Mobile news headlines have screamed for months about Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system upgrade. Now that it’s here, and some of the gold dust has settled, is it really worth the hype?

In a nutshell, the answer for most users of Android mobile phones is a simplified “yes.” While the framework for the basic OS is the same – It’s an Android, after all, the improvements do make the OS much more user-friendly, the features more easily managed and the overall operations smoother.

Specific Improvements over Android 2.3, Gingerbread

While Gingerbread was only a minor update from Froyo, Android’s 2.2 OS, Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS brings several facets to a whole new level.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb lent a few improvements over Gingerbread and into ICS but only a few: Honeycomb didn’t last long because of its many faults, and users everywhere gave thanks for that!

ICS smooths out animations considerably. Gone are the “herky jerky” motions that contributed to eye strain and headaches. You can open and close apps and other operations and multitask with much greater ease, none the least of which is the lack of that irritating swipe motion as closure.

In comparison, iOS closings require a double-tap of the Home key, then depressing the app until it wiggles, then individually close out the apps you want to end. Even the HTC Hub does a better job than Apple operating systems, those iOS programs in the iDevices.

The layout of apps and other widgets is much more convenient as well. Instead of scrolling through menus, you sort with your thumb: Just swipe from side to side, choose and click the icon. Period. You can customise what apps you see on your screen: Keep visible the ones you use often and hide the rest for occasional use.

However, those conveniences aren’t, in our opinion, the best improvement ICS brings to Android devices: That honour goes to interface navigation.

Shortcut keys rest at the bottom of the screen. You no longer have to sort through back-screens or menus to return Home. Just click the key, and you’re there. You can, if desired, use the one-at-a-time back-screen option, for there’s a dedicated function key for that, too. You can sort through your apps with a specified function key as well.

Input buttons, no. Function keys, yes. You still get the full touchscreen presentation, for the keys are locked below the screen – not extending onto it, filling the screen with more icons or complicating it with menus.

Honeycomb’s primary addition to ICS is the Google Search bar that rests atop screens. Gingerbread could seat it on only one screen, a major disadvantage to web surfers.

The color-coded entries in the Calendar app that comes with ICS devices is truly top notch. In an overview calendar, the specific list on which it’s noted is differentiated from others by a colour. For immediately accessible details, you know precisely which list to access instead of sorting through them one after another.

Pretty soon, there will be no more analogue television broadcasts in the UK. That means that if you do not have a digital television, or a set-top box, you will no longer be able to watch terrestrial television. The reason for this is that the analogue broadcasts are being switched off to make way for digital television channels.

Digital television offers a number of advantages over its analogue predecessor. For starters, you get perfect picture quality. Digital TV signals are encoded as a series of 1s and 0s, rather than as a continuous wave, so if you are getting a decent reception, then the picture you see on your screen will be exactly the same as the original transmission. Even with the best analogue reception, the picture was always a little fuzzy round the edges, with a bit of ‘ghosting’ between areas of high contrast. This makes it perfect for the new generation of flat screen LCD, plasma, and LED displays, which are less forgiving of imperfections than the bulky cathode ray tube displays of old due to their high resolutions and pin-sharp details.

Another big advantage of digital television is that you can get a lot more information into the signal. Even with the limited bandwidth that is currently available to digital TV, there is still room for many more channels than was ever possible with analogue. And when the analogue signal is finally switched off, there will be much more space on the electromagnetic spectrum for digital TV, which will mean even more channels, amongst other things. For more information about the digital switchover, go to the Sky website.

With the new generation of high definition TVs, the only broadcasts that are able to take full advantage of the higher resolution are special digital HD broadcasts. At the moment, there are only a few channels broadcasting in this format, but once there is more bandwidth available, and more HD TVs are sold, it is expected that most broadcasters will make their programmes available in this format.

While it has been possible to record analogue TV onto videotapes and DVDs for a while now, there was always some signal degradation when you did so. However, with digital TV, you can make an exact copy of the broadcast, so that when you play it back it will look exactly the same as when it was first shown. And with today’s hard disc recorders, you can store hundreds of hours of your favourite TV programmes on one unit, as opposed to just a few hours on a DVD or VHS.

