I think this post by Darrell Etherington absolutely nails it. Apple doesn’t need a presence at CES. Infact, going by the news that I’ve been reading about the fading popularity of CES, it is they who really would like Apple to attend the even and add some glamour.

The reason Apple doesn’t need to be at CES is because, while, Apple is now a consumer electronics company, they don’t really create the buzz around their products through shows like CES. They have people like you and I, the Apple faithful, to do that.

Of course, you can argue that Apple is still present everywhere at the CES. iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs are everywhere, either being used by the attendees or as part of the hundreds of docks and accessories that everyone is displaying. There is also the case of the competition trying to copy Apple’s designs and technology. I’d even go as far as to argue that this year is probably Apple’s biggest year at CES, both in terms of exposure and interest.

Apple changed the smartphone landscape in one sweep 5 years ago when they released the iPhone and another competitor can absolutely come and announce something so dramatically different and powerful that it’ll make those iPhones and iPads seem ancient. That is something Apple has to watch out for and that is the reason for the presence of those 250 engineers.

It isn’t Apple-like to follow the industry, but keeping tabs on where the industry is headed helps Apple refine and hone it’s vision of the future.

As for me – I’m absolutely waiting for what 2012 has in store for us Apple aficionados. iPhone 5, iPad 3, Apple TV and who knows what else !

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Even though touchscreen keyboards can never replace real physical keyboards, we’ve compiled a list applications that will ensure that the days of slow, inaccurate typing on touchscreen phones are gone. These free applications for your android device will raise your typing experience to a whole new level.

Swype

Swype is becoming an immensely popular interface for typing and it claims that users can attain over 40 words per minute with its innovative style of input. The keyboard is a standard QWERTY layout. To enter a word all you have to do is put your finger on the first letter of the word and then slide it forming a path from letter to letter and lift up your finger after the last letter is reached.

Take a look at the path formed to enter the word “quick” :

Swype comes bundled with some phones. For those who don’t have it, you can download it from the official website. There is another popular alternative SlideIT Soft Keyboard for this form of input and can be downloaded from the Android Market for free.

Tio Keyboard

If you are someone who likes the comfort of a QWERTY layout and the ease of large keys, then Tio keyboard is for you. While a regular keyboard has about 30 keys, Top keyboard has only 10 keys. Less number of keys means larger keys and of course less finger movement which results in faster typing.

Learning the Tio keyboard is also very easy as it uses simplified form of the QWERTY layout. Each key is composed of 3 characters according to the vertical layout of a QWERTY keyboard.

Tio keyboard not only helps in faster typing but also gives more screen space for your text. All in all, Tio can be thought of as the QWERTY version of the famous T9 format which we all have used at some point of time.

Download Tio from the Android Market for free.

Siine

Siine is a very different way of typing and it claims to be the first icon based keyboard. The keyboard layout is the standard QWERTY form and typing is done in the regular tap to enter format. But, along with the regular keyboard comes icons – for almost everything.

You just need to hit the icon to enter the corresponding word or phrase. Be it the current time, name of month or a call me later message Siine has icons for almost all commonly used terms. And if you have your own special way of calling your friend a “Duuude”, you can add an icon for that too.

This icon based style of writing is surely fast, and can be a bliss of people who tend to use a few common terms more frequently. Download Siine from the Android market for free.

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LiveGo is a website that takes this concept and offers the best of all the 3 to its users in a single place. With LiveGo, users can stay connected to their social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, Instant Messengers such as MSN or Live, Yahoo and Gtalk and email accounts as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo.

The home page shows you various sign in options. A good thing about this website is that uses do not need to create a separate login account. Instead, they can directly use their Facebook, MSN, Twitter, Yahoo, Gmail or AOL accounts to sign in.

When I logged in using my Facebook account, I was extremely pleased to see the overall interface. The majority of the space was rightly occupied with the news feed and the right sidebar showed me a list of my online friends. The left sidebar was similar to that of Facebook with options for Messages, Albums, Friends, and Notifications etc. An update bar on the top allows users to share their updates on Facebook and Twitter. A separate pop-up window opens for chatting when either you receive a PM or when you double click on any icon on the messenger window. A webcam icon on the top right of the PM window indicates webcam chat option. However, this feature is not yet available and hovering the cursor over the icon will only show you a “Coming Soon” message. One appreciable feature of the news feed was that taking the cursor over any picture automatically showed an enlarged view of it, certainly saving a few clicks and unnecessary page loading.

My next step was activating my Twitter account on the site. Clicking on the “Activate” link under the Twitter tab or the “Add Account” button on the left sidebar did the job pretty fast. Also the dashboard now included feeds from both the social networks. Separate Facebook and Twitter Tabs can let the users view feeds from either of the social network. Hovering the cursor over any display pic in the twitter feed will open a pop up giving you details of the user such as webpage, bio, number of followers, updates etc and the option to follow/unfollow, message or block the particular user.

