Apple has officially announced that they would be giving out free cases to all iPhone 4 users. For those who have already bought a case for their iPhone 4, a refund will be available.

Now, for those of you who are still hoping to be able use the iPhone 4 without the added bulk of a casing just so a finger does not accidentally touch the unfortunately placed exposed antenna on the edge, there are actually several solutions that are available.

Some users have resorted to applying a small coating of nail polish on the area. Apparently, the solution does not interfere with the signal of the handset. Others opted for more conventional measures and applied a small strip of tape to the edge of the phone –resourceful yes, but most types of tape are not designed to be used in such a way.

This is where the Etsy Antenna-aid comes in. Basically, this is a band-aid for the iPhone 4 antenna. The vinyl sticker is tough, durable and is a suitable material for sticking on the side of the iPhone (it matters a lot when you slide the phone in an out of a pocket –a regular strip of tape might get peeled off slowly). The designs are also pretty nice. Sticking with the band-aid theme, the adhesive vinyl strips look like band aids that fit just right on the iPhone.

Manufacturer Etsy is also having fun with the marketing of this ingenious product as well, poking fun at both Apple and the antenna issue (the ad references the retina display and of course, the use of the term “magical”).

Naturally, Etsy is not making any solid promises; the Antenna-aid as advertised states that it “may improve signal performance”. The iPhone 4 accessory is now available online directly from the Etsy online store.

In an announcement that is bound to make many tech fans sad, Emblaze has announced that their company is taking financial loses and in order to stabilize the situation, they will be seizing the funds allocated for the development of the First ELSE operating system and user interface.

After a fantastic showing of the First ELSE handset at the Mobile World Congress last February, it is hard to imagine that the phone will no longer be seeing production lines. The ELSE’s user interface made use of a one-touch system that allowed users to easily navigate menus, send files, call contacts with a single finger on the screen.

The stylish and innovative user interface lacked the big fussy animations and colors seen on the Windows Phone 7 or the elaborate icons of the iPhone. Instead, the design focused more on functionality –and providing a bit of a stylized futuristic feel to the phone.

While the First ELSE would not have been a mainstream smart phone, it would have certainly carved out a niche for itself, but sadly, that possibility is now going down the drain as Emblaze has to recuperate its losses, and cancelling the First ELSE is just a part of a long process the company has to go through before it is stabilized once again.

There have been reports that Emblaze is planning to sell some of the user interface designs to other companies. This brings hope to the possibility that the UI might actually see an incarnation in other mobile phones, but for the most part, tech fans will have to scratch out the First ELSE from their wish lists.

This announcement is just one of the many various technologies being announced as ‘scrapped’. Microsoft also announced that the Kin series of smart phones will be getting axes in favor of upcoming WP7 handsets.

If you ask Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt about what the world would be like in the future, and he will tell you that it will have plenty to do with smart phone technology.

Sure, desktop computers will be around forever. The same can also be said about the newly emerging tablet devices as well. But smart phones are not becoming the new must have device –not because of all the convenience it delivers, but because the features it provides are a necessity in a world where people expect everyone else to be connected to the online world.

Back then, being online meant connecting to a slow dial up modem. These days, almost every cool gadget will have a WiFi feature that allows users to hook up to the internet. “Being awake meant being online” as Schmidt says, and he is quite right. These days, thanks to the power of smart phone technology, people are generally online all of the time.

That one single factor alone helps explain why the social networking site Facebook managed to become so successful while the site itself had the potential to match the previous success of MySpace, the fact that Facebook grew alongside the boom of smart phone usage helped bring the usage of the site higher.

The innovation does not stop there. Google is pushing to implement new standards and new features that would help make everything a lot more convenient. The current features of Google reflect this aim. The Goggles augmented reality feature, Google Maps, Street View and other features all focus on one basic thing –making relevant information accessible.

For a company built on the success of a search engine, this approach and goal is both strong and inspiring. With people like Schmidt at the helm of Google, we can only expect to hear more great things from the famous company in the coming years.

There are plenty of new and convenient things that the internet and smart phone technology is bringing to the people. For many small local businesses, nothing can be more influential than having a good location based service (or at least a tie up with Foursquare).

While investing in a major advertising project is too much for your typical corner pub, it still helps to get good internet reviews. And while there are plenty of GPS apps that would help lead new customers to a store, nothing beats getting great recommendations from pub goers themselves.

