There are dozens of PDAs available in the market, but some of them beat every other in their segment. The power, flexibility and loads of applications makes them way ahead from their competitors. Here are five best PDAs that you may want to buy in 2009.
1. Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 200 / 210 / 211 / 212 / 214
Features
1. Big 4" 480x640 transflective TFT display
2. OS: Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Classic
3. 128 MB SDRAM, 256 MB Flash ROM
4. 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
5. 32bit Marvell PXA310, 624MHz CPU
6. 2200 mAh Lithium-ion battery
7. 2.97 x .69 x 5.27 in (75.4 x 17.5 x 133.9 mm), 6.6 oz (190 g)
8. mini-USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, CF I./CF II./MMC/SD/SDHC/SDIO
2. Pharos Traveler 535e/535PB/535+
Features
1. Vibrant 3.5” TFT color LCD
2. OS: Microsoft® Windows Mobile® for Pocket PC Premium Edition
3. 128MB Flash ROM, 64MB SDRAM
4. Intel Bulverde 312 MHz processor
5. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, IrDA
6. 1200mAh Li-Ion Battery
7. 2.8in(W) x 4.6in(H) x 0.6in(T), 160 g
8. RS232 serial, USB 1.1
9. 3.5 mm Earphone jack, SD/MMC, SDIO Expansion Slots
3. DAP 2240X WE
Features
1. 3.8" 240 x 320 transflective TFT display
2. OS: Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6 Classic
3. 64 MB RAM, 384 MB (NAND Flash) ROM
4. XScale - PXA255 @ 400 MHz
5. 802.11b, 802.11g, Bluetooth 1.2
6. 3800 mAh NiMH Battery
7. CF I., CF II Exp Slots, RS-232, USB 1.1 client, 12Mbit/s
USB B
8. 95 x 165 x 45 mm, 490 g
4. Nokia n810 WiMAX Edition
Features
1. 4.13” 800 x 480 px WVGA touch screen display
2. OS: Nokia Internet Tablet OS 2008 Edition Maemo 4.1 (Diablo)
3. 128 MB RAM, 2 GB internal memory
4. TI HS OMAP 2420 Processor @ 400Mhz
5. WiMAX 802.16e / 2.5GHz, 802.11b/g
6. 2.83 in (L) x 5.04 in (W) x 0.63 in (D), 8.06 oz (225 g)
7. USB 2.0, 480Mbit/s micro-USB
8. Nokia BP-4L Battery
5. Palm® Tungsten™ E2 handheld
Features
1. 320x320 Transflective TFT
2. OS: Palm® OS® Garnet (v5.4)
3. Intel® 200MHz XScale processor
4. 32MB Flash Memory
5. MultiMediaCard, SD, SDIO Expansion Slot, Bluetooth
6. 0.59 in (L) x 4.5 in (H) x 3.1 in (W), 4.7 oz
7. Lithium Ion 1050 mAH Tungsten™ E Battery
8. USB Sync Cable with Multi Connector, Stylus
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
5 Best PDAs To Rock The Market In 2009
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Mobile Web Development: The Future Is Here
Mobile communications have literally exploded in the last decade, resulting in exponential growth of mobile subscribers around the globe. With the introduction of 3G technology, mobile platform is turning into a personal computer. We can see new mobile applications being written for various mobile platforms around the world, whether it is Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone or Google's Android. Websites and blogs have also started to create their mobile versions. The share of mobile web development is increasing at fast pace and has very bright future. Recently, Nirav Mehta has released his book entitled 'Mobile Web Development', available from Packt Publishing which provides in-depth coverage of developing mobile web applications, whether its a minimal basic web app or a complex web application including multimedia features. If you have working knowledge of XHTML, CSS and Ajax, you can easily develop your own data driven mobile web applications after reading this book. The book can be broadly divided into three parts. viz.,
1. Mobile web development basics
2. Building business oriented mobile web applications
3. Advanced concepts: Integrating Payment system and multimedia web developmentMobile Web Development Basics
For better understanding of the subject, an example mobile website (Pizza on the Run) is taken by the author and the whole site is built from scratch. New features are added as the reader go through each chapter. This approach involves real coding examples giving the reader the very best in understanding the development concepts. The first two chapters provides a solid foundation of principles of mobile web development. Cutting edge technologies like WCSS, XHTML MP and mobile AJAX are introduced in these two chapters. Building Business Oriented Mobile Web Applications
Next 4 chapters provides in-depth coverage of layout & designing of mobile website, integrating payment systems, bulk SMS capability and various optimizing methodologies depending on the mobile platform and hardware. This section also gives detailed information about configuring your own SMS gateway and to seamlessly integrate text services in your mobile website.
