Is Google+ the new Facebook?

After the lukewarm response to Google Buzz, the search giant is back again - this time with the feature-packed Google+. Touted as the rival to Facebook, the new social networking place has the online forums buzzing. While most people are going gaga over its cool features like Circles and Hangout, some are just slamming it as a mere copy of Facebook.
While you still make up your mind whether to love or hate Google's latest offering, here's what the experts are saying.
Expert talk
Danny Sullivan, searchengineland.com
The terrible name is a bad start. Google+? Google+! I can't even question or exclaim about the bad name without it looking bad in writing.Pronounced "Google Plus," the product is officially written as Google+ - making placing any punctuation after the name fairly awkward. And Google+ looks like and quacks like Facebook in several ways.
Ben Parr, mashable.com
No matter what Google says, Google+ is the company's response to the rise of Facebook. The two companies are in heated competition for talent, page views and consumers. While Google controls the search market and has a strong presence on mobile with Android, it hasn't been able to crack the social nut. Its most successful social product, YouTube, had to be acquired, and it still ranks as one of the most expensive acquisitions in the company's history.
Mark Hachman, Pcmag.com
Put simply, Google+ is a social network for geeks. But users used to Facebook's minimalist interface may find Google+ jarring. And, sad to say, Google's "field trial" suffered from overcapacity, an issue which may or may not have rippled into our evaluation on Tuesday afternoon. I and other PCMag.com staffers experienced numerous annoyances, which resulted from either poor design decisions, alpha glitches, or the overcapacity issue - I don't know which.
Brian Womack, bloomberg.com
With Google+, users easily share information based on the circle of friends they think would most like to see a photo or read a message, such as immediate family or people who like a certain hobby or sports team.
Ryan Tate, defamer.com
Really! Dump Facebook and tell all your friends about your new, richer social network. It's like Facebook but with much better groups (purportedly), so you can segregate your relatives and friends into different "Circles" that get different streams of information from you. You can name your circles and add whoever you want to each one; the relationships can be one way, so you can receives shares without sharing back. There are some other features, but that's the only one you need to care about. Google is touting Plus as a big improvement over Facebook.
Marshall Kirkpatrick, readwriteweb.com
With Google+, users such as immediate family or people who like a certain hobby or sports team. Once users sign up, they have a profile page with security settings that let them share or hide personal information, such as education or job descriptions. Contacts are suggested based on user e-mail accounts.

Buying iPhone 4? Read this

Puneet Kumar recently bought an iPhone 4 from a shop in Amsterdam where he went for a business trip. It was an unlocked device, bought at 680 euros from a shop that was very much legitimate. Puneet got a bill along with the device and a “two-year international warranty”.

Unfortunately for him, his iPhone 4 started malfunctioning days after he came back to India. The home button was “erratic” and many a time Puneet found pressing the button wasn’t bringing him back to the home screen. Armed with his copy of bill and a receipt that “specified world-wide warranty”, he visited a service centre that was authorized by Apple to provide after-sales service in Delhi. But he was in for a rude shock.
The customer care executives at the service centre refused to touch his iPhone 4, saying it was not covered under any warranty. Their position was that iPhones are not covered under Apple’s international warranty and the only way for Puneet to get his device fixed was to talk to the dealer in Amsterdam and ship the device to him. Exasperated, Puneet decided to ring up Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. There too he was told — according to him in a not-too-nice manner — that his device is not covered by any warranty in India. While he was free to deal with the dealer in Amsterdam in whatever manner he deemed fit, officially, Apple could not help him in any way.
After coming to know about Puneet’s experience, I decided to dig a little deeper into the warranty policy that Apple follows for iPhone 4 in India. Due to delayed launch of iPhone 4 in India, a large number of people in India use iPhones that they bought abroad — with all bills and warranties — or from the grey market. We hope this information will be useful for these people, as well as to those who plan to buy iPhone 4 in future.
1- No international warranty: Apple is renowned for its warranty. People who use Apple products often talk about how their grievances are handled efficiently without any questions. All because of one simple fact. Most Apple devices are covered under international warranty.
But iPhone 4 is an exception. In India, Apple provides warranty for only those iPhones that have been bought in this country. In fact, for iPhones — because they are often linked to carriers — there is nothing called international a warranty. If some dealer abroad tells you that you will get international warranty on an iPhone, he is misleading you. He may provide a “seller’s warranty” but that is not Apple’s warranty.

2- Buy from ‘authorized’ shops: In plain terms, this means that you should specifically ask the seller if he is authorized to sell the iPhone. It's even better if you check the list of authorized stores at Apple, Airtel or Aircel website and only buy from a shop which figures on the list. It is a fact that iPhone 4 has been launched in India, but not all shops or websites are authorized to sell it. So take care.
3- You are doomed (likely) if you bought iPhone 4 from the grey market or from abroad: Officially, service centres authorized by Apple in India are not supposed to touch any iPhone 4 that has not been bought from “authorized source”. This means that even if people are willing to pay money for parts and service, Apple will officially not provide any service to such a device in India. That’s the official policy. In reality, some centres — read the more benevolent ones — may take pity on you. But that is no guarantee.
4- iPhone is an exception: Apart from iPhone, all other Apple products are covered under international warranty in India. Apple claims that because of the complexity — read jail-broken devices — and its business model that relies on carriers like Airtel and Aircel, the company does not provide any international warranty to iPhone 4 in India.