How to use Flashphone and Nonoh for free calls

We discussed about Flashphone last week and how they restarted their "free calls" service. Unfortunately the service somehow never worked for anyone. We told Flasphone team about this bug and waiting for them to update us on this. In the mean time, Flashphone team has shared with us a video tutorial to use Flashphone with Nonoh to make free calls. Here is the video tutorial : The video unfortunately doesn't have audio enabled (only occasional). However its pretty much self-explanatory. To quickly summarise, I am putting down some key steps. 1) You need to register at Flashphone 2) You need to then visit your Flashphone account Manager. 3) Now Add Nonoh SIP account details. Nonoh SIP server: sip.nonoh.net. Use your Nonoh username and password. 4) Once added, you would see a new SIP provider profile in account page. 5) Now go back to flashphone homepage and login. 6) Flash phone will launch. Enter your number and make calls. Note: Nonoh calling rates will apply. Please check nonoh fair usage policy if you exceed free calls limit. On a sidenote, you can achieve the same thing with Tringme and Gtalk2voip. Both works absolutely similar to Flashphone. In gtalk2voip, you can even set dialing pattern for each country. Hope you enjoy the Flashphone Tutorial. If you have any suggestions, Please drop under comments. Flashphone team visit VOIP Guide often and should be more than happy to implement some of them.

Lingo 3 months FREE VOIP service coupon

We received confirmed news that Lingo VOIP 3 months FREE Service coupon code is set to expire on 8th March. That's only 4 days to go. After 4 days, you will no longer get the same promotion. You will not only have to more but you would not get 3 months totally free service. If you want to check out the review of the service, We reviewed Lingo VOIP last month. Lingo VOIP has good reputation and its no non-sense service. Offers good old VOIP telephony at affordable rates. For quick reference, here are the Lingo VOIP Plans: With the 3 months FREE Promotion, you would also get: 1) FREE unlimited calling to other In-Network Lingo subscribers 2) Local Number Portability so you can keep your existing phone number 3) Lingo Phone Adapter/ Lingo Router (Linksys Adapter given away to you for FREE) Go get Lingo VOIP Today.

Free international Call - How to FAQ

This is the second series of the FAQ I posted some days back. I had been receiving numberous emails/comments from visitors all across the globe. Almost all of them asking for free international call to/from their country. Although, Free international calls to various countries is still not possible. I will try my best to include countries which are most popular among my visitors or they recently asked for. Question1: I want to make free international calls to Bangladesh. I live in Malaysia. Can you help? Answer: Currently Bangladesh is tightening their rules and trying to keep VOIP under a tight regulation. However there is a service which can help you till the market is isolated by the government. The solution is to use Low rate voip Question2: I am a small businessman in India and have some clients in USA & Canada. I am currently using IDD or Calling cards and sometimes messengers to communicate. But my business requires regular interaction. Can you give me any solution to make free international call to USA & Canada? Answer: You can make free calls to USA & Canada from India. This is not limited to India but available to all other countries. The solution is to use iCall Question 3: I am in singapore but my parents live in Argentina, Can i make free calls to argentina? Additionally, is it possible to call Brazil? Answer: If you live in singapore, you have a added advantage. Singapore is known to a totally FREE VOIP country with minimal regulations for VOIP and telecommunications. One of the most advanced telecom countries in the world to say the least. That means you can make and receive calls in Singapore on landline and mobile both for free. Now coming back to your question, You can call argentina using Voipcheap, voip discount, voipstunt etc. Question 4: Is it possible to make free calls to India? This was asked by almost 100 odd people over email :-) & Why India is never listed under Free calling destinations? Let me first answer the second interesting question. India is a traditional telecom country with one of the most stringent regulations. On top of it, it's dominated by the local telcos such as BSNL, MTNL and in private sector, Bharati, Essar & Reliance. There are billions of dollars at stake in the telcom industry which these big punters dont want to give away for FREE. Afterall, they want to cash on your pockets as much as they can till free voip becomes evident and a household name. At the same time, Government makes every attempt not to promote VOIP and benefit the telcos. You know why dont you :-) Now, what about making free international calls to India? I would say YES and No both. Why no? Because its not possible to make free calls to india, since indian telecom companies charge the VOIP companies for terminating a call on landline or mobile in india. That sucks but it's true. Then you must be wondering how come there are providers who still offer free calls to India. Yes, there are some providers such as Gizmocall who offer free international calls to india. They basically operate in deep pockets and pay off for the termination charge from other paid service. Trust me this model falls off once the difference is huge. But till its there, you can use Gizmocall to make free calls to India Question 5: I want to make free international call to russia & Czech Republic. Do you know any voip providers offering free calls to russia and czech republic? Yes, Voipcheap & VoipDiscount offers free calls to Russia Landline. Similarly, they offer free international calls to Czech Republic landline only. Question 6: I am in India and have aunt in UK, England. Since we have IDD at home, My parents always call her. However the charges are heavy for a IDD call. It seems you have some solution for free international call to UK. Can you share? UK is another country, owned by local telcos. I mean literally, 02 (BT), orange and T-mobile owns the mobile market and have always charged hefty termination charge for international calls. However, Voipcheap, Mediaring allows free international calls to UK landline only. I hope the above Question Answer FAQ session has answered most of the queries directed to me on emails/comments on this blog. You can drop comments if you want any specific answers or if you are looking for free international in your country. I will try to find a solution for you as i always do. If you would like to share your experiences about VOIP, Please send me your review on ut(dot)godmode(at)gmail.com. If i like your review, It will be featured on this blog. You can send in your picture aong with it :-)

