32 Hours + £4,000 = iPhone 4 for "Lee"

A Dubai-based business consultant who flew to London to get the new iPhone 4 has described the trip as being "absolutely worth it".

Alex Lee, 27, spent over 32 hours at the head of the line outside Apple's flagship store on London's Regent Street last week. But he had to wait as Apple gave pre-order customers priority.

Lee, who specially rearranged his flight home to Canada via London, purchased four iPhone 4s in the UK taking the total cost of his trip to over £4,000 (Dh22,123).

He said: "Everybody has a passion and mine is meeting people from around the world. I am a very social person and these launches break down barriers between cultures. Everybody in the line has something in common so it is very easy to make friends. I also made some great business contacts.

"Furthermore, I really like the product. It is superior to every other phone on the market including previous generation iPhones. The new model features video conferencing so I can use the camera to speak to people all over the world."

Lee, who was accompanied by his sister, has attended over ten Apple product launches and says the camaraderie is always fantastic.

"The atmosphere in the queue was great; people kept your place if you had to go to the bathroom and everybody took turns to buy food and drink. We also had free Wi-fi internet access courtesy of Apple. The weather in London was ok but coming from the heat of Dubai it still felt pretty cool and damp in the evenings," Lee said.

Lee was not too despondent at failing to be the first person to get hold of the new iPhone 4 despite being first in line. However, he has contacted Apple CEO Steve Jobs about the incident.

Internet rumors:
He said: "I contacted the Apple store in the UK to pre-order an iPhone 4 but their systems were down so they said they would call me. However, they never got back in touch and I began to hear rumours on the internet that Apple was cancelling some pre-orders. I decided the best course of action was to fly to London and join the queue.

"An Apple public relations executive in London said I would not have a problem as I was first in line. But as the launch time moved closer she began to divide the queue into those who had pre-orders and those who did not. Apple fans are a tight knit community and people were telling her that I was the first in line; there was a bit of controversy.

"At one point a man from Norway just came and sat in front of me; let's just say he was quickly removed by some of the people waiting behind. The first guy to get his hands on the iPhone 4 had only waited half the time I had been there.

"He actually felt really bad about the way things had worked out and he told me he did not know what had happened. I have already emailed Steve Jobs and I have had tonnes of sympathy on Twitter."

Thanks: Gulfnews

Microsoft Foresaw but still missed the IPad!

The technology icon stands before a crowd, holding in his hands a prototype that embodies his vision for the future of computing. It's a touch-screen tablet that is thinner than a magazine, has all-day battery life, and sells for less than $800.


But the icon wasn't Steve Jobs and the tablet wasn't the iPad. It was Bill Gates, speaking in 2005 to a crowd of Windows hardware makers in Seattle. The technology enabling such a device was still a few years off, Gates said, but it was time to start working toward that vision.


A year later, Microsoft detailed Project Origami, an effort to commercialize Gates' vision by adding a touch interface on top of Windows XP. Yet, the technology still hadn't caught up with the vision


A few devices, like Samsung's Q1 eventually found their way to the market, but they were a bust, offering terrible battery life and costing more than $1,000. Within a year, Microsoft and the partners had largely abandoned the effort.
Fast forward four years and the Gates tablet vision is a reality, thanks to Apple. Despite a decade spent trying to sell Windows-based tablets and the prescience to see the hardware trends that would make it possible for a device like the iPad to exist, Microsoft has thus far missed the boat..


As Microsoft continues to struggle with new computing form factors such as smartphones and tablets, it might benefit from taking a look back at Origami. How exactly did Microsoft have such a keen grasp on the future and still let opportunity slip through its fingers?


Thanks:  cnet news

The age of social networking!

A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such ase-mail and instant messaging. Although online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.


But how many of us are aware of the history of this service. Probably none of us. Let us get into this.


The notion that individual computers linked electronically could form the basis of computer-mediated social interaction and networking was suggested early on. There were many early efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication, including Usenet,ARPANET, LISTSERV, bulletin board services (BBS) and EIES: Murray Turoff's server-based Electronic Information Exchange Service (Turoff and Hiltz, 1978, 1993). The Information Routing Group developed a schema about how the proto-Internet might support this.


Early social networking websites started in the form of generalized online communities such as The WELL (1985), Theglobe.com (1994), Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995). These early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and share personal information and ideas around any topics via personal homepage publishing tools which was a precursor to the blogging phenomenon. Some communities took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. These sites included Classmates.com (1995), focusing on ties with former school mates, and SixDegrees.com (1997), focusing on indirect ties.


But now this service has grown into a vast subject or division of the online services. And that is how we started socially networked. 

Complaints faster than IPhone 4!

Though the iPhone 4 is flying off store shelves, the just-released device is already gathering complaints from early buyers.

Apple's latest phone hit stores Thursday to lines of people--some who were waiting 6 hours to buy one. But almost as soon as the device arrived on the doorsteps of customers who placed early preorders came reports of reception problems, discolored spots on the screen, easily scratched exteriors, and issues with third-party accessory connections.
(Image credit: Gizmodo)

The most prominent complaint on Thursday is customers noticing that touching the seams of the antenna band that runs around the iPhone 4--particularly when holding the iPhone 4 in their bare left hand--interrupts reception, slowly causing the phone to lose its signal.

Some iPhone 4 owners may find they strangle 3G reception after a minute or so if their hands are positioned touching the bottom bar and the side bar of the phone. Others are having trouble re-creating the problem, but it appears to vary by device, person, and location.

Boy Genius Report posted a YouTube videoThursday afternoon that showed the problem might be software-related. The person who posted the video was able to re-create the signal loss while gripping an iPhone 3G upgraded to iOS 4.

Apple has not responded to requests for comment. The problems are not yet over. The problems are faced even on the simplest module- Bluetooth.

Apple Support Says iPhone 4 Yellow Tint Problem Is due to the "Residue From Manufacturing" (whatever they say, problems are always problems)

There is a bunch of problems arising. For the detailed problems list visit: www.gizmodo.com

Tips to increase blog traffic- from my experience!

Hi friends,

Today I am going to share some tips to increase your blog traffic and that too from my experience.

1. Write well and write often:
Frequently updating your blog plays an important role in your blog's traffic. Even if you dont have anything to publish frequently, just find something and that must not break your blog's quality. Quality and Quantity is equally important.

2. Submit your blog to almost all the search engines:
Whenever you submit your blog to a search engine, never look its reputation. Even a single click makes a difference. Submit as many as search engines you can. For this you can take the help of a search engine submitter. For example: http://www.freewebsubmission.com/

3. Promote comments:
Comments are often the simplest tool to increase your blog's traffic. Always respond to the comments. Even if it is criticism, reply with a pleasant mind. Always reply the comments with a thanks which makes the reader to comment again.

4. Syndicate your Blog's content with an RSS feed:
Creating a feed of the content of your blog plays a major role in your blog's development. Never leave it undone. Always finish this step first of all. Feed-Burner (from google) is always preferred.

5. Tag your posts:
Tagging the post is another important step. Tag your posts with unique and relevant key words so that the search engines must recognize them.


6. Register with as many as blogger communities you can: 
Blogger communities are now very common. They are many blogger communities offering free services. Always register with them and login at least once a day. Keep interacting with other bloggers and offer link exchanges. Blogarama, Blog Catalog, Indiblogger and Xanga are a few to name.

7. Register in link exchanging sites:
Register with almost all the link exchanging sites. Be careful not to register with auto traffic sites as they reduce Alexa rank a lot. Link exchanging sites send genuine traffic to your blog. Linkrefferal  is one of the best link exchanging sites.

And you must understand that getting traffic is not an easy job. It requires much time and attention.  Sometimes it becomes irritating that you dont get any traffic. But that is just a temporary phenomenon. Be optimistic, keep blogging and one day  the blogosphere will recognize you. These are just tips from my experience of blogging for last 3-4 years.

Feel free to share your ideas and views through comments.

Brain or Mobile, You can decide!

There is now a considerable body of evidence proving that microwave radiation from mobile phones and cordless phones (especially mobile phones) causes brain tumors, disturbed brain function and other health disturbances.

The reason is that their microwave radiation has harmful effects at intensity levels far below the values declared as safe.Present safety norms have no tenable scientific support and must be updated, now that it is confirmed by many reliable sources of evidence that they permit far too strong radiation.

