Anything 'N' Everything

WaveSecure ~ May the phone be with you

2009-06-20T00:41:00.006-07:00

Noone likes their phone being lost. Everyone is aware of the phone tracker softwares now available, but the problem is even though you come to know the mobile number and simcard details of the thief who is using your phone, you are helpless since the simcard details contain invalid address and invalid proof. Nokia has come up with a better way to handle your lost phone. WaveSecure, a mobile software provides you the option to remotely lock your phone from the web. It also tracks the SIM inserted in the phone and sends you the details. In addition, you can backup your sms, contacts and other data from the phone to the web or remotely wipe out data from the phone. Data can be restored at anytime from the web. So if you lose your phone and you have WaveSecure installed in it with auto-backup every 24 hours, you can backup your details to the web and wipe out the data from the phone, track the SIM, find out the details, receive all the contacts and smses stored using which you have a better chance of getting back your lost phone or if not, lock the phone after wiping out your details and atleast be satisfied that your phone is not being misused or rather your phone becomes useless.

The link to download WaveSecure
http://nokia.wavesecure.com/download.aspx
At the moment, its available for most of the S60 Nokia phones and a few of the S40 ones.

Xmarks

2009-06-20T00:41:00.005-07:00

If you are familiar with firefox add-ons, you might have heard of foxmarks. For those of you who haven't, read on. Others might skim through for some helpful tips. Xmarks is the upgraded version of Foxmarks. If you are someone like me who bookmarks sites as you browse around and have a huge list of bookmarks, it becomes a bother to actually go through the list of bookmarks and find the one you want. Create a few folders based on what you bookmark often. Pictures, Blogs, Mobile, System, Music, youtube can be a few of them. Whenever you bookmark a page, make sure it goes into the right list. Now it will be easier to find. Having to rely on these bookmarks it is hard to save each one if you need to reinstall firefox for some reason. Foxmarks comes to your help by saving all your bookmarks in its server and synchronizes with your browser as you add or delete your bookmarks every time you exit or at a regular interval depending on your choice. All you need is a free account at foxmarks and you are ready to go.

You can access your bookmarks from any computer if you have foxmarks installed on it. Even if you don't, you can directly login to your account at www.foxmarks.com and access your bookmarks. Once you start using Foxmarks, you will not want to stop using it.

Foxmarks has upgraded into Xmarks and has added further features to help with your bookmarks. Simply put, Xmarks backs up and synchronizes your bookmarks across multiple computers.

Virtual Networking

2009-06-20T00:41:00.003-07:00

Virtual Networking: The future of social networking.

Anyone who has used the services of any social networking site such as orkut or facebook would have sure felt at some point that it would be great if they could meet their friends in person but in most cases this becomes practically impossible as they may be miles apart. Well think again, virtual networking may change all that when it gets implemented. At the core of virtual networking lies the concept of virtual technology, which enables you to meet any person you wish to ‘in person’ just by wearing a headgear. The technology involved is quite simple, the headgear reads your movements and records your voice and recreates a virtual you in a virtual world so that you could communicate with the person you wish to in that virtual world, provided he has been recreated there as well. So the day is not far when nobody is not far from anyone in this world.

The Touch Mania

2009-06-20T00:41:00.001-07:00

iPhone, the first complete touch screen phone was the start of this trend. Outselling any other mobile in the market at the time of its introduction it was more of a new thing rather than a useful gadget. But now the touch mania has begun with Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericcson all introducing touch enabled phones which have captured the mobile freaks. Until a few days back, I couldn't really understand what was it that attracted so many people. But now with the 5800 Nokia mobile in my hand, I can truly say its a feeling to be experienced. You feel a power in your fingers when you are able to touch instead of selecting items on the screen. Contrary to what many feel, its not difficult to transit from a physical keypad to a touch screen phone, though its hard to change back once you get used to the touch. Try it and you will never want to switch back.

Torrents

2009-06-20T00:40:00.007-07:00

This is for someone who has no idea about what a torrent is or what it does.

What is a torrent? Torrent is a file of size usually within 30kb.

What is the use of a torrent? It is used to download a file from the net.