It is common to find reviews by professional critics in local media, but the internet can offer something more –what the local residents say. There are many products, services and features that many locals are able to grasp, understand and talk about more –like how a favorite local snack is served just perfectly, or how the ambiance proves to be great for drinking or catching the latest match on the telly.

And of course, it also helps being able to avoid the criticisms. As much as a professional review could put down a classy restaurant, a local store will have trouble attracting new customers with bad reviews.

Another major factor that is important with locations based services, is that they actually lead people into the store. Any facility of location that is made available on an online directory can be found on search and will be a major recommendation for anyone nearby. While this will not be attracting new customers from across town, at least the folks who just moved in the apartment several blocks down the road might be encouraged to go.

Meanwhile, apps such as Foursquare are providing customers with plenty of virtual rewards and incentives for customers –stores would be wise by adding in some real life incentives as well.

Smart phones are designed to do many things. From expected features such as allowing users to make and receive calls and messages to having memory storage space for contact information and for the inbox of messages. With the arrival of better hardware, mobile phones begun to do more. From being able to connect to email servers to playing media content, the average mobile phone today has plenty of basic capabilities.

The arrival of smart phone technology, and more importantly, the new, complex mobile platforms that have been introduced, the capabilities of the smart phone has exponentially increased in the past few years.

While manufacturers and phone developers have been able to do plenty of things for the technology and the community, there are still plenty of functions that the average smart phone can provide. Thanks to the high power processors, large capacity batteries, massive touch screens and other hardware available, a standard smart phone of today is pretty much a very small, low power computer.

However, making use of this hardware is not something that phone makers can focus on. It is up to independent developers and companies to create specialized software for phones –and that is why we have apps.

But why apps are so famous and widespread is a different matter.

Sure, a mobile phone can do plenty of things, but Google and HTC has better things to do than program a augmented reality golfing guide –and that is where the apps come in for the end users. By allowing developers to create and distribute apps for different smart phones, users are able to access a wide variety of content and install specifically what they need.

From simple RSS readers to fun interactive games to very complex information databases, apps can store and provide a vast variety of data and functions. While there are a wide range of apps available for most platforms, they certainly shouldn’t be ignored when it comes to purchasing a new phone. Whether or not it has that must-have-app may prove the deciding factor between, say, that new Samsung Wave 2, or the Apple iPhone 4.

These days, getting in touch is simply a matter of sending a quick SMS message on the phone. It is handy, convenient and takes little to no time at all. This technology has allowed plenty of people to keep in touch, to arrange quick gatherings and to even hold instant celebrations. With the rise of 3G and wireless internet, more and more features have been added to mobile phones, people now have access to social networks, microblogging and of course, the rest of the internet.

The question now, is should you give a child a smart phone?

The issue may not seem like a big deal, but with most children already owning Facebook accounts and considering online interaction as more important that actually physical contact, there is the large risk that a child who is ‘unplugged’ would be ostracized and alienated by the very same people at school or the playground.

While parents may prefer to look for handsets with parental lock settings or other nonsensical features, the real concerns is how parents are capable of preparing their children for the burden of responsibility when it comes to the internet.

The answer being with actually knowing for oneself what is considered to be right, wrong, accepted and rejected on the internet. With millions of users online, the web is a very gray moral area, with people supporting various views regarding society, religion, politics and many other issues.

A child need not be knowledgeable in all these fields, but it is up to the parents to instill a strong sense of will, purpose and self-belief in one’s own moral compass for determining what is proper and what is not.

The next issue is teaching a child discipline –which is quite difficult given the impulsive and curious nature of children. The only way to surpass this is when parents show their own patience and perseverance in their goal to teach and guide their children properly.

Farmville is considered to be one of the most successful browser based online gaming applications. The game has millions of users (estimated to be anywhere from 70 to 80 million) and that number is still continuing to grow.

Thanks to the game’s simplistic gameplay and connectivity with user’s online networks in Facebook, there are plenty of reasons for people to keep addicted. First off, the game offers quick rewards for tasks –a very important factor for casual gamers. Also being able to trade produce and other farming materials with other people in one’s social network is major reason as to why people are so obsessed with making their farms larger and more successful. For others, the feeling of accomplishment in being able to expand and make their farms successful and productive is another reason why people live the game so much.

Since the game uses Flash to run in a browser, iPhone users do not have access to Farmville –this became even more realized after Apple has announced that they would never be supporting Flash at all. And with Steve Jobs’ reactions regarding Adobe and the Flash format, it seemed likely that iPhone users would not be able to access Farmville.

