‘Google Music’ is nearing its launch in U.S. and Google Inc. has already cracked deals with some of the major Music labels namely Sony Corp., Universal Music Group and EMI Group Ltd, in order to make the most of this launch.

However, this isn’t the very first attempt from Google in Online Music commerce as Google launched its ‘Music Beta’ service in May this year with limited features such as cloud storage for personal music library(up to 20000 songs) for free and ability to listen to songs from any device, be it tablet, PC or phone, even when the user is offline.

With today’s launch of ‘Google Music’, Google will enable its users to buy songs, directly from Google Music store and that will stand ‘Google Music’ in direct competition with Apple’s iTunes, Amazon’s music services and fast rising music services such as Spotify.

Here are some of the major highlights of ‘Google Music’ service…

• An online music store to legally buy music from various artists and music labels at standard prices(such as $0.99)
• Auto-syncing of music libraries across multiple devices
• Enormous “free” music storage on the cloud
• Ability to listen to your favorite songs on any device (PC, tablet or Smartphone)
• No need of occupying your local hard disk for storing music and having any fear of losing your collection due to system crashing.

But here’s one simple question in everyone’s mind right now : Isn’t it too late for Google to make a dent in Online Music Industry ?

The music industry was first disrupted almost a decade back when Apple introduced iTunes to the world and forced the whole of Music Industry to adopt an unconventional model of selling music online through iTunes Store. And since then, the monopoly of Apple in Online Music Industry has remained unchallenged.

Spotify and Amazon Music store have tried to establish themselves in online Music Industry and despite them doing not too bad, Apple iTunes has remained the hotspot for online music purchases and related eco-system.

For Google to really make a dent in online music industry, the key challenge will be to push hundreds of millions of iTunes users to jump the ship and seek a new home for their music library and future music purchases at Google Music. That won’t be easy for sure but that looks the only way for Google to establish itself in already saturated online music industry.

To realize how challenging this task will be for Google, one can analyze the case of Amazon, which is already offering the same ‘music purchasing’ and storage facility, called ‘Cloud Drive’ to music fanatics.

Amazon, although being reasonably cheap compared to iTunes or iCloud service, is hardly causing any worry to Apple as people, who’re highly accustomed to buying music from iTunes for years now and playing them on iGadgets, are least bothered about Amazon Music Store.

Still, one can’t rule out Google’s unmatchable dominance over the web and the grip that it has over millions of users through plethora of free web services. Anyways, it’s not going to take much time for analysts to declare Google Music as yet another #fail or a runaway success, after Google Music launches to the public today.

The post ‘Google Music’ To Launch Today appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.

It’s August 10 and as reported by us earlier, Samsung India launched today its much awaited tablet devices, named Galaxy Tab 750 and Galaxy Tab 730 into the Indian market and planning to hit retail stores very soon.

Both Galaxy Tab 750 and 730 are just an Indian alias for Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 as there’s hardly any change in tech specs between 10.1 and 8.9 incher Samsung tablets released in the west and the ones releasing in India.

By this time, Samsung is probably the only hardware manufacturer that has earned the reputation of being the most innovative and best-selling manufacturer in Android landscape, whether it be Smartphones or tablets.

And while the very first Galaxy Tab(7 incher), despite being laggy and poor from software perspective (runs non-tablet Android version) was the first ever Android tablet that made some quantifiable sales standing against the biggie iPad, it is only now when Samsung has really launched its first competitive, high-potential tablet to consumers and something that beats iPad 2(the mammoth in tablet industry right now) when compared head-to-head in terms of features and hardware specs.

Given the price range that Galaxy Tab 750(~36k) and 730(~33k) fall into, it’s obvious that these tablets are certainly not going to attract Indian masses. Majority of Indian buyers will not expend on buying a tablet until the price comes down to sub 15-20k range(~price range of netbooks).

And given the recent announcement by Reliance about launching its own Android tablet(although 7 incher, carrying ordinary specs) for just about Rs.12,999, it is apparent that other manufacturers and carriers will be targeting prospective Indian market with two potential segments in perspective, one that’s ready to pay more but can’t compromise on features and capabilities and the other that’s very tight on budget and wants basic performance tablet for usual tablet uses.

As popular iPad 2 has had some decent luck with its sales in India but still, way poor than what it has done in US and European markets, it will be interesting to see how Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 and 730 perform in Indian markets.

Samsung has much wider presence and enjoys more consumer trust in India than Apple and that could play a major role in making its latest tablets sell out in big numbers in the time to come. Expect some aggressive advertising campaign from Samsung in the months to follow.

