Iphone Sdk Software

2009-04-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

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March 11th, 2008
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The iPhone SDK announcement has come and gone and reality is beginning to set in. The SDK provides opportunity for lots of great new applications on the iPhone. However, there are also a great many restrictions. As Quentin noted, we worry about the potential for innovation to be stifled, due to these restrictions.

In an effort to remedy this and remove some of the limitations, we’ve submitted a number of bug reports to Apple. Some of these are useful specifically for us, while others are beneficial to anyone, but our goal here is the same with all of them - we want to make the iPhone platform as robust and powerful as possible.

A list of our requests for enhancement is below - developers are invited to submit duplicates and Apple engineers can view the full submissions with the links provided.

Allow applications to be installed at the user’s discretion, not Apple’s

This request basically asks for Apple to not be the exclusive provider of applications for the iPhone. Having an App Store is certainly a great new venue for sales, but it should not be the only way to get software on the iPhone. Just as Apple sells music, but also lets you load MP3s ripped from CDs onto your iPod, you should be able to install software from other sources.

This is perhaps the most important issue - if this restriction is lifted, many others become far less important.

Bug ID #5788773

Allow applications to run in background on iPhone

The hardware is certainly quite capable of handling this. Indeed, many of Apple’s own applications run in the background, from Mail to SMS to iPod. Not all applications need to do this, but an AIM or IRC client should, as well as anything involving file transfers.

Bug ID #5788784

Allow access to root user on iPhone

Perhaps this one sounds outlandish, but the fact of the matter is, you own this device just as you own your Mac. This access should be controlled, just like it is on desktop Macs, by some sort of password or setting. Apps should not be able to get root without permission, but we believe an open platform is best.

A MediaPicker API for accessing the iPod music files is needed

Just as applications can access photos and contacts, we want to access music. This one has a very specific use in mind for us, Airfoil for the iPhone needs to be able to access music on the device. However, many other applications could make use of this as well.

Bug ID #5788792

Add option to allow iPhone applications to access entire filesystem

To do interesting things, some applications need access to data beyond what they create. Image and Contact Picker are a start, but what happens when a suite of applications is made by one company? How will one app edit another app’s data? This is an extension of needing a MediaPicker, but it would be much broader and more powerful.

Bug ID #5788801

Allow iPhone applications to access the host computer when docking

There’s a lot of valuable functionality to be had in an application which acts as an extension of a Mac or PC program. Imagine automatically synchronized to-do lists, blogging/photo apps, instant messaging logs, and much more. Without being able to access the host computer, these are forced to either go through local wifi or through some sort of centralized server, both of which offer a poorer experience.

Currently, only Apple can do this - with iCal, Contacts, and Safari bookmarks. Other apps can certainly benefit from this as well.

Bug ID #5788803

Permit Voice over IP on the cellular network

This limitation is arbitrary and is obviously motivated to placate AT&T. VoIP has no more impact, and arguably less impact, on the cell network than a regular voice call. Data should not be segregated. It’s all bits, and if my bits are coming out of a handset speaker in Beijing, Apple shouldn’t know or care.

We don’t expect anything will change here, but it certainly should. The principle here is the same as network neutrality for the Internet.
Bug ID #5788806

Allow iPhone applications to access the docking port

The ability to communicate with peripherals would enormously expand the potential for third-party applications. For example, an iPhone could be plugged directly into a camera to tag and upload photos to a web site from the field. A plug-in GPS unit could be used for car navigation or trip logging. A microphone could transform the iPod Touch into a mobile podcasting device. And there are many more opportunities for innovation which would be created by allowing iPhone software to talk to such external devices.

Bug ID #5788798

If you have an ADC account, you can submit your own bugs at http://bugreport.apple.com. Plenty of things are still in flux, and with input from users and developers, Apple may just see what a powerful platform the iPhone can be.

Update (3/11/08 10:30 PM): There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding bug filing and the use of bugreport.apple.com to provide feedback. Three things to know:

1) This is the method for providing feedback to Apple. Don’t let the name fool you - there’s an “Enhancement” option which is what we’ve chosen for these.

2) It was expressly suggested that we provide feedback in this manner by multiple Apple engineers, including those who’ve worked on the iPhone team.

3) It was expressly requested by Steve Jobs himself that we provide feedback on the SDK.

We’re not spamming Apple with this, we’re providing Requests for Enhancement, in the exact manner their system is designed to be used.

Posted by Paul Kafasis | Permalink

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2009-04-18T19:55:00.003-07:00

I recently bought a new cell phone for my son. It's one of those really cheap cell phones in a decrepit model and a design devoid of any of those modern functions. No camera, no MP3 players, no scheduler....nothing. Just a phone which serves its purpose. My son is 7, he doesn't need any of those expensive phones, so, the phone meets the requirements. On the other hand, my husband uses an iPhone while I use a PDA which I bought for RM2,288 (USD700) at that point in time which was about a year and a half ago. But when I look at my kid's phone and compare it to my bulkier but funkier PDA, I thought to myself, "You know, I think I like the simplicity of my son's phone when compared to my own expensive PDA". Sure, I bought the PDA because I needed to use the calendar and reminders and I DO use it! But sometimes, the simpler things are, the better they are.

Forget the flowers, your articles don't need them

The same goes for the articles that you write. Too much flair, too many bombastic words, too many obvious points will make the article too congested. It only serves to make the article look like it's written by a 'professional' with an adequate vocabulary. The more flowery the article is, the more effort it will take for your readers to understand what you're trying to get at. So, ditch all of that and stick to simple language, get to the point and make sure you read it over and over again, to ensure that whatever you've typed out is understandable at first read.

Writing and Thinking at the same time helps keep your articles simple and easy to understand

Maybe I'm just a simple person who prefers no flowers, no frills, no flair when I'm reading. Writers who try to hard to impress turns a lot of people off. That's why professional writers who writes for the web don't try to hard to think of words that they don't normally use when they write. And that's also how freelance writers like me write fast. I think and write at the same time - my train of thought chugs at the same speed my fingers are tapping on the keyboard. The moment someone interrupts my train of thought, I stop writing. But it makes the writing process a much faster one and it produces quality articles that speak to the readers in a simple and casual manner without compromising the professional feel to it.

Internet readers are a lazy bunch of folks!

Writing in a simple manner is particularly important on the Internet because people who read via the computer are a lazy bunch of folks! Really, admit it! Many people don't bother reading past the first paragraph if the writer does not capture the attention of the reader or the message is lost by the third line. It's easy to lose the reader when the writer spends a lot of time just spinning a web of words that makes no sense to common folks who are not writers. Unless you're writing for a literary project or for subjects who are proficient in the language, I say write like you're writing to your best friend. Like my son's cell phone, simple is sometimes the best.

2009-04-18T19:55:00.001-07:00

2009-04-18T19:53:00.002-07:00

There is a large market for free television episode and movie downloads online. There is also a lot of software available to provide for the market but a lot of this is not seen as they are not major companies. So there is not much exposure and movie fans do not get to use these great features.

Here is a list of the best free software to download movies online:

1. Graboid television. Offer high speed DVD quality downloads of every movie and television episode of the last 10 years.
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2. Kazaa. Even though this is not allowed in a lot of countries. It still is the best in those countries for which it is still allowed. Mainly in South America and Europe.

3. Morpheus. Not as good as Kazaa because of slow download speeds and some times unsafe files. You need a good anti virus and pop up blocker and this software should work very well.

4. Cinema Now. This is free to download and use the trial. But it can become expensive once the trial period runs out. The quality of the downloads are really second to none.

5. Apple store. Itunes offers cheap movie downloads and the quality is very good. The disadvantage is though, it can not be seen on big computer screens but only on Ipods and Iphones.

These are all good software which still offer free movie downloads. In many cases though it is best to go to the cinema to make sure the industry that you love continues to produce good movies for the years to come.

2009-04-18T19:53:00.001-07:00

HTC Touch Diamond the most innovative Windows Pocket PC mobile from HTC looks very glossy and glittering like a diamond. This powerful and beautiful phone challenges the iPhone in its style and performance. This Pocket PC mobile is loaded with Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system from the world's most renowned PC operating System manufacturer Microsoft. Hence consider it the other way you can see it as a competition between Microsoft and Apple. HTC Touch Diamond really looks awesome and it will surely attract you on the first sight itself. If you take a look at the rear view of this mobile, you can see some crystal like structure, which depicts that it is a diamond.

The User Interface looks very pleasant and pleasing it is done with the help of HTC Touch FLO 3D. The dimensions of this diamond are 102 x 51 x 11.5 mm but weighs only 110 grams which is relatively low when compared with other Pocket PC mobiles. The dazzling Touch Diamond is available only in shining black colour though it looks metallic blue in certain angle of light source.

It has a large 2.8 inches wide VGA display touch screen, which is capable of displaying 65 thousand colours at a maximum resolution of 480 x 640 pixels. Really impressive it would be much better if it have supported more colours, but there is nothing serious to worry about because VGA displays are always much better than TFT display mobiles which support much more colours. The Touch FLO 3D offers smooth finger swipe navigation using the touch sensitive navigation controls, the handwriting recognition feature of this mobile allows you to write whatever you wish without using the onscreen QWERTY keyboard. This Pocket PC has Accelerometer sensor which automatically detects the rotation of the mobile and changes the orientation of the mobile horizontal or vertical accordingly.

This phone is powered by Qualcomm MSM7201 A 528 Mhz processor which utilizes 256 MB ROM and 192 MB DDR SDRAM for its processing. Not only that it also has a separate Video graphic card which uses dedicated 64 MB RAM, only very few mobiles have dedicated graphics card and memory. So, you can expect smooth and highly responsive graphical interface. It is operated by Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional the latest mobile operating system from Microsoft. This phone has a large internal memory of 4 GB. Unfortunately you cannot use external memory card with HTC Touch Diamond but 4 GB should be enough for most of our needs. It has a very powerful 3.15 MP camera which can capture images at a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels with autofocus, video and other wonderful features.

This advanced Pocket PC can work in both second and third generation networks. This mobile is available in two versions one is for US customers and the other for rest of the world. It would have been much better if it provides all the frequencies in a single mobile, hence if you are not a frequent traveller then you needn't worry about these details.

HTC Touch Diamond offers various connectivity options like class 10 GPRS, class 10 EDGE, HSDPA in 3G. So, you can achieve a maximum speed of 7.2 Mbps depending on the connectivity used. It also offers lot of options to share data among compatible devices using Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g for connectivity in Wireless LAN, or you can use Bluetooth or mini USB.

2009-04-18T19:52:00.001-07:00

The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket. -Andrew Carnegie

Depending on your mood, being around a toddler can either be refreshing or absolutely annoying. As they explore the world they've only been in for a couple of years, every other word out of their mouth is "why?" Their curiosity is at a fevered pitch, and they assertively seek answers. In much the same way a curious toddler wonders where the sun goes at night, I sit here today wondering at what age a person's curiosity dies. Where do all of the "why's" go? I know there are groups of people who never stop needing to learn, but I also find myself surrounded by intellectually incurious people every day of my life. What makes me sad, and sometimes angry, is that these same people are hurting from their own unhappiness, their own sense of not having the things in life that they need and deserve. Whether it is more time with their family, or enough money to send their children to a better school, everybody wants something. Unfortunately, few go after it with the same tenacity as a toddler seeking the answer to where the sun goes at bedtime. Why is a toddler intellectually more resolute than a grown man? Why don't everyday people go after extraordinary things? I'm not talking only about money, for we are only truly rich when we have perfect balance; I'm talking about going after the things that we want and deserve. We share a common lack of willingness to drive toward obtaining those things. There are some things to be learned from the tenacious wonderment of youth - things that we seem to forget the older we get.

The beauty of these youthful lessons is that they come back to you; they cannot be forgotten, much like riding a bike. The moment you remember how it feels to dream about something wonderful, you'll be swept up in your ability to do anything that you put your mind to doing. You'll feel light and free as your mind swirls with possibility. Except this time, your challenge is to grab these dreams and put them in your pocket; don't let them get away this time. They have real value and real worth. With your dreams in your pocket, you hold the key to recognizing that we are surrounded by knowledge every moment of every day. You can tap into this knowledge and find the answers to all of the questions whose answers have eluded you. In this new millennium, we find ourselves literally an iPhone away from all the answers we could possibly want. What, then, is missing? Certainty of purpose is the only missing ingredient. Making the decision about what it is you want and deciding that you will have it is the one thing you can do right now to change your life forever.

There is no wishy-washy hodgepodge of good feelings here. These are hardcore, bare-bone facts. When you settle on something, and you have the emotional courage to believe in yourself, you are certain to accomplish it. Instead of comfortably diversifying your talents and your personal resources, do as Andrew Carnegie suggested: fight conventional wisdom and put all of your eggs in one basket, then watch that basket carefully. What eggs, and what basket? The answer to that question lies in your gut. What does your perfect day look like? What truly excites you? How much money do you honestly want to have in your bank account? Spend the time it takes to get clear about what it is you want, your definite purpose, and then put everything you have into making it happen. You will soon find that when a settled belief is combined with pure passion, there is no way it cannot be accomplished.

2009-04-18T19:49:00.002-07:00

The Samsung F490 is the follow on handset from the Korean manufacturer that brought you the Samsung Armani. This touch screen handset is already hotly anticipated by many gadget lovers the world over, such is the popularity of these types of handsets in today's market. Can it take on the iphone? And more importantly can it win? This article attempts to answer these questions at a time when the market is getting more crowded than ever.

The Samsung F490 is 3.5g with HSDPA. This allows for extremely fast data transfer, something that is most definitely required in today's media frenzied online environment. Gone are the days when WAP and GPS were all that the mobile phone user had; now it is broadband speeds or nothing and the F490 delivers in spades. If you like using your mobile phone to download music, videos or just surf the web then this handset is the one for you.

The screen is rather uncommon size measuring 240 X 432 pixels. IT is a 3,2 inch screen which is plenty for operating the phone, viewing images and selecting tracks. One can assume that this handset has been designed for viewing video and film in widescreen such is the 16:9 ratio. This could be achieved by flipping the phone onto its side, a feature apparent on many of the latest handsets.

The touch screen has a feedback system, as found on some of the latest Motorola handsets. This means that the phone will vibrate when a button is touch. This is a welcome addition, as it gives the impression that a button has been pressed. This technology is still in its infancy and we expect it to improve as the years go on

2009-04-18T19:49:00.001-07:00

2009-04-18T19:48:00.001-07:00

The Nokia 5800 phone was introduced in late 2008 and first quarter of 2009. True to form, Nokia is already planning on its next groundbreaking smart phone, and rumor has it that this new model is code named the Nokia Eitri.

Rumors such as these are generally true, so if a prototype of the Nokia Eitri is unveiled in early 2009, you can almost plan on a fall 2009 release of the new handset.

So what does this rumored new handset have that the Nokia 5800 does not?

First off, it will be at all touch smart phone that will have a 3.5 inch display. This is an important feature because when it comes to smart phone displays, the more real estate the better. It will contain the same 640 x 350 display as the 5800, and you can bet Eitri would it will have at least 8 GB of memory onboard.

The handset will be in landscape candy bar form with what looks like will contain a QWERTY keyboard. The Nokia Eitri will no doubt have it least a five megapixel camera onboard. It is unknown the extent of video capability will be with this Nokia model.

The handheld touchscreen smart phone market is heating up at a blistering pace. The moment that any of these companies such as Nokia, Apple, or Research in Motion unveils their next smart phone marvel, they must be in full swing in hyping the next up-and-coming model.

2009-04-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

Perseverance is undoubtedly an important aspect of successful entrepreneurship. The saying "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" means that few individuals are able to achieve great things without first overcoming the obstacles that stand in their way.

Here are four examples - two from the past and two from the present day - of successful perseverance in business to help inspire you to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Thomas Edison

When he was young, Thomas Edison's parents took him out of school after his teachers declared that he was "stupid" and "unteachable." Edison spent his early years working and being fired from various jobs, culminating in his firing from a telegraph company at the age of 21. Despite these numerous setbacks, he Edison was never discouraged from his true calling in life: inventing. Throughout his career, Edison obtained more than one thousand patents. And although several of these inventions -- such as the light bulb, stock printer, phonograph and alkaline battery -- were groundbreaking innovations, the vast majority of them could be fairly described as failures. And now Edison is famous for saying that genius is "1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."

One of Edison's best examples of perseverance occurred after he was already a successful man. After inventing the light bulb, he began seeking inexpensive light bulb filament. At the time, ore was mined in the Midwest of the United States, and shipping costs were very high. In order to combat this, Edison established his own ore-mining plant in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. For nearly ten years, he devoted his time and money to the enterprise. Edison also obtained 47 patents for innovations that helped make the plant run more smoothly. And even despite those inventions, Edison's core project failed because of low quality ore on the East Coast.

However, despite that failing, one of those 47 inventions (a crushing machine) revolutionized the cement industry, and actually earned Edison back almost all of the money he lost. Later, Henry Ford would credit Edison's Ogdensburg project as the main inspiration for his Model T Ford assembly line. And in fact, many believe that Edison paved the way for modern-day industrial laboratories. Edison's foray into ore-mining demonstrates that dedication can pay off even in a losing venture.

Milton Hershey

Milton Hershey had a long path to the top of the chocolate industry. Hershey dropped out of the 4th grade to take an apprenticeship with a printer, only to be fired. Next he became an apprentice to a candy-maker, and then started 3 unsuccessful candy enterprises.

However, Hershey was not giving up. After these unsuccessful attempts, he founded the Lancaster Caramel Company. Despite his initial setbacks, Hershey's caramel recipe was a huge success. Looking beyond caramel, Hershey believed that chocolate products had a much greater future, and sold the Lancaster Caramel Company in order to start the Hershey Company, which brought milk chocolate to the masses.

In doing so, Hershey overcame failure and accomplished his goals. He also created hundreds of jobs for Pennsylvanians and was generous with his wealth, building houses, churches, and schools.

Steve Jobs

Perseverance is not just limited to the beginning phases of a person's career. In fact, failure can often occur after a long period of achievement.

Apple founder Steve Jobs achieved phenomenal success early in life. When he was 20 years old, he founded Apple from his parents' garage, and within ten years the company had grown into a $2 billion juggernaut. However, when Jobs turned 30, Apple's Board of Directors fired Jobs from the company he created, and he found himself unemployed. Rather than seeing this as a curse, Jobs treated it as a freedom to pursue new initiatives. In fact, Jobs later stated that being fired was one of the best things that ever happened to him, since it provided him with the opportunity to think more creatively and to start a new company.

After being fired from Apple, Jobs founded NeXT, a software company, and Pixar, the amazing movie company that has produced animated films such as Finding Nemo. NeXT was subsequently purchased by Apple. After founding these companies, Jobs not only went back to Apple, but he helped launch their current resurgence in popularity with the creation and success of the iPod and iPhone. Jobs credits his career success and his strong relationship with his family to the fact that he was terminated from Apple.

Simon Cowell

Although Simon Cowell is now a pop icon and wealthy man, Cowell faced struggles earlier in life. When he was fifteen, he dropped out of school and worked various odd jobs. Cowell eventually received a job working in the mail room at EMI Music Publishing, where he was able to work his way into the A&R department. After EMI, Cowell formed his own publishing company, E&S Music.

Unfortunately, Cowell's new company folded in its first year of operation. As a result, Cowell was burdened with a lot of debt, and had to move back in with his parents. However, he was persistent, and eventually landed a job with a small company called Fanfare Records. Cowell worked at Fanfare for eight years and was able to help build the company into a successful record label. From there, he spent several years signing musicians and cultivating talent before launching the "American Idol" and "X-Factor" franchises that would make Simon Cowell a household name.

2009-04-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

2009-04-18T19:45:00.001-07:00

The Samsung F490 is the direct competitor to the iPhone. It is a touch screen mobile phone that comes with tactile feedback, similar to that of Motorola's haptic technology. As beautiful as this phone is, can it take on the might of apple and win the hearts and minds of gadget lovers the world over? This article looks at the F490's features and attempts to answer this very question.

The Samsung F490 is a 3.5 HSDPA handset, which means that data transfer on this magnificent handset is no problem whatsoever. The screen is particularly large with a resolution of 240 X 432 pixels. This is a longer screen than is usually found on a mobile phone and one can assume that this is to support widescreen playback for films and TV shows.

Samsung has taken a lot of the features from its flagship "Armani" phone, in particular the interface and operating system. With system upgrades and bug fixes, the F490 should be a stable phone that is fit for even the most avid mobile user. The F490 comes equipped with a 5 mega pixel camera, although nothing has been mentioned about autofocus yet, a feature that is expected on today's mobile phones.

The internal memory is 130mb. This is small and will probably allow you store approximately 40 songs or 300 photographs (depending upon what resolution you select). You can expand the memory using a micro SD card up to a capacity of 4GB., this is plenty; for a mobile phone.

Overall the Samsung F490 is a fantastic mobile phone that is surely going to make waves in the industry. It is pushing Samsung further on in the telecommunications world and pitting it against the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. This is a good thing as the more competition we have the better.

2009-04-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

The advantage is for the early adopters. If you want everything that is latest in the market, this is something that you must have. On the downside, you would have to carry on with the same phone for a year or so or whatever contract period you take. If you are ready to wait for the Samsung F700 to come in the open market, you would be able to get a wider variety in the tariffs to choose from.

All in all, Samsung F700 is a very good phone. Even though the phone is a Samsung's first step in the smart phone line, there are very few rough edges. Overall the device is good for anyone who is about to take his first PDA phone. While Samsung claims that this phone is Ultra Smart, the PDA functionality of the phone can only be regarded as entry level. One of the major aspects of being a smart phone, the ability to run, native third party applications is missng. Reason being that this phone seems to work on the same firmware and operating system (if it can be called that)on which other Samsung phones. Although the eye candy has been increased but that is just about it.

On the brighter side, the phone comes with hardware that would make any smart phone jealous (yes iPhone, you too). This is a full 3G device with integrated HSDPA support. You get Wireless broadband up to 7.2 mbps.

On the multimedia side this phone is very capable. You get a music player and video player with wide range of codec support. Even Real's formats are supported. The phone also comes with a high quality camera on the rear and self portrait plus video call camera on the front.

If you have been using Vodafone and are looking for a new device, this phone would be the perfect for you.

2009-04-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Embedded system is an important element of the modern compressed devices with multifunction capabilities. Embedded systems are specific computer programs that combine the features of designed softwares and are entirely encapsulated by the devices, they control. It has specific necessities and is designed to execute pre-defined tasks. Embedded devices are being rapidly used for implementing graphical displays and user information displays, which enhance the user experience. Few examples of embedded systems are music player, mobile phones, mobile GUI software, etc.

The GUI application that lets the users to direct a device via use of buttons, icons and pointers has become a key differentiator in today's developed devices. The trends of simple text-based interface are now over. Users want more developed features such as clear screen, animated icons, readable fonts, and dropdown menu schemes. It is a task in itself to develop the interface but to manage it within an embedded application can be cumbersome. The biggest challenge that application developers are facing is the issue concerning ever changing platforms.

Due to rapid change in platforms, embedded application developers feel the requirement to port their applications to innovative platforms. It is not a simple task to port the embedded applications to new platforms. Due to this difficulty in porting embedded applications to new platforms, developers feel the need for a porting toolkit and software for embedded systems that allow them to build rich interfaces quickly.

