Best Linux Applications for 2013 (so far)..............!!!!!!!!!!

2013 has been the year of Android. With the Google-based operating system stealing the show with amazing devices, it's hard to believe that an open-source project has reached such heights. With stellar competitors like Microsoft and Apple, Android has once again proved that in the tech industry, anything is possible. That said, its freedom-loving brother Linux is still struggling to gain a foothold in the desktop market. As the demand for the desktop itself has started waning, the dominance of Microsoft that once bothered Linuxians, now seems like a thing of the past. However, that's not to say that Linux isn't growing. In fact, it has seen many new developments recently that have pushed it even further into the mainstream market.

One of the key aspects that will help Linux ensure a sustainable growth in the market is the number of software applications available. These days, the number of quality apps that an OS has, somehow signifies its popularity. In that case, here too Linux has seen surprising growth. This year, a lot of new applications were released for Linux. And yes, more are there to come with the Ubuntu App Showdown underway. However, not all apps that have come up on Linux have been that good in terms of quality. Some of them, well, they've raised the standards of the platform itself. In this article, we'll mention the best applications that the are available for Linux so far this year:

Lightworks

Though Lightworks was announced way earlier in 2012, Linuxians were impatiently waiting to get their hands on the professional tool. Used in many Hollywood movies, Lightworks is a professional-grade video editor from EditShare. The editor is free to try and use; however, if you want more, you can upgrade to the PRO version by paying. The application, though in beta, can be downloaded on your Ubuntu or Mint desktop right now.

Brackets

Out here in the Linux world, we aren't really big fans of Adobe especially after they stopped supporting Flash on this platform. However, this time, they've pleasantly surprised not only many FOSS supporters but also developers as well. In 2013, Adobe released Brackets, an open-source code editor for the web. Yep, open-source and Adobe sounds strange to hear in a single phrase, but that's the truth. Built with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, the lightweight code-editor can serve as a worthwhile upgrade from gedit or Kate.Brackets is really worth a try even if you are not a fan of Adobe. 

BitTorrent Sync

In the age of NSA spying and all sorts of privacy concerns, an application like BitTorrent Sync comes as a breath of fresh air. The free, cross-platform application lets you sync and share your files across multiple devices, safely and securely. All file transfers are encrypted, thus making the application NSA proof. And yes, BT sync handles large files exceptionally well thus making it a good alternative to Dropbox.


Viber

Viber is a Skype rival that lets you make HD-quality video calls to your friends and family. What makes Viber so special is that it is tied to your phone number. This means that unlike Skype, you won't have to remember any User ids. All you have to do is add the contacts that are there on your phone and let Viber sync them across all platforms. So, whether you are using Blackberry, Mac, Windows, Android, or even iOS, Viber works almost everywhere. And now, it's on Linux too. This is definitely good news for those who use Viber regularly. You can download Viber HERE. 

Steam

Well, this year was a big one for Linux all because of the release of Steam on Linux. While Windows gamers are silently mocking penguinians for their childlike enthusiasm about this announcement, only true FOSS supporters will understand how big a step it is towards the progress of Linux as a platform, both in terms of general usage and gaming as well. Steam, though it doesn't boast of many games as of now, is still a treat for gamers on the Linux platform. Let's hope the efforts of the gaming community continue this way to make Linux a true gaming platform of the future.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for Android: Too Little Too Late?

Remember the days when having a BBM pin was sort of a status symbol? People merrily flaunted their BBM Pins across their social circles as if it was their phone number. In retrospect, for many, it was more than just a phone number. BlackBerry Messenger, also known as BBM, was one of the most popular modes of communication. Not only did it allow you to send messages to your buddies and coworkers, it also let you share images, videos, and songs. And remember those funky status messages your buddies used to put up? 

Well, those days are gone. 

