iPod touch -- Its a iPod with Wi-Fi and effective app support.



Why did you buy iPod Touch?

I need a compact internet surfing device. Smart Phones to be precise but the monthly subscription service of $30 is overhead. In office anyway there is access to internet. At home or the third place (coffee house like say Starbucks) usually have wi-fi which is more than enough to get connected to external world. If you are always away from home then iPhone may be the best option.

Why iPod touch 2nd gen ?

Because its latest :). The big diff between 1st Gen touch and 2nd Gen touch is added speaker with volume controls. As a person who hates putting ear phones, the 2nd gen is idle pick.

How is the first Apple gadget experience ?

This is my first ever Apple product. Being a deals guy and who is not that into music listening mania, I kept myself away from iPod instead bought some cheap creative MP3 player I hardly used. Now after owning iPod touch, I feel what I miss - the design aesthetics of Apple right from packaging box to the gadget. Easily fits into two hands for good browsing experience. The home control at the bottom of the device take you to home screen where ever you are. The gadget comes up with default icons that can do most of daily tasks. The shiny curvy design feels like you will drop it easily so i went and bought 2nd gen cases to protect my investment along with screen protector.

How is iPod touch Wi-Fi ?

Easy to configure. Comes with pre-loaded Safari browser which appears as icon on the top of screen. Quick time and some Adobe flash versions work but not all versions. This allowed me to listen to all best podcasts like WSJ (Wall Street Journal's) with touch of a button. The speaker is good with no need for ear phones. Youtube videos can be watched with high quality resolutions. While surfing one can tilt the screen and browser rotates accordingly. I preferred more horizontal wide screen browsing rather than a vertical limited text reading. I felt that was one awesome feature.

What's the battery life like ?

If you play lots of videos then the downside is that battery drains out quickly. If you are browsing then its not that significant. With videos I have observed that in 2 or 3 hours low battery pops out. The only way to charge is with USB cord given with the box. It is better idea to buy a power outlet USB iPod touch charge.

Why are people so crazy about iTunes and iPod music ?

Now I understand that all media players lack good music management application. iTunes filled that gap and when ever the device is synced it downloads all music and videos available in iTunes. Make sure you register the iPod otherwise the synch may not happen if you download some games off iTunes store. More than a music player the idea of music management is ultimate killer app that made people buy millions of iPods.

How'z the gaming experience ?

The one I bought came with free $7 worth down loadable EA - Spores. The game selection is key and I liked playing the game with tilting and making this one organism to evolve as you explore more levels.

What is Apple App store ?

Apple unveiled one more best application management system where developers publish their apps and users go buy or install freely these apps with a click. The App store icon on the screen lets you choose category like entertainment, productivity with top tabs as "Top Paid" or "Top Free". The user reviews and information about app helps us decide what app to install. As you install the apps keeping adding to the screen. By just sliding your finger on the screen can go to next page of the screen to launch the apps.

What Apps you downloaded?

Email - Now I can access Gmail and Hotmail with few clicks.
Weather - The winter storm warnings are now on finger tips. The sucking weather makes it more sick seeing these updates regularly.
Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter - Social networking tools. Easy to update and to write on others walls
Flixstar - A movie info. app. This helped me to pick top rated DVDs for rent released this week. My Blockbuster rental subscription is now produtive.
WritePad - A hand-writing recognition tool not at its best but I'm exploring it.


Now, What you didn't like of iPod touch?

> No copy paste functionality - We cannot copy and paste text into the same app or other apps. Meaning If I find something interesting its read only I cannot do anything with that not even copy urls to send via email. This is the most required feature that Apple iPod touch is missing.

> No multitasking - Only one app can be opened - While I'm listening to podcasts online from WSJ, I cannot go do browsing other sites. meaning I can do only one task at a time. There is a twist if you listen to music from iTunes then you can do browsing and all that.

> Too delicate - I developed a phobia that I'll drop it because of its smooth and thin surfaces. Once i got my case I was happy.

