It’s a busy world we are living in. Technology was supposed to make it more easy for us, but now its getting more complicated, we spend more time with gadgets just to make our lives easier and end up wasting more time. But there’s nor escaping it now, either go to the stone ages or do the techie thing. All right enough of this rambling, lets get to the point. Today we talk about online reminders, how do they work, are they useful and finally which ones to use?

Ok first things first, What is an online reminder?. An online reminder is simply an utility that is available via the web for reminding oneself about any upcoming event like a birthday, meeting, anniversary or whatever.

How does it work? Quite simple, you register via web, you are sent an email for verification purposes and you verify it, finally you start getting reminders in your mail box. (Some services also offer reminders via SMS)

Are they useful?  Obviously, that’s why there are so many of them. In order to use them you have to check your mail on daily basis at least, because otherwise it won’t make much sense. Given that most of us have an E-mail address and we check our mails more than once a day so an online reminder is a very useful service and more importantly because it comes for free. Check out some of these, they will do you good.

I guess this has to be the gadget of the year. No matter how much I surf for new gizmos this one gets the cake, I mean we have heard about wireless charging but this one beats them all. The device I am talking about is an RCA charger from Airnergy that harvests electricity form Wi-Fi signals to charge batteries. Now that is certainly cool, but wait there is more to it.

It was unveiled at CES 2010, and charged a BlackBerry from 30% to 100 % in about 90 minutes. All it needs is a Wi-Fi router or AP in the vicinity, if there are more than one off course the performance will increase. It also has a battery inside it so one can charge it and carry anywhere. It also has a USB for attaching to various mobile devices. Coming in summer it will cost around $40.

Watch the video here.

Mobile phones have become a part of our lives so much that we can not imagine going anywhere without them. Sometimes fitting in our pocket, sometimes sitting in a purse these devices make our lives easy, till we go on vacations. Every now and then we hear of people loosing their mobiles which is catastrophic for most, as a mobile phone not only carries one’s contacts list but also data that is vital, like family photos, videos and other info.

A new device simply called as the “ZOMM” is a brainchild of a Laurie, who happens to be a mother of three. The motivation was simple, she kept on hearing about people loosing their devices and set out to make a wireless leash. The product was demonstrated at CES 2010 and attracted quite a crowd.

The device secures mobile phones, acts as a speakerphone for incoming calls, has a panic button for calling emergency numbers from anywhere in the world. The gizmo works over Bluetooth, just pair it with your mobile phone and if you walk away for more than 30 feet it will sound an alarm telling you that you have forgotten your mobile phone. It is also a hands free through which one can receive calls. Besides all this one can make emergency calls to 911 by pressing it for 9 seconds.

A good device, but my question is what if you loose the ZOMM? Check out the ZOMM website.

Buying a new mobile phone is an experience which is always full of excitement. There is the pre-purchase period during which one tries to find information about the object of his/her infatuation, then there is the smirk period during which one enjoys the thought of buying a new gadget and finally is the dreaded period during which one starts using the device. That is when one has to move contacts and other data from the old device to the newer one.

Moving stuff form the (old external) memory card like photos/videos etc is easy as one can copy it on a PC and then transfer it to the new device using USB card reader or any other method. The major problem in most cases is moving the Contacts (which we are all afraid to loose). The prime reason is because all mobile phone makers have their own customized software for synchronizing data between devices and PCs. Nokia for instance has Nokia PC Suite and Nokia Ovi Suite, Sony Ericsson has its own version of the PC Suite and off course Samsung calls its sync application as Samsung New PC Studio.

Contacts are always saved in formats like .csv, .vcf, .npf. These formats have various fields for storing personal data like Name, phone number, email address , street address etc. The problem arises when you buy a different brand of mobile device then your previous one and your contacts are present in the old PC Suite.If your contacts are stored on the SIM then all you have to do is insert the SIM in your new mobile phone and start using it. But that is seldom the case, because normally we have contacts that far exceed the maximum 250 contacts limit set by SIMs. In  that case we are forced to store our contacts on phone and this means trouble when transferring them on to a device of a different brand.

In Spanish DondeEsta means where is he, she, it or you. In Nokia mobile phones running Symbian or other ones running Windows Mobile it means a lot more. It means being able to locate the mobile phone and hence its owner wherever he, she or it may be. The application is a mere 52 kb in size and can be downloaded from the DondeEsta website or even Getjar.

Download the application, install it and simply add the users from your directory who can trace you. In order to trace a person the other party simply has to send an SMS with the “???” in the text portion. The mobile phone with the DondeEsta will reply with an SMS indicating its location. The coordinates can be searched on Google Earth for finding the exact spot on planet Earth.