But here is the weird part. No one is sad about it. No one is missing BBM. Nor do people miss owning a BlackBerry device (unless of course, they belong to the select minority who prefer to own a smartphone with a physical keyboard). BlackBerry's glory days, in short, are over. First came the iPhone, then Android stepping up the smartphone game to such a degree that it made Research in Motion difficult to keep up with the changing trends. It reiterated their design, lowered the prices, and tried pretty much everything. But the level of innovation that Android and iPhone had put on display made BlackBerry sink deeper into the quicksand of failures. 

Shares tumbled. Deals were broken. Customers were lost. Efforts were made, but in vain. As the sales of the devices fell sharply, many speculated that BlackBerry might pull out their trump card by making BBM a cross-platform application. As customers were running away, it had only one hope of salvation: bringing BBM to the iPhone and Android and generate a whole new customer base. 

However, BlackBerry didn't heed the warning call and tumbled down the hill. It was after the fact that most BlackBerry users had already joined either the Apple or the Google faction, that RIM decided to bring BBM to other platforms. The question is that, is it too late? Can Droid or Apple save the dying hero? 

The answer is no. Neither Android nor Apple will be able to save BlackBerry. Bringing BBM to the masses who are already hooked on WhatsApp is a big challenge as it is. Those who have never used BBM, for example, will be reluctant to adopt to this new app. Old-time BBM users, on the other hand, might give it a try. But Android users have way too many choices these days to fall back on BBM. 

If, at the moment, BlackBerry is relying solely on BBM's expansion to bring back the company from the dead, they are headed for disaster. 

What does this mean to Android? 

BBM for Android only makes the Google-made mobile operating system stronger. Though it has nothing to brag about, especially to its biggest rival Apple, the messenger is a welcome addition to Android and can provide massive value to the system. Let's take the biggest chat client, which is WhatsApp. The free-yet-proprietary chat client is available for Android, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, iOS, Series 40, Symbian (S60), and Windows Phone. That's a lot of platforms. However, BlackBerry if it sticks to the top two platforms, that is Android and iOS, it can help some of the BlackBerry users switch to Android itself. Imagine a user frustrated and stuck with his old BlackBerry device but unable to upgrade due to the unavailability of BBM on Android. This change will finally help users make the move to Android without ditching BlackBerry entirely. In a sense, it is a win-win scenario for both Android and BlackBerry, that is, if BlackBerry manages to leverage it properly.

What can save BlackBerry then? 

A complete rethinking. BlackBerry has to stop relying on old ways of getting into the market now. There's no more room at the top if it wants to keep selling smartphones. One strategy would be to rely more upon BBM and develop it to such a point that it gets more users than WhatsApp. Also, it could try to come up with new apps centered around the BBM brand and branch out in the software world. The road to BlackBerry's success is a very steep climb. Only time can tell whether it will manage to reclaim some of its past glory.

Google planning new search interface for Android

LOS ANGELES: Ben Gomes, the India-bred techie who oversees Google's handling of 100 billion searches a month, believes a new voice-based interface is needed for the next frontier of search centred around mobile phones and tablet computers. 

"Now search is becoming mobile - on phones and tablets. The challenge is that it is on a small screen, so it's hard to type. The opportunity is that it's got a really good microphone and a touch screen," he said. 

"It can enable a new kind of interface. So we realized we want to build an interface that was much like the way you talk to some person and ask a question," Gomes said. 

And while the Google search app can already respond to questions using voice-based software, Gomes told the BBC that the process is "going to get better and more intelligent." 

The Tanzania-born, India-bred, US-educated vice-president of search is responsible for helping to answer queries in the shortest time possible on desktops, tablets and phones. 

Search is Google's cash cow, bringing in a majority of its $50 billion revenues last year. It is also, said Gomes, "about having a continuous conversation with the user to find out what he wants." 

Described by BBC as a "boy-like 45-year-old guru of search in Googleplex," the company headquarters in Mountain View, California, Gomes works out of an untidy cubicle with four other top engineers. 

Gomes and his team work on "their fine-tooth comb search of the worldwide web to serve up the popular search engine." 

He said: "When I joined Google in 1999, search was about basically finding the words that you search for in a document. Then we took this view that we were going to understand what you want and give you what you need." 