People should be very restrictive with using mobile phones as there is a significant body of compelling scientific evidence indicating serious hazards from their usage. Therefore, we advice you to reduce the usage to very few and brief calls. People below 20 should only have mobile phones that allow SMS messages only, but no talking, because the risks are far higher in young people.

Further buildup of the mobile phone net must be stopped. Steadily increasing evidence indicates that it is too harmful to be acceptable for common usage. Moreover, it has been repeatedly confirmed that the radiation from base stations is harmful to health. There are many evidences that mobile phone bases and phones cause a lot of diseases. They include tumor, brain cancer, genetic damage and other health problems.



In a village in India, I have heard that all the bean plants were decayed after a mobile tower was placed in that area. The truth behind is that, all are aware of its negative sides but are not publishing it because of the giants behind all these. If the results come out, I think most of the telecommunication companies and mobile phone producers will be destroyed. The severeness of this issue is not as small as what you think. The impact will be very high. The existence of the human race itself is questioned. I am not very much aware on this issue. Sorry for that.

Some Tips:
Use less than 2 hours a day.
Start sending messages instead of voice calls.
Use only if unavoidable.
Using headphones or earphones reduces the impact.
So please stay away from using it always.

3D poised to hit gamers later this year

Sony, Nintendo battling it out to get games out in the new format, but you may not need glasses for Nintendo.

After taking over the big screen, 3-D is poised to hit the small screen via video games.

Sony Corporation and Nintendo Company presented duelling versions of 3-D gaming on Tuesday at the opening of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, where attendance was expected to reach 45,000.

Both companies are investing heavily in 3-D video game technology to drive the next wave of consumer spending in an industry that generates roughly $45 billion (Dh165.2 billion) in sales worldwide. Sony showed off a number of game titles it hopes will prompt players to don glasses and enter the third dimension, including Gran Turismo 5, a much-anticipated racing game debuting on November 2, and Killzone 3, an adrenaline-soaked shooting game that is due out in February.

New technology

The 3DS, unlike Sony's 3-D games, does not require glasses, an advantage that Nintendo hammered home at its Tuesday news conference at the Nokia Theatre. "Man! Those glasses!" Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime exclaimed in mock horror. In an effect similar to lenticular images, the Nintendo 3DS projects an illusion of three dimensions on its 3.5-inch screen. The result is a picture comparable to 3-D with glasses.

The 3DS is similar to the current DS console, except that the top 3.5-inch screen will display 3-D images while the bottom, slightly larger display is a touch screen. Equipped with three cameras (two on the outside casing), the DS lets players take 3-D pictures and share them with other 3DS owners via a Wi-Fi internet connection. A slider lets viewers adjust the extent of the 3-D effect, including the ability to turn off the 3-D feature entirely.

Data Recovery is Nothing but something!

Hi friends,
I think most of you are familiar with Data Recovery. Often it is very expensive to get this simple system done. In UAE, where I live it costs about 75-100 Dhs (750-1000 Rs). As you all know it is quiet expensive for a normal person who uses this service to get back just some less important files or folders. 


Recovering data from physically-damaged hardware can involve multiple techniques. Some damage can be repaired by replacing parts in the hard disk. This alone may make the disk usable, but there may still be logical damage. A specialized disk-imaging procedure is used to recover every readable bit from the surface. Once this image is acquired and saved on a reliable medium, the image can be safely analysed for logical damage and will possibly allow for much of the original file system to be reconstructed. But if it is a physically damaged hardware it is quiet expensive. 


There are many softwares available in the market. These softwares are not very expensive but obviously costs little. Stellar Data Recovery (shareware), Windows Data Recover (shareware) are some of the examples. 


Hope you got an outline of this service.....

Firefox add-on encrypts sessions with Facebook, Twitter

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor Project have released a public beta of a new Firefox extension that lets people encrypt their communications with Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

The HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension was inspired byGoogle's encrypted Web search option, the EFF said in announcing the tool on Thursday.

In addition to Facebook and Twitter, the Web sites that the software works on are Google Search, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Washington Post, PayPal, EFF, Tor, and Ixquick.

