iPhone Field Test mode

Many of the iPhone user may not know that they can access information such as mobile cell, signal strength, using the Field Test mode.


By dialing *3001#12345#* and "Call", you will be able to access the Field Test mode.

Google Plus vs Facebook

- Extract from New York Times -

Google has tried several times, without much success, to take on Facebook and master social networking. Now it is making its biggest effort yet.

On Tuesday, Google introduced a social networking service called the Google+ project — which happens to look a lot like Facebook. The service, which is initially available to a select group of Google users who will soon be able to invite others, will let people share and discuss status updates, photos and links, much as they do on Facebook.

But the Google+ project will be different in one significant way, which Google hopes will be enough to convince people to use yet another social network.

It is meant for sharing with groups — like colleagues, roommates or hiking friends — not with all of one’s friends or the entire Web. It also offers group text messaging and video chat.

“In real life, we have walls and windows and I can speak to you knowing who’s in the room, but in the online world, you get to a ‘Share’ box and you share with the whole world,” said Bradley Horowitz, a vice president for product management at Google, who is leading the company’s social efforts with Vic Gundotra, a senior vice president for engineering. “We have a different model.”

When it comes to social networking, Google finds itself in an unusual position, one that its competitors in Web search know all too well: playing catch-up with a service that dominates the market.

The debut of Google+ will test whether Google can overcome its past stumbles in this area and deal with one of the most pressing challenges facing the company. At stake is Google’s status as the most popular entry point to the Web. When people post on Facebook, which is mostly off-limits to search engines, Google loses valuable information that could benefit its Web search, advertising and other products.

But Google+ may already be too late. In May, 180 million people visited Google sites, including YouTube, compared with 157.2 million on Facebook, according to comScore. But Facebook users looked at 103 billion pages and spent an average of 375 minutes on the site, while Google users viewed 46.3 billion pages and spent 231 minutes.

Advertisers pay close attention to those numbers — and to the fact that people increasingly turn to Facebook and other social sites like Twitter to ask questions they used to ask Google, like a recommendation for a restaurant or doctor.

Analysts say that Facebook users are unlikely to duplicate their network of friends on Google+ and post to both sites, but that they could use them for different types of communication. Google+ could also attract Facebook holdouts who have been uncomfortable sharing too publicly.

“Can someone eclipse Facebook in terms of its hold? It is a fantastic broadcast mechanism,” said Charlene Li, a social media analyst and founder of Altimeter Group, a technology research firm. “But if Google becomes the owner of your private groups, it’s going to be a splintering of our social lives.”

Mr. Gundotra and Mr. Horowitz said that knowing more about individual Google users would improve all Google products, including ads, search, YouTube and maps, because Google will learn what people like and eventually personalize those products.

“To think we could achieve Google’s stated mission of organizing the world’s information absent people would be ludicrous,” Mr. Horowitz said.

But Google has been criticized for failing to understand the importance of social information on the Web until competitors like Facebook and Twitter had already leapt ahead.

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, regrets Google’s failure to lead in this market and has spent time working with the team since he became chief executive in April, people at the company say. He promoted Mr. Gundotra to senior vice president this year, placing him on an equal level with the heads of Google’s core products like search and ads.

Part of the blame, analysts say, falls on Google’s engineering-heavy culture, which values quantitative data and algorithms over more abstract pursuits like socializing.

Check out Google+

Full Story here.

TRENDnet World's Smallest Wireless N USB Adapter

TRENDnet 150Mbps Micro Wireless N USB Adapter, model TEW-648UBM is known to be the world's smallest wireless USB adapter. It is ultra compact that measures a remarkable 0.59 x 0.74 x 0.28 inches (1.5 x 1.9 x 0.7 cm).

When plugged into a USB port, the adapter extends a scant 0.3 inches (0.8 cm) from the edge of the computer. The adapter is so small that users can stow a laptop with the adapter plugged in, without worrying about damaging the laptop or the adapter.

It comes with a convenient feature of an external one-touch Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button, which makes connecting to a network so easy. Other features includes Advanced wireless encryption protects your valuable data. Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) Quality of Service (QoS) prioritizes important video, audio, and gaming traffic. Seamlessly stream video, download files, and play games with this ultra compact wireless n adapter.



For more details, your can visit the official Link

TRENDnet 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter

This TRENDnet 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter uses any electrical outlet to create a secure high speed building-wide network. Connect one adapter to your network and plug another adapter into any electrical outlet on your electrical system for instant high speed network access.

