What is it and how does it work?

What this device essentially allows you to do is have outgoing calls that start with either 00 (international), 1, or just 0 be automatically dialed through a calling card or VoIP access number instead of direct.   This paper thin device actually fits between your SIM card and your phone in order to “capture” what you are dialing, then dials the access number first when necessary:

Usually, when dialing internationally direct from your mobile phone, you will be charged fairly high rates per minute from your carrier such as £1.45/min calling from Tesco UK to US or $1.49/min calling from AT&T US to UK.  Then, of course, you have local calls which will either be part your monthly minute plan or generally a much cheaper per minute rate.    

With international calls, you can traditionally get around these higher rates by using a calling card with a local access number that you can call as a "local number" from your cell phone (UK landline numbers if you live in the UK or any US number if you live in the US).  Then, dial the international number through your calling card and get charged "local minute rates" from your cell carrier plus whatever international rates you get from your calling card.  

For example, say I wanted to call home to the states from my mobile phone in the UK.  Normally I would dial 001 999 999 9999, with the "00" meaning international, "1" meaning the states, followed by the number.  With my particular cell carrier (Tesco), this would cost me £1.45 per minute, but with my calling card, it would cost me £0.01 per minute – quite a big difference! Using the Rebel Sim Call through SIM, it will see that the number starts with 00 and it will instead dial the access number for my calling card when I press send to dial that international number.  Once the phone has dialed my card’s access number, it is then able to automatically send the digits (via DTMF*) of the number I actually dialed thus completing the international call via my calling card as opposed to directly from my mobile carrier.  My call will now cost £0.01 per minute plus minutes from my monthly minute plan as opposed to £1.45p per minute. 

(* less technical explanation:  Think about how you normally use a calling card. You call the calling card number, it prompts you for the number you want to call, and then it connects the call.  The RebelSim Call through SIM automates this process by “seeing” that you dialed 00, then dialing the calling card number, pauses, and then dials the original out going number)

How to setup:

• First off, this won’t work if you are using a micro SIM – sorry iPhone 4 users – because the RebelSim is of “normal” SIM size, but it will work for any phone that uses a normal size SIM.  Also, the latest (v2) firmware also does not support entering an ID or pin number, so you’ll need a provider that works by caller ID (you call the access number, and it recognizes your caller ID for authentication for your account); that being said, v2.1 will be released soon which will allow the use of an ID/pin, as well as additional configuration options than the ones discussed later on below.
• What you have to do first is punch a “hole puncher” size hole in the top plastic part of your SIM card. This is for the chip on the Rebel Sim Call through SIM to fit in between your phone and your normal SIM (you can either buy a RebelSim cutter, or use your own hole puncher).  Don’t worry, it’s just plastic on the top of your SIM card – it won’t damage anything and you can still use it even if you are not using the RebelSim.

• Then, of course, you need to put them in your phone.  The manual suggests putting the Rebel SIM in first, then sliding your normal SIM in on top of it – I’ve found it easier at times to just put them in together at the same time, but I suppose it’s just a matter of how easy/hard it is to access your SIM slot
  
• Next, you’ll need to have a calling card or VoIP service that has an access number.  Any calling card has an access number, as that’s how they’re setup to work, but not all VoIP providers have one.  Personally, I use a VoIP provider as they usually don’t charge connection fees, their rates are easy to understand, and they can be used with a SIP/Soft phone as well.   I personally use VoipFone (rates and access numbers) as they allow pin-less usage but there are plenty of others such as Call Centric (rates and access numbers) if you are in the States and  VoipTalk (rates and access numbers) in the UK (once v2.1 comes out for the RebelSim Callthrough).

  Note:  which ever calling card or VoIP provider you use must have an access number that doesn’t require you to use a pin since the current firmware of Call Through only supports dialing the access number. 

• And last, you need to add the access number and configure the options on the Rebel Sim.  When you turn on your phone with the RebelSim, you should see a new menu option.  On my Pirelli DP-L10 wifi phone, you can see this on the main menu, with other phones it will probably show up in different locations but either way a new option will appear somewhere and will have the same configuration options/steps:
   

  Select the new RebelSim option and you will be brought to the configuration page with the following options:
    – Disable (don’t use the RebelSim)
    – *Enable (use the RebelSim)
    – Editing Number (edit the access number)
    – Dialing Rules (4 options on when to use the RebelSim: when there is a 00, 1, or 0 in the beginning of the dialed call, or use it always)
    – Dialing Speed (this is basically how fast the number is dialed once the access number is called – I haven’t had an issue using it on “Fast”)
    – Dialing Mode (two options, don’t really know what it means, but ICC2 is said to be needed for the iPhone, and ICC1 works on my Pirelli phone)

  All you should have to mess with here is the Editing Number and Dialing Rules.  Select Editing Number to change the access number and Dialing Rules to determine when the RebelSim should be used.  For my particular usage, I use Dialing Rule “00” to use for international calls and Editing Number “02070990707” as the access number for VoipFone.co.uk.

  Then, dial out!  In the picture below, you can see that I dialed a random international US number (001 770 123 4567), and when I pressed send, you can see that the phone automatically called the access number instead (02070990707):
  Once the call is connected, you hear a dial tone from the speaker (which is VoipFone saying it’s ready for a number to connect to).  After a couple of seconds, the dial tone goes away which is when the RebelSim dials the number I actually entered (you don’t actually hear anything until you hear ringing which means the number you dialed is ringing) – and that’s it, you just made a cheaper international call from your mobile phone.

Final thoughts:

Using the Rebel Sim Callthrough SIM is a great way to make dialing international numbers from your cell phone cheap and easy.  Could you simply remember to dial the access number and skip the use and purchase of the RebelSim?  Yep!  Could you opt to just use a smartphone app to use a data connection and use Voip?  Yep!  That being said, I like the idea of this “working in the background” because I could then give it to a friend, family member, etc and not have to explain to them how to make international calls or have to worry about someone, or myself, accidentally making an expensive £1.45/min call.  

Another useful aspect about this particular Rebel Sim (“Rebel Sim II”) is that you can load 3 different types of firmware on it (providing you have one of their programmers):  the Call Through (v2), Call Back (v3), or their HTC unlocking firmware (v1).  Plus for £7 + shipping (worldwide), it’s not too bad of a deal!

Pros:

• Set it up and forget it approach for cheap international calls from mobile phones
• Cheap
• Will work with any phone that uses regular size SIM cards (the phone can be locked or unlocked, from anywhere in the world, on any carrier, etc)
• Can be repurposed with 3 different firmwares ( one for call through, one for unlocking HTC phones, and the other a different approach for cheap mobile calls)
• Simple to configure

Cons:

• Latest firmware does not allow to use access numbers that require you to enter a PIN or ID number to use (though it can with firmware v2.1, which is to be released soon)
• Can be a bit tricky to sandwich it with your existing SIM card and push into the SIM slot on some phones
• Doesn’t work with micro SIM cards (won’t work with iPhone 4)

In an effort to go completely paperless, I was presented with the problem of needing to sign a document (pdf) that was emailed to me and then needing to send it back.  Without having to print out the form to sign it nor needing access to a scanner or fax machine to send it back, you can simply take a picture of your signature, and then using free tools you can “import” it “into” the PDF and email it right back! 

This may seem long and complicated at first, but once you read through it and do it once, it should be fast and easy a second time – And granted, there may be slightly easier ways to do this with paid tools, but this guide is for using freely available tools which you also may have one or two already installed!:

1. Download and install the tools

Here is what you need to download:

• Adobe Reader 9 which you probably already have.  We will use this to view the original PDF and take a single screenshot to import into the image editing software (don’t worry, it will look good!),
• Paint.net (or really, any drawing program that can do layers and make transparent images) which we’ll use to overlay your signature on the PDF screenshot, and then also to re-print to a new PDF,
• CutePDF (or any other free PDF Printer), which as opposed to printing to a printer, will allow you to “print to” (create) a PDF, and
• A way to get a copy of your signature on your computer.  I used my iPhone to take a picture of my signature, though, you can use what ever camera phone, real digital camera, etc that you have.

2. Convert your PDF to a screenshot (an image)

Open your PDF in Adobe Reader 9 and zoom all the way out so you can see the entire page (even if it looks small and you can no longer read anything):

Next, select the SnapShot tool (“Tools” –> “Select & Zoom” –> “Snapshot Tool”) and starting at one corner, click-and-drag to the opposite diagonal corner to highlight the entire page.  Once you do that, you should receive a dialog box saying that the selected area has been copied to the clipboard:

However, if you proceed in using what is currently copied, it will be exactly the same size as you are currently looking at it; meaning, it will be really small and will end up very pixilated when you “blow it up” to normal paper size when you re-print it as a PDF, such as the image below (click to enlarge to full size):

So, in order to fix this, make sure the page is still highlighted (transparent blue) and then zoom in quite a bit (“View” –> “Zoom” –> “Zoom To…”).  You don’t need to zoom to 5000%, but 200-300% should be enough.  While making sure it is still highlighted, right click anywhere it is blue-ish, and click “copy selected graphic”.  You now have a much larger screenshot of the PDF in your clipboard. 

Proceed by opening Paint.net and pasting into a new image (Edit –> Paste) and feel free to save this as a PNG file if you want (I’ll refer to this image as “pdf screenshot”).  Either way, to make things easier, go ahead and keep Paint.net open while we move forward.  You now have a large, high quality screenshot (image) of your PDF which is ready to have your signature placed on top of!

3. Get your signature onto your computer

Okay, so now you need to get your signature on the computer.  Chances are you have a decent enough camera phone (and a way to get those pictures onto your computer) that you can use to take a picture of your signature , such as the iPhone – or – you can of course use a scanner, a real digital camera, or however else you can come up with a way to do it.  With my iPhone, I just took a picture of the signature in a decently lit room and then emailed my self the picture:

(and no, this is not my real signature, ha)

4. Prep your signature for overlaying on the PDF screenshot

We will now make the image black and white, enhance it (using brightness and contrast), and then make everything that is not the signature (the paper) to be transparent.  Open your signature in Paint.net (or whatever image software you are using) and 1) convert the image to black and white, and then 2) adjust the brightness and contrast so that it really is only black-and-white. 

To do this, start out by opening the signature image in Paint.net (“File –> “Open” –> find your image).  If you already have your pdf screenshot open, you should now be in a new Paint.net window:

First, we’ll go ahead and resize the signature just incase it is huge by going to “Image” –> “Resize”.  Make sure “Maintain aspect ratio” is checked and change the width to 1000 pixels (leave whatever number appears in the Height section as-is. It will probably not be the same as mine).  Click ok. (resizing now will help prevent issues when pasting it over the pdf screenshot later)

Now, 1) go to the “Adjustments” menu bar, then click “Black and White”, and then 2) go back to “Adjustments” and then “Brightness / Contrast” — for my particular image, I had to set brightness at 52 and contrast at 79 for it to look like the following (your settings will vary) – the goal here is to have the background as white as possible while having the signature stand out and be clear:

Now we need to make all the “white” become transparent so we can overlay it on top of the pdf screenshot.  

First, select the Magic Wand tool and start with a tolerance level of 50%:

Then, hold the CTRL key while you start clicking on the white areas of the image.  Keep clicking the white areas (while still holding CTRL) until they have all been selected so you get something that looks like this (zoom in if you need to in order to get enclosed small areas such as the white space in letters like P, B, O, etc):

At this point, you can then press the delete key, and everything that is highlighted (all the white) will be removed and will be replaced with transparency (white and grey checkered boxes):

There, now your signature is ready to be placed on the pdf screenshot!

5. Paste the signature onto the pdf screenshot

Start out by copying your entire signature by going to “Edit” –> “Select all” and then copy it (edit->copy).  Then, move on over to your pdf screenshot (just click on it’s thumbnail in the top-right corner if you still have it open, or if not, open it! [with Paint.net] ).

From here, create a new layer on top of your pdf screenshot by going to “Layers” –> “Add new layer”:  (this will allow you to place the signature “on top” of the pdf screenshot without covering anything up)

Next, paste the signature into this new layer (“Edit” –> “Paste).  Chances are, your signature will be a big large, but either way you will need to resize it to the size your actual signature would be and move it down to the signature line:

With the signature still selected (dotted lines still surrounding it), hold the SHIFT key on the keyboard while you click and drag one of the corners of the signature selection  (when you move the mouse cursor to one of the corners, the cursor should change from a solid black arrow to a white hand, thus signifying you can resize).  Hold the SHIFT key while you resize it so it will keep the same aspect ratio.   Continue to resize it until it is about the right size that you signature would be.  Once you are happy with the size, let go of the SHIFT key and release the mouse button – now, move the cursor to the middle of the signature so you now have a black arrow cursor – this will now allow you to move the signature down to the signature line:

Now, click and drag the signature to the signature line and release the mouse button.  With the signature where you want it on the pdf screenshot, proceed to “flatten” the image (combine the “signature layer” with the “pdf screenshot” layer) by going to “Image” –> “Flatten”.   Congratulations, your PDF screenshot is now signed and ready to be re-saved (“printed”) as a pdf!