We’ve had some hands-on experience with Galaxy Tab (7 inches) and honestly, it didn’t impress us due to software issues and hardware limitations such as limited screen size, lack of front camera etc. With Android Honeycomb(3.1) and full-throttle hardware specs in place, Galaxy Tab 750 and 730 could certainly be a game changer.

We will put up a detailed product review of Galaxy Tab 750 provided we get hold of it. International reviews have been fairly positive about these tablets and many critics have positioned Galaxy Tab 10.1(or 750) as a better or at least ‘equally good’ alternative to iPad 2. It will be interesting for us to review the tablet inch by inch if Samsung decides to send us one!

The post Samsung launches Galaxy Tab 750(10.1″) and 730(8.9″) in Indian Markets appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.

The latest product launch in India from Samsung is just a couple of days away as Samsung Galaxy Tab 750, the latest tablet from Samsung is scheduled to launch in Indian markets on August 10.

Exciting news about this particular launch is that you will be able to watch the product launch via live webcast right here. We suggest you to bookmark this page to come back on coming Wednesday for catching the launch of Samsung Galaxy Tab 750.

Although officially not confirmed yet, Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 is most likely a branding gimmick as it’s nothing but Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the largest sized Android Honeycomb tablet from Samsung (the next largest being the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy 7″) which is currently giving iPad 2,  a run for money in US and European markets.

It’s safe to assume that Samsung Galaxy Tab 750  is going to carry the same specs that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes loaded with.

Some of the most disruptive features of Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 include:

• 10.1 inches capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch input
• Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) OS (may get updated to 3.2 later on)
• Thinner, lighter hardware than iPad 2 (big win for Samsung)
• Powerful 1GHz Dual Core Processor
• Custom built TouchWiz UI
• 3MP Back camera and 2MP front camera
• Powerful dual speakers
• long battery life

and so on. For more detailed tech specs, refer to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 specs.

No word on Samsung Galaxy tab 750 pricing yet but it’s most likely going to fall in the range of Rs.35 to 40k.

Live webcast for the product launch of Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 will be available starting 12PM on August 10 so tune in back here on Aug 10 for webcast and also our live-blogging for the launch!

Live blog[Aug 10, 2011]: Product launch of Samsung Galaxy Tab 750

12:00pm: All’s looking set. The Media launch event is yet to kick off!

12:02pm: Live webcast has already begun broadcasting. Event not started yet.

12:31pm: It seems some unexpected delay has occured at the media launch for Samsung Galaxy Tab 750.

1pm: Samsung is also launching Samsung Galaxy Tab 730 (Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9) along with Galaxy Tab 750(Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1).

1:02pm: Lara Datta is the host of the launch event and is now unveiling Galaxy Tab 750 and Galaxy Tab 730

1: 10pm: Lara is interviewing top management of Samsung India about Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 and 730

1:20pm: Product promotional video is playing now..

1:30pm: Another video featuring some of India’s popular faces using Galaxy Tab 750 was just played.

1:35pm: Some custom apps for Galaxy Tab are being talked about right now.

1:40pm: There you have it. Event is done and both the tabs have been officially launched in India. Expect the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 to hit retail stores by end of August(probable) and expect the Galaxy Tab 730 to land in Retail stores by end of September.

1:42pm: QnA going on…

1:50pm: Event officially wrapped up.

The post Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 Launching in India on August 10 appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.

Well, what we wrote about sometime back is finally here: The official Google Plus iPhone App has finally made its way to App store so if you’ve an iPhone and want to have a native iPhone app for using Google Plus then this is your news of the day.

Just a few moments ago, Vic Gundotra, Senior VP, Engineering at Google announced that iPhone app for Google+ is now officially available for iPhone users.

Here’s where iPhone users can get their native Google+ app:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?ls=1&mt=8

While Chrome users were still having some fun with cool Google Plus Chrome extensions and so do the Android users as native Android app for Google+ was made available via Android Market since day one of Google+ launch but iPhone users were put on wait for some reason.

We all know how Apple scrutinizes app approvals and when the app is Google’s own Social networking app then approval had to take some time at least. But now, things are appearing much more resolved as Google’s native iPhone app stands approved without objections from Apple.

Call it the result of Apple’s increasing distancing from Facebook(or its rumored plan of independently competing App store model) or just to keep iPhone users happy with Google’s official Plus app, Google Plus is now available on the most popular smartphone in the world.

The post Exclusive: Google+ iPhone App Now Available appeared first on Platform to Showcase Innovative Startups and Tech News.