Technolicious

Why Eject USB Drives Before Unplugging Them

2012-01-05T21:55:00.001Z

You should always eject a USB drive before removing it. Mac and Linux will always provide you with a way to do so. But sometimes in case of Windows, the context menu doesn't have the eject option for certain drives; in such a case, click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" option in the system tray, choose your drive from the list, and then remove it once it notifies you of that it is safe to do so.

Yanking out a USB drive while it's currently being written to, could likely corrupt the data. However, data corruption can occur even if the drive isn't actively being written to. By default, most operating systems use what's called the write caching mechanism, wherein when you write a file to a USB drive, the OS waits to actually perform those actions until it has a number of requests to fulfill, and then it fulfills them all at once (this is more common when writing small files). Hitting the eject button, tells your operating system to flush the cache i.e., make sure all pending actions have been performed, so that you can safely unplug the device without any data corruption.

Mac and Linux use write caching on pretty much all drives, and will let you eject any USB drive through the file manager. Windows, however, is a bit more mysterious on this front and has a few precautions in place for preventing data loss. In order to decrease the chance of data corruption, Windows disables write cache for drives it recognizes as "removable", because it knows people are likely to yank them out without ejecting (though you can still eject them manually by right-clicking on them and clicking on "Eject"). But sometimes it recognizes external USB drives as not removable, which is why they do not have the eject option. On the other hand, it keeps write cache enabled on non-removable drives, increasing the chance of data corruption.

However, the write cache isn't the only thing that can cause data loss. Sometimes there's something going on in the background you don't know about, or sometimes a program is still locking a file on the drive even if it is not in use. If you were to yank it out during one of these situations, you could still cause data loss. Ejecting it will warn you of the situation, and let you close the program in question.

In the end, ejecting the USB drive before removing it, is a great habit to get into, as doing so will ensure your data is uber-safe. Windows users may be less likely to experience issues due to the way Windows handles removable drives, but they still aren't 100% immune.

Unroll.me: Get Rid of Unwanted E-mail Subscriptions

2011-12-31T17:07:00.001Z

Sometimes, you unintentionally sign up for newsletters and eventually find yourself stuck with a bunch of emails that you don’t want to read, clogging up your inbox. So there’s Unroll.me, which is a service that lets you find all the newsletters in your mailbox, then easily unsubscribe, without any hassle, and you'll be rewarded with a tidier inbox as a result.

Note that the service is currently in its beta phase and works only with Gmail, Aol Mail, Windows Live Mail, and Yahoo! Mail.

It crawls through your inbox to present you with a list of all your subscriptions; select the ones you do not wish to receive anymore, and then simply click on the “Unsubscribe” button, and Unroll.me shall handle the rest!

This effortless way of unsubscribing from multiple subscriptions, all at once is better than individually hitting the spam button or the unsubscribe link for each E-mail.

Alternatively, you may also want to consider trying out the Unsubscribe.com browser extension.

Move All Android Apps to SD Card

2011-12-26T06:40:00.001Z

A major problem with Android devices is that most of them possess low internal memory. While at the same time, majority of the apps are not transferable to the SD Card, which is why you might be frequently getting notified that your phone is running out of space and that you need to free up some of it.

Many users have recently reported that they were unable to bypass the issue despite of making use of third-party tools like App2SD, SDMove, etc.

So, here’s a guide which will walk you through how to not only transfer all your existing (already installed) Android apps to SD Card, but also to henceforth install all the apps to S D Card, instead of your internal phone memory by changing the default installation location to SD card using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) which comes as a part of the SDK.

But before proceeding, note that all the applications installed on the S. D. card will become unavailable to the system, each time you mount your phone as a disk drive. Also, the application performance is always better when stored in the phone memory as the apps run better in the background and can be rendered relatively faster. So unless and until, the internal phone memory is not completely full, it’s not recommended to go for this method as this may slightly slow down your phone.

1. The first and foremost thing you need to do is to ensure that USB Debugging is enabled on your Android device, which can be done by going to Settings > Applications > Development

2. Next up, download the Android SDK, and then install it.

3. Once installed, connect your Android device to your computer, using the USB data cable.

Note: In case your operating system prompts you to install a set of missing drivers, install them manually from the directory android-sdk/usb_driver

4. Once connected, either hit + R or head over to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Run; here type cmd in the provided input field and hit Enter for the command prompt to open up.

5. Now in the command prompt, type in CD …\android-sdk\platform-tools and hit Enter.

6. Next up, type in adb devices and hit Enter to get the list of connected Android device(s), along with their serial number.