> Its expensive - $220 for 2nd gen iPod touch I feel its a bit expensive.

Finally, tell the truth why an expensive gadget?

Okay, I was getting Bestbuy $50 giftcard, one free EA Spore's game and I had couple of other Gift cards from Bestbuy to redeem so I got the iPod touch in a deal so effectively for $170, I wish Apple introduce coupons in near future.

$50 gift card is expired now. Check the Bestbuy link here

Please share your goodies or rants, if you have iPod touch or iPhone

Labels: App Store, Apple, Facebook, iPodTouch, Music, Review, Technology, tips, Twitter, videos

Karla Cunningham's Greencard has one mis-typed letter that almost costed her Indiana's driver's license. Fox reports that Karla, a Jamaican citizen became US permanent resident at age 5. She had in her name one letter mistyped - instead of Karla, the greencard has it karia. ("L" instead of "i"). The trouble started when she relocated from Kentucky state to Indian state.

As per Indian state rules , she applied for driving license that's where her application was denied because of a typo in her green card. This case highlights how important are the names on identification cards like - Greencard. For Karla it took almost a year to resolve this issue with the DMV.

Make sure all your names (including the long Indian family names) are correct on Greencards. Otherwise we very know how crippled the working person in US is without a valid driving license.

Related posts : Wrong name on EAD , 485 , Advance Parole documents

Labels: GreenCard, Immigration, tips

Flu (Influenza) as we know is a seasonal thing and winters are the worst ones to get affected with during holiday fun times. Common symptoms of the flu are chills and fever, pharyngitis, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.Especially its considered dangerous when kids and elders get affected.

Flu shots every year around October/November times may help us to some extent but here is another tip from Reader's digest of how to avoid Flu with proper diet - Eat foods that has "Quercetin". Quercetin is a plant pigment found in many foods such as onions, apples, berries, tea, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, grapes and red wine. Quercetin is a powerful antioxidant that may protect brain cells from damage.

University of South Carolina researcher J. Mark Davis, PhD. says, are red onions, which have quadruple the Quercetin of most other produce. Eat them raw or cooked, though cooking foods with Quercetin may make the antioxidant more easily absorbed.

Stay healthy and have happy holidays !

Labels: health, tips

Folks in US (or UK) when calling customer service we get impatient hearing all ten plus options of what to dial for different functions. Most of the time we need to get in touch with a customer service representative to talk and resolve the issue at hand. GetHuman.com (to remember the site easily the domain name is - Get + Human ) fills this need. It has collected information of secret codes and phone numbers of more than 800 companies in US. It is a huge search able database of customer service numbers and single click or very minimal touch-tone combination that will get you speaking with a real human being.

This way we can avoid long prompts and save our time and money in waiting to receive updated estimated wait times from automated CRM systems. The GetHuman lets users rate the secret phone numbers and codes so that quality of the codes to get to human is more refined. If there are three stars or more than it is more probability that number and codes work.


This is holiday season and when we buy online we need to have this list handy to get to rep in less time. Here are Amazon customer service numbers from "gethuman" -

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Labels: Customerservice, Telephonenumber, tips

Not happy with the normal quality of the Youtube cricket videos? Follow this simple trick and you can watch high resolution cricket Youtube videos.

Yuvraj six sixers video normal quality Youtube video link is here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s73tSpiHhzw and the trick for high quality videos is just append &fmt=18 to the url so it becomes high quality Youtube cricket video - here is high res link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s73tSpiHhzw&fmt=18

You can watch this way any Youtube video in highquality by appending the string &fmt=18.

If you want the same behavior with Embeded Youtube videos in a web page then follow this procedure -
Append &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the param link and src link in the embed tag.

Here is high resolution cricket embeded video -

Labels: India, tips, videos

My Hotmail account gets nearly 30 to 50 spam email daily, I've to browse my junk mail folder often to make sure I don't miss any important mail that Hotmail marks it as junk.

