Top Ten Global Tech Companies

Book Review - Geek Nation

With my interest to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education for the Next Generation, a new book titled "Geek Nation" caught my attention.
The author Angela Saini is a British Science Journalist born to Indian parents. Saini writing have been published in Wired, New Scientist etc.

This book is more a Science travelogue of India (Geek Nation).
Saini visits:
i) Space Science - ISRO, Trivandrum and explores how the Communication Satellites laid the foundation for India's Communication revolution.
ii) Genetic Science - National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow and explores how Banana (India is the largest producer) shelf life extending research could reduce the wastage.
iii) Information Science - Infosys, Bangalore and meets Narayana Murthy. Saini calls Narayana Murthy as Geek God. And also, explores how Speaking Web research done in IBM India could help India, which has lower literacy.
iv) Nuclear Science - Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Trombay and explores how researchers are experimenting Thorium as an alternate to Uranium. This could help to reduce the external dependency of Uranium.

She also visits and explores - Ancient Science, Medicinal Science and more.

Overall it is a good read to know the past Applied Science of India, with a current touch and with an eye on the future.

In a Nutshell - Google IO 2011

Annual Developer events are a good place to spot the IT trends. In the past, I use to follow - Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP. Now, I follow more - Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon annual developer events.
In this context, I was monitoring the Google IO (IO means Innovation in the Open) - 4th Annual developer conference.
Google Search was a closed technology. Now, with Android, Chrome, Google App Engine and with varied Google APIes - it has more open things for developers to play.

These are the two big things from my perspective:
1. Home Automation Through Android - In just 2-3 years Android based (mobile, tablet) devices have reached 100 Million. Now, Google is launching Android Open Accessory development kit, Android@Home framework. If these gets matured & standardized then it would create another big area.
2. A Second Alternate to MS Windows PC/Notebooks – App iMac/ MacBook is the first alternate. Now, ChromeBook could become the second alternate. Google Tool Bar success lead to Google Chrome Browser. Now, with 160 Million Chrome Browser, Google Chrome Browser is moving to Google Chrome OS as ChromeBook.

Android success is driven through Android Market apps ecosystem and Google Internet Services ( Search, Maps, Mail etc.).
Similarly, Chrome OS success is going to be driven through Chrome Web Store apps ecosystem and Google Internet Services (Google App Engine, Google Apps etc. and with offline access to Mail, Calendar)

With this - Google has filled the Client Devices (Mobile, Tablet, Notebook) to Power their Internet services.

In a Nutshell - Mobile world Congress 2011

I was following the Mobile World congress 2011 and here is a nutshell (in 250 words!)

Background

Mobile World Congress (MWC) is a premium annual event held everywhere in Barcelona, Spain.

All the world leading Mobile operators, Mobile equipment and device manufacturers, Mobile content and software providers participate in this event.

MWC 2011

2011 event got completed on 17 Feb 2011.

Some of the key note speakers were i) Vittorio Colao, CEO, Vodafone ii) Steve Ballmer, CEO, MS to iii) Peter Chou, CEO, HTC iv) Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm.

Top Five Take away

1. LTE (Long Term Evolution) Roll-out in few parts of the world -Telia Soneria, Nordic region, Verizon, USA, Telstra, Australia (LTE is the 4G which gives -10 Mbps mobile data access speed).

2. NFC (Near field communication) is getting accepted as a standard for mobile payment and other contactless transactions and interactions.

3. Mobile LBS (Location Based Services) & Mobile ads are becoming more main stream.

4. WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) consortium by leading mobile operators to develop cross platform mobile apps.

5. Trying to select a Mobile World Capital from the final four - Barcelona, Milan, Munich, Paris.

Mobile awards 2011

The notable awards are:

· Best Mobile App : Angry Birds (with more than 50 Million downloads)

· Mobile device manufacturer of the year: HTC (now, a Global Brand from Taiwan)

· Best Mobile Money Product: Airtel Africa, MasterCard, Standard Chartered Bank combo - 1time Shopping Card (to use mobile phone as a virtual payment card)

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