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I’m not sure how Solve for X forum would be able to encourage and arrange the average folks who just happen to have brilliant ideas to come together and discuss the stuffs of fantasies that might just fly in real world, but as Steve Jobs’ Apple commercial “Think Different” has been promoting that the crazy ones might be just the kind of people that would positively change the world.  Solve for X is a project which Google has been working on.  Just now Google has released Solve for X’s website and videos.  The website is at wesolveforx.com.  The video right after the break introduces you to Google’s Solve for X project.

Perhaps, Google’s Solve for X might only reach out to the people who may have brilliant ideas to come together and promote what might change the world.  For an example, the X might be something down to earth as finding clean water for the poorest nations to something up in space as in starting a space voyage for humankind.  You never know!  Nonetheless, I don’t know for sure how different Solve for X might be if one compares it against TED.

I hope Solve for X would allow the average folks as your next door neighbor (or even yourself) to participate in the project somehow.  You never know someone out there, perhaps your next door neighbor or even yourself might just happen to have crazy idea that might change the world in a very big way!  Nonetheless, it seems Solve for X does include average folks in its equation somewhat as it allows you to post your own Solve for X talks using Google Plus.  In truth, I haven’t tried to do such a thing, therefore I don’t even know how one would be able to use Google Plus to start a Solve for X talk!  Do you?

Source:  http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/02/06/2237259/google-solve-for-x-website-goes-live?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign
=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Related articles

• Google’s mysterious lab surfacing in WeSolveForX? (digitaltrends.com)
• Google’s We Solve for X: a lecture series aimed at solving global problems (geek.com)
• Google Launching TED-Style Think Tank With ‘Solve For X’ (simplyzesty.com)
• Google ‘Solve For X’ Website Goes Live (tech.slashdot.org)
• Google Unveils New ‘Solve for X’ Project (techland.time.com)
• Google shooting for solving the impossible with its “Solve for X” project (inquisitr.com)
• Google Launches ‘Solve for X,’ Think Tank for Fixing Global Problems [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Solve for X: Google gathers top minds to solve everything (zdnet.com)
• Google Unveils ‘Secret Lab’ For Radical Ideas (informationweek.com)
• Google Forms ‘Solve For X’ Think Tank (myfoxphoenix.com)

Image via Wikipedia

I’m a Spotify user, but I’m very hopeful of Google Music.  How?  Google Music is doing things very different than other online music services at the moment.  Instead of only offering these — promising users to have access to the biggest online music collections, making streaming music easier, storing music in the cloud and allowing music access offline – Google Music goes beyond by allowing users to share songs and helping aspiring musicians to sell their own creations (i.e., songs) to Google Music’s audiences.  Google Music also launches unique music contents to awe Google Music lovers even more.

By thinking sort of out of the box, Google Music might become very formidable!  It might scare other online music services into offering many similar things.  What Google Music lacks is the music itself!  OK, does it sound like I’m going nut by saying that?  It’s well known by now even though there are few major record labels who aren’t yet sleeping in the same bed with Google Music, but it doesn’t mean Google Music is lacking music literally.  In fact, the opposite is true as I have heard that Google Music has just about ten million songs and will add around 5 million more songs to its databases.

Whenever I say Google Music lacks music itself, I mean that Google Music members cannot freely listen to all music within Google Music.  Spotify is the opposite of Google Music, and Spotify can do more by just rolling out similar things that Google Music is currently offering (e.g., helping aspiring musicians to sell music).  Instead of making each user to buy a song for specific price, Spotify allows users to have all you can eat music buffet.  Paying few bucks a month or not, Spotify users can listen to any song within Spotify’s gigantic music collections.  Premium Spotify users can also stream music offline.  So, from Spotify user standpoint, I like what Google Music does for aspiring musicians, but Spotify has more than enough to blow Google Music out of the water in term of the music itself (i.e., all you can eat music buffet style).

