Digital World

Microsoft Releases Robotics Developer Studio 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:17:00 +0000

Microsoft launched its third version of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio on Monday, with improvements to performance and the developer environment.

Microsoft Robotics Devloper Studio 2008 Standard Edition is available for $499.95 from Microsoft's Web site, the same site the free Express Edition is available from for students.

Microsoft said that the new edition offers 1.5 to three times the performance of the previous edition, with services loading three times faster. Microsoft also improved the Visual Programming Language drag-and-drop tool for defining distributed applications, and added playback and a floor-plan editor for better simulation capabilities. Designers can also import content from DS SolidWorks' CAD program. The new version also includes support for both Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

Robotics supplier ABB said that it had created a plug-in for university students to create their own virtual robot controller.

Google SketchUp 7 for Windows & Mac Now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Google released this morning its seventh edition of SketchUp for Windows and Mac systems, the free 3D modeling tool that topped our list of Top 10 Google products you forgot all about. New to this edition are tools for collaborating and sharing models and objects through the 3D Warehouse, automatic tools for beginners, and lots of other tweaks.

Most relevant for Google Earth users is the much tighter integration with the Google 3D Warehouse: You can search the warehouse from within SketchUp and import models directly. Sharing and and giving credit for your work is now also much more granular.

SketchUp 7 also introduces Dynamic Components, objects which can be given dynamic attributes and simple physics. For example, you can stretch a table and its legs won't deform but instead will become a longer table. Doors can be made to open and close in a model. And if your objects have metadata, like part numbers or color options, you can track these as well in an associated spreadsheet.

The free version of SketchUp 7 can use premade Dynamic Components (Google has some ready in its 3D Warehouse), but to make them yourself you'll need SketchUp Pro 7, which costs $495.

One Laptop Per Child Give One Get One

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Now we all love anything to do with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) because it is all about charity at the end of the day, even though the price is double the $100 target. Europeans will be happy to know that they can have a slice of the pie as well because Amazon say that they will ship outside the U.S.

You can choose from two options, which are “Give one” and “Give One. Get one”, basically you can buy one or you can but one and the second one goes to charity, which is good in my eyes.

27 EU nations and a couple of non-EU countries are now included in this give One, Get One (G1G1) scheme. OLPC and its partnership with Amazon is a great idea. Visit Amazon Site for More Information Amazon.

How to Protect Yourself from Web 2.0 Hackers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:05:00 +0000

1. Run a security suite. It isn't good enough anymore to run merely antivirus. You need a software firewall, antispam, antiphishing, antispyware, anti-rootkit, host-based intrusion prevention solution. These will keep you from getting infected with the malware I try to push to your PC. We don't talk much about antispam, as if spam were just an annoyance. But if you don't read my Phishing e-mails, then you'll never visit my fake site, run my buffer overflow exploit, and infect yourself with my malware.

2. Update signatures. I can change my attacks frequently, so you'd better download new signatures or your security suite won't recognize the new ones. Of course, I can stay ahead of signatures, which is why you need the Firewall and HIPS.

3. Be street-smart on the Web. Trust no one. Don't share any more information publicly than you need to. And don't use anything you share as your password. If you write about your dog on Facebook and my app grabs his name, then you can bet I'm going to try all kinds of variations on Toto as your password on the common banking sites and PayPal—and, if I can find it, your PC

4. Use strong passwords. I hate when marks use strong passwords because it really slows me down. Make sure your password is more than six characters long, contains a mix of letters and numbers, and doesn't include a word that can be found in the dictionary.

5. Mix it up. Don't use the same password on every site. If you do, then once I crack one I have access to everything you do online. The same goes for your credit card and ATM card PIN.

6. Be cryptic. When possible, encrypt important data files at rest and in transit. That means clicking on the "Sign in securely" link, even though it's an extra click, and making sure that you see the little lock in your browser that means the site is using SSL to encrypt traffic. Read your application provider's EULA and find out who owns your data stored online (the answer may surprise you), how they isolate your data from other peoples' data (if they do), and the security measures they've enacted to protect you. A free app is nice, but isn't your identity worth more? Cancel services that won't encrypt your files and explain the other security measures they take.

