Inside Google's California headquarters

Pictures released by Google on one of its Google+ accounts offer a rarely seen glimpse inside the search giant's offices.

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Downloading ebooks for the ipad 2 tablet

By manu antony - tue feb 15, 11:00 am

The only problem with ebooks is their price. To be able to enjoy a novel, you need to pay around $15 to $25 for one story. Imagine how much you need to pay just to get a copy of all your favorite books on your eReader. You might be looking at a wallet that is much lighter compared to before especially if you are an avid ebook reader. Is there any way for you to solve this? This is where iPad 2 ebooks comes in.

The Benefits of iPad 2 eBooks

You might be wondering whether the iPad 2 ebooks is indeed the solution you are looking for. Here’s a question you might want to ponder on. Would you rather pay at least $25 for an ebook or would you choose to pay a one time fee which amounts to $39.99 for unlimited access to all ebooks on your iPad? For sure, you will be choosing the latter. This is what iPad 2 ebooks is offering all ebooks fans out there. You just need to subscribe to this program online by paying a one time fee and that’s it. You will be able to access more than 40,000 ebooks online and read them on your iPad. Whether you are looking for novels, short stories, comics, newspapers and other types of ebooks, you will be able to access them all for a one time fee. Sounds good? Well, why not check iPad 2 ebooks today?

Best Deal for iPad 2 eBooks

Did you know that there is a better deal being offered for iPad 2 ebooks right now? You don’t have to pay $39.99 to get your hands on all your favorite ebooks on your iPad. In fact, you only need to pay $20 to enjoy your ebooks. What’s the catch you ask? Well, you need to subscribe right this very minute because this price is only available for a short time only. Be among the first 200 people to subscribe and simply pay $20 for all access to ebooks for iPad.

You won’t find another deal that can give you this kind of access to ebooks these days. If you want to entertain yourself while on the road, at home or while out and about, having iPad 2 ebooks on hand is definitely a welcome company. So, what are you waiting for? Go and subscribe today for iPad 2 ebooks and pay a one time small fee and get to enjoy all the best ebooks out there.

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Apple's improved working conditions more than anyone

Apple CEO Tim Cook again defended his company's track record on improving working conditions at the manufacturing facilities of its suppliers, noting that it has done more to address the issue than any of its peers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook at a company event last year.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

"No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple," Cook said during an investor conference today.

Cook's comments come amid growing criticism over the working conditions at the factories used to construct hit Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. Much of it was sparked by a New York Times story that highlighted some of the poor conditions that workers in China face.

On Friday, activist groups Change.org and SumofUs delivered 250,000 signed petitions to Apple stores around the world, calling for a more ethically built iPhone. Yesterday, Apple said it would launch fair-labor inspections of Foxconn, one of its major suppliers.

Apple has gone on the offensive in defending its actions. Supporters also point out that other tech companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, use the same manufacturing facilities. Critics argue that since Apple is a leader in the tech industry, it should lead in its calls for better working conditions.

Ethical-iPhone 5 activists deliver their plea to Apple (photos)

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10 Ways to Launch a New Blog with a ‘Bang’

Do you want to enter the blogosphere like a quiet librarian enters a classroom, or do you want to rock the stage? I am definitely one to rock stuff out and in this article I will share a few tips to help you make an attention grabbing launch.

If you want to give your blog an exciting launch, your blog needs to be valuable to your target audience, otherwise your hard work will be in vain.

Ask yourself this simple question “Does my blog provide something that a thousand other blogs don’t?” If you don’t have something special to offer, no one will care when you launch or how you launch.

There will always be a certain category of blogs that will not qualify for a special launch and it is up to you to determine if your blog fits that category. Now let’s look at 10 ways that you can launch your new blog with a ‘bang’.

1. Prepare amazing content in advance

Do you want a guaranteed way to launch with a bang? Prepare amazing content before you launch. I am not talking about a quick general post, I want you to take the time of your life to create the most astounding post you have ever come across.

Get some early feedback on the first article and if you don’t get a positive enthusiastic reply, store your article for later and work on something that would give your audience the ‘wow’ factor.

If your message is not worth spreading then millions in advertising will also fail you. The most true and tried method of creating hype surrounding your blog is by creating some really good content and letting the users do the talking.