The TPL-304E2K, is a 200Mbps Powerline AV Adapter Kit with Bonus Plug. Never lose an electrical outlet with the built in socket on the front of the adapter. A Noise Filter maintains optimum connection speeds when everyday household appliances such as toasters, washing machines, and coffee makers create electrical background noise.

Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch ‘Sync’ button. Use up to 8 adapters to network devices in different rooms without running new cabling. Power Save mode reduces power consumption by up to 70%. Quality of Service technology prioritizes video, audio, and online gaming. Advanced AES encryption secures your network. This adapter is ideal for use in buildings that interfere with wireless networking signals.

For more details, your can visit the official Link

Panasonic Lumix GF2

Panasonic Lumix GF1 was claim to be the "World's smallest and lightest system camera" (Digital interchangeable lens system). This popular camera had a successor.

Lumix GF2 is lighter, smaller and more features. It is 19% smaller in size and approx 7% reduced in weight. Besides the features in GF1, it now includes a touch-screen for touch controls including Touch AF, Touch Shutter, Touch peripheral de-focusing control, a Touch Quick Menu and My Color mode.

The GF1 only recorded 720p video to AVCHD Lite, the GF2 now lets you record full 1080i HD video to AVCHD, with focus touch control available during recording.

Other new features include a Venus Engine FHD promises faster performance with 3 CPUs, Intelligent D-Range Control which optimizes the dynamic range in an image so that both light and dark areas are captured, Intelligent Resolution Technology with better-balanced sharpness.

The official price and release date is yet to be announced.

- Lumix GF1 official site
- Lumix GF2 official site

Legal to JailBreak your IPhone

It is now legal to jailbreak your Iphone in US. In the new exemption of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that was updated yesterday, users can now legally break through copyright protection on their mobile phones in order to "execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications."

Users are also now able to unlock firmware that ties a mobile phone to a particular wireless network.

Details in this report:
- PC World: What New DMCA Copyright Loopholes Mean to You

Samsung's IPad - Galaxy Tab

Samsung will be launching an IPad alike Tablet, Galaxy Tab. This new device seems to be the "upgrade" version of their previously announced S-Pad, which is a 7-inch tablet with keypads.

According to a South Korean newspaper, the Galaxy Tab is only one of three touchscreen tablet devices that Samsung had in plan. The 7-inch model is likely to be out in August, 8-inch and 10-inch varieties are rumored to appear in November and December respectively.

Similar to it's smaller "cousin" 4-inch Galaxy S Android Handphone, Galaxy Tab runs on Android with Samsung's TouchWiz UI.

Lets see how attractive their pricing against Apple IPad when they are out later this year.

adidas miCoach

adidas miCoach is a fitness activity tracking system similar to Nike+, except it gives you more data—including heart rate information—and has a sexy voice to guide you through workouts.

It comes with a miCoach PACER aims to bring to you the coaching in real-time during the workout.

- It works with any MP3 player (if you like to listen to music while you run)
- Measures your heart rate, distance, pace, stride rate, calories burned, and elapsed time
- Syncs to adidas.com/micoach where you can track your progress, see a detailed analysis of your run and receive online coaching feedback

Cool Gadgets for Mac

ThermaPAK Heatshift Laptop Cooler
Most laptop users might had tried the laptop cooler, which plugs to USB to run the small fans. But i recently heard of a cooling pad called "Heatshift Laptop Cooler". It is a flexible pad with dimpled top. It utilize both conduction and convection to cool your laptop (and your lap).

(Conduction is heat transferred directly from one object to another by physically touching. Convection is heat transferred by the movement of liquid molecules from warmer areas to cooler ones.)

The crystals inside the dampled top are in a solid state. As the underside of the laptop begins to warm up, this heat is transferred to pad and gradually changes the PCM crystals into a liquid. The grooves on the pad channel air under the laptop, and the liquid will draw heat from the laptop.

The cooler is selling from US$27.99 @ the ThermaPAK website.


FreeAgent Go™ for Mac
Disk Space demand is "exploding". Photos and Videos are in MB and GB these days. External Drive is common for most mobile users. Freeagent Go for Mac is a light, thin and stylish, with very low power consumption. Suits nicely to a Mac user. It also comes with USB 2.0 and Firewire.

The drive is available from US$129.99 @ the Seagate Website.