Adding an email account automatically included my contacts in the messenger window and showed the online contacts by default. All options such as composing a new email or checking the inbox, drafts or sent items along with labels were available. Moreover, users can add multiple accounts for the same email provider and simultaneously access both of them. This way, if you have 2 or more accounts in Gmail or Yahoo, you no longer need to sign in and out of each account to access them. No doubt, this will come as a bliss for users with multiple accounts.

The overall layout of the site is impressive and users who still feel the need for more space for feeds can hide both the sidebars by clicking on the left and right arrows of the top of each sidebar respectively. Ads are placed on a thin bottom bar and are non intrusive in nature.

In a nutshell, LiveGo does what it promises, that is, it helps you stay connected with multiple social networks, e-mail accounts and send and receive IM’s at a single place. Users who find themselves wasting more of their time switching among various tabs and windows will find this as a felicity and a one stop solution for most of their online needs.

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The current Apple TV is a small set top box that lets one buy and stream content from iTunes. A few years back, before Apple released this product, a set top box with a built-in DVR is what the rumor mills predicted. They got a set top box but without a DVR.

The Apple TV is a sleek unit that lets you in to Apple’s walled garden with the finesse that only Apple can match. It also lets you play content from any of your other iDevices using Airplay. It’s not perfect, but it works. And that is where the problem lies. It is one of the few Apple devices that is designed to work with products from other manufacturers. Infact, it depends on a television that Apple doesn’t produce… yet. You know the kind of television sets that companies such as Samsung produce.

Let’s talk about the latest Apple TV rumors now. The rumor mill is now predicting a new Apple  product that will be an actual television set. Not a set top box, but an actual physical television set. That’d, I presume, remove use for the current Apple TV. Now, I see why Apple would want such a product, a) They hate depending on other manufacturers and b) If Samsung, LG and the like can make a TV and profit from it, they can damn well do it too.

Both a) and b) are valid reasons for Apple to jump into the television market but herein lies the problem.

The television market is not a very profitable market. It takes a huge amount of investment to manufacturer television sets, which is not a problem for Apple, but the margins are wafer thin. The game of wafer thin margins is not one which Apple likes to play.

The other problem is differentiation. If you’ve tried buying a television in the last few years, like I have, you’d realize the amount of choice the consumers have. So much choice, in fact, that it’s virtually impossible to distinguish one set from the other. Now, you may say, that this is a problem that is right up Apple’s sleeves, and I’d have to agree with you but I’d also have a counter point to that saying that while Apple may be able to distinguish them from the other manufacturers, how are they going to sell their TV to a consumer that might not want to upgrade it for the next 10 years. Will it even be worth it for Apple to setup a huge supply chain, make room in Apple stores and employ armies of support staff for installation and troubleshooting of TVs to sell a device that a customer buys once in 7-10 years?

Why wouldn’t Apple continue to invest in the current Apple TV ecosystem, make it the best set top box in it’s category, add DVR like features and open up the platform to third party apps ?

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The researcher broke this news on his blog and all hell broke loose !

All the major cell phone manufacturers and carriers scrambled to announce via press releases how Carrier IQ’s software is really harmless and is only installed for ‘diagnostic’ purposes. The company Carrier IQ also issued a press release how this whole thing was a non-issue and blamed everything back on the manufacturers and carriers.

I’m still surprised how this even managed to stay under the radar for this long. I live a big part of my life online to really worry about privacy, but this is HUGE. My phone which forms a big part of my life is sending data about me to a third party company without my permission.

Even if the data being sent is insignificant, I still think this is a pretty big deal. The US govt has launched an investigation against the company while major carriers such as sprint have announced that they’re ‘disabling’ Carrier IQ on their phones. Yes, disabling, Not removing.

Anyone remember the Location Gate saga? And the mainstream press’s reaction when that news broke?  I don’t understand why this is not being played up as much as it should be.

I understand that Apple is an easy target and well, any news and negative news, even more so, about Apple sells but why treat them on a different pedestal subject to a different level of scrutiny.

If you’re really worried about privacy, don’t carry a cellphone. Even if you carry a regular feature phone, the carrier ALWAYS knows your location and where you’ve been. The carriers need this information to serve you. Of course, they don’t need to read your texts to your loved ones or details about each and every call that you’ve made but that is for the investigating agencies to find out.

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Indeed, we interact with these two aspects frequently and thus change is necessary to avoid monotony, but what about the lock screen? Every time we unlock our phone its the lock screen that greets us so why don’t we change that frequently?

There used to be a time when the idea of changing the lock screen required rooting the phone or flashing a custom ROM both of which are without doubt a bit risky when compared to the outcome.

