Having described in detail about blogs, blogging and their operations let us move on and learn about an astounding new form of blogging. Now, do you know what a vlog is? Vlogging or Vidblogging is a comparatively new online concept that has been in vogue for less than a year. In this form of blogging video is the basic content in a vlog. Basically, a vlog disseminates videos. To enhance its viewership data in the form of music, sound, movies and still images are incorporated into its framework. Further, additional meta data makes available its contextual and overall views. These vlogs are made by vloggers, vidbloggers or videobloggers.
Therefore, it can best be described as an arm of blogging where in the place of textual content video is utilized as the main medium. This comparatively recent variant of blogging is fast becoming popular with a large stratum of viewers, who observe that it generates extra attention than contextual matter. Viewers point out that ten minutes spent on viewing a vlog is far better and instructive than the quantum of time taken to read textual data. However, blogs and vlogs are equally appreciated. This again differs from subject to subject. In case you desire to learn as to how chocolate chip cookies (they are tasty!) are baked it is mandatory that you watch a vlog. But, if it involves new news such as Google’s hosting of their new archives searching technique then it is recommended that a blog be viewed. This, instead of having to listen from someone about it.
Freevlog.org elaborates on how to construct your very own vlog at no cost. The site, however, levies a fee on how to video blog. In addition, Blip.tv and Typepad.com are alternative websites which provide easy step-by-step information on vlog making and video blogging. Both can be tried out. In case it interests you in viewing and remarking on various vlogs a subscription to Mefeedia.com or FireAnt.com is recommended.
Let us see where video blogging goes on from here. It, however, is a certainty that in the foreseeable future some vlogs will be gloriously raved about. It has already been observed in blogging. A great many websites rake in millions via the blogs they host. Some popular ones are Fark, TechCrunch, BoingBoing, Gizmodo, and PopSugar. This is a brand new source for advertisement and for getting the vlogging word across. Video blogging has, on the internet, added a new dimension to the blogging art. Ahoy, here I come!
An iPhone Screen Protector is not a very costly add-on but it obviously is helpful. Typically an iPhone display cover such as a display screen cover is invisible. You place it over your screen and it shields it from any scratches, dust, as well as smudges. One advantage of display covers is that they can be removed, cleaned, and then used again.
An unseen shield iPhone screen can look after both the front and the back of your iPhone and not even one will observe it is there. If you prefer your iPhone’s appearance without any accessories this is the way to go. It has been noted that such an accent might slightly increase the temperature of your iPhone, however, there is nothing to concern yourself about. A whole cover for both front and rear walls guarded can cost forty US dollars, nonetheless it undoubtedly is worth to make the purchase. An Apple iphone screen cover will not let you worry concerning the damage you can involuntarily cause to your cellular phone.
There are a few accessories offered by the Apple add-on collection. Few are add-ons, yet others are really important. Accessories include a case as well as a significantly needed display cover. The case acts to guard the gadget. This would perform its function once the set is slipped from the hand by accident. In this circumstance, the phone may very well be affected or maybe broken if it does not have the right case. That’s why the casing is provided together with the set. Other than this, the user can also get the display cover. The display cover not merely makes the phone look nice but also guard the screen from scratches. It is utilized to absorb the significant amount of force that could cause the display to break. The appearance of the device will soon {end up being} horrible because of the scratches as well as other defects on the display screen in the event a case isn’t utilized.
An iPhone screen protector is really an essential accessory for your cellphone. Aside from that, the external audio system and the accessory casing are also available for the cellphone however more of a good-to-have accessory but not a vital one. There’s no need of these accessories for normal users. Thus, the most important of all of the accessories that owners should buy would be the case along with the display screen cover.
By making use of an iPhone phone screen protector, you’ll actually prolong the life span of your mobile phone considering that a smart phone with a broken display is equally useless. A Screen Protector is relatively cheap as compared to purchasing a whole smart phone. Holding a smart phone in your pocket or bag is simple provided that the screen is actually safeguarded from the effects of scratches from keys, cords as well as other issues you are taking with the smart phone. A display screen cover would also protect your smart phone’s display from lint and dust from cloth pockets and bags. Therefore, it is possible to take your mobile phone everywhere with you. The display screen protector also guarantees you prolonged hours of usage in outdoor and indoor usage even with minimal lighting.
