Tablet, touch-screen, solar powered, 9 inch screen… All of these words would lead you to believe I’m talking about a solar-powered iPad, or something equivalent. You probably would never guess that I am describing a new $35 laptop developed in India.

Yes, it has a 5, 7, or 9 inch touch screen with battery and solar power capabilities. And a $35 price tag! Just last year America came out with a $100 laptop to be used in the non-profit One Laptop One Child program. Now, India wants to help in the push to better educate the developing world. Currently, the developers are looking for a partner to mass produce the product and make it available to developing countries. They also hope that through mass production, the price will be driven down to as little as $10.

The computer runs on a form of Linux OS and comes with Web access, a PDF reader, media player, among other features.  One down side is how it doesn’t have any storage space. So you would have to save files to a memory card. The solar powered aspect gives it an advantage for potential owners in developing nations because owners might have limited access to charging.

This could be a huge opportunity for developing nations if everything pans out accordingly. The major step to getting out of a poverty stricken area is education, and increased access to the Internet and technology would definitely help educate the masses.

Let’s look at an example of how ToneCheck works:

Here I started an email to the Keystone information email address about a broken email account. As you can tell from my language, I am pretty upset. Email is important to me and obviously I do not like when it is not working. But then I click the ToneCheck button before I send my email just in case I’m too harsh.

Well what do ya know, ToneCheck says I’ll make the reader feel humiliated and shameful. Instead of just labeling my language as generally negative, ToneCheck identifies a range of emotions when it describes your sentences. The range goes from friendliness, enjoyment, amusement, and contentment to sadness, anger, fear, and humiliation.

ToneCheck lets you edit sentences that it finds offensive in any way. Here, you can see I’ve tried to edit my sentence, but I guess I’m still being a little too firm because the system finds my connotation to be angry. I’ll try one more time to get it right…

There we go! I finally got a “contented” verdict after having to use the word “please.” Then, I’ll hit the accept button and my original sentence in the email will be replaced with this last one.

ToneCheck is a pretty interesting tool, and I can see it being very useful for people who are known to send off messages in the heat of the moment. A few flaws I found in the system were how it seems to clump firm sentences in with the “angry” label. I don’t think my second sentence up there was very angry. I was just stating a fact that I have a problem with my email. I had to use the word “please” just to get “contented,” not even “friendliness.” Also, when the program finds my sentences offensive it doesn’t give me any kind of suggestions. That may be something the developers should look into when moving it out of beta.

Despite these minor shortcomings, ToneCheck is a much needed program in the world of email. And if you know anyone who needs a little censoring on their emails, just forward them this post and they’ll get the hint.

Apple and Steve Jobs have stirred up more trouble regarding antennas just when we all thought the drama was over. It all started about a week ago at the Apple press conference to address the iPhone 4 problem. Ole Steve Jobs started out his presentation not with an, “I’m sorry for all the antenna issues,” but with a “We’re not perfect.” By we he meant all smartphone creators. He said the Blackberry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Omnia II all have the same problem and proceed to show footage of each one’s signal dropping.

That was a little underhanded, but he was trying to make a point. If you missed the conference or weren’t following along online, Apple created a page on their website dedicated entirely to antenna failure among all smartphones. The website has footage of the iPhone 4, BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Nokia N97 mini, Samsung Omnia II, and iPhone 3GS each dropping signal strength when a finger or a hand cover the antenna.

Blackberry maker RIM decided they won’t sit back and let Jobs get away with pointing fingers at them. RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie released a statement here saying, “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claim about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.” They go on to say, “One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity.”

Just after that statement, where RIM is very clear that their phones do not have any antenna problems, a video leaked of someone playing around with the new BlackBerry 9800. The video, which has already been removed, showed the unreleased phone to have some serious death grip issues. Sure it was a pre-release version of the phone, but should be the final design.

Since this huge blowup with the iPhone 4, new smartphones are going to be under a magnifying glass when it comes to antenna performance and “death grip” symptoms. Something that (if Apple’s right) has been going on since the beginning of smartphones will be noticed and talked about more than ever. So this is a heads up. We’re going to be hearing a lot about cell phone antenna performance… as if we haven’t already heard a lot.

Steve Jobs just got done slapping the wrists of a room half-full of tech news reporters. In the first forty minutes or so, Steve talked about all the alleged problems with the iPhone 4 and gave out some data to prove his point that the problems with the iPhone 4 are not all that awful. The remainder of the conference was made up of a question and answer session.

Jobs was clear that the problems with the iPhone 4 had been blown way out of proportion. He backed up his argument with many different statistics. First he looked at the percentage of all iPhone 4 users who have called AppleCare to complain about antenna/reception issues. That number was less than a half percent. Sounds convincing, except that I wouldn’t call AppleCare with my reception issues with the iPhone 4, I would probably call AT&T. Also, AppleCare deals with complaints and issues with all Apple products. The iPhone 4 takes up a tiny sliver compared to all the other products Apple has on the market.

Jobs went on to say that AT&T’s return rate for iPhone 4s was 1.7%, which is much less than the iPhone 3GS. And he concluded his numbers part of the session with the statement, “The iPhone drops less than 1 additional call per 100,” as compared to the iPhone 3GS.

Steve Jobs, and Apple, decided to solve the reception problem by giving free cases to any iPhone 4 user who wants one. They must apply online to have them delivered and it must be done before September 30. Also, Apple and AT&T will be giving full refunds to anyone who returns their undamaged iPhone within 30 days of purchase.

After hearing Jobs’ opinion, it appears the media is what’s making this issue seem so severe. He kept saying over and over, “We’re not perfect.” Poor Steve loves his customers more than they know. We love you too, Steve!

So all the negative media has finally gotten to the heart of Apple Inc. and good ole Steve Jobs. Apple is planning a press conference for Friday at 10 A.M. (Pacific Time) at Apple’s headquarters in California. The conference is expected to address the problems with the iPhone 4 exterior antennae. Finally, some Apple is recognizing that there is a problem with the iPhone 4.

For a while now, Apple has been in denial about all the problems with the antenna on the iPhone 4 saying it was a software problem. Once Consumer Reports revealed that the exterior antenna did in fact affect the phone’s reception, doom and gloom surrounded the iPhone 4. Now, Apple has decided to address the problem and hopefully take steps to fix it.

The iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units in its first three days of availability. So I have concluded that the public was too mesmerized by the excitement of the new iPhone to care about its major problems. Or maybe no one noticed its multiple problems until they had already bought it. I know a few people with the iPhone 3Gs that will be waiting for an updated iPhone 4 before they upgrade.

The exterior antenna is definitely the most talked about issue, but it is not the only problem with the iPhone 4. I listed a few of the other problems back in June and just recently a proximity sensor glitch has been discovered. Even though Apple will be addressing the main problem with the phone’s antenna at this conference, it is still highly unlikely for a recall to be the answer to the problem, especially in the eyes of Apple executives. However, there has been talk of Apple giving away free iPhone cases to all iPhone 4 buyers.

Too bad Woopi already destroyed hers.

Backupify provides data protection for most of the big name social media sites and Google Apps. With this service, you can recall an old Twitter direct message or an old blog article on Blogger that you accidentally deleted. Backed up data can either be downloaded to your PC by an IT Administrators or you can access stored data on the web. If you operate your business with Google Apps, Backupify says you can use its software to backup all your business’s information in “Gmail, Google Docs, Contacts, Calendar, and Sites for your entire domain.”

For an example of social media backups, the software will store the last thirty days worth of your Facebook status updates, comments, activity, et cetera. Not only on Facebook, Backupify allows you to choose from a huge pool of social media sites to be backed up. Once you have selected what social media sites you want to backup, you have to give Backupify all your account information (username, password, etc.) for backing up to begin. Once you have configured your accounts, Backupify will provide you with access to past data in PDF form.

Backupify for Google Apps users is priced at three levels. The most basic level being only $10 per month and the premium being $60 per month. The differences between plans are storage space provided and number of accounts Backupify will support. They will also allow you to try a 30 day free trial without any promise to purchase later.

For social medial and personal accounts Backupify has three different plans. The basic version of Backupify is always free but only grants support for one account and only provides 2GB of storage. The next level up, the Plus plan, will support 5 accounts with 10GB of storage for $40 per year. The top level, premium level, will support unlimited number of accounts and provides 25GB of storage for $60 per year. For all kinds of legal cases or disaster recovery, Backupify is the perfect precaution that can be taken.

Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer, told attendees at Microsoft’s annual partner conference that Microsoft was serious about a Windows 7 tablet coming out soon. At the conference in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, Ballmer tried motivating attendees by telling them that the tablet is being constructed by about twenty manufacturers right now.

Reuters says Ballmer said:

“New Windows-powered tablet or slate devices — small, hand-held, wireless computers — are in the pipeline from Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and a dozen other PC makers,”

Ballmer also claims that the Windows 7 tablet will be the most important product they come out with recently. The slate or tablet is probably their most important product because the iPad might seriously affect Microsoft’s PC desktop or laptop sales. In just about three months Apple has already sold 3 million iPads. However, Ballmer wants to take Microsoft in a different direction by playing up its board room compliance as well as fun multimedia features. CrunchGear reports that Bill Gates said the iPad was :not quite there yet.”

Microsoft didn’t say anything about the number one PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co., or their plans to build a tablet-like device running a Palm operating system. Nor did they acknowledge any of their own recent problems with projects like the Kin cell phone.

The App Inventor software is still just in Google labs, but is ready and available for use. It allows a user to create an application for Android powered devices. Released on July 12, the App Inventor makes cell phone owners more involved in the applications. As cell phones become more and more advanced, they become more and more like computers. So, it is important to increase user involvement and user knowledge.

Google is proud of this new tool’s easy to use features for all ages. It has been in development for a year already and tested on students, professionals, non-programmers, even sixth graders. Google believes the tool is a good first experience of computer programming for these children. Exposure to simple and fun computer programming is beneficial to kids in the long run.

Also, Google hopes that by opening up its applications’ invention to more and more creators, it will even up with Apple’s app store and maybe even surpass it. Android phones are definitely a forerunner in the smartphone market, but they are also well behind the iPhone. And while Apple’s app store has strict rules and regulations on the apps they provide, Google does not. They are hoping this access and freedom will attract more users and app inventors.

Using an infrared camera and laser, Fluid Interfaces Group and Pranav Mistry have developed a mouseless mouse for a computer.  It requires the user to cup his or her hand as if there were a physical mouse present underneath. The infrared laser creates a surface that will pick up your hand movements and clicking gesture. Then, paired with the infrared camera, the mouse will move on the screen, click, and right-click as if you had a traditional mouse.

The recently developed Magic Mouse from Apple featured a multi-touch surface that allows scrolling, zooming, and clicking with different hand gestures. Pranav Mistry’s invention is another monumental development. There is room to expand the mouseless mouse’s gesture library in the future to include and exceed the capabilities of the Magic Mouse.

Unlike the Magic Mouse, the mouseless mouse will not be limited to the physical hardware when gesture capabilities are expanded. The mouseless mouse will be able to support unprecedented movements and capabilities. What’s even better? Pranav Mistry built the prototype for only $20 meaning the final product won’t be out the roof. Check out the video here demonstrating the mouseless mouse in a pretty entertaining and creative way.

You probably saw a commercial or two for Microsoft’s Kin cell phone recently. Well, not too recently since Microsoft discontinued the phone after only 48 days on the market because of such low sales.

The Kin was geared toward young adults and teens who love social networking. The phone plays up easy social network access like Twitter, Facebook, even MySpace. It also featured a loop of friends that you are directly connected to, i.e. follow their tweets, status updates, etc.

I found it curious that I would see tons of commercials at home that made the Kin look decent (something appealing to social-media-crazy-teens) and yet never saw any articles or reviews on any of the big name tech sites. The phone regretfully did not catch the eye of enough teens or young adults either. All the advertising for the phone came from Microsoft’s large ad budget for the Kin. And that obviously wasn’t enough.

It probably wasn’t the best idea to release the smartphone right around the set release dates of the iPhone 4 and the Droid Incredible. While the Kin does have a unique look, it cannot compare to the iPhone craze and its huge apps store resource.

Even though discontinuing the phone may have been the best option for Microsoft, it is completely out of their character. Like the Windows Vista or Internet Explorer, Microsoft tends to hold on to projects (however awful they may seem) and improve them over time. But this time the product was cut off after only 48 days!

Maybe Microsoft was so okay with shutting down the new phone because the next Windows phone is in the works and could potentially come out by this fall. Microsoft said that all Kin employees would be reassigned under the Windows Phone 7 development.