The Tech 2.0

Apple’s Official iPhone 3G Unlock

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:57:00 +0000

While most iPhone users are aware of unofficial unlock methods, you may be surprised to discover that it’s possible to legally unlock your device.

The above image is the not-often-seen official unlock notification, as displayed in iTunes. The dialogue succinctly confirms that the user’s iPhone, in this case a 3G, has been unlocked and can now be used on any carrier. Note the Apple logo at the top left — this is a result of an official unlock sanctioned by Apple.

Read on to find out how an iPhone 3G can be legally unlocked.

Some of the iPhone distributors are happy to lend a helping hand in unlocking your old iPhone 3G. When the 3G was released last year, customers had to sign up for a two-year contract. When upgrading to the iPhone 3GS, those same customers are given the option to pay off the remainder of their original 3G contract. Paying off the contract, and thus completing the two years prematurely, entitles the customer to have their iPhone 3G unlocked.

The assistants at the iPhone distributors store make a note of your IMEI number and then pass it onto their boss — after that there’s a special piece of software that only their boss is authorized to use. This mystical application submits the IMEI to Apple, which in turn authorizes the device for unlocking.

And the next time you sync your iPhone 3G with iTunes, it would be unlocked. Just connect the iPhone 3G to iTunes and you will receive a new carrier settings update. After downloading and installing the update, Apple’s official iPhone unlock screen appeared.

Going the legit route is a much more painless process than using a proxy SIM or the Dev Team’s unofficial unlock. Also worth noting is that, unlike some of the illicit approaches, this unlock is permanent; you will be able to keep updating the iPhone’s OS without losing the ability to use any carrier SIM in the device.

It is surprisingly quick, easy and free unlock, although I’d be very interested to find out if any other iPhone 3G users around the world have had similar success in unlocking their iPhones.

CES 2010 Gadgets - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:39:00 +0000

Dell's Slate-style tablet PC

At its Thursday morning CES press conference, Dell briefly announced plans to release a slate-style tablet PC, in the same vein as the rumored Apple Tablet or the HP/Microsoft prototype tablet shown earlier in the week.

Amazon's New Kindle

The attention given to Amazon's Kindle has spawned a slew of new e-readers ready to compete.

PARO's Therepauetic Robots

These $6000 Therepauetic Robots by PARO are designed with 5 sensors, so they interact with people according to tactile, light, temperature, and posture readings, responding to voice and developing a 'personality' over time with it's owner.

HP TouchSmart

The product that started life as the HP tx1000, and is now called the TouchSmart tm2, is one of the only convertible tablet laptops aimed at mainstream entertainment consumers.

New Eee PC netbook

Asus on Tuesday announced a new look for its popular Eee PC netbook, a "fluid," "fashionable" and "sensual" design on top of a system running Intel's new Atom N450 processor.

More to come...

Top 10 iPhone/iPod Touch Games

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:41:00 +0000

The iPhone is the best handset when it comes to the mobile gaming segment thanks to the brilliantly designed gaming environment and the list of games is just getting longer and better. So here are the top 10 games for the iPhone users, wondering which one’s are worth spending their money on.

Rolando (ngmoco Inc.) - $5.99 (Rs. 291) (Lite version available)
Similar to the PSPs Loco Roco, fans of that will find this game as much fun and more. The story line is that the Planet, Land of the Rolando has been invaded and the citizens, the Rolandos, are rebelling. The game uses all of the iPhone’s screen features viz. the accelerometer and multitouch for gameplay.

Simply put Rolando has plenty of entertainment value. The physics of the game are great so interaction itself is a ton of fun. The variety of levels and obstacles to cross get better and better and even the music adds to the overall feel. With a total of 36 levels that can be played again and again, Rolando is worth the dough.

The ngmoco game fared so well that they’ve even released a part two – Quest for the Golden Orchid, which is priced at $9.99. They’ve upped the graphics and given the game a better 3D look and much more in terms of gameplay.

Super Monkey Ball (SEGA) - $5.99 (Rs. 291)
The best use of the devices accelerometer when it comes to gameplay can be experienced with Super Monkey Ball. The Silly Simians are up to their old tricks running around in their transparent, errr... balls, collecting bananas and jumping over or maneuvering around obstacles.

The game is full paisa vasool. Control will require a little getting used to since the iPhone’s accelerometer is so fluid. Once you’ve gotten used to it the game can get very exciting and you’ll find yourself either cursing loudly or screaming cheers. Either way it’s a lot of fun. The levels are intense and with 110 stages there’s plenty of gameplay. Another game that you will play again after completion.

The 3D graphics are extremely colorful and vibrant. It’s a really fun game that will help when you're not doing anything constructive.

Sims 3 (EA Mobile) - $6.99 (Rs. 340)
The Sims series are one of THE most popular and addictive games available for all platforms. The iPhone version of the interactive game is a near perfect experience of the Sims universe on the iPhone.

The iPhone version allows for the same amount of interactivity as found in any of the other platforms. Of course it doesn’t look as good as the PC version but it sure as hell looks better than any of the older mobile versions. The level of customization of the characters is quite intricate and it’s a lot of fun working on their personalities and traits. It offers hours of gameplay and as I said before it gets quite addictive after the first 30 minutes.

