just another blag....

Moshi iGlaze 3G iPhone case

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:24:00 +0000

In a market where even designers are producing expensive accessories for your phone, Moshi have thrown in a sexy little number without charging the earth.

Moshi have produced a cover that not only looks classy and well built, it feels great and adds a bit of class to your iPhone. The Moshi iGlaze is made to protect the rear of the phone, without loosing any of the existing form or dimensions. Measuring in at about three millimetres thick, it slips on perfectly and feels great in your hand. The rubberised finishing adds a bit more quality and grip to the phone, whilst at the same time taking away the annoying tendency of collecting grease and grime on the rear.

Costing nearly £15, the iGlaze has to be one of the best phone covers I have owned and I have owned a few. , This product should be nominated for a Red Dot Award. It is simple and affordable, but most of all fashionable even against a case by Vaja.

Pros

Thin form
Rubber feel
Screen Protector
Wipe down cloth
Price

Cons

Why is there not one made from this material for the Macbook Air.

Rating 5/5

Porsche P3140 shaker pen

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Gadgets come in all forms and don't have to be electronic. Most gadget
pens allow you to write under water or upside down. This Porsche
designed pen is unique. It's classy weighted finish is a sophisticated
item with discrete looks. Not something that common with branded pens.
Ditch the mont blac and get yourself one of these. Shake it and the
pen nib pops out, another shake and it's gone.

It is a very nice everyday pen, but you will have to be willing to
spend that little extra.

The All New iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:28:00 +0000

All keen followers of the latest gadgets will know that iPhone 3G has landed. I picked mine up on launch day and was surprised I even managed to get my hands on one so early. The inbuilt 3G chip has made surfing the web a lot easier and allows you to get speeds similar to that of your home broadband. The phone feels classy to hold and now includes GPS, which works really well with google maps, and location based applications.

The release of version 2.0 of the software also introduces web applications, which you can purchase from itunes. Applications such as "Trip Advisor" allow you to search places to eat within the vicinity of your GPS and even provide reviews.

I could go on and on, however, there are many reviews already out there. Those who want one to be different and stand out from the crowd, go get yourself a gold plated version or diamond incrusted model. The iPhone 3G is a common phone and selling 1m worldwide in one weekend, shows you how big this phone is going to be.

iPhone to be reduced in price

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:58:00 +0000

Well i was a slater of the iPhone when it came out, but do own one right now. Now is your chance too, 8GB version is to be reduced in price by £100. Not bad, phone and 8GB iPod! I am not going to say anymore on the subject, just the fact that it is worth the money. However, if you want 3G, better camera and a few other perks..you may want to wait for the announcement in June and then probably.

"Elle Magazine" Rocks

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Yeh if you are in advertising. I was in the dentists the other day, where i came across my first Elle magazine - honest. I just wanted to share with all you guys out there, that mens magazines are a lot better - even for women. It took me up to page 39 to see the contents page. 38 pages of adverts for clothes, shoes and hand-bags ...now that is what you call being a sucker for a magazine. :)

Asus eee, Sony TZ and Macbook Air

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:49:00 +0000

I was out the other night, when a friend told me that I had waffled on about gadgets for nearly twenty minutes. Pretty obvious I needed to update my blog instead of putting people to sleep with my knowledge of expensive contraptions.

Unfortunately, this update is going to actually be a rant, a rant about the gadget show on channel five. Last Sunday, a repeat of the show compared three portable laptops; Asus eee, MacBook Air and the Sony Tz range.

I just don't get it, how can you compare these laptops. Those who don't know- the Asus, it is a portable £200 machine where as the other two range from £1200 to £2000. When testing and trailing them, they pick the asus as the better blogging machine. Now having purchased two of the three machines,I can agree with their choice, primarily down to cost. However, you can't compare any of these as they all have different operating systems and different features. What peed me off is the stupid comparison, ooh the Asus has a wifi connection, sd card reader but the MacBook is crap because you can't connect your 3g card and connect your camera at the same time. You can't connect 3g to the Asus but you don't hear about this or about the likely dead pixel syndrome on the screen or the fact asus give you a brilliant two year warranty They mentioned that the Sony took about 3 minutes to start up but did not to think this was a problem.hmmm. It seemed so obvious that their reviewing method was shit and the writers did not have a clue.

