A phone that runs on AA battery

You know you want one!

We all carry multiple SIM cards.
‘Spare One’ Phone that Runs On One AA Battery is perfect to load your secondary numbers. A phone that just calls.  You wont be worrying about charging it.

 Run out of battery? No problem, Just stop at the nearest store and grap an AA one.

What #SOPA will do to you

• When you tweet a photo of your kid with Disney logo in the background. That's a $500 fine.
• When you link your blog post to a Skyirm walk-through YouTube video that accidentally shows the player's Charles Jourdan watch or his girl friend's Louis Vuitton bag. That's a $1000 * (#seconds the watch was visible in the video)  + $1200 * (#seconds the bag was visible in the video)  Fine.
• Seeding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) from a piratebay tracking server. God forbids that's a year in jail.
• Shooting a video of your kid taking his first poop in the bathroom while Nicole Scherzinger - Right There is playing in the background. Your kid will be old enough to clean your poop in prison.
• You could get 5 years for uploading a Michael Jackson song. One year more than the doctor who killed him. 
• If a student posts a copyrighted work to a forum, the whole site could be taken down

I think the Illuminati is taking over the world very soon. Is the 2012 the end? [If I didn't reply to your comments I'm probably in jail for linking to Wikipedia]

Enable hotspot on iPhone (@mrbhr)

Our friend @mrbhr wrote a nice article about How to enable Personal Hotspot on iPhone?
+1 for iPhone this feature was recently added on 4.3

Imagination Pooling

We imagine several sorts of things all the time. Some of you decide to share it to their close friends. Others keep it to themselves scared people will steal and publish their ideas as their own. However, very rare decide to publicly share their imaginations. I'm here to talk about this last segment.

Here is the fun part. Each one of us was born with limited unique set of imagination span. The more we learn new things the more our imagination span increases. Until it reaches a level where you think you know everything and here is where you stop learning. Your imagination freezes at its size. You refuse to read books that don't interest you or watch movies that do not fit your standards or listen to other type of music or play video games that are not your style. Here is when the imagination gives you the delusion that you know "enough" and you don't need to know about other aspects in life, you may even call them stupid, or silly stuff. This will eventually kill potential creativity.

Let's go back to point one. We were born with unique imaginations. We compile our imagination into stories and we pour these stories into a medium. This medium can be a book or a movie or a play or a picture or even a video game. When you watch this movie or listen to this song or see this picture you acquire more imagination automatically. Even though you might think the movie is silly or that song is stupid.

When we watch movies we tap into other people imagination pool and build on it creating further imaginations. I refer to this as imagination pooling.

The point I want to make in this post is that pooling the imagination can broaden your thoughts spectrum thus generating even rich ideas. You cannot do this if you stick to talking to your close friends or listening to stuff you already know about or reading books on which you know the title or watch movies that you only like. That was me 2 years ago, until I met my wife my whole thoughts and imaginations changed. I feel myself as if my imagination experienced totally different dimension and I keep coming with even more ideas every day. She is in the fashion industry while I'm in the IT field. Totally different yet my imagination was doubled since the day i met her.

Never under-estimate the power of learning and never think your knowledge is above all. Learn to share and acquire new things.

Are you an Apple Hostage?

I don't know if you are familiar with the Stockholm syndrome. In 1973 a bank in Stockholm got robbed and the bank employees were kept hostages for 6 days. The weird thing is that the hostages became emotionally attached to their captors and were defending them even after they were released. Since then, this was referred to as the Stockholm syndrome.


Apple is spending millions to keep their users clipped to its products. Take a look at this:
 

1. You can't download OTA MP3 and save it to the device, it should be from ITunes.
2. You can download apps only from the Apple Store.
3. If you are Bahraini, screw you, you have only the Bahrain or Saudi Apple Store which contains either sex stories apps or Islamic calenders. No Angry birds.
4. You can't trick apple to change your Store to US to get more stuff. You have to have a credit card, even if you do have one, is not smooth to install.
5. You can't replace the battery or have a backup one use this one only.
6. No you can only charge iPhone with this charger, what? oh no, no microUSB.
7. Flash? Who needs it?
8. You can only buy applications, music from ITunes not from another site.
9. You cannot test your app without a license, buy a developer license and install your app.
10. Last but not least expensive products that locks you down.