I particularly like the 3D neighborhood that the Sims live in and exploration of the same is very well laid out. Go nuts!

X2 Football (X2 Games) - $6.99 (Rs. 340) (Lite version available)
Football fans are going to absolutely love X2 Football. I’m not and I loved it. It offers users a choice of more than 50 National teams through a number of tournaments, leagues and cups. The game will also give you the chance to get into the strategy of the game and take control of team management to make decisions that would affect the outcome of the game.

What’s really exciting is the layout of the game. It’s colorful and easy to follow and very well laid out. Gameplay with the virtual joystick and controls work out very well and it took me just a minute to get used to the same. It’s a very well managed game as compared to some of the others and the graphics are well done. The level of interaction is great too.

For that kind of price, if you happen to be an avid football fan you can carry on the season long after it’s over.
Move over PSP, pack your bags DS, the iPhone is going to be the new reigning champ when it comes to mobile gaming. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but Apple can make a fan out of you.

DOOM Resurrection (id Software) – $6.99 (Rs. 340)
Keeping in tow with the original, this version is much better visually, and you’ll find yourself the only surviving Marine on Mars after experiments have gone awry (as usual) and it’s your job to keep the scientist safe. The Zombies (what else) are the enemies you have to contend with while trying to figure out what exactly happened at the Mars facility.

This is one of the better if not the best first person shooter iPhone games available. The graphics of the game make it a visual feast and I definitely recommend using static earphones for a great audio experience. The weapons ranging from rifles, shotguns and even a chainsaw make gameplay a great experience as well. The controls are quite automated except for the targeting which is where the handset’s accelerometer comes into play. It also has a shake to free yourself function that adds to the games overall appeal.

DOOM fans will love it and those who aren’t will soon, and even though it seems a bit pricey, it’s well worth it.

Assassin’s Creed – Altaïr’s Chronicles (Gameloft) - $4.99 (Rs. 243)
Based on the console version, Altair’s Chronicles is actually a prequel. It’s set in Jerusalem in the year 1191 AD. Your job, as the assassin extraordinaire, is to locate a treasure called “The Chalice” and steal it from the Templars.

I fancy myself a fan of the console version simply because of the level of detail that the landscape has and the attack sequences that it offers - especially stealth assassinations. The iPhone version is of course not equipped to handle that but it does a great job nevertheless. With the help of a virtual joystick control and action keys the game is fun to play with great visuals. Sadly though like the console version, it has quite a few cut scenes with lengthy dialogues, luckily you can just skip past them here. The fight scenes and quests make it very entertaining and the 3D-rendered environments look great.

Like quite a few iPhone games iTunes offers a ‘lite’ version of the game for free that’s available in case you’d like to sample it first. Trust me once you start, it’s a little hard to quit.

Hero of Sparta (Gameloft) - $0.99 (Rs. 49) (Lite version available)
The story features a Spartan warrior, King Argos, who is cast away on an unknown beach, or island. It doesn’t really matter. Here you have to fight monsters and demons like Cerberus and the Cyclops and of course the gods themselves in an array of settings like Atlantis and the Underworld in order to find your way home.

God of War it ain’t, but I love the fact that it comes so damn close for a mobile game. Although the God of War mobile game is pretty good, there isn’t one for the iPhone... yet and I sit here hoping, Hero of Sparta is just what I needed to pass the time. It’s well laid out with plenty of baddies to cut through and upgrade etc. just like in GOW. The fight sequences are simple but very entertaining. Controls are a cinch and even the moments of the character from dodges and a few weapons etc. come pretty close to GOW. But it’s a cheap game and well worth every paise with plenty of quick time events to thrill most. Hack and Slash all the way!

Once you’re through with the games try it with a harder setting for better action with an arsenal of weaponry and really hardcore beasties.

Terminator Salvation (Gameloft) - $4.99 (Rs. 243)(Lite version available)
The year is 2018, the place LA. Judgment day is over and you are John Connor, leader of the Resistance against Skynet. This third person shooter has plenty of action and Terminator robots of all genre coming at you from all directions. From driving futuristic vehicles and even hacking computer consoles and locks, the idea to is to fight your way though missions and destroy the robots. Yes, it’s really that simple.

Terminator Salvation has tons of fast paced action gameplay. The targeting system and navigation through the game is very receptive and makes things just a little bit challenging but not difficult. The controls are pretty standard, in fact there’s just movement and fire. Swiping your hand across the display is for targeting. It has a sort of non-stop action feel to it which makes it quite easy to like. Just skip all the cut if you’re not totally into story mode and dive right in. One of the best aspects of the game is the cover system.

Fans of the movie will find it a lot of fun to play as the environment gives the game a very movie-like feel.

NFS Undercover (EA Mobile) - $4.99 (Rs. 243)(Lite version available)
Need for Speed is one of the most popular racing. This mobile version retouched for the iPhone’s graphics and accelerometer is designed to give you the same thrill as the console versions. Underground has the same exciting cop chases and street racing sequences as the originals.

