Well, as formerly publicized, the price for this additional wireless choice is $ 629 for a 16GB model, $ 729 for 32 GB and $ 829 for 64G as compared to $ 499, $ 599 and $ 699 for same capacity Wi-Fi only versions. Is the iPad Wifi + 3G really worth more?

I tried doing a little tweaking with its other features. I tried watching videos on YouTube using the iPad Wifi + 3G model and to my surprise the quality is significantly second-rate. What’s more is that ABC’s iPad app wouldn’t play 3G videos at all. As an alternative a dialog box comes out asking you to “Please connect to a Wi-Fi network to use this application.” What just happened? Imagine having a gadget that should be supported by a 3G function doesn’t work for a 3G video? Although the iPad Wifi + 3G wasn’t mine, I felt betrayed as a consumer.

But then according to an article I read, the manufacturer (Apple) said that they made a conclusion to downgrade resolution on YouTube so the users get nonstop, unbroken playback in other places as to be in opposition to the usual faltering stop and start. They also stated that ABC made the call to restrict cellular usage through its application. Well okay, at least now I know.

In majority, the Wi-Fi and iPadWi-Fi + 3G models appear and perform in the same way. The 3G device has a plastic back strip on the top and rear that covers the 3G and GPS antennas, in addition to a slot on the side for a micro SIM card. Within the Settings menus are spots for managing your cellular data account. Having GPS means you can locate through maps and other applications with more accuracy.

I didn’t run a scientific battery analysis but based on my usage, I have no basis to uncertainty about iPadWi-Fi + 3G’s claim of about 9 hours or so of the usual battery life, or just about an hour less than you’ll get on the Wi-Fi only model.

First of all, having bought an Apple product, you will benefit from one of the best support systems. All of the hardware going into your Mac is of the highest quality and is made by Apple.

Then there are the connectivity features. The Apple Mac Pro will quickly and easily connect to almost all of the normal or wireless connections due to the built in Wifi technology.

You will never have to deal with conflicting software ever again.  All the applications will run smoothly, effectively and efficiently. Also, it is important to note that a Mac can run Windows and all its applications, but not the other way around.

When looking to buy the Apple Mac Pro you will have to be careful because there are currently two versions of the same model. One is 2009 and the other 2010. You will be able to spot the difference between the two by reading a good Apple Mac Pro review. The 2010 version is much better than the previous one, having a better display with the latest LED technology, faster processors like the Core i5 and Core i7 and a better integrated display card.

The Apple Mac Pro simply outperforms other non-Mac computers with the same specs because of the build quality and the operating system which many believe to be more user friendly, better looking, better optimized and generally speedier.

So besides being one of the best looking notebooks on the market, the Apple Mac Pro can also pack a punch with its state of the art technology, being able to run with ease even the most resource consuming applications.

With its slick design, great specs and a long battery life, the Apple Mac Pro will satisfy even the most demanding customers.

Alfred Morricone is a hardware and software specialist, having used all sorts of computers for over 14 years. His experience on Windows, Linux and Macintosh based systems puts him in high demand when it comes to picking the right system. By an Apple Mac Pro review, he helps you to make a decision on which Apple Mac Pro to get.

With the US and World economy fluctuating like a Libra in heat, many of Americans are forced to turn off their cell phones, which also serves a purpose for checking email, social media networking, phone calls, texting and much more. The most economically safe way to survive life in our high-end technological society is to invest into an iPod Touch device. The average pricing for one of these find devices range from $ 150 to $ 250, depending on the size.

First, you can store all the music that the capacity can allow, giving you motivational inspiration as you complete the many tasks of the day on your very tight and stressful schedule. You can even make playlists and mixes on your iPod Touch as you go along with your day.

Secondly, there are manyApple iPod Touch applications that you can download for free. Surely, you’ll want to download the Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr applications to keep your friends updated on your daily activities and special announcements (i.e. job promotion announcement on the spot?). Are you the texting freak as most American’s are? You’ll want to download the Text-Free application and send out texts to any and all of your beloved family and friends throughout the day. There’s even a phone feature if you have the specialized headset and microphone in your device. Some other applications that can be used are some amazingly fun-filled games, time management and money management applications, and of course e-mail application that downloads your email on the spot.

You are asking yourself, there has to be a con and you are absolutely right. The only thing that will keep you going to staying connected to a WiFi network and if you’re using this mainly at the office, coffee shop and home, you’ll be set to go. If not, then you’ll want to stick with your blackberry or iPhone.

There is a special volume button on the side of the iPod Touch, to easily move up or down the volume to match the needs of your musics’ desire. Plus you can even set a password when you device goes idle. For all you morning risers in the wee hours of the day, there is an excellent alarm clock and of course you’ll get your New York Times news on the spot with you New YorkTimes Newspaper application, that you’ll download the minute you get this excellent money saving devise that will surely be a part of your repertoire when heading out of the house or staying home with the felines.