Microsoft has come up with its own Window’s phone assistant and her name is Cortana. Since digital assistants are all the rage these days, here’s a look at what Cortana is all about, according to the latest science and technology news.
The Setup
Basically, Cortana is designed to learn about the user, and with intelligence that comes from Bing, language processing courtesy of Tellme, and the combined knowledge of Satori’s repository and Microsoft’s Cloud, Cortana can has the power to sense when you feel like taking a nap and silences your phone for you. To set her up, all the user needs to do is choose from some pre-defined categories, such as, headline news, health, sports, and technology. The user can also set their favorite sporting teams, or their favorite restaurant they usually have meals in. Cortana then delivers you information based on your likes and your current location. It can also make suggestions based on what you do and where you do it. the information is then stored in Cortana’s notebook which can be viewed as the equivalent of Google Now’s homescreen.
Cat Fight!
So, can Cortana hold her own against the likes of Google Now and Apple’s Siri? That’s the big question and one that we’ve got the answer for (the hard way). In a way Cortana is unique when it comes to artificial intelligence personal assistants, mainly because Microsoft took its time to study the others in the genre and just came up with a tweaked up version of the AI personal assistant, but how does it fare with the likes of Google Now and Siri?
Well, the first thing one would need to fix in their brain is that Cortana is in actuality, Microsoft’s own Bing search engine through and through. But don’t get us wrong, while Cortana does use the Bing platform, it is all Cortana, and while it’s no woman, it is female. This is actually Microsoft has shown its innovative genius, since Cortana is an extension of the Bing search engine it is a lot similar to Google Now which runs on Android devices. So, in other words, Cortana is able to recognize the stuff that interests you and then use Bing to mine the information you would need or find useful.
At the moment, there are only five 3rd party apps that are built for Cortana, and they are Hulu, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Flixster. Microsoft has used a combination of cloud and on-device computation, for Cortana’s voice control function, which means that when you speak to Cortana, patterns of your speech are used to interpret your commands and if Cortana is unable to understand what you have said, it will reach out to its neural network to pick out possibilities. According to the latest science and technology news, this function actually helps Cortana learn and improve on its language interpretation and voice recognition functions over time. If you put the three head to head, Cortana and Google Now both have precognitive abilities which Siri doesn’t, but as far as functionality goes, Cortana clearly has the edge.
In a nutshell, Cortana has a personality of its own and because it’s voiced by the same actress of Halo, Jen Taylor, which means that you no longer have a robot like voice responding to your queries and on a side note, since there is an Halo element to Cortana, it is also capable of responding to any Halo related questions you might have.
Ending Note
In the end, the sole purpose of Microsoft to develop their own artificial intelligence personal assistant was to not only have a heads up on their rivals, but to also imbue their creation with a personality of its own and it seems like they’ve succeeded. That being said, it’s still a beta, which means that there might be more to expect when it is officially launched in the Microsoft Windows 8.1 phone which is due later on this year.
Last year Jawbone released a gadget that promised a lot, it was to be a bracelet designed by Yves Behar that tracked your exercise and along with an app for your phone allowed you to plan out your daily routines in an aim to get fit. Combining fashion and fitness with the use of your phone it all looked good and the hype was in full swing, then people actually tried it. The problem was that the bracelets were breaking.
Refunds had to be given and things went silent on the Jawbone Up while they went back to the design and took a look what was wrong. Now here we are a year later and Jawbone is back with a new version of the Up looking for a second chance with the hope to redeem itself and show people what this piece of tech can do. So the question is, are the bracelets truly fixed and more importantly has Jawbone done enough to catch up with a technological world that has move on a year since the initial release?
The Bracelet
It’s fair to say looking at the new bracelet Yves Behar’s design is looking to be less noticed than some other devices that are offered (for example the Nike+ FuelBand with its LED design). This bracelet goes for the more subtle approach with a better look for people who want to use the device and not really have to show it off. If it is noticed though it still looks good and fits around the wrist nicely. Looking at the issues with the original the 2012 version of the UP bracelet is more waterproof and more flexible in its design. This was said to be its original problem.
