iPhone: Quick iPod Shortcut/Music Controls

I have come across a little nifty shortcut on the iPhone that allows almost immediate access to the music controls. Almost everyone knows by now that the home button can be configured with different functions when double "clicking" on it. However, the same button seems to double as a shortcut for music controls, whenever the iPod application is running (actually, also when it does not).

I have configured my home button to go to Contacts tab whenever I am in in another application. Interestingly enough, however, if I double hit Home when I am at the Home screen, while there is music playing in the background, you'll get a little window with Previous/Pause/Next buttons.

Even better, the same little window with music controls appears also when double hitting Home while at the Lock screen! That's big.. at least for me.. because it means i don't have to slide and unlock and change to iPod in order to control the music (for when you are in the car for example and need to keep your eyes on the road ;)).

Now, if music is not playing and music (iPod) application is closed and you are at the lock screen, you can still double hit Home and get access to music controls and start playing the music! That again is big :).

To illustrate everything, here are some screenshots of what I've been describing:


At the lock screen with music application not running


At the Home screen with music playing


At the Lock screen with music playing and iPhone charging


At the Lock screen with music playing and iPhone not charging

Wow! Wanna have a 3D VR monitor?

Gotta watch this... this would be so cool for so many applications. But for starters, I would like to see this for mere picture viewing, as shown in the video. Next, such a device on a gaming console, playing Call of Duty 4 online would be like the ultimate gaming experience today :).



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ZDNet: A dozen free & essential apps for Windows

A neat little collection of free software that I happen to have already installed on my system; not all, but most of the mentioned applications. It's a great reference for when you have just installed/reinstalled Windows.

Read on at ZDNet...

Massive "laptops"

We're starting to see more and more of these massive machines intended for portable scenarios. The Dell XPS M2010 is one attractive system with a number of features that to me were appealing enough to actually go for it, but now others seem to want to hop on the train of pleasing to the eye, sexy machines that stop others in their tracks.

HP has refined their original 20" HDX laptop, which was much more of an actual laptop than Dell's M2010 (since the M2010 is heavier, thicker and meant more for desk use than lap use). The new HDX has a 1080p screen ( which is a nice + ), offers a fast cpu which seems to actually not offer as much performance as one would think, and choice of blu-ray and hd-dvd drives. Despite all, the screen does not offer the same flexibility as Dell's M2010 sleek silver hinges, it does not have a wireless keyboard and mouse or a wowy pop-up slot dvd drive :).

I wonder how much of these HP will sell especially since HP's HDX page doesn't even come close to Dell's M2010 product information page.

Got a desktop? Got a laptop? Use Google Browser Sync

I accidentally came across this little Browse Sync Firefox extension from Google which lets you use your Google account to synchronize Firefox browser settings among two or more computers. This is great because you no longer need to add bookmarks twice, on every computer, and everything is done in the background. Simply install the extension on both systems, choose a pin and you're in sync!

Google has a few more extensions for Firefox that you may find useful.

Quickie: What is an exabyte?

An exabyte is hopefully the storage capacity of my next computer. Seriously now, an exabyte is a quintillion bytes, or a billion gigabytes!! My system currently has roughly one thousand gigabytes, which is called a terabyte. So I am getting there...

Lunar eclipse pictures

Here are some pictures taken earlier this evening by yours truly. The lunar eclipse took place today, February 20 2008, between roughly 9PM and 10PM EST. For those interested, the shots were taken with a Nikon D50 with a 70-300mm VR lens, in shutter priority mode. Images were cropped and resized, slight sharpening applied, however colors, brightness and contrast were left as taken. This was my first time photographing a lunar eclipse (on a very cold winter night).

I thought a little description from NASA may come in handy:

A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the night of Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event is visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.

An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where Earth blocks some (but not all) of the Sun's rays. In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.

This page at NASA discusses this year's lunar eclipse in more detail. For more general info on lunar eclipses, read the Lunar Eclipse for Beginners.

Royalties: What the war was all about

As always as far as business goes, it all boils down to money... lots of money. Read this article to see why Blu-ray put up such a big game and for some insight into how the industry works.

Forget about customer satisfaction or superiority of image quality. The real issue in the war between Blu-ray and HD DVD was about royalties.
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Royalties were one of the primary reasons that it took so long to get manufacturers to come out with players that could handle both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. Manufacturers with dual-format players have to license technology from both camps, which boosts costs.

Read on at News.com

Comparison: Get In Sync with Syncing Software

Get In Sync with Syncing Software

A great comparison from Tom's Hardware of different file syncing software; something I have particularly long awaited. Having used SyncToy until now, for fairly simple file syncing tasks between my desktop and an external hard drive, at times I have found myself needing more advanced features than what SyncToy current offers.