Technology Madness

Clutter free, colorful, twittified, binged and hiply modern blog styled new MSN.com

This morning, I found a surprise in my email box…… A new MSN.com is coming. (You can view a preview of the site here.)After having same layout for years, I guess it was over due to have a fresh look. Current page is bit crowded, lots of information in bit cumbersome way. However, new MSN.com looks very refreshing (as a side note: it seems –use of lots of color– is becoming a trend, first AOL used it to create invisible logo. See AOL home page –uses lots of colorful logos. Then recently Apple used very colorful logo during recent conference and now MSN.com is heading to use lots of fresh – refreshing colors on home page)

The new MSN is fresh looking, has lots of white space and very colorful. User can access social stuff –twitter and facebook, and hotmail-mail, search via bing from top and footer, nice looking butterfly kind of logo (yeah it looks like butterfly without center body of it—just sides of colorful wings)

However, msn.com would like you to stick with hotmail, very much unlike Yahoo and AOL. At the same time no promotion to Zune or completely dedicated to entertainment tab.

Overall, I would say – new msn.com is more of clean and hiply modern blog style design. what’s your opinion?

Lala.com land - happy and promising place to land

Recently one of my friend from Seattle recommended Lala.com, a site that you can listen to and purchase music (which you can load to any Mp3 music player including iPod, iphone, zune etc) Originally Lala.com was developed to do CD-trading but re-launched in October 2008 as a music retailer.

After one day of using Lala.com, I started liking it-a lot. And started believing, “there’s nothing you don’t do in a browser.” creation of Lala.com with seamless and fast music streaming is the prime example of finest piece of software. (BTW- in my opinion, iTunes is no where near any competition)

So here Lala.com works: You need to sign-up to listen music; Once you sign-in, you will get instant 50 song credit (1 credit=you can add songs (they called it as “web song”) to your play-list, they called it as “collection(s)”) Once you run out of credit; you can add “web song” to your “collection” use of 1 dime (1 song for 10 cents) Later, If you later decide to also buy (download) the MP3 (web song), the 10 cents you paid for the web song is credited towards the MP3. Buy/download songs run about .79 to .99. Lala is a great way to listen to an entire song before buying. (Or “try it (for cheap) before buy it (for reasonable price)”) All of the MP3s on Lala.com are DRM-free music downloads, and are compatible with iTunes and Windows Media Player.

Since all collection and purchases are attached to you account; you can log-in to Lala.com from Home, school, library and can access all “collections” from web without any issue. Lala.com provides full-featured mucis player on web that you generally would get from desktop application, like, iTunes or window media player.

“Lala May Have Just Built The Next Revolution In Digital Music. The company has the best streaming music product on the Internet today, and a business model that doesn’t burn cash… It’s the joy of using products like Lala that keeps me excited about startups.” - TechCrunch.com

So it boils down to this — Lala.com is faster (than desktop music player), cheaper (than iTunes), super intuitive (than iTunes and windows media payer), absolutely legal, and available from anywhere anytime from web. Lala is super fantastic.

Have you tried Lala? What did you think?

Maximize iphone 3G’s Battery Life With OS 3.0

I was excited about iPhone OS 3.0; no complaints so far but one thing I notice that my iPhone consumes more battery power that earlier and reduce live battery time. Personally battery life with 3.0 is not what I had hoped for; need to recharge the battery frequently than what I used to. Battery issue is not new for any gadgets; see what battery live your laptop is giving you.

With iPhone 3.0 release, Apple stated that “Depending on how they are configured, a few features may decrease your iPhone battery life.”

At the same time Apple gave some valuable suggestion to save battery and keep your battery life bit longer.

Here is a nice list of twelve battery saving ideas, courtesy of Apple:

Turn off 3G if you are not very speed freak.
Minimize use of location services.
Fetch new data less frequently.
Turn off push mail.
Auto-check fewer email accounts.
Minimize use of third-party applications.
Turn off Wi-Fi.
Turn off Bluetooth.
Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
Adjust brightness
Store and use the iPhone at room temperature
Turn off the music equalizer (EQ)
Lock Your iPhone

