GOOGLE READER-FEEL IT

Everytime I came across this Google Reader. Even I didn’t know about it earlier. So I thought you should also know about it. Its nothing but an aggregator which is web based. In layman terms we watch TV news and news persons aggregate all the headlines at one place. The same way web aggregator works. The websites owner collects news and aggregates it at one place.

The web syndication is the term where the materials of a website is available to other websites and it just the web feeds .Web feeds in simple terminology is that what you want to subscribe for the latest contents from some other websites. So you apply for it.

Google reader is just the aggregator which can read ATOM or RSS Feeds in any way either online or offline.

Sign in your Google account and enjoy G Reader.

I have explored G Reader and based on the experiences I am writing this here.

Features of G readers

1)      Suppose you saw a post and you have no time to read it you can click on the post in a feed, it has “keep as unread” checkbox which is by default not checked. So check the box.

2)      Navigate to  Settings -> Subscriptions, which is at extreme right , here is a small box to filter subscriptions through tags, name or URL. You can make changes to the subscription via this.

3)      You can share anything on the G Reader with a note. Share with a note button is given at the bottom of the page.

4)      You can drag and drop google feeds accodding to your needs.

5)      There is received and publish dates of every feed when you put your mouse on time and date of the feed.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

HTC DESIRE Z WITH HTC SENSE

Features:

1)      One Inbox- Multiple Email Accounts

Credit:HTC

2)      Both responsive Touchscreen  and cozy keyboard

Keyboard+Touchscreen

3)      Map Downloading is faster with zero waiting time, zero blank spots, and zero data roming fees. Click to see 

4)      It can’t be lost or stolen easily.

(i)                 If you are unable to find your cell just use HTCSense.com which show you where your cell is.

(ii)               If you left your cell at home use HTCSense.com to forward your calls to another number.

(iii)             If your cell is stolen or lost, use HTCSense.com to lock and wipe it remotely

     5)      HTC Desire Z syncs with Google reader. Just Subscribe to a site and enjoy

 reading.

6)      HD Video and 5MP Flash Camera

7)      You can also Stream your pictures, videos and music to your home theater via DLNA

8)      Watch videos on web with flash.

HTC Sense

Features:

1)      If you are reading something and you don’t know the meaning of it just tap and hold, it will let you search your selection on Google, dictionary, wiki or YouTube.

2)      If you went into a meeting and your phone rang on a full volume just lift it up volume will be lower or if you want to silent it just flip the cell.

3)      If you don’t want to miss an important call your phone will automatically ring it louder even if your cell is on silent.

4)      Suppose someone called you, you would have a look over the cell to see who’s calling. What HTCSense does, it will display all latest social status updates or if his/her birthday coming up. It will start the conversation before you say Hello.

5)      Browsing and Reading is easier

6)      Map Waiting Time is Zero

7)      Lock your cell remotely when lost or stolen.

Specifications

Weight

• 180 grams (6.35 ounces) with battery

Keyboard

• Slideout keyboard

Display

• Type: Touch screen with pinch-to-zoom capability
• Size: 3.7 inches
• Resolution: 480 x 800 WVGA
• Screen size: 94 mm (3.7")

Detailed Spec

CPU Processing Speed: 800 MHz

Storage

• Internal phone storage: 1.5 GB
• RAM: 512 MB

Expansion slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

Connectors :

• 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
• Standard micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)

Sensors

G-Sensor

Digital compass

Proximity sensor

Ambient light sensor

HTC Widgets

• Bookmarks, Calculator, Calendar, Clock, FM Radio, Friend Stream, HTC Likes, Mail, Messages, Music, Navigate, News, People, Search Anywhere, Settings, Stocks, Twitter™, Weather, and more
• Downloadable widgets

Multimedia:

• Gallery, Music, and FM Radio
• Share videos, photos, or music from your phone to your TV via DLNA®

Audio supported formats:

• Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)
• Recording:.amr

Video supported formats:

• Playback:.3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9)
• Recording:.3gp

Power & Battery

• Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
• Capacity: 1300 mAh

Talk time:

• WCDMA: Up to 400 mins
• GSM: Up to 590 mins

Standby time:

• WCDMA: Up to 430 hours
• GSM: Up to 430 hours

Network

Europe:

• HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Asia Pacific:

• HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Platform

• Android™ 2.2 (Froyo) with HTC Sense™

Camera

• 5 megapixel color camera
• Auto focus and flash
• 720p HD video recording
• Face detection capability
• Built-in effects include depth of field, vignette, and more
• Geotagging

Internet

3G:

• Up to 14.4 Mbps download speed
• Up to 5.76 Mbps upload speed

GPRS:

• Up to 114 kbps downloading

EDGE:

• Up to 560 kbps downloading

Wi-Fi®:

• IEEE 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth®

• Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate
• A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
• FTP and OPP (object push) for file transfer
• Other supported profiles: AVRCP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, PBAP, SPP, Service Discovery Application Profile

Social Networking

• Facebook® and Twitter™ for HTC Sense
• Friend Stream
• Share photos/videos on Facebook®, Flickr®, Twitter™, or YouTube™
• HTC Peep for tweeting

Location

• Internal GPS antenna
• With Locations, explore maps with zero wait, zero dead spots, and zero data roaming fees

Tethering

• USB and Wi-Fi® tethering

Special Features

• Register at HTCSense.com to manage your phone remotely and protect your phone in case of loss
• Check email from all your email accounts in one unified inbox
• Watch Adobe® Flash® on websites
• Easily transfer contacts, calendar events, and text messages from popular brand phones via Bluetooth

Recommended Windows System Requirements

• Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Windows® XP
• HTC Sync

Credit: HTC

Cheers!!!

Ethan

CIRCUIT SWITCHING

There are two nodes. These nodes need to establish communication among each other. So they communicate via Circuit Switching Technology for a specific duration which is also known as Communication Session. The circuit works as if they are physically connected with an electric circuit.


How this Technology works:
While the bits are transferred, the bit delay is constant.
Circuit works as monotonous. Each Circuits can't be used by other callers until and unless this circuit gets free that means every time we have to start a new connection. Even if there isn't any actual communication  in a specific circuit the circuit can;t be used by other callers. This mechanism is known as Connection oriented. Only the idle channels are available for new calls.
This Technology is not limited to voice circuits.This can also be extended to signal content.


Advantage:

• provides a continuous transfer of bits without any traffic overhead 
• It is highly reliable

Disadvantage:

• It is inflexible. Referring to upper parts ,you would have got the meaning of inflexible. Hence it is being used for specific applications.
• It wastes too much bandwidth especially when the speaker is listening not talking.
• Have a lot of overhead while the communicaiton set up but once the communication is set up the channel is fast and reliable.

Circuit Switching vs Packet Switching

According to wikipedia:
"Early telephone exchanges are a suitable example of circuit switching. The subscriber would ask the operator to connect to another subscriber, whether on the same exchange or via an inter-exchange link and another operator. In any case, the end result was a physical electrical connection between the two subscribers' telephones for the duration of the call. The copper wire used for the connection could not be used to carry other calls at the same time, even if the subscribers were in fact not talking and the line was silent."


Examples:
PSTN
ISDN B-Channel




Cheers!!!
Ethan

EMAILS DATA-BACKUP IS NECESSARY

We have an illusion in mind that keeping our data in our email accounts is safe and we will not lose it anyhow. But this is somewhere we go wrong. In today’s world where every stuff is there on internet we try to treat it as a God seeming to be flawless. But we are wrong our data are as important as life today. So keeping their backup is the most important thing for us.

There is Gmail Data Loss recently. While the victims are less than 1% but as a whole 37,500 lost their emails, chat logs and contacts. Well Google is still working on this issue of data loss and has created an Apps Status Dashboard to log any updates.

Since the data is now stored on Cloud so this kind of unfortunate event will happen. It is upon us who have to backup our data. Whether it is Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or AOL, they all store data on cloud. So if are lucky enough to survive the data lost, you should start making a backup of your emails, chatlogs and contacts.

How to create a backup

      1)       Gmail users have the option to export their Contacts from Gmail to Microsoft Excel in CSV format. In the left navigation pane: Contacts->More actions->Export->Outlook CSV format from the menu

      2)       For creating a backup of your emails, you can go for IMAP or POP3. Go to Settings and Enable IMAP or POP3 Servers.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

7 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR BATTERY LIFE

Most Laptops in the market boast to give a maximum hour per charge upto 7 hours but these laptops hardly last for 3 hours.

