With newly added exemptions to DMCA act, Electronic Frontier Foundation has made some epic accomplishment in favor of Jailbreakers, Unlockers and Video artists. From now on, Jailbreaking is purely legal in U.S. and no jailbreaker in U.S. needs to bother about any legal ramifications if the hardware owner decides to jailbreak his mobile phone, making it to root access and willing to run unofficial third party apps on phone’s hardware.

This ruling comes as a major setback to Apple, which strongly ...]]>

With newly added exemptions to DMCA act, Electronic Frontier Foundation has made some epic accomplishment in favor of Jailbreakers, Unlockers and Video artists. From now on, Jailbreaking is purely legal in U.S. and no jailbreaker in U.S. needs to bother about any legal ramifications if the hardware owner decides to jailbreak his mobile phone, making it to root access and willing to run unofficial third party apps on phone’s hardware.

This ruling comes as a major setback to Apple, which strongly condemns Jailbreaking of its ‘closed’ products such as iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. In an effort of keeping the overall environment in its firm control, Apple always desires to let users run pre-installed apps or approved apps downloaded/purchased from App Store. That’s one reason why Apple keeps plugging software exploits unearthed by hackers/jailbreakers and keeps releasing updated iOS versions with software fixes.

But now when ‘Jailbreaking’ has gone legal in U.S., Apple might not discourage ‘Jailbreaking’ the way it used to do it earlier.

This is how Apple will discourage ‘Jailbreaking’ from now on…

“Don’t Jailbreak your iOS device because….”

• It will severely ‘degrade’ your software experience
• It will make your device unstable/error prone
• It will hamper hardware reliability
• It will violate warranty of your iOS device

Still, i reckon, Apple need not worry about this epic judgement as Jailbreaking won’t really shoot up, even after becoming a legal activity in U.S.

Here’s why….

• ‘Jailbreaking’ isn’t a child’s play. It requires decent programming skills or at least deep understanding of digging the software roots.
• Jailbreaking puts the device at the risk of ‘bricking’(permanent damage), if anything goes wrong while rooting your device.
• ‘Jailbreaking’ doesn’t offer huge rewards to any iOS device owner. It just enables you to run unauthorized third party apps on your hardware. To most of the iOS loyalists, 225000 approved apps are more than enough.
• So far, only 10% of iOS devices are actually Jailbroken. That’s a pretty small minority which mostly comprises of hackers and geeks.
• Majority of Apple’s cult is absurdly religious, willing to follow every word that Steve Jobs preaches and in this case, Steve Jobs/Apple discourages Jailbreaking and hence there are least chances for the cult to disobey their ‘God’(Steve!)

Rather i see a reverse-psychology happening with Jailbreakers and hackers. It might happen that ‘Jailbreaking’ may go down by itself, post this judgement.

Here’s why…

Jailbreakers/Crackers are defined by doing stuff that’s illegal. Doing illegal stuff actually brings motivation to Crackers as there’s no monetary incentive of doing stuff like that. Now that Jailbreaking is legal, hackers/jailbreakers may rather turn focus on doing other illegal stuff, not ‘legal’ Jailbreaking, which may appear rather ‘boring’ to them.

Hence Apple need not worry about this ruling. It just needs to keep releasing iOS updates with patches to latest exploits, something that Apple has been doing for years now.

The world of technology is so fascinating and fast-evolving today that it is mighty hard for an “informed” guy to abstain from spending money on buying latest gizmos. Whether it’s laptops, Netbooks, smartphones or gaming consoles, affordable pricing and irresistible offerings has exploded the sales of funky gadgets that once used to get sold to elite customers only.

This ever-growing hunger of new breed of consumerist-major generation has led to fierce competition at almost every tech landscape you talk about. Every major technology company today is either busy defending its ...]]>

The world of technology is so fascinating and fast-evolving today that it is mighty hard for an “informed” guy to abstain from spending money on buying latest gizmos. Whether it’s laptops, Netbooks, smartphones or gaming consoles, affordable pricing and irresistible offerings has exploded the sales of funky gadgets that once used to get sold to elite customers only.

This ever-growing hunger of new breed of consumerist-major generation has led to fierce competition at almost every tech landscape you talk about. Every major technology company today is either busy defending its own once-monopolistic business (Microsoft: Windows & Office, Google: Search & Advertising), aggressively invading into other’s businesses(Microsoft:Bing, Google: Chrome OS) or competing to dominate future-centric markets (Apple,Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia, HP: Mobile OS and Apps).

