Switech - Technology Evolution

How Mobile Apps Threaten Search For Google, Yahoo, Microsoft

swictech — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:22:09 +0000

Applications that take users directly to e-commerce sites and other Web service destinations threaten search providers such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing, according to BroadPoint AmTech. Some vendors are making it even easier for consumers to visit their site and make purchases. For example, Amazon, eBay and Best Buy have mobile apps that enable full browsing and purchasing functionality. Consumers who download these mobile apps right to their smartphone deck can go straight to the source Website and buy what they need. Why should people use the search box?

News Analysis: There are several opportunities to make money from pairing ads with search engines on smartphones and other mobile computing gadgets, but applications that take users directly to e-commerce sites and other Web service destinations threaten search providers, according to BroadPoint AmTech.

Mobile Web search and queries are on the rise and will continue to soar once consumers begin to leverage more location-based mobile services such as Foursquare and Gowalla. It’s no wonder Google swore its allegiance for the space by bidding $750 million for mobile ad maker AdMob.

BroadPoint AmTech said 10 percent to 30 percent of the mobile searches consumers trigger for Amazon.com, eBay and the like go through the Google, Yahoo or Bing search box on their iPhones, Google Android devices and other smartphones. Ads served with these navigational queries cultivate decent click-through rates.

But many vendors are making it even easier for consumers to visit their sites and make purchases. For example, Amazon, eBay and other e-commerce players have mobile apps that mirror the way users can access their sites from desktop computers.

Consumers who download these mobile apps right to their smartphone deck can go straight to the source Website and buy what they need without opening a browser, entering queries in a search box, said BroadPoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter.

Moreover, it isn’t just the big companies that are creating mobile apps to drive e-commerce to their Websites.

For example, instead of using Google, Yahoo or Bing to search for movie times and buy tickets online, users can download the Fandango mobile app and buy tickets. Google, Yahoo and Bing lose out because if users don’t navigate to their search box, the search engines can’t serve them ads. Schachter wrote:

“While the emergence of these types of Apps is clearly a positive for consumers, we believe they pose a risk to the established search engine model. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have become a critical component of the typical Web user’s product shopping/browsing/researching process online. New e-commerce apps may increasingly exclude the established search players from this product ‘discovery process,’ resulting in fewer product-related queries.”

Indeed, Schachter suggested that perhaps the battleground for the mobile Web has shifted to the smartphone deck. Users may have 15 to 30 or more apps on their phone, but likely use the ones sitting most prominently on their phone’s application deck.

This presents Google, Yahoo, Bing and other mobile search engine providers with an interesting quandary, or intriguing options, depending on how they choose to approach this new turf war.

These providers can secure search toolbar distribution deals with phone makers such as Apple and wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless, grabbing the scraps from the tables of mobile app providers.

Or these Internet companies can build their own mobile apps for prominent placement on smartphone decks. For example, Google has recently released two powerful apps, the Google Maps Navigation turn-by-turn GPS program and the Google Goggles visual search app.

Both are currently available only on Android. Google hasn’t discussed how it might make money from these free apps, but serving local ads with its GPS app and its visual search app seems to be such an intuitive task that it would be surprising if Google did not undertake it.

In any case, Schachter believes Google is headed in the right direction with the impending Nexus One smartphone, a fast-performing HTC device based on Android 2.1:

“With Google scheduling an Android press event for January 5 (where it is speculated the company will formally introduce its own mobile handset), Google seems to be focused on making sure it can guide the development of the mobile Web while protecting and expanding its own business model.”

source : www.eweek.com

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The Logic Behind a Credit Card Number

swictech — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:09:01 +0000

Any credit card or a debit card has a 16 digit number that’s unique in the world. But did you know these are not just random string of numbers but it reveal a little more than you think.

The first six digits of the credit card number is known as the Issuer Identification Number and this is to identify the institution that issued the card. VISA cards follow the series 4xx while MasterCard uses 51-55 as the prefix.

The first digit of the card represents the category of industry which issued your credit card. Taking away the 6 identifier digits and 1 check digit leaves the 9 digits in the middle that form the “account number”. and the last digit of the 16 is known as the “check digit” which is generated in such a way as to satisfy a certain condition.

Below is a visual illustration on how one can verify if a given credit card number is valid or not using simple addition.

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FlexiCapture 10, Quick Way to Input Data

swictech — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:21:37 +0000

Input data has become a major activity in almost all work in offices. Whatever type of business, data input activities must be found in administrative jobs.

The field of document recognition technology provider, document capture and linguistic technologies ABBYY, introduced the ABBYY FlexiCapture 10. This latest generation of document capture application is able to classify documents, separate documents and retrieve data in the document automatically with the help of a scanner or camera devices.