A widget is a stand-alone application that can be embedded into third party sites by any user on a page where they have rights of authorship (e.g. a webpage, blog, or profile on a social media site). Widgets allow users to turn personal content into dynamic web apps that can be shared on websites where the code can be installed. For example, a “Weather Report Widget” could report today’s weather by accessing data from the Weather Channel, it could even be sponsored by the Weather Channel. Should you want to put that widget on your own Facebook profile, you could do this by copying and pasting the embed code into your profile on Facebook.

Embeddable chunks of code have existed since the early development of the World Wide Web. Web developers have long sought and used third party code chunks in their pages. Early web widgets provided functions such as link counters and advertising banners.

Widgets may be looked upon as downloadable applications which look and act like traditional apps but are implemented using web technologies including JavaScript, Flash, HTML and CSS. Widgets use and depend on web APIs exposed either by the browser or by a widget engine such as Akamai, Clearspring, KickApps, MassPublisher, NewsGator, Plusmo, Widgetbox, Widsets, WebWag and many others.

Sites such as MassPublisher, SnackTools and Widgetbox, allow users to easily create widgets from their own content with no coding knowledge necessary.

Do you have a busy on the go lifestyle?  Do you find it hard to meet other professionals to network with and or make a new friend?  If so you aren’t the only one.  Lots of other professionals out there looking for the same thing.  There is a new online community you should think about joining that will help you make contacts around your busy schedule.  The best part is that it is free.  Well, you do have to buy your own lunch of course.

Gograblunch.com is the newest and easiest way to meet other professionals during your lunch.  You choose the parameters so it will be the most beneficial to you.  You can also decide whether you want to meet with men and women .  Some of us ladies feel more comfortable meeting just other professional women and that’s ok too.  Just add it to your specifications.  After completing your profile and identifying your meeting specifications you will be matched with other professionals that meet your criteria.  You can either enter your own lunch schedule and let others contact you or you can browse the schedule of others and invite them to meet.  You can feel relaxed knowing you both want to be there and that you have the same thing in mind.  It isn’t a date.  It’s not necessarily a sales pitch.  It is just the opportunity to have a nice lunch and make a contact that may come in handy down the line.

An added benefit is that you can check out the site beforehand and see what other professionals have to say about it.  You can also follow it on Twitter  to see what it is like.  Read through their blog, it is very interesting.  If you still have questions check out the FAQ section to see if any of them are addressed there.  It’s always a good idea to do a little research before you commit to something new, and once you do, you’ll see that Gograblunch.com can really benefit you.

Gograblunch.com can be a safe and low pressure way to make new and interesting business contacts.  You can network and enjoy a nice lunch on your hectic schedule.  Amazing isn’t it? Create a profile today and give it a try.   By this time next week you could have your lunch calendar filled with new potential friends and colleagues.  You might just have a great time too!

The Samsung Galaxy Tab hits shelves in the UK this month and promises to be a hit in the tablet market – we can’t wait to give it a go. In the meantime, celebrity Techette Cat Deeley has managed to get her hands on one and has a chance to explain why she loves this new gadget, in particular its video functionality, in the video below:

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Are you looking for a blog encompassing everything from mobile phone devices, manufacturers, operating systems, and rumors? Look no further! MobileCrunch has all the information you need to succeed.

There are many websites that claim to have information about mobile web, mobile phones, and mobile apps. However, it is hard to wade through the fake websites, ads, and overall junk. MobileCrunch covers everything from Android to iOS to Windows OS.

Readers are kept up to date on the latest happenings, not only with the release of new phones, but also information about manufacturers and carriers. There is no better place to keep abreast of what is going on in the mobile phone world.

The information is hot off the presses, and covers ongoing developments before they are announced. For example, did you know that Swype can be used in iOS? You would if you read Mobile Crunch. From leaks to updates to developments to scandals, MobileCrunch has you covered.  This reviewer recently just read updates regarding wireless plans that had not been found anywhere else on the web.

