Interested in saving some money on phone bills and transforming your iPad into a phone with free calling and texting?

Well, if you fall into the following 3 categories:

1. iPad 2 owner
2. Reside in the States
3. Pay for a landline telephone or sick of paying crazy cell phone bills

Then follow the below steps to replace your home landline telephone with your iPad 2 — free of charge.  And even better: you can even text message free from your iPad.  Note: If you have a 3G plan for your iPad, you could go mobile too, but not 100% sure about the stability of the phone reception when you’re on the go.

As you may know, Google released its Google Voice platform earlier this year.  This service allows Google account owners inside the USA to acquire a free telephone number and have all your phone numbers forwarded to this number (or act as a standalone number).  Well, with a little hack sense, you can download an app called ‘Talkatone‘ on your iPad and get your number set up for free on your iPad.  Just follow these two simple steps:

1. Register for a free Google Voice number by logging into your Google account.
2. Download Talkatone on your iPad 2 and input your Google Voice phone number and other info (yes, it’s an iPhone app but works fine on iPad).

Now close your iPad and try calling your new number from a new number that’s not linked up to your Google Voice phone number.

Wala!  You just replaced your landline!

If you are interested in a more aesthetic iPad-esque interface, you can check out this article to download GV Connect and sync it with Talkatone –although I think it’s not necessary.

Photo courtesy of SexyGadgets

After purchasing and using my new iPad 2 for a week, I’m here to share a few tidbits about the good and the bad. The version I got is a black 16GB Wi-fi only iPad 2. In my opinion, those who should be considering get an iPad should fall in the following categories:

a) don’t own a decent laptop
b) don’t own an iPhone 4
c) want something to take on the road for emailing, word processing, and surfing the web
d) bored with a lot of $$$ to spend

If you don’t fall into any of those categories, the iPad may become redundant and somewhat useless to you. In my situation, I spilled hot coffee on my Macbook Pro (2 years old) keyboard a few weeks back and now certain keys don’t work and the laptop fails to go to sleep. So basically for the time being (until I get to replacing the non-functional parts), I have a desktop laptop with an external keyboard and mouse.

I had originally planned on getting a 13″ Macbook Air 1.86GHz with 4GB RAM but after chancing upon this iPad 2 (that I am typing this post on now) at Walmart, I knew that I had to grab this opportunity and buy the damn thing — even if I end up just selling the guy on craigslist. Well, temptation struck after the third day of staring at the package and I opened the sucker. Now let’s get into the review.

Speed-wise, the iPad 2 is super fast, no complaints there. I intend to use my iPad 2 for the following tasks:

1. Facebook
2. Browsing web, blogging
3. Reading magazines, books, news
4. Replying e-mails (I have online businesses, so replying clients = everyday)
5. Casual entertainment (games, watching TV shows)

Basically everything besides heavy duty tasks like designing with Photoshop/Illustrator and recording music. I do those taks on my handicapped Macbook Pro at home. For the five tasks I mentioned above, the iPad 2 is totally adequate. Facebook via an app like Friendly or MyPad is awesome, you can do status updates, reply comments, etc. easily. Even upload a photo you took with the iPad 2 within 30 seconds time. Safari is super fast so browsing the web is simple. You can watch youtube videos (I recommend through Safari rather than through the slow Youtube app supplied) and shop online seamlessly. I check my favorite news sources through Flipboard, a sweet app with awesome layout design. You can also use Pulse or other RSS readers for customizing your reading experience. Replying e-mails = quick and painless. Games are endless on the iPad 2, some awesome ones like Maelstorm or Infinite Blade (sp?). I use an app called AirPlay to watch a bunch of video files (movies, TV shows, etc.) on my 1 TB external hard drive at home via Wi-fi. So I’m not using any space on my 16GB drive on the iPad 2. The output of the video files on the iPad 2 = awesome.

Oh, forgot to add that I bought a Zagg Logitech keyboard/case:

This guy uber helps with typing blog posts like this and replying e-mails quickly. In terms of Wi-fi versus 3G model, you can find tons of articles debating this topic. I went with Wi-fi because.. well because it was the only one of its kind left. Black versus white? You decide, again check the plethora of articles online debating this matter.

iPad 2 = victory if you fall in one of the 4 categories above and are looking to use it for the 5 categories in list 2. Feel free to add your thoughts and/or refute me hehe

I was playing around with an iPad recently and noticed a significant lag when waiting for YouTube videos to load. If you’ve been through a similar experience, you know how irritating it gets viewing start-stop, start-stop video streaming. :p

Below are a few different methods that could speed up the loading process. Try them one by one to see which solution works best for your situation:

1. Change Your DNS Settings (tips courtesy of iPad Video Converter)

   Step 1: Enter the settings menu on your iPad, select the General > Network > WiFi.Step 2: Then select the WiFi network that you use, tap on the blue arrow to the right.

