Google officially announces What Do You Love? search; reveals Photovine sharing service

Google has officially launched the What Do You Love? site we spotted a couple of weeks ago, in a eponymous blog post. Describing the vision behind making a site like this, Google’s Andy Berndt, said “A while back, a few of us wanted to make a little tool that we could use to show just about anybody more of what Google makes.” Google’s What Do You Love? site can be found atwww.wdyl.com.

Aiming not just to showcase all of Google’s myriad web services and products, What Do You Love aims to ‘connect people to products,’ helping them discover useful and relevant new things while keeping the search fun. As we saw earlier, What Do You Love? certainly has a novel approach to search results, and indeed, queries had interesting results along Google’s many avenues. Search for beer, and Google’s results let you follow your love for beer to ‘Organise a debate about beer’ on Google Moderator, or ‘Measure the popularity of beer on the web’ with Google Trends, or “Call someone about beer” with Google Voice.

While we expected Google to make many enhancements and add features in the time since the site was spotted till it was announced, things have remained the same. Sharing your results is still limited to Gmail and Picasa for now – Google+ integration is surprisingly absent, but reasonably, should arrive be soon. We hope Google adds other new features as well. Check out the introductory video at the end of the article.

In the meanwhile, another new Google property has been spotted, called Photovine, found at www.photovine.com. Google has yet to comment about it however (apart from releasing an introductory video), and we expect an announcement in a few weeks, much like how www.wdyl.com was made available without a single announcement.

Still in trial mode and requiring an invitation to join, Photovine seems to be a photosharing service that allows users to share photos with the world, under a photo topic, which becomes an image thread that can be added to by other Photovine users. The service is definiltely not going to be limited to Android phones, in fact, as if to prove that very point, the phones used in the the entire introductory video were Apple iPhones!  

 

Vodafone, Idea, Airtel enter a deal to provide pan-India 3G services

Three of the biggest mobile network operators – Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel – have entered a deal under which they will allow their 3G users to connect to other's 3G networks, in areas where they do not provide services.  The move will help the mobile network operators save on cost, ensure pan-India 3G services for most users, .

“Vodafone has entered into a bilateral roaming agreement, both inter and intra-circle, with Idea and Airtel to provide 3G services to our customers in the circles where we have not built our own3G network, in order to bring a pan-India experience of 3G services to our customers,” a media report quotes Vodafone as saying.

According to the report, the operators have not yet revealed the details on revenue sharing. It's notable that the mobile operators often enter such roaming arrangements to ensure uninterrupted services to their customers wherever they travel in the country.

“Bharti Airtel has already started sharing networks for 3G services with each other. For example they are not having 3G network in Gujarat and have started using Idea’s network to provide service in that area,” the report quotes an official as saying.

In Delhi and Kolkata circles, Idea has partnered with Vodafone 3G services, while Bharti Airtel will enter into an intra-cricle roaming arrangement with Idea to provide 3G in Karnataka.

Separately, Vodafone has launched 3G services in states of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala through a roaming agreement with India. The report further states that Vodafone is plans to launch the service in Uttar Pradesh (West) circle through a deal with Idea. Meantime, Bharti Airtel will be providing 3G services in Gujarat through an agreement with Idea.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo leaks, sports a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU and 4.5-inch screen

It looks like the dual-core Sony Ericsson phone we've all been expected is almost ready, with multiple leaks of a device called the Xperia Duo, with a massive 4.5-inch screen and a 1.4GHz dual-core processor.
For now, the identity of the chipset is a hotly debated topic, with some believing it to be an overclocked Qualcomm MSM8260 1.2GHz dual-core processor (the same as that in the HTC Sensation), and others an unheard of NovaThor A9500 chipset, a 1.4GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor with a Mali-400 GPU.

Other specifications revealed about the device include a qHD (960x540) resolution for the 4.5-inch screen, powered by theBravia Mobile imaging engine, a 12MP camera, and a 2,500 mAh battery. For now, nothing is official, and things are certain to change before launch. We’ll keep you apprised of any developments. For now, we presume it will be running Gingerbread, and will arrive sometime after September.

Tata Indicom Plug 2 Surf

One internet connection device for your laptop as well as desktop PC

USB connectivity, Doesn't heat up a lot, Can also be used to make phone calls and send SMSes

Installation needs CD, Could have contained memory

I'm sure you already know about the Tata Indicom Plug 2 Surf -- with all these ads flashing in our face during the entire World Cup series. One ad goes like this: Bollywood celebrity Kajol walks in on an aspiring model and a couple of her friends. She inserts the Plug 2 Surf (a USB device) into the laptop and presto! They are connected to the Internet. Let's investigate this little device and see if it really provides for a happy ending (read a good solution for your net connection).

Bundle

USB modem

Driver CD & manual 

Options

Plug 2 Surf is a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) device, and it comes in 2 options. One is a standard Plug 2 Surf and the other is Plug 2 Surf Whiz. The main difference between the 2 is that while the first supports only Windows OS (including Vista), the latter supports several OSes (including Windows OS) except for Vista.

Setup

The Plug 2 Surf is an easy install. Just insert the mini-disc into your optical drive and run the setup. A restart after the install completes, and then you attach the USB modem and you're good to go. The "Plug 2 Surf" is possibly inspired from "Plug-n-Play" -- though it doesn't really work as one: you need to have the mini-disc present.

Tariff Plan

While considering the purchase of this device, it's mandatory to pick a tariff plan as well -- else the device is useless. There are about half a dozen tariffs to choose from, but all of them are time- or data-based -- quite an expensive deal actually. Here are the plans available:-

The phone plan is standard, and pricing is pretty average, considering that you'd be using the device more for Internet access. 

Features

The Plug 2 Surf has a list of features that make it more than just an Internet device. You can also use it to make and receive calls and send and receive SMSes as well. But it doesn't happen with the net connected, as it's just a modem and can do just 1 thing at a time -- either Internet or call or SMS.

The device uses a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), so it's going to be easy to use your Tata Indicom SIM that you use in your phone. Just call the customer service and activate the scheme of your choice. Thus, you save the cost of a separate SIM.

The software that is bundled along with the device syncs the SIM with the PC. It lets you read and send SMSes as well. You can also add and edit contacts and make calls through the address book option. The SIM can hold 1,000 SMSes and phonebook entries each.

Internet

The Internet connection of the Tata Indicom Plug 2 Surf is decent. It takes about 5 seconds to establish connection after you hit the connect button on the dialer. Surfing in the worst connected areas, I could still surf one site at a time peacefully. That would be about 4-5Kbps. Move to a good network range, and Web pages open without much waiting. I conducted some Internet speed tests, and here are the results. We took one from McAfee "SpeedoMeter" and the other from CNet "Bandwidth Meter". In both cases the speed test results were around 15Kbps. Even while conducting real-time download tests, the results were more or less the same while downloading from either http or P2P networks. The speed mentioned is 153Kbps, which translates to 19Kbps. 

Experience

I was expecting a plug-n-play thing. But the Plug 2 Surf didn't turn out that way. You need to install drivers, which come on a mini-CD, before you can connect. The mini disc could easily have been eliminated from the equation by just adding some memory within the device. There would be no hassles of running around with a CD, and that would have made it a complete Plug-n-Play device, just as shown in the advertisement. The memory provided could have been a 1GB or so just to make it a combination of Plug-n-Play Internet and a pen drive. But just like there are 2 sides to a coin, there could be issues with having memory installed. It could heat up the device more than it presently does. (CDMA network devices tend to heat up very easily.) So, adding memory could lead to an eventual malfunction and the device going faulty.

Conclusion

The Tata Indicom Plug 2 Surf connects through the most standard interface USB. And it sells for Rs.2,600 with a SIM. Add to that your tariff plan charges, which will be time- or data-based. The deal here is that you wish to have a net connection that you can take with you and use it with both you laptop as well as desktop PC. Finally, its build: it has a nice, black matt plastic.