Microsoft launches online store in USA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:57:00 +0000

Microsoft has announced the launch of their online store in the US market.
The company already operate similar stores in U.K., Korea, and Germany.

This store has on offer Microsoft’s software products like Windows OS, MS Office and games in addition to hardware products like the Xbox 360.Users get the option to download the software products in addition to order them through DVDs.Users would get access to the downloads for a long period of time in case they need it again in the future. Digital downloads are available through their service Electronic Software Download.

A company representative spoke about this storefront: “Lastly, in a world where lighter weight laptops, such as netbooks, are becoming more common, ESD makes things easier when an optical drive isn’t easily accessible. The first thing I do when I setup a new machine at home, is to run Windows update, and download all the freeware I use such as 7-zip. By extending ESD to Microsoft software, we’re able to increase convenience across the board for a variety of customers, regardless of whether they are using a speedy desktop gaming PC, or the latest netbook.”

Video Tour of Google Office in New York

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:43:00 +0000

Take a tour of the Google Office in New York.

eWeek says that "Google’s choice of 76 Ninth Avenue for its headquarters was not an accident. The property sits on a massive fiber-optic network, extremely valuable for a company like Google, which depends on the rapid relay of information."

Googleplex: 76 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011.

Video Credit: Big Money, GeekSugar and SAI. Image Credit: Live Maps

Dilbert Files: Send Large Files without Email Attachments

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Once you build a brand on the Internet, you try different ways to build upon that brand. That’s exactly what Scott Adams, creator of the very popular Dilbert comic strip, is trying to do with his new service "Dilbert Files".

Send large email attachments with Dilbert Files

Dilbert Files lets you send large files on the Internet without having to attach them in an email message. You can either upload the file using the Dilbert app for desktop, through Microsoft Outlook or just use the web browser.

And yes, you got that right. Dilbert Files looks like a clone of existing services like YouSendIt and RapidShare sans any free component. For instance, you need to shell out around $10 per month for sending files up to 250 MB per month.

Dilbert cartoons appear in some 2,000 newspapers in 70 countries but as the number of traditional newspapers continues to shrink, Scott Adams says that "this is the sort of thing that will help keep Dilbert free online." Am sure die-hard Dilbert fans won’t be complaining here.

Techies, who know about services like DropBox, Box.net or Windows Live Skydrive, will definitely find the price of Dilbert Files a bit steep but for millions of other Scott fans, this may just be another way to get more of their daily Dilbert dose – you can read coming strips even while the file is uploading.

Create & Host Websites for Free with these Web Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Google Page Creator is awesome - anyone can build a good looking website in minutes using the built-in templates or they can write pages externally (say in Dreamweaver) and upload them to Creator.

And everything is free - there are no ads on your pages and Google takes care of all the web hosting bills. But as they say, all good things come to an end, and so is Google Page Creator getting replaced by Google Sites .

Compare Google Sites with Google Page Creator

While Google Sites and Google Pages have common feature (like the WYSIWYG AJAX editor), they are still quite different. For instance, you can’t upload HTML pages to Google Sites and are therefore limited to using one of the built-in themes for your site design.

The second issue is that if you make a Google Site public, the associated ’site activity log’ also becomes public - most website publisher will have reservations sharing this data with unknown visitors. Lastly, all external hyperlinks are ‘nofollow’ if that means anything to you.

Free Alternatives to Google Page Creator

Here’s a roundup of some website building services that are free and non-technical.

1. Office Live Small Business - While the name may suggest that the service is only for small business owners, just about anyone can create their website here.

Website Builder inside Office Live Small Business

Office Live is easy and filled with goodies - you have tons of professional web templates and color themes to choose from, there’re ready-made modules for common tasks like web forms, photo galleries, live maps, email newsletters, etc. plus you can also upload office documents to the website.