What really makes this game so good on the iPhone is the control. No other accelerometer controlled racing game has the focus on the car and the gameplay rather than the reality aspect. The controls are easy to use and controlling the car itself is a cinch. Not that I want things to be easy and unrealistic but with the enhanced 3D graphics it’s that NFS brings to the iPhone its brilliant and very very entertaining gameplay. Of course the cars are quite snazzy as well and upgrades as well as Pink Slip races will add a lot to your ‘garage’ life.

At $4.99 the game has a lot to offer and has the capabilities to ensure repeated gameplay.

Real Racing (Firemint) – $9.99 (Rs. 485) (Lite version available)
This game takes mobile phone racing games to a whole other level. The genre is Championship Racing and this one is the king of them all in the mobile phone field at least so far. You can play against anyone in the vicinity via Wi-Fi, it even allows you to link and publish your race videos to your YouTube channel. Features coming out the wazoo!

Real Racing is one of the most realistic racing games that have hit the Mobile Gaming circuit. The graphics are truly spectacular and gameplay is accurate (well at least as much as a sophisticated mobile phone can offer). There’s so much that the game offers including multiplayer capabilities, Career Mode, Time Trials, the works. What I do like is the in car perspective, it makes the game so much more than just any old mobile phone racing games. Hardcore is an understatement.

Win an iPhone 3GS

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:58:00 +0000

Want to get your mits on a shiny new Apple iPhone 3GS? To celebrate the launch of Lastminute.com’s restaurant booking service fonefood, Lastminute.com is giving one away.

fonefood is a mobile restaurant booking service available from lastminute.com. fonefood allows mobile users to search and book restaurants whilst on the go. Now available on the iPhone, fonefood gives users access to over 6,000 restaurants from cheap eats to fine dining in 12 different countries.Users in the UK can also text fonefood to 85959 to get the link free of charge and the application uses Google Maps to show restaurants near the users’ location.From 19th August until the 1st September 2009, fonefood will have a limited number of restaurant offers from £1 from Cactus Blue in Fulham and Navajo Joe in Covent Garden*. But when they're gone, they’re gone!

Check out Lastminute.com to grab this great offer and find out more about fonefood. To celebrate this offer Lastminute.com is giving one lucky winner an iPhone. To enter this competition all you have to do is answer some simple questions.

Gigabyte Dragon Overclocking Contest 2009

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:43:00 +0000

Gigabyte Technology has announced the worldwide "Gigabyte Dragon Overclocking Contest 2009" with co-op with Futuremark Corp. Utilizing AMD and Gigabyte hardware, contestants worldwide will compete in two segments for the overall "Gigabyte Dragon" title within multiple prize award categories.

The contest entry period will run from Aug. 17 to Sept. 13. Prizes will be awarded for first to third place finishers for top 3DMark score and top CPU overclocking segments.

Contestants will be competing to see who can achieve the highest score with 3DMark06, a benchmark program from Futuremark that measures the 3D gaming performance capabilities of PCs

Grand prizes include a Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard, FSP Everest 800 Watt power supply, Maxcube Amoris 6010 Architectural Designed Gaming Case, GlacialTech X-Wing Cooling Pad, Gskill F3 Triple Channel DDR3 6GB memory module, and Enermax Apollo series 12cm Fan.

What's more? There are additional prizes too that will be awarded to second and third place runners-up, as well as two weekly lucky draw prizes for Gigabyte motherboards given away just for entering.

Samsung Widget Developer Camp

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:29:00 +0000

If you have been a lover of Samsung's TouchWiz interface seen on most of its high end phones, rejoice! Samsung has announced the availability of its Mobile Widget SDK, which means that the UI is now open to third parties who can develop widgets for it.

Samsung's TouchWiz UI runs on a variety of smart-phone platforms including Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android and Samsung's own proprietary OS. The best thing with the SDK is that the widgets developed using this SDK will be compatible across all these platforms. If you are a developer, visit Samsung Developer Camp for download and other information. Note that you need to have a free Samsung Mobile Innovator account in order to download stuff from there.

To kick-off the launch of the Samsung Mobile Widget SDK, Samsung will host its first Widget Developer Camp from Sept. 11-13. The camp will provide select developers with the opportunity to hear from the Samsung Mobile Innovator team about the program and develop unique widgets using the SDK for a chance to win cash prizes. At the end of the Widget Developer Camp, a panel of VIP judges will select a winner in each category, who will be awarded a $5,000 prize individually. The judges will award one 'Best in Show' winner, who will receive $20,000 and the opportunity to attend CTIA IT & Entertainment 2009 in San Diego from Oct. 7-10 and have his/her widget showcased in Samsung's booth.

Facebook for iPhone 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Parties are fun, but a really great party means the morning after is spent untagging photographs on Facebook. You were having a perfectly good time until some amateur lens jockey decided to give you the double chin treatment and then have the gall to tag it. If you're at all modest (or vain), you might as well start changing your privacy settings now. According to Justin Smith at Inside Facebook, Engineer Joe Hewitt just submitted the official Facebook for iPhone 3.0 app to the App Store for review. The new release will build upon a number of the community's social features including the ability to create albums, zoom into images, improve photo tagging and add video.