A record has been set up when last week Lenovo and HP released laptops battery with maximum 32hrs per charge. 

Lithium Battery

Ni-MH battery

Lenovo introduced T-420 that gives 33% longer battery life than its earlier versions. T-420 has 9-cell battery that offers upto 15 hours of battery life and goes upto 30 hours with an extra snap over 9-cell slice battery.

HP launched Elitebook 8460 with 32 hours of battery life per charge.

With the testing the analyst has found that Apple Battery lasts longer per charge than their competitors.

Whether you take HP, Lenovo or any other laptops, few points you should remember for your battery’s longer life.

1)       The first thing you should keep in mind is to keep your battery contacts clean. Plug off your system first and take out your battery. There would have been lot of metal contacts gathered over the battery which you have to wipe using a cotton swab dampening it with rubbing alcohol. Allow your battery to dry wholly and then you should reinstall your battery. Do it in every 2-3 months.

2)       There are two types of batteries older Nickel based batteries (NiMH) and modern Lithium ion Batteries. Modern Lithium ion battery which is the most effective can discharge and recharge partially without any harmful effects but here you don’t have to be careless. What you need to do is to avoid complete discharge of the battery. When it comes to Nickel Based batteries completely discharge it periodically. What I mean to say is that unplug it and discharge the battery fully and then plug it to charge it fully. Do this once every two to three months as instructed by manufacturers.

3)       The most common strategy is to store your battery at cool place. Do not rest it on your bed or pillow which has the every possible chance to trap hot air from the machine. One more step you can follow is to let your laptop cool before you put it inside your laptop bag.

4)       If you are not using your laptop for a week or two, please remove the battery and store it in some cool place. Ideally what the manufacturers says, the battery should be half charged for storage.

5)       Close your wifi connection, unplug your USB devices such as cameras,  pendrive, printers when not in use.

6)       Switch on the optimized battery or power feature. This option is there in your laptop system's built-in power management control panel. Control Panel-> Power Options -> Power Schemes.

7)        Adjust the Lighting conditions of your laptop. When generally on battery minimize the lighting of your laptop.

Battery charge capacity decreases with time. So try to replace it and if you are using NiMH batteries replace it with newer Lithium batteries.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

Eye Movement Tracking Laptops.

There has been something new into the technology. While we are in the touch screen era yet another distinct feature has been introduced Eye-controlled laptop. Lenovo and Tobii Technology has prototyped the world first eye-controlled laptop. This was shown at CeBit in Hanover, Germany.

The eye tracking technology is from Stockholm company Tobii. This technology has sensors to track and interpret your eye’s movement.

Henrik Eskilsson has the vision of this eye-tracking technology in 2001. Within next two we will get a whole new technology based on eye-tracking. Most of the Stores will keep the software of Eye Tracking.

This functionality is based on your eye sensing. You can use your eye to scroll, click and select a text. The software come to know what you are looking at and how you are looking at. If you are looking at the text with some tense gesture it will select the text and give you the alternative meanings. Similar concept allows for scrolling and clicking. For inadvertent eye movement it will combine looking with clicking.

With this kind of technology the efficiency is going to increase anyhow. Less task execution will enhance the efficiency. In the coming years more laptops will have such functionality.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

PUSH TO TALK

Push-to-talk or Press-to-Transmit is a means of conversation on half duplex communication lines which also includes a two-way radio that uses a button to change the voice reception mode to transmission mode.

An example of PTT is an Air Traffic Controller that talks on single radio frequency to all aircraft under his supervision. All aircraft pilots can hear each other’s voice and they have to wait for their turns to speak using words (procedure words) “over” and “out”

Other examples are Police Radio.

Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) is a service method for a cellular phone network that permits subscribers to use cellular phones as walkie talkie without any range limit. Connection time is too fast for PTT.

The most significant advantage of this PTT is that it allows user to talk to their group by pressing just one button.

PTT was used in 0G and PoC is used in modern cellular devices.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

ADOBE'S PUBLISHING TOOL FOR TABLETS

There is day be day increasing tool for the tablets. Why Adobe should be sluggish.

