Wired @ Home

This is a new series starting today that will cover up to three cool downloads that will either make your life easier or just be a nice add-on.

Stop Your Web Indulgence

Everyone who surfs the web knows that they have a weak spot where they spend too much time on a particular topic such as celebrity news, or for me it's spending too much time promoting my wonderful website. A company who partnered with Firefox has developed an add-on called MeeTimer that will calculate all the time you've spent on a website for up to a year. Once Firefox restarts go to Tools--MeeTimer--Options and reconfigure the options to your liking.

The drawback to this add-on is you have to manually go to a site and right-click the Firefox tray icon and select Discourage Me. The add-on though provides a huge amount of stats, but mainly the timer is great and the ability to warn you if you've viewed a site for too long.

PC Energy Tracker

Windows XP has an included tool within Power Options that works and is integrated with Local Cooling, a utility developed by UniBlue. Vista users don't be discouraged though as it works perfectly fine on my computer. It works in the background and you can maximize it whenever you are on the computer. It's basically software that will tell you exactly how much you've saved if you close down your computer a little bit ealier or put it to sleep. You set exactly what those times are, for example, turning off your monitor in 45min.

As you can see my power use is pretty high in my opinion and so I will make changes to reduce that. Compared to other people though I believe it actually is low. The drawback is that the program actually takes control of your computer to shut down your computer when you say it should, like 45min. If you only want it to control your monitor then you can set the values to everything else to 0. Once this program is installed you can register at Local Cooling and it will keep track of your power usage and you can compare yourself to businesses and individuals who also have this utility.

Keep Track of Your Bandwidth

If your ISP providor caps your bandwidth for each ISP then this tool is for you. Some ISP providors have been known to stop the amount of data you move to and from your computer (download and upload). BitMeter II is a free utility that will calculate how much bandwidth you've used per month. You'll need to know your monthly limit though as that is how it will notify you when you've used a customizable percentage of that bandwidth. Right when you install the tool, BitMeter II will start tracking your download and upload speeds and put it all on spreadsheets, graphs, and charts which come in handy down the road. On top of this, BitMeter II includes a calculator that estimates how long a download will take. This isn't a biggie as Vista has that included and I believe XP does to.

Computers are ever evolving pieces of machinary with new products that go inside it everyday. For example, DDR3 RAM just came out and new LED technology is helping make laptops more efficient. Well now 3 more standards are going to enter out computers. Larger hard drives, faster internet, and larger system bus.

Many people, including me, don't know that the system bus limits overall performance as your PC's data flow goes through the system bus and if its not big enough, you get a bottleneck, much like when the 404 turns into the DVP. Currently the standard is PCI 2.3 which offers a data transfer rate of 5.2 gigabits per second which is a lot at first glance but the next generation is called PCI 3.0. This hardware will have a data transfer rate of 8 gigabits per second. Not only will PCI 3.0 allow for higher GPU performance (A special processor dedicated to calculating the graphics in a game. A GPU allows for better looking console games and takes the load off of the CPU during gameplay), but it also allows the system bus to power graphic cards directly instead of going through a seperate power line. The downfall is, you'll need a 3.3V card to use it instead of a 5V or 3.3V. Don't worry though, as these graphic cards (PCI 3.0) will be out in 2010 with the specs debuting in 2009.

When George S. was working for Much Music, back about 6 or 7 years ago, he had to specially order a 1TB hard drive to hold all his music. Back then, that was rarity, but now companies are going to be offering 5TB hard drives.To get something this big without sacrificing space a technique called Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and a similar technology called Thermally Assited Magnetic Recording (TAMR) uses lasers to heat the surface of the hard drive which makes it possible to pack a Terabyte into a square inch of the drives surface. This doubles the standard as a 2 inch square space could only fit 1 Terabyte. Once the laser starts heating the surface up, the driver can manipulate the surface on an extremely fine scale of about tens of nanometres. A huge benefit of these drives is the way the information is organized on it. The data will be organized into self-arranging magnetic arrays that allow the creation of a single bit of data on every grain of the drives surface. Don't expect this drive to be installed onto your computer for the next holiday season though. Its still a research project but Seagate expects to sell a 5TB HAMR hard drive by 2011

Bored of your internet connection? IPv4 is getting to be recurrent and so an old technology is expected to take over around the beginning of 2011. 2011 is the date when all the IP addresses in the current format will run out. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses whereas IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses which is a vast improvement. IPv6 also has network-layer encryption and authentication to make much more secure communications between computers. Give credit to the US government for making IPv6 more mainstream as they have ordered all there computers to be outfitted with the technology in 2008.

