After the beta launch of Google wave on 30th September, it has become a craze among netizens. But only a privileged few got access to Wave as Google initially invited only 100, 000 people that includes developers, Apps customer and general public. Like any net crazy person, even I was waiting to be lucky on 30th September to get the invitation from google as I requested for Wave invite in the very early days, but I got lucky only a few days back when I saw that much awaited email from wave-noreply@google.com in my gmail inbox. This is the email I received from Google.

Though I received it 2 days back, I am posting t only now as I am completely stuck with so many works at this moment (Hopefully everything will be fine and I can start my normal blogging again).

And as I have become lucky to get the wave invite, and all of you know that a person receiving direct invitation from google for Google Wave can invite upto 8 of his friends in order to test this system better by collaborating with them in realtime. Right now I have a few invitations left with me and I am sure many of the millions of netizens including the readers of Techie Zone are still looking for a google wave invite, I take this privileged to share 3 Google Wave invites with the esteemed readers of Techie Zone.

In order to be eligible for the invite, you just need to do a simple task:

1. Twit this Post link from your twitter account or Publish it in Facebook and write a comment pointing to your twitter/facebook page link where you posted and leave your gmail ID in the email field of the comment form. Also write whay you want wave in a few words.

2. Share this link in any of the social bookmark sites like Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Mixx, Furl. You can find the share link at the bottom of the post.  Once you share it, please provide your social bookmark account name in the comment section and put your gmail ID in the email field of the comment form. Also write whay you want wave in a few words.

This will be open for 6 days and I will choose 3 winners on Next Thursday ( 22nd Oct which is my Birth day as well launch date for Windows 7) and publish the names. Afterward I will send them the invite.

So do not make delay and get ready with action to join the league of Extra Ordinary Wave users.

Update:

As promised, today on 22nd October, I am announcing the list of 3 readers who will be getting wave invite from me. And the readers are:

Donnie

Ricardo

Mathdelane

I will be sending the invite to you guys today and hopefully you will receive it by Friday. The invites as you know do not go instantly. Happy waving guys…

The iPhone has set about reinventing the smartphone market over the last couple of years and one of the most innovative functions it offers is the App store. iPhone owners can browse and download tens of thousands of different applications for free or for a small fee. Some apps are fun, others are useful and some are plain bizarre and these are the best apps available at the moment.

Twitter Vision

The microblogging phenomenon that is Twitter has been widely accepted as a powerful tool of communication and comment. With this app you can turn the twittersphere into a work of art. This utilizes the internet connectivity of the iPhone and allows you to view random tweets in real time as they pop up. It will also place these tweets on a map of the globe so that you know where they are coming from. Both soothing and addictive, this is one of the best Twitter based applications for the iPhone.

Shazam

This has been a must have app for a while, but it is easy to see why when you think about the potential it offers. Shazam will let you hold up your iPhone to a speaker and then provide you with information about whatever song is playing. You will never have to scratch your head in bewilderment again when a famous song you just cannot place comes on the radio.

WordPress

From the microblogging of Twitter we move on to the fully fledge publishing platform that is WordPress. If you already have a blog with WordPress and you want to keep it updated on the go then this is the only application that you will need. You can access all of the same features with this app as you would if you were using a PC or laptop, including tagging and categorizing your posts and of course you can do all this wherever you are in the world.

The iPhone is packed full of multimedia functionality and this is largely responsible for the innovative and entertaining range of applications that are available. It is the built in motion sensitive controls that make applications which can be manipulated with a flick of the wrist a possibility. The iPhone is also the perfect app and media playing platform thanks to the large internal storage. The latest version, the iPhone 3Gs, is available with up to 32GB of internal hard drive space, which is more than enough for all your apps and videos. The iPhone is particularly popular because of its range of connectivity options. If you are in range of a wireless network you can connect to the internet via the built in Wi-Fi, which means you can give your 3G connection a rest. You can also use the iPhone to help you plan journeys and find out where you are, thanks to built in GPS. In conjunction with various mapping applications you can scope out the surroundings and also find out more about the local sights and eateries. With all these capabilities combined with a drop dead gorgeous design, it is easy to see why the iPhone is such a popular gadget.

