International

SendSMSNow.com

This website allows you to send texts to international numbers to 49 countries and has a 130 character limit, which is quite nice. Most of the carriers in the US are supported.

GizmoSMS

Another nifty service that supports a big list of nations to which you can text for free. These guys also have a bunch of other cool mobile services like Gizmo5, which happens to be an open talk solution. Do check it out.

From Yahoo Messenger

If you’ve paired up your phone with Yahoo Messenger, you can enter the phone number in the top bar and text away. There are no ads in the texts but it does have a limit before the receiver must reply.

Twitter.com

You can use Twitter as a group SMS service. Just ask your folks to turn on device updates. Needless to say, you need to be registered at Twitter.

For Indians

160by2.com

This is one of the most painless free SMS services. What you should do is, open a tab in your mobile browser dedicated specially for wap.160by2.com. So, whenever you need to send an SMS, just open your browsers and send to 1 person or a whole group. And if you turn off the images, the job gets done in 5KB. This translates into 5paise for most GPRS users in India.

There is also a small Java app which should run fine on most phones.

Only problem is the 80 character limit. Oh well, you can’t have everything in life.

Way2SMS.com

Very similar to 160by2, but with a higher character limit (110 to be precise). The website is easy to navigate and SMSes get delivered rather quickly. Sweet.
I tried using their WAP services, but in vain.

SMSGupshup.com

Here’s another group SMS service that also allows you to join random groups of your interest. It also allows sending SMSes to a single contact, the only problem being, it allows only 3 SMSes after which the said contact is supposed to reply back. Pity, because it has the highest character limit.

YouMint.com

Though offers nothing new in terms of text-ing, it offers a load of affiliate marketing cash to its users. Like referring your friends to YouMint’s services or signing them on to the advertisers programs. Sign up, if this sounds good.

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Cell phones are as integral a part of out lives as is food, water and air. Try living a day without your cell phone and you’ll know if I’m just making lofty statements or talking serious. Come to think of it, the one thing you check in your pocket when leaving the house is your cell phone. Everything else is not so much of a priority.

And this just shows with the rapid strides the cell phone industry is taking, thanks to the cell phone also being the most frequently changed gadget. That’s because, you might be able to live without your music player or gaming device for a day, but you just can’t do without your cell phone, can you?

Off late, Blackberry seems to have pipped Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 to the number 2 spot. Spot number 1 belongs, quite obviously to Symbian OS. What shall be interesting to see is how Google’s Android squares up against the competition.

And along with cell phones, the accessory industry seems to be booming as well. Users need accessories to personalize it or increase their functionality. Like Cell Phone Holsters for example, which let you clip your cell phone on to your belt. This is great for people always on the move.

Needless to say, 2008-09 will see bigger and better strides being taken in the mobile world. Wireless networks and their capabilities will touch new ground. Convergence will take bigger forms and the day when the cell phone is all you need when you step out of the house, isn’t really far away. 

There is a certain charm in everything old and that applies to games as well. Take a look at the specs of games and consoles of yore and you’ll conclude that the ‘snake game’ on your cell phone is more sophisticated than what a whole console could pull off in the 90’s. Though there’s nothing new, you ought to know how to revisit the good old days, right here on your PC.

There is a small bit of software called an Emulator which does exactly what it sounds like; emulate a specific console. It tricks the game into believing that it is being played on a console so that you can have some fun shooting half a pixel characters’, jabbing the space bar on your keyboard, and paving the way to world domination.

