TecH GaraGe

Recently there was so much talk about the locking feature that is present in Android phone.So I thought to check it out.Unlike other phones which require a four digit number for unlocking "Android" uses an innovative approach to lock your phone and prevent accidental dialing.It puts nine dots arranged in a square pattern (as in case of a grid)on the touch screen along with the caption "Draw pattern to unlock". A pattern can be anything with the following constraints:: It needs to contain 4 dots. Once a dot is lit,it can't be used again. You can use one or several "knight moves" such as [0 5 4 2] You cannot go over an unlit dot without lighting it.For example, the pattern [0 2 1 4] is illegal, because moving your finger between 0 and 2 will light 1. Once a dot is lit, you can use it to reach another unlit dot. For example,both [0 4 3 5] and [0 4 5 3] are legal. Kind of tricky .Isn't it? Also some people using the phone have noticed that the repeated...

Google has announced the winners of the first phase of the Android Developer Challenge a contest to create apps for Google's Android mobile operating system.Here are some of the ideas whose creators received $275,000 :: Cab4me : Helps you to find a taxi. CompareEverywhere : A price comparison engine and review reader. Ecorio : Aims to track your carbon footprint. GoCart : Lets you scan a product barcode to then find out where to buy this near-by. Life360 : This seems to be a social network for your neighborhood to post important alerts (like “dog ran away” or “house on fire”). Locale : This tool automatically changes your phone’s setting based on where you are. (Not novel, but perhaps useful.) PicSay : A picture editor which comes with color correction, distortion tools and more, as well as sharing features. Softrace : Compare with others around the world in physical activities like racing. TuneWiki : A self-proclaimed social media player, with synchronized ...

For all those Google fans and critics here is a new project from Google , GOOGLE CHROME , an Open Source web browser.There have been rumors that Google was going to release its own browser. Now, thanks to Google Blogoscoped , we have some additional evidence: a 38-page comic book sent out by Google and drawn by no less than Scott McCloud, creator of the classic Understanding Comics , to announce the Google Chrome project. The features depicted in the comic book are:: Its an Open Source project based on Webkit rendering engine and includes Google Gears project. The browser will contain a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8 . Like Mozilla it will include tabbed browsing but the position of the tabs will be on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar. The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features.and is called ’omnibox’ that resembles Firefox’s “Awesome bar” . The browser will include Speed Dial feature as in Opera. Chrome has a privacy ...

Google is the soul of Internet but still for some netizens who want to get out of the google-grip.Here are some alternatives :: 1. Thunderbird Thunderbird is right behind it in terms of usefulness, functionality, speed and extensibility. Thunderbird, although not an online app, is a great alternative to Gmail . 2. 30 Boxes . Although the simple and fast Gcal meets all needs perfectly, 30 boxes is just as fast and easy, and is loved by many. If Gcal didn’t integrate with Gmail, people would probably be using 30 Boxes. 3. Netvibes . Netvibes can not only hold all of your feeds in an organized way, it can replace both Reader and Google Personalized Homepage . A great way to organize all your favorite services in a personalized way. 4. Zoho Office Suite . Perhaps the best online alternative to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets , Zoho has just about everything you’d ever need: a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation program, project manager, notebook, wiki, web conferencing, mail, c...

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a space competition organized by the X PRIZE Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007. The challenge calls for teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and operating a rover on the lunar surface. The prize awards US$20 million to the first team to land a rover on the moon that successfully roves more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video. There is a $5 million second prize, as well as $5 million in potential bonus prizes for extra features such as roving long distances (greater than 5,000 meters), capturing images of man made objects on the moon, or surviving a lunar night. The X Prize awards the first prize until December 31, 2012, thereafter it awards $15 million until December 31, 2014. Competitors Odyssey Moon Astrobotic Team Italia Micro Space SCSG FredNet ARCA Lunatrex Quantam3 Chandah LINKS TO CHECK:: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-priz...

Google has announced "Google Gears" for developers; an open source technology for creating offline Web applications . Google Gears marks an important step in the evolution of Web applications because it addresses a major user concern: availability of data and applications when there's no Internet connection available, or when the connection is slow or unreliable. Reportedly, the new software will run both online and offline, affording users the flexibility to work anytime anywhere, including at the remotest of locations. All the user needs to do is install a plug-in into Web browsers, and the software will open an offline door to applications that till now were accessible only via an Internet connection. Google hopes that in the long term, Google Gears will help the industry as a whole move towards a single standard for offline capabilities that all developers could use. Eric Schmidt , Chief Executive ...

The name Google is a spelling error. The founders of the site, Larry page and Sergey Brin , thought they were going for Googol .. Googol is the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. Initially, Larry and Sergey Brin called their search engine BackRub , named for its analysis of the of the web's "back links." The reason the google page is so bare is because t he founder didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. The company's first office was in a garage , in Menlo Park, California . Google's first employee was Craig Silverstein, now Google's Director of technology. The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank that assigns a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that is not why it is called PageRank. It is actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page . It would take 5,707 years for a person to search Google's 3 billion pages . The Google software does it in 0.5 seconds. The logos that appear on ...

Android is a mobile phone platform based on the Linux Operating System developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware,software and telecom for mobile devices.When released in 2008, most of the Android platform will be made available under the Apache free-software and open-source license. FEATURES OF ANDROID: Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional) SQLite for structured data storage Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF) GSM Telephony (...