Blogger Tricks 'N' Gadgets: September 2012

Dawn Jay - Liar

I was tryna find a reason
to tell you that I'm sorry
I've been lying all this while
So that you never worry
Baby, Meeting friends or working late
It was just a story
Girl I lied, made you cry

I said my car ran outta gas I had to
walk till I was late
No reception on the phone tried to
call but had no change
Baby, I never meant to lie to you
But the truth was hard to face
Girl I tried, not to lie

You can call me liar
I was too weak to face the truth
You can call me liar
I couldn't tell you I'll leave you soon
Girl I had my reasons believe me
I never wanted to see that you cry
You can call me liar
I really love you that's why I lied

You can call me liar
You can call me liar
You can call me liar
I really love you that's why I lied

She cut the call when she was on ma phone
When you picked up the line
You got so mad and asked me who's the girl
I'm sleeping with behind
Baby, I had no words to say
So I guess I'll try
Not to lie.... it's the time....

I said my car ran outta gas I had to
walk till I was late
No reception on the phone tried to
call but had no change
Baby, I never meant to lie to you
But the truth was hard to face
Girl I tried, not to lie

Girl I never tried to cheat and lie
But i guess had no choice
Now I guess its time to say Goodbye
So baby hear my voice

I was with my doctor all this time
When I came home late
She said ma brain is dying
I only got four months to wait
Girl I had my reasons believe me
I never wanted to see that you cry
You can call me liar
I really love you that's why I lied

You can call me liar
You can call me liar
You can call me liar
I really love you that's why I lied

Tags: Dawn Jay, Lyrics

iBall Andi 5c Specs, Pros and Cons

Here's another smartphone, phablet or whatever you call it....:P. Its iBall Andi 5C

Pros

Good Performance : The Andi 5c performs impressively. There is the occasional lag when switching between apps or during scrolling in some apps, such as Tweetdeck. Mostly, the performance is incredibly smooth. It also helps that the 5c touch response is good and its GPS works very well.
Media Playback : The 5c handles 720p HD videos with ease (although the default video player lacks support for most formats). Given its budget hardware, the device is still incapable of handling the heavy MKV file format. But that is not a deal-breaker.

Cons

Ghosting : The screen on Andi 5c is not as good as what we've seen on other devices. It blurs during fast scrolling and images are prone to some amount of ghosting.
Bulky : The phone feels heavy to hold. Besides, its wide design makes it seem rather bulky.
Poor Camera : The camera quality is poor and it is difficult to get usable images unless you are shooting in a daylight.

Specs

5-inch (480x800 pixels) IPS capacitive touchscreen display
Dual SIM (GSM+GSM) with dual standby
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS
1GHz Cortex A9 processor
5MP autofocus with LED flash and 0.3 MP front cam
3.5mm audio jack
3G, WiFi, Bluetooth
4GB internal memory, expandable upto 32GB with microSD
2300mAh battery, 15hrs average battery life

Tags: cons and pros, iball, smart phone, smart phone on a budget, specs

Mercury MagiQ Specs, Pros and Cons

In one of my previous posts, i have posted about smart phones on a budget. So here are few of that sort.

Mercury MagiQ

Pros

Good Performance : The Mercury MagiQ performs admirably. There is virtually no lag during day-to-day operations whether you are scrolling through hundreds of contacts, browsing apps or juggling between a few open tabs in a browser. Its touchscreen is responsive, quick and fantastic for a budget device.
Media Playback : MagiQ handles all the video formats perfectly. It can't play back 1080p FullHD videos or the MKV file format, But other 720p HD videos are handled smoothly.

Cons

Screen : The viewing angles of the screen are terrible. View the display from almost any other angle then up front angle and you are likely to see a change its brightness or distortion in color.
Call Quality : Call anyone using MagiQ and if you're in a noisy area, there are chances that they might not hear you clearly. The device's microphone amplifies all background sounds and this hampers call quality.
GPS : The MagiQ supposedly supports GPS, but during tests, it could never lock onto a satellite. This means we could not use location based services such as Google Navigation.
Bulky : The MagiQ, with its rectangular design, feels a bit bulky, making it difficult to use as a phone.

Specs

5.0 inches, TFT LCD touchscreen (8008480 pixels)
Android 4.0.3 Icecream Sandwich
4GB Internal Storage, expandable upto 32GB microSD card
2200mAh battery, stand by up to 15 days, talktime up to 13 hours, avg battery life 12 hours
Dual SIM (GSM+GSM), 3.5mm audio jack, mini USB port, TF card reader slot
WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G
0.3megapixel front camera, 12megapixel rear camera

Tags: cons and pros, Gadgets, mercury, smart phone, smart phone on a budget, tablets

Facebook Timeline Covers : Create your own designs

Facebook's timeline profile design have almost replaced all old profiles and offers a complete different social touch. Now its time to cutomize FB timeline Cover photos. New creative ways of changing the look of timeline is at its peak. Some online tools have been created that lets you to automatically generate a Cool Cover for your new profile. These generated covers fit perfectly in your timeline with proper width and height dimensions. using these tools you can make amazing cover photos wither using your memorable photos or a cool designed version of your profile title or your name.

Following are the four great websites that helps you to make beatiful covers for your FB profiles.

