The Android Market gets a sister version for netbooks: Insyde

Android, the now famous mobile phone operating system (OS) developed by Google is becoming increasingly successful for many reasons: It is open source, free, and can easily be adapted to many devices, screen sizes and uses. Moreover, the Android Market (where anyone can download free or paid applications) has now exceeded the threshold of 10,000 apps. This is even more impressive knowing that only 4,900 were available just 5 months ago in late May. This clearly shows that developers are paying more and more attention to this OS.

Many phone manufacturers are launching new devices running on the Google Android platform: HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson and even many unexpected computer firms such as Lenovo, Dell, IBM, Archos and Acer. The next 12 months will be the time of revelation for Android, and as more people use these phones, the more interesting it gets for developers! For your information, the iPhone currently holds little over 100,000 applications in its appstore but I am quite certain Android will catch up within 12 months from now.

Early July (2009), Google announced a new operating system named Chrome OS which I have talked about already in this article. This new OS will be running on netbooks because of its speed and "light" size, making it an ideal platform for devices like small computers. Strangely, some netbooks will also run on the same Google Android platform as mobile devices already do. In fact, the Aspire One from Acer is already available with the Android OS.

The purpose of this article, however, is to introduce something which is the first of its kind although the concept is the same as the markets mentioned above. We have seen the Apple appstore and the Google Android Market offering a nearly unlimited choice of applications to download, but why not having a similar market designed specifically for those netbooks running on Android?

This is what a software company from Taiwan, Insyde Software Corp., has just done! Introducing the Insyde Market, the only known place that reviews and distributes netbook applications. Although only free applications are currently available, the site should open up to paid versions soon. If the netbook version of the Android OS encounters the same growing success as the mobile version (which I doubt at the moment), then perhaps this project will revolutionize the personal computer world.

Until more computers are released with Android, Insyde Market might remain a bit underground (developers are just beginning to focus on the mobile Android market).

If Chrome OS is meant to go on netbooks, why then having some using the Android platform?
I don't see the point of having two operating systems for the same type of devices.
Do you think the Insyde Market could work? Or it will have a difficult time to meet the same fate as its sister system?
Opinions are welcomed!
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The Google Story video

Soon after its 11th anniversary, the Google UK youtube channel has released this animation video retracing the story of Google from the time it was created. It lists mosts of its main innovations, achievements or purchases in a nice artistic way.

Not just a simple company presentation video, this clearly wants to show the importance of Google, the wide variety of its services and products, and its impact on our daily live. I'm not quite sure what the exact purpose of it is but I found it interesting to watch (although I had to pause the video a few times in order to read everything!).

I am usually in favor of competition because it is the only way to give the consumers a great range of options to choose from. Competition brings diversity and innovation, at cheaper prices. Although Google is now having a monopoly in many fields, the great majority of their products remain free and of very good quality. Therefore, I am finding it hard to complain about this company. What are your thoughts about their evolution and the giant they have become?

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Collection of Australian Google logos

I arrived in Australia in March 2008. It now seems like ages ago and this post confirms this feeling! With time I have seen the google logo change in many diverse forms, often to represent a national holiday, some invention or famous person's anniversary.
What started as a little folder with 3 or 4 logos quickly grew bigger! Obviously, I haven't been on Google EVERY SINGLE day for over a year so it is likely that I have missed several of them! Also, I am not 100% sure of the description/date behind each and every logo (you are welcome to comment to rectify any mistakes I may have made!).

Anyway, this is my Friday afternoon post that will bring back some memories to some of you geeks :)
Enjoy!

10/11/2009
Sesame Street Birthday

07/11/2009
Sesame Street Birthday

05/11/2009
Sesame Street Birthday

31/10/2009
Halloween 2009

07/10/2009
Barcode

27/09/2009
Confucius' Birthday

28/09/2009
Google's 11th Birthday

21/09/2009
H.G. Wells Birthday (Google blog post)

15/09/2009
Google UFO Mystery

05/09/2009
Google UFO Not quite sure of the reason behind this one

25/08/2009
400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope

14/08/2009
Hans Christian Ørsted discovers electromagnetism

12/08/2009
Perseid Meteor Shower

21/07/2009
Moon landing 40th Anniversary

10/07/2009
Tesla Coil (anniversary?)

