Rise Of Low Cost Android Phones

Android has really helped unconventional phone manufacturers to go smart phone! Earlier, not too many vendors had smart phones released to market. Thanks to Android! Anyone with the basic H/W can push phones to market. This is a success story of Open Source and Google has been manufacturer friendly with no rules for their OS to run on phones! Below is a phone, Huawei Vision – a hi-end Android smart phone (may not be cheap but compared other hi-end phones, will be cheaper). Earlier, I’ve never heard of Huawei making touch screen smart phones! Huawei makes other low cost phones such as Huawei Ideos. Also, there is a hoard of new low cost manufacturers in India who do Android phones such as Videocon, Karbonn, Spice, Lava etc.

 

Google Instant Pages For Chrome! Load Web Sites Much faster With Chrome!

Google Chrome is fast becoming popular browser. As more and more traffic will arrive from chrome, it may be worthwhile to understand what Google Instant Pages (pre-rendering of pages) are all about. Below is a browser market share in 2011. Internet explorer is fast losing market share and Chrome is gaining traction.

What are Google Instant Pages?

In simple words, Google instant pages is all about predicting the next link that the user is most likely to click and pre-rendering the link so that the link is available much faster. This is already available in the form of Google Suggest and Google Instant – they prefetch the links on the search page and load pages that the user is most likely to click next. This saves a lot of time of the user.

Using Google instant pages, you can customize your site, add the same intelligence so that when your website is viewed on Chrome browser, the next link that is most likely to be clicked would be pre-rendered. It is a complete rendering and very different from Firefox’s pre-fetching technology. This will guarantee that the next click of the link would be rendered instantaneously. A simple html code needs to be added as follows

How to enable pre-rendering in your blog?

Here is the details - http://sumtips.com/2011/08/enable-prerendering-on-wordpress.html

Read more at Google Code

Sending Free SMS on Nokia, Android

Sending SMS over your GPRS or 3G data plan is simple with Whatsapp, a cross platform App. You can send free unlimited SMS using this App. It is really easy and cool. Available on Android, Blackberry, Nokia and more. Best of all, you can even share images, videos via this app. Try this fast :)

 

How To Create Great Looking Web Sites In Minutes? – Easy Web Site Creators!

Many of us want to have web sites for personal or business reasons but do not know how to program in HTML/Web 2.0. This is a major roadblocks for many. People believe that to create a great looking websites you need to have programming skills or need to hire a good consultant who could do just that. Well, yeah, it is true that we need to be able to program or hire a programmer. But, there are other ways as well, Such as an easy step by step website creating services such as Cabanova, Website Painter etc.  They are so very easy to use and do not cost too much. Under $20 a month, you can get scalable and professional websites for your business. Cabanova even offers a free limited service (50MB storage) as well. You can check it out.

Cabanova

• Very very easy to use web site builder
• Lots of templates - 1000+ and neatly categorized.
• Lots of widgets – Facebook, Twitter integration, photo galleries, statistics, polling, map integration and what not
• Very light weight design – loads in seconds.

Website Painter

WebsitePainter is a web site builder for creating professional looking Websites, without HTML knowledge and programming. With a few clicks it is possible to create web pages with elements like Web2.0 buttons, gradients, round borders, hover effects, transparencies, continuous text and more

Zeta Producer

Zeta Producer is a free website generator CMS that allows you to publish your website within minutes.

Free Batch Watermark Creator – Add Watermark Easily

Sometimes you need to add watermark in to your photos to make them copyrighted. Or You may want to add time and date on which the photo was taken or add some fancy captions. There are many software tools available. However, this small watermark utility is a nice one. You can easily add watermark and even add watermark to the folder at one shot. Batch watermarking is a boon if you have too many photos. Very neat and highly configurable tool is highly recommended.

 

Check out - http://www.easysector.com/

Micromax Journey In To Froyo – Bling 2 Girlish Phone Specifications

 

Micromax is expected to release Bling 2 in May, 2011 which is their successor of highly successful Micromax Bling. Exclusively targeted for ladies, Bling 2 is affordable at the same time, feature rich phone. It is expected available at a mere 8K odd price tag, with Android 2.2 (Froyo), 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, Dual SIM, Mi Fi, Capactive Touch screen, 3MP Camera and with lots of storage capacity is surely going to rock the ladies! Also, it has crystals on them :)

Price – Approx 8,990 Rs/-

Micrmax has surely understood this hidden untapped market – feature rich phone designed for ladies!