FB Cover PIX - Facebook Cover Gallery

FB Cover PIX is created exclusively for uploading, exploring, and sharing cover photos that can be used on Facebook's new Timeline profile design. It offers a large gallery of downloadable images which you can upload to FB and add them as your cover.

myFBcovers - Facebook Cover Gallery

This website is interesting. It not only allows you to create a Facebook cover but also allows you to share your personalized cover with myFBcovers members and can expect to win a cash prize up to $50 per week and $100 per month if your cover gets the most downloads. You can aso take inspiration from thousands of cool covers and cann see which color and design is downloaded the most.

It allows you to crop and adjust your cover size. You can also add effects like polaroid and panorama. It has all possible Cover categories like Abstract, nature, celebrities, holidays, sports persons, cars, bikes and much more..........!

TheSiteCanvas - Generates Facebook Cover

This site lets you convert your simple FB name into a beatiful Movie-like Title design. You can select which desing would you lie for your name or can you even choose your photos yo give them unique look and pattern.

FaceBook Profile Covers

Facebook Profile Covers also lets you choose a Design cover for yourself out of 1000 available profile covers. You can only create an download your designs but you can not make money online with your covers. It is still worth a try due to its beatiful colors and variations. It though contains a watermark on all designs.

Have fun using FB.........:D

Tags: Covers, Facebook

Get SMS alert when your site goes down

Ever worried about your website going down while you are away on a trip or for some other work for a few days? Or maybe, you go too caught up at work to test it out or notice that you website is down, and you're losing your precious audience? Its a really difficult situation when your site goes down, and you don't know about it. A site could go down due to many reasons and there's nothing you can do it to stop it. The best solution would be to discover errors quickly and correct them to get your site up and running speedily once again. So to get notified as quickly as possible, you can use set up that text messagest that will let you know as soon as your site goes down. Here are those.

Website Monitor HD

This is a pretty smart tool that will allow you to monitor your website for up time. Its free of cost, an you can use to monitor multiple sites at once, good call isn't it? You basically get emails alerts for whenver your site goes down. You can also set up SMS-based notification alerts.

For it to work, you need to have a Google Account with access to Google Docs. This little trick is based upon Google Docs. You will need to add a simple spreadsheet document to your Google Docs or Google Drive. The SMS service is based on Google calendar, so is free.

Getting Started

Register your mobile phone with Google Calendar

First of all, you will need to sync your phone number in Google calendar in order to receive SMS's.

Here's the process.........

1. Sign into Google Calendar and click on cog (settings) icon at the top. Click Calendar Settings.

2. Click on Mobile Setup, and then choose your country.

3. Enter you Phone Number, and choose your carrier. If available you will be sent a verification code on your mobile. Enter that code in the Verification Code field, and click Finish Setup. Your mobile numeber has now been set up.

Monitoring your site

Now, all you have to do is create a copy of a spreadsheet document in your Google Docs. Click on the link, and click Yes, make a copy. Now, you will see a spreadsheet document open up.

And the rest of the process is pretty simple. All you need to do is, fill in your site URL and your email adress. You can add multiple URLs, seperated by commas as shown. You can only put in one email. This is the email that will get notified of any changes in your site's up-time status. You can set SMS notifications to Yes or No. This will enable or disable SMS notification.

Once you've filled up the fields, Click on the Website Monitor button from your menu. Click on Initialize, and the script will run. Access to your Google Calendar data will be required, so grant permission and rest easy. Once done return to Website Monitoring option in your menu and click on Start Monitoring.

And you're done. Simple, ain't it? When on vacation, stop woorrying and keep enjoying.

To disable the script, simply erase the email.

Tags: google, google calendar, google docs, website monitor

Micromax A84 Superfone Elite Specs, Pros and Cons

Searching for a smart phone on a budget. I'm sure this would be your choice. The Micromax A84 Superfone Elite.........!

Pros

Screen : The Micromax A84 Superfone Elite has the best screen amongst the phones of its price range. Although there is a slight bleeding, colors look good and images appear sharp. And in terms of touch response, its great, awesome.
Build Quality : This one looks and feels good, especially with its rubberized back panel. It isn't exactly top-notch, but among budget phones, the Superfone Elite is above average.

Cons

Internal Storage : Sign into the Play Store and it asks you to update the preloaded apps. Once you do that, the internal storage gets full and you can't install any new ones. It's a problem with no workaround and unless you plan on never downloading more apps, you better stay away from this phone.
User Experience : The custom User Interface of this phone is full of bags, often leading to an inconsistent and unpleasant user experience. Once, a whole grid of apps disappeared, while on another time, the menu in the messaging app kept popping up incessantly.
Coming to the battery, well, to make it short, it doesn't last that long.

Specs

4-inch IPS touchscreen, 800x400 resolution
1GHz processor
512 MB RAM, 120MB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB (microSD)
5MP camera with autofocus, flass, VGA front camera
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
1630mAh battery, on an average lasts half a day
Dual Sim (GSM+GSM)

Tags: android, cons and pros, smart phone on a budget, specs

Huawei Ascend G300 Specs, Pros and Cons

This is a smart-phone-on-a-budget. So here goes the specifications, pros and cons of this phone.