Today I will tell you about an all new Android app, Magic Locker, which will make the process of changing the lock screen a cake walk and the best thing is that you don’t need a rooted phone to use the app.

Magic Locker is a simple yet powerful lock screen application for Android.

To get started, download and install the Magic Locker main app from the Android Market. By default the main application contains one theme, Lost Robot, and you can apply it instantly to change your lock screen.

To install new themes you will have to download and install individual Magic Locker theme files from the market. Just do a quick search for MagicLockerTheme in the market and install the ones you like.

After you install a Magic Locker theme app, you will have to run the theme app and press Install this theme . The theme will then integrate to your main app just like the Lost Robot theme

Now every time you need to change your Android lock screen you just need to open Magic Locker and apply your desired theme.

Here are some of the amazing features of the app worth mentioning.

Amazing Features

• You can activate phone, SMS and Camera directly from the lock screen.
• A user can easily change the shortcuts to open any other application.
• You can use the application on custom ROMs. I tested the application on Samsung Galaxy S running MIUI and it worked without any hiccups.
• You can easily customize the date, time and wallpaper.
• Support system security pattern (settings->Location and security->Set up screen lock. For HTC: Settings-> Security->Set up screen lock)

So what will be your fist new lock screen, will it be an iPhone or an HTC sense inspired theme?

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If the problem is small I usually instruct them step by step over the phone and hang up with a credit note, but when the problem becomes complex it becomes quiet difficult to explain everything over the phone. In such cases I tell them that I need to be see the problem in person to come up with a solution.

Now, if your relative lives just couple of blocks away paying a visit to solve the issue will not be a problem, but what if they live miles away or may be at the other end of the Globe.

For such scenarios I prefer using a Remote Desktop application, but again setting up one can be so tricky that it becomes a problem in itself.

Just a few days back I was going through the Chrome web store’s productivity section and got my hands on an amazing application called the Chrome Remote Desktop.The Chrome Remote Desktop as the name suggests allows a user to remotely access another computer through the Chrome browser.

The application is pretty east to use. Just install the plugin on both the computers and allow all the privacy permissions at the time of initialization.

Now, if you want to host your computer you must select Share This Computer and mail the unique sharing code that the application generates for you, to your friend.

The person who wants to Access a shared computer must choose the respective option and enter the unique code mailed to him.

As the application takes a lot of resources while hosting a remote desktop, make sure you don’t have any unnecessary pages open on your browser. Also the quality of the remote desktop will depend on your internet connectivity speed.

Verdict

Chrome Remote Desktop is an excellent way to easily setup a remote desktop without any hassle but the performance is just average. As the program is still in beta phase and there is a lot of scope for future improvement, I am sure it will be fixed and improved in the upcoming releases.

Are you the resident IT geek in your neighborhood ? How do you remotely help your friends and relatives with their computer problems ?

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Now, let’s take a look at two more search engines that do their job remarkably well.

Pipl

If you’ve pronounced it correctly, chances are that you’ve already guessed what it is about. In case you haven’t, it lets you find people on the web. Pipl promises to find anyone on the web, be it an old friend, lost relative, childhood crush, business contact or anyone else whose name you can remember. Even if can’t recall the name, don’t worry. You can still search using keywords like email id, username or even the phone number.

Traditional search engines, while searching for content, usually only search static web pages. However, details of personnel are often stored in databases rather than static pages and are not found by traditional search engines. This is where Pipl comes into play. It finds information from what it calls the “deep web” and yields highly accurate results.

Using the site is as easy as it could get. Visit the Pipl homepage and enter the detail of the person you are looking for and hit the search button. A list of all the matched contacts will be displayed, some even with a display picture. If you still cannot find the person you are looking for, try refining your search by entering a location, age or any other tag.

The picture below shows the search results for “Sachin Tendulkar”.

Depending on the availability, search results include details such as photo, address, contact number and profile links to social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, Myspace, Twitter and many more.

The search results are impressive and if you ever need to find someone, Pipl should be the first place you should be looking at.

SimilarSites

Hundreds and thousands of sites are created and launched on the internet every day. Even though many of them have great content and worth, it’s a tough job discovering them. Similarsites is a website that helps us find alternatives to the sites we know of.

All it needs is the name of a familiar site or topic from the user and it shows a list of the sites that are similar to it, along with its similarity score. The results are laudable.

Other than the list for similar websites, there are also tabs for “Also Visited” sites, “Keyword Density”, “Top Sites” and “Reviews”. The top sites tab, however, is particularly impressive as it shows the best ranked sites in several of the topics similar to the search term. No doubt, it’s a great way to discover new websites that are related to the users’ preferences.