The current Facebook for iPhone application is used by nearly 25% of all iPhone owners or roughly 12 million monthly active users. With the new app's photo and video features, if you aren't diligent in your untagging, your work mates might just get an eyeful of your weekend blunders or bathing suit body. Then again, if you're looking to land a date, this might be a great way to socialize. Facebook for iPhone 3.0 offers a great way to see status updates, rsvp to mixers and parties, and the ability to call contacts directly from the Friends page. With these new features, your social calendar might just fill up and you might end up trading in your little black book for a big blue network.

While Hewitt admits that the Facebook app's video feature is a last minute incorporation, it will be interesting to see if the decision to add it will cut into the user base of existing Twitter video apps.

To keep an eye on the Facebook for iPhone application process or to discuss the app, follow Joe Hewitt on Twitter (@joehewitt)or check out the Facebook for iPhone page for new photos.

Samsung's new point-and-shoots with LCDs on front and back

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:04:00 +0000

It was LG that first added a tiny convex self-portrait mirror to its camera phones? Well, Samsung has taken the concept to the next level by adding 1.5-inch LCD to the front of its two newly announced compact point and shoots, the Samsung DualView TL225 and TL220. Both cameras also sport nice, big wide-aspect touchscreens on the back (the TL225’s is a 3.5-inch, 1,152,000-dot thing of beauty), but it’s the small screens on the front that provide the real gee-whiz factor. The front-side LCDs not only provide a preview image for taking self-portraits, but they also display a visual countdown when used in self-timer mode (improving on the typical blinking light that no one ever seems to get) and even a short little animation to attract children’s attention when shooting kids portraits.

Both front and rear LCDs are fully touch-sensitive. In fact, when the front LCD is off, it slickly disappears from view on the camera’s glossy surface, but a tap turns it on, automatically setting the camera to Self-Portrait mode which also activates the smile-detection shutter release.

The rear LCD on the TL225 is gorgeous (the TL220’s is a more standard — though still large — 3-inch, 230,000-dot screen) and both cameras offer an intuitive menu system accessed through point-and-swipe gestures as well as tilting motions powered by an internal accelerometer to make menu selections.

Both cameras include 12.2-megapixel, 1/2.33-inch CCD sensors and relatively wide 27- to 124.2mm, f/3.5-5.9 8.6x zoom lenses and can shoot 720p HD videos at 30 frames per second. In fact, the only differences between the two cameras are the size of the rear LCDs, an HDMI output on the TL225, and a negligible 0.2mm difference in overall thickness (the TL220 is a hair thinner). Oh, and of course a $50 price difference: Both cameras will ship in September, the TL225 for $349.99 and the TL220 for $299.99.

MS Word Banned in the US

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Microsoft has been ordered by a US court to stop selling MS Word in the country in 60 days. The ban, which is applicable on the 2003 and 2007 version, comes after it was determined that technology used in the software violates a patent held by i4i, a Canadian software maker.

This decision comes as the climax of a legal dispute that has been going on since May, when i4i was awarded $200 million damages from a federal jury.

MS Word forms a part of the MS Office suite of productivity applications, which is one of Microsoft's best-selling products with millions of users worldwide. Word 2007 is the latest installment, with the next version of Office expected to be out only next year.

Microsoft is expected to appeal against the verdict. "We are disappointed by the court's ruling," said Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."

i4i's dispute is centered on a way of processing electronic documents that removes the need for individual, manually embedded command codes to control text formatting in electronic documents. Both MS Word 2003 and MS Word 2007 use extensible markup language or XML. i4i says that Microsoft's method of customizing XML for its products infringes its patent.

However, things are not that bleak for the software giant. It is set to appeal and it's probable that the court verdict will be overruled. Barring that, Microsoft can try to come to an out of court settlement with i4i or just tweak its software to comply with the court's demand.

iPhone as a Photography Tool

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:31:00 +0000

Got an iPhone? Check out how you can use it as a tool in photography.

There has been a lot of buzz around the iPhone lately, especially among photographers. And for good reason… the iPhone has a host of photography-related tools that are both fun and useful.

Though the iPhone won’t be replacing our DSLR anytime soon, we almost always have our iPhone with us which means it is available many times when our DSLR isn’t. As the quote goes, “the best camera is the one you have with you”.

One of the most favorite ways to take photos with the iPhone is using an app called Pano. Pano allows you to shoot up to 16 images side-by-side which are then stitched together on the fly in about a minute. The stitching doesn’t quite line up correctly sometimes and the noise levels are higher. But still, you can create a panoramic image in less than 5 minutes without a tripod on your cellphone.

Beyond panoramas, the iPhone is capable of shooting a variety of other styles on the fly including tilt-shift fakes, fisheye images and night photography. Another interesting app, GeoLogTag geotags your images. Once you have the app running (and verify that your camera’s clock and iPhone are in sync) it will keep track of everywhere you have been during a photo trip. The data can then be exported as a standard GPX file or you can link GeoLogTag to your Flickr account and the app will automatically update the map data through that site.

Using the data services of the iPhone, you can publish photos to the web from almost anywhere. Even when you have a DSLR with you, use your iPhone to send a photo and a quick update to your blog or Facebook page so that people can see what you are doing in real-time. With the applications available on the App Store, you can upload photos to just about any social media service on the web.

