credit: elite-vpn.com

In this process, have you ever noticed that there will be someone who follows you close to the neck every possible second while you are surfing the net?

Yes, search engines and websites follow your every step. Each and every search made on the web will be recorded into a file. And this recording is being systematized more than ever before in the history of web. Then, how can you maintain privacy by not letting your identity?

How to Surf the web Anonymously?

1. Stealth Mode Search – You can search websites in stealth mode by which your presence will not be traced. If a website notices that someone has landed on its site, you can prevent disclosure of your identity or make it think that you are not what you are. In fact, these measures are not only used to keep you protected from the Google’s new tracking avalanche. Protection measures are successfully employed by professionals, politicians and reporters who wish not to reveal their identity.

2. Deleting Cookies – You know that when you visit a new site, a cookie file will be stored in your computer. This file narrates who you are and what you are searching. It is possible to turn off this feature in your browser by which you can prevent the leakage of information. Some web browsers are offering ‘Private Browsing‘ through which the cookies will be deleted in a systematic way at each completion of the session. Even though visiting websites by disguising is possible, the difficulty is that you have to login to the site quite frequently. It is also not possible to keep away from cookies from advertising agencies. To overcome this drawback, you can install an add-on or plug-in to the browser that you are using. It is available with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

3. Opting out of Privacy Tools – Still going further in restricting your tracking, you can select wisely by opting out from privacy tools on Google. You can prevent access to track your surfing details through Google Analytics. Instead of using Google, you can try other search engines like Yahoo Search, Bing, etc. The last but not the least option is going for third party applications. Here, you will play the trick by being able to disguise your browser by going through a set of users (who are also using the third party service). This is the most common method employed by people in defense establishments and reporters. Your identity is spread among a number of users and hence, it is difficult to let cookies notice the actual user.

4. Deploying Anti-virus Software – You can also deploy anti-virus and anti-spamming software to protect your computer from harmful virus and hackers. By disabling cookie browser setting and disabling Google tracking option you can prevent record of your information to the maximum possible extent. Going for third party applications will ensure that your identity is not revealed to the external world.

5. Using VPN – This has to be the easiest of the lot. We have had several posts about Free VPN services & paid VPN services. They are much more secure than proxies and help you surf the web anonymously.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Guest post by Divya Rawat.

Once upon a time, people had limited options for performing their work related tasks and the good old desktop computer was their only savior. It provided them with faster computing capabilities than an 8 grade student of today and enough memory space to hold all their text documents! Then something happened which changed the world of technology.

The situation is pretty much the same now as then, with the exception that no one uses computers just for making things fast. Computers are used in pretty much everything, right from entertainment, to gathering information, to chatting with people, to socialize, to making music, to poke, I can go on and on. In short, our requirements have changed in these years and so has the computer. Based on our specialized requirements, the computer is now available in different avatars. The computer can be seen in the form of desktops, laptops, netbooks, ultra-books, tablets etc. There is however one glitch to the situation- the buyers are confused.

The number one criterion in this 21st century/year 2012/ Q1 is- portability. With people who cannot part with their semiconductor devices, portability as well as convenience and features and performance are some of the requirements and the geek and entrepreneur collaborations have the following to offer to the world- The laptop, The Netbook and The Tablet.

The Laptop

Gone are the days when sitting in front of a desk staring at a glass screen was considered cool. Relaxing on a grass lawn on a winter morning basking under the warm sunshine, occasionally glancing at the cool things God has to offer while LOLing someone’s update is the new ‘in thing’. Laptops nowadays come with features which are at par with the desktop computers and can be seriously considered as desktop replacement.

One main feature where laptops lag behind a computer is performance, especially while gaming and other heavy duty uses. This gap has however been narrowed by models like the Alienware and other high end laptops. In comparison with Netbooks and tablets, laptops are the most convenient to use as well as are more powerful. They are faster (as much as 3GHz), have bigger screens (10” to 20”), bigger keyboards (standard size), better features, graphics (even dedicated graphics) and sound and are the only one able to execute large applications.

On the flip-side though they are comparatively bulky, have lower battery standby time, are inconvenient to use on buses and other public transports and generate a lot of heat.

The Netbook

Netbooks are nothing but small laptops designed specifically for web browsing and other applications that do not require much performance. It is designed specifically for travel and don’t consume much space, energy and your attention. They can be between 7”-13” and weigh below 1 kg. A typical netbook provides a battery backup of around 10 hours as against 2-3 hours of a new laptop. However most of the netbooks lack an optical drive to read/write CDs/DVDs and are generally slow. However unlike tablets they have keyboard attached with them.

