3G iPhone debut marred by glitches

The launch of Apple Inc's much-anticipated new iPhone turned into an information-technology meltdown on Friday, as customers were unable to get their phones working.

"Its such grief and aggravation," said Frederick Smalls, an insurance broker in Whitman, Mass, after spending two hours on the phone with Apple and AT&T Inc, trying to get his new iPhone to work.

In stores, people waited at counters to get the phones activated, as lines built behind them. Many of the customers had already camped out for several hours in line to become among the first with the new phone, which updates the one launched a year ago by speeding up Internet access and adding a navigation chip.

A spokesman for AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the US, said there was a global problem with Apple's iTunes servers that prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store, as had been planned.

Instead, employees are telling buyers to go home and perform the last step by connecting their phones to their own computers, spokesman Michael Coe said.

However, the iTunes servers were equally hard to reach from home, leaving the phones unusable except for emergency calls.

The problem extended to owners of the previous iPhone model. A software update released for that phone on Friday morning required the phone to be reactivated through iTunes.

"It's a mess," said freelance photographer Giovanni Cipriano, who updated his first-generation iPhone only to find it unusable.

Apple shares fell $4.05, or 2.3 per cent, to close Friday at $172.58 amid a general decline in US stocks.

When the first iPhone went on sale a year ago, customers performed the whole activation procedure at home, freeing store employees to focus on sales. But the new model is subsidized by carriers and Apple and AT&T therefore planned to activate all phones in-store to get customers on a contract.

The new phone went on sale in 21 countries on Friday, creating a global burden on the iTunes servers.

The iPhone has been widely lauded for its ease of use and rich features, but Apple is a newcomer to the cell-phone business and it's made some missteps. When it launched the first phone in the US a year ago, it initially priced the phones high, at $499 and $599 and then cut the price by $200 just 10 weeks later, throwing early buyers for a loop.

Rollouts to other countries were slow, as Apple tried to get carriers on board with its unusual pricing scheme, which included monthly fees to Apple. The business model of the new phone follows industry norms, and the price is lower: $199 or $299 in the US.

Most expensive cell phone - Catch the EyE

Goldvish Le million made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most expensive phone.

The hand-crafted cell phone made of 18-carat white gold, mounted with 120-carat VVS-1 graded diamonds. The phone comes in platinum or white and yellow solid gold studded with diamonds. The phone has a TFT display and supports 176x220 pixels. The phone has Bluetooth, Java, EDGE, WAP and USB port.

The phone was first introduced in September 2006 in Europe at the Millionaire Fair. There are only 100 of these phones made and it is only available on special request.

GoldVish also make the ‘Illusion’, which comes in 15 different incarnations, encrusted with diamonds. The phone is priced at $1,000,000.

Buying Smartphones - Here is the Guidelines while Purchasing

They used to be once considered elite devices that were meant only for those with deep pockets. But recent times have seen enterprise phones come off their ivory tower and become increasingly mainstream. Today, one can even get a decent enterprise device for as little as Rs 10,000. And there’s plenty to choose from as well-- every cell phone manufacturer worth his or her salt has an enterprise device or two up their sleeves.

Some, like Nokia and HTC, have several. While the economists might blather about more choices empowering the consumer, the fact is that more choices also do end up confusing one about just which model to pick up. Well, there are no hard and fast rules in this regard but keeping the following points in mind might just help.

Rush into the Kitchen when U dropped Ur Cell Phone or I-Pod in Liquids

What is the next step that you would take if your expensive mobile phone or iPod gets wet in the rain or your drop it in a wash basin?

Such accidents are not very uncommon. Adam Curry once dropped his iPhone in the toilet. Venadium went for a swim while the iPod was still in his pocket. Leo Laporte did something similar to his cell phone. Virgo soaked his iPod when a bottle of Diet Coke fell over his trousers.

Since the warranty for most electronics does not cover water damage, what can you do to revive that wet gadget ? The answer is in your kitchen.

