Apple for Autocracy, Google for Democracy

Indeed, Apple revolutionized the telecommunication industry with its ground breaking technology by introducing iPhone and iPad. However, it doesn’t mean that Apple is an angel. Apple’s comment on Google’s Android for being fragmented reveals the sense of terror in giant for fading away of its autocracy in the smartphone world. This is not the first time Apple has embroiled in the war of words. Apple sued Samsung, Motorola, and HTC many a times for patent infringement of designs. It also sued Amazon.com and Microsoft over the use of the term ‘App Store’ to describe its new Android digital app portal. Apple’s desire of establishing monopoly in the market for its smartphones and the related terms has kept in the lawsuit limelight.

Apple use patent as an armor for establishing complete autocracy in the mobility ground. It keeps on decimating competitors through a design patent suit. Its business model seeks monopoly and is feared of those offering openness. Therefore, it says Google’s Android is fragmented as Google allows different manufacturers to use its operating system on their phones and tablets. People love style. With Google’s openness they can get the blessing of superior software packed in a device they want. Apple is looser when it comes to style. Its look is similar whether it is an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4S. Therefore, Google’s Android is capturing the market exponentially and on the other hand Apple has to see downfall in its market share.

Increasing popularity of Google’s Android is both threatening and annoying Apple. Its frustration is fairly reflected in its language – fragmented Android. Gone are the days of autocracy, people are lover of democracy. When Apple is creating a small habitat, within which users are restricted to fly, Android gives its users a broad ecosystem, where they can explore a wide range of possibilities. The availability of small budget phones with Android OS has helped Google acquire significant share of the market. Along with price, giving a choice of hardware, screen size, brand etc, would definitely help  Google to expand its ecosystem worldwide. Google’s strategy based on openness and coexistence is definitely aa threat to Apple.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) – And the Debate Goes On!

Digital Rights Management (DRM) has become a controversial issue amongst content providers and the users. For some, DRM is the method to control piracy while others believe there’s a major difference between piracy and content sharing that content providers should understand.

DRM is an access control technology that is being used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, and copyright holders in order to limit the use of digital content. Companies like AOL, Apple Inc., BBC, Microsoft, Amazon, and Sony are using this access control technology. It restricts the consumer from using a specific hardware with the device, run other software on the device, or even copy or convert the digital content to other formats.

Examples of DRM:

• A company can set its servers to block sensitive email from being forwarded by employees.
• There might be a restricted access to copying and printing of digital content on an e-book server because of the constraints set by the copyright holders of the content.
• You might get a DVD with software that restricts you from copying the content or have number of copies restrictions.
• A DRM enabled mobile handset or tablet will restrict you from transferring files to & from other devices.

With the rapid advancement in digital technology, digital content is now readily available to everyone. But, content owners are facing difficulties to protect their intellect property & commercial rights. It is believed that DRM not only helps copyright owners fight the copyright infringement online but also ensures continue revenue streaming in.

It is majorly the distribution of digital content over the Internet & through file-sharing websites that has made content owners opt for DRM technology. For instant, if somebody downloads an MP3 file of a copyright song from a free website instead of buying the CD, the music company that owns the copyright of song does not get rewarded. If we talk about movie industry only, it is estimated that it suffers from an annual revenue loss of $5billion because of illegal distribution of DVD content. Since it is impractical for the copyright owners to sue every individual downloading the copyright content illegally, they are opting for DRM to have control over digital content.

• The first generation DRM software merely had control over content copying. It focused on the security and encryption of content so that the content is distributed among people who pay for it.
• Second generation DRM has control over content viewing, copying, printing, altering, and other things that could hamper the privacy of the digital content.

The main purpose of introducing DRM was to stop copyright infringement. However, the technology has proven to be not-so-effective for this purpose. If you want to distribute a DRM free file, all you need to do is use software that can remove the DRM from the file. Or if somebody has acquired the DRM free version of that file, he/she can upload it on the Internet for sharing with everybody.

At many places, all DRM does is, cause inconvenience for the consumer. There are number of reasons that make DRM an annoying technology for users. Let’s take the example of e-books:

If you are an e-book reader, DRM can lock the book to a particular device. Supposedly, you have bought a book for your Nook from Barnes&Noble and then purchased a Kindle, you will not be able to read that e-book on Kindle. You will be again required to purchase the e-book for Kindle.

There have been cases where an e-book store or a DRM provider has shut-down his business. It means, you will not be able to read those e-books as the files cannot be authorized against the DRM server. A similar thing happened in music industry, when Yahoo! Music was shut down.

Common DRM Techniques Followed:

Restrictive Licensing Agreement – The agreement controls the access to digital material, copyright material, and public domain. You can also find some restrictive licensed agreement when you enter a particular website or download software.

Encryption, scrambling of expressive material, or embedding a tag – The technology is meant to control the access as well as reproduction of online information.

So, do you think that DRM should be employed at all? Does it help content owners fight against piracy? Well! Piracy is treated as the practice of making a copyrighted material available to anybody who comes along, that too for free. It is very different from casual sharing of content between people who know each other. DRM does very little to prevent piracy because it can be broken.

For many consumers, DRM methods are overly restrictive. If you buy an e-book, you end up spending around $10 and what if you switch to a new device? Will you again spend $10 to have the same e-book in your collection? There are a lot many areas where DRM architecture needs to be worked upon. At present, the technology seems to be in favor of content owners but what about the people who buy the digital content but find themselves surrounded by lot many obligations & restrictions? It is necessary to introduce a few amendments in order to make DRM technology successful and universally acceptable.

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SkyDrive Application from Microsoft

The SkyDrive app from Microsoft is a step towards meeting on-the-go file access demands of people. For those who have not heard of SkyDrive, it’s a cloud service similar to Google Docs that lets you store files in the cloud and you can access them from anywhere, even from your mobile device.

Microsoft has also introduced the SkyDrive app version in 32 languages for Apple with a few stylistic changes. So, if you are using a Windows Phone, this application could be one of the quickest ways to get files to your iPhone.

What Can You Do With SkyDrive?

• The online file hosting service enables you to share links to folders or file, create folders, or delete files with ease.
• Users can also create Microsoft documents because SkyDrive has support for web app versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.
• Uploading a file onto SkyDrive is no hassle. Since the app is developed using HTML5, you just have to drag and drop files to the place where you want to get them stored.
• If you want to share photos stored in your phone or PC, all you have to do is select the photos, tap mail and put email id of the person to whom the photos are to be sent. Rather than sending as attachment, these photos are directly uploaded to SkyDrive, so you don’t need to worry about attaching heavy files. 

How is SkyDrive Different from Other Cloud Services?

What gives SkyDrive an edge over other cloud services like Dropbox and Amazon Cloud Drive is the 25GB free storage capacity it offers, while the later two offer 2GB and 5GB free storage, respectively. In addition to this, users get the option to keep their files private, public, and shared.

Unlike iCloud, the cloud service developed by Apple, SkyDrive gives much flexibility when it comes to content synchronization. When content stored in iCloud is accessible only through Apple devices, content stored in SkyDrive is accessible though any Apple device with iOS4 or advanced platforms and phones with Windows Mobile OS. All you need to do to enjoy seamless storage service is install this app in these devices.

What is Missing in SkyDrive?

What is lacking in SkyDrive is the inability to transfer entire folder directly to the storage place. Be it documents, images, or music files, you will have to drag these files onto the folder where you want to get them stored. Moreover, there’s no option to select a bunch of files and move them to a specific folder. For this, you will have to move the individual file that makes the whole process frustrating & time consuming.

SkyDrive is great if you want to store your files or share them with everyone. But, when it comes to doing minor editing or tweaks in the images or documents saved, you are left with no option. You cannot open these files in a different application. For example – You can store, view or even share an image on SkyDrive but you cannot open the image in Photoshop installed in your mobile or PC for a little editing.

There’s one more limitation - You cannot create a file in an application installed in the device and then upload it to SkyDrive.

Though SkyDrive gives you a maximum storage space of 25GB, it has limited the maximum file size which can be uploaded to 50MB. So for files larger than 50MB, this creates an issue.

There is no SkyDrive app created for Android platform, which is restricting its usage to a very small community of users of devices on Windows Phone and iOS platforms.

Hopefully, these limitations will be addressed by Microsoft in future versions.

How to Register for the Application?

You must have a Windows Live id to login to SkyDrive. In case, you already have a Windows Live, Hotmail, or Xbox LIVE account, you will automatically have a SkyDrive account. The login process is quick and once you have entered the username & password, you will be directed to the SkyDrive page.

You can download and install the SkyDrive app on your Windows mobile from Windows Marketplace and Apple App Store. This will enable you to access all the files stored in SkyDrive and even the files that other users have shared with your over SkyDrive.

Conclusion

What makes SkyDrive a useful application is the ease of creating, deleting, and managing the content online. If you have more than a dozen of folders lurking around and you want to put them at a single yet always accessible place or feel the need of sharing them with others, SkyDrive is the app for you.

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Samsung Unveils the Champ Deluxe Duos (C3312) in India

Samsung has introduced the new dual-SIM phone Champ Deluxe Duos (C3312) in India. The touchscreen phone has 2.8 inch display with 262K color support and QVGA resolution. Champ Deluxe Duos is claimed to have the biggest touchscreen in its class.

Here is a quick look at what the new device from Samsung has to offer:

• 1.3MP camera
• 3.5mm earphone jack
• Quadband GSM frequency
• Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity
• Push mail with Activesync
• Opera Mini browser
• 16GB expandable memory
• Li-Ion 1000 mAh battery
• QWERTY keypad and support for Hindi & English languages
• Native Twitter and Facebook apps
• Instant messengers including Yahoo!, MSN, Gtalk, and Samsung ChatOn

Price of Samsung Champ Deluxe Duos is Rs.4,790 but you might get a better deal on websites like Saholic, once the product is out for sale.

Asus Transformer Prime TF201 – Tablet with a Unique Design

There are many tablets in the market but most of them appear the same with only changes in dimensions and display size. But Asus- a renowned laptop manufacturer- has experimented on the tablet form factor and has introduced tablets with Keyboard docking station, which transform tablet into laptop. Asus Transformer was the first tablet with keyboard docking station. Asus is going to launch its second tablet with keyboard docking station - Asus Transformer Prime TF201.

The Asus will launch its new Asus Transformer Prime TF201 in February 2012. The decided price for this unique tablet is Rs 29, 999 (including keyboard dock).

Key features of Asus Transformer Prime TF201 are:

10.1 inch touchscreen display

1.3-GHz Quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 mobile processor                

Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS (Cream Sandwich update is lined up)

Connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth

MicroHDMI port and a microSD card slot

3.5mm audio jack

This attractive tablet will be available in two attractive colors; Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold. It has an aluminum backplane. The overall look is elegant and the design is solid.

The new innovation with the form factor will add to the comfort to the users. Users are free to use onscreen keyboard or physical keyboard based on their comfort level. So, use onscreen keyboard when you are outside and use physical keyboard with ease at home!