Eriktronica - Apple iPhone - iPad - iPod Blog: Google Just Dropped an Android-Shaped Bomb on Chin...

Eriktronica - Apple iPhone - iPad - iPod Blog: Google Just Dropped an Android-Shaped Bomb on Chin...: Google has dropped an Android-shaped bomb on China’s mobile market, after comments from the company potentially affected some of the cou...

Collanos Workplace - Think Out of The Inbox!

We've been recently looking into some online collaboration tools that would allow us to share images, videos and documentations for an ongoing project. We think we found one of the best so far. We needed a program that would allow us to do online collaborations as if we are just face to face with each other, be updated with the tasks development at each phase of the project, share active notes, images and even videos all in one consolidated space.

It had been too time consuming and too tedious to do project task reports/updates specially when we do revisions all the time. Keeping up with the project phases of development is also very critical and due to this critical sharing, know how of all information pertaining to the project is of utmost importance so that nobody gets left behind. Conventionally, what we did was we separated our projects into teams and each team leader would be responsible to report to the executive team the developments of the tasks handled by their respective teams. Doing things conventionally cost us too much time, efforts and money.

With Collanos Workplace, we believe we have found one of the best tool to do things the modern way - online. Each team works differently and Collanos allows unlimited number of members to work, communicate in real time or asynchronously.

Every team project entails countless emails, messages, documents, tasks, comments, versions, revisions, approvals, etc. With Collanos Workplace you can overcome this information clutter by having a single space to share, interact and collaborate with your team.

Single Consolidated Space

Keep all project related content in a single, consolidated workspace. From now on all you need to access is one place to do any project-related activity without the need of going back and forth between multiple tools and channels.

Any Content

We know that projects involve countless files, versions, tasks, notes, document related discussions, and general discussions with one or more team members. Collanos Workplace allows you integrate and share any project-related content (Even images, music and video files) into your workspace using the latest encryption protocols.

Instant Notification

With all the information being communicated across your teams, it's hard to keep track of new content or urgent matters that need to be addressed instantly. Collanos Workplace allows you to send instant messages to team members and alerts you when updates have been made.

Team Work

Each project involves a different team. Each team works differently. Collanos Workplace allows you to invite unlimited team members, communicate with them in real-time or asynchronously, assign them distinct permissions and know their presence status any time. Since every team has their "way of working", Collanos Workplace allows you to create a work structure that truly reflects each team's distinct needs.

Anywhere - Anytime

We realize that a network connection is not always readily available, therefore, have created a peer-to-peer solution that allows you to work on your computer both online and offline. Work wherever, whenever you want without network dependence. Once you get online, your workspaces synchronize transparently with your team members.

Free

Yes, Collanos Workplace is free!

Our goal is to allow our members to install our solutions and collaborate with anyone, without the need to license costly solutions or to be restricted to proprietary networks. Furthermore, stay tuned to our community platform where members will be able to share their templates and user tips.

Watch out for our upcoming review comparing Collanos Workplace with that of Basecamp - the iPod of Project Collaboration and find out which among these two online collaboration tool would do well in terms of reliability, flexibility and accesibility.

The Freedom Plan! Site5's Totally Unlimited Webhosting!

I am so happy with Site5's services that I have again created a short post about them on this site. They have a promo which is "The Freedom Plan" for only $5.00/month!!!

I could not say more about Site5 except that we are so happy with them.

Check them out. Just click the banner at the bottom and the sides of this page. It would lead you to the world of Site5, where Totally Unlimited Freedom could be Yours!!!

Basic Plan Info		The FREEDOM Plan
	Disk Space	1,250 GB UNLIMITED
	Bandwidth	12 GB UNLIMITED
	Domain Pointers/Websites	UNLIMITED
	Ruby on Rails	YES
	Ultra-Low Number of Sites per Server	YES
	Knowledgeable 24/7 Technical Support	YES
	Instant Setup	YES
	FREE! Setup (29.95 Value)
	Monthly Price	$5.00

