The other issue I was facing while deciding was that my budget was limited. And in that budget hardly any ‘Good’ touch phone were available.

I contemplated many a phones, Samsung’s lates range of Android based touch phones, but then I don’t like and never trusted Samsung phones. I may be wrong, but that is what I always felt about Samsung phones. Other than this, I had also looked at HTC’s Windows based phones and Nokia’s Lumia. But rejected them soon as Windows’ Mango is quite new and I didn’t want to take  risk. And I love downloading apps and using them on my phone. And Windows Mango being a new entry, I wouldn’t have found many good apps for my phone.

Then last option I had was Apple – last because of it’s price quotient and not quality. So, I started contemplating iPhone 3GS, but that was too old. All my friends were against me buying that model (Hey thanks fellas for this!). One of my friend even expressed concern in this manner:

“Oh please! Don’t buy iPhone 3GS. I won’t be able to show it to MY friends if you’ll buy such an old model!”

Quite concerned. Eh!

Then I finally decided to get iPhone 4 and decided to stretch my budget a bit. I range a few numbers who were residing outside India, coz I didn’t want to spend filthy money buying an iPhone at Indian prices. So, what I found was Singapore was giving me the best deal. But the day my friend actually went to buy for me, he found out that iPhone 4 model is officially not available and I could get a grey-market-no-warranty piece for lesser than what it was.

And that moment was when I couldn’t stop myself. I stretched my voice and said -

iPhone 4S, it is! Yes!!

…and that ‘stretched’ my budget, too!

Finally I bought an iPhone 4S and now I am using it too. And I am totally LOVING IT!!

So, now I have a great gadget in my hand and I have already started browsing web about what all this machine can do and how to take care of this machine, I will be writing about it. I have already experience a few glitches (call it getting-adjusted-to-your-new-phone situations).

My posts will be more toward how to best use your phone, about apps and iStore, about problems you may face and their solutions, etc. So, stay tuned and visit this regularly.

Other than the launch date, there are a lot of blogs who are predicting about what will iPad3 have to offer to its owners. There are quite a few very interesting features technology analysts have predicted for iPad3. One blog has also claimed to have gotten the leaked images of iPad3 and it suggests that this device is going to be thicker and bigger than it’s earlier Avatar. Here are the images from the blog:

Image Source: MIC Gadget

 Though the image seems quite convincing, but my personal view is that the image might not be true. If you look at the ‘Screen Rotation Lock’ button in the image above, you would notice that the button for iPad3 seems a bit stretched vertically. My doubt about the image is that someone might have actually stretched the iPad2 image vertically and would have called it as iPad3 image. This doubt arose when I noticed that for iPad2, in the same image above, seems so normal and fine.

Other than thickness, there are also rumors doing rounds about the device to have a superior processor named A6. Recent rumors have also corrected this nam to A5X. This might also be true basis the features that are being expected from the newer Avatar.

Can Siri become part of iPad family? Why not!? A personal assistance feature first launched in iPhone 4S may very well become a part of iPad3. But this is the most silent discussion about iPad3, with only very few people talking about it.

So, if March’12 is the time for iPad3 to see the sunlight then better it be.

The more relevant your ‘password’ is to you, easier it is for any hacker to crack it. Using names, birth dates, etc. are the most not-suggested passwords. I have even seen portals which will not accept your personal details for passwords. They will, at the moment you are registering, inform you that you have used your personal details in password sections, which is not suggested.So, what passwords do other people around the globe use for protecting their accounts? ‘Password’ is the most commonly used and the worst password word of 2011. There is a software developed by SplashData which provides data management application, which released 2011′s worst 25 passwords list.

‘Password’ being the first in ranks! Even the word Passw0rd (notice the zero instead of letter O), is no good. It stand on 18th position. ‘qwerty’, ’123456′, ‘abc123′, etc. are other passwords that top the list, not necessarily in same order. Here is the list of top 25 passwords which are considered the worst:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Google India, HostGator and ICICI Bank have together started a new program, called India Get Online, wherein they are offering free .in domain and free hosting space. Here one can setup a website and run it for free for one year and later can decide to either get the space at a discounted price (has not yet been decided) or may shut the website down.The website will be maintained by HostGator. They also provide the ability to customize the look and feel of websites with pre-loaded templates and other tools that you one use.

But before you get started, the domain has to be available for you to get it registered.

Google will provide various add-ons such as Email, AdWords integration, analytics, etc. with the domain. Google is also providing free Rs. 2,500 free AdWords credit in this program.