What Google Music has over Spotify is that Google Music lovers will own the songs they’ve bought forever.  Spotify should offer a plan where loyal customers who stay with them for certain period more could own specific amount of songs for forever.  As now, I just like the idea of being able to explore and listen to any song I want, whenever I like, and as however much I want to on Spotify without worrying about breaking my bank instantly.  By allowing users to listen to all songs within Spotify’s gigantic music collections, this allows users to be able to explore more music in a way that no other online music services can.  For an example, in certain occasions, I had listened to songs that I hated, but only for the first 30 seconds of these songs, because I got to like the songs eventually when I listened to these songs through and through.  I doubt Google Music’s users can do something like this as they explore for new music. Google Music lovers might have to know what songs they like beforehand before they could open up their digital wallets for buying songs.

I’m not so familiar with Amazon‘s online music offering, but I think their service is similar to Google Music.  I could be wrong about this though!

Apple’s iTunes Match can be used in conjunction with iTunes and Google Music and whatever online music service which Amazon is offering.  What is special about iTunes Match is that users can use many other online music services together with iTunes Match.  Other than that, iTunes Match is pretty much a part of iCloud, but it’s specifically tailored to the music side of iCloud.  In reality, iTunes Match and iTunes itself are not that different than Google Music in a sense that users still have to buy each song somehow.  With that being said, iTunes Match does have one trick which benefits users greatly is that it allows users to have iTunes Match matches whatever songs from local hard drives and stores them on the cloud.  This might encourage users to download free songs elsewhere and let iTunes Match matches songs, thus allowing users to freely own new songs at greater bitrates (i.e., higher quality sounds).

In conclusion, Google Music’s toughest competition is Spotify!  Imagine the scenario of Spotify allows users to own certain songs forever for being loyal customers for certain months more, this could spell disasters for most online music services.  Too bad, such a Spotify scenario could only exist within my imagination.

Related articles

• Google Music and iTunes Match: Modern Solutions to Yesterday’s Problems? (siliconfilter.com)
• Google Music gives iTunes some competition – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Google Music, iTunes Match, and Amazon Cloud Drive: Digital Music Services Comparison (pcworld.com)
• Google Music: Your Great Music Locker in the Cloud (Review) (zdnet.com)
• Google Music: 5 Things You Need to Know (pcworld.com)
• Google Music In A Nutshell (ghacks.net)
• I like Match (wiretotheear.com)
• Google Music now available (jrthetech.com)
• 26 Million Android Users Won’t Get Google Music (thenextweb.com)
• When will Google music come to Norway ? (johnnyjohnsen.com)

Gmail is exciting again!  Google has revamped Gmail to make email gorgeous.  Gorgeous new themes, improved search, improved conversation interface, and nicer default layout are waiting for you to activate when you log into your Gmail account.  I’m not sure if this is the manifesto for one to activate the new look of Gmail, but I had to look at the bottom most right corner to see a tiny link which led me to the activation of the new Gmail look.  Then came the whole bunch of new features to put a smile on me.

The new look of Gmail is cleaner and nicer, but I cannot get comfortable with the comfortable layout which was activated by default.  Instead, I choose to be with compact layout which is selectable under Settings.  Settings represents by a gear looking icon near the topmost right corner.  It may be that I have had gotten used to the old Gmail look for so long that now it just feels comfortable for me to use the compact layout.

One thing isn’t change is the annoying ads on the righthand side.  It just makes Gmail looks ugly!  Well, Google has to make money somehow, and I don’t blame them for having ads on the righthand side.  Sometimes, it’s better to have the cake and not to be able to eat it.  This is one of the case, and I’m not complaining!  I’m just saying!

Sure, there are couple new HD themes I think, but I still feel Google has not rolled out enough themes!  I love to see Google rolls out a lot more themes so I won’t be bored by looking at few themes over and over again.  I think themes are just as important as everything else within Gmail.  Themes can morph to fit my mood of the day!

