Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died today, just a day after the launch of iPhone 4s. Love Apple or hate Apple, you cannot deny that he changed the way we perceive technology and the influence he had over the industry. He is regarded as one of the best presenter in corporate America.

This news has covered half the page of techmeme and it has just been little over four hours when it was announced, by which you can judge the persona he had.

Apple employees to have given an apt farewell to him on the home page. The url of the image on the home page is http://images.apple.com/home/images/t_hero.png

The tech industry  have paid tribute to him with friend- turned-rival Google linking to Apple’s page on its homepage, which contains official statement from Apple.

Larry Page wrote on his Google plus Account -

I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google’s are with his family and the whole Apple family.

Sergey Brin wrote

From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met.

On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.

Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his FaceBook page

Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.

His oldest rival Bill Gates wrote on his personal blog

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor.  I will miss Steve immensely.

Pancreatic cancer, the cause of Steve Jobs death, has become a hot search trend on Google.

This is why I like Free and Open Source software (FOSS). A Bangalore based start-up called Hidden Reflex has launched a browser called Epic Browser which is based on Mozilla Firefox.

In India, majority of the population don’t speak English or Hindi as their first language. This browser will be a boon to them. Users just have to type their word phonetically in English and it translates into the default language selected for the browser.

Other features include in-built anti virus as Indians are trigger happy downloaders, especially of free stuff.

In-built word processor.

It has greater privacy controls. You can delete cookies in one click.

Indianised wallpapers and themes.

Twelve local languages and many more to come.

You can choose to receive regional news on its favourites tab which includes your favourite social networking and bookmarking sites and popular cricket and bollywood sites..

Here is the screenshot with my favourite actress.

You can download this browser here currently only for Windows (Mac and linux will be launched soon).

After both StatCounter and Net Applications placed Google’s Chrome on the podium at the third spot worldwide, StatCounter has launched results for the US market.

Here, too, Chrome has captured the third spot overtaking Apple’s Safari. Internet Explorer remains the favourite amongst American users with 52% and FireFox with 28.5%. Chrome and Safari have 8.97 and 8.88 market share, respectively.

However, worldwide the gap between Chrome and Safari is wider with them having the market share of  9.4% and 4%, respectively. Internet Explorer has 53% and Firefox has 31%.

Google Chrome’s achievement is worth applauding as it is a new comer in the browser market.

Maybe promoting it on the site with most traffic (google.com) and second highest (Facebook.com) as shown in the above pic has done the trick.

If you are planning a crime make sure you don’t carry Apple’s  iPhone or the iPad.

Why? They can trace your location and and are willing to share it. It will help the advertisers to send targeted ads to you.

You can opt-out targeted ads if you wish to do so but not out of their location tracking.

The updated privacy policy for mac, iphone and ipad excerpt from ilounge

Apple and its partners use cookies and other technologies in mobile advertising services to control the number of times you see a given ad, deliver ads that relate to your interests, and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns. If you do not want to receive ads with this level of relevance on your mobile device, you can opt out by accessing the following link on your device: http://oo.apple.com. If you opt out, you will continue to receive the same number of mobile ads, but they may be less relevant because they will not be based on your interests. You may still see ads related to the content on a web page or in an application or based on other non-personal information. This opt-out applies only to Apple advertising services and does not affect interest-based advertising from other advertising networks.

Please note that even though this affects all Apple products, it is particularly useful on on its mobile devices like the iPhone and the iPad.

Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins Jr. has accused Apple Inc of having a strategy of little more than “zero-sum maneuvering versus hated rivals.” Critics had claimed on the very day of iPad’s launch that it is a DRM haven.

He argues that Apple’s decision to ship it’s latest product iPad without Flash is an attempt by the company to lock the users to iTunes.

Apple may be succumbing to the seductive temptations of “network effects,” in which the all-consuming goal becomes getting its mobile devices into more and more hands simply for the purpose of locking more and more users into iTunes….

Network effects can be a path to power and riches, but (as Microsoft has shown) much of the proceeds can also end up being squandered on defensive and paranoid attempts to secure the privileged position.

So, is Apple interested in making revolutionary and futuristic products or create network of fan boys who are forced to use only their products and services earning them more revenues.

I am not a Flash fan and I wish that we fast forward to HTML5.

In stark contrast, Google has been launching its products like android in an open manner. Their believe is that making the web highly accessible will help more users to access their products and gain more advertising dollars. Its’ competitors can gain from Google’ s good work but most of the users will stick to Google for being open and and not being locked in to any thing.

Google, Apple and Microsoft – The Good, the Bad and The Ugly? Please comment.

With Apple about to announce its latest revolutionary product – the Tablet PC, its share value and earnings is bound to rise several times. But importantly, it will help many freelance programmers earn a fortune by developing apps for it.

iPhone apps are developed in Objective C.  However, there is an python implementation too. According to Wikipedia, Objective C is used only on Apple’s Mac OS x and iPhone OS.

Now with a tablet PC being added to its stable, the developers will have more flexibility and CPU power than the iPhone to develop killer apps. Already it is rumoured that the print media is looking forward to find a way to generate revenue from tablet PC.

So what is objective c? It is an OOP language which adds smalltalk like messaging to C. Here is a Primer on the language from apple and more detailed here.

Do you know the language? How do you find it?

Desktop computers, once the pride of every home, are dying out slowly. Portability is the buzzword. Laptops are getting smaller, sleeker and powerful while mobiles are getting smarter. So, in this situation what should we buy?

It depends on whether you want portability or power. If you need to travel extensively and you don’t want to upload your stuffs on the Internet so that you can access it from another computer then laptop is a  must for you.

You cannot increase the hard disk capacity of your notebook, but you can increase the memory of your desktop manifolds. Though the storage capacity of laptops is growing day by day, it cannot match the development of desktop hard drives.

It is difficult to upgrade your notebook, in most cases impossible.  You can easily modify and upgrade your desktop PC components especially if it is assembled.

If you are a gamer, then by default you would prefer a desktop. Even if you can afford to buy a laptop with high graphics and other gaming necessity, you wouldn’t like the idea of playing games cramped with bad posture.

Desktops and laptops are almost equal in terms of CPU and RAM unless you are considering high-end PC.

However, I would suggest you get an desktop if you job profile does not need you to carry a powerful laptop. Desktops helps you to experiment with the hardware and truly personalize your computer. If you need mobile computing for certain work there are netbooks available in the market. Netbooks are cheaper than laptops. A desktop + netbook will cost you less than a laptop which has same capabilities as those two. If you want mobility only so that you can check and reply your emails on the go then you can go for phones which have Internet browsers(not necessarily smart phones)

Have you ever deleted anything permanently from your PC and later regretted about it. Don’t worry there is a solution for this. There are several free data recovery tools that you can use to recover the deleted data. However, please note that if the memory space of the hard disk where the data was stored has been overwritten several times then you will not be able to recover it.

PC Inspector File Recover : Just select the drive containing your deleted file and search for it in the directory tree. It is very simple to use.

Recuva : Windows based and simple to use.

DiskDigger : DiskDigger, is more advanced compared to other ordinary data rescuers; it scans the actual content of your hard disk for deleted files and even finds files whose entries in the partition table have already been overwritten.

TestDisk : Multi-Platform based, i.e. works on all OS, and very easy to use.

PhotRec : Cross platform, open source PhotoRec is a data recovery software designed to recover lost files from hard disks, flash memory and CDRoms.

As always, technology can be a boon as well bane. If you are planning to sell your computer or any device which has memory storage make sure you format it at least couple of times or use softwares that help you erase data from your hard disk and Cell Phone.