We, the staff of Our Picks, are announcing that we’ve started another project to go hand in hand with this one. While this site is a blog-like news site, TechFrenzy.NET is a tech support forum. We’re interested in building a community of members willing to share their knowledge to help others. Etherfast, our phpbb-know-it-all made sure that all the articles on Our Picks are announced there as well.

We divided the forum into two sections: English and Romanian (the languages most familiar to us), but we want to expand it over time so it could be language independent. That means we need your help to build that community; everyone is welcome to join and post questions/answers to the questions already stated.

From as far back as I can remember, ads have played an essential part in surfing the web. Because, without ads, communication between websites and their promotion decreases significantly. The vast majority of ads, I must admit, is composed of annoying, blinking, colorful adverts that are meant to catch your eye or trick you into clicking. But are those so profitable that everyone seems to take them into consideration? Read the rest of this entry »

I was asking myself a week ago what will Google plan for 1st of April this year. A first approach is taken by Gmail. As you probably know, there is a small counter on the front page that shows the continuously increasing storage space for your e-mails.

With the new update, here’s the new space targets and how many days until that much space is hit by the counter on the page:

2800MB: Already reached
2835MB: In 18.22 days
2980MB: In 384 days
3125MB: In 749 days
3270MB: In 1114 days
3415MB: In 1479 days
3560MB: In 1845 days

So at a glance, Gmail will increase with just 700MB in 5 years. That doesn’t look so promising. However, noting the history of Google events that took place on the 1st of April, I took the liberty of guessing a few directions regarding this issue.
* Google could announce the new quota will be actually available now, instead of 5 years, and everyone would be happy.
* Google could speed up the increasing process and a realistic quota will be available much sooner.
* Google could keep things just the way they are (regarding Gmail) for 1st of April this year and focus on another prank.

That’s for Google to plan, and for us to find out.

Two months ago, I was mentioning a leaked photo of Googlephone out to the web. Back then, it was just a rumor but now, things are starting to get a shape.

Isabel Aguilera, Google’s chief executive in Spain and Portugal, has admitted that the developers are currently working at some really jaw-breaking mobile-related hardware. However, the so-called Googlephone will only be one of the 18th research initiatives Google develops simultaneously.

This fancy piece of equipment might not be the iPhone competitor we could expect. But hey, if Apple intends to turn the iPhone into a multi-device franchise, Google’s entitled to do the same, is it not?

Google already started at the end of the past year, a beta session for its Audio Ads, which later became quite successful. However, today, Google needs more beta-testers for the above mentioned AdWords system.

“The beta has been going well and, in fact, the Audio Ads Team is looking for more testers. In terms of feedback, the Audio Ads team has heard that beta testers like the simple and clean user interface and the targeting and reporting options. Beta testers also find the audio ad creation process easy and fast since it only takes them a few days to create their ads and launch their first campaigns (as compared to potentially weeks for traditional radio ads)”

Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

The system’s procedure is simple enough for anyone to understand. Google collects audio ads from multiple AdWords publishers and redirects them to several radio stations that are part of older partnerships. This way, the advertisers can reach their target customers and attract a certain category of the offline users to their online services.

Google already had several attempts of expanding their advertising solutions towards the offline area. Although the audio tests were very popular, numerous users hearing them at multiple US radio stations, there were more beta tests: newspapers ads or TV ads. Some time ago, Google selected multiple AdWords publishers and sent their adverts to several US newspapers, representing the first Google attempt to become a powerful offline advertising platform.

Shortly you can sign up for beta-testing for Google, by following this link.

After the recent victory of YouTube in Turkey, where the online video site was banned two days ago, new problems seem to come upon Google’s service. Since today the ban in Turkey was removed but numerous users from Thailand reported that the YouTube site cannot be accessed.

Surfers in Thailand say they are redirected to the Ministry of Communication and Technology (MICT) site when they want to access YouTube. MICT is the Internet censorship organism in Thailand, but until no there was now official reason for the ban.

I don’t necessarily support YouTube but I think people have the right to be free to watch whatever they want so I hope problems like this will be passed one way or the other.

I was writing earlier about the Nokia 888 concept phone, that got me thinking. It would be interesting to take a look at the direction mobile phones are heading so I searched around the Web and here’s what I’ve found.

What you see above is just a concept phone designed by Tao Ma, but it just might be the future also. As you can see the phone has no display so no text messages or internet access, but it does have a integrated MP3 player. The way I see it phones like this will be created in the future, as science evolves.

Electronic devices become more specialized and for ladies such phones that can double for a bracelet could be the perfect choice. Also businessmen would choose a device able to perform their daily tasks, as Internet connection, performing office tasks, etc. On the other hand young people would enjoy phones with functions similar to PSP or other portable gaming devices. The way I see it, the future has a phone for each of us.