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Need for Speed – Nginx

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Web Servers are a plenty, with the most famous ones being Apache Web Server and Microsoft’s IIS. However, unbeknownst to many, there exist a few web servers that are literally taking the Internet like a tsunami wave.

Two such web servers are Lighty (LIGHTTPD) and nginx (pronounced ‘engine-x’). It is the latter that I want to discuss today: Nginx!

Nginx Official Website – Nginx Wiki

Originally Nginx was developed by Igor Sysoev for the Russian portal “Rambler” which used to experience very heavy traffic loads – hence the need for a new web server that would be able to handle the additional traffic.

Web Server (like Apache and Microsoft IIS) both have traditionally had an upper ceiling of handling 10,000 simultaneous connections – referred to in the industry as the C10K problem. It seemed (at the time) that this was the maximum a web server could push and no further.

The C10K problem has since then been addressed my many and been breached, predominantly by Lighty and nginx. [Official site for the C10K problem].

What makes Nginx great is that it is fast – very fast! It is light on resources, serves requests very efficiently, highly optimized for today’s environment and best feature of all is that it has a predictable memory load.

Some of the world’s most busiest websites are powered by Nginx, likes of which include Hulu, WordPress and SourceForge.

Internet statistics authority Netcraft has recently shown (Web Server Survey) the strong gains that Nginx has been making, listing it today as the 3rd most used web server in the world and rapidly gaining market share. Today, roughly 7.5% of the domains hosted are on the Nginx platform.

Unlike Microsoft IIS, Nginx is free (just like Apache) and is licensed under the BSD License.  The redesigned architecture, small footprint and ability to customize it with add-on modules is what makes nginx so popular and truly a great performing web server.

Recently, a great resource was published for Nginx – Nginx HTTP Server by Clement Nedelcu – which discusses in intricate detail the Nginx server from simple deployment to complex clusters / configurations.  Most important for new comers to switch to Nginx is the amount of resources available on the web in the form of tutorials and forums that will greatly aid users to seek out answers to their problems.

Nginx has been successfully ported to run on Unix, Linux, BSD variants, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Microsoft Windows. Almost all the major apps like WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, PHP-Nuke, etc. can run on Nginx. Because of its exceptionally fast caching ability, Nginx can be installed on the same machine alongside Apache, with Nginx providing the front end caching / reverse proxy and Apache running as the ‘origin’ web server.

If speed, reliability and performance some of the more important factors that you look for in a Web server, may it is time you gave Nginx a run.

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Sony PSP2 VS Nintendo 3DS: Which One Will You Buy?

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The Next-Gen game war is about to heat up with the arrival of the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PSP2. This is  a continuation of the war between the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. It is a well known fact that the Nintendo DS easily beat the PSP in terms of Sales. The Nintendo DS was mocked for not being a powerful piece of hardware but still managed to find plenty of takers for its great library of innovative and addictive games. The PSP did not fare so well as it was more focused on gamers. Sony is facing competition from both Apple and Nintendo in the hand-held gaming market.

sony psp2

The Sony PSP2 is set to be unveiled in a grand ceremony on the 27th of January 2011. Sony has not revealed the specs of the PSP2 so far but it is rumored  to feature a high definition touchscreen, front and rear cameras, microphone  and 2 new Analog sticks with concave indentations. An internal source from Sony had earlier claimed that the USP of the PSP2 is that it will be powered by a chip which will be as powerful as the PS3 and will have around 1 GB of RAM.

Developers are currently working on titles for the PSP2 though no games have been announced so far. The PSP2 will be powerful enough to run HD Games. Games for the PSP2 will be available via physical media while  It will also support downloadable content such as games, apps.

The Nintendo 3DS will be the first to enter the new generation of hand-held gaming. It will be sold for $249 and with come with a Dock Charger as well as a 2 GB SD card. Nintendo is targeting casual gamers with the 3DS as they know that casual gamers are a bigger market than hard core gamers. The USP of the 3DS is that it will support 3D games without the need for 3D Glasses. The Nintendo 3DS will be available during the end of March in Europe and North America. It also has a good selection of titles available during the launch period such as Zelda, Nintendogs+cats as well as third party hits such as Street Fighter and Dead or Alive.

