Dell, a global leader in technology, distributed prizes to the participants of the road show held separately in Karachi and Lahore for showcasing its different latest brands to notebook lovers.

Dell’s innovative products, the Inspiron 3010, 4010 and 5010 were showcased along with the Dell Studio high end notebooks at fantastic prices along with enticing promotions on purchase. Drawing large crowds, this exciting activity also featured gift hampers for the participants through lucky draw offering bumper prizes including a Dell notebook.

Being an innovative brand, Dell has always tried to engage the Pakistani consumers through innovative, exciting and fun filled activities, thus introducing them to the latest, most reliable technologies.

Through these consumer interactions, Dell aims to encourage the notebook enthusiasts to gain more insight into cutting-edge products.

The aspiring Dell customers now have the freedom to confidently choose the best-suited information-technology tools for themselves.

Hoping to give its users a more intimate way to stay in touch, Facebook on Wednesday introduced video chatting inside its online social network through a deal with Skype, the Internet calling service.

The new feature allows users a way to connect with friends other than just posting messages, said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, said at a news conference here at the company’s headquarters. “It’s so easy, so minimal to use,” he said.

Last week, Google introduced Google+, its latest and most serious challenge yet in social networking, which includes video chatting for up to 10 people in an area of the site called Hangouts. So far, Google has limited the number of people who can sign up for the networking service.

To a certain extent, Facebook is playing catch-up — an unfamiliar position for a company that has grown to 750 million users worldwide, a figure Mr. Zuckerberg disclosed at the news conference. He has spent the last few years lifting Facebook past its rivals — it had 500 million users a year ago — but now faces questions about why he is following their lead.

The new Facebook service does not allow for group video chats, for example. It is also not available on mobile phones, unlike Skype’s smartphone apps.

Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, an industry blog, said Facebook’s new service at least lets the company counter Google’s move with its video chat. But in the end, he said, video chatting has been widely available for years in a variety of ways, like through instant messaging services, Skype and Apple’s FaceTime.

“I didn’t get the impression that people were finding it difficult to find one-to-one video chatting if they wanted to,” Mr. Sullivan said. “This potentially makes it easier for more people to get going, but I don’t see it as that hard to begin with.”

To start a video chat on Facebook, users click a button on their Facebook chat list or on a friend’s profile page. A box will then appear on the computer screen of that friend to either accept or decline the call.

Conversations take place inside a window that pops up within the browser. Downloading a plug-in is required to make and receive calls.

Video chatting will be available to all Facebook’s users in the coming weeks. For now, however, users can access it at facebook.com/videocalling.

For Skype, the partnership with Facebook provides a chance to have more visibility beyond its 170 million users. The service is free on Facebook, but Tony Bates, Skype’s chief executive, raised the possibility of eventually making paid calls available to Facebook users.

Making calls from computer to computer through Skype is free. But people who use Skype to call a landline or a mobile phone must pay. Facebook’s alliance with Skype expands an existing partnership between the two companies. Their cooperation started last year when Skype let its users connect with their Facebook friends from Skype and to get news feeds.

Last month, the Skype added a Facebook contacts tab and let Skype users send instant messages to their Facebook friends and comment on their friends’ status — all without leaving the Skype window.

But making Skype available on Facebook is risky and may, in the short term, undermine its business, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Opus Research.

Facebook’s users will most likely flock to the new video chatting service, he said, while avoiding visiting Skype’s branded service directly.

“Obviously this is a great feature for Facebook — it’s really simple and a lot of people will use it,” Mr. Sterling said. But he added, “I think it’s going to have an adverse impact on Skype.”

Mr. Bates said: “We’ve always wanted to be as ubiquitous as possible. The long-term partnership far outweighs users moving from Skype, or visa versa.”

Microsoft is closing in on its acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion. The purchase, announced two months ago, would give Microsoft a bigger footprint in online communications for consumers and corporate customers.

(Courtesy nytimes)

By Halima Khan

If you don’t have the iPhone then you’re wide of the mark. The iPhone is a universal endeavor. Tens of thousands of people at more than 30 companies on 3 continents work together to make Apple’s first phone possible.

Apple, of course, designs the product, and moreover created the single most important ‘constituent’ – the software that gives the iPhone its distinctive personality. But, at the same time as Apple gets the credit, behind the scenes there is a congregation of additional players, each of which has to manufacture and distribute intricate parts on program to make the iPhone doable. Some of them are well known names, like US-based Intel, which supplies the NOR flash chips which hold the iPhone’s updatable system software; and Korea’s Samsung, which makes the video processor IC.