This has become a wasteful exercise sucking out time that can be put to some other good use. Most of the junk mail these days are from Paypal, eBay, Bank Of America (my bank) and even Obama election mails - all of course are phishing emails tricking us to steal our identity theft.

Every time I get such spam email I go to Google and search for subject and body of the spam email. Most of the time users post and give good feedback of whether a mail is spam email or not.

Here is another simple way to check for spam email

The following email is in my junk folder :



A free online email address checker is available at this location. If you enter the valid mail address then the site displays appropriate icon.

A valid email address looks like this - check the "valid" text in the image

A in-valid email address looks like this - check the "Not valid" text in the image


This helps us to filter out spam emails.

Do you know of any other tips to filter spam mail

Labels: tips

Thrillist is a free daily email on the newest food, nightlife, travel, entertainment and gadgets. Some of them you may not know that they exist near you is the whole idea behind "Thril+List" website. It is mostly targeted for men and be cautious that sometimes Thrillist's daily emails may contain "adult themes" and may not be appropriate for everyone.



If Thrillist is for men, Dailycandy is for women which send mailing list focusing on women's daily fashion and culture. Dailycandy is part of Comcast family now.



The Thrillist email list must be huge that they are rejecting to sell ad space on their website and allow only email advertising.

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Labels: tips

GM introduced new educational experience game - MR. Stephen's Engine Shop for kids between 5th and 8th grade. This is educational game to identify car engine pictures with their names I doubt that every one who drives a car knows what are all the engine parts ? If dealer mechanic tells us some specific part needs change, now after taking the game at least we will have some idea what he is talking about and avoid paying too much for the part by not buying it from the dealer.

More than that it is just to increase car general knowledge. The car here is Corvette.

Here are parts from round 1 of the game : Connecting Rod, Drive Belt, Super-Charger, Fuel Rail, Oil Pan, Head gasket etc etc.

Labels: Automobile, Cars, tips

The percentage of free applications are decreasing in App store with Apple tightening the acceptance of some apps from the developers in the past.

Here is the feed of all new applications from Apple's App Store. Click the app to expand to get to know more details of the app. The date shows how recent is the app.



Buxr - the deal site had listed three free applications from Apple's app store - Don't square , Kinwits and Starquake

Here is another link to tons of free App store games and apps. (
http://idwn.blogspot.com/)

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Labels: App Store, Apple, Deals, free, IPhone, ITunes, tips

Marketshare data shows that browser share of Internet explorer is shrinking where as Firefox and Safari are gradual winners in the browser wars. Firefox 3.0 increased its share to almost 20% where as Safari is at 6.5%. Internet explorer lacks innovation as Firefox which has so many add-ins that made life easy in browsing internet. The performance is much better on Firefox though at the cost of consuming more CPU time. We have to wait and see how Microsoft takes up these challenges in their IE 8.0 release.

Here is the data from December 2007 to October 2008 :



Increase in Safari browser share is an interesting risk taken by Apple. The versions are released as Apple's Software Update service on Windows. The update has been pushed to millions of Windows users of Apple's other software products, like iTunes. This is first time that Apple's Software Update service is used to delivery of new products. In the process Apple probably annoyed some users. But the tactics of Apple worked by gaining browser market share.

Labels: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, tips

Federal Government released its first-ever Physical Activity Guidelines for 2008 that provides scientific guidance to help people aged 6 and older improve their health through appropriate physical activity. Based on your age here are few quick to refer guidelines from the website :

Children and Adolescents (aged 6–17)

* 1 hour (60 minutes) or more of physical activity every day.
* At least 3 days per week. Muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days per week.

Adults (aged 18–64)

* 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity,
* Muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups performed on 2 or more days per week.

Older Adults (aged 65 and older)

* Follow the adult guidelines.
* Do exercises that maintain or improve balance if they are at risk of falling.

