and funnily enough, you will have a hard time doing this, because Apple just dint want this application to go within a subfolder in the springboard.

fortunately after some playing around, I was able to put the stubborn icon where it belonged.

The trick is you gotta combine two fresh icons to make a new folder, and while the folder is in process for creation, drag the newsstand icon there. Voilaa. The speed at which you do is the main trick.

You may watch the video below or try yourself.

You changed the way I live my life.

Some call me Apple fan, some call me Apple freak. I know I am.

You revolutionized the way world lives now. You revolutionized how we think now.

I din’t get the chance to meet you or see you in person, but you will be remembered when I use my Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, iPhone, Nano, Shuffle, aTV, Air, iPad, Capsule.

Me and a lot of my friends read your bio over and over, and want to be like you.

R.I.P.

iSad

Even to have the refund amount back, I had to call the electronic distributor and raise an issue with them for the type of vendors they sell software of. Took me two weeks to get the transaction refunded.

Flaws:

1. Cannot read EDB files

2. Support is not at all 24×7

3. No Phone numbers

4. Only one support email highlighted

5. Live Chat never goes online

6. No response to refund requests.

So please avoid this.

Prevx is defined as a virus and malware protection tool which works well with desktop and server based systems. My own installation was in fact just a test as one of my friends introduced to me about it and my curiosity began. Downloaded the trial and started my test.

Amazingly, the installation was under 1-minute and the first scan was for about 30 minutes. Surprisingly the subsequent scans were much shorter lasting just 2-minutes. Why and how is this possible, was completely unknown to my limited knowledge of so-called next generation protection tools.

On digging further, and analysing files on my machine, I judged out that during the first scan, Prevx builds a database of files which could be harmful or prone to attacks. It then builds a hash, and on every subsequent scans, it checks to see if the hash was modified. Once modified, very smartly it scans the filename online from its database and compares. It reports very clearly the infected filename, along with the infection. One further extending its ability, it allows the user to check the status of the infection and other possible filenames from the community database.

All I can say, is one security program is not enough. If I uninstall my NOD32, Prevx alone is definitely not the key and so is the case vice versa.

I highly recommend the trial, and I will not be surprised if you buy it too.

Infact Governments started thinking whether the gasoline pumps will remain functional or stop and hospitals were planning to check if there would be any medical equipment failure.

Nothing major happened as interdependency did not exist in those days on a scale like how we all like it now.

Whereas, in today’s generation, if our pets get out of our control and start going to our neighbourhoods, we would love to just pull out our mobile device and start the “Pet Tracker” program to track the various location of our pets. If I have a task assigned for feeding my pet, my whole house should alter in sync with all gadgets telling me it’s feeding time. The dependability has grown so much, that something somewhere goes wrong, the whole world could start crashing and coming down.

Just imagine the same, when USA DoD and Hospitals mentions, they start using iPads for military training and easier patient management. The Apple 2011 Alarm Bug could be the beginning wake up call to start preparation for even the more worst “Failure of such devices”. I would call this an Apple iOS bug as all devices with this were affected, which literally puts almost every mobile/tablet device by Apple updated to this system glitchy. For hell sake, I wasn’t able to reach office on time because of the same bug. With over 100 million units of Apple Mobiles, iTouch and iPads sold, the bug was a shocking surprise for those who faced it. And for those who din’t, must have ridiculed Apple and it’s developing team.

Such errors in development are not expected to exist, but it is only until when such errors turn out to be bugs in real life. With “i”Devices being used in many applications, personally and professionally, it is high time people start realising the mistake of depending on one system all time.

Well fortunately those details can now be seen right in front of your eyes, every time. The magical application is Tclock2. It comes with a whole variety of customizable options which Microsoft should have included while updating their operating systems like custom date formats, time syncing, alarm and some other tweaks.

Tclock2 currently is not under development anymore, but it works flawlessly even on Vista. To grab your copy you can download from author’s website at http://shii.org/tclock/

To accomplish some basic changes in time formats, go to Control Panel -> Regional Options ->Additional Settings -> Date.

To get full month name displayed use MMMM or MMM for its shorter counterpart (January, Jan). You can even use dddd for day of the week or ddd for its shorter version (Tuesday, Tue).

Many cheap ones are locally available with support for 4 devices. This adds a limitation for having more devices linked and would ultimately cause the same situation again with more techie gadgets available in market.

I found an amazing way out. Definitely not the easy one on pockets, but so far the price has been paid for fairly. I have replaced 7 remotes in my home, with the three extra for my Sony Digital Frame and two Air Conditioning Units.

The Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote is a great tool so far. The programming software is fabulous and automatically lets you control the particular devices based on the activity selected. So far it has been able to control every device at my home. It’s learning ability can be used to program infrared controls for remotes which the Logitech Software cannot search for in its database. It comes with its own docking charger. The battery lasts for around 4-5 days. This can be extended with back lit brightness and display-light time-out options. However, one thing which may not suit really is the placement of the numeric buttons on the remote. With the remote being long, it is not very pleasant to press the numeric buttons unless you have a very good grip on the remote.

I opted for a refurbished model, sold at less then half the price on CompUSA for 120 USD compared to the original 250 USD.

This definitely raises a concern for blackberry users in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, where similar positive feedback was first shown by RIM. Some countries have mentioned that such negotiation talks were going on since 2007 and 2008. If the “technically impossible” is now a reason, definitely it would have been the same in the past. I believe both parties, RIM and Governments, have tried to play smart and waited for each other’s turn waiting who will give up first.

Looking at this, RIM definitely holds a much stronger position if it does not really care of losing a total of 3-4m users in these regions against its 40+ m users across the globe. As it is Blackberry faces a very strong competition in India where total mobile subscribers are 600m+ of which Blackberry users a mere 1m+. Penetrating more here means a tough battle which I believe RIM is ready to loose. In markets like Indonesia which is predicted to be one of the largest mobile markets after India and China, blackberry sales were 800% higher last year compared to iphone at just 200%.

The current blackberry users however have no say in this corporate/government battle. ISPs on the other hand are more succumbed to such events because any decision to stop the blackberry service could mean the consumer completely giving up on the service unless a very economic way of pushing alternative ways is suggested.  This will affect corporate users locally and those visiting these regions. At least for some, a reason like “My Blackberry does not work”, will be considered more rationally.

The objective is to catapult the birds, aim them and destroy the pigs in front which have ravished the life of the farm birds. I must confess that the game really gets your hand aching especially when lying down and trying the catapult the birds.

The game is also available on the Ovi Store for Nokias. The App Store does have a free version called the Angry Birds Lite which has much lesser levels and fewer birds to play with.

One thing which definitely had not changed until recently was connecting using the same account username and password from multiple locations. Someone subscribed to a lower speed would be able to get much higher speeds by using some one else’s account subscribed for a higher speed. Using dual account logins at different places was sometimes also essential to determine any gateway or line-related issues to troubleshoot easier.

Some took advantage of this. Etisalat had absolutely no way to track this until I switched on my other Linksys ADSL Gateway in my room. The reason i got this error/notice was because I already had my other Linksys in my hall switched on and connected to the Internet.

Finally Etisalat, came up with a detection mechanism to monitor account sharing and restrict such activity.

The ISPs have even taken an initiative to send SMS messages to their Blackberry clients of the upcoming suspension of the service and that an alternative solution will be provided soon.

One point I cannot understand is , what alternatives could be possible keeping the same device and service. Any e-mail account which needs to be added needs the respective service book. If the main reason for TRA to declare the suspension is for not being able to monitor chat logs and email communication then the whole device becomes useless and the service pointless.

Recently Chinese seem to have put enough pressure on parent company Research in Motion that a monitoring service is in the phase. Soon India is demanding one and very soon UAE wants one. RIM uses a very sophisticated encryption algorithm which limits the telecom operators to crack and read open the communication raising national security concerns.

All of this is pressure to RIM especially since their market share has dropped from 55% to 41% in Q1 2010. iPhone is definitely picking up and with providers giving full support for both on their networks gives RIM another thought to think about.

The month of August is going to be crazy here in Dubai and other Emirates to determine any feasible solutions. Throwing blackberries and getting iPhones could mean some more number crunching work for the business professionals and deploying Blackberry-alternative solutions for IT pros could mean more sleepless nights.

It can be categorized as fast food, much tastier than a regular McDonalds burger. The other varieties on the menu are a treat as well.

The store opened with two days of trial rounds and being one of the fans of Tibbs I can say they have done a good job.

Getting back to the router; with this new eLife Package it was necessary to upgrade the current DSL modem to a broadband router. Those of us who bought a modem/router from Etisalat initially were gifted with new Aztech HW550-3G on this eLife Upgrade. Those unfortunate had to shell out extra bucks on a broadband router and stock their older DSL types.

I went ahead and bought myself a Linksys WRT160n promising faster speeds, longer range. Installing this was no hassle. But I always found something missing in the router. With my previous experience of open source firmware, I got it updated to DD-WRT.

