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Kindle Fire

halo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:52:46 +0000

Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire

The Amazon Kindle Fire is the first full tablet device from the world`s largest online retailer. It comes from a family of eBook readers but sets out on its own to give you a connected, interactive experience which focuses on content delivery, multimedia and gaming.

The Kindle Fire is arguably not a direct rival to the iPad 2, but tablet fans will certainly be keen to take a look at it given that Amazon is pricing it at half the cost of Apple`s tablet. The Kindle Fire features a seven inch display with a generous black bezel surrounding it. A native resolution of 1024×600 means that text and images will look crisp, sharp and colourful.

Onboard storage comes in the form of 8GB of Flash memory and there is a dual core processor doing all of the hard work under the surface. You can plug in a standard pair of headphones to listen to music and watch videos in peace, or use the built-in speakers if you wish. The whole device weighs 413 grams, which is quite a bit lighter than the iPad 2, although the Kindle Fire`s smaller screen and form factor accounts for this difference.

The software platform which brings the Kindle Fire to life is Android 2.3, but whilst most will know this as a mobile phone operating system it has been heavily modified by Amazon in order to drastically alter the way it looks and operates. You will be able to carry out all of the tasks typically associated with tablets, including browsing the internet, viewing and sending emails, playing videos, listening to your tunes and of course reading eBooks and comics. However, it is the Amazon-specific changes that are making the headlines.

Firstly it will come with access to a whole host of cloud-based services run by the retail giant. This includes Amazon Cloud Storage, Cloud Player, App Store, Kindles Store, Prime and many more. The ultimate goal is to allow users easy access to the content they want at a price they can afford. Downloading games, videos, books and much more media content will be simple and Amazon is ultimately relying on this to help it monetise the Kindle Fire because analysts predict that it is actually selling it at a loss and looking to recoup the costs further down the line.

Connectivity comes in the form of Wi-Fi and at first there will be no 3G option available for the Kindle Fire, although Amazon is developing such a device that will allow for web access and file downloads across a wider area. Because the Kindle Fire uses cloud based services there is little need for it to have as much storage as the up to 64GB available on the range-topping iPad 2. This is due to the fact that you can put all of your files online and stream or download them as appropriate.

The Kindle Fire is a compelling alternative to the standard Android-based tablets on the market as well as the iPad 2. Those who want an affordable tablet which combines the features of digital media players, laptops, eBook readers and many more should give it a look.

iPhone 4S Introduces iOS 5

halo — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:02:01 +0000

iPhone 4S Introduces iOS 5

iOS 5, which now can be downloaded on the iPhone 3GS and above, is certainly an integral part of the Apple operating system family and of central importance to the success of the new iPhone 4S phone deals.

This new operating system has a number of features that were not found on earlier versions. With little changing cosmetically on the iPhone 4S we will need to take a look at the new iOS 5 features to see what the iPhone 4S really has to offer.

iCloud

iCloud is an ingenious and ultra useful and well thought out service from Apple. The new cloud feature allows you access to your whole iTunes library on your device anywhere you want, once you have an internet connection. Unlike traditional Cloud services you won’t even have to upload the tracks. Apple has set the iCloud up in such a way that it stores the iTunes track IDs you have and then allows you access to them straight from the library on iCloud.

iMessages

Just like with the blackberry, Apple has included a free messaging service between all the different Apple devices. This will be a huge bonus for the company in the younger market who now won’t have to pay for the messages to their friends with the new app.

Notifications

The new notification section on the device is well thought out and homage to the way it is done on Android. Instead of the message system, Apple has included a drop down notification menu with all the information and changes on the device in one place – a huge help and a lot tidier.

Camera

It is also now possible to access the camera on the phone straight from the lock menu. This is a nice addition and means you don’t have to shuffle through unnecessary menus. If you’re someone who takes spontaneous photos this will be of huge help and will allow you a lot more freedom on the device.

iOS 5 also adds many new software features to the iPhone’s camera bringing it more in to line with competitors. This includes various effects that can be added to photos, and for the first time the iPhone comes with built in face detection.

Siri

The new voice control feature on the iPhone has gotten a lot of press, mainly because of the answers it gives to silly questions. However, its uses are more integrated than that and it works brilliantly with all the iPhone apps on the device.

This new integrated system can be used to keep your diary, voice dialling, sending messages and also a number of other features. It is also able to adapt to accents and learns as it goes, meaning it won’t be so likely to miscomprehend you as other voice control systems.

While most of the new iOS features are available to older devices making the upgrade, Siri is the one feature that is limited to just iPhone 4S use. Apple claim this is because only the iPhone 4S has the processing power to cope with it. Obviously this is not true because prior to Apple’s purchase of Siri it was available on other iOS devices as well.

This is no longer so. Although the iPad surely has the technical power to deal with Siri, and even though some diehard Siri enthusiasts have already managed to create a hacked version of Siri for jailbroken iPads and iPhones, Siri still will not work. This is because all of your voice commands and questions are fed through a central Apple system, rather than being managed directly from your iPhone 4S. Because of this, if you truly wish to enjoy the wonders that Siri brings – you will only be able to do so by purchasing a new iPhone 4S contract.

iPad Apps

halo — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:38:53 +0000

The iPad is really coming into its own, particularly since the launch of the second generation model with its powerful dual core processor and greatly enhanced ability to dole out realistic graphics. Here is a quick look at the latest apps for the Apple tablet which might take your fancy.