You have heard the word hot spot but don’t know what this exactly is. With the advancement of technology connectivity has now become wireless and networking among computers and compatible devices are now possible without the use of wires. Don’t understand? Well, let me explain in a simpler way. There are some designated places where Wi-Fi is in operation and these places are often called hot spots. The places are for public access where the people can connect to the network and surf Internet with a wireless device like laptop, mobile, etc. Some hotspots are exclusively designated for authorized users like hotel guests, coffee shop customers, or library patrons.

To access the network in a hot spot, authentication is required. You may wonder how it is possible. This is made possible by Wi-Fi routers. Now obviously the question arises, how does a wireless router work? You certainly have experience of cordless phones.

These phones use radio waves to connect a remote to a base device. A wireless network works almost in the very same way. Instead of a network cable, here data packets are sent to a variety of destinations. For router configuration, you can consult a computer repair service provider.

Before delving deep into discussion, let’s have a look at what is Wi-Fi. We are now a days very much familiar with this term but it mainly refers to wirelessRouterwireless devices certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. You will find the Wi-Fi logo on the Certified Wi-Fi devices. This signifies that it has been tested by the alliance. But now we consider all the wireless routers as Wi-Fi routers, not necessarily whether it is certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance or not.

Have you ever used a wireless router? This is mainly a network router having a built-in access point. Like other routers its job is to exchange data between the Internet and a local area network. In many cases, we use standalone wireless access points where a standard router port is connected on one end while a wireless transceiver on the other. In both of the two cases, the transceiver sends and receives data via antennae. For accessing to a wireless network, it is a must to have a wireless network adapter. Almost all the modern day laptops and mobile phones have this feature inbuilt.

Now, we will discuss on how Wif-Fi operation is done. To access to a wireless network the client device needs to have authorization. There are security feature that block intruders from accessing the facility. Once the connection is allowed to enter, the device can send and receive data from the Internet or from another local networked device.

Standing in line for hours (five and a half to be exact; I did not expect to wait more than a half hour when I arrived), I was struck by how many people were willing to spend so much of their day waiting for the new iPhone.

No other class of product commands such attention, and it hit me why in line: there is nothing else we interact with on such a personal and continuous basis all day long as our smartphones. Apple very clearly encourages launch day lines for marketing purposes, but it couldn’t maintain such theatrics year after year if its iPhones weren’t living up to the hype. Interviews suggest more than 70% of those waiting in launch day lines were existing iPhone users.

Of course, the primary reason we started carrying mobile phones was to be able to make calls and be contacted. Ironically, the most famous smartphone is also one of the worst performing phones, at least in the US. AT&T’s network, which greeted the original iPhone as a brand new amalgamation of GSM providers in the US, started out well behind Verizon’s CDMA network in terms of 3G buildout. It is now struggling to keep up with the massive demand of what is collectively the world’s most mobile-greedy device. That adds up to a perfect storm of terrible waiting to greet Apple’s latest and greatest phone.

Steve Jobs said on stage at WWDC that AT&T is handling more mobile data than all the other US carriers put together. At the same time, AT&T is also delivering the fastest national network, and the only one compatible with the GSM/UMTS mobile technology used by most foreign networks internationally (making roaming possible, albeit expensive, for users, while also facilitating the manufacture of one iPhone model for Apple). There’s still major problems in some service areas though, and AT&T’s efforts to upgrade its network can’t seem to come fast enough.

Light at the end of iPhone’s US tunnel

They are improving however. In San Francisco, holes where EDGE was hard to get last year are now showing up as usable 3G. There’s also AT&T’s Microcell 3G product, which can help fill a dead space in one location, although it costs a one time fee of $ 150, and you can’t set up more than one or locate it anywhere else apart from your home billing address. It also bills 3G mobile data use as part of your monthly plan allotment, although if you have Internet access for your Microcell 3G, you’re probably also using WiFi for your data, not its 3G data service.

Another factor in iPhone 4’s favor is that it now supports both HSDPA (like last year’s iPhone 3GS) as well as HSUPA, a combination that enables it to take full advantage of AT&T’s network speed edge over Verizon. Outside the US, support for these “3.5G” standards means users will see even faster mobile network speeds: up to 7.2 Mbps down and 5.8 Mbps up. That’s faster than most American’s broadband Internet service. Even here in the US, iPhone 4 is delivering uploads of up to 10 times what the previous iPhone was capable of delivering, an improvement that will be an important factor to users who want to send MMS pictures and videos, email documents, or upload photos and movies to sites like MobileMe and YouTube.

