Cognizant a serious challenger to IBM, Accenture

CHENNAI/BANGALORE: Cognizant Technology Solutions kept up its searing pace of expansion in the July-September quarter, establishing itself as the clear growth leader for India-based rivals to emulate and mounting a serious challenge to multinational competitors such as IBM and Accenture.

For the fifth quarter in a row, Cognizant's revenue growth topped 30% and it bumped up sales and earnings forecasts for the financial year which ends in December.

President and CEO Francisco D'Souza said in a conference call with analysts on Wednesday that the strong results and growing market share are a testament to Cognizant's agility. The New Jersey-based firm said it expects to end its financial year in December with revenue of at least $6.11 billion, one percentage point higher than its guidance three months ago.

Cognizant also increased its forecast for earnings per share to $2.83 from $2.78. Its shares were trading around 2.5% lower in early morning trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange whose main index was up 1%. Cognizant is in the middle of a share buyback programme with authorisation to purchase up to $600 million of its stock.

Results for the July-September quarter from top IT services providers TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro and HCL show that demand remains strong in an uncertain global economy even though some of them are finding that margins are coming under pressure.

Cognizant, which is also a component of the S&P 500 index, has an operating philosophy that puts growth at the top of its priorities. The IT company is happy with operating margins of 18-20%, pays no dividends at all, and reinvests surpluses to further the cause of growth.

Such an approach has resulted in Cognizant increasing its market share by 300 basis points in the past two years among India's top five IT providers.

During the September quarter, incremental revenues, at $116 million, were the highest for Cognizant. Top exporter TCS only managed $113 million and Wipro, which will be eclipsed by Cognizant as the third-largest exporter at the end of the year, added $65 million.

"Cognizant has become a serious challenger to the biggest global firms including Accenture and IBM. It is doing everything right at the moment," said Peter Schumacher of Germany-based business advisory services provider Value Leadership Group.

Cognizant was founded as an arm of Dun & Bradstreet in 1994 and listed on the Nasdaq four years later. A big part of the reason for its success is that it pays intimate attention to its customers, analysts said.

For every customer account, Cognizant has a senior account manager onsite, a dedicated delivery head and a consultant. Some 1,000 client-facing professionals form the company's so-called 'threein-a-box' team, helped by the same number of staff in delivery locations such as India. During the third quarter, Cognizant's revenue grew by 31.6% to $1.6 billion. Net income was $227.1 million, or $0.73 per share, three cents higher than forecast.

Citi analysts Ashwin Shirvaikar and William Mania wrote that Cognizant's revenue guidance of at least $1.66 billion for the fourth quarter is above the consensus of $1.65 billion. "They have historically beaten their initial guide and specifically this year they have beaten each quarter by $10-35 million, so we remain quite comfortable with our estimate." Citi maintains a buy on the stock.

R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director for global delivery, said price negotiations are continuing with customers, but "it is not going to be rosy as last year. It would be flat". He expected clarity on pricing in the early part of 2012.

Nearly four-fifths of revenue came from North America and 18% from Europe. The financial services sector, with clients such as JPMorgan Chase and UBS, contributed 40% to revenue. Cognizant added 12,000 employees in the quarter, including approximately 4,000 from the acquisition of CoreLogic India. Competitors keeping a close watch on Cognizant privately doff their hats to the company and its seeming ability to run a marathon at the speed of a sprint.

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HCL Tech beats Wipro in engineering services

BANGALORE: Wipro Technologies, which has for years been the market leader in outsourced engineering and R&D (ERS) services in India, has just been upstaged by HCL Technologies.

In the quarter ended September, HCL Tech reported $186 million in ERS revenues, against Wipro's $184 million. HCL Tech said that two years ago, in the July-September 2009 quarter, the company was behind Wipro by $54 million (annually a difference of about $200 million).

That means HCL Tech has seen a sharp rise in ERS revenues from $117 million two years back to $186 million, while for Wipro the growth has been more modest, from $171 million to $184 million.

A Wipro spokesperson did not comment directly on the figures, but said, "Wipro continues to have a leadership position in the R&D services space. The differentiation comes from the proven hardware and software design engineering expertise across the product lifecycle in semiconductor, consumer electronics, mobile devices, telecom networks and automotive electronics industries."

Some analysts say that HCL operates at lower margins than Wipro and this enables it to become more aggressive in winning deals. However G H Rao, corporate vice-president for ERS at HCL Tech, said, "Over the last two years we have made significant investments in ERS. We have also built an ecosystem of partners in system design & manufacturing across industries, universities etc."

The company is also increasingly working with clients to develop patents and leveraging on its global delivery centres in the US and Europe where 1,500 of its 17,000 ERS team sit.

