Month: May 2010

Though a far-fetched statement to make, the frequency with which new iPhones are hitting the market is phenomenal to say the least. Within the last six months are so we have had the Apple iPhone 2G, Apple iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS and now the about to be launched Apple iPhone 4G. We are not all talking about Apple iPads, iPods and Tablets.

Now, all these releases brought into our midst a mobile phone that carried one or the other unique path breaking technological advancements. And  users all over the globe, particularly in the UK, fell head over heels to buy them. Even the confirmed orders could not be delivered on time by Apple because of overwhelming response.

But there is one grievance that people all over have against the Apple iPhones. The prices are too high and beyond the reach of most of the customers.

This is where the Apple iPhone deals come into the picture.

Fortunately, O2 network no more enjoys the sole monopoly of selling iPhones. This development has brought the prices of the much sought after superphones drastically. It is now very much possible to get the device for £ 15 per month for an year for a SIM only connection of the iPhone. O2 also gives you the device for free on a £ 40 per month contract, again, for a year.

Recently, Tesco Mobile has come with some  Apple iPhones deals that are arguably the best in the market currently. For £ 35 per month for a year, you the connection free, but also 500 minutes of calling time free.

The devices are available at –  £100 for an 8GB 3G, £200 for a 16GB 3G S, and £275 for a 32GB model.

A video game system is a device for kids and kids at heart that is wonderful, fun and entertaining whereas often addictive too. Advance technology has taken a turn in the way video games where once was and now have become more entertaining than ever. Video games have become sophisticated and surprising for many people especially when game play has become more realistic and powerful. Many people have played video games as a means to pass time or take part in a challenging environment joining other video game users. Due to every day uses, video games also need proper maintenance for longer life span and to maintain a great performance. To do this, you should consider using the proper stand for your video game.

There are many stands to choose from. Depending on the kind of video games you have and also based on your personal preference, choosing the right stand will be easy. Here are the following stands that can be used for video games:

Xbox 360 Fan Stand

Xbox 360 Fan Stand is a unique stand recommended for those video gamers that pulls all-nighters to keep your Xbox cool, in turn, adding a longer life span and better performance. Special features of this stand are hardware stability and protection from other heat sensitive components in the video game system that will definitely extend the hardware systems lifespan.

Vertical Stand for Xbox 360

Vertical Stand for Xbox 360 allows you to store your Xbox vertically and at the same time, store up to 10 of your favorite games and two memory cards as well, and it can be placed beside both ends of the Xbox. This stand is matched to the Xbox chrome look that secures your Xbox in a vertical position.

Sony Playstation 2 New Vertical Stand Compact

This stand saves a lot of space for Playstation 2 because it can store the Playstation 2 in a vertical position supporting both sides of the video game system. Its purpose is to keep away potential damages that may lessen the video game’s prolonged life and will likely lessen the performance of the game system. Most likely, this stand is designed with an airflow lessening the chance for the video game system to overheat. It has a stylish color that complements the Playstation 2 while providing protection and stability.

Sony Playstation 2 Vertical Stand with Memory Card Slots

This stand is the same as the Sony Playstation 2 New Vertical Stand Compact. However, the only difference is that it has Memory Card Slots. This is suitable for those that have more than one Memory Card.

PS2 Vertical Stand

This is a unique stand that allows a PS2 Mini system to be positioned vertically saving space and allowing more games to be stored.

Sony Playstation 2 Eye Toy Camera 2 Stand Alone

This is great and fun for playing games, the body is used as a control while in a game. Because of the eye toy camera, easy access to any games gives new experience to game playing. In fact, anyone with this stand can take pictures of a face or characters and place it on a game.

Glow Vertical Stand for PS2

This stand is especially for Sony’s compact PS2 console with a blue glow color. Batteries are not needed or any other AC connections; it instead uses the power supply of the PS2. This stores PS2 in an upright, vertical position for easy storage.

Sony Playstation 2 Vertical Console Stand

Available only for the Sony PS2, this stand is great for console storage or display. Consoles should be displayed properly in place. Therefore, this video game stand allows consoles to be displayed in an upright position away from unpredictable incidents that may occur during game play.

Sony Playstation 2 Vertical Stand Game Storage

This stand is perfect for those that need extra storage for games or DVDs. It is stylish and allows games to be properly organized in a vertical position providing space and easy ventilation for the game system.

There are other game stands available for you to use and yet finding the right one for your video game system must always be taken into consideration. Great performance and better quality video game systems needs constant maintenance so try using a video game stand for proper storage. After all, investing in a video game system is not entirely something you can dispel right away and then just buy another console again.

You don’t have to be an SEO or Internet marketing expert to know the value of search engine optimization in modern websites. The Internet is an increasingly competitive marketplace and it’s important that you do all you can to stand out. You can spend thousands of dollars employing other people to increase the traffic to your website or you could follow a few simple tips and boost your visitor’s numbers quickly and cheaply by yourself.