Google Loves VOIP Guide

Yes. Its true. Google indeed loves VOIP Guide. After 1 year and 3 month of existence on the internet, Free VOIP Guide is now officially a "Authority Site" according to Google. Google gives important to websites with specific subject expertise such as VOIP, FREE VOIP etc. It was about time that we got the authority status for "VOIP Guide" keyword. You can try this yourself. Just go to Google and type voip guide. See what you get. You should see something like this: We are excited to see that all the hard work behind VOIP Guide has paid off. I would like to thank everyone who visit the blog daily, comment, contribute or help in any way to make this a better place. If you have already noticed, VOIP Guide is all set to break the 10000 Feedburner Feed subscriber barrier. You can contribute to make us break it by subscribing to VOIP Guide Finally, We are actively looking for Advertisers. If you own a Calling card, VOIP or anything related to VOIP Business, then do get in touch with us at ut(dot)godmode@gmail.com for more information. Let me clear this, we don't work with affiliates/MFA websites. Only legitimate Telephone and VOIP firms may contact.

Globe7 v8.0 Released! free calls voip

Globe7 is a tiny application integrated with SoftPhone, IM, Videos, Games, News and many more opt-in widgets like Live TV, Live Radio, Astrology, Forex, Movies, Pets, Recipes, Sports for your complete entertainment, information and communication.

Now Make VOIP Calls from any mobile

(For full text with comments please click on the title)

Don't have the latest Nokia handset? Your handset not supported by Mobile VOIP providers? Still using good old Nokia handset bought in 90s? No worries. Now Tringme has got you covered. Tringme today launch a revolutionary (Patent Pending) Mobile VOIP service which will enable anyone to make VOIP calls using any handset (absolutely any handsets even reliance and tata indcom handsets will work) with just a simple SMS to Tringme Gateway. If you look at the markets like India, this is going to be one of the significant and valuable service for a common man who have no other mean to access VoIP. Till today, we had Fring and Truphone leading the Mobile VOIP scene however there are restrictions. They only support selected handsets. Now with Tringme, this goes to a new level altogether with almost anyone can use Mobile VOIP as long as they have a mobile and can send SMS :-) Again Yusuf (Tringme's Founder and my close friend) said in his writeup, "In developing countries like India, more than 80% mobile users do not have data connection on their mobile. And for the remaining ones who have it, data connection is poor to have any effective real time communication like VoIP. We strongly believe that to make Mobile-VoIP a common-place technology, it needs to cater to the lowest-end mobile devices, devices which can just make voice-calls and do SMS." (source: TRAI). Secondly, Smartphones only constituted 10% of the total mobiles sold last year (source: Symbian market share data). So almost 90% of mobile users (which translates to millions of users) – a fairly big share of market – are devoid of using Mobile-VoIP via their existing mobile devices. Lets see how you can use the service. It’s very easy to use this service. The alpha pilot is currently only available in India. You can send an SMS to 91- 9980153695 to try out this service. Please follow the instructions below: 1 - Register with TringMe if you haven’t already. 2- Register the mobile with TringMe from which one wants to make the low cost worldwide call. User can register their mobile with their TringMe account by sending an SMS as follows: tringme reg 3) A confirmation message will be received about success of the registration. Making Calls Once registered, user can make worldwide calls, not only to the phones but to Gtalk, SIP URI etc by merely sending an SMS as follows: tringme for example, to call a US number 1-(858)-555-1212, one only need to send a SMS "tringme 18585551212" Users can also call millions of worldwide SIP users just by using SIP URI as follows: tringme To make a call to a registered TringMe user, send an SMS as follows: tringme This will establish a call from the originator’s mobile device to the caller’s currently configured termination device. For example, if user has chose to receive call on Gtalk, sending above SMS will connect your phone to his or her Gtalk. You can even schedule a call for later time, say for a business meeting or conference. TringMe understand time in plain english and you can specify absolute date and time or in relative terms. You can schedule it in one of several ways: tringme 18585551212 next week 11:30AM tringme 18585551212 March 17, 2008 11:30AM tringme 18585551212 tomorrow 11:30AM As many of you know, I work closely with Tringme, so your feedback is much appreciated. Secondly, we got a big annoucement. We reduced the rates by over 20-25% to many destionations including India. Now Calls to India are at 3.99c per minute only. This is India wide Landline + Mobile any network.