A recent Frost & Sullivan report states that a major differentiator for HCL is its "Engineering out of the box". HCL offers capabilities and solutions for not just the core product, but also its surrounding ecosystem, and user experience. For instance it enables clients to extend the reach of their core products into new markets by creating platforms using productized solutions like mobility, cloud, collaboration, etc.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda , director for globalization advisory at consulting firm Zinnov, said that though Wipro has the capabilities to deliver similar experiences as that of HCL, it has been more focused on end-toend product development. "HCL makes greater efforts in creating better user experiences," he said.

The ERS market has slowly evolved from the days when IT companies were given product requirements and specifications by clients based upon which certain portions of the products would be engineered. Though lower-end work continues to form a major portion of the industry, clients are now handing over the entire product lifecycle responsibility as well.

This includes conceptualizing the product and its go to market strategy, designing the technology architecture and delivering the integrated product. Apart from software skills it also requires skills in areas like mechanical engineering and semiconductor.

Zinnov estimates the R&D offshoring market in India will reach $13.1 billion in 2011, a growth of 11.4% over 2010. The major sectors that outsource ERS include independent software vendors, semiconductor and telecom, aerospace & defense, and transport.

ERS contributes around 19% of HCL's and 12.5% of Wipro's overall revenues. The two companies are well ahead of the rest of the pack that includes Patni, Infosys, Mahindra Satyam, Persistent and MindTree.

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LG's new phone aims to beat Apple, Samsung

SEOUL: LG Electronics Inc's new Optimus phone sports a display sharper than the one on Apple Inc's iPhone and its chip puts it on par with Samsung Electronics Co's newest Galaxy. Gwon Soo Seok, 23, still isn't won over.

"LG's image is that of a laggard," said Gwon, a student in Seoul who is leaning toward an iPhone or a Galaxy. "LG seems to have good technology, but Apple and Samsung are the cool ones," said Gwon, who stopped using devices made by Seoul-based LG, the world's No. 3 phonemaker, three years ago.

The failure to woo consumers like Gwon leaves LG at a disadvantage to Apple and Samsung in smartphones, the fastest- growing segment of the $207 billion mobile-phone industry. LG had 718 billion won ($625 million) in operating losses at the handset division in the year to June, compared with a 5.7 trillion-won profit in the same period at Samsung.

"LG was slow to embrace the smartphone market, and they are still having a hard time correcting the mistake," said Lim Han Eui, a telecommunications consultant at ROA Consulting in Seoul. "There has been nothing particularly special about their phones. They need to develop their own color and identity."

LG, whose panel unit supplies the "Retina" displays used in the iPhone, introduced its first smartphone globally last year, more than three years after the debut of the Apple device.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, accounted for 18.5 per cent of global smartphone shipments in the second quarter, compared with 13.5 percent a year earlier, research company Strategy Analytics said in July. Nokia Oyj, based in Espoo, Finland, dropped to third place, falling behind Samsung after its market share shrank to 15.2 per cent from 38.1 per cent.

'Behind the Curve'
Including basic phones, Nokia remained the world's biggest handset maker with a 24.5 per cent share, followed by Samsung at 20.5 per cent and LG at 6.9 per cent, according to the researcher.

"They've been behind the curve and are constantly playing catch-up," Annalisa Di Chiara, a Hong Kong-based senior analyst at Moody's, said of LG. "The question, really, is whether they will ever catch up on the mobile side."

LG shares have slumped 36 per cent this year, compared with a 3.4 per cent drop for Samsung, a 22 per cent jump for Apple and a 39 per cent tumble for Nokia.

Earlier this month, Moody's cut the outlook for LG's Baa2 issuer and senior unsecured debt rating to "negative" from "stable," citing weakness in the handset market. Standard & Poor's lowered the long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings to BBB- from BBB on October 14.

Hard sell
The company is aiming to stem losses and convince investors a turnaround is possible. Koo Bon Joon, the younger brother of LG Group's chairman, took over last year after his predecessor Nam Yong quit, taking responsibility for failing to come up with a model to counter the iPhone.

The maker of Chocolate and Prada handsets is cutting back on less-profitable models, Park Jong Seok, head of the mobile business, said in July. More than 12 new models have been unveiled this year, under the Optimus brand.

LG showcased the Optimus LTE in Seoul on October 10, touting its 329 pixels-per-inch screen compared with the iPhone 4S's 326. The chip has a 1.5 gigahertz processor, the same as Samsung's latest Galaxy model.

LG has the strength in technology for next-generation mobile devices such as the long-term evolution model, said Ken Hong, a Seoul-based spokesman. The latest phone is capable of running on faster networks using the so-called LTE technology.

'Ripe time'
"Time is ripe for us to put that into action," he said. "The Year 2012 is going to be a significantly different scene from now."

The company is also betting on 3D technology in mobile phones, a feature Samsung and Apple don't offer. It introduced a 3D phone this year and plans are in place for more, said Jeong Ok Hyun, head of LG's research center.

