is currently a very small percentage of all apps today, that won't be true in another 6 months.

Brilliant move, Google!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Google+ Overtakes Facebook!

Ok guys, you heard it here first. Within 12 months, Google+ will have a lot more active users, simply because they will start counting all Android users, Google Play users as Google+ users.....

Facebook, here comes Google+!

Edit (a few hours later): Sorry, I should have given more context. I was just listening to the Google I/O keynote. Google has added Google+ login APIs. While this is similar to FaceBooks ability for people to login to FB and use that ID everywhere, since Google owns Android, they can provide app owners some more benefits - e.g. prompt the user to download an app.... Anyway, soon, it will require some work for Android users to not be on Google+. Given the growth of Android (900M+ users today), there will soon be more Google+ active accounts than active FB accounts (IMHO).