It’s obvious that Jawbone have concentrated on making the bracelet better, but not looked at improving the technology. Connection to your iPad or iPhone is done through a headphone jack, no Bluetooth or micro-USB support here, which is a shame. This also means that recharging is done through the jack and a converter to connect to the device. Battery life is good though with around ten days use before having to recharge.
Functionality
All of the power of the Jawbone Up is in the software used with it, so whenever you want to look at the details you have to plug it into your iOS device. This will take the date from your bracelet and give you a readout of your activity for the days. The app has been given an update since the last version. One new addition to note is the social aspect where you’ll be able to comment on your friend’s progress (if they are using the Up app too). This is nice to keep you motivated and add a level of competition to your exercise, as well as adding that little bit of shame if you slack off.
Along with the data from the bracelet you’ll also be able to track the foot you have eaten by putting the details into the app, this will let you see your personal calorie intake, when you ate and other information. This includes functionality to scan the barcode of your food to make identifying it better. The only drawback to this is that some of the foods aren’t in the database yet, and of course you can be showing what you are eating to your friends, which may not be something you want to do.
The next feature is the sleep tracking with the advertising saying that it will help you improve your sleeping patterns. There is also functionality within the bracelet itself to act as an alarm to wake you up when required, whether this works is questionable though as the vibrations it creates may not be enough to get your attention. The same vibration alarm is also used to detect if you are being too idle and need to become more active which can be quite a good alert to if you are having a lazy day.
Statistics
The aim of tracking your life using the Up bracelet and app is to push yourself to be fitter and to track what your food habits are. Even if you have this type of functionality available you still need control. For people who like exercise though it can be quite a useful too, but the fact is there are plenty of other devices like this that can actually do the same thing.
Verdict
The problem with the original Jawbone Up appears to be that the bracelet was breaking too easy and refunds had to be made to the customers. It’s nice to see that Jawbone took the design away and improved it to make it more functional and stronger, which is obviously important if you are going to be wearing the bracelet all day. It does appear that Jawbone have fixed the issues that they have found and have provided a good solid and flexible bracelet that can be used with the app to track your life.
The problem is though that there is really nothing that new in the Jawbone Up, especially compared with newer devices that offer the same functionality. Many phone can offer tracking without the bracelet, especially Android phones running the latest Jelly Bean OS so it’s questionable if people really need something like the up anymore? Saying this there are many positives to the Up, for people interested in tracking all their exercising and life and improve their health it definitely provides plenty of tools to help you with this.
To have a chance to compete with the soon to be released Apple Watch, Swatch has recently announced that it is going to develop its own smartwatch. This is exciting news for fans of the Swiss watchmaker that is best known for its chic and robust timepieces since 1983.
According to CEO Nick Hayek, the watch company is planning to roll out its new wearable by May of this year, which is coincidently just a month after the launch of the much talked about Apple Watch. Some of the highlights of the new Swatch design according to industry insiders is that the watch will work on both Windows and Android operating systems and users will be able to connect to the internet without having to charge their watch. The company has also announced that users can also use their Swatch smartwatch to make mobile payments, which is one of the perks that the Swiss watchmaker will be banking on.
But the recent announcement of a smartwatch by Swatch comes as a surprise to many because of the fact that the CEO has voiced his concerns on the potential of the smartwatch market. That being said, the Swiss company might just have what smartwatch buyers will be looking for, considering they’ve been known for their colorful and fun watches that also go easy on the pocket. Some other players in the smartwatch marketplace are also Sony, Samsung, Pebble, Qualcomm and Apple just to name a few.
Battery life still remains to be the driving force for sales when it comes to smartwatches. While Swatch has not yet revealed its battery capabilities to the public, considering the company’s experience, we should expect a battery life of no less than two days minimum if it really wants to compete in a growing industry.
The Apple Watch is expected to sell for around $350 dollars and also allows users to connect to the internet, send and receive instant messages, and of course, track the wearer’s fitness levels. And like the Swatch, the Apple Watch will also allow users to pay for goods and services with their Apple Pay service. The only downside of the Apple Watch being that, unlike the Swatch, it will need to be recharged. For how long, that’s a question that still needs to be answered since the company has been keeping its cards close to their chest on any information regarding the battery life of the new Apple Watch.