The other difficulty that developers face in embedded systems is designing the user friendly and attractive graphical displays. The graphical user interface (GUI) will eventually decide the success and failure of an embedded device, because the usability of an embedded device depends on how user friendly the interface is. Due to this problem in designing the user interface of the embedded systems, the developers are looking for embedded graphical user interface design services that provide high and rich embedded device interface. One of the most recent examples of a highly advanced yet easy to use interface is the Apple iPhone; interface has played a major role in its success all around the world.

2009-04-18T01:53:00.002-07:00

2009-04-18T01:53:00.001-07:00

It is simple. If you want to make changes in your personal life you have to change the way you think.

It has often been said, "It is all in the mind!" That statement is absolutely correct.

It is difficult to change unless you are ready to accept changes.

Changes are only easy to accept when you are mentally prepared for the consequences.

Unless that 'state of readiness' is achieved it is hard to change.

The following points will help us appreciate this argument.

It is important to have then desire to learn new things.

My parents are witnesses to many changes in their lifetime.

They used to solely listen to the radio before the advent of TV.

They have witnessed all the different generations of TVs, cameras, and music systems.

They used to write letters as young adults.

Now they try to learn what the new Iphone can do, what the new iPod shuffle can do, what is a Roomba, how does the G.P.S. work, which is the best gaming console, and why do I, their daughter, enjoy all these new 'toys'.

They love to write emails and can easily chat on Yahoo Messenger.

I shudder to imagine how their lives would be had they not adopted all the changes and decided one fine morning that they were comfortable with what they were doing.

They are willing to accept changes only because they have an open mind and unlike many of their friends, they 'want to learn'.

Learning is easy when you want to. It is harder to teach a concept to someone who is simply not interested.

Similarly it is relatively difficult to convey a message to someone who is not even paying attention to what you are saying.

Apply this to yourself and learn to accept change in your life.

Identify areas where you think it is harder for you to cope with changes.

Write them down in a personal log or make a mental note and then try to improve yourself.

Many studies have proven that people who make planned efforts to learn have been more successful than others who want to learn in a random, unsystematic way.

Learn to be amoebic.

If you have a chance to listen to a good speaker taking a class on 'Change Management', notice that s/he will always mention that organizations have to be amoebic.

The word 'Amoeba' was derived from the Greek, meaning "to change".

An Amoeba is a unicellular protozoan organism which moves by continually changing its body shape and forming extensions called pseudo pods (false feet).

It can live almost anywhere because of its simple structure and changing body.

The idea of an Amoeba that can change so easily has always stuck with me and I continuously try to be like one.

It is not only relevant to organizations but also to people.

We must be amoebic and change as and when required.

We all see good times and rough times in our personal lives.

All new situations demand something different from us.

We cannot play the same role in each situation and expect a solution to what is not currently satisfactory.

The simplest way to make changes in your personal life is by accepting the need to change, being amoebic in your approach to deal with that change, and always thinking of change as a positive activity from which you can learn.

In short, develop flexible mindsets and be open to the concept of life-long learning.

Gloria M Hamilten is a recognized authority in disciplines within Personal Development and People Skills for Business Professionals, such as Time Management, Negotiation Skills, Developing High-Performance Teams, Assertion Skills, Building International Rapport, Conflict Management and Resolution, Presentation and Platform Skills.

Her studies in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Psychology have lead to her researching brain disorders such as AD-HD and its relations.

She has her own training business, and conducts courses for Corporate Organizations, Sporting groups and Tertiary Educational Institutions in Australia.

Her professional experience covers over 30 years of study, research, one-on-one coaching, group coaching, presentations and workshops. Her clientele includes children as well as adults.

Gloria Hamilten has authored the eBook: "Successful Self-Hypnosis" and many Reports and online articles.

Her websites provide a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything within these genres.

2009-04-18T01:51:00.000-07:00

There is a large market for free television episode and movie downloads online. There is also a lot of software available to provide for the market but a lot of this is not seen as they are not major companies. So there is not much exposure and movie fans do not get to use these great features.

Here is a list of the best free software to download movies online:

1. Graboid television. Offer high speed DVD quality downloads of every movie and television episode of the last 10 years.

2. Kazaa. Even though this is not allowed in a lot of countries. It still is the best in those countries for which it is still allowed. Mainly in South America and Europe.

3. Morpheus. Not as good as Kazaa because of slow download speeds and some times unsafe files. You need a good anti virus and pop up blocker and this software should work very well.

4. Cinema Now. This is free to download and use the trial. But it can become expensive once the trial period runs out. The quality of the downloads are really second to none.

5. Apple store. Itunes offers cheap movie downloads and the quality is very good. The disadvantage is though, it can not be seen on big computer screens but only on Ipods and Iphones.

These are all good software which still offer free movie downloads. In many cases though it is best to go to the cinema to make sure the industry that you love continues to produce good movies for the years to come.

2009-04-18T01:50:00.000-07:00

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2009-04-18T01:46:00.002-07:00

In 2008 the new popularity of audiobook's stimulating ability to inspire children and young adult’s minds are about to be honoured with a new award which is a stamp of excellence on par with the famed Newbery and Printz awards.

The newly created 2008 American Library Association's Odyssey Award for excellence in children and young adult audiobooks rides the exciting worldwide trend in aural edutainment.

In Germany March 2007 there is a whole fair devoted to audiobooks. Nominations have just been announced in Cologne in March for the 2007 German Audiobook Prize, which can be seen as the equivalent of a German Oscar and are parallel to the celebrations of a highly respected literary festival.

The children's section of the German audiobook convention was this year particualrly successful and represent a large market for young European audiobook listeners.

So get ready to explore and discover exciting stories of adventures with famous authors of the new world! Exciting stories of adventure and spine tingling action..

Fire breathing fantasy dragons, fairies, family adventure and time machines...

In the 1950s kids hid behind the lounge when Professor Bernard Quatermass battled aliens on the BBC. ITV gave us Pathfinders in Space, the brainchild of Canadian Sydney Newman.

These days, we face the many choices of providing education vs entertainment to children. Many people attempt to read bedtime stories to their children but after a busy work day time can slip away or be considerably shortened.

Altogether literacy and comprehension have been challenged in the last few years, even though there's an overload of information!

With quality audiobooks, at the click of a button your child can be a pirate drifting off to a virtual treasure island or some far away galaxy within a blink of an eye and enjoy painless enriching learning too.

Recent research by teachers in Boston and San Diego schools assessed students who used audiobooks over a period of four to six weeks. They found students using audiobooks not only read more, their reading over this period improved substantially compared to control groups who used text alone.

Test scores showed greater improvement in both reading, comprehension and fluency. Students with ADD and ADHD also showed improvements in concentration. This is great news regarding many children who simply refuse to read.

Listening to audiobooks not only enhances verbal endurance when listening to information. It helps reading fluency, expands vocabulary and increases comprehension.

Struggling students are easily distracted, find reading alone uninteresting or find discovering a book that appeals to them difficult when the range of visual images available are so ever present.

Digital Talking Books or audiobooks mean children can listen to the great stories with a computer, CD, MP3 or any other portable device such as an ipod or iphone.

Talking Books really do make unique, perfect gifts for these reasons.

Imagine what it would have been like growing up listening to:

* Hans Christian Anderson

* Mark Twain

* Sydney Newman

* Lewis Carroll

* CS Lewis

Audiobooks have been designed to not only stimulate, educate and nurture imagination but also to entertain.

Audiobooks which have proven to be popular for boys:

* The Book of Pirates

* Treasure Island

* Peter and the Starcatchers

Audiobooks which have proven to be popular for girls:

* Matilda

* Anne of Green Gables

* Alice in Wonderland

Audiobooks which have proven to be popular for preschoolers:

* A Bear Called Paddington

* Bob The Builder

* Anderson’s Fairy Tales

Audiobooks which have proven to be popular for slightly older kids:

* Harry Potter

* Dr Who

* Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator

* The Chronicles of Narnia

* Pendragon

* A Series of Unfortunate Events

These are stories that help children to use language with imagination. They learn the emotive language of colourful theatre, emotional self expression and spoken words they may not learn correctly if they were to just read books.

Life is an adventure as well as a learning experience and Harry Potter’s adventures never sounded so good.

2009-04-18T01:46:00.001-07:00

2009-04-18T01:43:00.000-07:00

2009-04-18T01:41:00.000-07:00

2009-04-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

2009-04-18T01:35:00.002-07:00

At the beginning of 2008 Apple introduced the spectacular MacBook Air. Even their own computers, notebooks and other gadgets didn't offer such an elegant design and such compact measures. This is undisputed. When it comes to Apples pricing, this is where opinions differ somewhat.

The small version with Intel's Core 2 Duo P7500 CPU, 2 GByte memory and a 80-GB HDD, (which you can replace for a proud 900 Dollars with a 64-GByte-SSD) goes for around $ 2000. This Solid State Disk and a1.8-GHz-CPU can be found in the bigger MacBook Air. Price tag: $ 2.900

The power of the smaller model should be sufficient for most tasks at the office, surfing the net and playback movies, pictures and music. Even elderly and undemanding games will run. For everything else there is not enough power.

Features: Not too many.Due to the very low weight and the thin body, the list of features resembles the menu of a fancy french cuisine restaurant: short and to the point. The version tested here came with Webcam, Bluetooth, 300-MBit-WLAN and a Micro-DVI-Port, where you can attach an external monitor via the enclosed adapter.

You would expect a little more than just one USB-Port. Buying an additional USB Hub seems highly recommendable, so you can attach the -optional- DVD burner and some other devices at the same time, like memory sticks, mouse or a printer, for that matter. The m.o. burner will only work on your MacBook Air, neither on any PC nor another Apple-Notebook. In order to work the device needs about four times as much power as the USB standard allows. The widely spread Firewire and a LAN-Port are missing, also.

What you hear through the build in mono speakers is rather mediocre and can't be compared with any ordinary MP3 Player. Some say this does not suit the MacBook's otherwise very fancy and expensive appearance.

The elegant look and the smooth aluminum surface do not make for easy servicing. Only Apple technicians can change your hard drive or replace the power unit. The only thing that breaks the smooth surface is the excellent keyboard, the hidden air vents and the cover over the external jacks. Some users have found a way to at least change the battery pack, but waive the 12 month warranty by doing so.

Keypad and Touchpad: Well done and inventive. Apple doesn't imbed the keyboard into the notebooks housing, but inserts it from underneath through prefab cuts. This doesn't only look great, but also prevents these tiny cracks that catch crumbs and dust. The MacBook Air's keyboard comes with its own backlight illumination, which adapts to the surrounding light. The intensity can be regulated regardless of the one of the screen. You'll get used to it after several days and in fact the keyboard of the MacBook Air turnes out to be very pleasant.

The very large Touchpad knows some tricks it learned from the iPhone: By spreading two fingers while looking at a picture, it increases the size. With three fingers, you can use the Safari browser, but this doesn't work with the Firefox. Most of these small functionalities do not radically transform the user experience, but are part of the charm of the Apple products.

The Display, considered the best in its league, is very bright and ideal fort he outside use.

The mirrored 13.3-inch display is supported by a backlight illumination. This makes it extremely bright (410.1 cd/m²) and makes for very good contrast (973:1). No other notebook features a better display.

Windows OS: Not recommended.If you buy a MacBook Air and try to install Windows XP or Vista via the "Boot Camp" menu, you'll bound to be disappointed. The vents are running fulltime, your sound doesn't work or the display looses its sharpness. The touchpad won't work properly and there's no support for your Webcam and the SuperDrive. So it's highly recommended to run the MacBook Air with its native MacOS only.

Mobility and Battery Life: Extremely light and very good autonomy time.There is no thinner or lighter 13.3-inch Notebook around. Using the preinstalled MacOS 10.5 Leopard the 37-Watt-batterypack runs for five hours, doing a Word-Test, and 2 hours using its full CPU power. While selecting the eco mode proposed by Mac OS X and the screen luminosity set to 75% of his capacity, the MacBook Air was able to work for 3h15 before the low battery warning showed up. This are very good results and again make for excellent usage.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, Apples MacBook Air is a great designer piece. But the design cost quite a few compromises in regard to functionality: there's only one USB-Port, no optical drives and a Mono-Speaker, to name a few. The performance of the MacBook Air will suffice for light traveller users i.e. bloggers, connected fanatics, journalists, and other sales representatives. They will have no difficulty working with photos, compose bills or prepare a presentation, all profiting from his excellent flagstone LCD screen. So, the MacBook Air is a fascinating and very beautiful Notebook, that guaranties its owner a lot of greedy looks, but the same owner needs to make do with a few downsides, too.

2009-04-18T01:35:00.001-07:00

Buying a washing machine is unlike getting a new ipod or a new iphone. Instead of small sleek look, you may look for a big size washing machine. Instead of fancy colorful design, you may just prefer one that is functional and does its job effectively instead.

There are a few factors you need to think about when you are planning to buy a washing machine.
Here are a few important considerations on your washing machine shopping list.

Which Type?

There are two main types of washing machines - front load and top load. A front loading machine is slightly more expensive compared to the traditional top loader. However it consumes lesser water and is more energy efficient in the long run. A front loader also obliterates the need for an agitator. This means that your clothes are subject to less wear and motion and thus, can last longer. If you have the budget and is unlikely to change the washing machine, a front loader would be your best choice.

What Size?

It really depends on how big is your household, what kind of clothes you need to wash and whether you have sufficient space for the washing machine. Obviously, a bigger size washing machine naturally is able to wash more loads per cycle, but remember, the bigger the washing machine, the more you need to pay upfront. Also, expects to consumer more water and electricity.

What Features?

Washing machines nowadays come with fancy features such as automatic load balancer, automatic water-level controls, delay cycle feature and more. Find out what are the advantages and disadvantages of these features. You may be surprised to know that most people seldom use the features except for the normal ones like spin and dry. So do not fall for the salesperson talk unless you really find it useful to have. After all, these features do not come free.

2009-04-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

Looking to increase your landing page conversion rate? Then treat your visitors like untrained dogs.

Think about it - If you want an untrained dog to follow a specific path, you need to put them on a leash and guide them.

They also need very clear and reinforcing guidance to get them to do what you want.

To get the most out of new visitors you need to guide them in the same way through your page to complete the desired action. Just like an author who tells his story in a sequence of ordered chapters, you want to tell the story of your product or service offerings in a pre-determined order of web page elements. The more control you have over the visitor's experience, the more control you have over your conversion rate.

In a direct mail piece, a letter is very one dimensional - even though the reader may not read the entire letter in order, we have given them a clear starting and ending point. We have a certain amount of control how they receive our marketing message.

A web page, on the other hand, is multi-dimensional and interactive so unless we know how to direct the visitor through its various elements, the visitor will act like an untrained dog running in every direction and ultimately running away.

How many times have you visited a web page, been overwhelmed by multiple headlines, scattered boxes of long copy, and numerous images and not had a clue where to start reading on the page? How long before you lost your patience and decided to move on to a competitor's site?

High converting landing pages use a variety of visual cues and an understanding of typical web page viewing habits to immediately put that leash on visitors and guide them through to conversion.

Numerous eye-tracking studies have shown that visitors generally tend to view a page beginning at the upper left hand corner That makes the upper left portion of the page your "beach-front" property.

Although that part of the page has become the de facto standard for displaying your logo, remember that your logo does not convey a solution, benefit or selling point. Bore your visitor with an overbearing version of your logo and tagline, and you'll lose potential new customers.

Think about that entry point as a chance to connect with your visitor by understanding the problem they're looking to solve. Usability studies have shown that viewers tend to relate to and be drawn to images of people that either resemble or appeal to them. Try to stay clear, though of images of people who are obviously professional models.

A dominant "what's-in-it-for-me" headline will also capture your visitor and will then guide them to read your succinct bulleted listing of key benefits and value-added proposition.

Want to see landing pages that convert? You can start by searching the sponsored listings for popular (and therefore very expensive) keyword phrases such as "refinance", "debt consolidation" "auto loans" and "iPhone".

Click on the top 3 ads and look for commonality in page layout and use of web page elements. Due to the high cost of these phrases, top placement is generally a pretty good indication that these pages have been well tested and are converting.

Here are some additional tips to improve conversion:

* Make sure your offer is clear

* Include credibility logos - trust and security are foremost in many visitor's minds

* Place a persuasive message above the call to action

* Avoid multiple different calls-to-action

* Place your call-to-action in a prominent location on the page

* Create a sense of urgency with terms such as "Start now" and "Apply now".

* Tell your visitor exactly what you want them to do

* The use of an arrow to your call-to-action has increased conversion rates in many cases

* And don't forget about the critical importance of testing and metrics - at a minimum, measure conversion rates, average order values, and bounce rates on your landing pages.

Although it's a lot of work to restrict the amount of copy on your page, remember that when there is less on a page, visitors will tend to read more. Finally, limit your font styles, text formatting and adhere to dark text on light backgrounds.

And remember, landing page conversion improvement affects those visitors you've already pay for anyway. In many ways, by testing new pages you really have nothing to lose that you're not already losing!

Don't assume your visitors are already trained to convert on your landing page. Keep them from running away by taking control of their visit experience. Walk them through your page, and increase conversion by appropriately using headlines, images, captions, benefit-driven bulleted copy, colors and arrows.

As VP of Marketing for Engine Ready, Inc., Brian Lewis brings a robust background in strategic business marketing and management. A speaker at many industry conferences, as well as being involved with local interactive marketing associations, Lewis works closely with other team leaders in helping define the vision, strategy and tactics.

Mr. Lewis earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego and his M.B.A. in Finance from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, graduating both schools with honors.

2009-04-18T01:33:00.001-07:00

Blogging to the bank is actually the name of a successful blogging guide online. However, a lot of people online are making a part-time or full-time living as a niche blogger. I'm going to define exactly what it is and how you can quickly get started.

Some people claim that you can even become addicted to it and that there are thousands of stay at home moms addicted to it in one form or another.

It's Easier To Create A Long Term Business Than You Think Even those who consider running a weblog as a simple hobby can turn their blogs into money making websites. The better your weblog the higher return visitors you will receive and the higher potential income you can create.

What Blogging Can Be Used For One of the more popular and lucrative ways to earn from a blog is by becoming an affiliate and sell other people's products. There are many benefits to promoting other people's products:

* no expensive research
* no expensive start up costs
* no products
* no overheads
* no stock
* no customer service

How To Become An Affiliate

The only thing you need to do to become an affiliate is to sign up for an affiliate program (usually free) and put a link for an affiliate product on your site. Highly recommended affiliate products can be found at:

1. Clickbank
2. CommissionJunction
3. ShareaSale
4. LinkShare

How To Earn Money As An Affiliate Through this, you will earn a commission every time someone clicks on the link and purchases the product being sold. The number of affiliate programs you can sign up for is unlimited. It is advisable though to promote products that are related to the general theme of your website. It doesn't make much sense to promote a product about divorce if you're site is about dating....however a product about dating AFTER divorce would be ideal.

Analysing Desperate Buyers For maximum profit, you should choose an affiliate product that appeals to the target market of your site. If your readership base is made up mostly of young individuals then make sure that the products that you will promote are something that they would be interested in such as dating products or products related to technology...like ipods, iphones, downloads etc.

Paying For Site Reviews You can also get a lot of targeted traffic to your site by paying for site reviews. Recommended Sites include:

* ReviewMe.com
* SponsoredReviews.com

How To Start A Blogging Business If You Have No Experience As with everything in life, it can be extremely difficult to know how to start a new skill. That's why I highly recommend that you spend some time researching how to do it from people who are successful at it. Getting the right guidance from an early stage can put you way in front of other bloggers - and blogging to the bank may become more of a reality for you than a pipe dream.

2009-04-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

Below are several reasons why we should use homemade solar panels as a viable alternative electricity source for our businesses and homes. Lets check them out:

First off solar panels are more efficient than normal power grid sources. When using homemade solar panels you can expect to save up to 80% on all your monthly power consumption. Solar power panels convert the suns solar rays into usable electricity to power your daily appliances and equipment in the office. Not only will you save money but take the pressure off using the national grid.

Implementing home solar panels is an even better alternative when you consider the demands of devices like MP3 players, iPhones, CD players. The more stuff we buy the more our power demands increase. Having solar panels can reduce the electricity demands and decrease the monthly power bill.

Another compelling reason to invest in solar panels is the positive it has on the earth's environment. Solar panels contain no pollutants like carbon dioxide that effect the earth's atmosphere so when you use the this method of generating power there's no worry of global warming and you'll be doing your bit to save the earth.

You can homemade solar panels anywhere as long as the place you live in is sunny and has no obstacles or buildings in the way. So make sure that if you get a solar panel kit that you have a sunny place that you live in.

Many would say that building your home solar panel is highly costly! But we can answer their argument saying that the profit from using these solar systems will give us our money back and much more! Besides the building of a homemade solar panel doesn't seem to cost really much! Most would think that building a solar panel is expensive but in matter of fact it can done on a small budget of $200 or less. You don't have to spend thousands on a commercial system all you need is a DIY guide that can take you through the entire process of building a homemade solar panel.

2009-04-18T01:30:00.000-07:00

Learning how to make money on eBay is not rocket science and at first glance even the most rudimentary principles of making money apply. Profit equals income minus expenses. Sell something for more than what it cost you and you've satisfied the equation.

There are therefore only three things that someone who wants to learn how to make money on eBay needs to do:
1. Buy something,
2. Sell it,
3. Make sure that the purchase price is less than the sale price (including fees).

Selling the item isn't usually the problem. As with so many things that relate to making money through buying and selling, the profit is in the purchase price.

What this means for people trying to make money on eBay is that they need to develop a strategy for buying things consistently for a good price. It must be the number one problem for eBay sellers and it is unfortunate because learning how to make money on eBay is so easy.

Where can you buy things to sell on eBay?

I guess this is the number one problem for eBay sellers, really. But it shouldn't be. We all buy things every day and we know people who buy things and see people buy things. It's just something that the majority of people have experience in. And we're usually not shy about shopping around for the best price.

The problem is that in order to make money on eBay we need to be consistently buying at below 50% of retail to make a profit (for new items anyway). This is roughly the average discount that you should be able to get on eBay for something that you could otherwise buy somewhere else.

But how do you get this sort of a discount regularly?

First of all, there is no hard and fast rule that says that you have to sell new things to make money on eBay. Trying to find dropship suppliers and wholesalers is really an advanced topic that only the most serious and committed eBay sellers should employ.

The reason that eBay originally gained it's giant success wasn't because it was a great place to buy a plasma TV for a bargain basement price. eBay originally established itself as a place for people to trade collectibles and antiques and other rare items.

The good news is that this kind of product still sells like crazy on eBay, but many people who want to learn how to make fast money on eBay neglect this kind of product and just want to know how to find a dropship wholesalers for iPhones or TVs!

It really is crazy.

Antiques, collectibles and other rare items are available plentifully. There are antique stores everywhere and bookstores full of highly profitable items. Where do you think these sellers get their items?

From you and me.

I think the major problem is that we are looking too far in our quest to make money on eBay. We probably have something in the attic or garage that we could sell instantly for over $1000. I know I have. So if we have these items, then doesn't it stand to reason that other people do too?

Garage sales and weekend markets are still the best place to go to find items for next to nothing that can be used to make money on eBay. You just need to do a little homework and a little leg work (oh and probably get up early on a Saturday).

I have personally made $1000s from a couple of hours on a Saturday morning and I do it regularly.

2009-04-18T01:29:00.001-07:00

I often write about and own many of these import, knock off iPhone clones and people sometimes tell me that although they would love to own one of these dual sim models, they hesitate because they think that it will be expensive or difficult to get accessories for it. The purpose of this article is to outline the most popular CECT accessories and to show the approximate cost (cheap) and availability (easy).