“The initiative aims to break down the barriers that stop small businesses from getting online – by offering a quick, easy and free tool to set up and host a website. Our goal is to help 500,000 small medium businesses in India to get online in next three years through this program, with our partner HostGator,” – Rajan Anandan (MD & Vice President, Sales & Operations, Google India) mentioned on Google’s blog [from Economic Times].

So, now not everyone may want to take advantage of this promotional scheme, but that is not going to happen. To get oneself a free domain, one will have to provide either of Permanent Account Number (PAN), Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) or a Challan Identification Number (CIN). This will ensure 2 things – all registered users would be identifiable, just in case there is no misuse of the program. Second, only one website can be registered per individual.

• Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4.x)
• Honeycomb (version 3.x)
• Gingerbread (version 2.3)
• Froyo (version 2.2)
• Eclair (version 2.0 / 2.1)
• Donut (version 1.6)
• Cupcake (version 1.5)
• Android 1.1
• Android 1.0

Here are some features that you can activate from ‘Google Labs’. It is a small ‘Beaker’ shape that appears on the Top-right corner of your gmail page. I’ll start with the most important and the life-saving feature:

Undo Send: Have you ever felt that – “Oh blunder! I shouldn’t have sent that email.” If yes, then this is the feature you’l love the most. Many a times it happens that we send some emails in jiffy or in the wave of emotions and then later realize, we should not have done that. Fear not. Here is a feature that will save you from that embarrassment. It is called – “Undo Send”. But wait, it will not undo sending of an email which you sent last night. It only provides you a window of a few seconds, till which it can undo sending. After that , the emails cannot be unsent.

Wrong Recipient Detector:

How many times it has happened that you wanted to send an email to Amit Kumar, but by mistake you send it to Amit Sharma, or maybe another Amit Kumar? At least it has happened with my colleagues. they often send important emails to some other Mohit which were actually meant for me, and vice-a-versa.

Gmail comes to rescue here again. You can activate a feature called ‘Wrong Recipient Detector’, which based on your usage of email and trend of sending emails to particular recipients, can make out whether you are sending an email to correct person or not. There is another related feature which can actually recommend recipients for particular emails, again – based on your usage trends.

Forgotten Attachment: We all use Outlook in our offices and many a times it has happened that we send emails, but without attachments. Gmail provides another feature that can ascertain and can alert you if you forget to attach an attachment with an email. This feature can save you from embarrassment of sendin ‘empty’ emails. This is one feature, which even Outlook does not provide. I hope Gmail could provide something like this for Outlook too.

There is more to explore in Gmail’s Labs, but the above features were those which at least I use a lot and are quite useful.

Do you know anymore useful gmail features? Would you like to share your list of useful feature with us? Do leave a comment and let us know.

And, for girls – you must be wondering how to get those cool bracelets with such codes, so that you can share those with your boys. Right!?

Let me help you out. These codes are from the family of Bar Codes and are called Quick Response (QR) Codes, readable by only a dedicated barcode reader.

A normal sized QR can store up to 60 characters of data and can contain any information, such as email messages, SMS, simple messages, numbers, web links, etc. And as the number of characters increases, the size of QR Code also increases. Here are some basic guidelines about QR codes:

• Barcode size – Minimum 2cm x 2cm. At this size, a barcode can hold up to 60 characters. The barcode size increases as data contained within the barcode increases.
• White space surrounding the barcode – for best results, we suggest at least 4mm. of white space around the barcode. Need to illustrate this with graphics.
• Scanning distance – A 2cm x 2cm barcode can be scanned from 10cm away. To scan over further distances you will need a larger barcode.
• Display surface – For optimal results, it is recommended to display the barcode on a flat surface.
• Medium – barcodes can be displayed on a variety of mediums including newspapers, magazines, packaging, posters, plasma/LCD screens, T-shirts and business cards.

QR Codes can be used for as many purposes as normal bar codes can be. Auto industry is one, where it is extensively used to track parts. In geographic aspect, this technology has seen wide acceptance in South Korea and Japan, but very less in the West.

Here are some QR Codes for your fun. Encode them and let me know what message they hold.

Here is one:

Here goes another one:

Here, use this form to generate your own QR Codes and share your information with all you want. The below form is courtesy – Mobile-Barcodes.com website.

The device can also be worn on your wrists using a band (it is not quite clear whether the band would also be available for purchase with LiveView or not).

Basically it’s a micro display with remote control functionality, enabling you to get notifications from your phone or to control certain functionality in your phone. For example, this way you don’t have to take out your phone every time you want to change the track in the music player, or to read the latest a text message. ~Sony Ericsson

The device was released on 28th September. The company has not revealed it’s market price, but has revealed that the device will be available from 4th quarter onwards.

PS: For more details please refer to Sony Ericsson’s website