• Usage: Amount of time iPhone has been awake and in use since the last full charge. The phone is awake when you’re on a call, using email, listening to music, browsing the web, or sending and receiving text messages, or during certain background tasks such as auto-checking email.
• Standby: Amount of time iPhone has been powered on since its last full charge, including the time the phone has been asleep.

Update to the Latest Software –Always make sure your iPhone has the latest software from Apple, as engineers may find new ways to optimize battery performance. Using iTunes 8.2 or later, you can update your iPhone with the latest software. Connect your iPhone to your computer, then select iPhone in the Source List. In the Summary panel, click “Check for Updates” to see if there’s a new version of the iPhone software available. Click Update to install the latest version.

Optimize Your Settings – Depending on how they are configured, a few features may decrease your iPhone battery life. For example, the frequency with which you retrieve email and the number of email accounts you auto-check can both affect battery life. The tips below apply to an iPhone running iPhone 3.0 or later software and may help extend your battery life.

• Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
• Turn off push notifications: Some applications from the App Store use the Apple Push Notification Service to alert you of new data. Those applications that extensively rely on push notifications (such as instant messaging applications) may impact battery life. To disable push notifications, go to Settings > Notifications and set Notifications to Off. Note that this does not prevent new data from being received when the application is opened. Also, the Notifications setting will not be visible if you do not have any applications installed that support push notifications.
• Fetch new data less frequently: Applications such as Mail can be set to fetch data wirelessly at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain. To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually. To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. Note that this is a global setting and applies to all applications that do not support push services.
• Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo!, MobileMe or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive. If the global Fetch setting is set to Manually, you will not be able to locate your iPhone using the MobileMe Find My iPhone feature.
• Auto-check fewer email accounts: You can save power by checking fewer email accounts. This can be accomplished by turning off an email account or by deleting it. To turn off an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account, and set Account to Off. To remove an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account, and tap Delete Account.
• Minimize use of third-party applications: Excessive use of applications such as games that prevent the screen from dimming or shutting off or applications that use location services can reduce battery life.
• Turn off Wi-Fi: If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off. Note that if you frequently use your iPhone to browse the web, battery life may be improved by using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data networks.
• Turn off Bluetooth: If you rarely use a Bluetooth headset or car kit, you can turn off Bluetooth to save power. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.
• Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas: Because your iPhone always tries to maintain a connection with the cellular network, it may use more power in low- or no-coverage areas. Turning on Airplane Mode can increase battery life in these situations; however, you will be unable to make or receive calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.
• Adjust brightness: Dimming the screen is another way to extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness. In addition, turning on Auto-Brightness allows the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions. Go to Settings > Brightness and set Auto-Brightness to On.
• Turn off EQ: Applying an equalizer setting to song playback on your iPhone can decrease battery life. To turn EQ off, go to Settings > iPod > EQ and tap Off. Note that if you’ve added EQ to songs directly in iTunes, you’ll need to set EQ on iPhone to Flat in order to have the same effect as Off because iPhone keeps your iTunes settings intact. Go to Settings > iPod > EQ and tap Flat.
• Turn off 3G: Using 3G cellular networks loads data faster, but may also decrease battery life, especially in areas with limited 3G coverage. To disable 3G, from the Home screen choose Settings > General > Network and set Enable 3G to Off. You will still be able to make and receive calls and access cellular data networks via EDGE or GPRS where available.

Lock Your iPhone — It may seem obvious, but you should lock your iPhone when you aren’t using it. You will be able to receive calls and text messages while it is locked, but nothing happens if you touch the screen. To lock iPhone, press the Sleep/Wake button. You can also set the Auto-Lock interval so your iPhone will turn off more quickly after a period of inactivity. To set Auto-Lock, go to Settings > General > Auto-Lock and set the interval to a short time, such as 1 minute.

Use iPhone Regularly — For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

Source: Apple

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Here are some of the features of the new iPhone 3G S, unveiled June 8:

The Fastest iPhone Ever

The first thing you’ll notice about iPhone 3G S is how quickly you can launch applications. Web pages render in a fraction of the time, and you can view email attachments faster. Improved performance and updated 3D graphics deliver an incredible gaming experience, too. In fact, everything you do on iPhone 3G S is up to 2x faster and more responsive than iPhone 3G.

Video

Now you can shoot video, edit it, and share it all on your iPhone 3G S. Shoot high-quality VGA video in portrait or landscape. Trim your footage by adjusting start and end points. Then share your video in an email, post it to your MobileMe gallery, publish it on YouTube, or sync it back to your Mac or PC using iTunes.