Search engines have been a hot topic lately and many new search engine sites have opened up. I've already reviewed 2, Spacetime and Hakia, but now Microsoft has released its own, Tafiti. At the time I wrote Beta Update, Spacetime was in its Beta 1 with many issues to fix, but now its very close to releasing Beta 2 with many improved features. I highly encourage you to visit SpaceTime to learn more and see more. They have a video up on the new features and the overall free product. Hakia however is in the midst of fully implementing its flagship feature, Semantic-Rank algorithm which is designed to extract meaning from your search phrases and questions. This is a massive step in bringing better search and more credible results to you. Another company that is using this type of technology is Vlingo. They offer a voice-recognition system for on the go Sprint users. It uses the Hieracrhical Language Model to recognize every single word you say and make educated predictions on what word you are going to say next based on the previous word uttered. On top of this, it will adapt, learn, and improve itself to understand new words, speech patterns and more.

The big news though is Microsofts new search engine called Tafiti. If you don't already have Silverlight*, the website will instruct you to download it. Once started, Tafiti loads surprisingly quickly and will position a search box in front of you. Once you've entered a phrase or keyword and pressed Go, the search box will slide to the left and below it, an orbit of the world, RSS, News, Images, and Halo icons will swirl around. These are just like the Google tabs of Web, Images, News, Groups, etc. After you've gone to the tab you want, you can click the result which has a larger description, or you can save that website by dragging it over to the corner which contains 5 empty slots. You can label those slots, email, or blog it (Windows Live Spaces). This is only possible if you have a Hotmail, MSN, or Live account. Not only does it display the results in such a cool way, they give you a second option to display it in a tree view which isn't the best but definitly looks cool.

Silverlight is basically another version of Adobe Flash but much better. This is why Tafiti can support such great graphics, video and animation. Sun Microsystems has already released a competitor for Silverlight days after its release called JavaFX. Currently, Silverlight is supported by the most popular broswers on Windows 2000 and up except Opera. The Mac versions are in the making and should represent a fair amount of the downloads. I won't get into the technical details of Silverlight but the jist is: it's more useable, superior graphics, animation, and video, more searchable, and doesn't need Windows Media Player, WMP Active X, or Windows Media plug-ins to be played. You can view some demos of the type of quality Silverlight provides on Fox. To learn more on Silverlight and other Beta products go to Beta Updates.

Since the introduction of wireless internet, many have wondered what other wireless technologies there would be. Wireless printers, speakers, cell phones, and many more. Now you can add 3 more to that list.

The power cord has long been the enemy of many people around the world. You always had to place things according to where the plugs were or you'd have some cord running all across the room. Nobody really notices and thinks about the power cord ones its being used and its found its place, but if it could be thrown away, what a world of a difference it would make. Now there is a solution to get rid of some of those plugs, wireless charging. To get things straight, this piece of technology won't replace all of your plugs but its a huge step in the right direction to making the power cord obsolete. Currently there are two ways to wirelessly charge a device and they are being offered by two different companies. WildCharge will start selling a conductive charging pad and eCoupled will offer a inductive laptop specific pad with a compatible notebook all by the end of 2008. Both companies will offer adapters at a range of $30. If you have taken science and didn't fall asleep then you can guess what the difference and how each of these technologies work. Conductive charging passes electricity when two objects come in contact. Inductive charging happens when there is a physical gap between two objects.