Apple Ping is one of the new face of the social networking genre which is dedicated for music and comes under the bold banner of ‘Social networking for music’ by Apple. Initially, this social networking feature was planned to be integrated with facebook but due to some disagreement between them and Apple, it was finally brought up by integrating it into the iTunes 10. Being a source of social gathering on the web, any music enthusiastic can simply drop by and take stock of all the informations regarding the artists, new music releases and also share or know what others are listening. With more than 1 million users registered, the Apple’s iTunes Ping has reflected a rapid growth overtime and has now become a new craze for all the music lovers to follow their favourite artist and also share their favorite playlist with their friends.
Setting up a profile in Ping is very straight forward and involves no lengthy and complicated steps. However, there are a few aspects on the lower side as it has some restrictions in place like allowing only three music genre to choose from all the 21 available categories. However considering the matter of fact that it is still under the stage of infancy, we can go along with what it offers as of now. In case of the artists, there can be no more then 10 which can be selected to cover the profile page along with the corresponding album covers.
The personal feed displays the most recent activity but there is so far no specified way to get any notification whenever anything new is posted. It can also be accessed from the iPhone 4 and the iPad through a separate tab in the iTunes which makes the browsing experience much better with all the support for multi-touch that is built into the duo.
Now as the iTunes Ping has registered its presence in the list of available social networking entries, it would be interesting to see how it performs in between some of its close and big competitors like Facebook and Spotify. Even though it is new or quite unknown to most of the folks, it can be expected to gradually attain the status that it deserves being one of the many products of the industry giant i.e. Apple.
Even though most people even now associate viral marketing and advertising with video and YouTube, reaching satisfactory benefits with business viral video marketing has turn into difficult, because of to above saturation. Viral games even so can still provide great outcomes, virtually often surpassing those of video campaigns, here’s why:
Seeding your viral video game is less complicated
There are a lot of on the internet games portals and local community internet sites that will characteristic and actively market your online game for totally free. It’s relatively easy to get a online game on the front web page of a handful of higher targeted traffic video games portals, possibly getting your online game in front of thousands and thousands globally, but consider undertaking that with YouTube, or 1 of the other main video clip sharing websites. More than saturation on the video sharing web sites has meant that it can be practically unattainable to make your video clip stand out from the huge quantity competing for your audience’s attention.
Viewing figures are higher for viral games
Simply because they are less difficult to seed and get in front of people, viral games usually get witnessed and played by many a lot more folks than video clips. It can be frequent for viral video games to attain hundreds of thousands of performs, whereas only a quite small quantity of the extremely finest viral movies can hope to compete with these amounts.
Viral games can link straight to your website
Viral games can have clickable net links embedded inside them and clickthrough charges are really good. Typically numerous occasions better than other types of on the web advertising this kind of as banner advertisements at close to ten%. The difficulty with viral movies is you cannot consist of these clickable backlinks. The best you can do is contain a URL and hope. Clickable web back links in viral games present numerous moments the referral s
ite visitors of a video because of this.
Viral games are interactive
A good viral video game engages your audience significantly better than any video by enabling them to not only see, but interact with your model. This will increase the influence of the advert, helps make it much more probably to stick in the viewers mind and helps make return visits considerably far more likely.
You get far more for your funds with viral video games
Considering the previously mentioned points and the fact that viral video and viral video game production charges are similar, this makes viral games much more price successful. A lot more views for the same invest as properly as the reality that viral games are significantly much more engaging makes them considerably far more appealing as a advertising device.
You can quickly, properly check results with viral games
The achievement of viral movies can be really difficult to check precisely above many internet sites and hoping to establish extra viewer information can be nearly unattainable. Its straightforward to include a viral tracking program into your viral online game code in purchase to keep an eye on detailed stats about your marketing campaign. Making use of either one of the no cost or compensated monitoring systems devised especially for viral Flash or even Google Analytics, you can track precisely who is playing your viral video game, what region they are from, how prolonged they play for and how they interact with the online game, such as internet link clickthroughs. This is priceless for holding track of how well your viral sport is executing. This kind of correct data just isn’t effortlessly offered with viral video clips.