Recently you shifted to a different country and you suddenly finds that the new cartridge you purchased for your lovely HP printer does not print at all. What the Hell, you always believe in genuine products so you get only genuine accessories by selling out huge money ( HP ink is the costliest liquid in the world), but this insane printer does not print.  Do not get surprised in such a scenario as both the printer as well as your new cartridge are fine. The reason it is not printing is because of a technology called pen regionalization used by HP to prevent piracy.

HP has divided its marketing into four regions or zones. New Zealand is under Zone 1 whereas London is under Zone 2. The All-in-Ones purchased in zone 1 would also work fine in zone 2 till the pre-shipped ink cartridges of the All-in-One run. Once they ran out of ink, and you buy a new cartridge in a different zone, you will have issues with printing or the printer will not response even if you have a full cartridge. To make the All-in-One work with the regional (zone 2) cartridges it needs to be regionalized. The process is called as “Pen Regionalization”. Another thing, let me inform you that the All-in-One can be regionalized for only three times. The third time you regionalize the All-in-One, it will accustomed to that particular region.

So if you buy a HP 338 catridge in London which comes in Zone 2, you will require to do pen initialization in order to be able to use this catridge with the All in One purchased in Zone 1.

Remember: We can regionalize the printer only 3 times in it’s whole lifetime.

Steps to regionalize:

Do the following steps to regionalize your All in One:

To regionalize the printer we need to keep both the cartridges of any one zone. We cannot use a mix of cartridges from both the zone. So, it is suggested you replace both the zone 1 cartridges with two new Zone 2 cartridges.

For example:

Black inkjet print cartridge: HP 338 or HP 336 ( They differ only in content of ink )

Tri-color inkjet print cartridge: HP 342 or HP 343 ( They differ only in content of ink )

Please, perform the following steps to to print a 10-Tap test page.

1. Press and hold the Cancel / Resume button, then press the Start Copy Color button.
2. Release the buttons. The 10-Tap test prints. You should be seeing a printed page with following type of information:

PX values from line 16
PX values from line 53
PX values from line 63
RX value from line 25 in the page.
Line 11 SN,
Line 21 PG,
Line 52 ID,
Line 62 ID,
Line 26 RC value.

Please contact HP support with the details of the 10 tap test page and they will do the rest of the things to reset it.

It feels so irritating when your PC with GHz of processor and Gigs of RAM runs at a snail’s pace.  You think that you spent so much money and got a garbage which does not live upto your expectation. But never get disheartened it is only you who is responsible for this behavior of your PC and if you want to blame any one you should do it to yourself.  Let me tell that following a proper maintenance schedule for your PC and performing couple of steps I will be discussing below will always run your PC faster.

Close all open programs not being used:

Only use necessary software programs. Minimizing a software program may not stop it from using the computer processor and memory. Being connected to the Internet, listening to music and running virus scans all use large amounts of system resources. Operate virus scans and other system tools when away from the computer for extended periods. Work offline when convenient. Closing software programs that are not necessary helps Windows perform more efficiently.

Prevent back ground programs from starting:

As software programs start, small icons display on the system tray (usually these icons are in the lower-right corner of the screen, next to the date/time). Each of these small icons represents a program operating in the background, and each one uses system resources. Follow these steps to close them:

- Click Start, and then click Run.

- Type the following into the Open field: msconfig and click on OK.

- The System Configuration Utility opens

- Next, click the General tab and then click Selective Startup.

- Click the Startup tab and remove the check marks from any unwanted tasks. If unsure about a task, write the name down and research it on the Internet later.

Do not remove a checkmark if you do not know what the task is (if possible, do not close Backweb, MotiveMonitor, or Vshield).

- Click OK to accept the changes. Restart the computer.