If you can successfully amaze ten people and get them excited about your blog, you can expect them to share your blog with a 100 more people and this process would go on until the hype expires.

The idea is to convince your first visitors that they have come across a truly great new blog and they absolutely have to share it. No one will share a blog that has poor content or no content at all. If you want a real head start, you will need some truly refreshing content that urges your readers to share it.

2. Run a viral twitter campaign

@yourblogname is giving away a free iPod Nano at http://is.gd/lvxv – RT this message to participate! 
This would be a smart campaign, extremely effective and easy to deploy. Just ensure that the prize you offer is exciting enough for someone to re-tweet your message.

You might think that an iPod is just way too much to give away for a Twitter contest but what you want to create is a viral tweet and an iPod Nano will be enough to grab the attention of a lot of Twitter users. If you don’t have the budget to give away an iPod, don’t dispair. Some cold calling and email and you’d usually be able to find a sponsor who is willing to give something away in exchange for some exposure.

3. Provide incentives to early subscribers

I have seen this work very well on many blogs where bloggers usually give away a digital product like an eBook or an icon set to all the users who subscribe to their blog. This will give your visitor the push needed for them to subscribe.

If you can offer a valuable freebie that is related to your target audience, it can radically improve your subscriber count in a very short time. If you don’t have something worthy to offer your subscribers you might as well not offer anything at all. Make it worthwhile.

4. Hold a contest

Holding a contest gives your blog an interactive element rather than being a one way conversation, you can challenge your users and allow them to be part of your community.

Your contest should challenge a user into participating rather than bribing them into participating. A contest should be exciting to your target audience, it shouldn’t be complicated, but don’t make it too easy either.

If you have a design blog for example, you might consider hosting some sort of design competition and give away a brand new Macbook to the winning entry. This will surely turn some heads and help your branding efforts.

5. Run a brute-force ad campaign

What’s better than one ad on one blog? A lot of ads on a lot of blogs at the same time! A lot of new blogs are coming in with investor backing and have the money to start big. If you are one of them and want a head start, then an advertisement campaign will do just that.

Instead of buying one advertisement for one year on a single blog, buy 10 adverts on several related blogs for the month that you launch.

You cannot expect a surge of visitors just like Gucci doesn’t expect a surge of customers after advertising in a magazine, but you can expect your blog to slowly turn into a brand.

6. Host an event or a party

Show the world that you are not one to sit idle. Call up your friends and take them out for a fancy meal, order a cake and celebrate the birth of your blog. Depending on the scale of your blog, you might want to take this to the next level and invite anyone in your area to your launch party.

Blog about your party, as this shows your readers that you are a real person in the real world establishing a connection with them. It gives your blog a face and makes it easier than ever to create a community around it.

7. Give away prizes

Who doesn’t like giveaways? You’ve probably seen many food companies offering free tasting of their new product at supermarkets.

They usually give you a sample of their product, or offer you a freebie of some sort when you visit their stand. This is a very efficient way of reaching out to customers who might not try their product on their own.

In our case, a blog could give away prizes for commenting, subscribing or becoming a Twitter follower. This is a very common strategy among established blogs and works like a charm.

If you only have a limited amount of prizes and a lot of participants, simply choose a few winners at random to keep things fair. You can use random.org to select a random number.

8. Promote your posts on social media

This should be done from the day you start your blog and for every new post you make.Here is a powerful list of websites where you can submit your posts to gain some initial momentum.

Once you get the first few visitors, it is up to your visitors to take the next step. If your post is capable of convincing the reader that it’s worth sharing, you can expect it to get ‘dugg’, bookmarked in Delicious or retweeted.

9. Guest post on other blogs

Not everyone can afford to purchase an advert on a leading blog to get major exposure. A great alternative is spending some time and create great content for other well known blogs and get paid for it.

Guest posting is a great way to make some money and get some exposure. Write an article for a high profile blog and ask them to publish it in the first week of your launch if possible. You can now introduce your new blog at the end of your guest post.

10. Interact with your user base

Bloggers can get so engulfed in getting new readers that they forget about the readers that they already have.