Everything is free including web hosting and server space.

2. Weebly - This is powerful but very user friendly and easy web page builder where you start with a blank canvas and build the page by dragging elements that include text, videos, pictures, maps and more.

Geeks can write their own HTML and add them to Weebly pages. There’s support for Google ads as well so you can even monetize sites created inside Weebly. Another advantage - site publishers download their full site with pictures and CSS as a zip file. Free users gets 100 MB of free storage space and there’re no bandwidth limitations.

3. Snap Pages - This is Flash based website editor that is very beautiful and may be a perfect place if you looking to create a small website for sharing some photos and your calendar. The options are slightly limited for non-premium users as they can’t create new pages.

4. Edicy Pages - It’s a new website creation tool that is just perfect for the techie crowd who wants more control over their site layout.

Start by picking a design from the template gallery and then you may completely change the look and feel of your site by editing the blog template similar to WordPress themes or Blogger template. It also supports JavaScript code and like Google Sites, Edicy tracks all changes made to a site.

5. Synthasite - This is again an easy yet very powerful tool for building websites but unlike competition, Syntasite is completely free. Images uploaded to Synthasite can be diretly edited in Picnik just like you have in Flickr. The tool also lets you embed Google AdSense ads in web pages much like Weebly.

Spam Down 75% After ISPs Shut Down Host!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Spam volume has significantly declined since hosting company McColo went down on Tuesday night. The site went down after four months of investigation by security experts and an investigative piece by Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs, which claimed that 75% of all spam was being sent via the hosting service.

From CNET:

"Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks, a company that monitors botnet activity, speculated that McColo vanished at around 9 a.m. Eastern time on November 10. Botnets are frequently used to relay spam, and McColo may have hosted some of the command and control servers necessary to coordinate spam campaigns"

World's First Flying Car Runs on Biofuel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:41:00 +0000

This British wonder-mobile will not only traverse any terrain, it can actually take to the sky using a rear propeller and a flexible ram-air wing.

The designers of the Skycar, who plan to take it on a 3,700-mile land-air expedition from London to Timbuktu in January, 2009, say that it only needs 200 meters to take off and can achieve the airspeed of 100 mph. And if building the first legitimate flying car weren't enough, Skycar creators decided to power it with cleaner-burning ethanol which feeds the 140-hp road-certified engine.

Visit there website? Go here

WPA cracker-What it Means for your Security

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:33:00 +0000

Researchers at a security conference this week announced a new form of attack against WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), a popular form of security for wireless networks. The attack is not a complete compromise and not reason to panic, but it does bode ill for wireless hardware that's not particularly recent. The attacks may get more sophisticated over time.

It's well-known that the original security mechanism for Wi-Fi, known as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), is trivially breakable. When this became known the industry hobbled together WPA as a stopgap standard while work proceeded on the 802.11i standard, in which everyone had a lot more confidence.

WPA employed a modified version of WEP called TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol), which defeated all the known attacks against WEP, but which was designed to work on hardware that supported WEP. Later on, when 802.11i was in final form it was released as WPA2, employing the much more secure AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and other improvements, and requires new hardware support, as opposed to just a firmware upgrade.

The new attack is against WPA, also known as WPA1, and specifically against TKIP. It does not allow an attacker to read encrypted data on the network, but it does allow him, after 12 to 15 minutes of access and analysis, to decrypt certain network control messages (ARP requests and responses), and to send 7 packets with custom content to the network. This could, in theory, allow him to compromise the network.

WPA2 with AES is not vulnerable to this attack. Wireless hardware with WPA2 and AES has been available for some time now and has been considered best practice, at least in business environments, but not urgently so. Probably the large majority of wireless routers and adapters in consumer and small business installations today do not support WPA2. Even for those that do, many, if not most, default to TKIP instead of AES because the more widespread support of it makes it more likely that the configuration will work. A few, such as the Apple Airport, default to using AES, and Windows Vista will attempt to use it too, but most wireless hardware will attempt to use TKIP first.