Print from anywhere with this new piece of technology offered by Zink (Zero Ink) Instead of going online and going through the tedious process of uploading photos (Costco gets double thumbs down) you can print those photos wirelessly or connect it via a USB cable to the ZINK mobile printers. The name explains some but doesn't answer all. First there is no ink used, instead the printer will heat up the adhesive paper, and thus release the crystals used to make the photo. The downfall is, the images will be small, and not your regular size 4by6, the paper will instead be 2by3 and will be semi-gloss. The printers are unique because they are a product in itself. They offer two printers, a mobile one and a mobile camera version. The mobile will be able to wirelessly print pictures from a laptop, computer or wifi enabled product. The camera version is a camera and there is no word on how good it is but the website describes it as a "full featured digital camera...take digital photos like any other digital camera." The projected costs of these tools is $100 but there is no word on where they will be sold, so look out for them at your local Best Buy store.

Wires, wires, wires, they seem to mess up and make our lives more complicated, but Amimon is trying to put a stop while making a quick buck. They are going to be released to the consumers in 2008, but just this August they let electronic makers have a crack at the technology. The system allows you to wirelessly transmit an uncompressed 1080p picture via a 5GHz radio transmitter from a DVD player, cable box, or game console to a WHDI-equipped TV (adapters can be purchased for $300-$400 a pair as at least two are needed). Comparatively, a WHDI-equipped TV will have a premium of $200. WHDI is just a replacement to the HDMI cable so no worries that your picture quality will be worse, but no celebrating that you'll be getting a better one. In a couple of years though the adapters will cost $60 and the premium on a TV will drop to $10. With the benefit of much less cables, you'll be able to rearrange your TV room the way you dreamed.

It's been over a year since the official launch of the HD DVD and Blu-Ray and now here comes some great discounts. Toshiba is in the works to offer a $198 HD DVD Player from Wal-Mart before the holiday season. This marks a huge gain for the HD DVD format as Blu-Ray has been stealing most of the spotlight and for good reason. The Blu-Ray format has garnered much support from studios including: Warner, Lionsgate, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony, and MGM; it supports a higher playback quality (1080p vs 1080i), it stores more on a same size disk, and it records faster. A price drop can help get HD DVD into more families homes and widen its customer base helping it catch up to Blu-Ray. With this information though, I'd rather wait for a similar price drop from Blu-Ray and get a much better quality player and product.Wal-Mart to me hurts the HD DVD repuation even further as Wal-Mart is a place to get cheap products, not quality ones. If I were a Blu-Ray maker, I'd be cheering inside.

Need To Hide Your Folders?
Download Free Hide Folders for free and help protect your folders from peering eyes. It doesn't just use the hidden function but it makes those folders, password protected. It protects that folder and all the subfolders within making your folders a secret a breeze.

Many companies have been trying to copy and beat the iPhone but this is the first true competitor in my mind. Although the looks are not the best, the internal statistics blow away the iPhone any day. Due for release on November 4, 2007, Sprint is readying for a huge release that will determine whether it catches up to AT&T or stays behind them. So how does the HTC Touch stack up against the Apple iPhone?

Why would Apple choose to release an unlocked iPhone in France when they could more easily release one in Canada, locked, which is what they'd like to do? The reason they had to unlock there product in France was simply because of law. French law states that no company can bundle a cell phone to a mobile operator. However, Apple has made a deal with Orange, a European mobile carrier, to sell its phone with them for $560 but to obey the law, they will sell an unlocked version at a higher, undisclosed price. What is iffy though is whether or not Orange had to agree to give a slice of the revenue earned from selling those iPhones to Apple. This is another huge step in taking away the power from carriers but it can also mean drastic things in relation to power with the handset makers. I would feel much better if Canada decided to bring in a law much like that of Frances, but then again I'd much rather like better phones to be offered.

PC's and laptops consume a whole lot of electricity every time you use them which can range from 150-800 watts when in use to 50-400 watts when in sleep mode or hibernation. That's a huge amount of power and an even bigger chance to cut down that number. Cutting down your power cost on just your computer can save you around $100 a year which means more upgrades for your best friend.