3-Megapixel Camera

The new 3-megapixel camera takes great still photos, too, thanks to built-in autofocus and a handy new feature that lets you tap the display to focus on anything (or anyone) you want.

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• Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
• The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
• The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.*
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

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• Camera: 3.2 MP camera (JPEG Encoding) with Auto focus, Image stabilization, Flash and 2X Digital Zoom
• Video Camera: Normal Mode: 240×180 pixel, MMS Mode: 176×144 pixel
• Enhanced Media Player
  • Video Format Support: DivX, XviD (MPEG4 Advance Simple Profile), H.263, WMV3
  • Audio Format Support: .3gp, WAV, MIDI, AMR-NB, G711u/A, GSM610, PCM, MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA9/10 Standard/Pro
• Wi-Fi® Support
  • Video Format Support: DivX, XviD (MPEG4 Advance Simple Profile), H.263, WMV
  • Audio Format Support: .3gp, WAV, MIDI, AMR-NB, G711u/A, GSM610, PCM, MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA9/10 Standard/Pro
• Built-in GPS
• BlackBerry® Maps
• Wireless Email
• Organizer
• Browser
• Phone
• Corporate Data Access
• SMS/MMS
• Battery: 1400 mAHr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell
  • Talk Time: 5.5 hours
  • Standby Time: 356 hours
• 35 key backlit QWERTY keyboard
• Trackball located on front face of device, ESC key to the right, Menu to the left
• Dedicated Keys: Send, End, Mute, Lock, VAD (user customizable), 2-stage camera (user customizable), 2x volume/zoom
• User Interface: Intuitive icons and menus
• High resolution 480×360 pixel color display
  • Transmissive TFT LCD
  • Supports over 65,000 colors
  • Screen Size: 2.44 inches (diagonally measured)
• Height: 4.29 inches (109 mm)
• Width: 2.36 inches (60 mm)
• Depth: 0.53 inches (13.5 mm)
• Weight: 3.87 ounces (109.9 grams)

AT&T users who select an unlimited data plan with the BlackBerry Curve 8900 will receive free AT&T Wi-Fi access at nearly 20,000 hotspots in the U.S. – including retail stores, restaurants and airports from coast-to-coast. See a full list of AT&T Wi-Fi locations.

Sources: Research In Motion Limited, AT&T Inc.

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qwerty keyboard — Onscreen QWERTY keyboard that you can access in landscape or portrait mode

3.0 megapixel camera — 3x digital zoom, brightness control and camcorder that shoots videos of up to one hour long

AT&T Mobile Music — Play and download your favorite tunes and ringtones. Built-in microSD™ memory slot

AT&T Navigator — GPS-enabled turn-by-turn directions, maps, traffic updates and more

ENERGY STAR® — Powered by an ENERGY STAR® qualified adaptor for a better environment

Browser type — JAVA™

Weight — 3.88 ounces

Dimension (HXWXD) — 4.3” x 2.2” x 0.5”

Display — Internal Technology 262k Touch TFT

Resolution — 240 x 400 pixel

Talk time — Up to 5 hours

Standby — Up to 250 hours

Input device — Touch Screen

Mobile TV — DMB- or DVB-H-receivers in mobile phones allow the mobile user to receive TV-programmes in high quality

Offline mode

File explorer

Voice memo & Voice mail – Voice Memo records and stores simple voice message

Messaging — SMS / EMS / MMS

Predictive Text Input T9 — Pre-loaded with six thousands of words and even emoticons, punctuation

Connectivity — Bluetooth

USB

Outlook Sync

AGPS — Assisted GPS is a type of handset-based position location technology

Calendar

Clock — Worldtime, alarm

Calculator

Calculator

Memo book

Speakerphone

Source: SAMSUNG

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Here’s People’s list of some stars and their favorite toys:

Cameron Diaz: MacBook Air

Lauren Conrad: Flip Ultra

Paris Hilton: Nintendo DS

Gavin Rossdale: Leica M7

Jessica Alba: Flip Ultra

Brittany Snow: Polaroid ONE600 Classic

Renee Zellweger: Blackberry Bold

Kim Kardashian: Sony Cyber-Shot W170

To read more about these people and their gadgets of choice, and to see a slideshow, visit People.

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Ancient computers. Outdated software. Systems your average teenager wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.

Fortunately, that isn’t the norm.

Forbes is out with a list of America’s Most Wired Cities. Since 2007, the publication has computed the percentage of Internet users with high-speed connections and the number of companies providing high-speed Internet to see which towns were on the cutting edge. The number of public wireless Internet hot spots are factored in, too.