- If Windows or other software programs stop working after removing a checkmark, from a task you were unsure about, restart the computer in Safe Mode and reverse these procedures to replace the checkmark.

Press F8 after the blue HP startup screen (after the computer has been turned on) to enter Safe mode.

By completing these steps, Windows will use Selective Startup. This means that Windows prevents the selected software programs from starting. All of the selected software programs will start if Selective Startup is disabled.

Remove icons from the Startup folder:

Use the following steps to prevent unwanted software programs from starting:

- With all applications closed, right-click in the Windows desktop, and select New and Folder. Name the folder notstartup. This folder will store the unused icons and make them available if required later.

- Right-click Start, and then click Open. Windows should open the Start Menu folder.

- Double-click Programs.

- Locate and double-click Startup.
- Any software programs with icons in Startup start when Windows starts. Right-click any of these icons and select Properties to reveal more information about the software program.

- While holding down the CTRL key, click the icons to be removed from the startup folder.

- Click Edit, and then click Cut.

- Close the open windows to return to the Windows desktop.

- Double-click the Notstartup folder created in Step 1.
- From the Edit menu, click Paste to insert the icons into this folder.

- Restart the computer.

Emptying the Recycle Bin:

- From the Windows desktop, double-click Recycle Bin.

- Restore any mistakenly deleted items by highlighting each file, and then from the File menu, click Restore.
- From the File menu, click Empty Recycle Bin. Windows will remove the contents of the Recycle Bin from the hard disk (C: is most common). Click Yes to confirm.

- Close the Recycle Bin.

Deleting temporary files and directories:

- Click Start, click Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
- Place a check next to Temporary Files and then click OK.

Running CheckDisk and Disk Defragmenter:

- Click Start, and then click My Computer.

- Right-click on the hard drive’s icon (usually C:\).

- Click Properties, and then click the Tools tab.

- Click Check Now.

- Place checkmarks in all checkboxes.

- Click OK, and then click Yes to schedule a full disk scan when the computer restarts.

- Restart the computer. The disk scan can take a long time to complete.

Follow these steps to perform Disk Defragmenter:

- Close all software programs. This includes background software programs such as virus scanners.
- Click Start, click Programs or All Programs, click Accessories, and then click System Tools.

- Click Disk Defragmenter. Follow the onscreen instructions. If Disk Defragmenter starts itself repeatedly, then a hidden background program is still accessing the hard drive. Restart the computer in Safe mode run Disk Defragmenter again.

Memory leaks and restarting Windows:

A memory leak is unused memory that cannot be used by any software program. Over time, unused memory builds up, causing Windows to slow down and use the hard drive more. Memory leaks are occurring if the HP Pavilion runs well when first turned on, but performs noticeably slower after opening and closing several software programs.

Memory leaks can occur if a software program is closed before it has fully opened. Always allow programs to load completely. As a rule, wait 10 to 20 seconds after a software program starts before closing it again, even if the program was opened unintentionally.

To immediately repair memory leaks, restart the computer. To resolve the problem permanently, isolate the software program causing the leaks by using the following steps:

- Start a fresh session of Windows by shutting down, then turning on the computer.

- Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop and then click Properties. In Windows XP press CTR + ALT + DELETE.

- Click the Performance tab. Note the percentage next to System Resources. In Windows XP, this is the amount of available physical memory.

- Open a software program suspected of causing the computer to run more slowly.

- View the System Resources percentage or the amount of physical memory again and write it down.
- Close and re-open a suspected software program repeatedly, comparing this number to the one recorded. Each time, wait about 10 seconds before opening again.

- If the system resources percentage or available physical memory continues to decrease, then a memory leak is occurring. Contact the vendor for the software program for available patches or solutions.

- If the System Resource percentage or available physical memory returns to the same numbers each time, then the suspected software program is probably not creating a memory leak.

Free space on the hard drive:

Windows uses the free space on the main (usually C:\) hard drive for different types of operations such as caching data and holding virtual memory. The computer may not run reliably if the free disk space drops below five percent of the total disk space.

