Google Glass - How worth is it ?

Explorer Edition upgrades to 2GB of RAM in the US and UK. Is it worth the price now?

Google Glass is the controversial wearable that still its sci-looking beta testers turning heads and being peppered with questions a year and a half after the first invites started rolling out to developers. How does it work? What does it feel like? And, of course the inevitable, well, can I try it?

The increasing number of Google Glass invites has led to Project Glass being open to everyone in the US and now the UK, so curious, tech-savvy early adopters can answer most of these questions on their own.

It a little easier to say "yes" to Glass now that it's been upgraded with more memory and new apps that came out in time for Google IO. There's a speedier 2GB of RAM on board instead of 1GB and 12 new apps including Shazam and Live Stream. The Google Glass app list is officially over the 50 apps hump.

But there's one query all prospective Glass owners all struggling with right now at checkout: is Google Glass worth it?

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4vyBswDQvg

To answer that burning question, I turned a critical eye to Google's wearable computer and tested its Explorer Edition of Google Glass for nine months. It also upgraded to the brand new 2GB model.

With the sound of my voice, I took hands-free photos by saying "Okay Glass, take a picture." I instructed it to upload the resulting point-of-view image to Twitter and Facebook and attached a caption, all with voice commands.

I saw flight information automatically beam to my eye with a gentle Google Now reminder the day before traveling. The weather for both my departure and destination cities, and directions to the airport were already being provided by this instinctual software. All of this data appeared in the top right corner of my vision, all without the need to take out my smartphone.

Google has continued to make the complicated ownership decision easier by adding more to its Explorer Edition heads-up display. In addition to the new 2GB version, an update late last year saw a tweaked form factor that made prescription glasses compatible with attachable frames.

Google has even been throwing in a free pair of frames or premium shades with all new orders since mid-April. Moreover, new apps and updates to the linear operating system that weren't available at launch make the current Google Glass Explorer Edition a tempting buy.

Still, this new Project Glass model is better at addition than subtraction. While features have been added, the price hasn't dropped in a year. At $1,500 (£1,000, about AU$1,589) plus tax, Google's experimental wearable is exorbitantly priced for the average person. It's also best if you're an Android, not an Apple person.

Compatibility with the iPhone has improved thanks to the launch of an iOS MyGlass app and the ability to read text messages, but it stops short of tapping into Glass' hands-free SMS response capabilities. Maps navigation also requires MyGlass to be open on the iPhone, not in the background. All of these features are missing for Windows Phone 8 users entirely, though technically any Bluetooth phone can offer Glass tethered data with a personal hotspot enabled.

Google Glass is very much a prototype, even after more than 18 months of being in the hands and on the faces of tens of thousands of beta testers.

But that's partly why this out-of-reach, futuristic-looking curiosity is so fascinating, despite, or possibly because of the massive cost to your Google Wallet (that's actually how you have to pay for Google Glass). Peoples' mind=blown reaction, more so than snapping photos hands-free and getting directions that turn with your head, makes whomever is donning Google Glass a walking wonder.

How to get Google Glass

Google undoubtedly wanted Glass in the hands of developers who will make the experience better, more so than curious individuals who want it for personal use. Therefore, developers were the first to qualify for Google Glass invites.

Now it's for sale to anyone living in the US and UK. Google threw Project Glass into open enrollment for 24 hours on April 15 and then permanently made it available a month later. Good things come to those who wait, too. All new Google Glass models come with free frames for prescription glasses or a free sunglasses shade attachment that typically costs $225 (£175, about AU$239).

Signing up for the normal Google Glass waitlist in June of 2013 after Google IO gave me access to an Explorer Edition beta code in November, while my friend who registered in December received an invite less than three weeks in January. That alone shows how much easier it became to receive an invitation.

Strict rules still limit who can ultimately take advantage of the invite code and purchase a prototype. For example, you must be 18 years old and a US or UK resident, so adults living in the other parts of Europe or Australia aren't eligible. These age and country-specific rules are still in place.

The fit

Google Glass now ships to US and UK addresses, though the company still encourages beta testers to pick it up in person at its New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles offices. In the UK, "base camp" is in King's Cross, London. But across the pond in LA, specifically Venice Beach, is where I went for my "fitting experience" with a friendly Glass guide named Frank.

The Google employee helped with my Google Glass unboxing, adjusted the nose pads, tweaked the delicate nose stems and shaped the malleable titanium head band until it didn't sit so crooked on my face.

Within ten minutes it looked perfect, or at least as perfect as one can appear with a wearable computer sitting on their face.

The look

Though pliable, the titanium head band remains durable as it stretches from ear to ear. It runs alongside a plastic casing that hides Glass' key components and gives it an overall clean look. This subtle style makes the exposed parts like the camera lens in the front stand out even more - for better or worse.

Everyone's attention is also immediately drawn to the adjacent cube-shaped glass prism that sits above the right eye. It has an acceptable 640 x 360 resolution and hangs just out of the way of the wearer's line of sight. For the wearer, this personalized display acts as a much bigger screen, one that's equivalent to a 25-inch HDTV sitting eight feet away.

The Google Glass dimensions are 5.25-inches at its widest point and 8-inches at its longest point. It's too long and wide to fit into my pocket, even though I've been able to carry a Nexus 7 tablet in my jeans' back pocket with a little squeeze.

Society has banned fanny packs and the titanium head band doesn't collapse, so storage options are limited. When out and about it's either on my face or in the complementary case, which I stow in a backpack. There's no in-between.

The new Google Glass is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor, and the fact that it comes in the same colors doesn't help you tell them apart. The options are black, orange, gray, white and blue. Or, as the Glass guides insisted: charcoal, tangerine, shale, cotton and sky.

Charcoal and cotton, the two non-color colors, appear to be the most popular, as they were initially sold out when I first entered my invite code to buy Google Glass. Luckily, before my seven-day invite expired, both options became available and I chose white. The choice made online actually didn't matter until I got to the on-site appointment. I was given one last chance to switch colors during the moment of truth.

The glaring exception to Glass' svelte design is the battery that rests behind the right ear and juts out rather noticeably. It's too big, yet it's not big enough for a full day's charge. Battery performance did improve with the Android KitKat update in April, but more power from this energy-eating wearable is still a priority of Explorers.

The feel

Even with the bulkiness of the battery and durable frame, Google Glass is extremely lightweight and comfortable resting on my face. It weights just 42 grams (1.48 oz) and because everything, including the screen, is just out of my line of sight I often forget I'm wearing it.

At first, Google Glass did give me slight headaches as I strained my right eye to focus on the tiny prism in the top right corner of my vision. The team at the Venice headquarters did forewarn me about temporary Google Glass headaches, instructing me not to use Glass for more than a few hours the first couple of days. It's incredibly unnatural to have just one eye focus on a screen while the other goes without use, but my eyes and brain adjusted to the phenomenon in a few days to the point where it's now intuitive.

Like a modern smartphone, there are few physical buttons and ports on Google Glass. That's because most of the interaction is done via a long 3.25-inch touchpad on the right side. Underneath the touchpad is a micro USB port for charging the device and on the top is a camera button that's great for quick snaps in noisy environments.

The most discreet button is tucked away on the inside on the touchpad and near the temple. Giving it a light press turns Google Glass on and powers up the all-important apps.

Mobile Application Development

Building your first mobile app can be a challenging experience. To get you started I’ve compiled this introductory guide.

Did you wake up this morning with a creative idea for the perfect mobile app? One that nobody else has thought of before, and that you are certain will be very popular?

The only problem is, you don’t know how to even begin designing and building an app! Never fear — read this brief guide on the key steps to bring your mobile app idea from your imagination to smartphone screens everywhere.

Step 1: Define Your Goal

Having a great idea is the starting point into every new project. Before you go straight into detailing though, you must clearly define the purpose and mission of your mobile app. What is it going to do? What is its core appeal? What concrete problem is it going to solve, or what part of life is it going to make better?

Defining a clear goal for the app is also going to help you get there faster.

Step 2: Start Sketching

By developing sketches you are laying the foundation for your future interface. In this step you visually conceptualize the main features and the approximate layout and structure of your application.

Having a first rough sketch of your app helps everyone on your team understand the mission. These sketches should be used as reference for the next phase of the project.

Step 3: Research

This research has four main purposes:

1. Find out whether there are other apps doing the same thing
2. Find design inspiration for your app
3. Find information on the technical requirements for your app
4. Find out how you can market and monetize your app

While you may think that you have a revolutionary idea, you may get your hopes crushed very quickly. There are more than 1 million apps for Android and iOS, so building something that hasn’t been done before is nearly impossible. Nonetheless you must not get discouraged by those who may playing in the same arena. It is imperative that you focus on your own project and your user acquisition. Learn from the key features and mistakes of your competitors, and drop all other thoughts about them.

There is a great marketplace for designers called Dribbble. Designers use Dribbble to showcase their work to others for feedback and to get inspiration from fellow artists. It is probably my favorite place to look for ideas about design and implementation. 

This is also the right time to look into the technical aspects of your mobile app. Find out what your requirements are and get a clear picture of whether your idea is truly feasible or not from a technical standpoint. In most cases there will be an alternative solution to proceed on a slightly different route. This research extends into legal restrictions like copyright and privacy questions, giving you a complete understanding of your situation.

If you have connections in the industry, get an expert opinion on your idea right from the start.

Two other important points are marketing and monetization. Now that you have confirmed the feasibility of your app, you should think about your strategy of getting it out onto the market. Determine your niche — know exactly how you can reach your target user and how you need to approach him to make him see the value and use the app.

Another important consideration is figuring out how your app is going to generate money. Will you charge your user to download it? Or will you offer the app for free but run ads on it? This model would require a large user base, so think about that as well.

There are various ways to monetize an app and it is up to you to decide on the channel you want to use.

Step 4: Create a Wireframe and Storyboard

In this phase your ideas and features fuse into a clearer picture. Wireframing is the process of creating a mockup or prototype of your app. You can find a number of prototyping tools online. The most popular ones are Balsamiq, Moqups, and HotGloo, which allows you to not only drag and drop all your placeholders and representative graphics into place, but also add button functionality so that you can click through your app in review mode.

While you are working on your wireframes you should also create a storyboard for your app. The idea is to build a roadmap that will help you understand the connection between each screen and how the user can navigate through your app.

Step 5: Define the Back End of Your Mobile App

Your wireframes and storyboard now become the foundation of your back-end structure. Draw a sketch of your servers, APIs, and data diagrams. This will be a helpful reference for the developer, and as more people join the project you will have a (mostly) self-explanatory diagram for them to study.

Modify your wireframes and storyboard according to technical limitations, if there are any.

Step 6: Test Your Prototype

Revert to your wireframes and ask friends, family, colleagues, and experts to help you review your prototype. Grant them access to the wireframe and have them give your app a test run. Ask them for their honest feedback and to identify flaws and dead-end links. If possible, invite them to your studio and have them try out the prototype in front of you. Monitor how they use the app, taking note of their actions and adapting your UI/UX to them.

Step 7: Build the Back End of Your App

Now that your app has been defined pretty clearly, it is time to get started on the back end of your system. Your developer will have to set up servers, databases, APIs, and storage solutions.

Another important thing on your to-do list at this stage is signing up for developer accounts at the app marketplaces you are developing for. Getting your account approved may take several days (depending on the platform) and shouldn’t be left to the last minute.

Step 8: Design the App “Skins”

“Skins” are what designers/developers call the individual screens needed for the app. Your designer’s job is now to come up with high-resolution versions of what were previously your wireframes.

Step 9: Test Again (Yes, Again)

Once your designer has completed the design skins, you’re up for another round of testing. Don’t think that you are all set with what you’ve done so far. For the first time you have your actual app concept completely in place, all the graphics inserted, and all text as it should be. Which means you can finally test your app in the way it will really look and feel.

To test your app, two great testing apps come to mind:Solidify and Framer. These apps allow you to import your app designs and add links where needed to test the flow from screen to screen.

Don’t confuse this stage with Step 6 (wireframing). At first it was about creating the basic look and feel of the app. Here you’ve implemented the actual design and made it clickable.

10: Revise and Continue to Build

Once you’ve given your design a test drive and collected more feedback from future users, you should use these new ideas to polish your app idea. You can still ask your designer to change the layout, and you can still tell your developer to change something on the back end.

This step is the last step in the app development process. You can monitor your app all the way until your product is complete.

Step 12: Release Time!

App marketplaces have very different policies when it comes to publishing a new app. Android, for example, does not review newly submitted apps right away. They’ll pass by at some point and check it out but you are able to instantly add your app to Google Play.

iOS, once again, is different here. Apple reserves the right to review and approve your app before it can go live. There is no set timeframe for this, but you can expect at least a week before you hear back from them.

To overcome this hold there is something else you can do: submit your app toPreApps. As you can probably guess from its name, PreApps is an app marketplace that gives developers the opportunity to reach early adopters (a.k.a. “lead users” — people who like to be first at trying out new inventions) and receive some of the very earliest feedback on your masterpiece.

Once you’ve gotten your app listed on the app stores of choice, it is time to market your app and get it seen, but that’s a topic for a whole other future article!

Managing Your Cash Flow Better in 2015

Looking forward to growing your business this year? Cash flow forecasting can help you better manage the financial side of your business so you can help your company thrive.

Every small-business owner knows that cash flow management is critical, but it's likely to be even more important in 2015.

As we gear up for managing our businesses this year, a wide variety of factors will drive the importance of effective cash flow management, including the volatility of the capital markets, tightening commercial lending standards, the political uncertainty in Washington and the pockets of global unrest around the world.  Customers who sense this level of volatility may hold on to their money for longer periods of time, which means your ability to get paid and have cash in hand will be delayed. 

Learn By Example

So what can you do to improve your business's cash flow? This hypothetical example offers some key insights.

Let's imagine you own a small, well-established catering company. You get a call one day to provide the food and beverages for a very large, high-profile wedding. The client gives you a 10 percent deposit, and you and your team immediately start planning the menu (the overhead costs for your time and effort are already chipping away at the deposit). Your projected revenue on the event is Rs100,000 (nice!), and your target profit after labor, food and other costs have been paid will be almost Rs25,000 (even nicer!). 

Then the big day arrives, and you're already thinking about all the things you'll do with that Rs25,000 profit. But as the reception is winding down, the bride’s father pulls you aside and tells you that he just lost his job and will need some extra time to pay the catering bills. He apologizes profusely, but you're furious. Your staff all expects to be paid this evening, and your food vendors will be clamoring for their payments by Monday.

On an accrual basis, you look great on paper: revenue of Rs100,000, Rs75,000 in costs and a very healthy Rs25,000 profit. But on a cash basis, this situation could cripple or even destroy your company.

So what could you have done differently to avoid this mess?

• Have an operating line of credit in place with a local bank in anticipation of these cash-flow gaps
• Have working capital in place to anticipate the “delta” between revenues booked and cash received so costs can be covered
• Get your clients to pay you progress payments and/or a larger deposit in anticipation of this contingency
• Get your clients to sign a promissory note and assign/factor it with a third party to “liberate” some cash as soon as possible
• Build business models and cash-flow forecasts to avoid being blindsided by your customer’s miseries

The first four ideas are pretty straightforward, but if you've never done any cash flow forecasting, learning how will help you improve your cash flow management.

Cash Flow Forecasting 101

Business forecasting in general involves peering into the future to get some degree of predictability based on the norms of your industry, your business model and your prior operating history as well as the historical and current trends in the economy. Forecasting your cash flow can help you better manage the risks of growing a business.

For small-business owners, putting together an accurate forecast of the working capital you'll need to survive and thrive can be an arduous task. How can you predict sales, cash flow and expenses for the next 12 months in an uncertain, rollercoaster-type economy? How can you spot red flags and warning signs ahead of the curve and be in a position to take remedial action before it's too late? Forecasting starts with a proper definition of the term as well as creating an infrastructure to keep you focused and on track to meet your goals.

The best approach to cash flow forecasting isn't to create a single plan but rather one plan with three possible scenarios: worst-case scenario, best-case scenario and something in between, often known as “expected case” scenario. To create these three scenarios, you need to identify and understand the dynamics of the key variables that will influence your business. These variables may include your typical sales cycle, degrees of customer satisfaction, the entry of new competitors or the reliability of your products or services. Keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the marketplace is also key to successful cash flow forecasting—your goal is to be proactive and not reactive. Be a business news “junkie,” and pay careful attention to economic news, market updates and industry developments to determine how it may affect your cash flow.

A well-drafted cash flow forecast should also address how much money your company will need to implement its business plan over the next 12 to 18 months and why. It should carefully anticipate when you need to pay your bills and compare it to how and when your customers typically pay you. It should also demonstrate when the various capital levels will be required, since many investors and lenders will prefer to invest or lend in stages as milestones are met rather than giving your company all the money on a lump sum basis. 

The forecast should also include any major expenditures you're planning and why you believe they're necessary for a company at your stage. This section should be broken down into at least three different scenarios reflecting differing funding levels at the bottom, middle and upper ranges of the capital you're seeking since it's unlikely you'll be able to raise the exact amount of money you require or cover these costs from your internal cash flow.

Getting Down to Work

The key to preparing effective cash flow forecasts is to have clear and detailed footnotes that explain your underlying assumptions and the variables—the key factors and sources of data you relied upon in arriving at these conclusions—that affect these assumptions. The more accurate your forecast, the better you'll know whether you'll need credit cards, operating lines of credit or other sources of funding to cover the gap between money in hand and money out the door.

These tips to take away and common mistakes to avoid can help you create a cash flow forecast that helps your business thrive:

• Don't underestimate your cost projections, especially in the area of personnel expenses. Small and growing companies often grossly underestimate these expenses. Be sure to include all costs associated with human resources such as headhunter fees, benefits, technology, resources and office space, not just salaries and projected bonuses.
• Understand your key reserve drivers and the variables that affect actual performances. If people/time is your chief revenue driver, make sure your projections match up with your current personnel. Are you sure you'll be able to attract and retain additional personnel as you grow? Your strategy must match the numbers.
• Understand the financial and cash flow needs of the source of your “cash flow gap” lenders. For commercial banks, make sure your projections and cash flows match up with the schedule of debt service payments. Don’t force fit your projections into a third party’s perceived cash flow needs or their expected rates of return. Your numbers will either meet their needs or they won’t. A little bit of tweaking is fine, but don’t do a major overhaul or get too aggressive just because you think that's the only way they'll lend you money. 
• Know the numbers for your competitors and your industry overall. Does your cash flow forecast fit with applicable and relevant key industry ratios? Why or why not? Where are you stronger than the norm? Weaker? Why? Bankers and lenders that regularly provide capital to your industry will be very familiar with these numbers, and you need to be as well.
• The focus on your business plan must match up consistently with your stated capital needs and projected cash flow. These are often called the “critical linkages” between the body of the business plan and the cash flow forecasts, and they must smoothly fit together. For example, your sales forecast should fit with your marketing budget. Your new product development plans must fit your research and development budget. A sophisticated reader will spot gaps between the words and the numbers early on, and when they do, you'll lose your credibility.
• Don’t rely too heavily on outside advisors or software programs when preparing your cash flow forecasts. Prospective lenders want to know how you arrived at these conclusions, not how some consultant or software program got you there. Use your advisors as editors and sounding boards but not as primary draftsmen.
• Give yourself enough of a working capital cushion. It's very costly to go back to the source of capital for additional funds prematurely or in between expected rounds. Leave room for error in your projections so you don't run out of cash too soon.

Your ability to measure costs and financial data directly affects your ability to manage your company based on this data. To create a growing, thriving business, you must be able to contain and control costs, keep debt low on the balance sheet, manage rapid sales growth, increase profit margins, build multiple reserve streams and strong earnings, and position your company for additional rounds of capital at higher valuations.

These critical drivers for continued business growth will all depend on the systems and procedures you put in place to measure and monitor performance. Learning to create realistic cash flow forecasts is a critical step on the road to business success.

what we want to see from Windows 10 on Wednesday

what we want to see from Windows 10 on Wednesday

I've been a Business Man

Would you consider yourself a success? An insightful look at what it really takes to be a successful business owner.

I've been a Business Man most of my adult life. Recently, on a long business flight, I began thinking about what it takes to become successful as a Business Man—and how I would even define the meaning “success” itself. The two ideas became more intertwined in my thinking: success as a Business Man, Business Man success.

I've given a lot of talks over the years on the subject of Business Man ship. The first thing I find I have to do is to dispel the persistent myth that Business Man success is all about innovative thinking and breakthrough ideas. I've found that Business Man success usually comes through great execution.

But what else does it take to succeed as a Business Man—and how should a Business Man define success? Here's my top 10 list, in descending order, for success:

How to Be a Success

10. You must be passionate about what you're trying to achieve. This means you’re willing to sacrifice a large part of your waking hours to the idea you’ve come up with. Passion will ignite the same intensity in the others who join you as you build a team to succeed in this endeavor. And with passion, both your team and your customers are more likely to truly believe in what you are trying to do.

9. Focus intensely on your opportunity. This focus and intensity helps to eliminate wasted effort and distractions. Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation—in other words, companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well. Stay focused on the mission.

8. Success only comes from hard work. We all know that there is no such thing as overnight success. Behind every overnight success lies years of hard work and sweat. People with luck will tell you there’s no easy way to achieve success—and that luck comes to those who work hard. Successful Business Mans always give 100 percent of their efforts to everything they do. If you know you are giving your best effort, you’ll never have any reason for regrets. Keep your focus on things you can control.

7. the road to success is going to be long, so remember to enjoy the journey. Everyone will teach you to focus on goals, but successful people focus on the journey and celebrate the milestones along the way. Is it worth spending a large part of your life trying to reach the destination if you didn’t enjoy the journey along the way? Won’t the team you attract to join your mission also enjoy the journey more as well? Wouldn’t it be better for all of you to have the time of your life during the journey, even if the destination is never reached?

6. Trust your gut instinct more than any spreadsheet. There are too many variables in the real world that you simply can’t put into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets spit out results from your inexact assumptions and give you a false sense of security. In most cases, your heart and gut are still your best guide. We’ve all had experiences in business where our heart told us something was wrong while our brain was still trying to use logic to figure it all out. Sometimes a faint voice based on instinct resonates far more strongly than overpowering logic.

5. Be flexible but persistent. Every Business Man has to be agile in order to perform. You have to continually learn and adapt as new information becomes available. At the same time you have to remain persistent to the cause and mission of your enterprise. That’s where that faint voice becomes so important, especially when it is giving you early warning signals that things are going off-track. Successful Business Mans find the balance between listening to that voice and staying persistent in driving for success—because sometimes success is waiting right across from the transitional bump that’s disguised as failure.

4. Rely on your team. It’s a simple fact: No individual can be good at everything. Everyone needs people around them who have complementary skill sets. Business Mans are an optimistic bunch of people and it’s very hard for them to believe that they are not good at certain things. It takes a lot of soul searching to find your own core skills and strengths. After that, find the smartest people you can who complement your strengths. It’s easy to get attracted to people who are like you; the trick is to find people who are not like you but who are good at what they do—and what you can’t do.

3. Execution, execution, execution. Unless you are the smartest person on earth, it’s likely that many others have thought about doing the same thing you’re trying to do. Success doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling. All of us have seen Business Mans who waste too much time writing business plans and preparing PowerPoints. I believe that a business plan is too long if it’s more than one page. Besides, things never turn out the way you envisioned them. No matter how much time you spend perfecting the plan, you still have to adapt according to the ground realities. You’re going to learn a lot more useful information from taking action rather than hypothesizing. Remember—stay flexible and adapt as new information becomes available.

2. be honest and show integrity. I can’t imagine anyone ever achieving long-term success without having honesty and integrity. These two qualities need to be at the core of everything we do. Everybody has a conscience—but too many people stop listening to it. There is always that faint voice that warns you when you are not being completely honest or even slightly off track from the path of integrity. Be sure to listen to that voice.

1. Appreciate your success by giving back. Don't ever forget this part, arguably the most important part, of defining yourself as a true success. By the time you achieve your success, lots of people will have helped you along the way. You’ll learn, as I have, that you rarely get a chance to help the people who helped you because in most cases, you don’t even know who they were. The only way to pay back the debts we owe is to help people we can help—and hope they will go on to help more people. When we are successful, we draw so much from the community and society that we live in, we should think in terms of how we can help others in return. It’s our responsibility to do “good” with the resources we have available.  

How to Measure Success?

Hopefully, you have internalized the 10 lessons of becoming a successful Business Man. The next question you are likely to ask yourself is: How do we measure success? Success, of course, is very personal; there is no universal way of measuring success. What do successful people like Bill Gates and Mother Teresa have in common? On the surface, it’s hard to find anything they share—and yet both are successful. I personally believe the real metric of success isn’t the size of your bank account. It’s the number of lives where you might be able to make a positive difference. This is the measure of success we need to apply while we are on our journey to success.

torrent is safe to use

With the influx of new p2p movie streaming apps like Popcorn Time, and a system for copyright infringement notices about to begin in the UK, I thought it might an apt time to remind you of some basic torrenting safety guidelines. I’m not going to be preachy and pretend I don’t know what you use torrents for, but I am going to ask that you stay safe regardless – both legally, and from a computing perspective. No one wants to end up in prison or handed a hefty fine.

Not sure what torrents are? Read guide to torrents. Please don’t ask me in the comments what the best torrent sites are or beg for private tracker invites. I don’t condone piracy of any kind, and you’ll waste my time banning you.

How to set user defind Ringtone in iPhone ?

So, you've just bought that shiny, new Apple iPhone , and you're loving every aspect of it... but you just can't figure out one thing – how are you supposed to create a custom ringtone out of your favorite song, and import it into that beautiful but sometimes seemingly stubborn as hell glass-and-steel body. Or, here's another example (this time a bit more tragic) – you've been having the iPhone for the last few years, and you are loving every aspect of it, but you just can't figure out one thing -  how are you supposed to create a custom ringtone out of your favorite song and actually use it?! Well, the time has come to put an end to this misery, for there is a way to do this! Below you'll find our step-by-step guide, which includes all the details that you need for that doable, but, dare we say, slightly more complicated that usual process. Of course, this guide is for those users who want to create a ringtone from a DRM-free file, which in our case means a music file, which they have obtained from a place other than iTunes.

1. Alright, first things first – be sure to get yourself a nice cup of coffee. You'll need it in order to stay awake while executing all of the steps. Hey, you want this custom ringtone or what?

  2. Now you need to pick a DRM-free song, which you want to make a ringtone of. Drag that file to your iTunes music library. Once you've selected the track in your iTunes library, you'd want to choose the exact part that you'll want as a ringtone. Feel free to listen to your song, and write down your desired start and stop times for the ringtone. Keep in mind that the passage shouldn't be longer than 40 seconds.

  3. Once you're ready with that, please right-click on the song, and choose “Get Info”. In this pop-up, you need to navigate to the “Options” tab, and right there you'll see options to set a “Start Time” and a “Stop Time”. You guessed it – this is where you'll have to input the times that you wrote down a minute ago.

  4. Now that you've done this, simply click the “OK” button to close the pop-up. From this position, you should again right-click on your track, and this time you'll have to choose “Create AAC version”. As you've noticed, the new, AAC version of your track has appeared in addition to your old track.

  5. Okay, so now you have a nice new AAC file, right? Right-click on it and choose “Show in Windows Explorer” for PC users or “Show in Finder” for Mac users. A new window will pop up, with the song selected, but let's first go back to the iTunes library and delete the AAC song from there. When prompted, you should choose “Keep File”.

  6. We're now left with an AAC file selected in Windows Explorer, or Finder, and this same file actually missing from the iTunes library. What we have to do now is to change the extension of this file. For those who don't know what a file extension is, we'll just quickly mention that it can be looked at as a part of the file's name, which defines the type of file. For Windows users, file extensions might be, or might not be visible. If you see the part “.m4a” written after the name of your AAC file in Windows Explorer, then you should just right-click on the file and choose “Rename”, after which you have to replace “m4a” with “m4r”, which is obviously the file extension for iTunes ringtones. However, if file extensions aren't visible on your system, do the following: while in Windows Explorer, hit the “Alt” key on your keyboard, and choose “Tools->Folder Options” from the menu that just appeared. Then, you need to move to the “View” tab, and from there, you should uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types” and hit “OK”. This will make the file extension of your AAC file appear on screen, allowing you to change it following our instructions from the beginning of this step. Mac users simply have to right-click on the AAC file in Finder, choose “Get Info” and then change the file's extension.

  7. Now that we've dealt with this tricky part, all we need to do is double-click on our file and, surprise – it automatically opens in iTunes, neatly nested within the “Tones” section. However, if by some chance the ringtone doesn't show up, it is probably because your “Tones” section isn't set to be active in iTunes. To make it appear, you have to go to “Edit->Preferences” in iTunes, and there you'll need to check “Tones” from the list of “Sources”.

  8. The only thing left to do is to sync iTunes with your iPhone, and your brand new, custom ringtone will appear as an option in your iOS device's Settings->Sounds->Ringtone menu. If it doesn't sync, that means you'll have to click on your iPhone in iTunes, go to the “Tones” tab and choose “Sync Tones”. This should do it.

Well, we told you it's not among the simplest of processes, but it's certainly doable! And now, you have your favorite song set as a ringtone on your iPhone – we don't know why this should sound like such a big deal, but nothing is perfect, you know, including the world of the ubiquitous iTunes sync.