With some estimates suggesting that Facebook might hit a billion users by 2012, Thomas Power has an interesting thought – if Facebook becomes a bank, it could become the world’s large peer-to-peer lending network that could wipe out the existing banks.

The Facebook Bank

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Dropped the mobile phone in water?

The video above has some tips on things you can do to save your wet cell phone from damage due to water.

First remove the phone’s battery and the SIM card that may have your contacts data and the call logs (the good news is that SIM cards can often survive water damage).

Dry the phone with an hair dryer and then put the phone in an air tight container with some silica gel and let it dry. It might work as the silica crystal will absorb the water moisture.

How to Fix your Water Damaged Cell Phone

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

How a USB Flash Drive is Manufactured

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

A college professor wasn’t too pleased with his students using laptop computers in the classroom so he took a non-functional laptop and smashed it to the ground to get his point across.

College Professor Breaks Laptop

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

YouTube will telecast the DLF IPL Cricket matches live on their website so you don’t have to skip office to enjoy cricket.

According to Google, all the 60 IPL 2010 cricket matches will be streamed live from youtube.com/ipl but with a five minute delay. Sony owned SET MAX is official TV partner for IPL 20 in India.

The IPL tournament will probably be the biggest test for YouTube’s live-streaming capabilities.

Watch IPL 2010 Matches on YouTube Live

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Private Browsing in IE 8

“IE8’s Private Browsing feature keeps your browsing private and your secrets safe.”

Domain Highlighting in IE 8

“Protect yourself from the risks of dodgy sites with Internet Explorer 8’s Domain Highlighting feature.”

Smart Screen in IE 8

“Browse with confidence using Internet Explorer 8’s Smart Screen feature to keep your computer safe.”

You may also like the OneNote commercial.

8 Second Video Demos of IE 8

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

@slhice shares some very interesting photo manipulation techniques that would let you change the colors and backgrounds of photos right inside PowerPoint without requireing Photoshop.

How to Edit Photos in PowerPoint

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

How to Become a Microsoft MVP?

The Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award is given by Microsoft to “thank individuals for their exceptional contributions to technical communities worldwide.” The MVP status is valid for one year and there are currently around 4000 MVPs in over 90 countries.

Want to be an MVP yourself? Watch the video to learn about the various benefits of being an MVP, what is the criteria for getting selected as an MVP and how does one apply to Microsoft for the award.

The video is done by Abhishek Kant who leads the MVP program at Microsoft India and South Asia.

How to Get into the Microsoft MVP Award Program

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

“Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal” -- found via Jonathan Schwartz of Sun.

Steve Jobs made this comment while talking about ideas that inspire the design Apple products.

Steve Jobs on Design Inspiration

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

This time-lapse video captures how a designer created a complete book cover in less than two minutes using tools like Adobe Indesign, Photoshop and Microsoft Word.

Related: Designing a Magazine Cover Page

Designing Book Covers in Photoshop

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

iPad will be available next month but if you are planning to skip the new and shiny Apple device just because it doesn’t support Flash and can’t do multi-tasking, here’s an alternative for you – the HP Slate PC that runs Windows 7.

HP says the Slate PC will become available later this year but that’s all we know about this promising iPad alternative.

HP Slate -- An iPad Alternative

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

We think of Google as a search engine but they are an advertising company. This short documentary on Google will give you a good idea of what Google is trying to do and how the different pieces fit together.

They want to own the cables that deliver the Internet and also the electricity to power them.

Not every number or statistic that you see in the movie may be true but it is still a good recap of Google’s constantly growing list of products and features. The movie originally aired on Australian TV show -- Hungary Beast.

Thanks Andrew Vande Moere for the tip.

Also see: Google’s Master Plan

A Short Documentary on Google

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Planning to build your own house? This brief video explains how you can use the Evernote web clipping tool to plan and build your new house.

You can capture images, web pages and scanned page into Evernote and it will even recognize your handwritten text.

Use Evernote to Plan your New House

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

The first iPad Video Ad was aired during the Oscar Awards ceremony yesterday night. Watch the commercial in HD here.

iPad Video Ad Aired at Oscars

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

If you looking for “natural” link building techniques (where other sites link to your site without you having to pay anyone), here are some techniques / ideas from Matt Cutts:

1. Write something controversial.

2. Create lists like top 10 ways to do something.

3. Give away something for free like software, ebooks, etc.

4. Participate in the community, comment on blog posts, forums, etc.

5. Create a resource that’s useful and even if you don’t have enough people linking to that page, it will still feature in the search results.

Link Building Tips from Matt Cutts

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

This video from Sophos explains how these “Free iPad” scams work on the web. The scammer will promise to ship you an iPad for free as long as you become a fan of their Facebook page and also invite all your friends to that page.

Once you complete these steps, you are taken to a survey that will prompt you sign-up for a paid service. Stay away!

How these Free iPad Scams Work on the Internet

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

All guests who have been invited for the wedding will have to play the Mario game in order to get the full details like the date of the wedding, venue, etc. Good fun.

Wedding Invitation based on the Mario Game

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

How many blogs are there on the Internet? Do you know the name of the only social networking site that was launched in 2010? How many page-views is Facebook serving every day? Do women frequent social sites more than men?

For answers and other interesting statistics, watch this video The State of the Internet.

Related: The Total Number of Websites

Interesting Internet Statistics and Trends

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

This video walk you through the new features of Opera 10.5 which they say is the faster browser on earth. I can’t comment on speed but Opera is definitely very beautiful.

Opera – The Fastest Web Browser

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Book publisher Penguin will be developing interactive learning books for the iPad that won’t just include text and pictures but also video and other forms of multimedia allowing kids to interact with the books like never before.

Children’s Books on the iPad

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.