Go register at Tringme and make cheap calls around the world.

Have your Mac call you

Here's a clever hack - Use Skype, Applescript, and iTunes to make phone calls and play audio files automatically. Link. Pictured here, the Skype payphone.

Aircell Names In-Flight Service, Targets Spring

Om Malik reports straight from the CEO’s mouth that Aircell’s in-flight broadband service will be called gogo: Their Web site is live, but watch out for the audio in the Flash intro—I thought someone was pounding on my door. CEO Jack Blumenstein told Malik of GigaOm that service will cost $12.95 for cross-country flights and $9.95 for flights of three hours’ duration or less, commensurate with earlier reports. They’re working with aggregators and corporate resellers, as well as lower-rate plans for handhelds like the iPhone, and frequent flyer flat-rate plans. I expect given their costs and the advantages of loyalty, Aircell could charge as little as $100 per month for unlimited use, and all involved would be happy about this. I would expect real price sensitivity above $100 per month.

Malik gets a few previously unknown technical details out of Blumenstein: the system’s capacity is intended to be 250,000 broadband users; it’s currently operational even though not in use; and they plan to increase their current number of 92 antennas to 500 when fully deployed.

Wee-Fi: Find Me (Too Easily?), Phila.’s Cost of No-Cost Wi-Fi

MyLoki lets you tell your friends perhaps too much about where you are right now: Skyhook Wireless’s Loki service and developer’s kit allows embedded JavaScript in Web pages to extract your current location based on the Wi-Fi environment around you with your permission. A new offering from the firm called MyLoki lets you publish your location via a public Web page, a Facebook application, RSS, and a Web page. I’m not ecstatic about the granularity offered. The public page lets you publish your exact location, but nothing less exact, and no “buddy” privileges. You can publish your current city through the other means, but nothing more granular. A map badge for your Web site can show country, state, city, postal code, or exact location. Further refinement is clearly needed, as different people I know need to know where I am (or not at all) at varying levels of exactness.

Phila. pays $200,000 for Wi-Fi management: The Wireless Philadelphia non-profit that manages the incomplete Phila. network gets help from an outside consulting firm which works with the city’s chief information officer. The $200,000 cost in the current fiscal year is booked to the city, and the numbers weren’t hidden, it certainly wasn’t transparent that these costs accrued to the “no-cost to the city” project. The future of the network is uncertain given EarthLink’s stated intent to sell it; the city may buy it and contract with another firm for completion.

Violin-playing robot

I remember when it was all about which robot could run or ride a bicycle, now it's which one can play the violin... -

Toyota Motor Corp.'s new violin robot performs during a press unveiling in Tokyo Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007. Compared to a virtuoso, its rendition was a trifle stilted and, well, robotic. But Toyota's new robot plays a pretty solid "Pomp and Circumstance" on the violin. The 152-centimeter (five-foot)-tall all-white robot used its mechanical fingers to push the strings correctly and bowed with its other arm, coordinating the movements well.

Violin-playing robot - [via] Link.

Related: Murata boy - bicycle riding robot - Link.

