This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

Search Cell Numbers - A Tricky But Possible Quest

First, let’s take a look at the video formats the new iPod nano accepts:

H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

In order to enjoy DVD movies, video files and YouTube videos on the iPod nano, you need to rip the DVD movies and convert the video files to the video formats iPod nano recognizes, and then transfer the output video files to your iPod nano with the sync of iTunes Library.

The tool you will need is Clone2go DVD to iPod Converter. And below are the detailed steps:

1. Add DVD movies, video files or YouTube video

Insert the DVD disc into the disc drive, click the Open DVD button to import it if you are going to enjoy a DVD movie on your iPod nano. Or if the DVD movie is saved as a folder on your computer, you need to click the Add Video button to locate that folder, which is composed of two separate folders: VIDEO_TS and AUIDO_TS. From the VIDEO_TS folder, select the .vob file to import and then click OK.

You can also import videos stored on your PC by clicking the Add Video button. The supporting formats are shown as follows:

If you want to enjoy online YouTube videos on your iPod nano, click the YouTube button on the main interface. In the pop-up windows, copy and paste the URLs of the YouTube videos one by one. There will be a list of the added YouTube videos, which will be downloaded automatically one by one. And the downloading status is clearly shown on the list. After the status of all of them indicates Completed, you can tick whichever videos you want to watch on your iPod nano.

After the DVD movies, video files or YouTube videos are imported, you can preview it on the main interface. If you only want a clip of the DVD/video, you can drag the Start to trim and Stop to trim button to get the certain segment.

2. Choose a proper profile

From the drop-down list of Profile, you can select the most appropriate profile:

Note: From the profile graph above, we can learn Clone2go DVD to iPod Converter also applies to converting DVD movies, video files and online YouTube video to video formats for iPod touch, iPod classic, iPhone, Apple TV, etc.

3. Start to encode

Now you can click the Start Encode button to starting ripping DVD movies, converting videos or downloading and converting online YouTube videos for your iPod nano.

Note: The output video files are easily available by simply clicking the Folder button on the main menu after the ripping/converting process is done.

4. Move the output files to iPod nano

Open iTunes, click File on the main menu. From the drop-down list, select Add File to Library or Add Folder to Library. And now you can put the converted files or folder to the iTunes Library. Connect your iPod nano to PC and now you can transfer the converted videos to your iPod nano with the sync of iTunes.

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

How to convert DVD movie, video, YouTube video to chromatic iPod nano

First, let’s take a look at the video/audio formats iPhone 3G supports:?

Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

So, in order to enjoy DVD’s and videos on iPhone 3G, you just need to rip the DVD movies and convert the video files to video/audio formats iPhone 3G accepts, and then transfer the output video/audio files to your iPhone 3G with the sync of iTunes Library.

The tool you will need is Clone2go DVD to iPhone Converter. And below is its step by step user guide:

1. Add DVD movies or video files

Click the Open DVD button if the DVD movie you are going to enjoy on your iPhone 3G is on the disc drive. If the DVD movie is saved as a folder on your computer, you need to click the Add Video button to locate that folder, which is composed of two separate folders: VIDEO_TS and AUIDO_TS. From the VIDEO_TS folder, select the .vob file to import and then click OK.

You can also import videos of various sources by clicking the Add Video button. The supporting formats are:

After the DVD or video is imported, you can preview it on the main interface. If you only want a clip of the DVD/video, you can drag the Start to trim and Stop to trim button to get the certain segment.

2. Choose a profile

From the drop-down list of Profile, you can select a profile that best meets your needs:

Note: From the graph above, we can learn Clone2go DVD to iPhone Converter also applies to converting DVD movies and video files to video/audio formats for Apple iPod, Apple TV, YouTube FLV, AVI Video, etc.

3. Start to encode

And now you can click the Start Encode button to starting ripping DVD’s or converting videos for your iPhone 3G.

Note: The output video/audio files are easily available by simply clicking the Folder button on the main menu after the ripping/converting process is done.