For name recognition purposes, you should know that MobileCrunch has a very large presence on the web.  With thousands of followers and a seemingly equal number of articles, the community there is large and active. In fact, MobileCrunch has been publishing reviews and news since September of 2006. As of this writing, 47,000 people are reading the blog’s RSS feed. As a subsidiary of AOL’s TechCrunch, you can be assured that the writing will be of good quality. From RSS to Facebook to Twitter, you can find Mobile Crunch.

In addition to reviews, news, and information, MobileCrunch also has The CrunchBoard, which lists Jobs, Services, and For Sale ads that will appeal to readers. Want to know when Google has a job opening? You can see their openings listed on The CrunchBoard. Need an employee? You can post a job on The CrunchBoard. Either way, MobileCrunch has you covered.

With a functional, clean interface, MobileCrunch is easy to use. Articles can be found easily and the display is great on the eyes. In addition, it’s easy to connect to comments, Facebook, and Twitter in case you see an article that you want to share with your friends. You can also subscribe to MobileCrunch to receive the latest updates on Twitter, in your email, in your RSS feed, or even the native CrunchBar.

Again, for all of your mobile phone information needs, MobileCrunch is the best place on the Web to go.

AlertMe Energy basically allows a user to monitor the energy consumption of one’s own house. The actual science and technology behind the gadget works by setting up a Home Area Network (HAN). A centre hub transmits data about the energy consumption of your home to your own iPhone or other mobile device.

The centre hub collects the information by collecting data from other AlertMe devices which are attached to electric meter readers. With a whole system of AlertMe devices installed in one’s home, one can not only track every bit of data about home energy usage but also turn appliances off and on directly from one’s iPhone or personal computer. One can also attach one ALertMe device on the meter reader and that will directly inform one about the total energy use of the home.

The whole home system costs about £149.99. Extra features (such as extra sensors or energy efficient plugs) will cost more. The entire point of the AlertMe system is obviously to save you money by allowing you, the user, to monitor your home appliance’s energy consumption. With AlertMe there are no surprises from energy bills at the end of the month. One can check the details of your home’s energy usage online using AlertMe’s website (which is a private secure server so one’s privacy will not be compromised). Another extra benefit of the system is the capability to set up motion tracking devices in your home that act as security system and are wired into the AlertMe network and system.

The actual AlertMe system is set up to allow a user to manage any aspect of their home from the internet. Whether it is using the AlertMe devices to track energy usage or turn the lights on or off, or the ability to monitor your home’s security and alarms, the AlertMe system is wired to allow a user to have full control of their home. While the £149.99 initial price tag, and £4.99 monthly reoccurring fee might seem a bit steep, the benefits of saving money on your energy bill, having control over appliances in your home from one place and creating a positive impact on the environment make this a true value-add product.

The new Asus videophone AiGuru Sv1T is a real revolution for the people who are very much interested in making Skype video or voice calls regularly. This is just a truly amazing product for making the video calling more healthy and free to connection to computer system. The best and the most wonderful feature of this masterpiece is its very fruitful, interactive user interface. The full screen, touch-friendly and icon-based interface user interface is so friendly and beautiful to deal with, that it assures a complete understanding to the user about each and every option the device offers us with. Another great option in the user interface is the contact list feature. You can easily type a contact name or a contact number and very effectively find your contacts and make video and voice calls quickly.

The videophone’s touch screen is beautiful in its looks and also in the way that it works. Women can really find this device very helpful due to its light weight. You can easily manage or arrange the screen as per you own comfort at different angles too.