What does it contain? It contains information about the file(s) to be downloaded like the file names, size of the files, and where to download the file(s) from.

Why download using torrents when there are other ways? Torrent is a method of p2p (peer to peer) sharing. But unlike other p2p methods, torrent is advantageous because as more people download the same file, the speed increases for everyone. This is the torrent principle.

How does this work? Assume you are downloading something using torrent. The parts of the file you have already downloaded already are available to others for downloading. A tracker server coordinates all the clients.

Problems in torrent - Sometimes when you are downloading the file, there may be no one downloading or sharing the file except you. Therefore the file remains incomplete and often unusable.

How to avoid the problem? Make sure the file you are downloading has an equal average of seeds and peers (see below).

Seeds are the people who have the file completely downloaded and sharing it.

Peers are the people who are downloading the file and sharing the downloaded parts.

Leechers are the people with very low UD ratio. (Upload - Download ratio). Some people download high but upload low or don't upload, thus becoming a leech. It’s good to maintain this ratio at 1.

Tracker is a server coordinating downloading of all users.

PSP

2009-06-20T00:40:00.005-07:00

PlayStation Portable ~ the first handheld video game console which can store data using a memory card. Manufactured by Sony and released in 2004, it has captured millions of youngsters around the world. You can play music, watch videos, browse the web, view pdf files and of course, play games with it. The 1800mAh battery will last long enough for nearly 5 hours of game play or video playback and about 10 hours of audio playback. Like the mobile, it has several accessories to make it handier like the headphones with remote control, car adapter, system pouch and the wrist strap. It also comes in ten colors like the ceramic white, ice silver, deep red, rose pink, champagne gold, Felicia blue, mint green, lavender purple, metallic blue and the piano black (my choice). If you are about to take a long bus or train ride, you know what you need to pass your time.

PDA - Personal Digital Assistant

2009-06-20T00:40:00.003-07:00

With the mobile scene in city, one hardly notices that there are other gadgets which are more efficient to his particular needs. One such gadget is the PDA, Personal Digital Assistant. A handheld computer or more commonly known as the palmtop. The latest PDA would include a touch screen(the touch mania is everywhere!), a memory card, Infrared, Bluetooth and Wifi. PDA's are better suited to the business people who can get the maximum out of the device. The manufacturers realised that all that a PDA lacks is the communication link. BlackBerry a PDA supports voice and sms in addition to the regular features which have made it ideal for business use. The iPhone and the iTouch include the multi-touch interface adding joy to its use.

PC Security

2009-06-20T00:40:00.001-07:00

Every PC user who cannot afford to buy a decent anti malware program is constantly concerned about the security of his/her Pc’s security. Well if you belong to the above-mentioned category of users then this post is for you.

Tips to prevent Malware infections:

1. Use a browser with good security (Firefox is my best bet).

2. Always scan your storage devices such as pen drives before opening any files in them.

3. Disable file sharing on your hard drives.

4. Be cautious when downloading. While not all freeware is bad, the old saying that nothing worthwhile in life is free is generally true when it comes to free Internet downloads. Spammers often hide dangerous malware in computer programs that they then offer for free on the Internet.

5. Keep your softwares and OS constantly updated. I would highly recommend turning on their automatic updates feature.

6. If you are an ardent torrent downloader make sure that you read the comments on the torrent you are about to download.

7. Turn off the autorun feature for USBs and Optical drives.

8. Finally and most importantly use any one of the numerous free antivirus programs to protect your system. I recommend the following combination:

Avast antivirus+threatfire

(or)

If you are a moderately advanced user, Comodo internet security is an excellent option.

Nokia Locate Sensor

2009-06-20T00:39:00.005-07:00

No, this is not a sensor which geographically locates the phone unless you have two phones and have this attached to one of them. Instead, it locates your other valuable belongings like keys, wallets, bags and so on.

This is still a prototype and Nokia is looking forward to commercially release it in a few months. The Nokia Locate Sensor, shaped like a pen drive can be attached to your bag or wallet by a tag. In case you forget the bag at a shop and realize it soon enough, the locate sensor application installed on the phone points to the direction of the item and can even tell you how far away it is. It can be set to automatically alert you in case you drop something and tune in on the item within a distance of 100 meters. It doesn't use GPS so there is no need to fear of the battery draining out. The prototype runs for 18 months, but is expected to have a longer lifetime by the time it comes out to the market. Considering the number of people who forget their keys or wallet often, if the price is reasonable, Nokia can be sure that this will be a huge hit!