This attack is not an easy one to commit. It requires some analysis time, so you can't do it in a drive-by. Someone physically nearby, a neighbor perhaps, could commit it, but at this point it has to be considered one of those things where they have easier ways to compromise your network if they want to. In the future you should make sure to buy only wireless hardware that supports WPA2/AES and look into moving your network to it, but there's no particular reason to panic.

A business is different, especially if sensitive data traverses the network. For you, the migration to WPA/AES just became a more urgent matter, even if you have other security issues which are more pressing. Make a note that this needs to be dealt with.

Microsoft Live.com: It’s A Social Network!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Microsoft’s Live.com portal will change significantly this evening. No longer will it be a simple search engine with a few other services bolted on. It’s now a social network, too, pulling in activity information and content from around the web. They’re also launching Windows Live Photos and Windows Live People, and other services. Check it out at Home.Live.com.

Users are automatically connected with any friends they have on Windows Live Messenger, which is by far the most popular instant messaging service worldwide (Comscore: Microsoft Messenger has 268 million worldwide users, compared to 116 million for Yahoo and 6 million for Google Talk).

Users are asked to build out their profile, and can also bring in content they create on blogs (or any RSS feeds, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, Photobucket, iLike, Twitter, Wordpress and Yelp. When you do something new on those sites, the information flows into Live.com for your friends to see (in a very similar way as FriendFeed, Plaxo and others do today). Eventually, says Microsoft, more than 50 partners will be supported. When users add photos, write reviews, and update their profiles directly on Live.com, that content will be put into the activity stream as well.

The hope, of course, is to get people to hang out a lot more at Live.com. At least those people who use Messenger, since they already have their contacts established. Like Yahoo, Microsoft is going with its strengths, which in their case is instant messaging.

Live.com users can now access a variety of online services like mail, calendar, photos, online storage, etc., as well as Download Services that include a mail client, instant messaging, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, the Toolbar and other services. And now it’s also one big social network.

Alexa's Hot URLs: The hottest pages on the web right now.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:54:00 +0000

Alexa today introduced HotURLs – it’s a list of web pages that are currently hot on the Internet in terms of traffic. It displays the most popular pages visited by Alexa Toolbar users during the last hour and is updated every five minutes according to Alexa.

While Alexa Hot URLs is about finding hot web pages, Google Trends is another useful tool to learn about the popular search queries on the web.

Google Flu Trends provides early warning for flu outbreaks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Does it seem like everyone around you has a cold? Turns out that might be true, and Google has the data to prove it.

The search engine giant on Tuesday launched Google Flu Trends, which will provide up-to-date flu-related activity estimate for all 50 states in the U.S.

Google will combine flu-related queries entered into its search engine with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track cases of the flu throughout the country.

"We found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week," Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, Google software engineers, wrote in a blog post. "As a result, if we tally each day's flu-related search queries, we can estimate how many people have a flu-like illness."

Flu Trends has been in the works since last year when Google software engineers met with the "predict and prevent" team from Google.org. "We decided to focus on outbreaks of infectious disease, which are responsible for millions of deaths around the world each year," Ginsberg and Mohebbi wrote.

Why not rely solely on CDC data? Early detection, according to Google

"It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly," Ginsberg and Mohebbi wrote. "By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza."

Google shared early results from the 2007-2008 flu season with the CDC's influenza division and "we saw that our search-based flu estimates had a consistently strong correlation with real CDC surveillance data."

Google stressed that the project is still very "experimental" but that flu-related search data it collects will be anonymous. "Flu Trends can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week," the company wrote.

According to current data on Flu Trends, flu activity in the U.S. is at "low" - on a scale of minimal, low, moderate, and intense.

Gmail Backup-Saving your Emails

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:21:00 +0000

I use Gmail for Web mail and even use Google to host mail for a number of my personal domains, so if something happened to them, I'd be lost. No one seriously expects a major outage or data loss at Google, but it's always good to make sure you keep your own backups in case something catastrophic does happen. Enter Gmail Backup, a utility that allows you to copy the entire contents of your Gmail account to your computer for archiving or safekeeping.