The tool works by creating an HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) connection to the sites. But even if "https" is used, unless the address bar is colored and an unbroken lock icon is displayed in the bottom right corner, the page is not completely encrypted, EFF says.

Our colleagues over at ZDNet's Zero Day blog point out that using HTTPS doesn't hide a computer's IP address and users are still susceptible to tracking from broken SSL sessions displaying unencrypted third-party content.

"Forcing a full session on a popular social-networking service such as Facebook for instance, without taking into consideration the fact that SSL would not magically make all the personally identifiable information, including your IP, disappear, is wrong," writes Dancho Danchev on the Zero Day blog. "Full-session SSL, in combination with tools such as Vanish, next to Tor-like/VPN based anonymity network, are great for a fresh start."

Thanks: cnet.com

Blog4Info is 2 Years Old!

Thank you for the support you gave me throughout these years. 

The day blog4info was launched:

Blog4Info was launched on June 15th 2008. The day I started conquering my dreams. Blog4Info had an Alexa rank of 4,886,299 when we launched this site. Currently blog4info has an Alexa rank of 1,918,375

which has increased at a very high rate. Within the last 2 Years we have posted about 177 posts. 

On the 2nd Birthday of Blog4Info, once again I thank you all for the whole hearted support and 

guidance which you readers gave me.

Thanks a lot. And please keep supporting me.

What if the Internet giants collapse?

Hi friends,
Today I am onto an interesting discussion. The subject is "What if the Internet giants are collapsed?"!
As you all know we the 'coach potatoes' are immensely dependent on the Internet. Imagine that one day all these sites are closed or they stop their services? If the Internet giants close all their services at once, what would be the impact. Most of the businesses in this century are completely or partially dependent on the INTERNET!

On a morning when you wake up you see that all the services provided by Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are stopped (for an example)! Your emails, personal data, online file storage and much more are interrupted. How would you react? Its unimaginable! This shows the intensity of our dependence on such services. There are people who depend the Internet even for food, which is one of the basic necessities. The world would be totally struck if this destruction happens!

I did not mean that this would happen, but it can happen at any point of time. It is not a magical system. It is just another face of technology! I have posted this post to change ourselves from the over dependence on such technologies.

In the earlier times people had a habit of reading books for getting information, but now it has all changed. Even if a bubble gum is stuck on our hair, we surf the Internet for getting rid of it, but in the past the elder ones had some common remedies for all this. We should understand that every invention and technology has its own advantages and disadvantages. Surfing the Internet saves a lot of time, I agree but we should not go away from some of the basic qualities of man.

Let us dream for a practical world!

Please share your thoughts through comments!

Watch Fifa World Cup Live Online Free

Hi friends,

I have been searching for a site to watch Fifa World Cup 2010 live online for free and at last I have found one! I have gone through different sites and forums searching for a site or software. But I failed in all the places. There were many links but none of them were genuine. Especially in a country like UAE where I am residing, it is very expensive to watch fifa world cup.

The site is http://www.myp2p.eu . Most of you may be familiar with site as it is one of the leading peer to peer video sharing site. I hope that this site works fine until the last match.

If you know any other sites please mention it in comments form.

Bon Voyage

Calculate the electricity drunk by your Computer!

Hi friends,
Interested in calculating the electricity consumed by your computer/laptop? Most of us are not aware of the electricity used by our computers. We do all our work keeping the computer ON. But this really reflects in our electricity bill......

Step 1: You first need to calculate the total power (in kilowatt) that’s consumed by your monitor, CPU, graphic card, video card and other components of the computer.

Dont worry: you don’t have to do these calculations manually. Joulemeter is a free software from Microsoft that can quickly estimate the power consumption of your computer based on the screen’s brightness, the microprocessor, graphic card etc.

Step 2: Now find the retail cost of electricity (commonly known as price per unit or price per kWh) in your part of the world. You can know the electricity cost per unit either from your last month’s electricity bill or check the official website of your power distribution company (search for electricity tariffs).

Once you have the two numbers, just multiply them to get an approximate idea of your computer’s electricity bill. I say approximate here because we are ignoring the power consumed by the speakers, modem and so on.

For further clarifications, do not hesitate to contact us through comments!!