The Brand

Beginning with the logo the Ubuntu brand identity receives a remarkable upgrade, along with a brand new typeface.

Along with the Ubuntu community websites following the new look

Desktop

The new Ubuntu identity will also be carried into the upcoming release of 10.04’s desktop aesthetic. The lynx it set to receive a brand new default theme in both light and dark variations

Along with a brand new and fantastically stylish boot screen.

The Website

And last but not the least, the new Ubuntu website will also take on the new branding in a highly good looking manner.

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While Firefox has grown substantially in market share over the past few years, it has also managed to create a credible and solid reputation for the world of open source software. Then recently Chrome bounced into the browser scene, and has also shown considerable market share growth and introduced some very interesting and useful features.

The ‘versus’ argument, when comparing any two very good products in most cases has a negligible conclusion, which is the case with the Firefox vs Google Chrome debate. Both browsers offer similar features and are both developed with aggressive innovation and attention to security.

Firefox has grown a loyal user base who will most probably not just ditch the fox in a hurry. Firefox was a salvation to many for the Explorer 6 downfalls and with every new release of Firefox it just gets better. It is an extremely reliable and sturdy browser that allows for almost infinite customization through it’s wonderful extensibility.

Extensibility is a key feature to a successful browser and Google realised this quite quickly, and therefore later on in Chrome’s development the browser introduces add on features. The Chrome browser, like many other Google products demonstrates a certain level of creativity in its features as from early Chrome versions the browser had features previously unseen in any other browser, while it is true that Firefox has caught up and implemented similar functionality.

The main difference between the two is potentially the way Chrome is orientated, it is very online media friendly and obviously integrates well with Google Services. While Firefox tends to be a more one size fits all browser, as it performs well in all fields where Chrome is exceptional in certain.

After deep thought, a Firefox vs Chrome debate isn’t feasible as both these browser deserve merit for their efforts in constantly advancing the frontier of internet browsing technology. They both have their strengths and they both have almost identical features. The decision between the two, in most cases, has nothing to do with the operational aspects of each browser but the brand and identity that each browser carries.

We at Tecverse, absolutely love the Google Chrome however, Firefox will in the foreseeable future remain our default browser of choice!

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The Google Phone

Named Nexus one, the Google Phone, manufactured by HTC is set to soon make its début and expected to be the first major threat to Apple’s dominant iPhone. The Nexus One will obviously be powered by Google’s own Android OS which over the last year has made serious progress and has matured into a powerful mobile computing platform. While it has been reported that the Nexus One will not be cheap (about R6,000.00) it will surely make it’s mark in the smart phone arena. The Android OS in terms of stability and ability is already far more advanced than that of Apple, therefore the Nexus One will comfortably move the bar up in terms of mobile computing.

The Apple Tablet

After months of rumours and speculation (typical Apple tactics), it seems as though Apple will be releasing the Apple Tablet, dubbed iSlate early this year. Apple has always made use of it’s fanatical following by fuelling rumours, which have proven to be a successful marketing approach as the result is huge amounts of hype and exposure. According to Gene Munster, the iSlate will:
• Be similar to an iPod touch, only larger, capable of running most of the 70,000 applications on the iPhone App Store plus a new category of apps designed for the bigger screen.

“• Will be used primarily for Web surfing, e-mail, and digital media, competing with netbooks without being a netbook.
• Will be priced between an iPhone and a MacBook.
• Is likely to include a 3G cellular modem and could be subsidized by a carrier.”

Apple’s reputation and innovation will most likely lead the way in tablet adoption as a mainstream computing device, much the same way Apple achieved in creating the music player boom with it’s iPod.

Ebook craze

Amazon last year fuelled the ebook meme by announcing its new and improved version of the Kindle, its very own ebook reader. As more and more books go online and environmental responsibility becomes more important, ebooks seem to become more dominant devices. Ebook readers are specialized in a way that allows easy reading by mimicking the way pages from a book are viewed, and presenting them in a legible way. However it must be noted that single use devices in the past have failed to catch on due to their single use abilities, however seeing as though the Kindly is effortlessly attracting so much attention, it could very well be a successful device

Google OS

Google’s much talked about operating system is to be released this year. Since the project is an open source project, the development of the operating system has been transparent, therefore many have already managed to install and test development version of the operating system. While it remians confusing why Google would release a PC operating system that is less powerfull than it’s own mobile operating system Android, it sure will create waves within the operating system market. The operating system is 100% cloud based and open source, and uses your Google account for identification. The OS is targeted primarily at netbooks and other mobile devices.

Anti Social Media

2009 was undoubtedly the year for social media, however many experts predict that 2010 will bring calm to the over hyped and over crowded social networking scene. It has become all to common for users to post their entire lives online, and in 2009 this proved to be unwise as the media was filled with facebook horror stories of job dismissals and privacy breaches. With last years Facebook Terms fiasco and Twitter’s bruised security reputation, many are thinking twice about privacy and pulling back slightly on the over sharing online. Online reputation is probably as important as offline reputation and as it becomes harder to remain anonymous online, the need for proper self representation both socially and professionally becomes more apparent.

