Sign Up And Configure Your MobStac Account

1. Signup for a free account with MobStac. You can also sign in using Twitter or Facebook login. Once you had signed up, you will be sent a verification link to your mailing account. Click that link to verify and then sign in with the details.

2. Enter your blog URL and scan.

3. Once the scan is complete you will be shown all the options for your blog you need to edit. Enter all the details and then opt for a preview.

4. Check out both the small screen and large screen previews. If you are satisfied, scroll down and use the button “Okay! Take me live” to create the mobile version of your blog.

5. In the next page, you will be provided with an API key and your mobile blog URL. Copy them to a notepad and keep the notepad window minimized.

Setting Up Redirection Using Mobstac Plugin:

If you are using WordPress, here is an easy way you can redirect all your mobile readers to the MobStac page i.e whenever someone tries to open your blog url using a mobile device, he/she will get redirected to the MobStac page, which is more friendly for the device.

1. Download the MobStac WordPress plugin.

2. Login to your WordPress admin account and go to Plugins page.

3. Click “Add New”, and then select the downloaded zip file. After uploading is complete, activate the plugin.

4. Go to Plugins > MobStac Configuration. Open the notepad window (you kept minimized) and enter the details you copied to the respective fields. Press Save Changes.

Setting Up A Branded URL e.g. m.yourblog.com

From branding perspective, a MobStac URL does not look pro. You must have seen reputed websites have a nice looking URL for their mobile website e.g. m.facebook.com. Well that is quite tricky to set up if you do not have the proper knowledge. But you can surely show off a branded URL like m.yourblog.com using a little DNS trick. If you own a domain, you can use DNS redirection from your cPanel to redirect all visitors using the branded URL to the MobStac URL. Let us see how.

1. Login to your cPanel and go to Parked domains.

2. Create a new parked domain with the a suitable mobile URL. The most commonly used form is m.yourblog.com.

3. Now edit the newly created parked domain for managing the redirection settings.

4. Enter the MobStac URL (http://yourblog.mobstac.com) as the URL to be redirected to and save the settings. Wait for the redirection to be confirmed.

5. Go back to Parked domains and confirm the redirection.

Features:

MobStac has a lot more to offer you along with the free mobile website.

1. You can customize what content you wish to show your mobile users. Say you have a blog which writes on mobile hacks, apps and OS (Windows, Linux) hacks as well. You can filter the feed to show your mobile users the mobile specific content to target a specific niche. To select categories go to, Dashboard > Categories.

2. MobStac also provides a simple analytics page which shows the number of mobile visitors. Go to Dashboard > Analytics.

3. MobStac lets you monetize your mobile web with Google Adsense, AdMob and InMobi ads. This is really great if you get a large number of mobile viewers. To edit your ad setting go to Dashboard > Settings.

So now that you have a mobile friendly version of your blog and that also with a branded URL, go ahead and take advantage of it and monetize your content to earn a few more bucks. Let us know, if there is any other way to make a mobile version of your blog.

Create A Mobile Version Of Your Blog With A Branded URL originally published on Ampercent

Well now you can travel in peace with just a Symbian phone with FotoTranslate installed. Whenever you need to translate any word just take a picture of it using your mobile phone. The FotoTranslate app will then help you translate the word to a language you understand.

[Related: Turn Your Mobile Into A Blogging Platform]

The app is based on OCR (Optical Character Recognition). When you take a snap with your mobile cam it transform the image into a text. This text is then translated to the language of your choice. The application presently supports 8 languages which includes English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian. You can try translating words in any direction possible in between those languages. The application is compatible with most S60 smartphones. All the supported devices are listed here.

Download FotoTranslate

Here is a video demonstration to get an idea about FotoTranslate.

FotoTranslate is an application from ABBYY which is known for its expertise with OCR. They have successfully implemented the OCR technology to help people on the go. The Symbian application is a paid app. However, you can try FotoTranslate for 1 day. Even if you do not travel a lot, this application could be useful while reading a book written in a foreign language.

FotoTranslate: Translate Words By Taking its Picture originally published on Ampercent

The last option left is to postpone the reading task for later. Read it later is a nice tool to postpone your tasks which are synced across the web (computer, mobile phones).

Read it later is a web based tool that can save your links for future reading. The better part is, as the tool is web based the links are synced. If you are reading something on your mobile waiting for the train and suddenly the train arrives, just save the link using read it later. Next time you find a Computer, open your account and resume reading the saved link.

How to Set up Read It Later :

1. Go to Read It Later website and sign up for a free account. You will be redirected to your reading profile and the list will be empty as you had just started.

2. Download the relevant app(s) from the list below

• For Mozilla Firefox – Download add on from Mozilla Addon Gallery or Read it Later Website.
• Google Chrome – Downlaod Postponer Manager and Postpone Adder. Both are required.
• For Smartphones – Download mobile apps for Read It Later.
• Bookmarklets – Download these bookmarklets to use Read it later while you are using the web based version.

