Page: Google + in the impact of large and all other Google products

Google co-founder and CEO Larry page made it clear on Thursday has high expectations for the company for its new social-networking site Google +.

During a conference call the company's third quarter financial results page outlined significant implications he sees Google + on the company.

"Our ultimate goal is to transform the whole Google experience-so almost by chance nice easy, because we understand it immediately deliver what you want and can", he said.

"This means baking identity and Exchange in all of our products, so that we build a real relationship with our users." Exchange on the Web be like the release in real life over all your stuff. You better, more relevant search results and view must, "he added."

Although it clearly since its launch in June, that Google + is an important initiative on Google, latest comments leave no doubt page, which is a lot riding on the success of social-networking site.

"Think about it this way: last quarter, we delivered"Plus"and now we ship the part of Google," he said.

Of course, now comes the hard part: development Google + in a way that a critical mass of users to achieve and makes it a real contender on Facebook.

Although page much excitement on Thursday about the fact expressed, that Google + has topped now 40 million members, success is sure.

Finally, Facebook has more than 800 million members, and its growth shows no signs of slowing down down-- on the contrary. And since the launch of Google, Facebook has new and updated features have been aggressive.

Some industry observers have pointed out that Google + functions requires that a clear differentiation from Facebook, be it as unique functionality, which is enough to hundreds of millions of people to make the command prompt, forcing their preferred social network.

A Google engineer named Steve Yegge this week incorrectly publicly published a post in which some sharp criticism of Google +, called it matched much of "A knee-jerk reaction, a study in short term thinking", because it lacks a strong developer platform.

Data analytics company Chitika recently released results of a study which showed that Google + traffic has deflated, came after after a bit of social networking service from a limited beta on Sept. 20, and back please use had level always publicly available.

In short, the consensus appears that Google + risk runs the millions of people, at the end as a good social-networking site, but that come with Facebook's position in the market not close.

In this scenario would Google + lag behind the big vision, the page for it has painted on Thursday. Google would leave a lot of online data, which is for the Google search engine, from the growing threat of Facebook as advertising competitor, as a close partner of Microsoft, as well as the gatekeeper.

In the coming year, it will be interesting to see, Google, Google + to make the page the vast service sieht-- and that the company needs.

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Steve Jobs' Greatest Legacy May Be Impact On Design

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Steve Jobs introduces new MacBook Air models at Apple headquarters on Oct. 20, 2010. Some say one of his greatest legacies is his impact on design.

Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, was obsessed with computers from an early age. In 1975, when he was 20, Jobs was part of the Homebrew Computer Club — a group of early computer enthusiasts obsessed with making computers more popular.

"People [would be] all together in a room, jostling, bubbling with ideas, bringing in new technology, new chips, new displays, new networks, new software, everything new," says John Gage, a former member of the club.

Gage says from the beginning, Jobs' talent was to see all that clutter and cut through it, "with the result, an elegant, simple, human usable device."

"That was Steve's genius," Gage says. "He saw clearly how to take this enormous complexity and make something a human being could use."

In 1984, Jobs introduced the first MacIntosh computer at the first MacWorld in front of an audience of thousands. Jobs lifted a cover and revealed a boxy computer with easy-to-read graphics.

The computer voice identified itself, said, "It sure is great to get out of that bag," and went on to poke fun at IBM computers.

"Never trust a computer you can't lift," it said. The MacIntosh had a mouse and graphical user interface — not the first computer to have them — but it was the first computer with those features that was commercially successful. The Mac made the computer a creative device for the average person.

"He brought music and art," Gage says. "He brought visual sensation. He brought capabilities to the computer that were not dreamed of by those that were at the lower levels of putting together the chips that would do the fast computation or store all the bits of a picture."

In 1985, Jobs was pushed out of Apple in a boardroom coup. But after he left, the company floundered. He returned in 1997 and stripped down the company the way he stripped down design — cutting out product lines.

Robert Brenner was at Apple during the time Jobs was gone. When he returned, Brenner says, he unleashed the power of the company's designers.

"There obviously is a culture and an environment there as a designer if you're good that will ... support you in doing great things," Brenner says.

In 1998, Apple introduced the iMac. It was one piece and a smash hit. In 2001, the iPod reshaped the idea of an MP3 player, with a simple user interface that had a wheel in the front that you could turn to scroll through all your songs in a little window.

Then in 2007, Apple entered the smartphone market. Jobs poked fun at the other phones and smartphones, and then he introduced the iPhone.

"What we want to do is make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been and super easy to use," Jobs said at the time. "This is what iPhone is."

Brenner says Jobs was obsessed with making his products just right and using the best materials — not plated plastic, but real machined metal; not black plastic but glass. Brenner says Apple would build a new factory if that's what it took to make the product right.