Full-year net loss at the mobile-phone division may narrow to 270 billion won in 2011 compared with the 654 billion won loss a year earlier, according to the average of four analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg News. LG is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings this week.

"LG's strategy seems to be to make anything they can come up with, with the hope that something will become a hit," said Woo Chang Hee, a Seoul-based analyst at LIG Investment & Securities Co. "They may be taking the right steps, but the pace isn't fast enough."

Until that happens, student Gwon says he will stay away.

"I want to see more people around me using LG phones first before I buy," he said.

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'Steve Jobs' book: A review

"Steve Jobs" (Simon & Schuster), by Walter Isaacson: "Steve Jobs" takes off the rose colored glasses, which often follows the premature death of an icon and instead offers something far more valuable: the chronicle of a complex genius, brash, which is crazy enough to think that could change the world - and did.

Through unprecedented access to jobs with more than 40 talks, including long sessions sitting in the living room co-founder of Apple, walk around your neighborhood, children and visits to the secret headquarters of his company, Isaacson takes the reader on a journey that few have had the opportunity to experience.

The book is the first, and with his death, October 5 to 56 years, the only authorized biography of the famous work privately and, by extension, the same secret of Apple Inc. Through Apple, Jobs helped usher in the era of personal computers he put the Macintosh in the hands of ordinary people. He changed the course of music, computer animation and mobile phone industries, and touched many others with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, Pixar and iTunes.

His biography, therefore, serves as a chronicle of Silicon Valley in the last 20 - and technology in the early 21, and American innovation at its best. For the generation that has grown into a world where computers are the norm, smartphones members feel like fifth and music comes from the Internet instead of record and CD stores, "Steve Jobs" should read the story.

Isaacson, whose other books include biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, uses anecdotes from friends, family, colleagues and adversaries to illustrate the sometimes profound contradictions in employment.

Given up for adoption at birth, youth employment was to deny his daughter Lisa for years. The product of the 1960s counterculture that rejected materialism, he left to found what became the world's most valuable company. Deeply influenced by the principles of Zen Buddhism, Labour rarely achieved inner peace and it was prone to wild mood swings and the average of outbreaks in people who were not up to expectations.

But these contradictions that make this magical world outside of Apple to a human error. And is his uncanny ability to fuse art and technology, design and engineering, beauty and function that allowed him to put the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and the iPad into the hands of millions of people who did not even know they wanted. Jobs changed our relationship with technology, because humanity understood and who understood the chips and interfaces.

"I'm one of the few people who knows how to produce technology requires intuition and creativity, and how to produce something artistic requires real discipline," says Isaacson Jobs in one of the extended passages in the book that is in your own words.

These excerpts from the interview and pepper book as rare gems. In them, Job offers eloquent, unapologetic explanations for why did things the way they did and what was going on in your mind in the midst of Apple's decision and his own life.

Apple fanboys, geeks and encyclopedic-minded reporters comb the book probably unknown details about Jobs and Apple. I was informed it only a little more than the average reader, and a tenuous connection, nostalgic to him through having attended high school with his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. I found myself combing, not the book of the secrets of Apple, but the secrets of Steve Jobs, the man, the father, the son.

With little patience for the technical details, I was browsing some of the passages of the book detailing the creation of the Apple I computer, Macintosh and the i-gadgets of years after Jobs. It is in these passages, however, where the reader can find explanations of why the iPhone's battery is not replaceable, why Macs cost more than PCs, and why the iPod headphones are white.

The chapters close, where he shines Jobs staff, with all its faults and folly, leaving a deep impression. There's humor, too, especially at first when Isaacson chronic lack of personal hygiene Jobs, the barefoot hippie who runs a corporation. And deeply moving passages about Jobs's resignation as CEO of Apple, and an afternoon spent with Isaacson listening to music and reminiscing.

"Steve Jobs" was originally scheduled to hit stores in 2012. Date of publication was moved after death Jobs. Therefore, there are bits that could have benefited from a new round of editing. There are anecdotes, for example, Isaacson repeats, as if his introduction to the first reader.

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Save your friends from outdated email

I switched to Gmail the first month it came out, mere seconds after receiving an invitation from a friend and two years before joining Google. Since then, I’ve invited hundreds of people, most of whom have happily made the switch to Gmail and never looked back.

But I have one friend, Andy, who’s the straggler in the group. A couple months ago, I sent out an email about a barbecue I was having. On the “To:” line, there were 15 Gmail addresses and then Andy. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Shortly thereafter, Andy was complaining to us about how much spam he got. That was the last straw.

My friends and I sat Andy down and talked him through how to import his contacts. We answered his questions, guilt-tripped him a little, and a few painless minutes later we were done. Andy had Gmail.