Chapter 4 explains very vital part of mobile web app development. This chapter explains different techniques about detecting device capabilities and providing the appropriate version of mobile web app to the visitor according to the hardware configuration of the mobile device. Various device detection libraries are explained in this chapter making it one of my favorite section.Advanced concepts: Integrating Payment System and Multimedia Web Development
The last section goes one step further and provide the latest technologies that can be easily integrated in any mobile website. These technologies include receiving photos from from customers via MMS, sending information through MMS integrating paypal payment system, premium SMS and short codes, receiving text messages via short codes. The book also explains about future-proofing your mobile web app by explaining the basics of iPhone development and Android platform.
Chapter 9 provides very detailed information about integrating interactive voice response (IVR) platform to your mobile web app. Advanced concepts like speech recognition is also covered in this chapter. The last 2 chapters covers my favorite topics. Integrating Ajax interface, provide fast Ajax forms for your customers, mobile widgets, and of course iPhone and Android mobile web devlopement basics.Who should read this book?
After completing this book, you will be able to make your own state of the art mobile website giving the best browsing experience for your valued customers. You will also be able to integrate payment systems, MMS, SMS and various user interaction features (touchscreen, keypads) on your mobile website.
If you are planning to do some serious mobile web development, then this book is for you. The book will guide you in creating, managing and customizing your own mobile web application by using the available tools for developers. Working knowledge of XHTML, CSS and Ajax is required to develop mobile web applications.
Book: Mobile Web Development
Paperback: 236 pages [191mm x 235mm]
Publisher: Packt Publishing (February, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN: 1847193439
ISBN-13: 978-1-847193-43-8
Also available as an e-book from Packt Publishing
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
10 Best Windows Vista Themes
Although Vista didn't got that much success as compared to XP, still it has fairly large user base. The premium edition comes with stylish Aero interface. Here are some excellent Windows Vista themes that can add that extra pinch in your desktop.
1. AeroVG Theme
This stylish vista theme comes with transparent start menu and task bar, giving totally different browsing experience. AeroVG themes's check boxes and radio buttons are of Apple leopard style giving a mixed Windows and Apple experience.
Download AeroVG Vista Theme
2. Indigo Theme
Another highly popular theme with transparent address bar and transparent search. Other features include 3D user pic with new shell style. Doesn't take much system resources and definitely worth trying.
Download Indigo Vista Theme
3. Broken Aero Theme
Make sure you have installed Windows Blinds Theme rendering engine to use this theme. Very stylish and light on system resources. Great animation effects and smooth rendering of broken edged sides makes it a unique theme.
Download Broken Aero Vista Theme
4. XBox 360 Theme
Stunning graphics with loads of features. To install this theme on XP you have to first apply XP Theme Patcher (not needed for Vista).
Download XBox 360 Vista Theme
5. M7 Remix Theme
Elegant theme with shady rounded windows. Large icons support and light on system resources.
Download M7 Remix Vista Theme
6. Harmony Theme
Cool green Vista theme with frosty windows. One of the most popular theme with high quality rendering of windows.