Pros

Build Quality : It will be love at first site with this phone. Inspite of the wide use of plastic in its fabrication, its fine craftsmanship, coupled with a faux metal look, makes it feel like premium phone. The Ascend G300 is great to hold, with sturdy buttons. In addition to all this, it doesn't suffer from heating issues - like most of the smart phones do.
Performance : The Ascend G300 is good at multi-tasking and gaming. What's especially nice thing in this phone is how it instantly resumes from sleep state, whereas most other budget Androids take a few Seconds to wake up.

Cons

Touchscreen : The 4-inch IPS LCD screen is bright and its colors appear vibrant, but when it comes to navigation and usability. It just doesn't match up. Users need to exert more pressure than what is normal with capacitive touch screen. This means that it's a pain to play games like Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds and Temple Run.
OS customization : The G300 can easily handle the Android 2.3 Gingerbread that it comes with, but the custom user interface that Huawei has loaded on top of it slows the phone down to quite annoying degree. It's not a smooth and fluid experience.]
It lags while typing.

Specs

4-inch touchscreen, resolution 800x480
1GHz processor, 512MB RAM
Internal Memory 2.5 GB, expandable upto 32GB (microSD)
5MP Camera with autofocus and flash (no front cam)
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
1500mAh battery, lasts for 1day average

Tags: cons and pros, huawei ascend, smart phone on a budget, specs

Adding YouTube Associates To Your Site In Webmaster Tools

For any blog or website, having multiple online presences is one way to gain visitors' trust. These presences can be FB fan pages, Google Plus business pages, Youtube channels and other social media profiles. But for webmasters, running a website and managing all these accounts is a herculean task and often consumes a hell lot of time. In such cases, webmasters assigns administrative roles to trusted people. Google helps them to get out of that problem now. Using Google Webmaster Tools, webmasters can now easily add associates or trusted users to manage their YouTube presence.

Working

Google recently released this associates feature. An associate is a trusted user who will manage a certain task only. This feature is available for most Google Products, so associates for YouTube or Google Plus accounts can be added. These associates can't access site data like site owners. They are only authorized to do a certain task in other Google products.

Once you associate a YouTube cannel with your site, that channel will become the official channel for that site. So there will be no confusion as to wehther a channel is fake or real. Thus, your brand gets recognized.

Associating a YouTube channel with your site

Before you start, there's an important thing you gotta know. To add YouTube associate, a YouTube Partner Program is required. Members of YouTube Partner Program who have created a channel can be linked to another site.

Adding associates in Webmaster Tools

To add an associate from Webmaster Tools, log into your account and select the site you want from the dashboard.

Click on Associates under configuration, and then click Add New User.

Now, enter the email address associated with the YouTube Partner Program account. You will also have to choose the type of user you want to add. Select Youtube, and click Add. The user will then be added as an associate to your site.

Adding associates in Youtube

Log inot your YouTube Partner account, and click on the user menu. Click on Settings and then on Associated Website.

Fill in the page you want your channel to be associated with and click Add.

If you own the page yourself, then you are done. But if you don't, then a request will be sent to owner of the site, and they'll have to accept it. Once accepted, the associate will be complete.

Associates are a great way to assign trusted people with management of your website's properties. It will also help you get recognized by setting up an 'official channel' for your website, so people would feel secure while on your website or on your YouTube channel. Currently, integratin is available only for YouTube and Chrome Web Store. But Google is trying this feature out more and integration for more Google products is expected to come soon.

Tags: associates, webmaster tools, youtube

Deactivating Facebook account

Many of you people might not know how to deactivate a Facebook account. So here goes the process.

1. Login into your Facebook account.

2. Click On Account Setting.

3. Click On Security Settings

4. Under all the settings, you will find an option 'Deactivate Your Account'. Click On it.

5. It asks you the reason for leaving. Just enter it. Then click on 'Confirm'. It asks your Password. Enter it and you're done.

NOTE : After deactivating your account, if you want to claim it back again you can directly log in into your account as usual. You'll get back your account as it was when you deactivated it.

Tags: Facebook

Alternatives for most used Web Services

Outlook

Replaces Gmail

Unlimited Storage and Undelete : One can never think that Gmail's huge amount of memory storage would seem insufficient, but that's a problem for a lot of people these days. Outlook promises that the inbox capacity automatically increases as you need more space. You can even ask Outlook to recover your deleted messages.

Email aliases : outlook lets you create emails 'aliases', such as 'mysubscriptions@outlook.com', which can be really handy when signing up for a new website. Since your alias can be autosorted into its own folder, unassociated mails won't mess up your inbox. Additionally, you can choose to delete this alias at any time.

Social Networking : Outlook has tight integration with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. When you open an email, the sender's LinkedIn info as well as latest twitter or FB posts show up in a pane on the right, along with options to 'Like' or 'Retweet'. In addition to that, you can chat with FB friends with the built-in messengers app.

Google+

Replaces Facebook

Hangouts : Perhaps the killer feature of Google+ is Hangouts the real time group video chat platform. Whether you are on the phone or using a computer, you can quickly set up a Hangout with up to 10 friends. 'Live Hangout Stream' lets you broadcast a live event to the whole world.
Events and Photos : If you are hosting a party or a function, you can make an Event page for it. The cool part is that anyone attending it can upload their photos to Event page in real time, or at a late date. You get one page with pictures from everyone who clicked them at the event, and Google+ can create a fun little slideshow video out of them. If you use Picasa, you can upload high-resolution photos to Google+, by passing the default 2048x2048 size limit.
Explore : FB puts you in touch with your own friends, but it doesn't really let you discover people beyond that. Google+ comes with an Explore section that collates the top posts that you may be interested in, based on analysis of your profile. Not only does this feature let you find new interesting people, but it also keeps you abreast of the latest happenings news through the trending topics.

