Track Santa Through Maps and Apps

When it comes to creativity and surprises with benefits, Google leaves no stone unturned. This time the festival time of the year when kids and bigs are waiting for a call and present from Santa, the company has started a track Santa theme around the things. Starting from just 10 min from now (at the time of writing that is), which will be 2:am PST time, you can start tracking Santa' route; courtesy a tracker and some apps developed by the guys at Google.

Previously since 2004, the company was tracking Santa' route via Google Earth. This year however you will be able to track him as he travels across cities and boundaries on possibly the fastest airborne vehicle (his sleigh), both on Google Earth as well as Google Maps. How? Just visit google.com/santatracker. You will be able to see his position and stats right from 2:00am PST on Christmas Eve.

Apart from this, you could use the Chrome Extension or download the Android App especially built for the purpose. All this so you can keep up with wherever Santa may be right from your Smartphone's and tablets. And if you wish to keep an update on his route via any page streams or wall updates, here are the links you would want to keep an eye on:
Circle him on Google+
Like him on Facebook
Follow him on Twitter

And as a special gift you could always as Santa to call a dear friend and deliver your messages. Merry Christmas to all our Readers :)

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Viadeo Mobile App Marketing

In today's era when more and more people have gone smart with the hand held devices and prefer to be in contact with their network even while on the move, it becomes a compulsion that apart from the web version of their site the webmasters also focus on how they make the services available on these smartphones or the hand held devices in general. Not a surprise that Viadeo has been quite up to the mark (although they are still a bit slow on getting off the mark in a few mobile areas). Today we discuss their updates that are being released in the respective areas of the respective smartphones and a surprise on their website and video marketing.

The mobile detail section on their website has been updated in the recent time. The pages now give a more professional designed feel to the users. Besides the pages now have enough details and in a nice layout. Viadeo has an app for all major smartphones. Go to play store for the Viadeo Android App, or Apple app store for the Viadeo iOS app and Windows phone users have the Viadeo app for Windows as well as the Samsung Bada version is there too. And so the Blackberry users don't feel left out, here is the Viadeo Blackberry app.

If you want to get more details on each of the smartphone app, click on the 'Find out more' links that sit on the right side of the page in the first screen capture above(just below the QR
code on right top) or see the footer, where you will find the mobile section as you see on the screen capture on your left. The Android app has seen another update today on the play store and now sits on version 2.2.0 and as far as the app is concerned, it seems users are happy with the new layout on the news section and the fact that you can now store your Viadeo contacts to your phone address book. Any Russian users out there? Be happy as the app now supports your native language as well

And here is the surprise that we saw today on the Viadeo dashboard.

Looks nice? We agree!! The ad that you see on both sides of the screen relates to a YouTube promotional/marketing video. But we were sad to see that t disappeared once we refreshed the page. Here is a look to the good marketing and promotional video:

It's quite evident that the guys at Viadeo have been taking the mobile apps a bit too seriously. Good for the user but it also seems like they are missing a line of action. We hope you remember that Viadeo is also the parent of Indian based PSN ApnaCircle. So while the work related to the mobile apps have been great on one hand, there have been some points that have been missed which should have been easy to have been taken care of on the first hand. We compiled a list of what we found and think represent a lazy look on part of the brands.

• The mobile pages on the Viadeo site seems not to have been created for ApnaCircle. The moment you go to the ApnaCircle mobile pages, you see a mix of Viadeo and ApnaCircle. In fact the page title itself reads "Viadeo | Mobile".
• As far as we are aware, there are no mobile apps for ApnaCircle apart from iPhone and Blackberry. But the mobile pages detailed in above point and as well as in the footer, the site shows the site has a mobile app for Android, Bada etc and worse they lead to Viadeo apps for respective smartphones.
• Try opening www.apnacircle.com on your Android phone and you are redirected to the Android mobile page for the site that asks you to install the Android app fr ApnaCircle and tells you the features available. Click on the download link and it takes you to the Viadeo app on the play store. You got the point, right?

Hope someone from the company is listening to us on these questions and also that the fices are on their way soon. Users obviously won't like getting stuck on the line.

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YouTube Rewind : 2012 Trending Vids

2012 comes to an end and there is some nostalgia in the air as far as YouTube is concerned. YouTube yesterday launched YouTube Rewind, a channel devoted to the top trending videos that you have viewed on the video site for the year 2012.

As per YouTube this year online users have viewed around 4 billion hours of videos in a single month. They have said what percentage was owned by the smartphone users but still considering the number is so huge, it isn't a surprise there were trends across multiple categories. Kevin Allocca, YouTube trends manager said on the site' official blog that people have been using the platform quite creatively. The innovation has been extensive and the passions and interests have taken the culture to a different level. The same could be seen in the this year's trending videos showcased on the channel. 

Here are the top trends from India. And here is a tribute YouTube prepared for the top trending videos, and is this a surprise that Gangnam style was the top trending video with nearly 1 billion views.

This is what Kevin Allocca had to say on the blog post:

This year, Korean Pop music transcended boundaries and took the world by storm. Cover songs, parodies, and "do-it-yourself" music videos from all genres entertained us in countries near and far. And you participated in conversations at a global scale, uploading videos to share ideas on everything from nonprofit campaigns, to political satire, to new and surprising voices and talents. Plus, all over the world, you tuned in for the most up-to-date news footage of presidential elections, natural disasters and more.

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Google Maps for iPhone

Nearly 3 months after the embedded app for Google maps was given a farewell by Apple, Google decided it was time they gave the iOS users (only iPhone and not iPad) an early Christmas present. So if you own an iPhone and are planning a trip somewhere you haven't been and you feel a little edgy using the iPhone' version of map especially after what happened to motorists in Mildura; cheer up. The Santa Google is here with a native app of their Google maps version for the iPhone users. iPad version still no where in sight and no news as of now.

