“Hello and welcome to WWDC. I’m Siri, your virtual assistant and today I was asked to warm up the crowd, which should be easy since the high will be 75 degrees.” said Siri as she kicked off WWDC 2012 in style.

With this announcement began all the anticipation and guessing about what the technology giant Apple might come up with in the next few hours. Yes, WWDC is here and Apple has made lots of new announcements and launches. Lets see whats in it for you:

App store

Apple CEO, Tim Cook announced at WWDC 2012 at San Fransisco that the Appstore has over 400 Million accounts. Moreover the count of the applications has risen to 650,000. Out of these, 225,000  are iPad specific apps. He also compared the numbers with Android, to prove that Apple is the clear winner here. The number of apps downloaded from the AppStore is over 30 Billion and an amount of over 5 Billion USD has been earned by the app developers spread over 155 countries. At last he said that the AppStore was becoming an economy in itself.

New Macbook Lineup

The new Macbook Air has Ivy Bridge Dual Core i7 processors with up to 2Ghz clock speed. Macbook Air will now support upto 8Gb of 1600MHz RAM with 60% faster integrated graphics. The hard drive will be a 512GB flash drive with a read-write speed of 500MBPS!! Yes, half a Terabyte of flash storage, thats what you get in the new Macbook Air. USB 3.0 ports and 720p HD camera for Facetime is also confirmed. The screen resolution will be 1366 x 768 on the 11 inch display, 1400 x 900 on the 13inch model. The range starts at $999 and the highest model will just leave you with $1099 less in your pockets.

For the Macbook Pro lovers, there is a bigger news. Apple has launched a new generation of Macbook Pro. Just 0.71 inches thick, it is almost 1/4th thinner than the current Macbook Pro and weighing only 4.46 pounds, it is much lighter too . It will be powered by 2.7 Ghz Quad-Core i7’s on Ivy Bridge chips which will turbo boost to a whopping 3.7 GHz. One of the most exciting features is the Retina display.

At 15.4 inches, it will be the biggest Retina display ever, sporting a resolution of 2880 x 1800( 220 ppi). It will support up to 16GB of 1600 MHz RAM and 768 GB of Flash storage. This beast will also feature Kepler GT 650M graphics. The battery will keep the device going on for 7 hrs. All other features like 720p HD camera, USB 3.0, MagSafe2 and Thunderbolt are also present. For improving the aesthetics, it features a back-lit keyboard along with a glass trackpad. Range starts at  $2199.

The best thing is, that both these beasts start shipping today.

OSX Lion

Before announcing the new features included in the OSX Lion, Apple proudly announced that OSX had already sold 26 Million copies already, a milestone which Windows 7 took 27 months to reach. The new version of OSX will have over 200 new features. The most important is the fully fledged integration of iCloud. This was the first priority of Apple as over 125 Million registered users now use iCloud.

iCloud will update and sync eveything, be it your notifications, Reminders and even Messages. If you are on your Mac and your phone pops up a message, you can respond to that directly from your Mac. Documents also get updated using iCloud within 5 seconds.

One more amazing new feature is dictation, which lets you talk into web browsers and apps like MS Word. Don’t get too excited, its not a Siri, just a simple Dictation app for OSX. Another new feature is Power Nap. Your Mac can now update and sync everything  when its offline. It will also perform automatic backups while charging.

Other exciting features include Airplay Mirroring to stream videos wirelessly to your TV, and Gamecenter to play multiplayer games with other OSX or is users. The best thing about this version of OSX Lion is that it is available for just $19.99; thats 10$ cheaper that the Lion. And you can upgrade all you Mac devices by purchasing only one copy. All people who purchase a Mac anyday, after today, will get a free upgrade to this version.

iOS6

Yes, just like at any other WWDC, Apple again announced a new, refined version of iOS . First of all, Siri now knows everything about sports. Ask her anything related to sports and she’ll definitely get back to you with an answer. Knowledge about all earlier things has also been upgraded to a great extent. Moreover, you can also ask Siri to launch other apps. Apple also mentioned that they have contacted with all major car manufacturers to have a button installed in their steering wheels for invoking Siri. And yeah, there is a very good news for iPad users also, Siri will finally be available for iPad in iOS 6.

Some more features of the new iOS include Facetime over cellular networks, and a Do Not Disturb feature. This feature temporarily suspends all sorts of notifications for a set time and reminds about them later. There is also a new way to set “smart” reminders, which trigger when you perform a particular task.  Facebook integration is also taken care of. A lot changes have been done in iMessages, Safari and Photostream apps. A new app called Passbook has been added which allows you to carry your cards (like Starbucks cards) virtually.

Another amazing addition to this version of iOS is the Maps. There is an entirely new mapping solution which seems much more sophisticated and beautiful than any other maps application. Moreover this application is also integrated with Siri, thus allowing you to ask questions like “Are we there yet?” A beta version of iOS 6 will be out for developers, today itself. The final version will be made available to the public in fall 2012, and will support iPhone 3GS , 2nd generation iPads and 4th generation iPod Touch and higher models.

That’s all it from WWDC. Keep checking us out for more Tech updates…

The post Summarizing WWDC 2012: As It Happened! appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.

WordPress is one of the biggest blogging platforms of the world. The main reason behind this is the large number of themes and plugins available for WordPress, most of them being contributed free of cost by open source developers.

Every now and then, WordPress users around the world organize informal events, known as WordCamps where people, ranging from bloggers to professional WordPress developers meet and discuss about WordPress and other related stuffs.

During the past couple of years, a handful of WordCamps have been organised in India. Seeing the huge success of the WordCamp in Jabalpur, another WordCamp event is being organised in India. And this time, WordCamp is being organised in Cuttack, Odisha on 10^th and 11^th of March. The event is being organised by iDev.

WordCamp Cuttack will have two main events: Unconference and Workshop.

During Unconference, prominent WordPress experts from India will be present to discuss about further development of the platform. Many developers will also be present to articulate their future strategies. Apart from development of WordPress, discussions will also be held about business modules and the art of blogging.

The second major event is going to be Workshop. It is designed for newbies who want to start blogging over WordPress platform. During the workshops, the participants will be taught about all basics of WordPress and related stuffs.

Prominent WordPress geeks from all over the country will be there to teach the participants about WordPress usage, themes and plugins and all that’s been happening in the fast changing world of WordPress.

What To Expect?

If you want to know or discuss about anything related to WordPress, then WordCamp is for you. It is an informal event which is open for all. It is organised keeping into minds that people attending the event have fun while getting to know more about the WordPress platform.

You can check the ticket prices and booking details for WordCamp Cuttack on this website. Moreover, even if you can’t manage to personally attend this upcoming WordCamp, you can check out the presentations and videos of the past events on the WordCamp channel on WordPress.tv. This Wordcamp’s slides and videos may also be uploaded on Wordcamp channel but that will only happen after the event wraps up!

The post WordCamp Cuttack 2012: WordPress Enthusiasts Invited! appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.

Max Levchin(Slide) started a discussion on “The Platform Advantage” at the Web 2.0 Summit. Participants included Vic Gundotra(Google),David Treadwell(Microsoft),Elliot Schrage(Facebook) and Amit Kapur(MySpace).

The talk initiated with a basic outlook of ‘Platform’,going deeper afterwards.Amit pointed that “A platform has to create an ecosystem that includes a core base of users, tools to build applications, and an advertising network to monetize the platform“

New York Magazine’s John Heilemann lead a panel at the Web 2.0 Summit on “The Web and Politics.”. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom,Arianna Huffington and Joe Trippi also joined the panel.The meat of the talk was Obama’s digital strategies and role of internet and social media in his victory over McCain.They compared the “Web” factor of 2008 elections with the “TV” factor of 1960 elections(John F. Kennedy).

There was also a startup contest where Goodguide won the public voting after every participant’s presentation in front of LIVE audience.

When Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was invited on the stage,there were herd of questions ready to be thrown at him. He clearly denied,being regretful at any of his past decisions and talked about company’s further strategies which were sort of “same old words”.He indicated that he is more than willing for a Microsoft acquisition but kept silence over acquiring AOL.

In Web 2.0 Summit,Cloud computing was definitely one of the prominent buzzwords,specially after Microsoft’s recent entry(Azure) in this sector.

Then there were top guys from Warner and MySpace Music talking about “The Future of Music”.As per the discussion,there will not be one revenue channel that will replace CD revenues.It will take a whole series of business models.Even download revenue won’t be the most important revenue source in the coming years.

When Mark Zuckerberg came on the stage,he was asked about Facebook’s unjustified valuation.He defended it by saying that they cracked the best possible deal with Microsoft.Then Mark talked about Facebook Connect and confirmed that anyone can apply to join the platform.He also said that they aren’t going public,atleast for a few years.

The post Summing up “Web 2.0 Summit 2008” appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.

The Yahoo advertisement deal has been dumped by Google. The description about it is given below.

Jerry Yang may be thinking this moment “Oh my God…The BIG deal is OVER !” and all the expectations of Yahoo! from this deal appear deep dumped by Google.

‘Google-Yahoo! Ad deal’ was possibly the biggest hope of Yahoo! for the past few months,not just for the company’s shareholders but also for every Y! employee who was wishing a “secured” future for the company(even if they themselves are not secure).

Specially when Yahoo was negotiating with Microsoft over company’s worth,the only ‘pseudo’ support behind dishonouring MS acquisition proposal was ‘expected Ad deal’ with Google  to get Y! profits back on track and therefore increase in Yahoo!’s overall worth.

Earlier,Microsoft pulled out of the acquisition deal and now Google has pulled out of the Ad deal.For the past few months,every decision made by Yahoo! seems to be going in a wrong way.

And it’s clear that Yahoo! is in BIG trouble right now.The shareholders are next to hopeless over Yahoo!’s future prospects as the company has lost tens of billions of worth in the past few months.

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has penned down his long-time frustration in his post saying…

What Yahoo needs is a new CEO. They need their Barack Obama – someone to make everyone believe that a true leader is at the helm, ready to fight. Someone with a believable plan. Someone who can inspire Yahoo, and Yahoo users, to believe that Yahoo can once again become a force on the Internet.

That leader is not Jerry Yang.

It’s long past time for change.

Yang must go.

Our take…

Although financial climate isn’t good for Yahoo!(and for most of the companies) at the moment and many of silicon valley folks are blaming Jerry Yang for such a condition of the pioneer dot-com biggie,one must not forget that Yang is the guy who founded this big empire and took countless decisions which once established this company as the dot-com superpower.

He was the one who made company’s survival possible during bubble burst and captured worldwide audience with Yahoo‘s country specific versions. 

So,the ‘old CEO’ may still serve well as  “Y!’s Obama” but what he desperately needs is a “Stress-free holiday”(he looks just too stressed all the time) & some spare time to self-introspect his past decisions and strategize company’s future in a better way.A “temporary CEO” might help Yang take such a break.

The post Google abruptly pulls out of the Ad deal with Yahoo! appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.