iPhone 4S

Apple has just released the latest iPhone in the market. With its 'Siri' functionality, you can use your voice to send messages, set reminders, search for information and more. It comes with Dual-core A5 chip that can deliver up to 2x faster performance and 7x faster graphics. The 8-megapixel camera enables us to do video recording (HD 1080p) of up to 30 frames per second with audio. 

An inspirational speech by Steve Jobs

The speech was delivered during Stanford University graduating ceremony in 2005. A few of those wisdom:

"You've got to find what you love,"  "That is as true for your work as it is for your lovers."

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking."

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

For full speech, click the video.

The computer genius, Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs dies (1955-2011)

Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.  The company is famous for its iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTunes and iMac.

Jobs founded Apple Computer in his parents' garage in 1976 with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak. After leaving the company in 1985 after a power struggle with the board, Jobs acquired animation studio Pixar and turned it into a blockbuster-making powerhouse. His return to Apple as CEO saw a renaissance for the struggling company, starting with the popular iMac computer.

Apple shook up the mobile phone industry with the launch of the iPhone. Steve Jobs also oversaw the introduction of the iPad tablet computer in 2010. He is survived by his wife Laurene and four children. Among his patents:

Source: The New York Times (Patents) , The New York Times (more stories)

A Hope of New Life (Bringing hope to poor people)

Watch how Grameen Bank works to bring hope to poor women in rural Bangladesh.

Below shows how the Exchange Rate from USD to Bangladesh Taka and vice versa looks like.

A simple and brilliant idea for utilizing Solar Power for a light source

Have a look at what they do for a living. How it brighten up their houses.

Men with real superpowers

Liew Thow Lin is another Malaysian with superhuman powers. In his case, he can stick metal objects to his body in a magnet-like way, and even pulled a car using the same technique.

Except whatever it is, and whatever Lin claims, it isn't magnetism. Experts have found no magnetic field in Lin's body. They did find that his skin had a very high level of friction, meaning that objects may stick to it because of a suction effect. More photos and stories, click here

How to do window shopping in a city using Google Earth via street view? (contd..)

6. As mentioned in step 5, the navigation control at the top (with circle and N for North)  facilitates the movement of 360 degree rotation (left, right, up, down) and it helps us to see the surrounding area of a place or location with ease. Click and hold a few seconds to test the movement of the direction by pointing your mouse to the 'arrow' up, bottom, left and right.

The most important bit to get use of the street view is to take notice of the yellow line marked on the street. Use the navigation control at the bottom (without the circle N) to go Forward direction, Backward Direction, Left and right. With that,you can 'experience' the place/location on the left and right side of the street.

Once you are familiar with the navigation control, you are ready to go either in the forward, backward, left or right direction. 

7. Align your navigation to the center of the yellow line. Make sure the images of the surrounding area on your left and right of the street are not skewed. Then, click the arrow forward using the navigation control at the bottom and hold your mouse (left click). Once you do that, you are travelling in a forward direction. You can do back tracking.

Maintain your position by following the yellow line. If you want to see the shops (window shopping) on your left or right hand side of the street, pls go ahead. Make sure you use the TOP navigation control (left and right). In fact, you can go near to the shops windows by controlling both navigation controls (Circle with N and Circle without N).

8. Again, maintain your position with the yellow line and click and hold the forward direction.

That's how you do the window shopping via street view.  Note that, the technique can be used to other places on earth that has street view  facility (with Pegman icon) as well as blue line markers (lines). In other places, you might not find the blue markers (lines), however there are 3D images (buildings).

How to do window shopping in a city using Google Earth via street view?

Going to another country might pose a few problems, especially if you have never been to that country before. Questions in our mind will include how's the public transport system?, how far is the airport to the city center? Where is the main shopping areas? How's the main shopping mall or shops look like? Is it easy to find restaurants? The questions will go on and on.

Nonetheless, those questions can be answered without going to that country or before going to that country or the city center of the country to be visited.  One of the useful tools or indispensable tools that is available nowadays is Google Earth. You can download the software which is currently at version 6.

Going back to the topic 'how to do window shopping in a city using Google Earth via street view?'

I will show you step by step on how you can do that. First of all, here is the main Google Interface by default.

Notice the navigation controls at the top right hand corner of the screen.

In order to be in a street view, a Pegman icon will appear at the place/location that you want to go for example a city.

1. So let's start, once you are at the main interface of the Google Earth, type the place that you want to go to at the Fly to box on the top left hand corner of the screen. Example in this case, the city  is London in England and initial location is Picadilly Circus.

 2. Then go to the Find business and type Picadilly circus. The screen will look like the following:

3. At this stage, if you move your mouse to the navigation control, you will see the Pegman icon appear on the top right hand corner of the screen below the navigation controls. 

4. Point your mouse to the Pegman icon and drag it to the center of the screen. While in the process of dragging the Pegman icon as shown below, blue lines on the street will appear.

5. Once you drop the Pegman to the street in any of the blue line, the screen will change.

Now you are on the street already at the Picadilly Circus area. Note the yellow line. That is very important which I will show you later. At this stage, it shows the route where the street view is available, as though you are driving in a vehicle along that street. 

Use the navigation controls at the top (with circle and N for North)  to go 360 degree rotation (left, right, up, down) to see the surrounding areas. Isn't it cool? Without going to that area/place/location, you already know how the area/place/location looks like. The navigation control at the bottom (without the circle N) is to go Forward, Back Direction, Left and right.

Next step will be posted later.

England Barclays Premier League result

ENGLAND : Barclays Premier League Table

Source: http://www.premierleague.com/page/Statistics

The world's cheapest "home"

After unveiling the world's cheapest car in 2008 and on sales in 2009,Tata Group has now set on building the world's cheapest house by end of this year with a price tag of  just Euro 500/ US $700. It is a 20 square metre house and can be built from scratch in just a week.

Dubbed the Nano house, the flatpack dwelling comes with pre-fabricated materials, including doors and windows. The materials consist of coconut or jute cladding complete with interior layouts.

Life expectancy of the house is 20 years. Tata Group is also selling the cheapest water filter at $21 with Swach. For more info click here and here.

The world's cheapest car (NANO) : 10 things that you should know about the People's Car

1. Does it really cost Rs. 100,000? (About $2,000)? 
Yes, but that's for the base model, without tax. The higher-end versions will cost more.

2. What makes it so cheap?
It is made with less material than other cars, so it costs less to produce. Tata Motors, headed by Ratan Tata, pictured here, asked every one of its components makers to redesign their parts to minimize their weight and cost, but still perform well.

3. Does it have enough power to pass a truck on the highway?
Maybe a small truck. The Nano can do 0 to 100 km in 23 seconds. For most regular city driving, the two-cylinder engine would be fine, but it loses some of its power when the AC is running.

4. Will I feel cool driving it?
Yes, it is a cute car. The exterior is imported Japanese and Korean steel, and even the basic model feels roomy inside. The vinyl seats on the basic model and rough plastic door locks, however, look cheap.

5. How does it handle?
Very well. After putting the engine in the rear to save space, Tata engineers reconfigured the rest of the car. The spare tire and gas tank are in the front, while the battery is under the driver's seat. All that rearranging keeps the front axle weight balanced, and improves the handling of the car.

6. When will it be available outside India?
The Nano Europa is planned for 2011 in Europe. No plans yet for the United States.

7. How's the gas mileage?
The Nano weighs so little — just 600 kg (1,322 lbs.), half that of a Honda Accord — that it doesn't need much to run. It gets more than 20 km/l, or 47 miles/gal.

8. Will it increase pollution?
The company says the Nano's CO2 emissions (110 g/km) are less than that of a high-end motorcycle. This is not a clean-burning car, so it will add to the world's carbon emissions, but Tata Motors argues that if it replaces motorcycles and scooters, the net effect will be to lower emissions from what they otherwise would have been.

9. Is it safe?
The Nano is built to meet the safety standards of whatever country it is in. For India, that means crash tests, seat belts and fog lamps, but no airbags. As it moves to other countries, the Nano will scrupulously meet minimum standards, but Tata Motors is not trying to use safety features as a selling point.

10. How do you buy one?
No, not online. Nanos must be ordered in person starting mid-April at one of Tata Motors 470 outlets in India, but you won't be able to drive it home. The first Nanos will be on the road in June or July.

Source: Time at www.time.com

Now since its first selling in 2009, Nano has received many awards ( Nano Awards )

2010 Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) Award

  2010 Car of the Year Award by Bloomberg UTV Autocar

  2010 Small Car of the Year Award by Bloomberg UTV Autocar   

  Micro Car of the Year by NDTV Profit Car & Bike Special Award   

  Entry Level Mini Car of the Year by ET ZigWheels   

  Jury Award at the Business Standard Motoring Car of the Year (COTY) Awards   

  Car of the Year & Compact Car of the Year Award by CNBC TV18 Overdrive 2010   

  Most Value-for-Money Car of the Year 2009 by ET ZigWheels   

  Viewers Choice Car of the Year 2009 by ZigWheels.com   

  Viewers Choice Car of the Year by Aaj Tak

The most expensive version of Nano is Nano Goldplus with a price tag of an estimated of 220 Million rupees ($4.47 Million). You know why?

The Tata Nano Goldplus is a blinged-out version of its $2500 city car that is decorated with nearly 80 kilograms of 22 carat gold, 15 kilos of silver and hundreds of gems and precious stones.

The gold-plated golf-cart has been jointly produced by Tata, the Indian mega-company, the owner of Land Rover and Jaguar and subsidiary jewellery specialist Goldplus, part of the Titan Industries group. Click here.

How to put $3,000 in your pocket (Guaranteed)

That is the title of the book that I have just bought today written by Dr John Tickell. He even provides 50 thrifty HEALTHY ways to put dollars in your pocket. The knowledge that we can extracted from the book:

Times are tough.
Food and fuel prices are skyrocketing worldwide.
Technology has overtaken us.
It was supposed to make our lives easier.
It hasn't.
And yet we, as consumers, have never had so much choice.
The funny thing about all this is the fact WE ARE SPENDING MORE AND MORE MONEY ON UNNECESSARY THINGS and wasting more and more of the world's most precious resources.

WE ARE PEEING MONEY

DOWN THE DUNNY 

The first lesson is to crunch the CATS which is the stimulants of life. You may think that it is a real cats. No it isn't. The CATS here stands for:

Caffeine

Alcohol

Tobacco

Sugar

One example is Caffeine. Coffee at home, coffee at the office. 

A spoonful of coffee, water,may be a little milk and perhaps a touch of sugar= 6 cents

Capuccino or Latte =  $3        

We spend $$$ 3 billion a year on coffee!

So, in your pocket with :

One less Capuccino or Latte a day is $20 a week and in a year, that's  $1,000. A saving of $1,000. That's not yet counting the costs of A (Alcohol), T (Tobacco) and S (Sugar).

Happy reading folks.

Bargain items from eBay

eBay is advertising bargain items on eBay website. You find products ranging from women shoes, lingeries, kitchen items, tools, DVDs & Blu-Rays, appliances, computer equipments etc. Click for the big deals which are updated daily here.