Google begins tablet version of Chrome OS

Google is aiming to help stop the spread of malware

Google is aiming to help stop the spread of malware, saying Thursday it plans to add a malware alert feature to prevent the download of malicious applications. The feature is an offshoot of its already popular Safe Browsing feature, which is a Google-maintained list of malicious sites.

Android to Take 49% Share of Smartphone Market by 2012

Research company, Gartner, has been looking in to smartphone sales around the world to come up with some very interesting numbers.

The report first hints that smartphone sales will reach 468 million around the

Google's new CEO....

Larry Page takes over as CEO of Google today, with Eric Schmidt moving into the role of chairman.

The switch has been several months in the making; the company announced plans for the transition in January. Sergey Brin will continue on as co-founder.

Say Hello To Parrot Asteroid: The Android Car Stereo

The Android powered Parrot Asteroid car stereo. It’s got a ton of juicy specs too. More after the jump.

Ahem! First, as indicated by the pic above, the Parrot Asteroid is a DIN-receiver with a detachable faceplate. See the physical control panel beside the touchscreen? Yup, that’s detachable.

Google Organizes Science Fair for Young Minds

You heard that right. Your favorite search engine, Google, has thrown its doors open for budding scientists. The company is looking for kids between the age group of 13 to 18, working alone or in groups of two and three to submit interesting and useful projects.

The Google Science Fair site can help you out with various details regarding the project.  The project should be submitted by the 4th of April 2011 and should contain either a two-minute video or a 20-slide presentation on what exactly your project does or what problem will it solve. You can check out a mock project submission on this link which demonstrates using an autonomous robot to transport various medical items.

Judges for the competition include Vint Cerf, Vice President of Google, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General of CERN, inventor Dean Kamen and many more. The prizes include a National Geographic Expedition to the Galapagos Islands, a Once in a Lifetime Experience with one of the following partner organizations: CERN, Google, the LEGO Group, or Scientific American and even a scholarship from Google.

So if you have what it takes, you can always give Google Science Fair a try. Check out this neat video of the Google Science Fair below.

Apple's Iphone app store is challenged by rivals

Life is good outside the walled garden 

THE WALLED GARDEN that is Apple's Iphone app store is getting a good kicking by rival app stores run by Google, RIM and Nokia.
According to research company Distimo, the Android Market had the highest rate of overall growth, reaching 130,000 applications by 31 December or more than six times the number at the end of 2009.
Nokia's free applications increased by nine-fold, helping its total applications to more than triple to 25,000. This makes it the third-biggest apps line-up after Apple and Android.

While Apple's Iphone catalog includes almost 300,000 applications it is not growing at the same rate. Most new Iphone apps were for business, while the competitors added media and entertainment applications to counter Apple's dominance of the music and books markets.
Analysts Hendrik Koekkoek and Gert Jan Spriensma wrote that Blackberry's app store more than tripled in size last year to 18,000 apps, according to Distimo. Apple's Iphone offerings doubled.
The market share of free applications rose while the price of paid applications fell, the analysts said. Among the top 100 applications, prices declined by an average of nine per cent at the Android Market and by 61 per cent at Nokia's Ovi Store. The proportion of applications costing more than $5 fell to 15 per cent as of 31 December from 21 per cent a year earlier.

Android 3.0: Coming In March?

In the world of Android, things can move pretty fast.

Case in point: Just weeks ago, Google took the wraps off of Android Gingerbread, the latest and greatest version of its mobile operating system. Aside from the newly launched Samsung Nexus S device, no phone even has the software yet -- heck, plenty of users are still waiting for the Android 2.2 upgrade -- but that's not stopping people from looking even further ahead.

They're looking, of course, toward Honeycomb -- the next major stop on Google's Android development track. All signs point to Honeycomb bringing some significant changes to the Android OS; if everything goes as expected, it'll be the first version of Android to be fully optimized for tablets. And if a report published this week is correct, it'll make its way into the world in March.

Mangalore's Akshay Raj Wins Doodle 4 Google (D4G) Competition

Most of us doodle on page margins, books, walls, and even on our palms. Now, leading search engine, Google India has organised this year’s national Doodle 4 Google contest to mark Children’s Day. Nikhil Rungta, marketing head, Google India, said, “Doodle 4 Google is a great opportunity for students to explore the intersection of art and technology.

SUNDAY, November 14, (News Locale) - The Doodle4Google (D4G) competition for the Children's Day in India has unearthed a winner in the form of 14-year-old Akshay Raj of Mangalore. Akshay, who studies in the ninth standard at the St. Aloysius High School, won the competition for his doodle named ‘Technically and Naturally Growing India.' His work can be viewed throughout the day on Google India homepage . Akshay's doodle was chosen from over 1,08,000 doodles received as part of the doodle4google competition hosted by search engine giant Google Inc. Dennis Hwang, the original Google Doodler, chose the winner of the competition, which was themed on ‘My Dream for India.'

From all the doodles submitted across the country, 9051 doodles entered the quarter-final round and 41 semi-finalists were chosen. From this list, the winner was picked up by Mr Hwang and Ms Jennifer Horn, who created the Google Gandhi doodle.

Akshay's doodle was deemed as the winner of the d4g competition based on “artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme," Google India announced. Besides having the pleasure of seeing his doodle on the Google homepage, Akshay also won a Technology Starter Package. A Rs. 2 lakh technology grant has been awarded to his school.

Shweeb Monorail

Google Invests $1 million in Shweeb’s Pedal-Powered Bike Monorail

In 2008 Google Inc. initiated Project 10^100 as a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. People from around the world submitted over 150,000 ideas that they wanted to bring to life. "Drive innovation in public transportation" was one of the five winning ideas, voted on by the public. Google Inc. subsequently searched the globe and selected Shweeb as the organisation with the most forward looking transportation vision and with the relevant expertise to implement such an idea. In September 2010 Google Inc. announced an investment of USD 1 million in SHL to assist with transit research and development.

About Shweeb:

By integrating the unique properties of monorail and recumbent cycle technologies, Shweeb delivers a personal, efficient, and cost-effective transport solution with applications for urban commuting, recreational and fitness markets.

Shweeb’s bike-powered monorail currently has a 200m cycle track in Rotorua, New Zealand, where is it billed as an “adrenalin-fueled” adventure. There, users are suspended from the track in transparent pods and can ‘cycle’ around the landscape at speeds of up to 45km/h.



The system has been a big hit with tourists.

Shweeb will soon announce the location where they will build the first transit Shweeb for public use!

The original adventure ride concept system is situated at Agroventures Park in Rotorua, New Zealand.==>