7. Now finally, type in adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2 and hit Enter to change the default installation location/path to SD Card.

0 [auto]: Let system decide the best location.

1 [internal]: Install on internal device storage.

2 [external]: Install on external media.

That’s it! You may now close the command prompt and disconnect/unplug your Android device as you have successfully configured your Android phone to store all applications into the SD Card.

For optimum performance, we recommend to store all the core applications which you use more often, in the internal phone memory, while all the less used ones should be placed in the memory card.

FilesHut: Search Files Hosted on More than 50 Popular File Sharing Services

2011-12-08T16:54:00.001Z

FilesHut is a search engine that lets you search files hosted on more than 50 popular files sharing services, including Rapidshare, Megaupload, FileServe, FileSonic, 4Shared, Hotfile, Mediafire and Wupload that originally do not let you look up their library; you can download a file only if you have its URL. But with FilesHut, you can even filter search results by specific file format(s), by clicking on All next to the search bar, and then selecting the desired format from the dropdown menu.

The search engine indexes over a million new files every day, so you can always find the newest content. Additionally, the site also tells you what searches are trending, lets you revisit your recently searched queries, and see files that have just been added to the websites it indexes.

Facebook Acquires Location Sharing Service Gowalla

2011-12-03T17:22:00.001Z

Facebook has acquired the location-based social network, Gowalla for an undisclosed sum, CNN Money reported quoting a source close to Gowalla.

Facebook has refused to comment on the deal stating that the company does not comment on rumors and speculation.

Fledgling Gowalla attempted to take on the location sharing leader, Foursquare without much success. Facebook also launched Facebook Places in August 2010 to co-opt the location-based status updates trend.

Gowalla, which has raised $10.4 million to date from backers including the Founders Fund, Greylock Partners and a collection of angel investors, first launched at SXSW 2009. It recently shifted focus from being a check-in service, to an app that helps create travel stories. According to CNN, most of Gowalla's employees, including founder Josh Williams, will move to Facebook's offices in Palo Alto, California, while others will stay in Austin, Texas and work out of Facebook's local office there, as the acquisition was made to help with Facebook's new Timeline feature.

The acquisition is a part of Facebook's takeover strategy to build up its talent bench where in, it aims to make about 20 acquisitions in 2011, including Beluga, Hot Potato, Drop.io, Snaput, Digital Staircase and more than a dozen others.

Google+ Hangouts Now Lets you Add Participants by Placing Phone Calls

2011-12-02T14:04:00.001Z

Google is making a rather interesting addition to Google+ that allows users to make phone calls to their friends residing in the United States and Canada at absolutely no cost from within a hangout itself in order to have them join the group conversation (no computer or Google+ Account required).

To activate the feature, head over to the Hangouts with extras page first and then simply start a Hangout, within which you need to click on the “Invite” button at the top, and select “Phone” from left to proceed with placing the free voice call by entering the invitee’s phone number and finally hitting the “Call now” button.

Google introduced Hangouts with extras in September, 2011 as something of a testing ground for the group video conferencing feature, where users can share notes and drawings using a sketchpad, as well as screen-share and collaborate with Google Docs, the company's web-based word processing application.

Note that since the feature is powered by Google Voice, the free offer is supposed to last through 2012 with no support for international calling.

Spotify Introduces Apps to Enhance Music Discovery

2011-12-01T05:34:00.001Z

At Spotify’s first U.S. press conference in New York City, the online music streaming giant along with its partners including Rolling Stone, Last.fm, Pitchfork and Billboard, announced the launch of its new apps platform, which is open for third-party developers as well to integrate their own sites and apps with Spotify’s vast library and community.

The apps are built in HTML5, and their inclusion in Spotify’s desktop client is an intriguing move that shall enhance your music discovery experience. For instance, the Last.fm app allows users to generate related song playlists based on the track they are currently listening to, where as the TuneWiki app brings lyrics to Spotify in a way that is real-time and synced alongside playback. So now you can get personalized recommendations, read music reviews and curated playlists, track forthcoming concerts of your favorite artists, etc., all while listening to songs at the same time!

A preview version (currently in Beta) of the Spotify desktop client is now available for those who want to try out the apps early. A consumer release will be issued in December.