Kawaks

When you have an arcade emulator, you won’t need to insert coins in your PC to punch the pants off of your opponent in Street Fighter II. Install Kawaks for that and every Capcom Play System 2 game you ever desired is all yours. Hallelujah!

http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/

MAME

MAME or Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is the biggest, baddest emulator out there which is sure to keep you busy till you are 30 if you are 20 right now. It supports around 4000 games which mean a lot of fun.

http://www.mamedev.org/

Stella

For life to have certain meaning, you need to play the original Pacman. You won’t get an Atari 2600 around, so you need to do as I say (this is so awesome!). Install the Stella Emulator to bring home the Atari 2600. Oh, joy.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/

MESS

Life’s a MESS alright, but MESS take care of the, er, MESS which stands for Multiple Emulator Super System. It’s based on MAME but is more accurate when it comes to emulation and supports a lot of platforms. It also supports Nintendo DS, Sega Dreamcast and Sony PS1 games. I hope you shall conclude that I do more than just make messy statements.

http://www.mess.org

Some other things that didn’t help were the emcee who was also the Asia Pacific head, was a bit too enthusiastic with the proceedings and said “Cool, isn’t it?” around 457 million times. He also expected people to know things like how many million songs were sold from the iTunes store and how many applications the App Store sold. Christ save them. And people actually knew. Christ better save them.

Plus, the gadgets were kept under a black cloth which totally looked like a machine gun was kept below it. It gave me the feeling that I was attending some Jihadi press conference where the AK-447i with Mary Jane compartment was to be unveiled. I waited patiently till the whole presentation got over and when that happened; I had greater respect for my own levels of tolerance. If there is one thing that you learn from engineering, its tolerance.

I finally got my hands on the super slim iPod Nano and was completely miffed at its thickness. Its unbelievably thin and makes you question the laws of physics when you consider that it has a battery that ploughs on for a full day. It also has a whole host of features which actually had legitimate “Cool, isn’t it?” questions to it.

The more important ones would be, integrated Nike+ (to calculate workout data), accelerometer (to change screen orientation from portrait to landscape when held accordingly), a complete range of colours, a brighter screen, voice memo recording (there ain’t no internal mic. Its built in to the earphones) , Genius play list creation (a play list created by an algorithm which selects songs that’d go best with one particular song) and all that faff.

I also tested the new in-earphones that Apple put out. According to them, it had 2 drivers to keep the audiophiles happy. It was decent but frankly when you consider the 4200 buck price, the one normally bundled with iPods sounded better. Go get a Sennheiser CX 400, life will be much better.

Moving on to the new iPod Touch, Apple have given it a comprehensive nip and tuck. They’ve slimmed it down (but holding it isn’t exactly confidence inspiring). That’s thanks largely to the stupid chrome finish at the back. When will they start offering a matte finish option? I don’t want something I will need to wipe every 42 seconds.

All the features mentioned in the Nano are here and there is an external volume button which makes you praise the Lord for all the small mercies in life. Controlling volume on the earlier iPod Touch was such a pain. There is also a tinny speaker, enough for listening to music in a quiet environ or for games. And oh yeah, the games are killer. All of them make use of the Accelerometer and you can tilt your Pod to glory. You can download them from the App Store which can thankfully be accessed by us ‘3rd world’ Indians.

The iPod Shuffle and iPod classic have been untouched. Apple calls this lineup the best ever. Oh well, they do that all the bloody time. Do stay tuned, I shall give you comprehensive reviews of iPod Nano and iPod Touch as soon as Apple gives me test units.

Pricing

Apple iPod Nano 4G

• 8GB 9700/- in India or $149 from Amazon
• 16GB 12500/- in India or $199 from Amazon

Apple iPod Touch 2G

• 8GB 15,100/ in India- or $229 from Amazon
• 16GB 19,100/ in India- or $299 from Amazon
• 32GB 25,000/ in India - or $399 from Amazon

Security is a boring topic to talk about. But you don’t need a luckless under grad like me to tell you that it is as important as chicken in a chicken burger. I tell you how to secure your PC for free and be miles away from the bad guys.

Anti-spyware

Spyware is bad, m’kay. Because spyware spies on you and can steal your information, m’kay (yes, Southpark fan in here!). I recommend Spybot and Ad-aware. Both are equally effective.

