MP3 and legality of its distribution

All of us have heard of MP3 and are its daily users. But when it comes to legally using MP3 format, there is a slight hitch, because of the ignorance on legality of the MP3 format. I know few of my friends, in whose companies, having .mp3 files is a crime! So, they are deleted as soon as they are found. Such being the scenario, it was important to know what exactly it is. Below are few sites that give some information regarding this aspect.

• Is MP3 Legal?   ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act ) 
• MP3 Licensing and Patent issues 
  
• Legal MP3 Downloading - illegal MP3 File sharing
• MP3 FAQs

In conclusion, they all aim at saying that MP3 is a format like any other audio format - legal but bound by copyrights. Its distribution is a question mark which is different depending on each country's policies.
Anyone to throw better light into it, always welcome...

SMSing through GChat

Now one can SMS from GChat!!! The window is the same Chat window, making it very very convenient to send multiple smses in one shot, how much ever long, no restriction on characters!
Currently, it is available only for USians. Hope soon it starts for Asians.
The only shortcoming is, the person who is receiving the sms might get charged by the mobile carrier. That is one thing that needs to be seen. Even in Orkut, one can get alert for every new scrap, or new notifications. But, we might get charged by our mobile carriers. If they can make these too free with some short adds for short messages, it would be worth it.

How to enable this feature? Its part of GLabs, last tab under Settings.

One of the last added Lab feature is Adding any gadget by URL. I wonder, what Google, Gmail Team to be precise, has in mind. Are they planning to make this another iGoogle with a difference of emails taking priority over other stuff?

Mail timings in Gmail

I was having continuous trouble with different timings appearing against my mails in Gmail. Could not just bear this fault from Google. How could Google not take care of this?

But today, searched and I am back with appreciation for Google. There is a entry in Gmail help. Link is here.

What I am not able to understand is why it does not stick to the Time Zone entered against the Google Account. They have considered two things here: Timezone entered and System date and time.  This makes the timings against mails dynamic, calculated every time a mail is open on different systems. I was always under the impression that it considers only the Time Zone entered.

In the Account settings, there is an option to associate another mail id against a gmail id. This helps in integrated services of Google. Like Google Calendar invitations sent to any of the primary or associated mail ids will show in gmail id.

Mail id from Orkut profile

How to find mail id of a person just by knowing his/her orkut profile? (Of course of the profile who is not a friend in orkut!)

Here are the steps:  

By adding as friend :)

1.Add him/her as your friend.
2.Select friends list and seach for him/her,the email address will be listed along with their name

Without adding as friend:

1.Go to the profile of the user.
2.Click on Ignore user tab given on left side
3.Open your GTalk and click on settings link given on the  top
4.Click on blocked users
Now you can see the Email ID which was previously invisible to you. i.e. in short

Orkut profile>Ignore user>GTalk settings>Blocked users>Email ID

Why I went for this? I needed it ;)

Storage used & free status for your Google Account

Following is the link to know the Basic Storage usage by your Google account

https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageStorage?hl=en

I got my storage value using the above link, if you did not get do comment below...

Google Moderator

Google has come out with a new service - Google Moderator
It is a place where there will be a regulated discussion, talks and responses to queries by Google Users. There are multiple topics (called series here) listed under which one can raise a question. If one feels that this series is not catering to their needs, one can create a new series and post questions under that topic.
After questions are raised, there is simultaneous voting grading which questions one would like to be answered. Depending on the popularity demands, that question will be answered. Interesting? You too can go and add to the adventure.

Project 10 to the 100th
As part of 10th birthday celebration, Google has launched a Project 10100 (that's "ten to the hundredth"), a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life. Google is committing $10 million to implement these projects, and while money may offer a jump-start, it will really come down to the great ideas that might be out there. They will be accepting submissions until October 20, 2008, and then they will open up voting in January.

Google's 10th Birthday - musings
As part of their 10th birthday celebrations, a list of Blog posts are made from Google about what their journey was like. A laid-back relaxed read...

Source for this info is Google Friends (Monthly) Newsletter.
Subscribe
Google Friends archive
Google Friends archive prior to May 2005

SMS vs EMS vs MMS

All of us know about SMS - Short Messaging Services & MMS - Multimedia Messaging Services. But then there is one more less-known terminology EMS - Enhanced Messaging Services

EMS stands between SMS and MMS. With EMS one can send picture of a cake, birthday song melody and a text greeting from a EMS capable mobile to another EMS capable phone. With MMS, one can send not only picture of cake, but from a large sized image to a small movie.

More on this:

Messaging Services Fundamentals
About EMS
Google Search on EMS vs MMS


Mobile News:


Sony Ericsson comes out with R-series, T-series phones. Reviews here 
Also releases very stylish W980 walkman phone, an edge over W960. A complete look at here.

Reverse Phone Engineering

Ever wondered, if you could find details like name and address of mobile phone owners by just knowing their mobile number? This is called Reverse Phone number and there are sites which provide these details. This is prevalent and currently present only in the west. Though it is not specified anywhere, it is surely not available for Indian mobile phone users.

Sites:
White Pages
Reverse Phone Detective
Home Detective

Talk about Google Chrome

Here is an interview with Google group product manager Brian Rakowski in regards to Google's web browser. An informative read. Do not miss the uncommented questions in the end...that shows, what world of possibilities lie in the wake of this browser by Google.

Google copying Zoho?

One look at Zoho and you would know its mind-blowing. Incredible is the awareness that, Google has been, kind-off, copying Zoho in many aspects!!! From its online office venture to favicons! Agree, I remember saying 'Google is repeating things that have been existing for long time in this world of internet, but in a refined way and re-defined improvized web experience'. But, when one has a look at Zoho, it would not be difficult to know, it was making Zoho available to us under its name.

Many features are, as it is, picked up from Zoho. Infact, the UIs are a lot similar. Zohos have got a lot more applications, not denying Google will not build it. Favicon of Google Chat/Talk is same as Zoho Chats. Zoho, too has got online Collaboration, Sharing, Publishing on blog...all in all. Whatever Google has got in its Google Docs is by default present in Zoho, in some cases, with a better UI, a lot of extra features (equivalent to Microsoft's Office features)...its huge...leaving it to individuals to explore them.

Another way of looking at Zoho would be, what one can expect from Google in future. One can look at Zoho as Google's road-map. Ofcourse, Google has got few things done like integration of all its apps and plethora of Gadgets, which can be added to its applications...here we cannot deny Google's originality.

List of Blogs for Zoho Products:

• Zoho Writer
• Zoho Sheet
• Zoho Show
• Zoho Wiki
• Zoho Notebook
• Zoho Meeting
• Zoho Planner
• Zoho Chat
• Zoho Creator
• Zoho DB
• Zoho Mail
• Zoho CRM
• Zoho Projects
• Zoho Viewer
• Zoho Challenge
• Zoho Polls
• Zoho People
• Zoho Invoice
• Zoho Mobile
• Zoho Business
• Zoho Share
• Zoho Docs
• Zoho Personal

No doubt, GE has shifted its company's complete usage from GDocs to ZohoDocs