Keeping your favorite photos synced to your iPhone turns the device a perfect little digital portfolio. The screen is very high quality and having a collection of images in your pocket at all times makes sharing with people very easy. You can use the iPhone to show off photos to friends, and family . I can not overstate the importance of being able to show people your work, and the iPhone is another useful tool for doing exactly that.

Do you have an iPhone? Do you use it’s camera or other features in your photography? Got any images to share with us? Feel free to link to your best iPhone images in comments below.

Google Checkout Store Gadget

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:13:00 +0000

Start selling online with the Google Checkout store gadget.

In a matter of minutes, you can create an online store that's powered by Google Checkout and has inventory managed in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Selling online has never been easier -- no complicated coding or technical tasks are required, just three easy steps:

1. Sign up for a Google Checkout seller account.
Checkout will process your orders and help you attract new leads, convert more sales, and enjoy advanced fraud protection.

2. List the products you want to sell in a Google Docs spreadsheet.
You'll just need to create a copy of our template spreadsheet, and then replace the sample inventory with your own.

3. Place the Google Checkout store gadget on your website.
You can embed your online store anywhere you'd like -- on Google Sites, Blogger, or your personal website.

Mumbai Police - Connecting With Youth

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:54:00 +0000

The Mumbai Police department wants to connect with the youth through the internet via its new website CopConnect.in.

The website's aim is to encourage today's youth to stay informed, make the right choices - especially when it comes to the law, as well as encourage others to follow this.

CopConnect features commissioner of police's blog, an events section, a section comprising of printable application forms for various permissions required, latest news, as well as an anti-vice page that helps readers reach out to people suffering from or inclined towards substance abuse.

Commissioner of Police, D. Sivanandhan, writes on CopConnect's blog, "Please use the resources on this site to find out if any of your friends is going through any suspected substance abuse. If yes, please help us help him/her."

The info about the website was circulated among citizens of Mumbai through text messaging. The response to the initiative can be viewed below the commissioner's blog. The comments on the blog get reflected on the CopConnect's homepage under the 'Active Citizen' section.

With this website, Mumbai Police aims to inculcate optimism, inspiration among youth, as well as offer a platform so they can contribute to the community in every possible way.

You can write to them at support@copconnect.in.

Dark Flash - Take pictures with invisible flash

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:56:00 +0000

Two New York University researchers have created a camera that takes photos with an “invisible flash” of infrared and ultraviolet light to a smarter way to take photos in the dark.

NYU professor Rob Fergus and doctoral student Dilip Krishnan created the camera in an attempt to do away with blinding regular flashes and the “red eye” effect that usually accompanies them.

To make a camera with the advancement, which they call “dark flash,” the duo modified a flashbulb to emit light over a wider range of frequencies and filter out visible light. They then removed filters that usually prevent a camera’s silicon image sensor from detecting IR and UV rays.

There are pros and cons to the approach: though a “dark flash” creates a crisp image, results have an odd color balance something like night-vision. Read the full NYU study.

To remedy the situation, Fergus and Krishnan combined the result with color information from a flash-free (thus dim and blurry) photograph of the same scene taken immediately after the dark flash image. The pair combined the two images using software for the final result.

Unfortunately, some hurdles remain: some objects (such as freckles) absorb UV and IR light, and don’t appear in either the “dark flash” version or the final composite image.

Fergus and Krishnan will present their work at the Siggraph conference in New Orleans in August.

Download videos from YouTube without any software

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:07:00 +0000

There are many softwares which can download YouTube videos but there is a simple trick to save the videos without a 3rd party app :

Visit YouTube and start the video you want to download .

Watch the video until the complete video is loaded.

Now go to the Temperory Internet Files folder (Location may vary depending on O.S and Browser version -C:\documents and settings\administrator\local settings\temperory internet files).

In the Temperory Internet Files folder , arrange the files in order of their size and find a file with the same size as of the video you just saw on YouTube . Copy the file to some other folder.

If the file does not have any extension , then rename the file and give it an extension .flv. If you are not able to play the video file , download an flv player (Mplayer - recommended).

That's it. Enjoy!

YouTube 3D

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Google wanted to make it easier for us to watch and enjoy 3D videos in a variety of formats, since having a 3D experience usually requires special glasses or viewing techniques. Here's a brief overview video.

This is a new feature and many of the kinks are still being worked out (for instance, 3D videos cannot be embedded). But as with most things on YouTube, Google needs your help. They are looking for you to show the real potential of this feature by making a fascinating, funky 3D video of your own. Tag it with yt3d:enable=true, and leave the link in a comment on this blog. Youtube will feature a small selection on the homepage in an upcoming 3D-themed spotlight.

Some basics around shooting 3D videos (this isn't easy, so patience is key):

Use two cameras arranged like a pair of eyes.
Start both cameras recording simultaneously.
In your video editing program, place the footage for the left and right eyes together in the frame side by side, with the right eye on the left and the left eye on the right.
Upload your video! Edit your videos tags and add yt3d:enable=true. If video is widescreen, add yt3d:aspect=16:9 too.

