Angry Birds Developer To Trade In Baby Merchandise

The most widely used game which is present in every single smartphone and tablet will be soon seen on baby merchandise. Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, has decided to move into the baby product business.

Rovio is keen to expand its business and seeing the success of its Angry Birds game, it can be said that the gaming company will succeed in its goal. Angry Birds toys are already available in the market and they too are being liked by a lot of people.

The Finland based company was started by 3 students and was sponsored by Nokia and HP in its initial stage but now it has become a multi-million dollar company.

Ville Heijari, vice president of franchise development, said that the company’s top priority will be game development for sure but at the same time it wants to enter merchandising venture as it is one of the fastest growing businesses.

Baby Merchandise will include a lot of products like a 42-inch square blanket having images of angry birds. Apart from baby products, Rovio will also provide flip-flops, bags and the iPhone cases with images from its game.

Will you get your baby an Angry Birds product?

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Google+’s Real Name Rules Are “Abuse Of Power”: A Microsoft Researcher

A Microsoft researcher by the name of Dana Boyd openly criticized the “Real Name” policy of Google+ calling it an “abuse of power” by the tech giant. This news comes amidst the so called “bogus patents” feud between Google and Microsoft.

According to the “real name” policy of Google+, users cannot use pseudonyms or nicknames in their profiles. Earlier, Google+ used to delete the accounts which were found to violate this policy but now a days it has started giving the users a chance to provide their real name if they don’t want their account suspended.

Dana Boyd said that,” ‘Real names’ policies aren’t empowering; they’re an authoritarian assertion of power over vulnerable people.” She stated that the people who use pseudonyms are the ones who are most marginalized by power structures.

Though the statement of Dana Boyd is genuine but it has come at a time when Microsoft and Google are playing the “blame game” openly.

Furthermore, Microsoft is also rumored to launch its social platform in the coming months. Hence this statement though not of Microsoft, is being seen as a declaration of social war.

We think that this “Real Names” policy is rubbish and there is no need of such kind of dumb “policies” especially on a leading social network.

Do you agree with Dana Boyd or support this “policy” of Google+?

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Windows Phone Down 38%

Microsoft has tried its best to boost its smartphone sales but recent data from comScore shows that Microsoft’s share in US smartphone market has decreased from 7.5% to 5.8%, nearly 38%, which is not a good sign for the company’s future in smartphone sector.

Recently, Microsoft’s Mango OS, which is said to be the best software update by the tech giant till now, was deployed in Fujitsu-Toshiba’s IS12T and it is expected that major manufacturers will also be using this OS in their future handsets.

But the thing here is that “Mango” is yet not widely available in the market and even when it does, there is no guarantee that it will be able to create a buzz as experts say that its competition will be with the iPhone 5 and some major Android based smartphones.

Microsoft Windows Phones are quite good but they haven’t enjoyed the limelight as much as the handsets based on Android OS and the iDevices.

Most likely, the reason behind this is that Windows Phones are not advertised as much as its competitors especially in third world countries who are the largest consumers of smartphones. Secondly, it is not as cost effective as Android based handsets.

Will “Mango” be able to boost Windows Phone sales or has it been a bit late to do the needful?

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Gmail Introduces Preview Pane

Gmail has introduced a new feature in the form of Preview Pane which will enable users to browse emails when they are replying to some other at the same time. This feature was long awaited and was finally launched yesterday.

Preview Pane may be a new feature for PC users but it has been there for a while in Gmail’s tablet apps. Users of iPad and Android based tablets are familiar with Preview Pane.

This feature is now available in Gmail Labs and its design is almost identical to that of its counterpart used in tablets.

When a user activates Preview Pane, a three window panel opens up with Preview Pane in between the navigation and email panes.

Users can customize Preview Pane as per their need with the help of a settings button which is present at the top right corner of Gmail.

Users with high resolution screens will get the most of this feature but those with normal resolution need not to worry as Preview Pane will work fine with their screens also.

Though this feature sounds good but a lot of work is needed to make it better. We’ve used this feature and drawn a conclusion that it is still a beta product and it needs a lot of testing. It does not work well with Gmail labels if used in 3 panel mode.

Will you be using this feature?

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Google Accuses Microsoft And Apple Over “Bogus Patents”

The “battle of patents” between tech giant Google and its rivals Microsoft and Apple Inc. is in news again. Google has accused its rivals of buying some technology patents with a soul motive to hold back Android.

Google’s lawyers claimed in a blog post that Microsoft and Apple are playing dirty game of using so called “bogus patents” against Google’s Android.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond stated that Android’s success has forced its rivals to unite and to use cheap tactics against the open source OS.

He further stated that patents are meant to safeguard intellectual property and to increase innovation but now-a-days they are merely being used by some companies to stop others from succeeding in their goals.

Google has lost a lot of patents in past months, mostly owned by Novell and Nortel, which relate to the technologies that can be used in smartphones especially in the Android OS. Most of these patents were bought by an alliance between a number of tech companies which was lead by Microsoft and Apple.

Google’s accusation seems genuine for the time being as fighting with an individual competitor is one thing but fighting a battle against an alliance of its competitors is a very tough thing and chances of Google winning this battle are nearly zero.

