Give the gift of "charity" this Christmas!

This Christmas give:

To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling.
~ Edna Ferber

Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind.
~ Valentine Davies

This Christmas give directly from you cell phone or mobile device.

Help your loved ones, family, and friends fight cancer by donating directly from your cell phone. American Cancer Society has some great options to do this.

Charity begins in the home, but should extend as far as our cell phone can reach. Give charity to a child this season to receive resources for support for food and shelter.
1) Text "GIVEHOPE" to "90999" to give $5
2) Send a message to save a life and donate $5 - Text "ALIVE" TO "90999"
Find more donors at mGive

Are you on the go and still need to send out Christmas Greetings? Send a greeting directly from your cell phone. Use Christmas SMS.

Hey here is a thought for you. Ever think about donating your cell phone or mobile device instead of tossing it in the trash? Collective Good has a variety of donors or charities you can donate to.

SMS Donations
Learn How to Increase Donations via SMS. Peep MobileCause.

Now let's talk saving money and shopping for presents and gifts. I am sure most of you have heard of Yowza by now. Greg Grunberg has certainly illuminated the possibilities of how you can use this Mobile App to shop. I encourage anyone using iPhone or Blackberry to use this App!

Some other Apps and services to consider:
Cellfire - alert based service to your cell phone (one I personally use)
Coupon Sherpa app for the iPhone and iPod Touch
Coupious - iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android phone


"iKeep It Funky" develops user-friendly tools tailored for people who want to take the convenience of the office on the go. "iKeep It Funky" also translates geek speak into everyday language, and removes the fear of using mobile technology. "iKeep It Funky" utilizes sound bytes to produce targeted nuggets of information.

For more information visit iKeep It Funky at:

www.facebook.com/iKeepItFunky

http://twitter.com/iKeepItFunky

Try on that new dress using your cell phone

Okay ladies. Those of you in Japan now have some very creative options to use for shopping. KDDI has a very cool App and service to provide shopping women the option to simulate trying on a that new dress, shirt and more directly from their cell phone. This saves time in the stores trying on clothes. This is a great way in reducing pollution of gas to fuel your car to run to the department store.



This is an Adobe Flash based App you can use to see how you look in that outfit before you buy. You are also able to change your hair type and/or body type - 'virtually'. Next time you are stuck on the train during your commute or just can't seem to make it to the department store - shop with ease. Check out how that outfit looks on your directly from your phone by trying it on virtually. Then you can also order it!

Peep the demonstration at http://budurl.com/kddi

Bio:
"iKeep It Funky" develops user-friendly tools tailored for people who want to take the convenience of the office on the go. "iKeep It Funky" also translates geek speak into everyday language, and removes the fear of using mobile technology. "iKeep It Funky" utilizes sound bytes to produce targeted nuggets of information.

For more information visit www.ikeepitfunky.com. You may also join on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ikeepitfunky.

For You Gamers On The Run!

With the holidays on the horizon, kids will continue to be kids and entertained in a variety of ways during their learning development. One considerable way we see this is with the use of games. Whether online gaming, console games, and now for those on the run - mobile gaming devices or a mobile phone.

Not only do children enjoy games for both entertainment and educational purposes, but many students and adults enjoy the amusement of games also.

Along with the notorious popular games such as Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo, now there is a couple trends on the upscale to consider. WII has definitely changed the way in which gaming is conducted. But now wireless carriers offer subscription based gaming services. The Mobile Game Show provides users with the opportunity to play games such as Family Feud, Double Jeopardy, or Deal Or No Deal.

Another game that is very interesting for those who enjoy questionnaires to test there "brain power" or what they know is Gab To Go. This is a cool travel game where family and friends can test each other by asking questions. Especially en route to Big Momma's or their traditional location for Thanksgiving Dinner. This is a great ice breaker for starting conversations with the family.

Disney Games has a game that is a community membership based game.

This is quite a small sample of quite a few options and changes in gaming on the run. "iKeep It Funky" will be providing more resources for you parents who would like to use games to better educated your children, you travelers who would like to be better entertained while sitting in the airport, and for hard core gamers looking for gaming tips, cheats etc.

