As you may have notice I keep looking for useful web 2.0 services.
I'm mainly interested by easy-to-use, nice and last but not least, FREE services.
I think that this one will interest some of you.
You may have experienced the total loss of your 10+GB of Music during one your HD formatting. (BTW needless to say how Windows sucks!)
Or maybe you want to listen to your music at work (headphones in your ears all the time may not look very appealing to your boss though)
In both cases, let me introduce MP3Tunes.
Their service is quite simple to understand: "Store all your music library and listen to it from everywhere"
So, what are the features of the service and how does it work?
First you sign-up (damn easy) and you download their software (they call it "The Locker")
Then you run the software, tell it where to look for your music and just click on the "Sync" button.
It started to upload your music on theirs servers. That's it.
Now you can log in your account from everywhere (with a Web access obviously) and then listen to your music within the browser with the embedded player.
There are some additional features that are compelling.
If, while browsing, you come across a music you like, you can pass the url (you do need to have a file which has is specific URL) to your locker and it would load the song in your library.
Once done you can listen to it anytime you want.
They actually give you a list of websites where you can easily find Music ;-)
For example, they team up with Sideload where you can get a lot of free music and loaded it to your "Locker" but also embed the track in your blog (just like RadioBlogClub).
They second thing which is really cool is that the Sync orks both ways.
That measn that all the music you've find on the web is Sync down to your PC music library.
Ok, there is nothing revolutionary since thanks to the Donkey you can download everything you need. But I like the simplicity of the process.
You find a nice song, add it to your locker and you dont have to think about it. Everything is done automatically.
There are some limitations of course.
First, you cant load files bigger than 10MB (actually you can but you need to upgrade to the Premium account which is not free).
It's not a constraining limitation for most of your library except of course if you have some Classical (that's 1.5GB I wont synchronised :-( ).
Another limitation is that, to access to your library from a mobile device you will need a Premium account.
But seriously, who will want to do that. I mean I have a 20GB mp3 player (Archos GMini 402) and a 2GB SD Card in my phone.
Why on earth will use a GPRS/3G connection for which I would be charged to listen to music?
When you sign in, you may wait 2 or 3 days to get the unlimited storage, but once it set up, everything just go nice and smooth.
So if you decide to give it a try, let me know about your impressions
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Jajah Mobile and its shortcomings
I've already blog about Jajah.
Two days after my first post on Jajah, they send me a mail to tell me that they appreciate my post.
They also respond to one of my wish which was, being able to download Jajah mobile application for a Windows Mobile 2003 device.
This is what I'll talk about.
So, my request was actually to be provided with a way to use jajah when I'm not at home.
Their answer was actually the best one: Jajah mobile A web based form accessible with a simple browser.
So I jumped to the URL they gave me, log in and start using this system.
Needless to say that I was delighted to find all my profile informations and contacts on this mobile-specific website.
I bookmarked it, so I was able to place an international call for as low as 3cts (euros) within 2 clicks. And that's just great!
But they are some shortcomings.
First, I definitely think that Jajah need to really work on the quality of the communication. This stands for every calls no matter what mean was used to initiate the call.
I don't say that the quality is bad, but it's sure not constant enough.
Some calls do have a great voice quality, but some others are not so great.
The biggest disappointement I have is the fact that most of the times, it takes 2 or 3 attempts to get an actual communication.
Too often the first attempt fails because one end doesnt ear the other one.
If this is Ok when I call a europe landline number (around 3cts/min), it's almost intolerable when I'm calling a mobile in Africa ( 18cts thrown away for each attempt).
When I just want to pass an information, which typically will last 2 min, spending 1.5 euros, 70% for nothing is just not an option.
So Jajah if you read this, fix it. And you will enjoy happy customers who will spend more money using your system.
Secondly, they have a problem which is mobile specific.
When you initiate the call with the browser, you are using the GPRS connection which cannot be carry on along with a call.
So what happen too many times, at least here in Thailand, is that when Jajah will call you, they will fall in your voicemail because the GPRS connection is still active.
It's funny because they problem is due to the fact that Jajah is actually too fast.
So I suggest that they implement a kind of short timed delay before placing the call.
Overall Jajah mobile is an interesting service, especially in Thailand, where the prices are the same for mobile and landline calls (that's a topic I'll cover later).
But they are still some issues that needed to be adressed, rather sooner than later.
Two days after my first post on Jajah, they send me a mail to tell me that they appreciate my post.
They also respond to one of my wish which was, being able to download Jajah mobile application for a Windows Mobile 2003 device.
This is what I'll talk about.
So, my request was actually to be provided with a way to use jajah when I'm not at home.
Their answer was actually the best one: Jajah mobile A web based form accessible with a simple browser.
So I jumped to the URL they gave me, log in and start using this system.
Needless to say that I was delighted to find all my profile informations and contacts on this mobile-specific website.
I bookmarked it, so I was able to place an international call for as low as 3cts (euros) within 2 clicks. And that's just great!
But they are some shortcomings.
First, I definitely think that Jajah need to really work on the quality of the communication. This stands for every calls no matter what mean was used to initiate the call.
I don't say that the quality is bad, but it's sure not constant enough.
Some calls do have a great voice quality, but some others are not so great.
The biggest disappointement I have is the fact that most of the times, it takes 2 or 3 attempts to get an actual communication.
Too often the first attempt fails because one end doesnt ear the other one.
If this is Ok when I call a europe landline number (around 3cts/min), it's almost intolerable when I'm calling a mobile in Africa ( 18cts thrown away for each attempt).
When I just want to pass an information, which typically will last 2 min, spending 1.5 euros, 70% for nothing is just not an option.
So Jajah if you read this, fix it. And you will enjoy happy customers who will spend more money using your system.
Secondly, they have a problem which is mobile specific.
When you initiate the call with the browser, you are using the GPRS connection which cannot be carry on along with a call.
So what happen too many times, at least here in Thailand, is that when Jajah will call you, they will fall in your voicemail because the GPRS connection is still active.
It's funny because they problem is due to the fact that Jajah is actually too fast.
So I suggest that they implement a kind of short timed delay before placing the call.
Overall Jajah mobile is an interesting service, especially in Thailand, where the prices are the same for mobile and landline calls (that's a topic I'll cover later).
But they are still some issues that needed to be adressed, rather sooner than later.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Send Free SMS from your cell phone
So I wrote about sending SMS for free here.
Nothing new is this post, I just want to remind you that since it's a web based form which requires no software you can use it on your cell phone.
So you need a data plan, a browser ( Opera mini is the way to go without any doubt) and the adress www.gizmosms.com and you are set to go.
Given the prices of data plan and the amount of data required to send a SMS via gizmo, send an sms would cost you less than 1 cent.
That's a service I'm gonna use heavily when I'll be back in France.
There is a downside though to the use with your mobile, you have to input the phone number digits manually, something I'm not use to do at all since I use the phonebook.
But I do have a PocketPc phone running on Windows Mobile 2003 so I will use copy-paste.
However most of you will have to do the input by yourself. Sorry, nothing is perfect in life :-)
Nothing new is this post, I just want to remind you that since it's a web based form which requires no software you can use it on your cell phone.
So you need a data plan, a browser ( Opera mini is the way to go without any doubt) and the adress www.gizmosms.com and you are set to go.
Given the prices of data plan and the amount of data required to send a SMS via gizmo, send an sms would cost you less than 1 cent.
That's a service I'm gonna use heavily when I'll be back in France.
There is a downside though to the use with your mobile, you have to input the phone number digits manually, something I'm not use to do at all since I use the phonebook.
But I do have a PocketPc phone running on Windows Mobile 2003 so I will use copy-paste.
However most of you will have to do the input by yourself. Sorry, nothing is perfect in life :-)
Send unlimited SMS for free
Thanks to my friend Maxime for this tip.
So we can send SMS for free using GizmoSMS which is a service provided by Gizmo an SIP-based alternative to Skype which allows you to place ToIP (Telephony over IP) calls without any software. You just initiate the call from your browser.
Unlike Jajah you still need an headset since the voice stream still goes through you personal internet connection.
According to Maxime the calls are cheaper than Skype. I'll check it by myself later.
I od have a concern on the quality though. Since they don't use P2P I'm wondering how they ensure the quality of calls.
Anyway my focus is on their free SMS service which works in several countries.
Unfortunately it doesn't work in Thailand so you can't use it to send me SMS.
But it works in France and in several others western countries, so it's a great way for me to send SMS for birthday or whatever events when I don't need an answer.
By the way if you do want to call me just copy and paste this in your browser :
http://gizmocall.com/0066811001201
So we can send SMS for free using GizmoSMS which is a service provided by Gizmo an SIP-based alternative to Skype which allows you to place ToIP (Telephony over IP) calls without any software. You just initiate the call from your browser.
Unlike Jajah you still need an headset since the voice stream still goes through you personal internet connection.
According to Maxime the calls are cheaper than Skype. I'll check it by myself later.
I od have a concern on the quality though. Since they don't use P2P I'm wondering how they ensure the quality of calls.
Anyway my focus is on their free SMS service which works in several countries.
Unfortunately it doesn't work in Thailand so you can't use it to send me SMS.
But it works in France and in several others western countries, so it's a great way for me to send SMS for birthday or whatever events when I don't need an answer.
By the way if you do want to call me just copy and paste this in your browser :
http://gizmocall.com/0066811001201
Friday, February 02, 2007
Skype vs Jajah
Everyone knows Skype. It's the most popular VoIP (Voice over IP) software for making calls all around the world.
Skype was not the first software of VoIP, actually it's quite young regarding the history of VoIP. I remember trying to place my first call in 1999 using a soft I don't even remember the name (was it Soft2phone). Back then, I was in Douala using a now obsolete 56K connection, the one with the regular phone line+ modem. The quality was awful. That's probably why the concept didn't take off.
Skype was a huge success because it brings normal phone quality at incredible low prices. And comunications between two PCs were free. But PC to PC calls need some kind of synchronisation because the two people have to be in front of a computer with headphones and stay there as long as the communcation last.
But when I arrived here, I found that Skype doesn't fit to my need. Mainly because Skype is prohibited on the campus network. It's mainly because of the bandwith usage. You might not be aware of thaht but Skype use quite a lot of your bandwith even you are not placing any call. If you want to know more on how it works and what are the principles strengths and weaknesses click on this link to Wikipedia (french version here)
So I looked for an alternative, and decided to give a try to Jajah, a service I discovered several weeks ago thanks to fellows at techcrunch
(french version available here).
Jajah is almost perfect for me. First I don't have a micro and I don't want to buy one. This is how it works:
Can't be simpler. You see the main advantages : no need for a headset, no need for your correspondant to be a user of the service and most important YOU BOTH USE YOUR REGULAR PHONE. That means that once the call has been initiated you don't need to stay in front of your PC.
You gonna laugh when I tell you that Jajah is cheaper than Skype. But it's simply true. And when I say cheaper, I mean it. Call between France and USA/Canada are for example free (if you dont use mobiles; folks don't ask too much)whereas skype charges you 1.7 cts/min.
French people are gonna say that they've already have free calls for europe and north america with Free/Neuf etc. But don't forget that this also works at Work since there's no software to download. It also works with mobile but it's more expensive (nothing to do with what you will be chaged by your regular mobile service provider though).
For me here in Thailand, things are even better. Calls between my cell and home lines in france have a ridiculous 3,5cents/min toll. Compare to the 30cts AIS ( my mobile service provider MSP in short) charges me for every single SMS sent to France and you see what I mean.
But the best part is almost unbelievable. I've discovered that if my correspondant is also a registered Jajah user calls are simply FREE between our home lines. Yeah, you read well it's FREE.
Thailande for some strange reasons is one of the countries in Group A, France is group B so calls between Jajah users is free on home/work lines. It works with basicly every european and north america countries
So if you wanna call me just sigh me, add me to your contact. My user name is tntresor [at] yahoo.fr and leave a comment anywhere on my blog to get my phone numbers.
Skype was not the first software of VoIP, actually it's quite young regarding the history of VoIP. I remember trying to place my first call in 1999 using a soft I don't even remember the name (was it Soft2phone). Back then, I was in Douala using a now obsolete 56K connection, the one with the regular phone line+ modem. The quality was awful. That's probably why the concept didn't take off.
Skype was a huge success because it brings normal phone quality at incredible low prices. And comunications between two PCs were free. But PC to PC calls need some kind of synchronisation because the two people have to be in front of a computer with headphones and stay there as long as the communcation last.
But when I arrived here, I found that Skype doesn't fit to my need. Mainly because Skype is prohibited on the campus network. It's mainly because of the bandwith usage. You might not be aware of thaht but Skype use quite a lot of your bandwith even you are not placing any call. If you want to know more on how it works and what are the principles strengths and weaknesses click on this link to Wikipedia (french version here)
So I looked for an alternative, and decided to give a try to Jajah, a service I discovered several weeks ago thanks to fellows at techcrunch
(french version available here).
Jajah is almost perfect for me. First I don't have a micro and I don't want to buy one. This is how it works:
- You sign-in and enter your phone numbers (mobile, home, work)
- You enter the phone number you wanna call
- You wait. 5 second later, your phone ring, you pick up and get connected with your friend.
Can't be simpler. You see the main advantages : no need for a headset, no need for your correspondant to be a user of the service and most important YOU BOTH USE YOUR REGULAR PHONE. That means that once the call has been initiated you don't need to stay in front of your PC.
You gonna laugh when I tell you that Jajah is cheaper than Skype. But it's simply true. And when I say cheaper, I mean it. Call between France and USA/Canada are for example free (if you dont use mobiles; folks don't ask too much)whereas skype charges you 1.7 cts/min.
French people are gonna say that they've already have free calls for europe and north america with Free/Neuf etc. But don't forget that this also works at Work since there's no software to download. It also works with mobile but it's more expensive (nothing to do with what you will be chaged by your regular mobile service provider though).
For me here in Thailand, things are even better. Calls between my cell and home lines in france have a ridiculous 3,5cents/min toll. Compare to the 30cts AIS ( my mobile service provider MSP in short) charges me for every single SMS sent to France and you see what I mean.
But the best part is almost unbelievable. I've discovered that if my correspondant is also a registered Jajah user calls are simply FREE between our home lines. Yeah, you read well it's FREE.
Thailande for some strange reasons is one of the countries in Group A, France is group B so calls between Jajah users is free on home/work lines. It works with basicly every european and north america countries
So if you wanna call me just sigh me, add me to your contact. My user name is tntresor [at] yahoo.fr and leave a comment anywhere on my blog to get my phone numbers.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Social Network : Quick overview
As you may be aware, there are a lot of social network opening everyday. The most popular worldwide are MySpace, Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook. Back in France, Skyblog and Hi5 are also quite successfull.
But they are many others, actually a new Web 2.0 site pop up almost every day. I'm starting to wonder why there are so many existing social network and why new ones keep heaping.
If you want to keep up to date on Web 2.0 news, you may wanna check www.techcrunch.com which is one of the most famous blog worldwide ( actually the 5th most popular) and is held by Michael Arrington . There is a French version, equally popular (3rd french blog to be precise) www.techcrunch.fr held by Ouriel Ohayon.
From time to time I'm doing english to french translations for them.
I'll post as well about the companies I find the more interesting for me and for people both France and in thailand. To be honest, Thailand isn't even close to see a silicon-like valley blooming anytime soon. But still there might be some good news for us who live here.
There are some social networks I think you should definitively be in.
MySpace is very popular in US and UK. If you have a lot of friends there, you definitly have to sign in.
If you are opened to others cultures you can try Hi5, it's full of people coming from very every countries. BTW my hi5 profile is available at tntresor.hi5.com.
You also have LinkedIn. It's clearly a Work/business-oriented social network. I think it's a powerful tool though it's not the magic wand that is gonna get you
a job or an internship. I actually opened an account more than 1 year ago, but I didn't really keep it up to date. But I'm currently working on it. I'll soon blog about that.
Many others sites provide a social networking feature in top of other features, like Flickr where you can store your photos, or YouTube (no need to present).oriented
More on this topic to come soon.
One more thing, have you ever notice the orange icon on the right of the address bar. It's the RSS icon (those who use Internet Explorer 6.0 aka IE 6 and older wont see this icon, in this case I suggest that you update to IE 7). Just click on the icon to add my blog to your RSS feeds.
If you don't know what is a RSS feed click here or here for the french version.
For those of you who don't want the details, let's just say that you
will receive any update of
the blog without having to come over. It's very useful, especially since who can keep on tracking many other websites and blogs.
If you have any troubles or questions, just leave a comment and I'll answer ASAP.
But they are many others, actually a new Web 2.0 site pop up almost every day. I'm starting to wonder why there are so many existing social network and why new ones keep heaping.
If you want to keep up to date on Web 2.0 news, you may wanna check www.techcrunch.com which is one of the most famous blog worldwide ( actually the 5th most popular) and is held by Michael Arrington . There is a French version, equally popular (3rd french blog to be precise) www.techcrunch.fr held by Ouriel Ohayon.
From time to time I'm doing english to french translations for them.
I'll post as well about the companies I find the more interesting for me and for people both France and in thailand. To be honest, Thailand isn't even close to see a silicon-like valley blooming anytime soon. But still there might be some good news for us who live here.
There are some social networks I think you should definitively be in.
MySpace is very popular in US and UK. If you have a lot of friends there, you definitly have to sign in.
If you are opened to others cultures you can try Hi5, it's full of people coming from very every countries. BTW my hi5 profile is available at tntresor.hi5.com.
You also have LinkedIn. It's clearly a Work/business-oriented social network. I think it's a powerful tool though it's not the magic wand that is gonna get you
a job or an internship. I actually opened an account more than 1 year ago, but I didn't really keep it up to date. But I'm currently working on it. I'll soon blog about that.
Many others sites provide a social networking feature in top of other features, like Flickr where you can store your photos, or YouTube (no need to present).oriented
More on this topic to come soon.
One more thing, have you ever notice the orange icon on the right of the address bar. It's the RSS icon (those who use Internet Explorer 6.0 aka IE 6 and older wont see this icon, in this case I suggest that you update to IE 7). Just click on the icon to add my blog to your RSS feeds.
If you don't know what is a RSS feed click here or here for the french version.
For those of you who don't want the details, let's just say that you
will receive any update of
the blog without having to come over. It's very useful, especially since who can keep on tracking many other websites and blogs.
If you have any troubles or questions, just leave a comment and I'll answer ASAP.
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