Despite that the guys from iPhone Dev Team spend so much time to hack the OS and unlock it. Every user is waiting for this jailbreak yet they don't confess. Now it is nice that IOS users have some degree of freedom after this latest jailbreak, but this should not be necessary. "Apple really needs to trust their users with their own devices." -- grant

That is what's happening between Apple and their users. What really baffles me isn't Apple, but Apple users! It is like they are saying "My kidnapper didn't beat me every night and sometimes I even got cake."



Are you an Apple hostage? I'm sure not.

Idea: Eliminate the Shopping Queue

Sometimes shopping with my wife can keep the brain juices flowing.

Create a microscopic unique RFID tags and attach them to products. So that no two tags in the world are the same.

Customers now select their products.( clothes etc.) And they simply place their cart in a big scanner( just like the ones at airport) the scanner now scans all item at once using the radio and deletes them from the system.

So with just one scan all your items are scanned and the price is calculated.  You pay with your card and that's it.

No cashier. No Queue.

Happy New Year?

We have been designed in a way to measure and calculate everything around us. We label everything with age or size or experience or strength so we can compare them. Thus was the need to create a system for measuring time. The current universal calender being used on Earth is the Gregorian calendar or the Christian calendar.

This calender started when Jesus Christ was born 2012 years ago. Since then, we set date for everything. Inventors set dates to launch their inventions, businessmen set dates to end their projects, Human Resources pay the workers by the hour, politicians set dates to start and end wars, people have been executed in certain dates, others have been honored in different dates And we celebrated New Year Eve every single year, since then.

We need time, without time we can't keep track of the progress. Here is the bizarre* idea: Although we created this time scheme from scratch, which has nothing to do with God, we still keep labeling years as "Bad" Or "Good".  If you thought about it there is no such thing as bad or a good year, it is a year, it is just a time span that we created. Yet we wait 12 months to wish each other a "Happy New Year", why don't we wish each other a happy life time? Why wait 12 months to do so. Why don't I be happy this month? or Why don't you say Happy New Month?

And even if somehow people will argue that 2011 was in fact a bad year at least for us in Bahrain. If there was some power affecting how a year "runs", than this power is within us. To prove it, look at this thought experience I created, I called it the Car Keys Anomaly.

If this power, some call it faith, was external, then it doesn't know what is 2011 or 2012 2075 or January or December means, it has its own time scheme, and if it is to be applied it will be applied and projected on that time scheme not our calender. It could be on 17 August or 31 of May!

My point, if you want to do something, go do it now, don't wait until you write your next year's resolutions. You can do whatever you want whenever you want wherever you want. We have put this calender just for organizing your life, you may remove it and start now. This system is good but you don't have to stick to it. You can just start your success anytime.


Happy New Year!

Andriod Chosen Over iOS, Here is Why

My dad keeps confusing me with this question, "Which is better Galaxy or iPhone?" This post was to clear his question a bit and anyone who might ask.

The opinion I'm residing here is my own. I will list the Good things about iOS (iPhone4) and then the bad things , and I will do the same with Andriod (Samsung Galaxy S2)

If I was the type of user who downloads apps, surfs the web and plays songs, then yes I would get an iPhone. But unfortunately I want more.

The Good about iPhone

Here is what I like about iPhone

1. Sleek Design: The phone is designed in a way not to let you worry much about whats inside. It is hard-locked. When unimportant stuff is locked to user it is easier to use. For instance most of us never saw an iPhone battery.
2. Simplicity:  With only one physical button that takes you home whenever you are lost, even kids can use this phone.
3. Incredible Touch Screen:  I admit that no device has yet been created that closely match the iPhone's touch screen. It is so simple grandma knows how to use it. 