The Nintendo 3DS will feature a custom chip, will have 2 screens (like the previous DS and DSi), will weigh only 230 grams, support wi-fi and will feature anti-piracy methods to thwart modders. The 3DS will also feature 2 cameras (front and rear) and will also support 3D pictures. Gamers will also be able to download apps and digital games for the 3DS.

Even though the 3DS and PSP2 are catering to different sections of the market there will be only one victor in this war. My bet is on the Nintendo 3DS which will win out due to great support from publishers and the fact that the hardware is available for a reasonable cost. I am skeptical about the PSP2  as I believe that only hardcore gamers will opt for a Handheld unit which can play HD games. The other reason being the fact that a unit so powerful will consume battery life really fast. So let’s see if these predictions are accurate and if history repeats itself yet again.

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Tech Flops of 2010: Google Buzz and Google Wave

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Google is known as one of those companies which have had a lot of successes over the years. However 2010 was a horrible year for them as most of their products were one embarrassing flop after the other. Google had the rare distinction of coming up with Google Buzz a service which was declared the biggest flop of 2010.

Google Buzz was Google’s way of getting into the social networking business and to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. It was integrated with Gmail and allowed users to share stuff such as videos, photos, links, status updates and comments with their friends. It was also integrated with the rest of their products such as Google Reader, Youtube as well as external services such as Flickr, FriendFeed.

Unfortunately Google failed miserably with their social media experiment.  They were simply being too ambitious for their own good. Google Buzz was launched with a lot of hype and fanfare but failed to live up to expectations.   Google Buzz did not come with proper privacy settings nor did it have a proper spam filter. It infuriated users that their contact lists were automatically exposed to other Buzz users as well as the fact that it automatically linked users to other Google services such as Google Reader and Picasa. The worst was when they were hit by a privacy lawsuit by users who were unhappy with the controls. It is safe to say that Google Buzz was a big letdown and was unable to compete with the likes of Facebook.

Google Wave was yet another embarrassing flop for the company.  It was meant to be a collaborating tool which would allow for real time editing, sharing files, social networking, instant messaging etc. It promised to change the way people would collaborate online forever. The service was so highly anticipated that people went to great lengths to get invites to the system so that they could try out the new service. It was quite unfortunate that Google Wave could not live up to the hype and failed to deliver once again.

Google Wave was confusing for users who did not understand how they would use it nor were there any proper plugins for the service. A lot of people were unable to understand it because it was very user unfriendly. People started losing interest in Google Wave and left in droves. Google eventually announced it’s plans to kill Google Wave after it found no takers.

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Google Webmaster Tools Explained

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The internet alphabet starts with G for Google. Pretty much the same way as the English alphabet starts with E for English. No, it is A for Apple… I’m tremendously sorry, I forgot. But, every Apple starts with I, except for the Macbook which starts with M. But nothing starts with a Macbook… unless you haven’t slept… or your store manager made you work all night… or if you lost your pillow. Macbooks make a very uncomfortable pillow, and they buzz a bit – just a few tips from experience. The point is, everything is confusing and you don’t know what starts with what, but everything starts at Google… no not Google, Google’s search engine. Yeah, I think I got that right.

So, if it does start there, and you want your presence to be noticed, you need to be on Google. No not Google, Google’s search engine. Webmasters (people who design, make and manage websites) have always been interested in the way Google’s search engine views their websites. And they are all very happy with Google’s Webmaster Tools API. Cue: Toothy, coffee-stained grin.

Google’s Webmaster Tools help you provide all the equipment and information you need to know how its search engine works.

