Technofriends

[BlackBerry] Cool Skins for Your BlackBerry SmartPhone from iSkin

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:16:56 +0000

iSkin the company famous for the cool skins for your iPod Touch and iPhone now also serves the BlackBerry smartphone.I earlier wrote about iSkin in my post titled Coolest Apple iPod Touch and iPhone Skins from iSkin. iSkin is a company based in Toronto, Ontario mostly known for its iPod cases, which it first released in 2002. iSkin has since produced a variety of other accessories such as headphones,Macintosh keyboard guards, and Sony PSP cases.

iSkin recently released several different skins for your BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm. As a BlackBerry owner, i must say, i am planning to get them soon. The skins cost $29.99US (Vibes) and $32.99US (Vibes FX).

Taking its styling cues from the successful iSkin solo/solo FX for iPhone, the iSkin Vibes/Vibes FX are form-fitting BodyGuards that perfectly encapsulate the BlackBerry and shields it from everyday hazards. Its impressive list of design and protective features includes: a protective ultra-clear screen film, built-in button and port coverage, and a non-slip surface finish that feels comfortable and helps stabilize the device when placed on angled surfaces. It’s also the first product of its kind to feature Microban®* antimicrobial protection (to inhibit the growth of odor and stain causing bacteria on the product).

iSkin Vibes for the BlackBerry Storm and Blackberry Curve are available in five dazzling high-gloss color options, while iSkin Vibes for BlackBerry Bold is available in four sleek color options accented with a chic leather pattern to reflect the phones’ unique design. BlackBerry Curve owners can also upgrade to the iSkin Vibes FX, which features a chic embossed designer pattern, and includes a special screen film that doubles as a mirror while the device’s display is off.

Below are some of the images from the gallery

Skins for BlackBerry® Curve™

For BlackBerry® Storm™

For BlackBerry® Bold™

Head over the iSkin product page for checking out and buying these cool skins for your BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm.

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[How-To] Activate Spell Check in Firefox 3 Onwards

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:32:41 +0000

Firefox 3 onwards comes with a built in spell checker. With Firefox’s spell check feature you can enter text directly into Web pages—like blog posts and Web-based email—without worrying about typos and misspellings.

This article describes how you can activate the Spell Checking feature in Firefox 3.0 onwards.

1.) In your Firefox browser address bar type about:config

2.) Search for “spellcheck” (without quotes).

Image: Enable Spell Check Feature in Firefox 3 onwards.

3.) Double click on the title which says “layout.spellcheckDefault”. The default value is 1. Double clicking will open up a new dialog window and you must change the value to 2.

Image: How to enable Firefox Spell Check Feature

Once you have completed steps 1 to 3, you have enabled the in-built dictionary in Firefox 3 onwards. Next time onwards whenever you type in a misspelled word in a text field ( when using Firefox 3.0 onwards), Firefox will highlight that word with a red colored underline.

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[Twitter] List of all Official Google Accounts on Twitter

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:51:07 +0000

This article is about official list of all the Google Accounts on Twitter. For Google, they have a lot of programs and initiative across the company and having active twitter account definitely makes sense. It not only helps them stay in touch with the people who will ultimately use the products, for this very reason, Google has got a number of active twitter accounts.

If you are wondering about Twitter, you must checkout my earlier post which features a video from Commoncraft. The video explains what Twitter is and how you can use it. Twitter has come a long way from what it was earlier intended to be, and i feel the reason for that is the ability of the company and the tool to allow users to use the tool in whatever way they wish. Thereby not restricting the usage ( in terms of what can be and what cannot be done with the tool). Often users start using the tool in ways you ( as a developer of the tool) would never have thought about.