Power off the device (if it’s not off already) and try to completely cover the iPod or iPhone in a bowl of rice. Rice being a natural desiccant will help absorb the excess moisture. Let it try for at least 24 hours and DO NOT try to charge the device.

wet blackberry If your gadget has a removable battery, dry it separately to speed up the whole drying process.


This home-remedy is cheap and worth giving a try before you rush to the Apple store for a replacement.

Ernesto Londoño successfully managed to fix his wet BlackBerry phone after he left the device soaked overnight in a bowl of uncooked rice.

Coming Up - Transparent Touch Screens

While touch screen devices are increasing in popularity, the small screen sizes are proving to be a problem because users’ fingers block the graphical elements he wishes to work with. Now, a US researcher at Microsoft has created an interface that gives the user a semi-transparent view of the device, thus providing easier navigation.

Researcher Patrick Baudisch demonstrated his ‘LucidTouch’ technology at TechFest, Microsoft’s annual display of experimental technology in Redmond on Tuesday.

LucidTouch allows users of touch-screen devices, such as GPS units or mobile phones, to perform operations from behind the device, so their actions do not block their view of the display.

The device currently uses a camera mounted behind the unit; but the researcher is planning to integrate the necessary sensors into the back panel.

“The key to making this usable is what we call pseudo-transparency,” said Baudisch. “By overlaying an image of the user’s hands onto the screen, we create the illusion of the mobile device itself being semi-transparent. This pseudo-transparency allows users to accurately acquire targets while not occluding the screen with their fingers and hand.

LucidTouch also supports multi-touch input, allowing users to operate the device simultaneously with all 10 fingers.

Baudisch envisions myriad uses for the device, from navigation tools and personal computing to graphic design and video games. For instance, gamers can control multiple units in a strategy game. Two gamers may put the tablet between them and each play one side in a sports game.

At this year’s Techfest, forty new technologies were displayed, showing how computing enables new experiences and how the basic tools of computer science are evolving to help all sciences advance more rapidly.

SonY Ericsson G900 Revealed

Sony Ericsson refreshed its G series with Symbian UIQ based G900, a candybar handset sporting a 2.4" QVGA touchscreen, with 160 MB of internal memory and a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot.

The phone is packed with features like 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, red-eye reduction, digital image stabilisation and facial recognition.

The phone comes with FM radio, multimedia player, stereo Bluetooth, Opera web browser, document editors and an email client. The G900 sports tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz), WCDMA (2100MHz), and WiFi. The phone will sport dark Red or dark Brown colours.

Valentine Gift For Valentine Lovers

V-day is here again! Wondering what to floor your partner with this time? Looking for something beyond those mundane flowers, chocolates and deodorants?

How about some tech toys for that special person in your life? Here's a line-up of some of the best gizmos that may make the perfect gift for your loved one. Take your pick.

Embedding MP3 Audio Files In Web Pages With Google or Yahoo! Flash Player

Question: How do you embed an MP3 file (like a podcast, song or background music) into a web page or an RSS feed so that visitors can listen to the audio in the browser itself without requiring an external player like QuickTime or Windows Media Player ?

Answer: We earlier recommended the Google MP3 Player for embedding MP3 songs and audio podcasts in web pages but for some reason, the Google Flash player has stopped working on external websites other than listening to voicemail messages on Gmail.com.

So here we explore some new Flash MP3 players from Google and Yahoo! that are again light-weight, easy to implement and extremely efficient.

1. Google Reader MP3 Player

Google Reader has an inbuilt MP3 player that is pretty much the same as Gmail player but it also works on non-Google websites. This player has volume controls, no Google branding and it auto-detects the duration of the music file so your readers know how long the song will last. Here’s a live example followed by the HTML embed code:

To use this MP3 player on your website or blog, copy-paste the following code and replace the MP3_FILE_URL with the link to your MP3 file.

