Friday, July 26, 2013

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Surface Computing Unleashed - Samsung Ativ Q vs. Microsoft Surface Pro

Research says that people are more fancied towards touchscreen and portable devices. That is one of the reasons surface computing rapidly growing and very soon it will change the computing era. Surface computing was not at all possible without integration and embedding technologies which helped a lot in compacting and making lightweight products. According to me surface is going to replace the old interaction techniques very soon in near future. There are lot of companies working on this new human computer interaction way. But some of them really came across with huge success like Microsoft's New Surface Pro and Samsung's Ativ Q. Both of them runs on Microsoft's Windows 8 Platform.

In this review I will talk about this two emerging Surface computing devices -

Windows 8 is a loud-and-clear statement about the future of the PC: it's touch-oriented, it's mobile, and it's convergent.The jury is still out on whether customers will wholeheartedly buy into that vision, but several recent devices at least give us more tangible examples of what that kind of future looks like.

Lets compare Samsung's upcoming Ativ Q and Microsoft's own Surface Pro -

Well, as per the future of surface computing is concerned they both are best at their place according to their configuration and features. But differs in some minor criteria.....
  • Keyboard - Samsung Ativ Q has its own in-built convertible keyboard where keyboard for Surface Pro is sold separately on demand. Both of these devices fit the bill, though in very different ways. The Ativ Q is a convertible, which comes with a touchscreen that folds and flips, great to be used in several different configurations.The Surface Pro, when taken alone without keyboard, is a tablet. A powerful Intel Core-powered tablet, but a tablet nonetheless. But Microsoft's snap-on keyboard accessories, sold separately, let you easily turn it into a faux-laptop by folding out the Touch Cover or Type Cover. Both devices take our minds off the mouse as we interact using touchscreen. 
  • Size & Weight - Well when it comes to portable computing size and weight matters a lot. The Ativ Q makes for a huge tablet, with a 13.3 inch display. Compared with Surface Pro, Ativ Q got 47% larger display. I guess that's a huge difference on your hand or your bag. Samsung did, however, manage to make the Ativ Q about as slim as possible. It's only three percent thicker than Surface Pro, despite having a built-in keyboard. Samsung Ativ Q weighs around 1290g and Surface Pro around 907g (without keyboard).
  • Processor - Samsung did not revealed the number of cores or clock speed in the Ativ Q, so I am not too sure about this. But Samsung did published that it's a Haswell-based Intel Core i5, so even if the exact processor changes in the final version, that part won't. Since it's a Haswell chip, it will likely get better battery life than the Surface Pro.
  • Graphics, Storage & Battery - Both of them got Intel HD graphics 4000. They got 4GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage. Both can be expanded with the help of Micro SD card and they have USB 3.0 option as well. Ativ Q claimed the battery backup of 9hrs where Surface Pro claims up to 6hrs backup with Web.
  • Camera - Ativ Q comes with only front camera worth 720p where Surface Pro have both front and read camera's of same quality i.e. 720p.
  • Operating Platform (OS) - For all of the Ativ's eyebrow-raising features, this is probably the most exciting. It's a Windows 8 tablet, but it also runs Android (likely in a virtual environment). You can quickly toggle back-and-forth between Windows 8 and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It even lets you share files between the two systems. The Surface Pro doesn't run Android, but you can actually achieve some of the same results with Bluestacks' Android emulator for Surface.
Well now just to wrap up, both of them are undoubtedly best in the configuration and processing. All we have to worry is about the pricing of these two future PCs. Considering its components, I don't think Samsung will reveal it for below $1000. But until Samsung gives us something solid, we're left guessing. But Surface Pro revealed its price and it starts from $900. The Ativ Q, meanwhile, leaves us with too many questions to jump to any conclusions. Can convertible hybrid devices also make for great tablets? Is a 13-inch screen way too big for this kind of machine? How much does the Ativ's high-res display affect its battery life?

Stay in touch and I will update the same here time to time.....

Sources : http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-gb/surface-with-windows-8-pro/ and http://www.samsung.com/global/ativ/

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Dropbox Platform : Cross Platform Cloud

Dropbox at its first developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday announced a new initiative dubbed as 'Dropbox Platform' which is a suite of APIs that provides a cross-platform syncing solution for almost any form of data. The new platform was detailed at Dropbox's official blog.

They said - "We’re proud that Dropbox has become the home for millions of people’s most important stuff. So we want to be sure that stuff is always available, no matter if you’re on your laptop at work, a tablet on a plane, or a Smartphone on the bus. Keeping devices and apps synced with your most up-to-date info has gone from “nice-to-have” to essential, which creates a real challenge for the people developing apps."

That's why Dropbox designed a cross platform to connect world's applications, devices, and services together. They used SAS and PAS of Cloud computing platform. As an initiative they started with Sync API, which allowed all users to sync their files on the go and that took years to develop and test. But today they came up with a nice package of application which allows users to sync files and any sort of data across devices and platforms.

