Google Phone

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Google is gearing up for an all-out assault on the mobile-phone market that will include a new, Google-branded handset and the first comprehensive Google phone service with unlimited free calls.

For the first time, a single company will control everything from the software in users’ phones to the services they use to make calls and surf the web.

The Googlephone promises to be one of the most advanced smartphones, with a large touchscreen display and a processor almost twice as fast as the one powering Apple’s iPhone 3GS. It will probably be the first phone to run a new version of Google’s Android software, codenamed Flan, offering high-speed 3-D gaming said to be as good as that of many handheld consoles.

According to Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Northeast Securities, a financial services firm, the Google-branded phone will be built by a third-party supplier, possibly the Taiwanese phone maker HTC, and will incorporate a processor from Qualcomm.

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The real breakthrough, however, will come with the marriage of the Googlephone to Google Voice, the Californian company’s high-tech phone service. Google Voice gives US users a free phone number and allows unlimited free calls to any phone in the country — landline or mobile. International calls start from a couple of cents (just over a penny) a minute. Google Voice also uses sophisticated voice recognition to turn voicemails into emails, can block telemarketing calls automatically and offers free text messaging.

Google sounded its intentions two weeks ago when it purchased a small company called Gizmo5, which had developed technology to connect Google Voice with voice-over-internet (Voip) networks such as Skype. Now Google has the means to offer a complete, end-to-end phone service, with which consumers can make and receive calls between the Googlephone and other phones or computers anywhere in the world, and often for nothing.

“We’ve never had this situation, where a single vendor controls the entire stack, from the operating system right up to Google’s cloud services,” says Kumar. “It changes the competitive and bargaining dynamics like never before.”

Google declined to comment on its plans, however.

One victim of the Google juggernaut could be Skype, the internet phone service. Skype software uses a broadband internet connection to offer free voice and video calls to other Skype users, plus cheap calls to landlines worldwide. If Google can succeed in linking its Google Voice service to Skype and other Voip networks, it can lure users with the offer of free long-distance calling and a “real” phone number.

One of Google’s challenges will be to link the phone to mobile networks so that the company’s services can be offered not just over wi-fi-connected broadband, but also over a 3G link to the internet, resulting in a real call-from-anywhere device.

This could prove a problem, though: few phone networks will appreciate being frozen out of lucrative business such as voice calling and text messaging, and being reduced to a simple data pipeline for Google’s services.

Google could also antagonise the networks by selling its mobile phone directly to customers and inviting them to use their existing Sim cards, whatever network they are on. “Google wants the Googlephone to be carrier-agnostic,” Kumar predicts. This could push the price of the handset to well over £500, because the cost of smartphones is heavily subsidised by networks, which recoup the money by locking customers into their services.

The mobile networks aren’t the only enemies Google risks creating. Other phone makers now using the Android operating system, such as Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, might not take kindly to Google keeping the most up-to-date version of its software for itself.

Although the popularity of Android has grown quickly since its launch last year, it is still installed on less than 4% of the smartphones sold, and there are other free operating systems (Symbian, for instance) to which rival phone makers could switch.

Can Google have its Flan and eat it? We may not have too long a wait before finding out, because Kumar and other experts are predicting that the Googlephone will be launched in the US early next year.

 

 

 

Source:  http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6924233.ece

I love the new Windows7 split screen, how difficult is it to add a second monitor to my desktop computer?

Having two screens is addictive.  Today you can add a second monitor to almost any mid level computer for about $250.00; or you can buy the six screen system for about $2,000.00.  Adding a second monitor may require an additional video card to handle the output, but it need not be an expensive card.  The video card plus two monitors and some software setting changes are really all it takes to be viewing 40” of your favorite information.  Now you can enjoy your stocks on one screen while checking email on another.  Business owners can compare their spreadsheet budget against their QuickBooks reports.  The options are endless.

And, if you need the reverse answer; you can also have that.  Simply connect two desktops to one Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse with a KVM switch.  This is a great way to switch between two PCs.  We use this system at the shop to hook up multiple customer machines.

 

Virus – ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK

Here is the issue with this – the sole purpose of this scary email is to collect email address that can later be used to SPAM you.  So STOP FORWARDING THE EMAIL! 

Please!

When you forward emails you should NEVER include all the email address that came on the email to you.  DELETE THEM if you must forward jokes, virus warnings and other emails that have been around the world 9 times.

Here is the email:

YOU NEVER KNOW IF THESE ARE TRUE OR NOT SO I WILL FORWARD JUST IN CASE….  (trick to get you to believe)

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HUGE  VIRUS COMING ! PLEASE READ & FORWARD ! Hi All, I  checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!   I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent  around to all your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING  AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert  during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment  entitled ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’regardless of who sent it to you. It is  a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C  drive of your computer. This virus will be received from someone  who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason  why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to  receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open  it! If you receive a mail called’ POSTCARD,’ even if it is sent to  you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This  is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by  Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by  McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This  virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital  information is kept. COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR  FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, IT WILL BE TO EVERYONES BENEFIT

 

N2Publishing’s First Annual Magnolia Greens Fall Festival – 2009

Parade Photo

A good time was had by most at the First Annual Magnoia Greens Fall Festival. 

Setup started at 7AM (after working until midnight)

DJ Professionals have everyone hopping

Raising the tents

The Magnolia Greens Social Committee blew up 150 Balloons!

Don Jewell, DJ Professionals & Video & Don of Set Up Committe

Cape Fear Insurance Association

Your Cleaning Girl – Horeshoe Toss

Brunswick Urgent Care – Duck Toss

New Carolina Chiropractic

Face Painting courtsey of Vida Salon and Spa

Face Painting – enjoyed at any age!

Snappy Tire – Rat Soup

Rosco – Mascott of Snappy Tire & Auto

Kids At Play – Having Fun at the Fall Festival !

Magnoloia Greens Fall Festival brought to you by ATMC Wireless & N2Publishing

Steve with N2Publishing cooks for 300 Members & Guests

ATMC Wireless – Brunswick County’s Wireless Provider

ATMC Girls hard at work

Adult Beverages provided by Front Street Brewery

The Halloween Parade arrives

Children of all Ages dressed up for the Parade

A great turnout despite the brief rain showers (& downpours)

You should have seen her dance!

Tooth Fairy & Jasmine

Parade Photo

Your Computer Friends – Wheel of Chance

Your Computer Friends had a popular booth!