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

How to convert DVD video to iPhone 3G

The most well-known example of mobile marketing is SMS marketing, which has expanded very quickly in Europe and Asia. It is estimated that several hundred million promotional messages are sent through SMS every month in Europe alone. SMS stands for ’short message service’ and is a communication form specific to mobile phones where a short message can be easily sent to any cell phone user. As well as sending material to customers, promoters can often encourage customers to join in promotional and brand publicity promotions by encouraging customers to SMS a selected number at an event in order to enter a competition, to receive a prize or to have their text displayed on a multimedia wall at an event. All of these techniques engages the consumer through the medium of SMS and creates brand exposure.

There are a variety of other forms of mobile marketing. One example is sending texts via MMS, which is a multimedia version of SMS, allowing customers to receive MMS with color, pictures and video. There is also mobile web marketing, where companies advertise marketing goals through websites accessed by mobile phones. Promoters often make innovative use of mobile marketing such as location-based services where customers are offered bespoke promotions and other network-related information and promotional material based on their whereabouts. With the variety of techniques and options available to marketers, it is no wonder that a recent marketing survey found that 89% of major brands planned to market their products through mobile marketing by the end of 2008.

Mobile marketing is an example of what is known within the industry as “push” marketing. The thought behind push marketing is that that the company has to send (push) the information to the customer in order for the information to be received. This is opposite to “pull” marketing, a passive form of marketing, where it is customers who seek out the material from sources such as websites or blogs.

There are many advantages to mobile marketing. Primarily, the attraction is that this mode of marketing can be personalized to the customer. This is the gold standard in marketing as it means getting the material specifically to the people it’s aimed at, instead of wasting money on an broad campaign. The specialization allowed by this form of marketing, which results in a more economical campaign, is one reason why a high return on investment is possible with mobile marketing. Another advantage of mobile marketing is the detailed tracking and reporting of recipients it permits. Through this medium, businesses can track how many people viewed their information and also access detailed data about each user such as their name, their age, their demographic and where they’re located. This permits a marketer to develop profiles of their subscribers; data which then guides future promotional campaigns and, ideally, their success.

It is noted in the industry that push marketing, of which mobile marketing is a type, can help drive new cash flows and brand exposure if it is executed correctly and sensitively. This is because it makes users aware of new changes that they may not know to find already and the way the material is phrased, and even the fact that the information is being sent by a modern, hip medium such as SMS, can say a great deal about a brand and a business.

There are, however, some negatives to mobile marketing. Inherently, it must have a mechanism - the cell phone - in order to send content. The company, as well, needs to make use of specialized technology and software in order to deliver the content to subscribers, which can mean substantial costs. Another downside is the fact that mobile marketing is heavily regulated by the telecommunications industry in response to consumer concerns about what data and promotions they get shown. Most Western countries have laws in place that compel marketers to gain the approval of subscribers before promotional content is sent to them and must clearly give them with an ‘opt out’ option if they request to stop receiving content. If marketers are found to be in breach of these laws, network providers can block marketing material by marketers.

As mobile technology improves, mobile marketing will certainly continue to rise in importance.

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

Using digital marketing efficiently

Read more details in the full article about Importance At Having A Cell Phone

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

Importance At Having A Cell Phone

Part 1. Something about Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a totally free program that comes with Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Vista. Below are the audio/video formats accepted by Windows Movie Maker:

Video files: .asf, .avi, .wmv
Movie files: MPEG1, .mpeg, .mpg, .mlv, .mp2
Audio files: .wav, .snd, .au, .aif, .aifc, .aiff
Windows media files: .asf, .wm, .wma, .wmv
MP3 format audio: .mp3

Part 2. Remove DRM from iTunes M4P music

The songs you purchased from iTunes store are under DRM protection. You cannot directly import them to your Windows Movie Maker project. However you can burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some CD ripper software to convert the audio CD track back to MP3, WAV, WMA, etc. And iTunes allows you to burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD:

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive. You’d better use CD-RW disc as it can be used for more than once.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the MP3 CD option since it requires the protected music files be converted to unprotected MP3 files.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc to MP3 files.

The steps are very simple indeed. Yet, I’d like to introduce a practical application called TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter. It applies the virtual CD burning technology so that there is no need to use real disc. You can use it to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file’s metadata. You can learn how to remove DRM from iTunes M4P music with TuneClone M4P to MP3 Converter from this guide.