DD-WRT is an open-source firmware for multitude brands of routers and types. On accessing the interface, I realized my router was on steroids. One feature that I relly love is the multi-SSID broadcast. I have a primary SSID which is hidden and a public-protected SSID for which i keep on changing the password. This gives me control on wi-fi devices my friends use at my place without destroying/interrupting my own personal wi-fi zone.

He was a jovial person. Loved playing UNO. We used to share laughs, jokes, and our Pune experiences with each other. Being BE graduates we ended sharing quite some thoughts on technology too.

I was in Hyderabad during the bombings and heard of Vikas from one of his aunties. He was hospitalized and got updates from his aunty who rushed to Pune.

I really am saddened by his loss.

This will definitely put some pressure on many classes of the Indian society. Cathay is known for its superior class of service compared to its competitors. This is evident right from the moment you stand in queue for check-in all the way until the end of the journey. The snacks and food served is exceptional and of much better taste and quality compared to Emirates.

On accepting both prompts, a Sync Contacts screen shows options to enable syncing and replace photos. The alert I rcvd on enabling the Syncing kinda confused me initially. It rather mentions a warning more than a message whether I am ready to start the sync and that my friends should not be having a problem. Well, it’s my phone, my profile, I get to use it how i want it.

It first starts downloading all the picture information it finds on your profile. Once it finishes that, It tries to sync the contacts and match them in batches. It took almost 8 minutes for running the initial sync. So if you have around 600 friends, pl accept delays of at least 15 minutes. Avoid this initial setup over your data plan, as it could be frustratingly slow and a heavy download.

Best of all, It tries to match, email address or phone number and puts the image right in your contact info’s details. It also does put link to the particular conatct’s profile page right in the home page address of your contact.

Sadly to say, as yet, there is no manual syncing option. Well, might happen in another update.

It is a great product provided you are ready to have it hacked(cracked) to playback XViD movies and have third-party applications installed. I used a neat installer called aTVFlash. It does come at a price, and must say it is a complete package bundled with everything you need. It makes running Google Earth possible, gives you bluetooth support, a media center application and ability to mount network shares.

I have a PC, dedicated for my downloads, and the AppleTV just plays on along pretty well. My dad has got used to XBMC, a media center application, and plays Hindi movies, and watches movie trailers without bothering me much.

Update (7 Jul, 2010): Having it for now almost 8 months, I haven’t been able to make Bluetooth work as yet, the built-in remote just works fine. Did I mention that you could also use any other remote to work with Apple TV. It has a learning system where it catches the infrared signals and stores them in its memory. Lucky for me, I use my home theatre’s remote which has multiple modes to operate.

One thing to keep in mind is that the AppleTV is an under-powered Mini. Which means playing 1080p movies is a partial fantasy. They do play, but since the processor is not able to deocde so much data on the fly, the frames skip and you have a crisp-clear movie with bouncing frames.

Even H264 and x264 encoded movies skip a lot of frames. aTVFlash comes with its own version of the codec which can be disabled or enabled. But on these codecs and resolution the Apple TV just canot cope up. The max resolution that I have been able to work with flawlessly is 720p with XViD encoding video and AC3 sound. Anything beyond this and you have a frame skipper.

Thing that work (after my aTVFlash):

• XViD @ 720p
• AC3
• SSH
• FTP
• VNC Remote Control
• External USB Storage
• AC3 Passthrough
• iTunes Syncing/Sharing
• XBMC
• Stream from DVD

Things I could not make work:

• Bluetooth
• AFP
• Sapphire
• x264/h264

I hope the documentation of aTVFlash becomes more extensive. Any case, kudos to the aTVFlash Team for their continued development on the product.

Subscribing to their services, enters you into a plethora of random irritations that you cannot just get out of them. Like :

1. Internet Passwords getting reset automatically
2. GPRS going down suddenly
3. Blackberry Services going down
4. Rolling out spying packages saying these are network upgrades for better connectivity
5. SIM cards not re-issued correctly
6. Bill Payments not handled correctly, etc.

Instead of managing these issues, and rectifying the recovery time, they still manage to bombard their customers with marketing SMSes to their more than 94m innocent souls.

The marketing messages are sent across as SMS messages on device handsets. Messages include options for subscribing to special services at discounted rates, blackberry devices going for cheap prices, e-vision packages offering new channels, Special rates for calling cards to Pakistan and India, reduced prices during EID, special prices during Ramada, Diwali, Onam, etc. WHO CARES.

These messages have no fixed timing for delivery. Sometimes they reach a day late, sometimes momements before the offer expires, and sometimes during sleeping hours. This has not improved and got even more worse with Etisalat offering newer blackberries and to cause even more trouble the iPhone series of handsets.

