BlackBerrey rental for travelers.

Summer is almost here and if you are planning to go on vacation for a few days but still want to stay in touch with what is going on in the office by peering tr0ugh your company email service but do not own a smart phone nor want to take a laptop along with you, a happy medium can be found in the form of renting a BlackBerry, one of many so called smart phones available that way.
Among the various cellphone rental companies that are available to consider, here are four of them: Cellhire.com, EventRadioRentals.com, RentCell.com, TravelCell.com.
Beside just BlackBerry rentals, these companies offer many more things like satellite phone rental, international cellphone calling plans, etc.

For more, see WSJ.com

Swapping sites offer an alternative to shopping.

In this down economy, people looking for good deals but are not in the mood to shop, can find an alternative in the old practice of swap made easy today by the Internet.
Three leading Web sites, Swapstyle.com, Rehasclothes.com and Dignswap.com, let you post pictures of items you no longer want, with the hope to trade them for things you really do. All three sites are free to use with the last one, -Dignswap.com- planning to start charging a small transaction fee for each completed swap.
Also, the features, conveniences and security offered in these sites, varies widely.



For more, see WSJ.com.

Subsidized netbook with cell service offered by Verizon Wireless.

Starting this past Sunday, Verizon Wireless has begun offering a subsidized HP netbook for $200 after a $50 mail-in-rebate. Just like with its cellphones subsidies program, customers must sign a two years contract and agree to pay between $40 and $60 a month for data access.
The netbook model name H-P Mini 115NR, comes with a built-in cellular and WI-FI modems, a webcam, but lacks a DVD drive. The data level included in the plan is not unlimited and it will cost you extra if you exceed your limit; also, the service speed is slower than many WI-FI connections, minus the WI-FI access fees of course.
And for even less, you can go for a similar netbook made by Acer and available at RadioShack for $50, plus $36 activation fee, and a two years service contract at $60 a month with AT&T.

For more, see WSJ.com

Security and Online storage solutions for virtual office by Mobiu.

In today's wired world, more and more business people have to deal with two real issues: data storage and security. And for a lot of individuals with limited choices and small business owners who can not afford an in house IT or do not have a budget to outsource such service, the perfect solution may be found in the form of a USB dongle.
Just like any other portable USB, the device plugs into your PC or laptop and comes with 1GB of secure flash memory and 1GB of online secure storage and acts more like a key. When you plug it to a PC or laptop, what it does is connect to a remote online storage where you can access your data using a CHIP and a PIN. That way, you can work from any PC from anywhere and not have to worry about security breach because your activity does not leave any trace on the the PC or laptop used to establish the connection, and if the device is lost, it can be remotely disabled .
The mobiu USB device sells at a promotional price of $60 right now, and another $38 will buy you an additional 5 GB of online storage but you can buy as much storage as you need, and when you need it.

For more, see Mobiu.com

Mobile applications help for house hunting.

In this down housing market and with signs of houses for sale popping up everywhere, it would been nice to have a mobile tool pointing you out to properties in the market as you drive by a neighborhood. Well two new applications by Zillow.com and Trulia.com, two online real estate power houses, offer just that with some degrees of usefulness.
One thing that they both do, is to point you to some houses on sale in a chosen neighborhood using the built in phone's GPS. But each of the two applications have its own flaws: they sometimes do not have a house on sale listed in their databases or in the case of Trulia, fail to compile a list of the closest homes for sale in a given neighborhood.
Zillow's application was introduced last month and works only with iPhone, while Trulia's works on more phones and both services are free.

WalkingHotSpot, an innovative way for wireless Internet connection.

For those of you who want wireless Internet connection and are not satisfied with online access through a smart phone but are not ready to commit to a multi year service plan, help has arrived thanks to a application called WalkingHotSpot by software maker TapRoot Systems. The application works with smart phones running the Windows Mobile or Symbian operating systems and the user needs to download it to create a WI-HI network or hot spot around the phone that laptops can tap into for Internet access.
It creates a rolling WI-FI to anywhere a cellphone signal is available, allows up to five devices to be connected to the Internet at the same time and with an one time price of $24.99 and no service plan, you cannot beat that. All you will have to worry is the one bill from your cellphone carrier.

Redfly by Celio Corp is an easier way to connect to the Internet via a smart phone.

A new generation of mobile devices are allowing more options for Internet connection to workers on the go. Among them is a device called Redfly Mobile Companion by Celio Corp. As the name alludes to, the device is to be used as an external terminal for a smart phone connected to the Internet. It comes with a full keyboard and a seven-to- eight inch display screen and allows the user to perform any task online.
Here how it works: Using a smart phone to access the Internet, you hook the Redfly Mobile Companion to the phone through a Bluetooh connection or a USB cable and it will display whatever online activity is on the phone's screen. At the size of a netbook, it is smaller than most laptops and does not have a hard drive or a microprocessor. With its small size and light weight - 2 lbs- for the heaviest of the two models, it comes really handy for people on the move who need to be online but beside their smart phone, don't want to bother carrying a laptop and having to pay that extra $60 a month for Internet access. Another advantage of the Redfly Mobile Companion is that while allowing Internet access, it does not carry the security risks of lost data since there no hard drive to store it to begin with.
As of right now, it only works with smart phones running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system with the company promising to start supporting Google' Android later this year.
It comes in two models: a 7-inch and a 8-inch screen weighing respectively 1.46 lbs and 2lbs with MSRP of $229 and $299.