Blogging

• Six Ways to Get Feedback On Your Posts and Pages (And Why You Need To)
• Legal Risks to Be Watchful for When Blogging
• How Using Opinion Polls Can Help Increase the Readership and Quality Of Your Blog
• 5 Legal Guides Every Blogger Should Read

WordPress

• 9 Plugins To Help You Optimize WordPress Performance
• How WordPress Beat Joomla!
• TimThumb Security Vulnerability – Common in WordPress Themes
• How to Display Your Latest Google+ Update on your WordPress Blog

SEO

• How To Compute Search Visibility Indexes for Websites
• The Ultimate Guide to Using Bing’s Webmaster Tools
• How Public Relations Can Avoid Failing at SEO
• Minimizing Panda-monium: Better Content for Better SEO Rankings

Social Media

• 44 Useful Mobile Apps for Social Media Marketers
• Don’t Let Social Media Marketers Turn You into a Newt
• Why Companies are Afraid of Social Media
• Taking Baby Steps with Social Media Measurement: Defining a Small Pilot

Technology

• Men Build Small Flying Spy Drone that Cracks Wi-Fi and Cell Data
• Scavenging Free Green Power From Radio Waves
• How Facial Recognition Technology Can Be Used To Get Your Social Security Number
• Android Trojan Records Phone Calls

Gadgets

• Robot That Can Learn, Think And Act By Itself
• T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide review
• iHome debuts SD63 Retro-Style Headphones
• OutRun AR Project

Pinoy Blogs

• Nokia C2-00: dual SIM done right?
• Philippines Among Fastest Growing LinkedIn Countries for 2011
• Forget PowerPoint, wow ‘em with Prezi
• Smart Releases HSPA+ Site List

JaypeeOnline Weekly Recap

• Metro Manila Traffic Navigator – Philippines First Digitized Traffic Information System
• HowTo: Get A Job Using Social Media
• Gmail Preview Pane
• WARNING: Zero Day Vulnerability Found on Timthumb.php
• WordPress for Windows Phone 7 Version 1.2 Now Available
• Adobe CS3 Internal Error 2739 Fix (Windows 7 64-Bit)
• Email Intervention vs. Gmail Man – Google and Microsoft Battle Over Email Users

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or would want to share your article or any interesting story that you found in the Internet and have it featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

Specs:

• Camera: 8 megapixels
• Display: 3.7 inch touchscreen
• OS: Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• Data Folder Capacity: 1GB (application space) *Content data is saved to microSD memory.
• External Memory (maximum): 2GB microSDTM / 32 GB micro SDHCTM(encryption compatible)
• Size, Weight: Size: 63x118x11.8mm / Weight: Approx. 113g (provisional)
• Infrared Communication
• Osaifu-Keitai (Mobile Wallet)
• Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth
• Global Passport*3*3

Product Photos:

Here’s a demo video of the INFOBAR A01′s user interface:

I immediately fell in love with the INFOBAR A01′s user interface. It closely resembles the Windows Phone 7 interface (design and usability) but this one looks and works much better than that of the Windows version. I’m not sure if the interface is exclusively owned by IIDA or the designer but it would be awesome if it would be made available to other mobile phone brands running on Android. Or maybe someone from the XDA developers forum could cook a custom rom based on this and use it for other Android devices. As an iPhone user, I wish that the next iPhone’s user interface will look something like this.

Aside from the 4 different available colors, there are also some very cool covers (5 colors to choose from) and design jackets (8 designes to choose from) available for the INFOBAR A01.

What do you think of the INFOBAR A01? How do you like it’s user interface? For those of you who currently own an Android mobile device, would you like to have this kind of user interface? How about iPhone users? Please share your thoughts.

Early reports indicated that Apple would release the much awaited iOS 4.3 firmware update on March 11th, the same time as the iPad 2 becomes available. However, Apple has surprised everybody by releasing the update today.

So what’s new with iOS 4.3? This firmware update features the Nitro Javascript engine, new iTunes Home Sharing features allowing users to play media content from their desktop iTunes over WiFi, new AirPlay enhancements that allows users to to stream media content from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a HDTV via Apple TV, and last but not least, the most awaited feature – Personal Hotspot. This feature allows the iPhone 4 to act as a WiFi hotspot and share its 3G or cellular data connection with other WiFi-capable devices. Personal Hotspot can provide secure, password protected WiFi connectivity with up to 5 devices at once.

iOS 4.3 is now available for download via iTunes (make sure you have the latest version of iTunes – v 10.2.1). To update to iOS 4.3, launch iTunes and connect your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) to your computer. As soon as iTunes detects your device, it will inform you about an available new firmware update.