It has been fun so far. My second day as yet. Have to catch up with those who have been using it for years now.

The base technology has remained the same. No doubt. It is the software which has made a lot of difference. I remember using the 2G 1.1.2 OTB version, which i sold off the very next day as I realized the crack was not out yet.

I hope to bring this investment to some judgement.

- A proud apple fan

The other change i realized was while connecting to one of our servers remotely. Normally, I would use the Remote Desktop Client with the /console option (“mstsc /console”). Today when i used this, the session which showed up was as if I had freshly logged into the system. It was chaotic, as some processes started again, and some crashed. Doing a little bit of digging, I came to know MSFT had changed the /console switch option and now they referred to it as /admin. It does sound logical, but irrelevant especially if they still call it the console session.

To avoid such issues, you could either avoid the optional update for the new Terminal Service Client 6, or start programming your brains to use the “mstsc /admin” option to log into the Console session.

This time they have finally agreed to provide some sort of leverage as interest for the amount of money which has been blocked so far by them since day one of the pre-booking. The final hand over requires me to personally go and visit the office to receive the keys.

My comment would be, we used to think Indian developers were not responsible enough. There always was a negative thought when it was about buying property in India, but so has become the case with international developers like EMAAR of such massive scale. Apart from such, the website still shows completion as 2008.

Literally two men, in their early 30′s facing the side wall of a gas station, next to Hakaya Cafe in Bur Dubai, were peeing as if they have done it a million times already. The small alley links to a residential area and is quite busy even after a few hours into the night. I was going back home after i parked my car and was horrid to see them. I don’t blame them completely, as Dubai does not even have any public toilets for miles across any road.

Update : Looks like I am not the only one who realized this. Have a read at one of these articles from GN.

According to GulfNews on one of the articles posted there, the problem occurred in one of their international carriers. Imagine this, One International Carrier and the whole country gets succumbed. This could become a new step towards terrorism.

The problem is in the infancy of the service out here. In US, Europe the service has existed for donkey years and has made it through some perfections. The service even if it has a problem goes very unnoticed due to a larger base and smaller downtimes, and a much more reliable infrastruture.

For the UAE, I am sure it is the whole opposite. Whenever Etisalat screws up the Blackberry service, instead of hearing about Saddam Hussain’ family, an article  about Etisalat’s Blackberry Service gets printed in the headlines. The service disruption is now in its second day cycle. I just hope the many users who use it are not planning a holiday to Umm al-Quwain.

My most favorite so far and yet is the 98Lite software existing since 8 years about now. Over the years the program evolved and is now compatible with Windows 2000 and the latest XP with SP3. 98Lite for Windows 98 was a overwhelmer since it let one reduce the size of the installation to almost 50MB. My experience was till 75MB. In the early days this was important as hard drives were limited to 4GB, 8GB or 16GB and 200MB reduction would mean a lot.

Over the years tradition has continued and smaller systems for XP, Vista and even 7 have sprung up. For XP the best being available is by a group call eXperience with a small 80MB foot print and for 7 around 700MB by the same group.

These are definitely not suitable for production environments where system stability, security be a concern. But for a normal and even a veteran home user it suits the exact purpose. I use MicroXP by eXperience on my BootCamp partition both from VMWare Fusion and native boot. The performance is a killer with certain limits. No additional user can be created, no BT support, etc. For loading application like Office, Opera, firefox, and many others it is a flawless, more desirable, less hungry OS.

This may be sometimes discomforting for my friend who reading it, as i never control myself to what i write. then one of my other friends just told me there are some privacy settings within the option which let you decide which information should go public and which not in an event a similar post lands up on my wall.

I go to Privacy Settings and my god. I can literally control everything I need. My wall, my posts, my photos, my profile information, my profiles updates, comments and updates, etc. On testing it out, I realized I could also restrict my photos to be only seen by a selected few friends. This intuitive design lets you control every aspect of your account and lets you decide what information you may wish to make available to the public domain.

The screen did not indicate any error, and there was absolutely no clue of what went wrong in the registration process. Even on logging on i realized, a blank screen is returned with no hint of a bad username or a wrong password.

On further analysis and taking print screens, it shows the following image for a split second which gets redirected to a blank page to the below URL link.

https://www.rta.ae/wpsv5/wps/portal?TamErrorMessage=HPDIA0200W%20%20%20Authentication%20failed.%20You%20have%20used%20an%20invalid%20user%20name,%20password%20or%20client%20certificate.&SwitchToLatestLocale=true