Although I bought my smartphone six months ago, it’s only now that I’m actually beginning to discover the possibilities it holds. I was recently introduced to Google Maps by a friend, and using Latitude, we were able to track each other when we both visited New York City on different assignments. It made it much easier for us to coordinate a meeting, seeing as we could stop at a location mutually close to both of us.

As far as I know, Latitude works on phones that run Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms, on most BlackBerries that support color, and of course, on Google’s own G1. But the surprising fact is that it is not supported on the iPhone. Well, there are other applications that allow you to track the movements of people using their mobile phones, but there are reasons why Latitude scores above them all:

First, it allows you to protect your privacy by being an opt-in service where you invite the people you want to track your whereabouts.

You can stop sharing information any time you want.

You can share only information that you think is necessary, like the city you’re in or the general area, without getting too specific.

You can also fudge your whereabouts by entering a manual location, depending on your mood or situation.

You can keep sharing your location even when you exit Google Maps and Latitude

If your phone supports GPS, you can find directions from your location to your preferred destination. In fact, the directions are pretty precise and allow you to choose your method of travel, vehicle or on foot.

Yes, there are a few aspects that are not-so favorable as many people have pointed out, but in my book, they’re actually blessings in disguise. For example, I’ve had friends complain that my actual location was not very accurate. This is perfectly fine with me, because I do find it a bit creepy that people know exactly where I am at all times, even though I did volunteer to share the information. A mile or two off is not going to hurt anyone, is it? And if people really need to know where you are, they can always pick up the phone and call! After all, wasn’t that what they used to do before Google Maps and Latitude came into existence?

This post was contributed by Kathleen Baker, who writes about a masters in healthcare online. She welcomes your feedback at KathleenBaker3212 at gmail.com

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80 applications, games and themes. Download them all! Turn your nokia n93 into n93 edition, download tomtom for your phone, a better web browser if you want…choose as you like.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

We all have Personal Computers at home that we use everyday whether it be for gaming or for work but what we experience most the time is not the perfect operation/functionality of the software we run simply because of the components the Personal Computer consists of.

Being a gamer myself, I find it critical to own a personal computer which can run fast and play games at the highest/fullest capability. You may play a fast paced game which requires high graphics and where split second decision could decide the outcome, i.e a victory or defeat. However, if your computer isn’t up to par, all is lost. A gamer is only as good as his/her computer, and if the computer is sh*t then you too my friend are the same.

You must note that gaming pcs are built to process huge amounts of information while playing online role–playing games or first–person shooters. These power PCs (gaming pcs) come with high–end graphics cards, lighting fast CPUs and even liquid cooling. Usually such a computer can cost a lot, especially when brought from the already well known manufacturers out there.

Cryo Performance Computing, however, a new small business based in the United Kingdom offer fantastic computers, especially gaming pc’s which are designed to handle games at the highest level. What you must think is price to value -whenever you are buying a computer. This is essential as you do not want to pay too much if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Cryo seem to have found the right balance between price and value, especially when you check out their custom pc’s available for sale.

Take for example the “Cryo Octane” PC they offer;

The Cryo Octane is THE new number cruncher with eight (‘Octa’) cores and Intels new 5400 Skulltrail chipset it supports both nVidia SLI and ATI Crossfire multi GPU card technologies. Realising that anyone after a beast like this wants the best from every component we’ve also included a SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) with 3Gb bandwidth point-to-point bus its the fastest IO you can get and previously was only possible with enterprise level investments in storage arrays. This enables us to use enterprise class 15K rpm drives in the array offering the fastest desktop storage ever made available.

The price ranges from £1000 – £4950 which I think is cheaper than if you where to buy similar specs elsewhere. I know £4950 is not enticing in terms of price but I would doubt you would need that particular specification to make a personal computer that powerful. If you can afford it then why not, if you cant then you can always change things such as the RAM or processor. Infact you could go for another whole option such as the Cryo Quad or the Cryo Extreme.

From Gaming PC Review 2009:

Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate gaming PCs.

Processor – A fast CPU, or processor, will prevent lags in large or complex games like first person shooters or MMORPGs (massively multi–player online role–playing games). Some systems have dual core processors for hard–core gaming.

Memory – A large memory allows the computer to quickly access frequently used information or programs. This is critical for gaming. A gaming PC should have between one and two GB of RAM memory and a sufficient hard drive.