We all have a story like this. On the Gmail team, we affectionately refer to them as “email interventions.” We hear about them all the time: the cousin who finally switched from an embarassing address like hottie6elliot1977 to a more professional elliot.d.smith@gmail.com, a co-worker who helped his dentist switch after he heard her grumble about having to pay for IMAP access, etc.

It’s for these folks we created emailintervention.com, a site that makes it easier than ever to help your friends and family make the switch. More

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Windows Phone Mango Ready To Launch, Features And Specifications

The newest version of the Windows Phone OS, codename “Mango,” has reached the release to manufacturing stage (RTM). By this fall, Microsoft’s mobile OS will available on handsets worldwide.

Windows Phone operating system, code-named "Mango," features over 500 new features and faster browsing with Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).

"This marks the point in the development process where we hand code to our handset and mobile operator partners to optimize Mango for their specific phone and network configurations," Windows Phone corporate vice president Terry Myerson said in a blog post.

Microsoft unveiled Mango in May, promising it will be available by year's end for free to existing Windows Phone 7 customers and will ship on new phones from Samsung, LG and HTC and new partners Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE.

Microsoft said it is also working on a Mango handset in its labs with new partner Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone titan which announced in February it would begin using Microsoft's platform as its smartphone operating system.

When Mango-powered phones hit stores they'll likely be facing competition from a new iPhone from Apple and the latest versions of handsets running Google's Android software.

Forthcoming handsets will have Mango installed from sale, while current phones are going to be forced through an extensive update process. With the previous Windows Phone 7 update, NoDo, there was a fiasco involved with getting the code to extant handset owners. Microsoft simply cannot afford a repeat performance.

According to Gartner, Android will power nearly half of the smartphones worldwide by the end of next year with a 49.2 per cent market share.

The market share for the iPhone's was forecast to remain relatively stable at 18.9 per cent in 2012.

Windows will account for 5.6 per cent of the smartphone market at the end of 2011 but will rise to 10.8 per cent in 2012, according to Gartner. more

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60 Signs You’re Addicted to Social Media & Twitter

Late night tweet sessions. Foursquare swarm parties. Panera Bread meetings at 9 pm and Facebook moments that make you laugh so hard you cry. Your baker knows it, the mailman knows it. You like tweets and they like you. The baker thinks you’re talking about cupcakes and has no idea what Twitter is.

The key is to find the balance between social media addiction and insanity. It’s okay to tweet all night as long as you have some good tweeters beside you, right?

Check out these 60 signs to determine if you may be in fact a social media addict.

Please note, by no means am I saying that being a crazed lunatic tweeter makes you a social media expert or guru. Nor am I endorsing such behavior. I am however, stating it happens to the best of us even if you don’t have the guts to admit it. Not all things on the following list can I say I have experienced, done or participated in. I will tell you that I have in at least half of them. Enjoy and please leave a comment with your own!! 