Take a look at the results obtained when I searched for Youtube.com:

The site also provides extensions for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari browsers. Installing the extension removes the need to visit the website each time to search for similar sites. Simply visit any site and hit the SimilarSite button on the browser to see the results.

If you are an avid surfer and like to discover new websites, then SimilarSites is a service that you certainly can’t miss out.

Do you use any specialized search engine for your needs? Do let me know in the comments below.

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Seriously! Why are we afraid of paid apps? Their only crime is that they come with a price tag that’s set by its developer as a price for his hard work.

If you think you’re convinced enough, let’s have a look at the apps, but before I start, let me tell you, I have compiled this list keeping in mind people who work in offices and businesses but even if you don’t fall in this category I still insist you have a look. Who knows you might find something interesting enough to pay for.

DocumentsToGo

As the name suggests DocumentsToGo gives you the power to create, edit and view your office documents on the go. You can work on Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and view the PDF files. If you work on Google Docs you can directly work on the cloud with this app.

One of the best features about the application is synchronization. If you have fully synced your documents on your PC with your smartphone then any edits made in either location will automatically sync it with the other.

If you think you don’t require the features to edit or create documents and just need a viewer you can opt for the free version.

EasyTether

EasyTether is useful for people who need to work even when they are on a vacation and have activated a decent data plan on their Android device. This application allows you to share your phone’s internet connection with a PC (Windows 7/Vista/XP 64-bit/32-bit, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Fedora 13+) via a USB cable.

The application does not require root access and works on almost all Android versions. Even though, this functionality is now built-in to most Android phones, if you carrier for some reason has blocked it, you can use this application to still tether your laptop or PC to your phone.

Executive Assistant+

Having an assistant at work can be really helpful but not everyone can afford one, but I am sure everyone can spare some for Executive Assistant+.

Just like a real assistant, the app will give you information regarding your incoming emails, SMS, Missed Calls, Calendar Events, Tasks, Notes and your social media timeline all at one place.

I don’t think I need to convince you more about how helpful this app can be.

BlackList Pro

Are you fed up of unwanted calls and text messages? If your answer is yes, BlackList Pro will take all your pains away. This is a simple app, but is enriched with powerful features to manage unwanted calls/texts from anyone.

There is a free version as well but if you want full control, getting the Pro version is what I advice.

MyBackup Pro

If I ask you, why do you think that your phone is not just an ordinary phone, but a smartphone. I am sure you will talk think about applications, emails, notes, games and so much more that you can accomplish with your phone. Most of us use our smartphones as an extension of our brain and thus we can’t afford the loss of any data.

MyBackup Pro is your friend. It’s the easiest way to backup your Android phone. MyBackup Pro will work on all Android mobile devices, wether they are rooted or not.

If you have a rooted device, Titanium Backup is also another good app that you can use.

So what do you think of our list ? Did I miss something? Do let me know in the comments below.

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Take a look at these two websites that provide an excellent platform for movie buffs to hang out together and share their movie experiences online.

iCheckMovies

iCheckMovies is a simple and user friendly website that does lets you keep track of all the movies that you’ve ever seen. All you need to do is create your profile and start striking off the movies that you’ve seen till date. In return, you get rewards and rank depending on the number of movies you have seen.

An interesting feature of the site is neighbors, which are users having the highest movie compatibility with you. You can become friends, exchange messages and view the compatibility details of your movie neighbors  and of other users on the website. Another feature worth mentioning is the “Recommended for you” section. It lists down the movies that you have not yet seen but which the website believes that will interest you.

iCheckMovies has a huge list of movies and all the movies that I could think of were present. Movies are categorized into lists such as All time top 250, Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Horror, Crime, Romance, Sci-fi, 1990’s 2000’s, 2010’s and many more.

iCheckMovies is a great platform for those who like to discover new movies that might interest them and meet new people with similar film interests.

FilmBuffet

FilmBuffet is a one of its kind social network for movie lovers. It provides a great platform for movie fans to share their experiences online.

Users can either register with the site or login using their Facebook credentials. Once logged in, one can start adding movies to one’s collection, rate and mark them as Seen, Plan to See, Own it, Add to wish list or Add to favorites. Users can browse movies according to popularity and ratings, reviews, discussions or according to genre such as Drama, Musical, War, Mystery-Suspense, Comedy, Crime and more.

The home tab shows the most recent activity of the user and the recently discussed movies. A useful section at the bottom lists the Top Box Office movies, Opening This Week and Coming Soon films. You can even read reviews written by other users, rate them or write your own reviews. A groups feature allows you to create groups and to join other groups.

All in all, the site can serve as a great hangout for all movie enthusiasts and with an active circle of friends it might even become an addiction that is hard to resist.

Don’t forget to let us know how you fulfill your movie cravings online, and also how you found the above mentioned websites.

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