Top Five Free Apps on the Android Market

Posted on August 23, 2013 by buzz

Written by: Lisa Pearson

The iPhone is known to have some great apps, but what about those who have Android phones? Android devotees need not worry; phones on the ave equally fun and functional apps to help make life more interesting. Take a look at the list Android operating system Take a look at the list of top five free apps on Android market and see if it compares to your top five list.The Android market has a plethora of applications available from games, music, books, and movies. Many of the games and books are available for free on the Android market while many of the apps available on the iPhone require a nominal fee. If you are one of the many people who love to play games or listen to music in their spare time, the cost of apps can add up fast. According to Distimo, which is an app store analytics company, in 2010 57 percent of Android apps were free compared to the 28 percent of free apps on the iPhone.
If you are new to Android phones and the market, take a look at the helpful video below which takes you step-by-step through downloading and uninstalling apps.

For those who are already well-versed in the Android market, consider adding these top five free apps to your arsenal of applications:
Pandora-Music lovers can create their own music stations with this handy app. If you love the sounds of Adele and create an Adele station; Pandora will also play other singers with similar style of singing such as Duffy or Amy Winehouse. The great thing about Pandora is that you have the opportunity to listen to other artists you might not have discovered on your own.

Google Currents-This app delivers magazine-quality articles that you can read offline on smartphones and tablets. There are a variety of magazines and websites to choose from and you can also share interesting stories through email or a social networking website.

Alfred -Meet your new drinking and dining helper. You can “teach” Alfred what your favorite bars and eateries are and he will make recommendations on new places to visit. The more you tell him about what you like, the better his recommendations will be. Everyone can use this clever app is a great tool to help navigate you to all the great hangouts.

MyFitnessPal – For anyone who is trying lose weight, exercise more, or just eat healthier; this app tracks all of these things and then some. You can set a weight loss goal for yourself and the app will calculate the number of calories you should consume per day in order to reach that goal. It also has a huge database of food, drinks and exercises so you can input all your meals, drinks, snacks and workouts throughout the day.

Llama-Does your phone always ring at inopportune times? Llama is a location aware mobile app. You can have your phone set to silent but still have calls from your boss or family come through. You can also set a timer for a specific profile so if you’re going to be on a conference call for the next hour you can set it to silent for 1 hour and then it’s back to normal.

Hopefully, you discovered some new things from the list of top five free apps on the Android market. Before you pay for any apps, always look at the list of free offerings. You will likely find a comparable free app to the paid version. Happy hunting!

Will Google’s New Privacy Policy Protect Account Holders Information or Expose Them?

Posted on February 14, 2012 by buzz

Google Policy Webpage

Written by: Chawonza Nash, February 9, 2011

On January 24 Google announced its new privacy policy and terms of service which ignited worldwide attention with regards to the potential for user private information to become exposed. Effective March 1 under its new policy Google will begin integrating account holders user information across its multiple services platforms into one streamlined platform. On the company blog Alma Whitten Google’s privacy director posted the company will “treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.” Single user? Intuitive Google experience? What does that mean exactly?

Basically, Google account holders using computers, iPads or cell phones devices will be uniquely identified upon logging into Google services or any of its third party service vendors. While this is not news, as Google has always collected users information, the difference now is that all user data collected will be compiled and integrated across one web service platform verses multiple to distinctly profile the user. This platform integration is as Google views it an opportunity to better tailor services and products for its users.

While some users may revel in Google’s intuitive response to know what they are attempting to search for or purchase, others may view this integrated technology as a violation of their privacy bordering on information voyeurism. The implications of Google combining users information across one products and services platform as well as being able to effectively protect users privacy has heightened concerns worldwide particularly among privacy advocate groups considering user may not be able to opt-out of all of Google services.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit Feb. 8, 2012 to hinder Google’s plan to merge user data from YouTube, Gmail, Google+ and other profile services, charging such a change would be in violation of an agreement the Federal Trade Commission negotiated last year with Google when it attempted to launch Google Buzz a social tool in 2010. Google countered back, “EPIC is wrong on the facts and the law.”

Friday, The Korea Herald (Seoul) reported Professor Im Jong-in of the Graduate School of Information Security, Korea University to say, “You can choose not to do Facebook but no one is free from Google products. If your Google account is hacked under the new policy, all the information on your Google activities is leaked immediately.”

Professor Ims’ comment targets what many users and privacy advocate groups are up in arms about as to the far reaching implication of Google’s new policy in the wake that it goes into effect in less than three weeks. Until then controversy surrounding its policy will continue to unfold, however Google is a reckoned information technology giant that won’t be easily slain.

In the meantime Google encourages everyone to read their new privacy policy and term of service because as their policy web page reads, “This stuff matters,” and if you’re not familiar where it is, well – Google it!

