Not too long ago, Microsoft changed it’s Live Search to Bing, and has really stepped on the pedal to face it’s major competitor, Google (which, by the way, has about 65% of the market share)
Now, Yahoo will likely be pairing up with Microsoft to face Google in its domination of the search market. Bing will become the search engine on Yahoo, and Yahoo would deal with most of the search ad work.
I’ve used Bing quite a bit now, and I think it is definitely worthy to compete with Google. In particular, I’m fond of the daily picture on the homepage everyday and overall interface, though I’m not sure its results are as accurate to what I’m searching for as Google. Microsoft is pouring a lot of money into Bing’s, and if done properly will likely take a chunk of Google’s domination. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo will have 30% of the market.
Any thoughts on this Microsoft+Yahoo combo? Leave a comment!
Also, as a side note, some photos I took in China are uploaded onto Flickr here. And a probably more interesting note that I just discovered is that Bing is blocked in China for some reason as well as sites like Flickr and Blogger.
Today, Google released a new version of its popular world browsing software, Google Earth. Some new features that was included in this update is being able to look at historical images, explore the ocean, and record your own tours. You also are able to explore Mars through Google Earth in addition to seeing the Earth and Sky. The ocean layer allows you to see the bottom of the ocean and 3-D models of shipwrecks. The recording feature is quite simple and you can add narration to it too. The new version is available at the Official Google Earth Page.
Tour of Google Earth 5.0
Demo of Google Ocean (I know this one looks similar to the video above, but it is a different one)
Today I’ve added two new features to the Reflection Upon Blog:
Now I have my Flickr Albums available on the site, though I really need to get some more pictures up. Look for them over the next few days. See the “Photos” tab to take a look at them.
Also, I’ve added Google Friend Connect, so you can add your self to the ReflectionUpon Blog network!
I’ve also added some other features (though not today) to my blog.
Email subscriptions, so you can sign up to receive the ReflectionUpon Blog updates by email (and if you want, you can also do it through RSS, though that has been up since the site started.
AnswerTips, so if you double click on any word on the blog, you’ll get information about it, such as a definition of it.
Not quite a feature, but I’ve also added a Links page for sites that I feel deserve recognition. If you have a website (or other online content such as a Youtube Channel) you could submit it by using this form.
You can call it whatever you want: the T-Mobile G1, the HTC Dream, the gPhone, the iPhone-Killer, the phone-that-will, but it doesn’t matter as they are the same (well… for some of them, it depends on how you look at it) phone that is the first to fun the Google Android Platform. Yes, this is the result of collaborative work from T-Mobile, Google, and HTC to make this iPhone competitor smart phone.
Image from Engadget.Com
The phone is currently only available for pre-order on the T-Mobile Website and will be launched on October 22 at $179 with a 2 year contract ($399 without). Here’s a quick spec list (from Engadget.Com):
HSDPA 1700 / 2100 plus quadband EDGE
WiFi
3D graphics acceleration
3-megapixel camera
256 MB integrated storage, 1GB microSD card included
Android Market for on-device app purchases
Amazon MP3 app for on-device music purchases
Push Gmail support with full HTML client
Bluetooth (but no A2DP)
Google Maps with Street View
No Microsoft Exchange support
No desktop synchronization — it all happens over the air
350 minutes talk time over 3G, 406 minutes over GSM
402 hours standby over 3G, 319 hours over GSM
An interesting note about the Street View is that the built in accelerometer makes it seem like a “window” into that area (see video)
The 3.2 inch touch screen has a resolution of 320 X 480 pixels. The full QWERTY keyboard beneath the screen does seem a thousand times easier to use than the iPhone’s virtual one and will be a major appeal point when people are comparing the two. The G1 also has tight integration with the Google suite (Search, Gmail, Youtube, Maps, Talk, and Calendar). The home screen is customizable (to a much higher degree vs just location on the iPhone) and is extended to the left and right which are accessible by swiping. While the iPhone has the Apps Store, the G1 has the Android market, and instead of the iTunes store, we have Amazon.Com’s MP3 service.
You can see how the device has borrowed characteristic from the iPhone, but luckily kept away from the bad things about the horrid Apple device. It DOES have copy and paste (thank you Google) and multimedia messaging. Also, there is no “multi-touch” but that’s a small thing.
Amazingly, according to Engadget, the phone is being sold out really quickly. (though an update says that you can order them again) If you are interested, you can pre-order it here.
In the future when the phone does get released, I’ll post up a full review on the phone and my own thoughts about it (as long as I can look at the G1 at a T-Mobile store)
