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VOIP/SKYPE Handsfree

2011-12-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

VOIP/SKYPE Handsfree Stereo Headset – Recently, voice telecomunication over internet connection has become a significant rival to standard telephone line communication. VoIP Voice over internet Protocol and Skype headsets enable user to talk to business partners, suppliers and customers from everywhere in the world. due to the conversation occuring over an internet connection that’s purchased monthly the caller avoids the expense of a per-minute phone call. especially if they’re calling overseas. VoIP and Skype headsets are simple to use. simply install the neccessary software on your pc, plug in your headset and you’re ready for talk.

Introducing One of Best headset for Skype and VOIP, VOIP/SKYPE Handsfree Stereo Headset is great for internet phone, conference calls, video games. totally compatible with: VoIP Skype / MSN / Yahoo / ICQ / AOL or internet calling. Stereo headset offers glorious bass and treble sound quality. Adjustable head band and foam ear pads offers comfortable fitting. features with adjustable volume control management on the wire. Plugs into standard 3.5mm audio jacks, for speaker and microphone. Wire Length: 78 inches 6.5 feet. can be used for laptops, MP3 players and DVD players.

5 Common iPhone Problems and Their Solutions

2009-07-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

iPhone is no miracle, its a man-made phone like other mobile phones. Apple iPhone might be overwhelmed with rave reviews. No doubt iPhone is rocking - turning heads with its beauty and featues, but like all other phones it's not invincible. Behind these praises, the Cupertino company might have overheard the annoyances or nuisances about their smartphone that getting under the user's skin.
Well, some of the most common pains that you might come across while using your iPhone include - default apps can’t be hidden, Pandora and other apps not running in the background, grueling task of browsing the App Store and pacified IMAP in Gmail. When there are problems, solutions are bound to come up, almost by default. We decided to highlight the common iPhone problems and share their solutions with you.

1. Easy browsing App Store

Out of the massive junk of apps in App store its too tiring to find your chosen one. Only if you know that release date, you might get the top 100 apps released in that category. Even that might yield a number of unwanted results. Although Apple provides search keywords the function is a bit kinky.

To avoid this Apple needs to come up with a Show All feature. It would allow you to sort out apps by name or rank.
Solution

Well, there's a cool app, Apple Miner that makes browsing the store a cakewalk. It offers you a list of apps that go on sale including the paid apps that are being given away and those that create a watch list for discounts. To filter the choice you can take the help of sites like Macworld's App Guide, Apptism and AppBeacon.

2. Run Pandora and other apps in background
One of the top features in iPhone is that ability to stream Internet radio stations such as Pandora and Slacker from anywhere with a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. However, what's most irritating is that the music is snapped as soon as you start playing games or check emails.

To make things work their way Apple needs to allow certain apps to run at the same time. Well, how come iPod plays the music in background? Hope iPhone's audio system does that same.
Solution

This one is exclusively meant for Jailbreakers, if you have a free get-out-of-jail card download Gaizin's multitasking app iphone-backgrounder.

3. Operating IMAP Gmail
Most of you iPhone owners must be knowing that you can configure the iPhone's Mail app to retrieve your Gmail. Unfortunately, iPhone's Mail app doesn't include all the features you prefer in Gmail, particularly threaded viewing and starting. In case you like email friends or engage in long conversation threads during the day the Mail app would be quickly overwhelmed.
Solution

There's no way you can replace the Mail app completely. However, you can swap it for Gmail's Web app, which sports an iPhone-optimized layout. Recently, the swipe recognition was added. For more you might archieve e-mail messages with a finger stroke and caching would come along with HTML5 support. Add Gmail to the iPhone home page through + button in Safari and shun the old Mail app

4. Create Contact List Groups
One of the most unbearable features with iPhone is that it lists all your contacts under one category. So you can't split your friends and your colleagues in separate groups. Further, you have no options to create custom groups. All your contacts are co-existing in a massive list unless you creates subsections using your computer.

Well, if you are still waiting for Apple to fix it, move out.
Solution

There's a cool app that can create contact list groups for you. With ABContacts you can set up smart files that can categorize your contacts according to groups by name, location, place of employment, or notes.

5. Hide default apps
iPhone's start screen is stuffed with shortcuts of default applications whether you use them or not. For instance, not many of you check the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the weather frequently. These default iPhone apps can't be hidden or customized.
Solution

A quick and nasty solution to this is to isolate the undesirable apps on your last home page. For jailbreakers, you might seek programs like Sbsettings or Poof.
For a an ideal way to get rid of the unwanted default iPhone apps follow the steps below
Step 1: Move any app you don't want on your iPhone like iTune Store, Camera, weather to the 9th page.

Step 2: Arrange the apps you wanna delete to the right most location on the page

Step 3: Now you need to move the iPhone app to the hidden 10th page on iPhone. In order to dump the you can simply push the icons off the screen. When you drag an application from one page to another, it pushes all the apps on that page down to the right 1 space. Make sure that the 8th page has at least 1 more application on it than the number of apps you wanna delete on page 9. Now press and hold an app in the page 8 and start dragging the application from page 8 to page 9. When you release each of the applications the right most app will disappear. It's gone into the hidden 10 page.

Well, whenever you like to restore the hidden app, switch off iPhone and switch it on, its as simple as that

How to See Things From Friends You Shouldn’t in Facebook

2009-07-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

This little hack will show you how to see some information concerning your friends that you should not have direct access to.
In this little hack sample, I will show you how to get access to any free gifts, and the messages associated to them, of your friends.You just need to get the user ID of the friend you want to get some more information.

To get the user ID and if you don’t know what it is or how to do it, just follow the instructions I gave in this previous article:

http://www.tools4facebook.com/2008/03/04/facebook-hack-how-to-see-tagged-photos-from-anyone-on-facebook/

When you have the user ID, let’s suppose it is 123456789, you just need to replace it in one of the following url and to navigate to this page.

http://apps.facebook.com/freegifts/?from=123456789

http://apps.facebook.com/freegifts/?to=123456789

Voilà! It was not so difficult, was it?

So, now that you know it is possible for your friends to see the history of all you received and sent gift, just act in consequence.

Finding for Someone Online

2009-05-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

Finding a way to contact someone has gotten a lot easier: just type their name into Google and follow a few links. For many people, you’ll quickly find a profile on Facebook, a blog or even an email address you can use to get in touch. But a Google search doesn’t turn up good results for everyone. Maybe the person you’re trying to reach has a fairly common name. You may need a tool a little better than a simple Google search to find him.

1. 123people
123people provides a good start when you’re looking for someone online. You can type in just a first name and a last name and get pictures, phone numbers, email addresses, Amazon wishlists, websites, documents and more. It turns up a lot of search results for relatively common names — or names that refer to someone famous in addition to the person you’re looking for. The only drawback to so much information is that it can take a little while to search through it all and find the specific person you’re searching for.

