Let’s have a look at some of the most important and latest features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which makes it even more delectable.

1. Advanced User Interface – ICS has made android more simplified with highly advanced user interface. Easier navigation, multitasking and more intuitive gestures make the update even more superior. The virtual buttons makes the navigation simpler and the users now can switch back and forth, to recent application and home simply. The action bar is placed on the top of the screen which makes the applications easily accessible.
2. Multitasking – The new list in the system bar is one of the most loved feature of ICS. Users now can jump from one task to the other one in a breeze. The recently closed or used applications appear as a thumbnail in the system bar.
3. Roboto, the new system font – The new system font Roboto of android 4.0 ICS is extremely appealing with a new typography and is designed especially for the high resolution screen like that of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
4. Resizable widgets and Homescreen folders – You can now resize or modify all of the widgets in the Home screen of your Smartphone or tablet computer. With the new ICS update you can now do a lot more than just adding the shortcuts. Checking mails, playing music, flipping through calendar and lots more is now added in Android 4.0.
5. Smile password – Just a smile can now unlock your phone and you donít need to remember the typical and complex passwords in the android 4.0 Ice-cream sandwich devices.
6. Ultimate voice control – With the new ICS update you can now dictate your text on your phone with the ultimate voice control. The ICS will underline the wrong words and you may get the suggestion list just by tapping on the underlined words.
7. Android Beam – This is again one of the most admired features of the android 4.0 ice cream sandwich update. The users can now share music, docs, videos, and photos just in a single tap. No need to pair the devices before exchanging the data, the new ICS had made it absolutely trouble-free.
8. Photo editor with redesigned gallery app – You can now, edit, rotate, crop and add special effects to your photo with the new photo editor coming with the ICS run devices. The photo editor comes with a redesigned gallery application which helps in sharing, sorting, and showing the pictures and videos.
9. Wi-Fi Direct – With this ultimate feature the users can now connect with directly with the compatible devices and share the media files instantly. No need to get the troublesome wired internet connection any more.
10. Ice Cream Sandwich camera – This new update of Android 4.0 also brings some most required improvements in the Samsung Nexus’s Camera. As stated in the official launch of ICS, the camera in the ICS devices will have zero shutter tag, panorama mode clicking, 1080p video and Instagram-esque filters.

This is a guest post by Dona Collins. If you would like to contribute here, please contact us at tips@tech-buzz.net

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Google Analytics Real-Time

Google Analytics is a nifty tool to measure and monitor your website’s traffic and advertising campaigns, but Google Analytics was not the right tool if you wanted to see your campaign’s performance in real time. The report had a delay of anywhere from 3 to 24 hours, making it difficult for publishers like us to measure our social engagements. With Real Time Analytics you can keep a tab on active visitors who are browsing your website, their entrance sources, and the length of visit and few other metrics. Real-Time analytics however does not work with profile filters.

It is available in the new version of Google Analytics, and it’s slowly being rolled out to users. If you use Google Analytics without profile filters, you’ll find Real-Time reports in the Dashboard Tab. If not, fill this form to request early bird access.

Google Analytics Premium

The second announcement was Google Analytics Premium, a paid enterprise grade version of Analytics for larger websites that have specific requirements. Google Analytics Premium offers dedicated support, advanced tools with more data and service level agreement for data collection, processing and reporting.

Google claims to have worked with Gucci, Travelocity, TransUnion, eHarmony and others to make Google Analytics Premium meet the enterprise needs.

How much does it cost, you may ask!

Well, according to tips received by Allen Stern from CenterNetworks, the pricing is in par with the industry standard, and costs about $150,000 per year.

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The deal has been welcomed by other brands like HTC, LG and Sony Ericsson. And to the shareholders’ delight, the share prices of Motorola Mobility (MMI) nearly doubled after the deal was announced. Motorola Mobility has not had a great 2011 and it would only make more sense for the company to come under Google’s refuge. The acquisition which includes the entire mobile division of Motorola will benefit Google greatly. The deal is said to be finalized by the end of this year or early 2012.

The CEO of Google, Larry Page stated in a blog post – “Motorola’s total commitment to Android in mobile devices is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere”. Evidently, the folks at Google are pretty pumped up about the deal which will, to some extent strengthen its case against the accusations laid upon the company by Apple and Microsoft.

