Steve Jobs was a visionary, an innovator, a true leader, and an inspiration to the world in which we live in… So much can be said about such a great man and all that he has accomplished. We’d like to thank you for showing that with hard work and dedication you can accomplish truly anything.

Steve Jobs was not only a great leader as a CEO, but also a great story teller, and at the Commencement Ceremony at Stanford in 2005 he shared some great stories with the graduates.

Steve Jobs will be missed by everyone, and he has inspired so many people and will continue to inspire people.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

- Steve Jobs

The tablet industry has risen to 10.3 million units sold last year in the United States alone.  Some might say that the tablets are taking over the traditional desktop computer sales because of their limitless capabilities.  You can email, listen to music, use it for navigation, edit and print documents, and even make every day purchases off these devices, including printer supplies.  With that in mind there have been a lot more players in the tablet industry stepping up to the plate to get a piece of the market share.  The overpowering Apple tablet, iPad, has released its newest rendition the iPad 2, while Google Android based tablets have reached a new peak of performance with the Motorola Xoom.  While both possess the newest technologies including dual-core 1GHz processors, there are quite a few differences between the two that can make one the better choice.

Motorola Xoom

The Motorola Xoom boasts a 10.1 inch screen with Nvidia’s Tegra 2’s 1GHz dual-core processor, and runs on Android’s latest operating system (OS), Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).  The dual-core processor enables the Motorola Xoom to be more responsive for its users and increases its ability to multitask, which is an ever growing necessity for all tablet users.  The Xoom is equipped with front and rear cameras to enable “Google Talk” an equivalent to Apple’s “FaceTime,” a way to video chat on a portable device, while connected to WiFi.  While flash support on the Xoom is not currently working to its fullest potential, Android and Motorola are working towards a solution in which will be sent out as a free update for all Xoom owners.  The SD card slot is included on the Xoom and is not functional currently, but there will be an update sent out to unlock the SD card slot so people can use SD cards with their device.  One of the newest features to be added to an Android device is the ability to wirelessly print to your network printer.  The Xoom has had some shortcomings with this addition and still has to fix its bugs, but for now whether you have an HP printer, Xerox Printer, or any other networkable printer, you are able to send documents directly from your Xoom.

The Android operating system is an open more customizable system than Apple’s iOS 4, but lends itself to having more glitches and tends to be not as reliable as Apple’s iOS.  But when in the right hands, and if customized to your liking and usage, Honeycomb can become a more powerful and easier to user OS.  The Android Market has over 100,000 Apps, but is not nearly as mature as the App store that Apple hosts.  The Apps themselves are not quality tested as much as the App store that Apple has as well, and therefore some Apps are just not functional.  Android’s long list of different operating systems for all of the different devices they are in creates difficulty to develop apps that are cross-functional through all their devices, some apps that display well and work smoothly on an Android phone will not necessarily work well for the new Android tablet.  The Motorola Xoom only comes with the 32GB hard drive space, but is offered in both a WiFi only and a 3G plus WiFi edition.  The WiFi only is being sold at $599 as the 3G plus WiFi edition is at $799 and is only being released to Verizon’s network for 3G service.

Apple iPad 2

Apple iPad 2’s 9.7 inch screen is crystal clear and is powered by Apple’s A5 dual-core processor.  The iPad 2 runs on Apple’s iOS 4 and includes Apple’s standard applications out of the box.  iTunes is the core of Apple’s operating system, where all downloads and updates come through this app, along with it being the iPad’s primary music player.  The technology initiated in the iPhone 4 “FaceTime” has now been implemented in the iPad 2 with its front and rear cameras.  The front camera is VGA quality as the rear can shoot 720p HD video.  Although the iPad has added a lot of new features including the dual-core processor and thinner profile, it still stands at its 10 hour battery life, which is ideal for most iPad 2 users.  Similarly to the Xoom, the iPad 2 is able to print documents directly from the device.  Contrary to the Xoom though, Apple has had this technology already implemented in its previous iterations of the iOS which was implemented on the iPhone 4.  So if you own a Xerox Phaser 8560MFP/N printer you will be able to sync your iPad 2 to the network and print directly to the printer with no flaws.