Who’s No. 1 at the start of 2009? None other than Seattle, home to Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Here’s the Top 10:

1. Seattle

2. Atlanta

3. Washington, D.C.

4. Orlando

5. Boston

6. Miami

7. Minneapolis

8. Denver

9. New York

10. Baltimore

To see the rest, and to read more about how the rankings were determined, visit Forbes.

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Here are the new features in Apple’s iLife ‘09:

iPhoto ‘09

• Faces — Allows you to organize your photos based on who’s in them. iPhoto uses face detection to identify faces of people in your photos and face recognition to match faces that look like the same person.
• Places — This feature uses data from GPS-enabled cameras or the camera on iPhone to categorize photos by location and convert GPS location tags to common, user-friendly names.
• Themed Slideshows –Six themes let you create beautiful slideshows in seconds: Classic, Shatter, Snapshots, Scrapbook, Ken Burns, and Sliding Panels. Every slideshow uses face detection to position photos correctly and keep the faces onscreen.
• Online Sharing — Publish photos directly to Facebook and Flickr.
• Enhanced Editing — A new checkbox in the Saturation slider makes the colors in your photos pop without affecting skin tones. The Definition slider improves clarity and brings out detail. The Retouch brush adds a Detect Edges feature that prevents blurring of detail when you remove spots or blemishes over solid edges. And the Auto Red-Eye tool works with face detection to remove red-eye with just one click.
• Travel Maps — Custom maps that illustrate your journey. iPhoto uses the location data from your photos to generate a beautifully rendered map showing the countries and cities you visited.

iMovie ‘09

• Advanced Drag and Drop — Movie editing gets easier with new features. Now you can replace or insert clips using a single pop-up menu. Or edit just your audio. When you choose to show the Advanced Tools menu in iMovie preferences, drag-and-drop editing includes additional options such as cutaways, picture-in-picture, and green-screen effects.
• Precision Editor — Skim and click your clips to fine-tune every edit.
• Themes and Maps — Enhance your movies or add an animated map. Choose a theme such as Bulletin Board, Filmstrip, or Comic Book and apply it to your project instantly.
• Video Stabilization — Analyzes how much your camera was moving while you were recording, then automatically reduces camera shake.
• New Titles, Transitions, and Effects — Get 18 new animated titles, 8 new transitions and 19 new one-click video effects, including Aged Film, Dream, Sci-Fi, and Cartoon.
• Library Browser — Flip through video just as you flip through music in your iTunes library — using full-screen Cover Flow.

GarageBand ‘09

• Basic Lessons — Follow along at your own pace with interactive lessons that teach you the fundamentals through HD video instruction, synchronized notation, and animated onscreen instruments.
• Artist Lessons (sold separately) — Have Sting teach you how to play “Roxanne,” Colbie Caillat teach you how to play “Bubbly,” Fall Out Boy teach you how to play “I Don’t Care,” and many more. Browse, preview, and purchase Artist Lessons from the Lesson Store inside GarageBand. Then get step-by-step instructions for chords, finger positions, and techniques from the people who know your favorite songs best.
• New Guitar Features — New amps and stompbox effects re-create the sound of legendary guitar rigs.
• Magic GarageBand Jam — Assign instruments and styles to your guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboard player. Shuffle instruments randomly to instantly hear a new sound from your backing band. Create a custom mix using volume sliders or by muting and soloing any instrument. Quickly navigate to any part of the song using the new Arrangement Track, or just repeat your favorite part. When you’re happy with rehearsals, you can record right into Magic GarageBand.

iWeb ‘09 adds:

• New iWeb Widgets, such as iSight(R) video and photos, a countdown timer, YouTube video and RSS feeds
• Integrated FTP publishing allows you to publish your website to virtually any hosting service and updates to your site can now be automatically added to your Facebook profile.

Source: Apple

SPONSORED LISTS:

iTunes list feeds

• iTunes 25 New Releases
• Top songs
• Top TV episodes
• Top video rentals
• Top free applications

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In the spirit of the season, we’ll start with what he considers the best of the best for the year nearly completed:

Gateway MC7803u laptop

Rock Band 2

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

Intel Core i7 CPU

Hulu

Fabrik [re]drive

Sony Xperia X1

Herman-Miller Embody

Find out what Null had to say about each of these by visiting The Working Guy.

In case you’re thinking of investing in any of these, check out what he has to say about them first.

Blu-ray

Mint.com

DRM in All Its Forms

What’s wrong with these products? Visit The Working Guy to find out.