Thanks to Jesse Stojan for cool tips and information on today's gamers!

Be on the look out for "iKeep It Funky's" resources in the forthcoming book "101 Practical Ways To Use A Cell Phone" to be launched soon!

** Website - www.ikeepitfunky.com
** Join us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/ikeepitfunky
** Follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/ikeepitfunky

Best Battery for the iPhone!

"iKeep It Funky" evaluated several iPhone 3G extended battery packs (greatly needed for a serious power user).

Choices were:
**Mili Power Pack(2000Ah)
**Richard Solo (1800Ah)
**Incase Power Slider
**Mophie Juice Pack 3G Air
**Mili Angel Battery (this one is really cool for a on the go extra juice for a while solution).


"iKeep It Funky" chose The Mophie Juice Pack™ 3G Air due to the sleek design. Especially for women who have enough to carry in their purse (as you all know a woman's purse is a bottomless pit :-)). The Mophie Juice Pack 3G Air, is a Lithium Polymer technology (as most batteries nowadays). It comes with a one year warranty (also typical). The advantage with the Mophie Juice Pack 3G Air, is the tad' bit more talk time, video time, music time, and Internet use. Especially without having to carry extra cables, or a bulky design - this was very cool!

Some battery tips:

Green Tech Tip: Don't leave your cell phone plugged into the wall. When your device is fully charged and still plugged in, you are using unnecessary energy.

Additional Tip: Don't use cheap wall chargers! They use extra energy - who wants that.

"iKeep It Funky's" tips to save battery power on your cell phone or mobile device:


1) Use Lithium-ion batteries which are better due to lighter weight and higher performance (up to about 20%).
2) Don't expose your battery to extreme temperatures.
3) If you are in a remote area, and are most likely NOT to be using your cell phone, turn it off. Here is why, your mobile phone will try every so many minutes (or even seconds) to search for a signal. Which results in your battery being drained.
4) If you don't absolutely need to use both vibrate and ring - turn vibrate off! More use of your battery unnecessarily.
5) Turn off your phone's back light. Or don't turn it up so high if you are in a well lighted room. If you must absolutely use this, set the seconds to a limited time out so that it will automatically turn off after so long.
6) Avoid using unnecessary features.
7) Disable Bluetooth when you are not using it.
8) Disable GPS (Location Based Services) when not in use.
9) Disable Wi-Fi when you are not using it.
10) Never leave your cell phone plugged into the charger for more than 12+ hours. This really wears on your battery and leaves it performing less than optimally. So those of you sleeping in late, set an alarm and unplug your cell phone or mobile device after it has fully charged.

"iKeep It Funky"
Facebook
www.iKeepItFunky.com

Mobile cell phone safety!

I have just installed a Zerofon Ladybug on my cell phone. This unique little tool is great for any mobile Blackberry, Palm, iPhone or any cell phone user that wishes to minimize the chances of cancer from electromagnetic waves emitted from cell phones.

This ladybug reduces cell phone radiation that we mobile users (Blackberry, iPhone etc) are exposed to - specifically and especially our brains (we hold our mobile devices to our ear right next to our head).

How this handy little ladybug works is by neutralizing and absorbing the electromagnetic waves from cell phone radiation.

Simply affix the ladybug as you can see I have done to your cell phone.

For more information you can visit http://virginiahopkinstestkits.com/ladybugzerofoninfo.html to learn more about these ladybugs any Blackberry, iPhone, or cell phone user should be using.

iKeep It Funky!
www.ikeepitfunky.com
Twitter - http://twitter.com/ikeepitfunky
Facebook - www.facebook.com/pages/iKeep-It-Funky/147529423972

New! Cool Mobile CRM App from Akvelon.

Mobile CRM Express 4.0 is an awesome mobile customized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution! For those of you who need access to a flexible yet highly reliable and functional CRM tool - this is it!

Akvelon has recently just developed this cool mobile application. I tell you, I was impressed with the functionality after testing Mobile CRM Express.

Features include creating Accounts, Cases, Contacts, Leads, or Opportunities - all directly from your mobile device! Using an iPhone I was able to do all of this while I was on the go.