Jobs indicated that the new antenna design of iPhone 4, which leverages its peripheral stainless steel band, would also help to improve reception, and early reviews have noted that to be the case. Apple also told early reviewers that it had worked to optimize how the device selected nearby towers.

iPhone 4’s hardware recall campaign

The flip side to these improvements appears to be that some early bugs have hit both how iOS 4 reports signal bars (its not very reliably accurate) and how it chooses the frequency it wants to use (its sometimes fails completely, indicating no service rather than switching correctly). This sort of thing can be fixed in the baseband software, and reports indicate that Apple is working to get out its first update as soon as this week. Every new iPhone so far got its first software update in about a month after its launch, so if those reports are correct, this could be the fastest first fix Apple has delivered.

That might be critical because iPhone 4 is facing its first “product recall campaign” much earlier than usual this year, too. Recall that every iPhone has been hit with a story that claimed a major hardware defect, and suggested that Apple would face a major and expensive hardware recall:

The original iPhone was targeted by a Richard Windsor research note suggesting that iPhones might suddenly stopped working in the first three to six months due to a heat sensitive film failure in the screen, despite the fact that there wasn’t any such film even present in its design.

iPhone 3G was also targeted by a Richard Windsor research note, this time suggesting that iPhone hardware would fail because of the faulty design of its Infineon chips, a problem that supplier denied and which ultimately proved to be either just speculation or pure invention. Apple later released a software update that resolved many of the dropped call issues.

iPhone 3GS was hit by widespread reports of overheating, then fears that faulty batteries would cause a recall. Neither problem panned out as a real issue, although Apple replaced batches of its mini power adapters after some plugs broke off.

The idea that iPhone 4 has a significant hardware defect because some users report being able to block their reception using their hand (when the phone is used without a case) hasn’t yet been officially addressed by Apple. However, the overwhelming majority of reviews are reporting that iPhone 4 has significantly better reception and fewer dropped calls than previous iPhones. If the antenna design were really flawed, those improvements shouldn’t be so widely observed.

Cell phone bars

The rumor campaign against iPhone 4’s antenna has even infected the legitimate news media, with the UK’s DailyMailprinting an entire article (which was later pulled) worrying that “iPhone 4 may be recalled,” based upon a comment posted to Twitter by a joke account purporting to be Steve Jobs.

Last week, the New York Times published a report based largely upon an article by Gizmodo, without noting the site’s ongoing feud with Apple, including its being refused media entry to the WWDC keynote.

Brian Lam, the Gizmodo editor who lost his existing phone in a police investigation related to the iPhone prototype theft, said his site was “paying attention to the [iPhone 4] antenna issue because it could be a big deal,” but also said he bought a new iPhone 4 and is now able to place “hours of calls” that he could not place in the same location with previous generations of iPhones.

At the heart of the issue is the fact that the cell phone signal bars reported by mobile phones do not function like a gas tank meter, as most users might assume. Instead, they work more like a reserve tank light. Five full bars can indicate anything from an ideal signal down to just enough to complete a call. As bars drop, the signal meter is reporting that call quality loss is imminent. The reason why some users see no difference (particularly when they’re near a strong signal source, such as a Microcell 3G appliance) and others can drop from five bars to none just by covering the antenna with their hand placement, is that the latter group’s five bars are indicating much less signal to start with.

So far, the reports of the iPhone 4’s antenna issues have been based entirely upon unscientific testing by users who don’t understand how their signal bars work. Comments by engineers Steve Gibson and Simon Byrnand explain that the signal bar meter does not quantify a specific amount of signal available (very different signal variations can still result in five bars being observed).

That means that videos posted by users that show a drop in signal related to hand placement are nearly worthless as evidence of a real problem. Users don’t need bars to appear on their phone; they need a strong enough signal to place a call or send and receive data.

Gibson writes, “Apple’s ‘5-bars’ cellular signal strength display is not showing the full range of possible, or even typical, received cellular signal strength. It is only showing the bottom end of the full range of possible reception strength.”

No tests so far have shown that a hardware issue is to blame for reception problems on iPhone 4. In my own testing, I could not isolate any hand placement that prevented calls from working or lowered the reported data rates available, nor even could I force down the signal bars with a “death grip.”

On the EDGE of a cliff

At the same time, there are still too many places I get service bars but can’t maintain a good enough signal to make an actual call. There are many potential reasons for this, including the fact that one can get a strong mobile signal and still not be able to talk or send and receive data because the carrier’s backhaul network is overcrowded. It’s like being able to quickly jump on the freeway via an onramp with no traffic, only to be stuck in a jam that prevents you from actually getting anywhere further down the road.