Via Apple.com

MapQuest 4 mobile 4 iPhone: Rich Mapping application for iPhone users

Today, Mapquest introduced Map application, for iPhone users, called MapQuest 4 mobile. Application is super user friendly and able to find just about anything with only one tap (one click.) Place Carousel allows finding hotels, gas stations, Grocery store, Bar etc with one tap. A traffic icon in carousel is ready for latest live traffic information for any location. MapQuest 4 mobile can search anything that you can search on mapquest.com website.

mapquest 4 iphone

MapQuest 4 mobile for iPhone is able to provide directions between any location ‘A’ and ‘B’ from North America. User can ask to avoid Toll free road, High ways in directions. Also, provides an option for shortest time or shortest distance while calculating route. Its very handy feature when you want to run fast or save some gas. Sometime it’s difficult to read while you are driving but this application can allow you to see each maneuver step in landscape mode. During route you can add other destination and make it multi-point destination route and adjust the order of destination the way you want to visit.

MapQuest 4 iPhone

The coolest part of this application is – it allows to retrieve your Saved maps and route which you saved on mapquest.com using you’re “My Places” account. Here’s how the My Places feature within MapQuest4Mobile works. If you haven’t already, create a free My Places account on MapQuest.com. Using the “Map” or “Directions” form, create a destination or route as you normally would, click the “Save” button instead of clicking “Print. Go to MapQuest 4 mobile for iPhone application and retrieve your Saved maps and route there. (Hey you already contributed something to save this world from Global warming by not printing maps and directions and saved tiny bit of tree)

Hitting “Find me” button finds your current location and avatar icon follows you on map as you travel. “Find Me” function utilizes iPhone GPS to plot your location on a map as well as display your position in relation to a route.

Fun aspects:
You can choose avatar icon from preloaded icons- cat, car, hand dog, battleship, ufo etc. User can also choose any photo taken via iPhone camera.

Requirement:
Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch + iPhone 2.1 Software Update

Availability and Price:
Wow, it’s FREE on Apple iTune store.

Video of Mapquest 4 mobile for iPhone:

To see the feature-by-feature YouTube video, click

Via MapQuestBlog and @MapQuest Twitter message and Readwriteweb.com and blumenthals.com

Search your iPhone – new built-in feature: Spotlight search

As we all know; Apple is coming out with new OS for iPhone, version 3.0. Apple has unveiled a few features aimed more at consumers, including copy and paste, stereo Bluetooth and spotlight search. (Search? you mean search - search)
How ironic it is– Apple is proudly announcing this as a prime feature where it suppose to be there from day one when they introduced iPhone. Don’t you think so?

Anyway, so there’s this thing called ’search’ which lets you search the content of all your emails metadata (not the text of email, just metadata, like, from, to, subject etc), contacts, calendars and anything in your iPod library.

How get a spotlight search?
(1) From Home (desktop) screen, flicking on right will bring up the new Spotlight search home screen. Start typing it, result will populate at the bottom. Tapping on search result will directly take you there or launch an application
(2) Assuming that you are at ‘Home’ screen, Click ‘Home’ button of your phone again. This leads to Spotlight search screen
(3) On ‘Home’ screen, just above below navigation bar, you will see magnifying glass icon; try to tap on it will lead to Spotlight search screen

Spotlight search

I am sure it’s must have feature for iPhone but wonder why it took so long to get here. Are we captive audience of Apple or what?

The new OS will be available “in the summer” (Prior to Sept 22?), and will be free to iPhone 3G and original iPhone owners. There will be a $9.95 cost to iPod touch owners.

Via [iPhoneFreak and Gizmodo]

Last minute notice from Apple to iPhone developers -All apps must be compatible with iPhone OS 3.0

All applications for iPhone must compatible with OS 3.0. As we all know Apple is preparing for new OS 3.0 for iPhone but today apple sent out am email to all developer community saying that they are now reviewing (and accepting) applications made with and for the iPhone OS 3.0. Also Apple is asking developers of all existing apps to verify that there app should work with OS 3.0 and there should not be compatibility issue. This is big news for all iPhone application developers and very short notice for them to get ready for OS 3.0. This email upsets may developers -see this, this and this

Here is a text of an email:

All apps must be compatible with iPhone OS 3.0

Millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers will move to iPhone OS 3.0 this summer. Beginning today, all submissions to the App Store will be reviewed on the latest beta of iPhone OS 3.0. If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved.