My rant goes onto their next feature. Spinvox, a company that sends you the contents of your voice mail in the form of a text. I wrote about this six months ago, after trailing it for two months. I think you know what I think of the gadget show :)

Mac store is the place to find a women

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:31:00 +0000

Not my quote : ) "Cosmo says women looking for love should wing their way to an Apple Store. Geeky boys of the world rejoice.

In my ongoing and largely fruitless quest to find the perfect woman I’ll take all the help I can get. Hooray then for the revelation that desperate single women may soon be descending on their local Apple Store in search of a date"

Original Article Click here

Richard Branson in the States.

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:35:00 +0000

You fly for nine hours to see Mickey and Mini and the first thing you see on their little island is a British mans dominance. In the USA there is a seperate booth for every album in the charts, where you can stand and listen until your bored out of your brains.Only in America.

Welcome to the United States

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 13:08:00 +0000

Stow for Taxi, Take-off and Landing in the United States of America. The one place on earth where you can buy a ticket to see regular space launches, buy a gun before your old enough to drink and if you dont own an ipod you might as well give up your nationality. These United States of America is also the land of technology and provides us with a good exchange rate, especially for a visiting gadget freak. This visit is as essential as having a credit card with a stupid limit. Lets see what damage we can do.

Macbook Air

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:11:00 +0000

Yes the Macbook Air has landed and it has caused one hell of a stir with Apple fans. Its ultra thin, ultra portable and ultra like anything else, according marketing gurus over at Apple.

So the advert is lame and until now i did not know what a manila envelope was but hey they have come up with one sexy laptop. I know you cant call a lot of things sexy, especially when they are electrical - but tell me i am wrong?

What can i say, the Air is like every mans ideal women. It is slim, sleek and probably very soft to touch. It even has large buttons that turn themselves on in the dark and a large touch pad, which reacts at the slightest and most simplest of touches. You will look cool with it on under your arm and will spend loads on elegant accessories . But what do you get in return?

Aluminum finished, internal web-cam, large back lit keyboard and touch pad like the iphone. Back lit 13 inch screen, 2GB Ram, 80gb hard-drive, one usb port and a dvi connector for a whopping £1200, or for about £2k you can get one with a 64GB of ssd instead. Wow, all innovation features that you expect from Apple, however, the hardcore mac fans are not happy. They wanted something smaller like the Asus, the internal power of a macbook pro and the price of a first class stamp.

My initial impressions were this thing is expensive, very expensive, and who is the target audience . It is slim so it could be used as a machine for those on the go, but it is not as small as a Asus. It is powerful enough to be a main machine with a £65 optional external optical drive and its 80gb internal hard drive, but not large enough for those who want to do more resource hungry activities. Apple have even developed software that once installed on a another pc/mac - you can control its cd/dvd drive to install software etc, so it could be also used with existing machines. I think it will probably cover a lot of markets, depending on what accessories you use and probably keep the gadget lovers happy.

The Macbook Air is going to have the same impact on the computer world as the Motorola V3 had on the phone market. When first released it was about £250 on a contract and within 18 months Motorola sold 55m worldwide. The V3 was the slimmest phone on the market, some called it a ladies phone and some said it was a hairdressers phones. Either way, the software was crap, but it sold itself, on pure looks. The Macbook Air with Apples solid operating system will sure to encourage sales, especially in trying to convert existing Windows users.

Come back to see if i ever get one.

www.apple.com

You got to get a Asus EEE PC

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:06:00 +0000

So i have been playing with my "eee"(E3) for about five days and my first impressions are ermmmmm......well i don't know how to describe it without sounding like i am going over the top or exaggerating.Once you open the box and hold this little gem, you cant quiet believe how small it really is. It feels a bit on the weighty side, but i think its more to do with the fact its so compact. You expect a vtech education type of device, but end up looking at something that is really solid and trendy looking. Its like a seventies style monitor with the speakers on the side. I am sure, Asus will expand the screen and move the speakers, but this will just stop it from looking so retro.

The setup is so easy, about five minutes from start up until you are running a browser and surfing the web. Linux is not for everyone, but the E3 community is brilliant and helps you with everything. It so easy to tinker with system and if you make a mistake just hit reset. No re-installation disks just five minutes setting up and your back up and running. There is even a advanced mode for those who want a XP like GUI to tinker about with.

