John Spencer
EyeTV Easter Egg Allows for Video Streaming Via 3G Networks
Electricpig reports that it has discovered an easter egg in the recently-released EyeTV iPhone application from Elgato that allows the software to stream video content via 3G wireless networks.
Elgato’s EyeTV app requires you register…
Cool iPhone App: Start Your Car From Virtually Anywhere
In case you were wanting to experience the keyless remote entry system that came packaged with the new Zipcar app, but you already have a car of your own, you’re now in luck. According to Mashable, as of today, you can drop in at your local Best Buy and pick up a Viper keyless entry and remote starter system from Directed Electronics for any automobile that features iPhone integration.
Not only that, but the range for the SmartStart app (iTunes link) that controls remote entry and car starting is said to be “virtually unlimited,” likely owing to the fact that it communicates via a data network connection rather than over infrared, which requires line of sight, or Bluetooth, which needs proximity.
You can even turn on the heat using the app, and do other things like pop the trunk, honk the horn, or turn on the alarm to scare off ne’er-do-wells while you sip your latté at the Starbucks patio across the street. The app won’t allow to you drive your car remotely, but at this rate, there’s probably an app for that just around the corner, too. Or at least one for locking the car down entirely in cases of theft.
As mentioned above, the app apparently doesn’t need to be near the car to communicate with the receiver, so in theory you could be setting off your alarm and starting your car in Iowa while on vacation in Prague, though aside from the slim possibility that someone watching believes it’s a ghost car, I can’t really see the point. It could be handy, as Mashable points out, in a situation where a spouse or loved one is locked out of their vehicle or has lost their own set of keys.
Of course, as with all incredibly cool things, the new Viper system will cost you a not insignificant sum of money. If you’re entirely new to the Viper system, a fresh start will set you back about $500, while existing users can add iPhone accessibility via the SmartStart module to their system for the low price of $299.
The automation industry, including home lighting and temperature control, home audio and theater, and car stereo, security, and remote control has always seemed to me to occupy the realm of unnecessary eccentric luxuries reserved for the very rich. With the iPhone operating as a central device that’s finally capable of unifying all these disparate automation services, I’m beginning to see their wider market applicability. Companies like Directed Electronics and Sonos are perfect examples of how niche businesses can expand their target markets via iPhone integration.
In Q3, NewNet focus turns to business models and search. Read the, “NewNet Q3 Wrap-up.”How To Backup & Archive All Your Facebook Data
What if your Facebook account was suddenly disabled? This has happened to hundreds of users. Are you thinking of closing your Facebook account but don’t want to lose all your data?
If you are like me, you want to download and backup your Facebook data just in case. Here is a simple way to backup and archive your Facebook information using the ArchiveFacebook Firefox extension.
Archive Facebook is an experimental Firefox extension that allows you to backup Facebook data on your local hard drive. You can browse your archive as if it were your local copy of Facebook. Facebook does not let you upload this data in any way, so you cannot use it for restoring anything in case you delete your data or account in Facebook.
Archive Facebook backs up the following from your Facebook profile:
- Photos
- Messages
- Activity Stream
- Friends List
- Notes
- Events
- Groups
- Info
Note that your friends activity or data is not included in your archive. Also, if you prefer using a browser other than Firefox, you can use this extension by installing Firefox just to backup Facebook data, and then uninstall Firefox. Your backup will be usable from other browsers as well (see last section below).
Disable or Uninstall Scrapbook
Archive Facebook causes instability if the Scrapbook Firefox extension is installed. You should not run both of them simultaneously, so if you have installed Scrapbook, disable or uninstall it.
Get a Facebook Username
As of version 1.0, Archive Facebook works only if you have a vanity URL for your Facebook profile. If you don’t already have one, get a Facebook username for your account here. Once you can access your Facebook via http://www.facebook.com/your_name you are all set.
Install the Extension
To get started, install the Archive Facebook extension from the Mozilla Firefox Addons gallery. This is an experimental extension, so you will need to enable the option to allow you to download and install it.
After restarting Firefox, you should see a new menu item “ArchiveFB” in Firefox between the Bookmarks and the Tools menu.
Backup and Archive
Login to your Facebook account. You should be able to browse in Facebook before you start the archive process.
Go to ArchiveFB > Show in Sidebar and open the sidebar.
While you are seeing Facebook open in your browser, select ArchiveFB > Archive. You will automatically get redirected to your Facebook profile page and see the following dialog box:
Select OK to start the backup process. Cancel will not start any operation. Once you start the archive process, ArchiveFB begins to retrieve your Facebook stream in reverse chronological order. You will see a series of dialog boxes displaying how far back it has progressed in the retrieval process.
If you select Cancel on any of these dialog boxes, your archive will extend back in time only till that date and time stamp.
Once the retrieval process is complete, ArchiveFB will start downloading your Facebook data to create your backup archive.
The process may take several hours depending upon the speed of your connection and how long and extensively you’ve used Facebook.
Be patient, but if you find that the process is stuck on one particular item in the list, click Pause and then Start to resume. I found that this trick worked when ArchiveFB seemed to get stuck on a few items in the list.
Once the backup and archive operation is complete, you can see a new entry in the sidebar “Facebook | username date” with your username and the current date. This indicates that the operation was successful.
Browsing Your Archive
Just like any data backup software, you can have multiple sets of your Facebook archive made at different points in time, which will all appear in your ArchiveFB sidebar. Clicking on any of the entries in the sidebar browses that archive set, starting at your profile page.
Observe the browser address bar URLs when browsing your Facebook profile archive. It will show “file://” instead of “http://” indicating that you are browsing a local copy on your hard disk. You should be able to view your photos, friends list, notes, etc. from within your local copy.