500px

Replaces Flickr

Design : Photography is a visual art, and it should be displayed in a pleasing interface. Flickr has long fallen short of that, but 500px makes up with a gorgeous design. The site helps you discover new photographers through daily selections. And then there's the 'Flow' section of the portfolio, which automatically arranges a user's images by their aesthetic value rather than the upload date.
Community : Flickr used to be an amazing community for photo enthusiasts and professionals in the early days, but those glory days are long past. However, 500px is where several professionals are heading after quitting Flickr, so the community is quite robust. And given that each photographer can have its own discussion, its a great place to learn more about the art.
Sell your work : Much like an artist selling his painting, you should be able to sell your photographs. And 500px makes this a lot easier by letting anyone buy an image on the site. The user earns $40 for every canvas print and $2 for a direct download of an HD image.

DuckDuckGo

Replaces Google

Zero-Click Info : Search for any item and DuckDuckGo will give you a quick summary by collating information from different sources. So if you were to search for a movie, it will grab info from IMDB, Wikipedia and may be booking site to give you relevant results. And you can ask the search engine "Who won the Oscar for the Best Actor in 1992" to get instant answer.
Privacy : Google is seen as the big bad villain when it comes to mining your personal info on the Internet. DuckDuckGo goes the other way by not collecting any data about you, as well as not sending your private info to the sites you click on.
!bang : A feature that DuckDuckGo users swear by, !bang is a shortcut that lets you search within your intended site. For Example, if you want to search for the word, 'world' in Facebook, just type !Facebook World in the search box and you will directly taken to Facebook's search results for the term.

Vimeo

Replaces YouTube

Finding Quality : Finding an interesting video on YouTube is the proverbial needle in a haystack. Vimeo makes this much easier with the several 'channels' it has - started by users themselves - which curate cool videos from other users. Additionally, Vimeo does nor allow commercial videos, gaming videos, pornography or non-user-generated content, ensuring that the clips are safe.
Unlimited runtime : In the free account, YouTube restricts the user to a maximum runtime of 15 minutes per video. So if you have anything longer, you need to split it before uploading. But Vimeo doesn't have any such restrictions.
Download It : When you come across a cool video, Vimeo allows you to simply download it for future consumption. There's no need to fire up some fancy third party downloader like with YouTube.

Tags: 500px, duckduckgo, Facebook, flickr, gmail, google, Google Plus, outlook, vimeo, youtube

Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Specs, Pros and Cons

Intro
The Galaxy Note 800 stands out in the crowded tablet market. It is the first tab to come out with a stylus (and that stylus is called Samsung's S Pen). This stylus adds a new level of usability to the capacitive touchscreen device.

Pros

Good Overall performance
Good battery (8+ hours video playback, easily lasts over one day in moderate to heavy use)
S pen Stylus works well for digital illustrations painting
Lots of pre-installed apps

Cons

Build quality feels substandard
Low resolution screen effects reading (text looks jagged)

Specs

10.1 inch (1280x800) Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen with S Pen Stylus
1.4GHz Exynos Quad-core Processor
2 GB RAM
16GB internal memory, expandable via microSD up to 64GB
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
5 Megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, 720p HD video
1.9 Megapixel front-facing camera with 720p HD video
Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Gyroscope
Li-ion 7,000 mAh battery
600 grams
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Touch Wiz UI

Tags: cons and pros, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy Note 800, specs, tablets

Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Review

The Galaxy Note 800 stands out in the crowded tablet market. It is the first tab to come out with a stylus (and that stylus is called Samsung's S Pen). This stylus adds a new level of usability to the capacitive touchscreen device. Coming to the looks, this one is a masterpiece, its beautiful, complete with silver trim along the edges with thin, twin speakers that sit discretely on either side of its widescreen display. But When you hold it, you'll come to know that its plastic build and feels like a bit of letdown, especially when the competition is investing in unibody construction and premium materials like aluminium.

Something isn't right about the screen. Both videos and images look great but text appears jagged. The brighter display is betrayed by its under-par 1280x800 resolution. Wanna read a book with this, you better give up. But still the Note 800 makes up for its shortcomings with a top-notch hardware. The tablet responds perfectly to swipes, touches and taps without lag. Its more than equipped to handle any task that you want. Whether it be simple jobs like email and internet chat or processor hungry tasks such as 1080p FullHD videos, image editing and 3D gaming.

The true power of the Note 800's hardware is exhibited when you use its Multiscreen function. This feature allows you to split the display so you can use two apps (between SNote, Gallery, Email, Video, Gallery, Browser and Polaris Office) at a time. It easily plays FullHD videos in one window while browsing through YouTube in the other without a hitch. The Multiscreen feature also lets you work collaboratively between two windows. For example, you can copy an image in your browser on one window and paste it in your office document in the other window. But it doesn't allow for drag and drop.