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The Google Nexus S is about 7 months old now and a successor is being talked about. Previous reports claimed that Samsung’s Nexus Prime will succeed the Nexus S, but now a different rumor has surfaced which suggests that HTC could be making the new Nexus handset. Well that’s not the interesting part though. According to a Facebook page, the next Nexus device will feature a Google+ button which will enable Google’s social networking functionalities on the device instantly. The owner of the page claims that this news comes to him from an official Google employee. But considering what has been said in the past, it is quite hard to believe this story.

People have not been major fans of HTC’s Nexus One, and as a result Samsung was handed the responsibility of making its successor. And I must say they’ve done a pretty good job. Even LG for that matter is said to be in the running to make the Android 4.0 running Nexus Prime. But for some reason, Samsung seems a much better choice. With its Exynos chipset ruling the market currently, it could only make more sense for Google to go with Samsung for the next Nexus handset.

[Source]

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Well, it’s not new info that Microsoft earns a hefty sum of money with every Android handset sold. That is because Google uses some of the IP rights which are originally patented by Microsoft. So as a result every manufacturer has to pay a certain amount of money to MS for every Android smartphone sold. This is because of the open source nature of the platform; Google clearly has washed its hands off this. Some companies like HTC pay $5 per Android smartphone sold, while others pay slightly more. But Microsoft seems to have raised the stakes considerably now for the South Korean electronics giant Samsung.

If rumors are to be believed, Microsoft is demanding a whopping $15 per Android smartphone sold by Samsung. This apparently is Microsoft’s way of blackmailing Samsung so that they start paying more attention to WP7. HTC has a few WP7 devices under its kitty, hence the concession. It’s hard to believe that a company like MS would resort to something like this. Samsung is said to be negotiating for something under $10 per smartphone. Both the companies have remained mum as of now regarding the matter, so there’s no way of knowing what they’re thinking. With $15 per smartphone, Microsoft could make a lot more than what it makes with WP7. If we add up the sales numbers of the original Galaxy S and the Galaxy S II, Microsoft could make about $195 million. And the sales numbers of the devices are much higher since they are still being sold so it could come down to a lot more than $195 million. You do the math.

[Source]

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With Google recently launching the +1 button, very few of us would have expected a social network in the making. And now Google has revealed a new social networking idea which is to be called Google+ (Google Plus). The Google+ Project as Google calls it, seems like a full-fledged competitor to Facebook. The service is just starting off, so some flaws could be spotted, but either way it’s a brave attempt to have a go on Facebook. What we like about the first look of the Google+ Project is the user interface, which for now looks very neat.

Other aspects of the network include +Circles, which is like a group where you add your friends or family in one group. You may have a number of different circles where you add people you’ve come across from various aspects of your life. Say from your office, your hometown or your school and neighbourhood. This basically brings together a group of different people in one place.

Next up in the Google+ Project is +Sparks. +Sparks is like a trending feature as seen on Twitter available in your home screen. Users can search for their favourite topics and share the same with their Circle(s). This is again an improved version of the Facebook sharing feature with emphasis being laid on who you share your stuff with.

Moving on, we find the +Hangouts feature. I personally love this feature a lot. Well basically when you find your friends online on IM, the first thing you do is ping. But little do you know if they are busy with something or that they do not want you to interrupt them. Well, with +Hangouts, users can make themselves available in a separate space. You can select a circle and then see who is hanging out, which by the way also enables video chats making it one fun place for all your friends to hangout. You can have a video conversation with up to 10 friends.

It is obvious that Google would implement the Google+ Project on mobile devices (Android) as well. This service will be called +Mobile. +Mobile will bring an array of sharing features to the table. Users can share their location to every post they send, which can be easily toggled of course. And using Android smartphones users can easily share pictures in a go. When a picture is taken, it silently gets stored in the cloud. Users can then log in and select which ones to upload and which ones to dump. Pretty cool right?

Google +Huddle is a group messaging feature which will let you arrange plans with your friends in a jiffy. All of your friends can be connected in a conversation and you can get opinions and make plans or just have a casual conversation about something you saw during the day.

Well, it seems like Google is going hard at Facebook. The Google+ network certainly has the legs to go far. As of now, the Google+ Project is an invitation only service, so anybody can’t get in. But Google is set to change that pretty soon. But we’re not exactly sure as to when that would be.

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Remove Flash Cookies within Chrome

Chrome 12 provides easier way to delete Flash cookies, also known as Local Shared Objects. Flash cookies are often used by advertisers to track user behavior, and prior to Chrome 12 eradicating Flash cookie was pretty complex. Now it’s all within the browser.