You will see an Annotation Bar at the bottom of the browser. It has highlighting and annotation tools with which you can make notes about any of the items in your Facebook archive.
For Advanced Users and Other Browsers
ArchiveFB stores the copy of your Facebook data within your Firefox profile by default. You will find an ArchiveFB folder created inside your Firefox profile folder, where the archives created by this extension are stored.
What if you normally use a different browser? In the ArchiveFB sidebar, go to Tools > Options. In the Options dialog, go to the Organize tab. In the Location to Store Data, you can specify a different location for your archive.
From any archive set, you can open the “index.html” file to open and browse your Facebook archive data from within any browser.
Before you run off to backup your Facebook data, you might also want to check out our popular Facebook Hack Codes and Privacy Tips!
Were you able to backup your Facebook data? Feel free to share your experience in the comments!
Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/
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Virgin Launches Mobile Wi-Fi Modem
Imagine this: you’re part of a highly trained squad of three former SAS soldiers on a mission critical to the survival of this country. We’re talking top secret. Classified. You get to the rendezvous point in a regional centre of NSW, pull out your military-grade laptop to connect to the Internet to perform your mission. Your two soldier buddies do the same thing. You reach into your bag to pull out your wireless internet key, but there’s nothing there. You look to your squad members and realise that due to budget cuts, only mobile broadband solution was issued. Which means your mission fails and the terrorists win. If only you had a Virgin Mobile Wi-Fi modem… (more…)
Pizza Hut To Launch Australian iPhone App And 3G Ordering Service
Fun fact: I spent a couple of months after I finished school working at Pizza Hut’s call centre. It wasn’t fun. If only there was an iPhone app for ordering Pizza back in the heady days of 1998, maybe I’d still eat Pizza Hut. Maybe I wouldn’t. In any case, Pizza Hut Australia has announced that it plans on releasing a version of their hugely successful US iPhone ordering app here in Australia. (more…)
7+ Prank Phone Numbers To Hand a Bad Date At The End Of The Night
A bad date, we’ve all been there and have had our share of deal breakers. At the end of our wasted time, being polite is not at the top of the list. But do you really enjoy to be upfront and all the hassle that comes with it?
So what to do when they ask you for your phone number? It’s easy. Bite your tongue, smile, don’t argue, just give them a number, and hope they will never bother you again because you gave them a wrong number.
Here are some prank phone numbers to get you out of the dilemma, without having to reject, embarrass and/or disappoint your bad date at the spot. For ease of use they are sorted by location.
North America
Rejection Hotline
The Rejection Hotline was created by Humor Hotlines.
The page provides a long list of prank phone numbers for over 100 cities in many different states in the US and one number for Victoria, Canada. Although this post found a few more numbers for Canada on Rejection Hotline, they must have meanwhile been removed.
Here is a small selection:
858-492-8002 San Diego, CA, USA
904-879-8012 Jacksonville, FL, USA
617-861-3962 Boston, MA, USA
347-689-1270 New York City, NY, USA
713-866-6249 Houston, TX, USA
250-984-0686 Victoria, BC, Canada
Please see the complete list for more numbers. In case your state isn’t listed, the Rejection Hotline recommends to use an excuse like “It’s where I went to school” or “I haven’t changed my cell phone number since I moved.” That should work perfectly fine.
Outsourcing
Humor Hotlines has a few more funny prank phone numbers that you might want to consider. How about outsourcing your friendship to India?
Here are the numbers:
267-436-5128 Philadelphia, PA, USA
267-436-5123 Philadelphia, PA, USA
401-285-0701 Rhode Island, USA
413-497-0071 Western MA, USA
The Rejection Line
Are you in New York? Then you may use this official New York Rejection Line.
212-479-7990 New York City, NY, USA
Australia
The Rejection Line
That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well, this rejection line is for the folks down under.
In Australia there’s less hassle with area codes in the case of cell phone numbers. They simply don’t give away where you’re from, they only reveal which provider you’re signed up with. So that’s why one number fits all:
0419-317446 Australia (cell phone)
The people who set up this page had a very neat idea. All text messages sent to that number are displayed on the website. It’s hilarious! Even better, you can query the site for numbers that have texted this line.
Germany
Frank geht ran
Similar to Australia, German cell phone numbers are provider-specific and independent of location. Next time you feel forced to share your phone number, use this neutral number and Frank will answer the phone for you (Frank geht ran):
0163-1737743 Germany (cell phone)
Frank will politely tell the person calling that you do not wish to be contacted by them. It’s neutral and can also be used in all sorts of situations, for example in forms. You can preview Frank’s message here. It’s German of course.
Telefonpaul
An alternative to Frank geht ran is TelefonPaul. The concept is the same, a polite and neutral message for anyone who asked your number and didn’t deserve to get the real one. Paul provides both a landline number for Stuttgart, Germany and a German cell phone number.
0711-50885524 Stuttgart, Germany
01577-1599624 Germany (cell phone)
You can preview Paul’s message on his website.
United Kingdom
The Rejection Line
Here we have another clone of the original NY Rejection Line. This is the one for the UK and the number is:
09061-100596 UK (service number)
How to Give a Fake Phone Number
This page at eHow has advice on how to give out a fake phone number in a bar/club situation. A good read for all the girls and possibly some of the boys out there.
I tried my best to cover as many countries as possible. But due to the nature of language barriers, this list is far from comprehensive. Do you happen to know of similar services in your country? Please go ahead and add the respective resources in the comments. We will all love you for it! 
Last but not least a disclaimer! Being in Germany myself, I could not test all of these prank phone numbers. Thus I do not give any guarantees as to their functionality. Furthermore, it’s your responsibility to find out about calling fees. They might be reasonable, they might not. Please query the respective websites. Finally, call or give out these numbers at your own risk!
Image Credit : lusi
Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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