Mail Merge in Gmail with This Google Docs Template

2011-11-30T09:42:00.001Z

A consulting firm called IT4SmallBusiness has created a handy MailMerge template in the form of a Google Document that lets you quickly and effortlessly add more of a personal touch to each email of the mass/bulk mail you send out to a large group of people, so that every recipient receives a personalized e-mail.

Here’s how:

1. Make sure you're logged in to your Gmail account.

2. Create a copy of the MailMerge Template in Google Docs.

3. There are three tabs accessible from the bottom of the page. Work through the instructions provided in the first one.

4. To start writing your e-mail, switch to the second tab, labeled “Email text”, where in add the required customization fields, apart from <<Firstname>> and <<present>>

5. Head over to the third tab to enter the data to be merged, such as the list of email addresses, their names, and other personalized information. If you added new customization fields in the step above, you will need to enter them in the top row. Import or paste your data into the spreadsheet.

6. From the Mail Merge menu, click on “Test Mail Merge”, to check if it's all working.

7. Once you've checked it, click on “Run Mail Merge” from the Mail Merge menu and let the script work its magic!

Note that Gmail imposes a daily limit of approximately 500 emails and you'll probably want to send your mass emails in batches of 100 recipients each at a time, a few minutes apart, lest Google label you a spammer.

Google Introduces Smooth Scrolling to Reader and a New Bar for Easier Navigation

2011-11-30T06:10:00.001Z

Lately, Google has been revamping the look for Search, News, Maps, Translate, Gmail and a bunch of other products with the goal being to create a simpler and cleaner user interface. Now Google is ready to roll out its next stage of redesign – The New Google Bar, which is a new iteration of the current horizontal black bar at the top that will enable you to easily navigate between Google’s services, as well as share stuff with people quickly over Google+.

Soon, you’ll find a list of links to Google services in a new drop-down menu nested under the Google logo upon hovering over it.

Update (Dec 3, 2011): In case you’re still not seeing the new Google bar on, here’s a tweak by performing which, you can get your hands on it, right away!

All you need to do is:

1. Open your web browser, be it Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+.

2. Head over to google.com and then load Chrome's JavaScript console (press Ctrl+Shift+J)/Firefox's Web Console (press Ctrl+Shift+K)/Safari's Web Inspector (here's how) or IE's Developer Tools (press F12 and select the "console" tab), where you need to paste the following code:

document.cookie="PREF=ID=03fd476a699d6487:U=88e8716486ff1e5d:FF=0:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1322688084:LM=1322688085:S=McEsyvcXKMiVfGds; path=/; domain=.google.com";window.location.reload();

Then hit Enter, close the console and the new Google nav bar should pop up!

Smooth Scrolling in Google Reader

Google Reader's Settings panel now has a new tabbed section comprising of experimental labs features that you can choose to opt-in and try out. Currently, there’s only one experiment: “Smooth Scrolling”, enabling which makes transition between items smoother and is especially useful in the expanded view.

Send Text Messages to Mobile Phone Numbers via Email

2011-11-29T06:44:00.001Z

In case you want to send a short e-mail to someone and get it delivered to their cell phone as an SMS, all you need to know is the receiver’s mobile phone number, carrier and the correct SMS gateway address format to use.

Sending text messages through email is free for the sender. So you can also use this method to get notified about arrival of new emails, along with their subjects and snippets via SMS by using your gateway address as your forwarding email address.

Below is a list of SMS gateway addresses for different mobile phone carriers.

US Carriers:

Carrier	Email to SMS Gateway Address
T-Mobile	<10-digit phone number>@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile	<10-digit phone number>@vmobl.com
Cingular	<10-digit phone number>@cingularme.com
Sprint	<10-digit telephone number>@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon	<10-digit phone number>@vtext.com
Nextel	<10-digit phone number>@messaging.nextel.com
US Cellular	<10-digit phone number>@email.uscc.net
SunCom	<10-digit phone number>@tms.suncom.com
Powertel	<10-digit phone number>@ptel.net
AT&T	<10-digit phone number>@txt.att.net
Alltel	<10-digit phone number>@message.alltel.com
Metro PCS	<10-digit phone number>@MyMetroPcs.com
Boost Mobile	<10-digit phone number>@myboostmobile.com
7-11 Speakout	<10-digit phone number>@cingularme.com

International Carriers:

Carrier	Email to SMS Gateway Address
Airtel (Karnataka, India)	number@airtelkk.com
Alaska Communications Systems	number@msg.acsalaska.com
Aql	number@text.aql.com
AT&T Enterprise Paging	number@page.att.net
BigRedGiant Mobile Solutions	number@tachyonsms.co.uk
Bell Mobility & Solo Mobile (Canada)	number@txt.bell.ca
BPL Mobile (Mumbai, India)	number@bplmobile.com
Cellular One (Dobson)	number@mobile.celloneusa.com
Cingular (Postpaid)	number@cingularme.com
Centennial Wireless	number@cwemail.com
Cingular (GoPhone prepaid)	number@cingularme.com (SMS)
Claro (Brasil)	number@clarotorpedo.com.br
Claro (Nicaragua)	number@ideasclaro-ca.com
Comcel	number@comcel.com.co
Cricket	number@sms.mycricket.com (SMS)
CTI	number@sms.ctimovil.com.ar
Emtel (Mauritius)	number@emtelworld.net
Fido (Canada)	number@fido.ca
General Communications Inc.	number@msg.gci.net
Globalstar (satellite)	number@msg.globalstarusa.com
Helio	number@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Illinois Valley Cellular	number@ivctext.com
Iridium (satellite)	number@msg.iridium.com
Iusacell	number@rek2.com.mx
i wireless	number.iws@iwspcs.net
Koodo Mobile (Canada)	number@msg.koodomobile.com
LMT (Latvia)	number@sms.lmt.lv
Meteor (Ireland)	number@sms.mymeteor.ie
Mero Mobile (Nepal)	977number@sms.spicenepal.com
Movicom (Argentina)	number@sms.movistar.net.ar
Mobitel (Sri Lanka)	number@sms.mobitel.lk
Movistar (Colombia)	number@movistar.com.co
MTN (South Africa)	number@sms.co.za
MTS (Canada)	number@text.mtsmobility.com
Nextel (Argentina)	TwoWay.11number@nextel.net.ar
Orange Polska (Poland)	9digit@orange.pl
Personal (Argentina)	number@alertas.personal.com.ar
Plus GSM (Poland)	+48number@text.plusgsm.pl
President’s Choice (Canada)	number@txt.bell.ca
Qwest	number@qwestmp.com
Rogers (Canada)	number@pcs.rogers.com
SL Interactive (Australia)	number@slinteractive.com.au
Sasktel (Canada)	number@sms.sasktel.com
Setar Mobile email (Aruba)	297+number@mas.aw
Suncom	number@tms.suncom.com
T-Mobile (Austria)	number@sms.t-mobile.at
T-Mobile (UK)	number@t-mobile.uk.net
Telus Mobility (Canada)	number@msg.telus.com
Thumb Cellular	number@sms.thumbcellular.com
Tigo (Formerly Ola)	number@sms.tigo.com.co
Tracfone (prepaid)	number@mmst5.tracfone.com
Unicel	number@utext.com
Virgin Mobile (Canada)	number@vmobile.ca
Vodacom (South Africa)	number@voda.co.za
Vodafone (Italy)	number@sms.vodafone.it
YCC	number@sms.ycc.ru
MobiPCS (Hawaii only)	number@mobipcs.net

For more, refer to this Wikipedia page. If you’re aware of any others, kindly share them by commenting below.

Get Notified About Earthquake Alerts

2011-11-29T04:55:00.001Z

The U.S. Geological Survey agency monitors earthquake activity around the world. It reports the geographic location and intensity of an earthquake to which anyone can subscribe via Twitter, RSS feeds and KML files for Google Earth.

Also, there’s a desktop software called Quake Alert that polls the U.S.G.S. website and pops-up an alert every time a new, large-scale earthquake is reported to occur anywhere in the world.

But if you’re interested in receiving early e-mail alerts for seismic activity in your own geographic region only, you should use the Earthquake Notification Service, wherein there’s a Google Map on which you have to draw a custom polygon over regions that you would like to monitor for earthquake activity, then set the notification magnitude threshold (like only send alerts for earthquakes with magnitude of 5 and above) and finally save the preferences for your profile.

According to the U.S.G.S. website, information for U.S. earthquakes is generally available within 2-8 minutes but for earthquakes outside the United States, it may take up to 20 minutes to report the activity.

PayPal Launches Facebook App for Sending Money to Friends and Family

2011-11-28T16:54:00.001Z

PayPal has launched a Facebook application that lets you effortlessly send money either with or without an e-card to anyone on your friends list, who also has a PayPal Account.

The entire process is extremely easy and quick. After logging into Facebook and authorizing the app, all you need to do is select an e-card, select the friend you wish to send money to, add a personal message, enter the desired amount, select the payment method, enter your PayPal Account’s login credentials for verification and confirmation, and you’ll be good to go in no time.