N97 ~ The Mini Computer

2009-06-20T00:39:00.003-07:00

With the success of the 5800, Nokia is to roll out another touch screen device with capabilities far better than any other phone. The N97 has a physical qwerty keypad along with the touch screen which lacked in the 5800. The device packs specifications which makes one drool over it. Apart from the regular call, sms, music player, the features which make N97 stand out are

1. 3.5" Touch Screen with a slideout QWERTY

2. Widgets enabled home screen

3. 5mp Camera with Dual Led Flash

4. GPS

5. Wifi

6. 1500mah Battery providing 400 hours of standby time

The widgets are the first to be introduced in a nokia phone and will provide flexibility to the user. The official spcifications from Nokia can be found here.

http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/assets/pdf/Data_Sheet_Nokia%20N97.pdf

The touchscreen, the physical qwerty keypad, the widgets together design the N97 to be a certain iPhone killer and honestly seeing all the features, one has no choice but to agree.

Convert your files online

2009-06-20T00:39:00.001-07:00

Media Converter helps you to convert your files from one format to another. You might want to download that specific video from youtube but you don't want it in the usual .flv format which most sites provide after download. Media Converter helps you download files in your desired format. All you have to do is enter the link of the video from youtube and it asks for the file type to convert into and also the resolution and video and audio bitrates. Depending on the file type and your net speed, it takes a few minutes and provides you with a link to download your file. Simple!

Other than videos from youtube, metacafe, livevideo, break.com and other sites, you can also upload and convert files from your computer and download them.

If you are bothered by having to use the site each time to convert files in your hard disk, you can download the software which is about 4.3mb and is free with complete features.

Touch Media Player

2009-06-20T00:38:00.006-07:00

iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic and now the iPod Touch. Today, this series of portable media players has evolved into something much more than just a music player. Now using an iPod touch, you can have complete access to the world. A web browser to browse and check your emails, viewing your favourite photos, storing a list of your contacts, a calculator at hand, maps to see the world, games to pass your time, calendar to organise your schedule, youtube, and of course listening to your personal choice of music. With all the features in one device, the iPod touch is a handy gadget to own. And all these features are just a tap away. The motion sensor games is an attractive touch to the device. The touch interface is great for viewing those photos enabling you to zoom and slide with ease. Wifi brings the net into your hands with youtube, safari and emails. The device has only two words to say to you - Touch Me!

Privacy Poked ~ Google Street View

2009-06-20T00:38:00.005-07:00

Recently, an issue has arised with the street view capability of Google Maps. People could view the images of a man throwing up outside a bar, someone coming out of a sex shop and another man being arrested by the police. It was all there for the world to see. The company received a lot of complaints and had to remove more than a few photographs from the site which were found to be invasive. Google had included tools that allowed users to report pictures which were offensive and threatened privacy. The street view blurred the faces of people in the image but a malfunction caused the blurs to appear in wrong places. Even with all these issues, one can't disagree with the positive side of being able to view places which can only dreamt of by many. Hopefully, Google would soon be able to provide the street view while protecting privacy at the same time.

Gmail

2009-06-20T00:38:00.003-07:00

People often understimate the power of gmail. An average user of gmail has the knowledge of sending emails, gmail chat and saving drafts. But gmail has more to offer than just email. There are a few features which people overlook in gmail. Labels for example is a very useful feature in gmail. It helps in organising your inbox better. Making a list of labels such as Office, Family, Cards, Important Infos makes it easier to find those specific emails. Unlike the general opinion, this can be done easily by creating filters for the labels. Apart from this, there is the Gmail Labs which offer a lot of interesting features which are being tested. The Undo Send feature holds the email for five seconds after you click send saving you from being embarassed at times. There are other useful features to try like the Right-side chat, Right-side labels, Custom Label Colors, Mark as Read button, Multiple Inboxes(This one is really helpful if you have more than one gmail account) and the Google Calendar gadget.