- To see how much free space is available on the hard drive, double-click My Computer, located on the desktop. Right-click the hard drive (C:\ is most common), and select Properties.

Use the following steps to remove unwanted software programs and increase hard drive space:

- Click Start, click Settings, and then click ControlPanel.

- Double-click Add/Remove Programs.

- Click the Install/Uninstall tab. Select unused software programs.

- Click the program name, click the Add/Remove or Change/Remove button, and then click OK.

- When done, a prompt may appear to restart Windows. After Windows removes the unwanted software programs, restart the computer system.

- You can also delete any unwanted files from harddrive like music and videos as they take large amount of space.

Have you ever come across situations when you keep on looking for that important power point presentation you prepared for your client or your baby’s birth day videos or the pictures of your summer trip?? But you can not locate those precious files in your PC and later remember that while cleaning your hard drive you might have inadvertently deleted those. You try all possible ways to get those files, looked for your back up but oh..you have never worried to take a backup. You contacted tech support, but how on the earth they can help you in getting back those deleted files. Do not worry you still have an option left to get back all those lost files, that is by using a data recovery program.

Windows or any other operating systems does not have built in functionality to recover any deleted files. If you are thinking that doing a system restore or system recovery you can get back those precious files, you are wrong. As system restore and system recovery serve a completely different purpose. So the only way you can recover your deleted files is by using a data recovery program. There are a host of data recovery programs available in the market  and all of them promise a lot of features and looks equally competitive when you see them as a user perspective. Hence it becomes very difficult to make a choice. Let me help you here and provide an in depth review of a feature rich well known data recovery program called Stellar Phoenix data recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery software is a powerful data recovery application to recover lost, deleted, or corrupted data, hard drive partitions, photos, audios and videos in almost all logical data loss scenarios. Incorporated with striking set of elements like disk cloning, e-mail recovery and drive status, the software supports FAT32, VFAT and NTFS file systems.

Features of Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery:

1. It can recover deleted files, photos, videos and e-mails.

2. It can recover lost and formatted logical drives and partitions.

3. Can recover data from hard drive and USB drive and also support Raw Recovery from CD and USB drives.

4. Offers 2 types of scanning e.g Quick scan and deep scan offering advanced scanning methods to recover deleted files.

5. It offers cloning as well as disk imaging. With the help of cloning you can create an identical copy of your hard drive. Imaging option creates an image of hard drive even if it has bad sectors.

6. It offers a comprehensive hard drive status for all volumes and a much better scan disk utility than the one built-in to Windows.

7. Supports recovery of data from PCs which are not booting with the help of a bootable CD which can be obtained upon request.

8. Can be used with a wide range of Windows version, starting from Windows 2000 to  Windows 7 RC1. I am currently using this program with Windows 7 RC1.

9. It offers you 30 days money back guarantee.

The complete list of features of the Stellar Phoenix data recovery program is available in the developer’s website.

This program also comes as a free demo version, which offers you to view the files that can be recovered. So if you really want to get those files back you can go ahead and purchase it.

Installation:

The installation of the program is very easy. In order to install, first download Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery program and save it on desktop.

Double click on the downloaded file StellarPhoenixWindowsDataRecovery-Setup and proceed with the installation wizard.

Once it is installed, you need to activate if you have purchased it. You might have received a license key which can be used to activate the full version. Activation can be done over the Internet or by e-mail or by sending the license key to stellar info system for manual activation. If your PC is connected to Internet then activation/registration over the Internet is the easiest method.

To activate it over Internet, start the stellar data recovery program and click on the i icon at the top left. Click on Register button, it will check for Internet connection and show you the registration wizard and you should see a window like this:

Put the serial number received through e-mail and click Next. It will be connected to the registration server and it will be registered. Click on Finish.