The Tablets

The tablets are the latest- in thing. Imagine yourself reading a magazine with a marker in hand, sketching whatever you like on it. Well that’s the closest simulation for someone who hasn’t tried the tablets yet. They are generally touch screen gadgets and are extremely portable with some of the models even fitting in your blazer pocket comfortably. Tablets are quite similar to the netbooks with one major difference- The cramped keyboards are removed and instead the screens are made touch screen through which you can execute your every task.

The year 2012 has been unofficially declared the year of the tablet and many new and better models are expected to enter the market. Tablets are also available in various configurations like either of the gadgets mentioned till now. Tablets typically have 7” to 13” screen and weigh even less than the netbooks. Like the netbooks, the tablets are also low on performance (a bit better) and speed but some of the high end tablets like the iPad have good computing capabilities. Also like the netbooks it lacks an optical drive and has limited screen sizes.

Related Read: Reasons to get a Tablet in 2012

So which one to buy- a Laptop, a Netbook or a Tablet?

If you need a gadget for using heavy software, using DVDs, watching videos, don’t have the patience for an application to load, don’t like to squint your eyes to read something, need it for office purpose or at home, then definitely go for the laptops.

If you travel a lot, mainly use internet and emails, like to be connected everywhere you go, need to type, don’t mind watching videos with lower graphics and sound, are strapped on cash, already have a desktop or laptop at home etc. then you can go for the netbooks.

If you want the coolest gadget, like lots of applications, like touch screen, don’t have to type often, want your computer with you everywhere you go, then you must go get the tablet.

This was a guest post by Divya Rawat who is a blogger and an avid writer. She likes to write on various social issues as well as technology related articles. She works with an SEO Company which has been providing Content Writing Services since six years.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

What is VoIP? How you can use it to reduce Telephone bills?

Although, to use an internet system such as VoIP, you will need a smartphone connected to the internet or a telephony adapter, for your phone back home (this TA plugs into your DSL modem or cable and into the phone), but, nowadays these are all over the place, and you can get them at reasonable prices, it’s not that much of a drawback. I’m sure by now, the question on everyone’s mind is: “Why would I want VoIP? My PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) connection works well.” My answer to this question is: “Money!”, VoIP is the cheapest method of calling you will ever find.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I’ll talk about 2 categories: first of all, it’s the land line VoIP service (hardware based). This service uses the TA to connect your old telephone to the internet. This system requires you to have an internet connection, and furthermore, to make a subscription to one of many VoIP plans available from different carriers, also you will need to buy the hardware necessary to set up your VoIP system (such as TA and/or telephone), these do not come cheap, I’ve seen this equipment from $50 and up to $300.

These VoIP services cost way less than regular phone subscriptions, so you will definitely even out your investment, but they do have some minor setbacks. For example, if you are using your broadband connection intensely (downloading a movie or something data intensive), the quality of your call might be slightly lower. But apart from that, you have a really good telephone service with the lowest cost you could find (some offer unlimited calls in the US and Canada, and as low as $0.30/min for international calls).

Top 5 VoIP Phones to Try Out

Here are a few VoIP services you would be interested in. Keep in mind that with all of these, you will not have heavy equipment and cables running all over your house, these are all simple systems, that could be used just like regular phones.

1. Skype Phones

Until recently, I never known Skype offered phones. But now that I know, I must admit it’s one of the best VoIP services around. For $80, you will get the Skype Phone (or the USB phone for less than that) and you can enjoy unlimited calls world wide for as little as $13.

2. PhoneGnome

The oldest player here, PhoneGnome is one of the best in the business. They offer unlimited VoIP calls and the VoIP phone for $99. Plus you don’t have a monthly bill. And for $5/month, you can have 10 numbers where you can call unlimited.

3. Ooma

A bit more expensive than PhoneGnome, the equipment costs $250 and you only pay a $12/year tax and that’s it. This service is way more cheaper than your PSTN service. You get the TA and you can plug in any phone you want.

4. Vonage

One of the most known services in this industry with quite an experience, Vonage offers a full package at $80/equipment and you have to pay a monthly subscription of $25, but you have included unlimited calls in US, Canada and other 60 countries.

5. magicJack

This service is a cross between software and hardware services. The magicJack is a USB device that connects to your computer, and to it you connect your phone. The equipment costs $40 for the first year, and $20/year after that. And that’s all, you call free of charge in the US and Canada, and for international calls you get a pretty low cost (under $0.34/min).

Top 5 VoIP Software

The second category of VoIP is the software based. This will most likely be the one you are best used to. This type of VoIP can handle video calls and screen sharing (see article about best screen sharing apps) or voice calls. This type of VoIP is more wide spread than the hardware based one because of its flexibility. You can install the app on your PC or smartphone and talk to anyone else who is using it. And since nearly everyone has an IM app (Skype, Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN etc), and because most of these IMs have the option of voice calls, it’s really easy to stay connected.