Part 3. Add the output DRM-free music to Windows Movie Maker

After you get the output DRM-free music by adopting either the disc burning/ripping method or virtual CD burning method discussed in Part 2, now you can begin to import it into your Windows Movie Maker project.

Click on File. Then click on Import. A window will appear. In the window, navigate to the sound or music file you want to add to your movie. Then double click on the file. You’ll see the icon for the file in your Windows Movie Maker “collections”. Click on the icon and drag it on to the timeline to the part of the video you want the sound or music to play.

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

How to import iTunes M4P music to Windows Movie Maker

Yet, there seems to be a solution. You can burn the protected M4P music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make an audio CD and then use some CD ripper software to convert the audio CD track back to Zune accepted MP3 or WMA. And iTunes allows you to burn the protected music files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD. Sounds a good idea! But it would be a time consuming process if you have a library of iTunes M4P music files ready to be converted to Zune MP3 or WMA. Moreover, the information about the M4P music files like title, artist and album will be lost after burning and ripping back to MP3 or WMA files. So this method is not recommended if you have a big collection of iTunes M4P music files ready to be transferred to your Zune.

I’ve made a Google search for programs that can convert iTunes M4P music to Zune WMA MP3, and TuneClone Audio Converter attracted my attention. The edge of TuneClone over other similar programs is that it applys the virtual CD burning technology to simulates the burning and ripping process. You just need to burn the iTunes M4P playlist to TuneClone virtual CD burner. Then TuneClone will directly convert the iTunes M4P music list to Zune WMA or MP3 for you. It is very fast and the information about each music song will be preserved perfectly. Below are several key steps to convert iTunes M4P music to Zune MP3 or WMA using TuneClone Audio Converter.

1. Make settings at TuneClone

Click the Setting button at TuneClone. In the pop-up window, you can specify the output folder, output filenames, output format, etc. for the converted MP3 or WMA files.
Tip: You can get the converted music folder by clicking the Folder button after the whole process.

2. Make settings at iTunes

Click Edit -> Preferences… -> Advanced -> Burning. Select TuneClone’s virtual CD-RW drive as CD burner. In the Disc Format option, tick Audio CD.
Tip 1: In order to keep the information about the music, the Include CD Text option should be checked.
Tip 2: The most important step is to choose the cd burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically.

3. Create a playlist

Create a playlist, and then add the iTunes M4P music files you want to convert to Zune WMA or MP3 into the playlist. After the conversion, the WMA or MP3 music folder should be located under the folder you specified at first. The name of the music folder should be the same as that of the iTunes playlist you created.
Tip: It is exceedingly easy and fast when you want to batch convert lots of files.

After you get the output folder, now you can transfer it to your Zune software so as to enjoy the iTunes music on your Zune music player.

So, has your headache been removed now?

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

How to transfer iTunes M4P music to Zune WMA MP3

TuneClone M4P Converter doesn’t bypass the DRM. It simulates the burning, ripping and encoding process by installing a virtual CD burner. All you need to do is burn your playlist with your media player software to TuneClone M4P Converter’s virtual CD Burner, and TuneClone M4P Converter will convert music files in the playlist to MP3, WAV or DRM-free WMA files automatically.

Key features of TuneClone M4P Converter: http://www.tuneclone.com

1. Within a few clicks, TuneClone M4P Converter lets you remove DRM protection from purchased music files by applying the virtual CD burning technology. You can play the converted unprotected music files with Media Player or any MP3 players including Zune, PSP, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, SanDisk Sansa, Walkman, Cell Phone(Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia N-series, Samsung Anycall, LG, etc.) Pocket PC, PDA…

2. TuneClone M4P Converter supports almost all music formats your media player software can play and burn, whether they are DRM protected or not, including WMA, M4P, AAC, MP4, etc. And it can output audio formats such as MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA.

3. TuneClone M4P Converter can easily and quickly convert DRM protected music and movie files and various audio/video files to MP3, Wav and unprotected WMA at very high speed with very nice CD quality.