Payments are free to send and receive, but only if they're funded using a bank account with both parties in the United States. If you use use a credit or debit card instead, PayPal will collect 2.9 percent (either from the sender or recipient), with a 30-cent processing fee to boot. And if you're sending funds abroad, fees range from 0.5 to 3.9 percent, depending on a variety of factors.

Send Unlimited Free Text Messages Across the World with JaxtrSMS

2011-11-28T14:03:00.001Z

There are lots of apps that allow you to send free text messages but those usually do not use your own mobile phone number messages or are limited to few specific countries only. While JaxtrSMS is an open texting smartphone application from Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail, available for almost all the platforms - Android, iOS, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Nokia, that allows users to send unlimited free text messages across the world, coming from your own mobile phone number, without requiring the receiver to have the JaxtrSMS application installed on their phone, which is why JaxtrSMS is completely unique and distinguishes it from other free mobile messaging applications where messages can only be sent within a closed network to people who also have the same app installed.

Another good feature of this app is that it lets you select the contacts you want to send the SMS to, directly from your phonebook! In order to get started with using JaxtrSMS, all you need to do is download the app on your smartphone and then install it. Once done, open it and register to create a new account with the service and then finally verify your account with the link you will receive on your mobile phone via SMS.

At present, sending international SMS is expensive and costs 5 INR per message. JaxtrSMS is expecting at least 100 million subscriber base globally by the end of next year and is looking at $10-15 million investment in another couple of months. The company will generate revenue through advertisements and premium services like archiving texts, multimedia, video etc, which will be available for subscribers at a very nominal cost by mid-next year.

Microsoft Safety Scanner: A Portable Antivirus Software

2011-11-24T12:25:00.001Z

In case your computer gets infected with a virus that is preventing you from downloading security updates from the Internet or running any antivirus program, you should check out Microsoft Safety Scanner, which is a free, portable security tool, always updated with the latest definitions, requires no installation, and can be carried on a USB drive - all you need to do is copy the executable file msert.exe to the infected computer and double-click on it to either perform a thorough scan that checks every file and folder, or a quick scan that checks a limited number of files and folders only that are most likely to contain viruses, spyware or malware. On detection, the infected files will be immediately quarantined. But note that it won’t however scan your Outlook e-mails or your network drives for any possible threats.

Microsoft Safety Scanner is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista and 7 powered machines, and unlike Microsoft Security Essentials, Safety Scanner doesn’t perform a check for genuine Windows. The program expires after 10 days but you can always re-download it with the updated virus definitions.

Note: Microsoft Safety Scanner is not a replacement for an antivirus software program that provides ongoing real-time protection to guard your PC against threats.

Skype Adds Facebook Video Calling, while Facebook’s Testing its Native Desktop Client

2011-11-22T07:25:00.002Z

Back in June, Skype added support for having instant messaging conversations (chat) with friends on Facebook and in July, Facebook launched Skype-powered video calling feature. Now, with the release of Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 for Windows, Skype has further deepened its integration with Facebook by adding the ability to conduct video calls with Facebook friends, right from within itself, without even having to open-up the web browser!

In order to get started, all you need to do is connect your Skype and Facebook accounts, and then select any online Facebook friend and hit the video call button in Skype.

Besides this, additional new features added include smoother video rendering for Mac users and group screen sharing for premium Windows users.

Facebook Messenger for Windows: Ticker and Chat Desktop Client

This summer, Facebook released its standalone Messenger app for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, and today it began allowing a limited test group of randomly selected users to download their new Messenger for Windows 7 desktop client, that provides access to some of its real-time features, such as Chat, Ticker feed, and notifications, to keep users engaged for a longer duration of time, without having to keep the web browser window open. It aims to encompass three main ideas: seamless messaging, conversation history and the social inbox.

The client could become popular, considering that the Facebook-integrated Windows Live Messenger desktop client is the top app on the Facebook Platform with 18.2 million daily active users!

Download Facebook Messenger for Desktop

Facebook Porn Spam Attack: Measures to Avoid it

2011-11-21T19:41:00.001Z

Over the past several days, Facebook users have been complaining of their News Feed unexpectedly being flooded with disturbing graphic content, including imagery showing pornography and violence. The company said on Tuesday that according to their security experts, a co-ordinated spam attack which exploited a browser vulnerability, was to blame for it, where in users were tricked into pasting and executing a malicious JavaScript code in their web browser’s address bar, causing them to unwittingly like and share offensive content.