You can even use viral video clip to promote your viral sport
This may possibly sound a bit odd, considering every little thing preceding this, but inexpensive viral video clips can be effectively used to boost traffic to a viral online game. We usually do this with the viral video games we release, where we generate a brief gameplay video clip in order to further advertise the viral online game. Due to the fact it can be just a video clip seize of the online game there is quite minor time, work and expense concerned.
Even with viral marketing being synonymous with on the web video clip, viral video games undoubtedly provide the far better, much more successful option for viral advertising.
It’s fair to say for the average user of a camera, which means not the professionals or hobbyists who want to have something more advanced, the smartphones like the iPhone is the camera of choice. As we snap away with the phone and build up a collection of pictures it’s nice to have some kind of app to edit these pictures and add our own little style to them.
Users of Mac computers will already know of the iPhoto app for the Mac as it comes for free with the OS. The good thing about it being an apple product though is that they have now made it available for the iPhone and iPad too meaning you can edit your 
images on any device, though the iOS version is not as powerful as the Mac version, and not as connected between the two types of devices as much as we may like. The fact that we can still edit our images though is still a good thing.
Managing Your Images
The first thing that is noticeable with the app is that you can use Photo Journals on your phone. This is a cloud service meaning that you can share the images between your devices as well as having a unique URL for the image giving it access over the internet. Of course this helps with the Social Media side of things which can also be done through the app. One thing you’ll have to be aware of though is the file size, on the cloud and on the Mac they can be full size but on the iOS devices they will be limited in side. This is down to the limitations of the devices themselves.
User Interface
As can be expected from Apple the user interface is slick and easy to use. Through a thumbnail browser it’s easy to pick the image you want to view, and edit with the ability to view the image full size to check on its focus and colour etc. There is also the ability to view the images through Airplay or Apple TV, as well as through an HDMI cable to your TV. This is useful for not only home use business too for presentations. Although you can organise your photographs into the folders the app provides it’s annoying that you can’t create your own folders for more choice.
Editing your Images
Editing includes the ability to zoom into the images and apply filters, sharpen the image, lighten and darken it and desaturation. These options apply to the image as a whole, but through use of brushes it is possible to edit the image at a local level. These edits that are made only affect the image once it is re-rendered so you can mess with it to find the perfect change, knowing that you can undo it whenever you need to.
Verdict
For the average iPhone, iPad user who wants to edit the photographs that they have taken while on a day out or a good night with friends this is a good app that gives them basic editing potential and is quite fun. The more advances user though will see the weaknesses straight away, but it is obvious who exactly this app is for. It would have been nice if there was more compatibility between the devices and the Mac iPhoto software, and the restrictions to the image resolutions does hold the app back slightly but future upgrades to the software may improve these issues.
Yesterday was the day that all Apple fans and tech fans had been waiting for, Apple were finally going to let us into the “mini” secret that everybody knew about. Along with the release of the next generation iPad using the A6 chip they showed us the iPad Mini. Basically a 7.9-inch version of the iPad itself it promises to be able to do everything the bigger model does, and be a better mini tablet than any other on the market.
Of course this is quite a major claim and there is a lot to prove. When people can buy the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD at budget prices and offer excellent performance, can the iPad simply come in and steal all the market from them? This is debatable, even if Apple believes they can but the fact is this is one hell of a tablet that Apple fans will love, and people looking for their first tablet, even in mini form will really have their eyes set on.
Build
Quite simply in line with most of Apple’s new announced technology (new iMac, another Mac Book Pro, new iPad) everything about the iPad mini is thinner and lighter. The big difference with this variation of course is that it’s smaller. The good news is though this is basically a downscaled version of the iPad in screen size only (which of course has an impact on resolution and image quality). But at 7.9-inches, 7.2mm thinness and 308g weight (for the Wi-Fi only model) this is a nice, light tablet that can fit in your hand quite easily. Volume and screen-rotation lock buttons have moved to the right-hand side of the unit and headphone socket is on the top of the tablet now rather than at the bottom. It should also be noted (though it was already known) the iPad mini charges with the lightening connector.
Screen
The most important change with the size is the much talked about 7.9-inch screen. This is capable of a 1024 x 768 resolution with 163ppi. This means that as expected with Apple’s quality products the screen is bright and vibrant with the text as sharp as ever and colours are vivid. Videos look good on it and web pages are easy to read, if anything this may be a more mobile version than the bigger iPad that is harder to use at times with the need for two hands at all times.