CECT i9 Instruction Manual, User's Guide, Internet Set Up: Probably the biggest worry that people have about the CECT i9 is that they won't be able to set up it up or sync it to work. This would be a real shame because now that this phone has Java, there are so many more productivity and gaming options available for this phone.

I find the set up to be pretty user friendly and there's no software (the phone will read your sim card), but I've done this several times before and I understand that having instructions in front of you is often easier. The instructions aren't all in Chinese, I promise. You can get instructions, set up and internet guides in any language imaginable, including English.

People sometimes worry about setting up the MMS on these phones. The instructions will walk you through this, for most all carriers (AT&T, T Mobile, Sprint, Cingular, etc.) and typically only cost a few bucks.

Memory And Sim Cards: The i9 has the dual sim feature so you will need two sim cards if you want to use this (although the phone will work fine if you don't want to use it.) But, if you want or need a spare, it will cost well under $10.

Replacement Batteries: You can replace the battery yourself with the clones. You don't need to go to the dealer when it dies. These phones are pretty efficient (with one of the longest talk and stand by times in the industry), but if you need a spare, they usually run under $2.

Car Chargers And Home Chargers For the I9: Most people charge their mobile phone every day (and having one for the car is usually a given) Home and car chargers for this model are often under $5.

Cases, Pouches And Skins: Consumers love to personalize their phones with cases and skins and the i9 is certainly no exception. You can usually get skins, cases and pouches in a wide variety of materials, colors and textures and more are becoming available all the time. Most times, you'll pay anywhere from $5 - $10.

Screen Guards / Protective Covers: These thin little stick ons protect the i9's touch screen from scratches, finger prints and damage. They are dirt cheap and in my opinion a no brainer.

Car Chargers And Home Chargers For the i9: Most people charge their mobile phone every day (and having one for the car is usually a given.) Home and car chargers for this model are often under $5.

Hands Free And Head Sets: This is one place where I might recommend you spend a few more dollars to get high quality speakers. CECT's are known for and have very loud, sharp, crisp speakers. So, it doesn't make sense to buy a pair of cheap head phones / sets that are going to take this sound quality away. Bluetooth headsets for this model are also very popular. But again, nothing here (even the highest quality models) runs over $20.

2009-04-18T01:27:00.002-07:00

Life is turning Digital. In the last few years, the world of portable devices has changed to a great degree. Walkman used to be the most popular portable music player, but now It has been replaced by iPod, Zune, PSP, iPhone and other similar portable devices.

On the other hand, CDs are now being replaced by DVDs and so many people are looking to convert their DVDs in a format which suites their portable devices. Regardless to whether you want to convert DVD to iPOD or DVD to AVI or any other format, the conversion is very easy provided you have the correct software.

Different Portable Devices support different formats and there are so many converting software in the market that you will almost get lost. Purchasing a different software for a different device is just waste of time as well as money. Now you need to make the choice and search for reviews to find the suitable product and still you don't find what you are looking for.

6 Tips You Should Keep in your Mind while selecting the converting software :-

1. First of all, the software should be easy to use. All the formats it supports should be clearly written in an understandable manner. For Example, The software gives an option "Convert To Mp4" and you don't know what is MP4 then It is useless. However, if the software give the same option in this manner "Convert to MP4 (Default Format For iPOD)", then this is very easy to understand.

2. Always try the software before buying. Even the easiest software is of no use If it doesn't seem easy particularly to you.

3. Make sure that the software supports various formats so that you can convert DVD to iPod, DVD to AVI and other formats using a single utility.

4. Don't always try to find freeware as there is no support provided for them and they may not work correctly. You get what you pay for!

5. Make sure that after purchasing the product, technical support is free for lifetime as you may not want to pay every year to get technical support.

6. Don't ever compromise with Video or Audio Quality. Also, Make sure that you don't use the Advanced options to change the aspect ratio and other things until you know what you are doing.

Please note that after converting your DVDs to iPod, you would need to transfer the converted file to your iPod. To do so, you will need to use iTunes and It is absolutely free. Copying the file to your iPod is easy. Make sure that iPod is connected to your computer properly and click on "File-->Add To Library" in iTunes and add the files to your Library in iTunes. Right Click Over the file you want to transfer to iPod and select the appropriate option. That's it!

2009-04-18T01:27:00.001-07:00

Having an online photo gallery is essential for any professional photographer. Generally we have a huge collection of photographs taken with our favourite digital camera. An online image gallery helps a great deal to show your talent as well as to organize photographs so that you can quickly find and access them whenever you need to.

It is essential to retouch digital photographs before you add them to a photo gallery. You should adjust various photograph elements such as its brightness, contrast, color depth, width and height. One of the important factors is to properly resize the photographs before you upload them to your image gallery. You can use free online image resizing tool instead of a photo editing software to resize photographs quickly and easily.

If you have an online picture gallery then it helps you in many ways as said earlier. It gives you a chance to meet new and interesting buyers for your digital photographs and sell them online. Many websites like flicker.com offer free online photo gallery services. They allow you to upload your digital photograph collection to the website and create wonderful photo galleries using beautiful free gallery templates. You can sign up and try the free membership with a few limitations such as picture size, lack of gallery templates etc. You don't have to upgrade for premium membership unless you really need to. Premium members can get additional benefits such as uploading big size pictures, support for unlimited photo galleries etc.

Not taking care of photograph aspect ratio while resizing photographs will reduce its quality. It will make the photo look blurred. You should go with current sizes provided by online photo resizing tools. You won't have to worry about the size and calculations of perfect picture size if you go with presets. You can use a free online picture resizer to properly resize the pictures like Reshade.

If you travel around the world with your digital camera and laptop then it is always better to use an online image resizing service than software. It does not take any hard disk space as it is an online service. Most importantly it costs you nothing.

Usually it is not recommended to enlarge photographs taken with a mobile phone or iPhone camera as they have relatively low picture quality and picture size. If you still want to enlarge this kind of photographs then you should use an online image resizing tool that maintains quality.

You need not be a photo expert if you need to resize pictures online. With few quick steps you can resize pictures to desired size and upload them to your photo gallery.

To easily resize pictures online, you might be interested in trying online picture resizing service available on reshade.com. You can upload and resize pictures maintaining quality with resolution greater than or equal to 1920x1200 pixels. For bigger size and unlimited zoom, you can buy credits from the website.

The use of digital camera has developed into a trend that does not end with the acquisition of the gadget. This trend also leads to other worth doing activities such as photo enhancing, photo sharing, and other uses of the photos as keepsakes. Photo enhancements such as enlargement and resizing can be done by using a simple computer-based photo application or by using the more advanced online image resizing tools that are available for free.

2009-04-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

Nokia latest invention is the 5800 Xpress Music in Red. This touch screen smart phone is being touted as Nokia's answer to the I phone. The 5800 Xpress Music definitely has a lot of amazing features and represents the pinnacle of touch screen mobile technology. Nokia has released this phone to keep up with latest market trend of high end touch screen smart phones.

Rivaling the Apple iPhone, Samsung Tocco and LG Cookie the Nokia 5800 Red is an inexpensive touch screen phone that incorporates the very best music technology that the manufacturer has to offer. The phone accepts touch inputs. The OCR tool turns the handwritten text into digital symbols accurately. The stylus is to be used as a writing mediator. There is a virtual landscape oriented QWERTY keyboard, the full screen version being applicable from all applications. The virtual alphanumeric keyboard has large sized keys furnishing a high type rate.

The phone is entertainment oriented and is endowed with multi media features. The multimedia panel provides quick access with a finger tap to all multi media options of the phone. The 3.2 mp camera has flash support and 3X digital zoom capacity. There is a second camera at the back without flash support.

The video application supports video recording at 30 fps and has a strong resolution of 640X 480 pixels to give high quality images. Video calling is made possible by the front camera. There is a share online feature to enable uploading of multimedia content. The list of pending uploads and upload history are provided by the content manager.

Nokia's web browser supports HTML 4.01, Java Script 1.5, CASS1 and 2, and RSS standards.46 different languages are supported by this phone's browser. GIF, WBMP, JPEG, PNG, BMP are graphics formats supported by the browser. Audio formats accepted include ACC, MIDI, EACC+, WAV AMR-NB, MP3, AMR-WB and Real Audio.

You can navigate on the web pages using a minimap. You can make the minimap translucent so that it overlays the web page as you scroll through giving you a better grasp of your current position. The Red Nokia 5800 browser is a high performance application taking only seconds to change from the minimap view to normal view of web pages.

The browser enables bookmarks. You can send bookmarks as attachments to SMS messages. The browser supports both manual and automatic bookmarks. The regular bookmarks are manual and the adaptive book marks are automatically generated based on the history log. The Browser uses the latest and up-to-date Flash technology to manage flash movies and pages with ease. The Browser allows a great web surfing experience because of the 640 pixels screen which is so wide that you don't need to do much of vertical scrolling.

The search feature allows web search and internal phone content search through two separate windows. The screen will show a search form wherein keywords may be entered. Quick access to the search feature is possible from the active standby mode which has a shortcut to enable this.

The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music is fascinating and versatile device with above average well implemented specifications and features. The phone has been a success wherever it has been launched and has helped Nokia carve a niche in the touch screen phone market.

2009-04-18T01:25:00.001-07:00

Displays. Screens. They shine at us and brightly shout at us from just about every contraption we touch or see as we travel through our day. The hyperactive super-sized displays on Times Square are an obvious example of our century's obsession with bombarding the senses. We are indeed an audio-visual society with a voracious appetite!

We interact regularly with displays, buttons, and touch-screens without even thinking about it. They are a necessary and integral part of most every electronic device on the market today, from your cell phone to your car, to the cockpit of the plane that whisks you away on vacation. The human wants the machine to do something, and they must communicate. And somehow, they do. "But," you ask, "who knows how to build this stuff?"

Only a relatively small cross-section of our society become the people that are the brains and brawn of the industry that understands the "how" of making such an electronic product, a "device," work. The people that crank out these electronic goodies call their industry the "Embedded Product" industry. A funny name? Well, consider this. Each of these wonderful man-made marvels contains one, or many, microprocessors. You don't see them, and therefore you just don't think about them! For example, you probably do not call your cell phone a computer, but inside that sleek device there is, well..., a computer -- a microprocessor. The microprocessor is therefore 'embedded' inside the device. It is a child of the "Embedded Product" industry.

In fact, every child in grade school today learns that a PC is a "computer" whose brain is a "microprocessor" which runs "software" on an "operating system. The human interacts with it through a "GUI" (pronounced "Gooey") or Graphical User Interface. But do they, or do you, for that matter, question what is going on behind that now-familiar GUI, inside that cute ladybug cell phone? As my three year old son used to say, "How's this thing work?" Does it contain an operating system or a microprocessor or software? "Survey says...YES!"

In fact, a variant of the "find the hidden Mickey" game can be played all day long. I challenge you to take a few moments and make a list of the number of things that you think have a "hidden" microprocessor inside. Are you done? You forgot to write down your microwave oven, didn't you? Sorry, but you also forgot to list your television!

Embedded products, clearly, are everywhere. A fascinating group of engineers and product managers around the world collaborate to design, build and market these high technology products that our society demands, building on the shoulders of those that have come before them. No longer do we find devices with needles, gauges and switches. The intelligence of the microprocessors used in embedded products has eliminated most all of these clunky physical components and have replaced them, instead, with the familiar electronic display. Elegant embedded GUIs, such as one might find on an Apple iPhone or the dashboard of a new Mercedes, warmly reach out to us every day, begging for us to touch them or, at the very least, to just admire them.

So, the very next time that you find yourself flying down the highway in your car, listening to your "tunes," looking at your dashboard graphical interface, with all its virtual meters and needles, answering your cell phone and telling the kids to turn down their DVD, please take a minute to think about the fact that your car alone has many more microprocessors than does the Space Shuttle. I think you'll then agree with me that there is plenty of work yet left for our children to do!

2009-04-18T01:24:00.001-07:00

Since its launch in 2001, the iPod as you knew it then has far improved. There have been different generations since then and there have been many different types of iPods too. It's like there's a different iPod for every type of person and for every size of budget.

The Current iPod Lineup

Let's start with a bang then. Let's start with iPod Touch. Unlike the other iPods, it uses the touch feature just like iPhones. You don't have to use the click wheel. Navigating iPod Touch only takes taps here and there and sliding a finger over the screen. If that's not cool enough, what is?

And the iPod Touch still gives you the bang when it comes to features. Like the usual iPod, you have music and video on it. But it does have more to offer. It is Wi-Fi enabled so you can have internet too. With internet capability, you get to watch videos on YouTube. You can also buy music from iTunes store and have songs downloaded straight to your iPod Touch.

You also currently have the iPod Classic. The iPod Classic of today can store up to 400,000 songs. Wow! Those are a lot of songs. I bet you won't even be able to listen to all of them in a week and not even in a month. Alternately, you can also carry with you up to 200 hours of video. That would be a of lot videos than you have time for. But it's cool to have so many choices, right?

Now if you want things in small packages, your choice would be the iPod Nano. It's small but you can still listen to music and watch videos, podcasts and TV shows on it.

And of course, there's the iPod Shuffle. Well, it doesn't have a screen so it's not video capable. But if music and maximum portability is what you're after, this is it for you. You can have quality music in such a very, very small thing. You merely have to clip it anywhere, in your belt or anywhere in your clothing, and you'll have music with almost no additional weight.

A Little History on iPod

The first iPod classic was released in October 2001. It only had 5GB memory and it had a mechanical scroll wheel. What followed was the 2nd generation iPod with 10 GB memory and a touch sensitive wheel. The third generation was where a major redesigning was made. Everything was navigated through the touch interface and the casing became slimmer.

The 4th generation came with a click wheel and then it became colored. It became possible to store and view pictures in it. Then the fifth generation iPod came. It was video enabled. It had larger screens than the previous one. But it was not until the 6th generation iPod when the word "Classic" was added to its name. The interface became better and became what it is now.

There used to be iPod minis too but they were replaced by what we now know as iPod Nano. Aside from that you have the iPod Shuffle which are for music only. And last year came iPod Touch, which was probably the most modern. Finding out about the succession of the different types of iPods really makes you appreciate iPod more.

2009-04-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

Collaboration software does not reinvent the wheel. No, collaboration software merely streamlines the grooves and lightens the material. In the advent of the World Wide Web, files were stored as hard copies in cabinets and shared using copy machines and courier services. This, in turn, meant communication came with a delay... comparable to a bad satellite feed from some remote locale not yet touched by modern technology. Project management was, at least by today's standards, a joke.

Projects get tackled tactically. Each member of the team is responsible for a fraction of the whole project. Everyone is given the same time frame in which to complete their respective task. Ideally, when the deadline comes and goes, the pieces are assembled to form a completed product. Whether the goal was reached satisfactorily is another ordeal unto itself. Although the aforementioned was worded to make the process of task management to appear as easy as following a few steps, the reality is far from picking up a 'Project Management For Stooges' book.

Humans are not perfect so why should anyone expect the task master to be also. Collaboration software has been developed to boost certain weaknesses and oversights in organization. Because of these innovations introduced over the past two years, the efficiency of project management has reached new heights.

• MOBILE ACCESS. Blackberry's, Treo's and iPhone's ...the introduction of internet accessible mobile devices has wedged a need for collaboration software to allow its users to access its intranet network and the information stored on it from anywhere. No more being anchored to a hard line connection.

• FILE SHARING. Upload documents and files via email to a shared online workspace easily accessible to fellow members of the team. Comments, questions and prioritizations are amongst the many details you can note on posted documents for the rest of the group to see.

• COMMUNICATION. Interacting with co-workers via the World Wide Web not only eradicates the overhead of having to lease office space, but it also leaves you with a virtual paper trail of every communiqué you have within the organization and with clients. Servers back up every email and are accessible from anything connected to the internet. Additionally, you can make an announcement to a group of however many without disturbing their work flow. Simply point and click the box next to the people you wish to notify.

• EASY-TO-USE. Collaboration software is template based so computer literacy is not too demanding. Plug and play is the norm.

Because of recent advancements in collaboration software, project management is one less hassle. Companies, corporate or mom & pop status, now have a level playing ground. The infrastructure necessary to keep your team running on all cylinders towards that finish line is available to all.

2009-04-18T01:20:00.000-07:00

Mobile phones are considered as the part and parcel of our life. In fact, these are being treated as the physiological needs of human being. There are many companies which are into mobile manufacturing and the leading players are Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson etc. In spite of having huge entry barriers in this industry, one can see several companies foraying with innovative handsets. Apple, Spice and HP are the newcomers in the mobile industry.

Nokia is the leading mobile maker which is having 40% market share in the global market. The current year-on-year growth in the UK markets is 24%. Nokia has recently produced some innovative handsets which are getting huge response from the users. This Finland based mobile giant continuously focuses on research and development works and also has brought many positive results. The N series mobile phones are already a hit and there are several other handsets being introduced. Nokia N95 8GB is such a phone which has attracted the mobile users as well as the experts in the industry.

Nokia N95 8GB is a beautiful looking handset with the dimension of 99x53x21 mm and the weight is just about 128 grams. This phone is based on dual slider concept which enables the users to use its keypad in more comfortable ways. It is having a 5 mega pixel camera with Carl Zesis optical lens. As the name suggests, this version of Nokia N95 mobile phone gives a mammoth memory space of 8GB to the users so that they can store huge amount of data in their phone. Similar to the iPhones, its memory is non-expandable. The high resolution camera provides the opportunity to create great pictures and videos. Its flash light and zooming facility help the users to capture photos even in not so well conditions.

The N95 8GB phone allows users to play the streamed media files. One can play virtually any formats of music files on the music player which given with this handset. The formats could be MP4, MP3, H.263 and H.264. Apart from these common features, there are many other unique features which have been included in this device. A travel charger AC-5 is provided which enables the users to charge the phone while traveling. A video connectivity cable is also provided which enhances the usages of this handset. Video streaming and video editing are the facilities that excite the users. This innovative handset is well equipped with the required features that help game loving people in playing games on it. Several inbuilt games have been provided with this phone.

For business class users, this phone is like a treat. It gives fast web connectivity with smooth data transfer speeds. Bluetooth, USB port and connectivity cable are installed in the phone which make the web surfing easier and more convenient. All these features make the Nokia N95 8GB a mini computer since one can perform all the activities on this equipment which are normally done on a computer. It has got a document viewer that enables the users to view and edit MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint documents. The built-in GPS receiver and Push-to-talk systems are the other important features of the N95 8GB.

The magical features of Nokia N95 8GB are able to attract the customers in the first glance. Currently, it comes in black colour but it is expected to be available in many other beautiful colours as well. It is really a champion handset produced by Nokia. This phone represents a status symbol for the users since its look is stunning. One can find many online shopping portals that are offering latest deals with the N95 phone. These deals make the shopping more enriching and thrilling. These also provide free gifts and other lucrative schemes to the mobile lovers. Overall, the N95 8GB is a handset that meets the expectation of the buyers to a great extent.

If you want to know more about the latest Nokia mobile phones like Nokia N98, Nokia N96i, Nokia N96 with best deals please visit our online mobile shop.

2009-04-18T01:19:00.000-07:00

The name of Nokia automatically comes in the discussion whenever you talk about mobile phones. It is now a leading mobile maker. The company is solely into the research and development of handset. It has in its portfolio numerous high-end devices with prominent features. It has presented several appealing instruments such as, Nokia N95, N95 8GB and N98 with innovative features and functions. These models cater to everyday requirements and expectations of users. They are supposed to be the best selling devices and the credit goes to its user-friendliness. The Nokia 6300, 8800 and 6500 Slide were also highly appreciated.

The craze for this brand is growing each passing day and its N-Series handsets have brought revolution in the telephony world. They are an example of advance technology and amazing functionality. Loaded with entertainment package and customer-friendly compatibility, this Finnish giant has changed the mobile market strategy by presenting high-definition instruments. If you see the sales figure, this company has been successful in attaining the top position. Ranging from music to games and camera to messaging, the instruments delivered by the company have combination of fashion and technology.

With a whole new concept, the Nokia N95 ensures entertainment, and connectivity. With gorgeous looks, and artistic design, it is compared to a multimedia powerhouse. Measuring 99 X 53 X 21 mm and weighing 120 gm, this device is handy to use and carry. Often compared to mini-computer, it is a 3G slider Smart phone. Equipped with in-built GPS, it helps in accessing map of over 1000 countries and finding the current location while you're traveling. The Nokia N95 8GB comes in 3G slider segment with 2.6 inch impressive screen. For the extensive storage, it has 160 MB internal memory which can be expanded further to 2GB by Micro-SD card slot. Featuring 5 mega pixel camera including Carl Zeiss optic tessar lens, digital zoom and auto flash, it offers excellent photography experience to the amateurs. The handset has enough for the music fans. It has FM radio, music player and visual radio which helps in viewing information transmitted by the radio station on the screen while listening to favourite music. Other features include TFT screen, office document viewer, TV output, tri-band GSM, Bluetooth, WAP 2.0, Wi-Fi, EDGE, and Symbian 9.2 operating system.

The other high-end mobile phone is the Nokia N98. It is loaded with 7 mega pixel camera and 3.5 inch VGA touchscreen supporting 16 million colours. It has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, in-built GPS receiver, Graphics Accelerator and Symbian S70 operating system. It is said to be directly competing with Apple's iPhone. Its high resolution camera is superior to any other camera phone. For the wider network coverage, it has quad band technology. With 160 MB of internal memory, user has a facility to save numerous files, images, videos, and music. Both Nokia N95 and N98 are the champion models with attractive display, multimedia capabilities and swift internet connectivity. Thought not released, there is speculation that Nokia N98 has great designing features. It is said that the mobile is an upgraded version of N95.

2009-04-18T01:18:00.000-07:00

I encountered Twitter was at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in 2007. They had computer monitors set up throughout with these obscure messages detailing what someone or other was doing. I didn't get it, and honestly, I didn't have any desire to get it. I thought it was just some geek thing. (Isn't that how all these fun social media applications come about?)

Recently, I've noticed folks "tweeting" (that's twit-speak for "updating" via Twitter) on their blogs. I've also noticed more and more bloggers talking about Twitter and how it was working for them both personally and professionally. That did it. I decided that I had to find out for myself. So, of course, I posted about it in my blog asking for someone to explain it to me.

That's when it became clear to me that Twitter isn't so easy to explain. But...it is easy to learn. More than one person told me that to get it, you just have to do it. In fact, a common response to "what in the world is this Twitter thing?" seems to be "much like sex, you can't explain it, you need to experience it to get it."

No Really, What IS Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. I like to think of it as a cross between blogging and IM'ing, publicly. Basically, you have 140 characters or less to tell your group of "followers" (twit-speak for "friends") what you're doing.

Your followers can be your friends, your co-workers, your clients, your customers, or anyone else who thinks you're worth following. Your followers could be your favorite stores, small or large businesses, your favorite authors, environmentalists, your friendly Ladies Who Launchers, or even presidential candidates. You have complete control over whom you chose to be friends with and who you allow to follow you.

Yeah, But How Can It Help Me With My Business?

Think of social networking as your sales and marketing time. The more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. Twitter as a tool can be made into whatever you want it to be. If you want to do giveaways, you can. If you want to use it to hand out coupon codes, you can. Basically, Twitter allows you to directly connect to your clients and customers. It's all about having conversations with clients, not at clients, through authenticity and transparency.

