Just this weekend, I sent a massive attachment from my Gmail account. Massive. And I’m glad I could. Gmail, in keeping with their always-more mindset, increased file attachment sizes to 25MB—a five MB increase from the old limit. Previously, Gmail users could not send attachments that exceeded 20MB, and even the 20MB limit has been a growing number.

With songs, videos, and graphics becoming larger and more complex, an e-mail attachment limit of 25MB is nice increase. With the bigger attachment limit comes the potential that the recipient’s e-mail server might not accept attachments of that size. To warn against this potential, Gmail kindly states “that you may not be able to send larger attachments to contacts who use other email services with smaller attachment limits.” Currently, Gmail has one of the biggest attachment limits of any webmail provider. The solution according to Gmail? “If your attachment bounces, you should invite them to Gmail.”

YouTube video limits increased as well. Now, users can post videos up to 2GB in size. The increased size limit may have the growth of high-definition video to thank. Prior to the increase, YouTube capped file sizes to a mere one gigabyte—hardly enough room to get a sneak peek of an high definition video. Unfortunately, the ten minute limit for non-YouTube partners is still in effect.

As files get bigger and bigger and Internet speeds get faster and faster, these size limits will probably get higher and higher.

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Gmail users may have noticed a bright notification in the upper right hand corner of their screen “New! Gmail tips.” A closer look at the link reveals the Google wants you to become a Gmail Ninja!

How does one become a Gmail Ninja? Google claims that the Gmail Ninja will “learn tips and tricks to save time, increase your productivity, and manage your email efficiently,” and encourages tip users to “start with the tips that are right for you, based on how much email you get each day.”

Google divides the tips into four sections. White belts are people who receive only a few messages per day, and the tips are pretty basic: “organize with labels,” “search your mail instead of sorting,” and “reply by chat.” Rather basic, eh? Certainly, but that’s why this is the white belt level.

Next up is the Gmail green belt Ninja. Who qualifies? Google would say that these tips address mostly those Gmail users who get around a dozen messages per day—the average Gmail users. Thus, the advice remain simple, but moving up in the ninja tip status are hints like “use tasks as a handy to-do list,” “highlight important emails using filters and colored labels,” and “send an email from your phone” (showing a picture of an iPhone, of course). But here, even in the relatively intermediate stage of becoming a ninja, I learned about a feature I’ve longed to see in Gmail for a long time: the “undo send.” Yes, it really is possible to retract an email in Gmail, though it has to be retracted within seconds after hitting send. Users can enable this handy feature by going to the Gmail labs and easily switching the feature on. Another helpful tip for the green belts? Yet another Google Labs feature, the “Forgotten Attachment Detector,” which alerts forgetful users if they mentioned sending an attachment in their e-mail but failed to actually do so.

Moving on up is the Gmail black belt. Here, ninja wannabes can learn the Gmail keyboard shortcuts, how to use search operators, and how to “send and archive in one step.”

At the top of the Gmail user Ninja level is the Gmail Master! Masters include those who “get a massive number of messages a day.” Tips here include learning how to “bring Google calendar and docs to Gmail,” “forget to sign out of a public computer? Sign out remotely,” “personalize your RSS feeds in web clips,” and how to “access your mails via https.” Lastly, if you want to be a true Gmail Master, Google wants your money. You can either run Gmail from your own domain or you can shell out $50 to do so on Google Apps.

It would seem that anyone can become a Gmail Ninja with Google’s nifty Gmail tips. Apparently, I became one myself sometime between last night and this morning, as I noticed the link to the tips disappeared on my personal Gmail account.

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It’s like something you might see at a Sci-Fi convention except that it’s a real 21st century mobile gadget. The device is called a sWaP phone and is the latest innovation in the mobile phone market. Currently being released by LG Electronics is the LG-GD910; this is a phone and watch all rolled into one.

The sWaP (Smart Watch and Phone)

South Korea’s LG Electronics have been developing some fantastic mobile phone models lately though this tops the bunch. There seems to be a market for this type of watch. It has a touch-screen, camera, speaker and Bluetooth. You can play mp3 music and watch videos. Also, video conversations can be started, and it’s now built into a wrist watch!

People whom love spending time on facebook will treasure this new phone…watch….smart phone – its got the lot. You don’t need to love gadgets to see how this device will easily integrate into your daily life.

If you wish to have internet access, 7.2 mbps high speed access is available through various providers when you sign up for the subscription deal. For example O2 have stepped into the market and are offering subscription deals. That means a free sWaP phone and all the trimmings you expect to accompany a mobile phone deal today – free minutes, texts, video calls, etc.

What about text to speech? It’s offering that too. It accompanies a Bluetooth headset which you can wear if you need to have a private call. The watch does not need to be held against your mouth to speak into the microphone as its omni-directional ability will pick up your voice from a swaying arm as you walk.

The mobile sWaP phone dimensions make it as suitable and comfortable to wear as any watch with its nice ergonomic design. It may be expected to be a bulky and clumsy piece of wrist wear but in fact, it seats comfortably like any other watch. The dimensions are 1.43 inches in width by 0.56 inches thick – approximately the standard watch size.

The trend in the market where gadgets are concerned is to retain portability whilst still being able to add as many functions as possible. Mobile phones took a giant leap by incorporating video; more specifically, iphones took slick design a step further with YouTube access and touch-screen control. The next step in the market needed to continue the idea of a multi-tasked device. sWaP say that it’s all about “more convenient options” and this is the interest driving the market.

Did I mention a waterproof model is being developed? Handy if you forget to take it off before jumping in the sea. You can go swimming and not worry about damaging the watch.

Release dates are expected to be this month though check with your local supplier. With versatility and increased portability being the market direction, the sWaP phones will surely take the mobile phone market by storm.

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When I was in college, I once bought a textbook that cost me $130. That hurt. The real pain, though, came when I tried to lug the thing around in my book bag. The final pain probably came when I got my grade report for the class. I bring up the college story to explain the revolutionizing concept that Amazon’s Kindle is introducing to the college campus.

The current 6-inch version of the Kindle is about to give some space to the new 9.7 inch Kindle. The big screen version of the new Kindle got its design inspiration from newspapers and magazines, which favor a larger reading area. However, the new Kindle DX is also an ideal platform for textbooks—at least that is how Amazon is marketing the device.

The advantages are obvious. First of all, the weight/space concern is a big enough issue to cause anyone some relief. A svelte ten-inch electronic device is a far more welcome burden than an eighteen pound marketing textbook. Beyond that, the Kindle DX’s big screen can handle graphs, diagrams, illustrations, and charts that are common in college textbooks.

What may not be as obvious are some of the potential downsides. Before you get too excited about the radical cost-savings, keep in mind that publisher’s aren’t out to lose money. They may view the novelty of an electronic reading device enough to gain sales, rather than go directly to a price-reduction marketing schema. What’s more, not all publishers may catch on to the attraction of the Kindle, meaning that you may still have to do some lugging.

All things considered, I would have enjoyed the opportunity to read my history text on a Kindle. That is precisely what future students may do. Already, publishers are working on Kindle-ready books, and schools are preparing as well. So far, Pace University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College, Arizona State, Princeton, and Darden School will give some of their freshman the device which will be preloaded with several key academic texts.

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Previously I posted on how to update twitter from the command line. Now I am going to build upon that and show you how to do it with twitter and facebook. To make it easier we are going to make a shell script.

#!/bin/sh

exit 0

You can copy/paste the code directly into a shell script, just replace the user and pass with your twitter user name and password. I called my shell script twit.sh. That will let you update twitter by typing ./twit.sh your twitter message. Remember to keep your message under 140 characters (the maximum message length twitter will allow).

Now we are going to setup facebook to accept twitter messages as profile updates (this is the easy part). Go here and get the app. It is a facebook app so their is nothing to download, it will just add the app to your facebook profile. It will ask you for your twitter user name and password. After that you select the option that says user twitter to update facebook status. Now just type ./twit.sh your message and you are ready to update twitter and facebook.

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As many people know the new version of the iPhone OS will be coming out soon. It has a long list of features that are great, it will finally have copy/paste. These features are really exciting for those who have a regular iPhone, but for us who have pwned our iPhones we have had these features for a year already. It seems funny to me that the hacking community was able to bring copy/paste to the iPhone a long time ago but Apple has been unable to. We have been able to send MMS message, record videos, and use landscape for email/txt msgs. Over 90% of the functions that where added in 3.0 may iPhone users have been enjoying for quite a while. The iPhone community has been waiting for copy/paste ever since the iPhone came out. It is also one of the reasons why many people have pwned their iPhone. As it is right now I could not go back to a stock iPhone. I have enjoyed to many of the features that pwnage allows. Below is a pic of my home screen on my iPhone. Do you see anything different from yours?

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