My parents are extremely slow when it comes to typing and in this day and age, typing is standard on your resume. So to get up to speed on how to type efficiently without opening your wallet, try RapidTyping Typing Tutor. It has a kid friendly interface but don't be taken back as it has many great features that will get you typing blindly in no time. There are no pop ups before, during, or after to pester you about registration, an upgrade or anything like that. There are different skins and it records multiple users with many statistics to show you your WPM, CPM, and percentage of mistakes. A cool part of this free software is it acts like a game where the better you become and advance into different difficulties, the more picturesque the underwater scenery becomes. Another cool feature but not really that useful is the Create Your Own Exercise. This might not be used unless you become really skilled and the program doesn't challenge you enough

Are you tired of Windows Live Messenger? Want something new? We'll MirandaIM is here to the rescue with a fast, easy, small, open source protocol for instant messaging. Included is support for many of the major instant messaging platforms including MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Jabber and more. Additionally they provide with tons of plugins, icons, sounds, and other amusing content. It currently is in Beta stage so do backup your computer before you choose to download it. Even though it is new, MirandaIM can be installed on Vista and Windows 95 and above. It is obviously worth a try because in my opinion Windows Live can become Windows Death.

GetbyMail is a piece of software that works just like Remote Access programs that require you to download a program and send it to another persons computer. The reason you may use this is because those programs don't work if the remotely acceessed computer cannot access FTP, P2P, or are behind NAT or other firewalls. GetbyMail bypasses these things and makes accessing your computer a breeze. All you need is at least 2 email addresses that, one per computer and they do support internet emails such as GMail. The great thing is you don't need GetbyMail installed on both computers, you just need it on the remote computer and your local (home) computer will be able to access it. To learn more go to GetbyMail.

I bought the Sony Ericsson W610i on September 17 2007 from SelectGSM at a cost of around $300 including shipping. I initally had a bad experience because I found out later that they were shipping from Hong Kong without my knowledge. The good thing is, the duties on it, coming into Canada were only $18 as the list price was around $80. It arrived a week later with absolutely nothing wrong except it had a HK charger.

Below is a picture taken from my camera at Explore Design located at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I included it because many people are picky about how good there camera phone is. Keep in mind I did have to shrink the size of this photo.



My experience with the phone has been great from the start. I initally charged it for 6 hours, inserted the SIM card and I was ready to go. The only disadvantage to this phone is the top right and left button that are used occassioanly and are hard to hit especially when you buy a clear case for it. Other than that, the keypad is very easy to get used to as the buttons are small rectanges that protude out compared to a soft touch keypad on most normal cell phones. The layout of everything is amazing and navigation is a breeze. I am completely happy with my purchase because the quality of the speakers is great for just one, the menu is cool (vibrates when you navigate), camera is decent, scrolling through the Walkman is easy, and there is many features including SOS. It has a nice weight and size that fits perfectly into my hand and the colour scheme is amazing. You can't get this phone in Canada but you can order it from a website including SelectGSM and PureMobile.

Sharp Non-iPhone Imitator

Sharp has been working on a phone for 3 years to date, that is better than the iPhone which shows just how much better our Asian competitors are. Not only do they plan better but they follow through with so much better phones in Asia that would kill in North America. This phone is titled the Sharp WSO11SH and was officially announced by Microsoft June 7th 2007 but it is just getting noticed as it is being showed at CEATEC, Japans largest electronics show, this weekend. Microsoft has a stake on this phone as they are using Windows Mobile 6 Classic but it can make VOIP calls which only WM6 Pro can do. The specs of this amazing phone are a 3"WVGA TFT screen with a total phone weight of only 157g and 18mm thin. It also has a 520Mhz CPU, 128MB SDRAM with 256MB included flash memory which can be expanded by a microSD slot. As well, there is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and is equipped with Wifi. The most important feature though on this phone is it can't recognize 2 fingers, but it can recognize all of five (four if you want to get technical) fingers and on top of that it can scan images such as a business card.

Sony seems like a crap company now that the PS3 is a complete failure but with the continuing success of Ericsson and there TV division finally making some huge strides, they may not be out of the game yet. Sony has just announced an 11 and 27 inch OLED TV with a contrast ratio of 1 000 000:1 coupled with a 1080p resolution and 100% NTSC colour reproduction. It is a smaller package but give it a year and it should be at a reasonable price and being offered with a bigger screen size. For an 11inch OLED TV from Sony, it'll set you back $1,740.50 at the start of the holiday shopping season, permitting the release date doesn't move.