Coming to the camera, just one word, its flawless. The front one is capable of capturing 1080p FullHD videos at 30fps. Photos, with the rear camera (5MP) are on par with that you would expect from any other 5MP camera on a tablet.

About the stylus

Slide the S Pen out of its slot and you are presented with a menu that lists the various preloaded apps (S Note, S Planner, Photoshop Touch, Polaris Office) that you can use with it. The stylus performs favorably when it came to jotting down notes. It performs pretty well.

If you're an artist and waiting for a tablet that lets you 'Sketch and Paint', then the Note 800 has got to be it. According to Samsung, the S Pen promises up to 1024 degrees pressure. As said before, the stylus works wonderfully. It is a huge improvement over any other tablet and third party stylus combinations.

Conclusion

Note 800 is a good tablet and on par with the current one of quad-core Android tablets. It is a decent investment for a first-time buyer looking for a Google powered slate. Still, it doesn't offer enough for someone to ditch their old tablet and dig into their wallets. But it still lags behind the Apple's iPad - the who and sole leader in the space.

However, it makes a compelling proposition to those who have been waiting for a tablet with a decent stylus support. In this area, this one exceeds expectations.

Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Specs

Tags: review, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy Note 800, tablets

Top 10 tools to search popular bloggers in Twitter

Twitter is a really great tool when it comes to looking up for news or getting updates from your favorite Twitterers. For Bloggers, its a good way to build interactions and get ideas. That gives you ideas to improve your own blog. But there's one question rolling in everyone's mind and it is how to find such blogs and how to look for more interesting stuff that relates to your own niche as well? So here goes the process.

Twitter research

Twitter research should be very first thing you do when searching for people to follow. Hashtags are a really smart way of finding information. People use hashtags to monitor conversations and ger their tweets listed. This also makes tweets public availabe easily. When you search for hashtags, you will get results from bloggers and the top bloggers in your niche are usually the ones talking about the niche often. Take a look at what comes up, and follow the people you think have a substantial following.

Bitly Realtime

Realtime is a relatively new search engine bu Bitly that not only returns results form Twitter but also other social media. It basically tracks the URLs that has been shortened through Bitly. And since many bloggers use URL shorteners, this is a great way to find top influences as well. ALthough the project is still in its beta phase, it already is starting to make a mark for itslef.

Listorious

Listorious is a really great tool for finding popular people on twitter. It has more than two million Twitter users registered, and if you visit the site, you will see a list niches you can choose from to see the top twitterers for a specific niche. You can search for a niche too. And if you think you're popular, you can get listed too by signing up.

Follower Wonk

FollowerWork comes with SEOmoz PRO. It's another great tool for analyzing user bios, searching, tracking, sorting followers and users. All data is constantly updated, so you will get the latest results.

SocialBro

SocailBro has been specially designed for the purchase of discovering influencers based on user-defined criteria. It has full analytical data on folloers, social contact, profile management, and more. It is very powerful tool, but it comes at a price starting from $6.99. Still, a pretty good tool for power users and analytics.

Klout

Klout is another very large application that lets you find influential people. It has over 100 million registered users and you can find from among them. You can also get listed by signing up with Twitter or Facebook.

Suila

A very simple application that's easy to use yet a good one. It has gathered data from millions of users, and ranked the popular ones. You can search for a topic simply and find out the experts on that topic within seconds.

Twellow

A basic list of users based on popularity there are a number of categories with users listed within. You have niches such as News and Media, Sports, Government, Education and more. You can find results based on smaller niches, location or other factors.

Endorse

It works on a relatively different concept. Rather than ranking users according to their number of followers and other data, it ranks them based on 'endorsements', or recommendations from other users. The idea, being the best way to find out about influential people is through socializing.

Science Pond

This is a perfect site for the science geeks out there. It will help you find influential scientists on Twitter. SciencePond has a full list of scientists from Twitter, and who is better to follow than an influential scientist?

So go on. Happy blogging :D

Tags: Blogger trics, Twitter

Motorola Razr Maxx Specs, Pros and Cons

The Motorola Razr Maxx has got a huge battery which goes on and on. If you need a phone that packs a whopper of a battery, then look no further. But you gotta compromise few things.

Pros

1. With numerous phone calls, 3G usage, camera work and gaming, the Razr Maxx still lasts for a day and half. On an average usage, the handset needs to be charged every second night, making it the best battery ever seen on a smartphone.
2. Good color reproduction and a fast shutter speed will please shutterbugs. And the camera shines in video capture too. Recording FullHD videos smoothly and with good audio reproduction. It has got a waterproof back even.
3. Packed with top-notch hardware, the Maxx manages everything easily. From multi-tasking to HD video recording it can do everything. Multi-tasking is particularly impressive, showing no lag eve when switching casual gaming to maps to 3D games.

Cons

1. The moment you look at its screen, you know something's wrong. The colors look saturated and seem to bleed a bit, especially noticeable in graphics-heavy games. Additionally, the touch response is erratic too. For a device of its class, the screen could be a deal-breaker for many.
2. Hold the phone in landscape mode and you can feel the material giving way, making it feel flimsy. Besides, the hardware heats up a lot. The back is waterproof, which is a great plus point, but in regular usage, it can become too hot to hold. Also, before the Maxx, we had never felt the heat transfer to the touch screen of a smartphone.
3. There is nothing to like about the custom MotoBlur UI. Where stock Android Ice Cream Sandwich is sleek, Moto UI is clunky and Where Ice Cream Sandwich is classy, Moto UI seems garish.