Adobe Systems released the Enterprise Edition of its Digital Publishing Suite ,a publishing tool for tablets.

There is an integration of the software with Adobe's Creative Suite applications such as InDesign  for designers to produce digital publications for  RIM's PlayBook, Apple's iPad, Motorola's Xoom, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab lines of Android-based tablets. It also has analytics services from Adobe's Omniture acquisition in its pocket for publishers to track details about how people use the digital publications. It also joins the digital distribution systems, including Google One Pass and Apple's App Store Subscriptions.

I can imagine now how much new tools will be in the market. Creation of tools for tablets is at zenith.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

MOTOROLA XOOM-ANDROID 3.0(HONEYCOMB) : A COMPETITOR TO IPAD2

It’s not a phone which is oversized with tablet-like stuff built on it. Motorola Xoom is enriched by Android 3.0 which is grounded up for large screens. Hardware is very powerful including Nvdia’s Dual Core Tegra Processor and Face Time Camera (front and back).

Cost in US: $599 and with two years contract cost $799 with 3G.

Xoom has no flash Support till now. It will be available in upgradation.

Design

Motorola Xoom is streamlined, tough but not so stylish. The presence of powereful Android 3.0 eradicated the traditional buttons - Home. Back, Search, or Menu hard keys - from the tablet. It’s all there in the Android 3.0.

Power Button is right at the back of the tablet with two powerful stereo speakers and a 5 Mp Cam attached to a dual LED Flash.

Inspite of being small in size as compare to the competitor iPad, it weighs more(1.6 pounds to that of 1.5 of iPad).

Xoom size-9.8*6.6*0.5 inches vs iPad Size-9.6*7.5*0.5.

While holding Xoom in landscape mode, the two volume buttons lie on the left side. SIM Card Slot and a headphone jack lies on the top whereas a small proprietary power jack, a mini HDMI port, and a micro USB on the bottom.

Display and Audio Features

The cynosure in Xoom is its 10.1 inch display resolution 1280*800 pixels whichis sharper than iPad’s 9.7 inch display resolution 1024*768 That shows the efficiency of reading without scrolling down.

Xoom’ s screen is much more stylish with its bluish cast as compared to iPad;s Yellow tones. Xoom’s panel pick up finger prints faster.

Android 3.0 (HoneyComb) and Interface

There are five home screens press and hold on any of the below seen five home screens and there will be some stylish animations that zooms out all the five screens which allows user to drag and drop the app shorcuts and new interactive widgets like YouTube, Gmail in whichever screen you want. How comfortable it would be to go through your inbox without opening it and we could even flip and watch videos in Youtube using 3D User Interface.

Search bar is on the top left of the homescreen which is a dual pane having query on the left and showing results on the right. Shortcut for activating Voice Actions is also there on the top left of the home.

Apps button and + button is there on the top right of the screen.It adds widgets and apps to the homescreen.

The left bottom always displays Home, Back and Recent app buttons.Holding on Recent app button will display the recent five apps thumbnails opened recently. If it is in a Portrait mode the count goes to six.

There is a notification area on the right side of the System Bar which helps you to see all the notifications from music (if playing a track) to mail alerts and from Facebook to Twitter. Each and every notification has its own icon. You can see all the notifications just by touching the Displayed time. In place of Menu Button Google added Action Bar on the top right of the screen. Whenever you are within an app, Action Bar displays various options.

Virtual Keyboard

Typing in portrait mode is more comfortable as you don’t have to stretch your arm too much to reach the keyboard on the screen. Copy and Paste feature in Gmail and Browser is wonderful. Just hold the text to select it and various option such as Copy, Select All and Share will be displayed. This option is only for browser and Gmail.

Web Browser

Google has powered the Android 3.0 to part its browser the functionality to open a new tab for opening a new site while you have already opened a site By pressing ‘+’ button we can open a new tab. There is no browser setting to switch the browser to Desktop mode. First the mobile sites will be loaded and you have to scroll down to switch to traditional desktop mode. Bookmark menu power the surfing by showing 15 bookmarked sites at once. Those who want to use their track can open a tab in Incognito mode which leaves no cookies and also don’t appear into your history. Flash is only the feature which is not supported but it is going to come in next few week. Speed is also fairly well than iPad over AT&T’s networks.

Email

Android 3.0 separates Gmail and Email. For eg you get an Gmail inbox widget but you will not get any other email widget. But every email has a similar look and feel. It will display messages at the left and contents at the right.

Video Chat

FaceTime Camera helps in video chat.You can also see which user is having Camera by seeing the icon on the right and suppose if camera plugin is not installed and voice chat is enabled , you will see the symbol of microphone.

Audio and Video quality is high and synchronized.

By looking over some of the distinctive features of Motorola Xoom I will say that it is a fair competitor of iPad 2. Its better to use and Android is giving a tough competition to Apple.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

NEW APPLE iPAD2 LAUNCHED

iPad 2 launched yesterday in US.

Steve Jobs though on sick leave came out to launch a new thinner, lighter and faster version of iPad calling it iPad2 in San Francisco. The price of the iPad 2 still the same.

iPad 2 is out in the market to keep Droid fever at bay.

Features of iPad2 :

1) iPad 2 is much lighter and thinner than Ipad

• 33% thinner.Clocking it at 8.88 mm
• 15% lighter(590g)
• Also available in White and original black is still there.

2) iPad 2 has FaceTime Camera

• front and back facing VGA Camera

3) iPad2 Battery life still the same

4) iPad 2 Display still the same

5) iPad2 processor is dual core

• this processor called Apple 5
• based on ARM ‘s Cortex A-9 design
• clocked at 1GHz

6) iPad2 Graphics is awesome

• capability woud be 9x of the current iPad.
• Gaming will be easy.
• Graphics will be some version of Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX

7) OS is iOS 4.3

8) Lock Button problem is fixed

• The problem of lock button –Click here

9) iPad2 has HDMI out

• You can mirror the iPad Screen on an HDTV.
• Just invest $30 for the cable and connect iPad to a TV while charging at same time.

10) iPad2 has HSUPA

• features HSUPA Support. So faster uploads over 3G-WiFi +3G available.

11) iPad 2 has Smartcase

• It has magnet which keep iPad awake and also put it in sleep

12) It has PhotoBooth, iMovie and GarageBand

Apple iPad2 will give a stiff competion to Android 3.0 Honeycomb. A cheers to the Apple customer after this launch.

Cheers!!!

Ethan

MORE/REAL STYLUS CAPS ON KICKSTARTER BY DON LEHMAN

Designer Don Lehman has innovated a new Stylus for use of Touchscreen known as "Stylus Cap". This is one of the innovation from his stash of unmet needs.

DON LEHMAN

.

Lehman Design came into picture when he was uncomfortable with the styluses in the market which threw him back to his kindergarten days by using his fingers to write and sketch.

According to him the styluses in the market are like poor ergonomics which is having the golf pen with a tennisball tip.

The idea of “Cap Stylus” came when he was playing with the cap of a Sharpie pen.

The More/Real Stylus has two parts: cap and tip. Cap is structured from stainless steel and tip is made of a conductive rubber that offers far superior control than other styluses in the market.

Stylus Cap is available in three versions:

• Sharpie Finepoint
• Bic Round Stic
• Pilot Fineliner

Three Types of Stylus Caps

The Stylus cap can fit a common pen and works with any interactive touchscreen device. It has already been tested on Windows Phone 7, iOS, webOS, and DROID.

The Stylus Cap does not come with it's own cap. Lehman has been tossing this in his bag from last couple of weeks and it is working well without cap. Stylus Cap can work with any cap even with a plastic cap that comes with a Bic,Sharpie and Fineliner Cap.It is not guaranteed whether it works with any caps other than the above mentioned pens. A Stylus Cap is more functional than just a stylus (Digital + Paper) and more ergonomic.

Lehman also said "A fine point is not currently possible with current capacitive touch screen technology. Wacom styluses use a different technology. The Stylus Cap will have the smallest tip I have seen to date for a touch screen stylus".

Lehman gives credits to KickStarters where he posted his prototype. Lehman wants its 'to be' customers to give it a try and you will be comfortable with this Stylus Caps.

For more details from Designer Don Lehman on this product- Click Here

Cheers!!!

Ethan