Just click on the “Download and Update” button and it will do the rest. Those who have jailbreaked devices should wait for iOS 4.3 jailbreaking tools before updating.

Anyone updated their device to iOS 4.3? Which new feature do you like the most? Was the update process smooth or did you encounter any issues or problems? Please share your thoughts.

The Nexus S will be released as “factory unlocked“, meaning users can use it with any compatible GSM network like AT&T here in the U.S. However, it only supports T-Mobile’s U.S. 3G frequencies so if you decide to use it with AT&T’s network, the device can only make use of the 2.5G EDGE network instead of 3G.

Tech Specs:

• Quad-band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 190; Tri-band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700
• 1GHz Cortex A8-based Hummingbird processor
• 16GB iNAND flash memory
• 4-inch WVGA (Super AMOLED) touchscreen
• 5 megapixel camera & front-facing VGA camera
• # Wi-Fi 802.11 n/b/g
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Near Field Communication (NFC) support
• Integrated VoIP/SIP support
• Dimensions: 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm
• Weight: 129g

Product Photos:

Nexus S demo video

One of the interesting features on the Nexus S is the Near Field Communication (NFC) support which turns the phone into an electronic payment tool or credit card and enables the phone to be swiped over at the checkout counter. Another cool Nexus S feature is the built-in ability to function as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 6 mobile devices like laptops, netbooks or tablets. Aside from those features, the Nexus S also supports Internet phone calls (VoIP/SIP), video chat and a gyroscope sensor for gaming.

The Nexus S will be available on Best Buy stores starting December 16th and will retail for $199 with a 2-year T-Mobile contract or $529 for a no contract version. It will also be available in the U.K. via Carphone Warehouse on December 20th for £549.

What do you think of Google’s newest high-end Android smartphone, the Nexus S? Can it compete with other smartphones like the Galaxy S, HTC Evo or iPhone 4? Please share your thoughts.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has recently launched a new technology called Wi-Fi Direct that will enable electronic devices and gadgets to communicate and connect to each other without the need of a network or network access point. The Wi-Fi Alliance have started certifying the first batch of gadgets with the new Wi-Fi Direct technology a couple days back. With this new technology, users can now do things like share photos with their digital cameras or play video games on their game consoles/mobile devices with their friends without a wireless hotspot or Internet connection.

Edgar Figueroa, Wi-Fi Aliance CEO brief statement on the new Wi-Fi Direct technology:

“We designed Wi-Fi Direct to unleash a wide variety of applications which require device connections, but do not need the Internet or even a traditional network.”..”Wi-Fi Direct empowers users to connect devices — when, where and how they want to — and our certification program delivers products that work well together, regardless of the brand.”

Here’s demo video of how the new Wi-Fi Direct technology works:

The Wi-Fi Direct protocol is similar with regular Wi-Fi but different in some ways because first it doesn’t require a network or network access point. Also with this new protocol, users can browse nearby Wi-Fi Direct enabled devices and connect to them with just a push of a button and have the connection automatically encrypted.

802.11n devices certified with the Wi-Fi Direct technology will be backwards compatible with existing Wi-Fi enabled devices that are no available in the market. Atheros, Broadcom, Intel, Realtek and Ralink will be producing the first line of Wi-Fi Direct certified products and are expected to be in the market in time for the holidays.

WIth the introduction of Wi-Fi Direct, it can’t be helped that there are many speculations that this new technology/protocol would surpass or kill Bluetooth because it has a wider range and faster speed. However, there are certain issues in the Wi-Fi protocol like the use of a single channel, interference and Wi-Fi Direct being a software-only protocol that could prevent it from doing so. I’m not an expert in this so I’ll leave this to those who know more about it. If you want to read a side-by-side comparison of Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth 4.0, check out this post.

What do you think of the new Wi-Fi Direct technology/protocol? Do you think it would kill Bluetooth? What ways do you think the use of Wi-Fi Direct would be better or more efficient than using Bluetooth? Please share your thoughts.