Download Harmony Vista Theme
7. Blue Aurora Shellstyle Theme
Crisp green with transparent windows soothing to eyes. Works fine even on low end systems. This theme is based on 7’s Control Panel navigation pane.
Download Blue Arora Shellstyle Vista Theme
8. Auroh The Final Release Theme
One more extremely popular Vista theme with stylish transparent menus and windows. This theme has extremely stylish logon screen that makes it one of the most installed Vista themes.
Download Auroh The Final Release Vista Theme
9. Camouflage Final Vista Basic Theme
Stylish beige theme with rounded and shaded windows. This theme is also available for Windows XP.
Download Camouflage Final Vista Basic Theme
10. Cleaero Theme
Another blue Vista theme with transparent windows and taskbar. Soothing to eyes and very light on system resources.
Download Cleaero - Vista Theme
All skins compiled from deviantART Visual Styles.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
How To Hide Drives In XP and Vista
Sometimes you may want to hide the entire drive instead of specific folders. You can do it very easily in two ways. One method requires updating the windows registry, and other one requires some simple commands on command prompt. Both these methods work well on XP and Vista to hide entire drives.
Method - 1 : Registry Hack To Hide Entire Drive
1. Open Windows Registry through 'RegEdit' command.
2. Go to following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3. Create a new Key of type '32-bit DWORD' and name it NoDrives.
4. To hide drive C: give a value 4 in this key. For drive D: give value 8, for drive E: 16, for drive F: give value 32 and so on...
5. Reboot Windows and see your drive completely hidden. To unhide, simply delete the 'NoDrives' key.
Method - 2 : Hiding Drives Through Command Prompt
1. Go To 'Start -> Run' and type 'diskpart'.
2. To hide drive D:, type 'remove letter D'.
3. To unhide the drive anytime, type 'assign letter D'.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Top 5 iPhone Accessories - Editors Choice
iPhone it perhaps the most popular mobile phone used by millions of people. The phone carries tons of features and applications. Adding some cool accessories to your iPhone can make you stand apart from the lot. Let's see some popular and useful accessories for your iPhone.
1. Belkin Sport Armband
This light-weight, washable and water resistant sport armband for iPhone is perfect for sports person, moutaineeers, trackers and bikers. The armband comes with lifetime warranty and is a good value for money.
2. Blueant V12 Bluetooth Headset
One of the best selling Bluetooth headset for iPhone. Integrated LCD display with 12 digit caller ID enabled. Supports vibrate alert for incoming calls. Powered by rechargeable lithium polymer battery with talk time of up to 12 hours and 360 hours of standby time.
3. iGrip Universal Fit Sturdy Swivel Mount for iPhone (Car Kit)
Ideal for people spending most time on rough roads. Heavy duty, durable mount for iPhone, giving you hands free driving. Vibration proof and rugged construction makes it the most durable iPhone mount for car in the market. Adjustable holder can be shifted in 4 directions (left, right, top and bottom) giving you ample flexibility for arranging your iPhone position as per your requirement.
4. Mobi Products Crystal Case With Clip for iPhone
Best selling iPhone cases with a price tag of just $0.99. Available in many colors, lightweight, transparent and durable. This case comes along with a removable belt clip.
5. Smartphone Experts Car Charger
Ideal for recharging your iPhone in your car while on move. Light weight, 18 inches long coil with LED indicator. This car charger is compatible with most 12-volt auto power outlets.
3G Mobile Services Launched In India
India has finally launched 3G Mobile services for its mobile service subscribers. The service was officially announced by Prime Minister Manmohan on 11th Dec, 2008 in Delhi.
Currently, the service (Jadoo) will be offered by MTNL in selective areas of Delhi, which will be later extended to whole of the NCR region. BSNL will be given spectrum to provide 3G services in other part of the country.
Subscribers will get a maximum of 600 kpbs broadband service and can experience more reach multimedia experience from their 3G enabled phones. More detailed tariff [plans will be decided by the companies once it will launched in other parts of the country.