Two famous names from consumer electronics, Japan’s Sharp and Sanyo Epson, are among the suppliers of the phone’s bright 3.5-inch display. Then there are the unknowns, each of which plays a small but imperative role. Ever heard of Balda AG? Chinese factories owned by this German firm make the touch sensitive modules which are fixed onto the iPhone’s LCD to make its innovative multi-touch control possible. It’s also Balda’s technology which permitted Apple to switch to a tough scratch-resistant glass screen, to avoid the complaints over scratching that tainted the iPod Nano launch.

Another low profile firm, the UK’s Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), is the creator of the iPhone’s Bluetooth module, in a deal that reportedly earns the integrated circuit design house $1.20 for each iPhone made. You might have heard of the companies behind a few of the other iPhone chips – if you’ve ever wrestled with network driver installation on a PC. Marvell designs the WiFi chip, for example.

Broadcom, best known for its networking chips, is the company behind the specialized interface chip that interprets the movement of your fingers on the multi-touch screen. While these chips are premeditated in Europe or the US, most of them aren’t prepared there. Instead they are rolling off production lines in Asia, from companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), unquestionably the world’s biggest unknown chip maker, or its slightly smaller rival, United Microelectronic Corp (UMC) – both companies are based in Taiwan.

The distinctive aluminum and stainless steel iPhone case is also made by a Taiwanese firm, Catcher Technology, according to analysts in Taiwan.

No matter where the iPhone’s innumerable mechanism parts are made, they all end up in one place: the factories of a lead contractor whose identity is now something of a mystery. Apple’s iPod manufacturing partner, Taiwan’s Foxconn, was long rumored to be the company that assembled the hundreds of components into a lustrous iPhone.

However, Foxconn’s CEO recently astonished investors by telling them that these reports were inaccurate, according to Reuters. Another likely Taiwanese candidate, Quanta, is rumored to be working on the iPhone, but only on the next generation, so-called ‘iPhone 2.0′.

Analysts in Foxconn’s home base of Taipei however, still assertively list Foxconn International Holdings as the iPhone’s assembler, in spite of the company CEO’s plain refutation. Whoever the assembler is, it is there that the chips are planted onto printed circuit boards supplied by Taiwan’s Unimicron Technology Corp. Then all the components are fitted into the metal and plastic case to make a completed iPhone, ready for shipment to the US.

What does the iPhone cost?

So you thought the iPhone’s insanely high price tag is due to all the fancy technology inside? Not so, my friend. That touch screen that everyone is popping tents over only costs $33.50, with the touch screen controller adding a mere $1.15 to the price. In fact, Apple stands to make a healthy 50% profit on both versions of the iPhone sold.

With the new iPhone 3G S’s Bill of Materials (BOM) and feature set nearly the same as the previous model in the iPhone line, you might think the product’s component selection would be virtually unchanged.

The table and cost data presented in this article consist only of the iPhone 3G S’s BOM. The total does not include other costs, including manufacturing software development, shipping and distribution, packaging, royalty fees and miscellaneous accessories included with each phone.

How many iPhones sold to date?

On the 200th day of launching iPhone back in the day, Steve Jobs announced that Apple has sold 4 million iPhones. The total number of iPhones sold since its inception is the high number of 51.5 Million. Other interesting facts are:

• 100,000 iPhone applications already on Appstore.
• Billion Applications sold till date on iPhone Appstore.
• 10,000 Blackberry applications already on Blackberry App World.
• Android is the Fastest Growing Mobile Apps market with 3,000 applications already developed.
• iPhone, Blackberry & Android control 91% of the total mobile application market.

Badar Khushnood Wanna try Google+? Please comment or msg me ur email ID… Will try to send invites :)

Sheraz Chaudhry Please share your gmail ID if you need Google+ invitation (Drag your friend and drop him where you want) :P

Aftab Arif level hai.

Asim Fayaz First Zeera+, then Google+, but C++.

Aqeel Syed Need Google+ invite. Message me your email address.
FYI Its super cool feature set is amazing, I think people will be leaving FB in favour of Google+

Mohsin Zaka So all the universities and offices will block Google+ now ? #justsaying :p

Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry Account tu ban gaya par maza ab tab hee ana hai jab haath me hoga Galaxy S2

Haris Nadeem Google+ is awesome! Looking for an invitation? Leave a message/comment here. I’ll send the invitation ASAP.

Abdus Salam Colorful animations & Drag-and-drop magic!! There certainly is a designer touch to Google+ …Props to Andy Hertzfeld!!

Asim Zeeshan Got Google+ invite, yippee

Jawad Mahmood Google+ is betterrrrr

Hasham Malik waiting for Google + invite … anyone ?

AbdurRehman Sajjad Yeye! Loving_using Google+ courtesy Hasham Malik

Let us know what do you think about it by leaving your comment below.

The Facebook killer is now out. With a number of intriguing features it helps you in controlling how you share with people. Click on the G+ on your right and save this comic strip.

Ashraf Ul Kabir is the Software Group Technical Manager at IBM Pakistan. He has acquired the honor of setting up the first Cloud Computing Lab in the IBM Pakistan premises which offers free technical workshops for IBM clients. He leads a team of technical experts and professionals for delivering Cloud Computing Services. Recently in an interview with CodeWeek he discussed what IBM SmartCloud services can offer its clients.

Ashraf Ul Kabir, Technical Manager, IBM Pakistan

Ashraf: Cloud computing is a new model of consuming and delivering IT and business services. It enables the users to get what they need from advanced analytics and business applications to IT infrastructures and platform services.

Implementing a cloud computing model means encouraging innovation by simplifying and standardizing underlying infrastructure. It entails the creation of efficient yet flexible IT foundations.

Cloud computing delivers SaaS-based Business Process Services, which improve productivity by enabling agile collaborations. It also includes IaaS, PaaS services and solutions which simplify the deployment and the technology which is needed to build and manage cloud environments.

IBM provides the expertise to migrate, design, build and deploy clouds and the new business models they enable. Leveraging thousands of cloud implementations and a growing ecosystem, IBM helps its clients in utilizing the power of cloud computing their businesses.

CodeWeek: Tell us about the features of IBM Clouds that provide independence to its users with respect to applications, services and data capacity?

Ashraf: IBM SmartCloud service is offered in two tiers, Enterprise and Enterprise +. It gives its users an unprecedented level of choice and economic benefits, combining the cost saving and scalability of a shared environment plus the flexibility to “dial-in” the security, existing applications, reliability, management and support services more typical of a private environment.

For the first time, enterprise clients have choices while selecting key characteristics of a public, private and hybrid cloud to match workload requirements from simple Web infrastructure to complex business processes, along five dimensions, including Security and isolation; Availability and performance; Technology platforms; Management Support and Deployment; and Payment and Billing.

Codeweek: How do you see the trend of adopting Cloud Computing in Pakistan?

Ashraf: Cloud Computing in Pakistan has geared up very quickly. IBM is providing a complete solution from state of the art prebuilt clouds to expert services to help the clients quickly implement their unique cloud model. The market can best be categorized into two groups.

There are clients who could be looking to build the Private Cloud for their organizations to allow them to better utilize their infrastructure in a standardized, consolidated and automated way. These clients have disparate hardware and workloads, which are a challenge for maintaining and introducing private clouds.

The other market segment is that of the Cloud Service Providers who want to offer the cloud services (SaaS, PaaS and IaaS) as ready-to-use services. This includes ISPs and Telcos typically but is also being demanded by other industries that see this as an opportunity for growth.

As the market matures a third group of customers may evolve, which would be Cloud Service Consumers. These customers will want to buy Cloud Services from CSPs and integrate them with their infrastructure in the form of Hybrid Clouds. This will allow them to focus on their core capabilities and achieve better ROI by off-loading the standardized services to such CSPs.

CodeWeek: What are potential sectors of Cloud Computing in Pakistan?

Ashraf: IBM has identified three main sectors for Cloud Adoption in Pakistan are Telecommunications, Financial Institutions and Small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Large enterprises like Telecommunication companies and Financial Institutions can become the prime candidates for CSPs and Private Clouds and Small and Medium Businesses will be good Cloud Service Consumers.

Codeweek: How do you explain the difference between IBM clouds and itscompetitors’ like Oracle, SAP and Abbacus?

Ashraf: IBM is already the leader in enterprise cloud, while others are just starting to offer these services in bits and pieces. IBM began its cloud initiative nearly five years ago establishing “Blue Cloud” labs around the world to accelerate collaboration with innovative clients, governments and universities. We have nearly a dozen cloud labs, five cloud data centers around the world and thousands of enterprise client engagements. Our belief is cloud is a transformational element in IT that CIOs and other executives should feel comfortable using. IBM also brings decades of experience managing customers worldwide and an established business partner ecosystem.

Codweek: What is the guarantee of data privacy by IBM with its cloud services?

Ashraf: IBM is addressing issues such as data privacy by offering “Client defined clouds.” As they look to move important work to the cloud, clients want the ability set parameters to match the work (whether it’s Web infrastructure, analytics or entire business processes).  In April, IBM announced its next generation IBM SmartCloud designed to let clients define the characteristics of the IBM cloud along 5 dimensions -  the level of security and isolation, the technology platform,  the level of management and support, the performance and availability and the payment and billing approach.   It will go into general availability later this year. This new offering impacts how clients secure, govern and move workloads around within and between clouds – a crucial piece of widespread use of cloud.

Codeweek: How do you see the IT application level in Pakistani Organizations?

Ashraf: The Pakistani organizations are being driven by specific needs. The Telecom sector is challenged by change and need a faster way to deploy new services. Over the years Pakistani Telcos have been fore-runners in terms of adopting new technologies and the need to be flexible and be the first in the market is driving the adoption of new technologies like Cloud Computing.

The Banking sector is evolving with new models like microfinance banking and mobile banking which is spurring some new growth. The Media sector is embarking on unifying the customer experience across all channels and intense competition is making them turn to unique ideas like social media and collaboration. The Public sector has been introducing new reforms in areas like education, welfare, energy which is spurring adoption of new technologies.

Codeweek: What is the future of Cloud Computing Services?

Ashraf: In the future, the opportunity for growth is tremendous; the mobile penetration in the country is expected to grow to 70%, with about 136 million subscribers. The broadband users have grown by 96% from 2009. As more and more devices become internet enabled and the need for accessing services quickly and reliably (whether it be photos or business documents) increases, the demand for Cloud Services would increase.

Have you ever considered why films created in Lollywood are always a success on the box office? How do they make money? No one watches them, not your friends nor your family, but then who makes them a super dooper hit?

Consider this:

You came up with a cool business idea. Shared it with others. Heightened by initial enthusiasm you started working on it. Partnered, Advertised and promoted it. After spending months of time and money you concluded with the fact that you don’t have a market for it!

One question: Why did you even spend time on a business idea when you were clueless about the existence of ‘not-so-insignificant’ target market?

This is why every movie at Lollywood succeeds. It is targeted for a specific market. Their every idea is market driven.

It  is the audience who appreciates them, enjoys them and finds them entertaining. Because the ideas and theme these movies are based on are not ‘those cool business ideas’ which you were looking and waiting for everyday. Rather they focus on everyday ideas which are not unique but are obvious based on the interest of their ‘target market’.

Lesson one: Just because you and your friends consider your business idea ‘cool’ does not make it cool, because without market research ideas are mere figments of imagination.

No matter how game changing and revolutionary you think your ideas are, 9/10 will be a failure unless they are market driven. Because being cool does not necessarily bring money, it’s the markets necessity which helps you in earning.

But what about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Well, what about them?

Microsoft and Apple are cool. Along with that, they made your lives rich technologically, they applied market driven approach.  Sergey Brin and Larry Page first searched your need and then on the basis of your need they created the Google search engine. And the best part, they had no favours or sponsors, nor did they acquire any government contacts. They made an attempt to become rich by making our lives easier with their ideas which developed over time.

They created wealth for themselves and for public as well.

Let me explain this further. They had market driven ideas, based on demand of the industry and on what the market wants. Develop an idea which makes money, not that which shows your coolness. But in our initial enthusiasm this is what happens,

What normally happens?

You have a cool idea

You get hold of friends who like your idea

Heightened with initial enthusiasm you get started with your idea and spend money on it.

Since you were on a high when you started with it, after a few months you realize that it was not worth spending money and time upon. Hiding your face in the closet you decide to hide your idea in the lowest drawer and think what exactly went wrong.

What should happen?

You have a cool idea

You decide to implement it in X-number of days

You search for a market that might need and want to use it.

When searching for ideas make market your primary objective, because in order to have a viable idea the key is to research a market first instead for building an idea further.

Now how to find that market driven idea

It is not difficult to come up with money making ideas. They are obvious and right in front of you. The more unique your idea is, the more complications you face due to uncertainty. So for starters target the growing industry.

Find an industry, discover your niche

Growing companies: how to find the growing companies? Make a list of companies you know that interest you, where you know people are making money. Make a list of industries which appeal to your skill set, you are not coping business ideas, you are only using information in order to select which industry your startup should belong to. Differentiate their expertise and study them.

Any sufficiently big industry/market will give you tons of business ideas. Find industry that interests you and search for companies that are built upon interesting ideas. List their names and ideas they have been built upon. Then compare.

Find what differentiates your idea from others

Don’t wait for new ideas, find ideas which have already been tried and tested. Pick a growing market, find a growing idea, and work on it. Think how you can make it better and simply make your product better with that research. Refine your idea based on your research and based on market demand. Industry that Interests you.

Find and trace your competitors. People fear competition, pick an industry. Find a niche which you can dominate initially. There are many industries which are constantly developing. But that does not mean that you should go for anyone of them. Find one that interests you, stick to it.

Industry where you have a chance:

What you have studied, where you require a PhD. Serve the segment of that idea which remains unserved. Or you can enhance the business idea by making ease of use or you can even disrupt an industry with a lower industry price point. Replace industry leader, in fact become the source of market driven ideas. Always set your eyes on industry leadership position because that is where future lies.

“Turn your cameras off, no pictures please”- (Video of the Day)

Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop unveiled a new smartphone on Tuesday that uses software the firm plans to ditch, a move analysts said would probably condemn the device to obscurity.

Once the undisputed leader in hand phones, Nokia has rapidly lost ground in the smartphone market to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices, and at the low end of the market to Asian rivals such as China’s ZTE and India’s Micromax.

At a telecoms conference in Singapore, Elop reiterated that Nokia would launch its first smartphone using Microsoft’s Windows platform later this year, even as he unveiled the new all-screen N9 smartphone, which uses a platform called MeeGo.

The model — Nokia’s first and last to use MeeGo — can be navigated by a single finger swipe and comes in black, cyan and magenta colors in a polycarbonate design.

“It seems pointless to launch a phone like the N9 on a platform that has been cut by management,” RBS analyst Didier Scemama in London said in a research note.

Elop said the N9 was part of Nokia’s drive to introduce “an exciting experience around the user interface, the industrial design and the developer platform”.

“Our primary smartphone strategy is to focus on the Windows phone,” said Elop, who moved to Nokia from Microsoft last year.

“I have increased confidence that we will launch our first device based on the Windows platform later this year and we will ship our product in volume in 2012.”

The MeeGo platform — a newcomer in the market dominated by Google Inc and Apple Inc — was born in February 2010 when Nokia and Intel unveiled a merger of Nokia’s Linux Maemo software platform with Intel’s Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-source software.

Nokia pulled back from the project four months ago.

“The N9 comes too close to the expected launch of Nokia’s Windows Phone device to have any impact on its current smartphone woes,” said Ben Wood, head of research at London-based mobile consultancy CCS Insight.

“The strength of rival ecosystems leaves little room for MeeGo powered devices. It’s difficult to see the N9 being anything more than a niche device … the N9 will be a tough sell.”

Research firm IDC’s analyst Melissa Chau said the N9 would probably be a prototype to showcase what Nokia can bring in future phones.

“I don’t expect, and don’t even think Nokia expects, this phone to turn around their fortunes,” she said. “All it wants to do with the phone is to inspire some confidence in people that they are not out of the game yet.”

Nokia’s head of design Marko Ahtisaari, in a dig at Apple’s iPhone 4, said the N9′s polycarbonate body would give the phone “extremely good antenna performance, so unlike some competitor products, you do not need to hold it in special way to have reliable phonecalls”.

FEW CLUES ON STRATEGY

Elop’s speech in Singapore was billed by Nokia as “an update on progress in our new strategy”, but he provided few details on how he planned to tackle the company’s troubles.

Last month, Nokia said it had abandoned hope of meeting key targets just weeks after setting them, raising questions over whether Elop can deliver on a turnaround he promised in February.

Nokia’s market value has plunged by more than half since February, after the leak of a memo from Elop that compared the company’s market position to a man standing on a burning oil platform.

