Is every home in India going to be a high-tech home? well this could be real soon, Vodafone is launching Webbox in India. It was released in South Africa few months back and now its in a pilot phase in Kerala.

Webbox is a 2.5G and EDGE enabled QWERTY keyboard set powered by Android OS and Opera Mini browser which compresses data around 90%. You can connect it to your TV using the RCA cable which you use for connecting to CD/DVD player. Its very simple to install, just insert your SIM into this device and start using internet, send SMS, listen to FM radio, share photo and more… Check this Vodafone link for more info.

It is rumored to price around Rs 5799 ($130), which will include 12GB free data usage and 180 days validity period. So would you go for it, will update you more on this soon till then check out this video from Vodafone’s site..

Source: thenextweb.com

As you all know that, Plus Google’s new social network is all over internet and news for couple of weeks now and every one is trying hard to get an invite to use it.

Google has learned a lot from their past experience and  this time made a product keeping a normal internet user in mind and not for the geeky developer. But that doesnt mean they forgot about developers… today Facebook and Twitter is more popular due to their Open social API’s which is allowing every single internet site to connect to Facebook or Twitter to share contents and may more.

Google will be soon releasing its APIs for developers and they have already started collecting information about developers who are interested in Plus development. Click here and make your entry and get the latest news on Google APIs

Check out the this video by Mozilla – Firefox community. Very inspiring for a opensource admirer.  Help Mozilla promoting this awesome software called Firefox, share this post / video.

Note: This is an HTML 5 video, it would play in Firefox and Chrome Browser only. Download the sable version of new Firefox here >>

As Google Says, “Many of us these days depend on the World Wide Web to bring the world’s information to our fingertips, and put us in touch with people and events across the globe instantaneously. These powerful online experiences are possible thanks to an open web that can be accessed by anyone through a web browser, on any Internet-connected device in the world.”

It is very important for a new web-users to know basic concept of internet and Web 2.0, this would help them in understanding and trusting the web.

Google has taken this opportunity and designed an HTML 5 based interactive book called 20 Things I Learned About Browser and Web, this explains 20 most important thing you should know about Browser and Web.

Topics Included in this Book.

1) What is internet?

2) Cloud Computing

3) Web Apps.

4) HTML, JavaScript, CSS

5) HTML 5

6) 3D in Browser.

7) A Brouwser Madrigal
PLUG-INS

9) Browser Extensions

10) Synchronize the Browser

11) Browser Cookies

12) Browsers and Privacy

13) Malware, Phishing ,AND Security Risks

14) How modern browsers help protect you from Malware and Phishing.

15) Using Web Addresses to stay safe

16) IP Addresses and DNS

17) Validating Identities Online

18) Evolving to a faster Web

19) Open Source and Browser

20) Things Later or a day on cloud

This interactive book is written very simple and keeping in mind that the readers are non technical people. All the 20 points discussed in this interactive book are divided into 20 lessons of the book and explained in details.

You could also notice that most of the topics are related to Google in some or the other ways. Google with this Interactive Book want people to understand internet, Cloud Computing, Cloud Apps (with Google Apps) and Safe Browsing (using Chrome ). You can also say it is a way of promoting Google with the help of Open Web and people know about the advantage of Open Web.

With this interactive book Google has also provided a good example of how to replace Flash with HTML 5. [Apple would be Happy ]

Enjoy reading this book, hope this was a helpful update and do share with your Friends and Family

Click here to check out this interactive book.

Few months back we had seen some  Chinese devices in market powered by android claiming to be iPAD killer.  It was in news all over the internet and tech-blogs. It was also very much expected that some big mobile companies would officially come up with a iPAD alternative which is worth a buy. HP and Dell also came up with some cool tabloid concept which is yet to be released in market. Well Samsung seem to be the first official competitor for iPAD with Android 2.2 (Froyo) powered Samsung Galaxy Tab .

iPAD is not officialy available in India, people who are crazy about tabloid can defnitly go for this Android powered Samsung Galaxy Tab.

It has a 7.0 inch TFT screen and dozens of Android applications.  It has bunch of social networking application pre-installed in it, you also get accesses to 70,000 + android application from Google Android market. At a first look it has every thing that iPAD can have and many more with the power of Android.

Unlike iPAD this 3G powered Galaxy Tab also have a 1.3 mpx vga cam in front for video calling. It also has a 3.0 mpx camera with flash for taking HD quality video and photos.

Check out the specification

You could also check it on my twitter profile (@anix86) and find who are the common people we follow. “View All” shows list of all the twitter account commonly followed by you and the current profile user. Check out this image…

Its similar to Facebook’s “Mutual Friends” section. This will help you in judging whom to follow on twitter. Last week we also saw twitter rolled out “Who to follow”, which is similar to another Facebook feature, People You May Know. Well so the question asked in the previous post is still valid here, “Is Twitter going Facebook Way.”