Interacting with your user base is an excellent way to expand your community as users who like your blog are already on it and these are the same users who will tell their friends about you. So take some time off of analysing your stats and counting your diggs and simply reply to the comments left and emails received.

In addition to replying to their comments, ask your readers what they want and expect from you. If you are a tutorial website, you might want to ask your users what tutorials they want to see next. This makes users feel that they have a say in what you do and makes them feel attached to your website.

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Cat breading' latest online sensation, gets the Colbert bump

Bread and cats don't usually go together, but now these two disparate things are joining forces to power the latest online meme: cat owners place their kitty's head through a piece of bread, take a photo and upload them to "cat breading" forums.

What looks like an adorable photo whim has now become one of the most unique viral pet trends. On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert introduced the phenomenon on his Comedy Central talk show. Colbert's endorsement of a person or idea is said to get the "Colbert bump," meaning it suddenly spreads across the world faster than a celeb sex tape.

Cat breading enjoys a Facebook Page with 15,300 members, and is quickly getting media attention, from New Zealand to the U.K. Gawker is believed to be one of the news sites giving rise to even more people acquainting themselves with cat breading.

How does it work? Cat owners cut a hole in the centre of a bread slice, then gently place the bread over the cat's face. Take a photo. Upload the pic to the Facebook Page or on Flickr.

Some observers believe placing bread around animals is cruel, such as commenters in this Daily Mail article. So far, no cat breaders are replying to allegations of animal cruelty.

Cat breading is reminiscent of a performing rabbit in Japan named Oolong, who balanced food on his head. Oolong's website became known to the general public after it was covered in 2001 by Syberpunk, a site which focuses on odd things in Japanese culture.

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8 things you should know before building a mobile app

App appeal is obvious. The barrier to entry? So low!

The upshot of producing the next Angry Birds or beer-chug simulator? So high!

Heck, with just a small investment of time and cash, it's not hard for would-be mobile moguls to turn a concept into a steady stream of cash. And thanks to today's app stores, it's never been easier to try your hand at becoming the next tech tycoon.

Here's (almost) everything you need to know before you get started on your own app -- and what I wish I knew before I got into the game.

1. What does it cost to make an app?

If you're new to the app game, prepare for some sticker shock. Making an app will cost you, at the very minimum, around $10,000. This is for a super-simple program — none of that fancy enterprise or social networking jibber-jabber. Even still, any app worth its weight in code will likely cost you closer to $20,000.

Unless you have some basic design skills, you'll need to enlist the help of both a programmer and a designer. And these guys ain't cheap — particularly programmers who, thanks to a pronounced shortage of qualified coders, can pretty much name their prices. (A suggestion for those low on funds: Find some creative way to come up with the cash. I funded my app through Airbnb income.)

You can try to offload some of your costs by offering your guys equity; on the other hand, everybody tries to get free (or close to free) apps by offering developers equity. So unless you can really sell them on the strength of your idea (or bring something totally rad to the table, such as a celebrity), you better be prepared to pony up some cash. Of course, adding in some equity as a bonus is never a bad idea, so you'll probably want to dish out some shares too.

This basic supply/demand dynamic also means that many developers ask for some pretty insane terms. Some demand deals that involve a huge upfront payment in exchange for a few weeks (or even just days) of work. And if a decent developer isn't already working full time, it's not unreasonable to assume he's at least a little commitment-averse. So, if you're serious about making something beyond a quickie cash grab, find a developer you are sure will stay with the project for updates, and not abandon it the second it hits the store.

And get it all in writing. If you don't want to hire a lawyer, find a boilerplate contract online or get one from somebody else who's gone through the process, and just swap in your names and numbers.

If you can, you'll also want to work with people who are local to you -- or at least with people who are willing to join you for regular Skype chats or Google Hangouts. I had weekly beer summits with my coder and designer, which proved super helpful as we continued to fine-tune our app well into its development.

One more unavoidable cost: Apple charges $100 per year to hold onto a developer's account (which you need to publish your app). So be sure to reserve an extra Benjamin for your budget.

2. What should you charge for your app?

I would consider starting one's app at or near $1.99. It's premium price, but it's also immensely satisfying to get more than a buck per download after Apple takes away its 30%. And, as with most things, it's a lot easier to lower the price later than it is to raise it.

