Hotmail account Hijacked or hacked? Here's how I retrieved it...

Yesterday my wife's hotmail account got hijacked. The account was created more than 10 years ago and at that time, she did not set any alternate email address in case of situations such as this. And worst still, the secret question's answer had to be incorporated with the location in which your account was open under where and when. Email accounts, as we now realize, are actually something very personal which holds many of our personal information (and secrets!) as well as vital information. Also by loosing an email account, imagine all the hassle you'd have to go thru to inform all the other services which you have subscribed to that send to your email account. For e.g. credit card statements, utility bills, stock trading account, social networking accounts (e.g. facebook, twitter, etc.). And loosing this email account may compromise all your other social networking accounts too because they too have password recovery services which sends password reset information to your email account!

What do we do? Well, contrary to the forums on the internet which mostly complaint about the crappy service which they got from Microsoft Live team, we got it resolved within 24 hours (after searching high and low on the internet that is). The people complaining about the service probably did not provide initial information for the team to work on or they are approaching the wrong channel in Microsoft. If you have went to MSN help centre, they will simply ignore you because it was not the right channel.

More after the jump

How to link your Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and Live Messenger statuses

With all the different social networking tools and platforms available nowadays, its just so much hassle to update all of them with what you're thinking (or feeling). I know I do. But of course, maybe not everybody think its important to update all of them. Just update the ones you think most of your friends will see. But what about those friends who aren't on that social network and they wanna know whats happening to you?

Well, here are a few of my favorite social networks and I do not go to everyone of them to update them one by one. I have Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Live messenger and also Foursquare. Now I do not update my Foursquare with statuses but I do update all the other social networking services with my Foursquare locations though. How do I do it?

Find out more after the jump....

Google Chrome gaining ground, overtakes Internet Explorer

Recently just checked the stats of this blog using blogspots new tool. I was not surprise to find that many visitors now use Google Chrome for the internet. Looks like IE has got a lot to do now. The pie chart below illustrates the stats for this blog.

Now this is only for this blog and it may be different for others. But this can probably be a rough indication on the browser war and who's winning it. Looks like Firefox still reigns.

What browser are you using?

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• Chrome overtakes Safari for number three browser spot in the US sez StatCounter (engadget.com)

Maxis and DiGi getting ready to launch iPhone 4 in Malaysia

The only two Apple authorized mobile services providers in Malaysia, Maxis and DiGi, are getting ready to launch the iPhone 4 in Malaysia. Their respective iPhone websites have been updated respectively showing the early interest registration form (not for reservation of the iPhone). As can be seen below:

Although there is no specific dates as to when it will arrive, historically once they have it up on their websites, we can expect to see the products arrival in within 1 to 2 months. Well, I wonder how well it would sell with all the debacle in regards to "antennagate". And would Malaysia iPhone 4 buyers get the free bumpers too just like "the rest of the world"? All these will be answered in the coming months (I hope).

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Nexus One, R.I.P

Google has announced last Friday (the same day as Apples conference on the Antennagate) that it will discontinue the Nexus One smartphone once the current shipment is completed. That means after this, it will be forever gone from Google's list of products. You can see from this official Blog regarding this announcement.

This probably does not come as a surprise because since its launch, the sales of the Nexus One has been dismally pale in comparison to Apple's iPhone or even other Android powered phones. Despite having superior tech specs compared to other Android phones in the market (be it from Samsung, Sony Ericsson or Motorola) and also favorable initial reviews, the Nexus One did not really take off with the bang they wished it would.

We have seen two giants taken products off the market in this short 2 months; Microsoft's Kin and now the Google Nexus One. So far the only software company which succeeded in the mobile/smart phone foray is Apple with its iPhone. What does that tell us?

What does the Jabulani & iPhone 4 have in common?

The South African 2010 World Cup has concluded and the Espanols have claimed their first world champions title in their history. During the course of the World Cup, there has been heartbreaks and delight. The fans of the world most famous sport will probably remember this World Cup for many years and that is many years not without the mention of all the controversies. Most talk-about would likely be the controversial Adidas' brainchild, the "Jabulani" ball. Being the scapegoat of all the matches whenever there are weird goals, this ball has earned its name in the history books of World Cup sports.

And during this same month where World Cup 2010 was happening, we have the launch of one of techs most controversial gadget too. Released on the 24th of June 2010 this year, this gadget is probably one of the most anticipated gadget in 2010. We're talking about Apple's new iPhone 4. Of course the suspense of its technology was not too great thanks to an earlier debacle with it being found in the wild and exposed by a certain tech website, but its release nevertheless brings the competition yet again to their knees. However, every new gadget is not without its own controversy as well.... it makes good (free) publicity as well (like Apple will ever need it.). The controversy which has since emerge after the launch of iPhone 4 is the antennae/signal problem (the internet has since name this the antennagate)

Here are some common things that the Jabulani and the iPhone 4 share (IMHO):

1. Both were released in the month of June 2010.
2. Their brand both starts with the letter "A" (Apple & Adidas).
3. Both are a product of advancement in technology.
4. Adidas has refused to admit the Jabulani's shortcomings and have instead protected its design and say its best for the competition.
   Apple has also refused to admit iPhone 4's antennae design fault and also protected its design.
5. Both were not being withdrawn from the market and has continued to be used.
6. Both has been featured on various popular world news website frontpages for their respective controversies.
7. Both makers have been branded arrogant for their ignorance to dissatisfaction from players and users alike. 
8. The Jabulani was used mostly with the presence of the noisy Vuvuzelas.
   iPhone 4 has a Vuvuzela app available for download :)

If you can think of any other similarities in these two, please do let me know so I can append this list.