Call it an intuition, I think Google’s soon to launch music downloading store might not be special and attractive.  It’s a competitive market!  For an instance, Apple’s iTunes Store has done the same thing for a long time already.  Wikipedia has that iTunes Store has been selling music since April 28, 2003.

If there is only iTunes Store to worry about, then Google’s new music downloading store has little to fear of.  Unfortunately, iTunes  Store’s business model is facing off against a newer and more aggressive music business model which is Spotify’s subscription based music business model.

Spotify, a Swedish music streaming company which has its headquarter in UK, has been letting people streaming large collections of music.  According to Wikipedia, since July of 2011, Spotify has about 15 million songs for customers/users to stream.  The better part is that Spotify charges customers with a low monthly fee for perquisite such as no advertising.  Paying a premium price of $9.99 per month, customers/users get even more perquisites such as play local files and music from Spotify on mobile and desktop, use offline mode on mobile and desktop, enhanced sound quality, exclusive content, and play Spotify through music systems.

Looking through the lens of customers, we can see that subscription based music business model is many times more attractive than iTunes Store’s music business model.  Instead of buying each song for a price, users from Spotify can really listen to whatever their hearts love.  They can stream all day and night for whatever songs they want, including the newest songs that come out recently.  Through subscription based music business model, Spotify allows customers/users to discover newer artists without the fear of spending waste dimes on unknown artists.  After all, they have already paid a low monthly subscription fee!

Google’s new music downloading store will have to face the same challenge as iTunes Store and even more since it’s newer than everyone else!  Unlike other startups, Google does have advantages as it’s a household name and countless users are using Google’s countless services.  To name a few, Google Plus, Google Search, Google Docs, Google Earth and so on.  With a large user base at hand, Google can easily push its new music downloading store to the foreground.  Oh, let not forget Google is also an advertising company, and so it should not be hard for Google to advertise its own new music downloading store effectively.

I’m kind of hoping for Google to lean toward the subscription based music business model.  Unfortunately, Google has picked the iTunes Store music business model.  Speaking for myself, I don’t buy music on iTunes Store even though I’m a user of Mac, iPhone, and iPad.  Instead, I’m a premium member of Spotify.  This pretty much tells me that I’m not going to be likely to purchase any music on Google’s new music downloading store.

In conclusion, it’s exciting to see Google joins the fun of a swell of competitive online music stores such as iTunes Store.  Nonetheless, can Google be able to make its new music downloading store a profitable story?  Perhaps, subscription based music business model of Spotify will grow so fast that it might be hopeless for Google’s new music downloading store to see the light of day.  We never know, but I’m crossing my fingers, voting for Spotify!

Source:  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/techbytes-google-create-music-download-store/story?id=14802679, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify

Google Wallet allows users to make payments with their smartphones.  Google Wallet relies on the participation and cooperation of Citibank, Mastercard, retailers, and merchants to make the transactions for Google Wallet users.  The video right after the break shows you how Google Wallet works.

I’m not certain it’s a good idea to use a smartphone as a credit card.  My uncertainty of this idea isn’t stemming from its applicable aspect, but more of how uncertain I am when it comes to smartphone security.  Smartphone hackers describe smartphones as computer technology in the 90s, because very little security is there to actually secure smartphones from hacking activities.  The video right after this paragraph shows how easy it’s for hackers to hack smartphones and ultimately compromising users’ privacy and sensitive information.

In conclusion, the idea of using a smartphone to pay for something is a very good idea.  After all, users will carry their smartphones around with them at most of the time anyway, and so it’s sort of convenient for users to consolidate physical credit cards into digital form through Google Wallet and other third party software.  Google Wallet is great in this aspect, but I’m not sure Google Wallet can prevent smartphone users from being hacked.  It’s most likely that hackers will see Google Wallet as an incentive to target more smartphone users.  The smartphone industry has to better come up with some sort of security methods so smartphone users can be more confident when it comes to use their smartphones for any financial situation such as paying something with Google Wallet.  Lastly, when users begin to use their smartphones for financial transactions, their smartphones can suddenly become more attractive to thefts.

