Know Your Google

We all use Google, we “Google it”, and we even say “if Google doesn’t have the answers, you’re in for some trouble!” How many of you have ever sat down to think or search about how Google, the greatest search engine came into existence? Have you ever wondered how it became so big? Well, I Google-d it. And here’s an interesting description of how things happened.

Ø  Google isn’t even as old as I am!
That’s kind of shocking. It started in 1995, under two Stanford University students- Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two computer science students worked on this search engine, which they then had named it BackRub. This search engine was used as for the University’s servers for the year to follow (1996), after which it was taken down since it took too much bandwidth.

Ø  Why ‘Google’?
The two geniuses then changed the name into Google, which was inspired from the googol, which in essence means the number 1, followed by a 100 zeroes. Their idea was to create an engine that would be able to hold an infinite amount of data on the web. Smart, don’t you think?

Ø  Raising the Funds
The duo set out to look for funds, and their first investor, Andy Bechtolscheim (Sun Co-founder) generously gave them the push they needed, with a check worth $100,000. From that point onwards, there was no looking back! Soon enough, it turned out that they gathered investors, who’s money turned into a whopping million dollars.

Ø  Setting Up a Workstation
Page and Brin moved their work to a friend’s garage in California. That’s where they hired the first company’s first employee – Craig Silverstein (who later became the Director of Technology). By the end of 1998, the guys make their company reach the Top 100 Web Sites mark, for the year.

Ø  Workstation Outgrown
From handling 10,000 queries to 500,000 a day, the search engine’s rate of success became humungous. So the two founder members and their 8 employees head to Palo Alto (where GooglePlex stands today) in the beginning of 1999. They were now known world-wide for their effectiveness, speed, reliability and more. But there was no stopping them.

Ø  The Beginning of a New Century
2000 was a grand year for Google. They took over Yahoo’s search engine and became the default one…And not only that- they became the world’s largest search engine with their first billion-URL index! This was also the year where 15 new language translations came into being (such as French, German, Chinese, Japanese and Dutch), as well as the introduction of Google Toolbar.

Ø  Other Benchmarks
For the years to follow-

·         2001 had the inclusions of Image Search and a jaw-dropping web document size of 3 billion!

·         2002 comes with the launch of their first hardware called the Google Search Appliance, as well as Google News and Froogle (now called Product Search).

·         The world’s first Code Jam comes into being in 2003, where cash prized competitions are held for the coders of Java, C++, etc.

·         2004 sees the idea of social networking, through the much renowned Orkut. They also acquire Keyhole, which we know today as Google Earth.

Year after year, the number of milestones and benchmarks the company has hit has no boundaries! The progress is overwhelming, and makes me think- I haven’t even heard of half of the things they’ve invented, let alone used them!

*too shocked to say more*

Is the S4 worth it?

It isn’t unusual if anything new that comes in the tech world (or simply the world, at that) gets negative criticism. As a matter of fact, that’s what we all look out for. We weigh out the pros against the cons, see how bad that bad device really might be for us, and then make our call. So before I tell you what I liked about the S-4, I’ll start by telling you what I (and many others) didn’t like at the first glance. The biggest criticism that Samsung’s pricey S4 got since its release is its plastic body. And it’s safe to assume that they didn't do anything about it since its predecessor was doing just fine despite this ‘flaw’. I’m not that concerned, but there are others out there, who might not make the compromise.

Call Quality
The main reason phones were invented were, well, to call other people (or text, as time progressed). In this Samsung device, the call quality is great, with its efficient volume management features, including noise reduction, sound adaptation and HD voice calling. However, you might dislike the fact that even the maximum volume output isn’t enough, like many of the other Galaxy handsets. The speakerphone works fine, and doesn’t buzz as hard as it used to in previous models. The company has maintained its standards for the basic functionalities of the phone; however the earphones aren’t always so pleasant. You might find a sharp, harsh calling partner on the other end. Ouch! I’d still give the phone a fair pass, here.

Performance
The S4 is undoubtedly one of the fastest machines out there, with its 1.9 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor! For benchmarks, the device scored aces with the three tests- Antutu, Peacekeeper and SunSpider. When manually handling the phone, you’ll love the responsive graphics and speed (not that many people notice). But in layman’s language, the phone doesn’t seem to lag, or stall even while gaming.
The phone’s battery is almost 20% bigger than the S3, and it has a great battery life, when it comes to talk time. So much so that you could talk for the entire day, literally, before the phone dies. Of course playing games, streaming music or using the S Voice feature will take a greater toll on the device. And the more it will wear out, the more often you’ll have to charge the phone. But overall, you get a great head-start as compared to the others.

Interface
As Samsung is playing safe with its TouchWiz interface, but there’s no reason for disappointment here. There are a decent amount of touch-ups that you’ll notice, such as the presence of a large number of shortcuts to access a variety of the S4 elements from the drag-down notification bar. There is a new lock screen functionality that lets you customize the message every time you unlock your phone. A lot of the other Jelly Bean changes that were seen as a first in the S3 have been carried forward to the S4. And the modifications aren’t anything to boast about really, I’d say. It’s a smooth, swift working UI. Let’s leave it at that.

Click, click…click!
The device is packed, and almost over-packed with new features. The biggest modification can be seen in the flagship phone’s camera. The 13MP main camera (straight up from the predecessor’s 8 MP) and 2 MP front camera do justice to the pictures, if you look at the bigger picture. But if you break this information into smaller pieces, you’ll find out that the front camera seems to make images in the background clearer than your own. Doesn’t exactly solve the purpose of a front-camera, does it? Also, the full-automatic mode in the main camera isn’t all the way reliable, probably because of the inescapable bad lighting.
On the other hand, if you choose to crop out your pictures and resize them, you won’t miss on the picture quality. Another plus point is the whopping 13 modes to click images in, where Dual-Mode is a natural favorite. Other modes such as the Eraser and Drama are something you learn with (LOTS of) practice. The 360-degree panoramic view missed out on this Samsung device, though- something I was really looking forward to. Many of the camera’s features overlap with the top competing models such as the HTC ONE and LG Optimus Pro. But S4 manages to maintain its own style. Definitely a thumbs-up to the cameras, I’d say!

Features Galore
One of the old features, the Smart Stay is back, and it’s even better. The eye-tracker works flawlessly, for most parts of its functioning. Though I did have to tap the screen as it started to fade out in between, despite my efforts to blink and flash my eyes at the screen!
Another feature, the Air View is something this device inherited from Note 2. Except this one’s better, and works with the use of your finger, simply. You can hover over selected, featured items without opening/disturbing the process, for instance, video scrolling, e-mails, messaging, etc. I didn’t feel quite ready to use this functionality, and ended up frustrated more than impressed.
Then there’s the Air Gesture, where you move your hands around the screen and instruct to move between the photos in the gallery, answer calls, and skip music tracks without touching the phone. For those who are used to using a touch-screen (aren’t we all?), it might take a while to make good use of this feature.
Then there’s the option to control your TV, air conditioner
While all these features come as a fancy part to the package, I wouldn’t say it made me go head-over-heels.

Final Verdict
Ofcourse, the phone’s over-priced, like all the others. It’s one thing to want an amazing phone, and another to actually buy it. I’d wait for the prices to work their way south a bit, before heading in. But for all those who are looking for a device with boosted battery, classy camera, spacious storage and more- this phone’s the right choice for you