10 Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business

1. Allows you to communicate directly with your clients and customers as well as others in your field or niche.
2. Offers up brand recognition every time someone sends you a public message.
3. Attracts new clients through conversation and community.
4. Allows you to manage your own reputation and helps you keep track of your name/brand and what people are saying about you.
5. Through Twitter you have the chance to expand your network beyond your current circle of friends and acquaintances (the very definition of "networking"). You can meet new customers, new friends, or even mentors.
6. You can automatically set your Twitter account up to send out a message every time you've got a new blog post (using TwitterFeed) or you can manually promote your new content.
7. By posing a question to your followers, you can get answers to almost any question, whether it be about cooking, manufacturing, the Internet, or software. It's almost better than Google, because you get answers in real time based on personal experiences and recommendations.
8. On top of simply posing questions, you can use Twitter to conduct research or interviews for your products, books, or articles.
9. Notify customers when you've having a contest, sale, promotion, or event, or anything you want them to know about.
10. Helps your SEO and search-engine rankings since most tweets are written in shorthand, using keywords.

Why Would I Want to Waste My Time With This?

As outlined above, Twitter can be good for business. It's all about building community, sharing your knowledge and expertise, getting your name out there, and being accessible.

Just remember, like many forms of social media and new technologies, Twitter can be addictive. Remember how we used to check our e-mail only a couple of times a day? Well, now many of us can't sit through dinner or a movie without pulling out the Blackberry or iPhone. Twitter can be like that. When something great, not so great, funny, interesting, or embarrassing happens, you can't wait to reach for Twitter and announce it to everyone you know. Yes, even while on vacation or at a conference.

Twitter Tips

* As with all social media services, even if you're not yet ready to use it, do register your name-you never know when you might need it later.
* Don't make it all about you-community is about the give and take.
* Do embrace the community and share your knowledge or links you find helpful.
* Do ask questions and be active; have fun with it.
* Do check out the followers of your friends and their friends. That's how you build your own group of followers.

2009-04-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for extraordinary growth coupled with market-risk levels, you want telecommunication stocks in 2008! The industry as a whole has been one of the strongest performers to date, and it is generally somewhat recession proof (people always want to talk!). Catalysts for the long-term include explosive growth in emerging mobile markets, increasing demand for bandwidth (speed), and a large-scale shift from copper wiring to fiber and broadband wireless. The bulls are out, lets grab some value.

Telecom Services - AT&T (NYSE: T)

Wireless momentum continues to power the market in 2008, and AT&T is right there leading the pack with over 65 million subscribers in the United States. They met expectations in their forth-quarter earnings call (that's the 11th straight quarter of double-digit growth in earnings), but the really important news here is that wireless results were above expectations and guidance for 2008 was reaffirmed. I think AT&T has what it takes to lead the market into the mobile age of technology. Already, we have seen 57.5% year-over-year growth in wireless data revenues, driven by this increasing adoption of smart phones and 3G wireless devices. Essentially, computers are becoming smaller, and I think that these iPhones and Blackberrys are simply early models of the personal computers of the future.

What's wrong with Verizon (NYSE: VZ)? I really can't say, as it is a bit of a crap shoot at this point. I'd have to give the edge to AT&T because of their proven ability to grow earnings despite being so large, and their willingness to open networks toward new computing technology. What really pushes T over the edge for me is its steady 4.5% dividend yield, earnings visibility, growing wireless business, favorable balance sheet, long-term strategy and strategic acquisitions (successful acquisition of BellSouth in 2007). You can look toward their IP-services and whatnot... but you want AT&T for their superior wireless dominance in 2008.

Telecom Services - Millicom (NYSE: MICC)

Once again, Millicom blew away expectations by producing an amazing 3.4 million net subscribers and 41% revenue growth in the forth quarter alone. This company is on cloud nine right now, and while margins were slightly below expectations... guess what... they were 40.0%. Essentially, what Millicom is doing is bringing wireless technology to places that are underdeveloped. They charge by the second, rather than minute, to increase their value to thrifty subscribers and are very active in emerging markets. I am confident in their growth, and Millicom is my Telecom stock for 2008.

MICC is going to kick off 1Q08 with a bang due to their 4Q recorded net-add increase. Broken down by region: Central America growth should drive from new 3G technology and higher-quality customers, African markets have seen dramatic margin increases with new subscribers, Columbia has been negatively impacted by connection fees but should rebound nicely and Asian market investments should continue to propel strength in this key market. MICC is impressive across the board, and their huge international exposure should prove beneficial in 2008.

Comm. Equipment - L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL)

The Telecom sector of the Nittany Lion Fun, LLC. regards L-3 as a communications company. We argue in jest back and forth, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here and put them in my Telecom portfolio for now. Anyway. L-3 is NOT a value play, they are just a great recession-weathering, military-contracting, growth-driving powerhouse that trades at a premium and deserves it. Analysts that put this company at a HOLD rating just don't understand their fundamentals. Again, L-3 raised guidance for 2008 in the face of a recession. Cash is still king for LLL, at $1.11 billion in free cash flow for the year (1.47x net-income) and they seem to be in a great spot for further M&A activity in 2008.

One of their chief growth ventures has been the "Linguist program," a support services contract initially lost to Global Linguistic Solutions LLC (NYSE: GLS). LLL has protested this to the point that they have a major share in the project and are continuing to expand their funding in the project, meaning a huge potential catalyst in 2008. Even without this, their backlog saw another record level (now $9.6 billion) and despite the fact that they are trading at a premium... growth continues onward and upward. Bottom line: take the skeptics views and factor them into your purchasing price, try to buy this one on the dip. My point: L-3 is a winner and justifies a premium share price.

Telecom Services - Telefonica (NYSE: TEF)

Telefonica is an international telecommunications value play in the market. I actually favor them over competitor America Movil (NYSE: AMX) because they are trading at nearly a 2:1 discount (10.5x versus 20.5x). But not only does TEF have a strong position in core domestic markets (main source of cash flow), but they offer the speculative growth opportunities through ongoing international investments. Standard and Poor's ranks their growth portfolio best-in-class, and I agree with them because of their strength in margins (EBITDA 40%%2B) and consistent sales.

We've kind of seen "roller coaster" growth from Telefonica over the years, but it all trends upwards and that's what we care about. Finding value in TEF, we see an attractive price to get in right now in the mid-to-low $80s. The Latin American markets account for most of the revenue for Telefonica, but only 10% of the EBITDA growth. There is without at doubt very high risk to competition, but I see Telefonica as beating its peers in the long-term, maintaining its great margins and expansion capacity. Noting their apparent risky-business, they actually are not too risky with a PEG of 0.58 and Beta at 0.88. You can count on this international powerhouse for continued growth in 2008, despite all of the lurking naysayers.

The Telecom sector is a great opportunity for investors, and is often missed when viewing the stock market's relative strengths and weaknesses. The truth is, a strong trend toward mobile technology calls for diversification into the telecommunications sector in order to ride the bull. AT&T, Millicom, L-3 and Telefonica are all stellar performers that should add great value to any portfolio.

2009-04-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Growing up on welfare can be a difficult proposition, especially when everyone else around seems to have so much. You spend your childhood living from paycheque to paycheque frequently learning to do without while all your friends have everything - it can kind of make you feel inadequate. The worst thing is this feeling of inadequacy can follow you into adulthood and seriously affect your decision-making, financial situation and ability to earn a good living.

It's kind of silly but as a child it's hard to see everyone around you get lots of stuff for Christmas while you get nothing. You kind of feel less as a person or you feel that you did something to deserve it. I guess, at the time, we're still too young to realize that 'stuff' doesn't mean anything ... but more on that later.

Fast forward to adulthood and these feelings that you don't deserve anything can haunt you and affect everything you do, from going to school to the jobs you end up accepting. I think that you get two types of people - the first type who never overcome these feelings and sometimes don't live the life they're supposed to live, and the other type who end up overcompensating.

Those that overcompensate spend their adult lives always trying to prove something. They buy the best stuff because they feel it will help distance themselves from their poor upbringing. Somehow, putting on this image of being successful - with the toys to match - seems to be the way to prove that they are in fact successful and belong with the upper class. I think people like this are a marketer's dream!

I have to wonder if this is problematic, though.

All of the fancy clothes and cars cannot erase the self-image of being poor - of being someone who still doesn't feel quite as good as everyone else around them. Worse, their debts spiral out of control because it is very expensive to put on that image of being super successful.

You end up spending your adult life running FROM these memories or moving AWAY from things. Is this healthy?

I tend to think not. I think it's much healthier to move TOWARDS something. Part of this process is letting go of the baggage. People that run away from things tend to hold onto this baggage, which I think can seriously affect their ability to be successful and wealthy.

So, I embraced my inner welfare child a long time ago. I accepted myself and made peace - warts and all - and left the baggage back in one of the many cheap rental houses we lived in. As a matter of fact, I think my childhood has made me the person I am today - along with all the mistakes I have made in adulthood.

I wonder how many people trade their time and their lives for expensive goods, just to prove that they are 'successful'. At the end of the day, they still don't feel good about themselves and it just becomes a vicious cycle of shopping and racking up those credit cards.

Don't get me wrong, I like clothing, electronics, nice restaurants and going out ... but it is not my priority and a huge part of my life. I learned relatively early that expensive stuff does not define who I am. In turn, I don't waste a lot of money on such items ... although I would love an iPhone!

My priority is wealth building - I'd rather direct my money towards wealth building and ultimately, getting complete control over that scarce asset ... known as time.

2009-04-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

Technology has been continuing upgrading ever since the earlier days. We got to see various latest innovations approximately in every period. From the invention of Telephone by Graham Bell to the new, latest and advanced 3G technology based cell phones; cell phone's technology has improved a lot more.

With the introduction of latest 3G technology it has become possible to make video calls, watch high streaming video, access high speed Internet and many more things. They are now replacing the separate devices like camera, music players and video gaming devices. These high end mobile phones are used not only for the making phone calls but also for the entertainment purposes too. With features like office editing tools, GPS, WAP, JAVA games, FM radio, music player and high storing memory, these mobile phones have now become the ideal info and entertainment buddy.

With the launch of latest iPhone from Apple, the top notch brands such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola etc. are launching their high end handsets to capture their share of market.

The latest mobile phones have become must-have accessories. People are becoming smart enough to select the cell phone that gives value for money. There are cell phones for each and every sector of people. From cheap cell phones to the latest and ultimate high end phones, people have the choice to select the phones according to their budget.

But before replacing their used cell phones, people should take into consideration that they are not buying anything just to show off. They need to consider the environments also, as the thrown away sets are just making the environment worse.

2009-04-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

Most of us love new toys. In the adult world, that means new gadgets.

Yet, truthfully, we spend a lot of time and money on new computers, cell phones and software when our old tools will do the job just fine. A recent survey actually showed that almost $50 billion worth of older, unused gadgets are actually lying around our houses gathering dust.

That's not to say don't upgrade when you need to. But it's always prudent to step back, think about your business needs and make sure you can justify your decision to your boss -- you -- in a way that makes sense to the bottom line.

Think about it: will having that low lease payment for that laptop you just had to have feel just as great two years down the road?

Here's some additional compelling research. Figures from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) indicate that consumer electronics (CE) products (what we often refer to as "gadgets") are more prevalent than ever.

According to the CEA, the average US household contains 26 CE products (up from 25 in 2005) and spent $1,200 buying them over the past 12 months. The top five growth sectors were MP3 players, digital cameras, car video entertainment systems, in-dash CD players and notebook PCs.

In the age of fast, fashion and cool, we're all victims. But when it comes to your business, you need to think twice, especially about the bottom line.

Ask yourself these questions to keep yourself in check when the new version of your favorite cellphone/ iPod /laptop comes out next week. (Note to reader: we're not criticizing, we have to ask ourselves these questions too).

1. Do you need the new features? Think long and hard about whether or not the new feature on your gadget of choice is going to benefit your business. Is it going to give you a different and better output? Is the speed so much faster that it is going to save you time at work? Or (gasp) is it simply the more fashionable model? Be honest.

2. Can you wait just a bit longer? If you simply must have the new XYZ, then think about waiting just a few months longer. Why buy the iPhone now when we know the capacity and battery life are going to improve in six months? Not to mention the price. A gadget's fashionable shelf life is short, so think of things in the long term that will still be usable and enjoyable six months or even years later.

3. Is there an alternative? Think about how much you are really willing to spend. Smart phones, for example, are pricey when compared to getting a phone upgrade from your cell phone service provider. And with a free upgrade every 12-18 months, you can easily stay current on the latest styles and features.

Take a moment, take a breath and really consider if you need it. Maybe you do. Or maybe it's just the next gizmo - that can wait.

2009-04-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

For almost a year, the original iPhone clone, the CECT P168, was known pretty much as the premier, best selling clone. I think this is because it was the closest thing to the original, very user friendly, had several embraced bonus features, and was widely available for not much money. That trend has changed though as the manufacturers have been rolling out improvements and upgrades to this well received model. One of the best selling of these newer models is the CECT i9. This article will review it's features, performance, and price.

Standard Popular Features: The i9 phone has everything the previous clones had and more. It is often thought of as "the best of both worlds" among the clones because it combines the standard popular features of many of the mainstream models with a few of the novelty features that are also gaining ground. As with most all of the clones, this one allows: web browsing; texting and email; full SMS, MMS, and WAP capabilities; MP3/MP4; Bluetooth; a built in digital camera / web cam and an FM radio. So, this is where this phone is the same, but here is where it is different.

Dual Sim Active: Like most of the clones, this one allows you to have two phone numbers or networks on one phone. However, unlike most - many of these phones sold under the name i9 allow for both sim cards to be active and online at once without needing to switch back and forth between the two.

Shake And Tilt Control AKA Swing To The Music: The original P168 did not have this addition. It came later on models like the A88 and the A380i. This means that you can advance music, media, wall papers, etc. by only shaking the phone. You don't have to look down or scroll. Likewise, the images on the phone will always right themselves no matter which way you turn or tilt the phone. Images go from portrait to landscape depending on which way you are holding or turning it.

Java: If there was any drawback to the original clones, it was that you could not download third party software or games via Java. This one supports Java so this is no longer an issue. Software like MSN, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook Express gives this cell phone so many more productivity and gaming possibilities.

Smaller, Sleeker Size: The i9 is smaller and sleeker than previous models, is dwarfed by a dollar bill, and will easily fit into a small pocket. It weighs only 95 grams with the dimensions of 110 x 60 x 11.5 mm.

More Memory: The original clones were expandable to up to 2GB of memory. The 9 can hold up to 8GB of memory (although it's more common to see them with 4GB). This is huge in my opinion because it ensures the phone is fast to function and download and you don't have to worry about it getting bogged down when you download songs, video and information.

Quad Band: The original iClone was a tri band. This one is a quad band, which covers nearly all world wide GSM networks.

Performance: I really like this phone. It performs very well and feels like a solid, high quality gadget. Since it now has Java, dual sim active, and more memory, it covers almost everything you could want in a phone. The slightly size does make it a bit slower to compose txt documents if you have large fingers, but I still prefer a lighter weight, sleeker model and feel this is a fair trade off. I've not found any bugs with it and I also like that it includes shake and tilt. I know that some people see this feature as a little eccentric (you either love it or hate it) but I am one of those people who finds it pretty useful.

2009-04-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

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Today at a town-hall meeting at Apple's Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone software developer's kit for the first time. There has been a lot of speculation about what the kit would include, and what it specifically wouldn't. Now Steve Jobs says it will have the same APIs and Tools that Apple itself uses to develop iPhone apps. Here are details:
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Super Micro-Charger

2009-04-17T21:44:00.001-07:00

It seems that Proporta's products keep getting smaller. I just received an amazing little charger that is about a third smaller than the last one I reviewed from Proporta. But then it only has about half the storage capacity.

Proporta is now offering a Mobile Device Charger-Micro that will charge from any USB port. It will store up to 1700 mAh, which is enough power to gas up almost any portable device such as an MP3 player, camera, phone, GPS receivers and more. It does it amazingly quickly too.

It comes with an assortment of eight different adapter tips to fit the most commonly used formats. I have to insert one of my pet peeves here, which is the non-standardization of connectors. Why not just make a mini-USB connection standard so you can use the same cables for all devices? Anyway, if you don't find the connector you need for your device, ask Proporta, they may be able to supply the one you need. You get one free one with your order to fit your particular device.

The Proporta USB Mobile Device charger Micro is not compatible with the Microsoft Zune, Asus Eee PC, Apple iPhone or Nokia N95 8GB. If you are looking for a charging solution for your Nokia N95 8GB or iPhone, please see our Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger (USB Rechargeable Battery), which is compatible.

At first I lamented that the kit did not come with a car charger or an AC charger. But, sifting through my mobile kit paraphernalia I found a car charge that you can plug a USB cable into. I also found an AC charger that you can plug a USB cable into as well. So, I am pretty much set up to charge this little puppy about just about anywhere.

It's very simple to operate. It comes about 75% charged right out of the box so that you can start using it immediately. To charge it, just plug the USB cable into the in port and the other end into your computer. A series of blue lights flash to indicate charging and stay blue when fully charged. As the power in the unit decreases the blue lights diminish to indicate the power level.

To begin charging another unit with the mini-charger, select the appropriate adapter, connect the cable and push the power switch. As the power in the unit decreases the blue lights diminish to indicate the power level remaining.

In addition to the array of tips, it comes with a handy retractable cable, a USB cable with standard and mini tips and a nice nylon drawstring carrying bag.

You really should not leave home without one of these mini life-savers. You never know when you are going to run out of juice at a meeting, on a plane, or when your car is broken down. You'l l be glad you have this emergency backup supply to get you going again and again. Actually, it is supposed recharge the average device two and a half times.

To make this vital accessory part of your travel kit, go to http://www.proporta.com/search.php?q=mobile+survival+kit+micro.

It will set you back $44.95 plus $4.95 shipping. I deem this crisis-averter a must-have appurtenance and a prudent investment. I notice from the Website that you can add a car charger and AC charger as I mentioned above if you do not already have them. Unfortunately, the battery does not have enough hunk to recharge laptaps. For that, you will need Proporta's portable laptop battery.

New IPod Nano 4th Gen

2009-04-17T21:43:00.002-07:00

The Launch of a new range of iPods always brings an air of excitement to all iPod fans. The New nano 4th Gen dubbed "the thinnest iPod ever" has been the worst kept secret with in Apple's recent history, images of the Nano were posted on and around many internet forums several days before the iPod was supposed to be released.

The new Nano has been totally redesigned from the previous shorter fatter shape of the Nano 3rd Gen it now stands tall and thin resembling the first & second generation versions. Although styled on the first generation's of the Nano the 4th gen has been thoroughly modernised creating a much easier on the eye style. The Case is now curved oval shape, with the glass screen matching the aluminium housing.

The newest feature of the iPod Nano 4th is the inclusion of the accelerometer, previously seen in the iPhone. This device allows you to shuffle tracks by simply shaking the iPod, the tracks will then automatically randomise. Another cool Nano feature is Cover Flow technology which allows you to browse album covers when the iPod is turned onto its side.

The good news for Dension owners is that the new iPod Nano 4th gen and revised iPod Touch will work with the Dension Gateway systems if the newer firmware has been installed. Problems were caused earlier in the year when Apple changed the way the iPhone 3G charges to a newer 5V system, that the previous Gateway could not support. The Nano 4th gen also has the 5v charging system so will work perfectly with the Dension Gateway. However due to the new shape of the Nano the Active cradle inserts may not accept the Nano 100% correctly so for the mean time its best to connect via the Dock Cable that will accept all iPods.

2009-04-17T21:43:00.001-07:00

The CECT P168 is a runaway hit because it not only delivered iPhone technology to consumers, it improved upon it (by adding another sim, a removable battery, an unlock feature, and additional speakers) at a fraction of the iPhone price. However, I've found that because this phone comes from china and the instructions are sometimes in Chinese (depending on where you buy it), many people hesitate to take a chance on this awesome phone that they would likely be very happy with.

There's no reason to be scared of the phone or the instructions being Chinese. That's because instructions in English (as well as every other language) is widely available for under $5.

Additionally, some very enterprising individuals have written e-books meant to make owning the P168 even easier. The authors really take you by the hand and show you step by step every single thing you could possibly need to know. These e-books include:

information on installing the Tflash, sim cards and battery;

how to get connected to the internet for AT&T, T Mobile and other major carriers;

how to configure the MMS for T Mobile, AT&T and others;

superb hints and tips to get the most out of the P168's many cool features;

answers to FAQ about the P168 and

several varying versions of the P168's user manuals.

So you can see that no matter how much help you may need, such information is readily available for just a few dollars. By taking advantage of these resources, any one who can read can have their CECT P168 up and running to its full capabilities in no time at all.

A698 Dual Sim Phone - This Quad Band Has Features Like Real Time TV, Bluetooth, and a Keyboard

2009-04-17T21:42:00.001-07:00

Even a short time ago, television on an iPhone clone or an imported knock off seemed to be quite a novelty. Even when the CECT A988 emerged with the "TV out" feature (meaning you could hook up the phone's video display to a TV so you could see your video on a bigger screen), it received a lot of attention.

And, when the N99i emerged with real time, analog television via antennae, people weren't sure if it would be a passing phase. The answer seems to be that it hasn't. Models like the aforementioned N99i, the PT400, and now the A698 (which I will discuss in this article), have been brisk sellers and seem to indicate that the TV clones are here to stay.

Features On The A698 Mobile Phone: This phone has the "everything in one phone" design that has become synonymous to the clones, like: internet browsing; email and text; MP3 / MP4; Bluetooth; FM radio; handwriting recognition; and built in digital camera (2.0 mega pixels) and web cam. It also has an oversized 3.0 inch touch screen.

Currently, this phone can hold up to 4GB of memory. This is a pretty standard sized phone with the dimensions of 109 X 51 X 18 mm. It weighs about 125 grams.

Quad Band: The A968 is a quad band which means that it will work for all GSM carriers (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - worldwide - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, New Zealand, And Australia). No software is needed. The phone will read the sim card on GSM networks.

Dual Sim Standby: The 968 mobile has what is called dual sim standby which means that you can have two sim cards running on the phone. For example, you could answer calls / text on one plan / network and web browse on another. You won't miss any calls when you are online. This is very popular for folks who take a lot of calls or who don't want to cart a heavy lap top around when they need or want to get online.

Real Time, Free Local Television: Some people get confused about these TV phones and think that you have you have to pay for this service the way that you do for cable. This is not the case. The local programs you pick up are free via antenna. This phone also allows for streaming video. (A sort of interesting feature with this is that you twist the phone to watch the TV.)

Full Keyboard / Scroll Bar: Other than the TV, probably the most compelling feature of this phone is the fact that it has a keyboard. There is a decent sized subset of people who don't much care for texting and messaging on the flat screens of the iPhone and it's clones. Up until relatively recently, there were clones available for these folks, but they didn't have many features. That is no longer the case.

The price on the A698 is pretty competitive, often in the low $100s depending on how much memory is included.

2009-04-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take some time and write a little post on Bluetooth. This is really just a basic discussion of what it is and what it does, not a really involved, detailed, explanation of the technology and the science behind it. The web is filled with that kind of info. I'll try to post some links to other info sites sometime soon.

Bluetooth has been around for longer than people think. It was first developed in the mid 90's as a device wireless standard. Essentially, it is a standardized way for different personal devices to talk to each other. It allows Phones, PDAs, Computers, Headsets, Printers, and more to all talk the same language over the same designated radio frequency. It has gone through a few different versions, the latest being version 2.1 + EDR.

