Pathik Shah

How Google Could Eliminate the Amazon Threat to Android

Google is supposed to be focusing on Apple, which is currently dominating the tablet market with the iPad. Instead, it has been forced to fend off another major threat to Android – the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is the biggest threat to Google, which has been trying to minimize the fragmentation of Android, and ironically, is the most popular Android tablet yet. Even so, Google has been completely locked out of the Kindle Fire ecosystem, so it probably won’t see a dime of revenue generated by the Kindle Fire.

Google is rumored to be working on a Nexus tablet to compete with the iPad, but apparently, the Nexus tablet will be an inexpensive $199 Android tablet powered by ICS which will compete with the Kindle Fire.

If Google is indeed working on such a tablet, it should stop right away.

Launching a $199 Android 4.0 tablet will not only severely impact sales of all other Android tablets and alienate its device partners like Samsung and HTC, but it will also mean Google taking a financial hit. Amazon itself is losing $10-$20 per tablet, and hopes to make money by selling Kindle content.

Here’s what Google should do instead:

Make it extremely easy to install Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Kindle Fire. Launch a one-click flashing tool to flash an Android 4.0 ROM on the Kindle Fire.

This would not only give it back control of the Android ecosystem, but it would also be a huge hit to Amazon, which would continue to lose money on each Kindle Fire sold with no direct way to make it back.

I ‘m not getting into the technical specifics of how it would work; I’m sure Google can figure it out.

In case it can’t be done officially, Google can always bankroll such a project or help XDA developers develop such a pure Android 4.0 ICS ROM for the Kindle Fire.

This way, Google won’t alienate its tablet hardware partners, it won’t lose money selling cheap tablets, and it can focus on its main enemy – the Apple iPad.

How to Get Google Plus Account Verified?
How to Verify Google Plus (Google+) Account

Today, Google Plus (Google+) announced that they will start rolling out verification badges for celebrities and public figures, just like Twitter. They are also verifying accounts of people who have been added to a large number of circles.

For now, there is no way to get your Google+ account verified for standard users like us. However, here are a few tips that might help.

How to Get Your Google Plus (Google+) Account Verified?

1. Become a celebrity

This one’s not so easy.

2. Become a public figure

This one isn’t very easy either.

3. Get added to a lot of Circles on Google+

This one is easy if you are one of the above. If not, it is still manageable.

4. Wait until Google+ rolls out verification for standard users

This will take some time. But Google+ seems focused on getting people to use their real names on their network. Currently, there are no incentives to do so. Throw in a “Google+ Verified Account” badge and some gamification, and that will be a great incentive for most people to use their real names.

Facebook’s Valuation is Now $85 Billion

Shares of Facebook touched a new high of $34 in the latest SharesPost auction, implying a valuation of $85 billion. Considering its 2010 revenues ($1.86 billion) and profit ($400 million), it is now trading at a P/E ratio of 212.5, which is almost ten times that of Google and Apple, as well as the S&P 500.

Mark Zuckerberg, who has a 24% stake in Facebook, would now have a net worth of $20.4 billion, which would propel him to number 23 in Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires, just ahead of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google.

If Facebook was a country, it would be the 60th largest one (if its valuation was compared with their nominal GDPs). Assuming 600 million users and 2000 employees, each user is valued at $140, and each employee is valued at $42.5 million.

Install Android 3.0 Honeycomb on Google Nexus S

Android 3.0 Honeycomb is meant for tablets, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use it on Android smartphones. The Google Nexus S was the first phone to get Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and now, it’s one of the first phones to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Here’s a full SDK port of Android 3.0 Honeycomb for the Google Nexus S. It’s still very buggy, and most features don’t work, but it’s worth trying out.

Remember to take a Nandroid backup before you try it out.

Download Android 3.0 Honeycomb for Google Nexus S

Make sure your Nexus S is rooted, and install ClockworkMod Recovery 3.005 on it. Flash recovery on your phone and copy the Android 3.0 Honeycomb ROM to your phone.

Backup your existing ROM and Wipe Dalvik Cache using ClockworkMod.

Select the Flash ROM from SD card option and select the Honeycomb ROM.

Install Android 3.0 Honeycomb on your Nexus S by following the instructions and reboot.

via XDA (Check out this thread for any issues or queries).

How to Install Android 3.0 Honeycomb on HTC Desire

The HTC Desire was one of the best Android phones in 2010. Well, it just got better; you can now install Android 3.0 Honeycomb on the HTC Desire.

After Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK port for the Nexus One, a member at XDA has created an Android 3.0 port for the HTC Desire as well.

Most of the phone stuff doesn’t work, but it’s a great start.

You can download the ROM here:

Download Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK Port for HTC Desire

Download Kernel 2.6.37

Flash the ROM on to your HTC Desire.

via XDA

For detailed instructions and support, check out the official XDA thread.