These days, all communication technology faces the issue of privacy and identity theft, with Bluetooth being no exception. Almost everyone knows that email services and networks require security. What users of Bluetooth need to realize is that Bluetooth also requires security measures as well.

The good news for Bluetooth users is that the security scares, like most scares, are normally over dramatized and blown entirely out of proportion. The truth being told, these issues are easy to manage, with various measures already in place to provide security for Bluetooth technology.

It’s true that there has been some Bluetooth phones that have been hacked into. Most devices that are hacked into are normally those that don’t have any type of security at all.

According to Bluetooth specialists, in order to hack into a Bluetooth device, the hacker must:
1. Force two paired devices to break their connection.
2. Steal the packets that are used to resend the pin.
3. Decode the pin.

Of course, the hacker must also be within range of the device, and using very expensive developer type
equipment. Most specialists recommend that you have a longer pin, with 8 digits being recommended.

Fundamentals of security
The “pairing process” is one of the most basic levels of security for Bluetooth devices. Pairing, is two or more Bluetooth devices that recognize each other by the profiles they share – in most cases they both must enter the same pin.

The core specifications for Bluetooth use an encryption algorithm, which is completely and entirely secure. Once the devices pair with each other, they too become entirely secure.

Until they have successfully paired, the Bluetooth devices won’t communicate with each other. Due to this pairing process and the fact that it is short range – Bluetooth technology is considered to be secure.

As the news has indicated, experienced hackers have developed ways to get around this level of basic security. There are ways to get around this threat, as you can install software to prevent hackers from getting in.

With Bluetooth becoming more and more popular, it’s really no wonder that security is always in question. As Bluetooth gets bigger and better, security will always be something that no one really takes lightly.

If you’ve been concerned about Bluetooth security in the past, rest assured that newer devices will offer bigger and better security. Preventing hackers from getting in is something every owner is concerned about – and the manufacturer’s are very aware.

In the United States, Bluetooth gets absolutely no respect. It is however, becoming more and more common in notebooks, PDAs, and especially cell phones. Bluetooth will provide wireless users a way to transmit small amounts of data over short distances.

Now, Bluetooth is facing stiff competition from new wireless technology. Referred to as UWB or Ultra Wideband, it promises data transfer of up to 480 MB a second – while most current Bluetooth devices transfer data up to 721 KB a second.

For the time being, Bluetooth devices are surely cropping up. Below, we will look at some of the accessories offered with Bluetooth technology.

Talking to the dashboard
When pairing it with a cell phone, the CCM Blue Warrior car kit becomes a great speaker phone that plugs into the power adapter of your vehicle. The noise cancelling microphone will reduce background noise efficiently, with the large buttons making adjusting the speaker volume a snap. Although the Blue Warrior is far from sexy or sleek, it’s very practical.

Tiny tuning box
Part MP3 player and part hands free phone, the compact and lightweight Sony HBM-30 is an attractive gadget that lets you accept calls with minimal interruption of your tunes. When you get an incoming call it will automatically pause your music, then you speak into the built in microphone that you can wear around your neck or clip to your clothes.

The pen
With Nokia’s SU-1B digital pen, you can doodle and make hand written notes in ink on a special pad then transmit them from the pad to your Bluetooth phone. Being an alternative to typing on a cell phone keypad, the pen is very handy, although a pricey tool from MMS fans.

Snapshots
If you want to make slide shows with your camera photos, the Nokia SU-2 image viewer will let you disply your pictures on a TV or projector. Simply hook this square gray device to your TV’s input with the built in cable, then beam the pictures to the SU-2 from your Bluetooth enabled phone and the photo fest will begin.

This device is a snap to set up and use, although it displays resolutions of up to 640 by 480. If you have a newer phone that takes high resolution photos, you won’t be able to use the Nokia SU-2 image viewer.

Keep in mind, the 640 by 480 pixel photos will appear blocky on TV screens, no matter what you do. If your phone can send batches of photos, you can create a slide show – although Nokia claims you can use sequentially beamed shots as well.

Bluetooth is a specification for the use of low power radio communications to wireless phones, computers, and other network wireless devices over short distances. The name Bluetooth is actually borrowed from Harald Bluetooth, a Denmark king more than 1,000 years ago.

The technology of Bluetooth was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of devices and peripherals, which includes cell phones, PDAs, and wireless headsets. The wireless signals that are transmitted by Bluetooth cover short distances of up to 30 feet, generally communicating less than 1 MPps (Mega Byte per second).

