If you love to play music then you must have heard about iPod Shuffle, one of the most popular portable music device of the time. But did you know that what a trick is waiting for you if you have put an iPod shuffle in your next shopping list? While you will definitely love the device and its performance, you’ll be surprised to see that your favourite earbuds are not working with the Shuffle.

It’s very tricky that Apple has implemented a DRM chip in the Shuffle’s earbuds that prevents other earbuds to be used with the device(Source:Techcrunch).

What is Apple trying to do? Play a monopoly in the music industry? However, I’m hopeful that the Apple trick won’t last longer.

Battery is a very important part of your portable life because it adds life to your devices. To make the most of your devices you must know how to effectively handle your battery so that it gives you maximum performance and maximum life time.

Tip1: Most of the time try to fully charge and then fully discharge your battery, at least once every two months. The reason is that if you do not charge the and discharge the battery to the full it will assume that the amount charge and spent is it’s capacity and the battery will soon downgrade its charge capacity. Though LI-Ion batteries do not drain out by the ‘memory effect’ it is a good idea to maintain the schedule.

Tip 2: Never substitute your devices battery with a different battery type, for example if your device is of NiMH, never use a battery of other types like lithium ion or etc unless your device manual says so. Otherwise it may damage your device.

Tip 3: If you find your battery not charging you should not consider that the battery has become unusable. Just fully charge and discharge the battery two to four times which will allow the battery to reach its maximum capacity. This is strongly recommended for a new battery.

Tip 4: Keep the battery contacts clean. Always wipe the battery contacts with a cotton swab and a mild cleaner, possibly non-electrostatic. This helps maintain a good connection between the battery and the device.

Tip 5: Always try to exercise the rechargeable batteries because it may become unusual if you keep it unused for a few months. Remember that a battery has shelf-life after which the performance degrades. If you don’t plan on using the battery for a month or more, store it in a clean, dry, cool place, fully charged, away from heat and metal objects. Most battery types will self-discharge during storage and always recharge before using again. If possible, recharge the battery in a regular interval of a month or two. This will ensure that your battery remains good.

Hope these tricks will help you to make the most out of your gadgets battery which is generally rechargeable.

A photograph generally contains a lot of information with the image file just like any other computer files which is known as Metadata. To a photograph a load of information is added like when the photograph is added or with most recent innovation, the geographical location from where the photograph was taken.

Although these information are very important and useful as well, the chance of losing the information is very high because not all file formats support storing the information in the same way or some other formats just simply does not preserve any such data. The data is lost therefore, especially while converting file format.

Metadata Working Group, a Jointly working organization of giant Adobe, Apple, Canon, Microsoft, Nokia and Sony, has introduced today the first specification for interoperability and preservation of metadata in digital photography. The specification provides the guidelines that will help to increase interoperability between file formats and work as a key to the preservation of metadata in digital photographs. According to the working group’s research, lack of metadata interoperability has led to significant frustration for both consumer and photographers especially the professional photographers.

The solution is never very easy since there are thousands of devices, services and software applications available for the purpose and the guideline is limit the practices for how, when and where metadata should be changed in popular file formats. Metadata Working Group’s initial guidelines target to still photo metadata rather than movies which identifies overlapping content between existing standards and schema as well.

The initiative to preserve metadata is a real praiseworthy step of the industry and it will be helping people to preserve the information across formats and devices with a minimal chance of losing such information about their photograph.

Forbes has recently published an interesting report on how man and women use their handsets and other handheld devices. There is a clear distinction between their utilization of handheld devices.

The report suggests that more women think that a handset is a enhancement of their personality while it is totally different to men. Men think their handhelds an advantage and utilizes most of the available resources.

While buying a cellphone or a handheld device, women will find if it has the look of bright finish and in shades of pink, purple and red. To men, they need to be durable and active performing rather than sporty. A manly handset requires more technology than of a woman. A Man would look for several connectivity options like internet, wi-fi etc while to a woman text messages and multimedia messages are the keys.

Though women drive the e-commerce industry, they are not that much taking the advantages on the go using a handset but men will read the office mail or read the latest news or even watch mobile tv. Men read more news; women drive e-commerce. Women typically do more semantic searches, typing in full questions rather than just keywords.

So, too, differences abound in how we use mobile phones. Men are more likely to access the mobile Internet, watch mobile TV and generally make full use of the features on their handsets, according to statistics from Nielsen Mobile. Women take more photos and send more text and multimedia messages. They also download more ringtones than men do

Got a portable device? So, what is your battery choice? It is a good idea to always keep a spare battery fully charged so that in case of power outrage you don’t have to listening your favourite music. Along with children toys, we use various home appliances that requires a battery to operate like remote controls.

Generally, while buying batteries, one should consider two things, 1 – Price and 2 – longevity. But in most recent times, there is another thing that has been brought to our attention is the ‘environment’. Therefore, whatever is the purpose of buying a battery, we should consider whether it is safe for the environment or not.

All-battery.com is a source of good number of choices for your battery need. They have got a collection of batteries for a range of devices from Bar Code Scanners or camera or your cell phone as well as the laptop.

Keep a spare battery; this can be proved handy when you really need backup for your portable devices on the go.