For user discussions around 3D video, visit the YouTube forum.

Have fun!

Making Online Shopping Safer: Password for Online Credit Card purchase

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:29:00 +0000

To make online shopping safer, the RBI has made it mandatory, from 1st August onwards, for all online transactions to have an extra level of authentication. The ‘extra’ level, is a password that you will have to enter after entering your credit/debit card details while making online payments. You will require this ‘extra password’ for transacting on any website in India. This new technology is called VBV – Verified by Visa or MSC – MasterCard SecureCode.

How do I get this ‘extra password’?

All you have to do is log on to your bank’s website, register your card for Verified by Visa (or MasterCard SecureCode) and get your password. Each bank has its own process for card registration. So, hop on to your bank’s website and register now:

HDFC Bank	ICICI Bank	Citibank	HSBC Bank
Standard Chartered	State Bank of India	Axis Bank	ABN Amro
Deutsche Bank	Karur Vysya Bank

Okay, so I’m registered with VBV/MSC. Now what?

Great! Now, every time you shop online, after entering your card details on the payment step, you will be redirected to your bank’s website. You will need to enter your VBV/MSC password there after which you will be redirected back to shopping website for completing the purchase process. That’s it!

What about American Express cards?

For Amex cards the ‘extra level of authentication’ will work slightly differently. On the payment step , you will be asked to enter you billing address, which will be passed on to the bank. This will be checked against your billing address the bank has on its records. If the addresses don’t match your payment will be rejected. This technology is called AVS – Address Verification System. Please check your credit card statement if you don’t remember your exact billing address.

What if my bank does not support Verified by Visa / MasterCard SecureCode?

The RBI notification concerns cards issued within India only. If your card is issued outside India, your online transactions will go through even without this extra authentication step (unless your Card Issuer requires SecureCode/VbV authenrtication). If your card is issued in India, we suggest you look for a new bank!

Please Note: Information given in good faith and the above is meant as a basic guide for online shoppers. We at Tech2.0 are not responsible for any direct, indirect or consequential liabilities arising out of your decision to use or act on the above or otherwise.

Google Maps' City Tours

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:49:00 +0000

City Tours, the new experimental project from Google Labs, looks like a good candidate for inclusion in the increasingly popular Google Maps.

According to Google, the service "helps you identify points of interest and plan multi-day trips to most major cities. You just specify the location of your hotel and the length of your trip and City Tours will map out an itinerary for you."

The experimental version of City Tours has limited features. It only lists popular sights and it suggests when you should visit them. The user can edit the information about a place and can add new sights, but again the options are limited.

Google itself has suggested it would be useful to show more details about sights from Wikipedia and from image hosting sites like Flickr or Panoramio. Google works on landmark recognition, a project that associates images from the web with landmarks, and City Tours is an obvious application.

Travel & Tourism Technology Trends believes Google has focused on the right target: "Think about the data set required to produce City Tours. They have combined their Google Local Search and business listings from partner directories, geo-tagged the data (presumably with street name data and their API), and then mapped them along with suggested itineraries for major cities all around the World."

T&T Technology Trends adds that City Tours is totally in line with Google's mission. "The interface seems simple enough and the features are limited at the moment, but the potential impact on in-destination tourism is massive. Think about all the local businesses like guided city tours, tour guides, bike tours, and the like that can (and will) jump in and add their information to Google Local Search so they get listed.

"Google stands to add hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of new data points to their index. Imagine what can be done with that data through various devices."

Google has not yet disclosed its revenue model for City Tours. Given the history of Google, however, revenue could well come from sponsored listings.

Google to launch Chrome OS

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Google said late Tuesday that it will launch the Google Chrome operating system, a computer operating system that initially will target netbook computers by offering a faster, better and more secure way for users to access Web-based applications.

The Chrome operating system should not be confused with the Android operating system that the company launched for mobile devices. While there will be some overlap between the two systems, Android was designed to work across a number of devices, such as phones, set-top boxes and netbooks. The Chrome OS is being designed to power computers that range from small netbooks to full-size desktop machines.

The Chrome OS is a direct attack against Microsoft’s lucrative - albeit vulnerable - Windows operating system. By now, it’s no secret that Windows Vista was a nightmare and that Microsoft is eager to launch its Windows 7 operating system, which is scheduled for release in the fall. From the official blog post announcing Google Chrome OS:

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

Google, which has long been singing the praises of cloud-based applications, is stepping up its game to bring the cloud to the mainstream. The operating system - a lightweight open source system that will run on both x86 as well ARM chips - is deigned to start up and have the user on the Web within seconds, as opposed to the long startup time on Windows. In addition, the company said that it’s “going back to basics” - just as it did with the Chrome browser - to redesign the underlying security architecture “so that users don’t have to worry about viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

For developers, the platform is the Web. All Web-based applications will automatically work on the Chrome OS and new applications can be written using any web technology, which means they will work on any standards based browser running on Windows, Mac or Linux.

Earlier in the day, Google ripped the Beta labels off of its Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs applications, presumably to make them more attractive to business customers who might have thought of them as unfinished, untested or unreliable because they still carried the Beta label.