Whether the problems I observed are related to iOS 4 software, an issue with AT&T’s towers or their uplinks, or some combination of factors, it prevents iPhone 4 from being easy to unreservedly praise for the main purpose it serves. No matter how great the hardware, if the phone doesn’t work as a phone where you need it to, it isn’t a very good phone.

Of the first twenty calls I made with iPhone 4, every single one of them terminated itself prematurely except for one: a FaceTime call I made independent of AT&T’s network. The experience was almost enough to make me return my fancy iPhone 4 and hold my nose through an Android experience on a lessor HTC phone with flashy hardware features that don’t quite work and a terrible user interface on a high pixel resolution but low 16-bit color resolution screen, just so I could actually place calls (and do things like tether both my notebook and iPad, something I can’t do with iPhone 4 unless I jailbreak it).

AT&T’s network is clearly the weakest link for iPhone 4, almost in a dramatic Greek hero sort of fashion: the mythical magical mobile computer-phone dipped in the river Styx all but for its mobile contract. AT&T’s issues create the perception that this amazing device can do no wrong, apart from when the Fates take circumstances out of the hands of Apple’s own engineers and hand them to AT&T.

Apple isn’t perfect either

Of course, in reality-land Apple’s own software suffers some flaws of its own, ranging from petty to significant, which can’t be blamed on AT&T. Users have reported a series of iOS 4 issues ranging from battery life (occasionally getting better, often getting worse, and frequently simply being reported wrong); data sync issues (calendar sync failures that add old events, inability to edit Contact information, inability to get Notes to sync on occasion); spurious warnings about the device overheating, despite no obvious thermal issues; reports that the proximity sensor may not turn off the display reliably when making a call (a problem I did not observe); and of course the Death Grip issue that appears to be related to or at least accentuated by iOS 4’s baseband software flaws.

My initial dropped call problems occurred in the walk from the metro station to my house, a notorious valley of terrible cellular reception exacerbated by a surrounding neighborhood full of too many iPhone users. Further testing backed me away from the cliff, as both the call quality (thanks to new noise cancellation) and call performance seem to be significantly improved over the iPhone 3GS, at least in areas where you give it a signal to work with. In fact, while testing how the phone works when it loses its signal, I found iPhone 4 was able to grab and hold a connection in places where my iPhone 3GS could not at all.

Still, if you don’t have a decent signal to work with, your iPhone 4 experience will be utterly devastating. No matter how great the phone’s design and implementation, if you lack usable service you’re stuck paying big bills every month for an essential piece of hardware that isn’t doing its job.
 

Despite its fancy hardware, the core feature that is getting people into the Apple Store for iPhone 4 is FaceTime. It works great, but requires a WiFi connection. The reason: it delivers a good picture and good audio, which demand high bandwidth and low latency. No 3G network will currently deliver that to a population of millions of users, and certainly not cost effectively.

Alternative voice chat services (including both 3GPP mobile video chat on Nokia phones, or VoIP services like Fring that can be installed on one of the relatively few other US phones with a front facing camera, such as the HTC Sprint EVO 4G) trade off call quality for being able to make video calls anywhere. However, the iPhone’s heavy dependance on AT&T in the US, and the costs that would be involved in placing regular video chats over the no longer unlimited contracts available, simply make aiming for a WiFi-only deployment the only step that could possibly launch the new service adequately for iPhone users.

Making a FaceTime call requires WiFi, but it also requires mobile service. Prior to activating my iPhone 4, there was no possible way to initiate a FaceTime connection. In Apple’s documentation, it also notes that there’s no way to start a FaceTime call without disclosing your phone number to the other party. Clearly, the phone network is being used to set up the call, even when you start a call directly from Contacts.

This will eventually change, as there’s no way Apple can not add this killer feature to both the upcoming iPod touch 4 and to the company’s iChat AV product on the Mac, particularly given the company’s openness in working to get other mobile makers in on the same standards-based protocol for video chats. For now however, setting up a FaceTime conversation depends upon the mobile phone network, meaning you can not use the feature in places where you have WiFi but no cellular service. That’s pretty disappointing given how easy it is to find holes in AT&T’s service.

(Correction: after its initial connection, iPhone 4 FaceTime doesn’t need a mobile signal to work)

Using FaceTime

The upside is that you don’t really need good cellular service; you just need to be able to start a call. In many cases, bad AT&T service isn’t a problem of zero service, it’s just that you can’t always reliably maintain a call as you move around in the troublesome spots between buildings or cellular tower shadows. If you try to make a FaceTime call and have no cellular signal at all, it will ring and ring (with that awful high pitch chirping from iChat) but never show up on the other end, not even as a missed call.