The networks of Bluetooth feature dynamic topology called PAN or a piconet. The piconets contain a minumum of two and a maximum of eight peer devices. The devices will communicate using protocols that are part of the specification.

Even though the Bluetooth standard will utilize the same 2.4 GHz range as 802.11b and 802.11g, the technology isn’t suitable for a Wi-Fi replacement. When compared to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth is much slower, limited in range, and actually supports less devices.

For short range devices, Bluetooth is rapidly becoming the best. The technology is more popular with cell phones, as Bluetooth headsets are the way to go these days. To use Bluetooth, your cell phone will need to have it enabled, or an infared device somewhere on the phone.

Upcoming devices are utilizing Bluetooth as well, such as PS3 and the Nintendo Revolution. The wireless controllers will be Bluetooth enabled, which will give players the cutting edge.

If you own a cell phone or other wireless device, you should look into Bluetooth. The technology is nothing short of spectacular, making it something that will be around for years and years to come. As technology gets bigger and bigger, you can expect Bluetooth to advance as well.

Memories are created just about anywhere. And when I say anywhere, I mean that memories are even created underwater so the creation of underwater digital camera.

An underwater digital camera is not just used to capture underwater memories; some professional marine photographers also use underwater digital cameras in their business. Even marine biologists and scientists use underwater digital cameras to capture marine life and thus be able to study the life and properties of the marine life. But I think it is safe to assume that you, my reader, are neither a marine scientist nor a professional photographer. Like me, you are just some photo junkie who wants to capture underwater moments and just cant figure out how without ruining your cameras.

Please listen to me when I say that even waterproof cameras cannot withstand underwater use. To be waterproof is to resist the water at certain levels.

Now if you’re really serious about using an underwater digital camera to capture those wacky and funny moments underwater, I suggest that you buy a specialty underwater camera.

If you are shooting with your underwater digital camera, you need to take note of a few things to help you come up with the best images underwater.

Remember that as you go farther under water, light diffuses. This means that your underwater digital camera will produce images darker than those images you took while on land. This is because of the light diffusion, the red spectrum seems darker. To avoid this, use white balance come up with natural colors. Also, pictures taken underwater will come up larger than pictures taken on land with the same zoom effect. Be sure to check your underwater digital camera’s viewfinder to check the right picture angle and size that you want.

An underwater digital camera with its built-in flash will produce marine show phenomenon. It is a phenomenon wherein your pictures come out as blurry and with white particles floating above it, to avoid this phenomenon it is advisable to use external flash for your underwater digital camera.

Before using your underwater digital camera, submerge the camera in the water first for several seconds then check if there are leaks through the case. Make sure that no grain of sand or piece of hair is stuck in between the seal to make sure that water will not permeate the case and thus wet your camera in the process. It is also advisable to put silica gel or two inside the case of your underwater digital camera as long as they don’t disturb the camera’s operation. (Silica gel will keep the moisture from forming inside your camera case.)

Most underwater digital cameras come with optional lenses. Don’t be afraid to add these lenses to your underwater digital camera kit. Macro lenses will help you capture small things without getting too close and startling your subject.

Also, remember to always wash of salt when you’ve used it under salt water. If the salts are not washed off, in time they will crystallize; act as sands and cause leaks for your camera case. In cases when sands seem to get into the case, they are better washed off with streams of water.

Check out Sony, Nikon and Canon’s website for available underwater cases for your digital cameras.

It seems that every month, if not every week, different manufacturers are coming up with the latest digital cameras to entice potential clients. And it’s just not working for us!

There are megapixels to consider, LCD size, the zoom the size of the memory card, and there are so many different digital cameras to choose from, all claiming to be the best.

So, what makes a digital camera, the best digital camera?

Well, there are certain factors to consider when looking for the “best digital camera” for us.

MEGAPIXELS. One of the most important features of digital camera to make it into the best digital camera category is its mega pixel property. The higher the mega pixels the better the actual photograph will come out. A mega pixel is equivalent to one million pixels. The resolution of your image is based upon the mega pixel property of your camera. This means that as you enlarge the picture, you would get more detail and less blurry colors.

LCD SIZE. The best digital camera will always have a large LCD to help you frame your subject without having to squint to the viewfinder. This is also helpful when reviewing your images, some cameras enable touch up and editing features with its LCD. A 1.5-inch display is average, a 2-inch LCD display is good, but the best LCD size would be 2.5 inches or higher.