Samsung S5620 Monte Review – Highly Recommended Cost Effective 3G/GPS/WiFi Phone

Today, I visited Samsung Demo at a local Mall and one of their new Mobile Phone Samsung Monte (S5620) instantly! Really, amazing phone with great features. Anyone who is looking for a 3G phone with good features, should grab this one!

 

 

 

 

 

• Amazing Finger friendly 3.0 inch 256K Color Capacitive Touch Screen
• 3G Network support
• A-GPS
• WiFi
• 3.2 MP Camera without Flash (Secondary Camera is also present!)
• Accelerometer
• Facebook/Twitter and other built-in Social Apps!
• FM Radio
• Much much more.

This phone is just a bargain. Here in Bangalore, this phone is getting sold at around 9,500 INR which is great! I might buy this as well!

The only disadvantage is that it comes with Samsung’s proprietary OS. So, if you are really geek, interested in trying out applications, customizations then you should research more. (Pictures from GSMArena.com)

Waterproof, Shockproof Rugged Cameras

If you are an adventurist, make frequent trips to the deep jungles, go for out door activities and worried that your camera might get scratches then don’t worry. There are many rugged camera that are shock proof, water proof, freeze proof and highly durable. Some of them are listed here. The following Casio EX G1 is a 12MP Camera which is capable of handling 7 feet drop and is 10 feet water proof.

FujiFilm HP10 also has similar features. 10 Ft Water resistance, 1M Shock resistant body, 12MP Camera is quite rugged.

Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 is not far behind, 7 ft Shock proof, 10M Water resistant, dust proof, 14MP Camera is indeed tough. It has 720p video recording, 5x optical zoom, HDMI-out, and a 2.7-inch LCD

Via [TechCrunch]

Track Your Sleep and Share It With Your Friends!

Very Simple, just track your sleep pattern over a period of time, add details of dreams etc. Share it with everyone, see how others sleep etc. A very nice collaborative tool to view own sleep pattern as well as see others!

 

 

• YawnLog tracks the number of hours you sleep per night. It places the information you input on a handy graph so you can  track your sleeping patterns over an extended period of time.
• YawnLog also allows you to label your dreams with "tags," view your friends sleeping nearby (future implementation), and visualize recorded data in new ways!

 

The Best Blog Editors Of All Time!

I have been using Blog Editors for a while now. I have used ScribeFire, Windows Live Writer, w.bloggar, Post2blog etc. But, all of them have some or other issues. Finally I have come to a conclusion that it is Microsoft that excels in Blog editor performance! MS Live Writer is really good. If you have a blog, then I highly recommend using Live Writer as your offline Blog editor! You will not regret it!

Live Writer makes it easy to share your photos and videos on almost any blog service—Windows Live, Wordpress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and many more.

Are You Stuck With Facebook Lite? Follow The Steps To Get Out Of The Hell!

Facebook Lite is a light weight version of Facebook released in US and India. It is good for those who like less cluttered interface. But, sometimes it will be a bit difficult for you to get adjusted with the simplified interface layout, to check your Farmville (sorry I don’t like it but seems to be very popular) points etc etc.

My concern is that there is no straight way of getting back to Facebook Normal from Facebook Lite version. Clearing cache/cookies do not help at all.

However, there is a simple but not so obvious way of getting back to Facebook Normal!

Just scroll down to the end of Facebook Lite page and you will find a “feedback” option. Just click on it and on the top, you would get an option to go back to Facebook normal mode. That’s it and don’t forget to send your feedback to the Lite team! You’re done.

Anyways, Facebook Lite is an experimental feature and it will get better over time.

Online Armor Free Firewall – Free Download

Online Armor Free Computer Firewall Software, is packed with features and a great download! It is free and nothing goes away from your pocket. Yes, some features are just available in premium editions but again it is affordable. One interesting feature that premium edition has is Banking Mode – that gives you total security while doing online banking.

 

 

Free Firewall Edition Features:

• Kernel Mode Security
• Manual Updates
• Execution Protection
• Termination Protection
• Limited Autostart Protection
• Standard Mode Firewall
• Standard Mode
• Keylogger Detection
• Tamper Protection
• Script/Worm protection
• Program Guard

Download here.