Camera
The rear camera is a 5MP iSight camera which works as good as the one on the bigger version of the iPad so pictures can be taken with the same quality, though the image on the screen of course won’t be as good as the retina display quality. They will still look good though. A front camera is of course included for the all-important Face Time features.
Performance
The chip inside the iPad mini is an A5 processor which is fast and should be able to power all the apps and multimedia you can throw at it. It was a disappointment in a way that Apple showed off the latest iPad with the A6 processor and promised double the speed and excellent performance, yet did not include this processor in the mini version. This of course maybe down to the limitations of the mini itself or just down to the fact that both the new iPad and iPad mini were in development at the same time and decisions had to be made on stable chips to work on to get the mini released on time. This of course is just conjecture but it’s still interesting to think about.
Verdict
Apple tout their claimed “10-hours battery life” and pushed it for all it was worth in the speech, but this is something that will have to be proven in real life usage. This claim has been known not to hold up with the processor intensive applications that the iPad uses so it will be interesting to see just how long the iPad Mini batter will last with some real use. Anything close to the stated time will of course be welcome and as long as it lasts a day’s use there should be little issue here.
The iPad mini is an excellent tablet that can now fit in your hand, it has huge potential for not only Apple fans but people who can’t afford the full priced iPad, or are even looking for something a little smaller. Apple’s problem though will be the way they move to try destroy the competition against them, sometimes with claims that may or may not be actual fact. It’s easy to bend facts and point out frailties of other products to try and sell their latest products, but this lack of tact may not in fact get them far.
Apple will always have their fans but with the price scene (£269/$329 for the cheapest models) they are looking at a price tha is up to £100 (in the UK) more expensive than their competitors. Yes, the cost may be worth it but people will still take a look at the competition and see a device that can compete and can do so at a cheaper price. It will be interesting to see just how dominant the iPad Mini will be when it’s released in the coming weeks.
When all the major brands are competing hard in the market providing the latest technology including the tablet products, the Chinese Pipo Tablet company is not far behind as well. Certainly the Chinese products manufactured from Shenzhen are one of cheapest brands to sell tablet computers around the world. Pipo is one those brands that has successfully entered the world’s market with their cheap tablets in various different shape
s and sizes. However, very little is actually known about Pipo and therefore let’s have a look at how this company started to make its way to the tablet pc industry.
The Background of Pipo
Pipo has its origin from Taiwan but they manufacture their product from Shenzhen, China. The company started in 2003 where manufactured several mp3 players and distributed throughout the various parts of Asia. The cheap MP3 players became very popular among the people in eastern and south asia where Pipo exported their products in limited to some parts of Europe and North America as well. The company always upgraded their products like manufacturing MP4 and even what they called MP5 wave players for the East Asian market mainly. They also made cheap ebook readers, digital photo frames, speakers and so on. The manufacturers at the Pipo have always been on the lookout for what trend is going on in the technology industry and have always tried to come up with unique products to satisfy the customer needs to possess cheap and quality devices. Certainly, the digital photo frame was a very good innovation that no other companies have done before.
The Pipo Tablets
In the year 2010, when the tablet PC revolution was taking a hike with products like Ipad mini and so on, it was time for Pipo to step into the tablet market. In this process, till to this date, they have around 20 different tablet computers and smartphones in many different sizes ranging from 5 inches to 10 inches. Many of these products have received very good reviews from the users all over the globe where it is believed for Pipo tablets to have many features for multimedia and work at a very low and affordable price. Although android tablets are the most demanded tablet pcs, most of the Pipo tablets have the windows operating system in it, making it very famous among those users who prefer windows over android. Since, windows is user friendly for those who want to perform office related work at a very affordable price, the pipo tablets are certainly the most popular among all the Chinese products. Furthermore, Pipo also have some android tablets as well making them one of the few companies that use both the popular form operating systems in their products.
The Future
There is a high potential for the future of Pipo where they can become a very influential Chinese company like HTC and have a good share in the North American and European market. There is still plenty of areas of improvement for the company and through proper strategy they can develop into a prominent electronic product company fighting with the tech giants of the first world countries with quality and performance.