2. Pipl
Pipl is a free search tool, although it brings in results from several other sites which do charge for access to particular records. Between those various sources, Pipl turns up a good number addresses and phone numbers, along with links to public records, online mentions and other useful pieces of information. Particularly helpful is Pipl’s ability to search withing a specific city, state or zip code. If you know the geographic location of the person in question, you’ll be able to narrow down search results to that area.

3. YoName
If you’re confident the person you want to find has a profile on some social networking site, a good search tool is YoName. The site searches across a whole list of different social networking sites, from big names like MySpace to less common options like Webshots. The results can take a little time to look through, but the process is made easier by the fact that they’re laid out in a table — you can browse through it quickly.

4. Zoom Info
Zoom Info is particularly useful if you’re looking to connect with someone at their job. Search results include job titles and employers, along with locations. The site offers a ‘contact this person’ button, but requires you to sign up for a free trial in order to use it. After the free trial, using that button and some of the site’s other features cost $99 per month. If you’re willing to do a little more legwork by calling up the company listed and seeing if you can ask for a direct number or email address, you can generally skip paying that fee.

5. Jobster
Jobster’s main focus is searching for jobs, but it also offers a tool to search for individuals. In most cases, it’s used for employers and recruiters looking for leads — but it can offer up some contact information that can help your search. A few other job sites offer a similar opportunity, as well.

6. Inmate Search
Unfortunately, you may find yourself in need of Inmate Search — while the site isn’t pretty, it includes a list of contact information for each state’s system for finding inmates, as well as the federal system. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of options for searching all states at once, but if you know the state the person you’re looking for might be incarcerated in, you can speed up the search process.

7. Intelius
To access most of the information available through Intelius, you’ll be asked to pay a fee. The site offers everything from phone numbers to complete background checks and actually can have useful information. I have purchased information from Intelius in the past and it did lead me to exactly the person I was looking for. However, I know the price tag (often starting around $40) can be off-putting, especially if you’re only casually searching or if you need to find information on a long list of people.

8. Zaba Search
I know many people who swear by Zaba Search when it comes to searching public records for free. I’ve had minimal luck on it myself, but if you’re having some difficulty, it may be worth a try. The reverse phone look on Zaba Search is particularly problematic — the site actually uses Intelius to look up phone numbers, which charges for the information.

Customise Your 404 Page

2009-05-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

At some stage in your internet surfing, you will have landed on a web page that says Error 404 Page Not Found. It can be annoying for visitors, but with a bit of care and attention, you can create a page that may intrigue your visitors and make them like you even more!

What is a 404 Page?

A 404 page is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server but the server could not find what was requested. This can happen for several reasons;
1. The page has been moved
2. A link from another site is incorrect
3. The visitor may have made a mistake typing in a URL

What Makes a Good 404 Error Page?

Think of the 404 as taking your lost visitor’s hand and guiding them gently to another part of your site.

1. Explain what the page is. Don’t assume that everyone is familiar with the term 404. The average lay person might think something has gone dramatically wrong (and I’m thinking of my parents here) when they see ERROR 404 in big letters on their screen.

2. Don’t let the visitor feel like it’s their fault that the page can’t be found, and don’t just tell them to correct their spelling. Odds are they won’t be back.

3. To improve their experience you should always allow them to go somewhere other than back using the browser Back button. Do not create dead ends.

4. Include links to other parts of your site.

5. Offer visitors a way to contact the webmaster to let them know a link is broken. Visitors are more likely to do this if offered a form.

6. Use Search boxes

7. An interesting or humorous graphic goes a long way towards creating goodwill.

By customising your 404 Error Page using some or all of these tips, you are going a long way towards keeping people on your site.

Some Examples

There are some wonderful showcases of 404 Pages on the web. I’ve picked out 10 examples that I felt were eyecatching and useful.

Unfinity Design gives a short explanation that the page can’t be found and a number of links back to various parts of their site.

CSS Scoop serves up a melting scoop of ice-cream which is a link back to the homepage. The navigation bar at the top allows visitors to jump to those sections of the site.

DigiGuru has a very interesting 404 page, which transitions through a number of pictures, whilst giving links back to the main site, his email and phone number, AND information about a walk through the South Pole.

Roymond.com – I have to admit I included this one because it made me laugh. As well as displaying a humorous (in a slightly twisted way) image on the 404 page, there are a full set of links back to the main site.

Ultrapop shows a nice image with an order to return to base.

Moo has a simple and “caring” message with links to its products and to the homepage.

Hootsuite.com has a missing fowl theme with a brief explanation of why the page was not found and a link back to the homepage.

As well as sharks with lasers, on the Renkoo Error Page you get links back to various parts of the site.

Clean, witty and offering lots of ways out of the 404 page including the search box, the Tinted Pixelsite also adds a nice little touch saying “It’s most certainly not your fault”

The 404 page for Blue Daniel is exceptional. While it only offers one link back to the main site, It’s made in Flash and is very imaginative.

Out of interest, when you accidentally land on a 404 Error page, do you hit the back button without thinking any more about it? Or do you try some of the suggested links? Which 404 pages have you seen recently that impressed you?

read also similiar page : Common Problems with 404 Error Pages

Rapidshare Auto Downloader - Automatic Download Of Multiple Files From Rapidshare.com For Free Users

2009-05-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Rapidshare Auto Downloader is a handy free tool which lets you download multiple files from specially from rapidshare.com download links.It acts like a auto downloader for free users to download more than one files from rapidshare in one go, moreover it will keep downloading the incomplete downloads until all the links are downloaded which makes its best suitable free rapidshare downloader specially for free users.

You don’t have to to anything to download any file from rapidshare.com other than adding the rapidshare link to the Rapidshare Auto Downloader, it will automatically download all the files queued for you one by one.

Some Concluded Key Features Of Rapidshare Auto Downloader

1. It supports three languages including English, Farsi, French

2. Check for new version of the program and automatically update itslef.

3. It will let you download everything you queued automatically one by one

4. It has a special auto shutdown feature

5. Keep downloading the uncompleted downloads until finished

6. When you click the close button it will keep running in the system tray and downloading all the files in the background without any user interaction.

Download Rapidshare Auto Downloader

Read also similiar page: Rapidshare Hack – Kill Download Waiting Time and 10 Useful RapidShare Search Engines

Speed up Your Connection With Fasterfox

2009-05-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

Fasterfox is a Mozilla Firefox extension that provides an interface to tweak some performance related settings such as browser network connection, cache, timings, as well as provide an optional controversial feature which forces Link prefetching. These changes can decrease (or if suboptimally set, increase) page loading time. Since 2006, the original extension version 2.0.0 is not maintained by the developer Tony Gentilcore, and is not compatible with Firefox 3.0 or later. As of November 2008, there are alternative extensions that are compatible with Firefox 3.0 such as Fasterfox (developed by spinball), and Fasterfox Lite by BigRedBrent.