Mobile handset companies are planning to roll out low-cost 3G enabled handsets to tap the huge Indian market.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
10 Best Free CD-DVD Burning Software
There are many commercial as well as free DVD burning software. Nero is one of the most popular commercial solution available. The free alternatives are not behind and match the features and performance of Nero. Here is a comprehensive list of 10 best free DVD burning software.
1. CDBurnerXP
One of the most popular free DVD burning software. Supports Blue Ray discs, HD DVD. Very user friendly and attractive interface.
2. DeepBurner (Free Edition)
Very handy and light weight. A portable version of DeepBurner is also available.
3. DVD Shrink
DVD Shrink is an excellent software to back up Video DVD's. Very light on system resources.
4. ImgBurn
Supports both HD DVD and Blue Ray Disks. This software is available for Windows as well as Linux platform, and has tons of advanced options for expert users.
5. Burn4Free
Burns CD/DVD/HD-DVD, MP3 and much more. I would strongly recommend to try this software.
6. BurnOn CD/DVD Free
Tons of features with lots of options packed in attractive user interface. Supports all major formats.
7. BurnAware Free
Supports Blue Ray disks, light weight and fast burning. Definitely worth trying.
8. Totally Free Burner
Extremely light weight and installs in seconds. This is one of the most fast DVD burning software.
9. InfraRecorder
Another hugely popular DVD burning software. IrfaRecorder come under GPL license and has a very simple interface with no fuss.
10. StarBurn
Supports Blue Ray disks, HD DVD and all other major formats. Create copies, burn, rip or create bootable disks.
Out of these 10 DVD burning software, I would definitely recommend trying ImgBurn, CDBurnerXP and Totally Free Burner.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Best GMail Management Tips: Part - 1
GMail is one of the most popular e-mail service on Internet with millions of users across the globe. It has been a long time since it is in beta stage. Google is adding new features to it at fairly consistent pace and it has become the favorite mail service for many of us. As our contacts grow, so do inflow of mails in our inbox. Let's see some useful GMail Tips and Tricks to effectively manage our GMail accounts.GMail Security Tips
Last month, we saw many stories covering domain hacks due to some vulnerability in GMail. Although GMail has officially clarified that their mailing system has no such flaw, still many of us are concerned about their sensitive data in the account. Here are some security measures that can be implemented to harden the security of our GMail account.
Switch on 'Always use https' option to make your your GMail data stream encrypted. If you have old sluggish system, your GMail experience may become slow afer activating this option. For activating this option go to 'Settings -> General (tab)'.
Disable mail forwarding option to avoid auto-mail forwarding to any unknown mailing address. You can turn on this feature from 'Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP' and selecting the 'Disable forwarding' radio button. Once this option is enabled, it will override any other mail forwarding rule created in your account.
Disable IMAP to prevent access of mails from any e-mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird. To turn off IMAP, go to 'Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP'. It may happen that sometimes you configure any e-mail client in office PC or some other place and later forget to flush all the information. In this case any third person can easily get access to your account. It is always advised not to configure any e-mail clients on a shared computer, and in case you have to do that, make sure you erase all your accounts settings when you do not use that system.
GMail filters have amazing power for better management of mails. Last month, when several domain hacks were reported on makeuseof dot com, hackers used GMail filters to get the sensitive information. How they managed to do it is still a question for debate. Learning a lesson from these incidents, now I always check my filters once in 24 hours to make sure there is no suspicious mail forwarding filter which is not made by me. I strongly suggest you to do the same on regular basis and do not open any unsolicited mails.Adding Multiple E-Mail Addresses To GMail
Interestingly, you can use GMail as a central hub for all your e-mail communication including personal and business correspondence. GMail gives you the flexibility to use external e-mail addresses for sending mails. Let's see how to do it.