There are many types of documents that currently must be inputted by a company or organization, ranging from reading a collection of customer satisfaction questionnaires, customer data, product surveys, test sheets and so on. These documents are commonly referred to as fixed forms or forms with uniform shape for data collection.

Besides the type uniform, ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 also can process the documents that are semi-structured, ie documents which have different forms but have the same information structure. Semi-structured documents such as tax invoice documents, invoices, curriculum vitae. Although the tax invoice have different models, but always contains the invoice number, invoice date, the issuing party, taxpayer number and amount.

ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 able to retrieve required information from different forms of documents automatically. This can be done with the support autolearning technologies, namely smart technology that is able to remember the position and location of the data or information on any type of document.

In addition to recognizing the different data, the system is also capable of handling data collection in large numbers, up to millions of pieces per day. Equipped with intelligent tools, this technology can be remotely operated and integrated with business processes and business applications.

FlexiCapture 10 can make a read-pattern document automatically only by the location of data with mouse click on a few sample documents in each document. Enough with 3 to 5 examples of document from each type of document, the system is able to classify documents automatically.

There are several technologies in ABBYY flexiCapture 10, such as Optical Character Recognition technology, technology capable of recognizing machine printed characters, either from the printer or typewriter. There is also the intelligent character recognition technology that can recognize handwritten block letters. Barcode recognition which is able to recognize barcode letters, and optical mark recognition technology that able to processing input option.

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The Best 10 Creation of Steve Jobs

owner — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:10:27 +0000

President Barack Obama called Steve Jobs as one of America’s greatest innovators. Steve Jobs, perhaps not just an innovator but also a visionary.

Many people prefer to call Jobs’s work as ‘creation’, not a product. Perhaps because there is a sense of art there.

This is at least the best 10 creation of Jobs. Let’s call them as Jobs’s legacy.

1. Apple II (1977)
Still got a lot of touch Steve Wozniak. Apple II was released in 1977, 12 months after the first Apple computer, Apple I launched.

One of the first successful personal computers, the Apple II was designed as a mass product for the market rather than for engineers.

Unlike the Apple I, which is made in a garage owned by the elderly Jobs, the Apple II marked the beginning of duo founder of Apple, Jobs and Wozniak worked.
The sales of the Apple II in 1979 generating U.S. $ 79 million. Some improvement was made and the product line continued until 1993.

2. Macintosh (1984)
Cheaper and faster than previous PC products, the Macintosh was released in January 1984. Macintosh has a graphical interface. Many people then interested in this graphical interface, which is useful for design needs.

Graphical interface system is a revolutionary development in the world of personal computers. Macintosh was introduced via a Super Bowl ad that spends millions of dollars at the time.

3. iMac (1998)
Three years after returning to Apple in 1998, Jobs invites the world to “think different”. When Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, the company is going down, the personal computer market share had fallen sharply. The iMac is a radical way to reverse the situation.

People think the iMac is a radical variant of the Macintosh, which was launched 14 years ago. iMac does not provide a floppy drive. This Jobs’s works open up an imagination possibility for the use of the Internet.

4. iPod (2001)
It’s a new chapter for Apple. From just a computer company, iPod marking the emergence of Apple become a giant digital corporate that enter to the market.

Although not the first digital music players with hard drives, the iPod became the portable music devices.

Launched exactly one decade ago, the iPod and then trigger a revolution in digital music. The first-generation iPod is an MP3 player that contain 1,000 songs with 10 hours of battery power. “Listening to music are not the same anymore,” Jobs said at the launch of the iPod in October 2001 ago. iPod further pave the way for the iTunes music store and the iPhone.

5. iPod Nano
Steve Jobs stopped production of mini iPod in September 2005 when this music player was so popular. Jobs then designing and producing iPod with smaller nano. Apple then develops more smaller nano on September 2010 with a weight of 15 grams lighter.

6. iTunes Music Store (2003)
Before iTunes launched, none was able to convince the music label executives that people can pay for songs online. They worried about piracy.

Launched at the time a new version of Macintosh, iTunes provides all digital music program in one store. iTunes bring an MP3 player as well, Internet radio and CD writing.

7. iPhone (2007)
Less than five years after the iPod launched, Apple has become a big name in digital music. After months of rumors filled, in January 2007, Apple launched a product which then quickly became a killer product.

iPhone is a wonder, maybe so. More frequent emotional reactions when people see the iPhone. “Beautiful … Charm … Great …!” so the public reaction. The amazement it still carried until Apple released the iPhone 4S last week.

iPhone brings the experience of the phone such as the Macintosh personal computer. This is a smartphone that makes easy.

Through this touch screen mobile phone, Apple became the most profitable mobile phone maker in the world. Now iPhone is a flagship product in the smartphone market.