Instalation for Fasterfox
After you download fasterfox (in rar.file) , please extract , then to install this addon , right-click at fasterfox_lite-3.0.21-fx.xpi file - open with - and choose your mozilla firefox file , (default in windows was located in : C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe).

Additional tips for windows user speed up the internet connection : Go to - Start - Run - Type: gpedit.msc - choose "Administrative Templates" - Network - Double-click at "Qos Packet Scheduler" - Double-click at "Limit reservable bandwidth" - from default "Not configured" change to "Enabled" - and at "Bandwidth limit" , from default "20%" - change to "0" (zero) . The 20% space of memory was used by windows for the need of their feature updates...if it's not important just ignore it...

Download Fasterfox For Firefox 3.0.8

Remove autorun.inf USB pen drive virus

2009-05-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Worms and Viruses these days uses USB and other removable media as their best medium of prorogation . Most them affect the autorun.inf file and revert settings in such a way to execute their scripts . Once affected, its very difficult to remove or disinfect autorun worms .We already have a post on few methods to remove autorun virus manually and by using software tools . USB pen drive and CD autorun can be disabled in block automatic spreading of autorun viruses , but the infection still persist in disk . So here we provide some other tools to remove and prevent autorun.inf USB pen drive viruses .

As I said earlier , autorun worms infects the autorun.inf file of the system . Since autorun.inf instruct the system about the order of actions to be performed , the reverted autorun file executes the virus files . Infected System would show the following indications .

1. Some Mp3 files and media files are renamed to .exe extension .
2. Clicking on hard disk opens autoplay option .
3. Folders opens in new windows .
4. Disables access to msconfig , show hidden files and folders .
5. Antivirus websites are blocked .

How to disable autorun in Windows :

There is a lengthy procedure to disable autorun in Windows .Here we a single autorun.inf file that fixes this problem .
Download this file > Rename to autorun.inf >right click > Install .

Download Microsoft patch to disable autorun .

nda USB vaccine: Panda USB vaccine is a free tool to disable autorun in Windows and USB pen drives .
Download Panda USB vaccine.

Autorun eater 2.3
Autorun eater is a freeware utility to detect and remove viruses affecting USB disks and pen drives .New variants of autorun worms emerges each day .So you are advised to keep this tool updated or use some free antivirus software like AVG 8.5 .The conficker worm , which is creating much hype in these days uses same path of infection of autorun.inf worms .
Download Autorun eater to remove autorun.inf USB pen drive virus .

Web Analytics, Getting All The Information

2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Not all web traffic stats packages are equal. In fact, your favorite web stats package likely does not provide you with all the important pieces of metric information. Using only one or two methods to track and understand how your website is being used is like a doctor who only runs one or two tests on a patient. You may be missing out on critical data and you don't even know it!

The first and most common divide is log analyzers versus web trackers. There are endless internet debates about which one is “better”, but the fact of the matter remains that in order to best understand how your site is used you must have both implemented and used properly.

Log Analyzer
A web log analyzer is important to diagnose search engine crawling and indexing problems, as well as thwart scrapers and find broken links/missing file problems. The web log analyzer excels at gathering server centric and raw data which most other systems cannot.

Web Tracker
On the other hand the tracker has become so advanced, that there is rarely a better way to understand and discover the traffic of real people visiting your site and the fine details of how they interact with your site structure. Many trackers are even advanced enough to give you good insights as to the quality of your referring traffic and helping you to find and isolate the value in your promotions.

Even if you do have a tracker and web log analyzer installed – are you using them properly and to the fullest? Do you have important reports setup to view on a regular basis and compare historical trends?

Within the sub set of web trackers there are many important distinctions in how the data is presented and processed:

1. Realtime (instant) or processed on a slow schedule?

2. Granularity – do you get detailed information on specific stats?

3. Trending – can you compare different time periods and see trends in your granular stats over time?

4. Per-Visitor Detail – this is an important one especially if you are running wide reaching advertising campaigns on various large networks – seeing a direct sample of how your paid traffic is interacting with your site in the form of a visitor detail path, is critical to seeing how effective your ad is. (Combining this with realtime stats is a a sure way to save a lot of money on big ad campaigns which may not be properly configured)

5. Data Alerts – combined with real-time reporting, data alerts can tell you if there is an instant problem with one of your metrics. Knowing immediately about a metric problem (such as a broken landing page, or a order flow error) is a very fast way to respond to solid site problems and rescue significant value.

Most trackers do not contain all of that information, so it's always a great idea to have multiple trackers which can provide you with the full spectrum of critical information for you site.

If you are missing any of those details, GoStats free or GoStats Pro can certainly give you an increased insight into most of your critical metrics. Many people make significant promotion savings and increases in site value with additional information provided by GoStats in realtime.

Author by Richard Chmura

KIDO’Z Operating System for Kids

2009-04-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

What a novel approach! A startup developing the right tool for a highly focused and important demographic - parents with little kids.

Unbelievably, I started this article 3 days ago, and have revised or rewritten it 6 times. The reason it has been so difficult is the intent I suppose. I originally intended, with Loren’s consent, to plug a very nice startup called KIDO’Z, a web browser and operating system for kids. With all the things superb and viable about this service in mind, I could not help but associate the niche targeted model of KIDO’Z with all that is wrong with so many other Internet ventures. An ethical and philosophical dilemma born out of giving a damn I suppose.

Great Expectations
Part of the problem with what was supposed to be Web 2.0, is something that many of us warned about some years ago. In one fearful (but inevitable) scenario, traditional business practices would eventually superimposed old methodologies atop what nearly all tech journalists evangelized as a paradigm shift. Web 2.0, the coming of “the discussion”, a sort of socially euphoric space where people really go forward, or for lack of better imagery – users (people) as the center of a new universe -these were the ideas we had for this tool called the Web. Quite obviously, an exact replica of physical world mediocrity now obscures any idea of rosy wonderment we may have envisioned back when.

I Wanted on the one hand to simply reveal something of worth, while at the same time looking back on thousands of instances where “worth” became a buzz word, a door to door salesman methodology for marketing. If you are ever frustrated, late at night, wondering why your Twitter marketing campaign just isn’t bearing the fruit you wanted – well, maybe you got the idea already. In case you have not, consider the case of Facebook. Five years, half a billion dollars and 200 million users later – add people, shake well, and POOF – nothing happens – it may never happen.

Enter KIDO’Z and the Re-emergence of Software
Digressing is not always a bad thing. Take software for instance. Low cost to mass produce, effective, feature laden and only limited by the systems at which it is leveled. In short, digitalized tools that compared to puffy “cloud” variants, seem almost tangible, touchable and real. KIDO’Z, the children’s OS and companion to the Internet, is but one of several superb examples of software that has come out under the shroud of “cloudy” propaganda lately. Let me illustrate why this fairly obscure (so far) development can perhaps refocus development, marketing, advertising, and ultimately the progress of the greater tool – our Internet.