However, just because they communicate using the same protocol, doesn't mean that each device will support the other device. Each device is programmed to use different features of the Bluetooth standard. For example, a phone can support a Bluetooth Headset for phone calls, but may not support printing to a Bluetooth printer. Just because a device has Bluetooth capability, it's up to the manufacturer of that device to decide what features are going to be enabled, and how those features work.

Here's an example... My phone is a BlackBerry Pearl by RIM. It has Bluetooth capability for headset use. I can pair any Bluetooth headset to my phone. When paired, I can place and recieve calls using the headset. However, I cannot listen to music stored on my phone through a paired headset. The reason is that the manufacturer (RIM in this case) did not program that capability into my phone. A different phone (Cingular 3125 for example..my old phone) would allow music to be played through the Bluetooth headset. It's a function of the programming of the phone...not the headset.

So, just because your phone has Bluetooth capabilities, does not mean that it will automatically work with all other Bluetooth devices. They need to be programmed to use the same features of Bluetooth.

To try to make it easier to determine if different devices will work together, Bluetooth SIG (special Interest Group...the group that develops and promotes the Bluetooth standard) has developed some icons for manufacturers to use on packaging. These Icons are supposed to tell you what Bluetooth features the device uses and that should help you determine if your devices will work well together. The icons are listed here. Though I haven't seen too many uses of the icons on packaging yet.

In the example of my phone, my phone has "Headset" capability, but not "Music" capability. Therefore, my phone would work well with a Bluetooth headset (such as the "Mini", or "Micro"), but I would not be able to listen to music stored on my phone using a Stereo Bluetooth Headset (such as the "Stereo" unit). In my case, the main purpose of the Blackberry Pearl is messaging, not music, so I am OK with not listening to music in stereo on my phone. But other phones are marketed as "music" focused phones, and would be smart to offer stereo Bluetooth capability.

Not only do you need to determine what capabilities your device has...but the way your device USES the Bluetooth capability as well. For example, when I use a Bluetooth headset with my Blackberry Pearl phone, I can press the Multi-Function button (aka the talk button) on the headset and the phone will automatically go to Voice Dial mode. The phone will ask me who I want to call and will place that call. This is because RIM programmed the Pearl to do that when the Mulit-Function button is pressed on a linked (paired) Bluetooth Headset.

Now, if the same headset is paired to an iPhone and the MFB is pressed, nothing happens. Apple did not program the iPhone to use voice dialing with a Bluetooth Headset. The headset will work fine, but to place a call, you need to use the phone touch-pad to dial. To answer a call, you can just press the MFB.

These functions are all determined by the programmers and engineers who design and build the individual phones. Just because a device is Bluetooth compatible, doesn't tell you HOW that device uses the Bluetooth function.

The Bluetooth Experience Icons help (though not commonly used yet) but even those don't tell you HOW the device uses the technology, only that it does.

Hopefully this doesn't put you off towards Bluetooth totally, because it really is great technology. It is very handy to use a wireless headset to talk on the phone. And in many areas, handheld use of cellphones is illegal.

So how do you know what will work with your phone? The instructions or manufacturers websites should be able to tell you if your phone is Bluetooth capable or not. And it should tell you what features it supports. But they may not tell you how convenient their programming and use of the technoligy is.

One suggestion I have (and use) is to start small. If you are thinking of buying Bluetooth headset for your phone, see if you can try it in the store. I haven't seen that offered anyplace in our area, but if you can find a salesman or store that will let you try before you buy, take advantage.

Another option is to try with a lower cost headset first. There are a wide range of headsets and other Bluetooth devices out there. Some are very low cost and low quality, and some are very expensive. There are many factors involved in the pricing of these units...enough that I will save it for another post sometime. But there are some good quality units available at a very fair price. These tend to be lesser known brands, but since Bluetooth is based on a standard protocol, using standard chipsets, you won't see a huge difference in performance.

As I said, this is a very basic overview of what Bluetooth really is. I could get into hours and hours of great tech detail on this, but I'm trying to keep it simple and understandable.

2009-04-17T21:38:00.003-07:00

Currently, there are two new phones that are being called the "new i9" and people seem to be getting them confused - these are the T1 and the 3G i9. Even though they are both based on and technically upgrades of the CECT i9, they are very different phones as I will outline in the following article.

Analog Television: Only one of these phones includes real time TV and this is the T1. There is a little antenna that comes out of the phone by the stylus. This allows the phone to pick up reception for local channels. You don't have to pay anything extra for this or have a subscription or anything. Basically, anything that you could pick up locally is fair game. You can also watch movies and shows via the phone's Internet, but this is not technically in real time.

There is another popular TV phone called the N99i, but this one is not based upon the iPhone as the T1 is.

3G: Sometimes, people assume that the new i9 3G runs on 3G networks. Currently, this is not the case. The phone has this name because it is the third generation of the phone that is the i9. Over nine pages of additional icons have been added to the main menu. You can arrange these icons with your fingers to customize the phone (examples are icons for You Tube, stocks, google maps, etc.)

The housing has also changed somewhat, allowing you to have a red or white phone. This one still looks a lot like the iPhone or previous i9's but the casing is a bit thicker and shinier (almost like a mini lap top.) The phone is a also a bit slimmer, but not noticeably so.

The 3G has everything that the original i9 had. It is quad band, has the shake and tilt, and includes Java. This is not so with the T1 which generally doesn't include shake and tilt (advancing songs by flicking your wrist.) and sometimes, some models don't include Java.

So, Which Is Better?: Both of these are great phones, but they're geared toward completely different customers. Folks who are attracted to the T1 want it for the TV, which the G model just doesn't offer. Folks who want the 9 3G want the very latest version of the very popular i9, complete with Java, shake and tilt, and all of the new icons.

Both phones share all of the standard features like bluetooth, dual sim slots, MP3 / MP4, radio, camera, and web cam.

Price wise, these phones are pretty similar (in the low $100s or less.) The real choice comes down to which features are most important to you.

2009-04-17T21:38:00.001-07:00

Where can one find the iPod Touch Cheap? You can shop your normal brick and mortar stores and find a brand spanking new iPod Touch or you can go online and shop directly from the official Apple iPod(TM) store but, will you get the best deal?

But, first let me give a little bit of info about the this neat portable media player and why it has become so popular.

Well, thankfully Apple in all it's wisdom decided that they could develop a media player with as many excellent functions as the iPhone. The iPod Touch shares all the same audio, video and photo apps as it's grown up brother. Especially since, many of us love the Apple mobile media interface every bit as much as the iPhone. The search is fast, sampling tracks and downloading is easy and syncing the tracks back to your computer are effortless. But, the built in Wi-Fi ensures quality connections over the internet.

The media player comes in 8, 16 and now the new 32 gigabyte version, which is very powerful and as for us, stands heads and shoulders above the rest of the new media players.

The question now is, "Where does one find the iPod Touch cheap?"

We spent many hours searching online and comparing prices to find ours. Of course, our desire was to find the media player at discount prices for brand new players that came with warranties and had not been tampered with in any way.

We searched various online retailers that offer all the latest electronic gadgets. We found that most well known online stores offered the player at somewhat similar prices. There were however, some very big differences in some of the pricing between the newer version of the media player. The iPod Touch we have found, especially the newer 32 gig model, is starting to garner a bigger following that most expected. But, with it's larger capacity and ease of use makes this new media player a very nice addition to your collection.

Several websites that were offering the media player were monitored for several weeks to check the availability and prices and found that they consistently offered what we were looking for. Great prices, well respected and well known with a very large community of satisfied buyers searching to acquire a iPod Touch cheap.

So if your still thinking about either upgrading your player to a larger capacity model or searching to find a brand new one. Just do some research and compare prices. Be patient and you will find one that you want at an very affordable price.

2009-04-17T21:37:00.001-07:00

Joining the winning lineup of CECT's iClone line is the new CECT A988. There was a lot of buildup to the A988's release and this phone hasn't disappointed consumers. Like the other iClones, the design is based on the iPhone, but the CECT A988 looks a bit different from most of the clones in that it relies more upon its texting tools. The A988 has keys and a small keyboard on the front of the phone. The A988 is a great phone for frequent texters.

Like the other clones, the CECT A988 is full of features like the ability to surf the internet, play music, record and watch video, text via keyboard (on the phone's face and by handwriting recognition), take photos with a 2 mega pixel camera, and enjoy Bluetooth.

One very unique and praised feature of this phone is the "TV out" function which means that you can plug the phone into a TV and watch video that you have taken or recorded.

The 988 has further improved upon the iPhone by: adding additional speakers and handwriting recognition; allowing you to remove the battery yourself; making texting easier; allowing you to view video on tv; and allowing you to use any carrier you wish (saving a lot of money on AT&T's monthly fees).

The A988 is among the new quad band phones. It will work anywhere in the world and will automatically recognize any sim without software.

The CECT A988 runs between $100 and $150. It is great for people who text a lot or who really like the TV out capability. This phone also gives you all of the iPhone features at a small fraction of the price.

2009-04-17T21:36:00.003-07:00

Samsung has been in the business of producing touch screen mobile phones for a very long time now. It has produced both magnificent mobile phones as well as some not-so-popular models in the recent past.

Easy to Use Interface
Latest in the series is a hi-fi camera phone from Samsung called the Samsung M8800 Pixon. This mobile phone including a complete QWERTY keypad is a very delightful product from the Samsung stable. After a bit of practice, you will become comfortable with this keypad, able to use it easily for writing Emails and messages. It is a highly responsive phone just like the iPhones. The software of this phone is incomparable consisting of cute widgets and icons. You can easily operate this phone by just using the 3.2 inches touch screen and dragging the various applications.

A Great Camera Phone
It is a fast phone although there are no multi-touch controls usually present in all the iPhones. The looks of this phone are another feature to boast about, the device being loaded with an attractive black casing. This phone can also double up as an excellent camera owing to the presence of an impressive 8-megapixel resolution camera on the back of the phone. This camera is replete with great features like the presence of an auto-focus, double LED flash and a 16x zoom.

The advanced automatic shake reduction feature of this camera places it as a tough competitor in the camera phones market. The interface of this camera is quite easy to use with options like smile shot, shooting mode, auto-focus, exposure value, face detection and a flash. You can easily change any of these settings by a simple gesture on it's icon on the screen. It is also convenient to take a picture, just hold the phone sideways and press the committed shutter button. The pictures come out really well both in the daytime and in the night. But, results could have been brighter in terms of sharp pictures taken during the night if a Xenon flash was present in the phone.

Music features are also present in the phone
The phone also has other capabilities to popularize it further as a wholesome mobile like Bluetooth 2.0 accessibility and 5.1 surround sound called SRS. You can just download music, data or any kind of a file with the help of Bluetooth. The technology known for facilitating seamless data transfer called HSDPA is also present in this phone. With HSDPA, you can transfer upto 7.2 Mbps of data at the speed of 2100MHz.

The phone is a complete entertainment package for the users also consisting of an integrated FM tuner with RDS, a media player and full TV-out support. Make videos at the speed of 120 frames per second capturing your most exquisite moments and watch them on the phone itself.

With this phone, you carry fun with you wherever you go. A mere 13.8 mms in breadth, this sleek device is easily portable. It also has a prolonged battery life. With this phone, Samsung has really produced a commendable product which can prove to be a formidable gadget for the iPhone manufacturers. Get hold of this phone and you will be laying your hands on an impeccable device.

2009-04-17T21:36:00.001-07:00

Samsung i900 Omnia looks very stylish and superb. It is designed to challenge the Apple's iPhone. The front view looks almost similar to iPhone except the buttons. The back view is also really more stylish and modern. The dimensions of this windows mobile are 112 x 56.9 x 12.5 mm and weighs 122 grams. It is available only in modern black colour.

Since the mobile is designed to challenge iPhone it has almost all the features of iPhone and moreover it has some more unique features. It has a very large 3.2 inches wide TFT touch screen, which can display from 65 thousand to 256 thousand colours based on the application, at a high resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. This phone has accelerometer sensor for auto rotate which sense the orientation of the mobile in respect to the user. Hence if you wish to view videos or document or anything as view on a monitor then just rotate it to 90 degree, the screen will change its orientation accordingly. This touch screen is enabled with handwriting recognition feature hence, no more problems because of small congested keyboard to edit the documents, just write as you do with a pen on a paper.

Samsung i900 Omnia is the first windows mobile which is loaded with 5 mega pixel camera, which can capture images at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels; it is also featured with autofocus, image stabiliser, face tracking, smile detection, geotagging and flash to help you capture great moments easily. This camera can also capture videos of high resolution. This phone also has a secondary, somewhat low quality camera for making video calls.

This amazing phone is loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1 professional operating system, which is powered by 624 MHz Marvell PXA312 CPU. It uses 128 MB RAM for temporary memory storage. It has a very large internal memory of 8 GB and another version with 16 GB. If you think this huge memory is not sufficient for you then you can use external memory card.

This phone operates in second generation network with quad bands hence you can roam anywhere with this phone. In third generation category it is available in two versions one for US customers and other for Europe and rest of the world. This phone also has a built in GPS receiver with A - GPS, hence you can track where you are while roaming all over the world. It has good connectivity options and allows you to download at a maximum speed of up to 7.2 Mbps and it supports all the forms of data transfer between compatible devices except the IR, which is almost never used these days.

It also provides optional joystick with virtual mouse functionality. It has a TV - out to view videos in large screen and the headset comes with standard 3.5 mm audio jack. It has good music player which can play almost all audio formats like MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, OGG and AMR. The video formats supported are DivX, XviD, WMV and MP4.

Apart from these it also supports all the standard functionalities of a standard mobile, it has a standard battery which offers standby time of up to 500 hours and talk time of up to 5hours and 50 minutes.

Balachander Ganesan is an expert author of Telecommunication industry. Who writes on Mobile Phones, Smart phones, and PDA.

2009-04-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

Apple has already long-ago proven itself far more than a mere one-trick pony (with the Apple IIE, iPod, iPhone, etc.). And now the ubiquitous brand is back in the saddle again!

Taking a break from our usual iPhone discussion, we thought we'd take a moment to focus in on one of Apple's other recent innovations that's also taking the world by storm - the Macbook Air. Apparently, like the iPhone, the hype over the Macbook Air is a lot more than just a bunch of...well, hot air.

In our modern age's never-ending obsession over miniaturization, it comes as no surprise that when the prevailing masters of innovation - Steve Jobs and Co. - deigned to invent a better laptop they took this to mean a lighter weight laptop. Being that the whole point of a laptop is to be able to carry it around with you wherever you go, this makes total sense.

At only 0.16" to 0.76" thick and weighing in at under 3 pounds, the product of Apple's efforts, the Macbook Air, hit stores on January 29 and recent reports reveal that they've been selling out of stock every single day since then. This includes venues in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. At the latest count, stores both online and off are estimating an approximate one-week delay between the time a customer orders and purchases a Macbook Air and the time it arrives for pickup (or delivery). The last time such a claim could be made, it was for the hot-selling (and still sold out now, a year-and-a-half later, the Nintendo Wii).

Critics question whether these figures are misleading, caused more by an inadequate supply than a voracious demand, but the numbers are raising eyebrows globally nonetheless. It seems even Apple itself didn't expect such a passionate reception, and is scrambling to keep up with all the orders.

In response to the sweeping popularity of their new product, Apple has even gone so far as to post a Macbook Air tracking page on their website for prospective buyers to find out whether and where a Macbook Air can be found for immediate purchase in their (or a nearby) area.

Costing between $1,800 and $3,000 (depending primarily upon processor speed: 1.6 or 1.8 GHz) many thought the price point too high to merit these kinds of figures, but figures don't lie. It seems laptop-users are willing to pay a premium to ease the burden on their shoulders, back, etc.

Is it just the bearable lightness of Macbook Air's being that makes it so desirable to consumers or is there more to it than that? Part of the appeal has to be the incorporation of multi-touch technology, adopted and adapted from the iPhone. Another novel feature is Remote Disc, allowing users to access DVDs and CD-ROMs from their other Macs or Windows PCs through their Macbook Air.

Whatever the cause, one thing seems certain: the abbreviation MBA no longer means what it used to. These days, and for the foreseeable future, it stands not for Masters of Business Administration, but for Apple's own Macbook Air.

2009-04-17T21:34:00.005-07:00

2009-04-17T21:34:00.003-07:00

If you're not seen or heard about the Chinese clones of the iPhone, you may be surprised at their quality. Basically, Chinese manufacturers saw an opening when Apple's iPhone introduced technological advances in mobile phones, but left room for improvement by having a few flaws with the phone which turned consumers off.

There were several things that consumers did not like about the iPhone, as follows:

1. The original is single sim. This means you can only have one cell phone number, forcing you to basically carry two phones if you need one for business and one for leisure;

2. The iPhone forces you to use AT&T's expensive plan which starts at about $100 per month. If you don't want to use AT&T, you're forced to try to hack the phone, which isn't always successful;

3. The original does not have a removable battery. Every time the battery dies, you have to go to the dealer;

4. The iPhone only has three skimpy speakers;

5. The original is prone to freeze up and have other performance bugs.

CECT took all of these problems and fixed them. Making their phones dual sim (two phone numbers), adding a removable battery, unlocking the phones (so you can use whatever carrier your wish other than AT&T), and adding three extra speakers was just the beginning. The CECT 599 has taken the improvements a step further by introducing shake technology. This means if you want to advance any media (songs, video, wallpaper, photos, etc) you don't need to scroll or look down, you just shake the phone until it advances where you need it to. No fumbling around. Just a quick shake and you're done.

The CECT 599 has all of the features you want from your touch screen phone. You can surf the web, take and play video, play MP3s, and take photos. (It has a really nice camera phone). It also has Bluetooth, a 3.2 inch, high resolution screen and of course, the touch screen technology everyone is looking for.

The 599 is priced very competitively at between $100 and $130. This is a great smartphone if you are looking for the newest, high performing technology but don't want to be chained to the manufacturer.

2009-04-17T21:34:00.001-07:00

The world of smart phones has changed. Today, consumers expect the most desirable phones to be touchscreen. This all started with the iPhone but as of this writing it has ended with the iclones - the phones which were originally meant to copy to the iPhone but which ended up added additional features to the iPhone that Apple apparently never thought of.

The A380i is no exception. Although this phone looks very much like the iPhone and has all of the features one would expect - a high resolution 3.0 inch touchscreen, a digital camera, Bluetooth, a video camera and player, and MP3 / MP4 players - it's innovative improvements leave the iPhone in the dust.

For example, manufacturers of the A380i noticed that many customers were carrying around two cell phones, using one for work and one for personal life. In a light bulb moment, the designers decided to add another sim onto this phone. You can still use one sim if you don't need this feature and you don't need to turn the phone off for this feature to work.

Additionally, a removable battery has been added because one of the huge complaints with the iPhone is that you have to drag your phone to the dealer every time the battery dies. Who wants to be that dependant upon their phone's manufacturer? Better, CECT has added three more speakers and surround sound. The stereo system on this phone will blow you away.

You do not need to be a hack if you don't want to use AT&T's expensive service. The 380i has slide unlock. Just swipe your hand and voila you can now use any carrier you chose. You don't have to use AT&T.

The bonus feature which has gotten the most attention has to be the shake feature of the "shake technology" as the manufacturer likes to call it. If you want to change songs, wallpaper, video or photos, you don't have to look down, press buttons or scroll. You just shake the phone to advance it. The A380 has expandable memory via micro SD card. The iPhone doesn't.

This clone is already very competitively priced at about $150, sometimes lower. This is a steal considering you're getting the most innovative phone on the market today and not being forced to go with AT&T.

2009-04-17T21:33:00.006-07:00

REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS?

Remember when you used to sit down and play Monopoly with your brothers and sisters? (or Whoever). Do you remember what the point of the game was? Was it simply to get around the board as many times as possible? Build houses and hotels? Collect rent? Have Fun?

What did you pick for your game piece? The dog? The Iron? The Car? Did it really matter? Maybe it didn't. Or maybe it did. Did you ever ask yourself why you picked the piece that you did? Was it carefree nature of the dog? The sensibility of the Iron? Or perhaps, the visions of speed conjured by the image of the car. One thing is certain. You didn't pick your piece by accident. You chose to pick the piece you did, maybe subconsciously, because there was something about you, that was represented in that piece. Freedom, Steadiness, Speed. Something you were, or wished to become. The question is, which is it--a reflection of yourself, or your dreams?

Ok, so you're asking, "That's it". Monopoly. How will that transform my business and my life? TRUTHFULLY? Neither. What will grow your business is understanding the piece you picked and why you did it. The reason is, in that choice, is the underlying factor of how you make your decisions, and how you see the world.

Truth be told there are really only a couple reasons people go into business,

and do you want to know a SECRET? It's usually not for the money. Yep, that's right. It's not for the money folks. Most people go into business to express their freedom of choice. As the great Frank Sinatra said, "I did it my way!" And there is nothing wrong with going into business to show the world your individuality, your creativity, and your wherewithal. NOTHING AT ALL. The problem is, most people are under the assumption that they went into business for, 'the money'.

Why is this important to know?

Not everyone wants to be Donald Trump, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffett.

Most people just want to be 'Me'. Or, I mean, themselves. For many people there is something demoralizing about the 9 to 5 grind. Eventually, it chips away at their soul, until they are a shadow of what they once were. The real question is, Why did you go into business, or for those not yet in business, Why do you want to?

THE LITTLE ANSWER TO THE BIG QUESTION

The secret to success is as simple as this:
"Do what you love because you love it, and you know it is the right thing to do".

SIMPLE. There is no reason to make it more complex than that. If you love fashion, open a clothing store that markets to people who love fashion. If you love car parts, open a junkyard that caters to people who love junk cars. If you love ice cream, open an ice cream store that caters to people who love ice cream. The truth is...you need to follow your passion. When we do something that does not excite us, soon we lose interest, and it becomes secondary.

I'm reminded of the years when I worked for Franklin Covey , you know the people that made those little binders that people that we all documented our life with, back in the nineties. They were in their boom cycle then. But more importantly we talked Franklin Covey taught me an important lesson. A while after I began to work there, a strange object started to enter the catalogs. It was called the Palm Pilot. Nobody really knew what it was. Something about keeping your note and calendars digitally. Seemed cool, but not really relevant, and why would people want to do that when they could just write it on pretty paper that cost them $50.00 a year to refill. Who would spend three hundred and fifty bucks on a gadget that tracks your notes, calendar, and even some music? Well it turns out a lot of people would, anyone heard of the iPhone or the Blackberry? However, Franklin Covey, barely a blip on the radar these days, knew and loved paper based scheduling. They never really got the whole electronic idea. Their passion was paper. Sure, they tried to enter the electronic marketplace and failed miserably. It just wasn't their thing.

Now the funny thing to me is, that in our electronic age, there is such a demand for paper products. Not just run of the mill products, but fancy nice products. They are viewed as a luxury. Ask yourself how excited you get to receive an email. Probably not too excited. But have you ever received a hand written note? I have, and it makes an impact every time. I still keep a handwritten note in my drawer from a client thanking me for our service.

I've had that little note for ten years now. EVERY time I read it... I feel good.

Perhaps Franklin Covey could have learned this lesson also. Follow your passion. Why? Because, if you follow someone else's passion, you generally won't be able to generate enough energy to propel your business to the next level. Your work will become drudgery, instead of fun. And I don't know about you, but I prefer to have fun. Simply stated, business needs to be fun. If your business isn't fun, it's time to change. If your business isn't exciting, make it exciting. Master this one lesson, and you will have set the cornerstone for a lifetime of success.