These services do not need much introduction, you all know what they care capable of and what they offer, but I’ll name a few nonetheless:

1. Skype

Microsoft’s newest acquisition is the the best known VoIP service in the world. It offers a host of features, it has low cost rates and it’s really easy to use, both on PC/Mac or smartphone.

2. Yahoo! Voice

Yahoo! is better known for its Y!M (Yahoo! Messenger) and its really cool mail service. You have seen how good the voice calls on the Y!M are, so it’s not hard to imagine the premium service is even better.

3. Google Voice

Google is the giant when it comes to internet, and lately we have seen Google reach out to TV, mail services, smartphones, and just about every thing working on electricity (inside joke here). The Voice service from Google, available on smartphones is really good, better even than normal calls.

4. wengoPhone

This European service is available for Windows, Mac and Linux users, or via the Firefox add-on and it allows users to call with the unbelievable low cost of 0.006€/min.

5. pfingo

Uniting all the devices into one name: pfingo. This app works on any platform and it lets you call for free other pfingo users world wide, and also, if you like to call to other services, you do that at $0.04/min.

Top 4 VoIP Apps for iPhone/Android

The VoIP service, in my opinion, is best used on smartphones. To avoid carrier fees, it’s a good idea to look for apps that allow you to use Wi-Fi or the network itself to call, but with VoIP costs. This will significantly reduce your bill, and you can enjoy unlimited voice (and sometimes video) calls.

1. ChatTime

This free app allows iOS users to call internationally at VoIP prices, it’s really easy to use and its calls have the quality of carrier calls. You will never know the difference! So if you are looking for an app that allows you to call your mates in China, look no further!

2. Fring

This app for iOS devices and Android handsets lets you call via Wi-Fi or 3G to international numbers at really low costs. It’s nice to see mobile developers bringing apps for both OS, I still find it hard to understand why some choose only iOS or only Android.

3. iCall

A really nice app for iOS users that allows you to use 3G or Wi-Fi networks to make calls anywhere in the US, although, for international calls, you will need to pay a little, but still, way more cheaper than carrier fees.

4. Viber

Viber is an awesome app that allows Android and iPhone users to make calls over Wi-Fi or send text messages completely free of charge. The app is free on Android Market and iTunes, so go and download it and start talking!

So here they are: The best VoIP services, both hardware and software (including mobile apps). This technology has recently picked up, due to higher bandwidths and better internet connections, and in the near future I expect it to become a real threat to the old outdated PSTN networks.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Guest post by Gowtham.

A lot of you geeks out there should already have Windows 8 Developer Preview running on your computers. A constant complaint that I come across on any blog post or a Youtube video related to Windows 8 is, how much people hate the new Windows 8 start screen a.k.a Metro UI.

It could work wonders on a tablet, but its quite pointless to have such an UI on your laptop or a PC. There is this option to switch between the desktop and the scrolling start menu, but the its still there. The Metro is still running on the background. Being a huge fan of Windows 7 and someone who is completely addicted to the Windows 7 start menu and the awesome search feature, i can not live with the default Windows 8 UI anymore.

If you are someone who is also willing to get rid of the scrolling start screen once and for all, you simply have to do a registry edit. This will make your Windows 8 look like Windows 7. Some people would ask, then what’s the difference, well there are a handful of improvements in Windows 8 and we can not neglect.

This is what you need to do:

1. Run (Win + R) -> regedit -> Enter.

This will open the registry editor.

2. Navigate to the the following entry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

3. Double-Click on “RPEnabled”

4. Here you need to change the value from 1 to 0

5. Push ‘Ok‘ to save the value.

That’s it, you have got rid of the Metro UI.

Now, you need to tap the Windows key on your keyboard several times, it will show the metro UI once or twice and it will never come again.

Finally, restart your computer and boot in to Windows 8 and a UI which is much similar to Windows 7 will welcome you. I think Microsoft will be bombarded with a lot of feedback to get rid of the Metro UI, but we will have to wait and see. May be they should have an option in the control panel to toggle the Metro UI ON/OFF. There are also some utilities like Metrocontroller or Metro UI Tweaker which can get the job done, but I personally prefer the manual method so that we know what exactly we are doing.

PS: You are editing the registry at your own risk and we are not responsible if you mess something up. Just follow the instructions carefully it will be just fine.