Lets get one thing out in the open straight away, Google is your friend, and if they aren’t yet then they should be. Google has a huge market share when it comes to searches made on the Internet and you need to be aware of this. Depending on what type of site you have, a large proportion of your visitors (especially first time visitors) will probably come directly from search queries made through Google. The better your site is optimized for various Google search criteria the better it will perform and the more resulting visitors you will have. This point can not be stressed enough, Google plays a huge role in determining how successful your website will ultimately become, make friends with Google in an SEO sense and you will make friends with thousands of potential customers in no time.

One of the things Google likes most is original content, try not to use too much duplicate content in your websites as it will have a negative effect on your rankings. Writing new material isn’t that hard, especially when you are writing about things you know about, keep things fresh and make sure you continue to add new material to your site long after uploading the first version. You don’t necessarily have to delete previous work as the more content you have on your site the better, perhaps an archive section can be used as the home of previous articles and content.

Another good tip is to keep things simple, you might have aspirations for beautiful and creative Flash animations that wow first time visitors but in the long term they tend to be more trouble than they’re worth. In general, website visitors are after tools, resources and information, however impressive your graphics or Flash animations may be, users aren’t on your site for that reason. A case can be made for website designers to include such content but it’s hard to justify for anyone else, especially when it can have a negative effect on SEO. As they currently function, search engines have a hard time recognizing content in Flash form, you may be missing out on valuable searches because search engines can’t ‘see’ your content.

When you are writing content for your website, remember to keep in mind what your site is actually about and what type of audience you are trying to attract. There’s no point in writing about recipes if your site is about movie reviews and if that’s too far fetched then you probably don’t want to write about movie star gossip either. The point is that you want to stick to your target market, find your niche (in this case movie reviews) and stick to it. With the Internet so competitive these days it’s a good idea to target just a few keywords and phrases and actively pursue them. Of course your website can be about more than one thing but try not to spread yourself too thin as most of the time you’re better off being very popular in one thing than averagely so in three or four. Being on the first page of Google search results for one key word or phrase will always bring in more traffic than three or four on the second page of results.

Each new page on your website should also feature a descriptive title. This is one of the easiest things to fix on your website but often one of the things that is most likely to be over looked. Don’t just write ‘Home’ as the name of your home page, use a sentence or a series of keywords to describe exactly what you offer and what searches you want to be associated with. Try not to repeat words and don’t go overboard with the length, 50 to 70 characters should be plenty.

Now that you’ve optimized your own site it’s time to get busy getting your name and plenty of backlinks on others. One of Google’s fundamental principles is that sites with a large number of backlinks are perceived as being more popular (and therefore better) than others. The specific search criteria used plays a large role but if you want your website to truly do well then you need backlinks on other sites, especially ones related to what you offer. Directories are a great place to start due to the wide variety of categories and ease of use. From here you can email owners of related but perhaps not competing sites to see if they can give you a backlink, they might say no but it doesn’t hurt to ask, especially if you can offer something in return.

These are all simple ideas that can have a major effect on the number of visitors you have to your website. Give them a go and see what happens, many site owners have quality websites that are simply lacking some fundamental search engine optimization techniques. Do your best to stand out from the pack in the increasing competitive Internet market, follow some basic tips and you will build a large customer base in no time.

When most of us think of GPS tracking watches one of two images pop into our mind. The first is that of a child locator that fits on the wrist of child. The second is that of a watch on the arm of an athlete (usually a long distance runner). Both of these watches are essentially the same, but used in very different ways.

The first watch is used almost entirely to track and keep tabs on a child. A concerned parent will outfit their child with a GPS tracking watch just in case the worst were to happen to their child. They feel that it gives them the peace of mind that they need to send their child off to school, or to the park, or to the mall. They often feel that this locating device is exactly what they will want if an abduction or kidnapping were to occur.

Normally watches like this help the parent take back some power that they felt has been stolen from them in our society of parental isolation. They cannot trust their neighbors to keep an eye on their children with them because we are so distanced from those that live around us, especially in suburbia. At a mall with a thousand people in it, your child could become entirely lost and could not see a single familiar face. People might walk by your child without even know that they are lost or in need of assistance.

A child locator watch is exactly what parents need in this circumstance. If they have an internet enabled phone, they can check their provider’s website and find the location of their child to within a few meters. Or, if the watch has a two way communication feature, the parent can call the child’s watch and communicate with their child – letting them know that everything is going to be okay and that they don’t need to worry. They then can get the information from the child that they need to locate them, ending the issue and empowering the parent.

Fitness GPS tracking watches work a little differently than a child GPS tracking watch. Most fitness watches are simply data loggers, gathering and storing information on the watch’s computer to be analyized at a later time. All you need to do with one of these watches is put it on your wrist, strap on your heart monitor (if you model supports one), turn your watch on, and head out on your run.