  • Google Account: To begin using Webmaster Tools you first need to have a Google account, which you should or you’ve been homeless all the time. Then, you can start accessing this handy garage at Google Site Maps and entering the URLs.
  • Verify Ownership: First, you’ll have to verify you own the car you’ve brought… uh, I mean website. This can be done in multiple ways like uploading a blank HTML file or by pasting a META tag in your homepage’s Head. This is for Google, not their engine, to make sure that you are the owner of the website.
  • Access Profile: Now that your website ownership has been verified, you may access the profile of your webpage. The first page that opens is the overview screen and it shows most of the information and displays links to the various tools in the garage.

google webmaster tools

Google Website Analysis Tools:

  • Diagnostic: The first tool is the Diagnostic tool. This tool points out any errors that Googlebot (the software used by Google to crawl websites) may have experienced while crawling your website. It will also include pages excluded from the robot.txt files. The robot.txt file points out to a spider which pages it is allowed to visit and which it isn’t, unless it wants to be stomped on. A spider is a general term for crawling software. These reports are helpful for webmasters as they can then remove any errors so Google searches are faster and smoother in the future.
  • Reports: Then there are tools which help you by giving out useful statistical reports.
    1. One report is the Top Search Queries. This will show you how people are getting to your site. It will show the position where your page is displayed in the results. This will give you an idea of where the traffic on your website is coming from and will help you focus more on pages that generate most traffic.
    2. The Googlebot report also helps in this. It will tell you the keywords in your website, anchor text, inbound links and a density ordered content of your website.
    3. Next is the Crawl stat report. This is less of an actual crawling report and more of a Page Rank value. Though results seem discouraging (which they should, I mean come on you are not the only one on the web!) but they are in fact useful. You see, crawling outputs are updated monthly and so you can use them to measure how fruitful singular link building campaigns have been.
    4. The Index stats give you a report according to the operators on Google, like site, link, info, related Et cetera.
  • Subscriber stats help you if you use Google’s feed management systems. This tool isn’t exactly bad, but its still of a newbie and needs a bit of coaching.
  • Links Tool: The Links Tool will help you determine internal and external links popularity. This is really handy if you want to force popularity of specific areas of your website or if you want to lead the link popularity over time.
  • Google Sitemaps: Then there is what was the most important of them all: Google Sitemaps. It was around this tool that all of the Webmaster Tools Project was built. Here you can deal with the XML sitemaps of your site, which basically guide Google about the content on your website.
  • Tools: And weirdly, then there is Tools. No I am not joking here, it is Tools. This is where you’ll find Webmaster Tools’ tools, this is where you’ll get the most from Webmaster Tools. It is only confusing up till the time you actually see it for yourself. You’ll know what I mean.
  • Robot Text file: If you are not familiar with the file Robot.txt, though I did touch it briefly, it is a protocol for spiders, in this case Googlebot, to find instructions of which content they can visit and index on you site. Let’s say you prefer that images may not be indexed, or you prefer that some areas of your site are not public then you can use this file to instruct spiders not to do so. This tool also helps you to ascertain if what you’ve written in robot.txt is valid. Sometimes, a small change can cause search engines to drop huge sections of your website, so use this tool every time you make changes to make sure there are no such ruts.
  • Manage Site Verification: The “Manage Site Verification” part is there so you can alter the method in which your website was verified. This also enables you to protect your site, if you prefer it to be so.  This means that if you were previously with some other SEO provider, and then you decide to switch, Google watches your back to see if the other party still has access to your information. Google will send you a report if others apart from yourself have access.
  • Set Crawl Rate: Webmaster Tools also enable you to set the crawl rate of your website, which is a rare option. However, the section will give you an overview of Googlebot’s activity on your website. Many people view this and think it is useless. But aha! No, it isn’t. You see when you launch new content or when you begin a new link campaign, these events will cause a spike in the graph. Now, these spikes are important, so review them regularly. Through them, you can measure how responsive Google is by determining how they correspond to your efforts. The point is to get Google to visit more often, request more pages and interact more with you. This way you can get your content indexed and ranked very quickly in the future.
  • Set Preferred Domain: It is helpful if you are tired of seeing domain.com in your results. This tool allows you to instruct Google to display links according to your preference. However, if it doesn’t bother you, well leave it.
  • Enable Enhanced Images: If you would like to appear in Google Images searches, the Enable Enhanced Image Search is there for you. But be cautious, this is a bit of a game from Google and many people have had a bad experience with it. Some have lost a lot of traffic too. The tool basically allows you to label images in your domain, but the labeler tool has something to do with points, which is a bit, well… it shouldn’t be that way. Maybe, there is something associated with it that may come later on, so you better stay on the safe side. Or else, well gamble and sleep begin your day with a Macbook under your head.
  • Remove URL Tool: This last tool helps you remove URLs that may be causing problems with your search appearance. For example, you can resolve issues like having had your web analytics indexed. Common problems like those. Using the tool, you can remove these URLs from the index and then edit your robot.txt files as necessary.