This was a guest post by Gowtham who is the editor of What Price India, a site that provides price details, reviews, and commentary on a wide range of products sold in India.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Here is an useful tip for Samsung Galaxy S II owners. As we all know, Samsung Galaxy S II is an Android device featured with almost each and every feature which should be present in a high-end smartphone. The interesting feature about which I am going to talk about in this article is the “Wi-Fi Direct”.

What is Wi-Fi Direct?

Wi-Fi direct is a feature available in Samsung Galaxy S II. I am not sure if it is available in other low-end Samsung Android devices or not. But no doubt this feature is awesome. It helps you to share files over Wi-Fi with a tremendous speed. Let’s see how you can take benefit of this amazing feature, here we go!

How to use Wi-Fi direct in Samsung Galaxy S2?

Step I: Pick up your Samsung Galaxy S II and open the Settings menu.

Step II: In settings menu, go to “Wireless and Network” option, and in that choose “Wi-Fi Direct Settings” option. See the screenshot below:

Step III: Next you can see there is an option “Configure Wi-Fi Direct”, if you want to change the Device name or set a password. You can secure your Wi-Fi Direct by setting a password, so that only users with this password can connect with your device through Wi-Fi Direct.

Step IV: After making changes, click on first option “Wi-Fi Direct”, it will activate the function. You need to activate the same functionality on other Android device capable of this feature.

Step V: As soon as you will activate the functionality on other device, it will show the found Wi-Fi devices near around and click on that device, it will take few seconds to make a successful connection between the devices.

Step VI: After the connection is successful, you should try to transfer a file through Wi-Fi Direct, for this either you go to your file manager or gallery. Choose any file and click on ‘share via’ and choose ‘Wi-Fi’. It will directly start sending the selected file to the connected device. You might be wondering about the transfer speed, it’s really fast!

I tried sending a 150MB HD video file and it took about 1 minute or less than that for the transfer. You don’t need to use Bluetooth anymore! If you are facing any issue while using this feature, do share with me. I will try my best to sort out your problem.

This was guest article by Rajan Balana who is a Blogger and a student. He loves to explore android smartphones and tablets. He reviews gadgets at Dreambloggers.com and also covers Android News at Androidnew.com.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Save a Buck, Send Free SMS Online

Many mobile networks offers SMS’s in their subscription, but not that many, or if you have a pre-paid SIM, you might be interested in knowing how to send free SMS over the internet. In the past, there were lots of bogus sites claiming to allow you to send free SMS, but now you have much more options. I myself have used many internet SMS systems in the past, and I have a pretty good idea which are the real deal and which are hoaxes. Nonetheless, also from my own experience, I saw that these services come and go, so it’s better to use veteran products.

In this top list, I tried to mention the best free online SMS services. It’s safe to say that the order of the services does not matter that much, since SMS does not have that many features. The only difference between them is the number of countries they work in. Most of them work worldwide and have many countries and some of the biggest mobile networks from each of them. For the most part, they are easy to use, just select your county, your mobile operator, fill in your mobile number, write your text, select the mobile network you want to send the SMS to and fill the number, that’s pretty much all you have to do.

Top 10 Free SMS Services

Some even have the possibility to notify you if you get a reply via email, or SMS (I cannot understand the possible use of this feature, if you text someone online, they will most likely send you an SMS directly on your mobile phone and not reply to the online one, but there you go, it’s a feature). And now, moving on the part you’ve all been waiting for, here is the list of free online SMS services, in my opinion:

1. Jaxtr SMS

You may have heard of Jaxtr before, but now they have a free SMS service that you can use in up to 38 countries. It’s ideal for sending short messages (65 characters) and can some times be a life saver. You can see that their website is nicely organized and they even have specific apps for that, so you can take it with your smartphone or even feature phone.

2. Skebby

Skebby is probably the easiest to use so far, you only have to select country code, to put the number of the recipient and that’s all. It has a really intuitive interface and you should be able to send your message in less than 120 characters. Hey, free doesn’t come with all the goodies, doesn’t it?

3. Gmail SMS

It was ridiculous to think that Google wouldn’t try to make itself known in the free SMS business, so they have launched an internet SMS service. I must admit, I am much more comfortable (from a security point of view) to use Google than any other service.