Usage:

The usage of the Stellar data recovery program is not limited to a single task or two, but it provides many functionality as discussed in the features section.  Here let me take you through some important usages:

Recover data :

In order to start recovering data, open the stellar data recovery program by double clicking on the desktop icon and under data recovery section on the main screen you will see various options like  Quick recovery, deleted File recovery, Formatted Lost files/folders recovery and Search Lost volumes. Each of these option serve a specific purpose. Mouse over individual option and you will see the task performed by that option.

Recover E-mails:

If you are looking for recovering Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook mails from a corrupted pst or dbx file, click on E-mail recovery on the main screen and click on appropriate option. For example clicking on Microsoft Outlook E-mail recovery will take you to the following screen:

Here you need to specify the location of the .pst file or let the program search for the pst file. Leave the other options untouched and click on Start scan. It will show all folders and emails stored in the recovered .pst file.

Checking drive status and scan disk:

To check the status of hard drive, open Stellar Phoenix data recovery program and click on Advance options tab. Click on Drive status option and you will see the drive status window.

This screen will show all information pertaining to the hard drive. In order to scan the drive to check for bad blocks, click on Scan disk at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Cloning and Imaging:

In the advance options tab, click on Drive Imaging option and it will show Create Image and Clone Disk options. Image can be created for an entire hard drive or a volume, CD, DVD or thumb drive. Image files of CD and DVD can be used for RAW recovery option. You can even specify a region for which you want to create an image.

Disk cloning is used to create an exact copy of the hard drive. This will take exactly the same size as the hard drive. So you need to have enough storage space available on an external hard drive or an internal drive to store the clone. You need to specify both source and target drive in the clone disk option window.

The stellar phoenix data recovery program is a worth investment and it will give value for your money. So you will never have fear of loosing anything in your PC.

From the day computer was invented, the notorious minds are busy countering the development and create havoc. The malicious programs written by them to cause widespread damage to computers across the world are known as virus. During the early days these programs were aimed towards stand alone PCs as there were very less number of privileged people having access to Internet and only a fraction of the PCs were part of network. As the computing technology improved and Internet played a major role in people’s life, the virus creators aimed attacking through Internet to cause more damage in lesser time. especially the last decade has seen enormous amount of damage caused due to VIRUS. Here I have listed the 10 most notorious virus attacks till date.

Elk Cloner (1982)

Elk Cloner is regarded as the first virus to hit personal computers worldwide, “Elk Cloner” spread through Apple II floppy disks. The program was authored by Rich Skrenta, a ninth-grade student then, who wanted to play a joke on his schoolmates. The virus was put on a gaming disk, which could be used 49 times. On 50th time, instead of starting the game, it opened a blank screen that read a poem: “Elk Cloner:  The program with a personality” It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips. Yes it’s Cloner! It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too. Send in the Cloner!” The computer would then be infected. Elk Cloner was though a self-replicating virus like most other viruses, it bore little resemblance to the malicious programmes of today.

Brain (1986)

Brain was the first virus to hit computers running Microsoft’s then popular operating system MS-DOS. The virus was written by two Pakistani brothers, Basit Farooq Alvi and his brother Amjad Farooq Alvi and left the phone number of their computer repair shop. A boot-sector virus, Brain infected the boot records of 360K floppy disks. The virus would fill unused space on the floppy disk so that it could not be used. The first “stealth” virus, it hid itself from any detection by disguising the infected space on the disk. Due to its partial non-destructiveness, Brain often went undetected as many times users paid little attention to the slow speed of floppy disk access. The virus was also known as Lahore, Pakistani and Pakistani Brain. BusinessWeek magazine called the virus the Pakistani flu. The brothers told TIME magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from piracy and it was supposed to target copyright infringers only.

Morris (1988)

Written by a Cornell University graduate student, Robert Tappan Morris, the virus infected an estimated 6,000 university and military computers connected over the Internet. Incidentally, Morris’s father was a top government computer-security expert, The computers Morris invaded were part of the Arpanet, an international grid of telephone lines, buried cables, and satellite hookups established by the Department of Defense in 1969. Interestingly, Morris later claimed that the worm was not written to cause damage, but to gauge the size of the Internet. An unintended consequence of the code, however, led to the damage caused.

CIH (1998)

Chernobyl virus also known as CIH or Spacefiller was first detected in 1998, however, it first triggered in April 1999, 13th the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (which took place in Ukrainian). It was conceived by a University graduate from Taiwan called Chen Ing Hau (CIH). One of the most harmful viruses, it overwrites critical information on infected system drives. The virus was reportedly the first virus known to have the power to damage computer hardware, with virus attempting to erase the hard drive and overwrite the system’s BIOS as well. The virus is also known as “space filler virus,” due to its ability to clandestinely take up file space on computers and prevent anti-virus software from running. The malicious program caused widespread damage in several Asian countries paralyzing thousands of computers.

Melissa (1999)

‘Melissa’ was one of the first viruses to spread over email. When users opened an attachment, the virus sent copies of itself to the first 50 people in the user’s address book, covering the globe within hours. The virus known as Melissa — believed to have been named after a Florida stripper its creator David L. Smith knew, caused more than $80m in damage after it was launched in March 1999. Computers became infected when users received a particular e-mail and opened a Word document attached to it. First found on March 26, 1999, Melissa shut down Internet mail systems at several enterprises across the world after being they got clogged with infected e-mails carrying the worm. The worm was first distributed in the Usenet discussion group alt.sex. The creator of the virus, David Smith, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment by a United States court.

Like every sunday, today also me, Suraj and Harpreet went to have lunch outside and we happened to enter into an electronics shop nearby the hotel. Suraj was planning to buy a mobile in exchange of hs old phone. But being a gadget freak how can I control myself when some one else is buying a new phone infront of me. Anyway the last Sony ericsson P990i mobile I purchased was more than a year ago, and this was recently handed over to my cousin. So I somewhere inside me I was also looking to get a new phone. Finally both me and Suraj zeroed in on ASUS PDA phone. Suraj got the ASUS p320 mobile and I got the one and only ASUS P565.

The USP of the ASUS P565 model is the 800MHz processor from Marvel. In a PDA, 800MHz processor is quite a lot. You will feel the power of processor once you start using this phone. With 128MB RAM (and 256MB ROM) it runs faster than my 2GB RAM and 3.2GHz processor with Windows 7 in my laptop. Look wise this ASUS P565 looks very sexy and with only 120gm weight and just 16 mm thickness it is quite light. My Sony Ericsson P990i was quite bulky as well as heavy. So here a little sigh of relief.

Here goes the details feature and specification of the ASUS P565 mobile:

- It has an ASUS proprietary mobile touch screen technology called Glide.
- High-resolution 2.8” touchscreen for exceptional clarity and brilliance
- A very powerful 800MHz processor (My first PC had only 766MHz Pentium 3 with 64 MB RAM)

Specification:

System HSDPA 3.6Mbps, UMTS 2100/EDGE/GPRS/GSM 900/1800/1900
Operation System Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.1™ Professional
Dimensions 102 x 60.5 x 16 mm
Weight 120g with battery
Standby Time 3G: 300 hours and 2G: 250 hours
Talk Time 3G: 4 hours and 2G: 6 hours

Display 2.8″ Touch Screen ,65000-color , TFT Resolution: 480 x 640

CPU Marvell PXA930 800MHz
Memory Built-in 256MB Flash ROM and 128MB DDR SDRAM
Expansion Slot MicroSD (support SDHC)
Communication WLAN 802.11b/g, Bluetooth V2.0+EDR,USB v1.1
Battery 1300mAh Li-Ion
Camera 3 Mega-Pixels, Auto Focus (Main) and 300K-Pixels Camera for Video Telephony (Sub)
Video Record:MPEG4@QVGA 24fps / H.263@QCIF 24fps
Playback:MPEG4@QVGA 30fps / H.263@QCIF 30fps
Picture Format JPEG/PNG/GIP/BMP
Audio MP3/WMA/AAC/AAC+/3GP
JAVA J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP2.0)

I will take some screen shot and image of the phone and post them later, if possible I will write a review of the phone very soon, once I feel that I have used it enough to know about all the pros and cons of this mobile. But as of now I am quite happy with this phone and will do a lot of experiment for few days.

How many gadgets freak do you know who are not interested to own an iPhone. I do not think there are any. Apple iPhone especially the iPhone 3G has created a rage among gadget savvy as well as normal users. It is not only a mobile but a personal entertainment device on the go. But not every one is lucky to use an iPhone like those in US or Europe. This is because firstly till date iPhone has not been released worldwide and secondly iPhone is not sold over the counter in a gadget shop rather it is sold along with a mobile service. So even if it is released in your country you do not have the option to use it along with your favorite carrier and the carrier which provides iPhone charge an extremely non-affordable plan (outside US). For example an 8GB iPhone comes with a price tag of approximately INR 30,000 from Airtel and almost same from Vodafone in India. However the same phone in US from AT&T is available for approx USD 199.

To avoid this discrepancies and to make the iPhone accessible by general public the concept of unlocking iPhone came out. So let me tell about what exactly is unlocking or an unlocked iPhone.  Unlocking lets you place calls with any GSM carrier by inserting different Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) into the phone. Normally these SIMs from unapproved carriers won’t work. When your iPhone is unlocked, just buy a local GSM-compatible SIM, place it in your phone, and make your calls. Most phones in the US are “locked” to a particular network. In the iPhone’s case, that’s AT&T for the US, O2 for Great Britain, and so on. Should you want to use your iPhone with another GSM carrier, you need to unlock.

When Apple released the latest 2.1.1 version of the iPhone firmware it is no longer possible to unlock iPhone via software. But there are iPhone unlocking service providers which provides very reliable unlocking service. The method is thoroughly tested with SIMs from various countries and it is working fine without any hassle. So how does this method work?

The 3G iPhone unlock solution is a hardware unlock solution in the form of a ‘piggy back sim’. This hardware unlock solution is a plug and play solution that will instantly unlock your 3G iPhone. The 3G iPhone Unlock SIM is a super thin ( 0,01 mm.) sim card that slides over the sim card of the carrier that you want to use. It basically “fools” the iPhone into thinking that the original SIM is inserted.

The 3G Unlock SIM unlock sim card will not make any changes to the iPhone software. Its a simple plug and play solution. Just slide the 3G unlock sim on top of your existing carrier sim, and your 3G iPhone will be fully unlocked with all functions working. The main benefit of a hardware unlock solution is so you will not loose any warranty at all.

For more information and demo videos about this unlocking service, you can head over to iPhone 3G unlocking website.

After a long time Microsoft has finally been able to put something interesting in it’s Operating System and this is in the form of Windows XP Mode in it’s forthcoming Windows 7. Windows XP mode in Windows 7 is the current buzzword of the industry. All the tech bloggers are covering this topic more or less, so even I am in the fray now. First of all let me tell what exactly is the XP mode in Windows 7. It is a feature available in Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise edition where in from Windows 7, we can run Windows XP like a native Operating System on our PC. In earlier version of Windows Microsoft had an option called Compatibility mode and according to Microsoft this enabled users to run older program (meant for older version of Windows) in newer version of Windows. But this has hardly worked. With the new feature Windows XP Mode in Windows 7 this compatibility mode has been improved to a greater extent as XP mode itself uses a virtual PC based virtualization environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). Moreover this feature is not available out of Box in Windows 7. The end user needs to download it for free from Microsoft Download center. remember something called Windows Ultimate Extras available for Windows Vista Ultimate throiugh Windows Update?

Requirements to take advantage of Windows XP mode feature:

- The PC should be running with Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise edition.
- 2GB RAM and 10-15GB HD space for Virtual environment.
- As it utilizes CPU based virtualization technique the CPU should support it.
- For AMD based AMD-V and Intel based processor Intel-VT should be turned on in BIOS.
- The free download of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode available from Microsoft Download Center.

Microsoft has a detailed document on How to confirm your PC can run Windows XP Mode . Here you can find download of the processor test utility too.

Setting up Virtual XP or Windows XP Mode:

If your PC meets all the above requirements and you have downloaded the 2 set up files from Microsoft, first install the Windows Virtual PC and then install Windows XP Mode. At this stage you might be asked to restart the PC. Upon re start you can run Virtual XP from Start > All programs list. It will ask you to enter the password, in this window check the option Remember credentials (recommended). After this step is complete you will see a wndow that says setting up virtual Windows XP for first use. It may take some time so don’t loose patience.

Now what you will see is a screen like this:

Now you are ready with your Virtual XP set up. It’s time to install a couple of application you wish to run under Windows XP. One thing to remember here is that while installing any apps select All users whenever you are asked else the integration feature will not work properly.

The Windows XP mode has a special feature as compared to Virtual PC or other virtualization technology in which you have to run virtual environment as a separate application. In XP Mode once an application is instaleld in Virtual environment it is published to the host Windows 7 too. It means the application will be availble in Windows 7 start menu. So starting the application will Start the application in Windows 7 but in virtual environment where the virtual PC will be running in the background.

Final thought on Windows XP Mode feature:

It seems Microsoft is not aiming to woo the consumer home users with this feature as it is evident from the fact thatthis feature is available only in windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise edition. So do you think Windows 7 will still be a bete noir to consumers who are upset about Vista’s program compatibility? Only time will tell and we will get to know once Vista RTM is released.

What is the Blue Screen of Death?

The Blue Screen of Death, or simply BSOD, represents an error notoriously associated with Microsoft Windows operating systems. This error is more common on older versions of Windows such as 3.0 and 3.1, but also shows up on later versions such as Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, and even Vista. Although the Windows platform has come a long way in terms of stability and performance, the infamous Blue Screen of Death is still known to make an entrance from time to time. When this nuisance shows up, it often indicates that the system has a critical error.

Identifying the Blue Screen of Death

As the name implies, the Blue Screen of Death is characterized by a blue screen along with text and hexadecimal values that help to determine what caused the problem. When a BSOD occurs, the system is essentially shutting down to protect itself from a particular error. Unfortunately, it often leads to the loss of any data that was not saved before the computer crash occurred.

After encountering the Blue Screen of Death, your computer might automatically shut down or you may be forced to shut it down manually. Once this process is complete, the machine is rebooted and the system typically runs a diagnostics to retrieve data and determine what led to the error.

If you are bombarded with a BSOD error repeatedly, it could be a sign that your computer system is enduring serious problems. When this is the case, you may need to perform a re installation of the operating system or take various troubleshooting steps in order to pinpoint and resolve the issue. Some of these steps may need to be performed in Safe Mode, which provides a stripped down version of the Windows operating system and features an environment that lets you safely troubleshoot various issues.

Analyzing BSOD Codes

Unless you are a computer programmer, the data that is displayed on the blue screen will probably look like unfamiliar gibberish. However, this information is incredibly useful in solving your problems. These codes generally identify the error and its parameters among other details that could help you pinpoint the problem and keep it from occurring again. A knowledgeable computer user can access the information accompanying the Blue Screen of Death and quickly determine the root of the problem. Most of the time, they come to find that it has something to do with the kernel of the operating system, or a hardware device installed on the computer.

Inherent Problems with Computer Systems

Unless you started your computing with newer versions of XP or Vista, you have probably encountered the dreaded Blue Screen of Death with more frequency then you prefer. This is especially true for someone running a more unstable version of the system or one who has made significant modifications to the Windows environment. Although the Windows system has been known for the infamous blue screen and other deficiencies, it isn’t the only platform that endures critical errors. Both Mac OS X and Linux computers encounter similar problems known as Kernel Attacks.