For all individuals, some activity is better than none. People without diagnosed chronic conditions (such as diabetes, heart disease, or osteoarthritis) and who do not have symptoms (e.g., chest pain or pressure, dizziness, or joint pain) do not need to consult with a health care provider about physical activity.
Adults With Disabilities

Labels: exercise, health, tips

“Earthcaller” is a PC-to-phone service that allows users who have access to internet to call any phone in the United States from anywhere in the world for free. Someone in India can call US number for free using this service.

The requirement is that Earthcaller works with MS Internet Explorer browser only . There is no hassle of downloading any software, Earthcaller instead takes advantage of Active X technology that makes it possible to make call from PC to any phone in US.

Some basic user friendly features makes it easy for users -
> Earthcaller Speed Dial using one-click dialing
> For high quality calls Network speed test to confirm the Internet connection speed
> Storage of frequently called numbers in Contacts list
> Microphone and headset volume check
> A single sign-in for access to other Jaduka Labs applications and widgets.

Labels: free, global calls, tips

In simple terms this is what Google is doing - If you are a photographer and take a picture with your creativity and with some concept that you have in your mind. Google does the rest of the job for you in searching that image to find clues of any text embeded in that image may be say like "road signs" or human readable text for indexing.

Until now Google did indexing of only text saved PDF documents only and with this technology any pdf document saved as image can be indexed with the help of its open-source OCRopus technology.

OCRopus development is sponsored by Google and is free document analysis and OCR system released under the Apache License. OCRopus uses HP developed Tesseract for character recognition but has its own layout analysis system that is optimized for accuracy. It is intended for high-throughput, high-volume document conversion efforts with image preprocessing and layout analysis; it chops up the scanned document before passing it to Tesseract for line-by-line or character-by-character recognition.Currently, OCRopus uses Tesseract as its only character recognition plugin, but others are expected to be added in the future.

The benefits are many with this technology imaging those dusted government agencies years of paper data that can be scanned and indexed by Google.

If you want to try hands-on -- You can download the OCRopus source distribution by following the Downloads link and then follow the installation instructions linked to from the left menu.

Sources:

> code.google.com/p/ocropus/
> wikipedia/OCRopus
> 2007 article of arstechnica.com/hands-on-with-googles-ocropus-open-source-scanning-software
> sites.google.com/site/ocropus/

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Labels: Google, OCRopus, Opensource, tips

There are 550 plus songs that Amazon is giving as free mp3 downloads.

I sorted the result by release date and found that even future releases are available with the date. Instead of searching the web and doubting if the downloaded mp3s are legal, the Amazon free downloads is a good hassle free alternative. May be that all good numbers are available at Amazon for free.

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Labels: Amazon, Deals, free, tips

It is one more week to the election (Nov' 4 ' 2008) . The online activity increases to find out where our supported candidates stand out as election nears. Keep this list of US 2008 election websites handy. I feel its alternative to TV when one is in office or on road (like some iPhone apps) .

-Google links
> 2008election
> maps/elections
> obama_map
> mccain_videos
> us-voter-info

- pollster
- slate - iPhone App
- fivethirtyeight
- opensecrets
- huffingtonpost, fundrace
- perspctv
- 10000words , presidential-endorsement-map
- Glassbooth
- whatwouldyousaytothepresident
- Smartvoter
- ballotpedia
- vote411/poll finder
- dvice
- electicker2008

Labels: list, McCain, Obama, tips, USElections2008

Many times I personally ran into this problem where a file sent to me (by known person) does not open even though it has some extension type say Bombay.mp3. To root out all those problems here is useful tip from KrazyDad. He uses Hexdump to analyze the file type.

Here is the mapping

File Type - HEX DUMP
MP3 - ID3
WAV - RIFF

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Labels: Fileformat, MP3, tips

Sometimes on computers you don't want to leave the trace of your browsing history which may lead to data breaches. To surf the web in stealth mode, Here is useful script from Hackszine . All you have to do is copy that script in a notepad and save with .js file extension. Every time you open js file that starts the Chrome browser in incoginto mode.