Cut the Rope HD

This game has confirmed that casual titles need not be unimaginative or fleetingly interesting. Rather than ripping off Bejewelled or Angry Birds, this inexpensive puzzle game asks you to do one thing, using its very title. In its HD form it is perfect for the iPad`s display and the simple, cartoony graphics are instantly appealing.

TweetDeck

One of the best third party Twitter clients around, TweedDeck is designed to let you make the most out of this microblogging service which is quickly becoming one of the most important tools for communication, promotion and activism in the world.

GarageBand

This popular desktop app arrived on the iPad 2 at its launch and is also available for the original model. It is the most comprehensive portable music studio software around, letting you record tracks while you are on the move and play thousands of virtual instruments to craft tunes solo or with friends.

Scrabble

Regularly listed as one of the top iPad apps of all time, Scrabble continues to attract users thanks to its perfect match with the iPad`s touchscreen interface. You can play against the computer for hours of boredom-stifling entertainment and the tactile nature of the controls really works to enhance the experience.

Needs for Speed: Hot Pursuit

This premium racing game is a little more expensive than the competition, although there is a Lite version which will let you try before you buy. Great 3D graphics and exhilarating road-based action where you take the role of a cop or a racer as you tussle for first place behind the wheel of exotic supercars.

Atari Greatest Hits

If you are looking for value for money then this has got to be one of the best collections around. There are 100 games in total covering all of the classic arcade titles from Atari and you can buy them in packs of four or shell out for the whole lot. Anyone who grew up with an Atari 2600 console or spent hours in the arcade will get a kick out of playing them on their iPad, which is a much better platform for this type of title than the iPhone.

Apple iPad 2

Quang Ly — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:47:01 +0000

Apple iPad 2

Apple iPad 2

Apple has unveiled the sequel to its iPad tablet, one of the biggest surprises of last year. The iPad 2 launches in March 2011 and although it is evolutionary rather than revolutionary it is certainly a step in the right direction.

From a physical point of view Apple has achieved the impossible, reducing the thickness of the iPad 2 by 30 per cent to its predecessor and actually making it slimmer than the iPhone 4. It is also 90 grams lighter than the original iPad, which may not sound like a lot but can make a big difference when you are holding it for extended periods. The iPad 2 is designed to be held in the hand for a majority of the time, but Apple has made it easier to lay on a flat surface or rest on a stand by flattening its back, eliminating the curve which could prove problematic.

Inside the iPad 2 is a brand new dual core A5 processor which is up to twice as fast as that in the original. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that it would be nine times more powerful in the graphics department, which is quite a boast and one which should excite gamers and app designers who really want to stretch the visual capabilities of the device.

Apple has embraced the world of photography by equipping the iPad 2 with not one but two cameras. The front-facing camera is designed for FaceTime, its video calling service which uses Wi-Fi to make personal conversations easy over the airwaves. On the rear you have a high megapixel unit for taking still photos and also recording video clips in HD, just like the iPhone 4. Whether users will actually ditch their standalone digital cameras in favour of their tablet is debatable, but it is good to see Apple keeping up with the competition.

All that extra processing power is put to good use not only in games like the gorgeous Infinity Blade but also in the running of new services which will be integrated into the iPad 2`s software. GarageBand, a favourite of Apple computer owners, is becoming available for the iPad, bringing with it virtual instruments, amps and recording which will surely win over more musicians to the device. Apple has also improved iMovie to make editing and playback a doddle and it is harnessing the full dual core setup to its advantage.

The one area in which the iPad 2 has not moved forward is the display. Early indications suggest it is almost identical to the LED backlit model seen on the original. This is fairly acceptable, although its lack of a true widescreen resolution and the rumours of a Retina Display with improved pixel density make it something of a letdown to anyone who has been following the device up to its launch. The iPad 2 may still not feature the same capabilities as notebook computers and laptop deals will typically offer you more bang for your buck, but as a piece of modern technology there is nothing more desirable today.

Facebook Mail Will Not Threaten Gmail

Quang Ly — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:56:02 +0000

Facebook Mail

Facebook recently launched their own mail service so users can now have their own vanity email addresses @facebook.com There are some talks that this is a threat to Google’s Gmail. I doubt this is true, at least anywhere in the near future. Yes, it’s true that tweens and teens use text and Facebook to communicate. This, however, will not cause disruption in Gmail. Remember when Google Wave was supposed to be its own Gmail Killer? Why didn’t Google Wave succeed? Because there is nothing wrong with Gmail that really needs complete overhaul. What will likely happen is that we will just be introduced to more options of communicating of our choice and the recipient’s.

phone
text
email (Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL)
Chat (Gtalk, Skype, Chat, FaceTime)

The point is no one service will monopolize communication.

How To Convert iPod Touch to iPhone

Quang Ly — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:17:49 +0000

How To Convert iPod Touch to iPhone

Exciting news for Apple fans as the Apple Peel 520 is rumoured to be coming to the US. The handy peripheral will allow consumers who have shelled out hundreds of pounds on an iPod to convert their favourite musical device into a fully functioning phone. It will also save space in your handbag or pocket.

Designed like a protective case, the Apple Peel 520 comes complete with a dock connector, battery and SIM card and will provide users with five hours of talk time and 120 hours of standby use.

