Tech Wednesdy is back!  Well for now.  It has been a long time since I got my iPhone.  So long that the warranty has actually gone out on it.  So with that in mind I decided to jailbreak it.  Jailbreakng an iPhone simply allows you to do whatever you want with it.

You can put whatever third-pary programs you want on it.  You can access the OS.  You easily add new ring tones.  It is a beautiful thing.  But the most beautiful thing about it was using Pwnage Tool.  Pwnage Tool made what could be a headache of a process really simple.

I love my iPhone, but I love it even more now.  My favorite thing is the ability to do video with my phone now.  One of the first programs I installed was Qik.  It’s a program that allows you to do live video from your phone.  I’m loving it!!!!!!

If you have an iPhone and you aren’t worried about voiding your warranty, I highly recomend jailbreaking it.  If you decide to, use this guide.  It was really helpful and walked me through the process step-by-step (and it didn’t even have Suzanne Somers).

I’m going to come right out and say it…I love Google. Yes. I’m totally sold out for Google. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Image Search, and Youtube (owned by Google). Now most of these are well known to people, but on this Tech Wednesday I want to share a few Google features that aren’t as well known.

These are like the red-headed-step-children of the Google world. They’re just as good as the other Google features. They’re just not as widely known. So let me introduce you to the step-kids of Google.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts automatically updates you with an email when something is added to the internet based on the search terms you give it. I mainly use this for two things. One, to see if anything is put up on the net about me (yeah it’s egotistical…but kinda helpful too). Two, to see when someone talks about beer and Christianity (I use this search term for theBeerean.com).

Goog411

I haven’t used this one that much since I got my iPhone (Google Maps on the iPhone replaced it), but before the iPhone it was a staple. It’s basically a free 411 service. I would explain it some more, but the video below explains it a lot better than I could.

Google Reader

I’ve talked about this a little bit in the past, but I felt the need to bring it up again. Google Reader is a feed reading program offered by Google. It allows you to keep up with all of your blogs in one place. Once again I’ll let Google tell you more about it (if you start using Google Reader make sure to add me as your friend glqualls [at] gmail [dot] com and to subscribe to my feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/gregquallsfeed).

This weeks new technology that I cam across is called Evernote. I heard about this through twitter and had to check it out. First off I have to say this thing is pretty cool in the sense that it works on PC and Mac and has a web side to it too (and they all sync with each other). Unfortunately, the Mac software only works on Leopard (I still have Tiger).

The idea behind Evernote is to be a place where you can store all the information that you come across in day and easily pull it back up through search features and tags later down the road. There are other things out there that can do this, but the main thing that wowed me was the fact it can search text in pictures (even handwriting).

I’ve just started using it (and only the web side since I don’t have Leopard), but I’m liking it so far. For a person like me that ingests copious amounts of information every day, this is great. I’m pretty good at remembering things, but this will make things easier.

I’ve included the video from their site below. I have 9 invites left. If anyone is interested, send me an email through my contact page.