Though Facebook has proactively undertaken efforts, such as building enforcement mechanisms to drastically diminish the damage caused by this attack, but it isn't entirely gone.

Steps to clean up the flood of porn spam from your Facebook News Feed and prevent it in the future:

1. Remove the offending posts (if any) from your own Facebook wall.

2. Click on the little cross (x) button beside each offending post in your News Feed to Report/Mark as Spam, doing so will also make it disappear.

3. Do not click on suspicious links that promise to show you something that you just won't believe.

4. In the event you make the mistake of clicking on a bad link, or think you may have done so in the past, immediately change your password to a strong and secure one.

5. Check the list of apps that are having access to your Facebook account and remove those which were not added by you or you simply don't recognize.

6. Install Norton Safe Web App for Facebook and enable auto-scan to regularly check for unsafe links in your news feed and wall, and get notified about them.

7. Always use the updated, latest version of the web browser and regularly apply all the updates.

8. Use a good Internet Security solution software, make sure it is always up-to-date and regularly perform full system scans.

9. Follow the Facebook security page to stay current with the latest security issues related to Facebook.

If you do all of this, you should be nice and safe. Happy Facebooking!

Additionally, also read our complete guide on securing your Facebook Account.

Update: Matt Jones, who works with the Data & Security team at Facebook, has recorded an informative screencast video where he walks you through the various types of scams that happen on Facebook, how are they executed and why do they go viral so quickly. Most scams require Facebook users to copy-paste certain JavaScript code into their browser's address bar and as soon as they do that, the rogue post is automatically published to the walls of all their Facebook friends, without their consent.

Interestingly, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and other WebKit-based browsers are the only ones that are susceptible to this kind of cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability, while Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox are relatively safe.

Get the New YouTube Interface Right Away, Before Everyone Else

2011-11-21T07:23:00.001Z

YouTube is currently testing a new design and some clever folks have managed to discover a trick that enables the new interface right away by adding a cookie to the web browser. Note that you can clear the cookie at any point of time in order to return/switch back to the old interface.

Here's how to do to so, using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox:

1. Head over to YouTube first, and then open Developer Tools Console by pressing Ctrl-Shift-J in case of Chrome, and Ctrl-Shift-K in case of Firefox.

2. In the Console tab, enter:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";

and then reload/refresh the YouTube tab to find that your YouTube home page now looks something like this:

The new streamlined layout is a three pane system with user and channel info in the left pane, subscription updates in the middle pane, and recommended videos in the right pane.

Several users seem to be confusing the new YouTube design with the previously released Cosmic Panda update. But note that both are not the same and can in fact be run at the same time. I would suggest to first enable this new design and then enable Cosmic Panda.

In order to try out YouTube’s new video uploader, head over to following URL:

http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?forceui=4

Update: The new interface is now available for all.

Google+ Launches Pages for Businesses

2011-11-08T20:04:00.001Z

Google+ has taken another essential step needed towards becoming a full-fledged Facebook rival by launching Google+ Pages, which allows brands, products, companies, businesses, places, groups, organizations and institutions to establish a presence on the social network.

This means businesses can now directly and effortlessly connect with their customers by interacting with them, even face-to-face using the “Hangout” feature, while consumers can now keep up with every single update from their favorite brands.

The expansion announced on Monday, is somewhat similar to what Facebook has already been offering. Unlike personal profiles, Google+ Pages can't +1 other pages, don't support notifications, can’t play games, lack the option to share to an extended circle and can't add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned.

Also, there’s Direct Connect - a tool to help businesses promote their presence on Google+, where in users can employ the "+" character, followed by the brand’s name, as a search operator to restrict queries to Google+ content only. On doing so, you will be asked if you’d like to add the brand’s page to your circle and on hitting yes, the page shall immediately get added to your “Following” circle.

Additionally, here’s a Google Help page that explains how brands can also connect/link their Google+ Page to their site!

Technoliciouson

Google Offers Free Websites to Small and Medium Businesses in India

2011-11-06T17:08:00.001Z

Google India, in partnership with ICICI Bank, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises and HostGator, announced on Wednesday, the launch of 'India Get your Business Online' initiative to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India go online with a free website in a move to boost Internet usage in Asia's third-largest economy and aims to get half a million of these businesses online in the next three years by alleviating the biggest concerns business owners have about building a website, that it's complex, expensive and time consuming.