60 Signs You’re Addicted to Social Media and Twitter:

1. You more often than not talk in 140 character increments.
2. You forgot how to spell simple 3 letter words like “you” which you now reference as “U”.
3. You go to the mall for an hour and come home with 10 new blog ideas.
4. The grocery store clerk, mailman, dry cleaner, and Panera Bread head cook all know your twitter handle.
5. You have a favorite seat at Starbucks and Panera bread.
6. You have stayed past closing at least two times at either Panera Bread or Starbucks.
7. You can’t remember the last time you went to the restroom without your Android or iPhone.
8. You regularly sit down in front of your desk first thing in the morning while still wearing your jammies, to “send a few tweets” and then hit the gym. Unfortunately you’re usually still there at lunch time.
9. You are the mayor of Panera Bread, Starbucks, the grocery story, drycleaner and your favorite burger joint.
10. You refuse to do drive by FourSquare as you want to earn your badges the old school way!
11. Your kids know the difference between a twit and a tweet.
12. Your kids could easily describe a retweet, mention, hootsuite, and ping.fm to their friends who have parents who don’t tweet.
13. Your spouse has threatened to divorce you if you don’t leave your cell phone at home at least one date night a month.
14. You have real friends in Australia, the UK, Brazil and at least three other countries. You met them all on Twitter.
15. You know many of your Twitter pals better than you do some neighbors.
16. You no longer keep track of how many followers you have. It’s the relationships and conversations that truly inspire you.
17. You love tweetups and don’t understand why the retirement home doesn’t want to host one for your grandma.
18. Your kids come home from school and ask you how many hits their YouTube video received.
19. You take a photo of your kids and the first thing they say is “no, you are not putting this one on Facebook or Twitter, seriously!”
20. Your youngest kid has found a new marketing medium with his/her world of wonder color paintings…. twitter and Twitpic!
21. You have worked an entire day or at least half of a day in your pajamas when you didn’t plan to do such.
22. You get excited when a client asks for a social media policy.
23. You want to do a back flip when you interview a potential new client and they already know what bounce rate is.
24. You have completely stopped trying to talk even your favorite businesses to get on the social train. You figure it’s their loss, you have more business wanting to hire you than you have time to talk to.
25. You have mastered tweeting, texting, reading a Inc. magazine and watching CNN all at the same time while on the elliptical.
26. TV, who has time for TV? You have #FFs to catch up on!
27. There are some people who tweet you in the morning that can simply make your day!
28. You have officially stopped doing free lunches. Who has time for lunch anyway!
29. You no longer attend networking meetings as you honestly don’t need any more clients at the present time.
30. When you meet with a client now it’s more like an interview as to if you want to take them on or not.
31. Life is to short to take on clients who simply don’t want to listen to what you know they need to do. If they don’t want to blog or update their website to the current century they can happily move on to your supposed “competitors.”
32. Your 2011 calendar already looks like a twitter parade.
33. You know what the tweet parade application is.
34. You know your Klout score even if you say you don’t care about the numbers.
35. You don’t send auto DMs.
36. You took a picture of the Verizon Fios dudes and posted it to Twitpic when they fixed or installed Fios.
37. You fall asleep on the laptop watching Jimmy Fallon at least once a week.
38. You would honestly miss your twitter friends if twitter were to go down tomorrow.
39. You wish people would quit sending you so many emails and just send you a 140 character tweet.
40. You get excited at the thought of a blank wordpress blog post page ready for you to turn it into a masterpiece at midnight.
41. When anyone in your neighborhood needs anything to do with the internet they call you.
42. You still get emails from past colleagues wondering if you could “help them learn” social media. Although that would be much more fun than a “free lunch” with another broke wanna be client you unfortunately don’t have time.
43. You wish you could spend the majority of your time tweeting for social good. Someday you will.
44. You won’t let your kids come close to Facebook or Twitter as you know how addictive it can be.
45. You now are addicted to twitter chats. You can type like a crazy bird with a bunch of other crazy birds.
46. You get more leads via your online sales funnel than anything you do offline.
47. Your business truly works on the weekend even when you don’t thanks to Infusionsoft and your favorite news syndication site (mine being Social Media Today)!
48. You can tell the mood of the twitter verse from just a few seconds of tweeting.
49. You can retweet that tweet in less than 2 seconds with your eyes closed.
50. You want to hit yourself on the head every time someone tells you “my clients aren’t on social media.”
51. You still love teaching newbies how to tweet. Nothing better than hearing those happy words with a big smile “I sent my first tweet!”
52. You have actually had a client say after the first twitter training session, “now how do I do something to someone, I forgot?”
53. You dressed as a twitter bird, YouTube channel, Facebook page or iPhone for Halloween.
54. Your kids know what Friday Follow is.
55. You have given up trying to get your family to understand what it is you do.
56. You’d rather tweet than be nosey and look at the neighbors photos on Facebook like all the rest of your neighbors do.
57. You ordered a custom license plate with your name and 140 on it.
58. Movies, who has time to see a movie. You’re either with the family, at Church, at the beach or tweeting.
59. You have written a late night social media addiction blog post at midnight and fell asleep in the middle of it (like I did on this one.)
60. You made it to the bottom of this list. Read More

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Pandora Becomes a Social Network

This week, Pandora is rolling out a new version of its popular internet radio service that doesn’t rely on social networks such as Twitter or Facebook: It is a social network — or at least it will be, when the new, faster-loading, HTML5-powered version of the site goes live.

Pandora announced the service on Tuesday, which is rolling out now to premium Pandora One subscribers ($3 per month). Later, users of the free, ad-supported version will see the changes too. This is serious business, now that Pandora is a public company; if these tweaks cause traffic to dip, Wall Street will make the startup, which counts approximately one sixth of the U.S. population as active users, pay.

TechCrunch is enamored with the changes, and waxes poetic, having received a preview from Pandora CTO Tom Conrad. If you prefer the quick version, here’s a summary of the changes the company announced today:

Profiles and Music Feeds: Pandora has allowed users to maintain profiles (here’s mine) for years. The new version emphasizes them much more, allowing each user to create a Facebook-like profile page where friends can leave comments. But the activity feeds are the most important new social feature. When you “friend” someone on Pandora, you will see what they’re listening to, talking about, or rating, in a constantly-updated activity feed. Rather than relying on outside social networks, Pandora will have its own.

Playback bar: With all of this friending, commenting, reading, and navigating, Pandora needed a good way to keep letting you listen to music, which, after all, is still the point of the service. To cope with that, the new Pandora gives you a playback control bar that follows you around the site so you can skip, pause, and rate songs.

Faster load time: If you’ve created lots of stations on the current Flash version of Pandora you know the thing takes forever to load. This new version ditches Flash in favor of HTML5, and judging from the above report about Conrad’s demo, the new Pandora loads much, much faster. It’s about time.