4. Yahoo! Messenger Free SMS Service

If you didn’t know so far, Yahoo! Messenger has an awesome free SMS service that you can always try. It’s a way for Yahoo! to say thank you for its loyal users. However, there is a limited list of countries that you can send free SMS to. The list is as follows:

• United States: AT&T, Alltel, Nextel (including Sprint), Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile
• Canada: Rogers, Fido, Telus
• India: Vodafone Essar, Airtel, Aircel, Spice, Escotel, Reliance, BPL, BSNL, IDEA, MTNL
• Indonesia: XL, Indosat, Hutch 3, Telkomsel, Mobile-8, Bakrie, Smart
• Malaysia: Celcom, DiGi, Maxis
• Philippines: Globe, Smart, Sun
• Thailand: AIS, DTAC
• Vietnam: Mobifone, Viettel, Vinaphone, S-Fone, EVN, Vietnamobile, Beeline
• Kuwait: Wataniya
• Pakistan: Mobilink

5. Yakedi

This service allows you send 160 character SMS to a contact list, and the best part about it is when the other person receives your text, it will be with your name and number. Another cool thing is that this service will not include ads in your message (only if you choose to).

6.SendSMSNow

SendSMSNow allows you to send 130 character SMS to your contact list, and as Yakedi, the receiver will see your name and number and not a service center number. This is quite a good service, you should definitely give it a try.

7. Text4Free

A cool tool for sending SMS worldwide, with a length of 140 characters. You can send to almost any country, but in order to do that, you must know the recipient’s carrier network. The website’s interface may look a little bit old, but I can assure you that it performs its job perfectly.

8. Text’em

A simple and intuitive tool for sending free online SMSs to a length of 155 characters. I really like this service, it’s fast and easy to use, if you are in a hurry to send an SMS online, give it a try! However, it will work only for U.S residents, at the moment.

9. Free Text Messaging

Free Text Messaging is, as the name suggests, a world wide free SMS service that is a piece of cake to use. You only have a few fields to fill and then you are ready to go. The option of quick texts is a nice option also. You will find quite a collection of carriers there.

10. txtDrop.com

txtDrop is a nice internet based SMS service that allows users in the US and Canada to send free online SMSs to almost any mobile carrier. It seems that it’s much easier to send free SMS only to US and Canada than to the rest of the world, from obvious reasons.

Before you close this page, please read this word of caution: be careful and read the terms and conditions of these websites, many of them make their money by spamming and sending ads to your phone. My advice is to buy a pre-paid SIM and try the service before you use it on your own phone. Some hoax websites may even take your credit, so try them out before you use them. We did that for you, but you never know what happens next. Trust only the best services in this top.

Even now, when the mobile market is full of thousands of minutes and data plans with email and IM clients, there is no argue that SMS still has its charm: it’s easy to write, fast and effective. I remember the days when I got my first phone (it was a Nokia 3310 if my memory serves right) and I used to text night and day, now, it’s easier to just to call whomever I want to talk to, but nonetheless, SMS is still the old, nice way. And sending free SMS is the new, hassle-free way.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Guest Post by Joe Pawlikowski.

If you can do it on a laptop, you can do it on a tablet. Perhaps that statement is a bit premature, but we’re certainly getting there. In 2011, we saw a slew of tablets that packed the power of a laptop into a small slate-like device. In 2012, we’ll see even more power from tablets, making them bigger parts of our lives. They’re not only our computers, but our personal organizers, taking care of everything from reminders to appointments.

As tablets become more functional, we’ll do more with our tablets. We can do plenty right now, in fact. Here’s a quick guide for an organizational function that can come in quite handy: how to book and organize your travel arrangements from your tablet.

Using the web

The great part about tablets is that they contain powerful web browsers that mimic traditional laptop and desktop browsers. They’re quite better than smartphone browsers, mainly because they don’t point to mobile sites. They go to full-powered websites, meaning tablets users get the full web experience. The only exception is Flash, which doesn’t run on the iPad and which runs poorly on Android devices. Thankfully, few if any travel sites use Flash to power their systems.

You can navigate to popular travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity to do the same things you would on the web. Here you can book flights, reserve hotels, and find a car rental, just as you would on a more traditional computer. The interface might seem slightly different, because you’ll be using your fingers to navigate the touchscreen rather than a mouse. But the function is completely the same. There really is no difficulty in doing this on a tablet.

Yet there are some ways you can book on your tablet and maybe save some money. That’s where apps come into play.

Booking: Orbitz

The Orbitz app, available for iPad and Android tablets, essentially gives users access to Orbitz’s array of deals from a simple app. While many travel apps offer the ability to book hotel reservations and even car rentals from their apps, they do not offer flight booking. This is where Orbitz has the advantage. You can book every facet of your deal from their app.

Why book through the app when it’s just as easy to do so through the web? Because Orbitz offers mobile-only deals that can save you money on hotels. So not only do you get to book from your tablet, from wherever you happen to be at the moment, you also can save some money if the right hotel strikes your fancy. After you book, Orbitz arranges your itinerary into the app, so you’ll have everything in order.

Of course, Orbitz’s organizer works when you book through Orbitz. There are other services out there, too, and you might prefer them. Thankfully, there’s a great app for organizing your travel.

