Opera Mini was launched about a year back for the Android. It was called Opera 4 then, now we have Opera Mini 5 (Beta) available for download which has some very impressive features. The guys at Opera say that this browser “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.” The new features introduced are:

• Tabbed Browsing: Needs no explaining, but this is feature is a must for smart phones.
• Speed Dial: On opening a new Tab, users are presented with a list of small icons, a click takes them to the desired page.
• Opera Link: With this feature users can synchronize their bookmarks and Speed Dial between their Mobile Phones and Desktop Computers.
• Download Manager: OMG, manage downloads form your smart device. This options lets users Pause and Resume downloads at will.
• Page Compression by about 90% ensures that browsing speed are greatly increased.
• Page Zoom.
• Password Manager: Users won’t have to remember those countless passwords instead the manager will store them on the Phone.
• Landscape Mode.

Download from the Opera Mini Page and better still watch the Demo via a neatly designed Simulator that will leave you dazed.

The first time I got impressed was when MIT decided to put its courseware online for free. That was dubbed as MIT Open Course Ware, now its Popular Science that has done it. The magazine that has been publishing articles on science and technology, has partnered with Google to place there 137 years of data online for free!

Although there is no utility to browse through the issues but with the search facility one can find relevant stuff. Google ADs are included off course. Head on to the Popular Science Archive page and read to your heart’s content.

The easypaisa service is now getting more popular. Call n’ Speak a company that provides Phone to PC service for Pakistanis living abroad has announced that it will accept payments through easypaisa. The company offers calling services in USA, Islamabad and Lahore. Calls can be received on PC as well as mobile phone.

As of now only Telenor customers will be able to avail this facility. Other options for making payments include Western Union transfers, Google Checkout and Moneybookers. To avail the service users need to register an account first, upon which they buy a number. This is followed by a trial call and after necessary verification money transfers can be completed.

This is a really good facility for users. Actually all these services are pre-paid and this is the best part, because it can be used by virtually anywhere like a Debit Card. What I am particularly interested in is places like convenience stores, gas stations and restaurants. Let’s hope this thing catches on.

More info is available at the Call n’ speak website. Be sure to read the How it Works, FAQs and pricing details before signing up.

Since Steve Job’s animated presentation on the iPad there has been a lot of speculation in the media and elsewhere about Apple’s latest product iPad. Sure the iPad will put to shame most tablet devices and book readers present in the  market today including the Kindle. A friend recently visited me from California and told me he couldn’t buy the iPad since it wasn’t available for sale. He was all praise for it, before I told him about the device and some of its shortcomings. Read on to enlighten yourself on what the iPad isn’t or can’t do.

• No Flash.  Millions of websites today use Flash but Steve Jobs somehow missed this point! Ok so users might see those Lego blocks on their screens prompting them to add a plug-in which Alas won’t be there unless someone does something about it.
• No Multitasking? So you won’t be able to listen to your favorite music while surfing the Web? Who cares, and why did you ever buy that Music enabled Smartphone, iPhone, iPod or whatever? Just wear the headphones and surf the Web on your iPad.
• No Camera. Since there is no camera there’s little room for a video conference. I believe this is a marketing strategy, give the people a camera –less iPad, make a newer more expensive iPad, attach a camera and un-apologetically launch it with a bigger price tag. That’s it. How else can one miss out this important feature?

This is it, now we have Skype for the Symbian available for download and use. It is a full feature rich Skype and not a run down version of the popular application. The beta was launched a few months back but this version id presumably free of errors and necessary fixes have been made. Oh and off course the Ovi store is hosting it.

The app will allow users to make Skype to Skype calls on their data connections thus reducing massive phone bills, both local as well as long distance. The app also lets users share and send images  video files. The list of supported devices is rather long and you will find it at the end of the post.

Now is the tie people can really benefit from a WiFi enabled Nokia or even some other device running the Symbian. They say support for Sony Ericsson is coming shortly so hopefully the newest Vivaz might run the app. Those going out of country might find this app extremely useful in cutting down on International calls. However, the preferred medium would still be a WiFi network rather than a 3G Volume based connection. Download from the Ovi store.

The supported devices are enlisted below:

Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 GB, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator,  Nokia 5320,  Nokia E72,  Nokia E71,  Nokia E90,  Nokia E63,  Nokia E66,  Nokia E51,  Nokia X6,  Nokia 5800,    Nokia 5530, Nokia N97 and the Nokia N97 mini

The much awaited and first of its kind service easypaisa has been launched in Pakistan. Again it is a joint venture of Telenor and Tameer Micro Finance Bank. Through this service subscribers of Telenor will be able to transfer money anywhere in Pakistan. Off course between easypaisa account holders. Since its launch the service has been used extensively by the people and more will follow the trend as they come to know about its usefulness.

This is how it works:

• A Telenor subscriber goes to easypaisa Franchise office and opens an account.
• He/she gets a call from Telenor for verifying his/her credentials.  
• After the verfication the person visits nearest easypaisa outlet and pays the required amount to be credited to his account. Upon successful transanction he/she receives a confirmation SMS.
• The user can now pay his/her utility bills, transfer money between easypaisa account holders, deposit cash, withdraw cash, get Mini account statement, schedule payments and transfer money between their Tameer Bank and Mobile account.

This is a great service which is ideally suited for the working class who live the 9 to 5 life, and is a big convenience for everyone in general. If I were to suggest these guys I would say include a service where people can even shop with their mobile phones using easy paisa and how about dinning out? If it can happen in other countries why not here? Off course this is not an impossibility, or is it?

The finer details can be read at the easypaisa website. There are other payment solutions coming soon according to the easypaisa website, which ones are these is not clear. I really hope other operators follow suit and give services to the people that are convenient and secure as well.

Sometime back I wrote about a bunch of useful Chrome extensions. Quite frankly one could have a separate Blog for the Chrome extensions because of the rate at which are coming up, and believe me some of them are very useful. This post is dedicated to some of the newer ones.

• Webpage Screenshot. This extension lets users take screenshots of the web pages they are viewing. The screenshots are taken in Jpg format. It is fast and simple to use. Users can choose the exact size before saving/capturing the page. This can also be done in offline mode, thus ensuring a user’s privacy. Download and install at the Webpage Screenshot page. 
• One Number. Remove the clutter on your Chrome toolbar with this extension which lets you have access to Gmail, Google Voice, Google Wave and Google Reader in one go. It also shows previews of unread items. One can can check the status of the desired service selectively or open up all unread items in all the four services. Can be downloaded from the One Number page.

PocketGear has acquired Handango, the announcement was made just a few days back. This might come as a surprise but the benefits are truly amazing, at least for PocketGear, quite simply because this lone move now gives it access to some 140,000 apps of various categories. This includes paid as well as free titles. This might as well be termed as  the creation of so far the largest cross platform, open app store on planet Earth.

The two stores are known to have generated over $ 400 million in revenue resulting from sale of mobile apps. This they say is spread across 175 countries, and the variety of mobile devices supported is well over 2000 in number.

PocketGear’s developer base alone has expanded to some 32,000 strong giving it more variety and reach. This will help improve its stats further as the company has already worked in conjunction with Samsung, Microsoft, LG, Sony Ericsson, RIM, Verizon and AT&T. Simply put more developers and more companies mean more variety and hence more revenue. And remember this is for a variety of devices unlike Apple.

PocketGear supports supposedly all brands less the “i” category Some of the brands under its belt are Java, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Android, Palm, Blackberry and the ever present Symbian.    

PockerGear’s strength comes form its business model which supports developers more than other competitors. PocketGear’s developers get to keep up to 90% of the share as against 70% in case of other models. Besides this the company CEO Jud Bowman says it has perfected its systems in a big way and Handset manufacturers or carriers can now launch their own customized stores in weeks.

The world at large downloaded and used Windows 7 RC innumerable times. some of us are still doing it. Well nothing comes for free and so the joyride is bound to end soon. From March 1, 2010 people using Win 7 RC will experience shutdowns after every 2 hours and sorry the documents they will be working on won’t be saved. As if this wasn’t enough the Win 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010 completely.

If this wasn’t enough the wallpaper will also change to the default Black with a message urging users to Upgrade or face the wrath of Microsoft. This will be followed by frequent notifications telling users that their Windows 7 version is not genuine. This will off course mean no more Windows 7 updates.

Users therefore should either buy a Windows 7 or switch to their previous version of Windows. More information is available at the Microsoft Knowledge Base and the Windows 7 Blog.

Choosing an Anti virus may not be the easiest thing to do but it certainly is inevitable. Panda’s Cloud Anti-virus is free and worth a try. Although introduced sometime back it lacked support for Windows 7 then. Now it has received the official Windows certification for both 32 as well as 64 bit versions. The Anti-virus itself is light and installs in a flash, occupying a mere 22 MB of  space.

The Cloud version of the Anti-virus is made for small and medium sized companies. This reduces their overall costs by obviating the need for expensive hardware, software and IT personnel. It is easy to use and maintain and provides good protection against viruses etc. Also included is E-mail spam filtering.

It has a very good detection rate and it uses online checks for enhanced protection. It does not use the PCs resources, but sends data about potential threats to the Panda’s servers for detailed analysis. This obviates the need for frequent threat signature updates. The app can be downloaded from the Cnet or Panda website. A must try!