So there you go. Google Webmaster tools summarized. And, hopefully, it will lift you from any woeful snags you’ve been in while trying to improve search rankings. Yes, I know everyone likes their page to be the one that begins people’s days… but Google always leads… UH! I mean their search engine (darn!).

You can follow earlier parts in this Google API series here
Part 1: What is Google API
Part 2: Google Maps API- What and How.

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Vyatta – The Open Source Networking OS

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Vyatta is an open-source network operating system that is scalable, integrated and a cost effective solution from for small networks to large enterprise or service provider networks.  Vyatta itself is an open-source solution that has a paid for (subscription based) offering and a community edition offering. Vyatta is an alternative to the Cisco / Juniper routing that all network administrators should look into.

Vyatta network operating system includes:

  • Dynamic Routing
  • Stateful Firewall
  • VPN Support
  • Threat Protection and
  • Traffic Management

All in one solution. Vyatta is today a mature and stable alternative to the expensive Cisco / Juniper, etc. hardware solutions out there – for a fraction of the cost, and at speeds/performance that is at par if not better. Their website at Vyatta.com offers many datasheets and other PDFs that do comparison of cost / performance of Vyatta vs. Cisco.

Many end-users swear by Cisco or Juniper and are always vary of deploying an open-source solution into a production environment, Vyatta suffered from this misconception and no confidence in its products in the early stages – but no more.

As more and more businesses are discovering what a Vyatta solution can do, they are giving it a go. Available in Community Edition (which is free) or as a software subscription service on its software, virtual machine image or even as a Vyatta hardware appliance itself.

Vyatta pretty does almost everything that you can throw at it. Routing, VPNs, Firewall, Load Balancing, IDS, Web Filtering, etc.  For those of you skeptical about Vyatta – look at this product comparison table.

Just like Linux changed the OS world, Vyatta is no different. Each passing day more and more network professionals are trusting their network using Vyatta solutions. Vyatta can be controlled via the command line (as many techies prefer). It uses the nice tabbed programming notation that is available in Juniper, with the simplicity and often a lot of similar commands that Cisco network administrators as well versed with. If CLI is not your flavor, the Web-GUI will stand out just fine. Albeit, it is slightly confusing  for instance the help menus can be a whole lot better, and since a Web GUI is implemented, a Wizard of sorts would be helpful to get many things started, like say VPN, etc. — it is nonetheless a fully functional networking OS.

Flow accounting on the Vyatta is well documented and quite robust. Third party add-ons have also propped up, not to mention support. The community forums are the best place to get support from (if you are not using the commercial edition).

Vyatta’s documentation is very detailed (with examples and How-To’s, so chances are your ‘scenario’ in most likely discussed and you can be up and running in no time).

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Google Maps API- What and How

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We, Google Maps and the other Google API, have come a long way from the era where sleep deprived artists used to sketch, on canvas, the geographic impression of their known world. After this job was transferred to scientists, it all became a bit standardized and if you could read one map, you could read them all.

Then came a time when man learnt how to chuck a ton of machinery into outer space aka satellites. And then the world became digital. Mapping satellites began covering regions and the information was relayed to computer databases at Houston. All the information was “limited access” in those times. But then, came the big liberating giant, which translated into English means Google.

Google started its project on integrating all the available satellite imagery of our planet into one big map, and making it available to the general population. Their creation, Google Maps, was released in February 2005 and since then the idea has blossomed into a big entity.