The App store in which the iPad 2 uses is more robust than the Android Market due to its maturity in the industry.  There are over 300,000 apps in which people can search through, which enables users to find an App for just about anything, proving Apple’s slogan “There’s an app for that” to be true.  The thinner profile than the original iPad makes the iPad 2 more portable and a little more convenient to hold.  The iPad 2 is available in the US on the two major networks, At&t and Verizon, and is offered in three different hard drive capacities, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.  Each iPad is also offered as a WiFi only, WiFi plus 3G on the At&t network or WiFi plus 3G on the Verizon network.  The iPad starts at $499 for the 16GB WiFi only and peaks at $829 for the WiFi plus 3G on either the Verizon or At&t network.

Recommendations

Winner: iPad 2

Although the Motorola Xoom has some features that the iPad 2 does not include, supporting flash and the use of an SD card slot, the iPad 2 is still the leader in the tablet industry.  The Motorola Xoom is definitely no slouch, but still the iPad 2 shows its superiority and maturity when actually navigating through its features.  The clarity of the App store helps the iPad 2 outperform the Motorola Xoom due to the fact that the Apps are tested thoroughly and therefore run seamlessly on the iPad 2.

We noticed this afternoon (see screen shot below) that when you hover over an organic search result (the listings in the middle of a Google search results page that achieve these rankings “organically”) the entire listing becomes highlighted. Google also has included a magnifying glass to the right of the listing’s title. Clicking the magnifying glass allows a searcher to see a miniature version of the page without having to visit it (think Bing). Searchers only need to to click the magnifying glass once in order to see previews on every listing. In the future I’m sure Google will either allow searchers to make this an optional setting or the default. Only time will tell.

New Google Preview - October 2010

Over the past few months Google has been making significant improvements to their search platform’s user interface. By now I’m sure everyone has noticed Google Instant which automatically displays search results as a user enters in their search query. The other day Google also began to display an arrow next to paid and organic search listings. So now on search results pages, users can navigate the search results by using their keyboard’s navigational buttons to move up and down and when the time comes to visit the actual page, a user can simply press the Enter key on their keyboard and now Google Preview!

What does this mean for your business?

These UI updates surely won’t impact how your website is indexed or ranked on Google, however don’t ignore these updates completely. Searchers can now peak into your website before they visit.  So there is the potential that your website could see a decrease in click-through rates for certain keywords if the searcher does not like what they see in the preview.  Google is placing an emphasis on improving how users interact with their organic listings, so it is important that you should too!

Close up of Google Search Preview

Google Image Search may not have the glory and the widespread use of its more popular sibling Web Search but it is a very powerful and useful tool that can help you find both images and websites not easily discovered elsewhere.

This is even more true after Google overhauled its image search to add a new interface and still more features. Though the new version is still very controversial, it does provide several new tools that users should be aware of when looking for images.

So what are some ways you can improve your Google Image Search experience? There are too many tools to count but here is a sample of 5 of Google’s lesser-known Image Search features and why they are so useful.

1. Search By Content Type: Either by clicking the “Advanced Search” link or using the sidebar on the results page, you can filter your image search results by content type including news, faces, photo content, clip art and line drawings. This can be very useful if, for example, you are looking to find a picture of someone named “Ferris” and keep getting images of Ferris wheels.
2. Similar Image Search: Say you find an image that is close to what you want but not exact or you need to find it in a different size. Simply hover over the image in the results page and then click the “Similar” link at the footer to get images close to that one. Though the algorithm is far from perfect, it’s a lot better than looking blindly through the results.
3. Size and Exact Size: You can also have Google Image Search, by using the “Advanced Search” link return only images of a certain size. This can include either images in a specific size range, small, medium, large, etc. or that fit an exact set of dimensions, including your desktop size if you are looking for a new background. Very useful for finding logos the exact size for use on a site.
4. Coloration: Using either the “Advanced Search” link or the sidebar on the results page, you can also return images only of a certain color. You can also have Google return only images that are full color or black and white. This can be useful as an alternative to the similar search feature or to get great design ideas.
5. Aspect Ratio: Need a horizontal image or a vertical one? What about a square one? By clicking the “Advanced Search” link you can select the aspect ration of the image that you wan. This will return images of all sizes, unless you filter by that too, but will return only images with the same height/width ratio.

Please bear in mind that, when you are using Google Image Search, that most of the images displayed are copyright protected and that you need to get permission to use the images on your site. However, you can also use the License filter, also available under “Advanced Search” to find images licensed for reuse.

All in all, these are just some of the more powerful and hidden features you can use with Google Image Search. By combining these features, and others not listed, you can trivially find just about any image you are looking for on the Web.

Author Bio: Lior Coolman is a consultant to an online task management start-up from new-york and also works with a nursing wear company.