Domination of Smartphone Market taking Samsung towards the Sky

I just read that the shares of Samsung are soaring high, and its profits are going really well. Another importance of this thing is that Samsung's shares are rising when its rival, Apple's shares are hit. In case of Apple, it is said that its financial results failed to meet the expectations of its investors.

Samsung reported net profits for the quarter as $5.97 billion. This is obviously because of exceptional sales of its Galaxy series phones. The overall profits have risen by 91% as compares to the same quarter of last year.

"The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the US and Europe," said Samsung Senior Vice President Robert Yi.

"However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records," Yi said.

"We expect Samsung will deliver solid earnings growth with product leadership in the consumer branded business, smartphone and TV, and enhanced bargaining power in the component business, semiconductor and display panel," Citi said in a report.

Samsung shipped a total of 56.9 million smartphones out of the total 162 million smartphones sold globally. It is a 35% share, which is massive for a company.

Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S3 can be said to be the main force behind company's exceptional growth. And I'm already in love with Samsung's Note II ;)

Is this just the beginning of Samsung's march to conquer the market of Smartphones? May be, the recently lost judgement is providing Samsung with some kind of Nitro boost!! :D

Free Alternatives for Microsoft Office (Free and Portable)

Today I'm listing 5 FREE and Portable alternatives which you can use in place of Microsoft Office. This will be helpful if you don't want to purchase Microsoft Office, or simply want to run away from Microsoft products.

As many open source communities are usually against Microsoft's working and profit-making strategies, there are literally many alternatives to everything that Microsoft offers. And many such products are even better than Microsoft, after all that's the real power of Open Source! Biggest example of this is our Google Chrome!! It has literally made Microsoft's Internet Explorer run back home.

If you want to use an alternative to MS Office, here are the products which you should use. And again, these are portable too! That means you can simply use a USB drive to use them, which can be used in case you're stuck in a Cyber Cafe with no MS Office!

1. LibreOffice Portable

LibreOffice Portable is an OpenOffice based alternative, which is compatible with all file formats of Microsoft Office.
Simply download the installer, open the file, and extract it to any location (it can be a USB drive too)

Download LibreOffice

2. OpenOffice.org Portable

As LibreOffice is developed using OpenOffice, all the components are just the same as in LibreOffice. But, the total size of OpenOffice is about 3/4th of the size of LibreOffice files. In case you have trouble running LibreOffice, consider using OpenOffice.

Download LibreOffice

3. Kingsoft Office Suite 2012

In case you're experiencing compatibility issues with LibreOffice or OpenOffice, this is the suite that will help you out. Kingsoft claims highest compatibility with Microsoft Office. The full version of Kingsoft is paid, although a portable and free version has Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, which are respectively the same as MS Word, MS Powerpoint and MS Excel. I think these are just enough for most common uses. It is just 35.8MB in size.

Download Kingsoft 2012

4. SSuite Office Blade Runner

Blade runner is the portable version of SSuite's Office suite. It works as an alternative for MS Word and MS Excel, while other utilities such as email, instant messenger, pdf creator, etc. are also available with it. It is also free of cost.

Download SSuite Office Blade Runner

5. Softmaker Office 2008(paid, but shareware which you can use without paying)

"If you need a Microsoft Office alternative, which is also blazingly fast, friendly, and reliable, look no further", rightly says their official website. Although their latest versions are paid versions, there is a free-to-use version of 2008 which is available for download. It is available for Windows, Linux, Android Smartphones, Windows CE and Windows Mobile.

Download Softmaker Office


If you know about any other alternative, please let all of us know about it too! :)

Heart Touching Story About Life: NYC Taxi driver with an Old Woman as Passenger

I found this story on Facebook. It talks about life, about patience, and how it ends quietly in the end. I thought it is worth a share, so I'm sharing it here.


Here it starts:

A NYC Taxi driver wrote:

I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. ‘Just a minute’, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90′s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940′s movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.

There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

‘Would you carry my bag out to the car?’ she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. ‘It’s nothing’, I told her.. ‘I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.’

‘Oh, you’re such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, ‘Could you drive through downtown?’

‘It’s not the shortest way,’ I answered quickly..

‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. ‘I don’t have any family left,’ she continued in a soft voice..’The doctor says I don’t have very long.’ I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

‘What route would you like me to take?’ I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, ‘I’m tired.Let’s go now’. We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

‘How much do I owe you?’ She asked, reaching into her purse.

‘Nothing,’ I said

‘You have to make a living,’ she answered.

‘There are other passengers,’ I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.She held onto me tightly.

‘You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut.It was the sound of the closing of a life..

I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day,I could hardly talk.What if that woman had gotten an angry driver,or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?




On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

4 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

Now with about 10 months of experience with blogging about different topics, I am now getting a traffic >200 per day. Yes, hard work pays!!

Looking towards future, I had to think about the best practices which I need to follow to increase traffic. Hence, coming up with what I have gained.

1. First way to Increase Blog Traffic: Content Is the King

As a blogger, you should keep one thing in mind: the better the content, the better your blog is. So, aim for special topics every once in a while, and let them be the face of your blog. Every once in a while here means at least once a week.

Just write down about the latest thing you just learnt, as we learn something daily whether we're aware about it or not. For example, I am now going to write about Drupal today, because i am just done with editing a theme in Drupal 7, and learnt many things while doing it.

2. Be Regular with Writing Blogs

If you're serious about blogging, just make sure you're regular with it. Obviously it doesn't mean that you should publish a post at 4pm every day! But you should write a post every once in two days at least. The topic need not be something for which you will need to spend an hour. Just go to any Q & A website, see what people are asking for, what their general questions are, and pick up the one which you think is really simply according to you, and you have got what you can write in 20 minutes!! Sounds simple? Yes, it actually is. If you write two posts a day, that sums up to be about 15 posts per month. If each post brings 10 visitors per day, you're getting 150 visitors in just one day at the end of the very first month!! 10 visitors?? What if your posts are way too great(than I'm expecting) and each gets roughly 50 viewers per day??? You can do the counting part I guess! ;)

3. Get Social with people and Do Promotions

This part is also as crucial as writing a post is. Don't believe me? Well, you'll believe only after you actually do this.

Every once in a while, you read a blog post by someone here or there, right? Whether it is about a gadget, some technology, or just some jokes, we all like reading blogs. But then, we just move on to other things after reading the post. Instead of closing the blog, what if you write your thoughts in the comments section of that post? Won't that give you an extra backlink, and not to forget, some new visitors??

Well, be social with everything when you're a blogger. Write comments telling the author what you think about his/her post, and what you loved in that post.

4. Guest Blogging

Yes, this is about the old thing you've always heard about: write guest posts.

Guest posting gives you an extra edge to increase your visitors, and provides you with a backlink too. Although Penguin update by Google won't recognise your backlink as much as it would have done in the past, but for sure your reputation will increase and you'll get traffic when people who love your post will go to your blog to read more of your content!

To get a list of websites that want you to write a guest post for them, Google "Write for us" with a word about what your topic will be. This way you'll hunt for the best blog for that topic or niche.

In case you would like to write a blog for All About Life, just let me know ! :)