1. Go to 'Settings -> Accounts' and click 'Add another email address' link.
2. A pop-up window will be opened and you will be asked to provide 'Name' and 'EMail Address'. Click the 'Send Verification' button to receive a code for verifying your email address.
3. Enter the verification code in the text box provided in the pop-up window to complete the process. Now you can use this email address in the 'From:' field.
You can go ahead one step further by forwarding all your emails coming on external email addresses to your GMail account. Now you never have to leave your GMail inbox for using any external email addresses. Creating Folders/Labels In Gmail
Another very useful feature in GMail is 'Labels', that can be used to get the functionality of folders. Combining it with the power of GMail filters, you can automate the process of sorting and segregating the mails.
Labels can also be compared to TAGS that are associated with item. To create a label choose 'New label...' from 'More Actions' drop down list. To apply label to any email, simply open or select that mail and choose the appropriate label from 'More Actions' drop down list. You can see all mails associated with a particular label by clicking that label name from the list of labels on left hand sidebar. Automating Tasks With Gmail Filters
GMail filter is one of the most powerful feature that can make your life easy by automating day-to-day activities. With the help of filters you can automatically delete, archive, forward, label and can do many other similar tasks. GMail filters support advanced filtering supported by pattern searching that can fine tune your filter giving you the desired result you want from it.
To build a fresh filter, click the 'Create a filter' link and follow the simple step by step wizard to create a filter as per your requirements. Some common filters are,
1. Deleting mails received from certain domains
2. Deleting mails containing certain words
3. Forwarding specific mails to specific accounts. (May keep a copy too)
4. Applying labels to mails according to their address and content
5. Archiving mails according to their address and content
and much more...
With filters we can automate these common tasks and can reduce our burden to great extent.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Send Free Fax Across The World In Over 100 Countries
Fax is still one of the most important medium of exchanging business documents, important papers and similar stuff. Here is an excellent site that let's you send fax free of cost to more than 100 countries.
Burnham Free Fax service exactly does as it promises to its users.
Before sending the fax, you can check whether the destination of your fax is supported by this free fax service. Make sure you provide your e-mail address before sending the fax, so that later you can receive the acknowledgment of your fax.
For sending the fax, type the fax number in the following format 'country code + area code + fax number'. Make sure you remove the first 0 before the area code, if any. For example: if country code is 56, area code is 01567 and fax number is 5678345, then you have to type 5615675678345. Note, I have removed 0 from the area code.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Top 7 Google Chrome Add-Ons And Plugins
Google's web browser Chrome is steadily making its space in web browsing market. So far, feedback from the users is encouraging and this browser is giving tough fight to Firefox. Here are some best add-ons for Google Chrome web browser.
1. blurkMAC - Mac OS X Chrome Theme
Transforms Chrome's appearance with a stunning Mac OS-X look and feel. Light on system resources and very easy to install.
2. Chrome Addon - Google Chrome Backup
Google Chrome backup add-on creates, backups, restores and manages Chrome profiles. All history, bookmarks and related stuff are maintained very easily with this add-on.
3. Chrome Addon - ChromePass
Excellent add-on for recovering passwords stored by Chrome. Along with password following information is also displayed. a) Origin URL b) Action URL c) User Name d) Field e) Password Field f) User Name g) Password h) Created Time
4. XChrome - Theme Manager
XChrome is a complete theme manager and installs different skins with a click of button.
5. Chrome Addon: Portable Chrome For USB Stick
Tiny version of Google Chrome ideal for carrying in your USB memory stick. Light and zippy with all core features of Chrome.
6. Google Chrome Dual View Plugin
This plugin splits the viewing pane into two halves and lets you browse two sites simultaneously.
7. Google Chrome Plugin: PageRank Status Checker
This excellent plugin adds the facility of checking Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank at the same time.
Google engineers are working towards full support of Firefox plugins in Chrome and we can expect the same in 1st or 2nd quarter of 2009.