Labels: tips

Devin Griffin got accepted into Wharton business school with two year tuition of 80,000 per year for his MBA paid. Business Week writes a letter to the admission committee by Devin made that possible to consider him for the school's scholarship.

Business schools are an expensive affair with students taking loans and pushing themselves into serious debts of $100,000 and more in the economy where jobs are uncertain after an MBA.

Tips to get free MBA:

1) Students who start their own business and have shown excellent community outreach programs.
2) Some schools automatically select students for scholarships.
3) Think ahead (2 or 3 years) before you start your MBA.
4) Apply for scholarships in the first round of MBA applications.
5) Target scholarships that aim for only Women, country based, and diversity.
6) Demonstrate leadership and highlight the cause.
7) Write out Fellowship that you are seeking.
8) Go to business school where your grades and GMAT score is above average that other students. And
9) Do part time MBA where your employer sponsors Tuition reimbursements. (Remember this type of free MBA comes with a price that a) Some corporations require that employee stay one-year with them after completion of MBA or pay back the tuition. b) May not be getting the full tuition reimbursement and have to pay taxes.

Any other tips you know of to do MBA for free and avoid huge debts ?

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• How to get into business school
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Labels: Business school, BusinessWeek, free, GMAT, Kellogg School of Management, MBA, tips, United States, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

For US phone numbers : This is the age of telemarketers and they will call you no matter you register in "DO NOT CALL REGISTRY" or un list your number from your phone company directory. Many times its a missed call with no voice mails. 800notes is the best site to get info on those strange numbers. Just plug in that missed call number and read the other users comments. To find the caller and the location, Nanpa website - gives you area codes and location.

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated telephone numbering plan serving 19 North American countries that share its resources. These countries include the United States and its territories, Canada,Bermuda, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands,Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks & Caicos.

If you are a map person then use Geolocator site

If you need one click result instead of browsing through map or by number then use the basic free service provided by phoneinfosite, Reversegenie and list of sites at phone info

For India phone numbers:


To find out about all details about cell phone number , read this wiki article -

All cellphone numbers are 10 digits long, (normally) split up as OO-AA-NNNNNN where OO is the operator code, AA is the zone code assigned to the operator, and NNNNNN is the subscriber number.

For location by plugging in just the India cell phone number use this site

Labels: tips

Rental Properties : Type of real estate investment Property that ordinarily gains value over time unlike many other real estate investments that may rise and fall quickly and without warning. The problem with any investing property is that far too few people can actually afford to hold and maintain multiple properties over an extended and indefinite period of time while waiting for the value to rise. Many property investors manage to overcome this by renting the properties to tenants during the time when the property values are rising. This allows the tenants to essentially cover the note on the property and makes the venture a little less risky though there are risks involved when dealing with tenants (such as property damage, failure to pay the rent, and possible legal woes-the good tenants generally outweigh the bad).

Some facts about renters in the United States: (Source : MSNBC)

NUMBERS: About 32 percent of U.S. householders are renters, rather than homeowners; they occupy about 35 million rental units.

COSTS:
In San Francisco, a full-time worker needs to earn nearly $30 an hour
to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30
percent of income. In West Virginia, the same "housing wage" is about
$10 an hour.

SHORTAGE: The
National Low Income Housing Coalition says there are 9 million
extremely low- income renter households and only 6.2 million units they
can afford at 30 percent of income or less.

PROPOSAL:
A bill pending in Congress would establish a National Affordable
Housing Trust Fund to build or rehabilitate 1.5 million low-income
housing units over 10 years.

When is the excellent time for investors to buy rental properties?

As the housing market beginning to cool and interest rates on the rise, this may be an excellent time for investors to buy rental properties. Stats shows that during the peak of home ownership in 2004, more than 3 out of every 10 Americans still rented the houses in which they lived. In the last week of July 2006, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that applications for home loans had reached a four-year low. These figures indicate that more people are being forced to rent until market factors adjust to make home ownership more feasible.