Key Features		The FREEDOM Plan
	SiteAdmin Account Control Panel	YES
	Enterprise Web Stats	YES
	Unlimited MySQL Databases	YES
	Over 50 Pre-Installed Scripts!	YES
E-mail Features		The FREEDOM Plan
	Enterprise Anti-Virus Scanning	YES
	Unlimited Email Accounts	YES
	Unlimited Forwarders	YES
	Unlimited Auto-Responders	YES
	Unlimited Mailing Lists	YES
	Instant MX Record Modification	YES
	Enterprise WebMail Interface	YES
	SpamAssassin™	YES
	GnuPG PGP Secure Email Encryption	YES
	Account-Specific Mail Filtering Rules	YES
Advanced Hosting Features		The FREEDOM Plan
	Domain Parking	YES
	Subdomains (sub.domain.com)	YES
	SSL Secure Website Access	YES
	Unlimited FTP Accounts	YES
	Web-Based File Manager	YES
	Web Database Manager (phpMyAdmin)	YES
	DNS Zone File Editor	YES
	Cron Job Editor	YES
	Microsoft FrontPage Extensions	YES
	Automated Nightly Backups
	SSH Access	YES
	Downloadable Raw Logs	YES
	Customizable Error Pages	YES
	Password Protected Directories	YES
Servers and Software		The FREEDOM Plan
	Dual 5130 Xeons (4 cores!)	YES
	At Least 4 GB RAM	YES
	PHP 4 & 5 (w/Zend Optimizer™)	YES
	MySQL 4+	YES
	Perl 5.8+ (w/Free Module Installation)	YES
	GD Graphics Library	YES
	cURL Library	YES
	Python 2.2 Language Support	YES
	ImageMagick 5+ Support	YES
	WAP/WML/Wireless Support	YES
	Server Side Includes (SSI)	YES
	CGI-BIN and Site-Wide CGI	YES
Guarantees		The FREEDOM Plan
	60-Day Money Back Guarantee	YES
	Uptime Guarantee	YES
	Support Response Time Guarantee	YES
Pricing Information		The FREEDOM Plan
	60 Months (5 Years) - Best Value!	$5.00
	36 Months (3 Years)	$6.50
	24 Months (2 Years)	$7.40
	12 Months (Annual Billing)	$9.95
	Every 3 Months (Quarterly Billing)	$11.95

A Lawyer Turned Blogger Finds Help Through Crossloop!!!

Crossloop is indeed "One of the Best Things that Ever Happened Online" specially in providing help and assistance. I recently got a call from a lawyer friend who eventually turned to blogging for his past time. Being a lawyer, he is not very familiar with the online tools that a blogger uses and he is so interested to learn more about it. He is quite confused on how to be able to put in html/javascript tags on the blog that he is writing on and would like me to go to his office and guide him through.

Fortunately though, there is Crossloop. I just guided him to download the software on his PC and everything turned out to be as wonderful as all my Crossloop sessions.

I was able to guide him how to create, edit and even taught him how to use the numerous blogger tools available to him. He was so delighted that he told me that we could repeat the Crossloop session again whenever he needs any help online.

He wishes that Crossloop could be used in his profession wherein he no longer have to go to his clients and would just sit in front of his PC and just serve client's needs and provide him the legal assistance they need. I jokingly told him that it would have been much better if he no longer needs to go to court and that lawyers, judges and even court folks could just use Crossloop for their sessions.

Do You Need Help? Find Help in the Crossloop Marketplace!

Almost Everyone online sometimes needs help on something in some of the things that they do. Whether it is a simple software installation, virus removal, PC optimization and or to other tasks such as online tutorials for blogging and etc. Right now, no one needs to get worried on how to be able to get help online!

Crossloop through its ever superb software helps everyone solicit help from anyone online in real time virtually. Crossloop launched its Crossloop Marketplace where everyone who is looking for online help and would like to provide help could meet up and help each other. You could learn more from Crossloop from their "How It Works page" from their site at http://www.crossloop.com/ipage.htm?id=howitworks

Now online collaboration would never be the same as before. It would be much easier and even providing help/assistance could go a long long way since helpers could eventually become online help providers wherein they could market their expertise online while those needing help could solicit, pay and take advantage of the numerous opportunities that numerous Crossloopers around the world could provide.