Messenger and the cam are great, the Star Office is just like Word and there is even a voice command application. "Computer Web" and there you go, a web window pops up. Pointless but some what cool! Chuck in a SD card and you can add up to 16G of memory for photos, docs or whatever you want.

I can see why this was the most wanted Xmas present in the States and i have to say i think it will continue to sell really well. There is already more demand than they can supply and i reckon everyone needs to get one of these. Not the best thing for your only machine, but brilliant for surfing, email, streaming and the odd document. I normally look at gadgets that are too expensive or just pointless. At £219, this is a bargain and a must buy.

JVC NC250 Noise Cancelling Headphones

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:55:00 +0000

I got myself some Sennheiser PX200 headphones a few months ago, to use with my new PSP Slim. What can i say, i was amazed by the quality of these especially as they were under £25. Anyone who owns a PSP will know that the volume can be a bit on the low side. Don't worry these will sort you out. These little German beauties, come with leather padding, fit over your head and even fold away. The case can even just about, be used as a holder for the psp slim.

This purchase lead me onto researching noise cancelling headphones a bit further. I am no kind of audiophile, however after major convincing that i needed a pair, i narrowed my choices down to: the Bose Quiet Comfort 3(QC), Sennheiser 350 and 450 and the JVC NC250.

The first thing you must understand is that noise cancelling headphones always require batteries. Normally a AAA or something similar. This is because when you activate the noise cancelling, the inbuilt microphones will activate and detect the sounds around you. Once analysed it will send out a frequency to cancel major low end noises.

The Bose QC 3 are excellent pair of elite headphones. After purchasing the Bose On-Ear i was very tempted with the QC3. However, once you have looked into them a bit more you realise that they may not be worth the £250 retail price. They can reproduce a lot of bass on heavy tracks such as RnB. Whilst wearing them and looking in the mirror, i noticed they are not circular and stuck out. The finishing on the leather was tacky and they felt a bit heavy. On top of this i did not understand why they would only cost me £180 across the pond in the states. Apparently, the EU version gets to rechargeable batteries and a EU charger, where as the yanks just get one battery. This leads me onto another negative, the battery is rechargeable which means you have t o connect them to the charger each time you run out of power. This and the fact that you cant turn the noise cancelling function off, meant i had to look at alternatives. By the way you can buy a pair from the Bose outlet in Oxford, with the standard warranty for £180. Apparently, they are refurbished from the states....hmmmmm.....or just imports.

Sennheiser are one of the manufacturers competing with Bose for sound quality. The 350 and 450 are the top end noise cancelling headphones with amazing reviews by the pros. At about £130 and £180 they are not cheap, but are lot cheaper than the Bose. Excellent headphones, that go around the ear - which means they are more like ear muffs. The quality is amazing and you don't even have to kick the noise cancelling on to reduce the surrounding noise. This is probably due to the fact each muff is about the size of 3 Telcoms original phones. The 450's also take a single battery and have the feature of a talk through button. This allows you to press a button to hear what is going on around you without taking your headphones off. I think this is a bit rude and you would feel like a tit trying to talk to someone . Common courtesy would be at least to take you headphones to respond to someone.

Finally, a late contender was the JVC NC250. Shaped like the Bose QC3's these are finished in better leather and are much lighter. They are also smaller than the Sennheiser, however,still provide a bit too much bass when the noise cancelling is on some real heavy music. To tell you the truth, i was questioning if these were not the same headphone as Bose, but just under another brand. They fit the head real well and come in a nice hard case that could probably also hold your ipod. The major difference between these and the Bose, is that the JVC can take single batteries. I accidentally left them on one night and lucky for me all i had to do was change the battery. Where as with the Bose, i would have to recharge and wait. Unlike the Bose, you can still use the headphones without noise cancelling once the batteries have run out, there is a detachable cable and gold plated finishing. At £130 you cant really go wrong. I have now used mine for over two weeks and think they are brilliant. They are soft on your ears and the clarity is excellent. A high end pair available only at John Lewis (for now).