And quite recently, an untouched breed has started to appear across tech world, which may soon define an all new category of devices, the category of Touch-enabled Tablet devices. It’s also the category that’s currently synonymized with Apple iPad, a meticulously crafted evidence of technological advancement, built by Apple.

Honestly, i can’t stop admiring iPad and there are countless reasons for that. Being a gadget freak myself, i am sold to the beauty of iPad already and want to own it anyway.

Still,  I am scared of buying an iPad. Sounds strange ?. Here’s why i think so…

• I own a Windows PC not an iMac
• I own a Dell Laptop, not a Macbook
• I own a Sony MP3 Player, not an iPod
• I own a Motorola Droid(Android), not an iPhone

In short, I am happy keeping myself away from buying anything ‘Apple’. I am aware that Apple produces the best breed of desktop machines(iMac), the best laptops (Macbook), the best Music player(iPod) or possibly the best smartphone till date (iPhone, although i would love to argue on this), but all of that fails to convince me to turn to Apple.

Although I would have loved using that iMac ‘Magic Mouse’ or using that long battery Macbook or that beautiful iPhone etc etc but i am happy with my existing set of gadgets and don’t feel the need to expend unnecessarily over Apple’s high priced product line, just because that’s ‘cool’ or more ‘aesthetic’ and stuff like that.

But iPad has a different story altogether. When i think of consumer-oriented touch slate devices, i find no options but the iPad. It’s something that’s a little annoying to me as lack of options invites frustration to anyone (barring Apple Fanboys, of course) and we, the consumers are not used to having zero options. We choose, not accept !

Now, i admit that Apple has produced a futuristic device in the form of iPad and i would rather love falling for an iPad rather than waiting for HP or Acer or any other OEM to launch an iPad competitor.

But still, i am scared of buying an iPad. Not because…

• I hate iPad (i already said i love it!)
• I hate Apple (No, I admire Apple as a company for all its achievements and successfully building an absurdly religious cult)
• I hate Apple products(Again, i don’t hate Apple products. They’re too awesome to hate )

I am scared of buying iPad because i am scared of becoming yet another Absurdly religious Apple Fanboy !

It’s a human tendency to admire and defend what you own. It’s because you’re not defending the ‘product’ you bought, you are actually defending “your decision” of buying that product.

And i realize that once i buy an iPad, i won’t be able to stop myself showing it off to every other guy and explaining folks why this sleek gadget is ‘magical’, ‘revolutionary’ , ‘extraordinary’ etc etc, an early symptom of becoming a Fanboy.

I can foresee that soon after buying an iPad and unleashing its crafted beauty, i will turn so addicted with it that i will start wondering how was i bearing those clumsy, non-glittering, poorly designed ‘Non-Apple’ gadgets i had been using all along.

And eventually, I will replace my PC with an iMac, my Dell laptop with a Macbook and my Droid with an iPhone. In other words, i will surrender to the Cult of Mac by becoming a part of it. All this transition won’t happen immediately but once all my existing device approach their expiry, i won’t choose anything but Apple’s.

Although iPad would cost me just $499 or more but in a couple of years, i will transform into an ATM machine for Apple, who will be ready to spare hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on every product launched by Apple and plenty of apps, music and other stuff from iTunes.

Ultimately, i will start to prefer ‘Apple‘ over ‘Options‘, ‘Affordability‘ & ‘Openness’. I will become a devoted Apple Fanboy !

All the above thoughts scare me so much that i prefer abstaining from taking that first step(buying an iPad) towards the Black Hole(Apple’s Ecosystem).

As I am quite happy with my Android smartphone(Droid) so far, i would love to buy an Android Tablet/Slate, as and when it hits the shelves. Till then, I better avoid thinking about iPad anymore !

There’s something terrible happening behind Facebook right now, a blunder if not worst than that. Coming straight to the point, Facebook has blocked access to all bit.ly links spread across Facebook and telling the users that link has been reported “abusive” by other Facebook users.

If you try to update your status with a bit.ly link at this very moment, Facebook won’t let you do that. It says…

“This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think ...]]>

There’s something terrible happening behind Facebook right now, a blunder if not worst than that. Coming straight to the point, Facebook has blocked access to all bit.ly links spread across Facebook and telling the users that link has been reported “abusive” by other Facebook users.

If you try to update your status with a bit.ly link at this very moment, Facebook won’t let you do that. It says…

“This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.”