TripIt

TripIt is one of many travel organization apps. It works for not only iPad and Android tablets, but also the BlackBerry PlayBook. The best part is that it requires little work on the user’s part. Once you book travel arrangements on any travel website, you then forward the confirmation email to TripIt. That automatically populates your app with all of your travel details, from flight to rental car to hotel and back.

There are other apps that offer similar services, too. WorldMate is one of them, and it gets rave reviews as well. It works in the same fashion, taking the information from your confirmation emails and populating the app. Both apps work offline, so you can pull out your tablet whenever you need it to check your flight or hotel information. These apps ensure that your tablet is not only an entertainment device, but a highly useful one as well.

Both TripIt and WorldMate offer premium tiers that bring even more services, such as flight tracking and alerts. But you don’t need to pay them a yearly fee to get those services. There are better apps for that.

FlightTracker

There’s nothing really special about a run of the mill flight tracking app. It lets you know if flights are delayed or cancelled, often sending alerts so you don’t miss them. This is useful, but hardly exciting. Yet the FlightTracker app tries to spice up a typically unremarkable service. Its graphical interface is beautiful and useful at the same time. It lets you know where the flight is — or at least an estimate — while also providing you with vital travel information.

This isn’t just flight information, but also current weather and radar forecasts. It’s a perfect complement to the other travel apps, since it provides a premium experience for just a few dollars. And, like TripIt and WorldMate, it’s available on all three tablet platforms, so you don’t need a specific one to get all the benefits.

If booking travel from a tablet is this easy, imagine how much else we can do. Tablets are the next logical step from laptops. They might be unfamiliar now, but soon enough we’ll be doing more than booking our travel arrangements from them. They could become integral parts of our lives.

This was a guest post by Joe Pawlikowski who is the editor of Prepaid Reviews, a site that provides information, commentary, and reviews of prepaid wireless services.

Photo Credit: Peachygreen

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Tech savvy competitors can utilize online technologies to deconstruct your business with little effort in a short amount of time. Of course it’s a two way street. You can also gain vital intelligence about your competitors by knowing exactly how to access the right tools and services online.

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

A company’s website is the first point of information. Obviously competitors can access your site just like your customers. They can dissect the design and content effectively enough to reproduce well developed elements of your online campaign. Competitors can also use services like the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to see the evolution of your site over time. They essentially learn from your failures and successes. By examining and comparing the changes you’ve made to your site overtime can take the guessing game out of creating an effective website for your competitor.

Casting a Net

You can follow and track news and announcements about any number of companies effortlessly with RSS and News alerts. Every morning your competitors can open their email and receive notifications about your progress and plans. Sadly, not all companies are smart enough to withhold information that could be used against them by their competitors. A company’s decision to announce the roll out a new product or promotion ahead of time may provide a well-funded, highly resourceful competitor enough time to “rip” the concept and bring it to market first.

Secret Sauce

The “secret sauce” to your sales is actually no secret! The traffic sources and advertising placements that you harness are all public information via a variety of free and paid tools. Your marketing campaigns can be dissected and recreated in no time with the help of online services like SpyFu and Compete. Everything from top referring sites and your PPC keyword targets can be extracted in seconds.

Recruiting Your Talent

A company is as only as good as the talented people running it. With widespread social technologies like linkedIn and Facebook it’s simple to find out who’s working for you, what they do, and how to connect with them. Stealing employees away just got easy! On one hand your employee may be “kvetching” about his boss on Facebook, while on LinkedIn his profile indicates that he is open to new career opportunities.

Buzz

Understanding customer sentiment (both your own and your competitors) is a valuable part of business intelligence. Information and opinions about your products and services are being blogged about, uploaded, tweeted (& retweeted), and reviewed on social sites, review sites, and blogging platforms. Your customers are welcomed informants and technology online makes it possible for them to “spill the beans” in less than a few clicks with as little as a mobile device.

In conclusion, there are many great ways to expand and promote your business online. Many of those same technologies can be used against you. Be smart; understand the tools and services that are available to you and your competitors!

This was a guest post by Scott Hersh is a business blogger for BCAblog.com the official blog of BCA: leaders in merchant cash advances.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

The social networking site Facebook has become a phenomenon in the modern world. People of every age group nowadays seem to have a Facebook account and besides connecting with friends, it has also become a medium for expressing their thoughts over various social matters.

