Google Smartwatch Teaser News

Earlier this month we heard new reports that Google’s smartwatch could be arriving “sooner rather than later”; perhaps as soon as the end of the month to coincide with the much-leaked Nexus 5 and the updated Android 4.4.

If this is true then Google will be entering a marketplace that has never been fuller and yet - apart from Apple perhaps - no company is better positioned to deliver the first ‘true’ Smartwatch ; one that would blow the competition away.
Google may have just teased an upcoming smartwatch during the company’s earnings call for Q3 2013.

Talking about the new multi-screen world, Google CEO Larry Page referenced smartwatches, but didn’t give any details as to what type of device the company would be creating.

“People increasingly have more than one device. Screens are proliferating in the home as well as wearable screens like watches and Google Glass”, said Page.

Google has yet to confirm it is working on a smartwatch of its own to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony SmartWatch 2. However, this is the first time Page has mentioned anything of such a device.

The Google smartwatch, currently known as the Nexus Gem, is expected to launch on October 31 after numerous rumours tipped the date.

Smartwatch references aside, Google raked in $15 billion (£9.3 billion) in revenue for Q3 2013 and $2.97 billion (£1.84 billion) in profit. These figures exceeded analyst expectations by a margin.

“Google had another strong quarter with $14.8 billion in revenue and great product progress,” added Page. “We are closing in on our goal of a beautiful, simple, and intuitive experience regardless of your device.”

Despite the launch of the US exclusive Moto X, Motorola cost Google $248 million (£154 million) in operating losses.

Page also announced that 40 per cent of YouTube watchers now access the site via a mobile device, up from 6 per cent two years previously.

More successes for Google lie in the Chromebook market, as the laptops are now sold in 8,000 worldwide locations.

The search engine giant’s Research and Development budget has been increased by around $1 billion, and Page only wants that expenditure to grow. Part of his job requires him to spend on long-term R&D projects, including self-driving cars and Project Loon, Google’s balloon-distributed internet scheme.

W know why Google Planned to bring the smartwatch:
Here's why:

Hardware: they’ve bought two smartwatch makers already:

Google have already bought Motorola’s hardware division back in August 2011, and in doing so also acquired plenty of smarwatch expertise. Motorola’s MotoACTV  was launched back in 2011 and did dual service as both an MP3 player and a fitness-tracker – a hardware trend that will probably end up in basically the same place as smartwatches.

The MotoACTV had a 1.6-inch screen and runs Android, and came with all manner of connectivity - Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS. It even had some pretty impressive smarts at launch, including one feature that automatically generated a ‘motivation’ playlist with songs culled from the times you were running at your fastest.

In August this year it was also revealed that Google had bought WIMM labs back in 2012 – a firm that had only one product: an Android smartwatch. They even had their own ‘micro app’ store with apps offering standalone functionality for the watch – something that’s key to lifting the current hardware out of their second-screen rut.

This is plentyful reason for Goolgle to make the Smartwatch.

Smarts: they’ve been getting awfully good at contextual information

This ‘second-screening’ is one of the central criticisms of the current crop of devices: they have to be paired with smartphones and then simply repeat information from them (albeit in a slightly more convenient location).

Fitness devices like the Nike FuelBand and the FitBit have succeed in the wearables market because they offer functionality that is above and beyond your phone's. They deliver relevant information that users want to know on the fly - which is exactly what Google have been doing with Google Now.

The connection between Google Now and a Google smartwatch is not a new one (GigaOM's Kevin Tofel flagged it up back in August) but it certainly bears repeating. Google Now is Google’s ‘digital assistant’: you feed it with data about you and in return it makes your life a little easier, nudging you with reminders about meetings or transport delays.

This is exactly the sort of time and location sensitive information that would make a smartwatch smart and Google Now has even nailed down the medium in which to deliver this info: its card-based interface with small bullets of information (directions, reviews, receipts etc) is a natural fit for the limited screen real estate available on your wrist.

Motivation: they need to find a future beyond Google Glass:

Google Now isn't new, but the wearable way of delivering its info is. Currently, Google Now is most prominent on the Moto X. Released back in August, the Moto X was described by Google as the world’s “first self-driving phone”, offering always-on voice-commands allowing users to pose search queries at any time.

Now, not only is this type of functionality exactly what a Google Now-powered smartwatch could deliver, but the implementation of voice commands (and we shouldn't forget how difficult it is to process natural language) is also incredibly similar to the operation of Google Glass. Glass is an amazing bit of technology and definitely a rough approximation of Google's future, but it's also not for everyone. It's just a bit too geeky, too obvious.

To combat this Google has been pushing hard to associate the technology with the world of high fashion (they've had it on catwalks and even splashed it around in a feature for Vogue) but even this seems less like an effort to 'normalise' the device than it is a campaign to make Glass a product for the elite. Seeing it worn by the self-consciously high-powered at Fashion Week and film premieres makes it aspirational - not normal.

In a recent interview with MIT Technology Review, Mary Lou Jepsen (head of Google's secretive Google X Lab) described wearable computers as "a way of amplifying you", saying of the technology: "It’s coming. I don’t think it’s stoppable [...] you become addicted to the speed of it, and it let's you do more fast and easily."

It's clear that a big part of Google's future will be involved in stitching together some form of wearable tech with predictive software and a natural language driven search that helps you in your daily life. Amit Singhal, head of search at the company, has described the future of Google as "someone by your side who can help you".

Google Glass is the most public example of this but the technology remains just a little too conspicuous and self-aggrandizing for most of us. We don't want a digital butler, poised at the elbow and glaring frostily at the hoi polloi - we want a discrete helper, offering the luxury and ease of a butler without the palaver. A smartwatch with the same functionality as Glass could be just the ticket - a gateway drug to get us all addicted.

Read More

Android 4.3 update for Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II due by Q4: Report

The Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II will be upgraded to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean by year-end, if a report is to be believed.

Sam mobile has revealed that Samsung is planning to roll out Android 4.3 update for its top of the line smartphones soon. The site mentions that the company has plans to roll out Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for its 2013 flagship, the Galaxy S4 in October while the 2012 flagship device, the Galaxy S III can be expected to get the new Android update by October end or even November.

The site further states that the Galaxy Note 3 predecessor would also be getting the taste of the new Jelly Bean iteration, but that would only be by the end of November, or early December. All three smartphones are also likely to receive a revamped TouchWiz interface with some added functions, claims the report.

Further the report affirms that Samsung is also testing the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for Galaxy Mega phablets. However, Sammobile has not revealed details on what new exclusive features to expect in the rumoured Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for the three devices, the Galaxy SIII, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II. But given that Galaxy Note3 runs Android 4.3 with new features, we are hopeful that the three devices will be receiving some features of the latest phablet.
Samsung has made no secret of its plans to launch Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for its leading Galaxy smartphones, but so far the South Korean major has offered nothing in the way of release dates as well. But now it looks like the company is getting closer to having its latest software update finalized for its three smartphones. As of now, we would take this with a pinch of salt until the company confirms updates rolling out to the Galaxy smartphones.

Read More

Early History of Chocolates

  EARLY HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE 

The earliest record of chocolate was over fifteen hundred years ago in the Central American rain forests, where the tropical mix of high rain fall combined with high year round temperatures and humidity provide the ideal climate for cultivation of the plant from which chocolate is derived, the Cacao Tree. 

The Cacao Tree was worshipped by the Mayan civilisation of Central America and Southern Mexico, who believed it to be of divine origin, Cacao is actually a Mayan word meaning "God Food" hence the tree's modern generic Latin name 'Theobrama Cacao' meaning ‘Food of the Gods’. Cacao was corrupted into the more familiar 'Cocoa' by the early  European explorers. The Maya brewed a spicy, bitter sweet drink by roasting and pounding the seeds of the Cacao tree (cocoa beans) with maize and Capsicum (Chilli) peppers and letting the mixture ferment. This drink was reserved for use in ceremonies as well as for drinking by the wealthy and religious elite, they also ate a Cacao porridge. 

The Aztecs of central Mexico also prized the beans, but because the Aztec's lived further north in more arid regions at higher altitudes, where the climate was not suitable for cultivation of the tree, they had to acquire the beans through trade and/or the spoils of war. The Aztecs prized the beans so highly they used them as currency - 100 beans bought a Turkey or a slave - and tribute or Taxes were paid in cocoa beans to Aztec emperors. The Aztecs, like the Mayans, also enjoyed Cacao as a beverage fermented from the raw beans, which again featured prominently in ritual and as a luxury available only to the very wealthy. The Aztecs called this drink Xocolatl, the Spanish conquistadors found this almost impossible to pronounce and so corrupted it to the easier 'Chocolat', the English further changed this to Chocolate.

The Aztec's regarded chocolate as an aphrodisiac and their Emperor, Montezuma reputedly drank it fifty times a day from a golden goblet and is quoted as saying of Xocolatl: "The divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food" 

In fact, the Aztec's prized Xocolatl well above Gold and Silver so much so, thatwhen Montezuma was defeated by Cortez in 1519 and the victorious 'conquistadors' searched his palace for the Aztec treasury expecting to find Gold & Silver, all they found were huge quantities of cocoa beans. The Aztec Treasury consisted, not of precious metals, but Cocoa Beans.

CHOCOLATE IN EUROPE

Xocolatl! or Chocolat or Chocolate as it became known, was brought to Europe by Cortez, by this time the conquistadors had learned to make the drink more palatable to European tastes by mixing the ground roasted beans with sugar and vanilla (a practice still continued today), thus offsetting the spicy bitterness of the brew the Aztec's drank.

The first chocolate factories opened in Spain, where the dried fermented beans brought back from the new world by the Spanish treasure fleets were roasted and ground, and by the early 17th century chocolate powder - from which the European version of the drink was made - was being exported to other parts of Europe. The Spanish kept the source of the drink - the beans - a secret for many years, so successfully in fact, that when English buccaneers boarded what they thought was a Spanish 'Treasure Galleon' in 1579, only to find it loaded with what appeared to be 'dried sheep's droppings', they burned the whole ship in frustration. If only they had known, chocolate was so expensive at that time, that it was worth it's weight in Silver (if not Gold), Chocolate was Treasure Indeed!

Within a few years, the Cocoa beverage made from the powder produced in Spain had become popular throughout Europe, in the Spanish Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and - in about 1520 - it arrived in England.

The first Chocolate House in England opened in London in 1657 followed rapidly by many others. Like the already well established coffee houses, they were used as clubs where the wealthy and business community met to smoke a clay pipe of tobacco, conduct business and socialise over a cup of chocolate.

BACK TO THE AMERICA'S

Event's went full circle when English colonists carried chocolate (and coffee) with them to England's colonies in North America. Destined to become the United States of America and Canada, they are now the worlds largest consumers - by far - of both Chocolate and Coffee, consuming over half of the words total production of chocolate alone.

THE QUAKERS

The Quakers were, and still are, a pacifist religious sect, an offshoot of the Puritans of English Civil War and Pilgrim Fathers fame and a history of chocolate would not be complete without mentioning their part in it. Some of the most famous names in chocolate were Quakers, who for centuries held a virtual monopoly of chocolate making in the English speaking world - Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree are probably the best known.

It's probably before the time of the English civil war between Parliament and King Charles 1st, that the Quaker's, who evolved from the Puritans, first began their historic association with Chocolate. Because of their pacifist religion, they were prohibited from many normal business activities, so as an industrious people with a strong belief in the work ethic (like the puritans), they involved themselves in food related businesses and did very well. Baking was a common occupation for them because bread was regarded as the biblical " Staff Of Life", and Bakers in England were the first to add chocolate to cakes so it would be a natural progression for them to start making pure chocolate. They were also heavily involved in breakfast cereals but that's another story.

CHOCOLATE AS WE KNOW IT!!!

The first mention of chocolate being eaten in solid form is when bakers in England began adding cocoa powder to cakes in the mid 1600's. Then in 1828 a Dutch chemist, Johannes Van Houten, invented a method of extracting the bitter tasting fat or "cocoa butter" from the roasted ground beans, his aim was to make the drink smoother and more palatable, however he unknowingly paved the way for solid chocolate as we know it.

Chocolate as we know it today first appeared in 1847 when Fry & Sons of Bristol, England - mixed Sugar with Cocoa Powder and Cocoa Butter (made by the Van Houten process) to produce the first solid chocolate bar then, in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters, found a way to combine (some would say improve, some would say ruin) cocoa powder and cocoa butter with sugar and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate.

What is certain is that the Fry, Rowntree and Cadbury families in England among others, began chocolate making and in fact Joseph Fry of Fry & Sons (founded 1728 in Bristol, England) is credited with producing and selling the worlds first chocolate bar. Fry's have now all but disappeared (taken over by Cadbury) and Rowntree have merged Swiss company Nestle, to form the largest chocolate manufacturer in the world. Cadbury have stayed with chocolate production and are now, if not quite the largest, probably one of the best known Chocolate makers in the world.

From their earliest beginnings in business the Quakers were noted for their enlightened treatment of their employees, providing not just employment but everything needed for workers to better themselves such as good housing etc. In fact, Cadbury built a large town for their employees around their factory near Birmingham, England. Complete with libraries, schools, shops and Churches etc, they called it Bourneville. So next time you see Cadbury's chocolate with the name Bournville on it you will know where it comes from and what the name relates to!!!

SEPTEMBER 13 WE CELEBRATE AS A CHOCOLATES DAY!!!

Now chocolates invention is revealed!!!

For more information about inventory things you can also visit INVENTORYBLOGGER

Read More