If your looking for generic cool headphones, look no further that Skull and Candy for about £25. About the size of Sennheiser ear muffs with some groovy patterns. Alternatively, if you have about a £1000 to spend, the worlds best wooden headphones are on the Grado website. Let me know if you get a pair : )

Asus EEE PC

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:55:00 +0000

I know i am a bit of a gadget freak and will look into something a lot before purchasing. This time round i am really trying to find faults in this particular item, so i don't purchase it - but i cant .

Its a small laptop, with 4GB of internal flash memory and only a 7 inch screen. Okay, so its not a great deal of internal memory once Linux is on there, however it can be purchased with 8GB too. It comes in white and black, internal webcam, SD card slot so you can expand as much as you want, external monitor port, 3 USB connectors and a Ethernet port. The monitor is probably a downfall as it is only 7 inch's with only 800 x 480 pixels. Specs include a 900 mhz processor and a 512 mb ram slot and wifi. The 8 GB one is 1GB ram and i believe that the 2GB version has 256 mb ram. It even has a two year warranty.No one gives you that these days.

People have installed XP on this and the box contains all the drivers if you wish to install it. Pre loaded is open office and about 40 other applications to help you with your daily activities, chat compatible with msn, firefox web browser, video player for most formats and even voice recognition software. Personally, i think this is to be a second machine for someone - some surfing, streaming and chat. You will have to keep your itunes elsewhere.

I would say the biggest downfall would be the screen and the fact it does not have the ability to have a security log on. However, this is based on a open source platform so you can install another version of linux or just wait for someone to develop a application. Students love it as its small and handy and i am looking into this over the new upcoming 12 inch macbook, as that will probably be about £600 + . Who cares i will get both. Why you ask? - this thing is only £219, if you can get hold of one. They have sold 350,000 since the end of November. Yes £219, that's cheaper than some PDA's, cheaper than a ipod or iphone, the same cost as a tie jacket and pair of jeans in the sale from Ted Baker. Going to have to get me one of these and i think there will be a lot of others out there wanting one too. If you get bored of it in a few months, you can just give it to a younger brother or niece etc. They can always use it to do there homework : )

Check out the Vid.

Audio Books

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Everyone loves to read! I personally wish i had more time to read or could stick it out with a book without being distracted by gadgets or something or another to spend my money on. The problem with reading is that you need to really be in the mood to flick pages and it is not easy to keep your eyes open after a long day at work.

I came across audible.co.uk. This company provides audio books for you to download to your computer, ipod or even phone. After listening to six hours or so of Wilbur Smiths Blue Horizon, i must say i was pretty impressed. Most books are about £10 - 30 each and can either come in a bridged or unbridged format ( Shorten or original length).

If you sign up and pay £7.99 a month you get a book free each month. There is no minimum contract, so you can cancel at any time. Also, there is no restrictions on what book you can pick or the cost of it. If you decide to cancel your subscription, you still have access to your online library where your previous purchases are stored -for life. They can be burnt to CD and even streamed online. I think this is definitely worth a look if your looking to rest your eyes.

Happy New Year To You All

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:36:00 +0000

It has been a while i know, however, after great demand the blog is coming back. You dont need to know where i went all you need to know is what have i purchased. Reviews to follow :)

BBC Archive Trial

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:08:00 +0000

After registering for this service, i have to say i am surprised. Watch old footage again.

Unlike the iPlayer, you login and stream the footage, without having to download any software. It streams very well and can be used via media player and real player. I have found that real player works a lot better, and loads a lot faster. At present it is limited to certain programmes, but there are plans to add lots more. Grange Hill, Blue Peter, radio repeats, landing on the moon and launch of the Concorde are just a few of the online clips. What more could you ask for:)

Give it a go http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/trial register for a logon and you should get a response within five days. Let me know what you think, leave a comment if you get to try it.

Misuse of Power at work means Bullying at work

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:24:00 +0000

Two-thirds of UK managers believe that lack of management skills is the major factor contributing to bullying at work.
According to OutLaw New misuse of power was listed as the most prolific type of bullying used within the workplace.

A survey by the Ban Bullying at Work campaign questioned 512 senior managers across the UK in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute ahead of the fifth national Ban Bullying at Work day which takes place on 7th November.

The other main factors, given by managers themselves, which contribute to bullying at work included unrealistic targets (cited by 27%); authoritarian management styles (56%); personality (57%); and failure to address incidents (37%).