8. iPad (2010)
Launched on 2010, often called a “big iPhone” because it has a 9.7 inch screen. iPad creating a new category in the computer market. This device allows people to surf the internet.

Touch screen technology allows people to work, browsing, and at the same time for entertainment. iPad brings a new sensation in reading books, newspapers and magazines.

9. IOS App Store
This is another milestone for Apple. Since its launch in July 2008, the App Store has reached 15 billion downloads with more than 500,000 applications.

Expansion of the App Store for OS X computer, potentially usher a new era for software development.

10. Apple Stores
Apple opened its first retail store on May 19, 2001, in Glendale, California. In July this year, Apple has opened over 350 stores throughout world, with the largest store in Covent Garden London. Many considered that Apple’s idea to open a retail store is physically an act of madness.

Iqbal M/tempointeraktif

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Jobs Has a Hundred Black Turtlenecks

owner — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:25:56 +0000

What is the most prominent icons of the life of Steve Jobs except his gadget innovative technologies? The icons is the kind of clothes are often worn Jobs in every Apple product launch event, namely a black turtleneck and denim jeans.

This Jobs’s “uniform” now become a new trend for American men. Retail stores of St. Croix, Minnesota, said, the sale of black turtleneck shirt is double only in few hours after the death of Jobs.

Because of great selling, that retail stores promised to donate some of its sales to the American Cancer Society. As reported by TMZ, sales increase greatly because the celebrities are also-do wearing turtlenecks for the honor of Jobs on the next day.

Actually how many turtlenecks that Jobs had ? According to Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson,-which is be published later this month- said, Apple’s former chief executive has one hundred turtlenecks design Issey Miyake in his commode.

Page of Gawker quoted some words of Jobs in his biography: He (Jobs) had the idea of choosing a suitable shirt for himself, regardless of comfort and style. “ I say to Issey to make some of my favorite black turtlenecks and then he ( Issey) made a hundred..”

Issey said, “Jobs pleased with what I make, he told to the people by showing a black turtleneck pile in his commode, ‘this clothes that I wearing and it is pretty for all my life…’”

Actually, Jobs wanted Miyake designed a vest to all Apple employees. “I came back with a few examples of vests and told everyone, ..really cool if we wear this vest,” said Jobs to Isaacson.

tempointeraktif.2011

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Galaxy Tab 10, The True of Android Tablet

owner — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:35:14 +0000

Galaxy Tab 10,1 comes with a 10.1 inch, look more sexy and charming. Embedded operating system was the latest version of Android, the Honeycomb, which is designed by Google specifically for larger screen. When you first held, this tablet feels very light, thin, and looks elegant. Thickness is only 8.6 millimeters or 0.2 millimeters thinner than the iPad 2. Its weight was 36 grams lighter than the iPad 2, precisely only 565 grams.

Thanks to Android Honeycomb latest version 3.1, all the existing problems in version 3.0 is resolved. For example, no longer crashes when running the application simultaneously. Similarly, when changing the size of the widget on the main screen, no problems encountered. The main screen display can be set at will the owner.

3.1 Honeycomb Android operating system already feels right for a tablet. Even so, Samsung increase it by entering TouchWiz interface.

Physical appearance of Galaxy 10.1 admittedly able to make people who see it feel amazed. Thin and sturdy. The body was covered with aluminum.

The power button and volume control are the only buttons that stand out in the body of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. While the 3.5 mm jack and port earphone 30-pin, serves as a charger, located on the inside.

Super-AMOLED Screen

The technology on mobile phone S Galaxy II ultra-bright AMOLED Super Plus is tested immersed in the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The results, levels of screen brightness and the color look so alive with a density of 1,280 x 800 pixels.

Tablet screen is already adopting capacitive technology, which means, the touch accuracy was very high. Similarly, movement of fingers on it, is quite responsive. Pinch or expand the screen as well.

But, the glass touch screen of Galaxy 10.1 which is so glossy was easy to leave finger print marks. In addition, if not careful, the screen is easily scratched.

In order to look very thin, Samsung seems to be willing to shed some of the features that are quite vital, as there is no additional memory card slot. There is also no USB port. In fact, Google has complete Android 3.1 Honeycomb with the ability to read the USB port. That way, the accessory on the market, such as mouse or pen drive, can not be used on this tablet.

Galaxy 10.1 using 7000 mAh battery that able to be used up to 10 hours (for normal use). But, if it is used to watch high definition movies continuously, the survival less than 10 hours.

Galaxy 10.1 can be said as one of the best current tablet. Only the absence of memory card slots and USB ports a little disappointing.

tempointeraktif 2011

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How To Protect Your Computer From Viruses

swictech — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:26:31 +0000

For many people, the internet has quickly become a part of everyday life. However, one of the main concerns of many internet users is their susceptibility to internet viruses. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to make sure your computer is protected.