This however has been changed with the new announcement from Zynga. According to reports, the web game developer is working on a Farmville iPhone application that will allow users to access their Facebook Farmville accounts from the iPhone.

While this news will certainly make millions of Farmville players happy, it still does not cover the many other Flash games on the internet. Even if it is possible to re-make all the games into Flash compatible formats, the fact of the matter is that Apple’s initial lack of support for the web format is a major drawback. Not all Flash developers are as big as Zynga and could afford the time and resources to remaking an already existing game.

Because the default media player of Android smart phones is usually basic and unpolished, the folks over at the doubleTwist corporation have decided to make their own.

This new player works with the doubleTwist desktop software and works with both the Windows and Mac operating systems. It gives users the ability to sync their media files between the computers and smart phones carrying the little green robot platform.

Because doubleTwist aims to offer Android users the iTunes experience, it also has compatibility with playlists made on the Apple software. This effectively eliminates your iTunes envy because the new Android media player allows for iPod media syncing. All of the information you set for your Apple devices are carried over to your Android devices so you are not forced to set the song artist details, the ratings of your tunes or the play count. Additionally, you can also enjoy video and audio podcasts any time with theuse of your doubleTwist media player.

The team behind doubleTwist has managed to make their media software available even to other smart phones and devices. Among these is the Palm Pre as well as the office powerhouse, Blackberry. Users who have Sony PSPs or Flip devices will also be able to use the media player if they wish.

There are so many new features that are set to come out for doubleTwist users. The CEO and co-founder of the doubleTwist corporation, Monique Farantzos, said that in the future even wireless syncing may be supported by the media wonder. That would definitely be a huge breakthrough in terms of efficiency, potentially making the doubleTwist a better media manager than even Apple’s iTunes software.

If you would want to see the media capabilities of doubleTwist for yourself, the app is currently available for download without cost at the Android Market.

Age of Heroes Online is a simple, turn based strategy game that is played on the internet with just the web browser. It uses Java script and places players in a world that is populated by medieval fantasy monsters and creatures. The point of the game is to create one’s own hero and amass an army to fight enemies. It is simple, fun and strangely addictive, and now, it is coming to the Android smart phone.

It is actually no surprise that Age of Heroes Online finally got ported to a smart phone, after all, the game’s basic graphics require little resources to run and the gameplay itself is easily accomplished with a single cursor –no need for a keyboard or anything else.

The gameplay itself is easy enough to grasp, player move on a turn based system across a hex tile board and positing their armies to fight the enemy. Battles are won after certain conditions are met (which basically involves killing all enemies in the fight). Overall, it’s a nice game to play and with over 800,000 players on the server, the existing in-game economy is ever changing.

Hardcore gamers might want to pass up this title for more serious and challenging game, but those looking for a simple investment of time might appreciate even the simple character built system of AoHO. With three distinct races and 9 job classes to choose from, players will at least enjoy being able to make their own custom hero character.

The music and sound effects add to the overall atmosphere of the game, though some players might wish for a mute option when the BGM gets a little too repetitive. Control-wise, the game responds nicely to the touch screen commands and the port from desktop browser game to Android app has mapped the functions quite nicely.

Facebook has been quite happy to announce that they have changed the way the social networking site will handle user profile settings and that users will now have a better way to control and manage how the information on their profile is managed.

This major revision comes as a reaction to the growing number of complaints and problems that many Facebook users have been complaining about in the past few weeks. The main concern that many users have is that Facebook’s new features have left their user profile data open and exposed for the world to see. Even for people who are not hiding any secrets, that level of exposure creates a feeling of vulnerability, and Facebook’s complicated settings page does not make it any easier for the users to gain a feeling of control.

This is why Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has already taken the prerogative to write a letter to the millions of Facebook’s users in regards to their concerns and what he intends to do with the social networking site in the future. However, experts can easily see the media friendly spin he puts with his words, the letter is mostly non-committal and there is not promise of any specific measures to actually protect privacy other than changing the way users can edit settings.

The situation as it stands is simple, Facebook still gets to control what happens to most of the information that has been entered by users of the social networking site. While the users get to have a new privacy settings page with a simplified options menu, there are still millions of other users who are not familiar with the situation and will proceed to use the site without even touching the settings page.

Unless Facebook actually defaults all settings the private unless specified by users as public, then the problem will still remain.