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Wikipedia Losing Contributors

The best free online encyclopedia has stated that it is losing its contributors. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said at the website’s annual conference, held in Israel this year, that “convoluted” editing templates are the main reason behind it.

Wikipedia allows any user to edit its articles and furthermore provides a lot of tools for writing on its site. Losing its contributors can become a big trouble for the company as most of its articles are written and edited by volunteers.

Jimmy Wales said that the administrators are trying to solve the problem and will fix it quickly. He said that complex templates may be discouraging its users to write for the encyclopedia.

Wikipedia is available in a lot of languages and is supported by non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. It has over 19 million articles and has global users over 365 million.

Wikipedia’s readers are growing at a fast speed but its contributors are not following the same trend. In an effort to encourage volunteers to contribute actively, a new feature called WikiLove has been introduced which lets users share positive feedback.

Wikipedia is one of the best creations of the Internet and it has relevant matter for every age group.

All of us know that students, when doing assignments, prefer Wikipedia over their textbooks. Technogazette hopes that Wikipedia will soon come out of this trouble.

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Windows 8 Beta Releasing In September ?

The month of September will surely have a lot of surprises for us. Almost every tech blog on the world wide web has already reported about the iPhone 5 releasing in September. Now, we have come to know that Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 8 Beta version in the month of September.

Microsoft is planning to launch a beta build and not a beta preview. This rumor gets support from the fact that Microsoft’s build conference will be held in mid September. It will be the best time to release its beta build.

Windows 8 will focus on touch computing mostly but the traditional computing, i.e with keyboard and mouse will also be supported.

Unlike earlier versions of Windows OS, Windows 8 will be app friendly and a user will be able to customize it the way he wants. Furthermore, according to Microsoft, Windows 8 will revolutionize the way Operating Systems work and its interface will give users the best computing experience they have ever had.

There are also rumors in the tech world that Windows 8 will be deployed in tablets because of its touch interface. If such claims are believed, Microsoft’s market share in tablets, which is close to zero right now, will increase a lot.

Are you guys ready for the Microsoft’s touch OS?

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BlackBerry All Set For The iPhone Challenge

RIM(Research In Motion) will be releasing 5 brand new phones including its first ever all-touch screen phone within weeks. RIM has taken more than a year to release its new models and is expecting that this move will bring back its lost reputation.

These phones will be available on more than 200 carriers worldwide and are meant to increase RIM’s market share. Though this is a good news for BlackBerry lovers, these phones are not expected to generate a lot of success for the company.

The Canada based company is currently facing its worst time in the smartphone market. Recently it fired nearly 2000 of its employees in order to provide financial stabilization to the company.

RIM’s stock has fallen upto 68% and it is not expected to rise quickly. A lot of reasons are responsible for RIM’s failure but the delay in launching new phones is the major one.

Apple is going to launch the iPhone 5 in this fall and a lot of Android phones will be rolling around that period too. RIM will face a tough challenge from the world’s leading manufacturers in near future.

No detailed specifications were available till this post was written. We’ll keep you updated.

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Facebook Buys iPad Book Publisher

Facebook has acquired an iPad book maker by the name of Push Pop Press, which is known for publishing digital version of Al Gore’s book,”Our Choice”. Facebook has not disclosed details of this deal and has just stated that it is not planning to release any digital book yet.

Push Pop Press said in a public release that Facebook will not introduce its own digital publishing firm but will try to integrate Push Pop Press’ ideas and innovations that could work with its social network.

Facebook didn’t say much on the deal in its public release but only said that they were thrilled after purchasing Push Pop Press as according to it, Push Pop Press’ software has the ability to change the way people live and think.

We think that, Facebook is entering more and more ventures as the social networking giant thinks that the competition in social market is going to be very tough in future and here we are not only talking about Google+.

There are a hell lot of regional social networking sites having a large number of users and their users even prefer them over Facebook.

This move can be seen as a way of attracting new users with a safe game plan.

Do you agree?

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Sony Buys inFamous’s Developer Sucker Punch

Sony Corp. has bought game development studio Sucker Punch, the company behind inFamous and inFamous 2 series of PS3 games. Experts say that the tech giant was very pleased with the work of Sucker Punch and decided to buy it.

Sucker Punch Studio is the developer behind a number of PlayStation games as well as Sly Cooper games. It is based in Bellevue, Washington and has worked with Sony Computer Entertainment since 2000. It was acquired earlier today and it is expected that this acquisition will prove beneficial both for Sony and Sucker Punch.

It should be noted that the Sucker Punch studio is one of the elite game developers and interestingly, was founded by Microsoft employees in 1997.

inFamous is the most popular product of the company so far and if we are not wrong, the success of this game played a huge role in acquisition of Sucker Punch.

Sony Computer Entertainment has long been known for its acquisitions of upcoming game developers. Previously, in March last year, Sony bought LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule. The LittleBigPlanet was highly successful and even today, some people like to play it on their PS3.

Sony desperately needs to buck up its PlayStation Network as after the cyber attack which affected millions of its customers, the company lost a large number of its customers worldwide.

Will this acquisition help Sony to build its reputation again?

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