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Even though the MP3 Player is a great innovation to our society, it can be confusing to a lot of people. It’s also important to understand everything you can about this gadget, so you can enjoy everything it has to offer. There are tons of them out there, but several only offer mediocre quality. Others double as video players, have high tech audio functions, and can even record. Older versions that just played music are becoming a thing of the past.

A prime example is the Apple iPod. In the good old days it was simply used to play music. In recent memory they have come out with so many advanced features, most of them aren’t found in other units. The MP3 player is geared for easy navigation. Even though the extra benefits are nice to some, others just want a little piece of technology that plays music. Plus, iPods usually cost a bit more as well.

There are many iPod knock-off brands out there, especially at smaller local stores and gift shops. These are typically to be avoided however. They might be cheap, but their lifespan is usually comically short. And obviously they will be sorely lacking in features.

Another one of the MP3 player basics is that it has to have good battery life. A cheap model may still use the old AAA sized batteries that wear out quickly. Most models made with any quality will use rechargeable lithium ion batteries. When buying a player you have to decide whether you want to buy batteries every month, or simply recharge it.

Then of course it’s important to look at the durability. Thanks to our societies “jump on the bandwagon” ways, it’s the most overlooked part of the process. You need to know whether or not the product you purchase is going to last years, or a couple months. All it takes is one misstep for one of them to be damaged or simply breakdown.

If you go with one of the larger electronics brands like Apple or Sony, durability probably won’t be a concern (although there are some notoriously breakable units out there; a glance at a unit’s reviews should be enough to clue you in on whether it’s solid or not). The lower echelon of companies will try to cut corners wherever they can to offer a somewhat similar product for a cheaper price, so don’t be surprised when a player like that breaks down.

One final MP3 player basic to consider before buying is the button layout. On very rare occasions you may find a basic player that has no buttons other than play or stop. I’m not joking; these do exist, although they aren’t sold at very many outlets. These are the very bottom barebones models that are cheap, and often fail within a month or two.

So in closing before buying any kind of player remember to go over the MP3 player basics. Check for function, audio formats supported, battery life, durability, and general quality. If you don’t want to do bother because it’s time consuming you can just buy an Apple iPod. These are one of the most sought after players on the market for a reason. If money is a concern then simply buy an older generation iPod – plenty of new units are almost always available for the previous generation, and you can find savings of 10% and upwards, without sacrificing the most important features.

Posted under Hardware

Anyone with an iPhone who has spent time in the Application Store on iTunes knows there are thousands of applications available for Apples phone, making it very hard to pick the best, as even some of the not so great ones, get a lot of downloads.

1. Things – A listing application; Things helps to organize & schedule & prioritize the to-dos by due date, searchable tags along with a “today” screen listing the top-priority to-dos in an easy access location. Things makes task management easy, simplified & yet powerful. So everything that you do in Things syncs back to the application on your Mac via Wi-Fi, so you stay organized wherever you go making your to-dos a seamless & painless affair.

2. Wikipanion – Wikipanion is the best & fastest Wikipedia browsing application on the iPhone. Its a simplified version of Wikipedia without leaving out any of the site’s extra features. Simply put, the iPhone gives the ability to wiki via the many Wikipedia linked applications in the Application Store.

3. Road Trip – How many of us know what should be done to take care of our cars & how it should actually be done. Keeping track of your vehicles health is important & Road Trip is the fastest, easiest logbook application for tracking your car’s fuel economy, maintenance & expenses.

4. ZenBe – A list making applications providing collaborative to-do lists with multiple iPods or iPhones & the web. The ability to connect & synchronize with other ZenBe applications & the ZenBe online interface, make it most useful. Create them, use them & sync them, coordinating your lists & multiple iPhones & keep track of progress as each item on the list is checked off throughout the day.

5. I Can Haz Cheezeburger – The entertainment application. It links to the online Cheezeburger Network sites as in FailBlog, Totally Looks Like, LOLCats & LOLDogs, Engrish Funny, & others providing endless humor on the go.

6. WeatherBug Elite – Are you going somewhere and you need to find out the latest weather forecast. WeatherBug will provide weather from the largest network of professional weather stations in the US & thousands of locations around the world.

7. Free Memory – The iPhone is great at multitasking. This at some occasions could lead to applications crashing. The Free Memory gets into the running process list & instantly frees up 40 MB of active memory, preventing the iPhone from freezing up & dropping its functions.

8. AT&T Easy Wi-Fi – This application simplifies the process of logging onto AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots all over the country. Simply install the application, register once & from then on whenever in the range of the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot, you will be logged on to the internet.

9. Kindle/Stanza – A digital book reader application. One of the many applications, that lets you download (for free or cheap) & read complete books.

10. Yelp! – The perfect application to help find whatever you need close to you. Look at business hours, contact info, reviews & maps to the location. A lifesaver!

Posted under Hardware

So youve heard about the iPhone virus? It seems like everyone has by now. But the pressing question is: Is there a virus out there? The answer to that is yes”It was developed over a two and a half week period by Charlie Miller, principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators. That begs the question: If Charlie did it, when will a malicious virus infect iPhone users and what can they do to protect themselves?

Mr. Miller learned that through the use of a malformed SMS message (a simple text message), the iPhone becomes confused and, in this confused state, it will process data within the message improperly, which would allow the iPhone and all data stored in it to become vulnerable to a remote hijacking. Through this window, a remote hijacker could gain complete control over your phone. They could watch you type text messages, input bank passwords, type emails, and so on. Not good.

Placed in the hands of a person skilled in the practice of programming for smart phones, millions of iPhones, Android phones and phones running Windows Mobile are at risk. And the scariest part is that this vulnerability could be combined with a remote command to install malware on the phone, which could turn the camera on or start recording sound, thus becoming like a bugging device out of a 007 flick.

What can you do? Unfortunately there is nothing that you can do about it right now except ask Apple and AT&T to hurry up and address the problem. In the end, because of the large number of iPhones and smartphones out there in the wild, there will be an increasing number of threats to your information. The only thing we can tell you is to protect your device. Stay up-to-date on potential threats and be sure to provide the proper armor to your iphones and other mobile devices.

Posted under Software