The latest designed platform of Dropbox includes a new API named as 'Datastore'. Datastore allows applications to sync any form of data from cross platform devices. Any form of data includes contacts, to-do items, and saved game states. Dropbox no more worried about your hardware and software configuration of the device, they designed their API in such a manner that it will work seamlessly with any platform. "With the Datastore API, we're moving beyond files and providing a new model for effortlessly storing and syncing app data. When you use an app built with datastores your data will be up-to-date across all devices whether you're online or offline,"...Said the blog.
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Monday, July 8, 2013

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Web hosting for small business

If you’re running a small business you pretty much know that you have to be online, regardless of the exact type of the endeavor that you have undertaken. However, while some businesses might need strong online presence solely for the purposes of marketing and familiarizing the public with the company, other might have greater demands. Choice of the most appropriate hosting type for your business will depend on the resources that your site needs, the freedom that you require with server settings and, naturally, your budget. We will provide you with a short overview of the three most popular hosting types and let you decide which one would be the most appropriate for your business.

Shared hosting

This type of hosting is the cheapest one, but also the one that gives you the least freedom and resources. While taking advantage of shared hosting services, you are sharing a server with a, usually large, number of other websites. The resources of the server are shared equally by all of the sites on that server, which is to say that if the demands of one of the sites suddenly spike, you might find yourself with insufficient resources to run your website. Likewise, you are not allowed to change server settings and use just any script that you might want to. This kind of hosting is most suitable for businesses that don’t necessarily require perfect reliability, consistent speeds and don’t have a lot of multimedia on their sites. This is to say that if you only have a couple of low demanding pages and don’t have to support too many traffic, but just need a place where people can find you online, shared hosting might be sufficient for you.

Virtual private server hosting


This type is a step between shared and dedicated server hosting. You are sharing the resources of the server with other sites, but you are allocated a fixed portion of the total computing power, bandwidth and other resources, so the behavior of other websites doesn’t affect you in any way. You are also usually given more freedom with server settings and scripts, but this will depend on your particular plan. Even though it is more expensive than shared hosting, VPS hosting is the most scalable type of hosting out there, which might end up saving you money. You can change your plan as your requirements change, and easily make the transition. This is ideal for sites that expect growth, but would like to start small for budgeting reasons, as well as those that have a fair deal of traffic but couldn’t really justify the costs of paying for a dedicated server.

Dedicated hosting


The most expensive and, naturally, the most versatile and powerful hosting type. You have all the resources of the server just for yourself and complete freedom to do whatever you like when server settings are concerned. If you have huge traffic, a lot of audio of video material which is draining on the resources, do a large amount of different transactions, and need great speed and reliability, you might want to think about dedicated hosting. This type also comes with the best support, which might be critical for high scale operations.

About Writer : Ella Zeen is writer and explorer of internet and newest trends in technology. Currently interested in VPS hosting and solutions for small busineses
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Thursday, July 4, 2013

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HTML5 - Revolutionary approach towards web designing

HTML stands for 'hypertext markup language'. HTML widely used for coding web pages and few mobile applications. While there are still some debates and discussions, I believe the war is over and HTML5 is the future of digital publishing. HTML5 is nothing but the fifth revision of standard markup language HTML. Whether HTML is packaged in an EPUB file, displayed as a website, or packed as an app, its richness and ubiquity make it the perfect language for expressing content.

Why HTML5 won the war and awarded as best scripting language ? Well, whenever we start coding for any website from scratch (without taking help from any CMS) we have to deal with a bunch of sensitive and complex HTML code, the job becomes more tough when it comes to designing of the heavy content site. HTML5 recovered all these problems, HTML5 provides some great features to programmers like 

1) Tools - there are some thousands of HTML editing tools at various points and level of complexity. HTML5 provides developers with tools such as Offline Web Storage, GeoLocation API, Canvas Drawing, CSS3, and many more.

2) Ubiquity - HTML5 works simply perfect with all the web browsers and the mobile browsers as well. 

3) Features- Unlike proprietary formats, or lesser-known languages, there is an ocean of open source code and widgets that can be used to bring content to life.

HTML5 provides an API for a programmer. It is very user friendly and generates code for simple things at his own like a text box or a label etc. HTML5 enhances the contents like the use of graphics, non fiction things, high definition images and embedding of flash. Or even worse, we do the craziest things we can think of and enter an awkward period of using the <blink> tag. (The <blink> tag was an old HTML tag, that caused text inside to blink on and off. It was terrible, but simply because it exists, quite a few early websites made heavy use of the tag.)

HTML5 is the future. Static contents are here. HTML powers the new sites we read, the blogs, even many of the mobile apps we use. It is the core behind todays web. I created my own site with HTML5 and believe me its very interactive and makes life more easy than older versions of HTML.
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