   

   Step 3: You then need to type in your new DNS (208.67.222.222 ) settings into the space provided, if you have DNS setting you would like to keep a record of then you can simply press the Home/Power buttons at the same time to take a screenshot that will be saved in your Photo library.

   

2. Try turning off your Bluetooth in the Settings -> General -> Network category.
   
3. Try resetting your wireless router or modem.
4. Login to your YouTube account and adjust settings. This is the ultimate final desperation option.  Create a YouTube account if you don’t have one, log in, and adjust your settings to “I have a slow connection”.  The videos you watch will stream in a lower quality but will theoretically load faster.

If none of these solutions work, then it could be a problem with YouTube.  There has been discussion of YouTube throttling speeds in major traffic areas. There are people who line in NYC get buffering issues regularly. So it could be a regional problem.

If you are also experiencing slow speed on your iPhone, here is an article to help speed up your iPhone 3G or 3Gs.

Warning: If you’re an avid user of Facebook, you might not like (me or) this post.

Did you know that 1 out of 14 people in the world now use Facebook?  That’s 500 million+ people.  A pretty ridiculous amount of users if you ask me.  If you don’t often use Facebook often, you are not cool.

Although Facebook is a great place to stay updated on friends’ lives, most of the time spent there is a waste of time.  In fact, it’s a massive distraction from productivity.

Why?

Because so many Facebook-addicted folks post content in the form of:

• useless, meaningless updates
• incorrect grammar / typos
• narcissistic photos
• unnecessary pleas for help (ex: Omg, I need a boyfriend. / I’m so depressed right now…)

What do you actually GAIN from refreshing your news feed and checking these types of friend updates?

NOTHING.

An addiction to Facebook is basically an excuse for doing something more productive.

Facebook is, however, a wonderful and perfect creation for all narcissists of the world a.k.a. those who frequently post photos of themselves left and right, believing the world will flock happily to each and every new photo of his/her face in a new setting (which sadly is very commonplace — because those viewing have nothing better to do with their time).

Let’s think about this.

If you use Facebook 2 hours a day…

That’s 60 hours a month = 720 hours a year = 30 days a year = an entire month in a year of WASTING time.

Imagine all the things you could do in thirty days’ time. You could visit New York, start a new interest like playing the guitar, get started on an MBA, etc. etc.

As Alvin Toffler mentioned in his studies, by consuming loads of information, you end up absorbing nearly nothing.

What’s interesting about all this is that it’s not Facebook’s fault that so many people are addicted to it.  It’s kinda like an overplayed song.  It’s not the song’s fault that it’s overplayed…

I leave you here with a quote from Tim Ferriss (author of 4-hour Work Week):

There is a psychological switching of gears that can require up to 45 minutes to resume a major task that has been interrupted. More than a quarter of each 9-5 period (28%, or 134.4 minutes) is consumed by such interruptions, and 40% of people interrupted go on to a new task without finishing the one that was interrupted. This is how we end up with 20 windows open on our computers and nothing completed at 5pm.

Bottom line: Stop distracting yourself with Facebook and focus on getting something actually important done.

The ironic part of this post is you’ll probably end up reading it as an imported blog post in Facebook. :p

Warning: This post is specifically for those who own an iPhone 3G (or iPhone 3Gs).  If you own an iPhone 4, the information in this article is much less relevant.

I just jailbroke my iPhone 3g –version 3.0.1– a few days ago (after owning this iPhone for more than a year).

What got me to finally jailbreak my iPhone?

Well, there are some pretty sweet benefits that you could either 1. never do without or 2. would have to pay a bunch of money to acquire.

Here are some such benefits:

1. Video Recording - With Cycorder, you can record videos on your iPhone, now you can capture those memorable or funny moments on video (pretty crappy quality but still better than not having this function at all).
2. Customizing the Interface – Using a program like WinterBoard, you can completely customize and redesign the look of your iPhone interface, even altering such icons as the Wifi or Unlock buttons.  You can also apply some pretty spiffy wallpapers and themes.
3. Sweet (Free) Shortcuts – There are some really awesome shortcuts that EVERY iPhone user should be using.  For example, multifl0w allows you to multitask and run background applications similar to Dashboard or Expose in Mac OS X.  Also, QuickReply allows you to be much more efficient with replying text messages than the default way — a must have.
4. Try New Apps Without Paying First – Because jailbreaking your phone allows you to download free apps, you can try out applications before paying for something you’re not even familiar with yet.  In the past, I’ve bought a few apps that I ended up not even using — a waste of money.
5. Makes You Cool – Don’t you feel more hip now that you can show your buddies the sweet new apps you installed (free)? 