Advanced Format from Western Digital

Western Digital recently launch the first Advanced Format drives. It is develop as an education campaign about the technology. So what actually is the Advanced Format? It is actually the drives that uses 4KB sectors instead of the traditional 512 byte hard drive sector.

Hard drive uses Error Correcting Code (ECC) to find and correct any errors that occur. For a drive maker to add more space, they ultimately need to improve their error-correction capabilities, which means the necessary ECC data requires more space.



The problem is on ECC correction in 512B chunks, ECC can be more efficient when using a larger chunks of data. Even though larger sector rquires more ECC data than for a single 512B sector. But the overall ECC required on a larger sector is less than the sum of multiple sectors in order to maintain the same level of operational reliability. One estimate for 4K sector technology puts this at 100 bytes of ECC data needed for a 4K sector, while 320 (40x8) bytes for 8 X 512B sectors.



But this new format had a downside. There is a risk that a partition could be misaligned compared to the 4K physical sectors - where it would be unwittingly started in the middle of such a sector. As a result, the clusters of a file system on that partition would end up straddling 4K sectors, which would cause performance problems.




Details on this report:
- AnandTech: Western Digitial's Advanced Format: The 4K Sector Transition Begins

Kingston SSD 64GB SSDNow V+

Nowadays, we see alot of SSD (Solid State Drive) in the market. And here comes the new SSDNow V+ series from Kingston, not to be confused with the original V series. The original V series is part of Kingston's new value series lineup targeted at the mainstream DIY and upgrade market with a decently fast drive at affordable prices. Its read/write speeds are advertised at 100MB/s and 80MB/s respectively and comes in 64GB and 128GB capacity.

The newer V+ series that is mention here have better specifications such as 220MB/s sequential read speeds and up to 140MB/s write speeds for the 64GB edition. It also comes in capacities up to 256GB and has lower idle power draw than the original V series. Both are basically MLC-flash equipped drives but the V series uses the jointly developed controllers from JMicron and Toshiba, whereas the V+ series uses a Samsung controller. Another highlight point for the V+ series is its huge 128MB cache memory that should definitely distinguish it from the normal V series that has none.

Interesting Storage Device

Read about 5 innovative storage devices from techshout.com. The writers claims that those devices caught they attention due to their viability or ingenious design. Wanna share them with you all and see what you think about it?

LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive:
LaCie Starck desktop HDD is a lesson in creativity and functionality going hand in hand. The chassis sports a smoothly curved aluminum casing marked by a signature LED, courtesy of designer Philippe Starck himself. The light flashes orange or green depending on the different activities being performed by the device. The robust exterior is devised to protect the HDD from overheating as well as shock. This USB 2.0 enabled drive is suitable for the average PC or Mac. Pre-installed software includes LaCie Backup Assistant and LaCie Desktop Manager for user-friendly customization, configuration and back up of the drive. The desktop storage device comes in colossal memory capacities of 1TB and 2TB at US$129.99 and US$249.99, respectively.

A-Data SH93 HDD:
A-Data Technology’s portable HDD SH93 comes first in the list of handy storage devices. The MIL-STD-810F drop tests and 1M waterproof tests it has undergone prove its resilience. The ESP of this device lies in its waterproof and shock resistant attributes that claim to prevent data loss if it is exposed to water or dropped accidentally. The SH93 is colored bright racing car yellow and comes in capacities of 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB. A unique rubber-plastic mix and cushioning components are included in the manufacture of this HDD. There have been no mentions about the pricing details of the device.

Seagate Self Encrypting Drive:
Seagate has come a long way since they first developed the 5.25 inch ST506 which was the world’s first microcomputer compatible HDD. Their most recent offering is the enterprise-class line of SEDs built for optimized data-at-rest security. The company uncovered the Self-Encrypting Drives to provide security against data leaks to organizations dealing with confidential client information like those in insurance, banking and healthcare. Each Secure SED is embedded with an Intel Server Board S5520HC and Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080. These enterprise-class HDDs are notable for the data-at-rest security they offer. The encryption key can be safeguarded in the drive itself, while unauthorized persons are blocked off from data access. The problem of bottlenecks does not come up in this device since the encryption system moves at the same pace as the host drive and scales linearly. The devices on offer are the Savvio 15K.2, Savvio 10K.3, Constellation and Cheetah 15K.7 drives. Pricing information on these drives is not clear.