Automatic recommendations: When a user searches for stuff on the new Pandora, it will autofill recommendations tailored to that user: genres, comedians, and auto-completed artist names based on the stuff it knows you like.

Better metadata: To learn more about a song, you’ll be able to click the artist name for a bio, expand the album art, and read the lyrics as you listen.

Back button: The new version’s use of HTML5 instead of Flash means that as you do all of this stuff, you’ll be able to use your web browser like a web browser, instead of a Flash app with its own discrete controls. In more simple terms, this means you’ll be able to use the Back button, finally, to navigate to the previous page without leaving the site and silencing the service.

Sharing: Because the new Pandora is an HTML5 web app, stations have their own URLs. You can share those however you want — or, use the service’s own sharing feature to send stuff to Twitter, Facebook, or Pandora’s own social network.

Pandora’s social evolution seems like a solid move, as services like Turntable.fm offer new social features. From the looks of things, the new Pandora appears to be a big improvement in just about every way, although it still lacks a way to let users listen together to the same thing at the same time.

Here’s Pandora’s summary of the new features:

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Arrange And Switch Windows And Tabs With Optimal Layout [Reviews

Optimal Layout is a new window manager for OS X. It’s fully Lion compatible and available now on the Mac App Store.

We’ve seen a lot of apps like this in the last year or so, addressing a problem many of us have: dealing with vast numbers of overlapping windows, laying them out side-by-side for efficient multitasking, and switching quickly between them. Some of the ones you might have heard of include Cinch and Divvy.

Optimal Layout is a neat new approach to the same problem, and very keyboard-focused. In both aesthetics and function, it reminds me of multi-purpose launcher and system helper Alfred, which I’m a big fan of.

Call up Optimal with a keyboard shortcut and you see a big window. On the left is a list of active apps, and on the right a preview of your screen. You can click your way around, choosing an app and choosing how it will be displayed with a simple drag. But keyboard aficionados will be more interested in the shortcuts, of which there are many. You can very quickly jump between window layout presets, and add your own.

My favorite feature, though, is using Optimal as a window switcher. I use the built-in Command+Tab switcher many times every day, so much that sometimes it actually starts to make my fingers hurt every time I do it. Optimal Layout lets me jump between apps in a completely different way.

It also lets me switch faster, because I can invoke it and just start typing the name not just of the app I want, but the document or tab within it.

So now I can leap directly from a text document to a specific browser tab, even if that tab isn’t the frontmost one displayed in my browser. I love this. Yes, it’s a bit like Witch, but with more emphasis on typing the name of what you want, rather than shortcuts to navigate towards it.

If you want to try it out, you can get a free six day trial version of Optimal Layout direct from the developer’s website.

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Top 10 iOS Apps for Photography Pros

Even photography pros are using their iphones to capture the shots they find on the go, and…not on the go. The iphone has a great camera app and with just a little more help from additional apps, it can do a lot of things photography pros can appreciate.

1.     PhotoRaw – This is definitely an app for photography pros. This app allows users of an iphone camera to view photo files in 'raw' format and provides formats that match many of the most common cameras.

2.     TimeShift HD – Mobile Game Logic is the creator of this time-lapse photo app. It provides plenty of control over all the elements involved in time-lapse photography.

3.     ChronoCam – Chronophotographic photos are taken with this app. Tateshina Business Center has created this app to take from 1 to 20 photos per second.

4.     PhotoSync – Automatically, and wirelessly, transfer groups of photos to your iphoto software or photo servers.

5.     DSLR Remote – OnOne Software created this app that will control your DSLR camera remotely from your iphone or ipad. You can even tell your camera where you want the images saved to.

6.     CameraBag – NeverCenter named this app appropriately. It provides the lens filters that you would formerly have carried in your camera bag. Now they are all contained on your iphone.

7.     Hipstamatic – Synthetic Corp has provided this fun and flexible photo app. Take 'old school' photos while changing 'lenses' with a swipe of your finger across the screen.

8.     Pano – Debacle Software has created this app that allows you to take panoramic photo shots with your iphone and stitch them together for a full wide view. You can combine up to 16 shots together.

9.     ProHDR – Eye Apps LLC has created this app to bring top high dynamic range images into your iphone. HDR allows you to maintain clarity of both the foreground and background of images.

10.  TiltShift – If you're not a photography buff, you may not have heard this term before. If you've owned a tilt-shift lens, then you'll love the ability to accomplish these unique types of shots with your iphone by just adding this little app. Michael Krause has done a great job with this app.

With the many photo apps available for use with iphones and ipads, the carrying of an extra camera is becoming less of a necessity, even for the pros.

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Twitter Changes Direct Message Rules. Now Easier For Bands To Tweet With Fans

Twitter has changed its direct messaging policies for Verified Accounts of bands, brands and celebrities to allow them to receive Direct Messages without having to follow the sender. Twitter has not officially announced the feature or when it will rolled out to all verified users.