Bit.ly is the most popular URL shortener on web and there is no reason why Facebook would deliberately block all those tens of millions of existent bit.ly links on Facebook and prohibit any further bit.ly links from getting shared.

It is, of course, a huge blunder and some facebook employee is surely going to be screwed for making that mistake. We hope that Facebook will soon rectify the problem as too many folks must be reporting this problem to Facebook support every second at the moment.

We will update this post when Facebook fixes this bug !

Update: The bit.ly problem has been fixed by Facebook now.

Around a week back, i wrote a piece on Apple iPhone 4 and the gist of the post was that no matter how *magical* iPhone 4 is, it bears a flawed antenna design.

And now, the very trustworthy Consumer Reports has put a big stamp on the flawed iPhone 4 claim. As a result, they have removed iPhone 4 from their list of recommended phones. And that’s really a BIG deal.

After rigorous lab testing of the iPhone 4, test engineers at Consumer Reports confirmed that ...]]>

Around a week back, i wrote a piece on Apple iPhone 4 and the gist of the post was that no matter how *magical* iPhone 4 is, it bears a flawed antenna design.

And now, the very trustworthy Consumer Reports has put a big stamp on the flawed iPhone 4 claim. As a result, they have removed iPhone 4 from their list of recommended phones. And that’s really a BIG deal.

After rigorous lab testing of the iPhone 4, test engineers at Consumer Reports confirmed that iPhone 4 bears unusual levels of signal attenuation when held from the bottom, covering the lower right side of the phone, which is the most obvious position to hold any phone. Engineers also confirmed that the signal attenuation can deteriorate to a level where the voice/data communication may simply break off.

We all know Apple has done some remarkable innovations in the field of technology and immense success of iPod, iPhone and iPad undoubtedly validates this but that doesn’t guarantee that whatever innovations Apple brings to the table will be surely be groundbreaking and will be accepted without any objections.

In simpler words, anyone, no matter if that ‘anyone’ is as huge as Apple, can get wrong. It happened with Microsoft(Windows Vista), with Google(Wave) and has happened with any large-sized company in its history but the major difference here is that Apple is not willing to accept if any such problem really exists ?

As of now, all what Apple has to say about the Antenna flaw is that there is a problem with the way the signal bars are displayed on the phone and there is nothing wrong with the Antenna design or signal degradation when iPhone is held covering the right bottom side. With Apple’s claim that there isn’t any problem with iPhone 4 at all, Apple is only inviting more trouble than doing any good. Buyers are going furious and even Apple fanboys are not voicing in Apple’s favor.

As the problem is hardware based, the issue is likely to remain permanent and Apple will never be able to fix it by any software update. The only fix i can imagine now is Apple coming up with the next iPhone next year with the old, conventional antenna they used to have in earlier iPhones.

But whenever i think of this Antenna problem and how it could come into existence, it raises too many questions, all left unanswered.

With this new Antenna design, Apple introduced something that never existed before. In my opinion, any such hardware change must have called for heavy testing of phone’s signal performance and confirm if there’s any significant improvement with the new antenna design or not.

As of now, everyone(except Apple, of course) would agree that the new Antenna design did only bad rather than doing something good for Apple.

But at the same time, i can’t accept the fact that Apple tested, double tested, approved the new antenna design and went ahead with mass production and finally introduced (with full confidence) the iPhone 4 bearing new antenna design in front of the whole world ,without knowing about the Antenna flaw.

Apple “defending iPhone 4′s antenna issue after product release” sounds logical. If they won’t condemn media claims regarding flawed antenna design, they will soon see all their iPhone sales projections biting the dust.

But Apple “testing, approving and getting into mass production of iPhone 4 with a flawed design seems extremely unlikely to me. Were Apple’s engineers sleeping when prototype testing was happening ?

This is what could have possibly happened at the background !

Apple engineers came up with an innovative antenna design, aiming to outclass every conventional mobile device ever produced.

Apple’s engineering team went ahead with the prototype testing of the newly proposed antenna design.

Apple’s engineers approved the new antenna design with flying colors, somehow.

Apple gave green signal to iPhone 4′s mass production

While demo trials and field testing of iPhone 4 were going on, Apple did realize ‘something’ wrong with their design, with regard to handling it in certain manner.

As Apple couldn’t afford to back out due to heavy investment and deadline was hitting them hard too, so they came up with an alternative, offering “bumpers”, at a price of course.