To give you a brief glimpse on how Crossloop works, posted below are some of the excerpts from their site;

"CrossLoop's underlying technology was created to simplify the process of securely working with others located in different physical locations across diverse network environments. CrossLoop enables you to see the screen and control the mouse and keyboard on a remote computer. It is as if you are working side by side at the same PC. CrossLoop is a powerful productivity tool that enables you to quickly collaborate with anyone in the world.

CrossLoop is powered by the proprietary CrossLoop VIP Tunnel, a secure peer-to-peer data transmission system. CrossLoop encrypts all files and messages exchanged on our network to ensure user privacy. Only you and your invited friends or family can view or share control of your computer. A CrossLoop session can only begin on your computer by explicitly inviting someone to begin a session. All data sent over the CrossLoop network is encrypted at the endpoints using a 128-bit Blowfish encryption. For more detailed information on CrossLoop security, visit our security page.

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that CrossLoop is secure and have designed the application from the ground up with security in mind. If you have any questions regarding CrossLoop security please contact us at info@CrossLoop.com.

The Windows version of CrossLoop uses the TightVNC software plug-in for screen sharing. We have included a binary distribution of the TightVNC program in the installation software of the Windows version of CrossLoop to save you the trouble of separately downloading and installing TightVNC. If you have any questions about your rights related to TightVNC (which is licensed under GPL), please see our detailed description of how we use VNC."

I hope that Crossloop Marketplace would be an online hub wherein Everyone Could Help Each Other. If you need my help, you could find me on this link http://www.crossloop.com/Trexper.

Site5 Web Hosting Service Is Insane!!!

Site5 recently launched their 5$/month web hosting services with 750GB Premium Web Storage, 7500GB Bandwidth & Unlimited Websites. Quite an impossible treat from a web hosting provider specially in a world wherein profits are more important than anything else. Site5 must really be insane to come up with such marketing plans. Insanity wherein they went all out to provide superb services sacrificing profits just to reach out to consumers and SMEs but without compromising flexibility and quality of service.

They have been our web hosting provider since we started. They have 24/7 Support and they respond promptly to each concerns or request that we raise to them even through email. We encountered no downtime and we are so happy with the service that they are providing us. Ain't it obvious that we really take time to write about them and their good deeds. :)

If you are looking for a web hosting service provider who are insane to provide cost-effective web hosting solutions, sign up with Site5. They have a freakin' awesome plan at a very insane price! It is quite easy to try them out and sign up with them. Just click the button that you see on this site and it would directly lead you to Site5's superb services. Even this blogsite is hosted by Site5 and we are here to recommend that Site5 indeed is the Best Web Host Solutions provider in thePlanet.

Site5.com - No Excess Fat Web Hosting Service!

SMEs used to spend a lot in marketing, promotions, customer support, human resources, communications & advertisements to be able to maintain their businesses. Lots of effort were exerted to perform those tasks aside from planning, delegating & implementations and much valuable time and resources were required then.

However, with the internet & the web, one could now easily create his business with all the necessary tools needed by doing them online. The internet has been a portal of a lot of business opportunities worldwide. Businesses could do marketing, sales, advertisement & promotions, enable web-based customer support, research & development, even selecting, shortlisting and hiring personnels & even remote conferencing and web based task sharing.

One of the vital tools is the website as we all know about. An entrepreneur who is serious to succeed in his business needs to have a website to do all these things. A website is the representation of the image,credibility & professionalism that a business would want to convey to his prospects, clients or even viewers. The website is the online "business card, brochure, virtual mailbox, virtual message center and entry point for all current and future businesses." There are thousands of benefits that businesses could be able to take advantage of when they are online. It is the 24/7 portal wherein customers, prospects could learn, inquire and verify informations about their offered products or services. It is the public relations tool even when everyone in his business sleeps.
However, a website won't be able to run on its own without a web hosting service provider. For this review, we focused on a web hosting company which is Site5.com. With web host service providers like them one could now easily, economically and flexibly host their sites, register unlimited number of domains with 750GB disk space, 7.5TB bandwidth just for $7.50/month! Any business who would like their websites be seen in the worldwide web could be hosted by site5.com.