BitTorrent Giant Mininova is Dead!

Well, Mininova is not really dead but all its interesting stuff was taken off of the server on Nov 26th, 2009.  This has been a long battle for mininova and finally as expected had to comply with copyright laws. However, If you are a content developer or have your own content, then you can use Mininova for free and use bandwidth to distribute across the world! Adieu Mininova…

Here is the official Blog Update!

“Hi all,

Today is an important day in the history of Mininova. From now on, we are limiting Mininova.org to our Content Distribution service. By doing so, we comply with the ruling of the Court of Utrecht of last August.

Unfortunately the court ruling leaves us no other option than to take our platform offline, except for the Content Distribution service. According to the verdict (Dutch link) we have to prevent uploads of torrents to Mininova that refer to certain titles or to similar-looking titles. We’ve been testing some filtering systems the last couple of months, but we found that it’s neither technically nor operationally possible to implement a 100% working filter system. Therefore, we decided that the only option is to limit Mininova to Content Distribution torrents from now on. We are still considering an appeal at this moment.

We launched our Content Distribution service in 2007. This service allows producers and artists to easily publish and distribute their content for free through Mininova. The launch of Content Distribution has proven to be a success. Countless content owners have used Content Distribution to distribute their content (e.g. albums and documentaries) for free to millions of users. For example, the Dutch band Silence is Sexy released their complete album on Mininova and received the Interactive Award 2009 for doing so. The Dutch television broadcaster VPRO decided to start using Content Distribution in 2009 in order to distribute documentaries.

We would like to thank you for your support. Especially everyone that contributed to Mininova receives a big “thank you!” for the effort! We hope to keep welcoming you on Mininova and our other projects (e.g. Snotr, Dispostable).

Thanks! The Mininova staff”

Alternatives to Beyond Compare – File Comparison Tool

Beyond Compare is quite good at comparing files and folders. It can show the differences in different colors and that makes us compare different source code files or even the entire directory easily. You can even compare binary files and do a CRC checksum to see if they match.

However, Beyond Compare is not free. Well, There are so many such free File Comparing Tools out there. One such editor is Cream. An enhanced Vi Editor and lots of User Interface enhancements. It will also let you compare files for instance.

The other ones like WinMerge, FreeFileSync etc are also good. So bottom line is, lots of free ones are there for you to compare the content of files or folders.

Read here for more.

Screenshot of Meld

The First USB 3.0 Motherboard Is Here!

The Asus P7P55D-E is apparently the very first USB 3.0 motherboard. It's an Intel P55-based mother board that uses a third-party USB 3.0 controller for a pair of ports. It has 10 USB 2.0 ports as well. In essence, It is not a complete USB 3.0 mother board and in the coming days there will be Mother Boards with all USB 3.0 ports so we will have to just wait for a while! Nevertheless Asus is pretty fast! 

Via [Gizmodo]

Top WiFi Radios – Quest For Internet Radio

Are you stuck with the lousy FM like Radio Indigo? Yeah, I agree they do play some good numbers but sometimes RJs kind of get on to your nerves. Satellite Radios are better but again, they are not free.

So, WiFi Radios make perfect sense, just get hooked on your WiFi Router and Surf the loads and loads of Internet Radio Stations for Free without having to stare at your laptop screen!

Pretty good WiFi Radio collections out there for you to choose from! Some of them that I liked are;

LogiTech SqeezeBox Boom

The best All-in-One TableTop WiFi Radio and CNET Review gives a 4 star to it. Compact, supports all internet radio formats, Ethernet support, PC based music files and more. More is here on Logitech Website.

 

Philips Streamium NP2900

This slim radio can produce nice sound and with its color screen it can show you the artists, album details etc.

Oxx Digital Tube

Oxx Digital Tube is a little bulky but due its tubular shape, it can produce decent bass. Provides access to thousands of radios across the world.

There are many such WiFi radios around and you could get details on them here and here.

The Bluetooth Bear Is Here At Your Service!

A hacked talking Bluetooth bear? What? A bear has been modified to talk when you talk through it via Bluetooth. That’s hilarious and smart! Kids would love that.

Call someone through the Talking Bluetooth Bear and Have fun. It is basically Bluetooth enabled speaker phone connected to a talking bear :) Results are wonderful.