The country is home to an estimated 8 million small and medium businesses, of which only about 400,000 i.e. 5% have a website and merely 100,000 have “active” online presence. India is said to be the 18th country Google is rolling out this program in, after it was started primarily in Europe in 2010.

As part of the deal, you get a free domain name with .in TLD (provided it is available) and web hosting at no cost for the first year along with free custom email addresses powered by Google Apps, 365-day support, Google Adwords coupons worth $51 (INR 2,500 approximately) for free to help you promote/advertise your business over Google’s AdSense network and a set of 90 readymade website templates to pick the one that matches your business profile and then personalize its content such as text, pictures, etc., so that your site is good to go in just a few clicks.

For verification, users will need to submit their Permanent Account Number (PAN) or Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) at the time of registration. At the end of the first year, users will have to pay a nominal, discounted fee if they wish to renew their website.

Here are a couple of success stories already:

Gmail’s New Look Rolls Out

2011-11-04T21:12:00.001Z

Back in July, Google began testing a cleaner new look for its email service, Gmail, on which the team has been working during the summer to finally make it available to us now along with even more updates and improvements. In order to experience it right away, all you have to do is click on the message at the bottom-right of the page that says ‘Switch to the new look’. But note that all users will get the redesign soon after, regardless of whether they click the link.

The whole redesign is a complete overhaul of the look and feel of Gmail, resulting in a cleaner interface with a lot more whitespace. Gmail's new look is based on the "Preview" theme, accompanied by the following significant additions and changes:

Better Conversation View

Email threads have been revamped, resulting in a streamlined conversation view (with less clutter), which will also display thumbnails of contacts’ photos. Learn more.

Elasticity

They're calling this feature "elastic density", which essentially means that the interface dynamically expands or contracts depending on the size of your web browser window to automatically adjust the spacing between the elements on the screen. If you don't like the adjustment, you can manually override the display density in the Settings menu from the cog near the top-right of the conversation page and choosing from three different display densities: Comfortable, Cozy and Compact. Learn more.

Changes in Navigation

The navigation panel on the left is now more customizable, which means you can resize the labels and chat area if you wish to see more/less, or hide the chat area entirely. Learn more.

Also, there’s a new way to easily swap between Mail, Contacts, and Tasks from below the Gmail logo. Learn more.

While, the new toolbar is always visible, where in the buttons of options like Archive, Spam, and Labels are collapsed until you need them. Select or open a message to see what actions you can take. Learn more.

Better Search

Clicking on the dropdown in the search box, provides access to an advanced search panel which makes it easier and faster to find exactly what you're looking for. It also lets you create a filter from any search in just a few clicks, right from there. Learn more.

New HD Themes

Lastly, a new set of beautiful high resolution themes have been introduced with imagery provided by iStockphoto. Learn more.

Here’s a short video showing Gmail’s new look in action:

Embed MP3 Audio Files on a Web Page

2011-10-31T19:13:00.001Z

Since quite some time, Gmail has been providing the option to play any attached MP3 audio file right inside its interface, within a popup window, without having to download the attachment and play it locally.

The same flash-based MP3 player from Google can also be used to embed MP3 files on your website or blog by placing its wrapper code (which is as follows), in the source of your web page.

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" flashvars="audioUrl=MP3_URL" width="400" height="27" quality="best"></embed>

Just replace MP3_URL with the actual web address/location of the MP3 audio file you wish to embed. You can also change the size of the MP3 inline player, modify its background colors and turn on autoplay mode using the following URL parameters:

backgroundColor=0xEEEEEE&autoPlay=true

Facebook’s Wall of Shame: An Infographic on Its Failures

2011-10-30T15:58:00.001Z

Facebook’s errors in judgment have included:

A slew of privacy snafus: Facebook repeatedly faces criticism for its user-unfriendly privacy policy and default settings that force daily overshares.

Unwelcomed UI/UX changes: The latest changes include a real-time ticker sidebar that turns your friends’ updates into a stream of spam.

Facebook Deals: Facebook’s attempt to compete with social deals companies like Groupon and LivingSocial was short-lived. In fact, this venture lasted merely for four months!

Facebook Lite: This was supposed to be a less bandwidth-consuming version of Facebook for users on slower networks, but was killed it after eight months.

“Quit Facebook Day”: In June 2011, Facebook lost 6 million US users, the first time that figure has dropped since its inception. The addictive, mood-killing quality of Facebook along with privacy concerns have driven former fans to quit in droves.