Specs

4.3 inch super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (950x540 pixels)
1.2 GHz dual-core processor
1 GB RAM
16 GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
8 Megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, 1080p FullHD video recording
1.3 MP front camera with 720p HD video recording
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro USB
3300mAh battery lasts two days on average usage
Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich, MotorBlur UI

Tags: mobile phones, Motorola

Sony Xperia Go Specs, Pros and Cons

The Sony Xperia Go is one good-looking gizmo and it's build to endure too. It is waterproof, can handle bumps and falls, and even shrugs of dust! Fantastic if you love the outdoors or you are careless with your phone.

Pros

1. This one is meant to be tough phone. You throw it in a bucket of water, leave it out in rain, allow it to slip off your hands, that doesn't hurt it. It is tough indeed.

2. Usually, tough phones look hideous. But this one is a beauty. Sony has created a sleek gadget that fits comfortably in the hand. This device is light.

3. Its dual-core processor and the optimized TimeSpace user interface translate into smooth performance. There is no lag at all, regardless of what you choose to do on the device, whether you are gaming or zooming in and out of maps, scrolling webpage etc.

Cons

1. While colors are rendered properly, the screen resolution is a big problem. It is simple too low for a phone that costs more than Rs. 15,000. The text also doesn't look sharp. This affects the user expereince.

2. The camera is disappointing. Pictures and videos shot with this device lack details when compared to output of other mid-range phones. There is no front camera, so the device can't be used for video chats - a feature that is now available on phones half its price.

3. The battery life is average, lasting around 9 hours on a 3G connection when used for emails, Twitter, web browsing, some photography and around half an hour of gaming. It's not bad, but it's insufficient for a full day of average usage. The Xperia will go hiking with you, but whats the use if its switched off....!

Specs

3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen (480x320 pixels)
Shock, Dust and Waterproof (up to 1 metre for 30 minutes)
1GHz dual-core processor
512 MB RAM
8 GB internal memory, expandable up to 32 GB via microSD
5-Megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, 720p HD video recording
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro USB
1305mAh battery that lasts around 9-10 hours of average usage
Android 2.3 Gingerbread, TimeSpace UI

Tags: mobile phones

Samsung Galaxy Beam i8350 Specs, Pros and Cons

The coolest tech moment we've had in a long time is clicking a picture with this phone and then projecting it on wall. The Samsung Galaxy Beam has a built in pico-projector. At first you might not find the use of it, but slowly find uses of it. That option makes it a compelling purchase for the multimedia addict, but it's not for office presentations.

Pros

1. It's quite pleasing how quickly the pico-projector transforms from being a novelty item to a functional add-on. The Beam packs a good camera, so the projector works as a great add-on to view your photos. And if you have a dark enough room with a flat white surface, you even watch movies on it.

2. Its battery life comes as a pleasant surprise, lasting a little over two hours of projecting a video with sound, while the phone is fully functional. If the projector is not used, the Beam easily lasts over a day without charging.

3. Since it's packed with good hardware, you would expect this phone to perform well and the Beam doesn't disappoint. You can play games well. HD movies worked without a starrer even while in projector mode, and multi-tasking is a breeze. It's got enough power under the hood to handle most users.

Cons

1. The pico-proectors performance falls slightly shot of expectations. Not that we expect crystal-clear quality but images just don't look sharp and the brightness is low, which means you can't use it to make office presentations in a well-lit room. Of course, that pretty much means it's useless when you're outside.

2. Sunlight is Galaxy Beam's biggest foe. This screen suffers from one of the worst cases of sunlight illegbility we have seen.

3. The phone is a bit overpriced at a sky-high price of Rs. 29,990. The premium it asks for the projector just doesn't make the whole bundle worth it.

Specs

- 4-inch capacitive touchscreen (800x480 pixels)
- 15-lumen pico projector (up to 50-inch images)
- 1 GHz dual-core processor
- 768 MB RAM
- 8GB internal memory, expandable upto 32GB via micro SD
- 5-Megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, 720p HD video recording
- 1.3MP front camera
- 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro USB
- 2000mAH (battery that lasts a day of average use)
- Android 2.3 Gingerbread, TouchWiz UI 4.0

Tags: cons and pros, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy Beam i8350, specs

How to enable 2-step verification to Dropbox account

If you have been following news from the cloud industry, you might be familiar with the rescent exploits of Dropbox. It faced some inconvenience at the hands of hackers. From then, they have tightened the loopholes and implemented some security measures. Inspite of al these efforts, the safety of the user motsly lies in the hands of the users, since that's where a hacker seeking sensitive information will strike. It would be best to enable two step verification for your drop box account, so as to prevent un-authorized access to your private information.

With two-step verification you can save your private information and avoid inconveniences. Dropbox's 2-step verification works just like Google's one. It provides users with an extra security layer that can keep out most unauthorized activities.

Dropbox 2-step verification

Once you log into your account with your email and password, Dropbox sends a text message to your phone number. The text contains a 6-digit verification code which you gotta enter to log onto your drop-box account. You won't be able to log onto your account unless you enter the code.