FaceTime picture quality is quite good, even when using less than ideal WiFi service (we ran tests while one side was on a hotel’s free WiFi service). Audio can be muted using a button on the FaceTime display, and video can be paused (and will be paused) whenever you hit the Home button and visit another app. While you’re away from the video call, you get the red “call in progress” bar across the top of the screen and your audio connection is maintained. Once you return to the FaceTime call, your video stream takes off from where you left.

This video pause not only prevents you from inadvertently maintaining a video link while you’re not aware (there’s no “now recording” green indicator light like the Mac iSight cameras), but also keeps your phone responsive while you do some other task, as it isn’t having to handle video in the background. On the other end, there’s no way to “share your desktop” like iChat, to show someone on the other end what you’re doing on the screen (such reviewing your emails, or a tutorial for your mom on how to change settings on her phone) nor can you share a video feed of your photos or documents or anything like that. There’s always FaceTime 2. And of course, you can also send documents via email or MMS to the recipient during your call.

You can also switch between the front facing VGA camera, which delivers a good-enough picture of you, and activate the rear facing camera to show off landscapes or crowds or your baby’s footsteps to the caller on other end. The picture quality delivered by both cameras over FaceTime is about the same, even though the rear camera captures very high quality photos and full motion 30fps 720p HD video on its own.

Why Apple is opening FaceTime

FaceTime is so good that Apple’s stated intention to open the specification up to other device makers appears surprising at first blush, especially to those stuck in the 90s mindset that open standards can’t work and that proprietary control over software is the only way to make money. The reality however, is that Apple not only needs to get other makers to add support for FaceTime in order for its users to have people to video chat with, but also that if Apple didn’t share its technology contributions (added to the existing IETF standards FaceTime is based upon), the rest of the world would likely stumble upon another one, which would likely be inferior or proprietary or both.

It might also be surprising that Apple isn’t simply licensing its FaceTime technology to other makers as its own proprietary technology. The problem with introducing new proprietary software standards and trying to propagate them is that even if the vendor is successful (and that’s not a given in a competitive landscape), it ends up owning a mess, and unable to freely compete as a vendor of that technology.

Microsoft discovered this reality with Windows, and is now unable to enter the hardware PC market. It again discovered this with Windows Mobile and again with PlaysForSure. When it introduced the Zune, it destroyed PlaysForSure. The company’s new KIN phones are clearly hobbled both by being incompatible with and by competing against Windows Phone 7 and its Windows Mobile 6.x offerings.

A proprietary FaceTime system, licensed by Apple, would convert the company into the same early 90s beast that tried to license its Mac OS to cloners while competing against them with its own Macintosh hardware. That didn’t work out. It would also put Apple in the position of Adobe and its Flash platform, which tries to bridge various computing platforms with a common denominator that can’t do a good job of being both specialized/optimized and at the same time general purpose/good enough. The same kinds of problems haunt the future of the proprietary Skype protocol, and greatly limited Sun’s Java on the desktop and JavaME on mobile devices.

The best way for Apple to compete as a hardware maker and as a mobile platform vendor is to freely offer FaceTime as an open standard just like those in place for the web (HTML5 and related technologies). By making the specification openly available, Apple can continue to work to sell the best implementation of FaceTime software and the best hardware for using it, and yet still work with partners who support it and competitors who bring compatible versions to market. That will also help prevent a rival, proprietary specification from gaining ground, creating a standards war where everyone (including Apple’s customers) loses.

FaceTime is great new application of iPhone 4’s new camera hardware, but it’s not the only one. The next segment, part 3, will look at phone’s new cameras and and how they perform both as still and video capture devices.
 

How to Fix Wi-Fi Problem in Linux Mint

You may have observed that the default ‘network manager’ in Linux Mint fails to reconnect to a dropped Wi-Fi hotspot after prolonged use (e.g. It you are connected to a Wi-Fi hot spot for more than 24 Hrs, and the connection drops for some reason, ‘network manager’ does not reconnect to it and keeps asking for network password and does not connect even after you have supplied the password).

This happens due to a bug in ‘network manager’ which does not allow the Wi-Fi interface to come up. The solution to this is to dump ‘network manager’ altogether and use ‘wicd’, which is an alternate network utility used to manage LAN and Wi-Fi connections. Follow the following steps for installing ‘wicd’:

1. Issue the following command at the terminal-

sudo apt-get install wicd

Enter user password when prompted. Enter ‘y’ to confirm the installation after required package list is displayed.

2. After ‘wicd’ packages have been downloaded, a ‘Package configuration’ wizard will start in the terminal. Press space key to select your username(s) which will be added to the laptop battery ‘netdev’ group. Users of ‘netdev’ group are allowed to run ‘wicd’ client.

Press tab key to highlight ‘’ and then press space key.

3. Setup will now be completed. If you get an error saying that battery failed to start the network connection manager ‘wicd’, then you can ignore it at this time as we have to carry out few more steps.