QRIO and AIBO, the memories (huge photo gallery) - Link.

BIOLOID - DIY educational robot kits

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 I was happy to see Robotis's BIOLOID, these are somewhat well-known humanoid robot kits, but they're also more than that - you can make spiders, probes, turtles, dino and excavator bots -- a lot more fun when you get tired of people-bots walking around.

More:

• Robotis- Link.
• More photos of Robotis BIOLOID @ Flickr - Link.
• Giant set of NYC Toy fair 2008 photos @ Flickr - Link.
• MAKE's coverage of the NYC Toy Faire 2008 in one place! - Link.

Erector sets and more (iPod & iPhone robots, R2D2 projectors...)

@The NYC Toy fair 2008 Erector was there, perhaps best known for Erector sets - but these folks had a mind blowing product line that I didn't expect. They have a series of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth robots that work with iPhones and iPods and controllable from anywhere in the world.

They had their "classic" Erector set on display, but that's no match for this giant creature.

Lastly, they licensed R2-D2 from Star Wars and sorta went nuts - this R2 unit is a real home projects, web camera, DVD player, iPod / iPhone stereo - and a robot you can control from anywhere. When it needs to project, it tilts back and projects a stunning image just like any other home projector. Obi-Wan you're my only hope, and $3,000+ dollars. It's not released - this was it's debut.

Oh, it's remote is a Millennium Falcon, of course.

More:

• Erector - Link.
• More photos of Erector @ Flickr - Link.
• Giant set of NYC Toy fair 2008 photos @ Flickr - Link.
• MAKE's coverage of the NYC Toy Faire 2008 in one place! - Link.

Google: Android will outsell iPhone, we still love ya Steve

Watching Google tiptoe around its relationship with Apple as it rolls out Android is one of the most enjoyable aspects of watching the industry these days. This is perfectly illustrated in the words of Rich Miner, group manager for Google's mobile platforms, who said, "there's a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone." A truthful statement in all likelihood assuming that the OS is robust upon its global release later this year and available on handsets from HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and LG as expected. Miner then took a few shots at the iPhone SDK saying, "There are things I saw people doing with the first version of the Android SDK that it seems like you can't do with the iPhone at least at the moment." He then noted that the SDK had been downloaded 750,000 time (compared to Apple's 100k in 4 days) as of February. Naturally, he then applied a thick, brown coat of public relations salve saying, "[If I were a developer] I'd certainly be looking at the iPhone, and if you believe there will be lots of Android phones out there, as we do, I'd be developing for both platforms." Kumbaya my BossEricSchmidtSitsOnTheAppleBoard, kumabaya...

Robotic dream playback

"Sleep Waking" by Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns presents a new way to look back on one's dreams. EEG, EKG, REM, and various other physical data is logged during the subject's sleep and then later used as the script to direct robotic action -

The eye position data we simply apply to the position the robot's heads is looking. So if my eye was looking left, the robot looks left. The use of the EEG data is a bit more complex. Running it through a machine learning algorithm, we identified several patterns from a sample of the data set (both REM and non-REM events). We then associated preprogrammed robot behaviors to these patterns. Using the patterns like filters, we process the entire data set, letting the robot act out each behavior as each pattern surfaces in the signal. Periods of high activity (REM) where associated with dynamic behaviors (flying, scared, etc.) and low activity with more subtle ones (gesturing, looking around, etc.). The "behaviors" the robot demonstrates are some of the actions I might do (along with everyone else) in a dream.

What? No electric sheep? - Link

Steam powered rowboat

Crabfu has made another amazing steam powered vehicle. From the video, it looks like they are still in the development phase, but it works really well. I am sure the final boat will be just as amazing as the other steam-powered vehicles. - Link Related: RC controlled steam beetle - Link Maker Faire: Steam turbine tank - Link

Wii-controlled robo-blimp

Today on BBtv, Xeni talks with Wired's Chris Anderson and "airplane geek" Jordi Munoz about blimp-based aerial drones. Through his DIYDrones site, Chris is on a mission to create an under $100 UAV.

The robo-blimp used in the vehicle shown in the vid is based on Jed Berk's Blubber Bot design, featured on the cover of MAKE Volume 12. You can buy the Blubber Bot kit in the Maker Store.

Robotic drum teacher

A device for "recording" and "playing back" drumstick motions involved in percussion performance. It is being used in a serious of experiments designed to test the effect of physical guidance on motor learning.

