Recently my friend Ethan (from techgiz) pointed me to an interesting online product. Honestly, I was skeptical (as I always am) of the idea behind the product and really though it was just another  marketing ploy.  But then I remembered that when Ethan shows me something, he is always (and I mean always)  for real.

Anyways, I’ll make the long story short and save you some precious time. The product is a called “Free Stuff Exposed” and shows you how to get free tech products directly from the manufactures through promotional loopholes. Yes, I know..the name sounds like cheezy commercial and the idea behind the product sounds a bit overwhelming. That’s why I was turned down before I even gave it a try.

After another long conversation with my bud Ethan he convinced me and we decided to give it a whirl.

Due to the terms of the product I cant reveal much here, but HOLY HELL this shit works (forgive my language) Yeah, it might take you a tad amount of time following the steps mentioned and waiting for the product to arrive (mine arrived about after 8 days)  but the end result is well worth it. Who doesn’t want a free iPhone 3gs shipped straight to your house.

Anyways, here a picture of my new iPhone for those that are seeking proof. (taken by nonetheless Mr.Ethan)

If your interested here is the link to the product.

By the way, has anyone else tried this product? If so leave a comment with your story

All the best, Andre

Facebook has a big habit of going around reminding everyone that it has cracked the 400 million registered accounts benchmark. (they say “users”, and I say “registered accounts” because I know numerous people who have more than one account for reasons such as forgetting their original login information)  But over at Skype they might snicker at that number as the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service has bypassed 560 million accounts.

• Skype added 39 million registered users in the fourth quarter to end the year with a total of 560 million.
• The number of Skype-to-Skype call minutes totaled 36.1 billion in the final three months of 2009.
• Skype users made more the 250 billion minutes worth of Skype-to-Skype calls from the time the service was launched through the end of 2009.
• Skype in 2009 accounted for 12 percent of the world’s international calling minutes, a 50 percent increase over 2008 when it accounted for 8 percent of international calling, according to TeleGeography Research.
• 36 percent of Skype-to-Skype calls as of the end of the fourth quarter included video — in other words, Skype is going to figure prominently in the video conferencing business, challenging more established players with its no-cost solution.

Again, like Facebook, there are people with multiple accounts, and there are also spammers, but those accounts get shut down pretty fast.

Skype and Facebook are very different creatures, but it’s interesting to see how large a company that provides an actually useful service can get bigger than one who’s apparent key reasons for existing are for you to share embarrassing photos of yourself and tend a virtual farm.  Skype has also not felt a need to try to weasel its way into every corner of the Web with questionable tools that track your movement from site-to-site, or manipulate your profile because you click a “Like” button somewhere.  Skype just exists.  If you choose to use it, great, but if you don’t, they aren’t in your face about it.

There is every chance that Facebook could surpass Skype  someday, and it probably will, but for now it is just kind of amusing the quiet, unassuming and actually useful company has 40 percent more accounts.

What say you?  What accounts for Skype’s massive number of accounts?

These programs are a part of a series of shifts in Windows Live, and will become a part of Microsoft’s online services.  In the upgrades of Windows Live Movie Maker, Live Photo Gallery and other Live programs, Microsoft is choosing to utilize the better graphics engines that come with Windows Vista and Windows 7.  This does however come at the cost of compatibility of older operating systems.

“We just decided that was the right choice,” said Microsoft Vice President Chris Jones.  Existing versions of the programs will be supported for XP users and online services like Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger will continue to work.

The main focus of the updated versions will be on the Movie Maker and Photo Gallery and will integrate an easier way to share the content online such as Facebook and Twitter.

Microsoft will as well continue to work on options to synchronize content across multiple platforms such as mobile phones and over the coming months, Microsoft will offer public testing of these services.

The reality is that “No one needs another events service,” reiterated Jones.  Microsoft is really striving for using these essential products to connect to other services, rather than trying to push Microsoft to make a new kind of service, which there is already plenty of.  People don’t need another photo-sharing service or social network, Jones said.

The additional details on all the new products will be released over the next few weeks.