The survey also asked managers what they believed was the most prolific type of bullying used. Misuse of power was cited by 71% of managers while 63% cited overbearing supervision and 55% cited exclusion.

http://www.banbullyingatwork.com/main.asp?id=home

Source : OutLaw News

Only In America would you see such a terrorist overreaction?

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:30:00 +0000

Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20441775/

Inspector Gadget Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:11:00 +0000

Here is part Two

www.ablag.com

India and Pakistan Archive Launched on the BBC

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:36:00 +0000

The BBC have launched an online archive...check it out ...http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/trial/open/about.shtml

Sony Ericsson P1i

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:05:00 +0000

The Sony Ericsson's(SE) P1i is the long awaited replacement to the P990 and in my opinion, the most functional phone with pretty good looks on the market today.

When you first look at this phone you will immediately notice the high quality of materials used. The front face has a metal look rim with piano black centre piece. The back has a shiny crossbar covering the speaker phone and a black matt finish. It feels weird - i have never seen a phone with this type of finish.

Having owned the second generation of the P series in the form of the P900, i did not expect this phone to be of such quality.The P series has always been a handy pda style phone, but has also been a bit bulky and dim on the software front.

Sony have reduced the phone by about 25℅ and made the phone feel very solid. When holding it in the palm of your hand, it feels good and you can tell everything feels like it has been ergonomically designed just for you. They have got rid of the flip based keyboard from previous models and added a two key roker styled qwerty keyboard.

This basically means that there are two letters assigned to each key, which are raised slightly on the edges. Having taken this from the previous W series of phones, it was questioned if they would improve the usability of the keyboard. Most users say it has, but it still a matter of you either like it or hate it.

Physically, the phone has the traditional jog dial on the left, with a back button just underneath it. On the right there is a short cut button which you can assign and personalise. Underneath, this there is a memory card slot and camera button - which controls the 3.2 million pixel camera on the rear or be assigned to use the video calling camera on the front one. There is a 2.4 inch touch screen with and improved trans-reflective screen and a stylus neatly tucked away on the left of the handset.

Sony purchased UIQ Symbian software sector of the Symbian company. Therefore, the front end is UIQ and back end Symbian, similar to that of the Nokia N95 and Communicator. The difference is that Sony have personalised their own version for their own phones. Its pretty obvious Sony Ericsson have not wasted any time trying to make the interface sexy or even friendly. As the phone can be personalised so much, they have left it to the end user, do what they want. So if you take a look at mine, i have the i-phone theme and if you go to the SE site you can even access a development area to make your own theme.

There is enough software on board to keep you busy. Doc editor, pdf reader, compatible spreadsheet creator and even a business card scanner. The provided external 512 mb memory will be enough to install any extra software. So far i have added google mail, ebuddy, new themes and ring tones, google maps and opera mini 4. There is already a opera browser pre installed and even a online media player, which allows you to stream online music or videos via the inbuilt 3G connection or wifi capabilities.

This phone has had little software enhancements, which make this phone a little gem.For instance if u cant take a call, you can reject it and set it up to send an automatic response via text. Like “cant talk spk later“ or the fact that when you miss or reject a call you can set a automatic reminder to call back. The phone even allows you to have predictive text input in english and a second language of your choice. The second language will be detected automatically and is handy if your trying to learn a new language.

The RSS feeder is handy for people like me who love to get the latest info on the go and it will even update audio feeds, when required (like podcasts). The RSS feeder also has a time schedule, which means you can set for it to update your feeds in the middle of the night. If you have average 3G coverage it will take about ten minutes to download 30mbs of data. That's equivalent to about one hour of a podcast.

Specification

Size 106 x 55 x 17 mm
4.1 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches

Weight 124 g
4.4 oz

Available colours Silver Black

Screen 262,144 color touchscreen
240x320 pixel

Memory Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support
Phone memory 160MB*
*Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre-configuration
Networks G
SM 900
GSM 1800
GSM 1900
UMTS 2100

Performance Talk time: Standby time:
UMTS 2100 3 hours 30 min 250 hours
GSM 900 10 hours 440 hours
GSM 1800 10 hours 440 hours
GSM 1900 10 hours 440 hours

Compared to the Nokia N95

The Nokia is a lot larger as a phone and offers GPS and HDSPA, allowing you to browse and download at 1.5 mbps instead of the more common 300k found on the SE. That aside the Nokia does not have a touch screen and is ugly. Yes it has a 5mp camera and cover unlike the SE - but its a camera phone and if that is what determines your choice of phone, i would think again. Camera phone wont be better than a standalone camera.

