Cortado Workplace is a free app that let you print from your smartphone.

Blackberry and iPhone owners now have the possibilities to print files right from their devices by using a free app called Cortado Workplace from a company named Thin Print AG.
Imagine being on the road with your smartphone as the only device with you and be able to print e-mails, computer files, photos or documents from your phone and onto a networked printer. All that is possible after you download the free app; from there, you will be using the company's cloud server to store for free files up to 1 gigabyte with a maximum of 3 megabytes per file, according to the New York Times.

For more, see NYTimes.com

Tools for generating strong secure passwords.

One of the downsizes of today's highly digitalized world, is the need to use a host of passwords for almost any activity Online. With the plethora of passwords comes the need to remember them when needed, which on itself can be a challenge. But with the threat of security breach, there is an added challenge to come up with strong and secure passwords that are not easy to figure out. One can already see the dilemma here: the need for more secure passwords and the one to remember them when needed. There are some digital tools usually referred to as password managers, available to help solve that dilemma and they varies in sophistication and effectiveness.
Some of them are totally free while others require a license or subscription. The nice thing about them, is they almost all use encryption to ensure maximum security, and they allow the generation of incredibly hard to pick passwords without the need to remember them, having only to remember a master password. The New York Times has run through some of these passwords generating tools and here are some of them listed here: KeePass, a free open source software originally built for computers running on Windows, but now availble for Mac, Linux etc. Mobile versions of the application are available for many mobile devices including the iPhone and Blackberry.
Second on the list of the New York Times, is LastPass, which it said, is a browser plug-in that works on Mac, PC and Linux.
1Password is another tool considered by the Times as user friendly; people who want to try it can download it and do so for free for 30 days. After that, it will cost $39.95 for a single user.
RoboForm is another option for PC users and comes in a free and a paid version depending on your preferences. The paid one will cost you $29.95 for one license and for about $10 more, you can add more features like USB storage, secure login information etc.
PC users have another option called Password Vault costing $ 29.95 for a user and last but not least, is
i-Wallet a solution that uses biometric instead of a master password and costs $39 for a license according to the Times.
The list may end here, but the choice for password managers is almost as unlimited as ever.

For more, see NewYorkTimes.com

Using WI-FI as an alternative to cellular networks congestion.

With the popularity of samart phones these days, come a drawback in the form of clogged cellular network connections who more often than not, got more than they can handle.
So to help remedie the situation, some of the nation biggest wireless carriers are offering a temporary relief in the form of WI-FI connection from hot spots. With WI-FI, customers can bypass the carriers wireless networks and make or receive phone calls and deliver or access fast data in areas where they normally wouldn't.
In that regard, AT&T, the carrier with the most isssues with network coongestion, is leading the way with close eely to 20,000 company's accessible hot spots. Those hot spots are freely accessible as part of their monthly data plan to AT&T customers with Windows Mobile phones as well as AT&T customers owners of an iPhone or a Blackberry even though, many of them are not aware of that option.
To find those free hot spots, iPhone owners can download WI-FI locator apps like the free hot spots finder, WI-FI Finder from JiWire which will offer users a list of nearby hot spots based on their locations. Blackberry or Windows Mobile phones owners on the AT&T network, don't have access to such free applications, but for a certain fee, can download apps from either the Blackberry's App World or the Android Market.
T.Mobile, another big wireless carrier, also offers free WI-FI connections to its subscribers as part of their monthly data plan but for only about 10,000 hot spots locations.
But for an additional $10 a month, T.Mobile customers are able to place unlimited calls from any hot spot without exceding their plan limits. Unfortonatly, among T.Mobile 30 WI-FI capable phones, only 18 of them can make such calls and to make it even more restrictive, the Android powered phones are not among them.
Another big wireless carrier, Sprint does not offer WI-FI connections but instead is taking another route in the form of WiMax technology, in conjonction with its partner, Clearwire Communications.
With that technology, Sprint is trying to cover entire cities in an Internet cloud and not just some hot spots. That's why the project is slow going and is rolled out in only a few cities (Baltimore, Las Vegas, Boise Idaho, Bellingham Washington and Portland Oregon) with a few more on the work.
In cities where its WiMax is present, Sprint's actual subscribers would have to pay an additional fee to acces the network and they have the option to pay a $ 60 monthly fee for unlimited connection, or pay by the day to the tune of $10 for a full 24 hours.
Verizon Wireless, the nation biggest wireless carrier doesn't offer a WI-FI cellphone connection even though it is promoting a device commonly called MI-FI that for $100 a month, will enable up to five devices to connect to the Internet. But the catch there is , you have to be near a cellular covered area for the device to work.



For more, see NYTimes.com

Pandora Online music radio application for Android phones is now available.

Already available for mobile phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre, Pandora.com , the Internet radio streaming Web site is now available for download on phones running the Android operating system by Google.
In an article in the New York Times, it turns out that most people who download the Pandora mobile application, listen to the music by plugging their phones to speakers, either at home or in their cars.
The application shows ads that pops up at the bottom of the screen that listeners can choose to click on and watch while the music still play in the background, and when they decide to watch video or make a phone call, the music will stop.