For even the most technologically challenged individuals, the Apple Peel 520 is easy to use. After installing the required software, two apps appear on the iPod Touch home screen: Yosian and YsSMS, which provide voice and text support. When the communication module is switched on, a signal bar and a battery icon will appear in the middle of the iPod Touch’s status bar. To make a call, users simply tap the Yosian app icon which loads the numpad screen.

The device is currently available in China for 520 Yuan but North American distributor, GoSolar USA said that the first demonstrations of the Apple Peel 520 are expected to arrive in America sometime next week.

“We’re obviously very confident that consumer demand is high for the Apple Peel 520, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on the first batch,” said GSLO President and CEO Tyson Rohde.

“As soon as they arrive, we’ll begin distributing demonstration models to retail buyers across the country. The amount of interest in this product that we’ve received from distributors has been staggering.”

GoSolar are looking to sell the peripheral in Radio Shack, Best Buy, Walmart and Fry’s Electronics but no details regarding its retail price in the USA have been released as of yet.

The Apple Peel 520 allows you to convert your iPod Touch to an iPhone by installing an add on SIM chip. The Apple Peel 520 is planning to come the US. It will convert your favorite portable music device into a fully function iPhone without paying for 3G. You will still have use of WiFi

The Apple Peel 520 is designed like a protective case and comes complete with a dock connector, battery and SIM card. It will provide five hours of talk time and 120 hours of standby use.

The Apple Peel 520 is easy to use after installing the required software. There are two apps that appear on the iPod Touch home screen: Yosian and YsSMS, which provide voice and text support. When the communication module is switched on, a signal bar and a battery icon will appear in the middle of the iPod Touch’s status bar. To make a call, users simply tap the Yosian app icon which loads the numpad screen

GoSolar are looking to sell the peripheral in Radio Shack, Best Buy, Walmart and Fry’s Electronics but no details regarding its retail price in the USA have been released as of yet.

Historic Figures Facebook Status

Quang Ly — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:21:53 +0000

These are pretty hilarious Facebook status updates from Galileo, the Church, Ben Franklin, John Hancock, Charles Darwin, Isaac newton, God, Adam and Eve, Julius Caesar. By the way, did anyone go see The Social Network? What did you think?

Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App

Quang Ly — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:52:57 +0000

Apple Finally Approves Google Voice App - GV Connect

Apple finally approves Google Voice App (the second time) and it is available on the iTunes store now here for $2.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gv-connect/id347835665?mt=8

GV Connect is a native iPhone/iPod Touch application for your Google Voice account. The app features the following:

Place calls using your Google Voice number rather than your mobile number.
Send and receive text messages (SMS) from your Google Voice
Listen to voicemails and recorded conversations right on your device (pause, rewind, fast foward)
Mark messages as starred, block senders, delete conversations
Set call forwarding, do-not-disturb), rediections
Retina displays

I suspect the FTC inquiry on Apple’s blocking of a native Google Voice app sparked the change.

Smartphones and Laptops – which is better for surfing?

Guest Author — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:31:50 +0000

o2 dongle laptop

The internet used to be all about sitting in front of a computer at home or in the office. Now though, thanks to the evolving world of mobile technology we can all stay online pretty much wherever we go. With a bewildering array of gadgets on the market it can be a tough call deciding on which one to go for though, and new products and deals hit the shelves on an almost daily basis.

If you’re looking for a mobile device that can keep you hooked up to the internet both at home and while you’re out and about then there are essentially two options – the laptop or the smartphone. There are pros and cons for going down either route and while laptops have been around for longer, smartphones are fast becoming a real challenger to mobile computing on a laptop, although smaller screens and keyboards will always be the major drawback for some.

Now that laptops have come down in price (you can even sign up for free laptops with mobile broadband) and have been joined by the smaller netbook option it’s possible to pick up an excellent machine for a very small outlay. Some mobile broadband deals even offer a laptop for free, although these generally fall under longer-term mobile contracts of around 24 months. Laptops will need a dongle connected to a USB port on the machine in order to access a mobile broadband network of your choice, but lookout for coverage and data limits when comparing the many and varied deals out there. Lookout for battery life if you’re planning on computing on the move too and durability is another important factor.

A smartphone, meanwhile, makes a great deal of sense if you’re looking for a powerful computing experience on the go, but don’t want the bulk of a laptop or netbook. The screen and keyboard will, of course, be rather more limited, but thanks to a smartphone being an amalgam of the best bits of a computer and the choice cuts from a phone, there’s not much you can’t do on one of these devices. The smartphone also has all of its connectivity options built-in to the unit, so there’s no messing around with dongles.

However, a smartphone can suffer similar problems to the laptop when using mobile services, with coverage and network traffic issues contributing to a slow performance. You may not be able to connect at all in some cases. Data usage is also something to watch out for with smartphones, and both handsets and laptops shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for home broadband services. Current technology doesn’t really make either gadget ideal for downloading large amounts of data such as movies. Things will improve as technology evolves, but mobile gadgets are currently more of a supplement to existing services rather than a replacement.

Whatever mobile computing device you choose, it’s likely that the mobile broadband speed you get will generally be less than the ‘up to’ advertisements you see all over the place. However, it’s a good idea to get some impartial advice from a comparison website like Broadband Genie, which will not only show you the best deals but also save you money on a laptop, smartphone or both.