The interesting thing is that the tracker or the finder does not need this application, it is only required for the mobile phone which is being tracked. The interface is simple and user friendly. The application website also has a list of phones that are DondeEsta compatible. The application has been downloaded over 27,000 times and if the number of downloads is a measure of its popularity we say it is quite popular.

Mobile phone with integrated A-GPS will show more accurate results but the app still works on non GPS mobile phones with some trade-offs in accuracy. DondeEsta can be used for Safety of family members, for exercising Parental control, for locating your vehicle or even for companies on the lookout for field workers antics. A good application for any of these purposes or fun, I say give it a try.

We have heard about Nokia plunging in to the NetBook field, that was certainly a news maker, now it is Dell that plans to launch a mobile phone somewhere in 2010. This isn’t one bit surprising because we were always wondering why hadn’t Dell done this before? And now Michael Dell has unveiled plans to launch a smart phone for the US market. The announcement was made at the FiReGlobal a few days back by the CEO himself who went on to talk about the importance of a mobile device for the company’s ever bright future.

Much details aren’t known about the device, the specs and whether it will be Android based or will run on  Windows Mobile 7. Dell has a sizeable share in the PC market and a mobile device will not only augment its share but have a good impact on the overall business also. It has been made public that China Mobile will launch the device and rumors about AT&T might well be unfounded. Surprisingly the last Dell Mini 3i was also launched in China for China Mobile this time now they are setting the US market in the crosshairs.

Telenor has teamed up with the Tameer Micro Finance Bank for making money transactions much easier and less cumbersome, through a service being dubbed as “easypaisa”. The best thing perhaps is that this service is not limited to Telenor subscribers only but can be availed by subscribers of other operators also. It is even for those not-privileged who do not own a mobile phone. Presently only utility bills payment facility is available and more services like money transfers within country and from abroad are in the offing. The service has been approved by the State Bank of Pakistan.

As of now utility bill payments can be made for gas, electricity and landline phones for select cities of Pakistan for a paltry sum of money and still more is to follow later. People can simply go to the nearest dealer for availing these services, or Tameer Bank, Telenor franchise, Telenor sales & service centers, the detailed list of all cities is available at easypaisa. This indeed a new and much needed facility for the people of Pakistan. As more options for financial transactions are added the service is sure to gain wider acclaim of the public. Now at least people won’t have to wait in long queues lines to pay bills. We really hope hope they make this facility available for making online purchases as well.

What exactly is the ultimate gadget that one can dream of? Personally I would like to carry one slim not too fat, energy efficient gadget that would allow me to make phone calls, surf the Internet at will (without straining my eyes), play games (well once in a while), listen to music, watch movies, take photographs/make (acceptable quality) videos , locate my position on the planet, use it as a PC (off course with an external keyboard, mouse and display attached),noting less, nothing more.

Although mobile phones have gotten smarter,smaller, and more efficient, but my contention is why to have a separate laptop,camera, GPS, mobile phone, NetBook, webcam, PC etc. Why don’t they make a device which has all of these in one place, a small nifty thing that that sits in your shirt pocket, never mind if it doesn’t have the video projector built in to it. Well I guess somebody heard all this…only a little less, or maybe they are beginning to think like me. I am talking about the Archos 5 and 7 Android based Internet Tablets. These are mean looking devices that pack so much in so little. These things which are coming to the shelves soon have some new features which are not present in any gadget presently:

Screen Res:  800 x400 pixels, High Res screen, 16 M colors

Screen Size:   5 and 7 inches (Archos 5 and Archos 7)

Memory/Storage: 60 to 320 GB (depending on the model)

Connectivity:  USB, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)

Attachments: Keyboard, mouse, camera, external memory via USB

OS: Linux

Features and Goodies: PDF Reader, E-mail client, Photo viewer, Web browser, video playback, video recording, Audio recording, video playback, audio playback, built-in speakers, Web TV, Web Radio, games, widgets, video streaming from a PC, and a rather long battery life.

Last Words: Archos 5 and 7 have introduced a new concept in Internet devices that are small but pack a punch. Compared to the Zune or iPod nano it has outstanding features. However, I would still like it when a newer model includes a GPS and camera if not a GSM module.

Ever wonder what a mobile phone will look like in the not so far future? Well I have, it will be something fold able, wearable (around wrist, neck or even waist!) , and even washable, it will be voice operated, will play videos, show google ooops I mean Nokia maps, will talk to you, will be your buddy and very much a part of your/my life. Nokia 888 is poised to be this, well a little less but something like it. This is still a concept phone which is going to be launched in the future, but right now it looks like something out of this world. The time is not far I guess when people will be holding one of these devices and the ones holding a N97 will be looked down upon as the needy and downtrodden