KIDO’Z, though a complex development internally, is a fairly simple business proposition – it resolves a point of pain for a narrow but crucially important niche – parents and their children between the ages of 3 and 7. The issues there are; safety, refined content for children, parental guidance and control, age specific usability and universal (global) individualization.

Content for users is very refined and specific to them

I will not go into the minute specifics of features, nor microanalyses of the platform here. For the sake of this argument, please accept that this Tel Aviv company is leaving no stone unturned for KIDO’Z success as a superb product for kids. The reader can easily download and test the application, and you absolutely should, especially if you have small children. Here are a couple of screen and a brief rundown of some KIDO’Z aspects.

KIDO’Z – A Kid’s Browser, Filtered Search and Operating System
The following list of aspects of the KIDO’Z platform are very general, but the reader can glean a good idea of the impact of this tool if they imagine a 4 year old, who cannot yet read, learning to browse the Internet as it was really meant to be – as a fascinating, educational and entertaining data base – an interactive library – with content tailored for the individual. What KIDO’Z has really done is created an operating system, browser and filtered search platform in one fell swoop.

With KIDO’Z, children can send and receive richly designed e-mails, manage photo albums, diaries and blogs, create content and share it with friends. They can also view personal video channels, browse safe websites, learn about buying virtual products and send them as gifts, personalize their own virtual environment. Kids can and also do the things resident on other children’s websites, such as play games and color pages.
KIDO’Z is constructed as a Web Operating System (WebOS) which is continuously renewed with innovative tools, features and possibilities, keeping the product fresh and interesting and ensuring long-term user commitment.
KIDO’Z sets the safety of children as its primary concern and is centered on an active protection system enabling parents full control and tracking capabilities. This multiple redundant system allows for an unparalleled degree of security. In addition, a statistical system provides parents with reports on the child’s use of the system, tracking his/her pattern of use of KIDOZ, and eventually this aspect will allow for much more advanced organization and presentation of content to children..
KIDO’Z is a new concept for a rich and safe internet experience for children. It allows children to perform activities that had previously been impossible for them to do, and provides a personal environment in which every child can express himself and find his own path on the internet.
KIDO’Z is already available in 20 languages. Not only that, but the platform distributes content based on any number of demographic criteria. In example, kids in China receive entirely different and more relevant content for their needs, while other demographic/geographic user bases receive content based on their particular set variables.
KIDO’Z is also community centric. Community can be derived from any number of shared interests, as we know. The KIDO’Z interface, tools and content support systems are geared to embrace community from many perspectives including; friends, regions, hobbies, brands, languages, education streams, location, nationality and of course family. No other service or system we know if is so directed at engaging users (especially children and their parents) in such a refined and well thought out way.

Of all the startups our firm, or our partners as individual Web analysts have worked with, KIDO’Z is the first to have not only built the right tool and targeted it, but to have localized it for the world, refined it technically and flexibility wise, and captured the essence of a powerful future market.

With the upcoming Version 1.0 release, KIDO’Z will actually provide a tool for the Web that has no equal. Kidzui is the only remotely similar platform of good quality, but its demographic is far older. As a first time tool for pre-school and even early elementary children, KIDO’Z will stand along. This does not often happen for early stage developments, and given their transparent and viable business model (free services underneath premium ones), I think marketers, developers, and the Web tech community might capture a glimpse of one viable path to success where so many are obviously failing miserably.

If Not Now, When?
Targeted products and inherent narrowly targeted marketing are the holy grail of every company. Except apparently, most large scale Internet startups. Even those that are narrowly focused fall short for any number of reasons. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, FriendFeed, none of social media or networking, no bookmarking or aggregation entity, none save one of 100 search startups, Wikipedia (Jimmy never monetized it), Wikia, nor any but one video startup has turned the proverbial dime of substantial profit for their investors. Digest this fact for a minute. Maybe $2 billion or more invested in 1500 startups, and no return in sight.

So what’s the big deal about KIDO’Z? From one standpoint, the inherent value of making nice things for children is far greater intrinsically than some college bozos making tools that appeal to narcissism. Secondly, from a business standpoint, engaging parents with refined services or even products that enhance their children’s lives is, well, a no brainer.

The example however, runs much deeper than this. The bottom line for us as either marketers, communicators, developers or investors is directing development toward something people are willing to pay for in the first place. It is called making a valuable, needed or wanted product. When the investment gravy train runs out for all these “puffy cloud”, glorified chat rooms runs out, perhaps better thought out ones will arise, or people will write more blogs etc.

Conclusion
Not every niche is as well defined or supported as the one KIDO’Z is targeting. Also, the argument for localized and controlled computing represented by this development, or even another recent one I wrote about in FileRide, will grow geometrically when and if these “cloud” entertainment networks begin to crumble. The social Web really has little need in most cases other than connectivity between desktops any way. As for detractors of “walled garden” or compartmentalized content, if we all admit it, we would love a degree of segregation from undesirable content. Instead of trying to make the Internet into a vast TV network, which it will never be, we should be focused on “grown up” commodities. It is ironic that the most adult startup in some time is a cute but wonderful kids tool.

Favorite Easter Eggs

2009-04-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Just as children love hunting for Easter eggs, we love finding virtual Easter eggs in software and Web apps—those intentional hidden messages, features or jokes built into the software that users in the know may stumble upon at some point during their experience with the application. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite software Easter eggs of all-time (in no given order) in light of today’s holiday. Of course, there are many more Easter eggs out there. Tell us us your favorites in the comments!

1. Atari: The first ever software Easter eggs is speculated to have occurred in 1979 in an Atari game. Apparently, programmer identities were kept behind locked doors in the easly days of software development, with companies not wanting staff to gain more celebrity status than their brands

2. Google’s Picasa Teddy Bears: Image editing software Picasa has an entertaining teddy bear Easter eggs. If you open Picasa and press Ctrl-Shift-Y, a teddy bear will pop up.

3. The Book of Mozilla: If you type “about:mozilla” in the address bar of any version of Firefox, you will be led to a page with a quote from the “Book of Mozilla” about the birth of Firefox.

4. Google Earth Flight Simulator: If you open Google Earth, version 4.2, and press Ctrl-Alt-A (”Command” “Option” “A” on a Mac), Google inserted a flight simulator that lets you simulate being in the cockpit of a F16 fighter jet ot a lightweight SR22 propeller plane.

5. The Dark Castle on the iPhone/iPod Touch: According to this report, a teenager in the UK managed to discover this egg, the classic Mac game “Dark Castle”, in its entirety, available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Activating this game is a bit complicated but, here are the directions.