About the author: Rob Clymo writes on behalf of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk, the independent comparison website for broadband, mobile broadband and smartphones.

Google Chrome OS Tablet by HTC on Verizon

Quang Ly — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:12:35 +0000

Following the tablet footsteps laid by Apple, Google has built a Chrome OS tablet with help from HTC, and the device will launch on Verizon Wireless’ network come November 26th, 2010 — a date known otherwise as “Black Friday” in 2010.

The tablet is speculated to sport a 1280×720 display, 2GB of RAM, a 32GB solid-state drive, and WiFI/Bluetooth/3G wireless connectivity. Not bad. No word on front face or back camera yet though.

As for now, we would advise you to take the above information in with a grain of salt, at least until some more information on this so-called tablet is made available.

What are your thoughts? You want one?

Top 5 Useful and Free iPhone Apps

Quang Ly — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:57:37 +0000

Top 5 Useful and Free iPhone Apps

There are thousands of apps available to use on your iPhone, iPod and now your iPad as well and, surprisingly, many of the best are free to download.

The following list shows 5 of the very best free apps that also happen to be extremely useful as well. There are loads of apps out there that can help make your life that bit easier so it’s well worth going through them to find the ones that will apply to you and your life.

Here are a few of the best useful apps out there that are well-worth a look.

Thetrainline – For those of you who commute to work by train, Thetrainline is a free transport app that outshines all of the others – and it’s free. The app can help you to plan your journey, obtain offline results and timetables and also has a location-aware ‘next train home’ option. All of these features are available on Thetrianline’s clear and streamlined interface. There are of course other train apps available but many will cost you upwards of £5 and when you can get this one for free and it does the job – why look elsewhere?

Skype – This is a great money-saving app and allows you and your friends to chat to each other for free via your Skype app. The interface is simple and usable, enabling anyone with a Skype account to make free calls to other Skype users and also offers you the ability to make cheap calls to anywhere in the world. Pay as you Go users will find this app particularly useful but so will iPod touch owners as this app also allows them to make calls to other Skype users.

Dropbox – There are many apps out there that transfer content between your computer and your device but this one is free and actually a lot easier to use than many of the paid ones out there. Any files you want to sync up – just drop them in to a folder on your computer and Dropbox will enable you to access them.

Around Me – Around Me is a great app for when you’re out and about. It works out where you are and then shows you all the local banks, bars, petrol stations and restaurants etc that are in your vicinity. The app is really useful when you happen to be in unfamiliar surroundings and the ‘augmented reality’ landscape mode is great for getting to know the area, just be aware that this new technology isn’t completely there yet so expect that you may come across a few little errors.

Moneysupermarket.com Voucher App – No matter what you’re looking for, moneysupermarket.com will no doubt have a voucher for it that will help make savings on your purchases. There are thousands of free discount codes and vouchers on this iPhone app that can help all UK shoppers save money on whatever they want to buy.

Apple iTunes Cloud Lala Very Cloudy

Quang Ly — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:07:33 +0000

Apple iTunes Cloud Lala Very Cloudy

Many people expected that Apple would offer your iTunes music and movies over the cloud after it acquired Lala.com last December. That is of course after Apple obtained the appropriate music licenses to do so. Lala, the music serviced, shut down after being acquired by Apple this past May.

The Lala team leadership that went to Apple after the acquisition seems to leaving. Bill Nguyen, Lala’s founder, is known to be press friendly and against Apple’s culture of secrecy. Another founding member has left the company leaving Apple’s media cloud plans in a haze.

Google, on the other hand, hired Elizabeth Moody, an attorney with deep experience negotiating digital-music deals. Record executives expect Moody will help cut the first cloud music licensing agreement. Google has told label managers that it wants to launch a music service this year.

Apple is not worried though since it is still the #1 online and offline music store and jukebox.

However, in this fast pacing media game, tables can turn very quickly.

InnoPocket launched HexaPose Stand for Apple iPad

Quang Ly — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:42:47 +0000

InnoPocket have launched HexaPose Stand for Apple iPad. The HexaPose Stand is made of solid aluminum and tough polycarbonate with a chic design tailor-made for the Apple iPad. It comes with a rotatable pivot which can allow you to freely rotate your iPad horizontally or vertically. The pivot can also be adjusted 3 ways for different viewing angles for surfing, reading, gaming or movie viewing. HexaPose Stand is the perfect gadget for your iPad if you use iPad at home just as your PC. It makes your iPad look like an iMac.

Features

Clip-on, sleek looking table and desktop stand for your iPad
Solid and strong aluminum base
Precision molded polycarbonate frame to hold the iPad securely
Hold iPad in both landscape and portrait orientation
Multiple viewing angles for surfing, reading or movie viewing
Cutout gives access to iPad’s dock connector for charging and syncing

MSRP: US$49.99

About InnoPocket

Founded in 1999, InnoPocket designs and manufactures a complete line of custom cases for laptop, PDA, smartphones, MP3 players and gaming devices.

GadgetMETER’s Take

This would be great for a keyboard and desktop solution as well.

Contact
InnoPocket
Website: http://www.innopocket.com

Captcha Fail – Hideous Secretaries

Quang Ly — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:20:16 +0000

In September of last year, Google made a smart and obvious acquisition: reCAPTCHA, the service helps secure websites while at the same time helping computers learn to read old, scanned text. Google had reportedly been working on its own CAPTCHA solution, but found reCAPTCHA’s better, and were undoubtedly happy to welcome the talent behind it. Today, just seven months later, one of those key team members is defecting to Facebook.