Then, Google realized it would be a great idea to actually make it into an Application Programming Interface or API for short. If you want to know the basics about Google API and what they are, you can read the first post of this series. The point was to make Google Maps into a flexible accessory, which could be used by websites according to their needs. The idea caught on pretty well and today there are thousands of websites making use of the Google Maps API.

To give you an idea of how API can be made use of, here are a few examples:

google maps use

  • Nestoria Real Estate: Nestoria implements a customised version of Google Maps and uses it as an aid so customers can see the exact locality of the property. It becomes easy to choose house or office locations as you can see the surroundings while sitting at your PC. The screenshot below will give you an idea.
  • Nike Run London: This website was designed to help city dwellers plan running routes. Users could view routes made by other members. Within the first ten months there were 40,000 different routes sketched out by people.
  • The Chemical Brothers: The Chemical Brothers use the Google Maps API on their website to tell fans where their next upcoming gigs are. The application also allows fans to post videos and pictures of concerts and gigs to share with the whole fan community.
  • Opodo: Opodo was a travelling site made to aid vacationers with information, tools and inspiration. People were very happy with them and they received many requests asking them to act as travel agents as well. As a result, Opodo developed Escape Map using Google Maps. The interactive map enables users to view flights and other information relating to their travel.

google maps site

Get the idea then? Google Maps is very useful and there are hundreds of applications already using its API. The nature of this API means that you can modify it to suit any of your innovative needs. So all this is pretty cool. But how do you get Google Maps?

Get a Searchable Map:

Well, let’s get to business. Getting a basic searchable map on your webpage is fairly easy.

  • First, visit Google Map Search.
  • Next, follow these three simple steps. The first step is giving customized parameters to suit your needs. Second, providing your website URL and thirdly generating the code for your website. Next, you have to copy paste the generated code into your own webpage. Split the code into two pieces. The piece that looks like this

<div id=”mapsearch”>

<span style=”color:#676767;font-size:11px;margin:10px;padding:4px;”>Loading…</span>

</div>

can be placed anywhere. The rest of the code goes just before

</body>

at the bottom of your page.

  • Test the page and then upload it to your website.

Embedding Google Maps:
Google also provides the facility of simply embedding Google Maps into your page. This is really useful if you are as good at javascript as you are at raising turkeys.

  • Visit the main Google Maps page
  • Set the view the way you want.
  • Click “Link to this Page” and copy the “Paste HTML to embed in website” text in your own page.

The resulting map will not have active widgets; there will only be a “View Larger Map” option that will link you to the original Google Maps website.

This is merely the small road that leads to the huge mountain of possibilities. With the recent launch of the controversial Google Street View Maps, Google has made it possible for the user to “find yourself virtually standing on the street.” Beginning with some basic uses of these street maps, Google leaves you to think of creative ways to utilize them in your individual situation. Now that Google Maps is also available on Android mobile devices, the potential uses and benefits are yet to be discovered.

Muscling up Google Maps into interactive applications requires knowledge of web programming, especially javascript. But once you get the hang of this, you enter into the wonderful world of using interactive maps for your business or personal website and applications.

It’s all really brilliant! And you might realize you weren’t living under a rock; you were living under a pebble. If you find this article helpful, you can always subscribe to our RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter & Facebook for more.

Do Androids Dream of Root?

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Behold! The Android Roots:

Rooting your phone or getting root has nothing to do with letting your phone sprout roots. The process actually involves modifying the operating system on your Android (HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, HTC Hero etc) allowing you to become god to the Android. Basically, you have full control over the OS. So, whatever your device’s manufacturers decided to keep away from you, you can now have it by simply rooting your device. Away with system, manufacturer and carrier limitations! Extend your system to your heart’s content or upgrade it to a custom OS.

