If you are a Mac OS X user and in game for a simple app other than the popular Skitch (from Evernote) to take screenshots then look no further. The simple yet useful Glui app to the rescue.

The true beauty of Glui lies in its ability to capture screen and then upload it to cloud syncing service Dropbox, thus providing a sure short way to simplify the whole process of taking screenshots and then sharing which would otherwise take multiple manual steps. Glui does this by calling Dropbox API in background and uploading captured images to the cloud to provide links that can be easily shared online. This cloud integration (both Dropbox and their own solution) along with other features common among the screen grabbing tools make Glui a solid alternative.

To start with, once after Glui is installed on Mac, link it to your Dropbox account. Head over to ‘Preferences’ tab by clicking the Glui icon in Menu bar on top to link/ unlink to Dropbox. Also you can set your preference on whether to share the direct link of the captured image or Dropbox page that display image along with other options. Be sure to the check the box that reads ‘Automatically copy link to clipboard’ so that you can quickly paste the link elsewhere. Note that all Retina screen images are scaled down to a resolution that is expected to suit traditional screens. Also you can force Glui to scale images down to 72 PPI. While you’re still under Preferences menu you can assign keyboard shortcuts other than the default ones.

To take screenshots you have there options i.e. Crosshair, Window and Fullscreen snapshot. Select either one and then wait for Glui to load edit window with options to tweak the captured image before uploading it to the cloud. Glui allows highlighting, annotation, adding arrows and image cropping. Once you are done with editing, hit the ‘Upload to Dropbox’ button to initiate the upload process. Once uploaded the image link will be automatically saved to Mac clipboard.

The Dropbox integration is seriously useful not only to easily share links but also syncs between multiple OS platforms where you have installed the apps. The clean simple interface with zero clutter and options to quickly share Dropbox links on Facebook, Twitter and email makes me addicted to this Mac app.

Spotify’s free online radio service is a blessing to music buffs out there who wish to stream the latest content legally. Without spending a dime any Spotify user in the US/ UK can access this radio feature via desktop and mobile apps. But like in any other free online radio service there is catch. Spotify plays audio ads in between songs to provide a legal online music streaming solution. Though the ads are short in duration it can be annoying especially when you are playing in high volume. While it’s not possible to stop these audio ads from loading here is a free add-on that can magically improve the situation.

SpotiFree for Mac is a low footprint free add-on for Spotify desktop app that can automatically mute audio ads being played in between songs. This script once installed and loaded runs in the background silently muting all ads. If you allow Spotifree to run automatically at login then you will not have to load it each time you boot into Mac OS. According to official website, to find and mute ads, Spotifree efficiently polls Spotify every .3 seconds to see if current track has 0 popularity and is 40 secs or less in length. When both the criteria are met volume is muted for the duration of running ad. It’s automatically unmuted once the ad is over maintaining the previously set volume level.

Spotifree is free to use and we don’t find any reason not to use this useful little app. If you are in game for an ad free Spotify experience do try this app and let us know your comments.

Update: Media Hint no longer unblocks Rdio.

If you are someone living outside the US who enjoy watching TV series and music or wish to stream them via popular sites like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora etc. you will be disappointed by the fact that it’s not available elsewhere. But you can always rely on VPN services or other unblocking methods available at your fingertip. Now the problem with those services are not all are free and the free ones have some sort of restrictions/ limits in place. Also none of them are as simple as flipping a switch and streaming content without having to ever look back. Not anymore if you reach out to Media Hint.

Media Hint is a browser add-on available for both Chrome and Firefox that unblocks Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and Rdio so that users can access them from any country without restrictions. Being a browser extension/ add-on you just have to install it once and then can forget about it. Head over to Media Hunt website and it will automatically detect your browser to greet with a get started link.

Once Media Hint is installed you can then visit the said web pages to start streaming your favorite shows or music. Note that you need to register first for a free account before streaming any content. Media Hint is very useful when in an environment where app installation is restricted.