4. With TuneClone M4P Converter, the converted songs will have NO DRM restriction any more.

5. TuneClone M4P Converter is very easy to install and and very easy to use with a very handy and clear user interface.

6. TuneClone M4P Converter can preserve ID3 tags for artist, album, title names, artworks, etc.

7. TuneClone M4P Converter is specially designed for batch converting large song collections. Compared with using real CD-R or CD-RW disc, TuneClone’s virtual CD burning can use the maximum writing speed so that your music files can be converted at a very high speed.

TuneClone M4P Converter is available at:
http://www.tuneclone.com/tuneclone_setup.exe

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

TuneClone M4P Converter - strip DRM off iTunes M4P music to MP3

iPhone 3G The Good: Faster download speeds

Talk and get data simultaneously

New, lower priceSupport for third-party applications

Integrated GPS

The Bad: Capacity is somewhat low

Strained battery life

Still a 2-megapixel camera

Limited GPS functionality
Still exclusive to AT&T

The Price
US$199 – 8G
BUS$299 – 16GB

If you look at the iPhone 3G, perhaps you wouldn’t think it’s too different from its predecessor. But looks can be deceiving. And in the case of the iPhone 3G, they’re likely to be very deceiving indeed: the video iPhone 3G looks to be a big jump past the first-generation iPhone.

From its faster Internet connection to its support for GPS and third-party applications - video to iphone 3G converter to its lower price, the iPhone 3G looks to be a major upgrade.

Many things about the iPhone 3G are the same: a 2-year contract with AT&T (subsidized upgrades are available to all iPhone owners and new AT&T customers, as well as select other customers), support for all the same widgets and firmware features, the terrific multi-touch screen, and intelligent sensors that determine whether the phone is near your head and shuts off the screen and the one that knows whether the phone is oriented horizontally or vertically.
And while those familiar features are nice, the video iPhone 3G’s changes should really make the device shine.

A Good Phone Gets A Little BetterThe phone features of the original iPhone didn’t leave too many people complaining (though it’s still missing voice dialing, a feature I’d like). Visual Voicemail felt like a breakthrough (though perhaps it wasn’t quite as useful as its hype would have suggested) and features such as three-way calling were a snap to use. While call quality was decent, more advanced cell phone features such as MMS messaging or certain Bluetooth features were not available.

The phone features on the iPhone 3G have all the same strengths and even add one: improved call quality. Because the iPhone 3G uses the 3G phone network which carries more data faster, the call quality when connected to a 3G network should be superior.

The phone still doesn’t have MMS messaging – a major failing for a device so closely tied to the Internet and media features – but that may be coming from third-party developers - video to iphone 3G converter.

A Terrific Personal Media PlayerWhen the original iPhone debuted, it was probably the best music player/phone on the market. And those features haven’t changed: the phone still offers an excellent MP3 player experience, complete with the CoverFlow interface that wowed many early users and the super-fast iTunes WiFi Music Store.

Probably the greatest music-related annoyance about the original iPhone – its recessed headphone jack that made most headphones incompatible and forced users to buy adapters – has been fixed. The jack on the iPhone 3G is flush, meaning you can just go back to your favorite headphones.

On the video side, the iPhone 3G is still a great mobile movie player, too. This model offers the same screen size, resolution, and widescreen orientation for movies, TV shows, convert video to iPhone 3G and YouTube to iPhone 3G.

The major thing I would have liked to see improved when it comes to media would have been greater storage capacity. Sure, 16GB is a decent amount of storage for music alone, but when you add in movies and third-party programs and games (more on that soon), it fills up quickly. Hopefully iPhones with more capacity are in the offing.

Internet That’s Twice as FastOne of the major flaws of the first-generation iPhone, especially for a device touted so heavily as an Internet appliance, was its slow EDGE network connection. Apple blamed the need for the slower EDGE connection on the strain 3G connections place on batteries (and battery life isn’t exactly the first iPhone’s strong suit as it is).

Apparently that issue’s been solved, because as the name would indicate, the iPhone 3G sports a 3G Internet connection that Apple claims is twice as fast as the EDGE connection (the iPhone 3G still uses EDGE in areas where 3G connections aren’t available).

The faster connection will be much appreciated, especially since the iPhone still gives users the full Internet, not a dumbed-down ‘mobile web.’