Ever more heated browser war

Recently it was reported that the Google Chrome browser has moved into third place in terms of market share and kicked Apple’s Safari down to 4th place, further more with Firefox’s impressive growth in dominance and its German victory, 2010 is set to be year of heated browser battles. It could very well be the year where Internet explorer could possibly fall to second place as it’s market share is in the constant state of shrinkage as more and more users discover the benefits of choice and importance of browser speed, security and web standard’s compliance.

Rich Online Media

With many modern browser’s now adopting CSS3 and HTML5, new possibilities are being created in terms of online media. Notably Firefox, Safari and a few other open source browsers are leading the way into implementing these new standards enabling online media publishers to engage their users on a new level. 2010 is surely going to see alot of these new standards go mainstream.

Ubuntu 10.04

While Ubuntu 10.04 will unfortunately not include Gnome, it sure will be aleap in Linux refinement. With many new features planned and plenty bug fixes, 10.04 is set to be a milestone in Ubuntu development, and a testament to the power of Linux

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Gene Munster, in a report to clients, describes Apple’s forthcoming tablet and offers a rendering of a bigger iPhone to show how it might look. Brainstorm Tech summarizes: more

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Advertising is often annoying and time wasting, generally we often avoid or completely ignore it. If one has bought a device, then there should be no usage limits or advertising conditions imposed, it is reasonable to see adverts on free online services as this is the only source of revenue for these services and further more there are no subscription fees or payment terms, but the idea of forced adverts on a paid product will leave a bitter taste in many mouths. forced advertising is surely a way to develop a disgruntled user base. Given that many of Apple’s patents never get used commercially, it seems that this patent is backed by Steve Jobs himself, CEO of Apple, therefore the company is probably quite serious in bringing this kind of technology to life.

The hinderence of development and freedom of use created by proprietary software has possibly gone to far if the software developed under this patent actually finds it’s way to the stores. When that time comes perhaps we will see an explosion in the open source software domain, where Linux adoption will radically increase. It is a bleak concept, that one company is going to such extremes in controlling it’s users. What further measures will they decide to take in the future, perhaps develop a file format that will hold your data at ransom until you pay a regular license fee. Which is behavior currently seen in certain computer virus programs. The idea isn’t too far fetched as Microsoft has hinted at releasing a “pay as you go” office suite, which essentially means you can only use the suite to open, view and edit your documents if your fees are snuggly deposited into Microsoft coffers. The possibilities could easily cause mass hysteria as users could realize that they are in for some bad news.

Microsoft has received alot of negative marketing due to its proprietary nature and apparent lack of respect for the GPL license over recent years, however it remains fact that Apple is far more proprietary than Microsoft yet curiously their severely strict usage restrictions don’t seem to bother their users. Will their fanatic following blindly accept yet another massive restriction of usage? Will this move inspire people to perhaps see the danger of placing their data in a limit imposed environment? Has the propriety model gone to far should this technology become mainstream?

Perhaps Apple has been blinded by the fanatic praise it receives or perhaps this all is not what it seems, but the idea of forced advertising and further more blocking access to your data stored on your Apple device should you not pay attention to the forced advertising seems quite ludicrous anti anti democratic!

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Google was kind enough to provide me with a few invites which I already have sent a few out to some colleagues and friends as I discovered pretty quick that Google Wave is awesome if you have people to wave to. Unfortunately at present I seem to be the only one I know with Google Wave so it’s great features and collaboration abilities remain largely unusable to me. Quite ironically just after coming to this conclusion I found this image on twitter:

Its comically true!

The interface is clean and quite Apple Mac in appearance with the signature Gmail blue everywhere. It got me thinking about the upcoming Goolge OS and it’s user interface. Google has created a unified interface through out its online applications and services, however the interface of wave looks more like an improvement of the current Google style, or perhaps a hybrid between that of a Mac’s GUI and Gmail. This is probably a clue to how the Google OS will be styled, a hybrid Mac cross Gmail. It is obvious that the Google OS will be distinctly Gmail blue in colour, however with Google Wave it seems as if Google is creating an aesthetic that goes beyond web design and layout, it seems as though they are after an aesthetic that would suit a desktop too. As I have learned through web design that a desktop interface and that of a website are completely different. It would make sense to reconcile their web design and desktop design as Google seems ultimately after the fusion of the desktop environment and the web application, therefore interface design coherence would be required. However only time will reveal what the anticipated Google OS will hold for us.

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A tool like this may be increasingly useful for businesses who want to secure thier brand and avoid cyber squatting or brand defacing. KnowEm also has a paid premium service which allows you to automatically register your username on the searched social and media websites. The site’s service is targeted at everyone from the individual to a fortune 500 company. According to KnowEm, they have already secured over 100 000 profiles. – KnowEm

This is one tool in one way trying to make it easier to deal with your online life, having to remember many username and password combinations, which lead to weak passwords and security threats, is a clumsy effort. Other solutions such as the open ID system also look promising, however unfortunately the heavy weight sites besides Google seem reluctant to add support for open ID

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Motorola’s marketing arm has recently released this advert (US only) advertising the upcoming Motorola Android handset.

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