6. Google’s Mobile App: Google unveiled a surprise Easter eggs for its Mobile App for the iPhone earlier this year. If you click on the settings tab, scroll to the bottom and keep swiping upwards until a secret option dubbed ‘Bells and Whistles’ appears (this also works in the foreign language versions of the app). The hidden menu lets you change the theme color of the app and its default sounds to chicken or monkey noises.

7. Microsoft’s Volcano: Microsoft inserted a volcano Easter eggs in all Windows Operating Systems prior to XP. If you go to control panel display, click on the screen savers tab, select “3D Text,” then click on settings and in the graphics text box type “volcano.” The screen saver then shows names of all the volcanoes in the U.S.

8. Google’s holiday Easter eggs: Last holiday season, Google put Easter Eggs next to the sponsored link search results for terms like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa Gifts, Christmas Sweaters, Hanukkah Sweaters, etc.

9. Mac OS X “Here’s to the Crazy Ones”: If you open Finder and go to Applications, look for TextEdit. If you enlarge the icon in CoverFlow, you’ll see a letter from John Appleseed quoting the text from Apple’s “Think Different” advertising campaign.

10. Goldeneye Breakdance: This egg was recently discovered. Apparently when playing Goldeneye 007, if the user tilts the cartridge during gameplay, this causes the characters to breakdance. It’s pretty funny-see the YouTube video of the dance below:

Promote your Book ...Ten Great Ways

2009-04-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

So you have written a book and had it published. Congratulations. Now you face the challenge of what to do next. Many authors think that marketing is a job for the publisher so they sit back and wait for the royalties to roll in. You might have a very long wait. The market for books is extremely crowded and most books do not sell well. However, there are a number of things that the author can do that will really help to promote your book. so make the move from writing to marketing and take these actions:

1.Promote your Book by Sending review copies to all the journals and magazines that review books in your genre. This is something that most publishers do for you but there is no harm in sharing lists and helping out. If you have self-published you will certainly have to focus on this. Don’t forget the many online sites that review books.

2. Promote your Book by Getting friends, colleagues, clients or anyone who likes your book to place reviews on Amazon and other online book stores. Amazon is highly influential and the reviews matter so encourage anyone who says they enjoyed your book to place a review.

3. Promote your Book Offering yourself for interview on radio stations. Most radio stations are looking for interesting interviews and the author of a newly published book has a good chance of getting on air. You need a publicity letter which says something interesting or controversial about the book and off you go. If you have the budget you can use a professional PR company to target radio and TV programs.

4. Promote your Book Creating a web page for the book. Ideally you should have a separate website with an address that features the book title. Now you can exchange links and drive traffic to the site with comments, blogs, quotes and extracts. Be sure to show people how they can buy the book. Encourage user feedback, comments and reviews.

5. Promote your Book Offering sample chapters as free downloads. Take a couple of your best chapters and turn them into pdf files. Let people download them for free. Think of this as the equivalent of letting people browse through your book at a bookstore.

6. Promote your Book Using material from the book in your blog. Start a blog and quote from the book. Lift sections and acknowledge the book as the source. Build a community of interest around the topics in the book.

7. Review other books in this field. Promote your Book by Become a reviewer on Amazon. Use your own name accompanied by ‘author of the book……’. Review other books and when people read your reviews some will click through to your book.

8. Promote your Book using an email newsletter. Encourage people to subscribe on the website and then send out an occasional newsletter with interesting new material in this book’s field. But you cannot just plug your book – you have to add value with new information and comment.

9. Promote your Book by Give away copies to the right people. Use the book as your calling card. Give copies to potential and existing clients. Encourage them to read it and pass it on.

10. Promote your Book by Offering books as prizes. Local radio shows, magazines or societies will often be interested in running competitions and will give you valuable publicity if you give them a few books to give away as prizes.

Some authors do book signings in local bookstores but, unless you are very well-known, this activity is unlikely to produce worthwhile results. Finally, you could consider using the book as a platform for launching your speaking career. You will need a different set of skills to succeed here but the book can make an excellent starting point and every talk will help sell more books.

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry Allows Search by Voice, My Location

2009-04-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry now allows users to search using their voices and with Google's My Location application. Google has been making substantial inroads with its mobile apps, even as a number of mobile device makers gear up to produce Android-based smartphones.
Google Mobile App for BlackBerry now allows users to reduce typing on the Research In Motion smartphones by carrying out mobile Web searches for a location using their voices or the search giant's My Location application, or both.

"If you're like us and hate typing on that tiny keyboard, you'll be glad to hear that Google Mobile App on your BlackBerry will let you search with your voice and with My Location," Luca Zanolin, a Google Mobile App engineer, wrote in a Google Mobile Blog post March 25.

Say you're looking for the nearest bookstore. By inputting "bookstore" with My Location enabled, you generate a list of bookstores nearest your location.

Users also now have search-by-voice functionality for their BlackBerrys, a feature already available to users of the iPhone and the Android platform. Say the word "bookstore" and Google will generate local results and a corresponding link to Google Maps.

"Searching by voice can be used in combination with the My Location feature, and it works well with standard Google searches, such as currency conversion and weather," Zanolin wrote.

Google Mobile App will run on all versions of the RIM BlackBerry running on O/S 4.1+. The search-by-voice feature is supported on O/S 4.2 and above, with support for the BlackBerry Storm coming soon.

Google has been seeking to expand its mobile device-based services lately, as well as refining existing ones such as Google Maps for Mobile.

On March 20, the company announced that Google Voice would include an updated Phone Spam filter. Google Voice provides services such as automated voice mail transcription and grouping a user's phones with a single number.

More mobile-device makers have been committing to Google's Android mobile operating system platform. Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC, which drew buzz at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for its devices, announced on March 17 that it could produce three more Android-based smartphones in 2009.

Google Ventures Looks to Invest Millions in Software, Green IT, Health Care

2009-04-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

Google is setting up Google Ventures, a venture capital fund with the capacity to invest in consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care, and whatever other areas that might harbor the “next big thing.” Although Google claims its new fund is not an acquisition vehicle, the company has a history of purchasing startups such as YouTube and then integrating them into its core businesses.

Google announced the creation of Google Ventures on March 30, a venture capital fund designed to invest in startups across the technology spectrum.

By doing so, Google joins Intel and other companies in establishing a venture-capital arm for investment in smaller firms with potential. Google already has a philanthropic arm, Google.org, that has focused on investments in global health and clean energy.

"We'll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven't thought of yet," Rich Miner and Bill Maris, managing partners of Google Ventures, wrote on the official Google blog. "If anything, we think the current downturn is an ideal time to invest in nascent companies that have the chance to be the ‘next big thing,’ and we'll be working hard to find them."

Rich Miner helped develop Google’s Android platform and ecosystem; before joining Google, he was a vice president at Orange, overseeing research and development activities in North America.

