iPad Magazine - National Geographic Kids

Want iPad to be more educational to kids than a game machine? National Geographic Kids is a good start. 

For $1.99 a issue, I think it it worth the money. It is not just a magazine. It is interactive, with sound, video and animation. Also have some fun games for learning. Most important, kids actually like it.

A good news is that the issues after May, 2012 will be the high resolution version which utilize the new  iPad's retina display. So it will be very clear and sharp, maybe comparable to paper magazine.

To order it, just click Store button on your Newstand and search National Geographic Kids and install it. After that, you can have a free sampler and the option of order one issue for $1.99 and one year (10 issues) for $19.99.

If you want to subscribe for National Geographic magazine (pager), here is the link ($16 for 12 issues). 
You can also get the iPad version for free.


https://w1.buysub.com/pubs/NG/NGM/57851_NGMDomDirect_12_Facebook.jsp?cds_page_id=57851&cds_mag_code=NGM&id=1335893089474&lsid=21221217162022430&vid=4

Google Currents - Flipboard on Android

Still waiting for the Flipboard to come to Android? No need to wait, Google introduce the Google Currents on both Android phone and tablet. I think it is better than Flipboard in many ways:

• You can associate your Google Account with Google currents. So that the sources your added will be synchronized among all your Android devices. While Flipboard you need to sign up a Flipboard account.

• You can add your own RSS source through Google Reader. 

• Support background sync and offline reading. You can choose sync only on WiFi to save your data.

What I like in Flipboard but missing in Google Current

• Integration with Facebook. You can display posts of your friends in Flipboard.
• The elegant of the "Flip" vs the "Slide". 

Google Sales Galaxy Nexus for $399

Good news: Google sales Galaxy Nexus in Google Play store (under device) for US $399. This is the lowest price so far (before it is newegg.com's $449). 

Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ - Galaxy Nexus HSPA+

$399.00

Shipping (Two Day Shipping):

$10.50

Bad news is this is for US only. So you can not even visit the URL directly. But you can visit use a proxy web site like:

http://www.uswebproxy.com/index.php?...19oc3Bh&hl=3ed 

or

https://proxify.com/

Then fill in the URL: https://play.google.com and click on Proxify.

After you enter the US Google Play Store, just click on:

But if you have friends in US, you can ask them to buy it for you. 

Google Drive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Cloud drive and iCloud Comparison

Free Space

1. SkyDrive - 7G (25G if you are old user)
2. Google Drive - 5G
3. Cloud Drive  - 5G
4. iCloud - 5G
5. Dropbox  - 2G

SkyDrive is the winner by providing 7G free space. You can get 25G if you register with SkyDrive before. But you need to following the instruction and this offer is only provided for limited time.
Google Drive provides 5G but this is additonal to Gmail (10G) and Picasa (1G). Also, Google Docs and files converted to Google Docs format don't take up Google Drive's 5G space.
https://www.google.com/settings/storage/?hl=en
If add all the free spaces provided by Google, it is more than 16G.
Cloud Drive's 5G does not count the space used by the songs you purchased from Amazon.
Dropbox can give you 500MB space for each friends you referred (https://www.dropbox.com/referrals).

Paid Space

1. SkyDrive - 20G for $0.83/month, 50G for $2.08/month, 100G for $4.17/month
2. Google Drive - 25G for $2.49/month, 100G for $4.99/month
3. Cloud Drive - 20G for $1.67/month, 100G for $8.33/month
4. iCloud  - 20G for $3.33/month, 50G for $8.33/month
5. Dropbox - 50G for $9.99/month, 100G for $19.99/month

Although the free spaces may satisfy most people's needs, you may still want to get more paid space.  SkyDrive offers cheapest rate, only $4.17/month for 100G, while Dropbox's price for the same space is almost 4 times than that.
Regarding the maximum space, Google can provide up to 16T. Dropbox offers 1TB+. Cloud Drive is 1T.  SkyDrive only offers 100G maximum.

Web Interface
Dropbox
Dropbox's web interface is clean and simple to use.

Besides the basic functions (Upload, Delete, Search, Manage files and folders), it also have several interesting features.

• Sharing - You can share your folder to other Dropbox users. The shared folder will appear in their Dropbox folders. Shared users can add or delete files in this folder. The changes syncs to all shared user's computers.
• Links - You can click on the Get link icon of a folder or file and copy the link from the browser's address bar. Then you can send the link to users you want to share. 

• Events - Every changes you made to your Dropbox will have a log. This is very useful for shared folders. 

Google Drive
If you use Google Docs, you will found the Web Interface is very similar. Actually, Google just upgrades the Google Docs and renames it as Google Drive. Now you can upload files of any types.

What is better than Dropbox:
You can create all kinds of Google Docs, like Documentation, Presentation and also edit them inside the Web Browser.

• Sharing - Google Drive allows shares both folders and files (Dropbox only allows sharing folder). You can specify the level of sharing: View, Comments, Edit. Shared users must have Google account to access the shared folders or files. The sharing is not integrated with Google+ yet. So you can not share to a Google+ Circle.

• Links - There is no explicit link function. When you share, a email with the link can be sent to the shared users. You can also copy the link from the address bar. But you need to log on to Google in order to view.

Google Drive is online now!

https://drive.google.com/start#home


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wKJ9KzGQq0w

Here is the Google Drive help:
https://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2456456&p=mktg_invite

However, I got a message when I visit the Google Drive page. Maybe Google Drive is rolling out in steps.
Your Google Drive is not ready yet

Grab your 25G free SkyDrive space before it is gone

With Google to introduce the Google Drive this week (maybe tomorrow),  Microsoft is decreasing its SkyDrive free offer  from 25G to 7G. Maybe Microsoft thinks 7G is enough to bid Google (5G), Apple (5G) and Dropbox (2G).



However, if you already have an Windows Live account (or Hotmail account), you can upgrade your account to 25G for free.  But this is only for a limited time! So hurry.
You just need to go to https://skydrive.live.com, log in and click on the banner which says upgrade to 25G for free.

Since I already clicked on the banner, the above screen capture does not show the banner anymore. But you will see it at the position of the red rectangle.

I used to use SkyDrive once long time ago. Then I switched to Dropbox because Dropbox can sync to your folders while SkyDrive only has Web interface. Recently, Microsoft introduces the same features as Dropbox. It also has Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad client, but no Android (Now you know who is Microsoft's real enemy). In other word, it is same as Dropbox but offers bigger space.
Following image shows the SkyDrive now also have sync folder on your PC.

If you are not familiar with SkyDrive, here has a video:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/skydrive/home

Google drive will also offer the same functions as Dropbox and tight integration with Google Docs, Picasa and Google+. Can Dropbox survive under the pressure from both Google and Microsoft?

Use Flash to Boost Your Computer Performance

If you have old USB key, SD card or SSD (Solid State Disk) which you do not use quite often, you can boost your computer's performance by simply plug in.
Windows 7 provides a feature called ReadBoost. It use flash (which is much faster than traditional hard disk) to cache the information to avoid read from hard disk. This can boost your computer's performance (like start application, start up, shut down) especially if your computer does not have much physical memory.
If your computer is already using SSD as boot disk, ReadBoost may not very useful.
Enable ReadBoost is simple, when plugin in a USB key or SD card (suppose your computer has SD card slot),  a window will prompt you if you want to "Speed up my system".

If you do not see this window, you can also right click the drive and select Properties.
In the Property window, you have 3 choice. I usually choose the third option Use this device and use the maximum reserved space.

That's it.

If you want to unplug the device to use for other purpose, you can select "Do not use this device" and then eject the device. Then you can delete the cache file in the device.