After hours of wait for the Apple iPhone 3G, Airtel and Vodafone have decided to release the phone on August 22, a day before my birthday by the way. But what about the 3G part? Most applications on the iPhone work only if there is 3G available. In India, we need more visionary people.

Most probably, Vodafone will have an upper hand due to its global tie-up with Apple. As to the prices, people are still playing the guessing game. On the pre-registering days of the iPhone with Vodafone, it was slated to be of $199 and $299.

But why the hype? Simple, its touch sensitive screen is the best of there is in the cellphone world. Its sleek looks and lots of other features contribute to this.

Now where’s my birthday present?

Never knew anything wierder. Sony Playstation 3 seems to be a hub for all the softwares out there, whatever it may be. mopx0 has managed to install a Windows Vista OS on the Sony Playstation 3. Although the entire process is useless in the way that it takes 24 hours to install.

After the 24 hour install, it takes about 25 minutes for the Vista to boot. But still the system is damn slow, so think before you do something. You can also install windows xp on the Playstation 3 which is slightly faster.

Look at the video for more information.

Via PS3Scene

It has been 7 years since Windows XP was launched. During its lifetime it got many upgrades including 3 Service Pack releases (Service Pack 3 being the latest). The Service Pack added many new and useful features so as to increase the life shell of Windows XP.

After the release of Windows Vista many Windows Users wanted to shift to Windows Vista but could not because of the high system requirements of Vista. Soon after the release of Windows Vista many transformation packs were launched, which transformed the looks of Windows XP to Windows Vista giving the users of XP the feel that they were using Windows Vista.

Even though these Transformation packs were not able to provide the performance of Vista but they managed to copy the looks of Vista pretty well. These transformation packs were able to copy all the eye candies of Vista except one – the Start menu of Vista. There were many themes which copied the look of the taskbar of Windows Vista, but failed to provide the same functionality. Being a Vista user myself, I can easily say that I really miss the Vista Start bar in Windows XP.

So today Techunknown.com presents to you Windows Vista start menu for Windows XP!

Download it: http://vistastartmenu.com

As you can see from the above image, Vistastart menu provides functionality similar or better than Windows Vista start menu can provide.
The search box is similar to Vista’s start menu and it even saves your last search. When you search for any file/application via the search box given, the search begins instantly but it is little slow compared to Windows Vista Start Menu but not that slow to irritate you. When you search for a file/application via the search bar and you type the full name of the application for example “paint”, the application also shows applications or files with similar name like Printers etc.

As you can see from the image, it even shows system files and folder. Also unlike Start menu in Vista and XP where you have to click on “Programs” to show you all the installed programs which you have in your PC, VistaStart Menu opens the “Program” group or slide by default thus saving you one mouse click when you open an application from the “Programs” menu.
There is also a quick start group where you can put in all the applications which you access frequently. All the applications present in the start menu have a shortcut, if you would have seen the previous images properly you would notice that there is a small straight line passing through the applications menu after certain intervals. These straight lines divide the “Program” menu into certain groups. The first group has “A” assigned as its shortcut so if you will press “A” you will be automatically taken to the first group and then all the applications in the first group will have a number assigned to them, pressing that number either launches that application or takes you to the sub group of the application. These shortcuts work only when you use the “Windows” key to access the start menu and not when you used the mouse to access the start menu.

You can also move the Start Menu to another location! Yes you read it right to another location! You can even resize the start menu. Amazing isn’t it. To move the Start Menu all you got to do is hover your mouse near the “Get Pro Version” and then just drag the start menu to the location you want it to.

Now from the next time whenever you open Start Menu it will open from the same position where you had placed it earlier.

The Bad Side-

After the good side comes the bad side. Sometimes whenever I used to click on the start menu, VistaStartMenu just did not pop-up. I had to click multiple times before it used to pop out. Also as I said earlier, searching via the Search Box is a bit slow compared to Windows Vista Start Menu. Also just for the information of its users or the user who are going to download it, it eats up 11Mb RAM usually with the max going to 20Mb.

Conclusion-

In the end I would like to conclude that Windows XP users who can’t shift to Vista because of its high system requirements should download VistaStartMenu immediately but for Vista users I would say if you can cope up with the slow searching time and the extra “11Mb RAM” I will say it’s worth it.

TechUnknown Rating – Very Good

Pro’s – Finally an alternative to Vista Start Menu, and for XP users finally a Vista style Start Menu

Con’s – Slow in searching via search box, Sometimes the Menu just does not pop-up even after clicking the Start Button multiple times

iResQ, a recent startup offers to buy your iPhone whether its broken or in a working condition. Why? Simple, the usable parts of your iPhone will be refurbished and used again while the others will be recycled properly. iResQ already specialises in repairing and maintaining of Apple products.

Just use this form to complete your request and mention the complaint and other details. iResQ will then contact you about your request and quote a reasonable price.

“This buyback program serves a twofold purpose,” says Brian Buffington, iResQ’s general manager. “We get to relieve consumers of their unwanted iPhones and prevent hazardous waste from entering landfills by recycling rechargeable batteries.”

That certainly sums it up. Save the world from the nasty hazardous waste. In a way, you help the environment whether you like it or not.

iResQ

I was browsing though a website when i saw this Google ad about exclusive discounts for technical students on Apple Notebooks in India.
Now this is an irresistible offer for technology enthusiasts like me. I clicked on the ad and was redirected to this website: http://macforstudents.netbiz.in/

To get the details of the offer, i had to fill in a simple contact form with details of my institution. Took me hardly 1 minute. After that i got a mail with the complete details of the offer, which can be seen in this screenshot:

But for those who want to avail this offer, hurry up as the offer is till 30th august only.

Customizing taskbar and Start Menu in Windows is very easy and comes in very handy, to make your PC look and work in the way you want.

To change these properties click on the Start button and then in the menu that pops up, choose properties.

Now in the window that comes there are two tabs for Taskbar and Start menu. By default Start tab is selected.

There are two display styles for Start menu. The new XP style Start menu and the Classic Start menu. You can choose anyone and further customize its features, look and feel by clicking on the Customize button next to it.

Next comes the Taskbar tab

From here you can choose and customize the appearance of the taskbar like: lock, auto-hide, quick launch, clock and inactive icons tec.

Select all the features that you like and click Apply then click OK. It is as simple as that.

Netshare from Nullriver is is a boon for many who are mobile whether they want to or not. If you people have already downloaded Netshare for $10 from the Apple Stores and are frustrated that you couldn’t figure out what the app was all about, well then seriously you need this tutorial.

Please note that this tutorial will not work on Mozilla Firefox 3. For better results, better use safari (obviously Apple friendly). Head over here for the tutorial.

Download Netshare

UPDATE: It seems some users cant see the download page for this app on the Apple Store. I do not know whats the problem, but will come out with a solution soon.

The popular social bookmarking site del.icio.us is now delicious.com. It is sporting a new web 2.0ish look and very speedy interface. The best thing-now no URL confusion !

Last week Google again smoothly made a pagerank update of all the websites.

http://techunknown.com got lucky this time. In just 5 months, that without much effort we got PR1.

I found one more useful website to check the pagerank of your websites in bulk at once @ http://checkbulkpagerank.com/

Regarding how exactly the pagerank algorithm of Google works, i found some pretty interesting images. Do have a look:

If any of you has the head of Agatha Christie but can’t draw a round balloon, can try this. GoAnimate allows you to share your stories with the stock animations it has (including Hillary). Developed on Adobe flex, you can select the backgrounds or default templates and move on.

There are lots of animation characters to customise with. You can also add your face to the character on the screen or morph it etc. After you are done with your actors, its time to move to the sets. Check out GoAnimate’s vast database of music, sound effects, dialogue bubbles and other visual effects.

After the sets are over, setup the expressions of your characters, anger or sarcasm or rofl etc. The interface is quite easy understand as you can see from the image above. After you have finished with your work, it can be marked as private or public.

In my opinion, its one of the best forms of storytelling or express your views on the interesting topics.

Check out GoAnimate here.

Via Techmixer