Those apps also go directly at another of Microsoft’s sweet spots, its software suite. Gmail and Google Calendar, for example, provide an alternative to Microsoft’s Outlook while Google Docs is intended to challenge popular productivity tools such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Later this year, the company plans to open-source its Chrome OS code and is already talking to partners about having the first round of netbooks available to consumers by the second half of 2010.

Unlock iPhone 3GS with Ultrasn0w

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Thanks to the iPhone Dev Team which has successfully unlocked the 3G S using an app called Ultrasn0w. Here is a short tutorial and a video demo too.

First of all take a complete backup of all your data using the iTunes.
You need to have Cyndia installated on your iPhone.
Then disable 3G connection on your iPhone during the unlocking procedure since its not supported.
Install Ultrasn0w from Cyndia by entering the Cydia/APT URL using the Copy paste function.
Once this is done you need to return to the main screen and let the installation procedure get completed.
Once done you need to replace your current SIM card and insert a new SIM, ie removing the AT&T SIM and using T-Mobile one.

iPhone 3GS Unlock Demonstration from planetbeing on Vimeo.

Download Untrasn0w 0.8:

Download Redsn0w 0.8 for Windows

Download Redsn0w 0.8 for Mac

Download Redsn0w 0.8 for Linux

Enjoy!

Share Flickr photos on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:51:00 +0000

Flickr has released a feature to post photos on Twitter for Flickr users. Now you can upload images to Flickr and Twitter at the same time or tweet about existing Flickr photo using exclusive Flic.kr short URL. Unlike Twitpic.com, it doesn't requires signing into the site. In order to add Twitter support to Flickr, you have to sign in to authorize Flickr to post to Twitter account from the blog settings page.

After authorizing the Twitter account, users will get a 'Blog This' Button that will post photo with a custom twitter update from Flickr account itself. For more details on Twittering your Flickr photos, visit Flickr help.

Users would also be able to post from their mobile phones via email to a custom 2Twitter email address that will post the image to Flickr and Twitter. However, the subject line and body of the email should carry the custom Twitter message, up to a maximum 116 characters. The rest of the characters in the Twitter update will consist of special short Flic.kr URL.

This has been one of the much demanded features of Flickr users addicted to Twitter.

Mobile numbers to begin with 8 now

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Soon, mobile phone companies are expected to issue cell phone numbers beginning with 8. The country’s cellular subscriber base has been growing substantially over the last couple of years, which led to the exhaustion of the existing sublevels of 9. Expecting a similar growth over the next few years, DoT is considering an 11-digit numbering system from next year. Currently, China and UK are the two countries which use the 11 digit numbering system.

With the new numbering series being available, mobile companies are likely to auction some of the special numbers, particularly in newer rural markets either through their websites or through customer service outlets. In the past, companies like BSNL, Idea, Tata Teleservices , Vodafone, Airtel etc have auctioned special numbers thus earning large sums of money, particularly from politicians and businessmen. In August 08 alone, state-owned BSNL earned Rs 1.15 crore from the auction of 2000 numbers. Hutch (now Vodafone) sold the most expensive number so far at Rs 15 lakh in 2007 to a Ludhianabased businessman. Tata Teleservices routinely auctions cellular numbers on its website, with prices ranging from Rs 10,000 to over Rs 1 lakh.

If remembering 10-digit mobile phone numbers is hard task for you, soon you'll have an addition to the problem.

Google : Let's make the web faster

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:22:00 +0000

From building data centers in different parts of the world to designing highly efficient user interfaces, we at Google always strive to make our services faster. We focus on speed as a key requirement in product and infrastructure development, because our research indicates that people prefer faster, more responsive apps. Over the years, through continuous experimentation, we've identified some performance best practices that we'd like to share with the web community on code.google.com/speed, a new site for web developers, with tutorials, tips and performance tools.

We are excited to discuss what we've learned about web performance with the Internet community. However, to optimize the speed of web applications and make browsing the web as fast as turning the pages of a magazine, we need to work together as a community, to tackle some larger challenges that keep the web slow and prevent it from delivering its full potential:

Many protocols that power the Internet and the web were developed when broadband and rich interactive web apps were in their infancy. Networks have become much faster in the past 20 years, and by collaborating to update protocols such as HTML and TCP/IP we can create a better web experience for everyone. A great example of the community working together is the HTML5 protocol. With HTML5 features such as AppCache, developers are now able to write JavaScript-heavy web apps that run instantly and work and feel like desktop applications.

In the last decade, we have seen close to a 100x improvement in JavaScript speed. Browser developers and the communities around them need to maintain this recent focus on performance improvement in order for the browser to become the platform of choice for more feature-rich and computationally-complex applications.

Many websites can become faster with little effort, and collective attention to performance can speed up the entire web. Tools such as Yahoo!'s YSlow Page Speed help web developers create faster, more responsive web apps. As a community, we need to invest further in developing a new generation of tools for performance measurement, diagnostics, and optimization that work at the click of a button. and our own recently launched

While there are now more than 400 million broadband subscribers worldwide, broadband penetration is still relatively low in many areas of the world. Steps have been taken to bring the benefits of broadband to more people, such as the FCC's decision to open up the white spaces spectrum, for which the Internet community, including Google, was a strong champion. Bringing the benefits of cheap reliable broadband access around the world should be one of the primary goals of our industry.