Hardware Accelerated 3D CSS

Chrome 12 supports 3D CSS with full hardware acceleration, and as Google puts it, it will provide “snazzier experience in some web pages and web apps that choose to implement 3D effects”. Google has put up a short demo of what 3D CSS is capable of doing by taking clips from Aardman Studio’s “Shaun the Sheep”. It demoes some animated 3D CSS effects such as rotate the video, scale it up and down, toggle the reflection on and off, and activate a rotating carousel of videos. You can check out the demo at chromeexperiments.com/shaunthesheep

Other New Features:

• Launch Chrome WebApps from Omnibox
• Integrated Sync into new settings page
• Improved support for screen reader
• New Warning Message is displayed when Command+Q is press (Mac users only)
• Google Gears has been stripped from Chrome

How to Update: You can automatically update your browser by clicking on the wrench icon from the toolbar, and hitting “About Google Chrome”. If you are a network administrator or considering a standalone installer of Google Chrome, visit this page.

If you want to use bleeding-edge version of Chrome, which is already in version 13, get it from developers channel of Chromium.

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We really love how Google is trying to change the way iOS’ browser version of Google looks and feels, which is very neat. One thing to be noted though is that the interface disappeared after a while which could well mean that it is still being tested.

[Source]

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Many other retailers including the likes of Amazon have expressed interest in launching NFC payments system but it seems like Sprint and Google will take it all the way. And since this is a new system, it could take some time for the users to get used to it but so is the case with any new implementation isn’t it?

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What’s new in Chrome 13 dev channel release?

Multiple Profile Switcher: Lets users to switch between different profiles for Chrome. For instance, you can log on to your business related Google Account in one window of Chrome, and use a different window for your personal Google Account, without any interference. It helps you save time without having to log in and out, every time you need to switch between your accounts.

Background Apps: Allows Chrome Apps to run quietly in background even if the browser is closed. Apps which provide email, twitter and other essential notification can make use of this feature to run in background and continue to provide notification. In Chrome 13, background app feature is enabled by default, users who are concerned about resource consumption or privacy may turn it off by unchecking “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” from Options > Under the Hood

Tab Page: Experimental new feature which groups most visited sites, and apps. It appears like new tabs can be added and customized by the user, but that feature is not available in the dev channel release. It’s still very flaky and would most likely be developed in the later dev releases or stable build.

Restrict Instant to Search and Compact Navigation: Chrome 13 also includes option to restrict Google Instant to search only. It was a bit irritating earlier, when Google Instant would begin when loading every webpage. Compact Navigation improves the usability of Chrome in situations where screen size is limited (netbooks for example). With compact navigation enabled, the location toolbar of Chrome appears only when you open a new tab, or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L and silently disappears once you are done loading the webpage. Other experimental features include Side Tabs to move Chrome’s tabs to the sidebar, GPU accelerated Canvas to harness your GPU to render the page.

Linux: Support for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS “Hardy Heron” has been discontinued with Chrome 13 since it has reached its end of life, and Canonical has stopped providing updates and security patches.

All these experimental features can be enabled by typing “about:flags” in Chrome’s location bar. You can download Chrome 13 from dev channel

Side note: Chrome needs master security password. Firefox has had it for ages now, and allows users to safely remember their passwords. Although Chrome has “Remember Password” functionality, it does not have master password to lock all your passwords from being accessed by folks who share the computer with you. I’m hoping Chrome would eventually get a master password feature. Until then, “Remember Password” feature remains worthless for me.

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Recently launched Android phones have a front facing camera for video calls, and as the OS gradually evolves to version 2.3.4 we can expect more devices to be equipped with a front facing camera for video calls. But for now, it seems like Sprint’s the only way out for users willing to make video calls over 3G.

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Some interesting announcements came out of Google’s I/O conference, one of them being the unveiling of Android 3.1 Ice Cream Sandwich. And now, it is being said that Verizon Motorola XOOM owners might be getting an OTA update of Android 3.1 or the latest version of Honeycomb by this week. This info ought to bring joy to all the XOOM owners, because they will now be able to make full use of services offered by the Android Market like the ability to rent movies and more. This update will also support the final version of Adobe Flash Player 10.2. Other XOOM users can also expect the update to be rolled out to them soon.

Among the new features that Android 3.1 brings with it are customizable and adjustable widgets, support for input devices like keyboards and mice, better fluidity and responsiveness, the ability to make video calls on Google Talk using Bluetooth headsets and the best one of them all, Google’s cloud music service.[Source]

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The strategy blew-up when Burson refused to reveal the name of the client who hired them. Chris refused to publish such an article, and posted the entire email conversation on the web for the public to view. The email conversation can be viewed here.

