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Check it out: http://goo.gl/Te9cs takes you to this page.
http://goo.gl/Te9cs.info – that will give you the stats for that link.

They say it clearly: “All goo.gl URLs and click analytics are public and can be shared with anyone”. What does this mean? Well, if you don’t care to share how many clicks your shortened URL has gotten, then this service is for you. But, if you aren’t too keen on sharing with potential competitors the success (or failure) of your social media / e-commerce / publicity campaigns, then stick with Bit.ly my friend. Or, if you want to run your own (private) URL shortening service, try an open source solution such as YOURLS.

Battery life, check. Keyboard? Amazing, I’m typing pretty quickly on it right now. Screen? Gorgeous. Very bright and the vibrant. Just check out the Marvel comics app, the illustrations jump to life. Weight? 1.5 lbs doesn’t seems like much but it does get a bit tiresome to hold it in your hands after a while, but hey, I don’t think they’ve could’ve made this thing an ounce lighter.

Let’s talk a bit about software. Do I miss flash? Not at all. I’m not a fan of flash in the first place and everything I need flash for is either being done via an app (like games) or via HTML5 (the streaming video on CBS is awesome). Now having said that, there are a few apps that are still missing, but then again I can’t blame the developers, this thing has only been out for a day. Amongst these missing apps are:

-Slingbox. I can’t wait to be watching my recorded shows and live tv off my Slingbox at home.

-Orb. Again, watching all the videos I have on my media server on home on my iPad would be great.

-Facebook. The iPhone version just doesn’t cut it.

-Ebuddy. The iPhone version doesn’t look great on the iPad.

This brings me to another point I would like to bring up, and this goes to the app developers; please release your iPhone apps in iPad format. Yes, I know, all iPhone apps work in an iPad but that doesn’t mean they look or feel good. At the native resolution they feel clunky and running them at 2x the size makes the fonts look blurry and the buttons and interface feels like a big waste of real estate.

From now on I’ll be carrying around my iPad wherever I go, as well as my iPhone in my pocket. I don’t need to carry around my Macbook. No need for the 3G connectivity (and paying for data on an additional device), my iPhone acts as a WiFi hotspot thanks to an amazing $10 jailbreak app called MiFi. Hint hint to those waiting for the 3G version of the iPad.

I’ve had to deal with SSL certificates in the past (it is definetely not easy to do) and now I can get them installed easier and cheaper than before. Again, Dreamhost will be my one-stop shop for hosting, domain registrations and future SSL certificates

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I’ve survived the time I hit the front page of Digg and the couple times I’ve gotten Stumbled-upon; their servers are very robust. I also enjoy their monthly newsletters, blog, and their uncluttered and friendly control panel. They are also upfront with any issues they have with servers, they have DreamhostStatus where you can check the status of their networks. Other webhosts are’t as open as Dreamhost. So, let me tell you why you should sign up and start hosting with Dreamhost.

• unlimited bandwidth and storage + 50 GB for personal backups
• register domains for $10 (not having to deal with an external registar) + a free domain at signup
• unlimited email accounts, mysql databases, users
• mailing lists (no need to signup with AWeber or others)
• Ruby-on-Rails, PHP5, WebDAV, Pearl, .htaccess files, etc.
• Google apps integration (use @yourdomain.com for email address and Google mail)
• VPN access, SSL certificates, Steaming media, Jabber
• One-click installs (WordPress, Gallery, ZenCart, dotProject and many others)
• Great support. Very friendly and they always respond in a timely fashion
• a whole other bunch of programmer and consumer friendly features

If you are just a beginner or an experienced programmer, Dreamhost is a perfect suit for you. Try them today for only about $11/month if you go monthly, $120 per year, or as low as $5.95 if you sign up for 5 years. Click here to sign up!

Here is a list of blogging tips, to increase your readership and exposure. Some I need to apply more myself, but here they are:

• When writting a post for a blog, use  bullet points, headers and try to keep paragraphs short. These things attract readers to actually read the post. Read Melissa’s blog Writing Forward for writing tips, which are very useful.
• Try to always include an image; imagine a newspaper without images. Quite boring. If you can’t find something relevant look for usable images on Flickr.
• Encourage your readers to signup for your RSS feed. Perhaps write a post on how to use an RSS reader (such as Google Reader) and its benefits. Use Feedburner to track your RSS readers and perhaps monetize on your feed in the future.
• Start a contest to give something away, such as something free like an Ebook or perhaps an Ipod Nano. Get people to Tweet about your contest as an entry or sign up for the RSS feed. Reward your commenters too with an entry to the contest. John Chow has great tips for getting lots of subscribe and readers in a short amount of time.
• Thank your commenters, either personally or automatically with a WordPress plugin. Also try commenting on their blogs and if you like what they write subscribe to their RSS feed and ask them to join yours.
• Blog as much as you can without affecting quality. Try for daily postings, but if you can’t, at least a 3 or 4 per week, but remember not to just write for the sake of writing. If you have nothing to blog about, don’t force yourself and comprimise your blogs quality. If you feel real inspired one day and you are able to crank out a few posting, schedule them to be published in the future for the days or just keep of backlog of post for days when you can’t find inpiration (or perhaps time to blog).
• Network: Try to get interviews with recognized bloggers. Perhaps he/she would be happy to give you a quick email interview, in exchange for traffic for their blog. Get a guest blogger to write for your blog and write for someone else’s, both of you will benefit with the cross-promotion

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SSDs are known for awesome reads and slow writes and the obvious advantage of not having any moving parts, so they are ideal for housing an OS and applications (any flavor of OS).  SSD’s are also dropping in price every single day, but they still can’t compete with the massive storage of regular old spinning hard drives (any computer geek will tell you this), so regular spinning hard drives are ideal for just storage. And you can buy 1TB worth of hard drive space for about $100.

Hint, hint, computer makers, start offering computers (laptops or desktops) with dual hard drives, a fast 32 GB SSD for the OS and app, and a huge spinning drive for data (music, pictures, movies, etc). This would also simplify the idea of backups, where one could run two different backup sets, which would be clearly differentiated; one is stuff and the other is apps (counting the OS as an app). Hint hint laptop makers, offer a hybrid drive in your next round of high-end laptops, people will gobble that up.

As you can see if you are an old blog visitor, I’ve changed the appearance of things around here. This time, I didn’t create my own theme, I went the classic “buy a premium theme” route, and I’m quite happy with the results. My past experience with my creating my last two themes was very helpful; I learned a lot about the inner workings of WordPress, even though I didn’t create the theme completely from scratch, I went the Sandbox route (who starts any coding project now a days with out some sort of recycled code, anyway?).

I decided I didn’t want to redesign a code myself and rather spend that time writing instead of designing. So I searched the web a while, exploring the premium WordPress websites out there until I found exactly what I needed; a subscription site with a all-you-can-download model with a very good price point. Elegant Themes, $20 for a year, where I have access to their growing library of themes, all of which are professionally designed and supported. I will also have access to all their new themes, for as long as I’m a paying subscriber. 

I modified the included logo of the theme I decide to use using the included PSD file, which is extremely helpful. Then I read the readme file included with the download and installed the theme. Everything went smooth and without a hitch, but if something were to arise, their support and forums are awesome (I had to seek help using another theme for an upcoming project). 

If you are on the market for a new theme, and a free theme or making a theme yourself aren’t really an option, check them out, you can see all their themes as demos and their support for installation is great.  Since I can use as many themes as I like, I’ve started a new secret project, something I’m trying to keep under wraps until its ready to launch. Oops.

#Disclaimer#: I discovered they have an affiliate program so I became a member and if you end up buying, I’ll get a commission, nothing big, but worth monetizing if possible. I wouldn’t be writing about them if I wouldn’t think their product is awesome, and hey, I’m a paying customer myself. I’ve also added a 125×125 link on my sidebar. 

I want this just because of instant messaging. I use AIM, MSN and Yahoo Messenger, and even though Palringo does a good job, it isn’t enough. I’ve been looking at BeeJiveIM but I’m hesitant to spend $16 on an app with functionality that should be built into the IPhone.

2. Slingplayer

Sling announced many months ago that they were developing a Slingplayer for the IPhone but they haven’t delivered yet. C’mon Sling, it can’t be that hard! They say Q1 2009, again and again.

3. Sirius Satellite Radio streaming

Again, another promise that hasn’t been delivered. I mean…how hard can it be? Many other does it already (Pandora), it basically needs to authenticate a username/password, display the chanels and start the stream…we don’t need fancy time-shifting or anything, just a mid-quality stream. But, then again, it might be closer than we think

p.s. I’m abrutly changing the unfinished theme to force myself to do it quick.

UPDATE: Didn’t feel like redesigning (css tinkering etc) so I just grabbed a quick WP theme, changed it around a bit and voila!