Google gets Gizmo5, What next?

Google Voice Blog: Google welcomes Gizmo5

Finally, Google announced that they have acquired Gizmo5.

Wow.

I already had my Google Voice number being forwarded to Gizmo5, ringing on a home phone. Can I now say, that Gizmo5 will now offer Free outbound calling thru Google Voice?

What about acquiring http://www.gtalk2voip.com/? The company that built the technology to transfer the voip calls to GTalk and back? That would cover entire gamut of technology needed to work.

Will Gizmo client have to merge into Gtalk client and with that will it continue to support MSN and SKYPE etc? I hated Gizmo5 client so much, due to its intrusive code and it was really heavy.. I hope Google steers clear of much of its crap.

It will be interesting to see... how some of this actually even makes into Android... .. Think of a Wifi based android phone that works with Google Voice Service instead of a regular carrier.

:)

Zune Media Player for PC

I wonder why Microsoft would not use Zune Media Player for PC as a standard application and add support for all other media players (That support Windows Media). It is a great piece of software with a really nice UI.

RIP Dash Express ?

I wonder if Dash Express has any future now? The company has already announced that it is quitting the hardware market. Now they want to sustain themselves as a platform provider. Only companies that want to make GPS and are not on a viable platform will find Dash attractive. Even the companies with established platforms such as Garmin, and Tomtom will find it tough to survive in Post Google Navigate market.

Dash may want to sell out itself to Nokia, or Google and/or port its platform to Maemo or Android. Since both of these are running on Linux, it should not be a totally difficult task. There are other options such as Openmoko and Palm, but in terms of funding Nokia and Google may be able to get the platform needed lift and merge it with their existing offering.

Dash can become a "Google Dashboard" on a car, just like Android trying to become the preferred Phone OS.

Got Fon 2.0n Router

Just got my Fon 2.0n router in mail. Now, needs unpacking.

Message for Mr. Ranadive

It appears that webMethods tried to certify its integration suite against Tibco EMS (JMS provider), but Tibco did not co-operate...

Heard a Tibco guy confirming that they won't.

Message for Mr. Ranadive is... you have always challanged status-quo, then why this?

Post Oracle-Sun, outlook for Tibco and Software AG

Post Oracle acquiring Sun, it will be an interesting but polarized market. People will gravitate between IBM, Oracle and Microsoft... of all... in such scenario, there is need for additional consolidation. In terms of Integration tools, Tibco and Software AG have a great match. Tibco's bus technology with Software AG's webMethods Integration Server can create best of the breed integration tool that will be a good competition against IBM's MQ and related tools, Oracle's Fusion and Microsoft's BizTalk.

Google Voice Blog: Moving to Google Voice!

Google Voice Blog: Moving to Google Voice!

GrandCentral is finallying becoming Google Voice ( I am sure people are going to be confused with Google Talk and Google Voice).

I would love to see an integration of Google Talk, Google Mail and Google Voice,

Imagine:

- Combined Contact List

- Combined Inbox (GTalk is already integrated)

- All you may need t do is log into Gmail (Gvoice and Gtalk will be just tabs or plug-ins).

- Ability to make and receive phone calls from GTalk/GMail itself

- Gtalk notification when someone sends you SMS or Voice/Mail (Gtalk allows you to send SMS already in USA).

Basically GMail becomes your one stop communication solution.

ACID3 Test and Chrome

Google is about to solve the Acid3 Test as it appears in the screenshot... There are minor kinks for them to solve.

Note: This test was rendered on Windows XP using their development build.

Am what I never thought would be!!!: IT in the world of Karl Popper

Am what I never thought would be!!!: IT in the world of Karl Popper

My friend Anil has a good interpretation on prediction for SOA.

Calendar Application - Chandler Project

Chandler is a personal information management (PIM) tool. Not that such tools are not useful anymore, but with Smart Phones and PDA, the game is shifting away from PC based softwares to devices and web based solutions that can be accessed from anywhere. Even than, there is still market for tools such as Chandler, Mozilla Calendar etc, as anyone who wants to use something lighter than Microsoft Outlook will continue to look at other tools.

Microsoft advertising on Google Adsense

Microsoft's advertisements about Seachperks are appearing on Google Adsense and various google applications.

Official Gmail Blog: More changes to Gmail contact manager

Official Gmail Blog: More changes to Gmail contact manager

Since both regular contacts and suggested contacts are going to show up in suggestions, It will be great if they show up in different colors.