ZOOM. Most digital cameras have both digital and optical zoom. A higher optical zoom is always better than a higher digital zoom. Digital cameras are usually furnished with optical of between 3x to 10x. The better the optical zoom, the higher it climbs up to the best digital camera category.

MEMORY CARD. Always make sure that your memory card is the right one for your digital camera. There are different types of memory card like the xD, SD, Flash card and the likes. And these types of memory cards go with certain types of digital cameras. of course memory storage is also up there in choosing the best digital cameras. Choose the size of memory that you need, if you’re a photo junkie, you might need more than 32MB. Memory cards can go up to 1G.

The key point to find the best digital camera is to find one that will best fit you and your lifestyle. Don’t just buy the latest or the one that claims they are the best digital cameras out in the market. You wouldn’t want to buy a DSLR and use it with your home activities or family outing and have to lug it around?! Or you don’t want to buy the latest point and shoot camera when you’re serious about being a professional photographer. (Of course, you can use this for starters, but if you’re not a novice photographer anymore, you wouldn’t want to get this kind of camera.)

Actually, the best digital camera is the one that you will enjoy and use. Not the type that you’ll just leave rotting in its box or after a few weeks of usage or so, up there in the attic.

The simple rule of thumb is that whatever you have stored as a file on any other storage medium can also be stored as a file on a CD-ROM. To the recorder, a file is a file, and an ISO doesn’t care whether or not the file contains pictures, text, or even audio sound.

There are a few special cases, as to where you would want to record a file to a CD in a special type of format. The most obvious here is CD-DA audio. If you wanted to record an audio file to a CD so that you could play it back on your home stereo, you would need to write a CD-DA (or Digital Audio) disk.

When you copy data to a CD, you need to ensure that your data doesn’t exceed the capacity of the CD that you will be recording to. Due to the audio requirements of CDs, the amount of information a CD can hold is measured in minutes/seconds/sectors.

Each second can contain 75 sectors, each of which are capable of holding 2,048 bytes of Mode 1 user data. By using the CD Size command in the edit menu, you can set the capacity of the set you wish to produce, which will help you to prevent exceeding it. The status bar will show you how much space you have used, how much remains free, and the percentage of each one.

Even though this may sound a bit confusing at first, keep in mind that it may take some time if you are new to computers. Even though copying a CD is quite easy, knowing the limits and how things work is a bit more complex. Give it some time, and you’ll be copying files to CD like the pros do it.

Cell phones, do you really want to be available all the time?

Do you really want to be available for anyone and everyone on a 24/7 basis? What do I mean? A famous person once said that the more available you make yourself, the more available everyone will expect you to be. People will actually be annoyed if you are not instantly and constantly available rather than being pleased when you do call. People expecting you to be available all the time may be annoying. Cell phone calls follow you everywhere you are including your bathroom. Even during nighttime when you want to rest, cell phones continue to ring and annoy you. If it is important, no problem but if it is very menial, why do you need to be bothered so late.

Today in this modern society, we live in and the proliferation of cell phones, we see people talking anywhere and everywhere. If used for business, this may prove to be very effective and worthy. However, for very menial issues being bothered in your sleep and even during your bathroom time may be quite annoying if not outright disgusting. However, if you make yourself available all the time, you created your own nightmare.

Cell phone etiquette is getting to be a forgotten concept. You will see people talking on the phone loudly and disturbing people nearby in restaurants and even in offices. I am sure by now, once or twice in a meeting you will notice that when a cell phone rings, almost everyone around will immediately look for their cell phones. If you were the one talking, and then the person in front of you talks on his phone, how would you feel? I am sure you will feel belittled and ignored. It is a rude practice, and should be changed.

It may help people who use cell phones to follow a certain degree of etiquette with respect to the use of cell phones, especially in places where you may seem rude if you use it or even if someone calls your cell phone.

When you are in a place of worship, it may be necessary to leave your cell phone in the house or at least turn it off if you do not want to be away from it. This is because ringing cell phone will not just disturb you while you pray it will also disturb others. You do not need to show off your expensive gadget in a place of worship.

During meetings, please turn off your cell phone, or a least set it on silent; it is rude to have your phone ringing while somebody speaks. Disruption may cause problems especially when the meeting tackles extremely important issues. However, if you are waiting for a terribly important call, you may use the vibrate mode of your cell phone to alert you when a call is in-coming and leave the meeting if you need to answer the call. You may also inform the possible caller that you are in a meeting and that you cannot be disturbed.