4. Now issue the following command at the terminal-

sudo apt-get remove network-manager

Enter user password when prompted. Enter ‘y’ to confirm the removal.

Reboot your system when done.

5. After the reboot, you will see a black ‘wicd’ network icon in the system tray instead of the green ‘network-manager’ network icon.

6. Double click the network icon to open the ‘wicd’ connection manager. Press ‘Refresh’ to view list of available networks.

After networks are found, press ‘Properties’ to manage the properties of the network.

Click ‘OK’ when done and connect to your Wi-Fi network without any reconnection problems.

Read More

Mobile revolution began since 1973 and until now these gadgets have surpassed their traditional communication purpose to become a matter of style statement today. They are also good for playing games, browsing internet, listening to your favorite tracks, watching HD movies etc. To meet all these desires, Blackberry, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG etc. are also coming up with more innovative add ons like cameras for photographic experience, WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G for connectivity, wide display, large memory space along with numerous multimedia applications. Another such invention can be seen in the form of WiFi phones.

WiFi or Wireless fidelity enables entering into local area network and providing more coverage area than normal communication gadgets. The phones with inbuilt WiFi feature allows you to connect to the internet anytime anywhere with high speed download support.  You can download your favorite games, music and videos easily with this hi-tech gadget in your hands.

Besides you can also receive and send emails all around the world and stay connected with friends all the time through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc.

This technology also avoids poor network coverage and dropped calls on mobile phones. Nowadays WiFi network is also available in hot spots like hotels, schools, colleges,  bus stands and cafes. All WiFi phones can save your reserved talk time while connecting to the WiFi networks at these hot spots. Besides, they can be easily connected to laptops and computers whenever required through Bluetooth and USB features available with all the modern mobile phones.

Advantages of WiFi phones
1. WiFi network for communication saving your voucher minutes.
2. Compatible with VOIP to stay connected with relatives residing at far away places.
3. Connect to routers for faster internet access.
4. No concept of roaming charges with network providers as your mobiles stay connected wherever they get WiFi signals.

Disadvantage of WiFi phones
All places are not equipped with WiFi signals and as a result the mobile without any network will not work at all places.

Mobile phone deals including the monthly installment contract based phones with free gifts to the flexible pay as you go and Sim free deals, all of them provide latest WiFi phones to provide an entire world of wireless connectivity surrounding you.

Tether, formerly Tetherberry, is a great product for those who own a Blackberry and some times want Internet on our laptop, but don’t want to pay $ 60 a month for a data card.

I own a Blackberry, and I was already paying for data, about $ 30 before tax for unlimited data if fact. However, I was using about 100mb each month. Actually, they tell me that unlimited data means 5gb, but in any case I was not really taxing the network.. (5gb restricts people from streaming video.) If you are like me, rarely will you reach 5gb on your Blackberry.

You heard about using your phone to tether your PC, maybe even tried to connect it to you, but you are not a technical wizard. It is actually cumbersome to do, some scripts and stuff. If you are like me, you just want to pay someone to do it for you. Tether has the perfect solution.

For a one time fee of $ 49.99 (or some times as low as $ 19.99 – 24.99 when they have a sale), Tether (www.tether.com) can painlessly link up your laptop at 3G speed. Just type in tether and coupon code on Google and you might get lucky. This is the same speed (3G) and data limit (5GB) as the data card that you can purchase from your service provider, except it does not cost $ 60 a month. If you are like me, you will need a USB cord. More sophisticated people can tether via bluetooth.

Go to the website, tether will download to your PC and it downloads to your Blackberry and you are ready to go. A Tether icon should appear on your desktop, and if not check the start menu. Also, in the applications folder of your Blackberry should appear a Tether icon. Connect your Blackberry with a USB cord to the computer. If one or the other is missing, Tether will alert you. It literally that easy. http://tether.com/download

Tether is a terrific product. It works everywhere that you can get a phone signal, which is a lot easier than finding a free wifi spot on the road. I took Amtrak from Chicago down to St. Louis and I got the internet for 90% of the way down. It also works for the Android, and they may be working on a product for the Samsung Galaxy and other tablet phones. I have had tether for many years and have not been disappointed. In fact, Tether is a frequent backup to my DSL provider at home.
 