Nokia’s market share has fallen in key markets. In China, for example, it has shrunk to 19 percent from 33 percent two years ago, research firm Gartner estimates.

So-called no-brand handset manufacturers — small Chinese firms using low-cost chipsets — control 45 percent of the market in the world’s most populous country, Gartner said.

Nokia’s woes bear a striking resemblance to troubles at Research In Motion, whose dismal results and failure to deliver exciting new devices on time pushed its shares more than 20 percent lower on Friday.

Shares in the Blackberry maker fell a further 7 percent on Monday after a marketing executive left the company, the second departure in four months and the latest news contributing to a halving in the company’s market value this year.

IDC’s Chau said Elop’s presentation on Tuesday gave few clues on Nokia’s future strategies to get back on track.

“From what they have announced today it is really hard to say because they left out so many details,” she said.

“It will take a lot of cooperation between Microsoft and Nokia to do it and with this kind of business deal we only have a 50-50 percent (chance) to begin with.”

Nokia also said it plans to launch up to 10 new smartphones using its own Symbian operating system. It introduced three affordable handsets which can use dual sim-cards, years after Asian rivals put such features into their phones.

“Any new products by Nokia will be a stop-gap … until its first Microsoft phone is out in the market,” said Seo Won-seok, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities in Seoul.

“It won’t be easy for Nokia to aggressively market these products and even new product lineups will be limited given that it is spending heavy resources in developing Windows phones. Under such circumstances, I’m quite doubtful whether they’ll get a strong response from customers.”

In a research note this month, Nomura said Samsung Electronics would become the world’s largest smartphone maker this quarter and Apple would take the number two spot next quarter, pushing Nokia to third place.

(Reuters)

Chairman and CEO NetSol Technologies Ltd, Salim Ghauri has said that the Information Technology (IT) institutes across the country are producing quality students but the global image of Pakistan is proving the only impediment to grow for IT industry.

While addressing the students of GIFT University Gujranwala, Mr Ghauri was sharing his success story as a successful IT entrepreneur of Pakistan.

Chairman and CEO NetSol Technologies said the international customers are looking towards Pakistan with a long term perspective but only the negative image of the country was hampering continual growth of IT industry. Especially, he said, the recent incidents have again caused serious setback to the country’s image. However, he expressed the hope that Pakistan would come out of negative image in the long run like it has passed through the incidents as 9/11, London bombing and Mumbai attacks.

He said “Pakistan is not merely an IT service provider country but it is exporting quality products while meeting time deadlines and budget requirements of the customers. Therefore, political and
economic stability is the only issue of Pakistan”. He also said that majority of international clients are interested in having long term business relations with Pakistan’s IT industry in order to take benefit from its brilliant human resource.

Mr Ghauri also mentioned that the global indexes suggest that Pakistan is still the most easiest business doing country therefore, a good number of new IT companies are emerging on the scene one after another in order to cater to the requirements of world community. It is also resulting into a challenging situation on availability of sufficient number of human resource for the industry.

Chairman NetSol urged the government to deploy more and more brains and resources in building up positive image of Pakistan. He said that the foreign missions and embassies of the country are performing a great job on this front. Representatives of international community should be invited to Pakistan in order to remove the negative wrong perceptions about our country.

He said recently a team of World Bank economic experts has visited NetSol Technologies in order to prepare a case study on Netsol’s success story. The purpose of this visit was to discuss challenges and opportunities faced by Pakistan’s IT industry and to understand policy levers that
can further help its growth.

Mobile phones that run Google’s Android operating system come in various shapes, sizes and features, unlike Apple’s iPhones. And whileiPhone buyers are limited to AT&T and Verizon service, Android phones are also available from Sprint, T-Mobile and Boost Mobile, where a data plan can cost as little as $35 a month.

But despite the variety of Android phones, and of carriers, there are a lot of useful features common to all. Here are some tips on finding them:

THE LONG PRESS The key to many of these tips is the long press: Instead of tapping a button, word or icon on the screen, press and hold your finger on it for two seconds. Often, this will bring up a menu of options specific to the type of item, like one to bookmark a Web link. You can also long press the hardware keys on the phone, and the background of the home screen, to reveal various options.

In general, long-press functions are intended to save you from tapping through a series of menus to perform a common task. It’s the equivalent of right-clicking your mouse on a PC screen.