When traveling and if you are on-board an aircraft, you will be required to turn off your phone. This is because electronics devices may interfere with the aircraft’s avionics. Thus, it is a requirement to turn of your phone for safety reasons. However, for extremely long flights, airline companies may allow cell phone usage at certain times, if you really need to make a phone call, use this time allotted if necessary.

Cell phones have become a necessity nowadays, that is why most people use them and cell phone manufacturers have continued to developed different functions for these very small gadgets. Yes, the manufacturers are on to a good thing, but be a wise consumer, and remember to recycle your old outdayed cell phones.

Pretty self-explanatory isn’t it? It’s a stereo system in a car, you say. Whoa, hold your horses, it’s not that simple. Although some people like to put home stereos in their cars and vans (out of dire need for some sounds), sometimes it just doesn’t work. Yeah, maybe before it could’ve worked just fine, all you needed was radio and a cassette player (or 8 tracks, for the inner dinosaur in you) so sure, lug those big box speakers into the back seat and you’ll be blaring down the highway. But nowadays there are things like cd players and mp3 players and your popup LCD panels and all that techie stuff you’d think they’d like to build a home theater system right smack on the console of your van. If you don’t know anything about these things but would like to have some sounds in your car anyway, here are some things to know about a car stereo.

As mentioned above, at first units and speakers from home audio systems and professional markets were just simply installed into vehicles. However, they were not well suited to the extremes of temperature and vibration which are a normal part of the environment of an automobile. Car stereo enthusiasts were not satisfied with the sound quality of regular car sound systems, and with the advent of the CD player, they really had to start modifying some of these home stereos in order to work well in a car environment and voila!, now we have the modern car stereo.

If you have a new car, first hand bought, say from about 90 to present, chances are you already have a “factory” car stereo in your car. It means the car manufacturer already included a car stereo system in your car, unless specified in the car model but most often this is the case. Some car manufacturers make their own car stereos, like BMW which includes a pretty decent car stereo package head unit and speakers. It is a standard which comes with all their cars (which isn’t surprising considering that BMW is included in the league of “luxury car manufacturers”). Or like Mercedes Benz or Volkswagen, they use car stereo systems from a German audio manufacturer called Blaupunkt.

A standard car stereo (also called a head unit) usually includes an auto-reverse tape deck, a cd player and sometimes the optional changer a device which automatically changes the cd in play. On newer car models, the car stereo can also play mp3s and other digital audo file types like WMA and AAC, whether on a cd or a memory device which can be hooked up to the head unit.

The car stereo head unit is connected to several speakers. Older car models usually just had one speaker mounted underneath the dashboard, pointing through perforations towards the front windshield. The standard for car stereo nowadays is a pair of “tweeters” (used to bring out high treble) on the driver side/front passenger side dashboard, a pair of normal “mid” speakers on both doors, sometimes even the backseat passeger doors if it’s a large car and larger speakers capable of bringing out low ends at the back protion of the backseats.

Your car stereo is probably ok as it is, as car manufacturers ensure that the audio products that come with their cars can handle most dirver’s listening demands. But if you think that what you have isn’t enough, you can always CUSTOMIZE.

Digital cameras come in many sizes, colors, brands, zooms, resolutions, playbacks, etc. There are so many features and qualities that are being placed in the devices that buyers especially first timers become overwhelmed and dizzy with these outstanding arrays of gadgets. This is even without including the various advertisements and different ratings that are used to promote these products.

So what are the things to look for if you want to buy digital camera? To be able to answer these, there are 2 sets of information you have to know before you can decide. The first type of information is defining what YOU need and want in a digital camera. To do this, you can ask yourself the following questions:

– What do you want to take with your digital camera? Before you buy digital camera, it is important to determine what kind of pictures you want to take with it. If you are a digital photography enthusiast, any digital camera will not just do. You have to look for features that can support the zooming you need, the resolution, etc.

– How much is your budget? This is a very important question any person who intends to buy digital camera should ask. Because no matter what your needs and wants are for the device, your financial resource will play a huge part in dictating the type of digital camera you will buy.