WiFi- WIRELESS FIDELITY:
WiFi technology has brought a totally different and a new aspect in the field of networking. In simple terms WIFI as the name indicates is a technology that allows devices to connect and communicate with each other without wires. With WiFi technology users can connect to internet from any place such as homes and offices etc. In WiFi technology high frequency radio waves helps in transmitting data from one place to the other.
WiFi Modes:
The two most common methods with which users can connect to the WiFi to access internet are as follows:
Ad hoc Mode: No access point is required for communication which means that devices can communicate directly with each other.
Infrastructure Mode: wireless access points such as routers or switches are always required; these are connected to a wired network internet to provide wireless connectivity to the users.
WiFi Features:
Its convenient and is available ever where.
Its faster and its secure offering high speed internet to the users.
Unmatched mobility, it has no cable to disrupt your work.
With no limitations WiFi connects you worldwide.
WiFi Terminologies:
There are number of terminologies used and are required to be known in order to get better understanding of wireless networks. Some common terminologies are as follows:
* Hot spot: its a location from where the users can access the wireless network.
* Gigahertz: is a frequency measurement used with wireless communication as radio frequencies.
* Access Point: also known as WAP (wireless access point) allows wired devices to connect to a wireless network.
* WiFi Finder: its a device that finds a wireless network that can be accessed in a certain area.
WiFi Devices and Software Tools:
Market all over the globe is flooded with WiFi software tools and devices.
A Wi-Fi device gives users a convenient and a pleasurable experience. Some common WiFi devices used these days are as follows:
* USB
* PC card
* Express card
* PCI
* Card Bus
* MiniPC
WiFi software tools on other hand are designed specifically for different types of networks, usage types and operating systems. Its essential for the users to pick only those WiFi software tools which are compatible with their computer, for example:
Windows users can use:
* Wifi Hopper
* OmniPeek
* APTools
Etc
MAC users can use:
* Kismet
* Macstumble
* KisMAC
Etc
Unix users can use:
* Karma
* Aircrack-ptw
* CoWPAtty
* Aircrack
* AirSnort
Etc

AT A glance, there is almost no way to distinguish the iPhone 3GS from the older iPhone 3G without turning it over to see the silver fonts spelling the words “iPhone.”

While both look identical from the outside, the iPhone 3GS’ screen benefits from an oil resistant coating that makes it more resistant to smudges from greasy fingers.

True, it doesn’t completely eliminate all forms of smudges, but it does make it a lot easier to clean the screen.

Much of the new iPhone’s basic phone functions (voice calls and text messages) retain the same interface of its predecessors. Voice call quality is good on the 3GS and the speaker phone but it isn’t loud enough to be heard in a noisy environment.

Also, the quirky timeline view of text messages where the messages are stored by conversations between contacts, does take some getting used to.

The absence of a character counter also you gives no indication if your messages are within the 160 character limit of a single text message.

In terms of battery performance, you can get a full day of usage out but you will definitely need to recharge it by the end of the day.

Of course, how long the phone lasts depends on your usage. Activities like surfing on a 3G connection and playing games will rapidly drain the battery so it’s best to manage your consumption wisely.

Speed matters

Speed is touted as the key improvement to the iPhone 3GS. Along with the new hardware upgrades, the iPhone 3GS now boasts significantly faster speeds at literally everything it does from web browsing to launching of applications.

The general surfing experience over 3G connection was fast with most webpages we visited ready for viewing within four to five seconds although it typically took 20 seconds to fully load a page.

We tried loading an image-intensive site like the homepage of Gamespot.com and found it took the 3GS roughly 15 seconds to fully load the site via 3G connection and about 30 seconds on WiFi.

Webpages generally rendered faster on the iPhone 3GS and this was quite evident when we tested zooming in and out while navigating to view specific portions of a page.

Even launching applications like Mail, Camera, Notes and Maps was noticeably faster on the iPhone 3GS. We were quite impressed at just how fast applications launched and how we could use them the moment they booted.

Better gaming

The 3GS also boasts better handling of 3D games. With a faster processor and support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standard, the 3GS is certainly a promising mobile gaming platform.

Indeed, there’s a noticeable difference in the level of performance when gaming on the iPhone 3GS compared to older iPhone and iPod touch models.

SLIM: The iPhone 3GS maintains the same basic shape and design of the iPhone 3G.

In terms of performance, nearly all games we tested launched faster on the iPhone 3GS and ran smoother without any dropped frames.

Case in point is Galaxy Fire, a 3D sci-fi space flight simulation that looked stunning. Even the controls feel spot on without the slightest hint of lag to compensate for.

Another game, Doom Resurrection, also performed well with its fluid sweeping motions and 3D environments.

Games that typically have long load times like Sim City have also shown performance improvements, with faster loading times and smoother animation.

Snap away

The 3GS has a new built-in 3-megapixel camera that adds autofocus and video recording to its list of features.

Autofocus is definitely a welcomed feature and it works via a tap-to-focus interface on the camera. By tapping on the screen, the camera will automatically adjust focus and even the exposure for the section you tapped on. Much to our surprise the new feature even allows you to take macro shots.