Get on Media Hint

There are many websites out there that offer quality wallpapers and art for free, decent enough to set them as your desktop background. But none of them provide the kind of interactivity or simplicity Desktoppr as a wallpaper megamart promises. The beauty of Desktoppr lies in its ability to push impressive images to your desktop via the most popular cloud syncing service, Dropbox. Desktoppr is the one stop shop for all your wallpaper needs.

The Desktoppr web page displays stunning wallpapers in high-resolution uploaded by its users over time. The simple ad free layout and basic features that lets users push wallpapers to desktop in no time is what makes Desktoppr worth it. Just like any other wallpaper service on Desktoppr too you can play with filters to view just the images relevant to your interest. To start with head over to Desktoppr website,  create a free account and authorize access to your Dropbox account. The fun begins.

Once after you grant Dropbox access, the cloud icon will then be highlighted below each of the photos. Now if you simply hit the cloud icon, Desktoppr will queue up the photos to downloads and then send it your Dropbox account. Note that all your favorite Desktoppr wallpapers will be added to a new folder called ‘Desktoppr’ under the ‘Apps’ folder in your Dropbox account. The photos are named with random strings and the size will depend on the resolution of the wallies being pushed to your desktop.

Having all your favorite Desktoppr photos automatically synced to desktop via Dropbox not only simplify the process but also backs up everything in case of a mishap. Now let’s talk about this neat feature available in Windows that can automatically change and set a group of photos in a folder as wallpapers in a specified time interval.

How to automatically change Desktoppr wallpapers in specified time interval:

The personalization page of Windows lets users set an image as desktop background easily. It also allows the selection of a group of images under the same folder and change it in set time intervals. To do this right-click on Windows desktop and select ‘Personalize’. Now under personalization select ‘Desktop Background’ tab below the screen. Here you need to point the picture browser to your Dropbox folder where all Desktoppr wallpapers are being stored. Select the pics and set a time interval so that the wallpapers change automatically.

From now on you just have to click the cloud icon below pictures on Desktoppr page to quickly send them to the wallpapers pool. Desktoppr is a neat and refreshing experience which was long due. Try it now.

I’m someone who reads a lot of technology related and other interesting articles online. But I usually run out of time and my Pocket app installed on iOS and Android gets populated with links that I intend to read later while on the move or possibly during free time. To get great insight to what is being launched lately or happening around, all you need is content rich articles possibly with images. That being said videos can be of much more value and can instantly provide in-depth information. This is why many of us prefer audio and video podcasts over static text articles. That being said here is something that pitch best of both worlds to anyone who wish to consume raw text in audio format without effort.

SoundGecko is an app available for iOS and Windows Phone (Android app will be available soon) that lets its users listen to blog posts or articles without the hassle of using traditional boring TTS services. Once after you set up an account with SoundGecko you can feed interesting web pages via their web interface or send an email. The Chrome browser extension available will let users quickly send articles to SoundGecko server which then converts text to audio almost instantly. The podcasts created in this manner can then be consumed on portable devices using SoundGecko mobile apps or via the personal page provided by them on their website.

But the best part of SoundGecko is it integrating popular cloud syncing services including Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive. This not only makes the process of listening to web pages lot simpler but also allows seamless access to converted files from multiple devices connected to the internet. Go to ‘Apps & tools’ tab under your account settings to grant access to cloud services.

Another interesting feature available for free users is the ability to add a single RSS feed of your favorite blog so that whenever a post is published you will get the converted audio feeds automatically on your SoundGecko apps. Also available is an option to change voice preference and set email notifications letting you know when the converted feed is ready.

The free SoundGecko app available for mobile phone is pretty simple with basic features like play, pause with resume. The app also lets users quickly change read speeds and scroll through the audio feed using the available slider. Hit the right arrow next to each article to read post excerpts, share on social media websites or even read the entire article without leaving the app. The preference button on this app can be accessed to start playing a SoundGecko feed automatically when you open it.

