Google’s Eric Schmidt envisions Google TV on majority of new TVs by summer of 2012

binjaitech--Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has become the unofficial chief bearer of good news for his company at the LeWeb Conference in France this year, in his onstage interview just today. Known for lofty predictions (such as his anticipations for self-driving cars and semantic search engines) when he speaks at conferences, Schmidt spoke about his big plans for Google TV, which he believes will embedded in the majority of new television sets by the summer of 2012. That’s quite a prediction to make, even for the Google Chairman, especially since not much ground has been broken by Google TV, at least at the moment.

“By the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded in it,” Schmidt said onstage at the LeWeb conference, although the optimistic claim seems to contradict the current standing of Google TV, which isn’t something users rave about these days, has faltering reported sales numbers, and stands to face with rising competition in the television entertainment industry, possibly from Apple, just to name one company.

When asked about the comparative quality of Android apps versus iOS apps, Schmidt said that the Android Market was on the verge of overtaking that of Apple’s App Store, saying that Android could possibly become the first-choice mobile platform to develop for in due time. These are all some lofty claims, and we hope that Google, with Eric Schmidt’s visions, will succeed in them. slashgear

Facebook flaw exposes Zuckerberg’s photos

binjaitech--Newly unearthed private photos of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be a letdown if you were expecting raucous party scenes like the ones in “The Social Network” movie.

Facebook, Google users should be censored: India

binjaitech--India, the world’s largest democratic country has urged social network companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google to pre-screen content before posting it.

India’s acting Telecommunications Minister, Kapil Sibal has asked them to censor their content and remove any defamatory or disparaging content before it goes online.

India has also told internet giants Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo to block online content that risks offending “Indian sensibilities”.

Government officials are upset about web users posting derogatory comments about Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and major religious figures.

Kapil Sibal said Tuesday that if Facebook and Google cannot censor derogatory statements on their sites, the government will have to step in. He said his ministry was working on guidelines for action against companies which did not respond to the government’s requests, but did not specify what action could be taken.

Kapil Sibal told a press conference he had met with the companies’ representatives several times over the past three months and have repeatedly asked officials from major internet companies to voluntarily censor some users’ comments. The internet companies told Sibal they worked to US norms. The minister called for them to adapt instead to local standards.

Kabil Sibal has met with the Indian executives most recently on Monday. No agreement, however, emerged between the parties.

The minister wants to ensure that “insulting material” never gets uploaded. He wants internet companies to “give us the data, where these images are being uploaded and who is doing it.”

Facebook responded in a statement Tuesday that it would remove content that “is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity.”

“We recognize the government’s interest in minimizing the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue,” the social network said.

Google and Microsoft declined to comment. According to Google, the Indian government has made 68 requests this year to remove or block content. The government has also expressed concerns that Google Earth could be used by terrorists to examine targets in preparation for an attack. truthdive

Google Celebrates 10 Billion Android Downloads

binjaitech--Google is closing the “app gap” in the smartphone market, at least when it comes to downloads. The company announced on Tuesday that Android users have downloaded some 10 billion apps to date on the Android Market, and that its monthly download rate has crossed the 1 billion mark.

As you can see in the chart above, those download numbers have been increasing at a brisk rate over the last 18 months or so as sales of Android devices have exploded around the world.

The numbers show that the Android ecosystem is healthy, but with any set of numbers, it’s easy to make of them what you will. For instance, Apple has been at a billion downloads per month for some time, but there are more Android devices in use now than there are iPhones.

That shows that Android users are downloading fewer apps per user than Apple’s iPhone customers, which suggests (to us) there are aspects of finding apps on Apple’s App Store or actually using them on Apple’s iPhones that are better than Google’s Android ecosystem.

At the same time, Android lags far, far behind in paid apps. In November, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster found that Apple’s App Store generated some twelve times more revenue than the Android Market. At that time, his research showed that 1.3% of Android downloads were paid apps, while 13.5% of iOS apps were paid.

Still, the law of numbers is inexorable. As Android gains more smartphone market share—currently at the expense of everyone but Apple—even that smaller percentage of paid apps will add up, giving more developers more reason to make more apps.

To encourage Android device owners to get used to the idea of paying for their apps, Google is offering a ten day promotion for ten cent (US$0.10) paid apps, starting with the following: Asphalt 6 HD, Color & Draw for Kids, Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro, Fieldrunners HD, Great Little War Game, Minecraft, Paper Camera, Sketchbook Mobile, Soundhound Infinity and SwiftKey X.

The company said that it will offer a new bunch of apps every day at the price during the course of the ten day promotion, which starts today. If you have an Android device, get ‘em while they’re hot and cheap.

We should also point out that these downloads don’t count the apps sold at Amazon’s Appstore for Android or the myriad of other services that offer Android apps. That means that the total worldwide download numbers for Android are higher than the subset represented by Google’s own Android Market, though Android Market certainly represents the lion’s share of that total. macobserver