Trawling through over 20 billion webpages a day, Gomes and his "army of search" - a substantial number of Google's 44,000 employees - use algorithms to make search intuitive, multimedia and super smart. 

Gomes is especially proud of Knowledge Graph, a new function launched last year to make the site's algorithms "act more human" in an attempt to offer instant answers to search questions. 

"It's a database of all things in the world. It pulls together different databases and unifies them into a single coherent one that has about 500 to 600 million people, places and things in them and about 18 billion attributes and connections between those things," he said. 

Google handles 100-billion plus searches every month, or over three billion a day. A good 15% of the search questions it sees every day are new. 

When Gomes joined Google in 1999 after a stint in Sun Microsystems working on Java programming language, some searches could take up to 20 seconds. Today a search for Ben Gomes on Google shows about 19,000,000 results in 0.28 seconds. 

Gomes, the son of a car distributor father and a school teacher mother, moved to the US 25 years ago. He went to Berkeley, where he received a PhD in computer science.

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Private data gatekeeper stands between you and the NSA

Software like openPDS acts as a bodyguard for your personal data when apps – or even governments – come snooping

BIG BROTHER is watching you. But that doesn't mean you can't do something about it – by wresting back control of your data.

Everything we do online generates information about us. The tacit deal is that we swap this data for free access to services like Gmail. But many people are becoming uncomfortable about companies like Facebook and Google hoarding vast amounts of our personal information – particularly in the wake of revelations about the intrusion of the US National Security Agency (NSA) into what we do online. So computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created software that lets users take control.

OpenPDS was designed in MIT's Media Lab by Sandy Pentland and Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye. They say it disrupts what NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden called the "architecture of oppression", by letting users see and control any third-party requests for their information – whether that's from the NSA or Google.

If you want to install an app on your smartphone, you usually have to agree to give the program access to various functions and to data on the phone, such as your contacts. Instead of letting the apps have direct access to the data, openPDS sits in between them, controlling the flow of information. Hosted either on a smartphone or on an internet-connected hard drive in your house, it siphons off data from your phone or computer as you generate it.

It can store your current and historical location, browsing history, content and information related to sent and received emails, and any other personal data required. When external applications or services need to know things about you to provide a service, they ask openPDS the question, and it tells them the answer – if you allow it to. People hosting openPDS at home would always know when entities like the NSA request their data, because the law requires a warrant to access data stored in a private home.

Pentland says openPDS provides a technical solution to an issue the European Commission raised in 2012, when it declared that people have the right to easier access to and control of their own data. "I realised something needed to be done about data control," he says. "With openPDS, you control your own data and share it with third parties on an opt-in basis."

Storing this information on your smartphone or on a hard drive in your house are not the only options. ID3, an MIT spin-off, is building a cloud version of openPDS. A personal data store hosted on US cloud servers would still be secretly searchable by the NSA, but it would allow users to have more control over their data, and keep an eye on who is using it.

"OpenPDS is a building block for the emerging personal data ecosystem," says Thomas Hardjono, the technical lead of the MIT Consortium for Kerberos and Internet Trust, a collection of the world's largest technology companies who are working together to make data access fairer. "We want people to have equitable access to their data. Today, AT&T and Verizon have access to my GPS data, but I don't."

Other groups also think such personal data stores are a good idea. A project funded by the European Union, called digital.me, focuses on giving people more control over their social networks, and the non-profit Personal Data Ecosystem Consortium advocates for individuals' right to control their own data.

OpenPDS is already being put to use. Massachusetts General Hospital wants to use the software to protect patient privacy for a program called CATCH. It involves continuously monitoring variables including glucose levels, temperature, heart rate and brain activity, as well as smartphone-based analytics that can give insight into mood, activity and social connections. "We want to begin interrogating the medical data of real people in real time in real life, in a way that does not invade privacy," says Dennis Ausiello, head of the hospital's department of medicine.

OpenPDS will help people keep a handle on their own data, but getting back information already in private hands is a different matter. "As soon as you give access to that raw data, there's no way back," says de Montjoye.