Apple went ahead with the flawed design, taking users for granted and underestimating worst consequences.

Rest is all we know very well.

The only thing going in Apple’s favor here is that Apple’s product cycle isn’t too long to worry about. Since the arrival of iPhone in 2007, Apple has never missed the track and has consistently delivered an evolved iPhone to the market, year after year. This has kept the sales momentum going for Apple and Apple is most likely to continue so in the future.

Next year, Apple will most likely switch back to conventional antenna design in iPhone 5 and till then, Apple might choose to keep resisting any claims over Antenna reception, avoid any negative discussions and will try drifting attention of users over other highlights of iPhone 4 such as FaceTime and 720p video recording with glittering commercials, thereby minimizing harm caused due to negative publicity through various media channels around antenna flaws.

Smart Apple!

Ever since i jumped into blogging bandwagon, one thing that kept me fascinated and enthusiastic about blogging was the endless possibilities it had.

If you’re a working professional and have taken up blogging as your hobby or part-time activity, you always carry a desire at the back of your mind and that is, to become a Full-time blogger, someday.

In other words, you aspire to make enough money from your creative writing skills, good enough that it would allow you to kick off you job and let you live your ...]]>

Ever since i jumped into blogging bandwagon, one thing that kept me fascinated and enthusiastic about blogging was the endless possibilities it had.

If you’re a working professional and have taken up blogging as your hobby or part-time activity, you always carry a desire at the back of your mind and that is, to become a Full-time blogger, someday.

In other words, you aspire to make enough money from your creative writing skills, good enough that it would allow you to kick off you job and let you live your life the way you could only dream while working 9-to-6 day job.

More time, more money and most importantly, lots of Work satisfaction !

As blogging doesn’t offer too many promises and only handful of passionate folks actually turn it into their full-time profession, it’s certainly an achievement for anyone who decides to ditch his job for a full-time blogging career, that too when that ‘safe’ job is paying him off well over Rs.1 lakh($2200+) a month. It takes a lot of guts to do that !

I am talking about Raag Vamdatt, a Personal finance and Investment advisor, who recently kissed goodbye to his lavish job, only to pursue his passion. Raam Vamdatt is now one of those handful of Full-time bloggers that belong to India.

Raag blogs about personal finance, investments, tax queries, financial planning and whole bunch of financial topics you could possibly think of. And after going through couple of his articles, i find no surprises to hear that he has now turned his ‘hobby’ into a full-time career.

To know more about his journey to becoming a Full-time blogger and how a Job guy transformed into a Solopreneur, i threw at him a volley of questions to answer.

Take a look at his responses…especially if you ever wish to become a Full-time blogger anytime soon.

Q. When exactly did you start blogging. And what really inspired you to start blogging for the first time ?

When I was working as a business analyst with an information technology company, I had lots of friends from the technology side – I observed that they earned well, and being typical Indians, saved well too. However, they didn’t know how to invest well. They just bought some arbitrary insurance policies in February / March in order to save some income tax – at the advise of some insurance “advisors”.

I had good knowledge about the India markets, and I knew I had a firm grip on investment fundamentals. So I thought – why not use that to educate others about better ways of investing and planning their finances?

That is how I started RaagVamdatt.com in end-2007, and started a Hindi personal finance website PaisaPlanner in end-2009.

Q. Did you start blogging as a ‘hobby’ or you had strong conviction about turning ‘Blogging’ as a ‘Full time profession’ from day one ?

It started purely as a hobby – not even in my dreams did I imagine leaving my job for it someday! Yes, I had some advertising on the blog from the very beginning, but it was just to earn some money on the side so that I could pay for the domain name, hosting, etc.

Q. Tell us about the roadblocks/hiccups/compromises you had to deal with, while managing your day job with blogging.

I started the blog when I was in the USA. There, my employers offered very good work-life balance, which means that I could leave office at 5.00 – 5.30pm. That gave me good 4 – 5 hours at home to work on the blog. Of course, my wife had to compromise as she had to give up her time with me, but she was always very encouraging and supportive.

The situation changed when I had a son – of course, the time I had to give at home increased many-fold. So, the frequency of posting went down.

And then, I moved to India. As you would be aware, we are not big on work-life balance here in India. I was spending late hours at work, and that has a direct impact on the blog – I didn’t post anything meaningful for 3 straight months!

The blog is very dear to my heart, and I have a firm belief that I can make a difference through it by offering quality advise to people like you and me. Therefore, this situation was very painful for me.

I had to sacrifice one – either my blogs, or my job. And thats when I decided to sacrifice the latter.

Q. It must be a really tough decision to quit a lavish job (Salary of over 1 lakh/$2200 per month), relying solely on your blogging revenues, especially when you’ve several responsibilities to care about. Tell us more about that.

You can bet it was tough!

I knew I loved the blogs, and I loved what I was doing there. Still, leaving the job was a tough call, especially with the responsibility of a child. However, I knew I wanted to keep the blogs growing, and couldn’t do that along with the job. I did some calculations, and figured that I could take 2 years off to dedicate to my blogs and see if I can convert then into a profession.

When I realized that I would work full time on my blogs, I didn’t really have to convince my wife as she had seen me work hard for the last 2.5 years on the blogs and had seen the progress very closely. She knew my passion, and therefore I had her complete buy-in.

The tough part was to convince my parents and parents-in-law – parents on both sides have been in secure, government jobs all their lives, and it was difficult for them to digest that I was leaving a steady paycheck for the unknown. They never doubted my capability or the potential of the blogs, but still, the very idea of leaving a job was alien to them. But fortunately, I was able to convince them!

Q. On an average, how much revenues do you generate from blogging ?

Well, the income right now is peanuts – its more like 75K per year! But lets remember that this is what I was getting with part time effort, and without any advertising of my financial planning service.

Now, I would be reaching out to many more people in order to promote my services. Plus, I am introducing many more services, like training services in personal finance. I am also in the process of creating many info-products in the personal finance space.

Q. Tell us about anything you achieved with blogging that’s worth mentioning ?

The best thing that has happened to me is the response I have received from people – I have got tremendous satisfaction from guiding people and pointing them in the right direction. The numerous emails and comments praising my work is my biggest achievement!

Q. Now that you’ve become a full-time blogger, how do you foresee your future from here.

Well, I talked about some of it earlier – I have launched or am in the process of launching many new products and services.

Apart from that, I would also be more aggressive on my Hindi personal finance website www.PaisaPlanner.com, which is India’s first Hindi website on personal finance. I figure that through the Hindi website, I can spread the message of financial literacy to a very wide audience.

Q. How do you rate Indians among the whole blogosphere ?

To be frank, so far I haven’t got the time to network much with bloggers – Indian or otherwise. So, I don’t know too many of them.

But from what I see, we are a little behind. I mean, we don’t see an Indian in the top, A-list bloggers. I can think of Ramit Sethi, but he isn’t an “Indian” blogger – he’s an American blogger of Indian origin!

Q. Are you confident that you will never go back to ‘Job’ anytime soon ? If yes, what brings this confidence in you ?

I am quite certain about this. I have a passion for personal finance, and a passion for spreading good financial practices among common people. And I know I would be doing my best. Wherever there is passion, money follows. Which means no going back to a day job!

Q. Any advice/tips for all the aspiring bloggers out there ?

Never give up! I strongly believe that if you really like what you are writing about, it would take you places some day… So, hang in there, come what may!

Over the past week or so, i have been hearing about iPhone 4, iPhone 4 and just iPhone 4(and i guess, i am not the only one).

Most of the elite technology bloggers are always ready with some hot-cooked story relating to iPhone 4, whether that story revolves around reviewing the iPhone 4 or detailing every single feature that’s been introduced in the new iPhone.

But for the first time, iPhone has got trapped into a serious problem, the Antenna problem. It has been so widely reported on ...]]>

Over the past week or so, i have been hearing about iPhone 4, iPhone 4 and just iPhone 4(and i guess, i am not the only one).

Most of the elite technology bloggers are always ready with some hot-cooked story relating to iPhone 4, whether that story revolves around reviewing the iPhone 4 or detailing every single feature that’s been introduced in the new iPhone.

But for the first time, iPhone has got trapped into a serious problem, the Antenna problem. It has been so widely reported on internet by now that just about everyone has heard about it or actually experienced it (early iPhone 4 buyers).

As thousands of people have already demonstrated with their iPhone 4 units that the signal attenuation problem does exist, there is no reason trusting Apple when it says that its just the signal bar display issue, nothing else.

Actually, Apple has brutally crushed all the hopes of Apple enthusiasts who were dreaming of some magical, revolutionary solution to this Antenna design problem from Apple.

Apple has committed to release an update in a couple of weeks to fix this issue but actually, the problem is most likely to remain as it is today. The software update will basically reduce the signal bars, displayed at any given time and location in an iPhone 4 but it will not improve the signal strength(which basically enables you voice/data calling), neither will it improve the abrupt degradation of signal that occurs when you hold the iPhone 4 touching its lower left side.

Now, all those Apple Fanboys who used to boast iPhone like a magic device are themselves blaming Apple for a flawed antenna design, a revolutionary design that doesn’t even allow users to hold the phone normally.

I’m sure that Apple won’t be able to recover so easily from all this fuss. The massive 1.7Mn unit sales that iPhone 4 had during first three days of its launch must have already dropped sharply by now and future sales aren’t looking extremely good(as predicted by everyone earlier) as well. I suspect that future iPhone buyers will likely choose to be safe than sorry.

It’s good to have a phone that’s sleek, stylish, sexy, comes with a superb camera, great resolution, 720p video making, Facetime(WiFi based video calling), cool apps etc..etc but what’s the use if you have to hold the phone abnormally, just to get a voice call through.

Evolution is about turning impossible things possible, not the other way round.

Simultaneously, i can imagine the big smile on the faces of leading android phone manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung with the plight of Apple. This satirical advertisement of Droid X gives a living proof of that.

And from my own experience with Motorola Droid, i would love putting money over the bigger 4.3 incher, 8MP brother of Droid, the Droid X, rather than even thinking of buying the Magical, the Revolutionary the flawed iPhone 4.

As a final word, Apple will regret the Antenna design they introduced in iPhone 4 and will go back to the conventional Antenna design in iPhone 5, without compromising on the aesthetics of the iPhone. That’s the only way out for Apple now!

Go buy the ‘ugly’ bumpers, fanboys !

Just a couple of days back, more than 126 countries celebrated Earth Hour 2010 together, by switching off lights for one hour, thereby making their stand against climate change, especially Global Warming. The event proved to be the biggest Earth Hour till date and such events are a symbol of human efforts to preserve environment and keep it green.

But another critical area where simple efforts from end consumers can make the difference and help keeping environment cleaner and greener is e-Waste Recycling.

As most of the electrical ...]]>

Just a couple of days back, more than 126 countries celebrated Earth Hour 2010 together, by switching off lights for one hour, thereby making their stand against climate change, especially Global Warming. The event proved to be the biggest Earth Hour till date and such events are a symbol of human efforts to preserve environment and keep it green.

But another critical area where simple efforts from end consumers can make the difference and help keeping environment cleaner and greener is e-Waste Recycling.

As most of the electrical and electronic equipments have a limited life-span, they are bound to be replaced with a new equipment after a couple of years. Heavy consumer electronics such as Air conditioner or refrigerator have much longer lifespan and it is probable that you will not throw such heavy electronic equipment into the dustbin but get it replaced/resold to the traders/manufacturers at a cheap price. This way, heavy consumer electronics keeps getting reused/recycled among the end consumers, which is a good thing from environment’s standpoint.

But that’s not the case with short-lived electronic items such as mobile phones. As most of the end consumers using a mobile phone are most probable to get a new and more advanced smartphone every 18 months or so, the consumers don’t really bother about how they dump their old handset.

As mobile phones constitute considerable quantities of toxic elements such as Arsenic, Mercury, Cadmium, Palladium, lead and Beryllium, an improper disposal can cause prodigious water pollution and environmental imbalance. In majority of cases, the phone gets dumped into the dustbin and ends up polluting thousands of gallons of water and enormous harm to aquatic life.

Solution ?

Recycle your old mobile phones, help keeping environment clean and get paid for doing it as well. Here’s how…

There are plenty of Mobile Phone Recycling resources available on the web, where you simply list your old mobile phone and get it recycled by them. This will get you a decent price for your old phone along with a satisfaction of doing good for the environment.

Companies such as Mazuma Mobile even offer direct money deposit in your bank account in case you get your mobile phone recycled through them, which eventually makes it more comfortable for users to get paid for recycling their old handsets.

So next time, you plan to buy your new smartphone and dump your old handset, you know a smarter and environmental-friendly way of dumping it. Just get it recycled.

Note: The following article is a guest post authored by one of the tech folks at Storagepipe.

Over recent years, businesses have been increasingly struggling with the emerging challenges of exponential data growth.

15 years ago, managing growing email storage wasn’t such a big problem. You could simply set maximum storage limits on user accounts, and enforce deletion policies to maintain small email archives.

But then, a few things changed almost simultaneously: