PowerVocab Youtube video

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Apple App Review website(http://www.appleappreview.com) created a YouTube video for PowerVocab app.  Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZYLQSrKEFM&feature=player_embedded.

We just deployed the version 1.4 of the app yesterday. Apparently it had a bug which causes it to crash for updates. If you delete and reinstall the app it works fine. It led to the first 3 star rating for the app since its launch. So far we had only 4 or 5 star ratings :).

We are currently working on a new app which combines multiple popular word games into a single app. Should be able to release in few weeks.

PowerVocab - 4 weeks stats

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PowerVocab was downloaded(new unique users) 2829 times in last 4 weeks. Not bad for the first month. Below graph shows weekly downloads since its release.

Infact, it is in top 10 for GRE, GMAT categories on app store. It is rated as the top 4th app for GMAT among 200+ competitors.

What is wrong with Yahoo!? AOL is on a buying spree

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Looks like AOL is snapping up anything which seem interesting with the goal of becoming world's largest digital media company. I know that Yahoo's ads revenue have been rising for last 4 months vs. AOL, but it still seems odd, that Yahoo is not actively competing to acquire these companies. These kind of acquisitions will drive more traffic to AOL portfolio websites and does not look good for Yahoo in the long run.

Mergers and Acquisitions by themselves are not always successful. There is no bigger example than the AOL and Time Warner merger. But AOL's acquisitions are interesting on multiple front. On one side it is grabbing up these websites and denying Yahoo the opportunity, but it is also creating barriers of entry for new entrants. It is also keeping the buzz around AOL going.

I am not sure, how successfully AOL can integrate these websites, but does it want to integrate? It could just be a portfolio approach for Tim. He probably sees AOL as a holding company for these portals with high potential and might decide to spin them off in future for high valuation. I do not know the answer, but it is just interesting to think about it.

I feel bad for Yahoo, especially since so many of my close friends work at Yahoo. I do hope they can figure out a way to turn around the company or at least bring someone who can.

Why do people blog?

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Recently, I had an interesting encounter. I wrote a casual email to a friend/colleague asking whats new with him and how are things. His reply was something on these lines "I am doing so and so. Read my BLOG". It got me thinking, do people really think everyone is reading or rather has time to even look at their blogs? Do people really blog with an expectation that everyone they know is reading it? That sounds little over the top :)

It made me thinking, how many people actually blog? Apparently, 133 million people do! and 350 million read them.

Coming back to my original question, why do people blog. It could be altruistic motive to share their knowledge with the world. It could be brand building strategy, which helps them to either get hired or gives them boasting rights. Many do it for SEO. Some even do it to feel important.

But many do it to have a voice. These are the people who would otherwise not have an opportunity in the mainstream media. Of course some are like my good friend above. I feel bad for picking on him :). For me, it is just a way to share my thoughts and maybe some of them might be useful to someone some day. Of course I also do it for SEO to sell PowerVocab :)

Intellivocab is handsomely beating its competitors

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PowerVocab v1.3.1 is...

Placed 4th for "Free Gmat Vocabulary"
Placed 6th for "Gmat Vocabulary"
Placed 16th for "GRE Vocabulary"
Placed 7th for "Free GRE Vocabulary"

It beat many highly popular competitors to achieve the above rankings. It was downloaded over 500 times in last 3 days.

PowerVocab has 1000 users now

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It was downloaded 252 times yesterday. We crossed 1000 user marks and is currently at 1200 users.

I will soon write my experience about building this product.

iphoneitalia product review

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PowerVocab was reviewed by 7900th ranked website on the internet for web traffic and Italy's top website. The editor liked the product and went on to review it on his website. It was downloaded over 200 times in 48 hrs in Italy alone.

Thank you @iPhoneItalia for reviewing the product

http://www.iphoneitalia.com/powervocab-per-perfezionare-il-vostro-vocabolario-dinglese-200660.html

Best day for PowerVocab

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PowerVocab was downloaded 149 times(new users) on 2/3. This is the highest downloads in a single day. I know compared to the iPhone sales, this is not a big number. But considering that it is an education app targeting a niche market, it is not a bad deal :).

Verizon's iPhone: I can hear you now!

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Sampling of reviews about Verizon's latest gadget, iPhone!. Inspite of what these reviews say, finally being able to use iPhone as a phone is amazing. I had to endure 3 years of AT&T's shitty service, specially while making phone calls. I am never assured that when I place a call, it rings on the other side and I end up thinking they didn't pickup. Even though AT&T's profits from iPhone where lower, they had so much revenue and an opportunity to win customers over for life. It was a once in a life time opportunity and I just do not understand why they never fixed their network to handle all the demand.

• The New York Times' David Pogue: "To answer everyone's question, the Verizon iPhone is nearly the same as AT&T's iPhone 4 — but it doesn't drop calls. For several million Americans, that makes it the holy grail.
• The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg: "What about the trade-offs? Chief among them is data speed... despite a few Verizon victories here and there, AT&T's network averaged 46% faster at download speeds and 24% faster at upload speeds."

• TechCrunch's MG Siegler: "Yesterday, I made a 45-minute phone call from my office. This seemingly unremarkable statement is remarkable for two reasons. First, I was able to place a call from my office — something which was impossible for me to do a week prior. Second, I made it through the entire 45-minutes without the call being dropped once. Again, this was impossible a week prior."
• Bloomberg Businessweek's Rich Jaroslovsky: "There are two significant drawbacks to the Verizon iPhone. One is that, unlike the AT&T version, you can't talk and access the Internet over the 3G connection at the same time. So you can't, for instance, check movie times while you're on a call with a friend... The other drawback is that CDMA, which was developed by Qualcomm Corp., is far less widely used outside the U.S. than is the standard AT&T uses, which is known as GSM. So if you need to use your phone internationally, AT&T may make more sense."
• Daring Fireball's John Gruber: "The hotspot feature works so well that I can't really see paying for a 3G iPad again. I'd rather have a Wi-Fi-only iPad and my iPhone's hotspot, when needed, than pay $15 a month for a 3G data service that only works on the iPad itself."

Michael Cusumano 's New York Times article (Thesis Advisor)

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Publication: The New York Times

Title: The power of the platform at Apple

“Apple has hit that magical combination of gradually shifting from a product to a platform strategy,” says MIT Sloan Prof. Michael Cusumano on Apple’s combination of hardware, software and services: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/business/30unbox.html

The story also ran on CNBC’s web site on 01/30/11: http://classic.cnbc.com/id/41337561

And in the International Herald Tribune on 01/30/11: (PDF available through Media Relations)

Is Carol good for Yahoo?

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For a long time I used to criticize Carol's performance as a CEO at Yahoo! (and Yahoo! overall), but after sometime I got bored of it. It felt like I was beating a dead horse and in fact I kind of felt good for them and even cheered a little bit when there was something positive. I guess I like underdog stories :).

I saw an article today in Business Insider on how Carol managed to increase display ad revenues by double digit for 4 quarters in a row and I kind of felt good for them. I in fact wrote an email to my Yahoo friends congratulating them.. Weird :).

I still think Carol is not the right person to lead Yahoo or atleast they need to hire a community evangelist to build relationship with bloggers. Yep, I am offering myself :).

PowerVocab version 1.3.1 is live on app store

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version 1.3.1 with new menu system went live today on app store. It now has sound and antonyms for each word. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/powervocab-lite/id413511366?mt=8&ls=2