Existing apps in the App Store should already run on iPhone OS 3.0 without modification, but you should test your existing apps with iPhone OS 3.0 to ensure there are no compatibility issues. After iPhone OS 3.0 becomes available to customers, any app that is incompatible with iPhone OS 3.0 may be removed from the App Store.

Some important information on how to upgrade your iPhone OS to new 3.0:

1. Log in to developer.apple.com using your developer acount
2. Download new iPhone SDK for 3.0 and install
3. Download iTunes 8.2 and install (Must - in order to upgrade your iPhone with OS 3.0)
4. Download iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 or 4
5. Connect your Phone with iTunes and ‘Restore’ your Phone using “iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5″

Fine print warning: There is no way back, if you want to downgrade your OS in future. Its permanent change.

iPhone 3.0 upgrade email

Additional reading:
Breaking News: No new app submissions unless they run on OS 3.0

Google gunning for IE with Chrome

In 2008, Google chrome become aggressive in browser market, accomplished some OEM deals for Chrome browser. Currently Internet explorer commands approximately 70% of market, 20% is covered by Firefox and rest is shared between Chrome, Safari and others.

However, now, Google is in street, started fighting directly against IE. Since last few days, Google is putting “Install Google Chrome” button on top right corner of IE browser when you visit Google in Internet explorer and recommend installing Chrome. However, no chrome ads on Firefox though.

It’s now clear that Google wants you to live your life around Google in every possible way. In fact, I would love if Firefox and Chrome can both combine togather. Chromefire? FireChrome? Chromefox?

See latest Chrome advertizement:

How to Save your Kodak Gallery Photos for free(?)

Kodak Gallery (Ofoto) is an online photo sharing site where anyone can upload pictures for free. However, today I received an email from Kodak.com that if I don’t buy anything from them, like, order pictures or picture CD or anything, they will delete my pictures. I hate when company do malpractice to keep customer with them by any means. This might be a good business model for some thrift market but not for corporate like - kodak.com.  Unfortunately Kodak Gallery is a closed service and so there are no API or tool that will help you to move your photos from Kodak to other free services like Flickr or Picasa Web.       

Easter egg hunt with MapQuest

Do you remember last year when Google Maps featured funny Google egg: If you ask for directions from an address in London to an address in the USA the ever helpful “Get directions” tool gives some great tips on how to cross the Pacific Ocean. Ha ha… See picture.

Today MapQuest rolled out new (fun) element, ‘Easter events search’, to their new ‘On-map search’ tool. Clicking egg icon from search tool will display all local Easter Egg Hunt’s events MapQuest map.

According to MapQuest blog: With over 233 listings in over 80 cities across the country, finding that perfect compliment to your Easter Sunday is merely a click away.

And if you are traveling on Easter day, no worries, they have functionality to find just about anything along your traveling route including Easter Egg Roll events.

Happy hunting everyone!

Via [MapQuest Blog and @MapQuest Twitter message]

Earth hour day is here. Ideas in the Dark: March 28, 2009

Tomorrow (March 28,2009) is an earth hour day. People all over the world have been switching off lights for an hour to show concern at global warming. Earth Hour occurs at 8:30 pm on the last Saturday in March of every year. For Earth Hour 2009, 750 cities in 80 countries and counting have pledged to participate. Clearly the symbolic act of turning off our lights to show concern for our environment resonates deeply with people across the globe. Yet turning off our lights for one hour a year does not even put a dent in our energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. What is needed is a real, sustained change in the way that we live our life.

What I can do about it?

You can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Also, turn off your (non-emergency) home lights at 8.PM for 1 hour.

Suggestion to Google.com/Yahoo.com/AOL.com/Live.com:

Google.com/AOL.com or such major traffic website should blackout their home page everyday around 5.00 PM (office leaving time) for few minutes to remind people to turn off their office light and computer before they go home. Small things make a big difference.

Earth hour day video:

More information:

Climate Savers Computing Initiative
Earth Hour
Earth hour day wikipedia.org page
Follow Earth day Twitter message
WWF earth day information
Earth day Canada
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Earth Hour video
Take earth hour to earth day challenge

Earth Hour Global Social Media Profiles:
YouTube
MySpace
Twitter
Facebook Group
Facebook Fan Page
Flickr Fan Page
Bebo

Via [Official Google Blog: An hour for the Earth and Earth hour comes to America and Yahoo earth hour day news]