Fibbing to your boss or partner about where you are just got tougher, thanks to Google Latitude, which maps your geo-coordinates and informs people on your friends list about your location.

Ever dug your own grave? Pranav Mehra, a sales executive for a company in Mumbai, claims he recently did. It started when Mehra introduced his boss to a new cell phone app — Google Latitude. This service taps into your cell networks to zero in on your geo-coordinates, and, once done, it copies those on to Google maps on your cell phone.

“While giving the demo, I made the mistake of adding my boss to the list of friends I shared my location with. Once the demo was over, I completely forgot about the incident and moved on,” said Mehra. Little did he realise that this oversight would land him in a soup. The next time Mehra texted his boss that he was running late for the meeting because he was stuck in a traffic jam, the tell-tale application squealed that he was still at home. “It went downhill from there as my boss insisted the whole team install the application. Now I happen to be the least popular person in office,” sulks Mehra.

Mehra might not be a fan of Latitude any more, but the service has a strong fan following, especially amongst youngsters. “It’s a fun way to track your friends’ locations,” says Sanjana Patel, a college student from Bangalore, “we know exactly where the gang is even without calling or texting each other. Sometimes this can turn into a nightmare, though, like it did the time when I took sick leave and my teacher found out, thanks to my friend’s phone, that I was in the canteen.”

Latitude is a simple tool that runs on all kinds of smartphones with operating systems such as RIM, Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian. You can just download the application and opt to allow your location to be automatically updated every few minutes. In addition to tracking your friends’ exact locations, you can also send text messages or call friends directly from the list that appears next to your map. The service takes in a search function that lets you find nearby spots like hotels or movie halls simply by typing a keyword into a search box. Latitude also offers directions to and from friends’ locations.

Privacy is, of course, an important concern with any kind of location tracking service, but Latitude is an opt-in service. So users get to pick who gets access and what level of information they can see. For instance, you could decide to give family and close friends access to your exact location, while your teacher or boss can find out only which city you are currently in. For times you need to go dark, you can simply opt out of broadcasting your location.
Some think, however, that turning off location notifications is just not enough. “There should be a way to broadcast a false location,” says Aniruddha Kulkarni, a Pune-based software consultant — “Take, for instance, a case where you want to avoid going to a wedding in the family, but not hurt your relatives’ feelings.” Latitude has made provisions for such cases too, by allowing manual location setting. With this option, you can set your location as being in a certain city no matter where you are.

There are other interesting uses people are putting this service to; Prashant Iyer and his wife use this tool to coordinate timings for local trains. “My wife travels three stations ahead of me. Earlier, in case my wife missed her regular train, I had to wait until we could catch the same train. But experimentation with Latitude is helping me save time,” says Iyer. “I must say, though, that the service is not very accurate, there have been times it showed my wife at office when she was already on the train.”

Latitude is not the first of its kind, but it has an edge over services such as ‘Loopt’ since it ties into the computer-based version of Google Maps. Hemal Kantharia, a college student in Mumbai, uses this to put his mom’s mind at ease. “My mom is in Vadodara and she constantly worries about my whereabouts,” says Kantharia, “so I set her computer to my Latitude to see where I am at all times.” Funnily, he has also found a way to keep his mother’s peace of mind intact on those nights when he goes out clubbing; he simply leaves his phone in the hostel, so his mom thinks he is blissfully asleep!

Latitude has invited a lot of attention on its Big Brother aspect, but Google put the issue to rest by saying they don’t store any history data. Latitude replaces your location by the last known coordinates and erases the rest. There is another issue of this tool turning into a stalker’s dream. But one can simply pick people they trust for broadcasting their location. Finally, there are two other hiccups with the service one should be aware of. First, the programme runs continuously in the background (even when you are not using the phone). So it hogs battery constantly. It also uses data minutes non-stop, so if you don’t have the unlimited plan, you can run up huge bills!

Which is better for those who work on the move — a netbook or a smartphone? We take a closer look at what is slowly but surely developing into a mobile computing war

It is one of the most engrossing face-offs in the world of tech. And it has been slowly building up. Just about every major brand is involved in it and the target is the general consumer who not only needs to walk when he or she talks, but work as well. We are talking of the battle for the throne of the best mobile computing option. A few years ago, most people thought that an ultraportable notebook was the best (if rather expensive) option for those who needed to work on the move. Smartphones were handy for keeping tabs on e-mails and, well, one could make calls on them, but when it came to real work (read “composing and editing documents, working on presentations and doing heavy duty surfing”), notebooks stood alone, thanks to their larger screens, better keyboards and superior computing muscle. Yes, they cost more, but they delivered so much more too.

Cut to 2010 and the battle lines have been pretty much redrawn. Ultraportable notebooks cost a fraction of what they once did, thanks to the netbook phenomenon, while smartphones have moved up several notches in usability and affordability.