Along with the 3G connection comes another new feature: the ability to talk and download data at the same time. The EDGE network only supports making a call or using the Internet, not both simultaneously. The higher-capacity 3G connection can do both – no more needing to hang up to check your email.

Another addition to the iPhone 3G’s data services is the support for pushing calendar and address book content directly to the phone through Microsoft Exchange and Apple’s Mobile Me (nee .Mac). This is a big change and will likely make the iPhone a viable tool for many businesses, putting it in direct competition with the Blackberry and the Treo.

Introducing The App Store The other major data/Internet change ushered in with the iPhone 3G is the App Store. This is an online store, much like iTunes, that makes third-party programs and games available for purchase and download (over a wireless connection or from the desktop) to iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod touch users running the iPhone 2.0 firmware.

The original iPhone was locked down tightly, with Apple constantly wrestling with developers who wanted to install programs. Apple has now embraced them with the App Store. Programs will run US$0.99 to $999, though most are under $10 and many free.

Though Apple controls developer access to the App Store (a negative in my book), the range of available programs should greatly open the iPhone’s capabilities.

Given the iPhone’s motion sensitivity, third-party developers - video to iphone 3G converter could make the iPhone a hit gaming platform combining the best aspects of mobile gaming with motion sensitivity found in things like the .

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

Apple iPhone 3G review

Part one. Convert Youtube to iPhone (video to iPhone 3G) with iPhone Video Converter (for Windows users).

1.Copy and paste the link of video from Youtube in this website: www.videodownloadx.com.

Then click download and right click on ‘the download then save as.’, while saving, you can type the video as “title.flv”.

2.iPhone can play MP4 video, MP3, m4a audio.
After downloading, you should convert the *.flv to *.mp4 format. So you can download third party software to convert Youtube to iPhone (video to iPhone 3G). If you already know how to convert Youtube to iPhone (video to iPhone 3G), you can go to Part two; else, as convert Youtube to iPhone I prefer using Daniusoft Video to iPhone Converter, it converts video formats to iPhone including AVI, MP4, MPEG, WMV, XviD, H.264, DAT, MOV, ASF and FLV, etc. to iPhone MPEG-4, H.264, and rip video audio to iPhone MP3, M4A, AAC. It can also convert Youtube video to iPhone 3G, too. You can free download Daniusoft Video to iPhone Converter here and convert Youtube to iPhone with its guide.

Part Two. Convert Youtube to iPhone (video to iPhone 3G) with iPhone Video Converter (for Mac users)
1. Step 1 and step two as above.
2. After save Youtube to iPhone, Mac users can use iSquint. iSquint is an iPod video conversion app for Mac OS X that can be use to convert Youtube to iPhone too. It’s a free application with similar export features as Daniusoft Video to iPhone Converter. iSquint is awesome! It can be downloaded at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19769/isquint.

 
Addition: You can burn the downloaded Youtube video to DVD with DVD Burn software.

Part Three. Save Youtube to iPhone (video to iPhone 3G) with MxTube.
MxTube is a YouTube video downloader that allows you to save YouTube videos directly to your iPhone. You can download it here – Installer app.

When you open the app you will see a lower menu bar with four options; Featured, Search, Videos and Downloads. The Search option allows you to search YouTube for videos. YouTube actually has two versions of every video, high and low quality, once you have found a video you would like to download, you can select either high, low, or both. The videos will download in sequence and in the background. Once it’s done downloading, the video is available from within the application.

The Youtube video to iPhone can help you more: http://youtube.com/watch?v=m-6BceaGT6A.

Conclusion: The first and second way to convert Youtube to iPhone(video to iPhone 3G) needs the third party software to convert video to iPhone, if you don’t care to download the convert software, then the first and second way is the best way for you to convert Youtube to iPhone, Because it has better video quality for iPhone.
The third way to save Youtube to iPhone(video to iPhone 3G) needs Mxtube, it’s free but you won’t be able to sync the videos back to your computer. If you don’t care to store video back to your computer, then it’s also a good way for you.

This post originally appeared At The Family Place.

Save Youtube to iPhone/iPhone 3G