Get SoundGecko Apps

Are you a Spotify power user or someone who manages all your music using native Media Player on Windows or Apple iTunes on Mac OS X. Do you find it difficult to play or pause music on Winamp or Spotify app while you’re engaged with something else. May be you are playing a musical instrument and would like to control music without having to be physically present near the PC. We have already published a post about an iPad app called MagicReader that allow users navigate through documents with head gestures and here is yet another app for desktops, but for music.

Flutter is a free cross-platform desktop app that can be used to control music or video playing on popular media players with simple hand gestures. If you are on a Windows machine using the native Media player or on Mac with default iTunes player all it take is a simple wave in front of the inbuilt or add-on webcam to take control of music. To get started, hold your palm towards the webcam and wait for it to detect it. Once detected you can hold palm in front of the webcam for few seconds to pause music and then again start playing it. The best part is when I tried waving even in dim light, Flutter could easily detect and take control of the respective media player apps. The player in focus need not be the current active window and Flutter can control apps even when minimized.

Flutter is useful when you want to control media playing on desktop from a distance and that too without voice commands. Moreover the ability to work even under moderate lighting is a huge bonus as you can keep using this app without altering the ambience especially when watching movies.

Download Flutter App

We have already shared the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean wallpaper pack that was extracted from the all new Google Nexus 7 (Asus) flagship tablet device. And now we have the new Jelly Bean boot animation for devices running older Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It ‘s worth noting that boot animation on Nexus 7 tablet (first device to get Jelly Bean) and Google Nexus phones differ a lot. Now if you are someone who can’t afford to wait till July for the official OTA update here is what you can do now to get this boot screen ported to your existing ICS device.

This boot animation zip files shared by folks over at XDA developers forum can be downloaded on to your Android phone running Ice Cream Sandwich that will replace the ICS boot animation with the new less fancy JB screen. Follow the steps below to download and install it now.

Install Android 4.1 Jelly Bean boot Animation on Ice Cream Sandwich:

1. Download and install ES File Explorer to access root of your Android phone.

2. Now head over to /system/media/ folder on your ICS phone. Rename bootanimation.zip file to bootanimation.bak. Alternatively you can copy the existing bootanimation.zip file to your sdcard for backup. Note that some HTC phones have bootanimation.zip file in /system/customize/resource/ directory.

3. Now download the Jelly Bean boot animation bootanimation.zip file.

4. Copy bootanimation.zip to the directory, /system/media/ for Nexus phones and /system/customize/resource/ for other phones particularly HTC’s. Make sure the permission is set to rw-r–r–.

5. Reboot. Done.

Watch Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Boot Animation on Galaxy Nexus phone:

Google announced an update to their Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich mobile OS at the I/O 2012 event held last night. Google is adding a layer of new features on top of ICS and is calling it Jelly Bean (v4.1). As usual for any Android version update we now have new boot animation, UI tweaks, features and a whole new set of background wallpaper images. Also announced at the event was a new Google flagship tablet device christened Nexus 7 and will be the first to  get Jelly Bean. The good news is some of the developers who got hold of this newly announced tablet device and SDK has extracted the wallpaper images from it.

There are ten high-resolution wallpapers available in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Along with few old ones there is this still image of the new boot animation and few other colorful visual treat. Head over to XDA developers forum to download and set these cool new Jelly Bean wallpapers as your background images right now.

Facebook recently, very silently introduced this feature called ‘Find Friends Nearby’ aka Friendshake that allowed prying eyes to find friends and acquaintances who are near to your location at any point of time. Though a new feature that was available to Facebook mobile users accessing via iOS, Android and web apps around the world, many were concerned about the privacy issues it posed. While it definitely helped users find and add new friends it also posed a serious privacy risk which would have been disastrous. Now the latest news suggests that Facebook has pulled this Friendshake feature and is no more available for public consumption. And the reason quoted by various online news portals are pointing to this app called Friendthem that claimed this find friends nearby feature to be their brain child and something available since months. Now that this Facebook feature is no more available lets dig into this alternative app and see if its worth the hype.