Check this video and chuckle!

[via Gizmodo]

Finger friendly MP3 player for Windows Mobile

Windows Media Player that comes with Windows Mobile is mostly stylus friendly. This is a major drawback and makes one wonder why Microsoft wouldn’t improve the default media player for Windows Mobile finger friendly.

Fortunately, there are friendly people who provide free finger friendly MP3 players for Windows Mobile enabled handsets :-)

S2P (Slide2Play) MP3 Player for WM

An amazingly simple and stylus free MP3 player for Windows Mobile. Closely resembles iPhone’s audio player. Though it is memory hungry, its smooth performance will satisfy you completely.

Features

• Large buttons
• Smooth sliding interface
• Simple to use
• Handles Album Art

S2P is a very nice stylus free MP3 player for windows mobile. Installation is simple, just transfer the CAB file via ActivSync and install it on the mobile.

Please leave your comments if you know a better stylus free audio players for WM.

Source: http://s2p.en.softonic.com/pocketpc and http://forum.xda-developers.com/

Technorati Tags: Stylus Free,Finger friendly,Player,Mobile,PPC,iPhone,MP3

Finger friendly keyboards for Windows Mobile

Default keyboard that comes with Windows Mobile is mostly basic and requires stylus for effective use. This is a major drawback and makes one wonder why Microsoft wouldn’t improve the default keyboard for Windows Mobile.

Fortunately, there are friendly people who provide free finger friendly keyboards for Windows Mobile enabled handsets.

PocketCM keyboard for WM

It offers a visible feedback of the key currently pressed, you can exactly feel that your finger is on the keyboard and you can easily see what key is pressed.

• It can be used with fingers
• It can suggest word based on letter position
• It triggers the key when you remove your finger from the screen, not when you press it. This will avoid typos
• It can be customized
• It's a standard Windows Mobile SIP, so to use it you have to select it as the input method, therefore it can be used in (almost) any application
• Customizable skin and layout
• Accent recognition and suggestion
• There is an active forum where you can discuss your problems with PocketCM keyboard (if any)

Visual feedback and smart suggestion by PocketCM

Here is a video from PocketCM.com

Installing PocketCM 

Download the PocketCM CAB from here, copy the CAB to your device via ActiveSync, Run the CAB on your mobile and reset your device. Then open keyboard, change keyboard (little arrow) to PCM Keyboard –that’s it :-)

TouchPal Keyboard for WM

TouchPal Keyboard from CooTek is an innovative software keyboard powered by T+ input technology, which significantly improves the inputting experience on touch screen handheld devices. It supports a lot of features and some of the free features present in Free edition are listed below.

• Predictive & Precise Input
• "Flow" your keyboard! "Flow" your keyboard!
• In-place case switching
• Display word candidate inline
• Word association
• Landscape mode
• Multi-language support
• Highly Customizable
• For questions, there is a forum

TouchPal Pro supports more amazing features.

Here is an official video from Cootek.com

Installing TouchPal

Download the TouchPal CAB from here, copy the CAB to your device via ActiveSync, Run the CAB on your mobile and reset your device. Then open keyboard, change keyboard (little arrow) to TouchPal Keyboard –that’s it :-)

PocketCM and TouchPal soft Keyboards are really capable and could make your stylus a history!

Please leave your comments if you know a better stylus free keyboards for WM.

Technorati Tags: Keyboard,Windows Mobile,finger friendly,SIP,PocketCM,TouchPal,plugin

Free 3D modeling tool - Google StetchUp

Google has just released SketchUp release 7 which lets you create 3D models very easily in just a few minutes.

Advantages are:

• Intuitive and easy to learn - Thanks to the dozens of online videos and help center that give step by step instructions on how to use SketchUp features.
  
• Extremely agile in rendering objects
• Get models online for free at Google 3D warehouse
• Share your 3D models with the world

3D objects can be created, modified, integrated with Google Earth etc. A lot more features are supported by Google SketchUp and if you are hungry for more, then it is better to check out their licensed version Google SketchUp Pro 7.

Please look at the comparison between the free and the paid version here.

Here is a SketchUp intro video by Google

Thanks to Google SketchUp team, Now anyone can do 3D modeling without any technical knowledge!

Technorati Tags: SketchUp, Modeling, Freeware, Google, 3D