Unlike before, merchants spend a lot of money not only for web development but also with web hosting. Today with companies like site5.com one would be amazed on the affordability of web hosting packages. There might be other hosting companies who might offer the same type of hosting packages but probably not as economical, flexible and as service oriented like site5.com. Websites are products of a businessman's visions on how he wants to portray his offered services or products to the global market. It is indeed both a tactical and strategic vital tool for anyone doing business.
"Site5 is a California corporation co-founded in 1998 by Matt Lightner and Rod Armstrong. Site5 is now an industry icon, operating over 200 servers in their own network.Since inception, Site5 has been an industry leader in reliability and innovation. Site5 has been regularly recognized by industry critics as a premiere provider of high end web hosting."Site5 was founded by webmasters, and everyone there loves hosting, technology and the internet that is why when it comes to web hosting, they sure know what they are doing.
SMEs now have the flexibility at the tip of their fingers to extend and push their websites to the limit;

• There are NO OVERLOADED SERVERS since Site5 limits the number of account per server so a customer's site is guaranteed to have plenty of room;
• THERE ARE NO OUTSOURCED HELP - they know what they are doing and they do it all in-house;
• NO GIMMICKS OR HIDDEN FEES - the amount of web hosting service that you subscribed to is the actual amount that you get on your bill and it stays the same way as long as you are a customer;
• GET YOUR MONEY BACK GUARANTEED - if a customer is NOT satisfied at all with their service within the first 60 day period, you get 100% of your money back, no questions asked. A guaranteed "No Excess Fat Web Hosting Service!" On top of that, they have their own proprietary application called Backstage which is an account portal that lets you access every single feature of your Site5 service from one place.

Site5 is unlike most web host service providers that are insensitive to their customers. They simply are great when it comes to service unlike some that we have tried before. It might be an "overselling" feat of site5.com to say those things that they claim they could provide their customers. But for us who have tried & tested them out, we are so elated with the innovation, reliability and quality of service that they are giving us. We wish that Site5.com would maintain their status as a "Healthy Hosting Provider" and we know that they would be able to help more SMEs along the way. If you know a web hosting service that could topple Site5, let me know and I would compare them accordingly. :)

BEFSR41 Router-Linksys' Bigtime Failure!

It is a fact that Linksys/Cisco is one of the most reputable IT/Hardware companies today. They provide several outstanding solutions for both the residential consumers, SMEs and Top 10000 Companies. That I would not rebutt. But for how long are they gonna continue to have a reputable name is my Big Question.

For this particular review, I set my eyes on my Linksys BEFSR41 version 4.0 DSL/Cable Router which I bought last 2005 and have been using in my small home network. I was able to use it without any problems for almost the past two years. Until several months ago, a problem started to show up.

It reboots the network every 30minutes. I am not alone with this particular issue though. Since 2005, there have been numerous complaints about this router posted to several sites on the web. This router used to be the top of the line of Linksys Routers a couple of years back and in fact it still holds second in the SME/SOHO setup. I am just wondering why they have not corrected the errors that they made on this particular product.

In my attempt to recover the functionality of the router, I tried to reset it to the factory settings and updated its firmware to the latest firmware version which is 1.4 but still the router drops the network connection every couple of hours. I emailed Linksys technical support on this concern several times and unluckily for me, I didn't get a single reply from them.

In our office we use other Linksys hardware such as ATAs and we are quite satisfied with them. Now, the question is are we gonna encounter the same fate after a couple of years of using them with the same level of dissatisfaction that I encountered at home? Same situations wherein Linksys won't even care to assist?
Linksys should do something about their support systems to be able to cater to SMEs like us or even to residential consumers who have had problems with their hardwares like the hundreds of posted issues relevant to this topic that was accumulatively posted in the span of Two Years and yet no resolutions were given by Linksys.

Sad to say, they failed on this lilliputian hardware but the cascading negative effect to their prospective end-users and existing clients would ripple probably twice longer than the years that it took their end-users like us to wait for their assistance on a very valid technical issue. Linksys or Cisco should really do something about customer service because if not, these matters would definitely affect their market share.
Right now, the Linksys BEFSR41 that I have is technically dead. I don't know if there are technical service centers who would fix that noting the fact that Linksys despite of several emails failed to return any replies and probably same fate had been encountered by the numerous consumers who posted similar issues as regards this particular hardware.