MP3_FILE_URL" width="400" height="27" allowscriptaccess="never" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" wmode="window" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" />

2. Yahoo! MP3 Player

If you think normal is boring, check this out. Yahoo! offer a code generator (Easy Listener) to help you create a Flash based MP3 player that matches your website color theme and layout. See example:

Though this Easy Listener MP3 player requires you to pass the address of the web page that contains the MP3 file(s), you can directly pass the MP3 link and it will work just fine. Supports auto play and you can decide where the meta data associated with the MP3 file should be displayed.

MP3_FILE_URL&skin_color_1=-145,-89,-4,5&skin_color_2=-141,20,0,0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" />

3. Yahoo! Media Player

If you maintain an MP3 blog or run a podcast and regularly link to MP3 files, it makes little sense to embed a separate Flash player with every MP3 file. I would therefore recommend using the Yahoo! Media Player that auto-detects links to MP3 files in your web pages and creates an embedded player for each link.

All you have to do is insert the following link in your blog template and all MP3 hyperlinks will be converted into inline MP3 players. This also has the shuffle feature and visitors can easily skip to any song in the playlist. Excellent stuff.

4. Odeo MP3 Player

Odeo offers a pretty impressive MP3 player (see example) that works perfect in web pages as well as RSS readers but a small issue is that Odeo Player requires you to type the exact duration of the song in the embed code. You can skip this step but then the progress bar won’t reflect the true status when you play the song. And there are no volume controls.

To use Odeo MP3 player in your website, add the following code replacing MP3_FILE_URL and DURATION with relevant values.

DURATION&external_url=MP3_FILE_URL" />

Summary: With so many choices, how do you pick the right MP3 player for your website ?

As a minimalist, I prefer the Google Reader MP3 player since it offers volume control and minimal branding. But if you are regularly linking to MP3 files, this will prove cumbersome and I suggest integrated the Yahoo! Media Player on your website.

Wi-Fi gadgets turn on heat

Wi-Fi gadgets turn on heat
Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but a couple of years ago you would have thought that by now you would be able to sit at any city cafe, park bench, airport bar or a cafe hotspot across the country and hop on the Internet via a free Wi-Fi connection. The painful truth is that such ubiquitous Wi-Fi is still years away. But several companies are betting enough people have wireless routers at home or use public hotspots to support a handheld Wi-Fi device that doesn't double as a cell phone. The Sony Mylo COM-2, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and the Zipit Wireless Messenger 2 all let you save on cellular data service fees while leaving your laptop computer in its case. And each is directed at a different segment of the market.

Free of cost Information on Ur Mobiles.....Take a look

It promises to bring the world at your finger-tips. iMobizo, a mobile value-added service application, offers customised information on any of your GPRS-enabled mobile handset (and it need not be a Blackberry), ranging from applications like cricket, movies, astrology and lifestyle.

A co-branded initiative of Indiatimes and US-based software company Mobio, the new platform would enable users to get information of their choice right on their mobile phones — free of cost. Ramneek Bhasin, founder and chief executive officer of Mobio, said the platform is designed to mobilise web services and not websites.

"We take a platform-based approach, that allows us to create mobile content and applications that are incredibly powerful but also less filling on the mobile phone," he said, adding that users of the service would also get to view a web version of the Times of India newspaper on their mobile phones.

Dinesh Wadhwan, MD and CEO of Times Internet Ltd (TIL), said special care has been taken to tune the information for web-based applications. The market for value-added services was on the rise in India, he said, pointing out that it provided a new opportunity for such applications as people wanted immediate access to information. "We would provide up-to-date information to our users and it would be real-time, considering that it would be updated every five minutes," he said.

The application would also have its own set of advertisements, some of which would also be useful for the users like providing access to top-up cards for pre-paid mobile users. "However, we would ensure that the mobile screens are not cluttered," Dinesh Wadhwan said.

Of the 40 million GPRS-capable handsets in India, it is estimated that only about 3 million use it to browse the internet. "This number is going to go up substantially in the coming time," Wadhwan added.

Bhasin said in countries like India, where broadband penetration was very low, the mobile phone was gradually becoming the preferred mode for getting access to information. "The mobile phone has become the de-facto device for getting information from the web," he said, emphasising that iMobizo would provide "only the tastiest bits of the web and deliver personalised mobile applications that consumers can use in three clicks or less with minimal to no data entry."

He said the application were as easy to download as a game or a ringtone. "You can have the application on your GPRS phone by sending TOI to 58888 or Enjoy to 58888," he said, adding that the applications run on GPRS on the GSM networks of Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL, IDEA Cellular, MTNL Mumbai, MTNL Delhi, BPL Mobile and Spice Karnataka.

Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera using ScanR

Finding scanner won’t be ever a problem again? ScanR is a service that helps you easily capture information from paper documents or whiteboards and quickly digitalize it.

How does it work?

Step 1: Use your mobile phone or digital camera to photograph documents, whiteboards and even business cards.

Step 2: Send all images to scanR (send to doc@scanR.com for documents and to wb@scanR.com for whiteboards)

Step 3: scanr will send you back nicely formatted PDF versions of documents.

If it’s you first time with Scanr you will need to register for an account. Registration process is rather simple and requires not more then 2 minutes. All you need to do is to provide your email and verify it by entering activation code. Afterwards you can start using service by emailing it whatever images you want to get converted to PDF. You can also use your moblie phone to send images and get back PDF versions.

Ooh, I almost forgot to mention that Scanr works on your image to make it look muuuuch better. That’s to say, not only it will convert your file but also make them look better. Check out snapshots below, showing scanr in action

Important thing to remember is that the camera you plan to use should have at least 1 mega pixel lens.

Some more things you can do with Scanr

• Get properly formatted PDF versions for captured files
• Save all documents, whiteboards and even business cards in your account
• Easily search through documents, whiteboards and business cards
• Download data to your computer if needed
• Transfer data from the business cards (that you have created from taking snapshots of paper business cards) to preferred contact management application (i.e., Jigsaw, Plaxo, Salesforce.com)

I was impressed by the performance of this service. It actually does what it shows and much more. It is not completely free to use but whatever comes with basic service is more then an enough for an amateur Joe. Anyways, with basic service you get following:

• Option to scan business cards and convert them into searchable PDF files
• Convert photos of whiteboards or documents into legible PDF files for use in the future

Scanr promises more features, but my guess it will be mainly available for premium members. There you go, here we had another web based service that offers free features and does not require any installation. Try it out and add it to your bookmarks, I am sure one day you will need it.

Download YouTube Videos Directly to Your iPod via iTunes & Tooble

Tooble is a free software that lets you watch YouTube videos on your iPod. Such a thing has always been possible but Tooble makes the whole process extremely simple even for novice users.

Tooble will automatically download your favorite videos from YouTube and converts them to MP4 format.

The converted YouTube videos are then imported into iTunes library so the next time you plug-in the iPod, the YouTube videos are automatically transferred from the computer to the iPod.

And not just the iPod, you can also consider using Tooble for watching YouTube videos on your computer using any media player that supports MP4 (like VLC, QuickTime).

Tooble is currently available only for Mac but a Windows version is coming

A Google Ready Computer System for Less Than $200

This $200 PC is not an official Google product but close - it comes pre-installed with desktop icons that link to the websites of Google Docs, Gmail, Blogger, Google Maps, and YouTube.

[click the green apple-esque desktop screenshot to enlarge]

Sounds a bit surprising but NYT also says that “gOS Linux is specially made to run Google applications like GMail and Google Documents”.

And this Google friendly computer is called “gPC” and runs on “gOS”, a variant of Ubuntu Linux, but the “g” here stands for “Green” and not “Google.”

More details and specs on Webware, Wired and NYT.

Related: How to Remove Pre-Installed Software