6.  Print to PDF

Now, go to “File” –> “Print”, and select your PDF printer (in my case, “CutePDF  Writer”).  Be sure that you select Full Page Photo and don’t choose the option for cropping if you see it (I am using Windows 7, but if you were using XP you may see the option for full page photo cropped) and continue to print.

Your PDF printer software will now most likely have some sort of dialog box asking you what to name, and where to save, your new pdf – go ahead with that, and then enjoy your signed pdf!

So there you have it, you were able to bypass having to print it and scan it in (or fax it)!  Have a simpler (free) way to add a signature to a PDF?  Did I miss a step you can’t seem to get passed?  Let me know in the comments!  (caveat emptor, this guide is in no way meant to act as a way to forge, or otherwise impersonate, someone’s signature!)

As Google Voice gains more and more steam, here are a few tips and tricks you may find useful (if you are one of the people who have had your invite accepted):

– Call from your GV number (from whatever phone you have in hand) –

You can make an outgoing call as your GV number (recipient’s caller ID would show GV too) from any phone by:

• Dial your GV number
• Press *
• Dial your GV voicemail pin
• Press 2
• Dial the number you wish to call
• Press #

So say your GV number was 111-222-3333, pin 1234, and outgoing call 999-888-7777, you would dial:  111-222-3333 * 1234 2 999-888-7777#

– Google Voice works with Gizmo –

Gizmo is very similar to Skype in that it is a VOIP application you can run on your computer (Win, Mac, Linux) or mobile phone – again, very similar to Skype.  One major advantage Gizmo has over Skype is that you can have it work with your Google Voice number, so you can answer any of your GV calls from the Gizmo app (again, from your computer or mobile device).

One more thing that’s great about Gizmo is that you can use it to make free incoming and free outgoing free 3 minute outgoing calls from your computer!  A  few days/weeks ago, posts filtered in about there being actual feature to pair up your GV account & Gizmo to be able to dial out directly from Gizmo without having to pay for any of the first 3 minutes of call out credit / any in credit, or having to login to google.com/voice and then start the call from the GV web interface :

Pair this setup with an ATA device (ie: an old SunRocket or Vonage box), and can you can be able to make free 3 minute outgoing calls and receive unlimited free incoming calls using a land line phone (without having to have a computer running), or through the Gizmo5 app (with a computer running).  Learn more about how to do this from my earlier post, Use Gizmo5 for free calls with Google Voice.

– Forward calls going to your cell, to GV, when out of range so you won’t miss the call –

With most (any?) cell carriers, you can setup conditional forwarding rules to forward incoming calls to different numbers based on the situation.  For example, you can have your incoming calls forwarded only if you have no signal, if you ‘deny’ the call, or if you simply want to send people to a different number as opposed to using your default voicemail.   This could be useful if you live in an area that gets poor cell reception – you could set your phone to forward to Google Voice when you do not have signal (ie when at home), and then have GV ring your Gizmo phone (either on your computer or via an ATA device like mentioned earlier), or your land line if you still happen to have one (do you?).  No more missed calls at home!

For reference, unconditional means it will forward every call at all times, busy is when you are already on a call, no reply is when you don’t answer the call (when the call would normally go to voicemail), and not reachable is when you phone is not getting signal (out of range).   Also, dialing the code for disabling unconditional forwarding will disable all call forwarding and you are ‘billed’ normal minutes for any forwarded call (if you spend 5 minutes on a forwarded call, it’s like you spent 5 minutes on your cell). 

(thanks wikipedia):

So for example, say I wanted to forward calls to 123-456-7890 when I have no signal, I would dial *62*1234567890# and press send/talk – You should get some sort of confirmation that the forwarding is now in effect;  I know on my old at&t Fuze, I would get a simple dialog box saying “forwarding saved”, and now on my iPhone, I get a fancy dialog confirming exactly which conditional forwarding rule I just set:

– Use GV for just it’s voicemail capabilities –

Can’t see a real use or need for a 2nd, all-purpose, forwarding number?  Then just set your Google Voice account to Do-Not-Disturb (or don’t enter any forwarding numbers) and just use GV for it’s voicemail service.   Transcriptions still have a long way to go, and it appears it does much better with female / higher pitched voices, but most of the time you can get the gist of what the caller is trying to get across.  Being able to first try and ‘read’ your voicemails is already 10x better than having to sit through the long drawn out voicemail prompts (though they can be shortened). 

How do you set this up?  Login to your account, go to Settings (General tab), and scroll down and check “Enable ‘Do Not Disturb’”:

Then, setup your call forwarding as mentioned earlier to forward to your GV number for all three options (busy, no reply, and unreachable).  This will effectively replace your providers voicemail service with Google Voice’s. 

– Firefox extension to make calls using GV on any webpage –

Chad over at thatsmith.com has created a firefox extension that builds upon his earlier GrandCentral Click to Call Add-on to make any phone numbers on a webpage clickable which will initiate a call through your Google Voice number.   All you need to do is simply install the Add-on, click on a phone number on webpage, and you’ll get a call from your GV number and it will connect you to the number!

– Create bookmarks/favorites or desktop shortcuts that act as speed dials –

Every contact in Google Voice has their own, unique URL at the mobile version of the site (https://www.google.com/voice/m).  If you click on a contact, the URL that brought you there is unique to that particular contact (it will look something like  https://www.google.com/voice/m/contact/5680533939988165049).  Now, while this is not a URL that will automatically start the call, it will still only be one (more) click away — you’ll have to click “call” once at that page:

So what are some ‘useful’ ways to utilize this? 

You could create a Firefox bookmark toolbar folder of contacts,

Create some desktop shortcuts,

Or even add it as an iPhone webclip icon (thanks Eric & lifehacker.com):

Questions about any of these or have any tips or tricks that aren’t listed here?  Then spell it out in the comments!

Need your parents to send you some cash?  Do you pay the rent and have your roommates pay you back their share?  Oh perhaps a friend/family member just simply owes you money but just don’t want to have to deal with receiving and depositing a check?  Well, you can now (at least, as of 6/3/09) send and receive “personal” payments via PayPal which will not result in any PayPal fees (and you don’t need to have a separate personal/business/etc account – at least I don’t)!

Splitting the cost of an apartment 3 ways, one of us usually pays the rent in full and then the others pay their share to that person.  Sometimes, we’re not all around at the end of the month, so a check is usually left/sent for the others to cash.  This time around, instead of writing a check and having to wait a few days for it to clear, we decided to just skip the hassle and just send PayPal and eat the 2.9% fee – but then noticed the “Personal” tab and discovered that it can be fee free!:

Needless to say this was exciting to find out – now I can lend (and borrow) from friends/family, instantly, for free!

But what are the ‘fine details’ to this free transferring of money?  It must be:

• for a personal transaction (“A personal transaction involves sending money to and receiving money from friends and family without making a purchase”),
• the sender and/or receiver must be in the US, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Taiwan (otherwise there’s a 0.5-2% fee),
• the source of the payment must come from a bank account or your existing PayPal balance,
• (and you can not send “payment requests” for personal transactions)

Here is a more detailed listing of when you will, and will not, be charged a fee (from PayPal’s policy update on 6/3/09), copied from https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_update-policy:

Fees depend on whether you are making a commercial transaction or a personal transaction. A commercial transaction involves buying and selling goods or services, and payments received when you send a “request money” using PayPal. A personal transaction involves sending money to and receiving money from friends and family without making a purchase.

Personal Transactions. Fees depend on the payment source that the sender selects. The amount of the fee will be shown at the time the payment is sent. The Fee is paid by either the sender or the recipient. The sender decides who pays.

Domestic Personal Transactions – U.S. sender and recipient.

	Payment Fully Funded by PayPal Balance or Bank	Payment Fully or Partially Funded by PayPal Credit, Debit Card, or Credit Card
Sending / Receiving	Free	2.9% + Fixed Fee (see below)

International Personal Transactions – The sender or recipient is outside the U.S.

	Payment fully funded by PayPal Balance or Bank	Payment fully or partially funded by PayPal Credit, Debit Card, or Credit Card
Sending / Receiving	This fee is based on the country of the recipient. Recipient’s Country: Australia 1% Canada 1% China 0% Germany 2% Hong Kong 0% Singapore 0% Taiwan 0% U.S 1% Elsewhere 0.5%	This fee is based on the country of the recipient. Recipient’s Country: Australia 3.4% + Fixed Fee (see below) Canada 3.9% + Fixed Fee China 0.0% + Fixed Fee Germany 3.9% + Fixed Fee Hong Kong 3.4% + Fixed Fee Singapore 3.4% + Fixed Fee Taiwan 3.4% + Fixed Fee U.S. 3.9% + Fixed Fee Elsewhere 3.9% + Fixed Fee

 

So if you need money from (or need to send to) a friend, there’s no reason to have to wait the time for a check deposit or to only deal with local friends and family – use PayPal and save time and hassle!

Of the four different apartments I’ve lived in, every one of them has had off white walls.  A while back, I was able to get in on what now seems to be a “semi-annual” ShopOnkyo.com refurb home theater deal (like the HT-SR600S for $99), and after mounting the speakers on the wall, I was quite disappointed at what I saw:

If I had a house, I would take the time (and money for proper tools) to route the wires through the wall or behind crown molding.  However, I’m in an apartment and I’m not about to do such work in a place I won’t stay in for a while, not to mention I’d probably loose my deposit!

Here’s where good old masking take steps in.  It just so happens that your average roll of masking tape is probably close to the same color as your apartment walls:

What you want to do first is wrap up the beginning part of the speaker wire coming from the speaker (you’d probably want to do more layers than I did):

Then, for the first layer of tape, tear off about a foot at a time and try to tape down the speaker wire as straight and vertical as you can while trying to keep the wire flat or from twisting – otherwise it will look a bit wavy like this:

(one thing you can do to try to minimize the waviness is to hang the speaker wire from a door frame using a tack/nail/etc and then put weight attached to the other end over night )

Once you have the first layer down, feel free to do another similar layer of tape on top of it – since the tape is a bit transparent, if you have dark colored speaker wire, it’ll still show through.   Once it’s almost “whited out”, proceed to cover it with one more layer of one long piece of tape.  This will help hide any of the ripped, jagged edges of the 1-foot pieces of tape. 

When all is said and done, this is what a roll of $3 masking tape can do to make your apartment home theater setup look a little bit better – does it look great? No.  Does it look better than just having the wire loom down and only cost around $3? You be the judge!

(oh, and I say this is a guide for an apartment, as opposed to a house/etc, only cause I would rather at least use flat speaker wire and paint it if it was a place I was actually putting money into.  This is just a cheap, easy, and fast way to make your “apartment style” life a little better looking, ha)

I always find myself looking for deals for things I don’t need on craigslist, and I always forget what I emailed about when I actually get a ‘real’ reply from someone.  I usually use crazedlist.org to search for other cities around me (or cities I’ll be visiting soon), so when I get back a bunch of craigslist emails, it can be time consuming to find the link to that specific listing to remind myself what I inquired about! 

This greasemonkey script I wrote will auto add the URL of the listing to the mailto: link in all craigslist ads.  So now, when you click the listing’s email address, and it creates a new email in your client (webmail, outlook, etc), it will not only auto fill in the TO and SUBJECT fields like normal, but will also add the URL to that listing in the BODY so you can easily reference it when the seller replies to your message!

Download it here:  craigslist add email url

Today, www.giveawayoftheday.com is making available Evernote Beta for free!  Check it while you can — Of special note, one feature I think is great is it’s ability to index any notes you take (copy stuff from the web, take digital pictures of rebates/business cards/etc) and it can make any text in those images (even handwriting) and make it searchable / indexable!

Direct link:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/evernote-beta/

Evernote Beta lets you capture any information from your real and digital life and then find it all easily anytime.

 

The latest version of Evernote, currently an invitation-only beta, gives users more options than ever before to create and find their memories – a Windows version (main download links), Mac version, Web version, Windows Mobile version, Mobile Web version, browser web page clippers, and more. All clients can be synchronized to one another via the web, ensuring that anything created in one place is accessible from all others.

 

In addition, all users now have access to Evernote’s powerful image recognition, which recognizes text inside of images so users can take camera phone snapshots of anything from whiteboards to wine labels.

Here’s a youtube video explaining what it can do:

As many sites have posted, google maps just recently released their new version (2.0.0) which now does location tracking based off cell phone towers!  It’s not quite as accurate as a GPS based location, but as you can see from the pictures above, it’s pretty close! 

Find out more information about Google Maps Mobile:
http://www.google.com/gmm/mylocation.html

Download to your device now by pointing your mobile browser to:
http://www.google.com/gmm

yay google!

Starting November 21st (through December 20th), buy a new Xbox 360, and get a free copy of Halo 3 in your mail box!

Here’s How to Get Your Halo 3 Game

1. Buy an Xbox 360 console by December 21.
2. Connect to Xbox LIVE.
3. Register HERE with promotional code XBX7777, your new console serial number, and a valid mailing address.
4. And look for your copy of Halo 3 for Xbox 360 in your mailbox!

Get Halo 3 free. Buy your Xbox 360 today!

(*Online offer valid in the 50 United States, D.C., and all United States military bases with valid APO/FPO bases. Offer expires 23:59 hr (PST) December 21, 2007. You must purchase a new Xbox 360 system between November 21, 2007, and December 21, 2007, establish a new Xbox LIVE Account, then register on the promotion website on or before December 21, 2007. Hard drive, Windows Live™ ID, and high speed Internet access required for Xbox LIVE account. (See Xbox LIVE system requirements at www.xbox.com/live.) Limit: one offer submission per person. Xbox 360 Halo 3 game will be fulfilled through mail by January 18, 2008. Fulfillment requires a valid mailing address. Not combinable with other Microsoft offers or rebates. Proof of purchase required.)

(Direct link to the offer:  http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo3/promotions/buyxboxgethalo.htm )

Sounds like a GREAT deal considering on black friday (day after Thanksgiving), many stores are going to have the 360 + 2 free games already (Forza 2 and Ultimate Alliance) for $350 — adding Halo 3 to the mix, and that’s one good deal!

I can’t express how excited I am over LogMeIn’s release of Hamachi for Windows Mobile (download it here) — though it may have been out for a while, but I just found out today!  This opens so many doors for connecting your pda/phone to your hamachi network. 

for those who don’t know, hamachi is a free vpn client which can connect all your computers together as if they were on the same network, even when they’re not, onto their own virtual network (vpn).  It works behind firewalls and creates a secure connection between all computers (read more about hamachi security framework here).

What makes hamachi great is it’s ability to simply connect computers that are on different networks.  For example, I have a desktop and server at home, and I have my laptop which I carry with me where ever I go.   With hamachi, I can connect to either of those computers (from my laptop) as if I were at home — what I mean by this, is if I want to access a file from my desktop, I just go to start->run-> \jrindesktopmusicasong.mp3.   With hamachi installed on both my desktop and laptop, I can access files when I’m home, or on the go!

Not only is this useful for basic file access and sharing, but you can also do remote desktop (though using LogMeIn’s software is usually a better experience for remote desktop when not on the same physical network), map network drives, print remotely, virtual lan parties (gaming and such), and so much more!

Installation is a snap as well – simply download the hamachi installer and run it, power it on and create a nickname (ie:  “jRinDesktop”, “jRinPhone”, etc), and then join or create a network ( ie: “jRinNet”) with a password.  Then that’s it!  All computers connected to the same network are now (for most intents and purposes) as if they were all connected to the same router!

Installing it on my phone was just as easy as installing it on a computer — simply download the cab file from their site, copy it over to the phone, run it, and create a nickname and join my network! 

What do I use hamachi for regularly?

• Printing from my laptop, to my home printer (connected to my desktop), when I’m away from home
• Remote desktop’ing to my desktop’s at home to use software I don’t have installed on my laptop
• Run backups of my family and friends’ computers to my server (albeit this is slow, but only because most people’s upload speeds are slow :- )
• Have access to my laptop or desktop when I’m using a computer that’s not my own (during boring labs at gatech, for example, haha)

And now that I have hamachi on my phone:

• Access all my files on my laptop and desktop from my PHONE (this is useful cause sometimes my laptop battery is dead, and I need that document for class I have on my desktop, so I can now just use my phone and put the file on my SD card!)
  • I do this using TotalCommander (a free file manager replacement for windows mobile), and then just type in the machine name (ie: \jrindesktop)
    
• Copying pictures and movies taken with my phone to my laptop or desktop

What I want to TRY to do:

• Print to my desktop at home!
• Be able to access files on my phone from a computer (instead of other way around)
• Remote desktop!! (I can’t seem to get logmein to work on my phone… )

Over the next few days,  I hope to find new and interesting things to do with ‘mobile hamachi’ — I’ll update this post if I discover anything!!  Now go out and get a smartphone (if you don’t already) and install hamachi!!