Firewall

A firewall acts as a filter for all connections leaving and entering your computer. Yes, Windows XP (As far as my circle is concerned, only 1 in 50 people run Vista) does have a firewall, but it inspects only incoming traffic, not outgoing. So get Zone Alarm and be sure that nothing inside the PC is trying to contact extra-terrestrial life forms.

Update PC regularly

This keeps you ahead of the trouble makers. Most software prompt you when it is time for updating, but in case yours don’t, use the Filehippo.com utility which checks for the same. Plus, schedule Windows Update to check once a week.

Good Anti-virus

If you’re asking me, anti-virii like McAfee and Norton not only burn a hole in the pocket, but also one in the ozone layer. They take up so much of processing power that they end up consuming more electricity in the long run. Use something light and free like AVG or Avast. Save the earth.

Be careful online

If you want to infect your PC for fun, just head to all the nasty websites on the planet. Also install every greeting, screen saver and everything that comes your way, to have a blissfully infested PC. More often than not, they are packaged with some or the other Trojan. So try not to be a curious twat when it comes to the web.

Clean your registry from time to time

The registry is a place where all the settings of your hardware and software are stored. And you don’t want this to be messed up. Use CCleaner to keep your PC as well as your registry clean.

After all this, check your PC’s defenses at http://secunia.com/software_inspector/

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday -May 22, 2006

Leonardo Da Vinci’s birth anniversary

Louis Braille’s Birthday - January 4, 2006

Dilbert! May 20, 2002

(This was a whole series of logos from Monday to Friday. Click on the image to see the complete series by Dilbert creator Scott Adams)

50th Anniversary of Understanding DNA - April 25, 2003

Edvard Munch’s Birthday - December 12, 2006

Doodle for Google competition winner

Earth Day - April 22, 2007 & 2008

Albert Einstein’s birthday - March 14, 2003

Michelangelo’s birth anniversary - March 6, 2003

100th Anniversary of Flight - December 17, 2003

MC Escher’s birthday - June 16, 2003

Father’s Day - June 18, 2006

Halloween - October 31, 2002

25th anniversary of TCP/IP - January 1, 2008

Alexander Graham Bell’s Birthday - March 3, 2008

Invention of the First LASER - May 16, 2008

Martin Luther King Jr. Day - January 16, 2006

Spirit on Mars - January 15, 2004

50th anniversary of the LEGO brick - January 28, 2008

250th Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - January 27, 2006

2008 Olympic Games in Beijing - August 8, 2008

If you liked the post, please add it to StumbleUpon or Digg

If you liked this post, please consider submitting it to StumbleUpon or Digg.

Today we’ll take a look at a bunch of iPod accessories that aim at giving you a better experience.

Image Credits aaronsteele

1) Jackets

Some call it foolish, some call it smart and if you’re a hardcore music junkie, you’d certainly want this one. Burton and Spyder make some cool looking jackets, you can just head to Eleksons website, get the fabric controls from them, stick it on to your t-shirt, underwear, what have you.

2) Cases

Gravity attracts everything. Even a shiny new iPod from the hands of an over-excited teeny bopper. So get a rugged cover if you treat your gadgets with as much care as your shoes. Or if you don’t want to screw the look of your iPod, get an invisible cover.

3) Earphones

iPod earphones suck. Everyone knows this and if you didn’t you’ve been totally living under a rock. I vehemently recommend something like the Shure EC3 or Creative Aurvana. Gives you a world of a difference.

4) Sound docks

Sound docks change your iPod from private to public. Some sound docks are loud enough to hold a small bash for 8-10 people. The ones I totally dig are the Bose SoundDock, Harman Kardon Go+Play and the JBL Radial for their rather balanced sound.

Out of all these, the Bose is the most portable and the Harman Kardon, the loudest. If I am not mentioning the Apple Hi-Fi, its because I haven’t heard it personally.

5) Arm bands

If you’re the type who needs some ear-pounding during a work out, get an arm band. You can carry out your proceedings in peace, rather than worry about your darling iPod falling out of your pocket.