Ben Maurer was a co-founder of reCAPTCHA and its chief architect. As he announced on his blog today, he’ll be joining Facebook’s infrastructure team. “With all the growth Facebook has seen comes unique challenges in scaling systems. I’m looking forward to working on this,” Maurer writes.

So why leave Google for Facebook? Well certainly, Facebook is getting a lot of buzz right now as a company that can potentially rival Google in the years ahead. Also, Facebook is not yet a public company, so the move probably makes sense for monetary reasons. Most importantly though, Maurer used to be an intern at Facebook a couple of years ago, so he’s returning home, so to speak.

And the Facebook he’s re-joining is undoubtedly different than the one he left. As the service approaches 500 million users, saying they have “unique challenges in scaling systems” is putting it mildly.

Meanwhile, reCAPTCHA (at least the technology) will live on. “It’s been over 3 years since we started working on the crazy idea of getting millions of people to digitize the world’s books in their spare time. I’m looking forward to seeing reCAPTCHA continue to grow,” Maurer writes.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/03/recaptcha-co-founder-facebook-google/#ixzz0mxxL45a2C

Captcha Fail - Hideous Secretaries

Captcha is the scrambled text that shows up requiring the user to enter manually to prevent automated bot systems from spamming. Every once in awhile, a funny captcha appears that is worth sharing. This particular captcha comes from craigslist.org. How many hideous secretaries have you seen?

In similar news, Google acquired reCAPTCHA, which is a service to secure websites while at the same time helping computers learn to read old and scanned text. The scanned text and the second is a random. reCAPTCHA determines statistically how often users get the scanned word correctly. If it is a high degree of accuracy, then the system assumes that is the word.

Leveraging user input through captcha text is a scalable approach to scan all the books that Google wants to do with a high level of accuracy. You know how they say that eventually, we all work for Google?

Docs by Microsoft and Facebook

Quang Ly — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:28:01 +0000

Docs by Microsoft and Facebook

Look out Google because Microsoft and Facebook are teaming up to challenge Google Docs online document sharing.

Microsoft Docs looks like a real threat to Google Docs because simply Microsoft still makes a better word processor than Google. Facebook’s crowd sourcing and social networking platform creates a true online desktop and utility for productivity. Docs also have a simple domain name that people can remember http://www.docs.com.

Google needs to respond with a true social networking strategy by merging their Gmail, YouTube, and Picassa audience to a single destination to share and communicate more seamlessly. They have made a pathway so far with integrating Buzz into Gmail. It was disappointing, however, that Google Wave was still a separate destination that needed another active conversion for adoption. Furthermore, their UI across different sites like Gmail, YouTube, and Picassa do not have similar look and feel.

Via http://docs.com

tXtBlocker Service

Jay — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:00:05 +0000

So I’ve been a little busy at work and the Q-man has been busy with work and school, so we’ve been ignoring the blog for a while. I’m hoping that this will change in March but won’t be able to tell for sure, since I start teaching a new class at my gym. Busy busy busy!

Before I got so busy I had a chance to chat with an awesome new company. tXtBlocker sent us a press release during the CES leadup, and I found them interesting enough to arrange a call with their media relations guy. I came away quite impressed with their potential.

tXtBlocker provides a service that prevents cell phones from being used under user-specified conditions. I say service because it’s not software that is installed on the cell phone itself; rather, compatible cell phones are registered on tXtBlocker’s servers and associated with an account. This allows the account holder to identify and set up rules around when that cell phone can be used for calls and texts.

As an example, consider the very simple rule “no texting while driving”. By using the tXtBlocker service, the phone is automatically prevented from being used for texting when the service registers that the phone is travelling faster than a pre-set speed. It is transparent to the user in the sense that the phone just doesn’t text when the condition is met. At CES, the company was selling this as a service to parents of teens, who are among the most prolific of violators of this particular rule. However, the flexibility of the service is useful to companies as well. We discussed many use cases, including:

preventing calls/texts from a user-defined radius (ie, a school, a church, etc).
preventing calls/texts before or after a certain time (ie, during school)
tracking the location of a phone
preventing texting while driving
theft deterrence and tracking

Emergency calls to 911 are always available, regardless of whether or not a rule is in effect. And rules can be added/suspended via account access – they don’t need to have physical access to the phone for rules to be implemented. So if your phone is stolen, you can log in, prevent it from being used for calls or texts, and track where the phone is. How awesome is that? If need be, the phone owner can request that the block be removed temporarily.

In my opinion, the true utility is for corporations. How many companies give their employees cell phones or Blackberries and only have soft guidelines about using them in inappropriate situations? I’m honestly not sure why an enterprising lawyer hasn’t sued a major corporation because an employee was texting or replying to email while driving. Yes, there’s some employee responsibility here but in today’s job climate, it’s very believable that an employee feels the need to always be available and to take unreasonable risks if they think it will help them keep their job. By activating corporate phones on tXtBlocker, every employee’s phone can be set to prevent use when the phone is traveling over 15mph. Simple, transparent, and safe. The theft deterrence and tracking capabilities are a close second in terms of corporate benefits as well – a nice big sticker on the back saying that the phone can be tracked and retrieved will go a long way to removing it as a potential hijack.

Right now, the service is primarily compatible with Blackberries, plus a few other phone models. But tXtBlocker indicated that by the end of 2010, they expect that their service will be compatible with the vast majority of GPS-enabled phones. The big exception, of course, is the iPhone because of its walled architecture. And since Apple sells a competing service (at least in the retrieval area), I don’t know how willing Apple would be to let tXtBlocker gain sufficient access to the background OS processes to make their service work. I figure we just need a few high profile cases where people cause accidents while typing on an iPhone to raise the visibility of the issue enough that Apple starts looking for a way to do this (or at least allow tXtBlocker to do it for them).

The service has an annual fee with discounts for each phone registered to an account. I know the last thing people want is another fee in these economic times, but as a parent of a future teen driver, I know I will be seriously considering this service. The cost is not all that high when you consider what it might be preventing.

Google Must Have Heard My Advice

Quang Ly — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:49:51 +0000

Google recently announced that they will be experimenting by building a super fast fiber network. I wrote a post “Why Google Needs to Become an ISP” a few months ago stating that Google needs to become an ISP because their search can be simply defaulted to another search engine. It is a war between tech companies to see who can control the platform and end-to-end services. Apple has devices, software, and stores. Microsoft has operating systems, office products, and mobile OS. Google’s strategy is simply to diversify and unify as much as possible.

Never thought my words would actually be heard from Google. They must have found it through Search

Why is Google building a high speed network? It is because the faster the network, the more people will be online which means the more ads they can display. Furthermore, Google can charge a subscription for access that is competitive to other ISPs. Google can also lease its fast fiber network to other ISPs as well for further revenue.

Cool Screenshot – Happy New Year and Resolution!

Quang Ly — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:41:40 +0000

Captured at 1/1 11:11

Happy New Year to everyone from the folks at GadgetMETER. GadgetMETER is now officially 1 year old and I am proud of what we’ve accomplished in that time.

One of my New Years resolution consists of simplifying my online and offline lifestyle.

Get rid of junk in my house I haven’t used in years
Eat less or no meat.
Reduced the number of RSS subscriptions.
Deactivated my Facebook account. (I’ll talk more about this later).
Discovered http://mnmlist.com and http://minimalmac.com. These are two great websites if you feel you are too distracted with todays bombardment of information.
Run a 10k
Enrolled at UPenn for Graduate School.
De clutter my MacBook desktop and menu bar

Now, if you are wondering how this screenshot is appropriate for this post. Well, I just happen to look at my iPhone at exactly 1/1 11:11pm so I quickly captured it. The background is a picture of Monica Belluci on my jail broken iPhone. Pretty cool huh? It must be a sign because I see it as a way to reset our tech lifestyle and look back at what’s really important: family, friend (true friends, not the persons you don’t know on your Facebook), health, and the environment. Today, we have way too many distractions in our life that really clouds our judgetment on what’s really important. Let’s take time to get rid of online and offline baggage and welcome the New Year!

So I propose this New Years Challenge for you.

Go take a walk.
Meet with a friend for coffee.
Enough with Twitter already. It’s really just for celebrities!
Delete contacts on Facebook you don’t ever engage with. Heck, deactivate your Facebook account like I did!
Delete LinkedIn. Who really uses this anyway?
Stop texting while having lunch or dinner with someone. Enjoy the moment.
Volunteer at a community center or shelter.
Donate to a charity: time, money, clothes, food. It can be anything.
Read a long form book.
Go camping or hiking.
Call up a friend. No texting!

Refuting NY Times Search Neutrality Article

Quang Ly — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:14:53 +0000

I read the New York Times recently published “Search, but You May Not Find” and find it to be one of the most biased and misguided articles from a supposedly reputable news source. The article discusses net neutrality which prohibits Internet service providers from discriminating or charging more for access to certain services or applications on the Web. The author, Adam Raff, uses the same net neutrality argument to support his claims for a “search neutrality” which you will see is a slippery slope argument

Adam explains that Internet search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, are becoming gate keepers of information and that their results should be unbiased and ranked on relevance. There is truth to this. If Search Neutrality should be the case, we would essentially have a single search engine for all our needs because they would all share the same algorithm to rank sites and content. However, what search neutrality implies is that all the engines would have the same exact results which would be anti-competitive. A user is not forced to user Google or any other search engine. The openness of the Internet allows for anyone with the best service to succeed without prohibition. Isn’t that what Net Neutrality is all about? Google itself hardly ever advertise it’s service. Users flock to Google because it does provide the most simple and effective search results. By having different search engines with varied results and services, creates competition for all sides and ultimately benefiting the users.

Adam Raff does disclose that he works for Foundem – a search site to compare products. Raff alleges that his site’s Google search rankings disappeared and thus stunted his company’s growth. Writing an article against Google on the NY Times is also a sure way to bring exposure to your company doesn’t it? What Raff doesn’t explain is why his site disappeared from search results. Gaming the system by adding keywords hidden behind background colors can do this. Listing your site on link farms solely for the purpose of Search Engine Optimization can also put your site in the “bad neighborhood”. Raff does not explain how his site might have been black listed by Google or what he tried to do to remedy the situation.

Raff further claims that Google isn’t innovative as people expect but instead buy a lot of other companies such as YouTube and Applied Semantics (now AdSense). AdWords is developed by Google but licensed under its inventors Overture. My response to this is – so what? Is buying another company a moral crime? What does acquisitions have to do with search neutrality? My understanding of what Raff is trying to say is that Google can provide preferential treatment to search rankings for it’s affiliated services as somehow it is not beneficial to the user. Hey, Raff, remember, you can still use Bing or Yahoo if you want Search Neutrality as you claim. Why is Google singled out in your article? You didn’t mention Microsoft’s interest in providing Bing as the search engine for Yahoo. I take it because your site wasn’t black listed from them.

Raff has a lot of superfluous reasons for search neutrality. However, he can best support his argument by presenting a case where if a site is black listed from a search engine without justifiable cause, then there should be an explanation and process to fix this. However, Raff’s article seems more like a kid ranting he didn’t get picked to play basketball. Maybe Raff’s next article should be on Sports Neutrality where every player no matter what his skill set, gets to score.

Screenshot – Google Phone Confirmed

Quang Ly — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:22:18 +0000

Google Phone

The rumors of the upcoming Google Phone has been laid to rest. Here is a screenshot of the Google Phone running Android 2.1 operating system. It is a Google branded phone but built by HTC. It is expected to be available as unlocked GSM in early 2010 on both AT&T and T-Mobile. Google apparently had a lot of influence on how the phone should be designed and operate since it is essentially their brand.

This comes only a few months after Verizon’s successful launch of their iPhone competitor Droid which also runs Android but version 2.0. Seems like iPhone competitors are coming out before the release of the next generation iPhone 4G which will be a bloodbath.

Via TechCrunch

Popeye’s creator, E.C. Segar, celebrated with a Google doodle

Quang Ly — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:29:09 +0000

Google doodle featuring Popeye

• Google doodle depicts Popeye eating spinach
• 115th anniversary of E.C. Segar’s birthday

When I was 5 years old, I went through a phase where I was really into Popeye. I remember as a kid walking around acting tough (and even enjoying my spinach). An aunt still calls me by Popeye till this day. I even had a pipe through blew out bubbles!

When I opened up Chrome this morning, it went straight to the Google home page where I saw this latest doodle. It brought back a lot of childhood memories. Popeye was an inspiration to me where the little guy can beat the brute (his nemesis was Bluto) and still get the girl Olive Oyl. Whenever Popeye and Bluto fought, Popeye would lose at first until he finds a can of spinach in his back pocket or laying around some where. As soon as he eats it, his fore arms grew 3x its size. I always wondered why Bluto wouldn’t just eat the spinach as well. Heck, even Olive Oyl could use some calories.

Want a Google Wave Invite? We have some!

Quang Ly — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:58:46 +0000

Google Wave Invite

Google Wave is a hot topic now. It is Google’s ambitious project for next generation unified real-time communication and collaboration tool. I finally got my invite and can now invite up to 8 others. I’m giving them away so if anyone is interested contact me through the web form. It even works on the iPhone!

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

What Free Apps Are You Thankful For?

Quang Ly — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:49:02 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Instead of the usual answers to what are you thankful for? Family, friends, blah blah blah. I want to ask you what Free Apps are you thankful for?

It takes a lot of effort to develop applications. We should recognize the author’s efforts.

Here is my personal list to start:

WordPress
Shazam
Pandora
YouTube
Gmail
Google Chrome
Google Voice
Google Calender
Google Apps
Google Docs
Firefox
Dropbox
Cydia (iPhone Jailbreak)
LogMeIn Free

Google Voice Quick Reference

Quang Ly — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:07:34 +0000

Google Voice Quick Reference

Google Voice is really quite an amazing service with a lot of features – for free. Granted if you have a smart phone with browser or near a computer to manage your calls. For those of you still sticking to your dinosaur phone lacking an Internet browser, this Google Voice Quick Reference is for you. Just print it out and put it into your pocket. I didn’t even know some of these features were available such as conversation recording. Managing Google Voice features is now whole lot faster.

Via TechCrunch

Transfer Your Mobile Number to Google Voice

Quang Ly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:02:18 +0000

Transfer Your Mobile Number to Google Voice

I’ve been using Google Voice since it was owned by Grand Central. It is a great platform for managing free calls, SMS, and contacts with intelligence. Now Google Voice lets you port your mobile number from your carrier to Google as well. This way, your voicemail is accessible from the cloud. By allowing Google Voice to manage my voicemail, it solves my issue with AT&T which prevents me from receiving voicemail notifications. Once you receive a voicemail, you can be alerted a number of ways by transcribed email or SMS text messages.

Google Voice can let you have a single phone number that automatically rings to your mobile, work, home and other phones based on rules and settings. For example, calls from your kids will ring all numbers while office related contacts only ring your work number.

The process to move your carrier number to Google Voice requires a few steps. However, it is very worth it in the end.

Via TechCrunch

Google Wave Already Works With iPhone

Quang Ly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:36:49 +0000

Google Wave iPhone App

Google Wave has been making headlines in the tech world. Not many people know this since not everyone received the official invite yet but it already works in the iPhone. It looks quite fantastic. You can simply go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone and wil be prompted that you are using a browser not supported during the preview, however, once you click through, it actually works well.

You can save a bookmark on your Home screen and it creates a little icon like other Web pages on the iPhone. However, Google Wave is a bit different. Once you launch it it removes the Safari wrapper which allows you to nagivate to another page or search the Web. It actually looks like a regular native iPhone app.

The screen shot on the right is what Google Wave looks like on the iPhone launched from the Home screen bookmark. The screen shot at the bottom is what it looks like from within Safari.

Via TechCrunch

Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Quang Ly — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:06:06 +0000

Dropbox Online Storage and iPhone App

Dropbox is an easy to use online file storage that syncs your files across all your computers. I installed it recently and must say it is very intuitive, easy, and fast! You simply go to their website, create and account, and then install on your computer (both Windows and Mac compatible). You can then select your drop box folder to by synced. Files or folders that are in your Dropbox folder are then synchronized online. The performance is great. When you make a change, Dropbox sends the “delta” only to the server thus making the change very quickly. You can also access your files through the website.

The free version begins with 2 Gig of storage space with an additional 1 Gig by referring friends. There is also premium paid version which offers much more.

Dropbox recently released an iPhone application to make it even easier to access your files anywhere in the world. This new iPhone app will let you get access to all your Dropbox documents, PDF’s, pictures, videos and much more. Dropbox also introduced offline viewing in the iPhone app, with “Favorites.” If you add a file to your ‘Favorites’, they’ll be accessible at any time. To do so, just hit the star at the bottom of any file, and it’ll be added. Otherwise, your files stay in the cloud. This is great for people who complain that the iPhone does not offer local file storage. Dropbox offers this and more with automatic sync with their cloud!

Dropbox can also let you share files and folders to anyone in the cloud. The iPhone app also lets you upload pictures and video (with iPhone 3GS).

In just a few days, Dropbox reached over 2 million users. Impressive.

When is Google’s rumored GDrive coming? Google???

Screenshot Google Wave

Quang Ly — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:18:44 +0000

Google Wave Collaboration

Google recently released their new web-based collaboration tool called Wave to developers, volunteers and select Google Apps members. The shortest way to describe Google Wave is real-time Gmail on steroids. Wave is the entire Google Product while a wave (lower case) is an individual message or document. Google is initially targeting students, colleges, and collaborative teams to test out this new paradigm of communication.

A wave can include a message with rich content (images, YouTube video, links, maps) and can be shared with other users. There is also a video playback feature that shows a new member coming into the wave the history of the changes.

A wave can also be embedded on another site such as a blog. Currently, there are still bugs to be worked out but this does seem to be a promising step forward for Google to compete with Facebook, Twitter and other crowd sourcing social networks.

Google Wave Header

Here is the Google Wave 3 Panes: Navigation, List, Rich Content.

Google Wave Default View

A wave with rich content

Google Wave Rich Content

Google Wave is similar to Gmail with search features, tagging, file uploads, and even folders. The rich web interface is completely drag and drop.

Google Docs Now Convert Images to Text

Quang Ly — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:29:01 +0000

You can now use Google Docs to perform OCR image-to-text conversions when you upload high-resolution files. It is a nice newly added feature from Google (and of course it is free)

For 3rd party webapps or services that uses Google Docs, they can use this URL parameter to accept JPG, PNG, and GIF files for conversions. Keep in mind this is still in beta.

Tell us what you think of Google Docs OCR performance. Was it good for you?

Google Docs OCR Convert Images To Text

Via Life hacker

Google Push Email for iPhone Now Available

Jay — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:50:41 +0000

Google Push Email and Calender Sync

Dammit. I just spent $2.99 on an app to give me push Gmail on my iPhone and then Google goes and adds that capability through Google Sync. Damn you Google, for making what used to cost money free. Details at the Google Mobile blog. Thanks to TechCrunch for alerting me.

If you have GSync already set up on your iPhone, all you have to do is go to the Exchange entry and activate the Mail option. Simple!

Warning – the Google mobile blog servers are apparently mobbed right now, cause performance is slow slow slow.

UPDATE: In the 20 minutes since I activated this service, I’ve noticed three things.

You don’t get a popup alert on your screen when new emails come in. This could be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view. You will get a buzz indicating new mail (if your iPhone is set up for that).
There is a definite lag between receipt of email and Google pushing it to your iPhone. It’s not huge but it can be a couple minutes. I’m curious as to if this is due to the newness of the service or if it’s normal lag due to using Exchange. It’s no different than what sometimes happens with the Blackberry, so unless you’re OCD about your email you probably won’t notice it.
My Yahoo push email has apparently never worked properly and for whatever reason I do not get my Yahoo mails pushed to my iPhone. I only noticed this because of how Google’s push works. Luckily I don’t care about my Yahoo accounts, since they serve as repositories of spam and junk emails for various signup lists. Plus all my porn user names and passwords.

Play your GVoice messages in GMail

Jay — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:58:11 +0000

New in GMail fresh from the mad scientists at Google Labs – you can now activate a feature that allows you to play your Google Voice messages in your GMail account. Furthermore, the playback syncs with your GVoice account and causes them to be marked as no longer new. Slowly but surely Google is tying together all their services into a supermegamonstercloud application set. Though it still pisses me off that the same features they activate in Google Tasks in GMail aren’t immediately available in Google Calendar. And that Tasks still doesn’t have an API that some coder in a dark room can use to sync my To Do’s with my iPhone. C’mon you lazy Googlers – get at it!