Before joining Google, Bill Maris founded Burlee.com, a Web hosting company, and was a portfolio manager for Investor AB, a Swedish industrial holding company.

While Maris and Miner will judge and manage the investments, The New York Times reports that David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google, will oversee the project.

News reports peg the amount of money Google Ventures plans to spend in its first year at $100 million.

On its new Google Ventures Website, the company suggested that it would be willing to invest up to "tens of millions of dollars" in startups, "depending on the stage of the opportunity and the company’s need for capital." Google also held open the door to co-investing in opportunities with other venture firms.

On the same site, Google also asserted that its new venture – so to speak – wasn't merely a new acquisition tool: "Acquisitions by Google of portfolio companies are possible, but this is not the goal or focus of our investment activities. Our focus is building great companies and generating long-term financial return."

However, Google has a long history of purchasing startups and then integrating their technology into its core businesses. As far back as 2005, with its acquisition of Dodgeball.com, Google was building its portfolio of social-networking technologies; a year later, it purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion.

On March 11, Google released Google Voice, an updated version of GrandCentral, which Google acquired in July 2007. Google Voice allows users to condense his or her various phone numbers into a single one, among other phone-related services.

"The $100 million or so is not the type of funding they would need to go out and make acquisitions of major companies; it’s basically seed money," Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Research, said in an interview. "I would expect them to proceed in much the same way as Intel Capital and IBM, in that they’ll find interesting companies and throw them a financial lifeline in order to help them survive, and then have a seat at the table."

Google Venture’s public stance against being an acquisition vehicle, King continued, "may be a matter of political expediency."

"There are any number of startups whose main reason for existing is to be acquired by a larger organization, but that’s not always the case," he said. "So from a socio-political standpoint, it’s better for Google to say they’re heading out there simply to provide guidance. If eventual acquisition was an explicit goal, they might risk scaring off more companies than they would attract."

Earth Hour ignored by internet user

2009-04-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

While nearly 1,000 global landmarks went dark for Earth Hour and uncounted individuals turned off lights in a symbolic gesture endorsing climate change action, Internet usage continued to suck down power with no slowdown before, during and after Earth Hour. Power for servers and associated cooling equipment took up 1.2 percent of the entire U.S. power consumption in 2005 at a cost of $2.6 billion.

The much ballyhooed March 28 Earth Hour called for individuals, businesses and governments across the globe to turn off unused appliances and computers for 1 hour as a show of support for climate change action. The World Wildlife Foundation, the sponsor of the event, went so far as to call Earth Hour "the world's first-ever global vote about the future of our planet."

Internet users, it seems, could not have cared less.

The monitoring service Pingdom, which tracks 35,000 sites and servers across 125 countries, measured Internet activity during the Earth Hour time range. Compared with the same period for the three previous weeks, Pingdom found no decrease in Internet use.

"There was no noticeable difference, which means that Earth Hour had no impact on the Internet," Pingdom wrote on its blog. The company was disappointed with the results.

"The Internet today takes up a significant amount of the global power output and considerably more of our collective attention," Peter Alguacil, a Pingdom Web analyst, said in a statement. "All servers and web sites are not business critical, and we sincerely wish more companies, organizations and individuals will join us in pledging to shut down any infrastructure they can spare next year to make Earth Hour 2010 a virtual event as well as a physical one."

According to an AMD-sponsored study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, power for servers and their cooling equipment took up 1.2 percent of the entire U.S. power consumption in 2005 at a cost of $2.6 billion. The numbers don't include power for data storage and network equipment.

Pingdom promised to shut down as much as possible without compromising its main monitoring and notification services for Earth Hour 2010, and urged individuals and Internet companies to do the same.

"Earth Hour is intended to mobilize and manifest support for action on climate change. What if Facebook, after notifying users, decided to shut down for 60 minutes next year? That would be an unprecedented global manifestation in itself," said Alguacil.

Google Image Search Lets You Filter Results with Specific Color

2009-03-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Google Operating Systems Blog is running a post on a little tweak to Google Image Search that lets you filter your results based on a specific color. You won’t see the option to filter image results by color in the main Google Image Search though. But GOS was kind enough to share this trick to get the option running.

Say for example your use the keyword “blue lagoon” on Google Image Search, this will give around 1,2500,000 hits according to the Image Search results. Now this is all well and good, but the results could actually contain other irrelevant items.

Now how about using the URL given by the Google Operating Systems Blog:

http://images.google.com/images?q=bird&imgcolor=red

replace bird with the word “lagoon” and the color red to “blue” and compare your results with the previous image search using “blue lagoon”. They are definitely different. You’ll get lesser results using the URL right?

It’s really a pretty simple search filtering option but could save you a lot of time scrolling through numerous search results when conducting image search. No words yet though as to whether this will be rolled out as a full-blown feature of Google Image Search.

Twitter Hashtags guides

2009-03-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

What is a Twitter hashtag?
A hashtag is a way to unite global Tweets around some particular topic. Basically, these are tags that that help those who seek similar content discover your Tweets. According to the official source:

"Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag."

Hashtags are getting more and more popular (despite the fact some people are against them wishing their Twitter stream to be metadata-free and “as human a form of communication as possible”).

Anyway, I do use hashtags and find them fun, so I am sharing a few tips and resources below.
Where can I find what hashtags people are using?
#hashtags.org is the first place to find most recent and hot hashtags. It also shows each hashtag popularity trend when you hover over:

Twemes.com is another useful resource for discovering new hashtags and tracking those you are interested in. It has a hashtag cloud and also offers RSS subscription to any hashtag stream:

Wthashtag.com is a user generated wiki of hashtags. If you don’t know what any hashtag means or how to use it, you can use the site search and get a well-compiled entry explaining the meaning of the hashtag:

* When it was first discovered;
* Description;
* External links;
* Live stream using the hashtag:

How are hashtags used?

Generally, a hashtag is a great way to increase your Tweet visibility. However they should only be used if your Tweet adds value to the topic (so don’t insert # sign before each word).

Remember, that hashtags are tracked by people, so don’t waste their time by [I #eat #ice-cream #now] type of messages (this is also likely to rip off your followers). As an example, here are a couple of cases when using a hashtag makes sense:

* To categorize your Tweets based on a particular topic or for a particular purpose - e.g. #followfriday is a fun tradition to recommend your friends (and the whole universe) new people to follow:

* Hashtags are widely used to live-blog an event. This makes following an event much easier (check our recent post on how hashtags help Shane Jones to follow SEO conferences). It is recommended to set your hashtags before starting to live-blog;

Facebook Connect for iPhone

2009-03-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Facebook has announced Facebook Connect for the iPhone, which enables users to take their Facebook friends, identity and privacy with them wherever they go. Facebook Connect for the iPhone provides the first live social experience for iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as users can now connect with their Facebook friends to play games -- whether their friends are at home on a computer or on their iPhone.