6) FM Transmitter

Wireless transmission problem? No problem! Get a FM transmitter and transmit to all the receivers in the vicinity. Have a blast.

7) Battery pack

Out of battery, sir/ma’am? Get a battery pack, connect, reload, replay.

P.S. This article goes without saying that you should be adding a screen protector. And no, iPod’s dont need socks.

Online office applications

Google Docs

With Google Docs you have an online version of Word, Excel and Powerpoint presentations. Its comes with storage and is seamlessly linked with your GMail account. Only problem I see is that it doesn’t support .docx files

Zoho Office

A jaw dropping range of office applications with an interface very similar to the earlier MS Office.

Image tweaking

Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe Photoshop is the de facto standard for image manipulation and who better than them to create an online app? Its excellent for tweaking your pictures and there are multitudes of options available to do so. It is also seamlessly hooked up with Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa. You also get a .photoshop.com subdomain to show your pictures off. Their tagline is “Made you look”. Well, I sure did

Picnik

A very user friendly and bright looking interface coupled with a multitude of options to do the nip and tucking to your image.

Online PDF tools

PDF Escape

Google Docs does have an inbuilt PDF reader, but we have PDF Escape to take care of everything else. It allows you to edit your PDF’s. Now, there.

Online Antivirus

Kaspersky

Want a free virus scan? Here you go. There are loads of online virus scanners but I found Kaspersky to be the best. Die, Die, Die my Virus.

Online Backup

Windows Live Skydrive

Yes, Microsoft still has the ability to come up with some nifty stuff at times and I am mighty pleased with their Skydrive service. 5GB of space to store your critical data, a clean interface and the ability to share files and folders. Kapow!

Please do chip in with your comments!

1) Piclens

This was one plugin that made my jaw drop to the floor when I saw what it could really do. It creates a neat looking wall of pictures which you can flick and zoom. It now supports a multitude of websites including Facebook, MySpace and most of the image searches. The only problem I see is that, you cant save images.

2) Thumbstrips

This plugin records all the web pages you visited in the current session and displays it like a time line. So you can go back to a certain page with a lot less hassle. And you even save your sessions and share them, if you so wish.

3) Better GMail

Think GMail is a tad too simple for your tastes? Then trick it out with this plugin, written by Gina Trapani, Lead Editor of Lifehacker. What she has basically done is, compile the best Greasemonkey scripts and pushed the GMail novelty notch higher. You can change skins, icons for attachments, see the improved labeling in action and lots more.

4) Shareaholic

Shareaholic allows you to submit any web page to a multitude of social networking sites. Can come in very handy if the page itself does not have the necessary bookmarking buttons.

5) Sxipper

Sxipper is like the extended version of the Firefox password manager. You can create different profiles for different websites and let it take care of everything else. And oh yeah, it can fill your forms as well. Goody goody gumdrops! (Yes. I am Obelix fan!)

6) Foxy Tunes

Take control of your media player from within your browser and relax. Supports a multitude of media players and is amazing for going through podcasts. And if there is something it doesn’t support is, George Bush’s penchant for attacking oil-rich countries.

7) Fast Dial

Want the very awesome Speed Dial from Opera? Here you go. And there are 12 panels to add your frequently visited websites into.

8 ) FireFTP

So, you want an FTP client, right inside Firefox? You have it, Sir! And it is as good as any other FTP client. Go, figure!

9) Foxmarks

An awesome utility to take your bookmarks with you, anywhere you go. You just need to login to Foxmarks from, lets say, your work PC to your laptop; all your bookmarks will be available over there and vice versa. An answer to Opera Sync. Goddamit, the Mozilla community has an answer to everything! (and I mean that in a very positive way!)

10) Down Them All!

The first download accelerator for Firefox in which you can do almost everything a stand-alone download application can. Split files into chunks, download all the links and images on a page, the works.

I am bloody sure I might have missed some really kick-ass plugins, so do tell me which ones, alright?