Tasks you can perform directly from a mobile device viewing your accounts - Active or Inactive. You can search for a Contact without scrolling through a list which can be handly. You may add an industry so that you can keep up with your associated contacts' business or field of interest.

What I find really cool is Akvelon's CRM 'Leads' Feature. When you meet a contact and you need to recall information that is associated with that particular Contact, say to assist in closing a deal (or close to) - you can refer to your list of Leads you created. You can use this feature when you meet a Contact or gain information regarding a contact (say, from a colleague). You can create a Title for the Lead, state details such as the State, Estimated Closing Date, along with adding an Estimate Revenue. Now tell me this is not useful!

Another feature that I have to mention is the ability to create or access a Support Case directly from your mobile device. You can view your Active or Inactive cases. If you can't recall the exact Title or the Case Number, you can perform a Search using Mobile CRM's 'Search' Feature. And peep this, you can also see the Stage Of the Case, or set the Severity for the Case.

Ultimately, Akvelon's Mobile CRM Express mobile application is a very clean and powerful tool all professionals should have in their arsenal. It is a flexible and yet an awesome centralized management system. The cool thing is that with Akvelon's Mobile CRM Express is easy enough to have up and running almost immediately.

Check out Akvelon's Mobile CRM Express at http://www.akvelon.com.

iKeep It Funky!
Twitter - http://twitter.com/ikeepitfunky
www.ikeepitfunky.com

How I Have Used My iPhone for Business

I use many applications on my iPhone for multiple purposes. But here is some quick tips on how I have used applications for business purposes. I believe these applications work on any iPhone though I am using a iPhone 3Gs with 3.0.1.

1) Jott: When on the road and needing to send a text or quick blog, I was able to use the Jott App to use voice to text service to do this.

2) Google Calendar: Using Google Email or Calendar as a bookmark saved to my homescreen. I have been able to view, create, edit or send calendar events using Google Calendar as a bookmark on my home screen. This site is optimized for mobile use which works TERRIFIC!

3) Twitterific: Speaking of terrific, Twitterific is an awesome Twitter tool to use as a mobile app for those who like to stay connected and send a tweet on the go. I have used this app to tweet while waiting for a flight in the airport.

4) Google text for 411: Now this particular tool is just so handy to me. I have sent numerous texts looking for a phone number to an establishment or business just by texting the words "GOOGLE" (466453) - the business name, city, and state to obtain a phone number or address. Example "Mosaic Coffee Seattle WA" and it returns a listing of all businesses with these words combination (must be in the same order that is). I get my request sent back to me via text with the phone number and address included. LOVE IT!

5) LinkedIn: I use LinkedIn more and more these days, so a mobile app for me to quickly update my profile or send a referral from my iPhone is handy, especially when networking with new people.

6) Facebook: Being involved as much as I can with Social Networking, I use the Facebook app for my business. I am able to update my status using Twitter. Also being able to send a message to a Facebook contact is useful.

7) Paypal App: Now this App is really handy when trying to send funds to or from your Paypal account on the go, without having to wait till you get home to your computer.

8) FileMagnet App: This app is very handy for me when I needed to view a PDF or Document on the go. I was able to read documents transferred directly via wirelessly while at a coffee shop.

iKeep It Funky!
Twitter @iKeepItFunky
Blog http://blog.ikeepitfunky.com

Interesting New Search Engine Technologies - Wolfram Alpha And Bing (Powerset)

Today let's talk about some cool new Search technologies such as Bing (Powerset) which is a Natural Language technology, and Wolfram Alpha.

Technology is growing at such a rapid rate. It is hard for most of us to keep up with the pace, let alone adopt the new technology at the speed at which it is developed.

Along with the new mobile phones, computers, MP3 players, PDAs etc, now to add to to this list are some brand new Search Engines. Let me rephrase this, Search technologies (Search Engine).

Historically Search Engines included those such as Excite, Dogpile, Altavista, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, and MSN. Now the most popular are Google, Ask Jeeves, and Bing which was released this year of 2009 (formerly Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search) .

Customarily, a Search Engine are composed of indexed directories of numerous elements such as URLs, graphics, images, multimedia elements, file formats, font/typeface selection, screen real estate etc.