Though it is a very useful medium to remain connected with friends and with the world, but it is not entirely devoid of the disadvantages. Hackers are the worst enemies of Facebook and since more and more people are joining this site, so it has become a great medium for the hackers to obtain personal information of the users by hacking their accounts. However, the user can ensure their safety of their private information by adopting the precautions described below -

Enabling SSL Encryption – Earlier, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure or HTTP was only used for keeping secure the password of the user but now with the increasing sophistication of attacking tactics of the hackers, Facebook has switched to SSL encryption to ensure complete security for the user. In order to enable this security feature, the user is just required to visit the Accounts Settings page and click the edit symbol after which the option of SSL Encryption appears.

Be careful about the information you are going to share – Some information shared by the user in their profile seems harmless but in some cases this small information could be used to hack the entire account. In most of the cases, the date of birth is used for hacking the account as majority of people use their birth date as the answer to certain security questions. Hence, one needs to think carefully before sharing any personal information with the public or even with friends and must choose the security questions cleverly.

Games and Applications should be used economically – Earlier, the use of rogue Facebook app has contributed largely in spamming and hijacking many users of Facebook. Therefore, since then, Facebook has implemented many safety protocols in order to ensure security for the users. The use of App Passwords instead of rogue Facebook apps has helped in reducing many incidents of Facebook account hacking as it is a one-time password where entering the Facebook password is not required in order to log into certain apps. For getting an App Password, the user can visit the Account Setting and select the security tab and follow the prompts after clicking the Edit option next to App Password.

Always Log Out of Facebook after finishing browsing – Logging out of Facebook after browsing is important to ensure safety from the hackers. It prevents the act of Likejacking which is a form of clickjacking that helps the hackers to update a status for a site that the user would not approve. There are many incidents of likejacking only because some users just forget to log out of Facebook after browsing. It is even highly recommended for the Facebook users who browse through public computers or access points.

Just as I mentioned when I started, Facebook is a highly useful medium, both for online marketing and engaging with potential prospects or making friends. But if one is ignorant about the safety issues there, things can become messy.

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

Related Read: Smartphone as the Universal All-in-one Device

As you may be accustomed with, the 3 steps in buying gadgets or tech products are:

1. What are you going to use it for?
2. What is your budget?
3. What features do you need?

Do you need a Smartphone?

When it comes to smartphones, there are lots to talk about. It seems that, nowadays, every major phone company has moved towards smartphones, and the reason is simple: you get a phone that can do extra things, like surf the web or watch TV, you need a good OS (operating system), a good processor and a very good data plan from your provider, and all of these cost money. Many people like smartphones because they can carry a miniature version of their laptop or PC in their pockets, they can answer emails anywhere, play some games to kill free time, see videos or movies when in transit and many others.

But when you go into a phone shop and try to find a phone that suits your needs best, you have to browse through their collection, looking at features that you don’t even know what they mean..it’s pretty daunting. I’ll try to explain for everyone what these features represent and give you a few tips for your next phone.

When Buying, be Careful with Smartphone Specifications

When you are looking on a phone’s specifications, you will probably see the following:

Network

Here you will see all the 2G and 3G networks the smartphone will operate in (usually all the mobile networks supported). Watch out for useful Wi-Fi connectivity, as well.

Body Dimensions

This one speaks for itself. Here you will see the dimensions of the phone and weight. You will see that there’s a psychological barrier set between the size of a smartphone and a tablet. Usually, what’s more than 5 inch, should be considered as a tablet, albeit Galaxy Note proves to be the exception to the rule.

Display

There are lots of types of displays, usually it will show you how many colours it displays (65k, 256k and 16M), the bigger the number, the more quality the image will have. The type of the display will also be noted here (TFT, TFT touchscreen, AMOLED, Super AMOLED, Capacitive, Gorilla Glass etc ), the dimension of the screen (usually up to 480 x 800 pixels and 4.0 inches) and other features the screen might have.

Memory

Here you will see the internal memory of the phone and if the phone’s memory can be extended with an SD card, usually you should aim for the most memory you can find (in some phones it can go up to 32GB), and in smartphones<, here you will most likely see the amount of RAM memory, and as before, aim for the most memory you can.

Data transfer

This specification refers to the smartphone’s connectivity and data transfer options, nowadays, the vast majority of phones offer GPRS, EDGE, 3G, W-LAN, Bluetooth and USB.

Camera

The camera of the smartphone is an important factor, you might want to find a smartphone with about 5Mpx, and before you buy it, check how it takes the photos. As you might know from the Digital Camera buying guide, lots of Megapixels do not offer better quality images, but still, try to find something in the range of 5Mpx so you can upload it on your computer and view it without any loss of quality. Also look for other features such as geo-tagging, auto focus and LED flash, HD video etc. Many consider iPhone 4S to have a really awesome camera.