I am planning to buy the "better version" of this Linksys router which is BEFSX41 which they say could provide better network solutions but probably not and better cut off the plan and probably search for another hardware that could provide a better technical and customer support.

It is probably good to buy Linksys products since they are one of the purveyors of network hardwares but think twice and consider if you would like to succumb to technical service support issues later on. Good judgment on that is totally yours.

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 - A Two Year Service?

I have a Windows XP Professional SP2 Licensed last 2005. I have been using it for several years now and I have not encountered any problems on the two computers where I loaded it since the user license said that I could use it in two PCs - one was a laptop and the other one was a desktop PC. Constant updates were all successful and Windows or Microsoft provided superb services when it comes to that.

However, I think I am always a victim of this "Two Year Service Period" term. Just recently, I had problems with Windows that was installed on my desktop. It was still loading the updates as usual but I started to encounter errors like a certain file is missing. My antivirus is also licensed and on constant updates and I checked and rechecked my PC's system and it is still okay. However, when I checked Windows it missed a certain .dll file or something like that. I tried loading my Licensed CD hoping that the error would be corrected.

But suddenly, when I went online after the re-installation with that same desktop PC, Windows' already went very slow in responding. I tried to get a remote support but I was not successful. Then, all of a sudden when I was validating my copy of Windows, it said that my copy has to be "licensed" and to contact the nearest Windows distributor in my area.

Whew! I really lost my temper that time and luckily I could not lash out on anyone. I contemplated if I have to buy another Windows or just email them and ask them why my Licensed copy which I had paid a lot for when I bought it suddenly becomes of "questionable nature."

As regards the one installed on my laptop which I already gave my sister, it is still okay. I just considered that since when I bought it at 2005 it allowed me to use it in 1-2 PCs then probably that is just supposed to be it, the service after two years collapses leaving a single PC whose status I could not check until the time that I hear a problem from my sister. A problem I am hoping would not happen.

I don't know but it is better for me to look at it that way than to gripe and complain. What I did to my desktop PC was to transfer all my files and did a fresh clean Linux Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 installation. Which I gladly value knowing that there won't be problems like what I encountered with Windows. If I encountered one, a fresh clean installation is extremely possible without any qualms and definitely without crying over something that I paid a lot for. So, it's a goodbye to my Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2. No thanks for the headache.

Open Office is the Open Source counterpart of Sun to Microsoft's MS Office. Open Office is multi-lingual & multi-platform that is compatible with all major office suites with whatever Operating System that suits one's needs. It has all the necessary components in an office suite that any user could get hold of. It has all the major components of MS Office and more.

It has its own equivalent for all major office applications in MS Office. It has Writer while there is MS Word, Impress while there is MS PowerPoint, Calc and/or Math while there is MS Excel and there are still lots of new and impressive applications no longer built-in to an MS Office suite.

Another good thing about Open Office is that it could be used in several native languages. If you are from the Far East or Central Asia, Africa and certain parts of Western Europe & North America wherein several languages and other text input methods are being used, Open Office is the Open Source Software to have. Open Office is the product of years of virtual community works subdivided into several projects with the goal to develop, support & promote the use of Open Office.

From a common user's perspective, Open Office is the open gift of Sun to humans. Before just like what I have posted in my other article as regards Linux Ubuntu (Linux Ubuntu : A Touch to My Spirituality). Open Office is another kind deed for humans as we speak from a collaborative community-based human beings grouped together to provide mankind with better tools to improve the workplace and our way of life.

As what you would always hear from me, before it takes a lot of money to be able to take advantage of softwares that could change the way we live but now with softwares such as Open Office, one is no longer "jailed in a box" wherein there are no other options but to use the other Office Suite that we have all been very much familiar with eventhough it really costs a lot to be able to do that.