To find out what Googlers think about making the web faster, see the video below. If you have ideas on how to speed up the web, please share them with the rest of the community. Let's all work together to make the web faster!

Source: Google Blog

Sharapova Unveils Blinking Phone Dress

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Maria Sharapova presented a prototype dress to reporters that is designed to light up when the wearer's mobile telephone rings.

British fashion student Georgie Davies dreamed up the knee-length short-sleeved white dress as part of a school project with mobile phone-maker Sony Ericsson to figure out ways of incorporating new technology into fashion. Davies said the dress is designed to eventually be connected to the wearer's phone by Bluetooth wireless technology, so she can be alerted to a call even in noisiest of places.

"When you're in a pub or a bar, you can never, ever hear your phone," 20-year-old Davies told Reuters on Wednesday. One shoulder of the dress down to the hip is embellished with translucent white scales that move and light up.

Sharapova showed off the dress to a gaggle of photographers and a crowd of passers-by from the window of a luxury department store in central London.

Lifestream Backup - archive your online life

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Lifestream Backup is a new service that backs up your data from a handful of popular online services including Flickr, Twitter, BaseCamp, Google Docs, and WordPress. You just provide it with your log-in credentials (or give it permission through authentication), and it quietly makes a daily or weekly backup of all your data from each site. It can then be viewed and downloaded if one of those places suffers an outage or data loss.

For $30 a year you get 20GB of storage, which is shared across all of the different services and hosted on Amazon's S3. If you have your own S3 account it's only $15 for the whole year, and it does not impose any storage limits since you're paying for that separately through Amazon. (Note: The prices are slightly lower than these for the next 10 days as part of the site's launch.)

To give it a good test drive I tried it on my Flickr and Twitter accounts, as well as my Delicious bookmarks and Google documents. It took a little under a day to pull everything in, although the length of time it takes depends both on when it begins its backup, and how much you have on each service. The only exception was Delicious, which was never imported despite me providing the correct credentials.

For Twitter it saved all of my past tweets in an XML file which could not be viewed in Firefox, IE, or Chrome. Instead I had to open it up in Windows Notepad and parse through coding wrappers to get to each tweet. They were all there though, going all the way back to 2007. Not a bad start, but the presentation left something to be desired; a spreadsheet would have been nicer.

As for Google Docs, what's nice is that it can grab documents from multiple Google accounts. I had it hooked up to two of mine. It pulled them in just fine, although it did not mark which account was which. It also does not tell you what type of document each saved item is. If they're text files this isn't a problem since they display right in your browser. If they're spreadsheets or presentations though, you have to save them to your hard drive and open them in something like Excel.

Of all of the services I tested, Flickr took the longest, and with good reason--photos are big. I've got more than 3,200 photos stored on Flickr. For size reasons, it does not download the full-quality version of each photo, which admittedly would fill up your 20GB quite quickly (my 12 megapixel shots run around 3MB to 4MB a pop). Nonetheless, I found this to be a major shortcoming, especially for pixel-peeping snobs like me who like to zoom into the details of large photos. It also did not keep any of the categorization I had worked so hard on back over on Flickr. Sets, tags, descriptions--none of that gets backed up.

Lifestream Backup's archive pages are not much to look at, but they do save your data, and let you download it in case one of those sites is down.

I'd also like to see it do a better job at presenting the files. For instance, it shows when the files were backed up, but does not let you see when they were originally created. You also cannot download your files in bulk. Instead it must be done one at a time. For retrieving single files this obviously isn't a problem, but if you're trying to re-archive an entire gallery of photos, or folder full of documents it can be time-consuming.

Faults aside, I think Lifestream Backup is really on to something, and has big potential. Many of the services it backs up have very comprehensive backup systems of their own. That doesn't mean diddly when they go down though. If you're using any of them for business and want a surefire way to access your content, Lifestream Backup provides that. The one weak point there is if the source service is also using Amazon S3, which is what powers Lifestream Backup, then you really are out of luck until S3 comes back online.

Google testing out new format for search ads

noreply@blogger.com (neeraj) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Google is testing a new ad format that could shake up the familiar look and feel of a Google search page.

A select group of Google advertisers in the U.S. is being given the opportunity to try out so-called "product ads" that will let them put an awful lot more information in their ad than fits inside the current text-ad boxes on Google search pages. The new ad format won't replace text ads but could allow Google to test the effectiveness of a different bidding system for advertisers.

Unlike standard ads, advertisers in this program will bid on the commission they wish to pay Google for actual sales that occur on the advertiser's Web site, rather than what they want to pay when a potential customer clicks on that ad. The ads will be submitted in the same way companies submit free listings to Google Product Search or Google Shopping through Google Base, but unlike those listings Google says it will provide "prominent placements" for ads submitted through this program.

Google Blogoscoped has the full e-mail sent to potential advertisers, which identifies the program as a "beta" and describes the ads as such: "Google product ads will feature product specific information directly in the ad such as price and product image. During the beta program, Google will be testing to identify the most effective ad formats."