07/07/2009
Marc Chagall's birthday

22/05/2009
Mary Cassatt's birthday

10/05/2009
Mother's Day in Australia


25/04/2009
ANZAC Day 2009


22/04/2009
Earth Day 2009


17/03/2009
St Patrick's Day


12/02/2009
Chinese New Year

12/02/2009 (?)
Charles Darwin

22/12/2008
Christmas!

21/11/2008
Magritte

27/09/2008
Google's 10th Birthday

10/09/2008
Large Hadrien Hadron Collider

07/09/2009
Father's Day

08/08/2008
Beijing Olympics opening

17/06/2008
Igor Stravinsky


06/06/2008
Diego Velasquez birthday

04/06/2008
First hot air balloon in 1783 (in France :)

29/05/2008
First ascent of the Everest

18/05/2008
Walter Gropius birthday

16/05/2008
First laser birthday

11/05/2008
Mother's Day

30/09/2008
Design by Jeff Koons

27/04/2008
Morse code anniversary

25/04/2008
Anzac day

22/04/2008
Earth day 2008

03/03/2008
Graham Bell birthday

My Australia

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Monopoly City Streets - Nice Google Maps mashup

In order to promote their new Monopoly City game, Hasbro, Toy & board game company that owns Monopoly, has launched on the 9th of September an online version of their game.
I am sure everyone has already played Monopoly, even if it is a long time ago as a kid so I won't remind you the rules!

However, the great thing about this game is that you won't be playing on a traditional board with a limited number of streets to buy. In fact, the number of streets is almost unlimited as the board is the world! That's right, you can buy pretty much any street in the world!

How is that possible? Hasbro has integrated its game to the powerful Google maps. This type of "mashups" are commonly used and lets any developer play with Google maps in order to create a new tool or information app. If you are interested in seeing other examples, go to this page.

The game play of the new Monopoly Streets is slightly different from the classic one we all know. In this one, they have improved the constructions from little green and red plastic houses to actual buildings at different prices. You can also sabotage your opponent's streets by placing hazard buildings such as prisons or sewage plants!

On the online version of the game that you can find at www.monopolycitystreets.com, anyone can join. It's basically a game with an unlimited number of players! When someone joins in, the new player receives 3 million Monopoly dollars with which he can buy streets and constructions and if you're lucky, receive Chance cards! In order to make money, you need to wait until the next turn, which is the next day and receive rent from your streets/hotels. This one you hopefully get richer and richer and climb your way up to the 6th level.

I find this new Monopoly City game quite similar to another board game I used to play as a child called Hotels where you would place real cardboard constructions on your properties!

Monopoly City Streets had such an amazing success in its first several days that the company decided to reset the game from scratch! After logging in yesterday, I had a message announcing me this decision. While I didn't really care as I had only played for 3 days, this might be a pretty bad announcement for the tens of thousands of players who had already built a nice real estate empire around the world! Monopoly City Streets victim of its success after just 9 days of gameplay!
However, I think this will give a good chance to all the people who read or heard about the game several days after its launch. Most big cities were already all owned and it wasn't that much fun to play as you would struggle to find an available street!


Anyway, this game will be running for 4 months unless they decide to extend that period.

I really believe this is one of the greatest online promotions so far as it people really get involved in it. If people want to optimise their chance of winning and making more money, they need to sign in as often as possible so most of them will do so on a daily basis.

If someone can think of something else that brings hundreds of thousands of people (if not more) on your site every single day for 4 months, well let me know! I am sure the phenomenon will slowly lose its popularity but it's still a great way for Hasbro to remind everyone they have a great game out there, especially when all the kids are leaving board games for xbox, PSP and Wii consoles! It is too soon to tell, but it would be interesting to see how many board games they sold before and following that promotion.
If anyone of you has some information, let me know!

In the meantime, enjoy the game! My username on the site is 'Hadrien' if you want to spy on me :) And yes, I own Woodstock Street!

Oh one last thing, you can of course follow the developpers on Twitter!
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