These watches will do all the work for you, recording your speed, elevation, and heart rate for you to see. They even will record your actual location so that you can integrate it with some mapping software back on your PC. Sometimes this software comes with your watch and sometimes you can use free software like Google Earth, it simply depends on the make and model of your watch.

These watches are good for fitness applications and while they can be used for other things (like analyzing you heart rate when you drive) they are pretty much only good for that.

As you can see, both types of GPS tracking watches provide the same essential GPS tracking function but do so for different purposes. A child GPS tracking watch is logs GPS information and then sends it out for the parent to see. A fitness GPS tracking watch, on the other hand, simply logs information for you to download later. Both have their place in, and both are used differently.

The profession of software testing emerged in the early nineties when personal computers became more popular as they became more affordable. The fast-growing population of PC users created new opportunities for software companies as well as strong competition for the consumers business.

The new generation of software users quite naturally expected their applications to work as advertised. At the same time, market forces encouraged the fast release of new software often at the sacrifice of thorough testing. Defective software does not sell.

The software industry soon recognized that, to achieve success, they would have to set quality standards prior to release and create thorough end-user testing procedures in-house.

In 1992, I got my very first job as a Software QA Engineer literally by accident: an old friend introduced me to a small startup company in Newark where he worked at the time. My job there was to identify functionality and performance problems in a client-server database application.

I searched for fellow testers for professional networking; but I found none. I approached over two dozen software developers asking if they knew of anyone who tests software for a living. They had never heard of software testers and could see no use for them since they tested their own software.

I found myself wondering what growth potential, if any, there may be in this career. In particular, I wanted to know how much I could earn as a software tester. I approached our VP of Engineering with this question. He suggested that, if I stay with the company for five years and do really well, I might hope to make up to $40,000 a year.

A small group of developers who had heard this exchange were clearly skeptical. I read the look on their faces, “That’ll be the day!”

In May of 1993 the startup I worked for collapsed. In the course of a week, there were five advertisements in the San Jose Mercury News for software QA positions. I sent a resume to each, which resulted in two job interviews the following week and one on-the-spot job offer.

My new employer was a multimedia startup. And guess what – that job paid 25 percent more than my previous one. Three months later I got a raise, which brought me to a $40,000 salary, exactly the projected five-year target thought to be unrealistic. My new employers were exceptionally successful. They sold the company profitably six months later. The new owners restructured the business and I was back in the job market again.

What I discovered in my new job search amazed me. Where I had found only five software quality assurance listings over the course of a week, I was now finding 10-12 listings a day. I had 3-4 interviews a week, sometimes two interviews a day, and received many offers within a month. The market had grown dramatically within a single year and the demand for software testers far exceeded the supply.

I chose the company that offered me strong exposure to automated testing, my passion at the time; but I could not help mulling over the amazing growth in demand for software testers and the equally amazing lack of supply.

In the mid-90s, software testing was still a new profession. Between 1994 and 1997, half of QA graduates of many small and big local QA schools became the first person in their companies specifically hired as software testers.

Today, most software companies have a dedicated quality assurance department with one or more managers and a staff ranging from junior testers to senior quality assurance engineers.

Before the recent recession, starting salary in QA was about $60,000 on average with 2-3 weeks spent on job search. Those who liked to change jobs every year or so as they acquired experience, saw their salaries grow to $90,000-95,000 within two-three years. When the recession hit Silicon Valley job market in 2001, there appeared to be no jobs at all for the inexperienced software tester.

But in the year 2007, the recession is over. On average, an entry level QA job seeker in Silicon Valley would get 2 job interviews a week. It seems to take only 3 or 4 interviews to land an offer. Finding a QA job today seems to be no more difficult than it was in the 90s.

Software QA is a unique job niche in many ways: Maturity is an asset in software testing unlike other IT fields. Maturity is easily marketed as patience, attention to detail, and tolerance for routine tasks, all of which are highly valued in software QA.

Whatever your prior education or work experience, it is likely to be an asset because there is likely to be software that specializes in your field of expertise. If you have experience in education, accounting, banking, publishing, workflow or contact management, sales, client relations, drafting, stock or bond trading, image processing, to name but a few industries, you will find software companies that target your field.

Testing software is basically about finding the discrepancy between the expected behavior of the application and its actual behavior. If you have an accounting background, for example, you are better positioned to understand what the expected behavior of a software application should be and how an accounting department would use it.

Testing is not a difficult concept to learn. We all have some experience testing something. We test new recipes, test-drive cars, double-check our change at the convenience store. In each case we are testing to see that the actual result meets our expected result.

Entry-level jobs in software QA do not require a computer science degree. The field covers a broad spectrum of technical proficiency. The niche is large enough to accommodate you.

We see individuals of all ages transitioning from H1B visas to green cards, for example, becoming two-income families and homeowners, and establishing themselves in their new country.

Software testing is definitely a consideration for college educated people of all the ages and professional background looking for a career change.