THE SMARTPHONE COMETH…

The last two years have seen smartphones move up from the status of ’umble mobile e-mail receivers to being the real computingon-the-move deal. Of course, hardcore mobile users will point out that one could have done a lot of stuff besides e-mailing on a smartphone even earlier — the Nokia Communicator and the Palm Treo series were particularly good examples — but the stark fact is that it is only in the last couple of years that phones have come into their own as viable computing options. And, just like in the case of computers, it is that company from Cupertino that set things rolling. The iPhone did not start off as a smartphone, but by serving up a large viewing screen, terrific internet browsing and an easy e-mail set-up and use feature — that users usually associated with smartphones — it suddenly changed the benchmark for smartphones. Before we knew it, phone screens that used to generally be around a couple of inches, were stretching into three and even four-inch territory, making viewing documents, emails and web pages so much easier.

Another Apple innovation that boosted smartphones in general was the evolution of the App Store, allowing users access to thousands of applications for their devices, ranging from office suites and social networking utilities to e-mail clients. Other manufacturers were quick to follow suit and the result is that today smartphone users have stacks of applications to choose from and are no longer largely restricted to what is already installed on their phones. Combine that with increased storage, more powerful cameras, always-on connectivity, the ability to make calls, and best of all, dipping prices — the Nokia E72 (arguably the best smartphone around) costs approximately Rs 20,000, Acer’s Windows Mobile 6.5 range starts at Rs 10,000, and you can get a BlackBerry Flip for Rs 11,000 — and you can see why many people are actually leaving their laptops behind and lugging their smartphones on their trips.

…THE NETBOOKS RESIST…

But that is not to say that laptops are out of the mobile computing equation. The arrival of netbooks — ultraportable, if low-powered, notebooks with great battery life and low prices (starting at Rs 14,000) — has breathed new life into the laptop segment. While computing purists sniff at the relatively limited processing power of netbooks — most run on single core Intel Atom processors with speeds of around 1.6 Ghz — there can be no denying the fact that they are a lot more convenient to use and carry for those used to working on computers than smartphones. Even the most cramped netbook keyboard is better for typing out long documents and mails than the ‘thumbs only’ QWERTY layouts on most smartphones. Similarly, even the smallest netbook will have a larger screen and more storage than the largest smartphone, making it much better for viewing and storing large documents, files and especially video. And if you have the right data card installed, you can even make phone calls from them — mind you, making calls from smartphones is a darned sight easier. Best of all, most netbooks run Windows XP and are capable of running most of the applications on your computer and also work smoothly with accessories like printers, USB storage devices and scanners — areas that smartphones are remarkably deficient in.
Even the alleged deficiency in processing prowess is only when compared to conventional notebooks and desktops — the least powerful netbook has more processor muscle on paper than the most powerful smartphone. And with newer models coming with better processors, better graphics and larger screens — all without adding significantly to the weight or price of the devices — netbooks remain an excellent option for those who like to work on the move, especially if the work involves stacks of video, large documents and the need to plug in accessories.

…AND THE MOBILE WORKER RULES!

In the end, as in most cases, it all boils down to what the user needs. And the choice remains a tough one. Smartphones are expected to get a feature boost with still larger screens, better processors and yet more applications, while netbooks are expected to get a boost from Google’s Chrome OS, which will make them faster than ever without increasing costs. Ebook readers could join the battle — Archos and Barnes and Noble have come out with devices mainly meant for reading books, but which can also handle a few other tasks such as reading documents and with some tweaking, even access mail. Of course, there’s Apple, waiting to merrily muddy the waters again with a tablet that many say will be a blend of the Macbook and the iPhone. The mobile worker never had it better!

We come across customers who want to design a logo to give their company or brand n impetus. But the truth is something different.Despite businesses awaking up to the necessity of having a professional design for their brands & companies, there are various misunderstandings about the logo design. While it’s nice to be able to benchmark against your competitor, getting a new logo designed or the old logo re-designed, just because your competitor is doing it, ma work in the negative sense.

THE LOGO AND THE BRAND

The most common line of thought that precedes hiring a logo designer is, “The competitor has an awesome logo, we should also have one too”. Sure, having a  good logo/identity design for your brand is useful, but your company’s logo is not going to save the company. If your company is not doing well, giving it a shiny new look will not help matters.

A LOGO WON’T GET YOU MORE CUSTOMERS

Branding,marketing & advertising with a good logo would definitely yield better results than doing with a bad one. But the logo itself will not get you a larger piece of market share. The logo will enable you to use a single,unique, identifying mark repitively in your advertising & marketing collateral. This will engage customers and the more they see your logo, the more they will associate the feelings that the advertising evoked with your logo.

DON’T TRY TO FIT EVERYTHING INTO THE LOGO

A logo is a representation of your brand- it doesn’t have to be literal. It does not need to be a collage of various elements that might represent what business your company conducts. A car manufacturer does not need to have a picture of a car in the logo. Instead, aim for semi-abstract or abstract marks that allow for story-creation & establish a connection with the target audience at an emotional level. The logo should allow for a story; it shouldn’t be the story itself. Besides being a bad strategic move, a logo packed with numerous details would also cause trouble while reproducing the logo in various print/media channels. The more element a logo has, the more difficult it will be to produce accurately.

These are important points that aren’t related to design aspect of logo design. These are many more that relate specifically to the design of a logo. When in doubt, ask. If you’re wary of asking a logo designer, ask Google.