OCZ m84 SSD:
For hardcore computer users, OCZ has included another product in its Z-Drive line, the m84 PCIe SSD. Empowering users with much the same functionality as the p84 and e84, this drive is built for media editing, workstation productivity and gaming at a viable price point. The SSD boasts of being a bootable internal RAID 0 configured storage drive with a speedy PCIe interface and MLC NAND. The drive comes in memory capacities of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. The 256GB m84 has read and write speeds of 750MB/s and 650MB/s, respectively. Though the prices haven't been revealed clearly, all come with a 3-year warranty and full technical support.

ZeroBasic Mini Cooper USB:
The Mini Cooper USB from ZeroBasic makes it to the list for its soon-to-be-released special edition line. The company plans to unleash the celebratory edition in honor of its namesake’s fiftieth birthday. ZeroBasic will manufacture 2000 of these commemorative pieces. The chassis will have the Union Jack and a ‘50’ painted onto it. The device’s USB plug is retractable and fits cozily into the trunk of the miniature car body. Sporting an exterior that is an exact replication of the actual Cooper with transparent windows, rotatable wheels and illuminating headlights, the USB comes in capacities of 2GB to 8GB. Car enthusiasts are probably waiting eagerly for the launch of this device. The cost of the special edition pieces hasn't received any mention.

Sync with Google

Recently got a Samsung Omnia Pro for $0. It is running Windows Mobile 6.1 and was thinking of setting up my personal contact list and calendar to sync with the Handphone.

I was surprised to see that i need to buy an Office Outlook in order to organise my contact list and calendar. Microsoft used to include one end-user license for Windows Mobile user. So i decided to drop the idea of using Outlook and see if it can sync with Google Mail, Contact and Calendar.



Google have a Google Sync that can work with ActiveSync on Windows Mobile. It uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol to synchronize the data on your phone with your Google Account. Google Sync currently supports synchronization with your Gmail, main Google Calendar, and the contacts in your My Contacts group.

To set up Google Sync on your Windows Mobile device, please follow the steps below.

1. Open the Active Sync application on your device's home screen.
2. Click Set up your device to sync with it.

3. Enter m.google.com as the server address.
4. Ensure that the SSL option is selected.

5. Click Next.
6. Enter your full Google Account email address as the User name.
7. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
8. Leave the Domain field empty. If your device requires you to enter a domain name, enter google.

9. Click Next.
10. Check Contacts, Calendar, or Email, depending on which you'd like to sync. (Tasks is not supported and will lead to an error if checked.)
11. Click Finish.

You've now set up Google Sync for your Windows Mobile device.

12. Press the Sync softkey on the left to synchronize.

Make sure you have connected to your wireless network or USB to your PC(Internet via PC) before synchronizing if you do not want to use your GPRS.

Seagate first solid state drive

Pulsar, is Seagate first solid state drive (SSD). It is designed for enterprise blade and general server applications. It uses single-level cell (SLC) technology, delivers up to 200GB capacity, and is built in a 2.5-inch small form factor with a SATA interface.

It achieves a peak performance of up to 30,000 read IOPS and 25,000 write IOPS, 240MB/s sequential read and 200 MB/s sequential write. Its SLC-based design optimizes reliability and endurance and helps provide a .44% AFR rating with a 5-year limited warranty.

“The enterprise SSD market is now primed and well-positioned for growth from both a revenue and unit perspective, with Gartner estimating unit growth to double and sales to reach $1 billion for calendar year 2010,” said Joseph Unsworth, research director at Gartner.“Superior enterprise SSDs provide transformational capabilities when optimized in storage and server environments.”

Official Link: Pulsar™ Solid State Drives

Re-invent the plug

"The MacBook Air is the world's thinnest laptop ever. However, here in the UK, we still use the world's biggest three-pin plug," says Min-Kyu Choi, a Royal College of Art's graduate, who design a plug that folds down to the width of an Apple MacBook Air.

The plug is just 10mm wide when it is folded. To unfold it, the two live pins swivel 90 degrees, and the plastic surround folds back around the pins so the face of the plug looks the same as a standard UK plug. Choi also created a multi-plug adaptor, a compact standard plug sized unit with space for three folded plugs to slot in, as well as one that charges USB devices.

Choi picked an everyday product that most other designers find too mundane to dabble with and drastically improved it. This should make other designer start thinking again.

Related article:
- Min-Kyu Choi: Folding Plug System