For complete overview, check out this infographic designed by SEO marketer WordStream, which is an intriguing look back at what Facebook has tried but failed to achieve, so far.

Google+ Unveils New Features: 'Ripples', 'What's Hot', 'Creative Kit' and Availability for Apps Users

2011-10-28T07:40:00.001+01:00

Last June, Google launched a beta of its long-anticipated social network, Google+, which according to Google, has now grown to 40 million users. The service was only available to Google Account users. But not any more, for Google has now rolled out Google+ to Apps users as well. You can manually enable Google+ for your organization if you are the administrator and henceforth all the users in your organization will be able to use Google+, provided they sign up for the service.

Enabling Google+

1. Log in to your Google Apps administrator control panel.

The URL is https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/<domain-name>

2. Click on Organization & users in the navigation bar on top.

3. Switch to the Services tab.

4. Under Other Google Services, turn on Google+ and then click on Save changes.

In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, Google Apps users will also have the option to share with everyone in their organization, even if they haven’t added all of those people to a circle.

Apart, Google+ has also started to roll out three other new features.

What’s Hot: Popular Posts

As described in the video above, ‘What's Hot’ collects the most popular publicly shared items from across Google+ to show you what everyone’s talking about. It is Google’s answer to Twitter's trending topics.

Ripples: Eye-catching Infographics Showing How Posts Get Shared

A Ripple is an interactive, infographic visualization tool for shares and comments showing the pattern of how a public post spread across the fledgling social network.

To get started, just find a public post and click on “View Ripples.” From there, you can replay its activity, zoom in on certain events, identify the top contributors, etc.

Creative Kit: More Fun with Photos

Creative Kit is a powerful online, inbuilt photo editor that lets you give the extra effects to your photos on Google+ without much hassle. Along with the basics of crop, exposure, sharpen and adding text, you also have tools to give the ‘sepia effect’ or the ‘vintage feel’ to pep up your photos. They’ve also added some limited-edition Halloween effects so that you can add some spook to your photos through the end of this October.

RealVPN: Best Way to Securely Access the Blocked Web for Free

2011-10-26T09:07:00.001+01:00

There are instances where in some services such as Hulu, Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, etc. are accessible only in selected countries like the United States. But a VPN service can help you bypass this issue. A virtual private network (VPN) uses the Internet as a medium for transferring information between computers. Data transferred through a VPN connection is generally encrypted to protect your privacy while you can surf the web anonymously and securely.

RealVPN is certainly the best free VPN service, which is currently in beta and is offering free accounts until they reach the mark of 50,000 user-registrations. So, you better hurry up and jump on this deal while you can! Note that RealVPN supports both wired and wireless connections and can be used even when you are on a public Wifi access point.

Here’s how to get started with configuring and using RealVPN without having to install any additional program:

1. Log on to real-vpn.com and sign up for a free beta account to have your login credentials sent to you via email.

2. Once you’ve received the email, head over to Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center. Over here, select “Set up a new connection or network”.

3. Select “Connect to a workplace” and click “Next”.

4. Select “Use my Internet Connection (VPN)”.

5. In the “Internet address” field, type in your desired country-specific

PPTP server’s address:

us.real-vpn.com

uk.real-vpn.com

nl.real-vpn.com

fr.real-vpn.com

de.real-vpn.com

6. In the “Destination name” field, type RealVPN.

7. In the “User name” and “Password” fields, type in your RealVPN username and password, respectively, which were sent to you earlier in an email and then finally click on “Create” to go to the next step, where you simply need to click on “Connect now” in order to connect to the VPN server.

That is it! You can now go ahead and start accessing blocked or country-specific web applications. Similarly, you can also configure your Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, iOS or Android device to use RealVPN.

Alternatively, you can use the Jumpto web browser to securely access blocked webpages.

Bonfire Brings IM Chat To Twitter

2011-10-25T20:02:00.001+01:00

So far, Twitter users have gotten by with directly sending a private message whenever they want to be more intimate with someone. But UK-based Bonfire.im adds Facebook-chat style instant messaging to Twitter.

Bonfire is a browser extension that uses some smart code and clever techniques to add an instant messaging layer within the Twitter interface itself. If another Twitter user you follow is also using Bonfire, they’ll have a little green icon next to their name — just click on it and you can start up a chat session right away, without having to leave the page.

The team has been working on the service for just a few months, with some small seed investment and the feature set is fairly limited right now. But ultimately, says Founder Josh Russell, Bonfire may consider developing further features or adding other platforms, too.