There are also Meta Search Engines and Invisible/Deep Web Search Engines. Meta Search Engines such as Dogpile or Metacrawler directs your search to other databases and presents the data to a user in a compiled list. Invisible/Deep Web is the Internet portion of the World Wide Web that is not easily visible or indexed by traditional search engines such as non HTML pages, PDFs, documents, and dynamically generated data.

Google is the dominant and most popular search engine known to individuals, communities, and corporations around the world. Google uses a technique of matching text to find and aggregate web pages that are relevant to the user's search. Google's technique as a search engine doesn't compute answers based on human knowledge.

For some of you the name Google is a derivative of the number "Googol" which is a number one followed by a hundred zeros (1x10100 in Decimal Representation).

How Google aggregates data is by scanning web pages to find instances of the keywords you have entered in the search box such as "Recipe for making Lasagna." Google then returns a compiled list (in order by ranking) to the user that has the keywords "recipe" "for" "making" "Lasagna."

Google creates a directory to organize Internet resources into categories. Something called Bots (otherwise known as web crawlers) that browse the web to gather data and updated information for search engines to create directories. These Bots are computer programs that do this in a automated fashion and on a schedule. This information is indexed to for faster search results provided to user when they enter words or search data into the Search box. Included in this data gathering technique URLs are also learned and gathered to be included in a directory the Search Engine indexes. These are General Directories or Subject Directories that cover a specific topic.

Former Search Engines included those such as Excite, Dogpile, Altavista etc. Then came along Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, MSN, and now Bing's (formerly Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search). Bing's underlying technology is powered by Powerset, a company Microsoft purchased (more on Powerset later).

Users perform several types of searches such as General Browsing, Keyword, Full Text, and Proximity (Phrase or Near Operator Searching). This also includes Boolean which uses Logic Operators AND, OR, NOT. In a Boolean search operators such as the following are performed:

• AND = Subject + Subject
• OR = Subject OR Subject
• NOT = Subject NOR Subject

Other types of Search techniques include Truncation which allows you to search variations of a word (Example: meth* which will obtain all items or documents that start with "meth"), Proximity (searches for the occurrence of a phrase within separate documents in a specific proximity), or Case Sensitive searching. Being that Google generally is case insensitive when doing a search (searching on a keyword such as "Bill" and "bill" are synonymous), there is a Google tool to perform a Case Sensitive Search using "Case Sensitive Google Search" (http://case-sensitive-search.appspot.com).

Moving into newer technologies for Search Engine options are the current traditional "Search Box," and now "Natural Language," or "Answer Engine."

There is a new Answer Engine developed by Wolfram Alpha. This is a technology very different from Google. As Google is generally a very large Lookup system similar to a librarian for the Internet. Wolfram Alpha does not compete with Google. Wolfram Alpha is geared to compute factual answers to questions in a Search query. Think of Wolfram Alpha as a calculator, or a brainiac right at your finger tips. A tool that will compute a variety of answers to questions, calculate formulas etc. As Wolfram's team has phrased this as a "Computational Knowledge Engine." It is similar to Wikipedia but much more.

Wolfram Alpha computes numerous types of data such as factual answers to questions such as location of a particular GPS coordinates, chemistry or biological questions, averages or specific details to mathematical equation etc. The techniques, heuristics, algorithms, methods used in traditional and conventional Search engines are totally different than with Wolfram's technology.

As there is billions of billions of data on the World Wide Web that is accessible. Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc can very effectively search for specific terms, phrases, keywords etc. Wolfram is now able to compute data from this data pool using algorithms to calculate information and responses to questions.

Another type of Search Engine such as Natural Language has been developed by Powerset, a company in northern California. Microsoft's Bing Search Engine uses Powerset's technology for it's search engine (Microsoft purchased Powerset in 2008).

Powerset applies Natural Language techniques to extract a concepts out of text or a phrase. It then builds a index (similar to Google) and then separates the results by combining the primary Keyword with related verbs and nouns on a web page(s). It can also search by a date. Powerset is able to dynamically compute results and information in a Search. What this means is that a user can type a question in a search box the way they would verbally ask the question and get a result returned in the search. The advantage to this is that a user is able to receive information directly related to their search (question(s)). An example of this would be, a user would type "What is the poorest city in United States?" The results returned would not return data based on the Keywords in its database. It would return a relevant answer based on a totally different answer based on a Natural Language algorithm which is more likely to provide a user the information they are seeking.

There you have it. A high level overview of today's new Search Technologies. As innovation continues to progress we will see Google, Wolfram, and Bing (Powerset) advance and become perfected. Also be certain that new techniques will continue to be developed.

Sincerely,
iKeep It Funky!
http://blog.ikeepitfunky.com
Twitter - @iKeepItFunky

Tech Review of 10 iPhone 3.0 Most Noticeable Upgrades And Tips!

I will also be comparing mobile devices and other Smart phones besides the iPhone, PDAs, and Cell Phones to share pros and cons and tips to help you choose the best device to use personally.

Though this is not a comprehensive list, here is some useful tips in regards to Apple's iPhone 3.0 software upgrade differences.

1. Missed Call: Missed calls no longer shows an alert dialogue box if you have a browser window open.
2. Forward Text Option (Tip): Great iPhone 3.0 feature. This is not obvious until you click the "Edit" button, which shows on the bottom of the screen in a blue color button.
   
3. Share a Contact (Tip): This iPhone 3.0 feature shows within a text message only for information type of text messages (not from a personal contact). You will see a blue colored circle to the right of the message in order to get to a screen to select this option.
   
4. Photos App (Tip): Within the "Camera Roll" Photo Album, if you select the left bottom button (arrow pointing to the right), you will now see an option to "Share," "Copy," and "Delete" at bottom of screen. Cool! Now you are able to do more with your photos a bit more inherently within the App. Great iPhone 3.0 feature.
   
5. Auto Sync Stops iPod: Unfortunately, if you are listening to music and decide to plug in your iPhone into your computer, say... to charge it, by default this will initialize a sync. If music is playing, it will stop. You will have to go back into the "iPod" App and re-select the song you were last listening to in order to play music again. iPhone 3.0 feature :-).
   
6. Home Screen Transitions: iPhone 3.0 has much better transition when sliding icon Apps from one home screen to another.
   
7. Email: Reading email in landscape does not zoom in and out as smoothly when pinching in and out with your fingers. iPhone 3.0 feature :-).
8. Re-Installation: Some Apps will have to be reinstalled after upgrading to iPhone 3.0. This sucks!
   
9. Messages: The bubbles within the "Messages" App on iPhone 3.0 is now different. You will see a bit more of a text bubble look. Cool! Your messages bubbles are not only green, but have a slight tail to the right. The other person's texts show a bubble text slight to the left.
   
10. Apps: There is a progress bar when installing and updating Apps on your iPhone 3.0 right within the App icon (and not under the icon).
    
11. Messages: You will see a red exclamation (!) in unsent text messages. If you send a text message that for some reason doesn't go through, you will see a red "!". iPhone 3.0 feature :-).

I will continue to post more observations and tips in regards to iPhone's 3.0 Software Update.

Sincerely,
iKeep It Funky!
http://blog.ikeepitfunky.com
Twitter - @iKeepItFunky

Immediate gratification of using iPhone 3.0!

I am still testing the new features in iPhone 3.0. But I can say that immediately what I noticed and enjoyed right off the back was when I look at my phone log, 'locations' of the callers are now showing up. I don't know about you, but I know that many times I have searched online trying to see what area code was (702) or (832) etc.

Now Apple has made my life a bit more flexible with an intuitive approach for the iPhone. I love that I can see at a glance the location of a phone number right along with icons that display any missed calls (instead of just a red color phone number).

The other feature I certainly use on my MacBook Pro is the Spotlight feature. But now having this on the iPhone to search multiple types of data in a streamlined fashion, I am lovin' it! Just a quick flick of a finger to the left from the Home Screen, and 'whalla' there is the search feature Spotlight.

More tidbits to come soon!

~A happy iPhone 3.0 user

A power tip for 411...

A power tip to save money on 411 information calls: text Google on your dial pad of your mobile phone with the information, city and state. You will receive details for the information you're requesting. Example: "Safeway Seattle WA"

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