During the holiday period, we briefly played around with a special promotion that dropped our app price to $0.99. Predictably, this spiked our downloads, but it didn't actually raise our total revenue. Even on Christmas Day -- the single biggest download day for just about everybody — our revenue was actually higher a week or so later, once we had raised the price back to $1.99.

The obvious exception: If your primary business model involves in-app purchases, ads or the like, you'll probably want to give your app away for free. After all, a quick glance at Apple's top grossing chartsshows a whole bunch of free apps.

3. When will you get paid?

Apple sends you cash one month at a time, up to 45 days after the month has ended. So, if your app goes live in January, you can expect your first kickback sometime in early March. Oh, and Apple only pays you if your earned amount totals at least $150, so you may have to wait before getting your first payment. Keep in mind, Apple only pays you through direct deposit.

4. How do you write your iTunes description?

Don't try to rock the boat here. Take a look at a bunch of hit apps, and crib their formats. If it works for them, it'll work for you. Typically, this involves a quickie intro statement, press blurbs and a list of your key features. Then add some screenshots (the most interesting ones first) and call it a day.

5. What's the best way to beta test?

Getting an unreleased app onto your friends' iPhones isn't the easiest thing in the world. My developer and I are in total agreement that the best method is a program called TestFlight, which makes it very easy to send build updates to registered devices, over the air.

6. What happens when you get featured on iTunes?

Getting featured on iTunes is obviously awesome, but what exactly does it get you? When Apple included our app on its featured lists, we enjoyed a predictable flow of downloads almost identical in volume every single day we were parked there. Especially fascinating, the "New & Notable" list gave us almost exactly twice as many daily downloads as the "What's Hot" list. I'm assuming this is because, when you tap the "Featured" tab on the "App Store" app, "New & Notable" pops up by default.

7. How do you get press?

As a longtime tech writer, the main advice I can give you in your pursuit for press is that less is more. If you think a site or publication would be into your app, don't e-mail the entire staff or the big boss — just find the writer who covers your category, briefly summarize your app in an email, and attach a download code (Apple gives you 50 for every update). Smaller sites may be more responsive than the big guys, and if you build up enough buzz, you can rest assured that the majors will come knocking.

If a journalist doesn't get back to you, move on. And don't even touch that phone or personal e-mail address (unless that person is a freelancer) -- writers hate nothing more than phone or personal-inbox press pitches.

Consider also producing an embeddable YouTube or Vimeo ad of some sort. Not only does this provide one more avenue for people to stumble upon your app, but it also gives bloggers something alive and colorful to toss into posts, which could increase the chances that they'll write about you. Keep it simple, and preferably, well under two minutes. And don't forget to promote over Twitter, Facebook, etc.

8. How do you avoid the spam?

Within days of hitting the App Store, expect whichever email you linked to your iTunes developer's account to be pounded with spam. Most try to lure you into ponying over money in exchange for positive reviews, under the guise of "mobile marketing." Let's put it this way: If you don't regularly buy Viagra pills online, then you probably shouldn't give cash to these guys. Of course, if you're smart enough to make an app, you're smart enough to know this already.

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Facebook 'power users' do most of the work

Facebook users receive more comments, messages and likes -- the hugs and high-fives of social networking -- than they give, according to a new study.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Projectstudy, which looks at Facebook activity of users over a one-month period, shows that users "like" content on their News Feed about 14 times, while their content is Liked about 20 times. Users send about nine personal messages and receive 12.

This discrepancy exists because certain "power users" dominate one kind of Facebook action. Meaning everyone has friends that excessively tag photos, send messages or "like" things all the time. Others obsessively "friend" people.

Power users -- specializing in one of the activities describes above -- make up between 20% to 30% of the Facebook population.

"The striking thing is that there are different power users depending on the activity in question," says Keith Hampton, the study's lead author. "One group of power users dominates friending activity. Another dominates 'liking' activity. And yet another dominates photo tagging."

The research was conducted by a national phone survey targeting adults and teenagers in America who use Facebook.

This adds to a long list of things we learned about Facebook after the company filed its long-awaited initial public offering. This news sheds light on how users use the $5 billion-dollar company.

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