Google Strips Beta Tag from Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Talk, Salvages the World

Yes, really. Google Apps is out of Beta now and so are Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk. Google announced it on their blog and also tweeted it today and some of its logos already are stripped of the Beta tag. Google Talk and Google Docs still carry the Beta tag at the time of writing this post.

It seems Google has now realized that selling beta services will not be digested or agreed by industry easily. It's much publicised service Google Apps has been made a 'Complete' product now with no Beta components in it. When Google is presenting a case study on how switching from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps is profitable, the industry and people didn't like comparing a beta service with a stable, popular and secure(!?) mail service from Microsoft. It had history of going down some time ago and Google compensating its customers for loss of service.

Now, we all can free ourselves from the stigma we have been cursed upon for all these years (5 years for Gmail users) and end the discrimination!

Hail Google. Never be Evil!

(All Google logos courtesy of Google Inc, of course)

Protect Your Precious and Pricey Mobile From Theft

Many of our feature rich high-end mobile phones or Smartphones carry a lot of our personal and business data, be it photos, videos, email, notes, documents and not to forget, the precious Phone book. These toys are very pricey, many shell out large part of their salary. It pains a lot when one loses their valuable phone. The pain is multitude as the loss of data adds up to the loss of mobile itself. Many I know still don't have the habit of taking backup of their mobile data, even if it supports. This is an elementary task, a responsible person should be doing for their mobile as well as PC and should need no whipping from others.

Well, what we are discussing here is not how to whip somebody, but actually about an anti-theft and tracking application for Symbian S60 mobile phones called Phone Guardian. This software is developed by SymbianGuru. You have this on your mobile and it gets lost, the phone will be locked on a SMS command or change in SIM. Every time a new SIM is inserted, your mobile will SMS the new phone number to the two preset SOS mobile numbers in it. Not just that, it can also send back details including the Cell tower number, IMSI number and GPS coordinates (using inbuilt GPS, if any) on special commands received through SMS. With the help of all these details you can easily track your phone and possibly get it back.

Most of feature rich and Smartphones from Nokia like E-Series, N-series, XpressMusic and many other models are based on Symbian S60 platform. Samsung and LG too have many of their phones based on this platform. If you have a Nokia phone you can check if its a S60 phone on the Nokia Forum website. For other manufacturers, you can check your phone features or catalogue or at Phone Guardian site itself for list of compatible phones. Some of its unique features are:

• Remote mobile lock and unlock with lock SMS
• Method of software launch selection
• Two Alarm numbers available
• GPS tracking option available
• GPS tracking option can be turned on and off with the help of SMS message
• Phone Guardian becomes active (locks the mobile, emits the siren) when a different SIM card is inserted or on lock SMS
• Operator specific and location information is automatically sent to the number specified, including the number of SIM, IMSI and CellID numbers.
• Uninstall is possible only with the right password
• Phone lock is independent from phone restart

Once installed, you can configure the activation number, lock code, SOS numbers, alarm and other settings and it will never bother you again. Of course, it will not remind you if the SOS numbers entered go defunct. It has a low processor and memory footprint and runs in the background with no icon in application menu or in running task list. The application can be launched by dialing the unique activation number and the process is visible only by applications like Y-Tasks or Nokia Device Status (a retired beta application).

Here are some of its options:



Notice above, it also has an option to change the GPS period to save the battery power.

After it is enabled, it cannot be removed or uninstalled unless the same lock code is provided. All the SMS are sent invisibly, i.e., they are not seen in the sent items. And if the phone is locked, its firmware cannot be refreshed or reinstalled too as it requires the mobile to be unlocked and set with General profile. But of course, a dedicated and expert thief will try more options to recover the phone and if so at least you can have your data deleted by forcing him or her to flash its firmware.

Some conditions for this application to work: the new SIM should be enabled to send and receive SMS, the phone should be switched on and be within the network coverage of service provider.

I have been using this application for a long time on my Nokia E Series phone and in my opinion, is a best and excellent application in its category. Though I have not lost my mobile, I am sure it is going to help me if I lose it ever. Some features I desire to have are remote wipe of phone and card data and live location update on Google maps like Google Latitude. I hope SymbianGuru will consider in new version of there application.

Download the Phone Guardian for trial from their website and a full version will cost you just $12.99 (just around 700 Indian Rupees). Not a big price to protect your favourite mobile!

(Some images are courtesy of SymbianGuru)

Use your old mail accounts to use your LinkedIn connections optimally

We know how useful LinkedIn is, in building our professional network or in securing a good job at a good place. LinkedIn has recently opened up its groups to all and has been adding new features and experimenting with whitepaper ads too. Though there have been numerous articles published [1], [2], [3] on how to use LinkedIn optimally, this articles addresses one small tweak to use LinkedIn for our better.

One may worry of losing his or her LinkedIn profile or connections when switching a company or email service provider. This is because he/she would have provided the current email id (personal or work) as login id and to get updates and notifications from LinkedIn. To get over this issue, there is a simple option in your LinkedIn profile settings where you can add multiple email ids. There are many advantages, like, to have your LinkedIn profile active even if email ids are changed and to keep receiving invites sent to your old mail ids. To see this feature yourself, click here to go to the setting page, if you have already logged in to LinkedIn. Also find steps below to access this option later:

- Login to your LinkedIn account

- Click on 'Accounts and Settings' on the top right

- Click on 'Email Addresses' under Personal Information category

Here is the snapshot of my email configuration:

I have added multiple email ids (Gmail, Yahoo, of my ISP, etc.) to my profile along with my ieee.org and work email ids of my current and previous companies as well. Anytime when an invite or a mail is sent to any of my old email ids through LinkedIn, it will appear in the inbox of my LinkedIn profile even though these mails may bounce back, due to deleted old work mail ids or defunct personal mail ids. If any of my old business partner wants to work with me again or an old colleague/manager wants to rehire I'll definitely get to know!

So the next time you plan to switch your company consider registering your work mail id with LinkedIn.

GPS Bluetooth Receiver and Data Logger - Visiontac VGPS-900

I recently purchased this new device Visiontac VGPS-900, a Bluetooth GPS Receiver and Data Logger. This is a unique GPS receiver with data logging functionality having more than 2 million waypoints (which is way over than 100 thousand waypionts in a conventional GPS data logger) and voice recorder.

This is extremely compact, snugly fits nice in your pocket along with your PDA or mobile or in a backpack (click on image to enlarge). More of its unique features below:

# 51ch. MTK chipset with enhanced positioning system technology (up to 1.5m accuracy with DGPS support)
# MicroSD Slot with support up to 2GB capacity (about 25,000,000 waypoints, more than 2 years)
# "Voice-Tag" function with built-in microphone allows adding live voice labels to any waypoint
# Push-To-Log (POI anchor key) enables you highlighting a POI at any time
# Unique SPY mode allows continuous standby logging of more than one month
# Smart operating lights and prompt sounds
# Auto ON/OFF function with car cable
# Built-in high capacity battery for up to 24 hours of operation
# User-defined speed alarm
# Slim design with impact resistant polycarbonate and stainless steel
# Time Album software supports Windows, Mac and Linux
# Built-in Bluetooth supports SPP profile

The battery backup is splendid, which lasted for 20 hours of continuous logging for me against the 24 hrs as claimed by the manufacturer, nevertheless, 20 hrs is just fine, I think. An interesting feature is the unique spy mode, when enabled, logs the GPS data to the Micro SD card in a continuous standby mode for up to 30 days with single charge.

I have been using this for my daily commuting, workouts and long travels and can say I am most satisfied for the money spent. I use it along with Nokia Sports Tracker, GPSed, and Google Maps on my Nokia E65. The other advantage of this is it can be used as standalone as data logger without any additional device. It gives a good fix in open areas but takes little longer in shaded or indoors and some times it even took more than 5 minutes to get a fix after a cold start. There have been good reviews of this product and one I recommend if you are interested for an in-depth review is Kevin's blog-shmog.com.

This product is also being sold as Columbus GPS-900 and can be purchased for a good discount on buygpsnow.com and semsons.com.

Why Wolfram Alpha is not a Google Killer!

There was a wave when Wolfram Alpha was released couple of days ago that it would be a Google killer, and now there is another which says it is NOT. I guess, the first wave, of course was kind of a keen-jerk reaction by the half-wits. The fundamental difference between them is that, they are not same! Google with its basic function is a search engine and Wolfram Alpha is not, it is a "Computational Knowledge Engine", as they themselves claim.

If you search with Wolfram you won't get any websites or links that contain your subject of interest; instead it gives you an intelligent and meaningful information from its own library and trusted sources unlike Google. That doesn't mean there is something wrong with Google, Google might been using a lot of intelligence and complex algorithms to search and provide us the best results; while there is intelligence in the process of search but not in query. For example a search for GDP India in Google and Wolfram Alpha yields different results. Notice the difference here:

Google result (click image to enlarge)	Wolfram Alpha result (click image to enlarge)

First, lets notice the Google results, though it at first tells what the GDP of India is, the information is with minimal meaning and slightly misleading too as there is no mentioned of currency nor what the type of GDP is, parity or in exchange rate. (Of course, those who know little economics and mostly some common sense know that it is not in rupees!) Also note that this information is not from Google but from a third party source. To know the right and complete information you have to click on links in the search.

Looking at Wolfram results, the first thing it shows is the GDP value as $1.141 with 2007 estimates. Which is enough for person looking in a hurry for a quick answer for his query (which, incidental what most of us are). If one needs more information, he can scroll down and see it in more detail, GDP in Indian currency, the trends and other economic properties. Also note, it says that the source is internally developed and curated, that is, you can trust the information to a larger extent and always refer back to it. Wolfram is not just a query tool to get meaningful information it is also a computational engine to give answers to your complex mathematical queries. Take this example.

In my opinion, Wolfram Alpha is not a Aya Ram Gaya Ram kind of thing (a hindi saying which roughly means, here he comes, here he vanishes), they are the owners of most popular mathematical tool "Mathematica" and the online science book "A New Kind of Science". Do visit their 'New Kind of Science' online book to experience their claimed depth of knowledge.

There are lot of funny queries with Wolfram that the Internet community is playing with, like one at Mashable. Wolfram will not give answers for all of your queries as it still has to learn a lot, but Google at least gives links to sites which it thinks will give answer for your weirdest query. In my opinion, the primary difference between Google and Wolfram Alpha is one, the source of information, second, its meaningfulness and last the attempt to give helpful information at first query.

Now you would ask why have I not compared Wolfram with Google Squared, Google is still in "Coming Soon" mood for Google squared. After the first visit to the Google squared site, one might feel it is very elementary. But you never know what Google might be to!!

If you get any Easter eggs with Wolfram, do share it here in the comments.