Below list is sourced from Official Google Blog

twitter.com/Google - our central account
twitter.com/Blogger - for Blogger fans
twitter.com/GoogleCalendar - user tips & updates
twitter.com/GoogleImages - news, tips, tricks on our visual image search
twitter.com/GoogleNews - latest headlines via Google News
twitter.com/GoogleReader - from our feed reader team
twitter.com/iGoogle - news & notes from Google’s personalized homepage
twitter.com/GoogleStudents - news of interest to students using Google
twitter.com/YouTube - for YouTube fans
twitter.com/YouTubeES - en Espanol
twitter.com/GoogleAtWork - solutions for IT and workplace productivity

Geo-related
twitter.com/SketchUp - Google SketchUp news
twitter.com/3DWH - SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse
twitter.com/Modelyourtown - 3D modeling to build your favorite places
twitter.com/EarthOutreach - Earth & Maps tools for nonprofits & orgs
twitter.com/GoogleMaps - uses, tips, mashups
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap -Android app for the night sky

Ads-related
twitter.com/AdSense - for online publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsHelper - looking out for AdWords questions and tech issues
twitter.com/AdWordsProSarah - Google Guide for AdWords Help Forum
twitter.com/GoogleAnalytics - insights for website effectiveness
twitter.com/GoogleAdBuilder - re building display ads
twitter.com/GoogleRetail - for retail advertisers
twitter.com/TechnologyUK - for U.K. tech advertisers
twitter.com/InsideAdWordsDE - for German AdWords customers
twitter.com/GoogleAgencyDE - for German ad agencies
twitter.com/AdSensePT - info for Portuguese-language publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsRussia - AdWords news & tips in Russian
twitter.com/DentroDeAdWords - Spanish updates from the Inside AdWords blog
twitter.com/AdWordsAPI - AdWords API tips

Developer & technical
twitter.com/GoogleResearch - from our research scientists
twitter.com/GoogleWMC - Google Webmaster Central
twitter.com/GoogleCode - latest updates for Google developer products
twitter.com/GoogleData - Data APIs provide a standard protocol for reading and writing web data
twitter.com/app_engine - web apps run on Google infrastructure
twitter.com/DataLiberation - our initiative for complete import/export of all data
twitter.com/GoogleMapsAPI - about using Google Maps embedded in websites
twitter.com/GoogleIO - Google’s largest annual developer event

Culture, People
twitter.com/googletalks - notes from our @Google speaker series
twitter.com/googlejobs - the voice of Google recruiters

Country or Region
twitter.com/googlearabia - news from the Google Arabia Blog*

twitter.com/googledownunder - Google activities in Australia & New Zealand
twitter.com/GoogleDE - Google in Germany
twitter.com/GoogleLatAm - Latin America (en Espanol)
twitter.com/GooglePolicyIt - Notes on Google policy issues in Italy

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[Wordpress] Wordpress 2.8.1 Fixes Many Bugs and tightens Security

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:47:11 +0000

Wordpress has fixed many bugs which got induced when Wordpress 2.8 was released. The RC for Wordpress 2.8.1 was released a few days back and now Wordpress has also released the Wordpress 2.8.1 version. WordPress 2.8.1 fixes many bugs and tightens security for plugin administration pages.

What else is new since 2.8? Read through the highlights below, or view all changes since 2.8

Certain themes were calling get_categories() in such a way that it would fail in 2.8. 2.8.1 works around this so these themes won’t have to change.

Dashboard memory usage is reduced. Some people were running out of memory when loading the dashboard, resulting in an incomplete page.

The automatic upgrade no longer accidentally deletes files when cleaning up from a failed upgrade.

A problem where the rich text editor wasn’t being loaded due to compression issues has been worked around.

Extra security has been put in place to better protect you from plugins that do not do explicit permission checks.

Translation of role names fixed.

wp_page_menu() defaults to sorting by the user specified menu order rather than the page title.

Upload error messages are now correctly reported.

Autosave error experienced by some IE users is fixed.

Styling glitch in the plugin editor fixed.

SSH2 filesystem requirements updated.

Switched back to curl as the default transport.

Updated the translation library to avoid a problem with mbstring.func_overload.

Stricter inline style sanitization.

Stricter menu security.

Disabled code highlighting due to browser incompatibilities.

RTL layout fixes.

As Wordpress 2.8.1 has fixed a lot of bugs and also has enhanced security for plugin administration, its advisable to upgrade asap. You can download Wordpress 2.8.1 from here.