Dropbox gives you the option of installing the Authenticator app on your smartphone, which generates time-sensitive codes right on your phone which can then be used to log in.

Process

1. To enable this two level security, visit dropbox account security page and scroll down to account sign-in section. You'll see the two step verification option there. Click on change, if it's disabled.

2. Now you can just follow the simple wizard which guides you through the process.

You can link you phone or your phone number which will receive confirmation codes for log in.

You will also be given an emergency code. Keep it safe and do not share it with anyone. This is for when you lose your mobile phone, and can't access the codes sent by Dropbox.

Step 1. Visit the security page once more and review all you linked devices. Un-link all the devices and re-link them. If you don't use a device any longer, then don't relink it. If you currently use a device, un-link and re-link it. That way, all the devices will now be set to require a 6-digit before a succesful login. If a new computer or device is used, you will be notified by email as well.

step 2. Update Dropbox on your device to latest version to ensure support for two-step verification.

Have a happy and safe browsing :D

Tags: dropbox, Password, Password Security, Security

Scheduling emails in Gmail

Gmail is one of the powerful services that lets you do more then just sending and recieving emails. It has been around for quite some time now, and always tried to stay ahead of its competitors by offering more storage and faster system along with other awesome features and last but not the least user friendly interface. There are a few apps that collaborate with Gmail to provide powerful and additional functionality. Using such apps you can, now, schedule emails, track them and more. Scheduling emails to be sent later is a particularly useful feature which will help you become organized efficient and helps you to do things on a go. It also increases your productivity. The two free apps which does this are RightInbox and Boomerang.

Scheduling Emails

Many people may have a doubt about scheduling emails and it is "Why whould we schedule our emails?". Here goes the answer. The first reason is it looks professional if all your emails recieved at one time. This makes you reliable and dependable, and your email contacts will learn to wait for your message at particular times of the day, rather than waiting whole day long. Therefore, it saves the time spent on anxiously waiting for your emails.

It is one of the strategies in email marketing. Emails are more effective if sent in accordance with the receivers time-zone. These days, emails are so popular that users get drowned by emails everyday. Therfore, they have to skim over and delete most of them. So to make your emails appear near the top of their inbox, you need tho determine the time they log on to their account, and send mails accordingly.

The Process of Scheduling Emails

Gmail, like other mail services, hasn't got any scheduling option by default. You need to install a third-party add-on to make scheduling work. Usually these are browser add-ons and these don't require your browser or PC to be open at the time of sending your emails. The most popular apps or add-ons are Boomerang and RightInbox. Both have free and paid versions.

Scheduling Using Boomerang

1. Visit Boomerang Site and download the extension.
Here's the Download link

2. Login to your G-mail account. if you're already logged in, the app will automatically get installed.

3. Open your gmail account, and click on Compose.

4. Now, you will see a Send Later option next to your send button. Click on it, and you'll see the scheduling options for your email.

By installing this add-on, you automatically grant third-party permissions to Boomerang.

The scheduling options are fairly easy to understand. You can schedule ahead for a month and schedule for any time. The "Tomorrow Morning" option actually means 9:30 A.M, which is when most office going people will read their mails. Boomerang is free for initial use, and is limited to 10 scheduled emails per month. You can buy it if you wanna schedule more emails. It also has additional bonus features, such as email tracking and email reminders which will never let you forget a conversation.

Scheduling with RightInbox

1. Download RightInbox add-on. Here's the Download Link.

2. Grant permission, and you're ready for scheduling.

3. You will see a seng later button alongside the Send button. It has all the scheduling options you need, just like Boomerang.

RightInbox also gives you reminder and tracking option. It will track your sent emails for when someone has opened them. It is free as well, but for limited use. It also allows 10 scheduled emails per month. You'll need to subscribe for complete use

This is a really great feature, especially for people who are busy. This truly helps professionals.

Have fun Scheduling :P :D

Tags: emails, gmail, scheduling emails

Simple Recent Post Widget Blogger/Blogspot

This Recent Posts widget will show not only post titles but also post excerpts or snippets on your blog.

What you can do with this widget:

display post titles only
change the number of posts
change the number of characters of the post snippet/excerpt
show the post dates

See the screenshot below:

How to add Recent Posts Widget to Blogger

1. Log in to your Blogger Dashboard >> go to Design >> Add a Gadget >> choose HTML/JavaScript

2. Choose & Copy the code of one of the options below and paste it into the new HTML/JavaScript:

Option 1: Recent posts widget with snippets

<div id="hlrpsa">

<script src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/recent-posts-with-snippets.js">

</script>

<script>

var numposts = 5;var showpostdate = false;var showpostsummary = true;var numchars = 100;var standardstyling = true;

</script>

<script src="http://your-blog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentposts">

</script></div>

<div id="rpdr" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px;">

<a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2012/04/recent-posts-widget-for-bloggerblogspot.html" target="_blank" title="Grab this Recent Posts Widget">Recent Posts Widget</a> by <a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com" title="Recent Posts Widget">Helplogger</a></div>