Many Facebook and Twitter users would be having the same query in mind. But its too early to say, we need to wait and watch what unique feature does twitter come up with. “You both Follow” is not yet available in Twitter API format, so for time being its available only on twitter and cannot be seen in any other 3rd party applications

Do Post your comment on “You both Follow”.

Now you don’t have to pay for surfing Facebook from your mobile phone. Facebook has come up with a new text based site for mobile users 0.facebook.com, its similar facebooks mobile site m.facebook.com or mobile.facebook.com for touch screen users.

According to Facebooks Sid Murlidhar -

At Facebook we’re at the center of these two trends with more than 100 million people actively using Facebook from their mobile device and with more than 200 mobile operators in 80 countries offering and promoting Facebook Mobile. Yet when using the mobile internet, people around the world face two main challenges—sometimes the experience is too slow to be fun and the cost of data plans and understanding them can be daunting. We have designed 0.facebook.com to help solve these two barriers and we hope that even more people will discover the mobile Internet with Facebook as a result.

This site has all key features of facebook with optimized speed. Its active since May 2010. User can view text messages. Images in text message or the photo album are not shown, insted a link for the same will be provided in the post . You can click on the link to view the images, but the normal data charge will be applicable for viewing images.

According to facebook blog , Facebook and its telephone partners has come up with a plan to provide 0.facebook.com for free of cost i.e. No charge will be applicable if a user access 0.facebook.com from these mobile provides. Data charge will be applicable only if user want to view images / photos from the users album.

In India this plan is available with Airtel, Reliance and Videocon subscribers. If you are a Airtel, Reliance or Videocon user you can browse facebook fro free from you mobile phone using 0.facebook.com.

Well the bad news is other mobile subscribers like Vodafone, Tata and Idea will have to wait for it.

You could get more details about this plan in the Facebook official Blog Click Here

Dont forget the post your comments on this.

Prior to Tweet Button, company like TweetMeMe and ReTweet.com use to provide this feature. According to twitter blog TweetMeMe would be helping twitter in developing and resolving issues related to Tweet Button.

This button also shows the count of tweets has been made for the link and also recommend you the people who are associated to that post /link and you could follow them.

You could try out the Tweet Button here; Just click on this button >> Tweet

Check out the Video below to know more about it.

If you are regular on Techgearz you might have noticed last year Techgearz featured an article on Colayer, a Google Wave like project which is in market for all most a decade now. I had an exclusive interview with Markus Hegi, CEO Colayer yesterday on twitter. We discussed about Google Wave, Colayer and the future of real time communication. This discussion is based on the article that Markus posted on Colayer blog about Colayer and the Rise & Fall of Google Wave.

Interview with Markus Hegi, CEO Colayer ( @mhegi ) – on twitter by @anix86

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20697909920

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20697999320

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20698084489

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20698253516

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20698324856

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20698421743

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20698492859

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20698584530

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20698700421

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20698818534

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20698923610

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20699026343

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20699815102

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20699956814

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20700051918

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20700272765

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20700454390

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20700669262

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20700957370

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20701098028

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20701354250

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20701387654

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20702291043

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20702680321

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20702815340

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20703266596

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20703670825

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20704142024

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20704431066

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20704486078

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20704723442

tweet link- http://twitter.com/anix86/status/20705151474

tweet link- http://twitter.com/mhegi/status/20705332954

You could also check these time lines in twitter search click here. Post your comments and view on the above discussion.

One of the important part of a Ajax based component / web site is the pre-loader or an indicator which appears while the Ajax component or web site is making an asynchronous call to a web server. It is very important to have a preloader so that webmaster could tell the user that some process is going in the background, please stay on the page.

As a designer when I go for making an Ajax component first thing I do is search for a preloader in Google. After going though hundreds of preloader I could settle with one that nearly match to my web-page design and color combination or sometimes i have to adjust with some odd color preloader, because its always difficult to find one which match to your applications design and color combination.

Below given are few useful sites which I found on internet for generating “.gif” preloader image from a set of predefined design pattern with any foreground or background color you select.

1.Preloaders.net

Preloaders.net is one of my favorite preloader generator, it has varieties of patter including some 3D models. Its easy to use you need to select a patter, choose your suitable color, size and click on generate button and download your preloader.

2.Ajaxload.info

Ajaxload.info is one of the first preloader generator I have used. Unlike the preloaders.net it support only 2D objects. You could find all common Ajax preloaders used across the internet in this site. Using this site is simple as the above one.

3.Loadinfo.net

Loadinfo.net contains quite different patters compared to the other two sites, it also shows common ones. Only issue with Loadinfo.net is, size of the patterns are fix and u have to choose from it.