Gmail is one of those services that no one anticipates going down, but the fact remains that Google still considers Gmail a beta service, and changes can be made at any time. If you experience massive data loss, your account is compromised, or Gmail goes down when you need to grab an important e-mail, having a backup of your mail and files can be a lifesaver. Gmail Backup takes advantage of IMAP support in Gmail to retrieve copies of your messages and store them on your system.

Once you have IMAP enabled on your Gmail account, the app will log in as you and download copies of your messages. The process can take minutes to hours depending on how much information you have in your Gmail account. Gmail Backup stores your messages in EML format, which means you can import them into a desktop e-mail application if you need to access them.

If you're migrating from Gmail to domain-hosted Google Apps and want to use the version of Gmail set up for your domain, Gmail Backup allows you to download all of the messages from your Gmail account and then re-upload them to your new domain-hosted Gmail account when it's created. Once it's set up though, Gmail Backup supports domain-hosted Gmail. The utility is normally a one-way backup tool, only downloading messages and only uploading them when you ask it to.

With account storage limits at Gmail as high as 7GB now, the possibility of losing all of that data can be frightening if you use Gmail as a main e-mail address. It's always important to keep your own backups, even though it's highly unlikely that something major will happen to your Gmail account. The utility might be more useful if you're worried about being hacked, banned, or your account being otherwise closed inadvertently. Gmail Backup is free and works under Windows XP and Vista. Command-line versions are available for Linux and Mac OS X.

Pixlr: Feature-Packed Online Image Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:03:00 +0000

Pixlr is a lightweight photoblog application, based on photos from your flickr account. Pixlr gives you the possibility to easily present your photos in the usual photoblog manner but without the need of administering two different sites (your flickr account and your photoblog).

Features

Simple installation and configuration
All needed photo information is read from your flickr account (including thumbnail, geotags, exif information)
Direct Geolocation display via Google Maps or Flash Earth
- Additional placemark on Google Maps via Google's KML integration (since v0.1.4)
Flick tags support (since 0.1.6-dev)
- Ability to show tags that you've set in your flickr account
- Ability to search photos in you photoblog by a specific tag
Direct link to the flickr photo page
Comment function (local as well as flickr comments are displayed)
Anti-SPAM function for comments via Akismet
Email notifications for new comments
RSS 2.0 feed
ATOM feed with thumbnails
Simple overview page and “about” page
All pages are fully customizable via the template engie
Valid XHTML pages as well as valid RSS and ATOM feeds
UTF-8 support

If you are looking for a clean and simple online image editor app then Pixlr is the right choice for you. Get started with Pixlr app.

Technorati Founder Dave Sifry Officially Launches OffBeatGuides

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:06:00 +0000

Offbeat Guides creates personalized, up-to-date travel guides that cover over 30,000 travel destinations, using a combination of search technology, and curation by both amateur and professional travel experts. With five simple steps and in under five minutes, we can create a guide for you based on your personal travel preferences, ensuring that no two guides are ever the same.

The site allows you to enter your name, travel plans, and hotel. The system then pulls information from various sites including data from Accuweather and notes and articles by professional travel writers along with Creative Commons licensed homebrew content. It also includes maps, restaurants, and attractions in the area.

Once you’ve built your book you can download it as a PDF for $9.95 or purchase it in physical form for $24.95, which also includes the PDF. You can also connect to the Internet and read it online on the go.

Google Adds Gmail Voice & Video Chat

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:18:00 +0000

On the Gmail blog Justin Uberti, software engineer for Google, writes, "[T]oday we're launching voice and video chat -- right inside Gmail. We've tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video -- all for free."

In order to access Gmail Video and Voice Chat, users have to install the voice and video plug-in, and, as the Uberti states it, Google "takes care of the rest."