HAptic GUidance System (HAGUS) - Link

The Propeller based QuadRover

Everyone knows I am a fan of Parallax, but I am not too sure if I can justify this purchase any time soon. However, this might be a good starting point for your autonomous robot project. It would save a lot of time designing the power plant and hydraulics. Then again, it might qualify for a remake. I have to admit, I am a little disappointed it ships assembled, since building something like this is half the fun!

This giant gas-powered robot sports a 4-stroke engine and hydraulic power train. It is controlled by a Propeller chip for the ultimate in customizable robots; eight 32-bit cogs at 20 MIPS each create endless programming possibilities. A 64 KB EEPROM leaves 32 KB for non-volatile data storage, and ample expansion ports provide plenty of flexibility for added sensors.

The Propeller based QuadRover - Link

HOW TO - Turn a Windows Mobile 6 device into a WiFi router

Jason writes -

WMWifiRouter is a new utility that you can run on your WiFi-capable WM6 device to turn it into a GPRS-uplinked WiFi router. When activated, it will set up your WiFi link in ad-hoc mode and start a DHCP server. Your laptop will see a new network called WMWifiRouter, and connecting to it will funnel all of your network traffic through your phone and its GPRS connection.

It used to be that you had to use a separate laptop connected to your phone to do the routing and network address translation side of things. This hack will allow you connect 1 or more WiFi laptops anywhere where you can get a cell connection, and you can do it without additional hardware. All you need is your phone.

Why isn't this available as part of the base WM6 operating system?

More:

• WMWifiRouter - Link
• WMWifiRouter forum discussion at xda-developers.com - Link

WiMAX-enabled VoIP phone showcased at Mobile World Congress

Ridiculous quantities of 3G handsets weren't the only things showed off at this year's Mobile World Congress -- oh no, NetIndex, Kaga Electronics and Runcom shook up the norm a bit with their WiMAX-enabled portable VoIP phone. Reportedly, the trio joined forces to develop a VoIP handset that utilized a 802.16e module, and aside from "realizing all-IP voice communication," it also sports a web browser and integrated WiFi for times when a plain ole hotspot will do. Sadly, we've no idea where this thing will go after it leaves Barcelona (nor what it looks like), but here's to hoping it makes a commercial debut -- and can decide on a single logo -- in the not-too-distant future.

BT calls for action on net speeds

By Rory Cellan Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News

What broadband speed are you clocking up?

The UK's largest broadband supplier has called for the industry to be clearer about how it advertises net speeds.

BT Wholesale, which supplies eight million people, said many customers were disappointed by the mismatch between advertised and actual speeds.

An independent survey found that 15% of people who bought eight megabit per second packages actually got the speed.

The firm said regulators needed to agree rules about how broadband speeds could be sold to the public.

"The reality is we are all trying to push the technology," Guy Bradshaw of BT Wholesale told BBC News.

"The industry needs to join together with Ofcom to agree a set of principles as to how these messages should be communicated and advertised so that the understanding with the consumer is as accurate as it can be."

Traffic problems

BT said that, while its DSL Max product offers a range of speeds up to eight megabits per second (Mbps), it tells its customers - the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - that actual speeds will vary from user to user.

Cameron Rejali, Managing Director of Products at BT Wholesale, said it is up to the ISPs how they market broadband, "but if they are marketing it badly, the market will punish them."

BT said users need to know that there is a difference between the line speed - what the line between their home and the exchange can support - and what it describes as "throughput", a measure of the data coming down the line during an activity such as the downloading of a video.

Only 35% of BT's DSL Max customers are achieving an eight mbps line speed - the rest will see their speed cut by factors such as distance from the exchange, poor equipment, and interference from electrical appliances.

But none of these five million users will achieve eight mbps "throughput" because of internet congestion and other network issues.

"The reality is if you are very far from an exchange or there are environmental factors then your speed will come down and there is not much we can do in the short-term to address that problem," said Mr Bradshaw.

Ofcom is currently reviewing the way broadband is marketed to consumers.

A spokeswoman said: "Whilst there are technical reasons why a consumer may not get the full speed of the package to which they have signed up the key point is that consumers should be able to make an informed decision about what broadband package is best for them at the point of purchase."

Tata rolls out "world's largest" commercial WiMAX network in India

It seems as if Tata Communications is out to one-up BSNL -- or at least claim its share of the limelight, anyway. More specifically, the outfit has teamed up with Telsima in order to roll out the "world's largest commercial WiMAX network" in India. Over 5,000 enterprise / retail customers are already connected in ten cities, and there are plans in place to secure nearly a quarter million customers in retail alone during fiscal year 2009. Furthermore, we're hearing that the services should be stretched to 110 cities for enterprise users and 15 cities for the retail segment by the year's end, but users in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Kolkata are the only ones celebrating at the moment. Not a bad way to grab a bit more market share from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, eh?

Google Sites Aims at Sharepoint

Microsoft developers I talk to always point to SharePoint as the linchpin of Redmond’s stranglehold on the enterprise. Google Sites, which grew out of Google’s acquisition of wiki service JotSpot, aims squarely at that chokepoint.

Google Apps is seeing adoption with enterprises big and small — especially in the Long Tail of small — so this new addition to the suite should be a shoo-in. Microsoft may disagree, but it’s hard to argue with free.

AOL acquires Bebo social network

Bebo has 40 million members worldwide

Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for $850m (£417m) in cash.

Bebo is the third-biggest social networking site in the US, behind MySpace and Facebook.

AOL says that Bebo has more than 40 million members worldwide who view an average of 78 pages per day each.

The price-tag is tiny when compared with the valuations of similar websites. Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook last year for $240m.

Online advertising

News Corp bought MySpace for $580m in 2005 but now estimates that it is worth more than $15bn.

TOP NETWORKING SITES MySpace Facebook Flickr Hi5 Friendster Perfspot Orkut Dada Bebo Skyrock Network Source: ComScore

Social networking sites are seen as a valuable location for online advertising, because members post information about themselves and can then be targeted with products and services likely to appeal to them.

The transaction comes at a time when Time Warner is considering splitting its business to part company with its AOL unit.

Bebo was the world's ninth most popular social networking site in January, according to the internet statistics provider ComScore, which also ranked it as the second most visited in the UK.

It was founded in California by Michael Birch, a British entrepreneur, who still owns a big stake in the business and so will make a great deal from the sale.

While Facebook made all the media noise last year, Bebo was in some ways more innovative BBC Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones Read more of Rory's thoughts on Dot.Life

Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst for Nielsen Online, said: "It comes as no great surprise to see another traditional publisher buying in to the power of the social networking phenomenon.

"Microsoft did it with Facebook, News Corp did it with MySpace so Bebo was the next logical target."

He added: "Bebo has an incredibly strong brand identity, particularly with the teenage and young adult market, so it will be very interesting to see how AOL makes best use of their new youthful Trojan horse."

This old but something new to old MAC AIR BOOK AGAIN

Last week, I was playing Final Fantasy VI on my Nokia N95 when a building guard told me I shouldn’t take pictures. I had to point out that the lens cap was closed, and that his building looked nothing like Figaro Castle.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to what technologist Michael Nygard went through at the airport. Read More

Ultra SpaceStation 6 offers up 12GB flash drive six pack

Apparently catering to the few folks out there that feel they have too few USB flash drives, Ultra Products recently let loose this so-called SpaceStation 6, which comes with no less than six tiny thumb drives that can be neatly concealed and used as the mood strikes. Of course, there's no hub action going on here -- which would be convenient -- and the slots likely won't play nice with your current stash of flash drives. If you're still interested, however, you can grab either a 12GB version (consisting of six 2GB drives) or a 6GB version (with six 1GB drives) right now for $90 or $60, respectively.

Space Station USB Flash Drives. Keep as much as 12GBs of data in your pocket with the new Ultra SpaceStation. The size of a credit card, the super-convenient Ultra Spacestation consists of six individual flash drives, each capable of storing 2GB. Think of all the possibilities!

---

Specifications

• Size: 12 GB
• 6 - 2GB USB 2.0 Drives
• Color: Black
• Ready-Boost Compliant for Windows Vista

Impending BlackBerry shutdown in India?

It looks as if the Indian government is not content with its inability to decrypt their citizens BlackBerry e-mails, and is threatening a shutdown of Research In Motion’s devices in the country as punishment. Business Standard reports that the Indian government desires access to RIM’s proprietary e-mail network, in order to monitor e-mails being sent and received through the country. It is reported that a meeting will take place on March 14th, involving RIM representatives, members of wireless companies within the country, and representatives of the Indian government. Hey, China finally allowed BlackBerrys and you so know they have a shady back-door. Should India be given one as well?

District attorney on trial for building monster gaming rig with state money

A district attorney in Rockwall County, Dallas, is under scrutiny from the FBI due to a PC he built as a backup server -- using office money. Ray Sumrow claims he was using the system for business, but the "server" actually seems to be a tricked out gaming rig, featuring two hard drives, seven fans, high end graphics and sound cards, WiFi, and cables which "glow under ultraviolet light." Rod Gregg, the FBI examiner on the case says, "I would not configure a backup computer in that way," and added, "When I saw that, I did not think of anything related to a government agency." Charges of forgery, theft, and records tampering have been made against Mr. Sumrow due to his use of the district attorney's "fee fund," which is meant to be used for office supplies or employee salaries. Testimony will take place through the week, and prosecutors expect to hear how it was imperative to Mr. Sumrow's legal work that he, "Frag the crap out of dudes."

Monster Releases iSoniCast Wireless Audio Bridge

Hating on Monster seems to be the latest craze but if you’re a music lover and a tech lover, then there’s no denying that the iSoniCast is a cool piece of gear. Monster’s latest gadget is sleek and well-designed, convenient and surprisingly cheap as well. iSoniCast is a wireless audio bridge that allows you to wirelessly stream tunes from your iPod to your home audio system. Making use of the 2.4 GHz spectrum, it touts 4 Mbps (no, not 4 Gbps as one of the bullets on the product page states) of throughput to facilitate clear and uninterrupted playback with minimal interference. In fact, the unit makes use of intelligent frequency hoping to ensure that frequency crossing is kept at a bear minimum. iSoniCast easily hooks up to any home audio system using RCA connectors and the look should go nicely with your existing gear. Perhaps the best part about Monster’s design is that it uses the iPod itself to control playback. No need to worry about adding yet another remote to your junk drawer and no need to head over to your system in order to select a new track or playlist. Even if you pass on Monster’s overpriced cables, at $100 the iSoniCast is definitely worth a look

Nokia N810 with WiMAX set to launch at CTIA on April 1st?

Remember the rumor we saw floating about a few weeks ago about a Nokia N810 refresh? Well, the lads at The Boy Genius Report are reporting -- on a rumor mind you -- that Nokia is set to launch its N810 refresh with WiMAX at CTIA in April this year. Interestingly, the name will remain the same, and not be labeled the Nokia N830 as we'd first thought. Yeah, it's only a rumor at this point, but we're thinking that giving this radio-less internet appliance a bit more reach is nothing but a good thing.

You already know the drill by now — rumor alert — but we can’t hold back from posting this juicy bit of information we just got. We’ve heard the Nokia N810 with WiMAX (we heard it actually is still called the N810, not the N830) is going to launch April 1st. What day is April 1st, you’re asking? The start of CTIA, peoples! Again, we’ve yet to confirm this ourselves, but figured we’d give y’all a heads up. Any takers?

Google Gets DoubleClick

A couple of days ago, Google has formally acquired DoubleClick Inc. after officials in Europe has given the go signal on the purchase. The former bought the latter for $3.1 billion.

With the acquisition of DoubleClick made formal, Google’s CEO and chairman Eric Schmist said that the company is thrilled that the whole deal was finalized. He added, “With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users.”

There are some though who are not complacent with the deal. A reaction said:

Now there is nothing wrong with what Performics offers; SEO and SEM are legitimate businesses. The catch is that Google is now offering paid services that promise improved search engine listings in Google itself, a 100% conflict of interest. Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land calls for Google to divest itself of Performics, and it’s a call that should be supported.

Augmented reality projections

I stumbled across an interesting post a few days ago on HC Gilje’s weblog Conversations with Spaces concerning relief projections. The focus in the post was on the work Augmented Sculpture v1.0 by Pablo Valbuena, which is incredibly beautiful, however the research by Johnny Chung Lee into automatic projector calibration (images above, video below) stood out as being a research system of great benefit to augmented reality and of course the Internet of Things.

These projections could be used in a number of ways, from simple non-standard shape projections, display enhanced objects, motion-tracked displays within augmented environments (e.g. in Minority report), augmenting physical objects with graphical interfaces and displays etc.