If you’re interested in jailbreaking your iPhone, be forewarned that it is no trivial task for an everyday person (that is, when you start running into small problems along the way).  Here are some tutorials that will help you.

Any other cool benefits of jailbreaking that I missed?

Obscene title?  My bad

Allow me to explain… the reference is to a typical business transaction.

Let’s parallel a normal process of building a relationship to a normal business transaction.  Typically when you meet someone you would like to build a relationship with, you go through the following process:

RELATIONSHIP:

You meet the person, you go through some dates, then you …get your jiggy on.  Let’s look at this process from a shallow viewpoint: basically the goal is to reach the final step of sex.  From an efficiency standpoint, the trick here is to minimize the ‘x’ in  ‘x times’, meaning minimize the number of dates you need to go through in order to reach jigginess a.k.a. sex.

So, the MOST efficient way would then be:

i.e. skip the dates and get straight to the jigginess.  The problem with this solution is that this route usually ends up in a very short-term relationship.

Now let’s parallel this to a business transaction.

BUSINESS TRANSACTION:

You meet the customer for the first time, you gain their trust and increase credibility through continual follow-ups ‘x times’, then you finally get the order and get paid.

Again, from an efficiency standpoint:

You would skip the middle and just try to get your new client’s cash right off the bat.  This is what I like to call the business of being a whore.  A one-time transaction that probably won’t end up in a long-term client.  No good.  You’ll notice a lot of such ‘whores’ doing business in China. 

Bottom line: Don’t be a whore when it comes to business. There’s no shortcut, build a solid relationship and credibility with your client and the money will come very soon and very naturally.

Your thoughts?

Or more accurately, voice over IP to take over the world?

Have you ever used Skype on a mobile device?

As I wrote earlier this month, I bought an iPhone 3G in Hong Kong and have been totally digging the experience.  One of the applications I use daily on my iPhone is Skype.  It is a free application and works wonders in my life.

I have been using Skype for several years but only recently did I begin making calls via Skype on a mobile phone.  My cousin Gary introduced me to the concept of being able to call countries all over the world at a very low rate (sometimes free of charge) via Skype on iPhone.  It’s simply awesome.  A few sweet scenarios:

1. Skype to Skype (free of charge and phenomenal clarity). My girlfriend Michelle is based in Dubai, so we use Skype frequently to chat via wireless internet (at home or outdoors).  I kid you not: the clarity of conversations via Skype to Skype on iPhone is significantly clearer than a cell phone to cell phone conversation.
2. Skype to (enter country) mobile/landline phone. With wireless internet and an iPhone, I can basically call most countries in the world at Skype’s fixed rates.  The company even has calling plans priced at USD $12.95 per month for unlimited calls to selected countries.

I believe that as wireless internet becomes increasingly ubiquitous all over the world, voice over IP will slowly replace traditional phone networks. Companies like Skype are then going to take over the communications world.

Sidenote: I think Skype is going public early next year… stock investment anybody?

***Tip ( June 2011): Get 25% OFF iPhone skins and cases at our partner site, Mama Studio, with coupon code: GEEKMAMA.

Have you noticed a lag in the speed at which your iPhone 3G or 3Gs loads SMS text messages or web browser pages?

Here’s the solution.

Remember that your iPhone is basically a small computer, it runs an operating system just like Windows XP or Mac OS X. And just like those systems, there are background tasks running that may slow down the performance of your iPhone. So in order to speed up your iPhone, you should properly quit the applications that you are not using.

Important note (common misconception):

When you press the ‘Home’ button on the front of the iPod Touch, you are not quitting the application. You are simply closing it, but the application is still open and running in the background.

Suppose you open a game that you downloaded or an application on your iPhone that constantly updates via the internet. But you don’t use that application often. Then it is smart to quit those applications so it is not hogging the bandwidth (speed) of your iPhone in the background.

So, in order to properly quit these applications on iPhone 3G or 3Gs, perform the following steps:

1. Open the application that you wish to quit by pressing its button on the home screen.
2. Once the app opens, hold the power button (on the top of the iPhone) until the ‘Slide to Power Off’ with a red button shows up.
3. Then let go of the power button and press and hold the ‘Home’ button on the front-bottom of the iPhone.
4. When the interface returns to the home screen, you have successfully quit the application.

Perform steps 1-4 on any applications that you don’t use often. This will speed up the performance of your iPhone.

Bonus: Clear the cache of your Safari browser regularly by doing the following:

Home Screen > Settings > Safari > Clear Cache.

This will help speed up the performance of Safari when surfing the web.

Double Bonus: Got an iPad? Learn how to speed up YouTube on iPad.