Disinfect and Clean Your Gadgets the right way

Flu season is creeping its way toward us once again, and your gadgets are among the most germ-ridden objects in your house. Here's how to safely disinfect them.

First, if you're the only one using your gadgets, you're probably pretty safe from the spread of germs. But as soon as you start handing off your iPhone, iPad, laptop, video game controllers, cameras, and other tech to your ogling friends, germs (and illness) can start spreading quickly. Use alcohol or disinfectant (sparingly!)...

Most of your oft-touched tech, like your keyboard, mouse, laptop, and headphones, can usually be cleaned safely with simple alcohol or disinfecting spray. You probably don't want to go with pre-soaked wipes, here—instead, get a bottle of ethyl or isopropyl alcohol and put it on a soft cloth before wiping down your gear. The less moisture you expose your gear to, the better. ...but not necessarily on touchscreens...

The trickier matter is cleaning touchscreen devices like your tablet or smartphone. Apple doesn't recommend using anything with alcohol, ammonia, and other popular cleaners in it, though some quick googling reveals substantial anecdotal evidence that it won't noticeably harm your screen in small doses. However, if you don't feel comfortable taking that route, you have other choices.

...unless you've got a screen protector...

Your first option is to get a screen protector, like the popular Power Support anti-glare film or, my personal favorite, the ZAGG InvisibleSHIELD, and use the above alcohol/disinfectant method. Screen protectors cover up the supposedly delicate oleophobic screen coating on many devices, freeing you up to use pretty much any cleaning products you want. Again, just be very careful about getting your phone too wet—even if you don't damage anything, you could trip your gadget's moisture sensor and void your warranty.

...or use a gentler alternative...

If you're anti-screen protector, a few products on the market can disinfect your gadgets without eating away at the screen, like the recommended-by-Apple iKlenz spray or Monster CleanTouch. You'll have to shell out 20 bucks at an Apple Store or online (as opposed to stopping at the local Walgreen's for a bottle of alcohol), but it's probably the best way to go if you're particularly paranoid about adverse effects on your phone's screen.

...but don't forget to use a little common sense.

Lastly, and most importantly, is a little common sense: The best way to avoid illness is to wash your hands regularly, especially when you go around touching other people's stuff. It won't stop them from spreading germs to your iPad, necessarily, but the more we keep our germs to ourselves, the less we spread them to others.

Facebook Crashed

Early Friday morning in the Philippines, users who accessed Facebook got an error message indicating that the site "may be temporarily down" or "may have moved permanently to a new address."

"Service Unavailable - DNS failure ... The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later," read a message that greeted other users who tried to log in.

Facebook appeared back to normal as of 6 a.m. Friday (Manila time).

In its Twitter account, Facebook acknowledged the site may be "slow or unavailable" for some people "because of site issues."

"We're working to fix this quickly," it said.

But at 6 a.m., it said it "resolved the tech issues that caused the site to be unavailable to some people" and that "everyone should now have access."

Social-digital media news site Mashable.com quoted Facebook as saying the issue is with a "third-party networking provider."

"We are experiencing an issue with a third party networking provider that is causing problems for some people trying to connect to Facebook," Mashable quoted Facebook as saying.

"We are in contact with this provider in order to explore what can be done to resolve the issue. In the meantime, we are working on deploying changes to bypass the affected connections," Facebook administrators added.

Fisheye Macro Lenses For Mobiles

New Nike+ GPS iPhone app for athletes

If you’re an athlete and a tech freak at the same time you must’ve heard or used Nike + iPod app that analyzes your physical performances during the workout. You’ll be pleased to know that Nike has announced a new app called Nike+ GPS that will do a similar job but with new features.

Unlike the Nike + iPod, this app doesn’t require separate Nike + iPod adapter, instead it will use Apple’s built-in accelerometer and GPS to analyze your running pace and distance. Besides that it measures your pace, distance and burned calories this app will also map your route on Google Maps and it will show on which specific parts of the route you ran slower or faster.

Interestingly about this app will give you voice feedback on how well are you doing and if you want to check how far you’ve come with your route you can check it with a single tap on the screen. Just like with Nike + iPod you can setup which songs will play during your route as well.

If you feel competitive, you’ll be pleased to know that this app allows you to upload your statistics to Nikeplus.com and challenge other runners. Through this site users can share their progress via Twitter and Facebook as well.

Nike + iPod requires iOS 3.1 or newer in order to work, it works with the iPod Touch and the iPad although without GPS tracking. Anyway, if you want to try this amazing app on your iPhone, you can download it from the App Store for just $1.99.

Move over, Wii. The PlayStation Move ($TBA) is bringing motion-based gaming to the PS3, in full 1080p glory. The system will use a main motion controller, a "sub-controller," like a more advanced version of the Wii's nunchuk, and the Playstation Eye camera to offer precise detection of movement, angle, and absolute position in 3D space, which should make for some really competitive games of Virtua Tennis.

MySpace adds New Games Site

MySpace launched a new gaming experience at myspace.com/games today. The company says it empowers developers with new tools, analytics, and opportunities for driving usage and revenue.

"Gaming is core to the overall entertainment value of MySpace; we are replicating our success from MySpace Music for this next round of platform improvements," a representative for MySpace tells WebProNews. "Nearly a third of MySpace users engage daily in games and there are more than 28 million active app users on the site." She says the site "offers users discovery and sharing of games in a simpler and cleaner experience."

"Nearly one-third of MySpace users engage daily with games. We believe the new experience will empower even more of the MySpace audience to discover, share, and showcase games, which along with music and movies, are core to our content strategy," said MySpace Co-President Mike Jones. "We've been working with our developer partners to understand where they’d like to see MySpace go; based on that feedback we started rebuilding MySpace Games. These are the first steps in offering robust tools for developers to help their businesses thrive."

How To Decorate Your Office Space

Decorating your office involves more than mixing and matching stuffs to fit in with the desired look. While maintaining the style and vibe that you want others to perceive in your office décor, you have to set that professional tone and make it approachable enough for interested guests and future clients. (So you see, it is not just about putting this and that in their places just because you think they look good there.) Here are a few helpful tips on how to decorate you office while balancing a warm and productive environment:

Color Your World. Colors are important facets of the office. They not just add life to the workplace, but it has also been noted that color can be conducive to a person's psychology. Hence, try to choose the color that would best describe your business. Traditional institutions or businesses such as banking, hospitals, legal services, will be better off with the mix of neutral colors. If your business is involved with creatives, or the modern approaches, then try a more free-spirited look which will best fit the atmosphere of artists, designers, and the like. Do not be afraid to dabble loud colors with artwork every now and then. But whatever suits your company best, make sure that you choose the right kind of paint that is bound to last as well. (hint: green has been proven to be a healthy color that can reduce absenteeism, and is friendly to the eyes.)

Deck the Walls. Bare walls can either give the illusion of space, or the perception of being dull and very empty. This kind of vibe can affect the working mood of the employees, so give the walls a little touch of life. Hang some exquisite paintings or some motivational posters about life and work, photos of the staff or the company people, certificates---all of them. Just remember to match everything, from the frames to the mood of the ones that are to be displayed on the wall.

These are just few simple steps on how to decorate the office. Sometimes, we tend to splurge on lavish ergonomic office furnitures. While there is nothing wrong with this, it would not be so bad to mind the surroundings too.

Verizon is looking to "simplify" its offerings by paring down its handset lineup and upping its data charges per megabyte. The company announced Friday that it would begin rolling out new service plans ahead of its 4G launch that were geared towards higher revenues, but also bringing in more customers. And, while that news may sound annoying to some of us data hogs, it will probably work for the wireless carrier.

First, the details: Verizon has introduced a new data tier at $9.99 per month with a 25MB cap—this is the cheapest data plan now offered by the company and by most US wireless carriers, and applies to all 3G devices. Why does this equate to "upping" the data charges? Because the company is ditching its $19.99 per month plan with a 75MB cap altogether—you must either go with the $9.99 plan for a third of the data or or the $29.99 smartphone plan that applies to WinMo, Android, or BlackBerry devices.

By lowering the entry cost for a data package, Verizon is making a grab at average customers who have been put off by high data prices in the past. These customers can then get hooked on data for the same price as a trip to McDonald's and then, like that trip to McDonald's, be lured into super sizing once the 4G/LTE network is up and running.

On top of the data plan restructuring is Verizon's plan to slim down its device lineup. Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told analysts on a conference call this morning that it is looking to take its 80 devices down to 50. (Really? Verizon offers eighty phones!?) The goal is to make the offerings easier to parse, both by customers and Verizon's sales team. In this sense, simplification is usually a good thing.

Verizon acknowledged that it's on the offensive with these moves in an attempt to bring in more customers, increase data penetration, get lower-end customers paying more, and increase revenue overall. (In addition to the data plan changes, the carrier also introduced a $69.99 unlimited nationwide talk plan, and an $89.99 unlimited talk and text plan.) To that end, it's likely to succeed—Verizon's network is already attractive to most mainstream customers, and a lower barrier to entry will net more customers who weren't previously interested in mobile data, even if the cost per meg is going up.