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Akamai helps making the iPhone Video Streaming Smooth

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:32:52 +0000

Akamai, the world leader in Content Delivery Network and Application acceleration and also the company which brings to us the fabulous state of the internet report every quarter is now also helping Apple iPhone video streaming get better.

Earlier this month, Akamai announced support for adaptive bit-rate streaming for the iPhone which allows the streaming video to be played with very few stops and starts. The technology is called Adaptive Streaming and it allows the servers to stream the video content to the client based on the available bandwidth, cpu utilization and the robustness of the client. This allows the servers to keep modifying the bit-rate of the content at run time, thereby helping the video play seamlessly without any disruption.

So in short, with Adaptive streaming,The stream intelligently adjusts to the highest quality a viewer can receive at each moment. If the connectivity worsens, a lower quality stream is substituted without interruption or buffering.

Akamai’s new iPhone streaming service is based on the standard HTTP delivery protocol which for Akamai, means they can utilize more of their HTTP network infrastructure as opposed to proprietary based streaming protocols. This also means that developers and companies looking out to stream content for the iPhone subscribers need not develop any new application with the capabilities to play the stream. The stream can be played easily through the Safari browser pre-installed on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

HTTP Streaming for the iPhone: How it works

Starting with iPhone OS version 3.0 and QuickTime X, you can send streaming audio and video over HTTP from an ordinary web server for playback on iPhone, iPod touch, or other devices, such as desktop computers, without the limitations of Progressive Downloads.

The new streaming protocol supports Multiple Bitrates and automatically switches to the optimal bit-rate based on network conditions for a smooth quality playback experience. This implementation also provides for media encryption and user authentication over HTTPS, allowing publishers to protect their work. Both Live and On demand content can be delivered using the 3.0 specification.

HTTP Streaming to the iPhone consists of three parts: the server component, the Akamai network, and the client software.

In a typical configuration, a hardware encoder takes audio-video input and turns it into an MPEG-2 transport stream containing H.264 video and AAC or HE-AAC audio. The encoded stream is then split into a series of short media files by a stream segmenter. The segmenter also creates and maintains an index file containing the list of short media files that were created. These files are placed on a web server.

A media player built into the iPhone OS is provided a link to the index file, it then requests the media files in order and plays them without any pauses or gaps between segments.

The showcase site about how Akamai helps stream the content over the iPhone is available at iphone.akamai.com

It must be noted that Live streaming and Multiple Bit-Rates switching
is available only with iPhone OS 3.0.

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[How-To] Make a Free Call To A Toll Free Number using Skype

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:15:28 +0000

Janet wrote me an email and asked for help with making free calls to toll free number ( usually the ones starting with +1-800, +1-866, +1-877 in the US) using Skype. This article is for Janet and all others who are looking out for this information.

The article describes step by step instructions for making free calls to Toll-free numbers using Skype. With Skype, in order to make a call to any number ( except for the series listed here) you would need a SkypeOut credit. SkypeOut credit is like a prepaid credit which you buy from Skype for making calls to landlines and mobiles ( national/international) using Skype VOIP service.

The following countries and number ranges are currently supported by Skype and are free of charge to all users.

France: +33 800, +33 805, +33 809

Poland: +48 800

UK: +44 500, +44 800, +44 808

USA: +1 800, +1 866, +1 877, +1 888

Taiwan: +886 80

So if you intend to make calls to any of the above number and country ranges, you need not shell out any money when dialling through Skype.

1.) First thing first, you should have the number handy with you and you must have a valid Skype account ( account creation on skype is free of charge).

2.) Next, login to your Skype account and select the tab which says “Call Phones”. Select the country you wish to make a call to. Ensure that the country is from the above mentioned list. Skype doesnt support any country other than the one’s mentioned above ( for toll free calls).

Image: How To Call Toll Free Number Using Skype

3.) For the sake of simplicity, lets assume you wish to call up American Driving Society at 866-678-4289. Enter the number ( as shown in the figure) and press the call button below ( shown in green).

This will connect you to the toll free number. Bingo, you just made a free call to a toll free number using Skype. Do let me know if you have any further questions and i will try my best to answer them. Use the comments section below for posting your questions.

Also Read: Receive Phone Calls On Skype From The Phone Network With Ring2Skype

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

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[Microsoft] Silverlight 3 Released,Makes better use of your hardware.

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:49:57 +0000

Microsoft has released Silverlight 3 to the world. Silverlight is also known in the tech world as a “Flash Killer”.Silverlight 3 is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering media experiences and interactive applications for the Web.

Earlier NBC had confirmed that it will use Silverlight to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver. The technology will allow the Games to be broadcasted in 720p HD quality as well as provide a TiVo-like ability to pause and rewind a live stream.

As far as my opinion goes, Five Key features offered by Microsoft’s Silverlight 3 are

1.) Support for higher quality audio and Smooth Streaming

The new streaming feature comes with improved quality of streaming video on the browser and as per Microsoft is even comparable TV. The smooth streaming feature on the other hand allows the software to utilize a PC’s hardware to accelerate graphics processing.

2.) DRM ( Digital Rights Management)

Silverlight 3 adds increased protection of content for businesses which use the platform to stream or produce on demand content. With the increased protection, content ownders have enhanced ability to monitor and protect content distribution.

Silverlight 3 also ncludes support for deep linking, which enables bookmarking a page within a RIA.

3.) Out of Browser Capabilities.

The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not—a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience.

4.) Expression Studio 3 and Sketchflow

Expression Studio is essentially a set of tools offered by Microsoft which lets designers and developers build high quality applications using Silverlight. With Sliverlight 3, also comes a new tool called Sketchflow which enables the creation and deployment of fully functional prototypes.

5.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Rich Internet Applications

Silverlight 3 enables users to solve the SEO-related challenges posed by RIAs. By utilizing business objects on the server, together with ASP.NET controls and site maps, users can automatically mirror database-driven RIA content into HTML that is easily indexed by the leading search engines.

Get started with Sliverlight 3 at Microsoft’s website. The website has more details about whats included with Silverlight 3 and also offers links for download of Silverlight 3 runtime for both Windows and Mac.

Microsoft has also hosted an online version of Silverlight 3.0 with Microsoft Expression 3.0 at www.seethelight.com

Whether Silverlight 3 actually turns out as a Flash Killer, this time only will tell, but for now one thing is certain, the number of tools offered by Microsoft in Silverlight 3 definitely will help it get on par with Adobe Flash.

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[How-To] Find Creative Commons Images Using Google Image Search

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:29:54 +0000

I earlier wrote a post about finding images which can be re-used online on your blog or website (obviously by sharing the credit of the image), now Google, the big daddy of search also allows you to share images with creative commons usage permissions through its Image Search.

This article describes step by step instructions for finding creative commons licensed images using Google Image Search. It uses the latest image search feature added by Google. This feature allows you to restrict your Image Search results to images that have been tagged with licenses like Creative Commons, making it easier to discover images from across the web that you can share, use and even modify. Your search will also include works that have been tagged with other licenses, like GNU Free Documentation license, or are in the public domain.

1.) Navigate to the Google Image Search and click on Advanced Image Search ( as boxed in the image below)

2.) Once you have clicked on the Advanced Image Search link, look out for the input box which says “Usage Rights“. Select appropriate usage rights. For example, lets select ‘labeled for reuse’ and enter some text for searching ( keyword for the image).

Image: Filtering Google Image Search Results based on creative commons license.

3.) Click on Google Search. The results you get are now as per the option selected by you.

While the above steps do give you the refined search results based on the option selected by you. Google does mention that you’ll still have to verify that the licensing information is accurate. They can help you take the first step towards finding these images, but they can’t guarantee that the content linked to is actually in the public domain, or available under the license.So i would say, use it with care.

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[iPod Touch and iPhone] Track Your Google Adsense Earnings Using SenseApp

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:58:20 +0000

So you are a Google Adsense publisher and also own an iPod Touch or a iPhone and now the next thing you want to have is the ability to track your Google Adsense earnings using a simple app. Welcome yourself to the SenseApp application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The application once installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch will be able to download your Adsense statictics to your device and present them to you.

SenseApp allows you to browse your Adsense Revenue by day, week, month or even channels.With SenseApp, you can easily check your adsense revenue on the go while over wifi or 3G.

Features available with the SenseApp application for iPhone and iPod Touch

Display revenue per day, week, month or channel.

Drilldown to channel data for each date.

Content, Search and Domain channels.

Supports multiple Adsense accounts.

Store history on your device.

Secured transactions.

Auto-Update on application start.

Automatically switching between $ and Euro display.

Image: SenseApp application for the iPhone and iPod Touch

The author of the application confirms that the userid and password for your adsense account is never shared with any other website than Google Adsense.The username and password is also encrypted and stored only on your device.The application uses encrypted SSL connection to load your data.

You can buy SenseApp application for the iPod Touch and iPhone from the iTunes Store by clicking here. The application is priced at $5.99 . If that sounds like too much of money, you always have the option of logging into the adsense application using the browser on your iPhone / iPod Touch.

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[Freeware] Draw Mathematical Graphs in a Coordinate System Using Graph

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:48:10 +0000

If you are someone who loves mathematics or is looking out for some interesting (yet free) tools to help him or her with drawing some mathematical graphs in a coordinate system,then a freeware application called Graph is what you must be checking. Graph makes it very easy to visualize a function and paste it into another program. It is also possible to do some mathematical calculations on the functions.

Graph is capable of not only drawing out the graphs and relations and evaluating them for you, it can also save the graphs as either a jpeg,png or a pdf file (there are numerous other formats as well). This article lists down various features provided by Graph.

1.) Draw functions

Graph can draw normal functions, parameter functions, and polar functions. You can use a lot of built-in functions, e.g. sin, cos, log, etc. You may specify color, width and line style of the graphs, and the graphs may me limited to an interval. It is also possible to show a circle at the ends indicating open or closed interval.

2.) Draw relation

Graph can show any equation and inequality, for example sin(x) < cos(y) or x^2 + y^2 = 25. You can choose line width and color for the equations, and color and shading style for the inequalities.

3.) Interact with other programs

You can save the coordinate system with graphs as an image on disk either as a bitmap (bmp), Potable Network Graphics (png), JPEG, metafile (emf) or Portable Document Format (PDF). You may also copy the coordinate system into another program, e.g. Microsoft Word, either as a normal image or as an OLE object, which may be edited later by double clicking on it.

4.) A lot of options

While still easy to use Graph has a lot of customization possibilities, e.g. fonts, colors, axes style, grids, etc. The axes, which may by normal or logarithmic, can be placed either by entering specific values, or by moving or zooming with the mouse.

5.) Evaluate

Given an x-coordinate Graph will calculate the function value and the first two derivatives for any given function. Alternatively the function may be traced with the mouse. Graph can also fill a table with evaluated function coordinates in a user specified range. Data from the table can easily be copied into another program, e.g. Microsoft Excel.

6.) Calculate

Graph can help you calculate the area under a function in a given interval and the distance along the curve between two points on the function. The program can also show the first derivative of a function, and create tangents and normal lines to a function at given coordinates.

7.) Point series and trendlines

You can create series of points with different markers, colors and size. Data for a point series can be imported from other programs, e.g. Microsoft Excel. It is possible to create a line of best fit from the data in a point series, either from one of the built-in models or from a user specified model.

8.) Shadings and labels

Graph can insert shadings used to mark an area related to a function. Shadings may be created with different styles and colors in a user specified interval. In addition to the optional legend used to describe each function, a label may be added anywhere in the system. A label can contain text with different fonts, images and objects created in other programs.

9.) Custom functions

You can create your own custom functions and constants for use in functions, relations, etc. You can for example create a custom function sinc(x)= sin(x)/x and a constant R= 8.314510. You can then plot the function f(x)=R*sinc(x).

Image: Draw mathematical graphs in a coordinate system with Graph

You can download Graph from here. Graph requires 32 bit Windows. It has been tested under Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. If the system is able to run Windows, it should be able to run the program, though Windows 95 is no longer supported. While Graph is available for download, use and distribution for free, the author certainly wont mind you paying him some quick bucks for a coffee.If you like this program, feel free to donate some bucks for the hard work.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

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