Gmail Voice and Video Chat was designed using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP and H.264, making the Google program able to interact with separate, third-party applications, assuming those separate voice and video applications decide to allow Gmail's offering to interact with them.

Installation is easy and only takes a few seconds to download the plug-in. Once the browser is restarted, a "Video and more" menu will appear at the bottom of the Gmail page. Go to the menu and select "start video chat." It will take a few moments for the video call to connect with your friend of co-worker.

Once the video and voice session is initiated, users can pop the window out of the Gmail interface, just like an Gchat instant message window. Users are then given the option to go full screen with the chat, for an up close and personal experience with your chat partner. In order for Gmail Voice and Video to function on your machine a Web cam is required.

Google and the Gmail team are in the initial stages of rolling this feature out to PC and Mac machines, which means the functionality may not appear right away. But don't worry, the Gmail team guarantees that the functionality will be available to everyone in the next couple of days.

Talk face to face right in Gmail with free, high quality video and audio. Get started at http://gmail.com/videochat

Completely Test Your BlackBerry Phone for any Problems with this Secret Shortcut

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:49:00 +0000

Official BlackBerry® Site

Get The Most Powerful And Fastest BlackBerry® Phone Available Now. www.BlackBerry.com

New Smart Phone Feature

Getting More Out of Your Blackbere` Instant Delivery of Field Paperwork www.RoverINK.com

If you own a BlackBerry mobile phone (or plan to buy one), here’s a very useful shortcut (or can we say Easter Egg) that enables you to perform a complete health checkup of your BlackBerry hardware.

You will be able to test the keys of your BlackBerry keyboard, trackball movements, audio volume, Bluetooth connection, handset, speakers, LED, LCD screen pixels, etc.

To begin the test, click "Options" icon on the home screen of your BlackBerry and then select "Status."

On the status screen, type the wor d "test" without quotes and from the menu on the Device Self Test Application screen, select Start.

If you have a BlackBerry Pearl or another model that supports SureType, use the multi-tap input method to type "test".

Copy iTunes Music to your BlackBerry with BlackBerry Media Sync

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Easy Sync Software

Sync software that really works. It's fast, free and easy to use. www.goodsync.com

The New BlackBerry® Bold

Get The New 3G BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000. Now Available In Stores www.BlackBerry.com/Bold

BlackBerry Media Sync is a free software from RIM, the developers of BlackBerry mobile phones, to help you copy music files from your computer to the BlackBerry phone using playlists created in iTunes media player.

Though the built-in BlackBerry Media Player can play both audio and video files, this BlackBerry Media Sync software can transfer only songs and audio podcasts – you cannot use this utility to put iTunes videos on BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Sync will be available by default in the upcoming BlackBerry 9000 Bold mobile phones but the software is also available as a standalone download for existing owners of BlackBerry.

Here’s a direct link to download BlackBerry Sync - BlackBerryMediaSyncDM.exe – RIM has hosted the BlackBerry Media Sync installer on their distribution servers though it has not been announced officially yet.

In case you are not able to download the installer from the above location, the file is also available here as pointed by a commenter on barryreview.com.

BlackBerry owners, who also have an iPod or an iPhone and manage their music library through iTunes, may therefore find BlackBerry Sync very useful because it removes the need for installing Roxio Media Manager that comes with BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

Just connect the BlackBerry to your computer via USB port and sync iTunes music just like you sync Outlook information though it doesn’t work with DRM protected MP3s.

BlackBerry Media Sync is available for Windows XP and Vista but not Mac.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager 4.5 - New Features & Screenshot

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:03:00 +0000

Official BlackBerry® Site

Get The Most Powerful And Fastest BlackBerry® Phone Available Now. www.BlackBerry.com

Web Application Security

Guide to Securing Web Applications: Download The Free White Paper Now! Veracode.com

A BlackBerry smartphone definitely makes you more productive but there’s a small learning curve involved.