I played with Nokia for a day and i did like it, but not enough. It has no class and is boring. Having a PDA with internal GPS is good, but i find it takes too long for a signal. The Nokia is action packed but it is a shame it looks like a mobile phone from the early 90's.

Compared to the iPhone

Not sure what to say really, check out the opera Mini Browser - it does what the iPhone apparently does so well. Now look at the TWUIK video. Yep, these are Java based applications that will eventually sit on most phones and allow you to add widgets. Actually, you can already add midlets onto most phones as it is.

The iphone has wifi, but no 3G. No, keyboard or numeric buttons. Yes, it is a very eye catching phone, but when you look at it again and again -you think it is just an ipod. I am sorry, but i don't think this phone is all that. In your hand it is very delicate and does not offer half of the features as some of the other phones on the market.

Applications are already out there to allow you to personalise your own phone with features like the iphone, so what is so unique. : )

Check the TWUIK video out - these type of applications can be added to any phone.

In conclusion this is a slim feature packed phone that can be used not only as a business phone, but also as a little handy personal phone too.

www.expansys.com - £370
www.o2.com - with contract £30

See more pictures and videos at www.ablag.com

Man arrested over wi-fi 'theft'

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:51:00 +0000

The BBC has reported a story of a guy being arrested because he used someone else's wifi connection.

See here for the full article : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6958429.stm

Inspector Gadget Basic Training Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:20:00 +0000

Thought this may bring back some memories

Digital Radio On Your Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:17:00 +0000

I started using this feed about six weeks ago and i think its something everyone who listens to the radio should look into
ok,so many mobiles have fm transmitters that allow you to listen to the popular stations like radio 1, however, if you are like me and like to listen to those that are digital based stations like five live extra,then this site is worth checking out. It is compatible with most phones and pda's - the only catch is that you need to have a data plan. If you dont, you are looking at about five minutes of streaming taking up roughly 3mbs of download.

Check it out at www.Radiofeeds.Co.Uk/pda
published via mobile

Google Part One - iGoogle

noreply@blogger.com (munishp) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:53:00 +0000

In the last few weeks I have been discussing the latest range of Google tools with my friends and family. To my amazement, the majority were unaware of them and did not understand the benefits. With this in mind I will try and cover off some of the tools in my future posts.

Part one iGoogle

There are so many tools out there these days to make your life a lot easier. So far the handiest one for me has been iGoogle. Google’s homepage personalisation site has been around for sometime now and is becoming popular with those who use the Google search engine.

In essence Google is allowing you to create your own Google homepage “iGoogle” , and allow users to view exactly what they want too – personalised for their eyes only. You can search from hundreds of little gadgets and widgets and add them to your own personalised page. All you need is a Google account and a few minutes to set it up.

So what is the point?

Well if you take a look at my page for instance, I have added my gmail in one corner and a feed from my blog in the other. So for instance my blog is at http://www.ablag.com/ and if you go to iGoolge and add “a gadget” feature you can add my feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ablag) (alternatively subscribe to email updates from my site). So as soon as I update something on my blog, you will see it on your iGoogle homepage.

Click image to enlarge

The beauty of it is, it is not just me. There are thousands of feeds, gadgets and widgets out there that you can add onto your homepage. From the latest BBC News to the weather in graphical form or your facebook profile with updates from your inbox.

As the site is personalised to your account, once you have logged out, you can go to another machine anywhere in the world and log in and view the same info.

It is brilliant for reducing surfing time and those who are information junkies like me - You go to one page and see everything. Instead of logging in and out your mail, writing your own paper based reminders and going through websites for the latest weather. Google have even gone to the extent of creating an off-line version and a web history feature. The web history feature I immediately turned off as it seemed a bit spooky that I could logon anywhere in the world and view my last search history. Okay not spooky but I do have some data retention and privacy issues with it.

One thing I must recommend is the bookmarks feature. Bookmark something at work and when you get home, you can access it – just by logging back into iGoogle. Those who use a great deal of RSS feeds will also benefit too – whether they be sound based or graphical.

Give it a go and if you have any problems, give me a shout.