This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of USC. All opinions are 100% mine.

Usually most students prefer a classroom setting when taking classes for a degree either in Bachelor, Master or PHD. I was one of those people before. This one is fine if you are a fulltime student or working part-time. What if you have a fulltime job? One of the benefits of online studies is that you can keep your current job while working on your degree. I did this when I took my second Masters Degree. It was very convenient and economical since I don’t need to drive to school. I also like the flexibility of the schedule which allows me to study whenever I like.

If, for example, you are teacher, most schools and universities now require that their instructors have a master degree. You can earn a Master of Arts in Teaching from an internationally recognized research institution with a 100-year history of educating teachers to be the instrument of change. One of these schools is the USC Rossier School of Education. They are ranked 22 in the US and ranked 9 in private universities by US News and World Report. To learn more about their offering you can visit there site to find the program information and look for the degree that you want. It is a great opportunity to learn from known USC faculty who are known for their hand-outs to modern education.

Another innovation that I found very interesting was that one of the creators of the battery for the iPhone launched a credit card solution that will fit in to any iPhone 3G and 3Gs. Imagine your iPhone having a credit card reader. This will allow you to process your payments using your phone. This would be more convenient than keeping cash on hand and this would be very handy to those people that don’t carry cash and use there credit card for everything.

We usually use the DVD Ripper software if we want to make a back up copy of our DVD content. This software is also use if we want to convert our DVD video for playback on media players and mobile devices.

One of the DVD Ripper software that I like is the ImTOO ,aside from DVD Ripper, they have also DVD Ripper Mac, a video converter for mac that will work with iPod, iPhone, iPad, Aple TV, PSP, PS3, Xbox360, Zune PMPs, Google phones and mobile phones. They also added video profiles for the most recent iPhone 4, so, this is not a problem if you are using iPhone4. Some of the key features of the ImTOO Mac video converter that I find fun to use are the unique transitions in between merged picture/video items, its ability to add audio track to the videos and the capability to split a large file into several by customized split time or size. This video converter is blueprinted to give the fastest and easiest way to translate any video into format optimized for a broad range of media players, mobile phones, or for distribution on the web. Convert standard-definition videos include avi, mpeg, wmv, mp4, H.264, MOV, FLV on Mac

The software is very user friendly, the consumer just choose videos, pick their target device, and ImTOO Video Converter for Mac will do the rest.

You might already hear that Google is planning to rotate Gmail into a communications hub by adding the ability to make phone calls from the Google Chat interface.

I read in CNET site that Google is trying a web-based service that will permit the users to put a phone call from their in-boxes. You will notice that if you launch the Google chat on the lower left-hand side of the Gmail page a user can place and receive calls.

You can now use it for free if you will be calling to US and Canada and they have a separate rate for international calls. Gmail will be one of the Skype tough competitor for voice calling in the future.

Visit this site to learn more.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Boost Mobile is a constituent of the Sprint Prepaid Group. What I like about them is that they have no long-term contract, meaning you can modify your rate plan without renewing a long term cell phone plan contract, or you can stop it at any time with no penalty. This type of plan is best for people who are using more than 600 minutes per month, since they offer unlimited nationwide talk, text and web for $50 per month which is less than other networks that have contracts.

If you have Blackberry, you can have there flat-rate web and email for $60 per month, I think this is a very good deal, right?

In Boost Mobile you also have lots of options if you want to buy credit for your phone. You can Re-Boost your phone by paying online, in person or by phone. You will also get a $20 credit if you will register in their automatic payment option.

Their networks (Sprint and Nextel) are two of the largest, all-digital wireless networks in the United States. They reach over 276 and 277 million people, respectively, in almost 18,000 cities.
The Boost-branded wireless phones are available generally at nearly 20,000 major retail stores, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart. You can also find them in Sprint retail stores, independent wireless dealer locations, and on HSN.

I’ve been waiting for the release of the SQL Server Reporting Services R2 since May. Just last August they finally released this new version. They consider that SQL Server 2008 R2 is a big release, with new “editions” (MSDN contains the detailed feature by edition matrix ), and also includes significant enhancements in Reporting Services. The top new features of R2 are the ff:

• “Grab and Go” reporting experience enabled through the Report Part Gallery
• Support for maps and geospatial visualizations with integration to Bing maps and support for SQL spatial data types
• Additional visualizations including indicators, sparklines and data bars
• Support for consuming SharePoint lists and PowerPivot models as data sources
• Support for Madison and SQL Azure data sources
• Render any report as a data source to PowerPivot or other applications through ATOM data feeds

Some of the problems I encountered while using the SSRS 2008 was the rendering to Excel. Like the page header that only appears on the first page and not on pages that follow and the margins that never retain when you render it to excel. It looks so ridiculous that this functionality works in SSRS 2005 but not in SSRS 2008. There are lots of developers who complained with this problem, especially, those who migrated from 2005 to 2008. Microsoft promised that this bug is already fixed in R2, that’s why, I am so excited to use and play around with R2 and discover its new functionality.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Nielsen Research. All opinions are 100% mine.

Nielsen (the world’s leading supplier of marketing information, audience measurement and business media products and services) and Nokia (world's leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks including related customer services) work together to produce a panel of Smart phone fanatics that are using a device on the Symbian platform. The Symbian platform is an open source operating system (OS) and software platform that are intended for smartphones. The Symbian platform has been designated as the successor to Symbian OS.

If you are currently using a Nokia Phone and are interested to become one of their panels, you can join by registering on their site. After you register, they will send the information to your phone via sms on how to download and install an application to your Nokia phone. They said that the application that you will download to you Nokia phone will run silently in the background and you will not even notice it because it will only take a small amount of your system resources.

It is stated in their site that none of the personal information will be shared with third parties for marketing purposes. You can check the privacy policy on their site.

The good thing about being a panel member is that you will be able to help the mobile industry provide a better service to their consumers and aside from that, you will also receive a Nokia $100 gift certificate after a year.

Check their site for more information.

Kindle, a product from amazon.com, now has a competitor which can do thousands of things not just for reading purposes. This is the iPad by Apple. Some advantages of Kindle are that it is lighter than the iPad. The Kindle’s text is easier on the eyes. And its battery life is measured in weeks while iPad’s battery life is 10 to 12 hours. Kindle lets you add notes – iPad doesn’t. Kindle can also access Wikipedia for free via 3G and free internet access. What I like about the iPad is that the free google book works, there is PDF software, meaning you can read books that are in pdf format and the automatic screen rotation while the kindle only has manual rotation.

You might ask, so, which one is better to have? The answer is depending on your needs. If you read more books then Kindle is the better choice. If you prefer more multi-tasking and read fewer books, watch movies, and play games then iPad is the better choice.

Android cellphone are now so popular, one of the cellphone that I like most is the samsung captivate that AT&T offered. This phone is considered as the first top of the line android smartphone. If you are looking for a gadget that has incredible display, great camera and nice UI, you will definitely consider this phone.

If you have already this device and you are looking for Samsung Captivate Accessories, Samsung Captivate Screen Protectors, and Samsung Vibrant Accessories. Just check the link that I provided.