Google Celebrates 2012 With a New Doodle

Posted on January 2, 2012 by buzz

Written By: Mufsin Mahbub

With a New Year, Google gets into the spirit with a new doodle on their homepage. Their new doodle shows a bunch of tasks that every household does every year – listening to headphones, exercising, playing a guitar, reading a book and cleaning up the house.

Yesterday’s doodle showed the Google letters dancing and confetti everywhere while wearing party hats and the 2012 glasses. With the celebrations done, some of those New Years resolutions people promise to do will be displayed on the Search Engine’s website. Each letter of Google’s name represents doing something beneficial.

In the beginning of the word, the letter G has headphones on with different ways of saying “hello.” This symbolizes learning a new language as a New Year resolution. The two letter Os show some exercising taking place, which is something that a lot of people are trying to do as their goal for the New Year.

The small G, on a guitar, is strumming a tune – because learning music is another goal for 2012. The L shows the power of reading and taking up literature. After New Years celebrations, there is always a mess afterwards, which the E is doing.

For years, the Doodles were simply fixed illustrations. However, in recent times Google has added animation, video, music, and other forms of interactivity – like the playable guitar on the logo for Les Paul’s 96th birthday.

The letters shown aren’t actually animated or interactive like many of Google’s past doodles. However, by clicking on them it will bring you to a Google search results page for “New Year’s Day,” where you can learn about everything New Years, like trivia and today’s news like the annual polar bear plunge that takes place in Boston Harbor.

Users can also compare today’s doodle with others over the previous years All they have to do is check out the recently revamped Google Doodle website, which lets you search for every doodle by year and country and even offers a Doodle store where you can buy posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs, skateboard decks, and other memorabilia featuring your favorite Doodles over the years since the first one surfaced in 1998. Google has created as much as 260 homepage doodles in 2011, some of which appeared in specific countries and worldwide.

Google has simply found a great way to ring in the New Year and hope to see many more of their ingenious designs in the future.

Android Market – Top Five Free Apps

Posted on December 23, 2011 by buzz

Written by: Lisa Pearson

The iPhone is known to have some great apps, but what about those who have Android phones? Android devotees need not worry; phones on the ave equally fun and functional apps to help make life more interesting. Take a look at the list of top five free apps on Android market and see if it compares to your top five list.The Android market has a plethora of applications available from games, music, books, and movies. Many of the games and books are available for free on the Android market while many of the apps available on the iPhone require a nominal fee. If you are one of the many people who love to play games or listen to music in their spare time, the cost of apps can add up fast. According to Distimo, which is an app store analytics company, in 2010 57 percent of Android apps were free compared to the 28 percent of free apps on the iPhone.
If you are new to Android phones and the market, take a look at the helpful video below which takes you step-by-step through downloading and uninstalling apps.

For those who are already well-versed in the Android market, consider adding these top five free apps to your arsenal of applications:

PandoraMusic lovers can create their own music stations with this handy app. If you love the sounds of Adele and create an Adele station; Pandora will also play other singers with similar style of singing such as Duffy or Amy Winehouse. The great thing about Pandora is that you have the opportunity to listen to other artists you might not have discovered on your own.
Google Currents-This app delivers magazine-quality articles that you can read offline on smartphones and tablets. There are a variety of magazines and websites to choose from and you can also share interesting stories through email or a social networking website.
Alfred -Meet your new drinking and dining helper. You can “teach” Alfred what your favorite bars and eateries are and he will make recommendations on new places to visit. The more you tell him about what you like, the better his recommendations will be. Everyone can use this clever app is a great tool to help navigate you to all the great hangouts.
MyFitnessPal – For anyone who is trying lose weight, exercise more, or just eat healthier; this app tracks all of these things and then some. You can set a weight loss goal for yourself and the app will calculate the number of calories you should consume per day in order to reach that goal. It also has a huge database of food, drinks and exercises so you can input all your meals, drinks, snacks and workouts throughout the day.
Llama-Does your phone always ring at inopportune times? Llama is a location aware mobile app. You can have your phone set to silent but still have calls from your boss or family come through. You can also set a timer for a specific profile so if you’re going to be on a conference call for the next hour you can set it to silent for 1 hour and then it’s back to normal.

Hopefully, you discovered some new things from the list of top five free apps on the Android market. Before you pay for any apps, always look at the list of free offerings. You will likely find a comparable free app to the paid version. Happy hunting!

Google Aims To Improve Searches With Freeweb

Posted on July 20, 2010 by buzz

Search results could soon improve with Google's recent purchase of Metaweb, Inc.

In a recent purchase of Metaweb, Inc. for around $57 million, Google has plans to make its search engine that much smarter. Search terms like celebrities, companies, books, movies and more will become more specific and easier to identify with the five year-old technology called Freeweb.