It is really heartwarming to know that "Open-ness" is indeed a very ideal word to ponder on specially for those people and companies who have heralded open source applications and literally exposed us to new technologies. New technologies that are openly shared, distributed and promoted for the betterment of mankind whether for personal or business use. While other companies just focused on money making activities to monopolize their markets, some companies notably did not but instead created platforms wherein their products would freely flow in so that it would be openly utilized to provide better solutions not necessarily instantly paid for.

Among them is Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems have been one of the best providers of Software & Hardware Solutions globally. They have been very helpful to consumers and businesses eversince. They are able to provide us with so many online tools that shaped, molded and changed the way we look at the internet and business. Online tools that ordinary consumers and businessmen sometimes are unmindful that came from them. Sun I could say is a humble company with "micro" theme in mind but "Macro" as regards their technologies' effect to consumers and SMEs. Above this all, it is really a good thing to note that without Sun, the world might not be the same place to live in as it is now. Similarly, virtually it is also a very good thing to note that Sun's Rays are Upon Us. :)

Trillian - A Messenger with Trillian Possibilities

I have always been on the lookout for an IM messenger aside from Gaim or Pidgin that could host multiple IM providers such as Yahoo, ICQ, AIM & IRC. In my search for the right messenger who could do this, I chanced upon Trillian by Cerulean Studios. It s a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.

Trillian provides unique functionality such as contact message history, a powerful skinning language, tabbed messaging, global status changes (set all networks away at once), Instant Lookup (automatic Wikipedia integration), contact alerts, an advanced automation system to trigger events based on anything happening in the client, docking, hundreds of emoticons, emotisounds, shell extensions for file transfers, and systray notifications.
Trillian however comes in two flavors; the first is the Basic and the Pro. Trillian Basic is the free version while the Pro version comes with a fee. With Trillian 3.1 version there are new features and benefits that are both available both in the free and the paid versions. Among them are Flexibility one could now use multiple identities using the new Identities and Connection Manager; Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) - Windows users with UPnP enabled routers will benefit from vastly improved file transfer success rates; Faster and Smaller - Trillian worked hard to speed up their messenger even more, there have been tremendous improvements in start-up times, icon rendering speeds and more.

Here are the comparisons between Trillian Basic and Trillian Pro;

With Trillian, there are Trillian possibilities to which one could chat, IM, do file transfers unlike any other messenger out there with limited capabilities. I hope that Cerulean Studios would continue updating Trillian and make it as one of the world's favorite chat client.

For more informations about Trillian, you could visit their website at http://www.ceruleanstudios.com and try their free version or you may opt to try their paid version.

Miro - The Free & Open Source Media Player!

It had been quite a while since I last wrote an article here after my terrible accident. Anyway, as I was recuperating from my motorcycle crash, I was able to spend more time watching videos using my PC and this prompted me to check out several different video files from different sources. Some video files that I happen to encounter are not playable to the built-in video players that I have on my computer. That prompted me to check out for some available free-ware and open source video player and this is the time that I found Miro.
Miro is a one of a kind video solution for one who would like to play varied types of video files whether from the internet or videos that were created from elsewhere. I have tested playing various files with Miro and all videos played well. Not only that, the resolution of the videos that I played with Miro were all enhanced thus giving the viewer a much better resolutions for viewing pleasures. Miro is an open media source that enables one to download video files or any kind of file thru bit torrent easily. You could use it to download and play these files all in a single application. Miro has also thousands of channels that you could choose from to be able to watch internet TV. These channels made me relaxed, entertained and amused on my way to full recovery. Moreover, Miro provides more free HD High Definition video contents than any video player that you could find out there. Most of us also would like to view and save you tube videos on our computers. With Miro, we could easily do that and it automatically detects all videos contained in our computers. One could also save in its library favorite videos for easy access and viewing.

Most important of all is that Miro is free and Open Source. Miro and its team of developers are only asking for its satisfied users to get involve with them in four different ways;

1. Translate the Miro Software and Website

2. Join Team Miro: Open Video Love

3. Become A Miro Member

4. Help on Testing and Development

Link: www.getmiro.com

As for me, I would check out how I could best help Miro on their quest to provide Open Media to the World. This is one application that I could highly recommend to anyone whether you are using any type of Operating Systems. Miro is free and open source because OPEN MEDIA MATTERS. I really wish that they would always be here to stay.