E71

2009-06-20T00:38:00.001-07:00

The E71 is presently claimed to be the best phone Nokia has released in recent times. The metallic finish gives a stylish look to the device and the size is real small considering it is a QWERTY device. It has a 2.4" screen with a resolution of 320*240. The phone has a predictive text feature which is rare in QWERTY keyboards but helpful once you get used to it. The 1500mAh battery would take you through the day even with maximum usage. The down point is the camera which has a purple tint and makes the photos completely useless. Primarily a business phone, the E71 is a email proficient device and handles most email provider's configurations automatically. The audio is not really worth hearing unless you use a really good custom headphone and improve its quality from worse to good. The E71 is an ideal business man's phone with a great battery life, email, ovi, QWERTY keyboard and a reasonable price.

Cloud Computing

2009-06-20T00:37:00.002-07:00

Future Computing:

Ever wondered what the future of computing would be? Well the answer to that question may already be a reality thanks to the initiatives of Google and IBM. Say hello to ‘Cloud computing’, the phenomenon that seems too be all set to take Bill Gates’s vision of ‘a computer on every desk in every home’ a step or two closer to reality. So what is cloud computing? Well put in simple terms it is simply the concept of having a set of highly centralised processing units instead of having a processing unit at each computer. Each of these servers offer a specific set of computer services such as photo editing, document processing, operating system and the like for which you would usually need to buy and install separate software in every individual system. The obvious advantages this concept includes a highly reduced hardware cost and absolutely NIL software cost. IBM has already implemented this concept in the corporate sector by the name of ‘Blue Cloud’ and google has already started taking serious efforts for implementing it in the PC sector. So I’m not kidding when I say ‘The future is already here’.

Firefox Add-ons

2009-06-20T00:37:00.001-07:00

There are hundreds of reviews on which is the best browser and each one has its own conclusion. What makes a browser best is not what it offers but how helpful are the things it offers. Anyway, this is not a post on which is the best browser but a few tips on how you can make your firefox more suitable to your needs.

Many of us use Firefox but only a few use it to its best. Browsing the internet is not just about checking the email anymore. Music, Video, Pictures, Blogs, Booking tickets and the list goes on. Add-ons bring all of this right to your browser. What are add-ons? Add-ons extend the browser adding additional features to it and personalize your browsing. Using add-ons can help you in a great deal. If you are unsure where to begin, you can start by checking the featured add-ons on Mozilla.

A few add-ons I use and found to be really helpful.

Foxmarks - This synchronizes your bookmarks with a server. Really helpful!

This add-on has now upgraded to Xmarks

PDF Download - Helps with your pdf files.

DownThemAll - As the name says, manages all your downloads and also acts as a download accelerator. You can pause and resume downloads.

FLV Get Enables you to download any flv video from the site.

Facebook Album Downloader Sometimes you might want to download the entire album of your friend and saving each picture becomes a bother. This helps!

Grease Monkey If you have used orkut to some extent, you would have definitely heard about this one. It customizes the webpage with java scripts.

Adblock Plus Blocks all those annoying ads on the page.

These are just to help you get started. Other than these, there is the meebo add-on, youtube downloader and several others which you might find useful. Go on and make your browser yours!

5800 ~ The Tube

2009-06-20T00:35:00.000-07:00

Even before the phone came out to the market, the 5800 had had great expectations. The first S60 v5 operating system, the first complete touch screen phone from nokia and the low price being the most attractive features. 5800 turned out to be one of the most wanted phones among the mobile buffs. The phone has all the basic features from smsing, voice calling, video calling to the most advanced features such as Wifi, 3G and GPS. The camera is a 3.2 megapixel and the 3.2" display offers a great resolution to take high quality pictures. Along with the phone, there is the 8GB microSD memory card which can store enough songs to listen for more than 3 days. The 1320mAh is the first of its kind from Nokia and would last a whole day even with maximum usage. Normal usage of the phone would take it for atleast 2 days or more. The 5800 is definitely a change from the physical keypad. The touch screen is responsive and the interface with which Nokia rules the mobile industry makes it a worthy buy.