The word root originated in the Linux operating system, where the super, all controlling, highest form of user is called the “Root”. Remember, all thou newbies and I-Don’t-Know-What-Rooting-Is people, rooting does not mean installing a custom ROM. However, you may need to root your device before you install a ROM. Rooting itself can be done in only a few minutes, keeping your original OS otherwise completely unchanged. When you root your phone, you gain “superuser” privileges to the Android operating system. If you are familiar with any Linux operating system, you know that the superuser privilege allows you to gain access to administrative rights. This access level gets you down to the crux of the OS with no restrictions, lets you make changes to the system and run scripts that would normally be blocked with a standard user account- provided they are not encrypted, such as the Droid X, which has an encrypted bootloader.

Remember: In an encrypted bootloader you can root your phone but its way impossible for custom ROMs. The ‘superuser’ mentioned above is a program that requires you to give a program permission to run root functions, i.e. keep programs from messing up your phone without your permission.

The rooting technique can be implemented on various mobile phones, but the name changes as the platform changes. For example, Android developers use the phrase ‘to root an Android phone’ where as Apple’s iOS use jailbreaking, for Symbian OS we use the HalloOx hack application which installs a root certificate to the phone and enables the installation of unsigned software. All the above mentioned rooting techniques have the same purpose: to modify the operating system on your device to grant you complete control over it. Interestingly, developers have recently made rooting available for the Windows phone 7 but it is still in beta.

Android Rooting Applications:

Rooting a phone is not the complex, hair-pulling procedure it used to be, you don’t even need three arms to do it. What you need, first and foremost, is a strong and not-prone-to-heart-attack heart. Alternatively, a lot of cash to throw around on buying new phones to brick every day will also help. One of either of these will do just fine. What you need next is a one-click application that you can easily download from anywhere on the world wide web. So, basically its just download, install, execute and reboot. Simple. Oh, and the strong heart bit before the execute step.

Remember, every device or phone model will have to follow a different procedure for rooting. For instance, the Motorola Droid, Droid X, Milestone and the HTC/Google Nexus One will require the Easy Root app while most other HTC handsets will use the Unrevoked app. The Universal Androot App works on almost every phone like the Sony Ericsson X10, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, Acer Liquid and the Vibo A688.

android root easy root app

Android rooting procedures are constantly changing due to the OS and the fluctuations in Android hacking. To find the most suitable app and procedure for your phone, google “Root” with the name of your handset. Keeping an eye on Android forums is also an important method for keeping up to date on changes and modifications.

WARNING:

Webscopia is not responsible for any damage that you may do to your device. Rooting is not sanctioned by any manufacturer or carrier; if you choose to root your phone, no one but YOU is responsible. Remember, root at your own risk because if you brick your mobile phone the company or the author will not be responsible for it. Crying, wailing, whining and other similar childish methods will not result in the “unbricking” of your device.

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WeMet Application for iDevices- Your Digital Visiting Card

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If you have ever found that you have run of pockets after stuffing each of them with your wallet, keys and iDevices and wondered why you must always carry around a bunch of visiting cards when you have all those gadgets, then WeMet is the application for you. Created by Soft Density, WeMet is an application designed to work on your iPhone, iPod and iPad.

The application works seamlessly with your SMS and email allowing you to add, edit and email your profile to your contacts. Once you have your own profile set up on WeMet on your phone or iPad, you can easily send it to every new contact simply by entering their details.

Using the application is simple. When you meet someone and want to exchange contact information, which is what your business card is meant for, you simply

  • Click on the WeMet icon
  • Enter your new contacts details
  • Click “Save new contact and send my profile”
  • Confirm SMS sending

WeMet visiting app iphone ipad ipod

That’s it. Your new contact has not only been added to your WeMet list of contacts but has also received all your information through an SMS. What’s even better is that the recipient does not even need to have the WeMet application installed on his/her gadget. Because the information has been sent directly from WeMet vis an SMS, the person will receive all your contact information as a text message. WeMet even allows you to save the GPS data in the notes field of the new contact form, which makes it easier to remember just where and when you met that new contact.

Soft Density’s WeMet is available at the Apple Store as both a free application and a Pro paid version.

WeMet Pro app iphone ipad ipod

Say goodbye to the paper and tree wasting ways and welcome to the digital future of ease and comfort.

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