Zune Vs IPod -Who will win the war

Microsoft has official launched Zune a rival product to the already famous iPOD. Ipod revolutionised the way we hear to music. It gave us a sleek and sexy gadget to handle and listen to quality music.

What MS will surely do is to create a marketing BUZZ as they always do in the market, but who will win the war? Well YOU will win...lol..we get better products prolly an upgraded ipod in near future.Afterall competition is healthly for consumers.

If you wanna be Zuned, please take a look its features.

Size and Weight
4.4 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.6 in. (h x w x d)

Weight: 5.6 ounces

Battery[2]
Music, up to 14 hours (wireless off), up to 13 hours (wireless on); pictures, up to 4 hours; video, up to 4 hours
Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90%

Display
Size: 3.0 inches
Orientation: Vertical and Horizontal
Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels

Audio
Windows Media® Audio Standard (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate
MP3 (.mp3): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate
AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): Up to 320 Kbps, Low Complexity (LC), up to 48-kHz sample rate

Pictures
JPEG (.jpg): All resolutions (desktop software will automatically convert to 640x480 at sync time)

Video
Windows Media Video (.wmv): Main Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 1.5 Mbps peak video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio; Simple Profile, CBR, up to 736 Kbps video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio.

Wireless
Connectivity: 802.11 b/g
Range: Up to 30 feet

Language
English (a possible drawback??)

If you really love the new zune..check out a Zune Desktop theme

Go get that Zune this thanksgiving/christmas.

American influence on the world

Ever wondered why americans call themselves different? I never wonder coz i know for sure why they are different. American society was always founded on the very word "Freedom". This word was perhaps the first think a child learns before even identifying english words or even his/her parents.

One of the other things about america and which is equally important is their power to influence other countries which were distinctively different from them for e.g.China or india. We followed americans on everything we did in the last couple of years. We followed them with MTV, we did the same with fashion brands, we did it with neverendingcrap soap operas. Although we are born in different countries we are half-americans today. Yes, dont believe yourself, but its true. Try to jot down 10 things you did which were anywhere not influenced by america. I am sure you wont come out with many...what you got 4..look closely..even they might have some influence.

It was the early stage of internet back in india and chatting was a new concept to an indian. Thankfully, i had a PC then and freakin dialup connection with a spedd of 33 KBPS. (damn..i cant even think about it.) I remember talking to an american in yahoo chat rooms, when i told him i live in mumbai, india (i used to live there before moving to singapore), he wasn't too sure about where india is. Man i couldnt stop laughing. That day i realised that most of the americans are in their own world. they feel there is nothing beyond america and america is the world for them.

Neverthless sooner or later, they realised that there is someone more power(fool) and that was Mr. Laden. The old frd of america who paid back his debts. Americans now are more literate about the world. They know where is Iraq, they also know about being banglored (loosing a job to an indian).

Whatever the globalisation gave to the asian countries is of debate but one thing for sure it gave them a "Value" and a "Image".

If americans know YOU...YOU really made a difference. Trust me its hard to make your BOSS realise your value :-)

Google- A Company with Ideas

Google- a monster grown from a baby infant within a short span of time. One of the striking difference difference between google and other companies was always the passion to create something new. To innovate was the key for google's success and of course now they adopted a new technique of biuying out companies which are doing well in the niche areas (e.g Youtube).

With such amazing ideas and somethingnewhappening@googleallthetime , everyone is looking for new stuff coming our way from Google. Lets look at what we can expect in coming months.

1) Google Code Search: http://www.google.com/codesearch

After being a undisputed leader in search engines and offering value added services like google desktop search, google suggest etc. Google is now focusing on a niche market of programmers. We all know more than 70% of the code written by programmes is inspired/searched over the net. I wouldnt called it a rip-off but a knowledge re-use. Its necessary and its has its own market. Programmers always find it difficult to find codes but not anymore.

They might be able to do stuff like..

regexp
Search for a regular expression go{2}gle hello,\ world ^int printk

2) Google Transit: http://www.google.com/transit

After google maps, a new extention to the series with Transit services tracking. Unfortunately, its gonna be available only in US atleast in beta.


3) Google Accessible http://labs.google.com/accessible/

are you handicapped? visually impaired? Google has a answer. This new site will help handicapped people with search over the internet.

4) Google Mars http://www.google.com/mars/

Ever wondered about aliens? Fed up of living with Animals around you (LOL). Its prolly time for you to imagine youself buying a property over mars. I am kidding., but new service definately put a lot of light to the notsohypedup mars mission.

Enjoy browsing through the sites and drop some comments. If you are looking for some specific reviews about websites, products etc, please let me know. I would cover them here.