Mobile Phones
Mobile phones and smart phones are lifelines for many people. Many well-known mobile-phone companies have teamed up with high speed internet providers to offer us web and phone packages at prices too good to resist. With always-on web access, smart phones make it almost impossible to escape the lure of the internet. The ability to make important calls and emails wherever you are cuts down on time wasted in the office. However, these devices also have made us more available than ever before, seriously reducing our personal free time. It is hard to relax when you are always contactable by phone, text and email, not to mention through social-networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
To avoid being distracted by your mobile phone, turn it off if you are busy doing other things. If you can’t bear to switch it off completely, put it on silent mode so that you are safe in the knowledge that you can return the call later. You’ll be surprised how much more relaxed you’ll feel if you take time away from your mobile phone.

Computers
The internet is, without a doubt, one of the greatest technological achievements of the last century. Affordable ADSL packages, offered by all high speed internet providers, mean that the world is at our fingertips, wherever we are. From streaming TV shows and movies to video-conferencing facilities, the internet has revolutionised our personal and professional lives. However, the internet can also be a major distraction, affecting our concentration and impacting upon productivity. In order to combat internet-based procrastination, disable your modem if you are working on a presentation or block sites that you know will tempt you away from your work.
Overuse of computers can have negative effects on our interpersonal relationships, as face-to-face communication is replaced by email and social networking. However, simple changes in your use of gadgets can have great benefits on your physical and emotional well-being. Try to cut down on your use of technology to get in touch with those who live close by. Why not pop round to visit your friend instead of writing on her wall, or meet your partner for lunch instead of emailing him or her over a sandwich at your desk? Real-life human interaction is so much more satisfying than quick-fire technological exchanges.

Top Tips
There are plenty of things you can do to stop technology distracting you from work and interrupting your relaxation time. Coming up with a simple set of rules regarding the use of electronic equipment in the home can be helpful if you find gadgets particularly distracting. Computers, televisions and mobile phones should be banned from the bedroom, as they can disturb sleep and increase stress levels. Turning off mobile phones and avoiding checking emails outside of working hours will help you rediscover your work-life balance. Finally, try to limit your use of gadgets to one at a time to increase productivity and raise concentration levels.

About the Author:
Shannen D. is a Freelance and Staff writer who writes informative & creative articles on Technology for various technology company. Her expertise are in writing articles related to internet providers, internet service providers in my area related articles, Mobile Technology etc.

Along with airport information, you will also finds airline with best WiFi, best tech gears for traveling and tips to quickly get through airport security.

Via: Online MBA News

Personally, I found the Siri guide located at page 256 in very handy examples. I am sure I will go over the new 200 features that came with iOS5 when time permits.

You first, need to download and install the free iBook app in the app store, if you have not done so; tap on the store icon on top right corner to access to the store, search iPhone User Guide for iOS 5 (versions for iPad and iPod Touch are also available).   

You probably have seen demo video, in which the user asks Siri call my brother, text my mom, etc… Even with her super artificial intelligence, there is no way to get Siri understand without your help first. You’d need to establish the relationships and places in your contact list including your phone number, your work and home addresses, etc.. You can next tell Siri your relationship with others.. “Mary Anne Brombley is my mother” “John Deer is my brother”, etc.. Siri then will confirm and update your profile.

When you ask Siri to send a SMS text message, you can spell out punctuation such comma, question mark, exclamation point within the text, Siri is smart enough to insert the punctuation for you.

Since Siri is a talking tool, if you are at a public place and do not want to talk out loud, you can have your iPhone uses proximity sensor so Siri will activate when you put the phone to your ear .  Go to  Settings > General > Siri, and turn on "Raise to speak."

Some additional resources:
TUAW’s full list of commands you can use

The best way to learn more about Siri is to get the book entailed “Unleash the power of Apple’s intelligent assistant – Talking to Siri” – Published on 10/28/11. The book is written by two veterans of the Apple world, "Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple’s Intelligent Assistant" is a short, focused ebook that teaches readers how to use Siri from the ground up and achieve the highest recognition rates as you talk. You’ll discover practical how-to mixed with examples that inspire as well as instruct. Debuting on the iPhone 4S, the voice-driven Siri assistant uses natural language processing to answer questions, respond to commands, and provide assistance.

Talking to Siri covers:
* Creating notes
* Searching for contacts
* Going shopping with Siri
* Creating reminders and checking your calendar
* Replying to text messages and sending mail to groups
* Searching Wikipedia
* Monitoring the Stock Market
* Performing dictation
* The lighter side of Siri
* Siri security
* And more

Talking to Siri: http://www.sanddunetech.com
Purchase on Amazon HERE!

Here’s how you turn them on:

• Click Settings > General > Keyboard
• Click International Keyboards then select the Emoji keyboard.

Similar to switching to different keyboard, you tap on the globe key to rotate them. Once you are in the Emoji, the bottom row shows different set of emoticons to use; within each set, you can swipe left or right to see more. When you are done, just tap again the globe key to switch back to normal writing mode.

Note these emoticons are only readable amongst iOS devices. For instance, use them in SMS if you are sure the recipient is also using iOS device (that case you should use iMessage instead of SMS).  Similarly to emails. See all the emoticons HERE!

[Via Zdnet]

For your video projects, FreeVideoCutter is also a great handy tool. Unfortunately it is not Web based.

[via & photo LifeHacker]

The good news for businesses is that there are actually real people using Twitter to connect with brands, recommend products, and spread messages. If you are running a small business or trying to promote a blog, there is a good chance that people who follow you on Twitter are going to be more loyal to your brand than anyone else.

A report on Mashable indicates that 60 percent of people who follow a brand on Twitter are likely to recommend it to their friends and 50 percent are more likely to buy products from the brand. By starting an open dialogue with your followers, you can increase your customer base and gain valuable word of mouth marketing from those who follow you.

One of the best reasons people follow brands on Twitter is to find deals on products. Concert venues often give away free tickets to people who follow them. Computer stores offer laptop deals to their customer base quite frequently. Restaurants are more prone to comp meals and give away free desserts to those who keep updated with them through Twitter. Keeping your followers satisfied and happy with your company is a simple thing to do on Twitter.

According to research by the Constant Contact firm, most people follow brands on Twitter in order to receive exclusive messages and feel like they are better connected than the average person. The report indicates that 21 percent of people follow as many as 10 brands on Twitter. The majority of people who use the social networking website are very young and fall into the coveted 18-34 demographic that businesses cherish and cater to. Instead of actively seeking these people out, Twitter allows users to seek you out and start interactions with them.

Twitter has become an excellent addition to any company’s marketing mix. With the integration of the service onto the iPhone and the ability to upload photographs into a well organized gallery, the service is faster and more convenient than Facebook. Just because there are a lot of people abusing the website, doesn’t mean that you have to give up on it.

If you register your iPhone, iPad to iCloud, you will see in our photo app, along with your photo roll, another photo album appears called Photo Stream. newly taken photos will show-up in the Photo Roll as well as Photo Stream. Photo Stream is basically representing an image of account Cloud space residing on Apple server farm. Same Photo Stream can be seen on all the participant devices.

The idea is great, if you are in possession at all time all of your iDevices, but like many households, people might share all the iPad, Mac, PC at home having under the same account.

Now is the headache part,.  taking whatever snapshots with your phone and your photos will be seen on all other devices as soon as you are within the WiFi coverage. In normal situation, you do not have choice of which photo to be or not to be sent once you are in a WiFi coverage, your new photos will be pushed automatically to other devices. Once they are broadcasted, there is no way to remove them selectively on the iCloud space nor on other devices…

Below are few tips for your consideration.

1. If you have the service turned on, be very careful about what you are taking; in case, accidently you already took your “unwanted” photos; delete them from your photo roll before you get in to a WiFi coverage.
2. If you find photos already in your Photo Stream and you want to delete them, again you have to delete them all. Go to iCloud.com on your browser, Sign in >  Click on your name located on top right corner >  click on Advanced >  Reset Photo Stream.
3. After you reset Photo Stream in iCloud, all the individual Photo Streams located on all devices are still there; you have to go to each of them manually to turn off iCloud Photo Stream service as below described. Upon completion, all of them will be then removed for good.
   • On your iOS device, you can remove photos from the Photo Stream view by turning off Photo Stream and then optionally turning it back on. You can do this at Settings > iCloud > Photo Stream. If you added any Photo Stream photos to other albums or the Camera Roll on your iOS device, you can locate and delete these photos manually, if desired.
   • On your Mac, you can clear cached photos from the Photo Stream view in iPhoto or Aperture by turning off Photo Stream and then optionally turning it back on. You can do this in each application by visiting Preferences > Photo Stream. If you had Automatic Import enabled in your Photo Stream settings, your Photo Stream photos were also imported to your iPhoto or Aperture Library, and will remain after you disable Photo Stream. If you would like to delete any of these photos from your library, you can to do so manually any time you like.
   • On your PC, you can remove Photo Stream photos by deleting them from your designated Photo Stream Download Folder. By default, this folder is located at C:\Users\Apple\Pictures\Photo Stream\My Photo Stream.
4. Remember turn on/off or reset will have effect on all your shared photos located in Photo Stream
5. Photo Stream only works with new photos. If you have old photos you want to share, use one of the third party photo app read them and rewrite them back. They are considered new and will be shared.

I hope this helps!

Below are the three quick steps to enable iCloud on your Windows PC

1. Download the iCloud Control Panel: To enable iCloud on your Windows PC, install the iCloud Control Panel for Windows (Windows Vista Service Pack 2 or Windows 7 required).
   Download now
2. Turn on iCloud. From the Windows Start menu, choose Control Panel > Network and Internet > iCloud.
   Enter the Apple ID you used to create your iCloud account and select the iCloud services you’d like to enable. Outlook 2007 or 2010 is required for accessing iCloud email, contacts, and calendars. Safari 5.1.1 or Internet Explorer 8 or later is required for accessing bookmarks.
3. Enable automatic download: To enable automatic downloads for your music, apps, and books, open iTunes > Edit > Preferences > Store and select Music, Apps, and Books. (Requires iTunes 10.5.)

iCloud Photo stream is a great way to instantly share photos taken without intervention, but it also could create some embarrassing situations, knowing we do not carry all the idevices at all time. Your iPhone is with you but your iPad, PC or Mac are sitting at home… So please pay extra care when taking photos. Apple however gives you a way to reset your photo stream, should you inadvertently shot unwanted photos.

To Reset your Photo Stream, follow these instructions:

1. From a computer browser, go to icloud.com and sign in.
2. Click on your name on the iCloud home page (this is the page that shows all the app icons). If you do not see your name, click the cloud icon in the top left of the page.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Here you will see the Reset Photo Stream button. Clicking this button will remove all your Photo Stream photos from iCloud. Once removed, they cannot be recovered, but you can re-upload any photos you’d like to restore to your Photo Stream from a Mac or PC.
   Technorati Tags: iCloud,Photo,Stream,Delete,Reset,Windows

I’m sure you know Justin Beiber if you’re reading this. The guy already has 10 million followers on Twitter at the time of this writing, he has over 30 million Facebook fans and he is widely known in every part of the world. His success might seem great and impossible, but the good news is that his career was kick started on Youtube.

A single video going viral on Youtube can mean the difference in your success or failure as an internet marketer and this article will be giving you a few tips to help you get more views for your Youtube videos.

Have Rich and Attractive Titles

Just like it is with writing your next blog post or writing that ad for your squeeze page, having a keyword rich and attractive title can make a huge difference in how successful your videos will be. The reason for this is that the attractiveness of your video title will mean the difference in how many people are interested in watching it and it will also have more chances of appearing in search results if it is keyword rich.

For example, if I’m trying to create a video encouraging people to get healthy by making use of Medifast and Nutrisystem I will be able to get better results if I use a title like “The Power of Medifast and Nutrisystem – get Healthy without the Troubles”.

If you take a look at the title you will see that it is attractive in that it will be able to attract people who want to the healthy without much troubles and it also contains my two major keywords “nutrisystem” and “medifast”.

Make Effective Use of Your Keywords in Video Tags and Descriptions
The next step is to make effective use of your keywords in video tags and descriptions. While your video title might help you attract people it is important to know that a lot of video search engines depend on your tags and descriptions to know what your video is all about and what keywords it should be ranked for.

In my own case I can have a description like "Being healthy is very important and should be the priority of any wise human being. In this video I explain how medifast and nutrisystem can contribute to a healthy life”.

I can also tag the video with “medifast, nutrisystem, health, good health, fitness” (each tag is separated by a comma).

Just by doing what I list above, my video will have a 70% more chance of ranking than all other videos on Youtube when people search for any of those two keywords.

It is also very important that you’re not too aggressive with your approach – you need to ensure you effectively use your keywords without coming across as aggressive to those who watch your videos.

Be Active on Other Videos to Get More Exposure to Your Profile
It might take some time to get the initial boost you need for your videos to go viral but every system is dependent on every member of the system so it is important to make effective use of this to your advantage. Try to look for the most popular videos in your field and also your popular friends. Make it a duty to always comment on their videos regularly and you will be able to attract more people to view your videos while at the same time gaining several internal links from the video site.

Guest post: John Smith is an expert video marketer and guest blogger who helps people find the best discount and coupon deals for top online products, such as the popular Nutrisystem and Medifast. He also discovered the best nutrisystem coupon codes and medifast promotional codes

Zillow

Zillow has some great features that allows you to search for properties. You can check out real estate renters and purchasers through this application. There is a built in GPS that will bring you up to the minute marketplace information as you walk or drive through towns and neighbourhoods searching for the perfect home. If you are looking to buy or rent a property and need information on your phone, then Zillow is a must-download.

The best part is that Zillow does not even cost anything. It is a free application that you can download from the iTunes store, and has some terrific features. Here are some of Zillow’s features:

• Rent Zestimates can also tell you the rental value of these types of real estate properties.
• You can categorize your searches based on what features you are looking for, such as the number of bedrooms or the price.
• There are features to arrange properties based on their monthly rent.
• All your searches can be saved so you can quickly look them up instead of having to set the search settings every time.
• You can also enter some searches into the favorites section, so you know which houses you searched for and liked more than others.
• Every time there are new properties available, you will get an alert this app.
• Can be integrated with social networking.
• Has great maps with high quality resolution.

Around Me

This is another great iPhone app that will help you find areas of interest that may be around the property you are looking at. With this application, you can search for grocery stores, shopping plazas, hotels, hospitals and other medical facilities, theaters, as well as schools and colleges.

This is another free application, making it even more desirable. Like Zillow, Around me has built in GPS that enables you to search for points of interest based on where you are currently located. This app is available in nine countries, plus the United States, is also a useful app if you are exploring new countries.

The Dictionary of Real Estate Terms

A great application that can be bought for $1.99. The Dictionary of Real Estate Terms provides an extensive glossary of different real estate terms are and what they mean. All real estate terms have very comprehensible definitions, so if you get confused by some of the legal and real estate jargon, with this app you’re only a touch away from knowing what it really means.

My Own Loan

This is a calculator based application that allows you to figure out what your monthly home loan payments are going to be, and how these may change if the interest rate increases or decreases over the repayment period. This app is a bit dearer at $4.99 to download and its key features are:

• ·How many mortgage payment have been made and how many are left
• The impact of an over payment and remaining monthly payments
• How each payment will vary depending on interest rate changes
• Provides key data to decide which mortgage or loan is the right one for you

Houzz Interior Design Thoughts

This is a fantastic application, is free to download, and allows you to come up with different design ideas for your home. If you are thinking about changing the color of the walls or looking to see what new furniture you can add, then you can use this application to see the different designing options you have. You can check out designs for every room in the house, even the bathrooms, and then decide what furniture you may need and how everything will look once it is set up.

Bio

Guest Post by Andrew Potter writes for My Online Estate Agent a low cost online estate agent that advertises property on Rightmove, Zoopla, Find a Property and Primelocation.

You no longer need to buy expensive large storage capacity devices such the 64GB iPad or 32GB iPhone, etc.. to enjoy your movies on the go. The solution also helps to alleviate data usage if you stream from the Web.

The GoFlex Satellite device goes wherever your iPad or Android tablet goes and lets you wirelessly access all your movies, photos, music and documents. No more worrying about running out of space on your mobile device.

• 500GB of storage capacity
• Up to 5 hours battery life
• Up to 25 hours standby time
• USB 3.0/ 2.0
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Wi-Fi range of more than 30 feet

Media files can be first sync or transferred by plugging the GoFlex Satellite device into your PC or Mac computer with USB cable, both USB 3.0 and 2.0 are supported. Upon completion, you can take the device with you and strat using on your mobile devices.

The 500GB GoFlex costs around $180, available everywhere.

Sendoid, formerly known as iSendr is a new concept of file transfer. Sender just initiates the process in the browser and obtains a link immediately. Only when the recipient launches the link in the browser then the transfer starts. The sender can select option to allow single or multiple downloads.

The transfer is executed in a peer-to-peer fashion between the sender and the recipient.  The file is not stored on  Sendoid server and once the sender closes the browser session, the sharing terminates.

Sendoid offers optionally a security via a user-set password at the end-point.  Once started, transfers utilize 128-bit AES encryption. 

From now on, just go to maps.google.com, you can add the weather layer easily Just hover over the widget in the upper right corner and select the weather layer from the list of options.

Just select the location, you’ll see a map with icons showing current weather conditions. The information are from weather.com. Clicking on the icon will give further weather forecast details.

Users can change the units of wind speed (Mph/KMph/Mps) and temperature (F/C), and enabling or disabling the clouds (when you’re zoomed out), can also be done from the left-hand panel.

Do you know that the majority of broadband internet users are not even getting half the speed they are supposed to be getting? And in most cases the problem isn’t really with the ISP but with the internet user and maybe his/her computer. Below are a few tips to help you speed up your broadband internet connection to a great extent.

Ensure You Have the Right Devices The first step you have to take towards ensuring you start experiencing optimal broadband internet speed is to ensure you have the right device to make sure this is possible. You won’t get the best from your broadband internet if all you’re doing is managing things. To really get the best from your broadband internet you need to go and ditch that 1999 modem and start using the latest. You need to ensure your computer hardware and software is up to date and you need to ensure you have the right router. Stop trying to manage things. Make sure you invest your time and money into getting the right devices and you will be happy you did so on the long run.

Try Freeing up Your Computer The next step you have to take towards ensuring you start getting better broadband internet speed is to free up your computer. By freeing up your computer I mean you need to free up every aspect of your computer that is cluttered and that might be slowing it down. This includes freeing up your hard disk by uninstalling useless software applications from your computer, it also means freeing up your computer by removing all the icons you don’t need from your desktop. A lot of people don’t know it yet, but freeing up your computer from clutter and ensuring that it is stable can lead to a 50% increase in your broadband internet speed. Start focusing more efforts on taking care of your computer and you will notice that your internet connection will become very fast too.

Make Use of a Proxy Service The final tip on this list towards ensuring your internet connection is very stable is to start making use of a proxy service. In most cases when your broadband internet is slow the problem might be with the server of the website you are trying to access, probably because it is very far away from you and you can easily take care of this situation by using a proxy server that automatically adjusts servers based on the location of the website you are visiting or you might want to try a reliable proxy service that has strong servers in a strong location and that can access almost any website. A great proxy service I will recommend is the one offered by the Your Freedom website.

Guest Post: Paul is a tech enthusiast who writes about broadband internet for Broadband Expert.