For more, see NYTimes.com

TwitVid, a free app for tweeting videos.

Smartphone owners wanting to use their mobile device to post a video to go with their tweets, now have options in the form of apps.
For instance, Blackberry users now can post short videos on Twitter from their phones using an app called TwitVid which is one of several such apps that are available on the iTunes App Store for a while.
According to the New York Times, TwitVid is easy to use. After downloading the free app, users will look for the "record" function then record their video, enter their tweet and hit send. From there, the tweet will appear as usual on users' Twitter page with a link to the video which stays st0red in TwitVid servers with no limit on the length.
Anyone with a camera phone can use the service without downloading the app by simply visiting the company Web site at TwitVid.com . Once there, users will be assigned to be used to send videos as an MMS or an e-mail with the video as an attachment with the tweet in the subject line. After that, it will post just like a normal tweet.

New Blackberry Curve 8520 offered at a discount.

On August 5th, Research inMotion, the maker of the popular Blackberrys released its newest addition to the Curves series with the Curve 8520. In releasing this newest version, something very interesting happened as far as pricing, which can be very attactive at the right place.
Speaking of price, the Curve 8520 is offered at prices never seen for any Blackberry at launch. To get right to it, the Curve 8520 is offered for $129 by T.Mobile which is the service provider for the device, and even better, Wal-Mart is selling it for $49.99. Both those prices, require a two year service plan with T-Mobile which starts at $55 a month for voice and data only.
The new device has all the features someone comes to expect from a Blackberry device including a a full QWERTY keyboard. On top of tools like right and left shortcuts buttons, the Curve 8520 also sports a new feature not seen on any Blackberry model before, a trackpad instead of a trackball or scroll.
The Curve 8520 come equipped with a 2 megapixels camera and a 1-gigabyte microSD memory card.
To connect to the Internet, the Curve 8520 uses WI-FI instead of the fast 3G network, but will automatically connect you to trusted networks within range.

For more, see WSJ.com

Dashboard mounted iLane reads aloud your e-mails while you are at the wheel.

With the nation focus being brought recently onto the dangers of texting while driving, drivers all over the country have to deal with another source of distraction in the form of reading e-mails. As more and more people get hoolked on the so called smart phones that are virtually a computer in a pocket and the need to be in constant contact with the office rises, reading e-mails can be added to the growing list of distractions on the road. Fortunately, drivers have now at their disposition a device that can come in handy in that area. The device in question is called the iLane and requires in fact three separates pieces for it to function.
The first piece is the device itself which is a nicely designed plastic box that plugs in a cigarette lighter and can be moounted on a dashboard, visor, or anywhere in the car, even thrown on the floor. Beside the connection to the electric outlet, the iLane does not require to be physically connected to anything else and all your emails stay in your mobile device that received them in the first place.
But it will need to communicate with a second piece which has to be a BlackBerry smart phone and a BlackBerry only because no other smart phone is supported by the iLane. The two devices communicate wirelessly through a bluetooth connection. The last piece needed is a bluetooth earpiece that comes in the package.
With these three pieces in place, the setup can begin and the first step is to register at myilane.com, then download a software called iLane Gateway onto your BlackBerry and wirelessly connect the iLane to the BlackBerry and last, you connect the iLane via Bluetooh to the earpiece.
Right after the setup is done successfully, the user will hear a computerized voice giving instructions on how to manage your e-mails; a video demonstration is available at iLane.com.
The iLane is quite pricey, selling for $600 at the company online store and requires a $8 a month subscription.

For more, NYTimes.com

Yahoo voice recognition is expanding via an iPhone app.

According to the New York T imes, Yahoo popular voice-enabled search function also known as OneSearch, has been added to its its iPhone application where it will be available through an update though some people wishing to get it earlier can do so by downloading it from the iTunes app store.
The application is already available for BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Mobile phones with less features than the one slated for the iPhone. On the other hand, Google's iPhone application has voice recognition also.
In wake of the development of its voice recognition app, Yahoo has abandoned its Yahoo Mobile for smartphones that was intented to be a one place stop to aggregate your mail to from several other sites as well as access all your social network sites.The individual widgeets that were developed for those different functions, would be gradually released to different phones.

Realplayer SP Beta, an solution for mobile download.

In today age of smart phones, portable devices and Internet videos, one thing was kind of missing, a sure way to convert those videos and transfer them unto those multiple platforms. That was until now with the release of a free download software by RealNetworks Inc, called RealPlayer SP beta.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "the RealPlayer SP with SP standing for social and portable, is a free download that, once installed, grabs videos from the Web, converts them to the right format and transfers them to over a dozen portable devices." Those devices include the ones by iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm ,T-Mobile, Nokia and others.
Another use for the RealPlayer SP, is for downloading and saving videos unto a PC for later viewing or sharing.
The only drawback for that kind of use, is that RealPlayer SP is only supported by PC running Windows operating system, with a Mac version in the works, still according to the Wall Street Journal.
For people looking for more, there is a premium version called RealPlayer Plus SP priced at $40 that offers a DVD playback among others things.

For more, see WSJ.com