Don't have a laptop but still want the option to carry around multiple applications and Operating Systems? That's where MojoPac comes in. It's a free application that you can download onto your PC and then onto a USB, iPod, or mp3 player. It's a remarkable application as you can then put applications such as Word, MSN, Firefox, and Photoshop and then move them along where you go and insert it into a new computer or laptop and launch those applications on the new computer. Not only can you put applications, but you can put Operating Systems such as XP, Mac, or Linux plus you can put games such as Halo 2 and still run it on a new computer at the same performance. The drawback though is Vista is not available for transfering or being a host PC which limits my possibility for transfering but RingCube Technologies, the maker of MojoPac, is working on producing a Vista MojoPac.

I've never associated a phone with kung fu before but Motorola always like to break the ice starting with the thinnest and best selling phone. Now they break onto the ad scene with an amazing commerical designed by a Chinese animator. Just a tidbit on Motorola: it was started by a man who's first and second company went bankrupt. When thinking of a third company to start and name, he was shaving. Enjoy!

Apple's long awaited new OS for its Mac computers and laptops has been finally completed and is being readied for shipment by the end of this month. There are conflicing reports on the issue though with AppleInsider saying its true and MacRumours denying but most bloggers including me are betting on the last Friday of October, October 26, to be the release date of Leopard. The reason for releasing Leopard on the last Friday of the month is because if you look at when they rolled out the iPhone and the previous OS, Tiger, they both came out on the last Friday of there respected month, June 2007, and April 2005. Supposedly, Apple is readying its technical staff and briefing them on there new OS just before they release it. Obviously Apple is keeping its mouth shut on the issue and doesn't look to drop hints any time soon. You can pre-purchase Leopard at Amazon at a list price of $129 and take note that Amazon pegs the release date as October 31.

The iPod supports a billion dollar industry on just iPod accessories but I do wish they'd make those accessories compatible with other mp3s. These next two accessories are pretty cool and let you stay up to date with other changing technologies. First is the Hercules i-XPS 120 Outdoor Speakers that are dust and water resistant and second, iPod cables that will work with Microsofts new Sync system that are available on all new Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles in 2008.

The Hercules i-XPS 120 is a compact speaker that has been officially certified as resistant to water spray and dust particles. It does this by housing the iPod in a watertight chamber and magnetically shielded speakers with protective grilles, plus a dust evacuation system and a shock resistant rubber frame. This company should've planned for New Orleans before the Hurricane hit if you ask me.

As you may already know, Wired @ Home is going through some growing pains and we need to expand and reach even more audiences. My first task is to change the URL and I am having a tough time choosing as wiredathome.com is not available. Here are two possibilities and I would love if you could give me some suggestions either by commenting, emailing me(look at description on ChipIn), or contact me through the Contact Form below. My second task is to change the template and if any of you do have some suggestions I will gladly take it. The template will not be immediately be changed as I do love this one but there seems to be some code mistakes and if that can be fixed then that would be preferable(Any html whiz, contact me). Other suggestions on how to improve the website can also be sent to me.

• www.wiredgizmo.com
• www.wiredgizmos.com
• www.yourworldwired.com

If you look to the left there is a widget titled Wired @ Home Expansion. Due to my recent involvement into the rapidly expanding website, Bebop Talk, I have made a decision to try and expand my blog internationally. I have as well decided to do this for Moneyx4. To get my blog recognized, I need to gain new readers which means advertising, and to keep them here I need to change my template and relocate my blog to an easier to type URL, preferably http://www.wiredathome.com/ but.org, or .net is a possibility. I don't have this kind of money and so to fully implement it, I need the help of my dedicated readers or new ones for that matter. Any donation is helpful and I really do appreciate your help. If you do have any questions or concerns, do you use the contact form or you can directly email me at the email address provided in the ChipIn widget. ChipIn is a great way to get donations and they have about 10 different colours you can choose from. I found it fun, quick, and easy to enter the information and post it on my blog.

Everybody is worried about losing there cell phone especially if it is expensive like mine. I have therefore been searching for a cheap and possibly free piece of software that can help me locate my phone quickly. I found shareware called Guardian v2.1 but when I searched it on Google, I was skeptical on its reliability and whether or not a virus would ensue. You can view the video below on it which shows good things about it from Blip.tv.