So, for example, you can long press the home key on your phone’s case — the one that looks like a little house — to bring up a menu of your eight most recently used apps. This lets you hop quickly between, say, an e-mail you are composing and your Web browser.

You can also long press the search key — it looks like a magnifying glass — to pop up a microphone icon labeled “Speak Now.” Android’s Voice Commands system understands at least 10 commands, like “Send text to Alison Wright, running late will see you at 6,” “Navigate to the nearest pizza place,” “Listen to Taylor Swift,” and of course, “Note to self.” If you don’t begin with a special command, Android will assume you are speaking a Web search.

Within the browser app, long press the back key — the one labeled with an arrow U-turning left — to snap open a screen with your bookmarks, most visited pages and browsing history displayed in tabs.

Long press on your home screen’s background to bring up a menu of options that includes Shortcuts. You can create a shortcut, which looks just like an app on your home screen, that links directly to a bookmarked Web page, a person in your contact list or a navigation destination. Android will label the shortcut with the Web site’s logo, the person’s face or an icon you choose for destinations.

Too many icons on your home screen? Long press on the screen to pop up a menu that includes a Folders option. You can create a folder icon and call it, say, Games, into which you can drag all your game apps.

Long press a link on a Web page to pop up a menu that lets you open the link in a new window. To switch windows, press the menu key — the one that’s a grid of four squares — and tap Windows in the options that appear onscreen.

And long press can also be used for accent marks. To insert, say, an e with an accent grave into a message, long press the “e” on your keyboard. That pops up a menu of “e” characters with various accent marks.

FAST ACCESS TO PHONE, TEXT AND E-MAIL In your address book, don’t tap the person’s name. Tap their photo. That pops up a menu of icons to call, text or e-mail. There are also options to send messages through Twitter and Facebook.

TAKE PHOTOS OF YOURSELF Android cameras without a second camera for self-portraits have a Self Portrait mode in the camera app. Tap it, and the camera will begin searching for faces in its viewfinder using facial-recognition software. The phone will shoot a new photo of you every few seconds, adding the pictures to your camera roll. It’s more hit or miss than taking your photo in a mirror, but it’s more fun, like mugging in an old-fashioned photo booth.

FASTER SENTENCES Android picked up a trick from old-school BlackBerry phones: When typing a text or e-mail message, you don’t need to fumble for the period key at the end of a sentence. Just press the spacebar twice. Android will insert one period and one space much faster than you could type them yourself.

E-MAIL SHORTCUTS If you use Gmail on your Android phone, you can create separate shortcut icons, as described above, to specific accounts, folders and Gmail labels. This lets you have separate icons for work e-mail and personal e-mail, rather than opening whatever you last read when you tap the Gmail icon. Once you’re in the e-mail app, you can also switch folders by tapping the name of the current folder at the top of the screen.

SILENCING A CALL Most users figure out they can get rid of a phone call by sliding the red arrow that appears onscreen when the phone is ringing. But not everyone realizes you can stop the phone from ringing by pressing the power button on top of the phone or either of the volume buttons on the right.

FIND ON PAGE To search for words within a Web page, press the menu key, tap More, and then tap “Find on page.” A search box and keyboard will appear to let you type in search terms.

SHARE A PAGE ON FACEBOOK Another option on the browser’s More menu is the Share page. One of the options to share is Facebook. Tapping it will open Facebook in the browser (rather than using Facebook’s Android app) and set up the link to be shared, complete with a thumbnail image and a space to type your comments.

SEE TODAY’S DATE Android shows the time but not the date on your home screen. If you drag down the notification tray at the top of the screen, today’s date appears in the upper left corner.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE KEYBOARDS Most domestic Android phones come with only English and Spanish keyboards installed for the touch screen. To add, say, a German keyboard, go to Android Market and search for “German keyboard.” Expect to pay around $3 for most keyboard apps.

GET RID OF PESKY CALLERS Do you have a frequent caller whom you never want to answer? Add them to your address book if they’re not already there. Then edit their entry, and scroll to the bottom for the option “Additional info.” It’s tricky to open the option; you have to tap the arrow key at the right, which will pop open more options, possibly out of sight below the bottom edge of your screen. But if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the extra options, you’ll find a welcome surprise: “Send straight to voice mail?” Click once for peace of mind.

(nytimes)