Google working on a Siri like service ‘Majel’

iPhone 4S release introduced a bunch of completely novel concepts into mobile computing. One of the most important and unique features of iPhone 4S is certainly the voice assistant app Siri. Siri is the first good enough voice assistant ever to become available as a commercial scale technology. You could even say that this is the first time an app was able to work with inputs received in natural, everyday language. While Siri is still in a way considered to be in a beta version, it has already demonstrated a surprising level of functionality. The importance of Siri was really well understood by many users and engineers alike, but it did much more, as it deeply surprised Apple’s competitors, chiefly Google with their Android OS.

Is Apple’s Siri assistant a Google killer?

Former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt has said in a public hearing that Siri represents a great development in search and that Google’s core business of internet search could be significantly threatened by Apple’s Siri technology. While such a statement could be dismissed as a overreaction, it is certain that Siri represents something completely new on the market. But nonetheless such a bold statement is questionable especially since Schmidt said it in front of a US Senat commission, probably to decrease the incredible significance and impact Google has over the Internet. Siri indeed could hurt Google’s business as it offers a voice assistance thus circumventing the need for visiting Google’s website with served adds which yield most of the profits for Google.

Hotmail benefits largely from iOS 5

It seems that iOS 5 upgrade has benefited Microsoft on a large scale. It remains to be seen is this just a side effect of improving user experience, or is it a part of Apple’s plan for cutting into Google’s market. We really think that Apple isn’t particularly happy with Google and their adventures with Android OS, and if you are a frequent reader on our blog, you will remember Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs was enraged with Android OS claiming that it is only a copy of iOS. Apple has made an additional effort, making it easier for iPhone users to create and use Hotmail email accounts. It comes as a surprise that Microsoft, as the Richmond company said earlier, sees more than 100k new users daily. Most of new Hotmail users are actually iOS users running the new iOS 5 and interestingly most of them are iPhone users.

Google upgrades YouTube’s web app

You have probably noticed that Youtube app on your iPhone is a bit old, slow and not as good as many other apps which are available and run efficiently and without any problems. Youtube’s web interface for iOS devices is based on HTML 5 and is much more frequently updated and has recently being refreshed with a completely new user interface. This way of accessing all those interesting Youtube videos is comparatively much better than accessing them through your native iOS Youtube app.

Amazon prepares a new tablet with a forked version of Android

Amazon has revealed their plans for a new Android tablet device. It seems that this “Kindle” tablet could be the first serious iPad competitor. One of the best moves Amazon will try out is the pricing of this new tablet. According to Tech Crunch, the price should be $250 for a 7” tablet. So far iPad competitors have tried to follow the prices setup by Apple but the demand by customers was very low.

Google purchases Motorola

CEO of Google, Larry Page has publicly announced on official Google blog the purchase of Motorola Mobility, one of the largest Android handset manufacturers. His announcements starts by mentioning the number of Android users worldwide, which he claims to be more than 150 million Android mobile devices and that Motorola is one of the most important Android smartphone producer, especially so with their popular Droid models. And this move is an attempt to enhance whole Android scene by boosting competition and improving innovation which will benefit better user experience and increased profits for the company’s shareholders.

Apple number one Smartphone producer in US, Android best smartphone OS

An recently published study of the American smartphone market by Nielsen Media, Apple is the best manufacturer in US but Android made by Google is the top smartphone OS way ahead of iOS.

The research claims that Apple commands 28 percent of the US market and the second manufacturer behind Apple is Taiwanese HTC which has control of 14 percent’s with their Android powered devices and 6 percent with their Windows Phone 7 powered smartphones. Motorola and Samsung are behind with 11 and 8 percent’s respectively.

Facebook soon with a music streaming service?

This week Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook announced that Facebook is working on something truly awesome and a lot of tech analysts predicted that this project could be related to music streaming services, especially since Facebook has recently partnered with Spotify. But this turned out not to be so, at least not at this particular moment.

What Facebook revealed was a new video calling feature, based on their partnership with Skype which was in turn bought by Microsoft recently. But when one coder recently downloaded the code for this, he discovered there is an option inside it, called Vibes. So it seems that Facebook still has some intentions and plans towards music sharing services, but now it is not sure will this service come in partnership with Spotify or in some other way.

Google + submitted to App Store!

Google + the latest Google product which should redeem Google’s position in social networking world now completely dominated by Facebook and Twitter has being submitted as an app to Apple’s App Store. This app is already available on the Google’s website as an web app and also in Android Market.

The news was announced by a member of Google’s team Erica Joy, who wrote this on her page. Surely this doesn’t come as a too big of surprise as the number of iPhone users in US is exceedingly high, but the pace at which Google wants to tap into the iOS market is surprising. If past experience is correct the approval process for Google + shouldn’t last longer than 10 to 15 days.

Pool Party - a new iPhone app for sharing images by Google

Google just launched it latest product stright inot the iOS market. This product was designed by people previously working for Slide, a small startup recently bought by Google. At the time being it is per invitation as it is still in testing phase. With this app you can share your photos with your circle of friends which use this app. It is not clear why exactly Google is offering multiple image sharing platforms, as Picasa and Google + are already doing the same thing. Perhaps Google releases several projects at the same time so users can choose the best one, in a kind of evolutionary struggle between apps?