– What are you resources? When you buy digital camera, sometimes the spending does not end there. You also have to consider the capacity and the power of the computer and the printer you will be hooking your camera with for your editing and printing needs. Editing software are already included when you buy digital camera but other devices aren’t. Aside from a printer, ink and paper for printing, you might also need additional memory cards for your camera and a more powerful computer to support image editing and image storage and retrieval.

After answering these 3 questions, the second set of information you need to know before you buy digital camera are the features that you need in the device. These are:

– Resolution. Before you buy digital camera, check first its capacity to produce high quality photo images. The number of pixels indicated determines resolution. The more number of pixels, the higher the resolution which can make photos to be enlarged without losing image quality.

– Built-in memory. Digital cameras need memory cards for picture storage. When you buy digital camera, make sure that the gadget that you buy does not only have a “built-in” memory but should also have a card slot for external and additional memory. This allows you to change full memory cards conveniently while shooting your pictures.

– Look and feel. It is essential for you to feel comfortable holding your digital camera while shooting. So, before you buy digital camera, it good to test and check if you are comfortable holding it and using it. Consider where the buttons are located and how they are spaced out and see also if you feel comfortable using the viewfinder.

– Battery life. Digital cameras use up batteries fast and batteries are expensive. Before you buy digital camera, consider if the camera’s batteries are rechargeable. This way you can recharge them. Take also into consideration an AC adapter when you buy digital camera. You can attach this to the camera when you are viewing your pictures or uploading them

– LCD. The LCD is a special consideration you have to look into when you buy a digital camera. This is a small screen located at the back of a digital camera that allows you to preview the pictures you took. This has to be considered when you buy digital camera because it uses up a lot of battery power.

– Special features. Special features that will suit your needs should be thought about, too before you buy digital camera. If you want your camera to have good zooming, you can opt for those with optical zoom lenses. A diopter adjustment on the digital camera’s viewfinder will also be beneficial to those who regularly wear glasses and wish to buy digital camera. Other features such as remote control, tripods, etc. can also be considered when you buy a digital camera.

With these information, you can now figure out what you really need and want before you buy digital camera. If you want to see ratings and rankings of these devices based on price, resolution or other features, check out various websites that have these in the Internet.

We all know how the global financial crisis is affecting the way we live our lives. It literally made people a lot more conscious with their spending habits and it also made people think twice about spending their hard earned cash for something that they don’t really need.

The car is now considered to be a necessity in today’s society. Without it, it would be next to impossible for you to do your everyday tasks. Cars doesn’t just add to convenience, but it will also help you do things a lot faster when you compare it to taking the public transportation system.

However, even driving a car today can be costly. Although the gasoline prices may seem to be at its lowest, you wouldn’t want to expect that this will last. In the unstable economy that the world is experiencing today, spending money on gasoline is now slowly being considered as an unnecessary expense.

This is the reason why more and more people are now considering getting rid of their old car with internal combustion engine and go electric.

Electric cars are now very popular among a lot of people today. Because of the fact that these types of cars runs purely on electricity, you don’t have to spend a dime on gasoline ever again.

And, with the latest battery cell technology being used in electric cars today, you will find that you will be able to travel much farther and also do so with maximum efficiency. You have to keep in mind that the battery cells used by electric cars today are now a lot lighter, and much more powerful than in the past.

You need to understand that the electric car concept have existed ever since the first car was invented. However, because of the available battery technology back then, the idea of using electric cars was scrapped as it wasn’t as efficient as cars that are run with internal combustion engines.

Thanks to the research and development of modern batteries, the electric car was literally resurrected. Today, you will find that there are now quite a number of people who are now using electric cars or at least conventional cars that were converted to electric cars.

A lot of automobile manufacturers today are now even developing electric cars. You will find hybrid electric cars to be a very popular choice among a lot of people today. Hybrid cars are basically cars that run on both gasoline and electricity. This type of car has two engines, which are the internal combustion engine that uses gasoline and also an electric motor.

Hybrid cars really made it possible for a lot of people to save a lot of money on gasoline. Now, just imagine how much more money you can save if your car runs purely on electricity.

In addition to that, you will also contribute to the overall well-being of the environment. How? Well, you need to remember that cars that run purely on electricity don’t use any gasoline or any other fossil fuels to run. Instead, it uses electricity to run the car, which is the cleanest form of energy that you can ever use today. It has no harmful byproduct that can contribute to global warming and also no harmful fumes that can be harmful to health.

Electric cars offer a lot of advantages. With it, you will not only save a lot of money on gasoline but you will also contribute to a cleaner and greener environment.