Mobile expressions - Walking Radar

Mobile Expressions are experiments for:

expressive interfaces for public use of mobile phones.

The Walking Radar (image above and video below) is an add on device for a mobile phone to alert the user of objects while they are moving through a space and occupied with on screen content such as texting, using web services or playing a game.

Design LEGO creations on your iPhone or iPod Touch

LEGO-touch is an application for designing LEGO creations on your iPhone or iPod Touch. From the website:

View, post, build, or edit other LEGO maniacs projects. Create your own LEGO characters in pals, post your LEGO self to represent in share. Play and download different LEGO games or challenge anyone to a build-off! Personalize your bricks with color-slider and more...

The community aspect of this software seems pretty interesting to me; collaborative designs, perhaps! - Link.

Stringwalker

Stringwalker created by Hiroo Iwata and probably most known for his work Floating Eye was premiered for the first time outside of Japan at SIGGRAPH this year.

The controller consists of a pad and a pair of shoes attached to a circular system of eight motor-pulley mechanisms with sensors mounted on a turntable:

There’s not a whole lot online about it, but it appears that when you move a foot around - for instance in a step motion - the distance and trajectory of that movement is calculated based upon the direction and length of string that has passed over the pullies. This is then used to scroll the world accordingly. It also appears that by using motors attached to these pullies the system, they might even be able to simulate the exertion experienced when walking up a hill, for instance.

While not completely related to research on networks I find the idea of networks being to date largely reliable on cabling infrastructures (this is of course changing) and the extension of this cabling through a physical haptic interface which uses strings attached to the user, a sort of reverse puppet scenario, quite appealing.

Related interfaces are the slightly over the top Virtusphere and the more practical but possibly not as similar to walking Powered Shoes (from the same research lab).

Technology gamming

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website

Grand Theft Auto IV is released at the end of April

Rockstar and its franchise Grand Theft Auto is the "primary interest" of EA's attempted purchase of Take Two games, said chief executive John Riccitiello.

Mr Riccitiello said: "I believe the company is fully justified in calling themselves Rockstar because that's what they are in this industry."

Take Two turned down EA's first approach and so the games giant is now targeting shareholders directly.

Take Two boss Strauss Zelnick said the EA offer undervalued the firm.

Mr Zelnick has said EA should wait until after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV on 29 April. Analysts predict it will be the biggest release of the year, with sales upwards of 10 million copies.

Mr Riccitiello told BBC News: "If we don't conclude this transaction, if we walk because of whatever level of inability to get this done, the scary thing is what the stock trades at after we leave, not after 29 April."

He said Take Two had four of the best studios in the industry: Rockstar, makers of Grand Theft Auto; Irrational, makers of Bioshock; Firaxis, home to Sid Meir and Civilization and Visual Concepts, makers of sport titles.

"What we are attracted to is what we value in our own studios: great developers and great intellectual property."

Pre-orders of Grand Theft Auto IV have been better-than-expected

Mr Riccitiello said he had great respect for the producers behind Grand Theft Auto, Sam and Dan Houser and Leslie Benzies.

"The big headline here is that our primary interest is in Rockstar and the intellectual properties around Rockstar."

He said the bid was not an attempt to remove a competitor in the field of sport titles.

"Sports games are secondary consideration here," he said.

He said he had no fear that the value EA placed on Take Two could be damaged if the trio of Rockstar creators decided not to pursue further Grand Theft Auto titles after the latest release.

He said: "There is no doubt that EA is several times larger than Take Two - everyday somebody walks in and somebody walks out.

What we have got right now is a corporate issue that has nothing to do with the people who build these games John Riccitello, EA

"If the wrong guy walks out, we have an issue to deal with. But we don't stop making games."

He added: "In case of Rockstar I would point out that the leaders are young, vibrant, they're talented and committed.

"And what we have got right now is a corporate issue that has nothing to do with the people who build these games."

He said concerns that EA's buyout would stifle innovation were unfounded and pointed to franchises and games that had improved after the firm had bought the original development talent.

"We worked collectively with Will Wright to create The Sims. When we bought Maxis, Sim City was selling 7 to 800,000 copies.

"The Sims is a level of performance to Sim City that the Empire State Building is to a very nice house."

He said games like Battlefield, Burnout, Need for Speed and Madden were franchises which were stronger following EA's purchase of the original development firms.