To your success!
Bryan

Bryan Coester is a business expert who has worked with fortune 500 companies, and worked with the largest companies in the world to achieve success. He focuses on the factors in each business that will create the greatest return to the owners and shareholders. Long term success is his goal.

Delivering value first is a mantra that guides all his actions. He has worked with Industrial, High Tech, Pharmaceutical, Mining, Medical Manufacturing, Healthcare, and many other industries.

2009-04-17T21:33:00.005-07:00

Ipod Touch Downloads are not as easy to find. When we purchase a cool gadget, especially created by Apple, we want to have cool stuff on it, like music and movies - but where can we find such files?

There are several websites offering movies, tv shows and music for your ipod, ipod touch and iphone, however only few are worth it your precious time. Apple offers the iTune store filled with songs and videos, however at $0.99 per song it could get costly, especially when we want to get hundreds of songs.

Second option on the list would be free iPod touch downloads sites. Okay, do you remember the famous saying: "If it seems too good to be true it probably is"? This rule applies for "free" downloads as well. First of all they are not legit - if you get caught you might end up paying a 5 digit fee in court. Another great risk of downloading from free sites is the quality of the files. Most of them contain spyware, adware and viruses so when you download one single song, you might be losing your computer.

The only option left:

Trusted iPod Touch Downloads sites. They provide great technical support, and spyware-free files of great quality. These websites are also legal to use and they do not charge you "per download fee". For a small fee, usually under $40 you get a life time access to unlimited number of downloads without any worries about getting your PC infected or overpaying for the service. If these sites were featured on TV - they are worth it.

2009-04-17T21:33:00.003-07:00

The ringing phone can be something that you have time for, but that is not always the case. Some people are so busy that they must ignore their phones all day, and others can check them periodically throughout. Whatever the case, you can go through your missed call list to see who called. You may even know exactly what they want. There may be some that are not familiar to you, and when that happens, take a few minutes to find out more.

You can search through the contact list you have in your email, if you use one, or you can go through your phone contacts if you happen to have one of the newer iPhones. These have searchable contact lists. However, those numbers should come up with a name on your cellular phone and the email contacts can be hard to search. Instead, think about some of the free and paid lookups you can use online.

The free reverse phone number lookups that you can find online are things that you probably already use. These would include using the search engines to see if you can find that number to come up in text, or you can use people search sites like WhoIs or perhaps Bigfoot to see what you can find about a number. You can also see what happens when you go to the online white pages to use their free reverse landline number search.

You may have a profile through a professional network, but you may not have thought to use these as a reverse phone search. It is not always possible, but some numbers can be found through them. The reason for that is simple. These are used to allow professionals to reach each other. Though email addresses are great, those that want to make serious work connections will leave phone numbers. You may find a match that way.

2009-04-17T21:33:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I traveled in the back of Dad's car to my Grandmother's house. I loved visiting her. But it has to be said, I wasn't very keen on the 1 1/2 hour journey. Why, you ask? Nothing to do! Well, I say nothing, but the reality was that my Mom made me and my younger brother play all sorts of games like, I spy with my little eye, first letter of the license plate, and counting the arms and legs on English pub signs!

Actually, it was quite fun for the trip there, but going home was brutal! Fast forward to the present. "Dad, is my PSP charged?" "Mom, have you got my
Nano?" "Where's the DVD player?" "No-one's using my Touch, so why can't I?!" The digital age is upon us and our kids are all over it. The trip to Gran's has become just another brief span in time - an opportunity to listen to music, watch a movie or play a game - in complete isolation from the rest of the family!

But now, when we get there, no one wants to get out of the car! Heck, we could drive all the way to Maine and they'd still be happy! At least before, we couldn't wait to get the heck out of the car to see Gran! Now we have a bunch of over stimulated kids on our hands who've totally forgotten the reason we were in the car in the first place! The adrenaline rush can then translate into ugly behavior when the device has to be turned off, and then of course it lingers throughout the visit and that's not pleasant for anyone, especially Granny, who was really looking forward to spending some quality time with her 'adorable' grandchildren. Ignorance is bliss, isn't it!!

Well, the good news is there are now options to the adrenaline pumping games, that are a bit more appropriate for those particular journeys, and often they utilize the same devices your kids play on all the time. One that my younger kids really enjoy is MobiStories. These are online digital picture books - traditional picture books digitized, but with easy to follow text, narration, (often by kids, which my kids love) and even music and sound effects to enhance the overall experience, making it kind of like a movie - book. If you have 1 - 8 year olds, this one is for you.

The next product is Amazon's Kindle, which I'm sure you've all heard about. This digital book reader is everything it's touted to be and is aimed at the older kids as well as adults. There are thousands of e-books available online, and some of the classics are even free. You can download them directly to the reader from wherever you are using the built in wireless 3G network. They are a little pricey, but well worth the convenience.

Finally, you should also check out iPhone apps. There are tons of novels available here too for both the iPhone and iTouch which double as readers, and again, many of the classics are free. Just don't let those little rascals tell you that they're going to read a book on the device, but then silently switch to an adrenaline-pumping game or movie which might be more suitable for a different trip.

So, take the bull by the horns and explore these fabulous new options for those lengthy journeys with the kids. We may frown at some of the products the digital era has forced upon us, but if you look hard enough there are always jewels to be found! Heck, they may even increase literacy more than I Spy. Have a great trip!

2009-04-17T21:32:00.003-07:00

Technology continues to advance. Today, there is a gadget for everything and the technology behind electronics continues to amaze with each new gadget having more advanced features. The days of stopping at payphones to make a call are long gone thanks to the invention of mobile phones, and now anyone can make a call from anywhere. Like everything else in technology, the mobile phone has gone through several evolutions from the beginner big bulky car phones to tiny little mobile pocket gadgets and eventually to smartphones.

Basically, the smartphone is a mini computer and phone combination. It allows for complete functionality of communication in a small wireless mobile package. It offers tons of features and capabilities, the least of which is a mobile phone.

Some of the features standard in a smartphone include, email, Internet browsing, full operating systems, GPS, camera and video capability, organizers, calendars, mp3 players, full keyboards, oh and of course the cell phone. Some smartphones also have touch screens, such as the iPhone and the newest Blackberry Storm.

The first ever smartphone was called Simon. Designed in 1992 by IBM and released to the public by BellSouth in 1993. It contained an address book, calculator, note pad, email, fax and games and by today's advanced standards is considered pretty limited.

In 2001 RIM released the first BlackBerry smartphone which was the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use. The BlackBerry popularity was astounding with a total customer base of 8 million subscribers by June 2007. The RIM BlackBerry operating system is focused on easy operation and has recently seen an increase in third-party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support.

The BlackBerry comes in several models, including, Bold, Curve, Pearl and Storm, offering a wide range in prices and features for everyone. This year the long awaited newest model of BlackBerry Storm was released that features the first BlackBerry touch screen that is a trully unique because it clicks when you press down to provide tactile feedback when typing, clicking web links, selecting icons and more.

There are several manufacturers of smartphones today, each running their operating system, including Apple's iPhone which is one of the best sellers of smartphones.

2009-04-17T21:32:00.001-07:00

You know the saying, about how the ones who supposedly should know better, well, don't. I was recently reminded of this after a couple of my own experiences. I was having lunch with a friend of mine who owns so many domains that she did a lookup on what she thought was a great name only to find out that she actually already registered it. So let me also come clean here, and tell you how I can also be like this friend and mess up too. I know it may hurt, but supposedly confession can be good.

So my first tale is about how I almost lost the subscriber list for this newsletter that you are reading in your comfy inbox right now. Yes, I have all sorts of backup routines that I have developed because of what happened many years when my office was above a music store (and a Subway, boy do I miss that convenience). The store had an electrical short that caused a small fire. Just before the fire started, I had ducked out for a few minutes to run an errand, and by the time I came back the fire department had roped off the building. Luckily, nothing was damaged in my office, other than the front door that the firemen broke down to make sure that the fire hadn't spread upstairs. Now, I had been doing my backups on tape. Where were those tapes you might ask? Sitting right next to my server. Since then I have gotten offsite backup religion big time and make sure that one copy of everything is always somewhere other than my office.

Or so I thought. The one thing - and I hope it is the only thing - that I didn't have a current backup for is the actual list of my subscribers. Well, I had done one in March, but I really didn't want to go through the process of trying to update that.

My mail list server used to be located in a friend of a friend's house. Granted, this person is one of the original Internet Wise Men. But still, even the wisest of wise men have server crashes from time to time, and his server crashed last week, taking my list down for a week. That was all the motivation that I needed to start a new list on a "real" provider (I am using EMWD.com, which offers Mailman hosting for $4 a month for low volume lists. They seem to know what they are doing, they are usually reachable via email queries, and I don't have to learn yet another list server's quirks since I have been using Mailman for several years now.) And it is relatively simple to make backup copies of the entire subscriber list: all it takes is sending a single email command to the server and storing the reply. Which I now will do on a regular basis.

What both of these experiences have taught me was that no matter how I analyze my data backup and procedures, there is always room for improvement. You can't think of everything. And the key to backups is doing them regularly. Sort of like flossing your teeth, which I need to do more often too. But not just relying on the guilt generated from not doing them (in the case of my teeth, by my hygenist) but a regular procedure that can easily and quickly be implemented so that it doesn't get postponed because something else of higher priority comes along.

Next I want to tell you about my new iPhone. Yes, I know, I am a little slow to embrace this baby, no need to abuse me about it. The story is within about an hour of getting the thing, I was on it talking to my daughter for tech support. The shame, I know. She thought it was funny. But then I had another question shortly after that. And this is after spending hours reading all sorts of stuff about all the 57 different analysts and tech bloggers that are in love with their iPhones and have done all sorts of cool stuff with theirs. Welcome to 2008, Strom.

Finally is my thoughts about WebInformant.tv, my new screencast product reviews site. After putting together the first bunch of videos, I realize that the content sits on four servers: one where the actual videos reside, one that hosts the Web site proper, another one that has the RSS feed, another server back in my office that has the original copies of the videos. And this doesn't count the numerous other servers that repurpose the videos, too.

Do I really need such a complex system to deploy this service? Not really, it just grew into this, because I wanted to use the best tools from a variety of places. Yes, I could eliminate the server that delivers the RSS, but the one that comes with the Web site is pretty lame. I know this is often how many of you end up with unsupported systems, but at least I have documented where all the files are kept and the process by which I post a new one (and this is of course backed up in a few places, too.)

So I hope you have enjoyed these tales of torment. Have a nice weekend, and keep those backups safe.

2009-04-17T21:31:00.005-07:00

This is the phone that started a revolution and it is still the gold standard of iPhone clones. This is really the phone that started it all and the high quality and dependable performance of this phone ensures that this clone is still by far CECT's best seller.

In case you have seen one of these in person, this phone has everything: the high resolution touch screen with finger touch, the seamless ability to surf the web, watch and video, listen to music and take and manipulate (via finger) high quality photos.

The CECT P168 was the first iClone to introduce dual sim. This means you can have two phone numbers (one for work and one for play) and you don't have to carry around two phones. You also don't need to turn the phone off for this feature to work and you can use only one sim if you don't need this feature.

The CECT P168 further improved the iPhone by adding a removable battery. Apple consumers do not like being chained to the manufacturer every time the battery dies.

Additionally, the P168 added three additional speakers and surround sound. The sound system on this phone is awesome and will blow your ears out.

And, this is just a very high quality, high performance phone. It is solid and built to last. That's why Popular Science magazine called it "the real deal." It's CECT's bestseller for a reason. It's innovative, has all of the features you could possibly need, and performs perfectly every time.

The CECT P168 costs between $100 and $120, not to mention the money you will save being free of AT&T service.

This phone is a huge hit with kids, teens, and adults who want the latest technology of the iPhone without having to pay Apple prices for it.

2009-04-17T21:31:00.003-07:00

As our lives get busier and busier the ability to stay in touch with our families and business associates gets harder and harder. Your mobile phone is quickly becoming your lifeline to all the important people in your life here and abroad. Trying to connect with family and business associates around the world can be very costly from your mobile phone. Lucky mobile long distance services using VOIP technologies are now available to help you cut down on those high phone bills.

More and more people are getting away from the simple flip phone and moving towards iPhone's BlackBerry's Windows Mobile and G1 Android style Smartphone's. For these users their are several application available on the market today providing easy access to low cost mobile long distance calls.

When looking into mobile applications make sure and find the one that will work best for your needs. As an example My Global Talk for Windows, Nokia, and Blackberry phones allow you to make calls like normal. Simply dial your international number or select it from your phone book and the application takes over the call running through the digital VIOP network bypassing the high cost of your mobile service provider.

Some applications for your iPhone or G1 Android are just as easy to use with one extra step. You must first launch the application on your phone and then dial or select the number from your contacts.

You can use some applications not only from inside the US but even if you are traveling to other countries. When using VOIP technology on your iPhone BlackBerry Windows Mobile and G1 Android style Smartphone's you have more flexibility and can bypass a lot of high charges.

Now some of you are wondering what to do if you are still using a standard flip phone. Most quality mobile applications will provide a manual dialing option for you to use on your standard phones. It's like having a permanent calling card without the Long PIN number. Simply dial the access number and you will be prompted to dial your international number.

As always, do your research when looking into any VOIP service.

Feel free to contact us with any questions you may about using mobile VOIP technology by calling 1-888-612-9950 and we will be happy to help.

2009-04-17T21:31:00.001-07:00

In case you're not familiar with the CECT Chinese import cell phones, they've wildly successful. That's because they were able to take iPhone technology and improve upon it. They knew that consumers loved having a small, touch screen phone which could surf the web, play music and videos and take photos all within one phone, but they also knew that consumers did not like being forced to contract with AT&T for very expensive service.

CECT's iClones have been hugely popular. Most look extremely identical to the iPhone, but the CECT X2850 looks unique because it is among the few clones with a keypad on the face of the phone. Because of its enhanced handwriting recognition, full keyboard and texting capabilities, this phone is one of the most popular CECT models for texters. It's also slimmer and sleeker in design than many of the other clones.

This phone also has all of the technological innovations and features that you would expect from CECT: a 2.2" touchscreen, and the ability to support SMS, MMS, WAP, MP3, MP4, T-flash, video recording, photo taking and more.

Another place where the CECT X2850 stands out is in its camera phone. The camera has several features like white balance, delayed shooting, continuous shooting, and night mode, as well as the ability to adjust picture quality and size.

The CECT X2850 is completely compatible with U.S. gsm cell phone providers that use a sim cards like Cingular and T-mobile, to name only a few. You don't need any software with this phone. Just insert your sim card and off you go.

This clone is priced very low at an average of about $100. It's worth a serious look for texting consumers intrigued with touch screen technology who don't want to pay the high price of an iPhone or the high monthly cost of AT&T.

2009-04-17T21:30:00.003-07:00

Consumers now expect a whole lot from their technology and mobile phones are no exception. Apple's iPhone raised this bar even more with it's "everything in one phone" design. People loved having web browsing, MP3 / MP4, digital camera / web cams, and FM radio all in one.

This technology seemed a big deal way back when, but it isn't any more. These features are now almost old school. Today, many consumers want to take this even further. There want additional add-ons like real time analog TV, dual Bluetooth and higher resolution cameras so that they can replace their regular digital cameras with their cell phones other than in just emergency cases.

Cell phones that fit this tough bill are becoming more and more commonplace. To take that even further, many consumers love the finger touch interface when it comes to scrolling through the phone's menu or the web, but they don't like having to text or message on a flat screen. Many really prefer texting on real, raised keys. Some still want a scroll bar. For these folks, the PT400 may be worth a look. This article will discuss some of the features of this phone.

Quad Band: This phone is quad band which supports GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz bands, (which pretty much provides worldwide coverage on almost every network or carrier under the sun.) It's not a bad idea to check with yours to make sure, though.

A High Quality 3.0 Mega Pixel Digital Camera / Web Cam: Many of the popular iPhone clones have 1.3 mega pixel cameras, so this is a decent upgrade. This camera phone takes very sharp photos and allows for 5 X zoom.

Free, Real Time Analog TV And Streaming Video On An Oversized 3.0 Inch Touch Screen: This phone has analog TV with an antenna, not the "TV out" feature on many phones that allows you to hook the phone up to a TV to watch the phone's video on a big screen. The PT400 offers free real time TV (supports PAL and NTSC) so that you can watch your favorite local shows away from home on the oversized 3.0 inch, high resolution, finger touch screen.

Full Keyboard And Scroll Bar For Texting: Although the PT mobile is a touch screen phone, it allow offers texting and messaging on real keys with a key board and scroll bar. Of course, some die hard iPhone fans may not like this and would want to stick with knock offs with strict touch screens like the i9 or the P168S, but for people who like a keyboard, this may offer the best of both worlds.

Standard Features Indicative Of The Imports: Of course, this phone is filled with all of the standard things we've come to expect and be spoiled by, including Bluetooth (dual in this case as well as A2DP), internet and web browsing, FM radio, MP3 / MP4, built in digital camera / web cam, texting and email. This phone is also very efficient, allowing for 120-150 minutes of talk time and 120-180 hours standby time. There is handwriting recognition and data transfer via USB.

Pricing: The price on the PT400 is sort of the middle of the clone range - running around $100 -$140. But, it is in my opinion one of the best texting, dual sim TV clones available right now and for those looking for a loaded mobile with TV and advanced photo capabilities, this one may fit the bill.

2009-04-17T21:30:00.001-07:00

It's really no wonder that the CECT line of iClones are such a runaway success. No matter how successful any one is at hacking the iPhone (which in itself is questionable), the iPhone will probably never have the innovative features that the clones have. The dual sim slots, removable battery, and added and enhanced features with surround sound pretty much ensure that the clones are superior to the iPhone at this time.

The CECT A8 model is no exception. Not only does it have everything all of the other clones have: the ability to surf the net, multi finger touch touchscreen, the ability to take photos, watch and take video and play and record music, it's added three new features that make the A8 one of the most innovative clones on the market.

First, it has added shake technology. If you want to advance the media or desktop, you just shake the phone. For instance if you want to change a song, video or wallpaper you don't have to even look down or bother scrolling, you just shake the phone until it gets where you want it to go.

Second, it has vibrating, surround sound speakers which gives the A8 3D sound. The sound system on this phone is phenomenal.

Third, you can tilt the phone to change it from portrait to landscape mode, which is very useful when watching video or manipulating photos.

The A8 is currently between $100 and $150, depending on where you get it. That's a great price considering you are getting many more features than the iPhone at a fraction of the iPhone's price without the expensive contract.

2009-04-17T21:29:00.007-07:00

The technical name for this phone is actually the N99i, but most people just call it the Nokia N99i, the Nokia iPhone, the Nokia knockoff or the Nokia iClone.

Whatever you call it, you're going to love it. It has all of the iPhone features and then some. Of course, it comes standard with a high resolution touch screen, the ability to surf the web, MP3/MP4 capabilities, and a built in camera and Bluetooth.

But, the N99i takes the technology even further by:

1. adding an additional sim (two cell phone numbers, one for work and one for leisure);

2. adding a removable battery so you don't have to take the phone to the dealer every time the battery dies;

3. adding three more speakers and surround sound (this phone has an absolutely wonderful sound system;

4. allowing you to use any carrier that you want. You aren't stuck with AT&T's very expensive service; and

5. improving upon the iPhone's texting capabilities by adding a keypad on the bottom of the phone as well as handwriting recognition. This phone is very friendly for the frequent texter.

The N99i is very priced pretty low at about $150 or less, depending on where you find it. Considering the amount of features stuffed into this little phone, that is really a steal. If you also consider that you aren't going to pay over $100 per month on AT&T unless you just want to, it looks even better, especially if you are a frequent texter who wants iPhone technology but realizes the iPhone isn't really built to text.

2009-04-17T21:29:00.005-07:00

Apple Inc., an American multinational corporation has a main focus on designing and manufacturing consumer electronic and software products. Since it's beginning, it's main objective is to please the customers. It develops, sells, and supports a varied range of products like personal computers, mobile phones, portable media players, computer software and hardware.

It has to its credit several hardware products including the Macintosh line of personal computers, the iPod line of portable media players, and the iPhone. It also offers software products like the Mac OS X operating system, the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software, and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio- and film-industry software products.

The company provides customer-friendly devices and is distinguished for innovative design and style. The wide list of cool gadgets by Apple defines a new level of entertainment and communication. You can enjoy music, photos, and movies with the gadgets. Its iPhone and the latest generation of iPods ensure enormous power and simplicity to the consumer and rank among the top gadgets. The new iPod nano, shuffle, iMac, Mac Pro are launched with most popular services and functions. The high-end Apple iPhone offers elegant touch screen with virtual key boards, key pads, text messaging, video iPod, Safari web browser and other advanced capabilities.

Apple has a long history of encouraging developers to produce new goodies for gadgets and the operating system on the iPhone is the example of this. It has used its MAC OS X operating system in the iPhone to view the Internet the way it was supposed to be seen. Its iPod is also synonymous with the digital mobile music revolution. It has recently launched the Apple Cinema Display also. With a 30" screen it is easy to visualise the entire project in one glance. The Apple laptops namely iBooks and MacBooks are preferred for impressive looks, sophisticated features and high quality.

2009-04-17T21:29:00.003-07:00

People spend most of their working hours on computers, then go home to their pcs and spend more time mucking around on them. Laptops have become more affordable to the average Joe. It's not unusual to see people in coffee shops, sipping a latte' and typing furiously away. As our lives become more hectic, we constantly seek convenience, which, ironically, tends to increase the pace. With the birth of wireless networks we finally have the means to work everywhere, and no one has an excuse for being out of the loop. Good news for workaholics; bad news for all those who work for them.

Wireless networks, or WiFi, function in much the same way as two-way radios. A wireless adapter converts data into radio signals, which are transmitted via an antenna to a wireless router. The router decodes the signal and uses a wired Ethernet connection to send the data to the Internet. The process is simply reversed when data is sent back to the computer.

Having wireless adapters on your pcs and laptops is all good and well, but they're useless without WiFi hotspots. When you're in a hotspot your computer just needs to be switched on with the wireless connection enabled, for it to locate a network, which you can then connect to. Some cities are working to create hotspots that span the entire municipality, so that residents can have easy, reliable and inexpensive Internet access wherever they go. Hotspots are completely inconspicuous; the only way you'll know that you're in one is if you spot the signs advertising their presence.

Hybrid wireless networks offer the best of both worlds. Hybrid networks make it possible to connect your pc to a wired network and establish a second, wireless connection to your laptop. The process is a little more complicated than establishing a purely wireless network, especially if you use an old operating system such as Windows 95 or 98. But the potential benefits far outweigh the potential problems.

A step further along the road of convenience is the Apple iPhone. Instead of lugging a laptop around with you, all you need to stay connected is your phone. Apple's iPhone enables you to keep up to date with news from Digg and follow your favourite blogs. You can browse through an assortment of web apps and can store one on each of your nine home screen pages. The iPhone even has capacity to show movies and TV programmes. If you don't have the time to read, simply download an audio book and work your way through the most current best sellers.

Rumours of a Gphone, Google's answer to the iPhone, have been around for over a year. The Gphone will allegedly allow users access to Google search maps, gmail, and Blogger, and that's just the beginning. Concrete information about the Google Phone is virtually impossible to come by, and Google remains curiously tight-lipped about the whole matter. This suits gossip mongers just fine as they continue to speculate about the phone's release, competition between Google and Apple, and the myriad of features that the Gphone is bound to have.

Wireless networks are not the way of the future; they are firmly established in the here and now. Science fiction writers of long ago dreamt of a future where technological devices communicated with each other and effortlessly exchanged information. We live in an age where that dream is a reality. Bluetooth, wireless networks and computer/phone hybrids such as the iPhone have made our lives significantly easier and that, in the words of Ron Weasely, is "wicked".

Recommended sites:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network.htm

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art43047.asp

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#calls

2009-04-17T21:29:00.001-07:00

The CECT iPhone clones have taken the world by storm. That's because CECT has managed to not only very expertly copying the iPhone, but has also made the cloned version of the iPhone better than the original. The CECT line of iPhone clones have improved upon the original by:

1. Unlocking all of the phones. You aren't stuck with AT&T's expensive service or with AT&T's contract. You can use whatever carrier you wish;

2. Adding a removable battery so you don't have to run to the manufacturer every time the battery dies, which happens a lot;

3. Adding additional speakers, surround, vibrating and 3D sound. The sound system on these phones rock; and

4. Making to phones dual sim. You can have two phone numbers in one phone. You don't have to turn off the phone to use this feature and you can use one sim if you like. You also don't need any software for this phone. It's literally plug and play and it will automatically read any sim card.

The CECT A988 has taken these features a step further by adding the very popular "TV out" feature. This means that you can plug the phone into a TV and watch video that you have taken or recorded on the big screen.

The 988 has further improved upon the iPhone by adding handwriting recognition and making texting easier.

The A988 costs between $100 and $150. Most people are attracted to it because it adds the TV feature to all of the iPhone features and it also has the CECT bonuses like dual sim and removable battery. It is also great for people who text a lot.

2009-04-17T21:28:00.008-07:00

The iPhone undoubtedly started a demand for a touchscreen phone / pda that you can take anywhere to surf the web, watch video, listen to music and take photos. Seeing a brilliant opportunity, clone makers from all over the world (as well as mainstream American manufacturers) descended upon this technology with full intentions to copy it.

No doubt, there are many clones from which to choose. But, the CECT P168 is still the gold standard, because not only did it convincingly copy the iPhone, it downright improved it, so much so that Popular Science magazine calls this clone "the real deal".

The CECT P168 looks so much like the iPhone most people assume that mine is the original. But it is the performance and additional features of this phone that makes it one I will not be without. CECT had the brilliant notion to add an additional sim card to this phone allowing me to have two numbers, one for work and one for play. I do not need to turn the phone off to use either sim and I no longer have to lug around two phones.

CECT additionally added a removable battery. No one wants to run to the dealer every time the phone dies the way you have to with the iPhone. Also, these phones come unlocked which means you don't have to hack the phone if you don't want to be stuck with AT&T's over $100 service.

CECT has added three more speakers and surround sound. The sound system on the P168 puts the iPhone to shame.

Finally, this phone is just very high quality. It feels and performs extremely solid and I have never had one ounce of trouble with it nor dealt with any bugs.

And it priced very attractively, running between $100 and $120, not to mention the money you will save on AT&T service.

If you're looking for improved iPhone technology for the right place, consider the P168. It started the attack of the clones and it's still the best.

2009-04-17T21:28:00.007-07:00

The technology of cell phones has changed, thanks to the iPhone Consumers today expect their phones to be touchscreen with finger touch. They want to be able to manipulate and fully work the phone and it's media with nothing more than the tips of their fingers. This all started with the iPhone but as of this writing it has ended with the iClones. These clones set out to copy the iPhone but which ended up added additional features to the iPhone that Apple should have thought of. Copying the iPhone got the clones attention, but making the iPhone better is what is selling truckloads of iClones.

The A380i is no exception and is a great addition to the CECT family. Although this phone looks very much like the iPhone and has all of the features one would expect (a high resolution finger touch 3.0 inch touchscreen, an awesome digital camera, Bluetooth, a video camera and player, and MP3 / MP4 players with six surround sound speakers), it's the new shake and tilt technology that has made this phone an immediate hit.

The bonus feature which has gotten the most attention has to be the shake feature, called shake control or "shake technology" as the manufacturer likes to call it. If you want to change songs, wallpaper, video or photos, you don't have to look down, press buttons or scroll. You just shake the phone to advance it.

The other bonus feature that makes this phone popular is the automatic tilt feature. If you tilt the phone, the media immediately becomes full, wide screen. In other words the picture turns from portrait to landscape.

The A380i has expandable memory via micro SD card. The iPhone doesn't.
Of course, the CECT A380i has all of the other innovative additional features that we expect from the clones: slide unlock, a removable battery, dual sim (one phone number for work and one for play) and additional surround sound speakers.

You do not need to be a hack if you don't want to use AT&T's expensive service. The 380i has slide unlock. Just swipe your hand and voila you can now use any carrier you chose. You don't have to use AT&T.

This clone runs between $120 and $150 depending on where you get it. This is a steal considering you're getting the most innovative phone on the market today and not being forced to go with AT&T.

2009-04-17T21:28:00.005-07:00

This newest iPhone clone, the n99i, is often called or mistaken as the nokia n99i, but it is definitely an iPhone inspired clone from China. Like the iPhone, it has a high resolution touch screen as well as the ability to surf the web, play music, watch and record video, take high quality pictures, and enjoy Bluetooth all from the comfort of your mobile phone.

However, the N99i takes iPhone technology several steps further. The phone is unlocked which means that you are not chained to AT&T's expensive monthly service as you are with the iPhone. Additionally, the manufacturers of this clone added a removable battery. Consumers of the iPhone complained that you had to take the iPhone to the dealer every single time the battery died and the N99i manufacturers jumped at the opportunity for improvement.

Going even further, the clone added additional speakers and surround sound. It also majorly improved upon the iPhone's texting capabilities by adding a key pad on the bottom of the phone and handwriting recognition. The n99i is definitely more text friendly than the iPhone.

Further moving beyond the iPhone, this clone has added an additional sim slot so that you can have two cell phone numbers without needing to turn off the phone. (The phone works fine on one sim if you do not need the dual sim feature.)

The N99i is very competitively priced at about $150, but you can often get it for less. Considering it is loaded with features and will save you a lot on AT&T service over time, this phone is worth a serious look, especially if you're a frequent texter.

2009-04-17T21:28:00.003-07:00

The concept of The App Store was created with the introduction of the iPhone. One of the many features of the iPhone was downloadable applications made by third parties, which could run on the phone. These applications consisted of games, navigation systems, restaurant finders, picture editors, and many more. These iPhone apps rapidly grew in popularity. At the time of this review there are over 23,000 different iPhone apps to choose from.

The App Store started in July of 2008. When it first opened, there were very few applications that users could download and use on their iPhones. However, the number of downloadable apps quickly grew. One of the reasons for this is because Apple allowed anyone who chose to, the ability to create and submit an application for review. If Apple liked the application, they added it for others to use. This enabled the number of iPhone apps to grow quickly due to user generated content.

Later in 2008, the iPod touch was introduced. It was basically the iPhone without the phone functionality as well as camera. Owners of iPod touches are able to download and use many of the same applications that iPhone users are able to use. This has enabled Apple to make much more off of their iPhone apps than they would if only iPhone owners were able to use the applications.

Applications range in price from free to over $40.00 for the more complicated and larger apps. The high flexibility of price allows anyone the ability to purchase the applications. Creators of highly popular apps are able to bring in income as well. Currently Apple shares a 30/70 revenue share with developers, developers keeping the latter.

Currently the Apple App Store has witnessed phenomenal success as the numbers of applications available grow rapidly with each new day. Since it is such a new form of business, Apple has almost a complete monopoly on the downloadable phone content market. The iPhone app store is accessible in many countries around the world, each having its own version. If Apple keeps up with their innovative products and high level of user created content, they could be well on their way to becoming one of the most successful businesses of all time.

The only thing that could get in the way of Apple's huge success is if people stop buying the iPhone and iPod touch. If another company creates a similar product that is better and cheaper, then the iPhone app store may start to decline. However, many companies have tried to compete with Apple to no avail. It is likely that Apple will dominate the handheld entertainment market for some time to come.

If Apple continues on its current path, iPhone and iPod touch apps may soon compete with intricate console games and other hand held gaming devices such as the PSP and Nintendo DS. The main set-back that holds the Apple platforms from completely dominating the market is the high price tag. If Apple ever lowers their starting price, there will be almost no hope for other companies. Apple has created a truly unique and successful system with The App Store.

2009-04-17T21:28:00.001-07:00

Marketed by Apple, iPhones are multimedia smart phones with a touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.0 megapixel camera, built-in iPod capabilities, web browsing, Email, and impressive applications.

iPhone applications, or iPhone Apps, are third party programs an iPhone user can add to their phone that function as programs and enhance the phone's capabilities. Since the iPhone has its own operating system like a computer, the user can add programs to the phone that they find interesting or useful, like gas price, checkbook, game, and cook book applications. There are also thousands of web apps that combine the power of the Internet with the easy technology of and implementation of a touch screen. iPhone apps are found on the home screen of the phone and usually run one at a time. Applications can run anywhere between $0.99 and $40.00, but there are also many applications that are free.

The process of creating an iPhone app starts with the development and ends with the distribution, or acceptance into the Apple App Store. Directly on the Apple website, developers have access to helpful information on how to create their own iPhone apps. The developer first has to download the SDK program, the read-me file, and the agreement file. From there, the iPhone application developer can watch how-to movies provided by Apple, like development tools overview movies and user interface design movies. After watching the Getting Started Videos, the developer can read Getting Started Documents on things from how to create an application to frequently asked questions associated with application development. The website also offers help on programming, a reference library, and sample codes to make the creating process easier. In order to become an iPhone developer, one has to sign up on the website. The process of creating an iPhone application begins with an idea, a background of knowledge, and code. From there, it is tested and sent to Apple to be approved or denied. For individuals or small groups of developers looking to create iPhone apps, there is a $99 Standard Program. For companies of more than 500 people, there is an Enterprise Program which costs $299.

iPhone applications have been developed and downloaded since their creation in 2007. On the weekend of July 10, 2008, when iTunes began distributing Applications for iPhones and iPods, ten million Applications were downloaded alone. Today, there are over 23,000 Applications to choose from. These applications have been downloaded more than 300 million times all over the globe.

iPhone applications allow you to get the most out of your phone. With the advent of apps, your phone is now capable of a whole lot more functions compared to the way it came from the factory. With so many iPhone apps to choose from and so many more being developed every day, it is no wonder iPhone applications have seen such a huge success.

2009-04-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

Archos 605 WiFi features the most impressive combination of features in a portable media player with its 4.3 touch screen, WiFi capabilities, slim size, affordable price, and numerous storage options. The 605 WiFi is Archos' flagship Portable Media Player (PMP).

The Generation 5 line of PMPs from Archos features the fastest, easiest way to access digital entertainment for downloading wirelessly to the device. With the Content Portal, the new 605 WiFi puts TV shows, favorite movies, music and more in the palm of your hand for purchase and download from any wireless hotspot and for enjoyment wherever you go. It spans the gap between the PC and the television. For the first time, you can stream content from the PC or the Internet to the television or PMPall through a wireless home network and the Archos 605 WiFi and DVR Station. The 4.3 touch screen features 800x480 resolution, providing the highest quality screen in a PMP device while 4GB, 30GB, 80GB and 160GB versions grant consumers a full-featured PMP at any price point and storage class desired.

Archos introduces a truly personalized experience with the Generation 5 PMPs. You can customize the 605 WiFi with a variety of software plug-ins and accessories to make your device fit your lifestyle perfectly. In addition to full Internet access, the Opera Browser plug-in puts Adobe Flash support on your media player, which lets you access and enjoy YouTube and other Web video sites on your device. You can both watch and post YouTube videos wherever you are with a wireless connection and your portable media player.

Things you can do with Archos 605 WiFi:

-Play all your digital entertainment: movies, TV shows, photos and music

-Record your favorite TV shows

-Stream and view videos from your PC

-Download movies and music right away on your PMP using the Archos Content Portal

-Enjoy the new high resolution 4.3 touch screen (800x480 pixels)

-Internet enables you to surf the Web, share content, and access Web video sites like YouTube

-Personalize your device with accessories and plug-ins

-See, zoom photos and make slide shows with music and transition effects, for viewing on the PMP or television

-Listen to all your favorite songs in more formats than any other player

-30GB/80GB/160GB to store up to 200 movies, 1 million photos or 95,000 songs

-4GB Flash model adds Flash memory to your PMP: stores up to 5 movies, 40,000 photos or 2,000 songs. Expandable Memory with the built-in SD card slot for SD, mini SD and micro SD cards

Hightlights of an Archos 605

-4GB flash memory stores various media types

-Video & audio recording

-Secure Digital Card slot for expandable memory up to 16 GB

-High-resolution LCD touch screen

-WiFi connection

-Internal Li-Ion battery

-Audio & video playback

-Device charges via computer USB port

-Video Podcast plug-in, cinema plug-in & stereo MP3 decoding

-Photo viewer reads JPEG, BMP, PNG & PDF files

-2.0 High-speed USB, Mass Storage Class & Media Transport Protocol interfaces

-3.5mm mini jack for headphones

-Docking connectors link to other accessories

-2 inherent speakers

-Automatically downloads the latest firmware updates

2009-04-17T21:26:00.006-07:00

2009-04-17T21:26:00.005-07:00

With the release of the Samsung F490 the mobile phone world will never be the same again. Gone are the traditional buttons and here is the touch screen interface with vibrating feedback. Is there anything Samsung can't do? We examine this point in this article and attempt to find the answer.

Samsung has been gaining credibility in the mobile phone world for a number of years now. They have slowly been encroaching on the likes of Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson with their offerings of world class mobile phones with leading technology at a price that is affordable to the masses. It is a recipe for success and one that they have taken from other electronic sectors that they are involved with.

The F490 is another leap forward for the Korean manufacturers. It comes with a touch screen with vibrating feedback, a welcome feature that helps the user distinguish whether or not they have touched a button or not. The screen is bigger than many other mobile phone models at 3.2 inches and has a stunning resolution of 24 x 432 pixels. The outcome is rich, beautiful colours that illuminate even in bright sunlight. The ratio is 16:9 making it suitable for viewing programmes and films in a widescreen format.

The camera on the Samsung F490 is a massive 5 mega pixels, pitting it against the Nokia N95 and the Sony Ericsson k850i. Samsung has not quite managed to compete in terms of picture quality, but we hope that this phone will push them up a notch and have the Koreans generating images that are comparable to their European counterparts.

With 130mb of internal memory, you should have enough space to take a few pictures and store a few music tracks, but if you intend to use it a as a media device, you should consider purchasing a Micro SD card for the expandable slot. Overall this is a fantastic mobile phone and one that you should definitely consider when it is released later this year.

2009-04-17T21:26:00.003-07:00

Whether you love shake and tilt or you hate it, you have to admit that it's out there. What used to be considered just a novelty feature is now included in a huge number of clones. And, this is probably because many people find this feature useful. It's convenient (at least I think so) to be able to advance music, photos, video and media by only shaking the phone. This saves you the frustration of having to scroll and fumble around. It's also cool that these shake and tilts will right themselves and their images no matter how you tilt the phone or at which angle you are staring at.

But, until recently these "shake to the music" clones were known pretty much for just this one feature. Most weren't quad band and they didn't support Java which meant that you couldn't download or play third party software, games, or applications.

However, that's all changed with the release of the 168 mobile (aka the SciPhone or the CECT 168). This article will discuss the popular, new features on this phone.

Few would argue that in today's economy, it makes a lot of sense to go with a carrier free phone because you aren't stuck with an expensive network who will likely up the price as soon as the introductory period is over. But, until pretty recently, many of these clones were tri band, which left some consumers out.

The i68 is quad band and supports GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz (with automatic switching between bands). It is also dual sim which means that you can have two phone numbers and carriers on one phone. For example, you could talk and text using AT&T, while web browsing on T Mobile.

The SciPhone i68 also has one of the larger capabilities for memory on the market. Although it's more common to see them holding 2 - 4GB, they have the ability to hold up to 8GB.

Despite this huge capacity for memory, this mobile is also a good deal smaller and thinner than most of the knock offs, weighing only 95 grams and having the dimensions of 114 x 60 x 10 mm. Many people love this, even though the size can affect typing / inputting txt documents for those with very large hands. For this reason, the 168 is sometimes called a "mini clone" or "mini HiPhone."

Probably the biggest deal about the SciPhone is that it supports Java. With the older iClones (P168 and the quad band version), you could not download additional games and software. Now you can download thousands of games, software and productivity applications which makes it almost like you have another phone. Examples are Outlook Express, MSN, Office, and PowerPoint, to name only a few.

This smart phone has all of the cool features that we've come to expect from the imports, like an over sized 3.2 inch touch screen with the "flow touch" interface; dual sim slots; full MP3 / MP4 capabilities; an e book reader, FM radio; a built in 1.3 mega pixel camera / web cam; Internet capability; and emailing, texting and messaging via GPRS and WAP 2.0. Data transfer is via USB cable.

The talk time on this one is a generous180-300 minutes. Standby is around 150 hours. The speakers are sharp and I find the picture and photo quality to be very good. I wish they had upgraded the camera, but the pictures are better than I expected.

2009-04-17T21:26:00.001-07:00

Very interestingly a few of the brisk selling iPhone clones on the market today don't look much like the iPhone at all.

Chinese manufacturers have started to realize that while most people absolutely love the finger touch interface and the all of the features stuffed into the original, there is a significant subset of people who don't enjoy texting or messaging on a flat screen.

Additionally, still more customers have free, real time analog TV on their wish lists. For these guys, the N99i (sometimes called a Nokia, though it's a clone) and the PT400 are popular choices. This article will compare these two phones to help you decide which may work best for you.

Similarities: These phones share many more similarities than differences. Both are dual sim, contract free, loaded mobile phones with standard features like web browsing, email and messaging, MP3 / MP4, Bluetooth, and high resolution, high quality 3.0 mega pixel digital cameras with web cam.

Both are TV phones (this is not the "TV out" feature on some phones which means that you can hook the phone up to your TV to show video taken or from the phone.) These phones have real time analog television which means that you can watch your local news, sports, and sitcom shows etc. on the built in antenna. There is also an FM radio, voice recorder, handwriting recognition and streaming video.

Both phones support up to 2GB of expandable memory. Both are dual sim standby which means that you can have two phone numbers or networks working at one time.

Both mobile phones have full keyboards and scroll bars that make them very popular with texters or consumers that would rather not enter a lot of data onto a flat screen.

Slight Differences: As you can see, these phones are quite a bit alike, but there are a few small ways that they differ slightly.

First, the PT400 has dual Bluetooth (including A2DP.)

And, the size is a bit different. The 400 is 117.7 X 64.2 X 17.6 mm and weights about 115 grams.

The 99i is a bit larger and measures 120 X 60 X 18 mm and weighs 145 grams.

The PT400 is a quad band, supporting GSM 850 / 900 /1800 / 1900MHz.

Most Nokia N99i's are tri band. However, it often comes in two GSM models: ((850 / 1800 / 1900) and 900 / 1800 / 1900, depending on where you live and where you will be using the phone.)

Price wise, the N model is usually the cheaper of the two (only slightly - by an average of $10 - $20). However, both of these most always run under $150 (sometimes in the low $100s depending on memory.) Both are very nice, very popular texting finger touch clones with superb, high resolution cameras and TV.

I don't think you can go wrong with either. It really just depends on if you need the quad band or want a smaller phone.

2009-04-17T21:25:00.005-07:00

It's been almost a solid year that the iPhone clones have been beating Apple at its own game. The latest clone, the C-002 HiPhone, is among the most popular, and most convincing of the bunch. Like all of the clones, it supports two sim cards at one time, supports MMS, and has a high quality built in camera that takes both photo and video footage. It also has a removable battery and additional speakers. Here are its features at a glance:

1. 3.53 high resolution touchscreen with finger touch;

2. Dual SIM slots and supports SIM card switching without having to turn off the phone;

3. Triband GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) USA GSM standard;

4. Web browsing, WAP setting, and web address management;

5. Always unlocked;

6. SMS, MMS, voicemail and cell broadcast;

7. MP3, MP4, file playing, recording. (Read you can record phone calls);

8. Video capturing;

9. Hands free speaker phone with 3D sound;

10. Bluetooth;

11. TF card supported;

12. Diversified screen switch;

13. Automatic screen rotation from portrait to landscape mode; and

14. I've saved the best for last which is shake technology. You just shake the phone when you want to change songs, advance video, wall paper or photos.

As you can see, the HiPhone has fixed the problems with the iPhone and it's also added many features which make the iPhone technology better.

The addition of the dual sim, the upgradeable memory, the removable battery, additional speakers, video capability, and shake technology all add up to make this phone much better than the iPhone for a much cheaper price.

The HiPhone runs about $150, depending on where you get it. This is a steal, considering it has many more features than the HiPhone at a fraction of the price.

2009-04-17T21:25:00.003-07:00

It all started with the iPhone. Everyone was wild about the touchscreen technology. Everyone loved having everything you needed in your cell phone. The idea was that you wouldn't need a separate PDA, MP3 / MP4 player, digital camera, web browser, or cell phone was a very appealing one. With iPhone technology, you could now have all of these features stuffed into one sleek and small cell phone. This was a great idea, but as far as cell phones go, Apple left some things on the table.

The complaints started flying and like cars and other electronics, China has the lock on the clone and knock off markets. One company, CECT, has had huge success with its iClones. It's P168 model has been a runaway hit because it improved upon the iPhone in many ways by:

1. making the phone easy to unlock so you can use any carrier you want and aren't stuck with AT&T;

2. making the phone dual sim so that you can have two phone cell numbers since what is the use in having iPhone technology if you are still having to lug a spare cell phone around?;

3. adding additional speakers and surround sound; and

4. fixing the bugs and freezing problems inherent with the iPhone.

Recently, CECT has unleashed its quad band version of the P168. In a nutshell, the original CECT P168 was tri band. This new version is quad band (GSM GPRS 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz), which is needed in a few countries. Like the old version, you don't need any software. This phone will automatically recognize and load the info on any sim card. The new version also added a slide unlock feature (just swipe your hand to unlock the phone) as well as a webcam.

Surprisingly, the new version P168 is priced very similarly to the older version, running between $100 and $150 depending on where you get it. This is a mind boggling price for all of the features stuffed into this high performance little phone.

2009-04-17T21:25:00.001-07:00

Every time a touchscreen phone is launched in the market everybody compares it to iPhone. And then people ask whether it is any good or any better than iPhone. In the case of Samsung Tocco, the reaction is the same. But perhaps this mobile phone has a greater chance of doing beyond what the iPhone can offer.

Samsung Tocco Touchscreen Dominance

Samsung was wise enough to improve their poorly received previous touchscreen mobile phones. With the aim to compete with the top and touchscreen leader mobile phone, it needed to reinvent how their mobile phone interface looked. True enough, the new attractive and smart TOUCHWIZ truly made its mark.

With the crisp and clean layout, the interface looked slicker and more stylish. Its ice silver exterior and its cool exterior is certainly a looker. The new Samsung Tocco exhibits colourful icons so it's really attractive. The user also has an option to customize the home page with widgets that they mostly use. This will provide convenience to the user. It provides easy navigation and provides a more user-friendly interface. And customization is quite easy to do. One can do it through a drag and drop action.

The Camera Factor

This Samsung Tocco review would like to focus of the built-in camera of this mobile phone. That's because it is the main arsenal of this mobile phone. It is one thing that the Samsung Tocco has that iPhone does not have, at least not the same caliber.

Samsung Tocco has a 5MP built-in camera. This will allow its users to capture photos to its last detail. What makes it even more possible to capture stunning photos is its great optics that uses the CMOS technology that is mostly used only digital SLR cameras.

What further aids its users in taking pictures is the face detection feature. The Samsung Tocco also leads the built-in camera market with its smile shot mode. The camera has a smart feature that can detect smiling people and automatically takes the shots. One should also not ignore the image stabilisation feature of its camera. With this feature, camera shake is reduced significantly.

How about Some Music?

Samsung Tocco only has 230MB memory. But this should not limit one from loading all of his favorite songs. All he'll need is microSD card to hold them. It boasts of the Shazam program that can tell the user details about certain unfamiliar tracks.

Overall Performance of the Samsung Tocco

After highlighting all the pros in this Samsung Tocco review, it should fail to mention certain cons as well. One thing this mobile phone lacks is the onscreen keyboard. This is especially noticed by people who send text messages heavily. Without the convenient keyboard, texting becomes kind of awkward. The Samsung Tocco also does not have Wi-Fi. It is, however, 3G capable.

But then again with a great camera and then HSDPA support, Samsung Tocco is indeed one of the best touchscreen mobile phones. It is better than the iPhone in these aspects. However, not all would want only these features. So even if Samsung Tocco does not necessarily level with the iPhone, it is a strong contender. And with the great mobile phone deals available for this phone, it is really one mobile phone worth having.

2009-04-17T21:24:00.006-07:00

I totally get why consumers are in love with iPhone technology. You basically have everything you need at your fingertips or in your pocket: the ability to surf the web, listen to music, watch videos, and snap photos.

I also totally understand why most people also have a love / hate relationship with the iPhone. Although the technology is great, in real life there are a few catches. The main one being that the iPhone requires a very pricey commitment to AT&T cellular service (about $100 per month for very basic service.) So now consumers have to just go with this expense or try to hack the phone, which doesn't always work.

Also on the side of the hate relationship is the fact that you are chained to the dealer to replace the battery. This means you'll be going to the dealer a lot. Who needs that? In addition to having your battery replaced, you may also being going to the dealer a lot for repairs. The iPhone is notorious for freezing up all the time for no discernable reason.

These problems left clone manufacturer CECT with a huge opportunity. Not only did the company fix these problems, they improved upon what the iPhone already had. A superb example of this is the HiPhone which claims it is "99% iPhone." I say it is even better than that.

The HiPhone comes equipped with all the technology consumers are looking for. It has the 3.5 inch high resolution touchscreen, offers web browsing, video playing and recording, music, photo, webcam, and Bluetooth capabilities, etc., but it has also made some very cool improvements to the iPhone.

CECT has added an additional sim, making the phone dual sim. This gives you two numbers without needed to turn off the phone. You don't need software for either sim. The HiPhone will automatically recognize any sim card.

This clone also has a slide unlock feature. You just move your hand across the screen and the phone is instantly unlocked.

Of course, CECT has added a removable battery so you aren't dependent on the manufacturer of the phone in any way.

Perhaps CECT's best improvement on the iPhone is that of "shake technology." If you want to change photos, songs, wallpapers, video, etc. all you have to do is shake the phone to move forward. This "shake technology" has really set the HiPhone apart from the other clones.

At about $150, the HiPhone is much cheaper than the iPhone and this price will probably come down. This coupled with the HiPhone's bonus features make it a leader in the attack of the clones.

2009-04-17T21:24:00.005-07:00

While everyone and his grandmother was going gaga over what a great thing iPhone has been, there was one company which sat up an dtook notice of the drawbacks of the iPhone and has come up with a device which takes advantage of all the loop holes that were left open in the iPhone. Samsung F700 is the product which the company's fans claim as the the iPhone killer. Let us see, how sharp are the blades of this device.

Now the front panel of both the phones is same in ans much that both the phones sport a singe button on the front side. The rest is the touch screen. The phone comes with a 2.78 inches touch screen as opposed to the iPhone's 3.5 inch screen. So the Apple product wins this one hands down. But this is pretty much all that iPhone has to be happy about.

Samsung F700 is a 3G phone as opposed to the iPhone which comes with a 2.5G support along EDGE. Heck! Samsung has even dropped in a chip capable of 7.2Mbps.
So much for high speed connectivity.

Now iPhone comes with a mere 2 mega pixel camera Samsung announced that the phone would come with a five mega pixel camera yet dropped in only a three mega pixel camera which is still better than the 2MP option.

Next thing that Samsung has done in this phone is that the company put in a QWERTY thumb keyboard which can be slid out alike some of the Windows Mobile phones from HTC. This means that you do not have to rely on the touch screen for all the functionality. On the flip side by the time this comparison was made neither of the devices support native 3rd party applications although Apple has announced release of the iPhone API by the end of February 2008.

The phone is a great multimedia device and comes with extensive codec and file format support. You get various music and video options including some of those which are supported by iPhone and those which people wanted the iPhone to support.

2009-04-17T21:24:00.003-07:00

Starting last year, the CECT P168 (iClone or "original iPhone clone") had a very long run as the best selling clone (by far.) I believe this is because this little knock off offered so many bonus features that were hard to pass up (more surround sound speakers, two sim slots, a removable battery, and an FM radio.) Plus, the fact that it didn't require any specific expensive carrier or network added to it's appeal.

However, even though most every one loved the phone, there were a few things put on the wish list for upcoming, upgraded models.

The P168 was tri band and although this covered most people in most locations, the 850 MHz band was missing. Although most people aren't on this band, some were (rural AT&T and Cingular consumers.) And, some consumers wanted the capability to travel anywhere and not have to worry about reception.

Another item on the wish list was Java support. The original iClone did not allow for third party software or gaming downloads which really limited the phone's use.

Finally, the original model did not have the "shake and tilt" or "shake to the music" feature which was gaining huge popularity on models like the A88 or the A8+. Shake control means that you don't have to scroll or fumble around. You only need to shake the phone to advance music and media. You can also take the video or images from portrait to landscape (wide screen) by tilting it. The image will always right itself no matter which way you turn it.

As you may have suspected, the CECT i9 has everything I've mentioned that is on the "wish list". It's quad band. It has the shake and tilt control. And, it supports Java which means that you can download thousands of third party software, applications and games (many free) like Outlook, MSN, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Additionally, there are a few other stand out upgrades that have contributed to this phone quickly overtaking the P168 in terms of sales.

First, the i9 can hold up to 8GB of memory. Obviously, this makes for a faster, less bogged down performance and gives you the ability to grow and expand with the phone.

And, the CECT i9 has what is called "dual sim active" which means that sim card A and sim card B can both be online at one time - without having to switch back and forth between them.

So, yes, the i9 is a definite upgrade to the P168. It's becoming more and more widely available and it's pretty reasonably priced. Of course, you will pay a bit more if you want one that includes 8GB. Still, it's rarely priced over $150.

Which of these phones is going to work better for you is going to depend greatly on what you need or want in a phone. The P168 is still an awesome phone and it's a great choice from some one who wants a dirt cheap smart phone with all the bells and whistles (you can now get these for well under $100.) The i9 is the latest, most complete model and it's selling very briskly. It is also reasonably priced.

2009-04-17T21:24:00.001-07:00

I've been receiving a lot of emails and questions about the new iPhone clone with 3G, which is often either called the i9+ plus or the CiPhone. People want to know if it's a good phone, if it's better than the i9, or how it's different and upgraded from previous models. I'll try to answer these questions in the following article.

Some Misconceptions About The i9 3G: Many people who email me assume that this phone works on 3G wireless networks. At this time, it doesn't. The 3G really just means that this is the 3rd generation model of this phone. Like the previous i9 and all of the clones, this phone works on networks that use GSM sim cards. Examples are T Mobile, AT&T, Fido, and Cingular. You can also use the prepaid or flex pay options in these networks as well as go with a contract. Go phone sims work as well as the prepaid T Mobile cards. The phone has a WAP browser that uses GPRS. It's pretty fast and if you install a compact browser like opera mini, it's even more so.

How The 3G Is Different From The Previous i9: The main difference is in the icons and main page. There are now 10 pages of icon options, allowing you to customize the phone much more. Basically any tool or application on the phone can have it's own icon. Examples are stocks, maps, You tube, games, etc. And, you can drag the icons to where you want them placed so that the ones you use the most are on the top.

Additionally, the appearance is different. The housing on the third generation comes in different finishes like white and red (as well as basic black.) This housing is thicker and shinier and looks a bit different from the typical black. Many people really like this newer, more unique look, as well as the ability to customize the phone more.

This newer model is a touch sleeker, but nothing earth shattering. Nothing has been taken away. It still has the Java. It is still a quad band. It still has dual sim active. There's still your typical web browsing, email, SMS, MMS, MP3 / MP4, Bluetooth, ebook reader, FM radio, camera / web cam etc.

I have heard that these newer phones can hold 16GB of memory, but so far I've only seen the 8GB variety. This may change as more become available. Price wise, there hasn't been much change. You can still get both of these phones for barely over $100.

People will often ask me if it makes sense to upgrade just now. That depends on how much you like the way the new model looks and how important the icons are to you. Both of these are great phones that more than get the job done on the cheap.

2009-04-17T21:23:00.007-07:00

Most iPhone clones differ from one another in terms of features. One may have a built in TV (the N99i). Another may have a key board or scroll bar (ZXN), while another may support Java (CECT i9). This article is going to discuss one of the newer popular phones - the Xphone. Interestingly, though, this mobile gets the most attention not because of differing features but because of differing colors. This article will give of overview of this new colorful iPhone knock off.

The X Phone Has A Large Assortment Of Different Colors Available: When the iPhone clones first came out, most of them were black in color. Eventually, a few offered silver finishes and these became very popular. With the release of the Xphone, you can now get your clone in gold, red, blue, silver or black. Of all of these colors, gold is the most popular.

Although the color choices have made this X model quite popular, it's no slouch in the feature department either. It has all of the standard add ons and bonuses typical of the clones, including "dual sim standby" (this allows you to have two phone numbers or networks online at one time). As an example, you could web browse on Sprint and take calls on T Mobile. It is typically used most by entrepreneurs and business people, but any one who takes a lot of calls might enjoy this.) However, if you have no use for this feature, the phone works fine without it.

This phone also gives you the ability to web browse and email, navigate information and media on the oversized 3.2 inch touch screen via the "finger flow" or "finger touch" interface. This mobile also has MP3 / MP4, built in digital camera / web cam, Bluetooth, hand writing recognition, e-book reader and FM radio. You connect this phone to your computer via USB cable for easy transfer. The memory is expandable up to 2GB. The talk time is 200 - 300 minutes.

This one is tri band and it covers 900, 1800, and 1900 GSM MHz. This is covers most people, but there is some AT&T and Cingular rural carriers on the 850 MHz band. You can easily check which will work for you either online of through a quick call to your carrier.

Shake And Tilt AKA Shake To The Music: One feature that isn't standard on all clones that the X phone has is called shake and tilt control. This is also on many models like the A88, i9, or A380i. Shake and tilt allows you to scroll through media, music, wall paper, etc by just shaking the clone. Also, every time you tilt it, the picture on the phone will right itself. When paired with the flow touch interface (wherein you can scroll through information, edit photos, etc, by only using your fingers), these two things make this phone very user friendly and intuitive.

Price wise, the X Phone is pretty much right smack in the middle of the pack. Averaging around $150, it's not the cheapest and it's not the most expensive clone out there. But it appears that most people think being able to get the phone in the unique colors with the features they want without having to rely on skins or covers (that don't really change the color underneath) is worth it.

2009-04-17T21:23:00.005-07:00

Don't you wish you could download the movies inexpensively and best of all for free? There is a way; you just need patience and you need to know where to look.

Yet, there is something you need to understand. Downloading movies can be tricky. There are plenty of websites that want to do you harm and the trick is to learn how to circumvent those sites to get the most out of your "entertainment center." Below are four tips to watch out for as you surf for cool movies to watch on the Iphone.

Tip One- Remember the old saying the grass is greener on the other side? Well, put this in perspective. You download a movie and the movie just happens to be free. Yet, this download you just did was illegal. You just went from perfect citizen to a thief especially if you knew about it. On top of that, the site you got it from was a P2P site where hackers would love to get their hands on the information stored onto your computer... passwords, social security numbers and so much more. Even more dangerous about these sites are the kinds of virus and worms that can come with the files. After buying something expensive such as the Iphone, that is the last thing you want to contend with.

Tip Two- As hard as it might be, take the time to find that trustworthy site. While it is a bit harder to find that trustworthy site nowadays, it is good to keep a lookout for consumer reviews. Remember, just because it's against the law to have fake/spoof websites does not mean that they aren't out on the web.

Tip Three- Rule of thumb - when sites offer anything free, it's time to leave. They will hound you with popups and malicious place spyware on your computer. Even if you get to the download section, it may be so slow, it would not be worth your time to get said movie.

Tip Four- Sites who are legit will offer you free downloads but for a one time admin fee. Usually these fees are not much at all and in fact, will eventually pay for itself over time. Typically the cost runs $30 to $40. Pretty good huh?

Now keeping these in mind when you are surfing the net for that perfect site, will save you over time from the headaches that will occur if you are not educated on the dangers.

2009-04-17T21:23:00.003-07:00

When Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravitation with the aid of an apple, he perhaps would not have branded this apple as being only a juicy and a delicious fruit. The brand apple today is a phenomenon which has the brilliance of the red colour and the features which creates the tale of success for this brand.

The latest fruit in the long line of desirable items is the 3G Apple iPhone. This is a product which gives all the feelings which can be felt with a variety of other brands. The user of this handset has each and every conceivable power of doing anything that he/ she wants with this mobile device.

The first luxury is the multimedia capabilities of this mobile device. With the help of a 2 MP camera, one can take marvellous pictures and be a good photographer. This is because the pictures that he takes have the brilliant resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. There is also an iPod audio as well as a video player, both of which are magnificent in terms of performance and also features. The person who handles this mobile device is sure to have a great time listening to songs and also watching video clips. This makes the handset into an effective companion in the sense that the user can pass his time in a cultural manner by listening to music and gazing through good pictures and also clicking some of them with the help of the camera.

Anybody who travels a lot, will also find this handset quite useful because of its navigation features. Hence there is a GPS receiver in the mobile phone which helps him to find his way around, wherever he is, and also the facility of Google maps saves the time taken to reach to a certain place. This hence is quite an useful feature for a businessman too and hence this mobile device serves as a good business traveller companion too.

The handling of the 3G Apple iPhone is quite easy with the help of a Mac OS X v10.4.10. Furthermore, the presence of a touchscreen type of display makes the handling smooth, fast and also stylish. The screen overall bears a advanced as well as a stylish factor with the capability to support 16M colours and also having a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. The size of the screen is also manageable being just 3.5 inches and the facility of multi-touch input method as well as an accelerometer makes the pleasure of using this mobile device possess new dimensions of excellence.

The 3G Apple iPhone is also a good phone to use all over the world due to the presence of both the 2G network and the 3G network. Hence the handset has the GSM frequencies of 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 and HSDPA(High Speed Downlink Packet Access) frequencies of 850, 1900 and 2100. The combined functions of both these systems makes the handset capable of working anywhere in the world and hence support the facility of worldwide roaming.

There are many things that the user can do with this mobile device and one of the basic things is the ability to share data quickly and effectively with his friends and associates. The handset makes this possible with the presence of the USB technology in the form of the USB v2.0. Hence the person who uses this mobile device can exchange data with devices which also support Universal Serial Bus technology. The speed and also the performance of data transfer is increased as the result of the technologies of GPRS and EDGE. Performance also achieves a new dimension with the presence of the Bluetooth v2.0 technology.

The user can also have good internet access with the help of the Safari browser which is based on HTML and this access is improved with the Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g feature in this handset as well.

2009-04-17T21:23:00.001-07:00

Chuck Sacco, CEO and co-founder of PhindMe.net commented that G1 was a major step towards offering full Web access to highly mobile people. He feels that G1 will be one step further than the BlackBerry and iPhone which itself sparked the shift from cell phones to smartphones.

The number of people with smartphones is going to increase as the Google Android technology will be available to other cell phone manufacturers desirous of developing smartphones. People originally accessing info from their home or office computer will expect to browse for info from their handhelds.

M:Metrics' survey points out that 85 percent of iPhone users access the Web for information and are 10 times more likely to search the mobile Web than cell phone users. The public release of Google's Android by HTC with T-Mobile increased this trend.

Web sites are developed with all its intricacies by companies. However these may not be suitable for the small screen. If companies are not ready with streamlined versions for the smartphones then they will loose a big chunk of the consumer market pie.

It is highly imperative that companies create Web versions that are accessible to the handheld phones catering to the immediate needs of people on the go. Timely info is a necessity now regarding say about the whereabouts of a restaurant. In such cases the user is not bothered about the company profile or history.

All he wants is simple information on the menu and offers available. Added details on how to reach the location is all that a mobile user will need. Making available information on the mobile Web is sure to increase positive marketing opportunities.

Phindme.net will be ready with Everywhereigo online brand as the G1 hits the market in October. The suite of tools available to businesses will help them make mobile friendly Web pages which are compatible with all cell phones and smartphones. Businesses can keep a tab on customers and members wherever they go by means of group SMS, text messaging and mobile tags.

Businesses can move several steps forward from traditional advertising and will be able to achieve immediate connections to customers equipped with internet-ready cell phones, BlackBerries and iPhones.

2009-04-17T21:22:00.007-07:00

From their inception, each mobile manufacturing company has launched the products that are full of splendid technologies, innovations, and designs. These companies are moving their steps towards new qualities and skills so that they can achieve the excellence in the mobile market. Currently there are more than hundred mobile manufacturing companies worldwide. Moreover, there are many other companies that are entering in this industry with their amazing products range. All these companies are trying to attract more and more customers towards them and their astounding products.

The major companies like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, Apple etc have presented various mobile devices to enchant this world. However, sometimes back, the mobile major Nokia and Apple had rocked this world by launching serious superb mobile devices in the markets. These devices are named as Nokia N95 8GB and Apple iPhone. Both of these handsets are attractively designed and conceived, but still there are many differences between these two mobile devices. If Nokia N95 is a machine of intelligence and power then the Apple iPhone delivers intelligence with great beauty.

The Nokia N95 8GB is a 3G ready Quad-Band GSM mobile phone that supports the features like Email, Instant Messaging, and Internet Browsing. It offers great photo and video shooting options with its integrated 5.0 megapixels camera with Carl Zeiss Optics. The device is equipped with features like Dual Slide Design, GPS, Installed map application that covers over 100 countries, Stereo FM Radio, Organiser, Office Document Viewer, Music Player, Video Player, Voice Dial, Voice Memo, Built-in Handsfree and many more. However, the most advanced feature of this handset is its enormously sized internal memory of 8GB. This gadget runs with the help of Symbian 9.2 OS, 64MB of RAM and a standard Li-Ion Battery that gives the talk-time of up to 6 hours and a stand-by time of up to 280 hours. If you are looking for a great piece of innovation and technology then this Black coloured phone is really made for you.

Whereas, the Apple iPhone is a beauty piece that is technically very sound. This gadget holds various effective features such as Multi-touch Input Method, Emailing, Internet Browsing with the help of Safari Web Browser, 2 megapixels Camera for great Videos and Photos, integrated iPod, Google Maps, PIM (including Calendar), To-Do List, TV Output, Photo Browser & Editor, Voice Memo, Integrated Handsfree and lots more. The main features of this device are that it has multiple options for the internal memory. It supports the internal memory of 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB. Beside this you also get the perfection and beauty of MAC OS, Accelerometer, and Proximity Sensor. Moreover, if you are looking for a mobile phone that is full of wisdom and beauty then this black coloured device is really the best option for you.

2009-04-17T21:22:00.005-07:00

No doubt you're probably seen photos or video of the CECT iClones floating around the internet. They're impressive because not only do they copy the iPhone with unbelievable razor sharp precision, they have made vast and huge improvements that I'm sure Apple wished it had thought of or had included.

The CECT 599 is one such clone and it addresses every issue that the iPhone has had: the lack of removable battery; the forcing of AT&T; the one sim slot; and the skimpy stereo system. The CECT 599 has all of the iPhone's features: internet capabilities, MP3 capabilities, video capabilities, Bluetooth, etc, but it's also added a dual sim capability, a removable battery, three additional speakers, and is unlocked so that you can use whichever carrier you wish.

The CECT 599 is among the most stylish looking of the CECT clones, and it has an impressive 340 X 400 resolution 3.2 inch screen, but the thing that is winning this phone rave reviews is the shake technology. When you want to change music, video, photos or wallpapers on this phone, all you have to do is shake it. You don't need to look down or scroll. Just shake the phone until it advances where you want it to.

The CECT 599 automatically recognizes your sim cards and does not need any software. The pricing of this phone is usually under $130, sometimes lower depending on where you get it.
This phone is definitely worth a look for someone who wants Apple's technology without paying a continuous arm and leg for it.

2009-04-17T21:22:00.003-07:00

If you've not already been blown away by the Chinese iPhone clones, you will be once you see them. They have not only brilliantly copied the iPhone's innovative features, they have drastically improved them with their own upgrades. Simply put, the clones are better than the iPhone and the CECT 599 is no exception.

CECT, the manufacturer of the 599, had several opportunities for improvement and it seized every single one by:

1. making the CECT 599 dual sim. You now have the capability to have two mobile phone numbers without ever need to turn off the phone;

2. having the phone be unlocked so that you aren't forced to use AT&T if you don't feel like it;

3. adding a removable battery so you aren't chained to the manufacturer when the battery dies;

4. adding additional speakers and surround sound (the sound system on this phone rocks); and

5. I've saved the best for last. This phone has shake technology. If you want to advance the media (songs, video, wallpaper, photos, etc), you just simply shake the phone. You never even have to look at the phone. You just shake until the media is where you want it to be.

The CECT 599 has all of the features you probably love about the iPhone. You can surf the web, take and play video, play MP3s, and take photos. (It has a really nice camera phone). It also has Bluetooth, a 3.2 inch, high resolution screen and of course, the touch screen everyone is looking for.

The 599 is pretty cheap at between $100 and $130, a steal considering it's built in, highly innovative features.

2009-04-17T21:22:00.001-07:00

The new Apple iPhone has many great features that you don't have on the regular cell phones most people own. The iPhone is a great tool to keep everything you need handy with just a touch of your finger. Some new features include:

* Phone Conferencing

* Call Holding

* Call Merging

* Song fade when call is received

* Visual list of voicemail

* Ringtones purchased through itunes

* Album cover music library

* Wi-Fi hot spot automatic search

* Video play on widescreen orientation

The ipod and video features are great entertainment tools. You will need to find a good website to get movies and music for your iPhone or your ipod for that matter. Some things to look for when choosing a download website:

* Make sure you are getting the most for your money

* Make sure they offer a large selection of choices

* Make sure there is a technical suppoert line should you get stuck in the process.

You will want to get the most enjoyment possible from your new iPhone so be sure and maximize all of the features that you have. The applications are easy to use and manuver around. The design is beautiful and very user friendly. It is a great source of entertainment in one small package.

There are several paid membership sites where you can download movies and music. You want a source that is dependable. Many of the fees are lifetime or yearly subscriptions that are relatively inexpensive and give you unlimited downloads. Do your homework and compare to make sure you are getting the best offer possible.