One of the ways in which viruses are most commonly transmitted to a computer is through email attachments. One of the easiest ways in which you can prevent your computer from being infected is by being careful about the emails which you choose to open. Never open emails from anyone who you don’t know, or whose email address you don’t recognise. It is also a good idea to be weary of emails which appear to contain notifications from social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, and always access these sites directly.

Secondly, you should be careful about the links which you click on when browsing the internet itself. It is usually a good idea to avoid clicking on banner adverts from sites which may not be trustworthy, as well as anything which appears in an unexpected pop-up window. With high-speed internet broadband packages easily available from sites like www.o2.co.uk, it can be tempting to quickly click links and adverts – especially when they offer ‘free’ music, games or software. However, unless a site is legitimate, this can be one way for viruses might infect your computer, and should be avoided.

Lastly, it can be worth installing reliable anti-virus software programme on you computer. There are plenty available, many of which will offer a variety of different security settings. Once you have installed your chosen software, it is also important that this software is regularly updated, in order to offer the most efficient means of protection. By following these simply steps, you are far less likely to find that your computer has become infected with viruses.

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Apple Patented ‘Drawing’ Technology on Display

owner — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 06:16:57 +0000

Designing the interface for the touch screen is not an easy job. The number of movements that must be captured and responded by the screen sometimes made to work extra hard, even overwhelmed, so the screen becomes less sensitive and responsive to touch.

During this time, the touch technology only can adopt two touch commands simultaneously on one screen. Typically this is used for playing games. However, what if the sweep movements of our finger form a certain areas, whether the display can respond it?

In February, Apple Inc. registering a patent for the ‘multi touch’ screen technology with a special interface elements. For example, to open a site or a new window, users no longer need to click the browser engine. Simply by moving his fingers like making a rectangle, then the web page will be displayed.

Likewise, if the user wants to create a new file or folder and transferred them from phone to computer or vice versa. In short, this ‘multi touch’ technology tries to understand the movement and graphics to obey certain commands.

Although is not clear yet what OS that will adopt this ‘multi touch’ technology with this particular element, in the file patent filing, Apple is giving the examples of that multi touch performance to tablets, mobile phones, and computer touch screen.

TECHCRUNCH | RINI K

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K1 IdeaPad, Lenovo Tablet Mainstay

owner — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 07:57:24 +0000

Last week, Lenovo launched a tablet called IdeaPad K1, in Jakarta Indonesia. Koh Kong Meng, General Manager of Lenovo ASEAN, say, K1 is the final result of U1

Meng said, from the beginning, U1 was created as a trial product. Once it receives various inputs, the tablet was finally launched with a new name: K1.

There are big differences between the two tablets. K1 is no longer using dual operating systems: Windows and Android. For K1, Lenovo embed Android 3.1.

K1 created like the other tablets, with a single operating system. The processor is the NVIDIA Tegra 2.

The body feels a bit thick with a wide enough frame. If the frame is minimized, it seems to be more beautiful. But the weight is pretty light, only 750 grams.

IdeaPad K1 has 10.1-inch screen, that capable to display full 1080p high-definition video. Touch screen feels solid. It has also supported Flash 10.1 to play multimedia.

IdeaPad K1 has two cameras, front and rear. Its connectivity is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. In addition, there will be a 3G version, too.

Lenovo is also packaged with 40 free applications that be trusted will help user productivity. Some of these are ‘paid applications’ like Documents to Go.

Tempo interaktif, Deddy sinaga

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Do Not Heat The Liquid in The Oven

owner — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:11:47 +0000

In this time, microwave has become home furnishings mandatory. With a microwave, cooking becomes more practical. Many described, microwave can make a dough cuisine quickly cooked, and saves time. Another plus is not wasting lots of nutrients contained in food ingredients and do not raise the temperature of the room. However, operating the microwave should not be indiscriminate.

When grilling food in microwave, avoiding use of metal containers. The reason, the metal can reflect the micro waves which could ignite a spark. The recommended container is made of glass, wood, pottery, or melamine.

When heating liquids in the microwave, air bubbles do not always appear when the liquid reaches boiling point. If not monitored, the liquid can reach the superheated state and did not remove air bubbles.

Superheated liquid will squirt when moved or when any other object is inserted, the spoon for instance. So that it does not happen, avoid heating any fluid with microwave more than 2 minutes. In case you have to use the microwave, leave the liquid up to 30 seconds before it was moved or added to other objects.

In order for a microwave age long, clean this tools every day. The trick is to put a wet cloth in the microwave, then turn the microwave with a maximum power for 30-40 seconds. The steam released the cloth will remove dirt on the wall microwave. After that, wipe clean with dry cloth.