Verified account users can disable the feature on Twitter.  But for those who can handle a rush of incoming messages, Twitter has just created a private fan to artists communication tool without having to first follow the user, telling them they can now direct message them, and then un-follow the user after it has been sent. 

Artists could also turn on the new feature for short pre-announced periods and take questions from fans.

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Google unveils social network to challenge Facebook

The Internet search engine introduced Google+ social network for what it called ‘real-life sharing.’ To be available first by invitation only, Google said its social network will meet the most basic human needs to connect with others.

Aiming to take advantage of flaws in networking on Facebook, Google said, “Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.”

Google said, “We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project.”

It would offer options of networking, including ‘Circles’ interface for adding friends and sharing ‘what matters, with the people who matter most’ and ‘Hangouts’ interface for group video chat.

“The debut of Google+ will test whether Google can overcome its past flops in social networking, like Buzz and Orkut, and deal with one of the most pressing challenges facing the company,” said the New York Times.

“At stake is Google’s status as the most popular entry point to the Web. When people post on Facebook, which is mostly off-limits to search engines, Google loses valuable information that could benefit its Web search, advertising and other products.”

But Google+ might be already too late, the paper said.

“In May, 180 million people visited Google sites, including YouTube, versus 157.2 million on Facebook, according to comScore. But Facebook users looked at 103 billion pages and spent an average of 375 minutes on the site, while Google users viewed 46.3 billion pages and spent 231 minutes.

“Advertisers pay close attention to those numbers, and to the fact that people increasingly turn to Facebook and other social sites like Twitter to ask questions they used to ask Google, like a recommendation for a restaurant or doctor, because they want more personalized answers,” the New York Times said. More

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Facebook video calling and group chat features launched

NEW YORK: Quick on the heels of Google's launch of its latest social-networking venture, Facebook said Wednesday that its 750 million users will now be able to make video calls on the site. 

The feature will be powered by the Internet phone service Skype. Facebook also redesigned its chat feature, so that the people a user messages the most often show up first. 

To make video calls, Facebook users with webcam-equipped computers have to select the friends they want to chat with. In the chat window that pops up, clicking on a small blue video icon brings up the video chat feature. Currently there is no option to video chat more than one person. That feature is available on Google Plus, a social service that Google began testing last week with a small number of invited users. 

Facebook is also adding a group chat option. This works much the same way as the group chat on Google Plus. Once you are chatting with one friend, you can click an icon to add more people to the conversation. 

Facebook's new products come after a relatively quiet period for the world's largest online social network. Zuckerberg, 26, said the company is embarking on ``launching season 2011.'' Users can expect ``a lot of stuff coming out'' from Facebook in the next couple of weeks and months, he said at an event at the company's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters. 

Facebook updated its user count _ to 750 million users worldwide _ for the first time since last summer, when it reached half a billion people. Zuckerberg said that's because ``we don't think it's a metric to watch anymore.'' 

Rather, Facebook is paying more attention to how much its users are sharing with one another. That number is growing at a much faster rate than its monthly user base. Currently, people share 4 billion items, such as photos, status updates and links, every day using Facebook. 

Without mentioning Google by name, Zuckerberg said that ``independent entrepreneurs and companies focused on one particular thing will always do better than companies that try to do everything.'' 

For Facebook, that one thing has been creating an online social infrastructure that other companies, such as Skype, can then add their own products to. 

Skype has agreed to be bought by Microsoft Corp. for $8.5 billion in a deal expected to close by the end of the year. Microsoft owns a small stake in Facebook. More

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Options Abound To Protect the iPad

It dawned on me three months after buying an iPad 2 that keeping the tablet encased in its original clear packing sleeve was a bit like having my living room furniture covered in plastic: practical, yet tacky.

The purchase of an orange Smart Cover from Apple to protect it was perhaps just a bit impulsive after all. Lifting and lowering the cover turns the screen on or off. But while the cover protected the glass just fine, the bare aluminum back seems vulnerable to getting scraped and scuffed no matter how durable Apple says it is.

Not wanting to acknowledge a $39 mistake (for polyurethane; $69 had it been leather), and knowing that enterprising accessory makers had alternatives, I returned recently to the local Apple Store and stared at the wall of covers.

It did not take long to engage another customer in a game of “What are you looking for in an iPad 2 cover?” We opened boxes together, felt textures, commented on clever designs and imagined our iPad 2s snug and safe. He found what he was looking for; I moved on to Best Buy, Staples and then Target, making more temporary shopping friends.

But they found what they needed. I could not pull the trigger.

Now that I was no longer an impulse buyer, I devised a strategy. Most important, I knew what I was looking for in a case that incorporated the magnet “technology” that turned the screen on and off.