If you don’t have the time to read manuals, here’s a quick overview of some great time-saving features, tips and lesser known keyboard shortcuts that will help you do things quickly and more efficiently with your BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Guide for Power Users - Take full advantage of your BlackBerry smartphone.

Close vs Escape - If you are running a browser or playing a game in your BlackBerry and press the "End Call" key, the application does not get closed but is merely hidden from your view. Too many open applications will soon slow down your BlackBerry so make it a habit to close, not escape.

See What’s Running - To see a list of all open applications in your Blackberry, press the ALT key followed by Escape. It’s pretty much like doing an Alt+Tab in Windows to help you navigate through open applications or switch from one application to another.

Save Web Pages - When you come across an interesting webpage but have no time reading it, you would normally send a link of that page as an email to yourself. To save time, simply open the menu of your BlackBerry internet browser and select “Save Page” – that page will be added to your message list just like other emails. This is like a built-in clipping tool.

Type URLs and Email Addresses Quickly - When typing a web address (URL) in the Blackberry browser, type a space and it is written as a dot. To insert a slash(/), use Shift+Space. When typing email addresses, your first space is recognized as @ while subsequent spaces are recognized as dots. So labnol google co uk will be written as labnol@google.co.uk.

Delete Your Emails – If you are looking to clean your BlackBerry Inbox, press the CAPS key and scroll UP or DOWN using the wheel to select the email messages that you want to delete. If you want to completely clear the Inbox, press t in the Message view to move to the top and select “Delete Prior” – this will delete all your BlackBerry emails.

Signal Strength – While your BlackBerry will display the current signal strength as bars on the homescreen, hold down the ALT key and type NMLL – the bars will convert into real numbers indicating the exact strength in that area. Repeat the same keystrokes to switch to bar mode again.

Multiple Email Signatures – By default, BlackBerry will append a text signature to all your outgoing email messages that you have set through the BlackBerry Internet Services portal. If you like more personalized signatures, compose a new email message in your BlackBerry, go to “Edit Auto-Text” and set up multiple entries corresponding to your different signatures.

BlackBerry Clipboard – If you are looking to copy text from an email message and save that as a note, position your cursor in the email, hold the Shift key (left Caps) and roll the trackwheel. When you are done selecting, click the trackwheel to put that selection onto the clipboard. BlackBerry Internet Explorer has a special Select Mode to help you copy-paste text from web pages.

Convert Case without the CAPS key – When writing an email message, hold down the key of any letter for a slightly longer duration and it will automatically turn into a capital letter. To type an accent or a special character (like a => à), hold the letter key and roll the trackwheel.

Stop Receiving Sent Emails - Every time you send an email from BlackBerry, you get a copy in your Inbox. To prevent this, setup a BlackBerry Filter.

Web Applications – Blackberry software like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo! Go, Google Talk, NewsGator, Picasa, etc. offer great experiences but they could drain the battery of your BlackBerry since these applications are constantly checking for updates in the background.

You may therefore want to switch to “manual updates” especially when running low on battery.

HTML Email - The current BlackBerry OS supports only text emails but the good news is the BlackBerry OS 4.5, due in few months, will support HTML email, YouTube and editing of Microsoft Office documents. Until then, you can buy the BlackBerry email viewers either from BSmart or Empower.

Erase Everything - If you are looking to sell your Blackberry phone or planning to exchange an old model with an upcoming version (like the BlackBerry 9000), it is a good idea to completely erase all your BlackBerry data. For that, go to Options -> Security Options -> General Settings and choose “Wipe Handheld” from the menu.

Prolong the Battery Life – You can set BlackBerry to completely shut down at a specific time and it will automatically wake up with the alarm (or any other time) - note that you won’t be able to receive phone calls when the phone is switched off so don’t turn off the device too early. Some more tips on improving the life of your BlackBerry Battery.

Move Around Web Pages Quickly - If you are reading a long (or very wide) web page, switch to the Page View mode that shows a view of the full website - use the scrollwheel to quickly navigate to any other area.