Keyboard

Almost all smartphones have QWERTY keyboards now, they have the advantage of having all the keys there (not on the regular phones where you have 3-4 letters on one key), and provide a writing medium that you are used with from your PC. There are 2 types of QWERTY keyboards: the physical ones (with actual keys) or virtual ones implemented in the touchscreen.

Additional Features

Here you will find plenty things your phone can do, usually, different manufacturers have different features they pack in their smartphones, but keep an eye out for:

• How big is the processor (in my opinion, anything less than 1GHz is too low, but now you can find dual core processors and in the near future, quad core maybe)
• GPU (graphics processing unit, the processor that run games and videos on your phone, try to get a pretty sturdy one if you are into gaming)
• GPS
• Radio (and as to my surprise, many smartphones do not have FM radio build in)
• Browser and many others.

Battery

This is a very important aspect of your phone, usually, smartphones do not have the battery life of the older phones, so try to find something which has some staying power. Remember not to trust what the producer of the smartphone says, those numbers are determined in lab conditions, not in real life usage, so they will most likely not be accurate.

Related Read: Ultimate Guide to Extended Batteries for Your Android Phone

OS (Operating System)

The operating system of a smartphone is one of the most important aspects. There a few manufacturers out there, each of them with its own advantages and disadvantages, but here it’s really a matter of preferences. The biggest names in the business are:

• Google’s Android
• Apple iOS
• BlackBerry OS
• Windows Phone 

So, these are the main features of smartphones, now you have to think about what you will need your phone to do for you. For this tutorial, I’ll merge the first step (What are you going to use it for?) and the last one (What features do you need?) because with smartphones you don’t have all those options as with other gadgets, many of these features now come standard on most smartphones.

What Is The Right Smartphone for Me?

Apart from the obvious, to talk and send a SMS, you might want your phone to have a 3G connection so you can browse the net in 3G speed or make a video call, GPS if you plan to use it so and not have to get a dedicated GPS for your car. If you plan on watching movies on your smartphone, then you should go with something that has a bigger screen and bigger screen resolution, but also, for your phone to play HD videos, you might have to pay a little extra for a faster CPU and GPU, also, movies require space, so look towards a smartphone that has a minimum of 8 GB memory and the possibility to add an SD card.

On the other hand, if you want a smartphone for web surfing, social media or ending emails, then you won’t need so much horsepower, just a big enough screen, fast data transfer (3G and Wi-Fi/W-LAN are a must), a legible keyboard to type with and the battery to keep it up and running for some time (in my opinion, if you fall in this category, you should go for a BlackBerry). Depending on what tasks you need your phone to do, you will definitely find something that’s best for you, for example, if you (like some) are not that handy with a touchscreen and like the feedback received when pushing a button, you may want a smartphone with a physical keyboard or a hybrid with both keyboard and touchscreen.

Pick out the OS (Operating System) that you enjoy. I won’t go into specifics about each OS, but from past experience, you can figure out what OS you need. For example, if you are a long time user of iTunes and have owned an iPod, than you are more accustomed to iOS, or if you want to see what the big fuss is with Android and had one or used one in the past, go for it. Choose the OS you like to use and you know to use best, in many aspects, they all have lots to offer (apps) and they are not that different.

How Much is Your Dream Smartphone Worth?

The second aspect is the budget you have for a new smartphone. Keep in mind that some brands are cheaper than others, but necessarily inferior. The price of a smartphone is determined mostly by the features it has. So, if you want a powerful smartphone and have the money to pay for it, it could get you up to $500-$700 (even more depending on the brand). If, however, you want a moderately powerful smartphone, you can get some in the price range of $300-$400.

Some smartphones can go as low as $200, and for this, you still get a really good phone that does many of the things a premium product would, but not as good. This category could be reserved for the smartphones that are used mostly to search the web and send emails. The prices are based on the brand of the phone, so if you see a smartphone that has all the features you want, but from another brand, try researching it on the web, read a review of the product, compare it with other brands and then make your decision.

Also, do not buy your smartphone from the first dealer you see, again, do research, look on the web for deals and other stores, even in other countries, try eBay or Amazon before, you might get some really nice products for much less money. In this tutorial, as I said in the beginning, I could not have covered all the smartphones available on the market, simply because they are way too many. You can find lots of phones made by companies in China that have lots of features, such as Dual Sim or high res cameras etc, but I tried to cover the basics of buying a smartphone and kept mostly to well known brand names.

If you missed our previous buying guide, do check-out them now:

• [How to] Buy a Digital Camera – Beginner’s Guide
• How to Buy a Printer [Guide]
• [How to] Buy a Laptop: Detailed Guide
• Detailed Guide: Which Desktop PC Should I Buy?

© Raju PP for Technically Personal!, 2012. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |