Phone on a USB

Skype, the program that makes it easy to have telephone conversations over the internet, is one of the most useful programs ever created for the PC. However, it can be frustrating and inconvenient to pitch up at a computer and discover that the program isn’t installed.

Fortunately, it’s relatively straightforward to get around this by putting a copy of Skype on a USB memory key and carrying it around – then, when the time comes to make a call, just plug the key into a spare socket and run the program as normal. Well, almost as normal. As this step by step guide explains, with only the smallest amount of tinkering it is possible to have Skype always on hand, whichever PC you’re using.

Don’t have Skype? Go to www.skype.com, download and install the software. Plug in a USB memory key and then double-click on My Computer, the main drive (usually C) then open these folders – Program Files, Skype and Phone. Open the USB key and then click and drag the Skype icon over from the hard disk to the USB key window. Next, right-click there and choose New, and then Folder and call it ‘Data’. Make sure the Skype program and the Data folder are stored at the key’s top level and not inside any other folders.

Next, click the Start button and choose All Programs, Accessories and then Notepad. We’re going to use this to create a small launch command that will make our USB-based version of Skype work properly. Type the following, exactly (including the spaces): skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable. Then click File, Save As and when the dialogue box opens, open the dropdown menu next to Save as type and choose All Files. Type in Skype.bat as the file name and save the file onto the memory key next to the copied Skype program.

Switch back to the open USB key window and scroll through the list of files. See the new one called Skype? To start the portable version of Skype we’ve created, double-click on this icon (be sure to choose the one that says MS-DOS Batch underneath it, not the original blue and white Skype icon). After a moment an odd-looking black window (a DOS window) appears and disappears, followed by the Skype program. Either create a new account or sign in with an existing name and password to continue and use the program as normal.

Nexus One and Android 2.1

Google's Nexus One is an astonishingly fast phone. Use it for more than a few minutes and you'll see that much of the slowness we've learned to associate with smart phones is not the fault of the network but of the phones themselves specifically, their processors.

Today's 3G networks can deliver data to your phone faster than the broadband connections that many people have in their homes: a laptop equipped with one of those USB modems from AT&T or Verizon functions splendidly. Yet most smart phones take several seconds to click between Web pages or launch a new application. That's because the typesetting and image processing necessary to turn the text of a Web page into something that can be displayed on a screen takes a lot of computation. And most phones have comparatively slow processors in many cases, they are no faster than a Pentium 3 from 10 years ago.
The Nexus One, by contrast, has a one gigahertz processor more than 60 percent faster than the processors in the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, and BlackBerry Bold 9700, according to several benchmarks. In my testing, it took 2.5 seconds, on average, to click from one Wikipedia page to the next using T Mobile's 3G network and half that long when using a Wi-Fi connection. You can open applications, zoom in on photos, and search your phone's databases instantly. The faster processor dramatically improves the phone's enjoyability.
The Nexus One also has a beautiful high resolution screen 800 by 480 pixels crammed into 3.7 diagonal inches for a display that's roughly 250 dots per inch, making even tiny text quite legible. (Apple's new iPad, in comparison, is 1,024 by 768 pixels on a screen that's 9.7 inches, for just 132 dots per inch.) The Nexus's five megapixel camera can autofocus and takes detailed photos at six centimeters, and it has a surprisingly bright LED flash. The phone also has a standard 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, which means you don't need those bulky adapters to use high end earbuds.
Google's phone runs an updated version of the company's Android operating system, the same software that's at the heart of Motorola's new Cliq and Droid phones, T Mobile's G1 (a.k.a the HTC Dream), and even the Barnes and Noble Nook e book reader. But unlike the others, the Nexus One runs Android 2.1, the latest and greatest version (of course). Droid runs 2.0, although it's scheduled for an update, while the G1 is still running Android 1.6.
Android has been on the market for nearly 18 months, and this new version has a significantly improved user interface that requires fewer button presses for the same functions. For example, when you are in the middle of a phone call, you can now use buttons on the screen to add a call, display the dial pad, switch to and from a Bluetooth headset, mute, and control the built in speakerphone (on the G1, these features all require clicking the Menu button). The screens also show more information. For example, a photo of the person you're speaking with is displayed in the middle of screen; put that person on hold to take another call, and the first caller's photo appears behind the second photo.
Photos appear more often than you might expect, thanks to the close integration between the Android and Facebook. Type your Facebook username and password into the phone's Facebook application and the phone's Contacts (the address book) will immediately be populated with the names, phone numbers, photos, and even status updates of your Facebook friends. You can decide whether you want to have the phone augment existing contacts with the Facebook information, bring all of your Facebook contacts into the phone's contact list, or remove all of the Facebook data from that list. It's creepy, sure, but also kind of useful.

Free SMS with Google Voice

Google made a small tweak to its Google Voice service this week, and will now allow users to send text messages to multiple recipients.

Google Voice Adds Multiple Text Recipients

Previously, you had to copy and paste your message into a new form for every text, but now you can just enter the names or phone numbers separated by commas and send it all at once. To prevent spam, however, there is a max of five numbers per text.

"Replies from each recipient will be threaded into separate conversations, so you can keep track of them in your Google Voice inbox," Google wrote in a blog post.

The feature is also available via the Google Chrome extension and will soon be added to the mobile app, Google said.

In other Google news, the company announced Tuesday that users can now "star" their favorite stories in Google News, much like they do in Gmail and Google Reader. If there are updates on a topic you have starred, Google will bold the headline for easy access, and keep your 20 most recent starred stories in a special "Starred" section in Google News.