What are the challenges posed to Windows phone By Android? Although Android still remains the biggest shareholder in the market, Windows phone market has started improving the figures. With the launch of Windows 8, many Windows Phones are now seen at par with the Android Phones and iPhones. But the market still pictures a rather harsh and tough scenario for Windows Phones. The major antagonist to the progress of Windows Phone is Android. We can say that following are the challenges posed to Windows Phone by Android.

The Apps market

There is a huge gap between the Android Apps market and the market of Windows Phone Apps. Although, the developers and Microsoft itself, is working very hard to bridge the gap but this process is slow and interlinked. Developers develop only when they see a market and growing number of users; users grow in number when they see a great booming Apps market. So this interlink is making the progress of growth slow. One could find an App of any kind or function on Android but doing so is very hard on Windows Phone.

The Publicity and Image

Android's high end phones are way ahead of Windows Phones when it comes to the cool image factor. It is not wrong to say that most of us use Smartphones as a status symbol. Android phones by HTC and Samsung are way cooler as compared to Windows Phone. Microsoft and Nokia needs to invest into marketing and creating a positive brand image for their Smartphones.

The wide range

The Android Phones are available in a wide range of prices. There are low end phones, mid range phones and high end phones. Hence, there is an Android Smartphone for everyone. This is not the case with Windows Phone. They are mostly expensive and hence less accessible for masses. The third world citizens mostly use the low and mid range phones. So there is little scope for Windows Phones in third world countries.

Windows Phones are doing well as compared to Apple and Blackberry. But there is still a long way to go as Android remain the undisputed king of the Smartphone world.

Interested in buying a Windows phone? Check out the huge variety selling on Amazon. The iPhone variety can be seen here.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Touch Screens

When the first iPhone came out in 2007, it was a start of an era. Apple had introduced touch-screen mobile phones that were more than just phones and would take over the mobile industry within a few short years.

Now when you go out to buy yourself a new phone, you have to go for a touch screen device. Your only other viable options are perhaps a Blackberry phone or a very simple feature phone. Every other device will be dominated by a big touch screen. There are many advantages of touch screens, but there are some disadvantages, too, and these are described below.

Touchscreen in Tablets

The touch screen is taking over the computer industry. First, it made phones with keypads obsolete. Now it is hitting the computer market. PCs are in a decline and are fast being overtaken by tablets with no keyboards.

So what makes touch screens so good that devices with touch screens are simply irresistible? Read on and find out pros and cons of touchscreens.

Function Duality

The first great thing about touch screens is that they can perform dual functions; they are input devices and output devices at the same time. So when making a mobile device, you can save up a lot of space by using a touch screen. Touch screen phones usually have screens more than twice the size of older phones. Big screens means that you can see web pages, emails, photographs, videos etc comfortably without straining your eyes. In the future, touch screens may also function as solar cells and produce energy to charge the device's battery.

Not for Typing

A disadvantage of touch screens is that they are not suitable for fast typing. The touch keyboards do not give that reassuring feeling that physical keyboards provide. So if you are going to be doing a lot of typing, then touch screens are not for you.

A possible solution to this problem was presented at this year's Electronic Show in Vegas. Here a firm showed off a prototype device whose touch screen could pop up keys that bulge out of the screen so that fast typing becomes possible. This feature can be expected to be in production in the coming years.

Battery Loss

Another problem with touch screens that people face is that they consume a lot of batter y power. A Smartphone nowadays cannot be expected to last for more than a day whereas older phones could last for a week without charging. High quality screens are mainly responsible for this.

Adding touch screens also makes a device sensitive. A fall onto a hard surface could be the end for a device. On the other hand older devices were very resilient and could survive several falls.

These were advantages and disadvantages of touchscreens. Although touch screens have a few disadvantages but their pros far outweigh their cons. So we can expect them to dominate the computer and mobile phone markets in the coming years.

Do you like touch screen device? Share your experience with a touch screen phone, or other device, letting us know more cons and pros of touch screens.

Tags: Advantages and Disadvantages of Touchscreens, Advantages of Touchscreens,  Disadvantages of Touchscreens

Alternatives to Google

Google.com is a giant in the field of internet. It is hard to outshine its success. Owing to the popularity and good service, most of the internet savvy people rely on Google.com and its services. The word Google has become synonymous with searching. But some people might not be happy with the services provided by Google. For them, there are several alternatives to Google available that might be good enough for their demands.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo.com is a great alternative for people who despise Google.com for tracking each and every bit of their data. This search engine has Respect Privacy principle. Not even a single bit of your personal data is recorded. The search results are obtained from free sources like Wikipedia only. So the search would  miss out all the results from commercial sources.

Startpage

Startpage.com is the best alternative to Google.com. It is because it actually retrieves the search results from Google.com. It takes the user query, strips off the traces of personal data and feeds the query to Google. Hence, the results are totally from Google and your privacy has been taken care of!

Ixquick

Ixquick.com returns the top ten search results returned from the best Search engines. It only provides ten search results, i.e. the ones that are most favored by all the search engines.

Dogpile

The last in the list of alternatives to Google is Dogpile.com. It is a very interesting Search engine. It performs various searches and then finds the results that are the best fit and top quality. Those results are then presented as the final result.

It refers to the fact that if you put the same search query in different search engines, the results are strikingly different. So Dogpile brings the best results after various searches.

Google.com tailors the search results according to the demography and the personal data of the users. For those people who are annoyed by the idea that each of their search query goes into the Google database could use the above mentioned Search engines and get satisfactory results.

Tags: Google alternatives, Alternatives to Google

Instagram is an increasingly growing and popular Smartphone App. It is simple, neat and stylish. It has got more than 100 million users in less than 3 years. What is so cool about this App? Why is Instagram fun to use?

• As soon as you capture an image, it could be shared within seconds on Instagram because Instagram is primarily a Photo Sharing App. Other Apps and websites that provide the functionality of photo sharing only have it as a subsidiary functionality. Hence, Instagram is faster and more efficient.
  
  
• The editing tools on Instagram are pretty cool. There are a dozen of filters available to add more character and feel to the image. You could rotate or add blur to an image too. All this editing could be done within seconds. Now there is no need to look for a separate editing tool!
  
  
• If internet services are available to your device, the location search of Instagram is very efficient.

• The privacy of Instagram is very nice. It is impossible to copy the images.
• Instagram is JUST about photo sharing. No cutesy status updates or mystifying search techniques. It is simple and beautiful.
• The hashtag search is very efficient and effective. As Instagram has millions and millions of photos, the hashtag search could dig up thousands of photos of your interest in a few seconds.
• If you follow a person, you are allowed to view their photos but they are not allowed to view your photos until you allow them to follow you (in case your posts are private). This is a new flare to privacy.
• The Instagram images could be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare. If shared on Facebook, the privacy setting of each of the photos from the Instagram album could be separately controlled. This feature provides the liberty of controlling and sharing.

With so many interesting and beneficial features, it is not surprising that Instagram has seen such phenomenal success. Seeing the great boom and increasing market, Facebook rightly bought the service in 2012.

• Pros and Cons of using Instagram
• The Diverse People on Instagram
• Top 6 Dangers of Using Facebook
• Top 5 Negative Effects of Facebook On Us

"