Frindthem is a simple free app available for both iOS and Android that does exactly what Facebook claimed with ‘Find Friends Nearby’ feature. Friendthem mobile app uses your existing Facebook login to again access to your account. This is a one time process and you will not be prompted to enter credentials again. Once done all you have is three in-app tabs namely Nearby, History and Settings. Under Nearby tab you will see your friends and other Friendthem users close to your location along with the mutual friends (number to the right represents your mutual friends). If you think that a friend request is appropriate you may grab their attention by sending a request to add you. But if you prefer not to send request immediately but at a later time after further investigation then you may use later feature. All the requests will then be added to history tab and that can be sent later. Now what your friends see about you on their mobile depends on what you want to share. Name, profile pic and hometown can be toggled to show or hide.

This app is worth testing out especially if you are using the popular mobile apps like Bump or Cardflick to exchange contact info. Though not the same Friendthem is a great app to friend people around you and stay in touch.

Watch Friendthem for iOS in action:

Download Friendthem [Free]:

• iOS
• Android

The popular cloud storage and syncing service Dropbox just got better with the birth of this service called Boxopus. In my previous post I covered an online BitTorrent client (or seedbox)  that allowed users to cache .torrent file contents to a third-party server and then later download it your desktop. Imagine the same setup but instead of zBigz (or similar server-side torrent downloading service like Put.io) servers wouldn’t that be awesome if your  favorite online storage service Dropbox is put to good use. Here is an online service where in Dropbox meets BitTorrent technology.

Boxopus is a free (while in beta) online BitTorrent download service that can leech files shared via the BitTorrent technology and then sync it to your online Dropbox account once the downloading gets over. Here Boxopus does the heavy-lifting as a torrent downloader and utilizes Dropbox API to sync files and folders to your already existing account with Dropbox. The best part is the files synced to your online Dropbox storage space also gets synced to all other devices with Dropbox client installed including your desktops. But while testing Boxopus this service was too slow and took time for downloading and syncing even a small file. Blame the uber slow Dropbox syncing that is in place right now. But that doesn’t stop one from using this as an alternative to other paid services leeching torrent contents to unknown servers. It is worth noting that online services like Boxopus doesn’t play fair when it comes to files seeding (uploading or giving back to the community) contradictory to how BitTorrent works.

Go get started head over to Boxopus page and create a free account. After login, add and authorize your Dropbox your account by simply following the on-screen messages. Once done you are ready to start downloading .torrent file contents via Boxopus to Dropbox account. As a first step browse and choose a .torrent file (downloaded from Torrent indexing sites) stored on your computer and click ‘Put in my Dropbox’. Now the .torrent file is uploaded to Boxopus server and then displays all torrent files and folders for you to go through before initiating the download process. Hit ‘Start Download’ and wait for Boxopus to connect to torrent trackers to track the health, number of seeds and peers to begin caching.

Note that Boxopus syncs torrent contents to a folder called ‘boxopus’ under the root folder ‘Apps’ in your Dropbox account. This can either be accessed via Dropbox web interface or automatically synced to your mobile and desktop with proper apps in place.

All the torrent being downloaded can be viewed while logged in to Boxopus and the status can be ascertained too. Once the torrenting  completes at Boxopus server-side you will see a ‘Complete’ status. Hit the cross icon towards right side of file description to cancel downloading at any time. But files once downloaded to Boxopus will be synced to Dropbox and can only be removed via Dropbox UI.

Though Boxopus is live and working as of now am not sure how long it will be there in the scene considering what happened to Megaupload and other such services recently. Again am not sure if a cloud storage company of this magnitude would be happy to be associated with a BitTorrent service. Though Boxopus is well within Dropbox ToS and using their publicly available API only time will tell if Boxopus will come out of beta with a premium service.