Now your Read it later account is ready to be explored, lets see how to do that in the following section.

How to Use Read It Later :

1. I will be demonstrating how to use Read it later using Google Chrome. After you have installed the two extensions, you will find two icons.

#1 This is the Postpone Adder. This will help you add items to your postponed list.

#2 This one is the Postpone Manager which manages stuffs like the postpone list, your account etc.

2. Click the “Postpone Adder” and you will be asked to enter your account details. Enter the account credentials that you used to sign up.

3. Anytime you need to add any page in your Read it Later list, just use the Postpone Adder. Enter suitable details that will help you find the page later.

4. To read the saved webpages later, just open the list using the Postpone Manager. There will be a ticker on the Postpone Manager which will notify you about the number of unread links you have in there.

That is all. You can now postpone your reading tasks for future. You can check on this list later on using your office computer or your mobile device (with a Read it later app) while on the go. If you use any other medium to postpone your reading tasks just let us know via comments.

Read It Later – Online Tool For Saving Links to Read later originally published on Ampercent

This tool is primarily aimed towards getting involved in user created chat-rooms. But there are loads of other stuff that can be done with this. Some of the features that it can boast of are

• Getting most popular IMs like Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Chat & AIM on your mobile.
• Very cheap international calling rates.
• Refilling your account with just your ATM-cum-Debit cards(Credit Card not needed). Though this is totally optional in case you want to make cheap international calls.
• Multi-lingual interface.
• Cross platform support i.e it is compatible on almost all mobile platforms.

Now that we have learnt of its versatility lets proceed to the learning process on how to get things done.

Step 1 : Setup your Account & Downloading the Client

1. Visit the Mig33 Registration page(URL : m.mig33.com/join) from your mobile(or on your computer) & signup for an account. You will need a valid mobile number for the registration. Though this number may not necessarily the number you will be using to access internet on your phone.
2. After the registration is complete, you will be redirected to a page containing the download links of the mig33 software. If you are using your mobile phones to do the download the software will get downloaded to your mobile but if you are using your computer then just just move those downloaded files into your mobile data storage.
3. Now as you signup you will receive a SMS on the mobile number that you used to register. This SMS will contain your username, password & an authentication code(do not lose it).
4. Now after the software is properly installed on your mobile, start it & after it loads put your username & password in places provided. After you press login you will be asked to enter your Authentication code. Enter it & press continue. Now you will be sent to your start screen(which looks like the screenshot below).

Step 2 : Adding your IM accounts to Migg33

Once you are in your start screen follow the steps below. I’ll show how to add a GTalk account to illustrate. All the others can be added similarly.(follow the screenshots too)

1. Press Menu. Scroll down to Other IM.
2. Press right cursor key. Scroll down to Gtalk & again press right cursor key.
3. Scroll down to Add/Edit Login & press Select.
4. Now add your Gmail ID(username) & password. And now press Save.
5. Now to login/logout the account, repeat steps 1-2 & then select Sign In/ Sign out as needed.

Step 3 : Chatting to any Online Contact

Now after you have successfully signed into your IM account all your online contacts will become visible in the start screen view. Now let me show you how to chat with any of your online friends.

1. Scroll down to his/her name & press Menu key.
2. Now press Select while the option Private Chat is highlighted.
3. A new tab will open where the chat window with that contact will open where you can chat with your friend.
   (NOTE : Shift between Tabs using left & right cursor keys)
4. You can also share images from the private chat window. Press Menu to get the option.

Step 4 : Changing your online status to Invisible

One of the most fascinating features in Mig33 is that you can be invisible to other people while chatting on any of the above mentioned IMs or simply the Mig33 chat. Lets see how.

1. While in the start screen(contact list) press Menu.
2. Scroll down to Set Presence & press right-cursor.
3. Now scroll down to Appear Offline & press Select.

Step 5 : Make Calls & Send SMS from Mig33

As said earlier you can also make cheaper calls(national & international) & send SMS(national & international) from Mig33. Lets see how.

1. While in the start screen scroll down to any contact(online/offline) & press Menu.
2. Then scroll down to Call or SMS & press Select.
3. If the contact number is already saved it will be in the Destination number already. And if it is not saved you can manually put it there.
4. Now press the Call Now button.

NOTE : When you call, the Origin Number is the number you used to register for that account. Whenever you make a call request, you will receive a call on that number from Mig33’s router & receiving that call will connect you to the Destination Number.

Well there are plenty of more options available in Mig33 but as the context of the article is beyond that. I will be discussing that in my upcoming posts.

So now that we have learnt about the Mig33 software what’s the point in not using it yourself. I’m sure it will be a great experience for you. Please share your valuable comments about it. And feel free to ask any more suggestions or tricks regarding this tool. And not to mention that, put in the names of any such softwares that provides similar utilities. Thanks & Happy Chatting !!!

Note : All screenshots are taken by camera from mobile screen, pardon me if they are blur.

Get GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Chat & AIM on your mobile originally published on Ampercent