When is the bad time to invest in rental properties?
With home buyers having more difficulty financing their dream homes, it appears as if the rental market will continue to strengthen for some time, at least until a market correction brings down home prices, which have been spiraling significantly over the past few years. As more and more people begin to look at renting as an option while they wait for that correction, savvy investors may be able to experience increased profits by adding more rentals
to their inventory.

Harvard University study identified a number of demographic forces that are combining to strengthen the rental housing market, especially echo boomers and second-generation Americans. The fact that investors are having to pay higher interest rates to buy rental properties has also translated into increased rents over the past few years.



Tips for rental property investors:


It makes sense to seek expert advice
before committing your money.

- Research the area & market you are planning to buy. Real estate rental agents will be able to advise you on rental levels and demand.

- Prepare a budget and stick to it. First thing you want enough rent to cover your mortgage/loan costs. Also in the budget you need to include service charges (for flats), repairs and
running costs.

- Demand-Supply issues - If looking at areas where there is a lot of new developments make sure that supply of property does not outweigh demand.

- When taking on new tenants remember to take at least one plus month of rent in advance. That way if the tenant cancels
their standing order a month in advance of leaving then you have still
got money in case of damages.

- Choose your tenants carefully. Meet them in their own home if possible when
completing the rental agreement. If their home is in good condition
then hopefully they will treat your property the same way.

- Provide new tenants with a detailed inventory. As well as including
furnishings remember to state whether carpets have been cleaned or the
decoration updated. The more detail you supply will result in less
disputes with tenants.

-Consider the neighborhood and remember that you may well be called
there in the middle of the night, to tend to some tenant's emergency.

- Keep enough cash at hand. Expect routine cash outlays. Rental properties aren't all about money
coming in. You'll probably need to paint apartments (or offices)
between tenants and every few years for remaining tenants. Rugs will
need to be replaced, locks changed, various repairs and upgrades made.
If you want to attract and keep tenants, your property should look
clean and decent.

-Learn the rules and the laws governing rental properties (such as the
Fair Housing Act) so that you know how to deal with various issues,
such as the screening of applicants. One landlord recommended preparing
a summary sheet for each new tenant, listing your responsibilities and
the tenant's. That can prove useful later on, if things end badly and
you end up in court. You'll need to know things like when and how to
evict, and when you can and can't lock someone out of the property.
You'll also want to make sure you understand your insurance policy and
what it does and doesn't cover.

-Personality trait :Assess your personality to see whether you have what it takes. You shouldn't let people walk all over you, because some will
try to do that. You also need to be fair and even-tempered, and to be
able to read people. Some folks will have real problems that interfere
with their ability to pay you, but you may be able to work things out.
Other times, it will be hard, but you'll need to evict them.

List of rental property resources:

msnbc

realestate.msn.com

15 common renters' rights

Although
renters' rights vary by region, many are pretty predictable. Here's a
sample of rights likely to be addressed in your state's landlord-tenant
law:

1. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to deny
   housing to a tenant on the grounds of race, color, sex, religion,
   disability, family status, or national origin.
2. Residential
   rental units should be habitable and in compliance with housing and
   health codes—meaning they should be structurally safe, sanitary,
   weatherproofed, and include adequate water, electricity, and heat.
3. Many states limit the amount landlords can charge for security deposits. (See this page on Nolo.com to find out if yours is one of them.)

SFrentstats

Grad student Ethan Garner created CraigStatsSF, a site that slices,
dices, and visualizes CraigsList San Francisco housing rental listings
with Google Maps overlays.

hubbuzz

Real estate may be all about location, location, location, as the old
saying goes, but most rental apartment listings offer very little
information on that critical point. A new apartment search website
called Hubbuzz hopes to fill that gap by giving rental-hunters a way to
get a better feel for neighbourhoods and communities.

propertyrental

mightymortgages

Labels: Investing, RentalProperty, tips