It took a while for companies to start making rivals to the Smart Covers, but the choices are already overwhelming. I started by narrowing the field to products clearly marked for the iPad 2, which is slimmer than the first iPad. Many covers made for the original iPad are still on the shelves, which can be confusing. The newer covers have cutouts for the ports, switches and the back camera of the iPad 2.

Nothing beats getting your hands on a cover, but the next best thing is watching videos online of someone else opening a box with a new cover and using it. Often those videos are included on the manufacturer’s Web site, and they are a good starting point.

To narrow the list, I looked at a range of back covers that would work with my Smart Cover, from $20 to $50. Next, I examined some competing products that sold for $50 and up. The least expensive route is a simple snap-on back, which often can be found in a color to match the Apple cover.

Hammerhead, for example, sells a thin polymer back cover in 10 colors athammerheadcase.com. The HyperShield from Sanho, made of thermoplastic polyurethane, or TPU, also comes in 10 colors, plus clear (hypershop.com). “It is dirt-proof and washable,” the company says. XgearLive.com features the slim XCase flexible shield (also made of washable TPU) in six colors. All respectable choices; all $20.

Prices go up from there, depending on the material and fit. Still, when it comes to Apple products, price is never the sole consideration. It has to look and feel great and shout to all lookers: “Yes, I am sporting the iPad 2!”

As this long but hardly exhaustive list shows, distinguishing one product from another can be daunting. There is the shockproof CoverBuddy from SwitchEasy.com, available in 10 colors (plus ultraclear) for $25; the Snap Shield cover from Belkin.com, which comes in clear, Apple Pink and Smoke, and sells for $30; the BackBone from ifrogz.com, which sells for $35 in matching Smart Cover colors, plus white and clear; or the higher-end iFrogz Summit for $60, which combines a folio style with a snap-in core.

XgearLive.com also sells the EXOSkin, in black, silver or white, at $30, and the Smart Cover Enhancer snap-on case for $35, in black or clear. Hammerhead’s lightweight hard shell case made of a durable and water-resistant polymer, in 10 colors, is $40. Incipio offers the Smart feather ultralight hard-shell case in 11 colors for $35 at myincipio.com.

Speck has a SmartShell Case with a magnet on the back to secure the cover when it is folded back. It comes in orange, pink, clear and black satin and sells for $35 atspeckproducts.com.

The AViiQ Smart Case is made of plastic encased in a solid aluminum plate anodized to match the Smart Cover colors. It sells for $50 on aviiq.com.

Broadening the search from just back covers to the whole tablet turned up a wealth of other options.

Mophie (mophie.com) updated its faux-leather workbook for the iPad 2 to add the magnets and kept the price at $50. It features interchangeable straps in four colors, inclines the iPad at multiple viewing angles, and offers full access to ports, camera and controls. Out of the box, it looks professional and feels secure.

The Joy Factory (thejoyfactory.com) has introduced a few cases for iPad 2, including the SmartSuit 2, its ultraslim synthetic leather snap-on case with a wake/sleep cover, and the Folio360 II, featuring a magnetic cover and an adjustable case and stand that rotates 360 degrees. Both sell for $60.

For a bit more money, the CarbonCover from Ion-factory.com at $70 comes in black and graphite, white and silver, red and rouge, and white and pink. It features a snap-to-fit hard grip cover in the rear and what it describes as “imitation carbon polyurethane” in the front.

Imitation is nice, but real leather can be had from Grove, which offers a magnetic case with combination black or tan leather cover with Ultrasuede liner and amber or light bamboo case, for $99 and up, at grovemade.com.

Pad & Quill offers two handmade leather products incorporating magnetics: the Contega for $90, and the Octavo for $60 with an optional interior pocket for $10 more (padandquill.com).

Bella Cases is selling the Smart Libretto, a leather case that can be folded into a stand, has the sleep function built in, and has custom holes for cords, ports and buttons, for $120 (bellacases.com).

The premium Padova II from Orbino (orbino.com) can be ordered in four “bark-tanned” Italian leathers for $209; exotic skins like red ostrich start at $569. (That’s only $70 more than the least expensive iPad.)

The Logitech keyboard case by Zagg, for $100, is tempting. It has an embedded Bluetooth-linked keyboard and incorporates smart technology. Remove the iPad 2 from the case and it automatically wakes up. Place it back, and it goes to sleep. The description on its Web site (zagg.com) says it is made of aircraft-grade aluminum with a bead-blasted, anodized finish that matches the iPad 2. Sweet, but the back is still not protected.

In the end, I did some math: in April, I paid about $620 for the iPad 2 with only Wi-Fi, the protection plan and the Smart Cover. I mostly use the iPad 2 at home. At this point, $20 for a simple back cover seems like a small price to keep the iPad 2 in tip-top shape, and I no longer have to feel guilty about buying the Smart Cover.

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