Another alternative that is only available to Windows Mobile Users or Sony Ericcson phones is called mGuard which is free and installs on your phone at a size of only 100kb (jar file and preferably on phone memory instead of memory stick). I myself have this on my phone but it can get costly as they charge you a SMS message per time it checks if it still has the same SIM. I found a loop hole though. Don't shut it down and always charge it whilst the phone is on. It still does its job as unsuspecting robbers will not know this and will then find out too late. Go to Dexmobile and click on mGuard. You will first download it and then after installing, run it, and click settings. They will ask you for an unlock code which you will get after you register (to the right of the download button) and they will send you the unlock code. They also you send the download url to your email. To notify you of a SIM change you will need to enter a friends phone number, where a pre-set or customized message will be sent to if, heaven forbid your cell phone gets stolen. Keep your IMEI number handy or enter *#06# on your phone to get it. I haven't had the time to really put it in its paces but I guess thats a good thing. They have wide array of contact options including email and phone number if you do have a problem.

Another solution is called Lost Mobile Tracking Solution by Micro Technologies located in Mumbai. It is a cheap one time solution at a cost of $8 but it is not supported on many phones including mine. I was ready to fork over the money because I love my phone and a little money will keep it protected. There are about 40 phones supported at the most.

Technology has brought us so far and coupling them together can bring some pretty innovative new things to our world. One of these things is GetABuz, a voiceplayer for your webpage, blog, MySpace, or Facebook. It is exactly like a voicemail, except it works on the Internet and uses a microphone or a cell phone to record and listen to messages online. To spice up your messages, you can make voice greetings with music that is preloaded on the website or you can upload your own. Either way, the music is free the very first time and costs around 50 cents to use in another message. The only way you can get free background music is if you refer a friend. One friend referral equals a free song.

To listen to messages left by visitors to your website, you can either go to your page, or you can listen to them via your cell phone if you choose. Friends can also send messages from there phone to your page and be optionally sent to your cell phone straight away.

The Voice Messager is absolutely free and you can customize it almost any way you like including the colour and picture. This is all put into HTML and is then very easy to put on your page. Finally you go back to GetaBuz and personalize your greeting to welcome your visitors everytime they come to your page with your favourite music and a clip of your own voice. No need to copy a new code, it's all automated which saves a whole lot of time.

For Canada the cell phone service won't be available but hopefully it's in the works. US carriers that can use the sites cell phone service include: Virgin, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. To get more information go to GetaBuz.

I hate iPod owners because of all the accessories they have available to them but this one gets me the most. I've always wanted an easy way to connect my mp3 player to a large stereo system so I could blast it in my home. Denon has come up with a solution only for iPod owners called the Denon ASD-3W for $230 plus wireless and the ASD-3N for $180 which is the wired version. Now don't get confused as I did. Wireless in this case only means it can wirelessly connect to your computer, not the stereo. Either way you need to wire your dock to the stereo using RCA cables. The only benefit of connecting it to your PC is to stream live online radio through your speakers which to me is not worth $50. Both models include a remote and they only support iPod video and Nano. The great thing about the remote is that it will then show controls on the TV instead of the small iPod screen. You can also view pictures and video from your iPod onto your giant TV screen. It overall is still something basic and is not anything spectacular and personally I wouldn't spend $180 on it. A good price range would be $40-$70 but that's just me.

I know this doesn't relate to technology at first but once you kind of get into it, it does have a hint of technology. First it's an automated website where you sign up either as a blogger or advertiser and once your blog is accepted or your advertising account is approved you will be able to take offers from there. They are a creative bunch, whoever run this site because of the way it is set up. It is unlike most paid to post websites, as there aren't many places to go which means they are concentrating on getting advertisers to bloggers and they also make posting as clear as day. The biggest added benefit is the payment process. Within 7 days of writing your blog post, the post will either get approved or rejected and if approved, your payment will arrive via one of the internet's most successful payment processors, PayPal in a matter of weeks. I do recommend Smorty over alot of other paid to post websites because they are a growing website that will make big things in the future.Get paid for blogging at Smorty.

Microsoft is yet again trying to expand and this time they are mostly competing with Google. Specifically they are rolling out a version of Google Docs called Microsoft Office Live Workspace that is currently in public beta. I have signed up but it hasn't accepted any members yet.