Video/Audio – A game is only as good as the graphics card supporting it. Many games have life–like, real–time images that require a high–end graphics card. Most computer manufacturers allow you to upgrade your graphics card. The sound should be a clear as the image.

I/O Device – Some computers come with various peripherals including a mouse, keyboard, speakers and a monitor while others don’t. This may or may not be important depending on the buyer. Additionally, some gaming systems come with uniquely designed towers with sleek cases and neon lights.

Value/Price – In this review, we looked for computers under $2000. The leading companies are value oriented—providing a lot of computer for a good price.

Support/Warranty – The first–class manufacturers provide quality help and support through email, phone and online chat. They also provide practical warranties at no additional cost.

The essential point is that you find the best value for money. Cryo offers you support via phone and email so that you are happy before you purchase. Furthermore, there is after support which I believe to be essential, especially if you are not a “tech wiz” yourself.

Try a custom pc today and you may find cryo to be your best option.

Ok, so most of the readers of SweetHacks run Windows as their OS (Operating System). Therefore what I have done is prepare a 10 part series of programs which I recommend you should install as they would probably help you with your everyday use of your PC/Laptop.

Today – Part 1 – We focus on: File Shredder

As a everyday user of the internet you may find that you tend to download work or store important information such as your assignment or credit card. Yes, you can delete everything by just clicking the delete button but what you dont know if its been deleted successfully, by this I mean a clean deletion of the face of the earth…well the computer

Example: You might have seen people on the TV having their computers seized and files recovered even though they might have tried to conceal information, delete it OR even try to curropt their HDD. This is because there are quite a few software tools today for retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools, often referred to as “file recovery” software, are taking advantage of shortcoming of WIndows “delete” command that we all use regularly to delete files. Actually, the “delete” operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files so they appear deleted in OS. It is easy to retrieve those files using aforementioned specialized file recovery software.

To put this short – The delete button just hides most of the file and does not actually delete it.

To get rid of this problem what we can do is download this program where we can actually delete files from our hard drives permanently. File Shredder has been developed as fast, safe and reliable tool to shred company files. The author of this program released it free under GNU licence and you are welcome to download File Shredder and use it without any restrictions.

File Shredder is simple but powerful program that surpasses manu commercial file shredders out there. The Author believes that such a utility should be available to anyone for free and that permanent and safe removal of confidential documents is a matter of basic right to privacy.

This is a must download application especially if you keep sensitive files on your computer which you must remove.

Download File Shredder.

More information here

Stay tuned for part 2.

Security researcher Charlie Miller, who last year won $10,000 for hacking into a MacBook Air via Safari in just two minutes, says he thinks Safari will be the first browser to fall at this year’s Pwn2Own contest. “It might be because I’m biased about the things I’m good at, but it’s the easiest browser [to hack],” Miller told Computerworld this week.

The Pwn2Own contest this year will pit hackers against a MacBook running Mac OS X with Safari and Firefox installed, as well as a Sony Vaio P running Windows 7 and IE8, Firefox, and Chrome installed. The browsers are intended to be the target vector to launch exploit code that will “pwn” the machines and earn $5,000 for each browser that is exploited.

“Apple’s products are really friendly to users, and Safari is designed to handle anything, including all kinds of file formats,” said Miller. “With a lot of functionality comes the increased chance of bugs. The more complex software is, the less secure it is.”

Continue reading “Safari Easy To Hack”

Nokia have prepared yet another handset for their N series and theyve aptly named it the N97. It features an amazing touchscreen with full QWERTY keyboard capabilities so that you can send SMS on the fly and enjoy web browsing like your favorite social networks or emal.

Theres not much point talking about the phone seeing as there are good videos showing how it runs.

Below is such a video, enjoy:

The N97’s large 1500mAh battery is rated for up to 16 days of 3G standby time or over 5 hours of 3G talk time. GSM times are slightly longer. Nokia also claims that the N97 will be capable of up to 1.5 days worth of continuous music playback from a single charge when the phone is in offline (airplane) mode. The large battery does add to the overall size and weight of the N97, though. At roughly 147g (5.2oz), it’s not exactly light.

It is still pocketable, though, measuring 15.9mm in thickness. Furthermore, I love the touchscreen capability along with the scroll on touch menu. A serious contender to the iPhone 3g people??