When will Microsoft learn not to play with users?

Okay, 

Now that anger is out on the title of the post, let's get the facts straight.

I got an email from Microsoft today and to get 100 bonus points, decided to try their toolbar. See previous post here.  Installation of the toolbar was fine, i skirted the obvious options to change my default page and default search engine and did the plain toolbar install. Worked just fine. All it needed was to exit my IE and run it again after installation and did first search. Now comes the cons:

• When you use toolbar, it automatically does like "auto sense" or behaves like Google Suggest. There is no way to disable it.
• The feature is very slow, which means you have to wait long between keystrokes.

Anyways, Since I got my 100 bonus points after doing first search, I decided to uninstall the toolbar. Uninstall process was almost smooth. It required me to shutdown my IE obviously. Now comes disaster: It started changing few registry settings. Lavasoft ad-watch running on my pc caught these. This is what it tried to do:

• Change default search to MSN by changing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search\SearchAssistant to http://search.live.com/sphome.aspx
• Change default page of the browser by changing HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page to http://www.msn.com
• Change search engine for the user by setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Search Page to http://search.live.com

It is entirely outrageous to change these settings without informing user beforehand.

Once 

Download the Club toolbar and get 100 bonus tickets

I got an email from Microsoft with following text and subject as it is in the title.

Take the Club with you everywhere on the Web.
The new Live Search Club toolbar makes it even easier to search the web, check your Club account, access your favorite games and prizes, and earn tickets, just by searching. Install and use* the new toolbar before November 13, 2008, we will add 100 tickets to your account. Go ahead, try it now!

 

I am going to download the toolbar and try it out. Will post update once done.

Non-Standard Google Map?

View Larger Map

Is there a Google engineer from Bagasra in Gujrat, India? For some reason, Bagasra is highlighted on Google Map more than many other cities. It is not only Bagasra highlighted such a way, there are other cities too. Such as Chalakudi of Kerala, Nigohi of Uttar Pradesh etc...  

Better Performance in Google Desktop 5.8

After reading the blog, I downloaded latest Google Desktop on My laptop running Windows XP. I could not find an option to make Google Desktop use Microsoft Desktop's index. Not sure if it works only in Vista or also in XP. If someone knows, drop me a line.

Better Performance in Google Desktop 5.8

Infosys Makes British Acquisition

Infosys (INFY) is acquiring Axon, a British Consulting firm for $748 million. Axon is a player in SAP space and is having operation not just in UK, but also in Canada. It will make Infosys an aggressive player in SAP Consulting space. Infosys and Axon have overlapping clients, allowing Infosys to consolidate its position in those clients.

Infosys Makes British Acquisition

The Associated Press: Court says copyrights apply even for free software

In an important ruling by appeals court, it had judged that writers of free software continue to own copyrights and can dictate terms when the open source license was violated.

It is an important ruling that will help several open source initiatives to force companies that use such open source software to open up their code or pay up for use.

The Associated Press: Court says copyrights apply even for free software

Free Internet Security | WOT Web of Trust

This is one of the coolest security feature that I have seen. WOT gets its data from users as well as other sources to show you if you are at adult site or spam site. It has plug-in for FireFox as well as Internet Explorer. I am going to try this one for few days.

Here is a screenshot of WOT when using it with http://update.microsoft.com  It shows its rating on left. Since I have not specified any rating of mine, there are no ratings from me.

Things to improve

One thing that I find it lacking is that it does not validate if one person opens more than one account. Having a simple credit card validation (no need to charge the card, just use it to validate the user) for the users will give it a way to validate the users (They can also allow other users without validation with may be a little lower rating). If users will be concerned with their credit card details being shared..., than may be 3rd party authentication such as Paypal, Google checkout or Amazon Payment can be used. This is just to make sure that bad site owners don't spam the ratings.

Free Internet Security | WOT Web of Trust

Live Writerfox :: Firefox Add-ons

Microsoft Live Writer has become my favorite blogging tool now, even when I use Google owned Blogger.com. But I can't say same for IE. Firefox remains my favorite browser. In Firefox, I was missing a button to blog using Live Writer till I find WriterFox. Using WriterFox, I can now blog using Live Writer from Firefox.

Live Writerfox :: Firefox Add-ons