The options like Wifi connectivity makes this machine highly mobile, strongly effective and an easy to carry device that require minimal cable connectivity. The fact that the charging of this device is very easy with the cable free rechargeable battery power system availability. The Asus videophone AiGuru Sv1T is a device that can make the video call making more mobile and better. The device works on a very simple and appreciable 3 step functioning:

1. Create a Connection to a nearby broadband connection via a Wired Ethernet or a wifi connection.

2. Login using a valid Skype account providing your username and password requirements.

3. Find a contact you want to make a call to and start enjoying the hassle free video or voice calling.

The Asus has really come up with a really smart easy to handle video calling gadget that can really be appreciated by the daily video callers all round the world. Another great feature of Asus Videophone Touch AiGuru Sv1T is that it can work very efficiently as a Digital Photo frame in standby mode.

So if you are in search of a device that serves you with features like video calling with Skype, wifi connectivity, mobility then for sure Asus Videophone Touch AiGuru Sv1T is a great choice.

WebEmail.me provides an email address that you can call your own for six hours free of charge. For those of us performing business on the Internet, this will be a very handy service to have access to with various reasons.

Spam, registration emails, tester emails; This email service has many practical uses. You can use your temporary email address to sign up for websites that you otherwise are too wary to register for due to concerns of spam. Since the email address lasts for 6 hours, it provides plenty of time for you to receive a registration and/or confirmation email.

If you find your personal email is running so slow that you think your emails must not be getting through, WebEmail.me is the perfect solution because it will allow you to test your email. Just register for a free email address and write a new email to send to it using your regular email address, then wait and see. Once you receive your test email, you can respond to it and test out how well your personal email address is receiving emails.

What’s that? A new client is trying to email you important information required for you to finish their job and they are in a hurry! You wait and wait, and finally the client manages to contact you to let you know that your email address keeps returning their emails to them. After a few more unsuccessful tries, you can tell the client is becoming frustrated, so you hop onto WebEmail.Me and setup a new, temporary email address just for the client. The client’s email finally goes through to your WebEmail.me email address and the day is saved without any extra cost to you.

The service is incredibly easy to use: Just visit the website, enter a name or address you would like to use at WebEmail.me, then use your new email address to send emails to. It is free to use, offers you six renewable hours of email use, has an easy-to-see and use countdown timer letting you know how much longer you have until the disposable email will expire, and an RSS feed for those of you savvy enough to link it up with your current RSS feeds while you wait for your important emails.

There is no need to” sign up” — you need not use any personal information in order to obtain your free, temporary email address. If you leave the website and come back within the 6 hour time frame, the service will remember your email address for you.

Redmond Pie is a website that caters to the needs of a wide demographic of internet users, providing up-to-date information on the advancements in the field of software technology and web applications. The subject matter of the articles ranges from the newest updates on the latest in-development technologies, to reviews of products and software that have been released.

The highlights of this website are its organization and its user-friendly interface that categorizes posts making it very easy to locate a subject that is of interest. Its USP is the wide variety of things that it covers, which isn’t restricted to merely computers or just one particular kind of operating systems – it covers news from the gaming industry, as well as well-known companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft.

The articles in the website are informative, giving the user adequate knowledge about the topic without being going overboard with the technical terminology. It’s very useful in providing a layman with the information that he needs before purchasing a product, without making his eyes glaze over due to the specific knowledge utilized. The news section is updated regularly with articles that are relevant and concise.  The reviews are of high quality, honestly written and without bias, which enables the user to make the right decision, if he is contemplating the same. It also provides the techno-savvy users with enough news to spark discussion on various issues and articles. The balance between providing enough information and being technically sound is something that this website’s writers have managed with aplomb. Another interesting point to be noted is that the website also provides a lot of information on open source technologies and related resources. The content is really inclusive, in terms of diversity of platforms, resources, products and caters to almost any person that has an interest in the world of software technology.

A user can find news about the latest changes that are being rolled out, as well as opinions regarding the same. The website utilizes a number of means to disseminate news – from Facebook, to Twitter, to RSS feeds which are very helpful. The very well-managed updates, as well as the nature of the articles are of great use to any customer. Redmond Pie is indeed a front runner in its class of websites, providing quality and diverse content covering most realms of the World Wide Web, to its users in a timely and interesting manner.