BlackBerry Resources - To download free BlackBerry software, games, ringtones and themes, go to Built For BlackBerry, Blackberry Owners Lounge or their Mobile Portal.

Screen Capture - There’s no inbuilt screen capture application in a BlackBerry so I use Mobiola Screen Capture that can capture still images as well as a video of your BlackBerry activity. Another option is SnapScreen that is cheaper but offers only still screenshots. The BlackBerry developers toolkit also has a screenshot application that you can have for free.

BlackBerry Blogs - Some BlackBerry blogs worth checking out are CrackBerry, Rimarkable, BoyGenius, BlackBerry Geeks, AllBlackBerry and BlackBerry Cool. If you like to know about Hollywood celebrities that carry BlackBerry phones, go to BlackBerry Sightings.

Got a Problem - If you have a question or problem related to BlackBerry, you can seek help from the Official forums or the more popular CrackBerry Forums. You can also search their technical center for additional support.

BlackBerry Guide for Power Users - Do More With Your BlackBerry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Official BlackBerry® Site

Get The Most Powerful And Fastest BlackBerry® Phone Available Now. www.BlackBerry.com

Web Application Security

Guide to Securing Web Applications: Download The Free White Paper Now! Veracode.com

A BlackBerry smartphone definitely makes you more productive but there’s a small learning curve involved.

BlackBerry Guide for Power Users - Take full advantage of your BlackBerry smartphone.

Stop Receiving Sent Emails - Every time you send an email from BlackBerry, you get a copy in your Inbox. To prevent this, setup a BlackBerry Filter.

You may therefore want to switch to “manual updates” especially when running low on battery.

BlackBerry Resources - To download free BlackBerry software, games, ringtones and themes, go to Built For BlackBerry, Blackberry Owners Lounge or their Mobile Portal.

Catch Your Favorite Blogs While Watching TV

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:30:00 +0000

The Samsung 850 series HDTV includes a new Infolink RSS Access feature that lets you read RSS feeds on the television screen while you continue to watch your favorite movies.

RSS Feed Alerts on TV Screen

The Infolink RSS service pulls and displays live RSS feeds when users connect to the Internet via the integrated Ethernet port.

And if you are in the US, just plug in your zip code and current information like local weather forecasts, outside temperature, stock prices, etc. will be displayed on your screen again via RSS feeds

Mars Phoenix unlikely to rise again

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:42:00 +0000

Latest updadate from Phoenix Mars Mission Website.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.

Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months to conduct and return science data.

The project team will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages.

"Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Launched Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix landed May 25, 2008, farther north than any previous spacecraft to land on the Martian surface. The lander dug, scooped, baked, sniffed and tasted the Red Planet's soil. Among early results, it verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002. Phoenix's cameras also returned more than 25,000 pictures from sweeping vistas to near the atomic level using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth.

"Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Phoenix's preliminary science accomplishments advance the goal of studying whether the Martian arctic environment has ever been favorable for microbes. Additional findings include documenting a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier Mars missions; finding small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; discovering perchlorate salt, which has implications for ice and soil properties; and finding calcium carbonate, a marker of effects of liquid water.

Phoenix findings also support the goal of learning the history of water on Mars. These findings include excavating soil above the ice table, revealing at least two distinct types of ice deposits; observing snow descending from clouds; providing a mission-long weather record, with data on temperature, pressure, humidity and wind; observations of haze, clouds, frost and whirlwinds; and coordinating with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to perform simultaneous ground and orbital observations of Martian weather.

"Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Phoenix was supported by orbiting NASA spacecraft providing communications relay while producing their own fascinating science. With the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, the Mars Program never sleeps."

Video: How to Browse Websites Anonymously

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:36:00 +0000

In this video, Tom Merrit from CNET discusses some free tools to help you surf the web anonymously without letting the destination website know who you are.

This may even help you watch web videos that are restricted in your country like The Colbert Report on Hulu which is unavailable in India or those YouTube videos.

To download the above clip, go to CNET TV.