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The bad about iPhone

Here is what I don't like about iPhone

1. Too Simple:  Here lies the problem, iPhone is too simple. The iOS is designed in a way to "lock" users from the rest of the phone and just enable them to do the frequently most used stuff which works really great for 80% of users. As a developer, I want to know what's going on behind that progress bar when I download an app, or how much RAM an app is consuming, or what is the CPU usage. One would say "so? There are apps for that" Yes of course there are but it's not as good as if it comes Native. Plus most of these apps require a jail-break and we will talk about jail-break in a minute. 
2. Syncing Rage: Unless you are syncing with one machine all the time your fine. The moment you sync it with other machine things go crazy, for some reason Apple doesn't like that and decide to delete all your stuff.
3. It is not a handset: Without iTunes you cannot use your IPhone, and to connect to iTunes you should two things 1) USB Cable 2) A laptop. Everything should sync through that, so you should always carry your USB with you. So I won't call the iPhone a "handset" unless Apple loses this hard coupling. With Andriod, thanks to Google Cloud services, you can setup your phone wherever you are without connecting it to a machine. 
4. No Built-in WIFI Hotspot: I don't know about iPhone4S But IPhone4 doesn't have a WIFI tethering feature.
5. OS Update Errors: If Apple is trying to make the iPhone simple, it should make it all the way to the OS update, I haven’t met an average user who was able to update his OS Successfully in iPhone without losing his apps and music.
6. License to Develop: Fine, I understand how beneficial it gets to tab into the developer resources with a developer license, but to prevent me even from testing my app on device is something most developers won't like. So we should wait for weeks to get the license (mine took 2 months) or go on and jail-break in order to install a test app which what most people are doing by the way. So a clean message to apple: please lose the license to test.
7. No Jailbreak No Joy: There is any way to optimize and customize your iPhone without jail-breaking. Unless of course you jailbreak and void your warranty which consequently prevents you from getting any updates. Without a jail-break you don't know what on earth is going behind the scene.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The Good about Andriod

Here is what I like about Andriod

1. Naked OS:  Andriod on the other hand is an open OS which comes out of the box with all what a geek might ask I can see through my OS and apps. I can see my device naked. It can do all what an iOS does, not with the same level of simplicity of course but Andriod is getting there with each release. You can take this OS and modify it the way you like.
2. Baked in Google Products: One more thing, Andriod, being a google product, and we know how all of us loves google, everything is baked in this OS, search engine, Google Mail, Maps, Documents, Picasa, Calendar and yes Contacts. The moment I entered my Gmail in my Galaxy S2, it starts pulling all my contacts with their numbers, emails, avatars, my Blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts into my contact list. All my calendar dates and anniversaries are automatically set, and most importantly. All Synced and ready to go. 
3. Setup over WIFI: I have been using my Galaxy s2 for a week now and I NEVER connected it to a machine. I took it, charged it, entered my gmail account and voila! All sexy and ready to go. 
4. Development Joy:  Development is so easy, just download the Andriod SDK, write your code, install it to the device and enjoy, no licensing is required for testing your app. Just check the option to trust the Unknown apps and you are ready to go. Unlike iPhone where you need to purchase a development license even if you just want to test the app, so again, you need to jailbreak to install your app. 
5. WIFI Tethering:  Out of the box ready to use, used it so many times and enjoying it. I'm always connecting my BB to the my GS2 hotspot.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The Bad about Andriod

Here is what I don't like about Andriod

1. Bad Market App: I didn't like the Andriod Market at all; I think it needs more work. Apple Store is much more organized.  
2. Possible Viruses: Since it "can" be unlocked to unknown source apps, you are a potential victim of viruses which can hijack your phone.
3. Too much Built-in Apps: I would take this bad point to Samsung because they injected so much useless apps just for commercial benefits. At least allow me to delete them.
4. Auto Rotate: I would animate while rotating because sometimes the flip screen can get really frustrating.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

Conclusion

So I either get an iPhone, jailbreak it, customize it the way I want, and then be extra careful while syncing it not to lose my stuff. This way I can't enjoy any new updates by Apple anymore. Not to mention that to Jailbreak you need to make sure a Jailbreak software is available to the iOS you already have, and until now no good jailbreak is available for iOS5 for iPad2 and iPhone4S. Or get a clean Andriod handset and do whatever I want.

Both iOS and Andriod have their pros and cons, it depends on your needs.

"So no dad I don't know which one is better, you decide."

Microsoft Word Blogger Tool

So I was trying a feature in Microsoft Word 2010, which allows you to connect to your existing Blogging platform (major blogging services supported) and write posts directly from your Word enviorment.

After I finished writing the post and was ready to post, I got this message.

Blogging from MS2010

"No thanks. I'm good."

October 2011 Songs Page (mp3)

2011 October Songs

Rip your Car CD, Enjoy only Mp3, direct downloads, on your phone.

October 2011 Songs Page
 share the love.



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