Before we move on if you are really excited about getting the app. We won't keep you waited, you can come back here after you get your Google maps app for the iPhone on iTunes. While it's been the news doing rounds since the iOS6 went without Google maps support, the point of main concern that is the voice navigation part which seemed like was the highlight point of why Apple thought to do away with search giant version of the maps and instead choose their own in house developed version has been included in this version of Google maps for iPhone. Head straight o iTunes page for more details on what the app brings for all the iPhone users. The app has been released yesterday for all users to use and is already sitting pretty with impressive and sigh-of-relief reviews on Apple store.

There are a few things that misses out on this version and we are surprised on their exclusion just as you would be. The list include; offline mode, biking directions and indoor maps. According to Daniel Graf, director of Google Maps for mobile, the team has built it from scratch and you could see it from the wonderful UI that greets you right from the word go. The Android version of the app was far better than the one we saw before iOS6 launch. Now it seems with this app the gap has been bridged and Apple users will have a chance to experience nearly all the features they would otherwise see on the web version of Google maps. This includes a vector based version of the maps with the 3D view of them. The turn by turn voice guided navigation has just provided the things that missed from the earlier versions and we are sure the users will love it.

Looking at the app it isn't a surprise Apple' CEO Tim Cook made a mention in his apology, telling the users to refer to Google maps web version on the browser till Apple is fixing the issues with the Apple maps. And Google isn't done yet, with the app they also released the Google Maps SDK for iOS so now iOS app developers can use it while developing their app for iPhone(s) and iPad(s). If the timing was right or it's just a coincident that the app comes just at a time when Apple is finding it tough with their version of maps, the giants will only know!!

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Instagram Pulls Twitter Support

At first when the support for Twitter cards was pulled off users might have had a hard a time figuring out what is happening with their Instagram shared photos. But then it became clear what the main step was behind this pull. As Twitter mentioned on their status update about the Instagram photo rendering issues; the support for displaying the photos from Instagram in a tweet has been pulled off by the Facebook owned company, suggesting the Facebook buyout is now getting hotter on the two services.

Twitter card is the support when you expand a tweet to see the details about the pics attached or some other type of information that may be accompanied with the tweet. Earlier when Instagram users shared their pics on Twitter, the photos showed up in the tweets through the Twitter card integration. This support went limited when photos were "being displayed using a pre-cards experience". The result was that the photos appeared cropped form the original part shared. No sooner than users started noticing the limitation, Instagram decided and it was then the time to disable the shared photo display.

So, now when users will share an image from Instagram, they will not see the Image within the tweet but rather some white space instead of the photo place. The shared photo will only be seen from the link that comes as part of the tweet. The link will take you to the Instagram' native site where you will have the original photo displayed. Instagram vs Twitter speculations have been the point to talk about since Facebook acquired Instagram so these kind of restrictions and pull of support were always on the cards.
[Image Credit: Twitter Blog]

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Google Plus Introduces Communities

Remember the groups that you created while you were still attending your academic sessions? Well if you do (and we are certain that almost everyone does), you remember how easy they made the discussions with your friends. Not long ago (although it feels like a century), people started introducing the concept of Groups/Forums to the online world where you could discuss the new chick in town and what not. Forums evolved and so did Groups and now we see another version of these that may more relate to the actual society we live in, a collection of like minded people on one familiar and common topic: Communities.

Google had groups, so did a few other leader in the business. The flaw was that these were never integrated that well in to the original product that they were supposed to support initially. The product that was the birth idea if these groups, was left stranded without much interaction. Google has now introduced Communities. A place on the social network (Google plus) which is for like minded people to discuss the common topics. The best part, unlike Google Groups; Google Communities are a part of Google plus and well integrated.

So while creating a particular circle for your daily soap chit chats may be a good idea but adding people to it is restricted to only your contacts. You now have option to create a Google Community for the same and people will find it on their own, join them and be part of your network. The posts within the communities stay protected and visible to only the members of the community. If you need to interact, you need to join. Simple.

You could search for an existing community or create a new one as per your interest. We joined an existing community for Bloggers: WeBloggers. So if you are a blogger, you are most welcome :)

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Apple Map Sends Motorist To Bush

No no, not the Bush you first thought. If that would have been the case Tim Cook, Apple' CEO should have been required to send an apology letter after what the in house maps app did to some motorists who were merely looking for a town location on the Maps that Apple created in house and used with the latest version of their smart-phone OS, iOS6.

After the deal broke with Google on the maps app that Goggle previously provided Apple with, the iPhone maker decided it was time to introduce a new app for maps that would serve the purpose instead of the Google maps that were shipped with Apple devices earlier. Little did they know things will take some nasty turns. It's being reported that Austrian police has warned people to not rely on the maps app served by their iPhone devices and rather use some other ways to look for the directions and routes. The warning was issued after it was found that Apple maps showed the Australian city of Mildura to be 40 miles away from the actual place that it is in the country. Referring the map quite a few motorists were left stranded in a place without water and food, some even for 24hrs. Several motorists had to be rescued by Mildura Police.

The police has been calling the issue as a "potentially-life-threatening" issue as the map showed the city which has a population of around 30K people to be in the middle of the Murray-Sunset National Park. Considering that the place had no water supply and the temperature could reach to a level of 46 degrees Celsius, it indeed is a serious issue. This is what the Mildura Police had to say on this:
"Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception.
Police have contacted Apple in relation to the issue and hope the matter is rectified promptly to ensure the safety of motorists traveling to Mildura.
Anyone traveling to Mildura or other locations within Victoria should rely on other forms of mapping until this matter is rectified."

So What will it be for you; Google Maps or Apple' version ??

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