For example, if you’re taking a photo of a subject with his back against a window, you can correctly set the camera to expose for the subject instead of getting an underexposed shot.

Going by the image quality of photos we’ve taken, the camera is pretty decent for a phone. As expected, outdoor shots with lots of light looked good but things turned noticeably more grainy with indoor photos. That’s not to say the pictures taken indoors were rubbish but quality does takes a hit under those conditions.

The camera records videos now and switching between modes is as simple as flicking a switch.

We weren’t expecting much out of the 3GS’ camera but much to my surprise, the VGA quality videos looked remarkably good compared to most mobile phone cameras. Videos at 30fps looked smooth and the audio quality was really good too.

Unfortunately you cannot pause while recording videos and this is a sorely missed feature that would’ve been perfect considering there are on-board video-editing options on the 3GS.

Having said that it is easy to figure out how to trim your videos down to size. Although your editing options are limited to selecting a new start and end to a video, it would’ve been great if you could do more with the editing tools.

You have to keep in mind that the editing is destructive, so anything left on the cutting room floor is erased for good.

Find your way

The compass is another new hardware addition on the 3GS that greatly improves the device’s GPS navigation capabilities.

Finding your way around is made easier with the help of this new digital compass which integrates with Google Maps to orientate the map to show the direction you are currently facing. This significantly improves the maps’ usability making it great for pointing yourself in the right direction when you can’t get an accurate GPS lock.

Admittedly, it isn’t a full-featured GPS navigation application and it lacks turn-by-turn directions, but if you have a basic sense of direction, Google Maps can certainly be a useful navigation tool.

Google Maps isn’t the only application to take advantage of the new hardware — Compass is another pre-installed application and it shows you which direction you are facing.

Other third-party applications that have taken advantage of the new hardware include Motion-X GPS, a sort of all-in-one application that blends Compass and Google Maps into one.

Other features

Voice control is another new enhancement exclusive to the 3GS that actually works well. Holding down the Home button for a few seconds launches the interface, at which point the phone will beep to prompt you to say a command.

It is an easy-to-use interface with most of the keywords conveniently listed on screen. We were quite amazed at how amazingly accurate the voice control was in detecting and recognising words. It even accepted non-English sounding names flawlessly.

It is also a very practical application that comes in handy when you need to call a contact and don’t have a free hand like when you’re driving.

Even if a contact has multiple numbers (home, work or mobile), voice control will ask you to specify which number you wish to call.

The feature also extends to controlling your music as well. Reading out the name of an artiste or title of a song has the 3GS switch to iPod mode and plays songs you request.

Tethering is another welcome addition that makes use of the phone’s 3G connection to connect your computer or notebook to the Internet when WiFi isn’t available.

Even when the iPhone is tethered, you can still make or receive calls and text messages.

The setup process is pretty simple — all you need are a few tweaks and you can connect your computer or notebook to the 3GS via Bluetooth or USB.

However, in our experience using it, we found it easier to connect using a Mac as compared to a PC. Also, the connection speed was rather slow and not fast enough for regular surfing. In fact it was only useful for instant messaging.

Conclusion

For all intents and purposes the iPhone 3GS serves as a worthy update to the iPhone 3G. Speaking from first-hand experience, once you get used to the generally speediness of the phone, it’s hard to go back to any other device that performs slower.

It is the single most compelling reason to buy an iPhone 3GS — the improved processor performance and the speed difference is significant enough that it affects web surfing and general application usage.

The addition of new hardware components such as the digital compass also greatly improves navigation and the voice control makes it easy to call contacts and control your music while on the go. Then there is the improved 3-megapixel camera that takes better pictures and pretty decent videos to boot.

However the questions still remains if you already own an iPhone 3G: “To upgrade or not to upgrade?”

While it is pretty tempting, there just isn’t enough improvements and changes to justify an upgrade due to the many similarities between the 3GS and 3G.

On the other hand if you’ve been waiting to get an iPhone, there is very little that should hold you back from getting one now.

Pros: Speedy performance; better 3D game handling; camera takes good videos; accurate voice control.

Cons: Text message interface is still weird; limited on-board video-editing options; no pause function during video recording.

iPhone 3GS

(Apple)

Touchscreen smartphone

Display: 3.5in widescreen multi-touch display (480 x 320-pixels)

Messaging: SMS, MMS, e-mail

Connectivity: GSM 900/1800/1900, HSDPA, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, WiFi 802.11b/g

Internal memory: 32GB

Standby/talk time: 300 hours/ 5 hours (3G) 12 hours (2G)

Operating system: iPhone OS 3.0

Other features: 3-megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording, integrated A-GPS, voice control, digital compass, tethering

Weight: 135g

Dimensions (W x D x H): 62.1 x 12.3 x 115.5mm