“Recently, Google quietly introduced its latest attempt to enter the social space with a new feature called Google Social Circles. The idea behind the feature is to scrape and mine social sites from around the web to make connections between people that wouldn’t otherwise exists and share that information with people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. All of this happens without the knowledge, consent or control of the people whose information is being shared” – Extract from Burson’s email sent to Chris Soghoian

Facebook spokesperson ultimately came clean and confirmed that Facebook had indeed hired Burson to seed negative subject matters in the blogging and media community because Facebook had legitimate reasons to believe that Google’s entry in the social scene with Social Circle raised concerns regarding privacy, and Facebook doesn’t like Google mining Facebook user data to benefit their own social network.

Google is aware of this development, but they would rather not talk about it. Chris Gaither from Google’s global communication and public affairs just said “We’re not going to comment further. Our focus is on delighting people with great products”

Both Facebook and Google have been alleged for showing disrespect towards user’s privacy. At the end of the day, engineering teams from both the companies try to do a good job, and end up pushing the line.

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Angry Birds has been around for quite some time now on cellphones and tablets. The only platform it was missing out on was the PC, but now that seems to have been resolved. Developers of Angry Birds, Rovio just announced that the popular bird slinging game is now available on Google Chrome with the help of OpenGL. The game is offered in two variants, SD and HD. SD is for the slower running machines and HD is for faster computers with hardware acceleration for the browser. But IE9 or Firefox users need not be disheartened, because the game also works on these browsers.

Chrome users however have some more perks compared to IE9 or Firefox users. Chrome users apparently will be able to play special levels available only for this particular browser. Rovio in an official statement said – “We wanted to offer a special treat for Chrome users. We built a few exclusive levels that are only available in Chrome… it’s called the Chrome Dimension,”. Some might argue that this version of Angry Birds is not as fun as the original touchscreen version, but we can’t deny that it’s still fun.

Visit chrome.angrybirds.com to play.

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Apple and Google came under sever scrutiny recently when it was realised that the two companies store location data and user movements. And now, during the hearing about the issue Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein said that the two companies should continue tracking user location data for a period of two years. Appearing at a senate hearing called by Al Franken, Weinstein said – “When this information is not stored, it may be impossible for law enforcement to collect essential evidence,”. Apple has already rolled out an update for the location tracking bug but Google hasn’t given out an update yet.

A rep from the Federal State Commission however stated that the companies should track user movements and store location data only when it is absolutely necessary. We must agree that this is not something that we expected, but if its a matter of safety and the country’s security, users shouldn’t have much of a problem as long as the companies don’t make this info easily accessible.

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Users will soon be able to see a “Trending Apps” list in the Market which shows the most downloaded apps in the list. Also added is the “Editors’ Choice” list of apps which is basically Google’s pick of the best apps and a list of popular apps which shows you a list of apps trending in a particular region.

This feature is currently available on the web based Android Market and according to Google it will be made available in the Android Market for phones and tablets soon.

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Chromebooks won’t be running any native application like iPhone or Android, infact it won’t even ship with a harddrive or DVD tray. Everything is accessible through the cloud, and stored in the cloud. Chromebook will sync all your information with other devices you own that runs Chrome. For guest usage, Chromebooks will have a incognito like feature which allows Guests to login without them being able to access your person information, and when they log out of the guest account, all their browsing history will be erased from the Chromebook.

Though Chromebook will never be able to replace a traditional computer, having everything stored in the cloud has it’s obvious advantages. Like for instance, you could switch between devices and still access all your mails, calendar and photos. And if you lose your Chromebook, just purchase a new one and start using it. Everything is stored in the cloud, so your personal information won’t be leaked if you lose it. Your new Chromebook will run without any setup or backup restoration.

Google also plans to sell these devices for Enterprises and Schools. Chromebooks will be bundled with cloud management console to remotely manage and manage user devices, applications and policies. Monthly subscription starts at $28/user for business and $20/user for Schools. It would be interesting to see if Chromebooks will gain any traction in Enterprise, considering it’s low acquisition costs, remote management ability and regular hardware replacement guarantee provided by Google.

Do you think Google’s Chromebook will be able to gain critical mass? Tell us on Twitter @buzzytech

We think if they price it well, it might be the next big thing. It reminds us of the OLPC projects!

Update: All Chromebooks ship jailbreaked! Over 100 businesses and schools piloting Chromebooks including Intercontinental Hotels and Jason’s Deli

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Google today shed some light on the newest iteration of Honeycomb and also gave us some insight about its features. Google held an I/O conference in San Francisco where these vital information about Android 3.1 Honeycomb were made available. Google holds a conference every year where they let us know about their future projects and plans.