"Very few companies would do that, say, 'Here's an object we believe needs to be made this way; let's go out and create an entire infrastructure to do it,' " Brenner says.

Brenner says Jobs raised the profile of design. Brenner, who now has his own firm, says there's a dark side to that: Everybody wants products to look just like Apple's.

"If it's not a machined piece of aluminum with black glass and one button it's not good," Brenner says.

Still, Brenner says the world of computers is a better place because Jobs and Apple took care to make high-quality, accessible products that have transformed everything from the way we listen to music to watching movies and communicating.

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Even now, there is more we don't know about Steve Jobs' health struggle than we know.

Apple aims to keep the Jobs magic alive — from his management style to his infectious enthusiasm.

His address — a rare case of the Apple co-founder talking about himself — inspired many.

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How Will Amazon's Fire Impact Apple?

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On Wednesday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the release of a tablet device called Fire. Michele Norris will talk with NPR's Laura Sydell about what this means for Amazon, Apple and consumers.

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MICHELE NORRIS, host: The market Amazon is stepping into has been truly dominated by Apple's iPad. Apple has sold some 29 million of them and no other tablet computer has anyone that excited.

Joining me now is NPR's Laura Sydell, who covers digital culture. Hey, Laura.

LAURA SYDELL: Hey, there.

NORRIS: Now, we just heard about what Kindle Fire is. Tell us how it's different from all the other tablets out there. Or really, is it any different?

SYDELL: You know, I think it actually is. First off, really key here, is that Amazon has its own content store. So all the other companies that have tried to enter this market - Samsung, HP - they were just devices. The Kindle Fire has a direct link to the Amazon store, which has movies, books, TV, music. And interestingly enough, I think they're almost like a mirror image of Apple.

Apple has all this content so they can sell devices. Amazon is essentially giving you a device so that they can sell their content, because that's where they're making their real money, which gets us to the price. It's $200. You know, if you're going to buy an iPad, it's going to cost you 500 bucks. This is $200. So it's a lot cheaper. And, as Margot Adler reported, the iPad, you know, it can be used for work - you could add a keyboard onto it, the screen is a little bigger. This is a 7-inch screen. The iPad has a 10-inch screen.

So it's all a bit different. It's actually - I don't think it's a direct challenge to the iPad. I think it's a whole new market.

NORRIS: One of the surprising things about the Kindle Fire is that it has, it has its own browser. Tell us a little more about how that browser is going to work.

SYDELL: The key here is that it's going to be a lot faster than, say, a lot of other browsers. And the reason is because Amazon has this whole Cloud service, so it will kind of know what your next move might be. And it does that because it has some sense of people's habits. So, people go to The New York Times, they're most likely to say go to a certain spot next. And so it'll be already in the Cloud, ready to send you that.

It will also, if you want - you can turn this feature off - track your individual habits. So, say you go to The New York Times and you always go to the business page next. Well, it will immediately know that and it will have the business page ready to go.

NORRIS: In this territory, at least for now, the iPad is the king of the hill. And one of the big attractions for the iPad has been the app store; you can do all kinds of things if you're willing to purchase or download these apps. How does Amazon's Android apps store measure up to the iPad app store?

SYDELL: The truth is it doesn't. It does not have the depth that you're going to get from the Apple apps store at all. But it will have some things that you really want. It will have "Angry Birds." In fact, they showed it off today.

It will have Pandora. Surprisingly, it will have Netflix because Netflix is a bit of a competitor to Amazon - but the word is they're going to have that. There'll be magazines and probably a calendar, things of that sort.

So while it was measure up - remember, it's a $200 device- so, you know, you'll get a lot for your money.

NORRIS: For people use the iPad one of the downsides is that you can use Flash. What about the Fire?

SYDELL: You can. And I have to say, I've used the iPad and it can drive you crazy because a lot of websites use Flash. You get there and they iPad can't read it. And that just - it drives me crazy. It drives a lot of people crazy. But you will be able to read those Flash sites with the Fire.

NORRIS: They also introduced some new Kindle e-Readers. Is there anything significant about these new models?

SYDELL: You know, there is in this sense - again, it's going back to this price point. And this is where I think Amazon has been very, very smart. They now have a $79 e-Reader. So, say if you're a parent, you might get your kid that $79 e-Reader and immediately you're tapped into Amazon's bookstore, right? You can buy a lot of them.

So it's really going to be a push, I think, to sort of a future where you have a lot of screens that do a lot of different things. And I think they've really moved us in that direction by introducing these products.

NORRIS: Laura Sydell, thank you so much.

SYDELL: You're quite welcome.

NORRIS: That's NPR's Laura Sydell.

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