Source:  http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-google-smartphone-wallets.html

To my understanding, somewhat flimsy though, that Instant Pages for Chrome browser will dispatch an algorithm which tries to guess what results would be in fact the results that you most likely to click on, and when you actually click on the results that Instant Pages had it right, then the webpages you are trying to load will load way faster!  In a way, it’s as if Google is trying to read your mind and load the webpages that you want to load sooner or later beforehand.  Well, at least that how it looks like as Google tried to explain in the video below.  For how it actually works, I doubt I know, but I can see that Google might want to learn an individual’s search behaviors such as how each of us would click on what type of things on a search result page.  Nonetheless, like I said, I’m not entirely sure what sort of magic Google has concocted for Instant Pages to work or how Google will improve it to the point of mind reading its users.

Enabling Instant Pages by going to Chrome >> Preferences/Options >> Basics >> Enable Instant for faster searching and browsing.  I think we have been experiencing part of Instant features such as instant results from Google Search for quite sometimes already, but Instant Pages is a newer feature which allows us to load websites way faster, but I’m not 100% sure this is the case!  Anyhow, I guess when enabling Instant feature in Chrome browser, you and I will get faster results from search and loading websites.

Print Preview is something Chrome browser has been missing, because people like us have gotten used to previewing print pages on Microsoft Office and Open Office and so on that we kind of feel somewhat uncomfortable when Google Chrome isn’t allowing us to do something simple as previewing the pages that we want to print!  The wait is now officially over for Windows and Linux users who use Chrome browser, because Print Preview will work for them now when using Chrome.  Unfortunately for Mac users, they have to use beta version of Chrome to enjoy the feature, because this very feature is still in testing phrase for Mac users.

I don’t think there is such an app that can handle the data output/input/crawl (i.e., the whole world wide web) and has the algorithm which could beat Google’s search engine.  Talking about many data centers to be built just to support an app, and I don’t think there are that many players could spend crazy amount of money for that many data centers, unless we’re talking about Microsoft’s Bing, Facebook, Apple, and the likes!

OK, I think you get the point, but apparently someone out there who claims Google’s search engine is going to be destroyed by apps (i.e., from Apple’s App Store).  That person is Roger McNamee!  According to Cnet, Roger McNamee thinks Google’s search engine will be destroyed by many apps.  In my opinion, he is speaking of a hypothetical world, because in the real world — I think it will be otherwise.  In fact, I think apps will wane eventually, and everything apps will consolidate into practical and useful general platforms similar to Google’s search engine — but not in relation to search — but more of utilizing the style and simplistic approach similar to what Google’s search engine has possessed all along.

I like to surmise that many people don’t like the idea of locking into one particular vendor for practical solutions, and they might restrain from possessing too many devices from many vendors at once just to satisfy their high-tech lifestyle.  OK, you caught me redhanded, because the previous sentence does contradict to my belief that Google’s search engine is preferable way to go about doing a search rather than through apps, right?  Then again, Google’s search engine or even Microsoft’s Bing search is unique, because it’s free for users and open to everyone.  Nobody needs a platform to use Google’s search engine or Microsoft’s Bing search!  You only need a browser, Internet connection, and a device that allows the browser to work to use Google’s search engine or Microsoft’s Bing search.  I think you get the gist!

The trend of acquiring more apps only going to cost users more money than otherwise.  I don’t see this particular trend will be something people will flock to when large part of the world’s economy is not particular doing so well, and this is especially true for United States as we are trying to suppress the high percentage of unemployment.  Perhaps, the trend of having more apps the better will do much better in countries with growing economies, but we shall see.

So, in conclusion, my opinion is that I don’t think apps will be able to hurt Google, but it’s only an opinion nonetheless.  Nobody knows the future!  Perhaps, eccentric observation of Mr. Roger McNamee might come true, because the truth is that nobody knows the future!

Source:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20085133-250/roger-mcnamee-apps-will-rescue-web-from-google/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20