Shahid Online - Tech Corner

As they did last year, once again Apple has released their "iTunes 12 Days of Christmas" app for users of iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) to treat their customers with seasonal freebies. So expect free games, music, videos and more between 26th December and January 6th. There's already a nice freebie (for some) when you first download it. Just so you know that I'm not kidding, here's the link to the app: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/itunes-12-days-of-christmas/id406478317?mt=8&affId=1896249 Btw, the app itself is free...

Recently it dawned upon me how much Twitter is actually used and how much people like to Tweet. Whether it's a notification of how often your friend likes to break gas or seeing what your local MP is doing (which is nearly updated every two months) it's something that everyone enjoys. In fact, I'm getting into the act and cannot resist the temptation of looking a tweets every day on my iPhone. I'm just a bit slow on updating it myself. There are a number of apps for mobile phones that allows you to Tweet on a regular basis. Here's some that I found: Seesmic (for Desktop, Blackberry and Android) Twitterific (for Mac, iPad and iPhone/iPod TweetDeck (for Desktop, iPad and iPhone) Echofon (for Mac, Firefox extension and iPhone) For some (who are enjoying the Android operating system or adding funk to the business life with the Blackberry) the choice is obvious. There's more out there for desktop and web-based services. For me, I'm settled with Twitterific ....

With the initial rumours of Apple contending against the Tablet market, and then the possible name, I did not feel much excitement as there were questions as to what innovations can take place in the market. Then the iPad was launched and it received a luke-warm reception, echoing Microsoft's ailment of Windows Vista. After looking at the reviews and in-depth reports I still remain unconvinced of the usefulness of this latest offering. Here are a number of reasons as to why: It does not run the full Mac OS, but the phone OS. The limitation: multi-tasking and you are restricted to the App Store for applications The lack of storage. The iPad comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, which begs the question of future expansion. At the very moment I am using a Tablet PC with 64GB storage and am already struggling to store all my pictures and music. Lack of expansion. That's right, there's no USB ports, no Flash card support and no built-in webcam. There goes video conferencing. Accessoris...

In a bold move, which has not been confirmed by Steven Ballmer, Microsoft is working on bringing Zune to Windows Mobile to compete with Apple's iPhone. In the not too distant future we may be looking at a Zune style media player as opposed to the mobile version of Windows Media Player. This may also see the introduction of Windows Mobile devices with a face lift to give a look and feel of the Zune user interface. Steven Ballmer is pretty tight-lipped about this, but in an interview with CIO Magazine, he said that the Zune is software as well as hardware. He also mentioned that the software will be ported to other platforms. The interview can be viewed from here .