<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>

<style type="text/css">

#rpdr {background: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7YiIzApV6hoLarNshPV5AxK6OjNKTz8k6ltcci-MMA7JrYRvGSw4o_hVkVdJbZcFISo8OqCBmr7XfN4xWW8YHE1ym5UsmxnwqMO3nW8sW5Q7szeqd9qiaWB8mjJbB5IzSuTBvYSB7M6nx/s1600/blogger.png) 0px 0px no-repeat; padding: 1px 0px 0px 19px; height:14px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 0px;line-height:14px;}

#rpdr, #rpdr a {color:#808080;}

#hlrpsa { border-bottom:1px #cccccc dotted; margin-top:-10px; padding-bottom:10px;}

.hlrps a {font-weight:bold; }

.hlrpssumm {}

</style>

Option 2: Recent Posts Widget Showing Post Titles Only

<div id="hlrpsb">

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/recent-posts-with-titles-only.js"></script>

<script style="text/javascript">var numposts = 10;var showpostdate = false;var showpostsummary = false;var numchars = 100;var standardstyling = true;</script>

<script src="http://your-blog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentposts"></script></div>

<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px;" id="rpdr"><a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2012/04/recent-posts-widget-for-bloggerblogspot.html" title="Grab this Recent Posts Widget" target="_blank">Recent Posts Widget</a> by <a href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com" title="Recent Posts Widget">Helplogger</a></div><noscript>Oops! Make sure JavaScript is enabled in your browser.</noscript>

<style type=text/css>

#rpdr {background: url( https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7YiIzApV6hoLarNshPV5AxK6OjNKTz8k6ltcci-MMA7JrYRvGSw4o_hVkVdJbZcFISo8OqCBmr7XfN4xWW8YHE1ym5UsmxnwqMO3nW8sW5Q7szeqd9qiaWB8mjJbB5IzSuTBvYSB7M6nx/s1600/blogger.png ) 0px 0px no-repeat; padding: 1px 0px 0px 19px; height:14px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 0px;line-height:14px;}

#rpdr, #rpdr a {color:#808080;}

#hlrpsb { }

.bbrecpost2 {

padding-top:6px;

padding-bottom:6px;

border-bottom: 1px #cccccc dotted; }

</style>

3. Change 5 (option 1) and 10 (option 2) with the number of posts you want to show. Change false to true if you want the posts dates to appear, and change 100 (option 1) if you want more characters to be displayed.

Don't forget to change your-blog text with the name of your blog or if you have a custom domain change all the bolded line with your address like in this example:

http://www.your-site.com/feeds/posts/default....

4. Save your widget. That's it!! Enjoy

Tags: Blogger trics, Widgets

The all-in-one Lenovo A720 Specs, Pros and Cons

This post is about all-in-one touchscreen that will bend backwards for you and that is Lenovo A720. Sounds cool, ain't it? But its worth a hell lot of bucks. It costs nearly 1,19,990.

Pros and Cons
The Lenovo A720 all-in-one touchscreen PC is a machine that looks extremely beautiful, complete with its brushed metal frame and a gorgeous 27-inch touchscreen, all of which gives it that premium and expensive look. And then there's its screen mechanism that allows you to use it as a regular desktop monitor or to tilt it backwards 90 degrees till it lies flat like a table.

But there's one question, Why would you want your PC screen flat like a table? The answer is this A720 is designed in such a way that if two people sit on either side of a long edge they can start the Piano app and begin jamming. If they sit on either side of the short edge they can play games like air hockey or ping-pong. It's just like having a super-sized tablet.

But the A720 doesn't seem practical. To play games or duet pianos, one need to have it lying flat with enough room on both sides. Most computer desks are placed against wall usually in a corner. Keeping it flat in the living room for the intended family experience means using PC without any privacy. By the way its too heavy to keep moving it around. In addition to this, its tacky to have all that clutter in your living room with the wires all over the room to the nearest plug-point. I think you can imagine the mess there.

But the A720 shines as a modern PC. It does everything you want. High-end games played splendidly, as did full HD videos, and the sound is so good that one doesn't need any external speakers or headphones. It can handle all other tasks , like word processing, photo editing, web browsing with dozens of tabs open etc., without any difficulty. In addition to this, since its a touch screen, it gives a fun experience. Playing touch based games like Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds etc. on this is quite an unexplainable experience. Here the good thing is that Lenovo has included some touch-based apps like Angry birds, ArcSoft PhotoStudio Paint and Baby 3 6 5, and they are as much fun here as on any tablet.

For about 75% of the time, one will use LEnovo A720 like a regular PC and the rest of the time for touch but that's also partly because it currently runs on Windows 7. And that ratio might change once Windows 8, which is made for a touch experience, comes out in October. According to me it will be wiser to wait till then to purchase this beauty.

Now coming to the price of A720, is this worth it? As a personal touch-screen computer, this one is absolutely superb. The hardware is magnificent. But this is not gonna change the way you use your computer and make it into a family affair.

Specs

- 27 inch Full HD touch-screen
- 3.3 GHz Intel Core i7 quadcore CPU
- 6GB DDR3 RAM
- 750 GB HDD
- 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics
- Blu-ray slot drive
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- 720p HD Webcam, built-in microphone, built-in Dolby Speakers
- 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI-in, HDMI-out, Ethernet, Cardreader, TV Tuner
- Windows 7 Home Premium

Tags: computer, cons and pros, PC, specs

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