Facebook has announced Facebook Connect for the iPhone, which enables users to take their Facebook friends, identity and privacy with them wherever they go.

Facebook announced the new capability on March 14 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2009 conference, noting that there are nine applications currently live in the iTunes app store, with more to launch in the coming days.

Developers can get started taking advantage of Facebook Platform APIs to add social context to all kinds of iPhone applications.

Facebook Connect for the iPhone provides the first live social experience for iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as users can now connect with their Facebook friends to play games—whether their friends are at home on a computer, or on their iPhone—and share restaurant reviews on the go, location-based status updates, and more.
Users can go to the iTunes app store to see the first nine applications:

* Who Has the Biggest Brain by Playfish
* Movies by Flixster
* iBowl and Agency Wars by SGN
* Urbanspoon
* Tap Tap Revenge 2 by Tapulous
* Whrrl by Pelago
* Live Poker by Zynga
* Binary Game by SayEight

In a March 14 blog post, Joe Hewitt, the engineer who built Facebook for iPhone, said:

"A few months ago, we announced Facebook Connect, an extension of Facebook Platform that makes it easy for you to bring your friends with you all over the Web. We're now expanding this to Apple’s revolutionary iPhone and iPod touch, making it easy to connect with your Facebook friends in your favorite applications from Apple’s App Store.

"If you've used Facebook Connect on the Web, this will seem pretty familiar. You can now use Facebook Connect on your iPhone in the same way you can for a website. Simply download any application featuring Facebook Connect and log in using your Facebook account from your iPhone. Then, you'll be able to easily find your Facebook friends. They will be able to see the same profile information as they can on the site, controlled by your privacy settings. You can also share what you’re doing with your iPhone applications with all of your Facebook friends by publishing stories back to your profile."

Facebook officials said several developers are working on Facebook Connect for iPhone applications that will begin to be released shortly.

"In the coming days, many more applications will be available in Apple's App Store so keep checking back," Hewitt said. "If you don't see your favorite iPhone application soon, ask the developer to implement Facebook Connect -- together we can make your application experience on the iPhone truly social."

Meanwhile, according to Gareth Davis, another Facebook engineer who wrote a March 14 blog post, "Facebook Connect easily lets developers make their websites and desktop applications more social. And with the explosion of iPhone apps over the last year, we want iPhone developers to reap all the benefits Facebook provides."

Added Gareth:

"If you develop apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, you can now start making those apps more social. With just a few lines of Objective-C code, your users can log in to Facebook from within your app, find their friends, then share what they do in your app back on Facebook, which opens up exciting new opportunities for your users."

In addition, he said that now your iPhone apps can enjoy the benefits that Facebook Connect sites and Facebook Platform apps already enjoy, including:

* Making API calls so your app can access users' profiles and share information on Facebook.

* Publishing to Facebook via Feed forms.

* Asking users for extended permissions, like offline access, so you can still interact with their data when they're offline.

Meanwhile, Limbo, one of the largest mobile social networks in the United States, today announced that Limbo for iPhone and iPod touch now features Facebook Connect for iPhone. iPhone and iPod touch users can link their Limbo and Facebook accounts, enabling automatic status and activity updates that are shared between the two accounts.

With Facebook Connect, Limbo members can see their Facebook friends on Limbo without their friends having to be Limbo members. They can also view the status of their friends on Limbo based on their Facebook status message, or automatically set an “On Facebook” status for members who are logged on and active on Facebook.

“Our members want a new way to share their experiences from their iPhone or iPod touch with friends who may not yet be Limbo members,” said Jonathon Linner, Limbo’s CEO, in a statement. “Now that Limbo features Facebook Connect for iPhone, they can easily share and distribute information and experiences with their friends via Facebook status updates, requests and notifications. The location-aware emphasis of the Limbo application enables users to find and meet up with their friends to increase face time and real world experiences. This makes it even easier to connect with friends in the real world, not just online.”

Mozilla Fennec Browser Is Firefox for Mobile Devices

2009-03-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

The new Mozilla mobile Web browser called Fennec is similar to Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser for laptops and desktops. The early beta version of Fennec, launched on March 17, is intended as a way of collecting feedback and raising interest in the mobile browser. Mozilla says the Nokia N810 Internet tablet is the best mobile and wireless device for experiencing Fennec 1.0, but users can also download Fennec to computers running Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Mozilla's Firefox Web browser has a new mobile sibling—Fennec.

Mozilla released the first beta version of Fennec on March 17. Mozilla describes it as being for testing purposes only, to get feedback and to encourage developers to port existing add-ons and invent new ones for mobile use.

"One of the main themes of Fennec was to try to minimize the amount of typing you have to do as you make your way around the Web," Madhava Enros, the lead user interface designer for Fennec, says in an introductory video on the blog of Mozilla developer Stuart Parmenter.

With Fennec, Parmenter wrote, Mozilla increased zooming speed, improved start-up performance, enabled plug-ins that let users watch videos, and "improved bookmark management and support for bookmark folders."

Fennec also makes it easier to search the Web, remembers pages where users have been, optimizes screen space for mobile content and remembers passwords, reducing typing and doing more work so the user doesn't have to.

Fennec 1.0 was designed for the OS2008 Maemo software platform running on the Nokia N810 Internet tablet. Everyone, however, with a computer running Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux is encouraged to download Fennec and get it running.

iTunes 8.1 Adds AutoFill to All iPod Models

2009-03-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

iTunes has always filled the iPod shuffle with music to capacity without asking for much intervention from you, but Apple snuck the same very handy functionality for all iPod models in the recent iTunes 8.1 release.

If you'd like to enable AutoFill with your iPod or iPhone, Ars has the details:

Visit the Summary tab and make sure you're set up to "Manually manage music and videos." Once you've done that, use the triangle to reveal the contents of your iPod or iPhone, and click on Music, at which point you'll see the source selector, Autofill settings, and Autofill button at the bottom of the screen.

We did mention this in the bullet-list of features that were added to 8.1, but if you missed this useful addition, it's worth highlighting. In fact, while iTunes DJ and Genius for TV and movies were the marquee features in the latest release, we'd argue that in terms of actually useful functionality, AutoFill is probably the best addition to iTunes 8.1 for iPod owners.

iPhone 3.0 Adds Copy and Paste, MMS, Search, Notes Sync, and Tons More [IPhone 3.0]

2009-03-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

The iPhone event just ended, and the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software update adds a ton of new functionality to the iPhone—claiming over 100 new features, including long-awaited copy and paste, MMS messaging, and more.

Photos by Gizmodo. Huge thanks to Gizmodo for their up-to-the-minute coverage. We've only highlighted a few of our favorite features, so be sure to check out Gizmodo's iPhone 3.0 OS guide for everything you could ever want to know about the updates.