Danny Hillis is the brains behind the keyword service. He developed Freeweb as an entrepreneur living in Silicon Valley. The way it works is that a large database siphons through search results and helps distinguish which terms belong to what subject. For example, if you search for the city of Boston you may come up with a variety of subjects like Boston cream pie or the city of Boston. Freeweb helps separate words into distinguishable search results that can be easily chosen.

Google is looking forward to improving its search engine results with the new acquisition, and will allow Freeweb to continue as a free service on the Internet while at the same time making it even better. Google also hope that developers will contribute their input and ideas as they incorporate Freeweb into their own database structure.

It’s A Bird. It’s A Plane. It’s Super Google!

Posted on July 15, 2010 by buzz

Everyone wants to get in on Google's ultra high-speed broadband experiment

Shouts of joy and elation are ringing from a list of hand picked communities around the United States as Google opens up its first test run of a brand new ultra high speed fiber optic Internet connection, Google Fiber.

This could be the future of Internet connection, which would catapult speeds faster than Captain Kirk can say, “beam me up, Scottie.” At 1-gigabye per second download rates would increased over 100 times faster than what they are today. This means a full-length feature film could be downloaded in around five minutes.

A Google Fiber for Communities website has been officially let loose so that we can keep tabs on this exciting new project, which is being coordinated with the help of the FCC. The ultra high speed broadband network will be in an experimental phase, with thousands of communities beating on Google’s doors to get in on the action.

Recently Don Ness, mayor of Duluth, Minnesota, swam in Lake Superior in order to garner attention for his community. Google has put in place a request form for communities who are interested in participating in the project, but only a small number are expected to be chosen.

Google Me Could Take On Facebook

Posted on July 2, 2010 by buzz

Google Me is rumored to be the a direct competitor of Facebook

The rumors could be true. Google Me is supposedly the latest project being hammered out by a large staff of tech elves soon to be in direct competition with Facebook, the largest and most popular social media website today.

Lately Google has been pumping up Google Buzz, adding new apps and allowing users to be more easily connected. Google Me, however; could take their venture into the social media world a lot further.

There will be a few things for Google to overcome if it wants to be a large competitor of Facebook, which currently has 450 million users and growing. It is thriving far more than MySpace, and the interface is user friendly and well connected to other social network sites like Twitter and Digg.

The new information about Google Me originated from Adam D’Angelo, a former Facebook CTO and owner of the website, Quora. D’Angelo seems confident in his predictions, but Google is still keeping it under wraps for the most part.

Google Me, if it is true, would add healthy competition to the social media landscape, which has been so saturated that only a few remain on top like Facebook and Twitter. Google has had great success with its other online ventures that it will be interesting to watch as the company ventures further out into the social media arena.

Google Seeks To Change Telephony With Google Voice

Posted on June 25, 2010 by buzz

Google Voice is now available to all Google users in the U.S.

In 2007 Google snatched up the company GrandCentral, and turned it into what is now Google Voice, a free service to all Google users in the United States. The company hopes to make telephone calling and messaging easy and free with the service.

Google Voice offers free features that can be used with any cell phone or telephone carrier including voice mail, a new telephone number to connect everything to, voice mail transcription, call blocking and more. The idea is to streamline telephone services into one, easy to use web based application. Right now Google has one million subscribers, who have all had to be invited to use the service. But now it is available to anyone in the U.S.

Any computer user can access Google Voice right from their Google account. You can choose to use one telephone number or not and just continue to access each individual one.

The aim of Google creating this new application is to enhance its already growing online services like Google Buzz, Google Docs and Google Wave. Small businesses can benefit greatly from these free services and be able to operate on a shoestring budget without compromising productivity. As more users are added to the Google Voice network, be on the lookout for more improvements and features.

The Bi(n)g Idea of Entertainment!

Posted on June 23, 2010 by buzz

Bing's music to the ears !

Microsoft’s aggressive attempts to revive their search engine by changing its name from MSN search to Live and then finally to Bing and positioning it as a decision engine has taken a new entertaining step.

This Tuesday, the company announced a new way to search the entertainment stuff where you can play games, watch your favorite soap operas and other TV content, stream music and shows, all without a second click, right on the Bing domain itself. This will perhaps make Bing look more like a web portal than a search engine page, while making the navigation much smoother for the average user who gets lost in the information explosion that comes with every search query that is made.

This new feature includes services from Zune catalog too, where each of several million songs on Zune can be played once for free and 30-second previews available thereafter.

It is noteworthy that presently 7% of all Bing searches (which accounts to 1.5 billion queries per month) are entertainment-related queries. This percentage is more likely to go up now with the introduction of this feature. Though Bing is still far from capturing Google’s number one position as far as search goes, this is surely a step in the right direction.

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