So here is the list of new features for Android 3.1 Honeycomb announced by Google:

1. Users will now be able to add additional input devices like keyboards, game controllers, mice and trackpads which is a whole new feature for Honeycomb. This will make things easier for tablet users and add extra customization to their device.
2. Google is also focusing on bringing better multi tasking and the ability to switch between apps smoothly. It’s not a secret that Honeycomb has had some problem with crashes. But with Google taking the initiative to bring an end to the crashes, we think users will be able to see a new and improved OS with Android 3.1.
3. Google will also be launching the Cloud based music service on beta which has been talked about for quite some time. With this the users will be able to store/save their music on the cloud with the stock Android music player which means that your device will be spared of storage considerably.
4. With Honeycomb 3.1 customization is taken to the next level with the ability to stretch the homescreen widgets to the size of your choice. Users can stretch the widgets to any size they want and will not have to be content with the small or large option like before. This is one great feature that we’re eagerly waiting to see in action.

In conclusion, we think Google has done its homework with Android 3.1 and we would love to see how they will fare with this update. Interestingly enough there is a possibility that Verizon customers could be getting Android 3.1 today. Fingers crossed.

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This is one of the reasons why people prefer to use email clients such as Thunderbird to read and reply emails. Even when your Internet connection fails, you can still read the downloaded messages and reply to them while you are off-line. And with the help of some nifty extensions for Thunderbird, you can even extend it’s functionality and setup two-way sync between Google Contacts and Google Calendar with your Thunderbird setup. This tutorial will teach you how to configure and use Thunderbird and Google Services to make you more productive:

Installing Lightning Calendar Management Add-on:

1. I assume you have already installed Thunderbird, and configured it to read your email. If you haven’t installed Thunderbird, you can get it from mozillamessaging.com/thunderbird (If you need help configuring Thunderbird 3.0 for Gmail or Google Apps, refer this page)
2. Install Lightning Extension for Thunderbird. Lightning will enable you to manage your calendar within Thunderbird or subscribe to network calendars such as Google Calendar.

Google Calendar and Thunderbird Sync:

1. By default, Lightning cannot read or add events to your Google Calendar. Install Provider for Google Calendar from Mozilla Add-ons to allow Lightning to communicate with Google Calendar
2. Go to Google Calendar > Calendar Settings > Calendar Tab. Choose the Calendar which needs to be synced with Thunderbird, and right-click the XML button and copy the link to your clipboard.
3. Let’s proceed to Thunderbird and add the XML link which we just copied. Open Thunderbird > Events and Tasks > Calendar. Now right-click on the Calendar Sidebar on Left-hand side and choose ‘New Calendar…’ from the menu
4. Choose ‘Google Calendar’ check-box and paste the XML link into the Location field
5. Google Calendar Login window will popup and ask you to provide your Login Credentials.
6. Give a name to your Calendar and choose a color for your Google Calendar events and click Next button
7. All your events will now be synced between Thunderbird and Google Calendar

Note: Google Tasks won’t be synchronized with Lightning. This is one of those features missed out in Provider for Google Calendar add-on. Hopefully, it will be included in the future releases of the add-on.

Sync Google Contacts with Thunderbird

Importing your Google Contacts into Thunderbird is easy, but contacts added to Thunderbird won’t be automatically synced with your Google Contacts. This makes it difficult to compose messages, if you keep switching between Gmail and Thunderbird. In order to setup a two way sync, you’ll need Zindus add-on. Configuring Zindus is very straight forward!

1. Download and install Zindus from Mozilla add-ons
2. Go to Tools > Add-ons > Zindus and click Preferences button.
3. Zindus Configuration Settings window will show up. Click on the ‘Add’ button and choose ‘Google’ and give your login credentials. Configure the rest of the settings as per your need. You may choose to sync Google Contacts with Thunderbird’s Personal Address Book or a different address book. You may also choose to ignore Google Suggested Contacts or include Contact Groups into Thunderbird Address book.
4. Your new account should now show up. Choose ‘Auto Sync’ from Settings and click on the ‘Sync Now’ button.
5. Your Google Contact should now be visible in your Thunderbird address book. Any contacts add to Thunderbird address book should also be visible in your Google Contacts.

Screencast:

I hope this tutorial helped in settings things right. If you encounter any problems, don’t hesitate to drop us a comment here!

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