Copy and Paste
This one was no surprise. Copy and paste is finally available on the iPhone through a double-tap and a little dragging of the paste boarders. Any text can be copied, but you can also now copy and paste photos—which means that you can also send more than one photo at a time. Developers can also integrate copy and paste into their apps.

MMS Messaging
The iPhone's terrible multimedia messaging always seemed like us to be just as bad as the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone, requiring you to jump through absurd hoops to view photos that someone shared via MMS (you couldn't even do it from the iPhone). Not only can you send pictures via MMS, but you can also share contact vCards and audio files using the new voice notes application.The one catch: MMS will be iPhone 3G only.

Spotlight Search

3.0 adds Spotlight to your home screen (and search to many different apps), allowing you to launch an application or find a contact or note through one central application and document launcher.

File Sharing Between iPhones
iPhones will now be able to connect directly over a Wi-Fi network for sharing files directly between phones. The first thing we'd consider sharing is music, but it seems unlikely that that's the kind of functionality Apple will enable for this. Still, sharing a document, vCard, or photo with a direct peer-to-peer connection is pretty cool.

Turn-by-Turn Directions
Though not enabled in anything provided by Apple in this release, the 3.0 update will enable developers to create turn-by-turn apps.

Push Notification (For Real This Time?)
Apple promised this one last year—a feature that allows developers to send push notifications of updates without the cost of running the app in the background. We'll believe it when we see it.

VoIP
It's not clear if this means we can expect to see Skype or something like Google Voice on our iPhones or iPod touches any time soon, but Gizmodo is reporting that voice communication will be available in applications. They point out that this means users could chat with people they're playing a game with, but we'd be much happier to see a simple VoIP application for talking with people when you're on a Wi-Fi network without wasting your minutes.

Notes Sync
Gizmodo didn't mention much about this one, but Notes sync is clearly listed as a new feature. Guess that doesn't mean all that much to the guys at Giz, but we've been dying for this one forever.

Much More
We cherry picked some of our favorite new features, but head over to the Gizmodo Liveblog for a look at their play-by-play, or just check out their exhaustive iPhone 3.0 guide.

When Can I Get It?
According to the Apple, the public release will be sometime this summer. However, it looks like eager early adopters may be able to join the Apple Developer Connection to start testing it today. We'll let you know when we find out more.

What's Missing?
We're sort of reeling at the thought of all the new features, leaving us at a bit of a loss for what's missing. Was there a feature you were hoping for in the iPhone 3.0 update that it doesn't look like we'll be seeing? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Acrobat.com Sends Large Files Through Outlook for Free [Downloads]

2009-03-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

Windows only: Adobe's Acrobat.com web site gives you 5GB of online file hosting for free, and their new Office add-in lets you easily upload and share your documents directly within Outlook 2007.

Once you've installed the add-on and signed up for an account, attaching files to email messages is easy—just use the Upload File buttons on the Ribbon and the file link will be added inline to your message, taking the recipient to the Acrobat.com site where they can preview the file contents before downloading. Files that you've already uploaded can be easily added to a new message with the Insert Link button, which opens up a pane on the right-hand side listing your previously uploaded files—making this a great utility anytime you want to send a large file through email.

The Acrobat.com Outlook Add-on is a free download, only works in Windows with Outlook 2007. The Acrobat.com document hosting service is free up to 5GB, works with any browser.
File Sharing from Microsoft Outlook® 2007 [Acrobat.com]

How Do You Store FTP Login Information For Your Clients?

2009-03-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

A common way to store FTP access information is in your FTP client. After all, that is where you use it, so that’s where it should be. But what happens if the FTP application crashes or your configuration file becomes corrupt? Is an FTP program secure enough to be your sole place for storing client logins?

Before making the permanent switch to a Mac last year, I had three PC crashes in a period of 18 months. I know all about data failure and did just about everything Craig Buckler listed in his “8 Tips for Surviving PC Failure” post. It worked; I saved almost all of my data. But even with dual backups and exporting my FTP configuration files to my backup data (which was a manual process with the FTP client I was using at the time), I wasn’t able to recreate all of my logins automatically. Either a password had changed or a new site was added to the mix since the last time the data was backed up, and I was left digging through thousands of e-mails trying to find the information I needed.

I’ve also stored passwords and logins in my address book as notes for each client. But that wasn’t foolproof either; some of the notes were lost when data was backed up, and more were lost when I moved to a new contact management system.

Some of the other options I’ve used or considered include:
* Password management utility, like KeePass
* Web-based FTP program that saves your data online, like AnyClient
* Excel spreadsheet
* Online (or even paper) notebook

Currently, I store all of my client data — including FTP logins — in a web-based project management system (Intervals), which is secure and accessible by my subcontractors, clients and anyone else who needs to access the data. Having it in one central place also eliminates the problem of dealing with outdated passwords, provided everyone uses the data in the system.

But I pay a steep monthly fee for the project management service that has an SSL, and it’s probably much more robust than what’s needed for this type of issue by itself. Luckily, I need many of the extra features the service offers to run my business efficiently, but it’s probably not an option for everyone who needs to store a limited amount of information, like FTP logins.

Is there a best way to store this information? How do you manage FTP logins for multiple clients so they’re easy to access and secure?

YouTube to Block UK Music Video Users

2009-03-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

YouTube, the popular Google-owned video sharing site, has announced it will block access to UK residents wanting to watch online music videos. The statement was issued after the company failed to agree new licensing terms with the Performing Right Society (PRS).

The PRS collects royalties on behalf of 50,000 composers and artists. The organisation was negotiating a new deal with YouTube that is rumoured to be many times more than the previously agreed terms which expired recently.

Both parties blame each other for the breakdown.

YouTube’s Director, Patrick Walker, stated that the move was regrettable:
We feel we are so far apart that we have to remove content while we continue to negotiate with the PRS. We are making the message public because it will be noticeable to users on the site.

The company’s blog also stated:
The costs are simply prohibitive for us - under PRS’s proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback.

Whatever the outcome, the only clear losers at this time are the UK public.

Is this a last desperate attempt from the ‘old’ economy to hold on to power? Or can we expect increased litigation from the traditional distribution channels against new media companies? The web is a worldwide network; can organisations realistically dictate what individual territories are permitted to view when it is technically possible to bypass those restrictions?

Use your monitor as a light source with White

2009-03-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Overview:
Fill the screen with white color to use it as a lightbox.

Review:
The next Donation Coder app of today is White, all this program does is to display a white screen in your monitor to use as a source of light (press ESC to exit). White is probably more useful when used in conjunction with a Notebook or Netbook since those deviced probably have more chances of being placed in obscure places without any outside light sources, of course you could also use it in your desktop PC but i don't see the point unless you don't have any lightbulbs in the house. Available for all Windows versions.

Get it at http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#White